Administrative
laelaps | December 18, 2007When I started blogging about science a little less than a year ago I had two main goals; to make it to ScienceBlogs.com and to have a post published in the 2007 edition of The Open Laboratory. It's obvious that I've achieved one, but I'd love to get into the Open Lab, too, and if you haven't already I would encourage you to submit the post that you liked best that I wrote this year for consideration (although I thank those of you who have already done so). I've thrown in one or two myself, but it is very difficult for me to choose so I'll take whatever suggestions you all care to offer…
laelaps | December 17, 2007I apologize, dear readers, for the lack of posts. It's final exam time, yet again, and I've been repeatedly given the famous RU Screw in a number of ways altogether unpleasant and aggravating. I just have one more final to go (Living Primates), but I still have to fight the Man about changing majors before next semester kicks up again. If only I had known the horror that is Rutgers before I decided to come here, but now that I've gotten myself stuck in the academic morass that is this university I feel like a Smilodon mired in the Rancho La Brea tar pits with no way out. The only way to do…
pharyngula | December 14, 2007It's that time of the month again — it's time to confer upon some worthy commenter the December 2007 Order of the Molly award. Just leave a comment here naming your favorite person on Pharyngula, and I'll see that they get added to the distinguished ranks.
laelaps | December 13, 2007As I promised the other day, here's the instructions for how to make one of my favorite meals, lime chicken & shrimp. It's just about the only thing that I can make that tastes halfway decent, although I unfortunately have no written down the exact proportion so if you try this it'll have to be on the fly (at the same time, though, it's hard to get wrong). Here's what you'll need to make it for at least two people;
Chicken (boneless breasts are best)Peeled & cleaned shrimp (as many as desired)Olive oil10-15 limes or a bottle of non-concentrated lime juiceBasilOreganoA bowl large…
evolvingthoughts | December 8, 2007
The sole reason that I have any Microsoft products on my machine at all, is compatibility with Endnote. Once upon a time, Endnote was equally capable with a number of word and document processors, but now it only works with Word or by scanning RTF, which is a Bad Format and routinely messes up document structures.
Oh, I tried various other bibliographic systems, like BibTeX, but none of them did what I wanted, or lost data that I had in my (now 7000 record) Endnote db.
There have been functional replacements for Werd Wierd Word for some time now. Even Apple's Pages is pretty good for my…
evolvingthoughts | December 7, 2007
Anyone who has access to COSMOS magazine, published in Australia, will be able to find an article of mine on what good philosophers of science are for science. If you have a copy, scan it and send it to me, will you? I haven't seen it yet.
Also, I have submitted a piece to Auckland Museum magazine MQ entitled "Buffon: An evolutionary thinker?". Kiwis should rush to the stands immediately.
I have to say that I value opportunities to write for non-academics (or else, why would I blog?). Suffice it to say that I think that philosophers are to science as ornithologists are to birds. We study…
laelaps | December 2, 2007As some of you might remember from my sporadic notes on my old blog, I'm in the middle of writing a book about evolution, the first draft of which I hope to have completed by the time I turn 25 on February 26 of next year. I was fairly productive for a few weeks but then hit a bit of a lull, but today I managed to bang out 5,200 words on evolution as fact and theory (modeled on my recent post dealing with the same subject). I tried to use a number of examples, but I gave the most detail to Steno's realization that the enigmatic glossopetrae ("tongue stones") of Malta were actually the…
evolvingthoughts | November 24, 2007
Unlike PZ Moorsch, I don't get much abusive email, because I'm so much more mild mannered than he is. But I got this gem from an Australian using his cousin's South African email account:
your feedback on the one subject of macroevolution being observed is onlygrounded on consumptions and no real evidence. Are you stupid or justblind
It seems I have multiple infections of tuberculosis, and I'm stupid and blind. Woe!
laelaps | November 21, 2007A holiday Barosaurus outside the American Museum of Natural History.In theory I should have internet access over the next few days, but there is a possibility that I won't, in which case I just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Remember to appreciate the derived dinosaurian anatomy of your gobbler, especially the wishbone. Indeed, this is the time of year where paleontologists get to lecture everyone at the dinner table while the rest of the family rolls their eyes, but it's good to stop for a moment and remember that more than 65 million years ago the relatives of the turkey might…
laelaps | November 20, 2007Things have been pretty busy lately; between schoolwork, my job, and reading I've been booked up over the past few weeks, making my blogging a little less prolific than I'd normally like. Here's a quick rundown of some recent personal news, though, that either didn't fit into anything else I wrote or might provide fodder for upcoming posts.
I've been able to rip through three books since the weekend; Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Life in the Triassic, Science Talk, and Discarded Science (expect a review of Science Talk within the next 24 hours). Tonight I picked up The Red Queen, although I'm…
pharyngula | November 19, 2007It is my honor to induct into the Grand Order of the Molly, with all rights, privileges, powers, and obligations thereof, the distinguished commenter known as Sastra. Everyone stand up, applaud frantically, and remember to bow when you meet her in the street henceforth.
evolvingthoughts | November 17, 2007
You may have spotted that I have created a new category called, expressively, "Book". This is primarily for when I review books, which I am going to do more, but also when a book raises issues I want to comment on, or just mock. I've gone back and added this tag to a few posts from the past, so see if it helps. You can access the categories via the Archives page.
pharyngula | November 17, 2007It's mid-November, so it's time to suggest new inductees into the Order of the Molly. Leave comments in this thread naming your favorite commenters!
We do have a bunch of new people here, but please don't even dream of nominating any from the influx of wacky denialists — it'll make me grumpy.
evolvingthoughts | November 12, 2007If you really liked one of my posts in the last 12 months, please nominate it for the Open Laboratory anthology for 2007. See the little icon at the left side of the screen? Bora is taking final submissions now.
laelaps | November 9, 2007I'm definitely glad to see, through comments and the occasional link, that so many readers of Laelaps have made the jump over from the Mk. 1 blog on Wordpress to my fancy new digs here on ScienceBlogs. Still, I'm sure there are some who read but never comment, others who are new, so if you've got a moment why not de-lurk and post something about yourself in the comments? Doing so will help me (and my SB hosts who initially asked the question) understand who a typical Laelaps reader is and what you like reading science blogs in general. From what I can tell there are a lot of undergrad and…
evolvingthoughts | November 8, 2007
Some things that piqued my interest without triggering a full post:
The readability of this blog is high school level, which is good. That's pretty much how I pitch it:
There's a new species of killer whale in the Antarctic. [HT: Jason]
Toads will mate across species if things get tough. This has also been documented in other species such as ducks.
pharyngula | November 8, 2007Hi, Stan. You're new here, like a whole lot of people. You've just shown up, and here's your very first comment.
I noticed that this blog is in the running for a Best Science Blog award.
I've looked over the site. Cna someone point out where the science is on it. I have looked but I can't find any.
Let me introduce myself. My name is PZ Myers. I'm an associate professor of biology at a small liberal arts university in the upper midwest. I make no grand claims for myself, but I have been exceptionally busy lately, with lots of travel and lectures, and it's all on top of teaching two courses,…
laelaps | November 6, 2007I apologize, dear readers, that today I probably won't be able to keep up with my more usual prolific rate of posting. The reasons for this today are as follows;
I have two major exams today, one in my "Soils & Water" "Soils and Society" class and my Computers midterm (which for some reason was scheduled to start at 10 PM).I occasionally experience dizzy spells/lightheadedness during this time of the year, today being one of those days.I have a weekly presentation to give tomorrow about meat-eating in early hominids that I haven't started yet. I have no doubt that I'll be able to quickly…
pharyngula | November 4, 2007I have been sleeping the sleep of the dead—it turns out that if you don't bother to sleep for 40 hours you get really tired and when you lie down your brain shuts off. This is very good to know. It means I've been completely ignoring Pharyngula for a long, long time, and wow, did the comments pile up. So let me deal with a few things quickly.
I am pleased to see that the comments did not descend into total anarchy, but come on, don't pick on Robert O'Brien because he looks like a dork. I look like a dork. I suspect that if you people had to verify your comments with your passport photos we'd…
pharyngula | October 31, 2007
I know, it's not very scary, but here's something that might strike terror into a few hearts: October 2007 has been Pharyngula's first million visit month. I remember the first month I broke 300 visitors (Woo hoo! Ten readers per day!) so I find it a little frightening.