Books
laelaps | October 12, 2008
There were a lot of books I had intended to read that I didn't get to this summer. Between work, a summer class, and my own writing projects, I didn't have the time to sit down and hastily devour books like I did last year or the year before. Many of the books on my list were technical volumes, like Fins Into Limbs and Gaining Ground: The Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods, but there were a few fiction titles, too. One of them was The Relic by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, and I decided to pick it up again even though the traditional season for it is long gone.
I first picked up…
grrlscientist | October 12, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that are or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is published here for your enjoyment. Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird…
aardvarchaeology | October 10, 2008From age 16 to 26 I was an active member of the Stockholm Tolkien Society (est. 1972). This charming association is organised around a schedule of annual feasts and a roster of themed activity guilds. There's the Medieval Dance Guild, the Gaming Guild, the gluttonous Hobbit Guild, the erudite Friends of Daeron and many others. My favourite was -- and is -- the Book Guild.
Though I have long since dropped out of the Society's main activities, I still gate-crash the monthly Book Guild now and then. Last night it convened at my place for dinner, tea and conversation about books. Many reading…
laelaps | October 8, 2008
I have been hacking away at the chapter on birds & dinosaurs for the last few days, but it is still overgrown with tangles of excess material. It stings to cut out some of the great quotes and concepts I stumbled upon during the course of my research, but 41 pages is about 15 too many for the chapter I have in mind.
The task at hand right now is one of editing. I need to inject a little more information about some of the arguments I employ, but my main task is to chuck out as much material as I possibly can without watering down what I am trying to describe. A lot of the excess material…
grrlscientist | October 5, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that are or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle bird pals, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is published here for your enjoyment. Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird books that are (or will…
pharyngula | October 4, 2008Neal Stephenson writes ambitious books. I got hooked with Snow Crash(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), an amazingly imaginative book about near-future virtual worlds; Zodiac(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) is required reading for anyone interested in chemistry and the environment; I had mixed feelings about Cryptonomicon(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), but only because it was two books in one, and only one of those books was excellent; The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) was a fabulously weird exploration of a New Victorian culture with nanotechnology; and
I ate up his big…
laelaps | October 3, 2008
Profesor Paleozoic. From Buffalo Land.
Our leader, Professor Paleozoic, ordinarily existed in a sort of transition state between the primary and tertiary formations. He could tell cheese from chalk under the microscope, and show that one was full of the fossil and the other of the living evidences of animal life. A worthy man, vastly more troubled with rocks on the brain than "rocks" in the pocket. Learning had once come near making him mad, but from this sad fate he was happily saved by a somewhat Pickwickian blunder. While in Kansas, some years since, he penetrated a remote portion of…
laelaps | October 3, 2008
About two weeks ago I mentioned that, in conjunction with Expelled, a book called Fossil Hunter was released. I had not heard anything about it until I stumbled upon it by accident, but the book's synopsis did not give me much reason for hope;
Fossil Hunter is an Indiana Jones-style thriller that explores the Intelligent Design controversy from the points of view of two field scientists working in the strife-torn countries of Iran and Pakistan. When paleontologist Dr. Katie James leads an expedition to search for an ancient whale fossil rumored to be in the Iraqi desert, she has no idea her…
pharyngula | October 2, 2008If you've got a few hours (he does go on), read Orac's contribution to the Offit book club discussion. It's lots of fun: it's got the anti-vaxing squirrels chittering insanely. If you don't have the time to read the whole post, just browse the comments for the laughs!
clock | October 1, 2008The Book Club blog is active again - discussing Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul Offit, who wrote the first post. Join in the discussion!
pharyngula | October 1, 2008The ScienceBlogs Book Club has started up again, and this time around the book under discussion is Paul Offit's Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll). Offit has an entry over there right now, and more will be piling on soon.
This is a good subject to tackle, too: the anti-vaccination clowns are yet another outbreak of lunacy and innumeracy and anti-science nuttery, and Offit's book fights the good fight. Expect howls of outrage from the clowns.
(By the way, one of the circuses full of clowns is trying to oppose our poll-crushing…
laelaps | October 1, 2008
A reconstruction of Megalosaurus from Life in the Primeval World.
Dinosaurs were in ample supply when I was a kid. There were enough documentaries, cartoons, books, trading cards, and misshapen plastic toys to keep me occupied for all my days. They were the ultimate brand; freely available to be printed on anything by anyone, and they most certainly were. (Why eat just any cereal when you can eat dinosaur-shaped cereal?) This prehistoric popularity is so widespread that it is not unusual for children to go through a "dinosaur phase," in which they master Greek & Latin terminology and…
kevleitch | October 1, 2008In June of 2003, I opened my blog with these words:
Megan was born on 17-02-00 weighing slightly more than usual. The first few months of her life were totally normal- we didn't feel concerned about her health or well-being at all. That changed however when she had her DTP jab.
I know there's been a lot about the jabs (particularly the combined MMR jab) in the news but we (or rather I, Naomi was a lot more dubious than me but I managed to convince her) decided to go ahead with it and on the night of her first lot of jabs Megan began projectile vomiting and developed a temperature that peaked…
aardvarchaeology | September 30, 2008
I'm reading Steven L. Kent's engrossing 2001 book The Ultimate History of Video Games, and of course it reminds me of a lot of games I played as a kid. My first real video games were played on the Atari VCS/2600. (The book is in my home because my 10-y-o son is both a video gamer and a bookworm, and took it out from the library.)
A memory. It's 1982 or '83. The Nintendo Donkey Kong Game & Watch is the hottest game around. My classmate Pär comes up to me in the hallway in school and asks me if I "saw Donkey Shot". Confused I reply that of course I've seen Donkey Kong, everybody has one…
aardvarchaeology | September 29, 2008My erudite friend Florence Vilén (historian of religion, haiku poet, aficionado of gems and classical music) has published her first novel in Swedish. Tungelblodet ("Blood of the Moon") is high fantasy set in a northern archipelago where wind-witches help fishermen to make good catches. Florence cites Tolkien, LeGuin and Ende as her favourite fantasists (and I concur).
The book can be had from Litenupplaga.se (SEK 173) and Adlibris (SEK 177). Order your copy today! I just ordered mine.
grrlscientist | September 29, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that are or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle bird pals, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is published here for your enjoyment. Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird books that are (or will…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2008This morning, a reader alerted me to tonight's celebration of The Best American Science Writing 2008 (pictured), being held at 700pm at Borders Bookstore at Columbus Circle. Even though I am getting ready to leave for Seattle (very!) early tomorrow morning, I am planning to attend this discussion of excellent American science writing! I hope you'll join me! Also, the rumor is that my colleague and friend, Carl Zimmer, will also be speaking!
What: Discussion of the best American science writing in 2008, a discussion led by Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind [DVD] and editor of this…
sheril | September 25, 2008It should be no surprise to readers that birds are among my very favorite critters. Aside from occasional blogger Sparticus Maximus The Great, I also reside with a pair of recessive pied budgies named Nemo and Che (who are real proud to be descendants of dinos). So naturally, I said I'd be delighted to review the new Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Ted Floyd, the editor of Birding Magazine. While I've long been fascinated with Aves, I became far more interested in birding while in Africa last summer with the Pimm group, which happens to be full of expert birders…
laelaps | September 23, 2008
This is an illustration of the skull of Ceratosaurus, as included in O.C. Marsh's famous volume The Dinosaurs of North America. The book has been notoriously difficult to find, often fetching high prices from booksellers, but now you can download a scan of it from the O.C. Marsh archives for free. There's plenty of other treasures there, too, although it does make me think that we at least need archives for E.D. Cope and Joseph Leidy to compliment it.
[And while you're at it, why not have a look at Gilmore's monograph on the osteology of carnivorous dinosaurs?]
pharyngula | September 22, 2008Many of you already know that Slacktivist has been doing a detailed deconstruction of the first book of the Left Behind series. He has posted a long, painful, entertaining analysis of a few pages in order every Friday for over four years: it's been like gawking at a major train wreck, since the book is terribly written and an incomprehensible edifice of illogic and anti-realism gussied up with the most appalling lack of imagination.
At long last, he has turned the last few pages of the last chapter. There about 11 more books in the series, I think, and some spin-off books and prequels (I saw…