Nonsense
laelaps | June 24, 2008By the time I leave work at the end of the day I feel like I've been run over. I don't do anything particularly stressful or demanding while sitting at my desk but by 3:00 I feel utterly drained. For the past several years my workspace has been a grey cubicle piled high with so many documents that I'm not entirely sure why most of them are important anymore, the constant hum of the computer and headache-induced fluorescent lights slowly wearing me down over the course of the day. Even if I swivel my chair around I can't even look out someone else's window; after 8 hours in my artificial…
laelaps | June 21, 2008Here's my first Spore critter, "Anomalonychus." I'll have more on the Spore Creature Creator (and why it's so damn fun to play with) soon;
laelaps | June 12, 2008Over at The World's Fair, David asks readers to share a moment in which they were "humiliated in the name of science." Fortunately I haven't had any "D'oh! I put the head on the wrong end!" moments as yet, but I'll briefly share a recent story of how I almost humiliated myself in a room full of professors and friends.
About a month and a half ago Brian Richmond came to present a lecture about the evolution of hominid bipedalism at Rutgers, specifically dealing with Orrorin. As he went through the introductory material, mentioning the evidence for bipedalism in the earliest known hominids, I…
laelaps | June 12, 2008In 1864 Jules Verne published the book A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and although the book is a classic the various TV & film versions (1959, 1967, 1976, 1977, 1989, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003) are anything but. This summer will see the release of another interpretation of Verne's novel, this time starring Brendan Fraser;
After seeing the trailer for the new film in the theater, I had to turn to my wife and ask "But where's Gertrude the duck?"
Although the show involved time/dimensional portals, both iterations of "Land of the Lost" involved undiscovered mysteries…
laelaps | June 1, 2008When I was in high school I used to spend my Saturday mornings making mix tapes to play in my 1990 Pontiac Bonneville when I went out on Saturday night. Sure, iPods and other devices that you can dump all your favorite music onto are convenient but there are few things more personal than a mix tape. (Anyone who has made one for a special someone knows what I mean.) Now there's a program that lets you make "mix tapes" that you can put on your blog and I just couldn't resist.
laelaps | May 27, 2008
I wonder when they're going to stage a similar commercial with Steve Carrell...
Speaking of Harrison Ford, the actor was just elected to the Board of Directors of the Archaeological Institute of America. Ford was elected to the position because of the attention his character Indiana Jones has brought to the discipline of archaeology. When I was younger part of my desire to become a paleontologist was due to the influence of the Indiana Jones films (I used to wear a brown fedora everywhere. In fact, I just bought a new one), and hopefully the exploits of the fictional character will spark a…
laelaps | May 22, 2008Today I'm working on my book (hint: Gaudry and Hipparion), but here's a few links and other tidbits of interest for your consumption;
Indy 4 is out today. Now where is my fedora....
This week's issue of Nature is featuring a brand new transitional temnopondyl. I'll be blogging about this one soon.
Someone has put the documentary "My Pet Dinosaur" up on YouTube. Some bits seriously pissed me off (Dinosaurs wouldn't have continued to evolve?! And what's that, the Dinosauroid? Gah!), but I'll save a fuller critique for another day.
Many congratulations to John Wilkins on the…
laelaps | May 13, 2008Since I've got a bit of studying to do for my osteology exam, here's some, erm, "vintage" television to keep things going here. It's an episode of Batman called "How to Hatch a Dinosaur";
laelaps | May 2, 2008What's a few more cat posts into the mix?
Huxley
Huxley
Huxley
[Just as a side note, my wife took these pictures (and yesterday's video) with a digital camera I bought her last year. I'm still working on getting the insurance money from when I was robbed, but hopefully I'll be able to get something new before I head off to Delaware in a few weeks for a camping trip along the shore.]
laelaps | May 1, 2008I've been really down this week, biting my nails about finals and my academic future (or potential premature end of it). Walking on my way to give a presentation about Sterkfontein & Swartkrans caves ("killer man-apes," leopards, SK 53 and all that), I heard this Ben Folds song on my iShuffle and thought it most appropriate;
laelaps | April 23, 2008I have to admit I felt a bit foolish this evening. I went to see a lecture by Brian Richmond about hominid bipedalism, although the name didn't register with me. So I'm sitting there in front, watching him talk about Orrorin and how there haven't been any good studies about it, all the while thinking "How could he have missed that Science paper about the femur of Orrorin being most morphologically similar to those of australopithecines?" My own unfamiliarity with "who's who" in anthropology made me feel a bit sheepish when I realized that I was looking at the guy who did that study, d'oh!
I…
laelaps | April 22, 2008Here are some pictures my wife took of the three kittens presently staying in the apartment with us, although all of them will soon be off to the adoption center to try and find good homes;
Elice (she likes to sleep in that box).
Emma
Mishu
All three together.
laelaps | April 14, 2008
As for the the little furballs around here, Little Foot has gone back to the adoption center. Beatrice is now with us, although she seems to be suffering from spring allergies. We'll probably have some kittens in the rotation soon, though, as the summer-long wave of kittens starts not too long after the weather warms up. Chase and Charlotte went to the vet last Friday, but despite Chase evacuating his bowels in his crate along the way everything was fine.
laelaps | April 7, 2008According to this CNN report, a 27-year-old man hurled a hedgehog at a 15-year-old-boy for some reason that is left opaque in the article. The man is being charged with assault, although it's unknown if he'll also face animal cruelty charges (the hedgehog was dead when the police picked it up).
laelaps | April 6, 2008A random selection of what I've been listening to lately;
Thrice - "Stare at the Sun"
Jack's Mannequin - "Dark Blue"
Mae - "On Top"
Over It - "Siren on the 101"
Bad Religion - "New Dark Ages"
laelaps | April 4, 2008Between 2005 and 2007, USGS scientists studying black and grizzly bears captured video footage of the carnivores rubbing up against trees. Scent marking might be part of why the bears are exhibiting this behavior, but they probably just need a good scratch every now and then, too;
LiveScience also covered this behavior in a new article, saying the bears are "dancing," although it's definitely not as elaborate as this;
[ReBecca also covered this story in a bit more detail.]