Shameless Plug
laelaps | February 8, 2008It's been a while since I've posted a meme here, but I was recently tagged by Dr. Vector and I simply must continue this one. Indeed, I've been hit with the Writing Meme, which says that I should;
1. List 3 writing tips
2.Tag 3 people whose writing style you admire.
When Matt tagged me he wrote "I want to know how he writes so damn much all the time. It's embarrassing!" so I'll use that as a starting point;
1. Coming up with little gimmicks like "Photo of the Day" or "Osteometric Point of the Day" help to keep me consistent. (I nearly wrote "help to keep my regular," but I don't want to…
laelaps | February 7, 2008Bioephemera is now live on ScienceBlogs; head on over and give Jessica a warm welcome. I hope her presence here on Sb is anything but ephemeral.
laelaps | February 5, 2008I didn't think it was going to air so early in the year, but apparently David Attenborough's latest program (and last in the "Life of..." series), Life in Cold Blood, is now airing in the UK. The Telegraph recently published an article about the joy of watching Attenborough's documentaries, and I was able to find one clip from the show already online. It features the Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki), a species that is critically endangered if not already extinct in the wild;
Previously it had been said that this was going to be Attenborough's last project, but according to the Beagle…
laelaps | February 3, 2008
I usually try to avoid putting myself into shots that make it into "Photo of the Day," but I couldn't resist sharing this one. It was inspired by a particular scene from the film Young Frankenstein (one of my most-favorite films), and although I couldn't find the specific part of the movie here's a scene that's funny nonetheless.
laelaps | January 31, 2008Apparently Sb has been snapping up quality science bloggers at an extraordinary rate, and the latest member of the collective is Maria of Green Gabbro. It's definitely good to have another geo-blogger in the house.
laelaps | January 30, 2008"Evolution Sunday" is fast approaching, and even though it's still about 2 weeks off I thought I'd just put up a note that I'll be speaking to the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Morris County for the event. My talk will primarily focus on contingency, human evolution, and where those concepts intersect religion, and the discussion is slated for 9:30-11:30 AM on February 10th.
I'll be borrowing a bit from the "what we think about who we are" post and some of my other writings, but I've got a few other tricks (references?) up my sleeve, too. I know most of you aren't anywhere nearby,…
laelaps | January 30, 2008If you're going to be in the Rockford, Illinois area (or within a reasonable distance of it) on March 1st and 2nd, the Burpee Museum is going to be host to a paleo-festival that you won't want to miss out on. Over the course of two days there will be activities and events for both children and adults, and I have to say that the lecture program they have set up looks pretty awesome. Here's who will be speaking at the festival;
Philip Currie- Chinese Theropods and Mapusaurus
Jack Horner- Dinosaur Ontogenies
Eva Koppelhus - Paleoenvironment of Dinosaur Provincial
Jim Kirkland- Cretaceous Utah…
laelaps | January 28, 2008Yes... and no. Shelley isn't going to be keeping up with Retrospectacle anymore, nor is Steve going to keep blogging away at Omni Brain, but the two of them are going to team-up to bring us a new super blog! There's just one problem; they need a name. If you've got some ideas head to either of the links I just provided and post your idea in the comments. Whoever comes up with the chosen moniker will get a bunch of cool swag in addition to the love and adulation of Shelley & Steve.
laelaps | January 27, 2008The New York Review of Books has a new article up about blogging, and although much of what Sarah Boxer says is familiar it seems that science blogs have a different sort of existence on the web than what's described in the piece. I'll keep my grumbling that the recently published Open Laboratory wasn't given a mention to a minimum, but one particular passage struck me as a bit odd;
Bloggers are golden when they're at the bottom of the heap, kicking up. Give them a salary, a book contract, or a press credential, though, and it just isn't the same. (And this includes, for the most part, the…
laelaps | January 27, 2008Will has the latest edition of The Boneyard up at The Dragon's Tales. Check out some of the best paleo-posts from the last two weeks and keep your eyes open for new ones; the carnival will be over at Greg's place on February 9th.
[As an aside, yesterday was also the birthday of Roy Chapman Andrews. Michael put up a concise little bio in honor of the occasion.]
laelaps | January 26, 2008Assimilation into ScienceBorg.com ScienceBlogs.com has been rather rapid as of late, and I'm very pleased to announced that Kevin Z of The Other 95% is now on board over at Deep Sea News. Hell, the new banner alone is worth a look (you might need to refresh the page once or twice to cycle it up), so head on over and say "Hi."
laelaps | January 25, 2008My post on whether natura non facit saltum is an accurate depiction of evolution has turned into a hopeless monster, so while I try and rescue it why don't you check out the newest addition to the ScienceBlogs family, DrugMonkey?
laelaps | January 25, 2008I know some of you, like me, were pretty sad when Kate of The Anterior Commissure decided to stop blogging back in December. As it turns out, it was all just a ruse to make her move over to Pure Pedantry all the more exciting (you know, like how Coke was invented just to make everyone run back to "Classic Coca-Cola"). Ok, well maybe I've exaggerated a little, but it's still great to have Kate's blogging skills on board. (And for those of you who are in the NYC area like me, Kate has done a lot of work on the Science Communication Consortium, the next meeting of which is going to take place…
laelaps | January 25, 2008I may or may not be able to get to all this stuff in detail today, but here's a smattering of some paleo news to start your day with;
Paleontologists have known for a number of years that the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan peninsula is likely the "smoking gun" for the end-Cretaceous meteor impact, but new research suggests that the bolide struck the earth in water deeper than originally thought. This would modify ecological effects in the wake of the impact, and it was good to read that a variety of short-term and long-term effects of the event were considered in the new research;[Sean]…
laelaps | January 23, 2008The latest edition of The Accretionary Wedge is up at Green Gabbro, although I wasn't able to get my uniformitarianism vs. catastrophism post finished in time (it's almost done though; it'll be up later today). There's some great stuff over there, so be sure to check out the myth-busting entries submitted by a number of geo-bloggers.
laelaps | January 22, 2008There's a new blog carnival in town; Berry Go Round, a botanical carnival organized by the blogger behind Seeds Aside. The first edition is coming up soon, so if you've got something to add to the garden of posts be sure to check it out!
[Also, remember that the next edition of The Boneyard is going to be up this Saturday over at The Dragon's Tales. Send your links to me or Will to get in on the paleontological fun.]
[Hat-tip to Ian for the news about Berry Go Round.]
laelaps | January 16, 2008Just a reminder that the next edition of the geology-centered blog carnival The Accretionary Wedge is going to be up at Green Gabbro on Jan. 23rd (the day after I start the spring semester, oh joy...). The topics are your (least) favorite geological misconceptions and geology & pie (mmm... strata), so if you've got something cooking send it on over. Being that I've read When Life Nearly Died, T. rex and the Crater of Doom, and Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle recently (as well as started in on The Cuvier-Geoffrey Debate), I think I'll try to cover the perceived debate between uniformitarianism…
laelaps | January 15, 2008Some of you might already be aware of this, but whenever you click on one of the books I have in the "currently reading" section of this blog, my ridiculously-massive wishlist, or any other link to amazon.com and then buy something, I receive between 4% to 6% of the price of that sale. It doesn't cost you anything (so don't worry), but as a result I've been able to accumulate a fair amount of credit with amazon.com to further add to my bookshelves. In fact, I was able to acquire Carnivorous Nights, Schaller's classic The Serengeti Lion, and (a true bargain) a 1st edition copy of Francis…
laelaps | January 15, 2008Part of the reason why I love science blogging is that there are usually enough people with interest in a particular field that a lot more research gets covered over the whole blogosphere than any one author could accomplish alone. While I'm still mired in some papers I downloaded last week, Darren has posted a new (and fascinating) piece on "teenage pregnancy" in dinosaurs. You'll have to see Tetrapod Zoology for the details, but be sure to stop by PNAS and get the paper "Sexual maturity in growing dinosaurs does not fit reptilian growth models," by Lee and Werning, too. If you recall,…