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laelaps | August 19, 2008I think I have finally reached the point where all of my arguments about whale evolution are finally in place. It has taken a long time to get to this point, particularly since every time I thought I had constructed a solid foundation I discovered some new fact or observation that was too exciting to be left out, but I should soon have a presentable first draft. As I learned during a quick clean-up of the first 12 pages, though, editing is going to be a difficult task. I am far too-attached to "however," "although," "while," etc. I have overused them and I don't want my argument to suffer…
laelaps | August 17, 2008At this point it is clear that I am not going to finish the whale chapter by the end of the weekend. Had I only the information previously at my disposal, the books and articles cluttering the apartment and my hard drive, I might have succeeded, but a boon of new information has caused me to go back and revise much of what I had written. (One such resource, a translation of Albert Koch's journal of his American travels from 1844-1846, has been especially helpful. Ken Rose's The Beginning of the Age of Mammals arrived yesterday, as well.) A history of science paper might result from what I've…
evolvingthoughts | August 14, 2008
Thanks to the editor of Trends in Ecology and Evolution, and the permissions department of Elsevier, my scientific blogging article is up again in Portuguese. At no cost! Thanks folks. João Carlos at Chi vó, non pó, translated it and hosts it. And it's all legal and above board.
pzminion | August 13, 2008
My first of several posts about sensory cell neurobiology will be appearing shortly. To get you warmed up, here's a movie showing a mechanosensory hair cell responding to a low frequency sound played through the glass pipette you can see in the image. *Caution*: low frequency sound may not be appropriate for work. Earphones recommended.
Also, the Scienceblogs Survey is now open again, and will remain so until 11PM EST Friday, August 15th.
~Danio
laelaps | August 12, 2008more cat pictures
There are few things more satisfying than being able to get back to original papers, letters, and articles to discover something new. Even though I could conceivably write a solid chapter based upon reviews and popular accounts I feel that reading original source materials is not only important for accuracy, but also for my integrity as a writer. Thanks to Google Books I was unable to uncover some information I thought I was never going to be able to find, as well as some information I didn't expect.
While Richard Owen is commonly (and properly) cited for recognizing the…
pzminion | August 12, 2008Guest Blogger Danio:
Orac has posted a directive from the Seed Overlords regarding a survey they'd like us to conduct. As my distinctiveness has been temporarily added to the collective (I'll be implanting the "sleep" command into their subroutines next week though, oh yes...) I am dutifully passing it on. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete and you can enter to win stuff at the end of it.
_______________________________________________________________________
Whoops! The survey has been closed already. Sorry about that. Here's a pointless poll instead.
evolvingthoughts | August 12, 2008Our Seed Overlords have bling to give away. All you have to do is take a survey and they might give you an iPhone 3G, a MacBook Air and a 40GB Apple TV. Keep the Air and give me the rest if you win. Don't tell the Overlords though. They might make me give it back.
C'mon. The odds are much better than a lottery.
laelaps | August 11, 2008Many thanks to everyone who introduced themselves on this blog over the weekend. (If you missed it, don't be shy. Feel free to add to the thread.) Community is a major part of what science blogging is all about and I certainly appreciate all the questions, comments, and criticisms left here since I started last October. Hell, without help and advice from many of you I definitely would not have achieved what I have this past year alone, and I think it is wonderful how science bloggers can help each other.
Following ScienceWoman's lead, then, I thought it was only right to post my own quick bio…
laelaps | August 11, 2008After a long hiatus The Boneyard will return here tomorrow. If you've got a paleo-post from the last month to contribute send it to me (evogeek AT gmail DOT com) sometime today. I'm looking forward to bringing this carnival back so please send in your contributions as soon as you can.
laelaps | August 10, 2008
The oversized "night light" across the river from where I was staying.
I just made it back from NYC and I had a great time. It was wonderful meeting so many new people and catching up with writers I hadn't seen since the January conference, and my only regret is that I had to miss a few of last night's festivities due to a minor medical mishap. (Don't worry, everything's fine.) Nevermind that every time I turned on the news it seemed that the world was going to hell in a handbasket between John Edwards' affair, the death of Bernie Mac, the murder in China, and the war between Russia and…
pzminion | August 7, 2008Hello Pharyngulites, Danio here in my second official stint as 'guest blogger'. Like MAJeff, I'm very honored that PZ tagged me for the task, and I hope not to disappoint.
A bit about me: I am a postdoctoral fellow at PZ's alma mater, the University of Oregon, working on zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism for studying hereditary deaf-blindness. I also have a broad interest in science education and science literacy, especially at the elementary and secondary school level, so I do a fair number of tours and demos for different student groups. I don't have as much time for more…
pharyngula | August 7, 2008Have you been wondering who won the Molly for July? It goes to … Owlmirror, OM. Let's hear some applause for the worthy champion.
In other news, you may recall that I'm going to the Galapagos Islands, and I'm leaving tonight! I shall be spending the next week and a half bobbing about in a boat in the Pacific, 600 miles off the coast of mainland South America, and while I'll still be able to access the internet in a limited way, I'm going to be somewhat distracted. "Oh, no," you're thinking, "Pharyngula will go all silent and boring, and there will be no biological ejaculations from a godless…
laelaps | August 6, 2008I won't make excuses; I left The Boneyard in disrepair for too long. Now I'm bringing it back, and even though there are a few minor changes (it will now be on the first Tuesday of every month) I'm hoping that I will be able to keep it consistently running from here on out.
Since we have already passed the first Tuesday of the month I'll improvise and hold The Boneyard XXII next week. That means if you want in you'll have to send me your submissions (anything from the last month will do) by Monday evening. Once the carnival has a foothold here it will move elsewhere in September, so leave a…
laelaps | August 5, 2008For those of you who are planning on coming to the Sb Reader Meet-Up this weekend in New York City, there's been a change in venue. The new details are;
2pm-4pm on Saturday, August 9
Social
795 8th Ave (close to 48th St.)
New York, NY 10019
I'll definitely be there, and I'm looking forward to meeting whoever shows up!
evolvingthoughts | August 3, 2008
A blog post by the incredibly multilingual John Wilkins (who knew he spoke French, Portuguese and Spanish? OK, it's by proxy, but it's nearly as good as actually speaking it) is now available in Spanish. Gee but he looks like he knows whereof he speaks... Thanks to Eduardo Zugasti for the choice and translation.
Second, and more important, is a paper in Nature by Nobel Laureate Paul Nurse. Entitled "Life, Logic and Information" it is yet another claim that information technology is the best way to conceptualise biology, in particular biological systems. I am fully in agreement with…
evolvingthoughts | August 3, 2008
It is an odd thing seeing one's words in another language. Joao Carlos at Chí Vó, Non Pó has translated my TREE article into Portuguese (I think). Without my permission, though, and probably not the editor's. Joao, you'd better contact the journal and get permission. Springer can be brutal about these things.
The oddness has a lot to do with the familiarity one has with the language. I know Portuguese not at all, so it's just scattered guff with the odd recogniseable word or link (and a redrawing of my figure - if you get permission, you can have the original). But in French I look serious…
pharyngula | August 2, 2008I've been getting a volley of complaints that Pharyngula is crashing Internet Explorer. It turns out that this is a problem all over the web, and is Sitemeter's fault. I've changed the code in a way that I hope will fix it — let me know if it doesn't. (←cunning ploy there…if you're still crashing, you may not be able to read that!)
P.S. Explorer is the worst browser available. If your computer has the resources to handle something else, switch!
laelaps | July 31, 2008Things have been a little slow here on the ol' blog as of late, but for good reason. Outside of a schedule change that has thrown my writing off, I've been hard at work on my Huxley paper (which I actually just finished). Many thanks to everyone who helped by offering encouragement, sending papers, and answering questions; I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product in print in the near future.
Little did I know that working on the paper would give me enough self confidence to look for other opportunities, however, and now I've got a few other projects. I found a home for my piece of…
pharyngula | July 30, 2008No, not that kind of host. Our scheduled host for the Tangled Bank had to back out due to time constraints. If anyone wants to volunteer to host it next Wednesday, let me know and I'll forward the entries to you.
Also, who should get a Molly award for the month of July? Mention your choice(s) and reasoning in the comments here. I'll tally 'em up at the end of this weekend.
Tangled Bank hosting is taken care of: the first volunteer was PalMD of the denialism blog. Start mailing those links in!
evolvingthoughts | July 28, 2008
Those who are getting very agitated, missing out on their Usenet fix of the group talk.origins, which has been dormant for the past few days, should know that Steps Are Being Taken. Stop emailing me. I don't know any more than this... go take some other stimulant. Alcohol, chocolate, anything!
Oh, and on another subject, PZ is reported in the Inside Higher Ed website. Nothing new - that same old positions, ranging from crucifixion to "meh".