What Technology Wants, apputated
On the ebook review site, Download the Universe, I have a new review of the app version of Kevin Kelly's book, What Technology Wants. The link to my review: "Telegraphing What Technology Wants". Sure,...
View ArticlePaleoclimate and shifting Neandertal strategies
A new paper by Guillaume Guérin and colleagues in the Journal of Archaeological Science [1] provides a detailed chronology for the Neandertal site of Roc de Marsal (near Les Eyzies, France). The paper...
View ArticleReindeer hides and Neandertals
In reference to the post below about Quina Mousterian and reindeer specialization ("Paleoclimate and shifting Neandertal strategies"), let me add this great quote from Mark White. He addresses himself...
View Article"Asymmetrical characters"
In case you worry that paleoanthropology never casts off bad ideas, take a look at the intro to a review paper by Ernest Hooton in 1925 [1]: Within the last few years the discoveries of new fossil...
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Neandertal similarity in the HapMap samples
Synopsis: I examine the pattern of Neandertal ancestry in India and East Africa.In my last installment on Neandertal introgression in present-day human samples, I covered whole genome data from the...
View ArticleA bold argument for mere consumption
I got passed along this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and it just keeps striking me as BS: "Just Because We're Not Publishing Doesn't Mean We're Not Working". We have no concise term to...
View ArticleLacking knowledge
Sandra Blakeslee discusses a new book about the process of science: Ignorance: How It Drives Science, by Stuart Firestein ("To Advance, Search for a Black Cat in a Dark Room"). Dr. Firestein got the...
View ArticleA Taung tour
The South African Palaeocave Survey has a new post reporting on a visit to the Taung site: We visited the Taung limeworks near the town of Buxton in the North West province. The site, which was...
View ArticleHot, hot, hot
My hometown made the news yesterday: On Thursday, Norton, Kan., was the hottest spot in the nation, topping out at 118 degrees, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Over the previous five...
View ArticleThe RNA game
It's hard to predict folding patterns of RNA in cells. As Hayley Dunning describes, RNA has been "gamified" to give scientists some help: "Toying with RNA". Players of the game EteRNA are given a...
View ArticleWriting more accessibly is the watchword
Rachel Toor writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education in favor of academics finding a more polished approach to their prose: "Becoming a stylish writer". In an essay called "Professional Boredom,"...
View ArticleJ. Barnard Davis and the variation within races
Once again, I'm looking through source material for a very different reason, but ran across an interesting piece of history. J. Barnard Davis was a British physician and anatomist who, as a private...
View ArticleMaking universities compete
David Glance discusses the online course frenzy, giving a boosterist perspective: "Will free online courseware from the US mean the end of (most) universities elsewhere?" He emphasizes an important...
View ArticleLRJ as a transitional industry
I was reading this morning an interesting paper from last year by Damien Flas [1], who considered the context of archaeological assemblages grouped as Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician industry in...
View ArticleMaking a difference via blogging
Paul Knoepfler, a UC-Davis cell biologist, runs a very active blog in which he discusses the science of stem cells. One of his recurrent themes is strong criticism of clinics and physicians who provide...
View ArticleToday's dose of depression on science jobs
Brian Vastig reports in the Washington Post on the problem with calls for more Ph.D. scientists: "U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there". Traditional academic jobs are scarcer than...
View ArticleA new approach to the Prisoner's Dilemma
Daniel Lende has described some evolutionary and anthropological import of a recent paper in PNAS on game theory: "Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Evolution of Inequality – Does Unfairness Triumph After...
View ArticleLive preparation of "Karabo" skeleton streaming worldwide
I'm in Java, and even though I'm ahead of most of the world's time zones, I'm behind on the news. This news from the University of Witswatersrand is an exciting and positive development: "New Sediba...
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Photo
Prambanan Temple, Yogyakarta. Delicious dinner there last night, followed by a ballet performance of the Ramayana. Tags: Hawks sightingsphotographytravel
View ArticleQuote: Dave Winer on the power of blogging
Software designer and blogging pioneer Dave Winer: Then something great happened. Gates read my email, and responded with a total Bill Gates rant, and of course I sent it back to my readers. I would...
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