Posts
May 06, 2013
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David Haskell's The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature is a most beautiful book. Haskell teaches biology at the University of the South, in Sewannee, Tennessee. For the book he observes a single square meter of Tennessee forest for a year, his tools being a magnifying glass, binoculars and a breadth of knowledge and powers of observation that let him see much more in that square meter, which he calls a mandala, than most of us ever could. Fortunately for us, he's also an […]
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3:31 AM | Civic allometry
An interesting article from Smithsonian magazine, about the mathematical study of cities: "Life in the city is essentially one giant math problem".
Here's a passage quoting Geoffrey West, about the ways that different measures of a city exhibit allometry with population size:
Remarkably, this phenomenon applies to cities all over the world, of different sizes, regardless of their particular history, culture or geography. Mumbai is different from Shanghai is different from Houston, obviously,
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May 04, 2013
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8:29 PM | My open letter to SJSU Philosophy
Synopsis: My considered reaction to the suggestion that I may be destroying educationOn Thursday, the Philosophy department of San José State University released an open letter to Michael Sandel, instructor of a Harvard edX MOOC. I reacted to the letter in my post, "Lessons in social justice from MOOCs". I combined a statement of approval for the SJSU department's aims with some pointed disagreement about the logic behind their arguments.
Since that post, I have gotten questions from
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5:01 PM | Paleo and "physical culture" movements
NPR has a short piece with an interesting historical story about old-time back-to-nature fitness fanatics: "Paleo Diet Echoes Physical Culture Movement Of Yesteryear"
As Hamilton Stapell, a historian at the State University of New York, New Paltz, found when he went digging into the archives of physical culture, there are striking resemblances to the paleo movement today. And, he argues, this shows that people seem to romanticize a healthier past in the midst of great societal upheaval: the
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3:53 PM | All the paleonews that's fit to print
The New York Times joins the Neandertal anti-defamation league with an editorial by David Frayer: "Who’re You Calling a Neanderthal?".
Neanderthals lived much richer lives than ever presumed. They were not exactly like us, but they bred with us and their genes and behavior are part of our heritage. So, be careful when you call someone a Neanderthal. You’re speaking about part of yourself.
Frayer covers many of the last 5 years of discoveries of Neandertal cultural complexity, as well as
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3:09 PM | "Earth-like"
Recently discovered exoplanet Kepler-62e is the most "Earth-like" planet ever discovered. However, this discovery also forces us to reconsider what we mean by "Earth-like" and how we should think about exoplanets in the future.
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Closer Blog: Alle muzelmannen die naar de gaskamer gaan hebben dezelfde geschiedenis, of juister gezegd: hebben geen geschiedenis: ze zijn tot de bodem toe omlaag gegleden, vanzelf, als water dat naar de zee stroomt. Primo Lévi over de Joden als Moslims in de vernietigingskampen.Read more: Muselmann – Joden als Moslims in de Concentratiekampen
May 03, 2013
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Closer Blog: N.a.v. een uitzending van Nieuwsuur heeft Demet TV veel reacties gekregen. Reacties van mensen die zich verbazen over een ‘onjuiste’ ondertiteling van Nieuwsuur. Men meent dat moslims door deze ondertiteling met opzet als gewelddadig worden neergezet. Demet TV ging op onderzoek uit.Read more: Demet TV vs. Nieuwsuur: Taal, Beeldvorming en Islam
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3:50 PM | Are Millennials Lazy?
A new study suggests that members of Gen Y are less likely to want to work hard. Continue reading →
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3:14 PM | MSc Project: achocha and oca
For the main part of my MSc research project, I am looking for UK gardeners who have grown achocha (Cyclanthera species) and/ or oca (Oxalis tuberosa) in the past, or who are growing one of those species this year. I am interested in why people choose to grow these novel crops (and others), how they source their planting material, where they look for gardening information and how they share what they’ve learned about these unusual species with other gardeners.
If you don’t grow
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1:41 PM | Roman Bioarchaeology Carnival XVIII
New Finds
Battered body from the bog(credit: Washington Post)
1 April. A Danish team from Aarhus University found the remains of 40 men buried in the Teutoberg Forest during Roman campaigns in the early first century A.D. While these remains come from a bog, they are not bog bodies (which are shells of leather skin with few or no bones) but rather well-preserved skeletons.
9 April. "Archaeologists Find 10,000 Objects from Roman London"... and not one of them is a human
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I’ve been reading some good stuff the last few weeks, thought I’d share it here. Pedagogy Cheating to Learn. A great way to engage students is put them in charge of the conditions for their exam. These students “cheated” by working together on an animal behavior final. Math teacher explains math anxiety. Math and science anxiety [...]
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Well, the Brits have not been very highly reputed as gastronomes, even though pub food is now better than it was a few decades ago. However, the latest Hot News Real Science story in the BBC today is the shocking archeological evidence of a British gastro pub operating as long ago as the early 1600s, in the Jamestown colony in what is now Virginia.Newly discovered human bones prove the first permanent British settlers in North America turned to cannibalism over the cruel winter of
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6:42 AM | The plight of Qatar’s migrant workers
Closer Blog: A recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that foreign workers in Qatar risk serious abuse in the run-up to the 2022 football World Cup.Read more: The plight of Qatar’s migrant workers
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5:34 AM | Lessons in social justice from MOOCs
The Philosophy department at San Jose State University have written an open letter to Michael Sandel, a Harvard teacher of government and lauded lecturer. Why is this news? Because Sandel is the teacher of one of a massive open online course (MOOC), and the San Jose philosophers don't want to use his materials in their courses. The New York Times and Chronicle of Higher Education cover the story, and the Chronicle has published the open letter..
From the Times account:
“The move to MOOCs
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5:21 AM | Science and piracy
Paul Salopek has a story for National Geographic about the impact of Somali pirates on oceanographic science: "A Hidden Victim of Somali Pirates: Science". One of the most important scientific projects on the continental shelf off East Africa is drilling for sediment cores to examine ancient climates and volcanism. This helps us to understand the environmental context for early human evolution.
"This problem has been going on a long time and with virtually no public awareness," says Sarah
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By Peter MorseTaken from Peter Morse's blog at www.petermorse.com.auAbove is a 4 minute preview of the 20 minute ‘Jangurna Story’ – a fulldome movie exploring Indigenous stories of the night sky around the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. This story – concerning ‘Jangurna’ (The Emu) has been told by community elder Stella Tittums to the historian Mary Ann Jebb – the recording provides the narrative soundtrack.The movie was shot during a 10,000 km 3 month voyage that
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May 02, 2013
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7:00 PM | World's Worst Prisons: Photos
Check out 10 of the most frightening places in the world to be incarcerated.
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4:12 PM | Starvation Cannibalism at Jamestown
If you’ve read any news in the past day, you’ve seen reports regarding cannibalism in colonial Jamestown. It was known prior that the colonists had undergone a number of starvation years where they were forced to eat foods that they wouldn’t normally. The trash pits from the sites hold the remains of animals who aren’t … Continue reading »
S. JONES, H. WALSH-HANEY & R. QUINN (2012). Kana Tamata or Feasts of Men: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Identifying Cannibalism in Prehistoric Fiji, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology,
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Graphology, the practice of determining personality from handwriting, is being used to screen job applicants. Continue reading →
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1:44 PM | Twins Born 87 Days Apart
The span of time will break the Guinness World Record title for longest interval between birth of twins. Continue reading →
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11:12 AM | MSc Project: No Novel Crops
A couple of weeks ago I introduced my MSc project here on the blog. In essence I am looking at what makes UK gardeners choose to grow novel (unusual) crops in their veg patches and on their allotments, how they learn to grow and use those crops, and what role the internet plays in them sharing what they’ve learned with other gardeners.
The flip side to that is that there are plenty of veg growers in the UK who don’t chose to grow novel and unusual crops – people who
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Quote here(image: princessbride.wikia.com)I haven't published much. Activity in my scholar.google profile isn't so hectic and exponential that I can't dig into things a little more than your more prolific scholar.So as I continue the line of research kicked off by our paper (Metabolic hypothesis for human altriciality), I naturally want to read the articles that cite it. Scholar.google is great for showing me those. And while I dig around, I also have the opportunity to see why these
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Closer Blog: Op 31 mei aanstaande vindt aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen het jaarlijkse publiekssymposium van het tijdschrift Religie en Samenleving plaats. Dit jaar is het thema: Ontkerkelijking nou en? Over de oorzaken en gevolgen van ontkerkelijking in Nederland.Read more: Ontkerkelijking nou en? Over de oorzaken en gevolgen van ontkerkelijking in Nederland
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4:01 AM | Toxic Metals Found In Lipstick
In chemical testing on commonly used lipsticks and lip glosses, researchers found toxic metals at levels that could possibly lead to health problems. Continue reading →
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12:34 AM | Rock Art and Ancient Knowledge of Astronomy
By Michelle C. LangleyBased on the article Orientations of linear stone arrangements in New South Wales in Australian Archaeology No. 75 by Duane Hamacher, Robert Fuller and Ray Norris.Original article written for the Australian Archaeological Association BlogWhen we think about early astronomy, people like Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton and other famous scientists of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries tend to spring to mind. What most people
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May 01, 2013
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I corrected it. Thanks for the copy edit! :)
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9:07 PM | Of Jamestown and Neandertals
About why cannibalism is a widespread human behavior in times of stress, new evidence emerges from a trash pit at Colonial Jamestown: "Evidence of Cannibalism Found at Jamestown Site".
It is unclear how the young girl died but she was probably dead already and even buried before being butchered. According to a letter written in 1625 by George Percy, president of Jamestown during the starvation period, the famine was so intense “thatt notheinge was Spared to mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those
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Girl. Tiger shark embryos is CRAY-CRAY! It’s really all a matter of defending dad. You see, Mama Shark mates with loads of Daddy Sharks and, thus, has quite the mishmashed litter growing on. But then the biggest, baddest embryo is all like, “My dad is better that your dad.” And then he eats all the half siblings so that only one his dad’s kids (and maybe just him) make it to the end of the pregnancy. NOM NOM NOM.
Don’t believe me? Read all about it in Biology Letters. Seriously,
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The little Korean-Canadian girl has a new trachea -- grown from her own stem cells. Continue reading →
