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August 2014 Desktop Calendar
I met this moss, Scouleria aquatica, on the bryology field trip before this year's botany conference. In its current state it doesn't look very aquatic. It was growing on the rocks at the edge of the...
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What are the religious disgusted by?
Religious people often seem to have strong taboos. Think of any religion, and there is usually some proscribed activities or objects, and an emphasis on purity. Maybe religion is connected to a...
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South Carolina lawmaker wants to force Creationism down students' throats
Well, it’s happened again. The great state of South Carolina has demonstrated that when it comes to ignorance of science, its legislators take a back seat to no one. They must have been jealous of...
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Monday morning man of leisure
Just a typical Monday morning here in Tuscany for a man of leisure. It's a foggy morning following a rather rainy day, but some rain must fall upon the olive groves to produce all that oil. Hmm, how...
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Mosses and the American Dipper
Mosses around the edge of the nest The American Dipper is an aquatic songbird that captures all of its food underwater in fast flowing streams. The other interesting thing about these birds is that...
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Generalized Venn diagram for genetics
by @ulaulaman http://t.co/MkGI7L546N #VennDay #VennDiagram #genetics A generalized Venn diagram with three sets $A$, $B$ and $C$ and their intersections. From this representation, the different set...
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Bobble-Nosed Trilobites
Cranidium and part of thorax of Onchonotellus sp., from Bao & Jago (2000).While most fossil invertebrates manage to completely fly under the radar when it comes to popular culture (it's not as if...
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To the manor born - not!
Ah, yes, all my relatives especially Mrs. Phactor and the F1 think my retirement was a brilliant move. Well, at least the part where TPP rented (actually Mrs. Phactor made this happen if truth be...
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The equation of happiness
by @ulaulaman http://t.co/crZXpaphqA #mathematics #happiness #smile \[H(t) = w_0 + w_1 \sum_{j=1}^t \gamma^{t-j} CR_j + w_2 \sum_{j=1}^t \gamma^{t-j} EV_j + w_3 \sum_{j=1}^t \gamma^{t-j} RPE_j\] I...
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10 reasons why digging a tunnel under London is an epic endeavour
The BBC has a nice documentary on Crossrail, a £15 billion project to build a new 120-km train line passing through central London. I knew that this is a great engineering challenge, but I did not...
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Tuscan Cypress
So you want some Tuscan plants, well, this tree is about as Tuscan as a tree gets. Cupressus sempervirens, called Tuscan cypress here in Italy, but the Mediterranean cypress throughout most of its...
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A Science Communication Activity on Birds and Bryophytes
Have you ever played the telephone game? In this game a phrase is whispered from one person to another with the players trying to repeat the phrase exactly the same. By the time the phrase makes it to...
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The olive
The two primary crops of this region of Tuscany are olives and grapes. About 98% of olives go into oil production, and virtually 100% of the grapes become wine. Their priorities seem about right. The...
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The Velutinidae: Sea Not-Quite-Slugs
Velutinid, probably Lamellaria. Copyright Bill Rudman.In previousposts on this site, I have introduced you to some of the incredible animals that shelter under the misleadingly unprepossessing name of...
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Holly or Oak?
When you're in a new place you make some snap identifications, and sometimes they're right and sometimes they are wrong. This one was tricky because the first plant TPP saw was just a shrub. My initial...
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How Robin Williams helped me out in graduate school
Spring 2004. I was a callow first year graduate student, with an insouciance and naiveté befitting a first year graduate student. At that point like most of my fellow grads, I was hungry for knowledge...
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The 2014 Fields and Nevanlinna prizes: Celebrating diversity
"And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity." - John F. KennedyAn Iranian woman, a first and a second generation Indian, an Englishman and a...
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GPS - It helps, mostly.
GPS devices are handy little gadgets, up to a point, but still it's nice to have a really good map. So even with our trusty GPS guide the Phactors have made their share of wrong turns, but yesterday...
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Maryam Mirzakhani and Riemann surfaces
http://t.co/ZAdRPeiy8b Maryam Mirzakhani wins #FieldsMedal with Riemann surfaces Maryam Mirzakhani has made several contributions to the theory of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces. In her early work,...
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Giardino di Villa Camberaia - Botanical Geek Tour adventures in Tuscany
Some guide book somewhere mentioned that the garden of the Villa Camberaia perched high in the hills above Florence as a great destination for garden lovers. Well, you know the botanical geek tour...
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