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Monday, December 3 - End of the semester blues
The first Monday in December is the last Monday of the semester (exam week doesn't count really). TPP has about 10 lectures worth of material to cover in 3 lectures, so something is amiss. A number...
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Congress holds an anti-vaccine hearing
I was in my car yesterday listening to C-SPAN (yes, I do that sometimes), when to my stunned surprise I heard Congressman Dan Burton launch into a diatribe on how mercury in vaccines causes autism....
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We're number 2!
You take your bragging rights where ever you can get them. In this case, and to our utter amazement, Linconland is not the worst run state in the USA (You go California!), but actually the 2nd worst...
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Fishing Yanks the Best Parents from the (Gene) Pool
A fishing rod and reel aren't just gear for human recreation: they're the tools of evolution. The difference between fish we pull out of lakes or commercial fisheries by their lips and those we leave...
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Dr. Farish Jenkins 1940-2012
Many of you are already aware, but Professor Farish Jenkins of Harvard University passed away earlier this month at the age of 72. A vertebrate paleontologist, Dr. Jenkins was well known for his...
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December 2012 Desktop Calendar
A gaggle of geese. A pandemonium of parrots. How about a mash of mosses to fill your screen this December? After making these desktop calendars for the last year I think that it has been a fun...
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Blu-Glo one ups Crimson Tide
The Crimson Tide in the Sydney vicinity was pretty amazing, but here's the Blu-Glo (Good name for a team. Anyone? Anyone?) photographed at the Malabar Beach, presumably the one in New South Wales...
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Got an iPhone? Who you gonna call?
Other than to make fun of iZombies, TPP has little interest in iPhones, but every now and then something grabs his attention. Now you can get a ghost hunter attachment and app for your iPhone. Yes,...
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Rediscovered Specimen Draws Dinosaur Origins Down Into the Middle Triassic
I've been peripherally involved in the recent renaissance regarding dinosaur origins since my discovery of the skeleton of Revueltosaurus callenderi in 2004 and the subsequent recognition that it was...
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Do traditional Chinese death beliefs increase superstition and anxiety about...
In the west, fear and anxiety over death can heighten the desire to cling onto traditional culture and beliefs, and people also often report being more religious.But what about in the East? In China...
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The Psocoptera of Barrow Island
Courtenay Smithers, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald.Gunawardene, N. R., C. K. Taylor & J. D. Majer. 2012. Revisiting the Psocoptera (Insecta) of Barrow Island, Western Australia. Australian...
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Dealing with drips
The ladies over at the Garden Rant recently posted about pantless gardening, which sounded exciting, but TPP read it wrongly, and it turned out to be potless gardening. Plants don't really need pots,...
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The 2012 Election: My Assessment and What Comes Next
My Assessment:President:My preferred outcome came to fruition, Romney lost. That is not to suggest that I supported Obama. Obama’s white-washing of criminal torture (we signed a treaty which is binding...
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Cold and Hungry? Scientists Suggest Remembering Soup
Regrettably, and despite what the Breatharians will tell you, a person can't live on a diet of air. But you can keep hunger pangs at bay, scientists say, simply with the power of memory. And feelings...
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Small World of Words
A group of researchers in Belgium is putting together a very large word association network by asking volunteers to say which words are related to which other words. They are hoping to recruit around...
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Finally a Dinosaur Textbook with a Section on Dinosaur Origins! Dinosaurs: A...
In 2010 when I reviewed the first edition of Fastovsky and Weishampel "Dinosaurs: a Concise Natural History" for the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology I gave it a good review, recommending it for...
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Bryaxis on the Prowl
Pselaphine, probably Bryaxis bulbifer, photographed by Krister Hall.Bryaxis is a large genus, with over 400 described species and subspecies (Hlaváč 2008), of small beetles belonging to the group known...
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TGIF Big Time - Introducting students to research
Today is the last class day of the semester; how appropriate it's a Friday. It always seems to work out that way. One of my classes was an introduction to research, a seminar with the goal of...
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There are benefits to having three parents. You get to decide whether they...
In October I wrote an article in The Economist on a new method for curing mitochondrial disease. The method involves replacing faulty DNA from a mother’s egg with that from a healthy donor. And, if the...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - Gesneriad edition
Let's end the semester in style with a nice Friday fabulous flower. Another one of our tropical epiphytes that provide so much winter color, in this case a gesneriad (Aeschynanthus) of uncertain...
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