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New Bird Species Discovered [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)]
An undated artist's rendering of Zosterops somadikartai, or Togian white-eye. The small greenish bird that has been playing hide-and-seek with ornithologists on a remote Indonesian island since 1996 was declared a newly discovered species on March 14, 2008 and promptly recommended for endangered lists.
Image: Agus Prijono.
Scientists have discovered a new species of bird on a remote Indonesian archipelago in the Southern Pacific Ocean. A formal description of this new species, the Togian white-eye, Zosterops somadikartai, was just published in the March issue of the ornithological journal, The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. Not only was this bird recognized as a new species, but its small population and home range were sufficient for recommendation to the international endangered species lists.
ClockQuotes [A Blog Around The Clock]
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
- William Shakespeare
Read the comments on this post...Four Stone Hearth Call for Submissions [Aardvarchaeology]
Tim of Remote Central has kindly stepped in to host the upcoming 41st instalment of the Four Stone Hearth anthro & archaeo blogging carnival. Send links to good recent anthroblogging to him! It needn't be your own stuff: submit all the goodies you've read lately.
The next open hosting slot is on 2 July. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me. No need to be an anthro pro.
Read the comments on this post...Crab Diver [Deep Sea News]
The Cotton Factory has a new T-Shirt design!
It's teh awesome! On sale now for a ten spot.
Read the comments on this post...It’s always our decision who we are. [Stranger Fruit]
Philosopher Robert Solomon in Waking Life:
The reason why I refuse to take existentialism as just another French fashion or historical curiosity is that I think it has something very important to offer us for the new century. I'm afraid we're losing the real virtues of living life passionately, sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something of yourself and feeling good about life.Existentialism is often discussed as if it's a philosophy of despair. But I think the truth is just the opposite. Sartre once interviewed said he never really felt a day of despair in his life. But one thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as a real kind of exuberance of feeling on top of it. It's like your life is yours to create.
I've read the postmodernists with some interest, even admiration. But when I read them, I always have this awful nagging feeling that something absolutely essential is getting left out. The more that you talk about a person as a social construction or as a confluence of forces or as fragmented or marginalized, what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses. And when Sartre talks about responsibility, he's not talking about something abstract. He's not talking about the kind of self or soul that theologians would argue about. It's something very concrete. It's you and me talking. Making decisions. Doing things and taking the consequences.
It might be true that there are six billion people in the world and counting. Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference. It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms. Makes a difference to other people and it sets an example. In short, I think the message here is that we should never simply write ourselves off and see ourselves as the victim of various forces. It's always our decision who we are.
Solomon's book, Existentialism, is probably the best entry point into the breadth of Existential thought.
Read the comments on this post...My Picks From ScienceDaily [A Blog Around The Clock]
'Mitochondrial Eve' Research: Humanity Was Genetically Divided For 100,000 Years:
Simple Artificial Cell Created From Scratch To Study Cell Complexity:
A team of Penn State researchers has developed a simple artificial cell with which to investigate the organization and function of two of the most basic cell components: the cell membrane and the cytoplasm--the gelatinous fluid that surrounds the structures in living cells. The work could lead to the creation of new drugs that take advantage of properties of cell organization to prevent the development of diseases. The team's findings will be published later this month in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.Crystal (Eye) Ball: Visual System Equipped With 'Future Seeing Powers':
Catching a football. Maneuvering through a room full of people. Jumping out of the way when a golfer yells "fore." Most would agree these seemingly simple actions require us to perceive and quickly respond to a situation. Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Mark Changizi argues they require something more -- our ability to foresee the future.Weather, Waves And Wireless: Super Strength Signalling:
A new study from the University of Leicester has discovered a particular window of time when mobile signals and radio waves are 'super strength' -- allowing them to be clearer and travel greater distances, potentially interfering with other systems.Gravity-defying Bird Beak Mystery Solved: Shorebirds Benefit From Surface Tension:
As Charles Darwin showed nearly 150 years ago, bird beaks are exquisitely adapted to the birds' feeding strategy. A team of MIT mathematicians and engineers has now explained exactly how some shorebirds use their long, thin beaks to defy gravity and transport food into their mouths.Climbing As Easy As Walking For Smaller Primates:
Smaller primates expend no more energy climbing than they do walking, Duke University researchers have found. This surprising discovery may explain the evolutionary edge that encouraged the tiny ancestors of modern humans, apes and monkeys to climb into the trees about 65 million years ago and stay there.Parrot Fossil 55 Million Years Old Discovered In Scandinavia:
Palaeontologists have discovered fossil remains in Scandinavia of parrots dating back 55 million years. Reported May 14 in the journal Palaeontology, the fossils indicate that parrots once flew wild over what is now Norway and Denmark.Success By Learning: Smallest Predator Recognizes Prey By Its Shape:
The Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus) is one of the world's smallest mammals. It is about four centimetres long and weighs merely two grams. Being a nocturnal animal, it hunts predominantly with its sense of touch. Professor Michael Brecht (Bernstein Center for Computional Neuroscience, Berlin) now reported on the particularities of its hunting behaviour at the international conference "Development and function of somatosensation and pain" at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany. "As quick as a flash, the Etruscan shrew scans its prey and adapts, when necessary, its hunting strategy," explained Brecht in his talk. "Thus, no prey escapes."Monkey Studies Important For Brain Science:
Studies with non-human primates have made major contributions to our understanding of the brain and will continue to be an important, if small, part of neuroscience research, according to a recent review published in the British medical journal, The Lancet.Pain Free Without Numbness -- Substance Combination With Chili Peppers:
A dentist's injection typically causes numbness for several hours. This experience could soon be history. Now, Clifford Woolf, professor at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA, and his colleagues have developed a combination of two agents which is able to specifically block pain without producing numbness or motor paralysis. The substance is composed of a normally inactive derivative of the local anesthetic lidocaine, called QX314, and capsaicin, the pain-producing substance in chili peppers.Culture Affects How Teen Girls See Sexual Harassment:
Teenage girls of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds still experience sexism and sexual harassment -- but cultural factors may control whether they perceive sexism as an environmental problem or as evidence of their own shortcomings. Read the comments on this post...I'm So Sorry Bill O'Reilly [Greg Laden's Blog]
I only gave half the story in my recent post about how you are a big fat baby.
Here's the rest of the story...
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...West 86th Street Subway Art 5 [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)]
tags: West 86th street subway art, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC
West 86th Street Subway tile mosaic art #5
as seen at NYC's West 86th Street stop at Broadway for the uptown 1 train.
(This piece was completed in 1989 and was mounted on 2 July 2006).
Artist: Nitza Tufino.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...Say no more ... [Greg Laden's Blog]
Kevin James. Career. Over.
Read the comments on this post...Earliest Known Abalone Discovered [Greg Laden's Blog]
May 18, 2008 -- A tiny abalone specimen 5.9 mm in length and approximately 78 million years old (putting it in the middle Campanian Stage of the Late Cretaceous) has been documented from rocks in the Garapito Creek area of Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles County by Lindsey T. Groves and John M. Alderson of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in the latest issue of the molluscan journal The Veliger.
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Carnival [Greg Laden's Blog]
The Carnival of Cinema: Episode 74 - The Creature from the Blog Lagoon ... is now up at Good News Film Reviews
Read the comments on this post...Begging For A Evo-Devo Article [Afarensis]
I'm looking for the following article from Developmental Biology:
Review of fate-mapping studies of osteogenic cranial neural crest in vertebrates
Developmental Biology
Volume 317, Issue 2, 15 May 2008, Pages 389-400
doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2008.02.046
If anybody out there has access please send it to the email address listed in the contact section above and leave a comment below.
Update: I have the article now. Below is a token of my appreciation for "spiderman" who was kind enough to send me the video:
Read the comments on this post...'The Hairy Beast' or 'Super Virgin'? [A Blog Around The Clock]
Ha! Made you look! Which is exactly the point! Go and add your own ideas in the comments there....
Read the comments on this post...Good luck, Dave! [Pharyngula]
It's the end of our semester, and there's another transition here: one of our colleagues, Dave Hoppe, is retiring, to our regret but to his happy progress. We all got together for a retirement dinner yesterday, so here's the happy crew, the entire UMM biology discipline.
From left to right: Chris Cole, Tracey Anderson, Margaret Kuchenreuther, Dave Hoppe, PZ Myers, Timna Wyckoff, Pete Wyckoff, Van Gooch
We hope Dave can still drag himself away from his lakefront home to say hello to us all now and then!
Read the comments on this post...Once again, a Republican raises the political discourse [Stranger Fruit]
And this guy is the current front-runner for McCain's running mate?
Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: "That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he -- he dove for the floor." [source]
What makes this all the more jaw-droppingly stupid is when you consider what happened to another Democratic candidate almost forty years ago.
Read the comments on this post...Off to Florida.... [A Blog Around The Clock]
...no idea what kind of Internet access I will have there, so I scheduled some re-posts and quotes to show up automatically. I'll add more if I can when I can.
Read the comments on this post...Spider Boat [A Blog Around The Clock]
I'd like to sail on this thing:
Bay Area engineer Ugo Conti has sailed the world, but has always suffered from seasickness. A queasy stomach became his motivation to design "Proteus" - a spider-like sea craft made for smoother sailing. He designed the Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel to cross the ocean while flexing with the movement of the waves. And it may change the way people take to the high seas. Read the comments on this post...Alisa Miller: Why we know less than ever about the world [Greg Laden's Blog]
Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why -- though we want to know more about the world than ever -- the US media is actually showing less. Eye-opening stats and graphs.
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