Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
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"Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul..." Mark Twain
"Ideology is a poor substitute for rational thought..." Afarensis
"It isn't faith that makes good science...it's curiosity" Prof. Jacob Barnhardt, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"This man wishes to be accorded the same privilege as a sponge. He wishes to think!" Clarence Darrow, Inherit the Wind
"...I become fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason..." Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"I want you to grab life by its little bunny ears and get in its face..." The Simpsons
"This is between me and the vegetable..." Seymour Krelborn, The Little Shop of Horrors
"There are bad laws and cruel laws and the people who enforce them are both bad and cruel..." Thea, Isle of the Dead
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Jean- Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
"But the limit of tolerance for these human foibles is obtained when the proponent of a questionable scientific doctrine endeavors to maintain it against all possible odds by misrepresentation, misinformation and suppression of contradictory data, and by insinuating unfairness in opponents of his views." Franz Weidenreich, Morphology of Solo Man
"Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconcious, impersonal material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny." George Gaylord Simpson, Life of the Past
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! Unknown
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you. Frederich Nietzsche
Once upon a time it used to be thought that "primitives" lead lives that were, to quote Hobbes, "...nasty, brutish, and short...", times change and so did the lifestyle of the "Other". Changed so much, in fact, that only European expansion, circa the age of Discovery, could provoke a war. Both ideas are the subject of War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage by Lawrence H. Keeley.
I'm currently working on a couple of book reviews that I hope to have up later in the week. In the meantime, I stumbled across this interesting story concerning forensic anthropology. According to the report a humerus, radius, and ulna were found as construction workers were demolishing a house. From the article:
I hadn't really made up my mind about the whole framing issue, up until now. I have been somewhat skeptical of the idea as related by some of its practitioners, mainly because I felt that they did not properly understand the religious landscape they were trying to operate in. The despicable hit piece on PZ over at Framing Science pretty much decides it for me. I think the piece is a perfect example of the anti-rationalism and obfuscation that has largely propelled the Republican war on science. The post owes much to the Willie Horton ads in the juxtaposition of a scruffy looking PZ with the nattily dressed DJ Grothe. A vile, despicable trick if you ask me.
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is calling on "eggheads" to help the military unravel questions about the recruitment of terrorists, the resurgence of the Taliban and messages delivered in militant Muslim religious schools.
Many eggheads are wary. The Pentagon's $50 million Minerva Research Initiative, named after the Roman goddess of wisdom and warriors, will fund social science research deemed crucial to national security. Initial proposals were due July 25, and the first grants are expected to be awarded by year's end.
But the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, which includes professors from American and George Mason universities, said dependence on Pentagon funding could make universities an "instrument rather than a critic of war-making.
Like every blogger I accumulate more links to interesting blogs and websites than you can shake a stick at. I am also, like many bloggers, behind in updating my blogroll. Just today I received an email telling me about a fascinating blog called the Right Whale Bay of Fundy Blog. This is a blog by the New England Aquarium and contains a lot of interesting stuff. The blog will document the North Atlantic Right Whale Research Program as they photo ID whales in the Bay of Fundy. There are also web cams for some of the tanks at the aquarium and, as an added bonus, some home movies of the the marine life (for example, here is one of a giant pacific octopus). They also have some photo albums on Picasa. Check it out!
PhysOrg mentions a new fossil primate discovered in India. The species has been christened Anthrasimias gujaratensis and consists of two upper molars and one lower molar. The teeth date to 54.5 MYA and are considered anthropoids. The finds are being published in PNAS, supposedly in the August 4-8 issue. Stay tuned for more when the paper becomes available...
They need your help though. Your part is to go to Big Think: Thinks Science Now and vote for your favorite video. Everytime the "Vote for this video profile" button gets clicked on Pfizer will donate a dollar to Donors Choose. They will donate up to $10,000 dollars, at this point however, they are only at $1,200. They need about 8,800 clicks by the end of August...
The discovery of Rungwecebus kipunji was announced in 2005 and placed in its own genus in 2006 (see here for some of the details). Now it is being placed on the endangered species list. Science Daily has the details:
I am a little shocked that none of my Sciblings has mentioned this. The Department of Health and Human Services is currently considering rule changes that would, in effect, define contraception as abortion. You can find a text of this proposal here. RH Reality Check has a thorough discussion of the issue. More recently, 28 Democratic senators lead by Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y), have written to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt condemning the action. A complete text of the letter is below the fold. Conspicuously absent was any member of the Republican Party - yet another reason why one should never vote Republican.
Both Joshua and I share a birthday today. Rather than think about how many folks died on my birthday like Joshua is doing, I will share what I am getting for my birthday with you. Through the kindness of family and friends I was able to buy some books from Amazon. A list is below the fold.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
