Administrative
pharyngula | July 6, 2009It's July already? Time to tally up the votes in the last Molly nomination thread and induct yet another regular commenter into the Order of the Molly.
The acknowledged worthy for the month of May is Kel. About time, too, his name keeps coming up month after month, and someone is always jumping in to wave their arms about and eclipse him.
So now you have to think back over the past month of voluminous commenting and pick out a name that stood out for you, and leave it in the comments right here.
pharyngula | June 26, 2009Tomorrow, I get to spend a very long day traveling to the Lindau Meetings, which will be great fun, and you can expect some science blogging from that event (Bora will also be attending, so Scienceblogs has you covered).
However, I am seeing some troublesome stirrings here. A certain demented ex-commenter is morphing to avoid his banning, we've just had a flood of weird spam (a dental office using spam tools? Tsk, tsk), and I just know my ability to police the site is going to be hampered by meetings…or good Bavarian beer. So just be warned: I may have to turn user registration on again. I…
pharyngula | June 23, 2009This must be an example of those emergent properties people talk about. In one of the comment threads, some simple suggestions for new commenters have been formulated. They're pretty good — pay them some heed.
When you post, even if you intend to reply only to PZ or to one other comment on the
thread, up to 200 people (or more) will read, and possibly respond to you. Keep this in mind.
As this is a science blog, a greater proportion of the readers and commenters here well-
educated, and, if not scientists, are reasonably well-versed in logic, observation, empiricism,
debate, and…
pharyngula | June 22, 2009You little scamps in the comments have been acerbic and rude and loud again, haven't you? I've received a little threat in the mail about your activities, and you know how threats get me all trembly and weak in the knees.
Dear PZ Myers.
My name is Petter XXXX and I am a graduate student in biology at University of XXXX, as well as active as an ecology consultant in XXXX.
I would be grateful for the removal of slanderous comments directed personally at me on your blog Pharyngula.
I have nothing but admiration for your work with not allowing creationism or ID be a part of education, although…
pharyngula | June 13, 2009Some of you may have noticed that we got hit hard by a Turkish spammer last night: several hundred comments, mostly saying the same thing, all linking back to a farm of Turkish spam sites. It's extremely annoying, and I'm in the process of cleaning it all up. Normally that wouldn't take long at all, but right now Scienceblogs is seizing and sputtering, like usual, so I delete 10 or 20 at a time, get the stupid timeout message, and have to reload and restart the despammer tools…so it might take a little while.
And it is all so pointless. They get a few hours of their url on my blog, but what I…
pharyngula | June 4, 2009The winner of the Molly Award for the month of April kept having the same thing said about him over and over: he was overdue, that people were voting for him month after month. Finally, persistence pays off: you can now refer to Bill Dauphin, OM.
Notice that it is now June — you need to tell me who should win it for May. Leave a comment below that says who your favorite commenter for the month just past was.
laelaps | May 31, 2009Just a quick reminder: Tomorrow I will be posting a collection of links all about "Ida", from the hype surrounding her announcement to the actual science of the PLoS One paper describing her, sometime in the early afternoon. If you are interested in contributing please e-mail me at evogeek AT gmail DOT com by 9AM tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to what comes in.
laelaps | May 29, 2009Welcome, new readers. Thanks for sticking around after all the excitement over "Ida" last week. You can expect plenty more posts on strange mammals, odd evolutionary hypotheses, and new peer-reviewed research in the near future, but if you just can't wait, check out a list of some of my "greatest hits" posted by sbh of Rational Rant. I was definitely flattered to receive such praise, and I don't think I could have made a better list myself (although I would include my essays on "Giant Killer Lungfish From Hell").
pharyngula | May 27, 2009We're having some major performance problems, as is obvious from all the errors you're getting when you try to post comments. We had some substantial tweaks made to the code behind the scenes that was supposed to improve performance, but actually had exactly the opposite effect — now Scienceblogs is supposed to be bringing in some expert consultants very soon now to fix the problems, either rolling back the code or figuring out why we aren't getting any speed boost at all. I don't know when this will happen, since there are a lot of blogs here, and they all need to be patched somehow. We're…
evolvingthoughts | May 23, 2009So it is farewell...
I have enjoyed blogging here at Seed, who have been generally very good to me given the constraints of herding cats with string they are working under, but it is time to move on. The neighborhood became a little hostile to old fashioned fogies like me, and that's all we need to say.
Many thanks to the cat herders at Seed, Erin, Arikia, and their predecessors, and to Tim who wrastles the technological b'ars. Thanks also to Adam Bly for the opportunity, and to PZ Mangle, who threw me into the back of a black unmarked van and brought me here.
Now, where can you find me? Here…
evolvingthoughts | May 20, 2009There's some reorganising of my life and blogging going on. I'll announce all the changes to links and stuff in a fortnight or less. Please excuse the dust and noise of the construction behind the plastic sheets.
laelaps | May 20, 2009Many thanks to everyone who has read, commented, and promoted my posts on "Ida", the 'missing link' that wasn't. I have been floored by the response - over 25,000 visits in the last 24 hours; being mentioned on Wikipedia; being quoted on Slashdot; and being picked up by blogs on the Guardian, the New York Times, the Times online (twice!), Popular Science, and New Scientist websites. And to think I was worried that no one would pay attention to my little 'ol blog amongst all the hype...
I think the prize for the best response has to go to Ed of Not Exactly Rocket Science, though. Ed writes;…
laelaps | May 18, 2009Over at the Inverse Square blog author Tom Levenson has just started a multi-part blog series on the evolution of his forthcoming title Newton and the Counterfeiter. It is an extension of a session on writing a pop-sci book he lead with Dave Munger at ScienceOnline'09 last January, and the posts provide an excellent opportunity to see how a book goes from an idea to a volume sitting on the "New Arrivals" display at B&N. So far he has posted parts 0.0 and 1.0.
I can't match Tom's experience as an author, but I will be contributing my own perspective on writing a pop-sci book based upon…
laelaps | May 15, 2009Things have been a little slow here during the last week or so, but for good reason. Between final exams, the in-laws stopping by for an extended visit, moving into a new apartment, and other miscellaneous events I have barely had time to sit down and write. After this weekend, though, I will be all set up in my new office, a separate room with a door! (It might not seem like a big deal to you, but if you lived where I have for the past three years, you would be thankful to have rooms actually separated by doors.) I can hardly wait to set up my library and start composing again! First up: a…
laelaps | May 6, 2009I was planning on writing about G.G. Simpson's influence on paleoanthropology today (and more generally why paleoanthropology seems isolated from vertebrate paleontology), but the papers I need are beyond my reach. If someone has the proper access could they please send me;
Simpson, G.G. 1950. Some Principles of Historical Biology Bearing on Human Origins. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Bio, 15, 55-66
doi:10.1101/SQB.1950.015.01.008
and
Laporte, L.F. 1991. George Gaylord Simpson as mentor and apologist for paleoanthropology. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 84, 1-16
doi:10.1002/ajpa.…
pharyngula | May 4, 2009It's May, which means I have to tally up all the votes you made in April for the Molly-worthy commenters in March. We have two winners this month, the alliterative duo of Janine and Josh. Everyone say "OM!"
Now you face the onerous task of thinking back over the last month and nominating an exceptional commenter for the month of April. Leave a comment here with the name of your favorite.
evolvingthoughts | April 27, 2009Sorry to sound Tweatish, but I've had about 4 hours sleep in the past 40 (I can't sleep on planes even with chemical assistance). I loved Lisbon, and the people who invited and paid for me to go were amazingly hospitable. I had a great time. One of the hapless audients has blogged it here but it is simply false when he says I resemble my avatar. I'm much really a little thinner.
There's still no sign of my talk online at Ciências Viva, or the short interview they did with me (I got overenthusiastic), but I'll link to it when I know.
Again I thank the amazing Nathalie Gontier, and the…
evolvingthoughts | April 23, 2009"Few topics have engaged biologists and philosophers more than the concept of species, and arguably no idea is more important for evolutionary science. John S. Wilkins' book combines meticulous historical and philosophical analysis and thus provides new insights on the development of this most enduring of subjects."—Joel Cracraft, American Museum of Natural History
"This is not the potted history that one usually finds in texts and review articles. It is a fresh look at the history of a field central to biology, but one whose centrality has changed in scope over the centuries. Wilkins' book…
evolvingthoughts | April 22, 2009I gave my talk today on tree thinking at the local science museum for kids and the general public, which is amazingly popular. The Portuguese seem to hold science and knowledge in high esteem. Which is great. The Ciências Viva helped pay for my ticket, so I hope they liked my presentation. It will be online as a podcast, and they apparently simulcast it at the time, too. I didn't let you know that because I want to check it before I tell my loyal readers about it. Oops...
I am overwhelmed by the hospitality and food here. If I could learn another language, or they all spoke English, I'd…