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Entries written in January 2008

Written January 31, 2008 in art, dinosaurs, evolution

From the simply beautiful “Mid-Cambrian Morning” by Rosemary Mosco.
(c) Rosemary Mosco

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Written January 30, 2008 in dinosaurs, humor

If you’re anything like me, you’re worried about the potential for attacks by velociraptors. I am not alone.
Thankfully, FlashBang studios have released a beautiful simulation to help prepare your for the inevitable raptor invasion:

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
Go play it now.

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Written January 29, 2008 in bacteria, genetics, people

Andrew Pollack in the NYTimes reveals the secret message implanted in the recently announced synthetic bacterial genome.
You were expecting poetry perhaps? The secret messages hidden in scientist J. Craig Venter’s synthetic bacterial genome have now been revealed. They are — his name, and that of his research institute and co-workers.
I can’t decide whether this is [...]

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Justin Barrett and Brian Malley have a rather intriguing paper out in the Journal of Cognition and Culture: A Cognitive Typology of Religious Actions (doi:10.1163/156853707X208486):

The rapid but disproportionate growth of the cognitive science of religion in some areas, coupled with the desire to meaningfully connect with more traditional, function-inspired classifications, has left the field with [...]

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Written January 27, 2008 in dinosaurs, evolution, literature, misc

Said the little Eohippus,
“I am going to be a horse!
And on my middle finger-nails
To run my earthly course!
I’m going to have a flowing tail!
I’m going to have a mane!
I’m going to stand fourteen hands high
On the psychozoic plain!”

The Coryphodon was horrified,
The Dinoceras was shocked;
And they chased young Eohippus,
But he skipped away and mocked.
And they laughed [...]

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Out in PNAS - Maternal traces of deep common ancestry and asymmetric gene flow between Pygmy hunter–gatherers and Bantu-speaking farmers (doi:10.1073/pnas.0711467105):

Two groups of populations with completely different lifestyles—the Pygmy hunter–gatherers and the Bantu-speaking farmers—coexist in Central Africa. We investigated the origins of these two groups and the interactions between them, by analyzing mtDNA variation [...]

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Written January 24, 2008 in creationism-is-stupid, evolution, science

How cute, the creationists have started a journal just so they can be like real scientists. The toy journal, Answers Research Journal is run by the nuts at Answers in Genesis, and -
is a professional (sic), peer-reviewed technical journal (sic) for the publication of interdisciplinary scientific (sic) and other relevant (sic) research from the perspective [...]

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