Monthly Archives: October 2009

Apocalypse Soon. Is the world really going to end in 2012?

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Simon

We live in a techno-immersed, materially oriented society that seems somewhat bewildered by where rational, empirical science might be taking us. This may be why the mystical, escapist explanations of a galactic endpoint, replete with precise mathematical, historical, and cosmic … Continue reading →

Posted in americas, anthropology | 1 Comment

The death of language?

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Simon

An estimated 7,000 languages are being spoken around the world. But that number is expected to shrink rapidly in the coming decades. What is lost when a language dies? Aside: Mouri? Nice fact-checking there BBC.

Posted in anthropology, language preservation | Comments Off

30 years of adaptationism

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Simon

Rasmus Nielsen in today’s issue of Evolution discusses what’s happened to the concept of adaptationism in the 30 years since Gould and Lewontin published one of the most infamous critiques in evolutionary biology: In 1979, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution | Comments Off

Wednesday Wiki: A list of languages by first written accounts

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Simon

A List of languages by first written accounts. This is a list of languages by first written accounts which consists of the approximate dates for the first written accounts that are known for various languages. Because of the way languages change gradually, it is … Continue reading →

Posted in human prehistory, language, linguistics, wednesday-wiki | Comments Off

Tree tuesday: The global human mitochondrial tree

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Simon

This is a picture of the global human mitochondrial tree from mitomap.org. The full-sized image is here (large!).

Posted in Tree Tuesday, anthropology, genetics, mtDNA | Comments Off

Map of the languages of Indo-China

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Simon
Posted in language, linguistics | Comments Off

Kiwi accent rated one of the most attractive forms of English

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Simon

The New Zealand accent has been rated the most attractive and prestigious form of English outside the UK in a BBC survey: The kiwi “fush and chups” came seven places ahead of Australia’s “sex and Seedney” – and nine ahead … Continue reading →

Posted in language, linguistics | Comments Off

Building social cognitive models of language change

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Simon

Out in the latest issue of Trends in Cognitive Sciences is a paper entitled “Building social cognitive models of language change” (preprint) by Daniel Hruschka and colleagues: Studies of language change have begun to contribute to answering several pressing questions … Continue reading →

Posted in language, linguistics | Comments Off

Musical interlude: Carl Sagan's 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Simon

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc] A still more glorious dawn awaits.. not a sunrise.. but a galaxy rise…

Posted in music, science | Comments Off

Evidence that two main bottleneck events shaped modern human genetic diversity — Proceedings B

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Simon

Evidence that two main bottleneck events shaped modern human genetic diversity — Proceedings B There is a strong consensus that modern humans originated in Africa and moved out to colonize the world approximately 50 000 years ago. During the process … Continue reading →

Posted in africa, americas, anthropology, europe, genetics | Comments Off