(Should I put meme in quotes too? I leave that as an exercise for the reader.) Browsing an old review by Eric Alden Smith (ref below) I came across the following: I do not advocate the venerable but ultimately sterile anthropological practice of countering every generalization with an exception located somewhere at some time (a … Read more
Huzzah, have submitted the magnum opus to the Ministry, and am now gainfully employed in one of those fabulous postdoc things. More on the exact nature of that later. I started composing a list in my head of things NOT to say to PhD students in the final death throes of writing up, but decided … Read more
Er, so I’m writing up still. End is in sight! Back to blogging sometime in February! For now I just wanted to post this quote for posterity, although no doubt I will find someplace to jam it in the conclusion. On comparative linguistics and ethnography In conducting diachronic research on a language that existed five … Read more
I hate the academic colon. I think it is a specious piece of punctuation that, when applied to the title of a work, cries out for abuse via the lame pun. I am the first to admit gratuitous cringe-worthy use of the colon and its licensing of the pop-culture reference/foreign phrase/alliterative list, but I want … Read more
Today I am pondering the use of the passive and active in scientific writing. I’ve seen the first person being used more frequently in journals–mainly in method sections–and the collegial “we” has become much less passive and directly related to hypotheses. Personally I approve. I see the need for the science to stand separate from … Read more
In a rare fit of openaccessmindedness, Nature have left the content about Baby Lucy, the latest hominid (hominin? am bad anthropologist and never keep up with this renaming thing) find from Ethiopia. She’s dated at 3.3 million years, and is a 3 year old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, mostly skull but with a rare amount of … Read more
According to NASA, this year’s Perseid Meteor Shower is going to suck, because the moon is too bright. So annoying! For once I had remembered that early August was the best time to see it, only to be thwarted.
A nifty editorial on science journalism from the Columbia Journalism review: My theory is that editors of newspapers and other major periodicals are not just ordinary folk. They tend to be very accomplished people. They’re used to being the smartest guys in the room. So science makes them squirm. And because they can’t bear to … Read more
Apparently so, because there are a number of bug posts on this blog. Via Grow-A-Brain, a video of the amazing Megalopyge opercularis, a moth so fuzzy and furry I squealed a little at how cute it was. Of course, that fuzz is out to get you, as the “fur” is actually venom-carrying prickles that’ll have … Read more
Andy Purvis‘s cheeky letter to TREE made me giggle. About the h index: it’s presumably a random number until you get more than about eight publications? Hmm. I think that possibly this is just more MeyersBriggsian pigeonholing, or perhaps it satisfies a numerological fetish that academics are too lofty to admit. Heh. I think mine … Read more