According to a study just out in PLoS, you can learn to be nice. This study, using functional MRI brain imaging, assessed brain activity while meditation experts produced a meditative state called a “loving-kindness-compassion state” (and here I was thinking that the “loving-kindness-compassion state” was Vermont… ). Continue reading You can learn to be nice
Branta ruficollis is endangered. The Red Breasted Goose International Working Group (RbGIWG, which is unpronounceable) has a new species action plan to save this critter.Here’s some info from Redbrested Goose Central:
Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis) is a charismatic globally threatened species highly dependent on wetlands and farmed areas. In the last 50 years, the distribution of the breeding and wintering grounds of Red-breasted Goose has changed dramatically for unknown reasons.This species has a small wintering range with 80-90% of the population concentrated in just five roost sites covering less than 20 000 km2 and the remainder occurring in a few other areas.The European wintering population is estimated to be more than 27,000 individuals, but this has fluctuated wildly.It is markedly lower than during the period 1970 -1990, but after remaining stable from 1990 to 2000, significant reductions have recently been observed. For these reasons, in 2007, Branta ruficollis was up listed to Endanger.[source]
And here is a cool goolge map thingie that lest you monitor the geese on their flyway. Continue reading Saving the Red Breasted Goose
NASA astronomers were blown away last week by what was far and away the strongest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever observed. GRB 080319B, shown here in x-ray [left] and optical/ultraviolet [right] views captured by the Swift satellite, burned so brightly that its afterglow was briefly visible to the naked eye from its origin 7.5 billion light-years (or half a universe) away. If placed side-by-side with the brightest supernova ever seen, the burst would still outshine it by a factor of 2.5 million, researchers calculated. GRBs typically occur when the explosion of a dying star gets channeled into twin high-speed jets. Astronomers are mystified why this one shined so intensely. The burst may simply have been extra powerful or its very narrow jets may have pointed directly at Earth.
More photos of this event and other interesting stuff here.
Don’t mess with me, man, I’m a Philippine Eagle, Pithecophaga jefferyi. You can call me Jeff.This bird is almost extinct.
Please get me your Gene Genie Blog Carnival Entries by tomorrow afternoon! I’d like to get the carnival up ca midnight on Friday. I’ve got lots of good stuff already, but I don’t want you to miss your chance.
The ape human split is a bit of a moving target. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were geneticists who placed it at very recent (close to 4 million years ago) and palaeoanthropologists, using fossils, who placed it at much earlier. During the 1980s, the ape-human split moved back in time because of the importance of sivapithecus, then later in time when Sivapithecus slipped and fell out of the hominid/hominin (human ancestor) family tree. Meanwhile the geneticists were moving towards a more and more recent split. At one point not too long ago, all the evidence converged with the split being around five million years ago. The fossils and the genes agreed, and there were rumors (but nothing published) saying that palaeoanthropologists working in Ethiopia were prepared (soon) to announce that one of the fossils dating to this time had “less then fully developed” bipedalism.But science marches on, and the kinds of questions we are asking of the human fossil record are more detailed than the fossil record usually gives up in a mere few decades of research. So new finds came along and everything changed again. Now, there is a new paper by Richmond and Jungers suggesting that one of the earliest hominid, Orrorin tugenensis, was just as bipedal as any australopith, yet is much farther back in time than, and in many ways, different from our genus (Homo). Continue reading Early, somewhat controversial hominid walked like an Australopith
The blog carnival, Number XVI, is here, at Dragon’s Tales.
Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, physicist Neil Turok speaks out for talented young Africans starved of opportunity: by unlocking and nurturing the continent’s creative potential, we can create a change in Africa’s future. Turok asks the TED community to help him expand the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences by opening 15 new centers across Africa in five years. By adding resources for entrepreneurship to this proven model, he says, we can create a network for progress across the continent — and perhaps discover an African Einstein.
Continue reading Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein
Having examined Learning the bash Shell (In a Nutshell (O’Reilly))
Old books can be wonderful sources of information, ideas, and even inspiration. I collect them and sometimes even read them. Reading a 100 year old book in your field of interest is a challenge and can be a rewarding experience.It is a challenge because it is dangerous. I worry that I might accidentally learn something that is no longer true. What if I remember it at some later time, like at a cocktail party or while giving a lecture, but don’t remember the source: “… As is well known, flies spontaneously generate from certain forms of mud …” Continue reading Jolly ol’England
Let us begin by noting that “Europe” is an arbitrarily defined geographical unit occupied for the last few hundred years or so by people who believe that “Europe” is the Center of the Universe. Therefore, this statement: “The earliest hominin occupation of Europe is one of the most debated topics in palaeoanthropology” is more about European Ego than it is about human prehistory.Nonetheless, there is an interesting find … of a hominid mandible … reported in the current issue of Nature that relates to human prehistory in the region of Western Eurasia. Continue reading The earliest well dated human fossil in Europe
The Four Stone Hearth #37 – The Pulp SciFi Edition is HERE at Hot Cup of Joe.Four stone hearth is the Anthropology blog carnival.
Emetrece Productionsinvites you to come ‘sim simmer’ with us!”Sim Simmer Latino”A special ‘private party’ free show to thank our friends and fans!Featuring Maria Isa, The Kamillion and Omari Omari on the 1s & 2s.FREE // 9PM – 12AM // 21+Thursday, April 3, 2008600 Washington Avenue North Continue reading Minneapolis Event:”Sim Simmer Latino”
A new NOVA is on the way. “Voyage to the Mystery Moon” is about Titan and the planet it goes around, Saturn.
Chronicling a bold voyage of discovery–the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and its enigmatic moon Titan–“Voyage to the Mystery Moon” delivers striking images of these fascinating planetary bodies nearly a billion miles from Earth. Saturn’s broad rings hold myriad mysteries, and Titan, whose soupy atmosphere is similar to the one that enshrouded our planet billions of years ago, may hold clues to the origins of life. In hopes of answering some long-standing astrophysical questions, teams from NASA and the European Space Agency gamble years of effort to both ease the Cassini spacecraft into a workable orbit around Saturn and land the Huygens probe on Titan’s never-before-seen surface….
Details: