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Axial tilt and evolution

04 agosto 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science
What role does Earth's axial tilt play in the ongoing evolution of life on this planet? That question has intrigued me ever since the Japanese earthquake, this spring. I read that the quake had shifted our planet on its axis by 25cm - a minute amount on the planetary scale - but one that could have, as one story noted, "profound, if...

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Tags: evolution, biology, paleontology, science 4 Comments


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500-million-year-old fossils create economic development opportunities

09 junio 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, Social values
This intriguing story is from a media release from the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, posted on the Municipal Information Network. Exciting stuff when a government recognizes the importance of fossils, evolution and science, and helps promote them to the public.

Capturing the significance of...

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Tags: science, fossils, economic development 0 Comments


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Things that go bump in the bank account

25 mayo 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science, Collingwood life
There's a front page story in this week's Enterprise Bulletin about self-professed ghost hunters looking for a "haunted" house in Collingwood to feature on a new TV series called "Paranormal House Inspection." That really bothered me because it reads like an advertorial on the front page (and equally that the Discovery...

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Tags: psychics, claptrap, superstition, haunted houses, gullibility 3 Comments


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Creationist victory a sad day for American education

22 abril 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science, Pointless legislation, Social values
It's pretty easy to make fun of American education these days. There are viral videos on YouTube that paint a bleak, even frightening, picture of the average American unable to locate Iraq on a world map, unable to identify the name of a country beginning with the letter "U", the religion of Buddhist monks, and so on. Rick Mercer did...

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Tags: America, creationism, evolution, science 3 Comments


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Giant spider fossil found in Mongolia

20 abril 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science
I developed an appreciation of spiders around age 10. I came down with one of those childhood diseases - chicken pox, mumps, or measles, I forget which now - and spent a week in bed. I was a voracious reader even then, but I had only one unread book on hand, a library title taken out for some school project. It was Jean Henri Fabre's 1912...

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Tags: spiders, fossils, science, paleontology 0 Comments


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T. Rex had a cousin. Imagine the family BBQs...

03 abril 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science
He's called Zhuchengtyrannus magnus, but I bet that gets condensed to something more like Z. Mag when people start taking about him. He's the latest fossil find to come from China - an 11-metre-long, 4-metre-tall theropod weighing in at 6 tonnes. That's pretty close to the size of T. Rex, his huge carnivorous cousin. Imagine the fun...

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Tags: science, dinosaurs, China, paleontology 0 Comments


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So God had a wife. Nu?

20 marzo 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science, Uncategorized
According to a recent news story, Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou of the University of Exeter, Yahweh, the god of the ancient Israelites, had a wife. Dr Stavrakopoulou has concluded after years of research that both a god and a goddess were worshipped in the same temple in Jerusalem, and this suggests she played the role of a divine wife.*

Or perhaps...

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Tags: goddess, religion, faith 2 Comments


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What have dogs taught us?

21 febrero 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science
Dogs, say some social anthropologists, taught humans compassion*. Any dog owner will understand that claim, especially if he or she has ever had a puppy. It's tempting to believe that the relationship between humans and dogs began with puppies, perhaps an abandoned litter our prehistoric ancestors came across. But it might have come about...

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Tags: pets, dogs, anthropology, science, cats 4 Comments


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A Skeptic's Take on Naturopathy

16 febrero 2011
Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Social values, Science
There's an interesting piece in the recent issue of the Skeptic magazine (Vol. 16, No. 2) about naturopathy, as well as a related article on the growing popularity of the ancient Indian ayurvedic "medicine" that I found entertaining reading last night. In the column, SkepDoc, M.D. Harriet Hall asks "What is Naturopathy?"...

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Tags: pseudoscience, medicine, skeptics, naturopathy 0 Comments


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A skeptic's take on the wireless debate

21 noviembre 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, Social values, Science, Collingwood life
I missed this post about the wireless debate when it was first written. Although a savvy reader brought it to my attention a couple of weeks ago, his email got lost in the cascade of email I get - 100 or more a day. When I was cleaning out my cache this morning I found it, and after reading it, thought I should share it because it relates to local...

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Tags: computers, wifi, Collingwood's Municipal Madness, Science, technology 3 Comments



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