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Monday, June 13, 2005
Week in Review
Over the weekend I had a thought that it might be nice for Nomadic Thoughts to have a gimmick of sorts, so I present the very first installment of the Nomadic Thoughts Week in Review series. Nothing unique in the concept itself but I'm hoping the material presented will be of interest to the readership out there and keep you coming back at least once a week.
The premise is simple: academic blogs and science news feeds make up about three dozen of the sites I read on a regular basis. These are linked in the left sidebar as my ever-expanding blogroll. Throughout the week I will clip posts and news stories that stand out and that are particularly interesting to me. I will link to the posts and perhaps provide some commentary. As always, your own comments are welcome (and much appreciated) on any of what I link to or have to say about it. Enjoy!
NT Week in Review
Vol. I, Issue 1
From the blogs:
Jason at Evolutionblog has an insightful post about "cosmological fine-tuning" and the implications of a theory of multiple universes in the evolution/creationism debate. A good one to sit down to with a cup of coffee and a couple of aspirin to swallow afterwards.
The Panda's Thumb has a great linked-filled post here about a series of legal briefs that have been filed related to the Cobb Co., GA court case in which labels were placed in biology textbooks kindly reminding students that evolution is "a theory, not a fact."
At Philosophy Now, Tim Madigan writes about the basis of morality. He tackles the age-old question of whether the basis for morality is divinely inspired and thus inseparable from religion or rather linked to our nature as humans. Madigan considers the field of evolutionary ethics and the possibility of finding the answer outside our own species.
Headlines from Inside Higher Ed:
Some technicalities have resulted in Bryan Leonard's Ph.D. dissertation defense, which questions evolution, being cancelled last week. As always, Panda's Thumb was on top of the story and provides some good background.
Some good news from Stanford U.: they have cut ties with four corporations that conduct business in Sudan that apparently indirectly support the genocidal government there.
An opinion piece by David Galef that made me laugh. Think of it as the "dumbest criminals" of the university system.
And some other headlines:
Excavations have begun in the fascinating archaeological quest to confirm the origins of one of America's founders at a church in the UK. UVA archaeologists believe that the identity of Bartholomew Gosnold, who founded the first English-speaking colony in Virginia in 1607 and whose remains were recently uncovered in Virginia, can be confirmed by DNA comparison with his sister's remains in Suffolk. An additional story here from the Telegraph.
Also from Virginia and UVA: archaeologists have found two graves that likely belonged to 19th century free blacks. The graves were found in association with a cemetery that was uncovered back in '93 during parking lot expansion project.
The world can't get enough of King Tut.
More glorious discoveries in the Maya world. In Guatemala archaeologists have entered a tomb with the remains of two women. The context of the remains suggests the powerful status of Maya women 1600 years ago. There is a great photo set with this story.
An interview with the director of the Iraq Museum. As you can imagine, they've been having a few problems regarding looting.
Finally, a moron gets his due for carving his and others' initials on a stone wall at an archaeological site in South Dakota.
Posted by Will at June 13, 2005 01:22 AM in