How many of you out there know someone who is trying out a new cleanse, detox or diet? Perhaps you’re doing this yourself. Be honest — no show of hands needed. I am by no means going to bash any of these diets, cleanses or detoxes, but I’m instead going to try to bring our focus […]
Hello, everyone! I’m sorry about the long wait, but I’ve been pretty busy. From now on, my posts should be much more regular than the past two months. My first new post will be about my time in China. I flew out of New York on June 21st, arriving in Beijing with a 12-hour time […]
David Catanese just listed Elizabeth Warren as the Democrats’ third most likely 2016 presidential nominee, behind front-runner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden. Why? Woman? Check. She’d allow progressives an out for feeling obligated to support Hillary for glass ceiling reasons. Oh, and she’s a real progressive but yet has […]
In This Town (the subtitle is Two Parties and a Funeral—Plus Plenty of Valet Parking!—In America’s Gilded Capital), Mark Leibovich, the chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, writes a tell-all about the people he knows — politicians, journalists and lobbyists. It’s mostly a series of anecdotes, from a guy who has met a lot of […]
Over the past decade, Brazil has been the subject of little else but success stories in the international media. Never mind the beaches, beautiful women and carnaval; the stories coming out of the South American giant were of economic growth, millions leaving poverty to enter the middle-class and reduced inequality, which is why the mass […]
Rick Perry just announced that he will not seek a fourth full term as the Governor of Texas. However, he did hint that he may try to run for President again, promising to reveal “more expansive plans” at a later date. It’s worth looking at why his first effort was such a disaster. He had […]
5/30 We drove back out to the field site along with some extra volunteers and colleagues. There were now five of us at the campsite and several more staying in rooms at a nearby mission. With more people and extra cars, we finally allowed ourselves to go out to a basin badland area we’ve affectionately […]
5/21 – 5/23 I flew in to Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday the 21st and met up with doctoral student Brandon Hedrick and undergraduate Samantha Cordero, both from the University of Pennsylvania. Over the next two days, we packed up our gear in the car and drove out 7 hours to our field site in New […]
The last few weeks have not been great for President Barack Obama. Steve Miller, Acting Commissioner of the IRS, resigned after it came out that the IRS applied greater scrutiny to Tea Party groups. When it turned out that he had been planning to resign anyway, the grand gesture suddenly seemed transparently phony. The media is […]
Dinosaurs are reptiles. Reptiles are cold-blooded. Birds are dinosaurs. Birds are warm-blooded. When did warm-bloodedness — more accurately referred to as endothermy — evolve? This is a question that has been debated and is rife with controversy for over a century. The traditional viewpoint was that dinosaurs were giant lizards that lived in swamps in […]
Hello, everyone! I think that it’s about time to go through Jurassic Park and explain what’s real science and what’s completely fictional. In order to do this, I have decided to sit down and watch the movie for what is probably around the hundredth time, so the following will be in chronological movie order. · […]
In my last post, I promised to explain how raptors may have used their protowings to hunt. A recent and intriguing hypothesis, called the Raptor Prey Restraint (RPR — pronounced “ripper”) model, claims that they would have hunted using a process called “prey-riding.” Prey-riding is exactly what it sounds like. The predator jumps on top […]