Fading Like A Dead Star

mothernaturenetwork: What is the Yellow Dog Project? The...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:52:55 -0400

What is the Yellow Dog Project?

The project was created to raise public awareness about timid dogs and canines that require space while training or being rehabilitated.

mad-as-a-marine-biologist: Merry Shellmas - I decided to make...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 20:00:48 -0400

mad-as-a-marine-biologist:

Merry Shellmas - I decided to make this post rebloggable so you can spread the word!

whateveramusesme: Azurite Azurite owes its name to its...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 13:49:49 -0400

whateveramusesme:

Azurite

Azurite owes its name to its beautiful azure-blue color, which makes it a very popular and well-known mineral. It usually occurs with green Malachite, which may form green stains or specks on Azurite crystals or aggregates. The two minerals sometimes occur admixed or banded together, forming what is called “Azure-malachite” in the gem and mineral trades.

Just like with Aragonite and Calcite, Azurite over time turns to Malachite, which is one reason they are seen together so much in specimens. This is due to Azurite being more unstable is open air, and then is pseudomorphically replaced by Malachite.

Bone Wars as a comedy. Yay or nay?

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 23:17:53 -0400

Bone Wars as a comedy.

Yay or nay?

wired: Well played, HBO. Just as Jurassic Park 3D hits...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 22:52:31 -0400

wired:

Well played, HBO. Just as Jurassic Park 3D hits theaters, the premium cable channel announced a new movie titled Bone Wars, a period comedy based on the rivalry between two nineteenth-century paleontologists. If an HBO comedy about battlin’ dino-scientists isn’t enough to pique your interest, then just wait until you hear who’s playing the paleontologists: Steve Carell and James Gandolfini, who will also produce the film.

[MORE]

pterobat: It has come to my attention recently that nerds hate...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 01:40:27 -0400

pterobat:

It has come to my attention recently that nerds hate feathered dinosaurs.

Not *all* nerds, obviously, but a lot of ‘em. And why? Apparently because dinosaurs no longer look “cool” enough: they’re “fluffy”, they’re “chickens”, and most importantly, they don’t look as cool as they did in “Jurassic Park”.

I’m a casual dinosaur fan, but I am pro-feather aesthetics. Feathered saurians look both ferocious and adorable, and it dissolves the idea that dinosaurs are a symbol of obsolescence. They didn’t die out because they weren’t “good enough”: they grew and changed and adapted and are still around today.

I still like the look of “classic” dinosaurs (or really, the style where they are reptilian but sleeker and more active, as inspired by the Robert T. Bakker school of thought), but I don’t personally care that one style now is inaccurate to varying degrees.

I say “pro-feather aesthetics” because you can’t be pro- or anti-dinosaur feathers: that’s like saying you can be pro- or anti-gravity. One’s aesthetic distaste for a scientific fact does not change its legitimacy, and you can’t “decide” to accept it the way you accept or deny changes to a fictional character. It has already been decided by science: you don’t have to *like* feathered dinosaurs, but they exist.

So, there’s frequently an anti-science subtext to the hatred of feathered dinosaurs: the complaint is that science has “corrupted” dinosaurs, implying progress should not have happened. Paleontologists should never have dug deeper and found that dinosaurs beyond Archaeopteryx had feathers, or at least never spread it around, because it interferes with the popular image of dinosaurs.

It might not be what the anti-feather aesthetics folk intend to say, but how else would you “reclaim” dinosaurs but by denying what science has found? Pretending dinosaurs never had feathers is like pretending that cavemen rode them. Both have their pop culture appeal, but both can’t be considered equal to legitimate science.

What’s also eye-rolling is the way the presence of feathers is treated as an emasculation. It might be just me, but there’s an ugly sense that by having feathers, dinosaurs have now been feminized, are no longer the scaly behemoths that little boys played with in the sandbox with, but are now (choke!) “girly”.

Because of that, I’m reluctant to try to get the feather-haters to accept that feathered dinosaurs are “still badass”. It’s trying to play the game by the other person’s rules, instead of just pointing out that animals are simply animals, not “manly” or “girly”. Nor do scientifically-accurate depictions have to prove themselves, either.

It’s also strange that others keep going back to Jurassic Park as the counter to feathered dinosaurs. “Jurassic Park” had great SFX and was a fun movie (though as I get older, the anti-science preaching becomes more annoying), but its dinosaurs are essentially movie monsters who run all over facts in the name of being cool.

And yeah, I’m fine with most of that (except the T-Rex’s vision problems, which make no sense in all the wrong ways) *in a movie*. But to hold up these exaggerations of dinosaurs as the ideal counterpoint to modern science is insane. It’s like saying werewolves are the “true” vision of wolves, and all those packs in the woods are just poseurs.

I’ve got no problem with preferring the “look” of reptilian dinosaurs, whether those dinosaurs are from the eighties or the eighteen hundreds. But turning that preference into a denial of science, or a defense of dinosaurs’ implicit masculinity, doesn’t work

colchrishadfield: Stonehenge is in this picture if you know...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:37:23 -0400

colchrishadfield:

Stonehenge is in this picture if you know where to look. The bend in the river at Amesbury helped me find it.

latimes: The crisis facing California sea lions State...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:40:04 -0400

latimes:

The crisis facing California sea lions

State officials have declared an “unusual mortality event” for California sea lions, after an unusually high number of pups barely clinging to life have recently washed ashore.

For a sense of the sheer number of pups who have reportedly been found washed up:

In Los Angeles County, nearly 400 pups have been stranded since the beginning of the year. Last year, 36 were reported during that stretch.

As of March 24, officials said, 214 sea lions were reported stranded in San Diego County, 189 in Orange County, 108 in Santa Barbara County and 42 in Ventura County.

Read more from reporter Rick Rojas here.

Photos: Allen J. Schaben, Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

paleoillustration: “During the Polish-Mongolian...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:01:21 -0400

paleoillustration:

“During the Polish-Mongolian paleontological expedition to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, in 1971, an articulated Velociraptor mongoliensis skeleton was found with hands and feet grasping a Protoceratops andrewsi. Evidence suggests that these two dinosaurs were indeed killed simultaneously, smothered by sand, possibly during a dune collapse. The active predatory nature of Velociraptor is graphically illustrated as it grasps its prey with its forelimbs, while kicking and raking the belly and chest with its hindlimbs. Protoceratops was discovered in a semi-erect stance with the Velociraptor’s right forelimb clutched between its jaws in a desperate fight for survival. Their discovery reveals a snapshot in time, of a life and death struggle, between these ancient adversaries.”

Re-creation of the fossil by Black Hills Institute of Geological Research: “The skeleton casts we used, though more complete, are positioned in poses very similar to those of the original scene”

Illustration by Peter Schouten

One of my all time favourite palaeontological finds. Indeed a snapshot back into life during the Mesozoic.

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 23:46:00 -0400

ianbrooks: Amber Inclusions by Anders Damgaard With all this...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:00:35 -0400

Biting Midge by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

Spider (araneae) by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

Beetle (Latridiidae) by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

Erythraeidae - a parasitic mite larva on a Fulgoromorpha nymph by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

millipede (Polydesmida) by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

Beetle (Latridiidae) by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

male wedge-shaped beetle (Rhipiphoridae) by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

rove beetle (Staphylinidae, Paederinae) by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

Caddisfly (Trichoptera) by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

Pseudoscorpion by Anders Damgaard posted by ianbrooks.me

ianbrooks:

Amber Inclusions by Anders Damgaard

With all this discussion recently surrounding the ethics of manipulating DNA in an effort to resurrect lost species, it seems appropriate that we take a look back in time at the vessels for our future T-Rexes and (fingers crossed~!) Giant Ground Sloths. Until that glorious day when we will ride atop the backs of huge beavers (it was a thing! Science up), admire the beauty of these amber-encased insects, forever looking out at us through a layer of several million years.

Photog: Flickr / Website / Blog

Fossils! Minerals! Finding tons of gemstones! Coding layouts! DOCTOR WHO! JURASSIC PARK! EXCITEMENT!

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:59:54 -0400

Fossils!

Minerals!

Finding tons of gemstones!

Coding layouts!

DOCTOR WHO!

JURASSIC PARK!

EXCITEMENT!

logicianmagician: ianbrooks: Strange Attractors by Chaotic...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:54:19 -0400

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres posted by ianbrooks.me

logicianmagician:

ianbrooks:

Strange Attractors by Chaotic Atmospheres

The darkest art known as Chaos Theory is perfectly embodied in the form of its strange attractors: vast looping trajectories of variables that, when plotted, conjure gorgeous yet insidiously disruptive patterns. Chaotic Atmosphere’s Math: Rules series pays tribute to the beautiful form of chaos and its inevitable collapse of all our efforts to predict it.

Artist: Behance / DeviantArt / Twitter

I want them ALL.

Photo

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:00:37 -0400

thegoddamazon: I am 1,000% DONE Tumblr.

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:00:37 -0400

http://dlo-the-last-bitchbender.tumblr.com/

http://dlo-the-last-bitchbender.tumblr.com/

thegoddamazon:

I am 1,000% DONE Tumblr.

nybg: Not that I would ever recommend this, but … This would be...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:44:08 -0400

nybg:

Not that I would ever recommend this, but … This would be a pretty funny April Fool’s prank to pull on your coworker who goes away for a long Easter weekend. Of course, you wouldn’t use their actual keyboard because that would be mean. Just get an old deprecated one from your IT guys. Not that I’m recommending you do this though, because that would be immature …. ~AR

31 july 1947 – 29 march 2013 Goodbye Uncle Vernon. Thanks for...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:23:11 -0400

31 july 1947 – 29 march 2013 Goodbye Uncle Vernon. Thanks for everything. Potterheads all over the world.

STOP THE PRESSES, THEY GOT TUMBLR.

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:25:22 -0400

STOP THE PRESSES, THEY GOT TUMBLR.

Photo

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:09:00 -0400

“You bred raptors?”

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:30:29 -0400

“You bred raptors?”