Email Et(h)iquette

The Secret Cause of Flame Wars:

The reason for this is egocentrism, or the difficulty some people have detaching themselves from their own perspective, says Epley. In other words, people aren't that good at imagining how a message might be understood from another person's perspective.

Every mailinglist, forum and newsgroup should post a link to the article.

According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I've only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

Technorati tags: psychology, sociology

DNA from crushed bones and fossils

Bone Crystal's Treasure:

This method holds much promise for the future analysis of ancient DNA in bones in yielding more reliable and authentic results than has previously been possible, and may help in unearthing the mysteries of our ancestral past.

Not quite Jurassic Park yet, but they're getting there.

Technorati tags: genetics, paleontology

T.rex's Opa

For Thomas - they suspect this find to be an early ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex and other tyrannosaurs.

Scientists find earliest known ancestor of T. rex:

A two-legged meat-eater, the beast was far smaller than T. rex, measuring about 10 feet from its snout to the tip of its tail and standing about 3 feet tall at the hip. It also sported relatively long, three-fingered arms, rather than the two-fingered stubby arms T. rex had. Scientists suspect it had feathers because related dinosaurs did.

From that I can't figure out why they'd think it's a tyrannosaur, but I'll take their word for it. I know Thomas will argue that the tyrannosaurs have two-fingered arms, but there you go. We'll have to head back to the ever increasing pile of dinosaur books, Tom.

Along with some other finds, the creature helps illustrate the sequence of anatomical changes that occurred along the way to the later, more specialized tyrannosaurs, said Philip Currie of the University of Alberta in Canada.

Technorati tags: dinosaurs, paleontology

A scientific leap, but without the faith

I don't want to get into the Intelligent Design vs Science debate on this blog. Really, I don't. But, damn!, this is just such an excellent piece:

Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/05/2006 | A scientific leap, but without the faith:

In the Dover courtroom, proponents of intelligent design could be heard repeating their mantra: "Evolution is just a theory. It's not a fact." Scientists would then point out the categorical error: A theory is a framework to explain the facts. A theory is one level up from fact, so the mantra ought to go, "Evolution is not just a fact. It's a theory."

The theory of intelligent design is not only not falsifiable; there is simply no way to test it. But that is not the main reason it is not science. The main reason is, that ID does not actually explain anything. When we ask, "Why is the world the way it is?" it answers, "Because it was designed that way." The world is the way it is because it is that way. That might be the furthest from a useful, satisfactory explanation you can get.

I almost posted the whole thing, but just head on over to the site and get educated.

[Edited an hour later] Okay, I feel that, since I've actually broached the subject on this blog I'd better, at least, point to something on the other side of the divide and...well, I think I'll just point. As we've seen on a previous entry, there's very little rational thought goes into these discussions, and I certainly am not rational when it comes to this debate. I suggest therefore, if the reader actually requires some background into the debate...google for Intelligent Design (or click on the Technorati link below), and if you find anything intelligent about it...join one of the forums.

Technorati tags: intelligent design, evolution, physics, science, philosophy of science