Vote For Duane!

I just noticed that Duane at Abnormal Interests was nominated for a Weblog Award. Make sure you vote for Duane!

VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN!!

Friends And The Power Of Blogging

Some very interesting blog reading today...

Afarensis (who originally alerted me to the issue) and Abnormal Interests both picked up on the Hadza post from yesterday. Tim at Remote Central left a comment asking if there was anyone who might be able to intervene in this tragic situation. Fortunately, there are a number of indigenous rights groups about, some of which the original MSNBC article alluded to, although the nature of hunter-gatherer groups (no centralized authority, dispersed, etc.) makes it hard for them to be represented properly. I see that Anthroplogy.Net had also picked up on the story. Kambiz and the other commenters had some good suggestions - spreading the word about the current situation facing the Hadza would help raise awareness and possibly put enough pressure on the Tanzanians internationally to at least make them sit and listen to the tribe. Contacting Survival International was a great idea (I've written to them as well)...Cultural Survival is another group to which one might send an email or letter...I really appreciate everyone's concern on this issue...

Another surprise awaited my daily repertoire of blog reading...Martin at Aardvarchaeology found that the editor of the journal Antiquity quoted my post on archaeology and creationism in the current issue. I was quite frankly dumbfounded...Martin sent me an email over the weekend in which he anticipated posting on "...this blogger who is quoted extensively in the editorial of Antiquity's summer issue...". My first thought was: "Fantastic...I wonder who he's talking about?"...I really appreciate Martin taking the time to point the editorial out to everyone (not to mention I'm delighted a journal the caliber of Antiquity is picking up on my concern that we as archaeologists should take a more active role in combating creationism).

These blog entries spawned a couple of thoughts this afternoon. First, it's wonderful having friends in the blogging community who continue to encourage you by taking the time to reference your writing. I know I was gloating about being picked up by Crooks and Liars last week, but I wouldn't trade Afarensis, Martin or Duane for any of those big ticket blogs. Getting picked up by any of these three guys (and lots of other science-type bloggers) to me is an honor...

Secondly, the blogging response to both the Hadza situation and the current editorial in Antiquity further illustrated to me the power of blogging. I think people take the blogging community more seriously than many of us realize. And many in the blogging community affect change more often than they realize also. I'm proud to be associated with such a cutting edge group of people...

Some Blogs To Take A Look At

Well, in typical fashion, I am usually several weeks (if not months) behind in updating blog links and giving other folks their due (my reading list is actually about 5 books behind!)...I want to highlight a couple of new (or if not new, perhaps less well known) blogs I have found through various means:

You have to stop by and see Dinosaurs: A Creationist's Fairytale; DCF had another right-on critique of Ken Ham's vegetarian tyrannosaur hypothesis. There's a lot of other good stuff there and DCF is clearly not sympathetic to the way creationists have abused dinosaur science for their own cause.

Mikayla from Bits of Starstuff emailed me after we both left comments on Dakata Voice's blog regarding Answers In Genesis. Mikayla was at the Rally for Reason held outside Ken Ham's museum opening and has some interesting things to say about...well, a lot of issues. She's certainly not apologetic about being being enamored of naturalism...

Dan Vojir from The Devil and Dan Vojir commented on one of my posts with a post of his own: the first one on his blog. He's a writer in San Francisco and if his first post is any indication of what will be forthcoming I hope he finds the time to post often. I'm anxious to find out more about his upcoming book, Sacred Cows Make The Best Hamburgers...

Thinking Blogger Awards

Abnormal Interests has tagged me with my first internet award since starting the Northstate Science blog: the Thinking Blogger Award! I am particularly grateful because I visit Duane's site frequently and have always found his posts stimulating and thought-provoking. Duane tagged me in part for my posts on Syro-Palestinian archaeology, but I have to admit that anything I write on that subject is always done with a look over my "intellectual shoulder" to see if Abnormal Interests thinks I'm offbase...I admire his calm approach toward various issues and so getting tagged with an award from Duane is an honor for me...

Now, according to the rules of the Thinking Blogger Award, I am to tag five blogs that "make me think", thereby passing the award on to them as well. Following Duane's lead, I am additionally considering how particular blogs contribute to my thinking. This is somewhat difficult as there are a number of great blogs out there, all of which make me think about those issues of greatest interest to me. So, here goes with the top five that come to mind (none of whom as far as I can tell have received the Thinking Blogger Award yet):

1. Aardvarchaeology. Martin's posts on Scandinavian archaeology are always thought-provoking, but his views on all other aspects of things archaeological frequently force me to stop and think about my own biases. They also push me to stay current on the sometimes obscure facets of archaeological literature;

2. Blue Gal. I believe I described her as my "spiritual conscience": she has one of those irreverent attitudes and yet clearly has a great deal of personal faith - I find the combination of the two quite invigorating, even if I've somewhat strayed from the latter. I enjoy her approach to life and her philosophy regarding the separation of church and state (and I don't just mean constitutionally...) always makes me stop and think;

3. Red State Rabble. There are few writers who can devastate an intelligent design creationism argument as eloquently as Red State Rabble. But more importantly he frequently prompts his readers to think beyond the superficial aspects of a story and find the deeper meaning (and motivation) behind it;

4. Skeptico. Clearly the byline says it all: "Critical thinking for an irrational world". Even if you are already a skeptic as I am, you cannot escape considering the reasoned thought of Skeptico. Even if you accept a mystical world beyond the explanations of science, you need to think about what Skeptico has to say....;

5. Jim West. Always provocative, but also always forcing you to think about new ways to consider the Bible, its interpretation and sometimes the archaeology behind it. Jim has a clearly realistic view on who's being honest about evidence for biblical interpretation and who's playing fast and loose with the data. Like Blue Gal, he is one of the few who makes me think twice about the atheistic road I tend to be travelling...

Well, there you have it. Others I would have picked have already received the award and plenty more abound who would also be deserving. Thanks again, to Abnormal Interests for thinking about me (and more on Syro-Palestinian archaeology to come)....

Blogging Update

As usual I'm a bit late in updating, but I finally got around to adding some regularly visited blogs that haven't made it to my link list until now. Most notably I want to mention Tim at Remote Central (who I have visited regularly for some time, but failed to give him the "link credit" he so richly deserves) and Alun Salt's Archaeoastronomy blog - again, someone I should have formally linked to eons ago...

And then there's Blue Gal, who has become somewhat of a blogging "spiritual conscience" for me (although she probably doesn't know it yet...).

Happy Birthday PZ!

As usual, I'm late to the fold, but I wanted to wish PZ a Happy Birthday! I suggest, however, that in responding late I am simply following a time-honored tradition in the O'Brien household to celebrate birthdays for an extended period of time and not just on the anniversary date (the kids and I all have birthdays in March, so this month has simply become a "birthday" month in which we celebrate on those days not already absorbed by teaching, class, out of town meetings, vollyball practice or something else that always seems to prevent celebration on the actual day!).

I was also somewhat at a loss as to what kind of cephalopod-related picture I could post in honor of PZ's 50th (not a lot of squid in northeastern California!). However, tucked away in my shed, I remembered I had these. These are fossil belemnoids, Oxyteuthis tehamaensis, from the Lower Cretaceous Paskenta Formation in the northern Sacramento Valley. For those of you who don't already know, belemnoids are...fossil squid! What you see preserved here is (if I recall correctly, it's been a while) the rostrum or "rear end" of the squid; the middle one with the groove is actually the ventral surface of the animal.

I collected these in high school with my biology teacher, Mr. Critchfield (PZ and Critchfield would have gotten along famously - when a local creationist told Mr. C he wanted equal time to talk about creationism in biology class, he is reported to have responded: "I'll let you into my class to teach creationism when I can go into your church and teach evolution". I was fortunate to have had an unapologetic biologist teaching high school biology. My advanced biology class didn't just have a section on evolution - we started with evolution and maintained discussions of biological topics within the context of evolution (which is as biology classes should be taught!).

Happy Birthday PZ!