Literally science the shit out of it.

This was my immediate thought. I still dream that someone will do it right and who cares what the fundamentalists say.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/cool-…

Oh, I wasn’t meaning to imply that! Just that there’s possibly some backstory and intrigue about the lack of images of the tools. Once something is leaked, it’s a fair discussion unless it’s a gross invasion of privacy. It will be interesting to see what journal the article ultimately appears in.

I’m not positive of the timing, sorry. All I’m confident enough (in my understanding) to say was that they were not happy about it being out already, because it wasn’t supposed to go beyond the conference yet.

Unfortunately, this is all “I heard it from someone who heard it from someone who would know” (I was at SAA meetings in SF, right after PaleoAnth meetings, and some people were at both; I heard this on 4/16). My understanding is that the presentation was given with an understanding of a public embargo. I’m sure it’s…

I’ll have to disagree. Professional conferences don’t always coincide with publishing schedules. Many scientific papers have press releases issued with a “hold until” date attached, so stories can be prepared to coincide with the actual publication of the journal article. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for a…

I really love much of the newer sci-fi and post-apocalyptic fiction, but it was quite refreshing to read something that was almost like a throwback to the days of the magazine serials.

I admittedly don’t know any of the details of how press embargoes and conferences work (my own work is minimal and open), but as I understand this situation, it involved rival publications.

And in fact, there is some scuttlebutt that the presentation was supposed to be under press embargo, as the results paper is in the process of publication.

Just last night I finished The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, an amazing history of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Finished it in 7-8 hours worth of airplane flights, because it’s so engaging and readable; it was hard to put down.

so then their grapefruit IPA tastes like raspberries to you?

This is a perfect response to the oft-asked question asked of archaeologists: “What’s the point of studying the past?”

I suspect crossing the Rockies will be a bit of an engineering problem.

I'm an archaeologist who lives in Austin (been here almost 22 years) and works for a large state agency. Previously, I worked for a private sector environmental consultant company doing cultural resources management (what some call contract archaeology). Been doing this for 11 years, plus my time(s) in school. I have…

My amazing local craft beer specialty store sold out of their allotment, at 1 bottle per customer, before I could find the time and drop by. Guess I'm not a good whale hunter.

John Hawks (prominent paleoanthropologist and excellent scicomm blogger) addresses some of the issues with Little Foot and the dating on his blog:

I generally read the term “human”, as in the headline and the opening paragraph, to mean Homo Sapien or modern human.

I don’t have a photo of it on me, but I have a roughly 4,000 year old chert dart point that I found on my grandparents’ farm in southern Ohio. Stone, particularly siliceous stone, lasts for a very long time in almost any soil condition, which is why it is so often the only artifact type found at prehistoric sites. The…

Pretty sure that there are very few paleoanthropologists who have stated definitively that Homo Sapiens are direct descendants from A. Afarensis, and it’s been known for a long time that there were multiple hominids early in our evolutionary history. Paleoanths seem to be some of the most open-minded in the…