Blade Manufacture

A hat-tip to John Derbyshire who linked to this very cool YouTube video of a flint-knapper manufacturing blades from a pyramidal core using a punch technique. This is how artifacts that Steve saw on his trip to Turkey were made that I posted on last year.

Falling in Love with French Antiquities

The NY Times has a very nice piece on archaeologist Randall White of NYU and his research in Paleolithic archaeology in the Perigord area of France. That is the home ground of Cro-Magnon research just down the road from the famous cave art at Lascaux. Though not professionally grounded in the archaeology of the area, …

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A Question

It occurred to me to throw out this question to Steve and Matt and any commenters who want to jump in. Do your dogs dream? At least I have always assumed that’s what’s going on. It is pretty common when Maggie is sleeping on her side to hear her making whining noises and/or muted barks …

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Crybaby

Worse and worse. “He cried himself to sleep after his Iranian captors likened him to the comedy character Mr Bean.”

Compliment

I’m blushing. John Carlson at Prairie Ice has had some very nice things to say about us. (John was my best man when I married Libby in Bozeman, MT). You should always pay attention to his blog on birds and books and more. He lives an enviable life as a biologist in his (native) home …

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Doom, Doom..

From England of course. As the English sailors cash in on their captivity with TV interviews and E- bay sales, the BBC cancels a documentary on the newest recipient of the Victoria Cross. “He’s the first living recipient of the Victoria Cross since two Aussies, Keith Payne and Rayene Stewart Simpson, were honored with the …

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Seitanic Pet Food

The poisoned- wheat- gluten- in- pet- food scandal continues to unfold. China now claims it had nothing to do with it— I’d advise skepticism on that. Patrick has the word on the seitanic substance…

Blog Friends News

First, congratulations to the lovely Heidi— who hardly looks “hick” in these photos– and her talented husband Jethro. More material for fiction too, Heidi? And speaking of our beautiful websisters, Larissa has posted an essay in defense of sloth. I prefer not to know what those noodles are, though.

What Is On My Desk?

Inspired by Doc Hypercube’s bookshelf series, I sent him a slice of one of mine and then turned the camera to my desktop. How many objects here can you identify? The bejewelled crane skull is the work of local artist and friend Yvonne Magener. She may have a website and if so I’ll add a …

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