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Popke - Blog: February 2015
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Sunday, February 8, 2015. Last time we talked about small endotherms- specifically small mammals. On the other end, if it's too warm they have different responses. They can sweat. They can find a cool spot. They can estivate (the high temperature approach to hibernation.) They can lose their hair or other insulation. But with small animals the major thermoregulatory adaptation is behavioral. They go underground. They go in the water. They hide from the sun. They migrate. The point here is that endothermi...
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Popke - Blog: September 2014
http://popke-blog.blogspot.com/2014_09_01_archive.html
Sunday, September 28, 2014. The Bones of the Matter. I've been getting over an injury I got doing judo about a month ago. So, of course, I started thinking about bones. Is one of our most obvious anatomical features. I know we can see and feel skin and eyes and hair. But the skeleton is one of our clearest examples of an anatomical system. The bones articulate. They move together. Muscles attach to them. Where did they come from? Well, we're vertebrates. But that's a little tough since chondrichthyes.
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Popke - Blog: May 2015
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Sunday, May 3, 2015. Consideration of Works Present: Station Eleven. This is the first of a new set of Considerations: contemporary works. Why I'm doing this is discussed here. It’s a curious thing to feel alone in the wilderness for so long and then find a companion. We all have favorite authors. People we can always turn to and read for enjoyment or understanding or technique. I have those: Mark Twain, Alfred Bester, Clifford Simak, William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway. A sum of money is a leading chara...
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Popke - Blog: Plutogasm
http://popke-blog.blogspot.com/2015/07/plutogasm.html
Sunday, July 19, 2015. It's no secret what's been on my mind for the last week. Because of New Horizons. We have now seen Pluto. Up close. Personal. And with it's pareidoliac. Heart open to us. Like every other one of these missions, it changes everything we know about the solar system and planets in general. Pluto's one of those odd little places in the solar system that I thought about but didn't really consider. Oh, yeah- ninth planet from the sun, isn't it? Not anymore, Chucko! Until they get near th...
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Popke - Blog: October 2014
http://popke-blog.blogspot.com/2014_10_01_archive.html
Sunday, October 19, 2014. Consideration of Works Past: The Fittest. I'd pretty much given up on this one. It was one of those stories where you remember bits and pieces but can't recall the title or author. I'd put up phrases I remembered and got nothing. Then I was reading an article on "cozy catastrophes" (see here. For the article and here. One of the premiere examples- Oh, wait a minute. Forgot to introduce the novel. The book is The Fittest. By J T. McIntosh. Back to cozy catastrophes. We've seen th...
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Popke - Blog: August 2015
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Sunday, August 30, 2015. Parenting in an Evolutionary World. Tomorrow we take our son to college. So, as I tend to do, I want to examine this in a larger context. They mark the passage from child to adolescent to adult as well. In general, chimpanzee community retain the male children while the females migrate away to join other groups. This isn’t universally true. Flo, one of Jane Goodall’s. I don’t think so. When we look at our relatives closely, a gulf opens up, made up of our inability to communicate...
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Popke - Blog: November 2014
http://popke-blog.blogspot.com/2014_11_01_archive.html
Sunday, November 2, 2014. Status of the Farm. I'm about to go off line for a month or so. I tore the tendon in my right arm and in about three hours a good surgeon is going to reattach it. It will be in a cast for about a month so I don't know when I'll be able to type again. I'm sure this will dismay both of my readers. That's when we take stock. We got one Granny Smith apple and one crabapple so this goes down as the worst year ever. We had a general problem with pollination this year. The bumblebe...
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Popke - Blog: Consideration of Works Past: Lord of LIght
http://popke-blog.blogspot.com/2015/06/consideration-of-works-past-lord-of.html
Sunday, June 28, 2015. Consideration of Works Past: Lord of LIght. Long before Roger Zelazny. Was famous for the Amber. Series, he won the Hugo for 1967 novel, Lord of Light. First, a little world building. The colony ship Star of India. All this happens long before the book opens. You’re not in Kansas anymore. Everything I love about Roger Zelazny is in this novel. Big action. Lovely prose. Self-involved characters. Bifurcated lines where the thread goes one way and ends up another: "Bec...The story is ...
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Popke - Blog: Consideration of Works Present: The Europa Report
http://popke-blog.blogspot.com/2015/08/consideration-of-works-present-europa.html
Sunday, August 2, 2015. Consideration of Works Present: The Europa Report. I haven't done much on films. There's no particular reason not to but I haven't. I decided to do one on Europa Report. Because of the press associated with it and Interstellar. Namely, that both films purported to be as scientifically accurate as possible. (See here. In the case of Interstellar. There's a lot of truth in that. After all, when you have Kip Thorne. In order to get at the science in Europa Report. Then, let's begin.
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Popke - Blog: The Minority Politics of Puppies
http://popke-blog.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-minority-politics-of-puppies.html
Friday, May 1, 2015. The Minority Politics of Puppies. I haven't had a blog show up for a bit. I've written more than one post but discarded it. Either it didn't say what I wanted to say or it said it with too much vitriol or it didn't make the situation better. Finally, I decided to just flounder on- which is sort of a pattern of my life. I find it dispiriting to read about. My work is unarguable. That it be used to judge. Ideology does not drive my nominations or my vote. If my inclination results ...