Tag Archives: links

ScienceSeeker Editor

Hey all! I have some awesome, if a little old, news. I am one of the new editors for ScienceSeeker, which is a great site for finding all sorts of different science blogs. They list themselves as Science News from Science Newsmakers. Naturally, I was ecstatic to join the team. Each week I get to read awesome blogs, something I do anyway, and pick the ones that I find the most interesting. I thought you all might think it’s neat too.

My favorite picks of the week are listed below. You can also check out the Editor’s Picks page for our awesome team of editor’s picks of the week. Hopefully, working with ScienceSeeker will get me to start blogging more. I do love to share cool science. Have a lovely holiday weekend, and…

Happy Reading!

Mummified Fetus Found in Tiny Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagus (History): http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DiscoveryNews-History-News/~3/2Rxh_frDmaQ/mummified-fetus-found-in-tiny-ancient-egyptian-sarcophagus-140512-140512.htm

The Inexorable Melt: new evidence that glaciers in West Antarctica are past the point of no return (Goodnight Earth): http://gnightearth.com/2014/05/13/the-inexorable-melt-new-evidence-that-glaciers-in-west-antarctica-are-past-the-point-of-no-return/ by jptrinastic

Two New Huge Dinosaurs Discovered (Dinosaurs): http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DiscoveryNews-Dinosaur-News/~3/eGY4K5awUWM/two-new-huge-dinosaurs-discovered-140514.htm

Bones in Submerged Cave May Be Earliest Native American (History): http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DiscoveryNews-History-News/~3/O-_k7qeYfYU/bones-in-submerged-cave-may-be-earliest-native-american-140515.htm

Marine Reptile’s Weird Body Armor a Sign of Life’s Great Recovery (Laelaps): http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/15/marine-reptiles-weird-body-armor-a-sign-of-lifes-great-recovery/ by Brian Switek

New Thermoelectric Material May Boost Green Tech (The Daily Fusion): http://dailyfusion.net/2014/05/lipb-thermoelectric-material-28564/ by The Daily Fusion

About Nanotyrannus (Paleopix): http://paleopix.com/blog/2014/05/16/about-nanotyrannus/ by Penny Higgins

So Much Good Stuff!

It has been a good week. My migraine finally went away, I have brought in some editing and writing work, and I had a great meeting with my Freelancer’s group. It feels so nice to be validated. No job is too small. Keep that in mind. I would be happy to write blog posts for your business, or take on quick editing projects. A well written and edited piece can make your business shine.

Most of my news comes from Twitter. I like social networking, but Twitter has taken awhile to grow on me. One of the things I am using it for now, is to get the word out about my business, and connect with other writers. Thankfully, there are a dearth of writers on Twitter and a great number of rad scientists! Feel free to add me @dylanbenito. I think I am finally getting the swing of it, and I am enjoying it much more.

On to the links!

  • An NPR article about cities saving the Earth. The gist: If we all moved into cities, our wildlife would stand a much better chance, and we would use less resources. 
  • Our Hypothetical oldest ancestor, named Shrewdinger! By popular vote.
  • An amazing site, by the Kennis brothers. They are the guys behind the recent hominid reconstructions featured on NatGeo covers. The photos are amazing.
  • Juan Cole (great source for news on the Middle East, fantastic author), posts about Denmark’s  upcoming wind-power capacity. Fifty percent by 2020!
  • The Oatmeal posted about the Mantis Shrimp, and it is amazing. If you like science, or comics, or awesomeness, it is well worth the read.
  • Also awesome, this video about animal eating habits. You might pee.
  • The cutest thing EVAR! A new bat genus was discovered in South Sudan. PANDA BAT!

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This is one of the cutest things I have seen in a long time. And, I’ll stop freaking out about the cute bat now.

And there are many other things out there. I have been writing my tail off, so I don’t have any great book recommendations for you all. At least not science type books. The book I’m reading right now is about a woman behind Pope Innocent X, Mistress of the VaticanSo far, it is a fun historical read. If you like that kind of thing, check it out.

Thanks for reading! Please share. 

Autism Awareness Month

I was going to have an awesome post about Autism Awareness Month, and then I got a migraine. I have a couple of cool links you all should check out, and I will try to properly write about this important issue next week.

With the rise in diagnosed cases, I’m sure that most of you know someone on the spectrum. If you know me personally, you know that my kid is on the spectrum, and he is rad. Just like most people with Autism. I think it’s important for neuro-typical people to understand this isn’t a disease, or bad way of being, it is just a different way of thinking and viewing the world. I will share more of our personal story and more links next week.

For now, onto the links:

  • From Download the Universe, we have a great review of two books on Autism. Asperger Love, by Amy Harmon and Straight on Till Morning, a collection of essays written by Autistic people. I am looking forward to reading both of these titles. 
  • There is an awesome Kickstarter going right now, This is what Autism Looks Like, headed by Carole Burns. The video is great, and they need some help to meet their goal by the end of May. Go contribute a dollar and spread the word.
  • And finally, a link to the Autism Society. It is a great website to check out if you want more information.

Hopefully I’ll be feeling better in the next week and I can share some really great stuff. Thanks for hanging with me.

Thanks for reading. Please share. 

Bad News Week

I was planning to write about something fun and science-tastic this week, but the news was full of the Steubenville Rape case. I found it hard to pay attention to much else. Instead of a light and fluffy Weekend Wrap-up, I felt the need to post this instead.

There has been a lot of talk about Rape Culture, and what that is. Many people don’t seem to think this is something we need to talk about, but I think it is vitally important. This is the best info-graphic I’ve seen so far. I hope it answers some questions, and outrages people enough to make some change happen.

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As a female shaped person, a survivor, a feminist, a parent of a boy, and a person of the world, I feel that the best time to change our attitude is now. For the first time in memory, I have seen women and men get outraged—publicly—about rape. It seems like now is the time to take this initiative and run with it. If we are going to make our world safer for each other, we need to talk about this. We need to have open communication, we need to change our opinions that women are objects, we need to remember that consent is key. With out EXPRESS verbal consent, there should be no sex acts: no matter the mix of parts involved. Women aren’t the only people that get raped, men aren’t the only rapists. We need to remember that words can hurt just as much as actions, and we need to allow people to live their lives without fear.

I found a number of really good blogs to check out, written by women and men. If you are interested, click the links and share with everyone you know. This change starts with us.  

Finally, I’ll close with a science tie in. Elise Andrew is the creator of I Fucking Love Science (one of my favorite Facebook pages) and recently joined Twitter. The response she got was a perfect example of why we need to change our cultural opinion of women. 

Thank you for reading about this difficult topic. I hope that I can inspire someone to change for the better. We all need to work on being more compassionate, myself included, let’s start today.

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-up

Hi, All,

Thanks for stopping by. This will be my first post on my shiny new work blog. I read a lot, and I like to share cool new ideas. I thought this would be the perfect forum to post science, health, and tech news. I’ll be posting links, photos, and book recommendations.

This week has had some interesting news about cloning endangered and extinct species. Not like Jurassic Park (shoot!), but the idea could help replenish species that are endangered. As far as bringing back extinct species! I don’t quite know how I feel about that, but I think it is a science worth looking into.

Two great people to follow on Twitter, if you’re interested in stuff like this are Brian Switek: @Laelaps and Carl Zimmer: @carlzimmer. They have been having an interesting discussion today. I think it’s definitely worth a follow. (The conversation and the people.)

My suggested book is about Extinction and Island Biogeography, which ties in perfectly with this idea, is The Song of the Dodoby David Quammen. This book is more than worth your time. While reading about the ideas on cloning extinct species, I thought of this book. Song of the Dodo is incredibly well written and is full of great background information for tricky propositions like this. Mainly, as a counter point on the sustainability of the idea. We have managed to cut our world up into so many ‘islands’ there might not be any place for resurrected animals. We are having a hard enough time keeping the ones we still have alive.

Finally, I have a photo of a Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), one of the animals that has a chance of resurrection. Cute little thing, isn’t it?

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Thanks for reading! Feel free to contact me for any of your writing or editing needs.