lornamatic

So it’s not true that all science is physics or stamp collecting. Sometimes, it’s creative writing.

When it comes to studying ancient birds, it’s often necessary to make a few assumptions and hope that future evidence will support your theories. Sometimes taking that leap can jumpstart what is “known” and help people see what is actually there. It’s awfully easy to overlook important, obvious, and often totally banal evidence that’s lying in the dirt when you’re required to, well, stand on the shoulders of so many giants.

Birds have been around for longer than we can really even fathom, and sometimes it takes a creative leap to look around the existing wisdom and suggest something new. The back and forth chatter between the Arboreal and Thecodontal theorists have probably done more to harm progress in this field than anything; when you’re busy defending a theory in a hot and public argument, you’re hardly open and receptive to new evidence.

I particularly enjoyed this suggestion of the importance of hindlimbs in flight evolution, from a PhD student at the University of Calgary. It’s creative and a bit daring, and it’s getting press, too. Good work.

That said, and while I have yet to read the full paper, the thesis still doesn’t ring quite right to me. Anything has aerodynamic properties, if you throw enough wind at it. And there’s a kind of economy of form common to all living things; volume: surface area ratios must exist within certain tolerances, and the presence of skin over muscle and tissue tends to follow a pretty specific set of curves. And I’d love to hear more scientists discussing that economy of form; observing it where it is alive in the ancient species of today. You cannot watch a flightless cormorant without the realization that you are looking through an open window, one that opens on hundreds of thousands of years into the past.

It’s easy to toss rocks at the longstanding work of many devoted and educated scholars, and I certainly don’t want to do that. But I do believe the viability of existing theories would be greatly enhanced through closer observation of extant, living and breathing birds.

The abstract is here.

So it’s almost 3am. Hey, blogging time!

I came across this post by Sree Kotay, former Viewpoint CTO, and it reminded me of those early days when Viewpoint was still MetaStream, and it was all about putting fast and beautiful 3D content on the web. It was all cutting edge, exciting and new…

A big contrast to the reputation the player ultimately got, which is, I think, a little unfair. Read Sree’s comments here, if you want the details.

But anyway. Today I got prompted to install the Viewpoint Media Player upgrade. C’mon, are you kidding me? I haven’t installed that since like, 2001. But AIM installs it, and I finally just got around to trying Triton (no small deal for me, since I’ve been using AIM 2.3 for, oh, a few years now) . There are probably still a few other things that slip it in, too (you can tell who finked you out by looking in the MetaStreamID.ini file).

So as a public service announcement, and because I feel at least a little responsible for that damn installer, here’s the easy way to disable that little turd (mostly) forever.

Step 1. Go here:

Step 2. Change this:

to this:

Step 3. Then, just save the file.

Easy as pie. VWPT can’t launch anymore, because you’ve just reminded it that you never gave it permission to launch in the first place. Worst you’ll ever get is a little EULA prompting you to click OK, which I hope you can figure out how to take care of on your own.

say it, sister!

Warren Buffett just might never stop being my hero.

This weekend from 9 AM - noon is the California Coastal Cleanup.

From Tom Galassi of healthebay:

Last year, in Los Angeles County alone, 10,292 volunteers collected 92,626 lbs OF TRASH and 2,682 lbs OF RECYCLABLES in just three hours! Coastal Cleanup Day is not only about trash. It’s also about clean water—the need for clean oceans, shorelines, and waterways. The cleanups are from 9:00am – 12:00 noon.

Visit our website www.healthebay.org/ccd/info for more information, including a listing of cleanup sites and waivers.

The majority of junk they pick up is almost always cigarette butts.

With all the dry sagebrush and forest fires every year, it astounds me that so many people toss their still-lit butts out their car windows. But fire season aside, all those butts get washed right to the ocean. Living by the beach is a magical thing. So come and volunteer some time helping keep it clean.

What’s to lose? 50 tons of trash!

After that, get over to check out Banksy’s just-opened LA show. Fantastic stuff…..