Caturday: Silly Hats Only

Cats Wearing Hats

Silly hats only means silly hats only.

Don’t test me.

PS: I think that’s a crab and a lion.

PPS: If you’re not familiar with silly hats, get to googling.  Or just watch this.

Book Review: The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman

On Monday I finished reading The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile.  In it, Noah Lukeman breaks down a manuscript as an agent or editor would see it, then illustrates what they are looking for on their way towards rejecting it.  Sort of depressing.  But along the way he does give terrific advice, and, if nothing else, clarifies a set of priorities for authors when writing and revising their work.  As Lukeman says, “There are no rules to assure great writing, but there are ways to avoid bad writing.”  Lukeman breaks his book into three parts and discussing the pitfalls editors are looking for in each: [1] Preliminary Problems, [2] Dialogue, and [3] the Bigger Picture.

Why Understand Evolution?

Americans are behind citizens in other developed countries in their understanding and acceptance of evolution.  (For evidence, see this recent article in Science.  If you can’t access it, google the title for more.)  Fortunately, some wonderful authors have written popular books that aim to present the theory of evolution to the non-evolutionary biologist.  Some recent (and highly readable) examples include What Evolution Is, Why Evolution is True, and The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.   But although these books do a terrific job of presenting the the evidence for evolution and the mechanisms behind it, none of them really address a more fundamental question: Why?  Why should Joe the Plumber or any other non-biologist care about the facts of evolution?  Below I list just three (of many) reasons why each of us should understand evolution.

Caturday: Colder Than Expected

Cat overlord laments what Bill Cosby already knew:

It’s hard to look evil in a sweater.

Sigh.

Book Review: The Stranger, by Albert Camus

I should change the title of these things to “Was Reading”: this morning I finished reading The Stranger by Albert Camus.

The book briefly details the life of a man, Meursault, before and after he murders another man on an Algerian beach.  The story is told in the terse, detached style of other romans noir of the time, such as James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice.  When I first read these books at 18, this style thrilled hell out of me.

Phylogenies and Evolution: Tree Thinking

Building on last week’s post on Phylogenies, this week I’ll introduce the concept of “tree thinking.”  This short discussion is based on the paper “The Tree-Thinking Challenge” by Baum et al. (2005) Science 310:979-980.

Book Review: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King

This morning I finished reading Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print.  The book is assigned reading for a novel writing course I am taking at The Writer’s Center.

The book is a very quick read.  The chapters are short, come with check lists and reminders, and also include exercises.  (Presumably you are supposed to do these before proceeding to the next chapter.  I never do that, though probably I should.)  And despite the fact that the book contains pretty much the same information that any other book on editing and revising would (for example, “don’t tell, show“), it’s still pretty good.

Illustrating the Tree of Life: Evolution and Phylogenies

One of the most important tools used to study and understand evolution are evolutionary trees, also known as phylogenies.  Phylogeny is a strange name for a complex field, yet phylogenies are something all of us are familiar with,  just by another name.  The “Tree of Life” is the phylogeny of all living things.  As a metaphor, the tree of life summarizes the evolutionary relationships among all species on earth.

I’ll explain the metaphor in a little more detail.  If you are already familiar with phylogenies, this may get boring.  Sorry.  For the rest of you, just close your eyes and picture this:

Caturday

Today is Caturday.  Below is today’s obligatory picture of our cat overlords.  Choose your own caption.  My favorite: Oh Hai! I a zombie now!

Oh Hai!

I am currently preparing a short post introducing the concept of evolutionary trees (also called phylogenies).  And I’m taking requests if you have them.

Introducing darwinbookcats

In case you couldn’t tell from the title, this will be a blog about evolutionary biology, books, and cats.  If you love/hate any of these things, get ready: things will get interesting.

My plan is to post a few times a week.  At least once a week I plan to post a short blog about new research in evolutionary biology.  These posts will be easy to read and are designed to bring the best of evolutionary biology to a general audience.  So whether you already adore evolution or just want to know more, these posts should be helpful.

In addition to writing about evolutionary biology, I’ll also post what I am reading.  Feel free to tell me these books are awful/great/whatever.

Finally, every Caturday I will post pictures of our cat overlords.  A day is coming when cats will own us all.  Might as well ingratiate yourselves now.