Cambrian fossils at Kangaroo Island 28 Aug 200818 Sep 2017 Kangaroo Island is a largish island off the coast of South Australia, famous for its wildlife and food. It also has some of the best preserved Ediacaran Cambrian fossils, on a par with the famous Burgess Shale. A report on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s TV show Catalyst recently showcased these, and interviewed my friend Chris Nedin as well as his colleagues Jim Gehling and Diego Garcia. Chris is the guy shown on the preview of the video. You can view the report on video, or read the transcript, courtesy of the ABC. Here’s a pic of Nedin showing us where the Ediacaran period starts, when he and I and friends Ian Musgrave and Jim Foley took a trip through the Flinders Ranges a few years back. He’s way too fit, from his years of climbing shale cliffs (like he made us do on that trip). D’oh!: I should have said Cambrian not Ediacaran. I’m sorry, I have a cold. Uncategorized
Uncategorized Last century’s best philosopher? 1 Mar 2009 Brian Leiter has asked who that was in the train of the New York Times declaring that it was Wittgenstein.So far, Russell is leading. Russell? My goodness, he was important but hardly the best – most read more than best, I suspect. Moore was better than Russell. As to the… Read More
Uncategorized I can’t handle the Truth 23 Nov 2008 Siris has a nice short post on the use of “truth” in discourse: This appeal to truth is incantatory: it is not an argument but a rhetorical ploy that usually involves a false dichotomy. By ritually displaying one’s ‘interest in the truth’ in contrast with someone else’s interest in something… Read More
Uncategorized On epigenetics 6 Apr 2009 Here is an interesting discussion of a recent paper on the operational and theoretical definitions of “epigenetics”. This term – which has a deep history, well before genetics – is interpreted in every manner from inherited histone patterns on chromosomes to parental investment and extrasomatic inheritance. The authors of the… Read More
Both Chris Nedin and Chris Glen spotted the deliberate (?) error in my post and pointed out they are Cambrian fossils, not Ediacaran.