Monthly Archives: October 2012

Paleoanthropology Picture of the Day

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

I am going to try to post occasional (every week or so) pictures of paleoanthropological significance. Here is a photo looking at the Block 2 excavation area at the Lower Paleolithic site of Dmanisi, with the Dmanisi museum director, Gocha … Continue reading →

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More thoughts on Wellesley College and online learning

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Next week I will be part of a roundtable discussion focusing on Wellesley’s consideration of moving into the world of online education. I previously had an online discussion with Dr. Holly Dunsworth, of the University of Rhode Island, on the … Continue reading →

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Thought of the day: “Modern” human origins

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

The first class I took that really hooked me on paleoanthropology was an undergraduate seminar on Modern Human Origins. The class was wonderful. We read a huge amount of primary literature and for whatever reason, the class, although we were … Continue reading →

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Scales of time and space in prehistory

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Steven Kuhn, talking about the importance of matching scales of explanation with scales of evidence (2012), and citing ecologist Simon Levin (1992): Levin makes a parallel observation about ecological processes: “…if there are predictable patterns that may be observed in … Continue reading →

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Gender and academic publishing

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a fascinating information graphic on the representation of women in academic publications, extending from 1665 to 2010. The graphic is based on work by Jennifer Jacquet, Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom using an index … Continue reading →

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Weekend wag the dog(s): The canine trisomy

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Our two dogs were joined by a third this week, as we took in my mother-in-law’s dog while she tries to get over a case of bronchitis. When walking our two dogs, their leashes regularly become intertwined and untwined from … Continue reading →

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New year, new site banner

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

In honor of my 1-year blogging anniversary, I have changed the site header. The old photo was a picture taken looking out over the Eastern slope of the Tugen Hills region, in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya. I tagged … Continue reading →

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Coursera banned (sort of) from Minnesota

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Coursera, one of the growing number of open access, online education platforms (developed in partnership with Stanford University), has been banned from Minnesota. The Chronicle reports: The state’s Office of Higher Education has informed the popular provider of massive open … Continue reading →

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One-year blogiversary

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

A year ago today I went live with the blog, putting up a post titled, “What is wrong with Anthropology,” written in response to Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s calling out of the field: This blog is in some ways my … Continue reading →

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Lifespan and condition-dependent mortality

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Following up on my post from yesterday on the evolutionary history of human longevity, there is a timely article out today in Current Biology on lifespan and condition-dependent mortality. The paper, by Hwei-Yen Chen and Alexei Maklakov, uses an experimental … Continue reading →

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