House of Herps #12 – The Apocryphal Edition

Section A of fragment 9BbQpap

Part 1.
This is the twelfth edition of House of Herps, so that means I have the honour of presenting the last post for the first year of this blog carnival.  In the scheme of things, a year is not much, but I thought this would  be a good time to present a little known but ancient antecedent to House of Herps.

What follows is the first publication of select verses from the Munchhausen¹ papyrus, a 2000 year-old document now known as The Book of Serpent. Like the related document, The Gospel of Judas, it is one of many church-rejected apocryphal books that ran parallel with, and some times counter to, the canonical books established at the Synod of Hippo in 393 CE. The Book of Serpent was considered particularly heretical due to the sect that formed around it in 325 CE.

Darwin and the Discovery of Evolution

Dr. Lockitch tackles creationists and others who often claim that evolution is “just a theory”.  In this video lecture (recorded March 13, 2008), Dr. Lockitch “…explores Darwin’s life and work, focusing on the steps by which he came to discover and prove the theory of evolution by natural selection.”

(Lecture starts at about the 4 minute mark)

more about “Darwin and the Discovery of Evolution“, posted with vodpod

Healthy Oceans: Just a teaspoon of dust per square kilometre?

The VPRO Beagle Channel on YouTube has posted a video featuring Russ George, founder of the company Planktos Science. Sounding like the promoter of a global version of homeopathy, Russ George, a  business man, claims that just a teaspoon of iron mineral dust per square kilometre of ocean can help the recovery of phytoplankton populations, which will help world fish populations recover.

Fertilizing the oceans with iron and creating plankton blooms is also said to have the potential to sequester carbon, the source of global warming.

Is the potential effects of the iron fertilization of the oceans really this simple?

See this Popular Science article (pdf) July 2008

Russ George’s Companies: Past and Present, from the New Energy Times

See this interview at Living on Earth

And see the Planktos Science website for their latest perspective on the business of ocean iron seeding.

What does science have to say about this claim? See the complexity of researching iron fertilization in this comprehensive article in Oceanus, the official magazine of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Statement of Concern Regarding Iron Fertilization of the Oceans to Sequester CO₂ from the Scientific Group of the London Convention, July 13, 2007.

Introduction to Biodiversity for Educators

The World Association for Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) has produced  a free guide…”  for zoo and aquarium educators, teachers and environmentalists. A resource about biodiversity in support of the International Year of Biodiversity, 2010 and beyond.“

from the World Aquarium and Zoo Association

The guide has an good collection of links to biodiversity resources and includes a free poster, Biodiversity is Life.

Attenborough Sings: The Unbroken Thread

Melodysheep at the Symphony of Science has another great video featuring David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, and Carl Sagan.

“The themes present in The Unbroken Thread attempt to explore the wild diversity of life on our planet, the intricacy and origin of its mechanisms, and its close relation to all other life forms.”