Dinosauroid cave art

Darren Naish at Tetrapod Zoology shares some speculation about the appearance of hypothetical intelligent dinosaurs, complete with their art.

Also see El PalaeoFreak (El asteroide no cayó).

We need systematists for biology

Joshua Rosenau at Thoughts from Kansas blog points out that in some ecological hot spots, new species are being discovered faster than they can be described. They are not gaining scientific notice or official stature before development starts to encroach on them. We need more trained biologists who can describe and classify new organisms. He links to a story about the Eastern Arc mountains in Tanzania, and their rich diversity of species found nowhere else.

Whither STC?

Bill Swallow’s Waxing TechComm is hosting a continued discussion of the direction of and appropriate strategies for the Society for Technical Communication.

February issue of Oekologie

I’m a little late, but here’s the link to the February edition of the Oekologie carnival.

Ancient religions: Atenism

Atenism my have been the inspiration for Judaism. At least one psalm is a version of a hymn to the Sun-god.

From Encyclopedia Mythica:

Aten: the name of the visible solar disc in ancient Egypt. Originally a manifestation of the sun god, Aten (Aton) became the only true sun god during the reign of pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1367 – 1350 BCE). The sun gods Re and Atum lost much of their importance during this period….Aten was depicted as a radiant solar disc with rays ending in hands holding the ankh symbols or in hands of blessing over the king and his family, but also as a winged sun disc.