What do you guys think of this? Or should we go back to the old look? Are there any pressing problems with the site that need fixing?
(Also, am I missing something or is WordPress actually less flexible in terms of layout? (than blogger). I’m trying to widen the post field slightly, but can’t seem to find where to do so. Which is why I modified the layout, but it appears to still impose the format on me! So confused…)
Meanwhile, biologists are still trying to figure out what an organism is…
“Evolution: What Is an Organism?” West & Kiers 2009 Curr Biol
Original article:
“Beyond society: the evolution of organismality” Queller & Strassman 2009 Phil Trans R Soc B
Another interesting topic to discuss, perhaps sometime later. Becomes very relevant when trying to figure out if there’s anything analogous in other systems (culture, language)…
Interesting podcast called Science & the City from the New York Academy of Sciences.
Nobel Laureate and neurobiologist Gerald Edelman, psychologist Paul Ekman, and anthropologist/neuroscientist Terrence Deacon tell us how Charles Darwin has influenced science and their personal careers.
So yeah. Testing is fun. Hooray progress and all that.
Well, it looks like nearly everyone has posted now. So that`s working
I`ve checked the settings, and it looks like anyone`s first post is held back for moderation, but after that you`re comments should be pretty much immediate.
Finally, there`s a tag for “unofficial readings” feel free to tag any posts with links as such, I`ve tagged Charlene`s and Greg`s existing posts with this.
-Scott
Yet another test post, but hey, I think we’re set to go!
Here’s an article relevant to evolution of aesthetics and fiction: Does Beauty Build Adapted Minds?
Hello, world!
This is just a test, not an assignment, but I thought I’d post an interesting article I found recently. In a few weeks I’m sure we’ll be talking about Evolutionary Psychology, so for those who want to get a jump start:
Evolutionary Psychology and the Public Media: Rekindling the Romance
My favorite paragraph, which refers to a professor right here in the UBC department of psychology:
“At the most recent annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, the first plenary speaker was Joseph Henrich, who obtained his PhD with Robert Boyd and whose address was titled “Culture and the Evolution of Human Sociality.” Henrich also spoke about proximate psychological mechanisms that evolved by genetic evolution, not as adaptations to specific adaptive problems, but as adaptations that enable individuals and groups to adapt to their current environments in a rapid and open-ended fashion. For example, a “prestige bias” causes us to grant status to individuals who have something to offer and to use them as role models. A “conformity bias” causes us to copy the most common behavior in the absence of other information. “Strong reciprocity” impels us to uphold norms and punish transgressions, even at our own cost. These are the social equivalents of what B.F. Skinner called “reinforcers,” which guide open-ended individual learning. Henrich’s talk represents what I regard as the most newsworthy development in the field of evolutionary psychology writ large. The headline should read “Evolutionary Psychology Captures the Middle Ground!” There is something between the Cosmides/Tooby blueprint and the Standard Social Science Model that we are beginning to articulate, which is richly innate and richly open-ended at the same time.”
So, if memory serves, the assignment is to post something to make sure everything works?
And, having posted and checked, it seems that this is indeed the case.
And author names show up for me as well.
Okay. Author names seem to be showing up under the post title (or at least they are for me).