Worth a Look: Tetrapod Zoology

Yes, the following is a link to a blog about science. Yes, Literacity is a blog about literature and art. But it's also about speculative science and the fascination that the unknown, the possible, and the somewhat plausible, hold for us. It's also about very smart people, of whom Darren Naish is one.

I'm a longtime admirer of the work of Dougal Dixon (I even shelled out $40 for an out-of-print edition of After Man on AbeBooks--I love that site). So, evidently, is Darren, whose superb blog has consumed altogether too many of my working hours this past week. I'm having a difficult time hedging on the superlatives when I describe his writing and sketches.

His articles make a non-scientist feel like Simon Conway Morris making a thrilling discovery. His topics range from palaeontology to cryptozoology to speculative biology (the links to his blogger account are from his earlier blog of the same name and topic). Mostly he debunks and corrects, but sometimes he exults and celebrates the wonders of the distant past, the bizarre present, and the possible future. And godssakes, look at the things he draws, dear fellow!

This all seems quite slapdash, I admit, but somehow Darren ties it all together. I think all one really needs to enjoy his work is a spirit of experimentation and exploration, and the heart of a nerd, pure and true. I've exhausted my florid prose at this point; please just follow the links.

Worth a Look: Sidestepping Real

As I've said numerous times before, I generally try to keep this blog out of the political sphere. But when a blogger named Ran Powell started showing up in my comments, I looked over her site, and was surprised by the intensity of her writing.

Sidestepping Real is primarily politically-oriented, but the breadth of topics covered extends beyond the usual scandal coverage (which, to my mind, is just another version of the celebrity gossip that floods the newsstands every week). For instance, here is a post in which Ren ponders the morality of printing incendiary and horrific (factual) literature. In this post, she muses on the universality of meaning in literary motifs--or perhaps the lack thereof.

By now, I've hopefully conveyed why her blog interests me: she shares my obsession with the complex relationship between human nature, morality, history, and the written word. Sweetening the dish are regular comments on censorship, religion, and numerous other topics that only interest me when explored in the light of history and anthropology.

If you're interested in writing about international politics that delved beneath the surface, I'd suggest skimming Ren's latest posts.