Batman links

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Turbine powered batmobile.

Bibliophile links

How books work.

Judgemental Bookseller Ostrich.

How to get insulted by authors

Another personal library to be jealous of.

Why we should all read fiction.

Unusual new library stock.

My 2010 reading list

For no particular reason here is a list of stuff I read in 2010.

Fiction

• 'Salem's Lot. My first Stephen King book. It was OK, but not enough to make me into an instant fan.
• Fragile Things. A collection of Neil Gaiman short stories. Mostly pretty good.
• American Gods. Another Gaiman, the longest one I've read of his. It's pretty good.
• The Name Of The Rose. I was curious to read this for ages. It's good, although more interesting for the historical exposition than the whodunnit.
• The Confusion and The System Of The World. These are the last two books of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy. I can't praise them highly enough, easily my favourite read of the year and one of the few books I've ever read that I can say I would instantly read again.
• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Almost everyone has probably already read these. Personally i found them entertaining page turners, particularly the latter half of the second book, but these will not be classics for the ages.
• Pirate Latitudes. A farewell to the author I have been most faithful too as a reader. It's typical Crichton fare, but without the opinionated ranting of his latter offerings.

Non-fiction

• Bad Science. Most of you will already be familiar with Ben Goldacre's stuff, but this was a good read and I did learn a bit about medical science.
• Life: An Unauthorised Biography. This was part of my bookmark liberation resolution. I started reading this back as an undergrad a decade ago. I don't know why I stopped, it's very well written and despite covering so much stuff I should already know, entertaining and informative.
• Undaunted Courage. My first book of the year and a Christmas present. I wanted to read this as my 2009 US road trip followed a similar route to this biography of the Lewis and Clark expedition. It's interesting stuff.
• Fearless Symmetry. This is a maths book about the proof for Fermat's Theorem. It's pretty well written, although I can't claim to grasp it all I did come away with a better understanding of why it eluded a solution for so long. Of course it still doesn't answer the question of whether Fermat really did have a proof, but it seems unlikely it was the same one.
• Theology And The Scientific Imagination. Another bookmark liberation tome. This is tough stuff, a lot of untranslated Latin and Greek quotes. No doubt a more informed reader would get more out of it, but nevertheless it contains some interesting ideas.
• The Palaeobiological Revolution. This was a review copy so I should just refer you to what I wrote in the PalAss newsletter.
• Love All The People. I read this after watching American: The Bill Hicks Story. It's basically just transcripts of his shows plus some other bits and bobs. Apart from a lot of repetition it was good to relive some of his material.
• The Prehistory Of The Mind. Probably my first venture into human origins popular science reading. He has some interesting ideas, but I'm still skeptical about how testable such anthropological/archaeological ideas are, but then perhaps I'm just a scientific snob.

Comics/Graphic Novels

2010 was marked by my getting into comics/graphic novels in a big way. Previously I'd basically only read Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side, plus a little Manga. However, I decided I wanted to reread Tintin and Asterix from my youth as well as explore Batman, a character I've always loved.

• The Complete Maus. Recommended by a friend who hadn't even read it. This is an important book and grown up enough to be the obvious go-to when ignorant people tell you comics are for kids. (I should point out that its subject matter is the holocaust.)
• Adventures Of Tintin (Vol. 1). The first three Tintin stories. This is the only book I've read that comes with a special red sticker warning you of its racist content (referring to the Congo story). Although the Russia story is more historically interesting as clear anti-communist propaganda.
• Asterix The Gaul and Asterix And The Golden Sickle. The first two Asterix books. It's interesting to revisit these as I haven't read them since I was a kid. Sadly despite my many years of education since I still don't get all the Latin jokes.
• Batman: The Killing Joke. The first Batman I read. It's a pretty good story and I liked the art.
• Batman: Year One. Although top of most people's Batman lists I wasn't that impressed by this. Mind you having learnt a lot more about the character since it's probably worth revisiting.
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. I liked this story, although I'm not a fan of the art. It's always fun to see Batman take down Superman.
• Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Again I liked this follow up story, but not the art.
• Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty. This is the only 'Elseworlds' tale I've read and I hated it. The whole what-if-Batman-existed-at-other-times-and-places thing is not for me.
• Batman: Strange Apparitions. My only taste of 70's Batman. It's not for me, things have definitely improved, although having read the first few stories they likely took a turn for the worse before they got better. So far the best stories are from the early 2000's.
• Batman: The Wrath. Not so good, basically this is a what-if parallel tale of a guy with a similar history and resources to Batman that became a bad guy.
• Batman: Death And The City. I liked the art, particularly Scarface and his new 'handler', but the story wasn't great.
• Batman: The Bat And The Cat. I really liked this, easily the funniest Batman I've read (although he barely appears in it). The jokes are in both the writing and the visuals. Recommended. (Just don't read it on the bus/train.)
• Batman: New Gotham 1: Evolution. This was mostly confusing for me as it follows up the much longer No Man's Land story arc. The art is from a very restricted colour palette and didn't really work for me.
• Batman: Contagion. The first issue of this is the worst Batman art I've seen, I honestly think I could do better. However, it improves and it's a good story that precedes Cataclysm and No Man's Land.
• Batman: No Man's Land 1 and Batman: No Man's Land 2. These are the first two of five volumes. I really like them, the story is great and so is some of the art. Probably the best story arc I've read so far.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum. The best selling Batman story, but undeservedly so in my opinion. Morrison's writing is unbelievably pretentious and although the art is technically amazing, it's not for me. I especially hate the pointy-shouldered Batman.
• Batman: Deathblow. Again, the art here is technically impressive, but I think this more photo-realistic approach actually works against the believability of it all. This story is also a bit too gritty for my (Batman) tastes and besides there wasn't enough Batman anyway.
• Batman: War Games Act 1, Batman: War Games Act 2 and Batman: War Games Act 3. This is a pretty good story arc with some good art and includes a character death. (Unfortunately I still haven't encountered this character much so it's a bit lost on me who they are.)
• Batman: The Long Halloween. A very different feel to much of the Batman I've read, but this whodunnit is a really good story and includes a Two-face origin to boot.
• Batman: Dark Victory. Follow up to the latter and best read that way. This is just as good if not better, I certainly prefer Sale's art on this one - I particularly think his Selina Kyle/Catwoman has improved between the two. This also contains the only decent Robin (Dick) origin story I've read.
• Batman: Bruce Wayne: Murderer?. The first volume in a what may turn out to be my favourite story arc so far. What if Bruce Wayne got arrested for murder? How can he be Batman from in prison? Did he do it or was he framed? If he was framed, was it Bruce Wayne's enem(ies) or Batman's?
• Batgirl: Silent Running and Batgirl: A Knight Alone. The first two collections of the Cassandra Cain Batgirl. She's an interesting character and has turned up in several other story arcs I've read. I find her costume the scariest of the batman 'sidekicks'.
• Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood. Art a bit too cartoony for my tastes and the story felt too much like a segue rather than a stand alone.
• Robin: Year One. The story here is OK, but it was the art I really liked as it has a cool retro feel.
• Huntress: Year One. A cool albeit peripheral character from the Batman universe that I wanted to read more of. I mostly liked the story and the art.
• JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative, JLA: Pain Of The Gods and Titans: Titans East. This is my attempt to try out some JLA and Titans stuff. It's not for me. I can't be doing with superheroes with superpowers. I'm just waiting for Batman to show up.
• Iron Man vs. Whiplash. My only flirtation with Marvel. This was probably a bad choice as it's basically a rubbish spin off from the second film. However, I like the character so might try again in the New Year.

Some additional link blogging for Batman is here:

• The problem with the Batman origin story
• More of the same
• Cracked.com piece on his utility belt
• Cracked.com piece on why he's better than Superman
• Some of the awful Batman stories from down the years

Audio Books

Finally here are some audiobooks I listened too for free from librivox.org/

• Alice In Wonderland
• From The Earth To The Moon and Round The Moon
• My Man Jeeves
• War Of The Worlds

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Update

Oops, forgot some:

• Batman: Hush. How could I forget this? Definitely the prettiest comic I've read, Jim Lee's art is amazing. The story is pretty good too, although there is a bit too much exposition re: Batman's back story. However, this does kinda make this ideal for a first Batman comic if you're thinking of getting into these things.
• Batman: Under The Cowl. Not a story arc, but a collection of different issues where, for many and eclectic reasons, the guy under the cowl isn't Bruce Wayne. To be expected I liked some and not others, but there is an amusing gem in here.
• Watchmen. Moore's opus magnum. This is really good, although it no doubt improves the deeper into comics you get. Another one I can't believe I forgot!

Bibliophile links

Just some link-blogging this time.

Here is yet more library porn, and I have now discovered bookshelf porn (more here).

No discerning bibliophile can be without these awesome bed sheets.

I'm not sure if i agree with this list of authors and the people who read them.

Here is a useful web app to help you read at speed.

Here is a bibliophilic origin for a theological construct!

An interesting video diary of a disappointed book.

I feel rather embarrassed that I never knew about the story of Hay-on-Wye.

Here is the coolest ever library information desk.

The book as technology.

Finally here are not one, but two important pieces of advice. (I can honestly say I've adhered to the latter, I'm probably safe from the former.)

Well that's it for now, but I am looking forward to a bibliophilic pilgrimage I have planned for next month with The Oregon Trail to the world-famous Powell's. I have wanted to go there for at least a couple of years and will finally be proximal enough with a post-GSA trip.

Tropical Zoo

We couldn't find Cynthia...

...but here's Elvis

Yesterday I went with a friend to Brentford. It's pretty dull round there, but if you know where to look there is a cooler place hidden away inside: The Tropical Zoo.

Toitles

This isn't a normal zoo though. Firstly because it is populated to a large degree by animals seized by UK customs and donations, often of exotic pets that got too much for their owners. However, what really makes it cool is the interaction they offer.

They have a lot of African Greys

We saw two of their shows, the first being reptile-dominated with various lizards, a couple of snakes and finally a caiman crocodile being brought ought by the keepers. The second was a flying demonstration with an Asian Eagle Owl. However, unlike a normal show the audience is invited to touch and even hold some of the animals. It was pretty cool to feel the heft of a massive constrictor and stroke a crocodile although I wasn't brave enough to hold the tarantula.

A jealous cockatoo

All in all this was a pretty cool experience for a (cheap for london) £6.50 entry so I am duly recommending it to all you Nodnol residents. It is worth a trip before health and safety regs step in and such things become impossible. Also, due to development they are about to lose their present home and need the money to fund the cost of their new site.

We weren't brave enough to check what the label meant

Drunky Monkey

If palaeontology was an xbox game...

Oh dear...

Just put my last post through this site and, oh dear...

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Open source: doing my bit

Although I can hardly claim to be a prolific blogger I do visit this page regularly to look for updates of other people's blogs (see list at left). One of these (The Open Source Paleontologist) is concerned with the public availability of both data and primary literature. Needless to say I agree with much of what is written there. As many of my readers wll know I also maintain my own site: http://www.graemetlloyd.com, where I try and do my bit. As is often the way with these things my ambition for what should be there goes well beyond my actual motivation to produce it. However, there is some stuff that people apparently do find useful and prompted by some recent comments I thought I'd take an opportunity to advertise what is there for those that haven't visited.

1. Dinosaur supertree bonus material

First off there is extra data from my dinosaur supertree paper, produced with my colleagues over at Raptor's Nest and Museological Meanderings. This includes the MRP matrices (as NEXUS files), the original tree and XML files, as well as R source code for the subsampling analyses. Apparently somebody has used this code so it was worthwhile!

2. Dinosaur matrix list

In conjunction with the above I have been collating a list of published cladistic analyses of dinosaurs. Many of these come from the supertree project, but I have kept an eye out for more recent things and just yesterday updated my list, so presently it is current. I also include NEXUS files of the matrices plus MPTs where I've had time to produce them. Again, this list has been used by at least a few people, but I have no doubt there are publications I've missed so for those keen enough to point them out I would be glad of the info. My eventual aim is to produce a proper relational database that allows automated creation of MRP files and hence an "instant" up-to-date formal supertree of the group.

3. Tree dating code

I wrote a post a while back about the problem of dating phylogenetic trees of fossil taxa. I subsequently wrote code to do it in R and know a lot of people already use it. There are plans to include this with some other functions in a full-fledged library - watch this space.

4. Palaeo-polygon area

I have also written some code to measure the area of the polygon described by the convex hull of a bunch of palaeolatitude and longitudes (now available as a downloadable field in the PaleoDB). Again, this was prompted by an old post. However, it should be noted that there are issues with this function. I now have it working better, but have yet to update the page (email me if you're desperately interested and I'll give you the latest one).

5. Red Queen PDF

On a trip to Chicago where I interviewed for their PhD program I was able to get my hands on Leigh Van Valen's ridiculously well cited, but poorly read Red Queen paper. As I got asked for this a lot I ended up scanning it in and making an OCR'd PDF and have made this available (with permission).

6. Endnote libraries for edited volumes

Being of a macroevolutionary bent I have a large personal library and spent a good chunk of my PhD entering everything into Endnote. Services like WoK were great for entering my journal runs of Palaeontology and JVP (I could just download everything from between a starting year to present), but no such electronic resource exists for my several edited books. These I had to enter manually, at no little effort. It seemed prudent then, to make these freely available once I was done and so you can browse and download copies from this page. I ended up using BibTeX for my thesis in the end and so hope to one day add this format too. I have also added links to these volumes on Amazon (if you buy via this link I get money!) and a bookfinder search (which will usually be cheaper, probably why I haven't made any yet).

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully some of you find at least one of these things useful. It is gratifying to me to know people are using it so please let me know if you like it or if there is anything else you'd like to have. After all, blogs are supposed to be interactive, right?

Iron Sky Trailer

Looks set to be the best Nazi sci-fi comedy of all time....:

A meme of one's own

Memes have to start somewhere, so I though I'd have a go at one. The image above is a tag cloud of the song titles in my iTunes library. Of course a meme only works if other people follow suit, so here's how I did it:

1. Fire up your iTunes (or equivalent) and select all your songs and hit Ctrl+C.
2. Open up Excel (or equivalent) and hit Ctrl+V. On most OS's this should just paste your library in text form, with separate columns for song title, artist etc.
3. Select just the song title column and hit Ctrl+C.
4. Point your browser at Tag Crowd and paste into the "Paste text to be visualized" box.
5. Click "Visualize!"
6. Screenshot the results and post them to your blog.

Stuff I'm totally going to do in 2010

I'm not much into New Years resolutions, but there are a few things I hope to do this year, apart from the usual publishing papers and writing grants. In essence these are about digitisation and downsizing.

1) Digitising my DVD collection
Towards the end of last year I purchased a nifty 1-terabyte external hard disk and I've since been ripping my DVD collection onto it using the excellent Handbrake. Most other rippers are actually two programs, but this is really easy to use and does the whole thing for you (with plenty of options for customising the output). I've even set up a separate iTunes library just for this purpose so I can have all the nice DVD covers and everything, but my music remains on my laptop. (There is a trick on the Mac when you load iTunes by holding down alt first that allows you to pick which library you load.) Currently I'm about half way through the ripping, but there are still lots of covers to scan.

2) The great paper reduction
My second, much bigger project, is to try and digitise my entire academic library so that I can take more stuff with me on my (fingers crossed) next post-doc. Being a macroevolutionary type my library is quite large and runs to several feet of books and tens of boxfiles. Again, I have already started this, purchasing a nice Epson multi-purpose device that includes a paper feed scanner allowing automated scanning of multiple pages, so less work in creating the initial digital files for the ones I can't just download a PDF for. I then tend to clean these up in Photoshop, usually by ramping up the contrast so OCR is easier, as well as rotating them so the text is nice and straight and cropping any black edges. Initially each file (usually one or two pages) is saved as it's actual page number(s) in the paper (so I can quickly see if any are missing) and each paper is a separate folder. I then combine them into a nice PDF using Acrobat Pro, OCR it for text recognition and then optimise it for a smaller file size. I have PDFs for several boxfiles already, but what I really want to do is link these up to my Endnote library before discarding the original, in a recycling bin of course. Not sure I'll complete this in a year, but hopefully I will be able to clear some space from under my desk where I keep the boxfiles that I have no shelf space for.

3) Selling stuff
During my years at Bristol I managed to acquire far too much stuff - I took one carload to Bristol and two van loads out. I have had to downsize to some degree already in my move to London, but there is still a lot of superfluous stuff in my room that I really need to get rid of, either by selling or giving it away. I haven't been ruthless enough in my life so far in getting rid of things I don't use anymore, but hopefully I can finish 2010 with just the things I really need or love.

4) Getting back into running
Just before my PhD I ran the Bristol half marathon and enjoyed it. Since then I haven't really done any running at all, but I now really need the exercise and for a while now I have been thinking of doing the New York marathon, although this will likely have to wait until 2011 due to a clash with this year's GSA. The only way I'm going to get back into it though is if I sign up for another half marathon as I need the incentive to get training again and it looks like I might be going in for the Budapest half marathon in September.

5) Bookmark liberation
In my end of year review I mentioned that I am now getting into reading in a big way, but there are still several books on my shelves that I started reading, but for whatever reason stopped. It is my hope that I can finish these off over the space of the next 12 months, and indeed more generally reach a point where I have actually read all the books I own (with the exception of things like reference books and the like).

My 2009

Because I'm so awesome I'm sure you'll all be fascinated to read a recap of stuff I did in 2009.

1) Leaving Bristol
I moved to Bristol in September 2002 and lived there until March 2009, a huge chunk of my adult life. During that time I completed my Masters and my PhD, but most of all it was where I made pretty much all of the closest friends I've ever had and it was certainly a bit of a wrench to leave.

2) Moving to Nodnol
The reason for my leaving was to take up my first post-doctoral position as a research assistant at the Natural History Museum. I was initially hesitant about returning to London, the city where I spent my (much less happy) undergraduate years, but I found somewhere quiet and pleasant to live and the project I'm working on is really great and ought to lead to lots of quality publications.

3) US Road Trip
Although one of the joys of palaeontology has to be the traveling I hadn't been on what I would consider a "proper" holiday since before my PhD so I spent most of the year looking forward to a US road trip with John and Phil. Our starting point was NAPC 2009 in Cincinnati, Ohio, our goal: Seattle, Washington. A good 2,500 miles away. I certainly enjoyed myself and as we never came to blows hopefully my traveling companions did too. We managed to take in Ashfalls, The Badlands, Deadwood, Rushmore, Dinosaur Park, Custer State Park, The Bighorn Mountains, Yellowstone and even Cicely, Alaska clocking up some 3,000 miles along the way. We got to Seattle in under 8 days, just in time for the Independence day fireworks and a whistle stop tour of the city. It was slightly depressing to then fly back across the same expanse in just a few hours.

4) Reading
This was the year I discovered the trick to getting through books more quickly: spend more time reading. This was prompted by a couple of things. Firstly I am now a commuter again after four and a half years of walking to work I now get the tube and hence can read on the way to and from work. Secondly I finally read Harry Potter after seeing the sixth film convinced me it would be worth it. I ordered the paperback box set and plowed my way through them in enough time to go and see the film again before it came off release. I certainly enjoyed them and the process got me back into reading novels and I now read more than ever. A quick scan of my book shelf shows that I managed to finish a minimum of 24 books this year, pretty good for me!

5) Lego advent calendar
December has been all about my Lego advent calendar and I've decided I just don't care anymore if they are supposed to be for kids. Lego is awesome, end of.

6) Footy
Although Liverpool turned out not to claim the Premiership I did manage to make it back-to-back wins in the fantasy football. However this season isn't going well on either front. I did manage to see another live game, but this turned out to contain the now infamous beachball incident. I didn't even get to see this goal as the queue to get in meant I couldn't see the pitch until about 10 minutes in. I'm going off football...

Even more distilled procrastination - animal links

Some more links for your delectation.

It seems that dog torture is doubly popular, as is that traditional pastime of cat-waking. (Although I prefer cat buckaroo.) If you want a guaranteed smile then I recommend this. I have no idea what could have inspired this, but it is just a little bit brilliant.

I recently finished this book about the sadly extinct Thylacine and was directed towards this collection of the only surviving footage of the animal in life. I really liked this gorilla photo and found this bird's appearance amusing.

This appealed to my sense of humour, reminds me a bit of the "Matt Damon" bit in Team America. Finally, didn't someone once say you can judge a nation by the way they treat their animals?

More distilled procrastination

Whilst I wait for some code to run I thought I'd post a little update with some book- and dinosaur-based links partly cannibalised from my stupidly long post. Enjoy, and Happy Christmas!

Dinosaurs

In my limited experience of being interviewed as a "dinosaur expert" I am always asked what my favourite dinosaur is and in all honesty it is still T. rex if for no other reason than our arms are the same length. Not one, but two cartoons make use of this fact to humorous effect. Presumably this is the creationist version of dinosaur extinction. Although this is more season-appropriate. Alternatively this cartoon has an eye on the bigger picture, whereas this is just silly.

Bibliophilia

I do enjoy these lists of books none of us has read most of and found these, what I can only describe as, children's books for adults kind of intriguing. I also shamelessly indulged in this hefty collection of library porn, have now discovered bookstore porn and even ceiling porn. (OK, the latter isn't book-related, but it fits here better than most places.) I found this incredibly useful blog on awful library books as well as this interesting list of things found in second hand books.

I keep finding really cool t-shirt sites, but unfortunately they are pretty much all US-based, like this collection. Other bibliophiles may also appreciate this, this, this and this.

First Lines

OK, I've added a clue to the last one

I haven't done a meme since my first post so thought I'd try this one stolen from A little bit of babbling about nothing. Basically the idea is I pick ten of my favourite books or series and then copy out the first lines. Then you (dear reader) can make guesses as to what they are. I suspect my readership will have encountered many of these before so no googling and away you go.

1. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, che la diritta via era smarrita. Dante's Inferno, guessed by Mike
2. The late twentieth century has witnessed a scientific gold rush of astonishing proportions: the headlong and furious haste to commercialize genetic engineering. Jurassic Park (I couldn't resist), guessed by Mike
3. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, guessed by Sarah
4. Idle reader: Without my swearing to it, you can believe that I would like this book, the child of my understanding, to be the most beautiful, the most brilliant, and the most discreet that anyone could imagine. [Clue: windmills]
5. On 24 May 1863, which was a Sunday, my uncle, Professor Lidenbrock, came rushing back towards his little house, No. 19 Konigstrasse, one of the oldest streets in the old quarter of Hamburg. Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, guessed by Carlos
6. They put the behemoths in the hold along with the rhinos, the hippos and the elephants. A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters, guessed by Sarda
7. It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying in the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears' house. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night, guessed by Sarah
8. It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days. Remains Of The Day, guessed by Sarah (covertly) and Jenny (via Facebook)
9. The escalator strained slowly upward. In an old station like this what else would you expect? Night Watch, guessed by Rachel
10. You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain't no matter. Huck Finn (OK, major clue in this one, but not as easy as the opening line from Lolita I almost included), guessed by Sarah

Just some webcomic links

Ages ago I started preparing another post of stuff I found on Stumbleupon, but it got ludicrously large and unwieldy so I've broken it up instead. These are some of the webcomics that I find amusing/interesting/thought provoking etc. Enjoy!:

• This little piggy went into, um, well see for yourself (not exactly a comic).
• I mostly don't get The Warehouse but this really appeals to my - no doubt autistic - sense of humour.
• Apparently only men can be sexist. Ok, it's silly, but it amused me.
• The undisputed champion of the webcomic (at least for geeks like me) has to be xkcd and this is just one of the many that I have enjoyed. (Brings back fond memories of childhood when I built my own sewer out of cardboard and toilet roll tubes for my figures to play in.)
• I have always felt that marking off the days since the moment of birth is a somewhat arbitrary measure of a lifespan and this somewhat encapsulates this.
• Two great novels on dystopian futures battle it out in this really thought provoking comparison between Orwell and Huxley. I am yet to read 1984, but it looks like I've read the more terrifying one.
• Not exactly a comic, but a pretty accurate description of meetings.
• Ever wondered what the truth about opticians is?
• Another one from xkcd, I admit it took a bit of thinking for me to get this. Definitely one for the statisticians amongst you.
• I enjoyed this lampooning of a certain magazine. Some of the covers are just priceless.
• Here is a perfect retort to the kid who wants to grow up too soon.
• I always like scientific jokes such as this entomological one.
• I had to finish with one from my favourite comic of all time: Calvin and Hobbes. No doubt my readers will already be familiar with it, but it will always be worth revisiting and this strip perfectly encapsulates the thoughtful, funny and beautiful nature of Bill Watterson's work. Warning: it may bring a tear to your eye.

You can tell I was going to be a palaeontologist...

Something from my misspent youth this time. As kids my siblings and myself hit upon the great idea of producing a calendar as a Christmas present for our grandparents, quite probably because it was cheap. Basically we decided on a theme and then got drawing (in pencil first, then inking in later so that our dad could photocopy it at work). I suspect I had a pretty big hand in picking the 1994 theme (see below), the fact that Jurassic Park came out in 1993 was surely a coincidence. Anyway, as this resurfaced recently I thought I'd scan it in and post it here for posterity.

The front cover Pretty sure I've just copied these from JP merchandise:

January Pfft! This is clearly a Deinonychus...:

February We even ripped off the JP typeface for the months:

March An interesting mutant:

April Proof that randomly including Dimetrodon in dinosaur books does confuse kids:

May Apparently Toyota landcruisers were always associated with dinosaurs...:

June Obviously I didn't have great editorial control:

July Well it is the party month:

August Here we erect a new species:

September A reconstruction worthy of Waterhouse:

October Are those feathers?:

November Nice to see our notes section got used:

December It's all been building up to this:

Changing the size and colour of placemarks in Google Earth

In follow up to my previous post I have now found out how to change the size and colour of my placemarks. The trick here is to create a "style" of placemark right at the top of the file. Again, this is pretty simple when you get down to it. This time you need to post a little bit of code at the top of the file, just after the <Document> tag:

<Style id="normalPlacemark">
  <IconStyle>
    <color>ffffff00</color>
    <scale>5</scale>
  </IconStyle>
</Style>

The id part of the opening <style> tag is important as it gives each style a name that we can then refer to later for each individual placemark. This allows the user to create different styles of placemark that can be used together in the same file (rather like CSS does for HTML). Colour (<color>) and size (<scale>) are then defined as elements of the <IconStyle> tag. Colours are in a hexadecimal format:

The range of values for any one color is 0 to 255 (00 to ff). For alpha, 00 is fully transparent and ff is fully opaque. The order of expression is aabbggrr, where aa=alpha (00 to ff); bb=blue (00 to ff); gg=green (00 to ff); rr=red (00 to ff). For example, if you want to apply a blue color with 50 percent opacity to an overlay, you would specify the following: 7fff0000, where alpha=0x7f, blue=0xff, green=0x00, and red=0x00.

Whereas scale is just a number.

Now we just need to make an addition to our <placemark> tag to state that we want to use this style:

<Placemark>
  <name>110_671B</name>
  <styleUrl>#normalPlacemark</styleUrl>
  <Point>
    <coordinates>-58.73,15.52,-1622</coordinates>
  </Point>
</Placemark>

So now I am able to plot my holes as giant green pushpins:

Unfortunately it is not easy to modify the colours of the pushpin icon as it has a yellow overlay to it and I have yet to work out if there is an easier way to colour placemarks exactly as I want. This will have to wait until next time.

---

Update:

OK, this last bit has been solved by someone who asked to be referred to as "my clever volcanologist friend." Basically a white pushpin needs to be called in the <style> tag like this:

<Style id="normalPlacemark">
  <IconStyle>
    <color>ffffff00</color>
    <scale>5</scale>
    <Icon>
      <href>http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pushpin/wht-pushpin.png</href>
    </Icon>
  </IconStyle>
</Style>

Multiple placemarks in Google Earth

In my current job I am producing a database of fossil occurrences from the North Atlantic deep sea record and one of the fields in the data base is latitude-longitude for each of the IODP holes included. For a while now I've been wanting to export this data to a KML file (Google Earth's HTML-like file format). At first I figured this would be easy. I created an SQL query in Access to get my data out as a comma-delimited file which I then import into R. All I need to do is create a table of unique lat-long occurrences (holes) and their names then format them in the KML-style. However, I came up against a bit of a snag.

The first part is easy. Just set the header of the file to:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2">

The footer to:

</kml>

Then each hole is entered as a Placemark using the following syntax:

  <Placemark>
    <name>Hole name</name>
    <Point>
      <coordinates>-122.0822035425683,37.42228990140251,0</coordinates>
    </Point>
  </Placemark>

Where the coordinates are longitude, latitude and altitude respectively.

Simple.

But once you import the whole file into Google Earth it only shows the first point (hole) and skips all the others. Google's own code site wasn't much use on this, and the few forum's I looked at seemed to be missing a proper answer to this problem. In the end I figured out that all that needs to be done is wrap the placemarks in a simple

<Document></Document>

tag.

Lesson learned, and shared.

(Image and original code below.)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2">
<Document>
  <Placemark><name>110_671B</name><Point><coordinates>-58.73,15.52,-1622</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>110_672A</name><Point><coordinates>-58.6,15.5,-1581</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>110_673B</name><Point><coordinates>-58.64,15.53,-1875</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>110_674A</name><Point><coordinates>-58.9,15.5,-2003</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>110_676A</name><Point><coordinates>-58.7,15.53,-1494</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>149_897A</name><Point><coordinates>-12.47,40.83,-5320</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>149_899B</name><Point><coordinates>-12.26,40.77,-5291</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>149_900A</name><Point><coordinates>-11.6,40.68,-5037</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>149_901A</name><Point><coordinates>-11.05,40.67,-4719</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>152_914A</name><Point><coordinates>-39.72,63.46,-533</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>152_919A</name><Point><coordinates>-37.46,62.67,-2088</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>157_950A</name><Point><coordinates>-25.6,31.15,-5438</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>157_951A</name><Point><coordinates>-24.87,32.03,-5437</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>157_952A</name><Point><coordinates>-24.5,30.79,-5432</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>159_959A</name><Point><coordinates>-2.73,3.62,-2091</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>159_960A</name><Point><coordinates>-2.73,3.58,-2048</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>159_961A</name><Point><coordinates>-3.05,3.44,-3292</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>159_962B</name><Point><coordinates>-3.18,3.25,-4637</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>160_966F</name><Point><coordinates>32.7,33.79,-923</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>101_627B</name><Point><coordinates>-78.29,27.63,-1026</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>160_967E</name><Point><coordinates>32.72,34.06,-2553</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>160_969B</name><Point><coordinates>24.88,33.84,-2202</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>164_994C</name><Point><coordinates>-75.54,31.78,-2799</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>165_998A</name><Point><coordinates>-82.93,19.48,-3180</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>101_628A</name><Point><coordinates>-78.3,27.5,-964</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>105_646B</name><Point><coordinates>-48.36,58.2,-3106</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>101_635B</name><Point><coordinates>-77.3,25.4,-3081</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>103_637A</name><Point><coordinates>-12.9,42.1,-1243</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>101_626C</name><Point><coordinates>-79.54,25.6,-844</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>149_898A</name><Point><coordinates>-12.12,40.68,-5279</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>103_638B</name><Point><coordinates>-12.19,42.15,-1890</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>103_639A</name><Point><coordinates>-12.24,42.14,-1829</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>103_640A</name><Point><coordinates>-12.5,42,-1363</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>103_641A</name><Point><coordinates>-12.18,42.15,-1918</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>104_642B</name><Point><coordinates>2.92,67.22,-1283</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>104_643A</name><Point><coordinates>1,67.7,-2769</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>104_644A</name><Point><coordinates>4.57,66.67,-1215</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>107_651A</name><Point><coordinates>12.8,40.2,-2974</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>107_652A</name><Point><coordinates>12.1,40.4,-3094</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>107_653A</name><Point><coordinates>11.44,40.26,-2821</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>107_654A</name><Point><coordinates>10.7,40.6,-2209</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>107_655A</name><Point><coordinates>12.46,40.17,-3234</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_657A</name><Point><coordinates>-20.94,21.33,-2332</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_658A</name><Point><coordinates>-18.58,20.74,-2264</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_659B</name><Point><coordinates>-21.02,18.07,-3073</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_660A</name><Point><coordinates>-19.24,10.01,-2221</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_661A</name><Point><coordinates>-19.38,9.44,-2541</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_662A</name><Point><coordinates>-11.73,-1.39,-2740</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_663A</name><Point><coordinates>-11.87,-1.19,-2856</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_664B</name><Point><coordinates>-23.22,0.1,-2747</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_665A</name><Point><coordinates>-19.66,2.95,-1813</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_666A</name><Point><coordinates>-20.2,3.5,-2037</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_667A</name><Point><coordinates>-21.91,4.56,-3029</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_668A</name><Point><coordinates>-20.92,4.76,-2690</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>108_668B</name><Point><coordinates>-20.9,4.8,-2693</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>174A_1071A</name><Point><coordinates>-72.72,39.38,-88</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>174A_1072A</name><Point><coordinates>-72.69,39.36,-98</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>174A_1073A</name><Point><coordinates>-72.27,39.22,-639</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>1_1</name><Point><coordinates>-92.18,25.85,-2827</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>1_2</name><Point><coordinates>-92.05,23.04,-3572</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>1_3</name><Point><coordinates>-92.04,23.03,-3747</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>1_4</name><Point><coordinates>-73.79,24.47,-5319</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>1_5</name><Point><coordinates>-73.64,24.72,-5354</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>1_6A</name><Point><coordinates>-67.64,30.83,-5124</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>1_7</name><Point><coordinates>-68.29,30.13,-5182</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_25</name><Point><coordinates>-39.24,-0.51,-1916</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_26A</name><Point><coordinates>-44.04,10.89,-5169</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_27</name><Point><coordinates>-56.87,15.85,-5251</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_28</name><Point><coordinates>-65.62,20.58,-5251</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>105_647A</name><Point><coordinates>-45.26,53.33,-2695</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>11_100</name><Point><coordinates>-73.79,24.68,-5325</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>11_101A</name><Point><coordinates>-74.43,25.19,-4868</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>13_125</name><Point><coordinates>20.42,34.62,-2782</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>14_137</name><Point><coordinates>-27.06,25.92,-5361</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>14_141</name><Point><coordinates>-23.99,19.41,-4148</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>150_905A</name><Point><coordinates>-72.28,38.61,-2698</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>151_910A</name><Point><coordinates>6.59,80.26,-556</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>151_911A</name><Point><coordinates>8.22,80.47,-902</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>152_915A</name><Point><coordinates>-39.78,63.47,-533</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>152_918A</name><Point><coordinates>-38.63,63.09,-1869</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>38_338</name><Point><coordinates>5.38,67.78,-1297</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>39_354</name><Point><coordinates>-44.19,5.89,-4045</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>41_367</name><Point><coordinates>-20.04,12.48,-4748</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>41_370</name><Point><coordinates>-10.77,32.83,-4214</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>44_390A</name><Point><coordinates>-76.11,30.14,-2665</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>47_398D</name><Point><coordinates>-10.71,40.96,-3910</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>49_407</name><Point><coordinates>-30.57,63.93,-2472</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>49_408</name><Point><coordinates>-28.91,63.37,-1624</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>49_410</name><Point><coordinates>-29.47,45.5,-2975</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>76_534A</name><Point><coordinates>-75.38,28.34,-4971</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>77_537</name><Point><coordinates>-85.46,23.93,-3123</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>77_538A</name><Point><coordinates>-85.16,23.84,-2742</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>77_540</name><Point><coordinates>-84.37,23.82,-2926</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>79_545</name><Point><coordinates>-9.36,33.66,-3142</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>79_547A</name><Point><coordinates>-9.34,33.78,-3938</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>80_548</name><Point><coordinates>-12.16,48.91,-1251</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>80_549A</name><Point><coordinates>-13.09,49.08,-2513</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>82_558</name><Point><coordinates>-37.34,37.77,-3754</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>82_563</name><Point><coordinates>-43.76,33.64,-3786</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>93_603</name><Point><coordinates>-70.02,35.49,-4633</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>93_603C</name><Point><coordinates>-70.03,35.49,-4633</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>93_605</name><Point><coordinates>-72.6,38.74,-2194</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>94_606</name><Point><coordinates>-35.49,37.33,-3007</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>94_607</name><Point><coordinates>-32.95,41,-3427</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>94_608</name><Point><coordinates>-23.08,42.83,-3526</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>94_609</name><Point><coordinates>-24.23,49.87,-3884</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>94_610</name><Point><coordinates>-18.88,53.22,-2417</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>95_612</name><Point><coordinates>-72.77,38.82,-1386</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>210_1276A</name><Point><coordinates>-44.78,45.4,-4549</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>173_1067A</name><Point><coordinates>-11.59,40.68,-5021</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>2_8A</name><Point><coordinates>-67.55,35.38,-5184</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>2_9</name><Point><coordinates>-59.19,32.77,-4973</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>2_10</name><Point><coordinates>-52.21,32.86,-4712</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>2_11</name><Point><coordinates>-44.74,29.94,-3571</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>2_12C</name><Point><coordinates>-26,19.69,-4557</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>173_1068A</name><Point><coordinates>-11.61,40.68,-5044</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>3_13</name><Point><coordinates>-18.22,6.04,-4585</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_23</name><Point><coordinates>-31.04,-6.14,-5079</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_24</name><Point><coordinates>-30.89,-6.27,-5148</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_29</name><Point><coordinates>-69.32,14.78,-4247</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_30</name><Point><coordinates>-63.38,12.88,-1218</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>4_31</name><Point><coordinates>-72.02,14.94,-3369</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>173_1069A</name><Point><coordinates>-11.77,40.72,-5075</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>101_631A</name><Point><coordinates>-75.7,23.6,-1092</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>101_632A</name><Point><coordinates>-75.4,23.8,-1997</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>101_633A</name><Point><coordinates>-75.6,23.7,-1679</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>151_908A</name><Point><coordinates>1.36,78.38,-1274</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>151_909A</name><Point><coordinates>3.07,78.58,-2519</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>151_912A</name><Point><coordinates>5.45,79.95,-1037</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>151_913A</name><Point><coordinates>6.94,75.48,-3319</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>152_916A</name><Point><coordinates>-39.8,63.48,-514</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>154_925A</name><Point><coordinates>-43.48,4.2,-3042</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>154_929E</name><Point><coordinates>-43.74,5.97,-4356</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>157_953A</name><Point><coordinates>-15.14,28.65,-3578</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
  <Placemark><name>157_954B</name><Point><coordinates>-15.53,28.43,-3485</coordinates></Point></Placemark>
</Document>
</kml>