Amanda’s Random Rantings

Here is what I see: After rising substantially from 1986 to 2000, income inequality is essentially the same in 2004 (the most recent year of data) as it was in 2000.

Right now Luis is very busy doing the artwork for a major new book on dinosaurs written by Tom Holtz. Judging from the art I’ve seen, it will be spectacular and one of the most attractive dinosaur books ever. Several plates depict a taxonomic panoply of a particular group, and we also have the first accurate life restoration of the bizarre Lurdusaurus, as well as new restorations of Dilong, Guanlong, Scutellosaurus and so many others. What caught my imagination in particular were his restorations of the amazing diversity of recently named oviraptorosaurs (a black-and-white version depicting this diversity has been published before (Gee & Rey 2003), but it did not include as many taxa). In fact there are now so many members of this group that it is proving difficult to keep up, and difficult to keep track of what is what, especially given that several specimens have been incorrectly allocated to a genus and later re-allocated or re-named. In fact several discoveries relevant to this area have appeared in recent months and I’ve only just done reading them, so now is a good time to review it.

So why is Amr Moussa holding a press conference in the Grand Serail today (right now actually) when he said outright that he will not disclose any specific information or points on the outcome of the negotiations? All he is saying is that there is progress (takaddoum). That’s it!