Two Must-Reads You May Not Have Read

Whelp, Christmas is over.  We've got a bit o' breathing room before New Year's.  Time now to catch up on some of that great stuff you put off.

Brian Switek's got 6 Strange Fossils That Enlightened Evolutionary Scientists.  It's Brian, so I don't have to tell you how awesome it is.  Just get yer arse over there and read it if you haven't already.

And Bora's got an epic-length (by blogging standards) exploration of science and journalism that will probably tell you quite a lot you didn't already know.  And you'll be surprised by just how much the 19th and 21st Centuries have in common:

Apart from technology (software instead of talking/handwriting/printing), speed (microseconds instead of days and weeks by stagecoach, railroad or Pony Express, see image above) and the number of people reached (potentially - but rarely - millions simultaneously instead of one person or small group at a time), blogging, social networking and other forms of online writing are nothing new – this is how people have always communicated. Like Montaigne. And the Republic of Letters in the 18th century. And Charles Darwin in the 19th century.

The whole thing's well worth your time.  So I won't detain you here any longer.  Go.  Read.  Enlighten!