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	<title>Ocellated &#187; Books</title>
	<link>http://www.ocellated.com</link>
	<description>A blog on nature, science, religion, and just about anything else I want to post on</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:06:33 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Etymology of the Word Avocado</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Several years ago while rambling along the potholed roads of Mexico, my compradres and I began a discussion on the etymology of the word avocado. We all thought that it sounded Spanish but knew it wasn’t since the Spanish word for avocado is not avocado.
I’ve been reading a wonderful book lately that my sister gave [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ocellated.com/2006/09/08/etymology-of-the-word-avocado/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Finding Darwin&#8217;s God &#8212; Review</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Purchase at Amazon

Just before I came back from thesis work, I finished up Finding Darwin&#8217;s God, by Ken Miller. Miller is a biochemist at Brown University who&#8217;s coauthored the Prentice Hall biology textbook used by roughly a third of U.S. high school and college students. He&#8217;s also a tireless defender of science education and widely [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ocellated.com/2006/07/18/finding-darwins-god-review/</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Song of the Dodo Review</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
It’s not my voice, it’s probably not yours, but it makes itself heard in the arenas of public opinion, querulous and smug and fortified by just a little knowledge, which is always a dangerous thing. So what if a bunch of species go extinct? it says. Extinction is a natural process. Darwin himself said so, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ocellated.com/2006/06/17/song-of-the-dodo-review/</link>
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		<title>Song of the Dodo &#8212; Vivid Writing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I mentioned that I was reading The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen and how impressed I was with his writing.
It&#8217;s unbelievable. I could spend all day sitting in front of a computer and not write one page as well crafted as this entire 600 page book.
I&#8217;ve [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ocellated.com/2006/06/03/song-of-the-dodo-vivid-writing/</link>
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		<title>Komodo Dragons Evolved To Eat Pygmy Elephants</title>
		<description><![CDATA[


I&#8217;m reading The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen. It&#8217;s an excellent book.
In what I&#8217;m reading now, Quammen spends some time discussing dwarfism and gigantism and the factors that cause it. (It&#8217;s complex, I won&#8217;t try to recap). In one of the most fascinating things I&#8217;ve come [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ocellated.com/2006/05/29/komodo-dragons-evolved-to-eat-pygmy-elephants/</link>
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		<title>We Took Possession According To Our Customs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[On Monday nights, a group of biology graduate students and professors have gathered to discuss a book. It happens to be my all-time favorite book, one that I&#8217;ve already read. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, is an ambitious attempt to explain the why the world came to be as it is. That is, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ocellated.com/2006/02/20/we-took-possession-according-to-our-customs/</link>
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