links for 2007-01-30

• The Catholic Church vs Gay Adoptees row continues The Catholic church is planning to refuse to allow gay couples to adopt children. They argue that people should have the right to discriminate against whoever they choose for whatever reason, so long at that reason is a matter of conscious. There is an ob (tags: philosophymoralityreligionethics)

• The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map: Kokino Calendar A Balkan calendar that I’d not heard of. I’ll have a look to see what there is about it when I get the time. (tags: archaeologyprehistoricastronomybalkans)

• A Don’s Life – WBLG: No sex please, we’re drunk: rape ancient and modern One where I respectfully disagree with Prof. Beard. If a woman is paralytic she clearly isn’t in a state to give consent, so conceptually I’d say the government is right. The (legal) problem here is how drunk is too drunk? I think she’s absolutely right w (tags: ancient+historyphilosophyethics)

• remote central: Mars’ Missing Atmosphere May Just Be Hiding An interesting article suggesting that there could be Total Recall effect waiting on Mars. It becomes even more exciting when you read the next article on Martian water. Add the human talent for accidentally changing ecosystems and Mars could be potential (tags: astronomyphysicsclimatemarsgeologycatastrophes)

• Adobe to Release PDF for Industry Standardization at Past Thinking Tom Goskar links through to a story that PDF is to become an open standard. I thought this had already happened, but it seems not. It is an important move and would make PDFs extremely good for archiving documents. (tags: heritagearchivingopen+access)

• Archaeology is a brand! A new book from Cornelius Holtorf. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for a cartoon which captures archaeology perfectly. (tags: archaeologytheoryhumour)

• Early Modern Notes » Getting the word out Sharon Howard on the visibility of theses. Another idea worth bearing in mind. (tags: academiaopen+access)

• Encephalon #15: Neuroscience Blog Carnival I’m not sure I could exactly tell you what neuroscience is. Nonetheless this is a collection of neuroscience links from the past fortnight. I’ll probably link to more of the linked articles as I work through it. (tags: neuroscienceblog+carnival)

• FSU anthropologist confirms ‘Hobbit’ indeed a separate species This one’s going to run and run. There’s a new season of digging underway, so there’ll be more evidence to argue about soon. (tags: archaeologypalaeolithicevolutionhobbits)

• Religious Space and Construction of Ancient Greek Civic Communities [PDF] Haven’t read this yet, but it looks like exactly the sort of thing I should be reading. (tags: ancient+historyarchaeologygreek+historyreligion)