The Penguin

Hello, patient readers. I've blogged about Raptors before, specifically Deinonychus and the problems of depicting dinosaurs in general. In an earlier post, I was wrestling with the then newly-popular preponderance of plumage on our favorite Terrible Lizards, and while I finally conceded that Deinonychus and Co. were probably fully feathered, I whined and hemmed about the amount of feathers and griped about how dinosaur lineages with no evidence for feathers at all were now being given fabulous coats. In the midst of this, I decried the new crop of bad paleo-art, using this image as my piéce de resistance: Credit: Luis V. Rey, from his blog . Essentially my big scientific argument ran along the lines of, "Looks dumb, therefore wrong". It seems now that I might have to eat that argument, slathered in Nelson Muntz' Gourmet Ha-Ha Sauce ...with one important caveat, which I'll get to later. Since writing that blog post - in fact, several years later - I'...

From time to time I might be blogging on various art movements I like. I have to warn you, of course, that I am by no means an expert on the subject - most of it will just be my own thoughts and musings on the subject. Hopefully it'll be an interesting read. One of my favorite art movements is the amalgamation known as "Art Deco". Art Deco wasn't a discreet art movement in and of itself; the term (as usually used) encompasses a number of art movements and styles, including Constructivism, Cubism, Neoclassicalism, Futurism, and Art Nouveau. Its most famous applications, of course, were in architecture and industrial design. Russian Constructivism. Polish art exhibition poster. Everyone has seen examples of Art Deco design, even if they don't know it - the Chrystler and Empire State buildings in New York City are perhaps the largest examples. These two buildings are typified by their soaring vertical lines and complex peaks: the Empire State Building seems to flow d...