Take a look at The Scientist for a nice video of lizard "wheelies" and some text explaining possible rationalisations for it.

Leading explanation seems to be torque based:

"There's this one acceleration where once the lizard hits it, it really has no choice but to go bipedal because the torque starts to move its head up" - Christofer Clemente

Previously it was thought the lizard might be going faster because of running on two legs. Now it's a case of the lizard running on two legs because its going faster.

But it's not so simple, and the mystery is not yet solved. Lizards appear to have some control over
their wheelie pops. Usually electing to go up before hitting the threshold estimated to physically force them up. Also it may still be an advantage as far as speed over rugged terrain.

Clemente also mentions visibility - though I'm not sure how this is a survival trait. Unless it's meant it a feline-like defensive sense, that the lizard is making itself look bigger and meaner (while it runs away?).

One thing I don't see mentioned is climbing. Goannas, and I'm guessing other lizards, often dart off to the nearest tree when running for cover. One book I have warns that undiscerning lizards can confuse standing persons for trees, leading to a not-nice scenario for man and beast. Could bipedalism give some sort of boost to jumping up a tree?

Por Lucas.

Antes de South Park ser a série tão conhecida quanto é hoje, no Brasil, era só um desenho estranho, aparentemente infantil, exibido quase que às escondidas no hoje extinto e na época obscuro canal Locomotion. Eu tinha uns dez ou onze anos na época em que vi uma vinheta do desenho pela primeira vez, provavelmente no intervalo de Evangelion ou coisa que o valha; ela continha uma fala curta do Stan, a qual começava com a exclamação "Porra!". Não me lembro do resto da fala, mas lembro-me perfeitamente do meu estado estupefato - era impossível crer que aquela palavra havia sido proferida sem censura na tv, e pior, por um personagem de desenho animado!

Tudo o que eu entendia por desenho animado caiu por terra naquele momento. Só sabia de uma coisa: que eu TINHA que assistir a um episódio, de qualquer maneira! Quando consegui (alguns anos depois), virei fã. Caaaara, como aquilo era engraçado... o "Porra!" de Stan não era nem a ponta do iceberg perto de tudo o que ouvi. Um desenho que começava com um narrador falando "O show apresenta linguagem grosseira e não deve ser assistido por ninguém" não podia ser normal.

Depois de um tempo, minha família resolveu mudar de operadora de cabo...adeus Locomotion e adeus South Park. Guardei uns episódios em VHS ainda, mas não podia acompanhar as novas temporadas, nem ficar acordado até tarde e colocar o volume baixinho pra ninguém ouvir... o meu consolo era que SP também passava num tal de Multishow; fui assistir, óbvio, mas fiquei um tanto decepcionado, pois os episódios eram legendados. Não que eu não gostasse de legendas ou algo do tipo, mas as expressões lidas não tinham nem de longe o mesmo impacto...

Apesar da dublagem original ser mais bem feita e caprichada, acho a dublagem em português, se não melhor, tão boa quanto, por vários motivos. Entre eles o principal, que citei no parágrafo acima.
Se você comparar, as vozes das duas versões estão parecidíssimas (ambas são feias, mas combinam): Cartman, por exemplo, tem aquele mesmo jeitão "rasgado" de falar; o Sr. Garrison ficou IGUAL ao original...

E os palavrões ainda foram adaptados conforme as típicas formas (ai...) brasileiras de insultar ("Puta que pariu!", ou "Vai tomar no cu!"). Isso trouxe à série momentos antológicos, como quando os meninos se recusaram a subir no ônibus escolar ("Não vamos subir, sua puta xexelenta!"), quando Kenny bebe gasolina ("Tá vendo, Stan? Esse sim é um grande filho da puta!"), ou quando Cartman canta "Kyle's mom is a bitch" no episódio de natal. Bah, como eu chorei de dar risada. :~

Não que esse seja o único motivo que me faz gostar da série, mas é o principal motivo que me faz gostar da dublagem.
Excluíndo, é claro, a dublagem do filme, que pelamordedeus... se tivessem aproveitado os mesmos atores da Loco, teria sido ótima. ._.'

A maioria do pessoal torce o nariz pra essa dublagem, mas eu gosto bastante. Tô colecionando os episódios em rmvb, que dá pra achar fácil por aí. =D E ah! Essa versão passa atualmente no canal VH1 (a não ser que tenham tirado da programação e eu não esteja sabendo) - pra quem assina o canal, vale conferir (porque rmvb é podre x.x).

The two authors, Patricia Kramer and Adam Sylvester, are well versed in the origin of hominid bipedalism and locomotor energetics. In this new paper they test the hypothesis that shuffling emerged as a precursor to walking as a way of saving metabolic energy.

They developed a mathematical model that calculated the energetics and metabolic efficiencies of locomition based upon body plan. For a chimp to bipedally move about distances greater than about 50 feet, it was found that it would not be metabolically efficient. But it shuffling distances less than 30 feet was for the chimp. They used the chimp model because they say that a chimp's body plan is very much like that of our last common shared ancestor.

This conclusion is in line with three posts I shared last year on the energetics of bipedalism, especially the latter two where I tackled a common question asked by people, "If upright walking is so energetically favorable, why do apes still “knuckle-walk”?" and "Chimpanzees Gait Energetics & The Origin of Human Bipedalism."

Sylvester, A.D., Kramer, P.A. (2008). Stand and shuffle: When does it make energetic sense?. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 135(4), 484-488. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20752

Then Monday came, and I actually had an audition to join Wheel of Fortune. My fiancee had recently joined this and won around 160k Php, and I was lucky enough to have been called to try. So I was there at around 830am lined up along with a hundred plus other hopefuls. While I was minding my own business reading my book, some girl came up to me and asked me to come with her to the studio. Apparently, she wanted me to be part of a morning show, so I said why not right? I ended up in the front row, doing really insane exercise routines to the tune of the "Locomotion." That was just really embarrassing and it didn't help that some friends saw the show live and started texting me about it. Pffft.

Good news was that, I passed the written test (which was actually pretty hard) and the oral test, so I will be back next Monday for the trial game to determine if I will be part of the actual screening for the real show :)

And lastly, I got a really great job offer from a very well known IT company in the country. It's been driving me nuts because I love what I'm doing now, but I'm being driven to take the offer because it would be idiotic for me to say no. Still confused and have absolutely no idea what to do.

And that rounds up a very trying, happy, fortunate, embarrassing, wet, confusing, and thankful week for me. Can't wait to see what the week ahead brings :)

Forma parte de la comunidad Locomotion!!

http://thelocomotion.wordpress.com

Eh aqui mi promocional del blog para este invierno, espero q les este gustando como va Relectromo =) comenten q opinan. seeya.

Based in the old Boston & Maine freight yard, the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, in  Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, is a non-profit educational organization that has restored one of the original trolley’s, Trolley No. 10, originally used to transport passengers, apples, mail, milk and other freight. (Photo (c) SFTM)

With a “ding-ding” of the bell, Sam Bartlett ratchets up the electric power on car Number Ten. The hundred and eleven year old wooden trolley responds and pulls away from the station at Salmon Falls. Sam is a motorman and wears several other hats at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, a stone’s throw from the glacial potholes and Historic Bridge of Flowers, a former trolley bridge that connected Shelburne Falls with Colrain.

After it’s heyday of carting back and forth, the trolley was retired and spent sixty-five years as a chicken coop. That's until a team of volunteers and train enthusiasts step in and transformed both train and station into a viable museum that explores both the mechanics of trains and history of the railroad.

Today, volunteers at the museum provide rides on the trolley and other historic railroad equipment, guide interpretive tours, repair the railroad tracks and are in the process of restoring many of the historic buildings in the former Boston and Main railroad yard. If your family has an interest in discovering more about both our local history and locomotive workings, parents and age appropriate children might like to discover volunteer opportunities at the museum. As the museum gears up for the spring operating season and opening day in May, they are on the lookout for fresh recruits interested in restoring and carrying on the traditions of the trolley car era.

On Saturday, April 19th, starting at 10:30 AM, the Museum will host an orientation and training day for members. New members and those interested in volunteering are welcome to attend and learn more about the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum.

“There are opportunities for almost every interest in railroads and history here at the museum”, says Bartlett. There are also volunteers working in restoration programs of various railroad equipment and structures, including a Saddle Tank Steam locomotive and caboose. “We have had a number of volunteers who just wanted to learn about the railroad tracks and repairing them” adds Bartlett. Most of the museum’s rail infrastructure dates back to the twenties and thirties, and the museum has an extensive collection of historic rail road equipment which is still used to repair the track. This includes a hundred year old “pump car” which also rolls out on the weekends for visitor rides.

Last year, the Shelburne Falls Trolley museum was one of the few area attractions to report increased attendance, with visitors from around the United States. It is ideally positioned adjacent to the scenic town of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. In fact, the museum and town have important historical ties, since Trolley Number 10 is the original Trolley which ran across the Bridge of Flowers. The Bridge became a flower bridge after the trolley closed in the late twenties.

For more information about joining this exciting museum as a volunteer, log onto www.sftm.org or call the museum at 413-625-9443.

LINKS RECOMMENDED BY THE Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum:

RAIL-RELATED

• Dave's Electric Railroads Historical trolley photos from Massachusetts and beyond.
• Amherst Railway Society Local Rail Enthusiasts organization with monthly talks, sponsor of the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show, and generous supporter of SFTM.
• Railway Preservation News
• NERAIL A northeast railfan list that deals with yankee train issues.
• NE Rail (New England Railroading email list) photos of Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum. Use of the NERail photos must comply with their use policy.
• Trainriders Northeast Evangelist wing of the steel wheel travelers.
• National Trust for Historic Preservation Never saw anything old that they didn't want to save.
• Alfred Barten's Local Trolley and Rail History pages Conway (MA) Electric Street Railway history and more Shelburne Falls and Colrain Street Railway details.
• Vermont Rail Systems - Parents of Vermont Railway, Green Mountain Railroad, Clarendon and Pittsford Railroad, Washington County Railroad, host to Amtrak's Vermont services and donor of one of No. 10's headlights along with other artifacts and assistance.
• Pan Am Railways Our rail neighbor's page, used to be Guilford Rail Systems, Springfield Terminal, Boston & Maine Railroad, Fitchburg Railroad, Troy & Greenfield Railroad.
• Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts Railfan trips in the Northeast, and more.
• Fallen Flags and Other Railroad Photos Lots of pictures, manuals, and more.
• Railway Technology A links page to many of the real rail world sites.
• Walker Transportation Collection A treasure trove of New England Transportation historical material, located at Beverly Historical Society's site for now.
• RailNutterNews A web based periodical of rail news, features museums and visits to other rail-based operations.
• Trains Magazine A nationwide monthly railroad news magazine. The February 2000 issue had a James Shaughnessy article on our Trolleyfest in 1999.
• FUNARO & CAMERLENGO Makes an HO model kit of our CV caboose.
• Berkshire Gas and Steam Engine Assoc.
• Gary Lapointe's site of stations, freight houses etc. in Massachusetts, with pictures of many.
• Berkshire Hills Route trains of yesterday and today from B&M,B&A, NH, MEC, NYC, PC, D&H and much more.
• Berkshire Hills Route Forum
• Hoosac Tunnel site by Jerry Kelley. A great comprehensive site on the construction of this nearby railroad tunnel.
• Hoosac Tunnel site by Marc Howes. Another great comprehensive site on the history of this famouns tunnel.
• Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington RR A nearly seamless photo tour of the old Hoot Toot &Whistle as seen today.
• Keystone Arches The group that is working to preserve and display the huge stone arches built on the Boston and Albany RR.
• Chester Station All about the preserved Boston and Albany/ CSX Chester Station. Also learn about Chester on Track each May.
• TrainTraveling.com International passenger rail guide.
• Indian Valley Locomotive Works, Authentic publications, faithful reproductions sounds of the railroads, books and CD's from the turn of the last century.
• South River Modelworks Since 1990, SRM has produced museum quality HO Scale Structure kits that everyone from the contest winning model builder to the motivated beginner can enjoy.

MUSEUM LINKS

• The Appleton Trolley Museum, Appleton, WI. Ride restored Milwaukee streetcar #846 and CTA PCC #28."
• Connecticut Trolley Museum Hidden in the Central Connecticut wooded countryside, a jewel of a trolley museum resides 14 miles south of Springfield MA and 14 miles north of Hartford CT
• The Charlotte Trolley Museum, Charlotte, NC
• The Steveston Interurban Restoration Society is restoring a 1912 St. Louis Car Co. car BCER 1220. It ran from 1913 to 1958 as part of the British Columbia Electric Railway.(Canada).
• Central Electric Railfans'Association A railfans' group and our interest is in electric transport--from streetcars (light rail), to rapid transit, tomainline electrification. Includes an extensive listing of trolley museums.
• Visit MuseumLand, The WorldWide Portal to museums and cultural heritage.

Sólo 13 capítulos dura esta serie sobre las conquistas de Alejandro Magno. Sin lugar a dudas mi serie animada favorita de todos los tiempos (hasta que se estrenó "El Conde de Montecristo"). Su título original (en inglés): "Reign, The Conqueror". En Latinoamérica se transmitió por Lomotion (Hoy: Animax). Ahora está disponible en DVD.

En sólo una palabra... magnánima!

However, this is exactly where the evidence leads.

Overall, I don't expect that the entire anthropology community will suddenly abandon everything that has been taught for decades. However, my point is the following:

1. We see the spine anatomy of a hindlimb supported upright ape in Morotopithecus, Pierolapithecus, Oreopithecus. The data is compelling and extensive - and I have detailed it in technical raw data form in my book: Axial Character Seriation in Mammals, which republishes my Harvard PhD Thesis. The underlying patterns are extracted and synthesized in my recent PLoS ONE paper "Homeotic Evolution of the Mammals, Diversification of Therian Axial Seriation and a Morphogenetic Basis for Human Origins" and in my Neurosurgical Focus article. The context in evolutionary theory is explained in my recent book "The Upright Ape: A New Origin of the Species" which has a foreword by David Pilbeam - currently Dean of Harvard College and certainly one the most knowledgeable and experienced paleoanthropologists in the world.
2. We have evidence of an upright hindlimb supported Orrorin based on the femur and Sahelanthropus based on the skull.
3. There is no convincing fossil evidence at all of a non-bipdeal hominoid outside of the proconsulid group.
4. We have an early outgroup whose infants have innate bipedal walking (see the video Hominiform Progression). The Siamang video is interesting because of the innate bipedalism. As I point out in the video, John Fleagle has seen young siamangs of this age walk bipedally high in the canopy in Malaysia.

It is typical to say that all of this is irrelevant and misleading and should be ignored. There was a quadrupedal common ancestor for chimps and humans and the human lineage suddenly and majestically stood up about 5-6 million years ago. However, I feel that there is no a priori reason why we must ignore all of the evidence for early bipedalism.
None of the skeletal evidence can ultimately distinguish between "short bursts" and long distance bipedalism as Kambiz points out in his post. My focus is on the character state and whether the crucial anatomical basis is a shared derived feature of a hominiform clade.

It can certainly be said that the siamangs only engage in bipedalism for short bursts, but that is also true of their brachiation. Similarly, the chimps and gorillas knuckle walk and the orangutans fist walk only in short bursts. However, the important point is that chimps, gorillas and orangutans seem to locomote in diagonal posture more than 90% of the time and only occasionally deploy a short burst of bipedal walking. I would argue that they have very bad spinal architecture for bipedal walking. On the other hand, hylobatids use bipedalism 100% of the time when they locomote on the ground no matter how long the burst of activity. If a hylobatid has to travel a long distance on the ground - it does not lapse into a quadurpedal gait - it just keeps walking bipedally. There is an important difference in the role of bipedalism as deployed by hylobatids and hominines as opposed to what we see in chimps, gorillas and orangutans.

This would be a morphogenetic origin for upright bipedal walking rather than an adaptive origin. Essentially, the origin of upright posture was not driven by any ecological scenario, but rather occurred suddenly as a result of a morphogenetic mutation in the Pax genes. Various descendant forms will have lived in various environments with variously optimized versions of primary upright bipedalism on large horizontal arboreal supports and on the ground.

It is certainly easier to assert that Morotopithecus was upright and hindlimb supported - based on spinal anatomy - than to prove it was primarily bipedal or a long distance walker. However, this is where the video showing the baby siamang learning to walk bipedally is relevant. Yes, you could argue that innate bipedalism evolved independently in parallel in hylobatids and hominines, but is also reasonable to consider that since this is so unusual, that it reflects descent from a common ancestor that had this feature. Essentially - an eight month old Morotopithecus baby would do the same thing that we see in the two descendant groups (hominines and hylobatids) - the baby would innately begin to walk bipedally as it's primary locomotor pattern.

So - if the chimp-human split did take place 6 million years ago (as the molecular data suggests), then what do we do with Sahelanthropus which many believe was a full time upright biped but which lived 7 million years ago?

If you want a slow gradual evolution of bipedalism, you need to push the chimp human split back to say 8 million years. However, there is an alternative explanation. Upright bipedalism was already the primary means of locomotion in the common ancestor of chimps and humans - Sahelanthropus is ancestral to both lines.

What defines a "human?" I have taken the position that it is a body plan (bauplan). Most of us have accepted that early Australopithecines whose brains and skulls were chimp-like, should be considered human and not ape. When you find a fossil such as Sahelanthropus that has a "chimp-like" skull from the point of view of its face and brain, but has the skull base of a human (and presumably upright bipedal post-cranial anatomy) - how can you tell from the fossil if it's an ape or a human?

The Hennigian cladistic approach lets us say that the isolation point between the chimp and human lineages - where hybridization became impossible - is the origin point of humans. However this means that the definition is arbitrary since ape and human would pretty much look identical at that time.

Another alternative is to stick with our current definition - a hominoid whose anatomy reveals that it is primarily an upright biped is a human. I have proposed the term "hominiform" to refer to a clade of hominoids that share the Morotopithecus spinal transformation (septo-neural transposition - in which the dorso-ventral plane of the body flips from ventral to the spinal canal to a new position dorsal to the spinal canal) and the styloid process is converted into a neomorphic hominiform lumbar transverse process. The synapomorphies would include innate bipedal walking in the infants.

Among hominiforms we have primitive "eubipedal" types (most Miocene and Pliocene fossil hominiforms, the hylobatids and the hominines) and derived "metabipedal" types (lineages of chimps, gorillas and orangutans) that have abandoned bipedalism as their primary locomotor pattern on the ground.

Sahelanthropus appears to be a human species that is representative of species in the line of ancestry to both the chimpanzees and hominines.

Aaron Filler, MD, PhD

Umm, we've lost it, haven't we? I'm sitting here thinking, is it even fathomable for mature adults to charge kids with serious crimes, like, um, hate crimes? This 3 day hate crime suspension of a 9 year old for using the words "brown people" is cuckoo. Period. End of story.

 

Lonnie Collins Motion faces a life where his parents died in a fire when he was seven.  Lonnie expresses his feelings with poetry.  You can read his poems from start to finish.  I recommend this book because this is all poetry.  People who love poetry are at home with this book.  Also, you can see a different life through Lonnie - a life of a foster mom, school, and no parents.

Katelyn

Cool Mc Cool, otro de mis buenos recuerdos de Locomotion (ahh como lo extraño). A continuación el intro de la serie en español de latinoamerica.

presenta...

EVANGELION

"Mientras Dios se quede en su cielo. Todo en la Tierra estará bien"

Sigo dolido por Loco, lastima e insisto, lastima, pero que podemos hacer. Shin Seiki Evangelion solia ser transmitido por este canal, de hecho yo conoci la serie gracias a Locomotion (por lo que siempre le estaré agradecido), aquí les pongo uno de los comerciales que solian dar por este canal.

¿En quién tienes Fe?

De los mejores canales que he conocido, lastima que se acabara era tan interesante, pero bueno, ahi llego Animax pero no se le compara :cry:

Aquí un video que nos recordará nuestra niñez al lado de este tan amado canal.

With an Arrrrhhhhhhh!!! from my mom, everything started, and everything went to hell. She was in screaming agony. She sat down on the sofa and for the next half hour as I sat there, she was in pain, and then not and back to pain again. I was of course very worried because my mother has an extremely high threshold for pain, and does not usually actually scream in pain.

I called the local doctors surgery to see about getting her in. I explained that my mother was screaming in agony and she needed to see someone right now! The absolute incompetence of our local doctor's surgery followed with orchestrated precision. They were unwilling and unable to change from the programmed response. They said that she would not be able to see a doctor until 4PM. By this time I was getting irritated and told them that was simply not good enough, she needed to see a doctor immediately, and would not be able to make it to the surgery under her own locomotion. As expected, I was placed on hold while “she checked” with the doctor on call. She came back and told me that she was unable to get us in before more than an hours time had passed. I told her that an hour was too long, and asked her for the phone number for our local Hospital, I did not think it necessary to call the emergency number. She gave me a number that was incorrect, outdated. With another scream from my mother I made the decision to call 999 and ask for an ambulance.

The ambulance arrived about 20 minutes later with two very pleasant paramedics/EMTs. They talked to her and determined after taking blood pressure and talking about medical history, that it was necessary to take her to the hospital Accident and Emergency Room. When we got there the usual waiting game started and she was finally seen by an emergency room doctor, about an hour later. He said it was nothing serious, and offered her a pain killer that contained Codine. My mother is violently allergic to Codiene, and when informed of this the doctor was unable to offer an alternative other than paracetemol, which is of course not a strong enough drug for agony. She arrived back in the waiting room less than 5 minutes after she had gone in and is still in similar pain now that we are home. I hope this clears up soon.

We had to get a taxi home which started another game when the Taxi driver told us that he had absolutely no idea how much it should cost, and that he thought it would be around 10 pounds, He radioed to his dispatch, and was unable to raise them without incredible interference on the channel. He had a mobile phone in the car and never once considered using it to call his dispatch. We told him we thought it would be around 5 pounds and I actually ended up calling the taxi agency and asking them myself! They informed me it was 4.50 and I told the driver. He was visibly irritated that he was unable to swindle us. So we got home for 4.50.

An incredibly stressful and non-productive morning.

You can never tell what life if going to throw you at you, can you? I will add that I plan to contact the doctor’s surgery and launch an official complaint. I am pleased with the diagnosis of "not serious" anything not serious means we can breathe a little easier, well I can, it still hurts for my mom to take a deep breath. I am hopeful that she will be better in the next couple of days, and I am grateful for the neighbours who have come and asked if I need anything and if my mom is alright. Knowing people care, really helps.