This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (75 messages)
Ah, since you put it that way, I think I get it. More or less. I just hope my new GPS machine comes with a good reference manual! (well, I only need to be accurate to a meter or two in any direction anyway….) Cheers, GTL Greg Laden Dept. of…
Hi I did read your posts, and I think I'm getting most of your "points", especially this bit about the earth not being round (but not flat, either, I hasten to add!). Anyway, this still does not explain what appears to be wierdness in the original statement. It seems to…
Rick My feeling at this time is that those who still maintain bone-based phylogenies in the face of molecular data are not numerous and are clearly not in a position to gain much respect from the rest of the field. On the other hand, it is also becomming clear that…
This killie kit sounds interesting. If you want to dry the tank up and breed them, I think you may need to have peat on the botom of the tank where the fish can lay their eggs. Also, once you re-hydrate the tank (after a drying period of some time,…
>> In any case, I love a good uproar between biology and anthropology. Myself believeing that biology is a "harder" science. (no flames please)
>> That's my understanding as well. The distance between A and B isn't a _factor_ in GPS measuring. It's a _result_ of it. Figure the position of A, figure the position of B, then calculate the distance between 'em. Your calculated figure will differ from the actual figure obtained by…
#167021-
DNA & Stonehnge builders
Message #167078
I'm sure there's enough DNA in some ancient humans, if it was found in Jurrasic Weavils! Cheers, GTL
#166975-
birds, reproduction
Message #167077
>> Ah! that explains why amongst birds the males are the attractive sex. Its not the sex its just that XX's are more attractive than XY's.
#166974-
DNA & Stonehnge builders
Message #167076
>> Greg, is that the book favorably reviewed in a recent "Scientific American"?
>> I _think_ (but am not at all sure) that they mean if you start at point A and head for point B 96km away, and navigate only by a GPS system, you will wind up at point B with a maximum error of 1mm plus or minus.
>> I wonder what the RPI folks really tried to tell the reporter?
>> According to the article, the GPS technology being used will yield an accuracy of 1 millimeter in 60 miles.
Help!!! Any Geologist
Message #164833
Have you read "The Tommyknockers"? A book all contractors who work below ground should read and loose sleep over!
>> What I would love to see are paleo-maps say 18,000 to 12,000 years ago that reflect the extant sea level and exposed lands. For the Puget Sound, let's say, I have to take my marine maps and color in the areas presently 20 fathoms or less. Then again, I…
#16098-
New Creationism Uploads
Message #16123
>> Good post. There's just one thing I'd like to add: what about predator traps like the La Brea Tar Pits? Hundreds and hundreds of skeletons, both total and partial, all well preserved by the tar. La Brea is one of the finest sites ever found for Recent mammals and…
One of the standards is Surfer, a DOS environment program that I think was recently ported to Windows as well. There is also something for the mac called "Topo" or something along those lines. Surfer is not cheap, but may be you can find someone who has it and try…
Very interesting points! There was a trend in sumerian religion from polytheism to monotheism, in the sense that they went from a bunch of roughly equivilant gods to having a pair of god-like folk (one male and one female) to just the male god. This corresponded with the increased emphasis…
>> Good point. In fact, some archaeologists seem to think this is exactly what happened in the region of ancient Sumeria circa about six thousand years ago. There's geological evidence of a massive flood in that area at that time. We also have a copy of a Sumerian flood legend…
>> The commonness of flood myths is intriguing, but before any theory claims them as evidence, there must be something that links them to rule out obvious contenders. Any given location will have a "normal" major disaster sooner or later – perhaps the myths come from multiple "normal" disasters not…
Pinatubo was apparently the largest amount of ejecta this century, according to a very recent CNN report. Apparently there is another volcano in the area that they are watching closely…. Cheers, GTL
Good point, Doug. And it seems to me that most sequences are underlain by either granite (not from volcanos) or basalt (from valconos). I remember that article, but I can't lay my hands on it right now. But these shields are very huge, like bigger than Rhode Island but smaller…
Scott: I am not an authority on Vocanos, and I eagerly await someone who is coming up with answers to some of your interesting questions. But I can interject some irrelevent factoids and questions anyway … >> 1) What is the larges volcano in the last 10,000 years or so-where,when…
What, you never heard of Adacia National Park? One of the lesser known vacation spots in Maine! Thanks for correcting the error. Cheers, GTL
Hi Different Maine islands probably have somewhat different origins. The entire area was actually quite flat in the Miocene, and I don't think that they were part of the chain of mountains resulting from continental drift that was described, although some of the terrain may be affected by this. What…
>> Although the reaction of your party host is much more spectacular when you put the acid on the marble coffee table.
Sounds like a good explanation. All I'm sure of is that if you put acid on limestone, you can see and hear the fizz very clearly, but if you put acid on your marble coffee table, you can still get a fizz but it is a lot less specacular! Of…
>> Doug, Isn't marble just limestone subjected to pressure and heat? So unless there's much chemical change, it should be dissolved by the same acidity that dissolves limestone in Karst terrain. ? Anne
Good point. Slump is the proper technical term, I think. Michael: Do you have a hill? – Greg Laden, Written 14-Oct-1994 @ 10:18:31 Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.25
Others have given good info to you, but I'd like to suggest a second possibility. If you have a 4 foot deep hole and don't see any rock, then you must have a lot of sediment on top. If this is a dissolution cavety in the country rock, then you…
The first steps of fossilization probably often happen very quickly, or the bone would just rot away (exceptions occur in certain oxygen free environments, etc). After that, continued mineralization may continue for a very long time, thousands or millions of years. Sounds like you've got an interesting fossil. You ought…
As Doug has pointed out, your son may have access to the Internet on his University Account. If so, he should look into using "Gopher" which is a way of getting at all sorts of inforamation, and somewhere out there, there may be what he is looking for. If he…
>> If the granitic gravel shows no polishing, how about any quartz grains at the surface of the granite (or whatever)? Maybe the surface is just younger – I am guessing that as they weather, granite pebbles will be continually losing faster-weathering mineral grains and thus losing their whole surface…
>> I think you are saying that only quartz is well-polished in these gravels? I wonder what makes quartz (or any other mineral) more capable of a fine polish than another mineral. What is a polish anyway? I have a very vague memory it involves a melting of a very…
>> Want a box of gravel?
Kamron I've had a chance to look at the samples under various powers of Optical Light Microscopy (OLM), but I probably won't get to look at them under SEM. (I don't happen to have one in my lab, but maybe we'll run one or two later in the semester if…
Got the samples, and will be looking them over during the next day or two. GTL – Greg Laden, Written 13-Sep-1994 @ 16:24:42 Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.25
Looking forward to getting them! GTL – Greg Laden, Written 12-Sep-1994 @ 11:00:24 Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.25
>> You want a sample? Email address and I'll mail you a couple of low g gravel but you can find it anywhere in a gravel bed. Pick some small pieces from within the bed. Grab a bit of the sand also, some of the sand is rounded and glass…
>> On my gravel samples the surface has a texture easily seen at even 20x. The surface is one that has cooled and slightly shrunk.
>> No there aren't scratches.
I recommend the following source: Thomas, David, and Paul Shaw. 1991 The Kalahari Environment. Cambridge University Press Cheers, GTL – Greg Laden, Written 08-Sep-1994 @ 10:40:58 Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.25
#Geologic Time Table
Message #144915
– Reply to message #144215 (already scrolled) >> So when I find a bed of gravel with out scratches and grit marks I attribute it to a process where molten material is allowed to cool while airborne or not in contact with a surface. There is no other process that…
Geologic Time Table
Message #144914
– Reply to message #144218 (already scrolled) >> I remember a Russian team a while back that went out onto the flows of a volcano with a definite known age. They use the normal dating process and were able to get just about any age of rock from some side…
>> Have you really looked at many tumble-polished stones with a microscope? They clearly have no scratching visible to the naked eye, and I dimly remember looking at a couple under a microscope and not noticing much of any scratches – has anyone else out there some sharper memories of…
I suspect Velikovsky (sp), as in Emmanual. Ever hear of him? "Worlds in Collision" was his most famous book. – Greg Laden, Written 06-Sep-1994 @ 21:24:18 Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.25
#Geologic Time Table
Message #144911
>> Sands were created at the same time when these ejections sprayed into the air in a heavy gaseous form condensing into grains of sand. That explains how different large sand deposits have a certain size and composition of sand.
>>> Both the isotope ratios and the radio active isotope decay ratio methods are completely accepted by the scientific community. Most problems and errors are understood and recognized.> For most radiometric dating methods, there are techniques for verifying the usefulness of the sample. One of the best methods, and the…
Thanks for the info! – Greg Laden, Written 22-Aug-1994 @ 12:25:27 Using: Windows NavCIS PRO 1.25
>> I guess I didn't make clear my term "washing down". I was attempting to describe a process in which, for example, fossils from an exposed Pennsylvanian bed would be freed from the matrix by erosion or solution and re-deposited more or less intact along with other sediments into a…
A little expansion and further comment: >> There are some unusuall occurrences such as mentioned in Greg Laden's message, but generally fossils to do not get redeposited out of sequence.>> Right. It is especially important to note what we mean by "out of sequence". It is very very hard to…
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