Update on Science Work

I have been a bit busy with the Plate Tectonics class I am taking. I had to give a 1 1/2 hour lecture on continental transform faults last week. It started well but fizzled out at the end. I guess that's what happens when you work on a presentation while you are sick - making me need more sleep than normal. Also, I was putting it together like I would for a 5-7 minute presentation - one slide at a time. Unfortunately, that was a bad idea on my part - because finding decent images was a more time consuming part than usual - and PowerPoint is a lot more buggy than I am used to. I think I'll look into whether I can use an older version. The current layout choices are not very useful - and not good for decent design - especially for a creative type like me. I mean, what's the point of a blank slide with no picture or written content on it? That's kind of useless. Whatever happened to the old saying - if it ain't broke, don't fix it? It looks like they are working more bugs into the software instead of working the old bugs out. It's very frustrating for users like me.

I get to do the 1 1/2 hour presentation thing again later in the semester and so I am restrategizing for it. I am thinking about doing it by 'layers': first layer would be the written - or typed - content, followed by the sources in a footnote type fashion, then images with their footnotes and some added commentary. Hey, when you make mistakes, you're supposed to learn from them. That's exactly what I intend to do.

As for my other myriad list of personal research projects - I really need to get on the ball and get working on one officially. I was going to work on the Jericho project - just because it coincides with the class. But I think I'd rather focus on my oldest project and bring it up to date and improve it - adding the Deccan info to it. Yes, I am speaking about the KT Collision Event project. I am picking it because it will be the most exciting and interesting - and right now I need that as additional drive to get it moving along nicely. I think I might even add some info about the Cretaceous Normal Superchron - just to lay some groundwork about what things were happening back then when the collision occurred.

Another reason I am picking this project is because I still need to retake paleoclimates and some other classes that will be necessary for the Pleistocene project - and archaeology for the Jericho project. I already have a plan in place for approaching each project. First, do the research: reading articles and putting together an extensive research paper. Second, plan for data collecting - what data I need to show and back up my research findings - this would be through field work and lab work and calculations. Next, carrying out any of this data collecting - preferably as a team effort - to get more data collected. Finally, the conclusions and how the data supports or does not support the initial information.

Also, something I have been considering adding to the content here - I hope to post several of my past research papers - that earned A's - including all of the ones [there are four of them] on the Intelligent Design and Evolution debate. I just need to figure out how exactly to do this the way I want to. If I knew someone who was really tech savvy and could figure out how to do that... Also, I would like to do some serious critiquing of articles on scientific subjects - including the Intelligent Design topic of course. I get very opinionated when it comes to that topic - probably because I do not like stupid people and will not tolerate them any longer than necessary - and I certainly do not care for them getting involved and pushing for their half-witted and illogical ideology to be taught in schools. Education is supposed to make folks smarter - not dumber!

Lastly: apparently, folks were having a problem posting comments on this blog. I apologize to anyone for the inconvenience. I have since fixed the problem and you can now post away. Please keep it on topic and no spam.

Thank you!