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Re: more dinosaur extinction stuff (apology II)
Apparently my earlier apology for screwing up on a factual point (the
date of extinction of ichthyosaurs) and coming down too hard on the
originator of this thread has just gotten people even more steamed at
me. So:
1) I apologize again if anyone has taken offense, especially Flying
Goat. No harm was intended.
2) Part of my dismissive tone came out of having seen/participated in
earlier, sometimes overheated discussions about dinosaur extinctions.
I realize now that a lot of people weren't around for those
discussions and have plenty of appetite for more.
3) At the risk of sounding even more pompous, the fact is that I DO
study extinction patterns for a living (not dinosaur extinctions in
particular, though). Sometimes it's hard to be calm and open-minded
when the topic is your vocation and you've already thought about the
issues over and over again.
4) Please give me a break, I'm having a REALLY bad week. The final
draft of my thesis is due in five days and I'm preparing to give a
talk just three days after that (hmm, just why am I typing this
instead of working...?), so I'm a little burned out and testy. On
that note, back to work...