nerds & earth scientists

["Bonnie Blackwell, x 3332" <bonn@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu>]

I agree with Larry Bowlds.  JP did alot for the image of women in science
at a time when most women are turned off science by the time they are
12.  Here we had a heroine who did not wear glitzzy clothes, 3" enameled
nails, and 4" heels.  She dressed and acted like a real scientist.  She was
not a fainting daisy when the pressure was on.  Similarly, the young girl
was the computer whiz, thereby promoting math skills as something women can do.
The male scientists were people who reasoned problems through and WERE NOT
THE BAD GUYS for a change.  Let's let lawyers and business types take the
rap for a while about ruining the world.

While one or two unscientific things happened in the movie, lots of other
things happened that promoted science.  Finally we have a generation
who might not believe dinos are plodding solitary beast as shown by
the 1950's books.  Before the movie it was amazing how many teachers
(most of whom teach dinos in elementary school) thought there were
only 5 dino species , assumed that all dinos were slow brutes with
no mental ability, etc.  Now at least a few people are getting the 
idea.  

Thinking positively, let's applaud JP for the good things it did
and offer our services to the makers of the sequels on how to improve
the next one.  One of the reasons Star Trek is relatively error free
is that they have always maintained a stable of JPL and NASA advisors
who help them get it right.  If the paleontological community
offers help and positive encouragement, we can see the next JP 
(or whatever) less filled with poor judgement and slipshod logic.
b

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonnie Blackwell,                               bonn@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu
Dept of Geology,                                (718) 997-3332
Queens College, City University of New York,    fax:  997-3349
Flushing, NY 11367-1597