Re: Virtual Reality dinos (+ von Daniken)

[Tom Holtz <tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov>]

>A hypothetical situation:
>
>Say 5-10 years from now, Tom Holtz has landed his well-deserved position at
>the AMNH, and is involved in research on the hip-femur articulation in
>tyrannosaurids.  He reads in the latest _Nature_ that Ken Carpenter has just
>finished scanning-in a complete T. rex found under the foundation of the
>residence of the Mayor of Denver, during construction of a basement swimming
>pool.  Carpenter's scanned T. rex takes up 500 gigabytes, broken up into 50
>or so files.  Ken is involved in another project, and has no interest in the
>new T. rex at the present time.  Tom calls Ken and asks for the files
>for the illium-ischium-pubis and femur to be ftp-ed over to him in New York.
>Let's say for the sake of argument that the file-format is some form of
>virtual reality file "standard" used by all paleontologists.  Ken sends the
>requested files to Tom.  At Tom's end, Tom has "Virtual-Bone ver. 1.1.0"
>a shareware <snicker> virtual reality program for paleontologsts.  Tom loads
>Ken's files into "Virtual-Bone", and away he goes...rotating that femur into
>all kinds of unnatural positions.

[Note: Under the Contract with the American Family, this will be made
illegal! ;-) ]

Hey, who leaked my grant proposal!!  That's confidential!!!!

;-)

                                
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.                                   
tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov
Vertebrate Paleontologist in Exile                  Phone:      703-648-5280
U.S. Geological Survey                                FAX:      703-648-5420
Branch of Paleontology & Stratigraphy
MS 970 National Center
Reston, VA  22092
U.S.A.