Re: Kakuru kujani material

["Mickey P. Rowe" <mrowe@indiana.edu>]

Since there's been some public concern about Dann's discussion of Eric
(the opalised pliosaur) and his potential sale (that is, Eric's sale;
I don't think a price has been put on Dann as of yet) I figure I
should state something publicly about it.

If you go to the administrivia page:

http://www.cisab.indiana.edu/~mrowe/dinosaur-administrivia.html

or check your latest e-mailed copy you'll see:

> If you advertise a fossil for sale (even if you're not the one
> who'll be collecting the money) you may be removed from the list
> without warning.

Dann's (and Paul Willis') mention of Eric does put me into a bit of a
quandary.  However, I quite purposefully worded the above to be "*may*
be removed" in order to give myself some wiggle room.  The guidelines
for the list were written to make the list a decent forum for carrying
on scientific discussions about dinosaurs.  I think that removing Dann
and/or Paul would be detrimental to that goal, so although I am
perfectly within my rights to exercise my authority and remove both of
them I don't currently plan to do so.  I've not received any private
mail on the subject (other than copies of messages to the list), so
you all have as much information on each others' concerns here as I
do.  If anyone thinks I should give either or both of them the boot
feel free to express yourself (preferably to me alone as I don't
currently see a need to continue a discussion in public).  I may
reconsider, but I doubt anyone will want me to.

I personally am somewhat conflicted on issues of fossil sale -- my
statement in parentheses in the quote included above was not meant to
make it easier for me to kick people off for the slightest hint of
fossil trade.  Rather it was included as a way to close a loophole
that people might take advantage of by using middle men to "launder"
their advertisements.  I don't think that's what's going on in this
case, so as I wrote above unless I get a lot of criticism I'm not
going to take action.

In the future, though, I'd prefer it if you'd (that's a global "you",
not just Dann and Paul) write to me directly first if you're going to
make an announcement about a potential sale so that we can have this
discussion in private ahead of time rather than in public where my
decisions are made under some duress...

Thanks!

--
Mickey Rowe     (mrowe@indiana.edu)

P.S. For those of you who're curious, I'm sort of back from a two week
absence surrounding the birth of my son, Connor Alexander Rowe.  He my
wife and myself are doing fine, though sleep cycles are no longer
really cycles...