cornering the latex market

[Farlow@ipfw.edu]

     I just saw an ad for the forthcoming Godzilla movie.  I was gratified 
     to see that the beast seems to have a perfectly good tridactyl, 
     theropod foot.  It got me wondering how I might go about measuring 
     Godzilla's pedal phalanges to add them to my dinosaur and bird foot 
     skeleton data base.  I'd probably have to get a custom-made set of 
     calipers.  Judging from the houses shown for scale in the picture of 
     Godzilla's foot, my calipers probably aren't big enough.  Once I get 
     the data, I'll probably have to log-transform the measurements to get 
     them onto the same graphs with my other data without scrunching the 
     other points into an indecipherable blur near the origin.
     
     I would also like to make a cast of one of the critter's footprints 
     for my dinosaur and bird footprint collection, but I don't think I 
     budgeted for enough plaster of Paris in my current NSF grant.  It 
     looks like casting one of the big G's prints would require a tad more 
     than I usually use.  Silicone or latex rubber is probably out of the 
     question; too expensive, even for more more conventionally sized large 
     theropod prints.  I could try to slip a purchase order past my 
     departmental chair or the dean.  Hmm.  Maybe even the vice chancellor 
     for financial affairs would go for it.  The university routinely 
     spends money on odder big-ticket items than that.  Maybe we could use 
     a positive made from the cast as a university swimming pool.
     
     
     Some silly thoughts for Friday and Mayday.