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Loading... The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost Worldby Stephen L. Brusatte
   Books Read in 2023 (485) Books Read in 2018 (485) Top Five Books of 2022 (503) » 8 more Books Read in 2019 (2,101) Books Read in 2020 (2,556) Books Read in 2024 (1,597) Books to Read (3) Overdue Podcast (521) Big History (20) Zoology (45) No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) mari_reads | May 10, 2024 |  I have read a couple of other books about deep time: Otherlands which was more wide ranging in time and helped me better understand this section of the geological jigsaw puzzle, and The Dinosaur Hunters, which was more a history of the discovery of palaeontology as a science. This book is an exciting read about our current understanding of dinosaur evolution, mass extinction and how birds survived that extinction event to remain the only surviving dinosaurs. Well worth your time and a pleasure to read. (  ) CarltonC | Apr 26, 2024 | That being said, dinosaurs are pretty cool, so we canāt always hate whitey for hawking the tickets to dinosaur-land, you know. Or ruling over the rest of us, like butlers, you know. Butlers inā¦. Dinosaur-land. š¦ šāāļø ā¦. Iām a little negative. šø I mean, itās nice. Itās fun. Itās middle fun. People look up to scientists, you know. And although history has often been easier for me to āgetā, (although history nerds have our own unique ways of generating negativity, and although history-related things are far more valuable for entertainment in most peopleās books than math & science, history can be its own whole extra mile of useless, you know: a long time ago, Frodo, men suffered; men suffered /death/ and were trampled underfoot byā¦. Dinosaurs! š¦ Just kidding, by each other šø), itās important to see that everything is inter-related, including science & history. History takes places in the natural world, and humans discover science, you know. Anyway, scientists can do epic elitism sometimes, but I donāt want to unload on them. Iād say āso they donāt unload on religionā, but lately Iāve felt much less connected to the whole superstructure of religion in time and space, despite being religious. But itās important to be fair, and the ones who write the science books consumed by the portion of the general public that reads science books are often reasonably personable, often (if not always lol) at least as much as religion or history people, you know. The real assholes tend to write in technical journals, or, betterāthe internetāyou know. Theyād have no attraction to the field of $10-15 books for people who donāt remember any math or special words, you know. ā¦. Science is largely concerned with survival, albeit in a slightly hokey non-individual way, which can be nice, and explains why itās more popular or whatever than philosophy, which (at least in its still-dominant form) is not really concerned with survival at all, in any understandable sense, right. But itās kinda nice (as much as Iād love to wrangle over whether grass-fed beef is Really as good for the environment as plant food) to kinda put survival to the side for a hot minute, and just talk about dinosaursājust because dinosaurs are boss, you know. ā¦. But one problem I kinda have with the book is what could be called āreificationā, which I guess is the making up of things, the making things ārealā and separate by using up mind-stuff, you know. If you know me you know I love classification, but Iād like to think that itās not a case of my system using me instead of the other way around. āIf you lived a zillion million years ago, you might not know the difference between crocodiles and crocodile-dinosaurs. Do you know what the difference between crocodiles and crocodile-dinosaurs are (were)?ā Ah, what you say they were, right?ā¦. You see, itās like mind-stuff; it has nothing to do with the actual experience, the actual lived experience, of an animalāan animal that presumably couldnāt play chess while smoking a pipe, you know. Scientists can be really weird. Science is supposed to be, and sometimes is, a way of understanding the base layer of life, the root, the simple stuff. The reptile brain, you know. But scientistsā¦. I mean, they tend to come off sounding like the girl who wrote that book Rebecca, who was mildly put off by roses because they reminded her of whores or whateverātoo daring, growing roses, you know. Maybe study biochemistry, instead! ā¦. I wonder what dinosaurs could represent in a ritual, right; what an interesting problemā¦. Then againāI mean, I was just thinking about Black music, so youāll have to forgive me thisābut I just see in my mind somebody dissing me, like, Epithet, dinosaurs are on their way out: these days itās all the rap game; you feel me, dogā¦. š© ā¦. Maybe at Samhain, lolā¦. ā¦. I guess Iām repeating myselfāthat field guide book was like reading the insides of a robotās stomach, or somethingābut it seems like the othering, implicit or intentional, that the Romans had for the Celts, and that the English and Scots had for the Africans and Asians, the scientists have kinda inherited and have (probably also for those other groups, and also for) those who canāt speak Latin/āscienceā, you know. And if even a writer of popular science decided he wasnāt going to speak Galactic Standard Colonial, you knowājust think how easy it would be for the Mexicans if they only had to learn Latin! Iāll call President Biden and Shadow President Hitler and weāll get those whole border thing straightened out in a jiffy!!āyou know, itās like, we simply wonāt let you be in the club, if you donāt defend its borders, basically. Why, EYE would be upset if someone in France saw āshark-toothed lizardsā in French, just like theyād see āWe decided to call themā in French, rightā¦. Terror. Sheer terror. The whole Roman Empire has to unite, beat back the futureāfor science!ā¦. But Iām a cynical bastard, and I guess thatās my mood is soured/biased by the childish āscienceā posts on Threads, right. Threads: where the children go to ventā¦. āMy daddy says heās way smarter than your daddy or mommy; he said your freak-based conformity belongs in the past.ā I know your dad isnāt the most charitable, personable fucker, but did he really say that? (shrugs) āI donāt know.ā (runs)ā¦. I mean, we dissected the inside of the robotās stomach, and we found the fossilized bone of a Roman Imperial word, right. Sometimes one feels one doesnāt understand, the dinosaurs, or whatever, because of the thick screen ofā¦. I hate to call it āscienceā, because I know that would really piss people off, you knowā¦. (shrugs) But part of being cynical is that Iām not surprised or offended when people donāt act on what to me would be the reasonable way. Think of Pink Floyd, right. āItās a crazy world, manā¦. The really funny thing is, some people think they have the answersā¦. I look at some people who think they have the answers, I see a fucking squirrel trying to tell the tree how to grow, or something, or tell it how it DOES grow, or whateverā¦. But, itās hardly surprising, anymore. Old News, as they sayā¦.ā ā¦. But yeah: ok, yeah; it is what it is. They were white men, they were asshats, they did the science, with the intelligenceāthey found the dinosaursā¦. There was once a Black woman I think in the 70s who talked about going to see any movie with a Black cast, even if it was sketchy, because giving Blacks opportunities to her meant supporting them, even if they didnāt optimize those opportunities, right. Most scientists would probs be offended at the comparison, and itās indeed not exactly the best way to treat the majority, but in my role there is a sort of parallel. āSuperiorā groups also make mistakes, and letting the scientist have his turn does basically mean hearing about science and its collective delusions as well as its gifts, from history and even from today, right. ā¦. I know Iām being a little dumb about the children on Threads, but I just canāt wrap my mind around it, you know. (interfaith picture) (caption) Some people believe all sorts of stupid shitāfuck āem, I say. Anyway, on to my picture of Doctor Swastika Face in his white lab coat; MUCH better than any of those interfaith outfits, right? I wonder which culture did thatā¦. ā(universality of math cavil) āIn some cultures people canāt count above three or four~do you respect them as much as white men in lab coats? Do you respect the āeveryone who calls on the name of Jesus will be savedā colonialism. āāI donāt like religion.ā āTranslation: āI donāt like you, and I donāt have to think about it.ā Am I right? Itās just like, ~not wanting to learn from the human experience, after all certain point, you know. I donāt get it. āI am āscienceā, (cavalier āscience vs āreligionā ā meme)ā¦. You, however, youāre You. Youāre religion. Go fuck yourself. You know, and itās like: this is how some people really think. In some romance movie, the first thing out of the scientistās mouth is going to be some form of, Iām entitled to be a misogynist; Iām a scientist. ~And people just lap it up, right? Show him an un-contacted Amazonian nation, or someone who canāt do math, or anyoneāanyoneāItās like, āIām entitled: youāre not. I know aboutā¦.ā He knows about ANIMALS! Oh, this is rich! He LIKES the animals, does he! He could be a fucking Victorian anthropologist, sent to document the inferior way! The inferior way of the animalsā¦. Etc! To go back to the scorn for the interfaith photo, itās likeā¦. āYou are wrong about your theory of how the universe started. ~So fuck you; youāre a bad person.~ā And fuckers just lap it up, you know; thatās as close to a consensus as weāve got! And then you read them talk about their own history, and I hate to rub their faces in the shit, you knowāwhich would be so easy, from what happened back then to how they describe it to how they still construct the world in their minds, and in their mannersābut itās likeā¦. I mean, do you see the fucking disconnect?ā¦. I realize theyāre trying to recruit normies, power corrupts, the crap from previous civilizations leads to crap in ours, because the trauma never truly healedā¦. But how do you get so fucking stupid, you know? āYou have no value unless you can do calculus; Iām valuable because I know about (wait for it!) LIZARDS!ā š¦ You know: like, āAnd then we dug up the dinosaur bones; and from that summer on, everything changed for us, our consciousness was transformedā¦. We were filled with gladness, and we radiated kindness, ever afterā¦.ā Until Doctor Swastika Face met an Italian; then he had a meltdown. If only the Nazis could have come to some sort of understanding with the other European ethnicitiesāyou know, likeā¦. Arenāt we all in this, together? I hate to rub it in, you know. I want to like the children, you knowāthe Threads children, the brain-children, all the children, reallyā¦. But theyāve got to meet me halfway, maybe, you know. Itās like, if Allll the children are gonna run around acting more entitled than all the other little ducklings, and are just gonna give you this blank stare when you suggest that maybe theyāre part of the human story, you know, the story of Earthā¦. āMr. Duffy lived a short distance away from his body.ā āOh, I donāt know anyone named Mr. Duffy. Was he (religious/female/Palestinian/a witch/fat/stupid/etc.)? Iām not like that. Iām not involved in all that, you knowā¦.ā āItās like, no no no children. You need to learn somethingā¦. āWell I donāt want to learn crystal healing. āSo donāt fucking learn crystal healing, but what youāre doing is not working. āYouāreā¦. Other. Youāre, weird. I was born in 2177; I donāt talk to old people. I only talk to scientists. āIām done. Go fuck up the earth, children. Go hurt each other. Itās your karma, right? Go onāfuck off! ā¦. But yeah, believe it or not, I read this book because the Mother within me wanted to nurture the scientist with my plant milk, right. (Hermes is the Mother.) And 98.5% of the time itās not bad, although itās easy to smile in a patronizing way at his 150% abstract take on the history of life, right. But yeah, sometimes the Mother gets a little pissy; she needs a drinkāa metaphorical drink, although alkies with their metaphorical drinks can be a trip, right. My mother is an alcoholic, you see. A very cerebral alcoholic, as is actually pretty typical. Incidentally not a scientist, right. She actually has a lot of conspiracy theories about doctors, right. Itās like, Cāmon, mom: some of them arenāt actually THAT much more neurotypical and normie-freaky than the people tailgating you on the road, right. (She also hates driving.) But yeah, itās easy to smile in a patronizing way when my mom talks. When itās my birthday or whatever, she quotes from books (sheās shy about putting anything in her own words, lol) about the meaning of life, the evolution of consciousness, and how Iām the best, best, BEST ABCDXYZ, etcāactually, thatās pretty standard operating procedure, but it was my birthday, I got like, three cards like that. No money, though, yet. She either gives me a lot of moneyāway more than my dadāor none, because sheās flat broke, right. And she cooks food for me, which Iām to eat even if the world fucking ends, right. Yeahā¦. Yeah, I smile in a patronizing way, when peopleā¦. Brain, their way through life, you knowā¦. ā¦. But yeah: āChildren, this chapter in the history of Life begins with the Abstract Period, continues on through the Impersonal Period, and ends with the Funny Name Period. Theāoh, whatās this? Oh, plant milk! This is the nourishing kind! Iām so happy!ā Got you covered š ā¦. Itās actually probably not as good as a NatGeo magazine dinosaur issue, ~really~. All the art of science writing, it would seem, the full flower of their philosophy, is to take something that just ~looks~ impressive, because what it ~is~ at the level of ~being~, and turn it into a meh catalogue of facts, dates, stats, and Latin, basicallyā¦. I fully realize that this isnāt the sort of āgoodā science, of that guy that would snort, like, I saw this book in Barnes & Noble! Itās garbage!āBut itās funny, because his shadow looms over the book, you knowā¦. āWhat an interesting dinosaur statistic. Letās ponder that.ā And again, Western science is NOT all bunk, but itās funny, the average doctor is like: āYour health is this series of statistics. This stat is particular is a problem, andāput that dinosaur book away, dammit, while Iām talking to you!ā ā¦. I donāt want to say itās bad, exactly. Scientists sorta say, āI promise you one day we will know we were wrongā, which has turned into a meme on Threads, you know, how open-minded they are, although in practice itās more like, āI know Iām probably not 100% rightābut donāt surprise meā¦.ā Or, āā¦. But about these forty things, donāt you tell me thatā¦.ā Unless you want to watch Doctor Who in real life, right. (That guy had an anger issue.) It becomes kinda, āAdmit me and my friends are wrong, now, in our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!āā¦. But yeah, itās certainly entertaining to watch Practical Mind chew through totally impractical problems, you knowā¦. And also, Science, as an institution, or perhaps almost as a being, requires change; it wants to evolve, alwaysā¦. So I guess that the scientists will have to keep up, eventually. ā¦. Picking apart the science of sci-fi movies is VERY sci-fi. Itās like loyalty to the sci-fi peanut gallery, you knowā¦. I guess thatās mean, but I donāt really care about menās feelings, lol. For I am not a man, but a duck. š¦ ā¦. I realize Iām probably harping on the issue of personality, but I think itās funny how every scientist is like a Great Guy, you know. Heās: (a) great, and (b) a guy: so that makes him, a Great Guy!! (Tell him what he won, Betty!!). I know this isnāt kosher, but itās like when Christian writers want you to think that every bookish Christian/pious mother/pastor is a Christian Great Person, you know. Itās likeā¦. How could it be any other way, right? (Good news, Comrades: our dear father the Revolutionary Leader has been returned to power by his loving supporters with a smashing electoral result ofā¦.). Right? It goes without sayingā¦. And sometimes scientists are Sheldon Cooperāisnāt that great? I love that show! ~Bro, I like Downfall parodies, but Iām not voting for Voldemort, so that our descendants can have better comedic material to work with rightā¦. To use an extreme example. And if you questioned him about it, I feel like heād say it didnāt matterāwhich isnāt a credit to him; but itās like when people say, Whatās a little money between friends? And youāre like, Thatās very generous. Thank you for your support. And theyāre like, No itās only a little moneyā¦. So you give it to me. And youāre like, Noā¦. No, you saidā¦. And they get all angry like: It isnāt that much money!! And then the screen goes dark, and then they get lit up in cop car lights, with a bloody baseball bat, and theyāre all: It just should have been a little money between friends! It shouldnāt have ended like this: Iām telling ya! ~Iām a strange person. ā¦. There is some interesting personal memoir and scientist-biography, you knowāitās not really a āchessā book, you knowābut I still have no idea what it was like to be a dinosaur, just that people give them certain ridiculous names, and estimate their size to be whatever. Iāll really have to think about whether itās worth it to read more science books, if this is as good as it gets, you know. ā¦. If youāll permit the expression, Iād be the last one to suggest that the scientists never do any good, although there is that screen of language there, usuallyāperhaps ironically, right. Like in ShopRite they promote that free medication that I probably would have called Overdose Buster, since it stops ādrugā users from dying, rightā¦. I mean, it probably means something more polite than that, even in the Greek: I donāt know what they called it, some damn thing, rightā¦. And yeah, I hope this doesnāt trigger like, the City of Athens Public Library staff or whatever, but I feel like if I was a prehistoric reptile, I wouldnāt call myself these damn names, you knowā¦. So yeah. It is what it isā¦. IT, itself. (Thatās a joke, lol.) ā¦. The joy that we can find through arbitrary, confusing, abstract systems of classification that mean very little to more or less everyone āis probably the single most important fact ever discovered by dinosaur paleontologistsā. š ā¦. I mean, certainly we canāt exclude biology from evolution, but itās one thing to say that, another to reduce the whole thing to arbitrary, confusing, abstract systems of classification that mean basically nothing, reallyā¦. Philosophers are rough, too. (scientist) According to the arbitrary, confusing, abstract classification that all of the important people have agreed upon, this seagull is a dinosaur. (philosopher) But we canāt accept the testimony of the senses that thereās a seagull at all. We must rely only on Reasonā¦. (shrugs) But if I call the seagull a god in seagull form, Iām crazy. (jazz hands) Oooā¦. People are going nativeā¦. Theyāre CRAY-Zā¦.! Ok. ā¦. And we certainly do begin intellectualizing the countryās children VERY early, you know. (I take an interest in young people because when Iām an 80 year old man my doctor might be some smart young kid, right.) Like, āThe Giverā is apparently still pretty big, and it seems to be to be so because it fills the overlap of the massesā āI am afraid of the elites (although I want them to like me)ā and the intellectualsā āI am afraid that I do not feel enough fearā; itās also kinda the overlap between anti-communism, cynicism about the public good, and general egghead belief/stance towards life, you knowā¦. Itās like wow, three bullshit ideologies for the price of one: (commercial cartoon) Thatāsā¦. Great! And yeah, we also probably teach kids that birds are actually dinosaurs, right. (Unless itās a school where we just have the teachers point handguns at them all day. Actually, even in some of the advanced classes, sometimes it feels like if you miss 25% of an answer, the egghead is going to snap and plug you in the chest, right.) We certainly teach them that before we teach them about meditation, right. Stress-reduction and learning about emotions are something we consider giving you once youāve been identified as being at risk of getting a criminal record, basicallyā¦. Certainly nobodyās gonna fucking teach you about dinosaur emotions in science class, you know. They donāt care about them, and itās not important if they canāt find out, basicallyā¦. I remember in one of those crazy Gogol short stories about two crazy Russian fuckers bickering and suing each other over some goddamn crazy thing, the last line was like, āItās a crazy world, gentlemen!ā I always thought that was a great line. ā¦. Obviously this has little to do with Steve himself, but in one sense itās obviously quite terrible that the military government of ChinaāI donāt know what communism is supposed to be and I doubt the Chinese government cares much; in their case it basically just means ānot a democracyā, rightāordered this fellow to study dinosaurs, although clearly we wouldnāt have heard about him if it hadnāt worked out. Blind individualism in the West obviously doesnāt work out sometimes, of courseāpeople blunder about and when it doesnāt work out, instead of reflecting that they donāt know what they want or how to find out what they want, they assume that itās because the system is corrupt, right: which it surely is~ but that might not be the best explanation for their own failure, perhaps. But yeah: imagine living in a country run by science-military-bureaucrats, and they just arbitrarily pick a career for you at random because they can and because they have the science-military-bureaucrat ālife is randomā thing, right. I mean, if we were in the future, maybe it would be done by blind-individualism-choice and maybe it wouldnāt, right: maybe you could have the expert or whoever do a tarot/runes/psychological profile/giant math equation thing, perhaps based on your preference, and they could assign you a job based on something other than blind science-military-bureaucrat crap, right. (shrugs) But for the next 300 years or whatever, people will be too paranoid to let anyone other than themselves ruin their lives, right. And as for the USA/the West, yes, Iām sure that there are scientists who drink beer. Thank you, Steve, forā¦. I mean, this is an incongruous put down for me, because I think that at times ads can be entertaining and even send value messages and obviously publicize deals and stuff, but: I feel like Steve is selling me a bill of goods with the whole āscientists who drink beer and are cooler than everā thing. Scholars usually donāt value money that much, but that doesnāt mean they donāt ever sell you a bill of goods, you knowā¦. āStudy the Lesser Subdivision Sub-genre Field, and nothing in your life will ever go wrong againā¦. Youāll study meaningful points of obscure data, with neurotic yet brainy people: youāll drink coffee at midnight and curse out your work colleagues and possibly your romantic partners, whoops! I mean, youāll be drinking beer at the club, with all the other geniuses with a drinkingāah, no, no, that wonāt happen, eitherā¦. So, yes, children! Study knowledges! Use the information! Youāll get a cape like mine: and youāll be glad, you did.ā š ā¦. Although it is kinda funny to imagine how they make decisions like that in Beijing, you know. āHmm: I donāt like you; and I donāt like dinosaursāso why donāt ~you~ go study ~dinosaurs~ā¦. Maybe you could do it in New York, which is a city Iāve heard bad things aboutā¦.ā And unlike say, feng shui, or something, thereās really NOTHING specifically Chinese about that, right. Itās just theā¦. generic bullshit philosophy of life, really. ā¦. āEvolution made birds from dinosaurs.ā This is an interesting sentence. Iām not trying to cavil at the scienceāif the biology/natural history/whatever this is, scientists tell me that there were birds that changed and became dinosaurs, then thatās fine. Itās actually kinda funny when religious people cavil at evolution, both because they donāt really have any goal except angering and pissing off scientists, In The Name of Goodness, and because theyāre basically caviling with the scientists, I think, because evolution is scienceās Big Strange Enormous Concept, you knowāeven to think that thereās even been anything for a million years, or even much, much longer, when weāve only had things written down forāyou know what I mean? Evolution is bigger than our own things that ~we~ have made. But then why would scientists want to, or be motivated to ponder, the Big Strange Enormous Concepts of religion, spirituality, philosophyāsay, life after death, if their own ideas just get tossed over the side as being, well, weirder than going to church, basically? But these āevolution made X from Yā or ~evolution (as a noun that takes a verb) sentences are interesting, philosophically. Now, of course if youāre a scientist whoās a caviler, you say, Fuck language, fuck the humanities, fuck average people, fuck religion, fuck philosophyānone of that shit matters; if I have to use a different grammatical construction to avoid thinking about meaning/preserve meaninglessness from the awful gaping chasm of meaning and philosophical truth, then thatās what Iāll do, rightā¦. But itās like, if evolution makes dinosaurs into something else, then evolution is an actor. Is Evolution a Being?ā¦. Yes, if Evolution made birds, then how can Evolution not be God, basicallyā¦. (shrugs) I think itās all about balance. On the one hand, I donāt think that the material world is trivial, untrue, or, illusory. But then, perhaps evolution is not ~purely~ a function of biology, that was born in meaninglessness, that dies in meaninglessness, while equations quivered in a beam of lightā¦. lol. ā¦. And yeah: you donāt have to call science a religion if you donāt want to, if that doesnāt resonate with you, right. What is and isnāt āreligionā is ambiguous, and choice plays the dominant role, as it should with almost any label, you know. You wouldnāt call me a warlock, because āwarlockā is a bullshit word basically used only in āCharmedā, or something like that; Iām a witch. But yeah: when scientists decide what evolution means in terms of their stance towards life in the most general sense, thatās a choice, āarbitraryā in the factual sense, and largely determined by the choices of other scientists of their own time and affinity. Itās a culture, not a fact, you know. However you feel about or define culture or this culture or that culture, how biological evolution makes you feel about your life is a choice, not a fact, largely shaped by others in the community, and is therefore basically cultural rather than factual. Where a fossil was found or what temperature it was when it was excavated are factual matters, about which thereās right or wrong, feelings donāt help you get it, etc., and could interfereābut not everything is like that, and ābut everything that MATTERS, IS like thatā, is a cultural choice. ā¦. In a sense, itās not bad writing, but itās just, ~way~ too enchanted by death, you know. āDinosaur emotions? No. āDinosaur mating? No. āDinosaur childhood? No. āDinosaurā¦. death? (Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at TV meme) THATāS RIGHTāTHE DINOSAURS DIED OUT. ~ (smug smile) And now I know what we need to teach the childrenā¦. ~~ Yeah, letās see: I feel the cull of the philosophy (free sample) books was āworseā, but we can defs get rid of anything about dinosaurs, or extinctionsā¦. ā¦. But yeah: I donāt think I want dinosaurs to be part of my religion. (They seem now yet like another dubious aspect of my childhood, or the common childhood, right.) With possible slight to Uruz, the rune associated with the aurochs, a kind of wild ox that died out a few centuries after the runes came into beingāif what we can say about your group basically is: 1. Theyāre big. 2. They all died~ itās like, Ah yesāthe macho-morbid axis, around which academia revolvesā¦. I feel like dinosaur books and extinction books and even dead species books tend to be kinda like rune bags with five or six Uruzās, and a couple of duplicate Nauthizās and Isaās, and with Berkana missing and Inguz missing, you knowā¦. I mean, Iām just starting to feel a certain ambivalence about the utility of natural history, you know. I know how Wunjo feels and how Nauthiz feels, if I wanted to I could create playlists for themāI suppose the average radio playlist is a sort of Wunjo-Nauthiz playlist, rightā¦. But if we donāt know how dinosaurs felt: if we just are supposed to be all, Bro: they were huge. What else do we need to know?ā¦. Itās like, What are we doing? Life has moved on, right. ā¦. (after Iāve moved on to the activity after my next activity or two) Ah yes, āSongs About Janeā: I feel like I was listening to this maybe ten years after it was released, so like the early 2010s, basicallyā¦. I was such a fool for music, but I forget, some of the music I listened to actually was pretty pleasurableāI actually listened to ~albums~, too; actually I bought them, lolā¦. But yes, the musicianship I listened to was often quite good, it seems to meā¦. But I was quite often not happy, lolāfar, far more unhappy, than happy: Nauthiz, and Wunjo: I think at some point, I couldnāt tell them apart anymore, lolā¦. Yes, if I had been listening with ads, I would have responded to that Reeseās candy ad several million years before the Avalon Flooring one, rightā¦. I mean, sometimes I saw symbolism in things, inappropriately, but certainly if I saw the ad as for ~flooring~, I would have been like, Ah: noā¦. But yeah, musicianship is math: a good band makes those damn numbers ~sing~, but sometimes, if itās all Nauthiz and no Wunjo, or practically stabbing yourself with Nauthiz to get your sonic Wunjo fix, rightā¦. In the end, life requires balance: sometimes more than mere particular excellence, rightā¦. Donāt listen to whole albums, in a sitting, right. If I were to listen to the whole Jane albumāand I used to listen to one, after another, after anotherāthat would: I mean, I was gonna listen to three songs, this is number four; and Iām ~healed~, right: gonna stay that wayā¦. But yeah: She willā¦. Leave for work; she willā¦. Commute to the office, to-dayā¦. Hooo. Success. And yeah, the ācoolā scientists try to be like, We have drinks at the pub after the digging is done for the day, ~and itās like, yeah, impulse is one sort of thing, and mental control over numbers sorta goes with it, rightā¦. And understand me: itās your choice. You donāt have to tell me how many village Christians and naive religionists are out there to experience things for you, just sign on the dotted lineā¦. But yeah: show me a scientist, in crusty mode or cool mode, who values balance over mere particular excellence, and weāll be looking at somebody whoās bucked the example of their peersā¦. Not always the most valued sort of lass or fellow, someone who can do that, eitherānot even among those who, KNOWā¦. ā¦. But thereās a sucker for books born every minute, or at least every couple of hours, lolāmaybe Iāll read about the natural history of humans and mammals, right. I donāt think that Iāll read another Steve book, though. Thereās nothing quite like a cool scientist thatās not coolā¦. Unless maybe itās a cool Christian thatās not cool~ Ie, Past Ted. š But yeah, maybe VSI: Human Evolution; VSIs are great for science and philosophyā¦. I know I deleted at least one philosophy VSI in a purgeā¦. Imagine my shock at learning that just reading Epicurus-y books doesnāt solve the life-avoidance problems of philosophyā¦. Was that a line from Casablanca? ~Shocked, shocked, to find life avoidance in the philosophy departmentā¦. I mean, reading Epictetus was useful at one point; Itāll be interesting to re-read him, eventually, having read āMe Before Youā, rightā¦. But yeah, If I were the sister, you know, it would have been the same. āā¦. How the hell do you deal with that?ā āYou know, Iām the smart one in the family; I get itā¦. But I have no idea, sis. No fucking clue.ā Of course, Iām incurable, you know. āNow I have to read philosophy books, with my new mindset that the point of life is NOT to observe and avoid: yes, yesā¦. SmĆ©agol forms a planā¦. Yes, myā¦. Preciousā¦..ā And yeah: 1. They were big 2. They all died. (bows) Thank you. Thank you. (walks away) (people throw roses, cheer) āEncoreā¦.. encoreā¦.!ā (laughing backstage, smiling into the camera) Buggers werenāt listening; theyāre all dead. Ergo: no encoreā¦. ~ Yeah. ā¦. After-note: (Cool Scientist Steve) Hey, letās talk about dinosaurs. And we can have musicāthe kids still like Maroon 5, right? āOr I could just read the lyrics of āHarder to Breatheā, right. (Proceeds to do so). āWow. Thatās a lot.ā āThere must be an art of singing so that parts of it, at the very least, arenāt understood.ā āIām gonna go meditate, guys.ā āIt was such a great songā¦. Itās like, the devil, though. So to speak, I mean.ā āKinda reminds me of anxiety, nowā¦.ā (everyone leaves) Donāt try to be cool, Steve. Itās not cool. āI can be crusty, too. Yeahā¦. I know you can. Listen: I know youāre going through a hard time right nowā¦. But I want you to know. Things are gonna be ok. āI think everything might die, though. Yeah, you know whatā¦. Listen, we can talk later, ok? Do you want to recycle, or something? Is that it? I have one of those For Dummies books; itās about~ āI have a plane to catch, actually. Bye. (door) Yeah, okā¦. But yeah: Pace āHarder to Breatheā, sometimes it is ~necessary~ to āgive upā, so to speakā¦. goosecap | Mar 9, 2024 | The number of advances in the field of paleontology in the past twenty years, i.e., readily accessible & more sophisticated technology, discoveries in China and new mathematical/statistical modeling have opened up a lot of āsecretsā and corrected a lot of mistakes about the studies into the Mesozoic Era. From the end of the Permian Era (before dinosaurs) to the violent end of the Cretaceous period, the author brings color and life to a time of great geological upheavals and an incredibly diverse set of dinosaurs and their cousins. ( )1  Tanya-dogearedcopy | Feb 11, 2024 | All said, the history and narrative of inferences made through evolutionary biology was great. (  ) ohheybrian | Dec 29, 2023 | no reviews | add a review
Nature.
Science.
Nonfiction.
HTML: "THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY," hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. "A masterpiece of science writing." ā??Washington Post A New York Times Bestseller ā?¢ Goodreads Choice Awards Winner ā?¢ A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Smithsonian, Science Friday, The Times (London), Popular Mechanics, Science News "This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance, and abrupt demise in the Cretaceous." ā??Nature The dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth's most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet's great mysteries. Now The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs reveals their extraordinary, 200-million-year-long story as never before. In this captivating narrative (enlivened with more than seventy original illustrations and photographs), Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the fieldā??naming fifteen new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldworkā??masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy. Captivating and revelatory, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a book for the ages. Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellersā??themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic periodā??into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs' peak during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, when thousands of species thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds, emerged. The story continues to the end of the Cretaceous period, when a giant asteroid or comet struck the planet and nearly every dinosaur species (but not all) died out, in the most extraordinary extinction event in earth's history, one full of lessons for today as we confront a "sixth extinction." Brusatte also recalls compelling stories from his globe-trotting expeditions during one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur researchā??which he calls "a new golden age of discovery"ā??and offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable findings he and his colleagues have made, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex; and paradigm-shifting feathered raptors from China. An electrifying scientific history that unearths the dinosaurs' epic saga, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs will be a definitive and treasured account for decades to come. Includes 75 images, world maps of the prehistoric earth, and a dinos No library descriptions found. |
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