throopw@rtp47.UUCP (Wayne Throop) (09/13/85)
> What is your opinion of the part of the ultrasaur article dealing > with pterosaurs, Wayne? I didn't note any particular *errors* in your section on pterosaurs, and since I was reporting on what I perceived as errors, I made no comment. On the other hand, I can't say that I'm convinced of your conclusion that pterosaurs can't possibly fly in current gravity. That seems far too strong a conclusion to make. After all, who would have beleived that a man could pedal a flying machine across the English Channel? There are a lot of postings that come to what I consider incorrect conclusions that I don't comment on. So what provokes me to post when I do post? Well, I have several reasons, which I'll list below in order, and annotate with how they apply to the situation Ted asked about. - The subject interests me, or I have thought about the subject a great deal. This is (usually) my primary reason for any posting. In particular, I have thought about the square-cube scaling problem, and land-based animal size quite a lot. I know less about such problems as they apply to pterosaurs, and thus have less to say. - To request information. However, for this to apply, I obviously have to have some interest in (moderately) deep thought about the subject I am asking about, and the problem of the pterosaur doesn't interest me much. I'm also waiting to see how the synthetic version does. - "The devil made me do it." Sometimes I post in haste, usually in response to a posting that irritates me. I try not to do this, by having a rule that I never post a response on the same day as I read an article, but sometimes it doesn't work. For example, I was quite irritated when I posted my sarcastic response to (what I perceived as) a charge that paleontoligists must be "lying with figures" when they conclude that Sauropods have a "load factor" of 3. I try to keep this kind of thing to a minimum, but when it slips out, bear with me... I'll probably feel better in the morning :-). I also have reasons *not* to post. If somebody else has already said (in essence) what I had to say, or if I think that somebody else will represent my viewpoint, I won't post. The only comment I had on the pterosaur information was a general one which had already been posted. That is, why didn't *all* or *most* animals and plants show altered porportions and adaptions to low gravity? Why just selected examples? Since this point had already been posted, I didn't comment. -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw