[net.origins] Pterosaurs and "what posting means to me"

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