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Ha ha!
Pungent and Powerful and Provoking Prose, as usual, from Mr Dana!
Incidentally, you mention that I am now stuck somewhere in Jurassic Park, and that consequently I am apparently unwilling to look up into the sky;
but I note that I am actually not that interested in the Jurassic Period.
Look up the North Pole Dome geological structure and The Strelley Pool Formation, in the Pilbara of Western Australia, some 3.5 billion years ago, and you will find one of the two places and times that I most commonly hang out in , looking for clues as to the origin of life on Earth, and as to complex and eventful co-evolution of the Earth Environment and its biota.
(by the way, this particular geological formation has become a "no go zone" for non-professional palaeontologists such as myself, due to its scientific importance. So I am combing the rocks of W.A. and the N.T. to find a site that is not so well defended by the pros)
The other place that I most love to walk around in, is the earliest part of the Ediacaran Geological Period, looking for clues as to the origin and Very earliest evolution of the Metazoans.
( indeed, I have discovered my very own personal Ediacaran Fossil Site (!) in Oz, which I will not reveal even when subjected to torture, as it is not crawling with hostile and aggressively defensive professional palaeontologists, as is that very famous site in the Flinders Ranges)
So, just maybe, you are more than a little 'over the top' in your commentary about me, for I think it is true to say that my intellect always goes where my curiosity leads, and my curiosity has lead me to exploring (in great detail) some Interesting and Mysterious and Extremely Complex issues connected with various signal events in the co-evolution of the Earth's biota and bio-geo-chemical-atmospheric systems.
And what's so wrong about following one's curiosity?
Hmmmm.....I perceive that you feel that I have "forsaken" something, but in my defense I will say to you that I think I find sufficient interest and intellectual stimulation, and a powerful sense of discovery and of widening vistas, in my current intellectual preoccupation.
So I think it more important that one continues on in the spirit of that Holy Curiosity so prized by Einstein, as there are so very many mysteries to explore, in the heavens and on the Earth.
cheers, Robert
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