the global scientific community.

I received the following message recently, via the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Please sign the petition.

The Department of Geological Sciences at Michigan State University is home to a nationally and internationally prominent, vibrant group of students, faculty and staff. As a response to current budget distress, the Board of Trustees and Provost Kim A. Wilcox are considering a proposal to close the Department, along with all of the graduate and undergraduate programs offered by the Department. The immediate effect will be the loss of three tenure-track untenured faculty positions and one technical and three office staff support positions. Longer term effects of such a closure would include the loss of formal geosciences as a fundamental part of undergraduate and graduate training, and would impair Michigan State University’s service to students, the local community, and the global scientific community.

To offer your support to geosciences at MSU and oppose closing the department, please add your signature to the petition located at:
http://new.ipetitions.com/petition/savegeosciencesatmsu/

Please also consider passing the petition along to others who would offer their support.

Dawkins O'Brien

Bill O'Reilly is a dunce, but Dawkins could've done a lot better.



Sometimes, it takes comedians to communicate science more effectively than scientists themselves:




O'Brien has every answer that Dawkins needed for this debate against O'Reilly.

I returned from the UK

I returned from the UK on Tuesday after attending the SVP meeting and then visiting a friend in Oxford. Sorry I've not been posting. My talk went well, and I hope to be able to post a summary with some slides here. The meeting was quite productive, at least in terms of making some contacts and plotting some plots, etc.