Reading Update

I finished Dawn of the Dinosaurs. It was a very good read and deliciously illustrated with assorted oil paintings of Triassic life and and BW works of the same. It was rather shallow in certain ways, but still had some gems. First was the very strong voice throughout the whole work stating that the author was uber annoyed with the constant protrayal of the Triassic as a desert wasteland. He stated that while the Triassic did have a trend for drying and heating up, it was nota uniform desert that was barren. He loves to cite the Petrified Forest (and SW US Triassic formations in general) as good examples of why this wasn't the case. he stated its often a mistake that people make that short term changes in climate - over a few thousands of years - are mistaken for the climate over millions of years. He likes to cite the Newark supergroup for this one. The other delights were the hypothesis of the megamonsoon (you think Bangladesh has it bad now? he does have evidence against it too, btw) and, of course, the rants about paleontologists ignoring the invertebrate fossils. he does talk about the End Triassic. It's interesting. It's also rather odd. He doens't seem to have strong beliefs, but he does seem to side with the bollide guys, but does point out that there was a huge basalt formation due to the rift valley opening up that created the Atlantic.

I have also been reading about the Insular Cases while Avrora and now myself has been sick. Talk about something that makes me feel a wee bit ill on top of the viral reasons. What's interesting to note is that the cases is that the author comes away with the belief that the Supreme Court really wanted this be dealt with by the legislature (Congress) not the judiciary (them). The decisions, at least so far and I am only a little shy of half way through the book, were rather ehated and every single Justice had a very differing opinion on the subject (and wrote it) even while 'agreeing' on the decision. it was a close run thing. You have to wonder what would have happened at one justice been run down by a horse or one of those new fangled cars a few years earlier. If we'd had a second Justice like Harlan, whither the American nation?