"A BOOM in Natural History"

[Richard Jensen]

That little snippet is filled with so many errors that if a student turned it
in, it would deserve an F.  This was written by a Director at the Dallas Museum
of Natural History?  Poor Dallas!

Thomas Yancey wrote:

> There is a disturbing subtext here of geological illiteracy on the part of
> a high-ranking museum official. The Gulf of Mexico formed long before the
> end-Cretaceous impact event and a natural history museum should not be
> party to such fantasy interpretations. The willingness to sacrifice sound
> science for the sake of promoting psuedo-scientific pop science story
> telling may be a contributing factor for the decline in support of natural
> sciences.
>
> T. Yancey
>
> >Many museums were in an expansion phase according to the following article
> >written ca. Feb 2001 (pre-Enron (12/01) and pre-9/11/01) by Robert R.
> >Townsend, Expansion Director for the Dallas Museum of Natural History. Mike
> >Quinn, New Braunfels, TX
> >
> >-------------------------
> >
> >A BOOM in Natural History
> >
> >Most scientists believe our universe began with a Big BOOM (Bang?) 4.5
> >billion years ago!  And our world has been expanding ever since.
> >
> >What do you think the dinosaurs thought when they heard asteroids BOOMing
> >into the earth 65 million years ago, creating the Gulf of Mexico, the
> >Yucatan peninsula and abruptly ending their two-millennium dominance of the
> >planet?  What message do you think the BOOM of the cannons and muskets of
> >horseback-riding European explorers sent to the Pre-Columbian civilizations
> >of the Americas?
> snip
>
> Thomas E. Yancey
> Dept. Geology & Geophysics, Texas A&M University
> College Station, Texas 77843-3115
> ph: 979-845-0643
> tyancey at tamu.edu

--
Richard J. Jensen              | tel: 574-284-4674
Department of Biology      | fax: 574-284-4716
Saint Mary's College         | e-mail: rjensen at saintmarys.edu
Notre Dame, IN 46556    | http://www.saintmarys.edu/~rjensen