Episode 273 | GSA 2017, Part 1
Orca? I hardly knew 'em!
00:00:00 - Ryan and Charlie quickly introduce the premise of the episode: interviews Ryan did at the GSA annual meeting in Seattle, WA. The first interview is with Ph.D. candidate Khai Button about his work examining beaks in dinosaurs and birds (which are also dinosaurs), as well outreach work he does 3D scanning fossils with high school students. You can read about Khai's fieldwork at Expedition Live! and follow his outreach project on Twitter @fossilphiles.
00:31:57 - Drinks normally go one way, this time they go another way; embrace the difference. Ryan and Charlie are both drinking Americanos, which is espresso and hot water made to simulate a normal cup of coffee. Ryan, new to this, has many questions for Charlie, which he answers with gusto. Here's some Abe-approved coffee, a Charlie-approved espresso machine, and a thing that'll boil water real good.
00:45:32 - Next up, Ryan chats to Allison Jones about Jurassic petrofabrics in California with Dr. Kurt Burmeister’s research group at the University of the Pacific. It sounds complicated, but as Allison explains they're really just out in the mountains tracing rocks onto plastic sheets and then doing science to them. You can follow Allison on Twitter @allison_jones1.
01:02:30 - PaleoPOWs are a lot like in-person interviews, they're better with friends. Doing things in sort of reverse order, we begin with Charlie reading an e-mail from Kris H. wondering about claims made by various shades of climate change skeptics and/or deniers. There's a lot to be said, but the take-home message is that all of Kris' links are pointing towards cranks of various stripes, so we won't link them again here. You can read more about the claims these folks are making and how to counteract them here: Skeptical Science Climate Myths, and check out the book The Two-Mile Time Machine if you want to learn more about how we actually take some of the measurement to build our climate models as discussed by Ryan and Charlie. Ending things on a happier note, we thank Patron Billy Nitro by conferring upon him a thesis title. Tying into the show's themes we present: Unraveling the Pop Culture Fabric: Tools to Convince the Public that Dinosaurs had Feathers and Beaks with Applications Towards Climate Skepticism Outreach. Thanks, Billy!
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Music from this week's show:
Birds - M83
Grindstone - Jackie Greene
Black Rock - O.A.R.
Image credit: The Geological Society of America
