Diary more than anything else

I'm not much of a blogger if the objective is to make contacts with others of similar interests, and I've thought that eventually I would go out and connect with other blogs on my favorite topics; but I've come to think of my blogs as more like a diary or journal, a place to organize my thoughts. I enjoy it when someone does come by and comment, even if the comment is loudly negative, as many are of course on the subjects I pursue.

Lately I've been blogging less and reading more. Still in my favorite subjects. Bought some books I really can't afford and am having a very enjoyable time of catching up on the history of science. I wish I could afford more. In fact I wish I could live inside the most complete libary on earth. The internet is wonderful that way, but it's not complete and I do get frustrated at times.

I've been reading mostly in the history of geology lately. I started out reading in genetics but found myself in geology before long. Both of course are related to the issues surrounding evolution. Read a biography of James Hutton, "the father of modern geology," very entertaining as well as informative. Accumulating a big wish list at Amazon on geology books, such as Hutton's friend John Playfair's Illustrations of Huttonian Theory. I wish I had access to a whole slew of pictures of the geological formations on which Hutton developed his theory of the earth -- I may find that in a more modern book on geology, of which I have one in my wish list too. Again, the internet is a great source for these things, I just wish there was more available. I also wish it were less expensive to print out the sources that ARE available. If wishes were horses .... Academic books are often prohibitively expensive. Sometimes you can find a decent deal on used books through Amazon but if the book is a classic the used copies will be too expensive too.

I can't go out and look at these formations for myself so pictures are absolutely necessary. There are photos and diagrams of Hutton's Siccar Point available on the internet: Here's a good one and the comment about how Hutton simply looked at it and "realized" the earth was old is priceless. This site speaks of "environments of deposition." I find this very amusing but of course geologists take it seriously.

I have plenty of thoughts about Hutton's theory, but I'm not going to post them here right now.