Re: Science feather strength debate

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

Scott Hartman <skeletaldrawing@gmail.com> wrote:


> Still, I think it has to be addressed because without fail every published
> estimation on the flight and gliding capabilities of Archaeopteryx
> assume a priori that it had a derived wing; that falsely reduces the
> actual range of error (and I would argue introduces significant
> additional error) into attempts to model the aerodynamic properties of
> Archaeopteryx.


_Archaeopteryx_'s flight abilities remind me of a quote from Toy
Story:  "That's not flying.  It's falling with style."



> Indeed, I don't believe it would be except that we're stuck with a
> century of protobirds-as-flying-squirrel-analogs (and a litany of
> accompanying illustrations) as conceptual baggage.


Thankfully this boilerplate is fading into oblivion.  Slowly, but
surely (I hope).



P.S.  Thanks to those who informed me off-list that the word
"refudiate" was invented/concocted by Sara Palin.  I knew this; I was
just being cute when I was claiming ignorance about who came up with
it.  If nothing else, Sara Palin demonstrates that _Alaskacephale_ was
not the last bonehead from Alaska.




Cheers

Tim