D. Spires wrote:
Sorry, but at the time, you were just another guy on the board -- and I never had you credited as a trained geologist. I do now.

Alex writes:
I was just being facetious, Dan, and I forgot to tack on the smiley emoticon. Normally I disdain arguing from authority, which can be dangerous amongst professionals, because practically everyone is an authority ;-) When I first starting cruising through the various discussion groups, I thought I would stay faithful; however, given the amount of pseudoscientific crap floating around, it's hard not to occasionally throw in the "I am a trained scientist" moniker from time to time, though that is no guarantee that my opinion is any more valuable (or less valuable) than the next person's. I do feel, however, that my nearly ten years of university level education and training should count for something a little more than the average denizen of the Internet who get his/her science knowledge from watching the X-Files. Nevertheless, the merits of the argument itself should decide, "trained geologist" or not.

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii