I've done very little actual research on the Paleozoic sed rocks around here (just one paper) but they are in my 'backyard' and wonderful for field trips related to courses –– at some point I'll prioritize some projects with these successions!

not too many, but we did see some ostracods and plant fossils (early Carboniferous), some very nice Lepidodendron impressions (late Carboniferous), and some bioclastic/shell-hash beds with brachiopods and other fragments (late Ordovician)

many people, including ugrad students we teach and interact with, simply don't know how external funding has worked (why would they? I don't fault them) –– I can only hope that this era leads to more awareness and, in turn, broad support for investment in science down the road 2/2

in addition to applying the concepts and methods they learned about all semester, this two-phase format provides an opportunity to think about the value of information –– how does your interpretation change when you have the full dataset? 2/2

I wish this amazing transect was a bit closer to us

I often look out on these forest-covered hills and mountains and wonder what it would look like if in an arid climate with little vegetation

yea, I don't mind doing these (as long as I don't feel rushed) ... it's also interesting the variability in what different institutions have candidates put together; e.g., I'm a fan of the 'self-assessment' statements, I like reading their own words about what they've done and where they are headed

time will tell, but I think for this specific application (coding), having this open discourse about AI is useful –– some of the students try things and then show me where AI did it wrong or gave them some very weird code; i.e., they are learning to be cautious and not trust it by default (2/2)

I've experienced this teaching my intro paleoclimate course (which is for any major/year for gen-ed credit) ... now, I do some *very simple* activities in the first couple weeks to provide some foundation ... by the end of the term they are pretty comfortable with it

is pyCoreRelator available to the community (e.g., on GitHub)? I could see it being useful for other applications

we need to move this AI hype along much faster ... hopefully the bubble bursts and a bunch of start-up bros lose a boatload of $$$ relatively soon ... I don't want this to drag on for years and years

if it's not happening already, there will be a 'aw shucks, just boys being boys, ha ha' defense of this and our national media outlets will happily lap that up

these guys aren't joking, these are exactly the type of people who will steer their movement towards increasingly heinous actions

when I teach my intro/non-majors climate course I bring up ERW to convince them that learning about the carbon cycle is relevant (and it works, these ideas pique their interest) –– but communicating the vastly different rates as Higgins does here must be incorporated (I'll use some of his stats)