Regeneration

In the past few months, I've moved to Iowa, started my new job at Cornell College, and leaped headlong into the deep end of the block-system-teaching pool here.  Having been caught up in these fairly major life changes, I allowed this blog to go fallow (though I did take the time to update the title and the appearance) and seriously considered shuttering it altogether.  However, I spent the last week and a half in Denver and Los Angeles attending the annual meetings of the Geological Society of America and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, which came at exactly the right time for me.  They reminded me that the world of paleontology is an exciting one, and as I'll be arguing in a forthcoming post, it is a world in a greater state of flux than ever before.  I can hardly claim to be the most articulate voice for paleontology out there, nor am I the type to write new posts daily, but I do think science blogs have real value (especially in an age where even scientific societies seem to prefer the vapid blurbs of Twitter).  If I can be even a moderately effective medium between paleontology and the general public, then I'll feel I've done a good job.  In the true spirit of my alma mater, then, it's time for the Mammoth Prairie to rise from the ashes of the Oregon Trail; whether or not I fulfill the Chicago motto by growing knowledge and enriching life will be for you all to judge.