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Sunday, June 29, 2008
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Toofs
Hello,
Today I joined the Nevada Friends of Paleontology in cleaning and cataloging many of the fossils found at the Gilcrease Bird Sanctuary back in the 1990's. I spent most of my time cleaning and gluing mammoth teeth back together (for some reason NFOP uses Elmer's glue on their fossils. Not what I'd recommend since it's not very strong and takes a long time to set. They like it because it's water soluable). It's been a long time since I cleaned and prepped fossils. I used to do that a lot back in the old Dinosaur World days.
It was nice to work inside considering it was a bone-chilling 108 here in Vegas today. Brrr!
Not much else to say. It's been a busy dino weekend. I'll be doing lectures in Utah and Arizona on 11 & 12 July. Hope you have a happy Independence Day!
www.capndavedinosaurs.com
Dave
6:04 PM
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Saturday, June 28, 2008
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Dinosaurs Gone Wild
Hi,
I just got back from Lake Havasu City (LHC), AZ. LHC (and Lake Havasu itself) is best know for the hundreds of thong-clad college students who visit there every spring break. I went there to talk about dinosaurs at the city library, not look at thong-wearing coeds (not that I didn't look for them).
I spoke to about 50 folks. When I was there two years ago we had about 130 show up, but the Mohave Co. library system didn't seem to do the full court press on advertising like they had done in 2006 so the turn out was lower than my last visit.
I did a modified version of my "What Jurassic Park Got Wrong" show. The library's summer reading theme was "Catch the Reading Bug" so I added some prehistoric bug stuff to the show, just to stay in keeping with the theme.
On the way home I visited the hometown of Senate Majority Leader and Nevada Senior Senator Harry Reid. The town is named Searchlight. It's about 30 some odd miles from Vegas. I think they miss Harry. The village has been without their idiot for years now.
Tomorrow I'll be cleaning a cataloging Ice Age mammal fossils at the Gilcrease Bird Sanctuary.
Keep checking www.capndavedinosaurs.com for more information and keep digging.
Dave
1:05 PM
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Friday, June 27, 2008
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California bones...
Current mood:  annoyed
Hi,
I just got back from a non-dinosaur-related business trip to Santa Barbara. I had some spare time so I decided to visit the local natural history museum and its partner facility at Stern's Warf. The natural history museum was having a special display of Paul Sereno's African dinosaurs. The display included a Suchomimus, Afronvenator, Deltadromeus and other cast and real fossils from North Africa. Below are a couple of photos of Suchomimus and Afrovenator:
They also had some cool displays of pigmy mammoths that have been found on the Channel Islands off the Santa Barbara shore. Since California is known for its Ice-Age fossils they also had some displays of some of those mammals. See photos below:
Santa Barbara's natural history museum is best known for its complete, 72-foot long blue whale skeleton. The photos of that didn't turn out very good, so I didn't include them in this blog.
At Stern's Warf they have a sea museum that focuses on local sea life. Inside that had many live animals (I got to pet a shark. Not very scary since this shark is handled more than my overly-spoiled cat MacLeod). They also have life-sized mock up grey whales over head:
Afterwards I hand-fed a seagull some of my fish and chips. This turned out to be against the law and since it was the seagull's third offense he was hauled away in cuffs and is now doing 25 years in the Santa Barbara county lock up.
Some French bikers showed up at the warf. Not very scary. You just be tough while speaking French. (Fact: At one time the French Naval Ensign was a white flag).
I'll be in Lake Havasu City speaking at their library tomorrow. Keep checking www.capndavedinosaurs.com to see where I'll be next.
Dave
P.S. Here's a political comment: For those of you who want to nationalize the oil industry, healthcare and/or the airlines I have two phrases for you to mull over: U.S. Postal Service and TSA.
6:04 PM
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
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Fossil Hunting Class
Current mood:  weird
Hi,
I was at the Spings Preserve (www.springspreserve.org/html/home.html) today teaching a class on fossil hunting in Nevada. This was unique presentation in that it is not one of my normal shows. As my website says "If these shows don't meet your desires just let me know and I can gin up a presentation that will." This was one of those times where a customer asked me to do something special. I had to do a bunch of digging (HA!! Get it!?! Fossil hunting!! Digging!! Sometimes I just kill me) to find out about the rules and laws regarding fossil hunting in Nevada. (Little known fact that if you find a mob guy who was whacked by the mafia you get to keep him - just kidding. You have to put the bones back and call a archeologist).
The presentation went well. One very unique aspect of this show was that it was the first event that I've brought real fossils to in over 4 years. I prefer to use just cast and reproduction fossils since they're easily replaceable, but in this instance I thought seeing some real fossils would be good for the audience.
The oddest thing I saw today was the man who had trilobite fossil tattoos. Now that's dedication to paleontology. I'll just stick to wearing the big black hat. Not really into body ink myself. It turns out that the man was in the Army. Thank you for your service, if you're reading this.
Next week I'll be doing two dino events. Go to www.capndavedinosaurs.com and check out the Schedule page for details.
Dave
2:06 PM
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Friday, May 30, 2008
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CLASSROOM!!!!
Current mood:  excited
Hi,
I have some exciting news. I now have access to a classroom. So now if your group does not have its own meeting space you can now come to me. The facility is located on South Rainbow and the I-215 in Las Vegas. The classroom is the perfect size for home school groups and other organizations who don't have their own meeting space.
Due to fire laws I have to keep to groups of 25 to 50 people (depending on how we set up the room) and advanced reservations are required (sorry, I'm not the only one who uses the facility). There is ample parking and it's right next to a very good Thai restaurant called Pin Kaow (I really like Thai food).
Hope to hear from you soon and keep checking www.capndavesdinosaurs.com.
Dave
11:49 AM
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No Ichy
Current mood:  disappointed
If you one of the thousands of people who view this blog daily you were probably looking forward to reading about my trip to the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. Well, it got cancelled. We had about 12 folks going, but over this past week 9 had other committments pop up. So the president of the Nevada Friends of Paleonotology (http://complabs.nevada.edu/~shirka2/) decided to postpone the trip until later this summer.
If you're interested in joining us later this year just let me or the folks at NFOP know.
Keep checking www.capndavedinosaurs.com for more info.
Dave
11:01 AM
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Monday, May 26, 2008
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Sacry People
Current mood:  amused
Hi,
Just wanted to share something with you all. One of the biggest thrills for those of us to work in the realm of paleontology is when somebody asks us to identify a fossil. The drawback to this is that from time to time we get some wackos. I've had people bring me rocks, insisting that they were the skull of Homo habilus (a hominid found in Africa, not in Arizona) and "eggs" in lava. My friend Dinosaur George also has these problems (his website is www.dinosaurgeorge.com). He shared this email with me. I thought that you'd enjoy it as much as I have. I have removed email address, phone numbers and the attached photos (imagine three photos of rocks that are just rocks). Enjoy.
Dear Dinosaurgeorge
My name is D_____ S_____. I am contacting you in regardes to a find that i think u will be interested in as well as helping us determan the correct path to take, if any. I was given your name and email buy arcyologist W_____ M_____. Threw the few people that i have talked to you are the man that i need to contact. Have heard notheing but respectful comets from educated people that you are at the top of you field and are very kind. I am a representative for the people. Digging in central texas a deep hole reaching 35 to 50 feet thru drit hit hard surface. Continuing, digging break thru hard surface suddenly notice that this rock isnt normal. It seems to be valcanic rock very porse various shades red in color. This isnt suposed to be here, nor could be endigness . Apon studing the fragments, washing them off, seem to have distintive white thruout some. Further study shows something not believable, there are dinosours within the volcanic rock. I have included pictures of only two of these. Reveiwing the pic that i have sent. They seem to lose there splinder. Make no mistake this seems unresonable because the known world believes that the closest volcano to texas is in new mexico. I will send pic of a few more of these and others with better camra but forbiden to take pictures of the 5' Fish with wings, as well as 5' octipusy. We all have deturmaned that these things volcanic rock dinosoures sould not be here. We are very un curtain we a correct because further study of the cermatic age this part of texas is believed to be under water alot of water. Fish could be, yet reptiles or animals shouldn't as well as volcanic rock. The first rock has many shell and differnt bone fragments and even a few eggs it seems. Hipothosis is that this is from a stomick of some creachure. This next piece looks to have be a foot or claw imbeaded into it as if suddenly, lava in it's hot liquid form was pored on to thses creatures fried fast and the lava was cooled quicky therfor preserving these cretures in a cristelized state. Please contact me at your soonest convience. My email is XXXXXX@yahoo.com my phone number is XXX XXX XXXX. A number that is defenite is XXX XXX XXXX as this is my parents home number. One more is XXX XXX XXXX as this is my fathers cell phone. My computer is down at this moment but hope to restore it tonight. I eagerly await replie with a hopeful kind of breathless feeling inside of me. Could this be?
Hopefuly Uncertian
D_____ M. S_____
Dinosaur George and I have found that the best way to handle these folks is to say "I'm not sure what that is" and then forward them to some paleontologist who owes us money.
Hope you enjoyed this email as much as I did. I'll be reporting on my trip to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park next week.
Dave
8:55 AM
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Saturday, May 03, 2008
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Another Trip to the Valley of Fire.
Current mood:  sweaty
Hi.
I just got back from doing three shows at the Valley of Fire State Park. Today I did my ever-popular "What Jurassic Park Got Wrong" show to about 40 people. It was fun, but tiring.
Not much else to talk about right now. I'll be doing some cool things in the near future though. At the end of the month I'll be joining the Nevada Friends of Paleontology for a trip to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park and then next month I'll be at the Springs Preserve and Lake Havasu City. Stay tuned.
Check www.capndavedinosaurs.com for more info.
Bye,
Dave
5:00 PM
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Saturday, April 12, 2008
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Springs Preserve & Valley of Fire
Current mood:  jedi
Hi,
Just did a couple of shows at two really cool venues. The first happened on Thursday night. The Springs Preserve, www.springspreserve.org/html/home.html, Vegas' new Science, History and Cultural center invited me to take part in their natural history program series. I did my "Dinosaurs of the Southwest" show to a small audience. They just started the new Thursday Night series so it hasn't caught on yet. Hopefully they'll have more folks next time. I'll be there again in June talking about local fossil hunting.
Today I did, for the first time, my "Ice Age Critters" show at the Valley of Fire. I had the biggest turn out ever at this location. I spoke to over 50 people in three shows. I even did an impromtu talk to some boy scouts. The highlight of the day was right after I had started my third show a thundering herd of girl scouts and brownies showed up. I don't envy their adult leaders. It looked harder than herding cats who have more important things on their minds than being herded.
Next month I'll be back at the Valley of Fire doing my Nobel Prize Winning presentation of "What Jurassic Park Got Wrong." (That's Bob Nobel not to be confused with the folks who gave a peace prize to that terrorist Arafat).
Keep checking www.capndavedinosaurs.com for more information.
Dave
7:29 PM
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Friday, March 21, 2008
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Cap’n Dave’s Bug Hunt
Current mood: confident
Last month I blogged about an NFOP trip to dig invertebrates around the Las Vegas area. I visited one of those sites again today and found a bunch of trilobite bits (no whole bugs yet, darn). I’ve now decided to offer trips to this site to my customers. If your group would like a day of fossil hunting let me know. I’ll provide the expertise. You provide the people. It’ll be up to your group to watch the kids and be responsible for your safety. Cap’n Dave’s Dinosaur Lectures & Shows, LLC and Cap’n Dave Eisenstein is not responsible for particpants’ safety (it’s not dangerous, but there is a slipping hazard and some of the shale is kinda sharp). Participants will be required to sign release forms.
So if you’re interested in digging some bugs just let me know. And keep checking www.capndavedinosaurs.com to see what I’ll be doing next.
Dave
9:06 PM
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