Coherent Catastrophism  When I was younger, I wanted to be a
geologist. Until I figured out that would most probably mean
working for an oil company. I have nothing in particular against
the oil industry (except the things we all have against the oil
industry), but it didn't sound like a lot of fun. In any case,
I've kept up with the geological literature over the years,
mostly by studying up in the wonderful New Scientist magazine,
various reading, and via long conversations with a neighbor
who's in the field.  I did really well as an undergraduate
Geology major. In fact, one of the only lousy grades I even got
was for a paper I did reviewing the various theories on the
causes of mass extinction (this was just before Alvarez &
Alvarez pretty much established that the KT extinction of our
dinosaur friends had been due to an asteroid impact). In
addition to getting a poor grade, I discovered a principle: when
people don't have a good explanation for something, they pretty
much don't want to hear about it. Now