Web-available manuscript

[cowen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

A healthy exchange of views that covered a large spectrum. Since I set it
off, I have just a few remarks.

We all do this at some level. Someone visits, we say, "Hey, take a look at
this manuscript!" Sometimes it's accepted, sometimes it isn't. But you give
it to a collegaue to look at, sometimes in the hope of getting good feedback,
sometimes because you think the person would enjoy it, even if it's not in
their field. Some (a lot?) of it is just egotism - you have something nice
that you did, and you like to show it to people. But, we do it.

My manuscript was offered in that spirit. Real scientists will indeed take it
with a grain of salt until it is published. Unsophisticated souls will believe
it ALL, but they believe anything on the Net or in tabloid newspapers or on
the TV. I think that discriminating folks will be able to use it correctly,
and they are the people for whom it is intended. It's only logistics which
usually is the bar to wide dissemination of manuscripts, I believe, and the
Internet provides the solution to that logistical problem for those who want
to use it.

As a former editor, I sympathize all the way with Stefan Bengtson (spell it
right, folks!) in his quest for quality control. And that's the way it should
be - the printed word is the accepted publication mode for us. 

But finally, I omitted an abstract or summary from my manuscript. Here it is:

Fast-swimming air breathers are rare
Some ichthyosaurs do it with flair
     They swim up in a leap
     It's energetically cheap
And they take a deep breath in mid-air


Cheers

Richard Cowen