{"id":4368,"date":"2017-11-13T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T13:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4368"},"modified":"2017-11-12T09:32:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T17:32:03","slug":"mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-chapters-38-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2017\/11\/mark-reads-the-science-of-discworld-chapters-38-39\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Science of Discworld’: Chapters 38 – 39"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of The Science of Discworld<\/i>, the dinosaurs died out because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, a lot of things happened. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say I have any personal<\/i> connections to the extinction of dinosaurs without making one huge<\/i> leap of reasoning, which ends at a surprising place: Revelations<\/i>. Except that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not all that surprising once you think about me and my own personal history, given that GLOOM AND DOOM was a huge part of my Christian upbringing. When I first learned about the dinosaurs, I was explicitly told \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I kid you not! \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that God <\/i>was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs because they were evil. They did not fit in his plan. EVEN THOUGH HE CREATED THEM? Oh, dear reader, that logic was met with more resistance! Because God created the dinosaurs and then the dinosaurs sinned<\/i>, and thus, he wiped them out, and therefore, we could be wiped out, too<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The apocalypse was frequently on my mind as a kid, which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 you know, that was probably not a healthy thing to think about more than like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 once a year. Do we wonder why I am full of anxiety??? (Just kidding, no one does, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO OBVIOUS.) This was another one of those things that I quickly realized had<\/i> to be bullshit, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still kind of haunting to think about. However, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largely because I was<\/i> taught that the extinction was sudden, that a comet (WTF) hit the earth and then, like, a year later ALL WAS DEAD. So just in terms of having most of my understanding of the extinction demolished, this chapter was INCREDIBLE. Again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to fathom the massive amounts of time that are used here, especially since I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that even the K\/T event itself has not been decisively \u00e2\u20ac\u0153proven\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to be a single event. Species disappeared more rapidly, but this is the first time I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever read about the multiple theories of what caused these species to disappear in a relatively<\/i> short span of time. Of course, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explain other species disappearing millions of years before<\/i> the K\/T event, and I also really want to know why other species survived<\/i> it. (Not surprised about octopuses, though. NOT THE LEAST BIT SURPRISED.)<\/p>\n

I would love to be able to study that period of time in a manner similar to the wizards and the Project. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much I want to know<\/i>. I also imagine that hard-working scientists the world over have discovered a lot more information about this period in our history since The Science of Discworld<\/i> was released and re-released. What else do we know? WHAT NEW INFORMATION IS THERE? Has anyone visited the site at Chicxulub before? WHAT IS IT LIKE??? Tell me everything, friends, I JUST LOVE DINOSAURS SO MUCH.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/R4ieGMF5XfA<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"