text:
Phanerozoic/Neogene period

by David DeGuzman

Neogene: 23 MYA (Million Years Ago) - 1.3 MYA
The Neogene Period lies in the Cenozoic Era, which lies in the Phanerozoic Era. The Neogene Period starts 23 mya, after the Paleogene Period and ends at 2.6 mya when the Quaternary Period begins.

Epochs
The Neogene Period is divided into two epochs.

Miocene 23 - 5.33 mya.
This epoch is translated as "less recent." This is the longest epoch of the Cenozoic Era. This is also considered a high point for mammals as mammal diversity reached its peak. The beginning of the Miocene Epoch marks the end of prehistoric times and the birth of a world that is more "recent."

Pliocene 5.33 to 1.83 mya
Translated as "more recent." During this epoch, the world transforms similar to the world today. This also marks the beginning of the evolution of prehistoric man. It is often divided into no two parts:

Early Pliocene
This section consists of the Zanclean Age. The Zanclean begins at 5.33 Mya and lasts for about 1.73 million years.

Late Pliocene
This section consists of Piacenzian and Gelasian Ages. The Piacenzian begins 3.6 Mya and lasts 1.01 million years and the Gelasian begins 2.59 Mya lasting .78 million years ago.

Climate
The climate during the Neogene became colder and drier. During the Miocene, the drifting of continents caused the isolation of both poles from other continents. This then established the circumpolar ocean circulation. As a result, more sunlight was reflected from the Earth and sea levels dropped causing a reduction in temperatures. This caused the Antarctic cap to grow gradually. This cooling continued into the Pliocene and the Pleistocene.

In other areas, the world began to dry out. In North America and Central Asia, massive deserts had developed. The forests were replaced by arid plains, steppes, prairies, and tundras. Grasses that were low in nutrition but abundant in tooth-decaying materials flourished in place of forests. Transformations such as these forced species to either adapt or surrender their lives.

Plate tectonics
A great event that occurred the Cenozoic Era caused the Tethys Sea (between Eurasia from Gondwana) to be converted into mountains and plateaus. Tectonic activity that began in the Eocene Epoch continued into the Pliocene to create the northern front of the Alps as well as the Apennines, Carpathians, Caucasus, and the Himalayas. The tectonic activity resulted from large-scale folding and thrust-faulting as the African block hit the western underside of Europe. In the Miocene, India collided with Asia that created plateaus and ranges to higher elevations, creating the Himilayas. This was marked by extensive volcanism, folding, thrusting, and emplacement of granitic plutons. At the same time, the Rocky Mountains and Andes Mountains formed in North America and South America respectively.

South America continued to move north towards North America, creating the Panama Isthmus in the Pliocene Epoch. Due to the drops in sea levels, the bridge was exposed to open air creating a path for animals from South America to migrate upward into North America.

In North America, a large area was created called the Basin and Range Province. It covers an area from Nevada and western Utah to central Mexico. This was named this due to the alternating basins and mountain ranges. This alternation is caused by the stretching of the Earth's crust:

 * 1) The region uplifted during the Mesozoic Era.
 * 2) In the Miocene, the arch subsided between normal faults.
 * 3) Uplifted blocks formed mountain ranges that became a source of sediment that filled adjacent basins.
 * 4) Faults opened fissures exposing molten rock from below which produced extensive lava flows.
 * 5) Erosion of fault blocks and mountains filled basins, clogged rivers, and created lakes behind debris dams.
 * 6) Gypsum and salt layer formed when lakes dried.

There are numerous hypotheses to explain this stretching of the crust.

Although these hypotheses have varying ideas, each has evidence that can support their claim, meaning the truth can be one of these or a combination of them.
 * The subducted spreading center, caused by North America moving over the Pacific oceanic plate and a spreading center that was being subducted along the coast of California, caused uplift and stretching.
 * Normal faulting in the area is how the crust adjusted to the change along the California coast when oblique shearing of the edge of the continent.
 * The area is extension and uplift of crust from remnants of an oceanic plate carried beneath the Basin and Range region by an earlier subduction zone.
 * Crustal extension and tensional faulting is related to convectional movements beneath the continental plate similar to those that cause continents to separate.

Plant Life
Two ecosystems were introduced during the Miocene period: kelp forests and grasslands. Kelp is a brown algae that grows in cool waters. It is one of the fastest-growing plants on earth. This plant was most abundant in areas where it can attach to rocks and coral. Due to the cooling climate, tropical and conifer forests were reduced to grasslands and savanna. Grasslands were abundant in silica that break down teeth. As a result, animals were forced to adapt quickly to new types of food. Angiosperms (plants with flowers) flourished and diversified all through the Neogene.

Animal Life
The climate changes that occurred caused many animals to adapt or die out. The formation of grasslands provided little nutrients for herbivores to eat. Furthermore, the grass was extremely harsh on teeth. Because of drought, starvation, and cold weather, herbivores were either eliminated or forced into transformation. They developed teeth that are flat and durable for grinding grasses. Other species developed multiple stomachs to squeeze as many nutrients as possible from the grasses. Animals that developed these traits, the artiodactyl, include camels, bison, sheep, and giraffes. Predators as well were forced to change as the number of prey decreased significantly. Predators now have to follow and hunt prey that is spread extremely thin across the lands. As a result, predators became skilled in hunting, developing skills in death strikes, speed, and powerful tools such as sharp teeth and bone-breaking jaws to compensate.

Both prey and predators began to adapt to open-air areas. Small bodied animals began to flourish as it was easier for them to hide and hunt in the low grasslands. Small bodied prey included rodents, raccoons, rabbits and possums and predators included foxes, cats, dogs, and snakes.

Tectonic shifts also assisted in the diversification in certain areas. In North America and South America, dogs, cats, bears, and horses traveled south while armadillos, porcupines, ground sloths, and opossums migrated north.

Among these adaptations, some species did not have to change drastically to compensate for conditions. Humans and bears fall into this category. Judging from merely their appearances and genetics, one can infer that these two species should have fallen victim to the changing Earth. However, they were able to utilize behavioral adaptations to make up for the shortcomings.

Megafauna
The megafauna, or "large mammals", peaked during the Miocene epoch. Examples of megafauna include horses, rhinos, mastodons, and saber-tooth cats. Due to human activity and climatic changes, many of the megafaunas have died out. <ref name]\ was mostly dominated by whales, dugongs (manatees), and desmostylida (elephant-like). Giant sharks were also present that preyed on early whales. One example is the Carcharodon megalodon. Recent speculations measured this massive beast to be around 40 - 50 feet long. This shark was estimated to live during the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs. Although the estimation of their sizes seems quite large, this is merely based on only the size of their teeth. Unfortunately, their bodies are presumed to have a skeleton made up of cartilage, a material that rarely fossilizes well if at all.

Human Evolution

Human development is traced from the Early Pliocene to the present. Hominid lineages were first found in the valleys of north-east Africa. Hominids evolved from Australopithecines that lived in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The erect postures provided them ways to scout for potential threats and freed their hands for using tools. The large-brained australopithecines then evolved into the first stage of man called Homo habilis in the Early Pleistocene. Later in Pleistocene, hominids began to expand in overall cranial size, providing more room for larger brain size and developing intelligence. The emergence of Homo Erectus gave the stepping stone for Homo Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens(modern man).

Homo Neanderthals vs Cro Magnon (Homo Sapiens)?

The typical appearance Neanderthal looked very similar to the present man with only a few defining characteristics. They were typically short and stocky and had an oval-shaped skull. The center of their faces was large with a huge nose and angled cheekbones. In overall body size, Neanderthals were more strong and compact and capable of efficiently conserving body heat, making them able to live in any kind of climate change. In terms of intelligence, their brain size was quite identical to ours if not larger. Like us, they were able to use tools, create and use fires, and even bury their dead. In short, Neanderthals were stronger and possibly more intelligent than the modern man.

So the question arises, "if the Neanderthals were so similar to us in terms of strength, intelligence, and overall survival skills, how did they become extinct?" Although there are plenty of hypotheses and theories to develop an explanation for this mystery, there are no definitive arguments that solve it. Some theorize that they had simply evolved quicker into the modern man while others hypothesize a huge conflict between the Sapiens and Neanderthals, though there is no evidence of any sort of battle or war between them. Currently, there is still extensive research that is being put into solving the mystery of the disappearance of our not so distant ancestors. So far, nothing is truly definitive.

title: Phanerozoic/Neogene period


text:
Phanerozoic/Ordovician period

Meeshaan Shah

Ordovician Period - 490 to 443 million years ago
The Ordovician period began 490 million years ago at the end of the Cambrian, through around 443 million years ago  with the beginning of the Silurian. During this time most of the world was covered in ocean, and most of land was comprised of the super-continent Gondwana.

Tectonics
During the Ordovician the land was together forming the super-continent Gondwana. Gondwana consisted of Southern Europe, Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Australia. Throughout the Ordovician, Gondwana moved towards the South Pole where it finally stayed towards the end of the period. In the Early Ordovician, North America was approximately by the equator and submerged under water. However, North America developed into a land with exposed carbonate rocks. Western and Central Europe became separated and where located somewhere near the southern tropics. Europe shifted towards North America from higher to lower latitudes.

During the Middle Ordovician, areas that where shallow seas began to uplift, which became the precursor to glaciation. In addition, plate motions appears to have taken place which included the northward drift of the Baltoscandian Plate (northern Europe). Increased sea floor spreading and ridge activity and volcanic activity occurred during this time. Ocean currents changed as a result of lateral continental plate motions that caused the opening of the Atlantic ocean. Sea levels underwent regression and transgression globally. Because of sea level transgression, flooding of the Gondwana craton occurred as well as regional drowning.

During the Late Ordovician, a major glaciation in Africa occurred due to global disturbance, oxygenation, ocean erosion, and a severe drop in sea level resulted. This glaciation caused a dramatic regression of ocean waters which drained nearly all cratons. More specifically, this glaciation contributed to the mass extinctions. .

Climate and Atmosphere
The Early Ordovician climate was thought to be quite warm in the tropical regions. In North America and Europe, Gondwana was largely covered with shallow seas. Shallow clear waters over brought about the growth of many organism.

A major transgression in the Middle Ordovician created widespread shallow, warm epicontinental seas. Which showed most of the Ordovician was favorable for marine life, particularly around the European and North American cratons. However, the Ordovician ended in a brief severe ice age. Gondwana, particularly Africa, moved towards the South Pole and became glaciated. There were even glaciers in what is now the Sahara. About 60% of animal genera became extinct, making this the second or third most deadly mass extinction of the Phanerozoic.

A lot of attention has been applied toward the cause of the Ordovician Ice Age. Not much evidence exists to show this ice age even occurred. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are believed to have been 8 to 20 times their current values. Sea levels were high through most of the Ordovician. Sea level then dropped, in connection with the ice age, but it is hard to tell if this was the cause. One factor which would affect both increase in carbon dioxide and sea level is the rate of sea floor spreading along mid-ocean ridges.

Life
Ordovician life are characterized by numerous and diverse trilobites and conodonts (phosphatic fossils with a tooth-like appearance) found in sequences of shale, limestone, dolostone, and sandstone. In addition, blastoids, bryozoans, corals, crinoids, as well as many kinds of brachiopods, snails, clams, and cephalopods appeared for the first time in the geologic record in tropical Ordovician environments. Despite the appearance of coral fossils during this time, reef ecosystems continued to be dominated by algae and sponges, and in some cases by bryozoans.

However, there apparently were also periods of complete global reef collapse due to global disturbances.

Fauna
The trilobite, inarticulate brachiopod, archaeocyathid, and eocrinoid faunas of the Cambrian were succeeded by those which would dominate for the rest of the Paleozoic, such as articulate brachiopods, cephalopods, and crinoids; articulate brachiopods, in particular, largely replaced trilobites in shelf communities. In North America and Europe, the Ordovician was a time of shallow continental seas rich in life. Trilobites and brachiopods in particular were rich and diverse. With that the first coral appeared in the Ordovician.

Molluscs, which had appeared during the Cambrian, became common, especially bivalves, gastropods, and nautiloid cephalopods. Now-extinct marine animals called graptolites thrived in the oceans. Some new cystoids and crinoids appeared. It was long thought that the first true vertebrates appeared in the Ordovician, but recent discoveries in China reveal that they originated in the Early Cambrian. The very first gnathostome (jawed fish) appeared in the Late Ordovician.

Flora
Green algae were common in the Late Cambrian and in the Ordovician. Terrestrial plants probably evolved from green algae, first appearing in the form of tiny non-vascular mosses. Fossil spores from land plants have been identified in uppermost Ordovician sediments layers. Among the first land fungi may have been arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (Glomerales), which played a crucial role in front running the colonization of land by plants.

Extinction
For most of the Late Ordovician, life continued to flourish, but at and near the end of the period there were mass-extinction events that seriously affected planktonic forms like conodonts, graptolites, and some groups of trilobites which completely died out. Brachiopods, bryozoans and echinoderms were also heavily affected, and the endocerid cephalopods died out completely, except for possible rare Silurian forms. The Ordovician-Silurian Extinction Events may have been caused by an ice age that occurred at the end of the Ordovician period as the end of the Late Ordovician was one of the coldest times in the last 600 million years of earth history.

The Ordovician–Silurian extinction event or quite commonly the Ordovician extinction, was the third-largest of the five major extinction events in Earth's history in terms of percentage of genera that went extinct and second largest overall in the overall loss of life. Between about 450 Ma to 440 Ma two extinctions occurred. This was the second biggest extinction of marine life, ranking only below the Permian extinction. At the time, all known life was confined to the seas and oceans. More than 60% died, particularly affected were brachiopods, bivalves, echinoderms, bryozoans, and corals. The immediate cause of extinction appears to have been the continental drift of a significant landmass into the south pole, causing a global temperature drop, glaciation, and consequent lowering of the sea level, which destroyed species' habitats around the continental shelves. Evidence for this was found through deposits in the Sahara Desert. When Gondwana passed over the south pole in the Ordovician, global climatic cooled to such a degree that there was widespread continental glaciation. This glaciation event also caused a lowering of sea level worldwide.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Phanerozoic/Ordovician period


text:
Phanerozoic/Silurian period

The Silurian period existed in the Paleozoic era and occurred between Ordovician and  Devonian periods, about 443 to 417 million years ago. The name Silurian was derived from a Celtic from Wales. During the period the seas fluctuated between transgression and regression due to climate changes and continental buildup. Plants and animals were forced to adapt to live on the land or become extinct.

Geography
In the early Silurian period the continents were clustered around the equator forming the super-continent Godwana, continuing a is a southern drift. The northern cratons and continent fragments drifted towards the equator and merging North America and Eurasia to form the super-continent known as Laurussia. By the end of the period, continents continued to converge with each other causing orogenies such as the Taconic Orogeny and forming mountains. These continental movements were the cause of the periods transgressional phases due to the glaciation that occured. At late Silurian was nearing the end of the larger transgression known as Tippecanoe.

Uncomformities found within different paleocontinents, show the effects of mass glaciation events during the late Ordovician and Silurian periods. The water levels dropped to a maximum of 230 feet draining marine habitats. Other fluctuations of the sea level occurred around 100 to around 165 feet. These events forced marine life to adapt to survive to these conditions.

Subdivisions
The Silurian period is divided into four major events that occurred during that time.

Llandoverian
The Llandoverian Epoch lasted between 446 to 428 million years ago.

Three paleocontinents suggests that at least four global highstands occurred during this epoch. The fluctuation between these events averaged between 2.5 million years apart from each other. Between the Llandovery and Wedlock boundries marks the Irreviken event During the event was a change in carbon and oxygen isotope levels that sparked a mass extinction event.

Wenlockian
The Wenlockian Epoch lasted between 428 to 422 million years ago.

One of the biggest sea level rises occured in this epoch. Also retains a secundo-episode (warmer sea waters and CO2 level rise) that caused a mass extinction

Landlovian
The Landlovian Epoch lasted between 422 to 418 million years ago. Known for the Lau event. The Lau Event declares the date for a mass extinction event of conodont fauna due to a low point in sea level

Also known as the Ludlow epoch, known for a lowstand in sea level. This event caused a mass extinction for conodont fauna.

Pridolian
The Pridolian Epoch lasted between 418 to 417 million years ago.

Climate
Before, the earth witnessed a fluctuation of erratic climate around the globe. Stable warmer climates were introduced in the Silurian period that resulted with melting large polar glaciers in the middle of the Silurian. As a result, there was a significant rise in the sea levels consuming about 65% of North America, as we know today, during the Wedlock and Ludlow epoches.

The warmer climates on earth create more survivable habitats for the current life enabling existing creatures and plants to adapt and flourish.

Life
The warm waters provided by the Silurian period produced good habit for the surviving species of the Ordovian extinction. The survivors flourished during these times and branched out to produce new variations. Among these variations were some of the first migrations from sea to land.

Plants
The fluctuation of sea level caused different adaptations with plants. The late Ordoversian period introduced the first plants on land. The adaptation of these plants during the Silurian involved vascular plants, enabling plants to absorb nutrients from the ground. Seeds were also introduced, to transition sea plants to land by encasing water within the seed to prevent dehydration for survival on land.

Some of the first plants on land were Cooksonia, gymnosperms, Agiaopython, and Rythion. These plants developed resistance to gravity by standing upright. The first plants were small, leafless but had even branching.

Coral
The first appearance of coral reef occured in the Silurian period. Tabulate corals were among the first corals, living in colonies among Silurian rocks. The chains of colonies that the Tabulate corals created looked similarly to Organ pipes. Ragose corals, or horn corals because of the bull-shaped horn, appeared during this time as well. These coral reefs provided protection among the other new species introduced in the Silurian period, fish.

Creatures
Some of the existing biota species from the Ordovian period included many shelled creatures. Among of these creatures were Cephalopods and Eurypterids. Because of the mass extinction cephalopods were smaller in the silurian period, and Eurypterids were Arthropods. Arthropods have an exoskeleton with legs attached, better known as sea scorpions. Crabs and insects were arthropods. Arthropods in the Silurian were the first air-breathing arthropods to exist. were the dominating predator during the period.

Fish
Jaw-boned fish were first introduced during the Silurian period. Although many aquatic species existed in before, fish were known for the bone structure that denoted them as fish. The first fish were jaw-less, and the vertebra was soft and composed of cartilage. By the end of the Silurian, fish developed real bones and real jaws.

Among the first known fish to exist were the Guiyu. This fish existed in the Late Silurian (about 419 Million years ago). Thyestes was a fish that existed between the Wedlock and Ludlow Epochs during the Silurian. They had a bony armor that classifies as Osteostraci

title: Phanerozoic/Silurian period


title: Literature/1951


text:
Phanerozoic/Paleogene period

The Paleogene Period is the first of two periods which make up the Cenozoic Era. Beginning 65.6 million years ago and lasting until 23.05 million years ago, the Paleogene was a time of great change. Many new flora and fauna began to appear which looked much like our current life. The global climate went through a series of changes which encouraged the changing life.

The Paleogene period, its epochs, the the two Neogene epochs Miocene and Pliocene, were formerly known as the Tertiary Period, however that term is no longer in use yet may still be seen in publications. The Paleogene is divided into three different epochs which then are separated into several stages:

Paleocene Epoch: 65 - 55 MYA

The beginning of the Paleocen epoch, meaning "ancient recent life", is marked by the Late Cretaceous extinction event. Many flora and fauna from the Cretaceous were devastated. Almost all reptiles, most famously the dinosaurs, were all made extinct. The most accepted theory for this extinction is that of a 10 kilometer or larger asteroid collision. Much of the seafloor of today formed during the Paleocene. The plate movement of the period had the continents moving toward our modern continental configuration, with Antarctica and Australia ready to separate and India on a collision course toward Asia.

Fauna and Flora
A great rise in the variety and number animal species, especially mammals, was occurring during the Paleocene. While remaining relatively small in size and shorter in stature, the mammals of the Paleocene resembled much of what we have today. Along with the rise of mammals, there were various marine life that was thriving as the oceans so a proliferation of sharks and the appearance of squids. Among some of the more interesting animals to appear were large flightless birds. These large creatures, sometimes referred to as "terrorbirds" began appearing near the end of the Paleocene. With the advent of angiosperms, many types on insects began to appear to assist with the process of pollination.

The Paleocene brought a few familiar plants into life. Plants such as the cactus and palm trees first came into being. Angiosperms continued to diversify and cover the Earth. As the Earth began warming up near the end of the Paleocene, there was a shift in flora to more tropical plants.

Climate
The absence of many Cretaceous species was only part of the changes the Paleocene brought. Near the end of the Paleocene, the Earth began to undergo a period of global warming. The warming of the Earth, referred to as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, is thought to be caused by the massive release of methane from the ocean. With an abundance of methane, it acted as a greenhouse effect, warming the Earth.

Eocene Epoch: 55 - 34MYA
The Eocene, meaning "Dawn of Recent Life", continued with the warming that began during the late Paleocene. The continents continued to push India further toward Asia. With Australia, South America, and Antarctica separating and other land masses beginning to connect, the animal life is given the opportunity to evolve independently from each other.

Climate
The Eocene greenhouse effect that began Late-Paleocene continued the warming trend, lending it self to a tropic climate. The end of the Eocene brought a change to the climate as the Earth began to experience a period of cooling.

Oligocene Epoch: 34 - 23 MYA
Meaning "slightly recent life", the Oligocene began with a drop in temperature. India, which had been traveling toward Asia, finally collides, eventually creating the Himalayas.

Fauna and Flora
As the Earth began to cool, the tropical plants that had previously been found relatively widespread began to recede towards the equator where it was still warm. The general tropical plants began a transition to more forest like areas. The first grasses also appeared in the late Oligocene. The appearance of these grasses led to to evolution of various herbivore animals. With bodies low to the ground, animals would take advantage of the new grasses that appeared.

Climate
The Oligocene marks the end of the warming that the Paleogene brought. An extensive period of cooling began to take hold as the Oligocene progressed. With Australia completely free from Antarctica, the cool waters are able to move further north. This cooling environment ended many species that were only able to survive in the warm regions and were unable to smoothly make the transition.

title: Phanerozoic/Paleogene period


title: Category:1951


text:
Phanerozoic/Pennsylvanian Period

The Pennsylvanian Period - 318 to 299 million years ago (MYA)
The Pennsylvanian Period is most notable for its role in the creation of most of the world's coal. Also in this period, the first reptiles were formed. The term Pennsylvanian is a U.S. coinage that is based on the frequency of rocks of this period in the state of Pennsylvania. Internationally, the terms late Carboniferous Period or Silesian Period are preferred.

Subdivisions following the international timescale: (stages, ages)
 * Gzhellian
 * Kasimovian
 * Moscovian
 * Bashkirian

North American subdivisions:
 * Morrowan
 * Atokan
 * Desmoinesian
 * Missourian
 * Virgilian

Climate
Evidence in the form of well-developed tree rings, less diverse fossil floras and faunas, and glacial deposits indicates that temperate and glacial conditions were common in non-equatorial climatic belts during Pennsylvanian time. Climatic fluctuations during the period caused significant increases and decreases in the amount of water that was temporarily stored in the glaciers in Gondwana and contributed to eustatic changes of sea level. Although most artist's conceptions of the Pennsylvanian Period emphasize its prolific swamps, these were characteristic only of the equatorial regions. The Southern Hemisphere, which was dominated by the huge continent Gondwana, underwent a series of ice ages during this period. These ice ages sequestered water in times of ice growth and released it in times of melting, causing the ocean to cyclically regress (uncover coastal lands) and transgress (cover coastal lands) around the world. Repeating sequences of sedimentary rock layers record these changes in sea level.

Geology
From the bottom up, a typical sequence is sandstone, shale, coal, limestone , and sandstone again. Each such unit is termed a cyclothem and was formed as follows: (1) As ice melted in Gondwana, seas rose globally. Rivers and streams deposited sand and gravel in the coastal lowlands as they sought new equilibrium profiles (i.e., stable altitude-vs.-distance cross-sections). This sand layer eventually became sandstone. Although the coastal zones where sandstone deposition was taking place at any one time were narrow, large areas were blanketed by these sediments as the seas rose and coastlines swept slowly inland. (2) As the rising sea neared a given location, a lush coastal swamp developed. This deposited a thick layer of dead leaves, tree trunks, and other organic material rich in carbon that would eventually form coal. (3) When the sea finally submerged the swamp, a shallow marine environment appeared. The remains of shelly marine animals built up on the sea floor and eventually became limestone. (4) Ice began to build again in Gondwana, and sea levels began to drop in a new phase of regression. (5) Erosion of re-exposed coastal lands scraped off the topmost sediments left by the last transgression, including some of the limestone layer. (6) Ice began to melt again in Gondwana, triggering a fresh cycle of transgression.

Fauna (Animals)
This is when the first reptiles were formed. During this period the land was abundant with amphibian life. Also there were spiders, millipedes, land snails, scorpions, enormous dragonflies (with wingspans of approximately 2.5ft), and more than 800 kinds of cockroaches. The inland waters were inhabited by fish, clams, and various crustaceans. The oceans were inhabited by mollusks, crinoids, sea urchins and one-celled foraminifera. One of the greatest evolutionary innovations of the Carboniferous was the amniote egg, which allowed for the further exploitation of the land by certain tetrapods.

Flora (Plants)
The plants that were present during this period includes ferns and fernlike trees; giant horsetails, called calamites; club mosses, or lycopods, such as Lepidodendron and Sigillaria; seed ferns; and cordaites, or primitive conifers. Three basic floras inhabited the climatic zones of the time: the northern Angaran temperate flora, the southern Gondwanan temperate flora, and the Euramerican tropical flora. Each of these floristic regions was distinct in terms of its plant composition.

Paleogeography
Pennsylvanian paleogeography changed significantly during the period as the supercontinent Pangaea gradually was formed by the joining together of Gondwana and Laurasia. North America and northern Europe, which had been combined into the continent Laurasia since the late Silurian, and South America and northwestern Africa, which formed the northern part of the continent of Gondwana, came together along the Ouachita–Southern Appalachian–Hercynian geosyncline. The result was an extensive orogeny, or mountain-building episode, which supplied the vast amounts of sediments that make up most of the Pennsylvanian strata in the eastern and midwestern parts of the United States.

Orogeny
In North America, the Pennsylvanian Period was characterized by the progressive growth and enlargement of the Alleghenian-Ouachita-Marathon orogenic belt, which formed as the northwestern parts of the large continent Gondwana (mainly northwestern Africa, the area that is now Florida, and northern South America) collided against and deformed the eastern and southern parts of the North American continent.

Carbon (coal creation)
The stratigraphy of the Lower Carboniferous can be easily distinguished from that of the Upper Carboniferous. The environment of the Lower Carboniferous in North America was heavily marine, when seas covered parts of the continents. As a result, most of the mineral found in Lower Carboniferous is limestone, which are composed of the remains of crinoids, lime-encrusted green algae, or calcium carbonate shaped by waves. The North American Upper Carboniferous environment was alternately terrestrialand marine, with the transgression and regression of the seas caused by glaciation. These environmental conditions, with the vast amount of plant material provided by the extensive coal forests, allowed for the production of coal. Plant material did not decay when the seas covered them and pressure and heat eventually built up over the millions of years to transform the plant material to coal.

Potential Source References (to be cited)

 * http://www.enotes.com/earth-science/pennsylvanian-period
 * http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Carbonif
 * http://www.answers.com/topic/pennsylvanian
 * http://paleobiology.si.edu/geotime/main/htmlversion/pennsylvanian3.html
 * http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3437800450.html
 * http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/carboniferous/carboniferous.html

title: Phanerozoic/Pennsylvanian Period


text:
Phanerozoic/Permian period

The last period in the Paleozoic Era ranged from 290 million years ago to 240 million years ago. It saw the continued diversification of land vertebrates starting with the macro ancestral group ammniotes. The end of Permian Period and the beginning of the Mesozoic Era is marked by the largest mass extinction recorded in Earth's history. Tectonic activity joined all of the land masses together forming the super-continent named Pangea. The mass supercontinent was surrounded by the ocean Panthalassa. The Tethys Sea covered much of the southern and central section of what is now called Europe.

 * Worlds masses joined together on Pangea which was surrounded my the large single ocean the Panthalassa

Climate
Entering into the early Permian Period, the planet was experiencing an ice age. The north and south poles were covered in thick layers of ice. Gondwanaland was glaciated, and at the same point in time, tropical zones contained swampy forests. The continents move together and northward forming Pangea, which caused cooling on the land mass. By the middle of the Permian Period, climate began to warm and become more humid but remained humid. Polar Tundra Regions began to dry up as Pangea's inner continent became more humid and dry. The late Permian saw sequences of warm and cool climate changes, which may be linked to the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the Permian Period and marked the beginning of the Mesozoic Era.

The transition into the Middle Permian period saw a transition from an ice ago to a humid and dry climate, especially near the middle of Pangea’s equator. Lycopods and Sphenopsids greatly reduced in size, due to the lack of moisture on the midland. Mighty swamp forests were reduced to shrubberies.

Marine Life
Life flourished within the warm shallow oceans. Here, and abundance of invertebrates lived including, sponges, rugose coral, stromatolites, algae, foraminifers, corals, bryozoa, brachiopods.

As predators increased in size and deadliness, prey began to develop methods of protection for survival. This led to diversification in marine life throughout the Permian Period.

Plant Life
The northern section of of Pangea was dry and humid. Plants required very little water and could withstand intense fluctuations of dry and hot seasons. These plants included Conifers, Seed ferns, Ginkos, and other drought-resistant plants. As the climate became more dry, and abundance of gymnosperms fossils have been traced. Seeds were able to maintain it's inner moisture to prevent dryness.

Land Animals

 * Filled by eureptilia, especially archosaurs
 * Dry climate favors reptillia
 * Pelycosaurs evolved, and had a sail on its back, which may have been used to stabilize body temperature

Mass Extinction
There are several theories as to what actually caused mass extinctions, diminishing or killing off most species. The end of the Permian period marked the greatest mass extinction ever recorded in Earth's history that left 90-95% of marine species and about 70% of land animals went extinct.

Transgression
A possible cause to the largest extinction in Earth's history is a global cooling and/or worldwide lowering of sea level. These sea fluctuations Researchers have found evidence of Super volcano eruptions at shallow sea levels, where much of life existed during the Permian Period. The result may have been a formation of a cloud that spread the planet in ash and dust, effectively blocking out the sun, lowering the temperature globally, and produce acid rain.

Impact
An asteroid or comet collision with Earth could have killed off 90% of life at the end of the Permian Period. The collision would have been an direct cause of extinction. Rather, massive volcanism, global changes to sea-level and climate would have been the direct causes.

It is considered that the K-T extinction that killed off about 60% of organisms on Earth, and most of the Dinosaurs, was the result of an impact event 65 million years ago. Since 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, an impact would have more a 2 to 1 chance of striking the ocean, leaving no crater as evidence for us today. If an impact did occur in the ocean, the object would have been moved on the conveyer-belt-like divergent tectonic boundary on the ocean floor, and eventually ended up in a subduction zone or trench. There is evidence of shocked quartz at this time that has been found in Australia and Antarctica, as well as meteorite fragments in Antarctica

Volcanism
Some evidence suggests that an ancient super volcano in the Siberian Traps could have been responsible for the Permian-Triassic extinction event. By analyzing magnetically sensitive minerals in lava flow shows sign of the periodic reversal of Earth’s magnetic polarity. These stripes index the time of the eruption of the volcano in Siberia as well as similar magnetic pattern in the Deccan Traps that erupted near the time of the extinction of Dinosaurs. . These super-volcanoes could cause "a volcanic eruption ten thousand times larger than man has ever seen”.  The end of the Permian period was marked by a basalt flow that created the Siberian Traps. It is considered to be one of the largest basalt flows in history, covering over 2 million square miles of Earth in lava .  These eruptions may have caused dust clouds that would have covered the sky, blocking out the sun which causes a few problems.  First, the photosynthesis process shuts down, causing plants to stop producing oxygen as waste.  The anoxic environment would devastate most life on earth, on the land and sea.  Second, carbon dioxide levels would climb to unsafe levels poisoning the air organisms breathe.  In addition, raised carbon dioxide levels would increase the global temperature, only before it lowers again after being blocked out from the sun’s exposure for a long period of time, resulting in a global cooling phase. Third, the eruptions may have cause acid rain from the excess dust in the atmosphere, killing off plant organisms very quickly.

title: Phanerozoic/Permian period


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Music!

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Music Theory!

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User:Gaidheal1/Music Theory

Here goes my attempt at using my imported 'cat main' template from wikipedia...

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Template:Rellink/doc

This meta-template is used to style section hatnotes which direct users to related articles.

Usage
produces

In most cases one won't need the, but if there's an   anywhere in the text provided, it is necessary.

Adding an  parameter allows extra CSS classes to be specified.

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Template:Documentation/doc

This is the documentation template.

For most of the instructions about how and when to use this template, see Template documentation.

This template displays a green doc box like you are seeing now, and automatically loads the content from a /doc subpage. It can also load the content from other places if instructed to.

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This template can also load the content from any other page. Like this:

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The content can also be fed directly as text. Like this:

When the content parameter is used the doc box normally doesn't show the [edit] [purge] links in the top right corner. Note that if the /doc page exists a link to it is still shown in the link box below the doc box.

But parameter 1 and the content parameter can also be combined, like this:

Then the pagename fed as parameter 1 is used for the [edit] [purge] links and for the /doc link in the link box below the doc box. But the content parameter is used for the content shown in the doc box. The above code means that the content is transcluded as " ". In this example a parameter is also fed to the /doc page being loaded.

Best practice
The code should be added at the bottom of the template code, with no space before " " (which would cause extra space on pages where the template is used).

Categories and interwiki links that apply to the template itself should be added to the bottom of the /doc subpage, inside  tags. For more complex cases, see Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Template documentation.

If the documentation page contains <includeonly> or <noinclude> tags as part of the visible documentation text, replace the " " with " ".

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When in Template space this template shows this heading:
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In most other namespaces, such as "Wikipedia:", it shows this heading:
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But when on File (image) pages it shows this heading:
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The heading parameter can be used to set the heading to something else. Like this:

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The heading-style parameter can be fed optional CSS values. Without quotation marks  but with the ending semicolons. For example:

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Below the big doc box is a small link box that shows some meta-data about the documentation. The link box shows different things depending on what parameters are fed to this template, and in which namespace it is used. In some cases the link box is not shown at all.

To hide the link box, add the parameter "off".

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If the documentation page doesn't exist, the [create] link includes a preload page so that clicking it will pre-fill the edit form with the basic documentation page format. Preload text is also used for the /sandbox and /testcases (create) links.

When this template is on a protected template page it now automatically adds pp-template which shows the grey or red padlock in the top right corner. So no need to manually add to templates that use documentation.

When this template is on a /sandbox subpage it automatically adds the template sandbox notice.

Subject space vs talk space
Terminology: Subject space is the opposite of talk space. For instance "Template:" is the subject space of "Template talk:".

This template is usually placed in subject space, within <noinclude> tags. But in some cases this template needs to be on the talkpage:

 * For preload pages (usually in Template or Wikipedia space), since they can't use <noinclude>. See for instance Template talk:AfC preload and Template talk:RfD subpage starter. Such talkpages can be marked with talkdoc.

 * In MediaWiki space, since <noinclude> often doesn't work in system messages and since MediaWiki space needs to be kept clean for performance reasons.

When placed on talkpages this template usually is placed near the top of the page and without <noinclude> tags.

The /doc, /sandbox and /testcases pages should normally be in subject space, except in the namespaces that don't have the MediaWiki subpage feature enabled: Main, File, MediaWiki and Category. (But currently we only show the /sandbox and /testcases links from User, User talk, Template and Template talk space.) There are also a whole bunch of other technical reasons why the /doc page must be stored under the talkpage for those namespaces.

This template automatically points its create links for the /doc, /sandbox and /testcases to the right namespace.

Technical details
This template calls documentation/start box2 and documentation/end box2 which in turn call documentation/start box and documentation/end box. /start box (and /end box) hold most of the code, while this template and /start box2 (and /end box2) do parameter preprocessing.

The preload page for the /doc [create] link is Template:Documentation/preload, but in File space it is Template:Documentation/preload-filespace. The preload pages for the /sandbox and /testcases (create) links are Template:Documentation/preload-sandbox and Template:Documentation/preload-testcases.

For more technical details see the talk page.

title: Template:Documentation/doc


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Template:Tlf/doc

This is the template.

This template works almost exactly like, see full documentation there.

But here is a short example:

Renders like this:

title: Template:Tlf/doc


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Template:Cat main/doc

Usage
This template is for use on Category pages, to refer to the primary article associated with this category, which most of the time, describes the entire set containing the category.

Normal usage (uses category name for wiki link):
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If the name of the main article is different than the name of the category — for example: if the main article for Category:Dead or Alive is Dead or Alive (series) — then you will need to use one parameter to specify the article:
 * →

Multiple articles
Simply append more articles as additional arguments (up to five):
 * results in
 * results in
 * results in

Pages which aren't articles

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title: Template:Cat main/doc


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Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault (miʃɛl fuko), born Paul-Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984), was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas. He held a chair at the prestigious Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Berkeley.

Foucault is best known for his critical studies of social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, the human sciences, and the prison system, as well as for his work on the history of human sexuality. His writings on power, knowledge, and discourse have been widely influential in academic circles. In the 1960s Foucault was associated with structuralism, a movement from which he distanced himself. Foucault also rejected the poststructuralist and postmodernist labels later attributed to him, preferring to classify his thought as a critical history of modernity rooted in Kant. Foucault's project was particularly influenced by Nietzsche, his "genealogy of knowledge" a direct allusion to Nietzsche's "genealogy of morality". In a late interview he definitively stated: "I am a Nietzschean."

Foucault was listed as the most cited scholar in the humanities in 2007 by the ISI Web of Science.

Reading group

 * Foucault reading group - based at University of Canberra where they hold meetings around agreed readings approximately once a month, and try to document their discussions on Wikiversity pages.

title: Michel Foucault


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Template:No footnotes/doc

When to use
Use this template to indicate that there are currently zero inline citations in the resource. For resources with both inline citations and a list of general references, use More footnotes instead. For resources that do not contain general references, but which need a greater number citations, use More references.

An inline citation is any system that associates a given piece of an resource with a specific citation. The two most popular forms are clickable footnotes ( tags, which produce numbered footnotes like this: [1]) and parenthetical references (e.g., ). Other resources use manually formatted footnotes or embedded citations.

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To add this template to a resource, type

 * You can change the word resource with, , table, etc.
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Redirects

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title: Template:No footnotes/doc


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Literature/1945/Bush

 * http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush
 * http://www.cs.sfu.ca/CC/365/mark/material/notes/Chap1/VBushArticle/

Editorial
As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Dr. Vannevar Bush has coordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare. In this significant article he holds up an incentive for scientists when the fighting has ceased. He urges that men of science should then turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge. For years inventions have extended man's physical powers rather than the powers of his mind. Trip hammers that multiply the fists, microscopes that sharpen the eye, and engines of destruction and detection are new results, but not the end results, of modern science. Now, says Dr. Bush, instruments are at hand which, if properly developed, will give man access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages. The perfection of these pacific instruments should be the first objective of our scientists as they emerge from their war work. Like Emerson's famous address of 1837 on "The American Scholar," this paper by Dr. Bush calls for a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge. -- THE EDITOR

Features

 * Patents of the microfilm selector or statistical machine

Excerpts

 * Professionally, our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose.... The difficulty seems to be not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present-day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record.
 * ... our contemporary encyclopedias are still in the coach-and-horse phase of development, rather than in the phase of the automobile and the aeroplane. These observers realize that the modern facilities of transport, radio, photographic reproduction and so forth are rendering practicable a much more fully succinct and accessible assembly of facts and ideas than was ever possible before. --- @ 1938/Wells p. 84.

Wikimedia

 * As We May Think
 * The article was a reworked and expanded version of his 1939 Mechanization and the Record.
 * Memex

Reviews

 * --- http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/goldbush.html

title: Literature/1945/Bush


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User:Marlynboke

I am a girl who likes knowledge an hates Mali...

title: User:Marlynboke


text:
Second Life/Sustainability considerations relating to the use of Second Life for education

 * Article copied from Learn Online
 * This article is being further developed and reviewed on Google Docs, as work towards a PhD thesis.

This document is to explore literature relating to sustainability issues in the use of Second Life for education. What is referenced here will be submitted to a working group involved in the progression of a New Zealand research project that is investigating Multi User Virtual Environments MUVEs in education, with a focus on the Second Life platform specifically. The content of this document will be considered by that working group for inclusion in a final literature review. That review will inform later phases of the project where educational models will be developed, tested and critiqued.

Considering sustainability issues in relation to Second Life
Sustainability is a complex and ill defined set of issues in any subject area, or too broad in meaning to be of any use specifically. None-the-less, I'm attempting to find writing that considers economic, ecological and social aspects of sustainability relating to Second Life. I should note that so far as I can tell, formal literature surrounding these issues and directly relating to Second Life is virtually non existent, so I'm tending to look further afield and historically, with what time is available, to find relevant points to bring to this review. I have also relied quite a bit on journalists and bloggers, as well as spokespeople from the industries themselves, for insight on how we might consider these issues at the moment.

For purposes of structuring this review, I have taken the advice of a colleague Samuel Mann and will consider Second Life in terms of direct and indirect impacts on sustainability. I will try to use the samples of writing I have found to outline those two perspectives, and then use that to formulate something of a framework we might use when considering the use of Second Life with sustainability and education in mind.

Direct impacts on resources, waste, pollution and cost of access

 * The possibility of computer equipment power consumption spiraling out of control could have serious consequences for the overall affordability of computing, not to mention the overall health of the planet. (Luiz André Barroso, Google 2005)

When I log into Second Life, one of the first things I notice is the bandwidth being used just to get around and see what's in there. The second thing I notice is the sound of my computer fan as it works harder to cool powered parts needed to keep me in there. This makes me think of the lifespan of that fan, and of my computer, the access and provision affordability, over all energy use, waste and pollutants, and ultimately the impact this has on ecosystems. For an end user to run Second Life satisfactorily requires newer and faster personal computers and Internet. For many this will mean discarding old computers, resulting in ewaste of the redundant hardware. All of this must flow down the line, compounding into an increased direct or indirect cost for a user to access the services and a likely unaccounted for impact on ecosystems.

On the provision side Second Life requires many servers and cabling, that also requires cooling and protection, all consuming energy and generally producing more polluting waste. In an attempt to get an idea of just how much energy the provision and use of Second Life is consuming, Nicolas Carr (drawing largely from the initial work of Tony Walsh and others at the time) became widely cited for his 2006 Rough Type blog post, Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians where he makes a rough calculation of how much electricity an avatar in Second Life consumes and compares that with known consumption rates of people.

 * ...So an avatar consumes 1,752 kWh per year. By comparison, the average human, on a worldwide basis, consumes 2,436 kWh per year. So there you have it: an avatar consumes a bit less energy than a real person, though they're in the same ballpark.
 * Now, if we limit the comparison to developed countries, where per-capita energy consumption is 7,702 kWh a year, the avatars appear considerably less energy hungry than the humans. But if we look at developing countries, where per-capita consumption is 1,015 kWh, we find that avatars burn through considerably more electricity than people do.
 * More narrowly still, the average citizen of Brazil consumes 1,884 kWh, which, given the fact that my avatar estimate was rough and conservative, means that your average Second Life avatar consumes about as much electricity as your average Brazilian.

In a comment on [Carr's] post, Sun's Dave Douglas takes the calculations another step, translating electricity consumption into CO2 emissions. (Carbon dioxide, he notes, "is the most prevalent greenhouse gas from the production of electricity.") He writes:

 * looking at CO2 production, 1,752 kWH/year per avatar is about 1.17 tons of CO2. That's the equivalent of driving an SUV around 2,300 miles (or a Prius around 4,000). (Carr et al 2006)

As far as I can tell, Carr's blog post remains the most cited article on the question of energy consumption of Second Life, and it appears that as yet, no one has done the follow up on it. Tony Walsh continued to keep notes and field comments on the issues for some time on his blog Clickable Culture, and advises that former CEO of Linden Lab, Philip Rosedale maintains an interest in the ecological impact of Second Life.

So far, responses to these direct impacts on economic and ecological sustainability come in the forms of projects like the Big Green Switch - where people can obtain carbon offset credits for their use of Second Life; and the University of Notre Dame's project where they use heat waste from servers to help maintain warm temperatures in horticultural greenhouses (Adam Stein 2008). The Wikipedia entry for eWaste inlcudes links to projects and legislation to manage levels of eWaste going to landfill.

Indirect impacts on culture, ideology, language and behavior

 * Second Life is built upon, and relies on our fundamentally familiar relationships to landscapes and social interactions that occur within them. Carolyn MacCaw 2008

Indirect impacts of Second Life on sustainability issues relate more to content and the possible influence this has on people's awareness and appreciation of sustainability issues. On the one hand there are several content projects like the eTopia Eco Village being developed in Second Life that present models and ideas for more efficient resource use, less energy waste, less pollution, and better building design; but on the other hand there are messages implicit in all of these, and throughout the Second Life operating system itself, that arguably reinforce problematic cultural assumptions and behaviors that are fundamentally disrupting sustainability from the outset. Things such as perpetual consumerism, futurism, comodification, culturally inappropriate symbolism, and an inherent preference for human design over established ecological systems, are all prevalent in the Second Life program, including the many user generated models within it.

 * The model inferred here is highly colonial. Second Life is positioned as a Terra Nullius and this applies layers of colonial meaning and association. (MacCaw 2008)

This opening sentence to Colonial precedent, a section in Carolyn MacCaw's article Art and (Second) Life: Over the hills and far away?, echoes the same sentiments held by Bowers in his book 8 years earlier Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability.

 * ...the Sim series, like all other educational software, ignore other forms of cultural storage and renewal - such as elder knowledge and the need to develop symbolic forms of expression (music, dance, narrative, ceremony) that do not diminish the processes of Nature... [M]aking decisions that involve the use of modern technologies leaves the students without an understanding of the differences between ecologically appropriate technologies and those that are culturally imperialistic. (Bowers 2000: p138)

While Bowers' book was concerned with computers in culture and ecological sustainability generally, his analysis of popular education and simulation software of the time offers us useful considerations we can apply to Second Life. Bowers wanted educators to consider a wider range of issues than simply the content designed for relatively narrow learning objectives. He wanted us to critically reflect on the whole experience that is implicit in the content and the interface, including the computer itself. His premise is that the designs and symbolism used to develop such technology and experiences represent a linguistic colonization of the present by the past, which is ultimately an ecologically unsustainable vocabulary.

 * Ironically, the technology that is proclaimed as revolutionizing the deepest foundations of culture is rooted in this basic misunderstanding of language. This misunderstanding partly accounts for one of the most important oversights of computer-mediated learning: the symbol systems appearing on the screen reproduce the implicit thought patterns of the software programmers. [Where the programmers themselves are evidently unaware of what they are communicating] (Bowers 2000: p123)

In the case of Second Life there are the programmers of the platform itself, and then there are the users as programmers of content that is on the platform. Bowers concerns can be extended to both, and it is MacCaw who takes his critical framework to Second Life.

 * If land is not producing economic value then it is un- or under-utilized. Land and its use value become synonymous with ownership.

 * Danny Butt in his essay on Local Knowledge (2005) proposes three impassable contradictions, related to settler culture, indigenous culture and location. One of these is mapping – the most basic function of the colonial process – Butt writes, functions by turning a profoundly social relationship with the land characteristic of indigenous culture, into data.

 * And while the designers of Second Life created a land conveniently without indigenous people, its first owner (the Linden Corporation who establishes initial trading rights for each ‘new’ island) and the Linden inhouse building tools frame the world. I suggest that the way that we construct the formation of culture in this empty land draws upon a colonial model and precedents. The research question that follows from these initial considerations is: is it possible to have new empty land that allows for a different model of colonization, or will older models prevail? And how can we consider art in this relationship? (MacCaw 2008)

And I would suggest that we think about this not just in terms of art. It seems to me that any occupation that is concerned with forms of communication, interpretation and learning should take these thoughts into account as well. Quoting Bowers again:

 * Storybook Weaver not only encourages the student to make decisions about the storyline, but also about the geographical features on which the story will be situated, as well as the animals, plants and types of buildings that will be part of the visual background... The 650 images and 450 scenery combinations that the program makes available to the student provide for a wide range of imaginative possibilities, and this is where the real problem arises.
 *  What the creators of Storybook Weaver view as the expression of students' creative imagination can also be viewed as extreme anthropocentrism. Rather than a knowledge of specific ecosystems and cultural traditions (architectural styles, clothes, technologies, and so on) the student's subjective experience is the basis of learning. (Bowers 2000: p130)

A framework for developing sustainable education using Second Life
Here is a suggested framework to assess possible aspects of sustainability education using Second Life, and inform a process of design and development for education for sustainability.

3 guiding questions from Bowers:

 * 1) How do we educate teachers and educational software programmers to become more conscious of the cultural assumptions and values reinforced in computer-mediated educational experiences?
 * 2) Can the software be designed to clarify how certain cultural assumptions and values undermine the convivial and morrally reciprical patterns that characterise more self-reliant communities?
 * 3) What do students need to understand about the cultural non-neutrality of technology and the difference between imperialistic, environmentally destructive technologies versus those that support local knowledge of environmental possibilities and limits? (Bowers 2000: p139)

While there are several well known projects in Second Life that treat some of the issues mentioned here to do with sustainability, I am yet to find one that attempts to address the full range of issues included in this review (although a combination of some would go close). An educational development using Second Life might consider Bower's questions and use them as a basis to critique existing content in Second Life, taking what is useful and noting what is evidently missing or counter productive, and then devise an educational experience from that.

Projects in Second Life relating to sustainability issues

 * Big Green Switch
 * Etopia
 * Commonwealth island
 * The virtual classroom project
 * Svarga


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Template:Own

Own work

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Template:Own/doc

Usage
This template can be used as is. Like this:

Then it outputs this:

 * Own work

It can also take the name of the author as a parameter. Like this:

Then it outputs this:

 * Own work by John Doe

The template adds the page to Category:Self-published work.

title: Template:Own/doc


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Template:Documentation subpage/doc

Usage
documentation subpage OR

Userboxes
When used to document usage of a userbox, it may be preferred to have this template state "userbox"/"userbox page" instead of ""/" page" or " template"/" template page". If this is preferred, use: userbox documentation subpage OR

Customization of text
To manually change the text of the template, the " " and/or " " parameters can be specified. " " changes the automatic text on the first line to your own word(s). " " changes the automatic text on the second line to your own word(s). If " " parameter is specified without the " " parameter, both the first and second line of text will be custom based on the text given in the " " parameter.

Example usage:

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This template should be placed at the top of "/doc" pages. It changes output depending on where it is viewed:
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 * On other pages (ie, pages transcluding the "/doc" page), the template will not show. The template page itself (which contains ) will automatically note that the documentation is transcluded from a subpage.

Functions
In addition to the output message, the template categorizes pages to Category:Template documentation, Category:User documentation, or similar (named after the subject space), but only for documentation pages in namespaces with the subpage feature. It defaults the sort key to the page name without namespace (ie, "Foo" on "Template:Foo", so it would be sorted in categories under 'F').

title: Template:Documentation subpage/doc


text:
University of Canberra/RCC2011/RecentChangesCamp Expanded/Sydney/notes

Notes from RCCx - made somewhat haphazardly (I find it hard to type and listen at the same time!) --Chriswaterguy 13:31, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

(Jutta talked before I started typing so this bit is rough...) Jutta spoke about her first wiki experience, about her current job which had "knowledge of wikis" as an optional extra thing her employers hoped for.

Nick Jenkins & Andrew Garrett talked about MediaWiki & bug-squashing.

Andrew & Jutta talked about wikis for clinical practice guidelines and for cancer research

Pending Changes (formerly FlaggedRevs) - the fundamental dilemmas (who can bless, who decides who can bless, do registered users & admins have their changes "auto-blessed"?), confusion and conflicting problems and

Isn't "screw the newbies" an official en.wikipedia policy?

Liam - learnt about open source through Wikipedia, ended up doing his thesis on Wikipedia.

Tim Rayner - "Coalition of the Willing" swarm approach to climate change. Working on cotw.cc, and part of the vision is a Green Knowledge Trust (a green Wikipedia).

Leigh Blackall - wikis in education. Advantages of using a public wiki on a tender - dialog started with the key party from an early stage because they could see when they were mentioned; this improved the quality of other tenders, which was positive as they were an altruistic project.

Alice from Cancer Council, works with literature searches. Cancer Council is working with a wiki to have more up-to-date info than a physical book. Jutta & Alice talked about tools/extensions/techniques for citations.

"Megawikis" - our new favorite word for the Wikimedia sites.

Liam: Prove-it gadget is available on Wikipedia.extension...?

Data wiki, & the idea of a centralized wiki for templates.

Funding that Wikimedia Foundation has received for specific work has issues, where there is a contractual requirement to implement something, and it turns out to (e.g.) not improve user experience.

Appropedia - funding issues the main current challenge.

Look of the wiki - wikifashion, perception that it needs to be beautiful - and it does look beautiful, but hard to see how to edit.

Matthew Clarke - Wiki Christian, vandalism issues (Andrew asked if they considered automated solutions) - corporate wikis -> open discussion, Liam mentioned that the US State Department put in a MediaWiki successfully, by pre-seeding the wiki, favoring the wiki in search results, and deprecating other platforms in support. #blog

Talk pages - Andrew: Make it easy to show appreciation for other people's posts...

Russian Wikipedia - rather than deleting, they move articles about Joe Blow's cat to a different "incubator" namespace.

Andrew: Rich text editing in MediaWiki is technically extremely difficult because of so many functions, from languages (Chinese, right-to-left languages...) to musical notation, mathematical functions, templates and parser functions. It's the Wikimedia Foundation's #1 priority, but it's a 3 year project.

Talked about future meetings - a regular monthly event?


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