PAUL BLAKE

Helping with the Queensland Division of the Geological Society of Australia's booth at Science Week 2002.

This page was last updated 26/04/06. Click here to see the latest updates.

If you wish to email me you can on p.blake at bigpond.net.au. Just replace "at" with @.

 

ABOUT THE WEBPAGE OWNER.

PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS

As a scientist I am dedicated to my chosen professions of palaeontology and geology. I currently work in Queensland, which is the second largest state in Australia.

I work as a regional mapper (currently working on the Drummond Basin) in the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) which is part of the Department of Natural Resources & Mines (NR&M). For those of you who are interested, the NR&M has its own homepage that you can visit at http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/mines/.

The GSQ has had a long history, much of which can be found at http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/science/geoscience/aboutus/history1b.html.

If you want to see my list of publications then click here.

If you would like to see some photographs of scenery and geology from the Yarrol Province then click here.

If you are interested in palaeontology, then a good place to start looking for information would be the Paleonet.

As a geologist and palaeontologist I am regularly annoyed by so-called "Creation Scientists" (a perfect example of an oxymoron). In our modern society it is hard to imagine how anybody could still believe that the earth is only 6000 years old and that all fossils were deposited in Noah's flood. If you want to read about the Creation/Evolution argument from the point of view of main stream science then click on the Darwin Fish below to visit the Talk.Origins homepage, or click here.

Note: you can not call the differences between Creation and Evolution a debate any more. The "creation scientists" lost a long time ago, but still can not seem to accept reality.

If you want to quickly see the difference between Scientists and Creationists, then click here.

A good Australian site that examines the Evolution/Creation conflict is known as No Answers in Genesis and can be found at http://www.noanswersingenesis.org.au/

An example of just how important the Theory of Evolution has been to science and society can be seen by the fact that Life magazine listed Charles Darwin as the 9th most important person of the Millennium. If you want to learn more about Charles Darwin then click on his picture above. It takes you to a site that gives you a brief outline of Charles Darwin's life, and links to some online versions of his books, including "The Origin of Species".

SOCIAL INTERESTS

Ever since I was a teenager I have been involved in playing Dungeons & Dragons. That's right!! There is another part of my life that certain fundamentalist christians have tried to ruin. In my opinion, role-playing games are a great way to develop your mind and your problem-solving abilities. If you want to see what information there is available on role-playing games on the Internet, a good place to start is "Worlds in the Net".

 

Aaahhh. The easy way to slay dragons. At least until mummy returns.

My favourite fantasy artist is Larry Elmore. He is responsible for the black and white sketch above and the picture to the left.

If you want to go to a page with more information about Larry Elmore, and examples of his artwork, then a good place to visit would be the Official Elmore Web Site. Just click on the picture to the left, or click here.

WOOHOO!!! After years of being a Dungeon Master I am finally a Player Character again. I plan on writing up the campaign as a story. Each gaming session will be a separate chapter. If you wish to see the story then click here.

At this time the Sails on the Sunless Sea is on hold while our DM is travelling the world (the real one, not Aladyne). A new DM has taken over and I am starting to write this game up now too. It is called "DARKNESS DECENDETH" and its front page can be found by clicking here.

The new third edition of Dungeons and Dragons has now been released, and so far I have been impressed with what has been produced.
The Official Webpage can be accessed by clicking here.
However, there is also at least one really good Unofficial website that can be accessed by clicking here.

 

For a long time now, Graeme Finsen has been working on the Roleplaying setting known as Midaren. Others have added to it over the years e.g. I added the continent Schorl (sometimes called Lodoss) and Ben Collyer added the continent whose name literally translates to "The World" and is where the Sails on the Sunless Sea story takes place. However, the bulk of the creation of this world, and all of the writing of "The Partially Complete Rule Book - For adventures in Midaren and the Continent of Alladyn" has been carried out by Graeme

Now, if you wish to see this book it can be downloaded as a PDF document by clicking here (~800Kb). Due to a request from Graeme I have removed The Partially Complete Rule Book – For adventures in Midaren and the Continent of Alladyn.  Graeme ran some calculations on the size of the moons of Aladyne and found that they were insufficient to cause sufficiently earth-like tides.  He found he would have to move them inside the Roche limit to make it work which means that the gravitational pull of the planet would tear the moons apart (or some kind of problem like that – Typical engineer!!!).  Anyway, until the problem is solved I have honoured his request and removed the document.

I also enjoy reading. The book that launched my interest in reading was "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book is a must for any body who reads fantasy. However, at the moment my favourite author is Terry Pratchett. Terry's books are set on a planet called the Discworld. It has this name for a very obvious reason. It is a flat disc which sits on the back of a four elephants, which stand on the back of a giant turtle which swims slowly through space, and of coarse the sun, just like the moon, orbits around the planet. This world has many interesting characters, and Death is not just something that happens to you at the end of your life. The stories are a mixture of fantasy and comedy, but still manage to reflect life on our world. My favourite character would be a close call between Rincewind the Wizard (spelt Wizzard on his hat) and Death, both of which are in the picture below, along with the Discworld.

There are many WebPages dedicated to Terry Pratchett. A good place to start is the L-Space Web. Either click on the name or the picture above to visit the site.

An Australian Terry Pratchett Fan Club can be found at the Bugarup University Homepage.

I have also written a short article on the God of Evolution who appears in "The Last Continent" by Terry Pratchett. If you wish to read the article then click here

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