I'm another fan of Jon Anderson's scientific abstracting service,
and I was amused by the criticism of the unnamed critic that Jon
quoted in his posting earlier today.

"Perhaps I am speaking only for myself," said the unnamed critic,
"but I'm not at all sure that this list is the proper place to
download a publication that deals largely with exotica and species
that most of us will never chase and really have no interest in.
I happen to have unlimited time use of AOL, but many don't and join
the list to use their time allottment efficiently to learn about
bird sightings."

Because tweeters is precisely the place to discuss the contents
of technical publications, to join the fray in the dreaded cat thread
or to indulge in the occasional outbreak of puns, to debate avian
adaptive evolution, to cheer on the rehabilitation of the Montlake
Fill, to digress into musings on disappearing amphibians, to anticipate
Dennis Paulson's work on dragonflies--well, you get the idea.

I must suppose that Jon's unnamed critic is not particularly familiar
with the spirit and history of Tweeters and has confused Tweeters
with some other list.

Thanks, Jon.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Lyles jrlyles at eskimo.com
Tacoma, WA <Editing isn't pretty.> jrlyles at usgs.gov