A short history of this quarter's topic or how this thing is really run:

Sarah Lewis: Once again it's time to decide what we'll be focusing on in brown bag this quarter. My general feeling is that we have more enthusiasm from the students when we pick a clear topic of focus, and we never seem to get around to asking them what they want to learn about. Are there strong feelings about possible topics or should I just pick something?

andrew meigs: sarah, thanks for taking the initiative on this once again. I am in favor of landscape evolution models, but will not volunteer for the first session.

Jay Noller: I'd like to see demonstrations of techniques folks are using in their research or papers rich in technique demonstrations. The "field" season is coming up, so brushing up on techniques is likely on everyone's minds.

andrew meigs: in keeping with the tradition of swaying with the wind, i think jay has a good suggestion. a techniques-oriented series could be interesting. i would probably pick a paper on OSL dating, for example.

Gordon (grump) Grant: To retain my reputation as a contrary and nascent curmudgeon, I want to opine that "technique" papers per se are not necessarily interesting in and of themselves, unless you're likely to be applying the technique tomorrow. So I would encourage selection of papers that use techniques in interesting ways to reveal something about Mother Nature. But I know that everyone knew that already.

Stephen Lancaster could not be reached for comment.