Colophon

An About page for the website, not me

“Colophon” is a fancy, bookish word for a brief description of how a publication is made. In this case, it’s about how I put this website together, both the nitty-gritty details and the abstract ambitions.

Assumed Audience

I will, occasionally, add an “assumed audience” aside to a post or page. I got this idea from Robin Sloan and Chris Krycho. My audiences may range from fellow planetary scientists to the random non-scientists who happen to find my website. Instead of trying to have every post provide enough explanation for all possible audiences, which is probably impossible, the “assumed audience” aside will be a sign-post for readers. The intent is to provide a frame for readers, so they know how to read the post. I do not intend to discourage readers. I would expect a farmer writing about feed types for different breeds of cattle to do the same for me, i.e., give me a warning that I should expect to spend sometime googling terms, since I know nothing about cattle. I hope that this signpost will help readers, not hinder.

Website setup

I built this website using the Quarto scientific publishing system. I am using the Spacelab theme with the theme colors changed to NASA blue, which seems appropriate for me. The syntax highlighter is “printing”, which is less flashly than your typical highlighter, which is why I like it. The publications page is based on code from Jeffrey Girard and instructions that he provided.