Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 29 “Breeding Sites” (Pages 192 – 205)

Posted on February 21, 2026 by flybrand1976

This chapter, the final pat of ‘third iteration’ really kicks off the action. The kids see velociraptors on the boat heading to the mainland. Nedry steals the dinosaur embryos, releasing a computer virus to cover his tracks. The virus shuts down security, stranding our heroes out in the park with no power in their vehicles and no power to the electric fences. Muldoon is ready to save them with weapons – only to find that Nedry took the Jeep where he had left his arms.

Best Writing, Quotes

“That’s right,” Arnold said. “The animals can get out now.”

– Page 204

While my personal favorite is the Mandelbrot quote – he is referenced three times in the book – the most iconic line from this chapter comes again from Ray Arnold.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“Breeding sites?” Wu said, over the radio. – Page 192

“But we’ve never seen that,” Arnold said, over the radio.” – Page 193

“Is anyone watching the park at night?” – Page 193

“Gennaro said impatiently, “Listen, this is all very intriguing, but we’re forgetting the main question: have any animals gotten off the island?” – Page 194

  • Is that really the main question?
  • Who cares if animals are off the island, if they don’t even know how many are on the island to begin with?

“It’s a private conversation,” Malcolm said. – Page 195, and this is how Ian Malcolm winds up leaving the kids defenseless in another vehicle.

“Well, Mandelbrot found a remarkable thing with his geometric tools. He found that things looked almost identical at different scales.”

“At different scales?” Grant said.

“For example,” Malcolm said, “a big mountain, seen from far away, has a certain rugged mountain shape. If you get closer, and examine a small peak of the big mountain, it will have the same mountain shape. In fact, you can go all the way down the scale to a tiny speck of rock, seen under a microscope—it will have the same basic fractal shape as the big mountain.”

“I don’t really see why this is worrying you,” Grant said. He yawned. He smelled the sulfur fumes of the volcanic steam. They were coming now to the section of road that ran near the coastline, overlooking the beach and the ocean.

“It’s a way of looking at things,” Malcolm said. “Mandelbrot found a sameness from the smallest to the largest. And this sameness of scale also occurs for events.”

  • Page 197

“The little girl says she sees something on the boat. Some kind of animal,” Regis said. – Page 198

  • The dinosaurs are already off of the island, even the children can see it.

“They’re raptors,” Grant said. “At least two. Maybe more. Juveniles.” – Page 199, on a boat to the mainland.

“Don’t touch my console, okay?” – Nedry to Hammond and Ray Arnold – page 200

“Stopped somewhere around the tyrannosaur paddock.” – Page 201 – “What’s up with the electric Land Cruisers when the power goes out?”

“But later, when he was approached by Lewis Dodgson at Biosyn, Nedry was ready to listen.” – Page 202

  • Never forget, that as bad as InGen and Hammond are – Dodgson, first introduced in Chapter 6, is actually malicious.

“Nedry quickly took two of each, slipping them into the shaving cream can.” – Page 203

“That’s right,” Arnold said. “The animals can get out now.” – Page 204

“It was lucky, he thought, that he had the foresight to put the launcher in it.” Page 205 Muldoon goes to find the rocket launcher discussed in Chapter 26, but Nedry has disappeared with the Jeep

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Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 28 “Control” [5/12] (Pages 186 – 192) Poisson vs Gaussian Distribution?

Posted on February 20, 2026 by flybrand1976
The first of eleven ‘tables’ or ‘exhibits’ used in this chapter.

Crichton has confidence in the technical literacy of his reader – as shown by the eleven tables / exhibits he uses in this chapter alone. These are data tables made to look as if they were cut-copy-pasted straight from an InGen technical document.

Best Writing, Quotes

“Now, then: can you ask the computer to search for, let us say, three hundred animals?”

– Ian Malcom, Jurassic Park, Page 188

Life is finding a way, and the computers designed to monitor the dinosaur population have been programmed by the same over confident engineers who developed the rest of the park. The programs are confirming a count – for the sake of speed – rather than executing a count.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“It must be a bird egg. That’s all it can be.” Page 186, Hammond responds to the velociraptor egg

  • This is the whole reason he brough the paleontologists here, the whole reason to have them.
  • When they deliver their message, he is not ready to hear it.

“Can you have the computer search for a different number of animals?” Page 187 – Malcolm asks a logical question to test the validity of the reporting

“Now, then: can you ask the computer to search for, let us say, three hundred animals?” – Ian Malcom, Page 188

“We just always used the base count of two hundred thirty-eight because we assumed there couldn’t be more.” – Page 189, John “Ray” Arnold

“The problem was you had more than the expected number.” Page 190, Malcolm when they realize they have 292 dinosaurs, 54 more than expected

“It’s a Poisson [Gaussian] distribution,” Wu said. “Normal curve.” – Page 191, Wu doesn’t realize that his Compy height graph doesn’t reflect the population he claims to have

  • Fascinating that the Kindle and print copies have different statistical terms.
  • Gaussian is correct, so the error must have been caught over time.

“You’ve got breeding dinosaurs out there, Henry.” – Ian Malcolm by Radio

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Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 27 “Stegosaur” (Pages 179 – 186) – “Life finds a way.”

Posted on February 19, 2026 by flybrand1976

The Jurassic Park film has no stegosaur – instead the sick animal is played by a young triceratops. Stegosaurs do make an appearance in The Lost World movie. Here the ailing stegosaur gives us another glimpse at Hammond’s over confidence, the un-natural nature of the dinosaurs, and provides Ian Malcolm the opportunity to say the work’s most iconic line.

Best Writing, Quotes

“But life finds a way.”

Jurassic Park, Page 185: Ian Malcolm on the risks of the park

There are many outstanding quotes in this chapter – from the history of the computer, the repeated certainty that the dinosaurs can’t breed, and then there is Ian Malcolm’s repetition of the risks and warnings he made to Hammond about the park. Chaos theory foretold everything that they are seeing – because life finds a way to overcome the challenges around it – that’s what makes it ‘life’.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“What’s he sick with?” Tim said. – Page 179

  • Ellie responds that they don’t know.
  • After pages of ‘control’ and ‘certainty’ – we are confronted with another scene where the scientists are over confident.

“Animal this size has to take in a minimum of five or six hundred pounds of plant matter daily just to keep going.” – Page 180, Harding to Lex and Ellie

“It was an interesting puzzle, she thought.” – Ellie on Page 181

  • She will have many more puzzles, where the stakes are more than ‘interesting.’

“These rocks were heaped in small piles, almost as if they had bene thrown down that way.” – Page 182, Ellie observes the gizzard stones

“It’s predicted,” Malcom said.” – Page 183

“Chaos theory throws it right out the window. It says that you can never predict certain phenomena at all. You can never predict the weather more than a few days away. All the money that has been spent on long-range forecasting – about half a billion dollars in the last few decades – is money wasted.” – Page 184, Ian Malcolm on why the Stegosaurs are Sick, and Why Chaos Theory Predicted It

“Yes. I also told him where the deviations would occur. Obviously the fitness of the animals to the environment was one area. This stegosaur is a hundred million years old. It isn’t adapted to our world. The air is different, the solar radiation is different, the land is different, the insects are different, the sounds are different, the vegetation is different. Everything is different. The oxygen content is decreased. This poor animal’s like a human being at ten thousand feet altitude. Listen to him wheezing.” – Ian Malcolm, Page 184

“Broadly speaking, the ability of the park to control the spread of life-forms. Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.” Malcolm shook his head. “I don’t mean to be philosophical, but there it is.” – Page 185

“Yes,” Grant said. “It’s a velociraptor egg.” – Page 186 – Not only can the dinosaurs breed, but the most dangerous one is breeding.

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Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 26 “Control” [5th of 12] (Pages 173 – 178)

Posted on February 18, 2026 by flybrand1976

This is the fifth of twelve times that Crichton will use the word ‘Control’ to introduce the chapter. He doesn’t list formal chapter titles in the original book, although they are referenced as such in the 2026 Amazon Kindle version. The word ‘control’ is used 158 times in the book, compared to 324 times for ‘dinosaur.’

It is the last time ‘Control’ is used to label a chapter in this ‘Third Iteration’ aka ‘section’ of the book.

Best Writing, Quotes

“They must have seen by now that we have everything under control.”

Jurassic Park, Page 173: Henry Wu to Hammond, while sitting in the Control Room

We first meet Dr. Henry Wu in Chapter 19 “The Tour“, and beause he doesn’t die on screen he goes on to become a major character in the movie franchise. He is played by the actor BD Wong. Wu’s name comes up 230 times in the book, compared to 339 for Hammond.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“They must have seen by now that we have everything under control.” – Henry Wu to Hammond, while sitting in the Control Room Page 173

“Wu found it offensive to think that anyone would believe him capable of contributing to a system where such a thing could happen.” – Page 174

  • Wu is so over confident, that him being wrong isn’t even a consideration.
  • He questions that anyone else should even have the right to question him.

“Brontosaurus is the biggest dinosaur, Lex,” Ed Regis said. Tim didn’t bother to contradict him. – Page 175

  • Lot of people not saying what they really think.
  • Lots of mis-statements going uncorrected, and it is trained at a young age.

“A raptor! In that field!” – Page 176, Tim requests for the tour to stop as he thinks he has seen a velociraptor.

“We can’t make them experience wonder.” – Arnold, Page 177 – as the team in control is frustrated on how their first visitors are experiencing the park

“But you didn’t want to put money into a storm barrier to protect the pier.” – Page 178, Arnold to Hammond

  • Hammond wants equipment
  • Equipment is on boat, but storm is coming
  • Boat needs to leave otherwise it will be destroyed against the dock
  • Boat leaving early accelerates Nedry’s plan
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Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 25 “Big Rex” (Pages 167 – 173)

Posted on February 17, 2026 by flybrand1976
The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton on the cover of the 1990 edition no longer fits the modern interpretation of what the organism’s posture would be.

The words ‘Tyrannosaurus’ [14] and ‘Rex’ [49] are found for a total of 63 times in the book, and this is the first of only two times it is mentioned in a chapter title. The second comes later in Chapter 46, ‘Tyrannosaur.’

Best Writing, Quotes

“They have come for the danger.”

Hammond, Page 168, While watching the vehicles on remote camera after the goat is revealed in the Tyrannosaurus cage

Hammond is all over the place trying to understand how or why his investment – Jurassic Park – will become a success. He knows people will want to see dinosaurs. Here he is watching as his grandchildren are off on a ride to see a carnivorous Tyrannosaurus rex feast on a captive goat.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“Dinosaurs ruled the earth for a hundred and twenty million years, but there were tyrannosaurs for only the last fifteen million years of that period.” – Page 167 – Narrated in Ray Kiley’s voice

“They have come for the danger.” Hammond says on Page 168, after the goat is revealed in the Tyrannosaurus cage

“It was Muldoon’s view that some dinosaurs were too dangerous to be kept in a park setting. In part, the danger exited because they still knew so little about the animals.” Page 169 – Muldoon, the expert on wildlife and hunting, is not in the loop on their planning

“Yet a moose was almost as skillful with its snout as an elephant with its trunk.” Page 170 – some surprising animals are well known for escaping their pens at zoos

“Hey,” Dennis Nedry called, from the far console. “As long as you’re up, get me a Coke, okay?” – Page 171 – Crichton creates a huge difference between Nedry and Muldoon, in their biography and their actions

“Then they smelled the odor, a garbage stench of putrefaction and decay that drifted up the hillside toward them.” – Page 171

“When a carnivore finally brought down an animal, it was waiting for another predator, who might attack it and steal its prize.” – Page 172 as they observe what the Tyrannosaurus rex will do with the goat it has killed.

“Malcolm sat back in his seat. “Fantastic,” he said.” – Page 173 after the T. rex retreats into the woods to eat the goat.

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Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 24 “Control” [3 of 11] (Pages 160 – 166)

Posted on February 16, 2026 by flybrand1976

Chapter 24 is the third of eleven chapters which are titled ‘Control’ – for the control room within Jurassic Park, and for the illusion of control which we see stripped away over the course of the book.

Best Writing, Quotes

“Arnold contended, only half jokingly, that the entire world was increasingly described by teh metaphor of the theme park. “

John Raymond “Ray” Arnold, Systems Engineer on Page 161
John Raymond “Ray” Arthur is a systems engineer who worked on the Polaris submarine missile and then goes on to work with theme parks. Theme parks are central to Crichton’s writing.

John Raymond “Ray” Arnold (JurassicWiki) is played in the movie by Samuel L. Jackson, and has some of the most insightful observations about how Crichton views the world and theme parks in this chapter.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“There are no minor details, Mr. Hammond.” – John Arnold, Page 160

“John Arnold was a systems engineer who had worked on the Polaris submarine missile in the late 1960s, until he had his first child and the prospect of making weapons became too distasteful.” – Page 160

“His continuous employment at parks had eventually given him a somewhat skewed view of reality. Arnold contended, only half jokingly, that the entire world was increasingly described by teh metaphor of the theme park. “Paris is a theme park,” he once announced, after a vacation, ‘athough it’s too expensive, and the park employees are unpleasant and sullen.” – Page 161

“And, finally, we have the unprecedented problems of caring for a population of animals that no one has ever tried to maintain before.” – Arnold to Hammond, Page 161 – the first problems being an amusement park, and the second it being a a zoo.

“The animals, however exotic, would fundamentally behave like animals in zoos anywhere.” – Page 162, the core belief of the Jurassic Park team

“The automated fecal analysis (called Auto Poop), designed to check for parasites in the animal stools, invariably recorded all specimens as having the parasite Phatostomium venulosum, although none did.” Page 163 – nearly all of the software systems failed to work as planned.

“Despite what the recording said, Tim saw only one.” Page 164, where the book first introduces the dilophosaurs.

“Along with such living reptiles as Gila monsters and rattlesnakes, Dilophosaurus secretes a hematoxin from glands in its mouth.” – Page 165, Crichton is using technical-thuggery, language full of jargon, to persuade the reader of the threat of the new dinosaur.

“They’re nearsighted, like the rhinos of today, and they tend to be surprised by moving objects.” – Page 166, Triceratops are also boring for the children, who are excited about the promise of seeing a Tyrannosaurus rex.

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Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 23 “The Tour” (Pages 155 – 159)

Posted on February 15, 2026 by flybrand1976

Chapter 23 has many tie-ins, perhaps as Crichton continues to follow the use of the Famous, Famous, Fictional trope to make the world real for the reader. We find electric Toyota Land Cruisers specially made for the park – and those still aren’t real now thirty six years after the book was first published in 1990.

We encounter here an overlap between the film and the book – noted actor and narrator of National Geographic documentaries, Richard Kiley, is referenced as the narrator – a part he also played in the movie (YouTube). Kiley was also the narrator on the Universal Studios theme ride (YouTube).

Best Writing, Quotes

“Pretty Boring,” Lex said. “They’re not doing anything.”

Lex is Already Bored, So the Land Cruiser Fakes a Mating Call Page 158

For the future to be real, for us to believe this can happen – we need tie-ins. The cars are immediately identified as special Toyota Land Cruisers – not the iconic Ford Explorers that would be featured in the movie and resulting Lego sets. In to them our tourists put their pith-helmet-covered heads, with those helmets featuring a Jurassic Park logo, of course.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“By his side, a woman was passing out pith helmets with “Jurassic Park” labeeld on the headband, adn a little blue dinosaur logo.” – Page 155

“A line of Toyota Land Cruisers…” Page 155

Note that the vehicles in the book are not what appear in the movie – “The iconic vehicles in the original Jurassic Park (1993) are the red, yellow, and green striped 1992 Ford Explorer XLT tour vehicles and the khaki-colored 1992 Jeep Wrangler YJ Sahara staff vehicles.” (Google)

Ed Regis pressed the intercom button and said, “In keeping with the nonpolluting policies of Jurassic Park, these lightweight electric Land Cruisers have been specially built for us by Toyota in Osaka.” – Page 156, Toyota has gone electric, early, for a special customer

“The Land Cruiser passed through a grove of low, stumpy palm trees. Richard Kiley was saying, “Notice, first of all, the remarkable plant life that surrounds you. …”” – Page 157

Richard Kiley was a well known American singer whose beautiful voice led him to be a narrator for many National Geographic nature specials.

“Pretty Boring,” Lex said. “They’re not doing anything.” – Page 158

This recalls the Louis CK bit on Conan O’Brien about airplane wifi – bored with a thing that only just came into being. (YouTube)

“We can rouse them with a simple mating call.” – Page 158

The kids are bored even as they see dinosaurs for the first time. To get the animals to be ‘not boring’ the car imitates the animals mating call.

“If you see them scratching, that is because they have skin problems. The veterinary scientists here at Jurassic Park think it may be a fungus, or an allergy.” – Page 159

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Lillian Lybrand Inter-Lakes Girls’ Volleyball Championships

Posted on December 21, 2025 by flybrand1976

My daughter, Lillian Lybrand, is class of 2027 at New Hampton School. Because New Hampton does not have a volleyball program and we live in Meredith, NH, she is eligible to play for the Inter-Lakes High School Laker volleyball program. Lillian skipped 8th grade, and is therefore ruled a member of the class of 2026, so this most recent season was deemed her ‘senior’ and final season with the program.

ILHS volleyball takes home 3rd straight state title

4 in graduating class lead team to victory (link)

  • By BOB MARTIN, The Laconia Daily Sun
  • Nov 24, 2025 Updated Nov 24, 2025

The Lakers were led this year by four co-captains, including Moynihan, Emily Doda, Stevie Poehler and Lillian Lybrand. Mattson said she doesn’t normally do this, but each one had something important to offer the team.

…

Also making first team All-State was Lybrand, who was the team’s best server at a 95% clip. She also had 109 kills and 100 digs as a right-side hitter for the Lakers.

Inter-Lakes girls volleyball team wins second straight state title (link)

  • By Dan Doyon Special to the Union Leader
  • Nov 10, 2024 Updated Dec 16, 2025

Inter-Lakes broke an 11-11 tie in the fourth set and extended the lead to 18-14. The Lakers finished with a 5-1 run to seal the championship, which included kills from Lillian Lybrand and Alyssa Snow.

Inter-Lakes Championship Union Leader 2024Download
Inter-Lakes Championship Laconia Daily Sun 2025Download
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Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 22 “Control” (2 of 11) (Pages 146 – 155)

Posted on October 27, 2025 by flybrand1976

This is the 2nd of what will be eleven ‘chapters’ under the title of ‘Control’ – the first was just two chapters earlier (Chapter 20). Repetition is a key part of persuasion, and Crichton understands that he must persuade the reader that the technology and scenario he is laying out to them are very much possible.

Best Writing, Quotes

“We see these animals as fragile and delicate.”

Jurassic Park, Page 151 Arnold to Malcolm

The scientists who have resurrected the dinosaurs and built the park are finding exactly what they plan to find – a novel, near-natural, ecosystem that doesn’t violate any of their safety designs. Malcolm sees the park for what it really is – a living Frankenstein ecosystem, cobbled together with parts that will lead to unintended consequences.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“Grant didn’t like computers.” Page 146

“That’s two hundred and thirty-eight animals, as of this minute.” John Arnold to Genaro, Page 147.

“Once every fifteen minutes, the computer tallies the animals in all categories,” Arnold said. Page 148. The category tally is a technical report, a data table, that Crichton will use very persuasively with the reader later in the book.

“It’s important for everyone to remember that these animals are created.” Page 149 – Arnold refers to the ‘version numbers’ of the dinosaurs in the category tally.

“And these sensors are everywhere in the park?” Page 150 Arnold agrees to Malcolm’s question, stating that “92%” of the park is covered. It is amazing to think that today, thirty-four years later, even the most ardent technophile would laugh at the assertion that such a system could reliably function with a 0% failure rate.

“We see these animals as fragile and delicate.” Arnold to Malcolm, Page 151

“You’re going to have rides? Like an amusement park?” Grant realizes the plan on page 152.

“This is the system Mr. Nedry designed?” Malcolm asked. Page 153

“It’s just a matter of your assumptions.” Malcolm answers the question of, “Can any dinosaurs escape?” on page 154.

“I’m sure the tour will make everything clear,” Malcolm said. Page 155

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Crichton’s Jurassic Park: Chapter 21 “Version 4.4” (Pages 140 – 146)

Posted on September 8, 2025 by flybrand1976

These aren’t real dinosaurs – we know that through Crichton’s detailed explanation of how they were made technically feasible. We’ve looked at old DNA that has deteriorated, we’ve patched that DNA with other animals – frogs, birds, and reptiles, and then we’ve brought them into the world with synthetic eggs. These are simulacrum of dinosaurs that we’re blind to because the differentiated steps are done behind the scenes with science, and with enormous numbers that make it hard to understand how different the new animals are.

At the same time the reader expects real dinosaurs, probably 20% of the book to this point has been showing us that obviously they are not. In the same way a great magician can describe the way a trick was done, and still we believe the trick – Crichton has shown us what are clear ‘not-dinosaurs’ and still we are focused on these creatures because they are dinosaurs. This topic is explored in greater depth in the book and movie sequels.

Best Writing, Quotes

“I see no reason to improve upon reality.”

Jurassic Park, Page 146 Hammond to Wu

Hammond is trope-blind, he can’t see how his own internal logic is inconsistent. He is improving upon reality by bringing dinosaurs to life, but is not willing to do the extra work to ensure that the dinosaurs will be safe for the world to observe them.

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“We should go to Version 4.4” Wu says to Hammond on Page 146, implying that all the animals should be terminated and upgraded. Wu knows they have problems.

“And entertainment has nothing to do with reality. Entertainment is antithetical to reality.” Wu to Hammond on Page 147

  • The dinosaurs are too fast, they are ‘too real.’
  • Are these even real dinosaurs?
  • Wu argues that the guests will not like the visual conflict of large animals moving so fast.
  • The reader knows that the speed of the dinosaurs will make the park impossible.
  • Wu even labels the next version as ‘domesticated dinosaurs.’

“The DNA of the dinosaurs was like old photographs that had been retouched, basically the same as the original but in some places repaired and clarified, and as a result – ” Wu thinks of the issues with the dinosaurs, Page 142

“We’ve got a whole army of devices now – and they’re all too slow.” Wu, Page 143

“If you want to get something done, stay out of universities.” Page 144, Hammond’s guidance to Wu in a flashback after Atherton’s death

“And the work itself had shifted – it wasn’t even reptilian cloning, once they began to understand that dinosaurs were so similar to birds.” Page 145

“I see no reason to improve upon reality.” Page 146 Hammond to Wu

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