Vintage oil ad oozes irony
Life magazine, circa 1962. Via Google Books, via Grist, via Cassie W. on Facebook.
Humble Oil later became Exxon, by the way.
Labels: alaska, climate change, global warming, humor, oil
Friday, November 20, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Citing my sources
On Sunday morning, I mentioned a frozen pizza, and my interpretation of its geologic history. Afterward, Elli from UPJ wrote me a note asking if my post didn't actually quite closely resemble "Figure 1.42 in Davis and Reynolds"? (Davis and Reynolds' Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions is a popular structural geology textbook.)
Well, yep.... Yep, it does. That's the way uniformitarianism works. The same physical laws and less-than-fully-frozen pizza delivery methods that mildly deformed George Davis' pizza in in early 1980s still apply in late 2009. I'd like to point out (as a proud structural geologist) that my pizza was more deformed than Davis'. (It also had more ingredients.) Of course, he did a better job than I did, in describing and mapping that deformation:
(The full diagram also included a cross-section and a kinematic reconstruction. Used without permission, but with a sense of what I hope is 'fair use.')
In the interest of fully citing my sources, I'd like to explain my relationship to the pizza/structure analogy. Part I: In the spring of 1995, I attended one of the fun, rollicking pizza parties that Dr. J held for the William & Mary geology department. Dr. J provided blank pies and a slew of ingredients, and we hungry students could load them up as we saw fit. It was very generous of him, quite tasty, and a lot of fun. Lubricated by a goodly amount of Dr. J's red wine (which was present in gallon jugs), I (hazily) recall a fun discussion with some of my fellow geology majors. We were congratulating ourselves on having picked the coolest major around, and full of geo-ego*, our conversation focused on the fact that we could see geological principles everywhere!
Our pizza came out of the oven, and sure enough: look there! It was full of beautiful examples of (munch munch) stratigraphy! And structure! (chew chew, bite) And the ingredients were like minerals! (slosh, gulp) Wow! This is great!
Part II: The following fall, I took structural geology with Bruce Goodwin, and the assigned textbook was George Davis' Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions, first edition. And there, I found in the first chapter the pizza analogy illustrated above. With a frisson of personal recognition, I thought back to the pizza party. And I said to myself, "I like the way this author thinks! I'm going to like this class."
Indeed I did, and many years later, when it came time for me to teach structure, I turned to Davis' book, now in its second edition and co-authored with Steve Reynolds. It's still a great text, and full of good analogies and a sense of fun. I wonder how much that one diagram turned me on to structural geology: that single pizza sketch may have influenced the course of my life!
Part III: I made a pizza, and had a digital camera handy. Now you know the full story.
___________________________________________
* I hereby lay claim to coining what I'm sure will be a very useful term!
Well, yep.... Yep, it does. That's the way uniformitarianism works. The same physical laws and less-than-fully-frozen pizza delivery methods that mildly deformed George Davis' pizza in in early 1980s still apply in late 2009. I'd like to point out (as a proud structural geologist) that my pizza was more deformed than Davis'. (It also had more ingredients.) Of course, he did a better job than I did, in describing and mapping that deformation:
(The full diagram also included a cross-section and a kinematic reconstruction. Used without permission, but with a sense of what I hope is 'fair use.')
In the interest of fully citing my sources, I'd like to explain my relationship to the pizza/structure analogy. Part I: In the spring of 1995, I attended one of the fun, rollicking pizza parties that Dr. J held for the William & Mary geology department. Dr. J provided blank pies and a slew of ingredients, and we hungry students could load them up as we saw fit. It was very generous of him, quite tasty, and a lot of fun. Lubricated by a goodly amount of Dr. J's red wine (which was present in gallon jugs), I (hazily) recall a fun discussion with some of my fellow geology majors. We were congratulating ourselves on having picked the coolest major around, and full of geo-ego*, our conversation focused on the fact that we could see geological principles everywhere!
Our pizza came out of the oven, and sure enough: look there! It was full of beautiful examples of (munch munch) stratigraphy! And structure! (chew chew, bite) And the ingredients were like minerals! (slosh, gulp) Wow! This is great!
Part II: The following fall, I took structural geology with Bruce Goodwin, and the assigned textbook was George Davis' Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions, first edition. And there, I found in the first chapter the pizza analogy illustrated above. With a frisson of personal recognition, I thought back to the pizza party. And I said to myself, "I like the way this author thinks! I'm going to like this class."
Indeed I did, and many years later, when it came time for me to teach structure, I turned to Davis' book, now in its second edition and co-authored with Steve Reynolds. It's still a great text, and full of good analogies and a sense of fun. I wonder how much that one diagram turned me on to structural geology: that single pizza sketch may have influenced the course of my life!
Part III: I made a pizza, and had a digital camera handy. Now you know the full story.
___________________________________________
* I hereby lay claim to coining what I'm sure will be a very useful term!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Slumped pizza
This pizza-ite clearly passed into the brittle-ductile transition while it was vertically-oriented. This event translated coherent ingredients downward, presumably along less competent flowing cheese/dough/slush surfaces. High-contrast olives serve as good marker units for detecting the overall kinematics: note their greater concentration at the paleo-bottom of the pie (also bottom of this photo). It is inferred that these olives were originally dispersed across the face of the pizza-ite at approximately equal distances. The overall pie has strained from an original circular shape to an elliptical one, and detached from the basement cardboard along a major fault. The "top" of the pizza-ite may therefore be regarded as an overall extensional regime, while the "base" of the pie is compressional. The highest-pressure zone at the base appears to have metamorphosed up some new substances, including an ice/cheese amalgam (darker yellow).
Subsequent to this photograph being captured, the pizza experienced a high-temperature, low-pressure event which has been theoretically located to the second rack of my oven, and then was broken into eight ~equal area terranes separated along a radial series of fractures. An episode of physical weathering pulverized the pizza-ite, followed by chemical disaggregation in a low-pH medium. The energy released by this process was sufficient to power the typing of keys on a keyboard, and ultimately generated a new entity: a blog post. Through the twin miracles of digital technology and structural interpretation, we can work out that the protolith of the blog post was the deformed pizza. Careful dating of this blog post reveals it passed through closure status at 7:45am on November 15, 2009.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Tree Lobsters: "Science Police"
If you don't read Tree Lobsters already, you should. Today's episode seemed particularly on-target.
Labels: art, humor, pseudoscience, science and society
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
S'more stratigraphy in EARTH
Great graphic by Nate Burgess in a recent EARTH, and now just posted online. I especially like the column, and the punch-line ("proposed cross-cutting relationship"). Brilliant!
Labels: art, humor, stratigraphy
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Mineral habit follow-up
As an analogy for how most minerals never get to attain their full habit (hemmed in by surrounding space constraints), perhaps even better than the boxy watermelons I mentioned last December are Buddha-shaped pears!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
"The Geology Song"
This was composed by Rockies student (and new full-time NOVA math faculty!) John Weidner. It's the one he sung for us in the airport on our way home from Montana (resulting in this photo):
The Geology Song
to the tune of the theme from the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai
(MP3 download)
Geol - ogy: we study it.
We think - that we know quite a bit.
Mountains - shoot up like fountains.
We know that sandstone's - a grand stone - So's chert!
Granite - a rock that forms a lump.
Landslide - that's what we call a slump.
Gravel - in streams does travel.
We know that claystone's - a gray stone - So's chert!
(triumphally)
The layered rocks, - that everywhere here we see,
are defined through stratigraphy.
And ig - neous rocks we see here too,
wi - i - ith-out a volcano in view.
Oh, Hutton - he looked at Siccar Point
Lyell - he said time's out of joint
Callan - and Pete no failin',
have taught us limestone's - a fine stone - So's chert!
The Geology Song
to the tune of the theme from the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai
(MP3 download)
Geol - ogy: we study it.
We think - that we know quite a bit.
Mountains - shoot up like fountains.
We know that sandstone's - a grand stone - So's chert!
Granite - a rock that forms a lump.
Landslide - that's what we call a slump.
Gravel - in streams does travel.
We know that claystone's - a gray stone - So's chert!
(triumphally)
The layered rocks, - that everywhere here we see,
are defined through stratigraphy.
And ig - neous rocks we see here too,
wi - i - ith-out a volcano in view.
Oh, Hutton - he looked at Siccar Point
Lyell - he said time's out of joint
Callan - and Pete no failin',
have taught us limestone's - a fine stone - So's chert!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Good stuff from the past week
Working through my RSS feed from the past week when I was out of town: Sheesh, it sure builds up if you don't stay on top of it! A couple of notable items to share:
The geography of tapirs, from the Why Evolution Is True blog.
The declining emphasis on literacy in our society, from Alternet.
Women geoscientists who read and/or write blogs: complete this survey!, from Kim.
Outcropedia, a new web project to catalog and share key outcrops.
Climate change graph jam, from Tamino. (With follow-ups from Lockwood)
Skeptics & athiests visit the Creation Museum. (ABC News)
The geography of tapirs, from the Why Evolution Is True blog.
The declining emphasis on literacy in our society, from Alternet.
Women geoscientists who read and/or write blogs: complete this survey!, from Kim.
Outcropedia, a new web project to catalog and share key outcrops.
Climate change graph jam, from Tamino. (With follow-ups from Lockwood)
Skeptics & athiests visit the Creation Museum. (ABC News)
Labels: blogs, evolution, graphics, humor, maps, politics, websites
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
My favorite analogies, Part 2
In October of last year, I presented a list of my favorite analogies for geological processes. Effjot followed up with a visualization of one that was presented in the comments.
Today, I'd like to add to that list with three more evocative analogies.
Hydrothermal disseminated deposits are sweat stains.
Certain types of ore bodies are thought to be "sweated out" from magma chambers as they intrude to shallow enough levels in the crust. The shallow depths have low pressures, and that encourages the magma to devolatilize. The resulting hydrothermal fluids pick up lots of consitituents like sulfur and metals and stream away from the pluton. As they cool off, the dissolved constituents become supersaturated and begin to precipitate out as mineral deposits. These hydrothermal disseminated deposits end up in the pore spaces of surrounding rocks, or filling in cracks. This is kind of like how your body sweats out a solution of dissolved salts in water. When the water evaporates, the salts precipitate out wherever they find the space:
Sills are a funny kind of peanut butter sandwich.
A dike is an igneous intrusion which cuts across local stratification of the host rocks. Sills, in contrast, exploit the weaknesses between strata and inject their magma parallel to bedding. I think of this as being like using peanut-butter-in-a-tube to make a peanut butter sandwich without separating two pieces of bread. Like this three part series:
Exotic terranes are roadkill.
I show the following sequence of images to my Physical Geology students when discussing how exotic terranes accumulate on the leading edge of a drifting continent:
... and I think you get the idea. That one kind of speaks for itself...
How about you? Got any good analogies for relaying geological concepts?
Today, I'd like to add to that list with three more evocative analogies.
Hydrothermal disseminated deposits are sweat stains.
Certain types of ore bodies are thought to be "sweated out" from magma chambers as they intrude to shallow enough levels in the crust. The shallow depths have low pressures, and that encourages the magma to devolatilize. The resulting hydrothermal fluids pick up lots of consitituents like sulfur and metals and stream away from the pluton. As they cool off, the dissolved constituents become supersaturated and begin to precipitate out as mineral deposits. These hydrothermal disseminated deposits end up in the pore spaces of surrounding rocks, or filling in cracks. This is kind of like how your body sweats out a solution of dissolved salts in water. When the water evaporates, the salts precipitate out wherever they find the space:
Sills are a funny kind of peanut butter sandwich.
A dike is an igneous intrusion which cuts across local stratification of the host rocks. Sills, in contrast, exploit the weaknesses between strata and inject their magma parallel to bedding. I think of this as being like using peanut-butter-in-a-tube to make a peanut butter sandwich without separating two pieces of bread. Like this three part series:
Exotic terranes are roadkill.
I show the following sequence of images to my Physical Geology students when discussing how exotic terranes accumulate on the leading edge of a drifting continent:
... and I think you get the idea. That one kind of speaks for itself...
How about you? Got any good analogies for relaying geological concepts?
Monday, May 11, 2009
Haiku test question
Here's question #17 from last week's Environmental Geology final exam:
Which of the following haiku poems best describes the formation of oil?
Swamp plants leaf out green
then die and get squeezed, sans air.
Carbon gets more pure.
Plates skitter about
plastering terranes on front
like trucks with kittens.
Surface magma sweats,
devolatilizes. Its
fluids drop out ore.
Phytoplankton bloom
in sunny water then get
cooked and leak black goo.
Fossil fuels get lit
and oxidize; humans thrive.
Damn that CO2.
Not the most challenging question on the exam, but it was fun to write...
Other geoblogger instructors -- Do you amuse yourself (and your students) by injecting humor into exams? Is this poor form on my part? Is it genius? Weigh in. I'm curious to know whether this habit is ridiculous or common.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Citizen Science cartoon in EARTH
This of mine doodle accompanied Cassandra Willyard's article on the role of non-specialist citizens in advancing scientific understanding.
Labels: art, humor, science and society
Monday, May 4, 2009
A semester's worth of quotes
One of my Honors students, Hope W. (author of yesterday's discussion of the Chalk Point Power Plant), kept a tally on Facebook of quips and phrases from this semester's Environmental Geology class. Now that the semester is over, I offer them to the public at large, despite the utter lack of context. Enjoy!
"Imagine how the lava feels."
"Earthlings are made of Earth."
"What do meteorologists study? Hint-- NOT meteors."
"It [the oceanic crust] is like a giant sheet of tissue paper."
[Referring to the continental crust, in comparison to the oceanic crust] "It's light and fluffy, like a souffle."
"We don't know the actual specifics."
"When you go up, you're not going North - you're going away from the Earth."
[Dramatizing the extraction of paleomagnetic data from rocks] "Continent, where was the pole for you 600 million years ago?"
"Oceanic crust is like James Dean and continental crust is like Dick Clark."
"Here's what we know about tectonic plates: some of them are big... some of them are itty-bitty."
"You can't forget Djibouti."
[Referring to the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes] "There was just no one west of that to report how much shaking there was. Or at least no one who spoke English and felt like talking."
"Take my word for it man! I'm a scientist... No, that's not how it works."
"I have a nice layer of peanut butter on my arm."
"The same thing happens with rocks... it just takes longer."
"As continents move along they pick up junk."
"L.A. will end up in the armpit of Alaska."
[Referring to Redoubt] "Drama-queen of a volcano."
[Comparing geologic hazards] "If you use up all your water, then you die and you don't have to experience the earthquake."
"If bamboo collapses and falls on you it doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as brick."
Let me know in the comments if any of these requires an explanation...
"Imagine how the lava feels."
"Earthlings are made of Earth."
"What do meteorologists study? Hint-- NOT meteors."
"It [the oceanic crust] is like a giant sheet of tissue paper."
[Referring to the continental crust, in comparison to the oceanic crust] "It's light and fluffy, like a souffle."
"We don't know the actual specifics."
"When you go up, you're not going North - you're going away from the Earth."
[Dramatizing the extraction of paleomagnetic data from rocks] "Continent, where was the pole for you 600 million years ago?"
"Oceanic crust is like James Dean and continental crust is like Dick Clark."
"Here's what we know about tectonic plates: some of them are big... some of them are itty-bitty."
"You can't forget Djibouti."
[Referring to the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes] "There was just no one west of that to report how much shaking there was. Or at least no one who spoke English and felt like talking."
"Take my word for it man! I'm a scientist... No, that's not how it works."
"I have a nice layer of peanut butter on my arm."
"The same thing happens with rocks... it just takes longer."
"As continents move along they pick up junk."
"L.A. will end up in the armpit of Alaska."
[Referring to Redoubt] "Drama-queen of a volcano."
[Comparing geologic hazards] "If you use up all your water, then you die and you don't have to experience the earthquake."
"If bamboo collapses and falls on you it doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as brick."
Let me know in the comments if any of these requires an explanation...
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Clean Coal, Coen style
Heh! This "clean coal" debunking campaign is directed by the Coen Brothers.
And another:
Behind the scenes:
Labels: climate change, CO2, coal, global warming, humor, politics
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Lichens of Ecuador
Lichens are symbiotic associations between fungi and algae. The fungus provides the alga with a place to live, and the alga photosynthesizes and shares some of the resulting 'food' with the fungus. One provides room; the other provides board. It benefits both species to hang out together, and provides a nice example of two phylogenetic 'branches' of the 'tree of life' merging into one. There are many varieties of lichens, living in a diversity of habitats, but they're easiest to spot in colder zones where they are first in line to colonize raw rock surfaces.
When I was in Ecuador in January, I saw a lot of lichens, and took some photos of them. I'm not a lichen expert, and I won't attempt to name these varieties. I'm more interested in them as aesthetic phenomena. I find them beautiful.
This one reminds me of ripples on a pond's surface, spreading out over decades and centuries:
The orange here is also a lichen:
These wispy lichens were three-dimensional structures that were found all over the ground surface (not encrusted on a rock) in the paramo ecosystem.
They were present in such profusion in Cotopaxi National Park that the ground looked from a distance as if it had a light layer of snow on it:
Other ground lichens:
Lichen-bearded goofball:
When I was in Ecuador in January, I saw a lot of lichens, and took some photos of them. I'm not a lichen expert, and I won't attempt to name these varieties. I'm more interested in them as aesthetic phenomena. I find them beautiful.
This one reminds me of ripples on a pond's surface, spreading out over decades and centuries:
The orange here is also a lichen:
These wispy lichens were three-dimensional structures that were found all over the ground surface (not encrusted on a rock) in the paramo ecosystem.
They were present in such profusion in Cotopaxi National Park that the ground looked from a distance as if it had a light layer of snow on it:
Other ground lichens:
Lichen-bearded goofball:
Labels: ecuador, fungi, humor, plants, south america, travel
Monday, March 2, 2009
Whale cartoon (New Yorker)
Brilliant! Especially in light of the new fossil evidence about the origins of whales released earlier this year.
From last week's issue of the New Yorker, which I've got time to read today because it's a snow day here in DC!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Angle of repose
In Environmental Geology lab last week, we were playing with dirt... and sand... and gravel... and other granular materials, piling them up to see the angle of repose.
One of my students, Kristen P., brought in little "Monopoly" houses so that her experiments carried a bit more significance...
I thought this was very clever -- it made you "care" more about the angle of repose when someone's "home" was at stake... Good work Kristen!
One of my students, Kristen P., brought in little "Monopoly" houses so that her experiments carried a bit more significance...
I thought this was very clever -- it made you "care" more about the angle of repose when someone's "home" was at stake... Good work Kristen!
Labels: humor, mass wasting, nova, teaching
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Podcasts make life better
I've been really digging my iPod. Yeah, yeah: "late adopter" and all that. But it's really cool!
The podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts) available for free are diverse and awesome, and I'm finding them much more interesting, rich, and deep than traditional radio. I've got music podcasts, science podcasts, story podcasts, and humor podcasts. In the interest of sharing the love, here's what I'm listening to:
All Songs Considered - From NPR, an every-few-days podcast showcasing new and interesting music from a wide variety of genres, often accompanied by insightful commentary from host Bob Boilen and his guests.
Morning Becomes Eclectic - From KCRW in Santa Monica, California, Jason Bentley (no relation) hosts an excellent radio show of... well... eclectic music. The only shows they podcast are the ones where guest artists are performing live in the studio, but that's fine by me -- there's some real gems here. (Although, I'll admit that I miss the former host Nick Harcourt.)
The Moth - An incredible storytelling podcast featuring one person per episode telling a true story, live onstage & without notes. These are incredible tales from our fellow humans: people who have experienced surreal, heartbreaking, or uproarious things, and know how to describe them to others. An absolutely inspired series. Five stars!
Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me! - The oddly informative NPR news quiz show. Invariably funny, sometimes hilarious. Hosted by Peter Segal, accompanied by luminaries like Carl Kasell, P.J. O'Rourke, and Tom Bodett.
USGS CoreCast - A weekly podcast from the United States Geological Survey, wherein stilted-sounding hosts interview scientists about their work, usually related to some story that's in the current news cycle. Mediocre listenability, but often interesting content.
Nature Podcast - From the acclaimed journal Nature comes this hip, well-produced podcast that features several hosts (male, female, British, American) interviewing scientists about their recent Nature publications and why they matter. Sometimes they give background information, too -- to bring listeners up to speed before the interview. It's detailed enough to be satisfying for a professional scientist, but not stiff or formal. Two thumbs up!
Central Washington University Natural Science seminars - Video of seminars on cool topics like mammoth digs, etc.
American Meteorological Society Climate Change video: Environmental Science seminars - These are a series of science seminars put on by the AMS on Capitol Hill for the benefit of policy makers, captured on video. I often try to attend, but if I miss one, I can get it via the iPod.
The Ricky Gervais podcast - From the talented British comedian comes this sporadic podcast which varies tremendously in content and satisfaction from one episode to the next. When this one is on while I'm driving to campus, the ones that leave me guffawing are the ones where Ricky and Stephen Merchant talk with Carl Pilkington. The three of them have a remarkable style of mutually-insulting comedy.
You can get all of these for free, searching on iTunes. Enjoy!
The podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts) available for free are diverse and awesome, and I'm finding them much more interesting, rich, and deep than traditional radio. I've got music podcasts, science podcasts, story podcasts, and humor podcasts. In the interest of sharing the love, here's what I'm listening to:
All Songs Considered - From NPR, an every-few-days podcast showcasing new and interesting music from a wide variety of genres, often accompanied by insightful commentary from host Bob Boilen and his guests.
Morning Becomes Eclectic - From KCRW in Santa Monica, California, Jason Bentley (no relation) hosts an excellent radio show of... well... eclectic music. The only shows they podcast are the ones where guest artists are performing live in the studio, but that's fine by me -- there's some real gems here. (Although, I'll admit that I miss the former host Nick Harcourt.)
The Moth - An incredible storytelling podcast featuring one person per episode telling a true story, live onstage & without notes. These are incredible tales from our fellow humans: people who have experienced surreal, heartbreaking, or uproarious things, and know how to describe them to others. An absolutely inspired series. Five stars!
Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me! - The oddly informative NPR news quiz show. Invariably funny, sometimes hilarious. Hosted by Peter Segal, accompanied by luminaries like Carl Kasell, P.J. O'Rourke, and Tom Bodett.
USGS CoreCast - A weekly podcast from the United States Geological Survey, wherein stilted-sounding hosts interview scientists about their work, usually related to some story that's in the current news cycle. Mediocre listenability, but often interesting content.
Nature Podcast - From the acclaimed journal Nature comes this hip, well-produced podcast that features several hosts (male, female, British, American) interviewing scientists about their recent Nature publications and why they matter. Sometimes they give background information, too -- to bring listeners up to speed before the interview. It's detailed enough to be satisfying for a professional scientist, but not stiff or formal. Two thumbs up!
Central Washington University Natural Science seminars - Video of seminars on cool topics like mammoth digs, etc.
American Meteorological Society Climate Change video: Environmental Science seminars - These are a series of science seminars put on by the AMS on Capitol Hill for the benefit of policy makers, captured on video. I often try to attend, but if I miss one, I can get it via the iPod.
The Ricky Gervais podcast - From the talented British comedian comes this sporadic podcast which varies tremendously in content and satisfaction from one episode to the next. When this one is on while I'm driving to campus, the ones that leave me guffawing are the ones where Ricky and Stephen Merchant talk with Carl Pilkington. The three of them have a remarkable style of mutually-insulting comedy.
You can get all of these for free, searching on iTunes. Enjoy!
Labels: environmental, geology, humor, music, news, podcasts and vodcasts, science and society
Saturday, January 24, 2009
A fridge of birds
Due to a scheduling mishap, this semester I'll be teaching my Environmental Geology lab in the new Science Learning Center in the Schuler Building on NOVA's Annandale campus.
This past Thursday night was our first session in there. Exploring the new facility, I opened up an old-looking refrigerator back in one corner. "What's in here?" I wondered....
Whoa! A bunch of dead birds! These are, no doubt roadkill (or window-kill) samples that are awaiting preparation as 'study skins.' Under professor Walt Bulmer, NOVA has developed a robust collection of study skins to aid in ornithological studies. (I'll have to shoot some photos of those sometime.)
Though I hadn't expected to see a pile of dead birds in the fridge, I soon recovered from the shock. Before converting to geology, I used to study ornithology, and have spent time prepping study skins in the lab at William & Mary (and once, in my dad's basement, with a Sturnus vulgaris that turned out kind of stinky). Returning to my students working on their lab, passing the anatomical models and the physics references, I thought how refreshing it was to be working in a lab utilized by all the sciences.
I guess in retrospect, I should have suspected the fridge's contents when I saw this cartoon taped to the front of the fridge door:
This past Thursday night was our first session in there. Exploring the new facility, I opened up an old-looking refrigerator back in one corner. "What's in here?" I wondered....
Whoa! A bunch of dead birds! These are, no doubt roadkill (or window-kill) samples that are awaiting preparation as 'study skins.' Under professor Walt Bulmer, NOVA has developed a robust collection of study skins to aid in ornithological studies. (I'll have to shoot some photos of those sometime.)
Though I hadn't expected to see a pile of dead birds in the fridge, I soon recovered from the shock. Before converting to geology, I used to study ornithology, and have spent time prepping study skins in the lab at William & Mary (and once, in my dad's basement, with a Sturnus vulgaris that turned out kind of stinky). Returning to my students working on their lab, passing the anatomical models and the physics references, I thought how refreshing it was to be working in a lab utilized by all the sciences.
I guess in retrospect, I should have suspected the fridge's contents when I saw this cartoon taped to the front of the fridge door:
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Anticipation
In a few days, the world will get what it's been waiting for. In a few short days, an eagerly-anticipated event will take place that will hopefully make the world a better place and bring satisfaction and closure to those who have waited for what seems like forever. I can hardly wait...
... I speak (of course) of the season premiere of LOST.
The Times profiles the dude who's in charge of keeping track of everything.
The Post examines the show's exploration of space-time in the context of earlier shows.
Entertainment Weekly has a quiz about some of the minutia in Season 4. (I got 29/34 right.)
Namaste!
... I speak (of course) of the season premiere of LOST.
The Times profiles the dude who's in charge of keeping track of everything.
The Post examines the show's exploration of space-time in the context of earlier shows.
Entertainment Weekly has a quiz about some of the minutia in Season 4. (I got 29/34 right.)
Namaste!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Recommendation: "Sherlock Holmes and case of the climate bandwagon"
From Greenfyres, via Tamino: "Sherlock Holmes and case of the climate bandwagon." Well worth a read, if you like satire and the writings of Mr. Arthur Conan Doyle.
Labels: blogs, books, climate change, global warming, humor
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Silly doodles
Here's some silly sketches I made the other day...
Graded Bedding:
Cross Bedding:
Stromatolite:
Ripple Marks: (This one may be a bit obscure)
Normal Fault:
Reverse Fault:
Graded Bedding:
Cross Bedding:
Stromatolite:
Ripple Marks: (This one may be a bit obscure)
Normal Fault:
Reverse Fault:
Labels: art, geology, humor, primary structures
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Birthday card for a geologist
Two of my bestest students got me this card for my birthday last week:
I do... Also, I really appreciate students who take the time to do things like buy their professors birthday cards. I've got some good ones here!
All those warm fuzzies aside, though, we should point out for the record:
Issue #1: The oldest cave paintings (in Europe) are ~32,000 years old, not "3.2 million."
Issue #2: That's a really old dinosaur. Most dinosaurs are much younger. It's been suggested the divergence from archosaurs occurred ~230 Ma, so this isn't the most representative age for a dino.
The inside says "Don't you feel better now?"
I do... Also, I really appreciate students who take the time to do things like buy their professors birthday cards. I've got some good ones here!
All those warm fuzzies aside, though, we should point out for the record:
Issue #1: The oldest cave paintings (in Europe) are ~32,000 years old, not "3.2 million."
Issue #2: That's a really old dinosaur. Most dinosaurs are much younger. It's been suggested the divergence from archosaurs occurred ~230 Ma, so this isn't the most representative age for a dino.
Labels: art, geologic time, humor, teaching
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
List
Got this from Saxifraga at Rising to the Occasion...
The idea is to bold the ones you've done. (I'm also going to add commentary in parentheses.)
1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (I'm assuming karaoke of the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" counts?)
4. Visited Hawaii (See here for some recent posts on that topic.)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (Hell no, we won't go!)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo (Aha: here's where that Talking Heads solo fits in!)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch (Woodcut block printing; Boston, 1996)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (seafood poisoning - the worst!)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (Mongolia: the legendary Choibalsan to Ereentsav run)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked (Many times out west)
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill (in high school: biked down to National Airport to watch the planes land and read Hemingway)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (this one involves sports, doesn't it? )
32. Been on a cruise (Alaska Marine Highway System, Haines to Bellingham, summer 2006)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (brought my Geology Honors students there in March of this year!)
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors (but I am planning to go to Newfoundland this coming summer, to visit my maternal ancestors' descendants)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language (if the Peace Corps helped me, that's okay, right?)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke (okay, here's where that bit goes...)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (friend of a friend work okay?)
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (sheesh -- whoever wrote this list liked Paris and Italy, it looks like)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (does freelance writing and scientific illustration count?)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (gosh, I tried, but they told me I wasn't allowed for some reason...)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (This summer, exiting the Grand Canyon)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (kinda sorta -- two copies left if anyone wants 'em)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (Le Prius, almost a year old!)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper (accompanying an article about one of my Billy Goat Trail geology hikes)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox (and I have the scars to prove it)
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury (civil suit: taxi cab driver sued teen driver who ran into his cab)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one (cats and dogs only at this point, and may it long remain)
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant (but I have ridden a water buffalo)
The idea is to bold the ones you've done. (I'm also going to add commentary in parentheses.)
1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (I'm assuming karaoke of the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" counts?)
4. Visited Hawaii (See here for some recent posts on that topic.)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (Hell no, we won't go!)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo (Aha: here's where that Talking Heads solo fits in!)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch (Woodcut block printing; Boston, 1996)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (seafood poisoning - the worst!)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (Mongolia: the legendary Choibalsan to Ereentsav run)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked (Many times out west)
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill (in high school: biked down to National Airport to watch the planes land and read Hemingway)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (this one involves sports, doesn't it? )
32. Been on a cruise (Alaska Marine Highway System, Haines to Bellingham, summer 2006)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (brought my Geology Honors students there in March of this year!)
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors (but I am planning to go to Newfoundland this coming summer, to visit my maternal ancestors' descendants)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language (if the Peace Corps helped me, that's okay, right?)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke (okay, here's where that bit goes...)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (friend of a friend work okay?)
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (sheesh -- whoever wrote this list liked Paris and Italy, it looks like)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (does freelance writing and scientific illustration count?)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (gosh, I tried, but they told me I wasn't allowed for some reason...)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (This summer, exiting the Grand Canyon)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (kinda sorta -- two copies left if anyone wants 'em)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (Le Prius, almost a year old!)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper (accompanying an article about one of my Billy Goat Trail geology hikes)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox (and I have the scars to prove it)
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury (civil suit: taxi cab driver sued teen driver who ran into his cab)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one (cats and dogs only at this point, and may it long remain)
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant (but I have ridden a water buffalo)
Rock, rock, pebble (repeat)
This weekend, I was procrastinating working on my final paper of the semester for my online MSSE education class, and decided to search "geology" on YouTube. (I knew there were some gems there, as Bryan reminded me earlier today.)
Anyhow, that search brought me to this piece of utter silliness, which I now share with you:
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Recommendation: "CSI Cambrian"
Chris Nedin has a funny and insightful/educational post up at his Ediacaran blog: entitled "CSI Cambrian," he explores the death of a trilobite through murder-mystery dialogue.
You should check it out, before you do anything else.
You should check it out, before you do anything else.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Mineral evolution cartoon in EARTH
Just wanted to let readers know that my "mineral evolution" cartoon is now up at the EARTH magazine website, accompanying their article on the new study by Bob Hazen about how the planet's suite of minerals has (a) changed over time and (b) been influenced by biologic processes.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Twelve Days of Volcanoes
I'm on the big island of Hawai'i for the Thanksgiving break; and I've really enjoyed trooping around and checking out the volcanic features. (Photos once I get back to DC...) The other night I saw Bela Fleck and the Flecktones perform in Waimea, and they were playing lots of Christmas tunes from their brilliant new album. The next day, hiking on Mauna Kea, the residual music mixed in my brain with the cool igneous geology I was seeing. The result? The Twelve Days of Volcanoes... Enjoy!
On the first day of Christmas my island sent to me:
a bunch of pahoehoe
On the second day of Christmas my island sent to me:
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the third day of Christmas my island sent to me:
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the fourth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the fifth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the sixth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the seventh day of Christmas my island sent to me:
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the eighth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the ninth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
9 green sand beaches
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the tenth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
10 billion vesicles
9 green sand beaches
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the eleventh day of Christmas my island sent to me:
11 craters glowing
10 billion vesicles
9 green sand beaches
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the twelfth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
12 voggy lungfuls
11 craters glowing
10 billion vesicles
9 green sand beaches
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the first day of Christmas my island sent to me:
a bunch of pahoehoe
On the second day of Christmas my island sent to me:
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the third day of Christmas my island sent to me:
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the fourth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the fifth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the sixth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the seventh day of Christmas my island sent to me:
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the eighth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the ninth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
9 green sand beaches
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the tenth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
10 billion vesicles
9 green sand beaches
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the eleventh day of Christmas my island sent to me:
11 craters glowing
10 billion vesicles
9 green sand beaches
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
On the twelfth day of Christmas my island sent to me:
12 voggy lungfuls
11 craters glowing
10 billion vesicles
9 green sand beaches
8 steam explosions
7 tubes of lava
6 basalts flowing
5 volcanoes
4 falling blocks
3 aa's
2 Pele's hairs
and a bunch of pahoehoe
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Hummers: making a difference
This was on last Thursday's Colbert Report...
Being a environmentally-aware Prius owner who thinks that vehicles should be efficient and fun rather than inefficient and fun, I take great delight in this sort of satire. Favorite line: "It's not going anywhere..."
Labels: climate change, environmental, global warming, humor, oil, politics
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Graded bedding in a house!
Driving back from the GSW fall field trip this past weekend, I took this photo out of my car window. Considering the vehicle was in motion, I'm pleased with the decent quality of the photo:
This house clearly shows graded bedding! There are many ways to get graded bedding showing a fining-upwards sequence of deposition, but my favorite is deposition by turbidity currents, dense sediment-water flows that drop the heaviest stuff (usually the biggest particles) first. Then as the water calms, progressively finer and finer particles settle out of the turbid water.
I was predisposed to look for graded bedding in buildings, because one of my students/ colleagues/ friends, Dr. John Weidner, took this photo earlier in the year and shared it with me:
This would be a case of inverted graded bedding, a coarsening-upwards sequence. Did this house prograde out into a basin like a delta? Or was it deposited by a turbidity current and then later tectonically overturned?
This house clearly shows graded bedding! There are many ways to get graded bedding showing a fining-upwards sequence of deposition, but my favorite is deposition by turbidity currents, dense sediment-water flows that drop the heaviest stuff (usually the biggest particles) first. Then as the water calms, progressively finer and finer particles settle out of the turbid water.
I was predisposed to look for graded bedding in buildings, because one of my students/ colleagues/ friends, Dr. John Weidner, took this photo earlier in the year and shared it with me:
This would be a case of inverted graded bedding, a coarsening-upwards sequence. Did this house prograde out into a basin like a delta? Or was it deposited by a turbidity current and then later tectonically overturned?
Labels: humor, primary structures, sediment
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Fossil Freeway: east coast tour
This spring, I mentioned reading Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll's book Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, and then stopping in and visiting with Kirk in Denver one evening on my summer road trip.
Now, my friend Michelle (who both loaned me the book and introduced me to Kirk) has forwarded me an announcement: Ray and Kirk are coming east!
Now, my friend Michelle (who both loaned me the book and introduced me to Kirk) has forwarded me an announcement: Ray and Kirk are coming east!
Granite countertop caption contest
At the end of every issue, The New Yorker runs a cartoon caption contest. Readers write in with captions they think would be funny. Here's a cartoon I just drew and submitted for the December issue of EARTH, only to learn that they weren't featuring granite countertops in that issue after all (because they already ran a story on that topic in the current issue.)
So here's my challenge for you: Come up with a caption for this cartoon. I'll post the three captions I came up with after 24 hours or so.
Have fun. The geo-geekier, the better... Here's the cartoon:
So here's my challenge for you: Come up with a caption for this cartoon. I'll post the three captions I came up with after 24 hours or so.
Have fun. The geo-geekier, the better... Here's the cartoon:
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Fruit redux: LOLlola
A couple of days ago I posted a few pictures of some fruit I had recently picked in Virginia. One of my clever students, Chris B., saw an opportunity for some humor, and took one of the photos and added a "LOLcat" caption. He posted this on my Facebook page last night:
Thanks Chris! This made my morning... Literally: I'm LOL.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Coprolite cartoon goes to the bathroom!
News: The coprolite cartoon I mentioned last week (published this month in EARTH magazine) is now going to be part of a permanent display on scat and coprolites at the Dinosaur State Park museum in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. My favorite part about this idea is where the new exhibit is going to be... it's in the bathroom! Ha! You gotta love that... talk about a teachable moment!
Labels: art, connecticut, fossils, humor, museums
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Onion: "Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain"
From the satiric weekly The Onion: Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Climate/Electricity Cartoon
Just got around to reading the August issue of Geotimes today... I had forgotten I had a cartoon published in there! Anyhow, here it is... really really small, from the page on the Geotimes website where the accompanying story is hosted.
Enjoy.
Labels: art, climate change, environmental, global warming, humor
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Evolution cartoon
I saw Stephen Jay Gould speak once, in 1995 or 1996, at William and Mary. He showed us a series of 'evolution' cartoons, all bearing some humorous variation on the the linear progression of ape-to-australopithecine-to-caveman-to-modern-man theme. Gould used these cartoons an an example of the traditional human way of thinking about evolution: as a linear process leading to us as its final culmination. (Gould argued against this "line" of thought -- suggesting instead that evolution is best thought of as dendritic and arborescent.)
Anyhow: since I saw that talk, I've been very aware of the variety of cartoons on this cliche of a theme. There are a lot of them. I saw another one (by Ward Sutton) this evening while reading this week's New Yorker magazine:
Anyhow: since I saw that talk, I've been very aware of the variety of cartoons on this cliche of a theme. There are a lot of them. I saw another one (by Ward Sutton) this evening while reading this week's New Yorker magazine:
Monday, September 1, 2008
Coprolite cartoon
My first cartoon appears in this month's Earth magazine (formerly Geotimes). Their website is live as of today, by the way. A few formatting bugs to be worked out, it looks like, but I think it looks like it's going to be good. I wish them the best of luck with the transition. Anyhow, here's the cartoon:
Monday, August 25, 2008
Granite, Uranium, Onion
The Onion's "American Voices" covered a recent issue (see here in the New York Times, for instance) that some people are paying attention to: radiation emitted by granite countertops.Because granite contains some uranium (different levels in different granites), some folks are getting upset that their fancy, expensive granite countertops could actually be emitting radiation into their kitchens. But, as the article points out, it's not really all that much in the grand scheme of things.
One final note: the image used to illustrate the story (shown here) is apparently the exact same variety of garnetiferous granite gneiss that my father recently chose for his countertops, when renovating his kitchen! I'll have to bring the Geiger counter over there next time I visit...
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Lola reads National Geographic
Yesterday I was working on some reading for my MSU MSSE class, when Lola called me over. It was a reading day for her too, and she had just opened the most recent National Geographic. "Check this out," she meowed. The magazine had put a one-page story about "designer" mice (genetically modified for research) right across from a cat litter ad, and both the cat and the mouse were looking inward (towards the magazine's fold or "gutter"). This made it appear like they were looking at one another. The advertised cat apparently had other things on its mind than hunting mice, but I thought the overall layout was too funny to be a coincidence. Lola, on the other hand, was disgusted, feeling that the whole composition was disgraceful to catkind.
As part of that issue's focus on animal intelligence, it was a small photo of a baboon teaching a cat to sit upright. The photographed cat didn't want to sit upright, but Lola thought it was a great idea. For the next several days, she sat upright constantly, reading the New Yorker and Wine Spectator, puffing her meerschaum pipe and looking contemplative. But then she lost interest in sitting upright when she read about fossil ammonites. Admiring their graceful sprials, she promptly curled up into a ball. Immediately, she began purring. "It's much more comforable," she told me. "Ammonites must be smarter than baboons."
I pointed out her lack of exoskeleton. "Ammonites have shells, Lola," I said, admittedly a bit condescendingly. An hour later, I found she had taken over my office wastebasket:
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Banksy on the cover of Science?
I was somewhat astonished to see this image on the cover of this week's issue of Science:
It turns out that there is an article in this issue about how societies deal with antisocial behavior. According to some, the work of the artist known as "Banksy" counts as antisocial behavior. Here's the caption Science provides for the cover: "An example of' 'art' by self-styled guerrilla artist Banksy, as seen in East London in November 2007. Human behavior that would be characterized as antisocial punishment can also be called art; prosocial institutions, most notably the campaign Keep Britain Tidy, refer to Banksy's work as vandalism."
I don't know much about psychology, and I'm not going to attempt to review the article, but seeing this particular artist on the cover of Science gives me an excuse to introduce others to his (admittedly controversial) work.
I've been a fan of Banksy's work for a couple of years now -- he does a couple of things worth noting: First, his bread and butter is outdoor "graffiti" of elaborate black and white designs, usually done with stencils, sometimes highlighted with deliberate focused use of color, and often exploring the "police state" aspects of the modern world, as in this example:
It turns out that there is an article in this issue about how societies deal with antisocial behavior. According to some, the work of the artist known as "Banksy" counts as antisocial behavior. Here's the caption Science provides for the cover: "An example of' 'art' by self-styled guerrilla artist Banksy, as seen in East London in November 2007. Human behavior that would be characterized as antisocial punishment can also be called art; prosocial institutions, most notably the campaign Keep Britain Tidy, refer to Banksy's work as vandalism."
I don't know much about psychology, and I'm not going to attempt to review the article, but seeing this particular artist on the cover of Science gives me an excuse to introduce others to his (admittedly controversial) work.
I've been a fan of Banksy's work for a couple of years now -- he does a couple of things worth noting: First, his bread and butter is outdoor "graffiti" of elaborate black and white designs, usually done with stencils, sometimes highlighted with deliberate focused use of color, and often exploring the "police state" aspects of the modern world, as in this example:
He also does a few interior art installations, like one in Los Angeles which included painting a live elephant to blend in with wallpaper (a literal "elephant in the room"):
Lastly, he's known for putting his own artwork up in great museums, as if it belongs there. Some museums have even accepted his additions, in the name of art. This YouTube video shows Banksy at work, installing his own edgy artwork when the curators aren't looking:
While I appreciate Banksy's art for his envelope-pushing content and panache, I can see how it would piss some people off. I think one of the cool things about science is that we can go and look into the big patterns of how society deals with even something as esoteric as "guerrilla art." I think it's great that science is even applicable to stuff like this. However, for my purposes, it's enough to sit back and grok on Banksy's art, and the point of today's post is only to share that art with others.
Labels: art, humor, science and society
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Lola dreams of fossilization
Yesterday I found my cat Lola pondering a fish fossil from the Eocene Green River Formation. Because she's more of an Appalchian cat, I explained to her that this fish was preserved in flat-lying lacustrine deposits in southwestern Wyoming. The formation is notable for bearing impressions/carbon-films of many species, essentially an entire fossil lake ecosystem. She seemed interested, so I referred her to a travel article I wrote on the topic once for Geotimes. She padded off to read it.
Later, Lola conveyed to me that during a cat nap, she dreamt of her own fossilization in the Green River Formation style:
Ahh, Photoshop: even better than Facebook for wasting away the hours...
Later, Lola conveyed to me that during a cat nap, she dreamt of her own fossilization in the Green River Formation style:
Ahh, Photoshop: even better than Facebook for wasting away the hours...
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Biofuels cartoon
After last week's CO2 smackdown on corn ethanol and other biofuels as a "cure" for global warming, Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles scratched out this killer cartoon:
Thanks to John Weidner for calling this gem to my attention!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Tiktaalik discoverer on the Colbert Report
Neil Shubin, one of the team who uncovered the "fishapod" Tiktaalik in Canadian Nunavut, was a guest on the Colbert Report. I can't imagine trying to defend scientific research in the face of Colbert's manic questioning, but dang if Shubin doesn't do a great job. He's got an answer for everything. In the combative atmosphere of faux talk TV, this paleontologist holds his own. I saw Neil speak at NSF last year, and he did a great job there too, even with a much more receptive audience.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Riddle of the Cake, revealed!
So here it is: the answer to the riddle of the cake. This image shows the t-shirt cake labelled with a few key geologic units to help make my explanation a bit more coherent.
The main problem here is that central package of strata that are tilted at an angle: the sandstone, limestone, and marl (plus the little brown layer in there that was too thin to label). If they're tilted at an angle, why aren't the layers underneath? The principles of superposition, lateral continuity, and original horizontality suggest that if these layers are tilted up at a crazy angle, then so should the underlying layers (i.e., basalt, siltstone, and shale #1). Instead, this drawing depicts what amounts to an upside-down angular unconformity bounding the tilted layers below, in addition to the regular, perfectly-acceptable angular unconformity bounding the tilted layers above. This is what I referred to earlier as a geologic "impossibility."
But Ron Schott, wily geologist that he is, pointed out another possibility: that this isn't necessarily an impossible situation, just an improbable one. As I suspect is usual, Ron is right. One way that you could get the t-shirt cake situation is with that "lower upside-down unconformity" surface being a low-angle thrust fault, like the Lewis Thrust beneath Glacier National Park in Montana. That way, a package of rocks including tilted layers gets slid laterally (sideways) along such a fault, bringing them to rest on top of some other flat-lying sedimentary layers. The upper unconformity could form either before or after faulting in this scenario.
Another improbable situation: the marl, limestone, and sandstone are the oldest layers, and they were tilted at angle, eroded, and younger layers were deposited on top: shale #1, siltstone, basalt. Then everything got folded in a really big overturned fold (like a nappe), putting them upside-down in this location. Then erosion attacked that, from the top down, and etched away the older rocks, leaving the younger sedimentary strata upside-down. Then deposition resumed with the shale #2, producing the upper angular unconformity. In this scenario, both angular unconformities are real, but superposition is pretty much thrown out the window.
OK -- new contest: can you come up with any other geologically coherent possibilities to produce a central series of tilted strata bounded above and below by horizontal strata in the manner shown? Same prize.
Many thanks to students Will and Hannah, who asked me questions about this one all day today.
The main problem here is that central package of strata that are tilted at an angle: the sandstone, limestone, and marl (plus the little brown layer in there that was too thin to label). If they're tilted at an angle, why aren't the layers underneath? The principles of superposition, lateral continuity, and original horizontality suggest that if these layers are tilted up at a crazy angle, then so should the underlying layers (i.e., basalt, siltstone, and shale #1). Instead, this drawing depicts what amounts to an upside-down angular unconformity bounding the tilted layers below, in addition to the regular, perfectly-acceptable angular unconformity bounding the tilted layers above. This is what I referred to earlier as a geologic "impossibility."
But Ron Schott, wily geologist that he is, pointed out another possibility: that this isn't necessarily an impossible situation, just an improbable one. As I suspect is usual, Ron is right. One way that you could get the t-shirt cake situation is with that "lower upside-down unconformity" surface being a low-angle thrust fault, like the Lewis Thrust beneath Glacier National Park in Montana. That way, a package of rocks including tilted layers gets slid laterally (sideways) along such a fault, bringing them to rest on top of some other flat-lying sedimentary layers. The upper unconformity could form either before or after faulting in this scenario.
Another improbable situation: the marl, limestone, and sandstone are the oldest layers, and they were tilted at angle, eroded, and younger layers were deposited on top: shale #1, siltstone, basalt. Then everything got folded in a really big overturned fold (like a nappe), putting them upside-down in this location. Then erosion attacked that, from the top down, and etched away the older rocks, leaving the younger sedimentary strata upside-down. Then deposition resumed with the shale #2, producing the upper angular unconformity. In this scenario, both angular unconformities are real, but superposition is pretty much thrown out the window.
OK -- new contest: can you come up with any other geologically coherent possibilities to produce a central series of tilted strata bounded above and below by horizontal strata in the manner shown? Same prize.
Many thanks to students Will and Hannah, who asked me questions about this one all day today.
Cake t-shirt
Contest du jour: Tell me why this t-shirt design (recently re-issued at Threadless.com) is wrong. There's a major error in that sketch somewhere that makes it a geological impossibility.
Hint: it has nothing to do with the fork and plate. That's just a joke, not a misconception. First one to answer correctly wins a GEOLOGY ROCKS bumper sticker!
Hint: it has nothing to do with the fork and plate. That's just a joke, not a misconception. First one to answer correctly wins a GEOLOGY ROCKS bumper sticker!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Cat compositions
I laughed out loud when I saw what Julian of Harmonic Tremors posted over the weekend. Tiggered by my recent post of Lola, Julian introduced us to his cats, which are named after faults. He's gone for the full "lolcat" style with several of the photos, but this was the one that really cracked me up:
NOVA Physical Geology students, be forewarned -- this is highly relevant to tomorrow's lecture on igneous rocks.
Superbowl / Climate Change satire
The Lounge of the Lab Lemming has a great post showing that the Patriots in fact won the Super Bowl, if you believe a series of arguments put forward by global warming skeptics. It's terrific satire. There's even an allusion to the Princess Bride in there.
Labels: blogs, global warming, humor
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Lola meets the geology of Maryland
When she sees a geologic map of the eastern U.S., my cat Lola attempts to impress me by lining herself up with the trend of Appalachian structure. While noble in intent, she's not especially accurate. In the photo below, you can tell that she's off by about 20 degrees. Based on this, I conclude that cats have no natural instinct for structural geology. She can't use a Brunton compass, either.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Brrr
This is what the eastern U.S. looked like as of yesterday. No snow in the DC area, but it sure is cold out there. Reminds me of my favorite Robert Mankoff cartoon (below).The satellite image is courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory.
Labels: cold, global warming, humor, satellite imagery
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Earth science observations, news, photos, teaching, & commentary by Callan Bentley
Previous Posts
- So much tafoni, so little time
- A gecko you must see
- Mineral show at GMU this weekend
- Vintage oil ad oozes irony
- Adirondacks, continued
- "The Coral of Life"
- Pleistocene drainage channels atop the Bishop Tuff...
- Once again, we need instructors
- Ye NE/SE GSA abstract deadline approacheth
- Plume du jour
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