First Daffodils = Spring

In my world, this means it's spring. Astronomically, that event is 3 weeks away, but mentally, it was Wednesday morning. Of course, yesterday morning we had a half an inch of snow, but it was gone by 10, and our high was 46, so the snow doesn't mean much. These mean a lot more to my state of mind.

And there's hundreds more, swelling and turning yellow...

How Should Police Deal With Self-Immolation?

Shoot the burning body. (imagine a sad snort of laughter) It's almost as stupid, say, as tasering a kid who has just fallen off a bridge and broken his back. Not just tasering him once, but 19 times. For not complying.

Because no force is excessive if someone won't do what you tell them to.

Sigh...

Another Thing to Try at Home

I imagine this is much safer than actually drinking the stuff. I know it's much cooler.
(Hat Tip to Mock, Paper, Scissors- a great spot for political humor and satire) Also... anyone have any idea what the chemistry here is?

Followup (2/27): A commenter over at Tengrain's place says this is a set-up; the contents of a glowsick was emptied into the bottle, and the peroxide makes the reaction go. I suppose the best way to settle it is to try it out... that's science, no? I know one person who says she has all the ingredients, and said she was going to try it out (I have neither Mt. Dew nor peroxide, and don't feel like buying them just for the experiment), so I'll report back when I hear from her.

Followup (3/5): Ben says he tried this out last night, and it doesn't work.

Do Not Want!

This is supposed to be a sound that only people 25 and under can hear, but I hear it just fine, thanks. I do not like loud music (love music, I just keep it low), and noise really sets me on edge, so it's no surprise to me that my higher frequency sensitivity is better than most others of my age. This is an interesting sound in that there is a very high component along with a sort of mid-range drone. Combined, it sounds like an odd electric hum.

I noticed the other day that the hum that has been bothering me off and on for nearly a year was coming from the transformer/adapter for my MP3 player. I have a very hard time finding the source of these noises, but they drive me crazy; most electronic devices seem to generate some kind of quiet, high pitched hum to me; sometimes I get used to it. Other times (as with the adapter), it gets more and more irritating over time.

I had heard about this noise being used as a deterrent for keeping teens and youngsters from loitering in some places. I can tell you with certainty that it would keep me from spending any time there either, although the linked article definitely overstates its obnoxiousness (at least to my sensibility). I can imagine that it would get more and more irritating over time.

It's also kind of fun to be identified as "young people."

Created by Train Horn

Literal White Wedding

I have been enjoying the trend over the last few months of re-doing old videos from the original lyrics to lyrics describing what's actually happening in the video. I was not fond of Billy Idol when he was big in the 80's, but his music holds a certain nostalgic place for me now. This is a fun one.

White Wedding: Literal Video Version - watch more funny videos

Abstruse Goose

A couple of science bloggers brought this comic to my attention a couple of weeks ago, and I've been following it for a while now. I assume he's talking to Bobby Jindal. This comic (much bigger), Front page.

Rebooting the Geoblogosphere's Meme-ry Stick

Garry Hayes has undertaken polishing up the "100 Places Geologists Should See" meme for this months Accretionary Wedge. In case you have forgotten (or haven't seen) this meme, my entry is here. Chris compiled a list of participants and their scores as a followup to his own entry, here. The discussion came up at the time on how to make the list less North-America-centric, and what additional spots or features should be included. My comments on that post are below.

I agree with the general buzz that the list is NA-centric, but I thnk much of that could be dealt with by generalizing the feature rather than the specific
site. For example, Have you seen banded iron formation, generally, rather than
specifically in Michigan. There are a few though that are such classic sites
(Grand Canyon, Siccar Point, for example- yes and no for me, respectively) that
they really can't be generalized.

Other suggestions: Have you been on dry land below sea level? Have you
visited terrain and examined rock there from all three recorded eons (Archaen,
Proterozoic, Phanerozoic)? Walked from one tectonic plate to another, thinking
about what a grand act it was (i.e. aware that you were doing so)? Tried to
explain a moderately complex geologic concept, such as plate tectonics or
Bowen's Reation Series, to someone with little or no background in
science?

By and large, it's not so much specific sites that I think are important, but types of rock, structures, and features generally that geologists need to see. As mentioned above, there are a few sites that are unique, either because of their shear scale and quality, or for historical reasons. I have gone through the original list and suggested some alternatives, and struck quite a few. Why is the volcanic landscape of the Canary Islands particularly worthy, but not that of the Galapagos, or Iceland, or the Kamchatka Peninsula? Why the Alps, but not the Canadian Rockies or Mt. Everest? I want to emphasize that nothing on the original list is unworthy of a visit. But when I start asking myself, "Why this one and not that one?" I can't really come up with a good answer.

I have bolded additions and alternatives, comments are in parentheses
1. See an erupting volcano
2. See a glacier
3. See an active geyser
4. Visit the Cretaceous/Tertiary (KT) Boundary
5. Observe (from a safe distance) a river whose discharge is above bankful stage
6. Explore a limestone cave
7. Tour an open pit mine
8. Visit a subsurface mine (I do not think we should encourage people to "explore" abandoned, frequently very dangerous, mine workings. I think guided tours are a great thing)
8A. Picked through a tailings pile to get a sense of a mine's geology
9. See an ophiolite
10. An anorthosite complex
11. A slot canyon (I've seen plenty of photos of what look like slot canyons to me that aren't in the Colorado Plateau)
12. Varves
13. An exfoliation dome
4. A layered igneous intrusion
15. Coastlines along the leading and trailing edge of a tectonic plate
16. A gingko tree,
16A. An organism that is referred to as "a living fossil"- there are a number of these; while ginkos have been common in the places I've lived, I think it would be fair to count any of these vestages of prehistoric biota.
17. Living and fossilized stromatolites (This is really two different things)
18. A field of glacial erratics
19. A caldera
20. A sand dune more than 200 feet high
21. A fjord
22. A recently formed fault scarp
23. A megabreccia
24. An actively accreting river delta
25. A natural bridge
26. A large sinkhole
27. A glacial outwash plain
28. A sea stack
29. A house-sized glacial erratic
30. An underground lake or river
31. (A)continental divide
32. Fluorescent and phosphorescent minerals
33. Petrified trees
34. Lava tubes
35. The Grand Canyon
36. A meteorite impact crater (There are quite a few of these around the world; Barringer crater may be one of the best preserved, but the others are just as worthy)
37. A Coral Reef
38. The Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, to see the highest tides in the world (up to 16m) (I do think this is a unique enough site to rate)
39. Well exposed folds on a massive scale
40. Banded Iron Formation (occurs around the world; there's nothing particularly special about those in Michigan)
41. Mountain snow in the tropics (there are some good examples in South America as well, aren't there?)
42. Lake Baikal, Siberia, to see the deepest lake in the world (1,620 m) (Again, this qualifies as singular)
43. Ayers Rock (known now by the Aboriginal name of Uluru), Australia. This inselberg of nearly vertical Precambrian strata is about 2.5 kilometers long and more than 350 meters high Not saying it's not special, but is it really that special for geologic reasons? Religious and cultural symbolism, yes, but I don't think it ranks for geology.
44. Devil's Tower, northeastern Wyoming, to see a classic example of columnar jointing Likewise and more so.
45. The Alps.
45A. A Folded Mountain Range ("The Alps" sounds like it was tossed into the mix simply to name a European Feature)
46. Telescope Peak, in Death Valley National Park
46. Death Valley National Park (my vote for the most spectacular and diverse geology in North America; for geologists, I would rank this above the Grand Canyon, and that's saying a lot.)
47. The Li River, China, to see the fantastic tower karst that appears in much Chinese art (I think this should make the cut.)
48. Karst landscape
49. The Gorge of Bhagirathi, one of the sacred headwaters of the Ganges, in the Indian Himalayas, where the river flows from an ice tunnel beneath the Gangatori Glacier into a deep gorge. (This is not a site I'm familiar with, so I can't really comment on whether I think it should be included)
50. Entrenched meanders
51. A large volcanic neck
52. Land's End, Cornwall, Great Britain, for fractured granites that have feldspar crystals bigger than your fist.
53. Tierra del Fuego, Chile and Argentina, to see the Straights of Magellan and the southernmost tip of South America.
54. Mount St. Helens, Washington, to see the results of recent explosive volcanism. The site of a historic volcanic eruption that has affected a populated area.
55. The Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Plateau, Northern Ireland, to see polygonally fractured basaltic flows.
56. The Great Rift Valley in Africa.
56A. An active rift zone
57. The Matterhorn, along the Swiss/Italian border, to see the classic "horn".
57A. Mountains displaying the classic landforms of alpine glaciation
58. The Carolina Bays, along the Carolinian and Georgian coastal plain
59. The Mima Mounds near Olympia, Washington
60. Siccar Point, Berwickshire, Scotland, where James Hutton (the "father" of modern geology) observed the classic unconformity
61. The moving rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley (very cool, but in the top 100? I don't think so)
62. Yosemite Valley
63. Landscape Arch (or Delicate Arch) in Utah
64. The Burgess Shale in British Columbia
64A. A world-class lagerstätten (this is a term that's new to me since I started spending time lurking in the geoblogosphere a year or so back... and a useful one)
65. The Channeled Scablands of central Washington
65A. ...or other site that shows evidence of catastrophic ice age flooding. (I think a number of these have been identified, and there are many sites outside the channeled scablands that provide evidence for the Missoula Floods)
66. Bryce Canyon
67. Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone
67A. An area of hot spot volcanism and thermal activity
68. Monument Valley
69. The San Andreas fault
69A. A transform plate boundary (San Andreas is the best exposed, but it's not the only one, is it? )
70. The dinosaur footprints in La Rioja, Spain
70A. A dinosaur trackway
71. The volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands
72. The Pyrennees Mountains
73. The Lime Caves at Karamea on the West Coast of New Zealand
74. Denali (an orogeny in progress)
75. A catastrophic mass wasting event
76. The giant crossbeds visible at Zion National Park
77. The black sand beaches in Hawaii (or the green sand-olivine beaches) (Black sand beaches are not that uncommon; are green sand beaches unique to Hawaii? I personally would like to visit some of the zircon-rich sand beaches in Australia.)
78. Barton Springs in Texas
79. Hells Canyon in Idaho
80. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado [this is another wanna]
81. The Tunguska Impact site in Siberia (what is there to see)
82. Feel an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 5.0.
83. Find dinosaur footprints in situ (see #70)
84. Find a trilobite (or a dinosaur bone or any other fossil)
84A. Find a fossil (this really is a must; for me, and I suspect others, this happened before I was five, and was instrumental to my later educational path. My first was most likely a brachiopod)
85. Find native gold, or other native metal
86. Find a meteorite fragment
87. Experience a volcanic ashfall
88. Experience a sandstorm
89. See a tsunami

Of the top 100 things a geologist should see, 11 of them are atmospheric or astronomical phenomena or objects. I'm not going to argue that people generally shouldn't try to see these, but I do feel there needs to be some discussion of why they belong on a specifically geological list.
90. Witness a total solar eclipse
91. Witness a tornado firsthand.
92. Witness a meteor storm
93. View Saturn and its moons through a respectable telescope.
94. See the Aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights.
95. View a great naked-eye comet, an opportunity which occurs only a few times per century
96. See a lunar eclipse
97. View a distant galaxy through a large telescope
98. Experience a hurricane
99. See noctilucent clouds
100. See the green flash

I have been lucky to have visited a great number of very diverse areas, in terms of landforms, lithologies and ages. My feeling isn't that there should be some nice round number, 100 or 1000, of "must see" spots, but that a conscientious geologist and learner should strive to see as wide a variety of rocks, landscapes and processes as possible. I recently posted a meme on waterfalls that I want to follow up on eventually. Number two on the list I found was McWay Falls on the California coast. I had never heard of it, and it looked quite mundane: short, small volume, nothing special. But several people have remarked that it is very special to them. Now I want to go see it. The fact that some spot is world famous for some feature doesn't necessarily mean you have to see that feature at that spot. It's a big world; ideally, I'd like to see all of it. That's not going to happen, but I'm very pleased and blessed to have seen what I have.

A few more additions:

• Identified an overturned sequence (not had it pointed out to you)
• Spent a few minutes mesmerized by a waterfall or lake, and contemplated their ephemeral nature from a geologic perspective
• Been on a geologic field trip
• Led a geologic field trip
• Seen fossil fuel leaking from the earth at a natural seep or vent
• The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where it emerges on land in Iceland

Coyote in Transit

Much of Western Oregon, particularly the Portland area, is pretty well built-up. Still, most of the region is close to wild areas where animal life thrives. I know, for example, that people recommend not allowing pet cats (even small dogs) to run loose in Corvallis, because the coyotes will take them. I've heard many people complaining about deer getting into their gardens in downtown neighborhoods. From time to time, photos are taken of deer wandering the city streets here. I know that cougars come into the fringes of town, though I've never heard of them coming into the highly developed portions.

But I've never heard of coyotes hopping mass transit before. No word on whether he paid for a pass, but apparently the critter was quite polite about being escorted off the train. From here.

Sort of a "State of the Union" ...And Bingo!

The busiest my blog has ever been was during October, when for some reason Google listed it as the number one place to find McCain Bingo. I might pass October's numbers this month... it'll be close. But on the off chance it might help, I'm providing a link to an article with an embedded Barack-o-Bingo generator (sample above).

I have mixed feelings about watching his speech. For one, I've been following developing events pretty carefully, and don't really expect to learn much of substance. For another, I suspect that any "surprise policy initiatives" would first, not really strike me as too surprising, and second, really only have PR value. The repiglicans have made it clear that they will be damned before they go along with anything Obama proposes. In fact, the strongest motivator for me to actually watch the speech is so I can watch Bobby Jindal's rebuttal with the appropriate context... not that context has made any difference to GOP policy recommendations over the last 15 years. Economy stressed? Cut taxes! Governement running trillion dollar deficits? Cut Taxes! Starting an illegal war against a toothless dictatorship on lies and trumped-up "evidence?" Cut Taxes! Suzy and Billy picked up head lice at their run-down, collapsing elementary school? Cut their taxes! And give them vouchers!

In other words, the comedy of the rebuttal is about the only value I expect I would get out of watching Obama's speech. And that, to me, is more depressing than the very real prospect of an economic depression. Are you planning on watching?

Monday Minerals: Fluorite, Calcite, Apatite

Back in January, I mentioned (and showed a sample from) Cobalt, Ontario. Toward the end of that post, I also mentioned Bancroft, Ontario, which has an amazing set of mineral occurences- an incredible variety, and stunning quality, spread out over a few tens of square miles. I used to have a number of maps and field guides to the area, which I have visited a few times, but they have been lost, along with most of the pieces collected there, through various disasters. I have not really found any good on-line sites either; most of the pages I've found are spectacularly uninformative.
I don't remember the name of this quarry, but it was one of the farthest west sites shown on the collecting spots map I had. It was a flat fee site; as I remember, it was $4 (Canadian, in 1988) to enter and collect whatever you wanted. No per-pound cost.
The two obvious minerals here are fluorite (purple) and calcite (white). The actual occurence was fairly restricted, a lens-shaped outcrop that looked like a boudinage structure, about 10-12 feet through at the thickest, and about 3 times that across. The odd calcite-fluorite "marble" appeared to be fault-bounded, and encased in Grenvillian gneiss/schist above and below. The two really spectacular minerals here were apatite and hornblende; sadly, I don't have any of the really nice specimans of those anymore, but individual crystals of those two were up to 3-4 inches in diameter, and up to 18 inches long. In the crop (below) from the above picture, you can see a cross section of an apatite prism in the lower right corner.
I think I still have a ragged piece of hornblende from this site as well; I'll try to find it and run it another time.

Smoking Guns Causes Fiscal Cancer

From Oregon Live. So don't start smoking guns. And if you do smoke guns, quit.

And the Oscar goes tooooooo....

...the fishtank! Actually, these sound like pretty interesting fish; I came across this at Wikipedia as I was looking for a good picture. As for what you assumed this post would be about, following is a comprehensive list of the Oscar-nominated films I've seen this year, and my opinions on them:

Crocuses? Croci? Who Cares!

We've had a fairly warm, sunny week, which means, among other things, that the later sunsets have been especially noticeable, and the higher sun during the afternoon has been feeling very nice and warm. Today has been mostly overcast (though pretty warm: it's 52 right now) , and it just started drizzling an hour or so ago- not enough to pool up and run off, but enough to dampen everything up a little. But between the moisture, the warmth and the sunshine this week, the crocuses (croci?) have been popping up everywhere. That last one sort of foreshadows the daffodils. The next few days look to be wet and cooler- though still in the upper forties. But the daffodils' buds are definitely up and swelling. I suspect they'll start bursting open as soon as we get a few more warm, sunny days... probably within the next week or so.

This is almost the beginning of my 29th year in Oregon, and there are still some things I'm not really accustomed to. Moss and ferns growing in the trees. Months with no rain in the summer. And flowers in the middle of February. Keep in mind that the town I live in is farther north than Toronto, Ontario. You wouldn't know it from our winter climate, but it is.

Caturday: And Now I'm Missing a Finger

This dates back to near the beginning of the year. My family was out for Christmas, and when they all went back east, I ended up with some left overs. Among them was some frozen, ready-to-eat shrimp. Ozma Likes! Really, Really Likes! She does not like taking food out of my hand though, and the tension could get pretty funny. When I acted as if I was going to take it away, she would grapple my legs and meow loudly. But when I held it back down for her, she would purr and just sniff it, not actually pick it out of my grasp. And now I'm missing a finger. (No, not really. I finally just set it down, and it disappeared immediately. She was very affectionate afterward.)

Top 10 Waterfalls

I'm a big fan of waterfalls: I love the white noise, I love the mist and the smell, I love the way they're always changing, yet always the same, and in most cases the setting has its own beauty. So I had to pick this up and pass it on. Bold the ones you've visited, add comments as desired, and as a bonus, add a personal favorite that's not on the list, and that you think other waterfall enthusiasts would enjoy. The origin of this list is here (with discussion and nice photos) via Swans On Tea.

#10 Lower Calf Creek Falls, Escalante National Monument, Utah (I love desert waterfalls, but I hadn't heard of this one)

#9 Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (the steam coming from the gorge walls adds to the grandeur of this one)

#8 Upper Whitewater Falls, in southwestern North Carolina (again, hadn't heard of it, but it looks very nice... I'm fond of the terrace effect that you get in waterfalls over sedimentary rocks

#7 Snoqualmie Falls, between Snoqualmie and Fall City, Washington

#6 Havasu Falls, Supai Village, Havasupai Indian Reservation, Grand Canyon, Arizona (one I always wanted to get to, but I doubt I ever will)

#5 Shoshone Falls, Twin Falls, Idaho (A very worthwhile, quick, stop off of I-84, but easy to miss unless you're looking for it)

#4 Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon (another I-84 quick stop, but the whole Gorge is teaming with waterfalls. Drive the historic scenic route- contrary to the comments of the original post, many many waterfalls are either visible from the road, the pullouts, or very short walks from the pavement)

#3 Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite National Park, California (you gotta have at least one Yosemite waterfall)

#2 McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Big Sur, California (haven't been to Big Sur, and this strikes me as sort of an eclectic personal favorite, but I'm just copying the orignal poster's list)

#1 Niagara Falls, Niagara, New York (eeyup, what she said- the shear thundering power of this waterfall shakes your bones. Visit the Candian side, park-like and beautifully landscaped, unlike the American side, which is built up and touristy and tawdry)

Bonus Waterfall: Salt Creek Falls, Oregon- A quick pull out off of Route 58, 23 miles southeast of Oakridge, but easy to miss. The waterfall cascades off of young, high Cascade basalt onto older, Western Cascades volcanoclastics. The latter are fragmented and more easily eroded, and thus undercut the overlying basalt. This set-up is very common for waterfalls- the water falls off of harder, more resistant rock, onto softer, less resistant material. The softer material erodes out, undercutting the harder rock, which then calves off, renewing the waterfall and keeping the edge sharp and well-defined. Picture source and more info here.

Faulty Friday Fragment

Not too much to say about this fragment. It's a limey sandstone/siltstone with several little faults running through it. I picked it up on last spring's trip to the California desert- I think near Darwin (east side of Owens Lake), but I'm not really sure. The offset on the pair visible here look like reverse faults.
However, if you look carefully, the width of the fault is similar to the total offset.Now technically, a joint is a fracture that involves little or no offset parallel to the fracture surface. Place your palms together, then pull them apart a half an inch or so: that represents a joint. Put them back together, and slide one hand some direction without separating the surfaces: that represents a fault. In this sample, the separations both parallel and perpendicular to the fracture surface look to be about the same, so what should I call it?Looking at the side of the fragment (this is the side that was closest to the quarter in the first picture), you can see there's actually a larger fault running through the middle of the rock. My suspicion is that the two cute little microfaults visible in the first picture are more acurately described as brecciation (breaking, shattering, crushing) associated with this larger fracture. Brecciation that, in this case, appears to have a reverse offset. I'll still call them faults, because I'm rather fond of tiny little samples that capture what are normally very large features, but in this case, I'm quite unsure just how accurate I am in applying that name to these features.

This leads me to an important theme in geology: names and terms can be very useful in communication, but they can also get in the way of understanding if naming something becomes an inaccurate stand-in for actually describing it. What I want to do is understand how the rock formed, how it came to have the features it does. Noticing the features is necessary to do that, but naming them isn't necessarily necessary.

And regarding all the equivocation above, all I can do is apologize and repeat an old joke: "The world needs more one-armed geologists, so we don't have to hear, 'on the other hand,' every few sentences."

Alternate Lyrics

Sometimes I come across strings of similar things. Today's similar things appear to be misunderstood lyrics. First, Obama's Elf:

And second, a truly surreal version of Carmina Burana:

Carmina Burana is not a piece of music that many people recognize by name, but the introduction, mocked above, has been used in so many soundtracks and other audio and audiovisual productions that it is familiar by sound to nearly everybody. If you ever have the opportunity to read a translation as you listen to the full production, I highly recommend it. in the 1930's, Carl Orf took medieval lyrics discovered in the early 1800's (written in the 1200's) from a Bavarian abbey, and set them to music. As you might expect of monks, they're all about wine, women and song (the middle ages equivalents of sex and drugs and rock and roll). It's a beautiful work, but awfully funny when you contrast the grandeur and formality of the music with the, ummm... earthyness... of its subject matter.

Good News, Bad News

The sea otter has been essentially extinct in Oregon for over a century; I say"essentially" because there have been occasional spottings of individual animals, and a failed attempt in the 1970's to reintroduce them. However, Oregon Live is reporting that one has been spotted at Depoe Bay. The article specifically states that we shouldn't read too much into this, but does point out that this might indicate conditions are right for a natural recolonization by the species. I for one adore otters (in the youthful fantasy game "what animal would you be," "otter" was always my preference), and couldn't be happier to hear of this possibility.

In an opposite and heartbreaking vein, the gorgeous Worcester's buttonquail is pictured below. This is the first known photograph of a living speciman; all previous representations are drawings from dead animals in museum collections, and the creature has been thought extinct for decades.

Why heartbreaking? The photo was taken at a meat market. I saw this article in The Telegraph a couple of days ago, and I thought it was worth commenting on. But it was so depressing I didn't really know how- or even if- I wanted to approach it. I guess it feels like the otter news makes it a little easier to cope with, but this still strikes me as impossibly tragic. And by the way, the quote Club president Michael Lu said the group was "ecstatic" about the find, but they also "feel sad that the locals do not value the biodiversity around them" is infuriating to me. I suspect, much as I hate to admit it, if I had a couple of hungry kids, that I would kill an otter to put food in their mouths. Why didn't Michael Lu buy the poor bird?

The More You Know

...the more you know you can't really comprehend. If you've learned a lot but feel like you understand nothing, that sentence will make perfect sense to you.
(Hat tip to Lisa)

Wednesday Words

I've gotten backed up on my posting... too much reading, not enough writing. I was sort of hoping after the inauguration that my political fixation would settle a bit, but I just seem to get so involved and so compelled by all the nonsense, then I have to go read every link and story I come across. But the Wednesday words are easy... no excuse not to do them. Remember, the idea is these look like they might be words; your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to tell me what they actually mean. And in accordance with the pleading of blogger Lisa, I'm going to try turning my own verification off. If I start getting a bunch of spam, it's going right back up.

Eight Years of Bad Taste

I had heard of Ben & Jerry's "Yes Pecan" ice cream tribute to Obama, and I had heard that they had called for suggestions for tribute flavors for GWB. I had heard of one suggestion, "Cluster Fudge." I hadn't heard there were a whole slew of suggestions. Here's the first quarter or so of the list:

- Grape Depression
- Abu Grape
- Cluster Fudge
- Nut'n Accomplished
- Iraqi Road
- Chock 'n Awe
- WireTapioca
- Impeach Cobbler
- Impeach Mint

From Alternet- quite a few more there, those to my taste, the suggestions seem to be listed from best to not as great. Additionally, some of these flavors have been mocked up with a photoshop treatment here.

Strength of Conviction

can lead to conviction of stupidity.

Another fine piece from The Onion. They also had an article on the transition to Digital Food Format that I got a laugh from.

Ooh! Ooh! I Want to Try This At Home!

Callan Bentley just posted this YouTube video at his site. I have never gotten up close and personal with real live lava, and this looks like a feasible way to make it happen. In addition to his comment that the basalt is runny, while the granite/rhyolite is too viscous to drip, I think it should be pointed out that the melting temperature of basalt is much higher than that of rhyolite. So the different viscosities are not the result of the different melting temperatures: basalt melts at a higher (not lower) temperature. Also, technically the materials being made in the vidclip are lavas, not magmas, but in this case, that's pretty much irrelevant in light of the awesomeness of it being done at all. A previous post on this topic here.

Noise to Signal

One of my very early posts was on a web comic I've been reading regularly ever since, Noise to Signal. I was actually kind of thrilled to get an excited note from Mr. Cottingham asking me to remove his comic from my blog, or he would be forced to institute legal procedings forthwith... oh, no that was someone else. He seemed kind of pleased himself to be getting some linky love (and his material is posted under a Creative Commons license). At any rate, he's been on a real roll lately. Here's his two latest, and you should check out his past work. I'm not too into the whole social networking thing (blogging, e-mail, & RSS consume enough of my time and attention), so some of his jokes are not ones I get, but I suspect some of you will find many of his comics even funnier than I do. This actually happened to a friend of mine. From this post.If you like these two, and expecially if you're vegetarian/vegan, scroll back up and check out the post from last May; that one still cracks me up. Like some other web comics, the title of the comic is often a second punch line- so do pay attention. The above comic, for example, is called, "If you can't do the time, don't do the meme." Speaking of which, my own "10 Lies About Me" meme (which is much safer than the above, as it does not constitute self-incrimination) has sparked at least two subsequent infections in my friends Mr. Wayne and Viking.

And by the way, I have, so far, never been asked to remove anything from my blog, nor threated with dire consequences if I didn't. But I do think it's polite and wise to point out that if I ever do inadvertently violate copyright provisions, I'm likely to be pretty agreeable about removing the material in question. I also think it's polite and wise to provide sources for all material picked up elsewhere on the web. If I can. Sometimes I forget where I found stuff. So sue me.

Followup: ROFL! Just found this in the comments at the Noise to Signal site.

Say What?

Criggo is a website that specializes in finding print media mess-ups; some appear to be intentional, some accidental, and some from an unfamiliarity with the English Language.
I think someone tried a little too hard to be clear and explicit and clear. Adjust your watches accordingly.
This has got to be satire, right? Right?
I can't actually make out the body text of this, but I don't really know what to think. The Wright brothers must be so disappointed.

Yearbook Memories

Egad! Who's that? Dick Cheney, you say? No way! He's got hair! He's smiling! He looks... human! It must have been that fall into a lava flow.
And this handsome little thug? Doesn't he remind you of the guy who extorted your lunch money throughout most of eighth grade? Yup, well, this one's got a caption.
From Veto Corleone. Another 15 strange and funny, and even some familiar, pictures there.

These Aren't the Pants You're Looking For

And other Star Wars lines with "pants" replacing one word. A total of 278 misquotes (with a few repeats though), enough to keep you busy for part of a slow Sunday afternoon.

#1: I find your lack of pants disturbing.
#9: Governer Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader's pants.
#20: The pants will be down in moments, sir, you can begin your landing.
#53: See through pants, we can.

And on. And on.

A Valentine's Day Parable

Comic from Oregon Live

The scene: a kitchen counter with several bags of groceries. A couple, who we will call Spouse 1 and Spouse 2, are arguing.

S1- So did you do the shopping?

S2- Yup. Got the makings for spaghetti and bread.

S1- Wait a minute! (yanks receipt from a bag and waves it in S1's face) All I see is a bunch of useless spending!

S2- Wha-aat?

S1- Flour!!? I can't eat flour! Yeast? What are you thinking?

S2- But...

S1- TOILET PAPER!!!? What in HELL are you thinking? We can't afford TOILET PAPER! Two dollars? Well, we'll just return that unopened.

S2- But we need toilet paper.

S1- I don't. In tough times, you have to make sacrifices. What else we got in here? Tomato paste... dry pasta... You call this dinner? Look at this incredible waste! Celery! Onions! Peppers! Oh dear lord preserve us. That's the last time you ever do the shopping!

S2- What was I supposed to get?

S1- Booze. Lots and lots of booze.

S2- (rolling eyes) Oh no. Here we go again. OK, look, we've been boozing it up for years. I thought we agreed last fall that we'd give it a rest.

S1- I never agreed to that. Look, it's simple really, and I'm getting tired of having to explain it to you. We get lots of booze. We have a big party and tell all our friends to bring food, and we'll eat like kings.

S2- But we've tried that over and over. Most of our "friends" don't even bring food. They bring hip flasks so they can take our booze home with them.

S1- (shrugs) So we just tell them they have to bring food.

S2- (shaking head) We've tried that too. Everyone's so drunk we don't end up even asking what they brought. And whatever food does show up ends being used in food fights, or puked up all over the floor. And everyone's so wasted that the mess just sits for days.

S1- Ahhh! (looks around) I thought something smelled funny. But we're doing fine, that's just proof that the booze works.

S2- I'm not doing fine! I feel sick, I've got the shakes and a headache...

S1- Booze'll take care of that.

S2- I don't think so...

S1- Tell you what: we should compromise. You can spend 2/3 of the money on... hmph... FLOUR and ...snrt... YEAST, and I'll spend a third of it on booze.

S2- I just don't think...

S1- And that is precisely the problem. Really, if we just spent HALF the money on booze, we wouldn't have to spend money on food at all.

S2- No, no, no, your first idea sounded much better.

S1- Now that's more like it. See the problem is, we've been buying the cheapo booze. We gotta start looking at the better stuff.

S2- ...I think I'm gonna heave...

S1- (squinting at the receipt) You know, I'm not sure we can afford to waste any more money on groceries after all. You know, it's a proven fact that grocery stores never supplied any food to anybody. They're called "grocery" stores for a reason- all they sell is groceries. You can't eat groceries, nope. What a body needs is food. And the only proven way to get food is to buy lots and lots of booze.

S2- ...urp...urp....
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So here's the question... at what point do you file for a divorce? Go into counseling? Get a mental assessment? Maybe a restraining order? One's an addict, the other's an enabler... it ain't gonna happen. Besides, they can't afford any of those expensive options: They need more booze. And of course, the punch line is that this couple has about 300 million family members for whom they're responsible.

Not Just Valentine's Day

Today is also Oregon's 150th birthday! (See here, here and here.) Happy Birthday, Oregon! It's hard to believe I've been in existence almost a third as long as this state, and have lived here for almost a fifth of its statehood. Please forgive if I don't bake a cake. Have a scone.

Valentine's Day Scone

The Strawberry-almond Valentine's day scones are already gone... grab a chocolate-cherry edition quick!

Caturday In the Cupboard

moar funny pictures

Actually she's not closing the door; she's making sure that it's open and that I can see her. Here's why: Oh yeah! Neck scratches R da Bestest!

A Mercenary by Any Other Name...

...would still smell.

moar funny pictures
I can't bring myself to tag this with "humor."

Followup: I realized that not everyone might have picked up this news bit yet- if the above makes no sense, read this.

I'm Not Superstitous

So today is Friday the 13th. I'm not too worried. As the Pogo cast and crew never tired of saying, Friday the 13th is a much bigger deal when it falls on a Wednesday. Additionally, in about 10 minutes from the time I write this, the official Unix time will be 1234567890. And I don't believe that this heralds the end of the universe. There's a big eye-rolling fuss over the fact that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, so that must be the end of the universe. Our calendars end at the conclusion of each December, and I haven't noticed any universal conclusions associated with those.

So why the lackadaisical attitude toward these deeply-ingrained cultural fears? It's simple, really. I've have long harbored a belief that superstitions bring bad luck.

Prescient

OK, not really; even 15 years ago anyone paying attention could see the path we were on. But this Calvin and Hobbes comic, from 15 years ago today, is pretty amazing.

Well, I'll Be A Monkey's Nephew!

I wasn't expecting to do anything for Darwin Day (today is the 200th anniversary of both his and Abraham Lincoln's births), not because I'm not interested, but because there doesn't really seem to be anything I can add to the tremendous amount of great stuff that's out there. If you want more on Darwin, click through some of the geoblogosphere links on the sidebar. Not every geoblogger is "doing Darwin," but many are (and get your mind out of the gutter).

However, I came across this site a little bit ago, and I haven't seen any geobuddies post it, so here you go. The general idea is that you upload a picture of your present incarnation, and the site will devolve you into any (or all) of four prehistoric hominids. Here is my extant corpus, the basis for the following:
And here is my (approximately) 125,000th great grandfather, Lockwoodo habilis: And a couple tens of thousands of generations later, Lockwoodo erectus:I really like those early Pleistocene glasses in the second picture, but this engine really doesn't seem to know what to make of my beard; contrary to popular conception, the lower half of my lineage's head has become more, not less, hairy through time. Happy D-Day!

BTW- I had to use the "Shift-PrtSc" operation and paste this in Paint, then crop it; I didn't see any way to directly save the picture.

That's Just History

When Hitler developed the V-2 rocket and started bombarding England with it, the US realized the importance of having a manned observation post on the moon; it has been maintained ever since 1916. That's just history.

When Washington threw a dollar across the Delaware (a dollar went a lot farther in those days), it killed King George, and the British surrendered. That's just history.

When we invaded Iraq, the whole world was stunned by the number of nuclear weapons Saddam had amassed: no one expected his arsenal would exceed the combined total of both the US and Russia. That's just history.

"When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression,” Austria said. “He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That’s just history.”

One of these statements was actually made by a US representative, apparently in all seriousness. (Hint: it's the one in quotes) Yglesias and others are making much of the fact Roosevelt didn't come into office until four years after the start of the Great Depression (which despite the Republican-style PR effort, was not great at all: it actually really sucked). I would also like to point out that the work Keynes did was in response to the depression. So this quote is a profoundly disturbing double-dip. On the other hand, Austria does meet one of my criteria for policy-makers: see point 4 here. But I'm sure it doesn't bother the repiglicans at all: when they don't like the facts, they make up ones they do like. That's just history.

Ka-Blam!

Two satellites have just collided in orbit, about 500 miles over Siberia. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot known yet. This could be completely innocuous in terms of consequences, or pretty bad. I remember reading an article some years ago about a potential chain-reaction, where debris might impact other satellites, creating more debris that destroyed still more... I haven't read much more about this idea, so I really have no idea whether it's considered plausible. But whatever, consider this a heads-up. ; )

Followup: WaPo has a similar article with a little better info. (Registration may be required; free, and they've never spammed me)

Saturday Bulletin

This is a webcomic where the technique is to find some retro/old-style picture, then caption it with a (frequently very dark) punchline that is at odds with what one imagines was the original tone and intent of the image. If that sounds convoluted and not funny, it's my fault. Here's a couple of my favorite examples from recent posts. Front page here. Today's issue.
January 29

I hope you agree that it's much funnier than I made it sound. RSS feed available (and recommended).

Dispossesed

Couple of old jokes, one new to me, that are appropos to our times:

Did you hear about the guy who fell behind on the payments to his exorcist?
He was repossesed.

And from Krugman, on Geithner's financial rescue plan, the "old" joke I had never heard before:

What do you get when you cross the Godfather with a deconstructionist?
Someone who makes you an offer you can’t understand.

Part of what I enjoy about reading Krugman's writing, in addition to the fact that he has, during the ten years or so since I started reading his pieces at Slate, accumulated a uncannily accurate track record on his predictions, and in addition to his ability to write at a level and information density that I can grasp, is his dry wit and humor. He follows the above post with a matching cartoon. And in an earlier post, titled "Acronyms," he relates, "But Jamie Galbraith (private communication) has trumped me; he says it’s the Bad Assets Relief Fund."

So my point is, even the Nobel-winning economist seems to think our last, best hope to get through this mess is to develop a sense of humor.

Followup: to get at the list of Krugman's articles at Slate, follow the link to that page, which will take you to a search for "Paul Krugman." Then in the author column, click on his name for a listing of his articles there. That's the link I tried to embed, but it takes me back to the first search page. And to clarify, Krugman quit writing a regular column for Slate when he picked up his column at the NYT.

When All Else Fails

I've been following XKCD for a while, but I've never gone through the entire archive. I hadn't seen this one before. Hat tip to The Ethical Paleontologist.

Metric Conversions

This was going around as an e-mail many years ago, and I decided to see if I could track it down. The metric system is an elegant, easy to learn and easy to use system that Americans are profoundly unable to deal with. The site where I found this has some of its examples incorrect, so take them with a grain of salt.

2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds (correct)

1 million microphones = 1 megaphone (incorrect)
1 million microphones = 1 phone
1 million phones = 1 megaphone (corrected)

1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche (correct)

1 million bicycles = 2 megacycles (this is correct, but there's an additional unit conversion assumed)

1 million billion picolos = 1 gigolo (incorrect; it would take 1000 billion billion picolos to make one gigolo)

There's quite a few more at the linked site, and one more I remember that isn't on the list:
1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

So I hope that clarifies everything and we can switch from this silly English system now.

The Effin' Weather

So after yesterday's "woo-hoo, spring is nearly here" post, it's been downhill. Rainy, cold, 35 degrees... and it was snowing just a little bit ago. I carried both my umbrella and my gloves today, an unusual combination. So I was quite amused to see this on Buzzfeed: The F'ing Weather. If the F word offends, don't bother, but if you find its gratuitous overuse in the context of accurate data amusing, check it out. The small comments under the large banner are varied and change with each click. Examples include (for my zip code today), "My nipples could cut glass," "Why do I live here," and "Not f'ing jogging weather." Apparently his server has been swamped, and visitors my get locked out; he has also remarked that he can't provide info for outside the US. But you can get the info in F'ing Celsius as well.

Springing Forth

I saw this comic earlier, and thought about posting it, but I've already posted a few and don't want to use too many from the same source. It's like a privilege I don't want to abuse. But E.B. Misfit, one of my favoritest bloggers, has posted it, so if you'd do me a favor and run over and take a look at it, I'll wait a minute.

No, I'm still here. Go look. I'll wait. I promise.

Funny, Hunh?

Ooooo, I just love making people envious... I had to walk down to the orange market (not its real name) to get some tobacco this morning, and these are in a yard across the street. Those are snowdrops- or at least that's what I grew up calling them. They would come up in late Feb to early March back in Ohio, often, as the name implies, poking up through the snow. I actually noticed these last week, but it was night and I didn't have my camera with me anyway- so these have probably been blooming for a week or so.
A closer picture. Note the standard "north side" lawn here: always green, never needs mowing. Moss is a far superior ground cover to grass, unless you actually want to do anything on your lawn. I don't know what the following plant is called, but I think it's related to the eastern Jack-in-the-pulpit. The leaves are similar, but variegated. It's always some of the earliest significant foliage to pop up, and the foliage dies back by the end of June. It sometimes sets seeds, and the seeding stalk is very similar to that of Jack-in-the-pulpit. That's the main reason I think they're related. The flower must be very subtle (unlike "Jack," which is quite showey); I've never noticed the blooms.

And just to take the edge off my gloating... no more than two minutes after I took these pictures, the heavens opened up and covered the ground with ice pellets- not deep, but completely covered. Those stinkers can sting! But at any rate, I'm pleased to report that the first spring flowers have officially been spotted in my neighborhood.

Sign Hacking

...has apparently become quite the thing amongst our society's un- or under-employed, computer literate citizenry(remember this from a couple of weeks ago?). It's looking like the stimulus bill will assure plenty of time for more such shenanigans, which on one hand is just fine. No one is going to have to drive to work, so hacking the signs won't have any effect on traffic. On the other hand, it's too bad because the tax cuts won't have any effect on the hackers' discretionary spending. From Gizmodo, a week or so ago. Does this prove that raptors were endotherms? Do they still have to wear parkas and snow boots? Do the snow boots interfere with that wild move where they eviscerate you with the swiveling back claw? I think these are questions that need answering.
From Buzzfeed. Where's Lou Dobbs when you need him? Maybe if we just took out ads in all the English newspapers: "We don't have any jobs either!"