President Obamalette

A typical liberal elitist breakfast.

The President Obamalette

Victory Never Tasted So Good

caramelized onions, brie, walnuts, arugula and fresh pear slices in a two egg omelette, served with homefries and toast. $8.95

President Barack Obama signs an executive order requiring interzone customers to eat this delicious omelette. Republican party leaders have criticized the omelette for containing "liberal elitist" ingredients. Vice President Joe Biden, pictured frowning, was heard asking why no one had named an omelette after him.

And here is the maestra of meals, the countess of coffee, and purveyor of many of life's good things, Iris, as she starts my breakfast.
And... TAH DAH!
And here, after some damage, to show all the elitist liberal goodies.

No picture of the empty plate, but believe me, it's empty.

Iris has done the "Barack Obamalette" here at my favorite coffee shop on two previous weekends: after the Democratic National Convention and after the election. Somehow, even though the ingredients are exactly the same, the "President Obamalette" is even better.

If Hutton Had Been a Martian

An angular unconformity on Mars. Original source, full-size image.

Actually, looking at this carefully in the full-size version, I'm not absolutely convinced. The layers that we are apparently looking at edge-on look like they could be a dike, or a shear zone. I don't know of any evidence for large-scale faulting on Mars, so the latter seems less than likely, but a dike seems to me to be a strong possibility. On the other hand, this site just lifts its images and descriptions wholesale from NASA's press releases, and NASA undoubtedly has spent more time with their conclusion and has more expertise than me. So, just saying, there's something that doesn't look quite right about this to me. But whatever the interpretation, it's pretty interesting.

Did Those Statues Just Move?

To whomever I should be crediting this, sorry. I forgot where I found it.

What Rush is Rooting For

So I’m thinking of replying to the guy, “Okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.” (interruption) What are you laughing at? See, here’s the point. Everybody thinks it’s outrageous to say. Look, even my staff, “Oh, you can’t do that.” Why not? Why is it any different, what’s new, what is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what’s gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here. Why do I want more of it? I don’t care what the Drive-By story is. I would be honored if the Drive-By Media headlined me all day long: “Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails.” Somebody’s gotta say it.

So there you have it, right from the pig's mouth. I think I would be telling no less than the truth if I said I never hoped for Bush's failure. I hoped things would go well in Afghanistan and Iraq, I hoped No Child Left Behind would work out. But there's a difference between saying, "Given what I know, I don't think this will work," and "I hope he fails." A big difference.

But our little pig in the wings doesn't seem to get that. "America: Love It or Hate It, depending on who's in charge."

Friday Fragment: Cobalt, Ontario Silver

I found this sample at a mine dump at Cobalt, Ontario. The two major minerals are quartz and cobaltite (mineral data, very nice crystal)
The Cobalt deposit is the result of volatile escape from late-stage aplites in the Nipissing Diabase. These aplites intruded the overlying Gowganda Formation, which is itself a fascinating unit of diamictites and other glacial sediments. The Gowganda has been regionally metamorphosed, but only at low T and P; surprisingly subtle sedimentary features are still preserved. So the mineralization is intimately associated with the diabase, but actually located in the sedimentary units.
The texture of this rock strikes me as probably representing a thoroughly replaced breccia, but the patchy nature of the quartz and cobaltite distribution may simply be the original texture, not a texture of the protolith.
Now the thing that excited me about this speciman can be seen in the second and third pictures (crops above and below respectively). Those little black streamers are native silver.
There is a wonderful loop you can do in Ontario if you ever have the opportunity; Sudbury is the world's largest nickle deposit, a sizable copper deposit, and an enormous meteorite impact. Go north to Timmins and tour a gold mine in one of the richest gold deposits of North America. Travel southeast to Cobalt; the area is largely worked out in terms of silver, but my sense is that there is still quite a bit of cobalt, and the mine dumps are a kick in the pants. From there travel south, with a stop near Temagami. On the road's crest on the hill just north of town, there's a great outcrop of banded iron formation and pyrite-bearing black slates. Then head to Bancroft, Ontario to check out some of the most exotic and extreme minerals on the planet.

I had the opportunity to do just this loop with a friend and fellow geology student in 1988; it was truly a wonderful experience.

Just a Theory

From The Bronze Dog, w/ hat tip to Bing.

Getting ready to head out, and realized I've been meaning to post this for a while. I'm not going to get into the whole "theory vs. law vs. fact" discussion right now, nor do I feel it is appropriate to ridicue others' religeous beliefs. But let's just say that on the day it's OK for me to invite myself to your church to deliver the sermon, that's the day it'll be OK for you to invite yourself into my science classroom to teach about "just a theory." K? THNX, BAI!

A Piece for the World's Smallest Violin

“It was an ungracious inaugural. It was pretty clear he was taking shots.”

My Heart Bleeds. But then, I'm a liberal. That's what it's supposed to do.