I have found a new title for what I do. I am now a:
Do you write papers in a neat, orderly fashion? Kind of like they taught you back in grade school -- with the outline first, and then you go write each section and subsections?
I sure as hell don't.
I've been writing up another big chunk of my dissertation work lately (you'll notice my posting frequency has increased too....hmmm). I find it hard to stay in one section of the paper for more than 10-15 minutes. While working on the Introduction, I think of something I need to discuss in the....well, in the Discussion, so I type a few reminder phrases as a place marker. As I scroll back up to the Introduction I remember that I forgot to look up the number that goes where the highlighted red "X" is. That's right, I need to address that aspect in the Introduction so when I reveal my data later it all fits together nicely....yes, that'll be awesome! But, oh crap....now i'm opening a spreadsheet. Oh crap....I found a seemingly small, but cascading error in one of the tables. Did I really do that wrong? That was stupid. How bad is it?
Instead of dealing with it right away, I decide to go back to the text and finish my train of thought. What train of thought?
cartoon above from here
That's right. I hate them. Yes, it is a serious word. And I mean it.
I helped a friend move today. I'm happy to do it, because with good friends you always know what comes around goes around. Plus, moving is one of those things where you notice how much faster and efficient it goes when you have a group of people helping.
Futons are the worst things ever conceived and constructed. I've always hated everything about them. They are not comfortable to sit on. They are certainly not comfortable to sleep on. But, it is moving day when my hatred for futons really comes out.
When you try and pick the thing up, one side tries to fold over and slice off and/or crush your fingers. As you and the other sorry soul who is trying to carry the thing with you attempt to rotate only slightly to get out the door, then the other side slams down. Why isn't there some sort of fastening device included with this overly-complicated folding monstrosity?
And that's just the frame. Then the so-called mattress. If there is any piece of furniture that, when carried, resembles a dead body it must be the futon mattress.
I'm not sure why, but i assumed the futon was invented by the Swedish or someone else in northern Europe, but apparently it is a Japanese idea. I have no basis for saying this, but I bet the Japanese futons are better somehow. Not good by any means....but better.
I hate futons.
If anyone has anything to say in defense of futons.....I would like to hear it.
image above from here
I took some photos the other day as we were landing in San Francisco. The picture below is looking to the northeast, that is the town of Fremont and the East Bay hills.
Now compare with the GoogleEarth view...this was as close as I could get it to match.
That's it...I don't have anything interesting to say about that.
Happy Fourth of July!
Research that I have been doing recently involves the study of sediment flux. That is, what is the history, the temporal distribution, of the erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment. From the erosion of a particle in the uplands, into a river system, perhaps spending some time in a coastal system, and then into a deep marine basin. I've been looking at a temporal scale of hundreds to thousands of years, but one could examine this at a scale of millions of years. Of course, the farther back into Earth history, the lower the resolution. Moreover, the farther back in Earth history, the more fragmented is the contextual information about the system. Investigating sediment flux requires a lot of context
The ultimate question is, of course: what are the controls on sediment flux? Can we deconvolve interacting factors including, but not limited to:
This is what I spend my time pondering. Earlier today I was standing at the luggage carousel in the airport. Everybody stands there staring at the mouth of the conveyor from where their bag (hopefully) appears. We stand there and wonder what controls the order, why the delivery of bags come in clusters, and other nonsense....essentially, we are wondering what is controlling the flux of luggage. Well, maybe only I wonder this.....anyway, all we have to do to figure this out is simply observe what is happening on the other side of the luggage delivery system.
...is what the grad-student-guilt angel is whispering in my ear on one shoulder. On the other shoulder is the holy-crap-you-deserve-a-break devil saying.....well, saying what he always says.
I'm gonna actually listen to the devil for once. I will be away from the internets (and phones even!) until July 2nd. In the meantime, check out some of the blogtastic goodies out there:
Grab yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy some Sunday morning funnies.
I can't decide if this is for real or a parody of someone trying to be serious, or something else. Either way, it is entertaining. Neal Adams, an American comic book artist, has a website and various videos out there talking about the expanding Earth theory. That's right...the spreading of the Atlantic and eastern Pacific indicate that the Earth has to have grown in the last couple hundred million years. What about subduction? This is what Neal says about subduction:
There is no subduction. No plates subduct. Subduction is unscientific and untrue, the ramifications of which are world shaking. And… the Earth grows! (You may have heard this before, so I caution you. This is not your father’s Earth expanding theory.) Earth is growing, not expanding, and therein lies the past-error who's answer lies in physics and not geology.Very compelling argument against subduction. If you are in the mood for some fun reading, check out Neal's full treatise on why subduction is a stupid theory.
40 years ago your discipline was in a position to lead all of science into a new age of discovery but you wimped out. You, basically, had no balls.I never realized some people were so strongly anti-subduction. Anyway, now that subduction is neatly out of the way, Neal gets to his real message. If plates don't subduct but they are created at spreading centers then -- the Earth has to be growing!
You could have given a growing Earth theory an open chance for a complete examination, but you closed your doors.
WORSE, you accepted subduction, a theory that has not been seen or proved for all these 40 years, as gospel out of fear.
Why did you do it?
You were bullied into it. But worse again you allowed yourselves to be bullied shame!
Nothing, nothing in the "proofs" of subduction is there that can't easily be explained by another concept within the plate tectonics.
You will be the laughed at generation of geologists who believed in the subduction theory. Just like those who believed the Sun went around the Earth or the Earth was flat and you could fall off the edge. You are the duped generation of geologists.
You may have seen this already...it's been around for a while. This guy, Matt, has a blog called Where the Hell is Matt?, which chronicles his world travels and bad dancing.
For some reason, I really love this video....I'd love to go to all these places. Enjoy.
The randomness tag couldn't be more appropriate for this post.
Our research group is wondering how to celebrate our advisor's birthday this year....which usually ends up being a tribute and/or roast. In the past, students have also done things to his office so there's a surprise waiting for him in the morning.
Anyways...while "researching" this, I came across this video on YouTube that absolutely made my day!
I'm nearly done with this latest stint on the SHRIMP...I need to blast about 5 more zircons. What a way to spend a Friday night.
I was gonna work on finishing up a paper that needs to get off my desk, my upcoming spring review progress report, reading a bunch of papers that i've been meaning to get to, and various other research-related activities while running this machine the last 3 days.
Instead, I played around on the internet.
Surfing the web is such a spasmodic and nonlinear activity -- it actually goes perfect with running this machine, which has a sequence of mindless tasks every 7 minutes.
I've been checking out some music-related sites/blogs...I started a list on the sidebar. I haven't posted too much about live music on this blog, because I just haven't seen much lately. The whole finishing-up-the-dang-PhD thing has gotten in the way. I'm hoping to change that this summer.
...okay, 4 zircons to go...
I haven't blogged in a while -- it's been really hectic around here. But, I finally have some free time...the only catch is that in comes in increments of approximately 7 minutes in duration. I am spending the next few nights dating some detrital zircons on the SHRIMP. A couple of months ago, I posted about this avenue of research here. Each grain takes about that long to cycle through...there's a few numbers to be checked and recorded, and then you move the beam on to the next grain.
The good news is that colleagues in my research group are willing to help me out with this analysis. The bad news is that since the machine runs 24/7 and they are my samples, i'm the one who gets to sit here from 7pm until 7am....good times. I don't mind working the graveyard shift, but I really have a hard time the first night...once ya get into the groove it's not so bad. There is something a little strange being opposite from the rest of society though. One of the several random jobs I worked during college was as a night watchman -- it is definitely a lonely existence. Some people work these hours for years and years...I don't know how they do it.
Anyway....hopefully, I'll have a chance to catch up on the latest in the geoblogosphere....in 7-minute increments.
This story is from the perspective of a guy from Buffalo at a Tragically Hip concert in San Francisco.
Really...the only way to see these guys is in a small (and famous) music club in San Francisco and not in a giant arena in Calgary. Don't get me wrong...I love 'em...but they are better suited to the smaller room. This is, by far, the most concentrated collection of Canadians in San Francisco tonight -- maybe the most all year?
In the bathroom between the opening band and The Hip, a voice calls out "Who's from Vancouver, eh?" -- this is answered by "Go Canucks!" from the opposite corner and, slightly overlapping in timing, "Go Leafs, Go" from right next to me in a clear combative tone. A couple more Crown and Coke's and I would have added in my own $0.02 and screamed something clever like "Buffalo rules...wooo". The 'wooo' is pretty standard really...seems trite, but how can you leave it out. C'mon.
The Canadian national anthem was 'sung' outside the club afterwards by competing packs of drunks waiting for their friends. It was beautiful...I wanted to pull the sweater over this guy's head next to me and start beating the crap out of him...but in a fun and friendly way. The kind of fun fight where the involved parties make sure to take care of their eyeglasses beforehand and do so with a giant and somewhat maniacal smile on their face. Although I never did find my friends -- the guys who flew down from Calgary just for this show -- and they now have my coat from the coat check, dammit.
Even though they didn't play 'Naughtical Disaster'...the Sabres have clinched a playoff berth. All is well.
once in a while...I stray from geo topics...no worries, it's just a random post
Okay...I have a hypothesis. I'm never gonna test this because compiling the data would be a ridiculous waste of my time.
I've noticed a general pattern out there on blogs or forums (places where commenting is allowed) such that the level of snarkiness, rudeness, derisiveness, scorn, disdain, etc. increases as the level of knowledge about the one making the comment decreases. The plot below shows sarcasticity on the y-axis vs. profile disclosure level on the x-axis.
Profile disclosure level of the commenter is discussed here in three basic levels: (1) when the real name and full contact information is either readily available through a link, or not too hard to find, (2) when an alias or nickname is used but enough clues are given that one could likely find out the identity of that person if they really tried, and (3) completely anonymous and without a link to any other site; usually using the name 'anonymous' or some other nondescript handle probably never used again.
However, this qualitative relationship has some important caveats:
a) if the commenter and poster know each other reasonably well sarcasticity is more-or-less independent of disclosure level (this is very common)
b) if the commenter is well-known for making rash comments (that's their bag baby) then they will be more likely to do it regardless
The plot above would require a huge amount of data (hundreds of points) and would likely be a pretty rough trendline. A small sample set, especially taken within one kind of blogging community, would probably not produce this result.
One of the favorite arguments used by one type of global warming denialist goes something like this:
The Earth has experienced natural and significant climatic swings in the past; therefore the current climatic swing we are experiencing is likely natural (not human-made); therefore we don't need to take any action.In this view, they accept the results of paleoclimate studies (the source of knowledge of the natural cycles). This argument is typically trotted out by those who are motivated solely by a economic/political paradigm. That is, they predict that the regulation of emissions will result in global economic recession at best or a complete and total economic catastrophe (i.e., the collapse of modern civilization) at worst.
