Water is the most...

precious commodity and valuable resource in the arid West, as explained by this essay in the Arizona Republic newspaper. Indeed, I tell my students that "water doesn't flow downhill anymore, it flows towards money."

Historic Mt. Wilson Observatory...

is threatened by wildfires in southern California. More here. Smoke from the inferno has blown into southern Utah over night, as this webcam on the Colorado River -near Castle Valley - shows.

New Utah Geological Survey...

blog seems more like a forum to announce new publications, rather than a timely discussion of the geology of Utah.

Space shuttle eye view...

of the International Space Station (click to enlarge.) Discovery is scheduled to dock at about 9 pm EDT. What a sight.

Wise words...

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

--Arthur C Clarke

Fluted spires...

of the Fisher Towers expose the contact between the Cutler Formation and the overlying Moenkopi Formation (click to enlarge.) The Permo-Triassic contact is marked by the abrupt color change near the top of the eroded structures. More geo-details here.

Centennial anniversary...

of the discovery of the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada and its extraordinary fossil faunas by Charles Walcott occurs today. This deposit of exceptionally well preserved soft-bodied marine organisms of Middle Cambrian age is arguably the most important fossil discovery on Earth.

Common sunflower...

(Helianthus annuus) grows in profusion in disturbed areas in southern Utah, particularly along roadsides and in ditches. They bring welcome splashes of color to the desert as most of the flora begins to fade in the dry heat of late summer.

Peace through super firepower...

How to Make a Marshmallow Gun

Better get on it. Not too many days of summer left.

This wee hummer...

kept me company as I enjoyed my coffee on the patio this morning (click to enlarge.) It tanked up at the bird bath and seemed content to hang out in the lower branches of the nearby cottonwood. I captured its portrait from about 8 ft with a 300 mm telephoto - keep in mind it's no larger than your little finger.

Artifact from the future...

from Wired.com: Grow-a-Nanoraptor.

Warnings: contains "sharp, razor-like claws" and "do not leave it unsupervised with other pets." Sounds fun!

Nature's sundial...

helps me set my watch while in residence in Castle Valley, Utah. Looks like the time is 7:30 pm MDT on 27 August 2009.

What's new with ALH 84001,...

the controversial meteorite from Mars that some researchers believe contains fossil evidence of microbial life on the red planet? New analysis concludes that the mineralogy is suggestive of a hot spring environment, a potentially habitable niche.

Link to technical abstract.

RELATED: Abstract describing the geologic history of Mars.

Space shuttle Discovery...

is in orbit after a successful launch one minute before midnight. Its mission is to deliver crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) in support of micro-gravity research.

Link to STS-128 mission updates.

Fisher Valley...

from 8,400 ft on Fisher Mesa (click to enlarge.) From left to right one can spot the Fisher Towers off in the distance, the Onion Creek drainage and dissected exposures of the Paradox and Cutler Formations, long escarpments of the Moenkopi, Chinle and Wingate Formations, the Uncompahgre Uplift (in the background right-center) and Polar Mesa (right foreground.)

Astonishing images of...

molecules using specialized microscopes. Very cool.

Who'd have suspected...

that the Sun's cycle alters Earth's climate? Hmm.

Abstract: Amplifying the Pacific Climate System Response to a Small 11-Year Solar Cycle Forcing

Previous related posts here, here, here and here.

Wise words...

Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.

-- Bertrand Russell

An image of Earth...

from space showing Koryaksky Volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula (click to enlarge.) This is a true-color image showing an ash and steam plume being blown to the northeast towards the Bering Sea.

Personal note: I will be visiting the port of Petropovlovsk next summer as a lecturer/guide on a Zegrahm expedition and hope to witness/photograph several gurgling volcanoes during the five week voyage.

Image credit: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, taken 27 August 2009, Goddard Space Flight Center.

You can't study climate change...

without affecting the climate, according to some: Weather supercomputer used to predict climate change is one of Britain's worst polluters. Pull quote:

"Met Office's HQ has now been named as one of the worst buildings in Britain for pollution - responsible for more than 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

It says 75 per cent of its carbon footprint is produced by the super computer meaning the machine is officially one of the country's least green machines.

Green campaigners say it is 'ironic' that a computer designed to help stave-off climate change is responsible for such high levels of pollution."

It's a bit like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and quantum mechanics, but applied to climate science.

Heh.

RELATED: How much carbon dioxide do computers emit?

Donna's meadow...

high in the La Sal Mountains, overlooking the red rock desert below (click to enlarge.) In the spring and early summer the colorful parade of wildflowers on display here is sublime. During the late summer it's a nice place for a walk to escape the heat of the sandstone canyons. Regardless of the time of year, though, it is a very special place.

Sex secrets...

of the flying fox. It's, um, inspiring.

What d'ya expect after being serenaded with love songs?

Bats sing love songs...

during mating season according to a new study. Here's the on-line paper: Versatility and Stereotypy of Free-Tailed Bat Songs.

Barbara French, one of the authors, is an acquaintance of mine and my late wife's former colleague. She is an extraordinarily dedicated soul to bat conservation and protection.

Rockfall forces closure...

of hotel in Yosemite National Park.

Gravity is such a drag.

Just added this...

multifunction printer to the network at my red rock retreat: Brother MFC-490CW Color Inkjet Wireless All-in-One Printer. For $90, no tax and free 2-day delivery how could I go wrong?

My first impression out-of-the-box is that it is well made, solid, stylish, and compact. Installation of the software on my Vista laptop was seamless. Test pages printed fast and clean. We'll see how quickly it eats ink. I'll report my experience after a bit of use.

A bit o' the solar system...

arrived in the mail yesterday, a sizable fragment of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite, a generous gift from the Bu bro. I am anxious to cut, polish and acid etch the specimen once I return to the university in order to expose the Widmanstätten pattern typical of this class of iron meteorites. I will be sure to share the results.

Thanks, bro.

Iridescent fossilized feathers...

discovered in 40 million year old rocks. Here's the technical abstract. Stunning.

Image credit: Jakob Vinther/Yale University

Seven circular geological features...

in an image gallery including intrusions, craters, karst, domes and mines.

Turn your own shower water...

into drinking water. Recycle and reuse!

But can you still pee in the shower?

The anniversary of the eruption...

of Krakatoa occurs today, when 126 years ago one of the largest historically witnessed volcanic eruptions occurred on Earth. The caldera forming event killed more than 30,000 people and about two-thirds of the Indonesian island disappeared.

Today, the volcano is far from quiet as these spectacular images of Anak Krakatoa (taken last month) clearly indicate. Tick. Tock.

Sunset on Round Mountain...

in Castle Valley, Utah this evening (click to enlarge.) This trachyte porphyry stock is an offshoot of the larger laccolithic structures comprising the La Sal Mountains that rise in the background. These resistant igneous intrusive rocks have been exposed by the erosion and collapse of the salt-cored anticline in which the community of Castle Valley is located.

Never mind the details, just enjoy the picture. I'm getting back to my single malt.

Landslide on the Spokane River arm...

of Lake Roosevelt generates waves that destroy a dock at a public boat launch early this afternoon. Sparse initial news reports are here and here, the second story incorrectly refers to the event as a tsunami rather than a seiche.

Here's a better report with video links.

Mad scientist alert...

as a Canadian biologist proposes to turn chickens into dinosaurs. Bwahahahahah. Yes, seriously.

Hey, I've seen this movie and (spoiler ahead) it doesn't end well.

The most important instrument...

in human history turns 400 years old today: Galileo's telescope. This wood and leather tube containing a convex objective lens (8x mag,) in the hands of its inventor, crushed the geocentric dogma held by the Catholic Church that placed Earth at the center of the universe. So threatened by this heretical proposal Galileo Galilei was subjected to the Roman Inquisition and lived under house arrest until his death.

Previous related post.

What I'm reading...

right now: The Harriman Alaska Expedition Retraced: A Century of Change, 1899-2001, by Thomas Litwin.

The participants in this historic expedition included one of my geological heroes, G.K. Gilbert, among other prominent contemporary scientists and naturalists. It would have been very interesting to have sailed with this group.

First look into polar lunar crater...

yields, um, total darkness. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) snapped this image of Erlanger Crater which is a subject of great interest. The bottom of this crater is never illuminated by the Sun, and consequently may host frozen water ice because of the perpetually dark and extremely cold environment.

Thunderstorms in Florida...

delay the launch of space shuttle Discovery to the ISS. Another attempt will be made tomorrow.

Previous related post.

UPDATE: Now a glitch with a valve, this Tuesday afternoon. Launch scrubbed for tomorrow. Check mission status by using the first link above.

Breaking news...

Footprints on the Moon...

from Apollo 14 astronauts have been imaged in extraordinary detail by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO.) Click on the "annotated figure" at the provided link to see the astronauts path during their 1.4 km hike to Cone Crater.

Previous related post.

Vesuvius buries Pompeii...

on this date in 79 A.D. according to a letter by Pliny the Younger, though some archeologists believe it actually occurred two months later.

Interesting arcane geo-trivia: The term "Plinian eruption" is based on his descriptions of this eruption of Mount Vesuvius contained in the historic letter.

Stunning volcanic eruption images...

from space compiled in a photogallery by the digital denizens at Wired.com.

Preparing for a robotic visit...

to a distant moon: Landing sites on Europa identified.

Faster, please.

Encyclopedia of Life...

approaches nearly 10 percent completion towards its goal of cataloging 1.7 million species known to science. This is an especially daunting task since ~20,000 new species are identified each year.

Link to the on-line Encyclopedia of Life.

RELATED: Study on evolution's winners and losers concludes "new species emerge nearly as often as they die off."

RELATED UPDATE: The Bu bro observes that the tuatara is the fastest evolving creature, at least at a DNA level.

Wise words...

I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.

— Richard Feynman

Smoothest surface...

in the solar system: Saturn moon's mirror-smooth lake 'good for skipping rocks'. Key bits:

"The largest lake on Saturn's moon Titan is as smooth as a mirror, varying in height by less than 3 millimetres [across a 235 km distance], a new study shows."

"Spectral data also showed that the apparent lakes seem to be filled with methane and ethane, which would be liquid on Titan's frigid surface. And "geomorphologically, they just look like lakes", Zebker says."

Here's the technical abstract.

That's too cute...

department: San Diego Zoo's Panda Cam.

Giant panda Bai Yun gave birth to her fifth cub in early August. Take a peek to see how mom and cub are doing.

Anagrams can be fun...

especially when you have the Internet Anagram Server to help you out. A couple of discoveries, so far:

My full name becomes "a nonchalant herb julep."

Eastern Washington University becomes "a negativeness ruins tiny worth."

Like I said, fun. Enjoy exploring!

Hat tip: CN

Seeds be free...

and ride the wind. Image captured with my Canon G10 in macro mode (click to enlarge.)

The dark side...

of Microsoft's new operating system: 7 Reasons to Avoid Windows 7.

Previous related post.

Rocket motors galore...

on display at ATK Thiokol's manufacturing site in a remote valley north of the Great Salt Lake (click to enlarge.) I snapped this pic at dawn this morning after I spent the night at Promontory Point, Utah, where the golden spike was driven to celebrate the ceremonial completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in May 1869.

That's a solid rocket booster (SRB) for the space shuttle mounted in the background, with the Minuteman III ICBM and Trident II standing, left and right, respectively, among about 30 other motors and missiles. An adult would stand about as tall as the black motor in the foreground center, and that's one segment of the SRB next to it for a scale comparison. Big.

Lake Nyos hiccups...

on this date in 1986 in Cameroon, Africa. The deep volcanic crater lake experienced a limnic eruption that caused the abrupt release of CO2 that quietly flowed down nearby valleys, suffocating approximately 1,700 people.

Wise words...

There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.

-- Raymond Chandler

Nora...

This blog...

is being fumigated today in order to eradicate pesky pests. So hold your breath, dear reader, if you are checking in to see what's new.

I'm escaping south, heading to the red rock canyon country of southern Utah for a while, to engage in field work, hiking, photography, etc. I'll resume posting in a couple of days after the smoke and odor dissipates.

In the meantime, enjoy the post that follows this entry - a very talented piano playing cat named Nora.

How do you eat...

without a mouth? Osmotically, of course: Early Complex Organisms Feasted by Osmosis on Ocean Prey.

So I guess Ediacarans didn't have taste buds.

Wise words...

Only two things are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the former.

-- Albert Einstein

Erstwhile leader of Greenpeace...

admits to greatly exaggerating the demise of Arctic sea ice by 2030, and the need to "emotionalize" the issue. In fact, sea ice is declining more slowly than the last two years:RELATED: Lower Temperatures Grist for Global Warming Debate.

You can't beat DEET...

for repelling mosquitoes - yet - but new compounds seem to do the trick.

I can personally vouch that semi-controlled experiments/torture during my recent travels to the southern Oregon Cascades showed that tea tree oil was a reasonably successful repellent.

NASA approves launch...

of STS-128 for 25 August. Shuttle Discovery is tasked to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver cargo and crew on another mission to low Earth orbit.

I'm looking forward to more enterprising manned missions to the Moon and Mars. Faster, please.

This acrobatic...

American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is another common visitor to my bird bath, this one in front of my home (click to enlarge.) Here it is enjoying a cool drink on a warm afternoon.

Superfund waste storage site...

near Cataldo, Idaho should be vigorously challenged in my opinion, despite it being approved by the EPA and Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. While the chosen site is in an area already contaminated by mine tailings, it is near the Coeur d'Alene River and experiences occasional flooding, and the area has very shallow groundwater.

Although I have not examined the technical documents, I suspect the site ranked high primarily due to its proximity to a transportation corridor and land availability. There are clearly better locations to be found if scientific considerations were the only factor.

2,000 sols on Mars...

clicked by yesterday for Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Unfortunately it has been stuck in silt for the last several months, spinning its wheels, going nowhere, fast.

Wise words...

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

— Bill Cosby

Third largest T-Rex...

to be auctioned in Las Vegas in October.

I'm hoping that an institution, rather than a wealthy private collector, ends up with this valuable specimen.

An image of Earth...

from space showing 550 ft deep Meteor Crater, Arizona (click to enlarge.) It is estimated that this 4,000 ft wide crater - also known as Barringer Crater - is ~50,000 years old, and remains so well preserved due to the arid climate of the region.

The impactor is known as the Canyon Diablo meteorite, and is believed to be a fragment of an iron-nickel asteroid about 150 ft in diameter.

Going bananas...

over bananas. A banana a day keeps the doctor away in addition to soothing mosquito bites, and removing warts and splinters. Who knew?

I usually eat one as a mid-morning snack, and they're pollinated by bats!

Behind the scenes...

at Harvard's Museum of Natural History: a photo gallery with some interesting factoids.

Color me surprised...

to learn that 40% of Twitter tweets are "pointless babble." Perhaps this is a topic for further research for a doctoral dissertation?

Heh.

UPDATE: Now there's a Twitter hotline to the Almighty.

This teeny tiny...

pygmy nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea) kept me well entertained this late afternoon as it, and others, enjoyed the bird bath behind the house (click to enlarge.)

Amino acid glycine...

found in dust particles sampled from comet Wild 2 that was returned to Earth by NASA's Stardust spacecraft. Key bit:

"Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet," said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Our discovery supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts."

Wow. This certainly bolsters the view that life - as we know it - may be more common in the universe than thought. I wonder what Fred Hoyle would have thought?

Arriving in the mail...

today is the book Managing Abandoned Mines for Bats by Sherwin, Altenbach and Waldien. It's a comprehensive and technical treatment about using abandoned mines for the conservation and protection of bats. The 103 page document is entirely color illustrated - both images and figures - and includes considerable scientific data.

Here's the on-line downloadable version (7.48 Mb .pdf file.) Remember, bats need friends!

Where did summer go...

in the north-central Rockies? Early snow falls in the Bighorn Mountains as the region experiences a record cool summer.

The unusual solar minimum...

we are experiencing is discussed in Eos: Are Sunspots Different During This Solar Minimum?

An image of Earth...

from space showing Mount Hood, Oregon (click to enlarge.) This stratovolcano last erupted in 1866 and is the highest peak in Oregon (3,426 m / 11,240 ft.) North is towards the right.

Image credit: Astronaut photograph ISS020-E-28123 acquired on August 5, 2009, ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.

Ban on phosphate detergents...

in Spokane, Washington seems to be yielding positive results on the riverine ecosystem according to this article, despite some efforts to circumvent the intention of the prohibition.

Disaster may be closer...

than you think: Data show mega-quake could strike near Seattle.

New FD grade...

at Simon-Fraser University in British Columbia for students failing due to academic dishonesty.

If you get caught cheating in one of my classes you earn a double-barreled 0.0 and have the (dis)honor of repeating the course. For the record, here's EWU's Student Academic Integrity Policy.

This week's fifth annual...

Space Elevator Conference takes place in Redmond, Washington. The confab will be followed by the Space Elevator Games with power beaming and tether construction challenges. It's not sci-fi anymore, and NASA can award up to $4 million to entrepreneurs that fulfill the challenges.

Previous related post.

Trying to understand...

the relationship between caffeine and headaches is giving me a headache. I need another cup of coffee.

It's past the peak of the Perseids...

but here's a nice image gallery hosted at Spaceweather.com. The image above was taken by "NASA astronomers Danielle Moser and Bill Cooke [who] made the composite of 130+ Perseids that flew over the Marshall Space Flight Center on August 12th."

I was prepared to attempt to do some photography myself but the two nights of cloudy/drizzly weather in the Pacific Northwest defeated my efforts. Dang.

UPDATE: Interestingly this year's event exhibited a triple peak.

Yet another favorable review...

for Microsoft's Windows 7 from the gadget lab at Wired. Don't care for the new wallpapers, personally.

I pre-ordered the upgrade ($50) through Amazon.com about a month ago as I'm running Vista on my home desktop. Never had any real problems or complaints but Win7 seems a worthy step up. It's slated to ship in October.

Previous related post.

It's time for another visit...

to the ZooBorns web site. Warning: just too darn cute.

Ares I-X rocket...

has been stacked in the Vehicle Assembly Building and stands twice as tall as the Shuttle Transport System (the space shuttle)(click to enlarge.) This imposing rocket - the first new launch vehicle in 25 years - will be test fired on 31 October 2009 with a dummy crew capsule.

Grizzly bear gets death sentence...

for behaving like, well, a grizzly bear in the back country of Glacier National Park. Moreover, it's a female with two cubs.

Seems like it's human behavior that needs to be modified. The park biologist is an idiot and needs an attitude adjustment. Shameful. Just shameful.

UPDATE: Here's the e-mail contact page for the park. I've already submitted a comment recommending closure of the campground.

Minnesotans for global warming...

Set the flamingo free! C'mon...sing along.

Will electric cars...

wreck the grid? A very, very good question asked by Scientific American.

Hey, there's no free lunch. The electrons have to come from somewhere.

Wise words...

The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

— Stephen Jay Gould

Whiplash at EWU...

now that the marching band is back in business just days after it was axed. Pull quote:

“EWU has faced severe budget reductions in the past six months and eliminating the band seemed like one of many budget reduction possibilities,” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs John Mason said in a press release. “But recent robust enrollment projections, not available at the time the University’s budget reduction plan was adopted, mean the University will have funds to support the marching band.”

It is interesting to note that the funding was found to reinstate the marching band (perhaps it was a necessary priority after all, especially to support the athletics program!) but the university can't seem to find the resources to hire faculty to, um, actually teach classes.

Got a comment? Then here's the contact info:

Dr. John Mason
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Phone: 509-359-2201
Fax: 509-359-2248
jmason@mail.ewu.edu

One wonders if there are any adults in charge of the university?

UPDATE: Here's the text of an e-mail I sent Dr. Mason:

Hello Dr. Mason:

I am delighted to see that the EWU marching band has been reinstated, within days of it being axed. According to an article in the Spokesman-Review this is due to:

"EWU has faced severe budget reductions in the past six months and eliminating the band seemed like one of many budget reduction possibilities,” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs John Mason said in a press release. “But recent robust enrollment projections, not available at the time the University’s budget reduction plan was adopted, mean the University will have funds to support the marching band."

Can you please tell me when additional critical faculty will be hired in biology, chemistry, and geology to support the hundreds of majors in those areas?

I look forward to your reply.

John Buchanan, Ph.D.
Professor of Geology
Director, Environmental Science

Bigger threat than global warming...

is people saving their old National Geographic magazines, particularly in coastal areas. Growing collections of this weighty monthly publication may result in isostatic adjustments, i.e. crustal depression with an accompanying relative rise in sea level, according to this discussion in the Journal of Irreproducible Results.

The most academically irresponsible...

administration at Eastern Washington University in the last 25 years has cut the personnel enumerated on this list that I requested from the president's office (.pdf document) as its solution to recent budget reductions. Check it out, check-it-outers.

Note that only one intercollegiate athletics position has been terminated - an assistant soccer coach (a position already vacant.) Yet we have dozens of unfilled academic positions in key disciplines: in biology, chemistry, geology and physics, and in many other productive departments and other colleges. Student learning will certainly suffer in quality, with fewer classes and larger sections being taught by lesser qualified instructors (if at all.)

But we have a thriving, vigorous, athletics program that operates annually in deficit mode, supports only a minority of the student population and exists to entertain alumni! Such are the priorities of this administration under the so-called leadership of president Rodolfo Arévalo.

As the environmental science director (and student advisor) I am struggling with, in good conscience, encouraging students to attend this institution in order to achieve their higher education goals.

If you feel strongly about this situation then give EWU president Arévalo a call: (509) 359-2371. Or e-mail him: president@ewu.edu. Maybe you're in favor. Maybe you're not. Express your opinion. But be brief, and polite.

50 year Hebgen Lake earthquake...

anniversary occurs this coming Monday, 17 August 2009. The 7.3-7.5 magnitude event caused the Madison Canyon rockslide, created Quake Lake, killed 28 campers, tilted Hebgen Lake to the north and generated a seiche that nearly eroded the earthen dam, and changed the timing of geysers at Yellowstone National Park.

Here's a recently published historical account in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

And a heads up: there will be local programs in the West Yellowstone area to mark the anniversary of the historic temblor.

Stunning oblique image...

of Victoria Crater on Meridiani Planum region of Mars as imaged on 18 July 2009 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft (click to enlarge.) East is to the top of this view, and the crater is about 800 meters in diameter. Careful scrutiny of the high resolution image shows the tracks of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity along the north side of the crater during its explorations of this site last year.

Image credit: HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

NASA is failing...

at its mission in cataloging dangerous asteroids due to lack of funding, so concludes a National Academy of Sciences interim report: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies (.pdf file.)

Indeed, on 21 January 2009 there were 1,017 potentially hazardous asteroids identified, while today, nearly seven months later, there are now 1,067.

Incomprehensibly small...

is how I feel after watching this terrific video about, arguably, one of the most significant images ever made by humans: the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Take a look, look takers.

Impact craters on Earth...

as cataloged in a terrific image gallery. It's far from an exhaustive treatment, but it is a nice look at a few of the resultant landforms.

Call me skeptical...

but I have my doubts: Conservation Could Provide 85 Percent of New Power to the Pacific Northwest region. I'd like to see the math - and the assumptions. It's been my experience that pie-in-the-sky predictions such as this usually fall far short on actual delivery of the promises.

Google creates gulag...

for those who don't trust the search giant with their private data.

Wise words...

There are two kinds of light — the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.

— James Thurber

"Intelligent Design" course...

at Southern Evangelical Seminary requires that students troll the web and write posts defending intelligent design (ID) as the course requirements show:

AP410 This is the undegrad [sic] course. You have three things to do: (1) take the final exam (worth 40% of your grade); (2) write a 3,000-word essay on the theological significance of intelligent design (worth 40% of your grade); (3) provide at least 10 posts defending ID that you’ve made on “hostile” websites, the posts totalling [sic] 2,000 words, along with the URLs (i.e., web links) to each post (worth 20% of your grade).

AP510 This is the masters course. You have four things to do: (1) take the final exam (worth 30% of your grade); (2) write a 1,500- to 2,000-word critical review of Francis Collins’s The Language of God -- for instructions, see below (20% of your grade); (3) write a 3,000-word essay on the theological significance of intelligent design (worth 30% of your grade); (4) provide at least 10 posts defending ID that you’ve made on “hostile” websites, the posts totalling [sic] 3,000 words, along with the URLs (i.e., web links) to each post (worth 20% of your grade).

Emphasis in bold print is mine. The good news is that this is likely not an accredited institution of higher education.

An entire ecosystem...

exists inside pitcher plants, it seems. I snapped the image seen above (click to enlarge) showing the rare Darlingtonia californica near, surprisingly, Darlingtonia, California, during a summer biology/geology field course in 2004.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise: carnivorous plants are cool.

UPDATE: New Carnivorous Plant Species Found

Editors at on-line science journal...

hoaxed by an entirely bogus paper written by a computer algorithm. Priceless.

Sheesh. Do the human editors even read the submitted articles?

Hat tip: JT

EWU axes marching band...

due to budget cuts according to this Spokesman-Review article, information that you won't find anywhere on the university web site. It also points out that more than 100 students are impacted by this decision (a significant number, especially when compared to the population of about 350 student athletes who will still enjoy their activities.)

Goodness, how will we instill school spirit at our oh-so-important football games?

If you feel so compelled, send your comments to EWU president Arevalo at president@ewu.edu or 509/359-2371.

Opportunity images largest meteorite...

found on Mars, given the name "Block Island." The news release states:

"Analysis of Block Island's composition using the rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer confirmed that it is rich in iron and nickel. The rock is about 60 centimeters (2 feet) across. This is a false-color, red-green-blue composite view generated from images taken through the Pancam's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer filters."

In addition, here's a short article that discusses what this metallic meteorite can tell us about the Martian atmosphere.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Human viruses...

on display in a colorful gallery of microscopic images, including herpes, hepatitis A and B, Marburg and, my personal favorite, ebola. It's interesting how morphologically different they can be.

Favorable reviews...

of Microsoft Windows 7 from cnet and Gizmodo, though there are too many versions of the new OS in my opinion.

Dissipating impact scar...

near the south polar region of Jupiter, presented as a time lapse move spanning the last three weeks. The impact site is marked by the black smudge, just to the upper right of center. A series of still images have been converted to polar projection and stitched together by clever amateur astronomers, and presented courtesy of Spaceweather.com.

Related previous post.

New and used textbooks...

are marked down at Amazon.com right now. Yes, I know fall term is still a ways away, but I'm a sucker for a good deal and I suspect a student on a budget is similarly inclined.

Here's the book I'm using in GEOL 411 this fall. If you're a student of mine and you purchase the book early, then read the first four chapters and you'll be in great shape!

Wise words...

I don't like electrons; they've always had a negative influence on society.

-- Unknown

Milankovitch cycles confirmed...

as a major forcing of glaciation/deglaciation by Oregon State University geoscientists. Here's a link to the technical abstract.

An image of Earth...

from space showing the Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest and most sterile place on our planet, bound on the east by the Andes Mountains and on the west by the Pacific Ocean (click to enlarge.) The extreme environment there has been studied by NASA as an analog to Mars, and is host to several large astronomical observatories.

Image: ENVISAT Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS.)

Project Mohole resurrected...

by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program with new technology to be implemented as soon as 2011. Don't know Mohole? Then read this.

Rings of Saturn...

will disappear from view on 11 August when a ring-plane crossing event occurs. This ~15 year periodic occurrence is due to when the tilt and position of the planet in its orbit combine to allow Earthling astronomers a unique side-on view of the rings. The last time this occurred was on 22 May 1995 as shown in this image. No worries, though, as the rings will reappear by the time Saturn returns to the night skies for telescopic examination in the spring of 2010.

In the meantime, use this occasion to learn more about Saturn and its ring system. In my opinion it is the most beautiful object in the night sky when observed in a telescope. Don't ever miss an opportunity to take a peek.

UPDATE: Mysterious Object Rips Through One of Saturn's Rings

Wise words...

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

— Albert Einstein

Pee in the shower...

to save the planet, at least according to this ad campaign airing in Brazil. It claims that doing so saves 12 liters of water per day, or 4,380 l/yr, per person.

So it's time to do your part, faithful readers of this silly blog.

Four years in grad school...

well spent? British woman receives first ever Ph.D. in texting with astonishing and groundbreaking results. Not.

All I can say is: OMG ROTFLOL WTF?

God vs. Gore...

playing out in southern Switzerland: Swiss now pray that glacier will stop shrinking.

MORE from the "do as I say not as I do" crowd: Lawmakers' Global-Warming Trip Hits Tourist Hot Spots.

Titan may be more Earth-like...

than Mars as highlighted in two recent articles:

• Titan May Host Prebiotic Brew
• Titan's Surface Features Form Like Earth's

Walking sticks...

are fascinating insects - at least to me - in the Order Phasmatodea. Here's an image (click to enlarge) of a couple of stick insects that I caught, uh, coupling, near the entrance to Bracken Cave in Texas a while ago.

Kepler Space Telescope beginning to yield...

science results: Kepler Detects an Exoplanet Atmosphere. While this is not necessarily groundbreaking news, it does bode well for the huge return of data anticipated by this mission in search of Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.

An overview of lenses...

for your digital SLR camera from the gadget geeks at Gizmodo.

World to end in...

November when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) restarts, though at only half its energy potential.

Promises, promises.

Seven really nasty diseases...

transmitted by animals.

Creepy fungus...

takes a page from the movie Alien. That's the fungal reproductive stalk growing out of the head of the dead ant. Read about the parasitic fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis if you dare (it may give you nightmares.)

Hey, it's the circle of life.

Image courtesy David Hughes/ScienceNews

Units of measurement...

with a humorous twist. My favorite is the counter unit to the light year: the beard-second.

RELATED: I instructed the biology students on our recent field excursion to the volcanic terrains in the southern Cascades that, if they had difficulty recalling the difference between basalt, andesite or rhyolite, just simply call the rock a rhyoandesalt and they couldn't be wrong.

Methane mystery on Mars...

gets more mysterious. In sum, Martian methane is produced and destroyed at a faster rate than on Earth. Moreover, it's not evenly distributed in the atmosphere, but occurs in concentrated regions on the red planet. Link to technical abstract.

Wise words...

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

— T. S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

A report from the field...

from the Nebraska Star Party by the Bu bro, with an included image of my 12-y-o niece silhouetted by the glow of the aurora borealis:

"NSP was pretty nice. The weather was threatening the first night but did clear up around midnight. We didn't have much stamina that night so only stayed until about 0100. The next two nights were very good. Tuesday night we saw the Northern Lights, a first for me. Not wavy curtains or anything exceptionally cool, but neat to see and contemplate.

Here is a photo inspired and composed by J; I pulled the trigger. 30 seconds exp, so she is a bit blurry. Northern Lights. They did not look that green, but to the camera sensor, I guess it was."

I can personally attest that star parties are a lot of fun, and one of the best occurs in Washington each summer - the Table Mountain Star Party.

Bone thieves should be wary...

of a new geo-forensic technique that links the looted fossils to specific excavation sites.

It would be additionally helpful if these scofflaws would face serious criminal penalties once caught, rather than getting off lightly.

The Perseids are coming...

as Earth begins to move through debris shed by Comet Swift-Tuttle. The annual meteor shower should peak sometime on 12 August but full enjoyment this year may be dampened by the glow of the gibbous Moon.

MORE: Geogal, a regular reader and commenter on this blog, points to this from Spaceweather.com:

"This year's Perseid meteor shower could be even better than usual. "A filament of comet dust has drifted across Earth's path and when Earth passes through it, sometime between 0800 and 0900 UT (1 - 2 am PDT) on August 12th, the Perseid meteor rate could surge to twice its normal value," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office."

UPDATE: From the Bu bro this morning via e-mail... "FYI, I just returned last night from being away to YNP [Yellowstone National Park.] Saw an incredible fireball shooting east to west over Lamar Valley. Longest, brightest, greenest, smokiest I have ever seen, with some fragmentation at the terminus." Cool! Maybe a harbinger of this years' shower.

This handsome...

great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) is perched above the bird bath behind my digital cottage this morning (click to enlarge.) They're quite common in the open ponderosa pine forest and I immensely enjoy their company.

Something to look forward to...

this fall and winter: WHO maintains 2 bln estimate for likely H1N1 cases . That's one-third of the world's population that will likely contract the swine flu.

Arriving in the mail...

today is yet another book, The Adventure Climbs of Herb & Jan Conn by Lindsay Stephens, a gift from the Bu parents. Thanks!

I met Herb and Jan a few years back while working at Jewel Cave National Monument on a caving project and they are quite extraordinary people. Now on in their years, Jan was the first woman to climb Devils Tower in Wyoming by a technical route in 1948, and together they explored and mapped more than 60 miles of cave passages in Jewel Cave.

Arriving in the mail...

today is a copy of James Pigott's book A View of the Methow from Moccasin Lake Ranch. In fact, it's a gift from the author himself to express his appreciation of my participation in the Zegraham expedition to Norway and Svalbard last month.

Gratefully appreciated, Jim, and I look forward to sailing with you and your wife again sometime.

New digital camera...

comes outfitted with a built-in projector: Nikon's COOLPIX S1000pj. I've got to wonder about the battery life.

So, does it make a good cup of coffee too? That's what I want in a next generation camera.

An image of Earth from space...

as captured by NASA 's Moon Mineralogy Mapper in lunar orbit (click to enlarge.) "Australia is visible in the lower center of the image. The image is presented as a false-color composite with visible oceans a dark blue, clouds are white, and vegetation an enhanced green. The data were acquired on July 22, 2009."

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Brown.

Bat killing white-nose fungus...

gets a formal name: Geomyces destructans. Here's the link to a brief news story (third article.)

Giant marine worm...

burrow casts found in Ordovician strata in central Spain. The ancient worms were up to three feet in length and occupied "horizontal galleries 15 feet long and 6-8 inches in diameter under the seabed."

I always wondered where the worms in the movie Tremors came from; now we know.

Large earthquake in Baja, Mexico...

rattled our departmental seismometer just moments ago as this image of the computer display shows (pic credit to JT.) The USGS reports this event as a 6.9 magnitude temblor located 10 km below the Gulf of California.

Whiner alert...

Grad Sues College for $70,000 Because She Can't Find a Job

Hmm. I wonder what her grade point average was? Her personal hygiene? Number of facial tattoos and/or piercings? Attitude?

Peace through superior firepower...

this summer: potato guns and nerf weapons. Personally, I favor the potato gun since you don't have to retrieve the ammo once it's fired. Just thinking tactically.

Previous related post.

Keep an eye on..

the Philippine volcano Mayon (hey, that rhymes.) Why? The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) indicates that gas emissions are above background and increasing.

Asteroid Watch...

is a new web site operated by JPL/NASA to provide a centralized resource for information on near-Earth objects. To kick things off, here are the top ten asteroid facts posted on the site.

UPDATE: Check out this disturbing technical note and the related abstract.

A hearty breakfast...

consisting of rice cake, peanut butter, gravel/pumice, mosquitoes and pine needles (all the major food groups) starts every day in the field. Crunch. Crunch. Gulp. Yum!

Image credit: Professor J. Thomson

There's nothing stupider...

than being a professional astronomer and missing the object that hit Jupiter. Well, that is certainly an overstatement but at least it rhymes. But in reality they did get trumped by an amateur in discovering the most important event to occur in the solar system in the last 15 years, so now they're playing catch up:

Astronomers Look for Clues in the Wake of the Jupiter Collision.

My previous related posts are here and here.

Mini-mammal tracks discovered...

in the Jurassic-age Glen Canyon Formation in Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. The linked article includes images of a footprint, no larger than a dime.

Hat tip: LS

Breaking news...

Wise words...

Science is for those who learn; poetry, for those who know.

-- Joseph Roux

The fully outfitted van...

for university field trips. Be sure to use dry erase markers!

Previous related post.

One of the grandest...

junipers in Oregon, estimated to be between 600 and 700 years old. It's about 64 ft tall with a diameter of 5.5 ft, and it stands all alone amid ponderosa pine and sagebrush on the southeastern flank of Newberry Volcano. Good luck trying to find it amid a confusing network of logging roads!

In a word: awesome.

Maars and tuff rings...

occur on the southern flank of Newberry Volcano, seen in the distance at the far right in the image above (click to enlarge.) The image shows Fort Rock as viewed from the south, and this phreatomagmatic volcanic feature was created during an eruption into a shallow pluvial lake during the late Pleistocene. Subsequent erosion by wave action breached the south side of the structure and a wave-cut notch, reflecting the former lake's shoreline, is etched around its perimeter.

Hole-in-the-Ground, a related volcanic feature termed a maar is located nearby and is shown in the image below (click to enlarge):

One might notice a small fault that offsets the basalt unit in the far side of the structure.

Newberry Volcano caldera...

as viewed from the summit of Paulina Peak (7,969 ft/2,429 m elevation) lies in south-central Oregon and within Newberry Volcano National Monument (click to enlarge.)

The rim of the Newberry caldera forms the surrounding skyline and it contains East Lake (distant right) and Paulina Lake (left) with the Central Pumice Cone separating the two water bodies. The very obvious Big Obsidian Flow is approximately 1,300 years old and consists of volcanic glass and pumice, the product of a very "dry" rhyolitic lava flow.

Happy birthday...

to the Bu bro. Another lap around the Sun has been completed, and another one begins.

I've sent him this fun book as a gift.

While I was away...

some interesting items were published on the web. Here they are, in case you missed them:

• Scientists Drill a Mile Into Active Deep Sea Fault Zone
• Fermi Paradox Points to Fewer Than 10 Extraterrestrial Civilizations
• Mosquitoes deliver malaria 'vaccine' through bites
• Laser Propulsion: Wild Idea May Finally Shine
• Mysteriously High Tides on East Coast Perplex Scientists
• Organic food is no healthier, study finds

Our terrific crew...

of biology and geology students at Crater Lake National Park (click to enlarge.) That's me in the lower left next to Professor O'Quinn in the big floppy hat, while Professor Thomson is seen in the upper right.

We're posed at the Cloudcap Overlook on the east side of Crater Lake which, of course, is really a caldera lake. All of the smiling faces is the real deal - how could one not be joyful and actively engaged in outdoor learning in such a spectacular setting?

Crater Lake is an azure jewel...

ensconced in the southern Oregon Cascade Mountains and this mini-panorama - shot from the summit of Mount Scott - hardly does it justice (click to enlarge.) We have just returned with 20 students (the same number we left with!) from a week-long biology/geology field trip that examined this interesting volcanic region.

I'll spend this weekend reviewing my images and post some of the more interesting items on this blog. Stay tuned.