Modern Geology: Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina?

26 05 2009

Wow. It’s been almost a month since I’ve updated the BLAG – I haven’t been feeling very inspired to write much of anything lately. There have been earthquakes galore and most of my thoughts have been with the end of the semester and trying to get everything turned in on time. The semester’s been over for nearly two weeks, and I’m still feeling the strain. Why?

Part of it is because this summer, I’ll be doing a field camp. When I was an undergrad, this wasn’t required, but they changed it recently. I technically don’t *have* to go, but I feel like it’ll be an incredible experience. The course I’ll be on is run in conjunction with Cornell University and my home campus, Montclair State University. The field camp is being held in the Andes Mountains of Argentina. We will be doing geologic mapping nearly the entire time we’re there, from July 4 to July 31 of this year.

What has me the most nervous, though, is that I’ve never done any geologic work of this caliber before. The most I’ve ever mapped is a tiny square on campus, not anywhere near this large. Also, the fact that I’ll be away for nearly a month and don’t know much about how I’ll be able to be in touch with my family and friends is a big worry. What if something happens at home? A dear friend recently took a European vacation, and the day she landed she found out that her father passed away. Third biggest worry? I’m one of three girls going. There are thirteen guys. That’s more than a little unbalanced…I just hope I get along with them.

Am I scared? You bet. Will I survive? Hopefully. Anyone have any words of wisdom? Anything that’ll keep me a bit more sane? I don’t speak a lick of Spanish so that doesn’t take away from my panic any.

Consider this my warning sign? ;)





Random Sunday Night: WTFbird?

26 04 2009

Random Sunday Nighters, this week has been especially stressful for me. I finished up a couple of presentations on possible ocean anoxia at the Permo-Triassic boundary, read papers about the geomorphology of Mars, and spent the past two days camping and tracing the Barrovian Sequence and mapping Stony Point Battlefield. I have a very sunburnt shoulder and a sore piercing (but hey, what else is new?) so I turn to Youtube, of course, to take away thinking about the fact that I have a dentist’s appointment at 9:15 tomorrow morning. My friend Ashley links me to this:

The latter bird, as I would later google, is a male Superb Bird of Paradise.

AND IT SCARES THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME.

The great thing about nature, ladies and gentlemen, is that it is so truly unbelievable. And that, in and of itself, makes it believable.

The semester’s almost over, and hopefully – HOPEFULLY – regular science posting will pick back up. Thanks for your patience!





Random Sunday Night: Gotta…Dig ‘Em All?

19 04 2009

With the recent release of Pokémon Platinum, I started playing Diamond again. Yes, I have Platinum…but I have so much left to do in Diamond! One of my favorite parts of playing has been the Underground – simply because it’s Pokémon geology!

When you get your Explorer Kit in Eterna City, you can dig down into the ground and explore the Underground – a series of mines. By pinging the walls, you can choose to “dig” into bulging walls, and uncover different rocks and fossils. These fossils can be brought up to the surface and reanimated into Pokémon, which you can use in your party. I’ve been playing around with an Aerodactyl…but I really want a Kabuto.

Kabuto are the Pokémon equivalent of my favorite little prehistoric sea creatures, trilobites! Unlike the real thing, these can be reanimated and can be your little in game pixel friends.

The cool thing about games is that reality is suspended. You want to bring a fossil back to life? We can do that! Imagine if we could do that in real life, Jurassic Park style – would we have dinosaur parks, or a national threat? I know I’d bring back a ton of trilobites.

Given the option, would you reanimate any fossil friends? Or would you avoid the chaos all together?

(And if you’re curious, my Friend Code is 2749 7797 8904, name ELYSE – let’s battle!)





Random Sunday Night: So Real, You Can Almost Feel It

12 04 2009

True story #485: I’m hopelessly in love with the third dimension.

Yeah, I know that life is in 3D. But movies? Flat as a pancake. Unless, of course, you have those groovy glasses. One red lens, one blue lens – the rest is history. Though I am usually heavily interested in the science behind things, this is Random Sunday Night – so I’ll leave that up to HowStuffWorks.

Me? I’m going to rave about 3D movies.

I remember being little and seeing pictures, most notably in the book Visual Magic (ISBN #9781402743610 in case the link doesn’t work). The book came with a free pair of 3D glasses and showed me some of the first red/cyan pictures and I was blown away. Whoa, it jumps right out of the page! Five-year-old me was pretty stunned by that.

3D fell out of popularity, but never quite out of my mind. My interest was once again sparked by none other than VH1 – the third installment of its “I Love The 80s” show was filmed entirely in 3D. Since then, it’s made a relatively large comeback! Movies are once again being filmed and shown in 3D – I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas a few years ago, and most recently, Monsters Vs. Aliens.

Side note, I recommend this movie most highly. I haven’t laughed this hard in what seems like forever – and the global warming crack made my scientist heart smile.

When I was searching for images, I came across this site – they’ll send you a free pair of 3D glasses so long as you pay the postage for a letter there! I’ll definitely be doing this in the morning…but for now, I return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Expect a BLAG about the eruptions on the Galapagos sometime this week if I remember!





Random Sunday Night: Propaganda – Believe The Hype!

5 04 2009

I have long been fascinated with the propaganda posters used during war times (and other times, for that matter) in countries around the world. My all-time favorites are old Soviet-era Communist posters, most specifically this one:

I don’t even know what it is. I just love it. I have a huge poster of it on my wall, and I even have the image on a t-shirt. Translated, it’s basically an ad for a publishing company – and the woman is shouting something to the effect of “READ” if I understand correctly. I still love it.

On the other side of the world, the Chinese have this beauty, which I also kind of love – showcasing two of my favorites, Marx and Lenin.

However, the Reds weren’t the only ones with fabulous posters. Take this fine American example from World War II:

Or what about this World War I example?

I don’t know what it is about the art, but propaganda posters always get me. Random enough for your Sunday night, Ellen? :D





Not-So-Local Geology: Structural Damage and Flooding in the Midwest

30 03 2009

Two friends of mine over on Livejournal have been experiencing two different geological (or at least geomorphological) troubles lately, and I’d like to expand on their situations a bit.

My friend Misty lives in the small town of Gillespie, IL. It’s approximately an hour north of St. Louis, and is smack dab in the middle of a formerly mining county. Reports say that mine subsidence, or sinking and shifting of the earth’s surface due to an underground mine collapse, is common in the area. On Saturday, the principal of the school noticed cracks all through the foundation of the school – and declared that it had to be closed indefinitely, and can potentially never be reopened. Now, officials are panicing because nobody knows what to do with the students now that their $7.5 million, 7 year old school is unusable.

Mine subsidence is becoming more and more common, with more and more mines becoming abandoned. While not initially dangerous, the ground will eventually sink in all the way and cause some pretty serious damages. Googling, I came across this site by the Pennsylvania State Department of Environmental Protection that explains the different types of damage that mine subsidence can cause – of those, sinkholes are the most common.

More information on the situation in Gillespie can be found here and here.

Melissa, on the other hand, lives a bit further north, just outside of Fargo, ND on the Minnesota side. Her husband, Z, has been tracking the flooding in his own blog, Life in a Floodplain. The spring thaw, paired with a particularly nasty storm season, has really brought on an evil flood, which finally made the news on this half of the country sometime last week.

Worst of all is that late last week, a winter storm hit and dumped about 4 inches of snow on the area. The picture here is of explosives blowing up ice dams in the Missouri River.

The dangers of living on a floodplain are relatively well known – as a matter of fact, you aren’t allowed to build on a floodplain anymore. Buildings that are already standing, though, are still able to be inhabited. And with the high amount of control that is put on river structure now, meanders aren’t allowed to move, so floodplain flooding is even more exaggerated. I don’t have any solid answers as to why people choose to live on floodplains – but the risk is always present, and awareness can be incredibly helpful.

For more information on the flooding, check this link, or keep your eyes peeled for an update to Z’s blog.





Random Sunday Night: The Worst Song…EVER?

29 03 2009

Walking across the blogosphere today, my dear sister Karyn found this link on wired.com about the scientific attempt to create the worst song in the world. Paraphrasing:

[The] list of undesirable elements included holiday music, bagpipes, pipe organ, a children’s chorus and the concept of children in general (really?), Wal-Mart, cowboys, political jingoism, George Stephanopoulos, Coca Cola, bossanova synths, banjo ferocity, harp glissandos, oompah-ing tubas and much, much more.

So I dared to listen. And honestly? It was so bad it was good. We listened to all twenty-something minutes of it, and I laughed so hard I probably passed out. The best part was where they were talking about Ramadan and going to Wal-Mart. I challenge you to listen – it’s worth it.

Also of note is that these gentlemen also produced the best song ever…which is pretty awful in comparison to the worst song.

So, BLAGsters, what is your least favorite song? The one that makes you want to take an AK-47 to a field of bunnies? For me, it’s Linkin Park’s “In The End.” I’ll leave this one open for discussion, though.





Women In Technology: Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day 2009

24 03 2009

I first found out about Ada Lovelace Day through Boing Boing, and I’ve been thinking long and hard about the women I want to write about.

And the worst part about it is that I can’t think of a single woman to write about. Everyone knows there are no girls on the internet, and if there are, they’re probably camwhores. Not so!

When I first started to use the internet seriously, I got very interested in HTML and web coding. There weren’t a whole lot of websites run by females back then, at least not that I could tell. One of the first sites I remember seeing was Emby Quinn’s left.of.center. This, along with a handful of others, inspired me to write and design my own “personal” website. Luckily for everyone, that site is long gone, but its most recent incarnation lives on…if you can find it.

Why is it so hard to find information about women in technology? I wish I knew. Ms. Lovelace was one of the first women to code for computers, way back in the days of Charles Babbage. For me, it’s easier to write about women in science. I’d originally wanted to write about some of my role models, female professors in my department – Dr. Stefanie Brachfeld and Dr. Sandra Passchier, both of whom do research on Antarctic sediment cores. Dr. Brachfeld specializes in magnetism and paleoclimactic records, and Dr. Passchier not only blogged about her most recent trip to Antarctica, she specializes more in sediment itself and microfossils (and occasionally macrofossils) found inside. Not only that, but I’m working with her this semester teaching Historical Geology – and it’s been quite an interesting experience! ;)

Who are your female tech-heroes? Who are your scientific role models of the female persuasion? Or, if you have none of those, what have you done to impact the history (or future) of technology?





Random Sunday Night: There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow!

23 03 2009

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If you couldn’t tell, ladies and gents, I’m back from the happiest place on Earth! I’m inclined to agree – Disney World is pretty damn happy. Seven days in Orlando has left me nice and tan, and with a slight longing for even more. If you have the opportunity to go, do it. It’ll be well worth your time.

One of my favorite parts of Disney World are the older, well-loved rides – especially ones that stem back to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. My mother went to the World’s Fair when she was a little girl, and it means a lot to me to be able to see the same attractions, namely it’s a small world and the <a href=”Carousel of Progress.

My favorite part about the Carousel of Progress (and it’s a small world, for that matter) was the theme song. “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” was written by the Sherman Brothers especially for Walt Disney, and it’s burned itself into my mind nearly completely. I also managed to get it stuck in everyone else’s heads, which was extra fun for me ;) Up until the shuttle ride back to the airport, where they played it on the bus, it wormed its way into my ear on a daily basis.

So why is this RSN material? I have spent hours searching for the original song, which is featured in the following Youtube video, to no avail. It’s killing me.

The closest I’ve come is a version done by They Might Be Giants for the 2007 film “Meet The Robinsons,” which is good, but not exact. Since I’m so nice, I’ve uploaded it for you!

They Might Be Giants – There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

This, of course, has gotten me on a Wikipedia tangent about the 1964 World’s Fair – another BLAG for another day. It’s good to be home!





Hiatus! To The Most Magical Place On Earth!

12 03 2009

That’s right folks, for the next week I’ll be in Disney World! Starting Friday the 13th, I’ll be soaking up the sun in Florida :) I’ll have my laptop with me, but I likely won’t be updating the BLAG much. Anything awesome happens…don’t forget me!