tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-200928242012-01-30T06:39:18.639+11:00I'm a geochemical soldier of fortune. In the past three years I've fixed mass spectrometers, blasted sapphires with a laser beam, explored for uranium in a nature reserve, and measured growth patterns in fish ears. My main interest is in-situ mass spectrometry, but I have a soft spot in my heart for thermodynamics, drillers, and cosmochemistry.Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.comBlogger7611100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-43958320539590454032012-01-23T14:44:00.003+11:002012-01-23T14:50:46.695+11:00

I realize that I quit blogging two week's ago, but with the superbowl set to be a rematch of the game 4 years ago, I thought a repost of my post-game analysis would be appropriate. Let's hope that the Giants once again prove the denialists wrong. And reposting isn't really blogging, so I'm still not here.Repost:I don’t want to call attention to skeptical web sites by actually linking them from

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-19555810073635027892012-01-09T23:04:00.002+11:002012-01-09T23:11:04.242+11:00

I will be halting my blogging activities for the foreseeable future. There are other more important areas of my life which are suffering from insufficient attention to detail. And until I become more more efficient (I had a book on organization and effectiveness once, but lost it), the best way to improve key activities like staying employed or raising children is to devote more time to them.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-36908128292050776242012-01-03T22:17:00.004+11:002012-01-03T22:31:45.539+11:00

As I mentioned previously, we recently had a 2 kilowatt photovoltaic solar power system installed on the NW-facing roof of our house. Below is plotted the daily household use and solar generation for the first two weeks or so after we turned it on:I should point out that we have a family of 4 living in a typical Canberra "ex-govvie" house, which has been extended to a still-modest size of ~145

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-49661692811212488382011-12-28T17:23:00.000+11:002011-12-28T17:23:00.433+11:00

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-37309489190400212002011-12-09T06:07:00.001+11:002011-12-09T06:09:01.118+11:00

Dear AGU attendees:It is not necessary to pack into the standing-room at the back of the lecture hall to the point of blocking people's way when there at 10 rows of empty seats at the front. diffusive equilibrium is a wonderful thing. Try approaching it.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-54561077789555209852011-12-06T10:26:00.003+11:002011-12-06T10:28:44.666+11:00

Here at AGU, the wireless is working very well. The only exception is when I try to access Elsevier's sciencedirect.com, which is moving at tectonic plate speeds. Last meeting, I noticed the guy next to me had his tablet out and downloaded each paper mentioned in a talk to follow along. That conference had 78 people. This one has 20,000.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-16175293728224632162011-11-29T22:09:00.004+11:002011-11-29T22:39:03.335+11:00

I'll be in the SW USA for the next week and a half giving talks about SHRIMP and attending AGU. The talks are:Arizona State UniversityThursday 1 Dec time: TBA, Chemistry dept (probably) Title TBA (this one is pretty informal, if you haven't guessed)University of Texas at AustinFriday Dec. 2Understanding the SIMS U/Pb calibrationJackson School of GeosciencesJGB 3.222 at 11 AM. American

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-30128340109732616252011-11-28T20:21:00.003+11:002011-11-28T20:34:33.028+11:00

ASI was lucky enough to be the lanyard sponsor at the recent Biennial Geochemical SIMS workshop, held in Hawaii at the beginning of this month. The meeting was fantastic. But rather than do the usual slog of simply plastering our logo on the lanyard, we decided to give it a geological timescale. The scale is one year per angstrom. Various important events are designated by the isotopic system

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-38835641468612356212011-11-22T22:44:00.006+11:002011-11-22T23:05:57.326+11:00

A recent paper made a claim that dinosaurs must migrate, based on the oxygen isotopes in dinosaur teeth. This paper is both awesome and flawed.The awesome part:It is hard to measure oxygen isotopes in teeth. Teeth are a mixture of organic matter and two minerals: calcium carbonate, and hydroxyapatite. The organic matter contains oxygen, the carbonate portion contains oxygen, and the

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-69033930653036736962011-11-17T21:24:00.004+11:002011-11-17T21:40:23.694+11:00

Professor Anne Jefferson has recently been complaining about a banal sexist article that recently appeared in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. While it is understandable that she has been offended by this insipid and thoughtless piece of writing, there is an obvious lesson here for her and other scientists looking to advance their careers. It is so simple that I can lay it out in

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-38550851551116334032011-11-12T21:51:00.000+11:002011-11-12T21:52:26.614+11:00

For anyone who has been living under a rock for the past week, a former Penn State assistant football coach has been charged with sexually assaulting 8 pre-teen boys over a 15 year period. Numerous other administrators have been charged with failure to report the incident, and others, including legendary football head coach Joe Paterno, have been fired.Needless to say, there has been a bit of

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-41840542575035979882011-11-10T22:14:00.002+11:002011-11-10T22:22:41.309+11:00

Our house uses a number of different technologies to harness energy from the sun. Three are pictured above. The newest and most expensive of these was just hooked up to the grid today, providing 11.4 kWh for the internet dawlders of Australia. So long as I don't goof around on the computer all night, that should cover our home usage and then some. The Hills Hoist also efficiently utilized

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-76707587507756486852011-11-01T21:43:00.002+11:002011-11-01T21:46:00.732+11:00

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-3645330306953477482011-10-30T19:35:00.002+11:002011-10-30T19:39:29.649+11:00

I actually spent a weekend bushwalking for the first time in five years this month. On top of that, I read a paperback novel. As a result, I'm so far behind that I can't even see the tunnel from here. I'll chip in on the dinosaur migration paper when I get a chance, but I wont get a chance anytime soon. And I should probably look at this new Zinc isotope thing but I haven't even DL'ed that

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-88501794747018820582011-10-13T22:52:00.002+11:002011-10-13T22:55:35.502+11:00

Australia is a dry country. It is so dry, that the largest drainage basin on the continent has rivers that only occasionally carry water, and drains into a salt pan. Imagine if the Missouri only flowed every third year, or if the Zambezi was a generally a sand-filled channel that crossed a nondescript cliff at what we know as Victoria Falls.Admittedly, the Lake Eyre basin is smaller than either

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-32475216594561399112011-10-03T23:55:00.000+11:002011-10-03T23:58:35.982+11:00

“I am flying home from Europe in late August with nothing but a notebook and the 2011 Goldschmidt conference Geology giveaway issue to keep me occupied. Using the old-fashioned method of reading and writing on paper, I will blog my way through the compilation of highlighted geochemistry papers as time allows. These will then be posted via time delay to keep the blog moving while preventing

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-18636473532857682712011-09-29T22:38:00.003+10:002011-09-29T22:41:16.222+10:00

One of the problems with making illustrated linear geologic timescales is that the middle 80% of the timescale generally looks fairly boring. Of course, all sorts of things were happening in the Archean and Proterozoic, but they ren't always as easy to sketch cartoons of as a trilobite. I'm currently doodling a cartoon illustrated timescale, and I was wondering. do any of you have any favorite

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-6083200991431974952011-09-29T02:22:00.007+10:002011-10-04T21:22:26.591+11:00

I read and watched a lot of science fiction when I was young. I don’t much any more, mostly because I’m too busy, but every now and then I have a relapse. Also, for the most part, real science is more fun these days. But they aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, this evening, I was thinking about the International Space Station. Under optimal viewing conditions, the ISS is the

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-44687417751070860892011-09-27T21:34:00.000+10:002011-09-27T21:38:59.459+10:00

The winner of the third annual Arctic sea ice prediction pool is “Isotopic”, with a winning guess of 4567 +/- 100 thousand square kilometers.As is usual, Isotopic’s prize is the chance to nominate a blog topic upon which I will try to write.Congratulations, and thanks to all who played.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-75284303331781117782011-09-22T22:10:00.000+10:002011-09-22T22:11:27.704+10:00

There is often an argument, usually heard from the math/ engineering wing of the global warming skeptic industry, which suggests that climate scientists are a separate and distinct group of researchers. A cabal who don’t do real science, and who train and study in isolation, cut off from the rest of the scientific endeavor.This is generally not the case. Most of the climate scientists I know

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-20429071056466804472011-09-17T16:19:00.002+10:002011-09-17T16:29:55.152+10:00

“I am flying home from Europe in late August with nothing but a notebook and the 2011 Goldschmidt conference Geology giveaway issue to keep me occupied. Using the old-fashioned method of reading and writing on paper, I will blog my way through the compilation of highlighted geochemistry papers as time allows. These will then be posted via time delay to keep the blog moving while preventing

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-78972473267066283052011-09-13T04:16:00.002+10:002011-09-13T04:19:32.066+10:00

Dear Editor Smith,I return the Doe et al. manuscript number 5623646 with numerous comments. In my opinion, the manuscript will not be fit for publication until all the flaws described below are corrected:TitleThe title of this paper does not reflect the sort of study which I would like to see done on this material. Please instruct the authors to change it, instead of using the title to push

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-15812489212049636102011-09-10T19:32:00.003+10:002011-09-10T20:04:54.964+10:00

“I am flying home from Europe in late August with nothing but a notebook and the 2011 Goldschmidt conference Geology giveaway issue to keep me occupied. Using the old-fashioned method of reading and writing on paper, I will blog my way through the compilation of highlighted geochemistry papers as time allows. These will then be posted via time delay to keep the blog moving while preventing

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-73608831445179286192011-09-09T19:28:00.003+10:002011-09-09T19:31:05.402+10:00

The following is the current forecast discussion for Hurricane Katia. Note the last line:ZCZC MIATCDAT2 ALLTTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM HURRICANE KATIA DISCUSSION NUMBER 45NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL122011500 AM AST FRI SEP 09 2011 THE CLOUD PATTERN CONTINUES WELL ORGANIZED AND IN FACT A DRIFTINGBUOY NEAR THE CENTER OF THE HURRICANE RECENTLY REPORTED A MINIMUMPRESSURE OF 968 MB. THE

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-30378549641138822012011-09-01T08:56:00.000+10:002011-09-01T08:56:00.506+10:00

We are talking about conference posters here, not posts on blogs. In general, there are two main types of presentations at scientific conferences; talk, and posters. Talks are generally supposed to appeal to a large number of people, and feature limited feedback between individual audience members and the speaker (aside from the occasional front-row tantrum, of course). Posters are generally a

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-21250467006190005412011-08-30T21:11:00.003+10:002011-08-30T21:31:46.143+10:00

One of the most basic observations about the planets in our solar system is that there are two basic types. In the inner solar system, we have four rocky planets with radii less than 6500 km. In the outer solar system, there are four gaseous planets, with radii larger than 24,000 km. One long-held implication of this division is that there is some sort of significance in the lack of planets

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-24092496792653138522011-08-28T10:58:00.004+10:002011-08-28T11:04:51.124+10:00

The lemming family has been on holidays. The geomorphologically curious are welcome to guess LLLL's location in the picture above, but the only hint I will give is that everything in the photo aside from the atmosphere is geologically young in the grand scheme of things, having formed in the last few percent of Earth's history. Scientifically meaningful content will return as time permits.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-78666449191109699662011-08-25T00:48:00.002+10:002011-08-25T00:54:44.166+10:00

The whole point of geology is to figure out what happened in the past based on the rocks from that time which are still around today. It isn’t actually about the rocks. It’s about the story. The rocks are just the publishing medium. And the craft of geology is learning to read the language of stones. Similarly, the purpose of geochemistry is to determine the story told by a rock’s chemical

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-52485955861762827812011-08-09T04:50:00.002+10:002011-08-09T04:55:09.116+10:00

One unfortunate side effect of the wireless and handheld internet revolution of the past five years is that it has made internet cafes harder to find. So expect cratonic style inactivity to continue for a web epoch or two.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-80083082282648327082011-07-26T22:15:00.001+10:002011-07-26T22:15:00.397+10:00

Two years ago, I suspected that the fuel efficiency that my car’s trip computer calculates was leaner than the actual consumption. Two years and 50,000 kilometers later, this appears to be the case. On average, the trip computer states the car uses 0.75 fewer liters of fuel per 100 km than the actual consumption. That’s about 5 miles per gallon in American units. For whomever cares, the car

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-15203425556052505282011-07-16T08:02:00.003+10:002011-07-16T08:07:53.199+10:00

Is there a less clunky term for "post-Archean"? Obviously, post-Archean has been around since at least the PAAS definition from Nance & Taylor (1976), and it has obvious utility as "the time in Earth's history when the atmosphere contained oxygen", but I was wondering if there is an officially recognized word for it. Anyone?

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-34711561820759730862011-07-09T11:43:00.006+10:002011-07-09T12:36:17.083+10:00

Google plus circles can be used to classify people in order of perfidy. Click to enlarge.Or here is a blow-up if you didn't click the one above.Warning: Associating geologists who study surface processes with "basement" may cause offence.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-57656934862685030672011-07-08T22:14:00.003+10:002011-07-08T22:20:08.815+10:00

The 2011 sea ice extent betting pool has now closed. Unlike previous years, we no longer have a distinct multimodal betting population. However, despite my advertising the contest on denialist schill sites, nobody has guessed at a final ice extent anywhere near or above the 1979-200 average (on right). On the other hand, we no longer have large guess populations off-screen to the left, as we

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-8323696325637896552011-07-06T12:28:00.004+10:002011-07-06T12:34:33.957+10:00

Two years ago, I suspected that the fuel efficiency that my car’s trip computer calculates was leaner than the actual consumption. Two years and 50,000 kilometers later, this appears to be the case. On average, the trip computer states the car uses 0.75 fewer liters of fuel per 100 km than the actual consumption. That’s about 5 miles per gallon in American units. Figure 1. Actual fuel

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-84970178326823176562011-07-04T14:59:00.000+10:002011-06-27T22:09:36.830+10:00

Update:The contest so far:Neven and Peter are reminded that contestants who have been mathematically eliminated at the 2 sigma level are entitled to guess again. It is up to you guys to keep track, though. This post will remain on top until the contest closes.original post:The 2011 Arctic sea ice extent minimum prediction pool is now open. A reminder that this is a competition on extent, not

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-83245685007634654612011-07-03T22:07:00.004+10:002011-07-03T22:15:26.807+10:00

Looking for something to read? Sorry, I'm running a mass to field calibration so that my isotopes appear at the correct apparent mass for tomorrow's visitor. I can't entertain you this evening. But if you're thinking you might want to do something vaguely useful to society, and you know something about geology (and I know a lot of y'all do), head over to Wikipedia's WikiProject Geology and see

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-58885738941316281832011-06-28T01:45:00.002+10:002011-06-28T01:45:00.063+10:00

At the beginning of this year, there was an internet brouhaha over the politically correct decision to replace all instances of the word “nigger” with "slave" in a forthcoming edition of the American classic novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. I have been vehemently opposed to political correctness ever since I was told at college orientation that exercising my first amendment rights

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-58409963768821171752011-06-25T23:03:00.002+10:002011-06-25T23:14:51.899+10:00

Is my favorite geological word. Or rather, my favorite formerly geologic word. From a lawyeristic point of view, it hasn’t been a geologic word since 1982, despite having been the preferred name for Ca TiSiO5 for the 4,566,999,971 years prior to that date. These days, you don’t sphene spoken of much, as most of us who mutter it are busy yelling at the young whippersnappers to get off our

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-35166921403786356572011-06-19T12:02:00.001+10:002011-06-20T12:55:47.278+10:00

Here in Australia, as in America, the conservative branch of politics remains firmly opposed to meaningful action to slow climate change. This is unfortunate, because climate change offers several opportunities to conservatives, were they to move aggressively to transition away from fossil fuels. I will list three below.Note that on occasion, liberal opinionators will describe reasons that

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-62810296822784458542011-06-15T21:56:00.001+10:002011-06-15T21:56:00.444+10:00

A few months ago, I guaranteed the readership of the Lounge that none of them would be killed by a meteorite impact. In laying out the estimates that allowed me to do this, I took an equal area map and bombarded it with one hundred 400m projectiles. Objects of this size hit the Earth about once every 100,000 years, and are locally devastating but globally insignificant, so this seemed like a

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-91448324304128102252011-06-13T22:30:00.000+10:002011-06-13T22:30:01.219+10:00

I have been fairly critical of the current Australian Government’s approach to a range of issues, in particular, global warming. The current proposal is for a carbon tax. While my preference for dealing with carbon emissions is to let the damages get worked out in the courts, a carbon tax can work OK, if done well. I don’t have confidence that the current government can do anything well, but

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-67870897062149397432011-06-12T20:49:00.005+10:002011-06-12T21:04:49.665+10:00

Three quarks daily has announced the semifinalists for its 2011 3QD science blogging prize. The Earth and planetary science blogs generally fared well. Of the entries I listed last week, the following have advanced:Geology word of the week: O is for Ophiolite, by Evelyn Mervine at Georneys.Ocean acidify-WHAT!? By Sheril Kirshenbaum at Convergence (originally posted at the Intersection). The

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-34330057948118291962011-06-10T11:10:00.002+10:002011-06-10T11:12:43.874+10:00

Here is a question for any lemming loungers who may have attended a scientific conference at one time or another during their careers (scientific or otherwise). What is the best “swag” or free commercial promotional giveaway, that you have received? Has the digital revolution changed this? For example, is there any point giving out pens and notebooks at a conference in 2011, or is everyone

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-31007227815752648132011-06-08T12:54:00.004+10:002011-06-08T13:03:27.570+10:00

In an abhorrent display of incompetence and cruelty, the Australian Government has, without warning or study, suspended cattle exports to Indonesia.Dry season cattle country, Northern Territory, Australia. Yes, there are cows in this picture. Squint, or click to enlarge.The Northern Cattle industry works like this: In the Australian summer months, the summer monsoon brings plentiful rains to

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-69912717900800734672011-06-05T21:12:00.005+10:002011-06-07T07:48:45.732+10:00

Three quarks daily has announced its nominations for the 2011 3QD science blogging prize. Several Earth and planetary science blogs are represented. While I would certainly appreciate some support, my only request is that anyone wishing to vote read at least two of the nominated posts before voting. If you have already read two, then find at least one you haven’t seen, even if you have to

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-51521179487710207612011-06-04T01:19:00.006+10:002011-06-05T21:42:34.370+10:00

Last summer, I spent a bit of time back at Geoscience Australia as a geochronologist for hire, helping out with some of their state and territory geochronology programs. The report from the study I SHRIMPed zircons for is now out, thanks to the awesomeness of the first author, Dr. Nat Koscitin.In theory, zircons are forever. The oldest known Earth materials are zircons, and there are countless*

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-55735418074956872512011-06-03T22:32:00.004+10:002011-06-03T23:00:11.154+10:00

There are two big foreign affairs stories here in Australia this week. The first is that Australia is banning the export of cattle to certain Indonesian slaughterhouses because the conditions are inhumane.The second is that Australia will transport immigrant children caught sailing towards Australia to Malaysia. There's a word for transporting people across oceans against their will to

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-73187065213180012202011-05-30T23:28:00.007+10:002011-05-30T23:36:49.882+10:00

Razib over at Gene Expression has recently pointed out a new Google tool, which allows one to look for correlated searches and the geographic breakdown of those searches. Surprisingly, he failed to apply it to geochemistry. So I shall.Here is the distribution for “Geochronology”The three top correlated words or phrases were:0.9361 porphyry0.9315 f 650 gs0.9309 bmw f 650Which suggests that the

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-44214878233067517452011-05-27T22:55:00.002+10:002011-05-27T23:56:35.103+10:00

A brief reminder that the comment period for the mineralogical society's draft asbestos statement ends tomorrow. Details here.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-57903450798758318302011-05-24T22:12:00.000+10:002011-05-24T22:13:24.793+10:00

Here in the lemming household, last night went something like this:Pick up the little lemmings from daycare shortly after five, and Mrs. Lemming after that. Grab takeaway food, and have a family dinner before Mrs. Lemming heads back out for the night shift. Bath and story and bed the kids, clean up their mess, and grab a catnap while Mrs. Lemming works. When she gets back around midnight,

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-18077569963244790942011-05-23T05:11:00.003+10:002011-05-23T05:46:26.764+10:00

With interest in the Fukishima reactor disaster decaying at an exponential rate, I thought it would be an opportune time to take the long view of this phenomenon, and consider what sort of isotopic anomalies are left behind billions of years after an uncontained uranium fission reactor. And the best place to find these, of course, is Gabon.Gabon is not known for its nuclear ambitions or

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-20916095649148339302011-05-09T23:51:00.000+10:002011-05-09T23:52:04.219+10:00

Tomorrow is budget day, the day in which the federal treasurer announces all the revenue raising and spending plans for the next fiscal year. One of the expectations for this year is the introduction of a carbon tax, which is being touted as the next best thing after the government failed to get an emissions trading scheme running about two years ago.Australia is in an interesting position, ith

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-14932786421774139262011-04-22T13:25:00.002+10:002011-04-22T13:26:48.409+10:00

Does anyone know about, or blog at paperblog, either in english or a European language?

Dr. Lemminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06283138709890438772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-78322364265040282782011-04-16T01:42:00.003+10:002011-05-25T18:52:05.943+10:00

Dear Hypothesis,It’s after midnight, and I’m sitting all alone in the lab, thinking of you. I recall fondly how in the rush of spring meetings, you first revealed yourself to me though the coy implications of supposedly unrelated talks. I remember the passionate nights that followed, chasing up all the relevant studies, and probing the mysterious gaps in the literature with the passion of

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-13323867441392964922011-04-10T22:39:00.001+10:002011-04-10T22:41:32.576+10:00

The practice of citenapping is incompatible with anonymity. So, for example, if you state that a paper’s introduction needs to discuss the basic state of the literature, and you then ignore all the contributions from five of the half-dozen labs working on the topic in favor of a pile of papers all from, say, the University of Chicago meteoritics group, then the probability distribution of your

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-69381165649170353082011-04-06T01:27:00.003+10:002011-04-06T01:35:13.323+10:00

This plot, from exomaria, compares the relative radiation doses from various reactor accidents to that found on the surface of the Jovian moon Europa. Anyone wondering why a mission to the Jupiter system needs radiation hardened electronics should look at this picture. For many scientists, Europa is the solar system's next best hope for hosting life. Fortunately for any would-be inhabitants,

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-15762427038446829912011-03-30T21:48:00.001+11:002011-03-30T21:48:48.427+11:00

Update:I originally wrote this blog rough draft 9 months ago. It got shelved because the prime minister to which it refers got sacked, and since then the new PM canceled the policty, had an election, came up with an amended policy, and then as far as I know shelved it. So the personalities involved have changed, but the overall situation has not.The government unveiled its new overhaul of the

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-92054507542753502592011-03-19T00:00:00.004+11:002011-03-19T00:10:00.694+11:00

As everyone knows by now, there is a nuclear crisis in Japan. One of the reactors, despite shutting down correctly, has had a number of explosions and has leaked a frightening amount of radioactive material into the surrounding environment. We all know that nuclear reactors produce lots of highly radioactive waste, so hopefully I can clearly explain why.Every atom has a nucleus, which contains

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-36580142834434080522011-03-18T10:16:00.002+11:002011-03-18T10:18:15.778+11:00

Dear Readers,What are the standard sizes for petrographic thin sections? Americans may answer in inches, of that is their standard. metric sizes would also be appreciated.I seem to recall 1x2 inch and 1x3 inch from my days of youth, but I can't find any written evidence of that.cheers,Chuck

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-56630820063767656972011-03-16T22:58:00.001+11:002011-03-16T23:00:53.401+11:00

While the world stands transfixed by the unfolding disaster in Japan, Qadaffi has been systematically mowing down the opposition in Libya. They Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions earlier this year suggested that a freedom revolution might be in the works. But if Qadaffi mass-murders his way back into power, that could all come to a screeching halt. His approach to mass demonstrations- killing

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-74878397635433722792011-03-14T22:42:00.004+11:002011-03-15T08:40:07.203+11:00

I've been away for a long weekend, and haven't been keeping up with the news. Other people have, though.Highly Allochthonous has a roundup on the Earthquake.See links therein for details.Jeff, the Arms Control Wonk, was in japan visiting the reprocessing facility at the time of the quake, and has decent information on the state of the reactors.Geoblogger Evy's dad is a nuclear engineer, so she

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-60632942525738333022011-03-06T05:12:00.002+11:002011-03-06T05:17:27.183+11:00

What sort of spider is this?

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-13500058109295382332011-03-01T08:57:00.003+11:002011-03-01T09:03:08.225+11:00

The Mineralogical Society of America has proposed a position statement on Asbestos. The criteria of position statements, as explained on their website are:A position statement should express or espouse a principle or policy of timely significance to the MSA community. The position statement should be consistent with the purpose of MSA and supportive of the disciplines represented by and

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-72357930026745008232011-02-26T22:38:00.001+11:002011-02-26T22:48:08.931+11:00

Ion probe (or SIMS) geochronology has no shortage of acronyms. SHRIMP is the most obvious one, and that in turn has spawned a number of associated abbreviations, such as PRAWN, ZOC, and the various standards (QGNG, FC1, SL13 BR266, etc.). In SHRIMP (and other SIMS- CAMECA stands for something in French) analysis, standards are used because the ionization efficiency of both Pb and U is variable,

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-74521310761191595412011-02-17T23:16:00.005+11:002011-02-17T23:32:33.757+11:00

OK, so this is not really geology. YAG is not a naturally occurring mineral, and yttrium is only a REE wannabe. But REE-doped YAG is used in a variety of technological applications that enable geochemical analyses, such as Nd-YAG lasers that form the core of the low-end laser ICPMS systems.I’m posting because I have heard of YAG for years and years, but never figured out what YAG actually was

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-74920583857935310592011-02-15T22:13:00.001+11:002011-02-15T22:17:01.913+11:00

One of the key issues relating to climate change, energy independence, and pollution control is that coal-powered electricity is cheap, compared to the less environmentally destructive alternatives. As a result, one of the big goals (or dreams, depending on one’s point of view) is to make renewable energy as cheap as coal. However, there is an implicit assumption here that is often overlooked.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-85475983489673053072011-02-12T21:23:00.003+11:002011-02-12T21:26:31.429+11:00

Due to extensive travel in the September/October time period, I forgot to post the winner of the 2010 Arctic sea ice minimum competition. Figure 1. Final results for the 2010 sea ice minimum.The winner was Atwasi, whose guess of 4851 +/- 82 slightly edged out James Annan at 4750 +/- 80. According to his comment, Atwasi is a geophysicist like last year’s winner, Hypocentre. James was the

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-15592863202087413992011-02-10T23:12:00.005+11:002011-02-13T09:48:52.249+11:00

A few days ago, I posted that a brief analysis of the size distribution of the Kepler planets suggests that the size distribution of planets in our solar system is unusual. This hypothesis requires the lack of Earth-sized planets (compared to planets twice as large) to be real, and not a result of poorer detection efficiency for Earth-sized planets relative to slightly larger ones.Commenter

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-78092367584010357582011-02-08T23:47:00.008+11:002011-02-11T20:39:59.784+11:00

The Kepler data release has delivered a huge amount of data on planets orbiting stars in our galaxy.This survey is designed to detect planets as small as earth (or a little bit smaller), and the way it works means that it most easily detects planets that are very close to their host stars. So most of the stars in this survey orbit their host star closer than Mercury orbits the sun. Despite this,

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-45560126750749780752011-02-06T21:56:00.001+11:002011-02-06T21:58:10.345+11:00

Sorry about the quiescence. To make a long story short, work and family has been keeping me busy, and if that wasn’t enough, I have been trying to tidy up a manuscript I rough drafted over Christmas break.Of course, this happens to everyone who keeps blogging after grad school, but in addition, the December-January period saw a large number of inquiries about instrumentation at work. Without

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-41791238072747390832011-01-21T19:54:00.006+11:002011-02-17T23:34:26.980+11:00

Bastnäsite is the principal ore mineral for the rare earth elements. Most of the rare earth elements in the Earth are dissolved into silicate minerals such as garnet in very low concentrations. In the continental crust, however, they can occasionally be enriched in accessory mineral phases and phosphates. Bastnäsite is none of these. Rather, it is a rare earth fluorocarbonate, (REE)CO3F*.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-33433841749895698022011-01-19T21:30:00.002+11:002011-01-19T21:35:59.899+11:00

This is a brief description of the session speakers at the 5th international Archean Symposium, held in Perth, Western Australia in September 2010. I attended the meeting as an exhibitor- but because it was a single session conference, there was not much point in sitting in an empty booth during the talks, so I managed to catch a number of them. The following are basically my notes as taken,

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-81352630041489328272011-01-09T22:17:00.004+11:002011-01-09T22:27:32.754+11:00

The New York Times is running a guest blog by American geology professors John Goodge and Jeff Vervoort on their current field season in Antarctica. Goodge and colleagues have been spending the lest decade or two trying to figure out what the geology of Antarctica is underneath the Antarctic ice sheet. The posts describe both the scientific rationale and methodology, and the considerable

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-21456593631131373032011-01-03T22:47:00.006+11:002011-01-03T23:18:06.870+11:00

There is currently a large flood event happening in East-central Queensland, on both sides of the dividing range. Figure 1. flood status of Queensland rivers. Source.Inland, the northern tributaries of the Darling River. are flooding, while on the coast the Fitzroy River is due to peak in Wednesday. Like most floods, these were caused by large amounts of rain. In many areas, 100-year flood

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-76647852038373783372010-12-20T22:40:00.004+11:002011-02-17T23:36:39.068+11:00

As I explained in the last Rare Earth Revelry, the ionic radius of the Rare Earth Elements decreases in a systematic manner with atomic number (figure 1, revisited).Figure 1. ionic radii of various REE and other elements (repeated from last time).As you can see, the ionic radii for aluminum and magnesium are quite small. Silicon (not shown) is smaller still. So the magnesium/silicon/aluminum

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-31583996085489773112010-12-15T21:43:00.003+11:002010-12-15T21:54:35.396+11:00

The special SHRIMP issue of Precambrian Research came out last month, and is available here. Anyone interested in how a large ion probe named after a small crustacean facilitated the understanding of the first 90% of Earth history might wanna take a look.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-83656927950733893242010-12-11T12:50:00.001+11:002010-12-11T12:52:27.447+11:00

Although this trend may not be apparent for this week’s current weather patterns, the northern winters are getting warmer. While the optimists among us may feel that eventual progression from carbon-based energy sources to some other technologies may help resolve this problem, it is unlikely that such a transformation will be made anytime soon. So unless we all want to melt Greenland, some

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-22094752688315862362010-12-04T12:17:00.002+11:002010-12-04T12:20:24.972+11:00

I've been busy running two SHRIMPs all week, and I gotta explore a new isotopic system on one of them this weekend. So I won't have a REE update this week. In the mean time, I have a question for any other bloggers who read this. Have you moved this year, and if so, where to? I realize my link list is hopelessly out of date, but put your new url in comments and I just might update over

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-18147080249952027442010-11-30T20:38:00.003+11:002010-11-30T21:12:14.519+11:00

Evy, the skepchick who is now geoblogging at georneys, recently expressed surprise at a paper which labeled rocks with an nine digit age as young. I see nothing wrong with this, however. Depending on how you define 'beginning', the Earth is between 4567 and 4460 million years old. using 4500 as a convenient round number, we can then take half that as a midpoint, and place the old rock / young

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-35710274868085837522010-11-28T22:14:00.005+11:002011-02-17T23:37:35.434+11:00

As I mentioned in the introduction, the Rare Earth Elements (known to chemists as lanthanides) are an esoteric yet commonly studied group of elements. The reason they are studied is that both their behavior as a group, and the more subtle change in behavior between the different rare earth elements can reveal information about the system in which they are observed.The REE are refactory

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-61326741215356810142010-11-25T06:07:00.003+11:002010-11-25T06:15:43.033+11:00

Four years ago, I posted the basics on the phase equilibria of pie crust in this blog. A summation of that post, as well as an update, appears below:With American Thanksgiving and Christmas rapidly approaching, the pie baking season is rapidly approaching. One of the most important, but least quantified, aspects of pie creation is the crustal composition. A simple ternary phase diagram for

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-63238275519300266852010-11-20T22:34:00.009+11:002011-02-17T23:40:50.538+11:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to week -1 of the Rare Earth Revelry. That is not a dash folks, this is week negative one. Why start here? Because we are starting before the beginning. We are turning the clock back 5 billion years to discuss rare earth elements in stars that died before the Earth was formed.Cosmologists tell us that the universe started out with no heavy elements in it; all the

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-64653993608627864802010-11-18T23:05:00.005+11:002011-02-17T23:38:25.922+11:00

It has been an odd year for the lanthanides. After decades of sitting, quietly, in a row of their own at the bottom of the periodic table, the rare earth elements have been thrust into the limelight by numerous MSM articles. As it turns out the REE have been a quiet favorite of geochemists for decades. They are used for everything from determining how stars make chemical elements to keeping

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-88802872169909051422010-11-10T11:03:00.001+11:002010-11-10T11:03:51.354+11:00

Google AdSense to meshow details 9:19 AM (1 hour ago)Hi,We'd like to inform you about upcoming important changes to your AdSense account.Your account will switch to Euro or local currency reporting and become subject toupdated Terms and Conditions on or about November 11th 2010.Should you prefer to make this transition earlier, we recommend logging into youraccount now to accept the new Terms.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-21601029868542333722010-11-08T23:13:00.001+11:002010-11-08T23:17:28.519+11:00

Sip :et alet. alet. al.Inconsistent & vs. and.Gratuitous references to common knowledge which you tracked down as a form of procrastination (e.g. Petri 1887).Obvious misplaced fields in electronic database citation collection.Commas instead of semicolons, or similar format errors.Incnst. Abbrv.Chug:Mixed formats in bibliography.Autoformatting that undoes manual corrections.Crummy old Xerox copies

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-30463802681972781902010-10-31T18:14:00.000+11:002010-10-31T18:14:00.197+11:00

All hallows eve, and children everywhere will be donning their scariest costumes and venturing out into the darkening gloom to wrest their favorite hydroxides from neighbors and strangers.I am taking, of course ,about sweetite. Sweetite, known from a limestone quarry in England, is zinc hydroxide. I don't have the exact petrogenetic details, but I'm guessing that it was leftover from

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-83453985061789219542010-10-25T22:57:00.002+11:002010-10-25T23:04:06.512+11:00

In the early 1970’s, Io, the innermost large moon of Jupiter, was somewhat of an enigma. Unlike Europa and Ganymede, it did not exhibit water ice adsorption bands it its IR spectra. Its density suggested that it was a rock and metal planet, but the surface reflectance was unlike anything known to science. This problem was addressed brilliantly in a Science paper by Fanale, Johnson, and Matson,

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-12041574958329778272010-10-16T20:31:00.000+11:002010-10-16T20:32:14.867+11:00

Is here.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-13295081194959636192010-10-09T00:29:00.001+11:002010-10-09T00:33:16.321+11:00

The news has been showing pictures of an environmental catastrophe in Hungary, where a huge spill of toxic sludge from an alumina processing plant has killed several people and lots of fish. I am not an expert on alumina refining, but I’m going to take an educated guess at what happened here using geochemical first principles.Aluminum is mined from bauxite, which contains lots of aluminum

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-49690412077616654182010-10-06T22:58:00.004+11:002010-10-06T23:12:21.684+11:00

One of the greatest challenges facing media saturated democracies is the inability to correctly gauge the relative importance of catastrophic, visually impressive, rare events vs. common incremental ones. Here are some examples:If, dear reader, you happen to die in transit, I personally guarantee that you won’t be killed in an airplane blown up by terrorists. The overwhelming odds are that you

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-70817467993426802842010-09-29T12:50:00.001+10:002010-09-29T12:50:48.748+10:00

With the new northern school year underway, we can expect that the shorter days and colored leaved will bring with them a bevy of complaints by academic bloggers about the evils of Wikipedia and how venal students are for using it as a reference.This does not strike me as constructive criticism. After all, Wikipedia is certainly no worse than any other encyclopedia, and it is an incredibly

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-52757229414931180902010-09-27T22:34:00.000+10:002010-09-27T22:35:38.907+10:00

...live in their mother's basement?

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-87357944751693510112010-09-20T22:36:00.000+10:002010-09-20T22:36:00.047+10:00

The other day, someone (a non-geologist scientist) asked why minerals were important, and the earth can’t just be thought of as a homogenous lump of elements. Here in myopic subfield land, it sounds like a stupid question, but mineralogy and petrology do not exactly have the highest profile amount the general population. The man on the street thinks a petrologist is someone who works for Exxon.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-65042744617284954472010-09-17T22:34:00.003+10:002010-09-17T22:43:53.321+10:00

Isotope geochemistry is useful for so many things that its application to fetal and maternal health can be overlooked. However, this does not diminish the value of isotopic studies to this field. Consider, for example, the groundbreaking ‘Russian Bride’* experiments of Gulson et al. Determining calcium loss and lead exposure in pregnant women is not easy. Most of the bodies calcium is stored

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-19169626781262260552010-09-16T20:00:00.003+10:002010-09-16T20:16:15.752+10:00

BHP, the largest mining company in Australia (and the world), is now calling for a carbon tax in Australia, according to various news sources. Like just about everyone else, I'm not really sure what to think of this, so read between the lines of the linked articles and see what insight might be gained. BHP is widely diversified, and has major holdings in export coal, export iron ore, oil & gas,

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-25270248261360096582010-09-11T22:50:00.005+10:002010-09-11T23:05:30.289+10:00

I hate Latin- it is one of the reasons I'm not a biologist. And I love the multicultural way in which geology incorporates technical terms from all around the world. Forgot your vocab? That's fine; the Norwegian sounding words are more likely to relate to ice than the Arabic ones. Still, there are a few terms that make me wonder. After the eruption earlier this year, everyone knows about

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-737866034285444122010-09-05T11:21:00.000+10:002010-09-05T11:21:00.133+10:00

There is a Universe Today article on the lack of organics found by the Voyager missions, which suggests that the chlorinated organics originally thought to be cleaning products could have actually been reaction products from Martian organics and Martian perchlorates (perchlorates and organic molecules react vigorously when given the chance- see the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket boosters for an

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-22702397397997639052010-09-04T22:31:00.004+10:002010-09-04T23:28:37.486+10:00

There is a Choice Magazine report advocating for stoplight rating of foods, to help consumers eat more healthily. Their rating system uses units of 100g/mL (see figure 1, below). That is tenths of a kilogram per milliliter. I don’t know what they are eating, but the densest known substance at the surface of the Earth is osmium metal, with a density of about 22 g/mL, or 0.22 100g/mL.Their “

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-39949666140334955722010-09-02T18:41:00.000+10:002010-09-02T18:41:00.800+10:00

Like many people who grew up in my hometown of West Windsor NJ, I was horrified that one of our West Windsor-Plainsboro High School teachers, Mr. Brian Welsh, committed suicide by train last weekend. Local newspaper reports can be found around the internet. To say that Mr. Welsh was a great teacher is an understatement. He was a legend who made the Robin Williams character in “Dead Poets

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20092824.post-46637275719076538822010-08-29T22:49:00.002+10:002010-08-29T22:53:20.444+10:00

Please excuse me while I die from embarrassment, but I have had to append an erratum to my previous post. Whether this rises to the level of scientific misconduct is something that y'all can discuss amongst yourselves, but aside from the destruction of a major city in a nuclear fireball, the damage was pretty much contained. I might just go back to posting pictures (or nothing) for a while.

Chuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09706100504739548720noreply@blogger.com0