Retrenchment blogging, day 7

Day 2 was mostly resume updating and tracking down references.
Days 3 and 4 were a long planned trip away.
Day 5 was gathering info on a specific field in which I have no experience or contacts.
Day 6 was talking to a guy at a largish gold company about resumes, corporate mindsets, and how to professionalize general field mayhem.
Day 7 was mostly catching up on actual work.

Resumes give me the shits. As they are cultural artifacts, doing them in another country gives me the shits even more. My secret day six contact was very pleasant at pointing out that what I thought was my long format, Australian style CV was several pages too terse, and completely devoid of the catch phrases and buzz words required to woo the eyes of management and HR.

I’ve always been of the opinion that buzz words are a key indicator that the user has no idea what he it talking about. But what I took away from that meeting was that, in large organizations, the people with the power to hire don’t have any idea either. This these catch phrases serve as a shared delusion- a cult of murky grammar- to facilitate a shared mindset and outlook. So if I want employment at such an organization, I need to pinch my nose, drink the kool-aid, and develop an understanding of opportunities and needs of stakeholders relevant to the actionable efficiencies and outcomes.

Why keep up with the Jonses when you can name your town after them?

Opal on Mars

Milliken et al. 2008 claim to have discovered opal on Mars. They used high resolution satellite-based IR spectra.
IR spectra show absorption that is caused by the vibrational frequency of molecular and crystallographic ionic bonds. In this case, it is the Si-OH, OH, and H₂O bands that were characteristic. Opal is not the only hydrated silica on Mars, but the exact energy of the various bonds is dependent on crystallographic and compositional constraints. Spectra of various silicates were taken, and opal was found to be a better match than sheet silicates or hydrated volcanic glass (e.g. obsidian). The details are in the data repository, to which I do not have access.
Various popular articles have suggested that this is evidence for surface water or hydrothermal alteration on Mars. Neither conclusion is sound. Opal generally forms in low temperature environments, and is easily dehydrated at modest temperatures. Here in Australia, it is generally precipitated by groundwater in areas that have been arid (more evaporation than precipitation) for millions to tens of millions of years. However, it is still significant.
Opal is not thermodynamically stable. As a hydrous amorphous phase, one might expect it to alter over a billion year timescale. This means that either it fails to devitrify for potentially interesting reasons, or it is young. These alternatives are generally testable. This is because opal often has high U contents and high U/Pb ratios, allowing for U/Pb geochronology to be performed (e.g. Amelin & Back 2006).
An aerial or satellite gamma ray survey should be able to identify any potential uranium enrichment, as long as the spacial resolution is as fine as the outcrop extent. If present, a sample return mission to an opalized paleochannel would potentially allow a minimum age to be determined, assuming that the opalization postdates the surface flow and predates the inversion of the terrain through differential erosion.
In Australia, opalized paleochannels can present as false positives in uranium exploration, due to the elevated but uneconomic uranium enrichment. I don’t have a literature reference for this though, as the information was obtained via a seminar series at the School of Hard Knocks.
Tuff cookie discussed this a few weeks ago.
Questions?

Full article:
R.E. Milliken, G.A. Swayze, R.E. Arvidson, J.L. Bishop, R.N. Clark, B.L. Ehlmann, R.O. Green, J.P. Grotzinger, R.V. Morris, S.L. Murchie, J.F. Mustard, C. Weitz (2008). Opaline silica in young deposits on Mars Geology, 36 (11) DOI: 10.1130/G24967A.1

References sited:
Yuri Amelin; Malcolm Back 2006 Opal as a U-Pb geochronometer : Search for a standard. Chemical Geology 2006, v. 232, n 1-2, p. 67-86

R.E. Milliken, G.A. Swayze, R.E. Arvidson, J.L. Bishop, R.N. Clark, B.L. Ehlmann, R.O. Green, J.P. Grotzinger, R.V. Morris, S.L. Murchie, J.F. Mustard, C. Weitz 2008 Opaline silica in young deposits on Mars. Geology, November 2008; v. 36; n. 11; p. 847–850.

Carnivals of spaces

#77 is up at Tomorrow is Here.

#78 is up at Simostronomy.

Retrenchment blogging: day 1

It has occurred to me that I will be neither the first nor the last person to lose his job during this economic cycle. In fact, if this situation becomes as severe as some predict, reaction to job loss could have a far greater audience than esoteric geology jokes. So, I am going to blog my retrenchment. Do not consider this advise by an expert- I haven't been retrenched before, so I don't really know what I'm doing. Whether this story has a happy ending or an infinite downward spiral remains to be seen. But I'll post actions, thoughts, and new as time permits, so my experience can serve as a guide- or as a warning- to future victims of economic rationalization.


Day 1. WTFH?
Last night, my manager called me up and told me that my position would be terminated in a month's time. He didn't say much more. Since I telecommute during the off season, I really had no idea what was going on, so I spent a bit of time chatting, emailing, and talking with various folks back west to see who else was effected and how. I had emailed a few close contacts or advise, and I followed that up as well. And, since I am employed for the next month, I did a fair bit of work. You know, like, my actual job. Some of that was retrenchment related, though, as I had to inform various collaborators that I wouldn't be around.

My initial strategy was to conduct wide ranging inquiries. I didn't quite call everyone I knew- that would be quite time consuming. But I picked some key high-value people and either gave them a phone call or dropped them an email (usually call first, with email follow-up if they weren't around). I also went through my business card collection- a year ago total strangers were giving me their cards in bars, grocery stores, etc and suggesting I come work for them. So I figure, might as well give them a shot. And I did the easy stuff, like contact relevant facebook friends, people in my inbox I owed mail, etc.

Many responses were pretty grim, such as "Ha. half our staff got laid off last week. sorry." In general, the people in the most similar situation (advanced degree holders with a few years experience) had the grimmest news. But unlike emails, phone calls were good in that even if the person couldn't help me, they often had positive messages which eased the worry, even if nothing concrete came of them. And several contacts did produce additional lead trees. Interestingly, one of the ex-collaborators who I called to tell him our joint project wouldn't get done came back at me with a highly promising lead, so that was a bit of unexpected good news.

It's a bit early to draw firm conclusions, but my best luck so far have been people in different businesses with whom I've had positive professional dealings. Tonight was spent updating the Resume/CV, but I can't send it out until I call my second reference and reconfirm that he's still happy to do it (It's been 18 months since I used him to get my current job). I'll probably use the long format one (shown) for closer contacts/ specific requests, and trim it down to a one-pager for cold drops on people who aren't likely to care enough to flip pages.

Termination Shock

Definitions:
1. The outer part of the heliosphere, where the solar wind slows down to subsonic speeds due to interaction with the interstellar medium.
2. The surprise caused when the boss calls during an after-hours election-celebrating beer, to say that one's job is ending in a month.

I know I promised science, but I've been busy dusting off contacts and updating my resume tonight. Science will resume when I get the time.

Complaints, leads, or suggestions for oddball careers potentially off my radar are all welcome.

Ya think the election will be this close?

It has always amused me that the US election date is the same as that of Australia's greatest horse race. Here's the official photo finish from this year's Melbourne Cup; Viewed nosed Bauer out by about one cm on a 3200m track. That's about 3 parts in a million. For comparison to the American horse race, if 100 million people vote today, that would be a 300 ballot difference. In science, it is extremely difficult to measure most things to that precision.

The observant among you will note that in this picture, the black horse has nosed out the one with gray hair. Interpretation of that point is left as an exercise to the reader.

Science resumes tomorrow.

Election

Well, here we are. Assuming your time zone is sufficiently easterly, it is election day. Who will be our next President, Mitt Romney or Hillary Clinton?

The fact that this question is a joke shows just how far we have come. Both parties managed to ditch the business as usual candidates in the primaries, and nominate a couple of guys with experience and desire for reaching across the aisle for the common good.

Which one you choose is up to you; I could hum and haw forever on this topic, but I have work to do. So instead I'll just post my best guess at the end result, below. Happy election day, fellow Americans. And please remember to vote, if you haven't already.



Horse racing picks my be left in comments by Australians who are feeling left out.

Quick journal publication etiquette question:

If a private sector researcher is submitting a manuscript to an academic journal, and said researcher is concerned that the timescale of peer review might be longer than the timescale of employment (or even employer solvency) due to the current economic situation, is it considered unprofessional to use non-work contact information?

A friend of mine needs to know what contact info to put on his paper.