A Real Vacation

This was one.  I know this because I need a vacation to recover from my vacation.

As regular readers know, I made my first-ever trip to eastern Washington over the weekend.  My intrepid companion and I were only gone for two days, but we packed a ginormous amount of activity into that time.  I saw lotsa geology!  So much it'll take me days to sort through it all - not to mention the rocks I picked up. 

In the meantime, here's a taste of what I saw and did.  Follow me after the jump for pics.

Happy 30th Anniversary, Mount Saint Helens

Mount St. Helens, pre-1980 eruption

30 years ago today, I was a five year-old child watching as reporters somberly announced that Mount St. Helens had blown herself apart. It looked painful, so I made her a get well card. Kids, eh? She was my introduction to the power of volcanoes. Horrifying and enthralling, really, when you live with a volcano rather like her framed in your back window. She's responsible for both my fear and fascination. And she continues to teach me about the vagaries of plate tectonics, the power of subduction zones to create as they destroy, and that one must seize the opportunity to enjoy what's there today because it might blow the hell up tomorrow.

Mount St. Helens blowing the hell up: less than 30 seconds after the eruption began.

One of the most interesting things about her is that incredible lateral blast that took all the vulcanologists by surprise. In retrospect, it's obvious that enormous bulge in her north flank meant trouble, but at the time, few people realized volcanoes would blow anywhere but up.

Bulge in north face, April 27th, 1980

Note how distorted her profile had become. She'd gone from America's Fuji to something ominous. Less than a month later, that north face came down, and the mountain blew out. These two videos capture the eruption wonderfully.





And here she stands today, a far different mountain than she had been:

Mount St. Helens, May 14th, 2007

The USGS put together a fantastic report on her past, present and future eruptions, should you like to know more about the science behind her. Join me after the jump if you'd like to take a personal journey with me.

Entrapment

I was going to get up to get a soda, grab my newly-arrived book on trees, and head for bed early in advance of driving out to eastern Washington tomorrow.  That, at least, was the plan until my cat got other ideas.  She is now tucked on my legs purring loudly and looking cute as possible.  This is her way of saying, "I'm happy right now, but if you try to move me, you bleed."

And my book on trees is just out of reach.

If only I were a Jedi.

Sigh.

Not Exactly a Leap, No

Via Happy Jihad's, this answer to that sneering, obnoxious claim by theists that atheism requires a leap of faith just like belief blah blah blah bullshit blah:

Even were one to concede that some ‘absolute atheists’ know for certain there is no God, that would not require the same leap of faith as one who knows for certain that there is must take. A theist must take the word of his or her holy scriptures, her personal experience, his longstanding tradition, and come to accept that the world was created by an immense invisible being who works through mysterious means, controls the weather and occasionally demands human or personal sacrifice.

An atheist looks at the lack of evidence for god/s, notes that evolution accounts for the diversity of life, that cosmological theories such as the Big Bang account for the universe’s existence, points out that all religions seem more focused on human concerns than is logical for a creator of the entire universe, and concludes that believing in God/s is rather foolish. This is the state in which I, and atheists following last week’s definition, rest.

Our theoretical ‘absolute atheist’ then takes it one further step, and concludes that the non-existent evidence is sufficient, and takes the miniscule millimetre-wide step of faith to this statement: “There are no God/s at all, whatsoever, ever, under any circumstances.” It involves faith, sure, but about as much faith as my stating: “There are no Mars Bar farms on Pluto, whatsoever, ever, under circumstances.”

Brilliant.  Simply.  Brilliant.

I shall have to run off several copies and keep them handy.  Perhaps in nice pamphlet form, for those times when theists come out with that "leap of faith" dribble and try to hand me pamphlets about Jesus & Co.

Two Days Changes Everything

When I left work on Tuesday, I had hair so long and heavy it swung like a pendulum when I walked, and fishbelly-white skin.  Two days later, I've lost about five or six inches from my hair, leaving it free to strut its natural curl, and I've got a bit of a tan going, with a hint of sunburn here and there.  And I still have four days of vacation left, so who knows what'll happen next.

The poor folks at my workplace are in for a wee bit o' a shock.

I still haven't got a photo that really does Ken's wonderful work justice, but this one gives a hint, and it's got a bonus cute cat in it:

Having way too much fun, as if you couldn't tell.

A Day in Jack's Shoes

I must've got lucky, because getting my emissions test and re-registering the car took all of about an hour out of my day.  So no shit, there I was with all this time on my hands, and so I decided to get some of my research taken care of.  What better idea is there for a brilliant sunny day in Seattle, right?

Follow me after the jump for further adventures.

Dumbfuckery du Jour

Well, I see PZ has already taken care of the Maine Cons who spent part of their convention adopting a Teabagolicious party platform and the other part of it vandalizing classrooms (which earned them a prompt smackdown by an 18 year-old who's orders of magnitude more mature than they are).  And he's spanked the Cons who used sex to sink science, along with the cowardly Dems who let them get away with it.  (By the way, the Cons seem to have a fetish - Think Progress has a rundown of times they've wielded sex as a political weapon, much like rapists wield sex as a weapon against women).  So there's that, then.  I shan't pile on myself, other than to say these little episodes only reinforce my impression that the GOP is filled to the brim with immature, evil hooligans whose anal myopia qualifies them as legally blind.

So let's focus on Lisa Murkowski instead, as she carries oil-tainted water for the industry that brought us one of the worst environmental disasters in history:

With the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf getting worse every day, it was tempting to think the "Big Oil Bailout Prevention Liability Act" stood a chance at passage. The measure, pushed by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), would increase the $75 million liability cap for oil spills to $10 billion.

Given what we've seen in recent weeks, what politician would want to side with the industry on a bill like this one? Reflecting the ongoing shamelessness of the Senate Republican caucus, one of its members was only too pleased to step up.

Alaska's senior senator blocked legislation Thursday that would have dramatically increased liability caps on oil companies, in the wake of one of the industry's biggest disasters.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) objected to a voice vote request by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on the bill... Murkowski said the legislation is "not where we need to be right now" and would unfairly advantage large oil companies by pricing the small companies out of the market.

Murkowski did signal that she would be open to "look at the liability cap and consider raising it." Just not at this moment.

Menendez wasn't buying it: "The risk is what has to be calculated here. If you drill, you need to be able to pay for the damages." As for the notion that large oil companies would have an advantage, Menendez explain that we're not talking about a "mom and pop in the grocery store around the corner" that wants to drill offshore.

So, Murkowski thinks now is not a good time to make oil companies pay to clean up their toxic, ecosystem-destroying messes, and down in Alabama we have Haley Balbour telling everybody millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf is no big deal - go for a swim. You first, Haley.  Take Lisa with you. You can hang on to some dead dolphins as flotation devices.

You know what, I'm done with these jackasses.  Let's move them all to the Gulf Coast, where they can enjoy their new tar-sand beaches.  We'll build that border wall they so desperately desire right around them.  They can create their own little Con utopia down there, and the rest of us can get to work repairing the damage they caused to the rest of the country.

Getting My Rocks On

A trip to Kirkland very nearly inevitably means a trip to Earthlight Minerals and Gems, where I always promise myself I won't go over X dollar amount and succeed in only going double it if I'm disciplined.  Today, I almost behaved myself.  But look, there were certain things I had to have.

For instance, there was the rock I actually identified all by myself!  It's a garnet lodged in a piece of mica schist, much like this one:

It alone cost what I intended to spend, and it was worth every single penny.  I used to dislike garnets intensely - I'd never seen a good one, just those dull dark red ones you get in cheap jewelry.  Now that I've seen garnets in all sorts of shades and in their natural state, I like them quite a lot, and I'm pleased they're my birthstone.  They're interesting.  They show up in all sorts of things, from metamorphic to igneous rocks, and some of them have a fire that can outshine a ruby.  And that brings us to my next purchase, a spessartine garnet somewhat like this one:

See the fire in there?  Gorgeous!

Now, I had no idea what the hell a spessartine garnet was until just now, but About.com has the answer:

Spessartine is an uncommon garnet, mostly found in granites and pegmatites. It ranges in color from red-brown to yellow-brown. Its orange occurrence is a gemstone known as mandarin garnet.

Spessartine is one of the aluminum garnets, along with almandine and pyrope forming the "pyralspite" group. Its ideal composition is Mn²⁺₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃. Almandine and pyrope have iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg), respectively, instead of the manganese (Mn).

So, huzzah!  An uncommon garnet.  Everybody needs an uncommon garnet (or many) in their collection, right?

And, finally, I got a Red Plume Manzanita geode, which is from Mexico, and is one of the most unusual geodes I've ever seen.  It's interior is rectangular rather than circular, and looks very much like opal.  I'd show you a picture, but finding a similar one online would take too much time, and my camera sucketh at ye olde closeups.  You'll just have to take my word that it's teh awesome.

When we went to Waverly Beach Park, of course, I had to sift through the shingle for some pebbles.  And I found a tumbled piece of what I do believe is mica schist, all smooth and sparkly, along with a bit of green jasper and some pretty stones beyond my paltry indentification skillz, and a piece of glass so rounded by the waves that it can easily be mistaken for a bit of quartz.  Fun times.

You know what this means, kids.  Summer rock hounding season is on in earnest.

Playing Hooky in Kirkland

So no, I didn't read the political blogs today.  Instead, I got up at the buttcrack o' dawn in order to drop off the car for brake work, and wandered about Kirkland instead.  Oh, and got me hair hacked off - you'll see examples of that eventually.  Gracias to my intrepid companion for coming up to chauffeur.

Kirkland's one of my favorite cities, and if you follow me after the jump, you'll see why.

Dumbfuckery du Jour

Not really even sure what to say about this one, so I'll let it stand on its own for the moment:

Last Sunday, Attorney General Eric Holder and White House homeland security adviser John Brennan publicly stated that the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, was facilitated by the Pakistani Taliban. Yesterday, administration officials conducted a closed-door intelligence briefing for members of Congress to present its evidence of the connection. Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) emerged from the briefing unconvinced, telling reporters that “the information I’ve seen so far” does not confirm a link between Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban. Bond, however, may have missed portions of the briefing because he reportedly fell asleep...

A couple of thoughts, here, Kit.  Firstly, maybe you should stay the fuck awake during national security briefings.  Secondly, if you decide to sleep on the job, maybe you should shut the fuck up about the information you've seen, because it's fucking hard to see when you're snoozing.

Ordinary people get fired for sleeping on the job.  Senators, on the other hand, get to wipe drool off their chins and then go on to explain just how unimpressed they are by the information they didn't see because they were fucking asleep.

Bonus dumbfuckery: Arizona just doesn't know when to say when on the xenophobia:

* Yes, Arizona's xenophobia can get worse: "Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill targeting a school district's ethnic studies program, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts condemned the measure.'

* On a related note, Arizona's recent moves are costing the state dearly, and not just in lost respect.

Yup.  It's not a great idea for a state that gets an enormous slice of its income from tourism to piss off tourists.  How bad is it?  Even the Republican National Convention has decided to give AZ a miss.

That's just sad, that is.

*Update: Looks like Los Angeles, among several other cities, has decided to take its business elsewhere.  I hate to say I'm glad my home state's a pariah, but I'm glad its dumbfuck leaders and the fucktarded citizens who egg them on will see some pain from their insanity.

ZOMG! I Finally Got to Order Brian's Book! SQUEE!!!

Look!  Look at it!  Look at how beautiful it is!  It's Brian's book!  And it's available for pre-order on Amazon! 

I've waited years for this.  Years, I tell you.  And now I've only got to wait until November, and it will show up on my doorstep!  I can take it from the box and cradle it in my hands and hold it and squeeze it and pet it and love it and I will name it...

Ahem.  Sorry.  Got carried away there.

I just can't wait to read it and review it and give it the five stars I'm already convinced it'll deserve, because if it's even half the quality of Laelaps, it'll be worth every star.  Brian's a brilliant writer.  He knows his shit.  And he's worked his heart out making sure he gives his readers the very best book possible.

You know what this calls for: a champagne fountain!

Now, go pre-order your copy and prepare a toast to the author!

Heckuva Job, Georgie!

So, today, my intrepid companion emails me this link, and so I was prepared a few moments ago when I stopped watching a program I'd recorded on my DVR and got this:

Y'see, there's a satellite that's been knocked out, likely due to a solar flare, and it's wreaking havoc up in space as it drifts out of control.  Encore movie channels are suffering the consequences of the Bush regime's short-sightedness.  And how do I know Bush is to blame?  Because I recently finished reading Our Choice:

During the time when [the DSCOVR] satellite was built, experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were deciding how to replace an older satellite that was already at the L1 point warning engineers about large solar storms that can disrupt cellular telephone communications, electricity distribution equipment, and other electronic equipment sensitive to large solar flares.  From the L1 point, the light from these solar flares is visible 90 minutes before the plasma from the storm hits the planet.  That's enough warning time to harden sensitive electronic equipment and avoid expensive outages and repairs.

Since the older early warning satellite (called the Advanced Composition Explorer) was about to wear out, NOAA decided to put the replacement for it onto the satellite intended to measure global warming and provide a constant full color picture of the earth.

We still haven't seen that live TV image of the earth.  The old satellite has not been replaced, because the Bush-Cheney administration canceled the launch within days of taking office after the inauguration on January 20, 2001, and forced NASA to put the satellite in storage.  It is still there, nine years later, waiting to be launched.  As a result, the older satellite could stop working at any moment; it is already two years past its predicted lifetime.

One of its key instruments is already dead; another now routinely fails during peaks of solar flares, when it is needed most.  Several important global industries are at risk of being exposed to heavy losses by damage from solar flares.

Bet you a dollar poor Galaxy 15 didn't get protected from said solar flare because ACE went down.  And so, a great many cable stations are down, I get to see the off-air screen and have my eardrums pierced by that gawdawful shriek they play, and I'm sitting here contemplating all of the other delicate and essential bits o' equipment that keep this modern world running that might go down next.  Encore, I can live without.  But some of those satellites up there do much more important jobs that ensure I've got a steady stream of chick flicks for my Muse.  And all that's threatened because George W. Bush and his merry band of fuckwits decided we didn't need no stinkin' early warning systems.

So, heckuva job, Georgie.  I hope you got to enjoy the fruits of your stupidity as well.

Dumbfuckery Du Jour

Have to admit, I've been kind of meh about pollyticks lately.  It's beginning to feel like watching too many clown shows at the circus.  And I've been much more interested in reading my new books, researching the evolution of plants, going outside to play, and all that.

But I can take a moment to tell Eric Holder he's a motherfucking moron for giving in to the fearmongers.  Add him to the list of dumbfucks who believe telling suspects about the rights they already have somehow makes us less safe.  Hate to break the news, but just because an officer doesn't tell a suspect he has the right to remain silent doesn't mean that right magically goes away.  Any crook who knows how to work a remote already knows that.  And cops have had a great many years to work out ways to get suspects to talk despite that.  So all this talk of carving out exceptions to Miranda does is walk us further along the path from democracy to police state.  Grow a fucking pair and stand by the Constitution, Eric.

Perhaps I'll send him a box of Depends, as he's decided to join the pants-pissing pansy crowd.

In other dumbfuck news, Obama nominated Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court, and the American Fucktard Family Association and friends nearly instantly came out with these little gems:

In a blog post for the far-right American Family Association (AFA) today, Bryan Fischer comes right out and says that the media should pointedly ask Kagan, “Are you a lesbian?” And if she is, according to AFA, she shouldn’t serve on the court:

It’s time we got over the myth that what a public servant does in his private life is of no consequence. We cannot afford to have another sexually abnormal individual in a position of important civic responsibility, especially when that individual could become one of nine votes in an out of control oligarchy that constantly usurps constitutional prerogatives to unethically and illegally legislate for 300 million Americans.

The stakes are too high. Social conservatives must rise up as one and say no lesbian is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. Will they?

Americans For Truth — a group “devoted exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual activist agenda” — also put out a statement saying that Kagan needs to answer, “Are (or were) you a practicing homosexual or do you consider yourself homosexual (gay)?” Last month, Focus on the Family also said that it would not be open to a gay Supreme Court justice. 

[snip]

The National Organization of Marriage put out a statement today saying that a vote to confirm Kagan "will be a vote for imposing gay marriage on all 50 states."

Wow, that's power.  A single justice can single-handedly make everybody gay-marry.  Who knew?  I just wish it were as simple as all these social cons think it is, because then I could petition the court to hand down a ruling demanding Liv Tyler and I to get married.  Mind you, I haven't got any desire to get married, but if it's a legal requirement...

These rants make me hope she is a lesbian, and that she'll come out wearing her Supreme Court justice robe and flaunt it in their faces.  I'd say it would break their brains, but seeing as how they're already broken, I'm not sure just how much more damage she could do.  But it would still amuse.

I'm taking bets on how long it'll be before Bryan Fischer's caught with a rentboy of his own.  Wild homophobia is a symptom of repressed urges, it seems, and he's positively foaming at the mouth.  I give him a year at best.


Pig-ignorant fuckwits abound.  I think I shall go back to burying myself in geology now.

Nostalgia

I've been playing with Google Street View while captioning photographs from yesterday - they don't do me much good as research unless I know precisely where I was and what direction I was facing when I took them.  This, somehow, led to a brief foray into Nostalgialand - I looked up me old home on Google Maps.  It turns out 13 Blackhorse Road doesn't exist anymore, due to the street numbers having been changed.  But ye olde home is still there, complete with barn, and really barren-looking woods behind it. 


View Larger Map

WTF? said I.  Don't remember it being that scrubby.  Granted, the woods are pinon pine with just a few lone ponderosas, but still.  Used to play in those woods.  They were big and green and lovely.

Can't go to the street view here in Google, alas, but I've gots photos:

See?  It's not all dirt.

Some of the best years of my life, I spent in those woods, with the limestone bones of the world poking out.  There were tadpoles in Wildcat Canyon, even.  In wet years, anyway.

Speaking of barren, my intrepid companion and I were planning our trip to Grand Coulee today, and we came across a restaurant review that reminded us we wouldn't be in Seattle anymore:

While most of the food appears fresh, the fruit (appears to be the only cafe in town to even offer a fruit bowl) is canned, and there appears to be a lack of choices on the menu for those concerned with healthy foods. Otherwise a fine place for breakfast.‎

That, in the immortal words of Bing, cracks my shit up.

Here in Seattle, you can't sneeze without hitting healthy food, and you can't walk for tripping over farmer's markets, which overflow with fruit.  Sometimes, I forget how very spoiled I am, living in a large city close to productive farmland.

Enough nostalgia for today.  I need to shower and take a nap.  I'm cross-eyed after several hours of captioning and organizing photos.

The Fruits of Mah Labors

Today, I dragged my poor intrepid companion along for some research work, which entailed driving to downtown Seattle and spending most of our day finding a parking space.  Parking is next to impossible when every single person in Seattle has decided to visit the city on the first sunny Sunday in May.  After we found a parking space, we went walking in my characters' shoes.

My characters, incidentally, do a fuck of a lot of walking.

I got some pretty pictures out of it, so I thought I'd share some with you before I go collapse and die.  Join me after the jump for some highlights from the Emerald City.