back in cowtown

Got back last night around 3:30 am. Very very busy today, and will be tomorrow. Here's why I'm in town:

1) Process some samples (this avoids the mad fall rush when the sedimentologists bring in 1500 samples each and need thin sections)
2) Get more maps
3) Give my supervisors more than $3000 in receipts so I can get the money back and placate the good folks at VISA. (1663.70 in camping/field gear, 846.99 in food, 199.50 in lodgings (motel/campsite when in Revelstoke), and $300.16 in maps/airphotos).
4) Replace broken compasses
5) Acquire more stuff (inclinometer, altimeter, ice axe for Cory)
6) Write up a ridiculous time-wasting "occupational health and safety" report for the nervous office types and their lawyers, detailing our summer schedule (I'll make it up), daily workloads, our safety equipment, and a list of potential risks and how we plan to mitigate them. Obviously I'll flood the list with highly improbable risks in an annoying yet amusing attempt to comment on the ridiculousness of this exercise.

Our safety is and has always been paramount, and myself and my field assistant know exactly what to do in any situation. We have a nightly radio check-in with the summer caretaker at the CMH heli-skiing lodge, we have emergency radio frequencies for the operators at the Mica Dam, we have flares, thermal blankets, bear spray, rain coats, a serious mountain tent, at least 3 days of extra food every camp, extra gas, tons of bug stuff, gallons of sunscreen, and (soon) a shotgun. We carry rope, layers of warm clothes, lighters and matches, flashlights, ice axes, compasses, maps, and unreal numbers of granola and energy bars. We're more safe up there than the bloody idiots making us write this stuff up who drive a car in town every day.

Anyway, I'll write a detailed section on our contingency plan in case we run into Taliban. Steve very correctly pointed out that they hide in the mountains, and Osama may very well be up there (they've looked just about everywhere else). Obviously the plan will not involve calling up the US because they'd come in and bomb the friendly-fuck out of me and Cory, and Osama will probably get away.

Here's a nice pretty picture of the Soards Creek valley, where it hasn't been exploited by the logging companies. (Click on the photo... or perhaps even here for proper size.)
It certainly looks beautiful. It's just my little region of hellish mosquito-infested bog to map. Well okay... we won't be mapping in the valley at all. Little to no outcrop and terribly poor access... fighting through head high devil's club plants is slow, painful, pointless work. In that link note the poisonous nature of the nasty spines. My hands got a painful rash, but it's going away (next time will wear gloves).

In this shot Cory (my field assistant) is in thick ferns. I don't have a photo of the equally thick and deep devil's club. This is just to illustrate that what looks like a pretty open clear area compared to the deep forest is definitely not easy going. Half the time you can't see where your feet are going... not good when the ground has boulders and loose branches/trunks all over it.

Okay... that's enough. Unless I post tomorrow, or the day after, there will be nothing for a couple of weeks (unless no helicopters are available).

Cheers.

field report

Camp 1 has been a success. We've had four days looking at rocks that I find utterly baffling. But that's the point; understanding begins with confusion. To compensate for my lack of comprehension, I've sampled just about everything in sight. It's going to be a long winter of looking at this stuff.

The weather's been highly erratic. It showers every day, but we also get a lot of nice sun. We hiked up into alpine on Sunday, through a burn above a logged area. The logging roads are brilliant; only built within the last couple of years, so they haven't had time to wash out, and they're not in use except for us and stoned tree planters. The only problem is that they're not on any maps (except Google Earth). They'll probably be on the airphotos I've ordered (more than $200 worth) since they were flown last summer.

We've seen a few black bear, no grizzlies. There's a young one we've seen twice at the same location on the highway from Revelstoke to Mica Creek, and from high up on a logging road on the mountain above our campsite, we saw two bear walking away from our camp. Thoughts of "Oh shit, they'll have wrecked the kitchen, and will be back for more" went through our heads as we quickly drove down to camp... but they hadn't touched a thing. In fact their tracks didn't even go into the kitchen area. If they smelled our food, the smell of humans was a stronger deterrent. And we did stink. Anyway we drove along the road honking and yelling to drive them away and reinforce their fear of us. Didn't see hide nor hair of them again.

Day before yesterday, at around 4:30 pm, we were working our way down a long roadcut beside a logging road, and just as we found the coolest thing I'd seen all camp, it started to pour. The rain ruined the outcrop, making photos useless. We planned to go back to it yesterday morning on the way back to town, but it was raining again. Anyway, we'll get to see it tomorrow if the weather holds. For geologists: it's a boudin of amphibolite, which has been refolded within a larger boudin of psammite. Amazing structure. I'll post a photo when I get back to town.

We're just going back to the field for another four day camp today, and then back in Revelstoke
on Monday, to pick up Dr. Phil Simony (my second supervisor) who wants to have a good day of fieldwork with us on Tuesday. That night we'll drive all the way back to Calgary, because I have to fill out three bloody hours worth of OH&S paperwork, a protocol the university has just decided to enforce for field groups (apparently there's been some sort of incident with another grad student this summer, but I have no idea who or what happened).

Okay, that's all for now. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to sit in the Best Western parking lot stealing their wireless internet.

Cheers!

back for two days

So it's been an interesting couple of days. As the only person allowed to drive the rental truck, I had to: drive to Revelstoke on Monday, drive up to Mica Creek on Tuesday morning, around all the logging roads, and then back that evening (7 am to 7 pm almost completely behind the wheel), and then drive back to Calgary today. The highway stuff isn't so bad cause the truck has cruise, but the logging roads are tough and slow. My right calf muscle aches from pressing the pedals. Possibly I never got the seat adjusted properly.

Anyway the trip was great. I got to see my field area and now I'm really excited to get back there and get to work! The logistics problems kinda suck (it's a 2 hr drive from Revelstoke up to Mica, and there's no grocery or hardware store in Mica), but we'll work it out. Some excellent news is that there is wireless internet service (but no cell service) in Mica Creek, and although it's a secure network we should be able to get a password from the people up there (they're really friendly).

The logging roads are better than I'd expected, and we should be able to get a lot of work done from there. I already saw an awesome place where we can camp and then hike a short distance up the hill into alpine terrain with tons of rock exposure!

The truck is an F150 supercrew. It's absolutely huge. And when I say huge, I mean sitting in the driver's seat I can see over the roof of a Hummer. The truck is significantly taller than me. It's also very heavy, unfortunately (5577 lbs, or 2530 kg), which means that the brakes take a beating on the logging roads, and also that the 300 hp engine feels weak. However the truck does perform well on the logging roads, and it's very stable on the highway. It is not fuel efficient; on the highway we made 16.3 mpg, and I was light footed. It sucks for driving through downtown Calgary at rush hour, as I just found out. I'd rather have something smaller with a standard transmission. Like a Toyota Tacoma.

Here's pictures. This is from the highway between Revelstoke and Mica Creek, early yesterday morning.
This one shows the up-close power of the "macro" mode for rock photos (better resolution than the naked eye).
Mica Creek village is in the distance to the left of the truck (just right of the tree). Current population: ~30. Permanent population: 5. I'll get a shot of the truck with something for scale at some point.
I'll post photos frequently this summer. Do you wish you were a geologist yet? You probably will by August.

I'm done gloating now.

solitaire, creation pseudoscience, and wikipedia

How irritating. This has never happened to me before (click to enlarge):
Even those of you who are unfamiliar with Spider Solitaire may still see the problem. You must have a card in each free slot in order to deal another batch of cards (in order to progress). Until now I thought the program had a built-in device to ensure that you always have at least ten cards left (before this I never had fewer than a dozen, usually about two dozen). The program has failed me though, and allowed me to complete a set of cards that leaves me with insufficient cards to place one in each free slot. Thus the game cannot allow me to continue. I thought, when I noticed this, that the game would allow me to deal more cards anyway, but it doesn't. Infuriating because it spoilt my (until this point) perfect 15 for 15 wins on easiest. On medium (two suits) I'm 12 and 5, and I've never been able to do it on hardest (four suits).

On a related note, my thrilling Friday night includes listening to Radiohead and various classical stuff while playing Spider Solitaire, Hearts, Freecell, and Minesweeper; and listening to very heavy metal while playing Critical Mass. I'm borrowing the idea of the US military that playing heavy/loud music while in combat is good for encouraging the troops. I'm doing better than I've ever done before in this game.

- four hours pass -

Wow. I just got totally sidetracked and spend four hours cruising Wikipedia. I do this regularly. Today I was reading and following links related to "Creation Science", and in particular "Flood Geology", a fascinating attempt to ascribe all observable geological features to the Great Flood. Marine fossils at mountaintops were first dealt with by Flood Geology. This was one of the very first geological theories, postulated in the early 1800s, but rejected by its own staunchest proponents (notably Adam Sedgwick, in 1833) when they found the overwhelming body of evidence does not support a cataclysmic flood, but rather time (on the order of millions of years) to form the features we can see. However, Flood Geology has seen recent revival among creationists, particularly the "young-Earth creationists", who try desperately to get everything to fit into accordance with an Earth history of 6000 years or so.

I'm sure I'll post again someday on the futility of debating creationists on their philosophy, I run into their work every now and again when searching the web for geological papers and stuff. Heated arguments between creationists and mainstream scientists are ongoing in forums the web over, and I was strongly tempted to post on a couple of them myself. However, it would be pointless. The standpoints from which the sides approach the debate are too different for any argument by one group to sway or convince any member of the other, instead strong arguments frequently generate anger and/or derision, and flaming.

I feel no hostility to creationists, they pose little threat to society and certainly none to science, although sometimes their tactics are irritating (selectively choosing data, even falsifying it, but only a few creationists actually do such things), and the possibility of teaching creationism in schools in the states is worrying. However, I found examining their rebuttals to commonly accepted geological theories quite inspiring! I like how they're questioning the norm, and I enjoy using the knowledge I have (still very limited) to try and challenge their interpretations. But only for myself. To actually argue with them, or collaborate with other mainstream geologists to do so, would be like trying to convince an anvil it is in fact a windchime: an impossible waste of time. You cannot ever successfully debate against faith.

Who am I to talk about wasting time...

Recent (within last month) Wikipedia research has included:

• A lot of metallurgy, especially early methods of mining, refining, and alloying metals,
• Histories of small and/or remote islands (eg. Kergeluen, Easter),
• The war in Iraq,
• More World War II history (the Brits in Africa),
• Aircraft Engine technology,
• Internal Combustion Engine technology,
• More interstellar travel technology (inspired by watching tons of Voyager),
• The plausibility of Star Trek and/or Star Wars type technologies in the future,
• The waning "Trek vs Wars" debates about physics, weapons output, and scientific viability of technology, and
  
• A fascinating look at how the most basic concepts and emotions are described by this encyclopedia (eg beauty, love, truth etc.).

Future topics for study include some of the physics I gave up when I switched into pure geology (gravitation, string theory) as well as some computer-related stuff to deepen my understanding of how this black plastic rectangle actually works. Also I want to learn more about "space tethers", since all that stands in the way of building one is the development of a strong enough fibre for the cable (carbon nanotubules present the most promising area for development).

This has been a long post, and it's a little thin on the amusing stuff I usually try to throw in to keep you motivated to read and return. If you got this far well done. Here's a quote from an angered scientist on a science v creationism forum: "Creationism is related to science in much the same way a meat grinder is related to a cow." I probably won't have cause to post again until I return from the three day scouting trip on Wednesday (things are boring as hell here right now, and I should have insisted more strongly on leaving 10 days ago).

Cheers.

no go on the truck borrow

What a deal! This takes graverobbing to a whole new level...

Unfortunately my field assistant's father wanted payment for the use of his truck for a week, and to set that up through Ed's research account and with the university would have been something of a nightmare. Plus I got the distinct impression in talking to Ed that he wasn't going to happily fork over the cash for a trip that wouldn't actually get to my field area. Understandable. So we go first thing Monday.

My harddrives are full, again. I burned tons of stuff to dvds when I was back home, but I've acquired too much stuff since then. If you want a list of what I have send me an e-mail or catch me online, but I warn you - anything you request you likely won't receive until the fall when I've got some free time to burn and mail you stuff.

I'm listening to my new favourite song, Ritual by Meshuggah. They make excellent use of the root - minor second chords, which can be both hauntingly beautiful and forcefully heavy. I like using the minor second whenever I can, because with it the root note makes a major seventh, the root's minor third makes a major second, and the root's fifth makes a diminished fifth. Put another way, let's say we're in E minor (for guitarists' sake). Imagine the E minor chord: E, G, B (G-sharp would make it E major). If we then make a chord based on E's minor second (F natural); so with the F-C power chord in the base, then add the E chord on top, it can be made to sound fantastic. For best effect go F-C-G-E-B (base to treble). By adding the A we can give it a sense (minor/major). It would be best to add the A directly after the G thus: F-C-G-A-E-B.

Hah I wrote this as I'd play it on keys, guitarists like hoph will be annoyed. But it still has a nice resolution to E-B-E-G-F# (the E minor add nine chord). You could throw in a D# before the F# and you have something like the Bond chord (at the end of the theme).

Chords containing diminished fifths (also called the tritone) are my favourite. I've written whole songs based around the sound. It is complex and unresolved, can create a very eerie sense. The songs I've written are not particularly good, because they severely overuse the tritone, and it wears out the fascination. I am trying to incorporate the sound more subtly, but I find it difficult. Mostly because I enjoy the exercise of exploiting the tritone to the max.

I said way the hell back when I started this thing that I'd talk about music and my own interpretations of it. My way of understanding and contemplating chords is not exactly what they teach in musical theory, but it's close. The same chord structure (intervals between notes) creates the same effect in any key, hence actual note names are not necessary to write a whole song. It is entirely possible to write a song by only specifying the intervals involved. Although if the performer chooses a key too low or high the sound may be ruined. For instance my favourite chord:
Root, fifth, octave+major second, octave+major third, octave+major seventh, 2 octaves+diminished fifth (F-C-G-A-E-B above is this structure if you only go up from one note to the next). I do not have "perfect pitch", or the ability to know exactly what note is what when I hear them, or to be able to hum a "C" if asked to (I might get close). I work almost exclusively with intervals, when writing or hearing tunes.

Enough rambling about this. I'm done.

Cheers all.

annoyance

It's been a while since I posted.... not much has happened this week, except I've been rather busy finalizing plans for the field. Then on Wednesday my supervisor tells me he's not ready to go until the 12th. Luckily for me my field assistant can borrow his dad's truck. I won't go on logging roads in someone else's vehicle, but we can go to Revelstoke, do some hiking, and look at the local rocks.

Here's the main reason you always check my site: the amusing pictures from the net!
He's the coolest teacher ever. No wait... dumbest. Why the hell wouldn't you have it disarmed?!
A classic headline. So's this next one:
And then there's...

I know what they mean, but it's impossible not to picture a number of gorillas in suits taking turns at a microphone. But then of course just hurling bananas at the audience.

Anyway that's all for now. I'll post an update on the field situation later. Time to go hiking to test out and break in the new boots.

Cheers me 'earties!