storvaxt.blogspot.com
Vital Earth: August 2014
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Words and images from the boundary between Earth and the Imagination. Sunday, 10 August 2014. A warm, boisterous wind is pushing me around today on Bigbury beach, south Devon. I am here with family enjoying the wide expanse of sand and sparkling sea. Rough, slaty cliffs make a backdrop to the beach, and their rocky outcrops provide a choice of sheltered places for setting out a picnic. The rocks and pebbles are a galaxy of subtle pinks, greens and grey slates of Lower Devonian. Are growing in any places ...
storvaxt.blogspot.com
Vital Earth: Boxstone
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Words and images from the boundary between Earth and the Imagination. Saturday, 24 May 2014. East Beach at Bawdsey, Suffolk - 7th November 2013. A brown lump of sandstone, easily overlooked on the beach. The ghost of a shell impression draws my eye. A boxstone. This is the first one I've ever found with a fossil in it. Looking closely, I see that the sea has abraded the shell's outlines, though the margins have survived better than the rest. It should be possible to identify it. At Brassington in the Pea...
storvaxt.blogspot.com
Vital Earth: December 2013
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Words and images from the boundary between Earth and the Imagination. Saturday, 28 December 2013. I managed to pick up a copy of Dixon's 'Bryophytes of the Pleistocene' yesterday for £15. I know very little about mosses, but while looking through it for information relevant to East Anglia I came across an intriguing reference. A few fragments of the moss Schistostega pennata. Had been found stuffed into the socket of a late Bronze Age. Thought to be the cache of an itinerant bronzesmith. I was keen to fi...
storvaxt.blogspot.com
Vital Earth: September 2012
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Words and images from the boundary between Earth and the Imagination. Monday, 17 September 2012. She arrives when I am on the terrace eating lunch outdoors: a flicker of movement among the plant pots, a sally then a quick dash for cover with a rustle of leaves. She is fearless and fearful in equal measure: sudden in her activities, opportunistic in her adventures, reticent in her habits. Her coat is a rich chestnut brown; her eyes are little beads of vigilance. I throw hazel nuts towards her. These a...
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Vital Earth: Jackdaws at Midsummer
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Words and images from the boundary between Earth and the Imagination. Saturday, 21 June 2014. June 21st, 2014. It was a fine day last Thursday. Wisps of cirrus and dispersing vapour trails drew a light veil over the blue sky. The business of jackdaws in the trees behind my house reached a climax that afternoon. Ask Konrad Lorenz what jackdaws have to say. His years of study at Altenberg identified a range of calls such as kia. Also r attles and churrs. Kia. Means 'let's fly abroad' and kiaw. Fly with me'...
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Vital Earth: September 2014
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Words and images from the boundary between Earth and the Imagination. Sunday, 21 September 2014. Shrews in the roof. I had a vision of furry faces swivelling about in the semi-darkness of the roofspace, discussing something important. The locals call a shrew a 'ranny'. I'd like to think that the Latin name for a Common Shrew, Sorex araneus. Shrews in my roof. The twittering is apparently a ' low amplitude, broadband, multiharmonic and frequency modulated. Sound used as a form of echolocation [1]. The lat...
storvaxt.blogspot.com
Vital Earth: Shrews in the roof
http://storvaxt.blogspot.com/2014/09/shrews-in-my-roof.html
Words and images from the boundary between Earth and the Imagination. Sunday, 21 September 2014. Shrews in the roof. I had a vision of furry faces swivelling about in the semi-darkness of the roofspace, discussing something important. The locals call a shrew a 'ranny'. I'd like to think that the Latin name for a Common Shrew, Sorex araneus. Shrews in my roof. The twittering is apparently a ' low amplitude, broadband, multiharmonic and frequency modulated. Sound used as a form of echolocation [1]. The lat...
shortgeologist.blogspot.com
Accidental Remediation: July 2014
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Those little hiccups on the way to saving the earth. Tuesday, July 29, 2014. I found an old post here. Regarding field difficulties during the course of a PhD. Although my grad school research was not as extensive or long-term (just a MS, not a PhD), I too had a field-based project that ended up changing mid-stream because of logistical problems. Friday, July 25, 2014. How common is harassment for field scientists? Recently discussed this paper. My main problems have been with the random people. 1 In the...
shortgeologist.blogspot.com
Accidental Remediation: June 2014
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Those little hiccups on the way to saving the earth. Monday, June 30, 2014. When I plan subcontracts, there are generally two ways that I prefer to pay for the work: by the unit of x produced, or by time spent. For drilling, most of the time, I prefer to pay by the foot rather than a day rate. Then the drilling company has less risk and will provide a more reasonable footage rate. In the past, I've used a mix of payment items (mobilization fee, footage rate for each type of drilling, standby for delays t...
shortgeologist.blogspot.com
Accidental Remediation: May 2014
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Those little hiccups on the way to saving the earth. Friday, May 30, 2014. I am a big believer in section headers for anything longer than, say, three pages. Very few of us can write long, elegant passages that flow naturally from one topic to the next, and even if you can pull it off, those long passages make it difficult for your readers to locate what they need. Ok, as long as the reader can follow along. You have 6 different levels of nested subsections? 24 or 5.2.3. 2. There are still rules, however.
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