who only by moving can balance

Received, this morning, by e-mail:

Subject: Refusing the digital world of late capitalism

[...] [Book] surveys the wrecking of a living world by the internet complex and its devastation of communities and their capacities for mutual support.

[...]

Join the [Membership] and get [Book] as part of your April reading. Members also receive every new book we publish, in ebook format!

I am now unsubscribed from that advertisement mailing list.

***
( ten good things )

I have talked before about Callisto and how amazing it is; it's just finished another month-long run at the Arcola, and I'm sorry I didn't point it out to you all here before, er, one hour after the end of the closing performance. However! The script is now available for sale, in paperback, it's a tenner, and I have a lending copy.

Having seen it three times in Edinburgh and once during its week-long run last year, I went to see it twice this year -- once on opening night, and once halfway through, when the performance was followed by a Q&A. Opening night contained a fantastic fumble during the Tammy sequence (Harold dropping the gun and subsequently asking Lola for a glass of soy milk; the overall effect was much more threatening and gaslighty, and the actors recovered superbly); there were a few variations in how it was acted and directed that I thought were fascinating and, er, got invited to e-mail the poor director about. I'M SORRY I'M LIKE THIS, but also here is my e-mail reproduced in full For Posterity and also in case any of you lot like it. There Are Spoilers. You're welcome.

("GIVEN that you've mentioned past productions," I said, beginning my question, "I'm assuming close readings of the text are okay, SO, without going into egregious detail about my own interpretations--" -- or something like that, anyway; whereupon I got the response "No, I'd like to hear them!" -- "Okay, but the rest of the audience might not!" "... fair point." "-- well...")

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"Stemettes" is an absolutely terrible term to use for female undergraduates in STEM fields. No. Wow. Inarticulate fury.

I worry that I love you
because you are a mirror
(because I have made of you a mirror)
that reflects me whole-not-broken, shows me who
I can aspire to be and what
I am, elsewise unseen. I worry that
I love you selfishly. & yet - & nonetheless -

(you are the early morning thunderstorm
I drink hope from
that shakes apart my skies and scours me clean)

Subject: Re: [ISOGEOCHEM] Is CaF2 safe in an EA

Thanks you all for the responses. I vaguely remember an old micro-chemical technique for mineral identification that uses powdered fluorite to produce HF, through some means, and remove silica so that the specimen can be further tested. I don’t remember the details of that technique but the idea of running CaF2 in my EA in the presence of organics did have me concerned. I’m relieved to learn that it can be done safely.

Thanks again.
-- Steve

... followed shortly afterwards by...

We used to do something like this in the lab! And we are still alive. Vogel spot test, maybe.

Fluoride + H2SO4 -> HF + .... over a burner to heat.

You do it in a test tube. Then you dip a wet glass rod into the vapours, and if it etches it, then there is fluoride.

Very cool. And QUITE safe ...

Hil

Just in my inbox. Emphasis mine: I am feeling extremely cynical about what it takes to get a dude in a position of power to make that kind of a statement...

Dear colleagues
I'm calling for information from the broad community about bad rock coring damage.

Many important sites are being devastated by this practice and it's bringing our science into disrepute. So I'm raising this as chair of the Geological Society of London's Geoconservation Committee - hopefully to guide approaches to reduce the problem. I know this is not just a UK problem .... There is however a spate of this going on in the NW Highlands at the moment. I also know there's been discussion on this list about bad rock sampling practice. So let's try to stamp this out together....

I'm sure many of you will be dismayed to see the attachment here of rock-coring damage to this famous outcrop of the sub-Torridonian unconformity adjacent to Loch Assynt, in NW Scotland. This location is visited by many hundreds students every year and is a key location in the NW Highlands Geopark. The local officers are dismayed about this. The outcrop is on land owned by the John Muir trust - a major conservation organisation (http://www.jmt.org/vision.asp).
Doing collecting like this is equivalent to stealing birds eggs or butterflies. Can you imagine archeologists being allowed to drill into the megaliths of Stonehenge etc? It's a question of ethics and must stop. Geologists in general risk being viewed as having no regard for their environment. So our various conservation and public awareness campaigns and initiatives may become less well-regarded or ignored.

Other sites in NW Scotland that have been attacked in this way include designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest that are protected by law - so such coring is a criminal act. Pleading ignorance is no defence! They include a lot of the classic outcrops of Durness limestone around Durness itself and eastern Eriboll and the Scourie dykes at Scourie More. Not to mention virtually every one of the dykes forming part of the Tertiary swarm at Elgol on Skye.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not against rock coring itself - but it can be done better - such by excavating parts of outcrops then recovering them. Even then the holes should be refilled - and ideally finished off with the outcrop face off-cut of the core all bonded with a resilient, weather-proof cement - to leave the least visible trace of the activity. Going after the best, most visited and previously photogenic sites is reprehensible. There are plenty of good-practice guides around that could be consulted... and applied (e.g. www.geologistsassociation.org.uk/downloads/GARockCoringGuide.pdf).

So - what to do? Too often we discuss and report these as individual incidents. It's time to gather information more widely. Of course it's not just members of the tectonics community who are responsible - and so please pass on this request for information to colleagues.
And send me images (really not at not too large a file size: to [e-mail address]) - with some location specifics. If you can tie these examples of damage to specific publications that have arisen from them - then you might like to send me the link to the paper too. Although I'm specifically interested in auditing the extent of the problem through the UK - - please also share examples from elsewhere in the world.
Once we know what's going on, then we can work out better strategies to educate those who do this kind of thing - and promote better practice.

Many thanks

Rob

Occasionally I come across a poem that breaks my heart, or brings it to my mouth, or elsewise causes me to gasp at its beauty, at the ache of it, to cover my mouth with my hands without realising it in case my escaping breath betrays me.

There are a couple of people I already e-mail these poems to. If you would like to be on the list of people to whom I send occasional poems (BCCed, of course), let me know (and your preferred e-mail address) in comments (which are screened). And, of course, feel free to opt out at any time.

(The ones I e-mail round don't overlap much with the ones I post here, I think, slightly to my surprise; and I should flag up that you'll mostly be getting stuff that I want to draw to the attention of The First Two People; but you are nonetheless welcome. ♥)

This is the most recent one, via breathe_poetry_feed:

Cartography for Beginners
for CL

First of all, you will need to choose the correct blue
to indicate water. This should not be too watery.
You must remember: people do not like wet feet.
If there is no water to indicate, no matter,
you must still elect a blue. Let me recommend
eggshell, at a push azure. Choose a symbol
for church/temple/mosque/synagogue. Choose
a symbol for pub. Dedicate your life
to the twin and warring gods of Precision
and Wild Abandon. People do not like
to be lost. Buy Mandelbrot's 1967 paper
on the coastline paradox, put it on the highest shelf -
but buy a stepladder. Take a little licence with rivers,
especially their curves and estuaries. Add
an oxbow lake if at all possible. If the area you
are mapping has no sea/lakes/rivers/streams,
I have to question why you are bothering. You
won't get to use that lovely blue you spent so long
deciding upon. Do the Norfolk fens instead. Better
yet, East Anglia in its future state, quite utterly
submerged like a sodden Constable. Come on,
get your coat, I'll show you. You won't need your shoes.

--Emily Hasler

deadline 18th, 6 hrs lecture/practicals on 17th

... I have pre-emptively spent forty quid on Really Nice Tea because godDAMN I deserve a treat for being so nearly here

you guys

you guys

... I could hand in what I have now and not fail

I CANNOT EVEN with how much of a change this is from last year

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