Geobulletin alpha

Crossing Boundaries for the Environment 

It is not the concept of a borderless nature that should serve as a model to facilitate cross-border dialogue and cooperation. Rather, it is that nature’s systems are interconnected and their borders are open to

The Concept of Zero Seismic Capacity 

I have often stated that some structures have zero seismic capacity.  That is not the same as zero ground motion, since any structure must stand up to the live loads such as wind and people dancing. As a recap, I have dedicated my whole life to eliminating acceleration in reference to seismic.  This was a standard adopted many years ago because accelerations are easily measured, and can be

One Place Left in the World / Optimistic Pessimism 

I saved this one from a few days ago, because it’s not good to publish when you’re in a depressive episode. But I think it’s important, as a thought, a concept, one way of looking at the world – one side of a many-sided die.  —– Let me preface this by saying that I probably

Earthquake Stupidity #2 -- Early warning systems 

Early warning systems are a seismologist's wet dream.  Remember that these guys can't do math, and have no concept how shaking damages things.  All they know is that these systems bring in lots of money, and they lobby the politicians relentlessly.  Any money for this is taken out of strong ground motion recording. They work like this:  In an ideal world, you have a tiny fault rupture, at

Beyond plate tectonics 

Plate tectonics is the core unifying concept that has underpinned our understanding of the solid earth for over 50 years. To describe your research as moving “beyond plate tectonics” is quite a claim, but Trond Torsvik and the group he leads … Continue reading

You Can Protect Your Computer From Being Hacked ?? 

The concept of persons having to worry in which NSA is itemizing and supervising their particular things to do is often a hysterically interesting idea if you ask me. What you may consider Edward Snowden, are aware that he is every day overdue and a buck limited. These similar folks that stress about the actual […] The post You Can Protect Your Computer From Being Hacked ?? appeared first on Liberty, Equality, and

Darwin, Wallace & Patrick Matthew: Who's Ideas on Evolution Came First? 

Patrick Matthew (1790-1874) was a Scottish landowner with a keen interest in politics and agronomy who also came up with the concept of 'evolution by natural selection' 27 years before Charles Darwin did.Matthew's version of evolution by natural section captures a valuable aspect of the theory that isn't so clear in Darwin's version - namely, that natural selection is a deductive certainty

Doubting your doubts 

I wish to expand a bit on the concept of “doubting your doubts.” I first read came across this phrase in The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. Here is a quote from the introduction (I hope you will purchase the book and read it for yourself): A faith without some doubts is like a

Continental split - the opening of the Atlantic Ocean 

New ELI today 'Continental split - the opening of the Atlantic Ocean; modelling how continents moved, from Pangaea to today' Click here for the video clip, created by Cristina Ginésp { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; This activity could be used in any science or geography lesson about sea floor spreading and Wegener's concept of continental drift. It is one of many activities

Born This Day: Gavin de Beer 

de Beer (Nov. 1, 1899 – June 21, 1972) was an English zoologist and morphologist who contributed to experimental embryology, anatomy, and evolution. He refuted the germ-layer theory and developed the concept of paedomorphism - the retention of juvenile characteristics of ancestors in mature adults). From examination of the fossil Archaeopteryx, De Beer proposed mosaic evolution with

A world without subduction 

The greatest achievement of the generation of Earth Scientists now retiring is the concept of plate tectonics. The insight that the earth’s surface is made up of rigid plates that move has shed light on all aspects of Earth Science, … Continue reading

The Fire Research Institute, more than three decades of Fire Science 

Jason Greenlee jasongreenlee@hotmail.com The Fire Research Institute (FRI) was founded in 1983 as a non-profit organization with the lofty goal of promoting world peace through fire science. The concept was stolen from Richard Nixon, who, you will remember, opened up relations between the US and China by sending a ping-pong team to visit China. I

The Water-Energy Nexus 

Flo Bullough writes on the concept of the water-energy nexus; its implications for energy and water security and the impact of climate change and future planning and regulation.  I first came across the concept of the water-energy nexus when the former UK Chief Scientific Advisor John Beddington discussed the interdependence of food, water and energy

Ancient Lake in the Gale Crater on Mars? 

“This illustration depicts a concept for the possible extent of an ancient lake inside Gale Crater. The existence of a lake there billions of years ago was confirmed from examination of mudstone in the crater’s Yellowknife Bay

Lykan Hypersport: Arabia's First Supercar 

A new supercar, billed as Arabia’s first, is brewing in the United Arab Emirates, and it’s called the Lykan Hypersport. After first appearing as a concept one year ago, the Lykan Hypersport, the creation of supercar startup W Motors, has progressed to the pre-production stage, meaning most of the specifications have been locked in and production likely to soon. link.  My son has a

The evolution of radiative forcing bar-charts 

As part of the IPCC WG1 SPM(pdf) released last Friday, there was a subtle, but important, change in one of the key figures – the radiative forcing bar-chart (Fig. SPM.4). The concept for this figure has been a mainstay of summaries of climate change science for decades, and the evolution over time is a good

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A gastropod/coral/hermit crab combination from the Pliocene of Florida 

These two shells show a lovely symbiosis between shallow marine hermit crabs and encrusting scleractinian corals. I was first introduced to the concept of “pagurized” shells by my friends Paul Taylor and Sally Walker. They showed me the many ways by which shells that were carried around by hermit crabs display particular evidence of this

Deinosuchids: The Beasts That Ate Tyrannosaurs (Chapter 6) 

Chapter VI: DeinosuchiaEarlier, I introduced the concept of a family of crocodylians called “Deinosuchia“. It would be part of the superfamily Alligatoroidea, meaning that Deinosuchids share some characteristics with alligators.[4, in link Alligatoroidea] One of the main similarities is that they both share a broad snout.[5, 16] However, there are differences that make Deinosuchus one

Resilient Systems: Creative Possibility at the Edge of Change 

Fukushima Daiichi power plant and water tanks, image Kyodo/Reuters, August 20, 2013 In the lead up to the start of the academic semester we’ve had resiliency on our minds.  It’s a concept that seems to be increasing in cultural resonance.  Andrew Zolli, researcher of resilience, and curator and executive director of PopTech, recently wrote on his blog

Undead Techno Memes Strike Northrop Grumman: Lighter Than Air Freight Shipping 

Northrop Grumman is looking at the potential of “really large” unmanned airships for commercial freight transport, Tom Vice, president of the company’s Aerospace Systems segment, said in Washington Aug. 20. Comparing the effect of such a system on air freight to the advent of the 747 freighter in its day, Vice said that while there is “a lot of work to do” on the concept, the company