I've been pretty busy this semester. The campus is getting its Decennial review this year, which is exciting in a way. My Oceanography class has been going well. The students did very poorly on their first test, class average was in the 50s. I know a lot of them studied their butts off and didn't do as well as they'd've liked, but I also know that others haven't been putting much nor enough effort into it. One student (and I am not saying that she is one of the ones that isn't putting in enough effort, I get the impression that she is) is from the accounting program and was looking to fulfill her general education requirements and was told by her advisor that this is an 'easy course'. Thing is, this can be a difficult course. Its got elements of physics, chemistry, meteorology, geology, and even biology all mixed together.
Most of the students are from the Maritime Technology program, they are required to take this course specifically by their program, and this apparently is the only science course that they have to take. Its meant reconsidering what I expect from the students. For many of them this is their first science course in a decade or more.
I have been surprised to see how earnest many of the students are, I had heard much worse about the students here.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
C. Hitchens on Vestigial Eyes in Cave Organisms
http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2195683
What's really interesting here is that Hitchens is unfamiliar with the argument that he is making; he doesn't realize that other people have noticed that intelligent design doesn't do a good job of explaining vestigial organs, a statement often made with particular respect to cave organisms, of which there is much recent interest.
Hard to say if that is a good mark or a bad mark for Hitchens, being on the one hand unfamiliar with what I thought was a fairly widespread argument, or, on the other hand, coming up with that very argument independently. I suppose at first it seems like a black mark, being so vehemently anti-creationism and at the same time being unaware of what could be considered a basic argument against it. But then again, why need a particularly detailed argument against a concept when you've, presumably, already rejected it from other angles anyway?
Anyway, I am not so certain that the idea that vestigial organs shouldn't've been designed argument is all that good of an argument contra intelligent design. Design-infatuated creationists will, firstly and probably correctly state that we don't know the intent of a designer, so maybe 'purposely poor design' or 'nonsensical design' makes 'sense'. Of course, the whole argument pro design is that intent can be detected in the first place, so not sure what that would really all have to say.
Secondly, it could be argued that degeneration is permissible in creationism, that parts of a genome can mutate, and that mutation will, and in fact can only, screw things up. So destroying functions probably wouldn't 'refute' so called 'intelligent design theory' (ignoring that its not a theory and can't be refuted anyway).
Considering this further, Hitchens has realized one of the things that vestigialism tells us. But, in particular, the eyeless salamander case that he sites tells us even more. Because this is not an organism that has had some weird mutation in one of the genes 'for' its eyes and now has non-functional eyes. It has no eyes. It has evolved to get rid of eyes.
In an environment where sight is useless, some organisms that have mutations that make them blind can have an advantage. Natural selection will 'select' for this trait, in so far as it works to get rid of the eye organ, to get rid of the apparatus that maintains the genetics of that organ, and to not 'waste' energy on the development and nourishment of that organ. Not being able to see isn't necessarily an advantage, even in pitch darkness. But not having all the investments with no rewards that an eye represents can be an advantage. So natural selection, I think, should actually be an explanation for complete loss of eyes in cave organisms.
Now, of course, if I recall correctly anyway; many blind cave organisms still have non-functional eyes. So this might all just have been gibbering over-arching.
What's really interesting here is that Hitchens is unfamiliar with the argument that he is making; he doesn't realize that other people have noticed that intelligent design doesn't do a good job of explaining vestigial organs, a statement often made with particular respect to cave organisms, of which there is much recent interest.
Hard to say if that is a good mark or a bad mark for Hitchens, being on the one hand unfamiliar with what I thought was a fairly widespread argument, or, on the other hand, coming up with that very argument independently. I suppose at first it seems like a black mark, being so vehemently anti-creationism and at the same time being unaware of what could be considered a basic argument against it. But then again, why need a particularly detailed argument against a concept when you've, presumably, already rejected it from other angles anyway?
Anyway, I am not so certain that the idea that vestigial organs shouldn't've been designed argument is all that good of an argument contra intelligent design. Design-infatuated creationists will, firstly and probably correctly state that we don't know the intent of a designer, so maybe 'purposely poor design' or 'nonsensical design' makes 'sense'. Of course, the whole argument pro design is that intent can be detected in the first place, so not sure what that would really all have to say.
Secondly, it could be argued that degeneration is permissible in creationism, that parts of a genome can mutate, and that mutation will, and in fact can only, screw things up. So destroying functions probably wouldn't 'refute' so called 'intelligent design theory' (ignoring that its not a theory and can't be refuted anyway).
Considering this further, Hitchens has realized one of the things that vestigialism tells us. But, in particular, the eyeless salamander case that he sites tells us even more. Because this is not an organism that has had some weird mutation in one of the genes 'for' its eyes and now has non-functional eyes. It has no eyes. It has evolved to get rid of eyes.
In an environment where sight is useless, some organisms that have mutations that make them blind can have an advantage. Natural selection will 'select' for this trait, in so far as it works to get rid of the eye organ, to get rid of the apparatus that maintains the genetics of that organ, and to not 'waste' energy on the development and nourishment of that organ. Not being able to see isn't necessarily an advantage, even in pitch darkness. But not having all the investments with no rewards that an eye represents can be an advantage. So natural selection, I think, should actually be an explanation for complete loss of eyes in cave organisms.
Now, of course, if I recall correctly anyway; many blind cave organisms still have non-functional eyes. So this might all just have been gibbering over-arching.
Garage Sale
My mother is thinking of having a garage sale in two weekends, so now my wife is going through our stuff. She seems to think that we'll get lots of money for old VHS casettes. Can't imagine who'd actually want these things. We don't even have a VCR at this point, at least not that I know of. In fact if we do have someone somewhere we'd better sell it too.
Maybe it will make a nice 'bundle' along with the tape.
Maybe it will make a nice 'bundle' along with the tape.
Tons of Stuff
I ordered a lot of supplies recently, in particular from Ben Meadows, which is a good supplier. Almost all of them showed up on the same day, and over the next few days the rest showed up. They're all sitting in my office right now, need to start moving them over to a new lab prep-room.
The inlaws also went to India for two weeks recently and just got back the other day. They were visiting their parents. They seemed to have had a good time. Luckily their state seemed to be spared the recent anti-christian riots in Orissa, which is a little far from Kerala, and Karnataka, which actually borders it. Infact, the city of Mangalore, which apparently is right near the border with Kerala, was the site of some of the more recent rioting.
We are all planning on going here in February of 2009. That should be interesting. It will be my first time in the country and the first time meeting the grandparents. I speak no Malayalum, they speak no English. My father-in-law's dad (his only remaining parent) had said that the only thing English he knows is a salute, and he jokes that that's what he'll have to do when he meets me. My mother-in-law says that when he stood to demonstrate this that he seemed to still be effected by chickungunya, of which there was an outbreak in Kerala earlier this summer. He had caught it but generally recovered from it. Apparently it is a mosquito borne sickness that started in Uganda and spread to the rest of the world from there.
The inlaws also went to India for two weeks recently and just got back the other day. They were visiting their parents. They seemed to have had a good time. Luckily their state seemed to be spared the recent anti-christian riots in Orissa, which is a little far from Kerala, and Karnataka, which actually borders it. Infact, the city of Mangalore, which apparently is right near the border with Kerala, was the site of some of the more recent rioting.
We are all planning on going here in February of 2009. That should be interesting. It will be my first time in the country and the first time meeting the grandparents. I speak no Malayalum, they speak no English. My father-in-law's dad (his only remaining parent) had said that the only thing English he knows is a salute, and he jokes that that's what he'll have to do when he meets me. My mother-in-law says that when he stood to demonstrate this that he seemed to still be effected by chickungunya, of which there was an outbreak in Kerala earlier this summer. He had caught it but generally recovered from it. Apparently it is a mosquito borne sickness that started in Uganda and spread to the rest of the world from there.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Ramping up for Summer Program
Recently completed the AMS Online Ocean Studies Diversity Project Implementation Workshop. It was really interesting.
I've been seriously slacking on writing up a research paper. There's so many damned things that keep getting in my way. I need to get focused this week and crank it out.
Because after this week, the KCC Summer Grant will be in swing. Its a 500k$ grant this year. We have "Purchase Cards" or P-cards, which are Visa debit cards attached to the grant (but with pre-set limits). I recently reached my limit and have had to request that the limit be raised. The Principle Investigator (Dr. Mikalopas) approves, now the Grant Administration Officer has to, and then they have to inform the Research Foundation that they approve. Then it should take effect. The RF told me that it could be ready to go this week.
One of the more difficult aspects of this project that I am anticipating is organizing the students. We'd like for them to start each day off with some sort of common experience, and then segway into smaller groups. At the same time they're going to be pulled out, 6 at a time, to sail on the boat and do work there. This will happen two times each day. I think that we're just going to have to pull out 12 kids at a time, have 6 on the boat, and the other 6 on the ground engaged in an activity and waiting for the boat, as the second half of the day. This seems better than pulling out six kids of 24 in the middle of a class. We shall see.
I've been seriously slacking on writing up a research paper. There's so many damned things that keep getting in my way. I need to get focused this week and crank it out.
Because after this week, the KCC Summer Grant will be in swing. Its a 500k$ grant this year. We have "Purchase Cards" or P-cards, which are Visa debit cards attached to the grant (but with pre-set limits). I recently reached my limit and have had to request that the limit be raised. The Principle Investigator (Dr. Mikalopas) approves, now the Grant Administration Officer has to, and then they have to inform the Research Foundation that they approve. Then it should take effect. The RF told me that it could be ready to go this week.
One of the more difficult aspects of this project that I am anticipating is organizing the students. We'd like for them to start each day off with some sort of common experience, and then segway into smaller groups. At the same time they're going to be pulled out, 6 at a time, to sail on the boat and do work there. This will happen two times each day. I think that we're just going to have to pull out 12 kids at a time, have 6 on the boat, and the other 6 on the ground engaged in an activity and waiting for the boat, as the second half of the day. This seems better than pulling out six kids of 24 in the middle of a class. We shall see.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/online/oceaninfo/diversity.html
Been at the AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project all week. Its been absolutely fascinating. The idea of this workshop is to learn how to best implement the AMS "Ocean Studies" course, which is set up to be offered aqs a live course, a hybrid course, or a completely online course. Given that is has a lab function built into it, making it an online course would be fabulous. Our department doesn't have any all online or true hybrid courses right now, but the campus, I believe, has some. If we were to implement this as an all online course, that'd be great. So many of our students work full time and have other beyond-school responsibilities, so I think that not having to come to campus at a specific time to sit in lecture or perform lab activities would really make a difference for them, and be a real attractive option.
Part and parcel of preparing to implement this course includes meeting with researchers and hearing talks from them on their latest efforts. We've also been able to visit the NOAA Pacific Marine Environment Laboratories and Labs at the University of Washington School of Oceanography. Both institutions are heavily involved in the ARGO Float project, an incredible program that currently operates an array of 3,111 ocean going robots. These robots dive to 1,000 m water depth, travel along oceanic currents, and then at a pre-set time dive deeper down to 2,000 m, from which they begin a slow and steady ascent to the surface, collecting CTD data along the way. The newer floats collect optical data, perform wet chemistry on water samples, and do other things. Other researchers at PMEL were responsible for setting up and maintaining the array of oceanographic buoys that allow us to determine if there is going to be an El Nino or a La Nina each particular year, and how intense its going to be, when we're moving out of those conditions, etc. Still other offices at PMEL are charged with responding to ocean emergencies, like oil spills, chemical spills, even derelict ships and other hazards. We also saw some of their fabrication facilities, and their dissolved CO2 lab. One of the wilder pieces of equipment that we saw included self-deploying buoys. A small fishing ship could literally swing one of these small devices into the sea, it will open up, drop its own anchor and a spool of cable allowing it to be moored, and it will start transmitting data.
The talks that we've been getting about the research thats come out of the deployment of this sort of equipment has also been fascinating. Everyone seems to be really interested, we're running out of time at each event because of all the really great questions that everyone's been asking.
Been at the AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project all week. Its been absolutely fascinating. The idea of this workshop is to learn how to best implement the AMS "Ocean Studies" course, which is set up to be offered aqs a live course, a hybrid course, or a completely online course. Given that is has a lab function built into it, making it an online course would be fabulous. Our department doesn't have any all online or true hybrid courses right now, but the campus, I believe, has some. If we were to implement this as an all online course, that'd be great. So many of our students work full time and have other beyond-school responsibilities, so I think that not having to come to campus at a specific time to sit in lecture or perform lab activities would really make a difference for them, and be a real attractive option.
Part and parcel of preparing to implement this course includes meeting with researchers and hearing talks from them on their latest efforts. We've also been able to visit the NOAA Pacific Marine Environment Laboratories and Labs at the University of Washington School of Oceanography. Both institutions are heavily involved in the ARGO Float project, an incredible program that currently operates an array of 3,111 ocean going robots. These robots dive to 1,000 m water depth, travel along oceanic currents, and then at a pre-set time dive deeper down to 2,000 m, from which they begin a slow and steady ascent to the surface, collecting CTD data along the way. The newer floats collect optical data, perform wet chemistry on water samples, and do other things. Other researchers at PMEL were responsible for setting up and maintaining the array of oceanographic buoys that allow us to determine if there is going to be an El Nino or a La Nina each particular year, and how intense its going to be, when we're moving out of those conditions, etc. Still other offices at PMEL are charged with responding to ocean emergencies, like oil spills, chemical spills, even derelict ships and other hazards. We also saw some of their fabrication facilities, and their dissolved CO2 lab. One of the wilder pieces of equipment that we saw included self-deploying buoys. A small fishing ship could literally swing one of these small devices into the sea, it will open up, drop its own anchor and a spool of cable allowing it to be moored, and it will start transmitting data.
The talks that we've been getting about the research thats come out of the deployment of this sort of equipment has also been fascinating. Everyone seems to be really interested, we're running out of time at each event because of all the really great questions that everyone's been asking.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Thoughts for the 2008 Mg/Ca paper
writing up the methods section of my 2008 Mg/Ca Benguela paper.
I'm realizing that it would be a good idea to include some SEM micrographs of both sinistral and dextral N. pachyderma for illustration in the paper. Need to make sure to remember to do that.
I am also thinking that things like calculating pooled standard deviation and such might be best to include in a figure caption, rather than as a whole section in the paper. I will have to write it in for now as part of Methods.
I'm realizing that it would be a good idea to include some SEM micrographs of both sinistral and dextral N. pachyderma for illustration in the paper. Need to make sure to remember to do that.
I am also thinking that things like calculating pooled standard deviation and such might be best to include in a figure caption, rather than as a whole section in the paper. I will have to write it in for now as part of Methods.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Matthew/Thomas Wedding in PA
Went to a wedding for Baby Uncle and Lela Aunty's daughter yesterday. The groom isn't syro-malabar catholic, but the mass and ceremony were extremely similar. THe only difference I noticed anyway was that, at the reception, the boys gathered around the couple when they were introduced and shouted something a few times while all pointing one finger in the air and then swinging their hands down. Not sure what its supposed to mean though.
It was a nice service at a large church, Dad estimated around 500 people at the reception. They had hired a drummer for the reception (along with a dj of course). Overall it was a nice wedding. We had planned the next day to go into Philly, because the whole thing was just outside of it, however we just weren't feeling up to it and wanted to get some shopping done while we were in a relatively lower tax area. Ended up buying, after a good amount of searching, a Nintendo Wii. So that's fun. Now we have something to use the Wii Guitar Hero game we bought with!
It was a nice service at a large church, Dad estimated around 500 people at the reception. They had hired a drummer for the reception (along with a dj of course). Overall it was a nice wedding. We had planned the next day to go into Philly, because the whole thing was just outside of it, however we just weren't feeling up to it and wanted to get some shopping done while we were in a relatively lower tax area. Ended up buying, after a good amount of searching, a Nintendo Wii. So that's fun. Now we have something to use the Wii Guitar Hero game we bought with!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Attempt at coring in the South Shore
Went out with Profs Christensen and Farmer and others as they attempted to get a 10 foot long vibracore sample of the sediments at a south shore estuary. I was worried there would be good weather, but fortunately there was a downpour the entire time that we were there.
A vibracore is run by a small engine, in this case a cement mixer engine, it looks like a typical lawnmower gas engine, it even starts by pulling a cord. Or at least, thats how it is supposed to start. This one, which had apparently been purchased a few years ago, but was never started up before, wouldn't start up now. One of the other people, who had brought it for the coring, tried their best to get the thing working, even running out to get starter fluid to spray onto the machine. All to no avail. The sky poured out cold rain on us all day while we stood around the engine in parking lot for a few hours without it started. Low tide was starting at 1230, we had needed to have trugged out to the coring site, assemble to support for the corer, and get it running into the ground and then pull out the core before high tide came in. So by that time, even if the engine were to start, we probably wouldn't be able to core anyway.
We went back to the Christenen's office and decided to keep most of the coring materials there, everyone else is going to try to figure out what's wrong with the engine and they plan on re-attempting the 28th. I think that I will meet them out there for that also, I have nothing to do with the project, but I can help with the actual coring, and that will allow me to see how its done. I'll make sure to get some waterproof boots and pants before then too, being soaked in the rain in jeans isn't too pleasant.
After putting everything back, Dr.s Christen, Farmer, a grad student, and I went to get lunch at a local indian restaurant that we've been to a few times before. Lunch at least was hot and good and the Kingfisher hit the spot. After that, Dr. Farmer had planned on coming back to the lab so that we could go over our 1085B project. Unfortunately she had to run back to Hofstra first to enter in grades for the semester, and got caught up there and couldn't make it over. Christensen and I got some work done and made some progress on the work.
A vibracore is run by a small engine, in this case a cement mixer engine, it looks like a typical lawnmower gas engine, it even starts by pulling a cord. Or at least, thats how it is supposed to start. This one, which had apparently been purchased a few years ago, but was never started up before, wouldn't start up now. One of the other people, who had brought it for the coring, tried their best to get the thing working, even running out to get starter fluid to spray onto the machine. All to no avail. The sky poured out cold rain on us all day while we stood around the engine in parking lot for a few hours without it started. Low tide was starting at 1230, we had needed to have trugged out to the coring site, assemble to support for the corer, and get it running into the ground and then pull out the core before high tide came in. So by that time, even if the engine were to start, we probably wouldn't be able to core anyway.
We went back to the Christenen's office and decided to keep most of the coring materials there, everyone else is going to try to figure out what's wrong with the engine and they plan on re-attempting the 28th. I think that I will meet them out there for that also, I have nothing to do with the project, but I can help with the actual coring, and that will allow me to see how its done. I'll make sure to get some waterproof boots and pants before then too, being soaked in the rain in jeans isn't too pleasant.
After putting everything back, Dr.s Christen, Farmer, a grad student, and I went to get lunch at a local indian restaurant that we've been to a few times before. Lunch at least was hot and good and the Kingfisher hit the spot. After that, Dr. Farmer had planned on coming back to the lab so that we could go over our 1085B project. Unfortunately she had to run back to Hofstra first to enter in grades for the semester, and got caught up there and couldn't make it over. Christensen and I got some work done and made some progress on the work.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project, Hotel and Flights
Just got off the phone with Fortune Travel, s/w Nanette to book flight to Seattle for the AMS workshop.
Leaving on a Delta flight DL 0627 leaving from JFK @820 on 2/15 and landing in Seattle at noon.
Returning on a Delta flight DL 0162 at 1240 and arriving at JFK around 915.
I also spoke w/ Mz. Mills at AMS about the hotel. She confirmed that there is a room set aside, the actual room will be assigned on arrival. They just have a block for attendees.Confirmed that the hotel is:
Universtiy Inn
4140 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
(800)733-3855
Still going to need to book a hotel for the night of the 21st and 22nd, somewhere in downtown Seattle.
Leaving on a Delta flight DL 0627 leaving from JFK @820 on 2/15 and landing in Seattle at noon.
Returning on a Delta flight DL 0162 at 1240 and arriving at JFK around 915.
I also spoke w/ Mz. Mills at AMS about the hotel. She confirmed that there is a room set aside, the actual room will be assigned on arrival. They just have a block for attendees.Confirmed that the hotel is:
Universtiy Inn
4140 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
(800)733-3855
Still going to need to book a hotel for the night of the 21st and 22nd, somewhere in downtown Seattle.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
CollegeNow Grades
I've been instructing for a collegenow course in Meteorology. I have 30 students from LGHS registered. Around 12-15 tend to show up relatively regularly. We've had two tests. No one got above a 65 on either of them. I've made the tests so that they do what they are supposed to do, test the student's knowledge of the subject matter. I've tried it with a longer test (100 questions) with quick, multiple choice, true/false questions. The students were able to finish on time, even the ones that came in a half hour late to the test. The second test had 24 questions, but they were a combination of question types, and they got at the most basic and fundamental issues that we had been discussing in class and that were also covered in the textbook. And still the students did poorly. They're telling me that having a test on more than one chapter is too much for them. I think that I will infact make the next test on a single chapter. I spoke with Rob Perro from CollegeNow, and he suggested speaking with the HS principle about arranging for tutors for the students, which is a good idea. I had previously spoken with the principle, and he had a lot of students coming to him asking to drop the course, but he said that he insisted that they stay in the course and put more effort into it.
HEO/CLT Professional Development Fund
On monday I had spoken with some of the people responsible for the HEO/CLT Professional Development Fund. I spoke with PSC-CUNY regarding the “PDF” (up to $3K every academic year). I wanted to get a stereomicroscope, sieve pans, picking brushes, and other equipment to continue my grad school research, along with membership in a few societies and some reference books. Ms. Slifkin stated that you can’t get equipment, but then at the same time said that you can use it for anything that involves professional development. I had started describing it as something that we can incorporate into our classes, which apparently is no good because it’s supposed to be something that the college wouldn’t get us. I was able to get the names of the people on the committee for this fund.
Joy Johnson
from Medgar Evans College in Brooklyn 718-270-6210 joy@mec.cuny.edu
Bob Suhoke
from City College in Manhattan 212-650-8154 suhoke@sci.ccny.cuny.edu
Linda Slifkin
PSC-CUNY fund Rep 212-354-1252 No email
Ms. Johnson re-stated that the materials can’t be something that the college would be normally ordering. She stated that she has seen it go through for chemical reagents, and then answered that it is at least conceivable that it could go through for the larger equipment. She also stated that there was nothing like a ‘line item veto’, where some items in a proposal could be approved and others rejected. The whole application is either accepted or rejected.
I spoke with Mr. Suhoke on Tuesday. He was even more adamant that the funds not be used to obtain equipment or materials for the department, and that, in the case of the above example of a stereomicroscope, its obvious that any department would already have one. However, he did admit that it was possible, though it would be extremely difficult, to make a convincing case that the equipment would only be used for personal, professional, use, unrelated to the functioning of the department. He stated that reference books and society memberships would be much easier to obtain. He stated that it was possible to submit two applications at once, one for the equipment, and another for the reference books and memberships and the like.
I wrote this information up and printed out some copies to give to some of the other CLTs who I've spoken to who've said that they are interested in the grant.
Joy Johnson
from Medgar Evans College in Brooklyn 718-270-6210 joy@mec.cuny.edu
Bob Suhoke
from City College in Manhattan 212-650-8154 suhoke@sci.ccny.cuny.edu
Linda Slifkin
PSC-CUNY fund Rep 212-354-1252 No email
Ms. Johnson re-stated that the materials can’t be something that the college would be normally ordering. She stated that she has seen it go through for chemical reagents, and then answered that it is at least conceivable that it could go through for the larger equipment. She also stated that there was nothing like a ‘line item veto’, where some items in a proposal could be approved and others rejected. The whole application is either accepted or rejected.
I spoke with Mr. Suhoke on Tuesday. He was even more adamant that the funds not be used to obtain equipment or materials for the department, and that, in the case of the above example of a stereomicroscope, its obvious that any department would already have one. However, he did admit that it was possible, though it would be extremely difficult, to make a convincing case that the equipment would only be used for personal, professional, use, unrelated to the functioning of the department. He stated that reference books and society memberships would be much easier to obtain. He stated that it was possible to submit two applications at once, one for the equipment, and another for the reference books and memberships and the like.
I wrote this information up and printed out some copies to give to some of the other CLTs who I've spoken to who've said that they are interested in the grant.
Friday, May 02, 2008
NAGT part deux
"Caffeine and Carbs" breakfast at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in their new science building, the Gary Comer building. Apparently Mr. Comer is a businessman who sailed through the northwest passage on a bet, that he wouldn't be able to do it. After completing it, he was apparently so impressed by the lack of ice blocking the passage, that he became very interested in climate. One of the results of that is then this new research facility. Most of the researchers haven't moved in yet, at least it looked like that to me, but there were several that were doing work while the conference was going on. I beleive that Dr. deMenocal's lab is going to be in this building also. Out of the blue, Dr. Green from the department showed up and we talked for a while. Then, possibly out of the same blue, Dr. Coke from Adelphi showed up. We talked for a while too. That was especially fortunate for me, because I didn't have the car for that trip and he offered me a ride on the Iron Mine trail trip, which I had been planning on going on. Dr. Green was attending a different trip. NAGT had prepared box lunches for the trip, but you had to pay for them, which is unusual, but probably a result of having to plan the whole thing on two month's notice.
After breakfast, Dr. Wally Broecker from LDEO gave a talk. Infact, it was the same talk he had given at the OSM 2008 meeting in Orlando, "Warning from the world's tiny Oceans (closed lake basins)." He started by considering Held's (Issac Held, Princeton) prediction that in a warming world, the tropics get wetter and the drylands get drier. Dr. Broecker reasoned that if thats what happens in a warming world, then should, in a cooling world, the tropics get drier and the drylands get wetter? He tested this by looking at the sizes of various pluvial (closed basin) lakes through the ages. He decided that the following equation applies:
A(basin)* hRfr = A(lake)hE (hR rainfall rate, fr runoff fraction, hE lake evaporation)
and that from this,
A(lake)/A(basin) = fr (hR/hE)
He refered to a 'mystery interval' between just before 18kya and 14kya where climate acts strangely. In this interval, the Southern ocean is warming, while ice coverage in the Northern hemisphere grows. He also stated that there was an increase in CO2, probably caused by the retreat of seaice in the Southern Hemisphere.
The ITCZ shifts southwards, because it follows heat across the globe (this is what it normally does in austral summers). This incidentally results in a weakening of monsoons. The biggest southwards push of the ITCZ is during the Mystery Interval.
Dry lakes are largest during the mystery interval, and large at the LGM. Dr. Broecker concluded that the ice volumes that existed during the ice ages do NOT obviate Held's prediction, and that drylands will infact get much dryer as the world warms.
He also, interestingly, stated that he wasn't too concerned anymore with shutdown of global thermohaline circulation, especially not by influx of fresh water into the North Atlantic. The Younger Dryas cooling that may have resulted from just such an effect would've required a great amount of water. Since there aren't giant reserves of ice today, Dr. Broecker observed, we're probably not going to have a massive influx of freshwater, even with melting at the poles, and shutting down THC. He also felt that the recent papers that claimed to have observed a shutdown of the Gulf Stream were just too short in duration to be able to call 'abnormal'. He figured you'd need a 30 year record or something like that on that level of detail to be able to rule of 'normal' cycles.
There was a break after the talk, and then we met for the saturday field trips. I went on a trip to the Iron Mine trail at the Sterling Forest Visitors center in NY. Dr. Gates of Rutgers lead the trip and passed out a trip guide booklet. The trail included a pre-revolution Iron Furnance which had been shut down in the 1760s, but then, at the command of none less than Washington himself was rebuilt and reopened to aid in the war. Afterwards, it was shutdown again. It reopened again much later, and ceased operations in the 1920s. Originally ore rock, charcoal, and limestone was carted to the Furnace, dumped into it, and then it was tapped at the bottom to release molten iron. In the closer to modern period, magnetite ore was actualy mined on location. Apparently the people that built the Furnace didn't know that there was in fact a large reserve of ore so close by. The remains of the more modern that shutdown in the 1920s are still there. Cables for the cable cars are strewn all around the cable house. We walked off the path and behind those remains and a little ways and came upon a small strip mine, with an entrance to another underground mine nearby in a depression of rocks, the organization had sealed a gate over the entrance to prevent anyone from entering, the interior of the mine if of course flooded anyway.
The magnetite in this location, Dr. Gates explained and pointed out, did not, as is usual, form by deposition within fractures of the surrounding rock. Rather, the source water leached into the surrounding carbonate rocks, and slowly replaced them such that now the magnetite has the relict structures of the carbonate.
The visitors center had very nice dioramas of the furnance and mine and the park in general. We also watched a short video wherein Dr. Gates, and a cartoon cave man (Dr. Gates was equally bewildered as the rest of us), described the geological history of the park. We started in the visitors center and ended there. One of the park rangers had relatively recently been able to acquire and trace back to the more modern mine an ore cart (apparently the person who had previously found it had been using it as a bbq), and also a part of the pre-revolutionary Furnace, some sort of iron flange that they thought was slotted into a beam as part of the Furnance, which was powered by a waterwheel.
After breakfast, Dr. Wally Broecker from LDEO gave a talk. Infact, it was the same talk he had given at the OSM 2008 meeting in Orlando, "Warning from the world's tiny Oceans (closed lake basins)." He started by considering Held's (Issac Held, Princeton) prediction that in a warming world, the tropics get wetter and the drylands get drier. Dr. Broecker reasoned that if thats what happens in a warming world, then should, in a cooling world, the tropics get drier and the drylands get wetter? He tested this by looking at the sizes of various pluvial (closed basin) lakes through the ages. He decided that the following equation applies:
A(basin)* hRfr = A(lake)hE (hR rainfall rate, fr runoff fraction, hE lake evaporation)
and that from this,
A(lake)/A(basin) = fr (hR/hE)
He refered to a 'mystery interval' between just before 18kya and 14kya where climate acts strangely. In this interval, the Southern ocean is warming, while ice coverage in the Northern hemisphere grows. He also stated that there was an increase in CO2, probably caused by the retreat of seaice in the Southern Hemisphere.
The ITCZ shifts southwards, because it follows heat across the globe (this is what it normally does in austral summers). This incidentally results in a weakening of monsoons. The biggest southwards push of the ITCZ is during the Mystery Interval.
Dry lakes are largest during the mystery interval, and large at the LGM. Dr. Broecker concluded that the ice volumes that existed during the ice ages do NOT obviate Held's prediction, and that drylands will infact get much dryer as the world warms.
He also, interestingly, stated that he wasn't too concerned anymore with shutdown of global thermohaline circulation, especially not by influx of fresh water into the North Atlantic. The Younger Dryas cooling that may have resulted from just such an effect would've required a great amount of water. Since there aren't giant reserves of ice today, Dr. Broecker observed, we're probably not going to have a massive influx of freshwater, even with melting at the poles, and shutting down THC. He also felt that the recent papers that claimed to have observed a shutdown of the Gulf Stream were just too short in duration to be able to call 'abnormal'. He figured you'd need a 30 year record or something like that on that level of detail to be able to rule of 'normal' cycles.
There was a break after the talk, and then we met for the saturday field trips. I went on a trip to the Iron Mine trail at the Sterling Forest Visitors center in NY. Dr. Gates of Rutgers lead the trip and passed out a trip guide booklet. The trail included a pre-revolution Iron Furnance which had been shut down in the 1760s, but then, at the command of none less than Washington himself was rebuilt and reopened to aid in the war. Afterwards, it was shutdown again. It reopened again much later, and ceased operations in the 1920s. Originally ore rock, charcoal, and limestone was carted to the Furnace, dumped into it, and then it was tapped at the bottom to release molten iron. In the closer to modern period, magnetite ore was actualy mined on location. Apparently the people that built the Furnace didn't know that there was in fact a large reserve of ore so close by. The remains of the more modern that shutdown in the 1920s are still there. Cables for the cable cars are strewn all around the cable house. We walked off the path and behind those remains and a little ways and came upon a small strip mine, with an entrance to another underground mine nearby in a depression of rocks, the organization had sealed a gate over the entrance to prevent anyone from entering, the interior of the mine if of course flooded anyway.
The magnetite in this location, Dr. Gates explained and pointed out, did not, as is usual, form by deposition within fractures of the surrounding rock. Rather, the source water leached into the surrounding carbonate rocks, and slowly replaced them such that now the magnetite has the relict structures of the carbonate.
The visitors center had very nice dioramas of the furnance and mine and the park in general. We also watched a short video wherein Dr. Gates, and a cartoon cave man (Dr. Gates was equally bewildered as the rest of us), described the geological history of the park. We started in the visitors center and ended there. One of the park rangers had relatively recently been able to acquire and trace back to the more modern mine an ore cart (apparently the person who had previously found it had been using it as a bbq), and also a part of the pre-revolutionary Furnace, some sort of iron flange that they thought was slotted into a beam as part of the Furnance, which was powered by a waterwheel.
NAGT Trip
Friday
Apparently the meeting was supposed to be in the Hamptons, but 2 months ago that all fell through. Within that time, the group managed to set up a meeting at LDEO and some field trips. Unfortunately, the hotel is terrible. I called up to make reservations and could hear that there was construction going on. Some hallways in the hotel are metal rafters for the ceiling and carpeted floors. Its been raining so the whole place stinks of mold, and the floors in some hallways are sopping wet. The lady at the front desk when I showed up was sitting at a fold out table with a hardhat on. After checking in she lifted up a plastic tarp that was covering one of the doors and let me go through a torn apart hallway with equipment lying everywhere to get the side of the hotel my room was on. We're also going to have to pay admission for some of the trips.
Field Trip to Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ to a former Zinc mine w/fluorescent minerals. Collected ~9lbs worth of material from their tailings pile. Calcite fluoresces red, willemite green, and I managed to get a small sample with a little bit of hydrozincite, which glows a pale blue. All of this apparently a result of just one element in the form of impurities in the mineral, Manganese. In different crystals, forming different bonds, the bonding electrons which are participating in the fluorescence fluoresce different colors. The museum also gives a tour of the mine where the walls of the mine, of course, are made up of these brilliantly fluorescing minerals. The museum also has a great mineral collection on display, apparently obtained by the Oreck vacuum family.
I spoke with Earl Verbeek, the field geologist at the Sterling Hill Mining Museum regarding their teacher education program, which seems like an interesting program. They have on site training and also videoconferencing, which is good because we have that ability too.
I gave a presentation before the group on our MSS-OST program. Most people seemed interested. At least we were able to get the word out about the program. Other presentations included evaluating teaching techniques with reference to certification level, using GIS in the class room (specificallty ArcGis and ArcExplorer) and the Einstein Program.
I spoke with a Ms. Kathy Prichinello from New Utrecht HS (1601-80 St Brooklyn NY 11214) during the group dinner. She was curious to see our Introduction to Earth Science Lab Manual, I told her I would find out if it is permited to sent it out. She said she is allways looking for new ways of running her labs.
Apparently the meeting was supposed to be in the Hamptons, but 2 months ago that all fell through. Within that time, the group managed to set up a meeting at LDEO and some field trips. Unfortunately, the hotel is terrible. I called up to make reservations and could hear that there was construction going on. Some hallways in the hotel are metal rafters for the ceiling and carpeted floors. Its been raining so the whole place stinks of mold, and the floors in some hallways are sopping wet. The lady at the front desk when I showed up was sitting at a fold out table with a hardhat on. After checking in she lifted up a plastic tarp that was covering one of the doors and let me go through a torn apart hallway with equipment lying everywhere to get the side of the hotel my room was on. We're also going to have to pay admission for some of the trips.
Field Trip to Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ to a former Zinc mine w/fluorescent minerals. Collected ~9lbs worth of material from their tailings pile. Calcite fluoresces red, willemite green, and I managed to get a small sample with a little bit of hydrozincite, which glows a pale blue. All of this apparently a result of just one element in the form of impurities in the mineral, Manganese. In different crystals, forming different bonds, the bonding electrons which are participating in the fluorescence fluoresce different colors. The museum also gives a tour of the mine where the walls of the mine, of course, are made up of these brilliantly fluorescing minerals. The museum also has a great mineral collection on display, apparently obtained by the Oreck vacuum family.
I spoke with Earl Verbeek, the field geologist at the Sterling Hill Mining Museum regarding their teacher education program, which seems like an interesting program. They have on site training and also videoconferencing, which is good because we have that ability too.
I gave a presentation before the group on our MSS-OST program. Most people seemed interested. At least we were able to get the word out about the program. Other presentations included evaluating teaching techniques with reference to certification level, using GIS in the class room (specificallty ArcGis and ArcExplorer) and the Einstein Program.
I spoke with a Ms. Kathy Prichinello from New Utrecht HS (1601-80 St Brooklyn NY 11214) during the group dinner. She was curious to see our Introduction to Earth Science Lab Manual, I told her I would find out if it is permited to sent it out. She said she is allways looking for new ways of running her labs.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
A couple of things
- I submitted 3 separate Internal Service Requests to our Buildings and Grounds Department, for missing ceiling tiles, exposed wires, water damaged ceilings, requests to install leak pans, replace lights, fix light fixtures, replace some blinds and fix/replace some windows.
- I spoke with N.Roth about the filaments. She said that she gave them to Dr. Weisberg when they showed up and that we should figure out a time to find out why the invoice wasn't paid next week.
_ I called and left a message with the computer desk (5353) regarding a computer for the SEM room, which we had requested previously. I also forwarded the orginal email for the request to the head of that department.
- I spoke with N.Roth about the filaments. She said that she gave them to Dr. Weisberg when they showed up and that we should figure out a time to find out why the invoice wasn't paid next week.
_ I called and left a message with the computer desk (5353) regarding a computer for the SEM room, which we had requested previously. I also forwarded the orginal email for the request to the head of that department.
Carbon Coater for the SEM
I called up Ted Pella Co, regarding their carbon coater again. I spoke with Jack again also. Regarding maintenance, he stated that after 10K hours of operation the rotary pump should be greased with silicon grease, and that the oil should be changed. The rotary pump is a sort of pre-pump, and then a turbo-pump gets you to high vacuum.
As far as the Film Thickness Monitor, it monitors thickness by examining the changes in the frequency of a vibrating crystal in the chamber, as carbon accumulates on the surface of the crystal, the frequency changes. You don't clean the crystals, you just throw them away when you can visually observe flaking of carbon on the surface of the crystal. The device works by entering a density of carbon value along with a correction factor for the position of the crystal inside the chamber, which can all be stored in memory. Hitting the 'zero' button clears the device to get it ready for coating another sample. Things like the microprobe can then have the FTM information entered into them and then they make the necessary corrections to their readings. Jack said that many people use the FTM for a while, to get a handle on what their Carbon Coating procedure is putting down, but then don't use it every time thereafter. A rotary-tilting stage is, he said, still going to be very useful for larger specimens. I emailed Dr. Weisberg about all of this.
As far as the Film Thickness Monitor, it monitors thickness by examining the changes in the frequency of a vibrating crystal in the chamber, as carbon accumulates on the surface of the crystal, the frequency changes. You don't clean the crystals, you just throw them away when you can visually observe flaking of carbon on the surface of the crystal. The device works by entering a density of carbon value along with a correction factor for the position of the crystal inside the chamber, which can all be stored in memory. Hitting the 'zero' button clears the device to get it ready for coating another sample. Things like the microprobe can then have the FTM information entered into them and then they make the necessary corrections to their readings. Jack said that many people use the FTM for a while, to get a handle on what their Carbon Coating procedure is putting down, but then don't use it every time thereafter. A rotary-tilting stage is, he said, still going to be very useful for larger specimens. I emailed Dr. Weisberg about all of this.
Poster for NAGT
Completed and printed out a 24 inch wide poster for NAGT on the MSS-OST program. Created file in Adobe InDesgin, which does not export as a tiff. KCATT, where the poster was printed by Brian (Dr. Rosen was out)works in tiff format. They also allways seem to work in MS Publisher. I will have to remember to try to prepare the next poster in Publisher. I thought I entered the size into Adobe InDesign as 24 inches, but apparently it was smaller. Brian was able to easily resize to 24 wide.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Trip encumberment
I spoke with Natasha Roth regarding trip reimbursement / encumberment. She stated that I can apply for a trip reimbursement through the Procurement System, and that whenever she does so prior to the trip occuring, she is called by the final approver and told to instead re-do it once the trip is completed. I still will need to fill out an "Application to Attend a Conference" form and have it signed by the Chair. But then afterwards, upon return, I will apply for reimbursement.
Human Resources and Leave Time
This is probably pretty late in the game to be figuring this sort of stuff out. But here it is for my own reference. I accumulate as a FT CLT 1 2/3 days per month sick leave, an can hold up to 160 days. I receive 4 unscheduled Holidays per year that can't be held over, they expire within the year. I also receive 1 1/4 days of annual leave per month, which comes out to 15 days a year. No more than 45 days can be held or carried over a year. A year runs from September 1st through to August 31st. This is per Ms. Rosanne Scalice in HR (6525).
Thursday, April 10, 2008
NAGT Meeting
Prof. Christensen told me about this National Association of Geoscience Teachers meeting up at Lamont-Doherty in Pallisades.
http://stevekluge.com/nagt/
http://www.nagt.org/
Sounds like it will be useful. I will present our KBCC Summer Program results as a poster there. Prof. Christensen noted that the field trips look the most promising. There is one to a location where you can collect flourescent minerals, and another to an old mine where you can collect magnetite from the tailings. There will also be a talk by Wally Broecker, a wisened one who gave a talk at The Oralando OSM 2008. Should be plenty good. Prof. Christensen said that she will be at Lamont running samples that weekened anyway. I will apply for trip expenses through the department.
http://stevekluge.com/nagt/
http://www.nagt.org/
Sounds like it will be useful. I will present our KBCC Summer Program results as a poster there. Prof. Christensen noted that the field trips look the most promising. There is one to a location where you can collect flourescent minerals, and another to an old mine where you can collect magnetite from the tailings. There will also be a talk by Wally Broecker, a wisened one who gave a talk at The Oralando OSM 2008. Should be plenty good. Prof. Christensen said that she will be at Lamont running samples that weekened anyway. I will apply for trip expenses through the department.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
AMS Ocean Studies Diversity Project
This is a project open to schools that serve large minority populations, it provides training for implementing the American Meteorological Society's Ocean Studies Course. AMS covers the full cost of attending this workshop in Seattle, travel, food, lodging, registration, etc, in exchange for an agreement to implement the course at least for one semester. It was easy to get support to attend, especially since there is little to no cost.
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/online/oceaninfo/diversity.html
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/online/oceaninfo/diversity.html
Monday, March 03, 2008
Ocean Sciences Meeting 2008
OSM 2008 is going well. My talk was early, 8 in the morning on Monday. There was decent attendance. Dr. Christensen said that she thought it went well. The talk that was scheduled to go after me had been canceled, so the section moderators said that there was time for questions. Wahoo. There were some good questions though.
One person asked if we knew how many women had attended compared to boys. I did not. We didn't keep that kind of data, though it might be a good idea to do that in the future. I explained in the talk that our demographics for the program were basically the same as the demographics in Brooklyn in general and had a slide showing those demographics for Brooklyn. Another person asked if we had worked with any HS teachers, no we did not. But that might also be a good idea to try out next time. Indeed, some of the other talks in the session did just that, in order to get the HS teachers better prepared for teaching ocean science. Another person thought that we needed to explain why some of our students had scores as high as 39 out of 50 on their first try. I really couldn't explain why, in fact I don't see a reason for us to have to explain that. One student got a 50 out of 50 on the first pass. The test should 'capture' a wide range of abilities, and that should be reflected by low score and high scores.
I spoke with a Dr. Ingram from the Rose-Hulman institute of technology at the end of the session (she had given an interesting talk about a project where students monitored the conditions of a local pond). And she had lots of ideas about what I could do in terms of statistical analysis of our score results. I will have to look into the methods she mentioned and try to work them out when I get back. I also spoke with Dr. Christensen and she suggested getting someone from our sociology department (do we even have one, I assume we do?) and working with them to create our own evaluation and to work with the results of it, which could be interesting.
From the other talks, I am thinking that we can have a 'HS wide Science Challenge", which is an attention getting event that is 'fun', so in one case the students worked in pairs as pretend helicopters searching for a lost ship and sailors, this was done as a sort of mystery addendum to their normal program, which involved understanding shipping and the like. If we could have some sort of student presentation at all then that would be excellent. I am also thinking that it might be of use to bring in HS teachers in the role of our normal office assistants, that way they can get some work on advancing their science education during the school year.
One person asked if we knew how many women had attended compared to boys. I did not. We didn't keep that kind of data, though it might be a good idea to do that in the future. I explained in the talk that our demographics for the program were basically the same as the demographics in Brooklyn in general and had a slide showing those demographics for Brooklyn. Another person asked if we had worked with any HS teachers, no we did not. But that might also be a good idea to try out next time. Indeed, some of the other talks in the session did just that, in order to get the HS teachers better prepared for teaching ocean science. Another person thought that we needed to explain why some of our students had scores as high as 39 out of 50 on their first try. I really couldn't explain why, in fact I don't see a reason for us to have to explain that. One student got a 50 out of 50 on the first pass. The test should 'capture' a wide range of abilities, and that should be reflected by low score and high scores.
I spoke with a Dr. Ingram from the Rose-Hulman institute of technology at the end of the session (she had given an interesting talk about a project where students monitored the conditions of a local pond). And she had lots of ideas about what I could do in terms of statistical analysis of our score results. I will have to look into the methods she mentioned and try to work them out when I get back. I also spoke with Dr. Christensen and she suggested getting someone from our sociology department (do we even have one, I assume we do?) and working with them to create our own evaluation and to work with the results of it, which could be interesting.
From the other talks, I am thinking that we can have a 'HS wide Science Challenge", which is an attention getting event that is 'fun', so in one case the students worked in pairs as pretend helicopters searching for a lost ship and sailors, this was done as a sort of mystery addendum to their normal program, which involved understanding shipping and the like. If we could have some sort of student presentation at all then that would be excellent. I am also thinking that it might be of use to bring in HS teachers in the role of our normal office assistants, that way they can get some work on advancing their science education during the school year.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Bruker Training
Bruker training went well. I was able to confirm that we can trust the results we're getting for Dr. Li's silicon spheres; they're not too rough of a surface. Though I should sample from the side facing the x-ray detector just as an issue of general practice.
They also recommended shutting the PC running the detector each night, or at least every once in a while, to 'purge' the memory, that might undo our scale bar problem, where the scale bar is correct in the first image, but that first bar is carried through to all other images. They also suggested making sure that a particular checkbox for communication between computers was checked. Indeed it was.
I got to see a lot more of the features that we have with the machine, especially the reports writing feature, which looks like it could be useful, and the quantification feature, which looks pretty powerful, much more so that I suspected before. I had really thought of the machine as especially useful for mapping and qualitative analysis. So this was a real eye-opener.
The course of course also was very informative on the physics of x-ray analysis. It combined lecture and lab work. There was an interesting set of people attending the program, one guy who is an art preservator from the Smithsonian, two guys who work for Bosch out in Michigan I think, and a researcher from VA Tech. Interesting range of jobs that are using x-ray analysis and the SEMs that they operate along with.
The class was in Ewing, NJ, which apparently was right next to Princeton, but I didn't get out to see the campus. The other people did and they seemed to have enjoyed it. I ended up in Trenton one or two nights, but the area I was in one night looked pretty sketchy, so I had to bail out on dinner there that night.
I did get to eat some good indian food (chicken tikka masala and somosas) for takeout one night, and some good hungarian/polish (chicken paprikash and perogies) food another night too. The weird thing is that my GPS device sent me to two different locations for indian food where there weren't any restaurants at all, before I finally got to one.
They also recommended shutting the PC running the detector each night, or at least every once in a while, to 'purge' the memory, that might undo our scale bar problem, where the scale bar is correct in the first image, but that first bar is carried through to all other images. They also suggested making sure that a particular checkbox for communication between computers was checked. Indeed it was.
I got to see a lot more of the features that we have with the machine, especially the reports writing feature, which looks like it could be useful, and the quantification feature, which looks pretty powerful, much more so that I suspected before. I had really thought of the machine as especially useful for mapping and qualitative analysis. So this was a real eye-opener.
The course of course also was very informative on the physics of x-ray analysis. It combined lecture and lab work. There was an interesting set of people attending the program, one guy who is an art preservator from the Smithsonian, two guys who work for Bosch out in Michigan I think, and a researcher from VA Tech. Interesting range of jobs that are using x-ray analysis and the SEMs that they operate along with.
The class was in Ewing, NJ, which apparently was right next to Princeton, but I didn't get out to see the campus. The other people did and they seemed to have enjoyed it. I ended up in Trenton one or two nights, but the area I was in one night looked pretty sketchy, so I had to bail out on dinner there that night.
I did get to eat some good indian food (chicken tikka masala and somosas) for takeout one night, and some good hungarian/polish (chicken paprikash and perogies) food another night too. The weird thing is that my GPS device sent me to two different locations for indian food where there weren't any restaurants at all, before I finally got to one.
Funding Came through
Funding came through for the Bruker training and the OSM, Dean DiLorenzo's office had the funding and was able to give permit its use for those trips.
So I will be attending the Bruker X-ray analysis training in Ewing NJ, this month.
I am also attending the 2008 Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) in Orlando Fl, this year. I will be giving a presentation on our Middle School Students Ocean Science and Technology program, our Oceanography Summer camp program. The meeting looks like it will have many other talks about outreach and education in addition to plenty of research talks.
Prof. Christensen and Cathi are doing a poster on the Deep Earth Academy (formerly Joint Oceanographic Institutes) classroom activities.
So I will be attending the Bruker X-ray analysis training in Ewing NJ, this month.
I am also attending the 2008 Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) in Orlando Fl, this year. I will be giving a presentation on our Middle School Students Ocean Science and Technology program, our Oceanography Summer camp program. The meeting looks like it will have many other talks about outreach and education in addition to plenty of research talks.
Prof. Christensen and Cathi are doing a poster on the Deep Earth Academy (formerly Joint Oceanographic Institutes) classroom activities.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
CollegeNow Meteorology
The issues with CollegeNow have been cleared up and I am teaching Meteorology to around 25 high school students. I say 'around' that many because the first day only 14 showed up, today, the second day, only 20 showed up, and the roster has 25 on it. The classroom wasn't unlocked today, and I was caught in traffic so the students were waiting outside for about 25 minutes before I showed up. Had to get people in the office to open it up. I filled out a card for keys after class. There aren't any textbooks for the students yet either and we won't meet again until the 11th of March. They have off for a week for Presidents Day, and then I am at training and a conference until then.
Apparently there is a problem with the course code or section, so they haven't been able to set it up on blackboard yet. I don't think I am going to bother with that anymore. The school has a license for a wiki, so I am going to have the students try that out. It could make for some interesting assignments for them too (create or edit the page on Tornados, edit the page on Dew point, provide citations for the page on weather maps) as well as allow them to coordinate their projects with one another.
Apparently there is a problem with the course code or section, so they haven't been able to set it up on blackboard yet. I don't think I am going to bother with that anymore. The school has a license for a wiki, so I am going to have the students try that out. It could make for some interesting assignments for them too (create or edit the page on Tornados, edit the page on Dew point, provide citations for the page on weather maps) as well as allow them to coordinate their projects with one another.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Mr. Li's Silica Spheres
We've been fortunate enough to have someone from industry come in to use our SEM. Mr. Li has set up an account with us and I've been operating the SEM for him on a set of samples that he's made. We've had two sessions so far and it seems to be going well enough, he seems to be happy with the results we've been getting. We're actually scheduled to meet again next week on the 19th.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Mulitple Events
Funding for a Bruker training session in Feb and the OSM in March may not be available, which is disconcerting since I've spent $400 to register for OSM. I had been told that it would be acceptable by the department chair, and at the same time was going for SEM training from JEOL. For that training, I filled out an expense report and applied to have it refunded. Apparently I should have applied to encumber funds before doing anything. So I didn't encumber funds for OSM, thinking I would apply for reimbursement, and now there are no more funds available in the department.
Fortunately, there are external funds (from the college still), that had been encumbered for another person to use, however they were unable to use them. There was enough in that deal to cover both of my trips, IF it can be switched over to them. Hopefully it can. They are checking with Dean DiLorenzo to find out of this is workable.
Earlier in the day I received a phone call regarding CollegeNow. They were checking to see if I could be ready for a Meteorology class on Thursday. The problem was that I hadn't talked to my Chair about it, and it seems to me that any instructions regarding something like that need to come to me through him, since this is his department. I didn't think that there would be any problem, but still, I'd need to talk to him before actually starting it. Especially since we're in a wintersession, and the college class wouldn't start until afterwards, in the spring session. However, the Chair asked if I'd like to do the class when I met with him today, so that clears all that up. They're going to get off to an odd start however, since I have those two trips to go on in the beginning.
I also made contact with Mr. Li. He had originally be one of the candidates for the position that I have. He know works for a plastics company. They have some material, apparently its a plastic with silica grains embedded in it that they'd like to look at using the SEM. I was able to speak with him today and he'll be stopping by at around 11 on Thursday.
As a further note, I just started receiving payment in the last two weeks for the KECSS Astronomy class that ended last year. At least they are coming through now.
Fortunately, there are external funds (from the college still), that had been encumbered for another person to use, however they were unable to use them. There was enough in that deal to cover both of my trips, IF it can be switched over to them. Hopefully it can. They are checking with Dean DiLorenzo to find out of this is workable.
Earlier in the day I received a phone call regarding CollegeNow. They were checking to see if I could be ready for a Meteorology class on Thursday. The problem was that I hadn't talked to my Chair about it, and it seems to me that any instructions regarding something like that need to come to me through him, since this is his department. I didn't think that there would be any problem, but still, I'd need to talk to him before actually starting it. Especially since we're in a wintersession, and the college class wouldn't start until afterwards, in the spring session. However, the Chair asked if I'd like to do the class when I met with him today, so that clears all that up. They're going to get off to an odd start however, since I have those two trips to go on in the beginning.
I also made contact with Mr. Li. He had originally be one of the candidates for the position that I have. He know works for a plastics company. They have some material, apparently its a plastic with silica grains embedded in it that they'd like to look at using the SEM. I was able to speak with him today and he'll be stopping by at around 11 on Thursday.
As a further note, I just started receiving payment in the last two weeks for the KECSS Astronomy class that ended last year. At least they are coming through now.
Friday, January 18, 2008
SEM Issues
I was working on our SEM the other day I decided to look at an electron-mirror image of our machine. I had an uncoated fossil specimen in the chamber that was charging, so I magnified tightly in and let it charge up some more and moved around to built up a big charge while at 50 kv, and then dropped down to 2kv. I didn't get a great electron mirror image but it was there at least, looking like as if I had been shrunk down and was standing in between the teeth of the fossil specimen, looking around at the specimen chamber. One that that was particularly neat was that I could see parts of the charged specimen, and the other specimens on the multi-sample holder. The image of our Backscatter electron detector was severely warped however, I was actually worried that it might've actually been warped at some point, but later on when I exchanged specimens I could see that it was perfectly fine.
The problem is that when in Backscatter imaging I should be able to see all parts of the detector as bright objects, however, half of one of the halves of the main chip (not the shadow chip) was dark. This must indicate a problem. I am going to have to contact JEOL to try to find out what can be done.
The problem is that when in Backscatter imaging I should be able to see all parts of the detector as bright objects, however, half of one of the halves of the main chip (not the shadow chip) was dark. This must indicate a problem. I am going to have to contact JEOL to try to find out what can be done.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Porphyritic Basalts without Coverslips
I've been looking for the above for use in both traditional light micrscopes and Scanning Electron Microscopes. I had some difficulty finding vendors when searching under 'geological thin sections', but someone in a google group suggested searching for petrographic thin sections, which has yeilded some good results. So far I've emailed
mineralopticslab.com - minoptic@sover.net
nationalpetrographic.com - npsinc@flash.net
tulsasections.com - samples@tulsasections.com
I'll hold off on contacting any others until I get some responses.
mineralopticslab.com - minoptic@sover.net
nationalpetrographic.com - npsinc@flash.net
tulsasections.com - samples@tulsasections.com
I'll hold off on contacting any others until I get some responses.