Feeling Really Awful

Going home, going to bed.

Bhopal: The Sentencing

About six months ago, I found myself shaken and very upset reading the coverage of the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. Below is the picture I chose to accompany that post:... and here was what I wrote about that picture: "That is the leg. Of. A. Seven-year old. Child. Born 18 years after the disaster." Sickening and heartbreaking.

So here we are 25 1/2 years after the fact. You'd suppose that those responsible have been relaxing in cozy little cells. Well, of course not... but they did get sentenced today.

Campaign groups representing survivors of the Bhopal disaster expressed outrage today at the "insulting" sentences given to seven men for their roles in the tragedy.

The accused, several of them now in their 70s, were convicted of criminal negligence and sentenced to two years in prison but bailed pending an appeal.

The convictions are the only ones so far in a case that was opened the day after the tragedy, which happened 26 years ago.

Up to 25,000 people are thought to have died after being exposed to clouds of lethal gas that escaped from a chemical plant run by the US company Union Carbide on 2 and 3 December 1984.

Half a million are estimated to have been harmed in some way in what remains one of the worst industrial accidents in the world.

But wait, there's more! The accused also got fined! About $2100, if the pound and dollar haven't drifted too much recently.

So YAY for justice served!

I Didn't Know They Could Even Do This

Google, I'm very, very disappointed. Do no evil?

A simple Google search of "oil spill" turns up several thousand news results, but the first link, highlighted at the very top of the page, is from BP. "Learn more about how BP is helping," the link's tagline reads.

A spokesman for the company confirmed to ABC News that it had, in fact, bought these search terms to make information on the spill more accessible to the public.

"We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find out more about our efforts in the Gulf and make it easier for people to find key links to information on filing claims, reporting oil on the beach and signing up to volunteer," BP spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News.

And in other news,

LONDON—As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico entered its eighth week Wednesday, fears continued to grow that the massive flow of bullshit still gushing from the headquarters of oil giant BP could prove catastrophic if nothing is done to contain it.

The toxic bullshit, which began to spew from the mouths of BP executives shortly after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April, has completely devastated the Gulf region, delaying cleanup efforts, affecting thousands of jobs, and endangering the lives of all nearby wildlife.

The Onion is truly America's finest news source.

Clarification: A friend just checked on a Google search for "oil spill," and says it's pretty obviously an advertisement. I use AdBlocker Plus with Firefox, and when I did the same search, the ad didn't come up. So to clarify, it's clearly an advertisement, not a ranked page. Okay, Google, that's your bread and butter; I guess I have no grounds to complain.

Wallpaper

So Google now has the option to customize your own Google homepage with a wallpaper of your choice. I almost never actually visit the actual Google page, unless a cool doodle comes to my attention; I use the search bar embedded in Firefox. It's still Google, but I don't see the page. Further, I have tried various background pictures, and I find them distracting in both Windows and Mac operating systems. I honestly prefer a dull monotone background. It makes things much easier for me to read, recognize and find.

Still, I know many people do like wallpapers, and I thought the above was pretty kewl. This is from The Frogman, and captioned "My google background is cooler than yours." A couple of formats can be found here, as well as a different Eyjafjallajokull kitteh with red lightning. You know, if you like to wallpaper your computer.

All The President's Emails

Every Sunday afternoon, I find myself delightfully surprised when this series shows up in my International News folder. I know it shows up Sunday afternoon, it's just that I haven't learned to anticipate it yet, as I do with Krugman's columns on Friday and Monday, or Rich's columns on Sunday mornings (today's is a real doozy, BTW). Further, this is primarily intended as humor and snark, not serious analysis with a little snark added for seasoning. The archive is here.

To: BP Group CEO Tony Hayward Subject: My boot, your neck

Don't get me wrong, Tony – I like it that this is your fault. Of course I would love to see the oil leak contained, but it's vital that each new failure to contain it is your failure, and yours alone. In fact I'm cancelling my trip to Asia in order to be on hand to take full responsibility for blaming you. I'm gonna be scrubbing pelicans all week, and shaking my head ruefully. I've attached the next invoice as a pdf, by the way. Barack

To: Michelle Obama Subject: Re: Fw: George W Bush wants to be friends on Facebook

I know, I got one too. Just ignore it. Don't even click Ignore – do nothing. I know it seems rude, but if you friend him back everyone will know. You might as well join the "I'm Glad We Waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed" fan page. B

Medusaceratops lokii and Other Recent Geo-Trivia

I know it's frowned upon to combine Greek and Latin roots to create new science terms, but is it OK to combine Roman and Norse mythological characters to create new scientific names?

The stunning new species has been identified as Medusaceratops lokii, a nod to two freakish mythological beings that inspired Michael Ryan -- the dinosaur's Ottawa-born co-discoverer-- when it came time to assign a name to the creature.

You can see a rendering of this very strange looking creature at Paleoblog.Any geology person worth his or her halite luvs them some Far Side. And this has to be one of the favorite geology panels from that comic, from 1982. It's hardly news, first being officially used in 1993, but it's news to me that "thagomizer" is actually the official term for the arrays of spikes at the end of Stegosaurus tails. The comic below came to my attention via Swans on Tea.
Via Andrew Revkin at the NYT Dot Earth blog, I learned that the total amount of oil in the reservoir that is currently vomiting into the Gulf of Mexico amounts to trivia:

BP officials have estimated it contains no more than 100 million barrels of oil. That’s five days and change worth of American demand for this precious fuel.

Note that's a maximum. I'll try to do a more meaty post on the spill, but there's an awful lot of information, and it's painful and infuriating for me to go through.

This hurricane season is shaping up to be the worst since 2005, perhaps comparable.

The hurricane season of 2010 is upon us. With unprecedented sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, El Niño gone and possibly transitioning to La Niña, a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, a million earthquake refugees in Haiti at the mercy of a hurricane strike, and an ever-increasing number of people living on our coasts, the arrival of this year's hurricane season comes with an unusually ominous tone. NOAA is forecasting a very active and possibly hyperactive season, and Dr. Bill Gray has said he expects "a hell of a year."

"2010 hurricane season seen more active than feared." Whew! That's a... say what? "Worse!?!?" Guess what? Haiti's not prepared.

This was picked up by Geology Rocks:
from Good Will Job Hunting, URL Hire Me Because I'm Smart, with the comment,

The Earth’s altitudes are bimodally distributed — there is lots of terrain just above sea level, and lots of terrain 2 miles below sea level (the “abyssal plain”).

Weird, huh?

Well, no, not really. This distribution is an easily predictable result of having two different kinds of crust over a plastic (but solid) mantle. Continental crust is thick and comparatively low density; oceanic crust is thin and comparatively high density. I'm sure this was kind of weird looking fifty years ago before the development of plate tectonic theory, but someone who has a middle school level understanding of geology at this point shouldn't find the above diagram the least bit mysterious. It is very cool, though.

Exciting news about my home ground, from my home ground:

America's Pacific Northwest has a 37% chance of being hit by a magnitude 8 or larger earthquake in the next 50 years, a new study shows. That's more than double previous estimates of a 10-15% risk, says Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

I'm curious to see how this stands up to verification and critical review.

Speaking of Oregon, it's official: NOAA is here.This is very big news for Newport, about an hour across the Coast Range. OSU has a world-class school of Oceanography, Jane Lubchenco is from OSU, and Newport, along with most of the Oregon Coast, has been slammed pretty hard economically over the last 20 years, by both loss of logging jobs and fisheries restrictions. Tourism has helped, but not enough. Good on ya, Newport!

I don't do Twitter; nothing against it, and there are a couple of accounts that I check from time to time, but there's just too much other stuff for me to read and check on. So I was aware of this contest, but wasn't paying any attention to it. "Stephen Fry crowns most beautiful tweet at Hay Festival" Imagine my surprise to find it was a geology-related winner! And here it is:

The winning tweet read: "I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it'll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it."

Poll, Baby, Poll

Brian at Clastic Detritus has put up a poll on which day of the week people would most like to see a geoblogospheric round-up. I think this is a great idea. I and others irregularly point out one or more posts that strike us as outstanding, but to have a regular round-up would be peachy. You can see and vote on the poll at Brian's blog.

Sunday Funnies

This week's edition of the Sunday Funnies is staring you in the face:I coming up with, "One does not simply park into Mordor," and "All-seeing eye of Sweetgum sees you." Neither quite makes it. Oh well. The Daily What, where there's a caption you might like better.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr... Earlier this week, Dr. Monkerstein pointed me at a fifth-grader's blog, Ethel's Law. This has got to be her.
Luke Surl
Sober in a Nightclub
Blackadder
PhD Comics
Señor Gif's

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One tenth of one percent of one percent discount! Criggo
I Has A Hotdog
Criggo I have a deep commitment and drive with respect to apathy. I wasn't there.
Oddly Specific
Criggo

see more demotivators
Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr
0.5-0.6% ingredients. Engrish Funny
Chainsawsuit
The High Definite
Skull Swap
Bits and Pieces

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Mona Diesel. Did You Just Eat Sofa Pizza?
Fuck Yeah Stupid Gifs Off to bag some womp rats.

Via EpicPonyzFuck Yeah Stupid Gifs
The Frogman
"FREE BILL STICKERS!" The Frogman
Did You Just Eat Sofa Pizza
Buzzfeed... it even has his name embossed on it.
Criggo
FuckYeahAlbuquerque
Seen in a rift. Engrish Funny
Failblog
Probably Bad News

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xkcd
FuckYeahAlbuquerque
Dr. Boli's Celebrated Magazine
So, um, yeah. Criggo
Alternate Reality Fail. Señor Gif's
Did You Just Eat Sofa Pizza?
Oopsie. Did You Just Eat Sofa Pizza?
Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr
Did You Just Eat Sofa Pizza

When it’s Spring Time in the Pacific Northwest, no matter how nice the day, DO NOT leave your roof and windows open. You might return to find that a localized tsunami has hit and there is 2 inches of standing water in your car. #LFMF

Learn From My FailJet Stork cleared for landing. Bits and Pieces

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Turn left here. Oddly Specific.
The Daily What
Firefox disapproves. Skull Swap
Iron2-D2. Did You Just Eat Sofa Pizza?
Dolphin: it's what's for breakfast. Did You Just Eat Sofa Pizza?
Godwin's Law: in an internet argument, the first to invoke a comparison to Hitler loses. The Daily What.
Criggo
Brooklyn Industries (Yes, that's a tee-shirt), via Let There Be Blogs
Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr

I have this draft restaurant review in my head that goes something like this:

“The hot new restaurant in town is Air Canada Flight 166, but for the life of me, I can’t understand what the fuss is about. The seating is cramped, intrusive video advertisements play at the beginning of the meal – which is indifferent at best – and, most baffling of all, when I left the restaurant, I was 2,600 kilometres from where I’d parked.”

See the comic that goes with this hilarious restaurant review at Noise to Signal.
Bits and Pieces