50 Science Fiction-Fantasy Novels

Meme Time! Here's the list, from this post, where they thoughtfully discuss their criteria and limits (No more than one book or series per author, for example). Despite the waste of virtual paper, the blank list is appended below my annotated list, so you don't have to extract my added text. (I've learned that if you drop formatted text directly into HTML compose mode, it wipes the formatting clean, to plain text.)

Standard rules: bold the ones you've read, * the ones you found particularly outstanding, / the novels or series you've only read a fraction of, that is, not finished. ? if you're not sure. (I haven't read much new SF in 20 years, so I have a number in that category; memories are not forever. Add notes as desired. Make a suggestion or two for ones they missed. Or, you know, make up your own rules.

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card*
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien*
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood ?
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake Excellent, but too depressing for a *
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler- I know I've read a couple novels by her, but not this one.
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin It's been a LONG time, but I think*
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut*
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling / First book only and movies, but in process of acquiring the whole series. When complete, I'll read the whole thing.
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle / 1st book only (Wrinkle in Time)
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis Loved this as a youngster, hated it as adult. Like I need to be beaten about the head with Christian symbolism.
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams *for the first three, then it gets too dark.
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert*
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell Like Gormenghast, excellent, but too depressing for a *
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman Only thing I've read by him, and not terribly impressed. Need to try others.
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett / Only 2 or 3 of series, damned if I know which ones.
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll** My all-time, life long, favorite book. By the end of elementary school, I darned near had the whole thing memorized.
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley / Bored me to death. Didn't finish
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle ?
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton ?
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro Movie only. Despite comments at the source site, I quite liked it.
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey / A few, but again, they got dull
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

One nice thing about this list is that it gives me some clues about which more recent authors I should be catching up with. Two authors I think should be included are Connie Willis, who's almost always excellent, but I'll go with her Doomsday Book and Sherri Tepper. For her, I'll go with The Family Tree, as that one is not as grim and brutal as many of her novels can be. Looks like my bolded count is 31, but quite a number of those are only partials.

Here's the "blank." Wanna play?

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

Superb Owl

Is everybody ready for a Superb Owl!?

Funny 3-D in 2-D

Yesterday, ‏@elakdawalla tweeted, "I can't believe I'm not finding any search results for "ternary diagram funny." Can any geologists out there help me out?" I did a search, and found this one, which is fun, but not too pertinent to the Hallowed discipline that is Geology. I also found one from Georneys, which I thought was pretty clever, but which Emily apparently thought was not up-to-par in the humor department. I sent those links along, but followed that tweet with "But you're right... most are seriously intended. This is indeed a void in the geologic literature, crying to be filled."

So, in the interest of opening up a new area of investigation in geology, here is my (first) suggestion for a funny ternary diagram:

Okay, it's not going to make anyone die laughing, but it's my first shot...

Here are a couple of blanks if anyone else wants to chime in.

(From Wikipedia) A more formal (and larger) blank ternary diagram:

Anyone else have any ideas? I'm giving this a "Memes" label, not because I expect that it will take off, but because I'd really love for it to do so.

Followup, 12:55 PST: Here's another...

Up-Goer 5

In homage to Randall Munroe's brilliant, now-classic, comic, Up-Goer Five, the Geoblogosphere's meme du jour is to write about what each of us does using only the 1000 (10 hundred) most common words in (I presume, American) English. The Up-Goer Five text editor makes the job pretty painless. Here's my entry:

I like rocks. Also high places that sometimes act like they're on fire. But what I really like is sharing what I know about rocks and high places, and how those things came to be. What made them? What moved them? Why are they the way they are? I think the answers to these questions are important, and I think people should know more about them. So I use words and pictures to show everyone how beautiful and amazing rocks and high places are, why they're important to us, and why it's important to know about them. Sometimes I even get to take people to see rocks in real life, which is the best part of what I do.

When I saw the first example, from Anne Jefferson (@highlyanne) yesterday, I dismissed the exercise as frustrating, and very time consuming, as I expected to burn hours trying to find synonyms. But when I finally decided to give it a shot, it only took a few minutes- I probably spent more time on the second sentence than the rest of the paragraph, when I tried to find some way to say "volcanoes."

Highly Allochthonous is keeping a running list, with new additions coming into the comments. So additions will be rolled into the list later this evening. If you haven't already, give it a shot!

Update, Jan. 18: Anne Jefferson and Chris Rowan have created a Tumblr, "Ten Hundred Words of Science," to archive all the terrific entries, which have come in torrents. And not just earth science, but across the board. Don't miss it!

National Buttocks Day

So actually, I've been "celebrating" this tongue-in-cheek commemoration of Shrub's 66th birthday (the greatest ass in American history), along with Darius Whiteplume, since I got in today, mostly posting buttocks photos on twitter. Unfortunately, few if any others that I've seen are joining in, though that's okay. It took a while for "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and "Towel Day" to take off as well. And since the idea was first proposed here at OTI, I feel I'd be remiss in not reposting my selected photos and comments here, too.

 In honor of National Buttocks Day, here's a Buttato.

 Continuing our celebration of National Buttocks Day, it wouldn't be complete without some assless chaps.

And I guess this would be a chapless lass... with or without the leading "L" in the second word

On National Buttocks Day, we take a moment to celebrate a t-shirt that somewhat alleviates the issue of plumber butt.

Buttocks can also be an asset (heh) in legal practice.

Likely the most famous buttocks in America today, though I've never figured out exactly why.

Hope your Buttocks are having a good day, too!

Followup: Forgot to mention it, but one synonym for "buttocks" is "fundament," from the same root as "foundation," which, of course, they are when you're seated. Neither here nor there, but an amusing new way to think about Fundamentalists, no? Also, as mentioned, my partner in crime is Darius Whiteplume; his blog, Adventures in Nerdliness, also has a post in tribute to the human posterior, and if your patience still isn't at an end his Tumblr, Tumbling in Nerdliness, has even more.

Oregon Geo-sites: Comments and a Request for Help

I've started listing out Oregon sites of particular geological significance, and am beginning to realize it'll be no small task. In terms of reaching 100, no problem. In terms of ranking... well... problem. In terms of "uniqueness," again, problem. I think what I'll do is aim at 150 to 200 sites, which will take some time in and of itself, then cull the list down to 100. I'll list them by physiographic province, then follow with my own personal ranking. In other words, if I was to recommend to a geologically interested person sites to visit, the order in which I would recommend a site, assuming travel schedule, distance, and time were not issues (though of course, they always are). I will list all the sites that don't make the top 100 as unranked runners up.

Despite how it may seem, there are lots of places in Oregon I've never been, including places with great geology. Off the top of my head, a few examples include:

• Crest of Steens Mountain
• Smith Rocks State Park
• Leslie Gulch and Owyhee Canyon
• Jordan Craters
• Saddle Mountain
• Richardson's Rock Ranch

...and I don't doubt there are many more. As I said, those are just a few great spots that popped into my head in a few moments of thought, which I'd like to visit, but have never quite worked into other trips. I'm aiming at particular, rather specific spots, though some areas, such as Crater Lake and Newberry Volcano have dozens, if not hundreds, of noteworthy sites in and of themselves. Given the futility of trying to list all the important features of areas such as those two examples, I'll just list them as single locations.

This is prompted, in part, by Callan Bentley's geomeme of two posts back, and in particular by my exasperation at Lava River Cave as one of only two Oregon sites listed. There's nothing wrong with Lava River Cave, and it will definitely make my list. It's the longest tube in Oregon, it's developed, so anyone in moderately good physical shape can enjoy it, and it's easy to get to and find. On the other hand, I can think of three other lava tubes that I think have more to offer than this one (I will be including these in my final list as well). They are, in descending order, Derrick Cave, Wind Cave, and Malheur Cave. The first has an amazing slew of cool features, the second is breath-taking in its sheer size/cross-sectional area, and the third has an underground lake as its terminus. If I had to pick my top two Oregon sites, I would cheat and pick three, with Newberry Volcano and Crater Lake in a tie for first, and the Columbia River Gorge in second. NV and CL are, in broad terms, very similar. Much of what one can see at CL can only be seen at a distance, though there are things to see there that aren't visible at NV. On the other hand, there's plenty to see at NV that's not at CL, and it's easier to get hands-on there. Toss-up. (Honestly, though, if I wasn't inclined to cheat, I'd have to give CL the nod on the basis of its scientific importance.)

The reason I'm posting this heads-up, though, is to request help. I'll probably spend a couple of weeks or more working on this. Maybe much more. If you've spent time geologizing in Oregon, please leave a comment on this post, or @ me on Twitter (@lockwooddewitt), with sites that struck you as particularly geologically awesome, important, or beautiful. As I said, there are plenty of Oregon spots I know are important, but nevertheless have not had the opportunity to visit. I'll be relying on Geology of Oregon to fill in some of the gaps, but I am curious to hear what others have to say, and it will help me avoid missing sites that deserve to be included.

Thanks ahead of time for any help given.

101 Geo-sites Meme

Callan Bentley started this meme a few days ago, and I've been waiting for the weekend to take a stab at it. More accurately, I'd been hoping to clean out my RSS feed, but that's beginning to look like a lost cause. I'll mostly withhold comment on the quality of the list; I haven't read the book on which it's based, and the author may have justification for his choices. However, in a lot of ways, this strikes me as a rather hit-and-miss representation of what the US has to offer, geologically. I'm half tempted to create a list of 100 must-see geo-sites in Oregon, just to show where I'd rank Lava River Cave. It would certainly be on the list, but it would be half way down or more. All that said, the rules are typical: bold the ones you've visited. I'll only bold the ones I'm absolutely certain I've been to, and append a comment to ones that I'm either uncertain of, or don't really remember.

1. Wetumpka Crater, Alabama
2. Exit Glacier, Alaska
3. Antelope Canyon, Arizona
4. Meteor Crater, Arizona
5. Monument Valley, Arizona
6. Prairie Creek Pipe, Arkansas
7. Wallace Creek, California
8. Racetrack Playa, California
9. Devils Postpile, California
10. Rancho La Brea, California
11. El Capitan, California
12. Boulder Flatirons, Colorado
13. Interstate 70 Roadcut, Colorado
14. Florissant Fossil Beds, Colorado
15. Dinosaur Trackway, Connecticut
16. Wilmington Blue Rocks, Delaware
17. Devil’s Millhopper, Florida
18. Stone Mountain, Georgia
19. Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
20. Borah Peak, Idaho
21. Menan Buttes, Idaho
22. Great Rift, Idaho (Possibly... is this the Great Rift in the Craters of the Moon? If so, yes)
23. Valmeyer Anticline, Illinois
24. Hanging Rock Klint, Indiana
25. Fort Dodge Gypsum, Iowa
26. Monument Rocks, Kansas
27. Ohio Black Shale, Kentucky
28. Mammoth Cave, Kentucky
29. Four Corners Roadcut, Kentucky
30. Avery Island, Louisiana
31. Schoodic Point, Maine
32. Calvert Cliffs, Maryland
33. Purgatory Chasm, Massachusetts
34. Nonesuch Potholes, Michigan (I know I've been very close, but not sure)
35. Quincy Mine, Michigan
36. Grand River Ledges, Michigan
37. Sioux Quartzite, Minnesota
38. Thomson Dikes, Minnesota
39. Soudan Mine, Minnesota
40. Petrified Forest, Mississippi
41. Elephant Rocks, Missouri
42. Grassy Mountain Nonconformity, Missouri
43. Chief Mountain, Montana
44. Madison Slide, Montana
45. Butte Pluton, Montana
46. Quad Creek Quartzite, Montana
47. Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska
48. Scotts Bluff, Nebraska
49. Crow Creek Marlstone, Nebraska
50. Sand Mountain, Nevada
51. Great Unconformity, Nevada
52. Flume Gorge, New Hampshire
53. Palisades Sill, New Jersey
54. White Sands, New Mexico
55. Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
56. Shiprock Peak, New Mexico
57. State Line Outcrop, New Mexico
58. American Falls, New York
59. Taconic Unconformity, New York
60. Gilboa Forest, New York
61. Pilot Mountain, North Carolina
62. South Killdeer Mountain, North Dakota
63. Hueston Woods, Ohio
64. Big Rock, Ohio
65. Kelleys Island, Ohio (I have been told I visited here, but I was too young to remember)
66. Interstate 35 Roadcut, Oklahoma
67. Mount Mazama, Oregon
68. Lava River Cave, Oregon
69. Drake’s Folly, Pennsylvania
70. Hickory Run, Pennsylvania
71. Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania
72. Beavertail Point, Rhode Island
73. Crowburg Basin, South Carolina
74. Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
75. Mammoth Site, South Dakota
76. Pinnacles Overlook, South Dakota
77. Reelfoot Scarp, Tennessee
78. Enchanted Rock, Texas
79. Capitan Reef, Texas
80. Paluxy River Tracks, Texas
81. Upheaval Dome, Utah
82. Checkerboard Mesa, Utah
83. San Juan Goosenecks, Utah
84. Salina Canyon Unconformity, Utah
85. Bingham Stock, Utah
86. Whipstock Hill, Vermont
87. Great Falls, Virginia
88. Natural Bridge, Virginia
89. Millbrig Ashfall, Virginia
90. Catoctin Greenstone, Virginia
91. Mount St. Helens, Washington
92. Dry Falls, Washington
93. Seneca Rocks, West Virginia
94. Roche-A-Cri Mound, Wisconsin
95. Van Hise Rock, Wisconsin
96. Amnicon Falls, Wisconsin
97. Green River, Wyoming
98. Devils Tower, Wyoming
99. Fossil Butte, Wyoming
100. Steamboat Geyser, Wyoming
101. Specimen Ridge, Wyoming (Not sure... I've been to the place where there's a petrified, upright tree trunk at YNP, but dunno if that's the same place.)

So that's a total of 16... a pretty weak showing. But as I said, it strikes me as a pretty weak list.

How The Internet Works

It's very, very silly. That's fundamentally what you need to know. The back story is that a female representative in the Michigan House was banned from speaking on the floor yesterday after using the word "vagina" in criticizing and opposing a particularly nasty piece of legislative work that would tremendously restrict women's ability to make their own choices regarding reproductive health. Now the way the internet works, is that this is an opportunity to engage in relentless mockery of the Michigan House conservatives... in particular, by gratuitous overuse of the word "vagina." There were a number of very good zingers and funny lines. I especially enjoyed a short bit from the Portland Mercury: Vagina is the new Voldemort, along with this picture:

RT @portlandmercury "In Michigan, you can't say "vagina" anymore. Good thing this is Oregon. Vagina vagina vagina vagina vagina and vagina!" 

Finally, a meme/game emerged, which on twitter is often signified with a hashtag, like so:

#VaginaMovieLines

Partly to archive these for myself, and partly to share with others who for whatever reason aren't on twitter, the following were my contributions to this meme, along with the ones I retweeted.

• "Follow the vagina....Just follow the vagina."
• - "Look, you stupid bastard. You've got no vagina left." - "Yes I have." - "Look!" - "Just a flesh wound."
• "Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?" "These go to vagina."
• "You keep using that Vagina. I do not think it means what you think it means."
• "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my vagina. Prepare to die!"
• - "Hey, Houston, we've had a vagina here." - "Say again, please?" - "Ah, Houston, we've had a vagina."
• "The first rule of vagina is you do not talk about vagina. The second rule of vagina is you do not talk about vagina."
• "You make me want to be a better vagina"
• "They may take our lives, but they will never take our vagina."
• "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a vagina."
• "One does not simply walk into vagina."
• "Vaginas? Where we're going, we don't need vaginas."
• "Show me the vagina!"
• "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little vagina too!"
• "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your vaginas extraordinary."
• "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former vagina, now, about to become the Masters champion."
• "A vagina. Shaken, not stirred."
• "Open the vagina bay doors, HAL."
• RT ‏@drskyskull: "Is this going to be a stand-up fight, or another vagina hunt?"
• "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the Vagina Room!"
• RT @dvnix: "I am a Vagina on the Wind; watch how I soar…"
• RT @blakestacey: "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of vagina?"
• "Vagina, for lack of a better word, is good."
• "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice vagina."
• "I'm going to make him a vagina he can't refuse."
• RT ‏@drskyskull: "You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the vagina goes."
• "Bond. Vagina Bond."
• "Have you ever been mistaken for a vagina?" "No. Have you?"
• Hey, maybe you haven't been keeping up with current events, but we just got our vaginas kicked pal!
• "I feel a great disturbance in the vagina."
• RT @drskyskull: "Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating a vagina is approximately 3,720 to 1."
• (My reply:) "Never tell me the vagina!"
• Via @CaldenWloka "I'm taking us closer to one of the big vaginas..."
• Followup from @CaldenWloka "Weirdly, I think it would probably be possible to do the whole movie this way and still have it intelligible."
• RT ‏@GynoStar: Of all the vaginas, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.
• "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a vagina."
• RT @phive0phor: "We're off to see the Wizard. Maybe he can get you a vagina."
• "Vagina!? You can't handle the vagina!"
• "Vagina. Definitely vagina."
• "Paint me like one of your vaginas."
• "Back off man, I'm a vagina."
• "Apparently she saw a vagina once."
• "I coulda been a vagina!"
• "I'm as mad as vagina, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Having spent a good part of the day mocking the MI GOP, I think that last one is a dandy quitting place. Because vaginas everywhere *should* be mad as hell, and they *shouldn't* have to put up with such BS.

Followup: Lisa Brown, the Michigan Representative, has some choice words about the incident that are well-worth reading, among them, "Shouldn't we be able to discuss body parts if we're going to pass laws about them? Am I really to believe that my opposition is undone at the mere mention of a woman's anatomy?"

Introducing Bif

Three months ago, I got a new kitteh, Bif, and I wanted to post some pictures of him for the GeoLOLCat meme that's going around.
This first one was taken his first night in my apartment; a beanie baby toy that had been given to me at Christmas of '09 is still one of his favorite toys. As you can see from the rest of the photos, he's filled out quite a bit since February.
Posing with a rock hammer...
Suspiciously watching me watch Jurassic Park...
Trying to figure what the heck I'm up to with that danged string...
And sleeping by the porch door. Why Bif? Well, it's a nice, trite male name, and when he arrived, I was struck by his fine stripes, which reminded me of laminated sediments. Shift the color balance to extreme red, and...The LOL's I've done of Bif can be seen at the GeoLOLCats post.

GeoLolCats

There are microseisms of a new meme circulating in the geoblogosphere... GeoLolCats! Many geobloggers have cats, and I'm guessing basically all of them have a superfluity of geology-related paraphernalia, so photos of cats and geology stuff are inevitable. Put a silly caption on said pictures, and voila! Geomeme!
Here's the first, from Dana. All captions are mine, and flames should be directed here, not at the source. The next is from Evelyn at Georneys, and her cat Samira:
And here's another of Evelyn's kittehs, Zanya (I'm assuming with Samira again):
I had a heck of a time recalling/tracking down that term, myrmekitic. I have forgotten way, way too much of my petrology classes, which were the most demanding, time consuming, enjoyable and rewarding of all my undergrad work. Here's the site that finally reminded me (230K pdf, see page 13); as soon as I saw it, I knew "myrmekitic" was the texture I was after. Here's the Google image search for comparison. Take a gander at those pics and tell me those aren't myrmekittehs.

I'll try to remember to get some photos of Bif with miscellaneous geology this evening. Also too, I see no particular reason this meme should be limited to teh kittehs. Other GeoLolCats will be added as I find them:

• Callan's take on Dana's kitteh
• Callan's Caption for an older cat photo by Dave Bressan
• Another photo, with and without caption, of Samira, from Evelyn
• Photos of my cat Bif (His GeoLolCat pics are below.)
• Callan LOL's LOLa.
• Jessica Ball at Magma Cum Laude LOL's her cats, Sabrina and Ginger.
  

I'll also add on additional Lol's I make below. I won't have to add extra posts, and we'll just keep 'em all in one place. Here's another photo of Samira, with a caption inspired by a comment from Ron Schott:This is Boo Spook, who owns Dana's step mom and dad.(forgot to link it earlier, but Spook's "blank" original photo is here.
Above and below, my young cat, Bif.
And in case your wondering how Bif got his name...
...when he came into my life 3 months ago, the striping on his coat reminded me of finely laminated sediments. Adjust toward red, and the conclusion is inescapable.

Farting Around On Friday

I've been exhausted by the news lately. So I've been enjoying messing around with the latest meme to sweep through Twitter: #GOPMovies. Click that link for more examples than you'll want, but here are the ones that have occurred to me this afternoon:

#GOPMovies Terminator V: Feed the Machines

#GOPMovies Band of Birthers

#GOPMovies Animal House... and Senate

#GOPMovies Atlas Smirked

#GOPMovies Full Metal Straitjacket

#GOPMovies Taxes Chain Saw Massacre

#GOPMovies Four Weddings, Three Divorces, and A Funeral

#GOPMovies Predator Vs. The Economy

#GOPMovies Dr. Wolfowitz, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love War

#GOPMovies Being John Boehner

#GOPMovies The Blair Witch Burning

#GOPMovies Flashdunce

#GOPMovies Extraordinary People

#GOPMovies The GOPS of Wrath

#GOPMovies Nutwork

#GOPMovies Godzilla Vs. The Real Americans

#GOPMovies Attack of the 50 Foot Nigerian Islamocommunofascist.

#GOPMovies The Incredible Shrinking Empathy

Any other ideas?

Oh'Really?

Apparently, a new meme is circulating through the ol' innertubz, and I have to say, I love it.These and many more are at GeekoSystem.
Followup: more examples and some actual Oh'Really statements here.

"We're pinheads all"

They tell us that
We lost our tails
Evolving up
From little snails
I say it's all
Just wind in sails
Are we not men?
We are Devo!
Are we not men?
D-E-V-O

We're pinheads now
We are not whole
We're pinheads all
Jocko homo
Are we not men?
We are Devo!
Are we not men?
D-E-V-O
Are we not pins?
We are Devo!

Monkey men all
In business suits
Teachers and critics
All dance the poot
Are we not men?
We are Devo!
Are we not men?
D-E-V-O
Are we not pins?
We are Devo!
Are we not men?
D-E-V-O

I got a rhyme that comes with a riddle
O-HI-O
What's round on the ends and high in the middle?
O-HI-O

God made man
But he used the monkey to do it
Apes in the plan
We're all here to prove it
I can walk like an ape
Talk like an ape
Do what a monkey can do
God made man
But a monkey supplied the glue

Are we not men?
We are Devo!
Are we not men?
We are Devo!
Are we not men?
We are Devo!
Are we not men?
We are Devo!

We must repeat
D-E-V-O
We must repeat
D-E-V-O
We must repeat
D-E-V-O
We must repeat
D-E-V-O
We must repeat
D-E-V-O
We must repeat
D-E-V-O
We must repeat
D-E-V-O
We must repeat
O.K. let's go!

Of Coffee, Trees and Rocks

I don't think it's quite yet a geo-meme, but in the past day both Garry Hayes and Callan Bently have posted lovely photos of fall foliage around their stomping grounds. Which reminded me there have been a couple of tree-and-rock related things I've been admiring outside the Interzone. The two commercial rentals next door are being remodeled for something, and that includes replacing the windows, apparently. So here are a couple of pictures of place-holders for the window panes:"What does this have to do with geology," I hear you cry.
Well, take a look at this:From Oxford's "Rocks under the Microscope" page, muscovite-biotite schist thin section in plane polarized light. I think it indicates a certain degree of obsessive nerdliness to look at this:
...and be mesmerized by its resemblance to a medium-high grade foliated metamorphic rock.
This magnificent ginkgo is more in line with the fall foliage theme. Every year, this tree seems to hold on to its summer greenery a few weeks longer than most of the other trees, then almost overnight, transform itself into a billow of golden fire.
But once again, what does this have to do with rocks? You didn't click the "ginkgo" link above, did you? Ginkgo is most famous for being a "living fossil," that is, an organism that has survived for many millions of years with very little change. Fossils of Jurassic and later ginkgoes are essentially indistinguishable from the modern species, and very similar species are found as far back as the Permian. Wikipedia has some interesting information on their history and ecological habits.
Part of my fascination with this tree is the stark contrast between it and its neighboring fir.
In a quick walk around the block, above is a gum tree- they've been quite vibrant this year, but the leaves are quickly falling off now.
And this is a little ornamental maple partway down the block from Interzone.
This is a cross section, or transverse section, through a sample of permineralized wood that normally sits on the table next to my traditional station at the Interzone. I think this may have been a gift from my friend and colleague Larry Enochs. If so, it came from the Holley, OR area, where a remarkably diverse Oligocene to early Miocene flora has been preserved in astonishing detail. Irene Gregory's 1968 paper in The Ore Bin makes for a good read (1.85 Mb PDF). However, I'm not absolutely positive that this piece is from that area. Below is a radial section- 16 oz. coffee glass for scale.
Next is an approximately tangential section...
...and an oblique shot- I have labeled the surfaces on this, X, R, and ~T, for cross (transverse), radial, and tangential, respectively.
Followup: I love synchronicity... the very first thing I looked at after finishing this post was the cover of this month's GSA Geology Journal.

Columns: Variations on a Meme

Jumping around a bit on the exposition of my field tripping last week, this was our next stop, but I'm not going to fully write it up until I've put together the Accretionary Wedge- I'm planning on starting that as soon as I finish this post, but the columnar meme is still going strong (see end of this post), and I want to contribute a couple more variations.

The above is, I think, the nicest outcrop of pillow basalts I've ever seen- map and further discussion to follow in a future post.  So what does this have to do with columnar basalt?  As mentioned earlier, columnar jointing forms perpendicular to the surface of cooling.  So what if that surface is roughly spherical?  Simple:

Radial jointing.  I suppose you could think of  this feature as "radial columns," though on the scale of pillows, I personally don't.  I learned the feature as "radial jointing," and that's the way I think of it. (All pics will get bigger and sharper if clicked upon) Note hand sledge in first picture for scale... I think that's a 4 lb. head, though it has been pounded many, many more than four times. On the other hand, at larger scales, such as this (suspected) filled-in lava tube, I do tend to think of them as "radial columns."

The above is a photo from OregonLive that I blogged about a bit more than a year ago, along the Molalla River, east of Portland. 

Others have also pointed out that columns are not necessarily "columns," i.e. up and down.  Here are some horizonal columns in a basaltic dike cutting through basaltic breccia. Again, the consistent theme is that the fractures form perpendicular to the surface of cooling.  This was from Cape Perpetua, between Yachats (pronounced "yah-hots") and Florence on the Oregon Coast.  Though I'll pin down scale more accurately later on, I'm thinking the dike is ~14-16 inches across.

Mays Peak Stop 2: Columnar Basalt

Just in time for the latest meme/theme circulating in the geoblogosphere, here is a nice outcrop of columnar basalt.  You'll need to click the pics for full size and clarity.

Columnar jointing is actually fairly common in unstressed shallow igneous rocks- by which I mean ones that, as they start to cool, aren't stressed by flow and viscosity or other forces.  Thus the feature shows up in mafic and intermediate flows- which are liquid- and in pyroclastic felsic rocks- which are fragmented, but often "sticky" enough to set into a coherent solid.  But they most often do not form in felsic flows or domes.  As the hot rock cools, it contracts and pulls away from itself. Fractures work in from the surfaces of cooling toward the later-cooling middle of the mass, so the joints are perpendicular to the surface of cooling.

One of the things I like about this outcrop is the way the columns seem to roll over, so you can see them in their traditional columnar form, and from the basal view- along axis- as well.  I have to admit, I haven't looked in detail at the contact under this outcrop, but the underlying material looks much more weathered, and may have a channel cut into it.

Here's the Flash Earth location and image... there's a nice paved pullout on the downhill side of the road for this one.  I'm not sure if the pullout is there for the obvious geology or for the view, but the view has been overgrown by all the green biological stuff over the years.

As I mentioned at the beginning, over the last day, a whole slew of geobloggers have been posting pictures of columns, and I'm tickled this came up in such convenient proximity to the theme. Others include: Geotripper, here, here and here, Sam at Geology Blues Phillip, also at Geology Blues Silver Fox, and another columnar post here. Glacial Till Life in Plane Light: Squashed columns! Aaron at Got The Time These are just the recent ones; if more come up in the near future, I'll try to keep this updated for a few days.  For example, I'm sure Dana got more photos... I didn't even get out of the car. And for more background on the interpretation of the Siletz River Volcanics, see my post on our first Marys Peak Stop. Dana has also posted some very nice photos from that stop.

This... Is Getting On My Nerves

Okay, on the face of it, it is kind of cool, but this set of imagery has been floating around for at least a few weeks now, and I haven't seen any discussion of it beyond "Wow, this is really cool." And just when I thought it had gone and died a nice, quiet, dignified death, as memes are supposed to do, it showed up in two of my feeds again today. Here's what I believe is the original source, and today's posters were Kottke.org and Geology Rocks.

I hate bursting bubbles (no I don't), but 1: this will never happen because it can't happen. 2: If it did happen, the distribution of water and land would be the least of our concerns. And 3: If we managed to survive, this would be extremely ephemeral from a geologic perspective, if not from a human perspective. So let's take a look at each of those points.

This will never happen because it can't happen. To stop the earth's rotation over less than eons would take an enormous impact- so enormous that it would probably generate enough heat to melt the solid part of the earth. No oceans, no life, end of story. There are possible ways to slow the earth's rotation, involving other bodies like the moon, but those would never make the earth "stand still."

If it did happen, the distribution of water and land would be the least of our concerns. Let's suppose some technology indistinguishable from magic (see Clarke's third law), wielded by prank-playing aliens, suddenly stopped the earth's rotation. My current velocity with respect to a non-rotating earth is 700 some miles per hour, better than 1000 km/h. Same with the Pacific Ocean, and everything else in my vicinity. All that stuff and me would suddenly be moving at that speed eastward with respect to the now-fixed earth. And in fact everything more than 10-20 km from the poles would likely be thrown into a fatal chaos.

However, let's suppose our mischievous aliens are at least thoughtful enough to place everything on the earth's surface in the same reference frame as their solid locality- a trickier proposition than it may sound like, at first take. We are now the lucky residents of a planet with one day a year: six months of sunshine, and six months of night. Furthermore, as the pictures show, the ocean is massively out of equilibrium with the new surface geoid. Contrary to the description at the Kottke link, the oceans would not "gradually migrate" toward the poles- there's a 13 mile (21 km) difference between the earth's radius at the equator and at the poles. There's going to be a lot of water moving poleward very quickly. Then there's the weather patterns. Consider that the entire equator would be a "mountain range," more than twice as high as the Himalayas. The two hemispheres would essentially be inaccessible from each other. Global atmospheric circulation would effectively be cut into two separate pieces. And on and on... essentially, this would be the worst extinction event in earth's history, and we would certainly be among those to go.

But finally, if we managed to survive, this would be extremely ephemeral from a geologic perspective, if not from a human perspective. The earth's interior is plastic, and the outer core is liquid. I haven't been able to find a number for the largest known post-glacial isostatic adjustment, but a post from an accretionary wedge entry about a year ago gives a figure of 300 m (1000 ft) in the last 10,000 years. The disequilibrium in this case is much greater, and the response rate would likewise be much higher. I don't know enough about the earth's rheology to make anything approaching a calculated estimate for how long it would take to return to isostatic equilibrium (or at least as close as the earth gets, on a year-to-year basis), but I would guesstimate the time range to be on the order of 100 thousand to a million years.

That last number, whatever it is in reality, is the one to keep in mind. There are natural processes that are slowing the earth's rotation rate- the big one being tidal interactions with the moon. The time it will take to tidally lock one face of the earth toward the (already) locked face of the moon is likely more than the time it will take for the sun to burn itself out. To the extent that the earth slows its rotation between now and then, the surface will adjust isostatically to centripetal changes to effective gravity at the poles versus the equator far faster than those changes will happen.

I guess my irritation with this is that I'm seeing it treated as a "science fiction" scenario, but it isn't. It's pure fantasy.