tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post4270347181242938375..comments2024-02-07T22:52:15.919-07:00Comments on Partial Ellipsis of the Sun: A Blog for Scientists who like Words and Writers who like Science: Fossilized Swedish Ferns: Don't Step on My Toe, Sis!Word Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-77214912579837841572014-03-29T06:12:03.217-06:002014-03-29T06:12:03.217-06:00Thanks for your comments, lego. I like to tie in d...Thanks for your comments, lego. I like to tie in different threads of news in a unique way so I am glad it worked for you. Your analogies make me smile.<br /><br />We are expecting 70 degree F weather here today so will be out enjoying it!Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-14615699876741732242014-03-29T03:17:41.599-06:002014-03-29T03:17:41.599-06:00SS,
Love the Moab Sandstone photo (glimpse of san...SS,<br /><br />Love the Moab Sandstone photo (glimpse of sands of present time through the hourglass of a camera lens) and your tie-in with the timeless fossil fern. I’m still struggling to peer through a glass darkly when it comes to science (other than abstract mathematics), but I am gathering, from PEOTS, that the seeming twains of geology and chemistry oftentimes meet, more than meets the naked eye, anyway. <br /><br />Fossils are life forms (mitosis, chemical building blocks) preserved, embedded over the ages and under the “shifting sands” that constantly shuffle the earth’s surface like a deck shuffled, dealt out and spread around in a game of 52-Card Pick-Up. And, over time, even the seemingly permanent “rocks of Gibralter” eventually fall (metaphor shift ahead!) like dominoes stacked on end (tectonic plate shifts, earthquakes, garden-variety erosion).<br /><br />Never been to Utah (the Beehive State, see Randy Newman). Will put it on my bucket list. The Utah Tourism Bureau should put you on their payroll (and deny AbqGuerrilla parole).<br /><br />Data analytics (and baseball sabermetrics?). Count me in. Love baseball. (Wanted to be a major leaguer till about age 20. What changed my mind? No talent.) Lots of hidden science in sport (as Mitt would put it). Hmmm, Mitt, good name for a catcher or, in the olden days, first-baseman.<br /><br />jan,<br /><br />What the el? Times reports the train operator “dozed off”… and bulldozed on up. I don’t blame the operator, though; I blame the train. It was confused, had an identity crisis. Elevated trains ought be restricted to Elevators. Only Escalated trains belong on Escalators. (A Trains belong in the grooves of records by Duke Essington…, er, Ellington.)<br /><br />Speaking of A’s, L’s and S’s, Years ago, a Norwegian named Gunnar wed a Greek named Odessa, who bore a baby boy. She wanted to name it after a Greek letter, something ending in “a,” like Alpha, Lambda (Nice choice!) or Sigma. Gunnar preferred a more traditional Scandinavian name like Alf, Lothar or Sigurd. So they compromised and named the boy Uffda. This pleased the Norse gods but rankled the Greek gods. “Too much Uff, not enough da!” they griped. <br /><br />But the gods were soon appeased when Clio mused that the Greeks could appropriate the name Uffda and incorporate it into their alphabet. “We’re already two letters short of those insufferable Romans with their hoity-toity 26-letter Latin alphabet,” she said. “And we could use an F. It’s difficult pronouncing words lile ‘insufferable’ without one… make that two.”<br /><br />And that’s the tale of how the Greeks added a twenty-fifth letter to their alfabet.<br /><br />Finally, jan, regarding your March 25, 1:05 PM post, What’s all this about “Stanford and Son?” Did Redd Foxx come back to life after suffering “the big one and joining (his late wife) Weezy in heaven?” Wait, wasn’t Weezy in “The Jeffersons?” Suddenly I’m feeling very presidential.<br /><br />Serendipity-doo-dah of the week: Sanford and Son was based on the BBC’s <em>Steptoe</em> and son. See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_and_Son" rel="nofollow">LegoLink</a>. (Still practicing HTML)<br /><br />Seriously, jan, I learn a lot from you as well as from SS. Thanks. <br /><br />LegoUffda<br />legolambdahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18081014756741740081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-22698204450915773222014-03-27T19:06:16.918-06:002014-03-27T19:06:16.918-06:00Climate change in CA--live public lecture from USG...Climate change in CA--live public lecture from USGS/Menlo Park in about an hour:<br /><br />http://online.wr.usgs.gov/calendar/live.htmlWord Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-27407249991875369422014-03-27T18:14:24.521-06:002014-03-27T18:14:24.521-06:00Hey, why didn't I think of that?! Foot/shoe hu...Hey, why didn't I think of that?! Foot/shoe humor seems to be your thing this week. ;-) Toetally unexpected.Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-50110651820114785242014-03-27T17:56:01.084-06:002014-03-27T17:56:01.084-06:00BTW, after I saw "Don't Step on My Toe&qu...BTW, after I saw "Don't Step on My Toe" followed by references to fallen arches, I was sure I was walking into a podiatry joke, but none seems to be, uh, afoot.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-65523067136800163202014-03-26T14:18:47.422-06:002014-03-26T14:18:47.422-06:00Data analytics, especially around baseball, looks ...Data analytics, especially around baseball, looks like an interesting topic:<br /><br />http://www.smith.edu/news/new-book-analyzes-baseball-analytics/<br /><br />(Back to some crossed-nicols rock sections around the blog edges).<br /><br />Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-21327621003185441822014-03-26T11:51:26.950-06:002014-03-26T11:51:26.950-06:00It's Ganymede. Blogger does a weird tiling thi...It's Ganymede. Blogger does a weird tiling thing where the image can be tiled everywhere (but that interferes with title and sidebars) or tiled vertically or horizontally. Or be just smack dab in the middle of the title. I grew weary of fiddling with it. Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-37308847106296128742014-03-26T11:33:56.627-06:002014-03-26T11:33:56.627-06:00Looks OK to me, except I'm curious about the p...Looks OK to me, except I'm curious about the part I can't see that's hidden behind the text. For that matter, I'm curious about what I <i>can</i> see. What is it? But I was OK with the rocks/pigs/dead babies.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-23555366947954676232014-03-26T11:00:19.143-06:002014-03-26T11:00:19.143-06:00I've been thinking about a simpler look for th...I've been thinking about a simpler look for the background. See what y'all think.Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-67819299806568280562014-03-26T07:26:05.054-06:002014-03-26T07:26:05.054-06:00Apropos of nothing, my wife claims the background ...Apropos of nothing, my wife claims the background wallpaper on this blog looks like dead babies. My niece sees pigs. I've previously said that I don't have the imagination to be a radiologist; they just look like rocks to me.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-79066092449023812892014-03-25T19:34:06.048-06:002014-03-25T19:34:06.048-06:00Whassup, homie?Whassup, homie?Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-65640279217610842782014-03-25T19:12:47.011-06:002014-03-25T19:12:47.011-06:00Ah, the Burgess Shale! Wasn't Wonderful Life,...Ah, the Burgess Shale! Wasn't <i>Wonderful Life</i>, uh, wonderful? I believe I've previously mentioned Charlie Walcott's pigeons (while discussing a rubber chicken that didn't cross the road) -- he was a scion of the discoverer of those fossils.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-51226175991727357642014-03-25T18:19:30.878-06:002014-03-25T18:19:30.878-06:00Yeah, I knew that but there are some fossil sea an...Yeah, I knew that but there <i>are </i>some fossil sea anemones...<br />"Most Actiniaria do not form hard parts that can be recognized as fossils, but a few do exist; Mackenzia, from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada, is the oldest fossil identified as a sea anemone."<br /><br />Your fossil-y efforts are lauded though.Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-77840009497493227872014-03-25T17:40:54.196-06:002014-03-25T17:40:54.196-06:00I was trying for something more fossil-y.I was trying for something more fossil-y.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-24256027193452111492014-03-25T14:02:29.283-06:002014-03-25T14:02:29.283-06:00Thanks for sharing that piece on GS. HERE is Kathl...Thanks for sharing that piece on GS. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/24/opinion/mcccartney-steinem-at-80/?c=&page=2" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> is Kathleen McCartney's (Smith's President) piece. The college has sent out half a dozen news releases so far ;-)Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-37079165050563636692014-03-25T13:38:29.561-06:002014-03-25T13:38:29.561-06:00I liked Gail Collins' piece on Steinem.I liked <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/opinion/sunday/collins-this-is-what-80-looks-like.html" rel="nofollow">Gail Collins' piece</a> on Steinem.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-56609452727972141232014-03-25T13:16:08.925-06:002014-03-25T13:16:08.925-06:00Oops, I meant Berkeley. All those CA colleges look...Oops, I meant Berkeley. All those CA colleges look alike ;-).<br /><br />Speaking of colleges, today Smith is celebrating Gloria Steinem ('56) and her four-score birthday.<br /><br />Crazy story from Chicago!Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-18192419279184775492014-03-25T13:05:03.162-06:002014-03-25T13:05:03.162-06:00Stanford's the son. This is the Chicago niece...Stanford's the son. This is the Chicago niece, Berkeley's sister. Speaking of Chicago, in case you were wondering how Chicago Els get up there, turns out they just <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/03/24/us/ap-us-chicago-train-derailment.html" rel="nofollow">take the escalator</a>.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-57351430205746323522014-03-25T12:46:49.222-06:002014-03-25T12:46:49.222-06:00Or anemones. . .Or anemones. . .Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-40763645159928691292014-03-25T12:41:05.385-06:002014-03-25T12:41:05.385-06:00Oh, Sweden sounds great. Is this the Stanford niec...Oh, Sweden sounds great. Is this the Stanford niece?<br /><br />Utah is sooooo worth a rambling though. If I had only one place to pick it would be the Primitive Trail in Arches NP...Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-33449151016212168742014-03-25T12:29:19.479-06:002014-03-25T12:29:19.479-06:00Coincidentally, the reason we may postpone Utah hi...Coincidentally, the reason we may postpone Utah hiking until next year is that our niece just landed a summer internship with the State department in Sweden, and we're thinking of visiting her there.janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-82823598456869619322014-03-25T12:25:51.997-06:002014-03-25T12:25:51.997-06:00Nope, hadn't heard of the fossil ferns before....Nope, hadn't heard of the fossil ferns before. With fronds like those, who needs ammonites?janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-29807222500035429812014-03-25T12:14:31.122-06:002014-03-25T12:14:31.122-06:00Ha ha! Blue Swede shoes--wish I'd said that. C...Ha ha! Blue Swede shoes--wish I'd said that. Curious--did you read about the fossil fern elsewhere? The images were too good to pass up. . .<br /><br />You and your wife will have a great time in Bryce and Zion. Both are relatively close to each other. Favorite trails: Peek-a-boo in Bryce and Angel's Landing in Zion. Escalante is also a new, beautiful NP and pretty close by Utah standards. <br /><br />Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-69994946653760319152014-03-25T11:42:18.358-06:002014-03-25T11:42:18.358-06:00I've never been to Utah, though we plan to vis...I've never been to Utah, though we plan to visit Bryce &/or Zion this year or next.<br /><br />And, don't step on my blue Swede shoes, either...janhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927176621372532733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1915875085991225575.post-91598767857799487812014-03-25T10:48:14.846-06:002014-03-25T10:48:14.846-06:00Do you have a favorite Utah place? Arches, Canyon...Do you have a favorite Utah place? Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, Deadhorse Point, Goblin Valley, Fisher Tower, the Colorado River~~hard to pick just one!Word Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15491300694641304112noreply@blogger.com