Month: August 2014

New Photos of Mount Rainier! Plus Super-Cute Critters

Dana Hunter9 Comments

It’s been a long but fruitful day, my darlings. B and I took a little trip to Mount Rainier for you. We hadn’t yet hit the Sunrise VC, you see, so we decided it was about damned time we went. Can you believe I’ve been going to Rainier for years and have never been to top of that road? Scandalous! Now remedied.

Here’s the mountain peeking at some lovely andesite columns you will get to know very well later on:

Image shows gray andesite columns poking toward the road on the right, with a shoulder of Mount Rainier and the jagged crags of Little Tahoma in the distance.
Mount Rainier, Road, and Columns.

Now. I’m going to set the non-geologists in the audience a question: what are the columns telling you about the valley at the time of this lava flow? No cheating by looking up stuff on Mount Rainier, kiddos. But you can go look at Callan’s handy guide to columns wot he made just for us. You can totally get this from just this photo: Continue reading “New Photos of Mount Rainier! Plus Super-Cute Critters” →

New Photos of Mount Rainier! Plus Super-Cute Critters
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Parícutin: “Here Is Something New and Strange”

Dana Hunter3 Comments

Imagine a pastoral scene, seventy years ago in Mexico. On a sunny February day, a woman and her son watch over their flock of sheep from the shade of oaks; her husband strides across his fields toward a pile of branches that need burning, while his helper completes a furrow. The oxen begin to turn; a brand-new volcano begins to erupt.

Paricutín. Image courtesy Karla Yannín Alcázar Quintero via Wikimedia Commons.
Paricutín. Image courtesy Karla Yannín Alcázar Quintero via Wikimedia Commons.

Later, some would say that Demetrio Toral “plowed up the volcano.” Continue reading “Parícutin: “Here Is Something New and Strange”” →

Parícutin: “Here Is Something New and Strange”

Ohai! I’ve Added a Spiffy New Mount St. Helens Page!

Dana Hunter3 Comments

Remember the Prelude to a Catastrophe/The Cataclysm series? Yes? No? Never heard of it? Well, no matter your answer, I’ve got just the page for you! I’ve stuck all the links to date up on their very own page. The last few links aren’t yet live because I haven’t brought those posts over from Rosetta Stones quite yet, but they’ll be appearing here over the next few weeks. Or you could get enterprising and just search the title.

Image shows a cat winking with its mouth open. Caption says *wink*

But wait! Der’s moar! I’ll have new posts in the series coming up sometime this fall. There’s so much more to explore about this eruption and its aftermath. And then, when that’s finished, there’s a whole lot more we’ve learned over the past few decades – we won’t be done with this volcano for a long while yet.

So I really do hope you enjoy reading about it…

Mount St. Helens in May of 2014.
Mount St. Helens in May of 2014.
Ohai! I’ve Added a Spiffy New Mount St. Helens Page!

I R Scholarly Cat. This Iz Srs Criticisms.

Dana Hunter5 Comments

Damn cat. When she isn’t stealing my lounge chair, she’s stealing my work:

Image shows Misha lying down on the Bob Jones University Earth Science 4th edition textbook, her paws around my pen.
All ur debunking creationist drivel r belong to me.

This is because I went to get cushions for the chair she’s making me use, I’m pretty sure. Continue reading “I R Scholarly Cat. This Iz Srs Criticisms.” →

I R Scholarly Cat. This Iz Srs Criticisms.

That My Chair. Also, That My Chair.

Dana Hunter9 Comments

I’m knee-deep in creationist textbooks. It takes bloody forever to get through a chapter because I have to constantly stop and look shit up. And I just found a copy of A Beka’s latest mangling of Earth science, so I’ll soon have more work to do. I’ll start posting the results in September for your entertainment/outrage, but for the moment, all I can give you is cat photos.

Misha has a very large porch, and lots of places on it. She has her pillow Continue reading “That My Chair. Also, That My Chair.” →

That My Chair. Also, That My Chair.

Unidentified Flying Dinosaur: Squeaky Black Shore Birds Parte the Seconde

Dana Hunter3 Comments

Great guesses, one and all! I’ve got a snazzy new list of birds to watch for, thanks to you. And this wasn’t really a fair challenge, but you rose to it, and I’m proud o’ ye!

Trebuchet got it – black oystercatcher. How he found that standing bird, I’ll never know – I couldn’t until he said to look for it, and I knew there were a bunch of birds on that beach! The bird landing should also be one. They were hard to see, especially through a camera screen, but I do belive the one that landed is the one in the first photo I shall show you next. I was trying to keep it within my sights. They were all the same – no mixed company for these wee ones. Not at that moment.

I’ll do up the geology properly with explanatory photos soon, but Moarscienceplz wins the punstakes. “I dunite know.” LOLgroan. And also a win with freeze-thaw cycles. I’m certain those rocks are weathering out, not being dragged there by waves. You’ll see some more lines of evidence soon.
All right, here are your further photos, as promised! Continue reading “Unidentified Flying Dinosaur: Squeaky Black Shore Birds Parte the Seconde” →

Unidentified Flying Dinosaur: Squeaky Black Shore Birds Parte the Seconde

Bienvenido a FreethoughtBlogs! Say Hello to Our Sniny New Bloggers

Dana Hunter

You know how we’ve been going on for ages about adding new bloggers? You know how we said we’d do it after the big transition to the new site design was complete? WE DID IT!!!

Image is a lot of pastel-hued fireworks exploding over a bay. Caption says, WE DID IT!
Fireworks photo by Booyah Kasha on Flickr. Werdz by moi.

And the network just got that much cooler. See who we’ve got (in alphabetical order because you can’t rank ’em by coolness):

Between a Veil and a Dark Place

Now I’m a queer, kinky, polyamorous heathen who ‘can’t just leave religion alone’. I’m vocal, feminist, and vocal about being feminist. I’ve had a very difficult life to date, growing up with a lot of violence and control (neither my family nor Hezbollah took kindly to the whole attempting-to-escape-and-have-my-own-life thing) and I think it’s all worth talking about extensively.

Consider the Tea Cozy

I’m Aoife (think Eva with an F, but only if you’re pronouncing Eva to rhyme with TREE-vah). If you’re looking for descriptors, I’m a queer Irish feminist with a social science background and a bucketload of opinions. This year I founded the Bi+ Ireland Network, and I ain’t kidding when I say it’s the thing that I’m proudest of. I’ll write about all of those things, but- being honest, since we’re friends here- I’ll mostly be thinking about roller derby. Sometimes you’ve just gotta strap on a pair of skates and hit some people, y’know?

Heinous Dealings:

After all, when it comes to promoting a community currently as small and as besieged as the ex-Muslim community, or viewpoints as oddly controversial as being in favor of social justice, every little bit of attention counts. I’m proud to join a blog network doing more than most others in ensuring representation.

So you should go read them instantly, and I hope you enjoy them immensely (as I do!), and above all, give them lots of ohais.

Image shows a chick hatching from an egg. Caption reads, Ohai!

Bienvenido a FreethoughtBlogs! Say Hello to Our Sniny New Bloggers

Unidenified Flying Dinosaur: Squeaky Black Shore Birds

Dana Hunter13 Comments

So up at Fidalgo Island, I was just taking some pictures of rocks, y’know, the geology sorta thing. Here’s a beach filled with rough cobbles of serpentinite, peridotite, and dunite, along with other things. It’s also got a bird in it.

Image shows a beach full of rough cobbles. There is a black bird coming in for a landing. It's very hard to see.
There’s a bird on this beach. Honestly.

Here, I’ll show you it.

Image shows a black bird with its wings thrust forward, landing amongst the cobbles.
See the bird landing?

Okay. Here’s where I’m going to tell you to stop and try to identify that bird, because otherwise, it won’t be any challenge at all. You’ll have the ident within two seconds if I show you the after-it-landed pics. Ima leave this here, and see if any of you can get it. Most of the clues you need are in the title. I’ll post the other photos later today, so you can see these lovely little things running about and being adorable.

(Also, what can you tell me geologically about that beach, just by the sizes and shapes of those rocks?)

Good luck!

Unidenified Flying Dinosaur: Squeaky Black Shore Birds

Don’t Believe Everything You See on YouTube: Parícutin Edition

Dana Hunter6 Comments

I’d like to conduct an experiment someday. I’d like to gather together a group of experts in a particular field and show them a few popular science video clips relevant to their areas of expertise. Would they groan, howl and laugh as much as I did during these three short clips?

The sad fact is, even august purveyors of information can get things hysterically wrong. And I use the word “hysterically” advisedly – I mean they seem to be pining for disaster. They’re like the poor Angahuan tourist guide who, gazing upon the serene, extinct edifice of Parícutin, said wistfully, “It would be nice if the volcano would erupt again – just a little bit.”

I feel you, amigo. I’ve said the same thing gazing into Mount St. Helens’s crater.

Britannica and Discovery seem to have the same yearning. Watch these two clips, and you’ll see. Continue reading “Don’t Believe Everything You See on YouTube: Parícutin Edition” →

Don’t Believe Everything You See on YouTube: Parícutin Edition

La Bête Noire de la Véranda

Dana Hunter2 Comments

Or, potentially, la pesadilla de la terraza.

Image shows Misha on the porch, biting a clear plastic strip I'm wriggling around for her.
Vicious wee beastie murtilates a plastic sheath.

Okay, she’s not actually the bane of my existence or a literal nightmare, but she likes to believe she is. And she spends most of her time on the porch these days.

I brought home a new chair for it yesterday, and as soon as I started removing the plastic wrapper bits guarding the legs, she zipped over and started doing battle with them. This is part of the reason we were late getting going – when you’re elderly felid is in a feisty mood, it’s necessary to humor her.

Since I’ve been home, she’s gotten more curious and playful. She’s also much more sociable and demanding – we ended the night outside, because she’s been getting really vocal about me joining her there. When I’m in the bedroom,  she’ll come back in and yowl from the doorway for a minute, giving me an impatient look. I think that meow traslates as, “You bloody fool, it’s effing hot, what are you doing in there? Get your ass out here!” Then she stalks out, occasionally coming back to repeat the demand. It was warm enough to acquiesce to her request, so I figured why not. We’ll have to do it more often. She likes having me out there.

She also likes to steal my cushion.

Misha is lying atop the cushion on my lounge chair, looking up beatifically.
The beast has got my lounge chair.

She’s definitely a beastie that likes comfort. And yelling at Mom. And occasionally viciously attacking. Her unpredictability is what makes her so much fun.

La Bête Noire de la Véranda