STOP sign augmented with sticker saying TRUM P
Observed in rural central Virginia yesterday:
07.03.2026 08:58
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STOP sign augmented with sticker saying TRUM P
Observed in rural central Virginia yesterday:
Join me Tuesday night for a reprise of my popular talk, "On 2x4s, Graphite & Gasoline: What I'd teach about climate change if I only had an hour!"
tockify.com/paleontologi...
#teachclimate, #climatecommunication
Party sample annotated to "pop"
Accentuated version:
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A drawer full of ~3" long samples in low flat cardboard boxes. Sitting atop its box, and overlapping several others, is a slab of kinked, foliated rock.
A #FridayFold I found in a drawer full of archived samples at the state geological survey. ⚒️
Wow, this is the first time I've ever listened to this person speak. He sucks.
Always the epistemologist, that guy.
Hermit thrush on a branch
American robin on the ground. White feathers around the eye????
Turkey vulture overhead. Black feathers, itty bitty flaming red head, white beak with a black hook
Pretty common birds this time of year: Hermit thrush, American robin, Turkey vulture.
But it was nice to spend a couple hours birding this morning.
#birds 🦉
It doesn't help that I have my obligations split between my (clunky, work) Outlook calendar and my (personal, much better) Google calendar.
I'm finding it hard to stay on top of all the various commitments I gotten myself committed to. Make a couple of dumb errors this week just having too much stuff to keep track of. It's hard to stay on top of everything!
A tabletop covered in boxes containing all kinds of fossils.
Whiteboard sketch of the two major groups of brachiopods, highlighting soft tissue anatomy (pedicle, lophophore) that doesn't usually fossilize.
Nautiloid fossil (Bellerophon?) showing internal septa dividing up shell interior into chambers. These chambers are sometimes filled with calcite spar, sometimes with sediment, and in three cases in the middle of this view, with BOTH. The boundary between them shows the paleo-horizontal, with sediment below and spar above (geopetal "way-up" indicator). Annotation shows the "up" direction (down!).
Fossils lab!
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I was lucky to witness two astoundingly good talks today: @stellarplanet.bsky.social talked about exoplanet atmospheres for Geology Club, and @cintylee.bsky.social talked about bioacoustic monitoring of migrating birds for Bird Club!
Grateful to know these amazing scientists.
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Raw photograph of a large cobble of granite containing a xenolith of foliated dark and light rock. Ruler for scale
Annotated photograph of a large cobble of granite containing a xenolith of foliated dark and light rock. Ruler for scale
Xenolith (gneissic amphibolite) that I picked up last weekend in a rounded cobble of granite. ⚒️
I loved getting a gyro and fries at Astor, on Columbia Rd. in Adams-Morgan, every time I would lead my Bedrock Geology of DC field trip. I was sad to see that they too are now gone.
Laminated pink/tan (ash??) layer in laminated black mudrock. Grading and soft sediment deformation present. Overlying dark layer contains wispy inclusions of pink material
Cutting rocks today at the state survey. ⚒️
Tear it down. ✊
Mer de Glace from Signal Forbes
1890 | 2013 | 2021 | 2024
Strong acceleration of the demise of the largest French glacier over last few years! 🧊🔥
Cloudy! 😞
She played with Stephane Wrembel's band when he last came through Charlottesville. Very impressive!
Daisy Castro on fiddle?
yes, really. this is a typical suite of cross-sectional shapes, in my experience
This is what it looks like when fascists successfully take over an institution.
This is the aesthetic of American fascism and state capture all in one.
A ~rectangular block of dark green gray rock with lots of white blocky big minerals (many of which have darker cores). Hand for scale.
Big plagioclase phenocrysts in Catoctin Formation greenstone (meta-basalt). Rip-rap boulder below dam at Walnut Creek Park. ⚒️
Close up of a Brown-headed cowbird, showing its brown (but SHINY) head.
Brown-headed cowbirds are back in town.
#birds 🦉
Evening entertainment
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There is horror and evil and suffering in this world today, but it is beautiful and warm and sunny in central Virginia, and it feels like spring. I enjoyed a hike with my Geology Club and then did some chores. Now enjoying an IPA in the sunshine, and returning to the sad, sick news.
Erika posted in earlier that it was from New Brunswick, Canada.
Wow. That's uniformitarianism for ya!
mountainbeltway.all-geo.org/2014/06/20/f... ⚒️
We have one. It's always empty. No one would want to hang out there.
