James' visit and clouds in the Olympics

My youngest brother James was visiting this past week, and as per usual we did the usual redneck pastime of going out in the woods and blowing crap up. Oh yeah, we went hiking, too. Here's a pic from up on Deer Ridge, the eastern shoulder of Blue Mountain on the north side of the Olympics, James going the extra redneck mile with the "Ozzy" hand:

It is usually sunny and blue in the summer around here, but occasionally we get this crazy wet and cloudy weather coming through. So it makes for some cool cloudscapes at times. Got this great shot looking toward the Blue Mt. summit not far from where I took the (above) pic of us:

Also managed to get him to Canada finally (after about 4 visits in the past 4 years); we spent a day eating and drinking our way around Victoria. What a great city--I wish it was on our side of the water!

Video: El Puente de La Selva

Here's a short vid from the suspension bridge at La Selva. All y'all out there in bloggerland will have to be happy with this for now; I have some cool snake pics and a story about one of the pics, but dinner is on the table and I will have a fork stuck in the side of my head if I don't call this good...

Junkfood Science... blog... and new energy source?

Discovered a cool blog: Junkfood Science. Latest post is a nice review of review paper on sweets and kids.

Also ran across this interesting video clip--can it be true?

Some research is in order to see where this is at, commerically and academically...

Does anyone know? Let me know if you do!

The Front Fell Off--the Whole Story

The viral "The Front Fell Off" has been making its rounds across emails everywhere, which was damn funny in its own right but incomplete--I recently found the whole story. If you have yet to see just how the oil caught fire, as well as the Minsiter's comments off the air, check it out here:

Been busy... but what else is new?

Chris, Shea, Erin, and I recently got back from the 76th Annual Western Snow Conference, where we presented a couple of posters. This summer I'll actually be able to post a link to the papers... so stay tuned!

Had a damn good time there; there were a few thousand years of experience in the room at any one time, but everyone was laid back, friendly, and just made for a wonderful experience.

Long hike up Deer Ridge today; had to park way the hell down at Slab Camp and hoof it to the top of the ridge (2 hours, thank you very much! This ole guy can still hike, even if I can't keep up with the 'young 'uns'). Our ^#@ snow scale gave out after two courses, but at least we got some depth readings. Also got some snow for Bill, Jay, and Jessica in the microbial group; we'll see if anything interesting turns up outta that. If it does--hello pubs!

Got a fun video of Shea and Chris coming down a slope today. (Snow?!?! It's almost May!!!) Enjoy...

"Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth"

Great video at YouTube helps explain why many of the freshman I've taught can't do basic math in intro science classes.



You can't reason your way to math proficency--this provides good examples of how misguided math ed has been over the past decade or so. But I've seen some of her examples in my friends' kids'' homework!!!

It's 15 minutes long but worth watching if you have ever despaired over the state of math knowledge among college students or the general public.

Of course, if you don't know math, you will certainly have trouble reasoning logically. Hmmmmm.... the fact that NCLB came from Texas makes one leap for conspiracy theories. But since I am decent at math, I will simply leave it to the commentators to hash out and stick to my logical approach to reality. :-)

Back from Arizona...

Spent a week and a half visiting the folks in Arizona (blessed sun!), then back to the PNW in time to catch the last (probably) snows of the winter down here in PA.

Here's a spot near Sedona, off in USFS land and away from (most of) the touristas.

Here's a pic one of the rock walls near that same spot, catching some reflected rays from the midday sun:

And here's a close up of one of the alcoves within that rock wall. Eat your heart out Sistene Chapel!

And what vacaction blog would be complete with a great pic of me and my daughter playing in a creek? (Much love to all the fam out there!)

I am the Media

Found a cool website recently that is the YouTube of slideshows, apparently--recommendation from a deaf person. (We too often forget about ensuring the Web--and life--are inclusive.)

GREAT slideshow there called: I am the Media:

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For those of us in Gen X--WOW. We grew up through the beginning of all this and it is still stunning. For those of you Digital Natives, this is nothing new. :-)