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May. 27th, 2005 06:26 pmI was noticing how depressive my lifestyle was at the beginning of May and decided to quit that. Now I'm busy. Overall, a good thing, but I'm tired and my house is a mess. Good thing my houseguest doesn't mind. My birthday was marvelous. I cancelled the backpacking trip partly because of something that happened at work that seemed at the time apocalyptic to me, but it turned out to not have anything to do with me, so that's all good. Work is insanely busy. I have this theory that executives end up acting like whoever was their first Real Big Boss, because that's who they end up patterning themselves over. Our big boss' main Big Boss was a Very Big Man in Calif. and hell on wheels - I suspect our boss is enjoying being HoW himself now. Ugh. Anyway, good things ahead for this weekend. Oh! I knew there was a more specific reason to be here:
Books read:
I'm giving up on "Brick Road," on books on tape. It's an engaging enough story about Muslim Pakistani sisters, but I'm on almost half-way through and still don't particularly care about the characters, so back it goes. "Little Children" sounded interesting in reviews, and arrived recently. How much do I love reserving books on line? Yay libraries!
I very much enjoyed "Nature Noir, A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra" by Jordon Fisher Smith. There are chapters on water politics, seismic faults, mountain lions, river rafting, unsolved mysteries, ecology, gold mining, and the American River. I mean, how much better could it get!
Did you know that the weight of the water behind dams *causes* earthquakes? It's called "reservoir-induced seismicity." It's happened at the Kariba between Zambia and Rhodesia in 1961; the Koyna in India in 1967 - the dam cracked, but survived, but the collapse of unreinforced masonry buildings nearby killed 177 people; the Kremasta in Greece in 1965 caused an earthquake that damaged 1,600 bldgs., killed on person and injured 60; and similiar in France in 1963 and Switzerland in 1965. An understanding of tectonics soon followed, hurray.
This reminds me of the medical historian who was on Fresh Air yesterday or the day before. Hearing about what medicine was like during the Civil War and comparing it to what we know now - I wonder what we don't know now that will change people's world view radically, what will come along that will be as revolutionary as an understanding of microbes and bacteria. Sciences are just so interesting.
Have a great weekend all.
Books read:
I'm giving up on "Brick Road," on books on tape. It's an engaging enough story about Muslim Pakistani sisters, but I'm on almost half-way through and still don't particularly care about the characters, so back it goes. "Little Children" sounded interesting in reviews, and arrived recently. How much do I love reserving books on line? Yay libraries!
I very much enjoyed "Nature Noir, A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra" by Jordon Fisher Smith. There are chapters on water politics, seismic faults, mountain lions, river rafting, unsolved mysteries, ecology, gold mining, and the American River. I mean, how much better could it get!
Did you know that the weight of the water behind dams *causes* earthquakes? It's called "reservoir-induced seismicity." It's happened at the Kariba between Zambia and Rhodesia in 1961; the Koyna in India in 1967 - the dam cracked, but survived, but the collapse of unreinforced masonry buildings nearby killed 177 people; the Kremasta in Greece in 1965 caused an earthquake that damaged 1,600 bldgs., killed on person and injured 60; and similiar in France in 1963 and Switzerland in 1965. An understanding of tectonics soon followed, hurray.
This reminds me of the medical historian who was on Fresh Air yesterday or the day before. Hearing about what medicine was like during the Civil War and comparing it to what we know now - I wonder what we don't know now that will change people's world view radically, what will come along that will be as revolutionary as an understanding of microbes and bacteria. Sciences are just so interesting.
Have a great weekend all.