Don't Panic Geocast

By John Leeman and Shannon DulinScience Technology Education Natural Sciences

Don't Panic Geocast episodes

February 27, 2015Episode 6 - "What if you calibrated your candles differently?"
Time is a very complex subject that you can devote your entire life to. Today we’ll cover a few of the basics and enough to get your interest up! We’ll see that it’s difficult to know what a second is and how long relative times are, but absolute time is even messier! We also discuss dried coffee and tetris!
Importance of Time (and why it’s on a geology show)
It synchronizes the world and our human interactions (need minutes - hours accuracy generally)
It allows us to talk about events in a common coordinate system
Allows synchronization of scientific measurements and comparison of data sources. This is really important for seismometers for EQ location!
Let’s us use GPS! 1 billionth of a second (nano second) error in 1 GPS satellite, GPS receiver is +/- 1 ft to satellite, which is 2–3 feet on Earth.
Early Timekeeping
Burning candles in marked cases
Hourglass
Water powered clocks
Pendulum clocks Galileo and Huygens (fancy temperature compensation as well)
Video on Galileo
Modern Time Keeping (Atomic Clocks)
First clock was ammonia maser at National Bureau of Standards in 1949, but it really wasn’t all that accurate. It was more of a proof on concept device
First cesium clock was in 1955 at the National Physical Laboratory (UK)
Leads us to the definition of the SI second he duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation corresponding to the transition between two energy levels of the caesium–133 atom
The NIST-F2, a cesium atomic fountain clock, is good to one second in 300 million years. How F2 works is a combination of feedback control loops, lasers, and really cold atoms.
Remember, atomic clocks tick away seconds, they say nothing about the hours, minutes, seconds notation we use to write time. We just define a frequency
Leap seconds
Can’t predict them far into the future because of irregularities in Earth’s rotation
Announced ahead of time in a bulletin by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service
25 leap seconds since 1972
Next leap second is this year! June 30, 2015
Real problem in computing, has caused software and GPS hardware crashes/issues before
Google smears the second out over a period prior to the leap
Time Standards
There are TONS of time standards, we’re only going to touch on a few. Most are known with highest precision in retrospect!
Solar time
Exactly what you would think, it’s about using the sun’s position as a time source. There is the sundial time (apparent solar time) that changes throughout the year, and the mean solar time which is like a clock time.
The equation of time represents the difference between the mean and apparent solar day
Star clock
International Atomic Time (TAI)
A measurement of proper time (it’s a relativity thing)
Weighted average of over 400 atomic clocks
If there is an error, it isn’t corrected. This makes it into terrestrial time.
Universal Time (UT)
This is what we used to call GMT!
Based on Earth’s rotation w.r.t different bodies (why there is UT0,UT1,UT1R,UT2,UTC)
UT1 is really mean solar time at the equator
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
Formalized in 1960
Adjustments were accommodated by leap seconds starting in 1972
Generally considered to be GMT, but GMT isn’t defined/recognized by the scientific community
This comes from TAI by accounting for leap seconds!
Epoch time (Unix Time)
Epoch time is the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), Thursday, 1 January 1970
No leap seconds by definition, but implementation is actually messy
Stored is an integer (32-bits) meaning that it will run out and roll over on Tuesday 2038–01–19 One second after 03:14:07 UTC, it’s the year 2038 problem.
The Timekeeper Video
Audio after the outro is David Allen
FunPaperFriday
Coffee rings and coffee disks: Physics on the edge
Particle shape controls movement during drying
The can be applied to surface design, paints, and more
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
55 min
February 20, 2015Episode 5 - "We actually don't call it the Tertiary anymore"
This week we discuss the geologic time scale, meteorites, and fitness trackers!
Pittsburgh Fireball Feb. 17, 2015
Video of meteor
Article with details of entry
Animation from meteor’s perspective
NASA Fireball Network
Geologic Time-it’s really big (and deep)
The geologic time scale
Despite all kinds of fun things to demo how vast it is…still hard to understand
Cosmic Calendar
Pneumonic devices for timescale-and why do we need to know it? (several examples)
We make all kinds of assumptions about rocks that span millions of years, but an outcrop can change over the course of just a few years/ten years
Example of things changing in days to hours
Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle
How do we begin to define Geologic time?
International Commission on Stratigraphy: “ International Geologic Time Scale; thus setting global standards for the fundamental scale for expressing the history of the Earth”
We have to have a baseline so that we can all talk about the “same” rocks across the world
Age-dating rocks
Many techniques, and the actual dates between our epochs change all the time as our age-dating techniques evolve
Many periods/eras/epochs are marked by “catastrophic” occurrences, hence making them natural boundaries, but the dates change.
5 major extinction events
Time as an arrow v. time as a cycle
Catastrophism vs. uniformitarianism and gradualism
Constantly evolving and vastly interesting
Thinking about the definitions of time and how we as humans try to grasp the enormity of geologic time in particular is humbling.
Fun Paper Friday
In an attempt to prolong our time on Earth, we’ll talk about accuracy of fitness apps. (John wears a Fitbit Flex and uses the Fitbit Aria scale.)
“Accuracy of Smartphone Applications and Wearable Devices for Tracking Physical Activity Data”, Case et al., Feb 2015, Journal of the American Medical Association
48 min
February 13, 2015Episode 4 - "Is that cumulonimbus cloud storage?" Data Backups
Technicians at the KGRK weather radar encountered a rattlesnake during an upgrade this week. The official NWS statement says “DUE TO COMPLICATIONS INVOLVING A RATTLESNAKE DURING TODAYS UPGRADE…THE KGRK RADAR WILL REAMIN DOWN THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT HOURS AND POSSIBLY INTO WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.”
Why should you backup?
Not lose your data
Not waste money, effort
Legal obligation (taxes, grant data policy, etc)
What makes a good backup?
Local and offsite
Multiple backups
Harward and software independence
Copies of raw and processed data (if possible)
Archivable formats
Incremental snapshots and clones
It’s not okay to “backup” versions of files like this!
Backup Solutions
Backblaze (cloud, $50/yr) - This is what John uses for one of his backups
Carbonite (cloud, $varies) - Not carbon copy cloner as said in the show
Time Machine for Mac - Another backup method John uses
Super Duper (Mirroring)
Carbon Copy Cloner (bootable backups)
Fun Paper Friday
The Earth’s core is complex with possible tectonics happening at the inner core interface.
Also, the inner core has been divided into two regions with the names: outer-inner core and inner-inner core.
Geophysics: Tectonics in the Earth’s core (Olson, 2009)
Equatorial anisotropy in the inner part of Earth’s inner core from autocorrelation of earthquake coda (Wang et al)
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
41 min
February 06, 2015Episode 3 - “Computers don’t like -20 degree temperatures” with Nick Holschuh
Feedback
We received an article from listener Hannah about using tech in education. Thanks Hannah!
Interview with Nick Holschuh
Nick is a graduate student at Penn State. He tells us about his field experience, getting to Antarctica, and dealing with equipment malfunction in the field!
Fun Paper Friday
Dread Risk, September 11, and Fatal Traffic Accidents
Economic theory is built on the idea that humans, in aggregate, behave rationally. But in individual instances, under specific conditions, we find that humans rarely exhibit rationality, and so the study of these individual instances of decision-making gave birth to its own field (Behavioral Economics). It is super interesting, and is relevant to the world of science policy and public education. Here’s a crazy example of what we, as humans, do, when we fail to be rational.
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of our employers or funding agencies.
55 min
January 30, 2015Episode 2 - If you’re doing geology in pen, you’re just not doing geology right
This week we discuss field tools - everything from clothing to pens and notebooks! Shannon panics due to Earth’s close encounter with an asteroid and John talks about the smell after rainstorms. We want to hear your feedback!
John has been playing more with radar during the northeast blizzard.
Shannon has been keeping an eye on asteroid 2004 BL86 as it passed near the Earth Monday. There are already a lot of neat radar images coming from this event.
Shannon is also planning her first class field trip for a field methods class.
Field Packs
People use everything, backpacks, fanny packs, etc.
John has a holster thing like SWAT teams. Looks a little like a weapon holster though, so be careful. (He also can’t find anyone that still sells them.)
Shannon uses a wait-pack.
John and Shannon use stretchy belts to hold their hammers.
Lots of folks use their hammer as a ruler in the field.
Clipboards
John has a clipboard with storage under it. The black ones gets really hot in the sun though.
Shannon uses a taped together fiber-board/lexan map board. It’s large!
Field Clothing
Clothing tech revolutionized geology!
Drilling with quick-dry pants vs. carrying rainsuits that you sweat in anyway.
All drab colors! Consider wearing a safety vest!
Hat suggestions? Maybe we should go back to full academic dress?
Polarized sunglasses are a must. Just beware that they can alter the color of things!
Field Notebooks
Traditional Write-in-the-Rain/Field books. Shannon doesn’t like these because of pencil writing quality.
Extras in the back of different series of notebooks can be problematic
Notebook closures: Binder clip, rubberband, or elastic over notebook
If you’re really into this stuff, you would probably like the Pen Addict Podcast.
Do you attach your pen/pencil to your field book?
Pocket protectors, John has the stealth.
Writing Instruments
0.5 mm pencils for writing in the field books
For sketching/musing Palomino Blackwing 602
Shannon misses the Zebra301 ultra
Compasses/Hand-lenses
Bruntons are the standard, with really no substitue
Handlens are now available with led lights (and uv if you’re that into it)
iPads vs. regular topo map concerns
Battery life
Weather resistance
Overheating
GPS (integrated or separate)
Does it take too much away from basic navigation skill development?
Fun Paper Friday
“Aerosol generation by raindrop impact on soil” Nature Communications, Jan 2015
There is great high speed video to go with the paper.
Carl Sagan did his own version of outside of field reading! See his notes.
A good fiction work to start with is “The Martian”
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of our employers or funding agencies.
52 min
January 23, 2015Episode 1 - Clippy is Gone Now, Clippy Was Not a Help
Episode 1 - Clippy is Gone Now, Clippy Was Not a Help
We discuss paper writing, figure making, debate the merits of our favorite software, and discuss a possible explanation of last week’s mysterious booms in Oklahoma. Shannon also discovers that John does strange things with his spare time and a police radar gun. We discuss the demise of clippy, the MS Word virtual assistant.
Global Warming Trend Graphic
John’s blog post on using a police radar gun for raindrop speed
Paper and Report Writing
John uses LaTeX, specifically MacTeX
Shannon uses MS Word mostly
There is value in features like track changes, scripting, distraction free environments, formatting, figure numbering, etc.
John uses markdown initially to have a distraction free writing environment (in the atom editor)
LaTeX help is easy to find!
Poster and Figure Making
Many options, but some are better than others
Powerpoint (please don’t use this for posters or figures)
Adobe Illustrator (expensive, steep learning curve, but good)
Inkscape (free clone of Illustrator at the slight expense of install/usability headache)
Photoshop
InDesign
KalidaGraph
IGOR Pro
Python
Plot.ly
Update on Oklahoma Booms
There was talk that these could have been a result of a thermal inversion
Demo of how sound bends in an inversion can be found on Dr. Dan Russell’s site and this YouTube video.
Civil War may have been influenced by acoustic propagation. There is a summary article and book about it.
We found a 1984 newspaper article from Oklahoma mentioning this phenomena.
FunPaperFriday - Radio Bursts from Blitzars
A real-time fast radio burst: polarization detection and multiwavelength follow-up (Petroff et al.)
Related New Scientist Article
Contact us:
Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]
John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of our employers or funding agencies.
51 min
January 16, 2015Episode 0 - "Hello World!"
Episode 0 - “Hello World!”
In this episode, we discuss what this podcast is, who we are, and wrap up our conference travels. We also throw out our nominations for this week’s “Fun Paper Friday.”
The Podcast
We’ll be discussing: - Recent news/discoveries in geoscience - Technology that helps get the job done - Interviews with leaders in the field or interesting people - Conference stories - Bantering about any geo vs. tech topic - #FunPaperFriday articles
This podcast is for anyone working in, interested in, or vaguely associated with the Earth sciences. As Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers would say, we will often discuss things “unencumbered by the thought process.”
Who we are
John Leeman and Shannon Dulin, meteorology and geology geeks.
Winter Conference Wrap-Up
GSA - Vancouver, BC
Woolard Award winner-using paleomagnetism and continental reconstructions to determine how extinctions occurred.
Digital poster sessions integrating google earth and structural geology
Digital posters showing how drones are becoming more used to bring geology to students
AGU - San Francisco, CA
Nearly 24,000 people, about 30% students!
Interesting talks on friction as a fracture process, coaxial cable Bragg grating strain-meters, and slow-slip being stopped by earthquakes in NZ.
John co-chaired a student pop-up session and presented both science and a fun talk on using sensors in education. You can build a copy of his 3D Compass.
FunPaperFriday
John’s Paper - Frostquakes in New England - Barosh (2000), especially relevant after the mysterious booms reported in Oklahoma last week. Frostquakes have caused ground fracture before.
Shannon’s Paper - (Okay, not a paper, but a cool website from me this week!) http://scieastereggs.tumblr.com/
Contact us:
Show
www.dontpanicgeocast.com
@dontpanicgeo
[email protected]
John Leeman
www.johnrleeman.com
@geo_leeman
Shannon Dulin
@ShannonDulin
36 min

About Don't Panic Geocast

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John Leeman and Shannon Dulin discuss geoscience and technology weekly for your enjoyment! Features include guests, fun paper Friday selections, product reviews, and banter about recent developments.…