Ok, where do i start! Firstly some news from the states. A man was arrested last week for commiting an 'assault by pickle'! I kid you not, the victim is pressing charges after he was involved in an argument and had 2 pickles thrown at him. I think he's just feeling abit sour. Secondly, in Madrid, a judge has sentenced a total of 21 people for various charges related to the 2003 Madrid train bombings. He got the right idea by giving them huge jail terms - 3 people each received a sentence of 40,000 years!

Next, i'd like to clarify that 'sea-quakes' are a myth (you know who you are!), hence the name 'earthquakes' - they occur inside the earth! It is somewhat unknown for water (which is impossible to shear!) to produce seismic energy. Potential man-made sources for seismic exploration include - sledgehammer, buffalo gun, air gun (for marine seismic lines), dynamite, vibro-truck, nail gun, rolling a car off a cliff, nitro-glycerine or, as the Russian's effectively demostrated in the late 1950's, underground nuclear blasts!

I was going to rant on now about Max Mosley and his shear stupidity and comments on Lewis Hamilton but my friend Tim has done it admirably so i can't be bothered to compete. Go to: http://timnutt.blogspot.com/.

And, perhaps, finally. I hope everyone saw Top Gear last weekend because it had one of the best videos ever in it! Richard Hammond raced the Bugatti Veyron (without the pot plants in the photo!) against the new Eurofighter Typhoon strike plane.

The car had to race one mile along a runway, turn around and race a mile back. The plane had to take off, accelerate a mile vertically and then straight back down and cross the start line (in the air). Obviously the plane won but not by much! The pilot absolutely gassed it aswell - putting on the afterburners whilst plummeting near vertically towards the ground! I love our RAF! Would the American's do something like that??? No, they'd probably shoot it down! Being a bunch of gun-ho plane enthusiasts!

Full Throttle For The Main Stream

Haven't blogged in a while so its about time to keep all you blogo-maniac's happy with another dose of news and irreverent mumbo jumbo from Arizona. Last week was a busy week but next week is busier. Ive got a geochemistry midterm to revise for (oh joy!), a big geochem homework assignment, a seismic modelling project, an exploration seismology homework, a geology of the solar system homework and Mars GPR project to start! Hmmm!


So aside from Uni work, not a lot went down last week. The weather was, well, sunny (again) and Liverpool lost in the Champions League (again!). Friday we went, briefly, to a Halloween party where, besides the enormous amounts of free food, not a lot happened. Yesterday i biked to the Tucson Mall about 4 miles away just to have a look around. These things are huge - kind of like the massive one's you get in England but there everywhere. I read somewhere that at some point in the 1970's, a new Mall was opening every 90 minutes somewhere in the USA! Thats ridiculous! Even in Tucson, theres 2 Fry's supermarkets within about 2 miles of each other - whats the point? If they just build one, it'll make people walk abit further and maybe get some much needed exercise. Whilst on that subject, i called in at Walmart on the way back (actually brought a pair of shorts but anyway) whilst looking on the rack for a suitable size, i came across several 48in waist one's - if people are that fat, they should make them pay more for their clothes - perhaps as an incentive to lose some weight! Whilst the old stereotype that every American is fat and unhealthy is very generalistic and doesnt apply to everyone, it certainly applies to a lot of people! And just before i finish this mini rant - some American's are indeed very very dumb! A week last Saturday i was in Wilcox for the day. When entering the gift shop there, i didn't have to try very hard to over hear a woman say: "I'm not as stupid as i look you know!" Before prompty falling over the door step! The moment was priceless!

Rant over, now i must get on with some work. Although there was some interesting geology related news this week. An auction house in New York is having a meteorite session - selling 52 pieces of space rock with estimates from a few hundred $'s to $1.3million. The pick of the bunch is the only meteorite known to have caused a fatality by direct hit! Experts say the 1kg fragment has become a collectors item since it fell in South America in 1972, killing a cow!

And finally, a comment from Mihai Ducea, my tectonics lecturer (who also strongly thinks that the University of Arizona's Geology Department is the best in the USA and possible the best in the world judging by the number of resources available!) - "I finally realised this P.O.S (piece of ...) state university is actually one of the best!"

Chilli's in the wild west

A note of warning for you all - wear protection when preparing and eating chilli's! The sort of goggles you get in high-school chemistry class will do the trick nicely because you dont want any chilli juices in your eye now- or so i found out last night.

And once it started (to quote a Ducea comment) "it was like a car crash" - once it starts, it isnt going to get any better! The first 5 minutes after, i didn't notice anything but once i sat down to eat dinner the stinging pain was unbelieveable. So i went to the bathroom and dabbed it with a damp cloth. Bad idea! Just like drinking water after a hot curry, the pain got worse and my eye became seriously bloodshot. I couldnt win! Everytime i blinked, it rubbed my eye a little bit more making the pain a little worse. The meal was delicious to eat but possibly the most painful ive ever experienced! So be-warned! Don't do it!

I might just stick to fish and chips tonight - much safer!

Not a great weekend of sport

First England lost the Rugby World Cup and the Hamilton narrowly missed out on the F1 Championship. The latter could, however, be in doubt as controvosey over illegal fuel in 3 cars ahead of Hamilton (he finished 7th but needed 5th to take the title). If those cars get disqualified, Hamilton wins the championship so its going to court! Kind of a shameful way to end what has been the best season of Formula 1 in years but if it means Hamilton wins..... im not going to object!

As to the Rugby - im content with second place. We shouldn't really have reached the quater-finals yet alone beat Australia and France to get to the final. It was still a close match and England were severely disadvantaged by a disallowed try which, replays show, clearly should have been allowed. Did the match turn on that? Perhaps but it doesnt really matter - we beat the French on their turf again - thats all that counts!

The only good thing to come out of sport last weekend was Liverpool's 2:1 victory over dirty Everton who had 2 men sent off. They now sit 4th in the table with a game in hand over Man United and Man City who sit above them although even at this early stage we'll do well to catch Arsenal at the top. Although there not playing the smooth football that left them unbeaton in the 2002/2003 season, its effective! Now for Champions league this week - Liverpool play Besiktas away from home. A game we really need to win!

And finally, the news! (Sounds abit like the 2 Ronnies!) In Canberra, a cemetery is training its gravediggers in emergency first aid and how to use defibrillators in order to ressucitate grief striken mourners at a funeral. It's a good idea but from a business point of view, seems somewhat counter-productive!

Another criminal from Berlin got arrested last week after slightly misunderstanding the term "getaway". A construction worker stole a packet of cheese from a local store before making his getaway in his cement truck. Police caught up with him when he stopped at traffic lights 200yrds down the road.

And finally from Washington DC. The pentagon made something of a recording error regarding its contract with Boeing to maintain some of its airforce fleet. The draft contract named the pricely sum of $24billion, the single largest contract the DoD (department of defence) has issued. After pointing out the error, officials confirmed it should infact be $24million - 3 orders of magnitude lower! Boeing are probably disappointed!

The longest hours of my life...

As everyone knows, England played in the Rugby World Cup Final today and everyone probably knows the result. Except me! I'm waiting til the match becomes available on the net to download (about 6 hrs in itself!) and watch.

And its a long wait!

My theory is that if i find out the result, i wont want to watch the game (kind of like reading a book having read the last chapter first!). It also means i can't log onto MSN messenger, facebook, any news website and now, after this, my blog incase some smartarse reader posts the score and ruins it all!

Here's to a long night waiting. Waiting and more waiting. I might play my guitar actually - i could do with the practice!

See ya!

Peruvian mountains and salty myres

What a week!

Nothing too special happened in the end. I didn't win the lottery, i didn't go on holiday and i certainly didn't find a lucky quarter on the side-walk (sorry footpath) this morning. But, and this is a big but; England are in the World Cup Final, France aren't, Arizona is going fantastic, i beat my best mate on that stupid "Petrolhead" application and facebook and, oh yeah, im going to Peru for 2 weeks just after christmas!

Add to that - days of confusion, courtesy of pen pushers at Leicester Uni, over whether this year in arizona would actually count towards my degree and im sure you'll agree its been somewhat out of the norm.

So the big question at the moment is: Can Jonny Wilkinson win the world cup for England again? I'm not saying anything against the other players in the side, there all very good (especially Josh Lewsey who i thinks just been awesome) but Jonny is the best player in the world without a doubt. No-one else has such an effect on a game, no-one else can produce under such pressure, no-one else can win us the world cup again. Will we? Won't we? The count down begins! The challenge remains for me to survive without seeing the score until after the match when i can watch a re-run online! God help me!

I can't wait til the christmas vacation (sorry, holiday!) - doing abit of travelling and generally planning to have a really good time. Hence the flight i booked to Peru yesterday - 2 weeks of mountains, hiking, stunning scenery and all the usual backpackers perks.

And the salty myres bit - off to a place called Wilcox (between Tucson and Lordsburg in New Mexico) tomorrow. Its reportedly a wild-west sort of place in Cochise county, built on a massive salt plain in the middle of no-where. Should be interesting!

We have a pet...

a friendly little bug appeared in one of our bathrooms on monday and has since explored the apartment, last seem crawling under the hallway carpet. Infact no, its a big sod off beetle like thing, 2-3 inches long and a fast runner. It escaped my attempts to catch it monday morning with a lunchbox and went into hiding underground (well, under-carpet). If anyone see's it, report it to me on this blog and we'll have a rematch.

We also found a massive bug in the pool last week. It was pushing 3-4 inches long and swam remarkably well. It survived all my attempts to drown it but i eventually managed to catch it and put it in the bushes. Russ reckons it was a dung beetle, working on the theory that they can survive nuke blasts so they can probably survive abit of water. I'm not so sure.

New poll up (see right).
Laters

Saguaro National Park

In the latest series of day trips around Southern Arizona; me, my housemates and a couple of Swiss friends went on an challenging bike ride to a local National Park, strewn with cacti (Saguaro's mainly). Situated some 17 miles from home, at the foot of the Rincon mountains, the national park is a haven for scrambling up rocks, wildlife, cacti and awesome vista's over the Tucson basin below. The ride there wasnt too bad despite most of it being uphill. We stopped once or twice, most convieniently outside a huge guitar shop on Broadway Boulevard where much time was spent in shear awe at the guitars, amps, effects pedals and other accessories. I could have spent thousands in that shop if it wasnt for the issue of carrying it back on the aeroplane. I will be going back at some point for a guitar strap and maybe an effects pedal before i leave.

Once there, we cycled around the park's tourist road for abit before locking up and walking up a trail towards Tanque Verde Ridge. The views from the ridge were extraodinary. Mountains rose all around the Tucson basin, some of which must have been close to the border with Mexico. On descending from our view point back to the trail, we suffered from the "attack of the cacti" with 4 out of the 5 of us getting pricked in someway. I got a giant ball of spines wedged into my left calf muscle, Abi got the same into her hand, Hannes into his ankle and Russ into his leg. Only Julien (one of our Swiss friends) survived the assault but the day wasnt out before he had his fair share of pain.

Coming back home should have been easy, it was nearly all downhill but the wind had something to say about that. Instead of rolling nicely downhill, picking up speed like in some 1940's film, we were actually slowing down! It was insanely hard and absolutely knackering. I now really don't like biking in the wind! And the incident with Julien - a crappy woman driver took out the front wheel on his bike as he was waiting to cross at a road junction. No-one injured and the bike wasnt really damaged (i dont know or care about the car) but i gather she was quite shocked by the incident.

Once home, i changed and jumped in the pool which was a mistake. Somewhat ironically, the pool is insanely cold (i swear someone puts ice into it!) so despite being hot and sweaty all day, i rushed to have a hot shower at the end of it. So that was my interesting day this week, today (Sunday) ive got homework to do and just relaxing abit.

PHOTOS are up on the blog at long long last (thanks to Tim for his help - timnutt.blogspot.com). Go to the top right of the screen and select a folder. There was a photo from yesterday of me hugging a cactus, fortunately ive not put it on here but i understand it can be found on facebook if so desired along with one of me entitled 'American Idiot'. Check them out.

Laters

There's salt in Utah!

UPDATE: More great lines from Mihai (see right)

Well der! It is the home of the famous Salt Lake (and its City) and the Bonneville Salt Flats where Richard Green made himself famous with Thrust SSC but now its also the location of my mini-research project im doing with my Exploration Seismology lecturer. Weve got some awesome data off a well known oil company so its now my task to process, analyse and interpret it ahead of the Geology Departments critically acclaimed annual Geodaze Symposium in the spring where my poster and presentation will be assessed for much coverted prizes.

Also this semester ive got a small side project with the Planetary Team, using some ground penetrating radar data from the Mars Recconnaissance Orbiter to produce a 3 dimensional model of a section of the Northern Polar Ice Cap with a view to find potentional carbon dioxide bearing rocks to help explain the presence of liquid water in Mars' ancient history. Both project involve using Promax, GIS and Kingdom software (all industry standard packages)!

So, boring stuff over (just thought it was worth a mention - im quite pleased at getting them going). Aside from that, this week's been nothing special (hence the lack of blogging!) - people don't want to read a load of crap when they could be spending their time on the internet much more effectively (Tim!).

The odd news this week involves geology (slightly!) - copper! The price of which has inflated somewhat recent thats its reported a 2p coin is worth more in copper than its face value. Anyway, a desperate thief in Germany recently tried to steal LIVE copper electrical wiring from a sub-station. He subsequently got shocked with 10,000 volts and died. Police can only identify him by his fingerprints since his hand was severed from his body during the shock. The rest of his body was completely unrecognisable! Theres a lesson to learn there - if your going to steal some copper either do it from a local DIY store or cut the power first!

Rock climbing and diamondbacks

What a weekend! Friday night i went rock climbing with SESS (the geology club here at the UA), returning Saturday evening tired, very dirty but exhilarated from hanging off the side of a massive cliff all day.

Friday night we camped out in a dry river bed mostly on a diet of flame roasted marshmellows and cookies warmed on the fire. This was followed by some late night arsing around and playing with fire (not a great idea i know, you get soot all over the place not to mention burning yourself!). The following morning we packed up camp and walked about a mile to a deep canyon locally known as "Prison Camp" (it used to be a WW2 prison when the US held the Japanese). The expert guys set up a few routes (or 'Rowts' as the American's say!) and we took to them at our leisure. Since this was my first time climbing - ever - i was quite chuffed at getting up several different climbs graded '7's whatever that means. Why can't they just have easy, medium, hard and suicidal?

On a side note, i saw my first rattlesnake in the USA. One of my American mates went reptile hunting and came across lots of lizards, frogs that can climb better than i can and a beautiful diamondback rattler.

So that was my weekend, im now left with just one piece of homework which is proving pretty hard and another week of classes out here at the UA, my 7th this semester! Unfortunately theres no funny news today, Reuters appear to give themselves the weekend off despite any big-breaking news. Besides, im still astonished that England beat the Aussie's in the Rugby World Cup - on current form, we didnt deserve to win but once again Johnny Wilkinson proves to be a thorn in Australia's game plan. Will we beat France in the semi's??? I'll be surprised and very impressed if we do!

Promax on pro-plus

Nearly, very nearly finished yet another Geochemistry homework! They come thick and fast and i understand theres another one being dished out tomorrow! Well, it'll have to wait because im going climbing in the mountains Friday night with the SESS club (Geology club at the UA). Its cheap (infact virtually free except hiring shoes and tent) and should be good fun! The place were going is called "Prison Camp" - im not sure if thats an omen but im told to expect a hard days work with painful fingers afterwards (you can probably tell i havent rally been outdoor climbing before!).

Today was fun Fun FUN! I spent all morning puzzling over geochemistry (with some success!) and all afternoon working on Promax - a seismic modelling and computation program with a prehistoric interface for modern tasks. It takes an age to process seismic shot records as their all run off a local network server so the imp in the corner checking the baseball results is slowing the progress of your "exploding interface correction run"!

BTW - ive added more great one-liners in the Ducea Randomness section. Mihai Ducea is our regional tectonics lecturer and he's uniquely class in being really quite clever but not liking teaching (he works at a university!) He tell's it like it is and has a real dislike for geophysists who "cant really tell me anything" and rarely "have a purpose in the world!"

Any how, my housemate informs me Arizona Diamondbacks (the state baseball team) are playing in the post-season something or other which i couldn't give a damn about. Tbh, ive got to finish this geochem and then play my guitar (yeah, ive got to do that!).

Incidentally, as a passing comment - following Mahmood Arhmadinnerjacketrentalshop's visit to Columbia University in New York state last week, the Iranian's have returned and invited George Bush to Tehran. I dare say he won't be accepting! Meanwhile in Bejjing, a bank is offering a tempting free gift with all loans - a 20 pack of condoms!

Water holes and reservations

FINALLY on saturday we got the internet into our apartment! A suspiciously casual workman from Cox Communications came and wired us up without me needing to sign anything. Infact, they havent even got my card details to pay for it yet - i really should sort that out. And now with the internet, i spent the latter part of the morning watching the simpson's movie and directly following episode. There absolutely class! If you haven't already, go and see them immediately!

Sunday was relatively mild at 33 - 35 celcius so i jumped at the opportunity of going hiking up a local canyon! Except the buses were all wrong so i ended up walking for 2 hrs along Oracle road just to get there! Still, it was worth it! Pima canyon trail is a classic desert path surrounded by massive cacti towering over rocky shrubland which was teaming with wildlife - lizards, scorpions and a whole lotta spiders including the red-backed 'Black Widow', the venom of which is not normally fatal but will do a lot of harm and your gonna need help! Ironically, southern Arizona has something of an abundance of black widow's!

Anyway, i really need to cut this blog short today - ive got some seismology work to finish off and geochemistry to puzzle over. I'll add something later or tomorrow maybe. I won't leave you without some amusing news, this time from London and Berlin.
London: This years entries for the turner art prize have been unveiled and i must say, the artists have outdone themselves! My vote is on the 'pickled cow' exhibit containing, well, a pickled cow! (If you don't believe me (which you probably dont!), check this out: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL0190054520071001)
Berlin: A man was arrested for trying to sell over a million stollen screws at a Berlin market! Police nailed him!