GinBaby’s Neighborhood

It's too hot. Way too hot. If you are crazy enough to plan to take a trip to Japan before it gets to autumn, come prepared. Wear a hat. Pack light clothes. Drink lots of water, or sample all those "sports drink" from convenience stores (and while I'm on the topic- Pocali Sweat does not contain any sweat whatsoever. It's just a stupid name). Seriously. People are falling from heat stroke all over the country. 

I organized a reunion lunch with a few of the folks from my Form II year. Since Knight Rider is coming back, so are we.
   We have not sat down together in 23 years. And everyone was instantly recognizable.

   The last person is someone random—she knew two of the people and we invited her to sit with us.
   The five of us are: Deborah McGuire, Mark Rees-Thomas, Krishna Magan, Jessica Stephens (née Beyeler) and myself (trying to photograph myself by inverting the phone-camera; it does have two modes but the other one gives a reflected image).
   We are still wrinkle-free though we have a few more grey hairs. Mark, Krishna and Jess have kids.
   A whole bunch of names came up from the past, some of which I had forgotten, and we all had some great goss.
   But we did have a few remarks and info about other folks—Jason Maling, Tracey Heemi, Ishara Goonawardne, Tom Pacza, Anita Balakrishnan, Barry Lei, Laura Hayvice, Chris Mardon, David Irvine, Corbett Stace and more. If you folks are reading, we still remember you. There were a few other names that came up that I am ashamed I have already forgotten tonight.
   If United Airlines passengers are told that they are being flown by Capt Brett Egarr, let him know he was in our thoughts, too.
   We have no info on Dane Alchorne, Cadell Macmillan, Neil McDonald, David Garland, Claudia Iten (though we suspect she could be an opera singer) and numerous others. If you guys ever read this, please get in touch with me via my main site or join the St Mark’s Alumni and Friends group on Facebook.
   We did wonder whatever happened to that guy Karl Urban who was in our year.
   We’ve decided to do another one in August so anyone from the class of ’85 who missed this, you still have a chance!

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Emjay

If I've figured correctly it should be about 7 am (ish) where she is and she'll be up getting ready for work. Ready to struggle off to work on her crutches in her smelly cast. No doubt she'll have a bitch and moan about it here later. Some problem with her foot tendons, I don't know, I didn't pay attention. Honestly since she hit 50 it's just been one medical drama after the other.

Or maybe she got the day off and she can lay around and eat chocolate all day. Hopefully someone sent her some cadburys. One of the negatives of living in the USA - no cadburys.

More photos that were coloured by mum.

Happy birthday.

 

I can't decide whether to laugh or cry at this, and the fact that it's so goddamned popular.

General Motors provided us with these videos today from the British Motor Show. Still thinking about whether to put them on to the Lucire site as the aspect ratio is wrong and everyone looks 12 ft tall. They include the launch of the Opel Insignia, and scenes from Cadillac, Bentley, Lotus, Renault and Alfa Romeo.

Estelle Getty has died—farewell to The Golden Girls’ Sophia.
   Although her character was the oldest, I think Estelle was one of the youngest actresses in the cast. She was 84 at the time of her passing, but 20-plus years ago, her character’s age was in the 80s.
   I’ll remember her well for The Golden Girls and not for Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

As I was heading out for the gym, a letter in the mailbox informs me that I owe the Quebec government another $2,800 in taxes for 2007. Sigh. After what I've paid already (a LOT). So annoying.

I run to the gym, run for 45 minutes straight, feeling better: it's only money. OK, deal with it. I get home, hop in the shower, turn on my computer, make a smoothie, turn on my computer, change my clothes, turn on my computer, wait. Why won't my computer turn on?

Can't find hard drive it says. That doesn't sound good. Run scan: everything seems OK except that it's not reading any hard drive, as if it's never been there. Sigh again.

I run the thing down the hill to a computer shop: bottom line? I can drop $500 to have it fixed (a four year old computer that has other problems) or buy a new one. And I paid $40 for him to tell me that.

Bottom line is it's 11pm now and I am setting up my new computer. Thank GOD I have copies of just about everything in my email account. I did lose about a week's worth of work for one company that will take me two days to reproduce, and another few days of work for another company that will take slightly longer to reproduce. But it could have been much much worse. Most of my music was on my iPod so I could recover it. All my photos are online. So there are a few things here and there (and certain things I'm probably not remembering right now)...but I feel lucky that I didn't lose more.

And I'm not stressing about the fact that last night before I went to bed, I was $4,000 richer than I am today (taxes plus new computer).

Life's a drag. But at least I got a new computer.

Guess my hiking trip to Vermont is out...

 

This is a reboot of the previous post, which got tangled in hidden formating codes.

Yep - here we go again! A new version of Chapter 4, in which we discover Earth's minerals, rocks, and layers.
Please - be brutal! The more you help me improve this, the better it will be for the students who have to use it!

4.1 Earth’s Composition

Most of our information about earth’s interior and its composition comes from indirect observation; the deepest drill hole to date has penetrated less than 25 km into the earth, or about 0.004% of the distance from the surface to the center. Our primary means of observation is the seismic energy released by earthquakes, which show that earth’s interior is divided into layers. The thickness of the layers and their velocities (fig.4.1, center) may be found using the arrival times at stations around the globe; in certain instances, the behavior of the energy at the layer boundaries is also informative (e.g., at the D’’ layer that is believed to be the core-mantle boundary). As discussed later, information from komatiites, which are believed to represent upwellings from the mantle, and meteorites, which are believed to represent the starting composition of the earth, also provide constraints on our models of the earth’s interior. Finally, data from earth tides, gravity, magnetism, and inertial measurements are also useful in determining the best model for the solid earth.

What we do know is that each layer has consistent properties (Fig. 4.1), from the high water content of the aesthenosphere to the absence of S-waves in the outer core. The properties of each layer come from its physical conditions (pressure and temperature) as well as from its chemical composition. But how the layers are defined depends on which property is most important. Geochemists study earth based on its chemical properties and so define a different set of layers than do geophysicists who divide earth’s interior based on mechanical properties. Mechanically, the layers are the lithosphere, the upper mantle, the lower mantle or D’’ layer, the outer core, and the inner core. These layers have been primarily defined by their seismic characteristics, including P-and S-wave velocities. We will examine this in more detail in later sections.

For now, let us consider earth’s chemical layers. Chemically, earth’s interior is subdivided into the crust, the aesthenosphere, the mantle, the core-mantle boundary, the outer core, and the inner core. Each chemical layer is made from a specific set of rocks or materials with a consistent chemical composition (Table 4.1-1). For example, the mantle consists primarily of peridotite and the oceanic crust is primarily basalt and gabbro.

The rocks in each layer are made up of naturally-occurring compounds which form molecules known as minerals. Though more than 100,000 different minerals have been identified, the bulk of earth’s interior is made from only thirteen compounds (Table 4.1-2) that combine in various ways to make fewer than fifty minerals. Similarly, each compound is made up of atoms with consistent properties known as elements. Earth’s main elements are oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), potassium (K), cobalt (Co), and nickel (Ni). The distribution of these elements is different for each planet and follows a distinct pattern (Chapter 10). For now, we will focus on the distribution of these elements in earth’s interior.

Each element is a specific type of atom with a defined number of positively-charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons in a central nucleus which is surrounded by concentric, non-spherical regions called orbitals that act as holding tanks for negatively-charged electrons. An electron must gain or lose specific amounts of energy in order to move from one orbital to another [1]. The number of neutrons in an element can vary. This changes the mass of the atom, creating isotopes which have the same chemical reactions but at different rates. More neutrons creates a heavier atom which reacts more slowly than one with fewer neutrons. As we will see, this effect creates a "thermometer" that can be used to determine the formation temperature for a mineral. The mass of an atom is shown as a superscript to the left of the chemical symbol. For example, carbon (C) is commonly found as with six protons and six neutrons, for an atomic mass of twelve (¹²C). However, it also has isotopes with seven neutrons (¹³C) and eight neutrons (¹⁴C).

It is the number of electrons that determines how each element reacts chemically, and the number of protons that determines how many electrons an atom can hold. Initially, these are equal. However, this can change in two ways. The number of protons and neutrons can change by nuclear decay (chapter 5) or fusion (chapter 10). If the number of protons has changed, the atom becomes a new element. The number of electrons can change when they gain so much energy that they leave the atom entirely and join another atom forming ions. The number of electrons lost or gained is shown by a superscript on the right of the chemical symbol. For example, when hydrogen (H) gains an electron it is written as H⁻ but when it loses one it is written H⁺ . Protons and neutrons are more than 1,000 times more massive than electrons. Thus, gaining or losing electrons only changes an atom’s mass by an insignificant amount.

There are four main ways of joining atoms together to form molecules (Table 4.1-3). The electrons can be shared between atoms in a covalent bond. Glass is a material with strong covalent bonds. Alternatively, an atom can become a positively-charged cation by losing an electron or it can gain an electron and become a negatively-charged anion. The electrical attraction between cations and anions creates an ionic bond. Salt is a common material with an ionic bond. Electrons can also move between atoms, forming a metallic bond. Not surprisingly, iron and gold have metallic bonds. Weak bonds known van der Waals bonds can also form between molecules. The exact nature of these weak bonds is complex and beyond the scope of this text. Ice is an example of a material with van der Waals bonds (and covalent bonds).

Covalent bonds are the hardest to break. Covalent bonds reduce solubility (as this depends on ionic bonds) and create materials with higher melting points (stronger bonds require more energy to break). Materials made with covalent bonds do not break easily or smoothly. Ionic bonds create materials that are poor conductors of electricity and that dissolve easily in water. They are not as strong as materials made with covalent bonds and will break along well-defined lines. Materials with metallic bonds conduct electricity easily and can be hammered into a new shape without breaking. The weakest bonds are those formed between molecules with the van der Waals force. These materials have little strength and will break evenly along a plane.

The number of each element in a molecule is given by a subscript to the right of the chemical symbol. For example, the main component of air is two nitrogen atoms (N₂) held by a covalent bond. The size of the orbitals and the atomic bonds create molecules with distinct shapes and sizes. A crystal is formed when these bonds create a solid from molecules, ions, or atoms in a repeating pattern. For example, salt (NaCl) is a crystal with alternating sodium (Na⁺) and chlorine (Cl⁻) ions held together by ionic bonds. Similarly, ice is a crystal formed from covalently bonded H₂O molecules linked together by van der Waals forces. Because atoms are three-dimensional and can form multiple bonds, the resulting molecules can have different sizes in each direction.

One common tool for finding the bond size is X-ray diffraction. X-rays are simply a type of light not visible to the naked eye. In 1670, Isaac Newton discovered that visible light could be split into colors using a simple prism. In 1800, Frederich Herschel discovered a color of light could not be seen. Because it lay beyond red, he called the color infrared. Since then, we have discovered that visible light is just a tiny fraction of the whole electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from long radio waves to short gamma rays (fig 4.1-2).

Though the spectrum contains both "waves" and "rays", light is actually neither. Instead, it is a photon that sometimes acts like a wave and sometimes acts like a particle [2]. Photons can create interference patterns, like waves, but individual photons can carry only discrete amounts of energy. The amount of energy (E) that a photon carries is:

where c is the speed of light, lambda is the wavelength of the photon, and h is Planck’s constant (6.626x10⁻³⁴ Js). A gamma ray photon (wavelength 10⁻¹⁶ m) has 10²¹ times the energy of a radio wave photon (wavelength 10⁵ m). The photon’s wavelength also determines its color.

[1] Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his description of this effect.

[2] This is similar to the "cameleopard" which has the hump of a camel and the spots of a leopard. Despite the name, it is neither a camel nor a leopard. The modern name for a cameleopard is "giraffe"

4.2 Earth’s Minerals
Earth is mainly made up of silicate minerals, which form around groups of four oxygen (O) atoms covalently bonded to one silicon (Si) atom. The chemical notation for this is SiO4 . The silicon atom’s radius is about 1/3 that of an oxygen atom, so the silicate forms a tetrahedron with the silicon in the center. Aluminum is about the same size as silicon and frequently substitutes for it. Silicate tetrahedrons can form covalent bonds, or may gain up to four electrons to form ionic bonds. Common silicate cations include Na⁺ , K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Fe²⁺ (ferrous), Fe³⁺ (ferric). In general the cations are smaller than the anions. Thus, most of the crystal's volume is anions with cations put into the gaps.

Baaahd

• Inability to get out of bed before 8, regardless of time I go to sleep.
• meetings
• stains
• low bank balance
• dust
• apathy
• John McCain
• electronic tomfoolery
• microsoft

MMM good

• Vicodin
• Photographing and Ikea-ing to look forward to
• NOT having kids
• IMAX batman Thursday
• Red wine
• new possibilities on the horizon
• working with people who want to grow
• movies on the big screen in my living room
• bird luv
• weird dreams
• guys who walk backwards on freeway overpasses
• long days
• Ali Smith