August 10, 2021

A mishmash of things today. 

First, this weekend, I went on a free tour of the UCLA Botanical Gardens. It was me and people in their 60s-80s. One woman exclaimed, "Oh! What a wonderful tree!" and the guide agreed, "It is a wonderful tree." I teared up a little. I needed the change of pace. 

Second, I read the Journal Club paper for lab this week. It's an odd one because it's a paleontology/geology paper -- way different than the lab's usual expertise. I made a glossary to help myself out with all the terms, and I think it's pretty neat. There were some good words in there. 

Journal Club Glossary

Aggradation (or alluviation) is the term used in geology for the increase in land elevation, typically in a river system, due to the deposition of sediment.

 

Attenuated: having been reduced in force, effect, or value. thin or reduced in thickness.

Basal: forming or belonging to a bottom layer or base. 

Bleb: a small blister on the skin. a small bubble in glass or in a fluid. a rounded outgrowth on the surface of a cell.

Bioturbation: (geology) the disturbance of sedimentary deposits by living organisms.

Clast: (geology) a constituent fragment of clastic rock. 

Clastic rock: (geology) Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock.

 

Crevasse splay: (geology) A crevasse splay is a sedimentary fluvial deposit which forms when a stream breaks its natural or artificial levees and deposits sediment on a floodplain

 

Cross stratification: (geology) cross-bedding, also known as cross-stratification, is layering within a stratum and at an angle to the main bedding plane. The sedimentary structures which result are roughly horizontal units composed of inclined layers.

 

Diagenesis: recombination or rearrangement of constituents (as of a chemical or mineral) resulting in a new product.

Imbricate: Overlap or cause to overlap

Interlaminated: inserted between layers. 2. To arrange in alternating layers.

Isochronous: occurring at the same time. 

Lithology: the study of the general physical characteristics of rocks. 

Pedogenic: relating to or denoting processes occurring in soil or leading to the formation of soil.

Point bar: (geology) an alluvial deposit that forms by accretion on the inner side of an expanding loop of a river.

 

Seiche: A seiche is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water. a temporary disturbance or oscillation in the water level of a lake or partially enclosed body of water, especially one caused by changes in atmospheric pressure.

Shocked minerals: (geology) The extreme physical conditions that are imposed by intense shock waves on the rocks through which they pass produce unique, recognizable, and durable shock-metamorphic effects; such shock waves are produced naturally only by the hypervelocity impacts of extraterrestrial objects. Shock-metamorphic effects include shatter cones, melted rocks, and crystal deformations. 

 

Splash-form: shaped like spheres, ellipsoids, teardrops, dumbbells, and other forms characteristic of isolated molten bodies. They are regarded as having formed from the solidification of rotating liquids, and not atmospheric ablation.

Stratigraphy: the branch of geology concerned with the order and relative position of strata and their relationship to the geological time scale.

Stratum: (geology) a layer or a series of layers of rock in the ground.

Subaerial: (geology) existing, occurring, or formed in the open air or on the earth's surface, not underwater or underground.

Taphonomy: Taphonomy is the study of how organisms decay and become fossilized or preserved in the archaeological record.

Third, it's Blog time. 

Blog Time! 

Rogen, Seth – YEARBOOK 

Published: 2021

Read: 8/2021

A collection of essays by Seth Rogen about his childhood, drugs, getting into conflict with North Korea over The Interview, meeting Nicholas Cage, etc. I was impressed with his story about how he had to fire his manager (a grown adult) when Rogen was just 19. I’m not sure I could do that now, and I’m 34. I think Seth’s also an interesting amalgam: laid back and hardline, shlubby and cool, wayward and collected. Something to try to emulate, having that balance of strengths. 

Rating: ★★★