2009-10-04 | by Chris | Full Article | Comments (1)

2009-10-03 | by Chris | Full Article | Comments (9)

From the Stuff.co.nz article “Wellington still prone to quakes” comes this little gem of stupidity:

Bart Hanson (09:08 pm Sep 18 2009) This article epitomizes my disgust for experts who cannot tell us when the next huge natural disaster will hit and merely being in a particular place at that moment will decide who lives and who dies, but still we are being told not to be complacent? Like hell, get stuffed I’ve got better things to worry about.

You are beyond ignorant if you think the experts can even start to accurately predict earthquakes or many other major natural disasters. Even having a basic grasp of geology of seismology will tell you that these things are not predictable to within a useful accuracy or precision. We had a discussion about the dangers, and inadequacies, of earthquake prediction in Episode 11 of the podClast.

Other things science can’t do: accurately predict when the next killer asteroid will strike the Earth. The reasons are the same, there’s not enough data on either scenario in order to make an accurate, down to the minute-, hour-, month-, year- or decade-accurate forecast or as to exactly where either event will exactly occur.

The best geologists can do is look to the past, i.e, the old geology phrase “The past is the key to the future.” If a fault has ruptured roughly once every 100 years (and you’d be able to see this in the geological record), you should expect it to do so again in 100 years since the previous event. Or 150 years. Or 80 years. Earthquakes don’t run on a precision clock, and thus are never “early” or “overdue”. They occur when they occur.

If you’re caught out by having “better things to worry about”, Mr Bart Hanson, don’t go crying to others for food, shelter or clean water when you are caught in a natural disaster. Obviously the tiny amount of effort it takes to store some water, canned food and other supplies somewhere (details here at the USGS) is far outweighed by your necessity to spend time complaining on the internet.

Being prepared for natural disasters is important. Like not paying tax, not taking medication or indulging in smoking, you may think you’re getting away with it, but after a while, it could catch up with you, and the results could, literally, be deadly.

If you live in an earthquake zone, like I and many others do, the seriousness of being prepared cannot be overstated. Again, a list of the things you need can be found at the USGS. It’s not difficult and it could well save your life.

2009-09-21 | by Chris | Comments (5)

Hello everyone.

Although I haven’t posted here in a while, I’m still actively working on the site and this brand spanking new theme is proof.

Have a look around. If you feel like it, tell me of anything you spot that looks wrong either in the comments, or just by tweeting it to me on Twitter @Yorrike . If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, try using the “tweet this” link below and watch in delight as any tweets regarding this post will appear in the “tweetbacks” section of this post.

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you can wait a few days until I get around to fixing any display bugs you’ll no doubt be seeing (even though it’s all perfectly valid XHTML and CSS, which is displayed properly in Safari, Firefox and Opera).

2009-09-18 | by Chris | Comments (2)

2009-09-15 | by Chris | Full Article | Comments (0)

Update: Andrew from About:Geology noted that the original address (for the 21st Amendment Bar) I had on this post was wrong. It’s now been updated.

Hello everyone.

Sorry for the long hiatus here on goodSchist and on the podClast, I’ve been traveling to various places in Europe for the past month and I’m about to head out on the second leg of my long trip home later this morning with a flight to San Francisco.

This will, of course, bring about the long talked about San Francisco GeoBloggers in the Pub event that I’ve hinted at to various people over the last few months.

So, if you’d like to come along, have a few beers or drinks of various other types with geologists and geobloggers, and participate with a live recording of the podClast, here are the details you’ll need:

Date: Saturday the 25th of July
Time: from 1400 (2pm) onwards (podClasting from about 1500 I reckon)
Place: The 21st Amendment Brewery, 563 2nd St, San Francisco (Google Map)

If you’re intending on joining us for the podClast recording and you have an iPhone, it’d be really handy if you loaded a copy of the Griffin iTalk app (website here). It’s free and means we can have a few recordings going on at once for prosperity/volume levels. Also, if people could suggest topics for discussion in the comments section below, that’d be great too (although a free flowing discussion will no doubt ensue).

Hopefully see a reasonable group of you there.

2009-07-15 | by Chris | Comments (8)

2009-05-21 | by Chris | Full Article | Comments (3)

2009-05-07 | by Chris | Full Article | Comments (6)

Just a quick reminder to all of you lovely Londoners, that the Geobloggers in the Pub meetup is tomorrow afternoon (May the 2nd), 2pm onwards at the Cittie of Yorke tavern in London (22 High Holborn, Camden, London, WC1V 6BN, United Kingdom (map) – a short walk from the Chancery Lane tube station).

More thorough details can be found in this post, I’ll be placing an piece of A4 paper on the table which looks like the following image so you can find us (or just me, depending on turnout).

See some of you there!

2009-05-01 | by Chris | Comments (0)

2009-04-20 | by Chris | Full Article | Comments (5)