Brainard Lake

Last weekend. Nice weather, great trail, no assholes. Yesterday I literally had a run-in with somebody who MUST have been having a terrible day. At least I hope he was having a terrible day because this guy was acting like a total *^%$. While I was descending a new section of single-track I met with another rider who was climbing; he looked like an experienced rider so I slowed down, said 'hello' and got over to the right of the trail. There was plenty of room for us to pass but this guy was incensed (apparently) that I had the audacity to not completely stop and get off the trail to let him by. Anyway, his response to this terrible slight was to purposely shoulder-check me right off the trail as he rode straight into me without even acknowledging my jovial greeting!

NOTE: (Technically, descenders yield to climbers. In practice however, most riders assess the situation and act accordingly. In fact, I generally yield to people descending and consider it a sign of respect and skill when riders slow and pass without forcing the another rider to stop. Slowing and pulling over to the right counts as yielding in my book)

It didn't stop there. This idiot then engaged me in a yelling match over trail etiquette, "Don't you know the rules!? Get off the trail!! I knew you weren't going to stop so I did that on Purpose! You got a problem with that?!" Jeez... I told him that I didn't have a problem with the rules, just him. I also told him to relax; "it's a nice evening, just enjoy the ride!" I rode away from him while he was still fuming. I could tell it would have made his day to get into a fight right then and there. In classic cheap-shot bully form, he even yelled after me, "Yeah! Keep riding P@$$&!"

I just laughed, but that totally ruined the ride... I never really understand what causes some people to just be jerks.

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leaf peep.

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fall strawberries...

I brought my potted plants inside last week since it started frosting at night... the herbs are just kind of doing their thing, but the strawberry plant I've got in a pot was a bit shocked by the relatively warm clime of our living room. A few days ago I noticed a flower bud, and this morning there are two flowers on it... maybe I'll get a christmas strawberry!



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new vid

this was just a little clip from the crested butte trip this summer... me doing a coaster-wheelie at the bottom of the 401. Too bad I was in front the whole way down the actual trail... I don't have any good clips from the actual ride.

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La Sals overlooking Moab

I went for a ride up in the La Sal mountains near Moab last weekend... it was absolutely freezing up there (frozen ground and snow in the creek valleys) but beautiful. I bundled up and rode for a little while along the Trans-LaSal trail, ultimately eating lunch during a break in the clouds and then heading back to the shelter of my car. I snapped this along the way, and messed around with it a bit in photoshop... anyway, the view of the trail, overlooking Moab valley below. Of course my bike had to make it in the pic.

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Moab - 08

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Geo field trips

Last weekend I helped my advisor lead a field trip for structural field geology. The trip was into the needles and grabens of canyonlands national park, in Utah. 20 people and 5 jeeps was a bit of a logistical nightmare, but nobody flipped a jeep off a cliff or anything, so that was good. This is why I like geology... field-expeditions into remote areas and exceptional structures like perfect full-grabens, relay-ramps and fault controlled sink holes.

learning to Pan

I got stopped on the bike path the other morning by a man who asked to take my picture. He explained that he was taking a photo-techniques class and was learning about "panning" (where the photographer manually follows a moving subject with the lens while shooting, accentuating the sense of motion). I humored this and did a few passes for him while pulling wheelies and what-not. This version is a little modified from the raw file they gave me, but the effect is the same. Had I been shooting, I would have been closer to my subject, shot with wide-angle and used a flash as I over-panned (panned faster than the subject) in order to freeze frame the image but retain trails extending backward from the subject. anyway....



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Blog Blaugh

The last few weeks have been dominated by students, teaching, meetings, and random tasks that have completely eaten up my time. Somehow, in the midst of all this, I've managed to get a few things finished, but nothing that was on my 'list' as of three weeks ago. Finalizing gravity profile models has not happened. I have not finished a draft of my next paper. I haven't even finalized my plans to attend AGU this year!

Add to all this a brief bout with a hell of a case of stomach-flu, and a general sense of fatigue, and the result has been a busy-yet-somehow-unproductive few weeks. blaugh.

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EU supports science research

I think this is hilarious... notice all the loner noble gasses, brilliant!



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Meso-scale Structural Control of Western Taiwan Morphology Based on Integrated Analysis of Spatially Correlated Datasets.

Taiwan has been described by various models which each approximate an overall behavior of the orogen, yet no single posited model has succeeded in providing a synthesis of the entire suite of geophysical and geological data available across a wide range of observational scales. Along strike variability of structural styles, seismological activity, gravitational field strength and flexural response of the foreland have all been addressed at island encompassing scales in previous investigations; most existing models of Taiwan’s evolution fail to account for certain anomalous observations at intermediate scales. Spatial correlation of several such observations in Taiwan occurs between different data types, and coincides with recognized shifts in structural and depositional regimes, highlighting a region surrounding Taichung and Puli in Western Taiwan. This region exhibits a discrete structural style from the rest of the foreland, historically experiences large destructive earthquakes and is also spatially correlative with a -60 mGal gravity anomaly. The Taichung basin itself is composed primarily of Pleistocene synorogenic sediments, is larger and deeper than any other basin elsewhere on the island and does not appear to be isostatically compensated, however the reasons for this have not been fully explained in flexural models to date. The existence of the Puli Topographic Embayment additionally suggests that variations occur in one or more of the parameters which affect rock uplift and/or erosion in the region, such as the strength of the underlying decollement, rheology of the deforming wedge, or changes in either tectonic or surficial boundary conditions. We suggest that the Chinese Continental Margin, which exhibits a systematically variable distribution of pre-existing normal faults, is structurally incorporated into the orogenic wedge beneath the northern Hsueshan and northern Alishan ranges, but is resistant to incorporation beneath Taichung and Puli. This pattern of structural inversion and incorporation strongly contributes to the meso-scale along-strike variations in overall wedge geometry of Western Taiwan. These observations support our new hypothesis that the Puli topographic embayment is the result of the indentation of a basement low, buttressed to the north and south by basement highs, rather than a result of indentation by the Peikang basement high alone. The spatial correlation of anomalies further inboard of the active mountain-front nicely demonstrates the long-term affects of this anisotropic template being accreted and subsequently incorporated into the orogen. This new work allows for a more integrated understanding of the interactive processes which are responsible for both large-scale and meso-scale morphologies of the Taiwanese orogen.

Kaoss Pad

These are nifty expensive little gizmos that essentially replace a loop sampler, beat machine, tone generator and mixer/filter... all in one. This clip is of someone using only the internal circuits with no external source (you can run anything kind of external sources too). Kind of minimal-beat style.



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AAAaahhhhHHHH-CCHOOOOOOO!!!!

sometimes I love colorado. but right now I wish I was in washington...



This is a map of the pollen concentrations today

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woah

amazing breaking clip, really this crew has got to be one of the better I've seen.... I think this is from the "planet b-boy" documentary. Mostly I just like the clip.



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Igor Kenk

This guy is a damn punk. Glad they caught him.

Prolific bicycle thief arrested

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owie...

I finally figured out today why most people don't wear flip-flops while mountain biking. It has mostly to do, I think, with the fact that if you crash you run the risk of getting your feet cut up or mashed or whatever. Luckily (I suppose) I went the simple route and just removed some skin from the top of my foot. I was commuting home from my office on campus, and (as usual) was practicing wheelies and manuals and such, when I had to avoid a kid (freshman?)....

My front wheel slid out (once I had put it back on the ground... I know, 100% my fault) and so I found I was sliding along the ground in a kneeling position with my shin kind of tucked underneath me. At the end of the slide (My jeans left a 4 foot blue skid-mark on the concrete) I popped back up and hadn't even lost a flop... both were still in place, but I had managed to put holes in my last intact pair of jeans. I also put a few holes in myself but nothing worth complaining about. Darn kids ;p




(the lower right scab above my knee is from last week... the new ones are from today)
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ridge

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Crested Butte

home safe and sound after a weekend of riding...
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Clouds

clouds during sunset Tuesday.

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