Oh, your not kidding are you

offered without comment

Politics *sigh*

I'm not big about posting on politics, I don't think this particular blog is about such things, some would say that is exactly what a blog is about so there you go. Anyway, I do tend to keep my politics to myself, maybe share a bit with my wife or other close friends, but this commic in particular caught my interest.

rocks with hair

One of the procedures when completing a well here in the Imperial Valley, is to change over the well to a KCl solution (mixed to a specific gravity of around 9.2 lbs/gallon), this helps manage the clays in the formation and is heavy enough prevent the hot geothermal fluids from coming up the well bore. The real problem with this stuff is its cost, its not cheap. It is normally separated form NaCl and other minerals from salt domes and other sources of brine (my favorite is the basins seen from Dead Horse Point, Utah, even though it is rather disruptive to the scenery). Some care must be taken with it as it can interfere with electrical function of the heart.
This lump of claystone/siltstone was saturated with some of the solution in the well and was circulated out of the well bore. It started to dry in my petri dish and sprouted KCl hairs as the crystals nucleated on the surface of the clay. Pretty much formed these hairs in about 24 hours of exposure to air.



and just a pretty pick, here is Nabors 58, with some "sort of" noctilucent clouds.

the sun was already going over the mountains to the west.

Civics Lessons, A Rant

So, I get to work, talk with Dave before I relieve him for the next twelve hours, boot up my laptop and check my email. One of the things I receive is a feed from MSNBC news, and they had this nifty little article from the AP about mental heath parity bill being tucked in with the bail out bill that congress just passed. I thought to myself for a bit, stewing, getting angrier. So I went off and researched the article and found it. It came from the Lacrosse Tribune out of Lacrosse Wisconsin by AP writer Kevin Freking. Kevin… dude, time to go take some remedial high school civics classes. The Mental Health Parity Act was not tacked onto the bail out, the bail out was tacked onto the MHPA, the difference, while subtle to most Americas (and that is unfortunate) was critical by the fraking Constitution of the United States of America. *exasperated sigh* the Senate has the powers of “advise and consent” (treaty and appointment approval), and the House has the powers of impeachment (trial in the Senate) and powers of Appropriations (article I, section 7), i.e. all spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives. Therefore, for the Senate to get the ball rolling they had to tack the 0.7 Teradollar bailout onto another bill, it could not ride out of the senate on its own. That other bill just happened to be the Mental Health Parity Act. Kevin, you are a reporter, reporting on something quite critical to the function of the United States, it may seem pedantic to point it out, but the error is important, and too much knowledge of how the government works has been lost to the average citizen to reinforce the ignorance.

EDIT: Am I tilting at windmills here?

Happy Birthday Nasa

Edit: NASA was created July 29, 1958 but did not start operation as an entity untill October 01, 1958.

Keep up the good work.