melknia's New Writeups

February 18, 2005 (idea)

2005-02-18T05:19:52Z

Today I am starting to really try to lose weight. This is my written commitment to myself.

I am keeping track of what I'm eating, in my special made diary. I am aiming to eat:
3 servings meat/alternative
6 or less servings grains
4+ servings vegetables
3+ servings fruit
2 servings dairy
3 or less servings fat

I will not eat after 10:30pm this week. Usually I have a snack immediately before bed, and I know thats no good! Next week if I am successful, I will move this to 10pm.
I will do weights and cardio work outs at least twice a week at the gym.
I will eat something every day within one hour of waking up, an unhealthy breakfast is better than no breakfast.
I will drink no more than 1 alcoholic drink a day 6 days of the week... one night to party!
I will allow myself one unhealthy meal a week.
I will drink at least 2 litres of water a day.

Today:
3 meat
6 grain
4 vegetable
3.5 fruit
1.5 dairy
3 fat
2 litres of water so far

shazam (thing)

2003-05-22T15:32:34Z

In geology, this is a particular type of line drawn between two facies, or rock types where a gradational boundary exists. These are conformable boundaries, meaning each layer was deposited right after the other, with no gaps.

For example, let's say the rock type we start with is muddy, limey rock with lots of calcarious fragments included. This would form just beyond a reef, where the water is too deep for the reef to survive, which receives fragments of the reef when storms come along. As the sediments thicken, the water becomes shallow enough to support a reef, which would show up in the rock record as a limestone full of coral, crinoid, bryzoan ad other fossils. This would be a gradational boundary because the reef wouldn't form overnight, rather a few of each species would move in when the conditions were right, and after some time a full fledged reef would exist.

In the rock record we would draw a shazam line between these two…

strike-slip fault (thing)

2003-05-21T04:01:00Z

When there is a bend in a strike-slip fault, movement along the fault causes transtension or transpression. This creates a basin where sediments can accumulate (also called the creation of accomodation space.)

Original Bent Fault:

               ___________
              /
             /
   _________/

Whether a tensional or compressional stress is created depends on the direction of movement on the fault. liha explains left and right handed faults above.

Basin created by transtension:

Viewed from above:

              ____________________
             /        /
            / basin  /
   ________/________/

The sense of motion here right handed.

It's pretty easy to imagine this from the side, just a big old hole in the ground. They are usually rectangular or rhombic when viewed from above. This is how the Dead Sea formed, as well as the…

magnetostratigraphy (thing)

2003-05-20T00:34:36Z

A branch of stratigraphy that defines rock units as having different magnetic properties than those adjacent to them in the stratigraphic succession. The main property used is the polarity of the remnant magnetism in the rock, compared to the present magnetic field.

History and the Basics:
The discovery of the pattern of magnetic stripes on the sea floor marked the beginning of this branch of geology, and played a major role in plate tectonic theory. The stripes were confusing at first, but then the symmetrical pattern was noted, and when the pattern was compared to the ocean topography, it was discovered that the ridges served as the mirror plane. In other words, the mid-oceanic ridges were the source of new material on the ocean floor, and the magnetism at the time of cooling was preserved in this material.

If the magnetism preserved is in the same direction as today's magnetism then it is termed normal polarity, but if it is the opposite it…

Jamesonite (thing)

2003-05-19T15:00:30Z

Jamesonite is a lead iron antimony sulphide mineral of the formula Pb₄FeSb₆S₁₄.

Synonyms: feather ore and grey antimony

Physical Properties:
Colour: Dark lead grey
Lustre: Metallic and silky
Transparency: Opaque
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Cleavage: Good basal cleavage (perpendicular to length of crystals)
Fracture: Uneven
Hardness: 2-3
Density: 5.5-6
Streak: Dark grey/black

Common Impurities: Include Cu, Zn, Ag and Bi.

Occurance:
Jamesonite is formed by hydrothermal fluids and often occurs in veins with other antimony sulphides and lead/silver or copper rich antimony sulphides. A good example of such an occurance is in Cornwall, England, where it was first discovered in 1825. Other locations include South Dakota and Arkansas, USA; Zacatecas, Mexico and Rumania. It is…

mineral (thing)

2003-05-18T23:22:45Z

A mineral is a naturally occuring, generally inorganic solid with a definite chemical composition that is fixed or varies within fixed limits, and a highly ordered internal atomic arrangement, which repeats itself in three dimensions.

Lets break this down:

Naturally occuring distinguishes between those things found in nature and those created in laboratories (synthetics) or by other man made means. This can be come confusing when minerals are formed in or on man made structures by natural processes, such as salt or calcium carbonate precipitating out of water in a gutter.

Inorganic means anything created by organism can not be considered a mineral. However, aragonite can be excreted by some organisms to create their shell, and this is often still considered a mineral. This might be because it is more convienient to say "this shell is made of the mineral aragonite" than it is to say "this shell is made of calcium carbonate with the crystalline structure of aragonite".…