Future Geologists

This story appeared in our local paper this morning, and I thought it was worth highlighting. It tells the story of a 5th grader who noticed that a display at the Smithsonian identified the Pre-Cambrian as an "era." He knew this was wrong; the term "era" has a specific use in geologic time, and according to standard time scales the Pre-Cambrian does not qualify. The Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic are eras, the Pre-Cambrian is not. Anyways, many geoscience education posts, especially those dealing with the state of geoscience education in America today, are usually negative or at the very best worrisome. This is good!

And, the fact that there is a 5th grade teacher somewhere that gives proper lessons on geologic time made my day. I doubt I knew anything about geologic time back then. In 5th grade I was an expert on the Chicago Cubs and the 1985 Bears. If the Smithsonian had incorrectly labeled the Cubs 2nd baseman as Ryan Sandberg (instead of) Ryne Sandberg, well hell, I would also have filled out a comment card and made the AP wire. I probably also would have complained about the snack bar.....and so ends the window into 10 year old thermochronic.

Defending Champs

In a completely earth science unrelated post, I feel the need to comment briefly on the upcoming NFL season. As some of you may know, I am a fan of the NFC Champion Chicago Bears. Although they had a disappointing Super Bowl, the Bears were easily the best team in the NFC last year. As a Bears fan, I am constantly asked about our quarterback, Rex Grossman. Grossman had an up and down year last year. During the first few games of the season, he was unstoppable. On track for MVP consideration. Then something happened, Rex lost confidence in his throwing, and he alternated between solid games and truly horrid games. In the end, he did lead the NFC Champion Chicago Bears into the Superbowl, which they lost (but I primarily blame that on the defensive play calling, don't get me started.)

What bugs be is how negative people are about Grossman. He is the best quarterback I have seen in Chicago since the injury prone Jim McMahon. Comparing ourselves to the Green Bay Packers, who have one of the best quarterbacks ever, is just embarassing. Here are the 20 Bears starting quarterbacks since Favre started his first game in September 1992 (he hasn't missed a start since)

Jim Harbaugh
Peter Tom Willis
Will Furrer
Erik Kramer
Steve Walsh
Dave Kreig
Rick Mirer
Steve Stenstrom
Moses Moreno
Shane Matthews
Cade McNown
Jim Miller
Chris Chandler
Henry Burris
Kordell Stewart
Rex Grossman
Jonathan Quinn
Craig Krenzel
Chad Hutchinson
Kyle Orton

So what kills me is how much crap Grossman is getting. 2006 was his first complete year as a starter, and he took the team to the super bowl! Why are we complaining. I know the most popular person in a city is always the back-up quarterback, but give him a break. Let's compare his first full season with the early seasons of other quarterbacks.

	Rex Grossman 2006	Peyton Manning 1998	Brett Favre 1992	Brett Favre 1993	John Elway 1983	John Elway 1984	John Elway 1985
comp/att	262/480	326/575	302/471	318/522	123/259	214/380	327/605
Passing %	55	57	64	61	47	56	54
TD	23	26	18	19	7	18	22
INT	20	28	13	24	14	15	23
Team Record	13-3	3-13	9-7	9-7	2-7	9-7	13-3
Rating	73.9	71.2	85.3	72.2	54.9	76.8	70.2
Games Played	16	16	15	16	9	16	16
Playoffs	yes	no	no	no	no	no	yes
Conf Champ	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no

1983 was a full season for Elway, it was a strike year so they only managed 9 games

I am not trying to say I think Grossman is the next Favre or Manning or Elway, what I am saying is that at the time, how many people thought Favre, Manning, or Elway would be so good? Perhaps a few, but looking at the numbers we should be giving Grossman a lot of credit. Stats-wise he is right in there, even better than some of them, and you'll notice he is the only one to lead his team to the Superbowl!

I think a lot of the push to replace Grossman or not give him time to develop stems from the upsurge in fantasy football, and our current obsession with stats. No one in 1983 had a fantasy league season ruined by Elway. Even Manning in 1998 was before the main rise in popularity. Quarterback take time to develop, which is why I am perfectly happy giving Grossman time. When he is on, he is unstoppable. With experience comes consistency.

And what happened to giving people time? My favorite example, Mike Krzyzewski, perhaps the greatest modern college basketball coach, was 38-47 his first 3 seasons, and 13-29 in conference! How many D1 schools would stand for that now? His second and third year he didn't even make the NIT!

And with that, Bear Down!

Watch as thermochronic speeds through the 5 stages of grief after a horrible performance by the Bears in the superbowl.

1. I can't believe the Bears just lost the superbowl, there must be some mistake, this isn't happening! Someone must have paid the refs! The Colts are on steroids! Were those french figure skating refs? Maybe the real game is next week, yeah, this can't be real, must be a dream, I'll wake up soon.

2. What the bleep! The bleeping defense couldn't stop anything, damn them, damn them to hell! And come on, make a fricking tackle! Catch the fricking ball! What, another fumble! Bleeping overpaid donkeys! My rabbit could block better than that! That's it, I am done with these jackasses, done, D-U-N done, I give up on these losers, overpaid crybaby can't tackle losers!

3. OK, come on, I'll trade you, you can let the Cubs not make the playoffs for the next 100 years, let Cal win the big game, let Duke win the NCAA tourney, I don't care, come on, we can make a deal! Here, take my helium lab, I don't care, I'll make you first author on this paper I am writing, you can have my office, let's just go back and end the game 30 seconds into the first quarter. No one will know! We can do this, just a little favor for a friend!

4. I can't believe this, I'll never be able to recover. I think I'll call in sick tomorrow, drink my sorrows away. It is dark outside, like in my soul. Will the sun ever shine again? Not on me it won't. Darkness, sadness, Mazzy Star and Hank Williams, Stan Rogers' First Christmas, that movie "Leaving Las Vegas", Ben Harpers first album..Sniff sniff, how could this happen, and why does this always happen to me !?!? (now picture me with my fists raised up towards the sky cursing the world, then breaking down into a fetal position and crying, just like Jimmy Bakker, in the rain, alone, with people laughing at me, very very sad).

5. It's OK, it's just a game where millionaires run into each other for 60 minutes, and Prince wasn't that bad, and that "Mapasaurus" commercial, that was kind of funny, and hell, it beats picking apatites all day. I can get through this. Next year, Grossman will be better, Urlacher will be back, our defensive line will be healthy.... I'll be OK. March Madness is almost here, things will be OK. It's just a stupid game, right?

More dramatic evidence of climate change

Scientists are now predicting the bears from Illinois will be migrating to southern Florida in 2 weeks. This is either due to climate change, or to certain angry bears who were seen running all over the place this past Sunday.

I propose a new SI unit for energy

A while ago I had the chance to teach an introductory earth hazards course at a university near where I went to grad school. All in all it was a fantastic experience, and I learned many things while doing it. I found that one of the more important concepts needed to discuss many earth hazards is energy. Specifically, the amount of energy given off during different events, or the role of energy in producing events. The textbook we were using discussed energy in terms of an erg. Ergs are one of those units I really don't have much of a feel for, kind of like electron-volt and tesla, I can use them in equations, but I have no physical basis for comparison. I fear I am not alone in this, many scientists must often use units of measure they have no real sense for. So, today, I would like to propose a new unit of measure to augment the erg (or joule or whatever). The new, official Apparent Dip approved unit of energy is ........... the Urlacher. 1 Urlacher represents the amount of (kinetic) energy Brian Urlacher has when he is running at top speed and about to flatten some poor sap on an opposing team. For those of you still using the old system, 1 Urlacher (1 Ur), is equal to 10¹⁰ ergs.

So, for reference:

A 90 mph fastball has 0.1 Ur, or 10 cUr
A 1 megaton nuclear bomb releases 10¹¹ Ur, or 100 GUr
Mt. St. Helens released 10¹³ Ur, or 10 TUr
The largest earthquake in recorded history (1965 Chile) released 10¹⁶ Ur, or 10 PUr
And the world's nuclear arsenal is roughly 10¹⁷ Ur, or 100 PUr

(I am sorry about the original error in the math, pointed out by the Lab Lemming, I got carried away with the copy and paste of the html marks for superscripts, and committed a scientific sin, forgetting to check everything)

This announcement is of course partly in honor of todays victory by America's Team, the Chicago Bears over the Seattle Seahawks. This is the first playoff victory for the Bears since I was a freshman in college, and it was beautiful. In addition to Rex Grossman having an excellent game, punter and place holder extraordinairre Brad Maynard set up a rough snap in overtime for Robbie Gould to pound through the uprights. It was a 49-yard field goal but would have been good from 60. Brian Urlacher is of course the best defensive player in the NFL and one of the greatest linebackers to ever play the game. If the Ur is adopted, there are hundreds of NFL players who will know exactly what it feels like to get hit with that much energy. Go Bears.