Kathleen Borealis

Helping humankind live with the earth not against it

Author: katborealis (Page 15 of 28)

Borealis Meditation Podcast S02E04 The one about food, and interview, and new things to come!

July 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Listen to the show here

Meat Week: NPR 

Freakonomics Radio: You eat what you are 1 and 2 

Seafood Watch

Listen to my interview

Taoism argues that there is a natural order in the world that determines the behavior of all things in existence. Early Taoist thinkers believed in the “oneness” of things the unity of everything in the universe and hoped that by studying the world of nature they would discover essential laws.
This attention to the spirit of things particularly naturally occurring phenomena like water or wind lend Taoists into a systematic investigation that became the beginning of science in China. Later on Taoism operated on a more popular level the belief that inanimate objects had their own spirit or god gave rise to a system of warship designed to appease these power which was far removed from the early Taoist principles. 
– From Ancient cultures: Chinese gods and myths
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A volcano named Pagan

July 21, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Pagan Volcano! How cool of a name is that!?

Pagan Island is one of the islands in the in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US) and it is actually the 4th largest of the Northern Marianas. The island is comprised of two stratovolcanoes (Think Mt Fuji and Mt St Helens, cones and tend to erupt more violently then shield volcanoes like the ones that make up the Hawaiian Islands). The volcanoes are named North and South Pagan. (Guess which one is the northern one and the southern one….)

While both Northern and Southern Pagan have been active, the majority of historic eruptions (since 17th century) have come from North Pagan Volcano. Thanks to the numerous eruptions from North Pagan Volcano, Pagan Island is one of the most active of the Mariana islands. The largest historical eruption from North Pagan occurred in 1981 and led to the evacuation of the island.

North Pagan Volcano is currently at aviation color code yellow and is monitored by the USGS.
(Yellow: Volcano is exhibiting signs of elevated unrest above known background level or, after a change from a higher level, volcanic activity has decreased significantly but continues to be closely monitored for possible renewed increase.)

According to the most recent weekly report there was a small low altitude ash cloud on the 10th of July, and drifted around 50Km NW and reached a high of around 1.5km or 5,000 ft above sea level.

References used and other useful links
1) Pagan (Island) wikipedia page
2) Pagan (volcano) page from Global Volcanism Program
3) Current volcanic activity report from Global Volcanism Program
4) USGS monitoring page on Pagan (and current report on activity)

Earthquakes 7/14 – 7/20

July 21, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Earthquakes from 7/14 – time of publishing (7:45am UTC 7/21) from Magnitude 3 and up. Past week are yellow and earthquakes from yesterday are orange.

Totals for the last week:
M2.5+ 189
M5+ 28
M6+ 1 (140km S of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia, M6.0 largest EQ of the last week)
M7+ 0

Some earthquakes in the news:
Earthquake hits Kashmir (M5.6  29km SW of Khorugh, Tajikistan 7/19/12 7:36:36)
Strong quake hits off east coast of New Zealand; no immediate reports of injuries or damage (M5.8 177km NE of Gisborne, New Zealand 2012-07-21 04:54:07)
Earthquake hits southern Victoria (M4.5 13km SW of Moe, Australia 2012-07-20 09:11:32)
Moderate earthquake hits Bulgaria; no injuries (M4.6 7km NNE of Pernik, Bulgaria 2012-07-14 12:52:07)

DID YOU FEEL ANY EQs THIS WEEK!? Make sure when you do you head on over to the USGS earthquakes page and fill out a “did you feel it?” report!

The busy scientist…

July 21, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The good news is that you have a working geologist at your disposal…

The bad news is that this working geologist is actually working on a lot of projects right now (good for professional life bad for having a life) and is SUPER busy and SUPER tired when she does get to come home.

I tried last weekend to get my latest episode out and ended up sleeping a lot. It was one of those end of a stressful project body shuts down weekends. But I am mostly recovered at this point and ready to get to work.

I have a new grand plan!

1) get the episode I have been working on out
2) BURNINGMAN episode! This one I plan to release after the burn and include the geology of the black rock and some recordings from Black Rock City!
3) Geology of San Fran + M00t! Yup I’m a yes on that one! Tickets still need to be bought but I’m going!

Beyond that the episode are going to be far apart but no longer just random stuff I thought of. I am going to pick a region to focus on and talk about the geologic history and minerals you can go rock hounding for in the area. That is my grand plan. So expect better episodes just farther apart. I am also going to start packing my little portable voice recorder and do some field recordings while I am traveling. (I am going to be traveling a lot)

So that is the plan. I’ll also try and be more active writing about science news and earthquakes and eruptions. I think we should adopt Pagan volcano and just check in on it every week or so… sound good!? Its got an awesome name after all!

Peace Love and Rocks!

Kat
@katborealis

somethin’s gotta give

June 12, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I only have so many hours in the day, and lots of projects. I have been spending WAY too much time online doing… nothing… I have blogs to write, podcasts to do, and countless other things at home. So I am thinking of doing something drastic. I am going to unplug my modem at home. I am going to try the rest of the week.

I need to read, so I can finish the latest podcast.
I have writing to catch up on
I need to clean my house
I have yard work to do
I have 3 sewing projects that are time sensitive
and I just need to break my bad habit.

I will have internet access at work and can check email, twitter, facebook at lunch… but I need to get my butt in gear! I am going to unplug the router when the sun goes down…

I hope to have a world of awesome to share with you when I get back!

~Kathleen

Hey! Look up!

June 5, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I have been busy! Doing all sorts of things! Like starting another blog dedicated to the strange projects we do at my house! Like precipitate minerals! Just up there, above you there is a link! Check it out!

Or you can just follow this link 

A little element photo inspiration!

May 7, 2012 / / 1 Comment
Lets have fun with awesome photos!
Sometimes I just needs some pretty pictures to get me in a spiritual mood! I thought I would share my secret source of AMAZING photos! 
The “elemental porn” pages on Reddit
Earth Porn: Beautiful Natural Landscapes (and to give you a taste the current top 5) 
Sunrise above the Alps with view of the Grat Mountain (800×534) 
12 Apostles, Port Campbell National Park, Victoria, Australia [OC] [1280 x 853]
Middle Earth – Altai, Chuya River, Russia [1194×731]
Mayon Volcano – Philippines [500×397]
Paradise cave, Vietnam [4000×3000][OC]
Water Porn: Beautiful Water photos (and to give you a taste the current top 5) 
Water House [800×640] 
Canal, Delft, The Netherlands [768 x 1024] [OC] 

National park Donauauen, Austria [935×1403]
source
google maps
Behind a Wave, Gold Coast, Australia (X-post from pics) [960×640] 
Wave Breaking into Lava, Hawaii {fusing with /r/fireporn} (570×342) [AWAPA]
Sky Porn: Photos of the sky! (and another top 5)
An Apocalyptic South Dakota Storm [5000×2365]
Clouds on Fire, Boulder, Colorado [2592×1936] [OC]

Moonriser, USA [1024 x 1229]
Sunrise and Fog, Camden, NSW Australia (1024 x 694)
A little slice of moon- St. Kitts (West Indies) [3264×2448] [OC]
Fire Porn: Fire fire everywhere! (and another 5 photos) 
Airborne fire fighting e’startit,Spain [OC] [3712×2088]
Captured from a slow motion video, flames close to face (689×394)
video
Also
Galaxy eating lunch [1800 x 1498]
Supermoon Over Paris (707×800) 

Aurora over Norway [900×1450] 
Full Moon [1900×1200]
 I hope you enjoyed that tour of the SWF Porn elements network on reddit! I always look there when I need some elemental inspiration! 

Borealis Meditation S02 E03

May 1, 2012 / / 3 Comments

Show notes:


Listen to the show here


Segment 1: The current state of Kathleen’s religious beliefs subject to change at my time without notice.


Segment 2: Holidays! Can’t we all just get along?

Segment 3: Fluvial systems! The super short version



Meandering River 

Braided River




Segment 4: Control of Nature by John McPhee: wrapping up Atchafalaya and introducing cooling the lava



CONTEST to win one of these:

next episode discussion questions will be out, to enter answer them along with the following question:

– What famous hollywood moving has a scene based on the events from Cooling the Lava?
–  What is the name of the movie and what is the scene?

Blog: http://borealismeditation.blogspot.com 
email: borealis.meditation@gmail.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Borealis-Meditation/149460745070744 
Shop: http://www.etsy.com/people/athenaspear 
and http://www.facebook.com/AthenaSpear

Some topics for the next episode

April 26, 2012 / / 1 Comment

I have been thinking about a few topics for the next episode and wanted to get some feedback! Actually I have had ZERO feedback emails in my inbox on the last one….

– My specific spiritual path and why I consider myself pagan
– River systems (tied into the chapter from the book)
– correlation =/= causation, cherry picking data, and data biases in the dangerous business of “predictions”
(AKA why you should never trust anyone who claims to “predict” and not “forecast” natural events)
– Secular, religious, and cultural holidays 
– Book chapter answers and starting the new one

Any ideas?

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