What’s up? The Friday links (60)

A long year ago, the last Friday links were published, a section I always liked and waited for during food coma or processing times. Christoph managed to find intriguing bits and pieces from the digital world of geosciences week after week. And now it’s me (and maybe with a little help from my friends), trying not only to follow-up but also to keep you updated and to keep the geoblogosphere interconnected. What a task! I’m already loving it.

First of all, starting far away from paleoseismicity and active tectonics, yesterday was an OPEC meeting. Not only one of many – yesterday’s meeting was expected to be the most important one in years and years and maybe also in decades. Questions arose whether this hydrocarbon producer’s cartel is going to break or not. Well, it turned out that the OPEC leaders and secretaries did not decide too much, some have even been blocking an outcome. The result: the oil price is on a slippery slide downwards. As I’m writing it’s around 70$. Quite low. So, what’s the deal? Isn’t a low oil price a win for the man on the clapham bus? Well, only somehow.
Cutting some corners short: a low oil price is certainly not helpful for selling the idea of cutting emissions. Yes, I know, scientists do not “sell”, they should convince. Call it what you want, fighting climate change is expensive. So, it’s up to us (as the scientific community) to keep communicating and to keep selling the idea of cutting fossil fuel consumption. I don’t want to demonize hydrocarbon exploration and production, not at all! We live in a world of individual travel, we need HCs for years to come. But cheap energy is undermining the idea of climate change awareness. That’s the deal.

Okay, enough of finger-wagging. Here’s a picture of a rock.

Ruptured pebble, cropping otut close to the Pirulico tower, where the Carboneras and Palomares Faults meet

Adam Ruben, author of the book Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School, wrote an entertaining blog post on the never-ending PhD. It’s so entertaining that you could almost forget that sword of Damocles, hovering above your head and silently whispering: “Write faster! Publish! Now!”.

What about this #sciwrite thing on Twitter? Are people still confessing being super late on their deadlines? If you tend to forget deadlines just come here regularly and see upcoming deadlines in the upper right corner, in the Events section!

Did I write deadline? The EGU Young Scientist financial support application deadline (that would give loads of points in multi-word Scrabble) is approaching. It’s today. Find details and the criteria here.

A badass colleague called Jonathan D. Philips published an article on Badass geomorphology in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. He introduces the applicability of the badass concept (individualistic, non-conformist, able to produce disproportionate results) to geomorphology and named it ICLE.

No latest news, but Germany’s all-new research vessel SONNE was on its first scientific cruise – and Gunnar Ries pointed me to this video footage (below). The Sonne will cruise the Pacific and Indian Oceans to research paleoclimate, human impact on ecosystems and marine raw materials.

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The Geological Society of London library have beautiful geological maps on sale – and if you place your order before 8th December they will be on time for Christmas! There can’t be enough maps on the walls of this world. Want a map print? This way.

Open Access wins all of the arguments all of the time. Read Jon Tennants list of top recommendations for not just the ‘open access community’, but for everyone in academia!

And right before you leave: the registration of the 6th INQUA Workshop on Active Tectonics, Paleoseismology & Archeoseismology is open! You can register via http://www.fucino.it. Don’t forget the deadlines:
28 December 2014: Deadline for application to INQUA grants
15 January 2015: Deadline for Registration to Workshop and Abstract Submission
15 February 2015: Deadline for Registration to Field Trips and Social Events
But don’t worry, we will keep you updated!

Have a nice weekend!

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