27 April 2008
In the Humorous Vein #1
Posted by Jessica Ball
I remember when those motivational posters (you know, the kind with “Challenge” or “Overcoming Obstacles” and an uplifting quote) were really popular, especially in schools. Maybe some people liked having those around; they always made me gag. I prefer the really sarcastic kind better. Like Mediocrity. Or Pressure. Or Tradition. (And, because I’m a Trek fan, I’m particularly partial to these. )
So naturally I figured the geoblogosphere could use some posters of their own. Maybe I’ll make this a Sunday thing, since I can never remember to do a Friday Field Foto.
Here’s Geo Insights poster #1!
Jessica Ball is a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, researching volcanic hydrothermal systems and stability, and doing science communication for the California Volcano Observatory. She previously worked at the Geological Society of America's Washington DC Policy Office, learning about the intersection of Earth science and legislative affairs. Her Mendenhall postdoc and PhD focused on how water affects the stability of volcanoes, and involved both field investigations and numerical modeling applications. Her blogging covers a range of topics, from her experiences in academic geosciences to science outreach and communication to her field and lab work in volcanology. 
Ok, I’ll ask: What is “snarking”?Lovely mountain, even if I don’t get the joke.
From snarking.com:DEFINITIONSSNARK (1)The snark is a mostly fictional creature in Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. As the prey for an odd band of hunters, some think the snark may even be a cousin to the snipe. Some snarks appear friendlier than others, with whiskers or even feathers, though most will bite or scratch, if provoked. (Though beware the Boojum!)SNARK (2)As a style of speech, the word snark can be considered a contraction of snide and remark, thus snark. So to snark someone is to toss a (seldom caught) snide remark their way, the act of which is snarking.The mountain they’re sitting in front of is Mt. St. Helens, which erupted with a lateral blast in the 1980s…pretty much exactly in the direction of the ridge those vans are sitting on.
Good choice of location – if you really want to watch the next “big one!”