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19 December 2011
Video book review: cartoon books
A brief video review of two books presented in a cartoon format: Feynman, by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by R. Crumb [youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsbcS2_ZAhg”]
31 October 2011
My Halloween costume
Here’s what I did for my Halloween costume this year. I decided to be a frog egg mass, with spawning frogs spewing gametes all over in a big orgiastic mess. Start with one ‘normal’ Callan: Switch to frog-egg colored clothing: Don a pair of foam packing bubble wrap “trousers: Add a “tunic” of bubble wrap, hot-glued into a blobby mass: Add a spawning frog in back, and another in front: …
29 September 2011
Salt dough physiographic province map of Virginia
By local prodigy Hannah Holland, elementary school student: Click through to make it bigger and see some details. Nice work, Hannah! Very impressive, and thanks for sharing!
14 September 2011
Is “Tertiary” archaic?
Jack and Drumlin are visiting for the day from their usual home.
13 June 2011
Rockies stratigraphic column checklist
I just drew up a little checklist for the different formations my Rockies students will be seeing next starting next week out in Montana: The original black and white images (two columns on two pages) come from Self-Guided Field Trips Near Bozeman (1982), by Stephan G. Custer, Donald L. Smith, Molly Walker, and 1982’s crop of geology graduate students at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. This stratigraphic column, which …
27 May 2011
Friday fold(s): the Outdoor Lab
Today’s Friday fold takes me back 25 years, to when I visited the Outdoor Lab with my science class in Arlington County Public Schools. I revisited this exemplary outdoor education facility on Tuesday, at the invitation of its director, Neil Heinekamp. Neil wanted a geology “expert” to take a look at their rocks, and I wanted a chance to check out their rocks as part of my expanding examination of …
15 March 2011
Less U.S. concern for climate change
A new poll by Gallup suggests that the proportion of the U.S. population concerned about climate change has dropped to an almost record low (51% of the “polled population worrying about climate change a great deal/fair amount”). The data are interesting to look at: (source) I thought I detected a little pattern here with the numbers waxing and waning, and so I went to NASA’s GISS dataset for the U.S. …
11 March 2011
Art imitates art
Something occurred to me this morning when I saw this: (source) …And it was this: (source) Do you think it’s a coincidence that NOAA’s mapmaker chose that particular royal blue / sky blue / white color scheme, augmented by gray continents with yellow accents? I suspect it’s a beautiful shout-out to the classic piece of tsunami art. The reality is that tsunami are often a horrid brown gray color, full …
28 February 2011
Graphic analysis: “Climate data challenges”
Callan assesses the quality of the information design displayed in a graphic accompanying a recent article in Science. See if you agree with his critique! Being conscious of our graphic design is important for good science to be unencumbered by gimmicks, propaganda, and layout that obscures meaning.
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.