Ted-

> However I am now offering at a reduced rate to PSN members large
> lithographs of natural scenes to place in your basement or garage.  Throw
> in a StairMaster and you won't hardly know the difference.

    You are a true IBM man! A credit to Big Blue!

    Of course, in my case, after FORTRAN programing on IBM 360/30, a 360/44,
and a 360/50 for four years (1967-1971) in the family business, the research
department of local state mental hospital, I ran off as a geology major to the
oil fields of Oklahoma to work as a roustabout so that I could re-establish
contact with the physical Earth . . . and that was the beginning of my life in
the Earth sciences: I wanted to pursue geology to that I could see the world.

    Ironically, I ended up in seismology, the most mathematical techno-nerdy of
the Earth sciences (at least it was then). I chased earthquakes, and so, unlike
some of my more officebound seismological colleagues, I went out in the field
and touched the Earth. But then, ironically again, I specialized in developing
portable computer systems so that we could analyze the digital seismic
waveforms recorded by our portable autonomous digital seismographs (PADSs) in
near-realtime, i.e., while we were still in the field and data acquisition was
still in process. So I can do everything on my field computer that I can do on
my desktop back in the office -- it's like I never left the office . . . so why
DID I leave the office . . . because I never saw the Earth.

    However, on my last trip to Turkey last December, I spent a couple of days
in the field with the Turkish seismologist Naside Ozer who was operating 10
Reftek PASSCAL PADSs in the epicentral area of the 1999 Nov 12 Duzce Earthquake
in cooperation with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University.
Because I would only carry car batteries, and, unlike her students, I would not
even measure battery voltages with a voltmeter, Naside told me that her
72-year-old father was a much better field assistant than I. However,
unburdened by techno-nerdy concerns, I had one of the best experiences in my
seismology career: seeing the structures -- the pull-apart basins and
mountains, the fault ruptures and patterns of building damage -- of the North
Anatolian Fault . . . I am grateful to Naside that she worked harder in the
field than anyone I have ever seen and that she did such a brilliant job that
included all the nerdy stuff . . . and left me to see the Earth.
    So there!
-Edward

ted@.......... wrote:

> For years my plan has been that when the seismic station is online,
> recording and stable I will be able to leave the basement and go off to the
> mountains to fish, camp and trek, knowing that I'll capture any quakes that
> happen while I'm out there in the countryside doing healthy things.
> Unfortunately these three characteristics have never occured at the same
> time.  :-(

--
Edward Cranswick                Tel: 303-273-8609
US Geological Survey, MS 966    Fax: 303-273-8600
PO Box 25046, Federal Center    cranswick@........
Denver, CO 80225-0046  USA      E.M. Forster said, "Only connect".


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