The xkcd Wikipedia meme

(via VWXYNot? and Drug Monkey)

“Click on the first link not in parentheses in any Wikipedia entry. Keep doing this and eventually, you end up at Philosophy." Also see xkcd Wikipedia steps to philosophy.

Starting at Ore, which is what I work on:

1. Ore
2. rock (goes to Rock (Geology))
3. geology
4. science
5. knowledge
6. information
7. sequence
8. mathematics
9. quantity
10. property (goes to Property (Philosophy))
11. modern philosophy
12. Philosophy

Starting at Basin and Range Province (which is where I am). [Aside: "Basin and Range" goes to Geology, and we already know where that leads.]

1. Basin and Range Province
2. physiographic region (goes to United States physiographic region)
3. continental United States (goes to Contiguous states)
4. U.S. States (redirects to U.S. State)
5. federated states
6. consitutional (goes to Constitution)
7. state (goes to State(polity))
8. social sciences
9. fields (goes to List of academic disciplines)
10. academic (goes to Academia)
11. community
12. living
13. life
14. objects (goes to Physical body)
15. physics
16. natural science
17. naturalistic (goes to Naturalism (philosophy))
18. philosophical (goes to Philosophy)

Starting with Beer, which is something to have after work, whether you are in the Basin and Range Province or not:

1. Beer
2. alcoholic beverages
3. drink
4. liquid
5. states of matter
6. phase (goes to Phase (matter))
7. physical sciences (goes to Outline of physical science)
8. natural science
9. naturalistic (goes to Naturalism (philosophy))
10. philosophical (goes to Philosophy)

Wherein we have learned that Beer is closer to Philosophy than either Ore or the Basin and Range Province. But we already knew that, didn't we?

Reese River Ravens

While driving through central Nevada about two weeks ago, we decided to stop at the Reese River to check on the water level. The pullout is a short jog from the river overpass, so I jogged on over, taking my camera with me. When I arrived, two ravens were making quite a ruckus overhead, distracting me from my goal of looking at the river.

I wondered what was up.
I looked over toward the concrete wall adjoining the overpass bridge and saw a mass of black feathers in a large nest.
Is this what all the overhead squawking was all about? I've been chased off and then led away from a nest by an owl before, and have been dive bombed by unfriendly gulls. Fortunately, these ravens stayed overhead: no dive bombing ensued.
I can count four beaks, and am sure there is at least one more bird, for a total of at least five.
I didn't want to disturb the almost fledglings (and parents) further, so left without veiwing the river level. As we drove on our way, going over the little overpass, the nest was obvious from the highway, if you knew where to look — and we did! Would coyotes be able to find them? The nesting location has easy access to water, and easy access to roadkill food. Hopefully, the overpass helps to keep the coyotes away, as their is no immediately close-by crossing area.

On our way back through about five days later, the nest was still there, the parents were squawking at a troublesome road-maintenance crew, and one nearly full-grown raven was standing in the nest. I couldn't tell if the others had fledged, or if they were wisely keeping their heads low. Maybe they are all flying by now.

Related Post:
Signs of Spring: Ravens: nesting season in early April, on quartzite.

Single Shots: Narrow Trail

A narrow part of one of the passageways at Cathedral Gorge, NV

Related Post:
Cathedral Gorge I

Cathedral Gorge I

Cathedral Gorge is a small state park in southeastern Nevada, part of a lowlands that is hot in summer and reportedly cold in winter, though I have only stopped in the non-winter months.

It's a bit of a weird place, in a way, maybe because most pictures make the place look larger than it really is. The Pliocene Panaca Formation is soft, not hard, and it is eroded into a fabulous badland. I swear it used to be billed as the Grand Canyon of Nevada, or some such, but can find no references to that, so maybe my memory has slipped into Never Never Land (the good place, not the bad), or maybe I'm remembering some touristy postcards. The place lacks a decent sense of scale, so one has a difficult time getting a feel for the size of the fluted columns and spires and the cliff heights.

Most of the gorge is 1000 to 2000 feet from cliff base to top.

One neat thing I hadn't experienced before — at the end of the road, indicated by a loop near a water tower marked "Tower" on MSRMaps, and maybe in other places, also — you can find little hidden entries into what I'm assuming are the "cathedrals." (Google Maps location, and a photo with a person for scale.)

In places, the passageways are narrow enough that one has to squeeze through.

I've also seen these referred to as slot canyons, although they don't really lead anywhere other than by huge vertical jumps to a broad alluvial to pedimented plain surrounding the top of the gorge, and they are way too small to show up on the scale of a topo map. They are, nevertheless, fascinating and surprisingly spectacular.

Columns at the base...

...an opening or cathedral at the top.

The whole thing.

Pillars and a narrow hallway. The board appears to be wedged in as an overhead bridge. The Panaca Formation is too old (Pliocene) to have a board weathering naturally out of it, so someone put it there for an unknown reason, maybe climbing?

The columnar end of one of the side trails.

The entire column or "cathedral," with a tumbleweed at the base.

And now it's time to find our way back out...

To be continued...

May Utah Trip to be Continued

I'm going to be continuing — in either a haphazard or organized fashion depending on whim and time allowances — our early May trip to Utah, possibly with some other interspersed or random blogging. Time allowances will depend on my posting abilities over the next couple weeks or so, when I will conintue working the 10-hour days of my current stint.

You may think that MOH and I take a lot of trips. Maybe we do. Many are relatively short, some are longer, and the number has something to do with our current schedule, wherein MOH gets 7 days off in a row at the end of 21 days of shifting back and forth between day and night shift (he has 14 days off per month, works 12-hour-plus days), and wherein I usually get about 10 days off for every 17 to 20 days on.

Our early May trip took us south through eastern Nevada along Highway 93, then east into Utah on Nevada route 319 (formerly S.R. 25) and Utah route 56 east and then route 19 south into the big city of St. George. From there, we drove east through Zion, then north and west into Cedar City, UT.

But first, we'll start in Nevada...