Inventory

Here is a picture of what I'm bringing to the field:

Pocket Penetrometer

Every time people ask me what I'm bringing to the field, I go through my list: "IR lights, IR sensitive cameras, Pocket penetrometer...." And inevitably I get a "Pocket WHAT!?!" or "I'll penetrate YOUR pocket," or "Is that a penetrometer in your pocket or are you happy to see me?"

For all you dirty-minded people out there, a penetrometer tests the surface strength of soil or fruit. You depress it a certain amount, and a calibrated spring inside the penetrometer tells you how much force it took to do so.

I'm hoping to take soil samples and test surface strength of soils where I find different species of jerboas, to determine if different morphologies are associated with different micro-habitats, including the granular properties of the sand.

(Part of the purpose of this post is to see if I can blog photos via email submission)

testing123

Going to China soon, and want to make sure I can update the world while I'm there

No pants, no service.

FAJ was in the arctic with his team. Now when you're a paleontologist working in the arctic, it's just your team out there. The plane and pilot that got you there have left. Sometimes they come back for visits.

FAJ had stepped into some serious mud. He got back to his tent and took off his boots and pants and settled down to take a nap. Suddenly he hears the helicopter and realizes that the pilot has come for a visit. He jumps out of the tent, puts on his boots, and runs out to give the pilot the signal to land. Out of the helicopter comes the pilot, and he introduces a female leader of a museum in the UK to a pantsless FAJ.

Nobody smiles in the arctic. - FAJ

After years of trying to find the correct layer of dirt to dig in, FAJ's team sets up camp. They go out every day in pairs because the cardinal rule of the arctic is that you never let anyone go anywhere alone. Also, you should be armed with a rifle at all times because there are polar bears and they can sneak up on you. One day, all the pairs come back except one. This person comes back alone and has no idea where her partner is. They wait a long time and just as they are about to go out and look for him, he comes back. FAJ prides himself on never having used curse words on campus, but he was an officer in the Marines, so he knows a word or two. He used nearly every word in yelling at that guy because he was so scared that he had been eaten by a polar bear or had frozen to death. The guy sheepishly said he found something interesting. Well he had, and the next day they all went out to where he had found that bone and started digging. Lo and behold, they found a very interesting fossil of a fish with wrist and finger bones. They asked the Inuits what to name it, and they said the name for that fish was Tiktaalik, which is a cod or something that lives up there.

Deinonychus Discovery

Apparently FAJ's wife discovered the very first deinonychus skeleton.  They were out on a dig, and she was using a jackhammer. She was just jackhammering away and didn't realize that there were teeth and bone fragments flying all over the place so FAJ starts yelling for her to stop. And that's how they discovered the deinonychus.

They got it wrong, I was 210. -KW

I just saw some newspaper clippings from when KW was a heavyweight boxer in 1977.  What a guy!  He was 19 years old, and the tallest one in every picture.  There was one picture with him punching a guy in the face.  He said that that guy was taller than him, but he broke his nose in that fight.  I'm so impressed!