I have an old fish on the wall, and I get to ponder it’s life every time I walk into my loo at home. I’ve been pondering this fish for the last 24 years. Considering its age, it is not a stinky, yucky fish. In fact it is over 48 million years old, so any […]
China is a big place. The resources are large. The scale of everything is outsized. And as has been well documented, its up and coming middle class is energy depended. Commendably, the Chinese government has prioritized renewable energy and it seems they are well on the way to leading the world. Still, conventional energy is […]
It was an early morning start and the topical air of South Kalimantan (Borneo) already hung heavy and thick. We boarded the wooden powerboat that was more than just a little tippy. It held a party of six, which consisted of colleagues Joan Esterle, Sonny Pangestu, Hermes Panggabean plus Pak Juwady, our pilot, and a […]
“I’m sorry sir, but that flight is fully booked and there are no more today”, said the man behind the counter at the Bogotá airport. It was 5:30am and sleep was still making an armed assault on my eyes. The day before, our 2pm flight had been changed to 7am without explanation and now they […]
I once visited a coal seam gas reservoir. The year was 2008. The seam was 950 m below the surface. We accessed the reservoir thanks to the helpful personnel of a Chinese mine located just south of the city of Shenyang. It was hot and none to confortable. But a great experience to see and […]
It was Ron Stanton (U.S. Geological Survey) who instilled in me the importance of proper representative sampling and John C. Ferm (University of Kentucky)* who drove home the concept of variability. In understanding the character of coal beds, these two concepts should mess seamlessly together. Or so you’d think … As it turns out there […]
To most people, a rock is hard, static and immoveable. But like most things in life, that is all relative. Take a drive through almost any mountain range and you’ll see rocks that have been twisted and folded, contorted and pressed. These dynamic scenes are almost always composed of rocks rich in minerals (think sandstones, […]
If your idea of heaven is noodles, then when you die, you will come to Taiyuan. In case you didn’t know, the Shanxi Province in China is the noodle capital of the world and the capital of Shanxi is the city of Taiyuan (at least in terms of noodles). I had come to Taiyuan to […]
It was springtime in Xuzhou and the flowers were blossoming. Although not a small city by any measure – other than in China – the 8.5 million people seem a quieter type than elsewhere. Populated by parks, wide streets and relatively low buildings, the overall feeling one gets of Xuzhou is balance, politeness and a […]
At 2:56 pm Brisbane time I crossed the equator for the umpteenth time – heading north on flight CZ382. The time is significant because that is the time my son, Micah, gets out of school. When I left this morning en route to Xuzhou, China, where I’ll be teaching for a few weeks, my son […]