Category: stoopid

Categories
site stuff stoopid

And we’re back.

We’re back! As in my website is back up, after being down all weekend. Thank you so much to my wonderful hosting company, ElectricKitten, for resetting my bandwidth (and giving me a bit extra) with no extra charge. I love my host so much.

Of course, this shouldn’t have needed to happen at all, in a perfect world where people weren’t parasitic dickholes. Because you see, the reason my site was down all weekend was because on Friday around noon, a high traffic site called “celebfeednow” hotlinked to an Iron Man gif I put in a blog post three years ago. One of several gifs that I had found on tumblr, and like a responsible non-asshole, had then hosted locally when I wanted to use them. And let’s be honest, it’s not like tumblr is hurting for bandwidth, but it’s good internet hygiene.

But anyway, because “celebfeednow” is a bag so inconceivably full of dicks that I fear there will now be a world dick shortage, they hotlinked to an image and thus ate my site’s entire bandwidth allowance for the entire month in less than three hours, and my site got automatically cut off.

I have since renamed the image and turned on hotlinking prevention, so hopefully this will not happen again. But I cannot state clearly enough how upsetting and stressful this was for me. I’m unemployed now. I’m job hunting. My little website is one of the places I send people to for my publication list when they want additional writing samples. I didn’t know if I was going to have to cough up extra money when I’m suddenly freaking out about my income. This was one more fucking thing I did not need to deal with in my life when I’m already having hysterical ugly laughing fits every time I look at my freshly arrived COBRA paperwork.

And seriously, where the fuck does a site like “celebfeednow” get off on hotlinking to anyone? They have the bandwidth. Host your own fucking images, assholes. Pay your own goddamn bills.

Fucking parasites.

Don’t hotlink images. Unless they’re from something like XKCD, where hotlinking is specifically stated to be A-okay, DO NOT HOTLINK IMAGES. Pay for your own fucking bandwidth instead of stealing it from someone else. Particularly if you have a high traffic site. I didn’t know we had to start off the week with a reminder that stealing is wrong, but there we go.

Anyway, we’re back, hopefully to stay, and I have other things to write.

Categories
someone is wrong on the internet stoopid

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

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I already went off on this on Twitter, so I will be brief.

Mary Sue. Go read the TV Tropes essay, which is a good history of the term and its rather fuzzy meaning. But note some of the common factors. Special powers. Implausibly talented in an incredibly wide variety of areas. Remarkable physical traits. Everyone wanting to be with her. Closely related somehow to the writer’s favorite character. TOO PRECIOUS FOR THIS WORLD. Single-handedly saves the day while the canon characters watch dumbfounded. Obnoxious and everyone loves them anyway, even the antisocial characters. And so on. Oh, and is shittily written. Frankly, it’s a term that gets too widely applied as is; it’s become almost meaningless after migrating out of fanfiction and at this point reads as shorthand for “there is a canon character that I personally don’t like and think is too powerful so nyah.”

But if you want to redefine “Mary Sue” to mean “any young, untested character who has special powers, is the protagonist, and saves the day by developing said awesome powers” then every goddamn fucking character who has ever existed in a scifi or fantasy film and undergone the coming of age or chosen one narrative is a Mary Sue. The entire fucking point of the coming of age or chosen one narrative as it’s combined with the science fiction or fantasy genre is ordinary person proves to be extraordinary and goes on a journey to save civilization/the world/whatever.

You wanna bitch about Rey from The Force Awakens being a Mary Sue? You better also have already shit all over Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter, to name the top two offenders on the male side for having the same goddamn character arc*.

Or do you actually mean “any young, untested character who has special powers, is the protagonist, and saves the day by developing said awesome powers while being female“?

Fuck off.

 

* And actually, I’d fight you anyway if you wanted to call Luke or Harry “Mary Sues” or “Gary Stus.”

Categories
publishing someone is wrong on the internet stoopid

If JK Rowling stopped writing, people would totally buy my books, right?

If JK Rowling Cares About Writing, She Should Stop Doing It

Okay, it’s 7 in the morning and I haven’t even had a cup of tea yet, but someone said a dumb thing on the internet so I can’t even look away. Really, I’d normally just bitch about this on Twitter, but my thoughts are a bit more than 140 characters long so here you go.

Basic  summary of the above blog post: JK Rowling should stop writing because everyone is buying her books instead of mine.

When I told a friend the title of this piece she looked at me in horror and said, “You can’t say that, everyone will just put it down to sour grapes!”

Should have listened to your friend, dude.

I didn’t much mind Rowling when she was Pottering about. I’ve never read a word (or seen a minute) so I can’t comment on whether the books were good, bad or indifferent. I did think it a shame that adults were reading them (rather than just reading them to their children, which is another thing altogether), mainly because there’s so many other books out there that are surely more stimulating for grown-up minds.

I can basically point to the above two sentences as the real problem with Ms. Shepherd’s piece. It basically boils down to, “well it’s okay if she sticks to her stinky genre, but she should get out of mine” crossed with barely concealed disdain that actual grown-ups are reading said stinky genre. Double special bonus fuck you asshole points for never having actually read Harry Potter while still being a patronizing douche about it.

This sort of attitude, I will note, is why plebes like myself often have the general impression that “literary” fiction is a place for pompous assholes. And why genre writers still get to nurse our treasured persecuted artist complex despite the fact that by all measures but for gatekeeper approval, we seem to be winning.

Look, I know it sucks when you’re struggling to make sales. I would sacrifice any number of goats to the Great Old Ones if I thought it’d give me a chance at your numbers on my novellas, Ms. Shepherd. I haven’t even managed to sell a full novel yet, and in my more crapulent moments of despair I can and have gone on ego-comforting rants about how the world is full of philistines that totally don’t get my genius, and what the fuck is wrong with the industry that they’re publishing shit like Twilight when my obviously superior talent is languishing unappreciated.

But this is the thing. I keep the wailing and ineffectual fist-waving limited to whatever audience is in my living room at the time (usually the cats, sometimes Mike, who keeps his headphones firmly on and just sort of nods along and makes vague noises of agreement until I’ve run out of steam) instead of recording it for posterity on a well-trafficked site. Apparently because I have the requisite self-awareness to know, in hindsight, just how pathetic it all sounds.

Four simple points:

  1. The major assumption here, that if people weren’t reading JK Rowling’s books, they would be reading yours or any you personally deem worthy is bullshit.
  2. Frankly, considering the wide range of other leisure activities that people have competing for their time, I maintain forevermore that we should be happy they’re reading at all. And they are reading, you realize. Don’t give me that “kids these days” shit.
  3. As a corollary to #2, if you hook someone in to reading with a piece of really popular fiction (eg: Harry Potter or Twilight) there is a good chance they will give the whole reading thing a go because it was so much fun this time around and try more books. (Whoops, maybe that’s why my stinky genre is doing so well!) For all that I love bitching about Twilight as much as the next feminist with delusions of being a writer, I am still actually glad for its existence because I personally know of people who started reading again because of those books. There are writers out there now who have sales because Stephenie Meyer and JK Rowling turned someone back on to reading. So back the fuck off.
  4. I, too, have had my moments of lamentation about how the masses only want to feast on shit and isn’t it a shame we can’t get real art made these days. (Normally in connection with movies; you try figuring out how to get a film funded when it lacks the requisite explosions and tits.) Well, them’s the breaks because we went with that whole capitalism thing. But it’s also, frankly, the huge commercial successes that even make the game possible for the little guys who might not ever earn out their advances. So many of these big sellers like Harry Potter just come whipping out of left field. No one has a formula for what’s going to catch on, and publishing moves slowly enough that writers are commonly advised to not try to chase what is “hot” because by the time you get it written and in the pipe, the next wave will have hit. Makes me wonder just how many writers have gotten their debut sales because someone was willing to take a chance on them thanks to the massive successes of others.

As someone who wasted money and valuable hours of my life I’ll never get back on The Casual Vacancy, it wouldn’t break my heart at all if JK Rowling went back to writing YA, because I really liked those books. But this is the thing. I know JK Rowling isn’t my bitch. I know you don’t get to tell other writers what to write. Ever.

By all means keep writing for kids, or for your personal pleasure – I would never deny anyone that – but when it comes to the adult market you’ve had your turn.

Christ, what an asshole.

Categories
rants sexism sfwa stoopid

You only hate boobs because you hate freedom.

Or: the most hilarisad thing I heard this weekend.

So, this ties back into the SFWA thing from last year. You know, the bulletin cover that made me sigh profoundly and roll my eyes? And then the wanksplosion that caused me to write a post to specifically say “Fuck you” to Malzberg and Resnick? It is the gift that keeps on giving. Only this time it’s just funny, in the same way watching a cat fall off a desk is funny.

There is apparently a petition circulating in regards to the SFWA bulletin because…censorship! And first amendment! And freedom! The petition is courtesy of David Truesdale. If you’ve never heard of him, read the review he did of Apex Magazine #55 and that’ll basically tell you what you need to know. He’s also, it’s important to note, not a member of SFWA, which makes the entire concept of this petition extra wtf-y.

The link to Radish Reviews really covers most of the mockery that immediately springs to mind. Holy double bonus fuck you asshole points to David Truesdale for his super gross allusions to slavery! Because not being able to belittle entire groups and enjoy scantily clad women courtesy of a professional organization is totally same as the injustices and crimes perpetrated upon countless people throughout history!

But three points.

One: While there is arguably a “female gaze” in operation in movies like, say, Twilight, “men get objectified too” is a bullshit argument. Particularly when the objectification being cited involves the big muscular manly man ideal. I’d argue most of the time, that stuff isn’t made for female consumption; it’s created as the manly ideal men are supposed to want to meet. (Another mention here, and a succinct summation here.) Which is, yes, still incredibly fucked up, but send your thank you note to the patriarchy and its ridiculous love of over-emphasized sexual dimorphism and gender roles.

Two: At this point, the moment I see the phrase “politically correct” I automatically roll my eyes. Because it is invariably a whiney, impotent asshole defending their supposed right to not only aggressively be an asshole, but to aggressively be an asshole in a sandbox over which they have no control. Here’s your “you tried” gold star.

Three, and by far the most important: SFWA is a professional organization. And it’s not the only professional organization of which I’m a member, so don’t even try to blow smoke up my ass on this one.

I’ve also been part of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) for years (far longer than I’ve been part of SFWA, actually). During those years, not once has AAPG sent me a bulletin that contained pictures of scantily clad women draped on rock formations or pretending to study seismic lines while sticking their pert bottoms in the air. Not once has AAPG sent me an official communication that included dismissive discussions of “lady geologists” and how hot the first wave of women in petroleum geoscience looked in bikinis. AAPG, I will also note, has an online moderation policy for its content that reserves the right to delete racist, sexist, and otherwise offensive comments.

(I suppose this must be because as much as they love oil and gas, they hate freedom. Or something.)

Now, this could be because I just haven’t been reading the bulletins carefully enough. And it’s not because geology as a science managed to completely avoid historical sexism. And it’s not that the G in AAPG actually stands for “gynocracy” because trust me, if you’ve ever been to the national meeting, you’d know that there are still way more men in the field than there are women.

So I’m just going to throw this out there: maybe there aren’t bikini babes in the AAPG bulletin because, I don’t know, AAPG is a fucking professional organization that has women in its membership and wants to maintain its credibility as an organization in the public eye.

How fucking hard is that to figure out?

I don’t give two shits if the historic legacy of an industry is one of bikini babes codified sexism. You know what? One way or another, that’s how it is in most industries! There is a difference between understanding the roots of one’s industry, and perpetuating and celebrating it. There’s a huge fucking difference. Particularly when those historic roots being perpetuated in a modern context are insulting to a big whack of your membership and the public.

The publications of an organization are its face to both the public and its membership. Effectively, what is in those pages is viewed as being in line with the organization’s values and vision because the organization fucking paid to put it there.

SFWA members don’t pay their $90 annual dues to be told what to think or how they should express themselves in the pages of the Bulletin, nor do they want their own thoughts (through their articles or columns) to be deemed “acceptable” or “right thinking,” or adhering to some jumped-up (always subject to change at whim) PC style manual by some hootenanny “advisory board”” of boot lickers. [from here, pdf from main post]

Yeah, you know what I don’t pay $90 for? Being belittled by the professional organization of which I’m a member.

Go fuck yourself.

Categories
earthquake stoopid volcano

Italy in Geological News

First a volcano-related item: How did the victims of the Plinean Eruption of Vesuvius die – a summary from io9, of an article assessing how the victims of the Vesuvius eruption died. It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with how freaking scary pyroclastic flows are that they died from being flash-cooked by the extreme heat of the flow, rather than suffocated by it.

And then, Italian scientists who failed to predict L’Aquila earthquake may face manslaughter charges. Argh. Argh argh argh. Considering how inherently unpredictable earthquakes are – more unpredictable than volcanic eruptions or tsunami – I was primed to be ticked off from the instant I read the headline. The article mentions foreshocks (one of them a 4.0) but the problem there is that you can only really classify a foreshock in hindsight. Was the magnitude 4.0 the prelude to a bigger earthquake, or an earthquake in its own right? There’s no way of knowing for certain until after you get hit by (or fail to be) by a much larger quake.

“Those responsible are people who should have given different answers to the public,” said Alfredo Rossini, L’Aquila’s public prosecutor. “We’re not talking about the lack of an alarm, the alarm came with the movements of the ground. We’re talking about the lack of advice telling people to leave their homes.”

This is the ultimate in damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations. If you warn people to leave their homes because a natural disaster is imminent and it doesn’t happen, you catch flak – think about the complaining that came after the tsunami that did hit Hawaii wasn’t the monster wall of water that makes up journalistic wet-dreams. But if you don’t tell people to clear out of their homes because there’s the possibility of an inherently unpredictable event occurring, then you get in trouble for that as well. Hindsight is 20/20, particularly when it comes to earthquakes. Though this:

At a press conference after the meeting, government official Bernardo De Bernardinis, deputy technical head of the Civil Protection Agency, told reporters that “the scientific community tells us there is no danger, because there is an ongoing discharge of energy. The situation looks favorable.” In addition to the six scientists, De Bernardinis is also under investigation.

Also really doesn’t help. Small earthquakes might release some stress on a fault, but that also might add stress to a different portion of the same fault, or another fault nearby. The environment of stress and faulting that goes on beneath us is too uncontrolled and not well mapped enough to allow for the incredibly accurate modeling you’d need to be able to say something like that. So if that’s something the seismologists in question were telling the government, shame on them. But I also have a hard time imagining any geologist worth his or her salt saying that unless they were simultaneously on some kind of mind-altering drug regimen, so I’d really like to know just who in the “scientific community” De Bernardinis was referring to. For all I know, the “scientific community” is a bright blue space elf that only he can see.

What a horrible situation. And way to make “Italian seismologist” a very unappealing job title.

Categories
conspiracy theory stoopid

More HAARP conspiracy nuttiness

Chavez says US ‘weapon’ caused Haiti quake

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a ‘tectonic weapon’ to induce the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week.

And:

Venezuelan media have reported that the earthquake “may be associated with the project called HAARP, a system that can generate violent and unexpected changes in climate.”

The absolute breadth of the stupid leaves me almost speechless. Almost.

I’d love to know exactly how people think an atmospheric research facility – even if we’re nice and allow the conspiracy nuts the notion that HAARP can somehow effect climate via it interaction with the atmosphere, which it can’t – can manage to effect the Earth’s crust, 10 km below the surface and almost a hemisphere away. You know, we think the atmosphere is pretty awesome, probably because we couldn’t live without it. But let me break it to you – tectonic forces really don’t give much of a shit what the atmosphere is doing. In fact, it’s really the tectonics that get the final say on what the climate is doing, not the other way around.

Otherwise, what kind of tectonic “weapon” are we proposing? Secret injection well that’s putting highly pressurized fluid in to the fault to lubricate it? Nah, too plausible. Underground atomic explosions? These are the sorts of things people would tend to notice.

It makes my brain hurt. But we also know that conspiracy nuttiness of this variety requires no plausible mechanism. And in this case, not even a vague understanding of geology.

Categories
creationism stoopid

Science fiction makes you godless and evil

Well, I guess if you have a fundamental problem with science in general, science fiction becomes a sort of terrifying, wordy mass of horror. I’m waiting for this guy’s next installment, when he attacks the fantasy genre for being polytheistic and glorifying witchcraft. And elves. Because everyone knows that elves are really just thinly disguised tree-worshipping hippies.

Science fiction is intimately associated with Darwinian evolution. Sagan and Asimov, for example, were prominent evolutionary scientists.

Um… Sagan as an astrophysicist, wasn’t he? Asimov was a biochemist. Neither of them were biologists. Or maybe this is the bit where we conflate all science with evolution, because it’s a buzzword for EVIL.

It kind of reminds me of the bit in Stuart’s 2009 Colorado Skepticamp presentation, when he was showing some clips from everyone’s favorite creationist blowhard Ken Ham. One of the clips referred to the “evolutionary science of comets,” at which point I almost fell out of my chair. While one can talk about a comet’s “evolution,” it was pretty plain that they were in fact attaching the word “evolution” to anything they didn’t like, to mark it as one of those evil things that doesn’t support a literal interpretation of the Bible.

That aside, I totally want to read this guy’s review of Twilight. It would be like two things I hate coming together and creating something mind-blowingly fantastic.

Categories
2012 stoopid

Even real Mayans think the 2012 Apocalypse is BS

2012 isn’t the end of the world, Mayans insist

It also sounds like the Mayans who aren’t too busy trying not to starve to death are also getting very annoyed about the whole thing. Considering this is basically the white people stealing a bit of their culture and then shellacking it with the Christian idea of a global apocalypse, well, I’d be really annoyed myself. Particularly when said thieving white people are dishonest hacks that are trying to make money by scaring people half to death, or just by making really stupid-looking disaster movies about it.

And sadly, I bet no one will listen to a real Mayan calling it BS. This is one of those unsinkable (and stupid) rubber duckies – if you call BS on one disaster theory, another springs up in its place. Or the believers in it just ignore you and move on. Which I honestly wouldn’t have a problem about it if they weren’t apparently running around and scaring the heck out of fourth graders with this stuff.

The article does a pretty good job of summing up a bunch of the disaster BS that’s going around and at leas throwing in some quotes to let us know that scientists think it’s total BS. Phil Plait even puts in an appearance!

Most of the 2012 stuff hinges on astronomy, which is why I don’t have much to say about it. I just listen to the lovely and talented Dr. Plait, nod, and say “F*** yeah!” at appropriate times. But thanks to Yahoo News, I now know one of the proposed geological ways the world is supposedly going to blow up.

The stupid. It burns:

Another History Channel program titled “Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012: End of Days” says a galactic alignment or magnetic disturbances could somehow trigger a “pole shift.”

“The entire mantle of the earth would shift in a matter of days, perhaps hours, changing the position of the north and south poles, causing worldwide disaster,” a narrator proclaims. “Earthquakes would rock every continent, massive tsunamis would inundate coastal cities. It would be the ultimate planetary catastrophe.”

History Channel, I would demand that you feel ashamed, but we’ve known for a long time that you don’t have any shame to begin with. Anyone who has taken even the most basic geology course should know that this is complete, gleeful fabrication. The entire mantle of the Earth shifting in days? Are these people on drugs? The part of the mantle known as the asthenosphere is capable of plastic deformation, but it’s made of hot rocks under high pressure, not freaking marshmallow fluff. The mantle has convection currents that move the crustal plates, but come on – when we’re getting a few centimeters a year out of one of these babies, we think it’s really cooking. India is experiencing the most rapid movement out of any of the plates, and it’s moving at 5 cm/year. Not exactly the stuff of horror.

Also, to the best of our knowledge, the magnetic field is determined by currents within the Earth’s core. Not the mantle. Not even close.

Again, I repeat – are these people on drugs?

Categories
stoopid

Within the heart of every mountain, there slumbers a pyramid.

I’ve still got a cold, so I’m going to keep this pretty short and sweet. I’m having a hard time writing anything even vaguely coherent. But here we go.

From the people who brought us pyramids in Bosnia: Pyramids in Romania?

No.

That was easy.

Okay, not quite that short and sweet. Looking at the small blurb of text to go with these three rather lovely pictures, I’m not sure if it’s the cold medicine or the contents of the text that’s making my head feel all funny.

Joo DenesBudapest, Hungary PYRAMIDS IN ROMANIA? Attached is a holographic picture of the Mountain CEAHLAU in the Eastern Carpathians, near the artificial lake Bicaz (or “Spring of the Mountain”). This picture formes only on August 6th every year (the 49th day after the summer solstice called Day of the Sun), with superposition of four shadows of the mountain-pyramids: the peaks Toaca, Lespezi, Shepherd Stone and Volcano Stone. The photos were made from the peak Toaca,

I’m not entirely certain what makes these pictures “holographic.” They look like normal pictures to me. Pretty ones, but still normal picture. I’m also incredibly confused by the use of the word “superposition.” Maybe he or she means “juxtaposition?”

Either way, the excitement seems to be that these mountains cast very straight-sided shadows, like the shadows that you’d expect from pyramids. So it doesn’t even seem to be a case like the so-called “Bosnian Pyramid,” where the mountain in question at least has a couple relatively straight sides and looks vaguely pyramidal when approached from the right angle. I took a quick peek at an aerial map of the area, and it all looks like pretty normal mountain topography.

The thing is, when the sun is at a low angle – as it appears to be in these pictures – all mountains produce pyramidal shadows. It’s just how the optical properties of the angles involved work. The mountains in question may produce more clearly pyramidal shadows because of the surrounding topography that the shadows are cast on, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary going on.

So basically, if we’re going to start calling mountains “pyramids” based on the shadows they cast, at sunrise and sunset, every mountain is a pyramid. Get digging, boys.

Categories
stoopid

Monkeywrenching geology

Monkeywrenching the Batholiths

I saw this item on Pharyngula, and it just kind of blew me away. I mean, you hear about animal rights groups going after biologists all the time, but I’d always thought at least academic geologists were safe from this kind of interference with their experiments.

There were several things about the exchange that really struck me.

First of all, Dr. Hole is incredibly patient in his replies. Far calmer and more patient than I could ever manage, though admittedly I also tend to have an explosive temper.

I’m very surprised that Ingmar Lee didn’t get himself hurt, or blow up a significant chunk of the landscape he so loves. Seismic shots are explosives, pure and simple. Messing with them is pretty risky business.

I was also struck by the apparent misunderstanding of how seismic shots work. Now, I wouldn’t want to be standing on top of a big one when it goes, but the point of them is to direct the explosive force downward into the ground, in order to create seismic waves. If seismic shots set off classic surface explosions like you see in the movies, they’d be worthless, they’d cause a lot of destruction, and they’d probably cause damage to the receiver arrays. If seismic shots are set properly (and not messed with by people who don’t know what they’re doing) then there’s no surface damage and no surface danger.

From what I’ve been able to come up with, research-wise, the biggest environmental concern caused by seismic surveys is actually in the wear and tear on the plant life that all the necessary vehicles cause – and the potential of scaring animals away. You do have to be able to get all the equipment out there and back, and that’s going to take vehicles. A survey done with explosives is actually far less disturbing to the environment than one using seismic trucks. One thump from the explosives, and it’s done. Considering the area is often subject to lightning strikes and its own natural earth quakes, the seismic shots are negligible in comparison to those.

I’m sure the mental image of hapless residents (and cranes) being cartoonishly thrown from the ground by enormous explosions is very dramatic, but in this case, it’s just silly.

I think the crux of this is Mr. Lee’s accusation that the data from this project will somehow be given to Big Oil, or that Big Oil has its evil little fingers in this scientific pie. Since most seismic surveys are probably done by oil companies (they have more money to do expensive things like that, after all), I can’t really blame him for the initial suspicion. However, basic knowledge of geology would prove that notion wrong, considering the area that the seismic is being shot for is chock full of igneous rocks. It’s a project looking at batholiths (giant intrusive structures – mountains, basically) which are not known for their rich oil reserves. Oil is found only in sedimentary rocks.

Hating oil companies doesn’t make this sort of dangerous vandalism at all okay, though. It also doesn’t help the efforts of environmentalists who are fighting oil companies, when someone associated with them goes after a permitted scientific research project while sounding like a self-righteous jerk – and one that could use a little extra geology education, at that. I certainly don’t advocate blowing up the landscape. I like the landscape. It’s where I keep my stuff. And it has surface processes! But that was never a danger here, at least not until Mr. Lee broke the top off the charge tube.

It really makes me wonder how people like Mr. Lee would have reacted to this very cool project, which determined the age of the Amazon River by drilling into its sediment fans. Well, it involves drills, so it must be evil and associated with the oil companies, right?