Oh yeah

Don't let this happen either.

Hey, That Ain't Gatorade!

Have you seen a situation like this before? Sure, it is very convenient, and cheap, to store lab chemicals in food containers. But it's not cool. For one, the turpentine in that coffee can isn't much use now that the volatiles have all evaporated out. Then, what the hell is the white powder all over the mayo jar of xylene? I don't think it is mayo. I think this kind of storage is against the law, though I can't find a reference immediately, but it certainly violates both recommended practice (see NIOSH/CDC guide) and common sense.

The Grolsch bottle in the background full of acetone reminds me of a story from a few years back, a friend was working on his boat, and pouring waste epoxy into a nearby empty beer bottle. A few minutes later, when reaching for his bottle full of beer, he grabbed the one with epoxy in it. One short trip to the emergency room later and a cheap and handy way to dispose of a chemical becomes neither cheap or handy. A final example before I go. One prolific collector that I know loves to store thick solution adhesives (i.e. Vinac B-15) in little Visine eyewash bottles. Well, sure, they work well for dispensing adhesive cleanly and one drop at a time. But in the field, have you ever gotten dust or dirt in your eye, and wished for eyewash? Does a foreign object in the eye blur your vision? Might you consolidate your eye closed? So much for getting the red out.

Be Cool. Only store chemicals in properly labeled containers not intended for food use.

Jay in Roswell lost his job

What do you do when the perfume shop doesn't want you anymore?


Click photo to read the note

This is a no brainer, but...

iPhones are not designed for field use.

Microscope Madness!!!!!

I freely admit that I am a scope snob, so this row of metal and glass makes my heart glad. You can't prep well if you can't see your material, and when it comes to bang for your buck, Swiss optics are my choice for stocking a workbench. There is one interloper in this mix, the second boom from the left holds a Nikon SMZ-1, which happens to be the first microscope that I purchased for myself, however, I've recently made the upgrade to a Wild M8 for my own freelance work. To outfit the VPL lab, I chose two M8's, the beauties on the right, to be the real workhorses. As budget allows in the next few years, I will probably be replacing the rest of the Olympus setups that Bob Rainey used for so many years. For the purposes of training students and volunteers who come through the lab, I've purchased a Wild teaching setup outfitted with an M7 body and two upright heads. I will soon be adding a custom focusing mount developed by Mike Eklund at The Natural History Studio (also my source for much of my refurbished lab gear) that will enable the teaching setup to be mounted on a boom arm for maximum reach and specimen diversity.

These used scopes can be tough to come by in good condition and at a reasonable price, but I'm very happy with the deals that I've gotten on the last 4 or 5 that I've bought. The above packages have been outfitted with Fostec/Schott light sources and Schott ring lights.

New Digs

Well, it took forever to get around to a new post, but I have been pretty busy over the last six months. So, having just moved to Texas last week, I'm planning a series of articles documenting the renovation of the fossil prep facility at the UT Austin Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory over the coming months. As generations of paleontologists are turning over, attitudes towards materials and methods in the field are changing as well, and the goal of this lab is to reflect some of those changes. A large number of paleontologists have been trained in this department over the years, and the VPL is still continuing strong in that tradition. Our plan is to develop a lab that can expose students to the widest array of techniques and materials possible, providing both new preparators and new research paleontologists with an advanced understanding of the requirements for establishing labs, hiring preparators, and providing training. Part of this process is a floor to ceiling renovation of the preparation facility at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus, where both students and professional preparators will be able to participate in classes, workshops, and conferences examining paleontology methods and led by expert instructors from around the world. There are still many unknowns in the process, but part of this blogs purpose is to hopefully work through those issues as they come up, and to both give and get ideas through dialouge. I'll start with a picture of what the lab looks like now, and hopefully follow up in coming days.

That didn't take long!

Letters from the Lounge

So, after trying to stage pictures of my new truck for about 3 weeks (I haven't even made a payment yet, it's a baby) I walk outside and just happen to have my camera in hand, and wham, bam, thank you atmospheric conditions, the sunset gives me the perfect shot. Were I a good photographer, and had actually been waiting, with tripod and one of my fast lenses, for the lighting to be just right, I would have moved the damned tractor first and made sure that there wasn't a pile of pallets, kitty litter, and other trash in the background. Oh well....

I also learned today that the US Special Forces has been using Toyota Tacomas in Afghanistan, (despite the fact that our government would never have a problem providing its employees with equipment that works, of course) bought off the dealership lot near Fort Campbell, slightly retrofitted (the belt fed M240 isn't a dealer option, otherwise I'd have one already), and shipped overseas for actual combat. Sweet. They obviously couldn't be less armored than a HMMWV right?