Ok, so temperatures near freezing aren't my idea of fun, but the compensation is the pretty colours...these photos were taken from the top of the Duke Forest Hardwood tower, some 45 m above the ground (and swaying!), while I clung on for dear life and tried not to drop the camera.

We were at the forest to help Kim fix up the telescoping tower on the new Katul lab van...pretty cool...

The other side of Durham

Yeehah!

Just experienced a very revealing Friday Night in supposedly sleepy old Durham...and discovered the seething underbelly of this town is crankin'.

What was supposed to be merely a very funny night in company of the wryly domestic Amy Sedaris (local Comedienne extraordainaire) morphed into a tour of the Durham independent music scene at a bunch of local nightspots none of our party had really known existed, thanks to a local music festival called Troika (http://www.troikamusicfestival.org/).

Our $10 multi-venue tix lead us to see a local punk-lesbian-smash your drums type act at the very funky Jo and Joes; followed by the Mountain Goats (yeehah again!) at 304 Southern, and finally local gothic act Veronique Diabolique at Ringside, a wonderfully eclectic four story venue with two stages and topped off by a quiet bar that is decked out like the opium den of your dreams.

Waking late on Saturday morning I stumbled from bed and began the long walk back to where my bicycle had spent Friday night. Fall colours on the trees, soft sunlight and the feeling that I'd finally started to work out why so many locals say: "I love living here".

Oh, and Amy Sedaris is my new heroine. When I grow up, I'd like to be just like her... or at least to have a wardrobe just like hers.

Vocabulary

When Kim from my lab said to me the other day:
"You know Sal, honestly...I understand about 75% of what you say" she sadly wasn't referring to the profound nature of my typical topics of discussion. No, what I have learnt since arriving in the US is that the gals in India weren't joking when they labelled me "Queen of Aussie Slang".
What I find disturbing, however, are the number of phrases I thought were completely normal which everyday Americans do not seem to understand. Some simple examples, contrasted with the phrases I could have used to really freak them out:

"Going for a wander" (cf: "gone walkabout", "pottering", "just puddling around")

Actually, that's the only example I can remember right now. But I'll add as more come to light.

Anyway, for the benefit of Aussies back home, here are the few local phrases I've learned here.

1. "Weak sauce" - exactly what it sounds like
2. "No dice" - not a chance, no luck, not going to happen
3. "the po-po" - not, as I thought, a chamberpot, but rather the police
4. "sketchy" - dodgy, risky, dubious

Yep, that's about it... although I have started to pick up a local habit of starting every sentence with so, followed by a pause; and have also found myself (distressingly), starting to say: "I feel that..." when what I really mean is: "I think that..."

Feel like asking tough questions? President of Shell Oil America comes to Duke's Environment School

John Hoffmeister, current President of Shell Oil in the USA, was brave or unwise enough to visit the Nicholas School at Duke as part of a 50 City Tour of the USA. He described presentation he made as a part of Shell's campaign to "gain some credibility" for an industry that lacks the confidence of the public or of policy makers. What his audience took from the presentation, however, will certainly be mixed feelings on the stance of this most iconic of US big oil producers.

On the positive side, Hoffmeister displayed a keen awareness of the need for Shell to maintain a "social licence to operate", and provided a number of examples of improving the performance of Shell production sites in terms of environmental management (for instance adopting drilling platform technology from ocean rigs to terrestrial sites to reduce the footprint of the extraction), and new production techniques, including novel options for in situ extraction of oil shales. The engineer in me was cheered and interested at the thought of heating rock to 700 degrees to allow the extraction of oil contained within, although the environmentalist in me shudders at the prospect of needing to rely upon the inefficient and low quality oil shales.

Hoffmeister also demonstrated a significant level of investment by Shell in new energy technologies, which is welcome news. Shell is looking at new solar cell construction using (I think), doped copper-indium cells which reduce both weight and production costs from the conventional silicon models. Shell is invested in wind power, in coal gasification (more on this later), and in bioenergy, particularly cellulosic based technologies relying on enzymatic digestion of waste plant matter. They're running trials of ethanol fuel stations in Chicago, and seem excited about the prospect of the hydrogen economy, having just opened the first hydrogen refuelling station in the US on the outskirts of Washington DC.

If there were a number of positive aspects to Hoffmeister's talk, there were also as least as many things to worry about. He didn't start on the greatest note - the first few minutes of his talk were devoted to a reflection on how unfortunate it is that public policy prevents Shell from accessing the "vast" oil reserves in the Arctic territories, offshore banks and islands. In other words, move over National Parks and protected areas, we wish to mine.

More insidious, however, was the generic: "our technology will save us" approach that underlay much of Hoffmeister's projections and reasoning. Apart from his bold assertion that "Shell does not accept the idea of peak oil" which can only be taken as lip service to an outdated philosophy which the company cannot possibly be adopting as their ongoing operating assumption (given that the majority of the ideas Hoffmeister mentioned are exactly those expected under a peak oil condition - the extraction of oil from increasingly poor reserves, going back to "mined out" areas, diversifying the energy economy of the USA); Hoffmeister made a number of assertions.

Firstly, he is keen to increase the efficiency of energy use in the US. All well and good, however upon further questioning, he revealed that Shell is not envisaging a reduction in total power use - simply a "more bang for our buck" approach. This is a stance consistent with Shell's need to make a profit, but inconsistent with environmental objectives. I would pause to remind readers that the rate of production of carbon dioxide emissions has a negligible effect on the impact of global warming, so merely slowing down production is not an acceptable long term strategy.

Secondly, Hoffmeister expressed considerable enthusiasm about coal gasification plants. Again, these are generally a good thing, much cleaner than regular coal plants, but essentially not a greenhouse friendly solution unless coupled to carbon sequestration projects. And although Hoffmeister could demonstrate some progress in the field of sequestration, this technology essentially remains unproven, and, as he stated, by undertaking geosequestration we are undertaking something with consequences that we cannot forsee and that may not become apparent for several hundred years.

Finally, the hydrogen economy. While I love the idea, I am very sick of people touting this as pollution free technology. Upon further questioning, Hoffmeister admitted that electrolysis of water would need electricity, and that he sees that as being coupled to the aforementioned coal gasification plants.

No solutions for global warming here folks!

While it was pleasing to see that Shell has started to consider energy options beyond oil, has recognised that it has an image problem requiring urgent review, and is investing in good things, the underlying theme was of business as usual: a company pursuing profit and merely rolling with the punches of a changing energy regime. I don't expect to see Shell taking the lead in solving the global energy crisis unless their thinking and ethical stance takes another few leaps forward.

Who is the Sal?

Lacksadaisical amabasdress for all things Aussie, Sally T dips a cautious toe into the shallow end of the deep south....and fishes up a feast in her new home town of Durham, North Carolina.

Bringing such Aussie marvels as sausage rolls, "footy", the Cat Empire, and of course the immortal phrase "going off like a frog in a sock," to a city full of unsuspecting Americans, Sal is at Duke University pursuing a deeper understanding of desertification; land-vegetation-atmosphere interactions; and why it is that the landscape makes such very pretty patterns when seen from an aeroplane.