California Budget woes may cause the Board for Geologists and Geophysicists to be eliminated and its functions to be transferred to the Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors as reported by Ken at the GeoSlice blog. The proposed consolidation is described on Page 26 of the California State Budget 2009-10. According to Ken, the state board says the plan is not finalized yet and concerned Californians should contact their representatives.
On the Big Sur coatline, the Pitkins Curve area of California Highway 1 (the PCH) is undergoing some improvements to help alleviate landslides and roadway instability. National Driller magazine reports on the project in their […]
Google Earth is a software application that uses satellite and aerial photo imagery, terrain, maps, 3D buildings and Google Search data to view information in our world in two and three dimensions in real time. I’m curious how other geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists are using Google Earth in their practice. Read on for some GE related resources I’ve found useful or interesting, and then post a comment on how you use Google Earth in your practice and for fun! (Logo copyright Google Inc.)
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From the USGS Newsroom:
USGS scientist Ken Hudnut fills us in on how science created the theoretical magnitude 7.8 earthquake behind the Great Southern California ShakeOut—the largest earthquake preparedness drill in U.S. history, coming Nov. 13—and what such an earthquake would do to downtown Los Angeles.
Seems like they did it right wiith this study. They had multiple teams independenlty come up with the ground shaking model, then had different structural engineers who are experts in seismic design of large buildings review the tall buildings in the L.A. area for the design earthquake. They say that buildings would likely come down in the 7.8 magnitude event. Click through to watch the video interview from the USGS.
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To all concerned,
I am a masters level geologist, specializing in asbestos mineralogy, with numerous professional publications. Geology is a science, and as such never have been a licensed any more than chemists, physicists, biologist, geneticists… If one penny of taxpayer money is going into this Board, it must be eliminated. It is illigetimate, and should not be part of any agency within the California government.
Many geologists are specialists in some area of geology, as are most real scientists, and they are excluded from the Board. I think you will find most University Professors in geology are not licenced.
The Board is a club of geotechnicians (for the most part, I am not generalizing to all Board members) whose sole purpose is the create for themselves a group that has a license to make money under certain requirements that no one practice geology in the State without a license. The state might just as well take taxpayer money and put it in their pockets. They are not qualified to practice under the scope that they practice.
So, worse than a total waste of money for the taxpayer – a rediculously underqualified group of geotechnicians who have usurped the science of geology.
You should have seen it when it was the RG exam with a 22% pass rate. In those days geology professors sat on the Board and made up the questions. The thinking was if you could pass such a tremendously difficult test then you really had to know your stuff. That was the theory anyway. The RG test was far more comprehensive, especially with regards to structure, than any college course I ever took. It’s easier now that it’s based on the Asbog. Smart MD like you ought to be able to pass it no trouble.