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Miscellaneous

ASCE Geo-Institute Reports on Trends Affecting the Geo-Community

In July of 2007 a virtual who’s who of the Geo-community gathered at the headquarters of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for a workshop to discuss the Trends Affecting the Geo-community. Yesterday the ASCE released a report on the workshop titled: Trends Affecting the Geo-Community: What Does the Future Hold, edited by Peter Smeallie. More details after the break.

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Miscellaneous

Nevada’s Yucca Mountain Case Versus DOE Thrown Out

The State of Nevada lost a major battle in their attempt to block the US Department of Energy’s attempt at licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The panel of judges in the case threw it out after a week of oral arguments by the State. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the Judge’s  ruling stated "Nevada’s legal position is incorrect."

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Miscellaneous

More Free Online Journal Access from Springer

Springer is the publisher of a number of geo-industry journals. They have recently sent an email notifying of free access to  various Hydrogeology journals. But I have found out that their definition of Hydrogeology is rather broad, and the free access applies to a number of journals such as… 

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Miscellaneous

URS Completes $3.1 Billion Buyout

URS Corp. has completed the buyout of Washington Group International Inc. for $3.1 billion in cash and stock. I saw the buyout listed as $3.2 billion somewhere else…hey, what’s another $100 million, right? Read more about the deal.

I used to work for URS, and we used to joke about their seemingly continuous acquisition of companies. Hence the Borg reference in the image I created at left.

"We are URS. You will be assimilated. Your engineering and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own." — Martin Koffel (just kidding)

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Miscellaneous

Happy Birthday Karl Terzaghi!

I got an email from my fellow geo-webmaster at Dan Brown and Associates, Robert Thompson wishing me and his other geotechnical colleagues a "Happy Karl Terzaghi’s Birthday!" so I thought I would pass it on […]

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Miscellaneous

Senate OKs $1B to repair US bridges

From AP by way of CentreDaily.com and the ADSC:  The Senate approved $1 billion on Monday to speed repair and replacement of America’s crumbling network of bridges, six weeks after the Interstate 35W span collapsed […]

Miscellaneous

Tensar Plans Initial Public Offering

Tensar Corp., makers of geosynthetic products for the construction industry, including geotextiles, geogrid, and geocomposite drains, has filed the paperwork with the SEC for an initial public offering (IPO) of common stock that could have an offering price of over $200 million. [more…]

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Figure 1 This cut slope in massive, unfractuired conglomerate was smooth blasted. Treatment consisted of only drill trace removal on the main slope, but ledges were cut in natural boulder lenses at the cut end where similar features are in the adjoining natural terrain.
Miscellaneous

FHWA State Geotechnical Workshops

The FHWA has recently updated its geotechnical engineering site related to their annual State Geotechnical Workshops. All regions with the exception of the Southwest have their Workships this September and October. The next Southwest Geotechnical Engineers Conference will be in April of 2008. The 2007 SGEC was on April 23 – 27, 2007 in Overland Park, Kansas. They have posted PDF versions of the presentations at the conference on their FTP site. Read on for the dates of the upcoming workshops, as well as a link to the FHWA site and the presentation downloads.

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Miscellaneous

Engineering Geology in World War 1

People (including myself) tend to forget the origins of the term "Land Mine". Mines in medieval times referred to excavations for the purpose of undermining an enemy’s fortifications. In World War 1, before the age of aerial bombardment and cruise missiles, underground mines were used to plant explosives under enemy lines. In addition to British, German and American sappers that performed these tasks, the Australians had a contingent of miners and geologists who were involved in the Western Front of the War in France and Belgium and were responsible for what was then the largest man-made explosion in history. I hope you enjoy this interesting article. Thanks to Geology.com for the link.

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