Author Archive
I Wonder Why
HSE has become an important part of life in the oil exploration business but I have often wondered why it is that many of the HSE people seem to have things backward. Instead of looking at crews that get through without any HSE incidents the HSE people concern themselves with why accidents happen.
New sensor supports oil exploration
Sensor Systems claim to have made a the first advancement in almost 50 years in seismic sensors.
The new device, an all-optical, fiber-optic omnidirectional geophone, requires no in-situ electronics, copper conductors, or electrical power. It incorporates a self-contained optical interrogation unit (using an optical time division multiplexing methodology) with integrated laser sources; all of the system [...]
Spending Your Way Out of Trouble
The world’s financial problems came about by having a government push financial institutions into providing home mortgages to people who would not be allowed to hold a credit card in a third world country. These mortgages were invested in by a wide range of outside companies without anything approaching due diligence. These companies include insurance [...]
Great Service From Amazon.com
A recent experience with Amazon’s service people has left me smiling. Generally I have rather low expectations for service from online sellers but this was one occasion when the service was genuinely excellent.
I had ordered some books and had them sent to my address in Indonesia using the cheapest method, which has worked okay many [...]
Sudan Pictures
Global Warming Scam
I think that it is high time that the public started calling the media on the garbage they are spewing about global warming, sea level rises and all of the associated ills which they are making up as they go along. Take a look at the old pictures and quotes below and make up your [...]
Nokia E71
My all-time favourite mobile phone was my old Sony Ericsson P910i but SE’s later phones just don’t match up in features or ease of use. I replaced the P910i with a Nokia E61i after the scroll wheel got wrecked by an idiot in airport security in Jakarta knocked the phone off the scanner in [...]
Vibroseis versus Dynamite
I’m currently on a 2D job which is mainly flat but it does have one portion in the middle which has some hills requiring bulldozer cutting. The client emailed me the other day asking about using vibes in the hills as somebody at the office had asked if it wouldn’t be better to use dynamite. [...]
New Server Home for Seismic Talk
I have not made any posts for some time as I tried different software to run Seismic Talk and a couple of different hosting accounts. I tried using another gallery style as well with the images hosted on another service but could not get things set up to make it easy for other people to [...]
Airport Security
I thought airport security was over the top when I couldn’t get into an airport because I was carrying a windproof lighter as “It could be used as a weapon” but this is just plain downright ridiculous.
Brad Jayakody, from Bayswater, central London, was stopped from boarding because his Transformers T-shirt depicted a robot with a [...]
Microsoft Office 2007
I have been using Microsoft’s 2007 version of their office suite for a little over six months now and while i have managed to become accustomed to some parts of the “ribbon” there are other parts where it is sheer torture to use for anybody with a good working knowledge of the older version.
One example [...]
Oil Price "may hit $200 a Barrel"
A Goldman Sachs energy strategist warns that this may happen in as little as six months. This is because of the demand driven price of oil.
Goldman Sachs energy strategist Argun Murti made the warning as benchmark US light crude passed the $123 mark for the first time.
Surging demand was increasingly likely to create a “super-spike” [...]
Singapore Prices
Technorati Tags: Singapore,hotel prices,exchange rate
With the exchange rate at around $1.42 per $US it looks like Singapore is pricing itself out of business. I called the usual hotels that I use and found them all full due to an ASEAN conference so I stopped by the hotel booking booth at Changi airport to see what [...]
Try not to look at this for too long
Technorati Tags: nausea , physiology
I have tried quite a few times to get my eyes accustomed to this but still end up feeling rather nauseous after even a few seconds of looking at it. Perhaps some budding physiologist can enlighten us as to why this should be.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Technorati Tags: Advertising , politacally correct , public safety
If you look closely at the picture below you will see that it is an advertisement for a funeral parlor. Quite a clever location but I am surprised that in the oh so very politically correct world of let’s save people from themselves nobody [...]
HSE driver training
Technorati Tags: funny picture , driver training , HSE
There are many of us who drive vehicles that are fitted out with all sorts of monitors to ensure that we don’t accelerate or decelerate too hard. Many of the vehicles are fitted out with roll cages and so on to ensure our safety [...]
Will it break $100.00 this year?
Technorati Tags: oil prices , Turkey , Kurdish separatists
The title is referring to the price of oil. At $90.00 per barrel as this is being written it would be foolish to bet against it. With the turmoil in the Middle East being added to by the Turkish government’s decision to pursue Kurdish [...]
Wife problems
Technorati Tags: wives , funny , relationships
Working in seismic we all know the sorts of problems that can arise in a marriage. Long stints away from home leaving them to take care of all the little crises that come up in a household can put a strain on relationships. Generally they realize [...]
Thirty reasons women have things easier than men
1. They got off the Titanic first.
2. They get to flirt with systems support men who always return their calls, and are nice to them when they blow up their computers.
3. Their boyfriend’s clothes make them look elfin & gorgeous. Guys look like complete idiots in theirs.
4. They can be groupies. Male groupies are stalkers.
5. [...]
Things you may not have known
Technorati Tags: strange facts , human body
The human body contains enough phosphorus to make the heads of 200 matches, enough fat for seven bars of soap, and enough iron to make one nail.
The human body has over 45 miles of nerves.
The human body has over 600 muscles, 40% of the body’s weight.
The human [...]
English language problems
Technorati Tags: Language , English
I once spent a couple of weeks helping out at an English language school and the students would often ask why things are the way that they are in English. Here are some reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English.
The bandage was wound around the wound.
The [...]
Personnel department computer system
Technorati Tags: personnel department , personnel shortage , computerized systems
While on a crew run by one of the biggest name seismic outfits recently I was surprised to hear that one of the staff had been bid for multiple jobs at the same time. Bidding in this manner is not unusual but what [...]
Fur flies over Miss Universe
Technorati Tags: PETA , animal rights , Miss Universe
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and some of the other raving loony animal rights types are campaigning to get the reigning Miss Universe, Japan’s Riyo Mori, to stop wearing animal furs by accusing her of promoting cruelty.
Ms Mori, 20, a ballerina [...]
Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok
I recently had the rather dubious pleasure of transiting the new airport in Bangkok. I had already been through the place on my way into and out of Thailand three times before, so I was already aware of its post industrial decor and metal seats, but this was my first time in transit.
To start things off I had [...]
Office 2007
To those who are using company computers the issue of upgrading to Microsoft Office 2007 may not be in your near future, especially as larger companies are not climbing over each other to upgrade. I recently bought a new Dell to replace the IBM ThinkPad that I complained about in a recent post and decided [...]
Passive Seismic Mapping PSTT
I recently came across an interesting article about a 3D seismic technology which does not use traditional type sources making it possible to use the technique in places otherwise locked out due to environmental concerns.
Passive seismic mapping using passive seismic transmission tomography (PSTT) is a seismic technique which uses a sparse array of 3C [...]
Christian Taliban
An article on the ABC news site shows just how far backward the clocks are being turned in the name of “decency”. The country that is promoting democracy and freedom in the middle east should take a look in their own back yard first.
It seems that numerous parishes in the state of Louisiana are busy [...]
Safety Culture Today
Seismic has changed a lot during my years in the industry. In the late seventies there were no such things as HSE reports or stop cards. Management seminars and meetings were about production, costs, logistics and quality. These days HSE plays a very big role and takes up a lot of time both in such [...]
IBM ThinkPad T60 by Lenovo
I recently bought an IBM (Lenovo) ThinkPad T60 to replace my four year old Dell Precision laptop. You would think that moving from a 2.0 GHz Pentium M to the latest dual core 2.15 GHz processor and going up in RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB there would be a major difference in performance [...]
Partial News Reporting or PC Bias?
I was on a crew in Ethiopia’s southern Ogaden region in April. I left the crew just three days before an attack by ONLF (Ogaden National Liberation Front) rebels, a muslim based group from the pictures shown. The attack killed sixty-five local employees (the people that the rebels claim to be fighting to liberate) and nine of [...]
Pullout from Iraq
Although I generally tend to disagree with the majority I have to admit that I am in agreement with them one the subject of pulling out of Iraq. I do, however, have a very different reason for thinking this way. Most people want to get the soldiers out of harms way or want to stop [...]
Political Correctness
I met up with an old friend last night and we talked about a lot of things. The more we spoke the clearer it became that we are a pair of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs is probably the wrong choice of words as we are not quite extinct yet but we are definitely part of a dwindling [...]
Online Purchasing
I wonder how many of you out there have problems with online purchases while you are on the crew. I just had another payment rejected by one of the big online payments processing groups. My firewall just came up for renewal or, more accurately, informed me that it would soon be up for renewal.
I decided [...]
Absolutely SFW | Reg Developer
Just a quick one on the subject of safety. Click on the link below to go to The Register and have a look at their article on workplace safety. I have included a choice quote below. Does this sound like any of the HSE people you have come across? Go over there and read the [...]
Tesla Roadster
While I have worked in the seismic industry for more than 30 years and believe that everybody who makes a living in the oil industry should drive a big block V8 powered gas guzzler I have to admit that I do like the look of this electric roadster.
Looking at the car you would never [...]
Doodlebugger prayer
Here is one for the religious among us. Don’t laugh, plenty of people on seismic crews believe in god. It’s just that when they flee temptation they leave a forwarding address.
Male & Female definitions
buttfemale – the body part that every item of clothing ever manufactured makes “look bigger”male – what you slap when someone scores a touchdown, home run, or goal. Also good for mooning
commitmentfemale – a desire to get married and raise a familymale – not trying to pick up other women while out with [...]
Everybody can contribute
No, it isn’t what you think. We aren’t going to ask you for money. We just want to tell you that everybody who is a registered user on this site is automatically registered as a contributor which means that you can send us stories to add to the site. See the How-To page for details [...]
Reality check
I had seen this as a poster some years ago on a seismic boat before I noticed it the other day on a web site. The girl might or might not have been different but the message was the same. It does give us something to think about.
Keep this in mind when you are drooling over [...]
Things men want women to know
Here are some of the things men want their women to know but don’t want to tell them because they will probably take it the wrong way.
Men are not mind readers.
Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You [...]
Nokia E90
Nokia just may tempt me back into the fold with their new E90 smart phone which was shown at the 3GSM trade show. It will replace its older 9300 “brick” model. This latest offering has more svelte dimensions than the older phones it replaces at 132 x 57 x 20 mm. The phone runs [...]
Banks: It’s their profit, and your loss
I just read an article about the so-called service that banks provide today. In the seismic industry most of us get paid by wire transfer. How long does it take for the banks to credit your account? I live in Indonesia and the central bank there has the first chop at it, followed by my bank, [...]
We want your photos
The picture at the left was uploaded to the gallery by one of our readers on the very first day he registered. I find it hard to believe that with so many new registered users nobody out there has any pictures they would like to share with the rest of us. We add a [...]
There is still hope
One of our contributors sent a piece of good news for those of us who are very attached to our elbow bending lifestyles. Apparently a drug has been discovered which, if it fulfils its promise, can cure any damge to the liver even if we keep drinking!
The drug, which is still undergoing clinical trials, may [...]
Could this be seismic heaven?
I don?t know about our readers but this looks like Larry?s version of seismic heaven. His only complaint would be “So many beers, so little time”. As you all know Larry is the entertainment manager at Swinger?s Bar & Grill currently trading on the Sinai Peninsula. We don?t get very many drop-in customers here [...]
They own you
Do you think are a free man? Think again. Companies out there are working hard to patent your genes.
How many of you out there realize that there are companies patenting genes from your body. These patents are being granted and are enforceable so that the company owning the patents, in effect, owns you.
Once a gene [...]
Sign of the times
Seen when calling on local landowners while permitting for a seismic survey. Time to check the kevlar underwear.
Female vocabulary
Male and female communication is often hampered by a lack of understanding. For the confused men out there here is a primer to women’s vocabulary.
Fine – This is the word women use to end an argument when they feel they are right and you need to shut up. Never use “fine” to describe how a [...]
East Texas birddogs
Is the next downturn close?
While I don’t like to be the bearer of bad tidings I read a rather disturbing article today regarding the state of the seismic industry. The author, David Bamford, holds a PhD in geophysics and has been involved in the technical and exploration fields for 23 years and has a rather startling prediction.
The battle of the bulge
Due to the increased occurrence of obesity on seismic crews the HSE departments of the major seismic companies have decided to take the initiative and combat the problem.
A HSE spokesman from a major company told us "The new water has only one tenth of the calories of the brand that we had been providing which [...]
Camp Move
The scene above shows a typical seismic camp move in the Middle East.
Seismic Talk welcomes Larry
Larry is joining us as a Seismic Talk editor. He will be taking time from his busy schedule as the entertainment manager and chef d’barbecue extraordinaire of Swinger’s Bar to help us get this site moving. Let’s all welcome him as we look forward to lots of posts and photos from his desk.
