Author Archives: Ed Medley

About Ed Medley

Ed Medley has been on a random walk for over 50 years. Many scribbles and snapshots at this site are from his vagabond transits; others are from his decades of international experience in geological and geotechnical engineering, academia, and mineral exploration prospecting.

pohaku/wai

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Ed Medley

at first glance a wall but a  visage lovelier for weathered sculpture   beyond the surface freshness – shadows and depth beguile and confuse

Posted in Poesy-Prosey-Artsy | Leave a comment

cross words on 2

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Ed Medley

In 1967 I worked part-time as a Special Effects helper on a  TV game show at the Beeb – the  BBC, or British Broadcasting Corporation – where I saw crosswords and heard cross words.

Posted in Olde History | Leave a comment

oozing hillsides

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Ed Medley

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle newspaper had a story on hillside failures in the San Francisco Bay town of Hercules: “Oozing Hillside Imperils Home“.  “Oozing hillside” is a poetic way to describe “landslide”. Even more poetic is the explanation given by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Geopractice, Just sayin' | Leave a comment

Jam, honey, bread, syncline

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Ed Medley

Browsing through the March pages in my 1986 diary, I found a tasty entry. I had just finished a horrible job at Bandar-e-Taheri,  on the Persian Gulf, in Iran. I was there to supervise drilling exploration for a proposed oil … Continue reading →

Posted in Professional, Vagabond | Leave a comment

blue:bicycles:red

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Ed Medley

  blue me, wandering beside blue canal – I  laugh at a hawsered laundry of bicycles: bicycles everywhere;  stacked, leaning, piled, jumbled in scrums yet these two, almost kissing a chaste synapse separating blue and red: red lights, not chaste, yet separated … Continue reading →

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Trainspotting

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Ed Medley

“4-6-2!”.”4-4-4!” “Little sod! Bugger off!”. These  expressions  still chuff in my ears 50 or so years after I first heard them, as a  trainspotter. 

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Painted Doors/Painted Ladies

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Ed Medley

Wallace, in the Silver Valley, in the Coeur d’Alene district of the Idaho Panhandle used to be a very special place for me. Come to think of it, anywhere that blends heart and panhandle and silver should be special and … Continue reading →

Posted in Olde History | 1 Comment

ikebana

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Ed Medley

    in winter’s wet lee beauty piques as maiden’s glee: – surprise! birthday cake     On a stormy, wet winter Saturday – two days before Spring starts – we went to an Ikebana Show in San Francisco. I got lost … Continue reading →

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Engineering Geologists .NE. Geological Engineers

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Ed Medley

This post title includes the Fortran Boolean  logical operation .NE. , computer programming parlance that I used to be more familiar with than I am now.  It means ” Engineering Geologists Not Equal to Geological Engineers. The title and this piece are prompted by an interesting  recent thread … Continue reading →

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Motley View: Engineering Geology as a Vital Phase in the GeoSpectrum

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Ed Medley

I have written and lectured often on the GeoSpectrum of professionals, spanning Engineering through Geology. Recently, I wrote an invited Editor’s Commentary (Engineering Geology- A Vital Phase of GeoEngineering) for the March/April 2009 Engineering Geology edition of the Geo-Strata magazine of the Geo-Institute of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Geopractice, Just sayin', Motley Views/Foolery, Professional | Leave a comment