Creepy, Dude

Beginning with the general ...

I found this interesting website today. If you are interested in the Earth, you might enjoy this Earth Science Picture of the Day feature. I do want to caution the Velvet Fog, who I happen to know has spent entirely too many hours reading snore-inducing treatises on soils and similar palaver, not to click this for a few more days. In your condition, you shouldn't look at anything this likely to arouse your interest. Click to enlarge, if you know what I mean.

Progressing to a specific ...

From the caption to the photo on the right:

• Most geological changes occur so slowly that we need to look for subtle signs, which give an indication that conditions are changing. The aspen trees on the above photo show that the soil in which they are growing has been moving down slope in a mass wasting process known as creep. The top of the soil layer moves faster than the soil beneath, causing the young trees to bend down slope. As the roots stabilize the soil, creep is greatly diminished and the trees can then grow straight. The photograph was taken on the Wasatch Plateau south of Salt Lake City, Utah.

It is appalling to me that the government would allow this kind of "wasting" to occur. Somebody should do something about this. What are we paying taxes for if the stuffed-shirt bureaucrats are just going to ignore this kind of tragedy? [1]

[1] Props (i.e., credit) to Flamingo - please stay at least fifteen feet clear of the sarchasm.