It is nearly impossible to take notes using an electronic device in geology courses. As the OP mentioned, diagrams are rather difficult to draw quickly and effectively on electronic devices. Thus I use a pad of engineering paper to write all notes and draw all diagrams. The exception occurs for those times when the lecturer posts slides online beforehand and *never* draws on the blackboard. If necessary I convert to PDF and then use PDFXChange Viewer to annotate, highlight, and draw *very* simple diagrams or point out important parts with arrows. It's nice to have notes directly on the slides and it saves me time since I don't have to correlate notes with each slide during study sessions.
The tablet industry needs to prove that tablets can be fast and accurate when taking notes and diagramming.
For those that are interested in considering scientific paper without the media filter:
Ferroir, Tristan, Leonid Dubrovinsky, Ahmed El Goresy, Alexandre Simionovici, Tomoki Nakamura, and Philippe Gillet. 2010. Carbon polymorphism in shocked meteorites: Evidence for new natural ultrahard phases. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 290, no. 1-2: 150-154. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.12.015. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0012821X09007389.
I sure wish that secondary sources properly cited primary sources, even if they are only interviewing the main scientist involved. Giving the journal name and date as Discovery News did is a good step, though.
So if this is a coarse grained rock with a basalt composition, then I guess that means it is a Martian gabbro (on earth they tend to be used ornately as black "granite" countertops). Which is highly interesting because that may indicate crustal deformation. Here on earth, such rocks form deep in the ground in what we call plutons. These are pockets of magma that differentially crystallize into grabbros and granites. Plate tectonics nudges them to the surface and weathering + erosion helps to uncover them. The Sierra Nevadas is a continuous grouping of them called a Batholith. Yes, all that granodiorite use to be underfoot!
Anyhow, this could be important in perhaps proving that, yes, at one point, Mars had active plate tectonics. Planet formation kind of requires it but good to know Mars may have had some crazy earthquakes in the past uplifting such rocks to the surface.
I'm no geologist (yet) and I have only looked superficially at this but the feature reminds me of what can be seen with columnar jointing. Nature can be amazingly precise and geometric sometimes. Normally it's basalt, and the ocean is pretty much basalt at the top-most levels of the ophiolite. If the basalt cools from the exterior, this can happen. I don't know if this can occur in the ocean as we tend to get pillow lavas as the basalt cools INCREDIBLY FAST and kinda oozes out. Also, with the extent of this feature, this would have to have been some sort of flood of basalt.
It's a pretty neat feature, real or unreal. Although I have to wonder what these people think about the very long linear feature called the Ninetyeast Ridge in the Indian ocean. Anyhow, got to love the masters of pattern: humans. Never fail to see things where there's really nothing.
Example and description:
The Bush administration is seeking even less judicial oversight in it's spying program. The changes would apply to US email and phone accounts and would shield companies who comply with illegal orders for information.
Where there's a will, there's a relative.