Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org
Retired SysAdmin living in the high country of Arizona, USA. I enjoy learning about physics, cosmology, genetics, neurology, and suchlike. Deeply confused by worldwide trends towards authoritarianism. I thought we'd already learned about that stuff. But I guess not.
Joined Nov 2022
@awalshe
It's not only fun to live in an imaginary world for a time, it's a great distraction when you need a distraction-- it's one of my tools to deal with occasional bouts of chronic pain. 🙂
Andy Lowry
boosted
In England, “booster shot” is spelled “borchestershire shot.”
@vickyveritas
Publishing is the greatest mystery in the universe. Almost everything about it is inexplicable. Somewhere in the world-- my guess is deep in the Romanian forests-- ancient robed men with skull headdresses gather and chant and sacrifice a horse, and then they make their pricing and printing decisions.
I really needed a book last year for a curiosity project I was doing. It was the only book that could have provided me the information I needed unless I wanted to pay somebody to translate the original for me. I mean, I had to have it. Hardback price was $70, there was no paperback, and digital price was $100. I am not making that up. Book was a good 800 pages or so, so no way was I going to heft that around with me, so digital was what I wound up doing, amidst much emotional turmoil and angst. Hey, wait a minute, I think I see the marketing genius there after all...
@lrau
OY GEWALT
I will make great use of that today, thanks. Where should the royalty checks be sent?
@garethwilliams
Thanks for the kind thoughts! It definitely was worth it, probably added at least a year to my remaining time. 🙂 Not that I'd recommend it to anybody as a vacation option.
@_4_d_4_m_
As a former sufferer of the dreaded Near-Fatal Introversion Syndrome, I remember making sure I had a book with me always, every time I left the house, without exception. I'd get dragged to a family reunion or something and disappear into a corner to have a nice conversation with Mr. Vonnegut or some such. 😉 My Dad's the same way, enough so that I sometimes wonder how it is that I ever came to be. 🤔
When I was scheduled for my first chemo treatment, I'd been warned that it would take about eight hours. I like reading, but eight hours straight would be a bit much on the eyes. I have plenty of video content to watch on a laptop, but I doubt I could watch anything for that long. And then I was walking through the console games section of a store one day and noticed that Skyrim, with which I'd spent a couple thousand hours on my computer (over the course of 12 years or so, it's not like that was the only thing I did with my life) was available on the Switch Lite. Though I'd never used a console before, let alone a handheld one, that looked pretty awesome to me!
And so it has turned out to be. It's a bit amazing to me that I can play the actual real full game on such a small device that once upon a time I used a fairly fancy gaming machine for. I'm in my sixties, so learning to use my thumbs that way did take some practice, but it's all second nature now. I'm nearsighted, so if I take off my glasses and hold the screen close, I have a bigger relative screen than anything I've ever had on my desk.
After six infusions of chemo, I was switched to immunotherapy, which doesn't take long enough to bother taking the Switch with me. There's a recent development lately that my oncologist is pondering using a little more chemo for, and I'm hoping he does so I can nerd out some more. 😎
It's still the only game I have for the Switch. Because, c'mon, what else could a person need? 😉
@corsairmo
I'm in a similar situation with the borrowed time, and share your gratitude. I had about a year to go twenty months ago. 😉 Glad you're doing well, and may it continue thus!
@rsagarcia
Two thumbs up and a hats-off to you! That's great. May it ever continue thus!
@arselectronica
Both parents were symphony musicians and public-school music teachers, and I remember when that Bach album appeared at home when I was twelve. My mother, a flutist, was enthusiastic. My father, an oboist, was taken aback. I liked it, but then you could do most anything based on Bach and I'd like it.
I bet a person could do a psychology study on the reactions to Carlos amongst musicians. 😉
@TimHarford
😆 I never, ever relpy. For one thing, it kind of hurts.
I feel really bad right now about the "see attached" thing. I do that, though my usual phrasing is more along the lines of "attached is the file you asked for." I am besmirched by shame.
Andy Lowry
boosted
The Wilson Cycle: Intro
“If the continents have moved, then they have drifted like rafts and formed the ocean floors in their wake. It is to this wake that we should look first.”
~ John Tuzo Wilson
Canadian geophysicist and geologist, John Tuzo Wilson, posed the question (and the title of his article in 1966) ‘Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?’ Spoiler alert - yes. That, and his many contributions to plate tectonics, including the concept of hotspots and transform faults, led to the Wilson Cycle (also known as the Supercontinent Cycle) being named after him.
The Wilson Cycle (WC) refers to the process of continent break-up and ocean-opening followed by subduction, collision, and ocean-closing (see the diagram below). This can take tens to hundreds of millons of years (very deep time) to complete.
This quick video provides animation of the WC: https://youtu.be/I_q3sAcuzIY
Step 1 of the WC starts with a tectonically stable continent/craton, eroded down and perhaps scarred by earlier collisions. Rifting (or faulting), crustal thinning, and thermal uplift caused by tectonic stretching of the continent allows the upper mantle (plume) to rise up and fill in. This can lead to earthquakes and volcanic flows. Sometime the plume can die out leading to a failed rift, but when rifting continues, things get quite interesting.
Step 2 The fractures are deep and oriented perpendicular to the extensional direction. As the continent breaks apart, the plume develops convection cells that further the rifting and deepen the basin allowing water in. The mantle material exposed by the rifting is made of much denser (or mafic) material than continental crust (or felsic) and sinks, cools and hardens/crystallizes forming oceanic crust. A new ocean basin is created.
Step 3 The two new continents continue to drift apart; the rift becomes a young spreading ridge, and the new ocean crust sinks further into the mantle as it cools and becomes denser. Sediment is now collecting on the new ocean floors.
Step 4 The Mid Ocean Ridge (MOR) continues to create new ocean crust and the new ocean deepens as the oceanic crust matures and continues to sink into the mantle. The maturer oceanic crust is much heavier than the bordering continental crust, and cracks can develop causing the oceanic crust to flex downwards forming a young subduction zone. Part of the oceanic crust is dragged deep into trench and the water-laden oceanic crust melts due to the higher temperatures of the mantle. Volcanic Island arcs are created. The rifted continental crust is now well below the surface of the ocean.
Step 5 Divergence ceases, and convergence begins. The MOR is eventually subducted, or consumed at the ocean basin margin. Associated volcanism and subduction continues, along with collision, narrowing the ocean and mountains beginning to form. This is now part of the ocean-closing cycle.
Step 6 As the continents/cratons continue to collide, folding, faulting, and earthquakes occur creating new mountains (think of the Himalayas), while catching up bits of volcanic rock, oceanic crust and sedimentary rock. A new continent is formed.
Step 7 The continent matures and erodes. Rinse and repeat with continents colliding, forming supercontinents, and dispersing again in a much longer and even deeper time.
The Wilson Cycle is somewhat simplified and doesn’t go into all the sorts tectonic variations of rift zones and diversity of plate tectonics, but it was a landmark starting point and is a sign of Wilson’s genius. Later geologists and geophysicists stand on the shoulders of this giant. We’ll dive further into the Wilson Cycle in future posts, and have a look at the rock types created and how geologists piece together the Wilson Cycle in real rocks. It’ll be fun she said :)
#WilsonCycle #JohnTuzoWilson #OceanicCrustFormation #Mantle #Plume #MidOceanRidge #SubductionZone #MountainForming #geology #ScienceMastodon @geology
@vickyveritas
A manifestation of Wegener appeared to me just now and asked me to thank you for this, and to say that he's feeling pretty good about himself lately despite his cold and lonely location. Thank you.
(Before I hear an "ahem" from somebody, I know it wasn't just him on the early drift debates, but he's a convenient shorthand for when I want to be silly about something.) 😉
I guess I should be having a look at that recent Nick Eyles book on Tuzo; don't know anything about him. My library doesn't have it yet, so I'll have to find a way around my outrage that the digital version of the book is $45. $45! What the actual hell! That's 16 cents a page for just a collection of corralled electrons.
This post was yet another well-selected level of detail and was both intriguing and easy to understand. Thank you!
@democracydocket
Sheesh, I thought the Lake thing was over and done with. Who the hell is funding the appeal, I wonder? Did her TV job really pay THAT well?
@jayarava
What a great essay your 2010 "Theory of Everything" is! I have no idea how I managed to miss that one on your site-- probably because I was just searching for your Heart-related stuff, I guess.
I'd always thought the causation chain to be a bit of balderdash because I misunderstood its purpose. I thought it was trying to describe reality, and you've now helped me to see that I was wrong about that. I'm excited to re-examine the chain with the new glasses you've given me and spend some time reflecting on it. Thanks so much, that was really well done. Looks like I'll need to check up on Sue Hamilton, too, as I was unfamiliar with the name.
If anyone else missed it too: http://www.jayarava.org/writing/paticca-samuppada-theory-of-everything.pdf
@jayarava
(I should mention that I'm not very good at detecting and evaluating the possibility that I'm over-sharing to the point of annoying people, so please feel free to let me know when to shut up! I wouldn't take it as an insult.) 🙏
@wertham @elliottrandall
As long as they were Rolling Rock bottles, that's permitted.
Andy Lowry
boosted
@AndyLowry @elliottrandall Never mind the drummer! How about the poor schmuck who had to sing it, play synth AND piano.. whilst ducking all those beer bottles🫣
@wertham @elliottrandall
Don't nobody don't love Squonk. All god's chilluns loves Squonk. You must have had quite an accomplished drummer, there's some tricky stuff going on with that tune.
@Eccehom
Is that one of those Icelandic beasts?
Retired SysAdmin living in the high country of Arizona, USA. I enjoy learning about physics, cosmology, genetics, neurology, and suchlike. Deeply confused by worldwide trends towards authoritarianism. I thought we'd already learned about that stuff. But I guess not.
Joined Nov 2022
