tingilinde

drilling through ice in greenland

Science is hard, but very fulfilling

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The story began a long time ago, in a distant corner of the universe, amid the death throes of ancient suns.

When stars explode, they send sprays of high energy particles into the cosmos. A few of these cosmic rays are able to make it through Earth’s atmosphere and reach the ground below. And when those particles encounter rocks, they can interact with certain elements to create rare chemicals called cosmogenic nuclides.
These nuclides accumulate in surface rocks at predictable rates. Some are also radioactive, and they decay into new forms on distinctive timelines. This allows scientists to use them as molecular clocks. By counting the numbers of nuclides within a rock, scientists can tell how long it has been exposed to cosmic ray bombardment. And by comparing the ratios of various decaying elements, they can determine when ice began to block the rock’s view of the sky.

With this technique, ordinary rocks are transformed into something almost fantastic. They are witnesses, capable of remembering history that occurred long before any humans were around to record it. They are messengers, carrying warnings of how the ice — and the Earth — could yet transform.
“It’s like a magic lamp,” Schaefer said. “It’s pretty crazy that a little piece of rock can tell you the story of this massive sheet of ice.”

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a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

breaking the 100 megabyte barrier

A massive 1200 rpm drive with one meter in diameter disks

Here's the brochure.

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To grasp the effectiveness of this approach, consider the largest MODEL 2 file - the "C' size containing the maximum of 50 data surfaces. As illustrated, there are six read/write heads per data surface - 300 heads in all--and each has access to 128 recording tracks. If the file is equipped with the new Dual/ Rapid random access head positioning system, the moving heads for each module or side of the file are connected to separate actuating mechanisms. If equipped with a single access system, the heads are connected to the same actuating/ posi-toning mechanism. Thus, when the file is requested to seek out information, all of the heads attached to the same actuat. ing system move together - causing each of the six heads servicing a data disc surface to position over the same relative track as its counterpart servicing any other disc surface. Thus, for each of the six groups of 128 horizontally-aligned tracks across the file, there are 50 write/read heads over the same track position at any one time.

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approaching the end of a healthy rainforest?

The Amazon is now releasing carbon - too many threats.  Can it be saved?

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Since 2010, Gatti has collected air samples over the Amazon in planes such as this one, to monitor how much CO₂ the forest absorbs. In 2021, she reported data from 590 flights that showed that the Amazon forest’s uptake — its carbon sink — is weak over most of its area. In the southeastern Amazon, the forest has become a source of CO₂.

The finding gained headlines around the world and surprised many scientists, who expected the Amazon to be a much stronger carbon sink. For Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist at the University of São Paulo Institute of Advanced Studies in Brazil, the change was happening much too soon. In 2016, using climate models, he and his colleagues predicted that the combination of unchecked deforestation and global climate change would eventually push the Amazon forest past a “tipping point”, transforming the climate across a vast swathe of the Amazon. Then, the conditions that support a lush, closed-canopy forest would no longer exist. Gatti’s observations seem to show the early signs of what he forecast, Nobre says

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me/cfs

An often devastating condition - myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome is one of those conditions without a diagnostic test or cure. Covid can trigger it.. women 30 to 40 appear to be worse off than other groups.  Now some work looking at symptoms - women appear to be worse off.

I know someone with this triggered by Covid.  To say it's ruined her life is an understatement.  With a new wave starting up and the potential for the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant to bite, it makes sense to take precautions. 

 

 

wireless

When I started at a Bell Labs, offices of radio guys always had the US radio frequency spectrum allocation chart.  It's changed over the years.  Here's the latest version. Some of this real estate is unlicensed, most isn't and some of it is worth very large sums.

Check out the comments for Greg's link suggestion.

 

a one year project

and the final result (skipping some tuning)

hudson geese

a different point of view

Hudson Geese from Bernardo Britto on Vimeo.

the devil went down to georgia

The devil went down to Georgia he was looking for some votes to steal

He was in a bind cause he was way behind and he was ready to make a deal

 

thomas zimmer on david brook's new book

Thomas Zimmer is a serious historian..  David Brooks is something of a know-it-all with almost no depth. Zimmer does a fine job of removing any desire to read the book...  not that I would - I avoid Brooks' writing/

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How about this: Instead of going for the short, easy dunk, I will present his argument in quite some detail, as fair and precise as I can, then outline why I don’t think it holds up to serious scrutiny. And I will explain why I believe it is indicative of a much larger problem: A pervasive longing for a golden past that never really existed – something in which elites across the political spectrum love to indulge – that provides dangerously fertile ground for a reactionary politics of weaponized nostalgia.

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how steve martin discovered comedy

A fun piece by himself. (from 2007)

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In logic class, I opened my textbook—the last place I was expecting to find comic inspiration—and was startled to find that the author Lewis Carroll was also a logician. He wrote logic textbooks and included argument forms based on the syllogism, normally presented in logic books this way:

    (1) All men are mortal.

    (2) Socrates is a man.

Therefore Socrates is mortal.

But Carroll’s were convoluted, and they struck me as funny in a new way:

    (1) Babies are illogical.

    (2) Nobody is despised who can manage a crocodile.

    (3) Illogical persons are despised.

Therefore babies cannot manage crocodiles.

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