Category: Science

Quote of the day

methylethyl, in the comments at Joseph Moore’s place:

Whenever I see study titles, or headlines, that involve “models”– I mentally add “In Legend of Zelda” or something equivalent to every conclusion. It helps put it in perspective. So, you know “model estimates covid spread by vaccination rate in Legend of Zelda” or “Climate model predicts 3-foot sea level rise by 2050 in Kingdom of Hyrule” or “Model predicts 10% rise in heart attack deaths with 5% increase in calorie consumption in The SIMS” Because any time you’re working with a model, you’re in video-game land, not the real world: video-game land is simplified, has far fewer variables, by definition cannot have unexpected events or outcomes, etc.

360° of Geldingadalir

Here’s an interactive panorama of the little new Icelandic volcano. It’s best in the full-screen view.

Can you walk on lava? Sometimes:

You can walk on some lava flows, after the surface has cooled enough. Apparently, while doing so you can feel the lava flow underneath you, and can be rising while it piles up. Your extremely sturdy shoes will still melt – don’t be tardy. On a lava flow like this, the surface is liquid enough for you to loose your balance. You won’t sink (lava is dense) so your body might still be retrievable.

Update: Here’s a 3-D model you can play with.

Bulletin from Reykjanes

Credit: Sól­ný Páls­dótt­ir

It’s begun. There’s a webcam here. (See below for better views.)

(Picture from here.)

Update: Another webcam here. (See below for better views.)

See the comments at the Volcano Café post for further news, pictures and videos.

Update II: Today’s quote, from marinecreature in the café comments: “What an adorable little mini-volcano.”

Both the webcams linked above now show very little but grey, but there are better ones linked to in the comments thread. Try this one.

Update III:

Update IV nn: The view from a drone:

Brush up your Icelandic

Todays’s word is Þráinsskjaldarhraun: “Þráins shields lava field.”

Things are heating up on the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland.

Update: while you’re waiting, you can spend some quality time with Etna:

Update II: Today’s useful phrase: “gently exploding.”

Eruptions in south-west Iceland are of a fluid rock type called basalt. This results in slow-moving streams of lava fed from gently exploding craters and cones.

Suggestion

Stuck at home because of the CCP virus? Why not follow Isaac Newton’s example and use the time to revolutionize a field of study or two:

Soon after Newton had obtained his BA degree in August 1665, the university temporarily closed as a precaution against the Great Plague. Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge student, Newton’s private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the subsequent two years saw the development of his theories on calculus, optics, and the law of gravitation.

Bright lights and strange sights

Stromboli has gotten friskier of late. You can see and hear the activity here. It’s particularly dramatic during night on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

***

I’m losing my enthusiasm for Macintosh computers. My iMac should last a few more years, but after that I may replace it with a different brand. Perhaps I’ll install Linux.

Perhaps not.

(Via J Greely and the Brickmuppet.)

29 years ago

Evening classes at Wichita State University were abruptly cancelled Tuesday evening, March 13, 1990, because of a tornado warning. There was no obvious threatening weather visible from the campus, so the Fortran instructor and I chatted for a while in the student union basement. Back in Michigan where he came from, he told me, they had real monster tornadoes, not the tame little wimpy ones that frolic on the prairie.

Yeah, right.