Trivia that matter
If you want breathtaking landscapes, Kansas is the last place in North America to look. However, there are things worth seeing. I recently spent a couple hours at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, which has an impressive collection of aerospace memorabilia, including a SR-71 Blackbird in the lobby.
If the skies are clear where you are on the night of May 30-31, check the sky around midnight (central time). There might be an intense meteor shower — maybe. Cross your fingers.1
(Via The Silicon Graybeard.)
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.
Things are a bit noisy in Tonga. (There should be a round-up of information about the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai eruption soon at Volcano Café. Update: here you go.)
… you can visit the Canary Islands. Background on Cumbre Vieja here.
Screenshots from recent viewing.
Some spectacular views of the first phase of the eruption in Iceland.
The best source for information on the events on the Reykjanes peninsula is Volcano Café. Check the comments on recent posts for the latest news, pictures and videos.
Update: A casualty of the eruption.
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.
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:
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.
A few years ago, things were shaking in northern Oklahoma. Now the seismic action has moved up to the east side of Wichita. The red dot in the map woke me up at 5 a.m. this morning.
Richard Grenier, “The Gandhi Nobody Knows”
Michael Crichton, “Aliens Cause Global Warming” (PDF)
(Via Ed Driscoll and Maggie’s Farm.)
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.
Stromboli has gotten friskier of late. You can see and hear the activity here. It’s particularly dramatic during night on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
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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.)