Mike Sowden
@mikeachim
Writer (on science, travel & curiosity), Yorkshireman, tedious enthusiast, professional overthinker, Megathreader. Now: Scotland. Writes Everything Is Amazing:
UPDATE oops, I think it got stuck in the mountains. That'll be a mess in the morning.
...does that mean when you’re online, a huge area of your visual system has absolutely nothing to do - and presumably neither does the part of your brain it connects to, in all the ways that seeing & thinking get tangled up? And is that why in comparison, being outside can feel so *satisfying*? 6/
...in a way that often seems so mysterious and so surprising to the “You” up here, living at this bright, overstimulated surface level of consciousness. In the real world, surrounded by it on every side, you do your seeing & thinking with everything you see in this diagram. All of it. But... 3/
Your peripheral vision - the vast majority of your vision by area - is doing stuff modern science is still trying to understand. A lot of its information is being communicated to your subconscious mind - the silent, wiser “You” deep inside that seems to do so much of your best thinking... 2/
Well, you know, both shows share the same Executive Producer, Naren Shankar! So...that would be fun. (If unlikely.)
I only know because after working with a bloke from Liverpool for a couple. Of years, one day at the pub he referred to me as "our kid" and then explained that it meant I was no longer the clueless idiot he first took me to be. 😂
If you've enjoyed "For All Mankind", do go read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. It'll give you that sense of Mars being a real place that this show hasn't - because, to be fair, that's not its focus, and I'm still enjoying it greatly for what it actually is!
This is one of the most spectacular landscapes in the Solar System. Olympus Mons is 3x the height of Everest & the width of France! Valles Marineris is a canyon as wide as the US! I know it's not what the show does (or even could do, with just 10 episodes per season) - but still miss it. 2/
I've enjoyed "For All Mankind" a lot. All credit to cast and crew - it's a great show with a timely message ("we're better when we work together"). But one thing I'm a bit sad about is they haven't given Mars a real sense of place, based on its actual, *incredible* geography. 1/
Another view of Hector. Hey, wait - it kinda looks like it's...hiding something?
Another view of Hector, or as I like to call him, "ROW FASTER, MARJORIE!" I should probably have a nice lie down, yes.
Every year in my hometown in East Yorkshire (England), there's a carnival in the park at its centre. It's for a town of just 12,000 people, attracting the same number again of visitors. As a teen, I would roll my eyes, but I still went. Everyone did. This post isn't about Hornsea Carnival.
Yep! Anyone making light of all this needs to read the first chapter of Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry For The Future" because that will set them straight in a way they'll never forget.
Stay safe, friends! Today's clearly going to be a mad one, even all the way in here in Scotland, pictured. (My best advice is *don't* just trust how thirsty you feel - track your water-drinking to make sure you're not falling short.)
I hope this alarmed you enough to knock back some extra water today! It's certainly not *everything* you should do in a heatwave - but it's where you should start. (Also - don't trust your thirst! Measure it out. Track it fanatically. This ain't a good time for guesstimates.) And finally... 10/
Your skin is painfully hot - & drying up. You can’t perspire enough, & your body heat scorches away what little sweat you can squeeze out. Worse, your blood is losing water through evaporation - & thickening. Thickened blood? Clotting! Your chances of a stroke or a heart attack just spiked. 7/
Oh dear - because you’ve decided to sip a coffee instead. It might be a myth that caffeine significantly dehydrates you - but coffee will psychologically slake your thirst for a short while. You’re sipping fluids when you should be DRINKING them... And so it’s time to start your meltdown. 6/
This is keeping you alive! HOORAY! But you’ve got to do your bit to help it. You’re like a breached dam, losing massive amounts of fluids & salts. If you don’t keep both topped up, you lose the fuel you need to keep you alive. You *urgently* need lots of water. (And the odd salty snack!) 5/
Let's therefore yell THANK YOU to your hypothalamus, hauling you out your own fire. As soon as you hotted up, it triggered two notoriously unloved bodily processes. Your blood vessels dilated, pumping hot blood to the surface of your skin to vent heat - & you started sweating absolute buckets. 4/
Being alive is a balancing act between two cliff edges. When our core temperature drops, we have a 10-degree margin of safety before we feel the icy touch of death. But this leeway is *luxurious* compared to when we start overheating. Just 3 degrees. That's all you've got. (Sorry.) 2/
If you're here in Europe right now, squashed under this merciless heat dome, you're probably pouring with sweat. That means you're losing water like a burst dam, & need to drink more water than usual to replace it. What happens if you DON'T do that? It's absolutely bloody terrifying. 1/
I know that because of AI, there are terms and phrases that increasingly seem to shriek, “I CHECKED PANGRAM AND THIS PERSON 100% WROTE THIS WITH AI AND THEREFORE THIS PHRASE IS NOW DEAD TO ME.” But honestly? ←— you know, like this one! These AI tools are copying stuff WE invented. 1/
At least he's aged like fine wine, while I've aged like a leather boot in a canal. I've got *that* over him at least.
Chesney Hawkes is now 54 - yet he was born 2 weeks before I was. Christ on a bike with knobs on. *stares out the window for a while*