Author: kirabug

Posted on

The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen

Impressions

Not quite reviews, I talk about books I read and enjoyed.

I wasn’t one of those kids that was enamored with dinosaurs, and we didn’t really explain that birds were dinosaurs until I was well outside the age where my clothing shopping took place in the kid’s section. I became interested in dinosaurs and their extinction because I was one of those kids who was fascinated by plate tectonics and geology, and the plate tectonics and geology kept bouncing against the paleontology and, well,  eventually one takes a hint.

Thus I’ve found myself becoming interested in dinosaurs somewhat unexpectedly. I watch PBS Eons and read things about how chickens are actually dinosaurs.

And on the other side of the science debates, I numbly agree that yeah, humans are causing climate change, but do we know what could actually happen? Do we have any models?

Turns out we do. Not the models we would have chosen, but definitely actual research-driven mind-adjusting models. They’re called the mass extinctions.

The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen scratches the geology itch, the plate tectonics itch, the biology itch, the paleontology itch, even a touch of anthropology near the end when the humans show up. It skips all those long “boring” stretches when everyone’s living just fine between the ends of their worlds. It puts significant attention on those times when multiple things, like a perfect storm, go horribly wrong. We don’t just learn about the mass extinctions. We learn about the places on our own roadsides where we can see the evidence of those extinctions – juts of ground that were the bottom of seabeds, cliffs that were volcanos, rocks that were animals.

This is the most in-depth look at what rises and falls in CO2 levels actually do to the Earth – its oceans, its land masses, and its atmospheres – that I’ve found anywhere I’ve looked. It’s the first time I’ve gotten an explanation of how the planet does its best to self-regulate its temperature (and it turns out to have a lot to do with dissolving the mountains) and the first time I’ve gotten a good idea of the time frames involved (really really *really* really long).

So will there be another mass extinction? Eventually, and it will probably involve CO2 levels. Whether that’s soon enough for our society to remember it, or far enough out that we’ve moved off-planet remains to be determined by our own behavior over the next 100 years.

In the meantime, this very readable, very relatable book will help you see far in the past and possibly imagine far in the future.

Posted on

Day 452: cleaning up my messes

One Among the Dead

Sometimes you need a project that’s just for, y’know, goofing around. This is the ongoing saga of my Minecraft character. For lack of a better title, we’re going with “One Among the Dead”. 

Day 452:

Today’s been a day of seeing where I left off on things… particularly on things like “did I ever smoke that fish?” and “Where does this passage go?” and “Why didn’t I build more doors?!”

In other words, I discovered that past me has left things a mess at this end of the caverns in attempt to get wool socks and now that I need diamonds to get the wool socks I’m giving myself a  stern talking-to.

Lots of lifting stone into place for floors and ceilings leads to painful backs and  strained necks. I’ve tried making my armor a little more supportive but so far my choices seem to be armor that it’s easy to maneuver in or armor that keeps my back from collapsing.

Good to see nothing has changed over thousands of years… well, except for the mag belts and inertial dampeners I don’t have access to anymore.

Posted on

Day 451: Obsidian and slimes

One Among the Dead

Sometimes you need a project that’s just for, y’know, goofing around. This is the ongoing saga of my Minecraft character. For lack of a better title, we’re going with “One Among the Dead”. 

Day 451:

I’m killing gelatinous cubes every time I have to pass between where I’m mining the obsidian and where I store it.

I’m starting to wonder if there’s a way to get the cubes to pick up the obsidian dust and shards… maybe lure them over my work area? but then everything would be slimy there instead.

I have noticed if too much of their glop piles up it gets kind of springy. I wonder if I can find some kind of use for it other than making everything i own gross.

Erasers would be nice. Although that would mean creating pencils.

Posted on

Day 450: Obsidian!

One Among the Dead

Sometimes you need a project that’s just for, y’know, goofing around. This is the ongoing saga of my Minecraft character. For lack of a better title, we’re going with “One Among the Dead”. 

Day 450:

I found a huge cache of obsidian, an extremely solid rock that’s essentially a giant blob of lava glass.

It’s hard as hell to mine and I have to be really careful not to cut myself on the everything. Yes, the everything. The dust, the shards, the fragments, the big pieces, the little pieces… I mentioned it was glass, yes?

I also have to cover myself head to toe (which let’s face it i pretty much already was) to not breathe in the obsidian or cut myself on it.

It makes for hot sweaty work.

Fortunately, there’s a waterfall in the area (which explains how the obsidian got here, because there’s also a lava pool) and I can rinse off, or rinse the area I’m working in, frequently enough to not die. Well, so far anyway.

I hope they find me soon enough that they can grow me new lungs.

Posted on

Day 449: more slimes

One Among the Dead

Sometimes you need a project that’s just for, y’know, goofing around. This is the ongoing saga of my Minecraft character. For lack of a better title, we’re going with “One Among the Dead”. 

Day 449:

So it turns out that, while, giant lime-colored gelatinous cubes over a certain size can’t actually get down stairwells under a certain size, they can jump up and down on them in an attempt to kill you by bouncing on your head.

This also makes them difficult to kill because as you slice them apart, they become smaller murderous desserts that are now biting you on the ankles.

So it’s been a long day, and I’m definitely heading for a bath. Then I’m going to spend the rest of the time rinsing my sword and then covering everything I own in rendered ducken fat so that the acidy stuff in the gelatin monsters stop pocking my metals.