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Mike Sowden

@mikeachim.bsky.social

13K followers 1.3K following 1.4K posts

Writer (on science, travel & curiosity), Yorkshireman, tedious enthusiast, professional overthinker, Megathreader. Now: Scotland. Writes Everything Is Amazing: https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/

everythingisamazing.substack.com

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · May 12

OK, this is wild.

In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.

It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.

What the HELL?

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Unsplash image of the Earth, mostly the nightside with a tracery of city lights on every continent.

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Reposted by Mike Sowden

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 16h

"Pharaoh called in his wise men & sorcerers. The magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their spells: each man threw down his staff & they all turned into snakes."
Exodus 7:11-12

This is the 'Pharaoh's Serpents' demonstration, by YouTuber NileRed.

It uses toxic mercury(II) thiocyanate (Hg(SCN)2)

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

😂

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you, I didn't know, and that's fascinating! Yes, makes sense that it's an idea born of a time & place & level of mass-printing technology, rather than just one individual (but I've never thought that Dickens wholly invented it - I'm sure he had his own influences).

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Finally, here's a use for old & damaged books that's, um, a bit unsettling?

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england...

"The (2.5m) novels were pulped at a recycling firm in south Wales & used in the preparation of the top layer of the West Midlands motorway, according to building materials suppliers Tarmac."

Wikipedia photo of part of the M6 motorway, by Phillip Capper - https://www.flickr.com/photos/flissphil/129658021/

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

There is someone a hundred years from now holding your 90s Book of The Month edition who would beg to disagree! (And, thank you!)

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

I don't know how many Charles Dickens Libraries now survive. Probably quite a few? Here's a set on eBay, selling for £150.

But all this got me fascinated in the process of making books - so that's what I'm writing about soon.

Come sign up here: everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/hey-what-a...

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Complete 18-volume set of the Charles Dickens Library (printed in 1910).

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

...did you know he invented what was more or less a "paid newsletter"? (Or at least was the first to make such a wild success of it?)

bsky.app/profile/mike...

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · Jul 22

A reminder:

In 1836 a young English Parliamentary reporter working in London grew frustrated with the depressing publishing opportunities facing him, and the general state of being a writer in those days, and decided to break the “rules”...

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Pinch me.

This is the first of an 18-volume set of the complete works of Charles Dickens - and it’s spent the last 115 years travelling through the world to get to me.

I wish I could describe to you how the pages smell. I can’t. Too complicated. Too *old*.

And speaking of Dickens...

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Front cover of "Sketches By Boz", printed in 1910 for the Charles Dickens Library by the Educational Book Company: blue (imitation) leather embossed with (imitation) gold.

First page of "Sketches By Boz", printed in 1910 for the Charles Dickens Library by the Educational Book Company.

Page of text and illustration in "Sketches By Boz", printed in 1910 for the Charles Dickens Library by the Educational Book Company.

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Hah! I like that.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Steady on, now.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

😂 I'm working my way through them right now and feeling this more and more.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

If you're not enjoying a book, you can just abandon it, like a total crazy person.

And if you're *really* not enjoying a book, you can throw it at the wall.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

ActualIy I myself have gone viral a few times recently, and just about everyone has been kind and thoughtful, so I'm afraid your assertion is at best only partially...

*listens to self*

oh no

Reposted by Mike Sowden

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 1d

Holy crap. This is terrible.

The article states it's "not related to the current U.S. government shutdown". But of course it is: they are both connected by the GOP destroying everything good about this country from the top down and the bottom up.

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Monday it will cut nearly 550 jobs as part of a restructuring, not related to the current U.S. government shutdown.

reut.rs

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Also on that note: bsky.app/profile/mike...

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 5d

Disappointed that my efforts to restrain my fury at not being able to find my glasses in the morning because I'm not wearing my glasses have ONCE AGAIN been snubbed by the Nobel Peace Prize committee. But, fine.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

If life could find a way to survive on them (unlikely, but who knows?) - couldn't they also be classed as spaceships?

And if your brain immediately went *here*, I'm sure we'd get on in real life:

a picture of the moon with the words massive nuclear

ALT: a picture of the moon with the words massive nuclear

media.tenor.com

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_p...

Rogue planet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Haunting astronomy idea of the day:

A rogue planet is one that's escaped the gravitational clutches of its original home, drifting between the stars in utter darkness.

There could be a lot - even outnumbering stars by up to 20 times.

This would mean our galaxy alone is filled with *trillions*.

Picture by Daniel Olah of a dimly-lit globe surrounded by darkness.

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Okay, I just learned about FOG TSUNAMIS, which look a hundred times more alarming - see picture. Good lord, the ways the natural world trolls us for the lulz:
oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/weird-...

Photo by Capt. Jim Freda, Manasquan Inlet, New Jersey, of a fog tsunami looking exactly like the real thing as it rolls ashore. YIKES.

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Reposted by Mike Sowden

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

I have an ask, as they say:

My newsletter is always free on Monday. Please share it with a nerd you know! I love astronomy and space, and I bet you know a lot of folks who do too. My whole point is to get the word out, and you can help immeasurably with that. Thanks!

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 2d

In this corner: OCSN-49, a star cluster with hundreds of members wandering the galaxy

And in THIS corner: a diffuse giant molecular cloud with 100,000 times the Sun's mass just minding its own business

It's the CLASH of the EONS! Who will win?

badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/star-clust...

🧪🔭

Star cluster vs. giant molecular cloud: who wins?

The answer surprised me, and I do so love being surprised.

badastronomy.beehiiv.com

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Gorgeous. Yes, I'm obsessed with that place too!

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Born an' bred! (Okay, I was born in Germany and grew up in Cyprus, but my dad's family is all from Yorkshire and it's my accent.)

Hope you're enjoying the new 'All Creatures...' TV show?

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

As per the president’s physician, the President of the United States just got an updated Covid shot.

A family physician:

"My jaw dropped... This is the same person who publicly undermines vaccines in general and Covid vaccines in particular."

mccormickmd.substack.com/p/learning-f...

Incredible.

Results of a Pew Research poll showing a huge divide between Republicans and Democrat voters on their intentions to get vaccinated:

Plan to get/already got: R = 19%, D = 62%
Probably/Definitely Not: R = 81%, D = 38%

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Finally, I will never stop laughing at the ridiculousness of this: bsky.app/profile/mike...

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · Jul 24

Thanks to the first volume of Michael Palin's diaries, I recently discovered the glory of one of the greatest travel pieces in British publishing history.

In early April 1977, The Guardian published a 7-page travel supplement on this "little-known" island nation...

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Anyway, I live near a lot of islands (western Scotland) and I write a science newsletter, so I'm absolutely NOT done exploring my fascination with islands yet. Much more to write soon.

If you also love stuff like this, sign up to read for free here: everythingisamazing.substack.com

Ta!

Photo by Mike Sowden of a golden sunset over the Firth of Clyde west of Ayrshire with islands in the distance.

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