Bob Gooday
@bobgooday.bsky.social
Geological Analyst for National Museums Scotland. Minerals, microscopes, maps, mountains, music.
Beautiful mineral. The name comes from Greek for 'bad guest' because its presence in iron ore would ruin the quality of the iron.
A last minute #MineralMonday for y'all! Some gorgeous cacoxenite from Alabama.
November 25, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Beautiful mineral. The name comes from Greek for 'bad guest' because its presence in iron ore would ruin the quality of the iron.
Good heavens what a sentence. The things some people can do with the 26 English letters.
With oars apeak, and paddles down, the sheets of their sails adrift, the three boats now stilly floated, awaiting Moby Dick’s reappearance.
November 21, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Good heavens what a sentence. The things some people can do with the 26 English letters.
In this world of generative slop, photos like this feel like a genuine act of resistance.
Astrophotographer snaps 'absolutely preposterous' photo of skydiver 'falling' past the sun's surface
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has snapped a striking shot of a skydiving YouTuber perfectly aligned with the fiery surface of the sun. The unlikely image, dubbed "The Fall of Icarus," required met...
www.livescience.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:31 AM
In this world of generative slop, photos like this feel like a genuine act of resistance.
Ptygmatic. Good geology word.
Ptygmatic folding, along with a slight pinch and swell structure, in a quartz vein intruding Greater Himalaya gneiss.
Pindari Valley, Kumaon Himalaya.
November 2025.
#FridayFold
Pindari Valley, Kumaon Himalaya.
November 2025.
#FridayFold
November 14, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Ptygmatic. Good geology word.
Reposted by Bob Gooday
Today is #RLSDay which marks the birthday of the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson who would have been 175 today.
It's also a good day to remember that it is NOT actually his birthday because in 1891 he gave it away to a young girl because she didn't like her birthday. 🧵
It's also a good day to remember that it is NOT actually his birthday because in 1891 he gave it away to a young girl because she didn't like her birthday. 🧵
November 13, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Today is #RLSDay which marks the birthday of the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson who would have been 175 today.
It's also a good day to remember that it is NOT actually his birthday because in 1891 he gave it away to a young girl because she didn't like her birthday. 🧵
It's also a good day to remember that it is NOT actually his birthday because in 1891 he gave it away to a young girl because she didn't like her birthday. 🧵
I collected this specimen of the Arran granite intruding the Dalradian schists ten years ago, and finally got round to cutting it. Really happy with how it’s come out. Half going to National Museum, half to Arran Geopark.
November 12, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I collected this specimen of the Arran granite intruding the Dalradian schists ten years ago, and finally got round to cutting it. Really happy with how it’s come out. Half going to National Museum, half to Arran Geopark.
Not hugely into the modern custom of performative remembrance, but the ferry I’m on marking the hour of armistice with the foghorn was pretty cool.
November 11, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Not hugely into the modern custom of performative remembrance, but the ferry I’m on marking the hour of armistice with the foghorn was pretty cool.
A pilgrimage I have not made for many years – Hutton’s Unconformity at Lochranza, Arran. The site where Hutton could finally prove the earth was unimaginably ancient. A place of deep history in every way.
November 10, 2025 at 4:16 PM
A pilgrimage I have not made for many years – Hutton’s Unconformity at Lochranza, Arran. The site where Hutton could finally prove the earth was unimaginably ancient. A place of deep history in every way.
I am the only person staying in a closed-for-the-winter field centre, next to a graveyard, in the darkest village in Britain. And this is the book I have chosen for my evening entertainment. How delightfully gothic.
November 9, 2025 at 9:03 PM
I am the only person staying in a closed-for-the-winter field centre, next to a graveyard, in the darkest village in Britain. And this is the book I have chosen for my evening entertainment. How delightfully gothic.
Excellent thread, from one of the main Countryside Guys.
1. In the wake on Mamdani’s win, we’ll see a lot more far right anti-urban sentiment. Here’s a thread on its roots and evolution.
The idea that the city is evil and corrupt, and the countryside innocent and pure, goes back a long way: to Theocritus in Alexandria, and to the Old Testament. 🧵
The idea that the city is evil and corrupt, and the countryside innocent and pure, goes back a long way: to Theocritus in Alexandria, and to the Old Testament. 🧵
November 5, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Excellent thread, from one of the main Countryside Guys.
Turning into a game worth being up at 2:30 for. Go jays I guess. 🍁
November 2, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Turning into a game worth being up at 2:30 for. Go jays I guess. 🍁
A blessed Samhain all. I have prepared sweets for around 50 kids. I am expecting maybe four.
October 31, 2025 at 6:50 PM
A blessed Samhain all. I have prepared sweets for around 50 kids. I am expecting maybe four.
I hate this factoid. If they "appear blue to the human eye", they're blue. That's what blue IS. How the hell else can you define a colour?
"[Karen Gosse of The Rock Wildlife Rescue] said blue jays have a few unique features — including the fact that they’re not actually blue and only appear so to the human eye." 🐦
Blue jays are having a great season. Here are some things you might not know about the birds | CBC News
Baseball has been creating some wonderful publicity for the blue jays lately — the ones that love eating peanuts and have wings. They’re loud, they wake up with the sunrise, but Karen Gosse of The Roc...
www.cbc.ca
October 31, 2025 at 4:24 PM
I hate this factoid. If they "appear blue to the human eye", they're blue. That's what blue IS. How the hell else can you define a colour?
It's awesome that people are rediscovering the lost Samhain art of turnip carving, but I'm begging you all to realise that the one you keep seeing pictures of is a plaster model made by an artist. You can go see it in the National Museum of Ireland! www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collec...
Ghost turnip | National Museum of Ireland
In Ireland, at Halloween, we carved turnips to create scary-faced lanterns. The term, Jack o’ Lanterns, takes its name from the folktale about Jack, who was welcome neither in Heaven or Hell and was d...
www.museum.ie
October 31, 2025 at 1:57 PM
It's awesome that people are rediscovering the lost Samhain art of turnip carving, but I'm begging you all to realise that the one you keep seeing pictures of is a plaster model made by an artist. You can go see it in the National Museum of Ireland! www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collec...
Reposted by Bob Gooday
Someone should make an edition of Moby Dick with a bunch of added chapters where Ishmael talks about all the whale facts we've learned since that book came out.
October 29, 2025 at 5:19 AM
Someone should make an edition of Moby Dick with a bunch of added chapters where Ishmael talks about all the whale facts we've learned since that book came out.
Being performatively helpful or polite is annoying and unhelpful. If three people are already tidying the kitchen after dinner, sit your ass down. If you have right of way, just sail on by.
Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?
October 20, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Being performatively helpful or polite is annoying and unhelpful. If three people are already tidying the kitchen after dinner, sit your ass down. If you have right of way, just sail on by.
It’s clear that the international community are going to count ‘background levels of murdering civilians’ as Israel adhering to the ceasefire.
BREAKING: A Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire east of Gaza’s Khan Younis amid the first phase of the ceasefire, according to sources at Nasser Medical Complex.
🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/ttcve3
🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/ttcve3
October 15, 2025 at 4:28 PM
It’s clear that the international community are going to count ‘background levels of murdering civilians’ as Israel adhering to the ceasefire.
This is why increased electricity demand is the big problem here. All that technological progress doesn't matter one iota if we keep burning increasing amounts of coal.
The chart shows where we humans get our electricity from. Coal is still a significant part of the mix. Phasing coal out will take decades. A young environmentalist is probably well advised to become an engineer and push for cleaner alternatives by making them cheaper. Source: buff.ly/gjZpGsq
October 14, 2025 at 12:33 PM
This is why increased electricity demand is the big problem here. All that technological progress doesn't matter one iota if we keep burning increasing amounts of coal.
always love a "being whimsically friendly to The Horrors" pants post
October 13, 2025 at 9:28 PM
always love a "being whimsically friendly to The Horrors" pants post
Was once told my late-submission request for a paper on dinosaur anatomy had been missed, and I could either write to the exam board pleading my case, or hand in by 4pm that day and eat the 5% late penalty. I spent that five hours knowing more about dinosaur anatomy than anyone on earth.
I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.
October 9, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Was once told my late-submission request for a paper on dinosaur anatomy had been missed, and I could either write to the exam board pleading my case, or hand in by 4pm that day and eat the 5% late penalty. I spent that five hours knowing more about dinosaur anatomy than anyone on earth.
This is great, BUT the year we burned the most coal was 2024 and it's still going up.
October 7, 2025 at 9:35 AM
This is great, BUT the year we burned the most coal was 2024 and it's still going up.
a computer-generated lifelike animation is not an "actor" and having to say that makes me feel like i'm the insane one
October 3, 2025 at 12:37 PM
a computer-generated lifelike animation is not an "actor" and having to say that makes me feel like i'm the insane one
As someone who knows nothing about palaeontology, I'm utterly convinced we've got helicoprion totally wrong. No way that's a coiled tooth-magazine. Like when we thought anomalocaris jaws were headless prawns.
#FossilFriday An unused view of the bizarre tooth-whorl of the Permian cartilaginous fish Helicoprion taken for ‘Fossils. The Essential Guide’.
October 3, 2025 at 12:25 PM
As someone who knows nothing about palaeontology, I'm utterly convinced we've got helicoprion totally wrong. No way that's a coiled tooth-magazine. Like when we thought anomalocaris jaws were headless prawns.
Got @volcanologist.bsky.social’s new book in the post. Can’t wait to read the whole thing, but will be starting with chapter 4 as a matter of urgency.
October 2, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Got @volcanologist.bsky.social’s new book in the post. Can’t wait to read the whole thing, but will be starting with chapter 4 as a matter of urgency.
Reposted by Bob Gooday
Spectacular concentric zoning and twinning of large titanaugite in essexite (nepheline monzogabbro) from Lennoxtown, Scotland. Plagioclase inclusions within the phenocryst align with zoning just as proximal groundmass plagioclase align with its edge. #ThinSectionThursday 🧪⚒️
October 2, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Spectacular concentric zoning and twinning of large titanaugite in essexite (nepheline monzogabbro) from Lennoxtown, Scotland. Plagioclase inclusions within the phenocryst align with zoning just as proximal groundmass plagioclase align with its edge. #ThinSectionThursday 🧪⚒️