Abdul!

Can't help but notice the similarity in accent and cadence between Abdul al-Sayed and Barack Obama. I don't know if it's conscious, but he's very effective in speeches. 

 

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Q&A with Claude about the origin of Italy (geologically)

Of conceivable interest~~  [My experience is that Claude is pretty good with this kind of thing]:

Q: Is it true that Italy is a piece of Africa that rifted off, crossed the Tethys Seaway, and collided with Europe forming the Alps somewhat analogously to the collision of India that formed the Himalayas, or was it an igneous province or other unit?

Claude's Answer: 

Your instinct is more right than wrong, and the corrections are the interesting part.

Not an igneous province — that one's clean. Adria is ordinary continental crust: Variscan basement under a very thick Mesozoic carbonate platform. The Dolomites and the Apulian limestones are that platform. It's a drowned tropical shelf, not a LIP.

There was a continent, and it did rift from Africa. The current framework, from van Hinsbergen and colleagues (Gondwana Research, 2019), calls it Greater Adria. It separated from Gondwana around 240 Ma, was roughly Greenland-sized, and by ~140 Ma sat mostly underwater as a vast carbonate platform. It drifted north and began colliding with Europe somewhere around 100–120 Ma.

But here's where the India analogy breaks, and it breaks at the most important point. India was thick, buoyant, cratonic crust. It could not subduct, so when it arrived it crumpled Asia and raised the Himalaya while surviving intact as a continent. Greater Adria was mostly thin, stretched, sediment-draped crust — and it went down. The bulk of it was dragged into the mantle, where tomography still images it around 1,500 km deep beneath southern Europe. The Alps, Apennines, Dinarides, and Hellenides are essentially the scrapings: sedimentary cover peeled off the top of a descending slab and stacked against the margin. Same journey, opposite fate. India built a mountain range by refusing to sink; Greater Adria built several by sinking and leaving its skin behind.

"Crossed the Tethys" also overstates the separation. The debate over whether Adria is an African promontory or an independent microplate is genuinely unresolved and depends on which evidence you weight. Paleomagnetism, Sn wave propagation through the Ionian mantle lid, and paleoclimatic data all point to Adria having moved and rotated with Africa since the Jurassic. Geodesy and seismicity say it behaves as a distinct microplate today within the Africa–Eurasia boundary zone. The independent rotation that has been measured is modest — something like 9.5° ± 8.7° counterclockwise for Apulia since the Eocene. So it wasn't a long solo voyage like India's 6,000 km sprint. The ocean that actually closed to make the Alps was the Piemont-Liguria basin (Alpine Tethys), a relatively narrow strand opened around 170–160 Ma as a byproduct of Central Atlantic rifting.

The subduction polarity is also reversed. In the Himalaya, India is both the indenter and the lower plate. In the Alps, Europe subducted beneath Adria — Adria is the indenter and the upper plate. That's why the Alps are doubly vergent, with the Southern Alps forming a south-directed retro-wedge on the Adriatic side.

And Italy is not one thing. This is the part most summaries flatten:

• Apulia, the Gargano, the Adriatic, the Po Plain, the Southern Alps — Adria proper, Gondwanan affinity. The African piece.
• The Apennines — not a block at all, but a young accretionary fold-thrust belt assembled by eastward rollback of the Adriatic slab.
• Sardinia and Corsica — pieces of Europe. They were attached to southern France and rotated counterclockwise roughly 45° as the Liguro-Provençal basin opened, mostly between about 21 and 15 Ma.
• Calabria and northeastern Sicily — European-affinity crystalline basement, rafted southeast by rollback of the Ionian slab.
• Western Sicily — Maghrebian, African affinity.

So the honest version: the heel and spine of the boot are African, the western islands are detached France, Calabria is a wandering shard of Europe that ended up on the wrong side, and the Apennines are the wreckage of a continent that mostly isn't there anymore.

Sources: van Hinsbergen et al. 2019 — Science news coverage · National Geographic on Greater Adria · Adria microplate: a puzzling key stone in west-central Mediterranean geodynamics · Did Adria rotate relative to Africa? · Le Breton et al. — Post-20 Ma motion of the Adriatic plate

 

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Historoy of Garlic

I always thoutht the iconic L.A. garlic restaurant (yes, for real)... The Stinking Rose... was misnamed, since garlic is a lily, not a rose. (I believe it's no longer there). I have long thought that both garlic and onions, along with indoor plumbing, are true hallmarks of genuine civilization. Sine qua non, even.

https://youtu.be/TxaR_U68dM4?list=TLPQMDgwODIwMjaE8q9OWnXpVg

 

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asking ai about actual science

I have a modest late in life interest in geology, and I found myself intrigued by the differences between the Cascades and the older Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mts, All formed by complex processes but both involving, at different times, subduction zones causing magma to rise to, and/or near, the surface. So I asked Claude about it, and it gave back some really interesting information which puts a perspective on this I didn't really understand. Here's part of it: 

Time. The Sierra Nevada batholith is not one intrusion. It's hundreds of individual plutons amalgamated over ~150 Myr, then unroofed. The modern Cascade arc has had ~35–40 Myr. Run the Cascades another hundred million years, strip 10 km off the top, and you'd be looking at a batholith. Batholiths are what arc plutonism looks like integrated over deep time.

 

Flux. But time alone doesn't do it, because the Sierra had a genuine flare-up. The ~120–80 Ma pulse produced far more magma than steady-state arc behavior predicts — the modern analog people reach for is the Altiplano-Puna in the central Andes, not the Cascades. Arcs are episodic: long lulls punctuated by short high-flux events, probably driven by arc migration into fertile lithosphere or by underthrusting/relamination of crustal material into the melt zone. The Cascades right now are a low-flux arc — young warm slab, slow convergence, modest crustal thickness.

 

Crust. Sierran magmas ponded in and assimilated thick continental lithosphere, which is why they're granodiorite-dominated with heavy evolved isotopic signatures. Cascade magmas rise through thinner, younger, partly oceanic accreted crust and come out more mafic. Basalt–andesite–dacite versus tonalite–granodiorite–granite.

 

The Klamaths are a third case. Those are Jurassic–Cretaceous plutons intruding a stack of accreted oceanic terranes — ophiolites and island arcs. They're smaller, more mafic (lots of tonalite and trondhjemite, some gabbro), and scattered rather than amalgamated. Calling it a batholith oversells the coherence; it's a swarm of plutons stitching terranes together, because there was no thick continental root to build one in.

 

Which loops back: Pilchuck is closer in spirit to nothing on that list. It's a crustal melt of an accretionary wedge during a slab-window thermal anomaly — an arc-adjacent accident, not an arc product.

Sources: Northwest Geology Field Trips — Mount Pilchuck trail guide · Dragovich et al., 2017, GSA Abstracts · Tabor et al., 2002, USGS Sauk River quad · Mineral geochemistry of the Granite Falls stock, Bald Mountain pluton, and Mount Pilchuck stock · Fingerprinting episodic arc activity in the Sierra Nevada batholith, GSA Bulletin

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(My question had included a request to explain why Washington's Mt. Pilchuk was different in composition from other granitic mountains in the Cascades.)

As an aside, this arose because I was experimenting with Anthropic's Claude vs. ChatGPT. I must say its answers, esp. with the more intensive "thinking" turned on, are much more cohesive and more likely to challenge any preconceived notions implicit in your questions than the OpenAI product. I believe I have uncovered a real use for LLMs that may not be particularly profitable but is quite useful: self-directed continuing education. They don't actually "know" anything, but they can look stuff up lickety split, organize it, and answer your questions. This is a genuine value in my opinion. 

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Modern Russian Stalin ixonography

I still have one or two friends on the "left" who are apologists for Russia, amazingly enough. But this bas-relief (with actual statues sort of emerging from it) in the Moscow Subway wasn't installed in the Soviet era. It was just unveiled... Putin sees himself as a modern Stalin, whom he admires greatly. That should tell you all you need to know.  Not that there isn't plenty of other evidence of who he is and what his country has become under his rule. 

 

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How to get smart by Stephan Patsis

Thanks to Rick M. for this. Made me laugh out loud. 

 

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Court Reform for the Post Trump Era

I have been advocating for some time that the Congress, when under Democratic Control with a D president, should explicitly, to the extent possible, legislatively overrule Citizens United, Buckley v. Valeo, Shelby County, Brnovich v. DNC, Trump v. US (on immunity), & Louisiana v. Callais. Thereby establishing as law progressive policy on money in politics, fair elections, and the principle that no one is above the law. I'm quite sure there are many others that need this treatment, but these seem most urgent. They should also by legislation, not requiring a Constitutional Amendment, add four new justices to the Court (to make 1 for each of the 13 Appellate circuits, which the D president will duly appoint immediately. The need to rebalance the court's ideological biases should be obivous. There should also be legislation requiring that the Supreme Court must issue rulings in writing, with explanatory opinions of sufficient clarity and substance to explain the basis of their decision. (No shadow docket rulings, if any disputed principle of fact or law is at issue). Further, if there is any way to "retire" justices into senior status, and be able to appoint their full time replacements, within the confines of the Constitution (also without having to amend it), they should pass that into law as well. Moreover, a rigorous anti-corruption law applicable to all Federal officers and employees, including judges, should be enacted as soon as possible. 

I would love to see all this, and especially the anti-corruption reforms, made retroactive, so that while the prohibition of ex post facto penalties would have to be finessed, it might be possible to claw back thinly disquised bribes and proceeds of extortion not only of Trump but also people like Homan and Justices Thomas and Alito. That may be hoping for a bit too much, but it's actually pretty important to establish that people who use the law to cheat the people are not entitled to protection of the fruits of their corruption.

 

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Re: 4 Presidents

Yes me too & I hope you can continue to love & not be distracted by what all is will live thru and it will pass maybe rot rot even more than he is rotting now

Guy

Guy

On Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 11:49 PM David Studhalter <oldionus@gmail.com> wrote:

Have to admit I kinda love this. 

 

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4 Presidents

Have to admit I kinda love this. 

 

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Abject criminality

How is attacking desalination plants in a war of choice not a war crime? I find this beyond disturbing. 

 

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Proof of Capacity, tout de suite, s'il vous plait

Tick tock. It's time for Andy Basheer to deman immediate proof that McConnell is not incpacitated or dead. If not forthcoming within 24 hours, he should call an election to replace him in the Senate. You're not allowed to be a vegetable or dead and keep it secret when you hold high office. Periodunk. It falls within the purview of a governor to protect his state's citizens' rights to choose their own representatives. 

Of course it strains the power of a governor, blah blah. But this is how this is played now: they overrule the law and order shit, and our governors need to do whatever they have to to prevent the Republicans from imposing power undemocratically. But we also need to promise... and mean it... that restoration of rules in politics to prevent this kind of nonsense are part of our program. 

 

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Court decision on presidential firing power has dire unanticipated consequences.... unsurprisingly

An obvious flaw in the Supreme Court's generally awful Slaughter decision (providing that the president has almost unlimited power to fire members and commissioners of Federal agencies Congress explicitly intended to be independent) is that it does nothing to prevent a president with contempt for the rule of law from just firing everyone and thus effectively nullifyng a fundamental enactment of the Congress. It is beyond any plausible "unitary executive" theory to allow a president the dictatorial power of simply firing an entire agency so as to prevent it from fulfilling its Congressionally mandated purpose. Trump has now done this to the Election Assistance Commission. The inference can't be avoided that the Rightist majority on the Court is either not too bright or simply does not care, since this could easily have been anticipated as a consequence of their ruling. Either alternative is very bad news for our country. (I suspect that, in the various instances, it's a bit of both). 

Watch Katie Phang on her Epstein files litigation

I am grateful that we have superpatriotic supersmart lawyers like Katie Phang trying to defend the Constitution agasint this fascist regime. 

https://youtu.be/f0GaVdXLrfM?list=TLPQMDMwNzIwMjbV8YkW33TM8A 

 

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Musing on Musk

 Sometimes there seems to be a sort of arc to insanity. At first, it can be profound creativity and energy, but it inevitably devolves into delusion. Tesla, Starlink, even SpaceX reflect real brilliance (now mostly in the past), in an Ayn Randian sort of way. But delusion takes hold. Ally with the Right, openly. Embrace racism and side with the greatest threat to democracy (Russia). Buy a propaganda platform for an amount of money that teetered the economy for a minute. Cancel the "Ford Falcon of our era," which is what the sub $30K Model 2 Tesla could have been, in favor of huge investments in automotive autonomy and AI... technology to drive our cars for us. Which most of us do not want. Trump is pretty far gone, but for sheer ornery nutcasery, Elon is not far behind. 

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Celebration? Well...

Well, now. The Supreme Court, barely, interpreted an absolutely clear sentence added to our Constitution in the wake of our Civil War, upon well documented deliberation, to mean what it says in plain English.*  I suppose the Overton Window has progressed far enough that we're supposed to sing Hallelujah! unto the Name of the Lord. I take somewhat the opposite tack. What this 5-4 decision means is that we absolutely must reform the Court after taking power in 2029 as a top priority. My favorite reform plan is to simply increase the number of justices to the number of Appellate Circuits, which is 13. Oh, and if catastrophe strikes and Democrats do not regain control of the Leglislative and Executive Branches, my friends, Hallelujah is not our song. It will be Dies Irae, Dies illa, solvet saeclum in favilla ("Day of Wrath, that terrible day, will dissolve the world to ash")...  because our republic only has the one chance left to save itself. Pretty danm sure of that. 

 

* "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1.

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John Koch

Diverting myself by contemplating matters of little consequence. The state of the world becomes oppressive after a time. 

According to Wikipedia, there was "controversy" about the sexual orientation of American painter John Koch, whose "hyperrealist" style I think must have strongly influenced subsequent gay pornographic art. But....Seriously? How could anyone look at this painting and not see it as gay erotica, however dressed up as high culture? (1969)  (It's rare for me to comment on art, but this emerged). 

 

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Make us immune from the president... it's only fair

I of course think the so called limited criminal immunity the SCOTUS decided to bestow on Trump (and, supposedly all future presidents) was and is a terrible idea that needs to be (mostly) reversed and eliminated. (Mostly, because there are certain reasons to prevent a president from being hailed into court while in office, but the way things were before the immunity decision was more than adequate). But here's my idea: in exchange for this (in future very limited) immunity, the president should not have the right to pursue civil remedies while in office. If he feels so injured he needs to sue and not wait until he's out of office (maybe toll the statute), he can resign and file his suit. 

 

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Cognitive dissonance

I get a wave of almost kafkaist cognitive dissonance seeing Russian Z bloggers waxing furious because Russia is losing in Ukraine, telling people to stock up on salt and matches and start growing potatoes because things are going to get worse for their country, And yet they still maintain Russia was right to attack a sovereign nation that their country had sworn territorial protections to and which was a member of the UN for almost 40 years before their full scale invasion in 2023. And they take no responsibility at all for the fact that, with their enthusiastic support, their country has been waging a war of aggression and war crimes against civilians for four years (which it is now obviously losing). 

To this I must add that my country's lack of support for Ukraine is a source of shame, and is a policy I have never supported. I see Ukraine as the sole bulwark of constitutional small-d democratic powers against Continental dictatorships. This is the defining 21st century struggle, and the US is not solidly on the right side. Of course nothing is ever black and white, but the moral balance in this conflict is about as clear as it was in World War II, so there really isn't a lot of room for equivocation here. 

 

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Trump's War... without Congress's approval?

Dear Farflung Correspondents, 

I think it's fairly likely at this point that we are going to hit a serious Constitutional crisis, if not before the new Congress in 2027 then soon after it takes office. Because it looks like Trump intends to take us into full scale war in Iran.... without the consent of Congress. In the face of a resolution or legislation for him to sign expressly withdrawing Congressional approval of prosecuting a war against Iran, if he proceeds, how can he not be impeached? We may find out. Or, of course, the Republicans, and even some Democrats, may betray their country and chicken out. Which I suppose I have to admit seems even more likely. 

 

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Why we don't allow cronyism in a functioning democracy ... too bad we no longer have one

This just goes to show that corruption and crony politics is evil. Not because it's illegal, per se, but because it causes actual harm to actual human beings. 

 https://bsky.app/profile/sonofathomp.bsky.social/post/3monjblnoo225v

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