One for my geology [ex-]colleagues. Left hand: shortbread made by a retired industrial chemist. Right hand: Millstone grit, probably from the Grassington grit or Upper Howgate Edge grit formation. The photographer (another geologist) was entertained by the similar appearance.

One of the most important things about sandgate is the proof that GeoSky has the juice.

I was off the day they did order of operations in Maths and to this day I have no idea what BODMAS stands for.

If you have whisky sauce with haggis you're a tourist, sorry I don't make the rules. Real ones know it's ketchup or nothing.

Delightful old sign revealed on the road to Loch Katrine, a main reservoir for Glasgow since 1859. Imagine a world where people were throwing away so much money there was a risk of mass copper poisoning.

Peridotite from 700m up the side of Sgùrr Alasdair in the Black Cuillin of Skye. Someone went to a LOT of trouble to get this back to the truck. From NMS collection #thinsectionthursday

describing oysters as being 'planted' does seem a little disrespectful somehow

Wrong and obscene. Everyone knows garnet is square and black, not triangle and colours. Perverse.

new carnyx just dropped

Maybe not the biggest problem in the world, but definitely top ten. My almost-year-long NYT crossword streak is over because a basic puzzle app can no longer run on a perfectly functional seven-year-old phone.

This ancient living fossil is more closely related to Nigel Farage than to other fish. (actually true)

For #MineralMonday, the vanishingly rare and delightfully named* clinojimthomsponite. A very weird triple-chain silicate from Achmelvich, Sutherland. *named for James Thompson, but there was already a thomsonite, so they called it jimthompsonite, and this is the monoclinic polymorph

A blessed solstice to you all. What better way to celebrate a festival of the hearth than by rebuilding one. A reminder that light and warmth always return.

And so the sun sets at its earliest time this winter. From now the evenings start getting lighter again. 🌅

Can’t quite put my finger on why this is a perfect photo. The neon lights in the background and the guy being on his phone are important, but there’s something else.

"The tribunal clarified that it is not unlawful for a trans person to use facilities aligning with their gender identity" Worth reading given how badly the majority of media reports have spun this case as some kind of victory or vindication for anti-trans side.

Begging people to stop calling this a wobbegong. Wobbegongs are rad, but this is a picture of a goosefish, a type of angler fish (all of which are also rad).

New self-imposed rule: Buy your top 5 Spotify Wrapped albums on physical media. If you've listened to Deftones that much in a year, you owe them thirteen quid.

You’re never truly alone when you contain multitudes.

In Madeline Miller's Circe, an object is described as being made of mahogany, causing a discussion about whether or not the gods of the Greek pantheon knew about the Americas.

"An extraordinary discovery? At this time of year, in this part of the country, localised entirely within a famous Neolithic site?" "Yes!" "May I see it?" "...No."

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.

In this world of generative slop, photos like this feel like a genuine act of resistance.

Ptygmatic. Good geology word.

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. 🧵

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.

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.

Excellent thread, from one of the main Countryside Guys.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 🧪⚒️

One of my favourite bits of Moby Dick is this chapter where Melville basically says "a bunch of weird dorks keep telling everyone whales aren't actually fish but look at them... swimming around in the sea... of course they're fish".

New series: guess the slightly silly mindat entry. @mindat.bsky.social

Ian Holm's delivery of this line was very fun and silly, and really showed you're dealing with an ACTOR actor.

Happy Pythagorean Day. 4^2 + 3^2 = 5^2 16 + 9 = 25