Mike Sowden

For more than a decade now the government’s answer to how to fund universities has been to make money from overseas students.

The last lot then tried to discourage students from coming here.

This lot just want the money back.

But then how do we fund ourselves?

Crazy.

... all while filming himself & using his free hand to throw the devil's horns at the camera.

Then he stops filming. Stops the machine. Leaves the gym.

All in under 90 seconds.

Instagram has a new fitness hero.

At the gym today, a guy enters - crew-cut, oiled beard, dramatically colourful skin-tight clothes - & strides up to the next running machine along from me.

He lifts his phone to start filming himself, dials the machine up to maybe 100mph, & sprints like the hounds of Hell are after him...

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😊 That's very kind of you to say, Rebekah. Thank you.

I haven't done a poll, because I'll never forget seeing the results of this one. (Poor Jamie.)

Why Kindness Works Givers, Takers, And Brown-Wrapping-Paperers

I am currently cobbling together a plan for a NEW PODCAST.

Imagine my rambling sciencey threads, but in your ears. Or maybe listen to this - everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/why-kindne...

(Recorded years ago with no promo, & somehow racked up thousands of listens. A fun test!)

Interested?

This has been astounding to watch. I regular wonder if I even have a tiny fraction of a clue what I'm doing online, but ye gods, this makes me feel like I'm Neo at the end of The Matrix.

And while you wait - I have an ever-growing pile of these kinds of science-obsessed threads here:

bsky.app/profile/mike...

Listen I don't make the rules but when someone is so obviously correct you have to repost them.

Amen. And on the science side of things, if you want a regular bit of space-focused awe & wonder with enthusiastic expert commentary, go sign up to the absolute legend that is @philplait.bsky.social. There's a whole universe out there.

Update November 22. We’ve updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail’s smart features. The settings themselves aren’t new, but the way Google recently rewrote and surfaced them led a lot of people (including us) to believe Gmail content might be used to train Google’s AI models, and that users were being opted in automatically. After taking a closer look at Google’s documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Gmail does scan email content to power its own “smart features,” such as spam filtering, categorisation, and writing suggestions. But this is part of how Gmail normally works and isn’t the same as training Google’s generative AI models. Google also maintains that these feature settings are opt-in rather than opt-out, although users’ experiences seem to vary depending on when and how the new wording appeared. It’s easy to see where the confusion came from. Google’s updated language around “smart features” is vague, and the term “smart” often implies AI—especially at a time when Gemini is being integrated into other parts of Google’s products. When the new wording started appearing for some users without much explanation, many assumed it signalled a broader shift. We’ve revised this article to reflect what we can confirm from Google’s documentation, as it’s always been our aim to give readers accurate, helpful guidance.

If you have been sharing that Malwarebytes article on the Gmail thing, you should note the giant correction up top.

www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

🙏 Thank you and so glad you're enjoying.

That's such an interesting question!

I hope there's a marine biologist reading who wants to weigh in! I have no idea myself, although - that sounds plausible? Depth = temperature & pressure differences, after all, in a similar way to the atmosphere.

Also, I do know the deep ocean has "weather"!

Lordy. I thought this was speeded up, and then they started talking? Amazing.

And while you wait - I have an ever-growing pile of these kinds of science-obsessed threads here:

bsky.app/profile/mike...

Photograph of distant, snow-capped Mountain Rainier under blue skies, from the USGS.

The Atlantis Massif is around 16km across, and climbs 4.2km, to within 700 metres of the sea surface.

I know these are just numbers, so - it's about the size of Mount Rainier (Washington State).

To help you imagine this, here's a pic of Mount Rainier.

Now imagine that underwater.

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Edit: 2.5cm. That was a typo, not me getting the figure wrong! 25cm a year would be *violent*.

I'm not really the right person to ask - an Icelandic geologist would be able to confirm this - but as far as I understand it: no! The plates are diverging at 25.cm a year, but volcanic activity is filling the gap with new rock. More accurate to say it's changing shape, I think!

Stock photo of a silhouette of a series of mountain peaks, against a purple twilight sky.

If today's a slow one, how about a stroll along our planet's longest mountain chain?

No, not Himalaya. And not the Andes either.

This one's...65,000km long.

(That's nearly a fifth of the way to the Moon!)

How about a 2-day journey (first part today, second tomorrow) along some of it?

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Everything Is Amazing | Mike Sowden | Substack A newsletter about asking better questions & a romp through science in search of a good "wow!" you can feel down to your boots. Click to read Everything Is Amazing, by Mike Sowden, a Substack publicat...

Time for a break! The second half of this fantastic voyage is coming tomorrow.

In the meantime, how about diving (*pained expression filled with regret*) into my science newsletter?

It's free to sign up, & I have a whole season on the oceans in the archive:

everythingisamazing.substack.com

Ta!

Photograph of distant, snow-capped Mountain Rainier under blue skies, from the USGS.

The Atlantis Massif is around 16km across, and climbs 4.2km, to within 700 metres of the sea surface.

I know these are just numbers, so - it's about the size of Mount Rainier (Washington State).

To help you imagine this, here's a pic of Mount Rainier.

Now imagine that underwater.

9/

Map of the Atlantic with a red dot halfway down it, showing the location of the Atlantis seamount.

Bathymetric map showing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge jinking left (west) for 70km before continuing southwestwards, with the bottom of the trench 5,300 metres deep.

Now we've made it all the way down here, to the Atlantis Transform Fault, where the rift valley of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge jinks sideways for 70km before continuing south - over 5km deep.

And on its corner, an absolute monster of a sea mount - with something very strange on the side of it...

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15 Years Ago, a U.S. Navy Submarine Ran Into a Mountain The USS San Francisco didn't sink, and that's no accident.

The big problem is sea mounts - aka. underwater mountains.

The big ones are COLOSSAL & seem to stick up out of nowhere.

And if a submarine slams into one, it probably wouldn't be a super-great situation for everyone aboard?

Oh hey, this one did!

www.popularmechanics.com/military/nav...

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Infographic saying: "It's easy to ignore what we cannot see. Moon: 100% mapped. Mars: 100% mapped. Earth's oceans: 5% mapped."

The Navy was interested because of its subs.

Despite this popular infographic, it's not quite true that today only 5% of the oceans are mapped. It's just that they're mainly mapped to resolutions over 5km. (What could 5km hide?!)

And this is over half a century after Tharp & Heezen's efforts!

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Seeing Is Believing: How Marie Tharp Changed Geology Forever Marie Tharp's maps helped prove continental drift was real. But her work was initially dismissed as "girl talk"

We can't continue here without mentioning the work of Marie Tharp & Bruce Heezen:

www.smithsonianmag.com/history/seei...

Navy regulations of the time meant that as a woman, Tharp wasn't allowed on research ships. Sigh.

(Women were awarded <4% of all earth sciences doctorates from 1920-1970.)

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That's the one!

The 1968 map from National Geographic showing what the world would look like with all the seas removed (and with the vertical height exaggerated for effect), showing a dramatic range of mountains down the centre of the Atlantic and elsewhere - based on the pioneering bathymetric mapping work of Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen.

This famous map is our route (vertical height exaggerated): about 16,000km in total, connecting to an underwater mountain range that zigzags round our entire planet.

It's called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. But "ridge" sounds a bit tame.

These are MOUNTAINS.

Also? A Lost City!

We'll get to that.

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Bathymetric relief map of the sea floor off the southern coast of Iceland, showing the sea dropping away to 2,000 metres deep in the southeast.

Map of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge running right across Iceland north to southwest, exiting at its lower end at the Thingvellir park.

Photo of diver swimming along the underwater gorge between where the Eurasian and American tectonic plates almost meet.

Utter featureless blackness.

If we went southeast into the sea, it gets deep really quickly - around 2,000 metres, same as the Black Sea.

But we're following the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, so southwest it is.

Sorry about the view. It was lovely at first - but down here, past 1,000 metres?

Nada.

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Photo by Studio Sarah Lou of Þingvellir National Park, showing people walking down a sunlit path between low cliffs. "A UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located on the Mid Atlantic Ridge where the continents of Europe and America drift apart causing earthquakes and volcanic activity."

We start in Iceland. (Courtesy of flickr.com/photos/sacke...)

Alas - it's only really here can you walk along it: the Þingvellir National Park, where, geologically speaking, North America & Europe are slowly drifting apart.

Enjoy the sunshine!

There's none where we're going next

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Stock photo of a silhouette of a series of mountain peaks, against a purple twilight sky.

If today's a slow one, how about a stroll along our planet's longest mountain chain?

No, not Himalaya. And not the Andes either.

This one's...65,000km long.

(That's nearly a fifth of the way to the Moon!)

How about a 2-day journey (first part today, second tomorrow) along some of it?

1/