Pete Rowley

Looking for recommendations!

I went an online storage for our research group and their data. So we can archive video data, image data etc., from a long line of projects. Files downloadable, but secure/backed up. Where people can deposit easily for our own purposes (made open by other means).

Text from Return to the Volcano: "An unusual story circulated after the war that Allied aircraft attacking Rabaul had dropped bombs into the craters of Tavurvur volcano to trigger an eruption that, hopefully, would be sufficiently large to dislodge the Japanese from their military base. So unusual was the story that many people believed it was probably untrue—a rumour, a myth, a good yarn. But the volcano bombing did take place. Takashi Kizawa told one of us (R.W.J.) of seeing bombers avoiding other targets and circling towards Tavurvur where they released bombs into the craters. The bombing had no effect, and Japanese soldiers considered the event to be a great joke. Kizawa, however, took a different view: that the enemy was inventive and determined enough at least to attempt a new technique. It helped him confirm his view that Japan would lose the war. Norm Fisher also told R.W.J. that he was consulted officially by the Royal Australian Air Force during the war about the use of bombing in triggering an eruption at Rabaul. He dismissed the suggestion outright, but after the war was amused to discover bomb craters within the volcanic craters of Tavurvur."

Reports in Return to Volcano Town indicate that bombing may have been attempted at Tarvuvur too - in this case to see if they could cause an eruption.

Selfie of a woman stood in front of a conference poster

We tried compiling a global database of deposit descriptions of pyroclastic density current deposits. The aim was to help us do big data analysis, look for common trends, and to support modelling.

We got some interesting results but also, found some really significant issues and gaps #IAVCEI2025

Huh, that's impressive. I would have expected it to be pretty sheltered from that where you are

My challenge for this weekend is to work out the delay on the BBC Glastonbury coverage based on what I can hear in the back garden and the speed of sound.

Cat asleep on table with head hanging off the edge

If cats are liquid this must be some kind of pitch-drop experiment

Diane Morgan's episodee of Who Do You think You are is a wonderful genre crossover / 4th wall experience.

Delighted that this paper has hit p[ublication. Nemi did a truly amazing job on all of this, and together with 3 other papers (1 published 2023, the others winging their way to print soon) has really moved forward our understanding of moisture in pyroclastic sediments.

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

From the clevercomebacks community on Reddit: Rage Against Something Explore this post and more from the clevercomebacks community

Reminds me of this www.reddit.com/r/clevercome...

Great to see this research covered by the BBC - looking forward to seeing what we discover from all the data that were collected last month! Nice work by @isobelyeo.bsky.social on radio and TV interviews!

Driving across the Mendips today made me very aware of these people

Top marks for identifying a single hill without further context though!

Uig! Dunes by the Ardroil campsite

Uig, Lewis. Western isles of Scotland

Suaineabhal

A bolder of gneiss with a hill in the background

Gneiss geology up here.

Weather is turning, but being here the week before the main rush up here definitely has it's perks. Just waiting for the ferry to get over to Harris now

Photo of the fairy glen on Skye, with pathways leading up to a basalt tower outcrop and a person standing on top

Hollibobs!

Whale (?) breaching in the Clyde this afternoon. Think it might be a Minke? Blew a water spout first then breached about a dozen times around the same place.

I'm a big fan of the Osprey bags. Variety of sizes to pick what suits. I use a 38L most of the time but I have a long back and the extra height is more comfortable.

This is just plain dangerous.

Thoughts are with friends and colleagues impacted by this. I guess there's no reasoning with uninformed zealots.

Nope, he grazes biscuits day and night. He's just likes the taste of flesh in the evenings.

White cat lying on its back on a red kilim rug exposing its belly for strokes / slash / mauling

8.30 pm. This is a trap. Any attempt to stroke floof will result in teeth and 4 sets claws being embedded in your hand. This is not to be confused with 7 am floof which must be stroked immediately to avoid loud meowing.

🧪 Frustrated by the actions (or inactions) of some of our professional and learned societies during this ongoing attack on #science and scholarship more generally?

If so, this letter to the @royalsociety.org from my mate, @scurry.bsky.social, is worth a read and I hope, signing ✍🏻

This is a mind boggling approach from Newcastle. My entire career might as well have stopped in 2013 if I didn't have unfunded work to kickstart everything else. That Geology paper of ours would never have been possible without being able to drop everything to work on that for 3 weeks.

And maybe it's just my naivety regarding software development, but how is a network diagnostic tool 140Mb?!

Me: Wifi in my office is incredibly slow and keeps dropping out"
IT: Please install this 140MB diagnostic software
Me: Download attempt 3 and counting before it times out.

Months of knocking shit off the mantle piece finally clears enough ground to just lie there and absorb heat from the fire