Earth is a big magnet
Earth is a big magnet 🤯
The magnetic field is produced by some remarkable result of the convection of molten hot iron alloys in the core of the Earth.
Moravec's Paradox and others
“Live a big, interesting life. Think, share your thoughts. We need a world like that. We don’t need a world with a bunch of bobbleheads doing what they’re told by so-called experts.”
— Former nuclear submarine captain, David Marquet
Listen: podcast.sketchplanations.com/submarine-le...
Sneezes can travel up to 8 metres and coughs up to 6m. Cover your coughs and sneezes.
Sneezes And Coughs
‘Tis the season for these powerful things. Turns out sneezes can travel up to 8 m, coughs up to 6m and they can linger in the air for up to 10 minutes.
All the more important to make sure you’re doing your Dracula sneeze into your sleeve.
An Eminem rhyming masterclass from the 60 mins show where he said:
"People say that the word orange doesn't rhyme with anything, and that kind of pisses me off because I can think of a lot of things that rhyme with orange."
Exciting to have some new amazing photos of Earth and the moon. Here are some moon sketches.
Thank you Artemis II
More at: sketchplanations.substack.com/publish/post...
The McNamara Fallacy: Measuring what is easy to measure, ignoring what is hard to measure.
From the social scientist, Daniel Yankelovich
As a metaphor, it describes a powerful and pernicious shortcoming in how we perceive the world.
What a frog does, in this case, is not, apparently, true—don't try it—it's much better as a metaphor, not an experiment.
The frog boil metaphor illustration: showing a frog put into cool water that is slowly raised not complaining until it's too late. Poor frog. Don't try this.
The frog boil metaphor illustrates how it's easy to miss small changes that build up over time until it's too late. The scenario, as told, is that of a poor frog who would leap away from hot water but, if put into cooler water that is gradually warmed, won't respond in time to getting boiled.
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
— George Box
Listen: podcast.sketchplanations.com/hitting-the-...
Iceberg model systems thinking diagram showing Events above the surface and Patterns, Structures, and Mental Models below the surface
Icebergs have been mobilised in the name of better understanding psychology, culture, and, in this case, systems.
I like the model because it prompts us to question what could be “under the surface” and, in terms of observed behaviour, what’s driving what we see?
From the outside, marriage often seems like a complete merging—becoming one, but perhaps also losing part of yourself in the process. I love that this passage says that two people can and should unite and support each other without lessening each other individually.
"And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."
An illustration for Kahlil Gibran’s On Marriage from The Prophet: an oak and a cypress tree with two figures holding hands, grow not in each other’s shadow.
The reading from our wedding I remember most clearly is a passage from Kahlil Gibran's beautiful book, The Prophet . We were drawn to it then, and I still am now. The end of the passage offers one of the most beautiful, uplifting, and—at the time—surprising perspectives on marriage.
Ha! Yes, just doesn't connect with some people.
We can discuss dashes together though =)
If there’s a lot going on in your head this week, I hope you can find time for a walk in a strong wind to blow your worries away.
Know Your Dashes: The hyphen, en dash and em dash.
If you've worked on a team with me, I've probably bothered you with the subtleties of dashes at one point. And I finally got to talk about dashes in this week's Sketchplanation podcast:
podcast.sketchplanations.com/do-you-know-...
The genius of coffee: the solution to a problem of its own making.
Imagine if wine cured the effects of drinking too much wine.
The stark clarity of this coffee-sleep cycle was made clear to me in @michaelpollan.bsky.social 's recent This is Your Mind on Plants, which has 1/3 of it on caffeine
This reframe has made me take the time to share compliments more often with friends, colleagues, shopkeepers, the person who always has a cheery smile in the morning, the person who organised the event, my kids, my wife, and pretty much everyone. And life seems a better place. Do it!
Compliments are gifts - not sharing one is like keeping a gift in your pocket: with one person complimenting another and it feeling like receiving a gift
Compliments Are Gifts is a lovely metaphor for making the world brighter.
Though I've lost where, I once read:
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it” - William Arthur Ward
Pyrrhic victory: a victory so costly that it feels almost like a defeat.
Pyrrhic saving: spending more to save money you wouldn’t otherwise have spent.
This week’s podcast: Antipodes — points on the opposite side of the Earth.
Along the way, hear about:
- The deepest hole ever dug
- Which countries have antipodes you can visit, and why most places don’t
- Why Earth isn’t perfectly spherical
On podcast platforms or here: youtu.be/rRQvZI9EPRo
Volcanic eruptions are both awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time. They all seem enormous, but some are much more enormous than others. Here’s the scale used to measure them — from gentle lava flows to planet-altering explosions.
It struck me recently that talking with/to an AI is often just very effective rubberducking.
I explain why in the latest paid subscribers post on Substack:
open.substack.com/pub/sketchpl...
Everyday life sketch created for the VERDI project which is developing learning resources for everyday mathematics, particularly for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) irimad.com/verdi-prosje...
Mathematics is vital to making everyday life a little easier, fairer, and more enjoyable.
I was surprised when I thought about all the times that knowing maths helps us in our everyday lives. I'm sure you can think of many more.