Althouse: Mendota ice crack at sunrise

February 12, 2023

Mendota ice crack at sunrise — 7:11 a.m.

17 comments:

Lem Vibe Bandit said...: A quick glance at the headline read “Ice crack at submarine”.; 2/12/23, 11:28 AM
Owen said...: What forces are at work to produce that crack? Compression? Tension? Shear?

My bet is shear but what do I know?; 2/12/23, 12:01 PM
Political Junkie said...: I tried to come up with a butt crack quip, but I failed.; 2/12/23, 12:09 PM
Narr said...: "What forces are at work to produce that crack?"

OOH! ME! I KNOW!

Climate change.; 2/12/23, 1:29 PM
Jaq said...: When the printing press came along, a priesthood was subverted, and power re-distributed, and I am pretty sure that a lot of people felt it. I can't help but feel that this is happening again with AI. It can simply organize knowledge and succinctly summarize it. It makes you wonder what college is for. I asked it to provide me a generalized dramatic arc for a picaresque novel, and out it comes, in five or six paragraphs, you could use it to write one, if you wanted.

If you don't like its writing style, for instance if it is using trite narrative crutches, the way many beginning writers do, you can forbid it to use those crutches, and make it write the scene again, and it will. And its style will be improved. I am sure that there are, or will be versions out there that don't write in the style of a beginning creative writing student.

I know it is an illusion, but it feels like the singularity is here, like we have crossed the Rubicon, and here we are. My guess is that literary writing is going to become more abstruse, the way art did when faced with photography, and most fans who like genre fiction, for example, will read AI stuff quite happily. The stories will be composed by "show runners" who make suggestions and provide some ideas, but the AI will outwork the prose-layin' man, like the song John Henry, and human written genre novels will become the exception. A good imaginative show runner could produce half a dozen novels a year. Novels are going to be as much a commodity as wheat or steel.; 2/12/23, 1:38 PM
Jaq said...: "What forces are at work to produce that crack? Compression? Tension? Shear?"

Yes.

In Vermont, we call them "pressure cracks" but they are formed by the wind, its direction, and the shape of the lake. Not "tension" so much, though once a crack appears, the sheets can flow apart due to wind, opening up a space of open water, which then freezes over with ice considerably thinner that what was there. Add a fresh layer of snow, and bingo! You have a death trap for the unwary!; 2/12/23, 1:44 PM
Beasts of England said...: Lovely colors!; 2/12/23, 1:52 PM
Jaq said...: LOL, I had ChatGPT write a scene with a plane crash, as part of the story I was writing, but it refused. I had to tell it that all passengers survived before it would go ahead.; 2/12/23, 2:14 PM
typingtalker said...: Global Warming induced by Chinese Balloons. Evidence that the lake will rise and flood Madison all the way to the Children's Museum. Save the Children with your tax-deductible donation. No amount is too big.

Have a nice day.; 2/12/23, 2:14 PM
Jaq said...: Splashed one in Lake Huron. Getting kind of close to home...; 2/12/23, 2:57 PM
Curious George said...: "What forces are at work to produce that crack? Compression? Tension? Shear?"

I'm guessing tension. As the ice warms it shrinks.; 2/12/23, 3:56 PM
robother said...: Chinese weather submarine?; 2/12/23, 4:16 PM
Oh Yea said...: Is that a balloon I see in the upper right on the edge of the clouds?; 2/12/23, 4:30 PM
effinayright said...: During early spring at Lake Winnepesaukee in NH, I have heard the ice crack.

It sounded like a sonic boom, eachoing from shore to shore.

Cool.

(150 years ago teams of workers armed with huge saws would cut the lake ice into blocks, wrap them in burlap, load them onto wagons then ship them on to Boston in sawdust-packed freight cars.

There they were stored underground for use during the warmer months to cool home iceboxes, butcher shops and meat packing houses.); 2/12/23, 5:38 PM
Saint Croix said...: For kids applying to college.; 2/12/23, 6:38 PM
Josephbleau said...: to parrot a phrase, "I am so horny the crack of ice looks good."; 2/12/23, 10:06 PM
Rusty said...: tim in vermont said...
"What forces are at work to produce that crack? Compression? Tension? Shear?"

"Yes.

In Vermont, we call them "pressure cracks" but they are formed by the wind, its direction, and the shape of the lake. Not "tension" so much, though once a crack appears, the sheets can flow apart due to wind, opening up a space of open water, which then freezes over with ice considerably thinner that what was there. Add a fresh layer of snow, and bingo! You have a death trap for the unwary!"
It is the reason that ice fishermen on Lake Superior take boats with them.; 2/13/23, 8:16 AM