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submitted 3 weeks ago by xkcdbot@lemmy.world to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

xkcd #3243: Crystal Gazing

Title text:

'Beyond that lies a vale of fire through which my vision cannot penetrate' is the kind of fun thing geologists, heliophysicists, and early universe cosmologists have a lot of opportunities to say.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3243/

explainxkcd for #3243

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[-] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 11 points 3 weeks ago

Crystal-gazing is one of my favorite things to do. I can ponder my crystal for hours and commune with other practitioners, plumb the depth and breadth of human understanding, and look at cats. Lotta cats in the crystal network.

[-] probable_possum@leminal.space 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I find thermo-luminiscence dating interesting too, from an antroprocentric point of view.

Imagine, you find human relics but can't use radio carbon dating, because it just tells you: yes it is older than 60k years but I won't tell you how much older, because we ran out of ¹⁴C a while ago. And then someone comes along and says: Hey let's heat those rocks we found close to the ancient fire place and measure the energy they emit instead. :D

[-] Ageroth@reddthat.com 3 points 3 weeks ago

That thermo-luminiscence video looks like one of the most AI produced things I've seen, why not link the wiki like you did for radio carbon dating?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoluminescence_dating

[-] probable_possum@leminal.space 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Definitely TTS, maybe AI text source. Google came up with lengthy texts or elsevier-links. The 3min video didn't feel too bad to provide the gist of it in 3minutes. I didn't think of wiki.

Thanks for the link.

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

Prophets of Done

this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
273 points (98.9% liked)

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