this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
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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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[–] probable_possum@leminal.space 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.