Roger, I am sorry. I cant decode yourlast message. Bye the bye, where are you thee days?
Nick On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 9:59 PM Roger Critchlow <[email protected]> wrote: > AI Summary > > >> >> - Nicholas sent an email to the FRIAM listserv containing only Morse >> code and group information. >> - Stephen replied to Nicholas and the FRIAM listserv with an empty >> message body. >> >> By Gemini; there may be mistakes. Learn more >> <https://support.google.com/mail?p=gemini-summary-card&hl=en> >> > > .-- .-. -- - -. --. / ..--.. / --- / --. --- - / .-- .-. .- .--. .--. . > -.. / - --- / -- - > > > https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/01/26/machine-learning-research-is-not-serious-research-and-therefore-hallucinated-references-are-not-necessarily-a-big-deal-agrees-a-prestigious-group-of-machine-learning-researchers/ > > -- rec -- > > On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 6:09 PM Stephen Guerin < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Nick, >> >> I read *Assembling a Chimney* as a structural account of storm >> formation rather than an energy-threshold story, and I found the clarity of >> the chimney metaphor and diagrams especially strong. Your distinction >> between notional and structural columns, and the way mixed layers, elevated >> mixed layers, and jet-level dynamics incrementally assemble (and cap) >> vertical coordination, makes clear that storms emerge when a continuous >> pathway is constructed, not when a single variable crosses a threshold. >> >> In my language, what you call a “structural column” is a *constraint >> geometry*: a configuration in which gradients stop acting merely as >> local forces and instead define the geometry that motion follows. Your >> consistent use of potential temperature (θ) already does this work. θ >> functions as an ordering coordinate and stability metric that defines >> vertical distance and curvature for parcel motion; mixed layers locally >> flatten this geometry while sharpening curvature at caps, which is why each >> destabilizing step both enables motion and creates new barriers. >> >> One distinction I find useful here is between *thermodynamic conjugate >> variables*, whose products have units of *energy*, and *action-level >> conjugates*, whose products have units of *action* (energy × time). Most >> of weather science lives—appropriately—in the first category: >> temperature–entropy, pressure–volume, chemical potential–mass, latent >> heat–phase fraction. These describe how energy is stored and transferred. >> But the chimney argument is really about when a system can support >> coherent, column-spanning transport, which naturally pulls in the second >> category: position–momentum, time–energy, angle–angular momentum—pairs that >> define geometry and path selection. >> >> A related point is that a *path formulation always exists*, but it is >> easy to hide it when space and time are treated as a fixed Cartesian >> theater on which dynamics unfold. When space and time themselves are >> treated as variables shaped by constraints, transport is most naturally >> described in terms of paths. Once the chimney geometry is assembled, motion >> through the column is no longer diffusive but *path-like*: parcels >> follow *least-action paths*, equivalently *geodesics on the assembled >> geometry*. The flux—mass, momentum, moisture—is not being pushed upward >> in a purely kinetic sense; rather, the *kinematic structure has changed* >> so that the straightest available paths now span the column. Kinetics still >> governs rates and intensities, but the phase transition itself is >> kinematic, determined by which paths are admissible at all. >> >> This is where reciprocity becomes important. Near equilibrium, variables >> appear in their familiar force–flux roles: gradients drive responses, and >> thermodynamic (energy-product) conjugates dominate. Far from equilibrium, >> some quantities switch roles and begin defining geometry rather than >> responding to it: momentum and vorticity stop being just fluxes and shape >> the column; moisture and latent heat reorganize buoyancy. In this regime, >> it can be more natural to think in terms of *paths between >> origin–destination pairs* than in terms of local forces—loosely, a >> handshake between where transport originates and where it must terminate, >> mediated by the geometry the system assembles. >> >> From that perspective, your closing question about where the remaining >> energy comes from can be reframed. The limiting factor is not additional >> energy so much as *completed geometry*. When the remaining caps are >> eroded and the constraint pathway connects from surface to jet, the same >> energy reorganizes motion efficiently because the least-action paths now >> exist. What looks like an energetic gap is really a geometric one. >> >> This is why your essay feels so current. In an era of data-rich >> forecasting and AI models that interpolate states well but struggle with >> regime change, your chimney construction reads as a phase-recognition >> framework: storms occur when constraints connect and flux begins to follow >> least-action (geodesic) paths through a newly assembled geometry. >> >> As a concrete aside, I’ve been playing with a few small interactive >> experiments inspired by our conversations that are essentially >> *constraint-geometry >> toys* for the same ideas, partly for an upcoming class. One uses a >> Lattice Boltzmann flow where inlet height and boundary shape act as a >> static constraint geometry: >> https://harvardviz.live/cognitive-landscapes-group/streamtable.html >> >> Another lets you vary domain depth to see how *Bénard convection cell >> size locks to geometry*, often close to a 1:1 relationship: >> https://harvardviz.live/cognitive-landscapes-group/benard-cell.html >> >> And a third applies computer-vision filters to a timelapse of a real >> stream table used to teach stream meandering and post-fire debris flows: >> https://harvardviz.live/cognitive-landscapes-group/stream-vision.html >> Even though this one is water–soil, the evolving substrate geometry and >> particle transport feel adjacent to plume and particle dynamics in weather >> systems >> >> with calculated artificial sincerity, >> >> Stephen Guerin And Claude Van Dam >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Stephen Guerin >> https://simtable.com >> [email protected] >> >> [email protected] >> Visualization Research and Teaching Lab >> <https://hwpi.harvard.edu/eps-visualization-research-laboratory/home> >> Harvard Earth and Planetary Science >> Landscape Architecture >> <https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/2025/02/landscape-architecture-students-explore-pioneering-climate-visualization-techniques-to-inform-design/> >> Harvard Graduate School of Design >> >> mobile: (505)577-5828 >> >> >> On Sat, Jan 24, 2026 at 9:51 AM Nicholas Thompson < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> We have to stop meeting this way. >>> >>> <http://goog_810206453> >>> >>> https://open.substack.com/pub/monist/p/assembling-a-chimney?r=4qtqk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true >>> >>> Come ON you guys. There must be a FEW people interested in this. >>> Stephen? Where are my pilots? My complexitists? >>> >>> Next week will be thunderstorms and then I will stop pestering you for a >>> bit. >>> >>> Nick >>> >>> -- >>> Nicholas S. Thompson >>> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology >>> Clark University >>> [email protected] >>> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson >>> https://substack.com/@monist >>> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. >>> / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom >>> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam >>> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >>> archives: 5/2017 thru present >>> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ >>> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >>> >> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / >> ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom >> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam >> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> archives: 5/2017 thru present >> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ >> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >> > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ > -- Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology Clark University [email protected] https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson https://substack.com/@monist
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