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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • So, this dating is extremely controversial. The single researcher who claims it has not yet published those findings, and the dates vary wildly (from 9,000bp to 20,000 bp) from interview to interview. No material culture has been found at the site suporting dates older than 2,000bp. No source culture for the 9,000 to 20,000 date has been identified.

    Enen if the dating is verified at somewhere inthat range, all it demonstrates is that something was at the site at that time (if the dating material is from a fire, it shows someone lit a fire there, for instance). Considering there were tool-making hominids in Sundaland 1.5 million years ago, and homo sapians 45,000 bp, it would be interesting, but not revolutionary, to find some presence at the site. Much more and varied evidence would be required to indicate that this was a megalithic work predating Gobekli Tepe.

    As a second note, also important: Gunung Padang is not a pyramid. Its an andesite hill which naturally fractures in to columns and terraces. Some of the terraces have been leveled off by trimming and filling, but that is a very different task from transporting stone to build a pyramid or other free-standing megalithic structure.












  • This is interesting, but the take also seems to miss in several points, for me. The main thing that has happened since the author entered the idustry is the shiftover from web pages to web applications. This has had knock on effects across the industry.

    Whats the difference, you ask? A web page is a mostly static and mostly stateless program. It is made of html, enhanced through javascript. A web app is a regular application, delivered to the platform of the web. It is written in javastcript and produces html. It is often very stateful. It is very dynamic.

    Jquery, probably the most powerful tool for enhancing websites, was released in 2006. This was the height of website design, as the webdesigner could create the structure in html and then modify it with jquery. It was a blend of design and technical application. Its no surprise that the big social media all dates from around this time. Social media is a mostly static experience that jquery made very delightful.

    React was released in 2013. This was the first major framework to be javascript-first. The layout and structure of the page took place entirely in javascript. It was no longer a blend of skills, creating the page was a fully programing job. This brought web more into the traditional software industry, with all that that entails. It also enabled web design applications, such as Squarespace, which further deminished web design as a practice.

    I started in the industry in 2008. In my experiance, there was never a strong representation of women in web design. This got worse asthings shifted, but its a mischaracterization, I think, to say that women were pushed out. Its also a mischaracerization to talk about the creation ofthe front end developer role or the ux role. These roles have always existed (or, at least, existed since before the time period we are talking about). These are application development roles. Windows and Mac apps had ux designers and front end developers already. When those same companies decided to usethe browser as their platform rather than the desktop, it was natural to transfer those same roles.

    If anything, it seems, the period of web design was the oddity as industry norms just weren’t available in the less powerful browsers of the time.






  • What we see now are the ancient roots. Before the continental colision, there was a sea and subduction zone. This gave us sandstones, diorite, and granite… All of which were crushed at incredible pressure and temperature by the continental collision. At the deep roots of the mountains, this transformed the rock into gneiss, marble, and other extremely hard rock. Additionally, the forces were so great that the very bottom melted and became fresh granite.

    All of these stones are very hard and resistant to erosion, and are what we see todayas the Appalachians


  • Its indirectly gravity. The taller the mountain, the more eroding force can be pleced on it. Water travels faster and therefore cuts deeper.

    Everest is still uplifting fairly quickly at 1mm a year, but its also eroding at roughly the same pace and won’t get significantly taller than it is now. The same is true for the rest of the Himalaya as well, the whole range is eroding at a very high pace.

    The Himalaya are home to some very spectacular canyons, including the largest canyon above water. The geology there is on full display and incredible.