WRMTNG ? O GOT WRAPPED TO MT --- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 10:56 PM Nicholas Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > 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/ >
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