In a previous post describing the Coriolis effect, I mentioned its relevance to space travel—if a rotating habitat is being used to generate simulated gravity, Coriolis deflection can interfere with the performance of simple tasks and, at the extreme, generate motion sickness. As an example of the sort of effect you could expect to encounter, … Continue reading Coriolis Effect In A Rotating Space Habitat
Monthly Archives: March 2017
Sidlaws: More About Smithton
I’ve been intrigued by the lost community of Smithton since I climbed Smithton Hill this time last year, and then read David Dorward’s description of its namesake—“Former farm-toun W of Lundie village, deserted, abandoned and demolished within the past half-century.” This was living memory for Dorward, writing in 2004, because he used to visit Smithton … Continue reading Sidlaws: More About Smithton
Magpies & Grasshoppers
I was trying to explain the content of this blog to someone the other day, and I said that it combined two states of mind, the magpie and the grasshopper—the magpie’s hoarding of appealing objects, the grasshopper’s leaping from place to place And that, in a self-referential kind of way, got me thinking about the … Continue reading Magpies & Grasshoppers
Madeira
We’re from Madeira, but perfectly respectable so far. George Bernard Shaw You Never Can Tell (1899) A couple of days in Madeira, just to remind ourselves what sunshine looks like. Madeira seems like it should be a marvellously easy and unstressful foreign place to visit—written Portuguese is often pretty easy to puzzle out, if … Continue reading Madeira
Levison Wood: Walking The Americas
I’ve found on these long expeditions that there sometimes comes a point when you grow tired of walking. Walking the Americas recounts the story of Levison Wood’s third epic walking journey—a successor to Walking the Nile and Walking the Himalayas, and a companion volume to the Channel 4 TV series of the same name. You … Continue reading Levison Wood: Walking The Americas