Human eyes have round pupils, but there is considerable variation in the animal kingdom, from the vertical slit pupil of a cat, to the horizontal slot of a goat, as pictured above. So Martin S. Banks and his colleagues asked the question “Why?” in an article published in Science Advances in August 2015. They started … Continue reading Banks et al.: Why Do Animal Eyes Have Pupils Of Different Shapes?
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How Apollo Left Earth (And Returned): Part 2
This is the long-delayed second post in my discussion of the departure and return orbits of the Apollo missions. If you haven’t read the first post, you can find it here—it’ll give some useful background to what follows. The diagram at the head of this post shows a plot of Apollo 11’s departure trajectory, superimposed on … Continue reading How Apollo Left Earth (And Returned): Part 2
Isobel Wylie Hutchison: North to the Rime-Ringed Sun
We were northward bound for Alaska and her blue midnights! Her golden blossoms! Her trackless forests! Her naked tundras! I’ve written about the redoubtable Isobel Wylie Hutchison before—a Scottish lady of independent means who spent her life travelling and botanizing, often while walking prodigious distances alone. She recorded her travels in articles for National Geographic … Continue reading Isobel Wylie Hutchison: North to the Rime-Ringed Sun
Natural Earth Data in QGIS 3: Part 1
A while ago, I wrote about my experience using Ordnance Survey data to generate maps of the UK using the free and open-source Geographical Information System package QGIS 3. At that time I was using the then-current Long-Term Release, QGIS 3.4. Things have moved on, though, and this report uses the current QGIS LTR, version … Continue reading Natural Earth Data in QGIS 3: Part 1
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Cenotaph
Never [before] has the Cenotaph, in its 103 years of standing sentry on Whitehall, been “defended” on Armistice Day by a Port Vale fan supping a can of Stella Artois. Mark Townsend, The Guardian, 11 November 2023 The Cenotaph stands in central London, at the point where Whitehall becomes Parliament Street, opposite the weird neo-Tudor … Continue reading Cenotaph
The Solar System’s Place In The Milky Way: Part 2
At the end of my previous post on this topic, I left you with a diagram of the solar system’s orientation and approximate trajectory in its orbit around the Milky Way galaxy. Below, we’re looking past the solar system towards the galactic core. The plane of the galaxy runs horizontally across the image, north is … Continue reading The Solar System’s Place In The Milky Way: Part 2
Sorry
Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word Elton John / Bernie Taupin (1976) Every now and then, a journalist gets some mileage out of writing about how British people say “Sorry!” a lot in trivial settings—when we’ve found ourselves in someone’s way, when someone has misunderstood our meaning, when we’ve snaffled the last biscuit just … Continue reading Sorry
Alexei Panshin: The “Rite Of Passage” Stories
The Ships were launched just over two hundred years ago to carry survival colonies away from an overpopulated and depleted Earth on the hysterical edge of self-destruction. Seven Ships founded some one hundred colonies. And now, all these many years later, the only movement between the stars is the seven Great Ships on eternal motherly … Continue reading Alexei Panshin: The “Rite Of Passage” Stories
Small Scale Shop 1/96 Lunar Module: Part 1
Having recently completed my new, improved version of the 1/96 Command/Service Module of Apollo 11, using a RealSpace resin kit supplemented by 3D-printed parts from The Aerospace Place, I decided I might as well go the whole hog and build a better 1/96 Lunar Module too. All this is a hangover from my long, slow build … Continue reading Small Scale Shop 1/96 Lunar Module: Part 1
Annular Solar Eclipse
As this post goes live, it’s only a few days until an annular solar eclipse, like the one pictured above, will sweep across the Americas on 14 October 2023. Annular eclipses get their name from Latin anulus, “small ring”, which refers to the ring of sunlight that’s visible around the lunar disc, as shown in the image … Continue reading Annular Solar Eclipse