Pints And Pounds

A pint’s a pound the world around. Traditional American mnemonic A pint of water’s a pound and a quarter. Traditional British mnemonic There’s something odd going on there, isn’t there? I learned that British mnemonic at primary school, and I can still vividly recall my first encounter with the American version—in a Robert Heinlein juvenile … Continue reading Pints And Pounds

William Hope Hodgson & Algernon Blackwood: Edwardian Occult Detectives

Of rather uneven stylistic quality, but vast occasional power in its suggestion of lurking worlds and beings behind the ordinary surface of life, is the work of William Hope Hodgson, known today far less than it deserves to be. Despite a tendency toward conventionally sentimental conceptions of the universe, and of man’s relation to it … Continue reading William Hope Hodgson & Algernon Blackwood: Edwardian Occult Detectives

Natural Earth Data In QGIS 3: Part 3

Last time, I finished working on my Alaska map with political boundaries and shading in place, and the major rivers and lakes depicted. This time, I’m going to use some more Natural Earth data to add more information to the map. The first thing I want is some towns and villages, so I download the … Continue reading Natural Earth Data In QGIS 3: Part 3

Rhoticity

rəʊˈtɪsɪtɪ rhoticity: pertaining to a variety or dialect of English in which r is pronounced not only in pre-vocalic position but also before a consonant or word-finally So, there’s an American professor of theology visiting England for the first time. As his train departs from London King’s Cross station, he hears an announcement over the … Continue reading Rhoticity

Angus Graham: The Golden Grindstone

“It was a most extraordinary thing, Graham, to see how the different men reacted to the gold. It took them all different ways, just like too much liquor. One would be cold and calculating, and as wicked as Hell; another would be delirious with pleasure; some showed themselves up as the lowest type of killer; … Continue reading Angus Graham: The Golden Grindstone

Natural Earth Data in QGIS 3: Part 2

Last time, I described how I used free Natural Earth data and the software package QGIS to produce a basic map of Alaska and its surroundings, shown above. This time, I’m going to lay some more vector datasets on top of this map to make it a little more useful. First, I want to add … Continue reading Natural Earth Data in QGIS 3: Part 2

Advent

ˈædvənt Advent: in the ecclesiastical calendar, the season immediately preceding the festival of the Nativity, now including the four preceding Sundays Advent comes from Latin adventus, “arrival”, and the capitalized Advent refers, of course, to the arrival of the child Jesus, celebrated on Christmas Day. Because of the ecclesiastical business about Advent starting four Sundays … Continue reading Advent

Banks et al.: Why Do Animal Eyes Have Pupils Of Different Shapes?

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?

A discursive blog on various topics of minor interest