Unnamed Point 273 (NO 276349, 273m)Blacklaw Hill (NO 288344, 284m)White Hill (NO 274338, 233m) 10.5 kilometres240 metres of ascent You’ll perhaps recall my previous expedition to Blacklaw Hill—I went in from the north, which turned out to be a minor assault course, and went out to the east, which took me into the unnerving neatness … Continue reading Sidlaws: Blacklaw Hill & White Hill from Little Ballo
Liguria
There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy; it is not the bad taste of a country which knows no better; it has not the nervous vulgarity of England or the blinded vulgarity of Germany. It observes beauty and chooses to pass it by. But it attains to beauty’s confidence. E.M. Forster, Where … Continue reading Liguria
Elizabeth Allan: Burn On The Hill
Ronnie was a short-legged hunchback and a social misfit; his navigation was pathetic and he was not competent even with a railway timetable. He never carried more than a sandwich, and often not even that, and was entirely dependent on the spontaneous goodwill and hospitality of keepers and shepherds. He only at any time had … Continue reading Elizabeth Allan: Burn On The Hill
Perihelion: Part 2
pɛrɪˈhiːlɪən perihelion: that point in the orbit of a planet, comet or other body at which it is closest to the sun Well, time flies. Back on January 4, when the Earth was at its closest to the sun, I started off to write about words relating to perihelion, and got side-tracked into writing about … Continue reading Perihelion: Part 2
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Sidlaws: Dunsinane to King’s Seat
Dunsinane Hill (NO 214316, 310m)Black Hill (NO 219319, 360m)Little Dunsinane (NO 224325, 295m)King’s Seat (NO 230330, 377m) 8.5 kilometres360 metres of ascent Do you think I may be becoming obsessed with King’s Seat? I think it’s possible. But I wanted to get some photos on this part of the ridge for another project, and I … Continue reading Sidlaws: Dunsinane to King’s Seat
Greg Egan: Dichronauts
Geometry might well kill them in the end, but only a rigorous understanding of its principles could make their situation intelligible, let alone survivable. That quote comes from Part 4 of this novel, but it encapsulates what’s intriguing and (at least potentially) frustrating about the story—it’s about spacetime geometry. I’ve written about Greg Egan before, … Continue reading Greg Egan: Dichronauts
Gear Review: Bolt-On™ Virtua-Trekker
For the last few months I’ve been cutting a dash on the hills wearing the wrap-round headset pictured above. It’s the core component of the new Virtua-Trekker—the first application of Virtual Reality for the hill-walker or fell-runner—and the nice people at Bolt-On™ Cybernetics have been kind enough to give me an early prototype to review. … Continue reading Gear Review: Bolt-On™ Virtua-Trekker
Coriolis Effect In A Rotating Space Habitat
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
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
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