“I’ve only one more question,” he said. “What shall we do about our children?” “Enjoy them while you may,” answered Rashaverak gently. “They will not be yours for long.” It was advice that might have been given to any parent in any age; but now it contained a threat and a terror it had never … Continue reading Arthur C. Clarke: Childhood’s End
One of the interesting things about having your own website is that you get to see some of the search terms people have used to find their way here. (Some of you have been talking to Siri while drunk, I see.) Someone pitched up recently having searched for “one long walk” along the Sidlaws, which … Continue reading Sidlaws: Two Glacks
Some pilots, though probably due to the luck of the draw, always seemed to get the plane that comes apart in the air. George J. Marrett was a United States Air Force (USAF) test pilot in the Fighter Test Branch of Flight Test Operations at Edwards Air Force Base during the 1960s, and Contrails Over … Continue reading George J. Marrett: Contrails Over The Mojave
There is little Man has made that approaches anything in Nature, but a sailing ship does. Alan Villiers The Caribbean, in February, on a ship. We’re neither of us beach people. (We had a beach holiday in the Maldives once, in 1982, and were homicidal with boredom by the third day). And we’d never been … Continue reading Caribbean
The blue appearance of veins under unpigmented skin is a commonplace observation, to the extent that it has become standard coding in anatomy diagrams to colour arteries red and veins blue: But that pale blue colour is actually a bit of a puzzle. Blood gets its colour from the haemoglobin contained in the red blood … Continue reading Why Do Veins Look Blue?
Last week, the Boon Companion and I were sipping sundowner cocktails in the British Virgin Islands, leaning back in our chairs, and cloud-watching. Long streets of fair-weather cumulus had been strung out over the Caribbean since midday. Now, half an hour before sunset, the cumulus was growing—boiling upwards to form towering cumulus congestus, which were … Continue reading Waterspouts
Empire’s Crossroads is subtitled A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day. Which is what it is. It’s historian Carrie Gibson‘s first book, built around her long-standing interest in the Caribbean. It was always going to be a challenge to put together a coherent narrative, given how many islands there are in … Continue reading Carrie Gibson: Empire’s Crossroads
Here’s the problem: the tropical year, the time it takes the Earth to go through a complete cycle of seasons, is 365.2422 days long (to four-decimal accuracy). If every calendar year were 365 days long, then the missing 0.2422 days would add up from year to year, each year starting a little earlier relative to … Continue reading February 30th
iːˈɡɒfənɪ ægophony: a characteristic “bleating” quality heard in conducted voice-sounds when listening to the chest over an area of consolidated lung When I was a medical student, we spent a lot of time listening to patient’s chests with our stethoscopes. Two things we were told to listen for were bleating ægophony and whispering pectoriloquy, which … Continue reading Aegophony
Greg Egan is an Australian mathematician who has been writing hard science fiction for thirty years, although his hard science is the stuff that sits at the borderland of philosophy: the relationship between mathematics and reality, the nature of consciousness, the implications of quantum mechanics. Previous novels have involved speculations on what life might be … Continue reading Greg Egan: The “Orthogonal” Trilogy