This is a rickety old kit, first issued in 1958 by Lindberg. The version I’m building is a nostalgic reissue by Round2. During its sixty-year history, it has undergone various metamorphoses: shifting its supposed scale between 1:96 and 1:200; changing its name from U.S. Moon Ship (1958) to Star Probe Space Shuttle (1980s) to Lunar … Continue reading Lindberg 1/96 Moon Ship (Revised)
Tag Archives: History
Territories That Crossed The Date Line: Part 2 – 1900 To Present
The Date or Calendar Line is a modification of the line of the 180th meridian, and is drawn so as to include islands of any one group, etc, on the same side of the line. When crossing this line on a westerly (true) course, the date must be advance one day; when crossing it … Continue reading Territories That Crossed The Date Line: Part 2 – 1900 To Present
Territories That Crossed The Date Line: Part 1 – Up To 1900
Constrained by extreme necessity, we decided on touching at the Cape Verde Islands, and on Wednesday the 9th of July, we touched at one of those islands named St. James’s. […] In order to see whether we had kept an exact account of the days, we charged those who went ashore to ask what day … Continue reading Territories That Crossed The Date Line: Part 1 – Up To 1900
Spaceflight Before Spaceflight: Two Books
There does not seem to be any reason why it should not be possible, by the use of a suitably designed multi-stage rocket, to send a projectile into space beyond the Earth’s gravitation. From the scientific and engineering points of view, interplanetary travel may be considered to be a practical possibility. It is the great … Continue reading Spaceflight Before Spaceflight: Two Books
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Rodney Russ & Aleks Terauds: Galapagos Of The Antarctic
These islands not only play an important role in the Southern Ocean ecosystem, they also have a rich human history—from their discovery around 200 years ago, through an era of exploitation, until finally today, when they are treasured for their intrinsic value as wild and beautiful places. I picked a copy of this book off … Continue reading Rodney Russ & Aleks Terauds: Galapagos Of The Antarctic
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Christoph Baumer: The History Of Central Asia
Sima Qian found himself personally affected by China’s wars against the Xiongnu in quite unintended fashion, for in 99 BCE he was castrated on the orders of Emperor Han Wudi … If I’ve been quiet on the reading front for a while, it’s been because I’ve been working my way through these gorgeously produced volumes. They’re big—almost … Continue reading Christoph Baumer: The History Of Central Asia
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Two Books About The Mounth Roads
Robert Smith: Grampian WaysNeil Ramsay & Nate Pedersen: The Mounth Passes It is clear enough where the Grampians begin; no-one is certain where they end. The limits of the range have been as elastic as the whims of cartographers, so that the word “Grampian” has become an uncertain scrawl on many maps. Robert Smith Grampian … Continue reading Two Books About The Mounth Roads
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James Shapiro: Contested Will
There is nothing in the writings of Shakespeare that does not argue the long and early training of the schoolman, the traveller, and the associate of the great and learned. Yet there is nothing in the known life of Shakespeare that shows he had any one of these qualities. “James Corton Cowell (1805)” James Shapiro … Continue reading James Shapiro: Contested Will
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Grampian
ˈɡræmpɪən If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude … Continue reading Grampian
Système International Prefixes: Part 3
Go to the first post in this series In my first two posts about the SI unit prefixes, I described how the system originated in the French Republican metric system of 1795. Part 1 dealt with those original fractional prefixes—deci-, centi- and milli-, designating a tenth, hundredth and thousandth part of the base unit. Part … Continue reading Système International Prefixes: Part 3