O.C. Heaton's Blog, page 4

Solar Storms brighten the Northern Lights

If proof were needed of our relative insignificance in the grander scheme of things, one needs look no further than the incredible auroras that have burst into life across the Northern Hemisphere during the few weeks after a relative period of quiet for the last few years.

I first fell in love with them whilst researching my 2009 sci fi thriller, The Human Race. Set in Iceland, its landscape provided a fitting backdrop to one of my central themes – that mankind, driven by...

Is Writing Dead?

Have you got one of the new i-phones? The one with Siri, Apple's new voice recognition technology which, whilst still a work in progress is also pretty impressive. You can ask it questions and also issue simple instructions, 'please text my wife and tell her I am running late for dinner.' Apparently it learns as it gets to know your voice and also your habits. Scary in one sense but very exciting in another.

However as writer I find it also profoundly sad.

Is it sounding the...

Apple and the environment: things are looking up

I've criticised Apple for its environmental practices in the past, but it's time for me to give credit where credit is due after reading last week that the company has finally released an extensive list of its suppliers for the first time. The report also includes labour conditions at Apple's contract manufacturers around the world.

The good news is that Apple is at long last moving toward better working conditions.

The not–so-good news is that the company still makes a lot of i...

Up, up and away

I love the movie Up, especially the floating house, which is supported by thousands of balloons and goes wherever the wind takes it. For me, this kind of blowing in the wind balloon travel is exploration at its most romantic.

Therefore, when I saw the fascinating photograph below, I had to share it with my readers. Courtesy of National Geographic, a team of scientists, engineers and two world-class balloon pilots have reproduced this real-life version of the house from Up.

Natio...

Kodak's downfall: where was the disruptive technology?

Last week Kodak announced bankruptcy bringing to an end its 132-year existence which, at one time, saw it regularly rated as one of the world's most valuable brands.

Things used to be very different; the company accounted for 90% of film and 85% of camera sales in America during 1976. It was a corporate goliath, bestriding the world with sales in excess of $16 billion in 1996, a workforce of over 100,000 and profits to match.

Fifteen years later Kodak was a ghost of its former s...

How long do greenhouse gases stay in the air?

It's always been one of those questions for me. A little like 'What does a tonne of CO2 look like?' – something I looked into last autumn.

Well, the answer to this latest question is that the length of time these gases stay in the air differs from gas-to-gas.

Aside from water, the four principal greenhouse gases are:

carbon dioxide (CO2)
methane (CH4)
nitrous oxide (N2O)
halocarbons or CFCs (gases containing fluorine, chlorine and bromine).

Each of these can remain in the...

Are you a failure?

I've blogged about failure before, but my attention turned back to the topic after reading the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.

Notably, Steve Jobs had some very high profile failures. The first was his ignominious booting out of Apple – the company he had founded – followed swiftly by his reasonably unsuccessful tenure at the helm of NeXT, before his return to Apple in 1996. Most people would probably not consider these chapters in his life failures, per se. At least n...

How to survive a recession by Tom Peters

I know this has nothing to do with writing, technology or the environment but I still love it for reasons that will become obvious once you start reading. I can take no ownership either. It was written by the Business Guru Tom Peters back in 2008 during the last recession, which I'm not even sure we ever pulled out of. Anyway here it is. Read it, feel inspired and get to work!

'I am constantly asked for "strategies/'secrets' for surviving the recession." I try to appear wise...

Steve Jobs' six lives

I've just finished reading Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography on my iPad and I have to say it granted me everything I could have wished for and more.

Some of the reviews I've seen are quite critical, mainly because people have felt that the biography doesn't offer any further insight into a man who has been written about and studied for the last three decades. I certainly am not one of them as I have only recently started using Apple products. I didn't really know that...

Future proofing our planet: can we do it?

Now here's a thought provoking start to your week: Rupert Read, a Philosopher at the University of East Anglia has suggested creating a new council responsible for protecting the Earth for future generations.

Read's report, Guardians of the Future, suggests that this new democratic body, to be known as Guardians of Future Generations, would have two core powers. Firstly, it would have the ability to veto legislation that threatens the basic needs and interests of future...