Grant Hutchison's Blog, page 40

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 →

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 kilometres 360 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 … 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 →

Madeira

  We’re from Madeira, but perfectly respectable so far. George Bernard Shaw You Never Can Tell (1899) A couple of days in Madeira, just to remind ourselves what sunshine looks like. Madeira seems like it should be a marvellously easy and unstressful foreign place to visit—written Portuguese is often pretty easy to puzzle out, if … Continue reading Madeira →

Levison Wood: Walking The Americas

I’ve found on these long expeditions that there sometimes comes a point when you grow tired of walking. Walking the Americas recounts the story of Levison Wood’s third epic walking journey—a successor to Walking the Nile and Walking the Himalayas, and a companion volume to the Channel 4 TV series of the same name. You … Continue reading Levison Wood: Walking The Americas →

Dave Hutchinson: The Fractured Europe Sequence

Very slowly, he turned to put has back to the street, hiding the briefcase with his body. He removed a glove and put his bare hand against the side of the case. It was hot. Not red hot. Not drop-it-right-here-and-run-like-hell hot. But it was still hot. Which, in Rudi’s experience, was a first for a … Continue reading Dave Hutchinson: The Fractured Europe Sequence →