Grant Hutchison's Blog, page 46

South Harris & Sleat

Getting back to the Hebrides is always a joy. This was a short, two-centre Hebridean sampler—one Outer, one Inner. We drove up and stayed in Portree, Skye, overnight, before heading to the ferry port at Uig for a crossing to Tarbert, in Harris. There are lots of Tarberts in Scotland, and they all have some … Continue reading South Harris & Sleat →

Tristan Gooley: How To Read Water

Our journey will begin, like so many great explorers before us, in the kitchen. Tristan Gooley is, according to his website, a “natural navigator”—by which he means that he navigates using nature, not that he’s just intrinsically good at navigating. He set out his stall with his first book, appropriately entitled The Natural Navigator, which … Continue reading Tristan Gooley: How To Read Water →

Glen Tilt: Beinn Mheadhonach

Beinn Mheadhonach (NN 880758, 901m) 23 kilometres 950 metres ascent So, a bit of a change from the micro-level route-finding that’s been preoccupying me in the Sidlaws. This one’s a big, striding hill, tucked up the back of Blair Atholl, in that rather nebulous region referred to as “the Grampians”. The name of the hill … Continue reading Glen Tilt: Beinn Mheadhonach →

Grampians: Beinn Mheadhonach

Beinn Mheadhonach (NN 880758, 901m) 23 kilometres 950 metres ascent So, a bit of a change from the micro-level route-finding that’s been preoccupying me in the Sidlaws. This one’s a big, striding hill, tucked up the back of Blair Atholl, in that rather nebulous region referred to as “the Grampians”. The name of the hill … Continue reading Grampians: Beinn Mheadhonach →

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 →

Rhins of Galloway: Aldouran Glen

3 kilometres 70 metres of ascent I wouldn’t normally trouble you with such a piddling little pre-lunch stroll. But it’s a pretty place, part of a community project, and (situated as it is in the wilds of the Rhins Peninsula) I suspect it doesn’t get much passing trade. So if you’re in the vicinity of … Continue reading Rhins of Galloway: Aldouran Glen →

Life Imitates Art

An article by Tom Whipple in The Times today (May 12, 2016) reports on a set of powered trousers designed by Panizollo et al. and described in an article published today by the Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation: “A biologically-inspired multi-joint soft exosuit that can reduce the energy cost of loaded walking“. The authors conclude: … Continue reading Life Imitates Art →

Transit of Mercury

Clear skies here, chez Oikofuge, for Monday’s transit of Mercury, the first in almost ten years. Mercury and Venus are the two planets that orbit between Earth and the sun, so they are the only two planets that we can occasionally see passing in front of the sun. If you look at the orbits of … Continue reading Transit of Mercury →

Sidlaws: Denoon Glen

Berry Hillock (NO 372444, 282m [trig. point]) Carlunie Hill (NO 365432, 340m) Ark Hill (NO 357426, 340m) Point 328 (NO 359408, 328m) Denoon Law (NO 355444, 210m) Crams Hill (NO 368450, 237m) 17 kilometres 580 metres ascent Denoon Glen is the next glen west from Glen Ogilvie, site of my snowy floundering last week. So … Continue reading Sidlaws: Denoon Glen →

Système International Prefixes: Part 2

In my previous post about the Système International prefix system, I described how they originated in the French Republican metric system of 1795, which introduced a set of prefixes to designate multiples and fractions of its base units. For instance, the metre was subdivided using prefixes into decimetres, centimetres and millimetres, designating a tenth, hundredth … Continue reading Système International Prefixes: Part 2 →