Pushing Ice

by Alastair Reynolds

Chromis Pasqueflower Bowerbird

New Far Florence

Rudd Indigo Mammatus,

Lindblad Ring.

Chromis spoke for a relatively small grouping of settled worlds: a mere one hundred and thirty planet-class entities, packed into a volume of space only twenty light-years across.

Rudd’s constituency, located on the edge of the Ring—where it brushed against the fractious outer worlds of the Loop II Imperium—enveloped a much larger volume of space ...

caul:

caul /kôl/ I. noun 1. the amniotic membrane enclosing a fetus. 2. part of the amniotic membrane occasionally found on a child's head at birth, thought to bring good luck. 3. ‹historical› a woman's close-fitting indoor headdress or hairnet. 4. [Anatomy] the omentum. – origin Middle English: perhaps from Old French cale ‘head covering,’ but recorded earlier.

femtomachinery

Femtotechnology is a hypothetical term used in reference to structuring of matter on the scale of a femtometer, which is 10−15 m. This is a smaller scale in comparison with nanotechnology and picotechnology which refer to 10−9 m and 10−12 m respectively. Theory Work in the femtometer range involves manipulation of excited energy states within atomic nuclei, specifically nuclear isomers, to produce metastable (or otherwise stabilized) states with unusual properties. In the extreme case, excited states of the individual nucleons that make up the atomic nucleus (protons and neutrons) are considered, ostensibly to tailor the behavioral properties of these particles. The most advanced form of molecular nanotechnology is often imagined to involve self-replicating molecular machines, and there have been some speculations suggesting something similar might be possible with analogues of molecules composed of nucleons rather than atoms. For example, the astrophysicist Frank Drake once speculated about the possibility of self-replicating organisms composed of such nuclear molecules living on the surface of a neutron star, a suggestion taken up in the science fiction novel Dragon's Egg by the physicist Robert Forward. It is thought by physicists that nuclear molecules may be possible, but they would be very short-lived, and whether they could actually be made to perform complex tasks such as self-replication, or what type of technology could be used to manipulate them, is unknown.

Dyson englobement—

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to imagine how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone. Because only a tiny fraction of a star's energy emissions reaches the surface of any orbiting planet, building structures encircling a star would enable a civilization to harvest far more energy. 3D rendering of a Dyson sphere utilizing large, orbiting panels The first modern imagining of such a structure was by Olaf Stapledon in his science fiction novel Star Maker (1937), in which he described "every solar system... surrounded by a gauze of light-traps, which focused the escaping solar energy for intelligent use". The concept was later explored by the physicist Freeman Dyson in his 1960 paper "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation". Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the escalating energy needs of a technological civilization and would be a necessity for its long-term survival. Spheres detected in astronomical searches could be an indicator of extraterrestrial life, with different types of sphere and their energy-harvesting ability corresponding to levels of technological advancement on the Kardashev scale.

a mosaic of polities spread across nearly twelve thousand light-years of the galactic disc,

Spicans

The Spican starseed is a rare type of soul that originates from the star system Spica in the constellation of Virgo. They are very intelligent beings and have psychic abilities due to their connection with Spica’s energy. Spica starseeds are also known for being creative individuals who enjoy making art, music, and writing books. x There are two types of spican starseeds, one has a physical feline appearance and the other is a white-bodied light being. Spican Starseed Origin Spicans are from the star system Spica in the constellation of Virgo. Spica is the 15th brightest star in the night’s sky. It’s also known as Alpha Virginis and is a bluish binary star with a 4 day period. Spica lies about 250 light-years from earth. Since Spican starseeds are extremely rare we know very little about their origin.

Parry Boyce

Svetlana

Bella

qawwali of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Grammy winner and Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab said she has been a fan of qawwali maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s music since she was eight years old, as her parents would blast Khan’s songs in the car when she was living in Saudi Arabia. “I can never forget those versions of Nusrat’s qawwalis, and how they resonated in my little body,” the 37-year-old Brooklyn-based artist told Al Jazeera via email. Qawwali, which means “utterance”, is a form of Sufi devotional music with lyrics largely focusing on praising God, and the Muslim Prophet Muhammad and his son-in-law Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Primarily sung in Urdu and Punjabi, and occasionally in Farsi, the genre dates back to the 13th century in the Indian subcontinent. Salman Ahmad of Sufi rock band Junoon said the singing of the “Shahenshah-e-Qawwali” [King of Kings of Qawwali] “transported the listener to higher dimensions of mystical ecstasy and a yearning for the divine”. “His Pavarotti-like vocal range of low to high would just give me goosebumps … his impeccable rhythm, pitch and the emotional tenor of his voice … it was soul stirring,” the 58-year-old Ahmad told Al Jazeera from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Feldman and Shimozu

Mike Takahashi

Estonian choral music:

Choral music is the passion of Estonian choral conductor and manager, Kaie Tanner. She holds the position of Secretary General in the Estonian Choral Association and since 2010 has conducted the children’s choir and preparatory choir in Children’s Music Studio of Estonian Radio. She is also chief conductor of the Children’s Choir of Estonian Church Music Union. Expressing their national identity through song has been an Estonian tradition for as long as memory serves–-the Estonian Literature Museum contains more than 1.5 million pages of folk songs and there are continual competitions and festivals around the country. The country’s “choir culture” is flourishing, with choral music continuing to serve as the force that unites Estonians as they enter the third decade of their fledgling democracy. I met with Kaie during a visit to Estonia on the occasion of its 20th anniversary of re-independence from the Soviet Union. In what became known as the “Singing Revolution,” residents of this Baltic state wielded a long-held cultural practice as a weapon of change, without a drop of blood spilled. Over the four years between 1987 and 1991, hundreds of thousands of Estonians gathered publicly in a series of spontaneous events to sing prohibited patriotic songs, risking their lives to proclaim their desire for independence, culminating in a choral event that close to one-third of the country’s citizens attended

Gillian Shimozu

Elias Feldman

Svetlana Barseghian

Craig Schrope

DeepShaft

Jim Chisholm

Titanic Bar and Grill.

Janus.

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus (/ˈdʒeɪnəs/ JAY-nəs; Latin: Ianvs [ˈi̯aːnʊs]) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius). According to ancient Roman farmers' almanacs, Juno was mistaken as the tutelary deity of the month of January, but Juno is the tutelary deity of the month of June. Quick Facts Other names, Abode ... Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The gates of a building in Rome named after him (not a temple, as it is often called, but an open enclosure with gates at each end) were opened in time of war, and closed to mark the arrival of peace. As a god of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth and to journeys and exchange, and in his association with Portunus, a similar harbor and gateway god, he was concerned with travelling, trading and shipping. Janus had no flamen or specialised priest (sacerdos) assigned to him, but the King of the Sacred Rites (rex sacrorum) himself carried out his ceremonies. Janus had a ubiquitous presence in religious ceremonies throughout the year. As such, Janus was ritually invoked at the beginning of each ceremony, regardless of the main deity honored on any particular occasion.[citation needed] While the ancient Greeks had no known equivalent to Janus, there is considerate overlap with Culśanś of the Etruscan pantheon assimilations of Janus to the bright sky, the sun and the moon. It supposes a former *Dianus, formed on *dia- < *dy-eð2 from the Indo-European root *dey- shine represented in Latin by dies day, Diovis and Iuppiter. However the form Dianus postulated by Nigidius is not attested. A third etymology indicated by Cicero, Ovid and Macrobius, which explains the name as Latin, deriving it from the verb ire ("to go") is based on the interpretation of Janus as the god of beginnings and transitions.

geckoflex

pyrimidines,

pyrimidine /pəˈrimədēn pīˈriməˌdēn/ I. noun 1. [Chemistry] a colorless crystalline compound with basic properties. [A heteroaromatic compound; chem. formula: C4H4N2.] 2. (also pyrimidine base) — [Chemistry] a substituted derivative of this, especially the bases thymine and cytosine present in DNA. – origin late 19th cent.: from German Pyrimidin, from pyridine, with the insertion of -im- from imide.

Chieko Yamada

Carsten Fleig,

Josef Protsenko

Reka Bettendorf

Judy Sugimoto,

Thom Crabtree,

Parry Boyce;

Ryan Axford

Jim Chisholm’

Gayle Simmons,

Charles Mingus playing “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.

Powell Cagan.

Inga de Jong,

Craig Schrope,

Velcro or geckoflex,

Parry Boyce.

Denise Nadis,

Nick Thale,

Ash Murray,

Epimetheus.

of Pandora from the gods. Their marriage may be inferred (and was by later authors), but it is not made explicit in either text. In later myths, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora was Pyrrha, who married Deucalion, a descendant of Prometheus. Together they are the only two humans who survived the deluge. In some accounts, Epimetheus had another daughter, Metameleia, whose name means "regret of what has occurred" for those that do not plan ahead will only feel sorrow when calamity strikes. Others say that Epimetheus' wife was called Ephyra, daughter of Oceanus.

precombustion tokamak.

Epimetheus