Archive for the ‘Science & technology’ Category
Ever heard of “powernoia” or “nomophobia”? Well you’ve probably suffered from both.
July 19th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
You’ll find this explanation in this short article by Eva Wiseman who admits to her dependence on her mobile phone. I understand her feelings: these days, if my iPhone 6 is not charged and nearby, not only do I not have connectivity, but my Apple Watch will only really tell the time and remind me […]
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How many other planets have we discovered – and does any other planet support intelligent life?
July 18th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
This week, we saw fantastic pictures of Pluto which we used to call a planet and now call a dwarf planet. Whatever we call it, Pluto is on the very edge of our solar system – but we’ve been able to detect other planets in other solar systems. I’m currently reading “The Magic Of Reality”, […]
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Words of the day: perihelion and aphelion
July 11th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
These two words refer to two points in the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Although the orbit is close to being a circle (like the shape of a ball), it is not quite circular; it is instead an ellipse (like the shape of an egg). The point at which the Earth is nearest […]
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How many elements are there?
July 7th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I am currently reading “The Magic Of Reality” by Richard Dawkins. In this book, he writes that there are about 100 different kinds of elements of which only about 90 occur in nature. I wondered what is the exact number of elements known to us. It seems that the answer is 118 – see here. […]
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Enjoy your extra second in bed tonight
June 30th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Midnight will come later tonight as, for the first time in three years, an extra second is added to the official time set by atomic clocks. The “leap second” means the last minute of June will have 61 seconds in it. Leap seconds – and leap years – are added as basic ways to keep […]
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Today is the world’s first official asteroid day
June 30th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
“Asteroid Day is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet, families, communities, and future generations from future asteroid impacts. Asteroid Day will be held on the anniversary of the Tunguska event in Siberia, the largest asteroid to […]
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My birthday present to myself: the Apple Watch
June 28th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
First, I bought an iPod. Then I went for the first iPhone as soon as it was launched. Next I obtained the first iPad as soon as it was out. Then I bought the Mac Mini to replace my PC. Later I upgraded to the New iPad aka the iPad 3. Progressively I upgraded from […]
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How Chuck Yeager became the first pilot to break the sound barrier and how I told the story first to my 10 year old son and then to my four year old granddaughter
June 23rd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
My father served in the Royal Air Force and I grew up with a lifelong interest in aviation. So one of my heroes was the American test pilot Chuck Yeager who became the first man to break the sound barrier in 1947. When my son Richard was ten in 1986, I read Yeager’s biography and, […]
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Two films about masters of the information age
June 9th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
A handful of men (women do not seem to figure) have created mega companies that have come to utterly dominate the information age: Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter. In recent years, there have been films about two of these men: “The Social Network” [my review here] about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook and “Jobs” [my review here] about Steve […]
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Who was the greatest pilot of all time? I nominate Chuck Yeager.
June 2nd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Three of my lifelong interests are aviation, space and cinema. The three topics are brought together in the 1983 film “The Right Stuff”which I recently viewed yet again [see my review here]. This brilliant movie is the story of the first seven American astronauts who were the Mercury team fronting NASA’s efforts to compete with […]
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