I love Jack Vance’s stories for their wit and imagination, and for his accomplished use of language. I’m not alone, he’s inspired a devoted readership*, significant critical praise, and some writers mimic his distinctive style. Vance vividly describes worlds, cities, … Continue reading
This first screenshot says it all. That’s it. Brilliant. Job done. The weather for the past few weeks has been perfect for solar power – non-stop sunshine except for an overcast afternoon or so. Those clouds didn’t have much impact … Continue reading
There is a Way to Live Forever is an excellent title, and this new collection from Terry Grimwood contains some very good stories too. Sharp, controlled, concise stories, always with a human edge to the horrors. I particularly liked “The … Continue reading
I discovered the Aristasians yesterday, via a friend who is far more knowledgeable about things esoteric than me. Even they were surprised to never have heard of them before. According to the History of Aristasia in Telluria, the Aristasians originally … Continue reading
Writers all over the world talk about Imposter Syndrome*, that feeling your success is undeserved and that one day the world will collectively blink, take a good long look at you and realise you are some kind of fraud. It’s … Continue reading
The brilliant Science for Fiction event curated by Dr. David Clements at Imperial College London is back! Where else can you spend a day and a half with friendly NASA scientists, and university researchers and professors talking about their work – … Continue reading
I’ve been waiting for a couple of days of consecutive sunny weather and finally they arrived. The news was as good as i hoped it would be. There are several ways to show this, so lets start with Graph 1, … Continue reading
Having the Powerwall installed has made two things very obvious. First, just how much solar energy is available even on a short sunny winter day. And second, how much of that goes to waste with just a solar PV array. … Continue reading
I’ve had a Solar PV array on the roof since around 2010. Earlier this month I had a Tesla Powerwall2 battery fitted. This is a 14kW battery that saves excess solar generation to run the house later in the day. … Continue reading
I have fulminated about weasel-words at least once before. I’ve been doing a fair amount of critical reading recently and while my opinions on many things have changed over the years I find the same words – these weasel words … Continue reading
