Doyle’s Delight – Belize’s High Point An English name for a Central American High Point might seem a bit out of place, but Doyle’s Delight is not a translation from a Spanish moniker. Of the seven nations between Mexico and Colombia, all but one feature Spanish as an official language. Belize, the odd-country-out, achieved independence from the […]
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The Carrington Event It was a sight never to be forgotten, and was considered at the time to be the greatest aurora recorded […]. The rationalist and pantheist saw nature in her most exquisite robes, recognising, the divine immanence, immutable law, cause, and effect. The superstitious and the fanatical had dire forebodings, and thought it
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Sunspots, Solar Flares, & CMEs In Part I of this series, we discovered the Sun emits more than just visible light. The outermost portion of the Sun – the corona – becomes so hot that particles gather enough kinetic energy to escape the star’s gravity. As these masses flee the Sun, they become the solar wind, moving
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Sunlight & Solar Wind Stars are the gnarly dynamos of the largely empty universe. Packed with nuclear reactors at their cores, these bodies make life possible. The number of factors that allow Earth to teem with life is high enough to make one believe in serendipity. We owe everything to our star – the Sun
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Retention & Detention Small, artificial ponds have gained ubiquity in modern developments, such as neighborhoods and commercial centers. The body might have a fountain in the center, and a gaggle of annoying geese might chill there. They often feature an unnatural quality – geometry too straight or incongruous with the surroundings. Despite sticking out to
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Doctor Orangutan We tend to view elite intelligence as a human monopoly. Sure, ravens, dolphins, and other primates display some impressive mental feats, but they didn’t devise general relativity or split the atom. Dogs, cats, and goats might be fit to run cities but we don’t usually allow them to hold positions of real consequence. You wouldn’t
Fossilized Lightning Lightning must hover near the top of any list of the most ephemeral phenomena. The discharge of static electricity during storms is so fast we use it in one of our most cliched idioms: lightning quick. On the other end of the spectrum are entities that persist for long durations, such as rocks or
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Bimini Road In the works Timaeus and Critias, the Greek philosopher Plato briefly mentioned an island as an allegory for excessive self-confidence. The people on this landmass sported a massive navy, which attempted to destroy Plato’s version of an ideal state, Athens. The gods did not smile upon these people, so the deities inundated the island with so
Bowling Ball Beach Among the splendor of coastal California lies a unique stretch of beach. Approximately 100 miles north of San Francisco and 170 miles south of Redwood National Park, bizarre spheres dot the coarse sand below picturesque sea cliffs. One might wonder if the colossus from Giant’s Causeway in Ireland had dropped into the Golden State
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Perpetual Stew Question 1: After a long day’s journey on your steed, you stop to enter the medieval inn at the entrance of a small village. You approach the counter where the innkeeper greets you. You order a room, a mead, and some food. Like modern fast-food fare, you don’t have to wait long for