Fireside Park

Available Now - Galactic Alliance: Betrayal

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Fri, 04 May 2018 10:22:00 +0000

Today is the big day! Galactic Alliance: Betrayal is now available on Kindle and ePub from your favourite online bookstore.

The Galactic Alliance has brought advanced technology and trade to Earth. The governments of Earth see them as a friend – why invest in global defences when we have the Galactic Alliance as an ally?

Daniel thinks they're wrong. Nobody, not even Ruth, believes him when he stumbles upon a Galactic Alliance plot to take over Earth and subject humanity to brutal, dehumanising slavery.

Separated from Ruth by Vorth astro-pirates, Daniel is torn between trying to warn sceptical Earth governments and finding Ruth. The astro-pirates, meanwhile, discover that Ruth is not the pushover they expect her to be.

Pursued across the galaxy by hostile aliens, Daniel confronts the Galactic Alliance, plunging himself and Ruth into the heart of the biggest conflict in Earth’s history.

In our galaxy of alien worlds and species it is not always easy to tell right from wrong, or good from bad. Taking on the seemingly invincible might of the Galactic Alliance is more than any sane person would consider, yet it is necessary. If they have their way, human life on Earth will be reduced to a subclass of slaves to a brutal alien species.

This is a story of astro-pirates, love, treachery and fear. You will visit worlds you have never seen before, and meet aliens, good and bad, who all have a part to play in the battle for freedom.

Cover Reveal - Galactic Alliance: Betrayal

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 08:57:00 +0000

Here it is - the cover for my forthcoming book, Galactic Alliance: Betrayal. In my last post I promised I'd show you the cover, so without further ado:

Daniel thinks they're wrong. Nobody, not even Ruth, believes him when he stumbles upon a Galactic Alliance plot to take over Earth and subject humanity to brutal, dehumanising slavery.

Separated from Ruth by Vorth astro-pirates, Daniel is torn between trying to warn sceptical Earth governments and finding Ruth. The astro-pirates, meanwhile, discover that Ruth is not the pushover they expect her to be.

Pursued across the galaxy by hostile aliens, Daniel confronts the Galactic Alliance, plunging himself and Ruth into the heart of the biggest conflict in Earth’s history.

The release date will be Friday 4th May, and it will be available on Kindle and ePub. You will be able to get the ePub from all the usual sellers, including Nook, Kobo and others.

There’s life in the old boy yet

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 17:19:00 +0000

Hello again, all! I just looked at the date of my last post, and it’s been three years. I may have been absent from the world of blogging, but I haven’t been idle. I’m currently putting the finishing touches to my latest novel, Galactic Alliance: Betrayal. It’s five years since An Accident of Birth was published, and in that time I’ve written a science fiction space opera story that I hope you will enjoy.

What’s it about? I hear you ask. Here’s the blurb from the back cover:

Daniel thinks they're wrong. Nobody, not even Ruth, believes him when he stumbles upon a Galactic Alliance plot to take over Earth and subject humanity to brutal, dehumanising slavery.

Pursued across the galaxy by hostile aliens, Daniel confronts the Galactic Alliance, plunging himself and Ruth into the heart of the biggest conflict in Earth’s history.

I hope that whets your appetite. If you like the sound of it, just wait ’till you see the cover. I’m planning to do a cover reveal very soon, and publication will follow shortly after that.

So, here I am, back from my blogging hiatus, and raring to go. Watch this space for a peek at the cover.

Book Review: The Day Without Yesterday by Stuart Clark

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 15:38:00 +0000

Once we recognise our limits, we can leap beyond them.

This is the third in Stuart Clark's trilogy, including The Sky'sDark Labyrinth, and The Sensorium of God. Each takes a pivotal moment in the evolution of science and dramatises it in fiction.

From The Back Cover

Berlin, 1914. Europe is marching blindly into war and the city is a storm of nationalist fervour and army recruitment.

Albert Einstein anticipates the carnage to come when his university colleagues begin to work on poison gas to 'shorten the war'.

Increasingly isolated, he finds that few people entertain his outlandish new way of understanding the universe, and he can't quite pull the mathematics together.

He needs hard evidence to prove his vision, but the man he was relying on to help him is caught by the outbreak of hostilities and is now facing execution.

Meanwhile, in the mud-soaked trenches of the Western Front, unbeknownst to Einstein, a devoutly religious Belgian called Georges Lemaître has the mathematical ability to help bring his new theory to a triumphant conclusion. But as the German war machine advances, Lemaître's survival looks increasingly unlikely…

The Day Without Yesterday by Stuart Clark

This is an excellent book, and a fitting conclusion to the Sky's Dark Labyrinth trilogy.

With this book, Dr. Stuart Clark has taken on a huge challenge. We all know something of Albert Einstein, and while many readers may not know much about his personal life, we all have a pretty good idea that he was one of, if not the, most influential scientist in modern times. The advances he brought about in science have made him universally admired and respected. But what was he like as a person? What sort of a life did he lead?

These are the questions Dr. Clark sets about answering in this book. The Day Without Yesterday is the story of Einstein's life around the time of the First World War, and tells of his family life, his relationship with other members of the scientific community, and the impact on himself and others of his ground-breaking theories.

The Day Without Yesterday is clearly well researched, and sensitively written by an author who is himself a scientist. He brings Einstein and those around him to life, and furnishes us with a taste of Einstein, both at his best and at his worst.

So, going back to my questions: What was he like as a person? What sort of a life did he lead? If you read this immensely enjoyable book, you'll find out.

About Dr. Stuart Clark, from his website:

Image courtesy: Simon Wallace,
www.meltingpotpictures.co.uk

Stuart Clark is a widely read astronomy journalist. His career is devoted to presenting the complex world of astronomy to the general public. Stuart holds a first class honours degree and a PhD in astrophysics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a former Vice Chair of the Association of British Science Writers. On 9 August 2000, UK daily newspaper The Independent placed him alongside Stephen Hawking and the Astronomer Royal, Professor Sir Martin Rees, as one of the ‘stars’ of British astrophysics teaching.

Currently he divides his time between writing books and, in his capacity of cosmology consultant, writing articles for New Scientist. He is a consultant and writes for the European Space Agency where he was Senior Editor for Space Science for some time. Over the years Stuart has written for amongst others: BBC Sky at Night, BBC Focus, The Times, The Guardian, The Economist, The Times Higher Education Supplement, Daily Express, Astronomy Now, Sky and Telescope and Astronomy. He has written text for an issue of stamps for the Royal Mail. He writes an online blog for the Guardian called Across the Universe, read all around the world.

Stuart Clark's website is www.stuartclark.com, where you will find more information about his writing, fiction and non-fiction, his journalism and much more.

Book Review - 2016 An Astronomical Year (UK Edition)

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:15:00 +0000

2016 An Astronomical Year (UK Edition) – A Reference Guide to 365 Nights of Astronomy

Who doesn't love to gaze at the sky on a clear night? Whether you have a telescope, binoculars, or are just using your naked eye, there is always plenty to see when the clouds clear. The sky not only changes from hour to hour as the Earth rotates, but from day to day and month to month as the Earth works its way around the Sun. What's not so easy is knowing what to expect to see on any particular day.

That's where 2016 An Astronomical Year comes in. It is essentially a day-by-day calender of astronomical events, what to see and whether to look for it in the evening sky or the pre-dawn sky. Here, I'm reviewing the UK Kindle edition. There is also a US edition for those of you who live across the pond from here. There's some useful introductory information about how to use the guide, and an excellent glossary.

The main body of the book is a monthly guide, giving an in-depth account of what to see during the month. This includes a sky diagram; naked eye highlights; lunar phases; pre-dawn planets and asteroids; what's not visible; evening planets & asteroids; meteor showers; constellations; bright stars; deep sky objects.

Within each month's guide there's also a day-by-day account of events to see. Naked eye objects are highlighted for easy reference, and there are plenty of excellent graphics and images to help with identification of objects.

All in all, my conclusion is that this is an excellent book, and it's 'the book I've wanted all along'. A go-to reference guide for beginner or experienced sky-gazer.

It may seem a little early to be thinking of the night sky in 2016, but get it now, because when the time comes, this will be the guide to own. Meanwhile, how about getting 2015 An Astronomical Guide – A Reference Guide to 365 Nights of Astronomy, also by Richard J Bartlett. You know you want to…

The DARPA Robotics Challenge Final, 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 15:19:00 +0000

http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/

The Final of the DARPA Robotics Challenge took place on June 5th and 6th - the final challenges of the competition were completed yesterday, and spectators were treated to a mixture of exciting robotic action and a lot of waiting around.

It's certainly true to say that robots have come a long way in the last few years, and the challenge, which took place in LA, California, gave people a chance to see some of the latest, most sophisticated robot machines to date.

25 teams from all over the world qualified for the finals, and at the end of two days of gruelling challenges, the South Korean team, Team Kaist, took victory.

In the Team Kaist feature video, Jung Woo Heo tells us a little about the team's entry to this year's competition.

One thing that particularly interested me was that many of the entrants were humaniod bipeds. This is a supremely challenging configuration. We humans make it look easy, but the control needed is ridiculously complex. The robots have to keep their balance while they walk, navigate uneven terrain, climb in and out of a vehicle, and perform the other challenges, If you watch some of the videos on the DARPA Robotics Challenge website, it'll soon become clear just how challenging that is.

Congratulations to all the teams who brought their innovative work to the competition, and particularly, congratulations to Team Kaist for their well-deserved win.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next decades will bring in advancing this technology.

Tidbits - An amazong new alloy, Cheap books, Music, and more...

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 15:24:00 +0000

An Amazing New Alloy

Amazing new memory alloy

When my lovely wife Margo makes her sterling-silver chain-maille jewellery, she has to make each little ring that goes into a chain. One of the problems with bending metal, though, is that if it's bent too many times, it becomes brittle. That's called work-hardening. It's a change in the metal's crystal structure that results from all that bending, and it makes the metal brittle, rather than pliable. The problem is one you've probably come across yourself, albeit perhaps not with sterling silver, and the solution is a heat-cycling technique called annealing. But what if you could bend it ten million times before it got brittle? In this article, you can read about the new memory alloy that's set to enable some amazing new products. Even though it's unlikely to change the world of chain-maille jewellery, it could be a game-changer for pacemakers and other more mechanically demanding products.

Compromise for the Thirty Meter Telescope

Go-ahead for protest-hit Thirty Meter Telescope, but with fewer future sites on Mauna Kea

This is one of those situations nobody wants to see happen. On the one hand are the plans to build the Thirty Meter Telescope on Hawaii's highest peak, Mauna Kea. On the other hand, native Hawaiians have protested that its construction is a desecration of their spiritual and cultural pinnacle.

Science in conflict with culture.

Happily, a compromise has been reached, and construction can go ahead, but with fewer sites, and with the release of associated land, and the decommissioning of other facilities.

This may not be seen as ideal, but it's a compromise in which both sides have given ground and gained ground. Let's hope that despite being far from ideal, it is at least acceptable to all concerned.

That old Banjo

Recently my banjo fell off the wall, took a chip out of Beethoven's shoulder (actually, a bust of Beethoven), and landed on the piano. The bit of string that I'd used to hang it up broke clean through. This immediately reminded me of an old song my dad introduced me to a long, long time ago. It was the b-side of the better known Green Green by the New Christy Minstrels, and it's called The Banjo. Here it is for your enjoyment...

When Does a Pacifist Pick up a Gun?

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Fri, 29 May 2015 20:10:00 +0000

What would it take to get a pacifist to pick up a gun? I guess before we try to answer that question I should begin by saying what I think a pacifist is.

According to CollinsDictionary, pacifism is: (1) the belief that violence of any kind is unjustifiable and that one should not participate in war, and (2) the belief that international disputes can be settled by arbitration rather than war.

The second definition seems rather narrow to me, so I'm going to stick with the first one. I'm also going to limit this to violence between people. Violence towards animals is a whole subject of its own, and I'm not going there today.

Some of my readers might think of themselves as pacifists, and others might be nothing of the sort, so hopefully that will bring a whole spectrum of views to the table.

So what we're talking about here is this. If someone believes that violence of any kind towards other people is unjustified, what would it take to make them pick up a gun and use it against somebody else?

That's a tough question to answer, so I'm going to begin by posing a different question. If the life of somebody you love were threatened, how far would you go to defend them? This is the question faced by Dominic in An Accident of Birth, when Baron Craig Drake deliberately threatens Francesca with a fate worse than death. What should Dominic, a dyed-in-the-wool pacifist, do? Dominic is many things, but he is not a coward, yet he firmly believes he should not resort to violence.

So what should a pacifist do in that situation? Obviously they would seek out every non-violent means at their disposal to save their loved one, but how about if I pose a more specific problem, and we'll see what we can do with it.

Suppose you're asleep in the depths of night, and you're woken by the sound of an intruder. Your loved one is right there, vulnerable to whoever has just broken in, and there's no way out without going past where the intruder is.

There are several things you don't know about the intruder. Are they armed? Are they willing to kill? Will they kill without hesitation, or would they negotiate? Will they find you in the next ten seconds or ten minutes? You simply don't know. Will you leave it to chance, and hope they won't respond to your presence by killing you and your loved one? Or will you act first, quickly, and take chance out of the equation? Hit before they know you're there? Kill first?

Plenty of people would say that of course you should kill first and not give the intruder the benefit of the doubt. But for some others it's a dilemma. Even though the stakes are high, it's still tempting to try to find another way out of the situation. But if you've only got seconds to think about it, perhaps a more visceral response might be inevitable. Is there a real alternative?

Perhaps then the dyed-in-the-wool pacifist might respond with violence?

Book Release: Cutting The Bloodline by Angeline Trevena

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Tue, 05 May 2015 08:19:00 +0000

Today I'm happy to be interviewing Angeline Trevena, author of horror, fantasy and dystopian fiction. Angeline's new dystopian novella, Cutting The Bloodline, will be released on 12th May, and can now be pre-ordered from Amazon. If you haven't read any of Angeline's stories before, this is your chance, and I know you won't be disappointed.

Cutting The Bloodline is a vivid portrayal of a scarily real future, and the man who risks his life to expose the truth. Insightful, original, imaginative, and a great read.

In the words of the author:

Not everyone is born innocent.

A generation of defective children were abandoned. They grew up on the fringes, without rights, without a way to change their fate.

Journalist Kenton Hicks is driven to tell their stories, but these are not stories everyone wants told. As he digs deeper, he finds that the discovery of the criminal gene, the foundation of their crime-free utopia, isn’t quite the salvation it promised to be.

Armed with a book that could bring down the government, Kenton finds the country’s future in his hands.

Some see him as a saviour, others as a traitor. It’s time for him to choose which he will become.

Cutting the bloodline can be pre-ordered until 12th May, and purchased on or after that date. Either way, follow this link: http://authl.it/B00W3AP0VY

And so, on to the interview. I asked Angeline a few questions, and here are her answers...

What inspired you to write Cutting The Bloodline?

I came across an article, just randomly, about how someone had identified a criminal gene, and it got me thinking about the possible ramifications of that. We're a society that—no matter our spiritual beliefs—put a lot of faith in science. Since the dawn of modern medicine, we've repeatedly found ourselves pulled between our morals and our desire to move forward scientifically. The vaccination debate, animal testing, so-called designer babies, cloning. I wondered what might happen if we chose science over humanity.

Having previously worked in the justice system for several years, I hold absolutely no belief in a criminal gene. Your choices are your own, and it's people's situations that push them to break the law, their desperation, or their personal moral code. It's not genetics.

This story is about institutionalised abuse of genetic processes – Is this something that troubles you about our own society?

I think it's an issue which will become more and more relevant as we move forward. We're so lucky to have the NHS in this country, but there's still a huge difference between those who can afford medicine and those who can't: cancer patients forced to sell their homes, families fund raising to send their children abroad for life-saving treatment. I can see the gap between those who have, and those who haven't, widening. Who knows what will be available to those who can afford it in the future, but it won't be available to all.

There's so many great things that can be done through genetic research, so many inherited conditions that a lot of people would love to be eradicated. But where do you draw the line? And if you eradicate a certain condition, what are you saying about the people who have it? We can't advance medicine and science without needing to seriously re-evaluate our morals.

You originally wrote this story as a stage play – do you have plans to see it performed?

It would be lovely to see it performed, but it's not something I'm planning to pursue. Even as a novella, it still has a very theatrical feel, especially through the dialogue which the entire story is hung on.

As a dystopian author, how do you see our future shaping up?

The last few decades have seen connectivity leading everything, and I think that's something that will continue. We like to have internet access 24-7, have it on the go, be able to chat online wherever we are. But I love the thought that all it takes is one solar flare, one large asteroid, one random event, and all of that, all of our technology is gone. Mother Nature can devastate and, no matter how hard we try, we can't control her. I love wondering how humans would cope if they were suddenly thrown back to the stone-age. Me? I'd probably be dead in a few hours, but those with practical skills, initiative, problem-solvers, they'll thrive. Your university education, your bank balance, your exclusive golf club membership won't mean diddly-squat if you can't grow food to eat.

What do you have coming next? Will there be a sequel?

Cutting the Bloodline was very much an experiment, just to see if I could self-publish, to see if I enjoyed it. The learning curve is very steep, but it's been so much fun. At the moment, I have no plans for a sequel to this, but maybe Kenton isn't done yet. I originally wrote this five years ago, and I still love him as much as I did when I first created him. So I'll never say never.

I'm planning an extensive dystopian series next. But that's all I'm going to say for now.

Tell us about some of the stories you've had published.

My first short story was published in January 2011, and it was actually a spin-off from Cutting the Bloodline. Entitled 'The Vincent Orphanage', it's a gothic ghost story, so quite different. Attendees of my book launch party will be able to download an updated version for free, and after that it will be exclusively available to my newsletter subscribers.

Most of my short stories are horror, I find it easier to write horror in the short form. It also gives me more scope to experiment, and to have fun, without a huge time commitment if it doesn't work out. This July, I have a story, 'Order Up', in the upcoming anthology 'Sunny With a Chance of Zombies' from KnightWatch Press. Everyone should look out for that one, it is set to be an amazing anthology, and I think this is the best short I've ever written. Despite being set during a zombie apocalypse, it's an incredibly tender, beautiful story.

As a work of dystopian fiction, do you see this appealing to a wider audience, such as contemporary fiction readers?

Absolutely. This is a story about people doing extraordinary things in an extraordinary situation. It's not heavy on the science-fiction, if anything, I worry that sci-fi fans picking it up will be disappointed! I think people will relate to the characters and their motivations, even if it is set 40 years into the future.

Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what do you listen to?

Always. What I listen to depends very much on my intended style for what I'm writing at the time. When I write horror, I play much darker music; gothic rock, metal, something like that. But the band I play more than any other—and I think I probably listened to them through the entirety of this project—is Counting Crows. They've been my favourite band since I was 16, and the songs just inspire me so much.

As the mother of a young child, how do you balance writing with the other calls on your time?

I'm very lucky that I get to be a full-time mum and writer, and I'm even luckier that my son is a really, really good sleeper. He always has been. At more than two and a half years old, he still has long afternoon naps. I generally get up between 5am and 6am in the morning, and write until he gets up, then again in the afternoon. If I have any energy left, I'll write in the evening too, but more often than not, I simply drop onto the sofa and stare at the TV! But it does leave me with a lot of the day that I can't be tied to the computer, so I always have a notebook on hand for those ideas that crop up while I'm watching yet another episode of Peppa Pig!

Angeline Trevena was born and bred in a rural corner of Devon, but now lives among the breweries and canals of central England. She is a horror and fantasy writer, poet and journalist. Cutting the Bloodline is her debut novella, and she has several short stories published in various anthologies and magazines.

In 2003 she graduated from Edge Hill University, Lancashire, with a BA Hons degree in Drama and Writing. During this time she decided that her future lay in writing words rather than performing them.

The most unlikely of horror writers, Angeline is scared of just about everything, and still can't sleep in a fully dark room. She goes weak at the sight of blood, can't share a room with a spider, but does have a streak of evil in her somewhere.

Some years ago she worked at an antique auction house and religiously checked every wardrobe that came in to see if Narnia was in the back of it. She's still not given up looking for it.

Here's that purchase link again in case you want to get on over to Amazon and pre-order or buy a copy of Cutting The Bloodline: http://authl.it/B00W3AP0VY

You can run, You can hide: Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 16:10:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered what your chances of survival might be during a Zombie apocalypse? A team from the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics at Cornell University have published a paper that might help you answer that question.

You can see their paper, entitled “You Can Run, You Can Hide: The Epidemiology and Statistical Mechanics of Zombies” on Arxiv at arxiv.org/abs/1503.01104

Zombies, the authors say, “form a wonderful model system to illustrate modern epidemiological tools drawn from statistical mechanics, computational chemistry, and mathematical modeling.”

So what does this mean for you and me – people who just want to know our chances? If you read the paper, you'll see they perform an in-depth analysis, developing models for the potential spread of a Zombie invasion, then they apply those models to a hypothetical Zombie outbreak in the USA.

One of the factors they take into account is that the outcome changes depending on what model you use and what starting parameters you choose. These starting parameters are such things as the likelihood of being infected if you encounter a Zombie, where and with how many Zombies does the outbreak start, how likely you are to kill the Zombie, and other relevant factors.

They then run many different simulations for an outbreak in the USA, using the different models and

a selection of (what one might refer to as) credible starting parameters, and using a large collection of results they develop what they call a susceptibility map. Depending on where you live, what are your chances?

You'll have to see their maps to get the full answer, but I have to say, I wouldn't fancy my chances in Bakersfield, California. There's good news, though, for those of you who live in remote parts of Montana and Nevada. They found that after just one week, most of the population of the US would be infected, but four months later, remote parts of Montana and Nevada would still be Zombie-free!

Just watch those house prices go up when this hits the headlines.

The referenced article was written by Alexander A. Alemi, Matthew Bierbaum, Christopher R. Myers, James P. Sethna of the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. It is dated March 6th 2015. You can read it here: arxiv.org/abs/1503.01104

Book Review: The Sensorium of God by Stuart Clark

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 16:08:00 +0000

Sparks of Genius – The momentous clash of Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke.

This is the second in Stuart Clark's trilogy, including The Sky'sDark Labyrinth, The Sensorium of God and The Day Without Yesterday. Each takes a pivotal moment in the evolution of science and dramatises it in fiction.

From the back cover

It is the late seventeenth century and the movement of the planets remains a mystery despite the revolutionary work of Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Tycho Brahe almost a hundred years before.

Edmond Halley - dynamic adventurer and astronomer - seeks the help of Isaac Newton in unravelling the problem, but, though obsessed with understanding the orbits of the planets, Newton has problems of his own. The reclusive mathematician and alchemist has a guilty secret. He stole some of his ideas from Robert Hooke, and the quarrelsome experimentalist is demanding recognition.

While capable of contemplating the loftiest ideals and theories, the three men are just as quick to argue, and their grudges could derail the quest for scientific truth. The men's lives and work clash as Europe is pushed headlong towards the Age of the Enlightenment and science is catapulted into its next seismic collision with religion.

The Sensorium of God by Stuart Clark

Stuart Clark's effortless writing style and vivid period descriptions bring to life a story that is so often related in dusty, dry academic texts. The book is a joy to read. Stuart Clark's deep knowledge, not only of the historical setting, but of the underlying science and astronomy and the lives of the scientists involved, ensures that this story is not only engaging, but it is historically accurate. This is a book which carries a considerable promise, whether your background is in science or not. I am happy to say that Stuart Clark does not fail to deliver the goods.

This story focusses on the events surrounding Isaac Newton, Edmond Halley and Robert Hooke at the time when Newton was working on perhaps his most famous works, his Principia and Opticks. We also meet such notable characters as Gottfried Leibniz, John Flamsteed, Samuel Pepys, Christopher Wren and a veritable roll call of other well known people of the age.

It is a time when parliament and the crown are vying for power, much of which rested with the monarch, who used the church as a vehicle for control. We begin at the time of Charles II, and in short time, we see James II ascend to the throne, followed by William and Mary. Heresy was still a capital offence, and religious oppression was perpetrated by Catholics and Protestants alike. Along with the suppression of any religious views that conflicted with church doctrine, any scientific claims that could be – even at at stretch – considered out of line with church doctrine, could lead to accusations of heresy.

In these times of political and religious instability, prominent scientists such as Newton, Halley and Liebniz walked the fine line between provoking religious or political wrath, and becoming the victims of the deeds or misdeeds of others.

We see the fascinating relationship between Newton, his alchemy and his science, and his sexual curiosity about the young mathematician Fatio, as well as the unconventional relationship between the irascible Hooke and his niece, Grace.

Stuart Clarke weaves a compelling tale, with fascinating insights into the flawed characters of Newton, Halley and Hooke. He brings the people and locations to life so well that you can see them and smell them. This is fine writing and story-telling, which never loses its pace and depth, and with no shortage of action and intrigue.

About Dr. Stuart Clark, from his website:

Image courtesy: Simon Wallace,

www.meltingpotpictures.co.uk

Stuart Clark's website is www.stuartclark.com, where you will find more information about his writing, fiction and non-fiction, his journalism and much more.

Francesca's Bookshelf: Percy's Reliques

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 16:32:00 +0000

“Consisting of old heroic ballads, songs and other pieces of our earlier poets together with some few of later date”

Francesca loves her ballads and songs, and with plenty of spare time and little else to spend her money on, she has assembled a formidable collection of old books, many of them containing ancient collections of ballads. She is pleased to find a copy of the three volume set of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, a collection put together by the Rev. Thomas Percy in the 18^th Century, and commonly known as Percy's Reliques. The full three volume set is hard to find, and she pays a high price for the set.

We owe Percy a lot, as the inspiration for subsequent generations of collectors and singers. Without his work, fewer of these old ballads and songs would be available to us today, and artists such as Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention and many others would have had a poorer access to our traditional songs and ballads.

This collection, first published in 1765, was one of the earliest published collections of ballads, and at a time when ballads were popularly thought of as vulgar street songs, it shone a new light on the form, providing future generations with a window into the past of these wonderful gems. Indeed, his work provided inspiration for future collectors such as Child, Scott, Jamieson, Motherwell and Buchan to name but a few. Notably, the Rev. R. A Willmott produced a single “handy volume” revision of the Reliques in 1857, entitled Percy's Reliques, in which he cleared away all Percy's essays and prefaces, and added annotation of his own.

Henry B. Wheatley, edited the 1885 three volume edition photographed above (this copy is a 1927 reprint). According to Wheatley, Thomas Percy was born in 1729 in Bridgenorth in Shropshire. He matriculated at Christ Church College, Oxford in 1746 and achieved his Masters degree in 1750. In 1753, at the age of 24, he was made rector of Easton Maudit in Northampton. As a young man he came into possession of an unbound manuscript in poor condition. Of it, he said, “I saw it lying dirty on the floor, under a bureau in ye parlour: being used by the maids to light the fire …” Happily he was able to rescue the manuscript, and this, along with other collections, printed broadsides and other sources, provided the material from which he derived the Reliques. Percy's precious rescued manuscript itself was probably written shortly before 1650, and was used extensively by Child more than a hundred years later.

Percy died in 1811 at the ripe old age of 83.

On the left is Willmott's "handy volume" edition. Percy's Reliques. This copy is not dated by the publisher or printer, but the inscription in the front is as a prize, given in 1879.

This edition contains a small number of illustrations, like the one shown here.

As an interesting footnote, I should add that, although Percy titled his work "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry", the collection does not contain only English poetry! As an example, some ballads such as Sir Patrik Spence, and Edward, Edward are Scottish, as he states in the text.

I have scanned some pages from Wheatley's 3 volume set for your delight. What follows is a ballad entitled On Thomas Lord Cromwell, from the second volume. I chose this because Thomas Cromwell is currently being depicted in the media in a television dramatisation of Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall. Percy prefaces the ballad with a brief essay, and this is followed by [in square brackets] Wheatley's own comments. The ballad is written in archaic language, which makes it a challenge to read if you're not used to it, but it's worth the effort. Just click on the images to enlarge them.

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip into the life of Thomas Percy.

Francesca is one of the two main characters in An Accident Of Birth, by Tony Benson

A Signed Book Is The Perfect Christmas Gift - Special Offer

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 17:31:00 +0000

How about getting somebody a signed book as a Christmas gift this year…

Get a signed paperback copy of An Accident Of Birth for only £5.50 + £2.80 UK p&p. (For overseas postage, please contact me)

If you'd like me to dedicate the book to someone special, please just let me know their name, and I'll be happy to oblige.

Make someone happy this Christmas. Give them a book to read.

Twenty-year-old Francesca was born with a rare gift – fertility. In a polluted society, the government imprisons and forces her to breed children for the infertile masses. She has waited four long years for her boyfriend Dominic to rescue her. Now desperate, he hires a black market rescuer, Baron Craig Drake, a fertile who has escaped the government's clutches and thrives on exploiting others. Unbeknownst to Dominic, Drake has his own plans for Francesca. When Dominic attempts to free her from the government's prison, he finds himself struggling to keep her from becoming another victim of the ruthless Baron… and to free the woman he loves once and for all.

Touchdown! Rosetta's Success Story and the Philae Lander

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 22:46:00 +0000

Image courtesy ESA

Huge congratulations to the ESA Rosetta mission team! They have done what some said was impossible. The image above is a photo taken by the Rosetta craft of the Philae lander shortly after it was released for its descent onto comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Seven hours later, this afternoon at 1603 GMT, the signal was received confirming that the Philae lander has touched down on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

This success paves the way for ground-breaking research. The Philae lander is equipped to take images of the comet's surface, but it can do much more than that. If its battery remains serviceable and the Philae lander remains anchored to the comet, it will analyse the composition of the surface, drill for samples, and send back an analysis. It will use radio signals to probe the comet's structure, and all in all, it will provide a wealth of data about the comet.

So... why do we care?

Comets and asteroids are considered interesting because scientists believe that they are the leftover remnants from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Comets are particularly interesting because they ended up in the outer reaches of the solar system, in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. These places are cold - about 50 degrees above absolute zero, and because of this extremely low temperature, the composition of comets has changed little since they were formed.

Comets are well known for being made up of dust, rock and frozen gasses, including water ice. There is evidence that the water in comets could be the source of water on Earth, and this is particularly interesting because those very same comets contain a wealth of organic molecules - the building blocks of amino acids, protein, and hence, life itself.

So what we see when we get up close and personal with a comet such as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a window into the past. So far in the past that we gain clues to the processes that took place during the very formation of the solar system. This in its turn gives us clues about our own past.

The Rosetta mission, and particularly the Philae lander, can teach us much about the early years of the solar system, and even give us clues about the formation of the Sun itself.

For so many reasons this success is a source of excitement, not only for the scientific community, but for everybody.

Congratulations to the ESA Rosetta mission team. May your successes continue and your data be plentiful.

A Big Day for the Rosetta Team

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 09:18:00 +0000

Today is a big day for the Rosetta team. This morning, in Darmstadt, the ESA flight team gave the go-ahead to release the Philae lander on its way for an historic landing on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

This mission, which was first conceived in the 1980s, has been many years in the making. It was launched on 2nd March 2004 with the objective of visiting this comet. Over a period of ten years, Rosetta navigated a complex series of ever increasing orbits of the sun, until on 6th August this year it achieved a successful rendezvous with 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Rosetta is the first craft to have made a rendezvous with a comet, and the success of the Philae lander is by no means certain. What happens today will be a complex and difficult landing, and the eyes of the world will be on the live feeds.

I want to wish the team success with this bold endeavour.

Image, courtesy ESA

NaNoWriMo 2014 - Here we go...

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 12:16:00 +0000

This is it. Tomorrow, National Novel Writing Month 2014 begins, and during the month of November, hundreds of thousands of people across the world will endeavour to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

Why do we do it?

There are almost as many answers to that question as there are participants. Some want to be published, some write only for their own pleasure, but one thing I find is common to all - we do it because we love writing.

To write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days seems like an almost insurmountable challenge until you realise that it amounts to a modest daily target of 1667 words. Many authors set themselves daily word count targets, and 2000 words per day is not uncommon.

NaNoWriMo participants come from all walks of life, and while 1667 words might be a modest aspiration, not everyone has time to reach that goal. Life gets in the way. Some people start NaNoWriMo with firm intentions, but for one reason or another, cannot reach the big goal of 50,000 words. In the end, though, every participant has thought more about writing, and most have written more than they would have done without the challenge.

That's why I say that every one of the hundreds of thousands of people who sign up for NaNoWriMo will surely be a winner.

Book Review: Relativity – The Special & the General Theory by Albert Einstein

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 20:00:00 +0000

Relativity – The Special and The General Theory. A Popular Exposition.

Anyone who reads or writes science fiction gets caught up in relativity some time or other, whether it is with faster than light travel, warp drives, time travel, wormholes, the bending of space and time or any of a number of other fun concepts. Wouldn't it be nice to actually know some of the real theory behind all of this? Some people are put off reading about the subject because much of what is written is heavily mathematical. Worry no more. This book by Albert Einstein himself is aimed at those who want to understand the concepts but don't want to get bogged down in mathematics.

I have just re-read this book, and just like the last time I read it some twenty years ago, I am both impressed and grateful that a man of such awe-inspiring intellectual prowess took the trouble to explain this complex subject to me. It's almost as though he is in the room talking to a non-mathematician, and gently, one step at a time, starting with the fundamentals, building up the ideas that make this impressive set of theories.

I thought to tell you what the book is and who it is aimed at, but I cannot put it better than Albert Einstein's own words in his preface of December 1916.

“The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. The work presumes a standard of education corresponding to that of a university matriculation examination, and, despite the shortness of the book, a fair amount of patience and force of will on the part of the reader. The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection in which they actually originated. In the interest of clearness, it appeared to me inevitable that I should repeat myself frequently, without paying the slightest attention to the elegance of the presentation. I adhered scrupulously to the precept of that brilliant theoretical physicist L. Boltzmann, according to whom matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor and to the cobbler. I make no pretence of having withheld from the reader difficulties which are inherent to the subject. On the other hand, I have purposely treated the empirical physical foundations of the theory in a "step-motherly" fashion, so that readers unfamiliar with physics may not feel like the wanderer who was unable to see the forest for the trees. May the book bring some one a few happy hours of suggestive thought!”

The book is written in 32 short chapters, most of which are less than four pages in length. The chapters are bite-sized chunks, and each adds a new step in understanding of the theory. The chapters are organised into three parts and three appendices:

Part I The Special Theory of Relativity
Part II The General Theory of Relativity
Part III Considerations on the Universe as a Whole
Appendix I Simple Derivation of the Lorentz Transformation
Appendix II Minkowski's Four-dimensional Space (“World”)
Appendix III The Experimental Confirmation of the General Theory of Relativity

Part I The Special Theory of Relativity

One of the great things about special relativity is you can understand it with no more than high school mathematics.

Einstein is rigorous in his approach, and argues that any definition that cannot be verified by measurement is meaningless. He begins with what he calls “the Principle of Relativity (in the restricted sense)”, which states:

If, relative to K, K' is a uniformly moving coordinate system devoid of rotation, then natural phenomena run their course with respect to K' according to exactly the same general laws as with respect to K.

He then goes on to use an example of a railway train moving relative to the embankment to show that the above principle of relativity is in conflict with the statement that the speed of light is a constant in vacuum. He concludes that we must either abandon the so-called “Principle of Relativity (in the restricted sense)” or the assertion that the speed of light in vacuum is constant – or we can develop a theory that reconciles the two. That theory is the Special Theory of Relativity.

The argument of the text then proceeds towards a derivation of the Lorentz transformation. At this point he states its mathematical representation, and refers the reader to Appendix I if they want a derivation.

In essence, the Lorentz transformation shows that if we measure distance or time for an event in one reference frame, then the measured distance or time in a different reference frame (for the same event) depend on the relative velocity of the two reference frames.

This is all well and good, but it only applies if we constrain ourselves to uniform rectilinear and non-rotary motion, and that's what brings us on to Part II.

Part II The General Theory of Relativity

So, what if we remove this last constraint, and don't limit ourselves to uniform rectilinear and non-rotary motion?

Unlike the special theory of relativity, a full understanding of the general theory of relativity requires some really tricky mathematics, and is not for the faint hearted.

Einstein argues that gravity acts by means of a gravitational field, and that the law governing the field must be a “perfectly definite one.” With consideration, he concludes that “the same quantity of a body manifests itself according to circumstances as 'inertia' or as 'weight'”. This leads to the conclusion that an observer, given no other clues, cannot tell the difference between a downward gravitational field and an upward uniform acceleration.

Using an example of a rotating disc he shows that the classical propositions of Euclidean geometry cannot hold in a gravitational field. Hence the idea of a straight line loses its meaning. He overcomes this by using Gaussian coordinates rather than cartesian coordinates – leaving cartesian coordinates as simply a special case.

He goes to some trouble to demonstrate how space-time might be conceived this way. The space-time continuum of the General Theory of Relativity is not a Euclidian continuum, so instead we use four dimensional Gaussian coordinates.

Following on from this he describes space-time using a non-rigid reference body, moving and altering form in any way, and in which the time, measured at indefinitely close points, vary by indefinitely small amounts. He refers to this reference body as a “mollusc”.

I have necessarily abbreviated the description so far, and in so doing, I have probably made it sound either hokey or nonsensical. Reading this book will show that to be a shortfall of my description rather than Einstein's explanation. He goes on to formulate the General Principle of Relativity using a non-mathematical description. It would be pointless for me to attempt an abbreviated statement of his case, since his words are already just that, and presented without the aid of mathematics. The interested reader should certainly read Einstein's words.

It's fair to say that in Part II, Einstein explains the general theory of relativity reasonably well, considering that he is avoiding the mathematics, and attempting to convey the concepts to an educated layman.

The rest of Part II, and a short Part III

The rest of Part II and a short Part III offer interesting discussions of how the General Theory of Relativity helps with, for example, explaining the following:

The 43 arcsecond per century discrepancy between the observed orbit of Mercury and the predictions of classical mechanics.

The existence of a universe that is finite yet unbounded.

The structure of space. Given that the behaviour of measuring rods and clocks is influenced by gravitational fields, the distribution of matter cannot be described using Euclidean geometry with complete accuracy. He explains what the General Theory of Relativity tells us about the structure of space.

Conclusion

I sincerely hope I haven't managed to make this work sound either dry or too difficult to read. It is elegantly written, and well explained. He doesn't introduce any concepts without explaining what they mean, and in the end, the reader cannot but have an appreciation of the wonders of the special and general theories of relativity.

200p Prime Focus Photography With a Filter

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 12:27:00 +0000

Having tried prime focus photography with my Skywatcher 200p and my Canon EOS 1100d, I've decided that for my location, a light pollution filter is a must. Other filters will come in handy, too, depending on my target. The challenge was to figure out how to place a filter in the light path between the telescope and the camera, without moving the camera too far out from the sweet spot for focussing.

It turns out there's a neat method to do this, and I'll illustrate it here with photos.

The 200p focusser has a choice of 1.25” and 2” eyepiece adaptors. Take the 1.25” adaptor, and unscrew the barrel from the ring:

Screw it back in on the other side of the ring, so that it would be poking into the telescope if you were to put it back in the focusser. Take the two knurled screws out of the 1.25” barrel, and replace them with M3.5 grub screws. I used stainless steel ones that are 4mm long (easily available on ebay).

Unscrew the barrel from an eyepiece, and hold it in place with the grub screws:

Now you're set. Add your t-ring and filter:

And you can put the whole assembly onto the camera:

And finally, mount the whole lot onto the telescope:

I hope this was helpful. Now all we need is clear skies.

Book Review: The Sky's Dark Labyrinth by Stuart Clark

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:15:00 +0000

Book Review: The Sky's Dark Labyrinth by Stuart Clark

A novel of intrigue, heresy and the quest for the truth.

This is the first in Stuart Clark's trilogy, including The Sky's Dark Labyrinth, The Sensorium of God and The Day Without Yesterday. Each takes a pivotal moment in the evolution of science and dramatises it in fiction.

From the back cover

At the dawn of the seventeenth century Europe is a dark and dangerous place. As war rages across the continent and men's immortal souls are traded for mortal lives, two astronomers risk everything to reveal the truth behind the universe's grand design.

When Johannes Kepler discovers that the stars and planets move not to the whims of angels but according to natural laws, Galileo Galilei proclaims his own startling discoveries. Ultimately both men become caught in a web of intrigue and face persecution as heretics in one of the darkest yet most enlightening periods of European history.

The Sky's Dark Labyrinth by Stuart Clark

An enthralling and entertaining journey through the corridors of power in Rome and the inevitable conflict between the church and the eminent scientists of the day.

Ptolemy's geocentric model, in which the Earth is the centre of the universe, had been accepted for over a millennium, and was one of the core elements of Catholic doctrine. In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus' book On The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium) was published, offering a whole new model in which the Earth and planets orbit the Sun. This might have provoked a strong reaction from the Catholic church, since any disagreement with Catholic doctrine was considered heretical, and hence punishable. At the time of publication, however, it received no such response. This is thought to be largely due to a preface, credited to Andrew Osiander, which argued that the book relates to observations, and that it is for others to draw philosophical conclusions.

The Sky's Dark Labyrinth is set half a century later when Tycho Brahe proposes a geo-heliocentric model which ties in more closely with contemporary observations than does the Ptolemeic geocentric model, but manages not to conflict openly with current Catholic doctrine.

Johannes Kepler's wishes to use Tycho Brahe's observations to confirm his own theoretical ideas about the natural laws which dictate the motions of the heavenly bodies. His relationship with Tycho is sometimes volatile, and he has difficulty getting his hands on the data he needs.

Galileo Galilei believes that Copernicus' heliocentric model should be more widely held, and that there are inevitable philosophical implications. He does not shy away from the philosophical discussion and this brings him into direct confrontation with the church.

This is a time when heretics are punished severely, and don't always survive to tell the tale. A new science is emerging, and Kepler and Galilei are at the centre of it. The struggle between those who wish to preserve the long established Catholic doctrines and those who wish to bring on a new revolution in science, is littered with intrigue and treachery.

Stuart Clark's effortless writing style and vivid period descriptions bring to life a story that is so often related in dusty, dry academic texts. The book is a joy to read. Stuart Clark's deep knowledge, not only of the historical setting, but of the underlying science and astronomy and the lives of the scientists involved, ensures that this story is not only engaging, but it is historically accurate. This is a book which carries a considerable promise, whether your background is in science or not. I am happy to say that Stuart Clark does not fail to deliver the goods.

About Dr. Stuart Clark, from his website:

Image courtesy: Simon Wallace,

www.meltingpotpictures.co.uk

Stuart Clark's website is www.stuartclark.com, where you will find more information about his writing, fiction and non-fiction, his journalism and much more.

Susan Kaye Quinn guest post - release of Second Daughter

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 09:35:00 +0000

You may remember I recently reviewed the excellent book Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn - well now the second book in the series is available. Second Daughter. Take it away, Susan...

NEW RELEASE

Second Daughter (The Dharian Affairs #2)

Assassins, skyships, and royal intrigue...

Kindle, Kobo, AllRomance
Second Daughter is the second book in The Dharian Affairs trilogy (Third Daughter, Second Daughter, First Daughter). This steampunk-goes-to-Bollywood (Bollypunk!) romance takes place in an east-Indian-flavored alternate world filled with skyships, assassins, royal romance and intrigue.

Reviews of the first book, Third Daughter:

"The author fuses carriages, steam trains, airships and clockwork with the rich eastern culture that underlies Bollywood storytelling..." - Cherie Reich

“Third Daughter is vividly breathtaking. Quinn delivers royal intrigue, exotic locations, and sweeping romance. Not to be missed!” - Pavarti Tyler, author of Shadow on the Wall

ON SALE - 99cents until 7/21

Third Daughter (The Dharian Affairs #1)

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iTunes, AllRomance

(also available in print)

The Third Daughter of the Queen wants her birthday to arrive so she'll be free to marry for love, but rumors of a new flying weapon may force her to accept a barbarian prince's proposal for a peace-brokering marriage. Desperate to marry the charming courtesan she loves, Aniri agrees to the prince's proposal as a subterfuge in order to spy on him, find the weapon, and hopefully avoid both war and an arranged marriage to a man she does not love.

NEW

Both books now have a map!

Download the map free here

Speedy Tweets to Share:

NEW RELEASE: Second Daughter (Dharian Affairs #2) Assassins, skyships, royal intrigue #steampunk #fantasy #romance http://bit.ly/SDAmazon

WIN Gift Card and PAPERBACK Third Daughter (Dharian Affairs #1) #steampunk #fantasy #romance http://www.susankayequinn.com

Skyships, saber duels, royal romance: Third Daughter (Dharian Affairs#1) ON SALE 99cents http://bit.ly/ThirdDAmaz

Thank you so much for helping me get this book out in the world!

Win
paperback copy of Third Daughter
$10 Amazon Gift Card

check out the gorgeous formatting of the print book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Course Review: Introduction to Forensic Science

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:19:00 +0000

Today I have author Jo Jenner as a guest to tell us about her experiences with the Introduction to Forensic Science course, offered by the University of Strathclyde via FutureLearn. FutureLearn is a part of the Open University, and offers free online courses, delivered by various universities, in many different subjects. Jo Jenner is an author who regularly blogs at jojenner.blogspot.co.uk or you can catch up with her on twitter @jojenner40 or on facebook www.facebook.com/#!/jojennerauthor
Here's Jo...

Sitting at my desk drumming my fingers looking for inspiration, or procrastinating, as I believe the professionals call it, I stumbled across Future Learn and their plethora of on line courses or MOOCs. A MOOC is a massive open online course and is aimed at unlimited participants from anywhere in the world.
What better way to avoid writing my crime novel than spending six weeks following an introduction to forensic science. The main selling point was that the course could be completed with as little as three hours study per week. I completed the course with slightly less than that. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Did I get the most out of it? No.
The course was a mixture of videos, audio commentaries and links to articles that could be read to enhance and expand the course. Each week followed a specific topic with the first and last weeks being more of an overview. The course also had a case study which was based upon a real case. This showed how the evidence was gathered and then used to reach a conclusion as to who had committed the murder of a young woman in Scotland.
There was a week looking at fingerprints, or fingermarks as they are sometimes called, a week looking a DNA, one looking at drugs and their abuse and one looking at firearms. At the end of each week there was a pop quiz which was actually quite taxing and did mean that you had to have paid attention to the information you had been given.
I took this course from the point of view that I am writing a crime novel and I am an avid CSI fan. The overview it gave me was great and meant I now know where I am going wrong when I write something but not necessarily why. The extra reading helped to make the course accessible to people of different levels of competence. The chat rooms were very busy and it did give you a chance to understand the different laws within other countries.
I had two niggles. Firstly, two or three times there were live chats which I couldn’t attend because they were in the middle of the working day and this meant I missed out on that part of the learning experience. The second was I would have liked a little certificate to say I had sat this course, and I can get one. But first I must sit an exam and this will cost me £119. There are sixty one test centres in the UK and there is actually one within ten miles of where I live, but I am guessing I am one of the lucky ones. The other thing is I can’t see what value this certificate has. It doesn’t appear to carry any academic weight but on the basis I don’t need it, I haven’t bothered finding out it’s worth.
So, on the whole, a great little course with educated me in the facts behind the TV shows. I have already signed up for the next forensics course. Weirdly though the next course is run by Leicester University and the first was run by the University of Strathclyde. Hopefully they will not be going over old ground but I doubt they will have had time to adjust their course based upon feedback received from the introduction course.
Future Learn is a great way to access free online education but at the moment the courses seem to vary vastly in their content and enjoyability. Hopefully the great courses will quickly squeeze out the not so good and as it’s free why not pick a course that sounds fun and give it a go.
Jo Jenner regularly blogs at jojenner.blogspot.co.uk or catch up with her on twitter @jojenner40 or on facebook www.facebook.com/#!/jojennerauthor
The FutureLearn course 'Introduction to Forensic Science' was delivered by the University of Strathclyde from 6th Jan to 16th Feb 2014, and and the lead lecturer was Professor Jim Fraser who is Director of the Centre of Forensic Science.

Book Review: Taking Time by Ellie Garratt

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:46:00 +0000

From the Back Cover

A collection of dark science fiction stories, where time and space are not always as they first appear to be.

The future of humanity must be decided in Next Phase. Winning the Planetary Lottery is not as lucky as it first seems in Schrodinger's Gamble. An apocalypse and its aftermath threaten to tear one couple apart in Daiker's Children. In Life As I Know It a reclusive man finds both his heart and home invaded during an alien harvest. In Taking Time a vampire seeking shelter on a distant planet finds himself facing a very different kind of demon, after answering a frontier settlement's plea for help.

Stories range from flash fiction to novelette in length.

Taking Time and Other Science Fiction Stories

This is Ellie Garratt's second collection of short stories, and after enjoying her first collection so much I had high expectations of Taking Time. I wasn't disappointed. There is a shift in this collection both towards science fiction, and towards longer stories.

Once again, the author is taking you somewhere completely different, and she's come up with a selection of original and entertaining stories. There are five stories included in this collection, and every one of them left me with something new to contemplate.

Each story will prey on different fears or moral dilemmas, delve into different parts of your mind, and with every one Ellie Garratt strikes a chord. Whether or not you are a science fiction fan, you will be drawn into these beautifully written, clever and thought-provoking stories.

You can find Ellie Garratt at elliegarratt.blogspot.co.uk and you will find purchase links here.

Book Review: The Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 16:36:00 +0000

From the back cover

The Third Daughter of the Queen wants her birthday to arrive so she'll be free to marry for love, but rumors of a new flying weapon may force her to accept a barbarian prince's proposal for a peace-brokering marriage. Desperate to marry the charming courtesan she loves, Aniri agrees to the prince's proposal as a subterfuge in order to spy on him, find the weapon, and hopefully avoid both war and an arranged marriage to a man she does not love.

Third Daughter is the first book in the The Dharian Affairs Trilogy (Third Daughter, Second Daughter, First Daughter). This steampunk-goes-to-Bollywood (Bollypunk!) romance that takes place in an east-Indian-flavored alternate world filled with skyships, saber duels, and lots of royal intrigue. And, of course, kissing.

The Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn

This book is billed as 'steampunk-goes-to-Bollywood (Bollypunk!) romance', so what exactly is it? The author fuses carriages, steam trains, airships and clockwork with the rich eastern culture that underlies Bollywood storytelling, and together with royal intrigue, treachery, love and romance she combines the rich clothes and lush settings of court life with adventure in far off places. Everything is there, and the story cracks along at a pace which kept me gripped.

Aniri is faced with a dilemma. Should she follow her heart or do what is expected by the Queen, her mother. Indeed, what the Queen asks of her is no less than to secure the future security of the kingdom. The plot twists leave no-one unscathed, and we wonder just who can be trusted.

Aniri, is a plucky young lady, full of adventure and love. She has her flaws, though, and the result is endearing. If you enjoy a gripping, tense plot, lush settings and plenty of intrigue then this book is for you. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and very much look forward to the next book in this series.

Finally I have to mention the layout and formatting. The overall presentation of the book is awesome. Every page is more a work of art than merely a page of text. The presentation of this book is about as good as it gets.

You can find Susan Kaye Quinn at www.susankayequinn.com where you will also find purchase links.

Analyzing The Universe - Blow by Blow

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 17:53:00 +0000

In my earlier post I gave a review of the course Analyzing The Universe. The 6-week course is available, free to students, via the excellent organisation Coursera, and is delivered by Dr. Terry Matilsky of Rutgers University. Here, as promised, is a blow by blow account of each of the six weeks in the course.
Week 1
In week 1 we have an introduction to the history of optical images and their nature, what it takes to make an astro-image, what information they provide and how they are formed. Light, energy and refraction. Lenses and optics.
We see how an x-ray image is formed and why this is different from optical image formation. How we perceive images when we look at them, and how this impacts the kind of images we want and the information we can get from them.
Finally we get an introduction to the free tool DS9, its features and use.
Week 2
In week 2 we begin an in-depth tour of DS9. We look at the supernova CAS A, which was the 'first light' observation from the Chandra X-Ray observatory, and the Coma cluster of galaxies. We look at how to use DS9 to compare the x-ray image with an optical image of the same object. CAS A and Coma are used to demonstrate some of the useful functionality of DS9 such as analysing the energy spectrum of an interesting area of the image.
Getting a bit more theoretical we look at how statistics can be used to add to the knowledge gained from our observations.
Next we look at atomic spectra, black body radiation and the Stephan-Boltzmann law relating luminosity, radius and temperature. We look at cosmic distances, using parallax for measurements, and how Cepheid variables can help us measure distances.
Week 3
In week 3 we look at the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram, how it helps us to classify stars and what it tells us about stellar evolution. We look in some detail at how stars evolve with time, and what different kinds of stars are out there.
We take an in-depth look at GK-Per, which is a double star in the Persesus constellation which went supernova in 1901. We use this as the basis for a discussion of white dwarves, and some periodic phenomena associated with their spectral properties.
Week 4
In week 4 we derive some of the useful formulae for describing circular motion. We go on to the Doppler shift and its detection when we observe binary stars whose orbital motion is aligned to make such observation possible.
We study the nature of pulsars using DS9 to analyse x-ray data from Cen X-3, observing and quantifying the periodicity of the luminosity in the x-ray data. We analyse the possible causes of the periodicity and what it can tell us about the nature of the pulsar. We observe the Doppler shift in the signal from Cen X-3, and together with our other conclusions this leads us to an understanding of Cen X-3 as an x-ray source orbiting a companion star.
We then go on to figure out what exactly Cen X-3 might be. Using our knowledge of the laws of circular motion we determine the mass of the object, and try to gain an insight into how big it is. We conclude that if it was a white dwarf, it is spinning so fast that it's gravity couldn't hold it together, but if it's a neutron star, its gravity would be sufficient.
We then go on to investigate what mechanism leads to the periodicity we've observed, in the process learning much more about the nature of Cen X-3, and pulsars.
We compare observations made at different periods in history to see that the behaviour of the object has changed over a period of tens of years. We analyse the data to seek an explanation for this.
In week 4 we learn a great deal about neutron stars and pulsars, and we fortify that knowledge with our own observations.
Week 5
In week 5 we look at what makes a star shine. We look at the x-ray object Cas-A and analyse optical spectra from different parts of the object. These observations help us towards a model of Cas-A as a type II (core collapse) supernova remnant in which the movement of material shows evidence of the shock waves resulting from the explosion.
Looking at the spectra from different parts of the object we also draw conclusions about what chemical elements are present and how they are distributed in the remnant.
We use DS9 to create an RGB image from the remnant in which red, green and blue each represent an energy band. By adjusting the energy bands and the bias and contrast for each colour we have considerable control over how we visualise the image. This gives us scope for a lot of experimentation in DS9.
In week 5 we learn a great deal about core collapse supernovae and supernova remnants, and we fortify that knowledge with our own observations. Week 6
In week 6 we begin with Cepheid variable stars – how and why they may be used to determine the distance to astronomical objects. With an accurate measure of distance it is possible to determine the size of an object from its angular size. We learn about Hubble's discovery that the further an object is from us the faster it is moving away from us – leading us to a determination of the Hubble constant for the expansion of the Universe and how this can be used to determine the age of the Universe. We see the relationship between red-shift and distance to an object.
We learn how this led to the discovery of quasars, which are more luminous than the brightest galaxies. We see also that quasars are only seen as distant objects, meaning they are a feature of the young Universe, and we consider why that might be.
We use DS9 to analyse data from the closest quasar, 3C 273, which is 2200 million light years from Earth. We see from our analysis that it is a trillion times more luminous than our sun, and we determine its size.
We see that some material appears to be moving at many times the speed of light, and we look at the explanation for the phenomenon.
We see the evidence of gravitational lensing, and the fact that it suggests that there is much more mass in the Universe than we can observe. We look at the evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, and we see that dark energy is one theory put forward to explain the evidence.
In week 6 we learn much about galaxy clusters and black holes.
Note
For a review of the course, and my conclusions, please see the previous article.
I took this course from 28th January to 25th February 2014

Book Review: Passing Time by Ellie Garratt

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Benson) — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 13:38:00 +0000

From the back cover

Nine dark fiction stories that may just give you nightmares. Dare you enter the world of the strange and macabre, where the passing of time is not always as straightforward as it seems?

A man lives to regret Passing Time. A father will do anything to save his son in Expiration Date. An author finds out her worst nightmare is back in The Devil’s Song. A woman gets more than the claim fee when she takes out vampire insurance in Luna Black.

In Dining in Hell, the Death Valley Diner becomes the wrong place to stop.

A serial killer adds another file to his collection in The Vegas Screamer. In Eating Mr. Bone, an undertaker could meet an unfortunate end. A con man meets his first ghost in Land of the Free, and will truth finally be set free in The Letter?

Nine stories originally published between 2010 and 2011. Stories range from very short to novelette.

Passing Time: Nine Short Tales of the Strange and Macabre

I only occasionally dip into short stories, preferring to get stuck into a full length novel rather than skip from story to story. However, when I do venture into the shorter, I sometimes come up trumps, and this book is one of those occasions.

The first thing that strikes me as a lover of books is the quality of the publication. I only wish all publishers would set such a high standard. Everything from the cover design to the internal formatting are a high quality showcase for the high quality writing it contains.

It is, as the subtitle suggests, a collection of nine short stories, and they certainly live up to their billing as strange and macabre. I have to say that the author has come up with some wonderfully twisted and bizarre ideas, all of which are executed in a thoroughly engaging style.

These are memorable stories. I highly recommend this book to any reader, and look forward to more from the same author.

You can find Ellie Garratt at elliegarratt.blogspot.co.uk and you will find purchase links here.