Hello readers! This week, I rewatched Arrival (2016). Not quite sure what prompted me to do so: maybe it was the bizarre US Congress hearing, where ex-military personnel attested to seeing UFOs? Maybe it was the fact that Netflix has been pushing me to watch this film since I added it to my list a … Continue reading Film review: Arrival
Month: July 2023
Clayton gets a pet rock
Hello readers! Last weekend I received the most astonishing gift: a huge lump of polished stone, perfectly cylindrical and shiny, with a conspicuous hole drilled into the top. This is a curling stone, used in the strange, slippery sport of curling – a sort of halfway house between ice hockey and pétanque. The history of … Continue reading Clayton gets a pet rock
Six-minute summary: Tycho Brahe
Hello readers! It’s time for another six-minute summary. This week, we’re discussing Tycho Brahe, a 16th century Danish astronomer who revolutionised the collection of astronomical data. Wikipedia describes him as “the last major astronomer before the invention of the telescope” – and yet Brahe could have lived just long enough to see this paradigm shift … Continue reading Six-minute summary: Tycho Brahe
Clayton Calculates: The Death Mountain lava lake
Hello readers! After the success of my lava calculations last month, I have been inspired to devote an entire blog post to pulling apart the physical inaccuracies of fantasy worlds. It turns out that the water hydrants in Tears of the Kingdom are the least of its lava-based problems (if you missed it, see: Is … Continue reading Clayton Calculates: The Death Mountain lava lake
C. W. Clayton 