An upcoming book of Western short stories

I am a great fan of the short story. Short stories have great potential for exploring the human condition, especially when placed in a setting a step or two away from the here-and-now – in the future, in the past, or in a fantasy universe. Of course, the challenge in that case is to adequately describe the setting without too much exposition. In science-fiction settings, Cordwainer Smith and Ursula K. Le Guin were two authors who did this extremely well. However, there are advantages in using a historical setting that the average reader will have some knowledge of. In particular, the American West, familiar from hundreds of books and films, makes a great candidate for a short story setting (even outside the US, directors like Sergio Leone have introduced moviegoers to the American West). “The best-kept secret of American literature is the brilliance of the Western short story,” according to author Richard S. Wheeler.

Elisabeth Grace Foley has a particular talent for exploring the American West in fiction. Sometimes she makes her readers laugh; sometimes she makes them weep. Among her published work are the short story collections Wanderlust Creek and Other Stories and Outlaw Fever – the latter including my favourite Western short story, “The Bird of Dawning.”

I am therefore happy to see that she is releasing a new volume of short stories on May 10^th this year, entitled The Smoking Iron and Other Stories (newly revealed cover above; click to zoom). The seven stories in the collection star, inter alia, a minister, a new bride, a “spunky ranch girl,” and a war veteran. Most of the stories are new, but one of them (“Dakota Clothesline”) was previously a finalist in the 11^th annual Peacemaker Awards.

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The Blood Miles: a book review

The Blood Miles by Andrew Moody (382 pages, published 2023)

I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic science fiction, and I recently read, with great enjoyment, the recent novel The Blood Miles by Andrew Moody – a self-described lay theologian and graphic designer from Melbourne, Australia. This is a YA novel, in the sense of a blog post I read once:

• The protagonist should … be aged between 15 to 18 years old (Chris Walker, the protagonist here, is 18)
• … be autonomous from his or her parents (Chris Walker has lost his parents)
• … embark on a journey which has to do with coming of age or some sort of rite of passage (Yes, he does)
• … learn something about who he or she is (Yes, in the deepest possible way)
• … have a ‘voice’ that readers can relate to (Yes, especially for male readers)

The gunfire, violence, torture, and human experimentation in this book mean that it is probably not suitable for younger readers, however.

As a post-apocalyptic YA novel with an edge-of-your-seat exciting eastward journey, The Blood Miles is reminiscent of e.g. John Christopher’s The White Mountains (1967) although, given that it is set in a desertified Australia, Lotus Blue (2017) might be a better comparison. There are also similarities with the 2010 film The Book of Eli.

Along with the desertification and bands of roving killers, everybody in this novel seems to be suffering from a mysterious “Tox” with no known cure, except for the promise of a treatment outpost at Crux, located across the mountains to the east.

The world of the novel is cleverly invented and described very well. The image above is my personal take on a description from an early chapter: “The south gate was a big metal frame made of I-beams and trench mesh that ran on wheels between concrete walls. As it slid back and we went forward, I could see the van with its battered panels, and red-X silhouette made of crossed syringes.”

The plot is loosely based on that of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress – the author calls it “a homage” to that work – with elements from C.S. Lewis’s The Pilgrim’s Regress and all kinds of other literature. For example, the character corresponding to Bunyan’s Evangelist is a somewhat grittier character called Evangeline Veracis: “She was middle-aged with short grey hair and a long grey overcoat that parted to reveal a ceramic breastplate and loose combat pants. Over all of it, she wore a diagonal leather strap that supported a sword from her left shoulder.”

Given that the author is an Anglican lay theologian with an interest in the Trinity, it is not surprising that there is a great deal of Christian symbolism in the novel. Some of the symbolism is very subtle (for example, the number sequence 3–7–12–1–12 might, or might not, be a reference to Malachi 1:12), while at other times it is more overt. It turns out, for example, that the red X symbolises the “Envoy,” who is named Tobias (i.e. “Yah is good”), and is “the Pantarch’s special representative,” killed by the villainous “Homeland Reaction and Defence,” but no longer dead – and, in fact, “running all the ops for the Pantarch.” The symbolism also shows up in place names like Gaia, Ockham, and Horeb. Several scenes unrelated to The Pilgrim’s Progress are clearly parables addressing issues in modern Christianity. I particularly enjoyed the sections exploring issues of truth, responsibility, and grace. Indeed, the extensive symbolism would make this novel a great candidate for a book club, as was also the case with the novel Piranesi (2020).

This is one of the best post-apocalyptic science fiction novels I have read, right up there with A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), and I am giving it 5 stars. See also:

• the author’s launch video
• a book review by the “post-apocalyptic theology” blog
• Goodreads and Amazon links

The Blood Miles by Andrew Moody: 5 stars

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Pi Day once more (repost)

Pi Day is here again (3/14 as a US date). The number π is, of course, 3.14159265… Here are some possible activities for children:

• Search for your birthday (or any other number) in the digits of π
• Follow in the footsteps of Archimedes, showing that π is between 22/7 = 3.1429 and 223/71 = 3.1408.
• Calculate 333/106 = 3.1415 and 355/113 = 3.1415929, which are better approximations than 22/7.
• Measure the circumference and diameter of a round plate and divide. Use a ruler to measure the diameter and a strip of paper (afterwards measured with a ruler) for the circumference. For children who cannot yet divide, try to find a plate with diameter 7, 106, or 113.
• Calculate π by measuring the area of a circle (most simply, with radius 10 or 100), using A = πr². An easy way is to draw an appropriate circle on a sheet of graph paper.

You can also try estimating π using Buffon’s needle. You will need some toothpicks (or similar) of length k and some parallel lines (such as floorboards) a distance d apart (greater than or equal to k). Then the fraction of dropped toothpicks that touch or cross a line will be 2 k / (π d), or 2 / π if k = d. There is an explanation and simulator here (see also the picture below). And, of course, you can bake a celebratory pie and listen to Kate Bush singing π, mostly correctly!

This picture by McZusatz has 11 of 17 matches touching a line, suggesting the value of 2×17/11 = 3.1 for π (since k = d).

Actually, of course, π = 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 … (digits in red are sung by Kate Bush, accurately, although some have said otherwise).

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Rhyming slang

Rhyming slang is a form of slang originating from the East End of London in the 1840s, later spreading to Australia and the US East Coast. Rhyming slang is fading away, but some extant examples are shown in the Google Ngram chart above.

The basic idea is that a word, such as “road,” is replaced by a phrase (usually a pair of words) that rhymes, such as “frog and toad.” Thus “take a look at this” becomes “take a butcher’s hook at this” or (in Australia) “take a Captain Cook at this.” The last word of the phrase (the word that actually rhymes) is usually eliminated, giving “take a butcher’s at this” or (in Australia) “take a captain at this.”

A specifically Australian example still in wide use comes from the department store Buckley & Nunn, which was located in Melbourne from 1851 to 1982 (when it was taken over by David Jones). When last I looked, the old sign was still there (I took the photograph below in 2017). The long form phrase is “you’ve got two chances: Buckley’s and none” (meaning that you have no chance at all). Shorter forms are “you’ve got two chances” (taking the two names as understood), “you’ve got Buckley’s chance” (which appears in print from from 1899), or simply “you’ve got Buckley’s” (which appears in print from 1903).

Rhyming slang is widely used in television series set in the past to suggest authenticity, but some examples are common in the present-day population. These include “telling porkies” (from “porkie pie” = “lie”), which appears in print fairly late (from 1988), and is still popular. Even more popular is the expression “blowing a raspberry” (from “raspberry tart” = “fart”), which appears in print from 1938.

Have you heard any rhyming slang recently?

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Fiction and the Cardinal Virtues

A reflection today on fiction based on the four cardinal virtues: Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude. Where indicated, star ratings are out of 5 are from GoodReads (for books) and RottenTomatoes (for films).

Prudence

Prudence is the virtue of making the right decision. It therefore produces puzzle stories, like “The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager’s Will” (in Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers, 1928, ★★★★). There are also science fiction examples from last century, like the story “The Three-Cornered Wheel” (Poul Anderson, 1963, in The Trouble Twisters, 1966, ★★★☆). Puzzle stories are fun, though perhaps not great literature. Detective stories also fall into this category (as well as in the category of Justice, below), but the puzzle being solved need not involve a crime of any kind.

Stories based on Prudence fall on a spectrum of intensity, depending on how much we care about the problem being solved. At the low-intensity end are enjoyable “cozy mysteries,” such as the Mrs. Meade Mysteries (★★★★) from Western writer Elisabeth Grace Foley. At the high-intensity end are life-and-death edge-of-your-seat novels that leave you feeling shattered. An example of the latter would be
Passage by Connie Willis (2001), which I previously reviewed and gave five stars.

Temperance

Temperance is the virtue of restraining (or not having) undesirable or excessive impulses. It makes for a more interesting story if it’s combined with other themes, of course. One of the great examples is Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen, 1811) with its multiple movie adaptations.

Justice

Apart from rare gems like Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel Crime and Punishment, many of the best examples of fiction based on Justice are detective stories. In Thrones, Dominations (1998, ★★★★), which was started by Dorothy L. Sayers and finished by Jill Paton Walsh, detective Lord Peter Wimsey explains:

“Detective stories contain a dream of justice. They project a vision of a world in which wrongs are righted, and villains are betrayed by clues that they did not know they were leaving. A world in which murderers are caught and hanged, and innocent victims are avenged, and future murder is deterred. … Detective stories keep alive a view of the world which ought to be true. Of course people read them for fun, for diversion, as they do crossword puzzles. But underneath they feed a hunger for justice, and heaven help us if ordinary people cease to feel that.”

No matter how well-hidden the secret crime, Hercule Poirot, Lord Peter Wimsey, or a grey-haired lady who knits will eventually reveal it.

There is a darker genre of fiction based on Justice, though. The Bible has a lot to say about the blood of the innocent and the cries of the oppressed. For example, “And the Lᴏʀᴅ said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground’” (Genesis 4:10) or “the Lᴏʀᴅ … who executes justice for the oppressed” (Psalm 146:5–7). If earthly justice is not forthcoming, then God might send some other kind of justice, by means of an avenging angel. This need not be a literal angel. Indeed, the Greek word angelos (ἄγγελος) just means “messenger.” But such a messenger is likely to be terrifying.

My favourite example of this genre is the classic 1985 Clint Eastwood film Pale Rider (★★★★, rated R). One of the oppressed, a young girl named Megan Wheeler, prays in desperation (“Please? Just one miracle?”), and her prayer is answered in the form of a preacher played by Clint Eastwood (who also directed the film). Although the movie itself is ambiguous, it is clear from interviews with Clint Eastwood that this preacher is the ghost of a man who had been killed by the villains, and has been returned to earth to deliver justice. Which he does: “Well, there’s a lot of sinners hereabouts. You wouldn’t want me to leave before I finish my work, would you?”

In movies of this kind, the avenging angel is often more explicitly supernatural, however.

Fortitude

Fortitude, says C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, “includes both kinds of courage—the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that ‘sticks it’ under pain. ‘Guts’ is perhaps the nearest modern English.” In fiction, that involves a hero and/or heroine struggling through obstacles that get worse, and worse, and worse, so that you constantly ask yourself “how can they possibly survive?”

C.S. Lewis tells us that “you cannot practise any of the other virtues very long without bringing this one into play,” and likewise one cannot write about any of the other virtues very long or very well without equipping the characters with this virtue.

The most recent novel of this kind that I have read is To Ride Hell’s Chasm (Janny Wurts, 2002, ★★★★), but of course the greatest classic is The Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien, 1954–1955).

Would my readers like to share their favourite fictional examples of Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude?

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The Next 50 Tech Hubs

Having just listed the world’s top 50 science and technology hubs, based on data from Visual Capitalist, here are the next 50 science and technology hubs, i.e. rated 51 to 100 (the grey dots mark the top 50 hubs previously blogged).

The hubs in China once again dominate in scientific publications, defined by the cited study to be peer-reviewed articles published in the Social Sciences Citation Index or Science Citation Index Expanded (this does not, of course, take account of publication quality). Hubs in the USA and Europe dominate in patent applications (both effects are statistically significant at p < 1%).

Once again, diamonds show the 13 hubs containing one or more major solar car teams, such as Innoptus in the Brussels–Antwerp area, Michigan in Ann Arbor, CUER in Cambridge, ITU in Istanbul, Chalmers in Göteborg, Team Arrow in Brisbane, or Éclipse and Esteban in Montreal. With the 18 hubs in the top 50, that make 31 out of the top 100 hubs with solar car teams (apologies if I’ve missed anybody – I intended to include all WSC, ASC, and ESC teams).

The table summarises numbers by region:

Region	Top 50	Second 50	Total
Europe	14	15	29
Mainland China	12	11	23
USA	12	9	21
Other East Asia	8	3	11
Australia	2	1	3
Canada	0	4	4
India	0	4	4
Israel	1	0	1
Iran	1	0	1
Turkey	0	2	2
Brazil	0	1	1

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The Top 50 Tech Hubs

Above is a chart of the world’s top 50 science and technology hubs, using data from Visual Capitalist, coloured by region (some names are abbreviated). Notice that Mainland China is dominating on scientific publications (statistically significant at p < 0.1%).

Diamonds show the 18 (36% of) hubs containing one or more major solar car teams, such as Brunel Solar Team (Delft) within the Amsterdam–Rotterdam hub, or Stanford and CalSol within the SF Bay Area (apologies if I’ve missed anybody – I intended to include all WSC, ASC, and ESC teams). Solar car teams are a good indicator of a sophisticated but practical high-tech culture, occurring more often in the hubs with more patents.

The table summarises numbers by region:

Region	Number	Percent
Europe	14	28%
USA	12	24%
Mainland China	12	24%
Other Asia	8	16%
Australia	2	4%
Israel	1	2%
Iran	1	2%

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Solar Cars: Rolling resistance & Drag

I have been thinking of rewriting my solar racing primer. As a first step, above (click to zoom) is a chart of aerodynamic drag force (blue) and rolling resistance (brown):

• The top third of the chart is for cars with very good aerodynamics: coefficient of drag (C_d) × frontal area (A) = 0.05, as might be expected for world-class solar cars
• The middle third of the chart is for cars with less good aerodynamics: C_d × A = 0.2
• The bottom third of the chart is for cars with terrible aerodynamics: C_d × A = 1, as might be expected at the inexperienced end of the high school competition
• The left of the chart is for lighter cars (200 kg, including driver), while the right of the chart is for heavier cars (600 kg)
• Within each group of four, the top two pie charts are for good tyres, with the coefficient of rolling resistance (C_rr) = 0.002, and the lower two are for less good tyres (C_rr = 0.005)
• Within each group of two, the right pie chart is for the fastest speed that keeps the total power drain under 1 kW (the yellow bar visualises this speed), while the left pie chart is for more economical driving, at the fastest speed with total power drain under 0.25 kW
• The area of each pie chart shows the total power drain, with the blue portion showing the contribution due to aerodynamic drag, and the brown portion due to rolling resistance (heavy cars on bad tyres have a visibly large brown portion)

The two key formulae used to construct the chart are for the aerodynamic drag force:

• F_A = ½ ρ C_d A v²

where ρ is the density of air (I have used 1.16, the value at 30°C) and v is the velocity in metres per second. The power needed to overcome the drag force will be F_A v.

The rolling resistance on level ground is given by:

• F_R = C_rr m g

where m is the mass of the car and g is the acceleration due to gravity. Again, the power needed to overcome rolling resistance will be F_R v.

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Solar Car World Rankings

There seems to be a demand among solar car teams for a “Solar Car World Championship.” Above is my best attempt at such a thing. It is based on rankings from these 4 races which I cover:

• BWSC 23 – ranks for other races were adjusted to be compatible with BWSC results
• ASC 22 – ranks were increased by 5
• Sasol 22 – ranks were doubled
• iESC 22 – ranks were raised to the 1.5 power

Only Challenger cars were included (I do not have enough information to rank Cruisers), and only teams racing in two or more races were included (thus Michigan, a truly fantastic team, is excluded). Overall rankings shown in the chart were based on the average of the results for each team’s best 2 races. Here they are as text:

• Equal 1st: Delft
• Equal 1st: Leuven
• 3rd: Twente
• 4th: Aachen
• 5th: Top Dutch
• 6th: Éclipse
• 7th: ITU
• 8th: Chalmers
• 9th: Solis-EV

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BWSC: Gem Awards

Each major solar car race, if I have time, I hand out my own Scientific Gem Awards (although, sad to say, the gems only exist digitally). The awards below were previously posted on Twitter and Instagram.

The Solar Car Family Gem is awarded for acts of help which have been noted in team social media. This year, that gem goes to Sophie Team (VTC), for lending their MPPT to Kogakuin when it was needed.

The Innovation Gem for 2023 goes to Kogakuin because every year (and this year is no exception) they always incorporate exciting new ideas in their car.

My Sustainability Gem goes to JU Solar Team for their unique body made of flax fibre rather than carbon fibre.

My Wind-Power Gem goes to Innoptus Solar Team (Belgium). While wind assist had previously been explored by Delft, the retractable and rotatable fin used by the Belgians is completely unique, and was a race-winning innovation.

My Improvement Gem goes to Chalmers Solar Team, for moving up from 21^st (in 2019) to 16^th (this year, reaching Port Augusta), and for never ever giving up, even when they missed a control stop or two.

My Cruiser Gem goes to Sunswift, for the race-winning combination of efficiency and elegance. And those doors!

I have always found solar car teams to be very friendly. This year my Friendliness Gem goes to the University of Michigan Solar Car Team for being especially so (plus they gave me a shirt gratis – how cool is that?).

This year Michigan also seems to be really understanding what Twente calls “human energy,” which means that the Dutch-speaking teams might need to watch out in 2025.

Finally, my Media Gem goes to Top Dutch Solar Racing for very professional media releases that were fun (Vegemite, anybody?), timely, and fully transparent (when things went wrong). Media transparency is a good thing for both the sponsors and the fans.

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