Last year it ended to fast but this year it's been warm and sunny so far so autumn looks pretty spectacular. The best season here. The temperatures are nice - it's middle of November and only now we are to have a longer period of below 10oC at day and regular below freezing at night. So far it's only been one or two cold nights in the row before ( Read more... )

A week ago it was still 28oC and it was hard to remember that October was ending. Then came the first cooling and the temperatures dropped to below 20o and then on Halloween night it got even colder and started to rain. In the mountains that rain fell as snow which is apparently shocking at the beginning of November (even if not unheard of) but ( Read more... )

As always when I can I took some photos of the eclipse. It wasn't much - there was barely a bite before the sun set - but I only travel for total (and annular) eclipses and this one missed the Earth completely. But if you are north and/or west of here I hope you had good weather and nice viewing spot and saw the much bigger bite. I'm already ( Read more... )

Tomorrow a partial solar eclipse is going to be visible in almost all of the North America and far eastern Russia and northern Japan. If you are in any of those places and it's sunny you can see it too. Eclipse calculator allows you to find a close city to see the times the eclipse is going to be visible where you are and how much of the sun is ( Read more... )

It's Nobel season again and now that we know all the important ones (sorry, I don't feel the same excitement for Literature, Peace or Economy prizes). So here they are:

The Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine was awarded for the discovery cells that make up a positioning system in the brain. They are responsible for our ability to create a ( Read more... )

The big weather front that caused a lot of storms all over the place arrived here on Friday afternoon. At least they forecasted storms but all really happened was a little bit of rain but the temperature went down pretty rapidly. It's been only 7 oC at night (and below 20 during the day) and it's even got my apartment cool enough today I don't need ( Read more... )

Originally written 2014-07-13
YAY! Germany won the World Cup! Just like I wanted. [*]I would've said that if any other final four team won but I liked Germany to win the longest.

( Read more... )

Originally written 2014-07-11
On Wednesday Germany destroyed Brazil 7-1. Since then everyone has been talking about how extraordinary this was and compare with other big loses (and for Americans explaining the level of devastation by translating it to the sports they understand). But the overwhelming feelings where first shock and then ( Read more... )

The 2014 Hugo Awards winners were announce today on Worldcon in London. Here are the winners:

BEST NOVEL
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit US / Orbit UK)

BEST NOVELLA
Equoid by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)

BEST NOVELETTE
The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com/Tor.com, 09-2013)

BEST SHORT STORY
The ( Read more... )

The finalists of this year's Chesley Awards, celebrating science fiction and fantasy art, have been announced. You can see them all through the tor.com links. My personal favourites which show I have two favourite artist this year - Julie Dillon and Justin Gerard:

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