Hello there Reader! I hope you're having a great week.

Did you see the eclipse this week? I live outside the path, so even a partial one was out of the question. Not to mention the cloud cover would have completely obscured it anyway. Luckily there were countless live streams to showcase the awe-inspiring sight. I know it's not the same watching it on TV, but it was still absolutely remarkable.

The next partial eclipse in the UK is next year, with another the following year. Sadly the next total one visible from here will be in 2090, so it looks like I'll need to get my travelling boots on if I don't want to just watch them on TV. Iceland 2026, anyone? timeanddate.com

Space News

A Space Probe enters VR

These days, we simulate most things in a computer. For the upcoming Juice mission to Jupiter, ESA have been running simulations for years now, calculating trajectories and practicing various routines.

But once the probe arrives at Callisto, one of the largest moons, it's expected to do a fly-by with remarkable precision - if it's off by even a fraction of a degree it might miss the key scientific objectives entirely. And since Jupiter is so far away, by the time mission control even realised there was a problem, it'd be far too late to do anything about it.

They might simulate it, but the complexity and speeds involved made that impractical, if not downright impossible.

So they put the probe into a VR headset.

Well, not exactly. They took the engineering model of the probe (a mock-up of the real thing, using genuine hardware, but not quite as delicately assembled) and projected images of the moon onto its cameras. The probe responded correctly, adjusting course as required and aiming the vital instruments precisely where they needed to be. It worked so well, that on the very first attempt it passed with flying colours. The team fully expected to need days to work out the bugs, but the design team had absolutely nailed it.

Source: esa.int

Other Books To Check Out

I've gathered a few great books from independent authors like me, I hope you'll check them out.

And let me know if you have any books to recommend! I'm particularly interested in indie authors, but anything you've read and loved would be awesome.

https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/48f7f758-f2e6-11ee-b02c-efcafb04e63e

Amazon

A mystery adventure like no other.

Ever since he was a young boy, Cord Lockwood had been fascinated by sightings of Bigfoot. He hoped one day to see the big guy himself...until the night he did. Now, years later, Cord cannot get the encounter out of his head.

Cord and a young protg with similar experiences embark on a journey packed with action and suspense, mystery and adventure, including an all-star cast of frightening cryptids like the Chupacabra and even the Loch Ness Monster! When Cord stumbles on a secret no human was meant to see, he finds his life in danger and the lives of anyone else who crosses his path.

If there's one thing he's learned in all of his adventures-never go into the woods alone!

https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/ffad75c6-8f0f-11ee-b113-77547acd473e

Free

As torn petals of a rose fall, a hero must rise in a race against destiny.

What starts as a fairy tale rescue spirals into an intricate web of dark fantasy laced with intrigue and magic. After the downtrodden merchant Kaine saves the runaway Princess Lydia from an unexpected monster, he feels inexplicably drawn to her. Lydia's uncanny knowledge of his deepest secrets looms over him, suggesting she knows more about him than he has revealed.

However, there is little time to investigate this mystery. The princess is betrothed to the magic wielding Throatian Kingdom, and Lydia's father has rewarded Kaine with a job offer he cannot refuse.

As the rehearsal dinner for Lydia's arranged wedding unfolds, tension simmers amidst foreign customs and whispered conversations. The Throatian Royal family, draped in magic, is keen to forge an alliance with the Darian Kingdom. Meanwhile, Lydia, now fully aware of her royal responsibilities, summons Kaine for a private meeting in the chilling stillness of the graveyard. Her impending wedding signifies more than a pact of sword and sorcery, and something else-dark and twisted-stirs in the shadows.

With time dwindling short, and the ceremony happening the next day, will Kaine unshackle himself from his past to embrace the guardian he is destined to become? Or will the ties binding him to Lydia be torn apart like petals in the wind?

Journey with Kaine and Lydia as they attempt to prevent a war and save a kingdom in the first volume of the Symphony of Crowns and Gods series.

Strange News

The Woman who helped Houdini

The early 20th Century was a prime time for psychics, mediums (media?) and hucksters to prey on the vulnerable. A devastating World War was closely followed by a murderous flu pandemic, and barely anyone in the world hadn't lost someone by the start of the 1920s.

Hence the rise of spiritualism. It's understandable that those suffering grief and loss would hold out hope that their loved ones somehow continued on in another dimension, or on another plane of existence. And it's equally understandable that they would seek out some evidence or proof of this.

Sadly, it's also all to predictable that those people would be targeted by fakers, keen to capitalise on that desperation and hope to make a quick buck.

Houdini's work debunking these fraudsters is well known. At first a believer, he quickly realised that most (if not all) of the evidence proposed was faked, and his anger grew. Much of his later career was dedicated to unmasking the techniques they used to trick people out of their money, and demonstrating that you didn't need any psychic abilities to perform the seemingly miraculous feats that amazed the unwary.

Less well known is the story of Rose Mackenberg. She also started as a believer, but was introduced to Houdini when she was investigating a psychic being sued for bad stock tips. He employed her to travel ahead of his tour route, investigate the hucksters and charlatans who by now were wary of Houdini himself, and prepare a report for him to unmask them on stage.

Her work even led to scandals including politicians being revealed as consulting mediums for policy advice, and a medium who said that the dearly departed loved ones really wanted their grieving relatives to invest their inheritance in the medium's own companies.

Ironically, she never stopped believing that communication with the afterlife was possible, and lived in hope that one day she would find someone she could not debunk.

Source: Atlas Obscura

Other Books To Check Out

Miscellany

One-Minute Time Machine. A wonderfully clever short film.

Source: youtube.com

What does an eclipse sound like?

Source: Atlas Obscura

A tram rail that acts as a reminder of war.

Source: Atlas Obscura

And Finally

You folks seem to be enjoying my music discoveries, so I'll continue highlighting an album each time.

This is a good one for writing things that are a little, well, dark.

The Netflix series 'Dark' was made in Germany, features time travel, and was so complicated they created a website that kept track of which characters were which, who knew what, and who was actually a grown up version of who else. Cleverly you could select which episode you were up to, and it would adjust the information you saw to avoid spoilers, and still figure out what was going on. https://dark.netflix.io/en

I do recommend it, but take your time with it - binging might just leave you more confused than ever. Oh, and watch it with subtitles. We tried with the dubbed version at first, and it really put us off.

Ben Frost's music is ethereal, haunting and wonderfully suited to exploring the underbelly of reality...

Source: dark.netflix.io