The Orkney islands are to test two electric ferries for commuting between its outlying islands as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions from shipping.
The battery-powered hydrofoil ferries, whose hulls are raised above the water, are part of a three-year, £15.5m demonstration project funded by the UK government, due to start in March 2024.
Well, the picture at the top isn't one I sent them and completely mis-represents the situation (it was constantly stormy and there was no sea ice!), but here's the piece I wrote for the Observer about the five weeks I just spent on a research ship in the Labrador Sea with 21 colleagues, measuring air-sea gas transfer and the mechanisms behind it:
An in-depth look at the star crossed lovers we didn't get to see in DS9 including interviews with the cast and crew about why it didn't happen. Includes some details about the origin of slash fic
Looking for anyone who's been a passenger on a tall ship (any sailing ship with at least two square-rigged masts) to answer a basic question about the experience for #writing and #worldbuilding purposes.
This reflection was part of a series I produced a few years ago. This is HMCS Acadia, which was docked by the Maritime Museum in Halifax harbour. Built in 1913, she survived the Halifax explosion of 1917. https://hmhps.ca/sites/hmcs-acadia
Happy Tuesday, Fedi Friends
The hull of a diving bell barge at Newshot Island on the Clyde near Erskine. Built in 1852, it's one of two such vessels built to help deepen the Clyde so large ships could travel right into the heart of the city.
Busy, slowly lightly processing the pictures taken from our recent holiday. Since it's #SchiffsSamstag and I've reached #Panama where we waited at anchor for a day along with dozens of oil tankers and cargo container ships, why not share a picture from there?
A ferry. A small part of your journey back. After sand, and sun, and beach, and adventure, it's two hours to get through. Can this thing even swim? It looks and smells and screams like a pile of scrap metal after all. Its corridors are narrow, the steel cooks under the sun. Please let this be rubber burning and not your new shoes! A last good-bye to the island? You did that already. This is not the beginning of the end. It's a random paragraph in the last chapter, between the concrete of the harbor and the concrete of the motorway. Tomorrow you'll be home again, a shower, your bed.
A ferry. It's the last vehicle between you and The Island. There were cars, and planes, and taxis, and buses; hotel beds and airplane seats; hotel staff, security personal, and the lady showing you the way to the shuttle bus for whom you seemed to be just an item to be moved from A to B. But now you are here! You can feel the sun on your skin. (The same sun that you will feel later lying on the beach!) You can smell the water. (The same foreign sea you will soon plunge into!) You can listen to the other strangers whispering and shouting in foreign languages. (Isn't that dark-haired guy over there cute? Will you meet him again?)
What difference a few minutes make, a change in direction for a vessel to ride this way or that way.
Star Trek's First Gay Ship-Mates? The Star-Crossed Romance of Garak & Bashir (www.youtube.com)
An in-depth look at the star crossed lovers we didn't get to see in DS9 including interviews with the cast and crew about why it didn't happen. Includes some details about the origin of slash fic