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Details: Written by: Richard_McKie; Parent Category: Travel; Category: Europe; Published: 09 July 2013; Hits: 69653

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In June 2013 we visited Russia. Before that we had a couple of weeks in the UK while our frequent travel companions Craig and Sonia, together with Sonia's two Russian speaking cousins and their partners and two other couples, travelled from Beijing by the trans-Siberian railway. We all met up in Moscow and a day later joined our cruise ship. The tour provided another three guided days in Moscow before setting off for a cruise along the Volga-Baltic Waterway to St Petersburg; through some 19 locks and across some very impressive lakes.

Russia Cruise - Leaving a Lock

This river cruise was most interesting from a technical and geographical point of view.

Relatively flat countryside and many rivers and streams have allowed engineers to construct elaborate canal and lock systems across Europe and it is possible in summer to travel by boat or barge from the Baltic to the black sea and the Mediterranean; across Poland into France and Germany and connected countries; and even across the English Chanel. In the north many of these waterways are frozen in winter but as we saw, they constitute a significant commercial asset for moving bulk materials and very large industrial components; in addition to tourist cruise ships.

Russia Cruise - Commercial Traffic

In Russia (as in North America) the differing levels in large freshwater lakes also provides a significant hydroelectric power resource.

Hydro Power

The Hydroelectric Powerstation at Uglich

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Travel

Bridge over the River Kwai

In 1957-58 the film ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai‘ was ground breaking. It was remarkable for being mainly shot on location (in Ceylon not Thailand) rather than in a studio and for involving the construction and demolition of a real, fully functioning rail bridge. It's still regarded by many as one of the finest movies ever made.

One of the things a tourist to Bangkok is encouraged to do is to take a day trip to the actual bridge.

Fiction, Recollections & News

The Meaning of Death

'I was recently restored to life after being dead for several hours'

The truth of this statement depends on the changing and surprisingly imprecise meaning of the word: 'dead'.

Until the middle of last century a medical person may well have declared me dead. I was definitely dead by the rules of the day. I lacked most of the essential 'vital signs' of a living person and the technology that sustained me in their absence was not yet perfected.

I was no longer breathing; I had no heartbeat; I was limp and unconscious; and I failed to respond to stimuli, like being cut open (as in a post mortem examination) and having my heart sliced into. Until the middle of the 20th century the next course would have been to call an undertaker; say some comforting words then dispose of my corpse: perhaps at sea if I was travelling (that might be nice); or it in a box in the ground; or by feeding my low-ash coffin into a furnace then collect the dust to deposit or scatter somewhere.

But today we set little store by a pulse or breathing as arbiters of life. No more listening for a heartbeat or holding a feather to the nose. Now we need to know about the state of the brain and central nervous system. According to the BMA: '{death} is generally taken to mean the irreversible loss of capacity for consciousness combined with the irreversible loss of capacity to breathe'. In other words, returning from death depends on the potential of our brain and central nervous system to recover from whatever trauma or disease assails us.

Opinions and Philosophy

Discovery of the Higgs boson

Perhaps the most important physics discovery of my lifetime has finally been announced. I say 'finally' as its existence has been predicted by the 'Standard Model' for a long time and I have already mentioned this possibility/probability in an earlier article on this website (link).

Its confirmation is important to everyone, not just to physicists working in the field of quantum mechanics. Like the confirmation of the predictions of Einstein's Theory of Relativity we are now confronted with a new model of reality that has moved beyond an esoteric theory to the understanding that this is how the Universe actually is; at least as far as the Standard Model goes.

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