Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Terence Eden’s Blog

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Looking Back at the Best Inventions of 2001

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Six futuristic inventions.

While looking down the back of the Internet for something or other, I stumbled across Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2001. It has been a quarter of a century since 2001 (!!) so that's a good excuse to look back at what stood the test of time. The article states: Inventions come in all shapes and sizes. Some are as simple as purple catsup. Others push the limits of quantum physics. The…

Where is Bitcoin?

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An ATM with gaudy lights and signs proclaiming "Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto".

Happy Birthday Bitcoin! At the risk of awakening long-dormant beasts, it looks like Bitcoin has failed for day-to-day transactions. So I've a simple question to ask - can you meaningfully spend any cryptocurrency in your city centre? A few months ago, my wife and I went on a 30 day Interrail holiday across Europe. 10 countries, over a dozen cities, making over a hundred payments. I looked in…

200 Years Ago - A Prediction of a Deadly Comet Impact

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Screenshot of an old newspaper. COMETS. It is now certain that the same comet has appeared in our planetary system in the years 1786, 1795, 1801, 1805, 1818, and 1825. It appears that in its course it never passes the orbit of Jupiter. The period of its revolution ( which is the shortest known) very little exceeds three years and a quarter ; and its mean distance from the sun is not more than twice that of the earth. It seems to be especially connected with the system in which our globe is placed, and crosses our orbit more than sixty times in a century. M. Olbers, the celebrated astronomer of Bremen, who has bestowed much attention on this comet, has been lately occupied in calculating the the possibility of its influence on the destinies of our globe. He finds that in 83,000 years this comet will approach the earth as nearly as the moon; and that in 4,000,000 of years it will come to within a distance of 7700 geographical miles; the consequence of which will be ( if its attraction be equal to that of the earth) the elevation of the waters of the ocean13,000 feet; that is to say, above the tops of all the European mountains, except Mont- Blanc. The inhabitants of the Andes and of the Kimlaya mountains alone will escape this second deluge ; but they will not benefit by their good fortune more than 210,000,000 years, for it is probable that, at the expiration of that time, our globe, standing right in the way of the comet, will receive a shock severe enough to insure its utter. destruction.— This is very alarming !

While digging though some old journals in a fruitless side-quest, I came across this delightful description of what I think is the Comet Encke. It is quite an astonishing prediction, and the last line is perfection. In 1926, several journals and almanacs syndicated a column discussing this comet. The above is from The New Jerusalem magazine and theological inspector which has added "This is…