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Swimathon 2026

We posted yesterday on the need for Exercise. This weekend sees the 40th anniversary Swimathon week, the UK's largest charity wwim. The 40th anniversary Swimathon has been taking place at more than 450 pools around the UK from Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd March 2026. Since 1986, Swimathon has united swimmers of all ages, abilities, shapes, and sizes in a national celebration of swimming and fundraising. 2026, marks 40 years of this iconic event. One of our friends and occasional contributors, who also acts as the Grand Admiral's human avatar on the Island of Adventure (a.k.a. Stormshot Island) did the swim this afternoon. 💛 Swimathon helps fundraise for charities that matter. Over the last four decades, Swimathon has raised over £50 million for charities. In 2026, it is proud to support: Cancer Research UK – advancing the fight against cancer Marie Curie – supporting people living with terminal illness, and, Swimathon Foundation – Encouraging people to swim for fitness and health...
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Thrawn on why must exercise

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For reasons which will become clear, it seems particularly appropriate this weekend to post a clip explaining Admiral Thrawn's views on the need to keep fit and exercise.
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Classic Science Fiction Book review: "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournelle

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"The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle is probably the best "First contact" SF novel ever written to date. As you can read in the top left of the image from the cover of the original; paperback edition, the late Robert Heinlein, himself no mean writer of Science fiction, described this story as " The best novel about human beings making first contact with intelligent but utterly nonhuman aliens  I have ever seen, and possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read. " Heinlein was not exaggerating. this brilliant 1974 novel really is that good, and in the 52 years since it was published I don't believe that any other first contact novel has surpassed it, though there have been some other very good ones. The early stages of the fictional universe in which this novel is set, Jerry Pournelle's "Future History" series, has suffered a little from the actual late 20th and early 21st centuries developing in a wa...
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A thread any fan of SF should read

 A gentleman called Paul Krause posted on X today, " What is the best sci-fi novel you've read? There are many good ones. Great ones. Not just because he recently passed away, but Hyperion by Dan Simmons has to be up there for everyone who has read it .. " The people who replied nominated more great books than we could easily list. Far better to let you look for yourself, so here is the link. Paul Krause on X: "What is the best sci-fi novel you've read? There are many good ones. Great ones. Not just because he recently passed away, but Hyperion by Dan Simmons has to be up there for everyone who has read it..." / X  
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Thrawn on Leadership

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Science fiction one-liner of the week

"Cadets. Many cultures expel their young males at your stage of hormonal development into the wilderness, to mature on their own ... or die . We are not one of them. Currently." A Vulcan instructor shuts down an argument between two testosterone-fuelled cadets in the second episode of "Star Fleet Academy."
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Len Deighton RIP

The novelist Len Deighton, author of Spy novels like "The Ipcress File," dystopian alternative history novels like "SS-GB" and a couple of superlatively detailed and accurate war novels, "Fighter" and "Bomber," has died at the age of 97. Born in 1929, he was a boy in London during the blitz, and once discovered an air-raid shelter which had been hit and contained 20 bodies. Another memory from the war which influenced his writing came when Special Branch raided the house next door and arresting his neighbour, a 38-year-old Russian emigre named Anna Wolkoff. She had fled to England in 1917 after the Revolution, with her parents. Secretly, she was a Nazi spy. Among her targets was the US ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Wolkoff was sentenced to ten years for relaying secrets to Berlin. After the war, he served in the RAF before studying art at St Martin's College in London and the Royal College of Art. He spent a year as a cabin steward with the air...
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