As any fule no, when light passes through the lenses of a telescope, it slows down. And that means, you're seeing things a bit later than you would using direct vision.Only by the dinkiest fraction of a second ... but it is. So .... some researchers have been creating new forms of glass which slow down light much more drastically. And last October, they made a major breakthrough and created a lens that delayed light by hundreds of years ! And they made a telescope using this new type of glass, and when they looked through it they saw what was there in 1374 ! The street outside their Blackpool laboratory was peopled with toothless old hags dressed in raggedy black clothes, riven with black poxy pustules, whopping black warts and filthy black fingers. ( I bet you're thinking .... that's normal for present-day Blackpool is it not ?) ( Nearly..... but not quite) And interestingly, they saw Black Kites whizzing round in the sky,and Black Woodpeckers demolishing the wooden shacks all those poor devils lived in, Black Redstarts covered the rooftops, and Black Terns were skimming over the stinking, excrement-filled village pond. ( That's the "Black Pool" of course.) That's why it was called The Dark Ages. Everything that could be black was black. Including all the birds. Anyway, if the only birds that existed in the UK back then were the ones with "Black" in their names, what would be the UK birder's potential maximum list in those gloomy times ? That should be easy enough ..... you've got 4 of them already. You should be able to come up with them without Collins or owt ! And now, some Black-Themed Music ... a fine thing too .... there's many versions of it on the net, and this is the "electric" one... I know you'll want to sing along with it ... so here's the "bonus" words video .... ( ...and before anyone writes in to tell me, yes, I know there is a Science Fiction novel based on this " Slow Glass" idea. )
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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