Colossus of Rhodes - Lawrence Durrell

December 20 2020 · lawrence-durrell hellenic books stories

Chapter IV - The Sunny Colossus from Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953) by Lawrence Durrell. In this chapter Durrell tells the story leading to the creation of the Colossus of Rhodes in 280 BC. I’ve printed his written word verbatim and added images to accompany the story.

Colossus of Rhodes


No companion to …


Cellular Automata in F#

Rule 90

Rule 90

Simple rules can generate complex behaviour. I’m reading A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram. A key idea of the book is that a simple rule, applied …


Scaffoldings: Plaka - Lawrence Durrell

November 23 2020 · poems lawrence-durrell hellenic

For how long now have we not nibbled
At the immediate past in this fashion, words,
Regretting our ignoble faculty of failing,
Slipping between whose fingers?
Melting between whose lips?
The disabused ruins of history’s many
Many costumes we discarded.

The little shop has been pulled down
Where …


Northern Explorer Train Journey

The Main Trunk line is a railway running through the middle of the North Island connecting Wellington and Auckland. It was finished in 1908 and became the preferred way to travel between the two cities. Car and aircraft have since superseded rail for personal travel, but the Main Trunk is still used …


Beginning Complexity - Resilience Engineering

This year I’ve been exploring the field of Resilience Engineering. Resilience Engineering is concerned with building complex systems that are resilient to change and disruption. I’m interested in how we can understand and reason with complex systems. Here I write what I’ve learned …