Milton Keynes, England, Frog Clock

Milton Keynes now accommodates an interesting and large (that's understating it) public art clock.
The clock is 16 metres wide, weighs 4 tonnes, and is believed to be one of Britain’s biggest animated feature clocks. At one end of a massive wrought iron gantry sits a large frog, at the other, a forge making golden balls of sunshine. The balls are placed onto a pendulum fixed to a wheel. Every three minutes the wheel moves along the gantry delivering the balls of energy to the frog. A hammer smacks the ball into the clock housing, and it emerges, cascading down an escapement before returning back into the clock. Musical sequences (of questionable taste - I wonder if something could be negotiated with Paul McCartney) are heard in the background and on the hour, the frog’s eyes light up and he blows bubbles onto the crowd below, as a lily-pad spreads out behind him. Youtube hosts a few videos. Here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLB8LFQRiaE&feature=related

Angel Time by Anne Rice

Anne Rice's 'Angel Time' has been reviewed in The Guardian by Eric Brown. Eric rates Rice's 'skills as a storyteller' in her first person narration of a ruthless contract killer's atonement journey back in time. (See Science Fiction, Eric Brown's choice, in The Guardian, 14 November 2008. Review p11)

The Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley

Paul McAuley's sequel to 'The Quiet War' has been reviewed in The Guardian by Eric Brown. Described by Eric as ideas-driven hard SF at its best, McAuley's 'The Gardens of the Sun' looks at the conflict between powerful family ruled Earth and 'Outers' who colonised the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. (See The Guardian, 14 November 2009, Review p11)

Ice Age in No Time

Whoever thought climate change can only happen slowly, perhaps over decades, might be surprised (as I was) by revelations from a mud core extracted from an ancient lake in western Ireland. Thin slices of the core suggest that the Younger Dryas mini ice age of around 12,800 years ago took hold in just months, a year at most.
(see 'Ice age took hold in less than a year', New Scientist, 14 November 2009, p10)