Ari Lox
Arithophilus Loxodrome sat comfortably in the window seat of an intercontinental jet. Flying at 31,143 feet (9492 meters) above the southernmost tip of the five freshwater lakes that were formed by the retreating glaciers of the Pleistocene Epoch, Ari wondered to what distance his natural ocular mechanism could allow him to observe the horizon? And just what portion of this vast hydrated sphere, the third planet of a G type star, was available for his sensory contemplation?
A small cup full of coca, caffeine, caramel, sugar, and carbonic acid fizzed over a cube of frozen dihydrogen oxide while Ari pondered.
Owning a sharp pencil and a thick pad of yellow paper, Ari sipped his liquid resuscitative and attacked the problem in a manner befitting his high school geometry training, where the text was expurgated Euclid two thousand years old. Well, maybe not his particular copy of the text.
Ari was pleased with his solution. He now knew that, while
zipping above the jet stream and Chicago, his visual range
