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Cyberfarming
City dwellers tend to think of the high-tech revolution as primarily an urban phenomenon--hip office workers thumb-typing messages to each other on their pagers while standing in line for lattes, for example. But the countryside is well on its way to becoming as high-tech as the city, as new technologies relentlessly transform agriculture into something new: cyberfarming. Cyberfarmers use high-tech tools to: gather detailed data on every square metre of their land, select and plant their crops, monitor conditions throughout the growing process, apply precise amounts of water, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides as needed, and harvest the results at precisely the right time. Take, for example, the King Family Farms, a 50-acre vineyard in the ...Are bananas doomed?
Canadians eat approximately three billion bananas a year; it's our favorite fruit. But a recent news story suggests the bananas we enjoy so much could be extinct within 10 years. The villain is a fungus by the ominous name of Black Sigatoka that's spreading out of control through the banana-growing countries of the world, threatening the handful of banana varieties that are the mainstay of the banana industry. These bananas are vulnerable for the same reason they're seedless: they're the descendants of sterile mutants of wild bananas, which are so full of hard seeds they're inedible. Thousands of years ago humans discovered the seedless variety, which propagates by putting out ...Fruit
just came back from a vacation that included a brief stay in the Okanagan. Among the treasures from that visit were two containers of delicious fresh apricots and cherries, courtesy of a friend who owns an orchard near Oliver. The amount of fruit produced by the trees of the Okanagan Valley alone is staggering: everywhere you look, it seems, peaches, apples, cherries, grapes and other delectable delicacies are growing. Which, naturally, got me wondering: what is fruit, and how is it grown in such abundance? There are actually three definitions of fruit. According to the strict botanical definition, the fruit of a flowering plant (and only flowering plants, or angiosperms, ...Seeding
The modern farm is highly mechanized, but the goal of the farmer driving a $100,000 tractor across multiple hectares remains the same as that of a farmer scraping the ground with a pointed stick: a successful harvest. Before you can harvest a crop, though, you've got to plant it. The trick to planting is to put seeds into contact with enough water to cause them to germinate, in soil containing enough nutrients to allow them to grow. When farming first began, farmers simply spread their seeds on any likely-looking patch of ground. Some of the seeds would fall on good soil, and prosper; others might fall on rocky soil and wither away, others might fall among ...Cattle
My niece collects cows. Well, images of cows, anyway. And she's not the only one. Apparently, cows are hot right now. Personally, I've never been all that enamored of them. My encounters with cows have generally been unrewarding, from the time I tried to milk one (an experience neither of us enjoyed) to the time I helped a veterinarian chase them around a farmyard. Running around a farmyard after a bunch of cows isn't my idea of a good time. You step in stuff. However, I definitely do appreciate the other end products of cows, from milk to leather to steak, and so do most other humans. That's why we've ...Fertilizer
Just so I'm not operating under false pretenses, let's get one thing straight: I don't garden. I don't seed, I don't weed, I don't plant, I don't compost, and I don't spread manure (this column excepted). My one connection with the plant world is mowing the grass, and I wouldn't do that if I had my druthers. But many people do do all these things. Some of even claim to enjoy it. I don't pretend to understand this obsession with green growing things (and the multi-legged things that eat green growing things), but live and let live, that's my motto. One topic that seems to come up whenever two or ...Wheat
The most amazing thing about this week's topic isn't the topic itself (though that's pretty amazing); the amazing thing is that I haven't written about it before. "It" is wheat, and how I've managed to go more than three years without mentioning it I can't imagine, in view of the fact it's as inescapable a part of living on the prairies as the wind, and especially in view of the unforgettable (however hard I try) summer I spent at the Weyburn Inland Terminal loading, shoveling and sweeping up the stuff. Despite its ubiquitousness these days, wheat hasn't always grown here. Although it was first cultivated in the Euphrates Valley nearly 9,000 years ago, it didn't exist ...Biological control of leafy spurge
In 1987, when I was news editor of the Weyburn Review, I journeyed to a small lake near Maxim to photograph beetles infesting the pretty yellow-flowered plants growing on its steep banks (hey, the news business isn't all politicians and other disasters!). Today, I'm told (though I haven't had the opportunity to go see for myself), those pretty yellow flowers are gone. An ecological disaster? Not exactly-- not when the pretty plant in question is one of the most noxious of noxious weeds. In this story, the bugs are heroes, not villains. The plants were leafy spurge, whose stems and leaves are filled with a milky latex harsh ...Genetic engineering
Though the word "biotechnology" sounds very modern, what it describes has been with us for centuries--if you define it, as one science encyclopedia does, as "using biological organisms, systems or processes to make or modify products." In other words, the first time somebody discovered the wondrous change wrought in grape juice by fermentation, or an excited baker got a little yeast in her dough and saw it swell up (think how brave whoever ate it must have been!), biotechnology was at work. In a broader sense, all agriculture is biotechnology, using biological organisms (plants and animals) to make a product (food). Through the centuries, selective breeding ...
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
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