At just about the time I came to that conclusion, Justine Larbelestier‘s new site went live. I liked the look of it, and she seemd pleased with the service she had gotten from PagedMedia, which specializes in writers’ sites. So I contacted Stephanie Leary there and we began the process of designing the new, improved, edwardwillett.com.

And now, just in time for the launch of Terra Insegura, here it is! It’s much cleaner and simpler. Not everything made the journey over from the old site, which was getting quite dated-looking, but among the things that did make the journey were all of my science columns, reconfigured as blog posts, dated (as close as I could figure, anyway) to when they were originally written. (Which is why I now have “blog posts” that predate the World Wide Web by two years!)

I suspect I’ll take a big hit in visitors until the search engines catch up with the new URLs for my columns, which have driven the bulk of the traffic to this site. But it needed to be done!

So take time to poke around the site and let me know what you think. Now that it’s up and running I’ll be tweaking it myself going forward.

And thanks to PagedMedia for all their work!

I’m just behind playwright Norm Foster (whom I got to see performing in one of his own plays in Kincardine, Ontario, the summer before last), and just ahead of a Lucy Maud Montgomery site.

I’d love to think it’s because I’m such a popular author, but actually it’s because there are almost 20 years worth of science columns at the site. You can hardly search for anything science-related without finding one of my columns somewhere in the mix!

Oh, and if you’re wondering, I averaged 335 visitors a day at edwardwillett.com over the past month. Not bad, but not exactly Instapundit territory…

*Not a reference to The Prisoner. Sorry.

In other words, I killed it!

I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me…

You can read “The Wind” here.

(The background art for the image above is from the original illustration by Philip Rogers.)

In talking technology, it’s always interesting to take a brief look back at the evolution in equipment making.

As author Edward Willett explains: “When golf started out, and for centuries after, golf clubs were all made of wood. At a fairly leisurely pace, other materials began to be used for both the heads and the shafts. There were fiberglass shafts, aluminum shafts and steel shafts. Club heads eventually began to be made out of both wood (hence, “woods”) and steel (hence, “irons”). But in recent years, more exotic materials have been used.”

Of course, it would have been nice if they’d bothered to link to the column in question. Guess I can’t expect an explosion of hits.

In talking technology, it’s always interesting to take a brief look back at the evolution in equipment making.

As author Edward Willett explains: “When golf started out, and for centuries after, golf clubs were all made of wood. At a fairly leisurely pace, other materials began to be used for both the heads and the shafts. There were fiberglass shafts, aluminum shafts and steel shafts. Club heads eventually began to be made out of both wood (hence, “woods”) and steel (hence, “irons”). But in recent years, more exotic materials have been used.”

Of course, it would have been nice if they’d bothered to link to the column in question. Guess I can’t expect an explosion of hits.

As you can see, our old friends the spider goats continue to be high on the list.

time perception
animal emotions
golf technology
animal intelligence
plant communication
spider goats
cobalt bomb
playground physics
battle suit
useless body parts
edward hubble
spider goat
perception of time
choosing a mate
how to do improv
hobart’s funnies

spider goats
spider goat
time perception
how to make french fries
golf technology
ball scuffing
battle suit
animal intelligence
hygiene hypothesis
cat allergy cure
plant communication
animal emotions
choosing a mate
permathrin
how long does skunk smell last

Although skunks still make an appearance, I am at least relieved that my old search-term friend “skunk feces” does not show up in this list…

http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/animalemotions.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/footballphysics.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/soccer.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/spidergoats.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/shoobird.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/skunks.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/pimples.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/golftech.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/uselessbodyparts.htm
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/driving.htm

Just thought you’d want to know.

Since the column was written the company has been a bit down on its luck, as this year-old story from the National Post makes clear:

Nexia Biotechnologies Inc. was a small firm with a neat idea: making spider silk by splicing genes from arachnids into goats and harvesting the silk protein, or “BioSteel” from their milk. BioSteel was demonstrated to be stronger and lighter than steel or Kevlar.

Between 1993 and 2000, Nexia raised $67-million and went public. But by last year, the Montreal-based firm had spent most of its cash and sold part its business for shares in another speculative biotech outfit.

It was left with a herd of 40 “franken-goats,” some patents and $2.2-million in cash. “BioSteel remains an interesting research project, but the dilemma remains what is the end use of the product?” says founder Jeffrey Turner.

However, things may be looking up. In October came this news:

Enseco Energy Services Corp. (“Enseco”) and Nexia Biotechnologies Ltd. (formerly, 6539718 Canada Inc.) (“New Nexia”) are pleased to announce the successful completion of the previously announced arrangement involving Nexia Biotechnologies Inc. (“Nexia”), Enseco Energy Services Corp. (“Private Enseco”), New Nexia and Enseco Management Corp. (“ManagementCo”).

The Arrangement resulted in the amalgamation of Nexia, Private Enseco and ManagementCo to form “Enseco Energy Services Corp”, a new oil and gas service industry company and the creation of New Nexia which will continue to pursue Nexia’s biotechnology opportunities.

And now, according to the most recent Nexia press release, which announces the company is now trading on Canada’s newest stock exchange, the CNQ:

Nexia has received an Issue Notification from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, for U.S. Patent No. 7,157,615. This patent strengthens and protects our intellectual property with respect to the production of biofilaments in transgenic animals.

Nexia has shipped transgenic goat milk to the University of Wyoming where BioSteel® is being purified and made available for research in industrial, medical device and nanotech applications. Nexia welcomes back Dr. Costas Karatzas, the former Senior VP of R&D of Nexia Biotechnologies Inc., as a consultant, who will assist in pursuing all possible strategies to maximize shareholder value.

So the work continues. My question is, why all the visitors today? Was there some big news story about spider silk proteins produced from goat’s milk that I missed?

Anyone?

I’ve left the original search linked to the term.

“most famous cows” – This found my column on skyscrapers.

absorbing grease from pizza – This turned up my column “Pizza, Beer & Fries.”

things that stink – Naturally, this leads you my column “The Science of Stink.”

jamaica daci dance – I don’t even know what this is, but it led someone to this arts column.

anger tantrums from girlfriend – This took some poor, confused soul to my column about anger.

why did europeans paint their barns red? – Not a question I can ever remember posing, yet it landed someone on my column on paint.

demons with wings – This found my column on bats.

dutch football league linesmen 200 40 – I couldn’t figure this one out until I re-read my column on the science of soccer.

caveman computer posture cartoon – They didn’t find the cartoon on my site, but they did find my 2003 column on Neanderthals.

chicken a la king by emeril – No recipes, here, alas. Just my column “Emeril Kicks it Up…to Orbit.”

skunk feces – This search term pops (or possibly poops) up every few days, it seems. It always takes the nose-holding searcher to my column on skunks. In fact, my column is the number-one hit when you Google skunk feces.

If that’s not something to be proud of, I don’t know what is.