Category: Blog

Robert J. Sawyer has an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen in response to Stephen Hawking’s call for space colonization, a call, you’ll recall (is that one too many calls?) that I agreed with. We need to move into space to protect our species from the threats that could extinguish us as long as we’re confined …

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It’s intended for medical wear, but this virus-proof fabric–impervious to HIV, H5N1, and other scary letter/number combinations–could be something everyone will someday want in their closet, if the long-feared influenza pandemic arrives.

More photos here.

…as if we didn’t already have enough cranks on the radio, like (insert your favorite right- or left-wing blowhard or annoying morning show host here), here comes another one. Albeit one of more practical use.

…but based on Orson Scott Card’s review (scroll down)–not to mention the fact it was written by Neil Gaiman, directed by Dave McKean, and its visual effects are by the Jim Henson Company–it’s pretty obvious I’m going to have to rent it.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a supernova… …or is it?

More photos here.

Saskatchewan scenery in the rolling ranch country somewhere between Mossbank and Moose Jaw. More photos here.

I spent Saturday in Mossbank at the Rural History and Culture Association‘s historical re-enactments. I don’t have a photo of me being John G. Diefenbaker, alas, but I got this one of…well, let the plug from the RHCA’s website explain: In 1926, after successfully organizing Ku Klux Klan chapters in Ontario, a group of American …

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…have been discovered courtesy of a suspected tomb raider (no, not Lara Croft).

Italian scientists think so. They claim it contains melatonin. Other scientists are unconvinced. Drink enough of it, of course, and sleep you will, albeit under the table.