Category: Blog

Sue Kientz of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently e-mailed me to express her appreication for my article on Cassini-Huygens. She also tipped me off to four children’s stories she wrote about the mission, explaining it in “non-techy (and fun!) terms.” (She previously wrote some illustrated web stories for the Galileo mission.) Writes Sue, “These stories …

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In addition to the writing diary I started one post down, I plan to post a reading diary, probably just once a week or so. Sometimes I might write a bit of a review, sometimes it’ll just be a “what-I’m-reading” kind of thing. I just finished reading Ruled Brittania, by Harry Turtledove. I enjoy alternate …

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Here’s something I’ve been planning to add to the blog for a while: a daily note on how much writing I got done, and what I’m working on. What’s that? You say you’re not really interested? Well, don’t worry about it–it’s not for you, it’s for me. I kinda hope that if I post something …

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The “Morning Smile” in the Globe and Mail usually leaves me cold, but I did get a kick out of this one: Unfortunately, due to CRTC regulations, Michael Moore’s new film Fahrenheit 911 will be released in Canada as Celsius 488. Ed Wheeler.

This is a very cool–downright icy, in fact–project. It will be interesting to see what they turn up; let’s hope it’s not all gone in a few more decades.

He’s not really Super Boy, but an unusually strong youngster born in Germany has revealed a gene mutation that leads to mighty muscles.

Cory Doctorow writes about Isaac Asimov, and the upcoming film adaptation of his collection I, Robot, in Wired.

Looks like Saturn’s moon Phoebe probably originated in the Kuiper Belt, not the asteroid belt; it’s a frozen time capsule of the early solar system.

Nanotechnology isn’t just about self-replicating robots threatening to turn the world into gray goo; it’s also about Betterhumans >fighting cancer.

In 2000, Buffy Sainte-Marie, the Saskatchewan-born singer, artist, teacher and Academy Award-winning songwriter, was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters Degree by Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. During her convocational address, she mentioned some of the breakthroughs of aboriginal peoples in science and technology. Inspired by her address, Lakehead University shortly thereafter set …

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Here’s a fascinating article on J. R. R. Tolkien’s work on the Oxford English Dictionary. I wish I’d seen this before I wrote my children’s biography of Tolkien; I could have added a couple of interesting paragraphs.