Category: Blog

An appropriate item after a week of temperatures in the -30 to -40 C range: “Big chill killed off the Neanderthals.”

Some people would have you think the Iraqi people were somehow better off under Saddam than they are now. I say, ask an Iraqi.

What a great science fiction title!

Read this fascinating interview with three leading nanotechnologists. My favorite quote about the future of nanotechnology: “If it doesn’t sound like science fiction, it’s almost certainly false.”

The founder of Greenpeace has someThecogent comments on the battle over biotechnology–and its human cost.

Oh, yeah, and while I’m on the subject of that USA Today headline (see post below)–Andrew Gilligan was a reporter, not a “BBC official.” That headline is just wrong, in so many ways. Grrr…

Check out this headline:USATODAY.com – Third BBC official out, bawks at ‘black and white’ report. “Bawks?” You suppose they meant “balks?” I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: editors, do your jobs! Call yourself a newspaper…why in my day…(voice fades away into codgerly mumbling).

There was a lot of buzz a few years ago about the possibility of room-temperature superconductors. Didn’t work out as fast as some people hoped, but an important step has been taken along the necessary research road.

Deep divisions? Loud arguments? Demonstrations? Sounds promising.

I don’t post much about politics here…yet. But read this. It says a lot I agree with.

Snowplow Science Copyright 2004 by Edward Willett There’s nothing like a good blizzard to bring home to Canadians the importance of that otherwise seldom-heralded piece of technology known as the snowplow. The first highway snowplows were developed early in the 20th century, shortly after there were enough automobiles around to require them. (Michigan claims to …

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Here’s a brief biography (and even a writing sample!) of a previous author named Edward Willett. He was born 129 years before I came around, but we’re probably at least distantly related, from what little I know of Willett genealogy.