I suppose it’s too much to hope that this will energize the U.S. space program the way Sputnik did? *Sigh.* Yes, I suppose it is. Better brush up on Chinese if I want to retire on the moon, as the teenaged me fully expected to be able to do by the time I turned 65 …
Category: Blog
This week’s science column
For more than a decade now I’ve been writing a science column for the Regina Leader Post (and other places). Pretty much every column is now online, and I post each new column as it’s written. This week’s is now up; it’s on The Dinosaur Demise Debate. There’s a subscription form at the top of …
The dinosaur demise debate
“Everybody knows” that the dinosaurs were killed off 65 million years ago by a giant meteor that slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula. But as is often the case in science, what “everybody knows” may be wrong. The asteroid impact theory has been dominant for 20 years, but there have always been doubters. They admit a …
Barbarians at the gate!
“‘He is a man who writes what used to be called penny dreadfuls’…That they could believe that there is any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a testimony to their own idiocy.’” Harold Bloom, self-appointed arbiter of what does and does not have literary value, …
Reading report
Well, I finished both Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling and Hybrids by Robert J. Sawyer over the weekend. Briefly: My wife and I disagree over the latest Harry Potter book. Although we both enjoyed it, I thought it was one of the strongest of the set, while she …
Generic Science Fiction Convention
Now this is funny–unless you’re a con virgin, in which case, it won’t mean a thing.
New Technique Could Lead To Widespread Use Of Solar Power
“Gentlemen, we can reduce the use of fossil fuels. We have the technology.”
Greenhouse hurricane?
Does this remind anyone else of Bruce Sterling’s novel Heavy Weather?
What I’m Reading v1.0
I hope to regularly post notes on what I’m reading. Currently… Hybrids, the third book in Robert J. Sawyer’s “The Neanderthal Parallax.” Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling (down to the last chapter–comments to follow soon). Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2003. I would love to subscribe to Asimov’s, Analog and …
Torcon3: The 61st World Science Fiction Convention
For my first non-introductory post, a few comments about the 61st World Science Fiction Convention, held in Toronto over the Labour Day weekend. This was my fourth WorldCon; my first was ConAdian in Winnipeg in 1994, and I’ve since been to ChiCon in Chicago in 2000 and ConJose last year in San Jose. Although I’ve …
Welcome to Hassenpfeffer!
Hassenpfeffer (n): A highly seasoned stew of marinated rabbit meat. Welcome to Hassenpfeffer, a brand-new blog by American-living-in-Canada science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction and computer author Edward Willett. No doubt you are already thinking to yourself, “Hassenpfeffer! That’s a stupid name for a blog!” Au contraire. It is the perfect name for a blog–or, at least, …
Pentaquarks
Every branch of science has its pinnacle of achievement, the thing that every scientist in that field dreams of achieving. For an astronomer, it’s the discovery of a new heavenly body; for a paleontologist, a new species of dinosaur. And for a physicist, it’s the discovery of a new subatomic particle. University of Saskatchewan particle …
My latest live walk and vlog
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