Michael Dickinson is a genius. At least, in 2001 the University of California, Berkeley, professor received one of the $500,000 “genius” grants given annually by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to creative individuals “who provide the imagination and fresh ideas that can improve people’s lives and bring about movement on important issues.” …
Category: Columns
Books, movies, reality are all equally disgusting–and that’s a good thing!
I write nonfiction (obviously), but I also write science fiction and fantasy. We who write such stuff are occasionally asked (and occasionally wonder) if our works can continue to compete in a media universe in which “science fiction” and “fantasy” conjure up for most people Hollywood special-effects extravaganzas first, and the written word second (if …
The World Science Fiction Convention – the science column
Long-term readers of this column will know that, every so often, I go off to science fiction conventions. I’ve done it again: I just finished attending the 66th Annual World Science Fiction Convention in Denver. It was, as WorldCons almost always have been for me, a wonderful experience…although that experience has changed over the years. …
Dogs and cats don’t have to fight
As I researched this week’s science column, I thought for a moment I had already written it, because as I Googled the phrase “fight like cats and dogs,” what popped up but…a column from the Regina Leader Post. That column, by Christalee Froese, which ran July 7, began pretty much exactly the same way I …
Breaking news about baseball bats
The “crack of the bat” at Major League Baseball games isn’t just a cliché, it’s also a safety hazard. This year alone, a coach in the visitors’ dugout and a fan in the stands, both at Dodger Stadium, have been seriously injured by chunks of broken bat. In both cases, the bat that broke was …
Surveying Saskatchewan
As a kid, I could never figure out what quarter-sections were. Eventually I learned it was equivalent to 160 acres, but why was it a quarter-section? A quarter-section of what? And where did that long string of numbers and letters used to describe it come from? Well, better late than never, they say, and now …
I’ve been promoted to inspector!
Usually I think the Regina Leader Post does a pretty good job headlining my science column each week, but this week’s choice, for my column on high-tech cooking, is just weird: “Tips from a gadget inspector.“ Could have been worse, though. They could have titled it “Tips from Inspector Gadget.”
I get quoted by CBS Sports
Well, CBSSports.com, anyway. From an article called “How to improve your ball-striking ability“: 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 …
I get quoted by CBS Sports
Well, CBSSports.com, anyway. From an article called “How to improve your ball-striking ability“: 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 …
High-tech cooking
If you are my age or older, you still think of microwave ovens as pretty fancy high-tech gadgets. But microwave ovens (like me) have been around for decades. There are many more high-tech gadgets landing in kitchens all the time, and if most of them are currently found in expensive restaurants, that doesn’t mean they …
High-tech cooking
If you are my age or older, you still think of microwave ovens as pretty fancy high-tech gadgets. But microwave ovens (like me) have been around for decades. There are many more high-tech gadgets landing in kitchens all the time, and if most of them are currently found in expensive restaurants, that doesn’t mean they …
The Tunguska centennial
Canada Day and U.S. Independence Day fireworks this week in honour of the countries’ 111th 141st* and 232nd birthdays, respectively, can’t hold a Roman candle to the natural fireworks that erupted in western Siberia exactly 100 years ago. On June 30, 1908, at around 7:17 a.m. local time, natives and settlers near the Podkammennaya Tunguska …
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