The main location for the action in my new SF novel, set on a mostly ocean-covered world circling a distant star, is a town called Hansen’s Harbor, named after Dr. Victor Hansen, who led his genetically modified merpeople to safety. Today I discovered someone had found my blog while searching for Hansen’s Harbor. Turns out …
Yesterday I photographed two of the tours from Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw. First: Lakeview. Lots of very nice houses. Lots of other scenic things to shoot, starting with Wascana Centre: As you can tell, it may be March, but it definitely ain’t spring yet: Of course there were the obvious things I …
I’ve started writing some entertainment stories for the Regina Leader Post on a freelance basis. My first one ran today, but unfortunately was curtailed rather drastically, so that it ended extremely abruptly. So here’s the complete story, as it read in a perfect world where newspapers have unlimited space and brilliant copy is never edited: …
…was how I spent a large chunk of today. Still working on Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw, and having been stymied in my plan to do two, count ’em, two tours yesterday by snow. (Snow! In Saskatchewan! In the winter! Who’d have thunk it?) today I at least managed one, in the General …
NASA is sending an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle–a.k.a. a robotic sub–to explore the world’s deepest sinkhole: Like La Pilita, Zacatón is in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and was formed by the collapse of a limestone chamber dissolved by warm, acidic groundwater that originated in a nearby volcanic region. The current theory is that the cenote …
A 127-mph submarine!
…comes this story, headlined “Star Trek-like ‘Tricorder’ becomes science fact”: A press release at Purdue University has unveiled the startling news that a portable sensing system to analyze chemical components is now a reality. About the size of a large car battery, the unit is, at less than 20 pounds, much smaller than the refrigerator …
That’s what they call the part of the city (formerly known as the Transition Area) I was taking pictures in today. Here are a few: This municipal heritage property has long been one of my favorite houses in the city, and no wonder. It was built in 1911 (at a cost of $30,000) for Lorence …
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have announced the final ballot for this year’s Nebula Awards, made up of the top vote-getters from the preliminary ballot, which is a list of all the stories that received at least 10 recommendations from active members of SFWA by the end of 2006. The final …
“Set phasers on stun!” Captain Kirk used to order his crew, the usual preference of the United Federation of Planets being to avoid killing aliens, no matter how bad their make-up, if at all possible. Alas, in the real world, we don’t always have that option. Aside from the Taser, which zaps people with an …
…I’ve been struggling with computer problems that culminated today in my taking my desktop machine to the shop. Then I spent several more hours getting my laptop (on which I’m writing this) set up as my temporary desktop machine. By way of making amends, I offer several photos taken while I was strolling around the …
Bigelow Aerospace has big plans for Earth orbit–and beyond: Even as Bigelow Aerospace gears up for launching its second prototype space station into orbit, the company has set its sights on something much, much bigger: a project to assemble full-blown space villages at a work site between Earth and the moon, then drop them to …
