The first sentence I wrote today was…

Something seemed to click into place inside him, and the heat of his anger suddenly vanished. Current word count: 2,724New words today: 1,201*Percentage of novel completed: 2.7 *Actually I wrote more, because the first thing I did today was delete about four paragraphs I had written yesterday that were getting me off on the wrong …

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If Pluto isn’t a planet, Earth may not be either

The Great Planet Definition Debate of 2006 is far from over after all.

Free science fiction!

Project Gutenberg, which makes public-domain works freely available in electronic format, has a large selection of classic science fiction that has either fallen out of copyright due to age or whose copyright was not renewed, allowing it to move into public domain. Branko Collin writes at TeleRead: Authors include H. Beam Piper, Andre Norton, Terry …

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Promising Alzheimer’s research:

Brain enzyme treatment relieves memory lapse in Alzheimer’s mice.

A journey of 100,000 words begins with a single sentence…

As previously announced, I’ve sold a second novel to DAW Books on the basis of a synopsis. The subsequent signed contract indicates that this novel will be 100,000 words, and that it is due on December 20. This being the case, I thought it best to perhaps begin writing. Which I have done, as of …

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The software orchestra…

…is coming. Will it replace human musicians? Not yet. But it will be a boon for composers who want to hear what their orchestral arrangement sounds like without having to hire an orchestra. And it just might be a boon for organizations like Regina Lyric Light Opera, whose largest single expense of staging a musical …

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The outermost planet in the solar system…

…is now Neptune.

Photo of the Weekend III: At Home on the Range

More photos here.

Happy birthday!

Science fiction great Ray Bradbury is 86 today.

Lassie, call your lawyer!

First it was dolphins, now dogs: Chimpanzees and two-year-old children are as clever as each other but dogs are not as smart as previously thought, according to a University of Queensland study.

Manure: making ethanol efficient!

Last week Husky Energy Inc. announced that its ethanol plant in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, will be producing within weeks and should reach peak production by the end of the year. Ethanol, a.k.a. ethyl alcohol, is a renewable fuel source distilled from biomass—typically wheat, sugar, corn or soybeans. It can be blended with gasoline to reduce the …

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Photo of the Weekend II: The Flower Girl

I’ve got lots of photos from this past weekend in southwestern Saskatchewan and the weekend (and week before) in Calgary–so many I’m going to forego the Photo of the Day for a while and post some of my recent favorites. Like this one, of my daughter Alice. More photos here.