Orson Scott Card bio now out!

Well, I see that Amazon is now shipping it, so it must be official: my children’s biography of Orson Scott Card, Orson Scott Card: Architect of Alternate Worlds, is now out!

My kind of medical news:

“Flavanol-rich cocoa improves blood vessel function in aging baby boomer study participants.” Actually, my favorite thing about this study is that it refers to “young adults” as those under 50. My hope is that about the time I turn 50, the baby boomers will have re-defined “young adults” to those under 60. At this rate, …

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Fill in the blank: "Israeli special forces with their______…

…wait to cross the Israeli-Lebanon border.” – Photo caption Give up? Llamas, of course. I had no idea. (Via Tigerhawk.)

Photo of the Day: A Reflective Mood

More photos here.

The next X-Prize

Remember the X-Prize, the $10 million (U.S.) reward offered to any team that could create a privately funded-and-built spacecraft capable of lifting three humans to a sub-orbital altitude of 100 kilometres on two consecutive flights within two weeks? Of course you do. One of the 23 competing teams, the daVinci Project, was supposedly poised to …

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Paging Sherlock Holmes…

Japanese scientists have developed a smart carpet that can detect a person’s age and gender just by the way he/she walks.

Photo of the (Yester)Day: The Sharper(ner) Image

More photos here.

An aviation first for Canada

Earlier this month, a team at the University of Toronto successfully achieved sustained flight of a piloted ornithopter–an airplane with flapping wings. It only lasted 14 seconds, but you’ve got to start somewhere!

Invisibility:

It’s closer than you think.

Bad news for Martian life?

Two new studies say Martian dust storms could be generating toxic peroxide snow. That could be bad news for hopes for finding Martian life. On the other hand, it could just mean we should be looking for little blonde men instead of little green men.

Calculating my "Sci-fi" credentials

Over at SCI FI Weekly, Michael Cassutt offers a quiz to calculate your “sci-fi credentials.” Let’s see how I do. There are 10 questions, with a maximum of 10 points each, for a total of 100 possible points. 1. Have you ever used a calculator when writing a script or story? (And not just, as …

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Photo of the Week Which Explains Why There Weren’t More Photos of the Day: Sage Hill Teens

Here’s the outstanding group I just spent a week with as instructor of the Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience. It was great! There’s a lot of talent sitting on that Sherwood Village Public Library staircase… I should be blogging more often in the coming week.