As a former newspaper reporter and editor I try not to bash the media too much, but… The last paragraph of a just-released UPI item about research on the origin of blondes reads: A study by the World Health Organization found that natural blondes are likely to be extinct within 200 years because there are …

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New Scientist reports: Motion compensation software that synchronises the movement of robotic surgical tools with that of the heart will make it possible to operate without stopping or even slowing the heart down. I do love living in a science-fictional age.

Octavia E. Butler, one of the few (and certainly the most successful) African-American women to write in the field of science fiction, has died. I’ve read and admired a great deal of her work; she’ll be sorely missed.

Terry Teachout writes about the death of Don Knotts, and the death of an era that both he and I remember (although, I hasten to add, he’s much older than me, since he was born in 1956 and I didn’t come along until…195…um, a LONG time later…)

Last night I posted a lengthy report on the wine and cheese tasting held by the German Wine Society at its annual general meeting last Sunday night. Check it out on the joint blog run by my wife and me, Willetts on Wine.

More about ice from NASA: If you’re watching the Winter Olympics, you know that snow and ice are an integral part of the sports. But did you know that snow and ice need to be different for each sport? NASA scientist Peter Wasilewski’s studies of ice using polarized light create beautiful colored pictures of the …

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I should have mentioned this earlier, but I recently updated the SF Canada site that I maintain. SF Canada is the association of professional speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror) writers in Canada. The update includes an interview with publisher Brian Hades of EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, an interview with Gordon van Gelder, …

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National Geographic posts Curling Quandary: Why Stones Curl the “Wrong” Way. I would like to point out, for the record, that my column “Why Curling Rocks Curl,” containing the same information (which I’m sure I picked up on from some news item I saw), was posted back in 2004. It’s interesting to note, by the …

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Introducing what I hope will be at least a semi-regular feature here at Hassenpfeffer: the Photo of the Day, in which I indulge my inner artist and try to capture a visually interesting digital photograph from my surroundings.