Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s tourists-into-suborbital space venture, and the state of New Mexico have signed an agreement to build a $225 million spaceport in the state–which is best known, at least in certain elite circles (my family) as my birthplace. Ninety percent of the spaceport will be built underground, about 25 miles south of Truth …
Turns out the 1.5-metre tooth that emerges from the left side of the upper jaw of the narwhal is something unique in the animal world: a sensory probe with more than 10 million nerve connections that tunnel from the tusk’s core to its surface. Cool. And wouldn’t “The Secret of the Narwhal’s Tusk” be a …
The sad fate of some Swift Current-area pigs illustrates how important it was that farms be properly wired. Why, yes, I’m writing about rural electrification; how could you tell?
From an engineering perspective, at least, the “Big Dig” began with Blair Paterson, former executive director of Wascana Centre Authority. The topic? The revitalization (through extensive deepening) of Wascana Lake, in the heart of the city of Regina.
One device away from the beginning of the end of traditional book publishing? Sounds right to me. Of course, for me, my Audiovox Harrier already serves as a perfectly terrific e-book reader. In fact, the device described in the Michael Hyatt article I linked above sounds rather bulky. The size of a hardcover book? Yikes! …
Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in collaboration with a national team have developed a biodefense cocktail which activates the immune system against a broad range of viruses and bacteria. The new treatment boosts the body’s response against common characteristics of germs. Not a lot of detail in this press release, unfortunately, …
British architects have drawn up plans for a kilometre-tall skyscraper, which could be built in Kuwait. If it’s built, it will be twice as tall as the world’s tallest building today, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which is 509 metres tall. I immediately thought of Robert Silverberg’s novel The World Inside, where people live in …
The North Magnetic Pole appears to be fleeing the country. However, spokespersons for the North Magnetic Pole, speaking on condition they not be identified, claim this should not be taken as a political statement. One saving grace, from the point of view of the Canadian ego: it’s heading to Siberia, not to the U.S.
In 1908, Traffic Bridge was the scene of a near-disaster that marked the end of large-scale river traffic in Saskatoon. Yep, still writing the section on Saskatoon bridges.
Somehow I missed this last month, but the oldest map of anywhere in the western world, dating from about 500 B.C., has been found in southern Italy.
If you were to play a word association game with a random selection of people, it’s a safe bet that the word most would associate with the phrase “engineering project” would be “bridge.” Today’s topic: the bridges of Saskatoon, and specifically the Broadway Bridge, also known as the “Engineers’ Bridge.”
NASA might be interested. It’s posted its official request for proposals for privately built spacecraft that could ferry supplies and crew to the International Space Station. (Via Dispatches from the Final Frontier.)
