If you’re interested in Mars…

…you’ll want to keep an eye on Mars: The International Journal of Mars Science and Exploration, a brand-new peer-reviewed online open access scholarly journal. Known informally simply as The Mars Journal, this is the first scholarly journal devoted strictly to Mars-related science, technology and policy.

Details of that Virgin/New Mexico spaceport deal

Dispatches from the Final Frontier has details of that Virgin Galactic/New Mexico spaceport deal. Anybody got a couple of hundred thousand dollars they’d like to give me?

The first sentence I wrote today was…

A major engineering project is always a challenge, but that challenge is heightened when the project happens to be located deep in Saskatchewan’s northern wilderness. The topic: the Island Falls hydroelectric plant, Saskatchewan’s first hydroelectric facility, built in 1930.

‘Lectricity from lignite

Should you be one of those who receives a lump of coal in your stocking this Christmas, don’t despair and think you’ve been bad: Santa may just be urging you to give thanks for a remarkable resource which, among other things, may well be powering the lights on your Christmas tree. Coal is fossil plant …

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My brith state to get spaceport

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 …

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The secret of the narwhal’s tusk

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 …

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The first sentence I wrote today was…

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?

The first sentence I wrote today was…

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.

The death of traditional book publishing?

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! …

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Moving beyond one vaccine for one germ

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, …

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Now that’s a skyscraper

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 …

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Another blow to Canadian pride

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.