So there I am in Timothy’s on Scarth Street in Regina, getting my morning cinnamon bun. Each day this particular coffee shop asks a trivia question; if you’re one of the first 10 people to get the correct answer, you win a gift certificate for a free cup of coffee. The answer to the previous …
The universe is doomed!
So why not leave?
Lunar colony to run on moon dust and robots
Anything that makes it more likely we can build lunar colonies is good news. I’m still hoping I might retire on the moon–1/6th gravity would be marvelous for old hearts, joints and bones, wouldn’t it? (Provided you never tried to return to Earth, of course…)
SF headline of the day…
Army Prepares ‘Robo-Soldier’ for Iraq. (Registration required, I think…)
The search for the lost library of Rome
Could an unbelievable intellectual treasure still be moldering away in the basement of an ancient Roman villa? Inquiring minds–and The Herculaneum Society–want to know!
My story, Between the Covers
No, that’s not an invitation to read my books in bed, although that’s a fine place to read them–any place is a fine place to read them. Between the Covers, in this instance, is the CBC Radio program, and I heard officially this week that they’re planning to present my short story “Strange Harvest” as …
Making plastics from oranges
Why make plastics from our precious limited supplies of petroleum, when you can make them from a renewable source like orange peels–and use up some carbon dioxide in the process?
Yeah, but how much will the cartridges cost?
University of Manchester researchers have developed a breakthrough technology that could allow made-to-measure skin and bones to be created using an ink-jet printer.
The way of the lotus…
…could lead to self-cleaning windows, water-repellent windshield glass, and more.
"A wonderful surprise"
That mysterious chunk of metal Opportunity ran across on Mars has been confirmed as a meteorite. Lead scientist Steve Squyres calls that finding a “wonderful surprise,” and I suppose it is, but wouldn’t it have been an even more wonderful surprise had things taken an SFnal turn and it had proven to be a chunk …
Seeking the secrets of spider silk
A few years ago I wrote a column to which, much to my delight, I was able to assign the rather B-movie-ish title “Spider-Goat Clones of Montreal.” The column described how a Montreal company called Nexia Technologies had cloned goats that had been genetically engineered to produce spider-silk proteins in their milk. Nexia retrieved the …
My fellow alumnus
Here’s a USA Today feature about Jerry “Boo” Mitchell, who, like me, holds a journalism degree from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. I don’t really remember him, even though we’re the same age–or, rather, because we’re the same age, because my own peculiar schooling history (skipped first grade, summer birthday, Grade 12 credits from Saskatchewan …
My latest live walk and vlog
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