Wow. More than 7,000 people have told Richard Branson they would pay 115,000 pounds to go into space when Virgin Galactic starts flying in 2008…including William Shatner, Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk. Appropriate, since the first Virgin Galactic tourist craft is going to be named Enterprise.
So says Brian Feeney, the man who plans to ride the rocket into sub-orbit.
I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these. (And yes, I realize that the circulation versions will be somewhat smaller than the one in the picture…) You never know what’ll be on your Canadian quarter these days–I don’t know exactly how many designs are out there, but there are a lot. This …
…is, of course, the science-fictional headline of the week.
Chalk up another one for Einstein. The world, NASA says, is dragging time and space with it as it rotates…just as Albert predicted in his general theory of relativity.
Occasionally, I find myself missing Dungeons and Dragons. Apparently, I’m not the only one. Who knew? I, too, have a dusty case full of D&D manuals, old dice, and pages and pages of campaign material. My group at university scorned pre-published scenarios; we made up everything from whole cloth. Alas, my D&Ding died away when …
I spent last weekend in Saskatoon at the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild‘s annual fall conference. Among the events was a joint reading by two renowned Canadian writers, science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer and poet George Elliot Clarke. It should surprise no reader of my column that I generally prefer readings by SF writers to readings …
When I was a kid, I read a book called Interrupted Journey. So did a lot of other people. It pretty much had me convinced that Betty and Barney Hill really were abducted by aliens (I’d take it with a lot more salt now at age 45 than I did at age 10). Betty certainly …
Two years or more to Mars is too long. Fortunately, there may be a better way.
No blogging for the past few days due to a trip to Saskatoon (and back, and there, and back again). We went up to see Sting and Annie Lennox at Saskatchewan Place. Fabulous concert (not the greatest venue in the world, being a hockey rink, but adequate). I had to drive back the very next …
Among the mysteries of the ages are burning questions whose answers have eluded great thinkers for decades, centuries, even millennia: What is the meaning of life? How do they get the caramel into a Caramilk bar? And why do curling rocks curl? For the first two questions I have no answers at this time. For …
Promising news on the cancer-treatment front:switching off a particular gene in mice–using a common antibiotic–also switches off liver cancer cells. Of course, fighting cancer always seems to be easier in mice…
