Take teeny-tiny four-dimensional building blocks, add a dash of causality, and let stand for 20 billion years.

The designer of the Mercury spacecraft has died at age 83.

This planet isn’t unique. I don’t believe for an instant that we’re the only intelligent species in the universe. Whether we’ll ever prove that I’m correct, or make contact with our fellow sapients…well, that’s another question. One that science fiction is quite prepared to tackle, I might add.

Light blogging the last couple of days, except for posting my science column, but I’m still ticking! I’ve gotten in some good licks on Excalibur Reforged, and, of course, there was the aforementioned science column on the Ig Nobels (always one of my favorites). I’ve also had some Regina Lyric Light Opera stuff to work …

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There may be another big space race in the offing to put the first private manned spacecraft in orbit.

In what has become an annual tradition, I’m pleased to bring you the results of this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes, awarded by the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research to those who have done something that “first makes people laugh, then makes them think.” The awards were presented on September 30 at Harvard University …

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Well, that’s better! Tried to blog off and on all day (and last evening, too, come to think of it) and Blogger did not seem to be working. But, here I am! Not much to blog about at this hour, though. No science column today–that’s tomorrow’s duty since this is a non-CBC week. (Sniffle. I …

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The Ig Nobel Prizes have been handed out for 2004. Fish flatulence, hula hoops and more are featured. More details may very well be forthcoming in next week’s science column…

Ever wonder what you serve with that Chinese delicacy, the thousand-year-old egg? How about some 2,500-year-old-pomegranates?

Nanotechnology, as any self-respecting SF reader or writer knows, has the potential to some day usher in utopia. But utopia can only be achieved one step at a time…one better-smelling step at a time.

Yesterday: editing of the science column (scroll down to read about the flu shot), and a few pages of Excalibur Reforged; today, Excalibur Reforged and odds and ends. How’s that for being brief and to the point?

I’m a big fan of airships–I’d love to fly in one and I’ve long mourned the demise of the Zeppelins of old–so I found this story interesting.