That’s the projection of astronomer Seth Shostack from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, California. I hope he’s right!
My favorite de(con)struction of The Day After Tomorrow
It’s by William Hyde, a paleoclimatologist from Duke University. Enjoy!
Giving the past back its voice
Technology for recording sound has been around a lot longer than many people realize, long enough that some very interesting people we now think of as distant historical figures made recordings of their voices–people like Queen Victoria, Alfred Tennyson and Florence Nightingale. We seldom hear those recordings, though, because they’re so fragile that playing them …
Reading Diary: August 3
A slightly delayed reading diary, because I wanted to be able to report that I had finished The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen–which I have. Highly recommended, a fascinating bit of popular history that points up the largely forgotten impact that the Chicago World’s Fair had on everything from popular culture to …
Maggots make medical comeback
I wouldn’t exactly call this the science fiction headline of the week, but…maybe the medieval fantasy headline of the week?
Writing Diary: July 30, 2004
Not much to report from yesterday. I spent part of the day preparing and then delivering my Saskatchewan Book Awards entries (I entered The Iran-Iraq War, Ayatollah Khomeini and J.R.R. Tolkien: Master of Imaginary Worlds in the children’s literature category, and also entered the Tolkien bio in the non-fiction category; I might have entered more …
Off to Mercury
Mercury is not a very nice place, but it’s an interesting one. NASA is launching a probe to the inmost planet on Monday. Who knew it was so hard to get to?
Transportation Futuristics
Don’t miss this online exhibit about the future in transportation…as they saw it in the past. Where DID I park my flying car, anyway?
Writing Diary: July 28 29
Not very productive, these last two days. Tuesday I got very little done because I had one of those eye exams where they dilate your pupils–which meant, I discovered, while I could read text on the 19-inch desktop computer monitor, I couldn’t read it on my laptop when I took it down to Second Cup …
Writing Diary: July 28 & 29
Not very productive, these last two days. Tuesday I got very little done because I had one of those eye exams where they dilate your pupils–which meant, I discovered, while I could read text on the 19-inch desktop computer monitor, I couldn’t read it on my laptop when I took it down to Second Cup …
NASA begins working on new moonship
NASA has begun preliminary work on a new moonship. Yay!
SF headline of the week
Actually, it sounds more like horror: “The bizarre case of the bone-eating worms.” These are worms that dine on whalebone. The females never leave once they dig into a bone; the males never taste the bone, because they live inside the females. This world of ours is a strange and fascinating place indeed.
My latest live walk and vlog
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