A smile, a palpable smile!

The “Morning Smile” in the Globe and Mail usually leaves me cold, but I did get a kick out of this one: Unfortunately, due to CRTC regulations, Michael Moore’s new film Fahrenheit 911 will be released in Canada as Celsius 488. Ed Wheeler.

Counting Arctic fishies

This is a very cool–downright icy, in fact–project. It will be interesting to see what they turn up; let’s hope it’s not all gone in a few more decades.

No, he’s not from Krypton

He’s not really Super Boy, but an unusually strong youngster born in Germany has revealed a gene mutation that leads to mighty muscles.

Cory Doctorow on I, Robot

Cory Doctorow writes about Isaac Asimov, and the upcoming film adaptation of his collection I, Robot, in Wired.

More about Phoebe

Looks like Saturn’s moon Phoebe probably originated in the Kuiper Belt, not the asteroid belt; it’s a frozen time capsule of the early solar system.

Burning up tumors with nanoshells

Nanotechnology isn’t just about self-replicating robots threatening to turn the world into gray goo; it’s also about Betterhumans >fighting cancer.

Aboriginal science

In 2000, Buffy Sainte-Marie, the Saskatchewan-born singer, artist, teacher and Academy Award-winning songwriter, was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters Degree by Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. During her convocational address, she mentioned some of the breakthroughs of aboriginal peoples in science and technology. Inspired by her address, Lakehead University shortly thereafter set …

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J. R. R. Tolkien the OED

Here’s a fascinating article on a href=”http://dictionary.oed.com/newsletters/2002-06/tolkien.html”J. R. R. Tolkien’s work on the Oxford English Dictionary/a. I wish I’d seen this before I wrote my children’s biography of Tolkien; I could have added a couple of interesting paragraphs.

J. R. R. Tolkien & the OED

Here’s a fascinating article on J. R. R. Tolkien’s work on the Oxford English Dictionary. I wish I’d seen this before I wrote my children’s biography of Tolkien; I could have added a couple of interesting paragraphs.

I don’t think he likes it…

Christopher Hitchens writes in Slate on Michael Moore’s new film, Fahrenhei 9/11: To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise …

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Private rocket ship breaks space barrier

As if you need me to point you to this story…they did it! On the other hand, sounds like they had a few problems. The Da Vinci Project may yet catch up to win the prize…

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The comet Wild 2, as seen by the Stardust spacecraft, with the names assigned by the Stardust team to the visible features. Cool!