Category Archives: Blog

Blog

NASA gets ready to send Phoenix to Martian pole

NASA is getting ready for its next Mars Lander to be launched. The Phoenix will be landing in the polar region, where we know ice exists.

Ice means water. Water might mean a better chance of determining if life exists on Mars. It will be checking the conditions to see if they’re amenable to life.

That seems to be a bit of a wishy-washy mission statement, though, and it would be a bit more exciting in their press releases to know if these instruments can do more than just check conditions and maybe give us a hint about the big question: is there life?

Blog

A magnetic generator that actually works as advertised

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Once you’ve indulged in a bit of schadenfreude and watched the CEO of ‘perpetual motion’ company Steorn explaining why it is that his demo failed to work, marvel at the fact that magnetism can be used to create a ready source of energy – this
little gadget is powered by small vibrations {correction} moving a bundle of tiny magnets, which creates a tiny electric current that can power an equally tiny electronic device, like a sensor. How great would it be to have a phone you could recharge with a vigorous shake?

Blog

Spacesuits and Sixguns – free fiction online

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It’s official – there really is more free genre fiction online than I will ever have time to read, even if I stopped reading anything else. Still, diversity is a sign of a healthy growing market, so they say; so those of you who have more spare time than myself (which is most of you, I’m guessing) may want to wander over to check out the third issue of Spacesuits And Sixguns. If the fiction is of a similar quality to the artwork, it won’t be a wasted visit.

Blog

Gibson’s Spook Country comes to the metaverse

Following on from the interview I linked to yesterday, it looks like the Gibsonian publicity engine is moving into high gear ahead of the release of his forthcoming novel, Spook Country – which esteemed genre critic John Clute has reviewed for SciFi.com. In a move that makes perfect sense for the man whose name will forever be associated with cyberpunk (whether he wants it that way or not), his publishers are using the metaverse as a promotional tool; as reported by UKSF Book News and Forbidden Planet, Second Life is going to be full of promotional events connected to the release of Spook Country. Just what I need – more reasons to hang about in SL instead of getting any real work done. If I were a published author, though, I could probably justify it as self-promotion – maybe Walter John Williams should add it to his list of ways to grow a Long Tail?