My dingy little flat is pretty messy, and my excuse is that I’m always too busy to keep on top of things – blogging really chews up the hours, don’tcha know. Maybe I can apply to beta-test Domo, a robot housekeeper being developed by the techie types at MIT. Granted, his remit is to help the elderly or physically disadvantaged, but I think I could make a good case for my natural untidiness being a form of disability …

I’m sure a lot of people here have read some good old-school science fiction stories set on alien planets teeming with unfamiliar animals and vegetation. Current scientific thinking validates the work of authors who went wild with the colour scheme and wrote of strangely hued plant life – because different types of star supply different ranges of light, and vegetation needs to absorb the best of it to survive.

You may have noticed I’ve been posting early today – that’s because I need time to get my packing sorted before I head off to Eastercon early tomorrow morning. Thankfully, the wonders of portable computing and wireless internet access mean that I can take pictures, record interviews and type reports for my own blog (Velcro City Tourist Board) while in the thick of the UK’s biggest literary SF convention of the year – and I’ll be dropping by here a few times over the weekend to let you know about anything particularly special you might want to take a look at or listen to. I’ll bet the prospect of an interview with Charlie Stross would tempt you to click a few times, no? 🙂

Here we go – another burst of reactionary technophobia masquerading as serious research into a correlation between video game violence and the real thing. I remain to be convinced that cause and effect are as clear cut as these studies claim them to be – and I’d be very interested to discover where the funding for this particular project came from.

On the surface of it, I rather like the idea of taking tablets that will help me get up feeling fresh when the alarm goes off in the morning. But knowing the little I know about the placebo effect, and how cynical a business the dietary supplements and ‘life enhancement products’ industry really is, I think I’ll let someone else road-test before I lay down money for them. [OhGizmo!]