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If you're having problems with animals listening to you (Aqua Man, no need to apply), you may want to check out some of the research Chinese scientists have been compiling recently. There are reports that the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center of east China's Shandong University of Science and Technology is implanting micro electrodes in pigeons to control their movements.
Being an author (occasionally) and having book events (rarer than occasionally), people often recommend other books or authors I should read. Usually the books pertain to what I have written about (technology) or possibly the style in which I attempt to write (sarcastic humor?).
Most people will agree that trash is piling up everywhere. And most people also agree that we need to decrease the amount of fossil fuels used on a routine basis.
Thanks to modern marvels of science, maybe this will be the norm in the future, as scientists at Purdue have developed a portable generator that turns trash into fuel. The "tactical biorefinery," as it's called, can process multiple kinds of waste, which in turn can convert the waste into fuel.
The newly created Midwest Writers Guild in Evansville, Ind., is hosting a book fair and sponsoring a student writing contest.
The Spring Book Fair will take place 9 a.m.-4 p.m. March 17 at the Washington Square Mall in Evansville. High school students (grades 8-12) must submit their work during this time. Here is the contest registration form.
Authors who are interested in participating in the event must complete this registration form. The cost is $20 for a partial table. Barnes & Noble will handle the transactions.
I will be participating in the 2007 BookExpo America, which will be held May 31-June 3 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. This will be my first book expo, which is billed as "the premier event serving the U.S. book publishing industry."
If you haven't been to Friendster lately, it might be time to go back and check it out. Released in September, Friendster 2.0 appears to be not only leading the way with online social networking, but it may also be replacing Internet dating websites.
There are a fair amount of improvements with the new Friendster, including the following:
- FriendTracker: Real-time updates about your friends' information
- Customizable Profile: Ability to use HTML or CSS for your profile
There are a plenty of new careers and opportunities these days, yet you rarely see anyone entering the piracy field. Some people have invented their own versions of a shipwrecked pirate - stealing stereos, hacking into computer files, playing baseball in Pittsburgh - but few take their chances on the high seas.
On the other hand, the Assocated Press said pirates killed more people in 1998 than the year before. The International Maritime Bureau reported Malaysian pirates, who killed 67 crewmen last year, are "getting increasingly violent."
Pirates? Violent?
QUESTION
Is it ever appropriate to use profanities in an email?
LAEL: YES
It's okay by my standards to use profanities in email to people that you would normally say profantities when speaking. However, you should becareful not to tell grandma to kick @ss in tomorrow's bingo tournament ... As with all things email related, you should be careful what you write because you never know who is going to see it.
AMANDA: YES
(This column was originally published in the Crawfordsville Journal Review on July 9, 1999)
Nomads have wandered through cities during the last two weeks, sold their goods and departed for lands of milk and honey.
They don't leave a trail, but their wares do - usually ashes, perhaps a foul-smelling odor but always a glowing experience.
Fireworks salespeople have rigorous lives. I recently caught up with one such seller, Smokin' Joe Romancandle. What follows is his normal day:
During the weekend, I had a chance to finally attend the Baltimore Writers' Conference. There had been times in the past when I was thinking about going to one, but I could never fit it into my schedule. Luckily, I think I picked a pretty decent one to attend. First, it happened to be at Towson University, where I attend grad school. Second, there was a pretty good crowd of people there, all of whom seemed like qualified members of the writing profession.