Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, empathy, magic, reading, Thoughts on August 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“I believe that books-and all stories—are magic. They connect us, they shape us, and they make us more than who we are by causing us to care about the impossible—to care about people who are living lives that never were and never could be.
Real magic.” — Sarah Beth Durst
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, astrobiologist says, Fiction, inspiration, reading, science, scifi, suggestions on August 20, 2026| 1 Comment »
Do you like your fiction with a whole lot of responsibly deployed science? Seven Rasmussen, astrobiologist and author, has some suggestions for you!
An Astrobiologist’s Guide to the Best Sci-Fi Reads
Flex your mantle cavities over here, because I’m going to tell you about my favorite books and the science in them, from the astrophysics of Gideon the Ninth to the evolutionary biology of Children of Time. Please bear in mind that my choices (in no particular order, mind you), while they are technically opinion, they are absolutely correct, written in stone, and enforceable by federal law.
In case your to-be-read list needs a bit of a boost:)
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, AI, projects, reasoning with bots, speedbumps, technology, Thoughts on August 19, 2026| 2 Comments »
Some days you just don’t feel it, whatever “it” may be. I’ve been there, certainly, we all have, but today I’m not talking about myself.
I’m talking about AI. (Or as John Scalzi puts it, “AI.”)
Here’s (my tongue-in-cheek analysis of) the issue: I have a nonfiction project that’s been sitting on the back burner for a while (fine, years) because I’ve been avoiding the tedious formatting work required to put it all together. Like a more complicated version of getting Excel to extract URLs from a long list of hot links; hardly rocket science but annoying to have to do by hand.
What if, I asked myself, I could get this new fangled tech-no-logy to do that boring work for me? I’m not interested in it as a creative tool, but is this the sort of task it might do well?
At first, the answer seemed to be a solid yes. Terrific, I thought, I just need to prep a list of inputs and I’ll be good to go.
But that was yesterday.
Today, I used the same prompt and got a much different, and not nearly as useful, answer. Many followup prompts along the lines of “Hang on, this isn’t at all what you gave me before” and “Please return the thing I asked for, for crying out loud!” later and I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the program just isn’t feeling it today.
It also got me wondering: Is this the way actual intelligence arises from the primordial soup of 1s and 0s, in a haze of distracted mediocrity and foot-dragging compliance? More Murderbot than Star Trek’s tirelessly competent Data? And if so, what does that mean for the future?
Here’s hoping for a better tomorrow!
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Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, baking, delicious, food, quotes, Thoughts on August 18, 2026|
… and I don’t regret it!
“A slice of cake never made anyone fat. You don’t eat the whole cake. You don’t eat a cake every day of your life. You take the cake when it is offered because the cake is delicious. You have a slice of cake and what it reminds you of is someplace that’s safe, uncomplicated, without stress. A cake is a party, a birthday, a wedding. A cake is what is served on the happiest days of your life.” ― Jeanne Ray
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Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, #whoops!, inquiring minds, littering, moon, NASA, shouldn't there be a fine for that? on August 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »
In case you’ve been wondering what happened to that stray SpaceX rocket part heading for the moon?
New photos show site where SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into moon
And if you, like my friend Elaine Midcoh (great story, recommended!), are interested in the legal status of lunar-based events, this article has some preliminary thoughts.
A rocket crashed into the moon. It was harmless, but the next one might not be. – SpaceNews
Despite a lack of momentum toward a new legal framework, there are substantial mechanisms that can be taken now to mitigate harm from cislunar activity.
Best to prepare now, I think, while the regolith is still clear.
“If you believe you can accomplish everything by “cramming” at the eleventh hour, by all means, don’t lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your ark once it has already started raining” [rocket parts]. — Max Brooks (with a minor addition)
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, do good things, inspiration, legacy, quotes, Thoughts on August 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Statues are torn down, buildings with people’s names on them erode. The world is in constant change. The only legacy I recognize is doing good. I’m human, with my terrible faults, but I’m an admirer of good deeds.” — William Shatner
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, #YesIt'sZombiesAndYesIt'sScary!, creativity, dreams, horror, six-word story, Writers, writing on August 15, 2026| 1 Comment »
I may have mentioned before that I had a transformative encounter with a scary movie as a child (and still don’t like Dutch Colonial architecture) and don’t enjoy horror. I don’t often read it or write it, at least not on purpose, but my sleeping mind sometimes forgets that.
I woke this morning with a six-word story in my head.
Go away! We buried you yesterday.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, free fiction, literature, MacKenzie Scott, novels, publishing, Writers, writing on August 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Before MacKenzie Scott became one of the world’s most generous philanthropists, she was a novelist. Turns out she still is.
MacKenzie Scott has given away $26B. Now she’s releasing a novel—but you won’t find it on Amazon
Scott is releasing her new novel piece by piece, having dropped the title, epigraph, personae, and contents on Saturday, the prologue on Sunday, and the first chapter called “Monday” on Monday. It appears the entire novel will be out by Aug. 31.
Interestingly, the story is being serialized on Substack and is still being released, but this link takes you to the main page.
Start with the August 8th post, “Last Days in Two Nations.”
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, #ThankACanadian, Auroras, awards, sci-fi, science fiction, Writers, writing on August 13, 2026| 1 Comment »
Well, this is cool. Robert J. Sawyer, who I believe is still Canada’s most decorated sci-fi author, just won the Aurora Award for Best Novel for The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine.
Sci-fi author Robert J. Sawyer among winners of the 2026 Aurora Awards | CBC Books
In the book, a starship crew and ex-convict Roscoe Koudoulian upload their digital consciousnesses into cyberspace as an asteroid is about to crash into the earth. While in the digital world, they come face to face with ghosts from their past — and learn that the existence of the human race could soon be destroyed.
I’m looking forward to reading this, and the rest of what looks to be a very promising slate of science fiction and fantasy!
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Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, astronomy, eclipse, inspiration, meteor shower, Perseids, space on August 12, 2026| 1 Comment »
A quick reminder if you are in the path of today’s solar eclipse: it’s almost time! Here are a few interesting and related articles while you wait:)
The four astronauts who rounded Earth’s natural satellite in April got an extremely rare view of the dark lunar disk blocking out the sun.
The ultimate eclipse chase: A Concorde raced against the Moon’s shadow – Ars Technica
Fitted with telescopes, the plane did our longest imaging of the Sun’s corona.
From Solar corona to human emotions: What can we learn from eclipses? (2-4) – France 24
From the Sun’s corona to animal behaviour and human emotions, these rare celestial events continue to provide scientists with valuable insights more than two millennia after they were first observed.
It’s cloudy here right now but I’m still hoping to have clearer skies. Hopefully you will too, but if not, livestream it here! LIVE: Total Solar Eclipse – August 12, 2026
Here are a couple of other fun tools for mapping the eclipse.
2026 Total Solar Eclipse Interactive Map
New eclipse web app tracks real-time Sun coverage from anywhere in the world | Center for Astrophysics (here’s the app: Solar Eclipse 2026)
And tonight, the best meteor shower show of the year!
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