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Monday 28 April 2003
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Diane Duane, one of Ireland's resident science fiction authors. While perhaps best known for her Star Trek novels, she is also the author of the Young Wizards series for young adults. The series began in 1983 - long before Harry Potter - with So You Want To Be A Wizard. Well 20 years on, the series has been honoured with one of America's highest awards for young adult fiction. Here's how Diane describes finding out:
Holy cow!!
. So the mail arrives. Credit card bill, junk mail, satellite viewing card. And this: "The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation ...congratulates you on the selection of your Young Wizards series for a special commendation...recognizing your outstanding contribution to children's fantasy literature in the Anne Spencer Lindbergh Prize in Children's Literature.
The commendation goes on: "The Committee congratulates Diane Duane's Young Wizards series for its courage in tackling moral and emotional issues set on the frontiers of magic. In addition, the author's diverse worldview enhances the appeal of the series."
Wow, oh wow.
[Out of Ambit]
Congratulations Diane.
6:03:02 PM  Google It!
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Jeff Bezos, the man behind Amazon.com has finally been able to indulge his interest in space exploration. The Internet entrepreneur has recruited veteran SF author Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, to his company Blue Origins. The vehicle, called New Shepard, after Alan Shepard, should be ready to fly in the next few years. Apparently it will be a VTOL craft, similar to the now cancelled Delta Clipper, and will carry seven persons on a suborbital trajectory.
Full story at spacetoday.net
5:51:20 PM Google It!
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It looks like the US might soon be gettng serious about spam. Under proposed legislation, spammers will be required to put ADV: in the subject line of their e-mails. If they don't they will be liable to action from the Federal Telecommunications Commission. Recipients will be encouraged to report offenders with a bounty of 20 percent of the eventual fine paid going to the first person to report it. That's if the FTC is ever able to collect a fine. Oh, and US citizens only need apply. [CNET News.com]
5:13:56 PM Google It!
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SPACE.com reports that NASA engineers are helping out on a project to send a solar-sail powered spacecraft to the edge of the solar system.
Team Encounter LLC is a Heuston-based company that charged individuals between $25 and $75 to have their digitisied greeting and DNA included in the craft's payload. However, the ship was due to launch in 2001 and the company is now saying it hopes to launch a test craft to orbit the Earth in the middle of 2005. In the meantime, subscribers greetings are broadcast into space via a radio telescope in the Ukraine.
4:28:24 PM Google It!
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© Copyright 2003 David Stewart.
Last update: 24/06/2003; 20:57:03.
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