Our collective ears have swiveled downward, from the sounds of the sky, to the jingling of our coin purse. The SETI Institute halted operations of the radio telescopes in the Allen Telescope Array, the San Jose Mercury News reported Monday. Until a few days ago, these telescopes had been scanning the sky, radio-ears at the…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a freelance writer, embarking on her career, must be in want of health insurance. –Jane Austen Danielle Venton The first time someone tells you that marrying well is key to successful freelancing – by that read “marrying into health insurance” – it’s fairly easy to laugh. It lends…
The effects of Japan’s Honshu earthquake reached as far as Santa Cruz on the Californian coast. On March 11 the waves came and left tens of millions of dollars in damage to the harbor. On spring break, I wandered down to take a look. This is what I found . . . One week after…
If any masthead defines the culture of tech-geek-cool, it’s Wired. For the savvy, info-hungry reader, Wired gives a smart, incisive take on everything . . . with an extra fleck of awesomeness. Last week the folks behind Student Voices, one of the Nature blogs, kindly asked to write about what it’s like to be at…
A couple of good lemon recipes One of my favorite cakes to make, containing a few of my favorite things: zucchini, olive oil and lemons. Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze With eggs, almonds, cream and lemons, this frittata-cum-tart is a knee-weakening swirl of flavors. Cake, Tart, Frittata: Call It the New Baking I haven’t…
I’ve been reading Cronin in Santa Cruz. It’s less exotic than Lolita in Tehran, but more personal. My grandmother, Dinah Cronin, died 15 years ago. During my childhood I visited her a few times in Arizona, but she passed before I got to know her well. So, I’ve been developing my relationship with her through…
“I know that piece of paper is around here somewhere . . .” Getting the newspaper out is sometimes called the “daily miracle.” And while it might not be exactly comparable to walking on water, the daily cycle leaves me ever-awed. The week after classes let out one of our professors, a reporter and editor…
Among the lush pickings of memorable lines from the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite, one of the best is Kip’s to his brother: “Napoleon, don’t be jealous that I’ve been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I’m training to be a cage-fighter.” (Video from Hulu, if you’re rusty on the scene,…
My mother gave me this wonderful old slip of paper hand typed by my grandmother many decades ago. It is a set of guidelines for “Writing Stories that Sell.” The advice proffered is still valid, so I wanted to share. The charming exception is the section detailing how to prepare your manuscript for submission. What…
Not much is off limits. In research, if you can quantify it, you can study it. In journalism, if you can justify it, you can do it. Our class stories appeared on mongabay.com this week. I wrote about researchers who study cheetah fertility with ultra-sonography. It’s gotten me interested in other ultra-sound uses, beyond the…
