Blogroll

Close encounters of the turd kind

“Defecation and urination have been bothersome aspects of space travel from the beginning of manned space flight.”

This conspicuous observation opens the second chapter of a 1976 NASA report called Biomedical Results of Apollo, which summarized what was learned from biomedical research in the Apollo missions. The report reveals the rather primitive nature of “fecal […]

Book Review: Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich

Elements of our lives undoubtedly impact not only what we read but how we read it. Growing up during the Gemini and Apollo programs left me with a continued interest in space-related topics. Later training in a “just the facts ma’am” approach to journalism tends to leave me feeling terms like “creative nonfiction” have more […]

Book Review: First Contact by Marc Kaufman

Imagine the proverbial search for the needle in the haystack. Fortunately, anyone searching knows what a needle is. Multiply the strands of hay billions of times and you’re approaching one of the haystacks in which those in search of extraterrestrial life are working. Yet their effort struggles with a fundamental question: How do you define […]

My Best in Books 2010

As usual, I’m posting my favorite books of the year at year-end. Given that I tend to do a lot of reading over the holidays, I fear that if I do it too early there’s a chance I’ll miss THE book. That didn’t happen this year. In fact, I wasn’t really overwhelmed by anything this […]

Reading in space

So, you’re going to spend a few months on the International Space Station and need a few diversions. Since you just can’t stroll to the nearest library or video store and even Amazon and Netflix don’t deliver there, you’ve got to hope it’s got some good entertainment on hand. Some idea of what’s available came […]