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While NASA has successfully landed nine spacecraft on Mars over the past 50 years and China scored a 2021 touchdown, no one has ever reached Phobos or its sidekick Deimos. And no one has managed to fetch samples from Mars, let alone its moons. https://apnews.com/article/japan-mars-moon-mission-fb51fbbf90374631e8ae658f9ca461 JAXA launched their MMX (Martian Moon Explorer) spacecraft successfully on October 20th. It hopes […]
Beyond Spacesuits: How Genetic Engineering Could Make Us Martian
When we think about colonizing Mars, we usually imagine advanced spacesuits, dome cities, and massive terraforming projects. Beyond Spacesuits: How Genetic Engineering Could Make Us Martian Wish I had seen this writing prompt this past June! I could have written… Well, probably something very similar to this. Only without the obvious use of AI. Just […]
Shadows on the Hudson: The Forgotten Borderland Raids of Saratoga
This is the second of a series of posts introducing the five-part historical fiction novel Unbowed, which will be published in November 2026. All five parts are based on true events and real people – my ancestors. The first post described the outcome of the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and one of its survivors, […]
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Category Archives: parenting
Home for the holidays (Part 2)
As I wrote a couple days ago, I’ve been spending the New Year’s holidays with my wife’s family in Kagoshima for a decade now. In that span of time, there have been five children born into the immediate extended family, … Continue reading
Sleep, perchance to…
One of the biggest differences since we moved into a house is the sleeping arrangements. When our oldest daughter was a baby, we were living in an apartment with a traditional Japanese straw mat (tatami) room and no bed. So … Continue reading
Organic dining with kids
I owe my love of organic gardening to my father, who started growing his own vegetables on the Methodist Church property behind our apartment in the “oil crisis” of the early 1970s. From him, I learned how to compost, properly … Continue reading