Your Halloween treat: nine new articles

I'm late posting this week's list of articles because our unexpected and bizarre Halloween snowstorm has left us without power, heat or Internet. Luckily, hotel rooms provide all three!

This week's two Extinction Countdown columns for Scientific American couldn't be more different, but they are each vitally important in their own ways:

Poachers Drive Javan Rhino to Extinction in Vietnam

Please Don’t Feed the Endangered Eagles?

I'm back at Mother Nature Network after a couple of weeks (my editor took some time off). Here are my latest stories for them:

Prince Charles claims kinship to Vlad the Impaler, helps to save Transylvania's forests 

Apple plans massive solar farm in North Carolina

College tailgate parties go green with the EPA's Game Day Challenge

GPS maker Garmin releases fitness app for iPhone and Android

Green Hands USA seems to have finished up its brief resurrection. Here are the final few posts for October:

Target Commits to Sustainable Seafood

Tips for a Eco-Friendly Halloween

Giving Jewelry? Go Green with Man-Made Diamonds

In other news, my first feature article for Lion magazine should be online tomorrow (it arrived in my mailbox Saturday) and lots more is in the works.

See you next week!

Captive Wildlife Laws, Shark Fin Alternatives, Preventing Pesticide Poisoning and a Poem

This week's two Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American were incredibly popular, in no small part because they touched upon some very important and timely topics:

Ohio Animals Tragedy Calls Attention to Loopholes in U.S. Captive Wildlife Laws

Could Farming Sustainable Tilapia Help Cut the Demand for Shark Fin Soup?

My "green living" blog posts for Green Hands USA were also more popular than usual, for which I am grateful:

An Organic Apple a Day Keeps the Pesticides at Bay

Protect Rivers and Lakes by Disposing of Drugs Properly

Rerun article: How Walkable Is Your Neighborhood?

Finally, these new book reviews for Graphic Novel Reporter also garnered lots of traffic. I'm glad, because they're both good books (although for totally different reasons):

Time Bomb

Teen Angels and New Mutants [This is my vote for best comics-related book of the year, BTW.]

On a completely different note, I received my contributors copies of Space and Time Magazine # 115, containing my poem "Necropsy." The issue should be available soon. Check it out!

I'm finishing up two new features this week (and starting a third) while also working on my next half-dozen Extinction Countdown columns, a corporate newsletter, and various other pieces. I'm also pitching some potential new publishers with some ideas I'm dying to write. Stay tuned for more!

Tigers, Halloween, Salaries and a Contest Win

Monday means making links, with last week's articles and a few other tidbits.

This week's two Extinction Countdown columns for Scientific American not only covered important issues, they were also quite popular. The tiger article was the most popular in the last month, while the pheasant article was the only coverage of this species on this continent:

Mystery Tiger Deaths Solved: Canine Distemper Plagues Siberian Tigers

Surveys Find No Sign of Endangered Vietnamese Pheasant

My latest feature for Today's Engineer went up last week. This is a pretty useful service for engineers:

Is Your Salary Competitive? Find Out with the Latest IEEE-USA Salary Survey and Calculator

Green Hands USA continues to chug along. Here are two new blog posts, along with a rerun:

Kids, Roar for Big Cats this Halloween

Home Depot Recognized for Commitment to Saving Water

Rerun article: 7 Inexpensive Ways to Stay Warm This Autumn

Finally, this week, I won Eli Stein's Cartoon Caption Contest again! This is my fifth win, and while it's not the New Yorker caption contest, it will hold me over until I start posting my own cartoons online again in a few weeks.

More next Monday!

P.S. -- I'm taking on new writing clients to help pay for my poor pug's cancer treatments. If there's anything I can write for you, let me know!

Now live: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

For the past few months, I have been editing and rewriting the old comics-related entries for the new edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which was last published in book form in 1991. The new edition went online yesterday and can now been seen in all of its glory here:

SFE: Science Fiction Encyclopedia

My next task for the SFE is to start writing new entries, again related to comics, which will encompass some of the best writers and artists in the field, as well as the 10 or so most essential SF-related graphic novels.

There's a TON of great information and fun reading in the SFE. If you enjoy science fiction books, movies, music, magazines or comics, check it out.

Hellbenders, innovators, a relaunch, and a graphic novel

It's Columbus Day, but most of the freelancers I know work holidays, and I'm no exception. I'm working on a ton of new stuff this week, which you'll hear about on this blog next week. Until then, here are all of last week's new articles.

This week's two Extinction Countdown posts for Scientific American were quite popular, and I was quite happy to be able to write about one of my favorite species for the first time in four years:

Hellbender Salamander Gets Endangered Species Designation, but No Habitat Protection -- and That May Be a Good Thing [my 2007 article about the hellbender can be found here.]

Poachers Wiping Out Rare Monkey in Tanzania

I love writing for Mother Nature Network, especially when they let me cover technology news. Here are two cool new articles:

Manta ray inspires Princeton researcher to create 'magic carpet'

Popular Mechanics names James Cameron most innovative leader of 2011

After a brief hiatus, Green Hands USA returned last week, with one new article and one revision to an older piece:

Try Blackle, the Search Engine that Saves Energy

How to Choose Eco-Friendly Halloween Candy

And finally this week, here's a new book review for Graphic Novel Reporter:

Approximate Continuum Comics

Last week's planned launch of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction was delayed. We're expecting it this week. So look for a link next week. Or follow me on Twitter for links as they happen.

4 new articles: DMZ, rare tigers, weird fruits, and hair loss (plus a glimpse at the future)

This week brought four new articles and laid the groundwork for many more.

First up, my usual two Extinction Countdown posts for Scientific American:

South China Tiger Conservation Program Mourns Big Cat Lost in Tragic Fight

South Korea Seeks to Protect Endangered Species in Demilitarized Zone [this got a huge boost thanks to a link from iO9.]

There was also a brief interview with me about Extinction Countdown, which you can read here.

I also wrote two new posts for Mother Nature Network, both of which were fun to research:

Pawpaw: Rare fruit inspires passion and taste buds

Alopecia: Study reveals divorce, smoking and drinking can cause baldness in women

This coming week will bring 1) more of the above, 2) the return of Green Hands USA, 3) the possible publication of any of several pending features, 4) the launch of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, where I'm the contributing editor covering comics, and 5) who knows!