Consider what Santa Claus does. He travels to several hundred million households in a single night, and yet manages to find time at almost every stop for interaction with the occupants (winking at hidden children, eating cookies, getting frightened by M&M's, grabbing a cola out of the fridge). How does Santa do it?

Recent experiments have indicated the possibility for quantum entanglement in biological systems. Now we all know that…

The first all-in-one, hardwired synthesiser with a built-in keyboard was the Minimoog, designed by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog and released by Moog Music in 1971. It's hard to say how much of its design was carefully considered, and how much was arbitrary. Regardless, other companies -- including the Japanese trio Yamaha, Korg and Roland -- soon started to imitate the Minimoog's placing of elements as well as its sonic features. Ever since, almost every…

This is a way of roasting spuds that I've not seen elsewhere. They come out almost like thick cut crisps (or chips if you are in the US). They are quick to cook, and combine easily with roast meats like lamb chops, chicken pieces, or whatever. You can easily put them together, and arrange that everything will be ready at the same time. Finally, the way of coating them in butter and oil means that you don't have to fiddle around with basting, and they get a lovely crispy-fluffy texture. Salt crystals…

Author: Roger Zelazny
Published: 1970, Doubleday
Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy

Nine Princes in Amber is a classic SF/F novel, and the first of the Chronicles of Amber series, which eventually grew to include ten books and six short stories. Like many SF/F classics, it is not very good. In its time it was a brilliant idea, a way to bring sword and sorcery fantasy out of the middle ages and into the 'real world'. It…