"Our mission is to provide a means for learning, self-expression and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education," says this charitable program. How? By putting as many laptops in the hands of as many kids as possible. How can you help? Check out their website to learn more.

Words like "spacesuit," "blast off" and "robot" weren't born in science -- but in science fiction. To learn more, we called Jeff Prucher, the editor of Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, a rich and fascinating compendium of words invented and popularized by the genre. We spoke to him about science fiction's impact on English:  Continue reading...

Jeff Prucher, the science fiction dictionary editor we interview in this week's "Behind the Dictionary" feature, recommends these books on the intersection of language and science fiction:

Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy by Gary K. Wolfe

Science Fiction Quotations by Gary Westfahl

Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon by Michael Adams ("A landmark in the study of the language of the fantastic.")

Jeff Prucher, the science fiction dictionary editor we interview in this week's "Behind the Dictionary" feature, recommends these websites:

Tenser, Said the Tensor "frequently touches on the subject of language and science fiction."

Suzette Hayden Elgin's The Linguistics and Science Fiction Newsletter

The Oxford English Dictionary's Science Fiction Citation Project

Every marketing writer knows the importance of focusing on the benefits. Your product or service may have a whole smorgasbord of amazing features -- but, unless you explain how those features benefit the prospect, your marketing piece is doomed.  Continue reading...

When I began to write Matrimony, I was thirty-three and living in Ann Arbor, where I had gone to graduate school; my first novel, Swimming across the Hudson, had recently been published. I had also just met the woman I would eventually marry, and though our relationship would be long-distance for the first two years and we wouldn't get married for several years after that, I knew from the start that this was the person I would spend my life with. And I sensed, in knowing this, that big changes lay ahead, changes I couldn't yet comprehend.  Continue reading...

"Here are the Top 55 Reference Websites as chosen by the eBizMBA editorial team," announces the eBizMBA website. Whether you're a student working on a research paper or a copywriter researching an industry vertical, you'll find this list invaluable. Check it out here.