You may also be interested in some of the other Google settings, most people ignore, especially some very amusing language settings.
The Amazing Geckoman
Scientists in the UK have created a sticky tape which works in the same way as gecko feet.
Co-worker Brian Cortez sent me this link from the BBC, about a tape that has been developed that works using microscopic hairs, just like a gecko’s feet. (Isaac owns a New Caledonian crested gecko, and they are amazing climbers.)
There are still significant technical challenges to overcome before this can be mass-produced, but Brian suggested this likely scenario at the WIlcox house:
I can see the toy manufacturers drooling over this one. Imagine being able to sell a set of real “Spiderman†gloves! I can also imagine you as a parent telling your son Isaac to get off the ceiling … it’s dinner time. 🙂
Thank you, Mr. Greene!
Mark Greene (a master of all things related to databases) was kind enough to diagnose our ailing SQL string that was preventing certain numbers from being found. Thanks, Mark!
One Thing I Overlooked!
One can now add responses to the items that are “perm-a-linked†and/or in the Hot Topics list.
Now This Is Just Plain Wrong
In Denver, a judge overturned a convicted murderer’s death sentence because jurors consulted Biblical passages such as “an eye for an eye†while they were sequestered during death-penalty deliberations.
For the record, Robert Harlan was convicted in 1995 for murdering Rhonda Maloney, a waitress who was driving home from work, and shooting and paralyzing good Samaritan Jaquie Creazzo who tried to come to the woman’s aid.
A View Too Good to Pass Up
Well, last week’s lunar eclipse was clouded out, but this view of Earth and Jupiter from the Mars Orbital Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor is pretty darn cool, and helps compensate [somewhat] for the missed eclipse.
The Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek
[doug]Okay, I’m really a fairly big Star Trek fan, despite being very disappointed by the latest film, but this list on the Happy Fun Pundit site is too delicious to pass up. Somewhere down the page you’ll find my own comments.
Here’s item one from the list, to give you a sample:
Noisy doors.
You can't walk three feet in a starship without some door whooshing or screeching at you. My office building has automatic sliding doors. They're dead silent. If those doors went “wheet!†every time a person walked through them, about once a month some guy in accounting would snap and go on a shooting rampage. Sorry Scotty, the IEEE has revoked your membership until you learn to master WD-40.
War of the Robots
The science fiction dealing with robotsis is slowly becoming a reality. This article from Reuters deals with the war of technology, and technology’s contribution to battlefield and civilian rescue technology.
We Were Soldiers Once … and Young
[book][film][doug]Seems to be a good week for finishing books. We Were Soldiers Once … and Young—Ia Drang: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway, is the book on which the film We Were Soldiers is based.
The film, although gritty and graphic, is probably one of the finest war films ever made, and actually does a better job of integrating the stateside events and human drama with the events on the battlefield than does the book. The book, of course, is more detailed than the film, although I was surprised at the high level of accuracy the film obtained—many historically-based films tend to sacrifice accuracy for drama.
The book covers the events portrayed on screen, including a second (or perhaps continuing) battle that happened nearby shortly after the primary battle ended.
Both book and film are excellent, illustrating the importance of training, leadership, and coordination of forces that are vital to a successful campaign. The book included a criticism that was not in the film—Due to President Johnson’s failure to declare a state of emergency and extend the active-duty tours of draftees and reserve officers, any soldier who had less than 60 days to serve on his enlistment would not be deployed with the First Air Cavalry. This left them both understaffed and cost many of their best-trained men.
There were other Presidential errors as well—the North Vietnamese were allowed to retreat as needed into nearby Cambodia; US forces were forbidden to follow. Overall, though, these are mentioned more for historical background than anything else.
Due to the improved emotional story of the film, I would actually recommend seeing the film before reading the book—something I would rarely prescribe.
Sailing to Byzantium
[book][doug]Kevin Miller loaned me a copy of Sailing To Byzantium (published by ibooks, a truly excellent collection of science fiction novellas by Robert Silverberg. I would highly recommend this book, even to those who are not diehard science fiction fans. I think the only Silverberg I own is Sunrise on Mercury, but reading Byzantium makes me want to go back and re-read it. (Sadly, its buried deep in our packed-for-the-move book boxes.)