I should have thought of projects like this one while I was in college: MIT students simulate life on Mars

I would have gotten to go on vacation on the school's dollar all in the name of science.

I could have simulated effects of low-gravity environments by staying at luxury hotels where they do everything for you.

If I only knew then...

Plug-in bouncer...

I found an interesting Do-It-Yourself project:  Homegrown security bot heckles vagrants, longs to be a real cop

I'm tempted to try it myself, but I don't think my kids will appreciate being the subjects.

I think he could market and sell these things as "Bar-bots".  Kind of catchy, eh?

Star Wars stuff is always cool...

I'm not sure I can think of anything to say about this one, that hasn't already been said.

But, I will say that I would be too amused by this desk to ever get anything done:  "Carbonite Desk"

I found this article on a giant "action figure" on eBay: Towering Gort

I can actually only think of one person of all that I know who would really want this.

In fact he's the only guy I know who even recognize who Gort even was before this article.

Fear the Elmo

I was reading through some news and found this almost disturbing video of a robot "toy" Elmo:

 

I just saw this documentary on the future production of food crops. It's an eye opener. Large seed companies have patented genetically altered strains of common food crops and then sued independent farmers for patent infringement when strains of the altered crops appear in the farmers fields. You won't look at corn the same way again. Here's a link to the movies site: The Future of Food

My wife found this: Hillary Obama

It's a little disturbing, but it's pretty funny.

I don't usually endorse a movie unless I think it's really well done, or has some sort of interesting twist or aspect to it.

We recently watched Amazing Grace (2006). It's a movie about William Wilberforce, who was a British abolitionist from the late 1700's.

It was really well acted, and written. I expected this show to be somewhat boring as I don't usually go for historical movies, but this one was pretty engaging.

I highly recommend renting it.

Yay!...Telemarketers are still at bay.

I just saw this post: Congress bars 'automatic removal' of Do-Not-Call list numbers

Always check the to...

I came across this funny article that demonstrates that sometimes e-mail is too easy:

Lilly's $1 Billion E-Mailstrom by Katherine Eban

Placebos...

As part of a project I worked on, we had to document clinical study drugs.

Often these studies included control & test medication.  The control drug is usually a very well documented drug like aspirin or ibuprofen.  Sometimes it's a placebo.  Placebos are not usually accepted as a standard practice for treating medical maladies.

Here's an interesting news article where a VA doctor actually prescribed a placebo: Gulf War Veteran Gets Placebos Instead Of Real Medicine

It's definitely incentive to check the ingredients in your prescriptions.