I would totally go see a movie called Snakebots on a plane.

According to a cool article over at MSNBC, articulated snakebots may soon be crawling down your throat, up your pipes and into your heart.

Currently, most snake-inspired robots are made to crawl around on the ground, but according to Dennis Hong, Director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory, the snakebot will use flexible universal joints to roll up scaffolds or right into your mouth.

It has huge applications for construction, with the robot's ability to climb about anywhere. This could potentially reduce injuries on the work sites by a significant amount.

Their medical applications could see them rolling down your esophagus to check out... aw who cares, it's awesome!

Picture Dennis Hong/Virginia Tech

Man, do I miss the 70's (in a round-about, crazy, not-really way)!

I was doing my mandatory community service... er cleaning out some of my boxes of crap when I came across this:


Yep, an old-school Battlestar Galactica coloring and activity book, circa 1978. I was amazed at the content of the 'activity' book. It ranged from the simple puzzles to the very morbid in the pictures to color.
Try this: Find the letter that appears more than once in this puzzle.


In case you missed it, my 7 year-old self has helpfully circled it for you. Plus the answer is at the bottom, upside down.

How about this for a kid's puzzle?


I didn't copy the puzzle itself, but I'm sure you can read the instructions on this page. You're supposed to help Adama count the incoming missiles! Yes, in the face of impending doom, let's get the kids to help out. Surely their counts won't be off. And if they are, what's the worst that could happen?

Here's a page to color that is pretty representative of the images throughout the activity book:



Hey kids! Color the Colonial Warrior as he desperately struggles to keep the Cylon's blade from piercing his abdomen!

Yay! I might get to use my red crayon!

Ooo! Carry Me! Carry Me!

Comic book cover art is all about getting the consumer to pick up that issue and buy it. There are tons of great covers out there, but today let's look at that time-honored tradition of the carry.

Usually its a hero or heroine being carried, or a hero doing the carrying. For clarification, here's an example from The Flash:


What? The Flash running from something? Carrying a woman?

Ok, that's not really a great example of what we're talking about, but at least you get the visual.
The 'Carry' cover can have little to do with the actual issue...


Uncle Sam carrying a dead Wonder Woman? Oh no, how can that be?
Here's another good example of this one from The Fantastic Four:


Reed's dead? Nooooo!!!

But, sometimes the Carry is actually representative of the issue. Check out this Batman carry:


and this Crisis Carry:


There are other types of Carry covers. There's the 'But How?' Carry, like this one from the X-Men:


Prof. Xavier and Magneto fighting together? And the Professor is standing? And holding a woman? But how?

This is an extreme example from Star Wars:


C3PO carrying an injured Luke? But how? I suppose it's possible but...

Whatever is happening on the Carry cover, it's designed to make you ask a question and hope that gets you to buy the comic.


Daredevil and Man-Thing fighting in a swamp over some guy? Why?


Gigantic Stormtroopers carrying Princess Leia off to a Tie Bomber? Whaaaat?


The one dude from the New Mutants carrying off the one girl from the New Mutants, while the other New Mutants struggle in a fire? Huuuhhh?


Superman vs. Bizarro Superman for Lois Lane? OMG! No way!


The Werewolf carrying off a woman while the villagers close in with torches? How in the... Ok that probably happened every issue. Bad example. Should've stopped with Superman.

Art I Dig

I bought a pretty cool print at a festival recently. The artist is Adam Brouillette.
I stupidly haven't taken a picture of the work I bought and it's too big to scan. I'll get to it. Meanwhile, check out some of his work from his site, Little Red Men.

He's got another good Pirate/Sea theme with this one:

That's how much of his work goes; a little off, a little funny and a lot of Little Red Men.

The Sun is spotless

Scientists are curious as to why our Sun hasn't had any spots for a good long time this year. 200 days and counting so far.

Nobody really knows what this means, but the sunspot activity hasn't been this low since the 50's, so it naturally make people talk and speculate. And cry.

Ok, none of the scientists are crying yet, but that would be funny wouldn't it? If they broke down sobbing whenever confronted by an unusual occurrence? No? Just me? Fine.

Alright already.

You heard me. Giant. Styrofoam. Robots.

Oh I wish I could attend this excellent exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. It only goes until October 19th, though.

Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon features the work of many artists, including Michael Salter’s packing foam robot creations like this one:

His largest is 22 feet tall.

I love art. Why don't more museums have 2 story robots on exhibit?

Stories I had nothing to do with

The US Navy says they have found the wreckage of lost WWII submarine, the USS Grunion.

An Austrailian boy broke into a zoo, killed some animals and fed others to a crocodile.

The Ig Nobels are out.

The Mob Museum will open soon in Vegas. The official name of it? The (redacted) Museum: The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. Hmmm. Should make for interesting t-shirts.

You hate to see that.

According to news reports, a Ft. Meyers, Florida man shot himself in the arm after his girlfriend refused to have sex with him.

The two had returned home from a bar (Alcohol was involved? Shocking!) and the man wanted to the one-on-one version of the hokey-pokey. She wanted to sleep.

So, naturally the man went into the next room and shot himself in the arm.

Twice.

After that, he apparently threatened her then stumbled into the kitchen where he fell and knocked himself unconscious against the stove.

Talk about not being your night. Whew.

The story seems odd to me because usually women denied me sex AFTER I shot myself a few times, not before.

Sorry, nothing witty.

I have nothing to say about Joss Whedon's upcoming midseason Fox drama, Dollhouse yet.

I won't cringe because I hear they're doing script rewrites, I haven't gone to check out any leaked pages or scripts. I'll wait and just watch the show. I know the basic premise and that's enough for now. I went into Firefly knowing nothing about the show and I was just getting started on Buffy, so I got to be pleasantly surprised by how much I loved both.

There is, however, one thing I know for sure about the show:

Eliza Dushku.

Ah yes. There will be no further comment.

Go away now.

I write a column under the name Jane Doe

Fletch author Gregory Mcdonald passed away at his farm in Tennessee. He was 71.

Chevy Chase played Mcdonald's Irwin M. Fletcher twice in the 80's, in Fletch and Fletch Lives.

Ah yes. This is news.

I noticed several on-line news sources today actually used a story about Kentucky Fried Chicken's secret recipe.


It seems they're moving the actual original written recipe to an undisclosed location while they beef up security at the recipe's permanent home.

There was also a mention that they were going to somehow add the recipe for original recipe chicken strips to that secure area for some reason.

I did mention many news outlets covered this, right? Sigh.

Not long after I checked my email and found the latest email from KFC (yes, I subscribe to their wonderful mailing list). What are they featuring in their message to their customers? The new original recipe chicken strips.
What else? They offer you the chance to put your biggest secret in their virtual 'Secret Safe'. http://www.kfc.com/secretsafe/

"Who better than KFC to protect your biggest secret? The same company that has kept the Colonel's Original Recipe a secret for decades will now keep your secret safe! Enter your secret below to place it in the Colonel's Secret Safe for some finger-lickin' safekeeping!"

This is funny enough, but what happens when you click their link?

"Shhh... And to make sure your secret stays completely anonymous, please do not include any personal information... no names please!"

Tell us your darkest secret... but please, don't tell us who you are! My secret is #7729. Ooops. Damn, I wasn't supposed to tell you that.
After you've entered your secret, you are given the option to find out more about Original Recipe Strips. Yay!

First of all - Was this a news story? Nope. If one reporter would've done an ounce of research, it would've been obvious that this was just something to get publicity for their new product. Second - When can get the strips, and why didn't my email have coupons in it?

More Bad News For Bigfoot

You've all followed the story right?

A couple of guys claimed they found a family of Bigfoot, noticed a dead one and hauled it back to a freezer in their garage or basement or something. They then froze the Bigfoot corpse solid and started contacting the press.

A promoter/Bigfoot hunter gave the men some up-front money against future earnings if they would turn it over to him and let him do the authentication before taking Bigs on the road.

After a huge press conference, they turned over the freezer and... made themselves scarce.

Why? Because this:


turned out to be a fake. When the freezer thawed out, there was obviously nothing but a costume inside.

This is bad news for Bigfoot hunters, scientists and several other bipedal mammals, but the news anchors and reporters failed to talk about the shadow it will cast on this year's presidential election. The mad scramble to prove or disprove the authenticity of the thing in the freezer turned up more than anyone expected.

I'm sorry. I don't want to admit it any more than you do, but

The Yogi Bear/Bigfoot presidential ticket isn't going to happen.


That's right. BEARFOOT in '08 is history.
Here's why:

1. Cloud of uncertainty hangs around Bigfoot's birthplace. May be a Canadian.

2. Yogi's felony arrests for pic-i-nic basket theft and hiker mauling.

3. NRA wouldn't endorse them; both candidates support gun control. Heavily.

4. Bigfoot is a Nader fan, Yogi refuses to go third party.

5. Boo Boo's threats to disclose certain information about Yogi's lifestyle.

6. Yogi's laughable foreign policy.

So there it is. As much as it hurts, I said it. I think we can all start the healing process and move on. I'm going outside right now and take the sign off my lawn.



Won't you do the same?

The Super Friends get no respect.

The Super Friends were never allowed to play in any of D.C.'s reindeer games. Their stories weren't a part of the overall continuity, and with pretty good reason. I recently stumbled on the trades of the SF comic series and found some things that would make your cape curl (not in a good way).

Example?
How about this one, where The Overlord built some puppets and then put on a mind control helmet and was immediately able to addle the Super Friends' minds? He
controlled them all at the same time, making them angry and ready to take over the world.

Naturally, Wonder Woman went to free the oppressed women of Africa, The Wonder Twins decided to take over all of Europe and Asia (Huh? What was the plan there?), Robin went to crush Australia, Batman covered North America and Superman, naturally, wanted to put the smackdown on South America. Yeah.

Anyway, Supes ran into trouble.



Yes, the Green Fury showed up to stop him. She eventually showed off some pretty rockin' powers.

Eventually.

That's all well and good, unless you show up like this...



Yeah. She rode in on green flames coming out of her nose! Think about that. Superman, in all his crazy powerful glory, versus the flaming snot powers of The Heroine of Brazil.

Are you seriously going to ask what the outcome was?

Sure, the comic was aimed at a younger audience, but come on.

Oh. My bad.

I was very excited about this movie Tropic Thunder. Sounded awesome until I realized my mistake:

I was thinking Tropic Thundaar.



Come on! Jack Black as Ookla the Mok, maybe get your Gretchen Mol or your Amy Adams to play Ariel. It'll happen my friends.They all head out in their dune buggy and hit some tropical, yet post-apocalyptic wasteland. Yeah. I'm down for that.

Who would play Thundaar, though? Knowing Hollywood? I'm guessing Will Ferrell.

Halloween's not far off

Everyone's seen your skeleton, stop boring them with this:



Yep, Think Geek has a Steampunk Skeleton t-shirt! Pretty Awesome!