Self-Repairing Technology

That You Tube video is kind of unnerving. But there are other examples of self-repairing technology.

In 2003, a group of researchers at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley are trying to develop web site software that is able to recover rapidly when mishaps occur.

Engineers from Aberdeen, Scotland have invented artificial platelets to plug leaky pipes similar to the way biological platelets work when we get a cut. That is really neat!

Finally, self-healing automotive crash-barrier is under evaluation for use on America's highways. It is already being used at NASCAR pit stops.

I have always thought that if a person is going to invent some device for a certain problem see if nature has not solved the problem already. That is how we got Velcro®. For more examples of solving problems nature's way is the book The Gecko's Foot: Bio-inspiration: Engineering New Materials From Nature by Peter Forbes.

Mutant Deer Now Road-Kill

A Wisconsin man has crashed into a seven-legged hermaphroditic deer with this truck. After taking a picture of the mutant deer and sending the photo to experts he ate the deer. He said the deer was tasty. I wonder what kind of wine or beer a person serves with mutant deer? Hmmm.

I wonder how long it will take for some environmental extremist to blame the deer's condition on global warming (which we all know now is caused by cattle (shame on them!) at least according to the U. N.)

Partridge in a Pear Tree

My sister forwarded this to me:

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

• The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
• Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
• Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
• The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
• The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
• The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
• Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit - Prophecy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
• The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
• Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
• The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
• The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
• The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol.

May God grant you peace and happiness throughout this Christmas Season.

Merry Christmas!

Comparing Computer Science to Other Sciences

Computer science as a science is different in one respect from the other sciences in that it creates instead of discovers. Other sciences through experimentation and theory, the scientific method if you wish, try to discover the laws of nature. The computer scientist on the other hand create laws in the "electronic world." In a way computer scientists are like artists in that they create. True, they use the scientific method especially if a program doesn't work, then programmers have to go in and debug it, like other scientists solving a riddle. But it is that combination of art and science (which some people think of as being contradictory to one another, which I am not so sure are contradictory, but can be complementary to one another) that makes computer science as a field unique.

Computer science can help the other sciences' scientists with their skills by writing programs and letting the scientist discover the "laws" governing the program. In this way, a novice scientist can have a little practice discovering laws. A good program to use for this is mathematician John Horton Conway's cellular automation program Game of Life. It uses three basic laws that are deceptively simple, and when applied recursively leads to unexpected results. It is very interesting to watch the program run, to see all the different kinds of patterns it produces. All the scientist would do is watch the program run as many times as he likes to discover the laws that create the patterns. Of course, the scientist cannot be familiar with the program, because that is cheating, and in real life situations Nature does not allow you to cheat.

The Ingenuity of American Soldiers

I love human ingenuity. In a Newsday.com article it talks about American troops in Iraq using Silly String to detect trip wires. The troops spray the Silly String in a room. If it falls completely on the floor, there are no trip wires in the room otherwise there is. That's just plain clever! That is the very definition of ingenuity: thinking of ways to use an object for different purposes, not just its primary purpose.

A Squirrelly Lawsuit

A woman is suing a Chicago shopping center because a squirrel jumped on her leg in the center's courtyard. The woman got injured while frantically trying to detach the squirrel from her leg. She claims that the mall's parent company knew about this squirrel's behavior because it had previously attacked and harassed(?) other customers. The squirrel could not be located for comment.

I am guessing that the squirrel must have been male because it jumped on her leg. I put a question mark after the harassed word because I do not know if that word should be used when talking about wild animals. If the squirrel did harass the woman would it be sexual harassment? Or maybe sexual assault? Who knows.

Evidently, the woman must think that the mall owns this serial-harassing squirrel to stop its frisky behavior. If a bunch of renegade robins started swooping down on people in the courtroom would it be the responsibility of the shopping center to prevent that behavior too? Where does it stop? What is the shopping center supposed to do about the squirrel? Get a gun and shoot the thing? Then the mall would probably get in trouble with city ordinances about shooting a firearm out in the open. Not to mention being sued by PETA. I suppose that the mall could have tried to capture the squirrel, but that takes time. And if they did capture the perpetrator they would have to move him somewhere else. And what if they captured an innocent squirrel minding his/her own business. The guilty squirrel would still be on the loose waiting for his next victim to come along.

They could have called animal control, but I think animal control only deals with roaming pet dogs and cats and dangerous animals. Squirrels are wild animals and aren't that dangerous (frisky possibly but not dangerous).

This lawsuit is just another example of someone not taking responsibility for herself and abusing the court system just to make a quick buck.

Driver License Renewal for My Dead Mom

The title of this blog is absolutely true! Thursday of last week, my dad received a letter in a mail from my state's Department of Revenue addressed to my deceased mom who died four years ago. When I first saw the envelope I thought my mom owed state income tax (that'll probably be next!). Nope, I was wrong. It was from the DMV! The Division of Motor Vehicles sent my mom who is dead for four years driver's license renewal papers. The envelope contained all the papers you would expect: the License Renewal Exam, the Driver License Renewal Exam handbook and the thin cardboard you take to the exam station. Got to love government! I wonder if I'll get my driver license renewal notice when I am dead and gone! Ha!

Flatulence in a Plane

An American Airlines airplane was diverted when passengers reported the smell of sulphur from burning matches. Come to find out it was a woman who was lighting matches to conceal her flatulence. She has an unspecified medical condition. On a side note, there are at least 12 causes of flatulence. She had to board another plane. The BBC News web site did not mention if they took her matches away from her or not. The TSA allows you to have matches, but you cannot light them.

The woman should have acted innocent and hoped her flatulence did not smell. Sulfur smells stronger than most flatulence, and lighting matches only brought attention to the woman. She should have brought along some air freshener (although I do not know if that is banned or not on airlines) along and used that. That smells too but not as strong as sulfur.

The woman should have worried more about the sound rather than the smell. Unless she was sitting down on a sound-absorbing seat the sound would have brought more attention to her. Then again maybe the flatulence was silent--the silent ones sometimes can be deadly.

In all fairness to the woman there is not much she could have done. Although she could have gone to the plane's bathroom to let it out there. But even that would have been tricky. Definitely opening the plane's window let air the flatulence out would have been not an option.

Interesting Life Suggestions

I've been reading Dr. Paul Pearsall's book The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need. In this book he takes on the self-help movement and here are a sample of his more interesting suggestions:

1. Lose Hope. Striving to keep your hopes up at the worst times in your life can be exhausting. Studies such as those recently conducted at the Harvard and UCLA Medical Schools show that hope does not promote healing, nor does it render cancer treatment more effective.
2. Give Up. Persevering is not the only way to demonstrate strength. Strength can also mean knowing when to engage in enlightened surrender, willingness to give in and move on.
3. Think Sad Thoughts. Trying to think only happy thoughts limits our ability to think creatively and critically.
4. Settle for Second (or Third or Sixth) Best. In any life endeavor, there can be only one number one. Relax and enjoy being one of the thousands who fall short.
5. Be a Pessimist. A little defensive pessimism goes a long way to building a good life. Unless you're a natural at trying to always think positively, the effort is stressful, exhausting, and limiting.
6. Be a Good Blamer. Finding the right person to blame is essential for good mental health.
7. Indulge yourself.
8. Bottle Up Your Anger. Research shows that although mindfully understanding your anger can be helpful, hostile expression of it weakens your immune system and literally hardens your heart and the hearts of those around you.
9. Don't Nurture Your "Inner Child"--Kick Its Ass. Look for your problems within your adult interactions, not within your own infantilized consciousness.
10. Face It, Your Family's Nuts. The only cure for dysfunctional families is to do away with all families. We all have at least one weird family member and usually more. A family is nothing more than a group of people irrationally committed to one another's welfare. A good family is a group willing to stick with you when most sane and discerning people would vote you out.
11. Delude yourself. Research shows that deluding oneself about one's partner--believing that (s)he is kinder and more caring and helpful than (s)he really is---is essential for a lasting relationship.
12. Stop Trying to Live Up to Your "Full Potential." Stop focusing on your potential and start thinking about doing the best with the talents you already have.

Well, how's that for upbeat happy thoughts? Believe it or not the author is neuropsychologist and is a member of a new psychological school of thought called positive psychology! I especially like suggestions 9, 10 and 11.

NASA Plans to Land Man on Asteroid

NASA is planning to land an astronaut on an asteroid hurtling through space at more than 30,000 mph.That is a pretty good feat if they can pull it off. The asteroid NASA has in mind landing on is Apophis. The reason NASA is trying to pull off this feat is so they can learn how to push an asteroid out of the way of earth's orbit. You don't want to fire at an asteroid because then that asteroid breaks up and now you would have smaller asteroids to worry about.

If Apophis struck the earth at a 45 degree angle traveling at 10.56 miles/second it would cause a 3.16 x 102 MegaTons TNT explosion. The creator size would be 1.86 miles in diameter and 0.256 miles deep. Other than that not much damage done and the sound of the collision would be 52 decibels (loud as heavy traffic). By the way, I calculated all this impact information from the online Earth Impact Effects Program using this additional input data:

• Distance from Impact: 1000.00 km = 621.00 miles
• Projectile Diameter: 320.00 m = 1049.60 ft = 0.20 miles
• Projectile Density: 1000 kg/m3
• Target Density: 2500 kg/m3
• Target Type: Sedimentary Rock

You can go to that web site and enter your own values if you like.

Not only do we have to worry about asteroids but meteoroids too. Scientists think that a single meteorite killed off the dinosaurs. When a meteorite impacts the earth it creates a special kind of glass in the crater called diaplectic glass. This type of glass is produced without melting.

The Germany & Austria Santa Ban

This Christmas season Santa Claus is being banned in markets in Germany and Austria. The reason for this stupid ban according to Ananova.com is that "anti-Santa campaigners claim Father Christmas was invented by Coca-Cola and detracts from the true spirit of the festive season."

Haven't these anti-Santa people heard of the Internet? All these pinheads had to do was to go to Snopes.com and check out the truth like I did. Santa Claus was not invented by Coca-Cola. I thought Germans and Austrians are smarter than that. Snopes.com says "Santa Claus was an evolutionary creation, brought about by the fusion of two religious personages (St. Nicholas and Christkindlein, the Christ child) to become a fixed image which is now the paramount symbol of the secular Christmas celebration."

As for Santa Claus detracting from the spirit of the festive season--that is stupid too. Santa Claus is the symbol of giving. If companies and people are turning the Christmas season into some commercial enterprise that is not his fault. Don't take it out on the Jolly Fat (uh sorry, I mean weight-challenged) Man in the red suit.

I wonder if there is anti-Easter Bunny campaigners in Germany and Austria. I hope not, but you never know.

Baby Locks Mom Out of Flat

In Bavaria, a 19 year old woman was locked out of her flat by her eight-month old baby. Eventually, firemen came and rescued her. I don't know, but I think the whole situation is suspicious. I think the baby faked not walking for a while so he could deliberately lock his mom out. Maybe he was mad at his mom for some reason, or maybe he did not like her smoking. Probably was quietly laughing at her for those two hours. You got to keep an eye on those eight-month olds. They can be up to no good sometimes.