I can't exactly remember how I came across this TED video of Adam Savage, one of the co-hosts for MythBusters, describing his quest to create a near perfect replica from the Maltese Falcon movie. I do, however, remember not remembering how 15 minutes went by so quickly after I watched this.
There's definitely an art to being a geek, as I've said before, but Savage takes this to a whole new level with the level of detail and the amount of effort he puts into this "Creative Project" of his.
I'm sure many of you have already seen this TED video, but I encourage you to watch it again. Savage's sincerity is absolutely infectious, and it's inspiring to see be so humble about his fantastic (fanatic?) work and to care about nothing more than the fantastic journey it took to get there.
Oh Michio Kaku, you both crush my childhood dreams and create new, more adult ones at the same time.
I was simultaneously enraptured, and saddened, by this video by Michio Kaku in which he describes why Photon Torpedos and Photon engines are nothing but the stuff of science fiction, and will probably remain that way, at least in the way that we think of them.
Michio Kaku is a science-show staple. You can't have a show on the science channel without having an expert testimony from Dr. Kaku. A lot of his "testimonies" have to do with either validating or debunking (or both) sci-fi "impossibilities", and one of my favorite books by him is called "Physics of the Impossible".
Picked up in an Airport book shop and devoured by the time the plane touched down several hours later. This book provided much entertainment and scientific fun facts. Now whenever a friend or acquaintance (sometimes even just random passers by) are talking about things like time travel and human cloning and they refer to them as "impossible", I like to pipe up and say something to the tune of :
"NAH UHH!!! YOU'RE WRONG AND HERE'S WHY..."
I make lots of friends.
If you don't already know who Michio Kaku is (you heathen) you need to head over to his blog and check out all of the awesomesauce things he has to say all the time. You won't be sorry.
You know, I have been wondering how Google has gotten away with digitizing books and offering full access to them for a price like they do on Google Books without facing copyright infringement lawsuits or something of the sort.
Turns out they are facing copyright infringement suites and they have been for the last 6 years. Who knew.
Now, 6 years into this litigation, a proposal drafted by has been rejected by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin.
Google has proposed to pay royalties to the owners of the copyrights for each of the books it scanned. But, apparently, the problem is that for quite a few of the books, the owners of the copyrights can't be accurately determined, and so much of the money they'd be offering to pay wouldn't be able to go to anybody. Quite a conundrum.
Furthermore the deal would allow the internet giant to continue to digitize books while paying said royalties, potentially leading to a "universal library" of books on the internet. While this seems like a great idea, apparently Judge Denny Chin thinks this deal is "going too far" even despite the benefits that having such a large digital library would bring.
The proposal would clearly give Google a market advantage in terms of selling eBooks. Whereas other companies would be required to get permission of the copyright holder to digitize and sell eBooks, Google could go on digitizing and selling without seeking the appropriate permission.
Fair? No. And Judge Chin doesn't think so either.
I can definitely see the benefit of having such a huge library of books available online. I've used Google Books many many times to finish that last minute school paper without having to go all the way to the library. But I can certainly see the issues, and it definitely wouldn't be cool to see other eBook publishers shoved out of the market due to a near monopoly (that we all know Google could accomplish) on eBooks.
It's not surprising that after the devastating 8.9 earthquake experienced in Japan this past week that the Geek-o-sphere (I made that up) is overflowing with news pertaining to both the relief efforts and the efforts to fend of the potential nuclear meltdown happining in the Fukushima district of Japan in the wake of the earthquake.
On top of these two things, it seems as if every Arab nation has decided that the old ways have got to go. Again, the geek-o-sphere has got this covered in terms of news, and not just normal news either, there are some truly “geeky” things going on in Japan in relation to this crisis.
At the risk of seeming like a news recycling blog (I like to think I put a personal spin on things) and taking a page from Phillip DeFranco, let's take a look at some of the things that interested me in the news this past week.
Robots. Real. Live. Robots. Well, you know, without the "living" part.
Now, OK, you might be saying “Luc, Robots aren't that special, bomb squads have been using them for years to deactivate bombs 'n stuff.”
Well you know what I say to you, smart ass?
I say that these aren't just regular Wall-E like robots that have extendable arms and are remote controlled. Although there are those too. These are robots of an entirely different sort. Snake Robots, for example. As well as underwater robots, which are probably going to be some of the most helpful considering this disaster was caused by a tsunami, although information on the underwater robots is apparently scant according to an article on the IEEE Spectrum blog.
Here's a video of that snake robot I mentioned earlier in action.
Now, I don't know about anybody else, but if I was stuck in a situation where this snake was required to find me, and I saw it trying to find me, I might actively try to avoid being seen by this thing, because it's f'king terrifying and I've seen War of the Worlds a few too many times.
It's like being saved by the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, except without the hookah and rude sarcasm.
At the time of writing this post, Japanese power has been restored to the nuclear reactors that were near meltdown, and the Japanese have avoided another tragic situation, but the tragedies in Japan are still unfolding, with thousands without homes due to the tsunami, and thousands more "nuclear refugees" evacuated. It's important now to think of the Japanese people, keep them in your hearts, and if possible, donate to the Red Cross relief fund. You can donate Here.
Luc is a student at the University of California in Santa Barbara studying Microbiology. He's a lifelong geek, and enjoys spreading the joys of geekyness across the internet.
Also puppies.
". 
