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Iron Man, Military Insect Spies

ByJohn Brown

Iron Man was wonderful, every bit of what the trailers promised–adventure, humor, and a huge dose of gosh-wow. Of course, the idea of military exoskeletons are not new. It’s been in science fiction for a long time. More recently, Dan Brown used the idea in his thriller Act of War. In fact, if you think about it, it becomes clear that airplanes, ships, and tanks are all exoskeletons. So this is all old hat. But when did we ever need a brand-spanking new idea to have a wonderful and new story? What’s important is what the do with the idea–the characters, problem, plot, and setting. And Iron Man does a wonderful job of imagining new twists on all these parts of story.

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In other news, it appears the future is not so far away. The military is going to be using robot bugs for recon.

British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives.

Prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year, scuttling into potential danger areas such as booby-trapped buildings or enemy hideouts to relay images back to troops safely positioned nearby.

Soldiers will carry the robots into combat and use a small tracked vehicle to transport them closer to their targets.

Then they would swarm into the building and relay images back to the soldiers’ hand-held or wrist-mounted computers, warning them of any threats inside.

I’m all for saving lives and projecting power while we’re doing it. And robo spies are just cool. Except, of course, when they’re used against you…

Humm, zing!

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    ByJohn Brown

    Since we now know that happiness is contagious and that a happy friend is worth $20,000, I figured I’d provide a practical means of infecting you with some mild levels of joy so you could increase your value. Hey, who needs stinking bionics to become the million-dollar man?

    Have you ever noticed that using some words elevates your mood?

    No?

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    MEANING: verb tr.: To cheat, hoax, or deceive someone.

    Hornswoggle.

    USAGE: “Now, however, some special interests are out to hornswoggle residents, and they’re stooping low to do it.” Lauren Ritchie; But Doctor, Your Name is on the Mailer; The Orlando Sentinel (Florida); Oct 4, 2006.

    Aaaah, I’m feeling better already.

    You can use this too. See: “Son, don’t try to hornswoggle me,” “That dude’s a hornswoggler,” “Joe’s auto-body is a hornswoggling den of mechanical iniquity.”

    Now add to that skedaddle, discombobulate, and flummadiddle. (If you want definitions, just visit this list from wordsmith.org.)

    Take them home with you. Use them. Spread the happiness around.

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  • NPR’s Intelligence Squared

    ByJohn Brown

    Sometimes I love NPR, and sometimes those folks drive me nuts. But with Intelligence Squared they’ve come up with wonderful programming. I accidentally tuned in one night and found I couldn’t turn the radio off.

    What they do is bring together articulate experts, half who argue for a motion such as “Guns reduce crime?” or “Is the government responsible for health care?” and half who argue against it. The nice thing is that they make enough TIME to allow full statements. These aren’t roundtables of knucklehead pundits spouting sound bites. These are long discussions.

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    They convinced me (I won’t say which side, however). Take some time and listen to this while you do monkey work for the day job.

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  • Good Stuff! News of the World and two for the Downton Abbey crowd

    ByJohn Brown

    I recently watched a move and two British TV mini-series that were just terrific.

    The movie is News of the World. It’s a Western set in 1870, starring Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former Confederate officer who makes a living traveling from town to town in Texas and reading newspapers to local residents for an admission fee of ten cents.

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    ***

    Those of you enjoyed Downton Abbey will be very happy to hear that Julian Fellowes, who was the executive producer for that series and wrote many of the episodes, is back and has written two more historical dramas with that same type of feel.

    The first is Dr. Thorne,a three-episode miniseries based on the novel by Anthony Trollope.

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    The second is Belgravia, a six-episode miniseries set in the 1800s and based on the novel by Julian Fellowes himself.

    For you geography buffs, Belgravia is an actual place, an affluent district of London. And the story set there is about two couples. The first, the Richmonds, are part of the aristocracy. The other, the Trenchards, are from the business class.

    The Richmond’s had one child, a son. The Trenchards had one child, a daughter. The two fell in love. But the son was killed in the battle of Waterloo. And the daughter died in childbirth. However, it was an illegitimate childbirth that the Richmonds don’t know about. The Trenchards thought it best, to retain the reputation of their daughter, to have someone else raise him.

    Twenty-five years later, however, both couples still feel the hole those deaths left in their hearts. Mrs. Trenchard feels it’s time to reveal the truth to the Mrs. Richmond. But it does not go as planned. Especially not when the Richmond’s nephew wants the Richmond’s inheritance and is willing to remove all obstacles in his path.

    It’s a story full of manners, heartbreak, suspense, hope, and, well, I won’t tell you the ending. But I will say that if you like these types of historical dramas, you’ll probably love this.

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