Siri

Talk into your iPhone and tell Siri what you want. Tickets for a show, reservations at a restaurant, a taxi to pick you up. Siri can arrange to get you what you need. Best of all, Siri learns what you want, and gets better at understanding your commands, just like a human assistant.

It was originally developed as part of DARPA’s CALO project and represents more than five years of research and refinement. The App is sophisticated enough to filter through a sentence and identify the relevant key words and know what to do. It understands to use GPS to determine what “in your area” means. It can handle most any command for six broad categories of interest: restaurants, movies, events, taxis, local information, and weather. Oh, did I mention it is free?
It can understand complicated commands that use unspecific key words. “I’d like a PG-13 movie near my house that’s funny and romantic.” Siri can handle that by using its patented algorithm to learn how to translate words and phrases into commands.

The Siri company has more than $24 million in funding and has plans to expand to include reminders, flight stats, reference questions, and many more tasks. It is currently only available for iPhone 3GS with OS 3.1, but it will eventually be offered for iPod Touch, iPhone 3G, and other smart phones.  I love technology.

Deja Vu

An alleged Florida car thief was ironically arrested while playing the popular video game "Grand Theft Auto." Police say they found a stolen SUV outside the man's home, and when they went inside, he was playing the game. The man has been charged with grand theft auto.

Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel, born June 16, 1890 at Cumbria, England UK Died February 23, 1965. "If any of you cry at my funeral, I'll never speak to you again!" - Stan Laurel

I am a card carrying member of the 'Sons of the Desert', the official fan club of the boys (not the Texas country band). Stan gave his permission to form the group, 'as long as it maintained a certain half-assed dignity.'

Way back when, I was in the Michigan tent (group), called the Dancing Cuckoos (named after the song from one of their movies). Each state had a name taken after a movie and Michigan was the only one to use the name from a song. I had the chance to meet some of the supporting characters from their movies, Stan's daughter Lois and T. Marvin Hatley, who wrote some of the movie songs, including this one from the Sons of the desert movie LINK.

Below is my badge. Oh, and yes, I also have the obligatory fez.

The Sons of the Desert is still going strong and has groups all over the world. The last annual convention (held every two years) was in Amsterdam. This year's convention will be held in June, in Sacramento. Alas, the Texas tent has folded.

Stan Laurel: You remember how dumb I used to be?
Oliver Hardy: Yeah?
Stan Laurel: Well, I’m better now.

PS - It has been confirmed that Clint Eastwood is not Stan's son.

Beauty

Beauty is in the sigh of the beholder.

Liquid Glass

A Germany company has come up with Liquid Glass. Also known as SiO2 in ultra thin layering, this transparent film of material is only 100 nanometers thick (1/500 the width of a human hair) but it can repel water, deter bacteria and fungus growth, protect against wear, and still allow the surface underneath to breathe.

It is harmless to the environment and could replace a variety of harsh cleaning chemicals. The coating can be cleaned with water alone, and tests by food-processing companies have shown that a good hot water rinse left liquid-glass-coated surfaces as sterile as normal surfaces doused with strong disinfecting bleach. The coating is also flexible and breathable, so it can be applied to both static and non-static surfaces.

According to a news release, it is in trial use in hospitals in the UK for coating equipment, medical implants, catheters, sutures, and bandages. It is also used on trains and luxury furniture. Germany has approved it for open distribution, and the UK is likely to do so this year. Hopefully it will come to the US soon. Reputable sites have covered this, but it seems like one of those 'too good to be true' so don't get out your wallet, yet.

Hot Dog Nonsense

Here is another way, to scare the public. The American Academy of Pediatrics wants foods like hot dogs to come with a warning label, not because of their nutritional risks, but because they pose a choking hazard to babies and children.

More than half of hot dogs sold in stores already have choking-prevention tips on their packages, advising parents to cut them into small pieces. The Food and Drug Administration, which has authority to recall products it considers "unfit for food," plans to review the new statement, spokeswoman Rita Chappelle says.

Here are the facts, stripped from the other numbers they use to scare us. 'Annually, up to 77 children under the age of 14 who go to the Emergency Room for choking on food, die', says the new policy statement, published online in Pediatrics (Feb 2010). It continues, 'about 17% of food-related asphyxiations are caused by hot dogs'. So 17% of 77 equals 13.09 children die each year from choking on hot dogs.

The academy would like to see foods such as hot dogs "redesigned" so their size, shape and texture make them less likely to lodge in a youngster's throat. I feel bad about 13 children dying, but to change a whole industry for that number seems a bit ludicrous. Maybe the Academy might make better use of its time solving some real childhood diseases that affect more than 13 children each year. A big weenie to the Academy!

Tree Saver

Leave it to the Japanese to be this creative. Oriental Company has come up with a machine by the name of ‘White Goat’ recently. It is an innovative machine that converts your wasted office paper into toilet paper in about 30minutes. After you put about 40sheeets of paper into the machine will then shred the paper, dissolve it in the water, thin the paper out, and then dry it into toilet sheets.


The company claims it costs $0.11 to churn out one toilet roll and it will save up to 60 trees a year. The machine is expected to hit the market in Japan in summer 2010, at a price of about $100,000. Ingenious.

Dooley Wilson

Texan “Dooley” Wilson, the piano player Sam and sidekick to saloonkeeper Rick Blaine in the classic 1942 film Casablanca, couldn’t play the piano, but he did do the singing. Sorry, didn't mean to ruin the illusion.

Marriage

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong admit it;
Whenever you’re right shut up.