Busting Crime with Your Phone
Way back in the 1800s, some brilliant folks in Europe came up with the idea of using fingerprints to bust criminals. They realized that those unique little swirls and patterns on our fingertips could be used to pinpoint who had been where and touched what. Not long after, the good old U.S.A. jumped on the […]
YouTube’s Evolving Cultural Influence
Ah, YouTube. Of all the things that the Internet has given us, few have impacted our world as much as that little post-a-vid venture. I mean, before it came along it took quite a bit of effort to find ways to waste your time on the Web. But then three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve […]
A New (Old) Way to Write
About a year ago, my youngest daughter came in excitedly carrying a funny little contraption that she and her boyfriend had found at a thrift store. She knew it had something to do with writing in days gone by, so she picked it up for me for a few bucks. Of course, being in the […]
The Idol Boogie of Tussauds
Sometimes I think that we Americans have the impression that our fascination with celebrities is a relatively new thing. Some youngsters out there may believe that Kim Kardashian herself invented the concept of seeing celebrities as simultaneously human and botoxed demigod. But, nope, the fact is we humans have been idol-prone for a very, very […]
The App That Adds, Subtracts … and Covers Up
Have you ever heard of a Stonefish? No? Well, it’s a fish found in the coastal region of the Indo-Pacific. And it sports one of the best disguises in the whole deep blue sea. These little mottled orange-red-brown critters look like a cross between a colorful bumpy rock and a twisted-up hunk of coral. In […]
Minecraft Play and Autistic Kids
If you’re a gamer, you feel pretty horrible don’t you? I mean, those poor old games á la video have had a lot of shade thrown their way over the years. The hate usually has something to do with gaming’s addictiveness, violence, or some other tendency toward foul content. And … OK, plenty of those […]
The Robot Secret Is Out
Robots, robots, robots. I’ve got to admit that ever since I was a kid, I’ve been really interested in robots. I’ve devoured robot short stories and novels, picked up random robot comics and watched tons of the-bots-are-among-us movies and TV shows. And even really weak cinematic automaton rampages with terrible animatronics haven’t kept me from […]
One Pilgrim’s Progress
America recently voted for its favorite actors and actresses in a new Harris poll. Now, I must admit that I never got a ballot, but the resulting list seemed reasonable enough. The top slot, by the way, went to a current perennial fav—that friend of Wilson volleyballs and box of chocolates philosopher himself, Tom Hanks. […]
The Joy of CES 2016’s Gadgets and Gizmos
There was a time when the yearly Consumer Electronics Show was all about computers and TVs. You know, the big dogs that used to sit on top of the electronics heap and casually glimmer at us with brushed stainless steel or piano-black perfection. But that was yesterday. Today, the power-player pecking order seems to be […]
A Virtual Tip of the Hat
The year 2015 is just about “in the books,” as they say. I don’t know about you, but I generally hit this time of year and pause to consider the days and months gone by and, of course, smile at the Christmas celebration that’s just now fading off in the rearview mirror. The holiday is […]