Captain Phillips opened in theaters a couple of weeks ago. The movie starred Tom Hanks and told the true story of Captain Phillips, a shipping captain who’s ship was taken over by Somali pirates. As the movie shows, the pirates are no laughing matter. These are not your peg legged, eyepatch-wearing, parrot-having pirates. These are lethal thieves that will stop at nothing...well there are somethings that will stop them apparently. You may think that it would take some physical intervention to prevent a pirate attack. In some cases it takes less than that, in fact you may just have to “hit me baby one more time” to get Somali pirates to turn around and change course. That’s right, the pop music of Britney Spears is currently being used as an anti-piracy tactic on the open seas. Merchant naval officer Rachel Owens said that a good blast of Britney is all it takes to send the pirates packing. She say’s it’s so effective that the security teams on boats rarely need to resort to firing guns. I guess you could say that her music is “toxic” to pirates...or at least it makes the pirates go “crazy.” So next time you are embarrassed when someone finds your hidden cache of Britney Spears songs on your iPod, just tell them it’s to help you fight off pirates.
You know the old saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” or, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” What you don’t know is that both of those quotes have nothing to do with this post. Starting off with a quote about apples seemed to be appropriate until I realized there were no applicable quotes to use. So I tossed in what quotes I had to tell you that tech giant, Apple, made some big unveilings yesterday. They announced a number of new items, but one of the most anticipated was the new iPad Air. It is the thinnest, most powerful tablet they have created to date. It sports a full HD camera for crisp, clean pictures and video. The whole thing only weighs one pound and is 7.5 millimeters thick. In plain english, the new iPad Air is light, and super thin! There is a lot of awesome tech that goes into making the guts of the machine, but I’ll leave the details out for the sake of the non tech savvy. If you commute in a car or vanpool, having a tablet is a great way to pass the commute time. Heck, they’re a great way to pass anytime...or to actually be productive for that matter.
One of the roadblocks to mainstream renewable energy is the fact that it’s not always available when you need it. Solar power without sun doesn’t sound very powerful, does it? I certainly don’t think so. The Solana solar station in Arizona certainly didn’t think so either. This is why they became the first large-scale solar plant with thermal storage. That’s really exciting, I know it doesn’t sound super exciting, but it is! This solar station can continue to produce power for a full SIX HOURS after the sun has gone down. Now is it sounding more impressive?!? Because of this, the solar plant is now able to better match the demand for power. It’s improvements in technology and science like this that will allow us to one day move to a more renewable energy source. To quote Aaron Paul’s character from Breaking Bad, “Yeah science!!!”
Anyone who's been on an airplane has heard the prompt before, "please turn off your electronic devices." If you're anything like me, you begrudgingly oblige, roll your eyes and power down your iPad or Kindle to prepare for take off or landing. It's one of those rules that just never made sense to me. I could never find any scientific data to prove that my handheld device I use for reading books or playing Candy Crush Saga would have the ability to send an airbus crashing out of the sky.
Good news for fellow tech and gadget obsessed brethren. The FAA has ruled that personal electronics are in fact safe for use not just during flight, but during landing and takeoff now as well. The ruling came through just the other day, however it could take anywhere from thirty days to a whole year before the new rules are applied to actual flights. Why a change like this needs so long to roll out is a whole other story I don't fully grasp. Bottom line is, coming soon you will be able to enjoy your electronics from your wait at the gate through the landing of the plane!
Fencing is a classy sport, but not a very popular one. Sure, it’s in the Olympics, but you have to tune in around 2:00am to see it on TV. It rarely gets a moment to shine. Even movies don’t have much sword fighting anymore, and if they do, it’s of the hack and slash variety. Not so much the parry and lunge type.
One man though, thanks to being in the right place at the right time, has brought some light back to fencing and made it look pretty awesome in the process. Franco Scaramuzza from Nashville, TN is a fencing coach. He was pulling into a shopping plaza when he saw two men pepper spay a couple and steal the woman’s purse. In an interview Franco stated that he thought “someone should do something about this” and then he thought, “that person should be me.” So, like any person would do…wait, nope, this next part actually isn’t what any person would do. Franco leapt out of his car, grabbed his fencing sword and chassed down the assailants. The muggers, when confronted by Franco wielding his sword, dawning his fencing gear, and screaming at the top of his lungs, got flustered, scared and eventually dropped everything they stole and took off. Police were not far behind at this point and were able to pick up the fleeing criminals.
Talk about being at the right place at the right time. As a little boy I would often fantasize about being able to bring evildoers to justice by wielding a sword, and here Franco Scaramuzza got to live out that dream. Bravo Franco, for making this world a little safer and more awesome at the same time.
