Fantasist's Scroll

That’s “Godzilla” to all us non-Japanese.
Scientists have found the remains of what seems to be a Godzilla-like creature. Basically, this sucker is a cross between T. Rex and an ancient crocodile that lived in the sea. Not content to eat fish, like most crocodillians of his age, this bad-boy ate other dinos. He didn’t just fish, but he hunted. No radioactive fire-breath, but, otherwise, pretty much like Godzilla.
Now, freeze that and mix in a little radioactive waste and…. Suddenly, that movie doesn’t seem quite so bad!

Yes, apparently even airplane geeks dream.
And, when they do, they dream of fantastic, frightening, freaky planes. Some even dream them into existance. Mostly, though, they just exist as fantasies. Still, someone has collected a bunch of them together into one easy-to-use webpage: Fantasy Planes.
Perfect for a Friday Fun Link!

Hey, it’s Friday, dream big and click the link!

This is common sense to anyone in the business.
Honest. When was the last time you tried to find a computer that used a floppy disk? Have you even touched a floppy in the past year? If so, I think you’re in the minority. But, soon it may be true for something that IT Professionals (ie. professional geeks) have most likely dealt with: backup tapes. I’ve lost count of how many different kinds of backup systems I’ve used over the years and you know, most of them only would read tapes from one or two generations back. I wonder how many businesses have their archival data stored on tapes that they can’t read anymore…
But, this article on smh.com.au regarding a coming digital Dark Age might be news to some of my readers here. Or, at least, it might not be something that they’ve really considered. Imagine getting some really interesting, but obscure, documents on a system that you can’t acess. Say, a CD-ROM in the far future. It’s labelled and all, so the finders know what is supposed to be on the disk, but they don’t have a system to read it. What do they do? Thaw out that crusty, old twenty-first century computer geek so he can tell them what to do? Build a new system to read the old storage media? Find an alien to do one of the above? The possibilites for story are almost endless.

Real or hoax?
While reading a story on Slashdot.org about an improper request for a non-existant version of the Linux kernel, someone made a joke about John Titor, time traveller. As per usual on Slashdot, a fellow commentor then posted a link to the John Titor entry on Wikipedia. After reading the entry, I find myself wondering who was really behind it and why. Is it simply a Toynbee Convector? (The Toynbee Convector is a book by Ray Bradbury which contains a story of the same name. In the story, someone fakes going to the future to get folks to develop things to create that near-utopian future.) Was it someone writing a bit of interactive fiction? Or, was it simply a hoax to sell a book? (John Titor A Time Traveler\’s Tale)
Who knows? Who cares? It’s fun to look at and contemplate the intricacy of the story.
And, of course, it’s Friday, so click the link!

NASA’s gotten into the comics business.
No, really, according to Manga News, NASA scientists commissioned a “space comic book” to explain their new satellite program to school kids. It’s pretty neat, actually, that they’re reaching out to that kind of audience. Science has been neglected in school here in the States for a long time, so, anything they can do to raise awareness and make it fun is great. (Though, I’m not sure I would have gone with that dog-catcher theme…) Anyway, you can check “Cindi in Space” out for free here.

C’mon, it’s Friday, don’t you deserve to look at comics, too?

Again.
Yep, someone’s on the three-dimensional television kick again. According to this article on News.com, Japanese researchers are predicting fully interactive television by 2020. By that they mean a remote experience that the home user can see in three dimensions, hear, touch and smell. Yes, smell. Though, frankly, why anyone would want to smell something like a football stadium is beyond me. That’s 3/4 the reason to stay home! Well, that and the always superior view on TV.
I’m sure that it won’t take long for some enterprising young lad to pervert this medium, too. I’ll let you fill in the blanks there, but, well, you get the idea.

This seems like a problem…
Over two years ago, I noted a little news article about dolphins geared-up and trained for combat. Well, it seems that not only do they exist, but they may have been released into the Gulf of Mexico, by accident, due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. At least, according to this news article at the Guardian, that’s quite likely. The US government will neither confirm, nor deny, the veracity of this story, but sources close to the military indicate that as many as 36 bottle-nose dolphins that have been trained by the Navy to attack terrorists compromising ocean vessels may be loose in the Gulf. These sources say that divers and surfers may be in actual danger from these swimming mammals who have been armed with some kind of “poison dart gun”. The concern, according to the article, is that these dolphins “have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises” and could attack innocent bystanders who fit the profile.
The good news is that the “poison” darts are designed to put their target to sleep for later interrogation, but a lone swimmer or diver could find themselves in trouble. And, again, the Navy will not confirm or deny this story. It could be nothing, but…
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water!

Or, a reactor in every pot.
Well, maybe not quite, but at least they’re getting closer, according to this article at Purdue University News on-line. Researchers at Purdue University have recently established supporting evidence that earlier findings by other scientists, who designed an inexpensive “tabletop” device that uses sound waves to produce nuclear fusion reactions, are, in fact valid. They’ve been working on this for over two years and have finally reproduced good results with their small, deuterium-powered reactor.
According to the article, “development of a low-cost thermonuclear fusion generator would offer the potential for a new, relatively safe and low-polluting energy source. … A cubic kilometer of seawater would contain enough heavy hydrogen to provide a thousand years’ worth of power for the United States. Such a technology also could result in a new class of low-cost, compact detectors for security applications that use neutrons to probe the contents of suitcases; devices for research that use neutrons to analyze the molecular structures of materials; machines that cheaply manufacture new synthetic materials and efficiently produce tritium, which is used for numerous applications ranging from medical imaging to watch dials; and a new technique to study various phenomena in cosmology, including the workings of neutron stars and black holes.”

Wow. I guess all those science-fiction writers were closer to reality than we ever thought, eh? I wonder how long it will be before we have transporters or “stepping disks” ala Larry Niven?