HoodedHawk

It’s hard to post this with dry eyes, but: Pixar granted a dying 10-year old girl’s final wish: to see the movie “Up” (which is currently only in theaters).

The girl (Colby Curtin) was not able to travel to a theater to see the movie, so Pixar sent an employee to the girl’s home with a DVD of the movie. The girl was able to watch the movie, and then passed away seven hours later.

At about 12:30 p.m. the Pixar employee came to the Curtins’ home with the DVD.

He had a bag of stuffed animals of characters in the movie and a movie poster. He shared some quirky background details of the movie and the group settled in to watch Up.

Colby couldn’t see the screen because the pain kept her eyes closed so her mother gave her a play-by-play of the film.

At the end of the film, the mother asked if her daughter enjoyed the movie and Colby nodded yes, Lisa Curtin said.

The employee left after the movie, taking the DVD with him, Lynch said.

“He couldn’t have been nicer,” said Lynch who watched the movie with the family. “His eyes were just welled up.”

After the movie, Colby’s dad, Michael Curtin, who is divorced from Lisa Curtin, came to visit.

Colby died with her mom and dad nearby at 9:20 p.m.

Among the Up memorabilia the employee gave Colby was an “adventure book” – a scrap book the main character’s wife used to chronicle her journeys.

“I’ll have to fill those adventures in for her,” Lisa Curtin said.

- from OC Register

Tonight I went to a booksigning and a panel of SF authors at Reiter’s Scientific Bookstore in DC. Among the authors present were: Dr. Catherine Asaro, Greg Bear, Bud Sparhawk, Tom Purdom, Tom Ligon, Yoji Kondo (Eric Kotani), John Hemry (Jack Campbell), Charles E. Gannon, and Dr. Arlan Andrews. The roundtable discussion topic was “How Science Fiction Changes Everything” - How Science Fiction Serves the National Interest. The Washington Science Fiction Association also sponsored the event.

Catherine Asaro

SIGMA is a group of science fiction writers who offer futurism consulting to the United States government and appropriate NGOs. We provide a new concept in public service “think tanks”– an association of speculative writers who have spent careers exploring the future. Many of us have earned Ph.D.s in high tech fields, and some presently hold Federal and defense industry positions. Each is an accomplished science fiction author who has postulated new technologies, new problems and new societies, explaining the possible science and speculating about the effects on the human race.

The event was mostly the panel fielding questions from the audience. I enjoyed the evening; it was quite interesting to hear the viewpoints of various SF authors, especially Bear and Asaro, as I’m a fan of both. At the signing Dr. Asaro mentioned that the cover of Alpha was her favorite. The artist was going to go with a flowing gown, but she told him, no, I’d rather look like this:

SF Authors: Bear, Asaro, etc. Roundtable at Reiter's Bookstore

Greg Bear

Greg Bear

The US Postal Service will be releasing a set of “The Simpsons” postage stamps on May 7, 2009. Many years ago (as a kid) I used to collect stamps. None were as cool as these! The Simpsons has been on TVfor 20 years now; longest running comedy ever…

The USPS is even hosting a survey where you can vote on your favorite character -guess which one I voted for? Duh!

Simpsons Stamps

BAB, the Ikea Baby. From a pdf file the artist created for an expecting friend.

Xylocopa has a set of Alphabet blocks engraved with pictures of all the equipment and training a budding mad scientist will need:

A - Appendages | B - Bioengineering | C - Caffeine | D - Dirigible | E - Experiment | F - Freeze ray | G - Goggles | H - Henchmen | I - Invention | J - Jargon | K - Potassium | L - Laser | M - Maniacal | N - Nanotechnology | O - Organs | P - Peasants (with Pitchforks) | Q - Quantum physics | R - Robot | S - Self-experimentation | T - Tentacles | U - Underground Lair | V - Virus | W - Wrench | X - X-Ray | Y - You, the Mad Scientist of Tomorrow | Z - Zombies

Also:

…the blocks have a super-secret built in encryption function - if you rotate any block 180 degrees, it’ll encode to ROT13. If it’s good enough for Adobe Acrobat, it’s good enough for Mad Science!

-via BoingBoing

This toolbox (toolchest) was built by a piano repairman (Henry Studley) who worked for the Smith Organ Company and then the Poole Piano Company in the 1800’s. This beautiful chest contains 300 tools, and is made of mahogany, rosewood, walnut, ebony and mother of pearl (all of which were probably scraps from Poole Piano).

Though now owned by a private collector, it is supposedly still on display at the Smithsonian - the National Museum of American History. I’m definitely going to check on it the next time I go downtown!

While:

…nanostructures are building blocks for many important technological advances, including high-performance solar cells and batteries, new methods of diagnosing and treating disease, next-generation computer processors and memory, and lightweight composite materials… [from Nanobama.com ]

you can also use them to create nifty structures like the Nanobama above, just for fun. Note that each of the Obama faces shown is made up of about 150 million nanotubes - about one for each person who voted in this election. And for scale: each face is only about 0.5mm wide (about 10 hair-widths). Created by a team at the University of Michigan.

See also: Mechanosynthesis.

New from 3M: Duct Tape Bandages: Nexcare™ Duct Tape Bandages are made of real duct tape with medical grade adhesive!

The Tokyomango blog has an entry about how an auction site in Japan sold 20 “real live Pikachus” for almost a $billion. Kinda doubt it’s true (probably a photoshopped gerbil), but he sure is cute! Now, if they can find a real, live version of my favorite Pokemon (Squirtle), I’d be all over it…

In yet another Stupendously Idiotic Display of Moronic Ineptitude ™, the Bush administration has blocked a Kansas meat packing company from testing 100% of it’s cows for Mad Cow disease. Large packers objected to Creekstone Farms Premium Beef company testing all of it’s cows because they might then be forced to follow suit once Creekstone could label their beef “100%” tested.

The Agriculture department only tests 1% of cows, because “the disease is so rare”. I like the point made on BoingBoing: then this should apply to the TSA, and only 1% of passengers should be checked at the airport (terrorists are, actually, *rare*).

Supposedly the tests could be blocked, because the USDA can regulate “treatments”, and the appeals judge ruled this a treatment. Note, however, that the tests are done on *dead* cows, and there is no cure for Mad Cow disease. I do not see how this is a treatment, unless the cows suddenly come back to life. Idiots.