Last Meal Ban; NASA Seeks Solar; Monkeys Learn Shakespeare

Really Worthy of 300 Feet of Bronze?

A 300 foot bronze statue of Christopher Columbus is still trying to find a home after being dragged, in pieces, around the US. Currently, the most likely location is in Puerto Rico, though there is not really a warm welcome by most people in the town.

Aside from its shear ugliness, the main reason this disaster of a monument can't seem to find a home is that it (a) either obstructs air traffic and/or (b) infuriates the people who live where it would go. Ironically, the suggested site is on a pristine beach, which is mostly uninhabited. I loathe Christopher Columbus and of all the Italian figures in history, why people focus on this “explorer” is beyond me. He discovered nothing! It's not like we're talking about Galileo or Da Vinci or Garibaldi – I would put 300-foot statues of them in my yard.

Roomier Flying Without Paying for Two Seats

Japanese Boeing workers bowed in unison at the presentation ceremony of the 787 Dreamliner, which promises to be a roomier and more comfortable way to travel.

One of the bonus features is that the chairs move forward before reclining so you're not napping in the lap behind you. It's also more lightweight, which makes it more fuel efficient. Of course, you can still plummet to your death in it, so let me know when we have transporters.

NASA Deploys Solar Study

NASA to employ giant solar sails on its upcoming series of missions to test the use of solar power to improve space communications, navigation and propulsion.

Solar activity interfered heavily with NASA's ability to track the UARS satellite that crashed to Earth the other day (they're still not sure where it landed, which inspires head shaking), however its power is too great to be ignored if we can use it instead of rocket fuel.

Literature Becomes Money Business

A privately funded study used specialized software and monkeys to try and prove that if left alone, monkeys would eventually type Shakespeare.

The funniest part of this article is where a previous experiment was done and the monkeys repeatedly typed the letter “s” and urinated on the keyboard and eventually broke the computer. That's the kind of Shakespeare anyone can understand. It's like Shakespeare meets the Clash.

Last, Last Meal

The Texas prisons have abolished last meal requests and will instead serve condemned prisoners normal prison fare.

I see the point – why afford someone a courtesy they didn't afford their victims? However, it does prompt me to think about what I would choose for my last meal (assuming I wasn't in Texas, which is my worst case scenario).