Ten Amazing Things The World Learned This Week

It seemed like the Miami face-eater was all there was to talk about last week, especially when he was joined by a couple of other cannibal psychos in from Canada and Baltimore. I'll rush to admit having a twisted fascination with anything this macabre but it wasn't al that was going on....there were robots dancing to Thriller, Star Trek-style needle-free injections, ancient civilizations lost to climate change and somwhat-less-ancient possible vampire exorcism burials. That's a lot of small talk to bring to the cocktail party....Ten Amazing Things The World Learned This Week.

What's Hot in Central Florida on WMFE

This weekend on WMFE's What's Hot in Central Florida, check out Gay Days for, oh, I dunno, about a million parties, events, art shows, car shows, Disney happenings related to this event that's celebrating it's big 21st birthday this year! Also, coming to the Orlando Shakespeare Theater this weekend is a Harry Potter Improv Comedy Show to benefit the Make a Wish Foundation of Central and North Florida with two actors from the Potter films in attendance for the performance and a meet & greet. 

Also my book  Crazy Little Thing: Why Love & Sex Drive Us Mad just won an Independent Publisher's Book Award, the bronze in the sex & relationships category - I'm all giddy & geeked out about it AND

we're going to be celebrating 

THIS COMING MONDAY - JUNE 4

at the Peacock Room!

1321 N. Mills Ave. Orlando 32803

We'll be there from 7-10pm - hope you'll come and have some food and cake and celebrate with me!

I won't be selling books at the event - just having fun and enjoying your company - but if you have a copy of what is now an award-winning book I'll sign it. ;)

Cheers!!!

NO ONE is getting a charge out of me....

I always used to think it was funny that the only yards you ever see pit bulls savagely defending are ones where it doesn't look like there's anything to steal.

Now I get it. The less you have the more vigorous you get about defending it. Hence my car battery being chained up like King Kong. No one is getting it out but me.

See, my car got broken into....again. This time they stole the battery...the battery...and the CD player with a library CD in it (Poe...may the thieves be buried alive or walled up in a wine cellar).

I suppose I should feel lucky since last September some bastards stole the whole goddamn car (may their house fall down on top of their heads). 

Anyway, the theft isn't even the good part of the story. You see, this car keeps getting molested and why I don't know because it more stuff broken on it than an old prize fighter. One particular problem is the doors - both are broken so they only open from the outside. One has to roll down the power windows, reach out and open the door to get out of the car.

Well, before I realized a theft had occurred I got in the car, closed the door, windows up - turned the key and nothing. Then I saw the hole in the console and realized that not only had I been robbed but I was trapped in the car like Alma Mobley in Ghost Story. 

Except that I lived. Thankfully a neighbor came out heard me yell through a little opening in the window. It's a funny story...now.

(Wonderfully creepy picture from Scott Wade's Dirty Art Car Gallery)

And now, as you can see in the top picture the battery is chained in so no one is going to get it out of there. It's the metal equivalent of a pit bull barking it's head off in front of an old Air Stream. 

Only one quandary now. Since the car was burgled when parked in the lot and on the street there's only one place I feel it's safe to park it:  on the roof. Do you think Mittens would loan me his car elevator?

.

My column: 10 Amazing Things! Robot Fish! New species! Zoning out is your friend! (but you won't do it while reading this)

Garrison Keillor once wrote about a character in one of his novels that the man felt like his life was a script written by someone who didn't like him very much.

That's how I felt all week. I'm not even going to tell you about it because you've got troubles of your own...one day when they seem funnier I'll share. Until then I'm incredibly cheered up by all the cool things I find filed under "Science" on the web, so I hope you'll click on my Ten Amazing Things You Need to Know About This Week, including robot fish that detect pollution (pic below), why you seriously have to quit snoring, a metal coating that gives photodetectors a cloak of invisibility (ala Harry Potter), inflatable bike helmets, ten new species,  one little animal who we just discovered and might lose and why zoning out is much better for you than your boss would have you believe.

One promise: you won't zone out while reading this column.

In fact, if you enjoy it and there's information in it you'd like to pass on to other people, for their amusement, health & safety or just to cheer them the hell up, please do, whether it's by sending a link to this blog or directly from the Alternet page it's on. Everyone who knows me knows I'm no Pollyanna, but I started this column because I kept coming across stories of massively cool discoveries in the world of science that made me feel so excited that I wanted to pass them along. So I hope you'll do the same, partly because I want to get enough readers to keep this going and partly because it just freaking makes people feel better.
Anyway, as they say at Sirius Cybernetics, Share & Enjoy!

What's Hot in CF: Orlando Mini Maker Faire

My apologies for posting late....this has been one of the longest weeks ever. I wonder if one day someone will ever discover the secret of time's elasticity....why is it that when the week has been lousy, starting with someone breaking into my car, that it seems to stretch on forever and when it's great that it flies by in an instant. Had the design of this place really been intelligent that ratio would have been reversed, would it not?
If some brilliant scientific mind ever does figure out the reason it will probably be someone from the Orlando Mini Maker's Faire, the DIY go-to place for all things sci and tech that's happening Saturday, May 26 at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. Click the link to see all the amazing inventors and artisans that will be there and click right here to go to WFME's What's Hot in Central Florida page and hear me give you the low down on some of the participants. So proud to have so many inventive, creative people in the CF community! Hope you'll go out and support their work!

What's Hot in CF - Fringe festival! And me!

This weekend What's Hot in Central Florida is all about The Orlando Fringe Festival! There are so many plays, musicians, visual arts and kids entertainment you'll be set for things to do til the Festival ends on May 27th! And, very awesomely ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW is on their website! Click here: Orlando International Fringe Festival and you'll be set with great international and the best local entertainment.

On a visual note, one of the many shows I'm looking forward to seeing is Joan Crawford's House Party starring Doug Bowser and on What's Hot! I referred to Miss Crawford looking....just a little....separated-at-birth from Jigsaw, that guy from Saw...kinda? Maybe? Whatever, it made me even more excited to see this show! I'll be adding more stuff to the page soon, but for now, go check out the website and make your Fringe plans for the week!

And I'm on the air AS I WRITE THIS doing pledge drive to get you to support public radio....if you love it and wouldn't want to live without it please call in and pledge your support!!!

A real life Star Trek Enterprise, weight loss drug made from lizard spit and at-home HIV test kits! 10 Cool Discoveries you need to know about!

Enterprise pic from Memory Beta Wiki

This is my favorite of my "Ten Cool Discoveries You Need to Know About" so far and that's saying something! This week in my column I have plans for a real life USS Enterprise, quantum teleportation, how puffer fish may help you smile (more than they already do), at-home HIV tests, mysterious ancient Peruvian skulls found in a Central Florida backyard and  a weight loss drug synthesized from lizard spit. How could anyone not want to read this! You'll get cocktail party conversation for the whole week, AND you won't forget about the solar eclipse on Sunday!
Please throw this column around like confetti on all your social media!!! The world will love you for it!