…the Incredible Hulk has a badge, more robot stuff, Fabio’s continued butter disbelief and so much more.

Quick Newsflash & Observation: It snowed in New York last weekend. And when it snows even a little bit in The City, navigating the sidewalks and intersections becomes both a science and a fine art. And when it blizzards…well, the task is so nearly impossible that you simply throw up your arms and seriously consider just how important your job is when trying to commute to it. Anyhow, despite the feet-high piles of snow and feet-muddying amount of slush, some corporate fellas still wore their expensive suits and fresh-polished shoes while their female counterparts continued to wear vertically impressive heels.

So we ask: Don’t our fellow business East Coasters, upon considering the improbably high temperature this winter, know this week was probably the only one this year in which we could all get away with wearing tennis shoes and hideously ugly boots to the office?

But we digress.

This week was National Chip Week in the UK. Why?
According to Love Chips:

National Chip Week gives […] Brits the opportunity to enjoy British chips in all shapes and sizes – from homemade to takeaway, frozen from the supermarket to those enjoyed in restaurants. Who could resist relishing something so delicious, nutritious and incredibly Moorish?

Oh, that’s why. Well then, fair enough.

FYI (because we know you’re interested): The UK’s 8,500 fish-and-chip shops sell more than 277 million portions of chips per year, according to Love Chips. Not only that, but an average serving of chips contains “more than double the amount of fibre [sic.] found in an average serving of brown rice or bowl of porridge.”

So now you know.

That’s Deputy Incredible Hulk, Kids.
If ever there were a reason for kids to stay off drugs, it would be to avoid causing a mild-mannered scientist to turn into an ill-tempered, “hulking” green-skinned monster.

Former bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, who played the Incredible Hulk to late actor Bill Bixby’s David Bruce Banner character when he lost his temper on the CBS TV show from 1977 to 1982, was sworn in as a county sheriff’s department reserve deputy during a ceremony Monday night.

Ferrigno, whose father was a police officer with the NYPD, told the Associated Press, “I want to give back to the community, and I want to work with young kids, help them get off drugs.”

The actor began training to become a reserve deputy last September after passing a background check. He completed training in firearms, first aid and high-speed driving techniques. Ferrigno will serve at least 20 hours a month, helping recruit new deputies and working with the sheriff’s Youth Activities League and the Special Victims Bureau, which assists abused children.

Note to kids: Put down the narcotics. Don’t make the reserve deputy angry…You wouldn’t like him when he’s ANGRYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Happy Valentine’s Day, I’m Cheating On You, I Want a Divorce.
Well, Valentine’s Day came and went as it does every year: with little to say about it.

However, we with our black hearts feel inclined to point out an article from the Wall Street Journal this week, which offered the following bit of intrigue:

Valentine’s Day is the biggest single 24-hour period for florists, a huge event for greeting-card companies and a boon for candy makers. But it’s also a major crisis day for anyone who is having an affair. After all, Valentine’s Day is the one holiday when everyone is expected to do something romantic for their spouse or lover — and if someone has both, it’s a serious problem.

“If anything is going on, it will be happening on that day,” Irene Smith, whose business at Discreet Investigations detective agency in Colorado as much as doubles on Valentine’s Day, told the WSJ.

Indeed, the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts, a trade group of professionals trained to review divorce settlements, said filings typically spike in mid-February. In fact, divorce lawyers say they frequently turn up evidence of Valentine’s Day duplicity when they review financial documents. Credit-card receipts from restaurants or purchases at fancy jewelry stores are the most common giveaways, according to Heidi Harris, a partner at New York law firm Sheresky Aronson & Mayefsky.

Classy.

Fabio Still Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter…
The 45-year-old Italian, with massive pecs and perfectly-waves-in-the-wind gold mane, largely disappeared from the public more than five years ago but is suddenly ubiquitous, according to an AdAge article late last week.

Guy’s been busy: He had a widely publicized starring role in Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.’s first-ever Super Bowl spot, a new set of ads for the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spread (a reprisal of his seven-year stint, AdAge noted, as the margarine’s “spokes-hunk”) and a pivotal part of the launch plans for Procter & Gamble Co.’s new Oral-B Sensitive Advantage Toothbrush.

And in a surprise role-reversal, women’s underwear will be hawked from Fabio.

Reported AdAge:

Plans are under way to expand the former romance novel cover boy’s successful line of women’s outerwear sold at Sam’s Club […] into a full line of apparel (including lingerie) and footwear for the ladies in another major retail chain beginning in July. There are also plans for the release of a TV movie, “Staar,” in which Fabio appears with fellow heartthrob Bill Clinton.

‘Nuff said.

A Really Real Transformer (…More Than Meets the Eye)
Tech E Blog has “seen the future and it’s the ‘WR-07,’ a real transforming robot.”

As we at IMT are unabashed fans (i.e., geeks) of the original Transformers, we’re inclined to agree with Tech E Blog.

Said Engadget:

The Himeji Soft Works-developed WR-07 bot is a fully functional wheeled vehicle that converts into a Robo-One ready battle bot bent on kung-fuing your azz into subordination. Click the “read” link to watch WR-07 skillfully placate his human spectators into docility prior to attempted escape! The vid then cuts-out abruptly, presumably to cover-up for the embarrassing fact that Tokyo’s defenses are tuned to the likes of Mechaguiras rather than this wee 15-incher.

Check out the video of the transforming robot in action.

Our finger nails are nearly nonexistent as we wait for a full-size version.

(The picture is of Optimus Prime, not of the actual WR-07 bot.)

Irony Not Lost
New Scientist reader Mike Sands was driving along a narrow road with cars parked on either side when his cell phone flashed at him from its holder to say he had an urgent SMS. When he took his eye off the road to look at the phone, a bus pulled out coming the other way. Sands spotted the bus and escaped with only a clipped wing mirror. Breathing again, he looked at the message.

The message was from his cell phone service provider O2, and it said:

Call O2 Trafficline. It’s the safest way to plan your journey.

eBay Find of the Week: Guidebook to Fighting Off the Robot Uprising
You like robots, right? What am I saying? Everybody likes robots.

But…

“If popular culture has taught us anything,” recently said robots expert Dr. Daniel H. Wilson, “it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the growing robot menace.”

Indeed, now we have a guidebook for battle in the inevitable face-off. In his book, “How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion” (Bloomsbury, November 2005), Wilson takes a humorous look at how humans can defeat a robot rebellion. Wilson earned a Ph.D. from the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, where he has also received Master’s degrees in robotics and data mining. He has worked in top research laboratories, including Microsoft Research, the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and Intel Research Seattle.

At the bewildering starting-bid price of $6 (plus $2.50 for shipping), you absolutely cannot afford NOT to be prepared for the eventual revolution, with Wilson’s obviously brilliant debut book.

And when the revolution does come, warns Wilson, “Have no mercy. Your enemy doesn’t.”

Cheers.