While this blogger believes himself to be probably the only appreciator of documentaries in New York NOT to have seen Morgan Spurlock's hugely popular 2004 documentary "Super Size Me" (Really, what can it say in addition to the obvious "Fast food is bad for you"?), a statement Spurlock made in the most recent issue of TIME magazine definitely deserves the distinction of Quote of the Week:

Yeah! Yeah! Like, Darwin as Bowie! Marie Curie as Chrissie Hynde! Einstein as Presley!

Holy Self-Repairing Spacesuits, Spaceman!
Well, we're already working on self-healing spacecraft, so why not self-healing spacesuits?

ILC Dover LP, in Delaware — the company that has made spacesuits for NASA since the Apollo missions in the 1960s — has been testing new "smart" fabrics that could enable future spacesuits to self-repair holes, generate electricity and kill germs, according to New Scientist.

The spacesuit's self-healing ability would come via its innermost layer, which provides the spacesuit's airtight seal and is filled with a thick polymer gel. The rubber-like gel is sandwiched between two thin layers of polyurethane so that if a hole forms in these layers, the gel oozes from surrounding areas to plug it. In vacuum chamber tests, the gel healed punctures up to 2 millimeters wide.

If the suit were pierced with a larger hole, the material would immediately alert the astronaut of the hole's location. That is because the material contains a layer that is criss-crossed with current-carrying wires. Large punctures would break circuits in the damaged area, allowing built-in sensors to alert a central computer.

Such suits may be ready for use by 2018, when NASA hopes to return to the Moon.

Honda Reaches for the Skies
Honda Motor Co. will enter the aircraft production and sales business, published reports said Tuesday, amid expectations the automaker will soon sell small jets its CEO has previously called the "Honda Civic of the sky."

The Tokyo-based company will start taking orders later this year, The Associated Press relayed of numerous published reports.

Honda conducted its first public demonstration flight of its four- to five-passenger twin-engine Honda Jet (equipped with Honda-designed engines called HF118) at a 2005 air show in Wisconsin.

The company has said the plane, which chief executive Takeo Fukui has referred to as the "Honda Civic of the sky," is designed to be more fuel efficient than conventional small jets and could fly 1,100 miles before needing to refuel.

Speaking of automakers…

New Hydrogen-Powered Car is Compact…Really Compact
Energy companies, governments and automakers have been at work for years with the as-yet unsuccessful goal of mass-producing affordable hydrogen-powered cars that spew just clean water from their tailpipes

Shanghai's Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies decided to start small…like, really small.

This month, reports BusinessWeek (via Fuel Cell Today), the company will begin sales of a tiny hydrogen fuel-cell car, complete with its own miniature solar-powered refueling station.

The H-Racer's fuel cell, like those envisioned for real cars, relies on an electrochemical reaction to generate the current that powers the gadget's electric motor. Unlike a gas-powered internal combustion engine, the only byproducts are electricity, heat and water. The fuel is supplied by its alarm clock-sized refueling station. A small electric current, generated by the solar cells, extracts hydrogen from water.

The price: $80 for the set.

Dilbert & the Underachievers
Slacking is hard work...or so we hear. Luckily, Dilbert creator Scott Adams has offered Wired his list of "low-impact ways to look like an overachiever," as follows:

• Complain that you're totally swamped at every opportunity. Use phrases like "up to my ass in alligators" and "jumping from one fire to another" to make your job sound kind of sexy and dangerous.

• Bitch about your job as much as possible. This is considered work even though it's fun.

SpongeBob in Space
Finally, here are a couple of interior photos, released throughout this week, from a portion of the Genesis I spacecraft currently in orbit. Bigelow Aerospace emphasizes that "the blurred images are actual photos and items in flight."

Wait a minute. ::leans toward monitor:: Is that… ::squints:: Is that…SpongeBob SquarePants?

Sorry, folks, we're gonna have to cut it short today in order to catch a plane. We just hope we don't run into any bomb-sniffing nanodogs.


Cheers.