I still think they(anyone planning to go to Mars)should consider setting up a base on the moon. It's closer, less expensive, rescue would be easier and they would find if any of their building/living theories had any glitches. It's like a small scale test before going for the big one.

Dolly Partons bra sizer. "Something Somewhere Went Terribly Wrong"

I think this is an amazing step on the road to true androids. The skin, when "she's" speaking has a human like quality around the throat and cheeks and the smile, considering "she" is mimicking the operator, is great.
This kind of bot would elicit trust in patients who may not open up to human help.

The link doesn't work for me but I found:

http://www.worth1000.com/contests/12669/12669-how-do-you-hide-an-elephant

http://www.worth1000.com/contests/13055/13055-how-do-you-hide-an-elephant

There are *6* galleries of how to hide an elephant on the site.

@Gutza
You're right, thank you. I stand corrected. AND educated.

Dumb! They only had to look as far as the local pool hall. It's called putting "English" or "spin" on the ball. A common shot used to get around an opponents ball and into the pocket.

Obviously, the triangle must be a gathering ground for whales. I know from personal experience, seafood creates terrible intestinal gas, methane. As some eminent U.S. scientists have deduced, on land the biggest methane producers, by population density, are cows. And a reduction in their number would solve the methane problem.
Therefore, by extrapolation, the biggest methane producers in the sea are whales and a reduction in their numbers should solve the problem of the Bermuda Triangle.
Or,,, wait a minute! Am I getting science mixed up with politics? NAH. Couldn't be. =b

Erin McKean, the author of the article, gave a wonderful talk at www.ted.com a few years ago. As a lexicographer, she knows her stuff.

And for something completely different, check out Erin McKean, one of the youngest editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary.
A great and NOT boring talk at:

http://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionary.html

In 1976/77, Gerard K. O'Neill and his students at MIT designed and built a mass driver, the precursor to the electromagnetic accelerator, capable of 1,800 gravities. His design, using switches and relays, could be used on Earth, the moon and in space. It was also not designed as a weapon but for completely peaceful purposes. The following links tell the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe9Qm72YeqU

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Driver_1 Gerard K. O'Neill of Princeton University (who was on sabbatical at MIT during the 1976-77 academic year)...was able to achieve an acceleration of around 30 g (300 m/s²).

http://www.viswiki.com/en/Mass_Driver_1 Constructed in 1976 and 1977, Mass Driver 1 was an early demonstration of the concept of the mass driver, a form of electromagnetic launcher

http://ssi.org/the-life-of-gerard-k-oneill/ Life of Gerard K. O’Neill

It's a dog. whee. to echo a couple others,So What? 'Splain please.
jim

"Green. We should paint the ceiling green."

Whatever you do, don't wear it in Boston!

The Xanth series by Piers Anthony has got to be my all time favorite. Due to its severely punnish nature it must be set in a land where magic IS and the mundane isn't. Anthony has more than one title for each letter of the alphabet including Air Apparent, Xone of Contention, Swell Foop,and at least 26 more.

On a more serious (but fun) note, anything by Anne McCaffrey (especially the PERN series) cannot be put down before finishing or using your nose for a bookmark.

I also found Orson Scott Card's books to be a good read but somewhat stilted. A "new" book I picked up is The Warlock In Spite Of Himself by Christopher Stasheff, wonderfully written, funny, fast and a good read.

Enjoy your summer of books, they're good for your head.