billso.com

In his new book, Becoming Batman, and an article in Scientific American called Dark Knight Shift: Why Batman Could Exist — But Not for Long, E. Paul Zehr discusses how someone might become a costumed detective like the Caped Crusader.

For many comic book fans, Batman is a reasonable model for wish fulfillment because the character has no superhuman abilities. He’s a smart rich guy with lots of wonderful toys.

I hope Zehr has addressed the psychological issues because no one in their right mind would want to become Batman:

• Bruce Wayne saw his parents gunned down in cold blood during a robbery. (Come to think of it Superman was an orphan, too… but he didn’t see his parents die when his planet explode.)
• Wayne lives alone, with a trained paramedic for a butler.
• He’s obsessed with fighting crime.
• Caves are drafty and cold.
• The trunks hide nothing.

Frederic Wertham didn’t have a clue about Batman in his book, The Seduction of the Innocent, but I’ve included the obligatory reference anyway. And we’ll throw in this link to Newsarama’s discussion of the 1960s TV show, too.

Because Bruce Wayne isn’t gay - he’s had more girlfriends than Tek Jansen.

(Link via BoingBoing)

Image courtesy of Mirka through a Creative Commons license.

I’ve seen more bicycles, scooters and motorcycles in Honolulu as our gasoline prices stay above $4 a gallon, and popular routers on The Bus get more crowded.

In my nightmares, I’m running on the sidewalk, and there’s someone who is riding right at me:

• Going full speed 
• Ignoring the crosswalk signals
• Holding a lit cigarette
• Riding without a helmet
• Screaming into their mobile phone - bonus points if they’re cursing
• Listening to their iPod
• Wearing sunglasses, so I can’t see their eyes

Anyone who listens to an iPod while they’re riding looks like a candidate for a Darwin Award.  If they’re talking on a mobile phone,  they’re paying even less attention to where they’re going.

Once in a while, I see someone driving a motorized vehicle on the sidewalk. There’s a guy who I see almost every morning that I run on Ala Moana Boulevard. He guns his gas scooter down the mauka (ocean side) sidewalk on his way to Aloha Tower. He’s riding against the automobile traffic, but it’s a very wide sidewalk.

Then there’s the man I saw last month who rode his motorcycle up Beretania on the sidewalk behind Century Square and the Catholic Archdiocesan offices. He parked his bike next to the bicycle rack. Mopeds and scooters can park at a bicycle rack, but not motorcycles.

Sometimes I see people riding scooters and bicycles with one hand on the handlebar and the other hand holding a cigarette. Looks healthy!

Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk through a Creative Commons license. 

Related pages on billso.com

Honolulu mass transit

It’s possible to build a “kill switch” into electronics, so that the device can be stopped or destroyed by remote control. I mentioned this in my 3 July article called The kill switch is a bad idea.

But what happens when the device itself can harm or kill a person? Nathan Adams, a master’s student at the University of Canterbury, has written a good post called When bugs really do matter: 22 years after the Therac 25. He also addresses problems with Alaris SE infusion pumps back in 2006. This FDA page called Safety Information about the Alaris Signature Edition Gold Infusion Pump Seizure has more information.

I attended the University of Georgia, so I know that Georgia has more than a few folks who need some exercise. Google’s Atlanta office is a founding sponsor for Get Outdoors Georgia, a state program that encourages people to get off their seats and exercise in a park. Google is donating a branded YouTube channel, advertising services, maps and other features to support the effort.

If Google ever opens an Oahu office, I hope they will support a similar program for the island. A recent Federal study concluded that 8% of all Americans are diabetic. That’s 24 million people, with another 54 million who are on the verge of looking like the humans in WALL-E. Once someone, especially a child, gets fat, he tends to stay fat. This Motley Fool article, This Drug Market is Booming, discusses how pharmaceutical companies and investors are trying to profit from the diabetes epidemic.

See Get Outdoors with GO Georgia! for more details.

Business Week reports the company has modified its famous free food policy to include healthy fare. Googlers squawked when their microkitchens were stocked with more fruits and fewer donuts.

As John Cook points out, life at google is not rough. Employees can bring their dogs to work, where free dog food is also available in microkitchens.

Less generous companies like Caterpillar are subsidizing gardenburgers and salads in their lunchrooms.

Microsoft added icons to the menu labels, so employees could find vegan, low-fat and other choices in the company’s 31 corporate cafeterias. How typical of Redmond.

What next? Treadmills in the cubicles?