The Writer's Life 8/26 - Attn. Sci-Fi Authors

A host of items in today's news provides plenty of fodder for writers. A brief article in today's NY Post led me to sciencemag.org for this: "Octopuses are notorious escape artists, able to squeeze and squish themselves into and around nearly any obstacle they encounter. In an ode to these crafty cephalopods, researchers have created the first completely soft-bodied robot, dubbed the “octobot.” The palm-sized machine’s exterior is made of silicone. Whereas other soft robots have had at least a few hard parts, such as batteries or wires, the octobot uses a small reservoir of hydrogen peroxide as fuel... Scientists envision these robots being used for marine search and rescue, oceanic temperature sensing, and military surveillance." Here's a pic:

The St. Jude Medical stock fell yesterday after a report stated that implanted heart devices are susceptible to hacking. That sounds like the basis of a thriller the late Michael Crichton might have written.

Drug dealers keep coming up with novel ways of transporting goods. Westchester authorities found 65 pounds of heroin in the axle of a tractor-trailer. Expect that to turn up in a movie or TV show very soon.

A woman trying to sell crickets and worms on a NYC subway train was jostled and lost her grip on her odd cargo Wednesday evening. A witness says startled passengers had crickets on their arms. The worms wriggled on the floor. His girlfriend was crying. People moved to the other end of the car. Someone pulled the emergency brake (very bad idea) and the train halted on the Manhattan Bridge. Paging Stephen King.

Over the past four years, a 31-year-old Florida man has survived a lightning strike, a bite by a venomous spider and — most recently — an attack by a rattlesnake in his backyard. (Yahoo News). With stuff like this in the news, the prolific King will never run out of ideas.

My thanks to the middle aged woman who got the floating book shop off on the right foot by buying Tom Brokaw's pictorial on The Greatest Generation and a NY Times Crossword Puzzle Dictionary, and to Janet and Stu, who purchased a Danielle Steel romance, a Harry Potter adventure and a Carol Burnett bio, and to Ira, who wiped out a large chunk of celebrity row by selecting bios of Bobby Darin, Ingrid Bergman and Janet Leigh. The session inspired meetings between six locals: As I was conversing with Matt, an entrepreneur who invests in several business, an electrician stopped and asked if I knew of any framing places in the neighborhood. This led to a discussion between the two that went from art to buying pipe tobacco in large quantities. They exchanged numbers. During that talk, Ol' Smoky showed and, a moment later, his friend Ira, who has self-published a book of his puns. They sat on the ledge of the garden, smoking and gabbing. Late in the session, as I was doing business with the other Ira, a retired tailor, Caroline stopped by to say hello. Ira complimented her fashion sense, and they walked off together, schmoozing.

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