Q & A's from around the web

Why do vacuum cleaners usually have lights on the front, do they expect you to vacuum at night?

It's so that oncoming vacuums can see you approaching.

its to warn the cockroaches

Rain delay

...prompted an airing of "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"

I believe it was in about grade four that I learned that a blue whale is the largest animal in the world. Apparently, some people think the tiny elephant is the largest. His fifth grader classmate saved him.

I can understand the confusion:

Scientists closer to developing invisibility cloak

WASHINGTON – Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects.

Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.

People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream.

The research was funded in part by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation's Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Center.

Below is Xinag Zhang and his research team working in their lab.

How's this for a twist of irony?

I took some pasta al forno to my lawyer friend today, and as it turned out, she had brought in some veggies from her garden to the office, of which she gave me a sample. Never has a woman given me her zucchini! Me, who is known in some circles as Vinny Zucchini, got "squashed" by a woman! She's one sweet tomato, I can tell you that.

Shhh...do you hear that sound?

That silence is the sound of Canadian athletes not receiving their gold medals. Did I say "gold medals"? I meant "medals" period. Once again, Canada is showing the world our metal, as in determination to win. As a proud Canadian, I must cower in shame every four years as my beloved country tries very hard, but is shown to just not quite be good enough to compete with the world's best. It has been the better part of a week since The Games started and we have yet to win a medal of any hue.

This is yet another example of why Canadians are not taken very seriously in the world. We never make any damn noise! Canada is best known as a quiet and clean place. A place with free health care and where polar bears have the run of the place. This is our claim to fame. Very meaningful this is to an avid sports fan.

As one can imagine, this kind of "sports excellence" isn't restricted to The Olympic Games. It is a national trait. Across this big country, we are "blessed" with mediocrity in sport. Nothing can serve as a better example than The Toronto Maple Leafs. I have been carrying the torch for this team who last won the Stanley Cup back in 1967 when I was a young lad of 13 watching with eyes as big as saucers and beaming with pride. It was the Buds' fourth championship in six years. Back then we were used to winning. Fast forward back to the future...

Every Olympics, I watch in embarrassment praying for medal wins for our young athletes who work so hard and dedicate their lives to their particular event(s)--medals that prove time and time again to be as elusive as trying to catch butterflies with your bare hands. Well, at least they can get free health care if they over-extend themselves and get hurt. Snicker.