Some people really get close with their gear.
LIFE ON TWO WHEELS
French artist and copy editor Guillaume Blanchet loves his bicycle. In fact, he spent 382 days on it—never leaving. He cooked, he ate, he slept, he flirted, and he washed his clothes on a bicycle for all of 2011 and more. And he made sure to film a lot of his experience. Blanchet did everything on the go, constantly pedaling. While remaining on his bicycle seat, he handled frying pans, shaving kits, laptops, telephones, Rubik’s cubes, and musical instruments. He kept a roll of toilet paper on the handle bar, which does raise the question of how he did some things while remaining on his bike.
PART MANN, PART MACHINE
For more than 20 years, University of Toronto engineering professor Steve Mann has lived his life as a cyborg. He wears a web of wires, computers, and sensors. His devices are designed to enhance his vision, boost his memory, and track his vital signs. A small camera/computer called the EyeTap connects into his skull. He carries documents from his doctor explaining that the EyeTap is physically attached to his head and cannot be removed without special tools. Because of his unusual appearance, Dr. Mann has been accosted. In 2002, security personnel at St. John’s International Airport in Newfoundland strip-searched him and destroyed $56,800 worth of his equipment, including the eyeglasses that serve as his display screen.
THE REAL STEPFORD WIFE
Those looking for the perfect woman might want to contact inventor Le Trung. The science genius has built his own ideal female robotic companion. The native of Brampton, Ontario, named her Aiko, which is Japanese for love child. Aiko plays multiplayer Xbox games, helps to clean the house, and can fix drinks. When they go on romantic country drives, Aiko gives perfect directions. She recognizes faces and says hello to those she has met. The 37-year-old whiz is so in love with his perfect woman that he has brought her home to spend Christmas with his parents. Aiko opened her presents and joined in the family tradition of playing quiz and board games. She’s programmed to speak 13,000 sentences. The fembot does not like it if you get fresh with her, though.
Canadian Jack MacKenzie is the oldest person to ski to the North Pole, at age 77.
If you grab or squeeze her too hard, she will slap you. The silicon beauty with the hourglass figure even has sensors in her private parts, but Trung emphasizes that he has not slept with her. Trung originally started building Aiko as a robot that would help take care of the elderly, but he evidently strayed from his original plan.
He has spent at least $23,000 so far creating his dreambot. Trung has said, “Aiko doesn’t need food or rest and will work almost 24 hours a day.” For the right person, she is the ideal companion.
* * *
SKYROCKETS IN FLIGHT
British Columbia boffin Ken Schellenberg is a rocket enthusiast. The chief scientist and CEO at Antigravity Research Corporation—a company in Chilliwack devoted to state-of-the-science professional pop-bottle water rocketry—has already broken the world record for shooting a water rocket to the highest altitude ever. His small carbon fiber-reinforced pop-bottle rocket, fueled by compressed nitrogen and foamed water, hit an altitude of 378.5 meters (1,242 feet).
Schellenberg’s next goal is to launch a 2-liter (half a gallon) pop bottle into outer space. His company sells products that allow rocket enthusiasts to build their own high-flying bottles. They’re made by attaching plastic or cardboard fins to an empty bottle, punching a hole in the bottle top to act as a nozzle, and pressurizing the bottle with air from a bicycle pump. Water and dish soaps often propel the rockets to higher heights. His project to get a bottle rocket in space is still in the works, but he has developed plans for a two-stage reinforced vessel with ultra-strong carbon fiber fueled by liquid CO2. He also wants to do everything legally and without interfering with other technology that is in orbit, so he intends on launching his creation from a military facility such as the one in Cold Lake, Alberta.
The longest marriage in the world is 80 years, between Joseph and Annie Jarvis of Yukon Territory.