Waiting for holograms

Perhaps the most memorable fake hologram in science fiction cinema is the image of Princess Leia pleading, "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope" in "Star Wars" Episode IV. Fuzzy, jumpy, monochrome and doll-sized, it looks pretty primitive. And yet, it's still beyond the state of the art in the real world.

Why is that? Paul Boutin explores the answers at Slate:

Real-life holographic gadgets are always getting our hopes up—and then letting us down—for a good reason. Unlike the teleporter and the faster-than-light spaceship, hologram technology is grounded in real science—it's just taking longer to bloom than anyone expected. ...

Studying happiness

The New York Times reports: What Makes People Happy? TV, Study Says. It also found that caring for children is considered almost as bad as doing housework.

What's really interesting, however, is the methodology used:

The study also marks the debut of a novel questionnaire that probes the subtle, moment-to-moment emotions that constitute an ordinary day. In the new approach, called the Day Reconstruction Method, people keep a diary of everything they did during the day, from reading the paper in the morning to arguing with children or coworkers over lunch, from running to catch the 6 p.m. bus home to falling asleep with their socks on.

The next day, consulting the diary, they relive each activity and, using 12 scales, rate how they felt at the time, whether hassled, criticized, worried or warm, friendly and happy.

(Via Rebecca Blood.)

Terms of the times

The Global Language Monitor has released its list of the top 10 politically correct words and phrases for 2004. Topping the list is a cumbersome workaround for the technical term master/slave, which was deemed so sensitive that Los Angeles County urged vendors to limit its use last year.

Other items on the list include "insurgents," "waitron" (for waiter or waitress), "non-same sex marriage" and "incurious" ("rather than more impolite invectives for President Bush [such as idiot or moron]").

One surprising item: "baristas," which according to the Monitor, is another term for waitpeople types. Hm, maybe it's used differently in other places, but around here I'm pretty sure we only use the term the way it's meant.

Forbidden @ Spaces

Over at Boing Boing, Xeni Jardin documents the fun she had trying to figure out what rude words you can't use in blog titles and URLs on MSN Spaces.

(If you're bothered by coarse language, you may want to think twice before clicking.)

Elsewhere, Todd Bishop rounds up other reactions to Microsoft's new blogging software, including Dan Gillmor's comment that the language filter will make the company "an object of derision."

Walking can kill you

Walking remains the most dangerous mode of transportation per mile in the nation, according to the Mean Streets 2004 report by the Environmental Working Group and the Surface Transportation Policy Project, beating out public transit, driving and flying.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton ranked 40th on the list of 50 most dangerous metropolitan areas in the country when it comes to pedestrian deaths. Although pedestrian deaths declined nationwide from 1994 to 2003, the number in this region actually went up last year, rising to 55 from 45 in 2002. Ten of last year's fatalities were in Seattle, where eight pedestrians have been killed so far this year.

Unfortunately, traffic around here will only keep getting worse, according to a new report released by Sound Transit.

How a rock ruined them

Being hit by a meteorite can ruin your life -- although not quite in the way you might have thought, according to a sad, sordid tale of greed and betrayal from Tuscaloosa, Ala.