No sirs, I am referring to inaccuracies, even myths proffered as truths by these films. Of course, most of us understand that there are instances when movies have to be injected with little or white lies in order to make them interesting or if they were to drive some points across. For example, when I was a child, I might have seen too many locally produced World War II movies. What I found most striking among these movies, were scenes where a Filipino protagonist or two would be holding thousands of Japanese imperial troops at bay, and even killing scores of them without suffering even a single nick in turn.

You can imagine how for quite sometime, I had always thought that either the Filipino soldiers were deadly accurate with their rifles and machineguns or the Japanese soldiers were too dense and too ill-trained to fight a war.

Now, two professors from the University of Central Florida have written an article published in the German journal Praxis der Naturwissenschaften Physik. The article claims, and presents strong arguments for it, that movies produced in Hollywood have some serious disregard for basic laws of physics. The study cited with special fervor the movies Spiderman 2 and Speed for their writers’ defiance of the principles of physics. Those great physicists of yore must be turning in their graves with each showing of these movies.

The UCF professors were particularly concerned with the impact of movies’ physics-related flaws on students’ understanding of physics. While they acknowledge that common sense should remind audiences that some scenes on blockbuster movies are not real or do not exist in the real world, the professors claim that far too many moviegoers take them for the truth. Some people would readily believe that “a bus traveling 70 mph can clear a 50-foot gap in a freeway, as depicted in the movie Speed.”

The professors also assert that a decline in people’s aptitude in physics and other sciences poses a serious threat to society’s ability to create new technologies or invent new devices and gadgets.

Paper-Like Battery

Soon consumers would be able to print batteries and capacitors. This rather far-fetched idea may become a reality sooner than one can say “exploding lithium-ion batteries.” That is if researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could further enhance the technology behind the energy storage device they have developed, and which looks like a black sheet of paper.

The nano-engineered battery, described as lightweight, ultra-thin, and highly flexible, may find applications in gadgets, implantable medical devices, and transport vehicles. Able to function in temperatures ranging from 300 degrees Fahrenheit down to 100 degrees below zero, the power storage device comes fully integrated and can be printed like paper. It can function both as a highly efficient battery and as a high-power supercapacitor.

It also has a vampire-like feature. It can be powered up by using human blood or sweat. Spooky.

Nokia Does a Sony

Hmm. This could be something contagious. Battery recalls, that is.

Last week, leading mobile phone manufacturer Nokia announced a recall program for some 46 million BL-5C batteries manufactured by Japan-based Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd. About a hundred incidents of overheating, mostly while the batteries were being charged, were reported worldwide.

So far, there have been no reports of serious property damage or injuries caused by the incidents. The recall covers batteries manufactured by Matsushita from December 2005 to November 2006.

Users of Nokia mobile phones who fear their cellular phones might explode any moment should check the serial number on the back of their handsets and compare it with identification numbers posted on the Web site created by Nokia for the battery recall (www.nokia.com/batteryreplacement).

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.