You’ve seen James Bond, or Jack Bauer, or any one of a number of fictional characters attack, and, almost immediately, open a lock.  Their approach is reminiscent of that of the Rubik’s Cube masters of the 1980s, who, by memorizing a series of moves, could realign a Rubik’s Cube in seconds, regardless of how its faces were positioned when they began.

But does that same technique, as some movie and TV scriptwriters would have us think, apply to the art of lock picking?  Can lock pin patterns, like the Rubik’s cube patterns, be memorized so that a given lock can be picked in under fifteen seconds?

In “The Living Daylights”, Q presented Mr. Bond with a pick which, she assured him, would open 90% of the locks on Earth.

He added this remarkable device to the “A View to a Kill” credit card which, with an electronic signal, could open locks, and to the “Tomorrow Never Dies” electronic fingerprint scanner which could fool even the most intricate fingerprint scanning locks.

Clarity.  Fire.  Brilliance.  You’ve heard the terms applied to diamonds, and know that the more of each of these qualities a diamond exhibits, the more expensive it is going to be.

Still, you’re searching for a jewelry gift, and would love to find a colorless, clear, fiery, brilliant gemstone without facing a price tag in the thousands of dollars.

You’ve seen Cubic Zirconia pieces, but don’t know exactly what a Cubic Zirconia stone is, or how it compares to a natural diamond.

There are two categories of “artificial” diamond.  One, the synthetic diamond, is produced when carbon is dissolved in molten iron.

The iron is then cooled, and as its exterior hardens, the still-soft interior iron pressurizes the dissolved carbon until it crystallizes. Diamonds are simply crystals of carbon, and synthetic carbon-based diamonds are true diamonds.

Synthetic diamonds have been used industrially since 1960, and, in very limited amounts, as larger gemstones.  Simulated diamonds, on the other hand, are not carbon-based.

You haven’t been involved in strenuous activity, and the weather is cool.  But you’re still experiencing a pounding heart and racing pulse, accompanied by heavy sweating and shaking, and a desperate need for a bathroom.

You’ve had a flu shot, so it can’t be the flu.  But you almost wish it were; you know that you are in the throes of an anxiety attack like those suffered by the millions of people who share your anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorders, though may physicians mistake them for illnesses, are not.  They are instead brought on when they amygdala, a structure located in the limbic system, the brain’s most primitive region, malfunctions.  The limbic system is the area of the brain which, from mankind’s earliest days, has generated the “flight, fight or freeze” response to danger which was essential to our survival.

I’ve already got a Gadgets review blog and a movies and TV reviews blog, so I thought I’d set up a general reviews blog for all the other stuff that I have an opinion on.

Of course now I’ve gotta work out what other stuff I wanna write reviews about…

perhaps win, or restaurants…

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