Computer Dreamer Who Invented the Mouse
Douglas C. Engelbart was 25, just engaged to (be MARRied) and
thinking about his future when he had a dream in 1950 that
(would change/has CHANGEd) the world.
He had a good job working at a government aerospace
laboratory in California, but he wanted to do something
(more) with his life, something of value that might last,
even outlive him. Then it came to him. In a single stroke
he (HAd) what might be safely called a complete
vision of the information age.
The angel in his dream spoke to him of technology’s
potential (EXPANDing) human intelligence, and from it he
made out a career that indeed had lasting impact. It led to a
host of inventions that became the basis for the Internet
and the modern personal computer.
In (LATEr) years, one of those inventions was given a
warmhearted name, reminding of a small, furry creature
given to scurrying across flat surfaces: the computer
mouse.
Computing was in its infancy when Dr. Engelbart entered
the field. Computers were ungainly room-size calculating
machines that could (be USEd) by only one person at a
time. Someone would feed them information in stacks of
punched cards and then wait hours for a printout of
answers. Interactive computing was a thing of the future,
or in science fiction. But it was growing in (DR. ENGELBART's)
restless mind.
In his dream, he saw himself (SITting) in front of a large
computer screen full of different symbols. The screen, he
thought, would serve as a display for a workstation that
would organize all the information and communications
for a given project.
This Dracula Ant's jaws could make it the fastest animal on the Earth.
The Dracula ant is not much of a traveler. Located mostly in the tropics of Africa, Australia and Asia, the tiny creatures spend most of their lives burrowed into tree trunks or underground, to the endless frustration of scientists who would like to study them.
So, imagine the surprise of the researchers who recently discovered that Dracula ants may be the fastest animals on earth.
To be clear, you could easily beat the Dracula ant in a foot race. But one species, Mystrium camillae, has a pair of ingeniously-designed mandibles that can snap at 200 miles per hour, according to a study published Wednesday in Royal Society Open Science. That’s 5,000 times faster than you can blink your eye and 1,000 times faster than you can snap your fingers. It’s also three times faster than the mandibles of the trap-jaw ant, the previous fastest-moving insect on record
Взято из New York Times