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The Real "Iron Man" ... PLUS: Hotel Monaco's Secrets!

Posted May 4th 2008 4:00PM by Mo Rocca
Filed under: Mormons, Mo Rocca, Brooke White, Iron Man

Today on CBS News Sunday Morning I reported on the real-life "Iron Man": a robotic exoskeleton that amplifies the strength of the person wearing it up to 20 times.

I confess that I'd never even heard of Iron Man when producer Anthony Laudato approached me about the project. I assumed this was his own private obsession. (Anthony is such a robot fanatic, he's on the steering committee of the National Robot Museum, set to open in Landover, MD in 2011. And no, I'm not purchasing a ticket to their "steel tie" gala fundraiser.) But once I began reading about Tony Stark, Iron Man's womanizing, hard-drinking genius inventor, I was hooked.

The real-life exoskeleton is named XOS and is the brainchild of Dr. Stephen Jacobson's team at Raytheon Sarcos in Salt Lake City. Jacobson is the man behind the Utah artificial arm, created in 1983 and still the standard for casualties of war. XOS is being developed for commercial, medical and military purposes. (One intriguing goal is for XOS to be used by medical personnel to help move patients.) What was most extraordinary to me was the near instantaneous reaction of the suit to the user's movements -- i.e., if the guy inside of it moved his right arm upward ever so slightly, XOS moved right with it. (One problem with XOS's various predecessors is that the exoskeleton would take more than a split second to follow along, thus creating a drag effect that exhausts the user ... and defeats much of the purpose.)

Here is a photo from the shoot:


Mercy!

***

Readers of this blog know that I am a long-time fan of Mormon singing. So the ouster of golden-voiced songstress Brooke White from American Idol last week was both shocking -- and clear evidence of prejudice. Had she remained in the competition, a staggering 50% of the remaining contestants would be LDS members. Surprising, yes. But so what? Every great American show tune composer, with the exception of Cole Porter, has been Jewish. And I wouldn't sacrifice one bar of Gershwin, Kern, Berlin, Rodgers, Loesser or Sondheim in some wrongheaded attempt to "spread the wealth."

Whether or not the elimination of Brooke White qualifies as a hate crime is something for lawyers to sort out. The producers of American Idol should sigh relief that Mormons tend to be less litigious than other Christian denominations. (They're too busy singing and trying to improve their dancing.)

In any case, my trip to Salt Lake City to report on XOS meant a stay at the hip Hotel Monaco. I'd stayed there before and really didn't notice the personnel. But this time, I couldn't help but notice something peculiar: Every employee's name tag had a mysterious designation right below their names. The spiky-haired blond desk clerk's tag read "Brian," with "Sponge Bob" written on a second line. His colleague's tag read "Whitney," with "Purple" just below it. (My producer Anthony is terrified of the color purple. He pretended not to hear her when she offered to check him in and instead waited for Brian.)

What were these special inscriptions? Were they nicknames? Biblical citations? Second Life avatars? My initial instinct was simply not to ask. I'm sensitive to all religious traditions. And many of my dearest Utah friends are still reeling from the Utah War, the bloody conflict between federal authorities and the Mormon militia that ended in July 1858. (If anyone knows of sesquicentennial celebrations for the end of the Utah War, please write. We'd all like to know!)

But I also knew that not asking might constitute a sin of omission. What if the employees were members of a cell, communicating through their own secret language of name tag code? I wanted to ask Chelsie (alias: "Coca-Cola"), but she looked terrified when I glanced at her tag. Was Chelsie strapped to a bomb against her will? Set to detonate when I got too nosy?

Finally I asked Buddy, the valet (alias: "Love").

"They're our guilty pleasures," he said. "They show another side of us."

Love is a guilty pleasure? Huh? I understood how Chelsie's Coke habit constituted a guilty pleasure, what with the Mormon prohibition against caffeine.

"Did these have to be approved?" I asked. "I imagine some were too racy."

"Oh, yeah," said Buddy. "Jake's guilty pleasure was cougars," he said referring to women who like men 10 years younger. "That wasn't going to fly. He managed to get 'cougar' singular put on his tag. But the boss was still bothered."

So what did Jake (another valet) end up with?

"Tulips," said Buddy.

Is it just me, or does "Tulips" sound dirtier than "Cougars"?

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