Mommy, where do female robots come from?

Lonely Japanese men that love science fiction have always had two dreams: to have a beautiful female robot (fembot, mr. powers) all for themselves, and world domination. Now at least one of those dreams will come true (in a few years) because Japanese researchers have taken that bold first step and created a female android. She can only sit, and it is painfully obvious at first glance that she is not human, but the proverbial first stone has been cast. From the article by the BBC:

"She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner. She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe."

My Next Vacation Town

What small town in Austria with a population of around 150 souls was founded in 1070 A.D. and has a name that stands for 'place of Focko's people' in Germanic? You guessed it: Fucking, Austria. The sign to the entrance of the town (see photo below) is the most stolen street sign in all of Austria. Although in German the word means absolutely nothing (the one you want to scream at your accountant is ficken), the townspeople did have a vote to change the name in 2004 but ended up deciding not to. The article in Wikipedia lists some other interesting town names, so I might make a gallery with all the authentic photographs of these town's street signs in the near future (Lost, Scotland and Hell, Norway are up there).



















The sign at the bottom reads 'Please - not so fast!'

Thanks Grandma, You Can Put the Car Down Now

Much has been written about the aging population of the world's "rich" countries, especially in Japan. The trouble is that people that are older don't really have as much freedom of movement as them kidz with their music and their interweb. The Japanese, not to be outdone by what must seem to them like a nuisance that mom (Nature) forgot to clean up, have come up with a clever way to aid the elderly in their everyday tasks: robotic armor suits. I know, I asked myself why I hadn't thought of that earlier too.

From the article, posted on MSNBC: "The sleek, high-tech get-up looks like a white suit of armor. It straps onto a person’s arms, legs and back and is equipped with a computer, motors and sensors that detect electric nerve signals transmitted from the brain when a person tries to move his limbs." Full story here.

It pretty much is just a bunch of motors strapped to a person's arms and legs that amplify the movements of the wearer, but you cannot deny that it is pretty damn cool. Oh, and the military applications are painfully obvious. Which makes me feel really bad about the poor souls that have to deal with a (most likely) American soldier with a Rambo complex throwing 2-ton cars at them.

Casino Gambling De-evolved

It seems that gambling on animals has actually de-evolved from horses and greyhounds to (arguably) more primitive species. Police in Hong Kong arrested 115 men for gambling illegally on insect fights. From the article:

"Police seized about 300 crickets and $1,025 in cash during the bust, said police spokesman T.K. Ng. The alleged bug gamblers remained in custody Sunday, but weren't immediately charged, Ng said. Illegal gambling carries a maximum penalty of $1,280 and three months' imprisonment. " Full story here.

The thing that strikes me as odd about this story is that, unlike dogs or other 'bigger' animals, insects don't really fight much. I can imagine a large group of men, screaming and betting, standing around a small ring where two crickets are just sitting there, looking at each other and occasionally chirping. I have to watch more Discovery Channel, because I have never seen crickets launching at each other's throat or doing anything remotely violent or agressive that does not involve chewing plants.

Shrimp Cocktail for your Wounds

Chitosan, the second most abundant substance on the planet, is found in shells of crustaceans and insects. Now scientist have used ground-up shrimp shells rich in chitosan to make a bandage that clots the blood of a wound in under a minute.

From the article: "'The outer membrane of a red blood cell has a negative charge,' Dr. Kenton Gregory, co-founder of HemCon (the company that manufactures the bandage) explains, "and opposite charges attract. The red cell is attracted to the positively-charged chitosan, and when it touches, it fuses and forms a blood clot.' When a clot forms, the bleeding stops. And unlike a regular bandage, which slips off when wet, the HemCon bandage becomes adhesive and sticks to the wet wound site, sealing and stabilizing it." Full story here.

This is great news for soldiers because a lot of battlefield deaths are caused by severe bleeding. It would also help gunshot victims that wouldn't survive the trip to the hospital. Although they are only available to the military ($100 for a 4" x 4" patch) the company plans to sell them in pharmacies and such so that eventually we all have a couple of these things in the glove compartment or in the bathroom cabinet.

One cold one, comin' up!

Turns out this whole cryogenic freezing (or more correctly, 'cryopreservation') thing is well under way, and much farther along than I would have imagined. Some scientists in the aptly-named 'Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research' froze dogs and then revived them three hours later. They did this by draining their blood and switching it with a really cold salt solution. This makes them clinically dead (no heartbeat, no brain activity) but three hours later their blood was replaced and they were given an electric shock, which revived them. The full story here.

The short-term purpose of this experiment is not to freeze dudes for years while they travel heroically to distant stars and blah blah blah... It has been proven countless times that being frozen, or nearly frozen, helps a lot when you have to receive complicated surgery or survive a really nasty wound while in a battlefield. By being able to safely replace the blood and put the body in a state of suspended animation, doctors can repair all the broken veins and whatnot without their patient dying on them by bleeding to death.

Good stuff, if you ask me...

Free arms for everyone!

I came across an interesting story the other day on slashdot about a guy, Jesse Sullivan, that had an accident when he was repairing a high-voltage power line. His doctor was able to save four of the main nerves that run down his arm before amputating. He saved the nerves by putting them under the skin of his chest. The doctor then attached a mechanical hand and connected its wires to his chest, thus affecting the original saved nerves.

From the article: "Sullivan's prosthesis has a computer in the forearm that is wired to a mechanical hand and to a "plunger" device on his chest. The hand sends signals up the wires to the plunger, which pushes the skin. That stimulates the nerves in his chest to transmit sensations to the brain as if the nerves were still connected to his real hand." Read the story here.

The obvious reference to one Skywalker, Luke is readily apparent, but I think we will discover really cool ways of applying this technology. The discovery that we can (relatively) easily connect nerves with cables will undoubtedly lead to exciting stuff being made to 'hook up' to our bodies. Camera in the back of your head connected as a third eye, anyone?

Tips on how to lead a healthy insane life

I am not one to throw crap around (read: stupid chain mail) , but I discovered this at work and couldn't stop laughing. It has been proven by countless schoolchildren that you laugh the hardest when you are least supposed to be laughing, and the same applies to reading this while at work.

20 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity:
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do something, Ask If They Want Fries with That.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over their Caffeine Addictions, Switch To Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds."
7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."
8. Don't use any punctuation
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat with a serious face.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play Tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party because you're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run for Your Lives, They're Loose!!"
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To have To let One Of You Go."
20. And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity.......
share this with people. I hope it helps them discover their inner strenght.

I can do anything you can do better...

It is a pretty universal truth that dorky nerds that happen to be engineers aren't very good at this whole 'music' thing. I actually studied piano for a number of years, and all the teacher could really say at the end of the year was that 'I knew my songs by memory, but...' Basically, it's not hard to memorize the movement of your hands and sequences of keys to press. The hard part is putting all that squishy, moisty, feel-goody 'passion' thing everyone talks about.

But engineers are a very resourceful species, so I was only a tad surprised when I found this. It's a page with pictures, schematics, and other information about a project at the Georgia Tech Institute to build a guitar-playing machine. From the looks of it, the contraption seems to have all bases covered, but I wasn't able to hear a sound clips since I'm at the office and I treasure the perception I've created of a hard-working and dedicated employee (I know, some people are just really gullible...)

First Try

Just finished setting this thing up...let's see how it turns out.