Today I was going to write a nice article on the Wii or maybe Apple’s new operating system and it’s pros and cons. Then I got creative and thought…mmm, how about writing about robotics or even the progress of Holograms? Yet, none of this really interests me today. Call it being uninspired, but this stuff is BORING! Most of the time tech and science are really exciting (see yesterdays article on Tesla).

So, I thought back and remembered what I used to do early in the mornings, then it hit me. CARTOONS!!! So, instead of writing a long, boring article about what everyone is writing about, I’ll leave you with  one of the greatest science cartoons ever created. For those of you who actually care, it’s from the man himself: Walt Disney. Just click on the link below because for some reason this blog manager won’t let me embed it directly onto this page. Go figure.

Life on mars Video courtesy of You Tube.

May the Force be with you.

I imagine some scientist was sitting in his office one day, playing with his Winnie the Pooh doll and his Robocop action figure, when the proverbial light bulb appeared above his head, and thus the BEAR was born.  Vecna Robotics is developing the Battle Extraction-Assist Robot to scoop up fallen soldiers and take them to safety.  It can reportedly carry up to 500 lbs and can keep going for around 50 minutes.  They did in fact make it look like a teddy bear intentionally, the idea being to comfort the wounded it is transporting.  Apparently I’m the only one whose dreams were terrorized by a 6 foot tall metallic teddy bear as a child, because I personally find the prospect of my life being in this things hands (or paddles) terrifying.  On a brighter note, if the military applications don’t end up working out there are loads of potential commercial uses.  I’m thinking this thing has got Segway for kids written all over it.

If you’ve never had the knack for making cool things out of LEGOs, there’s now a home-made robot that can do it for you. The maker says:

This was actually built for a competition where robots played other robots… no human intervention allowed. It only uses 3 motors, but can clean up after itself… something I’m still working on with my children.

Click below to see video of the robot in action…

Read More →