A recent post on slashdot.org took a loot at current humaniod robot development. The posting pointed to a page on USC’s Interaction Labwith information about a humaniod robot used for reasearching body language and facial expressions. As an added bonus have a look at LivingCreatures.com.
From IRS irs.gov
Something doesn’t seem quite right with these figures, that people provide 81% of the budget while corporations foot only 19%. That would be fine in a world where profit margins were slim, but that often isn’t the case. Obviously it’s more complicated than that, really complicated and well beyond me, but reguardless that figure surprised me.
Ever wanted a pieces of metal in a certian unique shape or a decently complicated printed circut board (more so than you could hand etch.) I’ll admit that i haven’t run across too many situations where i could of made use of such serives, but it’s really cool to know the next time i do (if i really want to) i can get the parts. Links in this slashdot post lead the way to E-Machineshop and Pad2Pad, two companies that offer machining and PCB services respectively.
If you’ve had an email account for more than 24 hrs. then chances are that you’ve received an email with an unbelievable story, often accompanied by a similarly implausible picture. I’ve gotten my share over time including one of the classics (which i’ve gotten 4 or five times over the years) bill gates will pay your for forwarding this email. Check out this slashdot post for the story behind that one.
What about the other 1000 circulating around the internet? Well several of the best sources of information I’ve found have been truthorfiction.com, urbanlegends.about.com, and snopes.com, especially the pictures section. (if you only follow one link let it be this one) click more for a few of my favorites.
I guess there’s some truth to the saying the more you know, the more you know you don’t know, or something like that. This
article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology talks about how people that score in the 12th percentile of tests on topics like humor and grammar (which i have no dilusions of being good at i might add) often rated themselve as being in the 62nd percentile. As the skill levels of these people were improved in the areas of low scoring they began to realize they weren’t as good as they thought. I argree with the article so it must be right cause i’ve only be wrong about anything once or twice.
Ok, so that’s a bad title for this, but i found the story interesting anyway. Just about everyone has encountered a site that requires registration in order to view or get something. Just about everyone who has encountered them has filled them out with totally fake info (if they can.) This slashdot post discusses the topic. Personally (as one of the comments mentions) I always provide the email address webmaster@the-site-i-m-at.com, so that any msgs they send out will go back to themselves assuming they aren’t smart enough to block such a thing, i suggest everyone do it.
A recent slashdot post linked to this article about the history behind tired.com. It explains that people seem to type in the word tired into their browser’s url bar and hit enter taking them to http://www.tired.com/. The owner said he got his first e-mail from the trivial site within minutes of it going live. He goes on to say that he’s recieved a steady stream ever since. What’s most interesting to me is the fact that the stream of email hasn’t grown over time with the popularity of the internet. An interesting diversion, if nothing else.
The Society of Automotive Engineers’ Fuel Economy Competition brings together super efficent vehicles that can carry 1 person around a 9.6 mile track using as little fuel as possible. This years second place team ended up with 1,194 miles per gallon, a bit shy of the winning mark of 1,747.4 mpg. Pay a visit to the competition site.
None of the entires even come close to a previous competition held by shell a few years ago, where the winner achieved 8128 mpg.
…have you tried hari krishna?
It is know that several times during the lifespan of the earth its magnetic poles have flipped. (determined by the magnetic orientation of metallic structures in rocks.) According to scientists this happens once every half a million hears or so. The earth’s magnetic feild has lost 10-15% of the strength over the past 150 years. Based on that and other evidence it is belived that a flip may be upon us. So if you’re planning to go out into the wilderness don’t trust your compass. Actually they say the flip will likely take a hundred years or more to complete, but reguardless it’s interesting. It would have profound, but hopefully not catestrophic, effects on the planet.