Posts Tagged: Nature, Space, Science, Tech
Two Zoos
Posted by on Tuesday, May 24, 2005 in - 4 comments
We went to two zoos over the weekend. Both are legacies from the best part of 100 years ago of communities creating exotic educational assets. Both are well into a shift away from mere collections of animals for your gawking pleasure to having a something of a greater purpose. At Watertown, NY, in …
Ivory-billed Woodpecker Found
Posted by on Thursday, April 28, 2005 in - 3 comments
Ornithologically speaking this is very neato - though it is also admittedly perhaps an invitation to junior high locker room humour. No mention in the scientific journals as to the white to dark meat ratio.
Sign of the End Times #2387
Posted by on Thursday, March 24, 2005 in - 3 comments
I saw this on Metafilter - a gun that fires computer chips to track your movement as it also takes a photo of you. Time for you all to read my thesis on high-speed automated biometric surveillance cameras if you have any doubts about the reality of this stuff. • Remember: the robots will attack …
Robots On Wheels
Posted by on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 in - 4 comments
Here is Hitachi's entry into the robot WARS!!! race and one that points out an actual use for the Segway concept. Why have all those chunky walking technology worries like nightmarish future soldier Honda's Asimo. • Hitachi had a press conference introducing them yesterday: • “Two wheel-based …
No Patent For The Known
Posted by on Wednesday, March 9, 2005 in - leave a comment
The European Patent Office has it right - you cannot scoop up someone else's culture and claim an intellectual property interest in it: • “EPO initially granted the patent to the US Department of Agriculture and multinational WR Grace in 1995. But the Indian government successfully argued that …
Five Percent Is Not That Bad
Posted by on Monday, February 14, 2005 in - leave a comment
The BBC reports that five percent increase in fuel costs would ensure 10% green power for the UK: • “During the 2003/4 financial year, the amount of electricity generated from inexhaustible natural resources was 2.4%, just over half the target of 4.3%. The government hopes to double the amount …
Look! 1000 Asimos! Run!
Posted by on Thursday, December 16, 2004 in - 6 comments
Robots. When I am an old man, robots will bust down the door and steal all my food in tubes. • Asimo is now 1.3 metres tall. Soon he will be 2.3 metres tall and look down on us all.
Big Party Tonight!
Posted by on Friday, November 19, 2004 in - 2 comments
How do the people involved celebrate achievements like this? And do they sneer at peoples' wrists?
High Neato Factor
Posted by on Monday, November 15, 2004 in - 5 comments
Saw this on the BBC this morning, a plane that goes 6,000 or 7,000 miles an hour, ten times the speed of sound to beat its old record of Mach 7 by hitting Mach 10. I just hope the cheesey disposable shaver industry does not feel the need to keep up to these Mach levels.
Privacy Through Walls
Posted by on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 in - 6 comments
A few years ago now, I wrote a thesis about a type of surveillance and included a quote from a 1928 dissent in the Supreme Court of the United • Justice case Olmstead v. U.S. 277 U.S. 438 (1928): • “Ways may some day be developed by which the Government, without removing papers from secret …
