Thursday, July 14, 2005
 

Next Step: MechaGodzilla


I'm all for robotic development, but this seems a might bit ridiculous. Apparently a couple of Alaskans have an abundance of free time and watched too much Anime and decided to try and create the first ever "Bipedal Exo-Skeletal Semi-Robotic Vehicle": the Neogentronyx Mech NMX04-1A! And for a mere $40,000 it could be yours! (With a $6,000 shipping charge tacked on of course - Truck or Barge.) The 18ft tall, 1.5 ton machine has some dandy features including key start ignition, 40 points of possible movement, and my two favorites: "Clamp styled hands with optional locks for full on crushing or just gentle clasping" and "2 Flame Throwers, one on each arm." The creators of this robotic wonder are selling it to raise funding for their next project, in which they plan to build other prototypes "possibly for Arena Fighting." In the future, once Neogentronyx has taken the world by storm, these Mechas will be used for such things as the aforementioned Arena Fighting (with other chassis) and "fighting forest fires far too hot and unsafe for a human" (being strapped into a gigantic metal robot in the middle of a blazing inferno seems pretty safe to me.) Feel free to browse the Neogentronyx website and you'll find there's more than meets the eye.

posted by Jason | 11:24 AM
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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
 

Spacemobile

On a sad/slightly annoying note, the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery was delayed again today. It's been two and a half years since the Columbia exploded after takeoff and NASA has spent somewhere around a billion dollars trying to ensure the next shuttle's safety, but apparently there was a problem with the liquid hydrogen fuel sensor (amateurs). However, on a brighter note, it appears that the Discovery's crew was whisked away in this luxurious and ultra-futuristic space camper:

posted by Jason | 12:42 PM
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Monday, July 11, 2005
 

If you work at a coin minting factory, does your payday just consist of you pocketing everything that you make that day?

posted by Jason | 1:53 PM
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Thursday, July 07, 2005
 

I'm a Star, I'm a Star, I'm a Star!

On the way home from work the other day I heard one of those commercials where you can 'name' a star after someone for $50 or something and it got me wondering; What would happen if some important discovery was made around your star? Would the headline be something like "Water found on planet orbiting Gary Jefferson!"

posted by Jason | 9:38 PM
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Three Reasons I Enjoyed Yesterday

  1. I finally bogeyed a course! After three weeks of playing disc golf I was able to reach my first goal. Actually, I did even better (+13)! This was probably due in large part to my having purchased my first distance driver (a Valkyrie) yesterday. My next goal is to shoot a +10 (and hopefully not lose another disc.)

  2. I spent the better part of an hour yesterday driving around to various stores looking for a copy of the new Sufjan Stevens album (Come on feel the Illinoise.) After being told that it was not in stock at any store, I made one last ditch effort at the Borders near my apartment and found one copy left! It was even more fortuitous since they're stopping distribution of the album for the present time due to copyright problems (there's a picture of Superman on the front.) Sufjan is one of the most talented and freshest voices in indie music today and this album only further bolstered that thought.

  3. I rounded off the night by watching The Jacket with Jules which then lead into a lively talk of time travel, human potential, and spirituality. Eventually, we ended up listening to various songs from the Weezer catalogue. A most enjoyable evening (although it always is with Jules around :] )

posted by Jason | 12:39 PM
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Tuesday, July 05, 2005
 

I just noticed that one of the people we contract here at work is named Gregorius J. Pot. I've decided to nominate him for Best English Detective-Sounding Name in the World.

posted by Jason | 2:22 PM
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Halt! You will soon be under arrest!

Another promising development in my quest for the proliferation of robots into society: A Japanese security company has created the GuardRobo D1 to help patrol shopping malls and banks to keep them safe...until actual human security guards arrive. I'm not quite sure how the three-and-a-half foot tall GuardRobo intends to detain criminals, but it looks as though it can spray some sort of fog at them; Perhaps a very foul smelling fog! Or maybe it just distracts them with wacky Japanese game shows on its nifty chest monitor. Either way, GuardRobo bares a striking resemblence to the robot from Rocky IV. At least it's a start, right?

(I also find it interesting that the need for such a robot came from Japan's population's ever-increasing age. Remember those population explosion scares of our childhood? My high school government teacher once told me that he had a professor who calculated that every person on Earth could fit into Jackson County. In conclusion, the answer is simple: by 2040 we will all be required to have Japanese mistresses...on the Moon.)

posted by Jason | 12:14 PM
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