NJS[BLOG]

Profile: Installation Robots in Residence with Alexander Reben and Brent Hoff from Submarine Channel on Vimeo.

“So perhaps the real use of this project will be to get some robots out into the world and let people express themselves in an ongoing way.”

Honestly, I don’t think io9 was excited enough about the supercapacitor – found by accident – profiled in this video.  Holy crud, this could change so much so quickly if it all pans out!

Japan’s new ‘communications robot’ will prevent astronauts from getting lonely in space — by being absolutely adorable.

Yep.  (Thanks, io9.)

I’m glad creator Mike Ando was so patient with his dream of building the linking book from Myst.  As an ardent fan of the game and its sequels, I was beyond excited to see this story pop up on Wired – and the teenager in me flipped his shit while watching the video.  I’ll take one!

I used to buy a new computer every 6 months when I was a decade younger.  I’d package up and eBay the previous generation gear and roll the money into the latest and greatest from Apple twice a year.  But when I got my 13″ MacBook in October of 2008, I found that the cycle had played itself out.  2009, 2010 and even 2011 came and went and the designs were mostly the same – and my little notebook kept chugging right along without any real issues.

This last year of freelance projects and a need for occasional forays into Windows has become increasingly sluggish, though.  And then the advent of the Retina display on notebooks sealed the deal:  it was time to upgrade, both for my strained eyes and for my cooked lap, burned under a more and more taxed set of four year old components.

So I plunked down an ungodly sum of money and placed an order for the above 13″ MacBook Pro on launch day today.  I’ll be checking the tracking site and scouting the driveway for FedEx trucks nonstop from here until up to 5 business days from now.  In some ways, perhaps nothing has changed in the last ten years…

There are some things that are necessary in one’s life.  This “Dress Up Bigfoot” magnet set is one of them.  To quote the manufacturer:

Why can’t we find him? We think its because he’s right under our very noses, hidden in plain sight. So we’ve created this fun magnet set to help you find clues to catching a glimpse of the mythical beast.

Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that people are awesome.  Tonight the job is done Jarno Smeets, a inventor/engineer who has just created working bird wings for himself.

Where’s Leonardo da Vinci when you need him?

…or maybe it didn’t happen, in which case people suck.  Either/or.

Update: This guy is a douche.

If my former car and my current car had a lovechild, it might look a bit like the 2013 Volvo V40.  Should this beast every make its way to America, I’m game.  Perhaps by 2015?

It’s been a very bizarre trip for cold fusion.

Odd topic, no?

Well, actually no as I’ve covered it once before.  At the time (March 2010) I was fresh off of watching a video clip that had infuriated me.  60 Minutes had interviewed several scientists who had been involved with the 1980s announcement by Fleischmann and Pons of their – several times now proven – findings with a room temperature fusion reaction.  The general consensus was that maybe, just maybe, the science actually worked and “oh, by the way” Fleischmann and Pons were perhaps the victims of some world class backstabbing.  The resigned look of both bitterness and “I freaking told you so” on Fleischmann’s face says everything.

But, looking back from where the field is now in 2012 does provide a little hope.  Dubbed “Low Energy Nuclear Reaction” or LENR now, cold fusion is bubbling back up to the mainstream.

I started hearing about LENR on some fringe-y sites here and there via the work of Dr. Andrea Rossi.  His E-Cat system caught my eye – and the eye of researchers, industrialists and politicians from Sweden to Massachusetts.  Skeptical myself, you can imagine my surprise when I started seeing it pop up in financial network reports.  And presidential candidate interviews.  And most recently in a ringing endorsement from NASA:

We could really use this one, Universe.  Please don’t let me down.

I might just consider buying one of the lithographs from the 1969 illustrated Alice in Wonderland to which Salvador Dalí lent his talents, as pointed out by io9.  Because, you see, they look like this:

In looking up the price of a copy of the actual book (not found), I also turned up a video or three about the project:

With Xmas time just around the corner, feel free to take this post into account when considering how best to splurge on me…