… and then get myself back together again.
A modular robot that reassembles itself after being kicked apart
After successful self-reassembly, the system stands up and continues its task
… which is apparently to fall over like a drunk sailor soldier. (Sailors walk randomly, but don’t fall down. Everybody knows that.)
Over at Skulls in the Stars
We want to put a sundial up on the new building on which I’ve been working. (sooooo close to being done, too). I had joked at one point that we would mount a light that would move around the gnomon, so you could read it at night. Just like that first clock.
But, take any of these with a 5 MHz or even 1 pps input, and we could do something with it …
UPDATE: an animated version of the “word” clock
Google’s Zurich office
Notice that the ears are cooler — an elephant uses its ears for thermoregulation. The same idea as fins on any heat sink: lots of surface area. That’s necessary because of the elephant’s shape (the spherical approximation is much more reasonable for an elephant than for a cow) meaning has a small surface-to-volume ratio, so it’s efficient at retaining heat.
With a wide surface area of outer ear tissue, hot blood in the arteries is cooled as it is filtered through the vast network of capillaries and veins. Thus, the body temperature is regulated with the cooled blood returning to the main body.
Second European Positioning Satellite Launched
Galileo, which should be operational by 2013, will be both an alternative and a complement to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian GLONASS.
There are some articles which call Galileo a competitor to GPS, which really isn’t the case; this article does a better job. I expect a PND purchased a few years from now, once there are many Galileo and GLONASS satellites in operation, will be configured to accept and process data from all of them.
A post over at The Quantum Pontiff reminded me of these mildly dyslexic terms in the title, one of which gets corrected at Google.
(I wonder, do dyslexics read “dyslexia” as “daily sex,” as in “I suffer from daily sex?”)
Aussie Laser-Pointer Ban in New South Wales.
No mention if there is a power threshold. (see update, below)
Legitimate users, like astronomy enthusiasts, will have to apply for prohibited weapons permits.
That’s right, mate. You’ll need a frikkin’ carry permit for your laser pointer (especially if it’s mounted on the head of an endangered shark). “Roscoe” and “heater” are taken as nicknames for guns. What street name can we give a laser pointer? What about slogans? “When laser pointers are outlawed, only outlaws will have laser pointers” doesn’t quite cut it.
Hard to imagine using a laser pointer could affect the patellar tendon in this way. No, not really that hard, I guess.
Update: one article mentions class 3 and 4 lasers. Class 3R includes lasers less than 5 mW. Of course, with beam divergence, a laser that is dangerous in close proximity does not present the same danger at a distance.
Riveting science from the Titanic
Though I’m a little rusty at this, do you get a sinking feeling I’m not done with the puns just yet?
Dog.
Big dog
Little dog
Big dogs and little dogs.
“Do you like my hat?”