Robot kayaks

Robot Gossip has an article (with a picture) about a new robotic kayak developed by MIT as a testbed for aquatic robots.

Fan death

According to this article on Wikipedia, people in Korea believe that it is dangerous to sleep in a room with a running electric fan. There are regular reports in the Korean media of people dying from fan death.

Strangely these deaths only seem to occur in Korea and most people outside Korea consider the idea to be somewhat ridiculous. This makes me wonder if there are any similar things that we in the West believe that are laughed at elsewhere.

Fake Identities

This site offers a "False Identity Generator". It is mainly intended for use on website registration pages. It returns a valued, though not necessarily existing address, as well as an appropriate zip code and phone number. It also provides a birthdate and mother's maiden name.

An interesting web comic

Gunnerkrigg Court is a web comic with excellent art and interesting stories. Don't let the vaguely Harry Potter-esque setting put you off.

Bionic limb breakthrough

The BBC has an article about a new technique that allows metal rods to be anchored to bone and then protrude through the skin. Until now they haven't been able to get the skin to grow properly around the rod.

via slashdot

Flip clips

I haven't used this service but it looks like it might be an interesting present to get for someone. Basically they convert a video into a flip book.

Water displays

This article describes, and has a picture of, a machine that uses water as a display. Waves are generated by a series of devices around the edge of the water and the interference patterns form the desired image.

Who's watching?

This article in the New Scientist reports on research that shows that people are not only more honest when being watched - they are more honest when there is just a picture of someone watching them.

Money making opportunity

This article in the Telegraph describes how thieves in the UK stole some satellite phones from the British Foreign Office and ran up a bill of over 600,000 pounds.

I don't know how much it costs to set up one of these pay per minute phone numbers but if you did have one that paid $10 per minute you could make a bit of money by calling the number from any unattended phone you encounter. This would be very handy if you visit a lot of different offices.

Where are the planets today?

This site lets you see the positions of the various planets in the solar system at any given time.

Orbital self-portrait

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a photo of an astronaut during a spacewalk reflected in the helmet of his colleague.

How statisticians won the war

This article in the Guardian describes how statisticians used the serial numbers of captured / destroyed German tanks managed to estimate the number of tanks that the Germans had.

I am assuming that today serial numbers are a bit more random.

The bookman

A very cool looking bookcase. Unfortunately it doesn't seem very practical, nor very efficient in terms of wall space. It looks like it would be fairly easy to make if you wanted to.

Bastille day parade

This picture from the National Geographic Photo of the Day is of the Bastille day parade in Paris on July 14 1988. It fits in with this blog's title because I was there that day (though you can't see me in the picture).

A twice a year sunset

Every year on May 28 and July 12 when the sun sets it lines up exactly with the streets on Manhattan. Astronomy picture of the day has a picture from a few years ago.

This is also referred to as a Manhattan Solstice.

Don't hide on the dance floor

According to the BBC, British police are taking advantage of the blacklights in dance clubs to find burglars who have been sprayed with marker dye. They have been using special dye that is coded differently for each potential crime scene so that the burglars can be tied to specific crimes.

Robot climbs Pikes Peak

An autonomous vehicle, which had previously competed in the DARPA grand challenge, has successfully driven to the top of Pikes Peak. This was the day after the 90th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb which this year was won in a time of 10 minutes and 4.6 seconds. The robot made the 12.42 mile trip in 47 minutes and 10.3 seconds.

Tuk-tuks in the UK

According to the BBC, the British seaside town of Brighton has started using tuk-tuks on its streets. Tuk-tuks, named for the sound they make, are very common in parts of Asia but are not usually found in Europe.

via Jen

Canada in the EU

An interesting, not entirely serious, article in the Guardian about Canada joining the European Union.

via reddit

World subway maps in scale

An interesting comparision of the size of various subway systems around the world.

via RobotWisdom