The Japan Space Agency's Kaguya lunar explorer, after a mission that included new geological surveys and lots of gloriously detailed HD footage of the moon's surface, crash landed into a large crater on the moon's near side this week. And JAXA today released its final images, depicting the final moments of its descent. Updated with video.

Even though this 'bot was dutifully programmed for each admittedly complex step--far from autonomous--we can dream, can't we, of a cute attendant chugging away with our espresso kit while we read the morning news?

It was kind of the natural progression, right? This Manoi Go robot kit from Japan already has a head start, going from a headstand straight into the splits all by itself.

[YouTube via Boing Boing Gadgets, GetRobo]

No, it’s not a robot uprising. This is the Tokyo Fire Department's Rescue Robot, also known as RoboCue, taking a mock patient to safety as part of a training exercise for dirty-bomb containment and casualty rescue, held late last year in Tokyo.

Remember the last time you had one hand Twittering away on your Blackberry and the other hand locating the nearest Prius dealership on your iPhone's GPS, all the while talking to Best Buy on your Jawbone bluetooth earpiece about your 42-inch HD plasma TV? That was a moment to truly appreciate the staggering speed of technology's march towards progress.

Now imagine you were doing all that while sitting on the toilet. Whoosh, one flush just ended technology's march forward. Why? Because, despite the amalgam of technological advancements in phones, televisions, transportation, and the Internet, the one item we use everyday, multiple times a day - the ubiquitous toilet - has remained in the technological dark ages for centuries here in the U.S.