• Technology

    Meet Ember, the Littlest Warbot

    By Jeremy Hsu Posted on 5.29.2009 6 Comments

    iRobot's multipurpose PackBot has helped lead the way among war-bots, disabling improvised explosives and carrying out recon missions for snipers. But soon paperback-sized robots such as the Ember prototype could join their larger cousins on the battlefield.

    5.31.2009 at 10:45pm - Comment by schmuck281

    What's with the prono soundtrack on the video? I noticed that the Ember was shown navigating curbs and slopes, but not the RR tracks. Is there a reason for that? Probably good for sneaking and listening. I'm sure that the following generations will have considerably more capabilities. Violence must be eradicated; Kill all the violent people you know!!

  • Gadgets

    Now Seating Everyone

    By Posted on 7.30.2009 6 Comments

    To follow up on its famed Aeron office chair, Herman Miller gave its engineers a challenge: Create a seat that offers a custom fit for anyone, no matter how big or small, round-shouldered or straight-backed. The engineers’ solution was to construct the frame from dozens of small, flexible pieces that bend precisely to your contours.

    10.16.2008 at 03:21am - Comment by schmuck281

    I work in a 911 dispatch center. I tried to get the powers that be to consider Aeron chairs last time we bought new ones. They wouldn't consider it because I couldn't find anyone to give us a sample to "test drive." This sounds like it would be even better. But our chairs are in use 24/7 and being a sedentary job some of us have rather hefty seating requirements. I couldn't find anything on durability. I wonder, with the stretching cables, how durable is that?

  • Science

    Rent a Robotic Suit Named HAL

    By John Brandon Posted on 10.8.2008 12 Comments

    Starting this Friday, disabled and elderly people in Japan will be able to rent a robotic suit to help them become more mobile. Available in a two-leg (for a $2200-per-month rental fee) or one-leg version ($1500/month), the suit -- called HAL, for Hybrid Assistive Limb -- reads brain signals and directs leg movement. Yoshiyuki Sankai, the creator of the robot suit, is a professor at the University of Tsukuba and the CEO of Cyberdyne, which is manufacturing and renting the suits.

    10.10.2008 at 03:47am - Comment by schmuck281

    Not available to the military, my ass. Starship Troopers here we come.

  • Technology

    The Military's Mystery Machine

    By Posted on 6.18.2008 26 Comments

    If the paranoid blogosphere is to be believed, every morning a group of plasma-physics grad students wakes up at a research facility in Gakona, Alaska, 200 miles north of Anchorage, and prepares for another day of playing God. It’s cold, dark as a mineshaft in winter, and the day’s work does little to cheer the mood. Depending on the unpredictable agendas of military scientists, this group of technicians must shoot radio waves into the upper reaches of our atmosphere to create missile shields, eviscerate enemy satellites, set off the occasional earthquake, or control the minds of millions of people.

    6.21.2008 at 03:05am - Comment by schmuck281

    I recall that during my world travels in the 1960', 70's and 80's, I noticed that almost every NSA "field station" had an antenna that they called the "elephant cage". There was one in Gablingen outside Augsburg in Germany and another at Tori Station in Okinawa. These were stations where the Army Security Agency and the NSA would monitor transmissions from Eastern Europe and China. They're gone now. But the story with the "elephant cage" was that it was used to conduct atmospheric testing. Sound familiar? I kind of lean toward the mind control gone wrong theory. It would explain the out of control BDS and 9/11 truthers. It was experiment in mind control that instead drove people stark raving bonkers.



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