Blah, Blah, Blahg

If you are a geek like I, then you just have to get the greatest periodic chart ever created

I used to think the zombies would take over the world first, and then be wiped out by the robots. Now, as I study advances in zombie technologies and robot technologies, I’ve come to the irrefutable conclusion that the zombies will not have a chance to wipe us out first. In fact, with the latest technology the robots are getting, the day of the robot uprising will happen so quickly, we’ll all be wiped out so completely that there will be no corpses available for the zombies to seed their own uprising.

Nothing can possibly go wrong … go wrong … go wrong … The truth behind the old joke is that most robots are programmed with a fairly rigid “model” of what they and the world around them are like. If a robot is damaged or its environment changes unexpectedly, it can’t adapt.

So Cornell researchers have built a robot that works out its own model of itself and can revise the model to adapt to injury. First, it teaches itself to walk. Then, when damaged, it teaches itself to limp.

Soon, the robots will be able to adapt better to injuries. The technology starts with learning locomotion strategies after injuries. What next? And what happens when the robots decide to experiment on humans to see how we adapt? Ahhhh, the fear this should install.

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

Technorati Tags: Robots gaining self-awareness, Robots learn to compensate for injury, I for one welcome our new robot overlords

Video showing how to win at Freecell every time

I don’t have the back yard to build it. I don’t have the skills to pull it off. I don’t have the time to work on it. I don’t have a wife who would in any way support my working on it. I don’t have the money for the materials nor the tools for building it. But I have 2 kids who would get a kick out of it, and a personal love of coasters that just makes me wish I could build this coaster (or really, just something like it) for my own personal use.

Technorati Tags: Backyard roller coaster, Personal roller coaster

…and she said “You call that a knife?” (thanks Bill)