Make mine with frikkin’ laser beams

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) has taken another page from science fiction writer William Gibson’s book by creating a neural implant to enable engineers to remotely manipulate a shark’s brain signals. This would eventually allow them to control the animal’s movements and possibly decode their perceptions. Remote controlled sharks? Awesome. You know Dr. Evil … Continue reading “Make mine with frikkin’ laser beams”

Start slicing stuff – no sharks included

So long, we have failed to talk lasers here on the Blahg.  If you’ve been around long, you know it’s one of our favorite topics.  But what is happening in the laser world?  What goes on when the Blahg doesn’t mention lasers?  If someone puts out news on a laser, and the Blahg doesn’t cover … Continue reading “Start slicing stuff – no sharks included”

Lifting squirrels

From the xkcd blag (I’m a Blahgger, he’s a blagger – we just don’t want to fit in with those filthy bloggers, I guess) comes this fascinating look at using lasers to lift squirrels in to space. Amazingly enough, without taking advantage of reflection, the method described uses the Doc Brown approved 1.21 gigawatts of … Continue reading “Lifting squirrels”

Where’s my humanoid robot?

Looking back through the Blahg, I noticed that I haven’t heard anything about the Nao robot since I first mentioned it in 2006.  I tried to find out more, but there’s still no word on availability of this robot which was planned for a 2007 release.  Now I’m not criticizing the company for failing to … Continue reading “Where’s my humanoid robot?”

Lasik

Off for laser eye surgery.  I doubt I’ll be online again today, but hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to make some site updates again. Also – I’m damn close to my bandwidth limit.  Seems one of my pictures of Christina Ricci made the front page of the Google image search for her, so I’m getting … Continue reading “Lasik”

American Gladiators is back?

If you don’t know American Gladiators, you don’t know the meaning of pure eye-candy television.  And now, you’ll get your chance to see it real soon now. NBC is getting into the ring with “American Gladiators,” which has been revived by the Peacock for midseason. The competition skein — which featured players with names like … Continue reading “American Gladiators is back?”

All your robot needs – until they take over, at least

Is there much in life cooler than robots? Well, I guess frikkin’ sharks with frikkin’ laser-beams on their heads. And robots with chainsaws for hands. And fire-breathing amphibious zombie shark robots with lasers and chainsaws. And ninjas or pirates or ninja pirates or pirate ninjas. But that is just about everything that that could be … Continue reading “All your robot needs – until they take over, at least”

Jellyfish lights

Utterly useless for me, what with having no pool and all, but how cool are these floating jellyfish lights? All show and no sting, these battery-operated Floating Jellyfish Pool Lights unleash a kaleidoscope of color as they float in the water. For larger pools, unleash a flotilla to create a crowd-pleasing effect. Crafted of durable … Continue reading “Jellyfish lights”

Sometimes, Gloria confuzzles me

Bill’s great. He’s insightful, entertaining, and intelligent. His wife is also great, as far as I can tell from what he says about her. Sometimes, however, she says confusing things. Clearly Gloria doesn’t recognize the inherent evil in zombies. “It’s the new movie by the guys who made ‘Shaun of the Dead’ ,” I said. … Continue reading “Sometimes, Gloria confuzzles me”

Popular Science lists all time favorite on-screen nerds

First, not all of these screen-heroes are nerds – some are geeks. That out of the way, check out Popular Science’s all-time favorite on-screen nerds. 17. Chris Knight and Mitch Taylor (Val Kilmer and Gabe Jarret) in Real Genius A house destroyed by massive quantities of popcorn, the “Tanning Invitational” full of bikini-clad women, and … Continue reading “Popular Science lists all time favorite on-screen nerds”