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Saturday, April 16, 2005 Exoskeleton tech ready for market. Insert typical neophiliac or neophobic comment here. The system activates itself automatically once the user starts to move. The first time they walk, its sensors record posture and pattern of motion, and this information is stored in an onboard database for later use. When the user walks again, sensors alert the computer, which recognises the movement and regenerates the stored pattern to provide power-assisted movement. The actions of both systems can be calibrated according to a particular user's needs, for instance to give extra assistance to a weaker limb. The HAL 4 and HAL 5 prototypes, which will also be demonstrated at Expo 2005, don't just help a person to walk. They have an upper part to assist the arms, and will help a person lift up to 40 kilograms more than they can manage unaided. The new HALs will also eliminate the need for a backpack. Instead, the computer and wireless connection have been shrunk to fit in a pouch attached to the suit's belt. HAL 5 also has smaller motor housings, making the suit much less bulky around the hips and knees. Hey handsome, is that a HAL4 bionic suit in your pocket or are you... @ 04:09 PM CST [Link] Mixed reviews for Dig! Its a "rockumentary" about two indie bands who formed in the 90s. The frontmen of each band are old friends and bitter enemies. I can't say I've heard the Dandy Warhold before but I've heard a bunch of Brian Brian Jonestown Massacre and just missed out (dont remember why) on seeing them play here in Chicago a couple years ago. The Onion review claims it ends with something of a pro-industry message: sell cellphone ringtones and expand your fanbase wherever you can. Newcombe gets demonized for being an arrogant, insufferable, doped-up monster too dysfunctional to achieve commercial success, while Taylor gets romanticized for being an arrogant, insufferable, coked-up monster savvy enough to land a song in a cell-phone commercial and secure a big European fan base. Both men come across as pricks, but the film frustratingly gives Taylor a free pass. Its biggest mistake lies in making the sneering, loathsome Warhols frontman its narrator, a move that deprives it of the distance necessary for a truly effective send-up of rock hubris run amok. By giving Taylor the last word, Dig! becomes little more than a self-serving, unconvincing infomercial for a musician who comes across as functional and bearable only when compared to his counterpart. See also: Well written and more positive sfgate article. @ 03:20 PM CST [Link] Rare "Aye-Aye" born in British zoo. This is an amazing little animal. Its a large nocturnal animal with a "delivish" face and an extremely elongated middle finger to root out insects in trees. Unfortunately, the locals see it as a harbinger of bad luck and often kill it, which is crazy as its endangered. I wonder, do they kill ugly children too? This leads to the question of how the hell do you teach skepticism to the undereducated. This question is not limited to third-world societies, especially when you consider the rise of religious fundamentalism, creationism, and the fact that almost every paper in the US carries a horoscope section. Wikipedia entry here. As a side note, there's some video on that page too but its windows media. I havent seen a windows media embed in a while. There's seems to have been a shift to putting video into flash embeds which is a welcome change. No realplayer registration BS and Macromedia's flash plug-in has always worked well. Hopefully, this trend will continue or at very least force the other video plug-in players to produce a better product. @ 03:01 PM CST [Link] More Pig Olympics photos released. Okay, I take back my previous statement. This is definitely a lot weirder than what goes on at most state fairs. From the looks of the photos it looks like their owners did a good job traning them. Perhaps next year China will have an international Pig Olympics. Mao's Moo Shu takes the lead! Short write-up here: "These lovely pigs are of a special species that is good at sports by nature," she said. "They started receiving training soon after they were born and became professional athletes one year later." Tan yizhou, an 8-year-old who hung the gold medal onto one of the champion porkers, said he would no longer take it for granted that all pigs are stupid and lazy. "It's incredible. I never thought that a pig could be so clever, dexterous and versatile," he said. The games will run through May. @ 02:48 PM CST [Link] Thursday, April 14, 2005 Samples of the Asian flu sent out to 17 labs for no reason at all. No one knows who did this or why. It may just be an accident, and if it is there are serious specimen control problems in biohazard labs. Oh, labs in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon got samples too. Great. Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in a really bad made for TV movie? How the virus wound up being included in a package of pathogens sent around the world was not clear, but Gerberding said health authorities would work to ensure such a lapse did not recur. Organizations responsible for testing and accrediting laboratories' quality routinely send out panels of unknown organisms to determine if the laboratory can accurately identify them. In this case, the College of American Pathologists contracted with Meridian Bioscience Inc., of Cincinnati, Ohio, to create the panel, Gerberding said. "It is almost impossible to believe they didn't know they were dealing with an H2N2," she added. "It was probably a situation where the advantages of using a strain that grows well and can be readily manipulated in the lab were the driving force without even considering that ... it could potentially cause a hazard to not only the workers in the laboratory, but to the people in the community." Gerberding said she did not know who made that decision. A company spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. @ 06:52 AM CST [Link] Adler planetarium's next-gen laser-light show. No more vector-based Pink Floyd light shows; today's stoned teens get full 3D color. Looks more than a bit like a Winamp plug-in. Marketing-speak follows: SonicVision is a groundbreaking digitally animated alternative music show. SonicVision takes audiences in the Adler Planetarium's StarRider Theater on a mind-warping musical roller-coaster ride through a fantastical dreamspace. With a mix by Moby and featuring tracks from Radiohead, U2, David Bowie, Coldplay, Queens of the Stone Age, Prodigy, The Flaming Lips, Fischerspooner, Spiritualized, Audioslave, Stereolab, Boards of Canada, David Byrne and Brian Eno, Goldfrapp, Zwan, White Zombie, and Moby, the music ignites this one-of-a-kind computer-generated musical and visual experience, which uses next-generation digital technology to illuminate the Planetarium's dome with a dazzling morphing of colorful visions. See also: Other StarRider movies. @ 06:42 AM CST [Link] Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Halfbakery: Insanity Quotient. Okay, I've been reading too much halfbakery lately, but you can't fault a community of people just coming up with and posting some crazy and not so crazy ideas for peer review and exposure. @ 10:46 PM CST [Link] The Chinese pig olympics. Doesnt seem any stranger than what goes on at most State Fairs. and Pale Mao takes the lead! Another photo here. That's either the obstacle course or the last stage where they become sausage links. @ 10:38 PM CST [Link] Rubber Johnny. Gifted music video director Chris Cunningham's short film. Looks interesting. It'll be released next month. Marketing-speak follows: Johnny is a hyperactive, shape-shifting mutant child, kept locked away in a basement. With only his feverish imagination and his terrified dog for company, he finds ways to amuse himself in the dark. Rubber Johnny is the latest creation from the UK’s most imaginative filmmaker. Featuring music by legendary electronic composer, Aphex Twin, this nightmarish and hallucinatory experimental short film is accompanied by 40 pages of drawings and photographs - Cunningham’s first published book of original artwork. @ 02:22 PM CST [Link] Delgados break up. Sad to see them go, but 10 years and 5+ excellent albums is pretty good for any band. @ 06:58 AM CST [Link] Tuesday, April 12, 2005 Slightly off-color photoshops. Later in life, Prince got into the fast food business. @ 10:43 AM CST [Link] New cat and girl. Figure out those songs! Funny new Mr Wiggles too. @ 10:39 AM CST [Link] 44 years ago today, the first human left the earth. The history page is interesting, but Yuri's unchanged office seems a bit creepy. @ 10:35 AM CST [Link] Sunday, April 10, 2005 The new Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy movie is going to be A. Bad B. Good. Okay, the first link is a Douglas Adam fanboy (his unofficial biographer) and the second is by a Hollywood fanboy. Not exactly the best sources. The movie may not even be very good, but I doubt its a disaster like the one article claims it is. I have a feeling it might turn out to be Spaceballs with a touch of Douglas Adams, which wouldnt be bad really. The positive buzz would probably mean a new generation turned onto the H2G2 trilogy (err, a four book trilogy at that) and they can enjoy the books for themselves, without going through the hollywood filter. @ 12:33 PM CST [Link] Halfbakery: Religious Olympics. Funny stuff. See also: Gamer's Decompression. But what of MMORPG players (Everquest, World of Warcraft, etc?) I guess real-life is their decompression. @ 12:18 PM CST [Link] Shuttle program will end if the next crew needs a rescue. With three shuttles left, yeah, it would be silly to carry on with only two and building more of these things probably isnt a good idea. @ 12:05 PM CST [Link] [Archives] Search entries: