Theo Jansen is one of my personal heroes and perhaps the closest thing to a modern-day Leonardo daVinci. He makes complex robots that are powered by the wind and walk on multiple legs. Theo Jansen’s website
Theo Jansen at the 2007 TED talks:
Preview of a documentary about Theo Jansen:
STRANDBEESTEN_TRAILER from Alexander Schlichter on Vimeo.
To those of you that haven’t heard, last week John McCain initiated another, somewhat questionable fundraising strategy. McCain sent all of his supporters a $1 bill in the mail along with almost laughable plea for money, asking the people he spams with falsehoods about his rival to “return this dollar with a hundred more of [their] own for a total contribution of $101.”
First of all, Yeah right– I’m keeping that dollar if you send it to me. Secondly, we here at Blogadilla feel that McCain is more deserving of a bill of a different amount:
(image components borrowed from via noveltywholesaler; thewashingtonnote)
We brought you The Rock-afire Explosion last August, and they’re back, this time doing their rendition of Usher’s “Love in This Club.” Make sure you stick around for rapper T.I.’s appearance as a puppet controlled by a puppet! This, like the Nadal-Federer Wimbledon final yesterday, is what we here at Blogadilla call an Instant Classic.
(via SteveB, via PennyArcade, via BoingBoing)
Mini Rock’em Sock’em Robots - now in handy finger size.
Bonus Round: Eric Joyner’s cool Rock’em Sock’em Robots art.
Are you Male, Single, and Lonely? Got $175?
If you answered yes to all of these questions, then EMA is for you. Dubbed a “Busty Bot for Lonely Hearts” by the Sydney Morning Herald, “EMA”– which stands for Eternal Maiden Actualization– goes on sale in Japan this September for around $175, with a target market of lonely adult men. Even though she’s only 15 inches tall, her creators say “She’s very lovable and though she’s not a human, she can act like a real girlfriend,” entering “Love Mode” as well as being able to sing, dance, and pass our business cards.
(Thanks for the tip, Arian!)
Less than an hour ago, the NASA/JPL Phoenix Lander touched down near the northern polar cap of our planetary neighbor, Mars.
Currently, the only information offered on the NASA and University of Arizona sites is that the craft has sent a radio transmission reporting that it safely landed.
Keep your eyes peeled on these sites tonight for the first glimpse of the Martian polar region (perhaps ice or glaciers will be visible):
Three words you never expect to hear together:
Flying Robot Jellyfish.
The Festo Air Jelly:
Oh man . . . my creativity gland is sore from spending the day at the 2008 Maker Faire. I don’t even have the energy to make a video of it; below are some photo highlights.
If you live in the Bay Area: GO!
It’s happening tomorrow (Sunday) also.
GO! . . . and be crafty.
Bonus Round: Hacker Mullet!
This Saturday and Sunday (May 3nd - 4st) is Make Magazine’s third annual ‘Maker Faire’ - a festival of DIY and all things hacker.
At the San Mateo County Fairgrounds, adult day pass $25, student $15, child $10.
Here’s a video I made of last year’s Maker Faire:
Goopymart.
Rhymes with “art” and “smart.”
And “fart.”
Goopymart’s photostream contains hundreds and hundreds of his awesome poop-your-pants-laughing illustrations. All free (CC Noncommercial Share-Alike 2.0) . . .
. . . and perfect for cellphone wallpapers (and shirts and mugs).
What’s the point of robots unless you can make them annoying?
The Yellow Drum Machine:
“Like a hyperactive 3 year old, the little Yellow Drum Machine Robot wanders around the house looking for objects to drum on.”
(via Notcot)
Once again, technology is put to good use: Atlanta bar owner Rufus Terrill has created the anti-vagabond “Bum Bot 2000.“
It has a 2,000,000 candlepower floodlight and a water cannon capable of 200 lbs of pressure. The object of this robot is to chase away vagrants, prostitutes, and pushers in his neighborhood. Many of Terrill’s targets are the “sort of people” drawn to a local emergency homeless shelter - he hopes to let them know they aren’t welcome to plague his public streets anymore. The camera feed on the Bum Bot 2000 is projected onto a big screen TV in Terrill’s bar, so patrons can watch prostitutes and hoboes get sprayed with water. This unstoppable security droid may have only one weakness, that hopefully the swarthy homeless will never discover: pushing it over.
Suggestions for a better name for this robot:
•Hobotron 2000
•The Roomba Wet T-Shirt Machine
•BumFighter X1
•Bigot-tron 4000
•The Hobo Soaker
•Go-Starve-Somewhere-Else-O-Matic
•The Hookernator
•Ho-Bot
•D!ckhead with a Watergun 9000
I want to invent “Drunkbot 3000″: it will regularly cover the floor of Terrill’s bar in vomit.
Linkety-link: L.A. Times
(via Susan)
You gotta love an artist who can do this with zombies and yuppies a Stephen King story.
(thanx for clarification Isabel)
This is Jaimie.
He lives in a geodesic dome in the forest.
He likes building things.
He is currently building a giant 6-legged robot.
You can watch Jaimie’s progress on his YouTube page.
Go, Jaimie, Go!
Last night, I saw “Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience.”
Life-sized free-moving animatronic dinosaurs.
Oh man . . . it kicked ten flavors of Jurassic robot as$!!
Here’s the video I made:
If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us - it’s that animatronic dinosaurs will not be contained. Animatronic dinosaurs break free, expand to new territory, and crash through barriers . . . painfully . . . maybe even dangerously.
Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience.
Oh man . . . ROBOTS and DINOSAURS!! Two supercool things in one place (much like bacon and chocolate). On tour now, the Bay Area venue is the San Jose HP Pavillion, December 26-30.
According to PCworld.com, Arm Spirit, a Japanese arm-wrestling game, was recalled from more than 150 arcades across the country after 3 people independently broke their arms while battling the machine. Apparently, the game has 10 levels of difficulty, including a French maid, drunken martial arts master, and a Chihuahua before reaching the final showdown with a professional wrestler. In response to the broken arms, Arm Spirit’s spokeswoman said, “The machine isn’t that strong, much less so than a muscular man. Even women should be able to beat it.“
Broken arms from an arcade game are pretty serious, but injuries in videogaming aren’t new, including a recent phenomenon: “Wii Elbow.” And something else just dawned on me: there would have been more of these Arm Spirit injuries, but honestly, who goes to arcades anymore, and furthermore, who plays the arm wrestling video game? Definitely tagging this one as ‘geekery.’
Not everyone knew about The Rock-afire Explosion in their heyday, but some people loved the animatronic animal band that graced the stages of Showbiz Pizza Place (and later Chuck E. Cheese). Most people probably assumed that this animatronic animal band bit the dust after they were ‘retired’ in 1994, but fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint), this is not the case.
Instead, some guy in Georgia got a hold of the band and reprogrammed them to sing a bunch of different, contemporary songs, such as Fergie’s “London Bridge,” and Bubba Sparxxx’s “Ms. New Booty” (below). I won’t lie…I’m a little freaked out:
(via Charlotte St. Julien; via mis-one)
Behold! The Super-Awesome Action Hero Name Generator!!! Push the button for non-stop crime-fighting Action Hero names!!! You can’t fight zombies with a name like “Scooter.” Push the button and get ready for ACTION!!! [Does not work well with Internet Explorer - the browser of the feeble].
©2007 Blogadilla
Concept (and names): Timbotron
Actual Labor and Creation: Steve B
Machete Photograph: Y. Trottier.
A friend of mine is a curator at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA; yesterday I got a cool private tour. Here are some of the highlights (click on photo to enlarge):
A - The IBM “Deep Blue” supercomputer; defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.
B - The Apple 1 personal computer (the first Apple product), for sale in 1976 for the price of $666.66.
C - Douglas Engelbart’s 1967 mouse prototype (no joke, it’s made of wood).
D - Herman Hollerith’s 1889 tabulation/census machine; it electronically “read” punch-cards; in 1911 he sold the patent to a small company known as the International Business Machines corporation (IBM).
E - Data cards from J. M. Jacquard’s 1804 programmable textile loom.
F - An example of the detailed “printing” of Jacquard’s loom (you’re looking at a woven image).
G - A WWII Enigma code machine.
H - The 1949 IBM 604 Calculator; IBM’s first mass-produced computer.
I - The Rand JOHNNIAC computer, used for scientific computing in 1954.
J - Detail of the stylish 50’s JOHNNIAC nameplate (looks like a car or a fridge).
K - IBM core memory for the 1954 SAGE air defense system computer used by NORAD.
L - The first Google Production Server, 1999.
M - The 1954 SAGE air defense system computer used by NORAD.
N - Detail of SAGE’s built-in cigarette lighter and ashtray (you gotta love the 50’s).
O - The guidance computer for a 1962 Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic (nuclear) missile.
P - The MIT 1965 Apollo spacecraft guidance computer.
Q - University of Tokyo’s Biper-4 bipedal robotic legs, 1983.
R - The 1976 Cray-1 supercomputer.
S - The 1985 Cray-2 supercomputer, with stylish fluid cooling tower.
T - The 1971 Computer Space arcade game; the first commercially available video game.
U - The Apple 1 personal computer, autographed by Steve Wozniak.
V - Detail of “Woz” autograph.
W - A pre-1956 RAMAC prototype; the world’s first disc-drive.
