It seems that Boston Dynamics, "an engineering company that specializes in robotics and human simulation," has created the most advanced quadruped robot on Earth, called "BigDog." Here is the video that can be found on YouTube:
Quite honestly, this thing is amazing. I have never seen a robot move with the precision, and "normalcy" that this one does. It walks exactly like a dog. The freakiest moment of the video, though was when it was slipping on the ice, and trying to recover it’s footing. At that moment, it looked more like a real animal than a noisy robot. I think these guys have their finger on the pulse of the future, and we’ll be seeing quite a few of their creations on the battlefield, as the project was funded in part by DARPA.
This video absolutely falls under the category of things that astound and amaze me. We have here a huge canyon in Columbia with no real way in or out of the village. The Columbian government won’t build a bridge across the river because it says there aren’t enough people in the village to warrant the cost. The solution? A cable that crosses the river and allows people to come in and out of the village. The catch? It’s 1200 feet above ground!
This is a fascinating look at the underground structure of an ant colony. Over 40 tons of dirt was moved by the ants in order to create their living spaces and "fungus gardens." It’s quite amazing when you think about how their size versus the amount of material they are capable of moving. The video is from The Science Channel’s "Ants! : Nature’s Secret Power" broadcast.
Icenrye has posted Episode 29 of the Geocaching Videozine, and it’s a pretty darn good one! Done in his new wide screen format with a shorter episode, Icenrye presents and outstanding video review of the Garmin Colorado 400t done by DarrylW4 of Cache-A-Maniacs. The review is superbly done, and unfortunately ends with an accomplished geocacher taking his new GPSr back to REI for a refund. Why? Check out the videozine and find out!
The theory goes that if a butterfly flaps it’s wings on one side of the world, a hurricane will happen on the other side of the world. It’s the lynchpin of Chaos Theory, and essentially says that things we do affect other things. I ran across a web site today with a video that shows the REAL butterfly effect!
The thing that amazes me most about this video is the fact that the guy did it everyday for 8 years! I’d probably have done it for a week, then something would have caused me to miss a day, and wanting to be pure to the project, I would have given up. It’s quite interesting to watch how this guy changes over the years.
If this stuff doesn’t astound and amaze you…well, not sure what to say. I put this slide show together using images from the web, and some open source music. Keep in mind that some of these images have been colorized, but some have not. Some are false images. Either way, it’s amazing to think what’s out there. For more, check out http://www.hubblesite.org/.