The RoboCup World Championship, the nerdy equivalent of soccer’s World Cup in Germany, has a lofty goal: to create androids that can beat soccer’s human top players by the year 2050. And oh, do a little artificial intelligence research, too.
This year, 350 teams from around the world will compete for the title of best soccer-playing robots. The picture above is Team Osaka’s VisiON NEXTA, the best humanoid of the 2005 competition.
I’ve seen these cute photos of a tiger and piglets circulating round the Net before, but I didn’t know the background story until now:
Sai Mai, a 26-month-old female tiger, plays with baby pigs at a zoo in Chonburi province, 80 km (50 miles) east of Bangkok, Thailand on May 7, 2003. The Royal Bengali tigress was born in captivity and breast-fed bya female pig for four months after her birth.
Yakiyasu Kamitani of the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, has developed a robot hand that is controlled by the power of thoughts alone!
The robotic hand mimics the movements of a person’s real hand, based on real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of their brain activity. It marks another landmark in the advance towards prosthetics and computers that can be operating by thought alone.
Posted by Alex in Politics on June 1, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Amnesty International released satellite photos showing the destruction of an entire community of Porta Farm, Zimbabwe by government forces.
"These satellite images are irrefutable evidence — if further evidence is even needed — that the Zimbabwean government has obliterated entire communities — completely erased them from the map, as if they never existed," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International’s Africa programme.
The organization commissioned the satellite images to demonstrate the complete destruction of Porta Farm — a large, informal settlement that was established 16 years ago and had schools, a children’s centre and a mosque. The organization also released graphic video footage showing the forced evictions taking place prior to the demolitions.
Apparently, zombies are not just for movies – the story of Clairvius Narcisse of Haiti is the only real-life documented case of someone being made into a zombie by use of poisons:
The story begins in 1962, in Haiti. A man called Clairvius Narcisse was sold to a zombie master by his brothers, because Clairvius refused to sell his share of the family land. Soon after Clairvius "officially" died, and was buried. However, he had been later secretly unburied, and was actually working as a zombie slave on a sugar plantation with many other zombies. In 1964, his zombie master died, and he wandered across the island in a psychotic daze for the next 16 years. The drugs that made him psychotic were gradually wearing off. In 1980, he accidentally stumbled across his long-lost sister in a market place, and recognized her. She didn’t recognise him, but he identified himself to her by telling her early childhood experiences that only he could possibly know.
A few cool photos of a Typhoon (941 Akula) sub, the largest ever built, as it made a pass near a beach. When you look at the photo, just think of the 20 ICBMs it’s carrying onboard. That’s 10 nuclear warheads per ICBM, 200 total! Those beachgoers have no idea of what’s sailing by them.
Posted by Alex in Health on June 1, 2006 at 1:03 am
UK Department of Health are asking the public to choose a series of graphic warnings that will appear on cigarette packets:
Evidence shows that images have a greater impact than written health warnings alone, and they have already been introduced in some countries.
Images include diseased lungs, a dying smoker and a foetus in the womb. …
Launching the consultation, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, said: "We have already made a lot of progress with the stark written warnings on cigarette packs.
"However, these messages become less effective over time so we now need to refresh our approach by introducing new hard-hitting images.
"We know that these type of warnings have already been successful in other countries such as Canada, Singapore and Brazil.
Posted by Alex in Pictures on June 1, 2006 at 1:02 am
Neatorama reader Bruno sent this neat photo of faces in drywall dust and said:
My dad came home from work today with his back smeared with drywall/dust. The dust has AT LEAST 3 faces in it. Two of them are very detailed. It’s in the same vein as that picture that can be seen as an old lady or a young lady.
The color enhancement on the right really makes the image pops out!
Posted by Alex in Pictures on June 1, 2006 at 1:01 am
Checkout this giant Lego version of USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, by Brickshelf user Weebleleezer. We’ve featured this one before, actually, but it’s nice to see the Lego aircraft carrier in water!
Entomologists Arnold Menke and David Vincent named new wasp species after their favorite Star Wars characters: Polemistus chewbacca, Polemistus vaderi, and Polemistus yoda.
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