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Obviously, the robotics team led by Petar Kormushev at the Italian Institute of Technology have never watched Terminator. Otherwise, why would they try to teach the (deceptively innocent-looking) iCut robot how to shoot arrows?
Here at Geekosystem, we like to follow the things leading up to Judgment Day, just so we can say “Told you so!” right before the big metal robot crushes our skulls, so it’s no surprise we’re a little worried when we find out that a program exists that teaches robots to hit bullseyes with arrows in eight tries or less.
As for how the ARCHER algorithm works:
…the ARCHER algorithm is used to modulate and coordinate the motion of the two hands, while an inverse kinematics controller is used for the motion of the arms. After every rollout, the image processing part recognizes automatically where the arrow hits the target which is then sent as feedback to the ARCHER algorithm.
Geekosystem has the video clip: Link [embedded YouTube clip]
Custer’s Last Sitdown by Michael Renouf – $14.95
Poor George Armstrong Custer. Did you know that just before his Last Stand, he’s got into a little incident that proved to be his Last Sitdown? Can’t a man just relax a bit?
Here’s a new T-shirt design by the pun-meister Michael Renouf over at the NeatoShop: Link
More: T-Shirts by Michael Renouf | Artist-Designed T-shirts | Funny T-shirts
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Photo: dragon dream [Flickr]
It takes a clever person to create good similes, but it takes a genius to create one as non-sensical as this one above! Well played, sir!
Update 7/22/10 – Groucho Marx! Thanks everybody!
Arrow Bookends – $29.95
Psst, book lovers! Here’s a set of bookends that will let you highlight your favorite book with two set of gravity-defying arrows. From the NeatoShop: Link
A Canada goose landed in a garden in Toms River, New Jersey with an illegal hunting arrow stuck through its chest. The garden happened to belong to retired veterinarian Bernard Levine. Dr. Levine captured the goose and removed the 26-inch arrow, which was lodged six inches deep in the bird’s flesh. Then he took the goose to a bird rehabilitation center.
“This is a smart goose,” said Dr Levine, 82. “He happened to come into the yard of a veterinarian that could take care of him.”
After it recovered at The Raptor Trust, the goose was released last week into a stream in a wooded area on the trust’s property.
“It feels great to see him free and liberated, enjoying life the way a goose should,” Dr Levine said, as the goose preened and waded downstream.
Levine also removed several air rifle pellets from the goose. Link -via Arbroath
Think your health care plan is bad? Consider yourself lucky that you don’t live back in the middle ages when "advanced" surgeries were done using these 20 seriously scary surgical tools. Yikes.
This one to the left is the Arrow Remover:
Arrow Remover – Not much is known about this tool, but it is hypothesized that it was inserted into the wound in a contracted position, with the central shaft used to grasp the arrow. The blades, which appear to have their sharp edges facing outward, were then expanded using the scissor-like handles…
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by yugosakimi.
Wildlife officials are expecting this kangaroo, found shot through the head by a crossbow arrow, to fully recover. The roo was found last Thursday at a park in suburban Melbourne. It’s possible that he may have been shot up to a week before being found. He has since been under the care of veterinarians at the Melbourne Zoo.
Wildlife Victoria has posted a Aus$10,000 ( US$7,600, £5,000) reward to find the person responsible.
Wildlife Victoria spokeswoman Fiona Corke, said the kangaroo was rescued just days after another kangaroo was found with an arrow in its rump in the same area.
“It’s just unbelievable, I can’t believe that anyone would do something so cruel,” she said.
