It has been decided, faithful reader, that we need a short rest from the Internet at large. Expect our return to the Newsmine in first week of March.
Twitter ramblings will still happen @Groonk.
While we’re gone, examine these Internet artifacts. Then observe and report:
In the years since the Wachoski’s release of the SPEED RACER movie it seemed we were the only fan of the movie. Having seen this slick new ride on Dvice’s site, it turns out a handful of engineers share our guilty love. The DeltaWing racer was revealed at the Chicago Auto Show 2010 and dazzled our eyes with future-vision.
This is a proposal to be the Indy car of the future. Indianapolis 500, when this happens, you have an instant new fan.
Read more…
Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) they’ve been able to suss out what a Belgian man – injured in a traffic accident – was thinking. They say he was able to answer “yes” or “no” using only his thoughts.
Another Outer Limits episode takes the stage.
Dr Adrian Owen from the MRC in Cambridge co-authored the report:
Dr Owen says this opens the way to involving such patients in their future treatment decisions: “You could ask if patients were in pain and if so prescribe painkillers and you could go on to ask them about their emotional state.”
It does raise many ethical issues – for example – it is lawful to allow patients in a permanent vegetative state to die by withdrawing all treatment, but if a patient showed they could respond it would not be, even if they made it clear that was what they wanted.
What It Is
In AD 117, the legendary Roman Ninth Legion is led by General Virilus to wipe out the Picts and to kill their leader Gorlacon. The legion is joined by Quintus Dias, a survivor from a Roman frontier fort that the Picts raided.
What We Learned
CENTURION is based on the disappearance of the Ninth Legion.
What We Saw
Pure old school ass-whupping awesome.
Why We’re Gonna Watch
We’ve been jonesin’ for the historical drama that HBO’s “Rome” provided and didn’t know it. There’s been an empty space in our heart since “Rome” left our TV. This hole can only be filled with blood and battles on the silver screen. Another important reason CENTURION has our interest is Noel Clarke aka Mickey Smith from “Doctor Who” plays a part in this historic battle against the Picts.
Swiss scientists applied Darwinian selection to their robots and found the electronic marmets are an Outer Limits episode waiting to happen. They exercise. They hunt. And when they work together for the good of the group they evolved into a better, bigger thing. A very good Outer Limits episode, for sure.
A Swiss team has applied Darwinian selection to robot development, producing robots that can walk, cooperate and even hunt each other.
“Just a few hundred generations of selection are sufficient to allow robots to evolve collision-free movement, homing, sophisticated predator versus prey strategies, coadaptation of brains and bodies, cooperation, and even altruism,” say the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and University of Lausanne researchers.
And so a tab we saved from long ago retroactively alters the robot debate. It now stands, @Rick_Snee – 1 to @Groonk – 1. Please see this article for clarification.
The Universe tends to acknowledge our meatspace conversations with news from the World. A recent debate with @Rick_Snee over making robots that look like us(our view) versus robots that look like rejects from Tom Selleck’s RUNAWAY(his view) was put on pause. Then South Korea raises its voice and reminds that actress-bot EveR-3 is still around and continues to act to a full house.
Notice the form she takes. That makes the score @Groonk – 1 to @Rick_Snee – 0.
Of course we’re keeping score.
EveR-3 (Eve Robot 3) starred in various dramas last year including the government-funded “Dwarfs” which attracted a full house, said Lee Ho-Gil, of the state-run Korea Institute of Industrial Technology.The lifelike EveR-3 is 157 centimetres (five feet, two inches) tall, can communicate in Korean and English, and can express a total of 16 facial expressions — without ever forgetting her lines.
Lee acknowledged that robot actresses find it hard to express the full gamut of emotions and also tend to bump into props and fellow (human) actors.
[...]
South Korea has in addition developed a walking robot maid, a robotic penguin, koala and rabbit, and a variety of other models.
Elsewhere on GNET:
(via warren ellis)
(via comically vintage)
In Captain America #602, Bucky Barnes(Captain America) and Sam Wilson(Falcon) are at some random protest doing what superheroes do: tracking down bad guys to put them in their place. The book was ready to go to the printer but it seems protest signs in a panel weren’t filled in. Marvel had a letterer do just that. The letterer referenced this sign in a panel of protesters featured in Captain America #602(see image).
A blogger, who we’re only guessing is a member of the Tea Party movement, did what the Internet does best and blogged about Marvel portraying the movement in a bad light. Something to do with Cap’s current storyline and the panel inferring that the protesters Sam and Bucky are observing are a part of that story’s current Big Bad.
Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada steps in and defends the Captain America #602 storyline while simultaneously apologizing for the panel in question.
Confused? Don’t worry. That is what controversy calls home. Read the article here for more details.
What’s not confusing is that in complaining about Captain America #602 they brought half the blogosphere and our attention to the matter. Even though this hooha doesn’t involve censorship in the strictest sense, we’re pretty sure the Streisand effect has come into play. Proof of this being we don’t read Captain America’s main continuity but now we’re damn well going to now. Multiply this curiosity by a few hundred thousand.
See what happened there?
(via comiczoneaz.com, washington times, cup o joe)
To date, this is the only reason the iPad interests us. Comics aren’t meant to be read on tiny mobile screens. They want to fit in your hand. They want to scroll vertically and horizontally without having to enlarge each panel to a readable size. According to Gizmodo, Panelfly and Sugercube put their heads together and created an app to be used specifically on the iPad.
The way the Panelfly iPhone app works is that you download the app for free from the app store and then add comics to your library through in-app purchases. Stephen Lynch, CTO and designer at Panelfly, hinted that the company is currently exploring several different purchase models for the iPad version…
Panelfly’s app would have sealed the deal for us buying the iPad this March. If only the damn thing played music or was half the current price point. Our iPod of many years recently gave up the ghost. The urge to replace our mini-music/podcast device grows greater everyday. If we wait to buy an iPad there’ll be no music. If we buy the iPod touch and the iPad we’d be paying twice for a singular device. it all boils down to the fact that paying iPod touch prices for a device that can only consume media is so 2007.
That and the fact we’re not a freaking millionaire.
Diesel Sweeties Hark a Vagrant Hijinks Ensue Johnny Wander Nomad Tofu Octopus Pie Pitch Black Robot Plus Monster Roscott, Inc. Trouble Ticket XKCD
Counting Down the Hours Grinding Letters of Note Naked Imagination Nerdist Nick Holmes Seriously Guys Warren Ellis Wil Wheaton
