Brancher LJ, Robots and Peas
The wonderful Brancher has a LJ!!! It has Watson/Holmes slash!
I just had to mention that. Now that I've got it out of my system, I will reveal that apart from my brief Brancher fixation I felt all roboty today. So I went for a quick google and found RoboEvolution. The bit I liked best was the description of unusual Ozzie robots (Ozbots):
Shear-magic
This is ORACLE, a robot designed for the sole purpose of shearing sheep. Simply place your woolly friend on the ‘operating table’, let the high-speed automatic razors do the work for you and hey presto, your friend returns in a slightly bemused and not-so-woolly form. Designed by James Trevelyan from the University of Western Australia (UWA), this machine has taken many years to develop but it now promises to alleviate the health problems that many of Australia’s sheep-shearers face in their literally back-breaking work.
Who’s that bird?!
And while platoons of robo-yabbies are exploring the red planet, back down in Wallaby Creek, a very different robot is pruning its feathers. This is a fembot designed specifically by zoologists to mimic the courtship behaviour of female Bower birds. During a recent experiment, the robot temptress apparently went down so well that one over-enthusiastic male even did his best to mate with her.
The sheep-shearing-robot made me instantly think of "Shorn" from Wallace and Gromit. While my favourite W&G is The Wrong Trousers, Shorn definately has a place in my heart. The scene where he's dumped out of the Knit-O-Matic is glorious!
I liked the fembot-Bower-bird too. This is my kind of robot--sexy, successful, but with seemingly no reasonable purpose for being. I mean, what does she do? Hang about Bower nests taking notes for horny scientists? Bonking the odd male-Bower-bird when things get a tad boring?
My kinda gal!
And on a completely different note, my parents were in town yesterday. They are farmers, and they bought me a present of fresh peas, still in the pod. Yay. I'm sitting here in front of the computer eating fresh peas. Life is good.
I just had to mention that. Now that I've got it out of my system, I will reveal that apart from my brief Brancher fixation I felt all roboty today. So I went for a quick google and found RoboEvolution. The bit I liked best was the description of unusual Ozzie robots (Ozbots):
Shear-magic
This is ORACLE, a robot designed for the sole purpose of shearing sheep. Simply place your woolly friend on the ‘operating table’, let the high-speed automatic razors do the work for you and hey presto, your friend returns in a slightly bemused and not-so-woolly form. Designed by James Trevelyan from the University of Western Australia (UWA), this machine has taken many years to develop but it now promises to alleviate the health problems that many of Australia’s sheep-shearers face in their literally back-breaking work.
Who’s that bird?!
And while platoons of robo-yabbies are exploring the red planet, back down in Wallaby Creek, a very different robot is pruning its feathers. This is a fembot designed specifically by zoologists to mimic the courtship behaviour of female Bower birds. During a recent experiment, the robot temptress apparently went down so well that one over-enthusiastic male even did his best to mate with her.
The sheep-shearing-robot made me instantly think of "Shorn" from Wallace and Gromit. While my favourite W&G is The Wrong Trousers, Shorn definately has a place in my heart. The scene where he's dumped out of the Knit-O-Matic is glorious!
I liked the fembot-Bower-bird too. This is my kind of robot--sexy, successful, but with seemingly no reasonable purpose for being. I mean, what does she do? Hang about Bower nests taking notes for horny scientists? Bonking the odd male-Bower-bird when things get a tad boring?
My kinda gal!
And on a completely different note, my parents were in town yesterday. They are farmers, and they bought me a present of fresh peas, still in the pod. Yay. I'm sitting here in front of the computer eating fresh peas. Life is good.