An article from the Christian Science Monitor, emphasis added:

Monkeys hate flying squirrels, report monkey-annoyance experts

Japanese macaques will completely flip out when presented with flying squirrels, a new study in monkey-antagonism has found. The research could pave the way for advanced methods of enraging monkeys.

(Via Ars Technica.)

Yesterday it occurred to me that, if the people at Fusion Garage had been Hitchhiker's fans, they wouldn't have named their poorly reviewed tablet the JooJoo.
So, for instance, when in a recent national speech the Financial Minister of the Royal World Estate of Quarlvista actually dared to say that due to one thing and another and the fact that ( Read more... )

Ars Technica has a pretty good introductory article on how robots think. One amusing bit, near the bottom of page 4:
One great demonstration of this process is a contest held every year called the Semantic Robot Vision Challenge. In this contest, robots are given a list (in words) of objects they've never seen before, and they have to drive ( Read more... )

Some languages have precise definitions, which let people (and compilers) reason about what a program means. These definitions are called formal semantics ( Read more... )

From an Ars Technica article about NASA's shift in budget:
Programs for the identification of near earth objects, which could obviate all worries about climate change were they to become on-Earth objects, [...]

From The Order of the Stick:

V: Why in the infinite planes would a tribe of orcs spontaneously begin worshipping your hand puppet?

E: Wouldn't a better question be, "Why don't more tribes of orcs spontaneously begin worshipping my hand puppet?"

V: No. No, it would not.

I've been reading Lovecraft, and I found a particularly odd bit in "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath". The protagonist has been captured by some nasty flying things, and struggles to get away. Now, this is dumb enough (does he want to fall?), but what the nasties do next is dumber ( Read more... )

"I noticed that David had lost a lot of weight over the past couple of months, especially when he came in with his arm torn off,"

I just spotted a truck labelled "Seafood Express". Ah, yes, the less successful alternative to the Pony Express.

( Read more... )