A bunch of Rube Goldberg machines made from household objects. Apparently these are interstitials on a popular Japanese kids show. Much more clever than the usual marble-ramp stuff--there are lots of little surprising details.

http://www.avclub.com/content/videocracy/2329

Apropos of news that listening to an iPod increases the severity of lightning injuries, I have my own fun iPod-related physics question ( Read more... )

People who clearly expected to make a lot of money selling Wiis on eBay (because they set their "Buy It Now" prices at $600 or $700, or set reserve prices too high) are only getting $350 for them. I guess they weren't paying attention to all the news that suggested Nintendo is shipping enough consoles to meet demand over the next few weeks ( Read more... )

As much as I like my iPods, I've pretty much always had difficulties using them with Windows. Now, however, it's turning into EXTREME PAIN ( Read more... )

http://www.world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/

The running and cornering look impressively human, but the creepiness comes in when it delivers drinks to smiling office workers and bows politely. You just know there's some kind of seething robotic rage boiling within.

This is incredibly cool: A camera with a special lens that, in a single exposure, captures information that allows you to dynamically change the focal point and depth-of-field in post-processing. This means you can do things like create a deeper DOF in software without having to narrow the aperture ( Read more... )

I have some recordings I made of a gig that I want to clean up a little. I'm using an Edirol R-1 CompactFlash recorder I just bought, with built-in mics that are supposed to be adequate. The recording came out a little bassy, because I wasn't able to plug the recorder into the sound system (I didn't have an RCA-to-1/8" adapter). So, I just want ( Read more... )

Inventor Creates Soundless Sound SystemElwood "Woody" Norris pointed a metal frequency emitter at one of perhaps 30 people who had come to see his invention. The emitter - an aluminum square - was hooked up by a wire to a CD player. Norris switched on the CD player ( Read more... )

Qatar to replace camel riders with robotsSpurring the robots' development has been vehement condemnation from human rights groups of the sport's regular jockeys. Activists say there are about 40,000 boy jockeys, some as young as 4, who are either bought from their parents or kidnapped from their home countries and taken to the Gulf to ride. The ( Read more... )