Menu
What's new
Troll Kingdom

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Gems from Science

Comet Lovejoy: The first naked-eye comet in 2015.

2014 hasn’t even ended yet and we already have one of the best comets of 2015 showing off in our skies: C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), already visible to the naked eye and predicted to get brighter over the next couple of weeks!

This is the fifth comet discovered by Australian "amateur" astronomer Terry Lovejoy. In 2011, one of “his” comets made a spectacular pass through the sky. This one may not be quite so ostentatious, but its location and brightness make it a winner. On Jan. 7 it will pass about 70 million kilometers (44 million miles) from Earth, and it’s predicted to peak around 4th magnitude; easily visible from dark skies without optical aid.

As a bonus, it’s passing near the constellation of Orion, making it easier to find, and it’ll also glide past Taurus and the Pleiades, providing for what should be some pretty photogenic scenes. It’s moving roughly north, so it gets higher all the time for Northern Hemisphere observers.
Click to expand...

MAYBE I WILL SEE IT :rwmad:
 
Robots are starting to break the law and nobody knows what to do about it -- Fusion
Maybe it’s a sign that robots are growing up, and thus hitting the rebellious stage.

The Random Darknet Shopper, an automated online shopping bot with a budget of $100 a week in Bitcoin, is programmed to do a very specific task: go to one particular marketplace on the Deep Web and make one random purchase a week with the provided allowance. The purchases have all been compiled for an art show in Zurich, Switzerland titled The Darknet: From Memes to Onionland, which runs through January 11.

The concept would be all gravy if not for one thing: the programmers came home one day to find a shipment of 10 ecstasy pills, followed by an apparently very legit falsified Hungarian passport– developments which have left some observers of the bot’s blog a little uneasy.
Click to expand...

This is the bot blog, there are descriptions and pictures of all the things the bot bought.
https://wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.bitnik.org/r/

Don't do drugs, okay ROBOTS?

SWEET IT BOUGHT THE LORD OF THE RINGS COLLECTION.
 
[youtube]AplG6KnOr2Q[/youtube]

Scientists are teaching Super Mario to think and feel | The Verge

It’s Elon Musk’s worst nightmare: a group of computer researchers are building a self-aware AI, programming their creation with an insatiable desire for material wealth and teaching it how to kill. Thankfully, the AI’s name is Mario; he’s looking for coins, and his enemies are Goombas. This is the "Mario Lives!" project, a quirky bit of research from the University of Tübingen in Germany that aims to build a "Living and Conversing Mario Agent."

Created as an entry for an annual video competition organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), "Mario Lives!" allows players to program the famous mustachioed plumber with information and motivations using natural speech voice commands — instead of having to fiddle with a game controller.

"As most of you know, this is Mario," explains a researcher in the video. "But what you do not know is that this Mario has become aware of himself and his environment — at least to a certain extent." A second researcher then shows how Mario can be taught pieces of information (e.g. "Goomba dies when you jump on Goomba") and given motivations that shape his behavior (when Mario is "hungry" he looks for coins; when he’s "curious" he explores his world). Mario responds by repeating back any new knowledge in a computer-generated voice — an effect that's a little eerie when he's told "don’t be so happy" and replies "Somehow, I feel less happy."

Fabian Schrodt, one of the researchers involved in the project, tells The Verge that as far as artificial intelligence goes, "Mario Lives!" is comparable to a regular video game opponent. However, he says, it's the combination of AI programming that learns and adapts as well as the addition of principles from psychology that's interesting. Schrodt adds that the same team is also working on a follow-up project where both Mario and Luigi are AI-controlled and are able to speak to each another using computer-synthesized voices. That way, says Schrodt, they’ll be able to gather new information independently and then share it between them, teaching one another as they go. Maybe Musk should be worried after all.
Click to expand...

Mario will lead the robot apocalypse.
 
[youtube]FLegmQ8_dHg[/youtube]

Scientists Develop Hydrophobic Metal That Causes Water to Bounce | Colossal

Researchers at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics led by professor Chunlei Guo have developed a new type of hydrophobic surface that is so highly water repellant, it causes water droplets to bounce off like magic. Unlike earlier hydrophobic surfaces that rely on temporary (and slowly degrading) chemical coatings such as teflon, this new super-hydrophobic surface is created by etching microscopic structures into metal with the help of lasers. Potential applications include airplane wings that resist icing, a whole new type of rust proofing, or even a toilet that wouldn’t require water. Watch the video above to see the surface in action, and you can read Guo’s research paper here. (via Sploid)
Click to expand...

COOL.
 
I kept meaing to post that Mario video in the Nintendo thread but kept forgetting. :rwmad:

I hope he doesn't suffer too much.
 
Zoologger: Oral sex may be a life saver for spider - life - 18 February 2015 - New Scientist

Species: Caerostris darwini
Habitat: Across bodies of water in Madagascar

Mating can be a deadly act for spiders – females often end it by eating their partners.

But the Darwin's bark spider may have found an unusual way around this risk: keeping the juices flowing. During copulation, males orally lubricate females' genitals. The reason may be to prevent themselves from becoming a meal.

Darwin's bark spiders build some of the largest webs, and they do so using silk that is ten times as tough as Kevlar, but their mating behaviour was largely unknown. So, during a two-week survey in Madagascar, a group of researchers led by Simona Kralj-Fiser at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts tried to demystify the spiders' sex lives.

"Darwin's bark spiders are a rather enigmatic species, but even we were in for a surprise when we observed their peculiar courtship behaviour," says Kralj-Fiser.
Click to expand...

get it girls
 
Japanese robot tomato hat backpack for joggers: You say tomato, I say roboto.

Japanese Company Introduces Robot Hat-Backpack That Feeds You Tomatoes While You Jog

In a move likely to be applauded by people who want a robot attached to their body that will serve them tomatoes while they jog, the Japanese company Kagome has introduced a robot you can attach to your body that will serve you tomatoes while you jog. From AFP-Jiji (AFP and Jiji are wire services):

Tugging a tiny lever in the foot moves the arms to catch a tomato from the dispensing shoot. The arms then rotate the fruit over the runner’s head and hold it in front of his mouth ... Despite its 8 kilogram weight, Kagome’s [Shigenori] Suzuki said he will don the device for a 5 km fun-run on Saturday

A competitor will wear a 3 kg version of the machine, dubbed "the Petit-Tomatan," in Sunday's Tokyo Marathon.

Says Runner's World: "Though tomatoes aren't typical on-the-run fare in the United States, the fruit is rich in anti-inflammatory compounds that could be beneficial during a race."
Click to expand...

12173.imgcache.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top