Advances in robotics have given us robots that act so real they are creepy. But how good are they, really? Could a consumer-grade robot ever fool anyone? No, but they can impress us in their own way. Zac Alsop got the idea to pit a computerized companion dog against real dogs in a competition, so he splurged on a Unitree Go1 robotic dog, although not the most expensive model. Even the bottom-line model is quite expensive. This robot is remote-controlled but also AI-enabled.
Anyway, Zac enlisted a dog trainer, a robot expert, and a dance instructor on his way to entering his "dog" in a canine freestyle (dancing) competition. But what starts out promising to be an epic experiment quickly turns into a comedy of errors, as Zac's failures along the way are rather funny and make the video what it is. He encounters a steep learning curve in "training" his robot and getting it into the competition. After all that, it really doesn't matter whether he wins or not, since nobody is taking him the least bit seriously.
Now they don’t need to worry about reaching the top of buildings to go home. A new venture of luxury residences by automotive brand Bugatti and developer Binghatti. The high-rise building will not just include beautiful and well-designed residential areas, but will also include car elevators.
This will allow car owners to bring their vehicles right up to their penthouse suites. So far, that is the most interesting aspect of the building. Not much is also known about the edifice, actually. Aside from the car elevators, the developers have revealed that it will contain 171 Riviera Mansions residences and 11 Sky Mansion penthouses. Additionally, amenities such as a beach area, a private pool, a jacuzzi spa, and a fitness club will be built for future residents.
"Unmatched craftsmanship and exquisite finishes that set a new standard for opulence will be at the heart of the living spaces curated for Bugatti Residences, ensuring that the 'Art of Living' is reimagined for a contemporary defining era," the company explained in a press release. "Both penthouses and mansions offer spacious living areas adorned with the finest material selection the world has to offer. The Bugatti Residences carry a seamless blend of comfort, functionality, and elegance that reflect Bugatti and Binghatti’s pre-eminence in design."
Image credit: Bugatti
Way back in 2014, a loggerhead sea turtle was in a dire state after having a hole in her shell. When she was rescued near a power plant in New Jersey, the team from San Diego’s Birch Aquarium joined forces with the Digital Media Lab at UC San Diego Library to find a way to save her life and nurse her back to health. The team not only fed her and took care of her, but they also created the first ever 3D printed shell brace for sea creature care in 2017.
This was done to cure the turtle of the abnormal curve in her spine and paralysis of her back flippers. “We teamed up with the Digital Media Lab at Geisel Library to create a brace that will prevent the shell from curving further downward and will promote more normal growth. It’s our goal to prevent further complications and keep her as healthy and happy as possible,” said Jenn Nero Moffatt, senior director of animal care at the aquarium.
The people at Digital Media Lab performed a blue light 3D scan of the turtle’s shell so the brace they made could fit perfectly, and would prevent further complications. Now, six years later, the loggerhead is living her best life. She is now about 3 feet long and more than 2.5 feet wide. Additionally, she now weighs 210 pounds, which is way more than 75.4 pounds, which was her weight when she was rescued.
Image credit: birchaquarium / Instagram
The development of processed cold cereal made breakfast a lot easier for Americans on the go, and gave us plenty of late-night snacks, too. Grain extrusion can put your morning corn and oats into pretty much any shape you can imagine. But while most of us just read the box while eating, some physicists pondered the properties of those shapes and came up with ways to explain physics to us by using breakfast cereal as an example we can understand. Or if we don't, at least other physicists can.
Have you ever heard of the Cheerios Effect? The derivatives of position named snap, crackle, and pop? That time physicists compared the compression properties of Cocoa Puffs vs. Rice Krispies? Cereal has been a toy for physics experiments for some time. You can read about four ways cereal has advanced the science and the teaching of physics at Cracked.
(Image credit: Armando Olivo Martín del Campo)
We had Conan the Barbarian in 1982, and Conan the Destroyer in 1984, so does anyone want a third Conan movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger? It can be done, thanks to deepfake technology. The Buff Dudes did it, using a version of Arnold's face from different eras to show Conan as an aged king and in the younger flashback scenes. In this story, Conan is defending his throne from all, or at least some, of those kids he spawned when he was younger. They call this a "concept trailer," although it does a better job at making us want to watch the full movie than most trailers. It's more like the early scenes of a film, just setting up the conflict. Alas, it's not a full movie but a fan film. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how the video was made.
Yeah, this was put together by an astonishingly small crew, but it took them six months. Now we will wait for Schwarzenegger's reaction. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Have you ever wanted to observe an exploding star, but you don't have a telescope? In the 21st century, you don't have to own a telescope to watch it happen.
Just a few days ago, a type II supernova was discovered in the Messier 101 galaxy, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy (shown above). This supernova has been named SN 2023ixf. In case you are wondering, it is 21 million light-years away, and poses no threat to earth. This is the closest supernova to be observed in the past five years, and the second closest in the past ten years.
Supernova #SN2023ixf in Messier 101, as imaged on a small 115mm refractor in an Indiana backyard.
— Paul Macklin (@MathCancer) May 22, 2023
Direct comparison before the supernova (May 16) and after (May 20), where it's already a brilliant white object dominating this galaxy. #Astrophotography https://t.co/xUNn4r41sa pic.twitter.com/b9oH6vLHcH
The collapse of this giant star will be livestreamed, thanks to The Virtual Telescope Project. The livestream begins at 6:30 PM Eastern Time (22:30 UTC) on May 25 Friday May 26 at YouTube. The project is using 14-inch and 17-inch telescopes in Ceccano, Italy. It will presumably be available to replay after the livestream. It seems a bit strange to call it a livestream, as this explosion happened 21 million years ago- but we are just now receiving the visuals here on earth. If you happen to have a telescope, and live in the Northern Hemisphere, you should be able to find SN 2023ixf in the Ursa Major constellation, in the handle of the Big Dipper. The supernova will be visible for a few more months. -via Metafilter
Update: The livestream has been delayed by high winds, and will commence on Friday evening at 6:30 PM Eastern Time.
(Image credit: European Space Agency & NASA)
OpenAI, the company behind the very successful and popular AI tool ChatGPT has one secret hidden beneath its grand popularity, and it’s not as good as one might think: it’s low-wage contract workers.
The money OpenAI earns doesn’t flow well into the workers hired to trained their AI, which is the source of their money. For those unaware, for an AI program to work, there needs to be people making sure it keeps trained. These contract workers now revealed to NBC News that for others up the corporate ladder, keeping these computer models “trained” is very much grunt work. According to 34-year-old Kansas City denizen and OpenAI contractor Alexej Savreux, their job consists of labeling photos, writing predictions for the AI, and other things that can help the AI to generate responses better. "You can design all the neural networks you want, you can get all the researchers involved you want, but without labelers, you have no ChatGPT," he said. "You have nothing."
While this kind of work is low-wage, uninsured, and usually on a contract basis, employees are usually thankful for the extra gig. Savreaux shared that his work-from-home AI training gig brought him $15 per hour, which is above Missouri's $12 minimum wage and pulled him out of homelessness. "People sometimes minimize these necessary, laborious jobs," he said. "It’s the necessary, entry-level area of machine learning."
Image credit: Andrew Neel/Pexels
Surprisingly enough, it’s not New York City. Readers of USA Today have sent in their votes and created a list of the top ten walkable cities in the United States. Aside from public opinion, the organization also sought the help of a panel of travel experts to help narrow down options.
This said panel started by creating a list of the 20 most walkable cities filled with hotels, restaurants, and attractions. From there, the readers then voted for their top picks for the month. Surprisingly, New York City is only number seven. Philadelphia wins the award beating California, Missouri, Florida, and many others.
Philadelphia’s win can be attributed to being one of the larger cities with the fewest cars per person. Additionally, it is also one of the few cities that have less traffic. “This award confirms what we already knew about Philadelphia—it is an accessible destination that is easy to navigate on foot, from river to river,” Gregg Caren, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau stated.
For reference, the top ten most walkable cities are:
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Long Beach, California
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- St. Augustine, Florida
- Boston, Massachusetts
- New York City, New York
- Seattle, Washington
- Chicago, Illinois
- Washington, D.C.
Image credit: Lavdrim Mustafi
Now that’s embarrassing. Why bother going to an auction of an extremely popular and well-known building in New York, bidding over $190 million for it, and then ending up completely ghosting them afterward because you can’t pay the deposit?
Well, Jacob Garlick did bother. The man, who bid $190 million, worked as a managing partner at Abraham Trust, a venture capital firm. He was ruled out as a buyer after missing his down payment of $19 million. “I suspect he didn’t have the money, or that he realized he overbid and decided not to proceed,” Peter Axelrod, the court-appointed referee for the sale, explained to the New York Times. Garlick did try to get an extension, but his request was refused.
His bid was a bit shocking for other competitors, as his $190 million bid was way far from the starting price of $50 million. “It’s been my lifelong dream of mine since I’m 14 years old. I’ve worked every day of my life to be in this position,” Garlick told NY1. “We are honored to be a steward of this historic building, and it will be our life’s mission to preserve its integrity forever.”
Now that the historic building is back on the market, one of the men that fought closely with Garlick shared that he was annoyed when Garlick was bidding for the Flatiron Building. “I was annoyed. I never thought he’d keep going to such a high price… All he was doing was driving up the price,” the man told the Times. With Garlick out of the picture, he now has the chance to snag the edifice for himself, but he told the press he was not interested in buying it for $189.5 million, which was his last bidding price before Garlick won the auction.
Image credit: wikimedia commons
If you recall the sitcom Gilligan's Island, you know that the castaways stranded on a remote island had an awful lot of visitors from the outside world, but those visitors always managed to get away and leave the main cast behind. That was also the fate of Philip Ashton, who was just a teenager when his fishing boat was hijacked by pirates in 1722. He was forced into piracy, then escaped, only to find himself alone on Roatan, a then-uninhabited island off the coast of Honduras. He had no gear, no tools, and no hope for rescue. Over the next couple of years, Ashton was joined twice by other castaways, and once a ship approached, but instead of a rescue, they shot at him!
Ashton finally made it back to civilization, and a book was written about his experience. However, few readers believed it was a true story. Instead, they considered his account a knockoff of another book that had been published just a few years earlier- Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Read the real story of castaway Philip Ashton at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: Jonathan Palombo)
They call this a maze, but in places it resembles a Rube Goldberg contraption, and other parts may remind you of the American Ninja Warrior course. More than anything, this looks like a colorful classic Nintendo game maze. This little guy seems to have fun exploring the ins and outs of this new world as he makes his way through it and back to his normal but luxurious home. He should be used to it; his human partner in crime Mister Hamster makes these kinds of things all the time. You get the idea he only adopted his hamsters as an excuse to buy lots of plastic toys and build huge labyrinths for him. Everyone's got a hobby.
Near the beginning of the video, the hamster puts his hands on what might be a glass cover for this maze. I can see how that would be necessary, but it is the cleanest glass I have ever seen, with no reflections visible anywhere in the video. -via Boing Boing
The New Indian Express describes a terrifying incident from the village of Pandarpadh in the Jashpur district of the state of Chhattisgarh. An 8-year old boy named Deepak was playing in the backyard of his home when a cobra wrapped itself around his arm and bit him. He tried to shake it off, but the snake remained firmly attached. Finally, he bit the snake twice.
The snake fell off Deepak and died. The boy's parents raced him to a medical facility, where he was treated with anti-venom drugs. Fortunately, it appears that the cobra engaged in a "dry bite"--a bite that injects no venom. The boy went home after a day.
-via Dave Barry | Unrelated photo by Keshav Mukund Kandhadai
Without gravity, the human body suffers atrophy in a variety of ways. To prepare for long term human travel through low or zero gravity environments, we humans need to know what to expect. Accordingly, the European Space Agency has recruited volunteers to spend 60 days in bed to simulate the effects of microgravity on the human body.
A press release describes the study. An experimental group of 12 people will lie in beds that are inverted at 6°. They must keep at least one shoulder in contact with their bed for 60 straight days. Eating, bathing, and toileting must be conducted with these constraints.
Another group of subjects in the study will have access to exercise bicycles which they will be able to use while still in bed. A third group will cycle while inside a centrifuge. Researchers say that they will compare the health of the participants at the end of the study in order to plan for future human missions beyond Earth.
What would you have to receive in order to be willing to participate in a study like this one?
-via Gizmodo | Photo: ESA
Today (Wednesday, May 24) at 3PM Eastern Time, a message will be sent to Earth from Mars. Sure, we are always talking to our robots on Mars, but this is different. It's a science/art/engineering experiment that can involve all of us. The message will be sent from a Mars orbiter belonging to the European Space Agency, and is encoded to simulate what intelligent extraterrestrials might say if they were searching for life in the cosmos, and how they might transmit it. Then the public will get a chance to try to decode it. The project is called A Sign In Space, designed by a team led by Daniela de Paulis, Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute.
If everything goes right, the message will be intercepted by three institutes: the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array in California, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, and the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station observatory in Italy. It will take 16 minutes to receive the message from Mars. You can observe the project unfold live at YouTube. If the message is successfully received, it will be made available to the public for crowdsourced decoding. If you can decipher it, you are invited to upload your text, files, or links here. I don't see anything about a prize for decoding the message, or even for being the first to do it, but what an accomplishment that would be! Bragging rights forever. Read more about the project at Gizmodo. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: SETI Institute)
There are plenty of reasons why we wear shoes. Some think it's a matter of civilization or fashion. But there's also hot sand and pavement, the danger of stepping on LEGO bricks, glass, or bees (a particular childhood memory of mine), and of course the fact that it gets cold in the winter. When I was young, it only took two weeks or so every spring to build the callouses I needed to walk on gravel or hot pavement, but as an adult I mostly wear sandals. Should we all just ditch shoes and go barefoot? SciShow goes over the research that says yes, at least for children and maybe for athletes. The rest of us would probably do well to kick off our shoes and feel the air on our feet more often, if just for the psychological boost. But make sure you are up-to-date on your tetanus shot. This video is only five minutes long; the rest is an ad. -via Digg
