Category: goo brain

Payday

In an attempt to circumvent the corruption that has long kept Afghanistan in the shape everyone knows and invades, NATO has set up a novel system for paying the Afghani soldiers they are training.

(Historically, the company leaders would be entrusted with a lump sum to be distributed to individual soldiers – this turned out to be a great system for making rich company leaders.)

The International Telecommunication Union says 72 percent of Afghanistan’s population is now covered by a cell phone signal. By contrast, fewer than one person in a hundred has a fixed telephone line.

– An otherwise unrelated The Cutting Edge News article from last year

Cellphones are apparently as ubiquitous in Afghanistan as anywhere else, a fact that is now being exploited. A text message with a unique code is sent to Afghan troops, who can then take the code to a local cellphone chain store and exchange it for cash. NATO reimburses the chain stores, and the circle of life is complete.

More info is available at Associated Content, or at your local recruiting station.

Caber Pass

Just one of those random facts I was unaware of (emphasis mine):

The caber toss is a traditional Scottish athletic event practised at the Scottish Highland Games involving the tossing of a large wooden pole called a caber, similar to a telephone pole or power pole. It is said to have developed from the need to toss logs across narrow chasms to cross them. – Wikipedia

Did everyone carry their own personal bridge back then, or was there a fellow, the caber-man, who came around to a special whistle and chucked his timber across stymieing streams?

This strikes me as a rationalization for something a muscled Scotsman actually originated with the statement “Hey, watch this!”

All The Sarlacc You Need

Did you know that there’s such a thing as Wookiepedia?

I didn’t, until I discovered this:

(click for the full sized image)

The Internet: Makin' It Better

With the publicity generated from Hair, Meat Loaf was invited to record with Motown. They suggested he do a duet with Stoney Murphy, who had performed with him in Hair, to which he agreed. The Motown production team in charge of the album wrote and selected the songs while Meat Loaf and Stoney came in only to lay down their vocals.

[…]

Meat Loaf left soon after Motown replaced his and Stoney’s vocals from the one song he liked, “Who Is the Leader of the People?” with new vocals by Edwin Starr. The album has been re-released after Meat Loaf’s success, with Stoney’s vocals removed from all songs from the original Stoney and Meatloaf album.

Listen – I’m not the kind of fellow to have a lot of patience for Meat Loaf, at least post-Eddie The Ex-Delivery Boy, but the person behind this mix of the two versions of “Who Is The Leader Of The People?” deserves a career.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAR3tTZ470I]

Spanish Fly

I was always a little disturbed by the seedier stories I heard, in my youth, about Spanish Fly – but for some reason, apropos of nothing, it just now struck me how much of a monstrous drug those urban legends would have been.

This was not the angle of approach that I recall the fourteen-year-old narrators taking in imparting the mystic qualities of a ground bug.

The whole thing has me seriously reconsidering the classic concept of the love potion.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rXhXLsNJL8]

July 22, 2010
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goo brain, Uncategorised, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Robot Fight

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDljbN7eJ5Y]

While it looks more like a toaster with legs than Usain Bolt [? – JRD], Cornell University’s Ranger robot has set some track records all the same. On July 6, Ranger set a world record for untethered robotic walking, traveling 14.3 miles in only 11 hours.

Guided by students with a remote control, Ranger navigated 108.5 times around the Barton Hall indoor track, about 212 meters per lap, and made about 70,000 steps before it had to stop and recharge. The 14.3-mile record beats the former world record set by Boston Dynamics’ BigDog, which had claimed the record at 12.8 miles. – TechNewsDaily

I don’t mean to harsh on Cornell’s buzz, but implying this little R2D2-on-stairs robot is somehow a direct competitor with the BigDog is like trying to face Huey, Dewey, or Louie – from Silent Running – off against Optimus Prime. I mean, sure, they can all do light housework, but you know who you’re going to turn to when you need some long-haul trucking done.

Better yet, none of this is the most interesting robot item I’ve had to consider today:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI06lujiD7E]

Somewhere in the design of this automaton is a partnership with the Dyson vacuum people.

Time Wasters

The dogged, in-depth journalism at CNN, strikes again:

It’s tempting to crack the cryo-vaults and make a ‘read it for the articles’ joke, but I think the truth behind both the highlighted articles is something closer to the idea that social pressure can make you do some odd things.

I just hope CNN will decide it’s front page news when I finally unveil the Safe For Work version of skinner.fm.

(It is interesting to see ancient FARK-ese creeping onto the CNN page – how long until they pick up an tag?)

Also, I’m suddenly concerned this may one day lead to a product entitled “Disney’s™ Playboy For Kids”.

Brain Dump

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-O8-N71Qcw]

These are from the same people who made the air/aqua-penguins I posted about previously. I may return to aquajellies at some point, but for now, I’d like to say that this video is a pretty good simulation of my brain today.

Proper blogging should return shortly, but expect some audioboos and randomness in the meantime.

Episode goes up tonight, as usual, of course.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9AWGc0d8ik]

Death Ray

Codos sent me this link, while referencing the 30 Rock scene below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTpP412fM8U]

US firm Raytheon has unveiled its anti-aircraft laser at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire.

The Laser Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) can either be used on its own or alongside a gunnery system.

In May, the laser was used to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a series of tests.

Raytheon said the solid state fibre laser produces a 50 kilowatt beam and can be used against UAV, mortar, rockets and small surface ships. – More From BBC

Lasers aren’t just for threatening the junks of Super-Agents anymore.

How long until we invent flying mirrors?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cp2Z712XtY]

Head

I missed this bit of news when it first ran:

“We’ve come to the conclusion that there is a black market out there for human body parts for research or for whatever reason,” saidPulaski County coroner Garland Camper. “We just want to make sure these specimens here aren’t a part of that black market and underground trade.”

The heads were being transported to the Fort Worth office of Medtronic, a leading medical research and technology company based in Minnesota.

Medtronic spokesman Brian Henry said it is common to ship body parts for medical education and research, but he said it is rare for a shipment to be seized.

“We expect our suppliers to follow proper procedures,” he said.

Camper described the items as 40 to 60 human heads.

– More at NBC DFW

What can I add to that? All possible angles of comedy are already cliched – can’t make a joke about carry on, can’t make a “Heads On A Plane” joke, can’t go for a lost luggage gag.

I do wonder, however, about the possibility of a plane crash – I’d hate to be the rescue people on the ground, collecting up rogue noggins and freaking out about the lack of bodies to match them up with.