Memepunks

Nanotech Conjures Maxwell's Demon

2007-02-24T10:12:00.000-05:00

Let's start with something small. It doesn't get much smaller than the new creation out of Edinburgh University. The assembly works on the scale of nanometers, about one 80,000th the thickness of a human hair, and it was 140 years in the making. It began as a hypothetical question posed by brilliant mathematician and physicist James Clerk Maxwell. He pondered the possibility of violating the second law of thermodynamics through the intervention of a hypothetical "demon". This demon, being small enough to control individual molecules, could cheat the laws of physics and arrange molecules away from their normal state of entropy. Known as Maxwell's Demon, this thought experiment has been fodder for chemists and physicists ever since.

Thanks to Professor David Leigh and his team at Edinburgh, the demon is no longer the stuff of fantasy. Professor Leigh has created a nano-engine that can move a chemical system out of equilibrium. This tiny wonder works on very simple albeit very small mechanical principles. Leigh constructed an assembly of rotaxanes and put them to work. A rotaxane is basically a long barbell shaped molecule threaded through a second ring shaped molecule. The ring molecule moves chaotically from one end of the axle to the other, but cannot pass over the ends of the barbell. With many of these rotaxanes in parallel, on average you will see an even spread of the rings along the barbells. Some at one end, some at the other, some in the middle. That is until Dr. Leigh turns on his machine.

By shining a beam of light into the device, the axles of the barbells change shape in the presence of the rings. If the ring is on the right for instance, the axle thickens, trapping it there. If the ring is in the center, or left, the axle remains narrow enough for the ring to continue moving. In short order you end up with the majority of the rings on the right side... Order from chaos. Now, this machine doesn't violate thermodynamics of course, because it requires a light beam as a power source. But it does arrange molecules using only their natural motion. Something that up until this moment has occurred only in nature. Dr. Leigh has succeeded in building a workingNanomotor, driven by nothing but light.

Motors like this, that manipulate individual molecules are a prerequisite to creating fully functional nano-constructors. This is a stepping stone to the machines that will construct our future, one molecule at a time. They may take the form of VonNeumann machines that will replicate and build in trillion member swarms. Or more likely, we will see Leigh's technological descendants toiling away inside a future desktop factory like the one in this STUNNING VIDEO.

That particular conceptual animation is courtesy of Nanorex. Nanorex is a company local to Michigan that is working with K. Eric Drexler himself, the godfather of nanotech, to devise new microscopic miracles using cutting edge open source software. Oh, and they render them using distributed computing technology. Nanomachines, open source, and distributed computing, I have no idea how they fit so much awesome under one roof. Check out their gallery for more infinitesimal goodness.

One last word. There seems to be an underlying uneasiness or outright fear in some people whenever the word nano is invoked. No doubt brought on by too many camp fire stories about grey goo or exposure to Michael Crichton novels. Well, breathe easy friends. There are no out of control microscopic robots on the horizon. Even Dr.Drexler , who first postulated the idea of grey goo, has suggested that we all move on to the real hurdles and remarkable possibilities that nanotechnology presents us with. Perhaps, many decades hence, we may have to worry about some one's crude attempt toweaponize nanotech. But until then, don't sweat the small stuff. [via Engadget]

"...if we conceive of a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule in its course, such a being, whose attributes are as essentially finite as our own, would be able to do what is impossible to us." - James Clerk Maxwell

X PRIZE Cup Underway

2006-10-20T12:58:00.000-04:00

The Wirefly X PRIZE Cup competition has begun in Las Cruces New Mexico! Prizes totaling 2.5 million dollars are being sought by teams of space engineers and rocket men. The event runs from this morning until tomorrow afternoon, and for those of us that cant be out in New Mexico, SPACE.com is providing a live video feed for the duration.

Three potentially historic contests will be taking place over the next two days. Two of the competitions will focus on new lunar and planetary landing technology. Both the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge and the Vertical Rocket Challenge involve the take off, landing and return of prototype lander vehicles. Decendents of this technology may some day carry us to the moon and other worlds beyond. The favorite for the Lunar Lander prize is Armadillo Aerospace, founded by John Carmak, the millionaire creator of both Doom and Quake.

The third contest may have the most long term ramifications. It is Spaceward Foundation's Space Elevator Games. A contest in two parts, the Space Elevator Games hope to spur the development of a material strong enough to act as a tether into space, as well as new ways of beaming power to tether climbing robots. These students, enthusiasts and engineers are laying the ground work for a highway to the stars. "Up is good", as X PRIZErs are fond of saying.

In addition to the contests, there will be a slew of special events and exhibits. Including prototype engine test firings, sounding rocket launches, and amateur rocketry events. "Rocketman" Dan Schlund will fly around Las Cruces with a rocket belt (jetpack). The Rocket Racing League's new X-Racer will be unveiled to the public as well. A T-38 astronaut training jet will fly over the competition, and the X PRIZE Cup event planners have also promised "other surprises".

For anyone who is even remotely interested in the future of space flight, these next two days should be very exciting. The upstarts of space travel are all gathering in one place to compare notes and field their inventions. And the best thing is that they are not the result of a billion dollar space program, not NASA starched shirt types or foreign government space program representatives. They have talent, big aspirations and know how. But they are regular folks. They are us... Reaching for the stars on their own terms.

"I could have gone on flying through space forever." - Yuri Gagarin

A Future Without Flats

2006-10-16T03:56:00.000-04:00

Early last year at the North American International Auto Show, Michelin gave us a glimpse into the future of where the rubber meets the road. They unveiled a high tech replacement for the classic 60 year old radial tire. It's a tire-wheel hybrid they have unfortunately named the Tweel. Michelin's radial tire concept which debuted in 1946, has kept the world rolling for over half a century. But it has many drawbacks that we over the years have had to learn to deal with. Flats, blow outs, pressure checks, air pumps, and other problems are facts of life with the industry standard radials. But with the advent of the tweel, all of those things may become artifacts of a pneumatic past.

Tweels are airless. They consist of a semi deformable central wheel, which behaves some what like a conventional car wheel. Branching off from the wheel are flexible spokes that act as shock absorbers. Around the ring of spokes is the actual tread of the tire on a thin band. The tweels are all one piece and provide many advantages over classic radials. First and foremost is their lack of a pressure system. The spokes of the tweel do the job that a pneumatic cushion would, without the dangers of a flat or blow out. Secondly, because of the nature of the tweel, engineers now have have the freedom to focus on both comfort and performance.

With a typical tire, there are two types of rigidity. To increase the handling of a car, you want a tire that is stiff laterally. But for a comfortable ride, you want a vertically stiff tire. With a conventional radial tire that relies on air pressure, there is a limit to the amount of one that you can have without sacrificing the other. But with the tweel, you can optimize both the lateral and vertical stiffness of the spokes and hub independently. Thus without loosing the slightest bit of comfort, you can drastically improve a cars handling. This is the real reason why engineers at Michelin are giving the tweel a spin. In the long run, it stands to completely out perform radials.

For now the tweel is still in the design and testing phases. Michelin has approved the tweel for use in low weight low speed vehicles, such as Dean Kamen's tall standing stair climbing wheelchair, the iBot. They are also experimenting with military applications. Vehicles equipped with tweels are much less likely to be immobilized by explosives or other damage than vehicles with pneumatic tires. Further down the list are heavy equipment and construction vehicles that could benefit from improved performance. But the endgame sees the tweel much closer to home.

Michelin has outfitted an Audi A4 with prototype tweels. Eventualy, they would like to see tweels on passenger vehicles and beyond. But there are issues that must be overcome. At high speeds, tweels suffer from both excess vibration and unacceptable noise. Michelin engineers have been working diligently to solve those problems in the year since the tweel's debut. Already the tweel has been noted "one of the most amazing inventions of 2005" by Time magazine, and "Best of Whats New" in Automotive Technology by Popular Science. Earlier this year the tweel earned a gold medal for innovation at Intermat 2006 in Paris.

Have a look at this promotional video of tweeled vehicles in action. Once these airless wonders are ready for prime time, I can see them catching on quickly. No doubt they'll cost a premium for their performance, at first being the domain of auto enthusiasts. But eventually a robust tweel technology could become the new standard, leaving radial tires in the dust. Either way, true innovation is a rare gem in the automotive industry. We have been doing a lot of the same things the same way since the time of our grandparents. It's good to see that in a field dominated by convention and the status quo, some one has the wherewithal to reinvent the wheel. [via WallStreetFighter]

"One sees them all about—men who do not know that yesterday is past, and who woke up this morning with their last years ideas [...] there is a subtle danger in a man thinking that he is ‘fixed’ for life. It indicates that the next jolt of the wheel of progress is going to fling him off." - Henry Ford

X PRIZE for Genomics

2006-10-05T03:20:00.000-04:00

The X PRIZE foundation is at it once more. Two years ago Space Ship One rose to the occasion and collected the first X PRIZE. A ten million dollar bounty was awarded to Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the heroes of private spaceflight, as they returned from their second 100 kilometer trip into the heavens. The Ansari X PRIZE has stimulated a storm of growth and progress in the commercial space flight industry. And the fun didn't stop in October of 2004. Rival teams continue to compete in an annual X PRIZE Cup event for millions in awards. This year the X PRIZE Cup is being held in New Mexico, and includes contests for lander module technology and space elevator development. A few million in fame and fortune put out by the X PRIZE foundation has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in research and technological advancement.

With the marked success of the Ansari X PRIZE , it's no surprise that the foundation has decided to explore other avenues of science. Today, on the second anniversary of the Space Ship One flight, the X PRIZE Foundation announced the creation of the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics. This prize of $10 million will be awarded to the first group that can successfully meet the Archon challenge. That is, to sequence no less than 100 human genomes in no more than ten days. Keep in mind, that the original Human Genome Project to map a single human genome took more than a decade, and $3 billion in funds. For some one to claim the Archon X PRIZE, they must do a hundred times the work of the HGP and all in a tiny fraction of the time.

If the Archon prize is half as successful as it's space faring brother, this will mean a leap forward in genomics so drastic, the rules of the game will change. With the technology to sequence 10 genomes in a single day, personalized medicine could become common place. Fore knowledge of genetic maladies, drug susceptibilities and biological tendencies could have an effect on medicine greater than the invention of the microscope. And that is just the beginning. The more genomes that are mapped, the greater our collective understanding of of who we are. With a thousand genomes to compare and contrast, we'll learn a little more about ourselves. With a million, whole new fields of bioinformatics will form. And with the knowledge gained from a billion sequenced human genomes, the foundation would be laid for real human genetic engineering.

When the Ansari X PRIZE was offered up, rocket men from all over the country took notice. Enthusiasts, wide eyed millionaires, dedicated engineers, mavericks, and geniuses huddled around blueprints and scale models and tanks of liquid oxygen in an attempt to reach the stars. And ultimately, they went above and beyond and are still moving forward. The effect of the original X PRIZE has been nothing short of amazing. Now the same carrot is being dangled in front of geneticists. Three teams have already entered the running in the brief time since the Archon X PRIZE has been announced. Winning the Archon will require a breakthrough idea that will change the way we look at the very building blocks of life. Already dozens of scientists are clamoring to find it. That, my friends, is the real prize.

MEMEPUNKS UPDATE: After doing some further research I found an article that lends a bit more depth to the story. First, there is a follow up reward for the winners of the Archon X PRIZE if they decide to claim it. 100 additional volunteers have signed up to have thier DNA sequenced. If the winning team choses ot map the genomes of the "Genome 100", they will net themselves another cool million. The volunteers will be a mix disease sufferers nominated by charities, and high profile celebrities. The charities believe that by decoding the genomes of patients, insight will be gained about the nature of the disease. The X PRIZE foundation hopes that big name celebreties will increase awareness of the event and make it more relavent to everyone. Names already on the list include Paul Allen, Larry Page, and Stephen Hawking.

Also, the source of the $10 million prize money is notable. A Canadian geologist named Stewart Blusson is funding Archon. Dr. Blusson used advanced geology and surveying techniques to locate gold and diamond mines in the northern hemisphere. He has a stated love for science and out of the box thinking. In 1998 he donated $50 million to his Alma Mater the University of British Columbia, specifically for reaserch and academic excellence. [via Slashdot]

"We've discovered the secret of life". - Francis Crick

Movie Review: The Guardian

2006-10-04T01:09:00.000-04:00

I would love to come back with a great movie review for all of you, but instead I have this.... The Guardian. Kevin Costner and Demi Moore humper Ashton Kutcher team up in this buddy movie about the U.S. Coast Guard. Riding on the tails of the amazing work the coast guard did following Katrina, this should have been a great movie but fell well short. The plot centers around the aging coast guard swimmer Ben Randall (phoned-in by the Postman himself) and his conflict and inevitable respect for the up and coming cocky coast guard enlistee Jake Fischer played by Kutcher. Randall loses his team and starts to doubt himself and his skills so he accepts a teaching position where he encounters Fischer who wants to prove himself in the rough and tumble world of coast guard search and rescue.

The Good -
The cinematography of the storm footage and helicopter action was very impressive. While I am sure most was CGI, it felt real none the less. I was also impressed with Melissa Sagemiller, the love interest of Fischer. She played her role very down to earth and the only time I ever felt real emotion from this movie was during her dramatic scenes.

The Bad -

Teaming Kevin Cosner and Ashton Kutcher together for ANYTHING is just a bad idea. Their interactions on screen felt very forced and unnatural. Kutcher plays "over the top" like Saul Hudson plays guitar but it is painful to watch in almost every movie he has done. When he is forced to get emotional, Kutcher just falls back on his "mildly crazy" acting skill and envokes zero emotion from the audience. Combine that with the melodramatic and depressing way Cosner attempts any role Hollywood throws his way and its like watching two monkeys finger paint while doing mass quantites of zoloft and crystal meth.

The Ugly -

a literary professor once told me that "It was a dark and stormy night" was the most cliche and unoriginal opening for a story. The Guardian is the dark and stormy night of Hollywood. Every scene had been done in dozens of movies much better then this one. From the "hero's fall" to the boot camp hard core life lessons to standing up to the bullies (in this movie it was a bar full of Navy seaman). I was bored with this movie more then anything else. The only thing that kept me going was eventually naming movies where the current scene was done first or better.

There is nothing new here. Its Top Gun and Full Metal Jacket and Men of Honor warmed over. I would recommend this as a netflicks or blockbuster rental when the weather is bad or the internet is down. In other words, when you have nothing better to do. Don't waste 9 bucks on this one folks.

1.0 memestar

Too Fast, too furious, too much Damn Traffic

2006-10-03T14:23:00.000-04:00

First, let me say WERE BACK!!!! Second, we are working on some good lengthly posts to entertain and enlighten our faithful readers, but until then... Enjoy this little bit of american muscle!!!!

Memepunks calls metro Detroit our real world home, so when this video was passed along to us by Juggy1337, we thought it would make a great post. The details are a bit sketchy right now, but our local news affiliate is running a story about this video later today and the teaser mentioned "rich men, fast cars, and an illegal street race that costs ten thousand dollars to enter" I have no idea if any of that crap is true, but here is a Z06 Chevy Corvette tailing the new Ford GT on the freeways around Detroit. The video file is titled "Bullrun" and seems to entail a new era of "Cannonball Run" fun and hyjinx.

Listen closely to the video and you will hear the passenger mention that they are following a Ford GT driven by thechief designer of the GT.... I wonder what ole Bill Ford thinks of this?

Anyways, check out the other cars in the footage. Not often the streets of Detroit have this kinda exotic muscle rollin on it. (although we do see a lot of Vets in these parts, not many Z06 models)

The only thing sorta depressing about this video is that its American Muscle on Motor City Freeways... and the dude rolls down the window and yells... "WE NEED FUEL! PETROL!!!!"

COME ON!!!!

UPDATE: It appears youtube is no longer playing nice with this particular video and is now telling me the "owner" is not allowing their video to be ebedded anymore. Apparently, this now a "private" video. We are looking at finding a viewable copy. Please Stay Tuned.

UPDATE (10/10/06): Well the local news ran their story, and as was expected, they uncovered exactly the same things we did. Although they actually spoke to the lead designer of the GT, so I guess they got that on us (or at least they CLAIM they talked to him). Anyways, here is a bad TV rip of the original footage. I would have liked to have the original video without the commentators opinion and news directors edits. They cut out most of the other exotic cars that appear, but you can see them briefly. Sorry folks, but this is the best we can do for now.

We Can Rebuild Him. We Have the Technology.

2006-09-15T04:45:00.000-04:00

Oscar Goldman's intro voiced over Steve Austin's transformative surgery thirty years ago is now a part of the American psyche. The idea of bionics and cyborgs, once solely the domain of science fiction, is becoming undeniable fact. Advanced prosthetics are now being integrated directly into the minds and bodies of those without arms or legs. We are no longer talking hooks and claws and pink plastic over hollow inert limbs. This is real cybernetics, electronics wired right into your nerves, a technological extension for an injured or incomplete human form.

We may not have quite reached the stage of "better, stronger, faster". But we do now have the technology to restore real quality of life and natural capabilities to those without limbs. there are an estimated 1.8 million people in the US alone that have lost limbs. And this a country that isn't currently war torn, one without land mines scattered across the landscape, where most of our crippling diseases are under control. Looking to the third world, you'll see even more people that could benefit from limb replacement technology. Up until recently, science's reach has exceeded it's grasp in creating an effective artificial limb. Although they have been slow to develop, newly effective bionic prosthesis are nothing short of miraculous.

The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago has been quietly implementing it's Bionic Arm technology for the last few years. Created by Todd Kuiken, M.D., Ph.D. director of RIC’s Neural Engineering Center for Bionic Medicine, This new limb is head and shoulders above the rest. The myoelectric arm works by receiving the electrical signals sent by the brain and then activating small motors at the joints of the arm. Doctors at the RIC have rewired nerves meant for a flesh and blood arm to muscles in the chest. Surface electrodes are then placed against the pectoral muscle to intercept signals sent by the brain. The amputee thinks about moving the original missing limb. Muscles in the chest respond accordingly, and wires there convey the signal to the artificial arm.

Using this technique, patients are able to move and manipulate their mechanical arms and hands just like anyone else. They think about it, and it happens. The first man to get the Bionic Arm was a double amputee that barely survived a horrific electrocution. But now, with the Bionic Arm in place, and it's three motors whirring away, Jesse Sullivan has regained a great deal of both form and function. Have a look of this video of Jesse showing off his fantastic thought controlled prosthesis. Built into the arm is a 64 bit computer that translates the nerve impulses into literal motor control. It takes about six months to retrain an amputee to use the Bionic Arm as if it were their own. But as you can see the results are remarkable.

But Jesse's amazing limb is already last years model. Dr. Kuiken and his team have improved upon the original design and amputee Claudia Mitchell has been selected to test drive it. A former military service woman who lost her arm in a motorcycle accident, Claudia was seen as an ideal candidate for the newest limb. The new Bionic Arm has six motors instead of three. Twice as much articulation and the ability to do such things as lifting the arm over her head make Claudia's prosthesis peerless. And there is more to the story than just a design overhaul and some supped up servos. The nature of Claudia Mitchell's operation and augmentation are on a different order than Jesse's all together.

First off, Claudia's nerves were rewired successfully without any loss of tissue. Normaly, an operation like this would require a disfiguring removal of surface tissue to provide better reception to the electrodes. But most interesting is exactly how Claudia has been rewired. Using a new technique, the Bionic Arm is no longer just a one way interface. Doctors have rewired a softball sized patch of skin on her chest to send signals to the brain as if it were coming from a living arm. And then they wired the myoelectric arm to send feedback signals to that patch of skin. Now, Claudia can tell if she is holding something hot or cold in her completely mechanical hand. This is a first in prosthetics of any kind. Soon doctors plan to wire pressure sensors in the arm to Claudia's rewired sensory skin patch. Restoring, for the first time in history, an amputees sense of touch.

Keep in mind that the 3 million dollar Bionic Arm program is still in the experimental phase. "This is very much a prototype device. We have a lot of smoke in this lab. We fry a lot of transistors." says Dr. Kuiken. But with the success he has seen thus far, and more than 400 amputees coming back from the middle east war zone alone, it wont be long before an incarnation of the Bionic Arm becomes an every day cure to a world wide problem. Desinged for healing and not augmentation, we wont see any iron bar bending or Robocop hand shakes any time soon. But I cant help to think, with their beaming smiles and computer controlled myoelectric feedback sensing bionic limbs, that Jesse and Claudia are waving at us from the future. [via Digg]

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling - William Butler Yeats

From the Video Files: Dirty Love, Enterprise Style

2006-09-11T18:06:00.000-04:00

The internet has made fan based multimedia tributes something to behold. They range from the great to the terrible, but every single one of them have one thing in common... Ordinary people paying tribute to their favorite movies, tv shows, or pop culture phenomenon. Mashups and movie trailer remixes and now full on music video re-edits are all the rage and this little gem is one of the best in recent memory. t. jonsey & killa edited some old original series Star Trek clips and layered the NIN song "Closer". They applied some filters and chose some great footage to really bring out the "undertones" of the Spock/Kirk relationship. (via Boing Boing)

look for more of the internets great community video creations in the next installment of Memepunks Video Roundup.

"Guilt Free" Embryonic Stem Cells

2006-09-04T06:26:00.000-04:00

Last week, biotech company Advanced Cell Technology announced a break through in the field of embryonic stem cell research. One that at first glance stands to put the "ethical" debate about embryonic stem cells behind us for good. But as the days wear on, controversy and fallout continue to plague this remarkable discovery. It began with a press release for an article to be published in Nature magazine. Advanced Cell Technology declared that they had developed a technique to derive stem cell lines from embryos without causing the embryos any ill effects. And they did it using a method which has been around in IVF circles for years.

The technique is called PGD or preimplantation genetic diagnosis. It was originally developed in the field of invitro fertilization. When the embryo is at a very early stage of development, often even before the blastocyst stage, a tiny amount of genetic material is taken. A microscopic breach of the cell wall would be made chemically, mechanically, or using a laser. And the embryo would regrow the lost material without any ill effect. Initially, that extracted cell has been used by concerned families to scan their perspective child for any number of genetic maladies. Robert Lanza and his research group at Advanced Cell Technology have succeeding in giving another purpose to that little snippet of biopsied genes... Using them to create new stem cell lines. The technique hasn't been perfected yet. After 91 PGD biopsies, only two new stem cell lines were created. But Lanza and his team have shown that the procedure is viable.

So that's it then. A new procedure that will allow us to create stem cell lines from embryos without effecting the embryos developmental potential. Does this mark the end of the stem cell debate? Are we to expect wide smiles and thunderous applause from both side of the isle? Hardly. If anything this new procedure has further stoked the fires of debate.

First of all we have the nature of the study Professor Lanza conducted created stem cell lines from PGD material. The team at Advanced Cell Technology used only 16 embryos for their study. To minimize the number of embryos to be manipulated, rather than performing 91 separate PGD on 91 separate embryos, they used only 16. Which means that multiple PDGs were performed on individual embryos, eventually harvesting all of their genetic material and destroying the embryos outright. This has raised the ire of the religious and "bio ethicists" created an uproar and cause outlets such as the New York Times, Nature, and The Scientist to carefully reword their coverage of this breakthrough. Noting that the embryos used were in fact destroyed, and it doesn't end there.

Those on the right are appreciative that scientists are looking for a way to avoid "killing" embryos, but they are also extremely critical of any embryonic research, believing that destruction of genetic material is tantamount to the destruction of the embryo. And they fear a trade or market will develop for embryos if there is ANY successful way to derive stem cells from them, whether it is harmful or not. But you expect flak from the bio-conservatives when it comes to embryo research of any kind. It's Bush's witless veto all over again. What is surprising is the response coming from those in favor of embryonic stem cell research.

Embryonic stem cell researchers are leery of any sort of practice that kowtows to the embryo hugging right wingers. Reaserching ways to avoid "killing" embryos just validates the side of the argument that embryos can be "killed" in the first place. Also some scientists feel that the limited genetic demographics of those that use IVF clinics would limit the usefulness of any stem cell lines derived from them. And others like Arthur Caplan see the catch 22 inherent in the system...

"if you are going to use blastomeres from embryos where would you get them. from human embryos! so either you make them just to get blastomeres which means destroying embryos and makes no sense or you get them at fertility clinics. but the only people who will let you pull a blastomere off of one of their embryos are people who dont plan to use them anyway! So they are going to destroy their embryos, making it senseless to use a blastomere."

There is validity to the points made by concerned stem cell researchers that have to fight tooth and nail for every bit of funding and political support they get. But the real matter of substance here is getting more stem cell lines. Perhaps techniques like this will lend a bit of credence to the superstitious right. Perhaps all the stem cell lines derived from WASP dominant IVF clinics wont be the most useful for curing diseases that target minorities. Maybe there is some faulty circular logic to the whole affair. But in the end, if the result of this breakthrough is more stem cell lines, access to government funding, and another tool in our stem cell harvesting arsenal, then I say have at it!

Now there are three legitimate criticisms coming from some research circles that raise some indisputable points. One is that this particular success has yet to be repeated outside of ACT's laboratory. We will definitely need positive verification before this discovery can move any further ahead. Another concern is whether stem cells created using this method will have the same miraculous properties of lines created using entire embryos. This I think is the most over riding concern, and will require further and very deep investigation. And lastly, "moral" concerns aside, will even a procedure that leaves an embryo unharmed satisfy our administration's draconian laws on stem cell funding? Or is this end run pointless to begin with?

Only time will tell whether this breakthrough will usher in a new era of stem cell research, or just be one more foot note in the history books when we look back at the early years of embryonic stem cells. It does seem to me that we are in a very dangerous place now, where scientific decisions are made not by scientists at all, but by lobbyists and politicians. I'll be keeping that in mind when the mid term elections roll around in November. And I'll be voting pro stem cell all the way. At this point I would even settle for one of those little check boxes on my tax form. "Do you want 35 dollars of your Federal Tax to go toward embryonic stem cell research? This will not effect your return." But of course that check box is needed to collect presidential election funds. Next time, maybe we should elect a scientist. [inspired by Wired's Bodyhack Blog]

"I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think Mother wants us to." - Willard Gaylin

Review: Crank

2006-09-04T03:36:00.000-04:00

Billed as the this summers "Adrenaline Packed" action movie, Crank opened just in time for summer to close up shop. I won't worry about spoiling the movie for you, our faithful readers. If you have seen the trailer, you know the movie. There is no Hollywood twist, no seeing of dead people, no crying game, no bad guy pretending to be a good guy. You get exactly what you expect in this movie, as long as you didn't expect much. Jason Statham plays a hit man with a bad attitude who gets injected with an exotic asian drug/poison that blocks the endorphin receptors and basically shuts down a victims body. This of course doesn't happen right away, but rather drags out over the course of a few hours. Why great Asian scientists would invent a synthetic drug to do what good old fashioned potassium chloride has been doing for years is beyond me, but it wouldn't be much of a movie if the hero was given a real poison that killed instantaneously, now would it?

The Good

Jason Statham was decent as the anti hero, although he is starting to get type cast into these roles. He is a great actor with a range that is rarely showcased in his choice of roles. He can play the straight man so easily, ala Snatch , that I'm surprised he doesn't take more comedy roles. The film had a very stylish feel to it as well. The scenes were strange and surreal with a bit of classic 70's cinema thrown in. No idea what the girls in the plastic bubbles and army of lawn jockies were supposed to symbolize, but it made Crank feel more like Diamonds are Forever then it did Die Hard . The only real exciting and fulfilling aspect to this movie was the ending. What people expect to happen (but deep down inside hope doesn't) actually comes to pass. In a movie so removed from the real world, this aspect grounded it right back to reality. Quite literally, I might add.

The Bad

I felt angry paying 9 dollars to see this movie. The unabashed product placement in this movie made me cringe. The choice to zoom out of a given action scene to a city map view, then scroll around to another location was cute at first, but there was no reason to tag those transition shots with "Property of Google Maps" and include the little compass rose. They used several famous energy drinks as plot devices as well. Red Bull, Rockstar, and a slew of others were guzzled by our hero to keep his "heart pumping" and adrenaline levels up.

The Ugly

This movie was no more then a remake of Transporter 2. From the fast cut scenes to the crazy road stunts to the race against the poison clock. I challenge any one to watch these two movies in a single day and then sleep on it and awake being able to tell them apart. In fact, as I write this review, I have to stop and remind myself of which I am reviewing. "Did Crank have the helicopter or the airplane?" "Did Crank have the Cuban bad guy or the Asian?" "Which movie had the Brigtte Nielsen wannabe psycho and which had the down home cutie girlfriend ?"
But the true ugliness of this movie is that it tried too hard. It wanted to be so much and achieved so little. The cinematography would drive epileptics to fits and the surreal setting I mentioned earlier wore out far too quickly. I mean seriously, what is the point of projecting tortoises humping on the ceiling of a scene in this movie? The only adrenaline rush I felt while watching this movie was the bile rising up in my stomach from the insane chase cams and over the shoulder shots.

Much like it's drug namesake, Crank is a bad version of a bad idea. Wait for cable or DVD on this one folks.

1.0 memestar

"That was the worst fuckin' head I ever got in my life! Next time don't be so fuckin' eager! " -Mallory Knox

CRIKEY!!!! The Croc Hunter is Dead!

2006-09-04T01:34:00.000-04:00

It is being reported by Reuters wire service that Australian real world Pitfall Harry, Steve Irwin, died today. Irwin, famous for his wild antics wrestling crocodiles and enraging venomous snakes around the globe, was said to be filming a documentary when he was stung in the chest by a stingray barb.

Irwin was one of the main reasons that Animal Planet, a Discovery channel owned station, took off and made itself a mark in the vast sea of cable TV. His child like excitment of nature was contagious and he was one of the few guys that could make poking a viper with a stick seem fun and light hearted.

At least he died doing what he loved. And thats all we can really ask for from death.

"Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die." - Amelia Burr

The Thing About Match.com

2006-08-30T20:52:00.000-04:00

For those single people out there we have heard it all before one of your friends has this story, “Oh, you should try match.com, I have a friend who did it and that’s how they found their wife/husband.” Maybe you heard this one, “I tried match.com and went out on a lot of dates. Watch out for those married people and one night stands, haha.” It has occurred to me that Internet dating is now considered just a normal way of meeting people. We have been groomed by technology to rely on it as a resource, not only for information but to find our soul mate as well. Since I am a part of the digital age I have braved my insecurities, took some pictures and opened a Match.com account.

You get to have your own page which is very similar to Myspace.com but specifically for dating. If you decide to set up an account, give yourself 30 minutes or more and get a credit card handy. There are several categories to fill out, such as basics, lifestyles, interests and values just to name a few. However, it is the Intro that is the foundation of you and what you are attracted to. The more clever the writing the more hits you get. Beware, all of the men I have viewed say the same thing. “I’m just a laid back guy, looking for a nice girl to be my best friend.” And “Honesty is key I don’t want to play any games or be lied to.” Here I thought lying and cheating on a significant other was a good way to go about things.

Match.com has teamed up with Dr. Phil so you have a choice in packages. You can either sign up for a month or bulk up on months for a cheaper rate. I signed up for 3 months for $50.00, but you have to cancel or they will continue to charge you. If you decide to go with the Dr. Phil package, or the Premium package as I like to call it, you pay extra but have access to dating tips and video modules Dr. Phil style. Probably not necessary, but if you have never dated before or do not know how to talk to people in a social setting then you might want to pay the extra $20.00 or so bucks.

Here are some tips. Be brave and honest about who and what you want. Some people will lie to you and pursue you with bad intentions. If you do not want a one night stand then say, “No!”. You do not owe these strangers anything. I will let you know this is very similar to going out and meeting people. Some are very attractive and some are very, uh, unattractive. I highly recommend you post a picture and be honest about your body weight. There are jerks out there who will judge and those that will fall instantly in love with you. Keep yourself grounded and pay attention to how people speak to you in e-mails. Also, if you have shared several e-mails, bump it up to a phone call so you know how they really talk.

If you are single with a bit of cash and time then this is something to consider. Do not expect instant success! Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither should a long lasting loving relationship. I could insert more clichés but what’s the point? Really,try talking on the phone before you set up a meeting date. I could have saved myself the grief and stress of looking for last minute escape routes had I just talked to the guy on the phone first! Arm yourself with a good sense of humor, patience and the ability to say “no thank you.” Other than that open your heart and say ahhhh.

Disclaimer: Before reading further please understand I respect these men tremendously for putting themselves out there. There is no obvious physical feature used to identify them, names, location of work or anything else…

The first date I will call King V, match.com clued me in and said we are 70% compatible. Out of the 25 categories we filled out 17 of them matched. The date was planned for a Starbuck’s in Ann Arbor and after walking three city blocks in heels because I had to park so far away, I was looking forward to sitting down in air conditioning and sipping on a soy latte. As I approached the building my heart skipped a nervous beat as it dawned on me, “I could be meeting my potential husband or my next boyfriend… Eek!”
King V and I spotted each other instantly but didn’t make a move until it was obvious I was looking for someone. Then he approached, handsome with a nice smile and something else… a lisp! In the words of David Cross, “Not every gay man has a lisp but only gay men have a lisp.” It wasn’t just a lisp but other behaviors as well that made me question his interest in women. So much that I found myself analyzing him when he spoke about the pressures of being a man in his family and how things will change when he has kids.
As I was ready to sit down King V suggested we tour the U of M campus. We walked and talked for about a mile and a half. Timid King V opened up to me and shared his last relationship trauma and how he still misses his ex-girlfriend. Bad move number one, especially if the length of the relationship (10 months) doesn’t match the length of time apart (3 years). Not to mention, he asked for my advice about another girl he was speaking to on match.com. Bad move number two! After two hours together I called it a night we gave each other a light hug and went our separate ways. We have since followed up with e-mails, but after meeting me once he wanted to smack my ass and make out with me. Hard to be flattered by those comments when I felt there was nothing between us in the first place. Match.com Rating - 70%, My Rating - 30%.

The second date, Mr. Saturday Blues, almost did not happen as I noticed our compatibility rate was only 60% and all his dislikes were my likes. I e-mailed him and suggested we not meet. He doesn’t like tattoos, I have one. He is very religious where I am not so much. He e-mailed me back saying those things don’t matter to him and that we should meet anyway. So, I found myself sitting before a socially awkward guy 10:30 on a Saturday morning with about four hours of sleep under my belt. Even sleep deprived I am able to assess a situation fairly and from the moment I met him the date needed to end quickly. I asked him questions and found myself working in conversation about myself and what I like or do.
Mr. Saturday Blues asked me, “What are your favorite movies? This will let me know if you have good taste...” My thought, “Is this for true?!” Then our conversation revolved, I reiterate, revolved around his favorite Stanley Kubrick films. Whether on a Saturday morning first date or not, discourse about the meaning of Stanley Kubrick films is so much not fun. Not only that but had he bothered to ask, he would have learned that I wrote a term paper on a Clockwork Orange and the purity of a rebellious society. Needless to say he gave me an out and I took it selfishly, the only selfish moment I had. Match.com Rating - 60%, My Rating - 0%.

The third date, Mr.Fogetabouddit a “Goodfellow” who was more pussycat then New York gangster turned Michigander. The wine and romance of our date went to my head and I found myself drunk more on possibility then on true compatibility. Match.com’s rating for us was 82%. The conversation was engaging as we shared stories, food and cigarettes. Here is where it gets goofy, I felt he should have offered to pay for me but I asked him out to dinner and in the end we split the bill. If I was to nit pick, which is what the nice folks at Memepunks pay me to do, I would say if a man orders for his date then he should at least offer to pay. Ladies/ gentlemen, use your best judgment, if you had a good time and really like the person offer to pay the bill, it shows character. After our date he walked me to my car, opened the door and pursued pushing his tongue down my throat. When I explained I had to leave for a morning meeting, he told me how he was planning on having me over that night for a movie. In his words, “You're a classy lady and I wasn't gonna sleep wich you or nothin' just have you ova to get to know ya better.” First date sleep overs = bad idea. As individuals should we not give each other more space and time? This is something I have stated on my match.com page, I want a long term relationship but time is of the essence. So, I took his last gesture of having me over as a bad match but the human spirit kicked in and he apologized for the idea of going back to his place after our first date. Mr. Fogetabouddit explained to me that his life is good, he loves his house, loves his job and would like to share it with someone. An attitude like that speaks volumes about his character. Match.com Rating - 82%, My Rating - still checking it out %.

John Lennon once said of Yoko Ono and their first meeting, if her art work did not impress him he would have walked out in the first five minutes. However, he gave it chance and one of her art pieces was a word written on a white ceiling. She wrote one little three letter word on the ceiling, “Yes.” This won him over and they went on to become one of the world's most famous ground breaking couples. So give yourself all the date possibilities necessary to make the best decision. Your time and energy is valuable, use it wisely. In the words of Johnny Drama, “Try my eggs Florentine and take a deep breath.” When searching remember to take a deep breath, be understanding of what you want and say, “Yes” when the time, art work and person is right.

"We are strong, no one can tell us we're wrong
Searchin our hearts for so long, both of us knowing.
Love is a battlefield." - Pat Benatar

It's Pronounced MEEM-PUNKS

2006-08-25T05:30:00.000-04:00

This marks the official 100th post here at Memepunks! A few months ago this site was little more than one person's hesitant attempt to give blogging another try. And now the Memepunks adhocracy is charging headlong into the future. We've exceeded our expectations by leaps and bounds. That can happen when you set up shop on a little place called The Internet.

Our post on the space elevator grabbed the attention of the amazing folks at Liftport. We started people talking all over the Internet with our coverage of America's war on science. And our post on the possibility of a Google AI spread like wildfire, making the top spot on Reddit. It was linked to by author, and Boing Boing band manager Jon Battelle's Search Blog. Former Harvard Business Review executive editor and Rough Type creator Nicholas Carr even jumped into the fray. Tens of thousands of you stopped by to see what all the fuss was about. Many of you have stayed around for the duration. "Memepunks", a non existent word 4 months ago, now gets 30,500 hits on Google.

To our fans, commenters, and anyone that has taken the time to read one of our posts. Thank you, thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts. Memepunks isn't just us, it's you too. We would also like to thank all of those who contributed above and beyond the call of duty. Most especially B, who has warmed into being a full time contributor, editor, webmaster and member of the ad-hoc. Couldn't have done it without you bro... not by half. We would also like to thank (in no particular order) MJL, Don, Gynkoba, Micker, Minister, Cory, TheMadElf, Shadowhawck, Marty and the BBC, Scathatch and the crew at AVcorp, Smokey and the CSS master, KC and Natalie, Jonathan, Rook and family, Brent, Stella, Vince, and all the rest of our friends and families. If we forgot anyone, rather than apologize to you, just gmail us or comment. We'll try our hand at revisionist history and add you to the list.

Now, what's in store for the future? The proposed redesign of the site is still going strong and is only about a month behind schedule. We have a couple of extraordinary media events coming up, which we will announce soon. We are welcoming a guest blogger, who will bring an eye for trends, an ear for music, and matching X chromosomes to the mix. Look for MJL's inaugural post shortly. Memepunks will be attending the annual meetings of the Cryonics Institute and the Immortalist Society next month. And We'll be establishing a presence in Second Life, so we can start reporting on all the great things that go on there. Memepunks will also be revisiting some previous posts to see how some of these big future filled projects are progressing.

Look for more reviews of books, movies and music on the horizon. And of course we'll be putting up a torrent of posts on biotech, robots, web 2.0, space travel, nanotech, computers, AI, the IP wars, the Google revolution, cutting edge science, paradigm shifts and Internet weirdness. All in all, not a bad first 100 for a couple of computer techs from the suburbs of Detroit. Thank you again for making the first 100 possible. And here is to 1000 more! Onward and Upward.

“All this will not be finished in the first hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

You start by downloading songs......

2006-08-23T16:27:00.000-04:00

Another music artist has entered the battle between the music industry and their fans but this volley might not be what people would expect. Master of Parody and Hero of the singing comedy genre Weird Al Yankovic has released the newest single from his upcoming CD, "Straight out of Lynwood ". The song, titled "Don't Download this song ", is a parody of epic proportions. While the song is written as a warning, the lyrics scream of the idiotic business model of suing your customers in mass numbers and trying to strangle technology with an iron fist. Its an original recording, but has a very "We are the World" feel to it. Al is by no means the first artist to fight back against the RIAA, but unlike recent soldiers in the war, Al makes his shots with wit and style.

I have been a "Weird Al" fan for the better part of my life. I embrace the lyrical aspect of music and enjoy listening to the ways artists write and execute their passion for the sung word. I also embrace cover artists who take a song and add their own personalities and nuances to it. (One notable exception to this is the recent Gnarles Barkley cover of the Violent Femmes "Gone Daddy Gone", but that is a discussion for another post). Weird Al puts an amazing comedic aspect to not only the music he covers, but in his original works. Comedy that is both juvenile and yet surprisingly adult and deep.

Some people dismiss his music as sophomoric and uncreative, but I will violently defend his humor! You can't produce lyrics such as:

I'm the pioust guy the little Amletts want to be like
on my knees day and night scoring points for the afterlife.

to the tune of Coolio's "Gangster Paradise" and not be considered a well rounded musical talent.

Al has also released a music video over at yahoo music for "Don't Download this Song" and has gotten George Plimpton to do the animation for it. While the Nazi RIAA tank chases and prison scenes are all classic Plimpton and fit well with the song, I would have liked to see Al go a different way with it. As I mentioned earlier, the song sounds very much like the great 80's cause-de-jour marketing tool, "We are the World" and it would have been great for Al to get a large group of "one hit wonders" and faded musical artists together and shoot it in a "we have a cause and you should listen to us" style that made the video for We Are The World so popular. In fact, you could probably get 90% of the original "We are the World" artists to do this project for a hundred bucks each.

I recommend you all NOT download this song and check it out.

Al is also playing that song along with several other hits on his myspace page, but for ethical reasons, I will not be linking to THAT.

EDITORIAL NOTE: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS POST ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF MEMEPUNKS.COM AND ITS AFFLIATED ENTITIES. THEY ARE THE OPINIONS OF THE POSTING AUTHOR ALONE.

Movie Review Snakes on a Plane

2006-08-22T19:59:00.000-04:00

As if you didn't know, the most highly anticipated movie of the summer made its debut last weekend. Of course I'm talking about Hollywood blockbuster Snakes on a Plane! You wont find any shakespearean soliloquies or Oscar worthy material on board this 747. What you will find is a legion of deadly poisonous snakes. Originaly, Snakes on a Plane was off to a rocky start. With a so/so script, and a wishy washy studio going back and forth on changing the title to something "less campy" and more respectable, Snakes had the makings of a cinematic tour de turds. But it turns out this mid-budget fright fest had two power houses in it's corner. Samuel L. Jackson and the Internet.

When the studio big-wigs renamed the film Pacific Air Flight 121, Samuel L Jackson had some things to say about that. Namely... "Nobody wants to see Pacific Flight 121. That's like saying 'Boat To Heaven.' Bullshit! C'mon! People know what they want to see. People either want to see this movie, or they don't. So let 'em know, if you're coming to see this movie, you're going to see a plane full of deadly-ass snakes. That's what it should be called: Deadly Ass Snakes on a Plane" On March second, the studio caved, and thankfully returned the film title to it's former glory. Sam also wanted them to film the movie with an R rating in mind, rather than the watered down PG-13.

But the real driving force behind Snakes on a Plane arriving in it's final form at the box office was the mighty world wide web. Second only to Sam Jackson in it's ability to kick ass and take names, the Internet adopted Snakes on a Plane as its own long before it was a finished film. It started innocently enough a year ago with a single post by indy blogger Josh Friedman on his blog "I find your lack of faith disturbing". News of Snakes on a Plane quickly saturated the web. There were fake movie posters, Music Videos, movie contests, T-shirts, poster parodies, clips and comedy routines. And of course, millions upon millions of iterations of a made up line of dialog from the movie where Sam Jackson's character angrily refers to "motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" There were even rocky horror style movie participation groups passing a script around the web months before the movie was scheduled to open.

The Internet buzz eventually went mainstream, with appearances on the Daily Show and the Colbert Report among other places. Better late than never, the studio caught on. They went back and re shot five days worth of footage, cranking up the movie to an R rating to appeal to the growing online fan base. They also made sure to include Samuel L Jackson's "motherfucking snakes" line. They jumped onto the viral marketing bandwagon as well, organizing online fan contests, and adding a way to get personalized calls from SLJ himself to your friends via the web. So what did all of this do for the movie itself? What did we end up with when the house lights went down and the projector started rolling? We ended up with Snakes on a Plane.

Jackson is as bad a motherfucker as ever. Sam delivers his lines as only he can, and almost makes wading into a horde of poisonous snakes with only a tazer and an attitude believable. He stars as FBI agent Neville Flynn. He and his partner Agent sanders, played by Hong Kong veteran Mark Houghton, find them selves escorting a young extreme sportsman turned murder witness from Hawai'i to Los Angles to testify against a ruthless Asian mobster. The RedBull drinking, Kawasaki riding, surfer witness is portrayed aptly enough by Wolf Creek Alumni Nathan Phillips. Terry Chen swings for the fences as the villainous Chen Leong without chewing the scenery. ER's Julliana Margulies plays lead flight attendant and heroine Clair Miller.

The premise of the film is simple. To kill the witness on his way to testify, mob boss Chen arranges to have 400 deadly snakes unleashed on the plane. This is were the movie happily goes right over the top. Take a host of stereotypical passengers; a richdebutante with a dog in her purse, a stuck up brit CEO, an effeminate male flight attendant, an Asian kickboxer, a dirty minded co-pilot, a rap star complete with entourage, a pair of young children traveling alone for the first time, a mother with her new baby, a young couple in love. Then instantly add hundreds of slithering, biting, "deadly ass",poisonous snakes. That's when the fun begins. The violence comes at you fast and furious and much of it catches you by surprise. And it's not just snakes that kill people, the general chaos that ensues also results in a slew of fatalities.

Some shots of the snakes are arguably real animals. But most of the violent snake attacks come from computer generated reptiles. It doesn't quite mesh with the real backdrop and human actors, but it's close. More along the lines of Alone in the Dark than Jurrasic Park's raptors or WETA's Balrog. There are scenes shot from the snakes POV, in green hazy Snake-O-Vision. Which brings back fond memories of Predator and Wolfen. The survivors fight a losing battle against the rampaging snakes that puts the passengers of Tail Sting to shame. They use broken bottle spears, home made flame throwers, tazers, and everything else on the plane to repel the ophidian invaders. The movie just keeps building, at one point even introducing a 30 foot long man eating anaconda!

As the movie goes on, you do start to feel for some of the characters, even in this completely unbelievable situation. And Snakes goes out of its way to break the molds of the various stereo types it establishes at thebeginning. Away from the plane, we have a stalwart FBI administrator and a snake expert coordinating things on the ground. I wont give away scenes or reveal too much of how the movie closes. But suffice it to say, I got my popcorn chewing moneys worth. And to quote Josh, "What else do you need to know? How the snakes get on the plane, what the snakes do once they're on the plane, who puts the snakes on the plane, who is trying to get the snakes off the plane...This is not for you to ponder. There are snakes on the plane. End of fucking story."

Was Snakes on a Plane a success? With a budget of only 36 million, Snakes made almost half of that in it's opening weekend. Beating out Talladega nights as the top movie of the weekend. And although the studio calls the numbersdisappointing, wait until the DVD comes out.
Wired already appointed SoaP the Best Worst Movie of the Year. And Sam Jackson has gone on record, perhaps sarcastically, stating that Snakes will win MTV's Best Movie award.

But Snakes on a Plane isn't just a movie anymore, it's also a meme. And I give them both Four Motherfucking Memestars.

Robot Update 014

2006-08-20T16:48:00.000-04:00

The pinnacle of many a technology is to be seamlessly integrated into our lives. Cellphones, ATM cards, automobiles, remote controls, etc... We don't really marvel at them any more, it's just the way things are. In order for new technologies to pervade our way of life, they either need a new infrastructure built to support them, or they must be able to thrive wholly within the existing one. This is why many roboticists and engineers have been chasing the grail of the humanoid robot. In theory, a robot with two arms and two legs can go anywhere we can; our offices, our homes, our schools, and our market places. A robot that shares our dimensions can use our doors, travel along our sidewalks, and share our public spaces.

But thus far, humanoid robots have been underachievers. Although they are near miracles of coordination and technology, they are inevitably slow, awkward and expensive. Even the most out of shape human can literally run circles around our most agile high tech humanoid robot. There is another approach now being studied that may allow for societally integrated robots, while the humanoids are still finding their stride. It's called Ballbot, and it is today's robot.

Ballbot is the fruit of the labors of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. Lead by Professor Ralph Hollis, the engineering team developed a robot that stands and travels by balancing itself on a single steel sphere. The robot was built to human dimensions, tall and thin by robot standards. It's 1.5 meters tall (four foot nine), is 400mm in diameter (16 inches), and ways 45 Kilograms (just under 100 pounds). Ballbot works on a principle similar to the old track balls and ball computer mice, but in reverse. Rollers powered by a drive motor spin against the single steel drive ball, and act to keep Ballbot upright and propel it in any direction, without the need to turn or corner.

The robot is basically a cylinder that consists of three aluminum channels that hold up a series of circular shelves, like a book shelf or layer cake. Each shelf contains a different component. One houses Ballbot's 200MHz Pentium brain and 802.11b Wifi link. Another holds the 48V lead acid battery that gives Ballbot a few hours of operating time. About halfway up the robot sits the IMU, an Inertial Measuring Unit that emulates a vertical gyroscope and provides Ballbot with his remarkable sense of balance and high center of gravity. Three "leg" pylons deploy when Ballbot is without power, preventing it from falling over in the event of a malfunction.

Due to Ballbots layered and modular construction, it can be reconfigured and modified without requiring a redesign. This also makes Ballbot inexpensive to build and maintain, another trick the humanoid robots have yet to master. The next incarnation of Ballbot will see the addition of a head with a variety of sensors, and a pair of articulated arms to the chassis. This will increase Ballbots ability to stay balanced, and also ad a whole new level of functionality to the Ballbot framework. In a combination of simplicity and genius, Professor Hollis and his team have created a machine that can travel effortlessly in spaces made specifically for humans, and do so without unnecessary complication or expense.

Professor Hollis has been building and designing robots since before robotics was even a recognized field of study. Have a look at the Microdynamics Physics Laboratory project page for the Ballbot to find additional information that the team has provided. This includes addition hi-rez pictures, white papers, and a couple of neat videos of Ballbot in action. Still there are miles to go before Professor Hollis and his team can sleep. "We want to make Ballbot much faster, more dynamic and graceful," he said. "But there are many hurdles to overcome, like responding to unplanned contact with its surroundings, planning motion in cluttered spaces and safety issues."

So before we finish, lets get the Dalek jokes out of the way. Certainly even the best designed robot which balances on a single sphere will be incapable of navigating stairs. This is something that true integration into our living and working spaces will require. But with the minor addition of more ramps and elevators in everyday locations, the world could easily accept a host of rolling Ballbots. It will have the added bonus of making the world a nicer place for Murderballers and the occasional legendary physicist too. [via Slashdot]

"Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home. Understand?" - Miyagi Sensei

Woot Off? Woot On baby!!!!

2006-08-17T11:00:00.000-04:00

A while back we introduced our friend, Woot. Well the magical day is upon us and there is currently a Woot Off going on RIGHT NOW!!! This is where they post a new item after the previous item sells out, which means a ton of good deals and witty write ups!

Head on over to Woot and check it out.

(the little bar at the bottom moves from right to left and idicates the number of items left till the next item is posted)

Memepunks Goes Bookcrossing!

2006-08-16T00:08:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, your faithful editors of Memepunks took some time off from our hectic posting schedules to finally get out and feel what its like to bookcross. We here at Meme Station Zero are avid readers and stumbled across bookcrossing a few months back. The idea is simple. If you have a book you like, or don't like for that matter, register it at the bookcrossing site, label it appropriately, and then release it into the wild for other interested parties to pick up, read and then hopefully return the book to the free world for more sharing. Think Napster for books without the pesky XXAA lawsuits.

We thought long and hard about where to set free our first round of books. We eventually decided on scenic downtown Ann Arbor, Mi. There are a few reasons for this. The first is Ann Arbor has a fairly hip and intellectual demographic. We felt a strong chance that our books would land in the hands of an appreciative audience that would not only enjoy them, but would perhaps join the bookcrossing revolution. Second, there are many "3rd places" where people gather and interact that would make excellent seeding grounds. And finally, the city of Ann Arbor, and more directly the University of Michigan is playing host to one of the most ambitious and altruistic projects ever conceived in the digital era. Google print has set up shop at the University of Michigan (and other great libraries around the world) with one goal. The preservation by means of digitization all written texts. That's right, Google wants to scan, catalog, and integrate into their search engine every book ever published. How freakin cool is that?

First, we stopped in at the Ann Arbor Bus Depot (map). This close to the supposed "MotorCity" the Bus depot was a classically depressing experience. From the faded and shabby exterior, to the hollow and sparse interior, the place sorta creeped me out. But we felt it would be a great place to leave a good story for a weary traveler. We decided on Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (more details). We casually placed the book on a chair, snapped a comemorative digital shot, and made for the exit. Our first release! It felt adventurous with an odd hint of danger for no good reason and we were hooked!

Second up was the Espresso Royale Caffe (map). A small out of the way independent coffee house right on Main street. The lounge was quiet for a Saturday morning, but there were several students and suited businessmen sipping and chatting. Here we left Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep (more details). We didn't linger long here either, as we were still adjusting to this life of underworld book seeding. I think that slowly this was replaced with a child-like sense of immediacy that we HAD TO DO MORE!

We ventured further south on Main street and wandered into one of the dozen or so Starbucks (map) coffee houses littered throughout Ann Arbor. Here we sat and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and discussed the rest of our adventure as we thought it should go. Perhaps it was the piercing blue eyes of our indie hot barrista, but we were inspired to leave a copy of Dune by Frank Herbert(more details). This time however, we embraced our actions. We stood triumphantly by our newest release, watching it like a parent does a child as they take those first tentative pedals away on their Christmas bicycle.

Next up was the amazing Vault of Midnight(map). This awesome pop culture marketplace takes us back to our childhoods every time we step across the threshold. Billed as a comic shop, this place offers so much more. From strange foreign imports to classic action figures and everything in between, this place is a "must see" for any geek, movie fan, or self proclaimed nerd. Looking for that latest issue of Spiderman? These guys have it. How about a complete set of Pulp Fiction playschoolesqe figures? What about a hard cover edition of Maus? Look no further. Here we left Neuromancer by William Gibson (more details) and spent way too much time getting lost in all the whuffie this place exudes.

Our next stop was set to be another Starbucks down the street, but we were waylaid by a free concert in Liberty Park. The fellas (and lady) from The Six Foot Poles were doing a benefit concert and had amassed quite a gathering. We stopped to enjoy the performance and realized this would be a perfect spot to set free another book from our dwindling collection. It was a wonderful sunny day and the park was shaded with a slight breeze blowing through. Had we not been so excited to finish our bookcrossing, this would have been an ideal spot to kick back, relax, read an excellent book and listen to some good music. We set free upon this small slice of heaven a copy of Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology by Bruce Sterling (more details). Hell, our afternoon could have ended right here if given the right circumstances. A nap in the park felt like the only right answer to the "what's next" question. We still had two books to go though, and we weren't about to give up now!

The next release is a bit harder to explain. We were confident in our adventure so far and we stopped along Liberty street and sat at a small table against a mural of some fine authors and visionaries. There is a Potbelly Sandwich shop at the corner and I believe they maintain these tables, but they were far from the entrance and open to anyone. We decided under the giant head of Harry Houdini to release Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury(more details). Hopefully our book will escape its chains of bondage and find a new fan of this classic story.

Finally, we ended up back in a Starbucks (map). This one at the corner of State and Liberty. This is a monster store. Seating for dozens of coffee mavens and hard studying students. They have a great open sided fireplace as a center piece and even basement seating. Here we released our final book, Skeleton Crew by Stephen King(more details). A fine collection of his early short stories, Skeleton Crew was a fitting end to our adventures. Check out Survivor Type if you ever get to read it. It was the first story to ever give me full on nightmares and cold sweats.

So our first bookcrossing adventure came to a close, but it will not be forgotten. In a great city with a great personality we did our part to share some good reading with the world. From a surprise concert in the park and an indie film shoot (If anyone has any info on a small indie film named "Take 2" being filmed in and around Ann Arbor, PLEASE email us), to a long lost friend of Memepunks appearing out of the blue, it was a good day. Please check out bookcrossing and Ann Arbor if your ever in the area. Memepunks will be happy to show you around and let you buy us a beer or two!

"Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson