UK Designers Create Robots That Will Destroy Us All

The movies were wrong. The robots that will eventually destroy the human race have been brought forth not by cold, calculating scientists, but by artists. Somehow it's sadder that way.

James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau have created prototypes for robots designed to function as household objects such as clocks and lights while sustaining themselves on fuel provided by the DIGESTED FLESH AND BLOOD of living creatures. What could possibly go wrong?

Witness the horrible truth in a cheery video demonstration, after the jump...



There you have it folks: a robotic table that captures mice, drops them in a vat of digestive acids, and eats them. This provides it with power to...eat more mice! What a beautiful never-ending cycle of carnage. This is the future we will all spend the rest of our lives in, folks, get used to it!

Of course, at the moment, these carnivorous robots are only designed to eat pests. And how long, I ask you, will be be before these robots begin to expand their definition of what a "PEST" really is? You know who had some interesting ideas about what "PESTS" were?

THIS GUY!

I am all for a glorious future in which humans and robots live together with mutual respect and harmony, but if we keep creating robots that want to eat us, it may be time to start looking into real estate on deserted islands and the bottom of the ocean.

Via Engadget via NewScientist

Comics So Good They Should Not Be Free II: Freakangels

I repeatedly confuse Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis. I have this problem with alliterative names that have the same number of letters and it's caused a lot of problems...well I won't bore you.

The point is, my problem is finally solved, because Warren Ellis is currently writing something SO GOOD it would be a crime to forget whom to attribute it to. I'm talking about Freakangels, which has been released in free weekly online installments since last February.

The panels above and below demonstrate how amazingly intricate and gorgeous Paul Duffield's artwork is, but what I can't capture in a panel is how great the characters are. The first story arc was recently completed (due in trade paperback this November) and is a great example of a "bringing the team together" opener. Personalities and relationships are revealed one by one, until you find yourself immersed in a patchwork of indelible characters (my favorite is Sirkka, a bisexual hedonist with a stately attitude). Then of course then it's time for a crisis and you see how your new pals deal under the gun.

I haven't read the whole thing again in one sitting yet, but in my comic experience what's good over several months is even better with instant gratification. Enjoy!

The Future is Coming: Holograms!

It's taking its sweet time, but the future is in fact creeping towards us. In this case, every nerd's concept of the space-age moving image; Holograms! Those geeks at USC have brought our dreams one step closer to reality. Even though this reality would probably take your hand off if you got too close.

One thing I never considered before, but makes this technology even more practical (and cool to boot); It's a fixed image that's projected at 360 degrees... therefore no matter where you stand around the hologram, you're seeing the same image. That's pretty cool if you ask me... cause I always felt the x-wing pilots on the wrong side of the death star hologram were pretty much doomed... I guess they had a fighting chance after all!

Via Wired.

The Future is Here Pt.2The Flying Car

First jetpacks, now this! Moller International has dropped a press release that claims their volantors (vertical take off and landing aircrafts capable of flying in a quick, nimble and agile manner) are going into production and they're ready to accept your money! It comes in three flavors:

• M200G (pictured above) - $125,000 - Max Speed 75mph, payload 250lbs
• M200E - $175,000 - Max Speed 125mph, payload 450lbs
• Firefly 3 - $450,000 - Max Speed 175mph, payload 600lbs

A deposit on any one of those will set you back 5-25% of the total price, depending on how soon you want it. Hit the jump for VIDEO of a flight test and Geekanerd's plea for a test flight interview with Moller General Manager Bruce Calkins.

Geekanerd: Is there already a waiting list for the M200G?

Bruce Calkins: We have a number of people who have put deposits on the M400 who will be given an opportunity to apply this deposit to the M200G. Since we have not yet made this offer to the existing depositors I don't have a firm number, but my guess is that perhaps as many as 50 of these depositors may move over to the M200G list. Our production estimates for the first year are six, with 40 in the next year and 200+ in the third. If 50 people were to jump in line ahead of you, the earliest you could expect delivery is sometime in 2009 if you were to place a deposit for a vehicle in the first tier of the delivery schedule. Please note (see the M200 Deposit Agreement) that there are three tiers corresponding to the level of deposit you wish to make. Tier one is a vehicle from serial number 6 through 40, tier two is for 41 through 250, and tier three is for 251 through 650. The minimum M200G deposit for tier one is $31,250, tier two is $12,500, and tier three is $6,250.

GN: Your site refers to it as a recreational vehicle, so do you see it as a novelty item like a jetski, something people might rent time with at a vacation spot? Or are you trying to pitch the vehicle for practical (transportation, military) uses as well?

BC: While we envision many recreational and practical (agriculture, public safety) uses, we will leave that to the end-user to determine. Once we have demonstrator vehicles, I am certain there will be many very imaginative uses that come to mind.

GN: Your specs say it won't go above 10 feet, but the video on your site [see below, Gnerds!] clearly shows a vehicle going much higher--is the 10ft limit a self-regulation to keep within FAA guidelines?

BC: Yes. We believe that by constraining the vehicle to a height equal to or less than the diameter of the craft that it will not be necessary to identify the vehicle as an aircraft and therefore kept it exempt from requlations that might otherwise apply.

So there you have it, folks. Now for what you really wanted to see, a video of the damn thing in action:

M200X Flight Test



Also worth a look is this hilarious video promoting their Skycar for rescue operations:

The Future Is Here, If You We Can Afford It

The time has come, my friends. We must equip ourselves with these jetpacks and become a mighty army of flying Geekanerds. At $200,000, if 1,176,471 of you click our Google Ads we'll be able to go airborne for 19 minutes... And with that one ride we can take over the factory and steal the rest of the packs, because as we all know crime becomes easy with even the most useless mechanical advantage.

If we can't raise that kind of money we can always just kidnap a bunch of kids and strap rockets to them: