Chef Cui is a noodle-slicing robot developed by Cui Runguan, a Chinese restaurateur, that is now being mass-produced and sold in China. The robot only has the single task of slicing noodles into a boiling pot of water, though it also lights up for no apparent functional reason. Probably because it’s a robot. With rising labor costs, it can actually be cheaper for restaurants to purchase a Chef Cui rather than hire on an additional worker.

</ … Read More → "Meet Chef Cui, China’s noodle-slicing robot"

Following the report of Steve Jobs’ house getting burglarized is news that the late Apple CEO’s iPad ended up in the hands of a local clown. And what did the clown use it for? Apparently, he used it as a giant iPod to entertain Bay Area children and tourists. Go figure.
via DVICE

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“Our Aware-2 camera combines 98 small cameras with a spherical lens to take black-and-white gigapixel photographs. It set the record for the largest digital snapshot by a terrestrial camera. One image from the camera, printed at 300 dots per inch, is 8 feet high by 16 feet long.

Traditional cameras bring a picture into perfect focus on a flat plane, but with an image this large, aberrations in the lens glass make that impossible. Instead, we use multiple lenses to … Read More → "The camera that takes photos 100 times bigger than the average point-and-shoot"

Curiosity’s first photos of Mars are already captivating scientists as well as the public. The scenery is alien and familiar at the same time — Gale crater, where the rover landed, bears a clear resemblance to Death Valley.

But the images that can make this surreal fact — that we managed to land 1 ton of roving scientific equipment on Mars — seem more real are the ones that include glimpses of Curiosity.
via Read More → "Curiosity Rover’s self-portraits transport you to Mars"

Up until now we’ve had no problem with scientists working to give us robots that can swim, run, jump and even scale walls. But when robots that can camouflage themselves to disappear into the scenery start popping up, it may be time to get a little nervous.
via DVICE

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Have you ever thought about running a triathlon? And are you a big nerd? Next year, for the first time ever, the Kennedy Space Center is going to open their gates for an awesome sporting event.

The Rocketman Triathlon, which wins for coolest-sounding race ever, will take place in Florida’s Space Coast, with a large portion of the bike stage looping you through and around major space program landmarks, including the space shuttle launch pads.
via Gizmodo

Read More → "Kennedy Space Center’s going to host the nerdiest triathlon ever"

If there was ever an attempt to make Microsoft Excel ‘cool’, this video would definitely be it. 

… Read More → "A stop-motion music video made entirely In Excel spreadsheets"

What the TSA has to do with Rilke and the boundaries of knowledge.

As a frequent traveler who resents the tedium, frustration, and time-sink of airport procedures — so much so that I’ve begun turning down speaking appearances solely on the basis of travel time involved — I found particularly fascinating Evans’s exploration of risk intelligence through the lens of airport security:</ … Read More → "Risk intelligence, the art of uncertainty, and the flawed psychology of airport security"

If you think it’s tough to keep your computer or smartphone’s software updated, try keeping a space robot updated from 350 million miles away.

Last Tuesday the team at NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory finished what amounted to a complete overhaul of the Curiosity Rover’s software. Asked why this was necessary, Ben Cichy, Curiosity’s chief software engineer, explains that the software required to help Curiosity … Read More → "NASA pulls off 350-million-mile software patch"

You may talk to your car, and some in cases it may even talk back. And you’ve probably thrown a few choice words at other drivers in a impromptu bout of rage. But cars are silently communicating with each other and with transportation infrastructure in two field trials that kicked off this month near Frankfurt, Germany, and in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler is spearheading what it’s … Read More → "Studying the connected car on two continents"