America and its allies are fighting wars around the world from computer screens in the deserts of Nevada and New Mexico.

Drones – officially known as remotely piloted aircraft – have become a major part of modern warfare.

These unmanned aircraft have the ability to fly above contentious areas, taking and relaying surveillance photos. The most controversial drones have the ability to launch an attack via onboard weapons.

America operates thousands of drones, with the bigger, more sophisticated versions controlled from bases in the US.

More pilots are being trained to fly … Read More → "Inside America’s drone HQ"

The boffins at robotics startup TheCorpora have released a video showing how long it takes to assemble their charming little droid Qbo.

The bot recently entertained us with vids in which it recognized itself in a mirror, and then recognized Jane234, the female of the species.

Powered by an open-source Linux platform, Qbo is designed to be a communications robot that’s part of our everyday environment. It lacks arms and legs, but makes up for limitations on physical interactivity with its charm. It’s also fun to dress up.< … Read More → "Time-lapse video shows Qbo robot assembly"

Chocolate is seriously big business. 2,650,342 tonnes of cocoa were shipped around the world in 2009/10, according to the latest data from the International Cocoa Organisation.

We wanted to visualise that trade – which is where the Guardian graphics team came in, lovingly creating the map above out of melted chocolate onto greaseproof paper using paintbrushes and letting it cool. Then it was photographed, with the original, er, filed rather deliciously.
via The Guardian

< … Read More → "The world map of chocolate (made out of chocolate)"

Scientists studying the origins of the colossal “rogue waves” that sneak up on ships in seemingly calm seas have enlisted helpless Legos in their search for answers.

A research team at Australian National University have been conducting experiments in nonliniear dynamics in hopes that they’ll be able to explain killer waves that have much higher amplitude than those around them. The mysterious, legendary waves have only recently been accepted … Read More → "Lego pirate ship demolished by freak scientific super wave"

The BBC is reporting on the discovery of a mammoth carcass found preserved in Siberian ice for at least 10,000 years. The carcass is that of a juvenile mammoth, about 2 1/2 years old, that researchers have dubbed “Yuka.” Its flesh, and even hair, have endured astonishingly well over millennia buried in ice. Video of the mammoth … Read More → "10,000 year old frozen mammoth found perfectly preserved in Siberia"

Pushing through a recent injury, Mike Schneider was able to conquer the infamous flaming pallets and skate a line that will change the miniature world of skateboarding forever.

via Coudal 

… Read More → "The next big thing in skateboarding…"

Over at BBC, mathematician Marcus du Sautoy has examined what he’s calling the world’s first anthropomimetic robot–a robot that mimics in extremely high anatomical detail the movements and construction of the human body. The robot, named ECCEROBOT, possesses artificial analogs of human bones, muscles, and tendons that endow it with human-like motions and–perhaps someday–will imbue it with human-like intelligence.
via Popular Science

Read More → "A robot with a human skeleton"

If you’re waiting for delivery on a Raspberry Pi and are eager to learn what it’ll take to program it, Element-14, one of the distributors of the highly anticipated credit card-sized computer, will be broadcasting a webinar this morning that you’ll be interested in. 
via Read More → "Programming the Raspberry Pi"

The first X-37B lands in California in December 2010. Photo: Air Force

The past and future of America’s space arsenal intersected, briefly, in the summer of 2011. For two weeks in July, NASA’s Space Shuttle Atlantis roughly shared its Earth orbit with the Air Force’s X-37B, a 29-foot-long, highly maneuverable robotic spacecraft that entered service … Read More → "Smaller, quicker, secret, robotic: inside America’s new space force"