Roachbot / Walter Robot

The latest episodes of Boing Boing TV cover roach-controlled robots, a video by MAKE contributor Bill Barminski, the giant Atrai joystick shown off at the recent Felt Club/Maker Square event in LA, and 8-bit therapy with Dr. Jardin.

Boing Boing TV - Link

Japanese competition robot father/son team

Geegdad segment of Wired Science on a father and son who build competition humanoid robots. Wired Science Geek Dad: Nao Maru & King Kizer - Link

Rockefeller Center Christmas tree goes LED

It looks like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree will be a considerably smaller energy hog this holiday season than it has been in years past, as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that the tree will be lit up with LED lights for the first time - 30,000 of 'em, to be specific. That'll apparently reduce the tree's energy consumption from 3,510 kilowatt hours per day to just 1,297 -- a savings that, as the AP points out, is roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed by a typical 2,000-square-foot house in a month. While it's not clear if it'll be used for the tree or not, the owners of Rockefeller Center also took the opportunity to show off a new 365-panel solar array on the roof of one of the complex's buildings, which is apparently big enough to lay claim to the title of the largest privately owned solar roof in Manhattan.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Siemens rolls out ultrasound-equipped MacBook Pro

We've seen MacBooks re-purposed for various uses in the past, but never quite like Siemens new "P50" laptop, which takes a standard issue (if slightly outdated) MacBook Pro and outfits it with some ultrasound equipment to accomodate doctors that just can't be tied down. Apparently designed specifically for cardiology and vascular applications, this one boasts an "array of transducers," along with an integrated stress echo function and a range of cardiology application packages which, Siemens says, "considerably simplifies and accelerates the workflow in echocardiography and vascular diagnosis." Mac fans may not want to boast too much about this one, however, as it seems that Siemens has opted to use Windows as a basis for the platform.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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A Simple Thought

"A beautiful side effect of making things is you start to look around and wonder, 'how did they do that?'; you learn to see, analyze, and appreciate different approaches, well-made things, and clever solutions."
- Lili Cheng

First Aid

First: emergency phones, fire extinguishers, hoses, gurneys, people qualified for first aid, etc... What next? What about in 10 or 20 years when new deseases arrive?





At Los Angeles airport you can find in common aisles these defibrillators. Every second counts in saving one single life.