Video: World’s smallest flying robot

Very interesting:

By constantly adjusting the effect of lift and thrust acting on its body at an incredibly high speed, the insect’s (and the robot’s) wings enable it to hover, or to perform sudden evasive manoeuvres.

And just like a real fly, the robot’s thin, flexible wings beat approximately 120 times every second.

The researchers achieved this wing speed with special substance called piezoelectric material, which contracts every time a voltage is applied to it.

By very rapidly switching the voltage on and off, the scientists were able to make this material behave like just like the tiny muscles that makes a fly’s wings beat so fast.

As an insect’s wings move through the air, they are held at a slight angle, deflecting the air downward.

This deflection means the air flows faster over the wing than underneath, causing air pressure to build up beneath the wings, while the pressure above the wings is reduced. It is this difference in pressure that produces lift.

And the video:

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This couldn’t possibly have any nefarious uses… Could it?

The Winery Dogs: Elevate (Official Music Video)

Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan and Richie Kotzen and their new project The Winery Dogs:

THE WINERY DOGS, the new project featuring Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ADRENALINE MOB), Billy Sheehan (MR. BIG) and Richie Kotzen (MR. BIG, POISON), will release its debut album in May in Japan via Victor Entertainment. Release dates for other territories have not yet been announced.

The first official THE WINERY DOGS photo, as well as the band’s logo, can be seen below.

THE WINERY DOGS’ CD was mixed by Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with ANTHRAX, ADRENALINE MOB, STONE SOUR and STEEL PANTHER. Sheehan previously stated about the effort: “I’m really pleased with it. Richie sang his ass off and played amazingly unique stuff, and, of course Mike annihilated on drums. [It's a] really cool, unique record.”

Here at MCT we’ll skip the first official photo and get to the first official music video…

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This song kicks butt…

Video: 8th Grader Arrested and Suspended for Wearing NRA T-Shirt at School

It seems public schools have moved to thought police mode.

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I wonder how the teacher and school would react if Jared Marcum wore a Che Guevara T-Shirt to school?

The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster. Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favored a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the new Cuba. But Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his faction won. Che presided over the Cuban Revolution’s first firing squads. He founded Cuba’s “labor camp” system—the system that was eventually employed to incarcerate gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims. To get himself killed, and to get a lot of other people killed, was central to Che’s imagination. In the famous essay in which he issued his ringing call for “two, three, many Vietnams,” he also spoke about martyrdom and managed to compose a number of chilling phrases: “Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become …”— and so on.

But all the cool kids wear Che t-shirts, and they don’t get arrested…

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H/T Matt @ the always excellent CH2.0

Video: New Detroit Lions kicker “Kickalicious”

New Detroit Lion kicker?

The Detroit Lions haven’t had to look for a new starting kicker since the first Bush administration. After 42-year-old Jason Hanson called it quits on a 21-year career earlier this week, the team quickly signed veteran David Akers as an option to replace him in 2013.

But he’s not the only option. Meet 28-year-old Norwegian Havard Rugland, who is perhaps better known by his YouTube handle, “Kickalicious.” The left-footed kicker’s amazing trick shot video has almost three million hits and basically details all of the ridiculous places you could possibly imagine to kick a football in Norway.

And here is is video.

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Just wonder how the pressure during the game will affect him…

We’re all doomed: Cheap robots that can use hand tools

Like I said before, some days it feels as if the world of Terminator is getting closer and closer:

DARPA has developed a cheap robotic hand that can almost match human performance in dexterous activities, like changing a tire.

Humanity’s greatest advantage over other forms of life is our ability to use tools (or, relatedly, that our intellect allows for the ability to use tools).

Here’s the video:

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Also, check out this walking robot:

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Walking robot + Robot that can grasp and manipulate tools =

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Amazing stuff…