Floating Robotic Spheres: From the Millennium Falcon to the ISS


I work with floating spheres all the time, they are useful for storing tools and doing repair work on large robots, as well as feeding dangerous mutated pets. Who doesn’t like spheres? Just some sphere-hating fools, that’s who! Fools! Spheres are the future of the world. They have no corners, thus no wasted space and dust accumulation! It is the perfect containment system. Thanks to their flying mobility, they are the perfect attack platform, as they have no forward or reverse. It is 360 degrees of death in all directions! MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Link

Floating Robotic Spheres: From the Millennium Falcon to the ISS

Bill Christensen

Technovelgy.com Fri Jun 9, 9:01 AM ET

In 1999, MIT engineering Professor David Miller showed Star Wars on the first day of class. During the scene where Luke Skywalker practices his light saber against a seeker remote, Miller stood up and said “I want you to build me some of those.”

On May 19, 2006 from 10:30am-1:30pm CST Miller’s dream (not to mention that of George Lucas and about a zillion Star Wars fans, including me) became at least partly reality. The SPHERES mini-satellite, a tiny (eight-inch diameter) remote-controlled device, flew in the
International Space Station (ISS). SPHERES stands for Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites. Flight Engineer Jeff Williams “piloted” the SPHERES unit in three dimensions for the first time around the pressurized Destiny module.

According to
NASA, the demonstration tested the basics of formation flight and autonomous docking that should be useful in future multiple spacecraft formation flying. The long-range plan for SPHERES is to test flying in formation with a set of mini-satellites.

The first test flight consisted of a series of 10-15 pre-planned maneuvers lasting up to 10 minutes each. Once the appropriate software was loaded on the controlling laptop, the satellite began a set of pre-programmed maneuvers to test attitude control, station keeping, re-targeting, collision avoidance and fuel balancing. The mini-satellite is manuevered using compressed carbon dioxide gas thrusters.

Although the SPHERES mini-satellites are not equipped with blasters or lasers, the SPHERES device is designed to be a testbed for trying out experimental software to control clusters of satellites; it should be easy to add them.

The next step in the official testing is to tuck additional SPHERES units onto shuttle flights to test formation flying. The second satellite is scheduled to launch to the station on STS-121 in July 2006. The third will be launched on STS-116.

Hong Kong Sex Scandal – Edison Chen, cameras, and many Hong Kong leading ladies!

The biggest news out of Hong Kong this past week is Edison Chen and his fantastic porn collection. It seems that Edison Chen likes to take photos of the women he’s banging, and as they are mostly high profile Hong Kong actresses, singers, and performers, that makes him have one heck of a private collection. Now, Edison Chen took his computer in to get repaired on day, and lo and behold suddenly hundreds of the photos were copies and are now popping up on the internet. Major starlets in a country where most serious performers don’t get naked. We’re talking potentially ruined careers, ruined relationships, and a major drama bomb of Hiroshima proportions mushroom clouding over the entire Hong Kong entertainment industry. And that means it is a whole lot of fun to see the drama unfolding!

Originally the photos were declared fakes. This was when I first heard of them, and thought it was just some non-issue where some celeb porn faker got in trouble in China. Then people got arrested, and more people got arrested. This got my interest up again, because why are so many people being arrested for fake porn? But it turns out the photos aren’t fake, and people getting arrested had real photos on their hard drive. The Chinese police declared they got everyone, then suddenly a poster named Kira put up more photos of Gillian! The police look like idiots, and Kira declares he’s not afraid of them because he’s not even in Hong Kong. So it looks like we’ll be getting more porn soon. Props to Kira, and Ha-HAH to the HK Police. If the police are so concerned with pornography, why aren’t they going after Edison himself? Obviously this is just a bunch of hypocritical bull that will end up with a bunch of random people thrown in jail while Edison gets his current girlfriend to suck him off some more making more photos. Such is the state of China today.
edison and gillian
Who are the actresses? Currently, Twins performer Gillian Chung is the biggest name on there, and has a stunning 53 photos out so far (with promises of a 32 minute video to come by releaser Kira) Gillian Chung’s squeaky-clean image is in jeopardy and there has been no real response from her camp. There are rumors of an attempted suicide, but they are just rumors and her manager has been stated that she has the flu right now. Maybe it’s the same thing as the “exhaustion” Hollywood celebs get all the time. Gillian can be seen in Protoge de la Rose Noire on TarsTarkas.NET. She was previously the victim of a photo scandal where someone took secret camera shots of her changing in a dressing room. Here, both her and Edison enjoy gobbling down on each other’s privates.

Cecilia Cheung is an actress/singer who is married to Nicholas Tse and recently had a child with him (she is seen on TarsTarkas.NET in The Promise. The photos with her were taken before all that. And it’s nice to know if you ever date her you need a weedwacker! I’m just saying. What is also weird is she looks drunk/drugged out of her gourd on many of the pictures, so possibly Edison Chen might get in trouble over that (but not if he keeps hiding in Canada)

The other big on that has photos out is Bobo Chan, who is some sort of TV presenter I’ve barely heard of. Bobo Chan was to get married soon, but not anymore! It’s probably not a good idea to marry someone named Bobo anyway.

There are also three unidentified women, who could be anyone at this point but there are some theories that they might be famous as well. The HK press is having a field day, and have also identified women who have been in relationships with Chen as well that may have photos released soon: Maggie Q (Mission Impossible 3, Naked Weapon) Elva Hsiao, Jolin Tsai, Niki Chow, Rain Li and Rosanne Wong Yuen-Kwun.

Quick photo count:
Gillian Chung (53 photos)
Bobo Chan (47 photos)
Cecilia Cheung (11 photos)

The three unidentified women are said to resemble:
Rachel Ngan (10 photos)
Mandy Chen Yu-Ju (41 photos)
Candice Chan Si-Wai (48 photos)

Some other photos said to resemble Japanese AV star Yu Chiu

Edison Chen has released an apology video. But if you look at the apology, it is not really an apology and just blames the computer guy, Edison takes no responsibility for being so careless with the revealing photos.

Still, if you don’t want your wang or cooze flashed all over the internet, don’t take naked pictures! Especially if you are a celebrity and this could hurt your career. I have a feeling this will be like the Hoang Thuy Linh scandal in Vietnam where actress Hoang Thuy Linh’s career was basically destroyed by a sex tape but the guy who made the tape will get away with no cultural repercussions. (four people who copied and uploaded the tape were arrested)
Cecilia Cheung and the underwear of doom!
The outrage isn’t the fact that people are having sex, it is the fact that the country can’t deal with it. Both China and India are crazily conservative on that aspect, despite the fact that they have like 3 billion people total and they didn’t all get here by storks. Still, I bet Edison’s career is back on track a lot quicker than any of the ladies.

I can tell you that 210 of the pictures are not at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MHH0AHSL

No they are not.

UPDATE: More photos of Gillian, Cecilia, and Bobo were released over the weekend, but the video of Gillian that was promised is a no-show. Photos of Vincy (Edison’s current girlfriend) also appeared of her in the shower. As she is 17, it is probably not a good idea to be showing the photos if you live in the USA (as age of consent in HK is 16, Edison won’t be arrested for that.) Also, word is a movie of Edison and Maggie Q appeared on a Chinese forum and it was shut down immediately. No word on if it is true as of this time.

Current theory on Kira is he is actually two or three people who attempted to blackmail Edison, Edison ticked them off, and now they are releasing sets of photos in an attempt to strongarm money off of him to stop. We’ll see what happens as the case continues to develop.

UPDATE 2: Gillian had a press conference today, but no new picture/movie releases. Rumors a rife that Kira is dead or caught by HK police. There is no conformation on any of this and it’s probably all rumors. If anything else shows up I’ll keep you posted. Gillian said

‘The scandal has been a great deal of hurt for me and the people around me. I admit I was naive and foolish in the past but I am already a grown-up now. I would like to thank my manager, company, family and friends for their support. I’m sorry for the trouble that it has caused to the society. I will work even harder and bravely face up to my life in future. I also thank the media for their concern and fans for their unwavering support.’

Yeah. Whatever. Young and naive multiple times with multiple costumes.
twins gillian and charlene

UPDATE 3: It looks like a Maggie Q picture has dropped as HK police arrest suspect number 9 in this case. This picture is rather disappointing:

maggie q and edison Chen

UPDATE 4: Kira remains silent, rumors of his death/being paid off abound, and more fake Maggie Q items show up online. Here is a posting translated that gives an example of the rumors going around:

Latest News!
Kira received 7 million HK dollars, disappears forever.
Beijing, Feb 12, 2008

The curtain has dropped: According to friends in HK, all the photos we have seen thus far were screen captures from videos. Gill’s photos were the first 10 minutes of the video, why? Because it was a used as a bargaining chip for extortion. Secondly, the audio of the video involves the reputation of many other big-name celebrities.
Gaoqing (who?) has over 1000 photos alone, and they were partially released last year. The first time Edison’s photo got released was the result of a hacker. This hacker has the most complete data. In order to protect himself from hackers and trojans, he transferred part of his data to his Apple computer. Apple does not run Windows, and most trojan are designed towards windows. The photos that were stolen during his computer repair is only a small part, and that is to the person we come to know as Kira. Photos of Vincy Yeung released on the 9th was unexpected from EEG Music. As we know, Edison’s photo all came in a set, and every women has a complete collection including the sexual parts. Usually they are released in few numbers first, then released in completion. So Vincy has a complete collection too.

Kira’s upload on the 9th, 4:45 is the last upload from Kira. He had an agreement with EEG in the amount of 700 hk dollars. Why did Gill’s manager said Gill would appear on the 11th? Because they have came to an agreement with Kira. After the money is received he needs 24 hours to confirm payment, also time for him to flee. As a matter of fact, the photos he has have already been uploaded to various free servers in the United States and Europe. If the discussion does not fall into place or if anything were to happen to him, he has set automatic emails that would email the links to his trustworthy friends, so they can spread the files. The reason Gill appears in front of the media on the 11th, and the fact that she had a big smile on her face, was because she knew the ordeal has came to a rest.

What’s Kira’s gain for showing us the photos? What does he get by destroying the life of these celebrities? He is not a warrior of morals, he’s just a regular Hong Kong citizen. Money is his ultimate choice. So everyone, stop calling for him, he has disappears forever. From tomorrow, there’s a lot more entertainers going to entertain us, and the danger is over. It is disappointed for us, but we all know the reason behind Kira’s action.

Gossip
The photos actually were stolen a long time ago. At first Kira talked to Edison, asking for 5 million HK dollars, but was not agreed upon. Edison was afraid he won’t be able to get back all the photos. He looked for Yeung Shou Cheng (EEG’s president) to him on the matter. Eventually, Kira released some information to the media, the magazines last year briefly mentioned this matter. However because of EEG’s influential power, magazines were afraid to show the photos nor pay Kira. Through the of magazine’s editor, one of the three members from Kira’s group was found. He knew whether he surrender the photos or not, he was doomed. He did not say anything while being question, and was eventually killed. The other two then fled to Southeast Asia, and again try to distort EEG and Edison. Befor the matter gains public attention Edison already knew, because both parties could not agree on a price, this time Kira was asking more than 10 millions. Edison took a private car to Shenzhen, then to Macau, took a private plane from his dad’s friend to the United States, and look for Vincy Yeung to his cause. Yeung Shou Cheng thought he could handle the matter, but eventually it was still not solved. Kira has decided to raise the price, and released the photos the night when Edison fled HK. Since that day Kira has been raising his price every day. It is believed Kira is in Thailand and Indonesia, and Kira is a group of two, and the data has been uploaded to the United States.
Do not think you have seen the best of all, why hasn’t C10’s and Maggie Q’s photo being released? Because Kira hasn’t gotten the right price, or because of safety reason, there isn’t a safe way for him to get paid.
Right now, both parties are fighting. The involvement of HK police has propelled this tension to its maximum. If Kira is sure he couldn’t get his money, there’s gonna be a monster upload, but not all. The reason is because there’s heavy involvement from other celebrities, including HK, China and Taiwan. If Kira wants to live longer than Edison, he would have to have something to protect himself from.

It is obvious what is going to happen to Edison, he’s going to die unnaturally.

Vincy’s 3 photos was a declaration of power to EEG, showing Kira has even better materials. This action forced EEG to come to the table, leaving the police behind. Bobo’s photos that were uploaded today were no longer of importance, since she was only a sacrifice in this whole matter. However, Vincy, C10 and Maggie Q, definitely will not be released today. Because this is Kira’s ultimate chip. And the most controversial material in Kira’s collection? I dare not say, because I don’t want to die before Edison does.

Trust my information and do not ask me where the information is from. Use your head to decide whether this is true.

UPDATE 5: Two photos of Rachel Ngan appeared on a message board (香港高登) today (Feb 14th). The post was quickly deleted and information turned over to the police. Rachel Ngan is an actress who is best known here for Gen-Y Cops. The poster posted under “牛腩3号” and it is not known if he is Kira (or one of the suspected several Kira people) It is clear that this matter isn’t as dead as it appeared to be recently.

UPDATE 6: And Edison has resigned from the HK entertainment industry. No new photos in a while, maybe Kira got paid off? Hopefully more drama happens soon, this is too fun of a ride to be over! SexyPhotosGate Forever!

Scientists prepare to immitate the movie Twins


But will they be able to create someone with seven fathers and one mother? The first step has been achieved, with the creation of a two mother, one father embryo. These embryos were not allowed to develop so the freak children that would be born do not exist yet. But soon we will have them to make fun of on the schoolyard! MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Actually, this whole story is presented as a big lie. It is NOT a three-parent embryo, it is a two parent embryo with mitochondria from a third woman. That doesn’t make her a mother in the slightest! It’s just more sensational journalism written by reporters who once took a biology class in 1974 but sure know how to write headlines that look like B-Movie plots. That may sell papers, but it makes America dumber. No wonder the Soviets are way ahead of us in the space race! The scientist in the news story even seems annoyed at how the reporter is getting it wrong. It all proves my theory that news reporters are the dumbest people on the planet. They are also the most influential (behind drunken slut celebrities.) Therefore, my new plan to take over the world is to breed dumber and dumber reporters who are under my control, and will brainwash the public into being complete idiots. I call my plan Fox News!

Embryos created with DNA from 3 people

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer

LONDON – British scientists say they have created human embryos containing DNA from two women and a man in a procedure that researchers hope might be used one day to produce embryos free of inherited diseases.

Though the preliminary research has raised concerns about the possibility of genetically modified babies, the scientists say that the embryos are still only primarily the product of one man and one woman.

“We are not trying to alter genes, we’re just trying to swap a small proportion of the bad ones for some good ones,” said Patrick Chinnery, a professor of neurogenetics at Newcastle University involved in the research.

The research was presented at a scientific conference recently, but has not been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

The process aims to create healthy embryos for couples to avoid passing on genes carrying diseases.

The genes being replaced are the mitochondria, a cell’s energy source, which are contained outside the nucleus in a normal female egg. Mistakes in the mitochondria’s genetic code can result in serious diseases like muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, strokes and mental retardation.

In their research, Chinnery and colleagues used normal embryos created from one man and one woman that had defective mitochondria in the woman’s egg. They then transplanted that embryo into an emptied egg donated from a second woman who had healthy mitochondria.

The research is being funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, a British charity.

Only trace amounts of a person’s genes come from the mitochondria, and experts said it would be incorrect to say that the embryos have three parents.

“Most of the genes that make you who you are are inside the nucleus,” Chinnery said. “We’re not going anywhere near that.”

So far, 10 such embryos have been created, though they have not been allowed to develop for more than five days. Chinnery hoped that after further experiments in the next few years the process might be available to parents undergoing in-vitro fertilization.

“If successful, this research could give families who might otherwise have a bleak future a chance to avoid some very grave diseases,” said Francoise Shenfield, a fertility expert with the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. Shenfield was not connected to the Newcastle University research.

Similar experiments have been conducted in animals in Japan, and has already led to the birth of healthy mice who had their mitochondria genes corrected.

Shenfield said that further tests to assess the safety and efficacy of the process were necessary before it could be offered as a potential treatment.

A bill to allow the procedure to be regulated as a therapy for couples — once it is proven to work — is expected to be discussed in Britain’s House of Commons in March.

Oldest Horseshoe Crab Fossil Discovered


What’s the best part of horseshoe crabs? The blue blood! Seriously. Also, they are old. And now it looks like they are even older than first though. This new Lunataspis aurora is tiny and is easily pushed around by bigger, later horseshoe crabs for anyone thinking of growing them in a display of ancient sea creatures. The fact that the ancient crabs were but smaller versions of modern day counterparts (instead of the usual bigger versions being the extinct one) has caused me to add a reverse switch to my growth rate so it can also be a shrink ray! Now I will have the biggest rats and smallest elephants of anyone! MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Here is the original news story:

Oldest Horseshoe Crab Fossil Discovered

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com Mon Jan 28, 9:46 AM ET

Nearly a half a billion years ago, tiny horseshoe crabs crept along the shorelines much like today’s larger versions do, new fossil evidence suggests.

Two nearly complete fossil specimens discovered in Canada reveal a new genus of horseshoe crab, pushing their origins back at least 100 million years earlier than previously thought.

Dubbed Lunataspis aurora, the ancient horseshoe crab is estimated to have been just 1.5 inches (4 centimeters) from head to tail-tip. That’s much smaller than its modern-day relatives that can span nearly 20 inches (50 centimeters).

“We do not know if the fossils were small because they were simply young animals or because Lunataspis just didn’t grow any bigger,” said researcher David Rudkin of the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.

Crabby find

Rudkin and his colleagues, including Graham Young of the Manitoba Museum, spotted the fossils buried in 445-million-year-old rocks from the Ordovician period in central and northern Manitoba. They describe the discovery in the January issue of the journal Paleontology.

The specimens included patches of the animals’ outer-covering and even evidence of their compound eyes.

Horseshoe crabs are not true crabs and are instead more closely related to spiders and scorpions. And like their eight-legged relatives, horseshoe crabs sport a flexible exoskeleton made of chitin rather than the hard-shell armoring worn by crabs.

Chitin degrades over time. For that reason, ancient specimens of horseshoe crabs have been sparse. Until now, the oldest fossils dated back 350 million years ago, from the Carboniferous period. Fossils have also been found in rocks from the Jurassic Period, suggesting the animals were crawling around beneath dinosaurs. Both the Carboniferous and the Jurassic fossil discoveries indicate the ancient horseshoe crabs greatly resembled their modern-day counterparts.

Primitive looks

Analysis of the recent finds also indicates the ocean creatures haven’t changed much over the eons.

“We wouldn’t necessarily have expected horseshoe crabs to look very much like the modern ones, but that’s exactly what they look like,” Rudkin said.

“This body plan that they’ve invented, they’ve stayed with it for almost a half a billion years. It’s a good plan,” Rudkin told LiveScience. “They’ve survived almost unchanged up until the present day, whereas lots of other animals haven’t.”

And whereas major extinction events have wiped even the mightiest, non-avian dinosaurs from our planet, this primitive-looking organism has come out unscathed.

“The horseshoe crab, the lowly little animal that crawls out of the sea every once in a while to mate, it’s survived for at least 445 million years in more or less the same form,” Rudkin said.

He added that understanding how horseshoe crabs adapted to their ecological niche so early and then weathered natural crises will give scientists broader insights about how ocean ecosystems changed over time.

Return of Guilala!


Who the heck is Guilala, you ask? He’s the monster of 1967’s Uchuu Daikaijuu Girara (Giant Monster Guilala), better known in the US under the release title here THE X FROM OUTER SPACE, where he was the X, of course! As one of the goofiest looking daikaijus of the era, he was a one-shot cash-in on the Godzillas and Gameras that were making Toho and Daiei lots of bank. Sadly, the film wasn’t that good so it didn’t do well enough for a sequel, and Guilala faded into obscurity. There were a few rumors years ago that Guilala would be resurrected to fight Gappa, but nothing came of that. Until now! SciFi Japan reports that a new Guilala film is being made, to jump onto the wave of kaiju resurgence from Cloverfield. And hopefully without the nausea-inducing shakycam! I haven’t seen the original X From Outer Space in probably ten years, but now it looks like I should do a rewatching to pump myself up for more giant Japanese monster meyham!

The monster Guilala from Shochiku’s bizarre 1967 kaiju feature THE X FROM OUTER SPACE (Uchuu Daikaijuu Girara) will return more than 40 years later in the new feature film GUILALA’S COUNTER ATTACK: THE TOUYAKU SUMMIT ONE-SHOT CRISIS (Girara-no Gyakushuu Touyaku Samitto Kiki Ippatsu, 2008), Shochiku announced at their head office in Tsukiji, Tokyo on January 29th.

In this new diaster movie, the world’s greatest minds gather at the G8 summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, while a Chinese space craft crashes in the outskirts of Sapporo carrying the spores of the space monster Guilala.

The director will be Minoru Kawasaki, who has directed such surreal films as The Earth Defense Gil Iko-chan, Calamari Wrestler, Executive Koala, Beetle the Horn King, Crab Goalkeeper, and Everything Sinks Except Japan. Sounds PERFECT!

Press conference photos: (the other actors are representing former Japanese Prime Ministers. I recognize the Koizumi guy but no one else)
guilala1
guilala2
guilala3
guilala4

conference videos:


There is already a preview DVD out called I WILL LOSE WEIGHT! DEN ACE: SHORT MARCH OF THE SPACE MONSTER (Giant Space Monster Guilala!)
guilaladvd

Mini Moni the Movie: The Great Cake Adventure! (Review)

Mini Moni the Movie: The Great Cake Adventure!

aka Mini Moni ja Movie: Okashi na Daibouken!

2002
Directed by Shinji Higuchi

What in the name of all that is holy did I just watch?

This film is BONKERS! Members of the JPop group Mini Moni work at a bakery, and get turned into cartoon characters who have to fight an evil queen who hates cake. It’s full of trippy musical numbers, CGI weirdness, and more sugar than Frosted Flakes. And, like Frosted Flakes, it is part of a complete breakfast and is GRRRRRR-reat! First we’ll try to explain Mini Moni and JPop groups from the Hello! Project in general, and then jump into the film.

Mini Moni is a spinoff of Morning Musume, one of the biggest rotating lineup girl bands in Japan. Morning Musume is the flagship group of the Hello! Project, which is responsible for unleashing hordes of JPop singing super cute acting Japanese girls upon the nation. The juggernaut Hello! Project contributed most of the cast of Yo-Yo Girl Cop and contributes the entire cast here. Besides this being an excuse to explain the departure of one member of Mini Moni and the joining of another, the movie also introduces a new underage group named 4KIDS, the four members (Sugaya Risako, Hagiwara Mai, Suzuki Airi, Sudou Maasa)would later become members of Berryz Kobo and °C-ute. I am not making any of these band names up. (Sugaya and Sudou are now members of Berryz Koubou; Suzuki and Hagiwara are members of C-ute. )

Mari Yaguchi had an idea in 2000 for a subgroup whose members were 1.5 meters (4 ft 11 inches) in height or shorter, and they soon picked up Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji to join. The fourth member was Mika Todd, who is not native Japanese and was added to give them some international flavor. Mini Moni gained some notoriety for acting crazy during their media gigs, including grabbing people’s butts. They are also popular on the internet for their show being the source of the Dramatic Chipmunk image. The group eventually disbanded in 2004. A great loss to the music world, indeed.

Here, we have an adventure where Mini Moni is turned into little CGI girls, meet magic fairies, fight an evil queen who hates cake, befriend a refrigerator, and try to get back to their bakery in time for it’s second anniversary. So basically it is the Gone of the Wind of the JPop world. And it’s insane. Completely insane. Get a bucket, your brain will melt.