Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Disney Cartoon Characters Summoned To Court




It seems as if Tweety Bird and Donald Duck will finally get to exercise their civic duty. They have been summoned, along with Mickey Mouse and Donald's girlfriend Daisy, to testify in a Disney counterfeiting trial in Italy.

"The court summons cites Titti, Paperino, Paperina, Topolino — the Italian names for the characters — as damaged parties in the criminal trial of a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting products of Disney and Warner Bros."

Full story here.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Toyota's Violin Playing Robot


Toyota has been hard at work for years developing robots that, while not quite lifelike, have been able to perform wonderful feats of human mimicry. They have taken this one step further with their new model robot that can play the violin. This model has 17 joints in it's hands and arms that enable the human-like dexterity; the result is melody-making on the violin, in addition to assistance with household chores and helping the elderly.

link

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Blond Hair Map Of Europe


So, the highest concentrations of blonds in the world is in Scandinavia ... no surprise there! What I find interesting is that there are more blonds to be found in certain parts of Poland and Ukraine - two nations that were targeted by the Nazis for their supposed racial inferiority, outside of their ideal of blond-hair, blue-eyed and tall. Well, now we know one of the reasons they lost the war!

link

Monday, December 3, 2007

The Excessively Armed Mini-Tank


Here is a fine example of the military creating something that is truly awesome, very scary, and just over-the-top. It's the GTUGV, or the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle. It is armed to the teeth with both lethal and non-lethal weapons, and is simply capable of hunting you down and killing your ass!

link

Classic Weird Eyes Pic


Here is a genuinely odd photo ... a true Net classic, and one that is guaranteed to send some of you running for the exits. Most of you will say ... WTF?!