Things I Think Are Kinda Cool

Smarter than us? Fine.

Faster than us? OK.

But cooler than us? I won’t stand for this.

Can’t these Robots just leave us alone? Now they’re destroying even our most simplest form of entertainment – Paper, Scissors, Rock!?!

Jerks.

-via Buzzfeed

Yikes.

-via @terrinakamura

Afraid of scary juggling clowns? Eh, child’s play. You’ll forget all about those evil monsters after you watch the latest advancement in “We’re Going To Kill You And Use Your Brains As Batteries”…it’s a juggling robot! Help.

-via Gizmodo

I know I’ve been harping on and on about the Robot Takeover for the past few months…but I think I now have definitive proof that it’s officially begun.  Meet the latest member of the robotic community, or as I like to call him, Robo-Cujo.  (I’m scared…)

-From WalYou via Digg

Remember those hilarious “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey” segments from SNL?  No?  How the hell young are you, anyway?

This is “Deep Thoughts Of A Robot” – self-explanatory:

-via Unique Daily

I’ve talked about the impending Robot Takeover a few times on this blog…well, nothing says “holy crap kids, lock yourselves in the basement because the Robots are about to attack” like the Cubestormer from Lego Mindstorms – it can solve any random Rubik’s Cube in less than 12 seconds.  This is the beginning of the end…

-via Neatorama

I couldn’t resist any longer…these are the most impressive pumpkins I’ve seen across the web over the past few weeks.  Enjoy!

FIRST PLACE:  Kanye Interrupts
(Awesome job from my friend Nuel Cho at ADA!)

(“Yo ADA…I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish BUT…Charlie Brown had one’a the best pumpkins EVER!”)

SECOND PLACE:  The Flasher

THIRD PLACE: The McPumpkin Burger

FOURTH PLACE:  Swayze Retrospective Tribute

FIFTH PLACE: The Drunken Frat Boy

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

via Walyou, Botropolis, Womans Day, Gin Blog, & Unique Scoop

Notice anything strange about Obama in each and every one of the photographs taken at the reception he held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this week? The video below is concrete proof that Obama-bot has taken over. Woah.

Barack Obama’s amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.
-via Neatorama

A few weeks ago, I posted a video of a new robot from Honda that jogs upright and stubbornly refuses to be pushed down when a human tries to knock it over. Exciting (and scary) stuff.

Since then, I’ve come across dozens of videos and articles about new developments in robotics – it’s not so much that robots are learning how to solve academic math problems any faster or more efficiently…it’s that they’re learning how to become more like humans – they play sports, master musical instruments, and may even be able to have sex (woah). Here are some wild recent developments that caught my attention:

-Are you desperate to ride an old-fashioned bicycle built for two, but you don’t have anyone to join you? Call up “Joules” and you’ll have a riding partner for life…or at least until “Joules” turns on you and eats your brain.

-via Presurfer

-This robot named “Deep Blue” wants to get you drunk at a pool hall and hustle you for $50. It’s creators say it plays at a better-than-average level…and it’s getting better every day.

-Link via Gizmodo

-Not only is “Haile” good at playing the drums, but it can also improvise by listening to and analyzing live human drummers in real-time.

-Link via Neatorama

-Move over David Beckham…say hello to “Hajime 33″. OK, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration.

-via Wired

-Need to jump over a 25 foot tall barbed wired wall? Have no fear, this new military robot is here to help, and it won’t even ask why you need to jump over a 25 foot tall barbed wired wall.

-via Digg

And last but not least, have a quick look at this article that profiles artificial intelligence researcher David Levy. He recently took home the prize for developing the most human-like chatbox (which is essentially a program that imitates human speech and cognition in an eerily accurate way.) David claims it’s only a matter of time before we start doing the nasty with our robot friends. He says “as soon as the media starts writing about ‘My fantastic weekend with a sex doll’, it will be like the iPhone all over again, but the queues will be longer.” I can already see the fanboys preparing their sleeping bags to camp out weeks in advance. (via Guardian)