From Paul Graham.com we get this news of a new generation of robots.

This Valentine’s Day I saw one of the most exciting things I’ve seen in my life: Trevor Blackwell’s robot finally walked. Dexter is, as far as we know, the first dynamically balancing biped robot—that is, the first robot that walks like we do.

This is just research stuff for now but how long before these things take over? Also, is it just me or is it really creepy seeing the one robot poking his metallic finger at the other robot? That’s way too lifelike. Watching this leaves me in the Uncanny Valley, man.

This is just not right. I found this video on japundit. It shows a young man walking into a Japanese restaurant (in Japan, that is) and ordering oyogu hone (swimming bones) – in other words, seafood that’s still alive. I may never eat sushi again. Well, not for a while anyway.

:O…

This game – Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy – is totally roxorz to the toxorz!!!!1

If you’re older than 20, that means I like it, a lot. It combines two favorite things – Lego’s and Star Wars – in such a neat way. The UI is very simple once you learn it and there’s a nice cooperative two-player mode so the boy and I can play together at the same time.

I’ve just played through the demo version so far but I see it online for less than $20.00 so you know I must have the full game.

新年快乐

Lunar New Year, that is, or as it’s better known here in the States, Chinese New Year. This new year is the year of the pig or the boar, depending on how you translate the chinese word.

As we get ready for our upcoming adoption, we are getting into the cycle of life as its lived in China. Lunar New Year or Chūnjié is the most important traditional holiday of the year in China. Our adoption agency has big plans in Colorado and we are going to an FCC party next weekend too. Google even has one of those holiday logos on the home page today.

Last November, Priscilla Alvarez and Reginald Washington came to speak to my Kiwanis Club about their projects. Priscilla runs From The Inside Out, Inc which primarily runs a CROP program that takes at-risk teenagers from around No County and lets them visit Donovan State Prison down near National City. The kids talk to inmates about the hard realities of life in prison and hopefully make a choice to turn their lives around.

Reginald was one of those inmates until just last year, when he was released. Now he has started a new project – called A.W.A.R.E – with Priscilla to go out and speak to kids in the community about the choices they make when they run with gangs and why they should consider straightening up.

He impressed me very much and that’s why I am working with them now to get a web site up and running, to hopefully get the word out about the good work they are doing. It’s online now here:

http://www.fromtheinsideoutinc.org

I am going to get a web designer I know to help me make it look nicer but the information is pretty well complete already. Check it out and tell anyone you know who has a teenager that’s showing signs of gang activity, or someone who works with kids like that, to get involved and talk to Priscilla.

See? Another good project I wouldn’t have known about if not for my Kiwanis Club!

As if we needed more proof, today this story appeared in the LA Times:

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American Airlines diverted a Tokyo-to-Dallas flight, landing the airplane in Honolulu because the pilots found a squirrel in the cockpit.

Flight 176, a Boeing Co. 777 with 202 passengers aboard, arrived in Honolulu at 5:27 a.m. local time after the flight crew heard a noise in an overhead bin, found the squirrel and decided to land at the nearest airport, a spokesman for American said. It was standard procedure, he said, and based on concern that a squirrel could create a safety issue aboard the plane if it chewed through wires.

Passengers were sent to their destinations on other flights.

~~~

I have heard of and actually received many phone calls recently where one cell phone calls another. I am not sure but maybe this is proof that we have created machines which get lonely over time and just call some other random phone, you know, just to say hi, see what you’re up to…

Or maybe this some diabolical plan by the cell phone carriers to get us to use more of our allotted minutes so they’ll get more of our money every month.

All I know, is if my sister’s cell phone didn’t call me every now and then, I wouldn’t hear from her nearly as much. Only on occasion does she realize that I am listening in on her conversations, but even when that’s not the case, I  can’t recognize most of it since her phone is in her purse and the sound is all muffled. I hang-up as I realize she didn’t actually try to call me, since I don’t know how to talk to her phone directly. Maybe next time I will try something like, “beep boop beep, beep beep beep boop boop?”

In February, Denver is a barren wasteland that no sane person would choose to inhabit. Well… OK. I t wasn’t that bad and we actually enjoyed the snow quite a bit. We checked out the neighborhoods all around the center city, since we are sub-urban kinds of people, and we liked a number of the towns we drove through. More details as soon as I have time to write more down here.