Spanish Robots From the Thirties!

We love Spain, we love robots,  and we love the 1930s.  So we really dug these shots for Jess Nevins’ blog.  Hope you will too.

See the rest of the photos after the jump.

Video: Cyborg Beetles!

The future is coming fast and furious as this vid of cyborg beetles attests.

more about “Video: Cyborg Beetles!“, posted with vodpod

Video: Robots Rule the World!

This impressive short is jam-packed with ideas and originality.  Part Sky Captain, part THX-1138, and all fun.  The best seven minutes you’ll spend all week!

For more on this short and a teaser for a follow-up, click here.

Critters, Rocks and Sounds: GR Week in Review

This last week was a busy one at the blog.  Full of fun, cool, and informative stories.  We’ll take you through that excitement one more time.

It began with a report on some bouncy critters, a hairy critter, and some awards for creating critters.

We then moved onto Italian sorcerers, Japanese robots, an Australian actor and three nightmares on Elm Street.

Then it was onto rocks on the moon, a rockin’ creature, a Night tease, and a special year.

Then we were offered treats from a festival, rings at an amusement park, wonder at the movies, and freebies from the BBC.

From there we heard sound in a library, silence in space, laughter in Germany, the sound of thunder from Australia, and the pop of fireworks.

We saw the rise of new technology, the return of strange visitors, an award winner trying horror,  an actor going to the fringe,  a cat comes back,  and snow falls under red skies.

If there’s something you want us to cover let us know.  Either talk about it in the comment section or send an email to ghostradioinfo@gmail.com.

It’s your blog just as much as it is ours.

Plus, if you need a copy of the GHOST RADIO the book this site is all about, you can order one here.

TRANSFORMERS: 12 DAY WONDER!

In just 12 days, Transformers 2 has moved to the top of the ’09 box office, earning an impressive $293.4 million.  It cruised passed Up ($264.8 million) and Star Trek ($249.8 million).

And it did this despite withering critical reaction.  Its current Rotten Tomatoes score is 20%.

Box Office: TRANSFORMERS 2 Poised to Take Down DARK KNIGHT

Robots smash each other and audiences flock to watch.  Even the robot above smashed through a wall to get a peak.

From Deadline Hollywood Daily:

SATURDAY AM: Paramount’s Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen is looking like it took in $36.7M tonight from 4,234 theaters. The studio is now estimating its 3-day weekend cume bigger than expected: $115M vs $90M previously anticipated. That means the robot sequel could get to $204M for the 5-day opening total. Which means the rock’em, sock’em pic, despite lousy reviews, could gun down the 5-day opening record of $203.8M set by last summer’s The Dark Knight.

Source.

Robot Makes Scientific Discoveries!

Adam, the Robot

From the BBC:

The robot, called Adam, is the first machine to have independently “discovered new scientific knowledge”.

It has already identified the role of several genes in yeast cells, and is able to plan further experiments to test its own hypotheses.

The UK-based team that built Adam at Aberystwyth University describes the breakthrough in the journal Science.

Ross King from the department of computer science at Aberystwyth University, and who led the team, told BBC News that he envisaged a future when human scientists’ time would be “freed up to do more advanced experiments”.

Robotic colleagues, he said, could carry out the more mundane and time-consuming tasks.

“Adam is a prototype but, in 10-20 years, I think machines like this could be commonly used in laboratories,” said Professor King.

Read the rest of the article here.

As robots become more advanced, they will begin to take on more of the tasks humans don’t want to do.  Experts in robotics refer to these as “the three D’s”:  The dirty, the dangerous, and the dull.

If you had a robot what dirty, dangerous or dull task would you like it to perform for you?

Video: New Terminator Salvation Trailer

more about “Video: New Terminator Salvation Trailer“, posted with vodpod

Video: Top Ten Combat Robots

more about “Video: Top Ten Combat Robots“, posted with vodpod

New Profession for Robots: Acting!

Actor Robots Take Japanese Stage

First there were dancing robots, then house-sitting robots and now a new breed of acting robots is making its big debut on the Japanese stage.

The play, which had its premiere at Osaka University, is one of Japan’s first robot-human theatre productions.

The machines were specially programmed to speak lines with human actors and move around the stage with them.

Playwright Oriza Hirata says the work raises questions about the relationship between humanity and technology.

The play, called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker), is set in the near future.

It focuses on a young couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work.

Read the rest of the article here.