I sometimes chuckle reading the latest news about solar cells. At some point we'll come to realize that the greatest, most efficient solar cells have been staring us in the face all along: leaves.
The true tech revolution will be not hardware, but wetware. When we reverse engineer the structures of the world's genomes and find ourselves in possession of millions of genetic tools for accomplishing goals.
I expect the first revolution in this area will be the replacement of fossil fuels with biodiesel grown from genetically engineered algae. This tech is already well into production on several fronts, but has to increase the fuel / input ratio to achieve an efficiency high enough to beat 'free oil sitting in the ground'. But there's a number of strats to pursue in that, including pumping them with CO2 in the form of sewage and coal-plant exhaust.
Who knows, someday you might be feeding kibble to your pet car to keep it alive >_> We could give it an emulated horse's brain (they love to run / travel) and some modified behavioral brain structures and integrate it with GPS positional tracking and data sharing. The secondary bonus of that is that fender-benders can simply grow back into shape, and nicks and scratches heal like our own skin. Add in some octopus skin-genes and you can change color \ pattern everyday!
Anything relying on commercial success for its continued existence needs to make a profit, yes.
This is a step forward in furniture in the sense that we one day want to have machines making everything for us from freely available energy and materials--all the way down to bio-engineering plants which can grow into customized shapes. Can you imagine a plant which grows the shape of a couch frame out of, say, oak? Bamboo and seaweed have super-fast growing genes. Why not create a way to grow the frame of a house rather than cut and shape it. Let nature do the work.
No kidding, you mean it derives 3D space from stereoscopic-placed cameras? No, I had no idea. Why are you assuming I'm an idiot?
Tracking the eyes does nothing, it's only your head moving that makes for pseudo-3D. And yes, Johnny Lee is working for MS, and technically this system is capable of JL-style head-tracking 3D.
SO WHY WASN'T IT SHOWN??? Not shown, thus it fails to impress.
Why are you arguing about the graphics and rendering? There's nothing new there, that's not what the Natal / Milo demo was all about.
Here's the one and sole true test of whether the Milo demo was fake: Was the game being run live and actually responding to the inputs of the actor in real-time, with all of the footage seen generated uniquely and in real-time for that demo,
-or-
was the actor miming inputs that the game wasn't actually recognizing and reacting to, and trying to match them up to a pre-recorded video of the game being played, so as to appear live but actually not being live.
It's pretty clear to me that the latter is the case based on the expose footage. Thus the demo was faked, staged, a farce, a lie. It would be different if MS qualified it as a pre-visualization of how Natal would work. Without that, it's clear that the tech cannot perform what we saw live right now. Probably elements of what we saw do work, but it's quite likely that it doesn't work consistently enough to go through that entire demo without more than a few hiccups and misses--and with E3 looming they had no choice but to go with plan B. That's the only reason to fake something. It was that or face a truly embarrassing display of tech that probably only works right 50% of the time right now.
I don't doubt Natal has something like the capability shown, but until proven otherwise, I think MS is biting off more than they can chew with this scheme. At least Nintendo and Sony can show live demos, not pre-scripted videos with actors pantomiming parts.
Now, where the hell is the Johnny Lee-style pseudo 3D using head-tracking???
So, he may be working with them, but he's probably frustrated right now--or working on it in secret for a later reveal. In any case, I don't believe that Natal can replicate Sony's Sword and Shield demo. I'm also worried about the price of the Natal app. Natal seems to be an attempt to incorporate old-style controllers with new-fangled motion-tracking. I don't think that combinatorial approach is going to work in the market. Nintendo and Sony have dived in, MS needs to commit as well.
Other problems I have with Natal: what about people who don't play in their living room, who play on a desk in their room--a desk where it's impossible for the device to see your feet, or to move around much. Anytime you fake a technology demo it's a bad sign. The history of the industry has certainly told us that much. Sony still hasn't lived down it's PS2 demos from years past, it's likening the console to 'jacking into the matrix', and the word that was virtually invented to describe Sony trailers (as the worst offender), the word 'Bullshot'.
But, all I care about here is the tech. Johnny Lee's working for MS, great. But his Wii demo was more impressive than the Natal / Milo demo, and what's more it wasn't fake.
I'm actually more a Nintendo fanboy than anything. And I like Microsoft better than Sony, thus the lead of my comment being amazed that I'm advocating the Sony solution. In this case, I'm just plain impressed with Sony's motion controls. They are a perfect solution, and that blasts through my prejudices.
Natal does do head-tracking, but won't be able to do fine-grained implement tracking like Sony's. And none of them do head-tracking based pseudo 3D like the Johnny Lee head-tracking demo I linked. If you had watched the link you'd know what I was talking about. Tsk, tsk.
It's hard not to be impressed by the demonstration of what gamers have been dying to be able to do for ages now: true 1:1 positional tracking, a sword and shield in-game, PERFECT.
So, in my mind, Sony's got the lead on next gen just from that. Falling to last place has actually done some good in this case, it made Sony try.
Behind Sony I'll place Nintendo. They need to up the ante for the next gen, but we can almost guarantee they'll have at least a decent offering, of not totally cutting edge, and that's fine. Sony may once against price themselves out of the market and make a horribly complex console--time will tell, but we know Nintendo won't make that mistake.
Then there's Microsoft, with their faked Lionhead / Milo demo. The controller without a controller? It had better be perfect, or they're sunk.
Lastly, we're all still waiting for someone to show off the final kicker: Johnny Lee style head-tracking for simulated 3d: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw)
Whoever can pull that out of their hat AND positional input will capture the public's imagination. Can't wait for the next gen:)
Why do publishers think they have a right to used games revenues? Car manufacturers don't and cannot expect revenue from used car sales, nor book publishers, nor clothing-makers, nor any other sector you want to talk about. Actually, all of these makers already get revenue from the used game market, even though they don't realize it, and I'll explain how:
The new price of any good includes the value of the good on the used market. Its value as a used item is included in the purchase price. So, the truth is, game publishers have -already- been paid for the game's used-value on the used-market, they even get paid up-front. If you were to make limit or eliminate the used game market, you remove that portion of the new-price from its value. The result is that new game prices would have to come down to account for this. The net result: publishers wouldn't gain anything, and would probably lose quite a bit. Because if they refused to lower the price of new games, they would experience lower game sales to reflect the lower value for the same price because their games would now appear to be overprice, since they've now lost value.
As for the idea that Publishers have a right to money from used sales, how is that even possible? Imagine if car makers tried something like this. The only way to achieve it is by fascist legal bully-tactics, by forcing legislators to pass laws favoring particular companies. That must not happen, that would be a perversion of democracy.
Some have argued that publishers are hurt by having to give 'free' server rights to the 2nd buyer. But, what's the difference? The first guy isn't using the company servers anymore-- he doesn't own the game! So the total load change is zero. And the price of running those servers is freely accepted by the publishers. No one's forcing them to provide free servers for their game. Let them charge money like WoW for server access if they think they can get away with it. Dirty truth: they know they can't. They don't dare charge for server access.
I say we send these Publishers back to Econ 101. Any first year college student could explain these things. It's ridiculous.
I want DA's sicked on their asses, I want congressional hearings, I want antitrust investigations, allegations about cover-ups, reporters swamping newspaper owners and CEOs asking them impossible questions. No one else could get away with this BS. For once the antitrust legislation could be put to actual productive use.
But, despite the outrage, what's really hilarious about all of this is that even with colluding on prices, the newspapers don't have a chance of making this scheme work.
I'm with you, I love the move away from button pressing. The next console round may be a second golden age of gaming, as the paradigm of gaming will have been utterly and finally shattered with all three companies moving into positional input and tracking, along with pseudo-3D display, and vastly improved Wiimote-devices. But, in talking with the EvilAvatar people, I've fielded many comments from PS3 and Xbox fanatics, hardcore fans of gaming, who dislike the Wiimote as a category and don't believe that Sony or MS would go that way in the next console round. That's actually why I submitted the story, as a kind of gloat, and because of Sony's hypocrisy in denouncing the Wiimote previously is just too delicious. I didn't expect all the Sony bashing, I'd forgotten how anti-Sony we've all become, but I'm right there with you all! DOWN WITH SONY! Not even FFXIII could get me to buy a PS3.
I'm also a bit disappointed not to see more discussion of Johnny Lee's head-tracking, that's really an awesome tech.
That's a nifty thing, but it's clearly more of an enthusiast / arcade focused product.
Cost is prohibitive. TrackIR, at $149.95 is never going to ship with a console. Johnny Lee's implementation costs exactly the price of a Wiimote, about $40 (and his software is open sourced). Also, I couldn't tell from the videos how well it handles depth perception, though it does handle turning and looking quite well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9dLB_5dT0
That avoids the facts, and the philosophy Nintendo themselves used to obtain that broader market. Nintendo claims that those who weren't hardcore gamers were put off by the massive learning curve of using the multi-button controllers seen on the PS3 and X360. Nintendo wanted to disrupt the market place with a new technology, one that would flip that dynamic on its head, and that technology was the Wiimote.
You cannot separate Nintendo's success in garnering attention from previously non-gamers without taking the Wiimote into account.
Sony and Microsoft would be foolish to not have a Wiimote clone ready for the next hardware iteration. Any company sticking with controllers will look like an anachronism.
Will be nice when graphics improve so much that their cinematics-engine coding-team ends up developing the new gameplay engine for the next iteration of the game at large:P Still, WoW will never split the graphics engine, other MMOs tried and failed. Instead, they continually make upgrades that make it prettier at the top end while still supporting low-end rigs.
What you say is true, since graphics have undergone revolution after revolution in the last several decades. We're only now seeing signs of graphic capability leveling off as 'good enough'. When graphic quality reaches some stability that's when the tools designed to produce it will become more and more powerful and usable in response. Creating models will become easier: one example is Zbrush which allows you to sculpt 3D models with an artistic paradigm, treating the model as a lump of clay that can be added to or subtracted from at will. Technology always trickles down and becomes more and more accessible compared to the state of the art. In time, the games of today will seem simple to create with the newer modern tools, and they will be something a single person could in fact create. All in good time.
And yet, that's guaranteed not only to happen at some point in the future, but to continue to grow beyond that for as long as intelligence remains in the universe. Our destiny is to merge with our machines and by that overcome the limitations of the flesh. Humanity as a species will eventually make the jump from matter to energy. Or at least, that's what the novel I'm writing is about:P
I think this is going to become a growing phenomena, that of news of what robots can do and are doing. Just imagine it: first robot to cross the Atlantic! It's like Charles Lindbergh all over again. We can have first robot to fly around the world. First robot to climb Everest. First completely robotic hamburger joint (destined to put McDonald's out of business, and several others-- or would McDonald's buy the company). First robot to drive from LA to NY. First robot to reach the North / South pole. First robot to swim the English Channel. First translation assistant/secretary robot (protocol droid?).
Man it's good to be alive right now ^_^ You'll be sure to read many of these stories in my upcoming Novel(s):)
Ha, and bananas have a reputation for high potassium content. So much for that idea.
Reminds me of the mistake that was made about spinach. They thought spinach had just ungodly amounts of iron, etc., turns out the original research on the issue had misplaced a decimal, giving spinach 10 times more iron content than it actually had. By then, Popeye was already a popular character and I doubt the meme has lost steam to this day.
Luckily, I love spinach:P In fact, I love almost all vegetables. The only vegetable dish I'm not too fond of are extreme for other reasons: notably one particular Kimchee experience (I once had kimchee that was far too strong for me, despite loving spicy foods), and Natto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natto). DON'T TRY NATTO! You've been warned. (But if you're curious, just imagine the sights, smell, and taste of eating someone else's puke and that just about perfectly captures the experience-- I am not kidding).
"Popeye's creators chose spinach -- instead of, say, brussels sprouts or broccoli -- because of an 1870 German study that claimed spinach contained about as much iron as there is in red meat! In reality, this was nothing more than an accounting error. The scientists put the decimal point in the wrong place! The iron content of spinach is actually one-tenth of what was reported. The mistake was corrected in 1937. It was too late for Popeye, though. He'd already been getting strong on spinach for almost 10 years!" from (http://soundmedicine.iu.edu/segment.php4?seg=238)
Might explain why I had a major hankering for bananas:P Eating as many as two or more per day. Bananas freakin' rock, the perfect fruit! Comes in it's own 'packaging', the flavor varies by ripeness (I like 'em a bit green), easily blended, no seeds to pick or spit out, and cheap and easily available.
I don't think it's just the brain that needs sleep. The article states that the body even begins failing in its ability to process glucose correctly after 24 hours deprivation. The brain ain't the thing that processes glucose. So, let's look at sleep a different way, as the rest it is, but not just for the brain, but for the whole body, indeed for cells themselves.
When you sleep your body expects about eight hours rest, we all generally agree, though it can wake and resume normal processes before that if need be. But, when you sleep, your brain sends out hormone telling your body its time to recover.
Imagine that being awake and walking around is like a performance, and sleep is the act of getting ready for that performance. Everything from the muscles, organs, and obviously the brain, needs periods when it doesn't have to be instantly ready for fight or flight response. When you're awake, your body is ready to defend itself at moments notice, ready to do any work required, ready to make clear-headed decisions. Each night allows setting up the organs that achieve that feat, and each day the feat is accomplished.
I also think that sleep is gods way of giving everyone a weakness. No matter how much of a badass you may think you are, no matter how many people you've killed, or whatever weapons you have, you will always have to sleep, you will always be vulnerable to the assassin with the knife.
Slashdot Mirror
I sometimes chuckle reading the latest news about solar cells. At some point we'll come to realize that the greatest, most efficient solar cells have been staring us in the face all along: leaves.
The true tech revolution will be not hardware, but wetware. When we reverse engineer the structures of the world's genomes and find ourselves in possession of millions of genetic tools for accomplishing goals.
I expect the first revolution in this area will be the replacement of fossil fuels with biodiesel grown from genetically engineered algae. This tech is already well into production on several fronts, but has to increase the fuel / input ratio to achieve an efficiency high enough to beat 'free oil sitting in the ground'. But there's a number of strats to pursue in that, including pumping them with CO2 in the form of sewage and coal-plant exhaust.
Who knows, someday you might be feeding kibble to your pet car to keep it alive >_> We could give it an emulated horse's brain (they love to run / travel) and some modified behavioral brain structures and integrate it with GPS positional tracking and data sharing. The secondary bonus of that is that fender-benders can simply grow back into shape, and nicks and scratches heal like our own skin. Add in some octopus skin-genes and you can change color \ pattern everyday!
They were all third rate covers of "Money, money, money, money!"
Anything relying on commercial success for its continued existence needs to make a profit, yes.
This is a step forward in furniture in the sense that we one day want to have machines making everything for us from freely available energy and materials--all the way down to bio-engineering plants which can grow into customized shapes. Can you imagine a plant which grows the shape of a couch frame out of, say, oak? Bamboo and seaweed have super-fast growing genes. Why not create a way to grow the frame of a house rather than cut and shape it. Let nature do the work.
No kidding, you mean it derives 3D space from stereoscopic-placed cameras? No, I had no idea. Why are you assuming I'm an idiot?
Tracking the eyes does nothing, it's only your head moving that makes for pseudo-3D. And yes, Johnny Lee is working for MS, and technically this system is capable of JL-style head-tracking 3D.
SO WHY WASN'T IT SHOWN??? Not shown, thus it fails to impress.
Why are you arguing about the graphics and rendering? There's nothing new there, that's not what the Natal / Milo demo was all about.
Here's the one and sole true test of whether the Milo demo was fake: Was the game being run live and actually responding to the inputs of the actor in real-time, with all of the footage seen generated uniquely and in real-time for that demo,
-or-
was the actor miming inputs that the game wasn't actually recognizing and reacting to, and trying to match them up to a pre-recorded video of the game being played, so as to appear live but actually not being live.
It's pretty clear to me that the latter is the case based on the expose footage. Thus the demo was faked, staged, a farce, a lie. It would be different if MS qualified it as a pre-visualization of how Natal would work. Without that, it's clear that the tech cannot perform what we saw live right now. Probably elements of what we saw do work, but it's quite likely that it doesn't work consistently enough to go through that entire demo without more than a few hiccups and misses--and with E3 looming they had no choice but to go with plan B. That's the only reason to fake something. It was that or face a truly embarrassing display of tech that probably only works right 50% of the time right now.
I don't doubt Natal has something like the capability shown, but until proven otherwise, I think MS is biting off more than they can chew with this scheme. At least Nintendo and Sony can show live demos, not pre-scripted videos with actors pantomiming parts.
Now, where the hell is the Johnny Lee-style pseudo 3D using head-tracking???
Natal, as demonstrated at E3 via Milo, does not feature the kind of pseudo-3D that Johnny Lee popularized.
Watch the video and then you'll know what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
So, he may be working with them, but he's probably frustrated right now--or working on it in secret for a later reveal. In any case, I don't believe that Natal can replicate Sony's Sword and Shield demo. I'm also worried about the price of the Natal app. Natal seems to be an attempt to incorporate old-style controllers with new-fangled motion-tracking. I don't think that combinatorial approach is going to work in the market. Nintendo and Sony have dived in, MS needs to commit as well.
Other problems I have with Natal: what about people who don't play in their living room, who play on a desk in their room--a desk where it's impossible for the device to see your feet, or to move around much. Anytime you fake a technology demo it's a bad sign. The history of the industry has certainly told us that much. Sony still hasn't lived down it's PS2 demos from years past, it's likening the console to 'jacking into the matrix', and the word that was virtually invented to describe Sony trailers (as the worst offender), the word 'Bullshot'.
But, all I care about here is the tech. Johnny Lee's working for MS, great. But his Wii demo was more impressive than the Natal / Milo demo, and what's more it wasn't fake.
I'm actually more a Nintendo fanboy than anything. And I like Microsoft better than Sony, thus the lead of my comment being amazed that I'm advocating the Sony solution. In this case, I'm just plain impressed with Sony's motion controls. They are a perfect solution, and that blasts through my prejudices.
Natal does do head-tracking, but won't be able to do fine-grained implement tracking like Sony's. And none of them do head-tracking based pseudo 3D like the Johnny Lee head-tracking demo I linked. If you had watched the link you'd know what I was talking about. Tsk, tsk.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm the most excited about the motion-controls that Sony demoed. Just check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiX-26VL4bM
It's hard not to be impressed by the demonstration of what gamers have been dying to be able to do for ages now: true 1:1 positional tracking, a sword and shield in-game, PERFECT.
So, in my mind, Sony's got the lead on next gen just from that. Falling to last place has actually done some good in this case, it made Sony try.
Behind Sony I'll place Nintendo. They need to up the ante for the next gen, but we can almost guarantee they'll have at least a decent offering, of not totally cutting edge, and that's fine. Sony may once against price themselves out of the market and make a horribly complex console--time will tell, but we know Nintendo won't make that mistake.
Then there's Microsoft, with their faked Lionhead / Milo demo. The controller without a controller? It had better be perfect, or they're sunk.
Lastly, we're all still waiting for someone to show off the final kicker: Johnny Lee style head-tracking for simulated 3d: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw)
Whoever can pull that out of their hat AND positional input will capture the public's imagination. Can't wait for the next gen :)
Why do publishers think they have a right to used games revenues? Car manufacturers don't and cannot expect revenue from used car sales, nor book publishers, nor clothing-makers, nor any other sector you want to talk about. Actually, all of these makers already get revenue from the used game market, even though they don't realize it, and I'll explain how:
The new price of any good includes the value of the good on the used market. Its value as a used item is included in the purchase price. So, the truth is, game publishers have -already- been paid for the game's used-value on the used-market, they even get paid up-front. If you were to make limit or eliminate the used game market, you remove that portion of the new-price from its value. The result is that new game prices would have to come down to account for this. The net result: publishers wouldn't gain anything, and would probably lose quite a bit. Because if they refused to lower the price of new games, they would experience lower game sales to reflect the lower value for the same price because their games would now appear to be overprice, since they've now lost value.
As for the idea that Publishers have a right to money from used sales, how is that even possible? Imagine if car makers tried something like this. The only way to achieve it is by fascist legal bully-tactics, by forcing legislators to pass laws favoring particular companies. That must not happen, that would be a perversion of democracy.
Some have argued that publishers are hurt by having to give 'free' server rights to the 2nd buyer. But, what's the difference? The first guy isn't using the company servers anymore-- he doesn't own the game! So the total load change is zero. And the price of running those servers is freely accepted by the publishers. No one's forcing them to provide free servers for their game. Let them charge money like WoW for server access if they think they can get away with it. Dirty truth: they know they can't. They don't dare charge for server access.
I say we send these Publishers back to Econ 101. Any first year college student could explain these things. It's ridiculous.
I use a mouse-gestures plug-in for Firefox, it's absolutely awesome, wouldn't surf without it: "Mouse Gestures Redox 2.0.3"
I want DA's sicked on their asses, I want congressional hearings, I want antitrust investigations, allegations about cover-ups, reporters swamping newspaper owners and CEOs asking them impossible questions. No one else could get away with this BS. For once the antitrust legislation could be put to actual productive use.
But, despite the outrage, what's really hilarious about all of this is that even with colluding on prices, the newspapers don't have a chance of making this scheme work.
I'm with you, I love the move away from button pressing. The next console round may be a second golden age of gaming, as the paradigm of gaming will have been utterly and finally shattered with all three companies moving into positional input and tracking, along with pseudo-3D display, and vastly improved Wiimote-devices. But, in talking with the EvilAvatar people, I've fielded many comments from PS3 and Xbox fanatics, hardcore fans of gaming, who dislike the Wiimote as a category and don't believe that Sony or MS would go that way in the next console round. That's actually why I submitted the story, as a kind of gloat, and because of Sony's hypocrisy in denouncing the Wiimote previously is just too delicious. I didn't expect all the Sony bashing, I'd forgotten how anti-Sony we've all become, but I'm right there with you all! DOWN WITH SONY! Not even FFXIII could get me to buy a PS3.
I'm also a bit disappointed not to see more discussion of Johnny Lee's head-tracking, that's really an awesome tech.
That's a nifty thing, but it's clearly more of an enthusiast / arcade focused product.
Cost is prohibitive. TrackIR, at $149.95 is never going to ship with a console. Johnny Lee's implementation costs exactly the price of a Wiimote, about $40 (and his software is open sourced). Also, I couldn't tell from the videos how well it handles depth perception, though it does handle turning and looking quite well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9dLB_5dT0
Go watch the Johnny Lee link I provided above so you know what you're talking about.
That avoids the facts, and the philosophy Nintendo themselves used to obtain that broader market. Nintendo claims that those who weren't hardcore gamers were put off by the massive learning curve of using the multi-button controllers seen on the PS3 and X360. Nintendo wanted to disrupt the market place with a new technology, one that would flip that dynamic on its head, and that technology was the Wiimote.
You cannot separate Nintendo's success in garnering attention from previously non-gamers without taking the Wiimote into account.
Sony and Microsoft would be foolish to not have a Wiimote clone ready for the next hardware iteration. Any company sticking with controllers will look like an anachronism.
Will be nice when graphics improve so much that their cinematics-engine coding-team ends up developing the new gameplay engine for the next iteration of the game at large :P Still, WoW will never split the graphics engine, other MMOs tried and failed. Instead, they continually make upgrades that make it prettier at the top end while still supporting low-end rigs.
Hell, UAV? How about building a cruise missile in your garage. Take pictures while barrel rolling under a bus, orrrr, take pictures while breaking the sound barrier. Check it out: http://www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile/missilemanbook.shtml
What you say is true, since graphics have undergone revolution after revolution in the last several decades. We're only now seeing signs of graphic capability leveling off as 'good enough'. When graphic quality reaches some stability that's when the tools designed to produce it will become more and more powerful and usable in response. Creating models will become easier: one example is Zbrush which allows you to sculpt 3D models with an artistic paradigm, treating the model as a lump of clay that can be added to or subtracted from at will. Technology always trickles down and becomes more and more accessible compared to the state of the art. In time, the games of today will seem simple to create with the newer modern tools, and they will be something a single person could in fact create.
All in good time.
And yet, that's guaranteed not only to happen at some point in the future, but to continue to grow beyond that for as long as intelligence remains in the universe. Our destiny is to merge with our machines and by that overcome the limitations of the flesh. Humanity as a species will eventually make the jump from matter to energy. Or at least, that's what the novel I'm writing is about :P
So, does it have Adblocker and Noscript? No? No thank you.
I think this is going to become a growing phenomena, that of news of what robots can do and are doing. Just imagine it: first robot to cross the Atlantic! It's like Charles Lindbergh all over again. We can have first robot to fly around the world. First robot to climb Everest. First completely robotic hamburger joint (destined to put McDonald's out of business, and several others-- or would McDonald's buy the company). First robot to drive from LA to NY. First robot to reach the North / South pole. First robot to swim the English Channel. First translation assistant/secretary robot (protocol droid?).
Man it's good to be alive right now ^_^ You'll be sure to read many of these stories in my upcoming Novel(s) :)
Ha, and bananas have a reputation for high potassium content. So much for that idea.
Reminds me of the mistake that was made about spinach. They thought spinach had just ungodly amounts of iron, etc., turns out the original research on the issue had misplaced a decimal, giving spinach 10 times more iron content than it actually had. By then, Popeye was already a popular character and I doubt the meme has lost steam to this day.
Luckily, I love spinach :P In fact, I love almost all vegetables. The only vegetable dish I'm not too fond of are extreme for other reasons: notably one particular Kimchee experience (I once had kimchee that was far too strong for me, despite loving spicy foods), and Natto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natto). DON'T TRY NATTO! You've been warned. (But if you're curious, just imagine the sights, smell, and taste of eating someone else's puke and that just about perfectly captures the experience-- I am not kidding).
"Popeye's creators chose spinach -- instead of, say, brussels sprouts or broccoli -- because of an 1870 German study that claimed spinach contained about as much iron as there is in red meat!
In reality, this was nothing more than an accounting error. The scientists put the decimal point in the wrong place!
The iron content of spinach is actually one-tenth of what was reported. The mistake was corrected in 1937. It was too late for Popeye, though. He'd already been getting strong on spinach for almost 10 years!" from (http://soundmedicine.iu.edu/segment.php4?seg=238)
Might explain why I had a major hankering for bananas :P Eating as many as two or more per day. Bananas freakin' rock, the perfect fruit! Comes in it's own 'packaging', the flavor varies by ripeness (I like 'em a bit green), easily blended, no seeds to pick or spit out, and cheap and easily available.
Today I discovered I can't pull up Gmail.com using Internet Explorer 8, did MS patent that too? *snicker* /sticks to Firefox.
I don't think it's just the brain that needs sleep. The article states that the body even begins failing in its ability to process glucose correctly after 24 hours deprivation. The brain ain't the thing that processes glucose. So, let's look at sleep a different way, as the rest it is, but not just for the brain, but for the whole body, indeed for cells themselves.
When you sleep your body expects about eight hours rest, we all generally agree, though it can wake and resume normal processes before that if need be. But, when you sleep, your brain sends out hormone telling your body its time to recover.
Imagine that being awake and walking around is like a performance, and sleep is the act of getting ready for that performance. Everything from the muscles, organs, and obviously the brain, needs periods when it doesn't have to be instantly ready for fight or flight response. When you're awake, your body is ready to defend itself at moments notice, ready to do any work required, ready to make clear-headed decisions. Each night allows setting up the organs that achieve that feat, and each day the feat is accomplished.
I also think that sleep is gods way of giving everyone a weakness. No matter how much of a badass you may think you are, no matter how many people you've killed, or whatever weapons you have, you will always have to sleep, you will always be vulnerable to the assassin with the knife.