The next step in evolution? Two scientists developed a program that designs, and judges, designs of simple robots, and selects which ones work best.
In short, it's a robotic version of evolution. Design and selection without human involvement.
Guess one can call it throwing a "monkey wrench" in the details of robotic technology.
Why did the moron buy a telephone used at a prison?
He was looking for a cell-phone
The new Macintosh G-4 computer boasts a 500MHz dual processor and a 40 Gigabyte hard drive.
Now that's one "Big Mac" you'll never find in fast food!
Kid: Hey Dad, why is it called "Labor Day?"
Father (busy at computer): A day to celebrate the working man. We all get a day off.
Kid: But Dad, you're dealing with your boss's cell-phone calls, faxes, and e-mails so much, you're 'laboring' almost as much as a working day.
Father: Don't you have some chores to do or something?
Things Never to Do in Space
1. Replace the cooling fluid with vodka.
2. Smuggle a pack of hyenas into the cargo compartment.
3. Press the big red button.
4. Ask one of your female companions what she's wearing under her suit.
5. Introduce pig lassoing at recreation time.
6. Radio "Houston, we've got a problem" just for the hell of it.
7. Forget to wear your seatbelt.
8. Bring your own grog.
9. Use the control panel as a drum kit.
10. Try to invent hyperdrive.
11. Five seconds before launch, announce the disturbing fact that you're not wearing a spacesuit.
12. Try to invent hyperdrive.
13. Decide that the oxygen tanks could use a little helium.
14. Ask what the in-flight movie is.
15. Invite the family along.
16. Practice reverse parking in the escape pod.
from WilsonT, shown in Jokes4U
Remember the expression "There ought to be a law"?
Several decades ago, thinking ahead to when the technology would allow such things, Isaac Asimov proposed three Universal Laws of Robotics to prevent robots from harming people. They were never approved by law, but they were never forgotten. Now in Bangkok Thailand, "Roboguard" has been developed, a robot guard with a gun that can shoot to kill, with or without human approval.
Hey you in D.C., while you're working on laws against cloning, we need a certain three on another subject approved.
The unveiling of "Roboguard," the robot guard equiped with a gun, has naturally made some people nervous. Besides carrying a lethal weapon, it can fire without human intervention.
The inventors say not to worry, as it can be programed to contact it's owners via the Internet for approval to shoot.
Yes, but what happens if it tries to get online during peak hours, and it's not willing to wait?
Why did the spider get a computer?
It wanted to surf the web
This takes a minute to load, but it's funny: President's Dance
sent by Jackie Harris Kroft
A few days ago, the shuttle Atlantis went up to the under-construction Space Station, almost but not quite ready for habitation.
In this last mission before the first Station crew goes up, the shuttle astronauts are installing last-minute minor items, including the toilet.
"Houston, we have a flush."
For those who roll your eyes at what people will collect if it's from their favorite star, get a load of this:
A Little Bit of You
For some people, owning a signed photograph of their favourite pop star is simply not enough. Fans have been known to pay small fortunes for locks of hair, discarded items of clothing and even used bedsheets that were once slept in by their idols. Now a company called StarGene has gone one better and will soon be offering photographs of famous musicians with samples of the star's DNA coated on to the paper. They hope to gain the cooperation of the stars by offering them a share of the profits in return for a little of their genetic material. Fans are said to be eager to seize the opportunity to get into their favourite star's genes.
From Coffebreak
Remember yesterday's article about the pictures of music stars with the subject's DNA?
The final line was: "Fans are said to be eager to seize the opportunity to get into their favourite star's genes."
Now THAT comment was so easy to make a joke out of, I'll let you the viewers use the less-than-clean parts of your minds to do it for me.
Ever hear about "Space elevators," those ultimate cars on a cable heading up to a base in orbit?
Well, someone's made a serious prediction they'll be around in about fifty years. Click here to get the article.
But there's one question raised by the "Daily Illuminator" site: What kind of music will it play?
Found the following on a buliten board the other day:
"I'm not saying nobody is covering anything up, but when you here this sort of thing you need to look at the bottom line.
Along these lines, one of my favorite things is UFO cover ups.
Lets think about this:
How much money(botton line) would the military get if it had proof of visting aliens?
How much money would NASA get if it had proof of Intelligently designed artifacts(i.e. structures)? If NASA had proof there were artifacts on Mars, we would be there."
from Trousersnake
Kind of makes one wonder, could the military be paying people to make up "flying saucer" stories for tabloid magazines?
It seems a genetic engineer has brought about "a new art form based on genetic enginering to create living things," a rabbit that when placed under a black light, glows.
The rabbit, Alba, is an albino with a jellyfish gene spliced into its DNA, which causes the fur to seem to glow under the black light.
Naturally, this has a few critics complaining about creating a chimera, or wasting valuable research, but "Kac's supporters point out, however, that furry Alba has already drawn attention to the often-overlooked, living creations of genetic research. And that is just what the artist hoped would happen.
'Regardless what you believe about his work Ñ at least it gives people in the public a chance to react to what is going on in the scientific community,' says Laurie Rosenow, a fellow with Institute for Science, Law and Technology in Illinois. 'Sometimes it's important to bring what people in white coats do into the public forum.'"
It is definetly a "hare-raising" story.
The genetically-altered "glow in the dark" rabbit is generating quite a bit of talk, and debate.
Some are quite unhappy about this development, calling it an unnatural freak, a waste of time and money, and a possible danger to the environment if it ever got loose.
And others see this as interesting and informative, getting people to talk, and feel the critics are just "splitting hares."
When fans of the orginal "Star Trek" clash with those who've seen only "Next Generation" and after: Click here
A new way to improve productivity at the workplace: Click here
from "Jokeseveryday"
A little joke made at the expense of yours truly.
from the webmaster's Dad
If Cars Were Like Computers:
At the COMDEX computer exposition, Bill Gates compared the computer industry with the automobile industry and said "If GM had kept up with technology the way the computer industry has, we would all be driving cars costing $25.00 that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response, GM issued a press release stating that, if GM had developed technology the way Microsoft has, cars would have the following characteristics:
1. For no identifiable reason, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time the lines on the road were repainted, you would have to buy a new car. Every time you buy a new car, you have to learn to drive all over again because the controls are not quite the same.
3. Occasionally, your car would stall on the highway for no apparent reason. You would then have to pull over to the side of the road, shut off the car, restart it and open the windows before you could continue driving. For some reason, you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, making a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart. In this case, you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car unless you install "CarNT", but then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Cars made by competing companies would only be able to run on 5% of the roads.
7. The oil pressure, water temperature and alternator gauges would be replaced by a single warning light that would read "General Protection Fault".
8. Seats would force all drivers to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
10. Once in a while, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and touched the radio antenna. Again, for some reason, you would simply accept this.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally (now a GM subsidiary) road maps whether or not you want or need them. Any attempt to delete the maps would immediately diminish your car's performance by at least 50%. (This will make GM the target of a Justice Department investigation.)
12. You would have to press the start button to turn the engine off.
from Virginia McCluney
The world will end in 5 minutes. Please log out.....
from Jim Poole
from jokeseveryday
Jesus vs. Satan: Who Is Better On The Computer?
Jesus and Satan were having an ongoing argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and God was tired of hearing all of the bickering. Finally God said, "Cool it! I am going to set up a test that will run two hours, and I will judge who does the better job."
So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. They did spreadsheets. They wrote reports. They sent faxes. They sent emails. They sent out emails with attachments. They downloaded. They did some genealogy reports. They made cards. They did every known job. But 10 minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder clapped, the rain poured, and, of course, the electricity went off.
Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. The electricity finally flickered back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically and screamed, "It's gone! It's all gone! I lost everything when the power went off!"
Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of diligent work. Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait! He cheated! How did he do it?"
God shrugged and said, "Jesus saves."
from Eiz@aol.com
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
.............Albert Einstein
from Jim Poole
What do you get when you cross Einstein with Seinfield?
from Jokeseveryday