David Bashford, lead of the LaserMotive team, preparing their robotic climber entry in the $2 million Space Elevator Games
A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction [...]

Home farming
Philips Design recently completed a design probe looking at the future of food.  The project investigated how we might eat and source our food 15-20 years from now. the probe looks at social trends occurring today and extrapolates them to project possible futures.  The research led the designers to create three projects which solidified [...]

Several winners were announced as top inventors for 2009
The DaVinci Institute, a futurist think tank and host of the 5th annual Colorado Inventor Showcase announced the award winners at the event held November 3rd at the Denver University Cable Center. Winners in the six categories accepted their honors as the evening came to a close.  [...]

Aida
As if you don’t have enough distractions while driving, the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab and MIT’s SENSEable City Lab have teamed up to create AIDA, a robot that lives in your dashboard, is way smarter than you, and has no compunctions about letting you know it: (Video)
 

LED Eyelashes
False eyelashes not getting you enough attention? LED Eyelashes from Korean designer Soomi Park will have you turning heads so fast you might be sued for causing whiplash.  (Video)

ROPID
A new, even cuter, Japanese robot has hit the scene called ROPID. Developed by Tomotaka Takahashi of Robo Garage at Kyoto University, the tiny robot can respond to voice commands and actually has a mouth that moves when it speaks. (Video and pics)
 

1. Blowing an anvil 200ft into the air.  This stunt has scant scientific or educational value, but deserves a prominent place on the list for the presenter’s coltish enthusiasm for explosions.
From science experiments to building demolitions to nuclear tests, there are few things in life more visually impressive than explosions. Here are 15 of the [...]

Featured at the Colorado Inventor Showcase
Net proceeds from EZ Shot goes to help purchase food and toiletries for the FISH Food Bank in Broomfield

EZ Shot is a fully-automatic basketball return machine.  EZ Shot’s patented technology is well suited for training, recreation and entertainment. EZ Shot’s on-board computer contains a variety of pre-programmed individual and team [...]

Brandon Hardesty is filled with wide-eyed comical amazement at the killer soap bubbles he’s able to blow after filling his mouth with — yeccch — baby shampoo. He does it so we don’t have to.

Dolphins have been filmed playing an impromptu game of football… using a jellyfish as an improvised ball.  A team of marine biologists were astonished to see a dolphin swim under a jellyfish and with a quick flick of its tail shoot it out of the water. (Pics and video)
 

The pale halo-shaped cloud was hovering over Moscow on Wednesday
In what could have been a scene from the film Independence Day, a luminous ring-shaped cloud could be seen hovering over the city of Moscow last week.  The pale gold ‘halo’ could be seen above the Russian capital city’s Western District on Wednesday, and was captured [...]

Simply amazing
Master juggler Michael Moschen performs his incredibly famous, jaw-dropping piece where three balls and a triangle become a musical and visual work of art. (2nd video after the jump)

VASIMR rocket
The Ad Astra Rocket Company tested what is currently the most powerful plasma rocket in the world. As the Webster, Texas, company announced, the VASIMR VX-200 engine ran at 201 kilowatts in a vacuum chamber, passing the 200-kilowatt mark for the first time. The test also marks the first time that a small-scale prototype [...]

Featured Invention at the Colorado inventor Showcase 2009
 
An exercise device design to make your chin firm and youthful looking. Retightens neck muscles with regular use. Fast and easy, and very affordable. The best part is you don’t have to join a gym or even change your clothes. Use ChinUp at your computer, watching TV, or put [...]

Behold this graphic but compelling footage of the first ever elephant birth filmed in Bali, Indonesia.

 
The Maharaja witnessed his first in-flight Mughal-e-Azam at 30,000 feet above sea level on Saturday, as two members of the cabin crew—one male and one female—slugged it out with the pilot and co-pilot.  Endangering the lives of 106 passengers and grossly violating safety norms, the airline staffers came to blows in the cockpit and galley [...]

E-Tron concept electric car
Audi has unveiled its new electric car concept, the Audi e-tron at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany.  The all electric car is basically a modified Audi R8 sports car, but slightly smaller in all dimensions. The car delivers a massive 4500 Nm (3,319 lb-ft) of torque and 233 kW (313 horsepower), [...]

Seabreacher
Three years ago this amazing dolphin-like watercraft, the Seabreacher – a unique submersible vessel – was just a prototype. Now, you can own your own, make like Flipper, and dive, roll and jump while staying warm and dry in the comfort of the sealed cockpit. Oh, that is, if you have a cool USD$50,000 burning [...]

“Miruko,” a wearable eyeball-shaped robot with a built-in camera and wi-fi capabilities, is designed to augment human perception by sensing and reacting to objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye. (Video)

My eBay – selling: one jetpack. One careful owner. Easy to control. Ejector-seat-equipped Aston Martin and secret underground lair sold separately. Serious bids only.  The Martin Jetpack – technically a ducted fan pack, rather than a true jetpack – is the brainchild of New Zealand engineer Glenn Martin.
 

You can’t go anywhere these days without stepping on a robot.
Japan certainly hasn’t let the recession damp its enthusiasm for all things robot, even if much of the robotic workforce still suffers from unemployment idleness. The robot tiles emerged as the brainchild of Hiroo Iwata, a virtual reality researcher at the University of Tsukuba in [...]

There are several stand-alone augmented reality apps that have been developed for our mobiles, but similar to our cellphone being Internet-enabled, when will technology advance our smartphones to become totally integrated with augmented reality? (Videos)

Does your dog know how to shoot pool?
There are apparently some rare skills that only a few elite dogs can master. This is one of them. Are dogs truly smarter than what we give the credit for? Second fun video after the jump.

 
Vu1’s conceptual design for its R-30 bulb.
While compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) are currently the primary alternative to incandescent light bulbs, a company from Seattle predicts that its own novel light bulbs will eventually replace CFLs and LEDs. Vu1 (”view one”) Corporation has been working on its electron stimulated luminescence (ESL) bulbs, and has recently released [...]