Yummy Wakame Weblog

Can you escape from the CRIMSON ROOM?
If you get stuck, hints are offered over at Chapel Perilous.

PaPeRo – Personal Robot in development by NEC
PaPeRo stands for ‘Partner type Personal Robot’. When it has nothing to do, PaPeRo will wander around the room, using visual and ultrasonic sensors, for fun or to look for someone. When PaPeRo finds a person, it will try to communicate with the person. Its behavior and reaction to you will change according to your behavior towards the robot.

• The official PaPeRo Website with full info
• PaPeRo Movie

“NEC has been revising this robot since 1997 and they think that now they have gotten it right. Personal Robot PaPeRo 2003 is over a foot tall and can do some amazing things like recognize faces, listen for phrases and respond verbally, change the channel on the TV for you, check email for you, a lot of other stuff too numerous to mention. It has two cameras for eyes for face recognition so it can call you by name. It has four microphones for voice and command recognition. It has 5 ultrasonic sensors to help it navigate. TV output, a wireless internet connection, LEDs for facial expressions, it even has a stroking sensor so it can feel you stroking it’s head.” ~ Robots.net

If you cant wait for PaPeRo to hit the shelves – make one. Get yourself Growing up with Lucy – How to Build an Android in Twenty Easy Steps by Steve Grand. It comes with rave reviews.

“Lucy Matilda is a robot baby orangutan, conceived during May 2000 by Cyberlife Research. When completed, Lucy will have a radically new kind of artificial brain. She will not be as smart as a human or ape baby of the same age, but she will learn for herself and she will have something that no robot has ever had before – an imagination.” ~ AgentLand.com

The South African Constitution – as the world’s only – explicitly guarantees the rights of homosexuals.

The country’s gay and lesbian couples are however still barred from marrying. Still, this week’s progresses make South Africa one of the countries in the world with the most ample rights for same-sex couples.
(via FARRAGO)

Death by Dyeing is an organization devoted to halting the barbaric process of injecting ornamental tropical fish with colored dyes and carcinogens.

Each day, hundreds of fish of multiple species are killed by these “lethal injections”. Many of those that do survive will die from their wounds or resulting disease. Only a very small percentile of dyed fish go on to live normal lives, forever branded with a sign of utmost suffering. However, we live in a world of supply and demand. We, the consumers, have the power to stop this atrocity. This is where those who really care are seperated from those who really don’t. Take a minute of your life, and save a life.

• Practical Fishkeeping Dyed Fish Campaign

Wow!!! Play Classic Sonic the Hedgehog online. See it to believe it!
Flash Player Required

Found by bsti

Get your weekend off to a rockin start with David Hasselhoff & Pingu!
Do the Pingu dance (3.3MB mp3)
(song lyrics)

Flatpack Brighton – bringing IKEA to your doorstep
“We take the hassle out of buying stuff from IKEA.”
What a great idea.

Classic Rainbow! (16MB mpeg but so worth the wait!)

J: “Oh Hello. We’re going to talk about playing today.”
B:”Playing with each other Jeffrey?”
J: “Yes Bungle. Tell me have you got a special friend you like to play with?”

ATM Card skimming – not an urban legend.
ATM houses duplicate card reader and wireless camera (photos)
As seen on enschede aan/zee