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Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation (EHPA)

"The overall goal of the Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation (EHPA) Program is to develop devices and machines that will increase the speed, strength, and endurance of soldiers in combat environments. Projects will lead to self-powered, controlled, and wearable exoskeletal devices and/or machines and demonstrations of their utility in military applications."

DARPA article

Posted by Kadrey at 10:41 PM | Comments (0) June 24, 2003

Virtual Chauvinism

"Female virtual characters suffer from sexual inequality in financial matters, just like their real-world counterparts, according to a new study of the online game EverQuest.

"EverQuest is inhabited by tens of thousands of internet gamers at any one time. Players choose a character to represent them in the role-playing world. These avatars can be male or female and one of many fantasy races such as elf or ogre. Once a character has built up experience and skills, some players then sell them for real cash through the internet auction site eBay."

go to New Scientist article

Posted by Kadrey at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) June 18, 2003

Canary on a Chip

Biosensors use living cells to let you know the split second that you are really and truly screwed.

Nature Article

Posted by Kadrey at 01:48 AM | Comments (0) June 13, 2003

Edible Art

In Bangkok, I was once served fried rice with hotdogs on top. Not ordinary hotdogs, but dogs cross-cut so that they opened like flowers when they cooked. A Japanese company has a site that pushes wiener sculpture to new heights. Or something. Not only will you find photos here, but instructions for making your own hotdog sharks, elephants, sushi, etc.

http://www.sub.nipponham.co.jp/winny/kazari/

Posted by Kadrey at 07:20 PM | Comments (0) June 11, 2003

New Tech meets Old Biz

Gadget-hungry pimps cashing in on technology?

Hong Kong - Pimps in Hong Kong are luring customers by sending hi-tech
digital images of prostitutes to potential clients via their
cellphones, a news report said on Tuesday.

The hustlers are exploiting the latest cellphone technology to beam
lurid photographs of girls to the latest colour-screen handsets,
according to the South China Morning Post.

Police are investigating the phenomenon and have been checking the
cellphones of pimps arrested in raids in the city's red light
districts, according to the newspaper. No one has so far been arrested
for soliciting by cellphone, however.

A police source quoted by the newspaper said: "The first to maximise
the technology are the pimps in the red light area. Before they make
the deal they show the client a photo preview on the cellphone."

Hong Kong residents have one of the highest rates of cellphone
ownership in the world with more than eight out of 10 of the
territory's 6,8 million population owning a handset. New-style phones
with colour screens are increasingly popular in the gadget-hungry city.

http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=126&art_id=qw1054612803101B252&set_id=1

Posted by Kadrey at 08:26 PM | Comments (0) June 07, 2003

I am the Egg Man

That robot assistant we were promised by movies and a million SF novels might finally be here. According to NEC, it is and it's named PaPeRo. Trouble is, PaPeRo doesn't look much like a robot. More like the ghost of an electric pencil sharpener. Still, PaPeRo can understand 650 phrases and speak more than 3000. Plus, it has visual recognition software, so it knows your face, plus voice recognition software that lets you get online without a keyboard, plus lots of other nifty tricks.

http://www.incx.nec.co.jp/robot/

Posted by Kadrey at 02:18 AM | Comments (0) June 04, 2003

Slaughterhouse Beautiful

You really can find anything online. While researching some technology for upcoming writing and photo projects, I quickly hopped from such simple and naïve entries, such as "meathooks" to "Slaughtering Machinery." Someone has to make and market this stuff, I suppose, if we're going to keep enjoying our Big Macs and corn dogs. Still, it's a shock to run into neatly laid out product categories such as "Gutting Systems, automatic," "Deathtraps," and "Skinning Machines."

Finding these devices is like stepping through a time machine. The names of the machines, even their physical forms contain echoes of thousands of years of organized and systematized butchery. Meat is meat, so the machines of death haven't changed much over time, they've just grown more refined. No more hammers to stun the walking beef. Now, it's "boltguns." Easier on the slaughterhouse worker and supposedly more humane for the cow. Somehow, I think that until one of us bipeds with the big brains volunteers to field test both the hammer and the gun, we're never really going to know. But it's good marketing.

Looking through these pages, I remember once being lost in Kathmandu and finding myself in the butchers' quarter. In Nepal, they still killed and worked the meat with hand tools. Don't get any ideas that being so close to the death and the animals made the butchers any more empathetic or kind to the animals. The gutters and doorsteps in the butcher's quarter were splashed like Texas Chainsaw Massacre with fresh blood. Chickens rode into the place in car trunks, popping their heads out at each stop, like some roving Whack-A-Mole game. The severed legs of a water buffalo were propped outside the front door of one shop. I still have a photo of that somewhere in my archives.

http://www.processfood.com/productLocator/meat/product1.cfm?ID1=%20Slaughtering%20Equipment%3A

Posted by Kadrey at 10:10 PM | Comments (0) June 01, 2003

Exotic World

From the 1930s to the 50s, burlesque was the most popular form of theater in America. An evening of cheeseball comedians and a bevy of strippers at every show is the reason why. Unlike modern strip acts, burlesque acts were often more teasing than naked, and most successful acts had a gimmick—birds, snakes, giant balloons or feathered fans they could use to use for peek-a-boo games. A burlesque show was much more Bettie Page than Jenna Jameson.

The Exotic World Burlesque Museum is located in Helendale, California, near Route 66. Stop by their website for some background on burlesque and the museum itself. You can also make donations to this repository of American kitsch culture.

http://www.exoticworldusa.org/index.html

Posted by Kadrey at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)