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Perfect Photo Op!
02/17/11 -- Photos
Facebook Porsche
02/17/11 -- Pretty Cool
“As part of its ‘Thank You’ campaign, Porsche plastered the names of one million of its closest Facebook friends onto a hot rod. We all love a good timelapse video around here, but this one’s subtler than most. It shows a crew of Porsche folks painstakingly detailing a brand new 911 GT3 R Hybrid… but with what? The video isn’t high-resolution enough to read them, but all those teeny gray squiggles adorning the hood, tail, and sides of the car? They’re names — one million names, to be exact, of Porsche’s Facebook fans.” w/ photos + video
Dog Gets Head Wedged In Rusty Old Pipe
02/17/11 -- Odd Articles
“Some might say it was a pipe dream. But it was definitely more of a nightmare for two-year-old stray dog Smokey. The hapless young dog found himself with his head firmly stuck inside the long tube of an old smudge pot. Animal rescuers believe that he had been chasing a mouse when the pesky rodent led him straight into an abandoned device. The oil-burning tools are use to remove frost from crops on fruit trees but Smokey was left with a bitter taste in his mouth from the rusty pot. He whimpered as he tried desperately to wriggle free himself from the pot but without luck, remaining with his head inside like a headless dog. Thankfully a passer-by spotted the trapped animal and called animal rescuers to the scene in Riverside County, California, last Friday. Smokey emerged unscathed from the pot with the help of Animal Control Officer Amy Farrell who gently eased him out.” w/ photos
Kitty Likes Sleep
02/17/11 -- Hilarious
Phil Collins Day Parade?
02/17/11 -- Ridiculous
The Golfball Launcher
02/17/11 -- Neat Products
“Works on most AR-15, M4, and M16 rifles; replaces your muzzle brake or flash hider. Machined out of solid-stock steel, shoots golf balls over 250 yards using .223 BLANKS (BAM-006), do not use live rounds. No gunsmithing required. WARNING: All rules of firearm safety apply. Misuse of the golf ball launcher is potentially dangerous, and it is not a toy.” w/ photo
Top 7 Repurposed Military Defense Shelters
02/17/11 -- Top Lists
“From shipping containers and pallets to entire ships, we’ve featured many a project where an unusual object was turned into a house, even a home. When this is done with old bunkers, our first reaction is of disbelief. Can this work? Can a concrete structure that was used in war ever be cozy and inspire warmth?… Here are the top 7 repurposed military defense shelters.” w/ photos
Robot Learns To Clean A Whiteboard
02/17/11 -- Only In Japan
“A humanoid robot learns to clean a whiteboard by upper-body kinesthetic teaching. The research is from an Italian-Japanese collaboration between the Italian Institute of Technology and Tokyo City University. The video shows a Japanese humanoid robot (Fujitsu HOAP-2) learning a surface cleaning task by imitation learning. The presented approach allows a free-standing, self-balancing humanoid robot to acquire new motor skills by kinesthetic teaching. The method controls simultaneously the upper and lower body of the robot with different control strategies. Imitation learning is used for training the upper body via kinesthetic teaching, while at the same time ankle/hip reaction motion patterns are used for keeping the balance of the robot. During demonstration, a force/torque sensor is used to record the exerted forces, and during reproduction, a hybrid position/force controller is used to reproduce the learned trajectories in terms of positions and forces to the end effector.” — PetarKormushev
