A surprising number of quite dramatic stories today – one big round-up post will have to do for them all.
Blame Canada
Dextre, the Canadian space agency’s new robot, is meant to be helping construct the ISS. Instead it’s making outlandish demands:
In a surprising and potentially troubling request, the new space station robot known as Dextre demanded that astronauts refer to it in the future at ‘Dextre the Magnificent.’ Brandishing power tools that would make any handyperson blush, the mobile servicing system thanked humans for creating it and promised a glorious future where humans would retain an important role in the new robot order.
As if that weren’t enough, the station’s computer systems seem to have been hacked.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in orbit…
Virgin and Google are going to Mars. They want YOU to join them (if you can score highly enough on their selection questionnaire that is).
“Earth has issues, and it’s time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars,” says the project website.
“Some people are calling Virgle an ‘interplanetary Noah’s Ark’,” says Branson. “I’m one of them.”
Watch Branson and his co-conspirators discuss Virgle on YouTube.
BBC’s war on truth continues…
The BBC has released remarkable footage of penguins flying away from Antarctica to the tropical forests of South America. Presented by Terry Jones, the former Python, the programme is called ‘Miracles of Evolution’.
The Telegraph quotes Jones as saying, “Not only does it create a vivid and emotional experience for the viewer, it also illustrates just how bold and simple Darwin’s idea of natural selection was.”
The Mirror quoted the always reliable “Prof Alid Loyas”: “It’s the perfect example of Darwin’s theory of evolution working in reverse.”
Brand Republic have also provided their own special take on the subject…
BMW goes to the dogs
The traditional BWM ”spring is here” ad concerns the company’s new ‘Canine Repellent Alloy Protection’.
“The brainchild of Dr Hans Zoff, head of automotive security, it prevents any dog from relieving itself on the car by administering an immediate, and relatively pain-free, electric shock,” says the ad (which doesn’t appear to be online but which can be found on this blog).
More…
New Deep-Sea Communities From Whale Poo
NASA to Burn Sponsor Logos into the Surface of Mars
More Scientists Need Brain Enhancing Drugs
Piggy-Back Plan To Beat Heathrow Congestion
The Sun informs its readers:
Women can now have an injection that gives better orgasms by making their G-spot swell. The G-Shot uses collagen to dramatically boosts the sensitive area to the size of a 10p coin and a quarter of an inch high.
Wired is running with: Top 10 Creationist Discoveries of All Time
Images: Dextre = Expedition 16 Crew, NASA