Jul 24 2009 Man Climbs Building With DIY Vacuum Gloves
This is a video of inventor Jem Stansfield climbing the exterior of a BBC building to show off a pair of vacuum gloves he made out of an old vacuum. Amazingly, he gets to the top, but I question how much assistance he got from the rope holder. Also, if those gloves are that strong and made out of a crappy old vacuum, imagine Dyson-powered vacuum gloves. It would suck the paint off a building! And, God willing, I would eat those paint chips.
Man climbs building with vacuum gloves [bbcnews]
Thanks to Ross, who once made vacuum boots but didn't tie them tight enough and plummeted eight stories.
Jun 8 2009 Evading The Red Army: Russian Freerunning
Not to be outdone by wicked sickness that is ninja boy, this is an older video of some wicked Russian freerunning/climbing. It's pretty impressive and if I had even half those moves I would have spent a lot less in the slammer learning about love and relationships and bartering one's ass for cigarettes. Regardless, I think we can all agree that the world would be a much different place now if the Ruskies had this intelligence during the Cold War. Read: I'd be drinking vodka right now. Wait, I am drinking vodka right now. I HEART YOU RUSSIA!
Send me a bride.
Thanks to AmericanKGB, who may or may not be working both sides. I suspect he is.
May 14 2009 We're As Good As Dead!: Boston Dynamics' Latest Robastard Is An Accomplished Climber
In Boston Dynamics' unending quest to cut humanity's reign on earth short, the company continues to develop new robotic death machines. In this case, a climber named RiSE (who I have briefly touched on before). As is evident from the video, the apocalyptic bastard makes pretty short work of climbing a telephone pole. So I'm pretty confident it could scurry across the floor, shimmy up my leg, and have my change purse in its razor sharp mandibles before I could utter, "but they just dropped".
RiSE Version 3 Prototype [kodlab]
Thanks to beefytee, Art and biggity2bit, who just informed me we're no longer safe in the tree fort. Quick -- to the zip line!
Jan 28 2009 Fail: A Lesson In How Not To Kill Yourself
If you want to kill yourself by driving your beautifully rusting 1987 Dodge van off a cliff, make sure you catch enough air to not end up teetering on the edge of a precipice.
34-year-old Daniel J. Lyons and his sweet 1987 Dodge van bounced down the rocky side of the canyon at Colorado National Monument park this past Wednesday only to be brought to an abrupt halt by an outcropping. Rescue workers found him teetering over the 170-foot drop. Eventually, a litter was lowered over the edge and Lyons was pulled to safety.
Lyons is adamant the incident was an accident, but investigators couldn't find any skid marks or other signs of mishap, indicating this was, in fact, likely a suicide attempt. The van will remain perched on the cliff below Rim Rock Drive until authorities find a way to remove it or gravity has its way.
Jesus, I can think of a lot better ways to go than driving a perfectly good van off a cliff. Including, and currently limited to: mailing yourself. To the sun.
Hit the jump for a couple more amazing pictures.
Continue Reading " Fail: A Lesson In How Not To Kill Yourself "
Jan 7 2009 Casting Call For New Discovery Science Channel Game Show 'Catch It Keep It'
Remember the last time I announced a casting call for a show? Did any of you actually apply? Is 'Super Testing' on the air? Has it started yet? I have no idea, I only watch educational programming. Sexeducational programming. HIYO! Porn basically. Anyway, here's the chance for you Geekologie readers to prove yourselves, and show the billions of [fact check this] Discovery Networks Science Channel viewers what you're made of!
Producers for a Discovery Science Game show are looking for contestants. Contestants can be a gonzo engineer/scientist or just a high-energy, creative, fun, builder!
They are looking for garage warriors (builders, scientists, inventors, engineers, carpenters, welders, mechanics, architects, etc...) who love to invent new gadgets, build robots, racing power tools, weld together bizarre machines that drive, fly, climb, shoot flames or launch projectiles.This Game Show is for thinkers, dreamers and doers, who are eager to let their inner MacGyvers be seen and ready to collaborate with a team of other builders to beat the clock in order to "save" the big prize!
Holy shit, I'd be perfect for this! I can hardly wait! I'm gonna be building the coolest stuff. All LEGO too! And there's a big prize involved! I love big prizes! Well, as long as they're not in the form of penises. Oh boy, oh boy! Do you think it's gold bullion? Cold hard cash? I don't know but I can hardly wait to find out! Pick me, pick me! Oh, wait, there's more.
Consumption of alcohol prohibited during challenges.
F*** that. It might just be the booze talking, but I love booze.
Aug 12 2008 Oh Great, Now There's A LittleDog Too
Remember when Boston Dynamics heralded the robot apocalypse with the creation of the BigDog? Well now the uncaring bastards have made a LittleDog too. You know, one that isn't as big or loud as the original. Why? To kill you easier.
LittleDog is a quadruped robot for research on learning locomotion. Scientists at leading institutions use LittleDog to probe the fundamental relationships among motor learning, dynamic control, perception of the environment, and rough terrain locomotion.
Run for the hills! I imagine a scenario that plays out something like this: A platoon of BigDogs are released into the wild, each with a payload of several LittleDogs. When a human presence is detected in the area, a LittleDog is deployed, where it seeks out said humans and kills them (possibly by self-detonation). This is repeated until I'm the only one alive and living in an underground bunker. At this time, I manage to capture a BigDog, and, in an attempt to create a race of cyborgs to battle my robot overlords, mate with said beast. But in my haste, I fail to realize I've captured a male model! I bang it every day but never produce any cyborgs. Then I die. And that, my friends, is how the human race dies out. Happy ending!
Hit the jump for two more robots of the apocalypse that Boston Dynamics has created, RISE, a climbing bot, and RHex, which can pretty much do anything, including swim.
May 21 2008 Uh-Oh: Robot Can Climb Almost Any Surface
Similar to this climbing robot, but 100% absolutely nothing like it, comes this agile bastard.
The as-yet-unnamed robot uses electro-adhesion to cling to the wall, generating electrostatic charges between the wall substrate and itself to keep from falling. "The principle of operation is similar to electrostatic chucks used to hold silicon wafers, or other specialized grippers for robotic handling of materials," senior researcher Harsha Prahlad explained to PM in an email last week. "The technology uses a very small amount of power ... and shows the ability to repeatedly clamp to wall substrates that are heavily covered in dust or other debris."
This isn't good news folks. If this were a medical prognosis for the future of the human race, we'd be getting toe-tagged. And speaking of toes -- if you strapped a camera to this thing and sent it up the side of my house to the bathroom window you might catch a hot and steamy glimpse of...me doing a crossword puzzle on the can.
Several more pictures of the robot and a video of it climbing a wall in your house, after the jump.
Continue Reading " Uh-Oh: Robot Can Climb Almost Any Surface "
Mar 24 2008 More Robots Of The Coming Apocalypse
In the near future the planet will be ruled by robots and any surviving humans will live huddled in caves crying about how it was a bad idea to create them in the first place. So yeah, be warned. This is a video of a climbing robot. It looks friendly and harmless enough, but deep down, just like every robot, it wants to kill.
Called Capuchin, the robot scales vertical walls using four limbs that can shift its weight to stay balanced. It and other climbing robots could be key to uncovering the geology of Mars.
Weight shifting robot, cool. But you know what would be cooler? If it had guns. And bombs. Ooh ooh ooh -- and a laser razor chainsaw for an arm. Now that would be a damn robot.*
*Until one actually kills me, robots with weapons will remain awesome.
Thanks to Raul, a man capable of surviving the robot apocalypse, for the tip
Feb 13 2008 Grappling Hook Launcher For Lame Ninjas
I'm a card carrying elite ninja and do all my grapple tossing by hand, so personally I wouldn't be caught dead with a pneumatic grappling hook (although I may be caught dead with a chest full of throwing stars).
A pneumatically launched tactical line-throwing system developed by DFT for Special Operations Forces. The T-PLS can launch a standard titanium grappling hook towing a 7mm Kevlar line in excess of 120 vertical feet using a regulated air source. Minimizing complexity and emphasizing durability, T-PLS brings a much needed capability by mitigating noise and allowing the SOF operator to reach new heights in tactical climbing missions.
The only thing it's missing is a device that automatically sends you up the rope, which obviously us real ninjas would frown upon. However for you out of shape and/or novice ninjas, this may be a necessary evil. I don't know about that marketing picture though. Are they implying that you can grapple all the way to the sun? How ridiculous! Because once I grappled to Mercury to kill an alien warlord, and that climb was about all my arms could take.
Grappling hook back-ups high tech gear [crave]
