Curtin Robofair 2010

The Boy and I attended the Curtin Robofair yesterday. There were quite a few robots on display and lots of children in attendance. Even the police had a couple of robots to show including a bomb disposal robot. My favourite was the robot spider which you could play with. We were there for less than an hour though. A little bit disappointing. If we'd gone a bit earlier we would have had time to build a model robot.

Curtin Robofair 2010 Video

Pity that the engineering students don't have to spell properly. I would have thought that code has to be exact for a program to compile.

Just Remember People....

Just remember people - Mein Kampf is not a child's story recounting a school camp.

Just remember people - shops that advertise sales as "Personal shoppers only" are discriminating against those shoppers who wish to be impersonal.

Just remember people - A short survival guide for American gays in the military - 'Don't arse, don't tell.'

Just remember people - there's a level to just how crazy words are.
ornamental - 60%
sentimental - 55%
departmental - 50%
experimental - 50%
governmental - 50%
developmental - 46%
environmental - 46%
temperamental - 46%
interdepartmental - 35%

Just remember people - tradesmen may drive the quickest and most erratically on the roads but they are still late for appointments.

Just remember people - if shit is going to hit the fan then you have a short period of time to act and try to save the situation before it actually hits. Alternatively you have some time to make your escape.

Just remember people - there's probably an inventive Nigerian who is collecting royalties everytime a "Nigerian" scam is mentioned in the press as he's trademarked the term.

Just remember people - fish makes for a versatile food. If it's cooked properly you can serve it as fish. If it's not cooked properly then you might be able to get away with calling it sashimi.

Dancing Robot - Ed-E from Keepad

Attended Curtin Robofair 2010 today. Here's a video of one of the robots on display - he dances!


Ed-E the dancing robot

Funny Cricket Scorecard

I thought that I saw a funny line in the cricket scorecard at the second Test match today in Adelaide.

WatSON c. PieterSEN b. AnderSON for 51.

Ok, not quite as funny as Lillee c. Willey b. Dilley for 19 which happened in a test match in Perth in 1985 if my sources are correct. Wikipedia says that it happened in 1979.

And what about the Patel match?

Cricket Masterchef - New Program

You've seen Masterchef Australia. You've watched, but not necessarily understood, Iron Chef. You've been amazed by Junior Masterchef Australia. Now prepare for the latest culinary and gastronomic tv series - Cricket Masterchef.

Cricket Masterchef stars the Australian Test Cricket team but you'd have to say that the variety of dishes is sadly lacking. There's very little spice and not much zest included in the ingredients. Let's have a look at some of the dishes forthcoming from the second Ashes test match being held in Adelaide.

Simon Katich - he's prepared a duck, the platinum (or diamond) version after being out without facing a ball.
Ricky Ponting - he's also prepared a duck, a golden duck, after departing first ball.
Michael Clarke - his speciality is goose, of which he's made himself out to be, after only making two runs. It could be said that his preparation was unassisted and that he has cooked his own goose.
Ryan Harris - another golden duck. So litte imagination in the kitchen these Aussies.
Doug Bollinger - he's a bunny.

I'd like to have seen a batsmen score zero and play at his best. That would be a Peking (peaking) duck. You'd have to say that it was a pressure cooker situation for the Australians in the middle at the Adelaide Oval today. And didn't they get a basting from the Poms? Mind you, the Poms aren't very imaginative when it comes to cooking either. They just had the Aussies on toast.

The Australians didn't get to enjoy their dishes today and the only cooking that they've tasted for a while is humble pie. Well Ricky, revenge is a dish best served cold and we can see that the Aussies are not cooking with gas. With the Aussies' cooking skills it will probably end up as Ashes anyway.

Spanish Woman Claims Ownership of the Sun

Well, I've heard some downright stupid things in my time but my time obviously isn't up as this takes the cake. A Spanish woman has claimed ownership of the sun. Apparently she wants to charge for usage of the sun and pay 50% of the proceedings to the Spanish Government, 20% to the national pension fund, 10% to research, another 10% to fighting world hunger and keep a measly 10% for herself.

And you thought that it could happen only in America. Not so. Just what does she think she is going to charge for? Sunlight? Waves (generated by the sun, actually), heat, promotion of plant growth, etc?

We have laws in this country whereby fruit from a neighbour's tree that is in your property becomes your property. Doesn't that also mean that sunlight in my backyard belongs to me? Anything that is freely available and invades my personal space surely doesn't belong to anyone else. How can you charge for something that you have no control over? Sunlight falling on a solar collector that I own belongs to no-one else, does it?

Gee, would I even give her two years before the lawsuits start? People will sue for premature aging due to the sun, skin cancer, sunstroke, faded curtains, dried up dams, depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, damage to the Antartic ice shelf, melting of glaciers, damage to roads, bending of railway lines and subsequent train derailments, people burning feet on roadways, purchase of sunscreen, fires caused by sunlight on broken glass, cracks in render... I could go on. Has she really though this through? I don't think much of her claim, "I am not stupid, I know the law," as I really don't think that she has seen how much trouble she could be asking for. And how many jurisdictions would she have to defend herself in? What do the communist states think of this?

What sort of money raising taxes has she imagined? Is she going to charge a commission from every state/country that uses daylight savings? Will we have to pay a commission of the solar energy collected on our roofs? What about those countries that are in the Artic and Antarctic circles and experience 24 hours of sunlight - will they pay more but get a rebate in winter? Will the charges be in Euros? What about countries that are not able to access foreign currency?

I think that it will be some time before a more stupid idea is brought to life. Maybe she had a siesta in the sun for a little too long. Or received a great dose of sunstroke herself.

Who Wants To Bowl For Australia?

The Australian bowlers, with the exception of Peter Siddle in England's first innings, where he picked up a hat-trick, struggled to make any sort of impression in the first test match at the Gabba. So, who is going to be dropped and who will replace them?

Mitchell Johnson didn't have a great game. In fact, it was the first test match, his 39th, in which he failed to take a wicket. Coupled with his duck and a regulation dropped catch he didn't have a great match. By those figures Marcus North appears positively lethal with his score of one with the bat and all of the England wickets that fell in the second innings (one). North could even elevate himself to a frontline bowler with that effort.

I'm an admirer of Johnson. He's terrorised batsmen and performed very well for his country. On a wicket that offered nothing for the bowlers as the match went on I don't think that he can be singled out for his lack of penetration with the ball. Get rid of the moustache and the sleeve tattoo and he'll be back to his best.

Siddle will probably hold his place. Hilfenhaus, who bowled beautifully at times, is also under the pump. But the coach doesn't want to make wholesale changes. Let's see how much fortitude the selectors have.

Still, Dougie Bollinger looks a likely replacement and Ryan Harris, if he wasn't susceptible to injury, is also making a strong case for a call-up. I think that getting a match at the Adelaide Oval for a fast bowler is a bit of a poisoned chalice as it's usually a flat track and doesn't offer the quicks much. Look at England to post around 600 runs in an innings.

Overheard on the Bus

A few weeks ago I overheard part of a conversation on the bus. A women said to a guy, "I worked with a guy who suicided himself."

Suicided himself? Sure he didn't suicide anybody else? Talk about murderising the English language. Maybe Dr Death could have suicided somebody else.