Robots

choi

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(1) Robots   |  Zoobotics; A new generation of animal-like robots is about to emerge from the laboratory. Economist, July 7, 2011
http://www.economist.com/node/18925855

Note:
(a) phylum (n; New Latin, from Greek phylon tribe, race; First Known Use: 1876):
" a group that constitutes or has the unity of a phylum; specifically : a primary category in biological taxonomy especially of animals that ranks above the class and below the kingdom"
www.m-w.com
(b) R2-D2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R2-D2
(a character in the Star Wars universe)
(c) C-3PO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-3PO
(a character from the Star Wars universe)
(c) Sony's AIBO i acronym of Artificial Intelligence roBOt.
(d) cephalopod 頭足 (類)
(e) lamprey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprey
(jawless fish; adults are characterized by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth; Translated from an admixture of Latin and Greek, lamprey means stone lickers (lambere: to lick, and petra: stone)./ While lampreys are well-known for those species which bore into the flesh of other fish to suck their blood, most species of lamprey are non-parasitic and never feed on other fish.)

(i) Sindyan N Bhanoo, Simpler Fish Held On Long Past Jaws’ Arrival.
New York Times, July 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/science/12objaw.html?scp=1&sq=jaw%20fish&st=cse
("It was not until the Devonian period, about 420 million years ago, that fish evolved jaws; before that, fish had to suck in their prey with their mouths. By now, only two types of fish are jawless — lampreys and hagfish")
(ii) thevalleyboy1, Lamprey Swimming in River. YouTube, Mar 1,2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOyht5jGuwA

(f) GerbilGod7, Stanford StickyBot III. YouTube, Apr 15, 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y2MVuSyQlg

There is no need to watch this 5:41-minute-long video, for the host just kept talking without any demonstration whether, and how, it can walk vertically. But a glance will give you an impression how big the robot is.
(g) Etruscan shrew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_shrew
(the smallest known mammal by mass, weighing only about 1.8 grams on average)

(i) Etruscan (adj): "of, relating to, or characteristic of Etruria"
(ii) Etruria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruria
(h) EPFILLIS, AirBurr Prototype v1. YouTUbe, Oct 22, 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD64IqGEawg


(2) 视频：伊斯坦布尔的机器人世界杯. BBC Chinese, July 12, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/multimedia/2011/07/110712_vid_robotcup.shtml

My comment:
(a) What is important to me, a layperson, is that once a robot fell, it can jump right back erect, with both hands bending backward toward the back (and floor).
(b) Do not forget to see at the bottom of teh same web page, 相关内容, whoch shows

视频：足球机器人是如何炼成的？  BBC Chinese, July 8, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/multimedia/2011/07/110708_vid_robot_football_b.shtml


(3) John Markoff, In Search of a Robot More Like Us. New York Times, July 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/science/12objaw.html?scp=1&sq=jaw%20fish&st=cse

My comment: Please see the video clips AND graphic first. After completing a clip, do NOT use backward button of the web browser to return (for this will bring you back to the text); instead click one of the four PHANTOM video clip images in the top horizontal portion to reach the next clip you want to watch.


---------------------------------Separately
David A Price, How Google Got Going; Branding, shmanding, a marketer was told. 'If we can't win on quality,' Larry Page said, 'we shouldn't win at all.'  Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576351650017002270.html
(book review on Douglas Edwards, I'm Feeling Lucky; The confessions of Google employee number 59. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011)

Quote: "He was a marketer in a company where marketers seemed to wield only slightly more influence than the cleaning crew.

Note:
(a) The two words "branding shmanding" come as a pair. What does it mean? I do not know.
(b) epigram (n; from Greek epigraphein to write on, inscribe, from epi- + graphein to write):
"1: a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought
2: a terse, sage, or witty and often paradoxical saying"
(c) tiff (n): "petty quarrel"

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