Freaky Friday News: November 30, 2012

Popocatepetl, Mexico (from earlier this year)

Volcanoes!  They're Not Just for Breakfast.

This past month has seen interesting volcanic activity in Mexico and Central America - that is if your definition of interesting is "Oh, god! Oh, god!  We're all going to die!".  Six volcanoes have seen various level of activity, from continuous tremors to bursts of ash and smoke:

• Popocatepetl (Mexico) 
• Santiaguito (Guatemala)  
• Pacaya (Guatemala) 
• Fuego (Guatemala)
• San Cristobal (Nicaragua)
• Masaya (Nicaragua)

As of this writing, no one has issued evacuation orders. 

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From Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon

All I Want for Christmas is my... Wait!  Is that a Robot?

Why, yes!  Yes, it is.  

This week, artist and inventor Kogoro Kurata unveiled the Kuratas robot, the manifestation of his childhood dream to have a cool robot like the ones he watched on television (think Robotech).   At 4 meters in high and weighing 4 tonnes, the Kuratas robot is a bohemoth that travels up to 10 km/hour with its human driver.

That's right - you can ride inside Kuratas and use a controller to steer, open and close the hands, and fire either the guns or the rocket launcher.  Okay, so the rocket launcher only fire plastic rockets filled with water and the guns only shoot B.B. pellets and plastic bottles.  But the thought of having a robot I can ride in that shoots anything makes me happy.  It's a geek fantasy come true!

Sadly, it costs about $1.3 million to make one, so I think I'll just look at the demo model for now.