Not everyone can be a BigDog

The BigDog is a four-legged robot developed by Boston Dynamics to traverse surfaces unsuitable for wheeled vehicles, such as ice and mountains, possibly to carry equipment or supplies for military and/or relief operations. There is a weird loveliness to its movement – the engineers should be proud. The latest version is shown here navigating various terrain, even recovering its balance after a hard kick to the side and a slip on an icy parking lot.

Now that you've watched that marvelous engineering achievement....

enjoy this ;-)

Learn more about Boston Dynamics and the amazing robots they are developing here.

I like kid rockers

Not Kid Rock...kid rockers.

Kid Rock can't hold a candle to these kids.

Here's Gauchos - three Argentinian brothers playing "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden in their little apartment bedroom. Lil' sis almost steals the show :)



This 10-year-old Japanese girl's solo keyboard performance of Kansas' "Carry on Wayward Son" makes me wish I practiced as much as Mom wanted me to. Love the feather boa and beret, and make sure you check out her stompin' footwork!



Enjoy :)

Bachelor's degrees overrated?

Well! As someone about to obtain a BSN at a fairly advanced (ancient?) age while also attempting to parent a teen who seems to want to go anywhere in life except war or college, this piece gave me a start and made my head hurt a little...

America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelors Degree

Significant points are the time it takes (6-8 years or more for most), the amount of financial aid a student or family must take on (and recover from) to achieve this goal, and the amount of students who shouldn't have been accepted in the first place, drop out in debt and end up in jobs they could've gotten with a high school diploma anyway. The author postulates that colleges should be accountable to the students and families that hand over these vast sums and be able to demonstrate results, much like a tire company or other purveyor of a product does.

Food for thought. I may come back to this later.

Contemporary Poetry

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
By George W. Bush

I think we all agree the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
“Is our children learning?”
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

The above gem is not my doing - it is a poem circulating the net consisting of malapropisms spoken by the Leader of the Free World. Don't take my word for it, though - snopes.com already vetted most of the utterances.

This is as good a place to start as any. I plan to post silly and lighthearted yet topical stuff for the enjoyment of any who might stop by. Most likely it'll only be me, and that's fine. Yet another lovely feature of the Internet :)