Renaissance Grrrl

So you know those great robotics articles and such I've been touting about recently? Well pretty much all of them come from TechEBlog. And if you thought those weren't cool enough, here's another dump of some of the highlights. However, if you're into this sort of thing then subscribe to the feed yourself. Nearly everything is awesome, and those that aren't are still pretty cool. It'd be a waste of time for me to syphon any more over here (though the occasional over-the-top post might still leak on over). Now on with the linkage:

Tom Shelley's Emdrive

We all thought the reactionless thrusters of classic scifi were just a quaint plothole, but one day they may be de rigueur for space travel and very small scale robotics. And all without violating the laws of physics as we know them. (Warning, that site doesn't believe in paragraph breaks.)

"The design could greatly improve capabilities for acquisition and recognition of targets in space, as well as demonstrate the feasibility of long-range energy directed devices,"

The newest greatest telescope in Mexico has recieved some funding from DARPA, but "some Mexicans believe its military link teeters on the edge of unacceptable territory for a nation that prides itself on staying non-aggressive on the world stage."

Partner-type Personal Robots from Japan

Alas(?) no, it's not what you think. Though it does have a modest phrase vocabulary, can recognize faces, and more.

Well, I'm about to shove off. Before I go, these've been on my stack for a while, some of them you've prolly heard about by now, but I figured I'd share them anyways. No time for synopsis writing, but you know how it goes. So without further adieu, Link Roundup:

Super-fast broadband coming via cable

The Canadian Senate has approved a bill legalising same-sex marriages, following a similar decision by the lower house of parliament last month.

Nanotech cure for cancer

Is there a tenth planet afterall? and update

"Because cats can't taste sweets, they're cranky," joked Joseph Brand

Human flesh flavoured tofu?

Japanese develop even more realistic female 'android'

Spammer beaten to death, Russians celebrate

Uplifting, so soon? Ethics: Moral Issues of Human-Non-Human Primate Neural Grafting and more

And, I seem to have misplaced the link but, China and Malaysia have floated their currencies, uncoupling them from the US Dollar. Hypothesizes one Matthew Harris at Free Geek:

This could be very relevant to Free Geek soon.
As we are all aware from looking inside computers, many electronic components are manufactered in East Asia, including in China and Malaysia. For years, they have kept their currencies low, meaning it was cheaper than it should have been to import from them. That is one reason why the price of new electronics can be kept so low. Now that the currency will be more valuable, the price of imports will go up. This means that people will not be able to buy electronics quite so recklessly, and that they may be less inclined to discard the old ones.
On the other hand, it may lead to more inflation in the American economy, which will mean Free Geek will be able to sell items better, since we will probably be able to maintain our super low prices even as retail outlets have to raise theirs.
Also, this will make manufactring jobs, which have been fleeing this country, less relatively expensive, so their should be more jobs for workers.

And now I am well and truly off. I'll try to keep in some measure of touch, and once I return I shall give some posts on the trip. さようなら。

Today powersuits, tomorrow mecha. The day after? The World.

It looks like the first major step to self-replicating robots has been made. While these robots can't do much and they can only reproduce from spare parts not raw materials yet, I'm sure that'll come in time.