Category: Random

real-life Transformer prototype

Wouldn’t it be awesome to have your own Transformer?  That is, a car that turns into a robot.  The possibilities are, as they say, endless.

We’re still years away from such technology, but at least there are people working on it.  The video below shows a toy-sized prototype transforming car/robot built by Kenji Ishida and JS Robotics.  (Turn the volume down because it’s louder than it should be.)

If we ever get this technology to be life-sized and usable, one obvious benefit would be the need for less parking spaces.  Your car could become a robot and go inside with you, to bring you snacks at work and do chores at home.  (We’re gonna have to be really careful with how much artificial intelligence (AI) we give it, based on movies.)

Oh, and I definitely want mine to have that classic transforming sound from the original (G1) Transformer cartoons in the ’80s!  If it has to be played through speakers, that’s fine.  It just sounds awesome.  Here’s an example.

launching a toilet into space

Speaking of the lottery, I was recently involved in a lunch conversation where some people were talking about being super-extravagant if they won the lottery.  At some point, the conversation somehow gravitated toward toilets.  (I have some friends that get really random!)  I don’t know how the topics merged together, but someone said they’d have toilets that get launched into space when they get stopped up, or maybe even just when they’re flushed.  I don’t think toilets were meant to be disposable.  Also, I’m not sure what they cost, but given how many times a flush is needed for a normal household per day, that might burn through the lottery winnings fairly quickly.

Besides, can you imagine Earth being surrounded by toilets in orbit?  There would be toilets (full of poop) crashing into satellites and burning up on re-entry in the atmosphere.  The more I think about it, the more reasons I come up with for why that’s a crappy idea.

But I do admit that seeing toilets launched from someone’s house repeatedly might be kinda cool… that is, as long as they achieve orbit and don’t come back down.  There’s many obvious flaws in the scenario of them returning to the ground.  As cool as it would be to see a toilet shatter*, it would cause some serious damage if it hit something.

* Mango-Man says he’s seen a toilet fall off a truck and shatter into a million pieces and that it was indeed cool.  Too bad he wasn’t prepared to capture video of it.  It’s not everyday you get to see toilets break.  (Actually, I know someone who says he breaks his toilet on a regular basis, but more in a figurative sense.)

I’ve probably said more about toilets in this post than you care to hear about, so I’ll stop now.  But for the few who want more, there is a popular post here about toilet facts, and there are other posts about toilets (such as the motorcycle that runs on poop and has a built-in toilet).  You can use the search function in the sidebar to find even more toilet-related nuggets.  Hmm, that might not be the best choice of words, but this conversation is already in the toilet, so what does it matter?  🙂

funny baby care instructions

I just had my first baby, and even before that I figured I knew absolutely nothing about babies — I had never held one, never changed a diaper, etc.  But Mango-Man sent me this picture of baby-care DOs and DON’Ts, and this helped me to realize I do already know a few things after all.  Maybe I’m an expert already, because I knew all this stuff!  🙂

Do we need more super-sized burgers in America?

Saw an article the other day that started with this sentence:

If there’s one thing we need more of in America, it’s eight-pound hamburgers.

That’s something you don’t hear too often.  There might’ve been a touch of sarcasm if you read in-between the lines (even though it’s only one line).  Besides, who could even eat an 8-pound hamburger?  Probably not even Adam Richman of Man v. Food fame.

What we do need is restaurants offering more options on burgers — like to include copious amounts of bacon, fried egg, various cheeses, ham, different sauces (BBQ, chipotle, cheese dip), etc.  Actually, perhaps bacon should come standard on all burgers.  Why wouldn’t you want bacon on your burger?  [pause to venture deep in thought]  I got nothing.

This is just another reminder that Buffet o’ Blog needs some venture funding to start our own restaurant.