So I've seen a tornado form, and, like an idiot, just stood there staring at it -- until it started moving towards me, at which point I ran, and felt the wind pushing at my back, until I was about a half mile away. That was an exhilarating (and scary) experience; the tornado was fascinating and strange, like the winds had become a creature. A creature that, unfortunately, might kill me. So today I bring you, via the Bad Astronomy blog, a fire tornado that occurred near Mauna Kea in Hawaii. This... READ ON

It recently came to my attention that Christopher Walken has a history of doing spoken-word pieces, just reading stuff that sounds weird when he reads it (perhaps everything sounds weird when Walkenized...). The most recent Walken buzz blowing up on the web is a video of his reading of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (see below on this post). But I thought I'd take us back a few years to some of his earlier performances. Enjoy! "Three Little Pigs" "Hello children. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll... READ ON

On December 6, 1991, Leonard Nimoy tried to demonstrate to a roomful of people that William Shatner was a mean human being. What was Shatner's offense? He stole Nimoy's bike. A representative exchange: Nimoy: "He hurt me, badly. I want you to know that. Is this being taped? Is somebody taping this? I want it on record!" Shatner: [Kisses Nimoy's ear] "I wouldn't hurt you for the world, Leonard, but the problem was, every time they called 'Lunch,' you'd get on your bike and bicycle down to... READ ON

So let's say you want to teach a robot arm how to flip pancakes. Robots aren't known for their pancake-flipping abilities. In this video, researchers show how they taught one robot, using a pan duct-taped to the robot arm. Note that it's a "simulated" pancake being flipped; no real pancake could suffer this much testing. There's more technical detail at this page, but the gist of it seems to be: first, hold the robot's arm and teach it kinesthetically (much like you'd teach a chef); then refine the... READ ON