Its a jungle out there – navigate with new Node Explorer

Visitors to the London Zoo at Regent’s Park will have the option of being guided on a two and a half hour trip by this new Node Explorer.

The interactive adventure takes visitors on a unique tour of the zoo to track a Zoo keeper that mysteriously went missing. Guests are taken along a series of challenges and questions, and at the same time are taught about the Zoological Society of London and its conservation missions.

OhGizmo! provides the specs:
Of course the gadget crowd will really only be interested in the Node Explorer itself. The handheld device is powered by an AMD Au1200 400MHz processor with integrated hardware video decoding and features a 320×240 TFT transflective touch screen display that’s specifically designed for use in direct sunlight. Content is either stored on an SD card or streamed via a wifi network, and is automatically triggered based on the location of the Explorer thanks to the built-in Fast Fix GPS chipset. On a 3 hour charge the device can provide an impressive 8 hours of continuous video playback, and not surprisingly it’s not only splash-proof, but is also easy to clean and disinfect.

Aside from that, Giraffes are so cute! Look at them, with those long necks, fuzzy hair and the way they chew those leaves… cute! (via OhGizmo!)

Super(hero)computer to cure cancer and other baddies

The Victorian Government announced a $50 million grant to develop a Supercomputer to seek a cure for cancer and other life threatening illnesses.

Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings, also speaking in the US city of San Diego, said the supercomputer would enable Victoria’s medical researchers to predict the likely resistance path of viruses to existing drugs.

“This will lead to major improvements in public health outcomes – particularly in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular and neurological disease, chronic inflammatory diseases, bone diseases and diabetes,” said Professor James Angus, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

Not mentioned on the press release however, is the long list of games the research team will be playing on this baby. (via The Age)

Facebook invades Russia, locals do not want

The Mongols tried it in 1223 and again in 1237. Napoleon gave it a go in 1812, and more recently, the Germans did it on this very day in 1941.

This week, Facebook launched an assault on the nation’s popular social sites, Odnoklassniki and VKontakte, by releasing a Russian version of the ever expanding Facebook.

Facebook is predicted to join the losers corner in the Russian online market, joined by fellow American companies Google and MySpace, who have both struggled to find solid footing in the foreign environment.

Experts agree that American companies such as Facebook need to be particularly careful and well researched when targeting culture specific markets such as China and Russia. Barriers exist not only in direct language translation, but also in the subtle and not so subtle differences that lie between countries.

There’s a Russian joke: A train compartment. A family: a small daughter, her mother and grandma. The fourth passenger is a Georgian. The mother starts feeding a soft-boiled egg to the daughter with a silver spoon. Grandma: “Don’t you know that eggs can spoil silver?” — “Who would have known!”, thinks the Georgian and replaces his silver cigarette case from the front pants pocket to the back one.

Did you get that?
No?
Exactly!
(via The New York Times)

Captcha is cruel, elitist

(via Reddit)

iPhone 3G predicted to be bearer of fun, naked imagined times (already is)

Technological advantages of the soon to be released 3G iPhone will make it a perfect breeding ground for the distribution of pornographic videos, says Time’s Jeremy Caplan. (Duh!) Farley Cahen, vice president of business development for AVN Media Network, claims “there are a few hundred iPhone porn sites now in use.”

The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection are concerned that more tech-savvy minors will be able to find a way to access this heinous immorality without their parents scrutiny, and request measures be taken to prevent this. This is just like that time they tried to ban illegal download of music. Remember how well that worked? Remember? (via Time)

Japanese toys attract lonely, rythmically inclined men

Japanese toy manufacturer Sega is taking the world by storm with their latest releases.

Sega has partnered with Hasbro to release a remote controled Automated Music Personality, or Ampbot, that can be hooked up to an MP3 player or iPod on its back.

Osamu Takeuchi of Sega Toys explains that “the Ampbot is for men who like robots and who as children dreamed of living one day with robots,” so hands off ladies, manufacturer’s guidelines specify male audience only.

Hot on the heels of this dancing robot is EMA, which stands for Eternal Maiden Actualisation, can kiss on command and loves Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain.

“Strong, tough and battle-ready are some of the words often associated with robots, but we wanted to break that stereotype and provide a robot that’s sweet and submissive interactive,” said Minako Sakanoue, a spokeswoman for the maker, Sega Toys. “She’s very lovable and though she’s not a human, she can do all those sick things live women wont do act like a real girlfriend.” (via The Age)

Japanese game show makes fun on English learners, proprietry spanking included

The idea of this game show is to not laugh at really funny footage of a Japanese man trying to read English text. A group of Japan’s best dressed and funniest comedians sit in a classroom, trying to keep a straight face as this dedicated individual attempts to weave his way through the complexities of our tongue, or be spanked should he break his staid facade. Family fun all around!
(via Weird Asian News)

Google launches Website Trends because they can

Google has launched Website Trends, which allows you to “get insights into the traffic and geographic visitation patterns of your favorite websites.”

Allowing you to compare up to five websites at a time, Google Website Trends lets you narrow your trend search by location and time frame, and gives you “Also visited” and “Also searched for” lists. How else would I know that Australians visiting PornoTube are really just hopeless romantics who follow up their happy time by searching for their true love on rsvp.com.au?

Google explains that “Trends for Websites combines information from a variety of sources, such as aggregated Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. The data is aggregated over millions of users, powered by computer algorithms, and doesn’t contain personally identifiable information. Additionally, Google Trends for Websites only shows results for sites that receive a significant amount of traffic, and enforces minimum thresholds for inclusion in the tool.” (Google via Techcrunch)

Paypal promises to pay for your Nokla mistakes

PayPal has announced that their buyer protection has increased to $20,000.

Happy shoppers will now have the increased confidence that if that really real $3,600 Louis Vuitton monogram real leather shoulder bag actually turns out to be a torn, vinyl shopping bag from the depths of mainland China, they will be reimbursed for their lost funds.

“We’re combining the power of eBay and PayPal to give all buyers and sellers more confidence and trust,” said Lorrie Norrington, eBay’s president of Marketplace Operations in a statement. “Buyers who pay with PayPal on eBay will be covered, with no limits, on most transactions.”

Judging by the comments on Business Week, the confidence and trust customers have in eBay and PayPal are is not exactly overwhelming. Particularly passionate is the simile loving sickandtired who compares eBay to “A Venus Flytrap. Pandoras box. Shes a beautiful horse but it dumps us in the drink when the show starts. Its race car that suddenly goes backwards and the door wont close.” (eBay via Business Week)

Robotic Fish fed once a day, stay away from flush, save the Whales

Robotic fish with flapping fins and tails have been programmed to swim in a school by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. They say that artificial fish with group behaviour could track marine pollutants or wildlife such as whales.

Each fish has an onboard computer, depth sensor, and compass, as well as a radio transceiver. During the experiment, the three broadcast their headings to each other, and used any information received to adjust their own courses.

Morgansen says that the group remained coordinated despite having to be reminded where they are going every three seconds. (Via New Scientist)