This video shows a “pack animal” robot designed to crawl up mountains, on ice, through snow, carrying 340 lbs. The way this “animal” adapts to terrain is unbelievable. Created ( by Boston Dynamics, an engineering company “Dedicated to the Science and Art of How Things Move.” If you have no interest in futuristic army technology or the replacement for Sherpas, then have a nice day; otherwise, brought to by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, here’s The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth, “Boston Dynamics Big Dog:”

To demonstrate our WY-centric station carriage, mentioned in post prev, our graphics team has prepared this map:

That’s right, there’s a new toy in town, Google Charts: online generation of graphs, charts, and data-driven maps. Thanks, Jon, for telling me about it and making me waste my morn — you know I can’t resist to trying new tech. Or as Jon graphically points out:

The Thermopolis transmitter of Wyoming Public Radio was off-air. To fix it they needed to get up past three feet of snowdrifts, over three inches of ice, and into 40-mph winds blowing snow sideways across a cloud-covered hilltop. A four-wheel drive wouldn’t make it; a rental Sno-Cat would have taken days to find; and snowmobile travel would have been dangerous with the weight and bulk of the gear and parts needing transport. So how did Chief Engineer Reid Fletcher and Program Director Roger Adams make their mid-winter ascent? Hint: “Giddyup.”

A trombone takes fire, ice, wood, and greased steel balls to become a musical instrument. Filmed at the S.E. Shires company, from Discovery’s Science Channel series, “How It’s Made - Trombones:”

The people who master music CDs have gone compression crazy, sez this Rolling Stone article “The Death of High Fidelity.” In this “loudness war,” fought for the ears of radio listeners, their sonic weapons maximize a constant volume by boosting the softer sections, clipping the peaks, and squishing the dynamics,. What’s left is a flatline of loud, like the soundwave to the right (of an Arctic Monkeys song).

via SALT-y Rob.

From September’s Wired: Hackers Take Down the Most Wired Country in Europe.

A fairly chilling account of internet vulnerability that reads more like one of William Gibson’s or Bruce Sterling’s fictions.

The ramifications of an attack such as this are reasonably severe — and yet this is the first I’d seen or read any news on the subject, even considering the number of tech.-related publications I regularly peruse.

Boon Doc breaks down da beats:

From the IMAX documentary “Straight Up! Helicopters in Action:”