Are You Not Entertained By Dogs Wearing Cones?

06.17.11 Written by RoboPanda

A new winner had to be picked for the Green Lantern MIMOBOT.  So, if you’re reading this commenter MPR, check your email.

Stanley Cup riot gallery: The faces of Vancouver’s horrific sportsmanship [WithLeather]

More photos and video from the Vancouver Riots [Uproxx]

FilmDrunk Frotcast #52, with Dr. Trevor J. Blank, Fartlorist/Folklorist [Filmdrunk]

Game of Thrones hooker was a German porn star [WarmingGlow]

Galifianakis Multipanes Are The Best [Uproxx]

Facebook Can Lead To Federal Prison [TSS]

Al Bundy: Shoe Salesman, Jui-Jitsu Master [WithLeather]

Could Lulzsec Be An Inside Job? [Uproxx]

Fire-Breathing Tuba [Buzzfeed]

10 events that led to Randy Marsh’s divorce [Guyism]

A Gallery of Abandoned Roller Coaster Pictures [EgoTV]

A Hands-On Review of Five Artery Clogging Summer Fair Foods [TSJ]

I Have No Idea What DC Is Doing, and Neither Does DC [ToplessRobot]

Chet Haze Weighs In on the #DescribeYourPenisWithaMovieTitle Twitter Trend [Brobible]

VIDEO BELOW: Dog going up stairs while wearing the cone of shame [via SuperPunch]

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Canadian Customs Culling Comics?

05.11.11 Written by Dan Seitz

Hey, remember the bad old days, of the Comics Code and repressive censorship of one of the few truly American art forms because parents were terrified Batman might make their little Johnny gay?

Yeah, me neither. Most of us grew up during a time when the Comics Code was fading and Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, et. al. were hauling comics up to serious literary standards, and the idea of comics being a source of corruption was faintly ridiculous, possibly because there were new mediums for idiots to chew their fingernails over about their corrosive influence.

But, apparently, we’re back to it on our national borders. It’s so bad that the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has put out an alert about US Border agents taking your comics (fun fact: they can search you and take your stuff, even if you’ve done nothing wrong! Hooray freedom?)

Now apparently Canada is getting in on the act.
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Giggity: “World’s First Intubation Robot”

04.19.11 Written by RoboPanda

Helloooo, Nurse.

Dr. Thomas M. Hemmerling and colleagues at a McGill University created the world’s first anesthesia robot back in 2008, which was nicknamed (I kid you not) McSleepy™.  After developing a robot to knock people unconscious it only stands to reason that your next step is to draw a penis on their forehead and take pictures make a robot that rams cylindrical objects down their throat.  Giggity.

The Kepler Intubation System (KIS) is the world’s first intubation robot, because who better to install an endotracheal tube in a helpless, anesthetized human than a soulless machine controlled via a joystick? Montreal General Hospital must agree, because earlier this month they let Dr. Hemmerling perform the first robotic intubation with a patient there.  Also, there’s this sentence in the press release which I’m just going to cut and paste here for posterity:

Correct insertion of this tube into patients’ airways is a complex manoeuvre that requires considerable experience and practice to master. [McGill University via Medgadget]

That’s what she said.

And here’s a closer look at this machine’s biggest fan:

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Well This Is Awesomely Safe

04.05.11 Written by RoboPanda

A guy from Saskatchewan, Canada has built a working single-shot 12 gauge shotgun out of a pipe, a stapler, a sharpened drill bit for the firing pin, miscellaneous metal bits, and a piece of an old Croc to pad the butt.  This awesome dude also says on his YouTube page that he likes dirtbikes, tractors, electronics, MMA, and preparedness.  But sorry ladies, he has a wife and two kids.  You’ll just have to watch the video and dream of the lavish digs in Saskatchewan, Canada you could have been luxuriating in right now.

Warning: the video below contains harrowing scenes of watermelon violence.  Every year, over ten thousand watermelons fall victim to mutilation by fireworks, comically-large sledgehammers, or homemade staple gun shotguns.  For only 15 cents a day — the price of a cup of coffee nowhere near your house — you can sponsor a melon, gourd, or cucurbit.  We’ll even send you some photocopied letters possibly written by your melon, gourd, or cucurbit.  Will these letters explain what a cucurbit is?  There’s only one way to find out: by picking up the phone and sponsoring a Cucurbitaceae today.

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Skin Turned Into Blood. Ta-da!

11.09.10 Written by RoboPanda

An awesome medical breakthrough was made by researchers at McMaster University in Ontario. [Sidenote: I'm changing my last name to McMaster.]  They were able to transform skin cells into their choice of either red blood cells, white blood cells, a burrito supreme, or platelets without needing to regress them back all the way to the pluripotent stem cell stage first. Here’s the sciencey explanation for it that you can skip if it’s tl;dr.

The research team, lead by Mickie Bhatia, coaxed the skin cells into becoming blood cells via a harmless virus that carried a gene called OCT4 into the cells–this reprogrammed the cells, turning their developmental clock back part of the way. Then the cells were incubated in a mixture of cell-stimulating proteins, called cytokines, which directed them on their new paths as either red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. [80beats]

*puffs pipe* Quite so. Quite so.

Anyway, there are some awesome implications for this. Not only can it yield the blood cell type needed for a patient made from their own cells (eliminating rejection risk), but it’s also theorized to carry less risk of cancer by skipping the pluripotent stage. Also, previous research of this type only yielded fetal blood cells, which has a different hemoglobin type than adult blood.  Adult blood is generally more useful than fetal blood. Just don’t tell that to SharonAStone. It’ll cause more harm than good if she replaces all the blood in her bathtub.

[Hat tip to 80beats, with a boringass video available at NextBigFuture. Seriously, put some explosions and car chases in that video. Step up your game, science.]

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Speakers, Speakers, Speakers

09.13.10 Written by RoboPanda

Spy Films (makers of Nuit Blanche) were hired to do a commercial for the city of Toronto’s electronic waste recycling program. It has just about every local commercial trope jammed into a minute and a half, as well as some pretty funny quotes:

Vince: “We recycle them safely. No questions asked.”
Chuck: “We don’t want to know your business.”

That’s good.  I don’t think I owe anyone an explanation for all the “neck massagers” I’m gonna leave on the curb someday.  And yes, “Chuck” in the video is Mike “Nug” Nahrgang, AKA The Mustard Man.  Mind . . . blown.  Internet all up in this b*tch.

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