Page 317
Archive First Page Previous Page Next Page Latest
(Jon sez:)

Your Writer: Jon Kilgannon You know that guy who plays every single obstructive police sergeant in the world? The one who's been in Law and Order and pretty much every cop movie ever made? Yeah, that guy. You know who I mean. Anyway, imagine him voicing that sergeant up there.

In other news: The DARPA Grand Challenge. This is a brilliant idea, a contest in which contestants compete to get their autonomous vehicles across over a hundred miles of desert to a finish line without human intervention. Last year, all the vehicles failed within a few miles. This year, five vehicles finished the race. Stanford's entry won.

It's an immense step up from a complete disaster last year to five machines completing the course this year. Behold the upward-sloping curve of technology.

The reason this is so brilliant is that it cost DARPA (a U.S. military research administration) almost nothing, comparatively, and they get five working autonomous vehicle plans out of it. Also in this vein, and slightly more peaceful, are the NASA Centennial Challenges, which aim to do things like creating oxygen from lunar rocks, designing better gloves for astronauts, and working towards a space elevator.

Isn't living in the future grand?

(Mark sez:)

Your Artist: Mark Sachs Among other things, DARPA is known for inventing a little thing you may have heard of called the Internet. So it never hurts to keep an eye on what they're doing next.

If you're interested, I did this little CG over the weekend. Possibly as an allergic reaction to having to draw Henri so much.