Interesting Facts

According to several newspaper reports and blog sites, the Tory party in the UK has deleted all the promises made before the election. (In what must have bee a frenzy of clicking "Del" all pre-election pledges have been removed from their website: Every article, speech and press release. And if you want to hear something even more sinister, they are using a “robot blocker” to ensure the documents are hidden from search engines and removed from the ‘Internet Archive’ an online library that aims to build up a permanent record of web content. A Conservative spokesman said: "We're making sure our website keeps the Conservative Party at the forefront of political campaigning. These changes allow people to quickly and easily access the most important information we provide..." Nice to see how they regard their promises. They went on to say that they are simply making it easier for people to “quickly and easily” access information on the site, but obviously only the...

Dogs are loyal to anyone, or even anything, that feeds them. (A new study, led by  Gabriella Lakatos,  has found that dogs will even bond with robots as long as they are holding a can opener. So much for man's best friend! They'll be anyone's friend, as long as there's something in it for them. Hmmm - a bit like humans really.) Sources: Daily Mail  | Springer Publishing

A humanoid robot has conducted a wedding ceremony in Tokyo. (The happy couple Tomohiro and Satoko Shibata had their ceremony in a rooftop garden restaurant in Tokyo's Hibiya area, where The four-foot tall wedding-machine, called the i-Fairy, officiated. The robot was built by Kokoro, a subsidiary of Sanrio, the company that created that cute cat Hello Kitty. It's all very clever guys, but I'm still waiting for a robot that will do the housework for me.)

A security robot that can be operated remotely by cellphone and launch a net to capture an intruder has been invented in Japan. (The robot, jointly developed by robot developer tmsuk Co. Ltd. and security company Alacom Co. Ltd., is loaded with sensors that detect anything untoward in an office building. It can move at a 10 kilometres (six miles) per hour. The average human is loaded with sensors, and we're faster.)