Liveblogging: Holy Crayfish Albany Batman!

Tomorrow, at 7:00PM, Albany Batman will be getting crayfish to boil for a Thanksgiving feast. It's going to be fucking tasty. Also, only the Albany Batman and ze Grif will probably be eating them. Rejoice!

This is a map of where he'll be heading, and along the way he'll be updating live from twitter.

Originally, the Great Detective of Albany was going to do a route around the Saint Rose campus, but this mission for crayfish, the tastiest of shellfish, surpasses anything else he had planned that day. If he's bored he'll probably hit up Saint Rose afterwords because he loves wearing his mask in public.

Stay tuned!

UPDATE: I'll probably leave a little bit earlier than 7:00PM, but I'll be updating live from my tweets to let the public know where I am if they want to high five me. 

Liveblog! The Albany Batman Tweets Begin

This week will start off the new segment The Albany Batman. Basically, the Batman is going to do some patrols of Albany's hot spots of crime (Muddy Cup, Bombers, Price Chopper, etc.) and see if he can thwart crime*. He'll also be doing signatures and kissing the babies.

Sunday, I'll be posting a map of Albany Batman's patrol, with Albany Batman's permission of course, so if you want to see the caped crusade-tweeter for yourself, try to find him in those designated areas! (This week the Albany Batman will probably just hang out around Muddy Cup and on the Saint Rose campus green, but if he's feeling ambitious, or hungry, he might hit another spot up! He'll update as he presses on through the day.)

After this first day, Albany Batman will probably only appear for parties, conventions, and special occasions. He's got other things to do, you know! Like drive around a bitching awesome batmotorcyclecarboat. 

So check out the tweets! Those are the equivalents to distress signals, you know. 

*hang out

Sure It Can Kill Everybody But It'll Cure Malaria!

Look, people need to stop fucking around with nature before EVERYBODY gets hurt.

Scientists want to cull the amount of adult mosquitoes? Well that's grand, but if you try to alter insects for the means of human progress, then something like this happens. Sure it's campy science fiction today, but one day the science involved might squash the fiction and we'll be begging our new mosquito overlords to grant mercy.

They'll probably not consider mercy an option at that point. They'll be too thirsty.

Kellogg's Let Go Of The Eggo?

This is some of the saddest news I've ever read. What does the Kellogg company expect us to do, make our own waffles!? (heh, interrobangs.)

While I don't go out of my way to purchase Eggo waffles, normally I skip breakfast entirely because I hate mornings and everything involved with them, but I do enjoy the waffle enough that I'm shocked and surprised that their production will be cut down so drastically.

You know what I think it is? I have this curse that if I enjoy something enough, it is destroyed. It's true, if I vocally say that I like something, expect it to be demolished. It happened once to this Chinese food place I enjoyed (they were evicted so a small business school could use their building) and then a local deli (it burnt to the ground), and both happened within a matter of weeks!

Eggos had been inflicted with my curse. I hate you, Eggos! I hate you very much. Please make a speedy recovery.

Robots Need Love Too, With Proper Legal Representation

I want to thank Rich for finding this article, and I want to thank Hurray for Mollywood! for the perfect image.

Lets skip to the most interesting part of this article, when Anna Russel, author of the article "Blurring the love lines", warns that when robots are smart enough, they will want the same legal rights that humans have,

“While this humanoid is a giant leap forward technologically, if a self-aware, super-intelligent, thinking, feeling humanoid is developed, the legal system will be hard-pressed to distinguish this creature legally from human actors on grounds not stemming from a religious or moral prejudice.”

One of the biggest legal battles which might arise, according to Russel? Sexual rights. People can't decide what is morally correct now just between human beings, how much more complicated will the laws be when robots are thrown in the mix, especially when the robots will be able to voice their own opinions.

The article was thought provoking, but I'm not sure if we will be able to create a fully conscious robot. And if we can, will we be able to program it to feel emotions, such as love and animosity? If you want more information about this dilemma check out the science fiction soon to be turning documentary Bicentennial Man. 

I'm still giving kudos to Anna Russel for her foresight. She's just trying to avoid the Matrix becoming reality (because we all know the robots will win if we ever war with them).

Web Comics I've Been Reading

Anders Loves Maria: Read it from the start. It's one of the finest comic dramas on the internet today. The only bad part is that after you get through its archive (you will, it's that good) that you will have to put up with the irregular posting like every other eager fan of Rene Engström. Also, NSFW. 

The Abominable Charles Christopher: Another great read, Karl Kerschl creates a very elaborate and entertaining fable illustrated beautifully. It's funny, tense, and occasionally tear-jerking. This comic updates regularly on Wednesdays, but that isn't enough! Gank a big hooler, this comic is great. 

Ornery Boy: This comic, created by Michael Lalonde, is a bizarre and hilarious slice-of-life comic, if life was always surrounded by unfathomable horror. Even though some of the acts depicted are truly gruesome, I wouldn't say that  the comic ever becomes NSFW. It's a really twisted, fun read! I believe this comic updates every Monday. (I'll give Lalonde leeway because he illustrates his comic in flash and frequently adds animation to his work. Kudos.)   

Wakka Wakka: An Email Interview with Roomba Pacman Engineer Maciej Stachura

At And I'll Form the Head, I've been freaking out for the last couple of days over the the Roomba/Pac-Man project. The original article I read at cnet left many questions unanswered, such as "will the project ever make its way into the consumer marker", and "how cool would it be if I could play with their creation." I think everybody deserves to know that.

So, I emailed the team over at their homepage with some questions. In turn, the Email was passed on over to team member Maciej Stachura who quickly replied with thorough answers.

Maciej Stachura, aka "Clyde", is working at Colorado University and was in charge of different aspects of the project such as creating the interface to the Hagisonic Stargazer, creating an unscented Kalman fitler for navigation, and creating a joystick interface for controlling the Roombas. His input was invaluable, and he's just the person I needed to get in touch with (if I ever wanted to play with their magnificent technology).