Uncommon Tales

Nao NextGen, a step forward for humanoid robots!

2012-01-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

Almost 2 years ago Aldebaran Robotics released Nao, humanoid robot that was able to do amazing stuff like connect to the internet, play soccer and poker with you!

Only 2 years later the french society announced the new Nao, similar aspect with a ton of new features. It looks like a toy but it can compete for complexity with the most advanced robots on the market like Asimo.

The machine is provided with 2 cameras, tactile sensors, 4 microphones, face and voice recognition's software and a lot of other cool stuff. It is on the market only for researchers with an avarage price of 15,000 $ but the french society already said that they will improve it and place it on large scale market.

It will not be long till we'll walk with robots on the streets instead of pets, future is happening!

Thailand: Man marries dead girlfriend in a Funeral-wedding ceremony

2012-01-25T06:34:00.000-08:00

Recently a man married his girlfriend of 10 years in Thailand.
Chadil Deffy, placed a ring on the finger of Sarinya "Anne" Kamsook, in a wedding-funeral ritual, it happened in Thailand's Surin province. The cuple planned to get married long time ago but they never set a date cause Chadil planned to finish his college's studies first. Sadly his ex-girlfriend (now wife) died in an accident but that didn't stop his will to marry the girl.

Onsiri Pravattiyagul, a friend of them wrote an article on Bangkok Post. That's a part of it:

"Chadil wrote matter-of-factly online -- and would later give interviews in the same vein -- explaining that the motivation for this display was guilt, pure and simple: He felt he hadn't done enough for his girlfriend of 10 years while she was alive. Before her sudden death in a road accident, she had suggested that he marry her. But he had demurred, putting the idea on hold.

The "wedding" was his attempt to right a wrong, however belated the gesture might have been."

Can it be considered a "legit" wedding even if the girl didn't say "Yes, I want it?"

Maya: end of the world postponed to 2116

2012-01-18T03:47:00.000-08:00

According to Maya's prophecies the end of the World should happen December 21 2012. Although this estimation was wrong! So it was said by Bohumil e Vladimir Böhm , the first is a mathematician and the second is a Maya's history teacher. Following these brothers estimations we should expect the end of earth for 2116.

Studies where published on Astronomiche Nachrichten. It all starts by saying that Maya had different calendars: en fact the spiritual one was made by 260 days, the agricultural one of 365 days, their weeks were made by 9 weeks. Calculus made by the archaeologist John Eric Sidney Thomson which lead the world to think that the world ended 2012 were wrong cause he didn't consider the long war that interrupted their calendar missing entire years!

What to say,hopefully Mr. Thomson was really wrong and none of us (excluding the discovery of a new elixir to live longer) should see what happens. Even after these studies people are still making underground bunkers all over the world.

World record for the fastest skyscraper ever built

2012-01-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

It belong to China the world's record for the fastes skyscraper ever built by man (previous record was owned by Japan). The building was built in 15 days, 370 hours with 'occidental' safety rules, it can survive up to a 9 intensity earthquake ( 5 times stronger than normal buildings). Here the video.

Italian tragedy, Concordia cruise ship stranded by the coast

2012-01-17T06:41:00.000-08:00

It was an human error that caused a tragedy on italian's coast. The Concordia cruise ship was stranded in the costline near Giglio's island. The ship wasn't supposed to be that close to the coast but 2-3 miles away. Dynamics of the accident aren't clear yet, and probably never will. According to lastest news it was a captain's error which disabled the automatic pilot the main reason that lead the ship to collide on the rocks.
It isn't clear the number of death neither, as right now there are 11 deads and 26 lost passengers but these numbers are fated to go up. A phone call incriminates the captain who left the ship before make sure everyone was safe. Here's the phone call which accuses legally the captain.

The best ways to quit Smoking

2011-12-13T15:56:00.000-08:00

As a smoker writing this post for me it's a bit controversial and by now lots of you have already tagged me as a hypocrite for saying so probably. Truth is that because of my "addiction" I find it easier to talk about this subject and help those who are really looking forward to quit smoking.

There are way too many sites and too many ways discussed on the internet already. From my prospective most of them are just a way to scam people because none focus on the most important thing: why do you smoke??

Most of the people will answer to this question by saying that is a need, an addiction, something that your body require in order to work properly. Nothing is more untrue. The main reason people keep smoking is in their brain, we make our self sick even if involuntarily.

So what about the thousands of products like patches, e-cigarettes, books and therapies?? My answer is, they work, but not as we think. In fact most of them will just "help" you to decide to stop smoking, the final answer is always up to you; why spend money on something that should be free? Probably you just need a small input or some tips to change you smoking experience and make it become something you want to instead need to.

That's my answer, make it something you enjoy, something special, something you don't need to do every 15 minutes. In doing so a lot helped me roll my own cigarettes, why? It's cheaper, you can "personalize" your rolled cigarette by choosing different kind of tobacco, papers and filters. You'll find yourself smoking a 3/4 of the butts you used to in not an half due to the fact that you need "some time" rolling and they last longer with less amount of tobacco in each of them; making smoking a ritual and not an automatic movement.

My other suggestion is to find hobbies, things that drive you away from the though of lighting up a smoke, for me a lot helped writing or reading, playing a musical instrument, you got it, everything will work and the best thing about it is that not only while doing so you are not smoking, you're learning something new!
My last suggest is controversial probably but could be the better one if you're an hard smoker: have a cigarette always with you, look at it, bring it with you but DON'T LIGHT IT!! Time yourself and see how much you can "survive" without approaching a lighter to it.

Suggested book:The easy way to stop smoking.

Superhumans (uncommon abilities for common people)

2011-12-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

They're among us, they walk ours streets, it can be one of our friend, a sibling a parent. What's the difference then? They can do something that none else can. I'm not talking about Heroes as media presents them to us but real people with real job and a real house that have extraordinary mental or physical abilities, here a small list of the ones I believe are the most incredible.

Daniel Browning Smith, probably the most famous
among the superhumans. Daniel owns the title for "the most flexible man in the world" at Guinness World Records. During his life he took part in a bunch of commercials and movies that made him famous for his exceptional contorsion's skill.

Daniel Kish, I'm amazed by human nature every time i come across this guy. Daniel is been blind for almost all his life, strange thing about this is that he can still do most of things that require vision using a bat-like technique called echolocation.

Dear Karnazes, "the world's most famous ultra marathon runner". That's how the world describes a man who ran 50 marathons in 50 states on 50 consecutive days showing a not common durability, even a

movie was made. The same guy cycled for 40 miles (64km) from his house to his grandparent's for his 12th birthday, are you surprised?

Shaun Ellis, next level "communication". In fact he claims of his ability to "talk" to wolves. Obviously it's not a real "speech" but he can communicate to them through acting and sounding like one of them.

There it was, part of human's abilities I like the most, feel free to comment and tell us what your list of "superhumans" is.

Suggested books: Super Human, Brave men run, The touch.

The 5 most possible end of the world theories

2011-12-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

From Maya to Nostradamus many tried to make prophecies about the end of the world. Many of you are thinking about 2012 probably. But what really could be the most plausible theories?? Here I suggest my top 5

1.Disease Over the past few years lot of diseases started to show up across animals, included human race. Many the reasons, from unhealthy food given to farm's animals to growing vegetables with toxic fertilizers. Some diseases made more victims than WW2. The risk in case of a big epidemic would occur right now are bigger due to the fact that traveling it's easier and more frequent than the past.

2. Global warming Everybody knows about it, scientists warned us, the world's average temperature is changing due to pollution. Respectable authorities said that global warming it's gonna be irreversible in not many years from now and natural balances would be compromised.

3.Asteroid It happened in the past, it will happen in the future, but when?? That's the main question astrologers tried to answer for so long. Some of them say that the answer is not that far away, in fact 1997XF11 should be on his way to our planet with a chance of impact expected for 2028 and it's gonna almost cause human extinction .

4. Solar activity Sun's flares have been irradiating our planet since the beginning of the solar system. Luckily our atmosphere protect us from small and medium intensity flares but it has been proved that sun-like stars in other part of the universe can drastically change their brightness by 20 times. It is hypothesized that these increases are caused by super-flares that could be lethal not only for all living creatures but for our planet too.

5. Humans It is probably the most luckily to happen, war. A global war nowadays can be the end of our race due to the fact that over 20,000 nuclear weapons are estimated in the world. Even if someone survives at the explosion toxic clouds would remain in the air for many years killing people with diseases.

Suggested books: The end of the world, Brave new world, How to survive the end of the world as we know it.

30 years in the Wild.

2011-12-11T00:58:00.000-08:00

Dick Proenneke (1916-2003) spent 30 years in the wild in the Twin Lakes region after quitting his diesel mechanic career in 1967. After almost two years of planning he decided to move up north from Iowa where he lived with his family and build a wood-made cabin using only hand powered tools, most of them made by himself.

In 30 years of living with what nature provided Dick only few times went back to his own town and to the "civilized" world.

Once done his cabin had windows, a fireplace and it even had a waterproof roof. Next to it stands a cache that he used to store food and preserve it from wild animals.

Lucky Dick came back safe from that experience and shared his feeling and thoughts through videos and books.

I don't think something similar it has been done in many years and keep asking myself how would it be to be alone in the wild and experience nature at his best due to the fact that "human-free" places are rarer to find.
Even for not that long I believe that every human beign should try into the wild experiences in order to find a balance with themself and the surrounding enviroment to appreciate more what nature has to offer.

Book:alone in the wilderness

Video: