Great Robots and Bad Stock Photos
Breakthroughs and Low Points in Science
Welcome to Are You Not Entertained? This is a newsletters about where science fiction and the real world meet, have a few drinks and share a laugh.
My current plan is to share a newsletter with a round up of headlines and stories on Thursdays.
Substack is going to put a big subscribe button right here. The rest of the newsletter is below.
A Goal Tending Robot
Robots have been around longer than science fiction. Wikipedia's wanders too far back into fantasy territory for me, but the legendary automata that read Buddhist texts sound like robots to me.
As a kid, I was enthralled with the creatively-named Robot in Lost in Space reruns, Tik-Tok in the Land of Oz, and the Avenger's Vision, even though he reminded you that he wasn't really a robot nearly every time he appeared in the comics.
While we don't have robots (or any other machines) capable of independent thought, let alone marrying Scarlet Witches or warning Will Robinson, modern robotics has made a breakthrough of note.
It seems like a silly way to use modern robotics, but getting a robot to move this fast and with this kind of accuracy is a breakthrough. It blocks 87% of goal shots from kids, so that's 285% from me.
Robot Falcon
In Marvel Comics, Sam Wilson AKA the Falcon AKA Captain America, has a falcon named Redwing. In the movies, Redwing is a modified drone that helps with surveillance.
Well, the real world is catching up; there are robot falcons now. They’re useful as a non-lethal way to keep birds away from airports where they cause trouble for planes and endanger themselves.
The World's Worst Science Stock Photo
There’s science fiction, and there’s fictional science. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Kit Chapman, held a twitter vote for worst science stock photo.
The final winner was in the tweet that announced the vote, and speaking as someone that brandished a soldering iron in the Army: Ouch.
There are a few worthy of honorable mention.
That’s it for the week. If you have any friends that you think may enjoy this newsletter, please share it with them!
Have a great weekend, and see you next Tuesday.
Refer a subscriber to my list from this link, to get a free ebook copy of Shadows of the Past!
Eric Goebelbecker
Trick of the Tale LLC
25 Veterans Plaza #5276
Bergenfield, NJ 07621-9998