Hasta La Gadget!

Robots wielding dangerous weapons never seems like a good idea, but that doesn’t stop engineers from continuing to create them. Case in point, this ”Pruning Robot With a Power-Saving Chainsaw Drive.”

It was developed by roboticists Yasuhiko Ishigure, Katsuyuki Hirai, and Haruhisa Kawasaki, and is capable of not only climbing up trees, but dismembering them without human intervention. The robot can spiral its way up tree trunks ranging from 2.3 to 9.8 inches in diameter, and easily lops of limbs up to about two inches in diameter.

It doesn’t matter how much smooth jazz you play as it tears up the tree, slicing off branches. It’s still a deadly machine. While the machine could definitely reduce the need for human labor, the fact that it can climb and slice limbs seems like a horror movie waiting to happen. Imagine what this thing could do if it latched onto your leg. Eesh.

[via IEEE Spectrum]

Predators are the galaxy’s most fearsome and brutal warriors. They will rip your spine clean out, with your skull still attached. And they like to take trophies to remind them of their hunt. So a Predator would just love this tree with a predator head carved into it.

This entire carving took about 90 hours to complete and is the work of one Simon Patel from Walsall, UK. He is one ugly mother! No, not Simon, silly, the tree. Quick get to da choppa! Wait its just a hunk of wood. It’s all cool.

Bonus: his head is flat, so you could give him a different hat every day if you were so inclined. An Abe Lincoln hat, a beanie. Now that would be cool. It would also make this guy far less terrifying.

[via Obvious Winner]

Yokohama National University professor emeritus Akira Miyawaki, who to date has planted over 40 million trees in 1,700 locations in Japan and overseas, is continuing his tree planting activities not only in Japan but also on twice monthly overseas trips.

“After 60-plus years of local research, currently in areas inhabited by 92.8% of Japan’s population of 128 million, the remaining evergreen forests consisting of deep and straight-rooted trees including shrine forests only make up 0.6% of Japanese land.”

Iwanumi City in Miyagi Prefecture suffered tremendous damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake. To prepare for the next disaster, Miyawaki is promoting natural selection through mixed and dense planting of multiple types of trees as he advocates the creation of forests that do not require oversight. Iwanuma City has incorporated Miyawaki’s philosophy in establishing the “1,000-year Kibonooka Project” in preparation for the next disaster.

“A big challenge was how to resurrect the areas affected by the disaster. Given this background, we launched the “1,000-year Kibonooka Project” as something that will last forevermore into the future. One of the goals is to limit the destructive force of tsunamis, as well as to use the forest as an emergency shelter and on a regular basis as a place where children can come to learn about protecting lives. We also want to make this a memorial park that will remember the tragedy for a thousand years into the future. We encountered various limitations, but we created this project also with the goal of achieving efficient use of debris.”

Tide protection forests to date have primarily consisted of a single type of tree such as red or black pine. But shallow-rooted pine trees were uprooted by the tsunami and did not serve their purpose.

Miyawaki proposed to efficiently use the tremendous amount of debris created by the disaster as a resource excluding toxic and non-decomposable material. Sorted debris is mixed with dirt and used to fill dug-out holes to create large mounds that are further covered with dirt.

In planting trees, primary constituent trees are selected that grow long, deep roots and match the potential natural vegetation of an area. Three to five saplings of various other vegetation that make up the forest in addition to the main constituent trees are planted per square meter. This will require weeding for the first two to three years, but no maintenance is required after that. Twenty years after the tree planting there will be an abundant forest that will remain generation after generation until the next ice age predicted to occur in 9,000 years.

The forest will function as a green barrier, and by making the mound high it will also protect against large tsunamis. By reducing the energy of a tsunami, the mound will reduce the height and speed of the tsunami, thereby increasing the potential to protect people and property.

“To date, based on decisions made by leaders of companies with foresight, we have created Miyawaki-type forests in Japan and abroad.”

“38 countries including those where we have conducted local surveys. We have planted trees on four continents.We talk about greening deserts, but two-thirds of the deserts on earth have been created by humans. The remaining 10% or so of absolute deserts will not support forests. These absolute deserts should remain as is. But areas that have been destroyed by humans can support forests.”

Pride One Entertainment’s Yasushi Akutagawa, who has expressed interest in Miyawaki’s simple efforts to protect the environment, is thinking of supporting the forest building movement through film.

“We want the people of the world to become aware of Dr. Miyawaki’s great work. We are thinking of using film as a way to make this possible. We want to assemble a group of leading Japanese actors, screenwriters, and film staff members to depict Dr. Miyawaki’s life. ”

“Humans have survived by turning crisis into opportunity. Thus we want to do what can be done now to survive the next natural disaster that will definitely come–which is to create forests that protect lives–and spread this know-how from Japan to the world. We want to turn crisis into opportunity by spreading forests of the 21st century from Japan to the world and have the world recognize their value.”

This content is provided by DigInfo.tv, AkihabaraNews Official Partner.

Chandeliers add a certain flair to any room you put them in. They can be colorful or glittering with crystals, long or short, and wide or narrow, and fitted with lamps so they can aptly illuminate the room.

Forms of Nature is another chandelier, but it’s more of an art form since the light sculpture does more than just light things up when you turn it on.

Flicking that switch on will cast shadows of twisty and thorny vines and branches on your walls that looks the outline of a very creepy patch of woods. Kind of like the ones Red was running around in when she was running from her wolf of a grandmother.

Forms in Nature was created by Hilden & Diaz, which is a collaboration between artists Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz.

The light sculpture is described as resembling and being inspired by Darwinist Ernst Haeckel’s drawings and plots of nature. It is described by its creators as “artwork with a light source surrounded by a dense and unruly tree and root system created in minature sculpture. The forest is mirrored around it’s horizontal central axis and forms a circle 360 degrees around the light source and thereby leads one onto the notion of a real world versus an underworld.”

Forms in Nature has been such a hit that Hilden & Diaz are currently working on launching a Kickstarter campaign to produce 100 pieces of the light sculpture.

[via Geekologie]

As much as I like my Christmas Tree, I hate that it’s dead and it has to be thrown away. I wish I knew about alternatives like the invisible tree above. Next year there will be no dead trees in this house for sure. More »