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Do you remember this handsome fellow?

It’s ASIMO, the wonder robot developed by the geniuses at Honda. The first version of ASIMO emerged in 2000 and a second on in 2005. I thought that they had stopped developing it at that point, but Honda has continued to tour the robot to many different shows until the present day so that leaves me wondering if we might not see another awesome reinvention of ASIMO in the future…

Here he (she?) is dancing and showing off his awesome motor skills (pun intended):

Needless to say, when I first heard about ASIMO I was a bit obsessed. But that’s not why I’m here today.

I was reading the Wikipedia article about Steve Wozniak, the other creator of Apple whom nobody hears about anymore. He plays on a Segway Polo team (didn’t know that existed either, did you? That’s because there are only 10 teams in the entire world). So I read about Segway Human Transporters, which most everyone knows about by now. But at the bottom of the page was a link to something called the Honda U3-X.

From what I can gather the U3-X made its world debut last November. It has only one “wheel,” which is made up of several small wheel-like things which actually the rider to move sideways as opposed to turning to the side (if that didn’t make any sense, the video will show you). It borrows the balance technology that was originally used in ASIMO to allow him to walk and move more like a human would. Currently, its lithium-ion battery will supply the rider with an entire hour of travel, and you’re supposed to carry it around (like a super-portable bicycle I suppose). But… the people riding on it… it all just looks silly to me! It’s like they’re just floating about!!

Though now that I think about it, floating about reminds me of magic carpets and things like that. (Can I get one that is painted the color of Aladdin’s genie?!)

So it’s pretty awesome. I’m not sure if it’s something I would ever use (which I probably won’t have to worry about because Honda’s coolest technologies rarely make it past the prototype stage) because at this stage it still only goes as fast as I could walk and, well, frankly I think I would look really lazy putzing around town on one of those! However, that doesn’t make it any less amazing. YAAAAAY!!!

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Almost three weeks in fact. Thanks to my choice to continue using free web hosting. Twice now they (I won’t name names) have caused me to miss big chunks of my 30-day-straight posting regimen a la NaBloPoMo… and then after that it seems like there’s no rush to get back to writing, since I can’t make up for those days that have already passed (and also because of the homework that likes to figuratively pile up on my desk when I’m not looking).

Meh.

On the brighter side of things, I went with some very good friends to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last weekend in beautiful (in a way) Indio, California last weekend. Indio is fairly remote, in the middle of the southern California desert, and too hot for my taste. Driving from the coast into the desert, you only see two things for about an hour: billboards and windmills.

It’s ridiculous to see a new billboard every ten seconds. For an hour. One … right … after … another. Get your tummy tucked. Don’t drink and drive. Lobster Wednesdays at the local casino. The same ads would be repeated over and over. It made me wonder if these were actually effective advertisements, in this remote location. Maybe they think that people will be convinced to buy these things because the billboards are the only things they see that didn’t come from the desert. Maybe the billboards help them identify with “civilization” and not feel so stranded out there.

I was wrong though; the billboards aren’t the only non-native species out there. There are also the windmill fields. I’m not talking little Dutch houses with spinny things on them and waterwheels. These are energy harvesters. The larger ones were probably 150′ high. They “grow” in rows just like a peach orchard would.

The bodies of these behemoths were tapered and white. I can only compare them to giant redwood trees. Though there used to be redwood trees larger than these strange creatures (and there may still be, I’m not certain). Either timeless redwoods, harnessing the power of the earth to tower over us puny humans, or visitors (helpers?) from another universe. Hopefully Earth helpers.

Because if they were against us, well, then I’m pretty sure that they have latched onto the ground and have enough windmill-propeller power to tow this little planet to whatever universe it pleases.

Uh-oh…

*ahem*

The coolest thing about Coachella? These guys.

I won’t explain, just dig the jams, okay? New album comes out June 15!

Man, I’m really out of it, blog-wise. I let my stream of consciousness run away with me… and I even managed to bring Devo into the convo.

Well… feels good!

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