When we started this blog it was about half First Law related posts, and half posts full of mad science, crazy robots, and random musings on how we’re all living in a science fiction novel but haven’t realized it yet.  I guess we’ve had a lot more First Law news to report on lately, which is definitely a good thing, but I miss the mad science!

With that in mind, here’s a whole bunch of madness that’s been littering my desktop, crying out to be shared:

• Apparently Cyber-Eyes really aren’t science-fiction anymore.  Here’s an honest-to-god retinal implant that’s restoring sight to people blinded by a degenerative eye disease.
  
  (via FastCompany)
  
  
• Google recently developed a new automated car.  As in, a Prius that drives itself with no human control necessary.  Apparently they’ve even tested them out on public roads, although as far as I know there’s no footage of that yet.  At least now when the inevitable robot uprising enslaves us all, we can take some solace in the fact that the robots will be hybrid-powered, and getting great gas mileage!
  
  (via Engadget)
  
  
• I loves me some digital graffiti! A group in Berlin has been hacking digital advertising projectors with prisms, turning the omnipresent commercial interruptions into interesting works of art.
  
  (via PopSci)
  
  
• Is this not the creepiest goddamn robot you have ever seen?
  
  
  (via IEEE Spectrum)
  
  
• Okay, this has been open in my browser for so long that I can’t remember where I discovered it, or what I was going to write about it: geloscopy.  Apparently it’s the art of divination through interpretation of laughter.  Like telling the future through reading tea leaves, but instead of drinking tea you have to tell someone a really funny joke.  Awesome.
  
  
• Alright, after that scary humanoid robot above, here’s a clip of some friendly and fuzzy robots singing a song. Ladies and gentlemen, The Rock-A-Fire Explosion!
  
  Oh god, I was wrong. They’re not friendly at all. The robots are taking over our music; soon musicians will be as obsolete, gone the way of auto-workers and Jeopardy contestants! Is nothing sacred?
  (via YouTube)