Caltech and JPL Build 50ft Robot 147
OctaneZ writes "NASA announced that they will enter, in cooperation with Caltech, a 50ft robot in the Rose Bowl Parade - unfortunately it will be made entirely of flowers and will not attempt to enslave the crowd. However, they have mounted a camera to it, which will allow you to view the parade from the top of their creation."
Obligatory Slashdot cliche (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Slashdot cliche (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, but so they think! First hayfever, then the world!
Re:Obligatory Slashdot cliche (Score:3, Funny)
Now a 50ft Bender would be something...
Re:Obligatory Slashdot cliche (Score:1)
Re:Obligatory Slashdot cliche (Score:3, Funny)
A girrrlllll robot!
This is going to be the best parade ever!!!
Re:Obligatory Slashdot cliche (Score:1)
Re:Obligatory Slashdot cliche (Score:2)
El Seed lives! (Score:1)
Where is The Tick when we need him?
Spoon!
Re:Obligatory Slashdot cliche (Score:1)
Lovebot Conquers All (Score:2)
Sounds almost like something a certain Bob the Angry Flower [angryflower.com] would be behind. And if he's behind it, it'll definitely try to enslave humanity. Until he gets bored, of course...
Hooray!
Re: (Score:1)
Wow! (Score:2, Funny)
Or is it a shover?
Re:Wow! (Score:2)
How do you know... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How do you know... (Score:3, Funny)
I've always been afraid of flowers. I'm not sure why, but I think it may go back to when I was a child in the garden and a flower killed my father.
Theme music? (Score:4, Funny)
Someone tell Optimus - there's a new competitor in the garden!
Re:Theme music? (Score:3, Informative)
It is the year 2005, the treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobot's home planet of Cyberttron. But, on secret staging grounds, on two of Cybertron's moons, the valiant Autobots plan to retake their homeland.
Re:-1 Not Funny (Score:2)
Robot of Roses (Score:2)
Re:Robot of Roses (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Well.... (Score:3, Funny)
But at least they'll get a short-tempered, socially inept 14-year-old kid to pilot it, right?
Re:Well.... (Score:3)
Wellll.. (Score:2)
Re:Well.... (Score:1)
We'll just get one of the freshmen to pilot it.
Pictures? (Score:1)
Re:Pictures? (Score:1)
Re:Pictures? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pictures? (Score:1)
Photo available here (Score:2)
Er... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or did someone maybe mean it would be covered in flowers?
Re:Er... (Score:1)
This strikes me more as "animatronic" than anything else.
Re:Er... (Score:3, Informative)
"Hundreds of volunteers from JPL, Caltech, their families and friends, and some local high school clubs are decorating the float. It is covered from head to toe with flowers, seeds and other natural materials. Decoration takes place at Rosemont Pavilion, next to the Rose Bowl. Today and tomorrow crews are working from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. (PST), and on December 31, as late as needed, to complete the float. Caltech manages JPL for NASA."
Furthermore, i
Re:Er... (Score:2)
Re:Er... (Score:1)
Flower Power baybee! (Score:2)
Let the bot have his self-respect (Score:5, Funny)
I imagine the look on the robot's face will be similar to the look my dog gets when my wife puts him in a Christmas sweater or when he has one of those stupid bows on his head from the groomers
Who the heck is running the show at NASA these days, Martha Stewart?
*ACHOOO!* (Score:5, Funny)
Well then it's not nerd news! Let me know when the enslaving starts, not the allergies.
Re:*ACHOOO!* (Score:1)
Me, I got allergy shots when I was a kid. HAH HA!
Sigh. If only that was the only characteristic...
Wrong size and Armor (Score:5, Funny)
Tax Dollars... (Score:4, Funny)
Hmm, no, that doesn't cut it.
"Your tax dollars at play."
"Your tax dollars on parade."
Dunno.
Anyway, it was probably a lot cheaper to build than most things they lob up into space, so I won't fret.
Scientists are big kids (Score:1)
Oh, please!!
Next time they will build some flying reindeer-robots for Santa or walking apple-pie-robots for Mothers Day!!
Nice budget planning!
Re:Scientists are big kids (Score:2)
Re:Scientists are big kids (Score:2)
Re:Tax Dollars... (Score:1)
Are you sure about that ? You know how much a dozen roses or a floral arrangment goes for these days ? The amount of money the floral industry makes pushing disposable flowers for ooohs and aaahs and future activity with Mrs. Slashdot User probably makes the guys at NASA salivate.
Re:Tax Dollars... (Score:2)
Re:Tax Dollars... (Score:2)
Re:Tax Dollars... (Score:2)
(And yes, I know about Caltech's rather impressive funding from private foundations, particularly as it relates to the Keck observatory - I've taken tour groups into one of the Keck domes more'n a couple times, and work "across the way" from Keck.)
Hidden Purpose? (Score:4, Interesting)
Bigger than big, stronger than strong! (Score:2)
FASA Studios (Score:1)
yeah right (Score:5, Insightful)
famous last words...
"I, Robot" quote (Score:2)
- Somehow "I told you so" just doesn't quite say it.
Direct Link to Video (Score:3, Interesting)
I am the flower robot (Score:2)
Do you have stairs in your house?
Re:I am the flower robot (Score:1)
Do not trust the pusher robots! (Score:2)
I, Florbot (Score:2, Insightful)
humanoid-shaped-robots = space = the-future
right out of the 1950's. I'm guessing some baby boomers might think it's amusing, but most kids will sort of scratch their heads and think, "but... it doesn't DO anything!"
Re:I, Florbot (Score:2)
That's okay, the kids will still get to see all the amazing tasks performed by the other floats.
I think I saw a movie about this once... (Score:1)
Flower covered? (Score:1)
I’m really disappointed! (Score:3, Funny)
Just another damn peaceful robot!
But but they still can at least mount an additional 100mW green laser [slashdot.org] and try to blind [slashdot.org] nearby flying airplanes!
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I’m really disappointed! (Score:1)
Bye-bye childhood (Score:1)
no such thing as rose bowl parade (Score:1)
It's the Rose Parade, Not the Rose Bowl Parade (Score:3, Informative)
Not the Rose Bowl Parade (Score:2)
It's not the "Rose Bowl Parade", damnit. It's the "Tournament of Roses Parade". The parade was started decades before the football game became a standard part of Pasadena's New Years Day celebration. It would be far more accurate to call the game the Tournament of Roses football game than the other way around.
50ft (Score:1)
Make sure your Old Glory premiums are paid (Score:1)
And when it grabs you in its flowery metal claws, you can't escape. Because they're made of metal and flowers.
Re:Make sure your Old Glory premiums are paid (Score:2)
"I'll take the rapists for 200."
"thats Therapists"
Thought this was silly at first... (Score:1)
Flowery Death (Score:2, Informative)
News cast (Score:3, Funny)
(if you don't get it, follow this link.. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055894/ )
Payback... (Score:3, Funny)
It would be a great way to even the score.
-ch
Re:Payback... (Score:2)
I'm betting on D.E.I.
50 Foot Flower Robot (Score:1)
Attack of the 50 Foot Love Robot (Score:2)
It looks like a giant flower covered robot Barney. It will induce nausea and vomiting as it sings Disney's "It's a Small World After All" along the entire parade route.
Thanks for sticking that song in my head (Score:3, Funny)
It goes out the door, it goes 'round the block
we pay hundreds of bucks to put up with this crock
It goes up, it goes down, it goes all around town
it's a long line after allllllll.
It's a long line after all, it's a long line after all, it's a long, long line!
Our crowning moment was getting escorted out of line for singing that little ditty by the Disney cops. I'd lik
Re:Thanks for sticking that song in my head (Score:2)
Bah.... (Score:2, Funny)
Perhaps Poppies? (Score:2)
Poppies are good for individual enslavement, and for highlighting the plight of the poor Afghani drug lords that we liberated.
Mabye its just a decoy... (Score:2)
Let me just be the first to say,
I, for one, welcome our new Botanical Robot Overlords!
Speaking on behalf of robots... (Score:3, Funny)
I also object to the stereotyping of robots as "automatons" [violently-happy.net].
Wait! We have visual contact! (Score:2)
Citizen Kane? (Score:1, Redundant)
will not attempt to enslave the crowd... (Score:1, Redundant)
(Crap, used a cliche from the wrong news aggregator)
50 Foot Robot? (Score:1)
Aaaa-chooo! (Score:3, Funny)
Unless there's a 50-foot robot made of antihystamines following right behind it...
I am Giant Bender, please insert girder. (Score:2)
It finally works.
Why are my tax dollars paying for this? (Score:2)
They can't even get the food supply to the ISS under control, let alone build a new launch vehicle. But they put resources into PR stunts like this. There's way too much "outreach" (read PR) at NASA. They need to close about half their centers, cut 80% of the PR operation, and focus on their core activity - putting stuff in space.
If Disney or Speilberg or Burger King wanted to pay for this, that's fine. But it's a misuse of Government funds for NASA to be doing it. I want to find
Zero tax dollars are going to this (Score:2)
Honestly, the only connection NASA has to this is that NASA funds the JPL, and some JPL employees probably decided to spend some of their spare time on the float.
DARPA Grand Challenge (Score:1, Offtopic)
Got my hopes up! (Score:2)
Caltech and JPL Build 50ft Robot
unfortunately it will be made entirely of flowers and will not attempt to enslave the crowd
Damnit, Slashdot! Stop toying with my emotions!
Reaction from JPL (Score:2)
One More Robot Learns To Feel (Score:1)
Nothing to see. (Score:2)
Re:Someone's gonna hit me for this... (Score:2)
I, for one, don't.
Re:Just following in Cal Poly's tradition (Score:1)
How is this flamebait?
Cal Poly Pomona started the tradition of entering a Rose Parade when both SLO and Pomona were still a unified entity. I'm sure it would not be unreasonable for Caltech to ask details about how some things are done with regards to how the Tournament of Roses wants floats to be.
Re:Wrong (Score:1)