We are breaking the radio silence to note our presence at a few events this past weekend in the Greater NYC area, and to formally announce our surprise that there are whole subsections of the population who do not need to be told that “fire” is “hot” when under the influence of alcohol.

Super mega huge thanks to Bar2D2 and his people, Jamie and Julie Price, for coming out from Tennessee and showing their stuff. Here are Jamie and Julie at Maker Faire NYC, in the Great Hall at the New York Hall of Science.

Photo Courtesy Laughing Squid’s Maker NYC Flickr Stream

Here is another shot of Bar2D2 (the blue blur in the lower left) meeting his public at the Diesel-sponsored Superglued/Gawker Media Silent Rave.

This was a rooftop soiree for young and adorable media types who flocked to Gawker headquarters in lower Manhattan somewhere in order to get their high-energy drink on to the lilting strains of The Eclectic Method*. The “silent rave” part came when they busted the headphones out at ten pm to outsmart the amplified noise ordinances. Everyone was bopping and rocking with the headphones on while simultaneously talking over the loud music being projected into their gently tipsy brainmeats.

El Espanol Borracho made appearances as well, which were warmly regarded, but unfortunately no one seems to have any pics of the 95 consecutive flaming absinthe shots it dispensed in two hours at the Maker Day NYC party. If you or your next of kin have photos, we here at SB.com would very greatly appreciate them and reward you richly with robot stickers and alcohol.

UPDATE: Jason Naumoff thoughtfully forwards one of these official photos taken at the MakerFaire/Red Bull Create The Future event of Borracho in action:

Yours truly operating El Espanol Borracho, hair pulled back because there’s FIRE.

Borracho, sadly, did not make an appearance at the Gawker Party due to physics and a refusal of the management to believe that nether it nor its operator have ever set anything on fire *unintentionally*. Any disappointed fans of fire please write in to Rave 2010, c/o Gawker NYC and lodge your complaints.

Anyhow, a good time was had by all, the media flowed freely, as did the booze, and we look forward to continuing to gently gloat about parties we get paid to go to in the future, for your reading enjoyment.

*Not particularly germane to this post but we had to say something: Eclectic Method slaughtered with their remixes of David Bowie plus Rick James and Lady Gaga with the Talking Heads and Marvin Gaye and I think they quoted Buckaroo Banzai in there somewhere too, maybe, it’s all a blur. I don’t even like DJs, but these guys win. We even have it on good authority that Laughing Squid‘s Primary Tentacle himself would have come out if he knew they were playing, and he had *heatstroke*.

Hey there campers, we’re (as in, the royal we, as in, me) getting set to decamp to NYC, where MakerFaire NYC is calling all her tired DIYers, poor robot builders and humbled masses yearning to soak up all the cool projects people from all over the country are bringing to show off.

Among these cool projects is Bar2D2, the cocktail robot juggernaut, about which we have written in these hallowed pages before.

Jamie Price, the mad genius who figured Bar2D2 out, has a neat new Instructable that you should all read. Then, go make one of your own!

Incidentally, I am giving a talk about robots and various and sundry things Saturday and Sunday at Makerfaire NYC, on the Make Demo stage. Come by and say hi!

Photo Courtesy Buzzsugar

The White House identifies robots as a darn good thing in which to get interested:

In July, the heads of the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy identified robotics as one of the Administration’s R&D priorities for the President’s FY2012 budget.

Robotics is an important technology because of its potential to advance national needs such as homeland security, defense, medicine, healthcare, space exploration, environmental monitoring and remediation, transportation, advanced manufacturing, logistics, services, and agriculture. Robotics is also nearing a tipping point in terms of its usefulness and versatility as technologies such as software, chips, and computer vision continue to improve.

OSTP has been working with Federal agencies and the research community to identify concrete steps that the Administration can take to promote U.S. leadership in robotics.

Robotics Technology Development and Deployment! OR (wait for it. . .):

RTD2!

A big bloop bloop whistle shriek to everyone applying for this grant.

[Thanks Ken Goldberg!]

Ooh, your so *gentle*, turn my dials, you always do it *just* right. Adjust my mix, ADJUST IT MORE OH YEAH Say my alloy. Say My Alloy! SAY IT!

Was it good for you?

This video is an 18′ pipe with a 1/2″ wall being cut in half by an oxyacetylene torch for use in a kinetic art piece. We must find this kinetic art piece. Oh Yes. It is from BenderAutomatic’s YouTube page

[Thanks Lee!]

Hurray for the fine folks at Makerbot, making 3d extrusion printing the new cool thingy.

Chiggity check out the livestream here!

And I must really love Willow Garage because I am sick as a dog and should be in bed, yet I find myself compelled to note that PR2s are OMG totes available for consumer sale. But just to be frustrating I am linking to my friend Noriko Kageki’s fine, fine blog Get Robo, which has ALL the news on this – as long as you read Japanese.

[Thanks everybody on Twitter to contributing to my Lazy Blogger complex. I will take comfort in the fact that we are way more fun and pinker to read.]

CarNAYgie Mellon’s Biorobotics Lab has done the thing with the stuff and the smart people, only this time, IT CLIMBS TREES.

Ray, it’s looking at me, Ray. . .

[Thanks Singularity Hub!]

This is cool if only for the head control thing, and the ability to annihilate the people in the cube next to you.

Incidentally, SRL did the head control thing with the Air Launcher way that many years ago, but if you have FREAKIN’ LAZZORS and the will to destroy you tend to always be ahead of the curve.

[Thanks Botjunkie!]

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle In Shark Bite Horror:

An Autonomous Underwater vehicle used for exploring the Gulf oil spill has been chomped on the hiney by a shark. From Keysnet:

Waldo, the 6-foot autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) spent 28 days at sea and found no significant traces of underwater oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill after being launched July 19th. It did however encounter a shark, when that shark bit into and damaged Waldo’s rudder.

The best part about this shark’s timing is the fact that it probably bit Waldo during Shark Week. That shark’s publicist is totally worth the money.

Here’s the main post about Waldo’s close encounter, and a bit more about what exactly the AUVs do, from NRDC, the kindly hippies who, along with Oceana, and Mote Marine Laboratory, launched Waldo on his mission:

The autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) like Waldo run for approximately 30 days at a time and NRDC’s sponsored run of Waldo ended on day 28 – after he had transmitted roughly a ½ million water sample points – when a shark bit into and damaged Waldo’s rudder and his left wing was lost. Since then, the robot has been recovered and hopefully will soon be out for another run with 7 other gliders to monitor for the oil from the submerged plumes of oil droplets in the Gulf. Just yesterday, scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution confirmed the existence of a submerged oil plume from the Gulf spill that’s at least 22 miles long – an AUV was critical to this discovery. Additional AUV runs should help us keep track the route of this oil.

It has been noted that the presence of a shark in a giant, oil slicked disaster zone was actually a really good sign that the sharks in the Gulf have not been completely destroyed by the folly of man. It is also a sign, however, of exactly how pissed the sharks are and what they’ll do if they ever find out that the oil leak was our fault.

[Thanks Botropolis]!

For God, For Country and for the Furtherance of Robotic World Domination, via the Yale Grab Lab. As we used to say in the marching band, “Guinness: It’s what’s for breakfast”

Via Engadget, Technology Review, and every other damn place.