From IQ's to iPods

I have a potpourri of sites on other-than-human intelligence for you to explore this month. Begin first with the Social Robotics research of Dr. Christoph Bartneck of Germany. Dr. Bartneck delves into the "social aspects of human-robot interaction" in fascinating ways. http://www.bartneck.de/work/researchProjects/socialRobotics. See especially eMuu ("an embodied emotional robot") and Tony ("a robot as a distributed interface for time based media").

Another robot site features a fluffy orange creature called "Nervous". Nervous is an "interactive audio-kinetic object" with electronic music which reacts to the dynamics of the spectator's body. You'll find it at http://www.schuelke.org/nervous.html

If you're thinking of buying an iPod Video, take at look at this site, which features videos you can play online and also transfer for broadcasting on your iPod http://www.culturetv.tv

Finally we take a look at the apparent ability of parrots to understand the concept of nothingness. Although humans generally cannot grasp the idea of zero until roughly the age of three or four, researchers at Brandeis University have discovered that Alex, a 28-year-old African Gray Parrot with a pea-sized brain, understands zero well. http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1639.html. For more on zero, surf over to an article called "Zero in Four Dimensions" http://www.pantaneto.co.uk/issue5/arsham.htm and then to the Neo-Tech home page with its discussion of "The Propogation of the Zero" http://www.neo-tech.com/zero/part7.html

c.Corinne Whitaker 2006