Some Science at Home

We used some science kits at home to do classical experiments. The first one was the potato battery, an idea that turns out to be far too restrictive. We tried a bunch of other fruits and vegetables, along with even more exotic items.

Equipped for science!

In the classic experiment, two metal sticks (copper and zinc) are stuck in a potato and connected by wires to an electrical device, such as a light or a digital clock. The kit we had contained two sticks of each metal, making a longer circuit and more electric flow. We wired up the potatoes and were able to get the clock to display the classic 00:00 flashing image. The chemical properties of the two metals cause a flow of charged particles (ions) between them but the metal sticks can't be touching. The potato allows the ions to flow from one strip to the other, creating a small electrical current. 

After trying and succeeding with both potatoes and sweet potatoes, we moved on to other items like fruit to see if they would act as conductors for the electric flow.

Behold! The power of lemons!

Oranges caused some weird display

Any conductor works. If a person holds the metal strips, a small current flows.

Using my children as batteries! Maybe The Matrix was right?

Even soda will work to conduct electricity.

I wonder if Powerade would be stronger?

The kids were happy to drink the soda. We turned the potatoes into hash browns. 

Power for human consumption

We had another science kit that was supposed to make a salt-powered robot. Building the battery out of charcoal and salt water did not work quite right, even using a rubber band to reinforce the wire connections. If we squeezed the battery between our fingers to hold the wires in place, the wheels would spin. But it would not run on its own.

Needs the patience of an Edison

The kids enjoyed the battery a lot, the robot not so much. Now if I can only get them to advance into the mad science genre...

Movie Review: The Iron Giant (1999)

The Iron Giant (1999) co-written and directed by Brad Bird

Hogarth Hughes is a young boy living in 1950s Rockwell, Maine. He's a smart kid who loves comic books, scary movies on TV, and his mom. She works at the local diner and loves him too, though she has a hard time putting up with all the pets he brings home (usually animals from the forest). Things change when a seeming asteroid crashes into the ocean. One sea captain at the diner claims there was a hundred-foot monster. Everyone else laughs except Dean, a beatnik-ish artist who runs the local scrap yard (and makes his art from the scraps). One night, Hogarth loses his TV reception and discovers the rooftop antenna is missing. He sees a trail of destruction leading off into the woods. He follows the trail and winds up at the local power plant where a giant robot (the titular Iron Giant) is eating metal. The robot gets caught in the power lines and Hogarth shuts down the electricity, causing a blackout. He befriends the alien robot and starts to teach it. Meanwhile, some locals have called Washington and a federal agent who is consumed with Cold War paranoia comes to investigate. Hiding a hundred-foot robot is not easy, so lots of comedy and some drama ensues.

The story is fairly straightforward and follows a familiar arc. The execution is so well done, it's hard not to love the film. Hogarth is very sympathetic and easy to identify with. The Iron Giant is mostly friendly though it does turn to violence to protect itself. It seems like some sort of weapon but Hogarth encourages it to be a hero like Superman. The Iron Giant can and does use its abilities for good. It becomes a threat when the federal agent convinces the military to fight it (because anything unfamiliar must be evil, right?). The artist is cautious about the robot but much more sympathetic as he sees its genial nature. The general who comes to town with the military follows the bad intel from the agent at the beginning. He switches once he sees the cravenly nature of the agent and that the robot only acts in defense. The robot rises to the occasion at the end, sacrificing itself for Hogarth and the town. The whole package is a very touching, well-executed, boy's adventure tale. We just listened to an audiobook version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Hogarth is very much like Jim Hawkins, and their stories follow a similar pattern of action, comedy, and drama. The robot reminds me of Babe, the pig who rose above his porcine nature to be a sheep dog through his love and kindness for the other animals on the farm. What's not to like about this film?

Highly recommended.

There's a great commentary on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #280. 

Movie Review: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) co-written and directed by Steven DeKnight

It's ten years after the events of the first movie and Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) is living a wheeler-dealer lifestyle. His dad was the big hero the first time around, giving great speeches and sacrificing himself for the world. Jake is not so great a man. He winds up with a young idealistic girl named Amara (Calliee Sapeny) who's built her own small Jaeger (that's the name for the giant robots) to get ready if the Kaiju (that's the name for the giant monsters) ever return. Personal Jaegers are illegal and they both get tossed in jail. Jake's sister bails them out, only if they join up with a new Jaeger program. That offer seems better than serving time. They head off to a Jaeger base to get trained for any coming problems. And problems definitely come when a Chinese company gets permission to build remotely-piloted Jaegers, putting Jake and his crew in career jeopardy. When the Jaegers go rogue, they also face physical jeopardy.

The movie lopes along at a good pace, not worrying too much about the details. Even though they try to go bigger than the first movie, this one is not as compelling or as exciting. The mythology is developed a little bit and the fun scientists characters from the first film are back and play major roles. The main focus is on telling a fun story, which they deliver on. The actors are good and the fight scenes are entertaining if not as imaginative as the first film.

Mildly recommended--this is really for Pacific Rim fans.

Book Review: One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale

 One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale

Three kids are scavenging a post-apocalyptic landscape when they find a robotic horse buried in a tunnel. The tunnel turns out to be an elevator shaft, down which they go. At the bottom they find a room full of electronics, screens, and robots. They turn on some stuff, which turns out to be a bad decision. The pipers come. The pipers are giant, odd-looking creatures who steal technology by forming bubbles around the equipment. The pipers seek out active machines and electronics. The kids flee on the horse, hoping to lose the pipers and make it back to their village. The village is a mobile town with minimal electronics. It's always on the move and always collecting choice bits of technology. The villagers are trying to save human knowledge in hopes that the apocalypse will end at some point and civilization can be restored.

The story is intriguing and a different take on the post-apocalyptic genre. Hale's art is very similar to his Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series, with minimal colors. The humor is very similar too, though this is a bit more of a serious story and is based on a story his grandfather told him.

Recommended.

Dual/Duel Review: Uno Roboto vs. Uno: Doctor Who

Dual/Duel reviews are an online smackdown between two books, movies, games, podcasts, etc. etc. that I think are interesting to compare, contrast, and comment on. For a list of other dual/duel reviews, go here.

Uno is such a popular game that has come out in many different variations, hoping to increase sales. Two variants are the subjects of our smackdown today: Uno Roboto and Uno: Doctor Who. In addition to sharing a sci-fi vibe, they definitely look like two robots ready to battle it out:

The contenders

Let's clear up one issue first--yes, I know that Daleks are not robots. In fact, this particular Dalek is just a stylish carrying case for the deck of cards. The cards also have a Doctor Who theme, with visuals borrowed from the rebooted version of the show. Otherwise the deck is mostly the same as a regular Uno deck--four colors of cards with numbers and some specialty cards.

Sample cards

The various Wild Cards (and the back of all the cards)

The one difference is the "EXTERMINATE" Wild Card. When played, the player with the fewest cards in hand has to draw four cards. The regular Wild Draw 4 makes the next player (who may not be the one with the fewest cards) draw four. So the game plays mostly like a regular Uno game.

Uno Roboto comes with a standard Uno deck along with the fun plastic pal who makes the game different.

Fun plastic pal

He's not entirely plastic--he does require some batteries. When turned on, each player can record a name into the microphone (those five dots where his belly button should be). The players can also add a "house rule" which will randomly occur during the game. Cards are dealt as normal but the discard pile is the top of the robot's head, which has a button that makes a pleasant beep when a card is put in. Except when it doesn't make a pleasant beep. The robot occasionally gives random instructions, like telling a player to draw or discard cards, or two players to trade hands, or whatever the house rule is. So the random element of the game is ramped up. Oh and I should mention that the robot typically speeds up any recorded name or house rule, so it sounds like the person sucked some helium before speaking into the microphone. I think it's meant to be cute, but your mileage may vary. When someone wins, that player pushes the blue button and a trumpet fanfare sounds.

I see these two games contending in various fields:

• Sci-Fi credentials--Doctor Who clearly wins out here
• Cute factor--Uno Roboto is very cute (maybe too much); the Doctor Who monsters are fairly scary looking and may be disturbing to little kids (if not, something is wrong with your little kid!). Uno Roboto wins out here.
• Making Uno more fun--The Doctor Who version is almost the same as the base game, though the EXTERMINATE card can make a game go longer. Uno Roboto is cute and the extra randomness just makes the game more random and thereby frustrating for strategic players. If you are playing Uno to demonstrate your strategic and tactical superiority, you need to find another game. Uno Roboto wins here.
• Packaging--Uno Roboto comes with a deck box for the cards that doesn't quite fit into the tray on top of his head, making storage a little awkward. The Doctor Who Dalek doesn't easily store in with other card games but it looks very nice on a shelf. Doctor Who wins here.
• Availability--Uno Roboto is in print and available world-wide. Doctor Who is only available in the UK and even there it is out of print, making it tough to find (we bought it at a church sale when we lived in the UK). Uno Roboto wins here.

By a three-to-two count, the winner is Uno Roboto! (Though the Dalek does look a lot better on the shelf).

Movie Review: Ex Machina (2015)

Ex Machina (2015) written and directed by Alex Garland

Computer programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a lottery at work (the big internet search engine company, though of course it isn't called Google in the movie). The prize is to visit the reclusive founder and owner of the company (Oscar Isaac) on his remote estate for a special project. The owner's name is Nathan and his home is actually a research facility where he has been working on artificial intelligence. He's built an android named Ava and wants Caleb to give it the Turing Test (the one where a person has a conversation and has to determine whether the other conversant is a human or a robot). Something fishy is going on, because Ava is clearly a robot and Nathan is very casual and imprecise about the feedback he wants from Caleb. Nathan and Caleb have interesting discussions about consciousness, human attributes, and what the end result of the week-long experiment is supposed to be; Caleb and Ava have interesting conversations about their histories and what it means to know someone and care for them, both as a friend and with romantic intentions.

A lot of interesting issues and ideas are introduced in this movie. The pacing is slow and the photography is beautiful, giving the viewer plenty of time to think about what's going on and consider the contrast between the idyllic natural setting of the remote estate and the antiseptic artificial setting inside the research facility. The conversations and the narrative are always fascinating and left me with questions I really wanted answered. A lot of those questions were answered. But the end of the film is strangely ambivalent even while some highly dramatic events occur. It's as if the filmmakers themselves have a casual and imprecise grasp of what they want to say with this movie. Maybe they just intended to present an interesting story. If so, they were successful but I find myself unsatisfied after watching it. Repeat viewings could make it seem better or worse, I honestly don't know.

Parental warning--there's a lot of female nudity in the film, a little bit of sex and a few conversations about sex; some drinking and drunkenness; a bit of swearing and a few moments of bloody violence. With all the discussions about AI and what constitutes human behavior, I can't really see people under 15 enjoying the movie. I'd recommend late teens and up as appropriate for watching this, though I am not sure I'd recommend the movie itself as entertaining. It makes a better talking point for various issues and ideas.

NRM Robots Live!

We went to the National Railway Museum in York for their Robots Live! exhibit back in March (2013, in case you are reading this in the far distant future). The exhibit was for one weekend only and featured lots of different robots.

J, something is sneaking up on you!

The people from Robot Wars had an arena set up with battles every hour or so. We watched one. It wasn't too scary, except for the poor quality of my cell phone pictures and the very loud noises.

Battle arena

Robot repair shop

The other star attraction was Skeletron, a rope-climbing robot. But that is not all that he does...check out this video (also of dubious quality, next time I will remember the regular camera!).



A Dalek also wandered around an enclosed area. We could not get close enough for a passable picture or a video. He was much larger than I imagined he would be in real life.

If Robots Live! comes to your neighborhood science or industry museum, definitely check it out!

Book Review: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson

A British hacker, a U.S. congresswomen, and a Japanese scientist walk into an apocalypse...Sounds like the beginning of one of those jokes you remember hearing but can't repeat because it is far too complicated and if you try to tell it, you'll miss some key set ups for the punchline. How did that punchline go again?

Like a fine tuned joke, Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse is a tightly intertwined narrative of a near-future robot uprising lead by the malicious artificial intelligence Archos. Archos is a program that some computer scientists have been trying and trying to perfect but can't quite seem to get right. Eventually, Archos manages to free himself from his captors/creators. He is able to direct all the other robots (who have been integrated into almost every facet of life) and begins a war against humanity. The robot apocalypse has begun.

The story is told through a variety of personal narratives that have been collected after the end of the war, much like Max Brooks' World War Z. At first the different stories don't seem related. A British hacker named Lurker stumbles into contact with the villianous AI. A U. S. congresswomen supports a "robot defense act" that would put limits on robot use (and thus frustrate Archos's plans); her children are threatened by their toy robots. A Japanese factory worker has a companion robot that runs amok.  Many other characters populate the story. Eventually, they come in contact with each other and all contribute to the war on robots in one way or another.

The story moves quickly and is an exciting read. Thematically it isn't too deep--the standard stuff about what it is to be human and can robots be human, etc., is presented but no new insights or ideas come up. The book earns a place in the pantheon of technothrillers like Jurassic Park and The Cardinal of the Kremlin.

Oh yeah, and there's a new sort of zombie towards the end of the book that was scary and gross and well done. Thanks Dr. Wilson!

For parents: there is some bloody violence throughout the book, some minor sexual innuendo, and swearing. You know your child best, but I would say this is good for young teenagers and up.

Robots Built at Home

So what if mad scientists created zombies and then had the zombie slaves build robots, presumably also to be slaves to said mad scientists? Brilliantly dreadful scheme or dreaded pyramid scheme? I suppose we will find out soon enough here in our home. This project is supposedly a "craft" like they do at the library, but it seems more like an "experiment" at a laboratory to me.

Zombie working on the production line supervised by happy boss

Jacob displays his finished product: Optimus Rack

Lucy displays her finished product: Name Pending

Creator and created share a facial expression

The results seem innocuous enough, according to this video:



If you need more practical advice, don't forget about How to Build a Robot Army, which makes a great Christmas gift for the scientifically-inclined recipient.