BryLog

Baby Sloths (via Chicagoist)

Praying Mantis vs. Hummingbird (via BoingBoing)

Stuffed Pig Toy From Antiques Roadshow (via BoingBoing)

A Classic Parrot Video

This is amazing (via Chicagoist)

Spider Monkeys ♥ Jello (via Zooillogix)

I guess I’m not the only one that enjoys the company of tape measures

A Robot Named Shimon Wants To Jam With You (via Zoozmobile, NPR: All Things Considered)

What was billed as the first intercontinental musical interaction between humans and robots took place the weekend of Dec. 17. It involved humans in Japan using an application called ZoozBeat on their iPhones and a robot named Shimon in Atlanta.

According to its makers, unlike other robots that can play music, Shimon is perceptual. The robot can listen to what is played, analyze it and then improvise. And it has been taught to improvise like some jazz masters.

Gil Weinberg of Georgia Tech’s music technology program recently spoke to NPR’s Robert Siegel from Japan, where he witnessed the historic interaction. Weinberg says the result is music meant to inspire people — not an effort to turn our music-making over to robots.

“The whole idea is to use computer algorithms to create music in ways that humans will never create,” Weinberg says. “Our motto is, ‘Listen like a human, but improvise like a machine.’ “

Weinberg programmed Shimon to play like Thelonious Monk. He says that, though he and his team were trying to teach the robot to play like a machine, they first had to teach it how a human plays. To do that, they used statistics and analysis of Monk’s improvisation. Once they had a statistical model of the pianist, they could program the robot to improvise in that model.

Weinberg says the robot won’t play everything exactly like the bebop pianist — or any other jazz master — would, though he says, “It probably will keep the nature and the character of [the musician’s] style.”

Leopard seal teaches photographer how to catch (and eat) penguins (via BoingBoing)