46-year-old Wu Yulu has only a basic school education but has managed to build himself 26 robots from scrap materials over the past 30 years. At first his creations were simple and could barely shuffle along by themselves. The robots got more complex as time passed, and eventually he built ones capable of climbing walls, serving water, lighting cigarettes, playing musical instruments and writing calligraphy. "When I was 11, one day I was sitting on the doorstep, and while watching villagers passing by I suddenly came up with the idea of building a machine that walks like a man," he told the Beijing Times.

nandemoari writes "Remember the 1991 film, 'The Rocketeer,' where a young pilot uses a jetpack prototype to become a masked vigilante and win the heart of Jennifer Connelly? That scenario isn't as far-fetched as it once was, given that an American stuntman recently used a jetpack to soar over Colorado's Royal Gorge. The stuntman in question is one Eric Scott, who recently appeared on CBS' Early Show and a variety of local cable channels after making his daring leap. Scott has been testing jetpack devices for 16 years, and was confident that he wouldn't plummet to his untimely death when he straddled the Gorge above the Arkansas River earlier this week. Despite an enormous gulf between the two sides — 1,500 feet across and 1,000 feet down — Scott made the trip safely."

He'll live out the rest of his days in Connecticut with his wife and 3 children.

A leading German job agency says that the country is running out of qualified Santa Clauses and needs to recruit and train them fast. There was no word on the state of their unqualified Santas or exactly what evil might befall the country should an acceptable Santa level not be met. Jens Wittenberger, in charge of Santa Claus recruitment at the Jobcafe Munich said, "You can't have your Santa drive up in a car. Every child knows that Santa travels in a sleigh pulled by reindeer so we don't want to disappoint anybody."

Dan Phillips, booking agent for the Platinum Lounge, says businesses in his town have a great new way of getting exposure: advertising on lap dancers. He says "I thought of it more as a cheeky bit of fun until we realized the potential that it was an interesting and unusual way for people to get their businesses noticed. Local firms can sponsor as many of the girls as they wish and we hope the novelty of the scheme will ensure their message will stick in the minds of those people visiting the club." The dancers will have the 15cm by 10cm ads stenciled to their bottoms. "Now guys lets give a big hand to our next lovely lady, Saffron, brought to you buy the good people at Frito-Lay."

It cuts your time spent shopping in half.

This is not much different than the phone maze that you get when calling anywhere, just more honest.

An anonymous reader writes "BBC News and CNET Cutting Edge are reporting on a new play starring at Osaka University, in which two Mitsubishi Wakamaru robots interact with human actors and move around the stage. Named 'Hataraku Watashi' ('I, Worker'), the play is authored by Oriza Hirata, a renowned playwright. It focuses on a robot who complains about his boring and demeaning jobs."

In an attempt to make the entomologists in "The Silence of the Lambs" look like Cary Grant, a Japanese man released hundreds of beetle larvae inside a express train to try to scare female passengers. In his words, "I wanted to see women get scared and shake their legs." "He would go close to women on the train, any woman, and pour out the worms from containers," said a police spokesman. He had 10 containers in his backpack, estimated to contain a total of 3,600 worms.

A tuned and perfectly working piano abandoned in the woods has Harwich, Mass. police baffled. The piano was discovered Saturday by a woman walking along a path inside a conservation area. It took more than a half dozen men to haul it out of the woods and load it onto a truck. This is why it's best to pick a smaller instrument if you're going to run a bard. Almost every bard plays a lute for a reason. Police said they've notified other police departments in the area to see if anyone has reported a missing piano.

How bad could a little sand be?

Has anyone seen the remote?

A Spanish city has found an unusual place to generate renewable energy — solar panels in the cemetery. Santa Coloma de Gramanet has installed 462 solar panels over its multi-story mausoleums. The plan was met with some derision at first, but thanks to a successful marketing campaign, the solar cemetery has public support. It has been such a success that there are already plans to install more panels in an effort to triple the amount of power generated. The installation cost 720,000 euros (£608,000) but will keep about 62 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year, said Esteve Serret, a director of Conste-Live Energy, the company that runs the cemetery and also works in renewable energy. I'm sure a solar powered zombie movie is already in the works.

Lawmakers in Papua, Indonesia have thrown their support behind a bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips in order to better monitor the disease. In addition, legislator John Manangsang said by implanting chips in "sexually aggressive" patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and punish those who deliberately infect others. Health workers and rights activists sharply criticized the plan. It would make the dating scene a lot less scary if you could carry your AIDS chip reader into the club.

Ben Falkon writes "This article takes a look at the possibility of turning a set of laptops into a home theater system. Considering Nelson Chang and the team at HP have had success with running projector party, I don't see why this is not possible. The only problem that I can see is that laptop speakers tend to be weak — then again, modern laptops are gradually being fitted with powerful speakers in these days, so that does not bother me much. A comprehensive discussion follows at the end of the article."

A Colorado judge has come up with a way to ensure noise polluters learn their lesson. He forces them to listen to Barry Manilow. Four times a year, Judge Paul Sacco forces noise ordinance violators to sit in a room and listen to one hour of hits from Barry Manilow and Barney, the purple dinosaur. "These people should have to listen to music they don't like," Mr Sacco said.

In what is sure to be the basis for the greatest feel-good buddy movie of all time, Roger Haines and Tom Lee are planning to take off their clothes, and row 4,350 miles across the Indian Ocean in a self-built boat to raise cash for charity. The trip should take 2.6 million oar strokes, 105 days, 14 gallons of sunscreen, and 5 uncomfortable glances. The pair hopes to raise £100,000 for charity, as well as becoming the first duo to row across the Indian Ocean.

Even Nazis like cookies.

Why row when you can smoke?

A test on civic knowledge given to elected officials proved that they are slightly less knowledgeable than the uninformed people who voted them into office. Elected officials scored a 44 percent while ordinary citizens managed an amazing 49 percent on the 33 questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. "It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI. The three branches of government aren't the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria?