Motorola Man’s Phone

The thing with iPhones, for all their cleverness and shiny looks is that, well, someone had to say it, they’re a bit girly… What us blokes need is a real man’s phone, at least that’s what the guys at Motorola reckon, and lo and behold, they’ve come up with the hunky, chunky r75651S.

It’s a no-nonsense multi-modal mobile communications device, designed for mission-critical operatives who need a phone that’s rugged and durable. It’s designed to work in high-noise, hazardous, chemical or gaseous environments. It’s military spec, resistant to high and low temperatures, dust, shock, vibration, radiation, salt, fog and blowing rain, it says here. It’s a rough and tough, it ‘ll watch your back in a tight situation, buy you a drink down the pub and kick sand in the face of smartphones, just don’t get it angry!

12 Euphemisms Used to Mislead You

Here is a list of the 12 most misleading sets of words that we could find in use, most of them in the United States, which seems to have a real appetite for calling things by names they have nothing to do with. These are just a few examples.

Binocular Deprivation means no more no less than to sew an animal’s eyes shut during an experiment, for various purposes. The technique is widely used in research labs worldwide, and is meticulously described in each paper featuring the procedure.

Biosolids is just another word for sewage sludge, and is employed in official documents instead of other terms. This word, like many others from the list, is only meant to make a bad thing sound good, and has nothing to do with being politically correct. It’s all about PR and image. Read more

Military Robotic Dogs

There’s quite a long way to go till we will have robotic wives and husbands around the house; so, for the moment, it seems that our dogs in the near future might just be … made of metal (or plastic). If not around the house, at least in the conflict areas. The four-legged dog robots are now the size of a Chihuahua, but could facilitate many military tasks.

The robot called LittleDog could ultimately lead to more complex robotic assistants for troops, like automated “pack-mules” carrying heavy loads over a tough terrain. Scientists are focusing on developing it for even faster and more animal-like movements over uneven terrain. Read more