Aquanaut, the Underwater Transformer

The engineers at Houston Mechatronics developed an autonomous submarine that transforms into a humanoid robot. Or rather, the upper half of a humanoid robot, so I guess you could call it a robotic mermaid. The results are so cool that they spent most of the introductory video trying to convince us -and probably themselves- that there are practical reasons for doing this. It is Really Useful, and not just a cool thing they did because they all grew up watching Transformers. Read more specifics about Aquanaut at IEEE Spectrum.

[via Boing Boing]

The Nova Effect: When Everything is Not Always As It Seems

The random manner in which the world seems to work can strangely make all the parts of your life interconnect in ways you never dreamed. Sometimes when you think about what your life would be like if only x hadn’t happened, or if you had made a different decision at some point, you can’t even imagine all the other parts of life that would have been affected. Eric had that experience with his dog Nova, which is why this story from Pursuit of Wonder is called the Nova Effect.

[via Laughing Squid]

A Look at Why There’s So Many Movie Theater Formats

Between Dolby Cinemas, IMAX, RealD 3D, and Regal RPX there are a lot of ways to watch a movie. And some movies like The Lion King are released in all of them. But which of these premium formats is better? Well, it depends on you and on the movie. If you want the biggest screen size you can get, you want IMAX. But if you’re an audiophile you’ll love Dolby Atmos. And different genres lend themselves to different formats. A comedy is probably fine in standard/digital. But if you’re seeing a big blockbuster you might want a format like IMAX or Dolby Cinema.

[Insider]

Can you Solve the Locker Riddle?

Edit: To solve the riddle, be sure to read the note from TED at the end of the post

Your rich, eccentric uncle just passed away, and you and your 99 nasty relatives have been invited to the reading of his will. He wanted to leave all of his money to you, but he knew that if he did, your relatives would pester you forever. Can you solve the riddle he left for you and get the inheritance? Lisa Winer shows how.

[TED-Ed]