"Why do designers design their humanoid robots to be so inhuman? Just look at that thing: faceless, all metal and mechanics, every sci fi nightmare brought to life. Why? It baffles me."

"You need watch the movie Runaway. Michael Crichton has Tom Selleck chasing farm, office, and household robots run amok."

"A weapon that uses electricity as its ammunition would solve a multitude of logistic and economic problems. Star Wars seemed to take a step backward in this regard. In one of the later movies I recall a scene with heavy shipboard guns firing, and a metal shell would come clanking out after every round."

"I have a more general question: why do people design robots to be humanoid? A robot should be optimized for the task or set of tasks it is intended to perform In almost no cases does this require a humanoid shape. It is misplaced anthropomorphism, taking your design requirements from sci fi books and movies."

"The structure does not appear to be attached to the stone walls on which it rests, and therefore could be at risk of wind shifting or even toppling it. The solution was to chain large boulders to the bottom edge to hold it down. Not sure if the small rocks on the roofing are merely decorative, or contribute to the weight of the overall structure to resist wind loads. I would not want to be anywhere near this structure if there were ever an earthquake."

"Hope someone is working on a smaller caliber portable version of the Phalanx CIWS. Also would seem like a perfect application for a laser-based weapon."

"Aside from being very bulky, immobile, and and only able to move the box in one axis, the biggest problem I see is it needs access to two opposing sides of the box. What if you only have access to one side, the top or the front? It seems most box handling robots have converged on suction grid manipulators. This video shows a very interesting evolution at Boston Dynamics through three configurations of box handling robots: Atlas, Handle, and Stretch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WZoVJIV9V0"

"So there actually is a reality TV show right now, "Stars on Mars." Take a bunch of D list celebrities and put them together in a simulated Martian habitat somewhere in the Australian outback. Big Brother meets The Martian. I watched the first episode prepared for it to be stupid, but it's actually fairly entertaining. The producers have come up with some interesting missions, and the participants seem to be taking it fairly seriously."

"Once again, designer solving the wrong problem. If the pan/pot is that heavy, it should have handles on both sides and be lifted with two hands. Easier as well as much more stable and safer. Even the cast iron skillet shown on the stove top has handles on both sides, for exactly that reason."

"Kraft Singles are NOT CHEESE. Read the label: "Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product" They're not allowed to call it "cheese." Yes that infernal wrapping sucks, but I would wager the main reason for decline in popularity is a shift toward Real Food (and also eschewing dairy products in general)"

"I don't have a record player, but I bought a vintage copy of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album "Going Places" at Goodwill, just for the album cover. If I ever find a copy of "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" I will buy that too. Does new vinyl have any interesting cover art?"

"I recently read the Making of Star Wars book, in which they described there was a great deal of discussion and evolution of the nose of the X-Wing so that it wouldn't appear too phallic. In 45 years it never once occurred to me that it might be phallic, but of course after reading that, now that's all I can see."