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In their ongoing quest to destroy the line between science fiction and reality, scientists in Japan have come together to bring the longed Space Elevator into reality. Times Online reports:

Now the finest scientific minds of Japan are devoting themselves to cracking the greatest sci-fi vision of all: the space elevator. Man has so far conquered space by painfully and inefficiently blasting himself out of the atmosphere but the 21st century should bring a more leisurely ride to the final frontier.

Japan is increasingly confident that its sprawling academic and industrial base can solve those issues, and has even put the astonishingly low price tag of a trillion yen (£5 billion) on building the elevator. Japan is renowned as a global leader in the precision engineering and high-quality material production without which the idea could never be possible.

Naturally, the feasibility of such a project is called into question, and more importantly, what would it attach to? Even a handful of the Sci-Fi anime and manga this device has appeared in have addressed issues in the safety of a Space Elevator in catastrophic events such as terrorist attacks or earthquakes. I’d like to see this happen, but I’m not exactly sure if I’d feel comfortable riding in it. Safety issues and such are sure to be a topic of discussion when Japan hosts an international conference on the project in November.

[Times Online via Slashdot]

Personal jetpacks have long been one of the few things missing for the future to be now. The others being flying cars and hovering skateboards. Well the Japanese seem to have found out how to fill in that gap, it isn’t really high-tech! There’s just a few kinks to be worked out.

Future here I come!

Out of all of the Ghost in the Shell cast my favorite character by far has to be the Tachikoma, or rather Tachikomas. hey are just the cutest most philosophical bellic vehicles ever. And now master Japanese robot makers have cooked up a miniature one.

Its 40cm high, 12cm wide and weighs 1.5Kg. You wanted pounds and inches? Get metric, bitches! Ill be damned, I just rhymed! Even the eyeballs move, here’s a couple of videos of the little panzer in action.

[Robo Garage]

Seems like we wont be seeing cosplay in space any time soon! Daisuke Enomoto, the would-be space tourist who wanted to cosplay as a Gundam character, failed his physical exam. Imagine that, a full fledged otaku isn’t physically proficient! Previous space tourists have failed their first physical so there is still hope to see cosplay in space. Actually, as long as a furry doesn’t get to go first everything’s right with the universe.

Does anyone know what Enomoto does for a living? What does an otaku have to do to afford a trip to space? I want in!

[CNN]

Japan is known around the world for its scientists. They develop cutting edge technologies and are always a couple of steps ahead in the latest must-have gadgets. But there’s a dark corner of Japanese science few know of, that is useless trivia.

Every year hundreds of japanese ’scientists’ put out dozens of questionable studies for morning TV shows. This time we bring you a small glimpse of that world, with cats! On this clip a group of people with white coats scientists try to determine just how heavy a fish can a cat carry. Science.

SCIENCE!!~~

Anime News Network, through New Scientist, reports that Daisuke Enomoto, the fourth space tourist to visit the International Space Station this next October, will Cosplay in space. Enomoto, a dot com entrepreneur, will dress like Char Aznable the fighter pilot from Gundam. The cosplayer will have to take of his costume on two occasions during his 20 million dollar trip according to the agency.

For launch and re-entry, he’ll have to wear the usual, protective Sokol space suit,

On other news, all other civilizations in space have officially declared Earth a hostile planet after hearing the news.

[ANN]

Continuing with the mecha theme, lets take a glimpse into the future, Mecha battle each other in wars with big machine guns and missiles and poodles. Sparks and blood (mainly poodle’s blood) fly everywhere! Its a nice future, but still a long way to go. In the meantime lets watch a video of this Japanese Mecha prototype, the Landwalker. Its far from what we’ll need to fight a Mecha war but you don’t get there without trying. This $300,000 prototype is a noble attempt. To the video!

Read more!

Japan’s at it again, this time selling the public the entire stock of scientific research left-overs. Whale meat used for scientific research is flooding the market as Japan might soon recover its permission for commercial whaling. Uses for the stuff currently include:

• Serving it to school children as lunch
• Making Whale burgers (surely for a SUPER HAPPY TIME MEAL!)
• Dog food

And the best part is the near-unbeatable offer of ‘buy one get as many as you want free’. I wonder if my cats would eat the stuff…

[Tokyo Times]

Repent! The day our mechanical overlord rises to power is nigh! I-Wei Huang, who was recently featured in a Make Video Podcast, builds steam robots for fun. His job is fantastic, I never thought those little steam powered trains could be so badass.

Watching his website I came across the most frightening awesome steam powered chibi overlord. A future of darkness, slavery and battles in the thunderdome never looked so cute. Dames and Geeks, I present to you, The Steam Robot Spider.

Read more!

Ever thought of what would happen if a giant meteor hit the earth? The Japanese sure have! And what follows is an impressively well done video of the geological consequences of said collision. Its a little bit overwhelming to tell the truth, some things just don’t need to be translated.

Read more!