600 Barrels of Loot Found on Crusoe Island [Guardian]
via kottke / mm
This is pretty interesting. I mean, anyone with a passing interest in history has wondered where some of the materials looted from the ‘New World’ ended up. Kudos to the crews who have done this.
But, let’s face it, the fact is I’m not really interested in this treasure stuff. At all. Loss of context and all that. What has piqued my interest is their robot, Arturito.
[It is] a mini robot that can scan 50 metres deep into the earth. The robot, dubbed “Arturito”, was invented by Chileans and over the past year has grabbed headlines by breaking some of the country’s biggest criminal mysteries.
First, the robot detected the buried arsenal of a rightwing sect known as Colonia Dignidad. The guns and rocket launchers were buried at some 10 metres and while the authorities had searched for years, the robot found the buried weapons almost instantly. Then, in the case of missing businessman Jose Yuraszeck, Arturito was able to analyse the soil and identify the molecular composition of human bones, allowing investigators to dig straight to the body of the murder victim. –from the Guardian article
So, Arturito found the Crusoe Island cache some 15m (50 ft.) down, can scan 50m deep and can do things like “identify the molecular composition of human bones” in soil. OK, you’ve got this archaeologist’s attention. Sooo, what else can Arturito do? Hmmm?
I also like that Arturito, besides being ‘Little Arthur’, could be derivative of R2-D2. At least in my head it is…
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I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the whole thing looks everyday more and more like a hoax. The guy who built the robot has not been able yet to give a coherent explanation (one that can convince scientists and engineers) about how the robot works. A chilean scientist has said to a newspaper that the features that Arturito has requires “a new physics”. And yes, Arturito was the name given in some Latin-american countries to R2D2. The robot was named by the press after him.
Comment by Julián — 10/14/2005 @ 12:03 am
Hello, Julián. If it is a hoax (and from that you report, it certainly sounds so), I am truly sorry to hear that. But requiring “a new physics” does make it sound a bit like cold fusion. I guess it comes back to ‘anything that sounds too good to be true probably is.’
Comment by Hal — 10/14/2005 @ 9:58 am