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back to article Boffins build miniature robot Jesus

American boffins report that they have developed the necessary technology for robots which can walk on water. A team from Carnegie Mellon University, led by assistant prof Metin Sitti, took for their inspiration the well known water-strider insect, or "Jesus Bug", which makes use of surface tension to stand and walk on water …

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  1. Chizo Ejindu

    Great Acronym

    Reminds me of the one me and a friend thought up about all those luddites who use computers and ask inane questions... oh and we work in Camden :)

    the Camden Union of Non Technical Staff.

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  2. Will

    Better Acronym

    How about using this as a better use of the same words:

    Contrived Unsuitable Name for Technical Projects with the Acronym as Sole Target for the Effort, or CUN*PASTE naming).

    :)

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  3. Lewis Wernham

    Am I the only one…

    …whose mind transposed the "N" and "T" in the "CUTNPASTE" acronym?

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  4. Stephen May

    ...no you're not

    Nope, I read it with the "N" and "T" reversed as well. I think it works better that way, actually...

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re will

    that's actually how i read the original acronym... before i realised...

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  6. Michael Sheils

    RE: Am I the only one...

    I can assure you that you are not.

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  8. Matthew Barker

    I soilt me clothes laughing

    Good perspective from Boffinology standpoint.

    I think there's a future for Lewis in either stand-up comedy or in Boffinology as a formal study.

    Cheers,

    Matthew

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  9. Will

    Headline

    It's headlines like that which keep El Reg at the cutting edge of journalism...

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  10. Jon Tocker

    STRIDER

    That tortuously-contrived acronym is giving me flashbacks to bad '50s and '60s science fiction movies (and books) where every futuristic machine had an extremely badly constructed acronym, often giving a human name (frequently female , like A.L.I.C.E. etc).

    I have a mental image of these boffins - they're in a white sterile room with lots of blinking lights and spinning tape spools...

    and they're all in Black and White.

    I dread the day they go into commercial production and the various models come out - all with model codes that can be pronounced as human names, a la Isaac Asimov's robots (KT109/"Katie 109" etc)

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  11. Simon Bache

    PCMCIA

    Happy memories. People Can't Memorise Computer Industry Acronyms.

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh, god...

    I'm crying. Seriously. That's some funny sh*t, Lewis. The mental image of a labfull of skidding 'Geico' geckos, yelling for help in their cultured British accents, has made my morning.

    "My job is saving you money on your car insurance. I love my - wha, whoa, whaaaaaaaa..."

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  13. Marvin the Martian

    Gecko=stick, bug=repell

    It seems self-defeating, at first sight, as geckos want to stick to stuff but the robobugs want to repell water?

    That said, the setae hairs at gecko feet are special, because they don't attract crap that would inhibit their stickiness. As opposed to other experiments with sticky-note type glues to make robots walk on glass or concrete ceilings.

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