The MIT Technology Review says that they both pulled their inspiration from the mind grapes of a British student who hypothesized that making objects look like a flat conducting sheet would successfully render an object invisible.

The basic idea is that objects hide under the mirror bump, and tiny silicon nanopillars on the surface of the mirrors steer light away from the object, making it—and the object it's covering—look flat. Technology Review likens this to hiding something under thick carpet.

That means, unfortunately, that this isn't an invisibility cloak we can run around in. These concepts follow suit with the original concept in thinking that a stationary, conductive sheet would work much better for rendering things invisible. So we all can't start skipping out on our dinner bills quite yet.

Still, you can't overlook the importance of taking little steps towards creating an invisible man. Invisibility is cool, even if just a concept in a lab somewhere. [Invisibility Cloak One and Invisibility Cloak Two via MIT Tech Review via KurzweilAI]

The national maps—like the one above, which shows the most photographed landmark in each of the top 20 most photographed cities—are somewhat predicable, with photo density at its highest around population centers, especially large, scenic ones. Natural sights, like the Grand Canyon, make a strong showing, and the results generally support my theory that most peoples' vacations consist of trudging to a location of note, snapping a photo to prove that, yes, they actually went, and going directly back home, depressed.

The results get much more interesting at a local level. On the left are New York City and San Francisco, which were the first and third most photographed cities, respectively. Popular tourist destinations are prominently featured on these maps, but in addition the increased density of photos between these destinations form a sort of photo "track" along which tourists, apparently anxious for lack of monument-type things to photograph, take pictures anyway.

Researchers are said to be mulling the possibility of constructing some kind of online travel guide from the wisdom of the photo-taking crowd. Regarding that "wisdom": Apple's Manhattan cube store, a place that sells iPods, is the 5th most photographed place in NYC—just in front of the Statue of Liberty, which probably welcomed your ancestors to this country. What now, James Surowiecki?

Read the full report here (WARNING: there's math). [Physorg]

The essential but counterintuitive concept is that, to walk like a man, the robot must "fall forward." Flame derives information from its "organ of balance," which it then applies to things like stance using seven motors. Springs in its joints make the movements smoother, as you see in the video above.

Flame will be used not only to further robotics research, but to help diagnose orthopedic problems in humans as well. Me, I'm waiting for Flame 2. Word on the street is that it'll be able to pull off, yes that's right, the Electric Boogaloo. [PhysOrg via KurzweilAI]

UPDATE: A reader named Jerry just told me about an earlier bipedal robot from Cornell that supposedly used the same principles to walk. As you can see in the video below, on the upside, it has arms; on the downside, it looks like it's been using the arms to do the 12-oz curl if you know what I'm sayin'. Thanks Jerry!

It's designed to use gravity to assist its strides, tipping its feet to spring off the ground much like our legs do, and the team estimates it's about as efficient at walking as we are. Honda's Asimo, for example, uses something like ten times as much energy, or so estimates the team. Sadly this new record is unofficial, as "there's a lot of rigmarole" in getting Guinness in, apparently. Shame! All that striding for no official record. [Physorg]

Cornell Robotic Chair [via CNET Crave]

Machine that can build copies of itself [Random Good Stuff]