Apparently Gloria Laguna had a "unique medical condition which was unknown to anybody, least of all herself, and the slightest trauma in that area of the vertebral artery could [...] lead to death." Her husband, Paul Harvey, is known for his two violence-related criminal convictions and a temper problem.

On the night of Laguna's death, all of those factors combined with both individuals having alcohol and cocaine in their systems. They argued, Harvey threw the remote, and Laguna fell to the ground. Harvey made a frantic and tear-filled call to 999 (the UK equivalent of 911), but despite all efforts to save her, his wife died in a hospital later that day.

While throwing an object at someone is a violent and abusive act, the intent here wasn't to kill or to even truly injure. I almost wonder if a three year jail sentence for manslaughter is deserved, because, assuming that all the details are true, this appears to have been a genuine freak accident. [This London]

Photo by stuartpilbrow

The CyberQuad, an "electric ducted quadrotor Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)," gains significant maneuverability from its fan-based technology, including a "perch and stare" function which allows it to hover in one place with increased stability and endurance. That is, until it's attacked by flying extraterrestrial fauna.

Last month, on our own planet, the CyberQuad successfully investigated an oil platform fire, beaming high-definition video back to operators stationed at a safer location. Still, its silent fans, as well as its unique "perch and stare" capabilities, suggest it could be put to use on our own battlefields in the near future. [Cyber Technologies via Wired]

As the story goes, the television in the ward mysteriously turned off when the patient turned over in bed, shortly before x-rays revealed that his friends had crammed a remote up his butt while he was passed out.

"We didn't know what it was to start with. There was a little bit of blood but he didn't say anything about a remote control. We couldn't quite believe it when we saw the X-ray," said medic Dr Wei Lung Zhi.

"He will be fine in time but the remote was a write off," he added.

Yeah, that whole thing with the remote inside his bowels turning the TV off seems pretty suspect, but the message here is very real. Don't pass out around your asshole friends. As an added layer of security, I have a shirt you might be interested in. Or at least you would be interested in it if it were still being produced. [Mirror via Fark and Shirt via T-Shirt Hell]

In addition to storing money, each card can wirelessly control a tiny Christmas mouse inside a shopping cart. The mouse comes free with the purchase of each gift card, but it appears that the minimum value that can be placed on it is set at $25. Target isn't my holiday shopping store of choice, but I can see the appeal of getting one of these in that McDonald's Happy Meal toy sort of way. [Target via Chip Chick via OhGizmo]

Unfortunately, the maximum range on the G-Bound is only about 33 feet, so I wouldn't take it out to the lake unless you don't mind swimming after it. Not that it matters—it appears to be a Japan-only release for the moment. [G-Bound via Hobby Media via Coolest Gadgets]

Sorry, it's inevitable, as proven in the ThinkGeek demo video below.

ThinkGeek is billing this as the smallest hovering device they've ever sold, so there's that too. Requires a handful of AA's and the controller has the ability to control two drones at once. [ThinkGeek via DVICE]

The two-wheeled bot has 16 sensors and four processors, and either happily wanders around on its own, or you can take control. Windows software and a USB hookup lets you program all aspects of its behavior, including moods, reaction to stimuli, and if it freaks out or mingles when it meets other robots.

The $250 starter kit (available September 28) includes base stations, hubs, and gaming cards to set up real world playing fields. What caught my eye: a specially tagged ball allows for a variety of competitive ball games (the Roboni-i has a special scoop and uses Zigbee RF to ).

You can also go online to play video-game based matches, track stats, or get tips from the Robini-i community.

Feels kinda pricey, but robot soccer would make for a wicked drinking game. [Robonica via Gizmag]

This means that TiVo HD and TiVO HD XL owners will be able to use i.TV as a full remote control, replacing those serviceable but ultimately kind of lame standalone apps that they'd been stuck with up until now. While the prospect of a true all-in-one remote app is pretty exciting—though it's firmly just a prospect, since i.TV is simply offering a framework, not developing remotes themselves—the app has a few other new features going for it, including push notifications to remind you when flagged programs are coming on, and iTunes integration, which lets you initiate iTunes purchases from within i.TV's schedule interface.

Prior versions were free, and this one should be too, as soon as Apple lets it through the gates, which is expected to happen within a few days, or, you know, not. For now, enjoy a teasey video: [i.TV via BGR]

The Harmony 900 isn't quite as huge and crazy as the Harmony 1000, as it retains the form factor of, you know, a remote control, like the Harmony One. But it packs in a color touchscreen to let you control pretty much anything you want. It's the best of both worlds.

It's also got a new RF to IR blaster to control your home theater components. Instead of sticking small IR receivers to the IR inputs of every device in your cabinet, you put the blaster in front of all of them and it fires off its signal in every direction, hitting everything at once. It makes the install process easier, at least. This way you can control closed cabinets (or cabinets behind you) with RF, so the repeater will send the IR to the desired components.

Look for the Harmony 900 later this month for $399.99. [Logitech]

The Cool.con universal remote employs reflexology to stimulate pressure points on the hand that are said to correspond to various areas of the body to promote better overall health. So the next time your partner bitches at you for watching too much TV, just tell them that you are engaged in a very serious medical procedure. Those witchdoctors said you needed dialysis—but you know better. [Funshop via Technabob]

Even though they've been providing the same great service for ten years, I had never used DynDNS before (ah, the joys of working from home and having a dynamic IP that stays fairly stable), but I just signed up and it's sweet. Just register a subdomain at DynDNS.com for free, which will then map itself to your dynamic external IP address automatically in one of two ways: by logging into your DynDNS account on a router that supports it (many do) or downloading a free update client for your computer that can also keep everything synced.

Then you don't have to remember a nasty number when you want to access your network from an external computer. Nice!

Please keep the constructive comments coming in our Saturday How To guides—they're a great resource for everyone involved. Also thanks to twonjosh for sharing his method of dealing with dynamic IPs. [DynDNS]

While reading PW Singer's Wired for War, I was surprised by the ingenuity on both sides in coming up with unmanned—and even radio-controlled—machines that were occasionally actually used during the two biggies. I've highlighted six, plus an exceptional example of early computer intelligence, that are all covered at some length in the book.

(If you're skimming this, just be sure to watch the second YouTube video below.)

WORLD WAR I

FL-7 remote-controlled boat (1916) - Sadly unpictured - These German "sprengbootes" carried 300lbs. of explosives and were tethered by 50-mile wire to a dude on shore, sitting in a tower 50 feet up. The controller was too vulnerable perhaps, because they soon moved him into an airplane buzzing overhead, still trailing that long-ass cable.

Ultimately, they decided to do like Nikolai Tesla did in 1898 at Madison Square Garden with his little motorboat (seen at right), and go R/C. More info on the World War II version of the FL.

Sopwith AT "Aerial Torpedo" (1917) - Maker of Snoopy's famous Sopwith Camel biplane decided that it was possible to do the same thing, only radio controlled and full of explosives, call it the "Aerial Torpedo" and steer it into German Zeppelins. Trouble was, on its test flight, it tried to dive bomb a gathering of generals instead. Whoopsie. More info on the Sopwith AT, and another remote controlled plane of the era, the Queen Bee Tiger Moth.

Wickersham Land Torpedo (1917) - Another ill-fated warbot, this one was startlingly close in looks to the PackBots of today, with its two tank treads. But instead of a sophisticated computer brain, this one packed 1,000 pounds of explosive and a rudimentary remote control. Unfortunately for people who like big booms, it never went into production. More information on that and more "unknown" tanks here, sketch here and photo here.

WORLD WAR II

OQ-2 Radioplane aka "Dennymite" (1935) - Actor and World War I hero Reginald Denny opened a hobby shop in the 1930s, and when the specter of World War II loomed, he introduced army personnel to their first target drone, the RP-1. They were impressed, and after several modifications and name changes, Denny was making them by the thousands at an airport in Van Nuys. (As fate would have it, it was at Denny's factory in 1944 that an army photographer spotted a super hot Rosie the Riveter named Norma Jeane, who soon went platinum blonde and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.) More information on the OQ-2 and Marilyn Monroe's discovery.

Fritz X guided bomb (1939) - Another specialty from Germany—the people who brought you the better known "buzzbombs," this one was pretty much a straight-up bomb, but it had radio-controlled fins, so it wasn't exactly smart, but it weren't dumb neither. More info on Fritz here and here.

Goliath remote-controlled tank buster (1940) - If the Germans had time to work on their tank skills between the wars, they also had a little time to hone the tank-killing 'bot. The Goliath has the same classic look as the American Land Torpedo, but managed to be far more effective. This startlingly vivid clip shows actual footage of Germans—sometime during the last gasps of the Nazi regime—steering one into a tank to blow it up.

Norden bomb sight (1932) - If the unmanned vehicles above represent prototypes in the body designs we see in today's land, air and sea robots, the Norden bomb sight was the precursor to their cold, calculating brains.

A telescope would pick out a single spot on the ground, a series of gyroscopes and motors would hold that spot in sight, an analog computer would figure out the trajectory of the bombs needed to hit the target, and the whole thing would engage the plane's autopilot to make sure the bombing went down as planned. You don't have to read Catch-22 to know that, on bombing runs, nothing ever really went as planned, but the Norden was the closest they had to AI back in WWII, and there's a reason it was said to "put a bomb in a pickle barrel from 20,000 feet" (even if that's not going to do the bomb or the pickle barrel any good). More info here and here.

War nerds, please fill in the comments with your own knowledge of the above unmanned metal-and-gear beasts, or any other favorite ones I might have skipped, and so help me the first commenter to say "These are not robots" gets banned for stating the obvious, and being kind of a wiener about it.

If you haven't yet read through our interview with Wired For War's PW Singer, have a look. And stay tuned for more exciting nuggets of info from the book, a trove of robot trivia not to mention a chilling portrayal of how robots have already infiltrated our military.

In fact, Elan's Smart Remote is so close to what I remember seeing that it might be the same hardware.

Regardless, what's brilliant about the remote is/was not only the laptop-like touchpad allowing for a new level of universal functionality, but its smartphone-like ability to orient function based upon portrait or landscape positioning. In other words, when you hold the remote like a remote, it acts as a remote. When you turn the remote like a game controller, it acts as a game controller. (Onscreen diagrams keep your head straight.)

Now if only Elantec would sell this thing. [via Engadget]

[Product Page via Nerd Approved]

Ogre is a "Tank" built around a Zamor launching system nicknamed "Hailstorm". It uses three XL PF motors, controlled either by a standard PF remote, or by the on-board (black) NXT using the Hitechnic IRLink. It also has a small wireless "spycam" attached, so that the driver can "see" what the robot sees. The result is a lot of fun to drive around, and even more fun to watch it autonomously detect, target, and destroy loose LEGO targets.

Watch as Ogre detects the right and left edges of its target. Then watch Hailstorm go to work. After that, gaze on as a few Imperial Stormtroopers feel the full wrath of those rapid-fire projectiles. Seriously a cool little tank. I just wouldn't want to be walking around Lego Land right now, is all. [Nowhereelse - Thanks, Steve!]

Here's an idea: get a dozen and control them all using the same channel. In a four star restaurant. 30 minutes of charge equals 5 minutes of sheer dining terror and a few months of painful health inspection investigations. If you're terrible and into that kind of thing. [Gizmine]

The first part of that, the true part, represents a huge step in the mechanical control of living things. It's far from the first foray into insect mind control, but by far the most precise—this specimen, commanded by six radio-actuated electrodes on the beetle's muscles and brain, could be piloted around the room like a tiny RC plane.

The hardware isn't much of a burden for the beetle, which is capable of taking flight with more than twice the 1.3g mass of the apparatus on board. The remaining payload will probably be filled with camera gear, as this project is funded by DARPA (natch) for surveillance purposes.

Unfortunately there's no video of the demo yet, but we have been furnished with this unintentionally funny picture of the event, which may or may not contain the bug in question. Can you spot it? [Tech-on]