And that's what it is: A really smart giant dog. Big Dog—which is being developed by robotics company Boston Dynamics—has some of the most advanced artificial intelligence and navigation systems in the planet. In fact, US Army officials are stunned by its programmed behaviors, which make Big Dog extremely helpful in the battlefield.

Big Dog can run along soldiers, walk slowly, or lay down to be loaded or unloaded, all while being aware of the terrain around it. No matter what happens, or how hard it's hit, the robot maintains its course like Captain America, but without falling on the ground under any circumstances. The only way to get him off its path is by a major direct hit, which could mean a rocket or President Obama's defense cuts—although, since it is low cost and not a Cold War-era weapon, it probably will survive the crisis.

Even while they are not yet ready for actual battlefield action, the US Army has high hopes for this beast. They see it as the most effective way to carry all kinds of material, reducing the weight that soldiers have to tug along, freeing them to move faster and be safer.

Right now, they only need to make Big Dogs quieter—they still buzz like a billion angry bees—and increase their autonomy. If there are no unforeseen problems, they will get into the battlefields in just a few years.

With drones now taking over the skies, it's only a matter of time before a Big Dog 2.0 arrives. In fact, many analysts are already pointing at the possibility of bi-pedal robots fighting alongside soldiers or replacing them entirely. Science fiction authors have imagined this scenario many times, from Terminator to Metal Gear Solid 4, in which "geckos"—the two-leg Velociraptor-like fighting robots shown in this video—are clearly inspired by Big Dog's biological design.

For all the technological terror they inspire among anyone who sees them, however, they can't match the hilarious spoof that some troupe did a while ago. Sadly, the idea of Big Dogs, Terminators, or "geckos" taking over the battlefield—or the world—is not funny at all.

The audio recording, a verse of "Au Clair de la Lune" sung by a woman/zombie/spirit/ghostard, was made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. Scott was a Parisian typesetter and inventor who invented the phonoautograph, and died thinking Edison stole his idea for recording sound (just like he stole and ran Méliès out of the movie business).

However, while the fact is that Edison stole many things, this is not one of them, according to Giovannoni: "Edison is not diminished whatsoever by this discovery." Another scholar, Paul Israel, director of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University remarked that "what made Edison different from Scott was that he was trying to reproduce sound and he succeeded."

The phonoautograph is a device that only prints the sound it captures, but it can't reproduce it. Giovannoni and his team had to digitally process the recording, made on April 9, 1860, to create the version you can listen to here. [NYT]

*Delete where applicable.
**This is Giz's joke of the month.

[ScareFactory via Shiny Shiny]

The watch on first inspection may appear to be your average run-of-the-mill, square- faced, metal bracelet, snazzy timekeeper, but the twist comes in when you depress that sneaky LED activation button. This turns the once analog watch into a time whore, simultaneously displaying digital and analog time readouts. The two displays can even be programmed to show different time zones.

This watch reminds us of the Lion King , specifically when the hyenas joined the lions. The two were just not meant to mix and we think there was a very good reason for it. It scares us. Mind you, we are big blogging sissies. If you still want one, cough up your $199 and let us be done with this frightening affair. [Product Page via Technabob]

It may be just us, but does it look like this is a huge graveyard of Zunes? That's kinda creepy, and we're not sure it's the angle Microsoft is going for. Unless of course they're marketing towards the untapped potential of kids who hang out in graveyards and share music. We didn't major in advertising. – Jason Chen

New Zune TV Spot [Zuneinsider]