Here in Eugene, along the Willamette River, there is something of a nutria infestation. If you are not familiar with this species of pest then here’s a description: nutria (Myocastor coypus) are large web-footed, beaver-like rodents from South America. Personally, I see nutria as the ultimate symbol of unity between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. Perhaps both schools should adopt the nutria as their mascot and make peace.

My lab mate tells me that he has seen these rat-tailed animals cooked at local barbeques. However, due to the foul reek of the nutria kabobs he was not inclined to conduct a taste test.
Interestingly, nutria have about the same protein and cholesterol content as chicken, but are amazingly lower in fat (about 9 times less fat per serving, if I am correctly interpreting the results of this study). Of course, this is only important to you if you happen to be obsessed with your diet and actually eat nutria.

In most states the nutria are considered pests for environmental reasons. However, I consider these animals to be pests because they put me at risk of suffering a concussion. “How?” you might ask. Well, these rodents are often lounging in the middle of the bike path I use every day to commute to school. On multiple occasions I have nearly run one over while riding my bicycle. Actually hitting one would undoubtedly be uncomfortable for the nutria, but it would most certainly be catastrophic to me since I would likely be thrown head first from the saddle of my bike. I would, however, eventually return to earth. It is at this point I would likely receive the aforementioned concussion. I don’t find this desirable. Hence I consider the nutria pests.

Consequently, I must inform you that I will not be joining the Nutria Conservation Society, if such a thing exists. But I can tell you that at the next Civil War Games I will be shouting, “Go Nutria!”

Scientific Progress! Batteries Not Included.

Well, it’s been confirmed: the $25,000 robot, connected to an industrial electrical outlet by a garden-hose-sized power cable, does indeed run on batteries!  Four D-cell batteries to be precise.  Actually, it’s not quite accurate to say that the robot runs on the batteries.  But, it’s all the same to me because it won’t run without them. 

The critical fact is this: the robot works.  Now I can begin important projects and have it do useful things like: make chocolate chip cookies, put chocolate chip cookies on my desk, make more chocolate chip cookies, and maybe even serve as the gold standard for comparing two 3-D motion tracking systems used in biomechanics.  

I’ve been told that, so far, the robot has only been used to entertain any kids who visit the lab.  Kids these days!  They can’t be entertained by anything less than $25,000 and complicated programming.  I suppose this is to be expected.  Most of the video games out there use the same mathematical models to generate graphics.  Just think, instead of reworking the brain of a robot, I could be figuring out how to make monster blood splatter more realistically!

Until I transition into the significantly more lucrative business of realistic monster blood, I trifle with scientific robot applications.