Wesley Liao trained an AI to learn to play QWOP using reinforcement learning and imitation learning and it managed to achieve a top 10 speedrun.

QWOP is a simple running game where the player controls a ragdoll’s lower body joints with 4 buttons. The game is surprisingly difficult and shows the complexity of human locomotion. Using machine learning techniques, I was able to train an AI bot to run like a human and achieve a finish time of 1:08, a top 10 speedrun.

If you’ve ever played QWOP (you can play it here), you know how frustratingly difficult it is. Like creator Bennett Foddy’s other game, Getting Over It With Bennet Foddy, it was designed to punish the player into wanting to kill themselves so it’s only fitting somebody designed an AI to kill it first. It’s kind of like the plot to The Terminator if The Terminator was stupid and I knew how analogies work.

Keep going for the full explanation video or read the writeup here.

Source: Geekologie – AI learns to Speedrun QWOP and sets top 10 time

This is a video of an unexploded WW2 bomb being intentionally detonated in Exeter, UK after it was discovered by workers on Friday.

WW2 bomb gets detonated in Exeter in a controlled explosion. The bomb was discovered by workers yesterday which resulted in 2600 homes being evacuated and a no go cordon of 400m being set up. Well done to the Royal navy bomb disposal team and the huge manpower that co-ordinated the evacuation. I’m very fortunate not to live in a war zone.

We have self-driving cars and can send rovers to Mars, but when it comes to getting rid of old bombs the best we can do is just have them go off. You’d think there’d be a technological solution by now besides, “Let’s just explode it.”

Keep going for the full video as well as a drone shot. It already looks massive in the video, but the drone shot makes it look even more ridiculous. It’s crazy these things were and are just being dropped all over the place because people can’t get along.

Source: Geekologie – Unexploded WW2 bomb intentionally detonated in Exeter, UK

This is a video of a clam trying to walk and flicking its foot out, freaking out the woman in the background who clearly does not trust what she’s looking at at all. That’s the face of a woman who has watched Alien and isn’t taking any chances. Also, the guy is spouting out a lot of wrong information, but the only thing you really need to know is that this is a clam and the wiener-looking thing it sticks out is its foot. Unlike the wiener-looking thing the guy on the subway sticks out. That thing is most definitely not his foot and you should call the police.

Keep going for the full video, as well as a a video of a clam “walking” along a beach.

Source: Geekologie – Clam freaks out a woman when it sticks out its foot

In incredibly sad news, electronics retailer Fry’s Electronics has gone out of business due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yesterday they had a surprise firing of all of their employees followed by an announcement today that they’ve permanently closed.

After nearly 36 years in business as the one-stop-shop and online resource for high-tech professionals across nine states and 31 stores, Fry’s Electronics, Inc. (“Fry’s” or “Company”), has made the difficult decision to shut down its operations and close its business permanently as a result of changes in the retail industry and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Company will implement the shut down through an orderly wind down process that it believes will be in the best interests of the Company, its creditors, and other stakeholders.

Fry’s has been a staple of my younger years since it was one of the few places you could simultaneously buy motherboards as well as a vacuum cleaner and porn. Some of their stores also had ridiculous themes like a 1950’s monster Fry’s, an Alice in Wonderland Fry’sone, and even a Tiki’s Fry’s. Why an electronics store would be Alice in Wonderland or Tiki themed is anyone’s guess, but they’ll be sorely missed.

Source: Geekologie – Fry’s Electronics has gone out of business

Daft Punk posted this video on their YouTube channel on Monday and most people correctly suspected it meant they were breaking up. Their publicist confirmed the breakup, though it was pretty obvious from the video itself. I mean, it’s hard to imagine a duo staying together after one literally blows up the other.

Keep going for the full video. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Tron: Legacy soundtrack to play on loop for the next two months.

Source: Geekologie – Daft Punk has broken up

NASA released footage from the Perseverance Rover’s cameras during its descent and touchdown on Mars and it’s some of the most incredible footage I’ve ever seen in my life. That might even be an understatement.

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission captured thrilling footage of its rover landing in Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The real footage in this video was captured by several cameras that are part of the rover’s entry, descent, and landing suite. The views include a camera looking down from the spacecraft’s descent stage (a kind of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its landing site), a camera on the rover looking up at the descent stage, a camera on the top of the aeroshell (a capsule protecting the rover) looking up at that parachute, and a camera on the bottom of the rover looking down at the Martian surface.

The audio embedded in the video comes from the mission control call-outs during entry, descent, and landing.

The clarity of the video is shocking and awe inspiring. I was expecting the grainy two frames per second stuff we’re used to, but did they attach a damn IMAX camera to the rover? My god, I cannot overstate how impressive this footage is. This was filmed on Mars! MARS! There are people walking around today who still insist the Earth is flat and in the meantime smart people sent back crystal clear footage from another planet. Footage so incredible you could say it’s *puts on sunglasses* out of this world.

Keep going for the full video. It is a must watch and seriously one of the most impressive videos I’ve ever seen in my life. Maybe I’m just extra sentimental today but I cannot get over it.

Source: Geekologie – NASA released footage of Perseverance Rover’s descent and touchdown on Mars

This is an incredible video of the most embarrassing package theft in history, where not only did the thief not get the package, he also got stuck in a snow bank during the getaway before being arrested by police. It’s also the most Canadian video ever, where the thief is wearing a mask to be socially responsible and the victim even offers to get a shovel to help clear the snow. The only way it could be more Canadian is if the thief was wearing a hockey jersey and the guy filming was sipping some Tim Hortons coffee.

Keep going for the full video. I feel like the embarrassment of the situation might actually be worse than jail time for the guy.

Source: Geekologie – Package thief gets stuck in snow bank during “getaway”

Shortly after takeoff from Denver to Hawaii, United Airlines Flight 328 experienced an engine failure when the right engine’s inlet separated. The engine ended up catching on fire and debris fell to areas outside Denver.

A United Boeing 777-200, registration N772UA performing flight UA-328 from Denver,CO to Honolulu,HI (USA) with 229 passengers and 10 crew, was in the initial climb out of Denver’s runway 25 when the right hand engine’s (PW4077) inlet separated associated with the failure of the engine. The crew declared Mayday reporting an engine failure. The aircraft stopped the climb at about 13000 feet, the crew requested to return to Denver after running the checklists.

And this was the view from the ground:

What I don’t understand is how the video is so steady and calm. If I was taking the video you would hear constantly screaming and there would probably be severe shaking every time more pee came out of me.

Keep going for the full video, as well as video of the plane safely landing with the busted engine. It’s a testament to modern engineering that the plane was able to fly so smoothly considering one of the damn engines was on fire.

Source: Geekologie – Video of United Airlines Flight 328’s engine on fire mid flight

It was just a matter of time, but somebody upscaled Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up to 4k 60fps to make sure Rickrolling stays relevant and future proof. Now you can be surprised by the smooth stylings of Rick Astley’s majestic voice in 4k quality. Although really he only needed to upscale the first three seconds, because who has ever stayed on that page for longer than that?

Keep going for the full 4k Rickroll. Or is it…? It is.

Source: Geekologie – Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up upscaled to 4k and 60fps

This is the trailer for the new Mortal Kombat movie reboot. It looks like they’ve finally embraced the mindless violence of the video games as they seem to be pushing with this red band trailer. You’ve got ice ninja man, grappling hook spear man, electricity rice farmer man and others. So, yeah, this is pretty much exactly what I’ve been looking for in a Mortal Kombat movie and I’d be super excited if this was the 90’s and I was twelve.

Keep going for the full red band trailer. The red band means there’s blood.

Source: Geekologie – There’s a new Mortal Kombat movie and here’s the trailer

NASA’s Perseverance Rover will attempt to land on the most difficult terrain ever targeted on Mars tomorrow and this video breaks down what’s involved.

All landings on Mars are difficult, but NASA’s Perseverance rover is attempting to touch down in the most challenging terrain on Mars ever targeted.

The intense entry, descent, and landing phase, known as EDL, begins when the spacecraft reaches the top of the Martian atmosphere. Engineers have referred to the time it takes to land on Mars as the “seven minutes of terror.”

The landing sequence is complex and targeting a location like Jezero Crater on Mars is only possible because of new landing technologies known as Range Trigger and Terrain-Relative Navigation.

The Perseverance rover is set to land on the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021.

NASA previously landed their Spirit and Opportunity rovers using balloons, but I guess they wanted to show off their fancy new gadgets this time. For Perseverance they’re using an onboard guidance system to actually navigate to a decent spot before lowering the rover using a sky crane like they did with the Curiosity rover. Personally, I would’ve just doubled the amount of balloons, but my science education is from watching Inspector Gadget so what do I know?

Keep going for the full video. You can watch the live broadcast of the landing tomorrow starting at 11:15 a.m. PST / 2:15 p.m. EST.

Source: Geekologie – NASA’s Perseverance Rover will attempt a complicated Mars landing tomorrow

To celebrate NASA’s Perseverance Rover landing on Mars tomorrow, Krispy Kreme is featuring a Mars-themed doughnut. It’s available for one day and they’re currently taking orders for pickup tomorrow.

A Chocolate Kreme-filled doughnut dipped in caramel icing with a red planet swirl and sprinkled with chocolate cookie crumbs. This limited-edition doughnut is available in shops and online for one day only.

Yes, yes, I’ll be eating a dozen doughnuts tomorrow to celebrate NASA. Because of space and I’m a fan of space and also Mars and NASA and space Mars things. That’s why I’m ordering 12 donuts and eating them all tomorrow. For space and science and Mars. Actually, to really show my support I should make it two dozen doughnuts. Because of science. I just love science. Delicious, delicious science.

You can order them here.

Source: Geekologie – Krispy Kreme has a Mars-themed doughnut to celebrate NASA’s Perseverance landing on Mars tomorrow

Pretty much exactly what the title says. The only nonintuitive thing he does is attach little metal bars to the teeth of the saw blades so there’s more traction and also so he doesn’t cut through everything he rides over. Which kind of defeats the purpose of using saw blades, since now it’s basically like attaching chains to his bike tire. What’s the point of using saw blades if you’re going to remove the imminent risk of a fatal mishap?

Keep going for the full video. He shows trying to ride before and after attaching the metal bars so you get an idea of how poorly it worked as just saw blades. More badass, yes. Effective as an actual vehicle, not so much.

Source: Geekologie – This guy replaced his bike wheels with saw blades to bike on ice

City Guesser is a browser-based game that let’s you try and guess a city based on a video from the point of view of a pedestrian walking around a city:

City Guesser is a geography based browser game that strives to provide an exceptional travel and guessing experience. City Guesser launched on August 13th, 2020, and welcomes thousands of geography-enthusiasts each day.

This game has become particularly difficult since I don’t even remember what the outside looks like anymore. For every hint I guessed the location of my sofa and TV and turns out I wasn’t even close once. What does…wind…feel…like?

You can try the game out for yourself here. It’s weirdly fun and a nice virtual travel escape.

Source: Geekologie – ‘City Guesser’ is a video based geography guessing game

This is a Hot Wheels drifting kit put out by Tyotoys and it looks godamn cinematic. If they had zoomed in and cut out the hands from the shot you could’ve convinced me it was out of a Fast and Furious movie. I mean you’d probably have to edit in some buff guys and maybe an exploding submarine but you know what I mean.

Keep going for the full video as well as Mattel’s inferior “official” version.

Source: Geekologie – Drifting Hot Wheels

MetaHuman Creator is a cloud-streamed tool for creating realistic real-time digital humans that can be animated in Unreal Engine.

MetaHuman Creator is a cloud-streamed app that takes real-time digital human creation from weeks or even months to less than an hour–at an unprecedented standard of quality, fidelity, and realism. When your character is finished, you can export and download it, rigged and ready to animate in Unreal Engine.

It’s not quite photo-realistic, but it’s pretty damn impressive for something that just requires the pushing of a few buttons and sliders. Obviously they need to extend the tool for body types and obviously somebody will use it for porn. Everything always leads to porn.

Keep going for the introduction video as well as some samples or check out the official site here.

Source: Geekologie – Epic’s MetaHuman Creator, a tool to create realistic real-time digital humans

During a live stream of a virtual court proceeding, an attorney accidentally set themselves to a cat filter and had to convince a judge they weren’t actually a cat. You really need audio to appreciate the absurdity of the situation and to hear the anxiety in the attorney’s voice. The expression on the kitten is absolutely perfect because I’m 100% sure it’s the exact same expression the attorney had.

Keep going for the full amazing video. The pandemic has been pretty bad, but it’s also brought us videos like this so maybe it’s all been worth it?

Source: Geekologie – Attorney tries to convince judge he’s not a cat during virtual court proceeding

KhalidSMShahin took The Legend of Zelda cartoon and synced up vocals from Beavis and Butthead. The result is remarkably good and the small touches like the mirror scene at 0:45 show just how much thought and care was put into something this stupid. It’s perfect.

Keep going for the full video. Obviously you need audio otherwise you’re just watching a silent episode of The Legend of Zelda cartoon. Also, make sure you keep watching for the postshow.

Source: Geekologie – Somebody took The Legend of Zelda cartoon and added the vocals from Beavis and Butthead

Somebody did a very scientific analysis of Jeff Bezos’ laugh over time as he’s gotten progressively more rich. And by scientific I mean they just spliced together clips of him laughing. Has it changed? Definitely. Is it more evil? Only if you think cartoonishly evil laughing is evil. The cadence of the laugh itself seems the same, it’s just gotten deeper. Although it might just be all the children’s blood he’s been pumping into himself to achieve his goal of immortality.

Source: Geekologie – Jeff Bezos’ laugh has gotten more evil the more rich he’s become

The music is a bit heavy handed, but this is an incredible video of a guy finding a stranded parrot egg and managing to hatch and raise it.

I found a tiny budgie egg at a pet shop. If I could incubate it, would I be able to raise it? With these big human hands? It’s mother had just been sold. This meant the egg would have no chance without me giving it a try.

It’s truly amazing that something that looks so disgusting can actually be so incredibly cute and touching. I went from scrunching my face up in revulsion to scrunching my face up trying to hold my tears in for the most adorable little parrot I ever did see.

Keep going for the full video that manages to restore a little faith in humanity. That might even be an understatement.

Source: Geekologie – Guy hatches and raises a stranded parrot egg