Tiny robots fly in

Scientist are trying to create tiny flying robots the size of insects, reports CNN. Unfortunately the only devices close to insect size that they've built haven't got off the ground yet - currently sheep-size flying robots is a good as it gets.

The problem is that flight at insect scale works on different principles to existing airplanes or helicopters. Though the aerodynamics are becoming better understood, there are still got substantial engineering and control problems to sort out.

Predicting when a usable technology will arrive is very difficult in these circumstances. Breakthoughs are required in several fields before flying micro bots become a reality.

CNN reports that spying, space exploration and clearing up chemical spills are the sort of application envisaged for the devices. They clearly haven't been reading enough Philip K Dick. These things are clearly destined to become advertising robots, with the potential to be more annoying than today's two-dimensional popups.

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Betting on the future

I'm amazed that the Flipem site is legal, but apparently it is. It lets you place bets on a wide range of future events, and have the cyber equivalent of betting slips mailed as gifts to people who can then collect real money if they win.

For example, you can bet on the number of commercial jets mothballed in US deserts at the end of August, or on the style of shot that will win the 2002 World Conker championship. The site is based in the London, and benefits from recent relaxation in UK online gambling laws.

In many ways it is reminiscent of the Foresight Exchange, but is a more commercial concept suitable for a dumbed-down age. At the Foresight Exchange, which has been going for at least seven years, no real money changes hands. Instead the point is to see how people expect the future to turn out. This can be gauged directly from the changing odds on the various predictions.

At the even more cerebral Long Bets Foundation, set up last year by Kevin Kelly and other people mostly associated with Wired magazine, you can bet real money - but the minimum stake is $1,000 and all winnings have to go to charity.

But the present cultural climate is more suitable for Flipem. For example Banzai, a betting show that spoofs a crazed Japanese game show, is a surprise hit on British TV at the moment.

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