It seems like everybody is talking about CES, or predictions for the upcoming Macworld, or going back to school–and don’t get me wrong; I’m interested in all of that– but I’d rather talk about something completely different. Even though I’d like to talk about the new Western Digital Raptor X or Shure’s new E500 earphones.

I won’t.

Instead of these things, I will talk about Robots. Kuka Industrial Robots. I just found out about this wonderful new application for them. Even though it has apparently been around for three years or so the Robocoaster is completely impressive to me. Thats right, coaster-as-in-rollercoaster. I think it goes like this: some random guy working for Kuka thinks, “man, we could totally stick some people on the end of our robot, and whurr them around.” then they do. This article explains the specifics. They’ve apparently got one of these in the Wisconsin Dells. I’m going to have to go for a visit.

Maybe one day I could work for these guys and get them to switch OSes on their robots to Linux or something because other than that, these robots appear to be the most elegantly designed pieces of electro-mechanical wonder I have seen. Thank you Kuka, for taking a huge risk and investing a lot of money in TÜV certification. I hope you sell many robocoasters.