The Official Star Wars Blog

Will Your Next Doctor be a Robot?

March 25, 2010

When you’re injured in Star Wars there’s always a medical droid not to far away to help. Now it looks like medical robots could be a reality for our planet’s hospitals! Meet InTouch Health’s telemedicine robot RP-7!

RP-7 recently caught the eyes of visitors at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in Durham. It was part of the Robot Rumble event Saturday. In real medical life, the RP-7 is already helping bring expert neurological advice to three small community hospitals in North Carolina. Neurologist Dr. Charles Tegeler operates the robots from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.

“We’re trying to leverage technology to be able to bring stroke consultations, bring stroke expertise out to the smaller facilities,” Tegeler said.

Many rural hospitals don’t have a neurologist on staff to make critical decisions about giving stroke patients timely medication to dissolve a clot in the brain. RP-7 allows Tegeler to take long-distance calls about those stroke patients. “I can plug in and get online and beam into the network hospital,” he said.

Sometimes the hospital staff may be too busy to lead him around. “If they just say, ‘You know, we have this patient down in Room 2,’ I drive it right down to the bed side,” Tegeler said. With a robotic stethoscope, he can listen to a patient’s heartbeat. Rather than just talk to doctors or patients on the phone, he can see them face-to-face.

WATCH VIDEO: Robot RP-7 in action

Read the full story here:
R2-D2, MD – Will your next doctor be a robot?
(via LocalTechWire.com)

1 Comment » | robots, science | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

President Obama Buys Star Wars Pop-up Book

March 25, 2010

photo: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Looks like President (Jedi Master) Obama has good taste in kids books — especially those with light-up lightsabers! He was recently in Iowa and purchased Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy by Matthew Reinhart.

Yahoo News reports:

After mentioning an Iowa City bookstore in his health care speech Thursday, President Barack Obama stuck his head in and spent $37 on kids’ books.

The president bought two books for his daughters, 11-year-old Malia and 8-year-old Sasha. He also paid for a “Star Wars” pop-up book for the 6-year-old son of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

We asked Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy author Matthew Reinhart about the President’s recent book purchase and he told us:

What can I say? He’s got taste! Seriously, its a tremendous honor & delight for this humble pop-up book maker. Just goes to show you how universal Star Wars really is!

MORE PHOTOS:
Obama makes stop at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City

Read more about the book here:
Inside Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy
(via Starwars.com)

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SOURCE: TheForce.Net

17 Comments » | Celebrities, Politics, books, in the media | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

The Droid Birthday Treats You’re Looking For

March 23, 2010

Nothing is yummier than an edible astromech!

bridget {bake at 350} writes:

I made an R2-D2 from candy melts and royal icing. Then, the Star Wars cake was inspired by the lovely multi-colored cakes from Amanda of i am baker. My son said he wanted red and blue layers…something about good and bad lightsabers.

Check out more photos and recipes here:
R2-D2 Cake & Cookie photos

3 Comments » | Food | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

Play it again, Piano Droid!

March 23, 2010

This Clone Wars meets Casablanca mashup art by Rocket Pistol is pure brilliance. Fingers crossed that we get more from this awesome artist! This would be even better as a fan film — HINT HINT.

2 Comments » | Star Wars Art | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

That’s No Moon! It’s a Melon!

March 23, 2010

Photo by Silverisdead

At your next dinner party, remind your guests who’s in control of the table topics with these Death Star melons!

4 Comments » | Food, fan fun | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

If Star Wars were an Icelandic Saga

March 21, 2010

Jackson Crawford takes his fandom a step further by re-writing Star Wars as an old Icelandic tale. Most impressive!

Over the next several years, we follow the career of Anakinn as he falls in love with Irish princess Paðéma after killing her father at the Battle of Confey, and his mentor Víga-Óbívan continues to encourage him to betray Falfaðinn, the King of Kóruskantborg. Eventually Falfaðinn learns of Víga-Óbívan’s duplicity and exiles him. Víga-Óbívan returns to Tattúínárdalr, and Anakinn is conflicted when he learns that Paðéma has been in league with Víga-Óbívan and sails to Tattúínárdalr with him.

However, Anakinn is loyal to his oaths to King Falfaðinn and remains with him in Kóruskantborg, where he rises to great honor in the service of the king and is the recipient of many good gifts. He also begins the planning of the construction of the great ship Dauðastjarna, which when completed will be the crown jewel of Falfaðinn’s fleet, and will hold a crew large enough to sack a city single-handedly. Because of his great skill in hunting, Anakinn is now known to most as Veiðari-Anakinn, “hunter-Anakinn,” or often simply Veiðari.

Back in Tattúínárdalr, Paðéma gives birth to twins, Lúkr and Leia, before dying from her grief at having betrayed her husband. One of the most memorable lines in the saga is given to her on her deathbed:

Þá mælti Paðéma: “Þeim var ek verst er ek unna mest.” (2)

Read the entire entry here:
Tattúínárdœla saga

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SOURCE: ClubJade

3 Comments » | fan fun | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

Canadian Collectors — Give Feedback for Charity

March 19, 2010

JediNews recently posted a survey for Canadian collectors to submit feedback on Hasbro’s Star Wars toy line in Canada . Each entry will benefit the Starlight Foundation in Canada — here’s the word from the site:

Participate in our STAR WARS Online Survey and share your feedback on the STAR WARS brand in Canada!

To thank you for your time, HASBRO CANADA and JEDINEWS.CA will donate 1 STAR WARS toy for every survey completed to the Starlight Foundation of Canada.

Only one survey per email address may be submitted.

This is exclusive to Canadian collectors so if you live outside Canada you will not be able to proceed with the survey. Canadian fans can head here for more details.

No Comments » | Collecting, charity | Permalink
Posted by pvilmur

Cute Yoda Hair Clip Craft

March 19, 2010

Crafty fan Amanda Jean not only makes her own adorkable crafts she shows you how to make them too!

Yoda Hair Clip Craft

Chewbacca and a Jawa Hair Clip Craft

No Comments » | crafts | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

Dave Filoni Talks Clone Wars, Wolves & Football

March 19, 2010

Mandy from TheForce.net chats with Clone Wars Director Dave Filoni about Season 2 and 3 challenges, goals for The Clone Wars, EU, wolves and football!

Excerpt:

Tell us about the average Dave Filoni day.

I get to work around 8:00 am. I use that time to work on various projects related to Clone Wars, future designs, script revisions, shooting a scene. By 9:30 the day gets going normally with Design dailies, then after that I might review a rough episode, watch a color episode, look at revisions, animation, color/lighting, color correct, music review. It all depends where any given episode is at and what has come in. There are also various items to troubleshoot everyday like how to deal with a large amount of characters that require cloth sim, or what language should be used on a particular view screen. No two days are the same, that’s for sure.

You’ve been terribly diplomatic regarding the various arguments over supposed continuity and the Expanded Universe. Are you pleased or have you enjoyed the tie-in work for The Clone Wars (The Karens, Dark Horse, Republic Heroes, etc.)?

I understand the fans’ passion and respect the fact that they have invested a lot of time studying the EU and have grown fond of many characters in it. However, at the end of the day this is George’s universe; he created it, and he has the right to set things the way he sees them. As someone working in the Star Wars Universe I have had incredible access, and time with George, to make sure this series lines up with his universe the way he wants. It’s like when he makes a Star Wars film and produces it, he’s that involved with The Clone Wars.

I do my best to make George aware of existing EU material when I know we are crossing into territory that has been covered, like the Mandalorians, and we debate what might stay and how things can fit, but we can never limit what we are trying to do creatively because of existing EU material. I am aware of a lot of the tie-in work with Clone Wars, and even though there is not a lot compared to other areas of Star Wars, it is almost impossible to keep up with it all. It doesn’t really effect what we do on the series, because our production schedules are so different. If there is a character we like, they may make it into the show in the background possibly, similar to how Aayla appeared in AOTC.