And so, Genibo, Empire State, Yahoo Tech, Fruit Flies, and Caesarean Children Suck You Back to Your Cubehole

Sit, Genibo, sit. Good "dog."

1. It howls, looks at you inquisitively, wags its tail, raises its hind leg threateningly, and shuffles around nonsensically like any other dog, but Genibo is anything but. Genibo, or "genius robot," is a mechanized hound from South Korea's DasaTech that can act on voice commands and be a watchdog, with a camera in its snout. One thing for sure, this pup can do a mean robot dance. Check it out here and for whatever reason, the company decided to end the movie with a slow zoom into an extreme close up of the robot's right eye, of its eerily empty and dancing red and blue pupilar lights.

2. In a Google-like ad-driven move, Yahoo introduces Yahoo Tech, a site of original material devoted to consumer technology via blogs, articles, product reviews, and video programs. Tech's General Manager Patrick Houston says, there was "a big, big opportunity for a site that is built especially for people who have neither the time nor the inclination to understand technology at the bit-and-byte level." Where is the tech appreciation these days...uh...outside of the crappy retro exhibit at the MOMA which features the original Ipod? (IHT)

3. Look at the skyline today and scream Happy Birthday for a reason! The Empire State Building reaches its three-quarter century today and is rather deserving of some embarrassment and imparted idiocy. Don't forget to throw a bone to super cool directors John Woo and Wes Anderson. I'm already on my way to the 375th Street Y as you read. (CBS)

4. Children of the caesarean might be missing out big time compared to their vag-exiting counterparts. German researchers recently tested out mice babies and found that babies who pop out of the birth canal swallow bacteria scraps from the canal and their mothers' feces that encourage healthy guts and digestion. A 2004 study on human babies seemingly concurs, showing caesarean babies were more diarrhea-prone than the naturally born in their first year of life. Maybe I'm not an expert or anything, I don't know, but the natural solution here for this unnatural delivery, it seems to me, is to shove a piece of poo into the mouths of crying newborns. No? (Nature)

5. Remember studying drosophila in high school and then getting paid half a million for it? Neither do I, but Californian neuroscientist and biologist Dr. Seymour Benzer would probably have a hard time forgetting after receiving the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for his work on the flies, humans, and the link between genes and behavior. In his acceptance speech, Benzer commented on his students' recent research, particularly one experiment where female fruit flies change their behavior in the vein of increased eating and decreased sexual appetite after being injected with a sperm imitation. All I can say is, same here. Same here. (NYT)