The Sniffer Nora Young and Cathi Bond

On this podcast, Nora and Cathi continue from Nora's backyard with a couple of contemporary robotics stories. Nora mentions fire fighting robots rolling out for use in Los Angeles (via Core77). As we've seen during the pandemic, there are plenty of roles for robots to work in dangerous situations, but is it time for international rules to govern the uses robots can be put to?
Cathi has an innovative use too: little walking robots that can move huge buildings to make way for a new development. Watch the video of them in action here.

Hey there!
This time, Nora Young talks about the news that Amazon-owned Ring home security company is releasing the Ring Always Home camera and drone to patrol your house. Cathi Bond talks about the news that they are also planning a car cam which you can engage when you're pulled over by police.
Cathi Bond talks about this fascinating research into tiny power generators that harness the breezes that blow by while we walk.

Cathi Bond and Nora Young are back in Nora's COVID-compliant backyard with looonnng mic cables!
This time, Nora talks about this Scientific American article on research into noise cancelling tech for bigger spaces, so you can open the windows (amen!) in urban environments and still have peace and quiet.
Meanwhile, Cathi talks about speculation that Major League Baseball will use drones to police mask wearing in the stands, if/when fans are allowed in the stands again (via Gizmodo).
 

Cathi and Nora are in Nora's backyard again for a couple of takes on how to enjoy summer vacation when many of our conventional travel plans have been disrupted by the pandemic.
Cathi Bond brings you the Luno Air Mattress, an inflatable mattress designed to fit in the back of your vehicle, so you can camp in your car in comfort. Cathi and Nora reminisce about old timey camping with terrible gear!
Nora Young talks about Drive and Listen, a charming website that lets you virtually drive around various cities around the world while listening to local radio from those cities. They chat about the indie internet and VR.

Cathi Bond and Nora Young are back for another physically distant podcast in Nora's backyard. 
This time, Cathi has an update on architect Moshe Safdie's eight skyscraper development in Chongqing, topped by a horizontal skyscraper called The Crystal. Now you can go and tour the development and take a 50 second ride to the top.
See Cathi's previous look at Raffles City Chongqing here. Find renderings of the development here.
Meanwhile, Nora mentions Stacey Higginbotham's podcast and newsletter. Recently, Stacey weighed in with some thoughts on the real use case for Augmented Reality: in the workplace, and in particular, in helping workers in the field do repairs or complete other production processes. The thought is that this can help address the shortage of skilled, experienced older workers by using AR to walk employees through a complex process using the visualization capabilities of AR. Perhaps, in the COVID era, older workers can work from home, coaching younger workers with AR. 

This time, Cathi drops by Nora's backyard for a physically distant recording. Nora mentions this survey suggesting, unsurprisingly, how much take up there's been for online shopping during the pandemic. Nora talks about how COVID is changing tech habits, including hers. Cathi argues for the value of in-person shopping for community.
Cathi has been a hard core gym rat for many years...like, *many* years. She's dying for the gym to open again, and talks about the impact on people's well being. Will folks in small spaces be able to have home gyms? What will we do when the long dark winter returns?
What are your health strategies (mental and physical) during the pandemic? Share your thoughts in the comments.