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Kentucky Town Transforms Coal Mine Into Robot-Filled Tourist Attraction

October 29, 2009 at 2:54 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

Among the many problems with forcibly peeling resources out of the earth is that, once they're gone, all you've got left is a gigantic hole in the ground (cf. the Mirny diamond mine, which functionally has its own weather patterns). For dozens of poverty-stricken towns across Appalachia, the old coal mines that used to provide economic livelihood have long since been tapped out.

One town in Kentucky, though, is determined to turn their old mine into an economically viable tourist attraction. It's not as chichi as Sweden's luxury silver mine boutique hotel, but in fairness to the Kentucky folks they haven't had since the Middle Ages to dig it out.

The renovated coal mine in Lynch, Kentucky takes passengers on a railcar tour that begins by plunging tourists into the darkness of the mine shaft. From there they go through each of eight different stops with narrations throughout. Each stop is supposed to represent some significant era of the mine's development and the exhibits are populated by animatronic robots of old Italian workers speaking broken, accent-laced English.

Thereby confirming Jaunted tourist attraction rule #72 - if you're going to go for kitsch, go big. There's even a mule involved:

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The Future Of Tourism Is Sex With Robots, Says Researcher

August 26, 2009 at 10:24 AM | by amandak | 0 Comments

There are some interesting, if somewhat bizarre, predictions going round about the future of tourism at the moment. Among other things, the headlines frequently mention robot sex, so we thought we should investigate a bit further.

A New Zealand researcher named Ian Yeoman is the source of these rumors, and he's been making some forecasts about how tourism will be different in 2050. It includes things like hotel rooms with wallpaper that will change color according to your mood (we're not sure if this is necessary …) and the creation of a lot more indoor attractions like artificial ski centers and golf courses.

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The New Robotic Cooks From Japan Will Give You Haunting Nightmares

Where: Tokyo, Japan
June 18, 2009 at 5:08 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

We've been pretty good about welcoming our new robotic overlords, up to and including thanking them for making travel-related customer service less of a nightmare. But there's something disquieting about a robot that can verbally take our order, independently interpret our request, and then cut up sushi rolls and serve them to us. Without getting into too many details, that something has to do with the words "fish" and "poison" and the phrase "robot revolution."

In any case, several cutting-edge lines of cooking robots debuted last week at the Tokyo International Food Machinery and Technology Expo last week. The one in the picture, a product of Japanese company Toyo Riki, can prepare and flip pancakes. Really neat! This next one, more of a serving robot, can pick up fruit without bruising it and serve delicate pastries. Insanely creepy!

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Robot Legs Can Help You With Those Long Walking Tours

April 16, 2009 at 5:31 PM | by juliana | 2 Comments

If you're like us and you've been so lucky as to acquire severe stress fractures in your shins thanks to an unfortunate decision to play a sport in college for a few years, you will know that walking long distances will never be easy again. (Running again is a whole different story that requires some physical therapy but it is do-able.)

Tearing your ACL, twisting your ankle once every two months, or just having bad bones can make also sightseeing a dreaded activity when traveling. Or perhaps you have an even more serious medical condition which has weakened your legs. Walking tours of cities are entirely out of the question and even just a few hours checking out the sights with a rest break here and there can be hell on your legs and feet.

But never fear. Robot Legs are here!

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