Sharp has certainly been an integral part of these solar installations before, but the latest endeavor by the city of Sakai and the Kansai Electric Power Company isn't anything to sneeze at. The initiative will see a pair of "mega solar plants" constructed, one of which will crank out around 10,000 kW while the other outputs 18,000 kW. Once the plants go online in 2011, expectations are that CO2 emissions will decrease on the order of 10,000 tons per year. Of course, a staggering ¥5.0 billion ($46.5 million) will be coughed up in order to make it happen, but you can bet Mother Earth will certainly see it as money well spent.

[Via CrunchGear]

Japan's oldest "modern" robot -- the 10-foot, 6-inch GakuTenSoku -- has been awakened in Japan. Gone are the inflatable rubber tubes of the original 1928 android build by biologist Makoto Nishimura. The bot now tilts its head, moves his eyes, smiles, and puffs out his cheeks thanks to a $200,000, computer-controlled, pneumatic-servo makeover. While nothing compared to his modern offspring, GakuTenSoku still manages to creep us the hell out. On display at the renovated Osaka Science Museum starting July 18th. Video after the break.

[Via Impress]

Although robots haven't stolen sign-toting jobs from weather-braving Americans just yet, it looks like those street corner consignment gigs could be vanishing in Osaka. Due to a curious loophole in Japanese law, owners of adult entertainment clubs and information kiosks are now crafting robo-touts to solicit business from interested consumers, as it's illegal for a human to do the same. The handsome bots proudly hoist "Ask Me!" signs that attract passerbyers eyes, and apparently, direct any takers to the appropriate human source of information. Of course, these directing gurus could certainly branch out into less dodgy lines of work, but considering that the pictured servant underwent a ¥500,000 ($4,209) makeover just to look the part, these humanoids should probably be reserved for the most lucrative of chores.

[Via PinkTentacle]

Hot on the heels of Purdue's Mini 10 chemical analyzer comes a (somewhat) similar creature from the other side of the globe, as Osaka University's Yoshiaki Sugimoto and colleagues have "found a way to use the atomic force microscope to produce images that reveal the chemical identity of individual atoms on a surface." Essentially, this new discovery allows scientists to look at a mixed material and "pick out individual atoms of different elements on its surface, such as tin or silicon." The microscopes themselves are quite common in this realm, but until now, they have not been capable of distinguishing between atoms of different chemical elements. The atomic fingerprint, as it's so aptly named, is what the crew scrutinized in order to distinguish between varying atoms on a sample surface, as they witnessed that the relationship between force and distance is "slightly different for atoms of different elements." Of course, we have to look for the practical use in all this hubbub, and a non-participating scientist from the UK has insinuated that the discovery could be useful for nanotechnology researchers trying to design devices at the molecular level -- and who wouldn't be down a little nanotech garb or a snazzy new water-repelling umbrella?

Granted, texting just might be bigger than Hollywood these days, but bigger than concern for one's own life? Apparently a Kawanishi woman was taking her well-being for granted during her daily route to work, as she collided with a man in a subway station whilst texting away at 8:30 in the morning. Subsequently, she plummeted a few feet down onto the subway tracks, only to be saved by a station worker who fearlessly hopped down to rescue her SMS-focused mind (and body, too) as the oncoming train screeched to a halt just 20 meters before running her over. Thankfully, the dame suffered just minor injuries in the fall, but an estimated 4,500 employees were blaming her for holding up their progress when clocking in late. Notably, there was no word on whether or not the phone was saved, or more importantly, whether or not the presumably urgent SMS ever got sent -- but considering this is the second case in a matter of days in which a human being nearly lost their life to a cellphone, we beg you: text responsibly, dear friends.

[Via TokyoMango]

We're not exactly sure how compelling a train-controlling video game would be, particularly one that allows you to control the shinkansen (high-speed train) from Hakata Station to Osaka while rolling down the tracks at (virtual) speeds of up to 300km/h (186mph). But then again, we're not sure that the Japanese could come up with a video game that would surprise us anymore, particularly after "Cooking Mama." From what we can tell, our gaming friends in Japan have just released a special controller for this train simulation game, "Streetcar GO!" for ¥6,090 ($52) -- apparently the Wiimote just didn't cut it as a proxy for a train's gear shift.

We've certainly seen our fair share of robotic surgeons, nursebots, and robopharmacists around here, but what happens when it's the robots themselves that need a little medical attention? Why you ship them off to Osaka, Japan's Akazawa Roboclinic, of course. Although some people might write off the recently-opened clinic-- which is run by Systec Akazawa, makers of the skateboarding, Bluetooth-controlled PLEN bot -- as little more than a repair shop, the employees apparently conduct themselves in a very professional manner, donning traditional hospital lab coats and dividing the space into examination, operating, and rehabilitation rooms. The hospital is currently staffed by just four "physicians" led by a Dr. Ohno, who says that the most common maladies they encounter are faulty motors, fractured frames, and severed wires. So before sending your malfunctioning Robosapien, decapitated Qrio, or rabid Aibo to that great mechatronic heaven in the sky (a.k.a. your local landfill), spend a few bucks on a long distance call to Akazawa -- they may just be able to fix up your beloved robotic companion and return him/her as good as new.

[Via Robot Gossip and Loving the Machine]

You've got to hand it to Dell; even though its laptops may burst into flames at the most inopportune moments, at least the company has the good sense to conduct a prompt and public investigation into the matter (although the worldwide coverage of those "inflammatory" photos probably helped speed things up just a bit). Apparently the charred remains from that fateful conference in Osaka, Japan have been beamed back up to the mother ship, where Dell engineers are furiously working to discover how their product turned into a pyrotechnics show that amused and frightened us all. As usual, everyone's looking to pin this incident on that easiest of scapegoats -- the malfunctioning battery -- but whatever the problem turns out to be, we're sure hoping it gets fixed before another notebook decides to disobey the "no smoking" sign and light up on an airplane.