Giant, Post-Apocalyptic "Rescue" Robot

I found this gem in a gallery of vintage robots featured in Popular Science. 
This robot, called "The Beetle" weighed 170,000 pounds and cost $1.5 Million in 1962.  It was originally designed as a "mechanic's suit" for some kind of half-baked nuclear-powered airplane.  There are more awesome pictures in the original article, particularly of the "pilot" sitting behind 2 feet of leaded glass.

The whole thing looks like something out of the movie Aliens.

Old School Robotics

When I was growing up, I was destined to be an engineer.  I would go to the library and check out every book I could on robots - big picture books of robots, children's books on robots, even some academic books that I couldn't really understand as a child, but the diagrams and illustrations captivated me.  I was enchanted by the idea of building my own machine. 
Make has a short article on one of my favorites, and I'm now destined to spend the rest of my evening perusing the Old Robots website.