
Click here to see a four-legged robot named WildCat. The video shows the noisy machine galloping down a car park at high speed (16 mph) and pivoting quickly on the spot. I watched spell-bound.
Boston Dynamics, which contracts for the US military, is the eighth robotics company snapped up by Google this year. Both the price and size of the project are being withheld from publication. Analysts say the purchases signal a rising interest in robotics use by consumer internet companies.

Yet, I notice that computer games are selling well this Christmas. I can't understand how families can afford these luxuries. What happened to the challenge of a game of chess to test the brain?