The National Interagency Fire Center is reporting that the United States has established a new record for most acreage burned by wildfires as of this date. The previous record, which was set in 2006, also occurred during a megadrought year.

If we've learned anything from the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado, it's that major wildfires are devastatingly powerful. They're so intense, in fact, that their energy output can actually be represented in terms of nuclear power plant output. Now, data visualization wizard John Nelson has done exactly that.

Add another eerily lifelike robot to the military's rapidly expanding android army. This one is, of all things, a mechanical firefighter. And not only can it climb ladders like its flesh-and-blood counterparts, it's designed to interact with human handlers in a kind of human/robot bucket brigade.