Will there ever come a day when we have enough robotic implants that we’ll be able to complete simple tasks while still asleep? Will my mechanical enhancements one day allow me to ensure the kids’ lunches are made, the dusting done, and the house tidied, all while I’m getting a decent night’s rest?
Will there come a time when I’m rocked to sleep by the gentle motion of my wandering titanium skeleton?
Another bit of the CNN front page:
I admittedly don’t know much about the Iranian legal system, but it seems to me that any structure so crude as to depend on stoning as a method of justice probably has some issues. I find it hard to imagine that there is place in such a system for a Clarence Darrow, or even a Johnnie Cochran.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_DQUAuNUvw]
Anyhow, this reminded me of something I read the other day that I wanted to pass along. It may end up somehow incorporated into a Blackhall tale someday, but, in his book Whiskey and Wickedness, Larry D. Cotton writes:
“The last public execution in Perth occured in May 1851. A convicted murderer named Francis Beare was scheduled to be hung, but a serious problem arose – the authorities could not find a hangman!”
That’s an interesting problem for an area on the cusp of civilizing to have. In the end though, they found a, uh, creative solution.
“The Sheriff contacted the penitentiary in Kingston and made arrangements for a prisoner to be offered a pardon in return for carrying out the task.”
Which reminds me of a Monty Python quote, from the Zulu sketch in The Meaning Of Life: “I mean, at home if you kill someone they arrest ya, eh, but here they give you a gun and show you what to do. I mean, I killed 15 of those buggers, sir. At home they’d hang me; here they’ll give me a ****ing medal.”
So, as was the custom of the time, the day of the execution came and the populace crowded together to watch.
Mr. Cotton continues:
“When the hangman appeared, the crowd jeered at him and shouted threats. The noose was tightened, the trap door sprung and the condemned man hung from the second story of the Court House. The screams of the crowd echoed even louder for the head of the hangman, who “yelled back at them that he’d hang them all for a shilling a dozen.”“
This is both terrifying, and slightly familiar:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMkV8E2re9U]
(Wait, was that Iron Chef music at the halfway point?)
Now, where have I seen that thing in action before?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGE_h4jBBXc]
Ah, yes, that’s it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCjGsKKevSQ]
Two things about this clip from 1960’s The Lost World:
Just a quick thought:
It can be a very uncomfortable experience using Google image search, in a public place, to locate screen captures from the movie “The Naked Prey“.
Below is a video of Iran’s robot, Surena 2, getting a workout on Iranian television.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGl_jTPhMf0]
Wikipedia says:
Surena II (Persian: سورنا) is a humanoid robot which has been developed and fabricated through a joint project between “Center for Advanced Vehicles (CAV), University of Tehran” and “the R&D Society of Iranian Industries and Mines”[1]. – article
It’s hard to know what Iran is intending with this project, but I think it’s a pretty good example of what closed borders will produce. A little more communication with outside research groups and they might have a robot that does something more than balance on one leg while occasionally twitching its arms.
It seems to me ten minutes of conversation with the Asimo people, or even just watching some of their late ’90s videos, would have rocketed Surena’s research program forward.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq_193LuNc8]
(Fast forward to the last minute if you want to skip a little robo-history)
You might argue that Honda has had a lot of money and time to invest in Asimo, but go back to that Surena 2 video, then compare it against this last item, which was likely hatched by Osakan university students.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHuu2GPS_QY]
The new idea: A reboot of Quantum Leap.
Scott Bakula reprises his role as Sam, but Dean Stockwell is replaced with a digitally inserted Groucho Marx, as cut from old You Bet Your Life episodes.
Pilot: Sam leaps into Bakula’s body and attempts to fix his career.
You’ll only know if you’re healed or not once the cast is off.
There’s a lot to mock in this sign – the double “i” in healing, the misspelling of alternative, (I think it’s intentional, but it’s still wrong,) – but, while taking this picture, I was struck with the feeling that these were likely just nice, naive, hippies.
Then I turned around:
If you can’t read it, the sign on the left says, I kid you not, “Quantum Vibrational Kinesiology”.
Charlatans! Who could possibly maintain a business beside these quacks?
THC Technology?
Ah.
I don’t get Cap’n Crunch. To me it’s just pillow shaped shards of cardboard-tasting mouth-glass.
Scabs are funny things: you see a scabby-kneed child and you’re bound to smile, but you (or, at least, I) wouldn’t have the same gusto to greet a grown man with a scab covering the entirety of his right cheek.
