I apologize for the lack of posting today – I wish I could discuss what’s been eating up our time lately, but it’s one of those items that’s inappropriate to discuss in a crowd, even semi-anonymously. With any luck, our lives will have returned to semi-normalcy by the end of the week. I can promise Flash Pulp on time tonight, at least.
Meanwhile, I highly encourage you to look into Jessica May’s fantastic new posting, a reworking of one of her previously recorded songs.
Man about town, bmj2k, pointed me at a link to this toy:
Furniture features:
* Flat desk area
* Left and Right built-in mouse pads
* Bench seat that fits two children and offers storage inside for supplies
* Two locking cabinet doors
* Computer wiring stores safely inside ventilated cabinet.
* Locking castors keep unit from rolling during use.
As the accompanying Gizmodo article rightly points out, this feels way too much like “Baby’s First Cubicle”.
Oddly, this implication of child labour actually inspired me to round up my own kids and put them to work.
Behold: a dramatic reading as inspired by the original text of “χώρος γραφείου“:
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.
Welcome to Flash Pulp, Episode Sixty-Three.
Tonight, we present Ruby Departed: Utopia, Part 6 of 6
(Part 1/Part 2/Part 3/Part 4/Part 5/Part 6)
[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/skinner/FlashPulp063.mp3]Download MP3
(RSS / iTunes)
This week’s episodes are brought to you by Mr. Blog’s Tepid Ride.
What do you get the man who has everything?
Flash Pulp is an experiment in broadcasting fresh pulp stories in the modern age – three to ten minutes of fiction brought to you Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings.
Tonight, Ruby completes the tale of her final escape from the leather-clad people-eater.
Flash Pulp 063 – Ruby Departed: Utopia, Part 6 of 6
Written by J.R.D. Skinner
Art and Narration by Opopanax
and Audio produced by Jessica May
Flash Pulp is presented by http://skinner.fm. The audio and text formats of Flash Pulp are released under the Canadian Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCjGsKKevSQ]
Two things about this clip from 1960’s The Lost World:
2023: The first prime time show with a cast made entirely of digitally-resurrected
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“.
Welcome to Flash Pulp, Episode Sixty-Two.
Tonight, we present Ruby Departed: Utopia, Part 5 of 6
(Part 1/Part 2/Part 3/Part 4/Part 5/Part 6)
[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/skinner/FlashPulp062.mp3]Download MP3
(RSS / iTunes)
This week’s episodes are brought to you by Mr. Blog’s Tepid Ride.
These aren’t your Grandpa’s TV shows – well, not most of them.
Find it at http://bmj2k.wordpress.com
Flash Pulp is an experiment in broadcasting fresh pulp stories in the modern age – three to ten minutes of fiction brought to you Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings.
In the penultimate chapter of our current serialization, Ruby attempts to make a hasty escape.
Flash Pulp 062 – Ruby Departed: Utopia, Part 5 of 6
Written by J.R.D. Skinner
Art and Narration by Opopanax
and Audio produced by Jessica May
Flash Pulp is presented by http://skinner.fm. The audio and text formats of Flash Pulp are released under the Canadian Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.
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]
