Robots are always awesome. Even when they don’t have a clear function.
Tag "tech"
Back in 1924, futurists had designs for a radio-controlled robot police force. It’s odd to me that police robots were never pursued in any large capacity. Seems like a perfect use for a robot. A robo… cop. Give me a radio-controlled police tank or something, anything. They have autonomous killer planes in the military, but nothing to help John Q. Law fight crime on a daily basis.
Check out the chilling insert illustration of the robots in full riot control mode. Those rioters really look frightened. As they should be. Unless of course those are just people waiting in line at the Hoagy Carmichael show. Hulking police robots, with a spinning mace for a hand, would never overreact would they?
Bullets are mesmerizing. Especially in slow-mo. Found this on Kottke.org. 10 minutes of bullets shot at things and set to trance music. Captured at 1,000,000 frames per second. I bet you watch the whole thing.
Anyone else think two-way mirrors are made of magic? Really. How do they do that?!
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It is time for an alternative to toilet paper. Too many trees have perished for us to wipe our filthy asses. The thought hit me on New Year’s Day. Seemed like it was a time for new beginnings. I wouldn’t have such a problem if toilet paper were recyclable. But that’s simply not an option. The only substitutes I’ve come up with in the past 10 months are the bidet and the three sea shells that confound Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man.
Since we live in a world where Sly is merely an actor and not a super-cop, unfrozen through time to rid the world of Wesley Snipes, I guess we look to the bidet. A water fountain for your anus. How effective is this contraption at cleaning house? Can bidets be more than just an occasional luxury? Why aren’t more people using this green tech?
Bidets are exotic to most Americans, but a common fixture around the world. Though generally seen as a European indulgence, Koreans are into bidets too. In fact, they landed on combination toilet/bidets. These combo machines appear in approximately 60% of South Korean households. I’ve never heard a Korean complain either. I have to assume toilet/bidets are working just fine for their asses. And why not? A stream of water is exponentially more effective than dry paper. But without speaking to an honest to god Korean, I don’t know how it all goes down. If you’re Korean, please jump in. Do these exist in public spaces? You have to dry off… Are there public ass-towels in Korea? If we’re using paper towels to dry off, that would defeat the purpose of the bidet in the first place, so I can’t buy that. Maybe a motion-activated hair dryer for your fanny? A ha! Cool breeze of course.
I’ve done some research. Combo toilet/bidets go for about $3000 on the interwebs. Contrast that to an ordinary throne which goes for about $200. (This may be shocking to you as most of us never have to buy a toilet. Mostly a line-item on a contractor’s bill.) Clearly we have a price gap. What is driving the price of toilet/bidet combos up? I refuse to believe the higher price point is strictly due to manufacturing costs, but rather the perceived opulence of- what is essentially a water fountain for little people.
Perception is a very powerful barrier to entry. A distinct marketing problem. You will need the marketing power of an Apple, Inc. or a Nike to change people’s perception on latrines. Bidet’s are not just for the rich. OR just for the little people. Bidet’s are for your ass. The tech is centuries old and has current real world applications. Just do it.
There is a grander problem though; infrastructure. How do you get stubborn Americans to change the way they wipe their asses? No small task when dealing with a clique that, for all it’s marvels, is still surprisingly prude. Furthermore, how do you outfit bathrooms with a bidet when most are designed to only accommodate one porcelain appliance? This makes the combo toilet/bidet very appealing. Especially when more and more people are willing to pay a premium with the planet in mind. The less you inconvenience them the better. They already have monstrosities like the combo toilet/washing machine above. Why not an inconspicuous little bidet?
A change of considerable magnitude is going to have to take place in people’s minds if we are going to accept a cool and awkwardly refreshing rinse-off as a weapon against global warming.
Now if I can just convince America to switch to the metric system…
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What a sight to see this morning. As I was walking from the subway to my office, I saw a bunch of grizzly, hard-hat clad, construction workers gathered around in a circle. Sweating and cursing and doing what real men do.
For some reason they had congregated under the very same scaffolding they were constructing. A bevy of them right there in the middle of the sidewalk, impeding morning commuters. But as I’m saying to myself, “What the hell are these guys doing?” I realized what they were doing. They were showing each other their iPhones. Comparing apps. And all was forgiven. iPhones aren’t just for hipsters.
All hail Steve.
Read MoreEver notice that whenever you call a doctor’s office or a support line or any place were they have an automated robot answering system, you always have to “listen carefully because the menu options have recently changed”. I’ve never called at just the right time when the menu options have been sitting stagnant for a while. They’re apparently always shifting and moving and changing and hugging.
Well I finally took the bait and got an iPhone. As expected, I’ve fallen in love with it quite fully. When you have the world at your fingertips it becomes your oyster. And then you eat it. Eat the world.
WordPress, the software that runs Miabi Films, has an accompanying iPhone app that allows me to post on the go. I find this very exciting. Hey I know people have been doing this for years, but it’s all new to me. I survived with a dumb phone while everyone around me was mobobloggin’. Well I’m mobile now baby! Though I’m still getting used to typing on this thing, that kind of instant access to my bank of weird thoughts will give you the faithful a better overall experience. I don’t think this really replaces my Moleskine but it’ll at least let me post from a public toilet.
Sent from the device in my pocket.
Folks. This is a glorious day. Many people know my love of 3D. It’s my favorite gimmick. I believe everyone should own a pair of good 3D glasses. Non-cereal box variety. That’s why I went on eBay a few years back and got a pair of 3D clip-on specs. This way, I could conveniently flip them up and out of the way when I’m not using them. Well, now I present to you my first 3D movie. Whip out your red and blue 3D googles and enjoy a wild ride in a stolen space ship. In multiple dimensions!
Here’s the original movie, posted yesterday. You can find the plot there. No idea why we’re calling it “Don’t Ask”. Don’t ask.
And here it is in 3D…
