Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Catnip: Egress To Oblivion?

This is pretty well done. Exactly the same production style as the anti-drug films from the 1970's.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Miguel Nicolelis: A monkey that controls a robot with its thoughts. No, really.

One of the most amazing TED talks I've seen in a long time.

Can we use our brains to directly control machines -- without requiring a body as the middleman? Miguel Nicolelis talks through an astonishing experiment, in which a clever monkey in the US learns to control a monkey avatar, and then a robot arm in Japan, purely with its thoughts. The research has big implications for quadraplegic people -- and maybe for all of us. (Filmed at TEDMED 2012.)

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Walter Cronkite in the Home of the 21st Century (1967)

I love looking at antique views of how the future was supposed to be. This one was pretty damn close. The main thing he didn't predict is the fact that all of these communication machines are combined into a single machine... and that machine can fit into your pocket.

Although Kronkite's "kitchen of the future" is so far off the mark that the entire thing is laughable.


From Smithsonian.com:
 Legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite’s regular half-hour CBS documentary program “The 21st Century” was a glorious peek into the future. Every Sunday night viewers of the late 1960s were shown all the exciting technological advancements they could expect to see just 30 or 40 years down the road. The March 12, 1967, episode gave people a look at the home of the 21st century, complete with 3D television, molded on-demand serving dishes, videophones, inflatable furniture, satellite newspaper delivery and robot servants.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Cormac McCarthy 'Blood Meridian'

I thought this was an excellent critical dissection of the book, Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy... If you haven't read it, consider it an imperative to go out and pick up a copy and read it immediately.

In my opinion, the Judge is one of the most interesting characters in the entirety of modern fiction... I love the comparisons of the Judge to Milton's version of the Devil in Paradise Lost... I don't like many books, but I don't hesitate to put this book among the top ten works of fiction I have ever read.


Thanks Rob for the link!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

New My Bloody Valentine Album

We've only been waiting twenty plus years for your next album...      No pressure or anything...