Sex With Robots: When Not If.

I went to a new class today and as part of the discussion we were asked about potential topics for a research paper. When I mentioned I was interested in doing a paper about the emergence of androids in the sex industry it was news to some. It's funny how my media habit has got me seeing it as a done deal when others are completely in the dark. Writing a paper will at least give me an excuse for all of those creepy teledildonic links I've collected. Regarding the issue, I'm an optimist. After reading David Levy's book Love and Sex with Robots I've had time to adjust to the idea and do some research of my own. Stay tuned, I'll post more on the issue as I study it.

Nerd Music

I found myself thinking recently about how to integrate science and art. Honestly, I think scientists do it better. Well, put it this way: I can forgive imperfect art better than bad science. If an artist wants to make art about science, they'd better know their stuff. Sloppy, goofy, off the cuff art is merely expressive, and that's an asset in the arts.

Snakebot! Bio-Robotics from Carnegie Mellon

Boing Boing posted this video today and I'm in love with the science. Animal locomotion is a peculiar study from both mechanical and evolutionary perspectives. The snakebot can not only climb but swim, which is an entirely different kind of motion if you've ever seen a snake in the water. It blew my mind to read that some bats can swim as well, using their wings as oars. Other aquatic bio-robotics include the jellyfish bots.

Molecular Gastronomy by the Book

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking
Here we go. Just in time for the holidays, there's a 2400 page set of cookbooks on synthetic paper to cover every aspect of food science. At one time we had a quaint dirty little notebook called 'The Joy of Cooking'. Of course, the recipes kicked ass in that grubby pictureless tome. I'll wait until the library picks this up to pass judgement. Image is important on a plate: I refuse to eat ugly food; but neither will I judge a book by it's cover (even if I love to look at the photos!).

A Post Modern Analysis of Laughter

Canned Laughter: Ben Glenn II, Television Historian | The Paris Review
There's an interesting article here on the evolution of laugh tracks. One of the things I find most difficult about watching television is the laugh track on any kind of sitcom. Since I worked as a projectionist, and didn't watch TV at all for several years, the effect is jarring. I find, however, that one rapidly desensitizes. At one point, I used a laugh track in an audio project traditionally formatted but intentionally placed on events that weren't funny. The joke went right over the TA's head, in part because he was accustomed to watching so much TV; inappropriate canned laughter was par for the course.

Robots + Jellyfish

At some point, I'm not a simple geek. I'm as interested in primitive life as high tech. Basically, this is my porn. The evolution of robotics is borrowing from simple life forms successfully, and in the process, the naive ideal of a machine man crashes and burns. If you could program eight legs, why would you bother with two? If I was a creator (creatrix, rather) I would make life not in my own image, but better.

Sound and Space

Hear Here – an acoustic theatre – Ric Lipson | Interactive Architecture dot Org
Its kind of a complicated and wordy article, but I love the images of this space. Its acoustic and intimate, sculptural and functional. The physical properties of sound are fascinating, and often overlooked: though invisible, sound has shape and size, and you can feel it with your skin (the booming bass when a car passes).

Whoa. Lucky you weren't standing closer.

500kV Switch Opening - StumbleUpon
I haven't posted in a while; I'm busy with a promotion at work, and moving again, plus the holidays- but I couldn't resist this crazy vid of a switch opening. There's a bunch more too. It's a stunning display of the quantity of power that is carried in our system everyday: look how fat the lightening is! Scary, but fascinating.

Bio-Concrete, Explained.

Here's a thought. Some brilliant engineers inoculated concrete with bacteria and organic matter which produce calcium carbonate when exposed to air. The result is a self-healing concrete. Of course, the best part of this is the hot, but geeky guy explaining the science.

Math Glam: 3D Mandelbrot Images

Mandelbulb: The Unravelling of the Real 3D Mandelbrot Fractal
There are some astonishing images at this link, along with a little math, and a dab of graphics know how. The discussion brings in some aesthetic issues, like focus and zoom, plus lighting and coloration to demonstrate how to express the object to its best potential. If you don't care about all that, you'll still be hooked by the pictures.

The Comedy of Change, by Rambert Dance Company

The Rambert Dance Company was asked to create a work of modern dance to commemorate the ideas of Charles Darwin. They collaborated with a bird scientist to create a movement based on the tango of manekins in Argentina, and created other pieces as well. I couldn't find a video with performance in costume, but the interviews were interesting anyhow.

The Music Instinct: Trailer

The Music Instinct
Its interesting to see the evolution of musicology and neurology coming together. I haven't read any of the books on the subject; there are several out, and I'm feeling inspired now. Besides Bobby McFerrin, always a wonderful interpreter of the musician's side, I thought I saw Evie Glennie, the famous percussionist in this trailer. She was the focus of a documentary a few years back called Touch the Sound

Lechuguilla, the most beautiful cave in the world.

Glassy pools, extremophile bacteria, mineral chandeliers: welcome to Lechuguilla. There's a slideshow at Nova if you want more pics of gorgeous caves. For the triple feature, check out the blog A Time To Get for a field trip to The Rock Yard, and some astonishing photos of granite.

Photomicrography: It's an aquatic larvae!

Nikon Small World - Photomicrography Competition
The winners have been announced for the 2009 competition. This whole site is eyecandy, but my favorite is this image of some sort of aquatic larvae by Fabrice Parais.

Projection on Buildings

On Spatial Robots a incredible video demonstrates an interplay between graphic art and architecture: animations projected onto buildings. What a wonderful way to enjoy a familiar building anew. Its a project of NuFormer Digital Media in the Netherlands.

Oolala! Tentaculum!

Freaky New Ghostshark ID’d Off California Coast | Wired Science | Wired.com
Previously, my favorite shark was the cookie-cutter shark, an ancient shark that was known as the most bioluminescent of its kind. This might be even better. It has a thing coming off its forhead for mating. Handy for a quickie, I guess.

A Fossil of a Dinosaur Giving Birth

Found this in my RSS feeds today: a cool article at Not Exactly Rocket Science shows a prehistoric animal actually giving birth. There's more than one fossil like this around I gather. Beautiful.