Now really, who wants jocks playing footbal when yu can have animated robots playing football?

From Super deluxe.

FiGHT!

[Thanks SeanBonner!]

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

I am fully in favor of all of President Executron’s policies.

I just got a couple of videos anonymousishly IMed to me as a part of the Great CarNAYgie Mellon Conspiracy. Daniel H. Wilson, the “mild mannered” humorist and author of How To Survive A Robot Uprising is uses his perverse powers of reverse psychology to make us think he’s on the side of the humans. Hah. Tis video shows us differently by trying to lull us into a false sense of security.

Yes, it’s Keepon, the infamous, adorable, squishy, slightly testicular robot that is actually much more complex than one would think (even Mr. Robotics, jaded fuck that he is, admitted this). Don’t let Keepon’s cuteness fool you. He’ll be just as much a part of the revolution as Skynet.

Daniel Wilson is also shilling for his alma mater CarNAYgie Mellon with this spiffy splash page that shows of his videos and the work of the lovely Ali Spagnola, whom we have previously covered.

I almost went to CarNAYgie Mellon once. I wanted to move to Pittsburgh and be a Penguins fan. Alas, it was not to be, I only made it into H&SS and not engineering or drama. Bastards.

At last, the Metroccolis Inventors of Mechanical Evolution have finally perfected the ultimate breakthrough in personal robotics. Your Personal Robot is on sale right now, today, for normal household use. Your Personal Robot makes the everyday tasks of life just that much easier. Your Personal Robot is safe, sanitary, and effective for all your robot-oriented needs. Your Personal Robot will clean your house. Your Personal Robot will do your homework. Your Personal Robot will love you when your friends do not.

This unprecedented research has been going on since 1996, proving once again that science is sexy, and you would totally buy it a drink if you were cool enough.

(I must confess to a small piece of my history here: I went to circus school. I am a clown by birth and training. Your Personal Robot must be cool, because I am posting it against my very genetics. Having said that, I will say this to my brethren: WARNING: Mimes.)

. . .to give you all a heads- up about an event happening in mere short weeks in San Francisco: The official premiere of the Doggie Diner Head Trip, a documentary film by Truth Serum and Central Services productions!

It is a gorgeous documentary chronicling a cross-country odyssey through the highways and byways of America, trailing the Holy Trinity Of The Dogminican Order. It is notable for capturing a vanishing era in American History: the institution of the roadside attraction and the freedom for freaks to sit in Piggly Wiggly parking lots for hours and hours and not be arrested.

Here’s the trailer:

The whole shebang begins at 2pm on Saturday, January 26th at Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda, California. There will be performers from near and far, live show by the Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, and we;ll probably figure out a way to get into a lot of trouble before the day is out, because we get bored.

Why is this interesting to SB readers? Well first of all: bicycles perverted for a noble purpose. That’s reasonably technical. Also: This documentary was produced by our dear friends Johnny Law and Fletcher Fleudujeon, and Mr. Robotics and I traveled across country in the bus for the documentary.

We spent quality time broken down in notable Autozone parking lots across the nation, I fought sleep deprivation and aliens driving the chase vehicle across New Mexico in the dead of night, hoping the truckers would see me before they hit the bus (which didn’t have hazard lights and did a top speed of 45 mph on a downslope with a tailwind). Mr. Robotics wore that stupid wig, and kept kicking $tephen Ra$pa in the head while he was sleeping, and there was a haircut given with razor-sharp nail scissors in a moving vehicle while we evaded the cops.

You just won’t see this in the film.

See what you could get away pre-9/11 in a San-Francisco-Values-loaded 1947 Gillig school bus (RIP Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby). Come on down and say you were there when, this sort of thing just doesn’t happen much anymore, people.

I am presently subsumed by huge convulsions of want. The Take-A-Seat by Jelte Van Geeste records your rfid/laser scanned membership card and follows you around until you leave whatever public place you are frequenting.

[via FreshCreation via Core77]

. . .is, of course, the noble squid. My personal favorite species is Vampyroteuthis Infernalis, but Laughing Squid has alerted us to Royal Deluxe’s “Le Calmar Géant à Rétropropulsion“:

It’s a steampunk-tastic inspirational ride-on piece that fits with Royal Deluxe’s mechanical interactive giant mobile street theater aesthetic. Another thing that made me feel all intelligent is the fact that we noticed that the squid moves down the track tentacles-first, which seems confusing until you remember that tentacles-first is, of course, backwards for a squid.

[This post dedicated to Dr. Jen Gittzus, Squid Goddess YC SY '98, who is not dead but also probably not reading this page either. Hi Gittzus.]

This is one of the most amazing films I’ve ever seen.

Another great film from Microbia

Cybestein Robots of the UK has a great appearance robot, Titan.

This is the best puppeteering I’ve seen. There’s still a guy inside the suit, but the verisimilitude is really good!

Click the photo for a nice video.

I told you this would happen.

“Metalosis Maligna” is a fictitious documentary created in 2006 by Floris Kaayk of Microbia about a mysterious new disease affecting people with implants.

via the Squid

So one of the cooler non-robot websites i read regularly is TikiBarTV. For those of you who like tiki drinks, cocktail culture, or heck, just funny videos - you should check out their site.

Of course, they like robots too. In fact, they made a cocktail robot:

See how many cool robot movie references you can catch. And if you need a 2008 calendar, well… the Lala pin-up calendar isn’t a shabby way to go.

When I die, I hope the angels are half as sexy as Lala.

The first thing I thought when I saw this was - “Well then, what the hell are roadies for?”

We-e-e-e-ell, I *suppose* a robotic guitar would scam on groupies less than a roadie would, and wouldn’t drink all your booze and do the load-out hungover, so I guess it’s cool. . .

[Insert usual smart-ass jokes about guitar world domination and killing humans here.]

[Thanks Engadget!