Sdtrk: ‘Slow fast Hazel’ by Stereolab

With the recent confluence of a friend asking me about how to handle the experience of being on camera, as he’s one of the subjects of an upcoming documentary centred round bicycling culture, plus working on the ‘Media appearances’ page for ‘Kitten with a Whip!’ (yes, work is being done on Sidore’s site, even if it’s only on a molecular level), it’s occurred to me that there are two media-related self-aggrandising events that I’ve yet to take part in.

One: I’d love to be interviewed on some sort of radio programme or podcast. The Missus and I have been on TV on several occasions, and before she came into my life, I had a three-year stint as a technical director for a Detroit-area public access show, so it’s been all telly, yet no radio. And before you say that being a TD doesn’t count cos it’s behind the scenes, I did manage to stick my face in front of the camera on a couple of segments. But I think I’d rather enjoy fielding questions from the other side of a chat show’s host’s desk, or table, or however the hell the seating arrangement is in the booth, and maybe even addressing call-in questions. No, strike that, reverse it; no call-ins, as that’s a recipe for disaster. Ever listen to Chatterbox FM, the all-talk station from Grand Theft Auto? I’m 100% positive a call-in show about iDollators would run the same way, only with all the humour stripped out, and replaced with antagonism and churlishness. WOOO SIGN ME UP
If I had my preference, obviously it’d have to be an NPR-esque show. Plus, as it’s not a visual medium, I wouldn’t have to haul Little Miss Narcoleptic bring Shi-chan along — she could sit that one out…

And Two: Despite the various countries that have enquired about interviews, I have yet to hear from Japan, which is the one that I thought would be really chomping at the bit. Seeing as that they’re a lot more comfortable with the idea of artificial humans in general — for every one high-end Doll maker we have in the States, they’ve got three, not to mention the progressive attitude they have towards robotics — you’d think they’d be banging (politely) on my door, asking for ‘face time’ from Sweetie and me. The language barrier is hardly an excuse, as Meghan Laslocky’s wonderful article appeared in the Japanese magazine Courrier a year ago. Perhaps it’s a catch-22; the Japanese media hasn’t seen too much on the subject, so they don’t know to seek out Doll owners, but they won’t think to look for Doll owners if there’s no media exposure of that subject. *shrug* Nevertheless Japan, Sidore and I are anxiously awaiting your long-distance phone calls and pensive Emails!

Needless to say, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one of these will come to pass, particularly the second one. I’m not holding my breath, but I’m certainly keeping my fingers crossed

Sdtrk: ‘Fluorescent grey’ by Deerhunter

Not having paid any previous attention to the Japanese Doll company make pure, as their models hold no appeal for me, I was pleasantly surprised when I learned of their brand-new Synthetik companion, Deep ~L~. Very pleasantly surprised. Wow.

N.B.: not actually enrolled in classes

Babelfish comes to the rescue (or as Babelfish itself would say, ‘Babelfish comes for the rescue’) with this translation of the newspost that tipped me off to Deep ~L~:

Adult doll Deep~L~. compact with the height 130cm, having got big breasts, and complete & figure and atmosphere, too the homepage of make pure. It drank and the page joined. ｢The maximum feature is a groin part. The device that not is before though it is a hall type is given. ｣ To our regret, the details are being controlled voluntarily.

‘It drank and the page joined’. Noted!
Granted, make pure’s new lass is flat-out luscious, no question, but there’s something familiar about her appearance. I couldn’t put my finger on it, until I visited 4chan’s Sexy beautiful women sub-board, and it hit me like a ton of silicone bricks after seeing a certain thread — they’ve gone and made half-Filipino half-French model and unstoppable sexbomb Leah Dizon. A grand choice!

Left, Leah; right, Deep ~L~

You can now have your very own Leah Dizon. This, then, is proof that we are truly living in the Golden Age! One wonders if she’s aware of this, though. If not, you’d be well advised to get your orders in for the Dolls as soon as they announce it before she activates her lawyers

Technorati tags: Leah Dizon

Sdtrk: ‘Bedazzled!’ by Drimble Wedge and the Vegetation

Found this tiny treasure on some Japanese person’s blog today:

Yes, a doll — specifically, a Takara Cool Girl (marketed in the States as ‘CyGirl’) doll — of the Robot station emcee version of Actroid-chan. Yes, that high-pitched sound would be coming from me.
Takara’s Cool Girl site yields no positive results, and online translators aren’t really helping me, either. Running the accompanying paragraph through Babelfish results in

(Gramar from the thing) . The end is a figure of this and Expo Actoroid in the booth in Kokoro ･･･ Yes though feelings from which it already wants to make something are understood well.

So like, what? Were they offering these dolls during Aichi’s 2005 Robot Expo? Is this a mod that this person came up with? Where’d they get the race queen outfit for it from? Is… is this what an aneurysm feels like??

I might well have to ask some friends in Japan if they can find anything about that doll’s availability, as that’d be a hell of a collectible item… It might almost be easier to track down a human-sized race queen outfit, and have Shi-chan cosplay as Actroid-chan! Brilliant!
Huh. That’s an unusually evil eye she’s giving me

Technorati tags: Actroid, Takara, Cool Girl, CyGirl, race queen

Sdtrk: ‘Decades’ by Joy division

In doing some research on my Most Favourite Subject, this quote by roboticist David Hanson from an article last year in the Toronto Star stood out:

‘If we don’t give [robots] faces, if we don’t teach them how to be a part of the human family in the future, then they will be cold and faceless and they will be scary. They’ll jeopardize our existence on this planet,’ he says. ‘We need to start planting the seeds in the technology of compassion and wisdom.’

‘Otherwise they will just be ruthless.’
the rest of the article is here

In other news, I’m at almost a total loss as to what to write about next, as evidenced by the subj.title. This happens every now and again; I just have to dig in my spurs and ride it out. Something will come up, I’m sure. Right?

Technorati tags: Android, Gynoid, Synthetik, David Hanson

Sdtrk: ‘An invitation to Shoebox Garden’ by Moon wiring club

Finding this on YouTube was certainly an unexpected surprise! Actual footage of Kobayashi Labs’ Android SAYA. Nice!

I’ve always gotten little digs in about her somewhat mediocre appearance and older technology — if you’ll recall, she unfortunately didn’t rate too well in that poll I’d held a couple of months ago* — but seeing her in motion, she looks… not entirely unattractive, actually.

Doing a bit of investigative digging round, I discovered why the sudden resurgence in news about our SAYA; according to this article in Plastic Bamboo, she was purchased by a university in Israel, in order to help kickstart their own robotics programme. I approve!

And as per her custom, Sidore-chan’s got another intriguing pair of videos on her Dailymotion page that should prove, err, intriguing. Happy 23rd!

*To be fair, the pic I’d selected for Android SAYA was a bit crap

Technorati tags: Android, Gynoid, Synthetik, Kobayashi Labs

Sdtrk: ‘Jinxed’ by The Aluminum group

Well, I for one am certainly encouraged!

Robot woman encourages turnout for local elections in Yokohama
Mainichi Daily News | April 9, 2007

YOKOHAMA — A humanoid robot designed to look like a young woman was a popular attraction at a department store here on Thursday as it called for voters to participate in nationwide local government elections.

The robot, named Actroid, appeared in front of the Sogo Department Store in Yokohama’s Nishi-ku.

The Yokohama Municipal Election Administration Commission planned the robot display to educate voters, as turnout for the unified local elections in Yokohama has not exceeded 50 percent since the start of the Heisei era in 1989.

The robot’s eyes and mouth move, along with its cheek muscles, and it even has veins in its legs to make it look real. The robot left at least one customer tying to sort out whether or not it was a real person.

“It’s a real human, isn’t it?” the customer asked.

Hopefully voters won’t have as much trouble sorting out the candidates during election time.

Hell, get me round to Yokohama; I’ll vote for whoever had the foresight to employ her.
That’s how they’ll get all of us Technosexuals — the worst party to vote for in the world will say ‘Hey, vote for us! We have Androids and Gynoids!’ and we’ll be like ‘Fuck yeah, there’s Gynoids at the polling booths WOOO’, and months after that party has won, we’ll all be made into Soylent Green or something similar. ‘Know your voters’ is the lesson to be learned here…

Not to harp on this point, but someone please put her in sandals and get some pics, even if it’s just for one day! If I can’t see how her feet look at least once, I will be vastly disappointed in the Universe

Technorati tags: Actroid, Repliee, Android, Gynoid, Technosexual

Sdtrk: ‘Hélicoptère’ by Mireille Darc

Some of you vaguely recall my report on Fräulein Borghild, the WWII-era RealDoll analogue assembled by Nazis, for Nazis. Yes, I was sceptical that she existed in the first place, but deep in my heart, I wanted to believe. Much to my chagrin, I just discovered this article on Boing Boing, posted back in 2005, about how a pair of unrelated and investigative readers in Germany revealed that the entire affair was merely a protracted example of japery. Gods, how depressing.

The main problems with “Borghild” are:

– There is no evidence that any of the documents the text talks about ever existed. The Deutsche Hygiene Museum says that of course most records were destroyed in an attack in 1945, but that still no one they talked seems to remember anything about this project. The photographs on borghild.de are clearly fabrications, and the site even acknowledges that.
– The author of borghild.de, “Norbert Lenz”, claims to have worked for a number of German magazines – all of which claim not to know a journalist by that name. He is not listed in phone directories, and the only book currently available in Germany by a Norbert Lenz is a book about – ducks.
the entire article is here

DAMNIT *pounds desk with fists, collapses into loud sobbing*

Technorati tags: Borghild, Nazis, sex doll