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Monthly Archives: January 2009
The Uncanny Valley
This I think is interesting: “Japanese roboticist Mashiro Mori, whose study of engineering is heavily influenced by the teachings of Buddhism, posits the theory of the Uncanny Valley. This theory explains how humans react to robots and other non-human beings. … Continue reading
Pots and Kettles: Everybody’s talking at me.
Pots and kettles. It’s been a day of being talked at. I’m in the middle of an extremely interesting and useful course for my work. A lot of effort has gone into putting it together- the speakers are excellent, and … Continue reading
More Davos hilarity
I blogged briefly yesterday on Davos, and couldn’t get a comedy meta-tag to work. Never mind. Here’s some more Davos hilarity from the FT and Indie (which had the front page headline “It just gets worse and worse”. On first … Continue reading
Magic Mountains, Mad Scientists
So, another January, another “World Economic Forum” in Davos, Switzerland. [The World Social Forum, happening simultaneously, seems to have been disappeared.] The FT has done what it usually does in these circumstances- sent a hefty delegation of reporters, got some … Continue reading
Weight of the World 4: One stepper forwards?
and two steps back… 128.7 bastard kilos. That would be UP 0.8 of a kilo or whatever since last Friday But, as I shall tell myself for the next few days, this is because muscle weighs more than fat blah … Continue reading
FaT heads: Facebook and Twitter
Facebook and Twitter (“FaT”) are not just methods of communication and exchange. [Just as a car not just a box with wheels that converts dead pressed ferns into kinetic energy and carbon emissions.] They are- like cars- vehicles of display; … Continue reading
Weight of the World 3: Still Early Days
127.9 kilos this morning. So, down 2.5 kilos in total over two weeks, which isn’t bad going, I suppose, even if that figure (ho ho) disguises the fact that most of the weight was lost in the first week. But … Continue reading
24 hours a-twitter
First thanks to Tim Difford for patient coaxing above andbeyond the call of duty to get me close enough to Twitterso that Chi-Chi Ekweozor could deliver the coup de graceat the Social Media event last night.I came home and got … Continue reading
Sigmund Freud, the FT, and parapraxis
Siggie Freud is known for a lot of things, which shan’t detain us here. [Funniest Freud thing I ever read was a play called “Le Visiteur” by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, set in 1938 Vienna. The Nazis are there, Anna’s trying to … Continue reading
Enoch Powell, the FT and parapolitics
Enoch Powell was a High Tory as well as a racist. There’s his infamous and career-ending “Rivers of Blood” speech but there’s also the sharp understanding that Great Britain had, really, lost World War Two to the Americans, with the … Continue reading
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