Make no mistake, you’re not looking at the latest Barbie line: These are the The Pussycat Dolls. Formerly an LA stripper show burlesque show, now upgraded to be pop music sensation and the new face of female empowerment. With virtually every race and hair color represented, the collection of women seemed to have stepped straight out of an adolescent boy’s fantasy.
Yet, their polished perfection also has a certain unheimlich quality: The lips, the breasts, the heavily done faces, the oh-so-perfect noses, the shiny skins, the ’sculpted’ bodies. Too perfect to be human: this cannot be trusted.
Screenshot from the movie Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
Could the female pop group perhaps be the latest manufacture of Abyss creations, the Californian company known from Real Doll life-size silicone sex doll mannequin advertised as “the state-of-the-art for life-like human body simulation”?
The name ‘Pussycat Dolls’ certainly adds to the suspect, but then again their hit singles with titles like ‘BUTTONS‘ and ‘BEEP‘ point more in the direction of a robotics project. Perhaps professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, after his so-so attempts to create a robotic schoolteacher and doppelganger of himself, now exceeded himself with this sexy machinery? Not sure, as the comparisons go on…
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Fountains are peculiar objects: We associate them with nature even though they are typically entirely artificial and man-made (unless you are living in Iceland of course).
Recently however, a fountain that wasn’t planned for emerged in California’s San Fernando Valley. An urban water pipe carrying purified recycled water, used for irrigation and industrial purpose, began leaking. The rupture sent water gushing in an immense column that towered over the roof of a nearby business.
Thousands of gallons went down the sewer before the next natural fountain was closed down more than three hours later.
Via BBC NEWS. Related: Datafountain – Money translated to water, Water shows when the heat is on. Thanks Tara.
Anthropomorphobia is the fear of acknowledging qualities we wish to consider only human in non-human things. Sufferers from the condition used to have trouble mostly at fairs or theme parks, but as designed objects progressively aspire to maintain a human-to-human relationship with their users, the problems become more apparent in everyday life.
If you think you are vulnerable for anthropomorphobia, please DO NOT confront yourself with this interactive staring Mona Lisa-style woman animation created with motionportrait software. Brought to you, straight from the uncanny valley!
Related: Man shoots his lawnmower, Social Robots, Gel Remote, Let the robots do the teaching, Sexy Car, 1 whole human.
Already in the early days of modern civilization, people claimed that they could control the weather. A known example from recent history are the rituals that American Indians used to induce rain.
Nowadays, many people still tend to regard these stories as fairy-tales and consider controlling the weather impossible. In Moscow though, the mayor recently proposed a snow-free city. It proves that several countries, including the People’s Republic of China, USA and Russia, are modifying precipitation for several decades. In Russia, it is common practice to engineer dry days on public holidays and special events in Moscow.
Moscow’s plan is to disperse a mixture of silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder into clouds to trigger precipitation. This ensures that snow is banned from Moscow’s city centre, but results in a regional climate change in the areas just outside Moscow where the clouds empty their load. You can imagine the consequences…
Related: Hurricane control causes storm of lawsuits, Fight climate change: Hack the planet, China controls weather for olympics.
Laurent La Gamba makes photographic installations dealing with camouflage. His work juggles with the idea of natural procrypsis in the urban space and deals with the relations among people, living environment, and technology.
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According to research carried out by scientists from the Columbia Environmental Research Centre, sewage water containing hormones and pesticides caused by human consumption is leading fish all over America to change gender. Within this phenomenon, male fish are turning partly-female, and are starting to produce female eggs. What it is exactly that is causing the gender-ambiguity in specific fish, and at what rate, is still to be proven. However, the scientists argue that part of the reason comes from hormones, such as birth control pills.
One might wonder how exactly this phenomenon can be understood in terms of being ‘Next Nature’, but it seems to reflect ‘nature caused by human culture’ in the sense that it perhaps lies exactly in between our ability to control ‘old nature’ and turn it into products (birth control pills) and the phenomenon of culture (the common use of extra hormones) getting so out of control that it leads to unexpected consequences.
Via: www.sueddeutsche.de
To draw attention to a stand at the publishing house of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, a publisher hired some flies. The paper mini-banners — attached with self-dissolving wax — were designed so that a fly could fly with it, but low and for short distances, constantly landing on the visitors.
Via: Scaryideas.com Related: Branded Butterfly Wings, Robo-fly, Cyborg Insects.
Peculiar image of the week by Martin Denker.
Image: A. Sidorov
Have you ever fantasized about creatures which carry the biggest smile? Or creatures which are so deeply covered with fur that you wish they were real? Good news, soon you’ll be able to watch your favorite animal become alive!
While the average consumer is still happy with laser printer technologies the first 3D printer which uses organic materials is on its way. Currently we already manage to print cell structures of about 2 inches high. Once finished these devices will be used for noble purposes like printing organs, victimless meat or other food. However, the real fun starts some years later, when they are cheap enough to buy one yourself.
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‘Advertising is the cave art of the 20th century’, Marshall McLuhan said. Advertisings are mythical depictions of hunting and gathering rituals, that don’t take place on some stretched savanna, but in supermarkets and shopping malls. Through advanced profiles and content management systems ads can nowadays be targeted to select audiences.
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