uncanny valley

Tweenbots - Human-Robot Empathy

Love this story about humans helping little lost robots - http://robots.net/article/2806.html

There is hope for us yet ;-)

Atomium: The Building That Never Was

Took in Brussels a while back - part of the long process of exploring the landscape of Cold War Europe for the new novel - and sitting to the north of the city like a giant alien craft is the Atomium. Perhaps the continent's most unique building, it is also perhaps one of the most obscure. Owing to a curious copyright situation whereby publication of photographs of the building is apparently prohibited - the Atomium is both a remarkable relic of post-War Europe's futuristic vision and yet relatively unknown as one of the world's most iconic structures.

For more background, visit here.

Doublespeak in 2009

Funny, I thought when one country invaded another it was a war. Not so in the 21st century. Yesterday, Britain announced the end of its 'combat operations' in Iraq. The upside of ending 'combat operations' is that a state doesn't have to admit defeat in the way that it has to when it loses a war.

So:

No WMD discovered in Iraq (remember that flimsy excuse for the original invasion). They could target the UK 'within 45 minutes'.

No links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda and 9/11.

No end to the internal battles between different factions in the country.

In other eras, this would count as a failure. Even a loss. Not so to the spin doctors. One can only imagine the meeting where they came up with the phrase 'combat operations'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8026136.stm