Bukkake opens all doors. Not really a shocker (pardon the pun). It’s surprising it took this long. Japanese businessmen love their wetflix, and if the PSP has it while the Gameboy DS doesn’t, Nintendo will be hurt, a little. Gamesindustry.biz has an article about it. The upcoming titles are amusing:
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Fall 2005 will see new parenting products. First up is the O’Pair (how clever). It’s a tot harness that tries to soften the stigma of the kiddie-leash by combining the implied greater social acceptability of an umbilical cord with the fashion sense of a fanny pack.
Here’s another, the Take Out Time Out. It’s a mat that parents schlep around with them and toss to the floor to provide a space for the child to sit when he/she is told to take a “time-out”.
Cual es mas creepy? Hard to say.
Recently there was a bill in the Texas House that aimed to ban municipal wireless networks. It was a high-profile bill because it so clearly illustrated government bowing to the financial interests of large corporations. This weekend, that bill died. Good guys win.
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This pill is a robot with a camera and six legs that can navigate your digestive tract. New art book coming soon to a coffeetable near you, A Day in the Life of a Drug Mule.
Hitachi has this great flash movie mimicking the style of Schoolhouse Rock shorts to promote their new perpendicular drive technology. May take a while to load, but it’s worth it.
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Wired has an article on roadcasting, an emerging technology that allows vehicles to stream MP3s to any similarly equipped vehicles within a 30 mile radius. It uses 802.11p technology, a Wi-Fi variant designed for vehicles. Seems a little gimmicky. However, one practical application would require a mic. Record your own audio message to broadcast to other cars around you. Some examples:
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above: Don’t let Gollum on the plane!
The privacy watchdog group, Department of Homeland Security, is preparing to install specialized X-ray machines at airports that can see through clothing, but stop at the skin. From the NYT (via CNET) article:
“Well, you’ll see basically everything,” said Bill Scannell, a privacy advocate and technology consultant. “It shows nipples. It shows the clear outline of genitals.”
At least there’s sure to be an influx of new applicants for airport screener jobs. What’s worse, it’s not 100% effective. A securty expert said:
Thwarting body-scanning technology would be simple, he argues. Because of concerns about radiation, body scanners are designed not to penetrate the skin. All that’s needed is someone heavily overweight to go through the system, he said. I won’t quote him directly on the details; suffice it to say he posits that a weapon or explosives pack could be tucked into flabby body folds that won’t be penetrated by the scanner.
By extension, screeners will be on the lookout for Dolly Parton hiding two Uzis. Oh, and the name of the company that makes these X-ray devices, “Rapiscan” (pronunciation of the first syllable is ambiguous). Oh, and the name of these X-ray devices, and I’m not kidding, “backscatters”.
Someone wrote:
A report in the medical journal Psychopathology notes that psychotic delusions increasingly concern the internet, suggesting high-technology can fulfil the role of malign ‘magical’ forces often experienced in psychosis.
In one case, a patient began to have paranoid thoughts and used an internet search engine to investigate suspicions about an ingredient on a chewing gum packet.
Her searches led her to believe she had discovered a secret terrorist network, and was therefore being personally targeted by the authorities using phone taps and hidden cameras…
The authors also consider that a person’s understanding of technology may be a limiting factor in their ability to incorporate it into a delusional system. People with a poor understanding for example, may be more likely to attribute seemingly supernatural abilities to technology.
Anyone in the field of psychopathology here care to comment?
