RIP locust

Tongue in cheek, mindless sunday morning post…

I just killed a locust. I didn’t meant to. She was kinda cute and she’s been with me for a while, quietly clinging to my window’s frame for weeks. I was starting to count on her being there.
I know that the coldness of late autumn made her lethargic and moribund, but I prefer to think that she — at the end of her existance — was pondering life, the universe and everything else. A locust-philosopher!
I wonder what kind of cluon, Terry Pratchett’s quantum of inspired thoughts in his discworld, hit her little brain. We’ll never know what wonders she thought, what hidden treasures she unhearted for the benefit of all locust-kind. That’s because she moved — the first movement in days — to a spot between the hinges of my window and so… CRUNCH. (sob)
What the hell, maybe she meant to suicide for all I know.

The Chronophage: a steampunk delight from Cambridge

Check this out, it’s a mechanical clock built at Cambridge:

It’s aestetics are quite unique, but I like it a lot. It’s beautiful with its steampunk/victorian way.

I want a replica in Second Life!

On Microsoft latest patent

Microsoft patented Page Up and Page Down. Is it their strategy to show that Linux – after all – did infringe on some Microsoft intellectual property?

It would be funny, if it was not real.

U.S. Military creates flying dildo for urban surveillance tasks

I just saw this video about a flying spy drone, aptly called Voyer, and I can’t but think that it just look like a giant dildo:

I wonder if they made it like that so it hides in sex shops… U.S. is going to invade Amsterdam ;-)

Googling around

You know you are googling on the wrong path when you reach…. “the Worlds 1st Organic permanent gel hair colour specifically for pubic hair“.

And no. I wasn’t googling for porn.

PS: the link is safe for work.

The PILL: 2050 personal computing device concept (request for review)

I’d like some feedback on this tongue-in-cheek concept for a 2050’s personal computing device. I’d appreciate also proofreading from an English mother tongue speaker.

The Pill®

Available in Blue and Red versions.  (*)

- Share yourself in GlobalConsciousness®
- Enrich your perception with RealVirtuality® patent-pending augmented reality system
- Forget depression and increase productivity with MoodControl®
- Unexpected death? Backup your consciousness and continue your journey in AfterLife® (**)
- Do you think you’re under external mindcontrol? Regain your freedom with MindShield® (***)
- Do you think you’re not under external mindcontrol? It’s too late. Sorry.

Footnotes:

(*) the red version is not on sale in all countries due to legal restrictions. Security clearance from your government may be required.
(**) Due to legal restrictions, blue pill users may experience limited memory loss when joining AfterLife®. Copyrighted music, films, books, works of art distributed by registered multinationals will only be available after the copyright protection ends – that is one thuosand years from artist’s death (see the Global Copyright Extension Act of 2039, also known as “Disney’s Joy” act).
(***) MindShield® use may be limited in blue pills sold in some countries, including China, Russia, Iran, USA and Europe. Do not expect MindShield to work in repessive regimes and in market democracies that ratified the Unrestricted Freedom In Advertising treatise (aka “Thought Control”) or which extend DMCA-like provisions to “advanced communication tecniques”.

Modern financial markets

From Marc Andreessen’s blog, I got this really funny gem about how financial markets work and worked in the subprime crisis:

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Drugs for the brain and drugs for the… ehm…

I just had an amusing synchronicity event. I was reading my RSS feeds and watching some amusing videos I piled up on my youtube’s watch list.

I was reading about James Hughes, Ph.D., presentation at TransVision 2006 on "many technologies that will allow us to modify and assist our emotions and reasoning. One of the purposes we will put these technologies to is to assist our adherence to self-chosen moral codes and citizenship obligations. For instance we will be able to suppress unwelcome desires, enhance compassion and empathy, and expand our understanding our social world and the consequences of actions. So, contrary to the bioconservative accusation that neurological self-determination and human enhancement will encourage more selfishness in society, it will probably permit people to be even more moral and responsible than they currently are."

If you ask me, although I am interested in transhumanist themes, I see a lot of perils in these technologies in societies where civil and personal liberties are being eroded, creating an hole in our democracies and raising the risk for a subversion toward police states. However, augmentations of our minds won’t necessarily be a bad thing: if they were accessible to the common man instead of being used as a state control device by the ruling powers, they will help to counterbalance the growing control of states over their citizens.

I fully expect that we’ll develop some sort of biotech or nanotech "firewall" to shield people from the perils of our new technologies in the next decades. I just hope it won’t remain pure military technology.

While I was pondering these themes, my youtube watch list moved on to this Robin Williams’ performance on Viagra:

Funny, isn’t it?

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Funny, funny cats!

I was browsing youtube and found this awesome videos about cats:

The only Mac commercial that I like

(Via Digg)