All posts by Dan

Eggs

Hackery

If we’re to take the title of Kevin Forbes’s Simulated Comic Product at its word, we can only conclude conclude that, on a day-to-day basis, it is at least as tasty as the real thing.

His recent Easter-themed comic, Eggs, is in a league of its own, though. In three short panels it tells the story of two quick-thinking children who narrowly thwart the escape of a genetic freak. Or of two ruthless brats who unhesitatingly betray a gentle victim of science back to his creator-tormentors. Take your pick. Forbes doesn’t shove an interpretation down your throat, and that’s what elevates this particular strip to the level of genius.

BigDog

Robots

Not to be outdone by a bunch of mere snakes, the folks at Boston Dynamics have built a four-legged walking robot called the BigDog. When it’s simply making its way over uneven terrain, it’s impressive. When it’s scrambling to recover its balance — after a receiving hard shove to its midsection, or slipping on an icy patch — it’s positively spooky. The damn thing moves like a living animal. I find my heart going out to it as it would to any creature in distress, despite the fact that I know full well it’s just a machine.

Snakedroids!

Hardware

Watching these guys climb their way up the outside and inside of pipes small and large, then shimmy into a small crevice for good measure, makes you think that this is pretty much exactly what the maintenance robots of the future will look like.

The Quotable Editors

Idiots, Politics

In commentary upon a post by fellow blogger dday, The Poor Man’s The Editors hurls a dense little ball of righteous fire:

I’d like to know, for example, how close intelligence subcommittee head Jay Rockefeller has been to the various Bush-era deceptions and shannanigans — partly for the health of the Republic and yada yada, but mostly so I can settle a bet as to whether he is simply the stupidest man alive, or if he is the stupidest man alive and a corrupt asshole. I mean, seriously: how fucking stupid do you have to be to get rolled by Pat Roberts? That’s like getting grifted by the Pepperidge Farm guy. Jesus.

Amen, and Rah!

Impressions

Politics

Differences I’ve noticed lately:

  1. When Obama talks about his campaign, he tends to talk in the first-person plural: “we”. When Hillary talks about hers, she tends to do so in the first-person singular: “I”.

  2. When the Obama campaign is up, it generally seems to stop well short of gloating. When it’s down, as it notably was after New Hampshire, it does an admirable job of keeping its cool. When Hillary’s campaign is up, it seems to verge on the edge of unpleasantly smug. When it’s down, it seems to come completely unhinged.

    (Seriously. If this were a cheesy late-eighties cable movie, we’d have reached the scene where Supreme Commandantrix Clinton paces angrily before a line of nervous-looking lieutenants while barely able to keep from frothing at the mouth: “The next one of you idiots to say anything to the press about delegate strategies — anything at all! — will be lucky if all I do is fire him. Am I clear?”)

Aren’t the Clintons supposed to be running the most finely-tuned political machine of the last couple of decades? It needs oil, or something.