Sdtrk: ‘Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before’ by the Smiths

Saw this on my monitor at work, and as it references one of my favourite films, I couldn’t stop giggling.

Strangely enough, he didn’t answer the phone

Sdtrk: ‘Just can’t get enough’ by Nouvelle vague

Attention J.G Ballard: here’s your latest work of short fiction just waiting to be written. Just throw in a couple of carcrashes, a few clinker rocks, and some high-profile personalities from the Sixties, and BAM! They’ll herald it as ‘a return to form’.

Astronaut in murder plot charge
BBC News | Tuesday, 6 February 2007, 17:52 GMT

A US astronaut accused of attacking a woman she considered competition for the affection of a shuttle pilot has been charged with attempted murder.

Earlier a Florida court had ordered that Navy Capt Lisa Nowak, 43, who was facing charges of attempted kidnapping and battery, could be freed on bail.

However, the introduction of the more serious charge that she intended to murder Colleen Shipman reverses that. A mother of three, Capt Nowak flew on the space shuttle Discovery last July.

Airport interception

The man at the centre of the love triangle was said to be Navy Cmdr William Oefelein, who was a pilot on the Discovery’s mission to the space station in December.

Though he and Capt Nowak never flew on the same mission, they did train together.

According to her written police statement, Capt Nowak described her attachment to Cmdr Oefelein as “more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship”.

Capt Nowak is understood to have thought that Ms Shipman was romantically involved with Cmdr Oefelein.

So, when she heard that her rival was due to fly from Texas to Florida, she decided to drive the 1,000 miles (1,600km) from her home in Houston to Orlando International Airport to intercept and confront her. (emphasis mine)

Capt Nowak told police she had not wanted to harm Ms Shipman, just wanting to scare her rival into talking about her relationship with Cmdr Oefelein.

To avoid toilet breaks during the long drive to Orlando, Capt Nowak wore an adult nappy – such as astronauts wear during shuttle launches and landings – and she disguised herself with a wig, dark glasses and a trench coat.
the rest of the article is here

The thing that really gets me, apart from Captain Nowak driving virtually non-stop from Texas to Florida fuelled by Pure Jealousy, is the part where ‘an officer followed Capt Nowak and she was stopped allegedly carrying the wig, an air rifle, a steel mallet, rubber tubing, dustbin bags, black gloves and a knife.’ She obviously meant business!
There’s a footnote in ‘The Atrocity exhibition’, one of my favourite books of J.G Ballard’s, that sprung to mind when I’d read this report:

Little information has been released about the psychological effects of space travel, both on the astronauts and the the public at large. Over the years NASA spokesmen have even denied that the astronauts dream at all during their space flights. But it is clear from the subsequently troubled careers of many of the astronauts (Armstrong, probably the only man for whom the 20th century will be remembered 50,000 years from now, refuses to discuss the moon-landing) that they suffered severe psychological damage.

Perhaps this is partially why Dave Bowman went mad?

EDIT: Damnit, someone at Ballardian already knew about this. Hardly a surprise, really… I’d love to know what James Graham himself thinks about the whole affair

Sdtrk: ‘Waterman’ by Hearts of soul

Casual readers of this blogue might well drop in and wonder what the living hell I’m crapping on about, having been assaulted with a new and unfamiliar lexicon of ‘Sidore’ this and ‘Gynoid’ that, and the like. Enter… Ubernyms. Thanks to having seen them in action over on the Duck, I’m totally abusing them. Merely hover that so-called mouse pointer of yours over a word with dashed lines beneath it, and check out the brief explanation that pops up! Short of distilling ‘Shouting etc etc’ into liquid form and injecting it straight into your frontal lobes, what could be simpler? Besides, doing that is unfortunately more time-consuming and less cost-effective than it sounds. But it sure is fun.

Kudos to Huddled Masses, for doing coding work that I’d never in a million years be arsed to do myself!
More ubernyms to follow shortly, of course

Sdtrk: ‘La fille d’un garçon’ by France Gall

You notice that there were no entries for the ‘Any Doll / Synthetiks news, Davecat?’ series for January? Sorry about that. There was nothing to report, which was really a disappointment on all fronts. With any luck, there’ll be something a-stirring for February!
So in the interim, here’s a link to an article I spotted on a blog called Robot Gossip.
Yes yes; fingers on the pulse of, etc etc. Or was I just trawling Google for Gynoid articles? You make the call!

Diesel Sweeties

Another sign of the acceptance of robots showed up in newspapers across the country today.
The comic Diesel Sweeties is about a robot, Clango Cyclotron, with a human girlfriend. It has been appearing online since 2000 and is now syndicated in newspapers across the country.
In the Houston Chronicle, Diesel Sweeties replaces Momma. Granted Momma was never very funny, but it was about family. It was about a typical dysfunctional family, you know, the chronically unemployed grown son who neglects his aging mother until he needs money. The spiteful mother who drives her children away with sarcastic comments and passive-aggressive emotional traps. But it was about family!
This new comic promotes the robot agenda by ignoring the traditional family in favor of robot-human relationships.
the complete post is here

Plus, it pimps Diesel sweeties, which is a fine comic, a fine comic. Why aren’t you reading it right this very minute?? O.

And here’s a nice wee clip for a Japanese keitai (cellphone) company, starring who I think is Ayumi Hamasaki as a Gynoid. Not sure if it’s actually her, but if you’ve ever seen pics of her, you’d probably agree, as she brings bold new meaning to the term ‘manufactured idol singer’.

Why anyone would make a Synthetik that’s powered by a cellphone stored in her arm is beyond me, but *shrug*

Technorati tags: robot, Gynoid, Synthetik, Diesel Sweeties, Ayumi Hamasaki

Sdtrk: ‘To here knows when’ by My bloody valentine

For those of you who missed the fab documentary ‘Guys and Dolls’ the first time, the second time, or apparently the time it was recently aired in Australia as ‘Love me, love my Doll’, citizens of Britain (well, England) can catch it one mo’ time Friday, 16 February at 11pm, on FIVE. Who knew RealDolls would be that popular?

Also, you can check out the (repost of the) post that Penda wrote about her experience with the North One film crew. Can only two people comprise a crew? Sure, why not.

‘Who’s that on the telly?’
‘Looks like Davecat and Sidore.’
‘Well, tell them to get off, their legs are blocking the screen. Besides, how’d they even manage to sit atop a flat-screen telly anyway?’

Technorati tags: Davecat, Sidore, MontiLee, RealDoll, iDollator, Guys and Dolls, Five, UK television