devil dog artshow tonight: pumpkin heads

If you are in the NYC area tonight and are in a Halloween mood, drop on by the The Showroom Gallery tonight from 7pm to 11pm and check out the Devil Dog Artshow.

If you need directions, click here to get them at google maps.

Here’s the piece I did for the show, it [...]

boston dynamics – robotic quadruped

BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog’s legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that [...]

mr. nico and mr. bear

Apparently somebody thinks Mr. Nico looks like a certain Mr. Bear.

Notice the fine attention to details, such as the uneven facial hair and the Masters of the Universe t shirt.  My favorite nuance would have to be the epic struggle between stickman Skeletor and He-Man below the logo of the animated series.

[...]

barking squirrel

One Saturday morning I woke up to an odd barking noise outside. A lot of our neighbors have dogs and take them for walks in the morning, so naturally I thought Sparky was the source of the commotion. Scanning the ground yielded no visual confirmation. Instead, my eyes were directed up to a tree [...]

machine attempts to trick man in a turing test

subject "C" is tested to decide whether the individual is "A" or "B"

The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a machine‘s ability to demonstrate intelligence.

A human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which try to appear human; if the judge cannot reliably tell which is which, then the machine is said to pass the test. In order to test the machine’s intelligence rather than its ability to render words into audio, the conversation is limited to a text-only channel such as a computer keyboard and screen (Turing originally suggested a teletype machine, one of the few text-only communication systems available in 1950).

To see how a journalist fared in discriminating between man and machine in a recent Turing test in October, read below. You may be surprised and a bit frightened……

Eugene Goostman is a 13-year-old boy from Odessa, Ukraine, the son of a talk-show host and a gynaecologist, who keeps a guinea pig called Bill in his bedroom and likes the science fiction novels of Sergei Lukyanenko and Kurt Vonnegut.

He is also a work of fiction, a software program written by a bio-scientist from St Petersburg and a finalist in a contest to find the world’s first thinking computer, staged yesterday at Reading University.

His task was to convince judges, in five minutes of conversation, that he was a human being who really had read Slaughterhouse Five and could plausibly shoot the breeze about it and any other topic under the sun.

I was one of those judges, and yesterday, I was fooled. I mistook Eugene for a real human being. In fact, and perhaps this is worse, he was so convincing that I assumed that the human being with whom I was simultaneously conversing was a computer.

continue reading machine attempts to trick man in a turing test

third presidential debate at hofstra university

Hofstra University hosted this year’s third presidential debate in a sit-down forum moderated by Bob Shieffer. The University has a feature-rich index page with various media relating to the issues discussed. If you haven’t looked into some of the issues on the tip of spear, this hub of information is a good place to [...]

a new ziggurat planned in dubai

Dubai seems to be ahead of the curve with architecture and urban planning. A thousand years from now, who knows? Perhaps in time our planet will be covered with geometric structures like this.

I myself would be interested in seeing the technology on a more modular level, where I could buy a miniature family-size ziggurat to live off the grid in the countryside somewhere. That would be nice.

The Mayans and Egyptians constructed incredible feats of architecture able to weather the test of time, but they had no idea their pyramids would inspire the shape of the latest carbon-neutral super-structure to hit Dubai. Dubai-based environmental design firm Timelinks recently released some eye-catching renderings of the gigantic eco pyramid – aptly named Ziggurat – The ginormous pyramid will cover 2.3 square kilometers and will be able to sustain a “community” of up to 1 million.

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super animal friends to the rescue

Besides Street Fighter 4 and Tatsunoko vs Capcom, there is one other sparring game that is blowing my mind: Ultimate Ninja Storm. The style, timing, and cinematic quality has been translated in a way which I’ve never seen in a 3-d fighter.  The frame rate seems to hold stable during game play, even at intensive points of combat.

Overall, they really nailed the look and feel of the animated series the title is derived from.

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mouse battles snake and wins

A surprising story that demonstrates how the tables can turn at any point and time…..Advantage, mouse.

A mouse bit a venomous viper to death after it was thrown into the snake’s cage as a lunchtime snack. The tiny rodent killed the snake after a fierce 30-minute battle, emerging with “barely a scratch on him”, [...]

conjunction junction, what’s your function

First Aired: 1973
Lyrics & Music: Bob Dorough
Performed by: Jack Sheldon
Designed by: Tom Yohe and Bill Peckmann
Animation by: Phil Kimmelman and Associates
Fun Fact: Conjunction Junction was recorded on the same day as I’m Just a Bill, with the same band. Jazz singer Terry Morel sings the chorus.

Lyrics:

Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?
Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.
Conjunction Junction, how’s that function?
I’ve got three favorite cars that get most of my job done.
Conjunction Junction, what’s their function?
I’ve got and, but, and or.
They’ll get you pretty far.

And!
That’s an additive, like this and that.
But!
That’s sort of the opposite,
not this but that.
And then there’s Or. O-R,
when you have a choice like this or that
And, but, and or get you pretty far!

continue reading conjunction junction, what’s your function

watching the industrial average

A stock investor by profession I am not, but I’ve been keeping my eye on the Dow Jones for the past few years.  Market trends and how they are affected have always interested me.  It’s like a complicated role-playing game of statistics and probabilities.  Main St. is effected by Wall St, and every other [...]

devil dog art show: in nyc at end of october

Here’s an art show I’m working on for the end of the month.  It’s called the Osaka Popstar Devil Dog show at the Showroom Gallery in NYC.  There’s a diverse lineup of artists, designers, directors, and actors taking part.  I’m working on my design right now and will post more pictures in the near future.  For now check out the lineup below.  Should be a fun one….

Abe Lincoln Jr.
Andrew Brandou (Howdy Pardner)
Angel Tan
Anna Chambers
Ben Frost
Bob Camp (Ren & Stimpy. Spumco)
Bobby London (creator of Dirty Duck)
Brandon Engstrom
Brent Engstrom (Topps’ Garbage Pail Kids, Hollywood Zombies)
Brett Parson (Blitz Cadet)
Brian Flynn (Hybrid Design/Super 7)
Brian Morris
Buff Monster
Butch Lukic (Batman, Justice League, DC comics & Osaka Popstar front/back cover artist)
Camilla d’Errico
Chris Savido (Workmade Studios)
D*Face
DGPH
D-LuX
Dalek
Dan Goodsell (Imaginary world of Mr. Toast)
Darth Rimmer (Evil Ice Cream)
Dave Burke (Monsterfetish)
Dave Gross (Topps’ Wacky Packages)
Davey Wong
Dennis Larkins
Drew Friedman (Old Jewish Comedians, Rolling Stone, Mad Magazine & more)

continue reading devil dog art show: in nyc at end of october