Uh oh

Curiosity from cuteoverload regarding Paro the robotic seal led me through one link to another. As I perused page after page of therapeutic wonder behind the furry robot and its scary resonance with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, I found a BBC article that mentions another model they used and suggests another issue:

[The doll was] designed to be a substitute boyfriend for young single girls in the workforce

Several things came to mind as I read that:

-Wow, guys in Japan must be dorks.
-Couldn't this technology be applied the other way around?
-Japan also has those scary life-size mannequins with face changing features
-China still has a woman shortage
-Is the cyberpunk fantasy of mankind dating robotic love dolls coming too soon?
-Eww, that looks like a bad pun

Who's to say if the cyberpunk fantasy really will become a reality in ten years? It's harder not to note, especially with some of the advances I'm seeing recently (the Dragonfly, for one thing among many others).

In a side note, if I get desperate enough I'm going to learn Japanese. For academic reasons, of course.

I'm contemplating x-posting in S&S.

Uh oh

Curiosity from cuteoverload regarding Paro the robotic seal led me through one link to another. As I perused page after page of therapeutic wonder behind the furry robot and its scary resonance with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, I found a BBC article that mentions another model they used and suggests another issue:

[The doll was] designed to be a substitute boyfriend for young single girls in the workforce

Several things came to mind as I read that:

-Wow, guys in Japan must be dorks.
-Couldn't this technology be applied the other way around?
-Japan also has those scary life-size mannequins with face changing features
-China still has a woman shortage
-Is the cyberpunk fantasy of mankind dating robotic love dolls coming too soon?
-Eww, that looks like a bad pun

Who's to say if the cyberpunk fantasy really will become a reality in ten years? It's harder not to note, especially with some of the advances I'm seeing recently (the Dragonfly, for one thing among many others).

In a side note, if I get desperate enough I'm going to learn Japanese. For academic reasons, of course.

I'm contemplating x-posting in S&S.

How to kill your hands

First, get a hole puncher.


Next, build a DiY alcohol burner windshield using a kit mentioning punching holes.


Repeat until you wear out the blade of the hole punch so much that you have to squeeze the punch to death.

Anyone know how to sharpen a hole punch blade? I had to buy another. The previous one is so worn out that it can't even punch a hole through rice paper; it chaws on it instead. The most annoying part of it is that the screen is for really small stoves. I probably could have made a better one out of chicken wire and foil.

ETA: Discovered the problem. The thing's been chawing aluminum so long that it actually has flattened the punch bit. I'll need to get a thin whetstone to file down the sides. Yeesh, now I know why they charged these for only a buck.

How to kill your hands

First, get a hole puncher.


Next, build a DiY alcohol burner windshield using a kit mentioning punching holes.


Repeat until you wear out the blade of the hole punch so much that you have to squeeze the punch to death.

Anyone know how to sharpen a hole punch blade? I had to buy another. The previous one is so worn out that it can't even punch a hole through rice paper; it chaws on it instead. The most annoying part of it is that the screen is for really small stoves. I probably could have made a better one out of chicken wire and foil.

ETA: Discovered the problem. The thing's been chawing aluminum so long that it actually has flattened the punch bit. I'll need to get a thin whetstone to file down the sides. Yeesh, now I know why they charged these for only a buck.