spleen

Robot Teaches Itself Flying Skills in Three Hours

Robot on the run – theage.com.au

I wonder if a remote-controlled twelve-foot helium blimp could successfully fly across the Atlantic? The control system would have to be wireless, obviously — maybe pull the guts out of a high-quality PDA, or maybe a cell phone, and replace the blimp’s receiver. (A cell-phone control would kill you on roaming charges, though.) [...]

Shit like this never makes it into the American media. Don’t you wonder why?

What brings you peace is immeasurably small. Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum Vesperae de Dominica,” or a few bars of the miraculous duet from “Lakme.” Or a ballerina in British Columbia who wrote you to say, I think your poems are danceable. Or better yet, that woman who approached you in a cafe somewhere to [...]