Pomp and Robocircumstance

This video of a Japanese violin-playing robot is awesome. It doesn't really play violin that well, but check out the totally retro-futuristic design sense! That there is your classic, blocky anthropomorphic body design, accented with a space-shuttle color scheme. This robot looks the way all robots should look: like a 60s B-movie actor in a robot costume.

Musically speaking, the obvious flaw here is that they've designed it to play Elgar, an understandable error that even human musicians are all too familiar with. But this especially cramps a robot performer's style. Clearly the designers should have played to the robot's aesthetic strengths and programmed it to play Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto on an early-vintage Moog synthesizer. Now that would make the future exciting again.

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I was checking the Post-Gazette's online columnists page this morning to see if any of the sportswriters could explain what exactly the Steelers stopped doing in the second half yesterday, and my eyes were drawn to this other op-ed column, headlined Sudan Incident Can't Dim Teddy Bears' Charms. I checked to see if this was as stupid as that sounds, and the answer is . . . well, in closing:

I hope this incident in Sudan will pass so we can focus on teddy bears not as a symbol of brutality and oppression, but as simply sweet cuddly companions that bring most of us pleasant memories.

Taking "this incident in Sudan" to mean "entrenchment of violently intolerant Sharia law," I'd say yes, I hope that blows over for the teddy bears' sake. Also, they're totally cute! Man, I wish I had a regional media platform for saying things like that.