Meet the Roxxxy TrueCompanion. This doll has an artificial intelligence engine programmed to learn your likes and dislikes. She can listen, feel, and speak to her owner.

“World’s First Sex Robot” Debuts at AVN – Gearlog.

TrueCompanion – The World’s First Sex Robot Doll

Philematologists, the scientists who study kissing, aren’t exactly sure why humans started locking lips in the first place. The most likely theory is that it stems from primate mothers passing along chewed food to their toothless babies. The lip-to-lip contact may have been passed on through evolution, not only as a necessary means of survival, but also as a general way to promote social bonding and as an expression of love.

But something’s obviously happened to kissing since the time of the chewed-food pass. Now, it’s believed that kissing helps transfer critical information, rather than just meat bits. The kissing we associate with romantic courtship may help us to choose a good mate, send chemical signals, and foster long-term relationships. All of this is important in evolution’s ultimate goal—successful procreation. 

Why We Kiss: The Science of Sex – DivineCaroline.

Female water striders don’t like the bad boys and they don’t even have to reach the age of 30 before they wise up about choices in males.

Water striders are those insects commonly seen skittering hurriedly across the surface of streams but when it comes to romance, male water striders who played it cool mated with more females than did groups of aggressive males, according to a study led by Omar Tonsi Eldakar of the University of Arizona’s Arizona Research Laboratories.

Previous studies have found that more sexually aggressive males are the most successful at reproducing, said Eldakar, now a postdoctoral research associate in UA’s Center for Insect Science, but in the previous studies he says the females were not able to leave areas populated by sexually aggressive males.

By simulating a more natural situation, the current study showed that female water striders moved away from areas where they were being harassed by males. The females preferred to hang out in locations where the males did not pursue females relentlessly.

Date A Water Strider, Where Nice Guys Get The Girls.

It happens every year.  Someone drives down my street in a white van, and somehow, while I’m not looking, drops a couple of phonebooks on my front porch.

A phone book?  Really?  In 2009?

And I’m not the only one.   In fact,  according to Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org, the collective telephone directory distributors distribute 540 million books per year in the United States.     That’s about 2 books for EVERY MAN, WOMAN and CHILD in the country.

EVERY YEAR this translates to:

• 19 million trees
• 1.6 billion pounds of paper
• 7.2 million barrels of oil (not including fuel used for delivery)
• 268,000 cubic yards of landfill (less than half of directories delivered are recycled)
• 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity (about the same amount of energy the entire country of Sudan used in for ALL OF 2007!)

The madness needs to stop.    Advertisers need to stop advertising in them.  Consumers need to stop using them.   Small businesses, large businesses,   STOP FUNDING IT!   Ban unsolicited phone book delivery!

Here are some websites that are promoting banning phone delivery:

http://www.banthephonebook.org/

http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.com/

Hey phone book companies…if we want a book, we will call for one.  The amount of natural resources being used is almost criminal in this age of technology.   Not to mention somehow they keep getting away with littering my doorstep.

This video is from the UK, but you get the idea:

1912: Franz Reichelt, tailor, fell to his death off the first deck of the Eiffel Tower while testing his invention, the coat parachute. It was his first ever attempt with the parachute and he had told the authorities in advance he would test it first with a dummy.   Apparently he was one.

1926: Harry Houdini, a famous American escape artist, was punched in the stomach by an amateur boxer who had heard that Houdini could withstand any blow to his body above his waist, excluding his head. Though this had been done with Houdini’s permission, complications from this injury caused him to die days later, on Halloween (October 31) of 1926.   Suckerpunched!

1974: Christine Chubbuck, an American television news reporter, committed suicide during a live broadcast on 15 July. At 9:38 AM, 8 minutes into her talk show, on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, she drew out a revolver and shot herself in the head.   And…cut to commercial!

1979: Robert Williams, a worker at a Ford Motor Co. plant, was the first known human to be killed by a robot, after the arm of a one-ton factory robot hit him in the head.   Remember…they struck first!

Find more here:  List of unusual deaths – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

YouTube – Wisdom Trailer – Wisdom Book by Andrew Zuckerman.

Tonight at 3am I was startled awake by a noise.    I thought I heard a prowler outside my window.   No…I KNEW IT!   Whoever or whatever it was…it was big.  And noisy.   And it was definitely RIGHT outside my bedroom window.

So what do I do?   What would YOU do?  You’re all alone, it’s three in the morning….I have to find out what IT is, right? I can’t just sit here quietly and hope they just go away…right?   I decided action was needed.  Diggz action.

Armed only with a Maglite (the giant one that takes four D-sized batteries) and wearing my Atari Game Over pajama pants, I ventured out into the darkness.   I kept the house lights off…not wanting to lose the element of surprise.

I stealthily crept towards the source of the noise, turned a dark corner and flipped on the Maglite. Suddenly I was standing a mere 2 feet away from either E.T. or the largest damn armadillo I’ve ever seen.

We both screamed like little girls and fled….in the same direction.  I dropped the Maglite square on my foot, and, as the shooting pains ran up my leg, I realized I had made a terrible error in judgment:

I had left the door to the house open…and this giant alien dinosaur thing was scampering straight towards the open doorway.

INTO MY HOUSE.

Just then, like the Great White shark in Jaws, my cat, Nat, appears out nowhere, sees the varmint and puffs into a giant hissing spitting cobra. Startled for a second time, the thing squeals again and performs an M-F’ing four-foot leap into the air, displaying some serious Neo-dodging-bullets kind of acrobatics…right towards me.

Well, it was more of a straight up-and-down hop but, in the dark I was convinced it was launching straight AT my throat.

And, once again, I screamed like a little girl.

To my utter surprise it didn’t begin gnawing on my neck…it landed several feet away, stopping dead in its tracks. But it was most certainly not dead…No, it was very much alive.  And it was now parked between me, Nat, and the relative safety and comfort of my updated 1940′s-style kitchen.

This little pause gave me enough time to retrieve my flashlight (and my dignity).    At closer inspection, it was indeed an armadillo…a large one.  In fact, it was probably a good twenty pounds of armadillo.   Mr. Armadillo took a look at me, took a look at the hissing cat, and did what anyone would do in a similar situation…he darted UNDER my house.

Which is where he remains,  at the extent of my knowledge, to this very moment.

Tomorrow I may return with Reese’s Pieces.

Been really enjoying Stephen Lynch lately. I’ve started working on some piano arrangements of a couple of his tunes, including this one.

Stephen Lynch – If I were Gay.

YouTube – Flight of the Conchords ‘Ladies of the World’.

Approximate Illustration

I just want to say FOR THE RECORD, that I didn’t buy this book. A certain Pirate Fembot left it at my house while she is out sailing the high seas. The book is called The Game and it’s about picking up chicks and is a prime example of why this particular Pirate Fembot is a menace. Fortunately she never reads my blog so I can say whatever I want about her and she’ll never even notice.

Amazingly, this girl is like 10x smarter than everyone around her.  That’s partly because she’s a heartless robot.  But it’s also partly because she spends her time reading bestselling non-fiction books on the secrets of pickup artists.  For six months this book has been sitting in my living room and I’ve only picked it up long enough to wipe under it.

Until today.

Before today I’d never even heard of Neil Strauss. I’d never heard of his book, “The Game” (despite its apparent new home in my living room).

So today I started reading it. And it’s got some really good info in it.

Stuff you would never ever want a crafty Pirate Fembot to know.

I’ve always loved performing magic.  I’ve never been particularly impressed with the big Vegas illusion kind of magic…I like the Harry Anderson street magic.  Cons,  Coins, Cards…pocket magic.   I never have given it nearly as much practice at it takes to be good.  But I’ve read a magic book or two.

The Game is kinda presented like  a magic book. It’s very matter-of-fact, it has diagrams, and terms like selecting a target (or a mark).  But instead of dealing with how to make people think you just read their mind, it’s about the practicality of meeting people….specifically girls.

How you present yourself, how you speak, the clothes you wear…all the things that actually make up “YOU”…are dealt with.  As are, the things you say, how much you listen, what to listen for, and  some actual tricks…ahem…techniques to achieve your goals with members of the opposite sex….whatever they may be.  Maybe you’re looking to get laid, maybe you’re just looking for someone to hang out with…whatever.

None of this information, whatsoever, will help me solve this Pirate Fembot issue.   If she knows all the stuff in this book, she’s probably already been reverse using it on me.

Wait…I’m just assuming she read it.   Maybe she just wants me to THINK she’s read it?  BLARG! This is the kind of trickery that Pirate Fembots are known for!  They trick you and then they steal your booty.

Why?  Because that’s why Pirate Fembots do.

She’s out there, men.  Beware.

Neil Strauss talks about The Game on Jimmy Kimmel