"Albert Hubo was built to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. And what better way to honor such a brilliant and gentle human being than by building a recreation of his head and bolting it to a cartoonish Japanese robot in order to impress convention-goers. It was kind of like honoring Gandhi's lifetime of achievements by digging up his corpse and sewing his decomposed face onto a Transformer so it can dance for nickels outside of the arcade." - Jessie Norris via Bookmarklet
"It's more like Ishiguro built a slightly retarded younger brother for himself, giving it a permanent expression of intense confusion and frustration." I know the feeling. - Steve Craft
1st I had to resist the temptation to not scan the article. he is a bit extreme, but a degree of truth to his message. - Ruth Ferguson
Gotta quote Ned Flanders on this one: "I wish we lived in a place more like the America of yesteryear that only exists in the brains of us Republicans." I feel like there is a distortion that the past is somehow better or more pure than current day. That's not to say there isn't some truths in this piece (or book) but I take any "the past was better" with a grain of salt. - gregory
Whew! Just made the cut. I do agree though (to some extent). Not all, but what seems like the majority of the next generation's attention span is getting smaller and smaller. - Justin Korn
Greg80 - I like your quote. Selective memory is a wonderful thing. - Russellreno
excellent pt Gregory, but to be fair you look at the high dropout rate & the future is scary in our global environment. - Ruth Ferguson
@Ruth Ferguson I haven't seen the dropout numbers in a comparable ratio, since the population is growing 'larger numbers' that aren't percentages or ratios mean very little. Also, some of the most well read and successful people I know dropped out of high school or college or both. - gregory
I've critiqued dumb this article/book so many times I don't have anything more to say than "Blurgh" - George Smith
If you stand on your head, squint real hard, and narrowly focus on what he's saying... it's such a load of bull that it's not even worth debunking. And frankly, the generation that both produced and elected George W. Bush doesn't have much to brag about. So instead, let me tell you about *my* day, when *I* was young (back in 2000 or so). Kids respected their elders! Paid attention in school! And they listened to *good* music, not that noise... - Eric
Gregory, in some school districts nearly 1/2 freshmen won't graduate. Bill Gates is an excellent example of a college dropout - however even he is concerned about the quality of education and has been a strong proponent in recent years for the need to change our current model. - Ruth Ferguson
I guess what stood out to me in the article is that in this age of instant info, we loose context. Also, what is repeated ad nasuem becomes reality. Even his most ardent opponents will acknowledge that they do not believe Barack Obama is a Muslim, but after nearly a year of emails to the contray - it is a perception you cannot wipe out of the minds of some: young and old. - Ruth Ferguson
George Santayana said it best ""Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it" and he died in 1952. Seems the digital age is not the first time we loose context in our (global) history - gregory
@Ruth Ferguson: The stuff you're talking about applies a lot more to older than younger people. It's almost exclusively old people who think Obama is a Muslim. And for that matter, it's old people who cite "Race is a factor" to pollsters. It's old people who suffer from a deficit of news sources, often relying on just one or two *cough*Fox News*cough*, which doesn't help. And when *hasn't* repetition been a propaganda and marketing tool? Which generation was immune to it, exactly? - Eric
I don't agree the internet is completely to blame - it is more the lack of teaching critical thinking skills in school. Currently kids are measured on remembering facts. That won't work in the digital age and we should be teaching kids how to sift through large amounts of information, pull out what's credible and then decide what they think about it. Instead teachers have to spend their day preparing kids for standardized tests in order to keep funding. - Erica Toelle
"But she said the animals roost anywhere that appears dark and safe." Must say that this particular bat and I share similar definitions of what appears dark and safe... ;) - George Smith
"Peeing in the dark is a hit-and-miss affair, and the case is especially true for the male species. Wives and girlfriends might beg to differ, claiming that it doesn’t matter whether there is light or not, their men tend to spray all over the place. With the Flush Light, you can help reduce that risk at night." - Victor Ryden via Bookmarklet
So that's a good reason not to get a friendfeed shirt then? - Jason Carreira
This was unexpected. I went to Crossroads for lunch and and an errand. I thought I saw Robert Scoble and went over to say hello. It turns out that he was at Crossroads with a bunch of other people for a FriendFeed lunch. It was a good day to wear my FriendFeed shirt. - Gary Burd
Great to meet you today Gary. Funny how sometimes the planets align. Scoble has a tendency to make things like that happen :) - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Of all the food courts in all the malls in the world... - Alan Cheslow
Neat meetup, "gang sign" idea and you guys are THE FriendFeed gangstas! - Susan Beebe
Really funny. I didn't even realize Scoble was back in town. - Mike Koss via twhirl
Congrats Niniane! I didn't realize you were here on FF. We've launched a room with National Geographic, and love the simple, easy to use interface. - tagami
If only more women would dress like Disney characters - especially Belle, she was HOT! Alas she didn't wear jeans so there's no hope for the wifey. - Steve Craft
What bothers me is how much these national telecom oligarchies are effectively monopolies because of collusion like this. Both companies institute the same policy at the same time so consumers don't have billing choice? - Bret Taylor
Just moved to Canada from Bangkok, Thailand. where telecoms and consumer banking go, I feel like I moved to the middle ages instead... - Kamath
IIRC, the markup on text messaging costs are 6000%. Now they claim that you need to pay for incoming because the infrastructure costs are too high? - Nick Munson
@Bret, Others on plans from Rogers (&Fido) for example avoid this for now. But there's no way that Rogers won't do the same eventually. Ridiculous. - Nick Munson
This might be the first time I'm happy to be a Rogers user. Though that doesn't make me less angry at them for their iPhone plans. - jenn schachter
@jenn agreed. it's a bad time to own a cell phone in Canada no matter who your provider is. - Nick Munson
Wait, I thought Canada was supposed to be awesome. Was I lied to? - ⓞnor
Well an added bonus to the situation is if you get spam text messages, you will still be charged! Makes one wonder if they will hire a company to spam cellular phones. - Herman
New car. $2500 bucks. 47 mpg. Backseat for my kids car seat. sign me up. - Brian Norwood
Is the actor who played Tatoo in Fantasy Island still around? They should have him sponsor this. Or just have a midget Jello fight at every public event. - Dread Pirate PJ via NoiseRiver
@ Earl - Tattoo and Jesse Helms are in different places, tattoo would have to be pointing way down. But i like any small call alternatives. - Steve Craft
whatever... as if the new york times isn't Fascist? - Noah David Simon
True, everyone has an agenda. At least as long as there are equally bad things on either extreem it makes it easier to find the middle where the truth usually resides. - Geoff Schultz
![Unfortunate Ad Placement [PIC]](http://i28.tinypic.com/2z4dav4.jpg){kind=link}