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Robots

Design

Adorable or Creepy: 12 Personal Robots That Could Change Your Life

By Claire Cottrell on

The exceedingly charming Robot & Frank opens in theaters on Friday, and we couldn’t be more excited. Set some time in the future, the dramedy heist film starring the always awesome Frank Langella and a cute caretaker robot with a green thumb whose good and bad influence reignites the old man’s passion for life, love, and white collar crime.

The idea of a little metal helper who plants tomatoes, makes healthy meals, cleans the house and is your pal unconditionally might just be the best thing we’ve heard in a long time, so we thought we’d take a gander around the vast virtual marketplace to see who we could bring home today. From caregivers to robots that vacuum and do the bunny hop, click through to check out helpful — adorable — plastic pals of every shape and size. Then, let us know in the comments which mini mechanical bff you’d want to bring home! … Read More

Tech

The Future: South Korean Prisons Will Soon Be Guarded By Robots

By Emily Temple on

Well, the future is officially here. According to the BBC, this March a prison in Pohang, South Korea will begin using robots to patrol the jail and monitor inmate behavior, starting with a one month trial period, in an effort to ease the workload on human guards. The robots are apparently equipped with… Read More

Pop Culture

Our Favorite Helper Robots from TV Shows and Video Games

By Jill Harness on

Whether your dream was to have a robot help you with your chores, do your homework, or just hang out with you, we’ve all fantasized about having our own robot at some point or another. Unfortunately, despite all the advances they’ve made in technology over the last few decades, robot companions still seem to be a distant dream for most people (sorry Apple, but Siri doesn’t count). Since we can’t have our own robot friends, for now, we’ll just have to deal with watching our favorite robots on television, and interacting with them in video games. To that end, here are some of our favorite helper robots from TV shows and games. … Read More

Media

Awesome Infographic: The Robot Matrix

By Judy Berman on

The future has been getting a lot of highbrow play recently. The Future is, for instance, an excellent new movie by Miranda July — and it’s also the theme of the new Lapham’s Quarterly. Today, the magazine is previewing their fall issue at Brain Pickings, with one of their famously fascinating infographics. The Robot Matrix gives a brief and entertaining history of automatons, from Greek mythology to the inevitable US army robot of the future, each graphed according to its intelligence, cuddle value, and creep factor. Where on the matrix would your favorite robot turn up? … Read More

News

Conversation Pieces: 5 New Articles Worth Discussing This Weekend

By Paul Hiebert on

Welcome to Conversation Pieces, where Flavorpill curates five articles from the past week that you should read. Some are long, others are short. Some are from major publications, others aren’t. The only thing all these articles have in common is that they’re interesting. This week we examine cures for writer’s block, what being a Luddite originally meant, robots that think they’re human, the virtues of solitude, and more. After the jump, find something exciting to discuss this weekend in the home, at the bar, or on the street. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Disney has finally unloaded Miramax. The price? $660 million. The buyers? An investment group headed by “a California construction mogul.” [via Gawker]
2. Joe Queenan explores why 2010 has been the worst year for movies ever. A sample: “What does it say about the current season that the third installation of… Read More

Music

Mixtape: Songs About Robots

By Caroline Stanley on

Robots have been inspiring musicians for years (see: “Sheep” by Pink Floyd), but that doesn’t mean there has been some kind of cultural consensus on where they fall on the good vs. evil axis. After the jump, we’ve rounded up a mixtape of the 20 definitive robot tunes, and divided it up so you’ll be able to pick sides. Side A: Robots are good. Side B: Robots are evil. Enjoy, and drop any glaring omissions in the comments! … Read More

Web

The Best “Fuck Yeah” Tumblrs on the Internet

By Todd Van Luling on

A trend of creating linguistically-enthusiastic commemorative tumblrs has taken hold amongst the internet community as of late. Entitled “Fuck Yeah” tumblrs, these collections glorify wonders from Coca-Cola to the state of Virginia. Fuck yeah home state of eight United States Presidents! Below we have posted a few of our favorites, along with a couple posts from… Read More

Design

Video of the Day: Robot Takes Paris

By Kelsey Keith on

It feels like spring and we’re feeling giddy, so this short film following a robot around one day in Paris sure is floating our collective boat. The quickly-paced 2:20 clip is chock-full of Parisian charm — bateaux mouches in the park fountains, tourists, the roundabout surrounding the Arc de Triomphe, and little kids wearing expensive sweaters. “A Day in Paris” was directed by Benoît Millotof Le Potager Design and features a soundtrack of the song “I’m Not the Lonely Son” by Florida electro-pop duo Electric President (who are, naturally, at SXSW). Watch and swoon after the… Read More

Television

The Big Geek Headlines of the Week

By Caroline Stanley on

A 19-year-old user of Justin.TV and well known forum troll committed suicide in front of an Internet audience yesterday. [Mashable]

The trailer for comic book god Neil Gaiman’s animated stop-motion fantasy flick Coraline — directed by Henry Selick of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame — is now online. [i09]

Along with Eli… Read More