Robots To Teach Kids

Educators in Britain are now using a robot named KASPAR (Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics), to teach children with autism human social skills. The robot costs $4.33 million, and can smile and stimulate surprise and sadness. They hope that KASPAR will encourage social interaction among the students.

My question is this: How will a robot that simulates human emotions teach autistic children how to socialise, when real people who naturally have the ability to stimulate surprise and sadness cannot?

Perhaps the answer lies in the nature of the disease. People with autism are generally emotionless, and are obsessed with repetition. Sounds like a robot to me.

Review of Bryan Ferry "Dylanesque"

Usually I am about Bryan Ferry, and Roxy Music is one of my top bands of all time. I also like Ferry's solo work. "These foolish Things" is probably my favorite of his solo albums, and the best track off of that album is the cover of Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". Next to The Byrds' "All I Really Want To Do", it's the most awesome Dylan cover ever. Oh, I forgot "All Along The Watchtower" by Hendrix.

The way Bryan Ferry sings "A Hard Rain's" is so biting, and the way he enunciates each syllable of each word makes the track feel haunting and suave at the same time. The hallmark of a great Ferry vocal. With ALL of that said, he has completely missed the mark on his new album "Dylanesque". It sucks in the worst way. Instead of being rough and mournful as he was on "These Foolish Things", "Dylanesque" is slicked-out, synthisized, and all meaning of Dylans lyrics are buffed away. Almost every track sounds like a power-ballad, and I H-A-T-E power ballads.

So things look pretty hairy for Bryan Ferry. He's not the cool, dinner jacket wearing crooner anymore. I think he is just catering to the image, instead of creating the image, something he used to do so well. He has lost all of his edge in his old age.

I give "Dylanesque" 1/2 a burned out butt.

Monday Mash-up

Time for In The Ashtray's Monday Mash-up...

Ahh...Rose Pipette, sooo cool...

Johann, Torri, and Justin named All-Stars...

...Submitted for your approval... http://youtube.com/watch?v=W9QmJSvVlF0

My daughter Carissa goofing for the camera this last weekend...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8cip0jbZWzY

...Dick "Fucking" Cheney is so creepy...

...and finally evidence that America truely has only one political party...

...the elites...Don't they look chummy?

Comic by Christopher Jam

This is a comic that I really enjoyed. I thought that it might be appropriate to blog it on In The Ashtray.

http://jamcomics.com/

Fucking Spice Girls to Reunite

The Spice Girls have recently announced they will be reuniting for a so-called "farewell" tour. Date as yet unknown. The girls, and their record company Virgin Records, seem blissfully unaware that the rest of the world happily said it's goodbyes to the group 6 years ago. With the popularity of female led IndiePop groups like The Pipettes (see picture below), Tilly and the Wall, Camera Obscura and others, a Spice Girls reunion has lost any relevancy it may have once held. They aren't even useful for tossing one off anymore.




So in light of this recent news, I have came to 3 conclusions. Let me know if you agree.




1. Virgin Records, and the rest of the "industry"labels, are completely out of touch with the audience, and have been for the last 40 years.


2. Simon Fuller is the false prophet of the Anti-Christ as foretold in the Bible.


3. The Spice Girls are gobby, fat (except for anorexic Posh), money loving, washed up transvestite looking "wannabes".


http://www.nypost.com/seven/02182007/news/worldnews/spice_girls_reunion_due_worldnews_christine_field.htm


http://homepage.ntlworld.com/thepipettes/index.html

Atlas V Spy Rocket

The Atlas V Spy rocket launched out of Cape Canaveral on June 15, with two top-secret spy satellites believed to be used to track ships at sea. Aviation Week & Space Technology reports that the secret spacecraft are two satellites intended to track ships moving at sea, including those that might hint at terrorist activities or Chinese or Iranian naval tactics. They are being launched for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The rocket's launch came during the same week as the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first Atlas, a fleet of space launchers that began as intercontinental ballistic missiles. As a spy satellite it left a "?" smoke trail (third photo) which seems a bit applicable.

The Persistent Impulsive

June 21, 2007

Goddammit I hate smoking.
why do i put a drug in my body that i don't have a physical need for?
i'm not addicted to the nicotine
the first time i quit it was a piece of cake
i think smoking is purely an impulse action for me
one that shortens my life
why do that for an impulse.

i find myself acting impulsively a lot lately.
backing out on Anna,
drinking til i puke on Grandmas car,
making leap decisions,
lying.
i see my life-so-far and regret a lot.
i see a pattern in it too.
a spiral pattern of acting on negative impulses
and then retreating into the comfort of familiar settings.
one step forward, two steps back.

i started smoking again during college after getting high with Howie.
i had an impulse to have one and i bummed one.
i did the same thing when i was lonely there, and crawled back to chantelle.

all these years of acting on impulse hasn't got me anywhere but
back to where i started.

perhaps its time for a change.
maybe i should look at the big picture.
take a worldview, instead of looking for a quick fix
and then digging myself back out of the rubble



-As soon as he typed the words he knew that it was shit. It was corny and pointless. Only Joe could over analyze a private journal. Looking at the screen brought back those feelings and he felt it cover him like a wet electric blanket. He lit a cigarette and hit save.
It was shit for other reasons too. Smoking wasn't what was on his mind. It was Grandma King, and how it would kill her if his true feelings toward her were known. He should have gotten that off his chest.
The bootlicker had recently kicked him out of their house, the one she paid the mortgage on. He had lied to her about quitting his new job and went back home to the farmland of Wisconsin and the North woods. Anything not to have to confront that drunkard. They had both had enough of each other.
His big mistake was giving her ammo with which to bitch. The next time he saw the woman he'd tell her what to do with the goddamn job.
Just then, nothing happened, as usual. He sat alone in his mothers basement, in her bed, smoking her cigarettes.


-Anita didn't press him on why he was there, although her house was a bed short. Where the hell was he going to sleep? She remembered what it was like having him around, but he gave his assurances that he was only there for a few days. He promised he would stay out of her hair.
The next day he approached her in the living room and said that he was looking for a job in Rice Lake and that he'd be around awhile longer. Anita wondered at that moment if this would be the last time she would ever speak to her son.

My God, It's Incredible

A reclamation plant storing chemical waste exploded in Eau Claire WI., sending flames 30 feet into the air within half an hour. I guess the employees initially tried to put the fire out themselves using extinguishers. What dedication. After this failed to work, the fire department was called in and they tried to put the fire out.

At some point during the fire, they heard two loud bangs and they pulled out thinking that some chemicals were igniting. Sure enough, a short time later some chemical tanks which stored petroleum and paint solvents exploded sending flames and fire balls 400 feet into the air.

Apparently, the fire was so hot that people a quarter of a mile away said that they could feel it. Needless to say, the fire department decided to let the fire burn itself out.

One quote: "I was out on the road a ways from the fire, and it was so hot I had to move," Sheriff Ron Cramer said.

"That was a good idea," I say.

Another quote: "This is the biggest fire I've ever seen," Marilyn Zmuda said. "Oh my God, it's incredible."

Another report said that an ember from the explosion started a car fire at Eau Claire Ford.

"It's not a good day," WRR President and CEO Jim Hager said.

In light of this report I'd like to remind everybody to use proper safety precautions when dealing with flammable chemicals, and to ALWAYS put your cigarettes out In The Ashtray.

Blair to be Middle East Envoy

This is a bad, bad idea.

This is my first blog, and I will be adding more later. Thank you for finding it. I named it "In the Ashtray" because "The Ashtray" was unavaliable, and I have been smoking alot lately and I'm starting to look like a smelly cigarette butt.

A bit about the author:
ModJoey is a college dropout.
He pretends to be an artist/musician.
He enjoys listening to prerecorded music, and collects old vinyl rock records.
He can be seen in the films, The Pusher and 4:20.
He is a founding member of the rock group Hikikomori.