Gonna Die Historic Onna Fury Road

Conditions: Abyssal

And They Have A Plan

So recently a bunch of robot scientists got together for a competition sponsored by DARPA. The goal was for robots to complete a series of challenges, challenges that a human would find simple to do – things like drilling a hole in a wall or walking over rubble. The competition has become famous because it consisted of robots falling down. And lots of websites ran the news, complete with funny videos of robots falling over.

The muscly, humanoid robots looked like Terminators, but they moved like drunks trying to pass a sobriety test. We were 35 miles from the heart of Hollywood, but a world away in terms of robot capabilities.

"It's like watching paint dry," remarked Brad Tousley, director of tactical technology at Darpa - the US Defense Department's research unit - as he watched the excruciatingly slow robots attempt to perform eight simple tasks in an hour. At times it devolved into slapstick, with robots falling flat on their humanoid faces to groans and gasps (and laughter) from the crowds.

- bbc.com

Yeah, so lots of laughter about stupid robots falling down. But when I look at this I don’t see anything funny at all. I see an awful lot of money and a great deal of smart people dedicated to building and refining these things, and they are actually mostly working. It looks to me that in a few short years these things will be operating correctly, and then I wonder how many people will be laughing then?



The Drones are Revolting

In further robot news, a U.S group that includes some ex-military people have sent an open letter to the operators of the U.S Drone program, that bringer of freedom and democracy. In it they tell the current operators to stop operating, because they are totally illegal and immoral.

Nick Mottern, a Navy veteran and a coordinator for KnowDrones.com, said his group is concerned that drone pilots and sensor operators can be court-martialed for not following orders. That said, KnowDrones.com believes the U.S. drone campaign "is completely against international law."

When asked why a drone operator should refuse to fly a mission, Mottern replied: "One answer would be, 'To save your soul.' Another answer would be, 'To not kill people who are being targeted without any due process.' There are higher laws than military law."

- airforcetimes.com

Maybe that’s true, but America has established it can indiscriminately bomb middle eastern people all day long with no oversight or comeuppance. It’s good for ratings, so why would they stop now? Their soul? Pffft, don’t make me laugh.



Film Review: Mad Max – Fury Road

If ever there was a film that was the direct extrapolation of its trailer, it’s this one. The trailer promised a dusty violent chase movie, and that is both exactly what it is, and all that it is. It’s certainly the most audacious movie I’ve seen in a long time, and it is incredibly gorgeous, but I’d be lying if I said it was any more than the trailers promised. Surprisingly, it’s not really about Max, either. Max spends most of the first half of the film as a passenger on this crazy train, dragged along in the course of events as (ahem) Imperator Furiosa, who serves Immortan Joe as a kind of army major, rebels and launches a desperate rescue mission of several women Joe has kept as slaves by diverting the war truck she was supposed to drive to another town across the desert to the land she was born in with them concealed inside. Joe pursues with every war boy and vehicle he has, and various other chieftains join in with their war vehicles along the way, and chaos predictably ensues.

Max eventually escapes his chains and tries to steal the truck, but eventually a tense truce settles over the fleeing group – which oddly includes one of Joe’s insane footsoldiers who provides the only real development of the film. That truce becomes a trust as more action sequences are piled on and Max proves resourceful and trustworthy. At this point a kind of exhausted lull falls over the film, and as the war truck overheats and has to be nursed, so we the audience have overheated too, and need some moments of peace to pull ourselves back together. Before long, we get to the final action sequence, which is suitably loud and violent, and then the film hastily ends.

So, what is this film? Some say it’s a perfect example of proper action cinema, with the 70 year old George Miller schooling young Hollywood in how it should be done. Some say it’s a feminist piece, deliberately featuring tough Female characters driving a spectacularly violent action film. I think, in the end it’s just a chase movie. A well-shot chase movie, with some bizarre and grotesque features to be sure, but in the end Max disappears into the crowd to find his next adventure in the same way the audience disappear back to the car park. The film features furious action in the middle of a destroyed world, with all the harshness set against a background of pointlessness. I was kinda wanting a bit more than that. Mad yes, deep no. And they smashed up his car again. Two bloated warlords out of five.



- Peace out