Actroid DER2

Kokoro, a Sanrio Group company specializing in the design and manufacture of robots, unveiled its new Actroid DER2 feminine guide robot at Sanrio headquarters in Tokyo on October 4.

Spiritual Civilization Committee

How great is that title for a government department, I think a better translation would be ethics committee. As China's world status elevates, more and more tourists are setting theirs sites on checking out foreign landmarks. In response, Chinese leaders are getting the word out to the masses to not to embarrass themselves by spitting, butting in line, and generally being loud in public, all things that are part of regular Chinese daily life. Unfortunately those that are the worst offenders are the ones with the most status and are therefore the most likely potential tourist abroad. Check out this amusing article, here.

Banksy

The British graffiti artist, Banksy, recently placed a Guantanamo Bay "prisoner/detainee" outside Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain. Check out the images here.

RIP Tom Sawyer Island

If you're like me, you have fond memories of running wild on Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland. But for future generations this experience will be unavailable. The 50 year old island is soon to become Jack Sparrow's Pirate Booty Island. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure this is great news if you're a kid and you have no idea who Tom Sawyer is, but it seems a bit lamentable to me.

Keep the Dream Alive

Check out these DIY Chinese Inventors link

The Human Camera

Stephen Wiltshire is a human camera. He’s an autistic man who accurately draws entire cities from memory after a single 45-minute helicopter ride — right down to the correct number of windows in each building.
link

China Images

As some of you may know, the Lunar holiday is in full swing in China and there are lantern festivals to be celebrated plus China is preparing for it's National Day. So here is a sampling of some of my favorite pictures from around China this week. I love the chimp and the dreadlocked old guy, who by the way has been growing his hair for thirty years... and WTF is with the boxing bears?

The Moving War

Didn't get a chance to post on Friday as I went into battle with all my belongings. It's amazing to think that I carried everything I own on my back and down the stairs and out to the street and into the truck and out into the lobby and up the elevator and down the hall.... I am so sore today and exhausted. But it's done! The implicit nature of the words "U-Haul" will forever haunt me or at least till my hands stop aching.

Murata Boy

This youtube video is astonishing, the amazing Murata Boy, a robot that has dexterity and agility, he is a bike riding robot. Too cool! link

James Jean

This artist has a pretty cool site, check out his "Recess" series, creepy images of ghosts in school, the image shown is entitled "Mascot". link

Mr. Colonne

Link

Handful of Wax

In America any old Chode can do something dumb and post it on the internet and nothing happens... Dare I say "Nothings Shocking", but in China, little pranks still make a big splash. Take these two for example, these Chodes went to Madame Trousseau's Wax Museum and took these pictures with Chinese Pop Stars and sent them to their friends, who in turn posted them elsewhere, and all of a sudden you have a national outcry denouncing "lewdness". Ah, sweet America where we are free to be Jackasses...

Daily Collage Project

Link

Huo Yuanjia

I saw "Jet Li's Fearless" this weekend. As far as Jet Li's final opus, not his best work, but the simple story translates to a fairly engaging martial arts film. The director Ronny Yu and Jet Li do their best to create depth to the real life character, Huo Yuanjia. The only problem is that many of the fights and events were fictionalized, none the less, Western and Asian audiences alike will most likely be cheering for Jet Li as he goes out kicking and punching. Fearless website P.S. Obviously, this film based on a Chinese national hero, has strong nationalistic tendencies, which will most likely be overlooked by western audiences in search of a "Bloodsport" type of fighting flick, but are quite heavy handed. Although the film looks great on the big screen, I think I actually liked the fight scenes better in Tony Jaa's "The Protector" better.

Chinese Surgical Limb Extensions

The disire for height sends some Chinese in search of the surgeon. Get a leg up

Aquatic Life

Woospace Relaunch Color!

Happy Friday...

Arturro Herrera

link Click on image for next painting and enjoy.

Pack of Wolves

End of Summer

As if by Magic

As if by Magic With an impressive list of participating artists, the art school of Palestine's show titled "As if by Magic" uses instructions by the artists to have work made on site, with very few of them ever actually touching the work, raising the interesting question of authenticity of work. An article about the show.

Ouch!

absolute

The Photographer's Daughter

Here is a flickr stream of images of a five year old girl, who has become her father's muse. Link!

Woospace Relaunch

I was noticing that woospace has been down about a month, and was really feeling the loss. So I am preparing to get things rebooted and back online! The last month has been a crazy struggle shifting into a graphic design position and purchasing my first home. Yes, I signed the papers this morning... So things will continue to be hectic for me, but for those who are still interested I am going to attempt to put some content up.

What's going on...

Dear Woospacers, as you may have noticed, things have slowed down here quite a bit. Currently I'm going through a career transition, and the learning curve is cutting into my Woospace time. But I am proud to announce that July 17 was my one year anniversary publishing this blog, and I don't want to give this up. So give me some time, and I promise, once the work transition is over, I will be back publishing on a regular basis. Until then, thank you for stopping by...

Adopt A Bear

My friend Canada found this guy sitting across the street. Thanks C! His note says "free, please I need a home"... there you have it folks.

The Treasures of Long Gone John

Check out this cool documentary that follows the ecentric founder of the indie record label Sympathy for the Record Industry. Old Long Gone John, is an interesting fellow, watch the trailer for the film and see his influence on the L.A. "underground" art scene. Check it out, Matey! Link.

The Stars!

Check out this great pic of the heavens, click here to see it better!

Reign O'er Me

Okay, so World Trade Center came out this weekend, which I didn't see, but might. It just looks so sentimental and straightforward, but I hear Nick Cage is good. Anyhow, I suppose we'll begin to see more and more "9-11 films" in the wake of WTC, and here is one I'm looking forward to called "Reign O'er Me" starring Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler or at least his Bob Dylan look-alike. Read more about the film here.

Karate Chimp!

I've never seen anything like this... this is one primate you don't want to try to mug or tackle from behind, watch this chimp in all his karate glory! link

Giant Baby

A giant baby and a baby of normal size lie together at Xiangfan First People's Hospital in Xiangfan, a city in central China's Hubei Province Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006. The giant baby, who weighs 12 pounds and is two feet tall, was born at the hospital on Thursday.

Get Sam Jackson to make a call for you...

Link!

Daniel Krall

Sorry my posting has been erratic, started a new job, and I'm trying to learn as much about as possible. Anyhow, here's a cool artist with some nice work. link

Tron Guy

Jay Maynard built himself a Tron costume, and then the world found him on the internet. I had never seen this site, and if you haven't, then I'd suggest checking out his videos. His appearances on Jimmy Kimmel are pretty awkward TV, check out his site here.

Duyun

Had to post this picture... this is the town I lived in for two years! Duyun is a remote city in Guizhou province, well known for it's minority population. I walked down that street (known as Dog street) many times. This looks like a "traditional" wedding ceremony for the media, as the ethnic Buyi people are often used to promote tourism.

More Chinglish

Everyone who has ever been to Asia loves these signs. Take a look at this great gallery of "chinglish" images. link.

Olympics 08

This week marks the official two year countdown to China's big Olympic show. Yesterday they released the first pictograms for the various sports. It seems to me they are loosely based on ancient Chinese characters, not the modern day ones. China is freaking out in anticipation, yesterday they tried to predict the weather for the opening ceremony...

Wickerman fest

Not quite sure what this is all about, but it seems to be an interesting flickr set of a Scottish hippy outing known as "Wickerman". Some good documentation pics, but also great pictures of Scotland too. link

Beauty Robot

"Rong Cheng", a newly-created robot, sits on display at the Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing August 7, 2006. Rong Cheng, dubbed as the first Chinese "beauty" robot, is able to respond to some 1,000 Chinese words. She can dance, bow and greet people in the Sichuan dialect as she is destined for the Sichuan Science Museum to serve as a receptionist. The robot costs about 300,000 yuan (US$37,500) to make, according to Xinhua News. [Reuters]

pop culture vomit...

Lord help us, what has pop culture done to us? Just when you thought Paris Hilton mania couldn't get any more out of control, Sanrio, the folks behind Hello Kitty, have taken it to another level. They have created a signature Hello Kitty figure with a Paris Hilton look. Thankfully, it's only available in Japan.

Sam Hiti

Sam Hiti has published a book called "Ghoulash" which of course features a host of ghouls and monsters. He has some nice loose ink drawings of all things creepy, check it out!

More Cosplay

Okay, if you want to see a girl with too much time on her hands, but who does a great job of creating costumes then check out Angel's cosplay site here. Surprisingly, she's not as nerdy looking as one might think.

Fingers

This Chinese baby, whose identity is being protected, was born with a few too many fingers and toes and thus I will recycle my joke and note that Professor X's school for the gifted and talented has yet to be reached.

Head Butt Trademark

BEIJING - A Chinese man has registered an image of French captain Zinedine Zidane's infamous head-butt in last month's World Cup final as his trademark, a local newspaper reported Thursday. Zhao Xiaokai, a general manager of a public relations firm specializing in sports, is now considering selling the rights to the black-and-white silhouette, which depicts the soccer star ramming his head into the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi during the July 9 final, the Beijing Daily said. Zhao paid 2,000 yuan (US$250; euro196) to register the trademark for clothing, shoes, hats and beer products, and has invited bids of 1 million yuan (US$125,000; euro98,000) for the rights, the report said. "Two days after the World Cup ended, I started thinking about trying to trademark the image," Zhao was quoted as saying. "This image is highly recognizable. But by using silhouettes, I can avoid infringing on the soccer star's image rights."