Last year roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University unveiled the Telenoid, a toddler-sized robot designed to “transmit the presence” of a person remotely. The idea is to have webcams track a user’s face and head movements and then have the robot mimic those movements, which is supposed to increase the “humanness” of the interaction despite the fact that the thing falls smack into the Uncanny Valley.

Ishiguro and his colleagues have now shrunk the Telenoid into the Elfoid, a prototype cell phone that allows callers to “feel each other’s presence.” So you call somebody, and their Elfoid wriggles to life in their shirt pocket, and after they’re finished pissing themselves they can totally bask in your telepresence.

Please join me in being utterly unsurprised that this thing is Japanese.

Anyway, the designers feel that a more humanoid design (which will ultimately be able to exhibit facial expressions and make gestures) will overcome some of the limitations of voice-only communication. It’s an interesting idea, and I can already foresee all sorts of interesting customizations being possible. I can also foresee these things being a major plot point in at least one horror movie in the next five years. Yeesh.

Oh, wow; where was this book when I was ten years old?

A.R. Rotruck used to have grand imaginary adventures when she was a child, with the help of props she made herself.

When she wasn’t reading, the ten-year-old me (we’ll call her “Tamie”) spent a lot of time playing in the woods and making crafts. For all the books she read, she never found one that would help with this particular hobby. Most of Tamie’s ramblings involved imagining various fantasy scenarios; grand quests and adventures. Tamie made a burlap sack to carry into the woods because it seemed like something the fantasy version of Tamie (maybe call her Fatamie? No, that’s getting a bit ridiculous.) would carry. It was bulky and scratchy, but it also, to Tamie’s ten-year-old brain, seemed authentic. Tamie would cobble together bits and pieces of crafts from books on Native American and colonial/pioneer folk art. Tamily only had one children’s book in this genre; the rest of the crafts were far too advanced for a ten-year-old. With Young Wizards Handbook, I wanted to write a book for the children like Tamie: fantasy fans who want to make things to help their imagination come alive with physical tools.

You can read the rest of the “big idea” behind her book here.

I love this idea. I want to go back in time and give myself a copy.

It’s great that the projects are both age-appropriate and engaging: It not only encourages imagination, it sounds like a great crafting primer for kids.

If you’ve got a young adventurer who yearns to track vampires to their lair or hobnob with hobgoblins, this would be an excellent gift. (Shadowboy will be receiving one shortly.)

Deriana is a crafter with “an unbridled passion for History and costumes,” which she combines to create ridiculously adorable felt dolls. They’re tiny–only about 10 cm (4″) tall–and although their basic body plans are all similar, it’s astonishing how much personality she works in by changing out the details.

She does lots of historical figures, including Elizabeth I, Marie Antoinette, and the whole Tudor gang, re-creating many of their costumes from portraits. She also shines with creepy-cute designs like Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, Vlad Tepes, Kali, and (my favorite) Jack the Ripper, complete with “a tiny kidney to play with.”

A number of her photo captions indicate that the items were commissioned, so if you’ve always had a hankering for some particular historical figure rendered in felt, now’s your chance.

Her Flickr photostream is here, and there are additional dolls and design notes on her Livejournal page. A quick bit of googling also turned up a presence on DeviantART, an Etsy shop (which is the only place I’ve found prices, but they actually seem quite affordable), and a site noting that it will be the “future home” of her work.

These things are just all kinds of cute. Go take a look and prepare to be inspired.

(via Craftster)

Etsy sller marywibis sells these elegantly spooky cloth napkins,* and though they might seem rather expensive at $50 for 6, given the cost of a basic silkscreening kit (Amazon | DIY) the price is more or less a wash.

I do like the look of custom napkins, and it might be possible to do simple designs using a stencil and fabric paint rather than silkscreening them. This would make it easier to do several designs in the same set, although given how frequently napkins tend to be laundered I do wonder how long the paint would hold up.

I’d never really considered the notion of silkscreening napkins; if you’re considering silkscreening as a hobby, a reasonably simple project like this might be a good introduction. (Or, y’know, just buy ’em pre-made.)

*Bonus link: Check out this lovely Black Widow Decanter and matching glasses from the same vendor.

This is kind of blowing my mind a little. The Science Tarot is a set of standard tarot cards illustrated with various scientific concepts, the point being to combine “science, art and mythology into a tarot deck to engage and awaken people’s curiosity about science and the natural world.”

Although I’m all over the idea of awakening curiosity about science, I’m not sure that the best medium (har!) to do that is tarot cards. Divination does not exactly lend itself to scientific rigor, and the notion that science and mysticism can be good bedfellows gets pretty muddy pretty fast.

On the other hand, I have to give mad props to the clever artwork. The suit of Cups is represented by beakers, Swords are scalpels, Pentacles are magnifying glasses, and Wands are bunsen burners. The major arcana are all famous scientists, and the deck attempts to match their work with the various cards’ “meanings” (the nurturing Empress, for instance, is represented by Mendel and his peas). The minor arcana illuminate various scientific ideas, and again an effort has been made to match them appropriately: The ambitious Seven of Swords is represented by the expansion of a red giant star, and the partner-oriented Three of Cups is illustrated by an orchid and its symbiotic fungus.

In particular, the fact that the Wheel of Fortune is represented by Schrödinger’s Cat is utter genius.

This might be an interesting gift for a collector of unusual decks, or for a scientist with a sense of humor.

(via BoingBoing)

This is one of those things that I never really considered, but once I heard about am somehow unsurprised that it exists. Amused, but unsurprised.

The Cabinet of Carnal Curiosities* is a site which offers steampunk sex toys, custom-made by one Lady Clankington.

Due to her voracious desire for endless…adventure, her husband (an industrialist of some note) expired from exhaustion long ago. In a fit of frustration, Lady Clankington employed the genius of one Dr. Visbaun to create a cadre of strapping automatons that would finally grant her the only company able to keep up with her unending desire…for adventure. … Each design has been well tested by the lady, herself.

Right now her “infernal devices” consist of the Little Death Ray, but the Butt Rogers Uranium Pistol is coming soon. Just right for playing “stern Victorian explorer and naughty Morlock.”

(Hat tip to Charity)

*I’d add the NSFW tag but c’mon: It’s a site that peddles sex toys. Do you really need the tag?

Despite my suspicion that Keith Richards has been an audio-animatronic since the late 70s, he’s evidently still got a lot of cachet in some circles.

For several decades he’s worn a silver skull ring made by Courts and Hackett, and they’re now offering a new ring modeled from the same skull as the original.

I quite like this; apparently the skull model was going to be part of an entire miniature skeleton, so it’s more anatomical-looking instead of having the “evil demon skull” vibe that you so often see in skull rings. It’s fairly expensive (around $485), but it’s actual quality jewelry instead of cheap cast metal.

This would be a fantastic gift, not to mention a unique wedding ring. Pretty!

Although I make my own fat-and-lye soap, I’ve never really gotten into any of the glycerine varieties. I may need to re-think that stance, because the soap that Etsy seller Bunny Bubbles makes is awfully appealing.

In addition to eyeballs (which would be one of those perfect “small details” for a Halloween party, or even as a favor for a Halloween wedding), the shop offers lots of unusual shapes like skull-and-crossbones, cameos, and autumn leaves. The leaves in particular would be lovely in a guest bathroom as a “Halloweenish without being spooky” touch.

The prices are quite reasonable and the seller does custom items, so if there’s a scent or shape you’ve been looking for they might be able to help you out.

(Hat tip to Siegmar.S)

So the subgenre of zombie fiction that we all thought, “Oh, hahaha that’ll never happen because it would end up like this,” has apparently happened and there’s now an anthology of zombie erotica.

Rigor Amortis styles itself as a collection of “Horror and erotica. Zombies and romance.”

Maybe a tender love story is your thing, a husband doting on his wife’s rotting corpse. Or perhaps a forbidden encounter in a secret café, serving up the latest in delectable zombie cuisine, or some dirty, dirty dancing in the old-time honky-tonk. Voodoo sex-slaves and vending machine body-parts? You’ll find those here, too.

Whatever your flavor, these short tales of undead Romance, Revenge, Risk, and Raunch will leave you shambling, moaning, and clawing for more.

And come he slow, or come he fast, It is but Death who comes at last. -Sir Walter Scott, “Marmion”, 1808

There’s also a trailer on YouTube* just in case the written teaser isn’t sufficient, and a (now-closed) contest at Bitten by Books has a bit more information about the project and features several excerpts.

If you’re interested in what would sort of be the ultimate in dirty sex, this is the book for you.

Thanks, xJane!

*xJane, who sent the link, commented that the existence of the trailer “kind of baffles me, since it’s a /book/” and I have to agree.

Nyne of Brilliance Found has been fascinated with jewelry since she was six, and makes wonderful, unique pieces in a variety of media.

She makes the usual range–earrings, necklaces, body jewelry, etc.–but seems to particularly shine in “statement rings.” Her filigree leaf or autumn leaf wrap rings are the perfect, understated fall accessory, and she also makes loads of interesting pieces like skeleton key ring, the proud crown ring (I love the patina on this one), and the very-hard-to-miss vampire bat knuckle ring. Her work seems to lean strongly toward naturalistic shapes such as leaves and animals, and I love their delicate, lacy look.

She’s got items up at both ArtFire and Etsy, and her work is really quite affordable.

Lovely stuff! Go look!

(via We Covet)