Anyone know where Anderson Cooper gets those great shirts with epaulettes? I think my fall wardrobe needs to be informed by a dash of foriegn war correspondent. Any leads? Let me know.

For all you out-of-towners who missed Banksy's Barely Legal exhibit, here's a quick flickr photoset I just uploaded. Enjoy!

MI RAI-RT, from AIBO's creator Tomoaki Kasugi is the latest robot ready for release upon Japan.

Without further hesitation, I give you Stallion: Master Magician.

I'm back from the Playa, another successful trip to Burning Man. I'm headed out of town again tonight so I don't have time to post much, but I'll give all you robots who were trapped in the default world the hilights. Aside from hanging out for a week with my brilliant, beautiful and uber talented friends, I saw some sights that were simply out-of-this-world:

I finally had a chance to meet, hang out with and see a performance by the legendary Dr. Megavolt. Yes, it was everything it was crackled up to be; an electrifying performance to say the least.

The huge Serpent Mother was amazing; photos do not do justice. It pulsed with fire and heat and was one of the most impressive displays I've seen at Burning Man.

And of course, there was the Waffle. I'm not sure what this immense structure was actually called, but it was dubbed The Waffle by attendees as a result of it's criss-crossed supports and it's Belgian creators. Truly impressive, plus it became a ginormous dance party once the sun went down.

More pictures soon, I promise! You can see a small subset of shots in this online album. Enjoy!

Our friend Karen at This is a Magazine recently sent announcement of their new 2-bit-good-for-nothing Issue compiled entirely from animated GIFs made or found by artists working in and around the internet today.

For no reason other than it just might be helpful to a few of you, how to disassemble a Sony Ericsson K600i phone and replace a cracked LCD screen.

Not one, not two but three mixes from Alexander Robotnick (complete with track listings) to get you in the mood for his appearances in San Francsico (8/12 RX Gallery), Los Angeles (8/16 Spider Club), NYC (8/17 Tribeca Grand).

Ultraluxx is free, this Saturday night at the Mountain Bar. More info.

After yesterday's announcement of a plot to blow up airplanes using liquid explosives and an iPod, the prospect of being able to use our favorite digital music player on future flights looks unlikely. iPods have always been dangerous though, as proven by Eight Ways to Kill Someone using an iPod Nano.

Domino starto!

Not sure how old this video is, but it certainly does raise a lot of questions.

Clinton E. Curtis, ex-programmer for Yang Enterprises tells all during a Congressional hearing on voting fraud.

In October 2000, Curtis was asked by Tom Feeney (R), then Speaker of the House in Florida (now U.S. Congressman to the State of Florida), to write a computer program that would render electronic voting fraud undetectable. Curtis did just that and testifies before the congressional hearing.

Best. Nike. Ad. Ever.

Sigh. Looks like it was shot right around where I used to live near Dogpatch (Potrero Hill) in San Francisco.

Check out more of our new friend Nemo Gould's robots at nemomatic.com.

If you happen to find yourself in Berlin this summer, make sure to check out Kubik. Pointed out by our friends at Gridskipper, Kubik is a temporary outdoor club that hosts nightly electronic concerts from now to September 16th. The 120 cubes are programmed to light up and synchronize with the music played by a rotating roster of international DJ's. More information is available on the Kubik site (auf Deutch).

Check out the video of the Kubik opening (QuickTime).

I.D. magazine presents the results of the 2006 Annual Design Review.

Low prices meet high design, or blatant Wal-Mart ripoff? I've always had a love affair with Sebastian Wong's Spun floor lamp produced by Flos and sold thru Design Within Reach, but at $1400 it's never moved past being a schoolboy crush. Now it appears that Wal-Mart has blatantly ripped off Mr. Wong and put out their own version of the Spun floor lamp for (drumroll, please)...$70 bucks. I've never considered buying anything from Wal-Mart before, and I certainly disagree with ripping off other designs, but at a paltry $70 I am beginning to understand how people can be seduced by the values offered at by the world's largest, and arguably most evil retailer.

LA Robots, mark your calendar for August 16th when Droid Behavior presents a performance by legendary Electro pioneer Alexander Robotnick. More details to come soon.

This Saturday. Downtown LA.

A group of designers (National Design Award finalists and winners) recently declined to be honored at a White House breakfast:

We understand that politics often involves high rhetoric and the shading of language for political ends. However it is our belief that the current administration of George W. Bush has used the mass communication of words and images in ways that have seriously harmed the political discourse in America. We therefore feel it would be inconsistent with those values previously stated to accept an award celebrating language and communication, from a representative of an administration that has engaged in a prolonged assault on meaning.

There's fantastic article on my favorite art-scientist, Natalie Jeremijenko over at Salon.com. For those unaware, Ms. Jeremijenko creates brilliant installations laden with irony, designed to illuminate our humanity and reveal the chain of consequences of our actions and inactions. In the narcissistic world of art where so much confessional self-absorbed and self-obsessed work is lauded, it's refreshing and inspirational to explore unique work like Ms. Jeremijenko's.

Attn Robots:

TASCHEN Warehouse Sale
June 22, 2006 - June 25, 2006
Thousands of slightly damaged and display copies from TASCHEN on sale at bargain basement prices, 50-75% off for 3 days only!
More information

LA Robots, don't forget, our friend The Hacker will be at Key Club this Sunday night 6/25. Be there or be a plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles.

Erlend Oye on how he selects tracks for his DJ sets:

"If they (the crowd) wear colorful clothes, they don't want minimal techno. If they don't wear colorful clothes, they want minimal techno."

Fans of XLOVER have something to celebrate. Mr. No and Bryan Black, the duo behind the dark electro sounds of last year's fantastic album, Pleasure & Romance bring us their first solo effort under the moniker MOTOR with their upcoming album Klunk. Unfortunately, Klunk won't feature the haunting pop vocals of Nina Rai, but from listening to the samples on their website they still have enough dark menacing grooves, corrosive industrial drumming and acid house hooks to keep XLOVER fans on the dancefloor.

Klunk is scheduled for a July 25th release on Novamute records. More information is available on their website.

Not only is pinhole photography fun, it can yield unexpected and beautiful results. One of the easiest ways to get started is by building your own pinhole camera.

Linatree.com has a handy PDF download from which you can cut out and assemble your very own pinhole camera. Check it out!

Right now I'm rediscovering Who made Who; no, not that one, this one. Anywho, while not a typical robot recording, the Danish trio provide enough pure audio serotonin to please anyone who like to hit the floor. You'll find nods to acid, disco, electro, house and indie rock all blended together brilliantly on their 15 track self-titled release. For more information, check their self-titled 2005 release on Gomma records, or their My Space page.

Honda put together an extensive history of its humanoid machines on its website, culminating in Asimo, which debuted in 2000. The first prototype started in 1986 was just a pair of legs that took five seconds between steps and could only walk in a straight line. What will this lineup look like 20 years from now?

Robots, start your Monday off right with a free mix from our friend Erol Alkan. Erol recorded an exclusive DJ set for New York's fantastic Beats In Space radio show, hosted by Tim Sweeney. You can download the hour-and-fifteen-minute-long set as an MP3 file here.

The name's Trev. I'm 27, totally super fucking hip, and am a copywriter at a global ad agency in New York City. More...

A couple of noteworthy LA shows coming soon:
Saturday May 20th, local electro superstar Matt Sims will spin up a storm @ the Echo. $8 after 10:30.

Sunday June 25 catch French electroclash and techno producer The Hacker at Key Club.