Bring on the cyborg future

It’s always good to end the week with the knowledge that our society is that little bit closer to creating our cyborg overlords.  From Dean Kamen (the guy who brought you the Segway scooter) comes “Luke”, a robotic arm controlled by a series of pressure pads and other controls.  In addition to being just plain badass and a far more useful display of Kamen’s technological genius than the Segway,  it movies us one creepy step further into cyborg territory.  Soon this king of technology will pave the way for the true cyborgs who will inevitably rely on eugenics in an attempt to perfect their remaining human components while forcing the rest of us to do their bidding.

But wait, you say…there’s a huge flaw in this plan.  Everyone knows that cyborg software technology often warps the human brain, turning the “person” into a promiscuous nymphomaniac.  How will the cyborgs keep from diluting the gene pool of their robotic master race?  An Australian research team found the simple answer: remote controlled implants that can block the vas deferens.  Now these horrible combinations of man and machine can hump anything that will sit still long enough and not have to worry about pregnancy unless they decide to allow it.   And as a huge added benefit, they can install them in the rest of us non-cyborgs to keep our population under control.  Leave it to Australians to mess up our only hope: overpowering them with sheer numbers.

Metal Review: Flies & Lies by Raintime

Of European nations Italy is perhaps last on a short list of providing truly awesome metal.  An opinion, after having listened to this album, I may have to examine with a more careful eye.  Lacking the outright silliness of fellow Italians Rhapsody, and lacking the weak/odd/annoying vocals of American progressive acts such as Coheed and Cambria and Dream Theatre, Raintime manages to combine pain, beauty, aggression and musicality into an impressively powerful brew.  Vocals range from death metal style growls to clean metalcore tones to gruff hard rock wrung from the gut.  The keyboard work is impressive but never overstated and lends an appropriate majestic air to the proceedings.  The sound is majestic but never pretentious, hard but never overly aggressive and intimate but never ranging into melodramatic. Raintime walks a delecite line between various lines of metal sub-genres creating a sound at once familiar and something totally their own.

Having listened through the album several times I’m still not tired of it, and after a long days work, is a worthy listen on the drive home.  It is an album almost meant to be listened to all of one piece, from start to finish, in one sitting with absolutely no tracks that make me reach for the skip button.  And that includes a cover song.  If you think you know “Beat It” think again.  It feels like the song was written for these guys to play.  Give these guys a listen, either on iTunes or their myspace page, if you don’t like what you here there is definitely something wrong with you.