Monday, 31 March 2008

Bach's Most Realistic Appearance

What is wrong with us in this epoch that we have the insatiable want of creating humanized replicas for every well-known personality from the past or even every cartoon personage of the present?
In my post: Humanized Cartoons I wrote about well-known cartoon personages as Homer Simpson and Super Mario being humanized by an artist, calling himself Pixeloo, using Photoshop techniques. At the TrendHunter website you might find many examples.

So, here we see the latest creation: a computer modelled appearance of Johann Sebastian Bach. The compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach are well known by anyone, but how he looked like is obscure. Images of the composer are plentiful, although he has only sat for a portrait once in his life. Bach’s appearance always has been a mystery, not withstanding all nicely sculptured busts in art and gift shops.

The anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson using state-of-the-art computer modelling techniques reconstructed Johann Sebastian Bach's head, showing the composer as a strong-jawed man with a slight double chin, his large head topped with short, silver hair.

Wilkinson could not use Bach's actual bones, as they are buried at the St. John's Church in Leipzig, but worked from a copper replica of Bach's skull made for a previous reconstruction in 1894 by physician Wilhelm His and sculptor Carl Ludwig Seffner.
It raises the question: in what extent, can a reconstruction from a reconstruction become the most realistic rendering of Bach's appearance to date, as Wilkinson, nonetheless, sees her work.
She only is cautious about what was inside Bach’s head, saying that her reconstruction is not meant to provide any insight into Bach's musical genius. "It only shows his facial appearance," she said. "I wish it could give us some sense of what was going on inside of his head, but it can't."

The bust will be on display at Berlin's Charite medical school for a short time before being moved to Eisenach for the exhibition opening March 21 to mark the composer's birthday.
Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685 and died in Leipzig in 1750.

source: USToday

Breast Massage Robot - Serious or the Newest Sex Toy?

Typified by some blogger, as “the greatest invention of the 21st century so far”, the Breast Massage Robot is, according to the inventor: "capable to give physical massage to human breasts the way professional massagers do." Although an eye-brow raising miracle of modern science, the inventors deny it has something to do with sex or pleasure, as it is designed as a medical therapy device.

Really? If so, why do Mr. Wang Wei and his engineers from the Beijing BUBBY Robot Technologies Co advertise the new robot for:
*Adolescent girls who want to improve the growth of their breasts.
*Women who want to improve their sex lives
*Women who just want to relax
*Breast surgery patients who want a fast recovery
*Breast-feeding moms
*Relieving breast pains during menstruation
Three out of six sales arguments have little to do with medical treatment. But Mr. Wang Wei is exigent: “Please do not misunderstand. The original intention of the invention was not to replace the men. That is stripping out an intimate contact, the robot can’t substitute. Breast Health needs a daily 10-minutes massage. Asking to do this every day by your boyfriend or husband would be unwise!”

In case you want to bet your money on this invention, the Chinese inventor seeks a patent for his Breast Massage Robot and is currently looking for investors. If the projected figures are correct, the expected sales figures are 360,000 sets in mainland China, 180,000 sets for the whole Southeast Asian region, and 360,000 sets for Europe and America, according to a report filed by Mr. Wang Wei.
Well, you never know, maybe there is a market for breast massagers. In any case it will be seen more as a sophisticated sex toy, than as a medical treatment device. In that case there certainly is money in there!

Watch a video of the Breast Massage Robot in action courtesy of GerbilGod7

source: Botjunkie