Sacramento Loaves & Fishes – I plan on stopping by here while I am in town. If you are concerned about the children profiled in Oprah’s piece on the tent cities in Sacramento, check out this local charitable organization. The Mustard Seed is their school for homeless children and right now they need uniforms, socks and other basic supplies.

Using Twitter To Help Students – Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, plans to launch a campaign to attract Twitter followers, while benefiting DonorsChoose.org in the process. He will donate $3 to DonorsChoose.org for every new person who follows him on Twitter (aka his “Tweet to Beat”). The goal is to directly help 25,000 U.S. public school students in low-income and high-need classrooms in two weeks.

DonorsChoose.org‘s founder, Charles Best, recently spoke at a meeting for my work. He said that as a young teacher, he wanted to create a way for people to donate directly to classrooms in need. He originally created interest by secretly funding teacher requests with his own pay until others found the site and began to donate. His efforts and subsequent success thanks to collaborators like Tim Ferris reminded me of The Tipping Point.

New York Times Goes Hyper-Local – Since the NYTimes’ The Local launched earlier this month, I’ve observed the way contributors have been interacting with Fort Greene, Clinton hill and New Jersey residents to create newsworthy and relevant topics. If it’s true that The Times is indeed trialing these sites to build a software platform for local bloggers, I think this is a great idea – in theory. They are potentially going to offer CMS tools and tech support (for a price), with built in ad models. My question is, aside from being under the banner of the New York Times, what does a blogger have to gain by using their platform?

Hyper-local blogs already exist and many don’t make much money or any at all – it’s not the point. A lot of blogs are collectively run and many do it for free, because they care about their community. Organized hyper-local community sites such as BushwickBK.com unearth the quirky and subversive while providing real value to local residents – an events calendar, property listings, restaurant reviews and more. What would they gain from affiliating themselves with The NYTimes?

Perhaps The NYTimes sees a market in local bloggers with ambitious ideas about a niche hyper-local blog who want to get started right away, with very little web/tech ability. They would definitely benefit from all those resources, including access to major advertisers, something “old school” bloggers have had to earn after a period of time and by proving they can draw an audience. If someone can make a living working full time as a hyper-local niche blogger who only writes reviews of local street art, more power to them.

More power to the NYTimes as well, they need to do what they can to stay relevant and in business through this recession. I visit the NYTimes website every morning; they are my primary source for news. As someone who appreciates hyper-local coverage, I am hoping that they are mindful of incorporating quality hyper-local blogger content into their editorial plan – the opportunity to be featured on the New York Times website would be a huge motivating factor for people to sign up for the service. The ability to also seamlessly integrate an existing blog into their platform would, of course, be essential.

iWant: Sennheiser Evolution G2 Series Basic Kit - As soon as I am able to scrape up the money in the next few weeks, I am investing in this puppy. Along with an extra lav set and some other assorted goodies, these are production purchases that I need to fulfill some creative goals of mine this summer. Stay tuned for details on those, coming very soon…

OK, Daniela. Before you ruin any chance of sleep by visiting Hulu.com, step away from your computer. You don’t want to look like a zombie when you see the fam.

 I’ve been re-reading Borderlands: La Frontera this week and have been preoccupied with the passages describing the Shadow Beast. This morning I wondered why that was and then I realized that Halloween is coming up, a time when I tend to focus on the macabre.

Since I’ll probably seem more creepy if I do this another week, I figure a quick blurb on the art of Justin Aerni tonight is as appropriate as it’s going to get before Christmas.

Justin Aerni is a young artist living and working in Spokane, Washington. According to his bio, most of his art has been symbolic in dealing with what he (and other humans) fear most, Death. His work reflects the fragile human condition we are all held in. Most of it could be described as “Abstract Depressionism.”  Yay!

Not to worry folks, he also creates non doll-that-will-haunt-your dreams work. Check out this cheery Obama piece on Justin’s flick. He was also featured in this week’s episode of Epic-Fu.

In honor of Justin’s assemblage of petrifying playthings, here’s some history about scary dolls in cinema + a list of scary doll movies:

Wanna Play? after the jump…

The Lair’s List of  Killer/Scary Doll Movies

1. Trilogy of Terror (1975) – Three bizarre horror stories all of which star Karen Black in four different roles playing tormented women. The “Amelia” segment features Karen Black running for her life from the armed Zuni Hunter doll.

2. Magic (1978) -  Starring Anthony Hopkins, “Magic” features a ventriloquist dummy taking control of his master.

3. Tourist Trap (1979) – A group of young friends stranded at a secluded roadside museum are stalked by the owner of the place, who has the power to control his collection of mannequins. This was remade as House of Wax in 2005, starring the serious thespian Paris Hilton. Yes, I know there aren’t actual dolls in here but mannequins are kind of like dolls. Think about it.

4. Poltergeist (1982) – The scary clown that drags the little girl under the bed still haunts my dreams.

5. Gremlins (1984) – A boy inadvertantly breaks 3 important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town. The gremlins became dolls that kids bought in stores, so this counts too.

6. Dolls (1987) – A charming doll collection turns into an unstoppable army of killers in this terrifying tale.

7. Child’s Play Trilogy (1991) – Serial killer Brad Dourif’s ongoing quest to possess the body of a young boy while being trapped in cute Good Guy doll. In the last chapter John Waters gets involved (Seed of Chucky) and it all becomes campy performance art.

8. Demonic Toys (1992) – A botched bust on a pair of arms dealers inadvertantly leads to the raising of a sixty-six-year-old demon with the power to bring toys to life as his personal minions. The demon is looking for a body to inhabit so he can increase his powers, and it just so happens that one of the police officers is pregnant with the ideal host. As the murderous toys close in on their victims, the officer must not only fight for her life, but for the soul of her unborn child.

9. Dolly Dearest (1992) – Dolly Dearest is downright evil. An American family moves to Mexico to make dolls, but their toy factory happens to be next to a satanic grave. Creepier than Chucky because she offers zero comedic relief.

10.  Pinocchio’s Revenge (1996) – A mother brings home an evil Pinocchio wooden puppet that supposedly caused a man to kill his son. Her little girl finds the doll and takes it as her own. They go along causing accidents until the real killings start and the doll takes over the little girl.

11.  Doll Graveyard (2005) – An abused girl ends up dying in a pit filled with the dolls she was forced to bury.  Around 100 years later, a 14 year old boy finds one of the dolls in the yard of the house that his family bought. His older (mean) sister throws a party and a bunch of resurrected dolls wreak their hellish brand of terror.

12. The Dollman/Demonic Toys (2005) -  A botched bust on a pair of arms dealers inadvertently leads to the raising of a sixty-six year old demon with the power to bring toys to life as his personal minions.

13. Dead Silence (2007) – Billy is a naughty puppet. Previously owned by Mary Shaw, a ventiloquist who was murdered by local Ravens Hill villagers for kidnapping a boy to turn him into a human puppet, Billy houses Mary Shaw’s spirit while she gets revenge on all those who killed her.

14. Puppet Master Collection- All 7 Puppet Master movies must be watched in a row to fully appreciate it’s legacy of horror and gore.

15. Triliquist (2008) -  I have not seen this yes but a user comment on the IMDB page looked promising:

Seriously warped horror comedy about an unlikely trio, a demented family of weirdos driving across the desert wreaking havoc on whoever they meet. A mute, seemingly autistic brother, Norbert who communicates through his ventriloquist dummy, Dummy…

What other killer/scary doll movies can you think of?

By the year 2020, the United States Army is planning on having 30 percent of its forces made up of robots.

Asylum (dude lifestyle magazine that I randomly check out) also reports that in South Korea, the military is working on a robot solider that has the ability to fire on its own initiative. LiveScience reports that at present, all of the U.S. Army’s robots are teleoperated. Current military policy is to leave human beings “in the loop” for important decision-making.

Are we ready for a droid army? Will the “don’t ask don’t tell policy” also extend to A.I.? Should I be preemptive and buy gayarmyrobotrights.org right now??

…Before we have gay robots on the front lines, shouldn’t we be doing more to improve the the conditions for flesh and blood soldiers?

I have to admit though, the idea of more robots in the world is pretty awesome:

In honor of the United States Army’s decision to go roboto, here are some examples of sweet robot armies and awesome robots in film (yeah they all turn on us and made us their slaves in the end, but they look wicked cool while doing it! Owww!):

Some Rockin’ Robot Armies

V.I.K.I. and her vast robot army in I, Robot – V.I.K.I. develops an overriding interpretation of the Three Laws which supported the robots’ becoming a benevolent dictatorship, preventing humans from self-destructive behavior such as crime or environmental damage, to ensure humanity’s survival.

Terminator franchise – battles between Skynet‘s artificially intelligent machine network, and John Connor‘s Tech-Com forces and the rest of the human race. In the upcoming fourth installment, Terminator Salvation, the survival of the human race is still uncertain. Them robots really hate us meat sacks!

The Matrix trilogy – a future in which reality perceived by humans is actually the Matrix, a simulated reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population while their bodies’ heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source.

The FemBots in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery – created by Dr. Evil after he discovers that Austin Powers’ weakness is his libido. The beautiful, blonde female androids are equipped with automatic guns concealed in their breastesses.

Some Cool Robots That The Lair Loves

& Wants In Her Apartment

WALL-E from the Disney/Pixar animated feature WALL-E – He crunched trash in his stomach and did brave things even when he was afraid.

D.A.R.Y.L. (Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform) – This 1985 sci-fi gem for the whole family was clearly an influence for Spielberg’s A.I., which was also about a boy robot who wants to be human.

Robocop – Detroit police officer Alex J. Murphy is brutally murdered and re-created as a super-human cyborg by building his face and brain into a robot.

The Iron Giant – a lost alien robot superweapon winds up on Earth and wants to be human.

Maxmillian from Disney’s The Black Hole - could hover and had whirling blades at the ends of his arms.

The Robot from Lost in Space – “Danger, Will Robinson!”

All the Transformers – ROBOTS IN DISGUISE

The Gunslinger from WestWorld – his own face popped off exposing the transistors and wires and that was freakin’ sweet.

The Killbots from Chopping Mall – Roger Corman’s film that featured three security robots going haywire in a mall in California and chopping everyone into shreds.

HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey – big red eye

Johnny Five from Short Circuit: mad style!

C3P0 and R2D2 from Star Wars: First gay intermodel robot couple?

Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation – He had an evil twin! And he could play the piano!

The Replicants from Blade Runner – I especially love Pris! She had crazy makeup and could break your neck with her thighs

Stuff White People Like

My favorite so far is #55.

- via Monty and Jayson