Cuppacafe

Via io9.com and this link that describes

The Shanghai Expo 2010 will have a giant robotic baby who will blink and coo and suck on giant robotic breast:

The baby’s “Mother” is film director Isabel Coixet who has pointed out that with this collaboration she has wanted to stay accurate to the Expo Shanghai’s Theme, “Better city, better life”. Also that Miguelín is a reminder that tells us that “all our actions have direct consequences on our children’s future and that we have to react to this”, said the filmmaker in an encounter with the Spanish Press at the Instituto Cervantes in Beijing.

Inspiration for creating Miguelín, the absolute protagonist of Coixet’s room, has been – according to the director- the passion for children shared by both the Chinese and the Spanish culture. “We have given this many thoughts. I have investigated along with Chinese assessors, friends and artists I know and both countries share this worship for children” – she said.

Given its location within the Spain Pavilion, Coixet’s room helps to appreciate with detail the curves of the wicker designed by Benedetta Tabliabue and looks like if baby Miguelín is receiving visitors in its own cradle. While the animated dreams of Miguelín have been created by designer Ignacio Fernández Maroto, the construction of the giant baby has been done in USA supervised by Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. at the Amalgamated Dynamis Inc. studios, responsible as well for cinematographic monsters such as Alien vs Predator o Starship Troopers.

The video shows construction of beast, er, baby, and at the end of the vid a few moments of animation and awakening of our doom. (sound not req'd)

Okay, looks like the giant robotic breast is merely my fantasy. For now.

YouTube link

You know that original promotion for the movie sound system in theaters that had the big creshendo with the slogan,

"The Audience Is Listening" ?
(see a spoof of this old thing here)

Well, pregnant mommies will get a kick out of this --

German researchers say babies begin to pick up the nuances of their parents' accents while still in the womb.

The researchers studied the cries of 60 healthy babies born to families speaking French and German.

The French newborns cried with a rising "accent" while the German babies' cries had a falling inflection.

That's right. We've always known that babies listen to things while they're still in the womb, but who would have guessed they're so bored they're actually remembering -- not so much what is being said but how...

Dr Wermke's team recorded and analysed the cries of 60 healthy newborns when they were three to five days old.

Their analysis revealed clear differences in the shape of the infants' cry melodies that corresponded to their mother tongue.

They say the babies need only well-co-ordinated respiratory-laryngeal systems to imitate melody contours and not the vocal control that develops later.
[BBC]

Ahhh, junk science. Is there any preconceived notion it can't support?

I think I have the plot to a new horror film with this one picture.

Have a great weekend, folks!

If an alien came to earth and possessed the body of a one year old girl, it would sound exactly like this: