Japan welcomes its robot overlords

Hat tip to Katherine Mangu-Ward at reason.

What’s it got to do with the subject of this post? Well, accomplished rationalizer that I am (it’s a living), I could spin you [...]]]> But first, since we needs more graphics on this site, and also since I’ve been dying to post this:

Japan welcomes its robot overlords

Hat tip to Katherine Mangu-Ward at reason.

What’s it got to do with the subject of this post? Well, accomplished rationalizer that I am (it’s a living), I could spin you a mighty explanation about how it pertains to technology and globalization in our modern world. The truth: nothing!

And yes, I know we’re now supposed to call it Mumbai, not Bombay. Bear with me. And always remember: we do digression right! And by “right,” I mean “compulsively.”

What this is all really about is that my phone, hence Internet, service blinked out an hour or two ago. Yes, I suffer from the Heartbreak of Dial-Up. A connection I need to correct here, directly. *Sigh*: it still must wait its turn.

I had no dial tone, either inside the house or at the box in the back. To quote Mojo Jojo, “Curses.” So I called Qwest tech support.

Which connected me with a rather obviously Indian gentleman. That’s subcontinental, not American. After hearing my piteous plaint, he asked if I’d tried calling my landline from my cell phone.

“No,” I admitted. “There didn’t seem much point if I didn’t get a dial tone.”

So he bade me Hold while he called, and I Held, and lo! the phone did ring.

The first time I picked it up I got nothing – although I also didn’t get that utter leaden anechoic deadness when the line is just plain out. I hung up. The phone rang again, and this time I had a connection!

So we’re back in business for now. And I have to get broadband. Arrgh!

Anyway, the reason I named the post as I did is that the incident put me in mind of a classic rock song which you’ve never heard of, “Bombay Calling,” by the sadly overlooked late 1960s/early 1970s group It’s a Beautiful Day. It’s great in itself, a smokin’ four miunute instrumental. Moreover it provided the inspiration (by which I think they meant, “all of the notes”) for one of my all-time favorite songs: Deep Purple’s classic “Child in Time,” which I’m listening to as I type this.

Yes, kids, I know dinosaurs and humans didn’t walk the Earth at the same time. I’d remember.

So anyway – that’s what’s happening. Now to put on pants (“Welcome to TMI Theatre!”), grab Emma, and head out to the Nature Center for a walk while there’s still some daylight yet.