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Elektro the Smoking Robot

At the 1939 World’s Fair

Dec 9th 2012 by Christopher via YouTube

Science Elektro, the “Westinghouse Motor Man” filmed inside the Westinghouse Pavillion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Elektro can not only smoke, he also has a giant ego. User commands are given through a telephone with some kind of a voice recognition system. The whole presentation might look like a kitschy hoax from our eyes, but for the folks back in 1939 this technology was most likely orgasm inducing. Taken from an excerpt from the 1939 movie The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair. ( continue reading... )

The Cocktail Nation - Queens Of Vintage

Episode 266    May 12th 2013

This week we talk to the publisher of an online magazine called Queens Of Vintage, her name is Lena Weber and recently she interviewed me in her kings of vintage portion of the website so I thought we should have her on to talk vintage culture and the English scene. Plus the best exotica and lounge music from across the globe.

Science “Oh Mighty Hand of Progress and Science. We beseech thee to guide or ways. Help us to secure funding for our Research Projects. Show us the mysteries of Nature that we may harness them and produce a brighter cleaner wash! Shelter us from the elements and bring us good and ever-lasting AC. Beloved Mighty Hand grasp the mighty atom and hold it forth for us to study it’s magical rays and it’s dividend potential. Yay, though the doubting may nag and falsly sing the hymns of greeness, level our mountains and sculpt our rivers to sublime geometric perfection. Let us ( continue reading... )


Science The religion of The Atom died with Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. With that fall from grace came the end of many of our utopian dreams. A responsible future of conservation and organic carrots just wasn’t very exciting. Although widespread use of the atom remains controversial; 436 reactors remain the source of 15 per cent of the world’s electricity. In some European countries atomic power ( read more... )

Science Atomic power was projected to be very cheap. We were going to have electricity coming out of our ears! We would not have to import oil from crazy foreigners or dig up whole states looking for coal. Utility companies and government agencies around the world took up the chant of the mighty atom. Nuclear power plants were seen as a springboard for third world countries ( read more... )

Science No modern technology has ever had such a schizophrenic and complicated identity as Atomic Energy. It is often presented in mystical terms. A Pandora’s Box of knowledge that cannot be unlearned. The magical Genie that can do both help or harm but cannot be returned to his bottle. Nuclear Power is the ultimate parable of modern science. With the use of atomic bombs at the ( read more... )

Science This is the House of the Future (or Plastic House of the Future) at Disneyland, California circa 1957 – where you could get a glimpse of what the future held in technology and comfort in the year 1986. Look at all those fancy buttons all over the place, I crave more buttons in my apartment too! Many things would probably be regarded as somewhat retro-future ( read more... )