Offbeat

Julian Smith: don't you ever interrupt me while I'm reading a book. Video after the jump.

When two chatbots discuss Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, it's Waiting for Godot meets the Turing test, in the stagecraft of Annie Dorsen. Video after the jump.

A story about cheating in middle-eastern camel racing�and by the way, the jockeys are robots. Buried lede, or simply a case of the unevenly-distributed future?

"EACH FLUID OUNCE CONTAINS THE VIRTUES OF TWO OUNCES OF FRESH BEEF WITH ONE OUNCE SHERRY WINE." From the design blog codex99, a collection of early twentieth-century tonic labels illustrates the fickle nature of pharmaceutical progress.

Even before the viewer catches a glimpse his first Mogwai, Joe Dante's Gremlins establishes the link between the titular goblins and malfunctioning technology by way of Randy Peltzer and his many incompetent inventions. It's a film very much of its time, with many fascinating things to say about the way Reagan-era Americans looked at technology. It's also a movie that would be impossible to remake today, for one big reason: the smartphone is our Bathroom Buddy.

3D printing and fab labs are cool, but what this guy can do with a bandsaw (and you cannot, so don't even try) is patently awesome. Video after the jump.

The head of the Philip K. Dick android, which went missing in 2006, has been rebuilt by Hanson Robotics. Who will help it come to grips with its strange and chequered past? Video after the jump.

Mastering the musical cactus requires not only a deft ear, but a good supply of bandages.

To reboot their product line, Polaroid have appealed to the highest authority: they've named Lady Gaga their creative director. Her photographic sunglasses may be a caprice; her new digital instant camera offers retronovation with technical flair.

From 1905, a troupe of schoolboys show off their puzzling foil uniforms. Students in an experimental Utopian lyceum? Or visitors from the future?