That’s not a typo, folks, that’s a strange little bit of news that’ll make your day just a little more surreal.  I try to do that sort of thing wherever possible.

If you’ve got $3000, a lot of patience and anything with the Android operating system, then you too can buy and own a Plen, the “desktop hobby robot” controlled by the new Google OS.

Plen, through his Android handset controls, can perform a series of complex tasks, including posing, random things, and even skateboarding.

Only fifty of them will be made, making the Plen an instant collectible whether or not you have any way of controlling him.  This actually represents an amazing, possibly game-changing point–imagine an eight foot tall Plen with a machine gun on each arm.  Think that might render human soldiery largely obsolete?  Yeah, I thought so too.  And let’s not forget other hazardous duties like construction, demolition, bomb defusing…a whole host of things that might be subcontractable to remote controlled robots.

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