@robotopia profile picture
tim_hornyak @robotopia

Words @TheAtlantic @nytimes @TIME @Nature @CNBC @AGU_Eos @kinfolkmag ; Author, Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots; Songwriter @rumdukes

Joined May 2010
  • Tweets 32,578
  • Following 4,201
  • Followers 7,003
2,230 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
tim_hornyak@robotopia
3 Dec 2025
For @nytimes I wrote about Japan's 'Sound Princess' toilet noise-canceling tech entering men's rooms. With comments by @TheDonnaBurke @kenmogi nytimes.com/2025/12/02/reale…

Like Fancy Japanese Toilets? You’ll Love the Sound of This. (Gift Article)

Devices that conceal unwanted noises are the next frontier in advanced toilet technology. Would you like some peaceful birdsong, or perhaps a burst of artillery fire?

nytimes.com
1
5
16
12,772
"I kept the bloody footprints for 26 years. Then my wife’s killer confessed" A Japanese widower paid more than £100,000 to keep his flat exactly how it was on the night of the murder. He was shocked when the culprit revealed herself thetimes.com/world/asia/arti…

I kept the bloody footprints for 26 years. Then my wife’s killer confessed

A Japanese widower paid more than £100,000 to keep his flat exactly how it was on the night of the murder. He was shocked when the culprit revealed herself

thetimes.com
98
tim_hornyak retweeted
Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸
@mrjeffu
6h
Video: Japanese fans celebrated their 2-2 tie against the Netherlands early this morning at Shibuya Crossing. After police started blowing whistles demanding that they stop blocking the road, they dispersed.

0:40
23
138
1,342
84,571
Prices for thousands of foods have gone up in Japan over the past year, but I'm always shocked by yaki-imo (roasted sweet potatoes). I remember one being 400 yen ($2.50)--now some street vendors in Tokyo are charging 1,200 yen to 2,000 yen ($7.50 to $12.50) a potato
2
8
824
tim_hornyak retweeted
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Jun 12
Farewell David Hockney...
6
38
211
7,594
Elon Musk Becomes the World’s First Trillionaire: “The fact is that wealth for some and wealth inequality is growing in dimensions that we’ve never seen before,” said Steven Durlauf of the University of Chicago. nytimes.com/2026/06/12/techn…

Elon Musk Becomes the World’s First Trillionaire

With SpaceX shares soaring 20 percent on their first day of trading, the world’s richest person crossed another milestone — one with 13 digits.

nytimes.com
125
tim_hornyak retweeted
Utkarsh Sharma
@techxutkarsh
Jun 12
If you have a Gmail account, you need to read this. Google's AI now scans your emails and attachments, bank statements, tax files, medical letters, all of it. It turned on by default, and there's a class-action lawsuit over how. Here are 5 moves to shut it off, the switch is hidden in two places:
360
14,684
46,310
8,277,999
Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Build a #Robot Without China: “If a company can make auto components, then probably it can also do humanoids" by @KeithBradsher nytimes.com/2026/06/11/busin…

Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Build a Robot Without China

Building on the country’s electric vehicle industry, Chinese companies are making robot parts at a scale and price point others can’t match.

nytimes.com
103
Could humanoid #robots be heading for the battlefield? "You get an impression of human-level capability by seeing the human form… but [these autonomous systems] don't know how to handle open-ended uncertainty yet." bbc.com/news/articles/cedpxw…

Could humanoid robots be heading for the battlefield?

Armed forces are experimenting with humanoid robots, but battlefield deployment is some way off.

bbc.com
1
117
tim_hornyak retweeted
The New York Times
@nytimes
Jun 12
Princess Bha, who was seen as a potential successor to the Thai throne, died after being in a coma for more than three years. nyti.ms/3S3Yl0b

Princess Bha of Thailand, Second in Line to the Throne, Dies at 47

Ever since she collapsed in a park three and a half years ago, speculation has swirled in Thailand about who could become the next monarch.

nytimes.com
50
183
468
156,969
tim_hornyak retweeted
Andy Sharp@sharp_writing2
Jun 11
A belated RIP to Yohei Kono. When I interviewed him 12 years ago, I really felt his gravitas. A very thoughtful man, who chose his words carefully. japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/0…

Atonement for World War II actions insufficient, LDP veteran Kono says

Japan has failed to atone sufficiently for its actions in World War II, former Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, who wrote Japan's official apology for the use of wartime 'comfort women, said recently.

japantimes.co.jp
3
19
2,828
tim_hornyak retweeted
Massimo
@Rainmaker1973
Jun 11
On June 30 1983, Korean broadcasting system launched a TV program aimed to reunite the Korean families following the Korean war. Originally planned with a duration of 95 minutes, it ran for a total of 453 hours uniting 10,000 families over its course.

1:02
11
92
936
50,592
tim_hornyak retweeted
AFP News Agency
@AFP
Jun 10
Salt: integral ingredient of sumo stars' art. Paris will be the setting next weekend for one of Japan's oldest martial art forms, sumo wrestling, but an unheralded star of the major two-day tournament will be 100% French: the 200 kilogrammes of customised Guerande salt ordered by organisers u.afp.com/SDFf
2
56
138
19,539
"Zebra Hamon" hand-filed aluminum ballpoint pen from Japan's Zebra Co. sells out despite price tag of 59,400 yen ($371). Most of the company's pens sell for under 200 yen asahi.com/ajw/articles/16627…

Tokyo company cites brisk sales of ballpoint pen for 60,000 yen | The Asahi Shimbun Asia & Japan...

A designer at writing instrument maker Zebra Co. earned his stripes with a ballpoint pen that carries a price tag of 59,400 yen ($371).

asahi.com
1
231
tim_hornyak retweeted
上田優紀 / 写真家
@nature_yukiueda
Jun 9
南極からの帰りの航海中に何百というイルカの大群と出会いました。 こんなにも美しい風景が世界には人知れず存在していることになにか救いのようなものを感じました。 世界で最も荒れる海、ドレーク海峡が信じられないほど穏やかだった日にほんの数分だけ出会った奇跡みたいな景色。
0:20
338
13,072
75,177
2,031,735
tim_hornyak retweeted
Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸
@mrjeffu
Jun 9
News video from ANN about Utsunomiya City's struggle to capture a wild bear, which caused the closure of over 90 schools while authorities chased down the animal and eventually shot it with a tranquilizer gun.

10:13
3
19
3,048
tim_hornyak retweeted
Akiyoshi Kitaoka
@AkiyoshiKitaoka
Jun 10
Differences in perceived speed
0:20
9
108
17,500
tim_hornyak retweeted
Weather Monitor
@WeatherMonitors
Jun 8
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake today, June 8, 2026, caused multiple building collapses and extensive damage in General Santos, Mindanao, Philippines.
0:49
168
2,084
4,187
2,900,776
tim_hornyak retweeted
Elizabeth Beattie@Eliz_Beattie
Jun 8
In April, restaurateur Manish Kumar closed the business he ran for 18 years — a casualty of changes to Japan's business manager visa. The future for him, his wife and two teenagers is now up in the air; their lives suddenly untethered @japantimes japantimes.co.jp/community/2…

Fear and uncertainty for foreign business owners after Japan revises rules

The life that restaurateur Manish Kumar built in Japan for he and his family has been upended after Japan enacted stricter rules for the business manager visa.

japantimes.co.jp
2
1
1
466
tim_hornyak retweeted
CNN
@CNN
Jun 8
Shoko Kawata, the 35-year-old mayor of Yawata city in Kyoto Prefecture, has announced she’ll be taking maternity leave around the coming birth of her child, putting herself at the forefront of a national debate and exposing a glaring gap in Japan’s historically patriarchal labor and political systems. cnn.it/3Qv8LFz
172
1,367
6,427
913,611
tim_hornyak retweeted
Steve Herman
@newsguyusa
Jun 8
Hazardous tsunami possible along coasts of Indonesia, Philippines, Palau, Yap, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea - PTWC tsunami.gov/events/PHEB/2026… ift.tt/dZOlqCU
4
4
1,265
Load more