] But if these machines were ingenious, what shall we think
] of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage? What shall we
] think of an engine of wood and metal which can not only
] compute astronomical and navigation tables to any given
] extent, but render the exactitude of its operations
] mathematically certain through its power of correcting
] its possible errors? What shall we think of a machine
] which can not only accomplish all this, but actually
] print off its elaborate results, when obtained, without
] the slightest intervention of the intellect of man? It
] will, perhaps, be said, in reply, that a machine such as
] we have described is altogether above comparison with the
] Chess-Player of Maelzel.

Poe talks about the Mechanical Turk when it was demoed in Virgina. It's pretty cool to hear him extrapolate the abilities of Babbage's calculating machines from the abilities of the Turk. For some reason my mental impression of Babbage was kind of a 1800's version of Dr. Emmet Brown from Back to the Future. Smart, but generally viewed as a crank and crackpot by his peers. I am surprised that Poe knows of him, and his work.

Edgar Allen Poe's Account of the Mechanical Turk

] The Turk was a famous hoax which purported to be a
] chess-playing automaton first constructed and unveiled in
] 1769 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734-1804). It had the
] appearance of a maplewood cabinet 4 feet long by 2 feet
] deep and 3 feet high, with a mannequin dressed in cloak
] and turban seated behind it. The cabinet had doors that
] opened to reveal internal clockwork mechanisms, and when
] activated the mechanism appeared to be able to play a
] strong game of chess against a human opponent. It could
] also perform the knight's tour (a puzzle which requires
] the player to pass every square of a chess board once)
] with ease. However, the cabinet was a cleverly
] constructed illusion that allowed a man to hide inside
] and operate the mannequin.

Saw this off a link for a /. story. The URL is for the Wikipedia Story

The Mechanical Turk

First post so I can get a flavor of MemeStreams. And I thought this link, given the Holiday (and upcoming tax) season, was as generic and harmless as a recommendation could get. Cheers, -Pk

Charity Navigator... 'your guide to intelligent giving'

] Family Values
]
]
] Yesterday:
]
] Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from
] Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan.
]
] Last year, because of the enhanced the child tax
] credit, they received an extra $1,600 in their tax
] refund, Bush said. With other tax cuts in the bill, they
] saved $2,800 on their income taxes.
]
] They used the money to buy a wood-burning stove to
] more efficiently heat their home, made some home
] improvements and went on a vacation to Minnesota, the
] president said.
]
] "Next year, maybe they'll want to come to Texas,"
] Bush quipped.
]
] Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor,
] said the tax cuts also gave him additional money to use
] for health care.
]
] He said he supports Bush's values.
]
] "The American people are starting to see what kind of
] leader President Bush is. People know where he stands,"
] he said.
]
] "Where we are in this world, with not just the war on
] terror, but with the war with our culture that's going
] on, I think we need a man that is going to be in the
] White House like President Bush, that's going to stand by
] what he believes.
]
]
] and today...
]
] A Des Moines youth pastor is charged with the sexual
] exploitation of a child.
]
] KCCI learned that the married father of four recently
] turned himself in to Johnston police.
]
] Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of
] God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30.
] Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years.
]
] Police said he started an affair with a 17-year-old
] in the church youth group this spring.

[ This has nothing to do with Bush, in the sense that I'm not so unreasonable as to pin the Reverend's actions on anyone but himself. I bring it up to point out a contrast I see all too frequently between moralist statements, and actual behavior.

On the right, "culture war" is code for "homosexual agenda", it's built into that frame. Something tells me the threat to Rev. Hintz' marriage was not homosexuality, but Adultery. Adultery with a youth over whom he could assert control, and authority.

I don't think hypocracy is necessarily as horrible as many of my generation do, but when you get up on stage with the president and decry the state of our values, you better be pretty clean yourself. -k]

Thats so awesome.

Moral values... (from atrios)

] LOS ANGELES (AP) -- All too often, the ring of Debi
] Faris-Cifelli's cell phone means there is another
] abandoned newborn at the morgue, another forsaken child
] for her to name and bury in a shoebox-size coffin under a
] white cross in the California desert.
]
] The money could not come at a better time for
] Faris-Cifelli and her Garden of Angels, the tiny cemetery
] in the town of Calimesa where she has buried dozens of
] tiny children whose mothers didn't hear -- or didn't care
] -- about California's safe-haven law.
]
] Under the 2001 law, parents have three days to abandon
] infants without fear of prosecution. California is one of
] 46 states with such a law.
]
] Faris-Cifelli helped win passage of the law and has made
] it her life's work to spread the word that scared and
] confused parents should drop their newborns at firehouses
] and hospitals -- not in trash cans and alleys. She
] lobbies in states without such laws, talks to teens and
] police and has attended 12 trials of mothers accused of
] abandoning their infants. She also lays the dead to rest.

This story is really amazing. I had no idea that that kind of charity still existed or that there were laws like that in existence. The money certainly couldn't have gone to a more deserving person.

The cause, too, is worthwhile, however I can't help but wonder how much more/less effective a campaign for birth control methods (and NOT, thank you Bush, archaic abstinence) would be.

-janelane

CNN.com - Baby rescuer hits $27 million lottery - Dec 7, 2004

] The micro-claymore is a small device designed to deliver
] a short-ranged, dispersed payload from a concealed
] location. The mine is created from commonly available
] office materials.

Justice. Office Style Justice.

Office Bricolage: Micro-Claymore

Well, I guess it was worth it. I worked with a team of 4 people and in 6 weeks worked to wrote 14,791 line multiple player Real Time Strategy game in Java. The project was 20% of my final grade in the class, and we nailed it. Wiht all the bouns features we did (4 players, extra units, researching technologies, Battle.net-like hosting system, awesome graphics), we got 147 points out of a possible 100 points, and basically assured myself an A in the class.

UML is teh sux0r (sic).

Thats is how long I have been at GT. I haven't been home, I've hardly slept, and I've only been in 3 different buildings. I'm wear the clothes I put on Wednesday around noon. I've been too jittery to eat much of anything. I just saw the File server I'm franticly trying to upload my final tarball to hit a load of 23, as 300 Plus students hammer NFS/SSH.

Graduation, if only you were a semester sooner.

] James Tobin, 44, of Bangor, Maine, the former regional
] director of the Republican National Committee in New
] England, faces charges of conspiracy to commit telephone
] harassment and aiding and abetting telephone harassment.
] He face a jail sentence of up to five years if convicted.
]
] Tobin allegedly took part in a conspiracy to jam five
] telephone numbers run by the New Hampshire Democratic
] Party, and one associated with a local Professional
] Firefighters Association, in an attempt to stop
] opponents' "get-out-the-vote" efforts. More than 800
] hang-up calls jammed the phone lines for about 90 minutes
] on election day, AP reports.

Wait. Didn't I see this in a 80s movie where some kids used a ?keyboard? to autodial a radiostation to get concert tickets for somekind of save the Homeless/Whales/Africa benefit? You know, the one with the chick who had the legs and the hair, and the annoying kid who said something corny and the movie closes with everyone
laughing?

Man how the the 80s did rule.

Senior Republican charged in phone jamming plot

] This photo is of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
] taken every 15 minutes (if a relay satellite is available
] for transmission) from the roof of the Atmospheric
] Research Observatory which houses NOAA/CMDL's Clean Air
] Facility. In order to preserve the life of the camera, it
] is tilted down onto the snow when the sun is in the field
] of view, which occurs for several weeks around sunset
] (March) and sunrise (September) when the sun marches in a
] circle above the horizon. From mid-April until mid-August
] the moon and the aurora australis provide the only
] natural lighting.
]
] The new station, presently under construction, can be
] seen to the right in the photo; the old (circa 1973)
] domed station is to the left. The new station is elevated
] above the snow to prevent it being buried by the drifting
] snow (the present fate of the old domed station). When
] the new station is finished in about 2006, the old dome
] and buildings inside will be removed. The new galley
] (with windows!) is now being used for meals. The
] cylindrical object at the end of the station, fondly
] called the "beer can," is the entrance to the station.

Telecommunications is so damn cool.

South Pole Live Camera