] Perceptual user interfaces are the systems that use
] user's motion, such as the motion of the face, to
] control a program. These systems have applications in
] industry for disabled, immersive environments, security,
] video-conferencing etc. For these systems to be
] operational, they have to be able to track human faces
] both robustly and precisely.
]
] Unlike rigid bodies, faces do not have rigid features,
] which makes conventional feature tracking techniques,
] such as used in AR project, unsuitable. NouseTM, which
] stands for "Nose as Mouse" and is pronounced
] ['naus], is the CVG developed concept that yielded a
] solution to this previously unresolved problem. It is
] based on tracking the so-called convex-shape nose
] feature, which is the point on the nose closest to the
] camera. Thus defined nose feature is rotation and scale
] invariant, it is seen at all times regardless of the face
] orientation, and makes it possible to operate with the
] nose as with a mouse or a joystick. A few applications,
] such as NousePaint, multiple-user NousePong and an
] aim-n-shoot BubbleFrenzy game, have been developed to
] show the power of the technology.

I'm going to have to give this a try at home.

Nouse

] Kelley's insightful window on the details of the war
] brought him increasing readership (118,000 page views on
] a recent day) and acclaim, including interviews in the
] The New York Times and on NBC's Nightly News, Newsweek
] Online and National Public Radio.
]
] The only problem: Much of his material was plagiarized --
] lifted word-for-word from a paid news service put out by
] Austin, Texas, commercial intelligence company Stratfor.

Wired News: Noted War Blogger Cops to Copying

] U.S. forces near Baghdad found a weapons cache of around
] 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical
] weapons, the U.S. news station National Public Radio
] reported on Monday.
]
] NPR, which attributed the report to a top official with
] the 1st Marine Division, said the rockets, BM-21
] missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and
] were "ready to fire." It quoted the source as saying new
] U.S. intelligence data showed the chemicals were "not
] just trace elements."

Report: U.S. Finds Missiles with Chemical Weapons (washingtonpost.com)

What if Fox News reported various famous moments in history. Mildy entertaining, and bi-partisan!

Fark vs. Fox News

Superb online map collection. This particular link focuses on detailed maps of Iraq and Baghdad, but the site contains maps of many other areas as well.

This page is also maintaining links to many other online maps of the battlefields, including the interactive Flash maps provided by various news organizations. Great one-stop-shopping for maps!

UT Library Online - Perry-Castañeda Map Collection - Iraq Maps

] In the case of physical property, we take it for granted
] that the ownership right should have the potential of
] persisting as long as the physical object itself. In the
] case of an idea, however, we have chosen to strike a
] different balance in recognition of the chaos that could
] follow from having to trace back all the thoughts
] implicit in one's current undertaking and pay a royalty
] to the originator of each one. So rather than adopting
] that obviously principled but unworkable approach, we
] have chosen instead to follow the lead of British common
] law and place time limits on intellectual property
] rights.

I'm rerecommending this. I've read it now. Greenspan explains the changing nature of the situation just as I have in the past, and this talk offers itself as a good reference for such an explanation, as people usually don't want to take my word for it. :)

Intellectual Property is broken. You heard it here from the guy that runs the economy. So don't tell me I'm being silly.

Of course, Greenspans perspective on how to fix it is probably 180 degrees from mine.

FRB: Speech, Greenspan-Market economies--April 4, 2003

Hijexx wrote:

] I am so goddamn sick of people tying 9/11 to this
] ill-conceived conquest in the Middle East. The current
] leaders don't give a shit about our security. They still
] cooperate with terrorists and nations that fund them if it
] serves US interests.
]
] There is a strong case for showing the Bush administration's
] complicity in the 9/11 attacks. For example, look at our
] relationship with Pakistan. We turned a blind eye to their
] DIRECT FUNDING of Mohammed Atta. Any effective investigation
] of 9/11 has been shelved. More background:
]
] http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html
]
] There are still plenty of unanswered questions. Rather than
] actually investigate and try to root out the base of
] operations for the 9/11 terrorists, we're conquering Iraq.
] Figure that one out.

You're right. There's no question that there's blood on Washington's hands too. And the US will continue to use the 'stick and carrot' method of diplomacy around the world. But that doesn't change our agenda and certainly not our strategy. Even when the 'war' is 'over', there will still people that hate us (more even), but they will be at our disposal.

I think the article that Tom posted is dead on in terms of tactical cues, but it's too narrow in its scope. It's not just Al Qaeda we're at war with. It's any force that is opposed to the peace and security obtained from the US's perspective of being the singular superpower. So that includes any organization, not just states, that seek to disrupt or otherwise marginalize our power on the globe. The list of which, might end up being surprising.

So with that in mind, I don't think that the full motivation behind invading Iraq is necessarily to undermine Al Q. It's more a convenience factor for the US. It solves several objectives:

o Eliminate Saddam Hussein and his regime. For obvious reasons.
o Open up the most progressive Arabic state to be a friendly ally with the US/UK. This bodes well financially as well as politically.
o Utilize our new found democratic and liberated friend, Iraq, as the cultural, financial, political, and influential base to spread across the Arabic/Islamic world. This is essentially what the Soviets tried to do, but failed in that they never had the opportunity to truly control a government in this way.
o Utilize the display of our military force as an example of what might befall anyone else who we deem 'against us'.
o Give American's the second dose of 'we feel good about ourselves because we just kicked so much ass.' This will help the economy, spread some peace and security around the country, and boost the current administration's popularity numbers.

So I agree with the article that this is definitely a component of a much larger operation. The ultimate goal of this operation is to relatively squelch the power and inf... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

RE: War. Still a Good Idea.

] Cape Town - A young hockey player and part-time waitress
] used her hockey stick on a would-be burglar and nearly
] beat him to a pulp on Thursday morning.
]
] Shortly after the attempted robbery, Leigh Fourie, 18,
] said she was terrified when she pounced on the would-be
] burglar. She threatened him, called him names and hit him
] with the hockey stick.
]
] Fourie said she woke up in her parents' home in Strand
] about 09:15. Her mother, Evelyn Fourie, had already gone
] to work in Stellenbosch.
]
] "I was drinking a milkshake in the lounge when I heard
] glass breaking. Someone was trying to break into my
] mother's bedroom next door. I crept to my bedroom, closed
] the door and 'phoned my mother, who told me to go outside
] and call the neighbours."
]
] Fourie said she decided to use her hockey stick instead
] because shouting wasn't going to help. Nobody would have
] heard her above the wind. "I ran down the corridor
] shouting, rushing towards the man who had in the meantime
] entered the lounge. "I waved my hockey stick in the air
] and started hitting him on his head, neck, arms -
] wherever I could land a shot. He tried to get away and
] pulled a knife from his pocket, but I told him he should
] put it away, because the police were outside."
]
] Fourie said the

Girl beats up burglar

] BATTLE CREEK, Mich. -- Bill Post knew that he had a hit
] on his hands when his children kept asking him to bring
] home some more of those fruit scones from work.
]
] It was September 1963 when Post, then the manager of a
] Keebler Food Co. plant in Grand Rapids, was approached by
] Kellogg Co. to help the Battle Creek cereal giant develop
] a breakfast food for the toaster.
]
] When Post took home some early examples of what the two
] companies were jointly developing, he found that his
] children loved fixing and eating the flat, fruit-filled
] pastries.
]
] "I used to bring a lot of stuff home -- samples you'd run
] -- and they'd turn up their noses, they didn't like this
] or that," Post recalls. "But they used to ask me, ãBring
] those fruit scones home.' That's what we called them at
] first, internally. Fruit scones. ãBring some of those
] home, will you, Dad?"'
]
] Pop-Tarts were born.

Long live pop-tarts!

Kellogg's popular, pioneering Pop-Tarts turn 40 this year - 04/05/03

] However rhetorical it's become, the following is no less
] true: The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks forced the
] United States to change the way it responds to external
] threats. For a very long time, Americans were content to
] believe that this nation's sheer size and distance from
] global hot spots sheltered us from terrorism. In the face
] of a billion tons of ash and human carnage, it became
] clear that we're as vulnerable as anyone else.

this piece has definitely got me thinking in a slightly different direction.

War. Still a Good Idea.