"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
Armed autonomous robots cause concern - tech - 07 July 2007 - New Scientist Tech
Topic: Technology
12:57 pm EDT, Jul 9, 2007
A MOVE to arm police robots with stun guns has been condemned by weapons researchers.
On 28 June, Taser International of Arizona announced plans to equip robots with stun guns. The US military already uses PackBot, made by iRobot of Massachusetts, to carry lethal weapons, but the new stun-capable robots could be used against civilians.
"The victim would have to receive shocks for longer, or repeatedly, to give police time to reach the scene and restrain them, which carries greater risk to their health," warns non-lethal weapons researcher Neil Davison, of the University of Bradford, UK.
"If someone is severely punished by an autonomous robot, who are you going to take to a tribunal?" asks Steve Wright, a security expert at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.
The Robotarium X at Jardim Central, Alverca (Vila Franca de Xira), Portugal, is the first of its kind in the world.
Conceived for a public garden it is constituted by a large glass structure containing 45 robots, most powered by photovoltaic energy and a few plugged to the ceiling or to the ground.
The robots are all original, created specifically for the project, representing 14 species classified by distinct behavior strategies and body morphologies. Obstacle avoidance, movement or sunlight detection and interaction with the public are some of the robots skills.
Robotarium X, the first zoo for artificial life, approaches robots very much in the way as we are used to look at natural life. We, humans, enjoy watching and studying other life forms behavior and, sadly, also to capture them. However, in this case, although the robots are confined to a cage it can be said that, not like animals, they enjoy it. In fact the Robotarium is their ideal environment with plenty of sun, smoothness, tranquility and attention. There are no fights or aggression and the only competition is to assure a place under the sunlight.
Robotarium X is also an art work of a new kind of art that realizes a critical questioning of knowledge and culture. Notions like nature, life, the artificial, machine, art, culture and science, are challenged by this display.
WASHINGTON -- In a victory for TV networks but a setback for efforts to shield children from coarse language, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that broadcasters cannot be penalized for expletives that are considered impromptu.
The three-judge panel in New York repudiated the Federal Communications Commission's recent crackdown on broadcast indecency, calling its efforts "arbitrary and capricious."
My gut reaction is that this will be overturned on appeal, but the ruling makes for VERY interesting reading if you are interested in broadcast free speech (still going through it). Also, the response from the FCC is hillarious.
One important point that is worth making is that this is NOT a reversal of the general rule regarding the use of indecent speech on the air.
Basically, it is not as simple as "you can't say fuck on the air" and it has never been that simple. (For example, can you explain the difference between profanity and indecency? The decision discusses this and its quite interesting.) Since 2003 the FCC has started enforcing a new prohibition on "off the cuff," isolated cursing that didn't exist before. This decision concerns that rule and has nothing to do with prohibitions on general indecency that have existed for decades.
Hari & Parker do Junior Big Brother. Hari and Parker are cute little toys that love to hang around. They watch and listen – and they look great in a child's bedroom. The cute characters are in fact the speculative instruments of a government campaign to promote and encourage children to commit subtle acts of domestic surveillance. Hari has a microphone ear and Parker a video-camera nose and fingerprint-scanner paw.
The Hari&Parker brand is instantly recognisable. Their reassuring faces can be found on toys,
"Better be nice to me, or I'll send you to guantanamo..."
Virtual Hallucinating Device Drives Police Insane for a Day
Topic: Technology
1:05 pm EDT, May 24, 2007
Being crazy is hard, but it's worth the effort. Especially if you're a cop, paramedic, or social worker who may someday need to deal with a person having a psychotic episode. At those times, empathy can be crucial.
That's where Virtual Hallucinations comes in. The training device, created by Janssen L.P., is a rig with earphones and goggles that plunges the wearer into the mind of a serious schizophrenic. The system offers two interactive scenarios. In one, you're riding a bus in which other riders appear and disappear, birds of prey claw at the windows, and voices hiss, "He's taking you back to the FBI!" The other features a trip to the drugstore, where the pharmacist seems to be handing you poison instead of pills, and hostile customers stare at you in disgust.
Existing home sales pace, prices fall again in March - Apr. 24, 2007
Topic: Miscellaneous
3:55 pm EDT, Apr 24, 2007
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home sales posted their sharpest drop in 18 years in March, a real estate group said Tuesday, as problems in the subprime mortgage sector pushed sales well below what economists had forecast.
In the winter of 2002, with the federal budget stretched thin, President George W. Bush asked Congress to give back money that lawmakers had earmarked for local projects so it could be used instead to fund the Pell grant program, which helps needy students pay for college. One of the local projects that had drawn particularly harsh scrutiny was a $273,000 federal grant that U.S. Rep. Sam Graves had procured to study goth culture in Blue Springs, Missouri. "It's one of those priorities that my constituents asked me to fight for," Graves told an Associated Press reporter at the time.
Ignorant conservative pork barrel bullshit. This is old news, but its worth a look.
