Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have crossed a robotic arm with the bottom half of a Segway to make a robot named Cardea that can traverse hallways and push open doors.
...
Cardea consists of the Segway base, sonar sensors that help in navigation, a pair of cameras that form a rudimentary vision system, and a single arm capable of five degrees of freedom -- two at the shoulder, one at the elbow, and two at the wrist. It also has a kickstand.

Technology Review: Segway Robot Opens Doors

] Like the Segway, Bombardier's Embrio concept--a prototype
] that may or may not make production--uses gyroscope
] technology to balance riders but adds a dash of flair
] absent in the Segway, which we as car nuts find slightly
] nerdy.

leet!!

Canadian Segway

] Now the Kansas reverend wants to put up a 6-foot-tall
] monument in Casper's Central Park that you can view here.
] A bronze plaque on the monument would read:
]
]
] Matthew Shepard Entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age
] 21 in Defiance of God's Warning: "Thou shalt not lie with
] mankind as with womankind; it is abomination." Leviticus
] 18:22

Every day I feel more justified in my distaste for stupid christian groups. How can you take a message such as that which Christ ostensibly stood for, and go so far awry?

Monument From Hell - Make room for a Matthew Shepard hate monument in a town square near you. By Emily Bazelon

] so today is veteran's day. a day that in the past has had
] little to no meaning for me (selfish twentysomething),
] despite the fact that both of my grandfathers were highly
] decorated servicemen. on a normal year, this is a day
] where i would drive up to a bank, post office, etc, and
] bitch and complain about this *unknown* federal holiday
] and wonder what was going on. today is a little
] different, however. more than likely due to hightened
] political involvement on my part due to howard dean's
] candidacy, this war (and it is still war, no matter what
] the president tells us) we have found ourselved in is
] beginning to shape and change our generation. i have a
] good friend, with whom I graduated at emory law, who is
] about to enter the army jag corp at the end of the year.
] never did i think that instead of practicing law, he will
] more than likely be handling a machine gun. but it took a
] posting on daily kos today, linking to an op-ed at the
] new york times, to really make me think about the
] significance of today. The article, found here, consists
] of a few short exerpts of final letters home from
] soldiers who have since been killed in the line of duty,
] in President Bush's war. please go and read those
] letters. and remember that people are getting killed--
] families destroyed. while these soldiers are pawns in
] Bush's plan (or lack thereof), we, as his challengers,
] should not simply hold up the statistics day in and day
] out as proof that we are right. we should remind everyone
] of the human cost of this terrible strategy, one that
] even Bush's father condemned.
]
]
] "And just a reminder-- Bush hasn't attended a single
] funeral. He doesn't have the balls to stand up to these
] grieving families and tell them his war was worth the
] sacrifice these families are paying." -- DailyKOS,
] November 11, 2003, writer is a veteran.

Go to supernicety.com for the links. Sorry, i didnt feel like reformatting it again.

the supernicety: veteran's day

] On 21 September 2002, The Memory Hole posted an extract
] from an essay by George Bush Sr. and Brent Scowcroft, in
] which they explain why they didn't have the military push
] into Iraq and topple Saddam during Gulf War 1. Although
] there are differences between the Iraq situations in 1991
] and 2002-3, Bush's key points apply to both.
]
] But a funny thing happened. Fairly recently, Time pulled
] the essay off of their site.

The Memory Hole: Reasons Not to Invade Iraq, by George Bush Sr.

Looks like all the pseudo-legitimate zines are wrapping up the year's cool techmology... here's popsci's take.

Popular Science | Best of What's New 2003

PhreakNIC, for those of you raised by wolves, is an annual technology and culture exhibition (the kinder, gentler name for "Hacker Convention") in Nashville, TN. This year's event is all over, except for a few blood tests that we're still awaiting results on, but if you missed it you can catch some of the events through the video feeds. Wilpig was nice enough to set up a recorder on ConTV, but unfortunately it crashed a couple of times. Some of the best attended talks were lost.

Seriously, just download the .avi files, as they are smaller (DiVX Format) and have been edited. The raw .wmv files are labeled based on the original schedule, not the actual execution of such schedule. For instance, the cable feed wasn't set up for the Welcome, so if you download it you'll be cursing at the fact that you have an hour of Nashville Tourism commercials.

Videos from PhreakNIC 7 Online

interesting physics, if light on details.

Scientist opens gate to new elements

] Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Wednesday protested the
] U.S. treatment of a Canadian citizen who was detained in
] New York and deported to Syria last year on suspicion of
] having links to terrorists.

Overzealous officials had an (apparently innocent) Canadian man deported to Syria, where he was tortured for 10 months, because another man suspected of being connected to Al'Q co-signed a rental lease with him in 1997. This person is a Canadian citizen. I cannot comprehend why the U.S. Government felt it was more appropriate to turn him over to Syria, a state that is one of the U.S.'s declared enemies, then Canada, a trusted ally. All of the motives that I can imagine are inappropriate. If you prefer to send suspects to countries that don't have civil liberties and due process then you basically don't support civil liberties and due process. If that is the case you shouldn't be working in the United States Government.

(BTW, the British press used the word "condemns" where the Post says "protests." Chretien's exact words were "unacceptable and deplorable.")

Chretien Protests Deportation of Canadian (washingtonpost.com)

] Intravenous doses of a synthetic component of "good"
] cholesterol reduced artery disease in just six weeks in a
] small study with startlingly big implications for
] treating the nation's No. 1 killer.
]
] "The concept is sort of liquid Drano for the coronary
] arteries," said Dr. Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic
] cardiologist who led the study.
]
] Larger and longer studies need to be done to determine if
] the experimental treatment will translate into fewer
] deaths, but the early results are promising, said Dr.
] Daniel Rader, director of preventive cardiology at the
] University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
]
] The treatment used a laboratory-produced version of an
] unusually effective form of HDL, the good cholesterol
] that helps protect against heart disease by removing
] plaque, or fatty buildups, from the bloodstream.
]
] "This is clearly on the level of a breakthrough that will
] have far-reaching implications," pointing the way toward
] a rapid treatment for fatty buildups, said Dr. Bryan
] Brewer, chief of molecular diseases at the National
] Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Kick ass!

[Science is soooooo rad sometimes. Now, who wants to go grab some burgers and fries?;) - Nano]

New treatment works like 'liquid Drano for arteries'