Saturday, December 12, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center
You Have Zero Privacy Anyway -- Get Over It
This is an excerpt from the article... (My comments follow.)
You Have Zero Privacy Anyway -- Get Over It
posted by David Adams on Fri 11th Dec 2009 01:25 UTC
[Google CEO Eric ] Schmidt said: "I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities."I think the portion of that statement that's sparked the most outrage is the "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" part. That's a colossally boneheaded thing to say, and I'll bet Schmidt lives to regret being so glib, if he didn't regret it within minutes of it leaving his mouth. As many people have pointed out, there are a lot of things you could be doing or thinking about that you don't want other people to be watching or to know about, and that are not the least bit inappropriate for you to be doing, such as using the toilet, trying to figure out how to cure your hemorrhoids, or singing Miley Cyrus songs in the shower.
Schmidt's quote deserves a variation on the Fortune Cookie treatment - adding "on line" to the end of the "colossally boneheaded thing to say". Schmidt is absolutely right to suggest that "...maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" + "on line". Conversely David Adams' argument that "there are lots of things you could be doing" might well be treated in a similar fashion...
- "...using the toilet" + "on line" ??? (I say that if this is your personal practice then your judgement is questionable to begin with.)
- "...how to cure your hemorrohoids" + "on line" ??? (Shouldn't you be discussing this with your doctor - a conversation that is protected by Doctor-Patient confidentiality?)
- "..singing Miley Cyrus songs in the shower" + "on line" ??? (See my first point.)
Oh come on, say it ain't so...
Blackwater tied to clandestine CIA raids
from Wash Post Politics by R. Jeffrey Smith and Joby Warrick
Highly trained personnel employed with the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide sometimes operated side by side with CIA field officers in Iraq and Afghanistan as the agency undertook missions to kill or capture members of insurgent groups in those countries, according to ...Who would you expect? The Salvation Army and the Village People? Now let me see, how do you spell "naive"?
Average person consumes 34GB of data daily
| Average person consumes 34GB of data daily | |
| The average person is exposed to some 34GB of electronic data every day, according to a recent study. Researchers at the University of California San Diego said that a recent survey of Americans showed that the consumers in the US on average look at some 3.4 zettabytes (3,400 trillion gigabytes) of digital information each year. The study added digital information consumed through television, computer, radio and recorded audio that each person observes. The intake, however, may not be as evenly spread out as the 34GB per person figure would suggest. While researchers note that users are spending more time absorbing electronic information, much of the massive data load was attributed to richer, more dense digital data sources. The overwhelming majority of the data load came from intake of data from computer games, movies and television. Gaming in particular accounted for 54% of all data intake, with high-end PC gaming alone accounting for 38.56% of the total. Researchers suggested that the recent leaps in graphics and processing power in high performance gaming is causing a smaller percentage of the population to consume a massive amount of digital information in the form of richer, more detailed 3D imagery. | |
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
Human Rights Day 2009
Human Rights Day 2009 on 10 December will focus on ending discrimination, which will also be a thematic focus of the UN human rights office throughout 2010.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
The Difference Between...
The difference between the right word and almost the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug.
–Mark Twain
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Chet Baker was RIPPED OFF!!!
Chet Baker was a leading jazz musician in the 1950s, playing trumpet and providing vocals. Baker died in 1988, yet he is about to add a new claim to fame as the lead plaintiff in possibly the largest copyright infringement case in Canadian history. His estate, which still owns the copyright in more than 50 of his works, is part of a massive class-action lawsuit that has been underway for the past year.
The infringer has effectively already admitted owing at least $50 million and the full claim could exceed $60 billion. If the dollars don't shock, the target of the lawsuit undoubtedly will: The defendants in the case are Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada, the four primary members of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.
The CRIA members were hit with the lawsuit in October 2008 after artists decided to turn to the courts following decades of frustration with the rampant infringement (I am adviser to the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, which is co-counsel, but have had no involvement in the case).
The claims arise from a longstanding practice of the recording industry in Canada, described in the lawsuit as "exploit now, pay later if at all." It involves the use of works that are often included in compilation CDs (ie. the top dance tracks of 2009) or live recordings. The record labels create, press, distribute and sell the CDs, but do not obtain the necessary copyright licences.
The Five Spirits of Budo
Shoshin: (初心) Beginners Mind
Zanshin: (残心) Lingering Mind
Mushin: (無心) No Mind
Fudoshin: (不動心) Immovable Mind
Senshin: (先心) Purified spirit; enlightened attitude
Monday, December 07, 2009
His mother will be so proud...
British Singer Jay Sean Makes U.S. Music History
British singer Jay Sean is topping the U.S. charts with his dong "Down." He is the first Anglo-Asian singer to have a No. 1 single in the U.S. Sean is a Punjabi-Sikh who gave up studying medicine to become a singer. Sean is from Britain and his ancestors are from India. Sometimes you hear that Indian influence in his songs.
“Maybe Journalism” or Why News Organizations Are Tanking
Source:Newspapers, too, play the fly-on-the-wall game. Consider what the Times itself did today.
The “Maybe Journalism” piece runs at the bottom of the front page, while at the top is a long story about how President Obama, after long consultations with advisors, reached his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan. The story is based, says the reporter, on “dozens of interviews with participants as well as a review of notes some of them took during Mr. Obama’s 10 meetings with his national security team. Most of those interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, but their accounts have been matched against those of other participants wherever possible.”
We readers are still being asked to trust the word of people who violated the confidentiality of the White House Situation Room and other internal deliberations. I tend to believe the overall thrust of the story — that Obama and his team struggled mightily with this decision — but I don’t have any faith in most of the particulars, including the anonymously sourced direct quotes of the president and others in the deliberations.
Why is this not, in the words of the story about the Hong Kong animators, “depicting events that no journalist actually witnessed — and that may not have even occurred”?
Tabloid Journalism’s Future? Or Just an Extension of the Present?
Posted by Dan Gillmor in Accuracy, Trust I know the difference between accurate reporting and "Maybe Journalism". I have written many an official report that I knew would potentially be called as evidence in a legal proceeding. I know that such reports are incredibly dull - primarily because they only contain the facts as I know them. They do not contain any presumptions. (e.g. I observed that the Furrier's store window was broken. I observed that the subject was holding a fur coat. I observed that the bank display showed +86 degrees F.) My accounting of this, albeit fictional, circumstance will not sell any "News" - it is dull. It does however tell the truth of the situation. Journalism has become more about selling the "News" than reporting it.Sunday, December 06, 2009
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Bess Lomax Hawes, Musical Folklorist, Dies : NPR
Bess Lomax Hawes, Musical Folklorist, Dies : NPR
Bess Lomax Hawes, Musical Folklorist, Dies
by David Gura
Enlarge Lisa Berg/National Endowment for the Arts
Bess Lomax Hawes sought to preserve folk arts as a musician, a teacher and an administrator.
Lisa Berg/National Endowment for the Arts
Bess Lomax Hawes sought to preserve folk arts as a musician, a teacher and an administrator.
December 5, 2009 - Bess Lomax Hawes, a folklorist, musician and teacher, has died. In the 1970s, as the head of the folk arts program at the National Endowment for the Arts, she increased federal funding for traditional music and folk arts across the United States.
Hawes was part of a folk dynasty. Her father, John Lomax, traveled across the American South, collecting traditional music. Her brother, Alan Lomax, made thousands of recordings in the United States and abroad.
Folklore was the Lomax family business, and Hawes followed in their footsteps. But she did not live in their shadow, according to Bill Ivey, who worked with Hawes at the NEA.
"Despite their importance, I think in some ways, Bess may be the most influential of all the Lomaxes," Ivey says.
Sichuan, China
Friday, December 04, 2009
Baloney Detection
At the heart of science is an essential tension between two seemingly
contradictory attitudes -- an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre
or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny
of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep
nonsense. Of course, scientists make mistakes in trying to understand the
world, but there is a built-in error-correcting mechanism: The collective
enterprise of creative thinking and skeptical thinking together keeps the
field on track.
-- Carl Sagan, "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection"
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Researchers demonstrate a better way for computers to 'see'
Researchers demonstrate a better way for computers to 'see'
Researchers demonstrate a better way for computers to 'see'
Combining screening techniques from molecular biology with high-performance gaming hardware advances the building and understanding of visual systems
Cambridge, Mass–December 1, 2009–Taking inspiration from genetic screening techniques, researchers from Harvard and MIT have demonstrated a way to build better artificial visual systems with the help of low-cost, high-performance gaming hardware.
The neural processing involved in visually recognizing even the simplest object in a natural environment is profound—and profoundly difficult to mimic. Neuroscientists have made broad advances in understanding the visual system, but much of the inner workings of biologically-based systems remain a mystery.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Some of the gestures cannot be disclosed...
ROME — A robotic hand has been successfully connected to an amputee, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial limb and control it with his thoughts, a group of European scientists said Wednesday.
The experiment lasted a month, and the scientists say it was the first time a patient has been able to make complex movements using his mind to control a biomechanic hand connected to his nervous system.
The Italian-led team said at a news conference Wednesday in Rome that last year it implanted electrodes into the arm of the patient who had lost his left hand and forearm in a car accident.
The prosthetic was not implanted on the patient, only connected through the electrodes. During the news conference, video was shown of 26-year-old Pierpaolo Petruzziello as he concentrated to give orders to the hand placed next to him.
"It's a matter of mind, of concentration," Petruzziello said. "When you think of it as your hand and forearm, it all becomes easier."
During the month he had the electrodes connected, Petruzziello learned to wiggle the robotic fingers independently, make a fist, grab objects and make other movements.
"Some of the gestures cannot be disclosed because they were quite vulgar," joked Paolo Maria Rossini, a neurologist who led the team working at Rome's "Campus Bio-Medico," a university and hospital that specialize in health sciences.
The euro2 million ($3 million) project, funded by the European Union, took five years to complete and produced several scientific papers that have been published or are being submitted to top journals, including Science Translational Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rossini said.
Experts not involved in the study told The Associated Press the experiment was an important step forward in creating an interface between the nervous system and prosthetic limbs, but the challenge now is ensuring that such a system can remain in the patient for years and not just a month.
A Microbot Shows off its Soccer Skills
A Microbot Shows off its Soccer Skills
A machine no bigger than a fruit fly's eye successfully scores a goal.
Tiny "robots" that could perhaps someday help doctors examine organs, deliver drugs directly, or even perform microsurgery. But first researchers need to find reliable and accurate ways to control microscopic devices, which of course have little room for onboard power, sensors or propulsion.
Scientists have previously used methods including magnetic and electrostatic forces, and attaching live bacteria. In the latest issue of the International Journal of Robotics Research, researchers from ETH Zurich demonstrate particularly deft control of a microbot, dubbed MagMite.
MagMite, pictured above, is 300 micrometers by 300 micrometers (with a thickness of 70 micrometers). It consists of two magnetized components, connected by a tiny spring. In the presence of a magnetic field, the two pieces try to bend toward each other, storing that tension in the connecting spring. By turning the magnetic field on and off very quickly, the researchers can use the loaded spring to propel the microbot forward, and by changing the direction of the magnetic field the microbot will turn.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
When all you have ...
When all you have is a Military Industrial Complex then every resolution looks like a war. Again!
Afghanistan = Vietnam (Why! Why? Why...)Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Coke Can with NO paints or dyes.
Designer Harc Lee has created a “naked” Coca Cola can that forfeits Coke’s typical bold red and white stripes in favor of au naturale silver. The aluminum can is created without using any paints or dyes, and stands to greatly reduce pollution and energy use associated with producing and recycling soda cans.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Content please and Provider thank-you
I think it is outstanding that Microsoft is developing "Live" apps to run in the Google Chrome OS environment. I particularly enjoy the irony of Microsoft being 'blind-sided' by this new technology ... until I reflect on the new "Papa" rule: "It is not the content it is the provider."
My insight is born of my current effort to bring a working model of SharePoint 2010 Beta into fruition. Most notable is the instant integration into my Active Directory (AD) domain. From the first sign-on SharePoint is appointed with an abundance of behind-the-scenes services. Features and functions that I will not have to programmatically implement - they are just in there. So, faced with the ease of development - where the content is the same regardless of the environment - why shouldn't I choose a 'provider' that affords me so many perks? Google may well field an excellent OS platform but in a business environment SharePoint will most likely be the provider of choice.Just my $0.02William Meloney---------------------------
Blog: http://pa-2.blogspot.com
Poetry: http://2voices.blogspot.com
Voice: 270-215-4275
Sent from Owensboro, KY, United States
End Violence Against Women
End Violence Against Women Around the World
from Global Voices Online by Juliana Rincón Parra
Today, November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and through videos, many people and organizations around the world are expressing their need to end the violence as well as the efforts they are undertaking to ensure that women have a safer world to live in.
words as violence must break SILENCE
When all you have are Generals...
When all you have is are Generals everything looks like a reason to send more troops.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
I really hate this damned machine...
I really hate this damned machine
I wish that they would sell it.
It never does quite what I want
But only what I tell it.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Bold Headline
Europe to Europe: WTF?
How Europeans are responding to their comically obscure new EU overlords.
Microsoft puts News Corp out of business?
Microsoft Paying Sites to De-list From Google?
Microsoft has reportedly asked News Corp to make good on its threat to de-list itself from Google and is offering the company an incentive to do so.
Personally I wouldn't be so quick to cut my own throat. I wonder what percentage of traffic (reads: REVENUE) for News Corp is generated via Google?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Climate change catastrophe took just months
Climate change catastrophe took just months
Jonathan Leake, Science Editor
Six months is all it took to flip Europe’s climate from warm and sunny into the last ice age, researchers have found.
They have discovered that the northern hemisphere was plunged into a big freeze 12,800 years ago by a sudden slowdown of the Gulf Stream that allowed ice to spread hundreds of miles southwards from the Arctic.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Widetronix
Dr. Michael Spencer, co-founder & chief scientist
Semiconductor materials growth & device design
Widetronix was founded by Mike and several colleagues to commercialize innovative semiconductor technologies evolving from research at his lab at Cornell University. As a professor and director of Cornell's Wide Bandgap Laboratory, he investigates novel semiconductor materials growth and device applications in silicon carbide, gallium nitride, and graphene. Mike received BS, MS, and a PhD from Cornell University and has over 100 peer reviewed publications.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Self perpetuating welfare state...
The Dead Zone: The Implicit Marginal Tax Rate
To say that antipoverty programs in the United States are perverted may be an understatement. When you take into account the loss of means-tested benefits (e.g., cash assistance, food stamps, housing subsidies, and health insurance), and the taxes that people pay on earned income, the return to working is essentially zero for those in the lower two quintiles of the income distribution.
For many of the working poor, the implicit marginal tax rate is greater than 100 percent. The long-run consequence of undermining the positive incentive to work is, of course, the creation of an underclass acclimated to not working; the supplement of cash and noncash benefits with income from crime and the underground economy; and the government resorting to negative incentives such as mandatory work programs.
Read more and see graphs HERE
--------------------------------------------
From the marginal tax rate link...
The marginal tax rate is the rate on the last dollar of income earned. This is very different from the average tax rate, which is the total tax paid as a percentage of total income earned. In 2003, for example, the United States imposed a 35 percent tax on every dollar of taxable income above $155,975 earned by a married taxpayer filing separately. But that tax bracket applied only to earnings above that $155,975 threshold; income below that cutoff point would still be taxed at rates of 10 percent on the first $7,000, 15 percent on the next $14,400, and so on. Depending on deductions, a taxpayer might pay a relatively modest average tax on total earnings, yet nonetheless face a 28–35 percent marginal tax on any activities that could push income higher—such as extra effort, education, entrepreneurship, or investment. Marginal decisions (such as extra effort or investment) depend mainly on marginal incentives (extra income, after taxes).
"To Obama" in Japanese
« Security theater goes mainstream | Main | More on US presidents as Japanese words »
"To Obama" in Japanese
19 Oct 2009 04:05 pm
Last week the NYT ran a story about how Barack Obama's version of spoken English has become a huge hit in Japan, emerging as the new standard for language-learning. This rings true to the fad/blockbuster nature of many commercial and cultural phenomena in Japan. And, we can all think of worse versions of English for them to emulate. (Carville? Stallone?)But I thought that this item from the Ampontan blog, written by a foreigner in Japan, was more fascinating. It is about the way the invented verb Obamu -- オバむ, "to Obama" -- has gained currency among some Japanese youths. Explanation:
"obamu: (v.) To ignore inexpedient and inconvenient facts or realities, think "Yes we can, Yes we can," and proceed with optimism using those facts as an inspiration (literally, as fuel). It is used to elicit success in a personal endeavor. One explanation holds that it is the opposite of kobamu. (拒む, which means to refuse, reject, or oppose).
Building Robot Hands
Building Robot Hands with Compliant Under-Actuated Fingers
November 15, 2009 by Travis Deyle
Building capable robot end effectors, particularly high-complexity hands, can be a daunting challenge. In this article, we will examine the fabrication of a robot hand with compliant, under-actuated fingers that is rugged enough to bounce back from twisting, end-on and side impacts, falls, collisions, and even severe back-bending. The specific fabrication process explored is akin to shape deposition manufacturing using materials such as resins (epoxy / Delrin) and urethanes (a "rubbery" substance) of various durometer (hardness). This particular technique was used to build early hand prototypes for MIT's Nexi (or MDS) robot from the Personal Robotics Group, and further refinements resulted in the Meka Robotics H2 Compliant Hands, as seen on the Simon robot. Read on for details and pictures -- this should be of interest to robotics hobbyists and professionals alike.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
If all you have...
If all you have are Generals then everything looks like a military conflict.
- Papa
Facebook-Game Scams Appear on Phone Bills - TIME
Facebook-Game Scams Appear on Phone Bills - TIME
Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?
By Belinda Luscombe Friday, Nov. 06, 2009
Facebook's FarmVille game
Facebook games — Mafia Wars, FarmVille, Restaurant City — have become surprisingly effective at diverting time wasters among the social-networking crowd. More than 63 million people alone play FarmVille. But now accusations have surfaced that the games can lead some more gullible players, including children, into Internet scams, especially if they have a cell phone.
Here's how it works. You join FarmVille, a game on Facebook in which you can create a virtual farm by growing crops and livestock and tilling the earth. Through your toil, you earn virtual money, but to farm more efficiently or quickly, you can also invest real cash (through PayPal or a credit card) to buy virtual goods, such as seed or a tractor. Should you not have any real cash to spare on things that after all do not actually exist, you can instead accept an offer from one of the advertisers on the game site and get virtual cash in return.
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