HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Peace within your heart
Love from family and friends
Faith to guide your way
Hope to to make it through each day
Sunshine to light the day
Heavenly Stars to wish upon
Rainbows to to let you know there is a tomorrow
A tear to show compassion
A heart to hold the love
But most of all I wish for you
to feel my hand in yours,
To know I am here if you stumble or fall.
To bring you cheer, to bring you love,
to return the love you always share with me.
AND
Perhaps a bit wiser,
a bit kinder, too,
a little bit braver,
a heart that's more true,
a touch of believing
I've not known before,
in joys I'm receiving
a little bit more.

A little more anxious
to reach out my hand,
despite hurt or problems
to still understand,
accepting the heartache
that life often brings,
a little more beauty
in life's simple things.

A prayer when I'm weary
as onward I trod,
a little more trusting,
believing in God,
'tis this I would wish for
within moments dear,
not a lot - just a little
this wondrous new year.

Cockroaches Offer Inspiration For Running Robots

Researchers at Oregon State University are using studies of guinea hens and other animals such as cockroaches to learn more about the mechanics of their running ability, with the goal of developing robots that can run easily over rough terrain. (Credit: Image courtesy of Oregon State University)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 29, 2009) — The sight of a cockroach scurrying for cover may be nauseating, but the insect is also a biological and engineering marvel, and is providing researchers at Oregon State University with what they call "bioinspiration" in a quest to build the world's first legged robot that is capable of running effortlessly over rough terrain.

Read more ....

Let It Snow!

Want a Taxi? In December 2006, that wish would have been quite difficult to fulfill in New York City as 26.9 inches of snow descended upon the Big Apple.
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The blizzard had a paralyzing effect on 14 Eastern states that year. Airports were shut down, flights were canceled and thousands of people were stranded near Christmastime.
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On a Thursday in January 1967, white crystalline flakes began to fall in Chicago before 6:00am. Snow had been predicted in the forecast, but no one foresaw a snowstorm that would last from early morning Thursday until after 10:00am on Friday - a 28-hour non-stop blizzard. By the time the snow stopped falling, 10 foot snowdrifts were commonplace, more than 50,000 cars had been abandoned and approximately two dozen people had been killed. Those old enough to remember the storm have indelible memories of the event.
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Last week, Washington, DC broke a one-day snowfall record with 16.4 inches. Although the blizzard took place on Friday and Saturday, most federal employees were given a 'snow day' on Monday due to the paralysis of the city's metro transit system.
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Of course, no city total can compare with the 1,140 inches recorded at Mount Baker, Washington in the winter of 1998-99. If you are planning to purchase a ski cabin in the Mountain West, Mount Baker may - or may not - be your best choice.
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Snowfall is a time of beauty, peace and reflection. It is an opportunity to pause and connect with our natural world. A little advice: leave your electronic communication device and enjoy the serenity of the moment. Let It Snow!
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(Picture - A NYC taxi cab in the blizzard of 2006)
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J Roquen

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays from Andy, Jenna, and Natalie!

The Computational Turn

The Computational Turn in Arts and Humanities

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY
9TH MARCH 2010

Organised by David M. Berry, Department of Political and Cultural Studies, Swansea University.
d.m.berry@swansea.ac.uk

Keynote: N. Katherine Hayles (Professor of Literature at Duke University)
Keynote: Other Invitees to be confirmed.

The application of new computational techniques and visualisation technologies in the Arts & Humanities are resulting in new approaches and methodologies for the study of traditional and new corpuses of Arts and Humanities materials. This new 'computational turn' takes the methods and techniques from computer science to create new ways of distant and close readings of texts (e.g. Moretti). This one-day workshop aims to discuss the implications and applications of what Lev Manovich has called 'Cultural Analytics' and the question of finding patterns using algorthmic techniques. Some of the most startling approaches transform understandings of texts by use of network analysis (e.g. graph theory), database/XML encodings (which flatten structures), or merely provide new quantitative techniques for looking at various media forms, such as media and film, and (re)presenting them visually, aurally or haptically. Within this field there are important debates about the contrast between narrative against database techniques, pattern-matching versus hermeneutic reading, and the statistical paradigm (using a sample) versus the data mining paradigm. Additionally, new forms of collaboration within the Arts and Humanities are emerging which use team-based approaches as opposed to the traditional lone-scholar. This requires the ability to create and manage modular Arts and Humanities research teams through the organisational structures provided by technology and digital communications (e.g. Big Humanities), together with techniques for collaborating in an interdisciplinary way with other disciplines such as computer science (e.g. hard interdisciplinarity versus soft interdisciplinarity).

Papers are encouraged in the following areas:

- Distant versus Close Reading
- Database Structure versus Argument
- Data mining/Text mining/Patterns
- Pattern as a new epistemological object
- Hermeneutics and the Data Stream
- Geospatial techniques
- Big Humanities
- Digital Humanities versus Traditional Humanities
- Tool Building
- Free Culture/Open Source Arts and Humanities
- Collaboration, Assemblages and Alliances
- Language and Code (software studies)
- Information visualization in Humanities
- Philosophical and theoretical reflections on the computational turn

Participation Requirements

Workshop participants are requested to submit a position paper (2000-5000 words) about the computational turn in Arts and Humanities, philosophical/theoretical reflections on the computational turn, research focus or research questions related to computational approaches, proposals for academic practice with algorithmic/visualisation techniques, proposals for new research methods with regard to Arts and Humanities or specific case studies (if applicable) and findings to date. Position papers will be published in a workshop PDF and website for discussion and some of the participants will be invited to present their paper at the workshop.

Deadline for Position papers: February 10, 2010
Submit papers to: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tct2010

Workshop funded by The Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict, Power, Empire, and The Research Institute in the Arts and Humanities (RIAH) at Swansea University.

References

Clement, Tanya E. (2008) ‘A thing not beginning and not ending’: using digital tools to distant-read Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans. Literary and Linguistic Computing. 23.3 (2008): 361.

Clement, Tanya, Steger, Sara, Unsworth, John, Uszkalo, Kirsten (2008) How Not to Read a Million Books. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/hownot2read.html

Council on Library and Information Resources and The National Endowment for the Humanities (2009) Working Together or Apart: Promoting the Next Generation of Digital Scholarship. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub145/pub145.pdf

Hayles, N. Katherine (2009) RFID: Human Agency and Meaning in Information-Intensive Environments. Theory, Culture and Society 26.2/3 (2009): 1-24.

Hayles, N. Katherine (2009) How We Think: The Transforming Power of Digital Technologies. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://hdl.handle.net/1853/27680

Kittler, Fredrich (1997) Literature, Media, Information Systems. London: Routledge.

Krakauer, David C. (2007) The Quest for Patterns in Meta-History. Santa Fe Institute Bulletin. Winter 2007. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.intelros.ru/pdf/SFI_Bulletin/Quest.pdf

Latour, Bruno (2007) Reassembling the Social. London: Oxford University Press.

Manovich, Lev (2002) The Language of New Media. MIT Press.

Manovich, Lev (2007) White paper: Cultural Analytics: Analysis and Visualizations of Large Cultural Data Sets, May 2007. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://softwarestudies.com/cultural_analytics/cultural_analytics_2008.doc

McLemee, Scott (2006) Literature to Infinity. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee193

Moretti, Franco (2005) Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History. London: Verso.

Robinson, Peter (2006) Electronic Textual Editing: The Canterbury Tales and other Medieval Texts. Electronic Textual Editing. Modern Language Association of America. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.tei-c.org/About/Archive_new/ETE/Preview/robinson.xml

Schreibman, Susan, Siemens, Ray & Unsworth, John (2007) A Companion to Digital Humanities. London: WileyBlackwell.

Super Strength Robot Suit


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Robotic Knee Helps Perfectly Healthy Runners Run Even Better

The Cyborg Leg It helps perfectly healthy runners run 30 percent more efficiently.
Tsukuba University


From Popular Science:

Attention cyborg wonks and lazy people: Japanese scientists at Tsukuba University have created a motorized knee that you can attach to your leg to increase your muscle power and running speed. The 11-pound kit's weight is shared by an exoskeleton-like attachment for your leg and a power source that's carried in a small backpack. But here's the best part: the device is not designed with any kind of rehabilitation or handicap-assisting function in mind; it's simply to make it easier for regular folks to run faster!

Read more ....

Not Quite Santa

If a red and white Christmas stocking cap were placed on the head of the gentleman to the left (the far left, politically), would he be transformed into Santa Claus? Not Quite.

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While the color red is often associated with him, however, the man in the picture will not likely be dropping off presents for you and your children next week.

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This is Karl Marx (1818-1883), and he is slowly but surely making a return after a nearly twenty-year absence after the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

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Most people know a few key facts about the life and works of Marx. First, he hated capitalism. In his view, capitalism was a crude and wholly unethical economic system whereby a small percentage of wealthy people (the holders of capital - perhaps 3% of the population) exploited the mass of workers (97%) for their own enrichment. In the 19th century, life indeed mirrored a Charles Dickens novel. Workers, including women and children, toiled 14-18 hours a day, 6 days a week in factories for a paltry sum of money. Meanwhile, they were often exposed to wretched working conditions. Disease and workplace injuries were common, and workers, of course, had no recourse to medical care or paid time off.

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Man's inhumanity to man enraged Marx, and a seething hatred for the capitalist system remained with him for nearly his entire life. In 1848, a little of his anger appeared in his best known publication, The Communist Manifesto, in which he famously declared, 'Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!' Marx also predicted the proletariat (the exploited mass of workers) would rise up, overthrow the capitalist order and usher in a more egalitarian society under communism. While his prediction would come true in certain parts of the world, Marx neither foresaw how his writings could be manipulated by dishonest leaders nor how capitalism could reform itself by erecting a welfare state.

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Considering the tragic aftermath of Russian and Chinese communist revolutions of 1917 and 1949 respectively, is Karl Marx still relevant to a discussion on our capitalist economic system in the 21st century? The answer is both 'Yes' and 'No'. In regard to The Communist Manifesto, it has been relegated to a piece of historical literature due to its propagandic thrust. Rather than a scholarly work, it was written in rhetorical flourishes with the hope of inciting revolutions across Europe. A significant portion of Marx's Das Kapital (Capital), which was his seminal contribution to economics and political economy, shall remain relevant for its key insights into the causes and effects of overproduction and the tendency for capital to become more concentrated over time (i.e. mergers). Many of his abstruse economic formulas and concepts in the text, however, have either been written off as recondite or simply not applicable to today's world of finance. Indeed, few actual Marxists have read Das Kapital due to its daunting length and formidable style.

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How then is Marx relevant to the year 2010?

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Rather than looking for answers from his later works, some of his most salient and timeless criticism of capitalism can be found in his earliest writings now known as (The) Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. While studying the French Revolution and the economic system of Europe in Paris between April and August 1844, Marx kept a notebook and constructed essays on capitalism from his research. He was all of 25 years-old, and his insights shed light on the unchangeable relationship between 'capital' (the owners of the means of production) and 'labor' (the workers or producers).

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In the following four passages from his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, his words speak to our economy and condition today.

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'Wages are determined by the fierce struggle between capitalist and worker. The capitalist inevitably wins. The capitalist can live longer without the worker than the worker can without him.'

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Last week, a British judge declared a strike by British Airways employees 'illegal'. How can a protest for a living wage and adequate benefits be 'illegal' in a so-called democracy based on the rights of free speech and assembly? In fact, there is little if any democracy in the workplace with regard to wage issues. Since the era of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, unions have largely disappeared as large businesses have successfully lobbied governments to weaken labor laws in order to pursue free trade policies across the globe. As a result, 'capitalists' have used their capital to expand their companies at record-setting paces and enrich themselves at the expense of their employees. Meanwhile, the working man cannot afford to strike for a better wage for fear of losing his or her job and being relegated to homelessness altogether.

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'The demand for men necessarily regulates the production of men, as of every other commodity. If the supply greatly exceeds the demand, then one section of the workers sinks into beggary or starvation. The existence of the worker is therefore reduced to the same condition as the existence of every other commodity.'

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Most of the college graduating class of 2009 in the United States still remains unable to find a job. Why? As Marx stated, the demand for labor is low in a time of underconsumption. To stimulate consumption, the US government has infused the economy with billions of dollars, yet it will be months before the mass numbers of unemployed in the states of Michigan and Ohio receive any benefit. More interestingly, Marx relates that workers are regarded as a mere commodity in the capitalist system. He is right. Clad in a business suit and armed with an updated CV, workers attempt to sell their labor in a market of cutthroat competition. Companies invariably look to hire the most skilled and energetic workers (i.e. usually under age 40) for the lowest salary possible in order to retain their profit margins for reinvestment. From Marx's insight, two questions must be posed? First, why do workers fail to see themselves as a dehumanized 'commodity' in the larger picture of capitalist economics? And secondly, what kind of society allows people to be treated on par with other commodities such as oil, sacks of rice or steel?

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'The worker does not necessarily gain when the capitalist gains, but he necessarily loses with him'

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This statement essentially sums up the core tendency of American capitalism. In the robust economy of the 1990s, Wall Street was awash in profits from speculative enterprises, risky and unregulated loans in the housing market and unsustainable corporate expansion. More jobs at greater wages were available, but corporations were the real winners. Record profits and obscene salaries to CEOs were the order of the day. When the bubble began to burst in 2006, many corporations successfully lobbied for a government bailout after years of excess. They retained their bonuses - despite running their businesses into the ground - while workers received a pink slip and a visit to the unemployment line.

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Even in good economic times, businesses aim to keep wages as low as possible to accumulate as much capital as possible for reinvestment. It should be noted that a business operates for the good of its investors (i.e. the shareholders) and not for its workers. When the stock price dips, shareholders immediately call for layoffs in order to make the company more 'efficient'. Why? Their monthly dividend checks are at stake. When a company pays generous wages to its employees, that is money out of the shareholder's pockets. Hence, the economic interests of the shareholder and the worker will always conflict, and the shareholder will always win.

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Instead of cooperation among men, the capitalist system pits man against man in a dehumanizing and uncivilized struggle for resources - precisely Marx's objection to the system.

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As soon as a recession appears, workers are the first to go as they 'necessarily lose with him (the capitalist).' In the capitalist system, remember, workers are no more than commodities, and they are thus expendable.

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'Let us now consider a society in which wealth is increasing... In the first place, the rise in wages leads to overwork among the workers. The more they want to earn the more they must sacrifice their time and freedom and work like slaves in the service of avarice. In doing so, they shorten their lives'

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Competition begets competition. Never before has entering a university or getting a job been as competitive as today. To support their children and their college-bound dreams, parents take as much overtime as possible or likely work a second and maybe even a third job just make ends meet and have a little money leftover. The result is an almost complete loss of personal time. Years and decades are defined by one reality - work, toil and an absence from their children's lives. Hence, taking time to watch their children grow up by attending a soccer game or a piano recital is out of the question. Parents simply cannot win. If they work less to spend more time at home, they will not be able to prepare their children for college and thus the hypercompetitive job market. If they work around the clock, they will be accused by their children of 'not being there'. In fact, parents do want to 'be there' for their children, but they are 'enslaved' by an economic system which affords neither free access to higher education nor to health care in the United States. In the process of toiling to remain afloat and relevant in their companies, these good people indeed live shorter lives in service not to 'avarice' as Marx stated but to their families.

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Of course, Marx was also was correct with regard to many being in 'the service of avarice' as well. A mid-level manager will have an endless supply of work in good economic times, and he or she will log many additional hours per week just to keep up and keep his or her job on a salary with no overtime pay. In short, the company gets rich and the workers get ever busier.

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Why Marx Is Not Radical

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New and old readers of Marx often claim that his critique of capitalism is 'radical'. Even these lines in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts seem 'radical' to many with references to 'exploitation' of workers by businesses. However, a reasonable person, who is not a Marxist but someone who can appreciate the contribution of Marx in our eternal debate on 'What is a just society?', may come to the opposite conclusion.

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Rather than Marx and his insights into the nature of capitalism being radical, are not the dark realities of capitalism radical?

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Is it not 'radical' for the richest 1% in the US to earn more than 70% of all income?

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Is it not 'radical' for at least 12.7% of Americans to live below the poverty line in the richest country in the world?

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Is it not 'radical' for tens of millions of people to live without reasonable access to higher education or health care in the wealthiest society in human history?

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Is it not 'radical' to live in the most prosperous nation on the planet and at the same time 1 in every 8 adults and 1 of every 4 children are on food stamps nationwide in the US?

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Is it not 'radical' that tens of millions are unemployed and without any immediate hope and tens of millions more are working harder than ever - with no prospect of a raise - and praying their job does not disappear in the worst recession (actually depression) since 1929?

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Until these contradictions are resolved by new policies that promote the welfare of people over profit, Karl Marx will remain relevant.

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(Photo: Karl Marx - sans a red and white Christmas stocking cap)

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J Roquen

Computers Offer A Faster Way To Cure Humanity's Ills


From The Guardian:

Scientific research and medical breakthroughs increasingly depend on huge computer power.

HOW DO YOU predict whether a given patient is likely to die from a heart attack? Conventional medical wisdom would base a risk assessment on factors such as the person's age, whether they were smokers and/or diabetic plus the results of cardiac ultrasound and various blood tests. It may be that a better predictor is a computer program that analyses the patient's electrocardiogram looking for subtle features within the data provided by the instrument.

Read more ....

Rethinking Artificial Intelligence

From R&D:

The field of artificial-intelligence research (AI), founded more than 50 years ago, seems to many researchers to have spent much of that time wandering in the wilderness, swapping hugely ambitious goals for a relatively modest set of actual accomplishments. Now, some of the pioneers of the field, joined by later generations of thinkers, are gearing up for a massive “do-over” of the whole idea.

Read more ....

Foof


Newborn Pygmy Goat, originally uploaded by Couppas

Natalie's word for "dog" is "woof" but since the "w" sound is hard, it comes out more like "foof." She is very excited about foofs. Whenever she sees one she starts to point and smile. Sometimes she says "foof, foof, foof!" and other times she is thrilled into silent admiration.

Her concepts are still very broad so everything that looks vaguely like a dog is included in the foof category. Basically any four-legged animal is a foof. Although our dog Lola is a special case who is sometimes called by her real name ("aao-ah").

But so anyway this is all just to say that my daughter has started to call me "mama."

Davy Jones's Lock-Up


From The Economist:

Underwater robots can help study the world’s shipwrecks, a trove of information about the past, more easily and cheaply.

A SHIPWRECK is a catastrophe for those involved, but for historians and archaeologists of future generations it is an opportunity. Wrecks offer glimpses not only of the nautical technology of the past but also of its economy, trade, culture and, sometimes, its warfare. Until recently, though, most of the 3m ships estimated to be lying on the seabed have been out of reach. Underwater archaeology has mainly been the preserve of scuba divers. That has limited the endeavour to waters less than 50 metres deep, excluding 98% of the sea floor from inspection. Even allowing for the tendency of trading vessels to be coasters rather than ocean-going ships, that limits the number of wrecks available for discovery and examination.

Read more ....

New Underwater Explorers Go Where Scientists Can't



From Popular Mechanics:

Last week, an unmanned robot completed a 3300-mile trek across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. The 134-pound robot, a glider named the Scarlet Knight, spent months at sea, gathering data on ocean temperature and salinity between the water's surface down to 600 feet below. The Scarlet Knight is just one of many new technologies scientists are turning to in order to research oceans, rivers and lakes—areas that are impractical, and in some cases impossible, for researchers to access themselves. By employing everything from robots to, yes, tadpoles, scientists hope to learn more about how climate change and pollution are affecting the earth's water. Here is some of the newest tech aiding scientists.

Read more ....

Wishlist


Under the tree, originally uploaded by Chez Larsson

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.”
--Epicurus

I, Robot: Buy Your Own Android Double For Christmas

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro developed his own robot doppelganger in 2007

From The Daily Mail:

Stuck for gift ideas this Christmas? How about an android moulded in the exact likeness of your loved one? Well that is exactly what's on offer at a chain of department stores in Japan.

The mechanical doppelgangers will be on offer at Sogo, Seibu, and Robinson retailers for the princely sum of 20.1million yen or £139,000.

Read more ....

Learning To Love To Hate Robots

Low expectations are easily surpassed (Image: Steve Olson/Getty)

From New Scientist:

ROBOTIC helpers are not yet in every home. But in recent years robots have steadily marched into the real world to perform tasks such as cleaning floors, delivering drugs or simply entertaining.

That has let anthropologists and roboticists give these mechanical workers their first report cards - and results are mixed. Despite evidence that we can find robots useful, even lovable colleagues, they can also trigger annoyance and violence. The results should help make future robots easier to work with.

Read more ....

The Peace Strategy Of JFK

In an era when a global nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States was a distinct possibility, the prospects of world peace seemed remote if not naive. At the height of the Cold War, however, the American head of state, President John F. Kennedy, delivered an improbable speech on 'a strategy of peace' at American University in Washington, DC.
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In his relatively brief address to the graduating class of 1963, Kennedy touched on timeless truths with candor, grace and sound reasoning. Moreover, Kennedy challenged 'conventional wisdom' (a term coined by the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith) by not only declaring peace a virtuous aim but also portraying peace as a realizable ambition. Indeed, many in the Pentagon must have been stupefied by Kennedy's idealistic words only months after the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
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Nearly half a century later, Kennedy's remarks at American University ought to rightly be considered a masterpiece of oratory and largely relevant to events in the 21st century. As such, excerpts from his speech appear below (in bold) with an analysis of the text.
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'I have chosen this time and place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth too rarely perceived. And that is the most important topic on earth: peace.'
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Why did Kennedy choose American University as the 'time and place' to discuss peace? First, American University was launched under the administration and aegis of President Woodrow Wilson and his administration. After four years of horrific carnage on European soil and a pandemic flu outbreak that cost millions of lives worldwide, the tragedy of WWI was compounded by Wilson's inability to dissuade the victors from imposing heavy reparations on Germany or create a viable League of Nations with the power to enforce treaties and coerce belligerent nations to put aside their plans for conquest. The American people, who remained fretful about losing sovereignty to an international organization, rejected entry into the League and thereby rendered the forerunner to the UN feckless. Since the demise of the post-war peace in 1919, all attempts by the American government to erect a framework for a stable world order had fallen short due to various internal and external factors by the time of Kennedy's election in 1960. Hence, Kennedy was boldly taking up the idealistic cause of his failed predecessor by reviving the idea of a comprehensive peace. The students in the audience, mostly all under age 25, were a perfect target for his new thinking based on expanding what was possible in both human and foreign affairs.
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'Not merely for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace in all time'
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Less than a year after being on the brink of nuclear war, Kennedy's statement on a 'peace in all time' seemed naive then and may seem naive now in an age of globalized terrorism. As JFK once said, 'Mankind must put an end to war before war puts and end to mankind.' Clearly, Kennedy believed a lasting peace essential to the survival of the human race. Mere diplomatic agreements between nations were no longer sufficient in a modern era defined by weapons capable of annihilating the world. The First Peloponnesian War had been concluded with the signing of the Thirty Years Peace in 446 BC, but Athens and Sparta reneged on the agreement only 13 years later as fighting erupted once again. In the nuclear world of 1963, the time of war as an extension of diplomacy and vice versa had run its course. The world could simply not afford another war, and Kennedy undoubtedly shared the same view of Albert Einstein that World War III would be the end of civilization itself. Hence, a comprehensive and permanent peace was not an option - it was the only option for America and the world.
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'First examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable, that mankind is doomed, that we are gripped by forces that we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are man-made. Therefore, they can be solved by man.'
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Most governments, including the American government, accept the realist notion that 'anarchy' exists beyond its borders. Nations and individuals lie in wait to attack in a world defined by a struggle for resources and power. The International Relations paradigm of realism (whose most famous exponent was a legendary academician at the University of Chicago) had its golden age in The Cold War and appeared again in a more aggressive strain during the presidency of George W. Bush. In short, realists take a dim view of the designs of non-democratic nations and ascribe their actions to pure self-interest. To them, everything is a zero-sum game.
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If Iran, for example, brings a nuclear plant online, it is a 'loss' for the US and the world. In response, the US must take countermeasures to eliminate the threat. While realism is a formidable methodology, its undiluted form leads to foreign policy disaster (i.e. Vietnam), and it needs to be counterbalanced with idealism. Idealists indeed have several salient points. In fact, a great majority of people desire peace around the world. Despite its saber-rattling government, the people of Iran desire peace with not only the US but with Israel as well. Hence, idealism is necessary to remind the world that peace is not only hoped by the world but is also in the interests of both peoples and nations. Reiterating a line from perhaps the greatest American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kennedy rightly remained confident in the ability of man to untangle his own problems through persistence and reason.
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In the 21st century, conventional wisdom says that neither world peace nor an end to poverty is ever possible. Most people, indeed, remain quite pessimistic with regard to the idea of a future of peace and prosperity for all. As war and poverty have existed since the beginning of time, only a myopic person at best or a fool at worst could ever believe in such a utopian outcome. An idealist would respond by noting the triumph of a band of rag-tag farmers over the mighty armies of the British Empire in 1783, the equality of women and blacks, mass education for much of the world, space missions to the moon and Mars and the elections of Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama as presidents of their nations after decades and centuries of apartheid and slavery respectively - all of which were largely dismissed as impossible by naysayers. Besides, should the world simply be resigned to doing nothing as the ice caps melt under a climate change caused by the CO2 output from an antiquated and unjust economic system? Of course not. An idealist does not believe in a panacea or expect heaven on earth but rather challenges the fatalism inherent in a worldview that only focuses on threats and potential threats to security.
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The human race can never allow itself to be resigned to a fate that does not exist. Mankind can make his (and her) own destiny. Kennedy's speech for a 'peace in all time' is a timeless call for both debate and action on the means necessary to give hope to the hopeless and to provide a secure future for our children and our children's children.
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Beyond mere oratory, the American University address symbolizes the ideal of a democratic republic still struggling for 'a more perfect union' and a more perfect world.
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(Photo: Kennedy at American University 10 June 1963. Click to enlarge)
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J Roquen


Buy A Custom Robot That Looks Just Like You (PHOTO)


From The Huffington Post:

If you're wondering what to put on your wishlist for the holidays, here's a gift idea you might not have considered: your robot twin -- a robotic double that looks, and talks, just like you.

Japanese department store Sogo & Seibu has announced that they are selling two, customizable robots that can be tweaked to look exactly like you (or the person of the buyer's choosing).

Read more ....

DANILO COVER 1626 MAG (BEIJING)

Celebrity


Christopher Straub, Season 6 Ep. 1 Project Runway, originally uploaded by withremote

We went to the No Coast Craft-o-Rama last weekend, as is our annual tradition, and did some gift shopping. We know many of the vendors from Craftstravaganza so it's fun to say hi. Plus it's a good place for scoping out new artists.

One highlight this year was meeting the famous fashion designer Christopher Straub from TV's Project Runway! Of course we already knew him from being in our show for the last three years too. But we hadn't talked to him since his television appearance so it was great to see him again, and his new line of accessories (plus I bought a pair of Cricket Syndicate underpants--another yearly tradition--and had him sign them).

I love watching our vendors go on from the show to continued success. To think we contributed in some small way to their development is very rewarding. Maybe the best part of doing these events.

Science Goes Back To Basics On AI

From the BBC:

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has begun a project to re-think artificial intelligence research.

The Mind Machine Project will return to the basics of AI research to re-examine what lies behind human intelligence.

Spanning five years and funded by a $5m (£3.1m) grant, it will bring together scientists who have had success in distinct fields of AI.

By uniting researchers, MIT hopes to produce robotic companions smart enough to aid those suffering from dementia.

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MARKO ON DRAMA MAG

A New Step Forward For Robots

Jerry Pratt (l.) with research associates push M2V2 to test its balance at the Institute for Human Cognition in Pensacola, Fla. (Carmen K. Sisson/Special to The Christian Science Monitor)

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Engineers decode human balance to build walking robots.

For the past 30 years, scientists and technicians have grappled with making robots walk on two legs. Humans do it effortlessly, but the simple act has a lot of hidden complexity. And until recently, computers were very bad at it.

Now, several teams across the country are refining the first generation of robots that are close to walking like people. That includes the ability to recover from stumbles, resist shoves, and navigate rough terrain.

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Five Ways To Revolutionise Computer Memory

Digital memory is getting smaller and smaller (Image: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty)

From New Scientist:

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the idea that you might store your entire music collection on a single hand-held device would have been greeted with disbelief. Ditto backing up all your essential computer files using a memory stick key ring, or storing thousands of high-resolution holiday snaps in one pocket-sized camera.

What a difference a decade makes. The impossible has become possible thanks to the lightning rise of a memory technology with the snazzy name of "flash".

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MIT Plans To Rebuild Artificial Intelligence From The Ground Up

Artificial Intelligence: It's not what we think.

From Popular Science:

After 50 years and countless dead ends, incremental progress, and modest breakthroughs, artificial intelligence researchers are asking for a do-over. The $5 million Mind Machine Project (MMP), a patchwork team of two dozen academics, students and researchers, intends to go back to the discipline's beginnings, rebuilding the field from the ground up. With 20/20 hindsight, a few generations worth of experience, and better, faster technology, this time researchers in AI -- an ambiguous field to begin with -- plan to get things right.

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City/Country


brown eggs, originally uploaded by Hannah [honey & jam]

I'm afraid that I may be falling in love with the city. After pining for the country for so long, I'm finally being charmed by the place where I live. When our house failed to sell this year, my wife and I had to admit: we were OK with that.

We like our house. We don't hate our neighborhood. And there are wonderful perks to the central location: great shops, bars, restaurants, playgrounds, and cultural events, all within walking distance. I can quickly get anywhere in the Twin Cities for event planning meetings, and I'm not outrageously far from my office (although it would be great to be closer). And there's no shortage of things for Natalie to do.

It also helps that one of my coworkers got a flock of chickens so I have a convenient source of farm-fresh eggs. Eventually I do want my own homestead, my own gardens, and my own hens/goats/bees/whatever. But for right now, I'm good.

Optimism As Artificial Intelligence Pioneers Reunite

INTELLIGENCE John McCarthy, seated center, who ran the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, at a reunion last month with Bruce Buchanan to his left and Vic Scheinman on the right. Standing, from left, are Ralph Gorin, Whit Diffie, Dan Swinehart, Tony Hearn, Larry Tesler, Lynn Quam and Martin Frost. John Markoff

From The New York Times:

STANFORD, Calif. — The personal computer and the technologies that led to the Internet were largely invented in the 1960s and ’70s at three computer research laboratories next to the Stanford University campus.

One laboratory, Douglas Engelbart’s Augmentation Research Center, became known for the mouse; a second, Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, developed the Alto, the first modern personal computer. But the third, the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, or SAIL, run by the computer scientist John McCarthy, gained less recognition.

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A toddler´s view


A toddler´s view, originally uploaded by Andri Elfarsson

Natalie is truly a toddler; she's all over the place. It's really fun to play with her. She likes to wrestle, read books, and dance. She's also getting great at asking what she wants to do with a combination of signs, words, and pointing.

Last week I brought her to the launch party for Paper Darts, a new local literary magazine. She had a great time meeting people, looking at art, and eating gummy bears from the hors d'oeuvres table. No women hit on me this time though like when I carried Natalie to the GO LIVE event at fivetwosix salon.

Anyway the point is that she is growing up and usually a delight to be around. Plus she's going to sleep a lot easier these days. All in all, I'd say that she has leveled up as a human.

Robots Become Reality

Pingpong-playing robot 'Topio'. The bipedal humanoid robot is designed to play table tennis against a human being. Photograph: Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters

200 robot companies and institutes exhibit their latest specimens at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan.

Check out the entire gallery here.

Man Controls Robotic Hand With Thoughts


From U.S. News And World Report/AP:

ROME—An Italian who lost his left forearm in a car crash was successfully linked to a robotic hand, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial limb and control it with his thoughts, scientists said Wednesday.

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Marko for L'OFFICIELE Dec 09 issue

JFK - Idealist-in-Chief

When it comes to former John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), the general public is all too aware of his extramarital affairs and his tragic death.
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To compound the tragedy of his assassination, Kennedy's noble idealism is in danger of being lost to history as the mass media continues to define him by his personal failings and untimely end.
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Although President Obama is a truly gifted orator and an inspiring leader, his remarkable rhetorical skills still fall somewhat short of the poetry and prose of Kennedy's words.
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Kennedy had the rare ability to move audiences with wisdom, humor, logic and compassion in only a few sentences. In the first of a two-part series on the beautiful 'realistic idealism' of President Kennedy, five of his more profound quotes appear below - touching on the nature of government, hope and humanity. As commentary would be a disservice to his remarks, none is provided. His words stand alone, and they provoke thought for reflection. Next week, his address to the college graduates of American University in 1963 will be examined.
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The following lines were uttered by John F. Kennedy - 'Idealist-in-Chief':
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'A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on'
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'A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people'
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'Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future'
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'If we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity'
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'Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind'
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(Picture: President John F. Kennedy)
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J Roquen

Plan to Fail


Cedar trees... in the Arz, North Lebanon, originally uploaded by Piax

November was a blur of event planning, illness, and a very busy time at work. We're emerging on the other side of that sickness and work overload, although the planning is a constant. Any project will automatically expand to fill the time allotted to it, and so these projects take over my entire life.

We did find a volunteer to help market the craft fair though! Kylee did this interview for us, isn't she great?

We finally got smart and started getting help for this stuff. I have a partner and the vague outlines of a team to organize the comic expo. The fashion event looks like it will mostly run itself once I finish winding it up. And, when I've got those all figured out... time to add a fourth event?

Robotic Exoskeletons: Suited For Superhuman Power

Photo: Software engineer Rex Jameson demonstrates the XOS suit designed to give Army soldiers a significant boost in strength and endurance. Raytheon Co.

From Christian Science Monitor:

Exoskeletons – or wearable robots – strengthen soldiers and mobilize the disabled.

The high-tech suits of “Iron Man” and “RoboCop” don’t seem so far off to Yoshiyuki Sankai. Since the third grade, this Japanese professor and inventor has been enchanted by Isaac Asimov’s story “I, Robot” and the idea that robots – or, in Mr. Sankai’s case, robotic suits – could help humans with everyday life.

In 2005, he unveiled several working prototypes of a mechanical, mind-controlled “exoskeleton” that could allow the disabled to walk. The suit – recently refined and now available for rent in Japan – resembles white soccer shinguards attached to each segment of the arms and legs and a fanny pack-like battery hooked around the waist.

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UNITED FOR Level Magazine Dec 09 Issue

Direction and Production TY
Photographer ROBERTO AGUILAR
Stylist CLAUDIA BEHNKE
Post Production JONATHAN LUCIANO
Models DAPHINE TONY AND TAYO CAMPBELL (All at UNITED)


More Images in Mag........

Robotic Clam Could Detonate Underwater Mines

Inspired by the amazing ability of the small clam to dig and wedge itself far deeper and more securely than would be thought, they show the robo-clam. Credit: Donna Coveney

From Live Science:

Robot clams may one day help dig up and detonate buried underwater mines, researchers now reveal. They could also serve as smart anchors for robot subs or deep-sea oil drilling.

Mechanical engineers Anette "Peko" Hosoi and Amos Winter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed robots after the Atlantic razor clam (Ensis directus) because it is one of nature's best diggers. Using its relatively simple anatomy, the razor clam — which the researchers dubbed the Ferrari of underwater diggers — can burrow into the bottom of its native mudflats at a remarkable rate of roughly a centimeter per second.

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Representing Designer Marko Mitanovski

Serbian designer Marko Mitanovski's signature style is defined by a love of costume and theatre. The dramatic silhouettes, detailed construction and intricate details from his Renaissance and Elizabethan costume inspired "Lady Macbeth" collection earned him "Best Young Designer" at Belgrade Fashion Week in October 2008.

S/S 2010 Collection


The World's Fastest Computers

5: Tianhe-1. 563 teraflops
A new entrant into the Top500 list, China's fastest computer proved capable of more than 500 trillion operations per second. Put another way, a simple calculator's power is typically about 10 flops. Tianhe, which means "river in the sky", is housed at the National Super Computer Center, Tianjin, and is more than four times faster than the previous top computer in the country. The computer combines 6144 Intel processors with 5120 graphics processing units made by AMD, normally found in computer graphics cards. (Image: Xinhua News Agency/eyevine)

From New Scientist:

Twice a year the operators of the world's fastest computers eagerly await their latest ranking compiled by the Top500 project. The chart is based on the maximum rate at which a computer can crunch numbers using what are called floating point operations. November's list has just been released: enjoy our gallery of the five fastest calculators on the planet.

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Human Brains Emulated In The Computer World

From Alpha Galileo:

Researchers at LuleƄ University of Technology have created a computer-based architecture that mimics a pair of human brain functions. System that detects and compensates for their own shortcomings is a possible application, another is to reduce the impact of noise. The research takes a significant step forward because the research group has recently doubled.

We have developed a model of how the various sources of information that complement each other, can get a better idea of what is happening. Better to the extent that we may see more than what the different parts look, "says Tamas Jantvik researcher at LuleƄ University of Technology.

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