gregladen | October 11, 2008A robotic suit named "HAL" (will they never learn???) will become available for 2,200 monthly rental in Japan. It is actually a brain-directed mobility assistance device.
The 22-pound (10-kilogram) battery-operated computer system is belted to the waist. It captures the brain signals and relays them to mechanical leg braces strapped to the thighs and knees, which then provide robotic assistance to people as they walk.
Wikipedia reduces its server complexity by moving all services to one Ubuntu distro. According to computerworld:
In a few months, Wikipedia will finish a major…
gregladen | October 11, 2008Karl Bremer at the Minnesota Independent has obtained a copy of the Michele Bachmann Vennes Pardon Letter. Hat tip to Eve for alterting me to this.
In the letter to Pardon Attorney Roger Adams, Bachmann makes clear that Ex-Con Frank Vennes (who had by this time insinuated himself into the regional religious community) should be pardoned because he was saved by Jesus and his goodness cannot be recognized by society and the law using the usual means.
"... pardons were intended to restore people ... like Mr. Vennes ... who have demonstrated true reformation and for whom mercy is due because…
gregladen | October 11, 2008 Minnesota Atheists' "Atheists Talk" radio show.
Sunday, October 12, 2008, 9-10 a.m. Central Time
Hector Avalos will discuss "How to Fight Intelligent Design and Win."
Also, an interview with Scott Lohman, president of the Humanists of Minnesota.
"Atheists Talk" airs live on AM 950 KTNF in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
To stream live, go here.
Podcasts of past shows are available at Minnesota Atheists or
through iTunes. For all other podcast systems, such as one you might be running on Linux, use this feed.
gregladen | October 11, 2008A woman should not show BOTH of her eyes through her veil. This may encourage her to use eye make up. Two made up eyes peering out of the black veil is just too much to take.
A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye....
Sheikh Habadan, an ultra-conservative cleric who is said to have wide influence among religious Saudis, was answering questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd.
I would like to know, just what was Habadan doing on the Television?!?!? The projection of his image is clearly, unequivocally…
gregladen | October 11, 2008... is in the news again today. This is part of the widening Petters scandal in Minnesota. Have a look:
gregladen | October 10, 2008"Gov. Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda,"
This according to an official Alaska state investigator's report.
Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan's refusal to fire State Trooper Mike Wooten from the state police force was "likely a contributing factor" to Monegan's July dismissal, but Palin had the authority as governor to fire him, the report by former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower states.
However, it states that her efforts to get Wooten fired broke a state…
gregladen | October 10, 2008Consider this question from a recent poll:
"Should topics such as creationism or intelligent design be taught in public schools alongside the theory of evolution?"
The correct answer is, of course, no. And the poll results support this:
This may not seem remarkable, until you learn where the poll is from. It is from "One New Snow" which is apparently some sort of Christian Yahoo thing:
Details here.
Click the picture of the poll if you want to vote too.
gregladen | October 10, 2008Thank you thank you thank you all Americans from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Great White North to the Rio Grande. We accept your adoration, we revel in your awe. We, the Minnesotan. Yes. Sometimes we mess up. Like when we sent Norm Coleman instead of Walter Mondale to the Senate in a fit of Passive Aggressive Rage (PAR) stemming from the inhumility while we commemorated Paul Wellstone. But now, we make that all up and more. We, the Minnesotan, now hand you the very head of the Republican John McCain. Bow to us, as we have done this for you, for all of you.
I give you The…
gregladen | October 10, 2008Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.
The other thing that was strange was that the shark closely resembled Marty the Tank Cleaner, who recently left his job at the aquarium and has not been seen in a while.
Details.
gregladen | October 10, 2008After both the state and federal courts rejected the attempts of Yoko Ono Lennon and EMI Records to enjoin the showing of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed on the ground it used a 15-second fragment of John Lennon's Imagine, all of the plaintiffs in both cases have now withdrawn their claims and dismissed their cases.
Bad for evolution, but probably good for the fair use doctrine. Here's some details.
gregladen | October 10, 2008In case you have not heard, there is a stock market crash happening as we speak. Today, Friday October 10 2008 is going to be known as Black Friday, or something. I'm not sure if it is possible to put this into perspective in any sensible way, but I have two graphs to show you.
The first is a graph that puports to show cycles in the Dow Jones average after all kinds of adjustments are done. The main effects of these adjustment are to normalize secular (short term) variation by using a log scale, and the imposition of relative value lines, essentially adjusting for inflation. I've drawn the…
gregladen | October 10, 2008Norm Coleman has taken $2 million from Wall Street and financial interests -- more than any other Senate candidate in the country. He's not on our side.
gregladen | October 9, 2008I'm still not doing much with this blog as the back end is still in shambles. With my schedule this week, I have minutes-long blocks of time to blog, and the back end takes minutes-long to do little beyond producing error messages. I've been putting some items on my old site, and I may switch to that site for the medium term if I judge that this situation is not changing (perhaps through the end of the election period?). The old site is here.
I've put some polling data over there if you are interested.
gregladen | October 9, 2008After the Star Tribune and KSTP-TV blasted ads from the Coleman campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee as false and misleading, the Al Franken for Senate campaign today released a new television ad featuring Minnesota women expressing their disgust and outrage at the depths to which Norm Coleman has sunk.
gregladen | October 8, 2008It is well known that the Space Industry fuels innovation in the wrist watch industry, Porn industry funds and fuels the internet, and the Gaming industry drives all important hardware and software innovations.
So let's look at one of these relationships more closely:
gregladen | October 8, 2008... break. Minnesota has the hottest Senate race in the US (more money is being spent on this race than any other). In the Greater Twin Cities are one or two of the hottest congressional races. Then there's the presidential campaign. And this business about how unions vote. And all the special interest ads (more about those racist bastards later).
So, our local TV station has been running ads like this:
Here's one more below the fold:
gregladen | October 7, 2008Harry Truman drove around the country in his Dodge to root out war profiteering.
Norm Coleman compared his oversight record to Harry Truman's, but didn't hold a single hearing into war profiteering in Iraq.
Norm dodged his responsibility -- and now he's desperate to dodge blame.