They were talking with the ex-wife when a deputy saw a white Ford Explorer towing a utility trailer. The trailer was on fire, and a man identified as her ex-husband was behind the wheel.
Firefighters arrived, and authorities attempted to get the man to exit the SUV. That's when they noticed a cable tied to a nearby tree was wrapped around his neck.
Officers pleaded with the man to surrender, but instead he hit the gas. He was pulled from the vehicle, and his head was yanked clean off his body. The vehicle continued moving for about 150 yards.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/08/31/2011-08-31_man_in_virginia_uses_cable_to_decapitate_self_after_argument_with_exwife_cops.html#ixzz1WdMVEs7t
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
AI vs. AI. Two chatbots talking to each other
How It Works:
The system depicted was created by combining three components: a chatbot, a text-to-speech synthesizer, and an avatar renderer.
Chatbots are machines designed to emulate the conversational abilities of humans, conversing with a human user and generally attempting to convince the user into thinking that the machine is human. In such a scenario, if a sufficiently adept human on one end is fooled into thinking the machine is another human, the machine would be credited as passing the famous Turing Test for intelligence. Over 60 years after its proposal by Alan Turing, there are arguably still no machines capable of passing this test. The chatbot we initially used was Eliza, a prominent early milestone from AI’s infancy in the 1960’s. This tended to produce fairly boring conversations, so we switched to a much smarter, more modern chatbot: Cleverbot. Publicly available on Cleverbot.com, this state of the art chat engine was created by AI researcher Rollo Carpenter, who can be contacted via his company, Existor.
http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=16641
Another human foot washes ashore in B.C. 12th foot this year.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, say a human foot inside a running shoe has washed ashore, the latest in roughly a dozen such cases since 2007.
Police say the foot and leg bone were seen late Tuesday afternoon floating along the shore of Vancouver's False Creek.
Police so far have no theories about how the foot ended up in the water.
In the past four years, about a dozen feet encased in shoes have washed up on beaches near Vancouver, along the southern Georgia Strait and off Washington state.
Most of the remains are unidentified, although investigators said at least two of the feet belong to men who were reported missing.
In previous cases, police said it appeared the feet separated from bodies naturally in the water and foul play wasn't suspected.
http://news.yahoo.com/another-human-foot-washes-ashore-b-c-072344119.html
Police say the foot and leg bone were seen late Tuesday afternoon floating along the shore of Vancouver's False Creek.
Police so far have no theories about how the foot ended up in the water.
In the past four years, about a dozen feet encased in shoes have washed up on beaches near Vancouver, along the southern Georgia Strait and off Washington state.
Most of the remains are unidentified, although investigators said at least two of the feet belong to men who were reported missing.
In previous cases, police said it appeared the feet separated from bodies naturally in the water and foul play wasn't suspected.
http://news.yahoo.com/another-human-foot-washes-ashore-b-c-072344119.html
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Life In Space: Living On The ISS
ESA astronaut Frank De Winne shows how the astronauts living on the International Space Station start their day in space, how and what they eat and drink in space, and how the astronauts exercise in space.
The Astronaut's Guide To Life In Space
NPR requested from NASA this 1980s-era video with commentary by astronauts of various missions. The footage, which we edited, arrived on VHS. We don't know much about it, except that it's playful in tone, so we decided to have some fun with it, too. Here's an "instructional video" on survival in space, in case we ever decide to resurrect the program.
Robot Mimic Gives A Speech
Robot Mimic Gives A Speech
Robotics engineers at the University of Bristol, UK, have been grimacing a lot recently, thanks to their copycat robotic head, Jules, which can mimic the facial expressions and lip movements of a human being.Jules is an animatronic head produced by US roboticist David Hanson, who builds uniquely expressive, disembodied heads with flexible rubber skin that is moved by 34 servo motors.Human face movements are picked up by a video camera and mapped onto the tiny electronic motors in Jules' skin.The Bristol team developed its own software to transfer expressions recorded by the video camera into commands to make those servos produce similarly realistic facial movements.However, because the robot's motors are not identical to human facial muscles, some artistic licence was required. After filming an actor making a variety of expressions indicating, say, "happiness", an expert animator selected 10 frames showing different variations of the expression and manually set the servos in Jules's face to match.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Scared Mexicans try under-the-skin tracking devices
QUERETARO, Mexico — Of all the strange circumstances surrounding the violent abduction last year of Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, the Mexican power broker and former presidential candidate known here as “Boss Diego,” perhaps nothing was weirder than the mysterious tracking chip that the kidnappers allegedly cut from his body.
Lurid Mexican media accounts reported that an armed gang invaded Fernandez’s home, sliced open his arm with a pair of scissors and extracted a satellite-enabled tracking device, leaving the chip and a streak of blood behind.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/scared-mexicans-try-under-the-skin-tracking-devices/2011/08/14/gIQAtReNUJ_story.html?hpid=z3
Lurid Mexican media accounts reported that an armed gang invaded Fernandez’s home, sliced open his arm with a pair of scissors and extracted a satellite-enabled tracking device, leaving the chip and a streak of blood behind.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/scared-mexicans-try-under-the-skin-tracking-devices/2011/08/14/gIQAtReNUJ_story.html?hpid=z3
Friday, August 26, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
5.9 Magnitude Earthquake Hits East Coast, Virginia
This afternoon, an earthquake hit Virginia between Charlottesville and Richmond. It measured 5.9 on the Richter scale. For an earthquake, that's in the "moderate" range but for an East Coast earthquake, it's quite unusual. A look at the historical data for the eastern US states shows that this is the biggest quake to hit this coast since 1897 (a 5.9 in VA) and the second biggest of all time (well, since they started recording such things) after a 7.3 that hit South Carolina in 1886.
http://kottke.org/11/08/2011-virginia-earthquake
Quote of the day
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russel
Bertrand Russel
SAIF AL-ISLAM INTERVIEW
"They blocked communication, sent text messages to the people, stopped the tv and smuggled saboteurgangs..."
Monday, August 22, 2011
Woman Swears Off Mirrors for a Year
Most brides obsess over every last detail of the big day and scour racks for the dream dress, but Ph.D. candidate Kjerstin Gruys has taken on a prenuptial challenge of more unique proportions. The teaching fellow at the UCLA Department of Sociology has sworn off looking in a mirror for an entire year—six months of which will lead up to her wedding.
The daring idea took root when Gruys read a passage out of Sarah Dunant’s "The Birth of Venus," where an order of nuns swears off the sight of human flesh—including even looking at their own bodies. Feeling the already constant pressure to look perfect intensified by wedding planning, Gruys’ self-described “struggle with poor body image” made her wonder if a year without mirrors could lead to greater self-acceptance and appreciation for her body.
“I picked out my wedding gown before the project started. Looking in the mirror for hours and feeling critical of myself was one of the main motivators [for the project],” Gruys tells YouBeauty. “I want my wedding to be about my partner, Michael, and me, and about our loved ones—not about whether or not I dropped 10 pounds to squeeze into my dress.”
...
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/could-you-live-without-looking-at-yourself-one-woman-swears-off-mirrors-for-a-year-2528935/
The daring idea took root when Gruys read a passage out of Sarah Dunant’s "The Birth of Venus," where an order of nuns swears off the sight of human flesh—including even looking at their own bodies. Feeling the already constant pressure to look perfect intensified by wedding planning, Gruys’ self-described “struggle with poor body image” made her wonder if a year without mirrors could lead to greater self-acceptance and appreciation for her body.
“I picked out my wedding gown before the project started. Looking in the mirror for hours and feeling critical of myself was one of the main motivators [for the project],” Gruys tells YouBeauty. “I want my wedding to be about my partner, Michael, and me, and about our loved ones—not about whether or not I dropped 10 pounds to squeeze into my dress.”
...
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/could-you-live-without-looking-at-yourself-one-woman-swears-off-mirrors-for-a-year-2528935/
Monday, August 15, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
UnaBomber Secret Code Cracked after 10 years.
It's not called cracking a code when you find an explicit key. Also it's curious how tv presenters don't hasitate to call someone "mad" although he never had been pronounced clinically insane, on the contrary, he has an IQ of nearly 170. So, I guess he must think most of US must be crazy.
Ship with 35 Tons of Cocaine
35tons = 35.000.000 gramm.
Average of at least 50€ for one gramm.
35.000.000* 50€ = 1.750.000.000€ = 1,7 Milliard
Friday, August 12, 2011
Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy uses
Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy uses
University of Illinois shows an epidermal electronic system created by an international team of engineers and scientists. A hair-thin electronic patch that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo could transform medical sensing, computer gaming and even spy operations, according to a US study published Thursday.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Plan B
Plan B is the 'find my phone' app that you download AFTER you lose your phone.
Plan B is your last resort to find your missing phone.
This is the first and only 'find my phone' app that you download AFTER you've already lost your phone. Having Lookout on your phone is the best way to protect your phone and find it fast, but use Plan B if you have already lost your phone and didn't have Lookout installed.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb
Plan B is your last resort to find your missing phone.
This is the first and only 'find my phone' app that you download AFTER you've already lost your phone. Having Lookout on your phone is the best way to protect your phone and find it fast, but use Plan B if you have already lost your phone and didn't have Lookout installed.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Aftermath: Population Zero
Imagine if one minute from now, every single person on Earth disappeared. All 6.6 billion of us. What would happen to the world without humans? How long would it be before our nuclear power plants erupted, skyscrapers crumbled and satellites dropped from the sky? What would become of the household pets and farm animals? And could an ecosystem plagued with years of pollution ever recover?
UK Riots...
Forced to strip naked in the street: Shocking scenes as rioters steal clothes and rifle through bags as people make their way home
This is the shocking moment a young man is apparently forced to hand over all of his clothes after appearing to be stripped naked during lawless riots overnight.
Internet rumours last night claimed that on top of the widespread destruction across London and Birmingham, people were having their clothes removed by looters as police attempted to contain the criminality.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024001/UK-riots-2011-London-Birmingham-people-forced-strip-naked-street.html#ixzz1UYAzabVw
Monday, August 8, 2011
Tasting the rainbow: The ants whose multi-coloured abdomens show exactly what they've been eating
The saying 'you are what you eat' is true for these insects as stunning pictures show their abdomens changing colour as they sip on sugar drops.
Father of three Mohamed Babu set up the photographs after his wife, Shameem, showed him some ants had turned white after drinking spilt milk.
He gave the creatures the brightly coloured sugar drops and watched as their transparent stomachs matched the food they were eating.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022765/The-ants-multi-coloured-abdomens-exactly-theyve-eating.html#ixzz1USgd2M7J
Saturday, August 6, 2011
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