The Robot Rebellion is Only a Matter of Time.

What does constitute a soul, and can our machines have them? If our machines don't have a soul, isn't that even more reason to fear them? Did Frankenstein's Monster (the one from the book, not the movie) have a soul? He was made of pieces of former souls. And the hardest question of all is "Does Dick Cheney have a soul?".

I also want to point out the Korean Sony Salesman is good at his job.

"The RVMCS is the robotics industry's big gathering. It ends today and is not open to the public. But I went, and I asked about the truth behind the coming robot uprising, and (this is chilling), quite often, people smiled, then began to consider the question -- a guy from Sony (however facetiously) told me that when the inevitable robot war happens, he hopes every killer robot is using a Sony camera for its optical system."

Peace...for now.

clipped from www.chicagotribune.com Gina Holechko figures humans have 50 years left -- 100, if we're lucky. After that, the robots become self-aware and harvest our skins to build hammocks. Think Transformers with the animosity of the Terminators. Holechko is president of the Chicago Speculative Science Fiction Writers Group. She speculates, and so a few days before I headed to the Robots and Vision Motion Control Show in Rosemont, I called her, and she told me: "It's unfortunate Hollywood thinks about robots going rogue and murdering people without considering how a takeover might actually happen -- little by little, until we become comfortable. You talk to an automated voice to pay your phone bill? It's that kind of pervasiveness. What scares me is the shell they put on them now. We used to see the insides of our computers. Now you don't know what's going on. Go to the show, and look for the ghost in the machine. The ghost in the machine is your concern." The soul, in a sense. Robot holocaust? Oh, it's coming.

House fire in Poky

What! You mean socialists aren't evil people who all want to take your money?

I loved this article. From talking to people who have spent time in many other "socialist" countries this article is right on mark. And I'd like to thank the Dutch for investing in America so much and so early. They were one of the first governments to invest in America after our independence.

This article also reminds me why I'm going to spend my summer working, so I can get out of town and explore the world more. Maybe even fall in love and marry someone and not have to come back. Oh well, for now I have a job, I pay my bills, and have a little for travel, but I leave on Monday for Phoenix and this vakantiegeld would be very useful.

clipped from www.nytimes.com In late May of last year an unexpected $4,265 arrived in my account: vakantiegeld. Vacation money. This money materializes in the bank accounts of virtually everyone in the country just before the summer holidays; you get from your employer an amount totaling 8 percent of your annual salary, which is meant to cover plane tickets, surfing lessons, tapas: vacations. And we aren’t talking about a mere “paid vacation” — this is on top of the salary you continue to receive during the weeks you’re off skydiving or snorkeling. And by law every employer is required to give a minimum of four weeks’ vacation. For that matter, even if you are unemployed you still receive a base amount of vakantiegeld from the government, the reasoning being that if you can’t go on vacation, you’ll get depressed and despondent and you’ll never get a job. Going Dutch clipped from www.nytimes.com There is another historical base to the Dutch social-welfare system, It is rooted in religion.

The Funniest thing I've heard all day!

Um, I guess this is one way to help Idaho's economy, become a premier soap provider for parts of Washington.

clipped from www.latimes.com The dirty truth: They're smuggling soap in Spokane Spokane County's limits on the sales of phosphates in dishwasher detergent has slowed the flood of pollutants into the Spokane River -- but sped the flood of shoppers into Idaho to get the strong soap Spokane County in July adopted a near total ban on sales of water-softening phosphates in dishwasher detergent -- the first in the nation -- in an attempt to slow the flood of pollutants that is sucking oxygen out of the endangered Spokane River, smothering its fish. The problem, Marcotte and many of her neighbors say, is that most low-phosphate detergents are wimps when it comes to fighting greasy pots and spaghetti-crusted plates. So she has become a detergent outlaw, driving 45 minutes across the Idaho state line to pick up secret stashes of the old, bad dish cleansers: the brutish Cascades, the muscular Electrasols.

Thing may be a-changing

This is very interesting. Many people may not even know there was a ban, but now we can respect soldiers even after death by publicly acknowledging their return home, even in boxes draped by flags.

clipped from www.npr.org Pentagon lets media see return of US war dead The Pentagon's 18-year ban on media covering the return of fallen U.S. service members ended with a solemn ceremony for the arrival of a flag-draped casket of an airman felled in Afghanistan. Myers' family was the first to be asked under a new Pentagon policy whether it wished to have media coverage of the arrival of a loved one at the Dover base mortuary, the entry point for service personnel killed overseas. The family agreed, but declined to be interviewed or photographed. The ban was put in place by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, at the time of the Persian Gulf War. From the start, it was cast as a way to shield grieving families. Under the new policy, families of fallen servicemen will decide whether to allow media coverage of their return. If several bodies arrive on the same flight, news coverage will be allowed only for those whose families have given permission.

Homelessness

Here is the article quoting Obama from Tuesday.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Cities Deal With a Surge in Shantytowns Tuesday night, President Obama was asked directly about the tent cities and responded by saying that it was “not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours.” Hoovervilles, illegal encampments of homeless people that are reminiscent, on a far smaller scale, of Depression-era shantytowns. These are able-bodied folks that did day labor, at minimum wage or better, who were previously able to house themselves based on their income,” said Michael Stoops, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless “That’s all part of that underground economy,” Mr. Barfield said. “It’s what happens when a person is trying to survive.”

A shopping-cart tent is not good enough.

This story made me cry this morning. My President said last week, its "not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours." That's what I'm saying. When we know we may not be in the greatest of ways as a nation, but we do have enough, enough for everyone, enough that children and entire families should have a real roof over their head, and maybe a real window to look through as a child does homework, not a zipper slit.

It is also a testament to childrens' optimism. She knows its not really a room, but she can justify living like that because of her more abstract understanding of things. If she can keep the attitude and optimism she will do good things in the world.

clipped from marketplace.publicradio.org Kiyomi: It's kind of like my own little room, because I have my bed and then I have, I can put my stuff here and then I have a window. It's like a room. Magee, her husband, two children, and two grandchildren have all been homeless since November, when her husband lost his job as a trucker. For her daughter, 11-year-old Kiyomi, the EDAR serves as a place to do homework, draw, and to escape from the routine at the shelter. Selmia Magee zips open the canvas flap of her EDAR unit and peeks outside. Last night, she slept on the floor of the chapel at an overcrowded homeless shelter on LA's Skid Row. The 7 foot-long tent is suspended inches off the cold ground by wheels. Its floor is a thin, firm mattress. Its ceiling, a beige water-proof canvas, is four feet tall. Selmia Magee: And it has like these little windows that you can open up, right? And then you can just feel the mattresses, it's really nice.

90-year-old Feminists keep'n it Real

This is a touching story.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Having a Bat Mitzvah in Their 90s Because It’s a Hoot The women grew up in the shadow of the Great Depression, when bar mitzvah ceremonies for boys were weekly affairs but Jewish girls came of age without notice or fanfare. “Most people in their 90s, they just eat their three meals a day and are happy to be alive,” Rabbi Kutner said. “I think this shows that at any age you can set a challenge and meet it.” A self-described “feminist all my life,” Evelyn Bonder, 90, said she “always thought girls should have the chance to participate” in something that Conservative, Orthodox and Reform congregations embraced in stages. “These women have spent their entire lives nurturing other people, and now the spotlight is finally on them,” Rabbi Kutner said. “You’re doggone right we’re feisty,” Ms. Agin said at one point. Ms. Agin said: “My daughter had a bat mitzvah. But it was on a Friday instead of a Saturday. It wasn’t held inside the synagogue, and she wasn’t allowed to read from the Torah.”

The Hungry American

Just in. Part II of Michael Pollan's letter to the next president.

clipped from www.nytimes.com “This has never been just about business,” said Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of Stonyfield Farm, the maker of organic yogurt. “We are here to change the world. We dreamt for decades of having this moment.” After being largely ignored for years by Washington, advocates of organic and locally grown food have found a receptive ear in the White House, which has vowed to encourage a more nutritious and sustainable food supply. In mid-February, Tom Vilsack, the new secretary of agriculture, took a jackhammer to a patch of pavement outside his headquarters to create his own organic “people’s garden.” Two weeks later, the Obama administration named Kathleen Merrigan, an assistant professor at Tufts University and a longtime champion of sustainable agriculture and healthy food, as Mr. Vilsack’s top deputy.

Michael Pollan's Letter to the Next President WIN

If you haven't read Michael Pollan's letter to the next president, you should. http://tinyurl.com/4s7w5p It really is a progressive message to the world and to Americans that we can be independent and healthy and take a lesson from our first family.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House its most important role [ ]will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern. Virtually the entire Obama family, including the president, will pull weeds, “whether they like it or not,” Mrs. Obama The total cost of seeds, mulch and so forth is $200, said Sam Kass, an assistant White House chef. “There’s nothing really cooler,” Mrs. Obama said, “than coming to the White House and harvesting some of the vegetables and being in the kitchen with Cris and Sam and Bill, and cutting and cooking and actually experiencing the joys of your work.”

Fwd: Idaho Human Rights

yay! I retreived this e-mail so you lucky people could read the origional.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Diana Painter <dianamarie13@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:52:40 -0600
Subject: Idaho Human Rights
To: dianamarie13.blogit@blogspot.com

I am sitting at a truckstop in Hayward, Idaho, halfway between P-town
and Twin Falls. I am thinking just what Idaho is, and what it is
really made of. Is it this? Is it made of glass flowers 50% off or
ceramic cowboy boots and Betty Boop figurines? Is it dirty trucks and
grey landscapes? Usually I would disagree. I had a great weekend
filled with good news about the world's improvements stories of warm
fuzzies and charitable people . Then using our great technology while
at the truck stop, I got an e-mai that put me back in fighting mode.

Its a sick sad world when the group that calls itself the Idaho Human
Right Comission doesn't do anything about human rights in this state.

The movie "Milk" last night showed how 30 years ago, before I was even
born, people believed that protecting human beings from being
discriminated against and being denied housing or stable employment
just for the perception of being gay, was an important issue.

Here we are in Idaho, 30 years later and the Human Right Comission
won't do a thing about the discrimination that has been going on for
30 years.

Sick, sick, sick. And the state wonders why there is a "brain drain"
in Idaho. The IHRC is an example of just where they need a little
brain these days.

*le sigh*
http://citydesk.boiseweekly.com/2009/02/idaho-human-rights-commissions-big-but.html

A Good News Day Part 2

Also in the "good news" of the day, there is the story from the NYTimes about how the incident in Ireland by the "real IRA" actually brought people together. This is what Peace looks like.
It was the first thing I read this morning when I woke up and has made for a very good day filled with hope, but unfortunately not much homework.

Palestine and Israel, and Pakistan and India both could learn from this. There is hope for our future. I feel Peace is on the rise again.

When I was in Detroit in 2006 there was a Human Rights exhibit at the Ford Museum, I went 3 days in a row and have visited replicas of the places where some of the history was made. One was a lunch counter like the ones there used to be sit-ins at. Another was THE bus Rosa Parks was on, all restored. One of the most moving and simple exhibits was a contrast of the "White" vs. "Colored" hospital waiting rooms. It was terrifying to see the contrast. I think comparing the emergency rooms of the different classes these days could also be so terrifying. Just think Oakland versus Silicone Valley. Disparity still goes on, but in different ways.

Another neat exhibit was of the jail cells that women were put in when they were arrested for picketing Wilson for suffrage. The jail cell is an icon in history for many reasons. Union activists, civil rights activists, and peace activists have all made the pilgrimage to jail. It is not glamorous; it is anything but. It is the depth of impurity and control that activist are reacting against.

The Colvin story reminds me of just how real these events are; something more people need a physical experience to know. If more people could touch and feel what it was like, I think they would feel better connected to our past.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Intended to Incite, Irish Killings Draw Former Enemies Together The Irish Republican Army dissidents who shocked Northern Ireland this week by killing two British soldiers and a policeman within a 48-hour period have made no secret of their ambition to ignite a new wave of sectarian bloodletting. But as formerly sworn enemies filed into a provincial church on Friday to mourn as one, the funeral of the slain policeman provided the latest and most powerful demonstration of the ways in which the province’s people and its leaders have united against a return to the violence that racked Northern Ireland for 30 years. Rallies that drew thousands to silent vigils this week in Belfast and other major towns across the north, and dozens of interviews across the province, suggested that the old antagonists remain determined to settle their future in peace. Some who were there said that never in Ireland’s modern history had there been quite such an improbable gathering of old foes.

Good News Day part 1

This story reminds me that it is young people making a difference and always has been. Plus, this story makes me happy to be alive because I appreciate what my predecessors have done for human rights. It takes small and large actions for things to change.

clipped from www.npr.org Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin "We couldn't try on clothes," Colvin says. "You had to take a brown paper bag and draw a diagram of your foot ... and take it to the store. Most people know about Parks and the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott that began in 1955, but few know that there were a number of women who refused to give up their seats on the same bus system. Most of the women were quietly fined, and no one heard much more. Colvin was the first to really challenge the law. Author Phil Hoose couldn't get over that there was this teenager, nine months before Rosa Parks When asked why she is little known and why everyone thinks only of Rosa Parks, Colvin says the NAACP and all the other black organizations felt Parks would be a good icon because "she was an adult. They didn't think teenagers would be reliable."

Isn't this cute...

Rich people are imitating the poor and finally learning lessons they should have used in grade school like not to show off, live within your means, and give to charity.

And I thought grunge was a trickle up style.

clipped from www.nytimes.com the recession has aimed its death ray not just at the credit market, the Dow and Detroit, but at the very ethos of conspicuous consumption. “I think this economy was a good way to cure my compulsive shopping habit,” Maxine Frankel, 59, a high school teacher from Skokie, Ill., said as she longingly stroked a diaphanous black shawl at a shop in the nearby Chicago suburb of Glenview. “It’s kind of funny, but I feel much more satisfied with the things money can’t buy, like the well-being of my family. I’m just not seeking happiness from material things anymore.” Not everyone thinks the new restraint will last. Ms. Riley, 37, who lives in Atlanta, said she doubted it would extend beyond the recession. clipped from www.nytimes.com “It’s disrespectful to the people who don’t have much to flaunt your wealth,” said Monica Dioda Hagedorn "but particularly now I see it as the right thing, as the moral thing to do,"she felt a responsibility to cut needless spending.

Stimulus and Higher Education

This was a great article that helped me see what was in the bill for higher education. Go to the website and check out the comparison between the House and Senate Bills, It is easy to read and useful in understanding the changes.

clipped from www.insidehighered.com he compromise economic stimulus bill crafted by Congress (the bill text is now available, here and here), the compromise legislation would deliver a total of $53.6 billion in new aid to states over the next two years. About $30 billion in new funds would flow to students and their families in 2009 and 2010, about $17 billion in the form of increased Pell Grants and $13 billion in expanded higher education tax credits he final package allots roughly $16 billion to several federal agencies for research grants and facilities over two years, That includes $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health ($8.5 billion for research grants and $1.5 billion to renovate university facilities), $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, and $2 billion for science and research programs at the Energy Department.