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Friday, July 27, 2007
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NASA Astronauts Guilty of Space DUI
Current mood:  amused
Category: News and Politics
One can only wonder who would actually write the citation? I keep envisioning Marvin the Martian pulling over the capsule mid-space, pointing his model x39634 space demodulator at the crew, and telling the Captain to blow into a tube to determine his BAC. On second thought, maybe this information is all a ploy to lauch a new hit reality TV series: "So You Want To Be An Astronaut?" M NASA Shaken by Sabotage, Drinking Claims America's space agency was shaken Thursday by two startling and unrelated reports: One involved claims that astronauts were drunk before flying. The other was news from NASA itself that a worker had sabotaged a computer set for delivery to the international space station. It was just another jolt for an operation that has had a rocky year from the start, beginning with the arrest of an astronaut accused of attacking a rival in a love triangle. "It's going to shake up the world, I'll tell you that," retired NASA executive Seymour Himmel said of the latest news. "There will be congressional hearings that you will not be able to avoid." News of the two latest bombshells broke within just a few hours of each other Thursday afternoon. Aviation Week & Space Technology reported on its Web site that a special panel studying astronaut health found that on two occasions, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a safety risk. The independent panel also found "heavy use of alcohol" before launch — within the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule, the magazine reported. A NASA official confirmed the report contains such details, but said they were from anonymous interviews and not substantiated. The official asked that his name not be used because NASA will discuss the health report on Friday. The Aviation Week story did not say how long ago the alleged incidents took place, nor did it say whether it involved pilots or other crew members. At a news conference to discuss the upcoming space shuttle launch set for Aug. 7, NASA's space operations chief was asked repeatedly about the drunken astronaut report. The manager, Bill Gerstenmaier, would only say that he had never seen an intoxicated astronaut before flight or been involved in any disciplinary action related to that. But Gerstenmaier had more news. He revealed that an employee for a NASA subcontractor had cut the wires in a computer that was about to be loaded into the shuttle Endeavour for launch. The subcontractor, which he wouldn't name, contacted NASA 1 1/2 weeks ago, as soon as it learned that another computer had been damaged deliberately, Gerstenmaier said. Had the contractor not discovered the problem, NASA would have uncovered it by testing the computer before launch, Gerstenmaier said. Safety was not an issue, he added. He refused to speculate on the worker's motive. He also wouldn't say where the sabotage occurred. He said it did not happen in Florida and had nothing to do with an ongoing strike at the Kennedy Space Center by a machinists' union. NASA hopes to fix the computer in time for launch next month. It's intended to be installed inside the space station to collect data from strain gauges on a major outside beam. Himmel, who retired in 1981 as associate director for what is now Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, wasn't surprised to learn the information was anonymous. "Let's face it. Astronauts are a bunch of brothers and sisters, OK, and they'll cover each other's backsides because they're part of the team," he said. "And who knows what the role of the particular ones was to be. If he was just to sit in the middle seat somewhere and just be a passenger, you kind of say, 'Well, gee, I hope he doesn't vomit on the way up.'" The independent panel reviewing astronaut health and NASA's psychological screening process was created following the arrest in February of former space shuttle flier Lisa Nowak. None of the panel members returned phone calls or e-mails from The Associated Press. Nowak is accused of attacking the girlfriend of a fellow astronaut — her romantic rival — with pepper spray in a parking lot at Orlando International Airport. Fired by NASA in March, she has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault. The scandal was followed by a freak hailstorm that tore into a space shuttle on the launch pad that set back the year's flight schedule. Then there was a shooting at Johnson Space Center in Houston by an employee who ultimately killed himself. Himmel questions whether any screening or rules could weed out astronauts like Nowak. "I have personal friends who are psychiatrists and they say, 'Look, we don't know what the hell goes on and you can't really evaluate somebody overnight,'" he said. As for astronauts who might overindulge before flight, if they're former fighter or test pilots, "it's a pretty hard-living bunch and it's a very emotionally intense thing," Himmel said. He said an old NASA colleague who worked closely with test pilots once told him, "Some of these guys are damn near on a razor's edge when they fly and in their home lives. "The thing is that no matter how hard anybody tries, or no matter what system you devise to preclude something, there's always somebody who will find a way to louse it up," Himmel said. "There's no perfect system."
4:40 AM
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Saturday, June 02, 2007
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Kidnapped German Boy Sparks National Attention
Category: News and Politics
Had this been in America, Fox News would have surely been tracking the vehicle on sky-cam, with Geraldo Rivera live on the scene for the opening of the trunk... M Dwarf Mechanic Mistaken for 'Abducted' BoyGerman police staged a major operation to find a kidnapped child after a woman spotted a "young boy" being locked into a car boot. The panicked woman alerted authorities as the car drove off, and police set up road blocks and dispatched patrol cars to intercept the vehicle. But when the car was finally sighted and stopped, police found the "boy" was actually dwarf car mechanic Klaus "Shorty" Mueller, 27. He had climbed in the boot and asked to be driven around so he could see where a strange rattling noise had been coming from. Police in the northern city of Bremen confirmed a woman had called after she looked out her apartment window and saw a child in the boot - just before the driver slammed it shut and drove off. The spokesman added: "A major investigation and manhunt was immediately launched and the car and its driver were apprehended. It seems the driver had been worried by inexplicable rattling noises in or near his boot. He called a mechanic, who was very small, and who climbed in the boot to get to the bottom of the problem." Police said the mini mechanic had often used the same method to solve the problem and had found it the best way to detect the source of strange noises.
2:13 PM
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Friday, May 25, 2007
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Microsoft Admits It Finally Showed Its Ass
Category: Games
While Grand Theft Auto may have come under fire by regulators for allegedly "hidden" content of a mature nature in a videogame presumably for teens, Microsoft takes cake on this one. However, considering how little videogame characters actually wear, it is possibly underserved that an "accidental" moon alone would render a game to receive the infamous "M" label. M
Halo 2 Release Delayed Because of "Accidental Nudity""It has come to our attention that an unfortunate, obscure content error which includes partial nudity was included in our initial production of Halo 2 for Windows Vista. As such, we have updated the initial game packaging at retailers with a label, so customers are aware before purchasing the game. Additionally, we've developed an online update which can be downloaded from www.halo2.com to remove the content. At Microsoft we take the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) guidelines very seriously and hold ourselves to high standards, with our customers always in mind."
So came the official announcement at halo2.com under the "support" section, with an update that interestingly neglects to explain its contents. The Halo 2 support site states the game's latest update, which repairs this "error," is installed automatically next time you start the game if you're signed into Games For Windows Live!
As it turns out, the error is a photograph of an individual mooning the viewer is accessible within Halo 2 Vista's exclusive map editor tool. Apparently, it pops up when an ".ass" error occurs (no joke!). Microsoft has now applied a "Partial Nudity" sticker as an additional content descriptor on the initial shipment of Halo 2 for Vista in the US and Canada.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), in conjunction, released the following statement: "We have been advised by Microsoft that future runs of the game will be produced without the content in question, thus negating the need for the descriptor to be displayed on those versions. ESRB's job is to ensure that games are appropriately labeled, and that is precisely what we did in this case. We greatly appreciate Microsoft's cooperation in this matter."
One thing Microsoft would not comment on was the actual photo attributed to Halo 2 that showed an error message displaying the said derriere. The ESRB did, however admit "The content in question, although likely to be inaccessible to the vast majority of users, displays a photograph of an individual showing his bare backside to the user when a particular error occurs."
Note: If you find this at all offensive, dont look down. The pic below IS the actual Halo 2 error as shipped from Microsoft.
11:38 PM
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Friday, July 21, 2006
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Bat Boy Found! -- in Sacramento
Category: Life
Given the history of the US government and US intelligence (did I really use those two words together?) abuse of "exceptional" persons (telepaths, etc.), I'd say the kid's screwed the moment that someone sees his ability as having military significance. One day he'll be whisked away by our Men in Black, who will either want him to help train the next generation of militia or will "remove" him from society so that another group or country can't approch him.
M
The Boy Who Sees with Sound
There was the time a fifth grader thought it would be funny to punch the blind kid and run. So he snuck up on Ben Underwood and hit him in the face. Thats when Ben started his clicking thing. I chased him, clicking until I got to him, then I socked him a good one, says Ben, a skinny 14-year-old. He didnt reckon on me going after him. But I can hear walls, parked cars, you name it. Im a master at this game.
Ask people about Ben Underwood and youll hear dozens of stories like this about the amazing boy who doesnt seem to know hes blind. Theres Ben zooming around on his skateboard outside his home in Sacramento; there he is playing kickball with his buddies. To see him speed down hallways and make sharp turns around corners is to observe a typical teen except, that is, for the clicking. Completely blind since the age of 3, after retinal cancer claimed both his eyes (he now wears two prostheses), Ben has learned to perceive and locate objects by making a steady stream of sounds with his tongue, then listening for the echoes as they bounce off the surfaces around him. About as loud as the snapping of fingers, Bens clicks tell him whats ahead: the echoes they produce can be soft (indicating metals), dense (wood) or sharp (glass). Judging by how loud or faint they are, Ben has learned to gauge distances.
The technique is called echolocation, and many species, most notably bats and dolphins, use it to get around. But a 14-year-old boy from Sacramento? While many blind people listen for echoes to some degree, Bens ability to navigate in his sightless world is, say experts, extraordinary. His skills are rare, says Dan Kish, a blind psychologist and leading teacher of echomobility among the blind. Ben pushes the limits of human perception.
Kish has taught echolocation to scores of blind people as a supplement to more traditional methods, such as walking with a cane or a guide dog, but only a handful of people in the world use echolocation alone to get around, according to the American Foundation for the Blind. A big part of the reason Ben has succeeded is his mother, who made the decision long ago never to coddle her son. I always told him, Your name is Benjamin Underwood, and you can do anything, says Aquanetta Gordon, 42, a utilities-company employee. He can learn to fly an airplane if he wants to.
Ben plays basketball with his pals, rides horses at camp and dances with girls at school events. He excels at PlayStation games by memorizing the sounds that characters and movements make. People ask me if Im lonely, he says. Im not, because someones always around or Ive got my cell phone and Im always talking to friends. Being blind is not that different from not being blind.
Ben was just 2 years old when doctors discovered his retinal cancer. Bens first Braille teacher, Barbara Haase, believes the boys ability to see during his first two years helped him develop a sort of map of the physical world, she says. Growing up, Ben got help from his brothers Joe, now 23, and Derius, 19, and sister Tiffany, 18. (His father, Stephen, died in 2002.) They taught him how to find the seams on his clothes so he puts them on right side out, stuff like that, says Aquanetta. But they didnt overdo it.
Aquanetta sent Ben to mainstream schools, where professionals on staff gave him individual attention and taught him to overlook taunts from classmates who waved their hands in his face or snatched food off his tray. The hardest thing for me to accept is rejection, says Ben, who starts ninth grade in the fall. I can tell when someone rejects me in some way. At home his mother let him play with no restrictions. If he fell, she would just say, Oh, he fell, and hed get up and try again, says his kindergarten teacher Ann Akiyama. Ive seen him run full speed into the edge of a big brick column and get back up. He was fearless.
Ben learned how to read Braille and walk with a cane, but when he was 3, he also began teaching himself echolocation, something he picked up by tossing objects and making clicking sounds to find them. His sense of hearing, teachers noticed, was exceptional. One time a CD fell off his desk and I was reaching for it when he said, Nah, I got it, says Kalli Carvalho, his language arts instructor. He went right to it. Didnt feel around. He just knew where it was because he heard where it hit. Haase took walks with Ben to help him practice locating objects. I said, Okay, my car is the third car parked down the street. Tell me when we get there, she says. As we pass the first vehicle, he says, Theres the first car. Actually, a truck. And it was a pickup. He could tell the difference.
Ben was 6 when he decided he wasnt going to use a cane he calls it a stick to get around. You go to school and youre the only one with a stick, whats the first thing some kids going to do? Break it in two, he says. And then where are you? Youre helpless. At times he was even able to come to the aid of people with normal sight. I remember taking him to the park with my son, sister and my nieces, and it got dark, says Akiyama. But Ben had figured out the parks layout, and he led the way out. He was in his element.
Still, Bens zone of maximum comfort remains his familys three-bedroom stucco home where he lives with his mom and brother Isaiah, 11 and the quiet streets around it. Some professionals who work with Ben worry that his near-complete reliance on echolocation could hurt him when he finds himself in unfamiliar settings. Haase wishes he would use a cane to help him gauge, for instance, the depth of a hole. But Ben is sticking to his guns. Hes a rebellious traveler, says Kish, who despite teaching echolocation around the world still occasionally uses a cane. Ben puts himself at risk.
Others believe Bens remarkable abilities will make it easier for him to face new challenges and conquer new surroundings. The world is not going to change for these kids; they need to adapt to it, says Bens eye doctor James Ruben, a Kaiser Permanente ophthalmologist. His mother understood that plenty of sighted people have miserable lives and plenty of unsighted people have happy lives.
Last month Ben widened his horizons even further. The thing Im most scared of is water, he says. But if I had eyes, its what Id most like to see. So on June 25 he took a trip to San Diegos SeaWorld Adventure Park to swim with dolphins and hear how they use echolocation. Waist-deep in a saltwater pool, he immersed one ear as Sandy, a bottle-nosed dolphin, swam toward him. Man, he said, she clicks fast! Ben spent 45 minutes playing with Sandy, touching her teeth and stroking her dorsal fin. Bob McMains, supervisor of SeaWorlds dolphin program, says that in his 23 years there, few people have listened so intently to the sounds the dolphins make. Hes got a gift with dolphins; hes truly unique, says McMains. I told him, once hes 18 hes got a job here anytime.
McMains can get in line. Bens world may be dark, but the most amazing surprises are just a click away. He might become a math teacher or a pro skateboarder or, as his mother believes, just about anything. And wouldnt that make for a truly amazing Ben Underwood story? I tell people Im not blind, he says. I just cant see.
7:20 PM
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Wednesday, July 05, 2006
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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Eat Your Heart Out
Category: Automotive
I will grant you that Herbie was cute, but a VW still lacks all the necessary requirements. If one could add James Bond's front mounted machine guns and a set of Batmobile wings, I'll order one. To think that at one point just owning a Garmon was cool....
M
Golf GTi Drives Itself
German car giant Volkswagen has turned fiction into reality by unveiling a fully automatic car which really can drive itself and at speeds of up to 150mph.
It can weave with tyres screeching around tricky bends and chicanes, and through tightly coned off tracks without any help or intervention from a human.
The remarkable car is the VW Golf GTi 53 plus 1 codenamed after the number 53 which Herbie carried when racing in his big screen adventures.
The GTi has electronic eyes that use radar and laser sensors in the grille to read the road and send the details back to its computer brain. A sat-nav system tracks its exact position with pin-point precision to within an inch.
The car can then work out the twists and turns it has to negotiate before setting off at break-neck speed through a laid out course on a test track.
On a race circuit, it drove itself faster and more precisely than the VW engineers could manage and can accelerate independently up to its top speed of 150mph.
To prove it is no trick, guests were invited to design for themselves a variety of different courses using road cones and then watch the car fly around them on its own at a test track near their world headquarters in Wolfsburg in northern Germany.
The astonishing prototype was developed initially to help Volkswagen engineers test their vehicles.
But in an age when rapidly advancing technology and the Big Brother State is increasingly taking responsibility away from the driver with the onward march of electronic speed limiters, collision avoidance systems, cruise control, satellite navigation, and pay-as-you-drive road tolling the self-driving robot car is not such a distant prospect.
And many of the elements which make up its engine will be making their way into showroom cars within just a few years just as sat-nav, collision avoidance sensors and anti-lock brakes have done in recent years.
A Volkswagen spokesman said: It really is a self-driving Golf. It steers, brakes and accelerates. And it races through handling courses independently. It can accomplish this at full performance and at the limits of its capabilities.
We called it 53 because it is reminiscent of the cinematic Volkswagen bug Herbie, which made history as the first self-driving Volkswagen. This time weve done it for real.
The computer calculates where and at what speed the GTi has clearance between the cones. The GPS satellite enables navigation to within less than an inch.
12:37 AM
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Monday, July 03, 2006
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Computer AI Will Respond to the Emotional Needs of Users
Category: Web, HTML, Tech
Computer AI has certainly come along way from Eliza, but up until now lacked the capacity for an accurate emotioinal response. The question remains if the recent advances in this area border on violating ones hiddenmost secrets -- even from ourselves. Say, for example, you felt the 'urge' for a date, and in response the computer kept bringing up www.sheepusa.org ....
M
Computers That Know How You Feel
A raised eyebrow, quizzical look or a nod of the head are just a few of the facial expressions computers could soon be using to read peoples minds.
An emotionally aware computer being developed by British and American scientists will be able to read an individuals thoughts by analyzing a combination of facial movements that represent underlying feelings.
The system we have developed allows a wide range of mental states to be identified just by pointing a video camera at someone, said Professor Peter Robinson, of the University of Cambridge in England.
He and his collaborators believe the mind-reading computers applications could range from improving peoples driving skills to helping companies tailor advertising to peoples moods.
Imagine a computer that could pick the right emotional moment to try to sell you something, a future where mobile phones, cars and Web sites could read our mind and react to our moods, he added.
The technology is already programmed to recognize different facial expressions generated by actors. Robinson hopes to get more data to determine whether someone is bored, interested, confused, or agrees or disagrees when it is unveiled at a science exhibition in London on Monday.
People visiting the four-day exhibition organized by the Royal Society, Britains academy of leading scientists, will be invited to take part in a study to hone the programs abilities.
The scientists, who are developing the technology in collaboration with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, also hope to get it to accept other inputs such as posture and gesture.
Our research could enable Web sites to tailor advertising or products to your mood, Robinson told Reuters. For example, a webcam linked with our software could process your image, encode the correct emotional state and transmit information to a Web site.
It could also be useful in online teaching to show whether someone understands what is being explained and in improving road safety by determining if a driver is confused, bored or tired.
We are working with a big car company and they envision this being employed in cars within five years, Robinson said, adding that a camera could be built into the dashboard.
Anyone who does not want to give away too much information about what they are feeling, he said, can just cover up the camera.
4:48 AM
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Friday, June 30, 2006
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Up In The Sky: It's a Bird, It's a Plane -- It's a Pig?
Category: Life
Hughes Aircraft perfected a strap-on propulsion engine in the early 1940s. Now, some 60 years later, police will be launched onto buildings using technology that only P.T. Barnum could have forseen. In my book, I think The Rocketeer had it right.
M
DARPA to Use Launching Devices to Thrust Personnel Through Air
Circuses have been amusing crowds by shooting performers out of cannons for a long time. Variations of this can also be found in launchers using elastic cords, trampoline mats and Aircraft seat ejection technology.
The problem with these designs is the unpredictable projectile and the lack of control over the launching device.
US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is considering this concept as a way to catapult police, fire and special force officers on top of buildings in a hurry. The device will consist of a ramp with side rails that will seat the person.
A cylinder will shoot compressed air from under the seat propelling the seat to the end of the rail. The chair will come to a sudden halt, but the very brave person sitting in the chair will not. The expectation is that the person will fly over the edge of the roof and land safely on top of the building.
The DARPA patent adds that a computer can automatically find the correct angle and the appropriate launch speed. It also claims that with this equipment, the total flight time to reach the top of 5-story building will be less than 2 seconds.
For inquiring minds, you can read the actual patent here:
2:34 AM
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Thursday, June 29, 2006
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Japan Proudly Unveils the Hooter Warmer
Category: Fashion, Style, Shopping
America can put a man on the moon, but it takes a company from Japan to develop the first hooter warmer that makes a fashion statement. Now the race is on: who can come out with the first boxers that will keep the nuggets warm and toasty. One can nly wonder if it, too, will feature a chili pepper pendant dangling on its front....
M
Japanese Company Creates Heated Bra
An environmentally conscious Japanese firm has decided to do its part to conserve energy.
Triumph, a leading lingerie company, unveiled a heated bra for winter.
The fluffy creation contains special pads filled with an eco-friendly gel that can be easily heated in a microwave or with a hot water bottle.
The design also includes a furry boa designed to double as a winter scarf.
Being padded, the new bra packs a little more bulk than most regular designs.
The bra, which comes only in white, also features a pendant shaped like a chili pepper dangling on its front. Matching shorts complete the outfit.
The company says the heated bra is not being offered for general sale. Instead the set is being viewed as a prototype product, the first step towards mass-producing eco-friendly clothing.
Japan's government is encouraging people not to set their domestic heating higher than 68his winter, to reduce fuel consumption and conserve energy stocks.
6:15 AM
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4 Comments - 2 Kudos
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Saturday, June 17, 2006
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Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun...
Category: Pets and Animals
If not for the AP Wire, I'd swear this was a knock-off of Monty Python's 'Dead Parrot' routine. One question to contemplate is how much damage can a 4-week old dead chihuahua actually do? If she hid it before the attack, would it have constituted a 'concealed weapon'? At what size or weight does a dead puppy become a 'deadly weapon'? Wait... that was 3 questions. Sorry.
M
Police: Woman Hits Breeder With Chihuahua
A St. Peters, Missouri woman angry that her new puppy had died pushed her way into a dog breeder's home and repeatedly hit her on the head with the dead Chihuahua, authorities said.
The 33-year-old woman told police she had taken the puppy to a veterinarian, who said it was only 4 weeks old and needed to be returned to its mother. But before she could return the puppy, it died.
Early Wednesday, the woman went to the breeder's home, pushed her way inside and began fighting with the breeder as she tried to make her way to the basement to get another puppy, police said.
The breeder wrestled the woman out of her house to the front porch, where the woman then hit the breeder over the head numerous times with the dead puppy, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, citing police.
As the woman drove away, she waved the dead puppy out of the car's sunroof and yelled threats at the breeder, police said. She later called the breeder and threatened her and her family, according to court records.
Police said they are considering felony burglary charges and aggravated assault charges.
4:49 PM
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Parents Use Marijuana for Pre-Teen Behavior Modification
Category: Life
I'm sure it was just an honest mistake. The parents must have taken a course on reinforcing positive behavior and thought they said "tokin' economy" instead of "token economy." There was, unfortunately, no update on how successful they were.
M
Parents Accused of Rewarding Sons With Pot
Police have arrested two Chandler, Arizona parents accused of giving marijuana to their young sons as a reward for good behavior.
Toni Lynn Carlson, 31, and Aaron Virgil Carlson, 23, were booked on suspicion of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia, possessing marijuana for sale, contributing to the delinquency of minors and endangerment, police said Friday.
The couple were taken into custody Thursday night after detectives served a search warrant at their home and found a quarter-pound of marijuana.
Police said the boys ages 12 and 11, and a 4-year-old girl were in the care and custody of a family member.
The investigation began after authorities received tips from a neighbor about the possible usage and sale of drugs at the home, police said.
Detectives didn't know about the family possibly smoking marijuana together until the parents and children were interviewed. Also under investigation is the possibility the Carlsons supplied drugs to other children, police said.
10:33 AM
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