A new phone scam is targeting veterans, apparently in an attempt to steal their identities. The caller starts by asking deployment- and post-deployment-related questions, then a second caller comes on the line and asks for the veteran's Social Security number. "Veterans should be on the alert to not release their Social Security numbers over the phone unless they are certain who they are giving it to and the reason for the release," Les Beavers, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, said in a statement Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Kokaro a division of Sanrio which specializes in robotics has unveiled the Actroid DER2 fembot a successor to the Actroid DER. The Actroid DER2 is a bit thinner and can deliver more expressions, in fact she is so lifelike that you might mistake her for an actual human being. Its limbs, torso and facial expressions are controlled by a system of actuators powered by pneumatic pressure. She can even choreograph her motions and gestures with her voice.
Though not for sale you can rent out the Actroid DER2 fembot for around 400,000 yen (US$3,500) for 5 days.
#5
There is a really good question about what you would do with a humanoid android. Since ordinary tasks can be done better and cheaper by either people or non-humanoid robots.
There is no inherent advantage to a humanoid appearance, except when you want it to interact with humans.
Unless there turns out to be some previously unknown facet of the human psyche that rejects non-humanoid robots, it would probably be far more useful to make robots that look like exotic space aliens.
#6
It's a free-standing animatronic, not really a robot. Disney's had fixed-location animatronics for decades, and a free-standing one (not human, but a dinosaur) for a few years.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/07/2006 19:12 Comments ||
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#7
There is no inherent advantage to a humanoid appearance, except when you want it to interact with humans.
The Japanese have been at the forefront of a part of Artificial Intelligence that involves inferring emotion and meaning from body language and expression as well as from spoken words.
This demo is just that - a demo. The facial expressions are quite good, actually, but the real story here is the underlying work in AI.
Consider that being able to replicate lifelike expression appropriate to verbal meaning is just the flip side of recognizing it in humans. Which means the ability to create AI agents embodied in robots and other systems which can better serve humans by inferring their intent.
In a rapidly aging population with few children, the Japanese are seriously looking to robotics to provide help and care for the elderly. Old folks don't want care from a tin can on wheels, they will want to interact with something that at least gives the similitude of human expression.
As an aside, my own research includes work in AI as it applies to understanding human language. When you and I speak or write, we use metaphors, short-hand phrases, sometimes we deliberately (in puns) or inadvertently use ambiguous wording. It's features like that that make natural language processing a hard problem.
The sub-field of AI that looks at expressions and body language as augmenting verbal communication is one way of making natural language understanding by software agents a little more accurate.
steps down and apologetically puts soap box away then slips into the crowd again
#2
Maybe it should try an Araboc language addition.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/07/2006 2:17 Comments ||
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#3
Excerpted without comment...
Mr. July's exit was covered in the French media as the end of an era, a French version of the Japanese seppuku, or ritual suicide, by a man who represented a more uncorrupted, hopeful France.
Since Mr. July left, some of Libération's best-known reporters have quit, including Florence Aubenas, who was held hostage in Iraq for six months in 2005. They have invoked the "conscience clause" in French law that requires media owners to continue paying the salary of journalists whose honor is offended by the owners' policies or politics.
#4
The death of libération will be much, much, much welcome... think of it as a french "guardian", except in a more militant and liberal-limousine way; anyway, most of the big (fat) newspapers in France are directly supported by the State, either through direct grants, or through State-monopolies' advertising... only the "thought-crimes" press is not aided. The commie rag "l'humanité" has been on virtual life-support for so long I can't even remember when it started (in the 90's, I'd say).
The press in France is thus either dependent of the State, or owned by big corporations making their living from the State (public construction and arms dealers), and presided by enarchs. So, don't expect it to diverge from the Party Line.
Anyway, libération is not read anymore, except by a limited readership of civil servants (mostly in the public education); it always was an holier-than-you, subversive, lecturing newspaper... for example, back in the late 70's, it was a proponent of pedophilia before it became unfashionable... july is a disgusting man, a 60's violent maoist turned big fat capitalist all the while staying a leftist. Barf. libération ("collaboration") was co-founded by sartre, that should tell you something.
Bon débarras!
#7
They have invoked the "conscience clause" in French law that requires media owners to continue paying the salary of journalists whose honor is offended by the owners' policies or politics.
That is the funniest line I've read in weeks. It just made my day. It's like shooting yourself in the ear to hear the sound better.
Two Iraq war veterans have accused Democratic congressional candidate Patrick Murphy of mischaracterizing what he did in that war-torn country. The charge provoked an angry response from Murphy, who charged incumbent Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, R-8, with trying to swiftboat him.
Even Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., whose military record was attacked in his 2004 presidential bid, entered the fray Friday by releasing a statement blasting Fitzpatrick for holding a press conference where Murphy's military record was criticized.
At the press conference in Newtown Township with Fitzpatrick, U.S. Air Force Major Kevin Kelly said Murphy, a former Army captain and paratrooper, has misled voters by claiming on the campaign trail he spent his time in Iraq dodging bullets and disarming improvised explosive devices. Murphy was not a frontline fighter, said Kelly, a Philadelphia resident who served in Iraq as an F-16 pilot from January 2006 to May 2006.
U.S. Army Capt. Richard Barbato, who served in the 82nd Airborne, the same division as Murphy, joked that Murphy was always back at the unit's headquarters while the rest of the unit's soldiers were fighting. While we were up on the front lines ... [Murphy] didn't see the same things we did, Barbato said.
Barbato also refuted Murphy's frequent claims that soldiers didn't feel they had a clear mission in Iraq. We had a clear mission, said Barbato, who served throughout Iraq from February 2003 to October 2003. Myself and my fellow paratroopers, we understood it.
After the press conference, Fitzpatrick said he disagreed with the veterans. In no way, shape or form would I ever question Pat Murphy's service to our country, said Fitzpatrick, who is not a military veteran. I recognize and appreciate Pat's service to our country as much as anyone in our community.
As far as his military service in Iraq, I take him fully at his word, Fitzpatrick added.
Murphy, contacted later in the day, said that Fitzpatrick should be held accountable for the statements by those veterans since Fitzpatrick did not immediately renounce them at the press conference organized by his campaign.
Except for the immediate prior statement.
Mike Fitzpatrick has a campaign event attacking my service, Murphy said. That's what he did, no matter how he wants to paint it now.
Friday afternoon, Murphy's campaign released a statement that said Fitzpatrick was attempting to swiftboat Murphy's military record. Swiftboat is a reference to the Swift Boat veterans of the Vietnam War who formed a political organization that attacked Kerry's record in 2004. For a sitting congressman to make baseless accusations about my service shows he is willing to put political ambitions ahead of the truth, Murphy said in the statement. A man with any courage would apologize to the thousands of brave men and women currently serving our country in Iraq.
In 2000, George Bush stood in silence while John McCain's service was questioned, said Kerry in his own statement. It was wrong then, it is wrong now for Mike Fitzpatrick to engage in the same double-speak. What is it these Republicans who never served have against Democrats who did?
I have news for Mike Fitzpatrick. In war, bullets don't differentiate between lawyers and medics, enlisted men and officers, Kerry said.
In a phone interview Friday after the press conference, Fitzpatrick stressed that he has never questioned Murphy's service in Iraq and said the purpose of the press conference was to criticize Murphy's withdrawal plan from Iraq, not the Democrat's military record.
According to Murphy's military records, he served seven months as a paratrooper and a regimental judge advocate, advising on the legalities of combat operations, overseeing Iraqi courts and police stations and prosecuting American soldiers for drug use and abuse of Iraqi prisoners. He said the warehouse 14 miles south of Baghdad where his brigade was headquartered frequently came under mortar and sniper fire.
Fitzpatrick's district represents the residents of Bucks County, some districts of Abington, Upper Dublin and Upper Moreland in Montgomery County and two wards in Philadelphia.
#1
I have news for Mike Fitzpatrick. In war, bullets don't differentiate between lawyers and medics, enlisted men and officers, Kerry said
"shrapnel doesn't now it's your own buttocks you're firing into....er.....why, how DARE you question my unreleased records and notes! Look at this hat. You can tell it's lucky! Bears witness to the truthiness of ...er.."
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/07/2006 12:32 Comments ||
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#2
This Bucks County voter will vote for Fitzpatrick, once again.
May I add that all democrats suck ?
#1
"Traditional" breaking of ramadan here include spontaneous riots by joyful Youths, don't know if the Moderate Muslims are entrenched enough in the USA to do the same (and I don't know if the response from the authorities would be as passive, too, not to mention armed citizens...).
#3
I haven't lived here for very long, but I think SF would greet random violence and senseless destruction of property with understanding and empathy.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/07/2006 12:41 Comments ||
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#4
I certainly hope the local FBI is participating fully in these visitations, placing bugs and micro cameras every place they can get to.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Libération, a newspaper created following the French student revolt of 1968, is facing a financial crisis.
