There are 5 online users browsing:
0 members and 5 visitors
GoogleBot
» Latest Discussions
Malkavian @ 11-5-09 22:59
Read: 19 Comments: 2
Malkavian @ 11-5-09 01:08
Read: 9 Comments: 0
Malkavian @ 11-3-09 23:53
Read: 11 Comments: 2
Malkavian @ 11-3-09 23:28
Read: 16 Comments: 2
» Recent Articles
Mark @ 10-27-09 09:37
Read: 21 Comments: 3
Malkavian @ 10-24-09 01:41
Read: 16 Comments: 2
|
|
 UPDATED Site Rules and Regulations |
| Posted by Kana - 04-23-08 13:01 - 47 comments |
 |
Due to the impending closing of PoliticalGroove, I've decided to change the rules for this site. This is also spurred by the general lack of activity here, in spite of Tootsieroll_Mifune's best efforts.
In short, I intend to err on the side of free speech here from now on. I will treat you all like adults and let you decide how to behave. Unfortunately, this site doesn't have an ignore feature, so this moderation policy will not be satisfactory to everyone. At least, this site might serve as a place for people to keep in touch until something better comes along.
Keep in mind that I am obliged to follow IPBFree's Terms of Service, which are available here: http://ipbfree.com/home/terms_of_service.html
Here is their list of prohibited content.
| QUOTE | Prohibited Content:
# Warez / Piracy / Hacking / Viruses, or illegal mp3's
# Depictions of Minors/Children (even minimal sexual context is not allowed)
# Adult / Obscene material
# Illegal Drugs / Terrorism
# Derogatory/Slanderous/Racial/Explicit Material
# Sharing of passwords / Serial Numbers / Invasion on privacy / Impersonation of others
# Harassment
# Spam / MLM
# Illegal Conduct of Any Sort
If you create a forum, it is your responsibility to make sure that no content on your forum is braking any of the rules outlined within this document. We expect you to moderate the content of these forums regularly, otherwise your forum will be deleted. |
I don't intend to be overly zealous in monitoring your posts though. I simply don't have the energy to do that at this time. The worst case scenario is that IPBFree will delete the site.
So, take it easy and try to have some fun.
|
Read 632 times - last comment by bill cosby
|
| How To Embed Videos |
| Posted by Kana - 04-22-08 08:51 - 0 comments |
|
This site comes with the ability to embed videos from Youtube, Google Video, and Metacafe. Here's a quick tutorial on how to do it.
Youtube
If the video you want to embed allows embedding, you will find embed HTML code on the video page. But you can't use HTML here. Instead, click "More info" on the youtube video page to reveal an URL field. The URL will look something like this:
| CODE | | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQsOyeIoCig |
All you need is the video ID, which is the part of the URL after the "?v=". So, in this case, the video ID is qQsOyeIoCig.
To post the video here, open up the "OTHER BBCODES" drop down box in the toolbar above your editing window, and choose "Youtube Video". This will insert a youtube tag in your post, like this:
Post your video ID after the youtube tag, like this:
| CODE | | [YOUTUBE]qQsOyeIoCig |
Finally, click "Close all Tags" in the toolbar to automatically add the closing tag.
| CODE | | [YOUTUBE]qQsOyeIoCig[/YOUTUBE] |
Submit the post, and you've got yourself an embedded video. Google VideoEmbedding Google videos is the same process, except you need to use a different part of the URL. Here's an URL for a Google video: | CODE | | http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4468776739824028387&q=kitten&ei=1qINSI6OMYLUlgTypaDFBQ |
Pretty ugly, the part we need is the data between the ?docid= and the &q=. In this case, it's -4468776739824028387.
Use the same process to embed as you did with the Youtube video, only choose "Google Video" from the drop down box instead of Youtube. A GOOGLEVIDEO tag will automatically be added. Paste the video ID after the tag, then hit "Close all Tags"
| CODE | | [GOOGLEVIDEO]-4468776739824028387[/GOOGLEVIDEO] |
And you end up with this. MetacafeMetacafe is one of the newer video sharing sites. It's the host of the wonderful Rudy, the X-Rated African Grey parrot. Here is an URL from Metacafe: | CODE | | http://www.metacafe.com/watch/928362/x_rated_parrot/ |
The part of the URL we need to embed the file here is the part that follows "watch/". So, in this case, we need "928362/x_rated_parrot/"
As with Youtube and Google, choose Metacafe Video from the dropdown box, past in your data, then hit "Close all Tags", so you have something that looks like this:
| CODE |
[METACAFE]928362/x_rated_parrot/[/METACAFE] |
Submit your message, and you've got a swearing parrot. Other BBCODESFeel free to tinker around with the other options under the "OTHER BBCODES" menu. I've tried a few of them, and most don't seem to do anything. There are a few that may be useful, though. The SPOILER tag will hide any text contained in the tags and automatically add spoiler warnings. In order to see the spoiler, the reader will have to highlight the text. This could be very handy when discussing films and television series. Just type in the spoiler, highlight it, then choose Spoiler from the dropdown box. Here's an example: Another interesting tag is "Hidden". If you enclose text in a "Hidden" tag, it will not be displayed in the message. You can't even see it by highlighting the post. However, the text and the tag will be there if you quote the post in a reply. There's an example hidden text at the end of this post. To see it, hit the reply button to quote my post, then check the very bottom. Boo! |
|
Read 102 times - make a comment
|
| Fight for the Right to Hang Laundry |
| Posted by fuzzynavel - 11-19-09 21:54 - 0 comments |
 |
We have negative humidity here; I bought spring-loaded shower rods and hung
them in the shower stalls and you can hang lots of stuff inside on plastic hangers. This helps add moisture to my air too.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/19-9
And I got news for the people who are worried that we look "third-world"....
things will look much worse if you keep bankrupting people for medical bills.
How about taking care of the homeless then? I guess everything's alright
as long as we don't LOOK third-world on the outside. |
|
Read 4 times - make a comment
|
| Idaho prosecutor pleads guilty to stalking his ex |
| Posted by fuzzynavel - 11-10-09 04:21 - 0 comments |
|
Blake Hall, a leading figure in Idaho and national politics for 25 years, was fired Monday as a deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho and has resigned from the Republican National Committee.
****
Idaho Falls police reported that witnesses said Hall disposed of used condoms on the lawn of the woman's house. Nineteen condoms were turned over to police, collected on 10 different dates, according to a police report. Both Hall and his lawyer acknowledged the condoms belonged to him, according to a police report.
STORY>>>> http://www.mcclatchydc.com/254/story/78604.html
 GROSS! |
|
Read 10 times - make a comment
|
| Power (Armor) |
| Posted by Malkavian - 11-5-09 22:59 - 2 comments |
|
A glimpse of the future: Robots aid Japan's elderly residents
By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY
TOKYO — It looks like a scene from Robocop or one of the Terminator movies: A human steps into a sleek robot suit and is miraculously transformed, suddenly capable of astonishing feats of strength.
But this is no sci-fi film — it's a promotional video by Cyberdyne, a Japanese electronics company. It shows an elderly male patient with Parkinson's disease being strapped into a robotic skeleton that, using sensors attached to the wearer's skin, reacts to nerve impulses and moves its "arms" and "legs" accordingly.
The robotic suit, known as the Hybrid Assisted Limb (or HAL), is designed to boost its wearer's strength by a multiple of 10. In July, it allowed the patient at the Seiko En nursing home in Tsurugashima, Japan, to walk for the first time in two years, Cyberdyne CEO Yoshiyuki Sankai says.
"I was surprised," Sankai admits. "I expected him to stand up, but not to walk."
From lifelike robots to other devices that will feed you or simply share a chat, Japan's government and gadget-makers are pioneering a wave of products aimed at improving the lives of senior citizens around the world.
Japan is a global leader in electronics and robotics, and its population is aging even faster than the USA's. So much of the technology being unveiled here is likely a preview of what's ahead for American Baby Boomers as they move into their twilight years, says Majd Alwan, director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies, a Washington-based consortium of U.S. technology companies and researchers.
"The aging crisis drove (Japan's) government and scientific community to invest significantly in technologies for the elderly, and robotics in particular," Alwan says.
He says some similar projects are in development in the USA, including research on home assistant robots at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, but nationwide the amount of money and manpower involved is "significantly lower" than in Japan.
Among the products in development in Japan: A robotic bed from Panasonic that transforms into a joystick-controlled wheelchair on the user's spoken command. There's also Riba, a robot nurse disguised as a giant teddy bear, which can lift patients weighing up to 134 pounds.
Those who merely are seeking companionship can turn to the robotic, seal-like pet known as Paro, which will hit U.S. stores before Christmas.
HAL will make its debut in the United States on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) in Chicago. The robotic suit has yet to find broad appeal in Japan — it's expensive, at $2,400 for a month's rental, and some users say they find it uncomfortable to wear.
Still, Alwan is among those who think HAL's production costs will come down, and that it has potential for broad commercial use in the U.S. and elsewhere.
"If this technology had been available, probably my mother would not have had to spend the last four years of her life bed-ridden," Alwan says. Other products hold similar promise, he says, calling Japan "the world leader in this field."
Machines as caregivers
Japan's competitive advantage in robotics began in the 1970s, when industrial robots were first developed to cut personnel costs, says Shoichi Hamada of the Japan Robot Association, an industry group. He counts at least 20 companies working in the elderly-care robot field now, and says the Japanese government elected in August has promised to help researchers get their products into the marketplace more quickly.
The idea of relying on inanimate caregivers has caused some misgivings in Japan, where 22.5% of the population is older than 65, compared with about 9% in the USA. The Health and Welfare Ministry in the nation of 127 million people announced in September that the number of those older than 100 had reached a record — 40,399.
"We have to ask whether it's good to let machines be caregivers, and many say that people should be looking after other people," Hamada says. "But the fact is that there will be more people who need care, and less people to provide it."
That argument is echoed by Sankai, HAL's creator. A science fiction aficionado with long hair and tinted glasses, he named HAL after the sinister supercomputer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The name of his company, Cyberdyne, is itself an homage to the fictional firm behind the killer machines in the Terminator series.
Yet Sankai says one of his biggest challenges is to help potential customers overcome a distrust of gadgets engendered by images such as that of a robotic Arnold Schwarzenegger gunning down police.
"Unfortunately, most science fiction shows technology attacking humans," Sankai says. He hopes to push both technology and popular attitudes toward the more "peaceful" image of AstroBoy, the Japanese robot hero whose Hollywood version is now showing in U.S. movie theaters.
The search for a user-friendly image led Japanese robot scientist Takanori Shibata all the way to Newfoundland, Canada, where he spent time filming and recording harp seals.
The final result, after 15 years of development and $15 million of mostly government funding, is Paro — a fuzzy, seal-like robot. The device, which is about the size of a large cat, is intended for seniors who are unable to care for real pets because they're either too frail or they're in a place such as a nursing home that forbids animals.
If you hold and pet Paro, tactile sensors under its fur make it interact — by moving its tail, or closing its eyes. Audio sensors allow Paro to respond to its name, greetings and praise. If it feels ignored, you'll hear a life-like cry.
The key, Shibata says, is to persuade the owner to "accept Paro as a living thing."
At a minimum price of $3,800, the device is still out of reach for many. But it has won converts at the Vinson Hall Retirement Community in McLean, Va., where four Paros have been in trials for therapeutic use since 2007.
Paros have helped calm anxious residents, coax smiles and communication from the depressed, and provide company for the lonely, says CEO and retired rear admiral Kathleen Martin. "You forget it's a robot," Martin says. "Some people think it's almost a baby, and that's a good thing, as it elicits a few little memories" from residents' younger days.
The desire for a servant
Robots are commonplace in Japanese popular culture, from relatively low-tech Hello Kitty and Ifbot dolls to Sony's AIBO, a robot dog so beloved by some owners that they make birthday cakes for their metallic pooches.
The biggest challenge now facing Japanese technology companies is to produce more practical devices, says Tim Hornyak, the Canadian author of Loving the Machine, a book about Japan's robot world.
He says the "Holy Grail" of Japanese developers has long been "to produce AstroBoy — a humanoid, companion robot." Hornyak says such a robot is likely possible in the long run, but he worries that pursuit of a Jetsons-style "servant robot in the household. .. has blinded (Japanese companies) to more common, useful possibilities."
That's partially because it's what many Japanese consumers seem to want.
At Tokyo's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, science guide Masami Terada says she wants a housemaid robot to cook for and watch over her 94-year-old grandmother.
"She's forgetting how to cook, and is alone when I am at work," Terada says. "I wish the government could increase funding into robots."
Tomoaki Kasuga, CEO of the robotics firm Speecys Corp. in central Tokyo, is among those exploring more viable products. Since helping design AIBO several years ago, he has moved on to a product he calls the "walking PC."
Speecys describes the two-legged SPC101C, in development for four years, as the world's first Internet robot. Responding to verbal commands, the device can read aloud e-mail, surf the Web, broadcast news channels and even dance on a desktop, Kasuga says.
"Elderly people don't want to type on a PC, so voice communication is more important. Think of it like a new PC, but with arms and legs, not a keyboard," he says.
Speecys plans to launch the device next year at a retail cost of $500 to $1,000. There are still a few kinks to be worked out with the design. "People like humanoid-type robots but, functionally, walking is unstable," Kasuga explains, so the final product may boast wheels instead of legs.
Not everyone's onboard
There are similar reservations about HAL, the robotic suit. At the Momiyamakai Elderly Care Facility, a two-hour train ride from Tokyo, HAL has been in trial use since September — with mixed results.
"I don't want to use it again," complains Takebuta Yunko, 77, a wheelchair user. Strapping on HAL's limbs took her about 30 minutes. "It was hard to walk because of all the stuff around my legs. I felt I was about to fall," she says.
Her therapist, Motohiro Fukui, says the device restricts motion, thus affecting balance.
At first, "I feared my job would be taken away," Fukui says. "Having seen HAL, I feel confident there will still be jobs for me."
Mitsuhiro Sakamoto, Cyberdyne's chief operating officer, compares using HAL to riding a bicycle and says most users eventually catch on. A dozen HAL suits have been leased in Japan since January, and another 30 have been ordered, he says. The company plans to begin selling it in the USA within 18 months.
HAL has received $5.5 million in research funding from Japan's government, which sees robotics as a growth industry in Japan, Western Europe, the United States and other countries that are aging quickly.
"We are following the government's objective to create and develop this technology that might help create jobs and be exported abroad," Sakamoto says.
The device certainly has its fans. Tomonori Kaneko, a caregiver at the nursing home where Cyberdyne filmed the promotional video, says he watched in awe on July 1 as HAL enabled not only the Parkinson's patient, but another man with a spinal cord injury to walk again.
"I was really surprised," Kaneko says. "But I think that he was more surprised than we were."
Contributing: Chie Matsumoto
Source |
|
Read 19 times - last comment by Malkavian
|
| Beer here! Cause and solution |
| Posted by Malkavian - 11-5-09 01:08 - 0 comments |
|
Beer with extra buzz on tap up to 16%
By Jessica Leving, USA TODAY
A growing number of states are moving to allow higher alcohol content in beer, despite concerns from some substance-abuse experts.
Alabama and West Virginia have passed laws increasing the legal alcohol-by-volume cap for beer from 6% to as high as 13.9% this year. Similar efforts are underway in Iowa and Mississippi, two states with very restrictive limits on the sale of high-alcohol beer, said Sean Wilson, former president of Pop the Cap, North Carolina's successful grass-roots effort that raised the state's limit in 2005.
The average alcohol content in beer is 4.65%, and in wine 11.45%, according to a 2002 study by the Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville, Calif.
Twenty states still place some kind of limit on the amount of alcohol in beer, Wilson said.
Paul Gatza, director of the national Brewers Association based in Boulder, Colo., said limiting alcohol content restricts flavors and styles because "you can't put as much malt or other sugars in your beer as you may want to."
Some efforts to change beer laws are led by consumers, Gatza said. In Iowa, for example, the Iowa Brewers Guild and a consumer group called Lift the Limit are working to change the state's law on alcohol content in beer, Guild President David Coy said.
David Rosenbloom, president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in N.Y., said the more alcohol, "the faster you get drunk and the longer you stay drunk. ... There's no evidence that people will drink less, or fewer beers."
Chuck Hurley, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said, "Our chief concern is that (higher-alcohol brews) be properly labeled so people understand it takes fewer beers to become intoxicated."
Gatza said consumers of specialty or microbrewed beers, also known as craft beers, "don't drink to get drunk. They drink to appreciate the flavors." Ohio was among the first to raise beer alcohol-content rules when it pushed the allowable alcohol-by-volume to 12% in 2002, Gatza said. Georgia followed in 2004, then North Carolina in 2005 and South Carolina in 2007.
Alabama passed the Gourmet Beer Bill in May, state Rep. Thomas Jackson said. The bill increased the cap from 6% to 13.9%.
West Virginia upped its maximum legal alcohol content for beer in April from 6% to 12%.
Vermont raised the cap to 16% and Montana to 14% last year.
Craft beers, typically stronger, tend to be more expensive. An average case of Budweiser costs $17.76, according to Information Resources, a market research group. Midrange higher-alcohol beers cost $24-$40 per case, Gatza said.
Source |
|
Read 9 times - make a comment
|
| Today in history: |
| Posted by Malkavian - 11-3-09 23:53 - 2 comments |
|
Today in history: Dog becomes first creature sent into space
On Nov. 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, a one-way, history-making trip for a dog named Laika.
Laika, a stray picked up off the streets of Moscow, became the first living creature to orbit the Earth.
Her heart rate soared and within hours -- not days as the Soviet Union led the world to believe -- she died of overheating and stress, the BBC reported in 2002 after new evidence was revealed at the World Space Congress.
Laika and two other dogs, Albina and Mushka, underwent training prior to launch, including high-altitude flights and being kept in smaller and smaller cages. Laika was not just her name, but also what Russians called a northern breed known for their endurance. The "laikas" are also known as Karelian Bear Dogs, according to the American Kennel Club, and remains one of the most popular breeds in Finland, where it originated.
What do you think of animals being used for science?
Source |
|
Read 11 times - last comment by Malkavian
|
| Honor Killing |
| Posted by Malkavian - 11-3-09 23:28 - 2 comments |
|
Goddamn tribals!
Ariz. woman allegedly hit with car by Iraqi father dies
PEORIA, Ariz. — A 20-year-old woman from Iraq has died of injuries sustained in what prosecutors are calling an "honor killing."
Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, of Glendale, Ariz., is accused of running over his daughter, Noor Almaleki, and another woman in his Jeep Cherokee because he was infuriated with his daughter for becoming "too Westernized."
Noor Almaleki died Monday of injuries she received during the Oct. 20 attack.
Peoria police said charges against Almaleki, who is in a Maricopa County jail on two counts of aggravated assault, will be upgraded, though a spokesman wasn't sure what the exact charges would be.
Social experts say honor killings are an accepted practice in Iraqi tribal society, where family members feel they must kill a woman who shames them by not adhering to traditional Muslim or Iraqi values.
Family members said Almaleki was outraged after his daughter married a man in Iraq but returned to the Valley to live with a boyfriend and his mother in Surprise. The other victim, 43-year-old Amal Edan Khalaf, is apparently the boyfriend's mother.
Police said Almaleki fled the country after the attack, driving to Mexico and later taking a plane to London. He was detained by British authorities and extradited to Atlanta last week.
Speaking before a Maricopa County judge over the weekend, county prosecutor Stephanie Low said Almaleki has admitted purposefully running down his daughter.
"By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family," Low said. "This was an attempt at an honor killing."
Almaleki did not address the accusations and spoke only to ask the judge about getting a court-appointed attorney.
Low said additional family members are suspected of assisting Almaleki in his escape.
"We can't be naive and ignore that there's a cultural aspect to this and there may be people who would support him, including his family, but also others who share his beliefs," she said.
Citing Almaleki's flight, Low asked the judge to take special precautions to prevent him from running again. Bail was set at $5 million.
Calls to Almaleki's family members were not returned Monday.
Police said the Almalekis moved to Peoria from Iraq in the mid-1990s.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Source |
|
Read 16 times - last comment by Malkavian
|
|
Portal
Script Execution time: 0.3373 
10 queries used 
GZIP Enabled