Archive for April 27th, 2007

Friday, April 27th, 2007

2007-04-27 Link-O-Rama

I'm still drafting a post about my thoughts regarding 4/24, so a Link-O-Rama for your weekend will have to do:

  • Heading Right - How To Tell If You Are An Islamofascist: The post clearly defines for the unitiated what the difference is between moderate, loving Islam and extreme, hateful Islamofacism in a blunt and tasteful way.
  • Real Clear Politics - Is the War on Terror Over?: Victor Davis Hanson delivers a karate kick at the voices of denial of a GWOT by writing, "This is a strange war. Our successes in avoiding attack convince some that the real danger has passed. And when we kill jihadists abroad, we are told it is peripheral to the war or only incites more terrorism." I only picked one paragraph in search of the essence I wanted to convey to get you to please read the whole thing please.

Friday, April 27th, 2007

Serbian miners discover kryptonite.

Fictional or not, Superman had better watch out. We all know that kryptonite doesn’t harm Earthlings, but it does horrible things to Kal-el. According to the Associated Press, it can be found in Serbia:

LONDON (AP) — A mineral recently discovered in Serbia has the same composition as kryptonite — the fictional substance that robs Superman of his powers — the British Museum said Tuesday.

When I first read this, I wondered, “does that mean the recently discovered mineral is fictional too?”

“Towards the end of my research I searched the Web using the mineral’s chemical formula, sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, and was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor from a museum in the film Superman Returns,” Stanley said.

Friday, April 27th, 2007

Robots?

There's a lot of effort and money going into producing 'bots that will do more than skim swimming pools or vacuum floors.  In Japan, for example, they're already beginning to deploy robots in assisted-care and nursing homes.  Of course, the US military is hoping to replace a third of our fighting machines with robotics during the next 20 years.

The war effort may have some great benefits, although tasking robots to care for the elderly and disabled is somewhat disquieting - could we end up in a situation in which some of our most helpless humans are relegated to machine-provided care?

For many, the idealized application of robotics comes from the old television cartoon, "The Jetsons" - in which a more or less humanoid robotic maid handles the mundane household chores.  This has been deemed unlikely to come to pass anytime soon, however, as robotics specialists don't seem too keen on the idea.