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The Commission on Presidential Debates announced a major change to the second presidential debate scheduled for Oct. 15: it will take place virtually. “The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which the candidates would participate from separate remote locations,” a statement said. The moderator, Steve Scully of C-SPAN, will be located at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami, Florida, along with participants. “The White House Pool will provide coverage of the second presidential debate,” the statement concluded. The news comes after President Trump’s diagnosis with COVID-19. He...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Democrats will try their first large-scale virtual convention starting Monday in Texas as plans for a traditional national convention this summer remain unsettled because of the coronavirus. Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are among the scheduled speakers in Texas. Democrats in Minnesota had also planned on holding their state convention online this weekend but postponed amid unrest over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer used his knee to pin Floyd’s neck down for several minutes as Floyd pleaded for air and eventually stopped...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Joe Biden will close out Texas Democrats' virtual convention next month that was moved online over fears of the coronavirus. The announcement Thursday rounds out an unusual slate of big names that Texas Democrats have rounded up for their state convention. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will also speak at the weeklong event via video. Democrats are redoubling efforts in Texas this year after gaining ground in the nation's biggest red state in 2018. A major target for them is the Texas House, where Democrats need...

“They introduce me? Am I on?” Thus began Joe Biden’s speech during a glitchy, stilted “virtual town hall” set in Tampa, Florida so plagued by technical problems that made the former vice president’s event look like it was run by local seniors attempting Zoom for the first time. The YouTube event began with a series of Florida politicians attempting to introduce Biden - when their livestreams worked. Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo’s speech was marred by lag and audio glitches. Rep. Charlie Crist’s (D-Fla.) video abruptly cut out as he was speaking. For a long stretch between speakers, the...

Churchill Downs announced April 23 that it will conduct a virtual running of the Kentucky Derby during a telecast on NBC on May 2 from 3-6 p.m. ET on the traditional day of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). Called the "The Kentucky Derby: Triple Crown Showdown," the virtual race is a computer-simulated version of the American classic, which was postponed this year due to COVID-19 from its traditional running on the first Saturday in May until Sept. 5.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Opposition lawmakers in Venezuela who say they fear persecution by President Nicolas Maduro's government can now cast their votes though the cloud, the National Assembly decided Tuesday. The opposition-led congress adopted a rules change that allows its members to virtually cast their votes and participate in debates. They can now participate in sessions from outside Venezuela or domestically without revealing their location. It precedes a key vote on Jan. 5, when members of the National Assembly will decide whether opposition leader Juan Guaido will remain head of the body, allowing him to continue to claim to...

The parents in Overland Park, Kan., were fed up. They wanted their children off screens, but they needed strength in numbers. First, because no one wants their kid to be the lone weird one without a phone. And second, because taking the phone away from a middle schooler is actually very, very tough. “We start the meetings by saying, ‘This is hard, we’re in a new frontier, but who is going to help us?’” said Krista Boan, who is leading a Kansas City-based program called START, which stands for Stand Together And Rethink Technology. “We can’t call our moms about...

The number of people living alone is on the rise in the US and other developed nations, and it’s definitely not a good thing. Loneliness and isolation are bad for your health, physically and mentally, so it’s in societies’ interests to think about how we can bring people together. Many blame technology for this fragmentation, but could it also help? Researchers from Korea think so, and they have developed a prototype robot named Fribo that encourages young people to text and call one another. Unlike many other robots built for the home, Fribo is not intended to be social itself,...

Apple could soon revolutionise how people spend their time on the road by building virtual reality 'entertainment hubs' into self-driving cars. The firm has filed a patent that describes how passengers in autonomous vehicles could pass the time with VR headsets. The headsets would allow passengers to play games, or, if they choose, create a 'relaxing' environment for them while on their journey. Apple also suggests that future cars could lack windows, instead using interior screens alongside the VR headsets to display virtual surroundings.

"According to preliminary information, the man was moving around his apartment in virtual reality goggles and fell on a glass table, as a result of which he was injured and died from loss of blood at the scene," the spokesperson said according to the state news agency. The Ukranian Russian language website Korrespondent.net reported that the virtual reality game had not been properly mapped to the dimensions of the man’s apartment, possibly causing the accident. His body was reportedly discovered by his mother when she came to the apartment to visit. Further investigations into the circumstances of the man’s death...

A collaboration between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Google, Access Mars is a virtual world reconstructed from actual data and more than 200,000 images captured by the US space agency. The 3D world includes eerie sounds and panoramic views of the Mars environment taken from the perspective of NASA’s camera-laden rover – which set out to study the planet in November 2011. After anchoring on the surface of alien planet, virtual explorers can travel from the Mars Curiosity Rover’s 2012 landing spot through the jagged ridges of the Pahrump Hills, as well as the cliffs found along the famous...

As Oculus VR finally ships its virtual-reality headsets to the public, it’s heralding the potential of video games and movies — but it’s also quietly giving a wink to porn producers. The Facebook-owned startup announced Monday that its new “Rift” headset has more than 30 games available as the first units ship this week, with 100 titles expected by the end of 2016. Meanwhile, insiders say Facebook execs appear to be relying on another kind of content to drive demand for the Rift — namely, VR porn flicks.

In June, a team of programmers will release a ground-breaking new video game called No Man's Sky, which uses artificial intelligence and…

Vint Cerf, a "father of the internet", says he is worried that all the images and documents we have been saving on computers will eventually be lost. Currently a Google vice-president, he believes this could occur as hardware and software become obsolete. He fears that future generations will have little or no record of the 21st Century as we enter what he describes as a "digital Dark Age".

March 22, 2013, 10:22 pm GOP lawmaker seeks 'virtual Congress' with telecommuting plan By Jennifer Martinez Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) wants to create a "virtual Congress," where lawmakers would leverage videoconferencing and other remote work technology to conduct their daily duties in Washington from their home districts. Under a resolution Pearce introduced on Thursday, lawmakers would be able to hold hearings, debate and vote on legislation virtually from their district offices. While Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer may have recently nixed the Web company's work-from-home policy to boost its performance, Pearce believes a remote work arrangement may benefit Congress and make...

Apparently, the feebs have been using malware and the TOR network to snoop on quite a bit more information than one might have suspected. Use the following link here for more info: http://www.wired.com/2014/08/operation_torpedo/

Virtual Medical Assistants: A Boon to the ACA Concept? NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- As Americans are watching the Obama Administration's foray into healthcare technology fail abysmally, it is worth noting that there are companies in this field that are successful. One is Next IT, a privately held, Spokane, Wash., hi-tech company, which is a leader in intelligent virtual assistants. It is adapting its 'Alme" platform for the healthcare field. Kathleen Sebelius should have considered it. The Alme program is ...

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) wants to create a "virtual Congress," where lawmakers would leverage videoconferencing and other remote work technology to conduct their daily duties in Washington from their home districts. Under a resolution Pearce introduced on Thursday, lawmakers would be able to hold hearings, debate and vote on legislation virtually from their district offices.

Seems reasonable to me...

Making no attempt to defend his record, he talks of what he “would” do in a second term. In these last days of the race, Obama counts on the news of Sandy turning attention away from Romney’s October momentum, to photo-ops of himself in a monogrammed bomber jacket trying to look presidential. The more Benghazi creeps into the news, the stranger the silence from the Obama administration. But the real story is that almost all of the hope of 2008 has ended in the fear and loathing of 2012. Obama has made no real attempt to defend much of what...