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Model of the brain-machine interface for real-time synthetic speech production. The stroke-induced lesion (red X) disables speech output, but speech motor planning in the cerebral cortex remains intact. Signals collected from an electrode in the speech motor cortex are amplified and sent wirelessly across the scalp as FM radio signals. The Neuralynx System amplifies, converts, and sorts the signals. The neural decoder then translates the signals into speech commands for the speech synthesizer. Credit: Guenther, et al. (PhysOrg.com) -- By implanting an electrode into the brain of a person with locked-in syndrome, scientists have demonstrated how to wirelessly transmit neural...

ZURICH (Reuters) -- Scientists have smashed together proton beams for the first time in a 27-kilometre tunnel under the French-Swiss border in an initial step toward discovering how the universe came into existence, they said on Monday. Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) hope experiments will already start giving clues about the origins of the universe in the coming months as the world's biggest particle collider starts moving to full power. "It's a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer about the collision, achieved by sending...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A Daytona Beach man thought he hit the jackpot. He thought he won $166 million on a slot machine at the very popular Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near I-4 in Tampa. However, as soon as the crowds departed, the celebration ended. The casino told him that he didn't win a thing. The casino claims the slot machine malfunctioned. Bill Seebeck, who lives on a houseboat, thought his ship had come in. His blood pressure skyrocketed and said he was screaming and celebrating. But then casino workers told him there was a malfunction and wanted him...

Obama's deck stacked in billed 'open' forum President picks campaign supporters to ask questions at 'online' town hall Barack Obama speaking at Open for Questions In an event billed as an opportunity for the American people to ask questions of an "open" and "transparent" administration, the only fully identified inquirers plucked from the audience, it turns out, were Obama campaign supporters. At last week's "Open for Questions" forum, the full transcript and video of which is posted on the White House website, Obama answered several questions selected from a reported 100,000 queries posted online. He also took a handful of...

Cell Motors Play Together Feb 27, 2009— If one molecular machine by itself is a wonder, what would you think of groups of them playing in concert?  Recent papers and news articles are claiming that’s what happens in living cells: molecular motors coordinate their efforts...

You won't find cola, cigarettes or packs of gum in the lonely vending machine on the third floor of the capital's central bus station. Instead, you'll find siddurim, machzorim and other religious books on sale for just NIS 10-15. A vending machine at the Central Bus Station offers travelers Judaic books for sale. Photo: Nadia Beidas The vending machine is there because of Meoros HaDaf HaYomi, an organization dedicated to spreading the study of Judaism in general and Gemara in particular. HaDaf HaYomi has more than 500 classes around the country and publishes books, videos and audio clips on the...

"Criminal Chicago Machine" has filled the state with UAW,"acorn cheats", lawyers & other thugs, spending millions for adds and "encouragement" to elect "their choice" in Georgia. Goons from the north are Intimidating and threatening too. They stole the election in OHIO. With the help of "friends" in state gov't, and got away with it. "OBAMA'S-CHICAGO" TAKE-OVER MUST BE STOPPED! They are stealing the Senate election in Minnesota RIGHT NOW Every states right. Every individual right. Is at risk. Now they intend to control the results of Georgia's election process. DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS MUST COME TOGETHER AND FIGHT It doesn't matter...

Conservative columnist David Frum makes a clear point: It doesn't matter whether Barack Obama is a Marxist, or how well acquainted he is with Bill Ayers. What matters is that he has risen to national prominence from the political and cultural sewer that is The Democratic Machine of Chicago. A Political Sewer: Democratic corruption in Chicago is legend: The Democratic Machine has raised voter fraud to an art form. Dead people voting, shady real estate deals, and the famous patronage system that punishes government job seekers for belonging to the wrong political party. The illegal diversion of taxpayer money and...

NISKAYUNA, New York (AP) -- On a bank of the Mohawk River, a windowless industrial building of corrugated steel hides something that could make floor lamps, bedside lamps, wall sconces and nearly every other household lamp obsolete. It's a machine that prints lights.

Look what I found in the Claw Machine?

In the 1939 classic movie "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" Frank Capra shows the inspirational story of Jefferson Smith. Here's the capsule from the website (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031679/plotsummary) written by James WU: "Naive and idealistic Jefferson Smith, leader of the Boy Rangers, is appointed on a lark by the spineless governor of his state. He is reunited with the state's senior senator--presidential hopeful and childhood hero, Senator Joseph Paine. In Washington, however, Smith discovers many of the shortcomings of the political process as his earnest goal of a national boys' camp leads to a conflict with the state political boss, Jim Taylor....

The government's star witness in the corruption trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko took the stand Tuesday and in just 48 minutes laid out a stunning personal tale of bribery, treachery, rampant drug abuse and a precipitous fall from grace. In a brief but vivid prologue to what is expected to be days of testimony, one-time political insider Stuart Levine said he had illegally greased contracts to sell tires to the city's Streets and Sanitation Department and supply school buses to the Chicago Board of Education and even health insurance to members of a postal workers union. Levine, 62, identified one...

It was no surprise to Hillary watchers like me that the New York senator managed to squeak by her chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama, in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. With a behemoth machine behind her – and who knows how many dead people casting votes – the most astounding thing was that the junior senator from Illinois did so creditably, not only winning the Iowa caucus a few days earlier but also nearly eclipsing Ms. Self-Proclaimed Experience in the Granite State – two of the most lily-white states in the union – and only losing to her by...

LANSING - Michigan jumped ahead of the primary fray Tuesday when Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a bill setting the primary date for January 15. Despite public statements from most leading Democratic presidential contenders to skip Michigan if the primary date came before the traditional early states, Granholm believes every credible candidate will campaign in the state. "An early Michigan primary can lead to greater emphasis on issues that matter to all Americans," Granholm said in a statement released to the media. "We want candidates to talk about how they plan to enforce trade policies that are so critical to our...

TAMPA, Fla. - Kevin Alderman didn't bring sex to "Second Life." He just made it better. The 46-year-old entrepreneur recognized four years ago that people would pay to equip their online selves — which start out with the smooth anatomy of a Barbie or Ken doll — with realistic genitalia and even more to add some sexy moves. Business at Eros LLC has been brisk. One of his creations, the SexGen Platinum, has gotten so popular that he's now had to hire lawyers to track down the flesh-and-blood person behind the online identity, or avatar, that he says illegally copied...

Labor - A mechanical grape harvester could be the answer to a shortage of farmworkers in Oregon's vineyards Surrounded by shiny new tractors, Carl Capps spends most days talking about horsepower, hydraulics and transmissions. He paid little attention to anti- and pro-immigrant-legalization activists who marched at the state Capitol. Then the immigration debate came to him last fall, after he sold a quarter-million-dollar machine that harvests wine grapes -- the first in the Willamette Valley. The New Holland Braud grape harvester can do the work of 40 handpickers in a fraction of the time. Suddenly, vineyard owners were calling Capps...

Dumbest poll question ever.... Go to: http://www.nbc5.com Scroll down to lower right. Do you think corruption is a big problem in Cook County politics? Yes No

By unwittingly angering Muslims with his comments on Islam, Pope Benedict XVI has shown that he has yet to shake off his academic theological roots and master the global media machine with the same deftness as his predecessor. In clinging to theology and orthodoxy, the bookish Benedict has shown little regard for media management in getting his message across, unlike the communications-savvy John Paul II. Benedict railed Muslims when he quoted a 14th-century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Mohammed had brought the world only "evil and inhuman" things, portraying the Islam he founded as a religion which endorses violence,...

Convoy of fear driven out by war machine By Tim Butcher, in Tyre, southern Lebanon (Filed: 21/07/2006) It was the terrified faces of the children pressed against the car windows yesterday looking up for Israeli aircraft that showed this was no ordinary seaside drive. Thousands of Lebanese fled in fear up the country's Mediterranean coast road, pathetically waving white towels and pieces of clothing as if that could protect them from the force of the Israeli war machine. A family flee their village in southern Lebanon Bumping past craters ripped deep into the road by Israeli bombs, the stream of...

The explosion Saturday blew off the door to a laundry room in the man's apartment in the Summit-University neighborhood, Deputy Chief Mike Hogan said. There was no damage to the six apartment units in the building or other injuries. The 49-year-old man had what appeared to be second-degree burns on up to 5 percent of his lower legs, Hogan said. Paramedics took him to Regions Hospital. Described by neighbors as a

HOUSTON - The automated signature machine did it. Attorneys for Kenneth Lay suggested bank loan documents containing terms he allegedly violated actually were signed by an automatic signature device in the Enron Corp. founder's office and not by him. Lay went on trial Thursday on one count of bank fraud and three counts of making false statements regarding personal banking issues. The trial, expected to wrap up as early as Tuesday, got under way the day after jurors began deliberating the nearly four-month-long fraud and conspiracy case of Lay and former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling. Lay is charged with...

IT MIGHT SURPRISE you that Chicago, known for its rough-and-tumble futures pits and passionate support for free-market capitalism, has been slowly morphing into a borderline socialist society where every aspect of private life is tightly controlled by the state. We first noticed it a few years ago, when we outlined the Chicago City Council's attempt to ban smoking at all bars and restaurants. Of course, smoking in any large buildings and workplaces had already long since been outlawed. Score one for the socialists. Thanks to opportunistic local politicians and an aggressive lobbying effort from liberal think tanks, the smoking ban...

The Stanford University Symbolic Systems Program and the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence announced today the Singularity Summit at Stanford, a one-day event free to the public, to be held Saturday, May 13, 2006 at Stanford Memorial Auditorium, Stanford, California. The event will bring together leading futurists and others to examine the implications of the "Singularity" -- a hypothesized creation of superintelligence as technology accelerates over the coming decades -- to address the profound implications of this radical and controversial scenario. "The Singularity will be a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its...

Options for a coming singularity include self-destruction of civilization, a positive singularity, a negative singularity (machines take over), and retreat into tradition. Our urgent goal: find (and avoid) failure modes, using anticipation (thought experiments) and resiliency -- establishing robust systems that can deal with almost any problem as it arises. In order to give you pleasant dreams tonight, let me offer a few possibilities about the days that lie ahead—changes that may occur within the next twenty or so years, roughly a single human generation. Possibilities that are taken seriously by some of today's best minds. Potential transformations of human...

Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson this morning, saying an investigation is needed to get to the bottom of a recorded conversation in which Johnson said Supreme Court justices had assured him they would not overturn state law to allow same-sex marriage. Senators Claire Robling, R-Jordan and Mike McGinn, R-Eagan, both assistant minority leaders, said in a statement released this morning that "the facts have been elusive. Sen. Johnson's story has been constantly evolving. The integrity of the Minnesota Senate and the Minnesota Supreme Court has been diminished."

An electronic voting machine was stolen from the home of a Dallas County elections judge over the weekend. Sgt. Don Peritz, a Dallas County Sheriff spokesman, said the judge notified sheriff's dispatchers Sunday afternoon that the iVotronic touch-screen machine was stolen from his home in the 200 block of East 5th Street.

At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and the most thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged, as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. For over three decades, the great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic...

Michigan is among a growing list of states and local governments moving toward a ban on machines that allow people to inhale alcohol, instead of drink it. The Michigan House voted 102-to-1 today to ban the machines known as Alcohol Without Liquid. The machines vaporize liquor 80-proof or higher and send alcohol quickly to the brain. They're popular on college campuses for getting drunk fast without drinking. The legislation was introduced by Republican Representative Rick Jones of Grand Ledge. The former county sheriff says the machines promote alcohol abuse and underage drinking. Republican Representative Leon Drolet of Clinton Township, was...

PR Machine Behind Cindy Sheehan? ABC7 Looks At The Financing Of 'Camp Casey'  By Mark Matthews With the President back at his Crawford ranch, the anti-war protest right outside his ranch is getting a lot more media attention. ABC7 looks at who is financing the operation and who's providing on-the-ground support. The camp at Crawford is full of Cindy Sheehan supporters, people from all walks of life. But off to the side are a small group of professionals, skilled in politics and public relations who are marketing her message. Cindy Sheehan kneels before a cross with her son's name on...

Freeper Investigation: Cindy Sheehan "Vigil" and "Anti-War Protests" Fake, all bought and paid for by George Soros. I have been reading the stories on Cindy Sheehan and her "Valiant Vigil" at "Camp Casey" as the "Peace Mom" on AP, CBS, AFP, Reuters, etc... and now the "I Shall Return" announcements and speeches being reported about in the wires. I noticed a similarity in each and every story I read. Each referenced one or another "Spokesperson" named Michelle Mulkey, Mike Smith, Steve Smith, Ryan Fletcher. Well, I did a quick investigation and I found that with the exception of Ryan Fletcher,...

Ophelia Ford won a razor-thin 20-vote victory in the Democratic primary for state Senate District 29 Thursday, while Terry Roland crushed his opponent in the Republican primary. Ford's win puts her a step closer to winning the state Senate seat her brother John Ford held for 31 years. He resigned following his indictment on federal bribery charges in May. Ophelia Ford will face Roland in the general election Sept. 15. "This is a joyous night," said Ford, 55, surrounded by family and friends at her campaign headquarters in the Southgate Shopping Center. "I want to say to all my opponents,...

Ever since the 1992 election, books about President Clinton have become a virtual cottage industry in conservative circles. With titles like High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Slick Willie, and Legacy, conservative writers have made the case for President Clinton’s impeachment, thoroughly researched his background, and critiqued his Presidency. Indeed, many would conclude that there would be scarcely enough room on the shelf for another title about President Clinton. However, with the paperback version of President Clinton’s memoirs set to hit bookstores in early June, World Ahead Publishing has recently released Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine by Candice...

"Missing: One M-60 assault rifle." That's not a message Chief Deputy Hondo Wooten wants to give area residents, but due to the large number of active duty and retired military personnel in the area, Wooten said he has little choice. When stolen from a Joplin-area gun show on Sunday, June 21, the gun was broken and whoever stole it will be trying to obtain spare parts -- possibly trying to buy the parts from current or former military personnel rather than authorized dealers. Wooten said the M-60 assault rifle would be very dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands....

Just one day after its official release, Edward Klein's new book about Hillary Clinton has reached the No. 2 spot on Amazon.com's list of best sellers. "The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President" shot past David McCullough's blockbuster work "1776" to take the list's second spot and was only surpassed by the latest Harry Potter book. The news of Klein's success is bad news for Hillary, whose top aides have been working overdrive to close down the author's public appearances. Klein has been locked out of traditional venues...

In an attempt to pre-empt computer hackers, Microsoft is developing "virtual" PCs to scour the web for previously unseen attack code. At the software giant's Cybersecurity and Systems Management lab, based in Washington State, US, researchers are building a squad of the virtual PCs - created in software rather than hardware - to explore the darker corners of the world wide web. To any website they visit, the machines appear to be a normal home computer. But the PCs are seeking out code designed to attack a computer and will sound an alarm if any code is executed in contravention...

It is possible to read someone’s mind by remotely measuring their brain activity, researchers have shown. The technique can even extract information from subjects that they are not aware of themselves. So far, it has only been used to identify visual patterns a subject can see or has chosen to focus on. But the researchers speculate the approach might be extended to probe a person’s awareness, focus of attention, memory and movement intention. In the meantime, it could help doctors work out if patients apparently in a coma are actually conscious. Scientists have already trained monkeys to move a robotic...

MILFORD, Kan. - Geary County Sheriff Jim Jensen is again concerned after a deputy discovered a pair of smoke-grenade launchers in the same area near Milford Lake where five military machine guns turned up two weeks ago. ... "These weapons may appear unserviceable, but if a proper gunsmith gets a hold of them or if somebody else wants to they could probably put them back to working condition," Jensen said.

LOS ANGELES -- A woman whose baby was found dead in a washing machine after a house fire was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder, police said. Firefighters found the body of Latunga Starks' 3-month-old boy Monday after putting out a fire that gutted the kitchen and rear bedroom of a home in Los Angeles.

More than a year after his death, Aaron Huth continues to haunt those who knew him. His profile on the behemoth six-degrees-of-separation Web site Friendster.com still lets people know that in May of 2003 he was listening to bands like the Birthday Party and the Postal Service and reading Nietzsche. His likes and interests were frozen for posterity on May 26, 2003, the last time he logged into the site. While Huth’s 12 listed Friendster friends haven’t heard from him since May 29, the day he passed away, each time they log on to the site they are simultaneously reminded...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Whatever is wrong with the Democratic Part nationally has not spread to Philadelphia. It is difficult to appreciate the number of states that went for George Bush when you measure it against the strong feelings for Kerry in the city. Sandler Van Ochler, when he was here the year Walter Mondale ran for president was asked why so much attention was given to Philadelphia. He responded, "Philadelphia is that last big city machine in the country. Voters are inclined to tkae the strength of the Philadelphia Democratic organization for granted." Familiarity may breed contempt, but compared to the rest of...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Despite promises to open up government and even his own calendar for public review, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to reshape California benefit from millions of dollars in spending by nonprofit groups that are not required to disclose where they get or how they spend their money. These groups have supported some of Schwarzenegger's most memorable events, including trade missions to Tokyo and Tel Aviv, bus tours up and down the state and even the wild July appearance at a shopping mall in Ontario where he called Democrats "girlie men" during the budget impasse. But quirks in state...

Thought it would be helpful to some who have not seen the new electronic voting machines to get a description of what to expect from a general sense to avoid some potential anxieties. The machines are about the size of 20-25 inch tv screens and are touch screen, surrounded by blinders typical of election set-ups in the past. 1. Arrive with your voter card (or whatever your state accepts) and sign in next to your name just as in every other election. 2. You will go to a booth and an election official will insert a device which looks sort...

http://www.boomchicago.nl/Section/Latest-News/BoomChicagoVotingMachine You got to check this out...funny!

SACRAMENTO - The Senate on Wednesday revived an effort to require a paper trail to ensure that electronic voting machines aren't tampered with and accurately record voter preferences. Meanwhile, the Assembly approved a bill that would create a state conservancy to help protect the Sierra Nevada from overdevelopment, and the Senate passed legislation requiring economic impact reports before local governments approve Wal-Mart-like superstores. The Senate also approved a bill by Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, that would require that all touch-screen voting machines used after Jan. 1, 2006, give voters paper receipts verifying how they voted. The machines would also have...

The Left’s Political Propaganda Machine: Anything Goes!By William R. MannAug 13, 2004 “The function of propaganda is not the scientific education of the individual…” “All propaganda must be made to appeal to the masses, and its intellectual level should therefore be in accordance with the most limited intelligence of those being addressed… “Thus, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level…the more emotional in its appeal to the masses, the more successful it will be… “Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth and, in so far as it favors the other...

To keep their boss from going blind, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's team of professional fund-raisers hit on an elegantly simple idea: a stack of cards. Before Schwarzenegger makes his entrance at one of the many fund-raisers he has held since assuming office, aides hand out about 80 cards entitling eager donors to a photo with the governor - thus limiting the blinding flashbulb pops Schwarzenegger endures before wading into crowds who pay thousands of dollars apiece for a few precious minutes with the most powerful man in the state. The cards are a small but telling symbol of the unparalleled sophistication...

NEWS May 19 - 25, 2004 www.bigbrother.govThe feds want to know who?s been visiting the Web site of voting watchdog Bev Harris, and they?re likely to get what they want.by George Howland Jr. Bev Harris of Renton runs a Web site that is a clearinghouse in the fight against electronic voting.(Rick Dahms) RELATED ARTICLE Black Box Backlash    In the past 20 months, Harris has become America?s leading critic of electronic voting (see ?Black Box Backlash,� March 10). Her reporting on the problems with new computer voting machines has been a key component in a national, grassroots movement to...

John Kerry and most of Illinois' top Democrats will be at a reception and dinner on April 8 at 6:00, entitled "Chicago to the Max!." Tickets are $1000 a plate for "silver" seating and $2000 a plate for "gold" seating. The reception will be at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 East Wacker.