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Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has spoken out against US President Barack Obama, claiming that a "robot" would do a better job in the White House, AFP reported Monday. "Is it not obvious that the worst of all is the absence in the White House of a robot capable of governing the United States and preventing a war that would end the life of our species?" Castro wrote, according to AFP. {snip}

Today from the random-stuff file… Discovery News reminds us that in 2002, British social scientists set out to find the funniest joke in the world. Researchers from the University of Herfordshire started a “LaughLab” program to test jokes in a cross-cultural context across all demographics. They asked people around the world to submit jokes — and to rate how funny they found jokes submitted by peers. The winner worldwide? This little gem submitted by a psychiatrist in Manchester, England. It involves hunters in New Jersey — maybe British hunters just aren’t as funny.

Robots from around Europe are flocking to London this week - but, thankfully, we won't need to call Doctor Who to fend off this particular onslaught. More than 20 cutting-edge robots from around Europe will be on display at the Science Museum's Robotville exhibition this week - including a robot designed to help autistic children, and a robot that can (sometimes) catch a ball. Naturally, many of the robots look like slightly spooky human beings - but other fields of robotics will be represented instead, including 'swarm' robotics, where tiny robots work together, a relatively new idea being pioneered in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mclbVTIYG8E

A Rishon Lezion academic institution is at the cutting edge of robotics technology that will prevent future IDF soldiers, experts say. .....

<p>VATICAN CITY — In an attempt to head off a tidal wave of lawsuits stemming from the sexual abuse of children by priests within the Roman Catholic Church, and Rome’s attempt to cover up the crimes, the Vatican is planning to replace all priests with robots.</p>

Friday, September 9, 2011 Palin clarifies Perry's Social Security comments Christian Heinze On Fox News today, Sarah Palin offered Rick Perry a more gentle way of talking about Social Security. "What Rick Perry was trying to say, I believe, is that there needs to be reform. Status quo is not acceptable, because these programs are insolvent. .... So he's saying reform is necessary." Perry has written that Social Security is a "failure" and "Ponzi Scheme", and returned to those themes in Wednesday night's debate. If Perry were really just saying "reform is necessary", then pretty much everyone, including Romney, would...

WEST CHESTER, Ohio (The Blaze/AP) — Briefcases with handwritten signs attached were left at the front door of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s Ohio office, bringing out a bomb squad. Investigators in the Cincinnati suburb of West Chester tell multiple media outlets that the bomb squad blew the cases apart on Sunday and found they contained only papers. No one was hurt. WCPO-TV captured the bomb squad robot removing the briefcases and exploding them:

Congressional leadership reacted on Friday after House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio., ended debt limit talks with the White House.House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.:"Tonight, months after we had begun negotiations with President Obama, Vice President Biden, and the Administration, Speaker Boehner and I are ending discussions with the White House and beginning conversations with Senate leaders in the hopes of finding a solution to the debt limit debate in order to avoid default. Throughout the months of discussions, we have worked to identify real spending cuts, binding budget reforms, structural changes to save our entitlement programs, and significant debt reduction....

Just a fan of the show. Years ago Pat Paulsen ran for President. Colbert has run for president. Why not a robot?

Robots will soon be able to feel heat or gentle touching on their surfaces. Researchers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen are now producing small hexagonal plates which when joined together form a sensitive skin for "machines with brains." This will not only help robots to better navigate in their environments, it will also enable robot self-perception for the first time. A single robotic arm has already been partially equipped with sensors and proves that the concept works.Our skin is a communicative wonder: The nerves convey temperature, pressure, shear forces and vibrations – from the finest breath of air to touch to...

I’m not sure how to square this with this. Automation is bad for unemployment, except when it’s good for unemployment? Or full automation is bad, but partial automation is okay? Either way, it’s nice to see him talking up the job-creating benefits of technology. I think he should run with it. Take over the ATM manufacturing industry, then massively expand it as part of a new jobs program. Coming soon: A cash machine every 100 feet, coast to coast. Of course, there’s been a real debate about where to invest and where to cut, and I’m committed to working with...

President Barack Obama says technological innovations such as robots can help pump jobs into the economy and spur growth in clean energy and advanced manufacturing. In his radio and Internet address Saturday, the president echoed a plan he unveiled Friday in Pittsburgh to join the federal government, universities and corporations and re-ignite American manufacturing with an emphasis on cutting-edge research and new technologies. "Their mission is to come up with a way to get ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the marketplace as swiftly as possible, which will help create quality jobs, and make our businesses...

Sometimes it happens. Sometimes you’re having one of those days where you just need a hug, but none of your loved ones is around to give you one. Well, now there’s something you can do about that. The new Japanese Sense-Roid jacket allows you hug yourself. Yes, you read that right. You can hug yourself. (Let’s leave aside the question of whether this would make you feel better … or worse.) In order to use Sense-Roid, you put on a jacket that contains 36 pager motors that can vibrate and several air compressors. The jacket is connected by wire...

Robot, drone fail on Japan nuke-plant missions By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press – 5 hours ago TOKYO (AP) — Two high-tech machines intended to help workers at Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear plant malfunctioned Friday, including a long-awaited Japanese robot making its first attempt to take important measurements in areas too dangerous for humans. The other machine that failed was a drone helicopter that made an emergency landing on a reactor roof at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. /snip The machine got stuck at a staircase landing and failed to go downstairs, TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said. A cable that was...

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 23, 2011 DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2011 In the morning, the President will visit Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to highlight the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy, and key steps that government, the private sector and universities will take together to create new industries and new jobs. While visiting Carnegie Mellon, the President will tour the university's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) and see a range of cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to transform and assist the manufacturing sector, from...

Robot Expo at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Now Sweden's Blokk Is Coming The CEO of the company says his machine is the best and the toughest, having been tested in decommissioning and cleanup at the Chernobyl nuke plant. From Robotland blog (5/5/2011): "Swedish Brokk, the world´s leading manufacturer of remote controlled demolition machines, is delivering two Brokk 330 Diesel robots and a brand new larger robot to Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. "The first task for the machines is to provide access to highly contaminated areas and clean up contamination. “One key difference between Brokk’s demolition robots and other robots...

Robots detect dangerous spike in reactor 3 radiation French-style air coolers eyed in effort to bring down the heat By Kanako Takahara Staff writer Remotely operated robots detected a high radiation level of up to 57 millisieverts per hour Monday in a reactor building of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, an obstacle that hinders workers from engaging in key repair work inside for long hours, the government's nuclear watchdog said Monday. On Sunday, the U.S.-made robots checked the radiation level, temperatures and oxygen concentrations of reactor units 1 and 3 to see if workers can go deep inside...

WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. — A Brevard County man blasted away with an assault rifle at a SWAT robot while wearing nothing but his birthday suit. The suspect's dog was the only onlooker as the robot approached the door at the West Melbourne home on Del Mar Circle. Authorities said a man with several guns was suicidal and threatening authorities. "He said he'd shoot anyone he could," said Lt. Bruce Barnett with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Instead of risking any lives, deputies sent the $65,000 robot into the home. The robot has cameras, which record all of its actions. The...

Cancer patients are being denied a pioneering treatment that offers their only hope of survival - even though millions of pounds have been spent on the technology behind it. Doctors referred Lesley Whiting, 56, from Sussex, for a robotic radiosurgery procedure called Cyberknife, which is widely used across the world, but only became available on the NHS last year. (Snip) But NHS bureaucrats refused to fund the treatment, which costs the health service around £10,000 per treatment- despite the fact almost £9 million has been spent buying the robotic technology for three NHS hospitals.

Robots designed to deal with nuclear accidents await duty in Europe while Japan asks: Where are ours? By Brian Vastag, Sunday, March 27, 8:09 PM Inside a nondescript warehouse south of Mannheim, Germany, a dozen robots, ranging in size from a low-slung inspection bot no bigger than a toy wagon to a 22-ton Caterpillar excavator, stand ready to respond to a nuclear emergency. With their electronics hardened to withstand radiation, the versatile machines can handle fuel rods as well as monitor doses that would kill a human engineer. A similar robotic quick-response squad is housed near the Chinon nuclear power...

Incredibly cool or insanely creepy? Yes, that is an actual robot. Japanese researchers have blurred the lines between man and machine with their latest robot, the incredibly realistic Geminoid DK. It is the third of the Geminoid series, a line of androids designed by Hiroshi Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University and his team at Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) in Nara. The robot has been constructed to look exactly like Henrik Scharfe, an associate professor of Aalborg University in Denmark and is the first of the series based on a non-Japanese person. "Geminoid|DK will be the first...

Bill Hemmer interviews Ray Kurzweil about his new documentary. Video Link

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/german-researchers-build-terminator-robot-hand/ Because this is a wired.com article, it must be link only, per Free Republic rules.

n the 'Terminator' universe, Skynet was built as a Global Digital Defense Network, an artificial intelligence that could command all computerized military hardware. The military installed Skynet because it would remove human error and guarantee faster, more efficient reaction time. It also guaranteed nuclear armageddon when it gained self-awareness and forced the surviving humans into slave labor. So that part was bad. But the first thing, the network command of all computerized hardware, that was a good thing, right? Hey, guess what, everybody! That first thing is starting to happen, and its name is RoboEarth! And just in case you're...

Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code, or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands. The stark warning, which includes discussion of a "Terminator" style scenario in which robots turn on their masters is part of a hefty report funded for the US Navy High Tech and secretive office of Naval Research

<p>The restaurant, which opened this month in Jinan in northern Shandong province, is touted as China's first robot hotpot eatery where robots resembling Star Wars droids circle the room carrying trays of food in a conveyor belt-like system.</p> <p>More than a dozen robots operate in the restaurant as entertainers, servers, greeters and receptionists. Each robot has a motion sensor that tells it to stop when someone is in its path so customers can reach for dishes they want.</p>

Good ahead. Have a field day.

Thanks, JimRob and FReegards to all my FReeper FRiends.

With some of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's former top advisers on her payroll, it isn't surprising that Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman espouses many of the same policies he has - from tax cuts to stimulate the economy to promises to run California more like a business. Those similarities are why one prominent California politician said electing Whitman would be the equivalent of another Schwarzenegger term. The politician who said that was Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove (Sacramento County), a Tea Party favorite who backed Whitman's primary rival, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.Shortly after taking office in 2004, Schwarzenegger...

Japanese researchers have developed an android that mimics human expressions. Eventually, it could be used as a companion for disabled children or the elderly.

Well, this isn't good. A robot at the Italian Institute of Technology led by Dr. Petar Kormushev has taught itself how to use a bow and arrow. It only took him eight shots to start hitting the bullseye every time. And I don't know about you, but I'm not sure that seven shots is enough time for me to run away.

In the washroom at the airport I saw a handwritten sign posted over one of those hot air hand dryers: "Please push button and listen for a short message from the President." There's nothing like "hot air" and the smell of crap to give you that true Obama experience. Check out these other Useful Info Nation pages:

Panasonic has developed a hair-washing robot that uses 16 electronically controlled fingers to give a perfect wash and rinse, the company said Friday.The robot, images of which were distributed by Panasonic, appears to be about the size of a washing machine. Users sit in a reclining chair and lean back to place their head in the machine's open top.Two robot arms guide the 16 fingers, which have the same dexterity as human fingers, the company claimed. Sensors scan the person's head to measure its shape and assure that just the right amount of pressure is applied when washing and...

Just want to see where this goes....

I don't think this is what our Narcissist-in-Chief would expect in this situation. Obama and the Virginians When Obama died, George Washington met him at the Pearly Gates. He slapped him across the face and yelled, “How dare you try to destroy the Nation I helped conceive!” Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted, “You wanted to end our liberties but you failed.” James Madison followed, kicked him in the groin and said, “This is why I allowed our government to provide for the common defense!” Thomas Jefferson was next, beat Obama with a long cane and...

Northwestern University professor, Kristian Hammond, received more than $700,000 in federal stimulus money to develop software that tells jokes. Hammond says it’s serious work. “Understanding what makes humor, what makes irony, what makes interesting juxtapositions, to understand what that means [then] actually create it," said Hammond. WLS-TV reports, “The material generated so far is not exactly killer standup material, and Hammond's critics certainly aren't laughing. Senator John McCain singled out Hammond's project, calling it a ‘joke machine’ — one of many examples of wasteful spending.”Hammond received the funding after he applied to the National Science Foundation, beating out dozens of...

September 4, 2010 The Boss Is Robotic, and Rolling Up Behind You By JOHN MARKOFF SACRAMENTO — Dr. Alan Shatzel’s pager beeped at 9 on a Saturday morning. A man had suffered a stroke, and someone had to decide, quickly, whether to give him an anticlotting drug that could mean the difference between life and death. Dr. Shatzel, a neurologist, hustled not to the emergency room where the patient lay — 260 miles away, in Bakersfield — but to a darkened room at a hospital here. He took a seat in front of the latest tools of his trade: computer...

Seaswarm, an autonomous, solar-powered skimmer, may be the answer to less expensive and more efficient methods for cleaning up future oil spills. The robot prototype promises to absorb 20 times its weight in oil. Created by researchers at MIT’s Senseable City Lab, Seaswarm employs a conveyor belt of absorbent, nanowire mesh. The specially deigned mesh can suck up oil on the water’s surface and then process and dispose of the oil it’s collected. The Seaswarm can continue to absorb more of the spill while the robot autonomously navigates and cleans the ocean for weeks on end. Researchers claim that 5,000...

Its pale torso is about the size of a small child, it has no legs and just stumps for arms. For a man who has made his life's work coming up with increasingly creepy robots, Hiroshi Ishiguro has really outdone himself this time. The Japanese roboticist has just unveiled his latest creation - a strange robotic creature called the Telenoid R1. Ishiguro has, in the past, tried to exactly replicate living humans and once developed an eerie robot replica of himself that he named Geminoid HI-1. He also came up with a terrifyingly lifelike female robot called the Gemnoid F....

I just witnessed a couple of Orthodox posters get kicked off a "Catholic Caucus" thread. I thought, despite their differences, they had a mutual understanding that each sect was considered "Catholic". Are not the Orthodox considered Catholic? Why do the Romanists get to monopolize the term "Catholic"? I consider myself to be Catholic being a part of the universal church of Christ. Why should one sect be able to use a universal concept to identify themselves in a caucus thread while other Christian denominations need to use specific qualifiers to identify themselves in a caucus thread?

Mini-Robot Employs Fiery Darts to Neutralize IEDs A new robotic operated countermeasures designed to disable Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from long distance are in development in Israel at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. According to Ram Fabian, director of Rafael's Land Warfare Systems, The micro-rocket system called 'Pincher' is currently in prototype phase, and could become operational next year. Pincher uses 'pencil size' rockets capable of destroying explosive charges from extended range. "The rocket causes the charge to burn, instead of explode (a process called 'deflagration'), eliminating the risk of blast, shrapnel and debris." Fabian told Defense Update. more...) Photo above:...

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – Underwater robots positioned a giant 100-ton concrete-and-steel box over a blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as workers prepared to drop the device to the seafloor in a first-of-its-kind attempt to stop oil gushing into the sea. A spokesman for oil giant BP PLC, which is in charge of the cleanup, said the box was suspended about 200 feet above the main leak Friday and was being moved into position, though it could be Saturday before that happens. Several undersea cameras attached to the robots were making sure...

GLENFIELD, England, April 29 (UPI) -- British cardiologists used a robotic arm to perform surgery to correct an irregular heartbeat while the surgeon was in another room, hospital officials said. The procedure, a medical first, involved passing a thin metal wire along the patient's blood vessels and into the heart where a precise dot of heat was then applied to a faulty section of heart muscle, said officials at Glenfield Hospital, one of England's primary hospitals for coronary care. Cardiologist Andre Ng of the nearby University of Leicester carried out the procedure using the $540,000 Catheter Robotics Remote Catheter Manipulation...

An Open Letter To Patriots I am writing this as an open letter to all that consider themselves a voice for the Conservative / Tea Party Movement or any other political voice in opposition to the current administration in D.C. More and more average citizens are becoming active in the political process every day. Many, like myself, have never been involved but are very concerned about the direction of our great nation. They turn to many media sources for information and insight on the seemingly endless series of debates over everything from healthcare and immigration reform to jobs and the...

President Obama said that with the health care reform bill passed he would like to move on to other areas of his presidency. A reporter asked if he was going to get into nation building like former President Bush did. Obama replied, "No. In fact I'm going to do just the opposite." ------------------------------------- Thank you! I'm here all week, try the veal. (Made that joke up myself, folks. Be kind)

The woman applying for a job in a Florida lemon grove seemed to be far too qualified for the job. The foreman frowned and said, "I have to ask you this: "Have you had any actual experience in picking lemons?" "Well, as a matter of fact, I have: I've been divorced three times, owned 2 Ford 's, and I voted for Obama."

A high tech bomb disposal robot that fits into a back pack has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence today. The Dragon Runner device will help soldiers to find and deactivate dangerous explosives on the front line. Its capabilities were demonstrated by members of the Royal Logistics Corps today. Measuring 9"x8"x3", the light-weight robot is reminiscent of the robots used in the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker. It weighs 14lbs - the same as seven bags of sugar- and can move at speeds of up to 5mph. The sophisticated robot is manoeuvred over tough terrain using an intuitive controller,...

America's Newsroom on Fox News has reported. Just announced on the air, not on website yet.

Glenn Beck used to be a social liberal before he discovered Alcoholics Anonymous and then consequently sobered up. This admission—coming straight from the man's lips on his Friday TV show on FNC during a special entitled "Who Are You?"—may not be a surprise to some who know Beck's backstory, but it certainly reinforces the conventional wisdom that liberalism breeds weakness and is oftentimes an impediment to personal self-improvement. His declaration came in the context of "knowing yourself" politically and ideologically, the theme of Friday's Glenn Beck show special on FNC. Stating that his recovery from alcoholism came only after he...