From Robots to Elitist Miscreants

      Sometimes there are so many things to write about that it is hard to choose with which to go.  It's like trying to decide what to make for supper sometimes when there is a refrigerator full of food, and a myriad of ways to prepare it.  Such is the case today - on both counts.  In the same way I like to eat a balanced diet, and not eat the same thing every day (although there are people who do live like that and I can't imagine such blandness), I don't want to write about the same subject matter two day in a row either.  Yesterday's Science Friday was about advanced technology, so I didn't want to write about that again today.  However, there are too many things in that category that I have been reading about and I don't want to put it all off for a few days and forget to post it.  This is why it has taken me till late on Saturday to post something for Saturday. 
      I will touch lightly on this subject today and go deeper into the subject at a later time.  I finally figure out what we can have for supper too.  We'll just have hot meatloaf sandwiches using the leftover meat loaf from Thursday.  

      The world of robotics, particularly androids and drones (as many robots are now called) has become as unreal as a the sci-fi material from only a few years ago.  They have developed robot "dogs" for search and rescue, for carrying up to a 400 pound pack of gear, and can be fitted for battle too.  The "dog" doesn't really have a head, but does have "eyes" in the front of its "chest."  It can follow an individual (person or another robot) by giving it the simple verbal command "follow."  It can go through most terrain, and if it tips over it will get back up again without help or coaxing.  

                                The robotic "Dog" going through the snow

      Someone else couldn't be out done so they developed a cheetah to go into battle at high speed, and armed to the hilt.  Being low to the ground, enemy forces wouldn't even see them until it was too late to do anything about it.  There are robotic gulls, bugs, jellyfish, snakes, and even a shark (that looks and swims so realistically, that I had to watch that part of the video a few times), all of which can be used for reconnaissance or to deliver something.  They all look real enough from even a few yards away that they could go anywhere virtually unnoticed.  They are also using some animals (like bugs and bats) to mix with android parts to create cyborgs - or cybugs.  The humanoid androids are getting pretty impressive too.  I saw one that was very reminiscent of the android warriors from the first three episodes of Star Wars.  Others they are trying to make more human looking and less android looking.  
      Like I said a few paragraphs ago, I will go more in depth on this subject and its ramifications in later posts.  Below are a few short videos showing how far the technology has come already.  One of the videos seems to come from a conspiracy theory source (which even the casual reader of this blog will know that I do NOT endorse), but it is a great collection of clips of modern robots in action.  Two others are "untainted" documentaries, and the fourth video is a great fictional short, that who knows - it might become real someday.  I found it to have great entertainment value, and it's only a little over six minutes long.  I watched it twice. 

      It seems as though real world technological advances are only a few years to a decade or so behind the world of Science Fiction.  Maybe they get their ideas from Sci-Fi.  Therefore I say to the writers of Sci-Fi, "Hey guys, keep thinking up weird stuff.  

             This picture was just too good to pass up.  It looks like Sparky found a friend
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      Now for  the elitist miscreants.  What some people in upper Manhattan have been doing is horribly wrong on many levels.  I know, some of this particular crowd does things that are unconscionable all the time in every aspect of life, from shorting the wages of their employees, and driving widows and orphans out of their homes to greater crimes against humanity, the environment and the constitution whenever possible.  One of their latest misdeeds has been a way for them to get to the front of the lines for rides at Disney World (I'm sure they have been doing this at other amusement parks, but they got caught at Disney World).   They have been hiring, or renting disabled people (those in wheelchairs and such - those whom these one percenters would call "cripples) to pose as a family member.  This gets them access to the front of the line for rides.  Some of them have even created agencies with a catalog of potential disabled "family members" for these scumbags to choose from.
      When caught in this deception one of these moms said, "This is how the one percenters live.  We buy our way out of any inconvenience, just like I'll buy my way out of any trouble that may come out of this.  You won't be able to buy your way out of the trouble you'll get for bothering me in this way."  This she said to the security personnel who discovered her ruse and escorted her and her family out of the park.
      In an episode of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" a man was faking a disability in order to collect on an insurance scam.  Being tired of pretending to be disabled, he traveled to some place that "miracles" would happen and people would get healed from their disabilities.  His plan was to pretend to be healed.  What happened instead is that he really became disabled.  If something like that were to happen to these people I wouldn't feel very sympathetic. 

     Since posting this I have learned that the story which I read about this matter was incomplete.  The initial reasons for this are as stated, and this was Disney Corporation's original stand concerning hiring people to pretend to be their family members.  Now there are people right in the Orlando area hiring physically disabled people to go to the "Magic" Kingdom with the rich families.  They have created an agency for this and they advertise locally.  Also it is no longer against Disney Corporation policy to do this.  Disney now has their own pool of physically disabled people to rent to patrons who want to cut to the front of the lines. 

Privacy is About to Take Another Hundred Steps Backward

Science Fridays

      This was a rough week for me.  I had to work a lot of overtime, and was out of town last weekend, so I didn't get to add too many posts.  Sorry about that.  Anyway, here's this weeks edition of Science Fridays.

      The things that were science fiction only a decade or so ago are becoming realities today.  Researchers in Kyoto, Japan have been successful in creating a computer program that is able to read people's dreams.  Yes, you read that right.  Although it is in its preliminary phases, they have created a dream reading machine.

      "Training" the machine came in three stages so far.  They monitored sleeping subjects in their test study to see when they were experiencing REM sleep.  When this was occurring they then monitored very specific places in the visual centers of the subjects' brains.  This was cataloged in their computer.  When I say specific places in the brain, I mean VERY specific.  They were looking into the minutia of the data storage of the brain.
      When the subjects were no longer in REM sleep, they were awakened and asked what they had dreamed.  This was fed into the computer and cataloged with the areas of data storage.
      Their next step was to show the subjects a wide variety of visual images, including images of what they saw in their dreams.  Their brains were also monitored during this phase.  This was to pinpoint exactly where in the brains these images were stored.

      In the third phase the subjects were monitored again while sleeping.  The computers marked where in the subjects' brains the activity was happening.  When the subjects awoke the researchers were able to explain with a good degree of accuracy what the subjects saw in their dreams.
      They still have a lot of work to do in this, but they are well under way.  They need to compare specific data storage in many peoples' brains to see if specific images are stored in at least similar places in other peoples brains.  After they get the images and their locations in the brain all recorded, they want to work on speech.  They would like to be able to read the words that come out in people's dreams.

      If they are successful at all this (and it sure seems like they will be, with all the success they have already had), they could also use this same technology to see what people are thinking when they are awake.  They could seriously be able read our thoughts.  I'm sure that the intelligence agencies and of every nation in the world would love this.  Law enforcement agencies would love it too.  A machine like this would make the old polygraph machine seem like a flint spear compared to a Goa'uld Zatnik'tel, or a Star Wars laser/phaser blaster gun.  They wouldn't even need a verbal confession if they got one from inside the brain itself.
      Once someone figures out how to read a brain from a scan at a distance, rather than hooking up electrodes and putting people through an MRI machine, the applications could be even more notorious.  The camera at football games that focuses on someone on the bleachers could become a "thought reader."  News people would bring them to the scene of a disaster or crime.  They could be set up in malls so everyone can see exactly how vain teenagers are (now that would be funny).
      If you don't like how much your privacy has vanished because of Facebook and Twitter posts, (and if you thought you could get in trouble over them), just wait until the "dream reader" and the "thought reader" reach their final development and ultimate applications.  Yikes!

      This research was published in World Science on April 4th 2013, in case you want to read more about it. 

One More Reason to Call the IRS a "Bunch of Dirty S.O.B's"

      So the IRS is corrupt.  I am so totally shocked.  They already can go after a person apart from the due process promised us in the Constitution.  They have been caught targeting first groups, then individual people based upon their political views.  Their ruthless attacks were on those who consider themselves to be conservatives, especially those who had ever mentioned the words "patriot, patriotic, or tea party."  They must have been monitoring phone calls or e-mails or something. 

      Many of the Tea Party people are, well, way out in right field, but no American citizen deserves to become a special IRS target based upon their political viewpoint.  Where will they stop?  This is entirely a tactic reminiscent of the Brown Shirts.  The Brown Shirts made sure that people could only vote for Adolf Hitler, by beating up and otherwise preventing anyone to vote who wasn't a Nazi Party member.  By removing all competition Hitler won the election to the position of chancellor.  What the IRS was doing though, didn't prevent them from voting in the last election.  By targeting them for tax crime investigations, anyone they find guilty would be unable to vote in future elections (for how long I don't know).  By removing the conservatives from the voting pool, then only democrats will get into office.  
      Then I suppose they could start attacking even democrat voters who didn't like the candidate endorsed by the Brown Shirts IRS.  Who would they have targeted next - the Christians?  Residents of an area that historically is in a "red" zone?  Maybe they already have.  Where would they stop?   
      At least for the time being they have been stopped - but only because they got caught.  There is now a congressional and senate investigation about this, and the President is distancing himself as far as possible from this atrocity. The individual people who got caught are claiming they were following orders from higher up. 
      I wonder how long it will be before they start up again?  

      Since the time that I posted this much more information has come out, so I think it's time to make some corrections.   Very specifically the added scrutiny and investigations were not toward the politically affiliated groups in general, but to those who were applying for tax free status as non-profit organizations.  Because of the high profile this has had in the news media, many of the executives in the IRS are being investigated themselves, and many have endured forced resignations (I think that's still a mere slap on the hand).  They still do have the lists though, of the names of people in these organizations.  That is something that still needs to be addressed.