The Full Enchilada

The Herald heralds “He Did It!”. Against all odds conservative Scott Brown has defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in the blue state of Massachusetts to take over Ted Kennedy’s senate seat.
An email was going around with this “Expect a Miracle” video predicting Scott Brown’s victory:

Here’s a (continue reading…)

Bring on the beautiful people! Its liberals’ kryptonite!

See, how could anyone resist?

Seriously though, there could actually be a lot of truth to this. Think about it, would Sarah Palin have made it as far as she did without her looks? Of course she had some bad luck with 30 Rock’s Tina Fey look-alike arch-enemy and the entire liberal world conspiring against her day and night. ( lacking much experience didn’t help either..) But now here we have it again, GQ model Scott Brown (yes he really (continue reading…)

Yep, MIT’s got bots, a lot of them. But sorry, most of them look more like this: It’s funny that when referring to Google Android’s new Nexus One phone, I jokingly called it sexy nexi, to compliment Google’s accomplishment to finally produce a nice sleeky Android phone. Well, what I found, as it turns out, Nexi happens to be one of the most famous AI robots at MIT (Mass. Institute of Technology). The Nexi Android belongs to a class of robots they call MDS, Mobile Dextrous Social, robots. MIT calls their AI, “embodied artificial intelligence”, in that it takes into consideration the functionality and limitations of its own body, much like a human.
(You can skip to the 5minute mark to go to Nexi..)

Good ol’ Nexi again:

Other MIT speaking robot:

Emotion MIT robot:

No doubt most would prefer the emotional articulation and intelligence of the MIT Androids be transplanted into ever more feminine looking fembots such as the so popular Japanese fembots:

Here’s a video of the Actroid Der2 Fembot also known as the hello kitty fembot:

Here’s another MIT Nexi video (first test of facial expressions etc):

Now here’s another Japanese Fembot to compare:

NASA Robonaut Humanoid Space Android

Well, several days ago when for some reason I clicked that “I’m feeling lucky” button on google’s home page, immediately after seeing that BIG BLUE COUNTDOWN timer I was frantically trying to figure out which wire to cut! But seriously, I thought I might have some fun and post a youtube joke ending with a nice big BOOM! and yes of course blood and body parts flying everywhere and then another button flashes lonely waiting to be pressed with Google Message: Are you still FEELING LUCKY?

Ah…not sure I’ll have time for the video work and fx…will see…

The first deputy minister of Health in Ukraine: “We have a different H1N1 swine flu than the rest of the world. In 6 days
500,000 people have been infected and 109 deaths have been confirmed!” Currently confirmed deaths have risen further to several hundreds with no signs of abatement. (continue reading…)

Federal Reserve Bank Board Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Tuesday and said the recession is technically over. Bernanke said “the recession, is very likely over” but (continue reading…)

You’re broke. You’ve been laid off. You have no income. Yet the bills don’t stop, California sends you “IOU” printouts that the Banks refuse to honor/cash instead of the money they owe you. Can you then send your own “IOU” with your Property Tax bill?

There is no true property ownership anymore. Oh, you thought the Constitution was busy protecting that “Inalienable Right” of yours to hold/own property?

Do you think you actually own your house? Those of you who may even have your mortgage already paid off might think that yes, you do ‘own’ your house when in fact you do not. If you do not pay the state your Property Taxes, your house can be taken away from you. How can you ‘own’ something when you only ‘own’ it while you keep paying someone else for that right, are you not just a renter? How different is this from Mafia Protection money?

The reality is that Serfdom is alive and well in our modern times. We are but serfs who are ‘allowed’ to live on property with no right to ‘own’, while we are ‘worked’ to provide for our Feudal Lord and Master.
If you can no longer work and produce for the “Master”, you are spit out with no recompense for the wealth you accrued for your master and your place given to a new willing and ‘able’ serf.

In the same way, once you are unable to make a profit for your modern master, you will be kicked out and your house taken away from you. So much for your “American Dream”, in the “land of the free”.

The homeowner may pay about 25% of his salary monthly salary towards property taxes on his home. With unemployment being the worst it has ever been since the Great Depression, millions of people are finding it impossible to afford to pay their Property Taxes. Some are forced to decide whether to pay the $500 or more per month towards property taxes or feed themselves instead.

Income Taxes, as much as people dread them are inherently much more just and constitutionally valid.
In fact, the Texas Supreme Court has already ruled that the property tax system that supports the state’s public schools is unconstitutional, and mandated that the state find alternate ways to fund its public school system.

Proponents of higher and higher taxes are almost always beneficiaries in some way. Sadly, regardless of justice, many people are happy to tax ‘the other guy’, thinking it’s like more free money for themselves. In truth it is, similar to going into someone’s home and robbing them but having the government do it for you. Its what communism is all about.

Others pretend, they care too much about our ‘poor kids’ and their education and so of course without Property Taxes our public school system would be an even bigger disgrace than it already is.
Yet, we can easily raise the money for teaching our children in other ways.

How about this novel idea? Pay for what you want! College is not free and Universities and Colleges in the United States are some of the most prestigious in the World! Yet our free public school system is an absolute disaster, with third world countries with inconceivably smaller expenditures offering much better education.

Why not model our lower education system more like our College and University system? Why shouldn’t parents help pay for the education of their children? Of course there can still be financial aid for those in need, just as there is for college and university students. There is no doubt moving in this direction would save billions of dollars currently spent through forceful unconstitutional property taxes.

You also can raise taxes on profits, it is much more unfair to tax someone with very little or no income. If a city raises fees on its various services it can raise a good amount of money it can use for street maintenance and the like. Even raising state “Income” taxes is a much more just way of raising revenue than illegally imposing upon every American’s Constitutional right to own property.

If Obama wants to give the “American People” a stimulus plan, and not just bail out billionaire bankers, just think of the great stimulus to the economy that can be achieved simply by abolishing slavery once again! President Obama, will you be our Abraham Lincoln, will you abolish slavery? Will you do away with unconstitutional property taxes?

This one step would do more to revitalize the US economy than anything else.

I’m not asking that businesses should not be taxed. I’m not asking that all you millionaires out there shouldn’t pay taxes on your rentals which bring in nice profits. I am saying that at least we should feel confident that we can really own the roof over our heads and not live in fear of extortion from anyone, be it the Mafia or the government.

When you first read 36 year old football quarterback star Steve McNair was found shot to death next to a 20 year old girl in a Condo it didn’t take much to figure out what investigators took several days to confirm: He was shot by his “girlfriend” in a murder-suicide. He leaves behind a wife and four children.

Sadly, such infidelity is so commonplace these days its almost thought of as perfectly normal, even understandable. It would be interesting to know how long ago Steve McNair started his affair with Sahel Kazemi who apparently was so sure he was going to divorce his wife for her that she was selling all her furniture and getting ready to move in with him, that is, until she found out McNair was having yet another affair with another young woman. Though, if he wasn’t faithful to his wife why would she expect him to be faithful to her.

It’s been reported that McNair and Kazemi were co-owners of the condo they were found dead in (others say McNair was sharing it with another man with whom he had purchased it), and one of their cars was registered to them jointly. In fact, Kazemi’s family members report that McNair, 16 years her senior, gave Kazemi a black Cadillac Escalade on her 20th birthday in May. It was also their opinion that Mechelle McNair knew about Steve’s affair with Kazemi since they thought Steve had taken the children on a vactation trip alone, thinking he and her were separated. It seems probable that Kazemi purchased the gun used after she found about the additional young woman besides her that Steve was also seeing, and some reports indicate Kazemi may have even followed her home. Police Chief Serpas reveals from sources that Kazemi had said, “My life is a ball of sh** and I should end it.”

Also of note, Steve McNair was pulled over for drunk driving in May 2003 with blood alcohol content of 0.18 percent. At the time, he also had a 9mm gun with him. All charges were later dropped. In 2007, McNair was charged with drunk driving for letting his brother-in-law drive his car. These charges were also dropped and the DUI charge against his brother-in-law was reduced to reckless driving.

Two days before she shot McNair and then herself, the underage Kazemi was arrested for DUI while in the car with McNair. Reports say that she was laughing, joking and teasing the officer, at one point denying being drunk and saying she was just ‘high’. When she asked that Steve come to the patrol car so she could talk to him, the officer told her he refused and had left with a taxi. McNair did bail her out later.

Many questions remain, such as the identity of that “other” young woman McNair may have also been seeing. His wife Mechelle has not said much, sources saying she seems to be in shock (clueless of any affair) and very distraught. Its been reported Steve and Mechelle McNair have two children together, yet Steve McNair has four children total so either many of the reports are wrong and Mechelle and Steve McNair had all four children together or there is another mother of his other two children. Regardless, it’s a tragic ending not just for Khazemi only two years into her adult life and Steve McNair the football star, but for all the people they leave behind, especially Steve’s children and his wife. One can only imagine the pain of Kazemi’s parents and family to loser her at such a young age.

If only one could look back before making such life changing decisions, or would some still love to fool around when the stakes can be so high? It’s ironic, that way back (in time) … they would have both been stoned to death anyway. Just another point going for good ‘old fashioned morality as passe as it might be…

Protect yourselves from the swine-flu virus, the government’s priority is keeping the money flowing, several hundred deaths might be acceptable collateral damage. Do you think the government would finally listen to all the pleas to close the border with Mexico if they knew for a fact it would ’save’ several hundred US lives, how many lives would be considered acceptable ‘damage’ not warranting closing the border? As always PREVENTION is much more effective than TREATMENT, be it with AIDS virus or any other VIRUS.

There is a big difference between the previous SARS avian flu and the current swine-flu. It was much easier to slow-down and/or stop the previous one because people were only contagious when showing symptoms. This new swine-flu has a much longer incubation period and people without any symptoms at all can be ‘contagious’ carriers for about two days before they show any symptoms. How many people can these symptom-less carriers infect?

Joe Biden had some very wise advice for everyone, even though it was contrary to Obama’s statements and they quickly had Joe Biden release another public statement through a spokeperson which would seem to many was backtracking and pretending what he said earlier meant something else that what he really said. On the Today Show, Joe Biden clearly stated he would not want his family traveling in confined places such as airplanes or on subways, he said, ““I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show.. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico. It’s [that] you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.That’s … ”

The statement Joe Biden’s spokeperson later made was this, ““On the Today Show this morning, the vice president was asked what he would tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico this week. The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the vice president has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week. As the president said just last night, every American should take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu: Keep your hands washed; cover your mouth when you cough; stay home from work if you’re sick and keep your children home from school if they’re sick.”

Who would not assume it is a “no-duh” that you MUST stay home if you are sick with symptoms? In fact, airports do check for ’sick’ people since they cough and sneeze more and so are ‘more contagious’ than those contagious carriers who have another day or two to go before full symptoms. Joe Biden on the Today Show was very clear his advice to his family members was NOT to tell them to avoid planes and subways if they themselves are sick so as to not get others sick, BUT to avoid those places so that they WON’T pick up the swine-flu virus and get sick!

It would have been nice to see the Obama administration own up and just say they disagreed with Joe Biden’s statement instead of trying to change Joe Biden’s words after the fact, to ‘pretend’ he didn’t say what he had said.

So should you panic? Well, the World Health Organization is a bit on the panic side, so perhaps you should be at least a little more concerned than Obama would have you be….I’d say listen to his Vice President Joe Biden and try to follow the advice he gave to his own family! Stay away from all confined places, from all public transportation, and if you can work from home. The less person-to-person interaction there is the quicker this swine-flu will pass with the least possible amount of deadly casualties.

IMHO, the best advice that should be given people is to minimize their interaction with others as much as possible for now….do schooling ONLINE, telecommute to work, we are NOT in the STONE age, 99% of the things you do together in groups you can do from home with your PC and internet access. Employers should be forced to allow telecommuting for employees who can accomplish their jobs from home. Schools should have ONLINE contingency plans, there is no reason any school can not go “ONLINE ONLY” during such deadly health hazards. The internet is not just for porn, its time the government lays out mandatory plans in case of any such emergencies whereby the country can keep running by moving ONLINE any work or other necessary activity that can be done remotely. It is a disgrace that such plans and various contingency plans have not already been created.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the 30 year-old Iraqi man who threw his shoes at the President has been sentenced to three years in prison, no question it being more for his own protection, having disgraced the longstanding Iraqi ritualistic insulting custom by his sissy throws which the President deftly avoided. Bush haters throughout Iraq were completely demoralized as they watched the Texan easily dodge the shoe bullets and joking that it was just a size 10. If only the Iraqi was a bigger man, he may have had better luck but as it is he might as well say goodbye to any Bush scoring dreams in the slammer…