Sharpie Commercial: “Stop Protesting Now”
October 23rd, 201112 seconds.
Via: Sharpie U.S. YouTube Channel:
Hobby Humanoid Robot Rides Bicycle
October 23rd, 2011Via: Robosavvy:
PRIMER-V2 is the name of a robot and his custom bike. Dr.Guero hooked a KHR3HV bipedal robot to a small bike.
The robot pedals with his feet at variable speed. The steering is done by the robot hands as with a normal bike, and remote controled by a human.
Stability is acheived by relying on the inertial centrifugal effect of the front wheel and on a gyro aided by a PID controller that takes over streering when driving in a straigh line. Seems like when the robot steers his arms he also bends the waist leaning a bit into the turn. Breaking is acheived by taking the feet off the pedals and pointing them down to the ground using the metal feet as friction breaks.
Euro ‘Empire’ Plot by Brussels
October 23rd, 2011Via: Telegraph:
European Union chiefs are drawing up plans for a single “Treasury” to oversee tax and spending across the 17 eurozone nations.
The proposal, put forward by Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, would be the clearest sign yet of a new “United States of Europe” — with Britain left on the sidelines.
The plan comes as European governments desperately trying to save the euro from collapse last night faced a new bombshell, with sources at the International Monetary Fund saying it would not pay for a second Greek bail-out.
…
The single Treasury plan emerged in Brussels yesterday as Europe’s finance ministers tried to find a way out of the crisis engulfing the eurozone. A full-scale rescue plan could cost about £1.75 trillion.
British sources said Mr Van Rompuy, who is regarded as being close to the German government, suggested plans for a “finance ministry” to be based either in Frankfurt or Paris.
Near-Perfect Young Dinosaur Fossil Found in Bavaria
October 23rd, 2011Via: Spiegel:
German paleontologists have discovered what they believe is the best-preserved dinosaur skeleton ever found in Europe. Some 98 percent of the fossil found in the southern state of Bavaria is intact, and it will soon be placed on display for a short time in Munich.
The discovery of young, unnamed dinosaur fossils is rare, but on Wednesday researchers in southern German state of Bavaria announced they had uncovered an almost perfect specimen. The flesh-eating member of the theropod subgroup, which walked on its hind legs, is among the best preserved specimens of its kind worldwide, said Oliver Rauhut, conservator of Bavaria’s state paleontological and geological collections (BSPG) in Munich.
The fossil found in the central Bavarian community of Kelheim is about 98 percent complete, and also includes preserved bits of skin. “The around 135-million-year-old fossil is of outstanding scientific importance,” dinosaur expert Rauhut told the German news agency DPA.
Bank Transfer Day: Technologists Say Thousands Already Switching
October 22nd, 2011Via: CU Times:
While Bank Transfer Day, and the dump-your-bank sentiment that serves as its backdrop, has earned a lot of media coverage and promotional dollars among credit unions, are people really switching?
The folks whose job it is to facilitate that move behind the scenes, who manage the so-called “switch kits” of electronic banking, say it’s so.
Several big credit unions and the vendors who supply their technology told Credit Union Times this week they have seen a surge of new memberships that began when Bank of America declared its $5 a month debit fee in late September.
“We’ve more than doubled our usual rate of membership growth in the past 17 or 18 days,” said Howie Wu, vice president of virtual banking at the $9.5 billion, 700,000-member BECU in Tukwila, Wash.
“We usually average about 6,000 to 7,000 new members a month, but from the date of Bank of America’s announcement to today, we’ve totaled 10,400 new members,” Wu said Thursday.
A half a nation away, “We’re on track to open more accounts in one month than we ever have before,” said Mary O’Rourke, vice president of electronic services at the $4.4 billion, 357,000-member Randolph-Brooks FCU in Live Oak, Texas.
Several major and regional banks already had begun raising fees in anticipation of losing income to the new interchange cap, but it seems to be Bank of America’s move that set the stage for a Facebook post by a Los Angeles art dealer to go viral and launch the ad hoc, anti-bank holiday that debuts Nov. 5.
Six-Figure Salaries, But Homeless
October 22nd, 2011Working for oil companies by day, sleeping in a WalMart parking lot by night.
Via: CNN:
They’re pulling in fat paychecks, but now they’re also homeless.
In the town of Williston, N.D., America’s newest oil boomtown, more than 6,000 job seekers have come from every corner of the country looking for work. Yet, oil companies and other developers haven’t been able to build housing units fast enough.
BP Gets Approval to Resume Drilling in Gulf of Mexico
October 22nd, 2011Via: BBC:
BP has won approval to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, 18 months after a well blowout killed 11 workers and caused an environmental disaster.
Regulators approved plans for drilling to depths of up to 6,000ft about 200 miles off the coast of New Orleans.
US officials said in a statement: “Our review of BP’s plan included verification of BP’s compliance with the heightened standards.”
And Coming Up Next: Pakistan?
October 22nd, 2011Via: New York Times:
An unusually powerful American delegation arrived here on Thursday to deliver the starkest warning yet to Pakistan, according to a senior American official: that the United States would act unilaterally if necessary to attack extremist groups that use the country as a haven to kill Americans.
…
“This is a time for clarity,” Mrs. Clinton declared in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she met President Hamid Karzai before leaving for Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. “No one should be in any way mistaken about allowing this to continue without paying a very big price.”
“There’s no place to go any longer,” Mrs. Clinton added, referring to Pakistan’s leaders, whom the administration has accused of equivocating by supporting the Afghan insurgency.
U.S. Troops to Leave Iraq by Year’s End, Obama Says [wink]
October 22nd, 2011I was surprised that this New York Times piece actually contained the punchline, for those who kept reading long enough:
There will also be 4,000 to 5,000 private State Department security contractors, as well as a significant C.I.A. presence. In Afghanistan, about 95,000 American troops remain.
*chortle*
Remember the Superbase?
Anyway, this is a good one for your voluminous If Obombya’s Lips Are Moving… and Translations of New York Times Headlines file folders.
Via: New York Times:
President Obama announced on Friday that the last American soldier would leave Iraq by the end of this year, drawing to a close a divisive eight-year war that cost the lives of more than 4,400 troops, defined the presidency of George W. Bush, and helped ignite his own political rise.
The decision leaves only a vestigial presence of Marine embassy guards and liaison officers staying on where more than a million troops, in all, have served.
…
“Today, I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year,” the president said in a midday appearance at the White House. Anticipating what he called “another season of homecomings,” he declared, “Our troops will definitely be home for the holidays.”
U.S. Navy Discharging 49 Sailors from Aircraft Carrier that ‘Buried Osama Bin Laden at Sea” for Using or Distributing Drugs
October 21st, 2011Mmm hmm.
Via: Reuters:
The U.S. Navy said on Thursday it was discharging 64 sailors, 49 of them from the aircraft carrier that buried Osama bin Laden at sea, for using or distributing drugs.
Most of the sailors, who were assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, nuclear submarine USS San Francisco and a floating fueling dock, were caught using , possessing or selling the designer drug Spice, the Navy said.
Bin Laden was buried at sea from the Carl Vinson in May after the al Qaeda leader was killed in a raid by U.S. Navy Seals on his Pakistan hide-out.
The ship normally has 5,000 sailors on board during deployment and a spokesman for the Third Fleet, Capt. Greg Hicks, said it was unknown if any of the sailors facing discipline were involved in the bin Laden operation.
