Woman Has Extraordinary Skill at Controlling Robotic Arm with Her Thoughts
December 17th, 2012Why Rise of the Machines?
The military side will use the data from brain machine interfaces like this to develop algorithms for their killer robots.
Remember the one from 2004, about the rat neurons that learned to control a simulated aircraft?
‘Brain’ In A Dish Acts As Autopilot, Living Computer:
A University of Florida scientist has grown a living “brain” that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.
The “brain” — a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat’s brain and cultured inside a glass dish — gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene. As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.
“We’re interested in studying how brains compute,” said Thomas DeMarse, the UF professor of biomedical engineering who designed the study. “If you think about your brain, and learning and the memory process, I can ask you questions about when you were 5 years old and you can retrieve information. That’s a tremendous capacity for memory. In fact, you perform fairly simple tasks that you would think a computer would easily be able to accomplish, but in fact it can’t.”
While computers are very fast at processing some kinds of information, they can’t approach the flexibility of the human brain, DeMarse said. In particular, brains can easily make certain kinds of computations – such as recognizing an unfamiliar piece of furniture as a table or a lamp – that are very difficult to program into today’s computers.
“If we can extract the rules of how these neural networks are doing computations like pattern recognition, we can apply that to create novel computing systems,” he said.
Ok, long story short, for those who don’t know what’s involved (technically, ethically, legally) with collecting that kind of data from a human being in vivo: It’s not easy. It’s really not easy.
So how will the killer robot designers scale up that meager swelling of rat neurons to gather data?
Primates? Sure. (And good answer if you guessed that.)
But read on.
Via: Guardian:
A woman who is paralysed from the neck down has stunned doctors with her extraordinary skill at using a robotic arm that is controlled by her thoughts alone.
The 52-year-old patient, called Jan, lost the use of her limbs more than 10 years ago to a degenerative disease that damaged her spinal cord. The disruption to her nervous system was the equivalent to having a broken neck.
But in training sessions at Pittsburgh University, doctors found she quickly learned to make fluid movements with the brain-controlled robotic arm, reaching levels of performance never seen before.
Doctors recruited the woman to test a robotic arm that is controlled by a new kind of computer program that translates the natural brain activity used to move our limbs into commands to move the robotic arm.
The design is intended to make the robotic arm more intuitive for patients to use. Instead of having to think where to move the arm, a patient can simply focus on the goal, such as “pick up the ball”.
Several groups around the world are developing so-called brain-machine interfaces to control robotic arms and other devices, such as computers, but none has achieved such impressive results.
Writing in the Lancet, researchers said Jan was able to move the robotic arm back, forward, right, left, and up and down only two days into her training. Within weeks she could reach out, and change the position of the hand to pick up objects on a table, including cones, blocks and small balls, and put them down at another location.
“We were blown away by how fast she was able to acquire her skill, that was completely unexpected,” said Andrew Schwartz, professor of neurobiology at Pittsburgh University. “At the end of a good day, when she was making these beautiful movements, she was ecstatic.”
Boehner Offers to Take Debt Limit Off the Table
December 17th, 2012Imagine my shock.
Via: Washington Post:
House Speaker John A. Boehner has offered to push any fight over the federal debt limit off for a year, a major concession that would deprive Republicans of leverage in the budget battle but is breathing new life into stalled talks over the year-end “fiscal cliff.”
The offer came Friday, according to people in both parties familiar with the talks, as part of the latest effort by Boehner (R-Ohio) to strike a deal with President Obama to replace more than $500 billion in painful deficit-reduction measures set to take effect in January.
With the national debt already bumping up against the $16.4 trillion cap set last year, Congress risks a government default unless it acts to raise the debt ceiling in the next few months.
CIA Tortured and Sodomized German Citizen
December 16th, 2012Via: Guardian:
CIA agents tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as Macedonian state police looked on, the European court of human rights said in a historic judgment released on Thursday.
In a unanimous ruling, it also found Macedonia guilty of torturing, abusing, and secretly imprisoning Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese origin allegedly linked to terrorist organisations.
Masri was seized in Macedonia in December 2003 and handed over to a CIA “rendition team” at Skopje airport and secretly flown to Afghanistan.
It is the first time the court has described CIA treatment meted out to terror suspects as torture.
…
“Masri’s treatment at Skopje airport at the hands of the CIA rendition team – being severely beaten, sodomised, shackled and hooded, and subjected to total sensory deprivation – had been carried out in the presence of state officials of [Macedonia] and within its jurisdiction,” the court ruled.
It added: “Its government was consequently responsible for those acts performed by foreign officials. It had failed to submit any arguments explaining or justifying the degree of force used or the necessity of the invasive and potentially debasing measures. Those measures had been used with premeditation, the aim being to cause Mr Masri severe pain or suffering in order to obtain information. In the court’s view, such treatment had amounted to torture, in violation of Article 3 [of the European human rights convention].”
In Afghanistan, Masri was incarcerated for more than four months in a small, dirty, dark concrete cell in a brick factory near the capital, Kabul, where he was repeatedly interrogated and was beaten, kicked and threatened. His repeated requests to meet with a representative of the German government were ignored, said the court.
Masri was released in April 2004. He was taken, blindfolded and handcuffed, by plane to Albania and subsequently to Germany, after the CIA admited he was wrongly detained. The Macedonian government, which the court ordered must pay Masri €60,000 (£49,000) in compensation, has denied involvement in kidnapping.
Research Credit: alvinroasting
At Least 50 Shots Fired at Southern California Mall; Nobody Injured
December 16th, 2012Via: Orange County Register:
Sadness for far away victims turned to up-close terror Saturday evening as shots rang out at Fashion Island, sending holiday shoppers scrambling for their lives.
One person is in police custody after “at least 50 shots were fired” near the eastern Macy’s store entrance at the crowded outdoor mall, said Kathy Lowe, Newport Beach Police spokeswoman. No one was hit by the shots, Lowe said. One person suffered a minor injury running in the aftermath of the shooting, but they were treated and released at the scene, Lowe said.
Late Saturday, Lowe identified the shooter as Marcos Sarinana Gurrola of Garden Grove. Gurrola doesn’t appear to have a criminal record.
Lowe said the first 911 call was made at 4:35 p.m. She said a 42-year-old white male was in the parking lot firing shots into the air and into the ground. The shooter put the gun down, and was intercepted and arrested without a struggle by two Newport Beach bike officers, Lowe said.
In the parking lot, police focused their attention on a white Honda Civic with an exposed black handgun sitting on its trunk. Six shell casings were on the ground next to the car. A black jacket and Lakers cap were also sitting on the trunk of the car.
One witness said she saw the suspect in a white shirt shooting into the air. He wasn’t aiming at anyone.
Cox Communications Adds Code to Web Traffic to Announce Email Outage
December 16th, 2012This means that they can flick a switch and make sites display anything they want. Any ISP could do this, in theory, but this shows that Cox Communications has built it.
Countermeasures?
* Use HTTPS, when available (assuming your ISP isn’t running equipment made by Packet Forensics)
* Run a persistent VPN to some exit node that you think might not be compromised
* ?
* Turn off your computer, tend your garden, make plonk…
Via: Slashdot:
An anonymous reader writes “Cox Communications appears to be injecting JavaScript and HTML into subscriber’s traffic, as part of their effort to announce an email service outage. Pictures showing the popup.”
Related: How China and Others Are Altering Web Traffic
NOT CONFIRMED: John Kerry to Be Nominated to Be Secretary of State
December 16th, 2012Via: ABC News:
Sources tell ABC News that President Obama has decided that he will nominate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to be secretary of state.
For a variety of reasons including the finalization of the process, other pending Cabinet decisions, and — more immediately — the national reaction to the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the news will not be announced in the next few days.
Cryptogon Reader vs. Indolent Follicular Lymphoma, Stage 3
December 15th, 2012Warning: Nothing that appears on Cryptogon should be considered medical advice.
Cryptogon reader MT got positive results vs. Follicular Lymphoma, stage 3 from making cannabis oil out of the leaves, and other remedies, which he mentions. Rick Simpson directs people to make the oil from the buds.
But can the leaves work, too?
For more information on why this might be the case, see: Project CBD. This is potentially a very important development for those who cannot afford to make oil from the buds.
Congratulations, MT, and thank you for sharing this information.
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Hi Kevin-
A ways back I sent you an email that I’d been diagnosed with Indolent Follicular Lymphoma, stage 3. I had asked if you had any recommendations — as a result I turned to DiChloroAcetate and Hash Oil (cannabis).
I’m pleased to report that a few months later I’m now completely clean via CT scan. I won’t be able to prove it, but my anecdotal case is all I care about – I feel great and am healthy as can be. *something* works.
I took one (and only one) dose of a chemo agent (Bendamustine) and then refused further, told them it wasn’t an option for me. I’ve taken no other toxins. I am taking Rituxan regularly, but IMO that’s a safe enough long-term maintenance drug. No worries there.
I took:
* DiChloroAcetate – 20mg/kg for several months. backed off recently. I don’t know if i’ll keep up with it at this point.
* Hash OIl — I obtain and make my own oil from organic, outdoor-grown mendocino marijuana. Its top of the line. A pound of leaf costs me $200 and produces enough oil for 2-3 months, depending on doseage. I take about 1/4 gram in the evening and get a great night’s sleep. Its easy to make, and crazy potent. Truth is i wind up giving away most of what I make to others i’ve met that need its healing. I know my growers – they do great work.
Secret of the MMJ community: we’re really starting to think that most of the healing comes from the NON-psychoactive CBDs in the leaf, versus the THC in the bud. Stoners don’t like that, and have been breeding *out* the CBD for awhile, as it attenuates the high from the THC. This could be controversial, for people that only want MMJ for smoking, as well as for legalization efforts.
* Curcumin – a couple grams a day. I’d love to hear more about a solid curcumin source. Source Naturals makes it with a digestive enzyme, i’d like to try that.
* Vitamin C – 50 gram infusion, at least once a month.
*D3 – keep my levels about 100, with liquid d3.
* mushrooms – a blend from Aloha Medicinals
*Graviola – gram a day
*diet – i’m supposed to be on a high fat “ketogenic” diet, like Weston Price foundation, and to go towards Alkaline vs Acidic foods. I love Weston Price stuff, but admit that i’m not great at cooking it.
I’m not affiliated with any companies mentioned here.
Anyhow, its good news, and I just want to extend my thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I”m a firm believer now in the healing power of marijuana properly used, and provide it for as many friends as I’m able. I can’t imagine going through this without it – so many people at the infusion center are sick as dogs – i always bring in a hefty lunch. its sad. The nurses know (as does my doc) and occasionally point people they really like my direction.
You can use any of this in any way you choose.
All the best to you and yours, Kevin. Merry Christmas!
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The doc i worked with to get started is William Courtney, in Mendocino. he does a lot of international work — particularly in the netherlands. We’re trying to convince growers to grow high CBD plants. They don’t usually like to, like i mentioned before. If i recall the story correctly, he worked with their government to convince them of the medical interest in cannabidiols, and the high cbd plants also had a *super* high THCA profile.
The goal is to get some research on leaving the CBDA and THCA intact. In that state, neither is psychoactive. When the leaves are cured, decarboxylation occurs and the result is CBD (still not psychoactive) and THC (which damn well is). So when we juice the plants raw we’re getting wicked great levels of CBD and THCA, with no problems of zombification. That’s a word, maybe. 🙂
Here in the states, even with our massive grow ops in Mendo and Humbolt — and buddy, *everybody* near me grows – virtually all of it gets cured and sold off. Clearly, a lot of it is going out of state. I’ve worked hard to find a grower that will give me clean, juicable product, and I just cant get it.
A lot of the dispensaries are working on “The CBD Project”. some of them extract CBD (i don’t know how myself) and are making tinctures and chocolates with just that. I take that sometimes too, but its pricey. I’d rather make my Rick Simpson oil on the cheap.
The simpson crowd doesnt address CBD, they just recommend a good variety and strong, cured oil, relying on the THC to be the effective agent.
Anyhow, Dr. Courtney has a good line of patients making the trip up to see him out in the sticks. The anecdotal story is that 60-70% of cancer patients go into remission … but we haven’t controlled for diagnosis, state of health, or what chemo was taken before hand. Apparently once you take Chemo, you’re essentially fucked, unless you have a ‘curable’ cancer (like Large Diffuse B Cell Lymphoma) or a super slow one (like Prostate).
So, he turned me onto the leaves. A lot of growers have a hard time getting rid of them, especially in September when the outdoor crops all get harvested in. A pound of high quality leaves runs from $150 in the glut, up to $300ish come February. There is MORE CBD in the leaves than the flowers … a triviata that may explain some of Rick Simpson’s success with patients. Buds are expensive, and usually go for sale for smoking.
From a pound of leaves I usually get 60 grams of pure hash oil. That’s a LOT. typical dose for most illness is a drop the size of a rice grain… like 0.02 of a gram. i sell/give 3-gram syringes to fellow patients in my co-op, and they last a good while for most people. For cancers the recommendation is to get through 60-90 grams in a couple of months —
I think I mentioned before that he’s full of crap on that one. I’ve challenged them a few times on their forums to produce one person who got through that much that fast. And that’s coming from a guy who is *highly incentivized* to do just that! haha! Now that I have a tolerance i can handle 1/4 gram, which kicks my ass for about 12 hours.
For these reasons – CBD content, price, availability – i like using the leaves. Tried once to make a batch using a pound of popcorn bud (a mid-shelf size) – the pound cost me $1300! Holy smokes. And I *still* only got 60 grams. I was pissed. I don’t have any evidence that bud oil is better than leaf oil (although RS insists it is).
I don’t personally know any other cancer patients that had my result – only depersonalized stories from my co-op and Dr. Courtney. I suspect i’m not the only one, but i’m not highly involved in that community, actually – i live down in San Francisco and commute up to my place in Mendocino once a month (its 3 hours north).
Making oil from the leaves is dang simple, too. I tried 99% isopropyl alcohol, but have come to prefer Naptha as the solvent of choice. easypeasy.
I don’t know if this answered your questions, but i’m happy to spill whatever I know. And I feel fantastic, for which I’m super grateful.
Kurzweil Joins Google
December 15th, 2012Via: kurzweilai.net
Ray Kurzweil confirmed today that he will be joining Google to work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing.
“I’m excited to share that I’ll be joining Google as Director of Engineering this Monday, December 17,” said Kurzweil.
Hostess CEO Took Employees’ Pensions and Put It Toward Executive Pay
December 15th, 2012Via: Alternet:
Twinkie-maker Hostess continues to screw over its workers. The company is in the process of complete liquidation and 18,000 unionized workers are set to lose their jobs. More troubling – they could lose their pensions.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal , Hostess’ CEO, Gregory Rayburn, essentially admitted that his company stole employee pension money and put it toward CEO and senior executive pay (aka “operations”). While this isn’t technically illegal, it’s another sleazy theft by Hostess executives – who’ve paid themselves handsomely while running their company into the ground. Just last month, a judge agreed to let Hostess executives suck another $1.8 million out of the bankrupt company to pay bonuses to CEOs.
If there’s no way to recover the money for the Hostess pension plans for workers, then the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. will have to foot the bill to make sure workers get at least some of the retirement money they paid in.
Hostess shows us clearly what Bain-style predatory capitalism is all about: big bucks for the very few rich executives, layoffs and poverty for the workers and their communities.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Connecticut School Massacre
December 15th, 2012Date on Social Security Death Record for Adam Lanza Is December 13, 2012, One Day Before the Sandy Hook Massacre
Geneologybank.com pulls the data directly from the Social Security Administration:
Adam P. Lanza: Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Death Record
Name: Adam P. Lanza
State of Issue: New Hampshire
Date of Birth: Wednesday April 22, 1992
Date of Death: Thursday December 13, 2012
Est. Age at Death: 20 years, 7 months, 21 days
Confirmation: Proven
Screenshot:
Adam Lanza Death Record
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Sandy Hook’s Over the Rainbow Song
“Over the Rainbow” (often referred to as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”) is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role as Dorothy Gale. Over time it would become Garland’s signature song.
And don’t miss Judy Garland in, Annie Get Your Gun, which just happened to be released by Sandy Hook Records.
Via: BBC:
Students from Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut have recorded a version of Over the Rainbow a month after the school’s shooting tragedy, where 20 pupils and six teachers were killed.
Tim Hayes, who came up with the idea, says the project aims to raise money for the Newtown Youth Academy and United Way of Western Connecticut.
Related Search: wizard of oz mind control
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‘The Sandy Hook Shooting – Fully Exposed’
Via: ThinkOutsideTheTV YouTube Channel:
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Has Adam Lanza Even Been Alive The Last 3 Years?
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Christopher Rodia?
Keep in mind:
“So we have Adam Lanza driving to the scene in a Honda Civic that can be seen in the video clip of police removing an AR from the trunk”
That’s not an AR-15 type weapon. The cop is cycling the action from the side. That’s for sure. The charging handle on AR-15 type weapons is at the back of the upper receiver in the center. This is definitely not an AR-15 variant.
Why is Adam Lanza’s alleged vehicle registered to a Christopher Rodia?
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Nancy Lanza Had Just Returned from Vacation at Bretton Woods
Via: CNN:
A day before her son killed her, Nancy Lanza was on vacation alone at a luxury resort in New Hampshire, friends said Wednesday.
Lanza checked in to the Omni Mount Washington Resort & Hotel in Bretton Woods last Tuesday and checked out Thursday afternoon, the hotel said. Less than a day later, authorities say, her son Adam Lanza killed her and then opened fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children and six adults there.
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Sandy Hook Labeled “Strike Zone” In Dark Knight Rises
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What’s Going On Here?
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It’s Starting: Mother Was a “Paranoid,” “Gun Crazed,” “Prepper”
You have to read They Thought They Were Free to understand the dynamics of this propaganda.
Via: Daily Mail:
The mother of the loner who massacred 26 pupils and staff at a US primary school may have played a major part in his catastrophic mental breakdown, it emerged last night.
Friends and family portrayed Adam Lanza’s mother Nancy as a paranoid ‘survivalist’ who believed the world was on the verge of violent, economic collapse.
She is reported to have been struggling to hold herself together and had been stockpiling food, water and guns in the large home she shared with her 20-year-old son in Connecticut.
Mrs Lanza, 52, was a ‘prepper’ – so called because they are preparing for a breakdown in civilised society – who apparently became obsessed with guns and taught Adam and his older brother, Ryan, how to shoot, even taking them to local ranges.
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Good Collection of Information on Possible Second Shooter
Research Credit: almaverdad2
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Via: NBC:
The weapons used in Friday’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., were legally purchased and registered to Nancy Lanza, the mother of the gunman, Adam Lanza, two law enforcement officials told NBC News.
The gunman was clad in black and used two 9mm pistols to kill 20 small children and six adults at the school. It was unclear how many shots were fired there.
Two 9mm handguns, one made by Glock and the other by Sig Sauer, were recovered inside the school. An AR-15-type rifle also was found at the scene, but there conflicting reports Friday night whether it had been used in the shooting.
In total, 28 people died in Friday’s rampage, including the gunman, who was found at the scene, and another victim, apparently shot dead at a home in Newtown. Nancy Lanza, the mother of the gunman, was a teacher a the school.
Coincidence: China: Man Stabs 22 Children and 1 Adult at Primary School
