It’s like no one reads Science Fiction anymore.
If you need me I’ll be underground with John Connor, Apollo and Starbuck.
Jamie posted this at 3:10 PM CDT on Thursday, August 18th, 2011 as Toaster Update
August 18th, 2011
Sigh…
August 6th, 2010
Wanted: An Anti-Farmville Keanu Reeves
Reihan Salam and Lev Grossman explain the danger posed the second-greatest threat to Man.
Tom posted this at 1:02 PM CDT on Friday, August 6th, 2010 as Toaster Update
July 19th, 2010
Sigh…
Science, we need to talk. I’m really trying to be on your side here. I constantly defend you from attacks from religious nutters on the right and global warming zealots on the left. You do us a lot of good.
Then you go and do something like this:
Not all the exoskeleton action is taking place in the US. In Japan, Cyberdyne, a company set up by Professor Sankai of the University of Tsukoba, is manufacturing HAL (Hybrid Assisted Limb, pictured right), a gleaming white suit developed, in Sankai’s words, to “upgrade the existing physical capabilities of the human body.” HAL multiplies the user’s strength by a factor of two to 10, with the exoskeleton supporting its own weight. The suit responds to bio-signals running beneath the human skin, interpreting signals going to the wearer’s muscles to mimic his or her movement exactly.
Really? Cyberdyne and HAL? Are you trying to get us all killed? Science, you have some explaining to do.
Jamie posted this at 11:41 AM CDT on Monday, July 19th, 2010 as Toaster Update
July 13th, 2010
Damn you, England
October 21st, 2009
Quote of the Day
It’s hard to summarzie all the government pathologies wrapped up in this. After a year of using red light cameras in one Canadian city, the number of accidents at intrsections with cameras more than doubled. But the city did issue more than a $1 million in tickets (a few to red-light runners, but mostly to those who didn’t come to a complete stop before making a right on red).
So after a year of increasing the amount of harm done to citizens, and taking money from drivers for the most chickenshit offense that no cop would ever waste his time stopping a driver over, how did the program manager sum it up?
“Enforcement Services has promoted red light cameras as a means to reduce collisions,” Roth wrote. “While the collision numbers have not decreased significantly since the cameras have been installed, it is still the position of Enforcement Services that enforcement through the camera technology helps promote safe driving habits.”
“[H]ave not decreased significantly” is, I guess, how Canadians say “more than doubled.” And “promote safe driving habits” is Canucki for “cause wrecks.” Strange language, eh?
By the way, this isn’t about ragging on Canada. Too many American cities, including here in Berkeley on the Colorado, have decided that using accident-causing cameras as a means of extracting money from their citizens is a good idea. The scurge of governments disrespecting their citizens is an international one.
Apollo posted this at 4:53 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 as Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!, The Law Is An Ass--An Idiot, Toaster Update
April 3rd, 2009
I’m in the Wrong Line of Work
Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, who worked with Obama to pass legislation that created USAspending.gov when Obama was a senator, is also disappointed with the results.
“Instead of being a one-stop shop for stimulus information, Recovery.gov does little more than redirect its visitors to other agency websites,” stated Coburn in a statement prepared for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Without a major revamp of the website, I am afraid that taxpayers will be confused and wasteful spending will occur in secret.”
Coburn noted Recovery Accountabilty and Transparency Chief Earl Devaney had told the Wall Street Journal most of his budget, approximately $84 million, was being spent to develop the Web site.
“For that kind of money, the administration should produce a top-notch Web site. Unfortunately, the product we have seen so far leaves much to be desired,” Coburn said.
For people tech savvier than I am, how does one spend $84 million on a website?
Hubbard posted this at 10:15 AM CDT on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 as CHANGE!, Toaster Update
March 31st, 2009
All Of This Has Happened Before…
Well crap, they went ahead and invented hybrids.
Admiral Adama would be ashamed.
Jamie posted this at 1:59 PM CDT on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 as Toaster Update
January 19th, 2009
Frak Off
I had high hopes for Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood.
Then I read this.
Dirk Benedict – Frak Off.
So say we all.
P.S. Friday’s episode rocked.
Jamie posted this at 4:41 PM CDT on Monday, January 19th, 2009 as Toaster Update
June 14th, 2008
Holy Frak
That is all.
Jamie posted this at 1:52 AM CDT on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 as Toaster Update
May 29th, 2008
Animal-Cylon Alliance
Our worst fears realized.
(CNN) — Monkeys with sensors implanted in their brains have learned to control a robot arm with their thoughts, using it to feed themselves with fruit and marshmallows.
Tom posted this at 9:47 AM CDT on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 as Animal Kingdom Strikes Back, Toaster Update
April 4th, 2008
Never Forget
Three seasons ago, the Cylons launched an unprovoked war on our sister colonies, destroying the colonial fleet, and murdering billions of innocent human beings. Fewer than 50,000 survivors remain.
Tonight, we find out the beginning of the end of their story.
So say we all!
Tom posted this at 3:02 PM CDT on Friday, April 4th, 2008 as Toaster Update
October 16th, 2007
By your command
Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows.
“My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots,” artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience. Levy recently completed his Ph.D. work on the subject of human-robot relationships, covering many of the privileges and practices that generally come with marriage as well as outside of it.
At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, “but once you have a story like ‘I had sex with a robot, and it was great!’ appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I’d expect many people to jump on the bandwagon,” Levy said.
Tom posted this at 10:27 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 as Toaster Update
August 21st, 2007
Dr. Baltar. Paging Dr. Giaus Baltar.
First, toasters. Now, skinjobs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they’re getting closer.
Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of “wet artificial life.”
“It’s going to be a big deal and everybody’s going to know about it,” said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. “We’re talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways — in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict.”
…
Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could “run amok,” but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem.
“When these things are created, they’re going to be so weak, it’ll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab,” he said. “But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen.”
Tom posted this at 11:06 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 as Toaster Update
August 4th, 2007
That’s It
We’re all screwed.
Geoff posted this at 3:18 AM CDT on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 as Iraq, Toaster Update
May 11th, 2007
Are they INSANE?
Looks like Britain has decided to manufacture killer robots. What makes this story even better is that they will be run by a computer system called Skynet.
Terminator kill-bots to be run by system called ‘Skynet’
How many hints do we need? Flee while you can
Published Friday 11th May 2007 14:34 GMTResearch library – All papers free to download. Following the announcement of the new Flying-HK-style “Reaper” death machines for the British forces, the prophetic nature of the Terminator movies has been further confirmed.
Not only will the UK MoD deploy airborne cyber-gunships remarkably similar to those in the films, the flying robot assassins will be controlled by an IT project named “Skynet”.
I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a really really bad idea to me.
On another note, the US really needs more military hardware with names like “Reaper”.
Jamie posted this at 4:31 PM CDT on Friday, May 11th, 2007 as Toaster Update