BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8607538.stm]US researchers create towel-folding robot

Yes, I know that developing this sort of coordination and precision is important in the quest to develop an all-purpose robot, but it just seems... trivial.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Links within article.
And note that not only is this without any due process (Obama has publically argued that the Bush administration imprisoning American citizens without due process is unconstitutional, incidentally), but the person in question has denied the charges via his family. And as we all know quite well, American intelligence on "terrorists" has not proven to be foolproof, to say the least.
So, on suspicion of being a scary brown person, the president has now authorised the execution without trial of an American citizen, something even the Bush administration never did - indeed, something that appears to have no legal precedent in the country's history. Mind you, it is a "kill on sight" order rather than an actual, technical, targeted assassination (as far as we know), but it takes some real balls to pull a stunt that gets the National Review saying "Well that's just going a bit too far".
Can we stop calling him a left-winger now?

Article here.  While this probably isn't of too much interest to most folk, it's got my attention, because this is the first real example of "life as we don't know it" to be found -- these creatures apparently branched off the evolutionary tree before oxygen breathing became the in thing for life to do.
ETA:  They also branched off before cells acquired mitochondria, which generate energy for the cell using oxygen and sugars -- these critters use a completely different mechanism to the job, once again something that's never been seen in a multicelled organism before.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Last chance to back off, people!
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He killed a Court.
Killed.  The Red.  Court.
ALL of them.
Holy flurking schnit, Batman. o.O;  The status quo has been kicked in the face and dropped off a tall building.  And not just any tall building, the one from the end of that stupid Tom Cruise movie where it's all a psychotherapy VR sim and they go up in that elevator and it just keeps going up, that tall building.  The war is over.
Oh, and someone plugged Harry at the end, but that's small potatoes. ^.^  Probably just some kind soul giving him a near-enough-death-experience to send the Winter Knight power back to Mab.
Rest in peace, Susan and Martin.  Your sacrifice will be remembered.
...Poor Maggie is gonna need years of therapy before she makes another appearance.
--Sam
"This is graveness.  Oedipus is hurt and last night I almost had a lucid moment."

...my mojo's back. I've managed to start writing again -- a scene for DW13-1, not DW5-7, but writing is writing...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

...or maybe not, if you were never interested.  But if you are, this site has a great interactive tutorial in formal/symbolic logic.  It's been 30 years since I studied logic at college, but I still remember enough to make me wish I remembered the rest... this site is going to help me fix that.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Sweet Oedipal gerund flying spaghetti monster!

So... I copied Eva to the test server, mainly to see what was up with the Dark Mirror stuff, but I have no idea how it triggers or what.  Anyway, when she got ported over I discovered she'd been renamed "Evangelia1"; a quick check with the name checker confirmed that someone else is using "Evangelia" on Test.  It wouldn't happen to be one of you guys, would it?  (And if so, worry not.  I'm not going to pay for a name change on a copy of her, so no need to rush out and delete/rename her.  I'm just curious.)
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Gallery on Sankaku Complex (NSFW warning: it's on Sankaku Complex, but the images themselves are safe) http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/04/05/ne-on/

Forty different images (although #16 has been moved to before #1, and #39 is between #15 and #17). How many characters do you recognize?

(And should #40 be smiling like that? Makes me nervous for some reason...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

This is an advertisement for Canal - apparently a movie channel in France.
This is amazingly funny.



Edit: Wow. To quote Richard Hammond: "That's a BIG silence!" You people are a tough audience!