Obama first president to support gay marriage–‘same sex couples should be allowed to marry’

Okay…I’m really surprised. Sooooooo surprised…

After waffling on the subject of gay marriage for three and a half years, president Obama suddenly came out in support of it today.

Forgive my suspicious nature, but it looks to me like he’s really worried about losing the election and plans on doing some things he promised to do the first time around. For example, this 11th Hour decision to support gay marriage.

I also will be soooooo surprised if Obama’s next announcement is that he’s calling off the DEA dogs and will stop the senseless attacks against medical marijuana and the states that have legalized it.

Don’t you just love presidential campaigns? They’re full of surprises… 

New Era of Medicine: Robots study how humans think and then gives them drugs to treat disorders

                              Good Day Humboldt County!

What wonders the future holds. I recently read about a robotic eye that gives the once sightless vision! I’ve always had my reservations about robots – see my column - Workplace Reality: more robots, fewer humans – but it hasn’t dampened my curiosity about them.

Do you remember Robby the Robot a fictional character who made a number of appearances in science fiction movies and television programs after his first appearance in the 1956 MGM science fiction film Forbidden Planet?  Robby is the root of my interest in “artificial intelligence.” And walking talking tin cans.

Robby the Robot made several appearances in other movies and TV shows over the next few decades, including episodes of The Thin Man and The Addams Family. While Robby's appearance was generally consistent, there were notable exceptions, such as the 1962 Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon", where he was given a slightly more human "face."

So, it’s no surprise that I bring you the latest in robotics. Enjoy…

“Brain scientists have built a robot that can find and record information from individual neurons in the living brains of mice. Yes, robots are becoming real-world brain scientists.

In the future, these same robots could be studying how humans think and even deliver targeted drugs to the brain – to treat disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, autism or epilepsy. The robotic procedure automates the well-known, albeit time consuming, difficult and mind-numbing, task for human neuroscientists known as whole-cell patch clamping.

The technique involves bringing a tiny, hollow glass pipette in contact with the cell membrane of a neuron, then opening up a small pore in the membrane to record the electrical activity within the cell, explains MIT.The skill took graduate student Suhasa Kodandaramaiah four months to learn.

“When I got reasonably good at it, I could sense that even though it is an art form, it can be reduced to a set of stereotyped tasks and decisions that could be executed by a robot,” he said in a news release. And so, that’s what he and his colleagues did – building a robotic arm that lowers a glass pipette into an anesthetized mouse with more superior precision and speed than humans.

Their procedure is described in the May 6 issue of Nature Methods. The same technique can be used to determine the shape of the cell and they are working on a way to extract a cell’s contents to read its genetic profile.

According to the MIT news release, this is a new era for robotics:

The researchers are now working on scaling up the number of electrodes so they can record from multiple neurons at a time, potentially allowing them to determine how different parts of the brain are connected.

They are also working with collaborators to start classifying the thousands of types of neurons found in the brain. This “parts list” for the brain would identify neurons not only by their shape — which is the most common means of classification — but also by their electrical activity and genetic profile.

“If you really want to know what a neuron is, you can look at the shape, and you can look at how it fires. Then, if you pull out the genetic information, you can really know what’s going on,” [team member Craig Forest at Georgia Tech] says. “Now you know everything. That’s the whole picture.”

--Via MIT

Time for me to walk on down the road…

There’s no such thing as a routine day – it’s the first day of the rest of your life

              Good Day Humboldt County!

For those of you who actually read this blog daily you’ll notice I didn’t post something new on Monday. I took a blog break. Went to Oregon. On the way home, my wife and I stopped in Crescent City to watch one of our grandson’s first musical recital (he plays the trumpet – think Satchmo someday I told him… and he looked at me like I was crazy!)

Moments like that are fleeting and you can’t count on them. They are precious moments when you connect at some level with loved ones. Each day brings promise, or grief, depending on your current path in life. You can expect the unexpected with assurance. It’s going to happen. Good or bad. Every day. It’s best to live each day like it was your last.

         Recent examples in the news:

 FAMILY TRAGEDY IN TENNESSE - Jo Ann Bain and her daughters, Adrienne, 14, Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah, 8, are believed to have been abducted by a family friend, Adam Mayes. Police believe the two younger girls are still with Mayes.

A Tennessee medical examiner identified two bodies Monday as those of Jo Ann Bain and her eldest daughter, Adrienne, 14, who are believed to have been abducted from their home in Whiteville,Tenn. on April 27, 2012----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                              Community Comes Together To Fulfill Fallen Soldier’s Final Wish

Bruce Hays was a member of the Wyoming Army National Guard and had been in Afghanistan for less than a month when he was killed

via Daily Mail |

It took more than a village to help bring the last wish of a fallen soldier to come true, but ten months and the help of strangers led to its completion.

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Is this something that interests you?

Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government

via TED |

Can government be run like the Internet, wide open and no rules? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can.

Jennifer said that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments -- and their neighbors.

 

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Everyone loves to hear about people beating the odds.

 

Svante Myrick, Ithaca’s Youngest-Ever Mayor, Grew Up Homeless

via MSNBC |

Svante Myrick, Ithaca's newly-elected 24-year-old mayor has an incredible story to tell.

Not only is he the town's youngest mayor in history, he also surmounted huge odds to get there.

 

Time for me to walk on down the road…

AS IT STANDS: Holy Hackcalypse Batman! What should we do?

                                 

           By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
  Beware of the coming Hackcalypse!
A worldwide reckoning among competing hackers is coming sooner than you think. Future generations will refer to this monumental Clash of the Nerds as the day we went back to the Stone Age.
 We know governments have hired hackers for years to steal state secrets, scientific advances, and to sabotage other country’s networks, causing internal chaos. Hackers prank the FBI and break into credit card networks to steal people’s personal information.
   Some hackers claim to be for the common man and attack corporations they don’t like for political reasons. Others have no problem going onto social websites and creating havoc there. ESingles has been relentlessly mocked, both by LulzSec Reborn and other hackers who have compared the stolen data with what's on the site.

  LulzSec Reborn broke into ESingle’s  database and stole passwords, email addresses, and other information from nearly 171,000 accounts, according to several security experts on the case.
   Hackers hack because they can. For every one that gets caught, ten more are laughing safely behind numerous firewalls and other people’s IP addresses. A hacker can be 12 years old or 89 years old. There are no age requirements.
   Hackers hang with con artists and scammers and often help them rip off unsuspecting victims by setting cyber traps.
   The US has a high powered cyber team fighting 24 hours a day against thousands of attacks from around the world seeking to break into sensitive government, military, and corporate websites. There’s never a time out.

  China, Russia, and the Ukraine currently have the worst reputation when it comes to using state sponsored hackers to attack American interests. A recent article in Data Protection - Ukraine seen as a growing 'haven for hackers' - by Taylor Armerding, talks about Ukraine's would-be major crackdown on cyber crime.
  The article suggests that the government’s efforts increasingly look futile.
In the view of analysts, including some Ukrainian security officials, the country is becoming a haven for hackers.
   Taras Kuzio, editor of Ukraine Analyst, quoted extensively from a 2011 book by former Guardian Moscow correspondent Luke Harding titled, "Mafia State: How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia." Harding says organized crime hackers have close ties to senior leaders of both countries.

   Most recently, Chinese hackers have been linked to a cyber-espionage campaign that planted data-gathering malware in a total of 233 computers of Tibetan activists and military and industrial entities in Japan and India.
   According to security vendor Trend Micro, the so-called "Luckycat" campaign has been active since at least June 2011 and has been linked to 90 attacks that use malware tailored for each victim.
   Here comes the scary part. You may want to sit down while you read this. There is not a thing we can do about hackers! That’s right. It’s virtually impossible to stop people from hacking. For every new security patch that comes up, a new malware attack, or virus, is created. Cyber security is a huge business, and so far there’s enough good Nerds to keep providing remedies to buy time. Still, our days are numbered.

   There’s no fix that will stop hackers from growing more sophisticated. We have a desperate race in cyberspace trying to hold off the growing power of very smart hackers. At some point, vital infrastructures worldwide (from power grids to water supplies) will be sabotaged.
  Governments everywhere will be crippled. Totally unable to function for the good of the people. Almost like right now, but they won’t be able to make the hackers pay taxes!

  With no power, automatic doors and vaults on timers won’t open. Gas pumps won’t work. Hot tubs won’t heat. The bright lights in cities and homes will dim and die. The ensuring panic will outdo any disaster movie ever made.
    Those who somehow survive this final hackcalypse will find themselves in a new Stone Age. Now, the good news: there will be no more hackers! Problem solved. Amid the smoking debris of crashed computers littering the planet, the survivors can start over.
    As It Stands, is my apocalypse scenario any stranger than some people’s concerns about an ancient Mayan calendar predicting the earth’s end in December?

Have you heard of Methane Hydrates? It’s a new fuel source that could provide energy security for USA

Could the future of cleaner fossil fuel really be frozen crystals now trapped in ocean sediments and under permafrost?

Backed by an oil industry giant, the Obama administration recently tested a drilling technique in Alaska's Arctic that it says might eventually unlock "a vast, entirely untapped resource that holds enormous potential for U.S. economic and energy security." Some experts believe the reserves could provide domestic fuel for hundreds of years to come.

Those crystals, known as methane hydrates, contain natural gas but so far releasing that fuel has been an expensive proposition.

The drilling has its environmental critics, but there’s also a climate bonus: The technique requires injecting carbon dioxide into the ground, thereby creating a new way to remove the warming gas from the atmosphere. (Read story here)

Another State Signs Law Legalizing Medical Marijuana – Connecticut Joins 16 Other States and the District of Columbia

As the feds continue their senseless war on marijuana, another state has given it’s voters what they want – legal medical marijuana.

Connecticut's State Senate approved a bill legalizing medical marijuana early this morning morning. The final vote was tallied just after 2:30 a.m. Saturday after nearly 10 hours of contentious debate. Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, a staunch opponent to the measure, spoke for close to five hours before she began introducing amendments to the bill. 48 amendments were filed by Boucher and other Republican opponents trying to delay the vote.

Governor Dannel Malloy commended the General Assembly for passing the bill.  He said he will sign it into law. When he does, Connecticut will join 16 other states and the District of Columbia where medical marijuana is legal.

Every time another state signs a bill legalizing medical marijuana another crack appears in the feds feeble justification for criminalizing it. Numerous polls have shown over 50 percent of Americans want marijuana to be legalized. One of these days the feds are just going to have to back off and go after real crimes like Mexican cartels invading the USA.

Today is National FREE COMIC BOOK DAY–what do you think about that?

        Good Day Humboldt County!

       Happy Free Comic Book Day (FCBD).

Do you like reading comics? Collect them? Curious about what’s out there these days?   Today is the day for folks like you to get a great sampling of more than 40 free titles offered at participating stores (For Humboldt County residents you can go to *NORTH COAST ROLE PLAYING -1846 Broadway, Eureka, CA, 95501 (707) 444-2288).

Titles from Marvel and DC,  to independents like Red 5 Comics, and Boom Entertainment will be available. Not coincidentally, FCBD comes at the start of summer movie blockbuster season, and the much-anticipated opening of “The Avengers” this weekend only adds to the air of four-color festivity.

And this year there are more comics than ever to discover: More than 2 million copies will be given away Saturday, featuring such iconic figures as Spidey, Superman and even Elvis, as well as newcomers like the Incredible Rockhead (a put-upon schoolkid whose head turns into a giant rock) and Jurassic Strike Force (a squad of mutated dinosaur soldiers).

* Disclaimer – I don’t know anyone at North Coast Role Playing and am in no way being compensated for mentioning the business. Frankly, they are the only location I could find on the north coast that was a participant in this national event.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Just What Do You Think You’re Doing, Dave?

I was immediately reminded of Hal 9000 and his memorable voice addressing Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I won’t talk about how great this movie really was, and how it marked the whole era, I’d rather see what you think of the illusion. Creepy or what?

Lightning strikes below the belt (yep right there) of unlucky Spaniard…ouch!

There’s a guy in Spain right now fervently hoping that the old adage about lightning not striking twice in the same place is true.

“Lightning struck a 53-year-old man's scrotum and then exited his body through one of his feet in Madrid, Spain. The good news: he survived. The bad news: his testicles were burned. A lucky man. Or maybe not.

The man was walking on Avenida de La Ilustración—a street in Madrid's suburb Tres Cantos—when the lightning struck his scrotum through his pants, travelled down one of his legs and went to the sidewalk through his foot. He fell unconscious.

His son called the emergency services, who treated the burns on his scrotum and feet. They moved him to the Hospital de la Paz, where he got under several tests. Luckily, his heart and brain were not affected by the lightning, said the doctors.” (source)

Actually, the guy was lucky getting off with just roasted nuts and feet. Talk about a shock of a lifetime. I can just see the poor guy grabbing his crotch every time there’s lightning in the skies. He might want to invest in a shock-proof jock!

Somewhere there’s an ex-Secret Service Agent who really wishes he wouldn’t have been so cheap

                        Good Day Humboldt County!

I have a high school buddy that use to be in the Secret Service. He’s retired from that now, and doing something else for the Department of Homeland Security. I can’t tell you what, because I don’t know. And I don’t want to know.

This latest scandal about a Secret Service agent who was too cheap to pay the full price for a working girl, made me think about that friend. I wonder if he come out of retirement? You wouldn’t believe how cheap he is. There was this time in high school…wait a moment! Maybe I ought to keep my trap shut? Just kidding buddy!!!!

Here’s some news links and some humor for your entertainment: 

1) Secret Service closes ranks in sordid scandal 2) 3 Secret Service Agents Refuse Polygraph In Prostitution Scandal

Looking for a job? There are lots of new openings at the Secret Service. They provide the sunglasses and foreign travel, but you have to pay for your own hookers (in full).

Secret Service Man
[ Secret Agent Man ]

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Top 10 Countries That Read This Blog for Whatever Reason… and Why Do the Bulgarians Like Me?

 Looking over my visitor lists for April I was struck by how Bulgaria has been contributing more and more readers every month.

I have relatives in The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, but none that I know of in Bulgaria. It just strikes me odd that my blog is becoming popular in Bulgaria. (That even sounds funny doesn’t it?)

             Readership -Top Four Countries 

United States -24,247; United Kingdom - 6,038; Bulgaria - 4,309; Canada - 3,154 - The Remaining Six: India –1,745; Germany – 1,628; Australia – 1,012; Russia – 856; France – 748; and the Philippines – 596. A Total of 40,0679 visitors for April.

After nearly four years of blogging, I still can’t predict what posts will be the most popular. One reader demographic that has stayed steady throughout my blogging has been from public schools, and colleges. Students of all ages seem to find it amusing. Don’t ask me why. I have no idea. I know I get a lot of new traffic on Sundays when my newspaper column comes out because I listed my blog URL on my tagline. The majority comes from the Internet Explorer search browser, followed by Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. In other words…randomly.

Thank you all for stopping by in April. I hope you find May as interesting.