From the “Matrix is real and we are all screwed department.”

A new robot can recognize the difference between a mirror image of itself and another robot that looks just like it.

This so-called mirror image cognition is based on artificial nerve cell groups built into the robot’s computer brain that give it the ability to recognize itself and acknowledge others.

The ground-breaking technology could eventually lead to robots able to express emotions.

Under development by Junichi Takeno and a team of researchers at Meiji University in Japan, the robot represents a big step toward developing self-aware robots and in understanding and modeling human self-consciousness.

–Truly ground breaking.

Source

robotics, robot

Nevada is once again the fastest growing state. You go girl.

For the 19th straight year, Nevada was the fastest growing state. Its population rose 3.5 percent for the year ended at mid-year in 2005.

It even moved up a notch – from No. 18 to No. 17 – in the list of top 20 most populous states, bumping Missouri down a notch.

The population in Arizona, the No. 2 fastest growing state, grew at just under 3.5 percent.

The other fastest growing states were Idaho (up 2.4%), Florida (up 2.3%) and Utah (up 2%), in the top five.

Then came Georgia (up 1.7%), Texas (up 1.7%), North Carolina (up 1.7%), Delaware (up 1.6%) and Oregon (up 1.4%).

With the exception of Georgia, Idaho and Texas, much of the increase in the populations of the fastest growing states was due to migration of residents from elsewhere.

The Census findings are in keeping with a trend among home buyers and home owners to move away from high-priced markets to more moderately priced ones.

–Now how will this effect consumerism and retail development, housing, etc.?

Source

Once thought of the reason for low colorectal incidence, fiber is now considered a poser based on new research.

Researchers seeking to resolve one of the most controversial issues in cancer prevention found that colorectal cancers were 16% less common among people consuming the most fiber than among those receiving the least.

But the advantage probably comes from other healthy lifestyle choices made by the fiber eaters, who tend to smoke less, exercise more, avoid red meats and consume more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, calcium and folic acid, the researchers said.

When researchers controlled for these factors, evidence of fiber as a cancer fighter disappeared.

Source

–In a nutshell this research is suggesting that fiber is just for hardening up your dumps. Really, its too gross not to be good for you,

Check this out. Someone at the PR firm for TIME Magazine decided to use some inside info to make a little money. Yes they were betting/predicting who would be TIME magazine’s person of the year. The people who made these bets are obviously rookies to placing bets when the bookie is at a disadvantage. Lets see where they went wrong. Maximum allowable bet?! Are you kidding me. If you ever wanted to draw suspicion to yourselves, congratulations.

They could’ve bet half that and done it 3 or 4 times more. It would not have triggered the alerts that a max bet would. Hey next time you PR firms want to use inside information to make money off of offshore sportsbooks ask for some obvious advice. Geez. You guys could’ve been raking it in, laughing all the way to the copy machine. But no, you had to blow it. How about spreading your bet across multiple sportsbooks? Well maybe you did that. I hope so. Its called diversification.

Note: I do not bet on sports. Anymore. Haven’t in years. 8 years precisely. Long before sports wagering was common online.

Sportsbook.com, the world’s largest online sportsbook, has been forced to halt wagering on Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year due to suspicious betting activity. Upon further investigation by Sportsbook.com, the first and only sportsbook to offer odds on the annual designations, it appears employees of a public relations agency linked to Time Warner have used inside information to place the maximum allowable bet on this year’s winners.

On the afternoon of Friday, December 2, a number of suspicious wagers, originating primarily from New York and New Jersey, were posted on Mother Nature to be named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2005. These wagers have been traced back to e-mail addresses of a New York-based PR agency that lists Time Warner as one of its clients.

This decision followed on the heels of similarly suspicious betting activity on the 2005 recipient of Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year. Since the odds were posted on the annual designation several weeks ago, numerous wagers from the same sources for the maximum allowable bet were placed on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Later in the evening of December 2, a leak emerged that Tom Brady would, in fact, be this year’s
winner.

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–Brilliant.