:::::~News from around the World~:::::

[444trumpets]

Robot-driven cars on roads by 2030: scientist



Scientists are developing the next generation of robot-driven cars and predict they could be shuttling humans around by the year 2030, a conference was told.

The first wave of intelligent robot cars, capable of understanding and reacting to the world around them, will be tested this November in a competition run by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Scientists are developing vehicles which will not only be driven by robots independently, but will be able to operate in a simulated city environment.
"In the past it was sufficient for a vehicle just to perceive the environment, said Sebastian Thrun, an associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University.
"The new challenge will be to understand the environment. The robot must be able to recognize another car, to understand that it is moving and that it will interact with it as it gets closer."
Thrun, who was speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in San Francisco, is a member of the Stanford team participating in the DARPA competition, which will take place on November 3.
Stanford's entrant "Junior" is a converted 2006 Volkswagen Passat whose steering, throttle and brakes all have been modified by engineers to be completely computer-controllable.
An array of lasers fitted on the car bumpers, radar and global positioning systems feed data into the on-board computer to determine its location and position.
Thrun predicted that leaps in artificial intellegence would lead to driverless cars on the roads by 2030.
"Today we can drive about 100 miles (160 kilometers) before human assistance is necessary, by 2010 I expect this to go 1,000 miles (1,160 kilometers), by 2020 up to a million miles (1.6 million kilometers)," he said.
"By 2030 you'll be able to see them on the highway, with a driving reliability that will exceed humans by orders of magnitude.
"We believe this technology will affect all of us. It is going to have enormous significance for people who can't drive because of disabilities or because they are ill or impaired."
Thrun said he believed robot-driven vehicles would be deployed in war zones before they are seen in everyday civilian environments. "I think they'll be on the battlefield by around 2015," he said. "It is going to make sense to use them in situations such as convoys, or in hostile environments where there is danger to personnel."

[444trumpets]

2 Bald Eagles in Their Nest

--Traci H.

[444trumpets]

Doctors Extend Hospital Stay of Tiniest Premature Baby

Tuesday, February 20, 2007





Born at just under 22 weeks gestation on Oct. 24, Amillia Sonja Taylor is the world's youngest surviving premature baby.
MIAMI — The world's smallest premature baby will remain in the hospital a few more days as a precaution, hospital officials said Tuesday.
Barbara Moore, spokeswoman for Baptist Children's Hospital, said she did not have further details on why the doctors changed their mind about sending Amillia Sonja Taylor home Tuesday.
Doctors say Amillia is the first baby known to survive after a gestation period of fewer than 23 weeks. She was just 9 1/2 inches long and weighed less than 10 ounces when she was born Oct. 24. She was delivered after just under 22 weeks of pregnancy; full-term births come after 37 to 40 weeks.
The baby has suffered respiratory and digestive problems, as well as a mild brain hemorrhage, but doctors believe the health concerns will not have major long-term effects.
"Her prognosis is excellent," said Dr. Paul Fassbach, who has cared for Amillia since her second day.
Amillia was conceived in vitro and has been in an incubator since birth. She has received oxygen and will continue to get a small amount even after she goes home.
She is the first child for Eddie and Sonja Taylor of Homestead. She was delivered by Caesarean section and now weighs about 4 1/2 pounds and is just over 15 1/2 inches long. Previously doctors stated she was about 25 inches long.

[444trumpets]

Virtual treatment for US troops

By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, San Francisco



Patients saw immediate post treatment gains, researchers said

Virtual reality is being used to treat soldiers returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The immersive system combines realistic street scenes, sounds and odours to allow patients to relive traumatic events in a controlled environment.
During the "exposure therapy", a clinician determines the intensity of the events the soldier experiences.
The prototype system is currently being trialled in the US but has already successfully treated four volunteers.
"We see immediate post treatment gains," said Dr Skip Rezzo of the University of Southern California and one of the team that developed the system.
In particular, the system seems to help with symptoms such as nightmares and flashbacks.
"Those are the cold clinical symptoms but this translates into being able to leave the house, being able to go to work or being able to continue your relationship with your wife or loved ones," said Dr Rezzo.
Virtual approach
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition suffered by many who have been on active service with the Armed Forces.
The term is used to describe a range of psychological symptoms people may experience following a traumatic, usually life-threatening, event.
The system attempts to recreate the reality of war

Symptoms can manifest themselves in different ways but can include reliving the trauma through flashbacks or nightmares, increased irritability and self-isolation.
A study in 2004 by researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research found that nearly one in eight soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan reported some symptom of PTSD.
The disorder is traditionally treated with psychotherapy and medicines such as antidepressants.
The new technique offers a complementary approach.
Realistic scene
Psychotherapists already use exposure therapy to treat stress related disorders
This typically involves the patient being asked to imagine a series of increasingly traumatic events.
It is particularly common for treating phobias such as fear of flying or fear of flights.
However, it is difficult to use on people suffering from PTSD.
"The problem with applying it to PTSD is that one of the symptoms is the avoidance of cues and reminders of the trauma of the event," said Dr Rezzo.
"So what we do in virtual reality is put a person in virtual Iraq, but initially at a level where they only experience minimal anxiety."
To recreate scenes the system uses a headset that can show video-game quality images of one of two scenarios: a street scene and a desert.
These are controlled by a clinician, who can introduce different elements into the scenarios, from playing children to unexpected explosions. The time of day and conditions such as sand storms can also be manipulated.
To make it even more realistic, the system pumps in smells such as gunpowder, burning rubber and body odour. Speakers provide the sound, whilst off-the-shelf sub-woofers placed under the chair recreate movements.
Other researchers at Emory University and Cornell University in the US have created similar systems to treat Vietnam veterans and people caught up in the World Trade Centre attacks in 2001.
Early success
Using the University of Southern California system, a typical treatment for a soldier who survived an attack on their vehicle may start with them just standing next to an armoured car in the desert.
"Then you raise the level," explained Dr Rezzo.
"You put them in the humvee (military vehicle), then you put them in it and you add the sounds of the engine, then you ask them to drive down a desert road.
"Over the course of the therapy, significant trauma events would be delivered at the hands of the clinician."
Typical treatment involves two one-hour sessions over five weeks.
Dr Rezzo and his team have already treated four people successfully. The first was a 21-year old female in the US military who had witnessed a number of suicide bombing scenes.
Others involved in the initial trial dropped out after one or two sessions.
Despite this, the team have started a larger trial with other soldiers returning from Iraq. The number involved is undisclosed.
However, Dr Rezzo is keen to point out that the trials are still in their infancy and many more follow up studies need to be done. "I don't want to sell this as a panacea but the results are encouraging," he said. The research was presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in San Francisco, US.

[444trumpets]

New Robo-Weapon: Paralyzing Floodlight

Well, this ought to chill out anyone who was worried about a robotic uprising: our mechanical overlords may not kill us right away. At first, they just might zap us with a paralyzing burst of light.
The US Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) plans to demonstrate the use of a 7.5 million candlepower strobe floodlight system mounted on board an unmanned air vehicle as a non-lethal crowd-control system," the always-linkworthy Flight International tells us.

The project will see a Peak Beam Systems searchlight adapted to operate as a strobe capable of inducing physical effects, such as short-term paralysis, in humans.
AATD plans to award contacts to the Edgemont, Pennsylvania-based Peak Systems for the modified searchlight in March, with demonstrations within 12 months.
US government acquisition records released on 9 February say the sole source contract calls for Peak Systems to "design and fabricate a light-based immobilisation system/deterrent device and integrate it with an unmanned aerial system. This will include any necessary medical research on frequency and amplitude modulation of high-intensity light that will cause immobilisation to all those within the beam."
The system uses a xenon-based searchlight that "can be pulsed with a unique modulation [strobe] effect that results in immobilisation to those within the beam. This effort will transition the lamp from a handheld/vehicle mounted system to an airborne platform."

But that's not the only flying robot / ray gun combo the U.S. military is examining. The Air Force is also toying with the idea of mounting its Active Denial System pain weapon on a drone, too. Just so the robots can make us feel like we're on fire, before they temporarily blind us.

[Sizzy Up]

Why are you posting this here MOUSER?

SORRY MAN.. I KNOW... IT WAS JUST LIKE.. A TRIP I HAD WHILE VISITING.. MEXICO.. . BUT AT THE SAME TIME IT SAID.. NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD... I STARTED THINKING ABOUT.. LIKE THE STORIES.. IN WEEKLY WORLD NEWS.. I USED TO CHECK OUT AND BELIEVE WHEN I WAS A LITTLE .. KID.. SO IT WAS KIND OF LIKE MY IDEA.. OF.. .

YELLOW NEWSPAPERS ..

IF UR NOT DOWN W / IT.. I'LL STOP.. BUT I HAVENT HAD ANY REAL STORIES.. TO TALK ABOUT LATELY.. THAT I DIDNT PUT IN VERSE MY FAULT NO DISRESPECT

[Sizzy Up]

sorry Man.. I Know... It Was Just Like.. A Trip I Had While Visiting.. Mexico.. . But At The Same Time It Said.. News From Around The World... I Started Thinking About.. Like The Stories.. In Weekly World News.. I Used To Check Out And Believe When I Was A Little .. Kid.. So It Was Kind Of Like My Idea.. Of.. .

Yellow Newspapers ..

If Ur Not Down W / It.. I'll Stop.. But I Havent Had Any Real Stories.. To Talk About Lately.. That I Didnt Put In Verse My Fault No Disrespect

My Bad.. I See Every Thing In Here. Is Really New And Serious.. So There Would Be No More Nonsense Of That Sort.. My Apologies.. To Ben.. Anyone Else I MAY HAVE Offended..

{like Say Somebody.,. That Didnt Know About The Wutang Corp Web Site. Came In Here And Seen This.. He/SHE Would Totally Tally The Website As Inept }

N E Thing With Wu Or Ppl Down With Wu Is Totally Not Inept..

So On My Part.. Not Cool Again My Bad ..

[444trumpets]

Dont Trip...its Coo

[Black Man]

OAK PARK HEIGHTS - Ask most students at Stillwater Area High School and they'll tell you the school doesn't have a problem with racial tolerance.

Ask Travis Miller and you'll hear a very different story.

Miller, whose mother is white and father is black, said he hears and sees things that offend him every day, he just chooses to brush most of them off, partly because he'd rather focus on football and his future, and partly because past experiences have taught him little will come of it, even if he says something.

But when a white student confronted Miller and other minority students in front of hundreds of their peers in the school cafeteria last week, the racism was impossible to ignore.

On Tuesday, Feb. 13, Miller and other members of minority student groups Students Together Against Racism (STAR) and Students Promoting Asian Awareness (SPAA) were selling tickets during lunch for an upcoming student fashion show to raise money for the Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir, which would perform at the school later that night. The events were part of BLAST Week, an annual school celebration that was recently expanded to focus on diversity and Black History Month. The students were playing hip-hop music and encouraging people to get up and dance. Kids of all races danced along, Miller said, with band teacher Dennis Lindsay even joining in at one point.

"We had teachers dancing; we had students dancing; everybody was having a great time. And then out of the corner of my eye I see a trashcan come at me. This kid actually threw a trashcan at me! I backed up and I looked at the kid, and I was like, 'Yo, homeboy, what's your problem?'

"And he was like, 'Cut that (f-) nigger music off! I don't want to hear that nigger rap music!'" Miller recalled.

"I was like, 'Are you serious?!' It was like a movie; the whole lunchroom went dead silent. And then he said it again: 'Cut that nigger music off! I don't want to hear that rap music! Shut that (s-) off!'"

Miller, who stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 325 pounds, was enraged, but he stayed calm, not wanting to do anything that would jeopardize his scholarship to North Dakota State College of Science, where he plans to play football in the fall.

"I knew what I had at stake: I'm 18 years old. I'm going to college. I'm playing football," Miller said. "So I looked at him, and I said, 'What's your problem? We don't have a problem with you. That's ridiculous.'"

Then things got even more heated.

"He looked dead in my eyes and he was like, 'I'll get me and my brother to kill you.'"

Miller said the incident was bad enough on its own, but it was made worse because it destroyed what had been a really good mood in the room.

"It was a heartbreaking moment," he said. "All the different ethnic groups were actually blending in and being as one for a long time - I haven't seen everybody actually be one for a while - and then the kid just started yelling."

Better, but not good enough

Miller said he has noticed a change in the Stillwater student body in the eight years since he moved into the district from Philadelphia. While most students still don't see most of the racism around them, he said they're now at least outraged when they do.

"It's getting better, to some extent. For one thing, kids are actually acknowledging what's happening," he said.

"Part of the problem is that when something does happen it gets dealt with so quick that no one knows about it. ... I told the principal, 'You can only sweep so much dust under the rug before it turns into a mountain - one day it's going to get so big where you're either going to run into it, or you're going to have to walk around it. I think it all came out when that thing happened in the lunchroom. A lot of kids didn't believe that stuff happened here until then. When they saw it face to face, a lot of people were shocked."

Stillwater Area High School Principal Chris Lennox said the incident was both disturbing and completely unacceptable, but more important is the fact that the overwhelming majority of Stillwater students have spent the past two weeks celebrating diversity and that the campus climate has improved over the last several years, thanks in part to the work of student groups like STAR and SPAA and the staff that advise them.

"The story here isn't about one incident, the story is about two weeks of celebration. One kid in a school of 2,000 made one unfortunate comment, but even that came only after everyone else in the building had been through the same room and seen the same event," Lennox said.

Following the incident, Lennox spoke to all students over the public address system, reiterating that the school has zero tolerance for racist behavior. He also sent a message to district administrators and high school staff describing the incident and encouraging them to use it as a teaching opportunity in their classrooms. The offending student, a white sophomore boy, received an eight-day suspension.

Though Miller said he is not particularly worried about the boy making good on his death threat, that does little to reassure his grandmother, Carol Miller, who said she has grown weary of watching her three grandchildren suffer in the Stillwater schools.

"You reach a point where you just get tired, particularly when you feel so many incidents have not been handled the way that they should have been. That's the way that the kids are feeling, too - and it's not just the minority kids, it's all the kids who have been targeted in some way or another," she said.

"From what we gather, this kid who threatened my grandson is troubled, which makes me even more concerned," said.

Also concerned is Travis' younger sister, Aunya Miller, now a junior at the high school. She said she doesn't know how her brother has been able to put up with the pressure of being a black man growing up in Stillwater. She now hopes to move back east and live with her aunt, so she can spend her senior year at a still-safe but more-accepting school in the Philadelphia suburbs.

"This was the last straw for me; I can't handle it out here anymore. The next thing that happens, I'm afraid I'm going to slip and do or say something I might regret," she said.

"I just wish people could stand in our shoes for a day in Stillwater and see how it is just walking down the hallway," she said. "All the black people hang out in one crowd because every time we go to another town they make fun of us and say all we do is fight and shoot people. I want them to know that we're not all about that; we're just like everybody else. The color of your skin makes no difference."

Aunya said she has a number of good friends in Stillwater, but that is no longer enough to keep her here.

"There are some kids who stand up for us, and they make me really proud. But usually people don't; they just fall back and don't do anything," she said.

What now?

So what will this latest incident of racism mean for Stillwater Area Schools, once everything is said and done?

On the face of it, "not much."

The threatening student will soon return to school, where staff and his fellow students will presumably keep a close eye on him. At the end of the year, Travis will graduate and head off to pursue his football dreams in North Dakota, while his sister Aunya will head back to Philadelphia to finish high school, if she gets her way. And Stillwater's other minority students will continue to meet formally and informally to support each other and encourage other students to be more accepting.

But one boy's tirade in the cafeteria last week made several hundred students keenly aware that racism still exists in Stillwater, and for Travis Miller, at least that's something.

"I'm glad it's out on the table now. I'm glad people are starting really to notice it, because as a senior about to leave I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to do anything.

"I just wanted someone to take notice," he said.

"This kid, he said something horrible at the wrong time and the wrong place, and a lot of people took notice. ... Good. It's getting out there. People are starting to really realize what's going on around here."

[444trumpets]

Damn He Would Have Got Beat From Around Here...

[maestro wooz]

A former wrestling champion from Columbia was charged Monday with murder, accused of beating another teen to death with an aluminum baseball bat during a melee at an Ellicott City high school that attracted dozens of youths to an apparently pre-arranged meeting in the middle of the night.

Kevin Francis Klink, 18, who graduated from Oakland Mills High School last year, faces a bail hearing Tuesday in the death of Robert Brazell, 18, of Ellicott City. They were among about two dozen youths from several Howard County high schools involved in a fight on a Mount Hebron High School athletic field about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, said Sherry Llewellyn, a Howard County police spokeswoman.




Brazell was taken by helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he underwent two surgeries for a serious head wound. He died Sunday.

Klink was charged Monday with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment.

Klink won the Class 2A-1A South region wrestling title at 189 pounds last February in a tournament where he defeated Steve Sessa, the eventual state champion. Sessa, 19, of Columbia said Monday night that he saw Klink at this year's regional wrestling tournament Saturday -- hours after the melee -- at Atholton High School in Columbia.

"He was like, 'Hey, man, we've got to hang out.' I thought that everything was cool. He seemed happy," Sessa said.

Brazell was a senior at Mount Hebron High until he dropped out of school in December. His death is the first homicide in Howard County this year. The county had four homicides last year.

During the fight, Klink approached Brazell from behind and struck him in the head with the baseball bat, according to documents filed in Howard County District Court.

Llewelyn said investigators were unclear about the motive, but the incident appeared to stem from an earlier argument.

"These are two group of high school kids with an ongoing dispute, and they wanted to hash it out," she said. "We don't want people to jump to conclusions" that it was gang-related. "There is no indication that there were any gang-like actions -- there were no gang rituals in this."

Most fighters fled

Llewelyn said that when police arrived, they found most of the youths had fled the scene. A source close to the investigation said some people at the scene appeared to be intoxicated.

Two others who were allegedly involved in the melee, Jacob Sams and Evan Tubbs, both 17 years old and students at Hammond High School in Columbia, were treated at Shock Trauma for injuries and released, police said.

Police said witnesses gave details that led detectives to Klink. He was arrested Sunday evening at a gas station in Ellicott City.

Efforts to reach relatives at Brazell's residence and by telephone were unsuccessful. Brazell had been in Howard County District Court on Feb. 13 for charges from an October incident when police alleged he had marijuana in a DVD video case, according to court records.

T. Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the Howard County State's Attorney's Office, said prosecutors reached a pretrial agreement with Brazell to not prosecute him because he did not have a prior criminal record.

Brazell was ordered to serve 16 hours of community service, which was to begin in June, Kirwan said.

Mount Hebron High School teachers informed students of Brazell's death Monday, and grief counseling was provided by the school system. They were also encouraged to contact police with any information about Brazell's death.

Surprise, shock

Cindy Ardinger, the vice president of the Mount Hebron PTSA, said her daughter attended class with Brazell but did not know him well.

"I'm surprised; I'm truly shocked," Ardinger said. "Our children seemed to be unaware of it. Other parents were unaware of it."

Klink's residential Columbia neighborhood was quiet Monday afternoon. No one answered a doorbell at Klink's ranch-style brick home in the 6800 block of Allview Drive.


One neighbor, who declined to be identified, said that Klink was a peer mentor to the neighbor's mentally disabled foster son.

He described Klink as a "nice kid" who had made "bad decisions." The neighbor said Klink's family had lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years.

Klink was charged in September with driving while impaired by alcohol, and in November a Howard County District Court judge sentenced him to probation before judgment.

Wrestling team

A co-captain on the wresting team, Klink compiled a record of 28 wins and five losses during 2005-2006, his senior season at Oakland Mills.

Brad Howell, Oakland Mills' wrestling coach, declined to comment when reached at his home Monday night.

No one could be reached at Brazell's home in a three-level apartment complex Monday in the 5100 block of Wheaton Way in Ellicott City.

Within a day after his death, tributes to Brazell were appearing on the Internet. On the social networking Web site facebook.com, a memorial had been set up.

The site, which had six pictures of Brazell, by Monday afternoon included 13 posts from friends expressing their shock and grief.

One post recalled "crazy football" games they had played and another spoke of days spent to gether in the fifth and sixth grades.

Brazell had a Myspace.com account in which he advocated the legalization of marijuana and drinking beer.

What is a gang

Although Howard County police said the melee was not gang-related, one expert said certain elements fit Maryland's definition of gang activity.

"Looking at the news, it sounded gang-related to me," said Frank Clark, director of the gang intervention and investigative unit for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. "Apparently these kids met up with the intention of fighting. It is one of the triggers we would look at being gang-related. There are a lot of other things that have to be look at."

A gang consists of three or more people who form to participate in illegal activities, create an atmosphere of intimidation or fear, and whose members have a common identifying sign, symbol or name, according to the state's definition.

Clark said gang activity exists in Howard County. Last year the Howard County school system in cluded Clark in a gang-prevention presentation.

[444trumpets]

Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'



Chimps sharpened the spears with their teeth

Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates, according to a study in the journal Current Biology.

Researchers documented 22 cases of chimps fashioning tools to jab at smaller primates sheltering in cavities of hollow branches or tree trunks.
The report's authors, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani, said the finding could have implications for human evolution.
Chimps had not been previously observed hunting other animals with tools.
Pruetz and Bertolani made the discovery at their research site in Fongoli, Senegal, between March 2005 and July 2006.
"There were hints that this behaviour might occur, but it was one time at a different site," said Jill Pruetz, assistant professor of anthropology at Iowa State University, US.
"While in Senegal for the spring semester, I saw about 13 different hunting bouts. So it really is habitual."
Jabbing weapon
Chimpanzees were observed jabbing the spears into hollow trunks or branches, over and over again. After the chimp removed the tool, it would frequently smell or lick it.
In the vast majority of cases, the chimps used the tools in the manner of a spear, not as probes. The researchers say they were using enough force to injure an animal that may have been hiding inside.
However, they did not photograph the behaviour, or capture it on film.
Adolescent females exhibited the behaviour most frequently (Image: M Gaspersic)

In one case, Pruetz and Bertolani, from the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies in Cambridge, UK, witnessed a chimpanzee extract a bushbaby with a spear.
In most cases, the Fongoli chimpanzees carried out four or more steps to manufacture spears for hunting.
In all but one of the cases, chimps broke off a living branch to make their tool. They would then trim the side branches and leaves.
In a number of cases, chimps also trimmed the ends of the branch and stripped it of bark. Some chimps also sharpened the tip of the tool with their teeth.
Female lead
Adult males have long been regarded as the hunters in chimp groups.
But the authors of the paper in Current Biology said females, particularly adolescent females, and young chimps in general were seen exhibiting this behaviour more frequently than adult males.
"It's classic in primates that when there is a new innovation, particularly in terms of tool use, the younger generations pick it up very quickly. The last ones to pick up are adults, mainly the males," said Dr Pruetz, who led the National Geographic Society-funded project.
This is because young chimps pick the skill up from their mothers, with whom they spend a lot of their time.
"It's a niche that males seem to ignore," Dr Pruetz. Many areas where chimpanzees live are also home to the red colobus monkey, which the chimps hunt. However, the Senegal site is lacking in this species, so chimps may have needed to adopt a new hunting strategy to catch a different prey - bushbaby. The authors conclude that their findings support a theory that females may have played a similarly important role in the evolution of tool technology among early humans.

[bizzlez]

thats crazy

aren't chimpanzees strong enough to rip a human apart? or is that another type of monkey?

[444trumpets]

yeah i heard that wild chimpazee skit tearing up a dude got to get em in groups i guess

[Jet Set]

Didn't chimps use sticks to eat ants? sticking tehm in the ant hill and getting it out to eat the ants?

Last year I was part of a research proramme to the effect of THC on someone during some tests. They were looking if you could help people from phobia with the use of THC. So there is alot of research done towards using Virtual Reality in the Psychology corner.