All Soul's Day lives on today, particularly in Mexico
The day purposely follows All Saint’s Day in order to shift the focus from those in heaven to those in purgatory. It is celebrated with masses and festivities in honor of the dead. While the Feast of All Saints is a day to remember the glories of Heaven and those there, the Feast of All Souls reminds us of our obligations to live holy lives and that there will be purification of the souls of those destined for Heaven. Read the rest of this entry »
LifeGEM®, a U.S. company, says it has obtained a lock of Michael Jackson’s hair, which it will convert into diamonds to sell you! Read the rest of this entry »
At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust.
Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robot — dubbed Kansei, or “sensibility” — responds to the word “war” by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear. It hears “love,” and its pink lips smile.
Dude, we’re not in the Uncanny Valley any more; researchers at Japan’s Robot and Science Institute are taking us for a stroll through the freaking Leatherface Valley with Kansei, a creepy new robot with a vocabulary of over 430,000 words that’s designed to react emotionally to whatever it’s discussing. If you’ve been waiting for a robot that can turn that frown upside down this is it — researchers have taught Kansei how to smile when it’s happy and frown when it’s sad by using word association software to build an artificial intelligence program that allows the bot to make judgements about whether it likes something or not.
"The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint ... but is conceived and ordered ( moved, seconded carried and minuted ) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices"
-- C.S. Lewis [1898-1963]
from The Screwtape Letters
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"You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home."
Virgin Brain
Virginbrain is a blog by Richard Derks. Feel free to leave a comment, to react. I don’t mind it if you like to annoy me. Of course I prefer a lick every now and then
WikiLeaks
The controversial “uncensorable, anonymous whistleblowing” website based currently in Sweden
Syria's President Assad denies any government role in the Houla massacre and calls it an "ugly crime", in his first public comments since the killings.
'Her dress was split to the frontiers of decency and was so tight you could see what she was thinking" -- Sebastian Horsley
"The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything"
-- Oscar Wilde
What is the difference between genius and stupidity? Genius has limits. - Albert Einstein
"Never regret growing older, as it is a privilege denied to many !"
"Love the life you live. Live the life you love." -- Bob Marley
"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." –Gandhi
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." -- Oscar Wilde
»Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not gonna make it, but you laugh inside – remembering all the times you've felt that way.«
-CHARLES BUKOWSKI
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss
“Abundance comes from making others better off.” — Anonymous
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
-- Steve Jobs
'Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions"
-- Edgar Cayce
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"Every day, in every little way, Scientology is changing me for the better." -- Susan Meister on 01/09/1971
On 06/25/71 she was found with a bullet in her head.
'Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable' --Sydney J. Harris
"You must have LONG term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures."
-- Charles C. Noble
Sex won't make him love you, and a baby won't make him stay. -- Your Mom!