The fake problems of infomercials

I caught this video on the Daily Dish. It is a compilation of excerpts from numerous infomercials. This excellent editing of a string of disasters that suggests the need for one more infomercial offering this bit of free advice: Slow down; quit being such materialists; simplify your life and quit acting so recklessly. Excellent humor and anthropology, "kickintheheadcomic"! I suspect we'll soon be hearing a new soundtrack on this clever video, unless the creator has his use rights to the Beatle's "Help" nailed down . . .

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New Smithsonian human origins exhibit

A new $20 million 15,000 square foot exhibit has been built around a central question: "What does it mean to be human?" says paleoanthropologist Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program and curator of the project. It all makes good sense, which means that it is about to be attacked by a huge numbers of people who dread the idea that they are human animals. If only these anti-science types would learn to take deep breaths to follow the evidence wherever it leads. They would find that we humans are part of an immense and intricate tree of life. what possible concocted story could be more amazing than that?

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Tell me about my house

I recently learned about a data-rich site focusing on real estate: zillow.com Would you like to know about your own house, for instance, would you like to know what it's worth? Then type your own address into the home page field. You'll also find lots of information about your neighbors' homes. Looking for a home? Zillow will help you with that too

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Fungi

I recently posted on Sir David Attenborough, touting ability to educate us regarding nature. You might have thought, "Well, anyone could give a lively talk on the blue whale, the largest creature to ever live on Earth." Maybe so. But how many people have ever produced a spellbinding video on fungi? Attenborough and his team are often at their best when presenting species that seem mundane.

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The state of robotics

In a recent article in Discover Magazine called "Machine Dreams," (May, 2010, not yet available online) a panel of robotics experts discussed the relationships among people and the machines we call robots. What is a "robot"? Rodney Brooks of MIT offered this definition:

[A] robot is something that senses the world, doesn't some sort of competition, and decides to take an action outside of its physical extremity. That action might be moving around, or it might be grabbing something and moving it. I say "outside it's extremity" because I don't like to let dishwashers be defined as robots.

The panel offered a lively discussion, focusing on many real-world applications. Robots are doing many things these days, including surveillance and reconnaissance during flood disasters. Robots are already quite good at some things, but Rodney Brooks offers some sobering thoughts for those who think of robots as replacements for human beings. We have quite a ways to go. Where are we headed? Here are the goals for which robotics researchers are currently striving to reach (according to Brooks):

First the object recognition capabilities of a two-year-old child. You can show a two-year-old a chair that he's never seen before, and he'll be able to say, "that's a chair." Our computer vision systems are not that good. But if our robots did have that capability, would be able to do a lot more.

Second, the language capabilities of a four-year-old child. When you talk to a four-year-old, you hardly have to dumb down your grammar at all. That is much better than our current speech systems can do.

Third, the manual dexterity of a six-year-old child. A six-year-old can tie his shoelaces. A six-year-old can do every operation that a Chinese worker does in the factory. That level of dexterity, which would require a combination of new sorts of sensors, new sorts of actuators, and new algorithms, will let our robots do a lot more in the world.

Fourth, the social understanding of an eight or nine-year-old child. Eight or nine-year-olds understand the difference between their knowledge of the world and the knowledge of someone they are interacting with. When showing a robot how to do a task, they know to look at where the eyes of the robot were looking. They also know how to take social cues from the robot.

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