Latest Geminoid Is Incredibly Realistic
“Okay, I admit it… I found myself wondering whether this was in fact a real robot, or actually a person pretending to be a robot or even a fake robot.
It’s not a fake. This is the latest iteration of Geminoid series of ultra-realistic androids, from Kokoro and Hiroshi Ishiguro. Specifically, this is Geminoid DK, which was constructed to look exactly like Associate Professor Henrik Scharfe of Aalborg University in Denmark.
When we wrote Prof. Scharfe inquiring about the android, he confirmed: “No, it is not a hoax,” adding that they’ve been working on the project for about a year now. His Geminoid was built by Kokoro in Tokyo and is now at Japan’s Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) in Nara for setup and testing. “In a couple of weeks I will go back to Japan to participate in the experiments,” he says. “After that, the robot is shipped to Denmark to inhabit a newly designed lab.”
If you’re wondering why on Earth someone would want an exact robotic double of themselves, besides being TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AWESOME, the Geminoid is going to be used for researching “emotional affordances” in human-robot interaction, the novel notion of “blended presence,” as well as cultural differences (from different continents) in the perception of robots.”
Read more at ieee Spectrum (Thanks Christopher C)
Cory Doctorow denounces Jediism
The Register: When Cory Doctorow, creative freedoms campaigner, author of Little Brother and co-editor of the massive Boing Boing blog, tweeted yesterday that “we’re all going to put our #religion down as #Jedi”, the response was instantaneous.
A flurry of counter-tweets followed, with reaction typified by the likes of Andrew Carter, who tweeted: “NO! It screws up the demographics and makes it look like there are fewer ‘Non-religious’ than there are!”
Doctorow thought about it, and shortly after, his blog conceded an absolute about-turn. He wrote: “When I joked on Twitter that my family were going to list ourselves as Jedi, I was deluged with outraged responses from atheists asking me to tick the ‘no religion’ box; this is part of a larger campaign to get people who tick ‘Christian’ out of habit (though they have no faith) to switch to ‘no religion’ as well, as some atheists believe that the number of religious people in the UK is misreported through a combination of habitual box-ticking and smart-alecky ‘Jedi’ like me.” He concluded: “I’m convinced; we’re atheists and we will list ourselves as such.”
Full Story at The Register
Benny Hinn Sued For Adultery
Scam artist “faith healer” and mega-millionaire Pastor Benny Hinn is being sued by a Christian book publisher who says Hinn violated the “immorality” clause in their contract when he had an adulterous affair with fellow preacher Paula White.
Hinn is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions, money largely scraped out of the Social Security checks of the gullible elderly and the desperately ill. He travels the world in a $36M personal Gulfstream jet in between stays at his numerous opulent mansions.
Full details at JoeMyGod
Up-Inspired Floating House
“Our awesome partners over at National Geographic sent over these incredible photos, as they just wrapped up creating a real-life version of Pixar’s animated hit film Up. It’s pretty amazing what human beings are capable of…
Yesterday morning, March 5 at dawn, National Geographic Channel and a team of scientists, engineers, and two world-class balloon pilots successfully launched a 16′ X 16′ house 18′ tall with 300 8′ colored weather balloons from a private airfield east of Los Angeles, and set a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted. The entire experimental aircraft was more than 10 stories high, reached an altitude of over 10,000 feet, and flew for approximately one hour.
The filming of the event, from a private airstrip, will be part of a new National Geographic Channel series called How Hard Can it Be?, which will premiere in fall 2011.”
See more photos over at My Modern Met (Thanks Duncan)
NASA scientist finds ‘alien life’ fossils
“A NASA scientist’s claim that he found tiny fossils of alien life in the remnants of a meteorite has stirred both excitement and skepticism, and is being closely reviewed by 100 experts.
Richard Hoover’s paper, along with pictures of the microscopic earthworm-like creatures, were published late Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Cosmology, which is available free online. Hoover sliced open fragments of several types of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which can contain relatively high levels of water and organic materials, and looked inside with a powerful microscope. He found bacteria-like creatures that he calls “indigenous fossils,” which he believes originated beyond Earth and were not introduced here after the meteorites landed. “He concludes these fossilized bacteria are not Earthly contaminants but are the fossilized remains of living organisms which lived in the parent bodies of these meteors, e.g. comets, moons, and other astral bodies,” said the study. “The implications are that life is everywhere, and that life on Earth may have come from other planets.”
Studies that suggest alien microbes can be contained in meteorites are not new, and have drawn hefty debate over how such life could survive in space and how and where life may have originated in the universe. The journal’s editor in chief, Rudy Schild of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian, said Hoover is a “highly respected scientist and astrobiologist with a prestigious record of accomplishment at NASA.” “Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5,000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis,” he said. Those commentaries will be published March 7 through March 10.
A NASA-funded study in December suggested that a previously unknown form of bacterium had been found deep in a California lake that could thrive on arsenic, adding a new element to what scientists have long considered the six building blocks of life. That study drew plenty of criticism, particularly after NASA touted the announcement as evidence of extraterrestrial life. Scientists are currently attempting to replicate those findings.”
Via Yahoo News
Follow Up: A couple of people have mentioned in comments http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/did_scientists_discover_bacter.php
Humanist religious question census campaign launched
“Campaigners are urging members of the public who are not religious to say so in the national census.
For only the second time, the 10-yearly survey will include an optional question about religious belief.
Some secular groups, including the British Humanist Association, say the question is skewed and may overstate the extent of religious affiliation.
The campaign slogan was changed to drop the words “for God’s sake” after advice from advertising regulators.
Poster campaign
The secular groups want people who are not religious to tick the box saying “No religion” on the census.
The British Humanist Association (BHA) has unveiled a series of posters on buses and billboards across the country.
Using the slogan “Not religious? In this year’s census, say so”, they hope to persuade people to think carefully about which option to tick on the census form, which is being delivered to every household in the country this month.
The question about religious belief allows respondents to choose from several possible answers, including “No religion”, “Christian”, or “Hindu”.
But BHA chief executive Andrew Copson believes the wording of the question in the last census resulted in 72% of people being classed as Christians – a figure which is much higher than other surveys.
“Instead of asking, ‘Do you have a religion and if so, what is it?’, the question asks ‘What is your religion?’, a closed question that funnels people into giving a religious response, even if they don’t go to a church or a mosque, even if they don’t believe in God.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by Prof Richard Dawkins who told the BBC more precise questions need to be asked “if you want to use information for political purposes”.”
Read more at BBC News (Thanks Annette M)
Sick note: Faking illness online
“Anyone following her updates online could see that Mandy Wilson had been having a terrible few years. She was diagnosed with leukaemia at 37, shortly after her husband abandoned her to bring up their five-year-old daughter and baby son on her own. Chemotherapy damaged her immune system, liver and heart so badly she eventually had a stroke and went into a coma. She spent weeks recovering in intensive care where nurses treated her roughly, leaving her covered in bruises.
Mandy was frightened and vulnerable, but she wasn’t alone. As she suffered at home in Australia, women offered their support throughout America, Britain, New Zealand and Canada. She’d been posting on a website called Connected Moms, a paid online community for mothers, and its members were following every detail of her progress – through updates posted by Mandy herself, and also by Gemma, Sophie, Pete and Janet, Mandy’s real-life friends, who’d pass on news whenever she was too weak. The virtual community rallied round through three painful years of surgeries, seizures and life-threatening infections. Until March this year, when one of them discovered Mandy wasn’t sick at all. Gemma, Sophie, Pete and Janet had never existed. Mandy had made up the whole story.
Mandy is one of a growing number of people who pretend to suffer illness and trauma to get sympathy from online support groups. Think of Tyler Durden and Marla Singer in Fight Club, only these support groups are virtual, and the people deceived are real. From cancer forums to anorexia websites, LiveJournal to Mumsnet, trusting communities are falling victim to a new kind of online fraud, one in which people are scammed out of their time and emotion instead of their money. The fakers have nothing to gain from their lies – except attention.
These aren’t just people with a sick sense of humour. Jokers want a quicker payoff than this kind of hoax could ever provide. It requires months of sophisticated research to develop and sustain a convincing story, as well as a team of fictitious personas to back up the web of deceit. Psychiatrists say the lengths to which people like Mandy are prepared to go mean their behaviour is pathological, a disorder rather than simply an act of spite. The irony is these people might actually be classed as ill – just not in the way they claim to be.
Some psychiatrists have started using the term Münchausen by internet (MBI) to describe this behaviour. Whereas Münchausen syndrome requires physically acting out symptoms to get attention from doctors, online scammers just have to be able to describe them convincingly. ”
Read more at The Guardian (Thanks Annette M)
4 New Species of Zombifying Ant Fungus Found
“Four new species of brain-manipulating fungi that turn ants into “zombies” have been discovered in the Brazilian rain forest.
These fungi control ant behavior with mind-altering chemicals, then kill them. They’re part of a large family of fungi that create chemicals that mess with animal nervous systems.
Usually scientists study these fungi as specimens preserved in a lab, said entomologist David Hughes of Pennsylvania State University, co-author of a study March 3 PLoS ONE. “By going into the forest to watch them, we found new micro-structures and behaviors.”
Once infected by spores, the worker ants, normally dedicated to serving the colony, leave the nest, find a small shrub and start climbing. The fungi directs all ants to the same kind of leaf: about 25 centimeters above the ground and at a precise angle to the sun (though the favored angle varies between fungi). How the fungi do this is a mystery.
“It’s related to the fungus that LSD comes from,” Hughes said. “Obviously they are producing lots of interesting chemicals.”
Before dying, ants anchor themselves to the leaf, clamping their jaws on the edge or a vein on the underside. The fungi then takes over, turning the ant’s body into a spore-producing factory. It lives off the ant carcass, using it as a platform to launch spores, for up to a year.
“This is completely different from what we see in temperate zones where, if an insect dies from a fungal infection, the game’s over in a few days,” Hughes said. “The fungi rots the body of the insect and releases massive amounts of spores over two or three days. But in the tropics, where humidity and temperature are more stable, the fungi has this strategy for long-term release.”
Of the four new species, two grow long, arrow-like spores which eject like missiles from the fungus, seeking to land on a passing ant. The other fungi propel shorter spores, which change shape in mid-air to become like boomerangs and land nearby. If these fail to land on an ant, the spores sprout stalks that can snag ants walking over them. Upon infecting the new ant, the cycle starts again.”
Read more at Wired (Thanks @powerofstrange)
Svengali Tour starts March 9th
The SVENGALI tour is starting 9th March. For those wanting to buy tickets please note: the UK Tour is pretty much sold out, but there’s still plenty of London tickets available – these are however going very fast. For those of you who can’t make London and want to know if Derren is visiting , Manchester, York, Antigua, Latvia, Ireland or any other location – the answer is “PLEASE WAIT FOR THE 2012 TOUR” – we are working on other locations for 2012 and we can’t say anything at the moment.
London Tickets are available here and you can visit the new store for tour merch here.
Thanks – DB Team.
UFO Files Released
“The UK has recently released some of its files on unidentified flying objects – UFOs. It does not appear that there is anything shocking in the reports. In the end it seems like the release will result in just another round of news headlines with “UFO” in the title, but nothing else.
The documents do provide further evidence for what I call the psychocultural hypothesis. UFO sightings and encounters are certainly an interesting group of phenomena – but are they evidence of anything alien. Many people I talk to (including a documentary producer just recently) are left with the sense that there must be something going on. No explanation seems satisfactory to explain all the accounts, and there is a residue of unexplained reports.
This is the “where there is smoke there is fire” argument. But I think it misses an important question – there may be fire (a phenomenon) but what kind of fire? I think the fire is a multifaceted psychocultural phenomenon.
What I find most fascinating is that we are living through the formation of a modern mythology. We can see the mythology evolve, and there is ample documentation of the process. The psychological aspects of the mythology are also well documented. Perception is flawed and lends itself to false positives – to seeing patterns that are not real, or to misinterpreting mundane stimuli as something bizarre. Disconnected lights may be mentally joined into a large ship, for example. Distance, size, and velocity can be grossly misinterpreted. Perception is contaminated by expectation. And then memory can be distorted through contamination, suggestion, and just morphing over time to embellish an event.
There are also specific neurological phenomena, like hypnagogic hallucinations – waking dreams that can be interpreted as alien abductions.
Into this mix are deliberate hoaxes, including faked videos and picture, models of spacecraft, and false reports of abductions.”
Read more at Neurologica (Thanks Annette M)
