Paralyzed student uses robotic exoskeleton to walk at college graduation (video)
May 16, 2011 No Comment
Austin Whitney hasn’t been able to walk since a 2007 car crash left him paralyzed, but on Saturday the 22-year-old triumphantly strode across the stage to accept his degree from UC Berkeley. He had a little help, in the form of a specially crafted robotic exoskeleton developed by Berkeley engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni. Kazerooni and his team designed the exoskeleton with lightness and affordability in mind, resisting the urge to load it up with expensive hardware and tethering the mechanized walker to a backpack that houses a computer and a rechargeable, eight-hour battery. As a result, the Austin walker won’t enable the kind of acrobatic leaps that would make Lt. Rasczak proud, but its reduced mobility comes at a reduced cost of just $15,000. That’s certainly not an impulse buy, though it’s a welcomed alternative to other exoskeletons that retail for $100,000 or more. Walk past the break for a video of Whitney’s momentous steps, along with a clip of Kazerooni describing his creation. Continue reading Paralyzed student uses robotic exoskeleton to walk at college graduation (video) Paralyzed student uses robotic exoskeleton to walk at college graduation (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 08:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Social Experiment of the Day: Would people be as open to sharing their personal details IRL as they are on Facebook? Hungry Beast investigates. [ hungrybeast / reddit .] Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Daily What Discovery Date : 14/05/2011 18:41 Number of articles : 4
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French writer Tristane Banon claims the IMF chief acted like a ‘rutting chimpanzee’ in an attack on her nine years ago A French writer who claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her nine years ago is to file an official complaint, her lawyer has announced. Tristane Banon previously described the attack, which happened when she was in her early 20s, in a television programme in 2007, when she called Strauss-Kahn, whose name was bleeped out, a “rutting chimpanzee.” She consulted a lawyer at the time, but was persuaded not to take action by her mother, a regional councillor in the Socialist party and friend of the Strauss-Kahn family. Banon is goddaughter to Strauss-Kahn’s second wife. Banon’s lawyer, David Koubbi, said: “We are planning to make a complaint. I am working with her.” Koubbi said Banon, now 31, was “literally blown over” when she heard the claims Strauss-Kahn had attacked a hotel chambermaid in New York. “At the same time, she was certainly not surprised,” he said. Across France, after the shock of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest on sex charges in New York, speculation, self-pity and conspiracy theories have blossomed. For some, the story of Strauss-Kahn’s apparently self-inflicted fall from presidential hopeful to prison cell was a combination of sordid tale and Shakespearean tragedy. For others the story was so extraordinary it smacked of a set-up. Only three weeks ago, Strauss-Kahn evoked such a possibility in an interview with French newspaper Libération when he said he thought he was under surveillance and named the three principal difficulties he foresaw if he was to stand for the presidential elections. “Money, women and the fact I am Jewish.” He added: “Yes, I like women … so what?” He said he could see himself becoming the victim of a honey trap: “a woman raped in a car park and who’s been promised 500,000 or a million euros to invent such a story …” But not in his or his Socialist party’s worst nightmares, nor in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wildest dreams, could anyone imagine Strauss-Kahn, nicknamed with almost tacit admiration the Great Seducer, being at the epicentre of what was described as a “political earthquake”. Jean-Marie Le Guen, a Socialist party MP who has known Strauss-Kahn for 25 years, said the story was “not credible” and inconsistent with what he knew of the politician’s character. “Seduction, yes, but no way would he use constraint or violence. A certain number of facts, and certain aspects of the story we are hearing from the press, make this not credible.” He said Strauss-Kahn had not fled the scene of the alleged crime as reported but had lunched in New York before catching a flight booked weeks previously. France-Soir reported that when plain-clothed police officers approached the politician in the first-class section of the Air France plane bound for Paris, he looked up at them and asked: “What’s the matter?” Le Guen said his friend knew he would be the target of mud-slinging but added: “What they are asking us to believe … it’s just hallucinations. I’m a doctor and I know this can happen. We knew there would be hyper-violent attacks on him [Strauss-Kahn]. We could hear the knives being sharpened in preparation.” Libération editor Nicolas Demorand suggested France was having its first sex scandal “à l’anglo saxonne” and was “brutally entering a zone of public debate which, up to now whether because of the cultural exception, the ‘latin’ identity or democratic weakness has been confined to rumours and gossip among a small inner circle”. “Politicians … enjoy a particular tolerance on this subject,” he wrote. “Part of the shock comes also from the unusual scene, until now unthinkable here: police arresting a top-level politician on a matter of morals.” There is sympathy for Strauss-Kahn’s third wife, television journalist Anne Sinclair, who Le Guen said was bearing up with “strength and courage”. In a spasm of self-flagellation, political commentators spoke of the affair as a disgrace and humiliation for France, referring to the country as “the victim” in the affair. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the ecology minister, did at least mention the 32-year-old chambermaid allegedly attacked by Strauss-Kahn. “As well as the presumed victim, the chambermaid, there is a proven victim … France. We should remember the facts are very serious; in France we tend to treat things like this a little bit lightly,” she told news agency AFP. Of the pictures of Strauss-Kahn being led in handcuffs by New York police, criticised by some, including Le Guen as “hyper violent”, Kosciusko-Morizet said the French politician was a suspect like any other. “I have confidence in American justice … it’s so French to see conspiracies everywhere, it’s something I believe that’s in our culture.” The Socialist party was holding an emergency meeting to decide on how to react to the crisis in its ranks. Two months from the closing date for the party’s primary election in October, Strauss-Kahn was the opposition’s main hope of unseating Sarkozy. Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Europe United States IMF Kim Willsher guardian.co.uk
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Former Scotland Yard commander’s conviction ruled unsafe after court of appeal hears main witness was a benefit fraudster The court of appeal has quashed the conviction of a former police chief who was found guilty by a jury of framing a man. Former Scotland Yard commander Ali Dizaei was jailed for four years in February 2010 for abusing his office after a row in a London street with Waad al-Baghdadi, who was the main prosecution witness. The Crown Prosecution Service has announced that there will be a retrial. Lawyers for Dizaei told the court of appeal the conviction was no longer safe because Baghdadi had lied to secure thousands of pounds of benefits, as well as in his court evidence. On Monday appeal court judges decided the conviction was unsafe. Dizaei’s 25-year police career ended after his conviction, when he was drummed out of the Metropolitan police in disgrace. The appeal court heard Baghdadi had lied to the pension and benefits departments to pretend his father was alive so he could collect his £100-a-week pension, plus an allowance for caring for him. Thousands of pounds in benefits went into bank accounts controlled by Baghdadi, said Michael Mansfield QC, representing Dizaei. The fraud went on long after his father’s death in March 2006, and he was still claiming up until February this year. Lord Justice Hughes, after hearing the evidence, declared on the first day of the hearing: “There is a clear prima facie case of benefit fraud.” Baghdadi was arrested by police on 6 March and bailed until May. In all, Baghdadi claimed £18,000 from an attendance allowance for his dead father, a carer’s allowance and a pension, as well as income support. There was also an application to the social fund for a loan bearing the signature of his dead father, the court heard. Mansfield alleged Baghdadi had lied to get into Britain, falsely claiming he was fleeing persecution in Iraq. In fact, he had been born and raised in Iran. This falsehood was also told by Baghdadi at the original trial of Dizaei, where his accuser had also wrongly stated his name and age, as well as his nationality. Some of the fraud, said Mansfield, was ongoing at the time of the 2008 clash with Dizaei and at the time of the trial, where the jury were told nothing of the alleged fraud and Baghdadi was presented as a witness of truth. Mansfield said the evidence showed Baghdadi was capable of a “pattern of persistent and elaborate deceit” and in recent police interviews had still not been telling the truth. Hughes, after accepting the “clear prima facie case he [Baghdadi] is a fraudster”, told Mansfield he would have to show how this made the jury’s decision to believe Baghdadi’s evidence over Dizaei’s testimony unsafe. “It’s all very well showing this man is a fraudster, how does it affect the conviction?” Hughes asked. Mansfield replied: “It impacts on the safety of the conviction quite dramatically,” adding that Baghdadi had been pivotal to the conviction. The crown argued that much of the material about Baghdadi’s benefit claims may have been known by Dizaei at the time of the trial and thus did not count as new evidence, which is needed to overturn the jury’s verdict in the original trial. Dizaei, a former leader of the National Black Police Association, was an outspoken critic of the police on race and a key figure in a racism row that erupted at the top of Scotland Yard in 2008. Dizaei was convicted of falsely arresting Baghdadi in a dispute over money and then lying in official statements, claiming he had been assaulted and threatened by Baghdadi. The crown alleged that on 18 July 2008, Dizaei clashed with 24-year-old Baghdadi, who claimed the police commander owed him £600 for a website he had designed. In 2003 Dizaei was cleared of criminal charges after a massive covert operation against him by his own force. He returned to the Metropolitan police after that acquittal, but few if any leaders in the force want Dizaei, who has been a constant thorn in their side, to return. Ali Dizaei Police Immigration and asylum Crime London Court of appeal Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk
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World markets slumped Monday, as investors remained dogged by worries over the state of the global economic recovery. The euro managed to claw back ground despite the weekend arrest of the IMF chief. (May 16)
Continue reading …David Gregory Quotes Tom Coburn’s Views on Gingrich’s Affairs in the Wake of the Ensign Scandal
May 16, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media On Meet the Press, David Gregory asked serial adulterer Newt Gingrich if he was going to have any problems with social conservatives who have called him a hypocrite for carrying on his own affairs while going after Bill Clinton. And who does David Gregory decide to quote here? Senator Tom Coburn. The same Tom Coburn that just helped to negotiate bribes for now former Senator John Ensign, who may now be facing criminal charges for his behavior. GREGORY: You look at the field that’s starting to take shape on the Republican side — and we’ll put the, the current polling on the board — Mike Huckabee is now not running. He was high up there. Donald Trump . You were there at 10 percent. And our latest poll still indicates that you’ve still got high negatives. There’s still a high unfavorable rating. Some of that, Mr. Speaker, has to do with your own personal life , the fact that you’ve been married three times, you had extramarital affairs , one of — during which the time that Republicans were pursuing President Clinton for impeachment that earned you the label of being a hypocrite. And I wonder how you’re going to deal with this, particularly when social conservatives , like Tom Coburn , senator from Oklahoma , has said the following about you. And I ‘ll put it up on the screen. This was from last summer. Senator Coburn “made it clear that he won’t be on Newt Gingrich ‘s 2012 presidential bandwagon. ” Gingrich ‘is a super-smart man, but he doesn’t know anything about commitment to marriage ,’ he said of the thrice-married former House speaker . ‘He’s the last person I’d vote for, for president of the United States . His life indicates he does not have a commitment to the character traits necessary to be a great president.’” Someone needs to tell David Gregory that his irony alert button is broken. That or he’s desperate not to remind the viewers about the Ensign scandal at all.
Continue reading …CNN Tries to Contain Damage from Spitzer Outing Zakaria’s Consultations for Obama
May 16, 2011 No Comment
Two days after liberal Democratic politician/CNN host Eliot Spitzer told fellow CNN host Fareed Zakaria it “brought a smile to my face” and “makes my heart warm” to learn President Obama “calls you for wisdom and advice about issues around the world,” Zakaria took to CNN’s site for his Sunday show, Fareed Zakaria GPS, to issue a “clarification on my conversations with the President” in which Zakaria, an in unusual late Saturday afternoon posting, declared: “The characterization that I have been ‘advising’ President Obama is inaccurate.” Zakaria maintained that all he’s done is “had a couple of conversations with the President, off-the-record. At no point did President Obama ask me for advice on a specific policy.” Apparently, “conversations” that are “off-the-record” do not constitute “advising.” The next day, on Sunday’s Reliable Sources , Howard Kurtz accepted Zakaria’s explanation and only offered a gentle reprimand for not making the meetings known. Kurtz relayed how Zakaria claimed “that the two meetings he's had with Obama in recent months give him a sense of the President's thinking, and that he used to have the same kinds of meetings with, for example, Condi Rice.” Kurtz decided: “I agree with Fareed's last point, that part of what he's getting at the White House is high-level spin. That's why I think the fact of the meetings should have been disclosed. Zakaria says that's not part of the arrangement, but it should be. Otherwise, people will inevitably have doubts when word leaks out.” Doubts indeed when the host of a CNN show is discussing with the President the very policies that journalist later assesses on his foreign-policy oriented show. [Back in October of 2008, unsurprisingly, Zakaria used his CNN program to endorse Barack Obama: Newsweek /CNN's Fareed Zakaria Announces He's Voting for Obama Not that it's any big surprise given his well-established liberal views and contempt for conservative policies, but in what is an unusually blatant abandonment of basic journalistic pretenses, CNN on Sunday — and Newsweek in this week's issue — provided time and space for Fareed Zakaria to outline why he will be voting for the “steady and reasoned” Barack Obama. Along the way, he denigrated Sarah Palin as “a rabble-rousing ultraconservative.” At the end of his Sunday (October 19) CNN program, Fareed Zakaria: GPS , Zakaria told his viewers of his choice, concluding: John McCain represents the best of America's past, and Barack Obama the hope of the future — the hope of a country that can make big changes and live out one of its greatest promises, of equal opportunities for all Americans, of every caste, creed and color. And America has always been a country that looks forward. So, I will be voting for Barack Obama on election day this year. The revelation of Zakaria’s personal efforts to ensure Obama’s success all started from a paragraph in a Wednesday, May 11 New York Times article praising Obama’s quest to master the Middle East: He [President Obama] has sounded out prominent journalists like Fareed Zakaria of Time magazine and CNN and Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist at The New York Times, regarding their visits to the region. “He is searching for a way to pull back and weave a larger picture,” Mr. Zakaria said. That went little-noticed until Spitzer brought it up on the Thursday, May 12 In the Arena : ELIOT SPITZER: Look, I read something in the paper this week a couple of days ago that actually made me — you know brought a smile to my face. It said the President of the United States calls you for wisdom and advice about issues around the world. So first, when he calls you, what does he say? “Hi, Barack calling for Fareed”? What does he do? ZAKARIA: Mostly it's been face-to-face meetings. SPITZER: Right. ZAKARIA: You know, usually organized by Tom Donilon, the national security adviser. What I'm struck by, though, honestly, Eliot, is how much time he's spending thinking about the issues of the Arab spring particularly the issues of Egypt, how — how to make Egypt go right, what — you know, what is the — what are the mechanisms that the United States has to help the moderates and liberals. It's been a very thoughtful conversation. You know we'll see where it goes. SPITZER: I'm not going to ask you what you have said to the President but it makes my heart warm that the President is calling you for wisdom and advice. After the inevitable notice that got, Zakaria posted this statement on Saturday afternoon : The characterization that I have been “advising” President Obama is inaccurate. Over the last few months I've had a couple of conversations with the President, off-the-record. At no point did President Obama ask me for advice on a specific policy or speech or proposal, nor did I volunteer it. I know that he has had similar meetings with other columnists. Then on Sunday’s Reliable Sources , Kurtz addressed the matter: HOWARD KURTZ: When a journalist has private meetings with the president it invariably raises questions. That's what happened this week when the New York Times reported that President Obama has held such off-the- record sessions with CNN's Fareed Zakaria and Times' columnist Tom Friedman. Zakaria was asked about this on Eliot Spitzer's show. ELIOT SPITZER, IN THE ARENA: It said the President of the United States called you for wisdom and advice about issues around the world. So, first, when he calls you, what does he say, “Hi. Barack, calling for Fareed”? What does he do? FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: Mostly it has been face-to-face meetings. You know, it's usually organized by Tom Donilon, the national security adviser. KURTZ: Glenn Beck took a whack at Fareed. And the Web site Mediaite called it a “stunning revelation for a working journalist to admit that he has private discussions on policy with a sitting U.S. President.” Friedman says his policy is not to discuss private meetings. Zakaria told me yesterday that he never gave Obama advice or counsel on any aspect of administration policy, that he is a commentator and Time magazine columnist, not a reporter, that the two meetings he's had with Obama in recent months give him a sense of the president's thinking, and that he used to have the same kinds of meetings with, for example, Condi Rice. I agree with Fareed's last point, that part of what he's getting at the White House is high-level spin. That's why I think the fact of the meetings should have been disclosed. Zakaria says that's not part of the arrangement, but it should be. Otherwise, people will inevitably have doubts when word leaks out.
Continue reading …Israeli border clashes organized with the help of Facebook messages have claimed at least 15 lives on the anniversary of the nation’s birth. Israeli troops opened fire as thousands of protesters marched from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the Left Bank on the annual Palestinian day of “nakba,” or catastrophe, marking…
Continue reading …PC modding takes an architectural twist with Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian
May 16, 2011 No Comment
We admit, we’re pretty jaded when it comes to PC casemods , having seen everything from the inscrutable Edelweiss to Russian Ark of the Covenant-like monstrosities . Jeffrey Stephenson, though, charmed us with his wood-carved Level Eleven case, and now he’s back with Usonian, inspired by the work of famed Fallingwater architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Split-level cantilevered roofs made of teak, mahogany highlights, all that Cherokee Red and Covered Wagon coloring – it’s enough to make an architecture nerd swoon. Beneath all that fine styling it sports an Intel Core i7-875K on a Gigabyte Mini-ITX motherboard, with 8GB system memory. There’s a 256GB SSD along with a 2TB hard drive, so it’s not just built for looks; Wright, after all, emphasized utility over pointless fashion. Still, it’s very pretty to look at. More pics in the source link and after the break. Continue reading PC modding takes an architectural twist with Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian PC modding takes an architectural twist with Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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As exhibitions of the missing artist’s work open at Somerset House and the Lisson Gallery in London, artists and exhibitors talk about Ai Weiwei’s growing importance in China and the west Jared Schiller
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