President Barack Obama used his weekly address to renew his call for Congress to close tax breaks that reward some US companies with overseas subsidiaries. (Oct. 16)
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Highlights of this day in history: John Brown raids Harper’s Ferry; France’s Marie Antoinette beheaded; John Paul II chosen as pope; Chile’s ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet detained; ‘Baby Jessica’ rescued; Novelist James Michener dies. (Oct. 16)
Continue reading …Mark Shields: White House Made Up Chamber of Commerce Foreign Money Story
October 16, 2010 No Comment
Mark Shields on Friday accused the White House of making up the story about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce funneling foreign money into Republican campaigns. Appearing on PBS's “Inside Washington,” Shields said of the issue the Administration and many of their media minions have been harping on for over a week, “It was absolutely fallacious on their part. And they made it up, the White House did” (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more
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Images: Natalie Merbach In a world of ever-increasing information flow, we can’t seem to get enough of diagrams and interactive maps that help us better organize and understand our world. Artist Natalie Merbach’s fascinating sculptures — which translate ecological, astronomical and meteorological data into physically woven, basket-like structures — will certainly delight those of … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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So they took it down after protests from both Republicans and Democrats: A billboard in western Colorado that used caricatures to depict President Barack Obama as a terrorist, gangster, Mexican bandit and a gay man has been taken down. The sign along an Interstate 70 business loop in Grand Junction drew criticism from local Republicans and Democrats. Doris Downey, owner of J&S Fence Co., where the billboard was erected, said the sign’s presence was a major disruption to her business. “It was hard for my trucks to get out and hard for customers to come in,” Downey told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel hours after the sign was taken down Friday morning. “I defend the freedom of speech people have to put up the sign, but I have to say I’m thrilled it’s gone.” Truth hurts.
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A page from ‘ State of the Evidence ‘ shows the difficulty of linking risks to causes for breast cancer. Courtesy Breast Cancer Fund. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month , and you’re likely to see pink ribbons along with fall colors, as groups raise money for breast cancer research and emphasize the importance of early detection. It’s a good cause. Does it go far enough? The Breast Cancer Fund, a San Francisco nonprofit, says no. It wants to se… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The frequently-maudlin Ann Curry outdid herself on Wednesday's Today show. Narrating a short video item about Russia unveiling a new set of inflatable weapons designed to fool spy satellites, Curry chirped: “Wish all weapons were like that.” (Video below the fold.) Her flower-child moment brought to mind how another morning show anchor, ABC's Charles Gibson, confided to Larry King shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq how he and his wife had “a little framed sign hanging in our bedroom, my wife and I, that said, ‘War is not good for children and other living things,’ and I believe that. So I don’t like covering war and I hate to see them occur.” read more
Continue reading …For years NASCAR has had the Richard Petty Driving Experience where average folks can take the wheel of a NASCAR-type race car and drive some of the country’s most famous racetracks.
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Waste ponds and evaporation ponds, at Colstrip, 1984. Photo Credit: David T. Hanson In his book Colstrip, Montana (distributed by D.A.P.), photographer David T. Hanson tells the story of a town that would never have been founded if it weren’t for the fortune in dirty coal that lies beneath it- around $350,000 per acre. It is a story told through Hanson’s photographs; a Montana native, Hanson has been photographing Colstrip since the early 1980s. The book’s only text consists of an introduction and a concluding essay by writer and environmental activist Rick Bass. Th… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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There’s certainly been no shortage of studies involving humans’ interaction with robots , but a team of researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences have now made one of the most shocking discoveries to date: babies can be tricked into believing robots are sentient. They made this finding by acting out a skit with a remote-controlled robot in which the robot behaves friendly with its human counterpart. Following the skit, they left the baby alone with the robot and found that in 13 out of 16 cases the baby followed the robot’s gaze, which suggests the baby believed it was sentient. In contrast, babies only interacted with the robot in 3 of 16 cases when they were simply left alone with it without first seeing it interact with a human. What does it all mean? Well, it seems that a robot’s human-like appearance is less important than its behavior when it comes to establishing trust — or that all the robots need to do to take over is get us while we’re young. One of the two. Study shocker: babies think friendly robots are sentient originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Oct 2010 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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