Be the first in your neighborhood.

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neufer
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Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by neufer » Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:33 pm

Art Neuendorffer

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geckzilla
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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by geckzilla » Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:29 pm

Now I can spy on the neighbor's bedbugs.
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.

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bystander
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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by bystander » Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:31 pm

Oh, yeah! I'm going down to my local general store, get me one of those 50 inchers, haul it home in my pickup, and set it up in the front yard.

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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by geckzilla » Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:37 pm

Attach it to a mobile platform and put spinners on it. Then drive it to the park on a nice day and take photos with bikini-clad women posing on it.
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.

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neufer
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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by neufer » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:35 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics wrote:
<<The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey. Introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although foreshadowed in a few earlier stories, the Laws state the following:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.>>
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bystander
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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by bystander » Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:03 pm

Maybe the Zeroth law should apply:
  • 0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

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neufer
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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by neufer » Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:34 pm

bystander wrote:Maybe the Zeroth law should apply:
  • 0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/n ... ota05.html
Art Neuendorffer

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neufer
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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by neufer » Sat Feb 27, 2010 12:34 pm

http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000818.html wrote:
Space underpants sell, won't smell

<<After being tested in flight by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata while he resided onboard the International Space Station last year, sales began in Japan on February 20 of a new high-tech set of underwear developed to withstand the challenges of long-duration (read: two months) spaceflight. The "J-Ware" boxers were devised by textile experts at Japan Women's University in Tokyo to forego having to be washed (there's no laundromat in space) and still remain odor-free (for the sake of the crew) given their ability to kill bacteria, absorb water, insulate the body and dry quickly. The retail offer is limited for now to just 100 pairs each of sizes medium and large with a price tag per pair of 10,500 yen or about $115.

Image
Koichi Wakata models J-Ware socks. Credit: NASA. Inset: J-Space/JAXA

The J-Ware space underwear is being offered through the J-Space webshop. The blue boxers were first tested in space by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takao Doi aboard space shuttle mission STS-119 in March 2009, followed by Koichi Wakata who worked aboard the International Space Station for nearly 140 days. Before his return to Earth in July 2009, Wakata commented on the undergarments.

"I wore it for about a month and my station crewmembers never complained for that month, so I think the experiment went fine."

The J-Ware apparel was developed under JAXA's Aerospace Open Lab Program, a technology transfer effort designed to facilitate the creation of spin-off projects. This research is run by the "Near-Future Space-Living Unit" group led by Prof. Yoshiko Taya of Japan Women's University. The goal of this research group is to develop crew cabin clothing that meets the safety requirements for spaceflight, and that ensures the following functions:

* Thermal comfort
* Cleanliness
* Mobility
* Beautiful clothing contour
* Lightweight and compact design

The group developed clothing materials with the following properties required for crew cabin clothing:

* Heat insulation
* Water-absorption
* Quick evaporation
* Antibacterial
* Odor elimination
* Antistatic
* Antifouling
* Soft and comfortable to skin

Non-sewing technology has given the clothing softness and wearable comfort. Cutting technology has improved the way the clothing fits and moves as the crew works in space. The group also developed a hook and loop fastener with fire retardant properties and fabricated with soft touch materials. The same textile technology has been adapted by Goldwin, Inc. for its commercial line of MaxiFresh Plus undergarments.>>
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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by bystander » Sun May 30, 2010 1:55 pm


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Re: Be the first in your neighborhood.

Post by neufer » Sun May 30, 2010 2:32 pm

Image
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooties wrote:
<<Cooties is a non-scientific term in North American English used by children for an imaginary "disease" said to infect through contact. The term may have originated with references to lice, fleas and other pests. A child is said to "catch" cooties through any form of bodily contact, proximity, or touching of an "infected" person or from a person of the opposite sex of the same age. The phrase is most commonly used by children aged 4–10 (or those who act this age); however it is also used by many others older than 10 years of age.

The earliest known recorded uses of cooties date back to the First World War, including a 1917 service dictionary. Albert Depew's World War I memoir, Gunner Depew (1918), includes: "Of course you know what the word "cooties" means ... When you get near the trenches you get a course in the natural history of bugs, lice, rats and every kind of pest that had ever been invented." Similarly, Lieut. Pat O'Brien's 1918 memoir Outwitting the Hun: My Escape from a German Prison Camp refers to "cooties," meaning body lice, which in his case had been caught in the prison camp in Courtrai. Lice were of course rife in the trenches on both sides of the conflict, and highly contagious.

From its original meaning of head or body lice, the term seems to have evolved into a purely imaginary stand-in for anything contagious and repulsive.

The lice of the First World War trenches nicknamed "cooties" were also known as "arithmetic bugs," because, "they added to our troubles, subtracted from our pleasures, divided our attention, and multiplied like hell."

For ages 5 onwards, Cooties are known
in Denmark as "fnat," or "pigelus" (literally "girl lice") and "drengelus" ("boy lice"), and
in Norway "jentelus" ("girl lice") and "guttelus" ("boy lice").
In Sweden and Finland it usually refers to girls, where they are known as
tjejbaciller" (literally "girl bacillus") and "tyttöbakteeri" ("girl bacteria") respectively.

In Britain, the term "lurgy" (or lurgi or lurgie) is used by children in a similar way. This is why, in the Harry Potter book, Luna Lovegood refers to the Slytherin team as suffering from "Loser's Lurgy".

Children sometimes "immunize" each other from cooties by administering a "cootie shot". One child typically administers the "shot" by reciting the rhyme "circle, circle / dot, dot / now you've got the cootie shot" while using an index finger to trace the circles and dots on another child's forearm. In some variations, a child may continue to then say "circle, circle / square, square / now you have it everywhere", in which case the child receives an immunization throughout his or her body. These variations may continue to a final shot where the child then says "circle, circle / knife, knife / now you've got it all your life", or "circle, circle / fire, fire / now your shot will never expire", or "nickel, nickel / dime, dime / now you've got it all the time" OR "circle circle/penny penny/ now you have it for infinity" while using their index finger to draw vertical lines on the other child's forearm. Alternatively, cooties can be immunized through one child creating a square using his or her index and middle fingers (making a peace sign in each hand and laying one on top of the other). The other child then pokes his index finger through the square, at which point he becomes immunized from cooties infection.>>
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