Quick links while uploading

An assortment of things I've read while I've been uploading things today

• The golden age of Chicago prostitution - The Everleigh sisters are respoinsible for the term "get laid". An interesting read - the more things change...
• Rifle Robots!
• John Allen Paulos has a new book out soon, I think it's going to a more civil (and knowing Paulos well written and interesting) version of the recent Richard Dawkins screed. My favorite blurb from the Amazon page "A Lifelong Unbeliever Finds No Reason to Change His Mind"
• How to build your business without quitting your day job
• Firefox tune-ups
• Conan O'Brian hates my homeland - favorites

  Brazil
  Home to more than 800 species of unregulated breast implants.
  
  Burkina Faso
  In the traditional tribal language, that's Burkina for "land of" and Faso for "people who want to get the hell out of Burkina Faso."
  
  Colombia
  You'll come for the enticing beauty of the Caribbean Sea. You'll stay because you've been kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a Dodge Dart.
  
  East Timor
  It takes a lot to admit you live on the bad side of Timor.

Saturday night reading

• CIA to Air Decades of Its Dirty Laundry - I'm sure they have some sort of ulterior motive in this but it seems like a positive development.
• A private citizen owns part of a Georgia highway - He's not putting up toll booths, which is something I would do. Evidently the state tried to condemn it a while back but didn't do all of the paperwork.
• Robotic farm workers!
• While there is a GTD Outlook plugin, there is not a Vista compatible one, which is a bit ironic.
• Americans still don't trust the government. Wherefore art thou Barry Goldwater? Oh yes, we call you Ron Paul now...
  

Worm gears and motors and robot, oh my!

As my mad scientist phase continues, I've come across a few cool supply sites (some from Mark)

• Robot Objects
• Surplus Robot Parts
  

In other news, I just ordered 3 sets of brass robot gears for ten bucks from E-Bay. They should arrive soon.

Monday link roundup

• It's Wiretap the Internet Day - what have we come to in this country. Sigh.
• Entrepreneurial Adages - All quite true. in particular

  Start with nothing, and have nothing for as long as possible -- small budgets give big focus

• Battlefield spy-bot - really cool
• Tribal Minds
• The indispensable Col. Patrick Lang has an outline of what a diplomatic solution to Iraq might look like. I would read all of it. Webbed version of the outline is here.
  

Tuesday Rapid Fire

• Networks, in Forbes
• Tin Can Stirling Engine - really cool, this would go nicely with the passive solar heating system that I blogged about last week.
• Global warming awareness reaches diminishing marginal returns, aptly explained by Instapundit. I'm still waiting for the Shotgun News green issue.
• Gauss vs Pareto, if you understand bell curves, you should read this.
• Robots, Robots, Robots, in Iraq and elsewhere
• An insightful article on internal migrations in the US. By Michael Barone
  

Quick Monday rapid fire - fun addition

• On the matter of remittances by immigrants to foreign countries

  Moreover, remittances are far more likely to make their way to people who actually need them. American aid tends to be received by governments, which in most third world countries are not especially honest. So the majority of American foreign aid never makes it to actual poor people in the developing world. In contrast, Latino immigrants are wiring money directly to their mothers. They know exactly who’s getting the money, and they’d hear about it if the government stole it from them. It probably even has foreign policy benefits, as the remitters are likely to have a generally positive impression of America and to transmit that impression along with their remittances.

  And the best part about all this is that it doesn’t cost us a dime! All we have to do is let them scrub our toilets and pick our strawberries. We get lower prices on the goods and services we buy and we get the warm, fuzzy feeling of knowing we’re helping to alleviate Latin American poverty. It’s such an incredible win-win arrangement that I find it rather depressing that it’s considered controversial in American politics. Increased immigration is a cause that should unite liberals (with their concern for social justice) and conservatives (with their belief in hard work and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, that’s not how the issue has played out in the real world.

  Very well put.
  

• Gun toting robots!
• From the mouths of ad executives
• An original knife holder
• Easily the best use of Flash I've seen in months
• Quotes from Jim Webb, the Marine veteran and aspiring Democratic Senator from Virginia. Though nothing beats him saying "I wouldn't walk across the street to watch Jane Fonda slash her wrists."
• A FoxNews empolyee gets waterboarded, sadly it's not their web designers (their site gets worse by the day, though, still no Lou Dobbs, happily)
• Iron Man is about to be real!
• This looks quite interesting
  

Quick rapid fire

I hope to have my election predictions tommorow, but in the meantime...

• Robotic sentry that shoots real bullets
• Mapped Up - good idea, good execution
• This is a fine epitaph
• Whipping therapy cures depression and suicide crises

  The professor used the self-flagellation method to cure his own depression; he also recovered from two heart attacks with the help of physical tortures too.

  Only the Russians would come up with this. Actually this would explain the flaggelants of the middle ages, as well as the Puritans scourging themselves.
• Victim's cousin charged with tattooing killer
  

Robots!

Sweet!

Microsoft Unveils Robotics Studio

The early release targets academic, hobbyist and commercial developers with a toolset for building applications that can run on a variety of robotics computing platforms.
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday launched a technology preview of Robotics Studio, a Windows-based development environment for creating robotic applications.

The early release targets academic, hobbyist and commercial developers with a toolset for building applications that can run on a variety of robotics computing platforms, the company said. Early partners include the LEGO Group.

"We've reached out to a broad range of leading robotics companies and academics early on in the development process and are thrilled with the positive response from the community," Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group, said in a statement.

The Microsoft site is located here.

On the other hand, some people are concerned with Robot Sex.

Thursday Rapid Fire

The rapid fire is almost a daily feature now.

• Belkin I-Pod Microphone
• 142 arrested in antiterrorism sweep - Why isn't this bigger news? It happened in a major US ally (Italy) and is a staggering number for a Western country
• Pet Robot Housekeeper - or something like that from Japan
• Rove Free Zone - Thoughts from the left coast on the Wilson - Plame affair
• Annan urges U.N. expansion, reform - It's hard to believe that was actually said out loud. And what's been happening to the Oil For Food probe anyway? That's been in a black hole for two months.
• Quote of the Day - "When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice." Marquis de la Grange

Thursday round up

I realize I stole the "rapid-fire" notion from Defense Tech.

• < $800 Swarmable Robots - this could be the start of something wonderful, especially in agriculture and environmental cleanup. It has Linux, Bluetooth, the works. HT: Make Blog
  


• Roomba API - on a similar note this could be an actually workable version of the above. I still need to get a Roomba. Or else resort to vacuuming.
  
  
• The Counter Terrorism Blog - seems fairly interesting.
  
  
• The Aristocrats is coming out soon (HT the Agitator)


• Neighbors Subdue Man Stabbing Woman on NW Street
  

  The first neighbor sprinted when he heard the screams of a woman being slashed on his Northwest Washington street. He jumped on a knife-wielding man, and the two fell to the ground, wrestling furiously in a spreading pool of the victim's blood.

  Soon, a second neighbor joined the fight, followed by three more. The assailant kept slipping from their grip and attacking the woman until they overpowered him and held him for police Tuesday night.