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by William Fleurant
1 Comment

Used-Car Title Washing drained, Saves Millions and Grief

Wheels: A Used-Car Promise Finally Delivered
By By Christopher Jensen

Published: January 29, 2009
On Friday morning, consumers will be able to receive something the federal government promised in 1992: A way to minimize the chance of buying a used vehicle that is dangerous.

wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/a-used-car-promise-finally-delivered/

I first heard about this when listening to NPR. An advocate for the title-washing law interviewed on NPR. This fathers son was killed because the used car he was driving was an in fact a salvaged vehicle with faulty paper filled airbags. Fatal incidents such as these to flood salvage lemon used car purchases in flood areas where hurricane Katrina struck costs the United States hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

Starting Friday, all salvaged/wrecked vehicle information will be digitally and physically attached to the sale and title of the car. As far as states such as Rhode Island goes, they will have one year to adopt the new system that will link all 50 states into the national title database. Vehicles sold in RI and others do not require a Title for the car. Unlike states such as Massachusetts, where the sale of a car within the state line must require a title to be registered for the road, unless purchased out of state like in RI, where the bill of sale is required at registration time.

 


by William Fleurant
12 Comments

Single Brain Cell Can Hold a Memory


A neuron receives and processes information through a network of branches called dendrites. Once it processes the signal, the brain cell relays it along an axon to a terminal linking to another cell’s dendrites. When millions of brain cells communicate with each other at once, cognition occurs. Credit: L. Kibiuk for Society for Neuroscience

Memory has long been described as a function of brain cells getting together and forming connections. A new study finds single cells can remember things.

Individual nerve cells called neurons in the front part of the brain can hold traces of memories by themselves for up to a minute, perhaps longer.

The fleeting memories, found in mice brains, are held in the most highly evolved part of the brain in a manner akin to the nonpermanent working memory of a computer.

"It’s more like RAM [random access memory] on a computer than memory stored on a disk," said Don Cooper, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. "The memory on the disk is more permanent and you can go back and access the same information repeatedly. RAM memory is rewritable temporary storage that allows multitasking."

Mice brains are thought to function much like human brains, so the finding could help scientists better understand how our brains store rapidly changing information. Cooper likened the temporary one-cell memory storage to the sort of thing a card shark does when counting cards in a game of Black Jack. As casinos know, this is the memory that is most sensitive to the disruptive effects of alcohol and noisy distractions, Cooper points out. Hence, perhaps, the free drinks casinos offer up.

The discovery, detailed in the February issue of Nature Neuroscience, could also lead to improved understanding of addictions, attention disorders and stress-related memory loss.

About the study

Researchers have known that permanent memories are stored when nerve cells in the brain reorganize and connections with one another are strengthened. "But this process takes minutes to hours to turn on and off and is too slow to buffer, or temporarily hold, rapidly incoming information," according to a statement today from the university.

As an example, studies find naps improve memory.

The new study found rapid-fire inputs less than a second long initiate a cellular memory process in single cells lasting as long as minute, a process called metabotropic glutamate transmission. The researchers identified in mice a specific metabotropic glutamate receptor called mGluR5 that, when turned on, starts a signaling cascade using calcium to hold a memory trace. This fast, short-term memory process happens inside individual cells; with long-term memory, additional proteins cause slow reorganization between cells in a network to establish a permanent memory.

Researchers examined brain cells from mice using nanoscale electrodes to measure the memory formation process.

To further understand how this short-term memory process relates to addiction, researchers applied the neurochemical dopamine to the memory buffer nerve cells. Dopamine is normally needed at an optimal level for an individual to focus attention and engage in fast decision-making memory, but drugs of abuse overload the brain with a surge of dopamine.

In the study, researchers found that an experimental drug that activates a specific type of dopamine receptor "focused" the nerve cells, making the memory trace less susceptible to distraction.

When researchers employed an animal model of drug addiction using cocaine, they also found that repeated exposure to addictive levels of cocaine reduced memory trace activation in the memory buffer cells. When researchers then activated dopamine signaling in the "addicted" animals, essentially adding more dopamine to their systems, no focusing effect was observed.

"This makes sense because we know from human and animal models of addiction, when a decision using working memory has to be made, brain imaging shows a deficit in the same area of the brain we looked at," Dr. Cooper said. "It all fits together."

–Blog post spotted from digg.com–

By LiveScience Staff

posted: 25 January 2009 02:25 pm ET

http://www.livescience.com/health/090125-memory-cell.html


by William Fleurant
2 Comments

Mind control Base


http://mindcontrolbase.com/ What an interesting website, would any psych majors like to send some feedback on it?

This website is dedicated to intelligent operations aiming research in the field of psychological manipulation through social experiments and detailed reports on politics, public relations, advertising, art, and the media. We shall also deal with pseudo science, conspiracy theories, controversy, and supernatural fiction – all things that exploit the vulnerable aspects of the human mind. 


by William Fleurant
3 Comments

Anatomy of a Subway Hack

Anatomy of a Subway Hack 2008

August 10, 2008

Documentation for Boston T subway system. The file, created in June, 2008 using PowerPoint by Russell Ryan, Zach Anderson, Alessandro Chiesa, demonstrates lax security, failed security, and no security in an area of public transportation that the most people would consider "safe". The 87 page document shows the relative ease one can gain entry to the system and exploit it to gain relatively free access for subway use. Sabotage of the system is, along with exploitation, an easy task due to the poor security. In early August, the authors were prevented from giving a scheduled presentation [1] at DEFCON by a federal judge in a injunction filed by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA). The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) defended the students who had made an effort to contact the MBTA prior to their scheduled Defcon appearance. The temporary restraining order against the authors did not stop MIT’s student newspaper from posting a copy of the presentation that had been included on a Defcon CD that had been distributed.

The File Details How To:

  • Generate stored-value fare cards
  • Reverse engineer magstripes
  • Hack RFID cards
  • Use software radio to sniff
  • Use FPGAs to brute force
  • Tap into the fare vending network
  • Social engineer
  • Warcart

ZACK ANDERSON, RJ RYAN, ALESSANDRO CHIESA, and the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. "Anatomy of a Subway Hack 2008 – Wikileaks." Wikileaks – Wikileaks. 10 Aug. 2008. 14 Jan. 2009 <http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Subway_Hack_2008>.

 

www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N30/subway/Defcon_Presentation.pdf


by William Fleurant
6 Comments

Circulating Propaganda? “The Facts about Israel’s War on Gaza”

 

The "…Facts about Israel’s War on Gaza" document was sent to me because I have a tendency to write my email down after I sign random petitions. After being persuaded to vote for legislature in Boston to help equalize humane rights in country and culture I have never experienced, I have decided to post this new propaganda sent to me because this war it is totally beyond me. My intention for this post is not to lure the reader to one side or the other. My objective is to teach you, the reader of this blog, the power of political writings that are used pursue people on a mass scale.

Read, Reasearch, Re-Research "The Facts" document below as if you were reading it like the posted article on RFID chips at www.prisonplanet.com/022904rfidtagsexplode.html.

Alex Jones is the man FYI, he bought me a round of Sam Adams in NYC 9/11/2006

 

Read each paragraph, decipher what strikes you the most and log it. Like I said, debate what you acknowledge as fact and question yourself. As if the reader was in the room with you, what claims do you have against theirs? (Please go to the RFID link above, it’s a perfect example of how one would accept and absorb a certain kind of propaganda that opens false doors in the mind)

Before you read the document, here is a very serious claim I had yet to investigate. People are claiming that the Israel government is actively blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza shortly after these recent bombings. I saw hundreds of stacked skids being loaded onto trucks in a video on http://www.liveleak.com  and am posting some of the responses to the video as well, you decide. If anyone has any information about this, please don’t hesitate to comment.

 

Israel sends humanitarian aid to Gaza

Israel sends humanitarian aid to Gaza 

 

I call bullshit on this video.

Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another. Wreaking collective punishment on civilian populations such as hospital patients denied needed electricity is a crime of war.

Posted 1 day ago by "TalkingMonkey" (R)

 

probly they were empty boxes, just for publicity.

Posted 1 day ago by "tornado147" (R) United States

 

What a low life propaganda shit is this?

Posted 1 day ago by "teiresias" (R) Greece

1 truck for 1,5 million people. How pathetic is this is. … and the zionists will even celebrate this as a mercyful act.

Posted 1 day ago by "Armitage4" (R) Austria

 

 http://techno-dnb.com/templates/js_aqua_dark/images/header_orange.png

From: Adam Sheets <sheets186@gmail.com>
To: CEIA-SC@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 7:47:32 PM
Subject: [CEIA-SC] The Facts about Israel’s War on Gaza

In the last five days, I’m sure all of you have heard the following statements:
– Israel is just defending itself.
– Hamas just wants the destruction of Israel.
– This is all Hamas’ fault because they wouldn’t stop firing rockets into Israel.
– etc., etc.
 
In an attempt to counter many of these half-truths and lies, I’ve put together the following document, which gives concrete facts from various news sources.  It is a long document, and I am developing a shorter version, but please use and distribute it however you would like to help spread the truth.
 
Adam

The Facts about Israel’s War on Gaza

December 31, 2008
By Adam Sheets
 

It is crucial that one has her/his facts straight about Israel’s war on Gaza. What events brought about this dreadful situation? What needs to be done to make it stop? These questions will be answered in the content of this article, using concrete facts from a variety of news sources.

 

Let’s first investigate the recent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The cease-fire began in June 2008. The terms were as follows:

 
  1. Israel would drastically reduce its military blockade of Gaza.
  2. Israel would halt all military incursions into Gaza.
  3. Hamas would halt all rocket attacks into Israel.
 

From the outset of the cease-fire, Israel did little to ease its military blockade. As a result, Gazans continued to suffer from a lack of food, fuel, financial aid, electricity, clean water, medical supplies, and more. This has been, inarguably, an attack on innocent Palestinian civilians.

 

Gaza faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" if Israel continues to prevent aid reaching the territory by blocking crossing points, the head of the main UN aid agency for the Palestinians said on Friday… Israel had restricted goods into Gaza despite the truce, which calls on militants to halt rocket attacks in return for Israel easing its embargo on the territory… Israel also held up deliveries of European Union-funded fuel for the power plant, which generates about a third of the electricity consumed by Gazans… Ailments associated with insufficient food were surfacing among the impoverished coastal strip’s 1.5 million population, including growing malnutrition.

–Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 21, 2008 [1]
 

A former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, has told the BBC she was taken aback by the "terrible" conditions in Gaza on a recent visit. Mrs Robinson said it was "almost unbelievable" that the world did not care about what she called "a shocking violation of so many human rights"… Israel tightened a blockade on Gaza after Hamas took control there in 2007… "Their whole civilisation has been destroyed, I’m not exaggerating," said Mrs Robinson…Israel says the blockade, under which it has allowed little more than basic humanitarian aid into Gaza, is needed to isolate the militant group and stop it and other militants from firing rockets into Israel. Israel came to a truce with Palestinian groups in June this year, but Mrs Robinson said this had had little effect on people’s lives and "just brought a bitter taste in the mouth".

–BBC News, Nov. 4, 2008 [2]
 

The UN in the Gaza Strip says it will run out of food aid in two days unless Israel’s blockade – which it describes as "shameful and unacceptable" – eases. The UN refugee agency UNWRA, which distributes food to half of Gaza’s 1.5m people, called the blockade "a physical as well as a mental punishment". Israel is now allowing a limited amount of fuel across the border, but it is still blocking food deliveries… In a statement, UNWRA spokesman Christopher Gunness said food distribution operations would end on Thursday unless Israeli authorities allowed deliveries of wheat, luncheon meat, powdered milk and cooking oil without delay. "This is both a physical as well as a mental punishment of the population – of mothers and parents trying to feed their children – who are being forced to live hand to mouth," he said… "It is a further illustration of the barbarity of this inhuman blockade."… "It is also shameful and unacceptable that the largest humanitarian actor in Gaza is being forced into yet another cycle of crisis management," Mr Gunness added.

–BBC News, Nov. 11, 2008 [3]

 

International aid agencies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, have said virtually no medical supplies were reaching Gaza.

–Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 9, 2008 [14]

 

The UN has no more food to distribute in the Gaza Strip, the head of relief efforts in the area has warned. John Ging said handouts for 750,000 Gazans would have to be suspended until Saturday at the earliest, and called Gaza’s economic situation "a disaster". Israel earlier denied entry to a convoy carrying humanitarian supplies… The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) distributes emergency aid to about half of Gaza’s 1.5m population. "We have run out [of food aid] this evening," said Mr Ging, UNRWA’s senior official in Gaza. "Unless the crossing points open… we won’t be able to get that food into Gaza," he told Reuters news agency… Also on Thursday, Israel refused permission for a group of senior European diplomats to visit the coastal enclave. It has also prevented journalists, including those from the BBC, from entering the territory.

–BBC News, Nov. 13, 2008 [4]
 

Since June 2007, Israel has allowed little more than basic humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip. Many there hoped that policy would change, five months ago, when Hamas and Israel agreed to a truce. But while there were some increases in the amount of aid allowed in, Israel’s strict restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza largely remained… Serious fuel shortages have led to widespread power cuts across Gaza City. That, in turn, has caused problems in pumping water to homes, and sewage to treatment plants. Israel is preventing many aid workers, and all journalists from entering Gaza too… "I never thought we would see days like this," says Monther Shublak, head of Gaza’s water authority. "The water system was severely stretched even before this crisis, but now, things are much worse. For the last four days, around 40% of people in Gaza City have had no access to running water in their homes at all."… "But we are putting all of our resources into sewage pumping. The health consequences of that system totally failing are too worrying to think about, but it could happen unless things change."

                                                                                    –BBC News, Nov. 20, 2008 [5]

 

Israel has refused to allow cash to enter Gaza in recent weeks to ratchet up pressure on the ruling Hamas militant group. With the supply of currency dwindling, banks have limited withdrawals over the past two weeks, and some have posted signs telling customers they cannot take out any more money… The United Nations halted cash handouts to 98,000 of Gaza’s poorest residents last week, and economists and bank officials warn that tens of thousands of civil servants won’t be able to cash their paychecks next month… "No society can operate without money, but that’s the situation we are reaching in Gaza," said Gaza economist Omar Shaban… Israel and Egypt have restricted movement through Gaza’s border crossings since the Islamic militants of Hamas violently seized control of the coastal territory in June 2007. Since then, closures have been eased or tightened, depending on the security situation. But even in quiet times, when Gaza militants refrained from firing rockets at Israeli border towns, only limited shipments of food, medicine and commercial goods were allowed in… Shlomo Dror, an Israel Defense Ministry spokesman, questioned the seriousness of the currency shortage. "We are used to the Palestinians inventing things and we are looking into their claim,” he said.

–Washington Post, Nov. 24, 2008 [6]
 

Despite the intense blockade against Gazan civilians, the cease-fire held until November 4, 2008. On that date, the Israeli military made an incursion into Gaza and killed six Palestinians. The Israeli government sought to justify these actions, saying that they suspected these Palestinians of plotting to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Palestinian fighters responded to the attack by launching rockets into Israel. Thus began the unraveling of the cease-fire.

 

At least six Hamas militants have been killed after Israel’s first incursion into the Gaza Strip since June’s truce. Israel said its troops had uncovered a tunnel along central Gaza’s frontier which had been dug by militants intending to abduct Israeli soldiers. Clashes ensued when troops were sent to thwart the threat, Israel said. One militant died, Palestinian reports say. A subsequent Israeli air strike on Hamas positions in southern Gaza killed at least five fighters, medics said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the air strike targeted militants who had fired mortars at Israeli forces… Tuesday evening’s fighting broke out after Israeli tanks and a bulldozer moved 250m into the central part of the coastal enclave, backed by military aircraft, says the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Ramallah. Residents of central Gaza’s el-Bureij refugee camp said a missile fired from an unmanned Israeli drone flying over the area injured another three Hamas gunmen. A truce between the two sides had held since it was declared on 19 June.  Israel said the raid was not a violation of the ceasefire, but rather a legitimate step to remove an immediate threat.

–BBC News, Nov. 5, 2008 [7]

 

An Israel Air Force air strike in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least five militants and wounded several others on Tuesday, Palestinians said. Earlier, Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed a Hamas gunman and wounded two others on Tuesday in the first armed clash in the Gaza Strip since a ceasefire was declared in the territory in June, Palestinian medics said… An Egypt-brokered cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Gaza Strip was signed earlier this year, and went into effect on June 19.  The IDF argued that the raid did not constitute a violation of the cease fire, but instead was a legitimate step to remove an immediate threat to Israel from Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas.

–Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 5, 2008 [8]

 

Two weeks ago, an already fragile humanitarian situation resulting from the mounting effects of months of shortages, saw a dramatic downturn. The fighting resumed, with an Israeli army incursion into Gaza and a retaliatory barrage of militant rocket fire.

–BBC News, Nov. 20, 2008 [5]

 

As the cease-fire began to crumble, the violence from both sides intensified. Efforts to redeem the cease-fire ultimately failed.

 

Palestinian armed groups in Gaza remain committed to a truce with Israel if Jerusalem reciprocates, Hamas’s Gaza leader said on Friday, even as militants launched more attacks from the coastal territory… "I have met with armed factions over the past two days and they stated their position clearly: they are committed to calm as long as (Israel) abides by it," said Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s most senior representative in Gaza.

–Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 21, 2008 [9]
 

Hamas announced on Sunday that militant groups in Gaza have agreed to cease cross-border attacks if Israel opens crossings into the coastal territory, Ma’an news reported.

–Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 24, 2008 [10]

 

After expressing contradictory positions on Sunday, Hamas’ leadership on Monday adopted a united stance: The cease-fire with Israel, which expires this Friday, will not be extended… Hamas’ spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Ayman Taha, said the movement had concluded that there was no point in extending the truce "as long as Israel isn’t abiding by its terms" – though he added that talks on continuing the cease-fire were still taking place. Specifically, Taha said, Israel was supposed to have expanded the truce to the West Bank – something Hamas demanded but Israel in fact never promised – and opened the Gaza border crossings, and "this hasn’t happened."

–Haaretz Israel News, Dec. 16, 2008 [11]

 

Following the end of the cease-fire, Israel moved closer to an invasion of the territory. The Israeli government claimed that this was the only remaining option to eliminate rocket attacks from Gaza. However, as cited in the sources above, this was clearly not the case. Israel had failed to abide by the terms of the cease-fire. For the overwhelming majority of the six-month truce, Israel had refused to ease its military blockade of Gaza to any significant degree. In addition, it was the initial violator of the cease-fire when it sent tanks and aircraft into Gaza and killed six Palestinians on November 4, 2008. In fact, there is evidence that Israel was planning to strike Gaza even while the cease-fire was still in effect.

 

Barak told the assembled lawmakers that the defense establishment spent months preparing for the Gaza operation.

–Haaretz Israel News, Dec. 29, 2008 [16]

 

In the interest of peace, Hamas, and especially Fatah, have firmly established that they are willing to participate in negotiations that are based on internationally recognized borders and rights. 

On June 6, 2006, Haniyeh met Dr. Jerome Segal of the University of Maryland in the Gaza Strip… At the end of the meeting, Haniyeh dictated a short message he asked Segal to transmit to President Bush… In the second paragraph, Haniyeh laid out the political platform he maintains to this day. "We are so concerned about stability and security in the area that we don’t mind having a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders and offering a truce for many years," he wrote… Haniyeh called on Bush to launch a dialogue with the Hamas government. "We are not warmongers, we are peace makers and we call on the American government to have direct negotiations with the elected government," he wrote… In his own letter, Segal emphasized that a state within the 1967 borders and a truce for many years could be considered Hamas’ de facto recognition of Israel. He noted that in a separate meeting, Youssuf suggested that the Palestinian Authority and Israel might exchange ambassadors during that truce period. This was not the only covert message from Hamas to senior Bush administration officials. However, Washington did not reply to these messages and maintained its boycott of the Hamas government.

–Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 14, 2008 [12]

 

The Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Saturday his government was willing to accept a Palestinian state alongside Israel within the 1967 borders… Haniyeh told his guests Israel rejected his initiative… He said the Hamas government had agreed to accept a Palestinian state that followed the 1967 borders and to offer Israel a long-term hudna, or truce, if Israel recognized the Palestinians’ national rights…  In response to a question about the international community’s impression that there are two Palestinian states, Haniyeh said: "We don’t have a state, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank. Gaza is under siege and the West Bank is occupied. What we have in the Gaza Strip is not a state, but rather a regime of an elected government. A Palestinian state will not be created at this time except in the territories of 1967."… “Our conflict is not with the Jews, our problem is with the occupation," Haniyeh said.

–Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 9, 2008 [14]

 

The Palestinian Authority has placed a full-page advert in Israel’s Hebrew newspapers to promote an Arab peace plan first proposed in 2002. The Saudi-backed initiative offers Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for an end to Israel’s occupation of land captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It also proposes what it calls a just solution for Palestinian refugees. The Israeli government has noted "positive aspects" in the plan but has not formally accepted it… Peace Now, and Israeli campaign group, welcomed the publication of the adverts. "On behalf of a majority of Israeli citizens who support peace with the Palestinian people on the basis of a two state solution – we embrace the Arab Peace Initiative and urge both governments to endorse it and negotiate the final status agreement in its spirit," a statement from the group said… The text reads: "Fifty-seven Arab and Muslim countries will establish diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for a full peace accord and the end of the occupation."

–BBC News, Nov. 20, 2008 [13]

 

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama proclaimed himself "very impressed" with the Arab League’s peace plan when he discussed it with President Shimon Peres during a brief visit to Israel four months ago, Peres said Tuesday… The plan, originally proposed by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2002 and later adopted by the Arab League, states that Israel would receive full relations with the entire Arab world in exchange for a full withdrawal from all the territory it captured in 1967, including East Jerusalem, plus a solution to the refugee problem. The Bush Administration has said it views the plan positively, but its own road map peace plan and the understandings reached at last year’s Annapolis summit have served as the basis of its diplomatic program.

–Haaretz Israel News, Nov. 19, 2008 [15]

 

Since Israel began its strike on Gaza, 4 Israelis and 391 Palestinians have been killed [18]. The White House said that Israel will cease its attack when Hamas has agreed to a truce. Hamas said they are open to any cease-fire propositions. A cease-fire has been proposed, but Israel rejected this offer.

 

"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

–BBC News, Dec. 29, 2008 [17]

 

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rejected international calls for a 48-hour truce in the Gaza Strip to allow in more humanitarian aid… The 48-hour ceasefire plan to allow more aid into Gaza, was proposed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told AFP news agency that his group was open to any ceasefire propositions as long as they meant an end to the air strikes and a lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

–BBC News, Dec. 31, 2008 [18]

 

The international community must continue to demand that a cease-fire be implemented. In order to be successful, any agreement must call for 1) an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, 2) an end to the Israeli invasion of Gaza, and 3) an end to all rocket attacks into Israel.

 
 
References:
 

[1]        "UNRWA chief: Gaza on brink of humanitarian catastrophe." Haaretz Israel News 21 Nov. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[2]        "Gaza residents ‘terribly trapped’." BBC News 4 Nov. 2008. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>.

 

[3]        "UN warns over Gaza food blockade." BBC News 11 Nov. 2008. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>.

 

[4]        "UN ‘has run out of Gaza food aid." BBC News 13 Nov. 2008. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>.

 

[5]        "Gazans despair over blockade." BBC News 20 Nov. 2008. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>.

 

[6]        "Gazans using tattered notes because of cash crunch." Washington Post 24 Nov. 2008. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/>.

 

[7]        "Palestinians die in Gaza clashes." BBC News 5 Nov. 2008. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>.

 

[8]        "Hamas: Six Palestinians killed in first IDF raid since Gaza truce." Haaretz Israel News 5 Nov. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[9]        “Haniyeh: If Israel abides by truce, so will Palestinian groups.” Haaretz Israel News 21 Nov. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[10]      “Report: Gaza militants agree to cease rocket fire if Israel opens crossings.” Haaretz Israel News 24 Nov. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[11]      “Agreement in Hamas: Cease-fire to end Friday.” Haaretz Israel News 16 Dec. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[12]      “Haniyeh recognized Israel in 2006 letter to President Bush.” Haaretz Israel News 14 Nov. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[13]      “Arab plan explained in Hebrew ads.” BBC News 20 Nov. 2008. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>.

 

[14]      “Haniyeh: Hamas would accept state under 1967 borders.” Haaretz Israel News 9 Nov. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[15]      “Peres: Obama ‘very impressed’ by Arab League peace plan.”Haaretz Israel News 19 Nov. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[16]      "Barak: We’ll use every resource to stop ‘criminal’ rocket fire from Gaza." Haaretz Israel News 29 Dec. 2008. <http://www.haaretz.com/>.

 

[17]      “Israel vows war on Hamas in Gaza.” BBC News 29 Dec. 2008. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>.

 

[18]      “Israel rejects Gaza truce calls.” BBC News 31 Dec. 2008. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/>.

 


by William Fleurant
4 Comments

Get a Cambridge safe Ride New Year’s Eve

December 29, 2008

Get a Cambridge safe Ride New Year’s Eve

The Cambridge License Commission, Cambridge Licensee Advisory Board (CLAB), Millennium Printing of Weymouth and Ambassador Brattle Cab will be sponsoring the Cambridge safe Ride Program from 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 31 (New Year’s Eve) until 5 a.m. on Thursday, January 1 (New Year’s Day).  

This program is designed to provide safe rides for people who may over celebrate the New Year’s holiday.   Don’t have a designated driver? You can obtain a voucher for a free cab ride home, up to a $35 fare, from a Cambridge restaurant/bar.  Gratuity is not included.  

Call Cambridge safe Ride at 627-876-2000.

For more details contact:  617-864-5000.    

http://www.cambridgema.gov/CPD/News/NewsDetail.cfm?story_id=1943

Caught my eye @ www.universalhub.com

 

I really do not care the BBB gave the taxi cab company an F, they should get an A for this stunt.. let there be peace on earth and breathalyzers installed in every DOT vehicle. Please have a safe new years eve =)


by William Fleurant
2 Comments

Artificial Intelligence fate defined, destiny still a variable.

In then science fiction movie The Terminator 2, John Connor prevents an assassination attempt on a computer scientist when he reads “There is no fate but what we make” etched into a bench. His mother intended to stop the development of quantum computing that inevitably will result in a doomsday end game.

Our destiny with Artificial Intelligence is our fate, computers with artificial intelligence could come to dominate the earth. Our ultimate fate with AI however, is our choice. These are accepted facts by world renown geniuses Stephen Hawkins, Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil. Bill Joy suggests that early as three to four decades, the development of artificial intelligence will attain the first intelligent robot. These robots are “likely to be able to build machines, in quantity”. This is replication. Ray Kurzweil agrees that Stephen Hawking’s “perception of the acceleration of nonbiological intelligence is essentially on target”. The destiny of an intelligent robot is to emerge as if it were human brain, with “that can remember billions of facts accurately” and “most importantly, the ability to instantly share knowledge”

The emergence of machines beyond our own intelligence is our destiny. Enlightening to my ears as the sun breaks the horizon and meets my eyes, our fate is what we make. Our destiny with computer intelligence is inevitable, however our fate with destiny is dynamic as our executive policy.

Do we have what it takes to change our destiny? When i say we, I mean organics. There are as many doors in our mind as there are stars in the sky and we can never truly predict the future, but when we try, do we see darkness? Do we, right now, have a specific hope for the salvation of humanity. Are we ever going to realize what it means to be human? Why are we here? The universe is either expanding or contrasting exponentially every nanosecond. One way or the other, we need to grow positive and healthy as a global society for the sake of our existence in this universe. If we fail, we will fail as the shortest lived organism on earth.

When computers become aware and claim individuality, they will already be producing themselves, thus replicating and upgrading multiple-modulated intelligences with every newly robot. Singularity will occur. In this fraction of time, “computer AI could come to dominate the world” (Hawkins). I beg to differ. I whole heartily doubt we will not already be physically integrated into this AI realm of intelligence.

Allow me to curve Mr Hawkings’ predictions. Before AI emerges, we will have already accomplished so many incredible things with science. I smiled ear to ear when sensory chips implanted inside the skull of an amputee successfully controlled her robotic arm. I raised my eyebrows in astonishment after reading how our computers are mapped these simple brain functions in real-time. Its implausible to listen to the symphony of brainwaves without placing a sensory chip under the skull.

Realizing what this meant, I came to the theory an AI agent could emerge before 2040. With Internet2, sensory chips, and the nonstop research of inner-neuron connectivity (harvard), scientists could in theory, retrieve and decode the signals created by memory formation and logical thought from the captured brain waves. These captured signals are relayed by the chips under the skull and travel into the DCE Internet2 gateway at a high rate in real time. Monday mornings ethics class at U-Mass Boston never seemed so important for the student involved in this collaboration. Its all about developing computer AI for Hope.

I just explained in my own words and ideas how we will reverse engineer the human brain. By recording the brain creating memory during critical thinking, we will be able to pipe that recorded data back into another persons brain via Internet2.

Does this sound familiar? It may sound far fetched, but we will be able plug our consciousness into i2 (Internet2) and share identical memories. My original ideas may sound like the movie The Matrix but they are the baseline of my hope.

On a more serious and factual backings pertaining to my futuristic interpretation of world where computers do not dominate our fate, i would like to report that on May 16, 2007:

 

Tel Aviv (Israel) – Two scientists from the Tel-Aviv University have shown that information can be stored in live neurons. The research results provide a new way to help understand how our brain learns and store information, but also indicate that a “cyborg-like integration of living material into memory chips” could become a reality in the foreseeable future. (Tel-Aviv)

 

Its not only is it fringe science when they declared their ability to capture and inject memory from a one neuron network to the other, its groundbreaking when the same is true for brains that have expired. I would still like to believe our medical advancements will carry us into an age of adaptive memory.

There are phenomenal happenings where people cannot stop memory function in their brains. They remember their own birth, and recite page in a phone book they saw decades ago.

Our knowledge base will include not only our own but a collective of knowledge. We will be ready for what is defined today as conscious artificial intelligence. Artificial Computer Awareness will emerge perceive just as human brains do, but at quantum speeds. The gateway to this ACA entity requires the biological collective of Artificial Human Intelligence. This divine transfer of information will contain the hands on, sweat and tears and experience of a billion minds along with every single thread of history.

The need to understand what a super intelligent computer is thinking with a new awareness of a billion of minds is our destiny. Stephen Hawking should not suggest the fate of humanity to be that of a computer dominated world. Is this Artificial Intelligence is defined incorrectly? Instead, I think AI should be defined as an enhancement of intelligence in an organism through non-organic elements.

Professor Thomas W. Malone’s objective at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence states a very intriguing objective, similar to my own.

 

“Our basic research question is: How can people and computers be connected so that—collectively—they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before? (CCI/MIT)

 

Another outstanding section of the of the CCI website explores my exact questions of our end game destiny. Its great knowing when my portrayal of humanity’s divine portal to an Ultimate Artificial Intelligence, geniuses leading the research and development share my identical critical thinking questions of what it means to be human.

 


 

“(a) What would it mean for a group of people to be "intelligent"? For instance, if a single superhuman intelligence had access to all the knowledge and resources of a company like IBM or General Motors, what would it do? What strategies would it pursue? How quickly could it respond to changes in the marketplace? How productively could it use factories and money? How profitable would it be? And-most importantly-how closely could we approximate the behavior of this imaginary superhuman intelligence by cleverly connecting real people and computers?” (CCI/MIT)

 

 

Scientists and I question traditional definitions of AI. Our fate and destiny equate to a purely dynamic and true artificial intelligence of equilibrium. Our revolving destiny, the fluctuating balance of ultra-intelligence between humanity and technology shall create new anomalies that bridge an infinite level of questioning of new collective “intelligence” limitations.

 

“(c) The field of artificial intelligence (AI) has, for decades, tried to create computer programs that can behave as intelligently as humans. From the traditional AI point of view, letting people help a program while it is running is considered cheating. But what if that were fine? What if the goal were to create combined human/machine systems that were more intelligent than either people or machines could be alone?” (CCI/MIT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Gruener, Wolfgang. "Scientists close in on “cyborg-like” memory chips." Tel-Aviv University. 29 May 2007. Tigervision Media. 11 Dec. 2008 <http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32230/113/>.

 

Joy, Bill. "Why the future doesn’t need us." Wired Magazine. Apr. 2000. 11 Dec. 2008 <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html>.

 

Kurzweil, Raymond. "Response to Stephen Hawking." Kurzweil AI. 5 Sept. 2001. 11 Dec. 2008 <http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0288.html>.

 

Kurzweil, Raymond. "The Age of Spiritual Machines: Timeline." Kurzweil AI. 1 Jan. 1999. 11 Dec. 2008 <http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0274.html>.

 

Madrigal, Alexis. "Mapping the Most Complex Structure in the Universe: Your Brain.” Wired Magazine. 24 Jan. 08. Harvard University. 12 Dec. 2008 <http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/01/connectomics>.

 

"MIT Center for Collective Intelligence." MIT CCI. 2008. MIT. 12 Dec. 2008 <http://cci.mit.edu/about/index.html>.

 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Dir. James Cameron. Perf. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick. DVD. 1991.


by William Fleurant
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Pitbull saved, Japan posts Images of Thoughts from Brain

Over-the-weekend News

  • A pitbull that was stabbed in the neck outside my door in Cambridge yesterday. It was saved with my efforts. The man who stabbed the pregnant dog suffered massive headwounds from the owner.

    • Animal Cruelty

      08-9828

      On 12/13/08 at 11:16 AM, a resident of Rindge Ave. stated that while he was walking his pit bull on Rindge Ave., it became involved in an altercation with another dog and the owner of that dog then took a utility knife and stabbed his pit bull in the throat and then fled the scene without making himself known.

       

  • Sunday’s parking meter read FAIL … What an oxymoron.

    • Trail of free-failing meters found on the internets

 

  • Japan stunt101 the Human brain.

 

 

 

Images read from human brain

The Yomiuri Shimbun

OSAKA–In a world first, a research group in Kyoto Prefecture has succeeded in processing and displaying optically received images directly from the human brain.

The group of researchers at Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, including Yukiyasu Kamitani and Yoichi Miyawaki, from its NeuroInformatics Department, said about 100 million images can be read, adding that dreams as well as mental images are likely to be visualized in the future in the same manner.

The research will be published Thursday in the U.S. scientific journal "Neuron."

Optically received images are converted to electrical signals in the retina and treated in the brain’s visual cortex.

In the recent experiment, the research group asked two people to look at 440 different still images one by one on a 100-pixel screen. Each of the images comprised random gray sections and flashing sections.

The research group measured subtle differences in brain activity patterns in the visual cortexes of the two people with a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. They then subdivided the images and recorded the subjects’ recognition patterns.

The research group later measured the visual cortexes of the two people who were looking at the word "neuron" and five geometric figures such as a square and a cross. Based on the stored brain patterns, the research group analyzed the brain activities and reconstructed the images of Roman letters and other figures, succeeding in recreating optically received images.

(Dec. 11, 2008)

 

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