11.11.07
Salt Water Fuel - Alternative Source of Power
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf4gOS8aoFk
Salt Water into Fuel part 2
11.05.07
SUV with mind of its own wins robot car race
By Peter Henderson
VICTORVILLE, California (Reuters) - A souped-up Chevy Tahoe sports utility vehicle with a mind of its own was declared the winner of a robot car race on Sunday after it traveled without help from humans for six hours and 60 miles
around a California ghost town.
Nicknamed Boss, the vehicle from Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh won a $2 million prize in the third such race sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, which wants robots eventually to drive military supply vehicles.
The entrants — including station wagons and a huge green military truck all decked out with flashing lights, warning sirens, spinning laser range finders and cameras — looked like mini-versions of the “monster” trucks that duel at arenas around the United States. Only six vehicles out of 11 finalists finished the course on an abandoned military base on Saturday.
The winners were determined overnight based on safety as well as speed. Stanford University, which won a 2005 race, came in second and Virginia Tech finished third.
“Yesterday (was) a very historic day,” said Tony Tether, director of the defense department’s research agency, after handing out checks on Sunday as the winning cars, with humans at the wheel, took off for a victory spin.
The effort has brought together some of the top talents at U.S. universities and corporations to work on a big technology challenge. Science fans have followed the robots’ progress avidly, but the biggest benefits are in the future.
The U.S. military aims to put robots behind the wheel of supply vehicles — with a goal of making a third of its supply fleet robotic by 2015 — to keep soldiers out of danger. And automakers see intelligent cars helping people drive and eventually taking over the task altogether for better safety and comfort.
The race’s objective — for the vehicles to finish without a dent, following California traffic rules precisely, within six hours — was daunting. A minor fender bender, the worst accident on Saturday, drew a collective gasp from hundreds of fans drawn to the abandoned base about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Vehicles with hundreds of thousands of lines of computer code for brains appeared to have their own personalities. The Carnegie Mellon General Motors SUV rushed out of the starting gate, while Stanford’s Volkswagen, named Junior, was conservative.
‘SOCCER MOM’
“Boss is kind of like a soccer mom with some place to be — aggressive but safe,” said Carnegie team member Bryan Salesky.
The Toyota Prius from the University of Pennsylvania and Lehigh University took corners slowly and then accelerated.
The vehicles hit top speeds of about 30 mph (48 kph).
“You see the steering wheel move, and there’s nobody there. It’s mind boggling,” said stunt driver Tammie Baird, who drove the streets along with the cars to test their traffic skills.
Using a combination of satellite navigation, cameras, radar and lasers, computer-based artificial intelligence systems determine where the car is and where to go, then deliver directions to a system which drives the car, from steering to acceleration.
Universities hope their technology will help cut traffic accidents and improve driving.
The Defense Department’s research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, sponsored dirt-road robot races in 2004 and 2005. The 2007 Urban Challenge was much harder, requiring complicated decisions from robots that in previous years simply had to find a course and stay on it.
The Defense Department gave a little help when needed to robots racing on Saturday. It regularly used remote pause systems to halt vehicles, avoiding traffic jams that could have damaged or confused the cars.
One team was allowed to dig its car out when it took an unanticipated left turn off a dirt road and got stuck, while at least one computer system was restarted during the race.
That did not lessen the cheers from the crowd or enthusiasm from organizers on Sunday.
“To end up today with you guys going into traffic, with not only other people driving, but other robots driving, is just absolutely fantastic,” Tether said, to wild applause.
Elaine Smitha guest on Unity.fm Online Radio Show
Healing’s the subject of Elaine Smitha’s radio interview with Mindy Audlin, Host of The Unity Radio Hour and Network Producer of Unity.FM. Here’s what Mindy had to say:
“I interviewed Elaine Smitha on The Unity Radio Hour and it was a delight! With an easy, conversational flair, Elaine shares stories as well as scientific data to help people experience wholenss in mind, body, and spirit.
I would recommend Elaine Smitha as an engaging spiritual teacher, with practical information that can make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.”
Betsy Chasse, collaborative writer, Director and Producer of the sleeper hit, What The Bleep Do We Know?!, is Elaine Smitha’s guest on Evolving Ideas(TM).
Betsy will share her wisdom and experience of WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?! including an inside look at her new film, PREGNANT IN AMERICA that takes on the birthing of babies as a natural process, not a medical procedure. Her insights reflect what others have been saying for a long time. Hear her personal story, why she wrote this film and what’s coming up. We’ll do our best to fit it all into 30 minutes.
LIVE - TUESDAY, November 6, 2007 - LIVE
11AM PST, 1PM CST, 2PM EST and globally elsewhere in synnchronous times zones
http://www.progressiveradionetworkcommunications.org<
Click here - <PRN>>
Thanks for helping spread the word about our great shows with high calibre guests.
Can’t make it? ARCHIVES generally available for 10 weeks, after which they disappear.
http://smitha.progressiveradionetwork.org - Download and listen at your convenience.
11.01.07
“Big Brother” restaurant opens to study diners
“Big Brother” restaurant opens to study diners
October 15, 2007 10:54 AM ET
WAGENINGEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - Does service with a scowl put you off at lunch? Will you eat more greens if you are surrounded by plants? Does romantic, pink lighting encourage you to linger over your fruit salad?
The truth about happiness may surprise you
By David Martin
(CNN) — The next time you are deciding between ice cream and cake, buying a car or taking a trip to Europe, accepting a new job or keeping your old one, you should remember two things: First, your decision is rooted in the desire to become happy — or at least happier than you are now. Second, there’s a good chance the decision you make will be wrong.
Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert summed up our failings this way: “People have a lot of bad theories about happiness.”
It’s not for lack of trying. The Declaration of Independence affirms that we have an inalienable right to pursue happiness, and it’s something we do with a vengeance.
Americans will spend $750 million on self-help books this year and more than $1 billion on motivational speakers. More than 100 colleges now offer classes in positive psychology — the science of happiness. With all those resources focused on achieving happiness, we should all be brimming with joy. (Watch paralyzed man describe how he stays so happy — 2:12 
)
So where do we go wrong? Gilbert, author of the recent book “Stumbling on Happiness,” blames our culture, our genes and our imagination.
Our culture implores us to buy bigger, newer, better things, but research shows “stuff” does not buy happiness. By and large, money buys happiness only for those who lack the basic needs. Once you pass an income of $50,000, more money doesn’t buy much more happiness, Gilbert said.
Our genes hardwire us to reproduce, but children have a small negative effect on happiness, research shows. If you’re a parent reading this, you’re most likely shaking your head. But Gilbert said the findings are clear when parents are asked about their level of happiness in the moment.
“When you follow people throughout their days, as they’re going about their normal activities, people are about as happy interacting with their children, on average, as when they’re doing housework. They’re much less happy than when they’re exercising, sleeping, grocery shopping, hanging out with friends,” Gilbert said. “Now, that doesn’t mean they don’t occasionally create these transcendent moments of joy that we remember as filling our days with happiness.”
Finally, our imaginations fail us, Gilbert said, because when we envision different futures we see either perpetual gloom or happily ever-after scenarios. In fact, neither unhappiness nor joy last as long as we expect. As you’ve probably guessed, winning the lottery will not guarantee a life of bliss.
By the same token, becoming disabled does not relegate one to a life of unhappiness. The disabled spend their days about as happy as the general population, according to Gilbert.
So what makes us happy? In general, the older you get the happier you get — until you reach very old age.
According to a Pew Research Center survey, the happiest age group is men 65 and older; the least happy: men 18 to 29.
The survey also found:
Nancy Segal, a professor at California State University, Fullerton, has spent her professional career studying twins and happiness. We all have an innate level of happiness, Segal said. The best we can do is boost our happiness a little bit above this natural “set point.”
With that in mind, Segal said we should pass on buying lottery tickets and find small things we can do every day that bring us joy, whether it’s going for a walk or cooking a meal or reading a book.
Robert Biswas-Diener is called the Indiana Jones of positive psychology because he has traveled the globe looking at happiness in different cultures.
“There is good evidence that people express at least some fundamental emotions like disgust, anger and happiness in a very similar way all around the world,” Diener said.
Diener, who also is a life coach, says happiness from the most traditional cultures to the most modern depend heavily on close family and other human relationships.
If you want to do a better job predicting how happy something will make you, said Gilbert, the Harvard professor, you need to remember we are not so different when it comes to happiness.
“If I wanted to know what a certain future would feel like to me I would find someone who is already living that future,” he said. “If I wonder what it’s like to become a lawyer or marry a busy executive or eat at a particular restaurant my best bet is to find people who have actually done these things and see how happy they are.
“What we know from studies is not only will this increase the accuracy of your prediction, but nobody wants to do it,” he said. “The reason is we believe we’re unique. We don’t believe other people’s experiences can tell us all that much about our own. I think this is an illusion of uniqueness.”
And if you’re trying to decide between the new car and the trip to Europe, Gilbert said take the trip.
“Part of us believes the new car is better because it lasts longer. But, in fact, that’s the worst thing about the new car,” he said. “It will stay around to disappoint you, whereas a trip to Europe is over. It evaporates. It has the good sense to go away, and you are left with nothing but a wonderful memory.” What makes people happy?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/11/10/happiness.overview/index.html