Meet Paro - the "furbot" for dementia patients

He's a robotic seal developed by Japanese researchers to help dementia patients feel that they have companionship and a feeling of security, without the responsibilities of a living pet. Made to emulate a live pet as much as possible, he can cuddle, nod and blink his big black eyes. Paro is currently being tested with patients in Baden-Baden and there are already 1,000 robot seals deployed in long-term care homes in Japan.

The image comes from a gallery at Der Spiegel featuring submissions to Focus magazine's "Beauty in Science" photo competition. Paro has been on the market for several years and was featured in an article at AARP's website:

...the world's first therapeutic or "mental-commit" robot - designed to provide relaxation, entertainment and companionship through physical interaction. This adorable furbot was modeled after a baby harp seal literally from the inside out. Sensors beneath Paro's fur and whiskers trigger the seal to move and respond - wriggling with delight when petted and showing displeasure when ignored. Its eyes open and close, and its flippers can move as well. Other built-in sensors allow Paro to respond to sight, sound, temperature and even posture. Covered in soft white antibacterial fur, Paro's artificial intelligence means it can mimic animal behavior and over time, even develop its own character. The latest Paro model, (8th generation) can recognize seven different languages: Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish...

I don't know whether to be delighted that mankind has developed a robot that learns and recognizes seven languages, or to be saddened that such technology is necessary to replace a function that used to be performed by humans...

Paro's homepage.

Thanksgiving weekend

Bangladeshi child laborers work at a balloon workshop in Kamrangir Char, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 19. AP / Pavel Rahman

Children wash clothes and bathe at a water pipeline surrounded by sewage in Mumbai, India on Wednesday, Nov. 18. AP / Rafiq Maqbool

Children push a cart through a darkened street in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Nov. 20. AP / Mustafa Quraishi

Everyone has something to be thankful for. Just the fact that you're able to read this post means that you have fared well on the so-called "genetic lottery."

I've been trying to remember the name of a prominent person (?author) who suggested that persons in power should formulate their foreign policy on the presumption that they might be reincarnated as a child somewhere else in the world.

The photos above of "the world's children" are selected from a group of about 20 at a Sacramento Bee photoblog.

TYWKIWDBI has a new feedburner feed

As an amateur I stumbled through the process this morning.

The new feedburner link is here.

Or alternatively [xml] here?

I don't know whether this new feed is equivalent to/better/worse than the feed I currently have posted in the right sidebar. I haven't added this to the sidebar with a widget because I'm not sure if I should "redirect the Blogger feed to the Feedburner feed" or not.

Stormy weather

This video was taken on the 7th of december 2007 in "Raz de Sein" at the western tip of France, in Brittany, on a (very) stormy day.

Those lighthouses isolated in the open sea are/were called "Hells" because of the roughness of living conditions inside these isolated buildings, frequently harassed by the elements.

The first one seen in the video is Ar Men ("The Rock" in Breton), one of the best known lighthouses because of its isolated situation and the considerable difficulties its construction has presented (14 years were needed to build it !!), and the danger in evacuating its personnel. Considered as one of the most challenging workplaces by the community of lighthouse keepers, it has been named "The Hell of Hells".

The text above is excerpted from the description at the YouTube link, where there is also information on the other lighthouses in the video and on the coast.

Video found in the archives at Scribal Terror.

Avoiding the need for dental anaesthesia

At times, in his practice, to break down the iron will of an incorrigible patient, the author has resorted to the towel procedure. It is drastic, but "the spirit must be conquered before the flesh can be subdued." The mother must necessarily be excused, and, as she leaves the room, the latch should be turned on the door---otherwise, she will be back at the crucial moment and destroy all that has been accomplished.

To proceed, take a towel in your left hand. Put that arm around the headrest, placing the towel over the child's mouth while holding his two hands in your right hand, which is also pressed down against the body, holding him firmly in the chair. Talk directly into his ear, saying, "As soon as you stop crying, I will let go." If, after a minute or two, no response is given, close the thumb and finger of the towel hand over the nose, shutting off the air supply. In a few seconds he will exhibit symptoms of reasoning and will agree to submit, but the moment the hand is released he will yell loudly for his mother. Immediately replace the towel and proceed again. This time pay no attention to the initial overtures, and hold him until he experiences some discomfort. Prior to releasing him say, "Will you help? Are you sure? Are you sure? Sure?" This time when he agrees to cooperate he will be as good as his word, and the crying will be but momentary. Immediately take the mirror and, in a gruff tone, remark, "Now open your mouth and let me look at your teeth." Almost before the child realizes it, the mouth will open like a trap suddenly sprung, and one may proceed with the examination. The rest is easy.

It is recognized that there is a great deal of criticism of this so-called manhandling procedure. However, the reader must bear in mind that it is only the very rare child who must be treated in this manner; it does not occur with greater frequency than once or twice a month. Certainly it is not a pleasant thing to do, yet when a child has a history of having created an embarrassing scene in three or four different offices, it is necessary if anything is to be accomplished. It should be a means of last resort, the last card in the operator's deck of possibilities.

From "Incorrigible Children," in Juvenile Dentistry, a textbook by Dr. Walter C. McBride, published in 1941 . An excerpt from the book appeared in issue number 12 of Chip's Closet Cleaner, a 'zine published in Chicago by Chip Rowe, republished at ChipRowe.com.

Reprinted in Harper's Magazine, August 1995, p. 26

Mommy's leg

"An Afghan girl touches her mother's artificial leg the ICRC Ali Abad Orthopaedic centre in Kabul November 12, 2009. The center, which is run mostly by disabled people, aims to educate and rehabilitate landmine victims and people with any kind of deformities, to help them integrate effectively into society. They also provide the patients with a 18-months interest free $600 micro credit loan." (REUTERS/Jerry Lampen).

Found at The Big Picture's photoessay on Afghanistan.

Afghan fashion

"A woman tried to keep warm as she waited at a food distribution site for widows in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday. The food rations from CARE include wheat, cooking oil salt and beans. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)."

That pleated, embroidered fabric is beautiful, and quite striking. Click to enlarge.

Found at the WSJ's Photoblog.

Santa Claus

A Santa Claus at the KaDeWe department store in Berlin posed in front of a colorful Christmas tree Wednesday. (Michael Gottschalk/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images).

A nice reminder that there's more than one possible outfit.

In what category should we file Sarah Palin?

"A bird's eye view of Gov. Sarah Palin talking with Americans and signing her book "Going Rogue" at Borders bookstore during the third "Going Rogue" book signing event Thursday, November 19, 2009, in Noblesville, IN. Photo by Shealah Craighead. Copyright SarahPAC."

Note the signs. As you stand in the store, she would be to the right of politics, and under...

Hat tip to The Pajama Pundit.

"Gaza zebras"

"An unhappy donkey has tape stuck to its coat in an attempt to transform it into a zebra. Due to Israeli blockades on the Gaza Strip, it has become impossible for a Palestinian zoo to import wild animals. So after the last two zebras died, the owner of the Marah Land Zoo painted and taped two donkeys into zebra lookalikes. The unfortunate creatures have become symbols of the blockade. It would cost over $40,000 (€26,600) to smuggle a genuine zebra from Africa, via Egypt, through secret tunnels built under the blockaded border. Whereas, the zookeeper told the Chinese Xinhua news agency, the donkeys only cost $700 (€470) each. Plus paint and masking tape, of course."

Text and photo from Der Spiegel. The masking tape is of course a temporary measure for the coloration process. The final product is shown below in a photo from the Huffington Post.

Those who consider this cruel should take a moment to reflect on the normal life of a donkey as a beast of burden, and should compare this treatment with what Americans do to dogs.

Orange Pore fungus (Favolaschia calocera)

"Found in Madagascar and Australia, this species has become invasive in New Zealand."

Found at Electric Orchid. Can any kiwis out there comment?

Henna

The remarkable hands of a woman in Srinagar, Kashmir. The photo above enlarges with a click, or you can download a wallpaper version at National Geographic.

Via Voluspa.

An Obama/GOP alliance?

An interesting essay today at Counterpunch. Herewith some excerpts:

With Obama pushing a huge troop escalation in Afghanistan, history may well repeat itself with a vengeance. And it’s not just the apt comparison to LBJ, who destroyed his presidency on the battlefields of Vietnam with an escalation that delivered power to Nixon and the GOP.

There’s another frightening parallel: Obama seems to be following in the footsteps of Bill Clinton, who accomplished perhaps his single biggest legislative “triumph” – NAFTA – thanks to an alliance with Republicans that overcame strong Democratic and grassroots opposition...

To get a majority today in Congress on Afghanistan, the Obama White House is apparently bent on a strategy replicating the tragic farce that Clinton pulled off: Ignore the informed doubts of your own party while making common cause with extremist Republicans who never accepted your presidency in the first place...

For those who elected Obama, it’s important to remember the downward spiral that was accelerated by Clinton’s GOP alliance to pass NAFTA. It should set off alarm bells for us today on Afghanistan.

NAFTA was quickly followed by the debacle of Clinton healthcare “reform” largely drafted by giant insurance companies, which was followed by a stunning election defeat for Congressional Democrats in November 1994, as progressive and labor activists were lethargic while rightwing activists in overdrive put Gingrich into the Speaker’s chair...

Today, it’s crucial to ask where Obama is heading. From the stimulus to healthcare, he’s shown a Clinton-like willingness to roll over progressives in Congress on his way to corrupt legislation and frantic efforts to compromise for the votes of corporate Democrats or “moderate” Republicans. Meanwhile, the incredible shrinking “public option” has become a sick joke.

As he glides from retreats on civil liberties to health reform that appeases corporate interests to his Bush-like pledge this week to “finish the job” in Afghanistan, an Obama reliance on Congressional Republicans to fund his troop escalation could be the final straw in disorienting and demobilizing the progressive activists who elected him a year ago...

Throughout the centuries, no foreign power has been able to “finish the job” in Afghanistan, but President Obama thinks he’s a tough enough Commander-in-Chief to do it...

When you start in the center (on, say, healthcare or Afghanistan) and readily move rightward several steps to appease rightwing politicians or lobbyists or Generals, by definition you are governing as a conservative.

It’s been a gradual descent from the elation and hope for real change many Americans felt on election night, November 2008...

More at Counterpunch.

Baby coelacanth photographed

It's good to see one photographed alive after all the situations where specimens had been dragged up from the bathysphere in nets only to die of barotrauma.

Japanese marine researchers have found and successfully filmed the young fish at a depth of 528ft in Manado Bay off Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.

Video footage shows the 12.6-inch coelacanth, coloured blue with white spots, swimming slowly among rocks on the seabed for about 20 minutes.

A similar-sized juvenile was once discovered in the belly of a pregnant coelacanth. It is believed that their eggs hatch inside the female and the young fish are fully formed at the time of birth.

Coelacanths are commonly regarded as having evolved little from prehistoric times and were thought to be extinct until a living specimen was discovered in 1938 off the coast of southern Africa.

Found at the Daily Mail. Here are links for the Association for the Preservation of the Coelacanth and for the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme.

Offered without comment...

Found at Fail Blog, via Titam et le Sirop d'Erable.

Giant centipede vs. snake

Centipede wins, presumably via envenomation of the snake. The video lasts 7+ minutes, but the interesting part is over by about the 2 minute mark.

Polar bear vs. human

We'll call this one a tie...

Via Geeks. For those of you interested in learning how to cope with an actual polar bear attack, there is a two-minute instructional video.

"EL NEV FSH HTLBMS 508"

Archaeologists working at Jamestown, Virginia, have been excavating what they believe may be the first well dug at James Fort in 1609 by Captain John Smith. This summer they retrieved an unusual artifact from the well - a slate tablet inscribed on both sides with drawings of people, plants, birds, words, and numbers.

The words on the slate include the phrase "A MINON OF THE FINEST SORTE."

According to Straube, "minon" is a 17th-century variation of the word "minion" and has numerous meanings, including "servant," "follower," "comrade," "companion," "favorite," or someone dependent on a patron's favor. A minion is also a type of cannon—and archaeologists have found shot at the James Fort site that's the right size for a minion.

Above that phrase are the letters and numbers "EL NEV FSH HTLBMS 508" interspersed with symbols that have yet to be interpreted.

The images on the tablet are difficult to see, because they are the same dark gray color as the slate (presumably enhanced in the photo embedded above), and they overlap. The colonists would have written on the tablet with a small, rectangular pencil made of slate with a sharp point. This would have made a white mark—and fortunately for archaeologists today, it also left a scratch...

He hopes eventually to sort out the sequence of the images with the help of NASA, where scientists at the Langley Research Center are using a high-precision, three-dimensional imaging system similar to a CT scanner to help isolate the layers and provide a detailed analysis of the tablet.

That report was written up in National Geographic in June. I've not seen any followup report as to the interpretation of the unusual phrase.

Photos via 1609 Chronology.

Seeking a reader of Cyrillic text...

... to suggest what the backstory on this photo might be. Gypsy? Native costume? Musician? Tambourines??

Via When You Get To The Heart Use Knife and Fork.

Update Nov 2009: The Cyrillic was deciphered by TYWKIWDBI visitors in September, but today Pep Armengol made a very interesting observation in the Comments, noting the resemblance of this lady's outfit to that of the "Lady of Elche" - a stone bust found in Spain in 1897 and presumed to be Iberian art work from the 4th century B.C. Coincidence? Or was this lady's headdress modeled on some ancient tradition? Photo below.

Socotra "dragon trees"

Thoroughly surreal, and totally new to me. I even had to look up where Socotra was. Another tree shown here.

Photo credit to Edoardo Scepi, via Electric Orchids.

Light Echoes

In a light echo, light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant rings in the complex array of ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros), while the light echo above spans about six light years in diameter.

I don't quite understand the science (which is further explained at Astronomy Picture of the Day); blogged primarily because of the beauty of the image. Click photo to enlarge.

Alfred Russel Wallace's cabinet

TYWKIWDBI has a particular affinity for stories about "cabinets of curiosities." These "Wunderkammer" were storehouses of interesting things, and were particularly popular in the Victorian era. One of the great Victorian naturalists was Alfred Russel Wallace, discoverer of Wallace's Line in the East Indies. Today Discovery News featured an article about Wallace's personal collections cabinet.

Today marks the 150th anniversary of Darwin's seminal work, On the Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection. It is therefore fitting that the American Museum of Natural History has just unveiled Wallace's cabinet, which is now on display in the museum's Grand Gallery. It's a stunning piece, made of fine-crafted rosewood. The exterior, however, is no match for the interior. Nearly two thousand sorted and labeled beetles, moths and plants fill its drawers.

I've included a photo of a sample drawer of moths. Other photos at the link show drawers of butterflies, beetles, shells, and seeds.

The "strangest cities" in the United States

Someone at a company called Tableseed analysed all the Associated Press "strange news" stories that were released in the past year. The state with the greatest number of such stories was Florida, followed by New Hamshire (?) and Alaska.

The top ten cities yielding strange stories were...

1) New York City, NY
2) Lincoln, NE
3) Madison, WI
4) Philadelphia, PA
5) Chicago, IL
6) Cinncinnati, OH
7) Boston, MA
8) Detroit, MI
9) Dallas, TX
10) Pittsburgh, PA

The full dataset includes the ranking of 51 states (I'm very surprised that Kentucky came in 51st) and 75 cities. It's meaningless, of course - but you'll probably want to check where your state and city rank...

Via Within the Crainium.

Impressive meteor captured on video

"A streaking fireball briefly illuminated parts of the Utah sky to daylight-level conditions early Wednesday. Surveillance video from an observatory shows a blinding flash of light at 12:07 a.m., followed by clear images of the object."

Via NAACAL.

Oxford names a common room "Gryffindore"

The student body voted on Sunday to pass a motion renaming the house after JK Rowling's equivalent at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

It is the first time Magdalen College Junior Common Room has changed its name during its 550 year history.

Students are now campaigning to rename Christ Church, St Hughs and Merton colleges common rooms after the three other houses in Hogwarts; Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.