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SkeptiNews 990521a - - - - - - - - - - - All The News That's Fit To Question
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# Entrepreneur Jim Benson of Space Development Corp. is the apparent leader
of the movement to strip-mine whatever celestial objects he can get his rob-
otic claws into. Benson plans to make up to $70 million a year by prospect-
ing ore from asteroids. "We will... 'own' that body," said Benson, who can't
wait to usher in the era of "private property in space" as his firm becomes
"the Standard Oil of space." Envision someone seizing the recently discover-
ed lunar ice "at gunpoint." www.latimes.com/excite/990519/t000044752.html
: EARTH FIRST! WE'LL STRIP-MINE THE OTHER PLANETS LATER! Which astral bodies
would you like to devastate? For fun or profit or both? Will humans struggle
over orbital 'turf' with Reptilioids, Republicans, divinities, space fleas?
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# No safety in numbers for clones. (BBC) The safety of cloning is under
investigation in labs around the world with scientists concerned at the
high rate of deaths and deformities in copied animals.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_348000/348978.stm
# GM could 'impoverish poor farmers'. (BBC) A UK development charity
says agrochemical firms should study their products' economic impact
on developing countries before starting to sell them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_348000/348947.stm
: Are cloning and genetic modifications too unstable economically? Will
capitalism evolve past the point where biological tampering is profitable?
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# Cyborg Seeks Community. The originator of a remarkable wearable computing
system tells of his lonely years as a Mann/machine, and his quest for a
cyber-collective. http://www.techreview.com/articles/may99/mann.htm
# 'Artificial muscles' made from nanotubes. (BBC) "Artificial muscles"
have been made from millions of carbon nanotubes but are more likely to
harness wave power than create bionic humans. Or so they say:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_348000/348915.stm
# Seeing is Believing. Artificial vision is within sight as the silicon
retina moves from proof-of-principle to prototype device. Another step
towards Borg-dom: http://www.techreview.com/articles/may99/chase.htm
: Would you rather be human, cyborg, gene-spliced, hybridized? Can/should
you be improved? Would you rather be improved by Reptilioids, Republicans,
deities, demons, physicians, geneticists, programmers, deprogrammers, me?
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# Japan's Friendly Robots. In Japan, a cartoon inspired a generation of
engineers to make machines that look - and act - human. Friendly humanoid
robots: http://www.techreview.com/articles/may99/johnstone.htm
@ Links: Science University of Tokyo http://www.sut.ac.jp/
@ Omron Pet Robot Site http://www.petrobo.com/english/e-index.html
@ Honda P-3 Android www.honda.co.jp/english/technology/robot/index.html
@ Takanori Shibata's Page at MITI's Mechanical Engineering Lab
http://www.mel.go.jp/soshiki/robot/biorobo/shibata/shibata.html
@ Waseda University Humanoid Project www.shirai.info.waseda.ac.jp/humanoid/
@ Mighty Atom Site http://www.well.com/user/dragster/mightyatom.html
@ Android World (many links to robot sites) http://www.androidworld.com/
@ Ragman's Robotics Links http://www.euronet.nl/users/ragman/link_64.html
@ Robotics Information Page, University of Massachusetts
http://www-robotics.cs.umass.edu/robotics.html
@ Prof. Rodney Brooks, MIT http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/brooks/brooks.html
: Do you prefer robots to be friendly or unfriendly, humanoid or inhuman,
smart or dumb, happy or sad, tasty or tasteless, loud or quiet, good or bad?
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SkeptiShorts
# The science of Star Wars. Could the science fiction of Star Wars become
the technology of tomorrow? A mathematician and astrophysicist explores &
explains: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/990519/2616351.html
# DOES GREEN SKIN GET ACNE? Aliens on TV? Hot. High school? Hotter. Say
hello to Roswell, TV's first extraterrestrial-adolescent angst hybrid. The
drama, to be beamed by The WB network Wednesday nights this fall, is about
ETeensomethings trying to fit in after their craft crashes in Roswell, New
Mexico. Gag me with an implant: www.canoe.ca/Television/may19_new.html
# Dances with Machines. Interactive artist David Rokeby explores the
ambiguous borders between ourselves and our mechanical servants (or
masters). http://www.techreview.com/articles/may99/zacks.htm
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SkeptiLinks:
# Irish Get Free Viagra, But Only Four A Month:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990520/10/odd-viagra
# Chocolates Good For Your Heart - Cocoa Group:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990520/10/odd-chocolate
# Females may be able to shape the evolution of their mates to suit
their fancy: http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990515/nshorts.html#16
# Canada Top Court Expands Gay Rights In Alimony Case:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990520/16/international-canada-homosexuals
# Some NASA Computers Easy Prey For Hackers:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990521/00/news-space-nasa
# New Russia PM Bans Mobile Phones At Cabinet Meets:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/990520/10/odd-russiaphones
# CPR for the Artificial Heart. Once branded a mechanical Dracula, it's
set to be revived: http://www.techreview.com/articles/may99/regalado.htm
# Moon, Earth due for close encounter. They call it a case of maximum
perigean syzygy. http://www.herald.com/content/sat/docs/011317.htm
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"Groped thoroughly, Laurel Desmond cast her eyes over the magnificent
scenery of the historic Pacific Northwest and also studied the tall,
sandy-haired man with mocking eyes who'd accosted her only after knocking
her onto the imported Persian rug in front of the hotel desk, then met
her trembling lips with a fulfilling kiss that demonstrated to her that
the manners of a pushy man varied inversely with his ability to divine
her every secret physical desire, nestled deeply within her heaving breast
where no other man had ever been able to probe." --Patricia Lu Pillot
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