This is a Hybrid BMW Mini One, but don't look for it on the market yet. BMW disavows any connection with the vehicle which is built—or more accurately rebuilt by PML Flightlink. PML has dubbed it the Mini QED. With PML in-wheel drive technology each wheel has it's own 160 horse electric motor for a total of 640 HP.

They start by striping the Mini One discarding the engine, disc brakes, wheels, and gearbox. These are replaced by four of the in-wheel electric drives, a lithium polymer battery, a large ultra capacitor, a very small a small conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) w/generator. They don't say what size the engine is other than it's really small (less than 1/10th of the original Mini One engine). That's probably because it get used very little for driving, and mostly to recharge the batteries which have an "all-electric range of 200-250 miles."

Treehugger has more details and specifications.



Also a lot more at WorldCarFans.com.

Last night while working at the computer and watching the Discovery channel (I have a PC-TV card), I noticed this guy was going to parachute into a corvette convertible traveling at 70 MPH, so of course I captured it.

They call it "swooping," because they drop fast then when they pick up enough speed they level off and use the speed horizontally, sometimes less than a foot above ground. He made it just barely on the third attemp and was almost a little late. Which of course is better than landing in front of the car as he did in practice. The driver was barely able to slow and swerve to miss him.



Actually the car hardly qualifies as a convertible with the rear back a solid top. It's probably almost like trying to drop into a sun roof.

Update: I uploaded the clip to YouTube to increase the size a little, and also because it wasn't playing well with some browsers.

Today we find robots for just about anything from toys to assisting with care for the elderly and sick. Now however journalists may have a legitimate reason for concern.


Hmmm, wonder if I could get a program to blog for me? ...Just a couple days a week.

Some scientists believe with the possibility of natural disasters, some that could even destroy much of the earth we need a backup plan.

The violin hasn't been a favorite instrament... well maybe not until now. After listening to Vanessa Mae bring the violin to life in a whole new way I'm hooked. She plays just about every genre of music; classical, pop, rock, techno and reggae to name a few, often mixing two or more music genres in a beautiful new way.

She played with the Philharmonie Orchestra when she was ten, and began her popular professional life at sixteen. Maybe it's a bit overmuch to post three of her videos but they are all so good it was tough just to cut it down this far.

This is my favorite. It sounds rather like classical but with a disco beat (a favorite genre).













Here is a list of her videos on YouTube, unfortunately some people remix and upload her music with their own videos (like Saturday morning cartoons). Then take a look at Vanessa Mae's website and read her success story.

Pork barrel spending has been much in the forefront lately. There is a bill in the Senate to create a searchable database of federal contracts, grant, or other awards of $25,000 or more.

However there is an anonymous Senator who has put a "hold" on a final vote. A hold is an informal Senate practice that permits any senator to delay a final vote simply by informing the majority leader of his or her desire to do so. This originally was done only with nominees to allow a senator gather more information to help in deciding how to vote. In recent years it also being used to block legislation.

This isn't sitting well with the blogosphere. Many are writing their Senators and asking if they are the one blocking the bill. Paul Kiel at TMPmuckraker has a running tally of Senators who have indicated that they are not the one using the "hold." Presently as I write this the 86 Senators claim that they are NOT the secret holder.

H/T Dean Esmay who wonders if it's his Senators who hold the hold... I repeat myself.

Daniel Finkelstein does the "Math" on Terrorism.

Army Corps not confident with levee repairs while Gov Blanco says state officials are keeping an eye on Ernesto.

Stick of dynamite was found in a college student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight.

Online merchants cashing in after the far-out-rock Pluto gets the boot demoting it from planethood.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent charged with espionage in a Sudanese court.

U.S. diplomat charged with taking bribes for visas.

The next generation of cancer therapy new novel treatments.

Ray Kurzweil has an article in the September Polular Science about "The Future of Robots." The article was interesting as anything about Robotics usually is as far as I am concerned. What really drew my eye though was a photo essay by Eric Mika (click on "View Photos") which has a Robot with vocal cords, lungs, and a tongue.

Why did this stand out especially? Well at one time I had wanted to build exactly that but only the speech aspect of it. Well at least I did until it became apparent that—although I wasn't daunted by the complity of the task—it was going to cost way more than I could ever think to afford this speech system, even without the rest of the robot. My contention was that a robot speaking through a speaker was a silly idea and that the voice should be naturally produced in a similar manner as ours.

Anyway Atsuo Takanishi and one of his Ph.D. students at a University in Tokyo has brought my idea to fruitation. They built the WT-6 working model pictured below which has uncannily clear human like speech. Note the rubber face necessary for resonance and clarity, and piston lungs. My lungs (as designed but never built) instead were to be run by a bellows similar to that used to flame a fireplace.




The most interesting aspect of my short lived endeavor was that I learned some interesting mechanics about human speech. Like the relationship between many groups of consonants (which is the reason for the groupings below). The reason they are gouped together is because mechanically they are formed exaclty the same (i. e. B,P and M). More on that in a bit, but it obviously made it possible to reduce my mechanical alphabet to less than a dozen sounds. Sounds that can be modified with simple timing as you will see, plus the C and Q used in English speech are not used in mechanical speech. For example cow would be kow, and queen would be kueen, and as strange as that may look it would be a much more appropriate way to spell them.

This is the short mechanical alphabet sans-vowels (and I hope I have it right because I dicarded my old work on this project years ago and this was qickly rehashed). Those in () are produced identically except for timing conciderations. Note that the sounds not grouped are those that either use little or no tongue or lips, or do not block air flow when spoken as the others do.

B (P-M)
D (T-N)
F (V)
G (K)
H (X)
J (SH-CH)
L
R
S (Z)
W
Y

All vowels and variations of them use identical mechanics regarless of the consonants they are used with and don't need to be concidered for the purpose of this explanation. Here is how it works, concider the following sentence:

"Ted was dead after a beating from Ned."

Three words in that sentence all start with a sound that is produced (mechanically) in an identical manner except for one slight modification. Those words are Ted Dead and Ned, or more precisely the consonants t, d and n. Repeat the three words in a monotone and see if you can catch what the difference is.

For illustration lets forget most of the mechanics and reduce it to just three parts.
1. Expelling air. (harsh or soft out of the lungs)
2. Modulation. (causing the vocal cords to vibrate)
3. Tongue release point. (and timing between 1&2 plus directing through nose or mouth)

The only difference in the t, d and n in our example is the "timing" relationship between these, and whether the released sound is through the nose, mouth, or switched between them after the sound starts.

In Ted the air starts expelling "before" the vocal cords start to vibrate causing the 't' sound. In Dead the vocal cords start to vibrate simultaneously as the air begins to expell. Ned is trickier but still the vocal cords and air are simultaneous but you hold your tongue in place for a short moment causing the air to be muffled as it is directed partially through the nose. The latter becomes more obvious by holding your nose while saying our three words. The word Ned is muffled and you can feel the pressure.

Not convinced? Try sounding out the rest that are grouped.

be be pe pe me me
de de te te ne ne
fe fe ve ve
go go ko ko
ja ja sha sha cha cha
se se ze ze

Well I suppose that by now I've bored some of you to near frustration, but I found all of this interesting at the time I worked on it, and wanted to share some of it.

Ann Althouse, Law Professor at the UW of Madison has a piece in The NY Time fisking Judge Taylor's Opinion as "A Law Unto Herself."


Is it a conflict of interest that the judge is a trustee of an organization who makes big contributions to the ACLU when she rules in their favor? This from Judicial Watch.


More at Althouse blog. (H/T Just One Minute)

Dictionary.com has always been one of my favorite tools. Now it not only has a new look but a very useful addition of reference tools as well.

When it comes to music I have to say that piano music is by far my favorite. Many years ago we used to go to a piano bar in San Francisco. We would often sit until closing time, or no one wanted to play anymore.

Although it was over 40 years ago (but I date myself) watching this clip brings back memories so vivid I can see the old black Grand piano where it sat between the bar and table area; the pianists drink siting on the corner.




H/T Jib who recomends: Make sure you have a drink at the ready before hitting the play button. I agree, this is brandy sipping music.

Update: If you want to sing along here are the lyrics: Originally by Billy Joel 1973. The pianist in this well directed clip is shown as Bill Martin.

Its nine oclock on a saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
Theres an old man sitting next to me
Makin love to his tonic and gin

He says, son, can you play me a memory?
Im not really sure how it goes
But its sad and its sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger mans clothes

La la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

Chorus:
Sing us a song, youre the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, were all in the mood for a melody
And youve got us feelin alright

Now john at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And hes quick with a joke or to light up your smoke
But theres someplace that hed rather be
He says, bill, I believe this is killing me.
As the smile ran away from his face
Well Im sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

Now paul is a real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
And hes talkin with davy whos still in the navy
And probably will be for life

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessmen slowly get stoned
Yes, theyre sharing a drink they call loneliness
But its better than drinkin alone

Chorus

Its a pretty good crowd for a saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
cause he knows that its me theyve been comin to see
To forget about life for a while
And the piano, it sounds like a carnival
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, man, what are you doin here?

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

Chorus

Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Some really funny sarcasm, parody and humorous misinformation.

Via Dean.

It is hard to understand how anyone with an income of $160,000 a year could be elgible for low income housing. The reason becomes more clear when you reallize that Santa Barbara, California is a rich mans city, and rich cities need police, firemen, and nurses just like any other normal city.

Being a rich city I imagine that they also pay them well above the average rate for most other cities across the country. So these people aren't poor, they are just middle class income people priced out of the home market.

The conundrum is that the city has used it's last vacant lot and the median home price is $1.2 million. (Wouldn't you like to have bought some of that land a few decades ago). These condominiums are proposed to sell for $495,000 to $595,000.


Still I have a hard time working up much sympathy. There are other remedies for civil servants like police and firemen. Like allowing them to live outside the city and commute. Other middle class workers can already do the same.

Santa Barbara may be one of the richer cities, but much of California has a similar problem, which is probably why only fringe areas are growing. Cities like Oakland, Los Angles and Berkley are losing population. In fact if I'm not mistaken the state as a whole is losing population.

H/T The World According to Nick

Well I always though I enjoyed an interesting grain of pretty wood, but I guess guys look at wood differently... at least this author who calls his page of wood-grain photos "WOOD PORN."

Ah! that must be why the lower trunk is called the "butt log." I do have to admit though that some of the wood-grain pictures are very pretty.

For wood lovers only by Sam Talarico of Talarico Hardwoods.

Via Owen

A Claude Debussy quote says:

Art is the most beautiful deception of all. And although people try to incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory.

Well sometimes we can reverse the art and deception as well as the direction of incorporation. That is to say that deception can be the most beautiful art of all, and incorporated into everyday life.


Here is an example, and in this case a dangerous one:

No computer, internet access, copy/fax machine, cell phone (or any phone), nor news, TV or satellite. This is the life of an independent Journalist in Cuba. All he has is an old Smith Corona with the "n" and "r" missing, and a few scraps of brittle old and yellow paper. His ribbon has long run out of ink, but he make do with shoe pollish that is also running low.


Where is the outrage from the mainstream media? They are there too, but in order to stay have to trade off truth for security.


Please click the link above, this is a must-read in it's entirety article.

Thanks Dean

If this wasn't a serious matter it would be downright hilarious.


Well I guess if a "call for the use of force" cannot be offensive then they can only shoot back if fired upon (assuming they are even allowed to carry ammo). Hezbollah has to be grinning like crocodiles. How would they stop a rocket attack, or any other attack for that matter on Israel without an "offensive" engagement? Apparently they won't, but I'm sure that they will instead draw up another resolution of condemnation against Israel for enticing Hezbollah to fire at them.


That last long sentence is a bit fuzzy but appears to say that the goal of "take all necessary action" is done by supporting the Lebanese army in "humanitarian efforts." I don't suppose "humanitarian efforts" would include them shooting at Hezbollah while doing offensive acts like shooting at people.


While the record of past UN Peace Keepers is mixed at best, some still hold out for a better performance.


Hopes for France and Italy may be a little premature. So far France only has a force of 200 troops in Lebanon but has now commited to a measly total of 400, and Italy has promised to send more troops, but I don't look for any substantial numbers there either.

I'll give this a week or two to degenerate into total confusion as far as the new UN peacekeeping force. That would be the force that will be "robust but not offensive."

The Montreal International AIDS conference started yesterday and runs through Friday. For what it's worth the Kaiser Family Foundation website is carrying the goings on.

Sunday opening session (in podcast, video, or .pdf).

Guide to the daily webcast.

Interviews by the Kaiser Family Foundation's Jackie Judd.

Michael Geiger has a first day report from a HIV Dissenter’s point of view. (Via Dean)

I like animals, especially the smarter ones. One of the smartest is probably the parrot. While this routine is more training that intelligence, I have seen demonstrations where parrots can pick out colors, objects and faces.

Josh Blue this years winner happens to be one of the funniest stand-up comedians I have seen for a long time. Josh lives with cerebral palsy but uses a self-deprecating sense of humor to—as he puts it—to "defy stereotypes and encourage others to overcome their pre-conceived notions about disabled people."

Here is Josh Blue's winning final performance.




Another great LCS performance by Josh Blue.


You can find more laughs of Josh as well as other comedians that competed in the LCS at NBC.

The United Kingdom's threat level was raised to the highest level of "critical" (indicates the likelihood of an imminent terrorist attack) when police disrupted a major plot to blow up planes in mid-flight.



Confusion and disorder will likely prevail at airports due to strict security measures. All passengers will be allowed only a wallet, travel documents and bare essentials in a plastic bag, and must be hand searched. Footwear and items carried in their plastic bag must be X-rayed.

More to follow as details become available.

Dennis Miller is joining FOX as a contributor to "Hannity & Colmes" this Fall. Oh no! I always liked Dennis and hate to see him joining a couple of loosers like these guys.

H/T Wizbang