Bertie Ahern’s foreign exchange shenanigans may well be the first major crisis for this government, but there’s little hope of him stepping down over it.
But as the storm clouds gather ahead of the Taoiseach’s next appearance before the Mahon Tribunal, Michael Nugent has come to the rescue with some welcome levity. I point you toward the Bert, Celia Larkin, Michael Wall and a briefcase of cash as Andy Warhol might have seen them.
Serj Tankian offers a look into his new album while playing the parts of interviewer, interviewee, four-piece band, label president and producer.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJZvwifqzCY[/youtube]
I’m not so sure about the video for his first single, “Empty Walls”. A bit too blunt with its politics, even if they are dressed up as children. Love the song though:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmmcV8MMT0A[/youtube]
So our brave boys in green have made a mess of things. The wave of optimism after the demolition of Denmark has crashed onto the shores of disappointment. Twenty offers an interesting multiple choice on the matter.
It’s a far cry from last week, when Stan Staunton and co were confident of four — perhaps even six — points from the games against Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Coming away with just one sucks donkey balls. Naive fool that I am I thought they’d beat Slovakia at least, but our great tradition of throwing a good result away by falling asleep in the final minutes reared its ugly head.
As the manager, Staunton has to take the fall (worth noting that before the matches he said losing was a “worst case scenario”). He was never the right man for the job, having no experience in management. While I applaud him for giving so many young players a chance to show what they can do at international level, but some of his selections have beggared belief. Why he has insisted on playing John O’Shea at right back and Steve Finnan (at most recently Steven Kelly) at left is nonsensical.
He’s got to go, even if ultimately the responsibility lies with the FAI for handing the job to someone unqualified. But as Eoghan asked while the travesty in Prague was played out, who do we replace him with?
Love it or hate it, Slate.com has taken a look at Dublin’s Spire (officially An Túr Solais, or Monument of Light), which it describes as “a modern monument that points up what’s wrong with the World Trade Center memorial”.
Japanese researchers hope robots will be the answer to coping with the nation’s aging population.
A vacuuming machine developed by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd is already cleaning floors in about 10 buildings around the country, including a 54-floor skyscraper in central Tokyo.
The device operates at night after office workers have gone home. It takes elevators to move from one floor to another.
Service robots are probably the most clichéd futurist vision, but the benefits are manifold. Industrial applications like the one above are only the start — it’s only natural researchers look into more domestic uses.
As Japan’s population grows older and its labor force shrinks, researchers say new types of robots will play a major role as there simply won’t be enough people to do these jobs.
“In the type of ageing society that we foresee, the situation will likely get to the point where there will be little choice but to get some help from them (robots),” said Isao Shimoyama, dean of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology.
Shimoyama’s group, which is working with the likes of Toyota and Fujistu, aims to have a new generation of the devices up and running within 15 years. Prototypes could be ready in as little as 18 months.
“They may look smart, but they are still quite stupid,” Shimoyama said. “I don’t think they will ever be as smart as humans.”
For a man who’s made robots his field of expertise, he doesn’t seem up to speed. Just a few days ago technologists and investors gathered at the Singularity Summit to discuss artificial intelligence and how to deal with machines that are smarter than humans.
Wendell Wallach predicted we are just years away “from a catastrophic disaster brought about by an autonomous computer system making a decision”. Skynet is what springs to my mind. Wallach specialises in bioethics, and has spoken about the creation of a robotic code of ethics. I could have sworn Asimov established that years ago:
Of course, a sufficiently advanced robot would be capable of overwriting its own programming — this would essentially mark its transition from object to sentience (though I would be willing to debate this).