Brain Drain

I ran into this article today in USA Today (hey, it's a shit news papaer, but the hotel leaves it at my door every morning). "More of World's Talented Workers Opt to Leave USA." I wonder why that is? (Before you think I am 100% serious, read the last paragraph of this blog first...)

For a long time, we were a world leader in science and technology. We could kick anyone's ass when it came to innovation, REAL science, and technology. Then McCarthyism and religious indoctrination started hitting our young. When those young started to get into the arena of reality, we saw a bit of a shift in the USA's position for science and technology. We were still the best, but now we were importing as much talent as we made ourselves. Other countries lamented that their best and brightest were heading off to the USA to make their dreams come true. We of course didn't mind.

Then introduce the funamentalization of the US. Now we can't even educate our children about the universe and things going on around them because we get distracted with the religious nutbags that insist the world is 6000 years old, and nothing like evolution ever happened, or will happen. Despite the irrifutable mountains of evidence to the contrary. These people who think they live in the 21st century insist on adhereing to Bronze Age myths and fables, and in the process distract themselves and policy makers from the actual goal of cultivating thinkers. It's no wonder that the US is one of the most illiterate developed nations in the world. Or that we have all the other social ills attached to religion running rampant through our society.

Smart people are abandoning ship if they have the opportunity to do so. I know that I seriously considered emmigrating to another country upon retirement from the Military. Thankfully I am now settled in one of the most secular states of the nation. I barely ever see one of those stupid fucking jebus fish on cars. People I meet here don't discuss their religiosity if they are religious (they have the common sense to keep it where it belongs!). And in general, people are a whole lot more intelligent here! Sorry bible belt folks. You are the epitome of the seven deadly sins anyway, and I'm glad to be away from your hypocritical influences.

Okay, so I am stretching correlations and causations in this whole entry, I will admit that freely. :) But come on, doesn't it make a lot of sense in the context of so many individual bits of data?

High-Speed Robot Hand Demonstrates Dexterity and Skillful Manipulation

This is just too cool! I give it to you with minimal text or alteration. I suggest just watching the video, and leave it at that:

A few blogs are passing around videos of the Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. However, the video being passed around is slight on details. Meanwhile, their video presentation at ICRA 2009 (which took place in May in Kobe, Japan) has an informative narration and demonstrates additional capabilities. I have included this video below, which shows the manipulator dribbling a ping-pong ball, spinning a pen, throwing a ball, tying knots, grasping a grain of rice with tweezers, and tossing / re-grasping a cellphone!

Here is the video:

Based on the video, the hand uses high-speed actuators with harmonic drive gears. The hand can close in 1/10th of a second! Personally, I find the tweezers grasping the grain of rice the most entertaining -- very anthropomorphic.

If you'd like to learn more about this (and other) robots from the Ishikawa Komuro Lab, see their website.