Joined: 18 Jan 2004 Posts: 851 Location: USA Country:
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:30 am Post subject:
Yes I heard about that one this week on TV news. I accept all things that have no explanation when the outcome is good. there are definitely guardian angels. I have seen mine and one of them was always sitting behind the passenger seat when ever I drove the car. I just loved my Lexus but I had to give up driving last December because of vision failing, I used to wonder if any of them were Asian since all of the humans who helped me over the past seven years have all been Asian except for the one surgeon.
The technician who came to fix my TV yesterday was also Chinese/Viet and we got along well since his mother who is Chinese, also loves all the Asian dramas.
Joined: 18 Jan 2004 Posts: 851 Location: USA Country:
Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 1:50 am Post subject:
I watched this all he way through. Such an inspiration to see the uplifted strength in this young man. Don't tell me he does not have guardian angels all around him plus his own strong spirit.
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:24 pm Post subject:
A Florida man woke up with a severe headache and asked his wife to drive him to a hospital, where doctors found a bullet lodged behind his right ear.
"The nurse looked at him and said, 'It appears that you've been shot,'" the Fort Pierce Tribune quoted St Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara as saying.
"And he said, 'No way.'"
The man's wife, April Moylan, fled the emergency room when the bullet was discovered but later told deputies she had accidentally shot her husband as he slept early on Tuesday.
She was jailed on a weapons violation charge while deputies pursued additional charges.
The husband, 45-year-old Michael Moylan, woke up with a head pain so severe he suspected he was having an aneurism and asked his wife to take him to the emergency room.
Police arrested the wife after obtaining a search warrant and finding a gun and bloody rags in the couple's home near the Atlantic coastal town of Port St Lucie.
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12121 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 7:44 pm Post subject:
Congratulations Eve!! Looks like you're married to a millionaire.
All Norwegians become millionaires in oil saving landmark
OSLO (Reuters) - Everyone in Norway became a theoretical crown millionaire on Wednesday in a milestone for the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund that has ballooned thanks to high oil and gas prices.
Set up in 1990, the fund owns around 1 percent of the world's stocks, as well as bonds and real estate from London to Boston, making the Nordic nation an exception when others are struggling under a mountain of debts.
A preliminary counter on the website of the central bank, which manages the fund, rose to 5.11 trillion crowns ($828.66 billion), fractionally more than a million times Norway's most recent official population estimate of 5,096,300.
It was the first time it reached the equivalent of a million crowns each, central bank spokesman Thomas Sevang said.
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 5:20 pm Post subject:
An advanced robotic arm for amputees that can perform complex tasks has been approved for sale in the United States.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it has allowed the sale of the DEKA Arm System - dubbed Luke for the Star Wars character Luke Skywalker - after reviewing data, including a US Department of Veterans Affairs study.
The study found 90 per cent of people who used the device were able to perform complex tasks that involved multiple, simultaneous movements.
These include using keys and locks, feeding themselves, using zippers and brushing and combing hair.
The prosthetic arm is controlled by electrodes that pick up muscle contractions in the wearer to send signals to a computer in the device.
It was developed by New Hampshire-based DEKA Research and Development Corp, founded by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway and other devices.
The Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) says it provided more than $42 million in funding to DEKA to develop the robotic arm as part of a $106 million project to improve prosthetics.
The Pentagon's involvement came about because of the type of injuries sustained by US troops in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The Pentagon says more than 1,800 US service members underwent major limb amputations as a result of injuries sustained in those wars.
A program manager in DARPA's biological technologies office, Justin Sanchez, says the arm was designed to produce near-natural upper extremity control to injured people who have suffered amputations.
"This arm system has the same size, weight, shape and grip strength as an adult's arm would be able to produce," he said.
Mr Sanchez says that until now the best technology available to troops and others who have lost an arm is a metal hook.
"The metal hook was the most commonly used prosthetic device for the last hundred years," he said.
"This prosthetic limb system can pick up objects as delicate as a grape, as well be able to handle very rugged tools like a hand drill."
The FDA says the robotic arm could be used by people with limb loss occurring at the shoulder joint, mid-upper arm or mid-lower arm, but not at the elbow or wrist joint.
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 2:48 am Post subject:
Japan has unveiled the world's first "emotional" humanoid robot that can communicate and read people's emotions.
The bug-eyed 120-centimetre tall robot, called Pepper, uses an emotional engine and cloud-based artificial intelligence system that allows it to analyse gestures, expressions and voice tones.
The robot can learn and "understand" human facial expressions and emotions.
Japanese firm SoftBank, which developed the robot, says it can communicate with family members, perform domestic tasks or care for the elderly.
"Pepper is not yet perfect, but he can already understand about 70 to 80 per cent of spontaneous conversations," SoftBank president Masayoshi Son said.
"Pepper could become a very good friend and a powerful tutor for a child, for example.
"He could learn about a family over several years ... and actually become a member of the family."
The robot is also expected to be used by businesses looking to offset labour shortages and rising wage costs.
It was developed by French robot maker Aldebaran Robotics and would be manufactured by Taiwan's Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple.
The robot will sell for about $2,000 and will be on the market from February next year.
Mr Son said the robot may also eventually take on a customer-service role at SoftBank stores, and will start greeting customers at two Tokyo outlets from Friday.
72 years later, former internment camp detainee graduates
Fond memories come to mind when Don Miyada looks back on his days at Newport Harbor High School.
The now-retired, 89-year-old Westminster resident still remembers the classes he took and the camaraderie of his classmates. However, there's one photo missing from his scrapbook: graduation.
Miyada was pulled from his classes at the Newport Harbor high school in May 1942 �\ a month shy of his commencement �\ and was sent, along with his family, to an internment camp in Arizona, the Daily Pilot reported.
The then-17-year-old was one of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans confined to internment camps shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II.
Miyada remembers hearing the news that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed Executive Order No. 9066 that said those of Japanese decent must be detained in the camps.
"I never thought it would actually happen," he said. "Being a citizen of the United States and taking civics classes, it surprised me that they were able to declare someone an enemy alien just with the sweep of a pen."
Although he earned his diploma by completing work while in the internment camp, he never donned the iconic high school graduation cap and gown.
On Thursday, though, Miyada is getting the chance to rewrite his own history, joining Newport Harbor's class of 2014 as they walk across the stadium to collect their diplomas.
"[Boulton] found a copy of the program from what would have been my graduation and my name was on there," Miyada said. "I wasn't able to attend, but my name was there anyway. It was very emotional."
Boulton invited him to walk with the 560 Newport Harbor seniors at graduation Thursday.
Miyada is looking forward to making one more memory at Newport Harbor.
"It's their time to graduate and their time of honor," he said of the graduates. "I'm happy they invited me to be one of them."
After two years in the internment camp, Miyada was released and moved to Michigan.
In April 1944, he was drafted to the military.
"I originally picked the Navy because I thought maybe I might see some of my fellow students and graduates of Newport Harbor, but they went through the form and put me in the Army," he said.
After serving in Europe, Miyada returned to the United States and began attending college, eventually earning a doctorate in chemistry from Michigan State University.
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:07 am Post subject:
A Japanese fashion label is using zoo animals to create designer jeans to raise funds for wildlife conservation.
The popular worn-out look of the jeans is custom-made by throwing denim-covered tyres and giant rubber balls into the enclosures of lions, tigers and bears.
The animals chew and distress the fabric which is then sewn into jeans and sold.
The Zoo Jeans project is the initiative of the Mineko Club, a volunteer group of zoo supporters partnered with at Kamine Zoo in Hitachi City.
The jeans are on display at the Kamine Zoo until July 21 and three pairs of jeans are being auctioned online to raise funds for the zoo and World Wildlife Fund.
The pair of jeans "Designed by Tigers" has raised \121,000 ($US1,190) as of Wednesday.
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12121 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:19 pm Post subject:
For those of you into irony:
George Harrison memorial tree killed by beetles
The pine tree planted in 2004 in memory of George Harrison in Los Angeles will need to be replanted because the original tree died as a result of insect infestation.
From the Los Angeles Times: "The memorial tree in Griffith Park had grown to more than 10 feet tall as of 2013, but LaBonge said the tree beetle onslaught was too much for the tree. Trees in Griffith Park have occasionally been the victims of bark beetles and ladybug beetles, among other tree-unfriendly creatures."
Harrison, who died in 2001, spent his final days in Los Angeles and because he was a noted gardener, the tree was planted in his memory.
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12121 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 6:43 pm Post subject:
Now we know why the guy smiled when he gave him a Vegemite sandwich.
Australia to limit Vegemite sales due to alcohol abuse
Australia's government says some communities should consider limiting the sale of the popular Vegemite spread because it is being used to make alcohol.
It says the yeast-based product is contributing to anti-social behaviour in some remote communities.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion described the salty spread as a "precursor to misery".
He said it was being bought in bulk to make moonshine.
Brewer's yeast is a key ingredient in the spread and is used in the production of beer and ale.
In communities where alcohol is banned because of addiction problems, Mr Scullion said Vegemite sales should also be restricted.
"Businesses in these communities... have a responsibility to report any purchase that may raise their own suspicions," he said.
The minister added that in some cases, children were failing to turn up to school because they were too hung-over, and that Vegemite was an increasingly common factor in domestic violence cases.
Vegemite started as a war-time substitute for Marmite, and is now something of an Australian culinary icon, says the BBC's Jon Donnison in Sydney.
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