RISE OF THE ROBOTS: Saya, the cyber receptionist

When she failed to welcome a workman who had just walked by, a professor Hiroshi Kobayashi, her inventor, stormed up to Saya and said:
"You're so stupid!" , towering over her desk.

"Eh?" she responded, her face wrinkling into a scowl. "I tell you, I am not stupid!"
"I almost feel like she's a real person," said Kobayashi, an associate professor at the Tokyo University of Science . "She has a temper ... and she sometimes makes mistakes, especially when she has low energy," the professor said.

Saya's wrath is the latest sign of the rise of the robot. Analysts say Japan is leading the world in a new generation of consumer robots. The latest models, such as Saya, were demonstrated at the World Expo opening just outside Nagoya on March 25.
Though perhaps years away in the United States, this long-awaited, as-seen-on-TV world -- think "The Jetsons" or "Blade Runner" -- is already unfolding in Japan, with robots now used as receptionists, night watchmen, hospital workers, guides, pets and more. The onslaught of new robots led the government last month to establish a committee to draw up safety guidelines for the keeping of robots in homes and offices. Officials compiled a report in January predicting that every household in Japan will own at least one robot by 2015, perhaps sooner.

Ubiko, the robot that will put you out of work

TOKYO - Company rents out robot as temp worker. It can greet people, show DVDs and hand out balloons. "Ubiko," a robot-on-wheels with a catlike face, is joining the crew of temporary workers supplied by a Japanese job-referral company to stores, events and even weddings.

Next month, the 44-inch tall robot will be selling mobile phones at a store, said Akiko Sakurai, a spokeswoman at the company, Ubiquitous Exchange.

Ubiko can be hired as a temporary worker for two hours for 105,000 yen, or $890.

"We see this as serious business. There are jobs that robots are better at," Sakurai said Wednesday. "People do develop an attachment with the robot, and it's lovable."

The $255,000 robot, which comes a camera and infared sensors, greets customers with a nasal electronic voice, shows DVDs with a projector in its head and hands out balloons and other goods with wireless remote-controllable arms, she said.

Ubiko is short for "ubiquitous computing" and "ubiquitous company" but also sounds like a Japanese female name, which often end with "ko."

Tmsuk, the Japanese manufacturer that makes the robot, sold three last month to a hospital, where they are working as full-time, rather than temporary, receptionists and guides, said company spokeswoman Rie Sudo.
One of the hospital's robots serves as a receptionist and has been programmed to greet visitors. It also has a touch-panel on its body, and visitors can use it to get directions for where they want to go.

"Just give it electricity, and a robot can work for long hours, even doing repetitive work, and you don't have to worry about labor laws," Sudo said.

Japan's declining birth rate means that in coming years it could face a labor shortage, and some experts believe that robots could be part of the solution to that problem.
Robots are very popular in Japan partly because of the popularity of "manga" comics and animation that portray robots as friends and aides to humans.

Jagshemash!!!

Dugo očekivani film Sacha Baron Cohen-a je najzad stigao u bioskope. Mi Nišlije nemamo neke normalne bioskope a boga mi ni bioskop (verujem da je slična situacija i u Kazahstanu), tako da ja čekam nekog pristojnog pirata, zvuči neverovatno ali ne nisam jos gledao film! Svejedno, Borat me je osvojio još pri prvom appearance-u u Da Ali G Show-u na MTV-u i drugde. Film je odmah napravio haos i sad svi pričaju o Saši Baronu ili ga tuže što je i bio njegov cilj. Ja stvarno ne vidim čemu tolika frka. Šta, vladama je dozvoljeno da zajebavaju narod ali ne i obratno?! Iako izgleda kao totalni lunitik, Saša je izuzetno inteligentna osoba koja i sada kad je napravio međunarodni incident tera dalje zajebanciju i dalje ih loži. Po meni on više ismeva glupe Amerikance nego grdne Kazahstance i nema ni trunke respekta prema bilo kojoj instituciji ni vladi. Ko još nije čuo za Borata ne sme propustiti ovaj film pre nego što ga zabrane. Sledi tekst "Kazahstanske himne" koja je lajtmotiv filma:



"KAZAKHSTAN GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
ALL OTHER COUNTRIES ARE RUN BY LITTLE GIRLS.
KAZAKHSTAN NUMBER ONE EXPORTER OF POTASSIUM.
OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE INFERIOR POTASSIUM.

KAZAKHSTAN HOME OF TINSHEIN SWIMMING POOL.
IT’S LENGTH THIRTY METER AND WIDTH SIX METER.
FILTRATION SYSTEM A MARVEL TO BEHOLD.
IT REMOVE 80 PERCENT OF HUMAN SOLID WASTE.

KAZAKHSTAN, KAZAKHSTAN YOU VERY NICE PLACE.
FROM PLAINS OF TARASHEK TO NORTHER FENCE OF JEWTOWN.
KAZAKHSTAN FRIEND OF ALL EXCEPT UZBEKISTAN.
THEY VERY NOSEY PEOPLE WITH BONE IN THEIR BRAIN.
KAZAKHSTAN INDUSTRY BEST IN THE WORLD.
WE INCENTED TOFFEE AND TROUSER BELT.
KAZAKHSTAN’S PROSTITUTES CLEANEST IN THE REGION.
EXCEPT OF COURSE TURKMENISTAN’S

KAZAKHSTAN, KAZAKHSTAN YOU VERY NICE PLACE.
FROM PLAINS OF TARASHEK TO NORTHER FENCE OF JEWTOWN.

COME GRASP THE MIGHT PHENIS OF OUR LEADER.
FROM JUNCTION WITH THE TESTES TO TIP OF ITS FACE!"

DEATH BY HANGING

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Many Iraqis reacted with jubilation to Saddam Hussein's death sentence Sunday, while others took to the streets in protest. The Interior Ministry closed two Sunni satellite TV stations accused of inciting sectarian violence. Iraqi police and soldiers ordered the employees of First Channel [Zawra] and Salaheddin TV to leave their offices in Tikrit, Hussein's hometown. There have been no reports of widespread violence, and the measure to close the two TV networks is largely precautionary. A complete movement ban -- both people and vehicles -- was imposed on Sunday in the provinces of Baghdad, Diyala and Salaheddin, where Tikrit is located.
The former Iraqi dictator and six subordinates were convicted and sentenced for the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town Dujail after an attempt on his life there. Saddam said those who were killed had been found guilty in a legitimate Iraqi court for trying to assassinate him in 1982.
Sunday's 50-minute court session was dramatic. Hussein entered with a Quran in hand, as he had in the past. He began shouting "Allahu Akhbar" -- God is great -- as the verdict and sentencing was read. He also argued with the chief judge and shouted, "Damn you and your court." As the judge ordered him taken away, Hussein said to one of the guards, "Don't push me, boy."
President Bush called the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law." "It's a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government," Bush said, speaking on the tarmac at the airport in Waco, Texas, before heading to Nebraska for a campaign event.
The White House praised the Iraqi judicial system and denied the U.S. had been "scheming" to have the historic verdict announced two days before American midterm elections, widely seen as a referendum on the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.
Iraqis, not the coalition, would carry out the executions.
"The Saddam Hussein era is in the past now, as was the era of Hitler and Mussolini," said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, calling Hussein the worst ruler ever in Iraq. "We want an Iraq where all Iraqis are equal before the law," he said. "The policy of discrimination and persecution is over."
"It demonstrates that you've got an independent Iraqi judiciary and that they were applying their own laws," White House spokesman said.
But symbolic of the split between the United States and many of its traditional allies over the Iraq war, many European nations voiced opposition to the death sentences in the case, including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
Lost in the drama of Sunday's death sentence was any mention of the failed search for the alleged weapons of mass destruction that Bush said led the United States to invade and occupy Iraq in March 2003.

EPILOGUE (or short version of the crap above)

Key words between the lines:
Iraqi dictator convicted and sentenced for the 1982 killings of 148 people. Campaign event two days before American midterm elections (referendum on the Bush administration's policy in Iraq). Iraqis, not the coalition, would carry out the executions. It demonstrates an independent Iraqi judiciary and that they were applying their own laws. European nations voiced opposition to the death sentence.
What about the alleged weapons of mass destruction that Bush said led the United States to invade and occupy Iraq and what about the genocide?
So I don’t get it, the good guys from U.S. (doin’ their JOB) came to free the people of Iraq from Saddam (bad), killing thousands in the process and in the end they convict him for death of 150? Talking about mismatch in body count…

FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

Iraqi citizens will have a future that's "better than anything they have known for generations," President Bush vowed Wednesday, after touring a factory that built fighter jets used in the war that toppled the regime of Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
"The Iraqi people are reclaiming their own streets, their own country and their own future," Bush said. Bush spoke on the same day that a top Pentagon official estimated that the war in Iraq had cost the United States $20 billion and that number was growing by about $2 billion a month. Before leaving for St. Louis, Bush signed a $79 billion appropriations bill to cover the initial cost of the war in Iraq, reconstruction and humanitarian efforts, and foreign aid to some of Iraq's neighbors. "With all the hardships of this transition, the lives of the Iraqi people will be better than anything they have known for generations," Bush said.

That better future is Iraq divided into 3 different regions: Kurdish state in the north, Shia region in the south and the "middle earth" for the Sunnies. Everything fits together perfectly if you look at the oil fields map and it's quite clear what was this war all about. "Conquer and divide" is the name of the game.

STATISTIKA

Since fighting began on March 19, 2003, more than 3,000 coalition troops have lost their lives in the conflict in Iraq. Of that number, more than 2,800 are U.S. troops. Thousands of others have been wounded on and off the battlefield