The CV/AI (computer vision/artificial intelligence, I assume) challenge is certainly the more interesting part of this competition. The trouble I have with many man vs machine competitions is that it's often possible to design a robot that focuses on just one specific aspect of the game that it can do so well that it renders complex CV/AI work obsolete. Robots can often win in uninteresting ways that make the competition boring to watch. And humans can often exploit AI flaws or physical limitations of the robot to claim victory in equally non-spectator friendly ways.

In ping pong, if a robot can position its paddle in the right place to return a ball at all, it should be able to return it so fast that a human couldn't stop it. Strength and speed are the easy part. At the very least, the robot is pulling its punches (or more likely, it was not designed to punch as hard as it could have).

The competition just seems staged as a result. My guess is that both the human player and the robot are purposefully playing in such a way to create the most interesting looking match, rather than playing in the way most likely to win.

From the article:
For Barnes, the device needed to be able to take cues from the human body. The lab designed a prosthesis that uses a technique called electromyography to pick up on electrical signals in the upper arm muscles. By tensing his biceps, Barnes controls a small motor that changes how tightly the prosthetic arm grips the drumstick and how quickly it moves, vital skills for a drummer.

The researchers then added another layer of complexity: a second, autonomous drumstick on the robot arm (see photo). This second stick, controlled via its own motor, uses a microphone and an accelerometer to sense the rhythm Barnes is playing, as well as music from any nearby musicians. An algorithm then produces a new beat with a complementary rhythm and melody, modelled on the music of jazz greats like John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.

With this extra artificial intelligence, human and machine combine to make Barnes a kind of "superhuman drummer", Weinberg says.

In my opinion the special bit is that it is a live real person - that it is not an artificial CGI rendering...

I like Bill Nye. But this whole argument treats 'Africa' (as only one example of a region of the underdeveloped and exploited world) as the nebulous hell-region where bad things happen. He cites examples of these bad things, but then, in a characteristically bourgeois fashion, he focuses on the consumptive problems (not enough aid, not enough to eat, no enough medicine, etc). And who is responsible for this? The first-world, capitalist zones of power (the US, Europe, 'civilization', etc).

Why don't we actually look at the production-side of things. Why can't Africa produce its own resources? It once was able to, very efficiently and without problems. That is, until imperialism happened. We are taking about a continent that was broken up into artificial nations, where agriculture was transformed into cash crops, where millions were shipped off as slave labor. We are talking about a continent that has tried for hundreds of years to fight for liberation for itself, only to have these imperialist countries keep their stranglehold on its neck.

(go wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%ADlcar_Cabral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sankara

My point here is that the whole discussion of more or less foreign aid presupposes an Africa that cannot feed itself. The solution is not to continue a dependent relationship. The solution is a sustainable and liberated Africa, who has economic control over her resources, and political freedom for her own people. the solution is self-determination, not should the US try to feed more of the kids? (whose starvation is rooted in the US's wealth. )

/end rant

Obamas' flipped generally

O'Reillys' a massive ego-fucking-itself dickcheese tool nobody spokesfuck

Janet Napolitino a fucking cunt, and the leader of the fascist police-state criminal organization the Dept. of Homeland/Vaterland/Heimat Security

So what you are saying to anyone with a fucking clue about the world they inhabit is, that you enjoy the flavor of the new brand of artificial colors and sweeteners, Guyana-punch-flavored Kool Aide Brand Ass-Fucking Propaganda Machine Drink.

Oh I'm sorry..Did I wake someone from their nap??
I'm sure there's others.

Oh wait, I'm sorry... CLEARLY (articulated with smarmy, sarcastic tone), there's others..

The whole issue about calories is a misdirect, there are dozens of other more important reasons why McD's is worse than trash. A couple of examples - the food is loaded with all manner of artificial ingredients, it's lacking in quality fiber, it's highly processed (low nutritional value), and the quality of the macro ingredients is very poor - i.e. the use of trans-fats as @RedSky points out, as well as the use of poor quality sugars (i.e. HFCS) to sweeten the dough.

That's not even to mention the exploitation of their workers, rainforest clearing to raise cattle, wasteful use of plastic packaging etc.

Impressive. I'd love to see something like this using artificial muscles
and small scale hydraulics. Bioengineering is cool.

Only thing that bothers me, is that the packaging is still kinda pink-purplish, as if Goldieblox did not dare to follow through 100% with their brave concept.
But if that is the price to get a few princessy girls to check out their toys, so be it.

I just hope this trend goes both ways.
Your willingness to let your kids cross these artificial gender barriers is great way to check your tolerance level. I have two boys and a girl, and just as I think it is perfectly fine for my daughter to pick up a hammer, I let my boys paint their nails or put on a dress if they want to.

They are kids, let them have fun while they are still young. That way they have a strong foundation for when they are faced with intolerance later on in life.

Since the ancient Romans had an artificial sweetener you'd have to say that Saccharin is the first modern artificial sweetener rather than the first.

And all that just to artificially inflate the usage of Google+.
Good job Google, good job.

If corporations acted with honor as Glenn Beck likes to argue, we wouldn't need to raise the minimum wage. But we keep attempting this time and time again, we give corporations all this influence and power hoping they use it wisely and fairly. But they don't. They never have. They use it to make themselves more wealthy than they need to be, masking their selfishness under the banner of "rugged individualism"

I guarantee you that no one *wants* to artificially raise the minimum wage, but it's a necessary step to lessen the income gap and offset inflation.

The right wing talking point is always "a poor person never offered me a job" Well my response is "I never met a rich person who didn't get their money from poor people buying their stuff"

where do you think any business who makes a product gets their money from? Do they just will it into existence because of the power of their ego? They get it from a poor person buying their stuff. But yeah, the corporate apologists don't like to talk about that particular reality.

There is always going to be poor people and always be rich people, but we can be a nation that decides as a whole that we're not going to piss on our poor people so that even the poor can led happy healthy lives.

The right wing talking point is that the poor have rich people envy. The poor don't envy the rich, they don't want McMansions and Hummers and all the stupid bling rich dolts buy. they just want to have their needs met. They just want to not go broke if there is a major illness

If corporations acted with "honor" then the free market idea *might* work, but as long as greed rules the day, there will always be the need to put measures in place like raising the minimum wage and other regulations.

Jay Leno still feels like something an Artificial Intelligence would come up with if you'd ask it to simulate a 20th century late night talkshow.

Upvote for Joan before her artificial transformation.

quite honestly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the words she chose, blankfist is just artificially attaching a negative spin to it all. Cherry-picking words that can be spun into political talking points without any evidence to back his tinfoil hat conspiracy theories.

But hey, that's the world we live in. In a rational person's world, an accusation without proof is no accusation at all, but in the current world we live in now. people drop BS accusations all the time and they stick long after they have been disproven, which is what blankie is counting on.

@Velocity5-sunlight w/adequate ultraviolet B rays is necessary for the proper absorption as well as the conversion of D into active metabolites-You need the sunlight or a tanning bed-No artificial sunlight that filters UV is effective.
There is no "just take supplements" option...except for the one where you take supplements, continue your cave-like existence, and develop osteoarthritis at 40.