Part I
Christian Bale roughed up by guards while trying to visit blind Chinese activist
http://bcove.me/2nkxzhua
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=5994
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=472&fld_id=474&doc_id=5992
Transcript:
"Engrave on the rifle butt the symbol of Fatah's Al-Asifa [unit]
He [Arafat] taught the whole world how to revolt. Yasser - symbol of freedom
Oh Elder, I swear by [your] uniform and your keffiya
Mahmoud Abbas is on the same path when it comes to [our] state and identity
We fired the rifle, we faced the storm
We responded to the cannon with a pistol
Using stones, we ignited a revolution and wrote [history], oh Fatah men
On the rifle butt, we have engraved [Fatah's] symbol
On the grip, we have engraved "Arafat"
On the top cover we have inscribed the history of the free
On the barrel -- the name of the homeland
The flash-suppressor ignited and burst
Here it is, oh rifle sight
The state is only a few meters away
Oh action-spring, receive and shoot [bullets] continuously
Change the magazine -- there are hundreds [of them]
Load it into the chamber
Oh AK-47, make sounds of joy and salute the Elder (Arafat)"
[PA TV (Fatah), broadcast repeatedly Nov. 2011]
CAIR claims it prevents them from dominating the dhimmis.
House Bill 2029 would ban Pennsylvania courts from considering any foreign legal code or system that isn't identical with the Constitution. Islamists say that it is specifically targeted against the practice of Sharia Law--a religious code for Muslims that has the power of law in some countries. Council on American-Islamic Relations Attorney Amara Chaudhry says this would block freedom of religious expression.
"This is not a new faith we are not a foreign faith and yes this dangerous, clearly stated discriminatory purpose on a publicly circulated document, you just don't get any more troubling than that," said Chaudhry.
Professor Khalid Blankinship of Temple University discriminated against Catholics by comparing Sharia to the Catholic teaching that divorce is not allowed.
"That would be like going into the Catholic Church and telling them that you can't marry people the way you want or saying you have to allow divorce of people even if the Pope ruled otherwise," said Blankinship. The professor should get his facts correct. This is not how Canon law works in the Church.
State Representative Rosemarie Swanger of Lebanon County, who authored the bill, says it is designed to preserve rights of liberty that do not exist in some foreign legal systems. She has said recognizing foreign laws could allow women to be treated as second-class citizens. In a letter she sent to colleagues, Swanger called Sharia law "inherently hostile to our constitutional liberties."
House Bill 2029: Prohibits the Application of Foreign Law in Pennsylvania Proceedings
Sponsors:
Representatives RoseMarie Swanger, Daryl Metcalfe, Scott Perry, Matthew Baker, Kerry Benninghoff, Paul Clymer, Jim Cox, Tom Creighton, Bryan Cutler, Gordon Denlinger, George Dunbar, John Evans, Matt Gabler, Richard Geist, Mauree Gingrich, Seth Grove, Susan Helm, Tim Hennessey, Rob Kauffman, Fred Keller, Jerry Knowles, John Maher, Carl Walker Metzgar, David Millard, Ron Miller, Dan Moul, Thomas Murt, T. Mark Mustio, Donna Oberlander, Michael Peifer, Jeffrey Pyle, Kathy Rapp, Brad Roae, Rick Saccone, Stan Saylor, Curt Schroder, Jerry Stern, Will Tallman, Marcy Toepel, Tarah Toohil, Dan Truitt, Mike Vereb, and Rosita Youngblood
Summary:
This bill would prohibit the application of foreign law to judicial or administrative proceedings in Pennsylvania except under certain circumstances.
Should American citizens be indefinitely detained without charge or trial? Why or why not?
Sen. Lindsey Graham on the NDAA, Indefinite Detention of American Citizens
“It is not unfair to make an American citizen account for the fact that they decided to help Al Qaeda to kill us all and hold them as long as it takes to find intelligence about what may be coming next,” remarked Graham. “And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them, ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.’”
Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. McCain speak on Detainees on Senate Floor - 11/29/11
McCain also told Rand Paul during a hearing on the bill that American citizens could be declared an enemy combatant, sent to Guantanamo Bay and detained indefinitely, “no matter who they are.”
Obama Will Sign NDAA 1031 Citizen Indefinite Detention Law in a Few Days
As Levin said last week, it was the White House itself that demanded Section 1031 apply to American citizens.
“The language which precluded the application of Section 1031 to American citizens was in the bill that we originally approved…and the administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section,” said Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
Military given go-ahead to detain US terrorist suspects without trial
WH OKs military detention of terrorism suspects
Even Al-Jazeera has noted this bill.
9/11 Commission Report
"Recommendation: At this time of increased and consolidated government authority, there should be a board within the executive branch to oversee adherence to the guidelines we recommend and the commitment the government makes to defend our civil liberties.
We must find ways of reconciling security with liberty, since the success of one helps protect the other. The choice between security and liberty is a false choice, as nothing is more likely to endanger America's liberties than the success of a terrorist attack at home. Our history has shown us that insecurity threatens liberty. Yet, if our liberties are curtailed, we lose the values that we are struggling to defend" (p. 395).
Terrorist attack survivors outraged by White House guest
When Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki visited the White House this week, he brought his transportation minister, Hadi Farhan al-Amiri. During the rule of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Amiri served as a commander of the Badr Corps -- a group backed at the time by the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard), which has been linked to several attacks on western targets. FOX News has further information on the visit here.
Today at the White House press briefing, FOX News' Ed Henry asked White House press secretary Jay Carney about the visit and whether a background check was performed on him.
Carney said he would have to check on that and wouldn't provide further details. Transcript of the exchange available below.
Ed Henry, FOX News: When Prime Minister Maliki was here this week there have been reports that a former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which U.S. officials say played a role in a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 U.S. servicemen.
He was here at the White House with Prime Minister Maliki because he's a transportation minister, yeah, transportation minister --
Jay Carney, WH: Who's report is that?
Henry: I believe the Washington Times has reported it. I think others have as well, but I think this is a Washington Times --
Carney: I have to take that question then, I'm not aware of it.
Henry: Can you just answer it later though, whether he was here and whether a background check had been done?
Carney: I'll check on it for you.
Henry: Okay, thanks.
University of Michigan's MABEL runs free for over 110 steps! In our opinion, this is the most realistic, human-like running achieved on a robot. It has a very satisfying feel to it. The robot just moves right. It is up in the air for more than a third of the duration of step. The height off the ground is right. Whereas other robots had their feet maybe one sixth of an inch off the ground, MABEL is 3 to 4 in inches in the air. The motion of the hip, which is like a bouncing ball, and the pitching of the torso give you the sensation of running. It all just makes you say, that is running.
Feedback algorithm for running was designed by Koushil Sreenath as part of his PhD dissertation. The detailed model used in the work was developed by Hae-won Park as part of his PhD dissertation.
For the feedback control aficionados, we used a nonlinear, compliant hybrid zero dynamics controller with active force control, running in real-time. How about that! MABEL weighs over 65 Kg, has a heavy torso (40 Kg), has point feet, and a cable-driven transmission system with compliance. This makes it a challenging machine to control. The Hybrid Zero Dynamics (HZD) framework was instrumental in our success.
The achieved peak speed is 3.06 m/s (6.8 mph), with an average speed of 1.95 m/s (4.4 mph). The obtained gait has flight phase that's almost 40% of the gait, with a ground clearance of 3-4 inches.
How did we do it?
The answer is not as simple as "we got one thing right". Our success arose from a combination of things, several of which are very technical, but if we had to focus on two primary things, it would be very good machine design and very good feedback algorithm design. Specifically, the coordination of those two aspects. The machine design determines the passive behaviors of the robot, or how it will move when all power is turned off; springs, masses, and so on will enable or limit what you can do with the feedback control. Therefore, the machine was designed with the intent to emulate some aspects of human biomechanics; we then created an extremely detailed mathematical model of the robot after it was built, and then designed our control algorithms around this very precise model. This approach is rare in robotics, and has not been accomplished in past bipedal running robots.
Machine design: The bipedal robot MABEL was designed in 2006-2007, and built in 2008. The novelty was to have a machine with a roughly human weight distribution and springs that act like tendons in the human body.
Human weight distribution means that most of the weight of the robot is concentrated in the torso (upper body), while the legs are relatively light, so they can be moved forward and backward quickly for fast locomotion.
The springs in the robot serve two purposes. The first purpose is that when the robot's legs strike the ground, the springs act as shock absorbers. Specifically, running has a flight phase, where both feet are off the ground, and a stance phase, where one leg is on the ground. When a 145 pound (65 Kg) robot like MABEL ends the flight phase by landing on a leg, the force is pretty large. The springs make the landing more gentle. In some sense, this is what the arch in your foot does for you, or a good pair of running shoes. The second purpose of the springs is to store energy. This is analogous to a pogo stick, where the robot bounces up and down on the springs, storing and releasing energy with each stride. This effect has been shown to be an important aspect of all animal running. MABEL seems to be the first robot with human-like morphology to get this right.
Feedback Control:
What is feedback? Most everyone has an intuitive notion of feedback, such as when a supervisor provides feedback on an employee's performance, or when your body regulates your temperature to a constant 98.6 F (37 C) despite varying levels of physical activity and outside temperature. Feedback means that the input signals that are regulating a system are adjusted as a function of measurements (observations) of the system.
MABEL has four electric motors, two for each leg, which provide power. Whether the robot is walking, running, or just standing, there is a feedback controller on a computer that measures all of the positions of the robot's joints and the angle of its body, and then determines the proper power commands to send to the motors.
The foundation for our feedback controller is the detailed mathematical model of the mechanism: we have used this model to determine the best relationship between the measured leg angle relative to the ground, and the motions of all other robot joints. Our feedback controller implements this specific relationship on the robot, using information from sensors to control the motors. The resulting motions, in conjunction with the springs and masses of the robot mechanism, determine the forces that the leg applies to the ground, realizing a running gait.
Who should be named Person of the Year?
Time’s “Person of the Year” is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill.
Do you agree or disagree with their choice? Why?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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A tax on toilet paper; I kid you not. According to the sponsor, "the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act will be financed broadly by small fees on such things as . . . products disposed of in waste water." Congress wants to tax what you do in the privacy of your bathroom.