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The new bot on the block
Fukushima changed robotics. More precisely, it changed the way the Japanese view robotics. And given the historic preeminence of the Japanese in robotic technology, that shift is resonating through the entire sector.
Before the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami of 2011, the Japanese were focused on "companion" robots, says Rodney Brooks, a former Panasonic Professor of Robotics at MIT, the founder and former technical officer of IRobot, and the founder, chairman and CTO of Rethink Robotics. The goal, says Brooks, was making robots that were analogues of human beings — constructs that could engage with people on a meaningful, emotional level. Cuteness was emphasized: a cybernetic, if much smarter, equivalent of Hello Kitty, seemed the paradigm.
But the multiple core meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex following the 2011 tsunami changed that focus abruptly.
"Fukushima was a wake-up call for them," says Brooks. "They needed robots that could do real work in highly radioactive environments, and instead they had robots that were focused on singing and dancing. I was with IRobot then, and they asked us for some help. They realized they needed to make a shift, and now they're focusing on more pragmatic designs."
Pragmatism was always the guiding principle for Brooks and his companies, and is currently manifest in Baxter, Rethink's flagship product. Baxter is a breakthrough production robot for a number of reasons. Equipped with two articulated arms, it can perform a multitude of tasks. It requires no application code to start up, and no expensive software to function. No specialists are required to program it; workers with minimal technical background can "teach" the robot right on the production line through a graphical user interface and arm manipulation. Also, Baxter requires no cage — human laborers can work safely alongside it on the assembly line.
Moreover, it is cheap: about $25,000 per unit. It is thus the robotic equivalent of the Model T, and like the Model T, Baxter and its subsequent iterations will impose sweeping changes in the way people live and work.
"We're at the point with production robots where we were with mobile robots in the late 1980s and early 1990s," says Brooks. "The advances are accelerating dramatically."
What's the biggest selling point for this new breed of robot? Brooks sums it up in a single word: dignity.
"The era of cheap labor for factory line work is coming to a close, and that's a good thing," he says. "It's grueling, and it can be dangerous. It strips people of their sense of worth. China is moving beyond the human factory line — as people there become more prosperous and educated, they aspire to more meaningful work. Robots like Baxter will take up the slack out of necessity."
And not just for the assemblage of widgets and gizmos. Baxter-like robots will become essential in the health sector, opines Brooks — particularly in elder care. As the Baby Boom piglet continues its course through the demographic python, the need for attendants is outstripping supply. No wonder: the work is low-paid and demanding. Robots can fill this breach, says Brooks, doing everything from preparing and delivering meals to shuttling laundry, changing bedpans and mopping floors.
"Again, the basic issue is dignity," Brooks said. "Robots can free people from the more menial and onerous aspects of elder care, and they can deliver an extremely high level of service, providing better quality of life for seniors."
Ultimately, robots could be more app than hardware: the sexy operating system on Joaquin Phoenix's mobile device in the recent film "Her" may not be far off the mark. Basically, you'll carry a "robot app" on your smartphone. The phone can be docked to a compatible mechanism — say, a lawn mower, or car, or humanoid mannequin — resulting in an autonomous device ready to trim your greensward, chauffeur you to the opera, or mix your Mojitos.
YDreams Robotics, a company co-founded by Brooks protégé Artur Arsenio, is actively pursuing this line of research.
"It's just a very efficient way of marketing robots to mass consumers," says Arsenio. "Smartphones basically have everything you need, including cameras and sensors, to turn mere things into robots."
YDream has its first product coming out in April: a lamp. It's a very fine if utterly unaware desk lamp on its own, says Artur, but when you connect it to a smartphone loaded with the requisite app, it can do everything from intelligently adjusting lighting to gauging your emotional state.
"It uses its sensors to interface socially," Artur says. "It can determine how you feel by your facial expressions and voice. In a video conference, it can tell you how other participants are feeling. Or if it senses you're sad, it may Facebook your girlfriend that you need cheering up."
Yikes. That may be a bit more interaction than you want from a desk lamp, but get used to it. Robots could intrude in ways that may seem a little off-putting at first — but that's a marker of any new technology. Moreover, says Paul Saffo, a consulting professor at Stanford's School of Engineering and a technology forecaster of repute, the highest use of robots won't be doing old things better. It will be doing new things, things that haven't been done before, things that weren't possible before the development of key technology.
"Whenever we have new tech, we invariably try to use it to do old things in a new way — like paving cow paths," says Saffo. "But the sooner we get over that — the sooner we look beyond the cow paths — the better off we'll be. Right now, a lot of the thinking is, 'Let's have robots drive our cars, and look like people, and be physical objects.'
But the most important robots working today don't have physical embodiments, says Saffo — think of them as ether-bots, if you will. Your credit application? It's a disembodied robot that gets first crack at that. And the same goes for your resume when you apply for a job.
In short, robots already are embedded in our lives in ways we don't think of as "robotic." This trend will only accelerate. At a certain point, things may start feeling a little — well Singularity-ish. Not to worry — it's highly unlikely Skynet will rain nuclear missiles down on us anytime soon. But the melding of robotic technology with dumb things nevertheless presents some profound challenges — mainly because robots and humans react on disparate time scales.
"The real questions now are authority and accountability," says Saffo. "In other words, we have to figure out how to balance the autonomy systems need to function with the control we need to ensure safety."
Saffo cites modern passenger planes like the Airbus 330 as an example.
"Essentially they're flying robots," he says. "And they fly beautifully, conserving fuel to the optimal degree and so forth. But the design limits are so tight — if they go too fast, they can fall apart; if they go too slow, they stall. And when something goes wrong, the pilot has perhaps 50 kilometers to respond. At typical speeds, that doesn't add up to much reaction time."
Saffo noted the crash of Air France Flight 447 in the mid-Atlantic in 2009 involved an Airbus 330. Investigations revealed the likely cause was turbulence complicated by the icing up of the plane's speed sensors. This caused the autopilot to disengage, and the plane began to roll. The pilots had insufficient time to compensate, and the aircraft slammed into the water at 107 knots.
"The pilot figured out what was wrong — but it was 20 seconds too late," says Saffo. "To me, it shows we need to devote real effort to defining boundary parameters on autonomous systems. We have to communicate with our robots better. Ideally, we want a human being constantly monitoring the system, so he or she can intervene when necessary. And we need to establish parameters that make intervention even possible."
Rod Brooks will be speaking at the upcoming Solid Conference in May. If you are interested in robotics and other aspects of the convergence of physical and digital worlds, subscribe to the free Solid Newsletter.
Tags: Hardware Baxter Industrial Internet Internet of Things production robots robotics Solid baxter industrial-internet internet-of-things production-robots solid
Four short links: 24 January 2014
What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating Point Arithmetic — in short, "it will hurt you."
Ori — a distributed file system built for offline operation and empowers the user with control over synchronization operations and conflict resolution. We provide history through light weight snapshots and allow users to verify the history has not been tampered with. Through the use of replication instances can be resilient and recover damaged data from other nodes.
RoboEarth — a Cloud Robotics infrastructure, which includes everything needed to close the loop from robot to the cloud and back to the robot. RoboEarth's World-Wide-Web style database stores knowledge generated by humans – and robots – in a machine-readable format. Data stored in the RoboEarth knowledge base include software components, maps for navigation (e.g., object locations, world models), task knowledge (e.g., action recipes, manipulation strategies), and object recognition models (e.g., images, object models).
Mother — domestic sensors and an app with an appallingly presumptuous name. (Also, wasn't "Mother" the name of the ship computer in Alien?) (via BoingBoing)
Tags: Uncategorized @fourshort cloud cs databases file systems math open source programming robotics security sensor network file-systems open-source programming-2 sensor-network
Democratizing technology and the road to empowerment
Advancements in technology are making what once was relegated only to highly educated scientists, engineers and developers accessible to — and affordable for — the mainstream. This democratization of technology and the empowerment it affords was an underlying thread through many of the stories at this year's Business Innovation Factory (BIF) summit. From allowing hobbyists and makers to innovate and develop on an advanced level to enabling individuals to take control of their personal health data to using space suits to help children with cerebral palsy, technological advancements are beginning to empower — and enrich — at scale.
With the rise of quantified self, for example, people have begun amassing personal data based on their activities and behaviors. Some argue that QS doesn't go quite far enough and that a more complete story can be told by incorporating emotional data, our sense of experience. While it's empowering in many ways to be able to collect and control all this personal big data, what to do with this onslaught of information and how to process it remains a question for many.
Alexander Tsiaras, who founded theVisualMD, argued in his talk at BIF9 that "story gives a soul to the data," and that it's time to change the paradigm, to start using technology to create ecosystems to empower people to understand what's going on inside their bodies as a result of their behaviors.
Using visualization and interactive media, personal big data — medical records, test results, lab reports, diagnoses, and exercise and eating habits, for instance — are deconstructed, as Tsiaras explained, to "demystify" the data: "The beauty of visualization is that it speaks to everyone," he said. From stories to explain test results to stories to help patients visualize the processes going on inside their bodies when they eat particular foods or when they exercise, people are able to turn their personal big data into stories, whether to better understand a chronic condition or to understand how their behaviors play into prevention. "This is the most important thing," Tsiaras argued, "the moment you take control, that empowerment is huge."
Arguably, one of the most democratizing and empowering of technological innovations is 3D printing — innovators can now manufacture the products they conceive, even at scale. BIF storyteller Ping Fu emphasized the potential of the technology through a powerful personal story of how her past experiences led her to computer science — a breakthrough, she explained, that changed her life personally and professionally, leading her to co-found 3D printing and design company Geomagic. Fu defined innovation as "imagination applied" and shared examples of innovations in 3D printing, including the Smithsonian's plan to scan and print artifacts from its collection (which can now be achieved by individuals at home), custom prosthetics designed as mirror images of actual limbs, and the digital preservation of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Fu stressed that the technology should not be viewed as a platform for printing tchotchkes, that real-world, useful products are being produced.
This argument was further supported by storyteller Easton LaChapelle, a 17-year-old high school student who has used 3D printing technology in coordination with advancements in (and some creativity with) engineering materials to create a robotic hand that's wirelessly controlled by a robotic glove — complete with haptic feedback — and a 3D-printed brain-wave-controlled robotic arm.
Affordable access to 3D printing, LaChapelle said, was key to his ability to move forward with his designs, and he noted that 3D printing is a driving force for innovation: "I can design something in my room and hit print, and within an hour, it's in front of me; that alone is really fascinating, that you're able to design something and have it physically in front of you; it's remarkable in today's world — it's a whole evolving technology."
Advancements in technology aren't only empowering LaChapelle to create innovative designs in robotics; they're empowering him to help humanity, and in turn, empowering humanity. He explained during his story:
"When I was at the science fair in Colorado, I had the first generation of the arm there for a public viewing, and a 7-year-old girl came up to me. She had a prosthetic limb from the elbow to the fingertip, with one motion — open-close — and one sensor. That alone was $80,000. That was really the moment that touched my heart, the "ah-ha" moment, that I could take what I'm already doing, transfer it directly to prosthetics, and potentially make people's lives better."
The final iteration of the arm is completely 3D printed, making it lightweight — from fingertip to shoulder, it's in line to weigh less than five pounds — and cost about $400 to produce. "The third generation arm is the final [iteration of the arm] and the point where it can change people's lives," said LaChapelle. He's currently working on developing exoskeleton legs for a friend who was paralyzed in a car accident, technology that he'll make available to anyone with paralysis, MS or any other condition that impairs movement: "I want to solve this. My approach is to give them something they can afford and something they can use easily."
You can watch LaChapelle's inspiring talk in the following video:
In a similar vein, storyteller Dava Newman, professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at MIT, explained how her team uses advances in materials technology to develop exoskeleton space suits to address particular issues astronauts experience in space, such as combating bone density loss, and increasing mobility and flexibility (see the gravity loading countermeasure suit, which is also used to help children with cerebral palsy perform daily activities).
Suits are also designed with high-precision EGain sensors to help provide muscular protection and measure hot spots and pressure while astronauts are training, in hopes of preventing shoulder injuries, for instance. The ultimate goal is developing the BioSuit, which uses electrospun materials, dielectric elastomers and shape memory alloys to provide a skin-tight, pressurized but flexible suit environment for astronauts. Newman stressed that the importance of our work as scientists, designers, researchers, artists, mathematicians, etc., is to take care of one another:
"…200 miles, 400 kilometers — Boston to New York — that's where we're living in space now; it's low Earth orbit, and it's fantastic and it's great, but it's been 40 years since we've been to another planetary body. I think, with all my great students and all the great dreamers in the world, we'll get to the Moon, we'll get to Mars, and we're going for the search of life. It'll be humans and rovers and robots all working together. The scientific benefit will be great, but the most important thing is that we learn about ourselves — it's in the reflection and thinking about who we are and who humanity is."
As technology advances and empowers more and more people to create, build and produce more and more innovative products and experiences, a discussion has begun as to the responsibility we have as engineers, scientists, designers, etc., to consider the implications and ramifications of our work, to using our designs for the benefit of humanity, to further social progress in a positive direction. It's clear through these and other storytellers from BIF9 that doing so results in a more enriching, empowering experience for everyone.
Tags: Uncategorized 3d printing BIF9 quantified self robotics Solid technology innovation 3d-printing bif9 quantified-self solid technology-innovation
Robots will remain forever in the future
(Note: this post first appeared on Forbes; this lightly edited version is re-posted here with permission.)
We've watched the rising interest in robotics for the past few years. It may have started with the birth of FIRST Robotics competitions, continued with the iRobot and the Roomba, and more recently with Google's driverless cars. But in the last few weeks, there has been a big change. Suddenly, everybody's talking about robots and robotics.
It might have been Jeff Bezos' remark about using autonomous drones to deliver products by air. It's a cool idea, though I think it's farfetched, but that's another story. Amazon Prime isn't Amazon's first venture into robotics: a year and a half ago, they bought Kiva Systems, which builds robots that Amazon uses in their massive warehouses. (Personally, I think package delivery by drone is unlikely for many, many reasons, but that's another story, and certainly no reason for Amazon not to play with delivery in their labs.)
But what really lit the fire was Google's acquisition of Boston Dynamics, a DARPA contractor that makes some of the most impressive mobile robots anywhere. It's hard to watch their videos without falling in love with what their robots can do. Or becoming very scared. Or both. And, of course, Boston Dynamics isn't a one-time buy. It's the most recent in a series of eight robotics acquisitions, and I'd bet that it's not the last in the series.
Google is clearly doing something big, but what? Unlike Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Sergei Brin haven't started talking about delivering packages with drones or anything like that. Neither has Andy Rubin, who is running the new robotics division. The NSA probably knows, to Google's chagrin, but we won't until they're ready to tell us. Google has launched a number of insanely ambitious "moon shot" projects recently; I suspect this is another.
Whatever is coming from Google, we'll certainly see even greater integration of robots into everyday life. Those robots will quickly become so much a part of our lives that we'll cease to think of them as robots; they'll just be the things we live with. At O'Reilly's Foo Camp in 2012, Jason Huggins, creator of this Angry Birds-playing bot, remarked that robots are always part of the future. Little bits of that future break off and become part of the present, but when that happens, those bits cease to be "robots." In 1945, a modern dishwasher would have been a miracle, as exotic as the space-age appliances in The Jetsons. But now, it's just a dishwasher, and we're trying to think of ways to make it more intelligent and network-enabled. Dishwashers, refrigerators, vacuums, stoves: is the mythical Internet-enabled refrigerator that orders milk when you're running low a robot? What about a voice-controlled baking machine, where you walk up and tell it what kind of bread you want? Will we think of these as robots?
I doubt it. Much has been made of Google's autonomous vehicles. Impressive as they are, autonomous robots are nowhere near as interesting as assistive robots, robots that assist humans in some difficult task. Driving around town is one thing, but BMW already has automatic parallel parking. But do we call these "robotic cars"? What about anti-lock brakes and other forms of computer-assisted driving that have been around for years? A modern airliner essentially flies itself from one airport to another, but do we see a Boeing 777 as a "robot"? We prefer not to, perhaps because we cherish the illusion that a human pilot is doing the flying. Robots are everywhere already; we've just trained ourselves not to see them.
We can get some more ideas about what the future holds by thinking about some of Google's statements in other contexts. Last April, Slate reported that Google was obsessed with building the Star Trek computer. It's a wonderful article that contains real insight into the way Google thinks about technology. Search is all about context: it's not about the two or three words you type into the browser; it's about understanding what you're looking for, understanding your language rather than an arcane query language. The Star Trek computer does that; it anticipates what Kirk wants and answers his questions, even if they're ill-formed or ambiguous. Let's assume that Google can build that kind of search engine. Once you have the Star Trek computer doing your searches, the next step is obvious: don't just do a search; get me the stuff I want. Find me my keys. Put the groceries away. Water the plants. I don't think robotic helpers like these are as far off as they seem; most of the technologies we need to build them already exist. And while it may take a supercomputer to recognize that a carton of eggs is a carton of eggs, that supercomputer is only an Internet connection away.
But will we recognize these devices as robots once they've been around for a year or two? Or will they be "the finder," "the unpacker," "the gardener," while robots remain implausibly futuristic? The latter, I think. Garden-variety text search, whether it's Android or Siri, is an amazing application of artificial intelligence, but these days, it's just something that phones do.
I have no doubt that Google's robotics team is working on something amazing and mind-blowing. Should they succeed, and should that success become a product, though, whatever they do will almost certainly fade into the woodwork and become part of normal, everyday reality. And robots will remain forever in the future. We might have found Rosie, the Jetsons' robotic maid, impressive. But the Jetsons didn't.
Tags: Uncategorized artificial intelligence drones Google robotics Solid artificial-intelligence google solid
The Amazon whisperer, invisible interfaces, FDA vs 23andMe, and robots usher in a new polical order
The Radar team does a lot of sharing in the backchannel. Here's a look at a selection of stories and innovative people and companies from around the web that have caught our recent attention. Have an interesting tidbit to contribute to the conversation? Send me an email or ping me on Twitter
The edges of connected realities — Steve Mason's TEDxSF talk, in which he discusses the evolution of connected environments and quotes Yves Behar: "The interface of the future is invisible." (Jenn Webb, via Jim Stogdill, via Rachel Kalmar) Mason's talk is a must-watch, so I'll just provide direct access:
Why the FDA is targeting Google-backed 23andMe: Unnecessary MRIs, mastectomies — Christina Farr wrote: "One San Francisco-based neurologist, who asked to remain anonymous, told me that some of her healthiest patients — all 23andMe customers — have begun demanding unnecessary and expensive MRI tests for Alzheimer's disease. '23andMe's test is creating chaos with people in their 20s and 30s,' she said. 'They generate havoc and walk away.'" (Via Jim Stogdill)
A Letter I Will Probably Send to the FDA — From the other side of the FDA vs 23andMe spat, Dr. Scott Alexander wrote: "…23andMe has raised awareness of genetics among the general population and given them questions and concerns, usually appropriate, which they can discuss with their doctor. Their doctor can then follow up on these concerns. Such followup may involve reassurance, confirmation with other genetic testing, confirmation through other diagnostic modalities, or referral to another professional such as a genetic counselor. In my experience personal genomic results do not unilaterally determine a course of treatment, but may influence an ambiguous clinical picture in one direction or the other, or be a useful factor when deciding between otherwise equipotent medications. Banning the entire field of personal genomics in one fell swoop would eliminate a useful diagnostic tool from everyone except a few very wealthy patients." (Via Mike Loukides)
Chaim Pikarski, the Amazon whisperer — Jason Feifer wrote: "[Pikarski] has an entire team of people who read reviews on Amazon, looking for moments when people say, 'I wish this speaker were rechargeable.' Pikarski then makes a rechargeable version. … This is the heart of C&A: Each buyer has a specialty — beach products, cellular accessories, and so on. Their job is to scour the web to learn all the features people wish a product had, and hire a manufacturer, often in China, to make the desired version. (Via Tim O'Reilly, via Kevin Slavin)
The Robots Are Here — Tyler Cowen wrote: "The rise of smart machines — technologies that encompass everything from artificial intelligence to industrial robots to the smartphones in our pockets — is changing how we live, work and play. Less acknowledged, perhaps, is what all this technological change portends: nothing short of a new political order. The productivity gains, the medical advances, the workplace reorganizations and the myriad other upheavals that will define the coming automation age will create new economic winners and losers; it will reorient our demographics; and undoubtedly, it will transform what we demand from our government." (Via Jenn Webb)
23andMe flap at FDA indicates fundamental dilemma in health reform
Tags: Uncategorized 23andme amazon artificial intelligence automation age FDA genetic testing invisible interfaces robotics UI design artificial-intelligence automation-age fda genetic-testing invisible-interfaces ui-design
IoT meets agriculture, Intellistreets, immersive opera, and high-tech pencils
The Radar team does a lot of sharing in the backchannel. Here's a look at a selection of stories and innovation highlights from around the web that have caught our recent attention. Have an interesting tidbit to contribute to the conversation? Join the discussion in the comments section, send me an email or ping me on Twitter.
Pencil — FiftyThree's new Pencil tool is a super cool gadget that exhibits interesting technology from a software meets hardware perspective. (Via Mike Loukides)
littleBits Synth Kit — littleBits and Korg have teamed up to bring DIY to music with a modular synthesizer kit. From John Paul Titlow on Fast Company: "Hobbyists have been doing this for many years, either through prepackaged kits or off-the-shelf components. The difference here is that no soldering or wiring is required. Each circuit piece's magnetized and color-coded end makes them effortlessly easy to snap together and pull apart … Notably, the components of the kit are compatible with other littleBits modules, so it's possible to build a synthesizer that integrates with other types of sensors, lights, and whatever else littleBits cooks up down the line." (Via Jim Stogdill)
Why Curated Experiences Are The New Future Of Marketing — From immersive opera to extreme kidnapping to a bungee-jumping car, companies are learning that the key to their customers' attention (and wallets) lies in the experience. From Krisztina "Z" Holly on Forbes: "There is something about a moment in time that can't be replicated, an experience that is your very own, an adventure with others that is deeply personal and memorable. It is something that can't be achieved by a high-budget celebrity endorsement or a large ad buy." (Via Sara Winge)
The Internet of things, stalk by stalk — IoT meets agriculture with Air Tractor planes that can change fertilizer mixtures in-flight and the Rosphere farm robot that monitors crops. From Paul Rako on GigaOm: "Sensors on the robot could monitor each and every stalk of corn. Those robots can communicate with each other over a mesh network. A mesh network is like a chat room for gadgets. They identify themselves and their capabilities, and are then a shared resource." (Via Jenn Webb)
What happens in Vegas DOESN'T stay in Vegas — Vegas' new wireless street light system, Intellistreets, can record video and audio. From the Daily Mail: "The wireless, LED lighting, computer-operated lights are not only capable of illuminating streets, they can also play music, interact with pedestrians and are equipped with video screens, which can display police alerts, weather alerts and traffic information. The high tech lights can also stream live video of activity in the surrounding area. … These new street lights, being rolled out with the aid of government funding, are also capable of recording video and audio." (Via Tim O'Reilly)
Additionally, at the recent Techonomy conference, Tim O'Reilly and Max Levchin discussed "Innovation and the Coming Shape of Social Transformation" — have a look:
Tags: Uncategorized agriculture innovation DIY industrial farming practices Intellistreets Internet of Things robotics smart pencil agriculture-innovation diy industrial-farming-practices intellistreets internet-of-things smart-pencil
Four short links: 5 November 2012
The Psychology of Everything (YouTube) — illustrating some of the most fundamental elements of human nature through case studies about compassion, racism, and sex. (via Mind Hacks)
Reports of Exempt Organizations (Public Resource) — This service provides bulk access to 6,461,326 filings of exempt organizations to the Internal Revenue Service. Each month, we process DVDs from the IRS for Private Foundations (Type PF), Exempt Organizations (Type EO), and filings by both of those kinds of organizations detailing unrelated business income (Type T). The IRS should be making this publicly available on the Internet, but instead it has fallen to Carl Malamud to make it happen. (via BoingBoing)
Chris Anderson Leaves for Drone Co (Venturebeat) — Editor-in-chief of Wired leaves to run his UAV/robotics company 3D Robotics.
pysqli (GitHub) — Python SQL injection framework; it provides dedicated bricks that can be used to build advanced exploits or easily extended/improved to fit the case.
Tags: Uncategorized @fourshort @home business Carl Malamud chris anderson drones gov2 open data programming psychology Python robotics security carl-malamud chris-anderson gov2-2 open-data programming-2 python
Industrial Internet links
Here's a broad look at a few recent items of interest related to the industrial Internet — the world of smart, connected, big machines.
Smarter Robots, With No Wage Demands (Bloomberg Businessweek) — By building more intelligence into robots, Rethink Robotics figures it can get them into jobs where work has historically been too irregular or too small-scale for automation. That could mean more manufacturing stays in American factories, though perhaps with fewer workers.
The Great Railway Caper (O'Reilly Strata EU) — Today's railroads rely heavily on the industrial Internet to optimize locomotive operations and maintain their very valuable physical plant. Some of them were pioneers in big networked machines. Part of Sprint originated as the Southern Pacific Railroad Network of Intelligent Telecommunications, which used the SP's rights-of-way to transmit microwave and fiber optic signals. But in the 1950s, computing in railways was primitive (as it was just about everywhere else, too). John Graham-Cumming relayed this engaging story of network optimization in 1955 at our Strata Conference in London two weeks ago.
The Quiet Comfort of the Internet of Things (O'Reilly Strata EU) — Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino presents a quirky counterpoint to the Internet of big things; what you might call the Internet of very small things. She leads Designswarm and founded Good Night Lamp, which produces a family of Internet-connected lamps that let friends and family communicate domestic milestones, like bedtime. Her Strata keynote explains a bit of her work and approach.
Solar panel control systems vulnerable to hacks, feds warn (Ars Technica) — A good reminder that the industrial Internet can be vulnerable to the same sorts of attacks as the rest of the Internet if it's not built out properly — in this case, run-of-the-mill SQL injection.
The industrial Internet series is produced as part of a collaboration between O'Reilly and GE.
Investigating the industrial Internet
Tags: Uncategorized @home Big Data Industrial Internet Internet of Big Things Internet of Things optimization robotics big-data industrial-internet internet-of-big-things internet-of-things
Four short links: 2 March 2012
Interview: Hanno Sander on Robotics (Circuit Cellar) -- this is what Mindstorms wants to be when it grows up. AAA++ for teaching kids. Hanno is a Kiwi Foo Camper.
Context Needed: Benchmarks -- Benchmarks fall into a few common traps because of under-reporting in context and lack of detail in results. The typical benchmark report doesn't reveal the benchmark's goal, full details of the hardware and software used, how the results were edited if at all, how to reproduce the results, detailed reporting on the system's performance during the test, and an interpretation and explanation of the results. (via Jesse Robbins)
Morris.js (GitHub) -- a lightweight library that uses jQuery and Raphaël to make drawing time-series graphs easy.
Bret Victor: Inventing on Principle (Vimeo) -- the first 20m has amazing demos of a coding environment with realtime feedback. Must see this! (via Sacha Judd)
Tags: charts devops education graphs hardware javascript opensource performance programming robotics ui video
Beethoven's Open Repository of Research (RocketHub) -- open repository funded in a Kickstarter-type way. First crowdfunding project I've given $$$ to.
KeepOff (GitHub) -- open source project built around hacking KeepOn Interactive Dancing Robots. (via Chris Spurgeon)
Steve Jobs One-on-One (ComputerWorld) -- interesting glimpse of the man himself in an oral history project recording made during the NeXT years. I don't need a computer to get a kid interested in that, to spend a week playing with gravity and trying to understand that and come up with reasons why. But you do need a person. You need a person. Especially with computers the way they are now. Computers are very reactive but they're not proactive; they are not agents, if you will. They are very reactive. What children need is something more proactive. They need a guide. They don't need an assistant.
Bluetooth Violin Bow -- this is awesome in so many directions. Sensors EVERYWHERE! I wonder what hackable uses it has ...
Tags: bluetooth crowdfunding education hardwarehacks opendata opensource programming robotics science sensornetwork stevejobs ubicomp
Four short links: 10 October 2011
Why Education Startups Do Not Succeed --This fundamental investment vs. expenditure mindset changes everything. You think of education as fundamentally a quality problem. The average person thinks of education as fundamentally a cost problem. This and many other insights that repay the reading. (via Hacker News)
Romo -- smartphone robotics platform Kickstarter project.
Google Cloud SQL -- Google offers proper SQL for AppEngine. Edd notes that this happened just as Oracle offered a NoSQL server. Worth remembering that the label on the technology isn't a magic bullet to solve your problems: SQL and NoSQL aren't what's important, you still must understand how they work with your particular data types and patterns of access.
Olson Timezone Database Deleted -- the USA permits copyrighting of facts, whereas facts [not being the product of a creative act] are not copyrightable in much of the rest of the world. One of the sources for historical timezone data threatened legal action, and the maintainers chose to delete their database. This is a bugger: without it, there's no way to map GMT onto local time for arbitrary times in the past.
Tags: copyright education google kickstarter linux mobile opensource robotics sql startups
Four short links: 22 August 2011
Cities in Fact and Fiction: An Interview with William Gibson (Scientific American) -- Paris, as much as I love Paris, feels to me as though it's long since been "cooked." Its brand consists of what it is, and that can be embellished but not changed. A lack of availability of inexpensive shop-rentals is one very easily read warning sign of overcooking. I wish Manhattan condo towers could be required to have street frontage consisting of capsule micro-shops. The affordable retail slots would guarantee the rich folks upstairs interesting things to buy, interesting services, interesting food and drink, and constant market-driven turnover of same, while keeping the streetscape vital and allowing the city to do so many of the things cities do best. London, after the Olympic redo, will have fewer affordable retail slots, I imagine. (via Keith Bolland)
Bootstrap -- HTML toolkit from Twitter, includes base CSS and HTML for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, navigation, and more. Open sourced (Apache v2 license).
Extra Headers for Browser Security -- I hadn't realized there were all these new headers to avoid XSS and other attacks. Can you recommend a good introduction to these new headers? (via Nelson Minar)
Swarmanoid -- award-winning robotics demo of heterogeneous, dynamically connected, small autonomous robots that provide services to each other to accomplish a larger goal. (via Mike Yalden)
Tags: branding browser cities html5 http robotics security
2 makers, 2 robots, 2 visions
If you haven't been to a Maker Faire, it can be hard to describe the vast and diverse array of exhibitors and events, and no set of interviews can do the event itself justice. But recent conversations with makers Scott Bergquist and Ian Bernstein do offer a decent representation of what Maker Faire is fundamentally about.
What follows are the stories of two very different robots, both of which will be in attendance (in some form) at the upcoming Maker Faire Bay Area.
The errand bot
Bergquist will be showing the Driverless Errand Car, a design concept for an autonomous vehicle system that delivers goods and runs errands. Bergquist admits that his idea is well ahead of the technologies required, but he wants people to start thinking about how society could benefit if fuel-efficient robotic vehicles were running errands without requiring human interaction. As he likes to put it, "Why drive a 4,000-pound vehicle to get a quarter-pounder at McDonalds?"
In Bergquist's vision, these robots will do all the scut-work errands, like getting groceries or dropping a tax form off at the post office. Clearly, this would require massive infrastructure changes, such as having food distribution centers that could do order fulfillment when a 'bot arrived. But Bergquist believes it could be done economically, because the 'bots could travel longer distances to get their orders (since time isn't a factor), which in turn would allow for centralized warehousing.
"Within my area, I can think of four Safeway stores that are within a 10-mile radius," Bergquist said. "Instead, there could be just one store, which would be inconvenient to a human shopper because everybody would have to, from all directions, come over to that one store. But for a humanless, driverless device, it wouldn't mind waiting in line to get its order. If it took it 40 minutes of waiting in line, it really wouldn't make any difference to you. It wouldn't make any difference to you if it made five trips a week instead of once a week. It wouldn't feel put out by having to stop at one distribution center to pick up canned goods and then driving further to another distribution center to pick up fresh vegetables, and then driving to another facility to pick up bread."
Another unique feature of this system is that in Bergquist's design the vehicles run off of spring power. They would be wound up before leaving the house, and would function because they would be so much lighter than a conventional vehicle.
"My [proposed] car is rather small," Bergquist said. "It's a little under four-feet long and a little under two-feet wide. It's about a meter tall. Without going into a lot of detail, for such a light vehicle, for such a limited amount of optional range, a spring-powered car could be a real no-fuel vehicle that would be extremely cheap because you wouldn't have an electric motor; you wouldn't have an electric battery."
Maker Faire Bay Area will be held May 21-22 in San Mateo, Calif. Event details, exhibitor profiles, and ticket information can be found at the Maker Faire site.
A basic ball with complicated guts
Ian Bernstein and his business partners will be bringing Sphero to Maker Faire. The robot, which is about the size of a baseball, rolls around, has LEDs that can turn the 'bot thousands of different colors, is loaded with sensors, and can be controlled and programmed from iPhones, Androids and PCs.
Bernstein has no grand society-changing plans for Sphero, he just sees it as a cool platform for new applications. "We've had a lot of people come to us, and some of the ideas are educational," Bernstein said. "Training centers for college or companies and also K-12 — they thought this would be kind of a cool way to teach programming. Like Arduino, you can see other projects people have made."
Although a robotic sphere may seem simple, Bernstein says that it's fiendishly hard to develop the underlying control software. "It's incredibly complicated to build a ball that moves in this fashion," he said. "We're literally using missile-guidance-type control systems in there. We've consulted with people that do NASA projects. What people see is just a simple ball. So it's minimalistic, but it's complicated on the engineering side." (Here's a video of Sphero in action.)
Bernstein and his associates plan to have Sphero available for sale by the end of the year, while Bergquist's errand-running cars are more science fiction than product at the moment. You'll be able to meet these bots' creators, and get a sense for how the robots work, at this month's Maker Faire.
Tags: Web 2.0 makerfaire makers robotics


text:
Reverb Master Michael Carnes On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Michael Carnes created reverb products for Lexicon for 25 years before he decided to go out on his own and start Exponential Audio. He now builds a new generation of reverb and effects plugins that not only sound great, but are very reasonable priced as well.
I was lucky enough to get Michael to come on the podcast to discuss everything-reverb in depth, which you'll really find both fascinating and useful at the same time.
In the podcast intro, I'll discuss the fact that the CD is still selling in the hundreds of millions, and we'll go over a checklist to help vocal production go smoother and get the best performance possible.
Labels: BobbyOinnercircle.com, CD sales, Exponential Audio, Inner Circle podcast, Michael Carnes, reverb, vocal production
An Intimate Look At A Frank Sinatra Recording Session
Here's a great look at history. It's Frank Sinatra in the studio recording his hit "It Was A Very Good Year" and it comes from a 1998 CBS special called "Sinatra The Legend," although this session is actually from the evening of April 22nd 1965 (just about 50 years ago!). The recording took place at United Recording Studio A in Hollywood.
Here are some things to look for.
1. Frank is obviously in a good mood, although he had an audience that he was playing to (notice the people behind him in the chairs).
2. It's also cool that there were no overdubs - everything was recorded at the same time.
3. Also, notice that the conductor is following Frank rather than the other way around.
4. It's interesting that he was recorded with what looks to be an AKG D24 dynamic microphone rather than the Neumann U47 or AKG C12 condenser that are in most pictures of him recording.
I posted something similar a few years ago but the video was subsequently taken off of YouTube, so enjoy this while it's available.
Labels: AKG D24, Frank Sinatra, United Recording, video
Al Schmitt Answers Recording And Mixing Questions
Al Schmitt is one of the undeniable masters of recording and it's great that he's still so active after more than 50 years in the business. I had the pleasure to interview him many times in the past (check out my interview excerpt from the Recording Engineer's Handbook and our recent interview for Lynda.com) and he always both helpful, and tells a studio-load of colorful stories about his career as well.
In this video for Mix With The Masters, all covers a variety of subjects like alternatives to vintage microphones, the importance of the room, microphone distance, recording orchestras, and much more.
Labels: Al Schmitt, Mix With The Masters, recording orchestra, video
5 Simple EQ Tips That Work On Anything
Equalization is one of the most difficult parts of recording to get the hang of since there's literally almost an infinite number of possibilities.
Most of us learn by experience and usually massive amounts of trial and error, but there are some brief general guidelines that can be an enormous help for those new to the process.
Here's an excerpt from The Mixing Engineer's Handbook 3rd edition featuring 5 simple EQ tips that will work in just about any situation.
1. If it sounds muddy, cut (decrease the level) at around 250Hz. Although you can get that muddy sound from other lower frequencies (especially anything added below 100Hz), start here first.
2. If it sounds honky or veiled, cut at around 500Hz. This is where a huge build-up of energy occurs when close-miking instruments because of the proximity effect that naturally occurs with directional mics. Just cutting a bit in this area can sometimes provide instant clarity.
3. Cut if you're trying to make things sound clearer. If the sound is cloudy, there's usually a frequency band that's too loud. It's easier to decrease it than to raise everything else.
4. Boost if you're trying to make things sound different. Sometimes you don't want clarity as much as you want something to sound just different or effected. That's the best time to boost EQ.
5. You can't boost something that's not there in the first place. You may be better off to decrease other frequencies than try to add a huge amount, like 10 or 15dB, to any frequency band.
Although there are exceptions to every one of the above guidelines, you'll always stay out of sonic trouble if you consider this tips first.
To read additional excerpts from The Mixing Engineer's Handbook and my other books, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.
Labels: 6 EQ tips, book excerpt, EQ, equalization, equalization tips, mixing engineers handbook
The Abbey Road Reverb Trick
Here's a cool mixing trick from my 101 Mixing Tricks coaching program. Abbey Road Studios in London has long been noted for the great sounding reverb on the recordings done there. A big reason for that is the way they treat the signal going into the plates and chambers.
The Abbey Road Reverb Trick will show you how to get that same sound, plus a few enhancements to make sure that your reverb glues all of your mix elements together without it being obvious.
Labels: 101 Mixing Tricks, Abbey Road Reverb Trick, Abbey Road studios, video
New Music Gear Monday: SSL LMC+ 500 Series Module
The famous "Phil Collins drum sound" from his hit "In The Air Tonight" was an accident. While for years many thought it was the result of all manner of devices, it was actually the sound of the Listen Mic on the SSL4000 that was used by the engineer and producer to hear what the musicians were saying in the studio.
It's severe compression characteristics were discovered by engineer/producer Hugh Padgham while recording the song "Intruder" for a Peter Gabriel record that Collins played drums on. He then rewired the console so that it could be used while recording, and it seemed the perfect sound for "In The Air Tonight."
Solid State Logic has now released an enhanced version of the famed Listen Mic circuit in a 500 series rack module called the LMC+.
The LMC+ has the same fixed compression characteristics that made the SSL4000E listen mic a favorite on drums and guitars, but with some new features as well. These include high and low pass filters which can be switched into the sidechain, and a Wet/Dry control, along with the standard Trim and Threshold controls.
The really unique features include a "Scoop" button that flips the phase of only the wet signal, and a "Split" button that subtracts some of the bandwidth from the compressor so that only certain frequencies are affected.
SSL cautions that while many new sounds can be found using these controls, it can also result in something that might barely pass for audio as well if you're not careful. Cool, that's just how we like it! Let the experimenting begin.
The SSL LMC+ 500 series module retails for $649 and will be available in June.
Labels: compressor, listen mic, New Music Gear Monday, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Solid State Logic, SSL, SSL4000
Reverb Master Michael Carnes On My Latest Inner Ci...
An Intimate Look At A Frank Sinatra Recording Sess...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
There is something I must dwell on
because I know more than I know and must learn it from myself.
— Marilynne Robinson
The sensory world
In 1948 a small boy was accompanying his mother as she went shopping in London. His mother took him into Selfridges as she wanted to try on a beautiful new-look coat from Dior. The boy's mother could not afford the coat but wanted to experience herself wearing it, even if only for a few minutes.
Many years ago I found myself in a cinema in Manchester during the festive season. As the lights went up at the end of the film, I looked around to see people wiping tears from their eyes, and likewise during the course of the film I had been moved to tears myself on several occasions.
There is a Mountain
In October of 1967 the British singer/songwriter Donovan released a new single, 'There is a Mountain' which climbed to No.8 in the UK charts. The song was something of a departure for Donovan with its sunny Calypso-style and irresistible melody. Accompanying him on the track were Tony Carr on percussion, Harold McNair on flute and
Allen Ginsberg's Howl
On the evening of October 7th 1955, Gallery Six took place in a low-ceilinged former auto-body repair shop in San Francisco. Gallery Six was an event where local artists within the bohemian community could meet and share their work. That evening, various poets including Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen and Michael McClure performed their work. Also
When I was a small boy my mother would read to me bedtime stories, which I used to look forward to with great delight. Two of my favorites were AA Milne's "Winnie-The Pooh" and "The Wind In The Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, in which the copy of the latter my mum read from were wonderfully
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Blog | Yoga with Manjunaga
These are a selection of Manjunaga's monthly reflections sent out in his newsletter.
In 1948 a small boy was accompanying his mother as she went shopping in London. His mother took him into Selfridges as she wanted to try on a beautiful new-look coat from Dior. The boy's mother could not afford the coat but wanted to experience herself wearing it, even if only for a few minutes. The young boy watched his mother swirling around in the coat, which, as she moved, was lit from behind. The young boy thought she looked so beautiful and felt that this vision of his mother was like seeing the beauty of women for the first time.
This event had a dramatic effect on the boy's life. Years later he trained to become a photographer and became one of the most famous fashion photographers in the world. His name was David Bailey. What I love about this story, is that it illustrates the qualities of someone who is alive to the sensory world around them. This has sometimes been called, in archetypal terms, the 'lover' archetype. These people have a appetite for life, they are sensually aware and sensitive to the realm of their senses, noticing colours, forms, sounds, tactile sensations and smells. If you have ever eaten a meal cooked by someone with a passion for food and cooking you will have been touched by someone with these qualities. Poets, painters, musicians and connoisseurs are often drawn to these vocations because they have these qualities and they subsequently flourish in these fields. In my own life I have found that when I open more deeply to the realm of my senses and relax into a spacious awareness I find that I can really enjoy and appreciate a piece of music or a moment in nature; the world around me takes on a vividness and aliveness, becoming a thing of beauty.
"Our senses are indeed our doors and windows on this world, in a very real sense the key to the unlocking of meaning and the wellspring of creativity."
Jean Houston, Teacher.
Many years ago I found myself in a cinema in Manchester during the festive season. As the lights went up at the end of the film, I looked around to see people wiping tears from their eyes, and likewise during the course of the film I had been moved to tears myself on several occasions. I had gone to watch a film that you can guarantee will be showing on TV or at your local cinema as part of the Christmas celebrations. It is Frank Capra's classic 'It's A Wonderful Life'. Made in 1947 and starring a great cast including James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore, Capra's film has a Dickensian quality to it. James Stewart plays the role of a selfless man George Bailey who is much loved in the small town of Bedford Falls; it's a story of redemption that follows his suicidal despair one Christmas night. Clarence the angel appears and shows George how much of a dark and sad place the world would have been without him.
I believe that the reason the film is so loved by so many people is (not only due to Capra's masterful direction and story-telling) because it illustrates a deeper, fundamental truth about the nature of reality. The truth is: that every life is of value and is important. We can often feel powerless in our lives and insignificant, even isolated and alone. But we are all interconnected to each other and to all of life – the threads that connect us to others and the world are not always easy to see. Even after many years of practising Buddhist meditation and yoga I still find myself at times struggling to see and accept that my actions touch other people's lives.
A small act of kindness or a harsh word or action can have a profound effect, beyond what we can imagine. We have a responsibility for the world we live in; we are not separate from it but embedded in a network of complex patterns of connection. It can be helpful to stop and reflect on our lives and all we have done through our actions – great and small. The small acts of kindness shown to others bring us into deeper relationship with the world. Think of all the different people in your life and how their lives would be without you, and then you will begin to see the profound ordinary beauty that is your life.
Clarence The Angel from 'It's A Wonderful Life'
In October of 1967 the British singer/songwriter Donovan released a new single, 'There is a Mountain' which climbed to No.8 in the UK charts. The song was something of a departure for Donovan with its sunny Calypso-style and irresistible melody. Accompanying him on the track were Tony Carr on percussion, Harold McNair on flute and Danny Thompson on bass. The song was later adapted to form the basis of the Allman Brothers' lengthy live 'Mountain Jam' on the album 'Eat a Peach'.
The song's lyrics refer to a Buddhist text originally formulated by the 9th century Zen Buddhist teacher Qingyuan Weixin, later translated by D.T. Suzuki in his 'Essays in Zen Buddhism', one of the first books to popularize Buddhism in Europe and the US. Qingyuan wrote:
"Before I had studied Chan / Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers when I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains and rivers once again as rivers."
In 1965, Donovan was introduced to the Qingyuan Zen text by the US banjo player Derroll Adams, a popular figure on the British 60's folk scene. Donovan took the text and adapted it to create lyrics that would become the song, 'There is a Mountain'.
…First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.
The caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.
Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.
At the heart of Buddhist teachings we are told that all things are impermanent and subject to change and flux. Simply stated, nothing in the world around us or our self is fixed or solid. There are no things, just process and flux. There is no fixed unchanging centre in any object in our experience. Unfortunately, we suffer and experience difficulties in life because we perceive the world around us as solid, looking for stability where there is none.
When we look at a mountain, we may initially perceive it to be a solid and fixed thing in the world. This level of conceptualisation and labelling gives us the false impression that we know what something is e.g. a mountain. Upon meditative reflection we come to realise that the idea of the mountain as being a solid fixed object in our experience is a limited and false misconception. We begin to see more clearly that it is something arising moment by moment in time, dependent on many conditions. It is alive, vibrant, constantly changing and moving. It is not a static, solid fixed object. In the final stage, with a deepening insight, we no longer perceive the mountain as a solid thing but as a flowing process and we then use language to describe the idea or concept of what a mountain is, but from a new awareness where we hold any concepts of things in the world very lightly.
What I love about Donovan's simple song is that within the medium of a disposable pop song that thousands of people have heard over the years, we find a deeply profound Buddhist teaching that within two and half minutes manages to offer more insights than a large volume of books could ever hope to.
On the evening of October 7th 1955, Gallery Six took place in a low-ceilinged former auto-body repair shop in San Francisco. Gallery Six was an event where local artists within the bohemian community could meet and share their work. That evening, various poets including Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen and Michael McClure performed their work. Also that evening, a relatively unknown poet named Allen Ginsberg got up on the makeshift orange-crate podium and read a new poem he had been working on called, 'Howl'. The poem, with its hallucinatory style was seen as a response to Cold War America and drew on themes from Ginsberg's personal experience with references to illicit drugs, sex and homosexuality. This epic poem sent ripples out into the world and even that evening for those who had heard and witnessed its birth, felt that something special had just happened. The poem now considered to be one of the great works of American Literature and the birth of the Beat Generation.
The morning after the debut reading of 'Howl' Lawrence Ferlinghetti, co-founder of the City Lights Bookshop & Press sent Ginsberg a telegram. In it he wrote, "I greet you at the beginning of a great career." Ferlinghetti then published, 'Howl and Other Poems' in 1956.
In 1957, 520 copies of the book were seized by U.S. Customs Officials, and Ferlinghetti was charged with "…willfully and lewdly printing, publishing and selling obscene writings." A famous censorship trail ensued and Ginsberg, along with his friends were thrust into the international headlines. Ferlinghetti won the case as the Judge decided that the poem had, "redeeming social importance." This judgement sealed Ginsberg's role as one of the most famous poets of the modern age.
The definition of the word censorship is, "The name for the process or idea of keeping things like obscene words or graphic images from an audience." If we take the idea that certain images and words are deemed offensive to our morality or decency as true, then we can become bound by the conditioned beliefs of the culture we live in and we are not free.
If we look at our own lives and take a deeper inquiry within, we may find that we have our own censorship trials taking place. What we do on an external level as a society or culture is a mirrored reflection of how we might view ourselves on an inner level. We may have certain thoughts, feelings and images that arise in our experience that we deem unacceptable and this may leave us feeling uncomfortable. As a response to this we may try and censor these aspects of self and label them as, bad or wrong. If we look at this from a Buddhist perspective, this can be seen in a new light. When we observe our thoughts, feelings and perceptions, they cannot be said to be solid or permanent. Everything that arises in our experience is like a play of energy in the mind or a rainbow in the sky. It has no fixed essence, appearing one moment then dissolving the next.
Whatever momentarily arises
in the body-mind
Has no real importance at all,
has little reality whatsoever.
Why identify with,
And become attached to it,
Passing Judgement upon it and ourselves?
Far better to simply
let the entire game happen on its own,
springing up and falling back like waves
without changing or manipulating anything
and notice how everything
vanishes and reappears, magically,
Again and again, time without end.
Free and Easy,
A Spontaneous Vajra Song: Venerable Lama Gendun Rinpoche
When I was a small boy my mother would read to me bedtime stories, which I used to look forward to with great delight. Two of my favorites were AA Milne's "Winnie-The Pooh" and "The Wind In The Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, in which the copy of the latter my mum read from were wonderfully enchanting illustrations by Arthur Rackham. I would find myself engrossed in the adventures of Christopher Robin, Pooh Bear, Eeyore and Piglet – or the amusing tales of Toad of Toad Hall – feeding my hungry imagination with colourful worlds that came to life every evening before bedtime.
I recently met a friend for coffee and, during our time together, I became aware of how strongly the stories or narratives that we tell ourselves shape the lives we live. My friend had a strong story that had been with him for many years, that he was unlovable in some way and, because some part of him believed this to be true, he had found it difficult to experience healthy loving relationships. I too could identify with this view my friend held about himself, as it was once a view I held about myself.
Stories have a way of deeply affecting us. They speak to those deep aspects of our minds and souls. We may connect to them through books, film, television, or even through events that shape our lives. We may have stories that we carry around with us, like a small book hidden in our pocket or buried deep in our hearts or bones. These stories or narratives may help us to live creative and meaningful lives, or they may limit and restrict us in how we view ourselves and the world around us. Some stories we may have carried around with us for so long, maybe even since childhood. They feel like a part of our DNA; we may not even know that they are there.
It is only when we begin to examine and bring awareness to our experience more deeply through practices such as yoga, meditation, psychotherapy and bodywork, that we may begin to see more clearly what our stories are. We then have an opportunity to decide if the stories we carry with us are helpful or not. Do they lead us to a more expansive life of greater meaning, connection and love? Or, do they limit us and leave us feeling isolated and separate from the world and others? The problem with any story, helpful or not, is that it is a idea or concept, but not reality itself. It is something we place onto our experience to make sense of our lives, and it's better to always try and hold concepts and ideas lightly, as they may be the map but not the terrain.
"We live entirely… by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the 'ideas' with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria — which is our actual experience." Joan Didion Writer
Put The Needle On The Record
Several years ago I decided to purchase a record player. I had been considering this for some time and even though I had a hi-fi system that worked perfectly well, and I was able to play a large collection of my CDs, I felt something was missing. As a little boy growing up in the early seventies I was aware of the power of music and how it shaped my world. Seeing Marc Bolan and David Bowie on Top of The Pops, like a lot of young people of my generation, had a profound effect on me. Their androgynous beauty combined with a Dionysian other-worldliness made its mark on my impressionable mind.
I cannot remember what age I was when I played my first record (memory is a slippery beast) but my mother owned a small portable record player – the sort of one that was to be found in teenage bedrooms throughout the land in the 1960s. She was not a huge collector of records herself; her tastes, at the time, were like a lot of young women in the early seventies, leaning towards the singer-songwriters, whose self-reflective, confessional tone caught the mood of the early 70s. I am very grateful for her introducing me to the delights of Bob Dylan, Donovan, Cat Stevens, and early Rod Stewart. She did, however, have four brothers with large record collections who were always passing down records to her, which meant she inherited copies of The Beatles Revolver and Rubber Soul.
One day I found myself alone in the living room with a small pile of 45s and a selection of various albums, and access to my mum's record player. I cannot remember exactly what I played on that day, although I have a faint memory of playing some early Elvis singles. What I do remember was loving the ritual of taking the record out of the sleeve, holding it carefully in my hands, then placing it on the turntable and carrying the needle across 'til it touched the record, then listening to that light crackle of the needle on vinyl and the glorious, warm sound of the record booming out the speaker. I loved the tactile experience and the sense of intimacy it created between me and the record and the music. As I listened to those records I would often lie on the floor gazing for hours at the beautiful record sleeves that adorned each record, that hinted at the music contained within.
So I ask myself the question, have I purchased a record player out of some sort of over-40s male nostalgia? Maybe? But I also feel that, with the increasing growth in modern technology, we now live in a world where we are offered limitless opportunities to listen to music at the touch of a button, to be able to download any film, television show or song in a few moments. As wonderful as these latest developments are (and I am a man who likes his iPod) I feel we lose something on a very human, soulful level. Just because something is easy does not mean it has the same value. Think of the difference between a ready meal from your local supermarket and a meal you have prepared by hand, having gone to your local greengrocer to select your ingredients, and then lovingly cooked for yourself, family or a loved one. Since purchasing my new record player, I have really enjoyed going into Stretford on a Saturday afternoon and going to my local record shop Reel Around the Fountain, looking through the record racks and buying a record with my well earned cash. I feel much more a sense of human interaction and effort made to obtain something I really care about. In my experience people love their record collections – they don't feel the same way about their CDs!
I have made a little pact with myself that the next time I get the urge to go on Amazon because it is easier to buy something, I will try and pause for a moment and ask myself whether I could take effort to go to a local shop and buy it from there.
"Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don't have any surface noise. I said, 'Listen, mate, *life* has surface noise." John Peel ( the longest serving of the original BBC Radio1 DJs)
I was once waiting for a bus as I travelled to teach a morning class. After a while of waiting for the bus to turn up and no sign of it appearing, a woman walked past and informed me, and the other people waiting, that the bus had been diverted as there had been a crash further up the road and the road was blocked. So myself and two old ladies who had been sitting next to me walked down the road till we reached the new diverted bus stop. As I sat with the two women I was aware that I felt quite tired and a sense of feeling isolated and unconnected from myself and my environment. The old lady next to me was telling the other lady that she was anxious, because she was planning to meet her daughter who was waiting for her and she had no way of letting her know she was running late. As I heard the conversation I was aware that I felt separate and removed from the world around me and the two women. I slowly became aware of this deep tension inside of me, one part wanting to stay isolated and detached and something else in me that was reminded of the novelist E M Forster's famous words "only connect".
After sitting with this tension for about a minute, I then reached into my pocket and produced my mobile phone and offered to call the woman's daughter, to let her know her mother was okay. As soon as I spoke to the old woman and I came into relationship with her, I felt something shift in me, as if I had suddenly surrendered and let the world into my experience again and connected to a shared humanity. The old woman was relieved and happy that her daughter had been contacted. I share this story as it reminded me of how so often in our lives we can feel isolated and alone, and how challenging that view and trying to engage and reach out to others reminds us of our interconnectedness to all life and the responsibility we have for the world we live in.
"The important element is the way in which all things are connected. Every thought and action sends shivers of energy into the world around us, which affects all creation. Perceiving the world as a web of connectedness helps us to overcome the feelings of separation that hold us back and cloud our vision. This connection with all life increases our sense of responsibility for every move, every attitude, allowing us to see clearly that each soul does indeed make a difference to the whole." ― Emma Restall Orr, Druid/Poet
When the Stone Roses reformed and played a low-key warm-up show in Warrington Ian Brown spoke to members of the audience who were excited trying to film the gig on their phones. He is reported to have said:
"If you put your cameras down you might be able to live in the moment. You have a memory there of something you've never lived.".
I think Ian Brown is making a valid point; I recently attended a gig myself and found myself frustrated by the amount of people either trying to film the concert on their phone or spending most the evening talking to their friend, rather than just watching the musicians they have paid good money to see. The irony of the situation is that the moment you are excitedly trying to capture on your phone is being missed because you are trying to film it, on a device that will generally reproduce the event poorly.
With the advances in modern technology we now can now access vast amounts of information at the touch of a button, but at what expense to the quality of our lives? With so much information being bombarded at us we can lose the ability to just simply sit and listen to a piece of music, read a book, or eat a meal without the desire to share the experience via the Internet or with the world around us. The quality of mindfulness of just being aware and open to the present moment without trying to add to it is something we can learn to do: allowing the bare experience to be there, fully attending to it in a relaxed open awareness, tasting an aliveness, a vibrancy from the naked awareness of our lives as they unfold moment by moment.
From my experience this is not always a easy thing to do; I recently had a uncomfortable awareness of experiencing an event while at the same time noticing a mental dialog say "Oh I must share this on Facebook" which seemed to pull me away from just being open to the present moment as it was unfolding. I am not advocating that we should never take a photo again, but maybe next time we reach for our mobile to capture that moment, we could try leaving our phone in our pocket and just try being with life just as it is, without needing to hold on to it so tightly. I shall leave you with some words from the wonderful Ray Davis of the Kinks, who captures in song this desire we have to want to constantly capture and hold on to that illusive fleeting moment.
"People take pictures of the summer
Just in case someone thought they had missed it
Just to prove that it really existed
People take pictures of each other
And the moment to last them forever
Of the time when they mattered to someone
Picture of me when I was just three
Sucking my thumb by the old oak tree
Oh, how I love things as they used to be
Don't show me no more, please"
The Kinks' Picture Book from the album The Village Green Preservation Society
The People Inside Us
In 1943 a man wrote in a letter to his wife, "I am so sorry that I forgot our wedding anniversary for the first time but I was so busy these past few days". In another letter home he wrote, "My dear mummy. A few quick lines. Enclosed are two packages and a piece of fruit cake." The man in question who had written these words of affection and love for his family was Heinrich Himmler the Nazi leader of the SS and head of the Gestapo. Heinrich Himmler was also the man who gave the order to destroy the Warsaw Ghetto, one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and one of the people involved in the Holocaust in which six million Jewish people were killed.
What are we to make of these uncomfortable contradictions in one man's actions and behaviour? His ability to both love and hate in equal measure? When I am confronted by these extreme and varying facets of the human psyche I have found it immensely helpful to view the perspective which suggests each of us are polyphonic. That is to say, we made up of many different voices, impulses, attitudes or parts. We are not just one thing.
The idea of the human psyche being multifaceted, even split in some cases is not a new one. Since ancient times man has been aware of multiple personalities within himself. In ancient Greece, in Plato's book 'The Republic' he spoke of three parts of the psyche: 'The rational', 'The appetitive' and 'The spirited'. We also find examples in 20th century literature and in Virginia Woolf's novel 'The Waves' her character Bernard said, "I am not one person: I am many people, I do not altogether know who I am".
In 1910 an Italian Psychoanalyst called Roberto Assagioli began to create a new system of Psychotherapy called Psychosynthesis in which he explored a model following on from Carl Jung making use and understanding of what he called 'sub personalities'. His idea was that a range of these sub personalities existed within us and wanted to express themselves. We might come to meet within ourselves 'The Mystic', 'The Hag', 'The Materialist', 'The Sadist' and 'The Frightened Child' amongst many others and by recognizing that at times a sub personality can take over, it can be a helpful way to understand our somewhat contradictory behaviour. Learning to understand and recognize our inner landscape and the figures or creatures that inhabit it can be helpful. Though listening to all these various voices can sometimes feel like trying to conduct an unruly orchestra and can leave us feeling split or divided. For example, how many times have I been consumed with anger and acted from that state, believing it the right thing to do only to find myself several hours later feeling a sense of regret that I have acted in this way? It might be a helpful perspective to consider that the one fuelled by anger is not now the one feeling the regret.
After these realisations, we can begin to accept those aspects of ourselves and move towards phases of integration. We are then able to hold and stay conscious within ourselves from a place of disidentification where we are less likely to be hijacked by our sub personalities, who may wish to cause us harm or even inflict suffering onto others.
By understanding ourselves and these sub personalities within us, by making conscious and working with both our darkness and our light, we are given a larger, richer context in which to examine what it means to be human.
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large – I contain multitudes."
(Walt Whitman, Poet)
The Cake is Good.
In September of 2014 I spent a very enjoyable week in the Oxfordshire countryside at Charney Manor, a 13th-century manor house situated in the picturesque village of Charney Bassett. The Manor is a very peaceful and tranquil place with beautiful landscaped gardens. People often come from across the country to stay at the manor for reflection and relaxation. The reason for my visit was to attend a week-long Yoga Nidra training course with James Reeves and the iRest community who have been inspired by the work and teachings of Richard Miller, an American yoga teacher and Clinical Psychologist. Yoga Nidra (an ancient meditative practice dating back to 2500 B.C.E.) renamed 'Integrative Restoration' or 'iRest' for short, has been a particularly effective healing practice for military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Since returning from my time at Charney Manor I have spent the last few years exploring Yoga Nidra in more depth in my own practice, with students on retreat, in workshops, and on a one to one basis. I have often been struck by the simple, yet profound effect the practice can have on people. One of the aspects of the practice which has inspired me the most is that it is not seen as a self-improvement plan. Often, with practices such as yoga or meditation we can take them up with an agenda to improve ourselves in some way, which although at times helpful, can also reinforce a deeply held view of an inherent lack of essential goodness.
In the practice of Yoga Nidra we are invited to explore directly through our senses the six koshas (a Sanskrit term meaning sheaths or bodies). In the vijnanamaya kosha we are invited to explore opposite beliefs. For instance, I may believe that if I do or attain something, then I will be better than who I was. The practice invites us to explore the opposite, which would be 'I'm perfect as I am, and there is nothing I need to do or attain that will make me any better than I am'.
In the Buddhist Dzogchen teachings we are offered a view that we all have Buddha Nature or essential goodness, a potentiality that lives within us all but is often hidden to us by ignorance and confusion. We live in a culture of validation through performance and achievement. The dominant view in our culture is to work hard, transcend yourself, develop yourself and get the most out of life.
On a relative level it can be helpful to develop skills to be in the world, but how often do we get validation of ourselves, just for being us? The Buddhist teacher James Low says "Everything you do is icing on the cake, but the cake without icing is fine, the cake is good". Any skills we have are useful but they are conditional, transient and should be held very lightly. This may be a challenging idea to hear, but something I feel every one of us really needs to hear. Maybe as we make our way through the world we could just allow ourselves to accept our essential goodness and trust that we are okay and fine, just as we are.
"You don't have to justify your existence by being useful. You yourself are the justification for your existence. You haven't come into existence after all these millions of years of evolution just to sit down in front of a typewriter, or to keep accounts. You are the justification of that whole process. You are an end in yourself. All that you can really be said to be here for is to develop into some higher form of human life…So don't be ashamed of sitting around and doing nothing. Glory in it. Do things spontaneously, out of a state of inner satisfaction and achievement. It is a virtue to be ornamental as well as useful".
From 'Wisdom Beyond Words' by Sangharakshita, Buddhist teacher.
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Yoga retreats in Scotland 2020
Yoga retreats in Sussex 2020


The msnetobj.dll is a DRM ActiveX Network Object.
This file is part of Microsoft® DRM. Msnetobj.dll is developed by Microsoft Corporation. It's a system and hidden file. Msnetobj.dll is usually located in the %SYSTEM% sub-folder and its usual size is 259,072 bytes.
The msnetobj.dll process is safe and disabling it can be dangerous, because programs on your computer need it to work correctly.


The Sequel 6005 Mobile File Cabinet by BDI Furniture is actually a multipurpose piece – not only does it add storage space, but it also extends the working surface of a Sequel Desk. With duo file drawers and a durable satin-etched tempered glass top, the Sequel 6005 file cabinet makes it easy to work smarter, not harder. Add it to the end of your Sequel workstation or use it as a standalone file storage or printer stand – convenient wheels on locking casters even make it possible to go back and forth between the two. Truly, no Sequel office setup is complete without the Sequel 6005 Mobile File Cabinet.
A satin-etched tempered glass top prevents against dents, dings, scratches and fingerprints. Hardwood veneer is a top-of-the-line finish that's built to last.
File drawer keeps important letter- and legal-sized documents safe and organized. Locking wheels make it easy to move the Sequel 6005 file cabinet where you need it when you need it.


Organisers of the region's innovation conference today announced their line-up of star speakers who aim to raise the North East's economic aspirations through telling their global innovation success stories.
Newcastle web design agency Urban River launches brand new website and branding.
A leading figure from the North East business and academic community is set to share his expertise after joining forces with public relations agency, Round Table Solutions.
Is your business truly safe?
South-Tyneside-based recruitment agency CAS (Composite & Aerospace Solutions) has secured a five figure sum through the Finance for Business North East Microloan Fund. This is a regional loan scheme managed by Rivers Capital Partners that enables small businesses to fund their big ideas.
A professional development training business is expanding further less than a year after launching as demand exceeds expectations.
A North East developer's drive to encourage talented young people into the construction industry has continued with the appointment of two new graduates.
Home owners have started moving into their properties in the first phase of the unique The Malings residential development in the heart of Newcastle's cultural quarter.


A library book with the title Forty Minutes Late was returned to a San Francisco library Friday, 100 years after it was checked out, according to local reports.
The book was returned by Webb Johnson, whose grandmother checked it out from the old Filmore branch in 1917, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The San Francisco Public Library's Park Branch in the Haight did not charge a fine, according to the Chronicle.
Johnson told the Chronicle he discovered the book in 1996 and held on to it for 21 years.
Johnson said he was inspired to return the book when he heard about the library's "Fine Forgiveness Program."
Head City Librarian Luis Herrera told the Chronicle the book will be available after it's cataloged and examined by historians.


Residents of Billings may be familiar with the danger imposed by trucks such as 18-wheelers and tractor-trailers. Because of the size difference of these trucks compared to other vehicles, if a truck driver fails to concentrate on the road, a collision with another vehicle may occur and most likely lead to serious injuries. In a worst-case scenario, the truck may hit a pedestrian.
Recently, a truck accident killed a 26-year-old man who was crossing the street.
It was reported that the truck was driven by a 23-year-old man. Police stated that the driver agreed to undergo drug evaluation and a blood test. The blood test results are not yet available, but the police believed that the driver exhibited no signs of impaired driving. More so, it is reported that no charges or arrests have been made against the truck driver, though the truck accident remains under investigation.
Whenever a truck accident happens, it is important for investigators to observe the possible factors that may have caused the collision. Common factors may be impaired driving, reckless driving or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Apart from these, the driver's legal duty to provide reasonable care while operating the large vehicle may be put in question. In such cases, if the evidence shows that the driver was negligent in causing the injuries, the motorist may face consequences including liability toward the injured party.
Truck accidents can be devastating. Where a truck accident involves in death, the family who lost a loved one due to the incident may be able to receive compensation to support the funeral expenses and other costs. Additionally, if the immediate family believes that the driver's negligence contributed to the collision, they may file a wrongful death case to recover compensatory damages.


text:
Jury finds Jordanian immigrant guilty of capital murder in Houston 'honor killings'
Brian Rogers, Staff Writer
July 26, 2018 Updated: July 26, 2018 10:15 p.m.
1of5Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan is shown in court Monday, June 25, 2018 in Houston holding a paper written in Arabic and colored with orange marker of the mantra, ?"There is no god but God and Mohammad is God?'s Prophet." Irsan was charged with capital murder because his alleged crime involved multiple victims ?— his daughter?'s best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian medical student and activist, and his daughter?'s husband, Coty Beavers, 28. Both slayings, authorities said, were driven by the anger of Irsan, a conservative Muslim, over his daughter Nesreen?'s decision to marry Beavers, a Christian from Houston. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle )Melissa Phillip, Staff / Houston ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
2of5Defense attorney Allen Tanner gives an opening statement during the capital murder trial of Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan is shown in court Monday, June 25, 2018. Irsan was charged with capital murder because his alleged crime involved multiple victims ?— his daughter?'s best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian medical student and activist, and his daughter?'s husband, Coty Beavers, 28. Both slayings, authorities said, were driven by the anger of Irsan, a conservative Muslim, over his daughter Nesreen?'s decision to marry Beavers, a Christian from Houston. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle )Melissa Phillip, Staff / Houston ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
3of5Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, center, is shown in court with his defense attorneys Allen Tanner, left, and Rudy Duarte, right, Monday, June 25, 2018. Irsan was charged with capital murder because his alleged crime involved multiple victims ?— his daughter?'s best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian medical student and activist, and his daughter?'s husband, Coty Beavers, 28. Both slayings, authorities said, were driven by the anger of Irsan, a conservative Muslim, over his daughter Nesreen?'s decision to marry Beavers, a Christian from Houston.( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle )Melissa Phillip, Staff / Houston ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
4of5Prosecutor Jon Stephenson gives an opening statement during the capital murder trial of Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan is shown in court Monday, June 25, 2018. Irsan was charged with capital murder because his alleged crime involved multiple victims ?— his daughter?'s best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian medical student and activist, and his daughter?'s husband, Coty Beavers, 28. Both slayings, authorities said, were driven by the anger of Irsan, a conservative Muslim, over his daughter Nesreen?'s decision to marry Beavers, a Christian from Houston.( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle )Melissa Phillip, Staff / Houston ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
5of5In this courtroom sketch, Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, second from right, responds to questioning by special prosecutor Marie Primm, left, as Judge Jan Krocker and lead defense attorney Alan Tanner, right, listen, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Houston. Irsan is on trial for allegedly plotting two honor killings. (Ken Ellis/Houston Chronicle via AP)Ken Ellis, MBO / Associated PressShow MoreShow Less
A five-week capital murder trial came to a swift ending Thursday when a Harris County jury took less than an hour of deliberations to convict a Jordanian immigrant of killing his son-in-law and orchestrating the slaying of his daughter's close friend in what prosecutors said were "honor killings."
Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, was found guilty of masterminding the two homicides as part of broader plot to kill five people, including his daughter, after she ran away from the family compound in rural Montgomery County, converted to Christianity and married a Christian man.
Family members of the victims said the quick verdict indicates the jury was certain that Irsan was guilty and that "honor killings" are not acceptable.
"Honor killings have no place in American society," said Michael Creed, the older brother of Coty Beavers, one of the victims. "These are not infrequent events that happen in some random part of the world. They're happening in America and they're on the rise."
A lengthy punishment hearing will begin on Friday, and the jury will determine if Irsan should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the double homicide of 28-year-old Beavers in November 2012 and Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian activist who was a close friend of Irsan's daughter, 11 months earlier.
2008 SLAYING: Death row inmate who stomped baby's head in Galveston asks to be executed
As state District Judge Jan Krocker read the verdict, Irsan shook his head slightly and looked down at the counsel table where he was sitting in a black suit.
Texas News & Crime Video: Houston Chronicle
After the courtroom had been cleared, members of the Beavers and Bagherzadeh families, all with tears in their eyes, hugged the prosecutors, who also cried.
"It's been hard for all of us, but it's a good day," said Kathy Soltani, a family friend of the Bagherzadehs. "Two wonderful lives cut short. It's senseless. It's a hard day, even though it's a happy day."
The two seemingly unrelated murders shocked Houston residents in 2012, and for a time there was speculation that Bagherzadeh's murder was the work of Iranian elements unhappy with her criticism of that country's government. But an even darker motive was given in 2015 when Irsan, his wife and their son were charged with planning the killings to restore family honor.
In closing arguments, a team of special prosecutors insisted that the elder Irsan, the father of 12 children by two wives, was driven to murder by his fervent religious beliefs.
"Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan is a radical extremist Muslim who must be stopped," special prosecutor Anna Emmons told jurors. "This is premeditated capital murder to carry out one man's views, it's as simple as that."
She went on to say that prosecutors were not putting Islam on trial, but the religious beliefs of a man who killed two people because his daughter converted to Christianity.
"Honor and shame, that's what this is all about," Emmons said. "You heard him say honor is a big deal to him. And the only way to clean that honor is to kill."
Irsan's defense team worked during closing arguments to blame anyone but their client.
"Ask yourself, do you really know what happened at either scene?" attorney Allen Tanner asked jurors. "I don't think any of you can say exactly what happened."
Tanner used parts of the prosecution's case to argue that the people who testified against Irsan were actually the guilty ones.
He pointed out that prosecutors made a deal with Irsan's wife, Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, 40, to testify in exchange for dropping the murder charge she was facing.
She provided critical testimony by acknowledging she was with Irsan and their oldest son, Nasim, when they followed Bagherzadeh home late at night on January 15, 2012. Alrawabdeh testified she witnessed Nasim Irsan shoot Bagherzadeh in the head.
Alrawabdeh also testified that she was with her husband and son in November 2012 when the two men crept into the northwest Harris County apartment where Beavers lived with Irsan's daughter, Nesreen.
She said the two men came out of the apartment of the newly wedded couple and told her that Irsan had killed Beavers.
Alrawabdeh also testified she was "happy" when Beavers was killed, a statement the defense seized on.
"It's up to you if you want to believe that woman, but that is a cold-blooded lady," Tanner told jurors. "I wouldn't put it past Shmou to be the person who went into that house. She's cold."
Tanner also floated the idea that Nasim Irsan killed Bagherzadeh after the elder Irsan changed his mind about killing the activist outside her parents' home, and so was not guilty. During the trial, there was testimony from Shmou and others that Irsan had "chickened out," so Nasim got out of the car and shot Bagherzadeh.
Nasim Irsan, 24, is in the Harris County jail awaiting trial for capital murder.
However, Tanner did acknowledge that Irsan was angry that his daughter Nesreen ran away from home at the age of 23 and married Beavers.
"He was upset that she ran off with a Christian boy," Tanner said. "That's a fact."
Irsan, who spent most of Wednesday testifying in his own defense, categorically denied any involvement in the slayings. A day earlier, he had shouted that prosecutors were "devils" and "evil" as he was led from the courtroom.
Prosecutor Marie Primm summed up the case as a mission Irsan undertook to control his family and anyone who disobeyed him.
"They had dared to defy Ali Irsan," Primm said. "They had dared to dishonor him, and he was going to clean his honor with blood."
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Brian Rogers covers Houston crime and courts. A licensed attorney who loves telling stories, Brian covers breaking news, civil and criminal trials, and the political underpinnings of criminal justice.


According to media reports, the AFU soldiers at the forefront in the delimi-tation zone of the border for a long time do not get food, and therefore, in order not to die of hunger, the soldiers are forced to look for other ways to obtain food.
Local residents of the frontline zones report that Ukrainian military officers go to the villages and sell weapons and diesel fuel. At the same time, both money and food are asked for as payment. At the same time, the villagers say that mostly the young guys do it.
"Earlier there were other soldiers, they without demand took away every-thing that wanted from us, and new probably still weren't too embittered therefore sell us fuel, and some even the weapons. But do not take it. «We don't need it» says one of the locals.
The plight of the national guard battalions in the Donbass region has been discussed for a long time. The General staff of Ukraine, despite a massive state-ment about the supply of the army with modern combat ration, does not provide it in reality, and even a piece of bread is a problem. Together with the highest ranks, money for food, stay in pockets of officers.
Basically, the modern Ukrainian army on the front line is fed either by sol-diers or volunteers from all over the state.