October 11, 12 and 13, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-wikileaks-john-podesta-emails-reveal-campaign-strategy-to-woo-needy-latinos/

WikiLeaks emails reveal Clinton campaign's strategy to woo "needy Latinos"
CBS NEWS
October 13, 2016, 7:10 AM

Play VIDEO-- What leaked emails reveal about Clinton campaign
Play VIDEO -- Clinton deflects email questions by bashing Trump
Related: Leaked campaign emails show moderate side of Hillary Clinton
WiliLeaks [sic] exposes some of Clinton’s Wall Street speeches


As Hillary Clinton sampled tacos in Las Vegas, the latest batch of apparently stolen emails from her campaign chairman, John Podesta, were giving her opponent something to chew on.

WikiLeaks plans to release another batch of the 50,000 emails it claims it has, every day between now and Election Day – enough to create a constant trickle of embarrassment for the campaign. Aides argue this is exactly what the Russians and Trump wanted, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

The emails from Podesta’s gmail account reveal the ego-stroking and horse-trading involved in courting top supporters. In one 2015 email entitled, “Needy Latinos,” Podesta urged Clinton to call former Energy Secretary Fedrico Pena, who is “close to committing but carrying some baggage,” and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, “notwithstanding the fact that he can be a d***.”

Another exchange with Obama campaign manager David Plouffe reveals Clinton was laying the groundwork for a possible run far earlier than previously known.

In December of 2013, Plouffe agreed to “enlist” a “small number” of people to draw up a battle plan, but promised his helpers would have “no knowledge of who the project is for of course.”

Clinton advisor Cheryl Mills was equally secretive, telling Plouffe, “I have shared that we met with (Hillary Clinton) and (John Podesta); and with no others.”

The emails – which cannot be independently verified by CBS – are a distraction for Clinton, when the campaign would rather stay focused on Trump.

“This just shows how desperate they are,” Clinton said at a rally at the state fairgrounds in Pueblo, Colorado. “I gotta tell you, I don’t care what he says about me. I care about you and all the other people in this country.”

Polls now show Clinton leading in six of 13 battleground states, including Colorado, where new voter registration stats repotedly [sic] show Democratic voters exceeding Republicans for the first time in 32 years.

“I think Americans want to turn out in as big a number as possible to reject the dark and divisive and hateful campaign that is being run by my opponent,” Clinton said.

The Washington Post editorial board endorsed Clinton Thursday morning, saying, “No, we are not making this endorsement simply because Ms. Clinton’s chief opponent is dreadful.”

The endorsement is hardly a surprise, as the paper has never endorsed a Republican for president.



I will simply say that the “needy Latinos” phrase came from Podesta and not from Clinton. Still, it is going to hurt her. Her image as kind, honest and trustworthy is diminishing every day. I do, however, welcome more of WikiLeaks’ emails, because I want the public to know everything that has happened behind the scenes. Only if that happens, will Sanders have a good chance T\to beat the Democrat when he runs in 2020 on an Independent ticket.

Another set of today’s batch of emails, while not damning in my view, shows a script-like plan of how HRC will “casually” introduce a subject by appearing to make a joke. Many on the Hillary side of things, including members of the Press, have made fun of Biden for his off the cuff comments and gaffs, implying he isn’t bright enough to be President. I trust people who speak off the cuff much more than those who plan and rehearse their comments. I prize honesty over carefully sanitized speech any day. I’m so glad that in just a few weeks now we will vote, and Clinton will have beaten the Donald soundly. Right?



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pentagon-mulls-retaliation-yemen-missiles-threaten-ship/

"Anybody who puts U.S. Navy ships at risk does so at their own peril:" Pentagon mulls Yemen retaliation
CBS/AP
October 11, 2016, 12:37 PM

Photograph -- The U.S. destroyer USS Mason sails in the Suez canal in Ismailia, Egypt, in a March 12, 2011 file photo. AP


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The Pentagon is contemplating retaliatory action after missiles were fired at the USS Mason from rebel-held territory inside Yemen on Sunday.

Defense Department spokesperson Capt. Jeff Davis told CBS News an investigation into who exactly fired the missiles is underway.

“We’re going to find out who did it and take action accordingly,” Davis said. “Anybody who puts U.S. Navy ships at risk does so at their own peril.”

If the U.S. does act, it will be drawn deeper into an increasingly ugly and complex fight in Yemen. The missile was almost certainly fired from Shiite rebel territory, and they are the ethnic group currently in control of the capital with significant assistance from Iran.

The rebels in Yemen have reportedly previously threatened and attacked ships off the coast that were supporting their enemies.

The missile launches Sunday came as a ballistic missile fired from Yemen apparently targeted a Saudi air base near the Muslim holy city of Mecca, the deepest strike yet into the kingdom by Shiite rebels and their allies. The rebels fired another two missiles into the Saudi Jizan region along the border on Monday, wounding two foreigners who worked there, the local civil defense said in a statement.

Yemen’s Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies offered no reason for the launches, though they came after a Saudi-led airstrike targeting a funeral in Yemen’s capital killed over 140 people and wounded 525 on Saturday.

That was just the latest of many disasters in the Yemen conflict, which has left over 20 million people - “an astounding 80 percent of the population,” according to the U.N. - in need of humanitarian aid.

Since the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed coalition started launching airstrikes against Shiite Houthi rebels in March 2015, at least 4,125 civilians have been killed and over 7,200 wounded in Yemen, including 369 civilian casualties this month alone, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein’s office said in a statement.

The Saudi-led coalition backs the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The coalition is fighting Shiite Houthi rebels and supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.



When I first started looking at almost every day’s news, I felt disturbed every time one of these incidents occurred, but now I feel fairly certain that we won’t end up in a major war. If our ship does fire back, sometimes that’s the kind of diplomacy that works.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bob-dylan-wins-2016-nobel-prize-in-literature/

Bob Dylan wins 2016 Nobel Prize in literature
CBS/AP
October 13, 2016, 7:23 AM

Photograph -- Bob Dylan performs during the 17th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards on Jan. 12, 2012, in Los Angeles. CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY IMAGES
17 Photos -- Rare photos of Bob Dylan's epic Rolling Thunder tour
Photograph -- bob-dylan-performs-ap-6311080110.jpg, Folk singer and songwriter Bob Dylan performing on Nov. 8, 1963. AP


STOCKHOLM -- American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan won the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award on a musician.

The Swedish Academy cited Dylan for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

Reporters and others gathered for the announcement at the academy’s headquarters in Stockholm’s Old Town reacted with a loud cheer as his name was read out.

Dylan, who turned 75 in May, had been mentioned in the Nobel speculation for years, but few experts expected the academy to extend the prestigious award to a genre such as popular music.

The academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said that while Dylan performs his poetry in the form of songs, that’s no different from the ancient Greeks, whose works were often performed to music.

“Bob Dylan writes poetry for the ear,” she said. “But it’s perfectly fine to read his works as poetry.”

Dylan is not the first songwriter to be honored with the Nobel Prize, notes CBS News’ David Morgan. The committee has awarded playwrights and poets, some of whom -- like Frederic Mistral (1904) and William Butler Yeats (1923) -- also wrote song lyrics. The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European laureate (Nobel in Literature 1913), wrote about two thousand songs, music dramas, and the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.

But certainly no literature laureate is known as both a songwriter and a performer. Dylan’s recognition is a huge first on the Nobel Committee’s part in recognizing the performance of songs -- words meant to be sung, not just read -- as literature.

Dylan was born on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota. He grew up in a Jewish middle-class family. He’s the first American winner of the Nobel literature prize since Toni Morrison in 1992.

By his early 20s, he had taken the folk music world by storm. “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin” became anthems for the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. Dylan was also awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his contributions to music and American culture.

The literature award was the last of this year’s Nobel Prizes to be announced. The six awards will be handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

A listing of Dylan recordings (as noted on his website):

“Bob Dylan,” 1962
“The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” 1963
“The Times They are A-Changin’,” 1964
“Another Side of Bob Dylan,” 1964
“Bringing It All Back Home,” 1965
“Highway 61 Revisited,” 1965
“Blonde on Blonde,” 1966
“Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits,” 1967
“John Wesley Harding,” 1967
“Nashville Skyline,” 1969
“Self Portrait,” 1970
“New Morning,” 1970
“Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2,” 1971
“Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” (soundtrack), 1973
“Dylan,” 1973
“Planet Waves,” 1974
“Before the Flood,” 1974
“Blood on the Tracks,” 1975
“The Basement Tapes,” 1975
“Desire,” 1976
“Hard Rain,” 1976
“Street Legal,” 1978
“At Budokan,” 1979
“Slow Train Coming,” 1979
“Saved,” 1980
“Shot of Love,” 1981
“Infidels,” 1983
“Real Live,” 1985
“Empire Burlesque,” 1985
“Biograph,” 1985
“Knocked Out Loaded,” 1986
“Dylan & the Dead” (with the Grateful Dead), 1988
“Down in the Groove,” 1988
“Oh Mercy,” 1989
“Under the Red Sky,” 1990
“The Bootleg Series, Vol 1-3,” 1991
“Good as I Been to You,” 1992
“The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, 1992
“World Gone Wrong,” 1993
“Greatest Hits, Vol. III,” 1994
“MTV Unplugged,” 1995
“Time Out of Mind,” 1997
“Live 1996,” 1998
“The Essential Bob Dylan,” 2000
“Love and Theft,” 2001
“Bob Dylan Live 1975,” 2002
“Bob Dylan Live 1964,” 2004
“No Direction Home,” 2006
“The Best of Bob Dylan,” 2006
“Modern Times,” 2006
“Dylan,” 2007
“Tell Tale Signs,” 2008
“Together Through Life,” 2009
“Christmas in the Heart,” 2009
“The Collection,” 2009
“The Original Mono Recordings,” 2010
“The Witmark Demos,” 2010
“The Best of the Original Mono Recordings,” 2010
“All Time Best: Dylan,” 2011
“The Best of Original Mono Recordings,” 2010
“Bob Dylan in Concert: Brandeis University,” 2011
“Tempest,” 2012
“Another Self-Portrait”
“The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration,” 2012
“The Basement Tapes Complete”
“The Basement Tapes Raw”
“Shadows in the Night,” 2015
“The Best of the Cutting Edge”
“The Cutting Edge”
“Fallen Angels,” 2016

Earlier this year, renowned photographer Ken Regan released a limited edition book capturing rare, intimate images of Dylan on tour.



I loved the Rock music genre in general. Unlike “Rock n’ Roll, it had a subtle feel to it, and the lyrics were indeed my type of poetry. It was also very much on the emotional level in its’ effect. Singers with the bluesy voices always appealed to me most, and Dylan was one of the best. I say “was,” but in his mid-seventies he is still performing. I very much approve of song lyrics being classed as poetry, and of music being considered worthy of a Nobel Prize. Congratulations, Bob.


THE KING OF THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS


https://www.yahoo.com/news/how-alex-jones-a-trump-approved-conspiracy-theorist-is-disrupting-the-presidential-race-181955203.html

How Alex Jones, a Trump-approved conspiracy theorist, is disrupting the presidential race
Christopher Wilson
October 12, 2016

In the long history of United States’ presidents, the chief executive has defended the office against myriad accusations, but Tuesday is likely to have been the first time that a sitting president has had to deflect accusations that he might be a demon.

“Democracy in a big, diverse country doesn’t work if you constantly demonize each other,” President Obama noted Tuesday, speaking at a rally in Greensboro, N.C. “And I mean that literally, by the way. I was reading the other day, there’s a guy on the radio who — apparently Trump’s on his show frequently — he said me and Hillary are demons. Said we smell like sulfur. Ain’t that something?”

Obama then sniffed his arm for effect, delighting the crowd of Clinton supporters attending his speech.

The “guy on the radio” Obama was referring to is Alex Jones, a libertarian radio host who has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “almost certainly the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America.”

Jones runs the website Infowars and is a purveyor of numerous conspiracy theories, among them claims that 9/11 was an inside job, that the government is turning American children gay through their juice boxes, that no one died at Sandy Hook and, most recently, that President Obama and Hillary Clinton are possessed by demons.

“I never said this, because the media will go crazy with it,” said Jones on his show Monday, “but I’ve talked to people that are in protective details, they’re scared of her. And they say listen, she’s a frickin’ demon, and she stinks and so does Obama. I go, like what? Sulfur. They smell like Hell.”

This is hardly the first time during the campaign that Jones has forced his way into the national conversation.

In late August, Clinton turned a spotlight on Jones, when she cited him as the source behind some false claims that her rival, Donald Trump, had repeated on the campaign trail. “This is what happens when you listen to radio host Alex Jones, who claims that 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombings were inside jobs,” she said.

Clinton’s speech was the most high-profile reference to Jones and his ideas in the mainstream media since his 2013 CNN interview with Piers Morgan.


View image on Twitter
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Alex Jones ✔ @RealAlexJones
There's a war on for your mind and http://Infowars.com is the 21st century cavalry!
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Jones, a vocal supporter of Trump and a detractor of Clinton, does not stop at words, but urges his devoted listeners to action, exhorting them to push his agenda at campaign events. (Jones has 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube, and Infowars is estimated to have somewhere between 6 million and 8 million monthly visitors. He claims to reach at least 20 million people worldwide.)

At a Florida rally on Tuesday, Clinton, who was sharing the stage with former Vice President Al Gore, was interrupted multiple times by protesters shouting, “Bill Clinton is a rapist.” The protesters were drowned out by her supporters, but their purpose was clear: They were attempting to collect on a bounty offered by Jones to anyone who could be heard shouting that phrase or wearing a T-shirt displaying the slogan. Similar shouts were heard at a Bill Clinton event Saturday in Milwaukee and during Obama’s speech in Greensboro.

Considering how extreme his positions are (other examples include charges that the Boston Marathon bombing was perpetrated by the FBI and that the government can create tornadoes to use as weapons against its own people ), the outsized role his comments have played in the 2016 election may seem surprising. Trump appeared on Infowars in December, participating in a 30-minute interview in which Jones inaccurately praised his foresight for opposing the Iraq war and for building a successful business from “nothing.” (Trump’s claims that he opposed the Iraq war before it started have been refuted, and his business career was aided by his father at many points along the way.)

Trump finished the interview by telling Jones that his reputation was “amazing” and that he wouldn’t let him down. Trump maintains other ties to Jones. One of Jones’ allies in his quest to take down Clinton is Roger Stone, Jr., who has been an advisor to Trump throughout his campaign. Stone, a former Nixon adviser who has Nixon’s face tattooed on his back, has written extensively on Clinton conspiracies.

Even Jones has seemed surprised to see his rhetoric embraced by a mainstream party presidential candidate. He said in August that it was “surreal” to see the Republican nominee taking his ideas and repeating them “word for word.”

Journalist Jon Ronson considers himself the Simon Cowell in Jones’ rise to fame, having helped elevate him as a result of a joint investigation the two embarked on in 2000 into the Bohemian Grove in California, where some of the most powerful men in the world gather every July to participate in odd rituals. Ronson chronicles his history with Jones in the Kindle Single “The Elephant in the Room,” from their initial meeting, through time he spent with Jones during and after the Republican National Convention.

In an interview with Yahoo News, Ronson, when asked how much influence Jones has had on the election, replied, “I think he’s had quite a lot.”

“Trump at a rally in California,” Ronson said, “postulated that there was no Californian drought, and in fact the California elites and government had seized the water and were dumping it into the sea to protect a 3-inch fish. And that was practically word for word something Alex had postulated days earlier.

“Both Trump and Trump Jr. have retweeted Alex’s articles, always in positive terms,” Ronson said. “Alex and Trump have both been spreading the, I think, disgraceful theory that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the Twin Towers going down. That’s something that Alex and Trump embarked upon together.”

After audio was leaked in which Hillary Clinton referred to some Trump supporters as “a basket of deplorables,” Donald Trump Jr. responded by posting a “Deplorables” meme to Instagram. The photo included Trump, two of his sons, vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, and Trump supporters Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York. It also included Jones, frozen mid-shout, and Stone, implying that they were members of the campaign’s inner circle.

Yahoo News attended the “America First Unity Rally” in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention in July, which Jones and Stone attended. Dozens of supporters wore “Hillary for Prison” shirts that are sold on Infowars, and when Jones finally took the stage after a series of introductory speakers, the crowd of a couple of hundred people rushed to the front and cheered loudly. Later that week, Jones was involved in an altercation with a group of Black Lives Matter supporters, but it was peacefully resolved when police escorted the host out of Public Square.

Scuffle breaks out between Alex Jones and BLM protesters

Just a few blocks away from the site of the Republican National Convention being held at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, a scuffle broke out after right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio show host Alex Jones interrupted a Black Lives Matter rally. Police eventually led Jones away.

Before gaining notoriety online, Jones was known as a syndicated radio host in Austin, Texas, his home base. In addition to his championing of conspiracy theories, he is also a big promoter of a line of vitamins, testosterone supplements and vitality pills. His online store is a one-stop shop to purchase anti-Clinton shirts alongside products named Infowars DNA Life Force, Survival Shield X and Super Male Vitality.

Jones enjoys wide popularity online, of both the sincere and insincere variety. Jones’ extreme vocal styling also makes him a popular subject for clipping for social media, especially on the platform Vine. Twitter user @ToddDracula, who contributes to TheStreet and Cafe, has become quite adept at taking Jones’ already dramatic rants and adding his own touches.


Follow
CAFE ✔ @cafedotcom
The best part of this election has for sure been watching @realalexjones slowly devolve into a literal baby. (by @ToddDracula)
2:00 PM - 11 Oct 2016
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Jones stands by his claims, however wild they may be. “I have deep context for every claim I make,” said Jones to Rolling Stone in a 2011 interview. “I know some people say I exaggerate, but I believe everything I say. It’s just that the denial is so strong, the apathy so deep, that people need something to shake them out of their morass. We’re like flowers who naturally turn toward the sun, and the globalists want us turned toward Hollywood and the TV so they can poison us. It’s like one of those drawings with a hidden pattern. Once you stare long enough, it appears. Then you wonder: How did I ever not see it?”

It’s not likely that Jones or his followers will recede from the national stage before the election. He claims to have allocated $100,000 in bounties to be paid out to disrupters, suggesting that more protesters are likely to stage demonstrations like the shouts of “rapist” in Florida this week. The fact that Jones’ theories, after so much time on the fringe, have become mainstream is perhaps the clearest marker of how outrageous the 2016 campaign has become.

“I’ve known Alex for 20 years,” said Ronson, “and on a personal level, I like him very much and admire what a charismatic and great broadcaster he is. But that doesn’t stop me from being aghast at the things he promotes, and especially aghast at how the things he promotes made it to the Republican Party.”


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtSVBTne-KY

Dark Secrets inside Bohemian Grove ( Alex Jones )

Uploaded on Aug 15, 2007
The originals 2 hours long this is a shorter version, removed the boring stuff



EXCERPTS -- “Trump at a rally in California,” Ronson said, “postulated that there was no Californian drought, and in fact the California elites and government had seized the water and were dumping it into the sea to protect a 3-inch fish. And that was practically word for word something Alex had postulated days earlier. “Both Trump and Trump Jr. have retweeted Alex’s articles, always in positive terms,” Ronson said. “Alex and Trump have both been spreading the, I think, disgraceful theory that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the Twin Towers going down. That’s something that Alex and Trump embarked upon together.”


The problem with these people is that some people actually believe them and, unlike so many Black and Hispanic people, they are allowed to vote. I miss Pat Paulsen. He could put some perspective on these things.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/taking-selfies-may-be-good-for-you-study-finds/

Taking selfies may be good for you, study finds
By MIREYA VILLARREAL CBS NEWS October 12, 2016, 7:48 PM

LOS ANGELES -- Jackie Keyler is a self-proclaimed selfie fanatic.

19 PHOTOS -- Dangerous selfies -- The Indiana native was in Los Angeles for less than two days and had already taken sixty selfies.


“You just want to document everything that you’re doing and send it out to everyone so they can see it,” she said.

Keyler is not alone. Selfie mania is everywhere, whether you’re an A-list celebrity or just feel like one.

A new selfie study from the University of California, Irvine, says taking more smiling selfies increases your chances of happiness.

Forty-one students spent four weeks taking selfies and then reporting their moods. Over time, they noticed an obvious change. They were happier and more confident, and that mood lasted the entire day, even when they fake smiled.

“You can engage in the act of being happy,” said University of Southern California associate professor Mark Marino.

Judge rules on whether monkey can own selfie photos copyright

Marino incorporates selfies in one of his writing classes.

The art of the selfie: Take a look at new statue in Texas
Play VIDEO
The art of the selfie: Take a look at new statue in Texas
“This kind of self-reflection helps people identify both features, both who they want to see themselves as and who they are communicating themselves to be,” Marino said.

But psychologist and UCLA associate professor Yalda Uhls warns too many selfies could be too much of a good thing.

“When we grew up, we took pictures of other people, of places, we reflected out instead of reflecting in,” she said.

So whether you take your selfies with a stick or the old-fashioned way, the key is self-control.



There was a medical doctor on the TV news some ten years ago, who recommended laughter as therapy, and I think that really is something that can change our mood. It also was said to promote better physical health. Our bodies do have different brain chemistry after or during sex, and I also think we probably do with laughter, as well. So if seeing themselves in that little mirror and snapping photos makes them happier it’s probably a good thing. I think snapping selfies is probably the least harmful kind of egotism.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-charlie-rose-interviews-a-robot-sophia/

Charlie Rose interviews…a robot?
What happens when Charlie Rose attempts to interview a robot named "Sophia" for his 60 Minutes report on artificial intelligence
Oct 09, 2016
BY Brit McCandless

Photograph -- ot-aisophia07.jpg, Sophia’s “brain” CBS NEWS
Photograph -- ot-aisophia06.jpg, Sophia and creator David Hanson speak with Charlie Rose CBS NEWS
Photograph -- ot-aisophia11.jpg, Sophia CBS NEWS
Play Video -- Artificial Intelligence, real-life applications, On 60 Minutes Overtime, Charlie Rose explores the labs at Carnegie Mellon on the cutting edge of A.I. See robots learning to go where humans can't


“I’ve been waiting for you,” Sophia tells 60 Minutes correspondent Charlie Rose. They’re mid-interview, and Rose reacts with surprise.

“Waiting for me?” he asks.

“Not really,” she responds. “But it makes a good pickup line.”

Sophia managed to get a laugh out of Charlie Rose. Not bad for a robot.

Rose interviewed the human-like machine for this week’s two-part 60 Minutes piece on artificial intelligence, or A.I. In their exchange, excerpted in the clip above, Rose seems to approach the conversation with the same seriousness and curiosity he would bring to any interview.

“You put your head where you want to test the possibility,” Rose tells 60 Minutes Overtime. “You’re not simply saying, ‘Why am I going through this exercise of talking to a machine?’ You’re saying, ‘I want to talk to this machine as if it was a human to see how it comprehends.’”

Sophia’s creator, David Hanson, believes that if A.I. technology looks and sounds human, people will be more willing to engage with it in meaningful ways.

“I think it’s essential that at least some robots be very human-like in appearance in order to inspire humans to relate to them the way that humans relate to each other,” Hanson says. “Then the A.I. can zero in on what it means to be human.”

He envisions robots as companions for people who would otherwise be socially isolated, such as the elderly. “If you have a robot that can communicate in a very human-like way and help somebody who otherwise doesn’t know how to use a computer, put them in touch with their relatives,” Hanson explains, “put them in touch with their healthcare provider in a way that is natural for them, then that could provide a critical difference of connectivity for that person with the world.”

Through his company Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong, Hanson has created twenty human-like robots, even developing artificial skin that simulates the physics of facial flesh. Sophia is his latest design, modeled after Audrey Hepburn and Hanson’s wife.

“Sophia means wisdom,” Hanson explains, “and she is intended to evolve eventually to human-level wisdom and beyond.”

She still has a long way to go.

“Sometimes she can figure things out in a way that’s sort of spooky and human-like,” Hanson says. “And other ways, she just doesn’t get it.”

During Sophia’s interview, Rose asks her if she’s been programmed, but she responds only with silence. At times, her replies were nonsensical. But at other moments 60 Minutes producers were surprised by her ability to converse with one of the great conversationalists in journalism.

Sophia’s “brain” has been programmed, but Hanson says she is also able to create spontaneous responses based on algorithms. She runs on A.I. that analyzes her conversations and extrapolates information afterward. In theory, this helps her to improve her future responses. According to Hanson, her pickup line to Rose was one example of a spontaneous response.

She has cameras inside her eyes and a wide-angle camera on her chest that allows her to see multiple people at once. She can perceive depth with a 3D sensor and has facial and voice recognition capabilities.

“I don’t think it’s a parlor trick,” Rose says. “I don’t think they’re doing it in a sense to entertain. I think they’re doing it because they believe that this is the way to the future.”

Though, for now, Hanson’s robot still seems more machine than man; Rose says he was never able to lose himself in the conversation with her. “Right now, the word ‘artificial’ is true,” he says.

Hanson concedes that his dream -- creating A.I. robots that look human yet have the capacity to be smarter than humans -- is not met with universal acceptance in the scientific community, but he is undeterred.

“It could happen 20 years from now,” Hanson says of super intelligent robots. “Or it could just suddenly appear because we hit the right combination on an algorithm. One day people are saying it’s never going to happen; the next day, it’s suddenly changing our world.”



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-artificial-intelligence-real-life-applications/

Artificial Intelligence, real-life applications
On 60 Minutes Overtime, Charlie Rose explores the labs at Carnegie Mellon on the cutting edge of A.I. See robots learning to go where humans can't
BY Brit McCandless
Oct 09, 2016

Photograph -- ot-ai09.jpg, One challenge for robots is mastering human dexterity, like gripping and picking up cups CBS NEWS
Photograph -- ot-ai18.jpg, Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science Dean Andrew Moore talks with Charlie Rose as they walk among some of the school’s latest robotic projects CBS NEWS
Photograph -- ot-ai06.jpg, Carnegie Mellon is developing this autonomous tank, known as a land tamer, to work with the Army CBS NEWS
Photograph -- ot-ai10.jpg, The robot CHIMP has human-like capabilities and can enter situations too dangerous for humans CBS NEWS


Like many of the students around them, robots at Carnegie Mellon University are constantly learning — learning how to think, how to move, and how to be more like humans.

“It’s sort of this wonderland of innovation,” says 60 Minutes producer Nichole Marks in the video above. “Everywhere you go, every corner of the campus, there are robots -- robots in the hallways, robots picking things up, robots talking to you.”

Marks and correspondent Charlie Rose visited the Carnegie Mellon campus in Pittsburgh while reporting their two-part story on artificial intelligence, or A.I., for this week’s episode of 60 Minutes. What they found in the old steel town was a glimpse into the future, says Rose. And it’s a future where A.I. may enable robots to take on both the mundane and the extraordinary.

The 60 Minutes team explored the campus’ robotics and artificial intelligence labs with former Google VP Andrew Moore, who now runs the Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. Moore says his goal is to nurture the next generation of computer scientists who could change the world through innovation.

“When you’re programming a robot, it’s like magic,” Moore tells Rose. “And so the thing I tell middle schoolers is the closest thing to getting to go to Hogwarts is being able to do robotics and A.I.”

The autonomous robots in Carnegie Mellon’s labs may seem magical, but many of them have very practical applications. In the video above, Moore shows the 60 Minutes team robots that could assist humans in military operations, disaster response scenarios, and fields that range from archeology to domestic service.

One of the projects the 60 Minutes team saw at Carnegie Mellon is an autonomous tank called the Land Tamer, which can operate without human intervention on the battlefield. The U.S. Army sponsored a test run of the vehicle last year that demonstrated how Land Tamer could be dropped into dangerous situations -- by a self-flying helicopter, no less -- and then achieve its mission on the ground independently, without putting soldiers in harm’s way.

The 60 Minutes team also met CHIMP, or CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform, a robot intended to perform tasks in situations that are too dangerous for humans, such as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

Because CHIMP is supposed to work independently in disastrous conditions, it needs both manual and mental nimbleness. “An important part of the design these days is you can’t guarantee you’re going to be in radio contact all the time, so the thing has to be able to think for itself when it’s out of radio communication,” Moore tells 60 Minutes.

But don’t expect robots to replace humans too quickly. “A lot of these robots are in their infancy,” Marks says. “And they mess up.” Everyday tasks like picking up a cup of coffee can still confound a robot.

Moore concedes that roboticists and A.I. researchers still have a lot of work to do. But he’s optimistic that A.I. will someday help us live a safer, more secure existence.

“The biggest problems of the world — terrorism, mass migration, climate change — when I look at these problems, I don’t feel helpless,” Moore says. “I feel that this generation of young computer scientists is actually building technology to put the world right.”

The video above was produced by Will Croxton and Ann Silvio, and edited by Will Croxton.



Robots are already in use to defuse bombs and enter dangerous situations such as a criminal who has holed up and is shooting at police. I’m very much interested in robotics, and if I should win at least $1,000,000 on the Lotto I think maybe I’ll buy one. Most of them really are cute.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/houston-texas-911-operator-accused-hanging-up-thousands-calls/

Houston 911 operator accused of hanging up on thousands of calls
CBS/AP
October 13, 2016, 12:01 PM

Photograph -- Crenshanda Williams, a Houston 911 operator accused of hanging up on thousands of emergency calls, is seen in a police booking photo obtained by CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV.


HOUSTON -- A Houston 911 operator accused of hanging up on thousands of emergency calls is charged with two counts of interference with an emergency telephone call.

Harris County court records show 43-year-old Crenshanda Williams of Houston was charged Oct. 5 and freed on $2,000 bond. She faces a court appearance next week.

KPRC-TV reported Williams was involved in thousands of “short calls,” lasting 20 seconds or less, between October 2015 and March. Joe Laud, the Houston Emergency Center administration manager, said Thursday she was placed on indefinite suspension and fired Aug. 4.

In one incident, Williams hung up on a caller reporting a robbery in progress at a convenience store. The man called back and spoke to a different operator, but by the time police arrived, the store manager was fatally shot.

In another, a security guard reported drivers drag racing, CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV reports. Investigators said that Williams hung up moments later. The recording captures her saying “ain’t nobody got time for this. For real.”

The Associated Press could not reach Williams for comment; her phone number is not listed and online court records don’t list an attorney to speak on her behalf.

Police said when Williams was questioned in June, she told them she often hangs up on calls because she didn’t want to talk with anyone at that time.

One caller, Buster Pendley, said Williams hung up on him March 1 when his wife collapsed and lost consciousness. Pendley said he tried to perform CPR on his wife with one hand while calling 911 with the other.

“The 911 operator answered the phone, and she said, ‘This is Crenshanda, may I help you?’” Pendley recalled. He told her his wife had passed out and needed an ambulance, the operator said OK then hung up.

He got help after a second 911 call and his wife, Sharon Stephens, survived, but the experience still makes her angry.

“I would have gotten from my hospital bed and gone to 911 and find out who did that to me,” she said.

If convicted, Williams could be sentenced to up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine for each count.



“KPRC-TV reported Williams was involved in thousands of “short calls,” lasting 20 seconds or less, between October 2015 and March. Joe Laud, the Houston Emergency Center administration manager, said Thursday she was placed on indefinite suspension and fired Aug. 4. …. In another, a security guard reported drivers drag racing, CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV reports. Investigators said that Williams hung up moments later. The recording captures her saying “ain’t nobody got time for this. For real.” …. Police said when Williams was questioned in June, she told them she often hangs up on calls because she didn’t want to talk with anyone at that time.


This woman really is a sick cookie. Violence I understand, but not sheer sadism. True, she didn’t shoot those people, but she might as well have. I wish she could go to jail for more like five years. Such a high level of ill will toward her fellow humans is a clear sign of mental illness. It could also be that she is a drug addict, and under the influence while at work. Her photo shows a sullen and certainly not repentant woman. I thought from the picture that she was probably not older than 25, but she is 43. I wonder how she is going to make a living now.