Eve of Apocalypse News

It may be World War III in the near future, but for now, on with the news!

Progress on Paralysis
So some researchers have discovered that the spinal cord, at least in mice, can reroute around blocks in the nerves that transmit the ability to control limbs and such, and are now looking into ways to trigger this repair in people. Apparently the mice were able to get the ability to walk back, but not entirely as well as before.

From the article, I guess the spine consists of outer layers of very long nerves that hook the brain directly to areas to be controlled, and a core of shorter connections. These shorter connections can be repurposed to route around cuts or damage to the very long nerves, it seems. The scientists describe it as being like a traffic detour.

Interesting, and hopefully they can continue their research after we pull ourselves out of the rubble.

Source: Reuters

GM Stands for General Morons
So, I guess GM is desperate to generate any news other than its plummeting market share and growing irrelevance, thanks to companies like Toyota with their silly ideas about actually delivering fuel-efficient cars to the end consumer instead of jerking our collective chain with hydrogen cars and guaranteed-to-never-make-it-to-market-electric auto show prototypes.

This has led to them promoting the idea of, in the near future... automated cars. Yes, GM may not be able to figure out a working hybrid engine, but they think you should trust them to make a car that drives itself!

As the somewhat poorly written article notes, DARPA has an annual contest to produce a car that can drive itself; the military thinks that having convoys that don't require drivers to be human targets is a good idea.

Stopped clocks and all that rot.

At any rate, how does the state of the art DARPA contest fare on automated cars?

The Defense Department contest, which initially involved 35 teams, showed the technology isn't ready for prime time. One team was eliminated after its vehicle nearly charged into a building, while another vehicle mysteriously pulled into a house's carport and parked itself.

Oh yeah. That sounds swell.

If GM was serious about this they could of course attempt to win the annual contest and get a big, fat military contract to pad their bottom line. They're obviously not, though.

He said the company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have cars on the road around 2018.

Ahh, the future is... never going to arrive. As usual.

Source: CNN.com

Kenya Crisis
So there's a big story in Africa, which means you're not going to see much about it on the nightly news. Kenya's latest elections degenerated into an orgy of chaos and violence as the opposition party leader accused the winner of the election of vote fraud. In response the country is flying apart on tribal lines, with the entrenched police brutally targeting tribal groups seen as allying with the oppo leader, and rioting groups forming in response, in some cases arming themselves.

The police are apparently particularly worthy of blame, shooting innocent people, burning children alive and the like.

Noor Adam begged police to spare his children as he lay bleeding from a bullet wound in front of his shop but they set fire to his store anyway, burning to death his 7-year-old daughter and teenage son inside.

...



Adam, a member of the Luhya tribe who have largely backed opposition leader Odinga, said he was sleeping in his shop with his daughter Saida and his 17-year-old son, Rashid, when the police from a different tribe arrived on Dec. 29.

"When I showed my ID, they said, 'He's from the Luhya community ... Shoot him,'" Adam said.

The police shot him in the leg, then turned their attention to his shop.

"I saw the police set the shop on fire. I told them I had children inside," said Adam who was being treated Saturday for an infected bullet wound at the Makina clinic in Nairobi's Kibera slum.

He said he couldn't bear to go back home to sift through the ashes for the bones of his children.

"I can never go back. I want to leave this country," he said, weeping. "They (police) are supposed to protect us."

Ahh, Democracy.

Don't expect to see a lot of coverage on your teevee, of course. This is occuring in one of those dark colored countries without oil. Instead, perhaps you'll get another series on the Evil Muslims Who Have All That Tasty Crude Oil That We Must Liberate For Purely Humanitarian Reasons.

Uggh.

Source: AP/Raw Story

They'll Do It Every Ye-Olde Time
Amusing.

Disney Does Something Right; Hell Freezes Over
So Disney World in Florida, it seems, has 98 separate full service restaurants. Only one of them is a formalwear required, five star joint, specializing in seven-course three hour meals starting at 125 bucks a pop.

People still, in spite of the dress code, tried to bring kids from time to time, so Disney has banned the anklebiters from the ultra formal restaurant.

They're getting some outrage over this from the lunatic fringe, of course.

Why is it a radical proposition to ban children from places they have no business being? Why must I put up with kids everywhere I go? In my movie theatre, at a play, at a nice restaurant, screaming, wailing, running and jumping around -- it's infuriating!

Many thanks to Disney for taking a stand.

Source: AZCentral
Hat Tip to Nidoking's own daily news.