Mar. 15, 2004 - 17:58 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

The Gamut

Back on the old merry-go-round we go. From the New York Times. The headline should do it, "Research puts "good" cholesterol into doubt." More of the same old stuff it appears. What is good today is bad tomorrow, vice versa, yadda yadda.

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Another article, from the Associated Press takes us into super-cyber-borgland more or less. Headlined, "Robotic Seven-league Boots." A manufactured exoskeleton, this article has a photo of a man wearing this thing and wearing a large back pack. The mechanism goes from heel to hip on both legs, I can see in the picture a hose and wires coming from the back pack to the man's right hand exoskeleton, so it can possibly be assumed that a like hose and wires go to the other leg. The mechanical thing appears complicated enough. Now contains, "More than 40 sensors and hydraulic mechanisms function like a human nervous system, constantly calculating how to distribute the weight being borne and create a minimal load for the wearer." "The exoskeleton consists of a pair of mechanical metal leg braces that include a power unit and a backpack-like frame. The braces are attached to a modified pair of Army boots and are also connected, although less rigidly, to the users legs." "In lab experiments said Homayoon Kazerooni, director of Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory at the University of California-Berkley, "Testers have walked around in the 100 pound exoskeleton plus a 70 pound backpack and felt as if they were carrying only five pounds."

Futher on it says, "Eventually, the device could help rescuers haul heavy equipment up high rise buildings or turn tired troops into striding super soldiers."

It probably works pretty well in the lab no doubt. The picture shows straps around each leg just below the knee and I guess lower back support is in the backpack-like frame. So, it appears to me that if the huge backpack like frame is the full power supply, then where will the man carry a load ? Also it appears to me that the mechanisms should be contained in a weather proof cover to prevent sand, dust, and moisture problems.

I think it will take some more research and development to bring it to the stage where it can be used by firefighters, emergency folks and soldiers. I wish them good fortune in their effort. We need it. Along with that I do hope they do not overload the joints of the human body.

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Then there is an article by Julie Poppen of The Rocky Mountain News about the celebration in Nederland, Colorado (Just a few miles due west of Boulder), The Frozen Dead Guy Days. Sounds weird but there is a body there that has been in dry ice for some years. The corpse of Bredo Morstol whose body is in a Tuff Shed and kept in dry ice by Trygve Bauge a grandson, who was deported to his native Norway in 1994, he pays someone to make regular dry-ice trips to the shed as he awaits the day when science will resurrect his beloved relative. Spring Break in Nederland, Colorado for some folks. Good excuse to party, no ?

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Guess the fight is escalating between The GOVERNMENT and Denver over the asbestos remaining on old Lowry Air Force Base. Wonder how long that will go on ? I think that there are already houses built on some of that area.

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In National news an article by Michael Sniffen of the Associated Press, Titled, "Privacy guards go by wayside. He says, "When congress curtailed Pentagon research it feared would ensnare innocent Americans in the terrorism fight, it also allowed the Bush Administration to eliminate two projects to protect citizen's privacy from futuristic tools."

Poindexter was the man behind the gun aimed at us all. "Late last year, congress closed Poindexter's office in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in response to the uproar over its impact on privacy. But Congress allowed some of Poindexter's, including some data-mining research, to be transferred to intelligence agencies. Congress also left intact similar research begun in 2002 by the Advanced Research and Development Activity, a little-known office that works on behalf of U.S. intelligence." Looks to me like the top spins on like a top that we had as kids that spun and whistled as it went. Only this appears to be in silent perpetual motion, slipping from department to department.

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A cartoon in our paper today called The Fusco Brothers, struck a chord in my being today. One of the brothers says, "I just realized I'm no longer hip." The wolverine in the family says, "Have you tried hipness replacement surgery ?" I think maybe I need that. Round and round she goes and where she stops nobody knows.

Today in our news I ran The Gamut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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