'the Gorilla" dead

Papal favourite linked to Vatican scandal dead at 84

By Adam Bernstein
in Washington
February 23, 2006

Photo: Papal bodyguard and banker … Paul Marcinkus in 1982.
Photo: AP

PAUL MARCINKUS, the papal bodyguard dubbed "the Gorilla" and a titular archbishop who led the Vatican bank into a monetary scandal of staggering proportions, has died at his home in Sun City, Arizona.

Archbishop Marcinkus, 84, reportedly had emphysema.

After joining the priesthood in Chicago, where he was born to Lithuanian immigrants, he served in the Vatican's diplomatic corps and soon became a favourite of Pope Paul VI.

A hulking, 195-centimetre-tall rugby player, he served as bodyguard and "advance man" on Paul's historic diplomatic outreach trips abroad.

He was said to have safeguarded the pontiff in 1970 from a knife-wielding assailant at Manila airport. This, along with a penchant for one-liners and an athletic swagger, endeared the archbishop to Paul.

He was president of the bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works, from 1971 to 1989, and always had a zinger that explained his work: "You can't run a church on Hail Marys."
He was among the most powerful members of the Vatican elite, and it was assumed he would be elevated to cardinal or serve as president of Vatican City. But his reputation suffered markedly in 1982, when he was indicted as an accessory in the multibillion-dollar financial collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, once the largest private bank in Italy and an institution with close ties to the Vatican.

Shortly after the news broke, Ambrosiano's chairman, Roberto Calvi, sometimes labelled "God's banker" for his Vatican relationships, was found dead under mysterious circumstances - hanging from a bridge in London, in what was officially ruled a suicide. Calvi was said to have had Mafia connections, spurring speculation that he would publicly divulge some nexus between the church and the underworld.

It was sensational news carried worldwide. Archbishop Marcinkus became a central figure in the affair, and he was also one of the most enigmatic.

Largely hidden in the Vatican during the investigation, he declined to answer Italian investigators' questions about the church's role in dummy companies set up abroad to which Banco Ambrosiano funnelled more than $US1 billion.

Later, so-called "letters of comfort" surfaced, reputedly showing his guarantee of protecting bank creditors' investments. While denying wrongdoing, the Vatican paid $US244 million to creditors of the Ambrosiano bank in what it called "recognition of moral involvement" in the bank's collapse.

The Italian Government issued an arrest order for Archbishop Marcinkus and two bank subordinates as "accessories to fraudulent bankruptcy," but the Vatican, an independent state, refused to comply and cited diplomatic immunity. The Italian high court agreed, allowing him to avoid standing trial.

The Washington Post

Dunken Sailor

Waratahs winger Wendell Sailor, who now faces a ban after admitting he was drunk and vomited in the street after becoming involved in a scrap at a nightclub near his team's Cape Town hotel on Friday night.

Sailor also has a two-week suspension still hanging over his head after being involved in a similar incident last year before the Test match between SA and Australia at another nightclub.

"I had some wine at dinner. Then, between the hours of 10 and one, I picked up the pace a bit..." said Sailor.

Breath Testing - Prepare to Run

Fallen Eagle Cousins stands down
February 21, 2006

AFL Brownlow medallist Ben Cousins has resigned as West Coast captain in the wake of the infamous booze-bus incident.

Cousins admitted to errors of judgement after his car was found abandoned near a booze bus in Perth and decided to resign because of the pressure placed on the club. Cousins refused to take questions at a media conference yesterday, leaving soon after he read a prepared statement.

WA police are investigating after Cousins admitted he had been the driver of a car abandoned 50m from a booze bus last Sunday week. They said Cousins had ignored orders to stop as he ran away and later refused to answer questions about why he evaded officers.

AAP

"teenage delinquent" elephants

By Roger Highfield
February 17, 2006
Telegraph London


THE reputation that elephants never forget has been given a chilling new twist - a generation of pachyderms may be taking revenge on humans for the breakdown of elephant society.

New Scientist has reported that elephants appear to be attacking settlements as vengeance for years of abuse by humans.

In Uganda, elephant numbers have never been lower or food more plentiful, yet there are reports of the creatures blocking roads and trampling through villages, apparently without cause or motivation.

Scientists suspect that poaching in the 1970s and 1980s marked many of the animals with the equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder, perhaps caused by being orphaned or witnessing the death of family members.

Many herds lost their matriarch and had to make do with inexperienced "teenage mothers". Combined with a lack of older bulls, this appears to have created a generation of "teenage delinquent" elephants.

Joyce Poole, the research director at the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in Kenya, said: "They are certainly intelligent enough and have good enough memories to take revenge.

"Wildlife managers may feel that it is easier to just shoot so-called 'problem' elephants than face people's wrath. So an elephant is shot without [people] realising the possible consequences on the remaining family members and the … possibility of stimulating a cycle of violence."

A study by Dr Poole showed that a lack of older bulls to lead by example had created gangs of aggressive young males with a penchant for violence towards each other and other species.

In Pilanesburg National Park in South Africa, young bulls have been attacking rhinos since 1992. In Addo Elephant National Park, also in South Africa, 90 per cent of males are killed by another male - 15 times the "normal" figure.

Richard Lair, a researcher specialising in Asian elephants at Thailand's National Elephant Institute, said there were similar problems in India."The more human beings they see, the less tolerant they become," he said

Global Warming

Scientists muzzled for Bush election campaign
By Andrew RevkinFebruary 17, 2006
The New York Times

POLITICAL appointees in NASA's press office exerted strong pressure during the 2004 presidential campaign to cut the flow of press releases on glaciers, climate, pollution and other earth sciences, public affairs officers at the agency say.

The disclosure comes two weeks after the space agency's administrator, Michael Griffin, called for "scientific openness" at the agency. In response to the call, NASA researchers and public affairs officials described how political appointees altered or limited news releases on scientific findings that could have conflicted with Bush Administration policies.

Examples have been reported to senior scientists and administrators who are assembling complaints as part of a review demanded by Mr Griffin.

Press officers said much of the pressure in late 2004 was placed on Gretchen Cook-Anderson. At the time, she was in charge of managing the flow of earth science news at NASA.

In a conference call in October 2004, the colleagues said, Cook-Anderson said that Glenn Mahone, who was then assistant administrator for public affairs, had told her a planned news conference on fresh readings by a NASA satellite, Aura, that measures ozone and air pollution, should not take place until after the election.

Cook-Anderson this week said she could not discuss the matter, but added, "I won't disagree with that description of what took place." Mr Mahone has since left NASA. Dean Acosta, a political appointee who was Mr Mahone's deputy and is now Mr Griffin's press secretary, said he had never pressed Cook-Anderson to cut back on news releases.

But archives of the NASA website show a sharp decline in the number of news releases issued - from about 48 in 2004 to 12 last year.

Mr Griffin announced the review after complaints last month by James Hansen, the agency's top climate scientist, that political appointees were trying to stop him from speaking out on global warming. After those complaints were reported, other staff came forward with similar stories.

In another example of political pressure at the agency, press officers and scientists cited an email sent last July from NASA's headquarters to its jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena.
The message said a web presentation describing the uncontroversial finding that Earth was a "warming planet" could not use the phrase "global warming". It was "standard practice", the message said, to use the phrase "climate change".

NASA officials said the aim was to use the most general term to describe climate fluctuations.
But other public affairs workers and some scientists called it an effort to avoid mentioning a rise in global temperatures. They said it was a standing unwritten order from political appointees in public affairs.

"There was this general understanding that when something in this field was written about that it was to be described as climate change and not global warming," said Elvia Thompson, who recently retired from the same office.

Allegations of political interference appear to reflect an intensifying debate between a cluster of presidential appointees at NASA and civil servants and scientists at the agency's research centres around the US. "The issue is where does science end and policy begin," said David Goldston, a Republican spokesman.

fun anyone?

NSW gamblers are losing $4.8 billion a year on poker machines.

Department of Gaming and Racing figures showing the average household is losing almost $1300 a year on gaming machines.

Player losses are increasing by about $200 million a year.

The average punter loss on each machine is now $66,000 a year for hotels -- a 25 per cent increase since 2001 -- and $45,000 for clubs.

Symonds 151 (127)

by Alex Brown SMH

For broken records, controversy and all-round intrigue, the Australians' effort against the Sri Lankans yesterday is unsurpassed, rebounding from a seemingly dire predicament at 3-10 to score their highest limited-overs total, 5-368, record a thumping 167-run victory and enforce a third and deciding final at the Gabba tomorrow.

Adam Gilchrist, for one, was enthused by the performance. "I think from the position we were in it's got to be one of the greatest comebacks and most dominating wins ever," he said.

To achieve that, Andrew Symonds and Ricky Ponting combined for the highest partnership by an Australian pair (237) and ensured that Muttiah Muralitharan, who bamboozled the home side in Adelaide on Friday night, returned the worst 10-over figures in the history of limited-overs cricket (0-99). A bloody end to what was almost certainly Muralitharan's last match at the SCG.

"[It was] one of the best batting displays we've ever witnessed," Ponting said. "I said to Andrew on the way in that those sort of things don't happen every day in this game … especially after getting off to the start we did."

The Australian innings was not without its share of controversy, most notably when Mahela Jayawardene claimed to catch Ponting at gully, only for the Australian captain to stand his ground and be subsequently ruled not out.

Replays were inconclusive as to whether the ball bounced before Jayawardene. However, the Sri Lankans were visibly upset at Ponting's decision to stand his ground, and umpire Peter Parker's decision to rule him not out. Jayawardene, however, eventually apologised to Ponting, who was on 57 at the time and went on to post a breathtaking 124 from 127 deliveries; his 19th one-day international century.

Not to be outdone, Symonds also produced an innings of tremendous power, recording his first one-day century on Australian soil and his second-highest limited-overs total. At the conclusion of his innings he had totalled 151, which included 13 boundaries and three sixes over 127 deliveries.

The efforts of Symonds and Ponting overshadowed the late-innings feats of Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey, although both were vital in steering Australia to their record total. Clarke blasted six boundaries to post an unbeaten 54 from 28 deliveries, while Hussey finished with 23 not out from just eight balls - half the deliveries he faced either travelling to, or over, the rope. Such precise, heavy hitting ensured the early failures of openers Adam Gilchrist (0) and Simon Katich (1) and Damien Martyn (8) were all but forgotten.

After Sri Lanka's veteran paceman Chaminda Vaas (4-56) removed those three batsmen within his first two overs - including Gilchrist to the second ball of the game - Australia seemed in danger of losing the match, and the finals series, in quick time.

Enter Ponting and Symonds. United at the crease with Australia reeling at 3-10, the Australian duo adopted a positive approach from the start of their innings. Ponting, the Allan Border medallist, was in particularly menacing form early, while Symonds, after a more watchful start, also found his rhythm.

The Queensland all-rounder, who would have been Australian one-day player of the year if not for his infamous drinking binge in Cardiff last year, celebrated enthusiastically upon reaching his 150, standing mid-pitch with arms raised triumphantly.

"I'll remember that forever - till I'm senile, probably," Symonds quipped. "You couldn't punch the smile off my face tonight."

Faced with such an imposing total, the Sri Lankans were never in the chase. Nathan Bracken (4-30) removed dangermen Sanath Jayasuriya (0) and Kumar Sangakkara (13) early, and Symonds continued his sensational outing by also claiming a pair of wickets.

"It's not going to be hard [to rebound] at all," said Sri Lanka's coach Tom Moody, throwing forward to tomorrow night's decider. "We've done it all series."

SCOREBOARD
At the SCG

AUSTRALIA Runs (Balls)
A GILCHRIST c Dilshan b Vaas 0 (2)
S KATICH lbw b Vaas 1 (5)
R PONTING c Vaas b Perera 124 (127)
D MARTYN c Jayawardene b Vaas 8 (5)
A SYMONDS lbw b Vaas 151 (127)
M CLARKE not out 54 (28)
M HUSSEY not out 23 (8)
Sundries (1lb 4w 2nb) 7

Five wickets for 368

Fall: 0 2 10 247 320.

Bowling: C Vaas 10-0-56-4 (1nb), R Perera 10-1-72-1 (2w), N Kulasekera 5-0-41-0, M Muralitharan 10-0-99-0 (1nb), T Dilshan 2-0-10-0, S Jayasuriya 8-0-52-0 (1w), M Bandara 5-0-37-0 (1w).
Batting time: 227 mins. Overs: 50.

SRI LANKA Runs (Balls)
M ATAPATTU c Gilchrist b Clark 24 (35)
S JAYASURIYA c Lee b Bracken 0 (6)
K SANGAKKARA b Bracken 13 (13)
M JAYAWARDENE b Hogg 50 (48)
R ARNOLD not out 64 (62)
T DILSHAN c Ponting b Symonds 13 (14)
C KAPUGEDERA run out 1 (3)
C VAAS c Clarke b Hogg 0 (6)
M BANDARA c Clark b Symonds 0 (6)
M MURALITHARAN c Lewis b Bracken 27 (24)
R PERERA c Ponting b Bracken 0 (2)
Sundries (4lb 2w 3nb) 9

Total 201

Fall: 4 26 74 116 139 145 146 147 200 201.

Bowling: B Lee 8-0-42-0 (3nb 1w), N Bracken 6-0-30-4 (1w), S Clark 5-0-28-1, M Lewis 5-0-30-0, A Symonds 5-1-32-2, B Hogg 7-0-35-2.

Batting time: 166 mins. Overs: 36.

Result: Australia won by 167 runs.

Best of three series locked 1-1.

Plenty of Pushy - bikeshop

Robot goes missing

Philip K Dick is missing.

Not the American science fiction writer whose novels spawned hit films such as Blade Runner and Total Recall -- he died more than 20 years ago -- but a state-of-the-art robot named after the author.

The quirky android, was lost in early January while en route to California by commercial airliner.

"We can't find Phil," said Steve Prilliman of Dallas-based Hanson Robotics, which created the futuristic robot with the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis, the Automation and Robotics Research Institute at the University of Texas at Arlington and Dick's friend Paul Williams.

"We're very worried because it's been a few weeks now," said Prilliman. "We're pressing hard to find Phil."

Robotics wizard and lead designer David Hanson built the robot as a memorial to Dick, whose 1968 book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? inspired the 1982 classic Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford.

Short stories by Dick, who died in 1982, served as inspiration for other hit films including the 1990 Total Recall, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the 2002 Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise.

In Blade Runner, set in a Los Angeles of 2019, Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckhard, a Blade Runner or policeman whose job is to track down and terminate escaped human clones known as "replicants."

The irony of the situation -- a missing replica of the very author who championed "replicant" freedom -- is not lost on Phil's creators.
But they still want him back.

"We really need to find him soon because the Smithsonian wants to put him in a travelling collection in the autumn," said Prilliman referring to Washington's Smithsonian Institute, an organisation of museums and art galleries.

Along with an eerie likeness to the author, the robot features award-winning artificial intelligence that mimics the writer's mannerisms and lifelike skin material to affect realistic expressions.

Top-of-the-line voice software loaded with data from Dick's vast body of writing allows the robot to carry on natural-sounding conversations, although it does come off as a bit doddering at times.

Biometric-identification software and advanced machine vision allows the robot to recognise people -- even in a crowd -- read their expressions and body language and talk to them sounding a lot like a normal, albeit slightly senile, author who likes to quote his own books when he gets confused.

Prilliman and others close to Phil baulked at giving too many details about his disappearance including the name of the airline that was transporting the robot when he went missing.
Hanson officials said news of Phil's disappearance could hamper the ongoing investigation and search for the robot.

The company officials said they feared ransom demands might be made or Phil could turn up listed for sale on an internet auction house such as eBay.

A spokeswoman, Elaine Hanson, said the company is considering building a new android if the original Phil does not turn up.

AFP

Remote Control Robot (SWORDS)

SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems)

These robots are poised be the first working robots that are actually designed to break Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics:

"A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

The TALON robot can be reconfigured in the field by operators using simple pin mounted components and plug-and-play subsystems. To date, over 80 different payloads have been developed or adapted and mounted on the TALON robot platform including the following lethal and non-lethal payloads:

Gripper manipulator.
Smoke dropping module.
Grenade dropping module.
Breaching tool.
Gen III night vision camera.
NBC sensors.
UXO/countermine systems/sensors.
Anti-Tank (AT4) launcher.
Light Anti-Tank Weapon (LAW) launcher.
40-mm grenade launcher (M203 barrel).
12-gauge shotgun.
Mounts for remotely controlled weapons including: M240; M249: M16; M82A1 (50-cal).

A smaller version of the TALON robot is available for reconnaissance missions where a low profile platform is required for stealth. Another version is used for underwater missions including inspection of the surf zone and countermine operations. TALON robots have been used in Special Operations missions including EOD and reconnaissance operations in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to Bob Quinn, general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller, Inc., this control system may be replaced with a "Gameboy" type of controller hooked up to virtual reality goggles.

Repliee Q2 (human-like robot)

February 1, 2006 SMH

Students of Hiroshi Ishiguro will struggle to tell their teacher from his robotic doppelganger, writes Deborah Smith.


Travelling long distances to meetings and conferences will soon be a thing of the past for Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, the creator of the world's most human-like robot - a female named Repliee Q2. Ishiguro, of Osaka University, is close to finishing an even more advanced robot - a male, this time - that will be a physical replica of himself.

"I will not need to come here again," he told a conference in Sydney earlier this week. "I will send my android instead."

The busy Japanese scientist expects his $500,000 lookalike will prove most valuable for avoiding the regular trips to see his research students at the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories in Kyoto, an hour's drive away from his Osaka office.

Its lifelike presence will keep his researchers on their toes during teleconferences, he hopes. "If they feel my authority with my android there, it will be good," he told the Herald.

Hollywood's robotic creations usually have hard, metallic shells. But people prefer human-like machines with soft skin, Ishiguro says. "They don't like to spend time with a robot-like robot."
He predicts that as lifelike androids become cheaper and more sophisticated, some of their first uses will be as companions for the elderly and as guides for people in railways stations or museums. Replacements for models draped over cars at motor shows is another possible early application, he says. "Then you don't need to hire beautiful women."

He thinks other busy people, apart from himself, will also be attracted to the idea of a stand-in android to do the travelling for them.

Ishiguro was covered from top to toe in a plaster cast and precise measurements of his skull were taken to ensure his new robot, which he expects to be completed within a few months, would resemble him as closely as possible.

The first robot he made in this way was a copy of his five-year-old daughter. It looked like her, but its unsophisticated facial and body movements gave it an unnatural presence, like a "moving corpse".

Young children are particularly sensitive to the appearance of the robots and his daughter was very nervous meeting her spooky double, says Ishiguro, who is attending the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces at the Powerhouse Museum and University of Technology, Sydney.

Repliee Q2, which has a soft silicone skin, was unveiled in June at the 2005 World Exposition in Japan and is a copy of a Japanese television presenter. The robot's bigger size meant much more hardware could be inserted, making sophisticated movement possible.

It has to remain seated, but with more than 30 degrees of freedom in its upper body and lots of internal sensors, it reacts to being touched in a much more human-like manner than the child robot. Powered by an air compressor, it gestures, blinks, shifts its eyes naturally and its face and lips move in time with its speech.

Ishiguro says one of the most important aspects of building a lifelike robot is to make it appear to breathe and have it shift position slightly. "When you are sitting you never stop moving," he says.

Repliee Q2 cannot fool anyone for long. But the team's research shows that even when people know it is a robot they unconsciously react to it as if it were human, for example, by averting their gaze when it asks a question, to signal they are thinking of the answer.

Ishiguro says matching lip movement to the speech is also critical to avoid a spooky-looking android. For this reason he thinks some of the first models off the production line will be English speakers.

Japanese requires a lot of lip movement, he says. "And it's very hard for the android."