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From Yahoo News: Human warriors have long spoken of the bonds forged in combat and of becoming a "band of brothers." The fact that some of those fellow soldiers are made of metal has not discouraged human feelings toward them.
Thousands of robots now fight with humans on modern battlefields that resemble scenes from science fiction movies such as "Terminator Salvation." But the real world poses a more complex situation than humans versus robots, and has added new twists to the psychology of war.
"One of the psychologically interesting things is that these systems aren't designed to promote intimacy, and yet we're seeing these bonds being built with them," said Peter Singer, a leading defense analyst at the Brookings Institution and author of "Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century" (Penguin Press HC, 2009).
Singer highlights many accounts of human soldiers feeling strong affection for their robots - especially on the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams where Packbots and Talon robots undertake the risk of disabling improvised explosives planted by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One EOD soldier brought in a robot for repairs with tears in his eyes and asked the repair shop if it could put "Scooby-Doo" back together. Despite being assured that he would get a new robot, the soldier remained inconsolable. He only wanted Scooby-Doo.
Robot in arms
The United States military sees robots as tireless warriors capable of striking fear into enemies, and is not shy about finding inspiration from "Terminator."
"One scientist said he was trying to build the Hunter-Killer drone from 'Terminator,'" Singer told LiveScience.
Terror aside, Singer and other experts point out how battlefield robots have also proved capable of inspiring love from their human comrades, such as the EOD soldier.
"It sounds silly, but you have to remember that he's been through the most psychologically searing experience: battle," Singer said. "That machine has saved him time and time again."
Sometimes such bonds led soldiers to risk their lives for their robots, in a strange inverse of the idea that robots would spare human lives. Singer recounted another EOD soldier who ran 164 feet under machine gun fire to retrieve a robot that had been knocked out of action. And several teams have given their robots promotions, Purple Heart awards for being wounded in combat, and even a military funeral.
This attachment to robots stems in part from the human brain's mirror-neuron system, which fires up whenever watching the movement of someone or something, Singer noted. The system helps form the foundation for empathy and understanding the mindset of another being, but can also lead people to project personalities and emotions onto objects. For the rest of the article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/2009
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TransFair USA, Green Mountain Coffee and Bruegger’s Tell Boston Commuters Their Choice Makes a Diffe On the morning of Wednesday, May 13, an estimated 20,000 Boston MBTA riders will be rewarded for their environmentally-friendly decision to use public transportation. Volunteers from TransFair USA, the non-profit that certifies Fair Trade Certified™ products in the United States, will distribute free coupons to be redeemed for hot or iced Fair Trade Certified™ Green Mountain Coffee® at Bruegger’s Bakery-Cafés, plus a coupon worth $2.50 off a package of Green Mountain Coffee at local grocery stores. Boston T riders can spot volunteers in bright orange t-shirts handing out coupons from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Wednesday at seven T stations including: South Station, Kenmore, Porter Square, Longwood, Downtown Crossing, Government Center and Back Bay." For more information: Click Here
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"A number of people were injured when a lift in Tower Bridge, central London, fell 10ft. The lift dropped in the north tower of the structure, the City of London Corporation said. Four men and two women, including tourists from Spain, suffered leg injuries including at least one broken leg and a broken ankle. The City of London Corporation spokeswoman said: "The lift is believed to have fallen 10ft (3m) when it was on the way up from the (bridge level) ground floor." The door to the lift opened automatically, she added. The bridge houses an exhibition on the history of the London landmark. Five exhibition visitors and one member of staff were injured. Three ambulance crews and a hazardous area response team were sent to the scene at 1310 BST. The six patients were all conscious when the crews arrived at the bridge, a London Ambulance service spokeswoman said. They were taken to Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, and St Thomas Hospital, south-east London." For the rest of this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/londo
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More than 1,000 people lined up for a chance to appear with Hollywood stars Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. Director Sir Ridley Scott was looking for 600 extras to play soldiers in his new production of Robin Hood. Technium manager David Thomas said: "It's totally alien to anything we do but it was an opportunity to help out." The film, which had been called Nottingham, is said to have a $130m (£91m) budget. The extras, as soldiers, will be up against Russell Crowe as Robin Hood Having landed the top billing, Sir Ridley, who directed Crowe in the 2000 block-buster, Gladiator, is recruiting a small army of extras to play the Sheriff of Nottingham's men. A London-based casting agency ran the open day. But a higher than expected number of people turned up and many were turned away. However they were told to apply online. For more on this story: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8041103.stm What actually drew my attention to this article is Ridley Scott being called Sir Ridley. It just sounds so Arthurian. :)
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 Photograph by Patrick Stanbro Talk about an image being both beautiful and terrifying. This photo of the Jesusita Fire was taken by a friend of mine who lives there. 30,000 people have been evacuated. For a look at more of his work, go to: http://www.patrickstanbro.com/
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Yes, we're back to piercing again.  This is sort of a tangent off of my Victorian Breast Piercing Research - it's male piercing. If you don't know what a Prince Albert piercing is ... try Wikipedia. You will find many websites - and even books - declaring that this type of body piercing was so named because Prince Albert (married to Queen Victoria) wore one. You will find them saying that these circular piercings were also known as "dressing rings" and that they were used to secure oneself to the left or the right leg. Dude. Seriously? I mean, think about it, what would it be tied to? Your thigh? And it would have to be a slip-knot because, really, just think if the string got caught on something.... [rrriipp] That's painful just contemplating it. And we haven't even addressed the fact that, in the real world, if you need to be tied down to your thigh, then perhaps you're having one of those episodes the Cialis commercials warn about and you should be proceeding to a hospital at once. The British Victorian period may have been more risqué, but in the US, you couldn't actually say the word leg because it was too inflammatory - you had to say limb. Cereal was invented because, the belief was, giving a man steak and eggs for breakfast was just asking for him to be aroused all day. The same for Graham crackers - non-arousing steak substitute. In that climate, how could a gentleman possibly face his needs-to-be-protected lady wife with a piercing amidst his unmentionables and expect remain considered a gentleman? Another thing: according to The Piercing Bible by Elayne Angel (p. 156) the healing time for a Prince Albert is "4 to 8 weeks or longer". Now, in a time when infection could not be reliably controlled, who is going to pierce themselves anywhere - let alone somewhere that delicate? Are you beginning to smell a hoax? In her book, Angel confirms my suspicions that Prince Albert did not have a Prince Albert, as does Matthew Sweet in Inventing the Victorians. So why do so many people think he did? Where did this "dressing ring" thing get started? According to Angel, these stories were made up by a man who called himself Doug Malloy (real name Richard Simonton). He is considered the father of modern piercing culture in the US. He also made bags of money franchising Muzak. Not three words you'd expect to find in the same sentence are they, "body piercing" and "Muzak"? Go figure. (Muzak, by the way, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb 10 2009). I can hear you asking, why? Not why the Muzak bankruptcy, but why would someone make something like that up? Apparently, the answer is: Because it makes a great story. If you are promoting a new fad, it helps with promotion to have that fad possess a fun historical background. It gives it roots. Validity. And stories are the bedrock of culture. It doesn't matter how unrealistic a tale is, as long as it makes a great story. Think of all the urban legends you've heard. This seems to be why the Prince Albert story has legs - why it has spread so far for so long. We humans love to tell each other a good story. 
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For more information: http://www.susannesaville.com/The_Secret
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Audio books are being discussed on one of the (many) email loops I'm on, and I got curious ..... consequently I have a poll going on my new Yahoo group. If you have some spare time, would you mind popping over to vote? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Susanne_Sa I don't think you have to be a member to vote......watch me be wrong. If you do, and you don't wish to join, you could post your answer here. :) [It is a very low-traffic group, so if you do join you won't have to worry about your mailbox. I haven't really done much with it. C'est la vie when you're a procrastinator, right?] The question is: Do you prefer a male or female voice as your romance audio book narrator, or does gender not matter to you? Thank you very much for helping me out!!! :)
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This contains Doctor Who Finale spoilers ( Read more... )
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Love them or hate them, most readers have an opinion about the E-book format. A great many of us like their convenience, but don't think they'll ever replace "real", paper books. We like the tactile presence of the pages turning in our hands. Others say that's because we grew up with paper books and future generations won't have that emotional tie. So let's take a look at two television representations of the future: Star Trek has always believed in E-books, right from the very beginning. There are still "antique" books around, but otherwise, everyone reads off of their hand-held devices. Consequently, it truly surprised me when the recent Doctor Who two-parter, Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead, had the Doctor and Donna visit a world-size library of the distant future - and it was all paper books! Did the builders realize that if they'd put all those books in e-book format, it might have taken up only a continent instead of a whole world? And then it turns out that the computer which runs the library has access to the contents of all the books. How is that possible unless the books have been scanned into the computer? In which case they ARE available in e-book format. So isn't their paper presence a duplication of labor and space? Also, I assume none of these paper books can be checked out because if they weren't returned, their knowledge would be lost...except to the computer. Another reason to have e-book copies. They would be far more portable, too. Can you imagine visiting an entire WORLD of books - I check out 60-some books from a university-size library. My space-ship would never be able to lift-off. Not to mention the un-green-ness of this situation - all the trees that died to make those books! Because it turns out they weren't collected from other libraries - oh, no, they were all printed up new using the wood-pulp from a planet of forests. Lovely. Wipe out an entire planet of forests to build a planet of books. Now, that is where the writer, Steven Moffat, got clever. Because had those forests not been consumed for paper for the books, none of the terrible things that happen next would have happened. So Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead play very well as a warning about the dire consequences of ignoring ecological conservation practices. Had the library contained E-books, the Doctor and Donna would have simply had a nice visit to a busy library and all the patrons would have lived happily ever after. So I guess you can say that Doctor Who believes in E-books, too. Now, I know some of you are reading this and thinking, "That's all you have to say about that two-parter? You're kidding!" Well....no. I must admit that another of my thoughts upon watching it was, "So the Doctor's taste in girlfriends gets even MORE annoying over time??!!" But I'm not a Doctor Who 'shipper. X-Files? Hell, yes. Doctor Who? Not so much. Probably because I watched Original Who, where sex was no part of the Doctor's - or anyone's - life, I just don't have a place for it in my Who-niverse. So I find 'shippiness annoying, no matter what form it takes. I can see how the episodes would depress Ten/Rose 'shippers, though, and I sympathize. Technically, if Rose is The One, then having the Doctor fall in love with every other woman he meets just makes him look like a slut. He abandons Rose on a people-eating ship for that French chick, he has a close relationship with Astrid, and he has a terribly close relationship - where he tells her his name (and he hasn't even told Rose that) - with River Song. I liked the "everybody lives" bit at the end, though. I think you have to have watched Original Who to really appreciate that. I'm guessing that Steven Moffat was, like me, scarred by the original series, in which EVERYBODY DIES. Seriously. The cast of each episode was: The Doctor, the companion(s), and Miscellaneous Red-shirts (to use a Star Trek term). You'd meet all sorts of cool characters and they'd all be dead by the end of the story. I remember many times thinking, "Please don't let him/her get killed off." while watching the old series. One time the fellow I liked survived and I was elated!!! Note how it was "one time". So I really enjoy when Steven Moffat figures out how to let everybody live at the end of his stories. And I hope next time the Doctor visits a library or reads in the Tardis, he will pull out a hand-held device instead of a paper book.
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Apparently the Brits are plotting world domination - or at least American TV domination. I don't follow entertainment news - mostly because I'm trying to avoid collecting MORE television shows to watch. I procrastinate enough as it is. So it was a complete shock to me to stumble across SWINGTOWN while channel surfing. Why a shock, you ask? Because Jack Davenport is starring in it!!! And he's doing a fantastic American accent, too. Why is it that so many British actors can do perfect American accents, but so few American actors can do passable British accents? Anyway, I forget his character's name, but Jack Davenport's character's wife's name is Susan. And he says her name a lot. It's wicked cool. Good thing I don't have a Tivo, or I might Tivo that - him saying, "Susan" - and play it over and over. Does that sound way stalker-ish? It does, doesn't it. Drat. Well, before I attempt to subdue my fan-girl mindset, I have more Brit actor news: Rufus Sewell is going to be starring in ELEVENTH HOUR this fall. It looks exciting. And he looks handsome. So I'll be there.
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Did anyone else see this advertisement last night during game 6 of the NBA play-offs? I had the sound muted and didn't realize I would want to watch that ad until it was too late, so I can't be certain....but it LOOKS like they're going to be broadcasting an AMERICAN version of LIFE ON MARS in the Fall. OMG. Does anyone else wish they'd just show us the ORIGINAL BRITISH VERSION? And do you think Pittsburgh will replace Manchester again?
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On the seventeenth day of the sixth month, in the sixth game, the Boston Celtics won their seventeenth NBA championship. Numerology, anyone? The team was adorable in their joy - thanking the fans, hugging each other, etc. Kevin Garnett knelt down and kissed the portly leprechaun painted on the center of the court. The Lakers seemed to be gracious in defeat, coming over to congratulate the Celtics' coach and players. And the fans were....well, they ran the gamut from happily drunk to riotous. Since the game didn't end until, like, midnight, I'm guessing many people will be calling in sick to work this morning. Of course, there was the obligatory destruction of property - plate glass windows shattered, a large advertising sign smashed, and trash set on fire. But the police had it pretty much under control and arrests were made. Fourteen arrests, I believe. There were touching moments, too. This was the first championship for the Celtics since 1986. One fan at the Garden celebrated the victory by smoking a cigar he had kept for this moment for 22 years. I hear there are plans for a Victory Parade (a la the Red Sox Rolling Rallies). I'll be watching. To have gone from rock bottom to the very top in one season - what a great story, they deserve to have a rockin' parade.
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 A unicorn! Click here for more on this story.
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 Exciting news! Celia Ashley, Laine Morgan, Annmarie Ortega, and I have a new print release - the anthology "Wicked Rogues"! Blurb: The only thing that’s more delightful than a woman finding herself at the ‘mercy’ of a wicked rogue is discovering a cache of four—each one more tempting than the last. In the anthology, Wicked Rogues, four authors explore their take on the fascinating subject of how to capture the heart of a rogue. Celia's story, The Other Side of Silence, is a paranormal: www.SusanneSaville.comFrom the first day she met him, everything about the tall, dark stranger with the beautiful amber eyes set Sunny's blood on fire. But just who was Roger? Where had he come from? Who had he been? No one knew, not even Roger Macleod. The other three stories are historical: Laine Morgan's Pirate's Secret: From the first moment Shannon spied the dark pirate, Patrick Flannigan, she wanted to experience the thrill of excitement and adventure only he could offer. She hadn't expected to fall in love the rogue, but she refused to be left behind, stealing away on his ship when he sailed away from their homeland. Patrick hadn't taken a mortal lover in centuries, and he certainly hadn't expected to fall in love with one. There was no future in it-none, for he couldn't bring himself to make her into what he was. Susanne Saville's Captain Devlin's Captive: Little does Jasabel Buchanan realize the rakish Bermuda sloop she sights on the horizon is about to plunge her into a passionate voyage of intrigue and adventure. An indentured lady's maid to the rich Governor's daughter, Jasabel is taken prisoner when the ship on which they sail is seized by pirates. Soon she finds herself the personal captive of the pirates' dark, enigmatic captain. Sent into bondage on the plantations because of his Jacobite loyalties, Captain Neil Devlin escaped to become the terror of the English colonies. When the chance to abduct his former owner's daughter presents itself, he takes it. What he doesn't expect is her spirited, and captivating, lady's maid. But amongst old injustices an evil lurks, and before she can be free, Jasabel must decide if she dares to love a pirate. Annmarie Ortega's The Diary of Annalise: When Annalise's father died, he left her with only the family tavern, a pile of debt, and a burning hatred for the pirates who frequent the tavern. One night, a mysterious stranger re-ignites the fire in her mourning heart. But their passion turns dangerous when Annalise finds herself kidnapped by the very men she hates. Hope you enjoy reading us! ;) Susanne Saville
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This is the photo on NBC's official Law and Order page next to the description of tonight's new episode:
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This was the scene at the Romantic Times Expo and Book-signing on Wednesday April 16 in Pittsburgh. It was really busy for the entire two hours which the Expo lasted. I was impressed by the turnout.
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creative
impressed
excited
scared
amused
bouncy
contemplative
cranky
awake
surprised
shocked
jubilant
pleased
chipper
Yes, okay, the hotel was undergoing renovations. But Barack Obama stayed there (yes, during the convention), so it was obviously still one of Pittsburgh's finest hotels. I checked in on Tuesday with no waiting and got a beautiful renovated room with a fantastic view. For example... 
thankful