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Bringing a Hero Home
Sgt. Cory Remsburg nearly died in Afghanistan. Here's how his family helped him get his life back with love and support
The morning light rose in a muted haze, and the soldiers began pulling off their night vision goggles. Weapons squad leader Cory Remsburg, 26, and on his 10th deployment, headed to a clearing to help prepare the evacuation-helicopter landing zone for his 50 fellow Rangers, just back from an overnight operation. Then, in one life-shattering moment, team leader Sgt. Robert Daniel Sanchez, walking just ahead of Remsburg, stepped on a roadside bomb, setting off a massive explosion that hurled both Sanchez and Remsburg skyward.
"There was shrapnel everywhere, and the smoke and dust made it really hard to see," recalls Staff Sgt. Bryan Rippee, mission medic. Yet within minutes, he'd found his way to a nearby canal. There, covered in mud-caked debris, Sanchez lay dead. Next to him was Remsburg — Rippee's buddy and roommate back in the States — face down in the murky water, his heart stopped and his lungs collapsed. A large piece of shrapnel had left a golf-ball-size hole in his head, above his right temple. His back, right eye and chest were peppered with smaller wounds.
Rippee worked furiously to keep Remsburg breathing while waiting for medical transport to arrive.
"I tried my best to suction the breathing tube" that had been inserted, he explains. "I covered his chest injuries with dressings, then put him under an emergency blanket and cut off his wet clothes so he wouldn't get hypothermia." When he loaded Remsburg into the helicopter bound for a Kandahar hospital, Rippee was sure he'd never see his friend again. "He was in really, really bad shape," he says.
Luck, love and support bring him back to health
Cory Remsburg was injured far worse than anyone on the ground that day could have imagined. Yet Rippee, who eventually left the military and is currently studying at Brown University, did see him again. And so did much of the world in January of this year, when President Barack Obama introduced Remsburg during the State of the Union address. To a loud and sustained standing ovation by House and Senate members, the now 31-year-old soldier rose from his seat — with the assistance of his father, Craig Remsburg, who flanked him on one side, Michelle Obama on the other — and raised his right hand in a thumbs-up.
Obama, who first met Cory at D-Day anniversary ceremonies in Normandy in 2009, just four months before he was nearly killed by the bomb, offered the Ranger a sharp salute. The president then expressed gratitude to the dozens of caregivers who have assisted Cory in his recovery — not the least among them his dad and his stepmother, Annie Remsburg. It was a poignant moment for families across the country who are themselves caring for a loved one back from battle. In fact, a recent RAND Corp. study estimated that 1.1 million Americans — parents, spouses and friends — presently tend to hundreds of thousands of veterans who have returned from the post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan with debilitating injuries and illnesses requiring long-term care. And the majority of those caregivers lack the physical, emotional and financial support to accommodate their charges.
Cory was lucky. His family, a fearless clan steeped in the military's can-do tradition, took a collective deep breath, reordered their lives and devoted the past 4-1/2 years to helping their wounded warrior win his toughest battle yet. "When Cory got hurt, something switched on inside me," says Craig. "There was nothing more important than, 'Let's take care of this guy here. He needs our help.' "
Cory's resilience wills him to survive
Craig, a human resources executive, was on a business trip in Toronto when his cellphone rang on Oct. 1, 2009. "I looked down and noticed the extra digits that tell me it's a satellite phone," he recalls. He knew it was his son. "I said, 'Hey, Cory, how you doing?' "
For a few seconds, the line was silent. Then the caller said, "This is Cory's company commander, and Cory's been hurt." Craig started writing down everything he heard: Near drowning. Coma. Injury to the head. Injury to the eye. Collapsed lungs. Burns. "I'm thousands and thousands of miles away, and I'm trying to get a picture in my mind," says Craig, 58. "Then the commander said, 'He's alive.' Once he told me that, I was going with it, hanging on."
Cory was air-evacuated to Bagram Airfield, where surgeons removed a large portion of his cranium to relieve pressure in his brain. Four days later, he was transferred to the Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where his medical team struggled to stabilize him.
"That's when we got the call that they wanted us in Landstuhl right away," says Annie, 63. "Any military family knows that's not a good call, because the Army isn't about to spend the money to fly the family to Germany unless it's truly a life-threatening situation." There, on Oct. 7, on the third floor of the Landstuhl hospital, in Room 9 of the ICU, Craig laid eyes on his younger son. No fewer than 20 machines with wires and tubes were hooked up to the 6-foot, 150-pound young man. "His head was bandaged, but his facial features clearly looked like Cory," Craig says. "I was initially startled by his size. He looked larger than life."
Internally, his body was at war. Cory's injured brain was swelling beyond traditional remedies. A neurosurgeon twice applied his scalpel to the Ranger's frontal lobe to make room for the distension, scooping out several additional centimeters of brain tissue. "It was either that or he dies, so you take your choices," says Annie.
Craig, a lively, upbeat man who tends to deflect tension with humor, remembers awkwardly trying to bring levity to the painful moment when the surgeon told him what he had to do. "Oh, jeez, we're Remsburgs, we need everything we've got!" he told the doctor, who didn't think the comment was funny. "You live in the moment," says Craig. "It's happening in front of you. You're praying and doing the best you can to keep looking forward."
After three tense weeks, Cory was finally stable enough to be flown to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Craig and Annie were grateful to have made it over the first hurdle, but they knew much more was ahead. "During the Vietnam War most of the people who suffered the kind of traumatic brain injury [TBI] that Cory did would have died on the battlefield," Annie points out. "They didn't have the techniques to bring those men home alive." She adds: "Our son fought back. He's resilient like you cannot believe. We call him our miracle man."
Looking back: Cory joins the Army to help people
Until Cory was hurt by the bomb, those who knew him would have used terms such as "gung ho," "gregarious" and "energetic" to describe him. "Cory was our wild child, always going 150 miles an hour," says Annie. "If you told him he couldn't do something, that was exactly what he would do. And he was the type of person who could walk into a room of 50 people not knowing one of them, but by the time he left, he'd have talked to them all."
After his parents divorced, Cory and his brother, Christopher, now 32, split time between the Phoenix-area homes of Craig and their mom, Karen Petersen. Craig and Annie gained custody of the boys when Cory was 10, and the family moved to St. Louis, where Craig, once an Air Force firefighter and now a retired master sergeant from the Reserves, was transferred by his employer.
Following in the footsteps of Christopher, who was serving in the Army, Cory enlisted in 2001, immediately after graduating from high school. "I wasn't ready for college," he says, "and I wanted to be helping someone, somewhere."
Enthusiastic and ambitious, Cory decided to pursue Ranger training at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga. A dedicated soldier, he was among the first troops in Iraq in 2003. His go-getter personality and natural athleticism served him well, and he became certified as a HALO (high altitude–low opening) skydiver and a senior jumpmaster — prized skills for secret Ranger missions.
He also enjoyed playing volleyball and was a talented long-distance runner. In the spring of 2009, he and roommate Rippee participated in the Savannah Mile, in which Rangers compete against local first responders. Wearing Army boots, body armor and his camouflage uniform, Cory won the race in six minutes flat.
Like many of his Ranger buddies, Cory worked — and played — hard. "He was a playboy," Annie says. "At the time of his last deployment, he had several girlfriends." He was also making good money and had purchased a powerboat and a double-cab pickup truck. Just before heading to Kandahar, he and a handful of Rangers took R&R in Las Vegas. Hanging on the wall of his bedroom today is a photo from the trip showing Cory and three friends at a poker table, drinks in hand, smiles a mile wide.
By then, Craig and Annie had moved from St. Louis to Gilbert, Ariz., with hopes of eventually retiring. They had downsized to a smaller but more manageable "dream home," and in the fall of 2009 were in the process of remodeling it. "Then Cory got hurt," says Annie, "and we just stopped everything."
The road to recovery and recollection
The gravity of Cory's condition became glaringly evident at the National Naval Medical Center, where he remained on breathing and feeding machines. He underwent the first few of dozens of surgeries — to insert a tracheotomy tube; to repair his smaller shrapnel wounds, including the one to his eye that resulted in a detached retina; to reattach the retina, which ultimately shredded, leaving him blind in his right eye; and, months later, to replace (twice) his cranium above the area of his brain injury.
Most frightening for Annie was when Cory experienced what is called storming, during which he'd break out in a profuse sweat and his heart rate would surge above 150 beats per minute. "Because he was in a coma, there was no way of knowing if he was reliving the explosion," his stepmother says. "I'd grab a washcloth with cold water and bathe his body. I'd hold his hand and talk to him: 'It's OK, Cory. You're safe now, you're in a hospital, you're going to be OK, hon. Just try to breathe, to relax.'
"It would help," she says. "You would see the heart rate start to come down."
Craig was determined to have a family member by Cory's side 24-7, for as long as it would take. But that resolution was put to the test when, three weeks later, Cory was moved to Tampa's James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital Polytrauma Center, one of five VA facilities in the U.S. specializing in TBIs. "I'm talking to people there," Craig says, "and they tell me, 'We've been here for a year and a half, and my son hasn't come out of his coma yet.' It was almost like a two-by-four just whacked me right in the head."
And so the couple decided to do everything possible, as Craig says, "to reach in there and have Cory remember." They plastered his hospital room walls with family photos. They played CDs of the Zac Brown Band, put Modern Family reruns on the DVD player and held New York Giants cheering parties around Cory's bedside during games.
It seemed to work. One afternoon in late January 2010, Craig watched as a woman introduced herself to Cory as his recreational therapist. While Cory's rehabilitation ran the gamut of therapies, Craig could not fathom what kind of recreation his son, who still had difficulty opening his eyes and moving, was going to be doing. "I heard her telling Cory that before he knew it, he'd be flipping her the bird," Craig says. "And in my peripheral vision, I saw Cory raise his right hand and give the woman the finger. I laughed so hard. I thought, 'It's clicking.' "
He speaks: A turning point for the family
The incident marked the beginning of Cory's emergence from his coma. He was tracking what was going on around him and, though he still wasn't talking, he was communicating in basic ways. Yet he had miles to go toward becoming independent, the family's goal.
"It was like I was a baby," Cory explains. "I had to learn everything all over again."
He's made monumental strides. While he's partially paralyzed on the left side — his left hand and arm, in his words, are "totally useless" — Cory today is able to get around in a wheelchair and can walk with assistance. He still has some speech difficulties but nevertheless interacts naturally with people, wearing a near-perpetual grin and frequently offering a thumbs-up. His sense of humor remains intact, too. In declining offers from hair-transplant specialists who promise to "disguise" the skin graft on his head, Cory jokes that the scar is "a conversation piece." He does suffer from some high-level cognitive deficits, as well as minor post-traumatic stress disorder; while he doesn't remember the explosion, he occasionally has nightmares with fleeting images from the event. Still, if you ask Cory if he feels resentful, he'll answer, "Never. I'm still here. I'm grateful.
"And there's no way I could have come this far without my parents," he adds. "They've been incredible. Believe me, it's not easy having a kid with a TBI."
Craig and Annie aren't ones to complain either, but they concede that the challenges have been formidable. Luckily, they have complemented each other, from the start, in tending to Cory. Craig deftly maneuvered a complex military system and attended to the tedious business of managing Cory's finances. Annie, hardly a caregiving novice — her mom was diagnosed with polio in her 30s, and two siblings endured terminal illnesses — literally rolled up her sleeves and pushed through the daily grind of rehabilitation.
Cory, who admits he's grown closer to his stepmother throughout the ordeal, says, "Annie is all about TLC."
And sometimes a little tough love.
"Initially, we used a hoist from the ceiling to get Cory in and out of bed," Annie recalls. "He wore a diaper. He had a feeding tube. When they finally removed the feeding tube, I started training him: 'OK, Cory, you need to tell me when you need to use the bathroom, and I will put you on the toilet. You are not going to wear a diaper the rest of your life. You're a grown man, and we're going to get through this.' "
A few months into 2010, Annie, an employment-services manager, decided that the two-week rotations into Tampa from different family members just weren't sustainable. "My husband had taken so much time off," she says. "I was torn because I enjoyed my job, where I'd worked for 24 years. But I felt I could no longer juggle it and do a good job taking care of Cory. I said to Craig, 'Someone needs to be with Cory all the time for the long haul, and I'm the most likely candidate.' "
So in May 2010, after weighing the pros and cons, Annie resigned and moved to Tampa, taking up residence at the VA-operated Fisher House.
A turning point
Daily, she arrived at the polytrauma center in the morning and stayed until Cory went to bed at night. She refused to ride the nurses; instead she insisted that they teach her how to rotate Cory in bed to prevent bedsores, how to feed him, how to administer his medications. "I was going to ensure that Cory got the best care he could possibly get," she says.
It was an especially painful vigil at first because Cory still wasn't speaking. His soft palate and one of his vocal cords were damaged by the bomb, making it extremely difficult for him to project sound. That, of course, would not stop this Ranger.
On the morning of June 1, 2010, while rinsing his mouth after brushing his teeth, he aspirated some water and began choking. "He was making these sounds for the first time," Annie remembers, "and I said, 'Cory, you're making sounds.' He said, 'I know.' Just like that. Then I asked him, 'What's your name?' He said, 'Cory.' 'What's your dad's name?' 'Craig.' 'What's my name?' 'Annie.' " Annie was so excited that she called Craig on her cellphone and put Cory on. When Cory uttered the word "Dad" into the receiver, Craig, who was driving at the time, had to pull over, the tears came so hard.
The moment was a turning point.
With caregivers by his side, Cory's future looks bright
Four years have passed since that day — four years made up of minutes and hours of unrelenting, tedious and dogged hard work for Cory. Four years marked by incremental but steady progress. Four years during which neither Annie nor Craig ever stopped long enough to question whether they possessed the steadfast dedication needed to get their son through — because, as a team, they've been too busy with each task in front of them. For Craig, that's meant spending two hours daily responding to emails and calls from half a dozen military liaisons involved in monitoring Cory's recovery. Or gathering his son's medical documents — charts, X-rays, therapy orders, surgical instructions — which now fill nine file boxes in his home office. Or advocating — successfully — to keep him on active duty so his expenses would be paid. (This year Cory will be retired as 100 percent disabled.) For Annie, it meant completing the daily run of rote exercises — replacing the fork in Cory's hand over and over again until he could learn to feed himself. Or stretching with him every morning, helping him roll his neck side to side to strengthen his battered muscles. Or teaching him to dress, a task that once took nearly an hour and today is accomplished in 15 minutes. "We've all learned to read each other pretty well," says Craig, "and we know when we can step back, and when we need to step in."
Little by little, Cory has moved away from the hospital setting at Tampa's polytrauma center — first sharing a nearby apartment with Annie while receiving outpatient therapy; then moving to Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation in Southern California, to gain transitional living skills apart from his parents; and finally, in August 2013, moving to a three-bedroom home in Gilbert, Ariz., a mile from Craig and Annie. A certified nurse assistant comes in five days a week to help him, and Annie — no surprise — willingly spends each night in one of the spare bedrooms.
Though Craig admits that living separately from his wife "certainly had a changing effect" on the relationship, he says that, in the end, "we have gotten closer. We took our new roles very seriously, we shared in this undertaking, and we can look back and be proud that we had a hand in where Cory's at."
Sometime within the next year, Cory hopes to move yet again, to a nearby home purchased for him by the New York–based Lead the Way Fund, which supports Army Rangers in need. (The house is being made handicapped accessible by NFL player Jared Allen's Homes for Wounded Warriors.) By that time, Cory should be well on his way to being able to safely live on his own, assuming he's conquered his most immediate goal: to walk independently.
"He's still a huge fall risk," says Kay Wing, owner of SWAN Rehab in Phoenix, where Cory currently works with physical, occupational and speech therapists at least four hours a day, five days a week. But, she insists, "he will get there."
Annie chalks it up to his newfound patience. "Cory was never patient growing up," she says. "Once, when we were in Tampa, I said, 'I am amazed with your level of patience because I helped bring you up, and I know that when you wanted it, you wanted it now.' He looked at me and said, 'What choice do I have?' "
Says Craig, "My son will eventually be able to do whatever he puts his mind to. It's up to him."
Cory's plans are clear: "To run again," he says, his words elongated and full of effort. "Eventually, go to college, get married, have a kid."
It's approaching 9 p.m. in Gilbert, and Annie, feeling good, pulls her minivan into her stepson's driveway. She's just returned from a dinner date with her husband, one of the regular rituals the couple has put into practice to, as Craig says, "make sure we take care of the caregivers." Having saved up their airline mileage, the pair are also planning a vacation for just the two of them this fall to Walldorf, Germany, and Annie's excited. But for now, she's tired.
She tiptoes to Cory's bedroom and finds Leo, the rescued Lab-husky-Weimaraner mix that Cory recently adopted and is training as a service dog, curled up next to his master. Cory flashes his stepmom a thumbs- up, and Annie, fingering a classic rubber and metal bicycle horn attached to a string on a bedside railing, says good night.
Around 3 a.m., Cory sounds the horn. In the bedroom down the hall, Annie wakes. "I always hear it," she says. "And I get up and go in and walk Cory to the bathroom. I try to give him as much normalcy as possible."
She pauses, then adds, "I want Cory to have his life back, and together we're going to get there."
This article originally appeared in the June/July 2014 issue of AARP The Magazine.
Care for the 'Hidden Heroes'
Some 5.5 million Americans serve as caregivers for wounded veterans, but many are getting by with a fraction of the resources they need to help their loved ones — or themselves, according to a recent RAND Corp. report. To change that, former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, along with first lady Michelle Obama, vice presidential spouse Jill Biden and others, is developing a host of new programs specifically aimed at giving caregivers — "the hidden heroes," as Dole calls them — critical financial and legal support, and health care.
"Once these veterans come home, the challenges increase enormously," says Dole, whose Elizabeth Dole Foundation commissioned the RAND report. "Caregivers provide medicine and injections. They manage rehabilitation. They cope with legal and financial issues they hadn't expected. Post-9/11 caregivers, in particular, work to prevent triggers that may cause emotional and behavioral problems."
Obama and Biden, who began advocating for military families through their Joining Forces initiative three years ago, are now working with Dole and other partners to develop targeted caregiver programs, including:
- Peer-to-peer support forums at all military installations.
- A caregiver peer-support network with one-on-one mentoring, online communities and community-based support groups aimed at reaching 50,000 military caregivers globally.
- Training for caregivers on topics such as finances and legal issues.
- Free financial advice and legal resources.
- Job creation for the unemployed caregivers.
To tap into these new initiatives, visit whitehouse.gov/joiningforces.
For information on existing support, visit VA Caregiver Support at caregiver.va.gov.
Visit AARP's Caregiving Resource Center for a host of helpful resources and additional tools.
— Paula Spencer Scott
Also of Interest
- Visit the Caregiving Resource Center for advice, resources and more
- Foods that can help you get to sleep
- Looking for a challenge? Try our free online games
See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more


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Computers as we know them are close to reaching an inflection point—the next generation is in sight but not quite within our grasp. The trusty programmable machines that have proliferated since the 1940s will someday give way to cognitive systems that draw inferences from data in a way that mimics the human brain.
IBM treated the world to an early look at cognitive computing in February 2011, when the company pitted its Watson computing system against two former champions on TV's Jeopardy! quiz show. Watson's ability to search a factual database in response to questions, to determine a confidence level and, based on that level, to buzz in ahead of competitors led it to a convincing victory. The accomplishment will soon seem quaint when compared with next-generation cognitive systems. IBM has already increased Watson's speed, shrunk its previously room-size dimensions and hooked it to vastly more data.
Last month two prominent medical facilities began testing the revamped Watson as a tool for data analysis and physician training. The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is using Watson to help doctors match patients with clinical trials, observe and fine-tune treatment plans, and assess risks as part of M. D. Anderson's "Moon Shots" mission to eliminate cancer. Meanwhile, physicians at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University are hoping IBM's technology can help them make more informed and accurate decisions faster, based on electronic medical records.
It's a nice start, but still only the beginning, says John Kelly, an IBM senior vice president and director of IBM Research, one of the world's largest commercial research organizations. In his recent book, Smart Machines: IBM's Watson and the Era of Cognitive Computing, co-authored with IBM communications strategist Steve Hamm, Kelly notes that one important goal for cognitive computers, and for Watson in particular, is to help make sense of big data—the mountains of text, images, numbers and voice files that strain the limits of current computing technologies.
Scientific American spoke with Kelly about cognitive computing's relative immaturity, its growing pains and how efforts to develop so-called neuromorphic computers, which mimic the human brain even more closely, could someday relegate Watson to little more than an early 21st-century artifact.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
When did you first see the stirrings of big data as a trend?
About four years ago we started to see an explosion of data. Previously, we had focused on the explosion of devices and connected technologies that make up the Internet of things.
How is big data different from data mining and analysis that companies have been doing for years to improve customer service and logistics?
It's different in a number of ways: First is the scale, which is so large that traditional databases and query systems can't deal with it—"big" is an understatement. Second, so much of the data is unstructured, coming from things like texts or tweets or signals from some connected device. It's also flowing at incredible speeds. Finally, with big data we're not always looking for precise answers, we're looking for information that will help us make decisions.
It seems that emerging cognitive computing technologies will play an important role in making big data usable. How is cognitive computing different from the systems we've been using for decades?
Cognitive systems were conceived of and are being built to deal with this new immense amount of information. They have a number of characteristics different from today's computers. One is that they learn patterns and trends. They no longer require reprogramming by humans for all the tasks we want them to do. Secondly, cognitive systems interact with people in a much more natural way. They understand our human language, they recognize our behaviors and they fit more seamlessly into our work–life balance. We can talk to them, they will understand our mannerisms, our behaviors—and that will shift dramatically how humans and computers interact.
If you consider a timeline of programmable computers that goes from ENIAC in the 1940s and 1950s to today's smartphones, where is cognitive computing in terms of maturity?
We're just at the beginning of this cognitive computing era. Think about the IBM System/360 mainframe in the 1960s or the first PC in the early 80s. The very first cognitive system, I would say, is the Watson computer that competed on Jeopardy! But to make Watson, we pulled together pieces from the last era. Going forward the underlying technology will change. The system will become much more interactive—it won't respond to just question and answer, it will respond to complex dialogue.
How has IBM adapted the Jeopardy! version of Watson to help cancer researchers at M. D. Anderson?
Watson's unveiling was on Jeopardy!, and it was quite an impressive performance. In the subsequent two years Watson's technology has become dramatically faster and smaller than that first system. To work with doctors and medical schools across a number of different locations, Watson has ingested a large portion of the world's medical information, whether it's in journals, health records or doctors' notes. The system is in the final stages of learning the details of cancer, for example, as M. D. Anderson is particularly interested in leukemia. Over the past six to 12 months Watson has been working with oncologists in this area to help speed certain discoveries related to leukemia.
How is Watson learning about cancer?
Watson can electronically ingest the raw information. Then Watson has to be trained. It's presented with complex health care problems where the treatment and outcome are known. So you literally have Watson try to determine the best diagnosis or therapy. And then you look to see whether that was the proper outcome. You do this several times, and the learning engines in Watson begin to make connections between pieces of information. The system learns patterns, it learns outcomes, it learns what sources to trust. Some journals, some doctors, are more accurate than others. Watson learns all of this.
The Cleveland Clinic's projects will give doctors and medical students access to Watson's reasoning process so they can see how the computer reaches its conclusions. What is the rationale for that feature?
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine has put Watson in a team environment with aspiring med students, and they use Watson to explore complex medical situations. In that way the students are able to learn and explore the data that Watson has access to. And very interestingly, in reverse, the students are also teaching Watson. As Watson hits a bump in its learning, often a student can teach Watson the meaning of a word, perhaps allowing Watson to have a breakthrough in knowledge. We're starting to see both humans and machines working together to be better than just the sum of the parts.
Is having access to the reasoning process also important for double-checking Watson's logic?
Anyplace a complex decision needs to be made by a human, it's very important to be able to explore how Watson reached its conclusion. In health care doctors want to understand what sources Watson consulted in the literature and what connections did it make between, say, a medical test and a therapy—Where did that information come from, and why did Watson conclude that?—because it might be a surprise. In other areas such as drug discovery, same thing—the biologist or chemist wants to understand why Watson concluded that such-and-such a molecule would be the next big drug. They want to explore the data before making a decision.
How does the latest Watson compare to its game-show predecessor?
It's roughly three times as fast and about a quarter the size of the original system. Some of that is through hardware optimization but a lot of it is also tuning the underlying machine-learning algorithms to make them much more efficient. That lets us run Watson on a much smaller, yet more powerful, system than we did two years ago.
What will the personal versions of cognitive systems look like?
There are a couple of ways cognitive systems will interact on a personal level. First of all, Watson will be available on a cloud service, so any end-point device—whether it's your personal [digital] assistant, your glasses, your watch, whatever—will have access to Watson. These cognitive systems will also be important in networks of people. In social media one could envision that a cognitive system is just another node in your personal network that enters into discussions between you and other people, and offers its opinion on certain issues based on available information.
Is it possible to shrink such cognitive systems down a size that you could wear or carry around?
Watson has shrunk considerably in two years. Fast-forward another few years—the power of Watson that played on Jeopardy! just two years ago and filled a room, you can literally have in your pocket in the not-too-distant future. But also, because it's cloud accessible, anyplace you're connected you will be able to connect to Watson through any device. You just need to be able to reach it electronically to get all of the power of Watson.
At a high level, what is the difference between Watson's cognitive computing capabilities and those of the "neuromorphic" systems under development to mimic the human brain?
Cognitive systems at the beginning of this era of computing were about the size of a room. The Jeopardy! version of Watson utilized 85,000 watts of power to compete with two humans. The human brain uses about 20 watts of power. It took thousands of times more energy for that computer to win just that game versus a human brain. Synaptic or neuromorphic systems are basically trying to mimic the performance and the low power of the brain. We're exploring what that means with very low-power technologies and very high-density network devices to understand whether we can build something that performs more like a brain than today's hardwired computers.
If we can do that, then we can distribute [mini] cognitive computers everywhere in the world, versus having big, high-power Watson systems available through the cloud. We view it as the possible future of cognitive systems.
Will IBM's Watson Usher in a New Era of Cognitive Computing?
As a platform to help with decision-making, Watson has a lot to learn—which is exactly the point
Computers as we know them are close to reaching an inflection point—the next generation is in sight but not quite within our grasp. The trusty programmable machines that have proliferated since the 1940s will someday give way to cognitive systems that draw inferences from data in a way that mimics the human brain.

subset: commoncrawl


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When a writer chooses a name suggesting that two personas occupy one body (as in the nom de plume Mark Twain), the reader should take this self-definition seriously. Years ago, Dr. David James Fisher, psychoanalyst and intellectual historian, wrote a short paper on Twain's difficulties with writing Huckleberry Finn. As I recall, in the scene where Huck, after determining that he feels as bad doing right (obeying the law) as doing wrong (risking a link to abolitionism), and hence will not turn the escaped slave Jim in to slave-catchers, Twain put down the manuscript and did not pick it up for several years. In any case, in the published version, the paddles of a looming steamboat capsize the raft and both Huck and Jim are in danger of drowning.
The next Twain fiction was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), with pointed illustrations by Dan Beard, the latter said to be even more of a radical democrat than Twain. As for the plot, briefly, a 19th century weapons engineer, an ex-worker risen to foreman of the Colt factory, after a blow to his head, wakes up in 6th century Britain, where he introduces modern science, weapons, factories, modern communication including railroads, education, and newspapers in order to rescue the oppressed masses and to institute a Republic, modeled after the Northern U.S., perhaps New England. This blog reacts to my third reading of the novel, with some thoughts regarding ambivalence in the Missouri-born author, with special reference to the ways some 20th century critics have appropriated the novel, in my view, missing what is most interesting about it. Here comes a brief meditation on my response to the novel.
Mark Twain was heavily promoted in the Soviet Union, for more reasons than his objection to the Spanish-American War. Reading CYKAC, one can see why. The narrator of the tale, Hank Morgan states that, regarding the French Revolution, though he started out as a Girondin (a moderate bourgeois, like Condorcet), he ended up as a sans-culotte! Moreover, both Twain and his fictional persona believe that armed struggle is the only route to revolution. When you tote up the casualties of the Terror, they are as nothing compared to the crimes against humanity inflicted by the heartless aristocracy. Soviets elevated Robespierre and other Jacobins, while many conservatives and centrists alike have drawn a straight line between Jacobins and 20th century Fascists and Nazis.
Moreover, Marx was a great admirer of the American Civil War, as are his followers among left-liberals. It was one of the great world revolutions and the most radical moment in U.S. history, they aver. And Hank Morgan's modernizing animus against the medieval Catholic Church, allied as it was with the vicious, predatory aristocracy, would sit well with Soviets and their supporters. Morgan's graphic descriptions of medieval barbarism, which many communists associate with the equally savage Gilded Age bourgeoisie, surely endeared Twain to those Soviet propagandists who associated late capitalism with fascism and imperialism. (See my notes on Henry Nash Smith, below in bibliography.)
One wonders what communist readers would make of the following passage from Twain's fantasy. I wonder if he was not disclosing one aspect of his own white-suited psyche as he complains that the common people buy into caste position, without a murmur of dissent or complaint: Twain suddenly returns to the present, in my view, defending his manhood, called into question by his youthful folly in briefly joining a Confederate militia, which he then deserted. But recall that Hank Morgan admires the manly gait and elegance of King Arthur. Part of Twain may admire the aristocracy he so vehemently rejects:
"[Referring to 'the alacrity with which this oppressed community had turned their cruel hands against their own class in the interest of the common oppressor'] This was depressing—to a man with the dream of a republic in his head. It reminded me of a time thirteen centuries away, when the 'poor whites' of our South who were always despised, and frequently insulted, by the slave lords around them, and who owed their base condition simply to the presence of slavery in their midst, were pusillanimously ready to side with the slave lords in all political moves for the upholding and perpetuating of slavery, and did also finally shoulder their muskets and pour out their lives in an effort to prevent the destruction of the very institution that degraded them. And there was only one redeeming feature connected with that pitiful piece of history, and that was, that secretly the "poor white" did detest the slave lord and did feel his own shame. That feeling was not brought to the surface, but the fact that it was there and could have been brought out under favoring circumstances, was something—in fact it was enough, for it showed that a man is at bottom a man, after all, even if it doesn't show on the outside.'" (UC Press, Mark Twain Project edition, 1984, p.297)
One can almost hear Gyorg Lukás applauding Twain's/Morgan's reference to false consciousness, a failing that could be rectified by re-education by a communist vanguard or the "cultural Marxism" of the Frankfurt School critical theorists.
In the brief time that I have looked into recent appropriations of Twain's text, I have seen only these two points brought out: First, the novel created a sub-genre of science fiction: the time traveling narrative; and second, that Twain was primarily objecting to the medieval revival of his period, and blaming the Southern rebellion as the consequence of besotted readers of Sir Walter Scott's medieval romances. (Marx also read Scott, incidentally.)
But, such a (culturalist) reading misses one of the most obvious themes of the novel: that modern technology, especially modern weaponry, has changed the nature of warfare; that such innovations as the Gatling gun (mentioned many times in the text, and occasionally deployed in the Civil War), plus the shocking and unprecedented casualties of that conflict, had led, combined with the passivity and herd-behavior of the masses, turned Twain against the very optimism with which "the [Nietschean?] Boss" had begun his innovations. By the end, the would-be republican Twain has killed off his protagonist; he is no radical, but a bohemian who been fantasizing freedom, but finally bows to the all-powerful masters. Hank Morgan's modernizing efforts cannot stave off the all-powerful Church and its befuddled masses. He has assumed the tragic, nihilistic demeanor of the author of The Mysterious Stranger. No Soviet commissar would have approved such disillusion and cultural pessimism, although Henry Nash Smith, remarked that Morgan's top-down modernization plan was Soviet in conception.
Many a historian has studied the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Few, if any, would disagree with the notion that it is impossible to modernize without movement toward mass literacy and numeracy, competitive markets and the scientific world-view that markets encourage, except those Leninists, perhaps, who believe that the dread bourgeois phase of development can be leaped over straight into heaven on earth. To them, I recommend Twain's famously 'failed' tragedy, with the proviso that the author, in Life on the Mississippi (1883) had hard things to say about soul-less machines and even mentioned Frankenstein. Henry Nash Smith erred in identifying Twain with Hank Morgan (ostensibly a laissez-faire capitalist), although there is something of Hank in Twain's character.
Smith, Henry Nash. Mark Twain's Fable of Progress: Political and Economic Ideas in "A Connecticut Yankee" (Rutgers UP, 1964). While the quasi-socialistic William Dean Howells and Melville-admirer Edwin Stedman thought that the novel was Twain's masterpiece, Smith makes the book an evasion of the true nature of class struggle in the laissez-faire Gilded Age; a product of "Promethean" Twain's regrettable Anglo-phobic "jingoistic nationalism"; and finds philistine folk humor too weak a reed to carry the immense project of the novel. Twain was simply not up to the challenge, and problems with his own finances explain the unconvincing and depressing finish. He does not note a possible reference to Civil War casualties, nor does he associate the knightly class with Southern slaveholders, but he does see Twain as sympathetic to some noble aristocrats. He is also put off by Dan Beard's naughtily [Jacobin] illustrations, that had no basis, Nash says, in the text. I disagree with that judgment. Beard's affinity with Tom Paine was obviously shared by Twain throughout.
http://www.twainquotes.com/19600306.html. Joseph Wood Krutch on how the Soviets got Twain wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Takaki, author of Iron Cages: Race and Culture and 19th Century America (Knopf, 1987). Takaki associates Hank Morgan with Melville's Captain Ahab.
http://tinyurl.com/7y8usec. Richard Nielsen quoting Max Weber. Teaches at Boston College.
http://tinyurl.com/7wxxnnf. E-Book version of Connecticut Yankee with introduction, including social views
http://tinyurl.com/7kw4n77 Daniel Aaron on Mark Twain's Civil War politics
[Tom Nichols translation of the illustrated Soviet Poster:] "And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special one–our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones." (http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/twain.html)
The Soviet poster says: "We can set up a special flag, just the same flag with the white stripes black and the stars replaced by the skull and crossbones. — Mark Twain" Then at the bottom: AMERICA – THE NATION OF TRAMPLED RIGHTS.


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Patient Presentation
A 6-month-old male came to the emergency room with a history of falling out of his mother's arms onto a bed. The infant cried and mother placed him into the crib as it was time for his nap. About 1 hour later, the infant was crying, had vomitted and the mother felt he was lethargic. The radiologic evaluation showed frontal and interhemispheric acute subdural hematomas and the infant was transferred to a regional children's hospital for neurosurgical care. The past medical history revealed a full-term, normal spontaneous vaginal delivery without complications. The patient had received routine care and immunizatons. The family history was negative for neurological or congenital abnormalities. There were no reported early or unexplained deaths or miscarriages in the families.
The pertinent physical exam showed normal vital signs. Weight was 10%, head circumference was 95% and length was 25%. The infant had an irritated cry. The anterior fontanelle was bulging. There was bruising from intravenous catheter placement attempts but no other bruising. The rest of the examination was normal. The work-up was negative including screening trauma labs, urine drug screen and hair studies, bleeding studies, urine organic acids, and skeletal survey. The ophthalmological consultant found superficial and deep bilateral retinal hemorrhages that were too numerous to count and covered most of the retinas. During the patient's clinical course he was placed on anti-epileptic medication and did not have any seizures. Along with the child protection services team, the inpatient hospital physicians reported the child to the Department of Family Services as highly suspicious for a diagnosis of non-accidental trauma. The investigators agreed and the child was discharged to kinship foster care after two weeks of monitoring in the hospital for stabilization of the subdural hemorrhages. The child was to follow-up with neurosurgery in 2 weeks.
Figure 88 – Axial image from an unenhanced computed tomography scan of the brain demonstrates high density right frontal and interhemispheric acute subdural hematomas. There is some associated mild swelling of the right cerebral hemisphere.
Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a form of non-accidental head injury (NAHI) that occurs when someone violently shakes a child. It may result in brain, eye and/or skeletal injury. The long-term survival is poor with cognitive/behavioral problems, cognitive impairment, cerebral palsy, and/or epilepsy as common problems. In one report 19% of the children died as a direct result of SBS and only 22% had no sequelae at discharge. SBS can be misdiagnosed particularly if it is less severe, has no external bruising (21% of cases) and no history of previous abuse (40%).
SBS often occurs in infancy but can occur in children up to 8 years of age in the literature. Incomplete ophthalmological examination may under-estimate the presence and/or extent of retinal hemorrhages (RH). Complete examination of the entire retina is needed for proper evaluation, which usually means by an ophthalmologist.
Learning Point
Togioka states "[a]lthough the presence of RH [retinal hemorrhage] does not confirm the diagnosis of SBS. RHs are common in abused children and exceedingly rare in cases of accidental head injury."
Injury type
RH presence is much more common in NAHI (53-80%) than in AHI (accidental head injury, 0-10%). The AHI that has RH associated with it is usually of significant force (e.g. motor vehicle accident). Short falls (< 4 feet) are extremely unlikely to cause RHs. In one study of 287 children, no children who had an accidental fall < 4 feet had RH, while 25% of those with a fall in the abused group had RHs.
Flame shaped RHs are the most common form of RH seen in SBS. RHs appear to generally start more centrally and superficially within the retina and then spread more peripherally and deeper with an increasing amount of force/trauma. Studies have shown peripheral RHs are seen in 27% of NAHI and 0% in AHI. Unilateral retinal hemorrhages can be seen in NAHI (14-21%). Bilateral RH are found in 58-100% with NAHI and in only 1.5% of accidental head injury. Other ophthalmological pathology has been linked to NAHI including hemorrhages in other parts of the eye, retinal folds, macular folds and Roth spots.
Other diseases that can cause RH include:
- Glutaric aciduria type 1
- Hemorrhage disease of the newborn
- Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome
- Osteogenesis imperfecta
- Protein C deficiency (homozygous) and other coagulopathies
- Terson syndrome
Data shows that forceful emesis, forceful coughing, seizures and prolonged chest compressions basically do not cause the RHs seen in SBS. RH can be seen after birth in up to 30-40% of deliveries but most are resolved in 3-9 days after birth.
While alternative explanations for NAHI can be hypothesized, Moran noted that "[t]here is no disease or condition that fully mimics the complete diagnostic picture of SBS."
Questions for Further Discussion
1. What are some of the clinical presentation of non-accidental trauma?
2. What are the local laws regarding mandatory reporting of suspected non-accidental trauma?
3. What types of testing should be included in an evaluation for suspected non-accidental trauma?
Related Cases
- Disease: Child Abuse | Head and Brain Injuries | Eye Diseases
- Symptom/Presentation: Child Abuse and Neglect and Sexual Abuse | Crying and Colic | Mental Status Changes | Vomiting
- Specialty: Child Abuse and Neglect | Emergency Medicine| Neurology / Neurosurgery | Ophthalmology | Radiology / Nuclear Medicine / Radiation Oncology
- Age: Infant
To Learn More
To view pediatric review articles on this topic from the past year check PubMed.
Evidence-based medicine information on this topic can be found at SearchingPediatrics.com, the National Guideline Clearinghouse and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Information prescriptions for patients can be found at MedlinePlus for this topic: Child Abuse
To view current news articles on this topic check Google News.
To view images related to this topic check Google Images.
Makoroff K. Child Abuse Identification Toolkit for Professionals. Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
Available from the Internet at http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/svc/alpha/c/child-abuse/tools/retinal-hemorrhage.htm (cited 8/5/10).
Moran KT. National Australian conference on shaken baby syndrome. Med J Aust. 2002 Apr 1;176(7):310-1.
Reece RM, Sege R. Childhood Head Injuries: Accidential or Inflicted. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2000;154:11-15.
Togioka BM, et.al. Retinal hemorrhages and shaken baby syndrome: an evidence-based review. J Emerg Med. 2009 Jul;37(1):98-106.
ACGME Competencies Highlighted by Case
1. When interacting with patients and their families, the health care professional communicates effectively and demonstrates caring and respectful behaviors.
2. Essential and accurate information about the patients' is gathered.
3. Informed decisions about diagnostic and therapeutic interventions based on patient information and preferences, up-to-date scientific evidence, and clinical judgment is made.
4. Patient management plans are developed and carried out.
7. All medical and invasive procedures considered essential for the area of practice are competently performed.
8. Health care services aimed at preventing health problems or maintaining health are provided.
9. Patient-focused care is provided by working with health care professionals, including those from other disciplines.
10. An investigatory and analytic thinking approach to the clinical situation is demonstrated.
11. Basic and clinically supportive sciences appropriate to their discipline are known and applied.
13. Information about other populations of patients, especially the larger population from which this patient is drawn, is obtained and used.
19. The health professional works effectively with others as a member or leader of a health care team or other professional group.
20. Respect, compassion, and integrity; a responsiveness to the needs of patients and society that supercedes self-interest; accountability to patients, society, and the profession; and a commitment to excellence and on-going professional development are demonstrated.
22. Sensitivity and responsiveness to patients' culture, age, gender, and disabilities are demonstrated.
Donna M. D'Alessandro, MD
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Iowa Children's Hospital


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A state judge is pressuring New York's Legislature to agree on a redistricting proposal for Congress or face imposition of her own proposal, which would eliminate a Democrat's seat in the Hudson Valley and Republican's seat in Queens and Brooklyn.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Tuesday that the proposal provides a template and impetus for a deal between the Assembly's Democratic majority and Senate's Republican majority that would avoid a court-ordered plan.
U.S. Magistrate Roanne Mann's proposal released ahead of schedule on Tuesday would eliminate the Hudson Valley's current 22nd District represented by Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who is retiring. She also proposes to eliminate Republican Rep. Bob Turner's 9th District in Queens and Brooklyn. Turner won the seat in a special election in September to replace Anthony Weiner, a one-time rising Democratic star who resigned after admitting he sent lewd text messages and photos of himself to women.
[dmc-related-post-wp numitems="3″ title="Also read"]
Turner's district would be absorbed by Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Queens Democrat, under the proposal.
Eliminating those districts would take care of the requirement to eliminate two of New York's 27 congressional seats because of population changes in the last census.
Significant changes in congressional district boundaries were proposed from Long Island to western New York, where longtime incumbents would face off under the judge's proposal.
Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman, who now represents a district mostly in Queens that includes parts of Nassau County on Long Island, finds himself in Democratic Sen. Steve Israel's Long Island district. But Ackerman issued a statement Tuesday eyeing a new congressional district in the judge's proposal centered in Queens.
Ackerman noted that the new 6th District was "where I grew up, went to public school and college, and started my family and my business. It contains my political base."
Some congressional incumbents statewide can't so easily escape a showdown with a colleague under the judge's proposal.
For example, Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo would face Democratic Rep. Kathleen Hochul of suburban Amherst in a new district that would include Buffalo and Niagara Falls, according to The Buffalo News. Hochul could, however, choose a seek office again in a nearby, but heavily Republican suburban-rural district.
Redistricting happens every 10 years to redraw state and congressional election district boundaries using updated census data and in accordance with voting rights acts to ensure minorities have a voice.
The Senate's Republican majority and the Assembly's Democratic majority can still agree on a plan before March 15 to avoid having the judge impose the lines. The Legislature's majorities are also trying to negotiate a plan for state legislative lines to avoid court intervention.
Good-government groups have long criticized the redistricting process as a way for the majorities to expand their power and protect incumbents. For voters, new lines can thrust them into a district dominated by one power and force incumbents of minority parties to face each other in combined districts.
"We continue to believe that a bipartisan solution can be reached, and that the new congressional lines will ultimately be adopted through the normal legislative process," said Scott Reif, spokesman for the Senate's GOP majority.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said a negotiated deal with the Senate is always preferred.
"I think the congressional lines got a lot clearer today and we have to re-evaluate what happens," said Silver, a Manhattan Democrat. "I think what the judge did was give us the impetus, or the template, to now make the necessary deals."
He said he expects state legislative district lines to be released by next week.


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Over the last week, both AT&T and Verizon announced their quarterly earnings. Both companies managed to generate healthy profits, but the breakdowns by division reveal the trends that are changing the shape of the US telecommunications market. Landlines are down, wireless phones and data plans are up, and many consumers are opting for packages that merge phone, Internet, and TV services.
Cell phones
Cell phone use continues to expand dramatically. Verizon added 1.5 million new subscribers, edging its total subscriber base up to 69 million, a figure that includes 2 million wholesale subscribers. AT&T also saw large gains, picking up 1.3 million new subscribers to bring its total up to 73 million.
Both companies bragged about subscriber churn rates of just over one percent; given the size of the subscriber bases, these figures suggest that nearly half of the new customers could simply be the result of users switching providers. The expansion of the wireless market is clearly starting to slow, but we have yet to reach the point where the carriers are stuck with raiding each others' subscriber lists.
Wireless data plans
Use of wireless for data, however, appears to be exploding. Verizon reported a 25 percent increase in wireless data customers over the past year, netting a revenue increase of over 40 percent. AT&T didn't provide subscriber numbers, but its revenue shot up by over 50 percent. Clearly, wireless data and Internet services are a larger growth area than telephony already, and both companies have reason to be excited about future prospects.
AT&T's figures came before the release of the iPhone 3G, which shows every indication of being a hot product. Meanwhile, Verizon announced the first fruits of its Open Development Initiative, which will allow any certified wireless device onto its networks. That first device happened to perform inventory management for businesses, which, while pretty unglamorous, gives some sense of the program's potential for attracting new users.
As in Europe, one casualty of the increased use of wireless was the land line. AT&T lost over eight percent of its switched lines during the last year, dropping its total base to 58.9 million, well below its cellphone subscriber levels. Verizon's drop was even more dramatic at 11.4 percent. The companies managed to drop costs in these divisions a bit, which will probably be the only way to manage the inevitable trend towards shrinking subscriber bases.
DSL woes?
Wireless wasn't the only service cannibalizing land line customers, as both companies reported growth of their combined Internet/phone/TV packages. AT&T's U-verse service, which routes these through DSL, tacked on another 170,000 subscribers. This growth came despite a plunge in broadband subscriber additions for the company. After adding nearly half a million new subscribers in the year's first three months, only 46,000 new subscribers signed on in the most recent quarter. At this point, it's impossible to tell if this was a one-off event or a sign of serious problems for DSL.
Verizon's DSL subscriptions actually dropped by over 100,000, but the company ascribes that to switching many customers over to its FIOS service, which picked up nearly 200,000 new customers. Many of these switchers appear to have sprung for the entire FIOS package, including TV service, as FIOS TV picked up 176,000 new customers.
TV may actually outpace Internet subscriptions, as Verizon has successfully negotiated a TV franchise agreement in New York City. Many homes in the suburban regions of the city, such as Staten Island and parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn, are already wired for FIOS, allowing the company to quickly add TV service to existing subscribers.
Overall, the numbers show that wireless and Internet services clearly have the traditional phone line marked for extermination in the US, though it's likely to be a long and slow process. Although the growth of wired broadband appears to be entering a slow patch, an increasing number of customers are opting for packaged services that include TV, setting up a battle between the "phone" and "cable" companies. These days, those old distinctions are less relevant than ever as both compete to be a home's main data pipe.


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By Bob Chrisman
In my mind it's too early to think of spring cleaning. As I write that sentence my thoughts veer off in another direction. I never clean my house unless company will arrive within a few hours. Those little cleaning spurts only touch the surface dirt and clutter, not at all like spring cleaning, but sufficient to fool guests into thinking I live in a neat, tidy and clean house.
Spring cleaning to me means days of going after the accumulated dirt of the winter. My mother took down all the sheers and curtains and washed them in the wringer washer. She fed them through the rollers to press the water out and then rinsed them before sending them through the wringer and into an empty wash tub. When she finished she hung everything outside on the clothesline to dry in the sun and wind.
As the laundry dried in the fresh air, she donned her rubber gloves and armed with old rags and a bucket of water went after the windows inside and out as my father removed the storm windows and replaced them with the screen windows. He took the screen windows out of storage in the basement, wiped them down and leaned them against the house. He started the removal of the storms at the front of the house and washed and dried them before he took them to the basement to store until fall cleaning.
Mom climbed the step ladder placed next to the house and washed the window panes and window sills. Then she wiped them dry. My sister and I stood inside and pointed out spots that she missed until she handed us a bucket and a sponge and we became her assistants.
Once the window panes sparkled and Dad had installed all of the screens, Mom would open every window in the house to "air out the place." This airing occurred regardless of the outside temperature and lasted long enough for her to proclaim that the air inside was fresh.
She washed and waxed the wood floors throughout the house in the early years. After we installed linoleum in the kitchen and wall-to-wall carpeting in the living room, she would polish the kitchen floor until it gleamed and take her Kirby upright sweeper to the rug in the living room.
Just writing about it makes me tired. I think I'll go take a nap and think about spring cleaning on a smaller scale when I wake up. Or, maybe I won't think about it at all anymore.
-Related to Topic post: WRITING TOPIC – SPRING CLEANING (HOMEMADE CLEANING REMEDIES). Also related to posts: PRACTICE — Spring Cleaning — 10min by QuoinMonkey, WRITING TOPIC — CLEANLINESS, WRITING TOPIC — WINDOW, and Wanda Wooley — The Lean Green Clean Machine.
[NOTE: SPRING CLEANING was a Writing Topic on red Ravine. Frequent guest writer Bob Chrisman joined QuoinMonkey in doing a Writing Practice on the topic.]


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Great tech video - fish that can drive
11.02.2014 13:17
Do you ever feel like your fish is jealous of the cat and dog who can walk freely about the house just because they have the ability to "breathe oxygen"? Have you caught your fish eyeing the parrot and his high flying, free-wheeling ways? Is he jealous of the hamster in the ball who gets to roll around the house?
Most likely, your fish doesn't care, but he might. In fact, according to Culum Brown, a University of Edinburgh biologist , "Fish are more intelligent than they appear. In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of 'higher' vertebrates, including nonhuman primates." So, it's possible your fish is actually a lot smart than we give them credit for.
In order to offer fish some of the freedom their fellow pets have, StudioDip has created "Fish on Wheels", which is essentially a self-driving car for fish. The designers used a webcam, batter power Beagleboard and an Arduino controlled robot vehicle. It's powered by a DC Motor and battery pack. The movement of the fish relative to the bottom of the tank sends commands to the Arduino and moves in the desired direction. Basically, whichever way the fish swims is the way the car turns.
I know fish may not seem like the greatest drivers in the world, but in 2009, Nissan decided to use "fish-inspired" technology as the basis for their robot car concept. Basically, the company used the behavioral patterns of fish in a school as a way to develop technology for collision-free driving. Given that you rarely see fish collide (if ever?) as they have amazing anti-collision instincts and obstacle avoidance abilities. It's not the first time inspiration has been taken from animals (bumblebees exhibit these behaviours as well) but it make me feel a little better about fish driving their tanks around.
All hail our scaly friends.


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Hello dear readers. It has been a very long time since I've posted and it is going to be a very long time until I post once again. I just haven't had the spark. But, I wanted you to know that I think of you all often and hope you are living sweet and joyful lives.
I'm sure I have shouted out my love for YA author A.S. King loud enough for you to hear.
I was thinking of my blog and wondering if there are folks out there thinking of me as I think of you.
In Ask the Passengers, King opens her novel with a prologue. It's short and beautiful. In it, the narrator, Astrid Jones, is sending love to the passengers on an airplane as it flies overhead and she's telling you how she does it and why she does it. It is such a moving entry into a novel that you can't help but turn the page to meet Astrid.
I have snapped a photo of this first page and it sits on my phone and I sometimes pull it out on the subway or when i'm waiting on line and I reread it and I send love. I send love to the folks on the train. I send love to the folks on line with me.
This isn't reciprocal.
It's an outpouring.
Because if I give it all away, then no one can control it.
Because if I give it all away, I'll be free.
Dear readers, go read A.S. King. I suggest you start with Everybody Sees the Ants or Ask the Passengers. Know that even though I don't write much anymore, I'm still sending you love. In all the little moments of life, I'm sending you love.


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Sponsored by the NSA & Friends.
Suitcase-Sized Drones Extend And Deepen OpenStreetMap's Coverage
from the up,-up,-and-away dept
An increasing number of online services use location information. This places suppliers like Google, with its Google Maps, in a strong position, since creating such geodata for entire countries — or the world — is something that can only be undertaken by large, well-funded companies. At least, that was true in the past, but increasingly the free, crowd-sourced alternative, OpenStreetMap, is gaining both contributors and commercial users:
Created by Steve Coast in the UK in 2004, it was inspired by the success of Wikipedia and preponderance of proprietary map data in the UK and elsewhere. Since then, it has grown to over 1 million registered users, who can collect data using GPS devices, aerial photography, and other free sources. These crowdsourced data are then made available under the Open Database License. The site is supported by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, a non-profit organization registered in England.
Rather than the map itself, the data generated by the OpenStreetMap project are considered its primary output. These data are then available for use in both traditional applications, like their usage by Craigslist, Geocaching, MapQuest Open, JMP statistical software, and Foursquare to replace Google Maps, and more unusual roles, like replacing default data included with GPS receivers. These data have been favorably compared with proprietary datasources, though data quality varies worldwide.
As the Wikipedia article quoted above goes on to note, many of the earliest contributors to OpenStreetMap were cyclists, who were keen to chart cycle-routes and navigable trails. Charting remote areas that don't have navigable trails is much harder, which is one reason why the data quality around the world is variable. Low-cost drones seem to have great potential in this area, as this post on MapBox explains:
Last weekend we captured 100 acres of aerial imagery at 4cm [1.6″] resolution. It took less than an hour to fly, and it was easy to publish the imagery on the web using TileMill and then trace in OpenStreetMap. Autonomous flying platforms like Sensefly's eBee paired up with a nimble software stack are changing aerial mapping. Drones like the eBee can cheaply and accurately photograph medium-sized areas, and then the imagery can be made immediately available to everyone.
eBee is a drone specifically designed for aerial photography, with the added benefit that it fits in a suitcase and can be launched by hand. It's easy to imagine even smaller, cheaper and more accurate models appearing in the future, which will allow OpenStreetMap to broaden and refine its coverage yet further. Combined with its zero price, that is likely to make OpenStreetMap's data even more attractive both to existing services and to startups looking to launch new ones based around location.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Filed Under: drones, maps, openness
Companies: openstreetmap


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1911 D Barber Dime
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This page is dedicated exclusively to the 1911 D Barber Dime. You will find a lot of information below such as mintages, specifications, and images. Be sure to visit our Barber Dime Forum if you need help. Also please visit our Barber Dime Grading Forum to help you establish a grade for your Barber Dime. All forums are completely free to register and participate.
1911 D Barber Dime Specifications
Circulation Strikes:11,209,000
Proof Strikes:0
Content:90% silver 10% copper
Weight:2.5 grams
Diameter:17.9 millimeters
Mint:Denver, CO
Designer:Charles Barber
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text:
…has ups and downs. If it doesn't and is always the same then what is present is not love. Within difficulty it is the strength of the shared good times that makes love more durable and flexible.
Beautiful quote by an unidentified writer
A life
with love
must have
some thorns;
but a life
of love
will have
no roses.


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Every lawyer in Primerus shares a commitment to a set of common values known as the Six Pillars.
Research shows that integrity is the number-one quality clients want from their lawyers. We believe clients should be able to trust their attorney completely.
Excellent Work Product
Work product is more than winning or losing. It means that all of a lawyer's work for clients is of consistent, high quality. It means that records, as well as communications with clients, are detailed and clear. It means phone calls are returned, deadlines met and promises kept.
There are two ways Primerus ensures the quality of members' work product. One is through reputation and strict pre-screening, checking with clients, judges and other local attorneys. The other is by choosing members who specialize in certain areas of law such as business or family law.
Reasonable Fees
Primerus member firms may work by the hour, on a contingency plan (pay if you win) or on other fee arrangements. But regardless of the structure, the fees must be reasonable, based on what is customary in their geographic area, and on the individual attorney's knowledge and experience. We know clients are looking for value now more than ever, and Primerus members are here to deliver high-quality legal services for a good value.
Continuing Education
For Primerus members, education doesn't end with a law degree. Primerus attorneys are required to complete an average of 30 hours of CLE (Continuing Legal Education) per year. This is more than twice the typical state bar CLE requirement.
Primerus members still hold the courtroom to be a place of honor. Accordingly, as officers of the court, all lawyers and judges deserve our respect, even when in disagreement. Members may express themselves strongly, but never rudely. Primerus attorneys pledge professionalism, in accordance with the profession's noblest traditions.
Community Service
Law, in its purest sense, is community service. The law, fundamentally, exists to hold communities together. Primerus members pledge themselves to numerous community service endeavors including pro bono services for those who cannot afford legal counsel.


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Various bloggers have asked about the scientific basis for the French approach to kids' food.
Good question!
The issue of children's food–and children's health more generally–became a scientific concern in the 19th century, when infant mortality rates in France were the highest in Europe (and high rates of maternal mortality during childbirth were also a serious issue). In response, the French developed the science of 'puériculture' (literally – the science of infant and child health and hygiene); for example, they invented one of the first modern incubators (the 'Lion' incubator, named after Alexandre Lion, was the model first used in US hospitals). Historians generally point to the Hôpital des Enfants Malades (Hospital for Sick Children) in Paris as the world's first paediatric hospital (opened in 1802, it still exists today, as part of the famous Necker hospital). This gradually became a worldwide trend; the first paediatric hospitals opened in the US in Philadelphia (1855) and Boston (1869).
From the outset, French scientists were particularly interested in children's eating habits, given that good food is one of the core values of French culture. Their research–much of which I cite in my forthcoming book–is fascinating. Some of the best-known researchers are Dr. Claude Fischler (a sociologist with CNRS, who has worked with Dr Paul Rozin at the University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Natalie Rigal (a specialist in developmental child psychology at the University of Paris/Nanterre), and French oenologist and "taste philosopher" Dr. Jacques Puisais, who created the Institut du Goûtin 1976, and initially developed some of the "taste-training" ideas that are now used in French classrooms. There are many other researchers studying children's food in France, notably those working at the Institut du Goût in Paris, and the Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation in Dijon.
A few years ago, these researchers did a comparative study of French and American parental feeding practices, and effects on children's eating habits (de Lauzon-Guillain 2009, full reference below). They were motivated by the fact that no cross-cultural studies of children's eating habits have been done between France and US (as opposed to cross-cultural studies of adults). They were also motivated by the fact that the differences in rates of obesity and overweight were striking: in 2000, 6.4% of 6–9 year old French children were obese (95th percentile for weight) and 20.6% were overweight (85th percentile), whereas 15.3% of 6–11 year old children in the United States were obese and 30.3% were overweight. (Obesity rates for French children have since stayed stable, or even declined slightly, whereas they have continued to increase in the US).
So, what did the researchers find? Here's a quote: "US parents (mothers and fathers) reported higher levels of allowing children control over their own food intake, using food to regulate the child's emotions, and using food as a reward for behavior than French parents. American mothers reported higher levels of teaching their child about nutrition and encouragement of balance and variety. In contrast, French mothers and fathers both reported higher monitoring and higher restriction of their child's food intake for weight control than US parents, and French fathers reported greater modeling of healthy eating than US fathers." French parents exerted more control over their children's food choices (for example: only allowing one snack per day). More research is required to fully understand the links between culture, parenting practices, children's eating behaviours, and outcomes like weight status–but this study is suggestive of some important issues, such as the use of food as a reward.
There are also many interesting studies on the French approach to fostering a love of variety and new foods in the children–even before they are a year old. Let's look at the results of one study, published in 2007 in the peer-reviewed (and leading) journal 'Appetite' (Maier et al 2007; full reference below). It compared French and German mothers, and found that:
In the first month of weaning, French mothers typically gave their infants 6 different vegetables (the Germans gave 3).
More than 40% of French infants were exposed to between 7 and 12 vegetables, but none of the German infants were given more than six.
During the 28 day study, the French mothers made 18 or more changes in the vegetables they offered from day-to-day. Some made as many as 27 changes. But in Germany, more than 80% of the mothers made fewer than 7 vegetable changes during the course of the study. None made more than 13 changes.
When asked to explain why they choose their particular feeding strategy, the French mothers mentioned taste development (which is prioritized by French paediatricians and parenting books), whereas the German mothers talked about food allergies. But the prevalence of food allergies in infants in Germany and France (and indeed in the US) is the same: somewhere between 5 and 8%.
The take-home message? The French approach focuses on developing a love of a wide range of foods in children before they arrive at that near-universal 'no' stage at around the age of two. Their approach suggests that we should be thinking more about taste development and less about food allergies.
These studies illustrate a key point: the French approach children's food is a set of codified common sense rules and routines that parents can easily follow, but it is based on over 200 years of scientific research–which governments have transmitted to French parents through extensive outreach (e.g. the first modern network of what would now be called 'maternal and child health' centres). We don't need to accept everything they do unquestioningly, but it is an interesting example that we could learn from. And, the results of French research correspond with emerging American research–a topic I'll blog about in a future post.
Finally, I should note that no approach to kids' food is perfect. There is a lot of conflicting information out there, from different sources. And even scientists take different approaches; sociologists and psychologists study children's eating habits from a different perspective than medical researchers, for example. The key is to inform yourself about a variety of perspectives, and then to make an informed choice.
The studies referenced above are:
Blandine de Lauzon-Guillain PhD, Dara Musher-Eizenman PhD, Emeline Leporc MSc, Shayla Holub PhD and Marie Aline Charles MD. (2009) Parental Feeding Practices in the United States and in France: Relationships with Child's Characteristics and Parent's Eating Behavior. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 109(6), 1064-1066; and Maier, A., C. Chabanet, B. Schaal, P. Leathwood, and S. Issanchou. 2007. "Food-Related Sensory Experience From Birth Through Weaning: Contrasted Patterns in Two Nearby European Regions." Appetite 49: 429-40.
For a cross-cultural study in English, see:
- Dara R. Musher-Eizenman, Blandine de Lauzon-Guillain, Shayla Holub, et al., "Child and Parent Characteristics Related to Parental Feeding Practices: A Cross-Cultural Examination in the US and France," Appetite 52 (2009): 89–95.
Some references to scientific studies by French researchers (mostly in French, unfortunately!):
- Official historical website of French paediatric hospitals: http://www.aphp.fr/site/histoire/1901_hopitaux_pediatriques.htm
- Claude FISCHLER L'Homnivore. Le goût, la cuisine et le corps, Paris, Odile Jacob, 1990.
- Claude FISCHLER Manger. Français, Européens et Américains face à l'alimentation, with Estelle Masson, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2008.
- Lyon MURARD et Patrick ZYLBERMAN, L'Hygiène dans la République, 1870-1918, Paris, Fayard, 1996.
- Jacques PUISAIS Le goût chez les enfants (Paris: Flammarion, 2000
- Natalie RIGAL La naissance du goût: comment donner aux enfants le plaisir de manger Paris: Agnès Viénot, 2000.
- Gaston VARIOT, Projet d'un Institut de Puériculture aux Enfants-Assistés, Paris, Imprimerie A. Davy, 1908.
- Paul STRAUSS, Dépopulation et puériculture, Paris, Bibliothèque Charpentier, Eugène Fasquelle éditeur, 1901.
For those of you interested in more discussions about the science of food, visit Dr Dina Rose's blog: It's Not About Nutrition. Lots of great information and resources here!


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Last Thursday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner presented Congress with the Obama administration's plan intended to avert the impending fiscal cliff. The plan was, quite literally, laughable. It called for $50 Billion in new stimulus spending, the end of Congressional authority to raise the debt limit, $1.6 Trillion in new revenues from higher taxes on the rich and a promise to try and find $400 Billion in Medicare savings at some, unspecified time in the future. Even the most hardened ideologue cannot possibly believe in the success of a "tax now, cut later" approach to deficit reduction – not based on the government's recent track record, at least.
The Geithner proposal was obviously a Democratic wish list more than a serious offer. It captures a snapshot of what federal policy would look like if the White House were given fiat power and did not have to worry about that pesky Republican Congress. But why, exactly, does President Obama desire this policy prescription? Particularly, why do Democrats want tax hikes on the wealthy? It is, of course, part of the Democratic dogma and it is a very popular position in the polls, but from a policy perspective, it is unclear what motivates the president's desire for higher taxes.
For the sake of argument, let us assume the liberal answer to a couple highly debatable questions. First, let's pretend that increasing taxes always increases revenues. While this is the standard thinking in Washington, it is arguable that tax rates and revenue are, essentially, uncorrelated and that tax policy should focuses solely on maximizing economic growth (check out this graph).
Second, let's assume that increasing taxes on the wealthy does not hurt economic growth. This actually goes against conventional economic thinking – the Congressional Budget Office says that maintaining all of the Bush tax cuts would increase economic growth by 1.5 percent, but maintaining them for only those making under $250,000 would increase economic growth by 1.25 percent. In other words, raising taxes on the rich means a quarter of a percent loss in GDP growth next year – and that is a bit less than half of the tax increase that the president requested. No matter your political stripes, you shouldn't want to shrink the size of the economic pie. But again, let's take the liberal position that tax increases do not hurt the economy.
So why do Democrats want to raise taxes on the wealthy? Some argue the government can take the increased tax revenue, spend more and generate economic growth; others argue that the government can use the revenue to pay down the debt. These goals are, obviously, in direct contradiction. But based on the other policy prescriptions of the White House, neither goal seems to be the motivation for these particular tax increases.
Raising taxes as a way to pay for more stimulus assumes that current deficits don't matter; this is the position of several high-profile liberal elite – that Washington is unnecessarily obsessed with debts. But if we have learned anything over the past four years, it is that spending increases don't require tax increases. In fact, with the current Republicans reluctance to increases any taxes (something I argue against here), it would probably be easier for the President to get pure spending (either on infrastructure, other tax cuts for the middle class or an extension of the payroll tax cut) than to advocate for spending and tax hikes. Plus, the President is not calling for that increased spending – he is, at the most, advocating for the maintenance of the status quo on spending. If that is his goal, there is no reason to increase taxes –
Unless you care about the debt.
Decreasing the deficit seems to be the nominal reason for the President's tax hike plan. Implicit in this belief, however, is that deficits matter and ours is too big. And if this is the mainstream Democratic belief (and let's hope that it is) than the tax increases are insufficient to tackle the impending crisis and the President seems unwilling to manage the actual drivers of the debt. As President Obama likes to say, it's math. The elimination of the top rate Bush tax cuts would pay for less than a week worth of government spending this year. You just cannot tax the rich enough to solve the debt crisis.
To just stabilize the nation's debt, four trillion dollars in cuts and hikes are needed, at minimum; even if you accept the President's $1.6 trillion in new taxes, you either need $2.4 Trillion in spending cuts (mainly to Medicare) or you need even more tax hikes (probably on the middle class). This is a far cry from the current strategy of "let's discuss $400 Billion in the future."
So if the revenue is insufficient to solve the debt problem and the President's plan does not call for more stimulus spending, then why call for the tax increases? Fairness. This trope was reiterated time and again during the campaign. The rich need to pay their "fair share." We need "shared sacrifice" to put America back on the right track. America's tax system is not progressive enough, the left argues – the rich just don't pay a large enough portion of the government bill.
But here is the shocker. America, already, has the most progressive tax system in the developed world; if one argues that the rich are not paying enough in the U.S., one has to argue that there is no country that has high enough taxes on the wealthy. The top ten percent of income earners in the U.S. paid 45.1% of all taxes, not just income taxes, in 2008 – the highest of any developed nation.
But, Democrats argue, "the rich make far more money; they should pay a far larger percentage in taxes." it is true, of course, that the rich are richer; the top decile of earners made 33.5% of all income. But one can take this income inequality into consideration. By looking at a ratio of taxes paid to income earned, we can measure progressiveness independently of income inequality. Below is that ratio for all developed countries, courtesy of the OECD – the international body that initially published this finding.
The U.S. has the highest ratio of taxes paid to income earned by our richest citizens. Higher than socialist France or economically disastrous Greece, higher than Spain with its 25% unemployment rate and Sweden with its cradle-to-grave government support.
If you find this analysis of the top 10% unconvincing, The OECD also used a more complicated measure to analyze the taxes paid and income inequality in each country, but the results were the same. The U.S.tax system, quite simply, is the most progressive in the world. A "fair share" argument cannot hold water when faced with these data. Accounting for American levels of income disparity, the rich in this country still pay the world's largest tax burden.
So if deficits matter, these taxes don't fix the problem, and the wealthy already pay their fair share, why do Democrats want to raise taxes?
Be sure to let me know, if you find out.


text:
O'Brien slices and dices at WHCD
Comedian Conan O'Brien skewered the press corps, the president and much of the rest of Washington in his address to the White House Correspondents ' Dinner on Saturday night.
The list of O'Brien's targets was wide-ranging — and the jokes sometimes bordered on merciless.
"It's no surprise Speaker [John] Boehner isn't here tonight," he said, adding that Boehner and President Barack Obama are "still struggling to get along." "It's kinda like a blind date between Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow. In theory, they understand each others' positions, but deep down, you know nothing's ever going to happen."
( PHOTOS: Stars, politicos, media at WHCD)
His jabs hit figures from across the political spectrum, from the NRA's Wayne LaPierre to legendary journalist Bob Woodward, Mitt Romney to DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.).
"The print media still has a big star in Bob Woodward," he said. "Earlier the waiter asked if he wanted regular or decaf. And he said, 'Stop threatening me,'" O'Brien said, referencing a tussle the journalist had with the Obama administration.
Obama, too, found himself the subject of O'Brien's routine.
"Some in this room even accused the president of being distant and aloof," O'Brien said. "When I asked the president about that earlier, he said, 'Oh,' and walked away."
( WATCH: Obama's full remarks at WHCD)
O'Brien congratulated Obama on his reelection, but was quick to add a side of snark.
"The president is hard at work creating jobs," he said. "Since he was first elected, the number of popes has doubled. The number of 'Tonight Show' hosts has tripled. Congratulations."
Turning to the media at large, he said the scene reminds him of a high school cafeteria.
"As I look around the room and see all the media here tonight, I realize this is just one big high school cafeteria. That's all it is," he said. "Think about it. Fox is the jocks, MSNBC is the nerds. … NPR is the table for kids with peanut allergies. Al Jazeera is the weird foreign exchange student nobody talks to."
( PHOTOS: Red carpet arrivals at WHCD)
Sharpening the knives, he turned to "print media."
"And print media, I didn't forget you," he said. "You're the poor kid who died sophomore year in a car crash. Cheer up, we dedicated the yearbook to you."


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At Facebook:
FFS pull your head in, lady.
This is a public statue properly positioned in a public space (Queens Gardens).
—NOT a trifle to be STOLEN by ivy-league wankers to decorate their private vajayjay !!
There is Nothing wrong with city brothels fronting public spaces.
Or, city brothels fronting public works of sculpture.
What is more Human, Egalitarian and LEGAL than that.
At a public forum this week the Dunedin City Council was asked for its support to move the statue of Dr Donald Stuart from its place in Queens Gardens to an undecided location near the University of Otago clocktower. Dr Stuart was the minister of Knox Church for 33 years and led the congregation until he died in 1894. (ODT)
Related Post and Comments:
30.8.15 La Maison House of Pleasure, Queens Gardens —then and today
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
This post is offered in the public interest.


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New Mobile App radioPup Featured on ABC-12 (Updated) [VIDEO]
We're sure you have heard about our new mobile app for iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads and Android phones; just in case you have been hiding under a rock, ABC-12 did an interview with our sister station Club 93.7's Program Director Clay Church. During the interview Clay and ABC-12's Terry Camp touched on the functionality, the stations you can listen to and upcoming features. Read or watch the full interview after the jump.
Terry Camp: A new app allows you to listen to Mid-Michigan radio stations and hundreds of others around the nation. Let's focus in now, joining us Clay Church, Program Director for 93.7 fm and of course Clay is on the air in the morning a year there. Thanks for coming on the show Clay.
Clay: No problem.
Terry Camp: The app we're talking about, radioPup. Tell us about it.
Clay: So basically radioPup is a way for you to take radio with you anywhere you go. And you'll get the Mid-Michigan stations on your phone and you can listen it's absolutely free, you can download it to you itune or android phone and take it with you and listen so it services you.
Clay: iPhone and Android markets are the ones right now. It's absolutely free.
Terry Camp: Is it? Ok.
Clay: And you can do it at radioPup.com.
Terry Camp: radioPup.com. Uh what's the best bit about this so far?
Clay: It's been great. So far our rating on iTunes is a five star rating, uh the first week it came out it was one of the most downloaded free radio apps out there, and uh so far people out there are loving it, i mean the people that can take their favorite radio station whether it be Club or Cars or Banana or WQUS and listen to it even when they are out of the signal strength.
Terry Camp: Yeah and you just mentioned a few of the radio stations, were all the radio stations in this area on it?
Clay: Everything's covered. Not the radio stations that are all of them in this area but the townsquare media markets. Over one-hundred-fifty stations, any format that your looking for, top 40, Hip-Hop, Active Rock, News, Sports, Talk everything.
Terry Camp: Yeah, and again if you go anywhere in the country.
Clay: Yep
Terry Camp: give us an example so you were just talking…
Clay: Perfect example is my Mom who has always wanted to listen but she lives in Northern Michigan and couldn't get the signal. (Terry Camp: at least that's what she says) yeah, now she doesn't have a reason not to, uh she plugs her phone right into her car stereo and listens on her way into work to me in the mornings so i have to watch what i say now so.
Terry Camp: That's fantastic because a lot of people you know they go to remote areas where they are not familiar with the radio stations.
Clay: Some of the feedback that we have gotten has been from people who have to leave for the military as well and they'll take their phone or download it onto their iPad as well because you can do it on an ipad and an itouch and they'll listen to their favorite radio stations. Kind of a touch of home while theyre gone.
Terry Camp: Yeah. Ok and clay i gotta admit im still not the most tech savy as far as these apps go (Clay:easy) so how can someone get it again?
Clay: radioPup.com or visit your favorite radio stations website. Download it, its free it installs itself, you can click on your favorite radio station and have it ready for you at the touch of a button.
Terry Camp: Besides just playing songs, what else can radioPup do? Can it do other things?
Clay: Yep that's one of the advantages is you can go directly, um there will be advantages coming to where you can buy the song, and any radio station contest that's coming up you can link directly to the website of that radio station and enter that contest.
Terry Camp: Does it help with the local radio stations in the effort you know lets say against XM radio and stuff like that, with the competition you get?
Clay: Oh yeah, definitely. The goal of radio is always to be as convenient and in your face as possible and this is just another way i mean most peoples phones have become everything from their planner, to their main mode of communication, they've started to pay for things with their phone, so basically its just trying to be in everyone's pocket as much as we can.
Terry Camp: And again right now two phone systems can only use it, Blackberry can…
Clay: Blackberry not yet, Android and iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch you can do it on all those.
Terry Camp: Alright sounds interesting. Clay Church thanks for coming on the show it was good seeing you.
Clay: Thank you, good seeing you.
Terry Camp: Now for more about radioPup and the radioPup app, we posted a link on abc12.com.