Dean Kamen

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 01 Jul 2001 13:11:02 GMT

Yesterday's keynote speaker at the Progress conference here in DC was Dean Kamen, "an inventor, an entrepreneur, and an advocate for science and technology". Mr. Kamen is the founder of DEKA Research and Development Corporation. All 1300 of us were gathered in a large conference room. The program began with a video of a news segment on his IBOT mobility device. Don't call this a wheel chair. It allows people who can't walk to go just about anywhere the rest of can: up stairs, over curbs, on the beach. My jaw dropped during the video. Then they showed a young woman who was paralyzed from the waste down trying it out. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. Oh, the IBOT can stand up. Mr. Kamen rolled in on the chair, climbed the stairs, then "stood up" to speak. Standing in the chair, he is almost six feet tall. On his legs, he's only five feet six inches. The IBOT slowly rocked back and forth, keeping its balance, as he "stood" on the stage. It is currently being commercialized by Johnson & Johnson, will probably be available sometime in 2002, and will likely cost $20,000 a pop. Dean's FIRST organization, "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology", runs huge robot competitions for high school kids.

There's a picture of Dean and his chair with Bill Clinton on the DEKA front page. There are more pictures and a couple of movies here. There's a Bob Metcalfe article here, and the NBC Dateline video that they showed at the conference is here (Windows Media Player).

One problem with the IBOT is that it needs power. They currently have 50 pounds of Lithium batteries in it, but propane is pound-for-pound a hugely better energy store than any known battery. So DEKA created a small stirling engine to make electricity. It didn't work for the IBOT, but they're turning it into a combination electrical generator and water purifier for the third world.

Dean went to the Davos conference in Switzerland last year. His comment on leaving a room filled with the world's political "leaders" was:

When all is said and done, it's all said and nothing's done.

DEKA is in Manchester, New Hampshire. They're hiring.

Dean Kamen, I salute you!

Kevin Graham and Angela Moore at the St. Petersburg Times - Protesters kept at a distance; three arrested - holding a sign protesting gw's behavior is now a "security risk" for which people in Tampa were arrested. Sieg heil. [unknown]

Thomas H. Lipscomb at The American Spectator Abandoning Miss Liberty for Ms. Reno - a good article about the death of liberty at the hands of the Amerikan police state. [zero]

You don't have to be Timothy McVeigh to no longer trust your own government these days.

Vaccination Liberation's mission statement:

To reveal the myth that vaccines are safe and effective
To preserve our right to abstain
To repeal all compulsory vaccination laws nationwide
To expand our awareness of alternatives in healthcare

Declan McCullagh at Wired - PGP: Happy Birthday to You - June 5 was the tenth anniversary of the release by Phil Zimmerman of Pretty Good Privacy. [cafe]

Dave Winer's DaveNet - How to Save the Soul of the Internet - A few words of wisdom from an old master about Microsoft's latest sleight-of-hand. [script]

Andrew Orlowski at the Register Java is not a hairball - Official - Handsome or not, I think the JDK has gotten rather large of late. I wish they'd split up rt.jar into components, so you could leave out parts of it you don't need. [wes]

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Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair