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Tan Le

Tan Le is the co-founder and president of Emotiv Systems, a firm that’s working on a new form of remote control that uses brainwaves to control digital devices and digital media. It’s long been a dream to bypass the mechanical (mouse, keyboard, clicker) and have our digital devices respond directly to what we think. Emotiv’s recently released EPOC headset uses 16 sensors to listen to activity across the entire brain. Software “learns” what each user’s brain activity looks like when one, for instance, imagines a left turn or a jump.

Neuroscientists have expressed varying views about Emotiv’s headset and technology — electrical activity in the brain is notoriously difficult to decode — but it does work. It is a natural for gaming, where ever more complex environments demand more complex inputs. But it’s also a potential gamechanger for accessibility apps, such as steering a wheelchair. Le herself has an extraordinary story — a refugee from Vietnam at age 4, she entered college at 16 and has since become a vital young leader in her home country of Australia.

“We’re looking at the tip of the iceberg. We’re looking at the computer of the ’70s. Everybody knows this is going to be awesome in the future and do a lot of things.” Nam Do, cofounder of Emotiv

via: http://www.ted.com/speakers/tan_le.html

Vietnam - 1915

In 1909 the millionaire French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn embarked on an ambitious project to create a colour photographic record of, and for, the peoples of the world. As an idealist and an internationalist, Kahn believed that he could use the new autochrome process, the world’s first user-friendly, true-colour photographic system, to promote cross-cultural peace and understanding.

Kahn used his vast fortune to send a group of intrepid photographers to more than fifty countries around the world, often at crucial junctures in their history, when age-old cultures were on the brink of being changed for ever by war and the march of twentieth-century globalisation. They documented in true colour the collapse of both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires; the last traditional Celtic villages in Ireland, just a few years before they were demolished; and the soldiers of the First World War — in the trenches, and as they cooked their meals and laundered their uniforms behind the lines. They took the earliest-known colour photographs in countries as far apart as Vietnam and Brazil, Mongolia and Norway, Benin and the United States.

At the start of 1929 Kahn was still one of the richest men in Europe. Later that year the Wall Street Crash reduced his financial empire to rubble and in 1931 he was forced to bring his project to an end. Kahn died in 1940. His legacy, still kept at the Musée Albert-Kahn in the grounds of his estate near Paris, is now considered to be the most important collection of early colour photographs in the world. Read more…

via: http://www.albertkahn.co.uk/about.html

The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the North Vietnamese Army on April 30, 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period leading to the formal reunification of Vietnam under communist rule.

North Vietnamese forces under the command of the Senior General Văn Tiến Dũng began their final attack on Saigon, which was commanded by General Nguyen Van Toan on April 29, with a heavy artillery bombardment. By the afternoon of the next day, North Vietnamese troops had occupied the important points within the city and raised their flag over the South Vietnamese presidential palace. South Vietnam capitulated shortly after. The city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, after communist leader Ho Chi Minh. The fall of the city was preceded by the evacuation of almost all the American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians associated with the southern regime. The evacuation culminated in Operation Frequent Wind, which was the largest helicopter evacuation in history.[1] In addition to the flight of refugees, the end of the war and institution of new rules by the communists contributed to a decline in the population of the city. [ wikipedia ]

WESTMINSTER (NV) - Năm nay cộng đồng người Việt ở Nam California đã tổ chức Tưởng Niệm Quốc Hận 30 tháng 4 qua đến 17 sinh hoạt suốt từ đầu đến cuối Tháng Tư, từ những buổi Rửa Xe gây quĩ hỗ trợ các cuộc tranh đấu ở trong nước của đoàn Thanh Niên Phan Bội Châu qua những buổi hội thảo về “Tháng Tư Ðen” của tuổi trẻ trong Tổng Hội Sinh nam California cùng các đoàn thể trẻ, các buổi triển lãm và tưởng niệm Thuyền Nhân cho đến những sinh hoạt Tưởng Niệm chính vào đúng ngày 30 tháng 4.

Tại Tượng Ðài Chiến Sĩ Việt-Mỹ thành phố Westminster, sau nhiều tuần tranh chấp, hai buổi lễ tưởng niệm đã diễn ra tốt đẹp với đông đảo người tham dự cả hai buổi lễ. [ nguoi-viet ]