Our Visit to the Zoo



Hi, guys! Came to see me right? Well I'll tell you all about what's going on ...


Hey, wait a minute! Come back, I'm not done yet ... Aww, gosh ...


Hey, human, make yourself useful, give me a back rub ...


Oh, yeah, that feels good ... a little lower please ...


Well, I gotta go hang out with my boys ...


Check it out, can you do this? ...


Yeah ... boring ... Anyway, I gotta fix this door ... now, let's see here
... looks like I'm gonna have to go to Home Depot for this one ...


Oy, there he goes again, always trying to fix stuff ... if his brain were
any smaller ...


Hey, sucker, who you talkin bout with a small brain? Don't dis me ... Bring
it on, fool ...


OK, here I come, Ostrich ...


I didn't mean it ... I didn't mean it ...


Are you two goin at it again ... Gorilla, if you wanna date me, you gotta
have some manners ...


But baby, feast your eyes, you know I'm fine ...


Hmmm, there he goes again, struttin like he's all that ... now if I could
just get Polar Bear to pay me some attention ...


I've been trying to tell you ... I'm already in a committed relationship ...


Oh, no, here we go again, the great Polar Bear romance ... gag me with a
spoon ...


But isn't love wonderful? Look how cute we are ...


Hey, are they arguing about who's the cutest again ...


Yeah, I think so ...


I prefer to be judged by my intellect rather than my appearance ...


Yes, Turtle, I fully agree ...


That reminds me ... I have some physics homework to do ...


Oh, Turtle, you are so smart, can we hang out sometime ...


I'm afraid not, I'm going for a swim ...


Oh, Turtle, why don't you care for me? ... boo hoo ...


If only someone would notice me ...


On my way, baby ... the gansta of love is comin ...


Are you guys leaving so soon, but wait I wanted to tell you about my day ...
Aww, gosh ...

Publicly Funded Research Not Available to U.S. Businesses

I am currently working on pattern recognition ideas and tried to download a face database for testing. The author did not respond to my emails so I sent this letter:



Victor L. Lechtenberg
Vice Provost for Engagement
Purdue University

John A. Schneider
Assistant Vice Provost for Industry Research
Purdue University

Dear Mr Lechtenberg and Mr Schneider,

I am writing to ask about the policy of Purdue University regarding resources generated by researchers at the University.

Specifically, the AR Face Database (see http://rvl1.ecn.purdue.edu/~aleix/aleix_face_DB.html) is a set of photographs of faces that was built at Purdue to test computer face-recognition algorithms. According to the web page above, it is totally free to "academics wishing to test their software" and has been downloaded by researchers in France Germany and Japan. However, according to the web page, it is apparently not available to any form of commercial entity engaged in similar research here in the United States. In fact, the faculty member who generated the database did not respond to two emails asking for access to the database.

It seems odd to me that resources generated, at least partially, with state and federal funds is freely available to academic researchers world-wide but not to businesses here in the U.S. working on similar research. I would be interested to know if Purdue University condones this practice of discrimination against business researchers and if any Purdue policies cover this situation.

Sincerely,