If you're looking for an exceedingly tiny ARM-based microcontroller, Freescale says it's just cooked up the world's smallest. Dubbed the Kinetis KL02, the piece of kit is 25 precent smaller than the previous record-holder and measures up at a 1.9 x 2.00 x 0.56 millimeters. Having trouble visualizing exactly how small that is? Just take a gander at the photo above. A 48 MHz ARM Cortex-M0+ processor has made it onto the wafer-level chip-scale package and it's paired with 32KB of flash memory and 4KB of RAM. The outfit reckons it'll be a good match for 'internet of things' devices that are tight on space, and says it beats its older L Series kin in power efficiency. Manufacturer sampling for the KL02 is slated for March, while wide availability is penciled in for July, and it'll set buyers back 75 cents a piece when purchased in 100,000-unit loads. Hit the jump for more details in the press release.
Space tourist millionaire Dennis Tito, who in 2001 paid $20 million to visit the International Space Station, is planning a privately funded trip to the Red Planet.
By Clara Moskowitz,?SPACE.com / February 27, 2013
Dennis Tito became the first space tourist when he launched toward the International Space Station in April 2001. Here, he shares his experiences at a space conference in 2003.
NASA Kennedy Space Center
Enlarge
A millionaire space tourist plans to make a major announcement today (Feb. 27) about launching a trip to Mars in 2018.
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American businessman?Dennis Tito?paid about $20 million to visit the International Space Station in 2001 aboard a Russian spacecraft. Now, Tito is launching a new nonprofit organization called the Inspiration Mars Foundation to plan another private trip to space.
Details about the?private Mars voyage, including whether it will be manned or robotic, are set to be revealed during a press conference today at Washington, D.C.'s National Press Club. Speakers at the 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) event will include Tito, as well as longtime space journalist Miles O?Brien, former NASA flight surgeon Jonathan Clark, a professor of space medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Taber MacCallum, chief executive officer and chief technology officer of Paragon Space Development Corporation, and Jane Poynter, Paragon's president and chairwoman.
The Inspiration Mars Foundation plans to mount a mission to "take advantage of a unique window of opportunity to launch an historic journey to Mars and back in 501 days," project officials wrote in a media advisory.
"This 'Mission for America' will generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration. It is intended to encourage all Americans to believe again, in doing the hard things that make our nation great, while inspiring youth through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and motivation," they added.
Tito, an engineer who once worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., founded the investment firm Wilshire Associates, which eventually made him a millionaire. [Photos: The First Space Tourists]
Tito's eight-day trek to space in 2001 made him the first-ever space tourist. Since his trip, six others have followed in his footsteps, paying between $20 million and $35 million through the American firm Space Adventures, which brokers deals with the Russian Federal Space Agency.
No private company has yet launched people to space on commercially built vehicles, though numerous firms, such as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., are working toward that goal.
NASA itself is also pursuing the goal of?sending humans to Mars. The space agency is developing a new capsule called Orion, and a new heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS), to take astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit and to new destinations in the solar system, including asteroids and the Red Planet.
To watch Tito's announcement live at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT), visit:?http://www.inspirationmars.org/.
Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter?@ClaraMoskowitz?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook?&?Google+.?
Copyright 2013?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ryan Gosling Turns Red Over Dish Towel?[The Frisky] Prince Michael Jackson to Flex Acting Chops on ’90210′?[HollyWire] New Hunger Games: Catching Fire Posters Unveiled?[Right Celebrity] Justin Bieber Wears Gas Mask in London?[The Celebrity Cafe] Kim Kardashian Brags About Having It All?[The Blemish] James Franco’s Life Coming to a Theater Soon?[The Huffington Post] Pink Heading to ...
Happy women?s history month! Although women now make up a majority of those enrolled in college, women are still underrepresented in some fields, including business and entrepreneurship. Many successful businesswomen shared their thoughts in our recent compilation of tips from small businesswomen, and they cited a lack of female mentorship and networking opportunities for women as barriers. Although female entrepreneurs are less common than male entrepreneurs, there are plenty of innovative, inspiring women in the business industry.
Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Tony Clement in Canada.
I TRY TO ensure our creative multimedia students understand the importance of sharing data points through simple things like online photos. And I listen to strategic thinkers like Tony Clement explain why our world is better with Open Data in it.
I wish anybody in charge of State money in Ireland had to certify (1) Open Data compliance and (2) API end point access for public data they gather or maintain. In my mind, it's a matter of accessibility. We hear the accessibility standard discussed in every developers' conference. Public servants have to be concerned with accessible internet resources and they're graded accordingly. We need to impose the same kind of public expectation on all the data that's culled and presented online by State agencies.
All the smartphone ecosystems have exceptionally useful?apps available for download that build on top of information created and collected by government sources. My phone has more accurate information about transportation and venues now than ever before. And if governments were more forward-thinking we could boost business, civic engagement and cultural interactions.
This?Friday, on the first of March 1st at 4PM Irish Time, I'm going to listen to a Hangout on Air about Canada's Open Data portal. The Hangout is with the Honourable Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board of Canada and Member of Parliament for Parry Sound-Muskoka. Tony is leading the redesign of the Government of Canada?s?Open Data?portal.
I've put the Hangout onto my Google Calendar. If Open Data interests you, here's what you might consider this Friday: Props to Mark Blevis and Colin McKay
One of the more notable features of BlackBerry 10 is built-in screensharing, but here in Barcelona at MWC 2013, OPTiM has just one-upped Waterloo with a new app for Android. It not only lets users share screens, but it also allows them to remotely control devices over WiFi. Called Optia for Android, it works with handsets running Android 2.3 and up, and has a built-in chat function for facilitating communication while screensharing. Naturally, the app's a boon to IT pros who manage devices from afar, but it should also prove useful for helping you teach mom and dad how to use the fancy new smartphones you got them for Christmas. The app's currently free from Google Play, though only for a limited time. Head on past the break for a video of Optia in action, and you can grab the app at the source link below.
Harry Peto talks to the Downton Abbey star about his role as Lord Grantham, the Footlights and Maggie Smith....
Hugh Bonneville, a sort of new Colin Firth figure in his own right, will put you at immediate ease should you ever meet him, just like all those swooning middle-aged mums would like to believe. In spite of his oozing charisma, he remains touchingly modest throughout my meeting with him; I ask about his experience of student drama and the Corpus alumnus tells me, "I wrote a terrible sketch for the Footlights. I wasn't in the Footlights." Many current actors will empathise with the fact that he "tended to do more play than work", and left Cambridge with a 2:2 in theology.
I'm keen to know if he aspires to any particular roles, Shakespeare or otherwise - the modesty once again shines through as he remarks that "maybe I'm getting too old and slow for Benedict but I love that play [Much Ado about Nothing] very much". Whilst he's never had a yearning for a specific role, he'd "love to do some Chekov", so perhaps that's where Lord Grantham is destined to head next.
What really gets Bonneville going, it seems, is a real challenge, in which he's forced to face up to his fears. His examples are playing John Bailey in Iris (2001) and Philip Larkin- "who I felt I had nothing in common with at all, but I thoroughly enjoyed a) researching him and b) developing as a character"- as well as Mr Pooter in Diary of a Nobody (2007), "which was a challenge in its own right because it was a one-man piece to camera. So it was me talking to the camera for two hours, which presents challenges of its own. So I suppose those sorts of roles, where it's outside your comfort zone, and yet you try and push yourself into some sort of representation, I find those exciting."
The success of Downton Abbey has catapulted Bonneville to stardom. "A couple of people last time I was in America said to me, 'oh, you must have been very grateful when Downton Abbey came along' like I hadn't been doing anything for 25 years!" The ubiquity of the show's success is evident as well: "I was in Thailand just after New Year and I was just walking down the street and my wife said, 'gosh, isn't it refreshing to be somewhere where no-one recognises you?' At which point someone leapt out of a shop and said 'I LOVE Downton Abbey!!' It's nice, it's lovely that people like the show, etc. but it's peculiar. It's a strange thing."
Stressful though? "It's a shrinking world, and everyone has camera phones, and everyone thinks nothing of coming up and sticking a camera in your face, so it's not just the paps anymore. It's everyone. But I can't complain, it's part and parcel of modern-day life", he explains light-heartedly.
Not many people are aware that 'Bonneville' is a middle name and Williams is his actual surname. I'm curious as to whether this is in part to give himself a separate identity for the public eye. "No, not at all, no, no, it's simply a practical one"; namely that his first audition involved a director wasting time explaining he shared a name with a famous actor from the 1940s. "So it's all very confusing but I answer to everything. There's no clever reason behind it." Never mind!
Does he think one can be simply 'right' or 'wrong' for a part? He cites the film Tootsie, where Dustin Hoffman "is desperately auditioning on Broadway, off Broadway, everywhere, and audition after audition they say no, you're too tall, you're too short, you're too whatever, and eventually one of the directors shouts 'we just don't want you'. It's not about your intrinsic talent. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think the hardest thing, and the most essential thing, is not to take it personally", and with that he laughs very cheerily.
I want to know whether there are common characteristics of actors, then. "We are vagabonds and rogues! There is something magpie-ish about actors. I don't mean they go round thieving but they do thieve traits of personalities.
"I love the company of actors: they're irreverent, deeply loyal to each other. People always say actors just bitch about each other. I'm not entirely sure that's true. They care deeply about each other actually. I think, if we're lucky enough to be in a profession which is about expression of any sort of artistic form, yes of course there's bitching and cliques and all the rest of it but the true actors, or the true artists, in the entertainment industry I've found very compassionate people and I love their company."
Is working with the likes of Maggie Smith totally different from working with other less well known actors/actresses? "No, not in the least, no- I mean, what's different is you're working with the best actors in the world! She's gonna deliver so you'd better damn-well be prepared. You can't put your finger on why they are different, like watching Mark Rylance on stage: you simply can't take your eyes off him. And people say the same of (Lawrence) Olivier and (John) Gielgud and they all have their particular qualities. But Maggie is one of our current great actresses and it's amazing that I'm playing her son six months of the year."
Does he look up to anyone in particular? "I'm a huge fan of Philip Seymour-Hoffman. I think the range he displays is enviable. He can play light comedy and he can play very, very dark, sinister characters and I adore watching that sort of metamorphosis in an actor. I don't possess it myself necessarily but I admire it in him. I'm nervous of meeting one's heroes or, in fact, turning into jelly when I do meet them."
Maggie Smith recently said she never watches Downton. "Yeah I know some actors don't... because they find it weird and compellingly horrible. Or rather, I do watch and find it compellingly horrible! Also, the first time I watch something I will learn from it and think, 'ooh that's odd', and 'why did they cut that scene?' and that sort of thing. And then the second time, hopefully, if it's good, I'll enjoy the story. I'll just watch it like anybody else... Not that I queue up to watch my own films or anything like that! But I don't run and hide behind cushions; sometimes I do. But I find it quite instructive actually."
I acknowledge his recording of an audiobook version of Goldfinger and ask him if he's a Bond fan- only an "armchair" one apparently. He (rightly) guesses that I want to ask which his favourite Bond is. "I have to say Daniel Craig. I think Daniel Craig has brought an incredible new depth to the character and verges on menacing at times, particularly in Casino Royale, which I thought was a wonderful, wonderful film. But I'm afraid I've got to go back to Connery. Connery's MY Bond", and again he sounds off that wonderfully charming laugh, and I can't help but agree with him.
Finally, I ask him which series of Downton Abbey is his favourite. "The one we're shooting at the moment actually", chuckling again, perhaps in amusement that I'm now desperate to know why- alas, he can say nothing more! I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what Lord Grantham has in store for us...
Yesterday, Samsung announced the HomeSync Android TV box, and as expected that device is making an appearance here on the MWC 2013 show floor. Boxy media hubs can only be so attractive, but the HomeSync's grey-and-black aesthetic is sleek, and the brushed-metal finish will look familiar to anyone who's used a Sammy handset or laptop. There's a pair of USB 3.0 inputs, an HDMI port, optical audio and Ethernet connections on the rear, and buttons for power and settings on the front, but you can easily hide the console deep inside your home theater rig -- it can be controlled exclusively with a Android 4.2-equipped smartphone or tablet.
The Jelly Bean-powered HomeSync runs a 1.7GHz dual-core processor with 1TB of storage, and it supports up to eight accounts for uploading, downloading and sharing content between devices. Those with a Galaxy device will be able to wirelessly stream content to their TVs in full 1080p, and Play Store access is on board for downloading additional media. It worked well during our hands-on, but as with any WiFi-equipped streaming device, there was noticeable lag when mirroring the smartphone display on the connected HDTV. Still, assuming the price is right, we can see this being a solid component within any home theater setup. Take a closer look in our hands-on video after the break.
(Reuters) - For the first time in decades, the United States is making steady gains in the number of high school students earning diplomas, putting it on pace to reach a 90 percent graduation rate by 2020, according to a new analysis released Monday.
But the good news comes with a big asterisk: students with learning disabilities and limited fluency in English face long odds to finish high school, with graduation rates for those groups as low as 25 percent in some states, the analysis found. Minority students also continue to fall well behind their white peers, with about one-third of African-American students and 29 percent of Hispanic students dropping out before graduation.
The "Building a Grad Nation" report - which was co-authored by Robert Balfanz, a leading scholar of dropout rates at Johns Hopkins University - found strong improvements in graduation rates in a diverse collection of states including Tennessee, Louisiana, Alaska, California, Texas and New York. The national graduation rate jumped from 71.7 percent in 2001 to 78.2 percent in 2010, with the pace of improvement accelerating in the past few years.
"For the first time in 40 years, we have seen significant, sustained improvement," said John Bridgeland, a co-author of the study and the chief executive of Civic Enterprises, a public policy group in Washington, D.C.
Iowa, Vermont and Wisconsin lead the nation with graduation rates close to 90 percent, according to the report, which used data from 2010 and 2011. At the bottom of the heap: Nevada and New Mexico, where barely six in 10 high school freshmen can expect to earn a diploma within four years. Idaho, Kentucky and Oklahoma didn't use the same formula for calculating rates as other states and thus were not included in the report.
Those who have been successful in raising graduation rates credit a range of tactics:
* Launching new schools designed to train kids for booming career fields, so they can see a direct connection between math class and future earnings
* Offering flexible academic schedules and well-supervised online courses so students with jobs or babies can earn credits as their time permits
* Hiring counselors to review every student's transcript, identify missing credits and get as many as possible back on track
* Improving reading instruction and requiring kids who struggle with comprehension to give up some electives for intensive tutoring
* Sending emissaries door-to-door to hound chronic truants into returning to class
"Increasing the graduation rate has to be a purposeful exercise, something you're driven to do every day," said Terry Grier, superintendent of public schools in Houston, Texas, where the graduation rate has jumped from 64.3 percent to 78.5 percent since 2007. "More and more, you're seeing people across the country get it."
Yet the report's authors warn that the momentum could still stall.
POTENTIAL LIMITING FACTORS
Nearly every state will soon be rolling out curricula tied to the Common Core standards, which aim to bring more rigor to math and language arts instruction. Many will require students to pass exams tied to those higher standards to graduate, which could push lead to more failures and higher drop-out rates, the report suggests.
The authors also warn that some states, such as Kentucky, New Mexico and Florida, plan to grade high schools in large measure by student test scores and participation in advanced courses, with the graduation rate accounting for less than 20 percent of the school's grade. That could give principals an incentive to push out failing students and focus on high-achievers, rather than helping the stragglers work toward their diplomas.
Another concern: some states, such as Texas, do not count students as dropouts if they say they are leaving to be home-schooled or to transfer to a private school. The report notes that thousands of those students are significantly behind in credits and suggests that many may be dropping out without admitting it.
Perhaps the biggest threat to momentum, however, is the lagging performance of disadvantaged students, the report's authors said.
In Nevada, for instance, just 23 percent of students with disabilities, 29 percent of those with limited English skills and 43 percent of African-American students earned their diplomas in 2011.
Even generally high-performing states such Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Connecticut have strikingly poor records with some minority students. Minnesota has the biggest gaps: The graduation rate for African-American and Hispanic students hovered around 50 percent in 2011, compared to 84 percent for white students.
"We need to look at these disparities head on," said Brenda Cassellius, Minnesota's Education Commissioner.
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, a Democrat, has proposed $640 million in new education funding, including an effort to better integrate schools in hopes of boosting performance for minority students, Cassellius said.
Elsewhere, state officials plan to bring down the dropout rate by fundamentally rethinking the way school works.
In Oregon, where the graduation rate was 68 percent in 2011, Chief Education Officer Rudy Crew aims to stop measuring student progress by credit hours and start focusing on how kids can demonstrate mastery of key concepts - whether or not they've sat through a full year of classes.
The state's graduation rate - and the poor performance of minority students - "is untenable, unsustainable, and frankly highly dangerous," weakening the economy by leaving so many students unprepared for college or career, Crew said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Simon in Boston; Editing by Eric Walsh)
The historic city of Fez was founded in the year 789 AC by Moulay Idriss I.
In 809, the city became the royal residence of Idriss II, the son of Idriss. Fez was one of the greatest cities of the Muslim world during the Medieval ages and a zone for religion, arts, science, craft works and trade activities; the city was also classified by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site and one of the greatest landmarks of Arab civilization in North Africa after Alkairawan in Tunisia. In both its tangible and intangible forms of cultural diversity, Fez constitutes a melting pot where the Arab and other ethnic groups coexist under the banner of Islam.
Today, the Medina of Fez is still playing active socio-economic, religious and cultural roles which all make it an attractive tourist center for foreign visitors. However, over the centuries, the Medina of Fez has started undergoing a continuous process of degradation due to overpopulation, weak and collapsing infrastructure in addition to lack of investments in maintenance and restoration. These very factors in particular have threatened the ability of the Medina to survive as a historical and cultural patrimony for Moroccans, as well as for humanity.
As a part of its architectural patrimony, Fez encompasses hundreds of minarets, which stand as a witness on the wealth of religious knowledge and dozens of ancient alleys leading to (Funduqs) hotels or (madrasas) schools. Unfortunately, all of this is threatened with decay and collapse due to the pressures of over urban population and also some neglect from stakeholders. UNESCO observed by the early 1980 that Fez was in danger of losing the original quality that makes it one of the purest zones of Islamic civilization. That same year, UNESCO at its general conference in Nairobi, announced the active safeguarding of the Medina of Fez.
More significantly, the late king Hassan II himself, and other members of the royal family did play an active part in calling for the promotion of the city of Fez. The king declared that, ?the historic role of Fez in the consolidation of civilization in Morocco and in spreading the light of faith and knowledge (?) our duty is to instill new life into it and to renovate it so that it may find its ancient traditions once again.?
Going back to the colonial era, there were some strategies exerted by the French protectorate, which were intended to preserve the material heritage of the city of Fez. In 1912, the French Resident General Marshall Lyaeuty considered the old architectural heritage of the Medina as a form of national heritage that should be conserved and protected. To this very reason, he created the institute of fine arts and historic monuments; the major concern of this latter was the protection of all the historic buildings and the ancient monuments of the city. The implementation of this project had to abide by three important rules of urbanization, which are still referred to even today. These rules vary as follow:
? The necessary separation of the European city, which was at the time in the process of construction, from the Islamic old city. This was done in order to ensure the non-dependence of each part of the city on the other.
? Providing more preservation to the most prominent historic sites and monuments which represent both the history and the architecture of Morocco.
? The implementation of high and modern forms of architectural construction in building Morocco?s new cities.
The first decree in this regard was issued in 1914. This decree was meant to preserve mainly the buildings, which stand as an outstanding symbol of both Moroccan art and history such as the artifacts, precious masterpieces and also the unique natural and historic sites that surround the old Medina.
Nowadays, to help maintain the authenticity of heritage inside the old city of Fez, UNESCO has adopted an integrated rehabilitation plan running over 15 years. This plan of rehabilitation was submitted after a five years study by Morocco, the UNESCO and the ADER-F?s (Agence pour la Dedentification et la Rehabilitation de la Medina de F?s) which was created in 1989. This agency, known today as the agency of the development and the rehabilitation of Fez, is a semi-private organization in charge of carrying out and co-coordinating the projects of save guarding the old cities.
The ADER agency was run by the former architect and director general of the restoration project Abdellatif EL-Hajjami. The director used to work in coordination with the UNESCO and the Moroccan government throughout the processes of rehabilitation, which the city of Fez underwent in the past. Before starting the project of preserving and restoring the historic buildings, Abdellatif El-Hajjami directed a staff of 160 workers and artisans, including an engineer, three architects, an archeologist, a geologist, a lawyer and various computer and documentation specialists.
The restoration project has already identified 11 madrasas, 320 mosques, 270 funduqs and over 200 hammams (public baths), houses or public ovens worthy of preservation. The estimated total fund of rehabilitation, which came from the Moroccan Ministry of Cultural Affairs, UNESCO and also the World Bank, was around $600 million as initial funds.
The general rehabilitation strategy has been planning to provide a well-grounded infrastructure to the old Medina of Fez by focusing on the following priorities:
? The improvement of the circulation network by creating accessible emergency circulation network that would meet the requirements of the overall commercial and social activities held inside the heart of the old Medina.
? The restoration plan calls for depopulating the old city by transforming most of the inhabitants to new industrial zones.
? The displacement of polluting industries outside the old Medina to a farther industrial area.
? The program focused on improving the built environment by restoring the demolition of ruins and the old traditional houses that are in a vulnerable state.
? The creation of active tourist circulation flows which would help to alleviate poverty among the young people through the regeneration of job opportunities.
All in all, the restoration plan has succeeded in retrieving and rehabilitating the patrimony of the old Medina of Fez by focusing mainly on the historic sites; however, the plan did not attain all the objectives set previously. Until today, many of the inhabitants in the city are still frustrated about the non-materialization of the ADER promises to restore their collapsing houses.
Thus, the extent to which the rehabilitation project managed to maintain the architectural tissue of the Medina is up to the stakeholders working in the agency to answer for the time being.
? Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed
I can tell you're excited William, but here's a few reasons agents don't get involved in SF and L/Os.
The agents want to get paid, they are paid on sales, not leases, but either party can pay a fee, usually the L/O is kinda thin so the Realtor may go hungry.
Many RE Brokers don't allow it due to the liability. It's not a state contract and usually a broker won't allow agents to use guru contracts, the E&O coverage may not apply if the broker fails to use approved contracts. A broker may go along if an attorney is involved in each deal.
Another reason brokers shy away is that the agent isn't qualified to do loan underwriting, and the broker takes the responsibility if a deal blows up.
If a property is listed, you have two brokers involved, double trouble. If just one, you're a transactional broker, not a leasing agent, and you can't advise on either side, you simply facilitate the deal, brokers have ethical issues with this in putting someone in an installment contract and not being able to advise and additional liability.
If someone puts a chunck down for an option and they can't get financing, say at the end of 2 years due to problems that should have been avoided, the broker becomes an easy target as well as the agent.
I like options, the key to doing them successfully is knowing how to get the buyer financed at the end, not just putting them in a house, the deal is not done until title changes hands. Most agents look to qualifications at that time, that's not the issue, it's where the buyer is down the road. Getting some there takes a lot of hand holding and dollar for dollar in time and effort, not really worth it to an agent.
Totally agree education is key, but I've never heard of a guru note or LO type teaching underwriting.
You can also bump into SAFE Act issues with residential, screw that up you're likely loose your license. Agents know about the unauthorized practice of law, that's drilled into them, they are less aware of the unauthorized practice of mortgage origination and associated liabilities if they are permitted to originate a mortgage
A good RE Broker will keep an agent from getting hung, not only for his/her protection but also to protect the agent and agency.
Everyone usually thinks I'm being negative, raining on a parade, saying don't do this and don't do that, maybe so, it's because most really think these aspects have real liability and they haven't done enough deals to have problems end up with an attorney or a judge.
Actually, I'm surprised that there is so much fear by landlords of getting sued and never a thought of getting sued by a buyer for predatory lending or due diligence. It's on the rise.
I know pretty much what John does and in Texas I believe he has it nailed when his "system" is appropriate. Brian G. also does a lot of L/Os. Not sure about others. Nothing wrong with a creative deal if it works, but for an agent that takes on a whole other flavor.
So, @William Velazquez, how do you address these issues?
Nobody really "loses" in Spring Training. Well, Scott Sizemore technically lost last spring, but that's different. What I'm saying is that the A's lost a baseball game today, but it doesn't matter because it's February 23rd.
Today was the beginning of a beautiful journey. At noon, the Oakland Athletics officially opened their Cactus League season. The 2013 season may not have actually started yet, but it feels a whole lot closer now. The A's played a game today!
There is bad news, though. I'm at kind of a loss as to how to recap this game. You see, the downside of Spring Training is that, since the games don't count or matter, nobody pays to broadcast them. This game wasn't on TV, so I couldn't watch it. It was broadcast on the radio, but my tiny 21st century attention span makes it really hard to focus on man I'm hungry, I'm going to go make a sandwich. Hey, are you watching the Oscars tomorrow?
Wait, what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, beer. I mean, the Brewers. And the A's. Playing baseball. Oh, that's right, I was recapping the game. Unfortunately, all I have to go on is the play-by-play, the snippets of radio broadcast which my stupid brain retained, and the comments on the Game Thread. Since the game itself doesn't really matter, I'm going to give a brief rundown of the play-by-play before moving on to individual comments about A's players and their accomplishments/failures.
The thing to remember about Spring Training is that it's all about getting ready for the games which actually count. It's not completely about winning or losing, but also easing into routines, building up arm strength, working on new pitches or batting stances, and getting or staying healthy. Spring Training stats and game results are most interesting when they relate to one or both of the following things: positional battles (in this case, middle infield and bullpen), and top prospects.
That being said, a game did occur today. Here is what happened. First off, Jesse Chavez started for Oakland. That should give you an idea of how seriously to take things at this point in the spring (winter?). In the first inning, he gave up a homer to Ryan Braun, because duh. In the 4th, reliever Justin Thomas walked a pair with one out; his replacement, Fernando Rodriguez, uncorked a wild pitch to move the runners up before allowing an RBI groundout to former Angels prospect Jean Segura. In the 7th, Oakland's Shane Peterson doubled to right off of something called a Santo Manzanillo, and top prospect Michael Choice singled sharply up the middle to score him. That was it. Oakland had 5 of the game's 8 hits, but Milwaukee won 2-1.
Let's have a look at the two interesting parts of Spring Training: positional battles, and top prospects.
All three of the leading second base candidates played today. Jemile Weeks started at 2nd, Grant Green replaced him in the 5th, and Scott Sizemore was the DH. Weeks had a very positive day, lining a double to right to lead off the game and making what was apparently a very impressive play on defense to start a 4-6-3 double play in the 2nd. He grounded out a couple of times, once into a double play, but at least he was hitting it on the ground and not flying out to medium-deep right-center. It's about all that you could hope to see from Weeks: slap hitting and a nice defensive play. (Edit: That is meant as a positive, as in "Weeks did both of the things which I was looking for him to do.")
Sizemore got three plate appearances. He struck out swinging in the 2nd against Mike Fiers, hit a ground-ball single in the 5th, and drew a walk in the 7th. Grant Green had one plate appearance, in which he worked a 3-0 count, thought he'd drawn the walk on 3-1, and then struck out on a foul tip; he also fielded a grounder on defense, drawing praise from Ray Fosse on Green's strong arm.
In his first taste of American baseball, Hiro Nakajima drew a walk in the 1st off of Fiers, but finished 0-for-2 with a strikeout.
There were several notable minor-leaguers in this game. Choice and Peterson made the biggest impacts with their 7th inning hits, but both also struck out in their second plate appearances. Michael Taylor struck out in his only plate appearance, and Luke Montz and Andy Parrino each went 0-for-2. Scott Moore looked impressive, however, drawing a walk in his only plate appearance and playing "a very slick first base," according to Susan Slusser. Moore is a guy who I'll be keeping a close eye on this spring as a potential backup infield option, so it was nice to hear that he got off to a good start.
On the pitching side, Oakland sent 6 men to the mound to cover 8 innings. They were:
Jesse Chavez: Still terrible. Move along.
Justin Thomas: Recorded 4 outs and issued 4 walks. Next.
Fernando Rodriguez: Failed to strand one of his inherited runners, but did end the inning with a strikeout.
Bruce Billings: Threw 2 sharp innings. Billings, acquired in 2011 for Mark Ellis, was impressive as a starter last year for Sacramento. His name doesn't come up a lot due to Oakland's depth of quality starters, but he could be a dark horse candidate to get some emergency starts in Oakland in 2013 (especially if Sonny Gray isn't ready to go when the bell rings).
Mike Ekstrom: Threw a 1-2-3 inning. I just can't shake the feeling that this guy is going to play a significant role in Oakland's bullpen at some point in 2013, just like Jim Miller and Evan Scribner did last year.
Arnold Leon: Issued a leadoff walk to a person named Scooter, which is just unacceptable. I'm assuming he was a child, based on his name. Arnold Leon should really be able to get out a child. He made up for it by inducing a double play and a flyout, but does that really make up for walking a little kid?
And there you have it. That is everything interesting that happened today. Wait, Brandon Moss got a hit. And Seth Smith drew a walk at one point. There, that's literally everything I can think of. What else do you want from me??
The first game is in the books, and it feels so good. Sure, Oakland technically lost the game, but it's irrelevant. A day went by and nobody got injured. That's a win in Oakland terms. And guess what? They play two tomorrow. Welcome back, baseball.
FRIDLEY, Minn. (AP) - A high school football coach has been cited in connection with a prostitution sting outside of Minneapolis.
KARE-TV reports (http://kare11.tv/YtgfBb) Mark Mauer was one of 19 men and four women arrested in the two-day undercover sting at a Fridley hotel.
The men are cited with a misdemeanor of solicitation and the women with a misdemeanor of prostitution. The 54-year-old is the head coach of the Hill-Murray High School team in Maplewood. He is also the cousin of Minnesota Twins player Joe Mauer.
According to Fridley police, Mark Mauer allegedly agreed to pay an undercover officer $100 for a half-hour of "full service" on Tuesday.
A phone listing could not be found for Mark Mauer on Saturday by The Associated Press. He didn't answer when KARE-TV called his cellphone Friday.
Information from: KARE-TV, http://www.kare11.com
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
If podcasts were cookies -- or as our hosts say, biscuits -- this week's would be an Oreo. Two strong, independent, yet wonderfully united sections. The first part of the experience is firm, trustworthy yet exciting, before giving way to a soft, sugary, all american finale. Glass of milk optional.
In an effort to take advantage of the recent but limited extension of the federal production tax credit for new wind projects, Xcel Energy has asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to grant a waiver allowing the company to accelerate the procedural schedule for evaluating new wind generating resources.
At the start of this year, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act, which was later signed by President Barack Obama. The new law included an extension of the PTC for wind developers, requiring that projects be at a certain level of construction by the end of 2013, although that level is yet to be determined at the federal level).
Xcel Energy had planned to issue its 2013 All-Source Solicitation by April, but the bidding time frame, the independent evaluation process and the time needed by the utilities commission to review and make a decision would not have allowed for the completion of this effort by the end of the year, Xcel said.
This would have made it very challenging for potential wind developers in Colorado to submit bids, negotiate and sign contracts with Xcel Energy, and begin construction, to meet the requirements necessary to qualify for the credits.
"We have a great opportunity to see if additional wind resources in Colorado would be of economic benefit to our customers with the extension of the federal tax credit, but we must act quickly," said Ben Fowke, president, chairman and CEO of Xcel Energy. "Our request is not being driven by state renewable energy standards, but by the opportunity to reduce costs."
The accelerated schedule if approved by the CPUC would call for Xcel Energy to solicit wind bids on or about March 1. The company would evaluate the bids and seek CPUC approval by October. An independent evaluator would be involved throughout the accelerated evaluation process. By completing the process under this time frame, it is anticipated that developers would have adequate time to develop and begin construction of any new Colorado wind projects to take advantage of the extension of the PTCs, Xcel said.
Any acquisition of wind resources in Colorado must be competitively priced and remain within the framework of the overall resource acquisition process, Fowke said. For that reason, the company is not suggesting an amount at this time for the number of megawatts of wind it would acquire.
Check out latest football transfer gossip around the leagues. Is your favourite player tipped for a move?
Manchester United are working on a ?55m deal to bring winger Cristiano Ronaldo, 28, back to Old Trafford from Real Madrid.
Full story: Daily Star
Real Madrid want to sign Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea, 22, as their long-term replacement for Spanish international Iker Casillas, 31.
Full story: Daily Mirror
Manchester City are targeting Borussia Dortmund forward Marco Reus, 23, and Sevilla winger Jesus Navas, 27, for a combined ?65m in the summer.
Full story: Daily Star
Chelsea have already lined up a ?1.7m deal to sign Chilean teenager Cristian Cuevas. The winger, 17, currently plays for O?Higgins in the Chilean Primera Division.
Full story: Daily Mirror
Liverpool will send scouts to watch Celtic defender Efe Ambrose, 24, after he impressed Reds manager Brendan Rodgers with his performances in the Africa Cup of Nations for winners Nigeria.
Full story: Metro
Arsenal want to sign Chelsea midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah, 18, who has been instrumental in Watford?s promotion push to the Premier League.
Full story: Daily Star
Arsenal right-back Bacary Sagna, 30, looks set to leave this summer - he is reportedly disappointed to have been offered only a one-year contract extension with the Gunners.
Full story: The Guardian
Manchester United winger Nani, 26, is likely to leave the club this summer. Arsenal may renew their interest in the player.
Full story: The Independent
Former England striker Michael Owen, 33, is battling to save his Stoke City career after suffering another injury setback.
Feb. 20, 2013 ? Doctors should not be discouraged from prescribing isotretinoin to adolescents for inflammatory acne, according to a new study by Canadian and U.S. scientists showing the drug does not increase the risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Led by Dr. Mahyar Etminan of the Child & Family Research Institute at BC Children's Hospital, the Provincial Health Services Authority and the University of British Columbia, the scientists addressed this important drug safety question because of a previous study linking the drug to IBD. In this new report published February 20, 2013 in the medical journal JAMA Dermatology, Dr. Etminan's team says theirs is the first to statistically adjust for severe acne, which is a strong confounding variable that may have led to the overestimation of risk in the earlier study.
The JAMA Dermatology report covered two studies. In one study, the researchers analyzed the health records of a large population of U.S. women between 24-34 years of age. Of the women, 2159 had IBD and 43,180 did not. Only 10 (0.46 per cent) of the women with IBD and only 191 (0.44 per cent) of the women who did not have IBD had used isotretinoin. In the second study, the researchers comprehensively reviewed and analyzed the results of published and unpublished studies. They did not find that isotretinoin increases the risk of IBD.
"We've come to the conclusion that there's no risk that the drug causes inflammatory bowel disease," says Dr. Etminan. "This drug is used for very severe acne that is very traumatic with psychological effects, and it is very effective. Hopefully with this study, it may put dermatologists at ease with prescribing this drug to children and adolescents, knowing that it doesn't cause this adverse effect."
This research was unfunded. Dr. Etminan is a scientist with the Therapeutic Evaluation Unit at the Child & Family Research Institute and the Provincial Health Services Authority. He is appointed in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. The study was co-led by Dr. James Brophy of McGill University.
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Journal Reference:
Mahyar Etminan et al. Isotretinoin and Risk for Inflammatory Bowel DiseaseA Nested Case-Control Study and Meta-analysis of Published and Unpublished DataIsotretinoin and Risk for IBD. JAMA Dermatology, 2013; 149 (2): 216 DOI: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2013.1344
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
HILLSBOROUGH, Calif. (AP) ? As if the $100 million asking price wasn't deterrent enough, the owner of a mansion for sale in a ritzy San Francisco suburb says the buyer can move in only after his death.
The unusual arrangement is for a 16,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style home on more than 45 acres in Hillsborough.
The San Mateo County Times reports (http://bit.ly/VyKCcz ) the owner, 76-year-old Christian de Guigne (deh GHEEN-yay) IV, was born and raised in the home and doesn't plan to turn it over to the new owner until he dies.
Sotheby's International Realty agent Gregg Lynn says the arrangement was common for property traded up until the 20th century. He called the estate a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Another home nearby recently sold for $117.5 million.
Early human burials varied widely but most were simplePublic release date: 21-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Kelly david.kelly@ucdenver.edu 303-315-6374 University of Colorado Denver
Fewer women than men buried
DENVER (Feb. 21, 2013) A new study from the University of Colorado Denver shows that the earliest human burial practices in Eurasia varied widely, with some graves lavish and ornate while the vast majority were fairly plain.
"We don't know why some of these burials were so ornate, but what's striking is that they postdate the arrival of modern humans in Eurasia by almost 10,000 years," said Julien Riel-Salvatore, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology at CU Denver and lead author of the study. "When they appear around 30,000 years ago some are lavish but many aren't and over time the most elaborate ones almost disappear. So, the behavior of humans does not always go from simple to complex; it often waxes and wanes in terms of its complexity depending on the conditions people live under."
The study, which examined 85 burials from the Upper Paleolithic period, found that men were buried more often than women. Infants were buried only sporadically, if at all in later periods, a difference that could be related to changes in subsistence, climate and the ability to keep babies alive, Riel-Salvatore said.
It also showed that a few ornate burials in Russia, Italy and the Czech Republic dating back nearly 30,000 years are anomalies, and not representative of most early Homo sapiens burial practices in Eurasia.
"The problem is that these burials are so rare there's just over three per thousand years for all of Eurasia that it's difficult to draw clear conclusions about what they meant to their societies," said Riel-Salvatore.
In fact, the majority of the burials were fairly plain and included mostly items of daily life as opposed to ornate burial goods. In that way, many were similar to Neanderthal graves. Both early humans and Neanderthals put bodies into pits sometimes with household items. During the Upper Paleolithic, this included ornaments worn by the deceased while they were alive. When present, ornaments of stone, teeth and shells are often found on the heads and torsos of the dead rather than the lower body, consistent with how they were likely worn in life.
"Some researchers have used burial practices to separate modern humans from Neanderthals," said Riel-Salvatore. "But we are challenging the orthodoxy that all modern human burials were necessarily more sophisticated than those of Neanderthals."
Many scientists believe that the capacity for symbolic behavior separates humans from Neanderthals, who disappeared about 35,000 years ago.
"It's thought to be an expression of abstract thinking" Riel-Salvatore said. "But as research progresses we are finding evidence that Neanderthals engaged in practices generally considered characteristic of modern humans."
Riel-Salvatore is an expert on early modern humans and Neanderthals. His last study proposed that, contrary to popular belief, early humans didn't wipe out Neanderthals but interbred with them, swamping them genetically. Another of his studies demonstrated that Neanderthals in southern Italy adapted, innovated and created technology before contact with modern humans, something previously considered unlikely.
This latest study, "Upper Paleolithic mortuary practices in Eurasia: A critical look at the burial record" co-authored with Claudine Gravel-Miguel (Arizona State University), will be published in The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial in April.
It reveals intriguing variation in early human burial customs between 10,000 and 35,000 years ago. And this study raises the question of why there was so much variability in early human burial practices.
"There seems to be little rhyme or reason to it," Riel-Salvatore said. "The main point here is that we need to be careful of using exceptional examples of ornate burials to characterize Upper Paleolithic burial practices as a whole."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Early human burials varied widely but most were simplePublic release date: 21-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Kelly david.kelly@ucdenver.edu 303-315-6374 University of Colorado Denver
Fewer women than men buried
DENVER (Feb. 21, 2013) A new study from the University of Colorado Denver shows that the earliest human burial practices in Eurasia varied widely, with some graves lavish and ornate while the vast majority were fairly plain.
"We don't know why some of these burials were so ornate, but what's striking is that they postdate the arrival of modern humans in Eurasia by almost 10,000 years," said Julien Riel-Salvatore, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology at CU Denver and lead author of the study. "When they appear around 30,000 years ago some are lavish but many aren't and over time the most elaborate ones almost disappear. So, the behavior of humans does not always go from simple to complex; it often waxes and wanes in terms of its complexity depending on the conditions people live under."
The study, which examined 85 burials from the Upper Paleolithic period, found that men were buried more often than women. Infants were buried only sporadically, if at all in later periods, a difference that could be related to changes in subsistence, climate and the ability to keep babies alive, Riel-Salvatore said.
It also showed that a few ornate burials in Russia, Italy and the Czech Republic dating back nearly 30,000 years are anomalies, and not representative of most early Homo sapiens burial practices in Eurasia.
"The problem is that these burials are so rare there's just over three per thousand years for all of Eurasia that it's difficult to draw clear conclusions about what they meant to their societies," said Riel-Salvatore.
In fact, the majority of the burials were fairly plain and included mostly items of daily life as opposed to ornate burial goods. In that way, many were similar to Neanderthal graves. Both early humans and Neanderthals put bodies into pits sometimes with household items. During the Upper Paleolithic, this included ornaments worn by the deceased while they were alive. When present, ornaments of stone, teeth and shells are often found on the heads and torsos of the dead rather than the lower body, consistent with how they were likely worn in life.
"Some researchers have used burial practices to separate modern humans from Neanderthals," said Riel-Salvatore. "But we are challenging the orthodoxy that all modern human burials were necessarily more sophisticated than those of Neanderthals."
Many scientists believe that the capacity for symbolic behavior separates humans from Neanderthals, who disappeared about 35,000 years ago.
"It's thought to be an expression of abstract thinking" Riel-Salvatore said. "But as research progresses we are finding evidence that Neanderthals engaged in practices generally considered characteristic of modern humans."
Riel-Salvatore is an expert on early modern humans and Neanderthals. His last study proposed that, contrary to popular belief, early humans didn't wipe out Neanderthals but interbred with them, swamping them genetically. Another of his studies demonstrated that Neanderthals in southern Italy adapted, innovated and created technology before contact with modern humans, something previously considered unlikely.
This latest study, "Upper Paleolithic mortuary practices in Eurasia: A critical look at the burial record" co-authored with Claudine Gravel-Miguel (Arizona State University), will be published in The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial in April.
It reveals intriguing variation in early human burial customs between 10,000 and 35,000 years ago. And this study raises the question of why there was so much variability in early human burial practices.
"There seems to be little rhyme or reason to it," Riel-Salvatore said. "The main point here is that we need to be careful of using exceptional examples of ornate burials to characterize Upper Paleolithic burial practices as a whole."
###
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A team of researchers at UC San Francisco has uncovered the neurological basis of speech motor control, the complex coordinated activity of tiny brain regions that controls our lips, jaw, tongue and larynx as we speak.
Described this week in the journalNature, the work has potential implications for developing computer-brain interfaces for artificial speech communication and for the treatment of speech disorders. It also sheds light on an ability that is unique to humans among living creatures but poorly understood.
"Speaking is so fundamental to who we are as humans ? nearly all of us learn to speak," said senior author Edward Chang, MD, a neurosurgeon at the UCSF Epilepsy Center and a faculty member in the UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience. "But it's probably the most complex motor activity we do."
The complexity comes from the fact that spoken words require the coordinated efforts of numerous "articulators" in the vocal tract ? the lips, tongue, jaw and larynx ? but scientists have not understood how the movements of these distinct articulators are precisely coordinated in the brain.
To understand how speech articulation works, Chang and his colleagues recorded electrical activity directly from the brains of three people undergoing brain surgery at UCSF, and used this information to determine the spatial organization of the "speech sensorimotor cortex," which controls the lips, tongue, jaw, larynx as a person speaks. This gave them a map of which parts of the brain control which parts of the vocal tract.
They then applied a sophisticated new method called "state-space" analysis to observe the complex spatial and temporal patterns of neural activity in the speech sensorimotor cortex that play out as someone speaks. This revealed a surprising sophistication in how the brain's speech sensorimotor cortex works.
They found that this cortical area has a hierarchical and cyclical structure that exerts a split-second, symphony-like control over the tongue, jaw, larynx and lips.
"These properties may reflect cortical strategies to greatly simplify the complex coordination of articulators in fluent speech," said Kristofer Bouchard, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Chang lab who was the first author on the paper.
In the same way that a symphony relies upon all the players to coordinate their plucks, beats or blows to make music, speaking demands well-timed action of several various brain regions within the speech sensorimotor cortex.
Brain Mapping in Epilepsy Surgery
The patients involved in the study were all at UCSF undergoing surgery for severe, untreatable epilepsy. Brain surgery is a powerful way to halt epilepsy in its tracks, potentially completely stopping seizures overnight, and its success is directly related to the accuracy with which a medical team can map the brain, identifying the exact pieces of tissue responsible for an individual's seizures and removing them.
The UCSF Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is a leader in the use of advanced intracranial monitoring to map out elusive seizure-causing brain regions. The mapping is done by surgically implanting an electrode array under the skull on the brain's outer surface or cortex and recording the brain's activity in order to pinpoint the parts of the brain responsible for disabling seizures. In a second surgery a few weeks later, the electrodes are removed and the unhealthy brain tissue that causes the seizures is removed.
This setting also permits a rare opportunity to ask basic questions about how the human brain works, such as how it controls speaking. The neurological basis of speech motor control has remained unknown until now because scientists cannot study speech mechanisms in animals and because non-invasive imaging methods lack the ability to resolve the very rapid time course of articulator movements, which change in hundredths of seconds.
But surgical brain mapping can record neural activity directly and faster than other noninvasive methods, showing changes in electrical activity on the order of a few milliseconds.
Prior to this work, the majority of what scientists knew about this brain region was based on studies from the 1940's, which used electrical stimulation of single spots on the brain, causing a twitch in muscles of the face or throat. This approach using focal stimulation, however, could never evoke a meaningful speech sound.
Chang and colleagues used an entirely different approach to studying the brain activity during natural speaking brain using the implanted electrodes arrays. The patients read from a list of English syllables ? like bah, dee, goo. The researchers recorded the electrical activity within their speech-motor cortex and showed how distinct brain patterning accounts for different vowels and consonants in our speech.
"Even though we used English, we found the key patterns observed were ones that linguists have observed in languages around the world ? perhaps suggesting universal principles for speaking across all cultures," said Chang.
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University of California - San Francisco: http://www.ucsf.edu
Thanks to University of California - San Francisco for this article.
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Feb. 21, 2013 ? The strong, flapping flight of bats offers great possibilities for the design of small aircraft, among other applications. By building a robotic bat wing, Brown researchers have uncovered flight secrets of real bats: the function of ligaments, the elasticity of skin, the structural support of musculature, skeletal flexibility, upstroke, downstroke.
Researchers at Brown University have developed a robotic bat wing that is providing valuable new information about dynamics of flapping flight in real bats.
The robot, which mimics the wing shape and motion of the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, is designed to flap while attached to a force transducer in a wind tunnel. As the lifelike wing flaps, the force transducer records the aerodynamic forces generated by the moving wing. By measuring the power output of the three servo motors that control the robot's seven movable joints, researchers can evaluate the energy required to execute wing movements.
Testing showed the robot can match the basic flight parameters of bats, producing enough thrust to overcome drag and enough lift to carry the weight of the model species.
A paper describing the robot and presenting results from preliminary experiments is published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. The work was done in labs of Brown professors Kenneth Breuer and Sharon Swartz, who are the senior authors on the paper. Breuer, an engineer, and Swartz, a biologist, have studied bat flight and anatomy for years.
The faux flapper generates data that could never be collected directly from live animals, said Joseph Bahlman, a graduate student at Brown who led the project. Bats can't fly when connected to instruments that record aerodynamic forces directly, so that isn't an option -- and bats don't take requests.
"We can't ask a bat to flap at a frequency of eight hertz then raise it to nine hertz so we can see what difference that makes," Bahlman said. "They don't really cooperate that way."
But the model does exactly what the researchers want it to do. They can control each of its movement capabilities -- kinematic parameters -- individually. That way they can adjust one parameter while keeping the rest constant to isolate the effects.
"We can answer questions like, 'Does increasing wing beat frequency improve lift and what's the energetic cost of doing that?'" Bahlman said. "We can directly measure the relationship between these kinematic parameters, aerodynamic forces, and energetics."
Detailed experimental results from the robot will be described in future research papers, but this first paper includes some preliminary results from a few case studies.
One experiment looked at the aerodynamic effects of wing folding. Bats and some birds fold their wings back during the upstroke. Previous research from Brown had found that folding helped the bats save energy, but how folding affected aerodynamic forces wasn't clear. Testing with the robot wing shows that folding is all about lift.
Studying an animal with unique abilities
Over the years, Kenneth Breuer, an engineer, and Sharon Swartz, a biologist, have developed a large archive of bat data, from wind tunnels to field studies and slow-motion video.In a flapping animal, positive lift is generated by the downstroke, but some of that lift is undone by the subsequent upstroke, which generates negative lift. By running trials with and without wing folding, the robot showed that folding the wing on the upstroke dramatically decreases that negative lift, increasing net lift by 50 percent.
Data like that will not only give new insights into the mechanics of bat flight, it could aid the design of small flapping aircraft. The research was funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation..
Inspired by the real thing
Bat wings are complex things. They span most of the length of a bat's body, from shoulder to foot. They are supported and moved by two arm bones and five finger-like digits. Over those bones is a super-elastic skin that can stretch up to 400 percent without tearing. The eight-inch robot mimics that anatomy with plastic bones carefully fabricated on a 3-D printer to match proportions of a real bat. The skin is made of a silicone elastomer. The joints are actuated by servo motors that pull on tendon-like cables, which in turn pull on the joints.
The robot doesn't quite match the complexity of a real bat's wing, which has 25 joints and 34 degrees of freedom. An exact simulation isn't feasible given today's technology and wouldn't be desirable anyway, Bahlman said. Part of why the model is useful is that it distills bat flapping down to five fundamental parameters: flapping frequency, flapping amplitude, the angle of the flap relative to the ground, the amount of time used for the downstroke, and the extent to which the wings can fold back.
Experimental data aside, Bahlman said there were many lessons learned just in building the robot and getting it to work properly. "We learned a lot about how bats work from trying to duplicate them and having things go wrong," he said.
During testing, for example, the tongue and groove joint used for the robot's elbow broke repeatedly. The forces on the wing would spread open the groove, and eventually break it open. Bahlman eventually wrapped steel cable around the joint to keep it intact, similar to the way ligaments hold joints together in real animals.
The fact that the elbow was a characteristic weak point in the robot might help to explain the musculature of elbows in real bats. Bats have a large set of muscles at the elbow that are not positioned to flex the joint. In humans, these muscles are used in the motion that helps us turn our palms up or down. Bats can't make that motion, however, so the fact that these muscles are so large was something of a mystery. Bahlman's experience with the robot suggests these muscles may be adapted to resist bending in a direction that would break the joint open.
The wing membrane provided more lessons. It often tore at the leading edge, prompting Bahlman to reinforce that spot with elastic threads. The fix ended up looking a lot like the tendon and muscle that reinforce leading edges in bats, underscoring how important those structures are.
Now that the model is operational, Bahlman has lots of plans for it.
"The next step is to start playing with the materials," he said. "We'd like to try different wing materials, different amounts of flexibility on the bones, looking to see if there are beneficial tradeoffs in these material properties."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Joseph W Bahlman, Sharon M Swartz, Kenneth S Breuer. Design and characterization of a multi-articulated robotic bat wing. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 2013; 8 (1): 016009 DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/8/1/016009
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Ryan Gosling Turns Red Over Dish Towel?[The Frisky] Prince Michael Jackson to Flex Acting Chops on ’90210′?[HollyWire] New Hunger Games: Catching Fire Posters Unveiled?[Right Celebrity] Justin Bieber Wears Gas Mask in London?[The Celebrity Cafe] Kim Kardashian Brags About Having It All?[The Blemish] James Franco’s Life Coming to a Theater Soon?[The Huffington Post] Pink Heading to ...
As a part of its architectural patrimony, Fez encompasses hundreds of minarets, which stand as a witness on the wealth of religious knowledge and dozens of ancient alleys leading to (Funduqs) hotels or (madrasas) schools. Unfortunately, all of this is threatened with decay and collapse due to the pressures of over urban population and also some neglect from stakeholders. UNESCO observed by the early 1980 that Fez was in danger of losing the original quality that makes it one of the purest zones of Islamic civilization. That same year, UNESCO at its general conference in Nairobi, announced the active safeguarding of the Medina of Fez.
Going back to the colonial era, there were some strategies exerted by the French protectorate, which were intended to preserve the material heritage of the city of Fez. In 1912, the French Resident General Marshall Lyaeuty considered the old architectural heritage of the Medina as a form of national heritage that should be conserved and protected. To this very reason, he created the institute of fine arts and historic monuments; the major concern of this latter was the protection of all the historic buildings and the ancient monuments of the city. The implementation of this project had to abide by three important rules of urbanization, which are still referred to even today. These rules vary as follow:
The first decree in this regard was issued in 1914. This decree was meant to preserve mainly the buildings, which stand as an outstanding symbol of both Moroccan art and history such as the artifacts, precious masterpieces and also the unique natural and historic sites that surround the old Medina.
The ADER agency was run by the former architect and director general of the restoration project Abdellatif EL-Hajjami. The director used to work in coordination with the UNESCO and the Moroccan government throughout the processes of rehabilitation, which the city of Fez underwent in the past. Before starting the project of preserving and restoring the historic buildings, Abdellatif El-Hajjami directed a staff of 160 workers and artisans, including an engineer, three architects, an archeologist, a geologist, a lawyer and various computer and documentation specialists.
FRIDLEY, Minn. (AP) - A high school football coach has been cited in connection with a prostitution sting outside of Minneapolis.
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Public release date: 21-Feb-2013
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