You'd think that Google Fiber would embrace streaming TV services when internet video is practically its reason for being, but it has lagged behind many conventional providers. It's about to catch up, however: Google has just enabled Watch Disney and WatchESPN access for its TV subscribers. As ...
On a faraway island, a Gothic mansion lurks over the harsh, splashing seas. Founded by Vladmir Featherwood over two hundred years ago, Featherwood Halls is an academy for "gifted students." Those who have inherited their powers from their parents must attend here without question. The mansion has many dormitories and chambers, including a large dinning hall, a lounge when you first walk in, an ancient library, classrooms for students to learn their powers, and much more. The Featherwood family has its own quarters on the very top floor that overlooks everything. There is a large greenery, a lake with a waterfall, and a large arch of woods that surround the back area of the school.
Talon Featherwood, the principle this year, has secret powers of his own and is often found lurking through the halls on random occasions. He is unusually close with his two children. There are rumors that he means trouble, but there is no evidence that would suggest he is intentionally cruel. He is friendly with his students and teachers, and hosts winter balls, summer festivities, and other activities, but these may all just be an act..
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/bK_W-w-Bro0/viewtopic.phpThe Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has approved publication of a book by an agent who told Congress about the agency's failed gun smuggling sting operation "Fast and Furious."
The Justice Department said ATF on Wednesday was notifying the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents special agent John Dodson, that he may publish the book but that a few parts of will be redacted for law-enforcement reasons. The book, "The Unarmed Truth," is scheduled for publication in December by Threshold, a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster.
It is still unclear whether Dodson will be allowed to be paid for the book. Federal law generally prohibits government workers from profiting off of outside work that is specifically based on their government job.
The Justice Department's ethics office will make a final determination on that after the partial government shutdown has ended.
Based on werewolves and mystical creatures.
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President Obama presented the Medal of Honor Tuesday to Army Capt. William Swenson. Swenson is being cited for his actions during a 2009 battle in Afghanistan, when he risked his life to try to save others. It's taken years for him to be recognized, however. He criticized higher-ups after the battle, which cost the lives of five Americans. Swenson's nomination for the Medal was said to be lost at one point. He is the sixth living recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor a member of the military can receive.
This bionic leg can be controlled through thinking about an action. Image: RIC
Users are able to climb stairs, walk on sloped terrains and flex an ankle just by thinking about the action. Image: RIC
This illustration demonstrates how neural impulses communicate with the leg's computer. The computer is able to learn a user's intended actions and provide an intuitive movement. Image: RIC
About a year ago, Zac Vawter climbed all 103 flights of stairs of the Willis Tower in Chicago. On its own, this accomplishment would be pretty unremarkable, but Vawter, who lost his leg four years ago during a motorcycle accident, happened climb more than 2,000 steps while wearing a prosthetic leg. Even crazier yet? Vawter could control this prosthetic leg with his mind, sending instructions from his brain, down through nerves that would communicate with his mechanical limb.
In the world of prosthetics, this was a breakthrough moment. Previously, if leg amputees needed to climb the stairs, they’d either have to rely heavily on their good leg to propel them upwards or use a remote control that required them to stop and start at the base of each stair, which creates a movement that’s more robotic than human.
In the world of prosthetics, this was a breakthrough moment.
At the time Vawter climbed the stairs, this new leg, a collaboration between the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), a team of designers at Vanderbilt University and prosthetics company Freedom Innovations, was the most advanced lower limb prosthetic in development. It still is, but an improvement in technology, recently outlined in an issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is extending the leg’s capabilities even further, now allowing amputees to control a range of movements—walking up stairs, rotating an ankle, navigating sloped terrains—just by thinking about doing them. “This is where prosthetic limbs will go,” says Steven Reinecke, EVP of Research and Development at Freedom Innovations. “Right now people have a sophisticated support system. The goal is try to mirror the natural body as much as possible.”
Today most prosthetics are little more than glorified support systems, and it’s extraordinarily difficult to get a protheses made of sensors and metal to mimic human movement. But the research team at RIC is getting close. Since around 2005, RIC has been working on a method called targeted muscle reinnervation, which reappropriates nerves from an amputated limbs to healthy muscles. In the case of Vawter, nerves from his lower leg were reattached to healthy hamstring muscles.
“This person has essentially been rewired,” explains Dr. Levi Hargrove, one of RIC’s lead researchers on the project. So essentially, the neural impulses that are sent from the brain–the ones telling the body to stand, walk or change positions–communicate with the prosthetic leg through sensors, and a computer then translates those instructions into actions. Over time, an algorithm learns the patterns of a user’s intended actions and can begin to react to their thoughts, thus making a mechanical limb function intuitively or a least lot more like a normal human leg.
Though Vawter used an earlier version of the limb to climb the Willis Tower, the first time he used the leg to autonomously navigated sloped terrains and rotate an ankle was in April of this year. “When we said to Zac, “You’re in control, you can do whatever you want, that was kind of a surreal moment,” recalls Hargrove. “It was an overwhelming feeling for me—and I think for him as well that this has the potential to help a lot of people.”
Zac Vawter wearing the bionic leg. From this seat he’s able to use the leg to propel himself to a standing position. Image: RIC
‘This person has essentially been rewired.’
A technology like this is obviously attractive to the military, and $8 million in funding proves that. But while the RIC team was working with the department of defense in administering this technology to wounded veterans, it was focused mostly on upper body prosthetics. “The Army said, ‘We love the technology, but we have there are 10 times more leg amputations than arm amputations–can you do anything to improve the control of prosthetic legs?”
People have been using neural information to control prosthetic limbs for decades, but all of them have been for the upper-body. Legs, on the other hand, are a little more difficult to control, and it was until recently that the technology was advanced enough—and light enough—to really even begin thinking about making a prosthetic limb like this. “All of the innovation will come to the electronics,” says Reinecke, adding that around 10 years ago the sensors and materials would have made a leg like this around 300 pounds.
Today, thanks to lightweight materials like graphite and micro-technologies, the leg is around 10.2 pounds and the research team is shooting to get it under 10. The research still has a ways to go. Error rates, which mostly refer to the number of times a user scuffs his or her feet on the ground while walking, need to be lowered in order to reduce falls. And Freedom Innovations still has a lot of work to do translate a research-based technology into a consumer product. For as sophisticated as the leg is, it still could be lighter, and the machine-like noise could stand to be more subtle.
Everyone involved says they hope to have something on the market for clinical testing in as little as two to three years. In consumer time that feels like an eternity away, but in science it’s a remarkably quick pace. “Five years ago I thought there was no way to achieve all that we’ve achieved,” says Hargrove. “I thought it would take 10 years to get to where we are right now.”
It's unanimous for Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, even after their shakiest performance of the season.
Denver received all 12 first-place votes for the first time in the AP Pro32 rankings released Tuesday.
The Broncos (6-0) struggled with winless Jacksonville until scoring the last two touchdowns in a 35-19 victory Sunday.
Manning matched his season low with two TD passes against the Jaguars but still has a record 22 through six games heading into Sunday night's return to Indianapolis, where Andrew Luck is in charge of the Colts' offense now.
"Coming to Peyton's Place should bring out the best in Mr. Manning," wrote Ira Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.
No. 2 Seattle (5-1) and third-ranked Kansas City (6-0) are separated by just two points. Both teams moved up one spot.
The Seahawks won their 11th straight at home, 20-13 over Tennessee.
"They keep winning and overcoming injuries in the offensive line," wrote Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News. "Their defense and run game will keep them in every game."
The Chiefs had just 216 yards of offense in a 24-7 win over Oakland but intercepted Terrelle Pryor three times and had 10 sacks to give them 31 for the season.
"Not much to look at when they play offense, but it is must-see TV on defense," wrote Herm Edwards of ESPN.
New England jumped from seventh to fourth after handing New Orleans its first loss 30-27 on Tom Brady's last-second touchdown pass. The Saints, who were second a week ago with the only other first-place vote, dropped to fifth.
The Patriots and Brady got another chance in the final 2 minutes after Drew Brees and the Saints couldn't run out the clock following an interception by Keenan Lewis with 2:16 remaining.
"That pained expression of Rob Ryan on the sidelines said it all, as his Saints' defense can't hold off Brady at the end," wrote Bob Glauber of Newsday.
San Francisco kept the No. 6 spot, and the Colts dropped two spots to seventh after a 19-9 loss at San Diego. Green Bay stayed No. 8 and Cincinnati at ninth, while Detroit moved up a spot to round out the top 10.
Chicago climbed a spot to No. 11 and was followed by Baltimore, Dallas and Miami.
San Diego and Philadelphia were 15th and 16th with the two of the biggest jumps of the week. The Chargers moved up from 20th, and the Eagles climbed from No. 22.
Tennessee and Arizona were 17th and 18th, with the New York Jets and St. Louis tied at 19th. The Rams moved up six spots from No. 25.
Cleveland dropped five spots to 21st, and Carolina jumped six spots to No. 22, followed by Buffalo, Atlanta and Houston, which fell from 19th to 25th with its fourth consecutive loss.
"The biggest mystery team in the NFL," wrote Pat Kirwan of SiriusXM NFL Radio and CBSSports.com.
Pittsburgh jumped three spots to 26th after its first win, followed by Oakland, Washington, Minnesota.
The league's three winless teams held the bottom three spots — the New York Giants, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville.
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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll
