Bachmann says she’ll seek 4th term in House (AP)

Posted on January 27, 2012
by

MINNEAPOLIS ? Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann announced Wednesday she will seek a fourth term in the U.S. House following her failed presidential bid.

Bachmann declared her plans in an interview with The Associated Press. The Republican congresswoman had been mum on her plans since folding her presidential campaign after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses earlier this month.

“I’m looking forward to coming back and bringing a strong, powerful voice to Washington, D.C.,” Bachmann said.

Bachmann will be a formidable candidate in Minnesota’s 6th District, where other Republican hopefuls had stood aside until she made a decision on running for re-election. Some experts had speculated that Bachmann might instead turn to a career in talk media.

Bachmann is a potent fundraiser who raised $13.5 million in her last House race, but would likely start from scratch after the presidential campaign. A campaign finance report that would show how much money she can bring to the race isn’t due until the end of the month.

Bachmann also faces uncertainty over how her district will be reshaped. One redistricting plan put forth by Democrats would throw her into a race with Rep. Betty McCollum, a six-term Democrat who represents the St. Paul area. A special redistricting panel is due to issue maps late next month.

Ken Martin, chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer Labor Party, said the announcement wasn’t a surprise. No Democrats have announced plans to run yet because they’re waiting on redistricting, but Martin said they would attack Bachmann for being absent from the district and for missing votes in Washington while running for president.

“She’s really opened the door for us this year to make a good run at her,” Martin said.

Bachmann was an early media favorite in the chase for the GOP presidential nomination after winning the Iowa straw poll in midsummer, but she eventually faded.

Her announcement came in an interview to react to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. Just as she did on the campaign trail, Bachmann criticized Obama for “doubling down on failures that didn’t work.”

“We have to radically scale back on government spending, we have to radically cut back on debt accumulation,” Bachmann said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_el_ho/us_bachmann_house

jacqueline kennedy jackie o john kennedy jr john kennedy jr machine gun preacher machine gun preacher austin city limits

Leave a Reply ?

Obama and GOP candidates offer a campaign preview

Posted on January 26, 2012
by

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at Miami-Dade College in Miami, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at Miami-Dade College in Miami, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich meets with supporters at Wings Plus Restaurant, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Coral Springs, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum gives a autograph at the First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? On a day that combined two campaigns into one, President Barack Obama on Wednesday challenged Republicans to raise taxes on the rich as GOP rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich swiped at him on the economy and criticized each other over immigration.

With a week to go before the Jan. 31 Florida Republican presidential primary, the polls suggested a tight race, although Romney and his allies seized a staggering advantage in the television ad wars. They have reported spending $14 million combined on commercials, many of them critical of Gingrich, and a total at least seven times bigger that the investment made by the former House speaker and an organization supporting him.

Obama’s political timeline was a different one, Election Day on Nov. 6. In a campaign-style appearance in Iowa, he demanded Congress approve a tax increase for anyone like Romney whose income exceeds $1 million a year.

“If you make more than a million dollars a year, you should pay a tax rate of at least 30 percent. If, on the other hand, you make less than $250,000, which includes 98 percent of you, your taxes shouldn’t go up,” he said after touring a manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids and in a state that he won in 2008 that was expected to be a battleground in the fall.

“This is not class warfare,” he said. “That’s common sense.”

As Obama surely knew, it was an offer Gingrich, Romney and the anti-tax Republicans in Congress are likely to find easy to refuse.

Referring to Obama’s call in the speech for Congress to end tax breaks that encourage companies to ship jobs overseas, Romney said he didn’t know of any.

Instead, he said the president presides over “the most anti-business, anti-investment, anti-job creator administration I’ve ever seen, and so, what I’ll do ? I’ll get America to work again. I spent 25 years in business.”

Gingrich was far harsher at an appearance in Miami.

“If he actually meant what he said it would be a disaster of the first order,” Gingrich said of the president’s call for higher taxes on millionaires.

The former House speaker said the president’s proposal would double the capital gains tax and “lead to a dramatic decline in the stock market, which would affect every pension fund in the United States.”

“It would affect every person who has a 401(k). It would attack the creation of jobs and drive capital outside of the United States. It would force people to invest overseas. It would be the most anti-jobs single step he could take,” he said.

Under current law, investment income is taxed as the rate of 15 percent, a fact that has come to the fore of the campaign in recent days with the release of Romney’s income tax return.

Wages, by contrast, are taxed at rates that can exceed 30 percent.

Electability is the top concern for GOP primary voters, according to polls taken in the early primary and caucus states, so both Republicans were eager to paint a contrast with the president.

But Romney and Gingrich also focused on the Florida primary now seven days distant.

Romney has long led in the state’s polls, but Gingrich’s upset victory last Saturday in the first-in-the-South primary in South Carolina revitalized his candidacy and raised questions about the former Massachusetts governor’s staying power.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is also on the ballot, as is Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

But Santorum has been sinking in the polls as Gingrich rises, and Paul has indicated he intends to bypass the state to concentrate on caucuses to be held elsewhere.

That gives Florida the feel of a two-man race, and Romney and Gingrich are treating it that way. The two men sparred heatedly Monday night in a debate that virtually relegated Santorum and Paul to supporting roles.

A second debate is set for Thursday in Jacksonville. And if their separate appearances during the day on the Spanish-language television network Univision is a guide, it will be as feisty as the first.

Gingrich referred acidly to Romney describing a policy of “self-deportation” as a way of having illegal immigrants leave the country without a massive roundup.

“You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work to have some fantasy this far from reality,” he said, referring to some of the details disclosed this week when the former Massachusetts governor released his tax returns.

“For Romney to believe that somebody’s grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean, this is an Obama-level fantasy.”

Romney’s campaign swiftly produced evidence that aides to Gingrich had used the term “self-deport” approvingly, and the former governor attacked.

“I recognize that it’s very tempting to come out to an audience like this and pander to the audience,” Romney said. “I think that was a mistake on his (Gingrich’s) part.”

Gingrich also ran into trouble over a radio ad his campaign was airing that called Romney “anti-immigrant.” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is neutral in the presidential race, criticized the commercial, and Romney said the term “anti-immigrant” was an epithet. The campaign took the ad off the air.

Gingrich made a stop in Cocoa, center of the state’s now-withered space industry, and he cheered his audience by envisioning construction of the first permanent base on the moon. He also promised a “robust industry” of “commercial near-earth activities” to include science, tourism and manufacturing.

He said he hopes to stimulate investment by having the government offer prizes to private companies, but he did not elaborate. For Obama, Iowa was the first of five stops in three days following a State of the Union speech in which he stressed the theme of income equality that is expected to be one of the cornerstones of his re-election campaign. He also wove in proposals to help restore the U.S. manufacturing base that has withered in the course of the recession that began in 2008.

“Our economy is getting stronger, and we’ve come too far to turn back now,” he told workers and guests at a conveyor manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids. Speaking of Republicans, he said, “Their philosophy is simple: We’re better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.”

It’s a message that may be received differently depending on the local economy.

Iowa’s unemployment was most recently measured at 5.6 percent, well below the national average. In Arizona, which has its primary in four weeks, joblessness is 8.7 percent, while Nevada’s at 12.6, the highest in the country. Its caucuses are Feb. 4.

___

Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Kasie Hunt and Steve Peoples in Florida contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-25-Campaign%20Rdp/id-30f00c037fc2419abb827422f2ccd3c1

jules verne als puppies miss universe 2011 contestants hells angels hells angels las vegas weather

Leave a Reply ?

Japan’s Tepco set for $13 billion bailout: sources (Reuters)

Posted on January 26, 2012
by

TOKYO (Reuters) ? The owner of Japan’s stricken nuclear reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co, will agree to be taken over by the government in a near-$13 billion bailout, sources said on Thursday, even as the country debates the future of nuclear power.

The injection of 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) in public funds would effectively nationalize Tepco (9501.T), supplier of power to almost 45 million people including Tokyo residents, in one of the world’s biggest bailouts outside the banking sector.

Tepco has been dragging its feet over a proposal for the state-backed Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund to take at least a two-thirds stake in the company, which has been swamped by liabilities associated with the earthquake and tsunami which ruined its Fukushima nuclear power plant in March.

“If the government has a two-thirds stake, they have a right to control management, so naturally, Tepco doesn’t like that,” said one source familiar with the matter.

Tepco’s future as an independent firm has been in doubt since the disaster, which triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years and left the utility with huge compensation payments, cleanup costs and rising fuel bills as public concerns over safety make it hard to restart other off-line reactors.

Its plight has become emblematic of problems facing Japan’s entire nuclear power industry, much of which has been idled since the disaster while authorities work to regain some public trust in an industry that had provided a third of Japan’s power.

Tepco’s fate is also being watched for clues as to whether Japan will deregulate its system of monopolistic regional utilities that both generate and distribute electricity.

Tepco’s share price soared on the news, jumping 8 percent in heavy trade to 219 yen.

Tepco, which together with the fund is drafting a business reconstruction plan to be unveiled in March, is also seeking about 1 trillion yen in additional bank loans, sources said.

Under the plan, the utility is expected to swing to profit in fiscal 2014 and resume issuing bonds two years later, the Nikkei business newspaper reported.

The plan calls for government control to end in six or seven years, the Nikkei added, though other reports have said it might last about a decade.

According to the plan, Tepco is expected to post a parent-only net loss of about 580 billion yen in the year ending March 31 and next fiscal year, followed by a net profit of 37.7 billion yen in fiscal 2013, largely on the sale of real estate, the Nikkei said. Tepco is also expected to generate a pretax profit of 159.1 billion yen in fiscal 2014, it added.

The projection for improved earnings is based on the assumption Tepco will increase household electricity rates by 10 percent in October and reduce fuel costs by restarting reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in fiscal 2013 — moves the utility will find difficult to execute, the daily said.

Tepco shareholders will need to approve an increase in its authorized share capital at an annual meeting in June before the nationalization plan could go ahead.

(Reporting by Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore, Osamu Tsukimori and Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Mark Bendeich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/bs_nm/us_tepco

yom kippur yom kippur diamondbacks wolf creek wolf creek arizona diamondbacks arizona diamondbacks

Leave a Reply ?

Davos 2012: Financial fragility and igloo protests

Posted on January 25, 2012
by

A group of protesters is surrounded by riot police during a anti World Economic Forum, WEF, demonstration in Bern, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2012. The WEF takes place from Jan. 25 to 28 in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Keystone, Peter Klaunzer)

A group of protesters is surrounded by riot police during a anti World Economic Forum, WEF, demonstration in Bern, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2012. The WEF takes place from Jan. 25 to 28 in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Keystone, Peter Klaunzer)

A group of protesters is surrounded by riot police during a anti World Economic Forum, WEF, demonstration in Bern, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2012. The WEF takes place from Jan. 25 to 28 in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Keystone, Peter Klaunzer)

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? An igloo protest camp sprouting up amid $500-a-night hotels and security cordons at the Swiss resort of Davos seems to serve a warning to the world’s rich and powerful gathering here: Beware, or you might be sleeping in the snow next year, too.

In many countries, prospects for prosperity are increasingly fragile. Trust in presidents and CEOs, and the systems they represent, is drying up. Uncertainty lurks for the eurozone, and for Afghanistan, Syria and North Korea as well.

And now the Occupy movement has come to the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of 2,600 decision-makers from nearly 100 countries and hundreds of companies that starts Wednesday.

VIPs in Davos are usually sheltered from critics so that they can solve financial problems in cosseted peace. This year, the global question-the-establishment wave has brought in a small band of protesters, with an igloo-and-yurt camp and anti-capitalist entreaties ready to greet the big bosses of business and world politics as they arrive.

Even the weather seemed to be working in the protesters’ favor.

“In the last 42 years, I’ve never seen so much snow in Davos,” forum founder Klaus Schwab tweeted Sunday. “Perfect snow to build igloos!” members of the Occupy Davos movement tweeted back.

With the list of global economic problems to solve so daunting this year, many Davos participants may prefer the more measurable and lucrative work of confidential corporate deals, a Davos hallmark. Politicians from the U.S. and other countries will be seeking investment in their districts, investors will be hunting out promising young entrepreneurs, and everyone will be looking for the year’s next big gadget.

“The reality of Davos is that it can achieve things and it does achieve things every year. And that is business deals,” said French political analyst Dominique Moisi.

Chief executives from China will garner attention, but Europe will be the damaged star of this year’s forum. That’s a painful irony for organizers who have worked for years to expand its reach beyond the Europeans and Americans who built its reputation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel formally launches the meeting with a keynote speech Wednesday that may chart her course for Europe’s debt crisis in the coming months.

The list of Davos participants is heftier than ever in its four-decade history, with nearly 40 heads of state and 18 of the world’s central bankers. They’re joined by business leaders, scientists, thinkers, pioneers for human rights and others for the invitation-only week of brainstorming that aims to set the global agenda for the year to come.

“It’s the perfect barometer of the temperature of the world,” Moisi said.

Four years after the subprime mortgage crisis and ensuing financial meltdown, growth remains anemic in the rich world. Many in Europe and the U.S. ? especially those without work ? feel betrayed by solutions that they feel favored the very bankers and financial players blamed for the crisis. In rich and developing economies, income inequalities are on the rise.

The Occupy protesters are bringing a mix of grievances, inspired by protests that started around Wall Street last year and spread to cities around the world.

Their numbers may be limited here because of Davos’ remote location, high in the Swiss Alps in a heavily guarded valley. Those who do make the journey face the painstaking work of carving blocks of snow and fitting them into an igloo, a job that takes four people about five hours to complete.

“We’ll make small actions in the village, we’re going to disturb things a little bit,” said organizer David Roth, a Swiss leftist politician camped out for the week.

One of their banners reflected the disillusionment in developed democracies: “If voting could change anything it would be illegal.”

Forum organizers warned earlier this month that financial troubles of the past few years are fueling resentment that could spark protectionism, nationalism and social unrest.

That’s a particularly potent message for three world powers facing elections this year ? the U.S., Russia and France ? as well as for the Arab world after its string of uprisings.

Everyone will be looking for what organizers are calling “new models.”

The overarching question for many government leaders will be how to restore growth despite rising debts and sinking market confidence.

Business leaders will hold private panels on how to employ more young people, restore faith in leadership, make cleaner energy more economically appealing, and profit from new technology.

Public figures expected include British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli President Shimon Peres, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby.

The forum runs through Sunday.

___

Angela Charlton reported from Paris.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-23-Davos/id-d40ee08d690d47b987a1913af551a93d

houston astros google music 2013 ford escape stop online piracy act spear of destiny rock hill sc kate middleton pregnant

Leave a Reply ?

Gabrielle Giffords to Resign from Congress (Michellemalkin)

Posted on January 25, 2012
by
Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics – Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190079178?client_source=feed&format=rss

mike quade sticks and stones sticks and stones top chef powerball winner powerball winner narwhals

Leave a Reply ?

Nick Christie Updates (Theagitator)

Posted on January 24, 2012
by
Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics – Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/189254740?client_source=feed&format=rss

tonight show unthink julianne hough chris cook nest williams syndrome jay leno

Leave a Reply ?

Beijing releases key air pollution data (AP)

Posted on January 23, 2012
by

BEIJING ? Caving to public pressure, Beijing environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air quality data Saturday that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital’s air pollution is.

The initial measurements were low on a day where you could see blue sky. After a week of smothering smog, the skies over the city were being cleared by a north wind.

The readings of PM2.5 ? particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair ? were being posted on Beijing’s environmental monitoring center’s website. Such small particulates can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

It is the first time Beijing has publicly revealed PM2.5 data and follows a clamor of calls by citizens on social networking sites tired of breathing in gray and yellow air. The U.S. Embassy measures PM2.5 from a device on its rooftop and releases the results, and some residents have even tested the air around their neighborhoods and posted the results online.

Beijing is releasing hourly readings of PM2.5 that are taken from one monitoring site about 4 miles (7 kilometers) west of Tiananmen Square, the monitoring center’s website said Saturday. It said the data was for research purposes and the public should only use it as a reference.

The reading at noon Saturday was 0.015 mg/m3, which would be classed as “good” for a 24-hour exposure at that level, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The U.S. Embassy reading taken from its site on the eastern edge of downtown Beijing said its noon reading was “moderate.” Its readings are posted on Twitter.

Steven Andrews, an environmental consultant who has studied Beijing’s pollution data since 2006, said he was “already a bit suspicious” of Beijing’s PM2.5 data. Within the 24-hour period to noon Saturday, Beijing reported seven hourly figures “at the very low level” of 0.003 milligrams per cubic meter.

“In all of 2010 and 2011, the U.S. Embassy reported values at or below that level only 18 times out of over 15,000 hourly values or about 0.1 percent of the time,” said Andrews. “PM2.5 concentrations vary by area so a direct comparison between sites isn’t possible, but the numbers being reported during some hours seem surpisingly low.”

The Beijing center had promised to release PM2.5 data by the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year on Monday. It has six sites that can test for PM2.5 and 27 that can test for the larger, coarser PM10 particles that are considered less hazardous. The center is expected to buy equipment and build more monitoring sites to enable PM2.5 testing.

Beijing wasn’t expected to include PM2.5 in its daily roundups of the air quality anytime soon. Those disclosures, for example “light” or “serious,” are based on the amount of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in the air.

Beijing interprets air quality using less stringent standards than the U.S. Embassy, so often when the government says pollution is “light,” the embassy terms it “hazardous.”

“There has been tremendous amounts of attention in the Chinese media ? whichever newspaper you pick up, whichever radio station you listen to, channel you watch ? they are all talking about PM2.5 and how levels are so high,” said Andrews.

“What has been so powerful is that people are skeptical, and I think rightly skeptical,” about the government’s descriptions of data, he said.

___

Online:

Beijing center’s readings (in Chinese): http://zx.bjmemc.com.cn/

The U.S. Embassy’s Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/beijingair

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_as/as_china_air_quality

gilad shalit john edward psychic john edward psychic brandon marshall headless horseman headless horseman brandon lloyd

Leave a Reply ?

Project Piggy: Muppet inspires on ‘Runway’

Posted on January 23, 2012
by

By Liane Bonin Starr , HitFix.com

David Russell / Lifetime

Miss Piggy gave the all-star designers a special challenge on “Project Runway.”

?I would call last night’s “Project Runway All Stars” episode a hare-brained idea, as I’m not sure I have an appropriate porcine equivalent (all porked up?), but I think I’ll just get to the point. As Angela awkwardly informed our judges (and by the way, I’m still trying to give her some wiggle room to get her footing as a hostess, but I’m beginning to lose hope), last night’s challenge was to dress international celebrity Miss Piggy. The designers all seemed to be falling over with excitement about this, which is endearing but also makes me think they’re horribly sleep-deprived and a little punchy. I can’t imagine most designers stay up at night, praying that some day they’ll be able to dress a foam puppet, but maybe the All Stars are just that wacky.?

Angela adds that Miss Piggy needs a headline-making cocktail dress to wear while she’s walking the red carpet, promoting her new film. Michael can’t WAIT to meet her, because she’s fashion’s dream client. He knows she’s a puppet, right?

The designers sketch furiously. Mila wants to make Miss Piggy ’60s mod. Kenley loves Miss Piggy, as she reminders her of herself. No comment. The designers dash off to Mood, where Austin and Gordana are going with pink, whereas a lot of designers are choosing black. I have to say, I think color is a good thing for Miss Piggy. Adds some pink to her complexion. ?

As everyone puts together their outfits, Austin thinks everyone’s having fun with the challenge. Well, really, what choice does anyone have? They’re dressing a damn toy, for crying out loud.?Gordana is going with a free-flowing design instead of something structured. Mondo doesn’t think Gordana’s dress fits the challenge, and I have to agree. Miss Piggy needs some va-va-voom, and Gordana’s making a dress for, well, a model. It also appears to be so short that Miss Piggy would be showing us, well, pork butt.? ?

Although All Stars has been a mostly peaceful, none-too-catty season, suddenly Mondo and Kara start fighting over pink gloves. He doesn’t want to argue about it, so he gives in, but he’s pissed off. Wow, Mondo, at least stand up for yourself! I have to say, Mondo hasn’t seemed like himself this season. Everything he designs is ’60s retro, he doesn’t seem to be having fun and I dare say his heart isn’t in it. C’mon, Mondo! We’re rooting for you!? ?

Meanwhile, Mila doesn’t know how she’ll translate her point of view into the Porcine One. Here’s an idea: monochrome color blocking. Isn’t that her entire POV anyway??April, having been in the bottom two, is now driven to do her best. She doesn’t talk to the other designers or spend time goofing around. I appreciate her sense of focus, but I’m worried she’s so nervous about bottoming out again she may start playing it safe. ?

Mila thinks Kenley is needy for other people’s opinions, and she finds Kenley and Kara to be co-dependent on one another. Well, don’t worry Mila, no one will ask you for your opinion. Well, not unless they want to make a black-and-white bedspread or something.? ?

Joanna Coles comes in to be mentor-y. I’ve noticed we always get to hear from a designer about how helpful she is. Because we never see her being all that helpful on screen. Mostly, she seems to ask leading questions that make the designers quiver with fear, then wanders off to terrify someone else. Man, do I miss Tim Gunn.? ?

Joanna gets a nightgown vibe from Gordana’s dress. Gordana thinks Miss Piggy will be comfortable. Joanna thinks that’s not the point. BECAUSE SHE’S A PUPPET.? ?

Read the full recap at HitFix.com.

What do you think of the Muppet mania on “Project Runway All Stars”? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

?

Related content:

Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10198570-project-piggy-runway-designers-make-muppet-worthy-gowns

matthew shepard matthew shepard aaron curry aaron curry ios 5 features ios 5 features ellen degeneres show

Leave a Reply ?

Snakes improve search-and-rescue robots: New design uses less energy

Posted on January 22, 2012
by

ScienceDaily (Jan. 19, 2012) ? Designing an all-terrain robot for search-and-rescue missions is an arduous task for scientists. The machine must be flexible enough to move over uneven surfaces, yet not so big that it’s restricted from tight spaces. It might also be required to climb slopes of varying inclines. Existing robots can do many of these things, but the majority require large amounts of energy and are prone to overheating. Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new machine by studying the locomotion of a certain type of flexible, efficient animal.

“By using their scales to control frictional properties, snakes are able to move large distances while exerting very little energy,” said Hamid Marvi, a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech.

While studying and videotaping the movements of 20 different species at Zoo Atlanta, Marvi developed Scalybot 2, a robot that replicates rectilinear locomotion of snakes. He unveiled the robot this month at the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB) annual meeting in Charleston, S.C.

“During rectilinear locomotion, a snake doesn’t have to bend its body laterally to move,” explained Marvi. “Snakes lift their ventral scales and pull themselves forward by sending a muscular traveling wave from head to tail. Rectilinear locomotion is very efficient and is especially useful for crawling within crevices, an invaluable benefit for search-and-rescue robots.”

Scalybot 2 can automatically change the angle of its scales when it encounters different terrains and slopes. This adjustment allows the robot to either fight or generate friction. The two-link robot is controlled by a remote-controlled joystick and can move forward and backward using four motors.

“Snakes are highly maligned creatures,” said Joe Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta. “I really like that Hamid’s research is showing the public that snakes can help people.”

Marvi’s advisor is David Hu, an assistant professor in the Schools of Mechanical Engineering and Biology. Hu and his research team are primarily focused on animal locomotion. They’ve studied how dogs and other animals shake water off their bodies and how mosquitos fly through rainstorms.

This isn’t the first time Hu’s lab has looked at snake locomotion. Last summer the team developed Scalybot 1, a two-link climbing robot that replicates concertina locomotion. The push-and-pull, accordion-style movement features alternating scale activity.

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award No. PHY-0848894). The content is solely the responsibility of the principal investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120119101237.htm

utah jazz mike rowe pro bowl 2012 ron artest deion sanders shld 2012 sec football schedule

Leave a Reply ?

Wikipedia tops Android Apps of the Week (Appolicious)

Posted on January 22, 2012
by

The Wikimedia Foundation has finally released an official Wikipedia app for the Android Market, and just in time, too. The mobile version of Wikipedia was one of the few ways you could access the popular Wiki?s content during its site black out, part of the Foundation?s protest against the proposed SOPA bill.? Airbnb also had a notable launch this week, giving you a mobile outlet for listing and searching homes for short-term stays.

An official version for Android, Wikipedia?s free encyclopedia has been optimized for the most prevalent mobile platform in the world. With more than 20 million articles across 280 languages, Wikipedia is one of the most highly referenced bodies of content ever created. With the mobile app you can search for articles, save them for later reading on or offline, and toggle between languages. If you?re out and about, you can search for relevant articles based on your location, and easily share items with friends.? Wikipedia may finally have its own Android app, but it?s no stranger to mobile. The Wiki is referenced in dozens of Android apps as a reference tool for local search, amongst other things.

Airbnb?s popular service lets you turn your house into a nightly hotel, offering it up for short-time renting.? The new Android app comes in response to growing mobile searches, as nearly ten percent of its traffic comes from mobile users. Airbnb has rental offers from around 19,000 cities and towns in nearly 200 countries. This is especially useful for travelers abroad, with the added option of saving information locally. For travelers that may not have access to Wi-Fi, having itinerary and rental information available offline is a necessary perk. With a recent round of funding for over $100 million, Airbnb is able to further its mobile goals, revamping its mobile website in addition to the new Android app.

Another voice-assistance app for Android users, though Dragon Go! is a little less ?sassy? than its iPhone counterpart Siri. From Nuance, a company known for its voice recognition/speech-to-text capabilities, Dragon Go! is out to help you with a variety of queries. It will help you make purchases, answer questions, offer navigation and solve match problems. Dragon Go! is really setting out to be a hub for search and other basic tasks, offering direct access to several mobile web sites and services from YouTube to OpenTable, Pandora and ESPN. You?ll get accompanying search results in response to your queries, aggregating search and other content to answer your questions instead of merely providing a page of blue search links.

NBC (Free)

NBC may have hastened its way into web broadcasts, but they?ve been slower to the mobile scene.? Nevertheless, here?s NBC?s new Android app for video highlights from your favorite shows, along with exclusive photos, show-based games and trivia and a schedule of upcoming episodes. The dashboard can be customized for your interests around news and network programs, offering a mini mobile portal for all things network-related. There?s no access to full episodes just yet, but there?s plans for this in the works.

Star Trek has inspired plenty of real-life technology in the past three decades, and Android apps are no exception. Tricorder is an entertaining homage to the Star Trek gadget that kept space explorers aware of their surroundings. This sci-fi measurement tool displays real data streaming from your Android?s sensors, displaying a series of on-screen graphs. It?s a fun novelty that?s well-suited for the geeky Android user (isn?t that all of us?) and Trekkies alike.

D33P is known for their Facebook photo apps in the Android Market, and the latest is specific for your Facebook Timeline. The new profile format on the world?s most popular social network is spreading across Facebook?s millions of users, offering another way to personalize your home page. The Facebook Timeline Covers app lets you format images specifically for the Timeline, pulling images from your Android photo gallery or camera, an online library or your Facebook account. From here, you can set your cover photo as well as your profile photo, previewing your progress at each step.

Create a list of your favorite Android apps right here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_androidapps_com_articles10815_wikipedia_tops_android_apps_of_the_week/44242326/SIG=12or5aehn/*http%3A//www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/10815-wikipedia-tops-android-apps-of-the-week

xmen first class warrior novak djokovic sarah mclachlan shakespeare bipolar symptoms qi

Leave a Reply ?