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Using Kickstarter, Megabots crowdfunded $500,000 to upgrade its robot so it could throw punches and absorb heavy hits from the Japanese Kuratas. |
While this clash of titans promises to be entertaining, Megabots isn't planning for this to be a one-off event. Rather, they envision such robotic clashes as being a futuristic sport. |
"The vision of MegaBots is to entertain a growing global audience of science-fiction fans and eSport enthusiasts by turning their dreams about giant robot combat into epic reality," Megabots states on their website. |
While both robots are massive hunks of metal, Megabots' Eagle Prime has a size advantage over Kuratas. The 16-foot tall Eagle Prime weighs 24,000 pounds, while Kuratas stands at 13 feet tall and weighs in at 13,000 pounds. |
To find out what happens, watch the fight on Twitch. |
Published: July 24, 2015 at 10:24 a.m. |
Updated: July 26, 2015 at 10:15 a.m. |
One more reason we view the Green Bay Packers as the most fascinating offense in the NFC? Their balance. |
We talk endlessly about Aaron Rodgers and the passing game but the team can also smack opponents on the ground with the rugged play of running back Eddie Lacy. |
"I'll bet he weighs 240, but he plays like he weighs 300 pounds," one NFC North personnel man told Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He's one of the strongest animals I've ever seen. He's a man. |
Lacy's top pastime? Reading comic books and watching cartoons, leaving another scout to tell McGinn: "He giggles and laughs, nice guy, very personable. You don't even know he's a tough guy until he walks on the field. But, he's the toughest player on their team. Without a doubt. And let me tell you something, that rubs... |
Along with improving his pass protection last season, Lacy capped his second straight 1,000-yard campaign with a hurly-burly running style that saw him carve through defenses. |
He's in an enviable situation with defenses forced to focus on Rodgers and his bevy of aerial weapons. That dynamic shouldn't discredit what Lacy has been for Green Bay: A terrifying, tackle-breaking fireball whose 690 yards after contact was topped only by DeMarco Murray, Marshawn Lynch, Arian Foster and Le'Veon Bell ... |
TOLDEO, Ohio (AP) Nate Navigato scored 10 of his 21 points late in the game as Toledo overcame an 11-point Northern Illinois lead to edge the Huskies 57-54 Saturday night. |
Leading from the opening tip against the Mid-American Conference West Division leaders, Northern Illinois had just taken its largest lead, 43-32, on a Lacey James dunk with about 12 minutes left. |
Navigato answered with back-to-back 3-pointers and Willie Jackson dunked to whack the lead down to 43-40. Marreon Jackson then scored seven points, pulling the Rockets (21-6, 9-5 Mid-American) into a 48-48 tie when he sank a 3-pointer and was fouled, converting the 4-point play. |
Navigato forged a 50-50 tie with free throws and Luke Knapke pushed Toledo ahead for the first time all game with a layup off a turnover at the 3:20 mark. |
Eugene German led Northern Illinois (12-15, 5-9) with 22 points including five 3-pointers, with eight rebounds and three steals. Dante Thorpe added 12 points. |
The BMCat lists an edition of "Hints on the care of children' as published Bulford: Nursing Committee, . |
The BMCat lists "The care of children. Practical hints for mothers and nurses at home and abroad ... revised and enlarged edition [of "Hints on the care of children"] as published London: Scientific Press . |
The BMCat lists a third edition as published London: Scientific Press, . |
The BMCat lists a fourth edition, revised, enlarged and largely rewritten, as published London: Scientific Press . |
The Springfield High School volleyball team’s 25-23, 20-25, 25-14 victory over Southeast on Thursday was a Halloween Eve performance that produced enough fright to last the Senators and their fans quite a while. |
Second-seeded SHS displayed multiple personalities — good, bad and ugly — in a Class 3A Springfield Regional semifinal match against the third-seeded Spartans. |
“I’m glad everyone got to see all of my teams tonight,” SHS coach Meghan Withers quipped. |
Dealing for more than an hour with an inspired Southeast bunch, SHS (22-11) finally prevailed to advance to the title match against top-seeded Sacred Heart-Griffin (16-16). |
SHG beat fourth-seeded Lanphier 25-16, 25-9 in the opening match to set up the regional final at 1 p.m. Saturday at SHS. The winner advances to the Mount Zion Sectional starting Tuesday. |
Sacred Heart-Griffin started unsteadily and had to rally from a 13-9 deficit to win Game 1. The Blazers took a 10-4 lead in Game 2, highlighted by three kills from Haley Evans and a pair of aces by Rachel Jennings. |
Evans finished with 10 kills, with Anne Somerset finishing with nine and Jessie Sestak eight. Lanphier got four kills from Lexi Smith. |
“I think all the girls put forth a good effort, we adjusted our lineup a little, which always shakes them up a little bit,” Sacred Heart-Griffin assistant coach Katie Crowley Conlon said. |
With two sophomores and a freshman in the rotation, Lanphier coach Karrie Novy said her team played beyond expectations of a No. 4 seed taking on No. 1. |
The Spartans played the Senators close in the first game, then never trailed after snapping a 9-all lead in Game 2. |
Game 3 saw the Senators take the permanent lead after a Kasi Korza kill broke a 4-all tie. That was the start of a 6-0 run highlighted by a long rally finished by another Korza kill after the ball was kept alive on a sparkling dig from libero Kathy Rolf. |
“When Kasi got that (second) kill that was straight down, everyone was like, hey, we forgot we’re pretty good players,” Withers said. |
Battling both the now-confident Senators and their ensuing momentum, Southeast got no closer than 12-8 on an SHS passing error. Springfield then outscored the Spartans 13-6, with the final point produced by an emphatic kill by Gates. |
Julie Schulenburg and Korza finished with nine kills each, with the Spartans’ Chelsea Hermes — the main catalyst in the Game 2 win — posting a match-high 10 kills. Katie Hughes added seven. |
Last week, I stopped by Chandler Elementary School to observe a debate between City Councilor Barbara Haller and the challenger to her District 4 seat, Grace Ross. |
I was struck by the general lack of interest in the debate from members of that community. |
District 4 has some struggling schools, but where were the parents that night? |
The majority of those in attendance only a few minutes earlier had been holding signs for their respective candidates on the sidewalk outside the school, and I couldn�t help but think that the debate came across as a mock exercise, rather than a true moment in representative democracy. |
Some might question whether the latter still exists. |
Only about 22 percent, or 19,960, of the city�s roughly 90,730 registered voters are expected to cast a ballot in this election, for example. |
When you consider that about 24 percent of the population � residents younger than 18 � cannot vote, the stark reality is that only about 20,000 people, or 11 percent of the city�s approximately 175,000 residents, will decide the membership of the City Council and the School Committee for the next two years. |
Two years in this economic climate is a long, long time. |
In the next two years, for example, the public schools that your children currently attend might not be around. Something will have to give, when the school budget loses the $18 million it has absorb in stimulus funding, and closing schools has been the primary tool to balance the budget in the past several years. |
Joseph O�Brien, a former School Committee member who is currently running for mayor, said he found out that only about 15,000 households in the city vote on a regular basis. The 2000 Census listed just over 67,000 households in the city. |
Most startling to Mr. O�Brien is the �I don�t care about that� responses he gets from many residents when he tries to engage them in the politics and economics of municipal government. |
�It is sad how so few people are involved, when so many issues impacting their lives � schools, public safety, parks � are being made right down the street,� he said. |
The Worcester voting numbers seem to suggest that we are dealing less with representative democracy, and more with a quasi-board of municipal directors made up of the paltry number of households that vote on a regular basis. |
The significance of this voting composition impacts city governance not only on the operational side � budgets, etc. � but also structurally � form of government, for example. |
City councilors are fond of saying they would rather have change to the charter, such as moving to a strong mayor form of government, done through the ballot, rather than through special state legislation. |
The reality is that charter change through the ballot is a difficult path. It would require at least 15 percent of registered voters to approve a petition just to get that process started. That�s nearly all the yea votes of those who consistently turn out to vote in the city�s elections. |
There is one school of thought that the low turnout reflects residents� general contentment with city government. |
I don�t buy it, but the reasoning goes that voters would turn out in droves if they sense any suicidal moves by their local government leaders. |
If that is the case, you could also make the argument that on such occasions people would more likely be voting in panic, rather than with reason. |
Of course, like everything else American, it could be that representative democracy has become too expensive, both financially and personally, to grow at home. |
Would a less expensive process generate a larger field of competent, gifted and visionary candidates and lead to an increase in voter participation? |
I don�t know, but it sure seems we are more committed to outsourcing our democracy � to Iraq and Afghanistan, for example � than nurturing it at home. |
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — At least four new cases of the Ebola virus have emerged in Congo's northeast, just a week after an outbreak in the northwest was declared over, the country's health ministry said Wednesday. |
"Although we did not expect to face a tenth epidemic so early, the detection of the virus is an indicator of the proper functioning of the surveillance system," Kalenga said. |
The World Health Organization said it had begun moving staff and supplies into the area. "We will fight this one as we did the last," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter. |
Congo's east is volatile, with dozens of rebel groups staging attacks and vying for mineral-rich land. The health ministry said it has put in place security to protect a team of health experts arriving on Thursday. |
"This is an active conflict zone," Peter Salama, the WHO deputy director-general for emergency response, said in a statement, calling the region very different from where the last outbreak occurred. "The major barrier will be safely accessing the affected population." |
The region is near the heavily trafficked border with Uganda and Rwanda and two of Africa's best-known wildlife parks, Virunga and Rwenzori. |
The North Kivu health division notified Congo's health ministry on Saturday of 26 cases of hemorrhagic fever, including 20 deaths in North Kivu province, the ministry said. Four of six samples sent for analysis to the National Institute of Biological Research in Kinshasa, the capital, came back positive for Ebola, the ... |
None of Congo's outbreaks were connected to the massive one in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone that began in 2014 and left more than 11,300 dead. |
Associated Press writers Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed. |
Gov. David A. Paterson said on Tuesday that he detected “overtones of potential racial coding” in the presidential campaign, drawing a sharp retort from the campaign of Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate. |
At a breakfast forum in New York City, Mr. Paterson, a Democrat and the fourth black governor in American history, was asked whether racism would harm the presidential bid of the Democratic candidate, Senator Barack Obama, who is the first black nominee of a major party. |
Mr. Paterson replied that he thought enough voters were focused on issues like housing and unemployment to elect Mr. Obama regardless of his race. |
But Mr. McCain’s campaign quickly issued a news release accusing Mr. Paterson of launching “accusations of racism,” a topic that has surfaced before during this presidential race. |
The campaign took a similar tack on Tuesday. A McCain spokesman, Peter Feldman, said in a statement that criticisms of Mr. Obama’s early work as a community organizer by Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, were well within the bounds of respectable political debate. |
Streaming music and video, complimentary eBooks, and free two-day shipping: given the panoply of benefits an Amazon Prime membership entails, few would argue that the $99-a-year service is comparative steal. But for those who remain unimpressed with its current offerings, perhaps the newly unveiled Prime Photos will wo... |
Prime Photos, an extension of Amazon’s Cloud Drive service, is an image backup system much like what’s built into Microsoft’s OneDrive app. Enabled via a toggle, Prime Photos automatically uploads pictures captured by the smartphone or tablet on which it’s enabled to Amazon servers. Backed-up images and albums can be v... |
If that all sounds familiar, it is. Companies like Apple have been offering similar services for years. Amazon says what differentiates Prime Photos from the competition, though, is its unlimited storage. Every photo is uploaded in its entirety and stored in full resolution; uploads aren’t compressed. |
Prime Photos is the latest in a string of new and expanded perks to grace Prime. Amazon expanded same-day delivery to a half-dozen new cities in August, and recently brought Amazon Fresh, its grocery service, to New York. Earlier today, the company announced a partnership with AllSaints, which will see two-day shipping... |
The additions are part of a larger move by Amazon to attract more customers to Prime. The subscription has long been a revenue driver for the company – according to some studies, members spend as much as double the amount non-members do in a year – but Amazon is under particular pressure to make for lost revenue in its... |
Time will tell whether the new benefits are sufficient enough to positively impact the company’s bottom line. |
The United States is isolating itself from countries around the world, and making countries unite in a time of economic repression from Washington, prominent investor Jim Rogers says. |
“America is pushing China and Russia together, America’s pushing China and Iran together, pushing China, Iran, Russia all together, and that’s pushing America out of some very major countries in the world,” Rogers told Sputnik news agency after the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). |
An American investor now living in Singapore, Rogers says that because of US politics, American businessmen are getting much fewer opportunities to invest. “There are plenty of opportunities in Asia, just fewer and fewer because America is getting in spats with more and more countries. That’s all. It’s a big world out ... |
One such place, according to the billionaire is North Korea, which has huge investing potential. One could do there “everything you can imagine. They need tablecloths, soap, electricity, they need everything, anything you can do you can make a fortune in North Korea,” Rogers said. |
While other countries are seeking to open their economies, the United States is separating itself from the global trade, according to Rogers. “I did not hear talk like this in previous years, maybe because it didn’t exist in previous years, not in any meaningful way, even last year everybody was opening up more and mor... |
NEW YORK — Kids can video chat with Santa, follow him on Twitter or enlist NORAD to track his every move online. And yet in many ways, technology may be making it harder for parents to keep their children believing in the jolly old elf. |
Practically any schoolchild can type “Is Santa real?” into Google. |
Kevin Grout and his wife had a close call recently while watching a Santa Claus parade on TV with their children, ages 6, 4 and 5 months. A commercial came on for a website that creates email greetings from Santa. They switched channels just in time. |
Enter the search query “Is Santa real?” and up comes an entry on a psychology site about the dreaded question itself and how parents who are trying to keep the Santa secret live in fear this time of year. |
Kyla Kelim of Fairhope, Ala., caught her oldest, a 9-year-old boy, on her iPad playing Santa sleuth a week or so ago. |
Not all parents are worried technology will destroy the magic. |
Other parents, though, are finding that in some ways, it was easier to maintain the Santa myth before high-speed Internet. |
When Kimberly Porrazzo’s boys, now in their 20s, were little, she and her husband jingled sleigh bells outside their kids’ bedroom windows on Christmas Eve, and Dad took to the roof to make scampering hoof sounds. |
"Yikes, what a mess!" was my initial reaction after hearing about the controversial Dove Facebook ad over the weekend. It's a delicate matter to say the least. |
Here's the thing, quiet as it's kept, my household has been a Dove one for years now. Actually, that's not even a secret. Many of "us" have grown up on the 60-year-old brand. Yes, I test many products across the gamut but Dove has been my fail-safe. It's cheap, consistent and convenient, plus it's widely available at b... |
But despite all of the above, the actual problem lies within representation of people of color. After viewing the full ad, I was more confused than offended. Was the goal to show me that I too can use body wash like a Caucasian woman? If that's the case, was the brand fearful the Black and Latina community was unaware ... |
When it comes to inclusion, the lackluster effort of pulling together a United Colors of Benetton-inspired beauty ad falls on deaf ears, especially to the Black community. Just because we're there doesn't make it enough. Let me repeat that for those in the back, just because you include people of color in your ad still... |
Yet, time and time again we find ourselves in the same place: outraged that mass retailer brands don't get it. "Who approved this ad?" we asked, when Shea Moisture came under fire for their own hiccup. "How could they do this?" we asked when Ouidad dropped the ball on the natural hair community. "What were they thinkin... |
I don't know the inner workings of these brands, but I do know the likelihood of people of color having a say is slim to none. "We the people" can't object if we aren't even in the room. And if you do happen to have a seat at the table, are you willing to fight to be heard about nixing a tone-deaf concept? |
Personally, I've been there. It's hard to be the sole Black person trying to call out something offensive to a room filled with white constituents. Choice words like over-sensitive, angry, aggressive, etc., start to float around as descriptors when someone tends to speak up. It's not right but it's a reality. |
So what do we do here? I'm not exactly sure of the solution. I do appreciate the sentiment of buying Black and supporting our own. However, it saddens me that this topic only comes up when "other" brands disrespect us. Shouldn't we be supporting our own beyond Black History Month? Is it worth it to you to spend a littl... |
Perhaps this is another reminder why we all need to be sensitive about our skin. No pun intended. |
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