- The NHL lockout is wreaking havoc on Canada, the dozens of
hockey fans across America and yes, even the locked-out players themselves. Beyond
the obvious financial ramifications of not being able to go to work or earn a
paycheck every two weeks, players are dealing with the emotional turmoil of not
being able to live, work and travel with some of their best friends in the
world and for Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin, the strain has been
almost unbearable. Malkin was asked about what the lockout has been like for
him, specifically, not seeing fellow Pens star Sidney Crosby, who is off doing
his own thing during the work stoppage. “Everybody’s waiting for him here,”
Malkin said. “I know that his agent called [Metallurg’s general manager,
Gennady] Velichkin. But no decision has been made yet. Crosby has pretty big
insurance. I don’t know how they’ll resolve this issue. He’s the best hockey
player in the world. Of course, I miss him and Pittsburgh. I can call this city
my second home. But it turned out that I’m playing here now. It’s a joy for
Russian players to compete in their own land at their favorite arenas, making
the fans happy.” While Malkin is busy playing overseas, clearly he hasn’t lost
his love for his brother in arms, Crosby. Hopefully the NHL owners are reading
those words and realizing just what their heartless decision to padlock the
gates to their arenas and keep players out is doing not only to the local
economies affected by a lack of games, but also to the players who are getting
all “Brokeback Mountain” with it (maybe not literally, but you get the idea)
and wishing they knew how to quit the teammates they love so much…….
- While the
north end of the Korean Peninsula is all about launching forbidden long-range
rockets these days and bypassing Iran on the list of nations most likely to
start World War III, the south side of the peninsula is busy accomplishing
important feats for the fairer sex. On Wednesday, Park Geun-hye, the daughter of a former
military ruler, became South Korea’s first female leader. Geun-hye vowed to
work hard to unite a divided society. She will return to the presidential
palace in Seoul where she served as her father's first lady in the 1970s (not
as creepy as it sounds) after her mother was assassinated by a North
Korean-backed gunman. State media suggested that the result could have profound
impacts on the country’s foreign policy, especially its tempestuous
relationship with the Communist a-holes to the north. Geun-hye has previously
said she would negotiate with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who recently
celebrated a year in office, but also made it clear she will demand that the
South's impoverished neighbor give up its nuclear weapons program as a
precondition for aid. Her victory was narrow, with a margin of 51.6 percent to
48 percent for her left-wing challenger, human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in, but
with 88 percent of votes in the
country’s presidential election counted, Moon conceded defeat. Geun-hye’s
enthusiastic supporters braved sub-zero temperatures to chant her name and wave
South Korean flags outside her house following Moon’s concession. She happily reached
into the crowd to grasp hands of supporters wearing red scarves, her party's
color. "This is a victory brought by the people's hope for overcoming
crisis and for economic recovery," she proclaimed. Unmarried and with no
children, the 60-year-old just won herself a new family of sorts and perhaps
legendary status if she can ever normalize relations with Pyongyang……..
- Lameness knows no depths quite like a once-great band that
“reforms” with only one of its original five members….or a once-decent band
that reforms under a different name….or a suck-tacular man-band that tries to
turn its name into an acronym to create a new identity (yes you, New Kids on
the Block/NKOTB). This lesson is being driven home by ‘80s rockers Thin Lizzy, who revealed in a recent Facebook status update that they are
reforming
under the name Black Star Riders.
The band’s new line-up will include current members Scott Gorham (guitar),
Ricky Warwick (vocals), Damon Johnson (guitar), Marco Mendoza (bass) and new
addition Jimmy Degrasso (drums). Brian Downey and current Thin Lizzy drummer
Darren Wharton will not be a part of the new project and according to Gorham, the
change will take place following the upcoming Australian tour with Kiss and Mötley Crüe. Gorham added
that recording for Black Star Riders would begin in January in Los Angeles,
with Kevin Shirley, who has also worked with Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden,
producing. To make the transition a bit smoother, Black Star Riders will
continue to play some Thin Lizzy tracks on tour, but will focus mostly on their
new record. "Because everybody knows where we came from and what we do, it
is kind of a must. We will be playing most of the Black Star Riders album but I
don't think we'd get away without playing a few Thin Lizzy songs," Gorham
said. The new record is due out in May 2013 through the label Nuclear Blast………
- At long last, the world will soon have access to what it has
long needed: a robotic pack mule. Props to the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency for its recent completion of a two-week, outdoor test of a prototype of
the robo-mule, which is known internally as DARPA's Legged Squad Support System
(LS3). The project is focused on solving "a real military problem, the
incredible load of equipment soldiers carry," said Lt. Col. Joseph Hitt,
the LS3 program manager. He described the test as "highly successful," but said it revealed
challenges that remain in the areas of perception and "robustness."
Because troops
are frequently loaded down with 50 pounds or more of gear, they are at risk for
stress-inducted injuries. By the time the robo-mule is ready for field use,
DARPA hopes to have the LS3 carry up to 400 pounds and be capable of walking up
to 20 miles under its own power, without human intervention, for up to 24
hours. Because multi-function devices are all the rage in technology these
days, the four-legged robot also can function as an auxiliary power source for
recharging radios and other handheld devices. The test took place at Fort
Pickett in Virginia and was used to evaluate how well the LS3 could integrate
with a Marine unit. Marines tested the robot's ability to respond to verbal
commands and to operate at night and the unit’s leader gave the robot GPS
coordinates for a destination. The robo-mule was able to reach its destination
and navigate around obstacles to do so. Going forward, the LS3 will need to
improve its mobility, perception, and human-robot interaction to be
field-ready, but so far raw processing capability hasn't been an issue.
"We take commercial optics and processing, stack them, and they provide
all the processing power we need," Hitt said. To push the five-year LS3
program and its $54 million budget forward, DARPA is developing algorithms for
LS3 that assess different terrains and weather conditions and respond
appropriately. Its “eyes” use a laser range-finder, specialized cameras and
stereo vision to track its human leader and avoid obstacles and in the heavily
wooded test environment, those eyes worked well. Mountain testing is on the
agenda ahead and the robo-mule’s durability over time will also will be tested.
"We need to make sure the platform is robust enough to handle the abuse the
Marines will give it," Hitt said. Could robo-mule action figures for the
kids be far off? Here’s hoping not……….
- Holiday lights are plentiful in many an American city
this month, but it is a new style of non-holiday lights that are making life
miserable for some Burlington, Vt. residents these days. People living in Burlington’s New North End are
burning white-hot over new energy-efficient streetlights they claim are too
bright. Residents have complained that the new lights are a nuisance because
their bold rays of light are shining into their living rooms and bedrooms with
such ferocity that they are unable to sleep or concentrate. “They told me that
this one uses less power, which I’m appreciative of, but I'm not appreciative
of how bright it is,” said New North End resident Deb Ellis. Ellis resides in a
home located directly in front of one of the new LED fixtures and she says the
light is so bright that it shines right through the curtains in her living
room. “For me frankly it's also the color of the light, and the color is just
this really brilliant white, white light,” she added. The new lights are part
of an ongoing effort to phase out the city’s older streetlights, which housed
mercury vapor bulbs. The Burlington Electric Department, the agency that
oversees the city’s streetlights, is making the change because the old bulbs
are no longer available. Why no one is making light bulbs with mercury in them
is a mystery, but sometimes life is perplexing that way. Homes on Leonard
Street, which had the new lights installed last month, are also being affected
by the brightness issue and in response, BED has turned off some of the rows of
LED lights inside the new fixtures. Complaining locals have continued to whine
that the lights are still too bright, but to no avail thus far……..
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