Romney campaign presses Medicare, Obama 'division'

President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012, in Davenport, Iowa, during a three day campaign bus tour through Iowa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012, in Davenport, Iowa, during a three day campaign bus tour through Iowa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leaves a fundraiser, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/The Charlotte Observer, Todd Sumlin)

Vice Presidential candidate Rep Paul Ryan, R-Wis., center, talks to supporters at a rally on the campus of Miami University in Oxford Ohio, Wednesday Aug. 15, 2012, as Ohio Gov. John Kasich, left, and Rep. Rob Portman, listen. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) ? Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is trying to stay on the offensive in the increasingly heated debate over the future of Medicare.

Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, signaled Wednesday that they invite scrutiny of their plans for the health care program that affects tens of millions of seniors. Such a focus would thrust the budget proposal Ryan authored ? which included a controversial measure to transform Medicare into a voucher-like system ? into the center of the race for the White House.

"We want this debate. We need this debate. And we will win this debate," Ryan told supporters at an Ohio rally Wednesday.

The Republican budget architect will take that message to Ohio voters for a second consecutive day Thursday. He is scheduled to attend a rally in North Canton before traveling to Virginia. Romney is expected to attend a series of private fundraisers, while Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are in Washington for official business.

The debate comes as Romney's campaign continues an effort to undermine one of Obama's greatest campaign strengths, his personal likability, trying to portray the outwardly calm Obama as a man seething with animosity and power lust.

Romney on Wednesday charged that Obama's campaign is fueled by "division and attack and hatred."

To help make their case, Romney's campaign is highlighting a recent Biden remark that prompted some critics to suggest the vice president was using racial undertones to gain a political advantage.

Commenting in response to Republican criticism that the Obama administration had sought to regulate Wall Street too tightly, Biden told a Virginia crowd that included hundreds of black supporters that the GOP wanted to "unchain Wall Street." He added, "They're going to put y'all back in chains."

In an interview with People magazine Wednesday, Obama defended Biden, saying his running mate's only meaning was that consumers won't be protected if Wall Street reforms are repealed.

"In no sense was he trying to connote something other than that," Obama said.

The president wrapped up a three-day bus tour through Iowa on Wednesday, devoting attention to the state that helped launch his bid for the White House four years ago. Joined by first lady Michelle Obama on the trail for the first time in months, Obama defended his handling of Medicare.

"They start making up all kinds of stuff about my plans," Obama said at a rally in Davenport, saying he worked to strengthen Medicare without undercutting benefits. Of Romney and Ryan's approach, Obama said, "Their plan ends Medicare as we know it."

Ryan on Wednesday accused the president of trying to "raid" Medicare by cutting more than $716 billion from the program as part of his health care overhaul.

Ryan did not mention that his own congressional budget proposal includes the same savings, which are supposed to be realized through lower payments to hospitals and doctors, and greater efficiencies in the program.

The president planned to spend Thursday in Washington, holding meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner along with his weekly lunch with Biden. Obama returns to the campaign trail Saturday, holding rallies in New Hampshire.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-08-16-Presidential%20Campaign/id-efdc370751bc4abdadc49c153254a692

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Township threatens to shut down charitable activity unless variance is

Our regular readers know that zoning barriers can get in the way of businesses owners and entrepreneurs, preventing them from moving forward with plans to establish or expand their business or develop real estate. Zoning difficulties can get in the ways of philanthropists, too.

A Pennsylvania woman who distributes free meals to needy children in her neighborhood through the generosity of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was recently targeted by Chester Township for what they say is a zoning violation. After another resident alerted the council about the distribution, an investigation was launched and it was determined that the charitable activity was not permitted.

The neighborhood in which the activity is being carried on is marked by a per capita income of $19,000 per year. The neighborhood, a residential zone, doesn't permit people to hand out food to children. According to the township, the woman would need to go before the zoning board to request a variance. The problem is that would cost her up to $1,000 in administrative fees, a bit of a burden for a woman who makes nothing by her charitable activity.

The response of the township to the situation is basically that it isn't their responsibility to ensure that the activity can continue. If she fails to request the variance, she will be forced to shut the operation down. At this point the woman doesn't have plans to discontinue her practice.

The process of requesting a zoning variance, challenging zoning ordinances, and appealing rulings can be a daunting one, particularly for those who are unsophisticated in local laws and legal processes. Working with an experienced real estate attorney in these types of matters can increase one's chances of achieving a favorable outcome.

Source: Fox News, "Philadelphia woman faces $600-a-day fine for feeding needy neighborhood kids," August 14, 2012

Source: http://www.philadelphiarealestatelaw.com/2012/08/township-threatens-to-shut-down-charitable-activity-unless-variance-is-sought.shtml

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New fuel economy rules favor Detroit Three: report (reuters)

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Muscle Car Art on Sale in the Market ? What Ever It Is

Purchase of muscle car art is quite an exciting thing to do as there are very few in the market. If you can be the owner of one such car, it?ll be a matter of extreme pride for you. But one needs to take care about a few things before buying such a car from the market. As these cars cost quite a lot, it?s necessary for you to do a lot of home work before acquiring any one of them. You need to get in touch with the seller and ask different questions to have a thorough knowledge about the car. Only if you?re convinced with the answers, you must proceed about purchasing the cars. You should compel the seller to give proofs about the genuineness of the car.
If the questions are not answered assertively or not answered, you must be rest assured that there is something fishy about the muscle car art. The parts should be verified by you or mechanic you can rely on. The other important specifications of the car like the transmission, engine etc should also be properly looked into. The car should be flawless without any dents or cracks. If there exists one, you should get the price of the car reduced by bargaining well. In any case, you should always negotiate with the price as the seller will always try to earn more. The car should be well maintained and it should be free of any security problems ready to be used on any sort of roads. There should not be any suit filed concerning the car.
If the car needs to be repaired, the price of it must again be diminished as you again need to pay some money. If the muscle car art has already met with a lot of accidents, it must never be bought. If you?re fetish about a particular brand, you should ask the seller to ask for its authentic certificate

Source: http://whateveritis.com/?p=1226

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Handy technologies for dextrous robots

ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2012) ? A team of EU-funded researchers has developed the world's first human-sized, five-fingered robotic hand that can learn to grasp and manipulate a range of delicate and oddly shaped objects just as humans do.

According to Bill Gates a time is soon coming when there will be a robot in every home. And it does seem like we are at the dawn of robotics -- intelligent and cognitive systems are popping up all over the place. The camera and infrared sensor on new video game consoles hint at a future when we can control devices just by speaking or hand gestures. There are even vacuum cleaners that navigate around your house and clean it up while you are out at work.

But one big problem that the robotics community has struggled to solve is that of manipulation. 'We are not talking about grippers, ' insists Professor Bruno Siciliano from the University of Naples, Italy (Universit? degli Studi di Napoli Federico II). 'Industry robots are pretty good at picking things up and putting them down. If robots are to really transform life and work alongside humans then they must be able to handle items just as humans can with their hands. Manipulation is a complex task that robots must learn to master.'

As coordinator of the Dexmart (1) project, Prof Siciliano has led a collaborative team of robotics researchers which has built an anthropomorphic five-fingered robotic hand that can handle eggs, pick up and turn around a credit card or take a pen from another person.

'We used the human hand as our model,' explains Professor Claudio Melchiorri from University of Bologna, Italy, where the hand prototype was constructed, 'as this provides the ultimate example of dextrous manipulation.'

The project wanted to build a hand that looked and moved as much as possible like its human equivalent. So far, however, no robotics lab has been able to build human hands of the correct size.

'We came up with a simple, yet extremely effective idea: using strings that are twisted by small, high-speed motors, we are able to exert high tensile forces within a compact space,' says mechatronics researcher Chris May from the University of Saarland, Germany. The robotic hand is able to touch diverse objects, grasp and lift them and place them gently in a new position. This new actuation solution was demonstrated on the Dexmart Hand, which could handle a delicate Easter egg and a heavy glass bottle.

The twisted strings are made of a strong polymer and enable the prototype hand to lift a five kilogram load by 30 mm within a split second, making use of small electric motors that are located in the forearm rather than the joints, which helps to give the hand the correct dimensions. 'Each robotic finger, which is like a human finger with three segments, can be controlled precisely by means of the individual tendons,' says researcher Gianluca Palli from the Bologna team 'The capability of the robotic hand is so near to that of humans that the vision of robots as personal assistants in the household, in the operating room as well as in industrial settings is becoming ever more realistic. We presume that the combination of small electric motors with twisted string is interesting for other applications as well.'

A handy brain

This hand has a brain too. 'One of the goals of robotics, especially for companion and helper robots in society, is their ability to behave autonomously,' says Prof Siciliano. 'Robots must respond to situations in appropriate and ways which are not pre-programmed. They should decide on an action and also work out the based motion to achieve it.'

But what is the best way to endow robots with this cognitive power? Prof Siciliano believes that robots, just like humans, need to learn through observation. A team of researchers from Karlsruhe University, Germany, Second University of Naples, Italy and the UK technology firm OMG, used advanced image processing technology to study the fine details of human hand movements. They stuck visual markers on a special sensorised glove worn on their hands and asked to perform various manipulation tasks that were captured on video. The image processing algorithms could track the movements on each marker and use this data to create rules on how the robotic hand should handle and manipulate similar objects.

Efficient, safe and adaptive control mechanisms are essential for complex robotic manipulation. But trying to coordinate the movements of five fingers, each with four joints, is incredibly challenging. 'If you look at each joint and what each motor would have to do individually you are dealing with 20 degrees of freedom and that is too complex,' explains Prof Siciliano. His research group in the University of Naples took its inspiration from biology to simplify the problem. 'Research into human hand control and coordination has shown that we don't control each joint separately; our brain controls all the joints at the same time in a coordinated fashion. Neuroscientists have demonstrated that human hand positions and movements can actually be simplified to just three so called "postural synergies." These three synergies can describe about 80 % of all possible grasping actions and positions,' says researcher Fanny Ficuciello from the Naples team.

The Naples team developed a control system which would take input from the optoelectronic sensors on the hand (which measure the grasp pressure), work out the synergies and actuate the finger movements. The grip precision that these three synergies can create is quite remarkable and permits extremely refined manipulations.

The optoelectronic sensors are another major innovation which the Dexmart partners integrated into their hand. Several sensors have been developed to measure joint angles, tendon forces and tactile interactions with objects. Within the tactile sensor, advanced computational analysis of the captured light intensity inside a number of sensitive elements makes it possible to calculate the forces exerted on the object by the fingers and also whether the object is slipping out of the grasp. Professors Giuseppe De Maria and Ciro Natale, together with researcher Salvatore Pirozzi from Second University of Naples, who developed the sensor, have filed a European patent for the technology.

'The success of the Dexmart hand is based on the integration of all these novel technologies and concepts -- the sensors, the actuators, the control and learning mechanisms,' says Prof Siciliano. 'Our demonstration hand has proven its capabilities and we are now receiving enquires and interest from research groups from many countries. Despite all this new technology the cost of one of these hands is significantly lower than anything you could currently buy, and which would have much less dexterity.'

A prototype hand and two fully sensorised fingers ran without error for four days last December at the RobotVille and successfully took a range of objects out of visitors' hands. The consortium is now exploring the commercial viability of producing fully functional hands initially for the academic community for robotics studies.

The Dexmart project received EUR 6.3 million (of total EUR 8.1 million project budget) in research funding under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme, ICT specific programme.

(1) 'Dexterous and autonomous dual-arm/hand robotic manipulation with smart sensory-motor skills: A bridge from natural to artificial cognition'.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120802073107.htm

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Tulsa OK Real Estate - 8935 E 58th Tulsa OK 74145 MLS# 1223184

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Miley Cyrus' House Swarmed by Police After Prank Call

Miley Cyrus' home in California's San Fernando Valley was swarmed by police officers, firefighters and rescue squads Wednesday night after North Hollywood police received an emergency call saying there had been a kidnapping and shooting on Cyrus' grounds. Thankfull, E! News confirms, the 911 call was nothing more than an ill-advised prank -- and authorities arrived on the scene to discover that there was no one home.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/miley-cyrus-house-swarmed-police-after-prank-call/1-a-477567?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Amiley-cyrus-house-swarmed-police-after-prank-call-477567

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