Robot on your shoulder keeps a friend (or parent) close

8 hrs.

Ever feel like you have a little person on your shoulder keeping track of your every move, providing encouragement to keep up the good work or stop you from doing something bad?

That little person may soon be more than just your conscience; it could be a robot that provides real-time interaction between you and a remote friend (or parent) as you do what you do.

Imagine going on a trip, for example, and bringing along your best friend who?s stuck at home, or sticking a robot on your child?s shoulder to remotely chaperone a Friday night out.

The robot, known as the miniature humanoid, or MH-2, is under development at Yamagata University in Japan. It has head and body moves like a person. It even breathes like one.

The idea is that a person stands in front a TV screen or an immersive display with a sensor such as a Kinect. This person sees whatever the person with the robot sees.

?Meanwhile, the robot on your shoulder acts like an avatar, duplicating the speech and gestures of your friend right there for you to interact with directly,? IEEE reports in its Automation blog.?

For now, the robot is controlled by servos in a 22 pound backpack, which would make bringing along a friend for every moment of a trip quite cumbersome, as well as awkwardly geeky.

But when the telepresence technology catches up with the imagination as illustrated in the video clip below, this could serve to keep friends and family close when they physically far apart.


--Via IEEE?

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website and follow him on Twitter. For more of our Future of Technology http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43384144/ series, watch the featured video below.

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Alber Service Company Announces Valuable Rebates and ...


Pennsauken, NJ (PRWEB) May 28, 2012

?In every arriving season, the heating and cooling services of the house needs to be checked to make sure that hot summers are not that hot and cold winters are not freezing,? said spokesperson, Alber Service Company. Alber Service Company, the renowned home performance experts specialize in Air Conditioning Repairs and Heating services, which can make ones home more energy-efficient. This in return will cut down on costs and save money on utility bills. Alber Service Company serves homeowners in Camden, Gloucester, and Burlington Counties and have come up with valuable rebates and incentives on their heating and cooling services.

As South Jerseys Home Performance heating and cooling experts, Alber Service Technicians inspect the homes entire system to help improve the efficiency of the unit. They conduct a simple, thorough evaluation of the customers home, present them with a complete set of options or recommendations, and make sure the entire system is able to provide maximum comfort while still being energy-efficient. Alber Service Company has also expanded their professional heating and cooling services to Vorhees, New Jersey at very affordable prices. As fully trained technicians, they start with a thorough inspection of the homes property to accurately measure the amount of energy loss. This can be due to inefficient appliances, insulation and waterproofing.

Alber Service is ENERGY STAR

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The Flames of Retribution

The Lessard Manor was an impressive structure of Victorian design characterized by expensive glass windows, tall steeples, stone gargoyles and extravagant gardens intersected by winding stone pathways. The entrance to the manor grounds was barred by an impressive wrought iron fence patrolled by two human guards. Small lanterns lined the pathways leading up to the manor house casting a warm glow through the dark. The gardens to either side were a stunning spectacle of well landscaped flora that had been well chosen to accentuate evening viewing and even the flowers bloomed beneath the silvery moonlight overhead.

However should one take a closer look, it would reveal that the gardens were merely an outward facade of beauty, overlaying a backdrop of decay where little could survive for long. Beneath the surface of the foliage and dazzling array of flowers, spots of mold and wilt could be seen cropping up here and there. The signs were subtle, but given a few months the picture of beauty would be rotted away beneath the taint that was beginning to infect it. It was a full time task to keep anything living within the manor grounds and everything that was planted eventually withered and died. It was only through meticulous care that the the facade was maintained.

Maria had led Riaze back to the city, it's nighttime lights glittering like starlight for as far as the eye could see. It was a place she was loath to tread, but her vehemence drove her on. Cautious and wary, she led them through shadow and back alleys to avoid the main routes until eventually they left the din and commotion of the city behind in favor of the pleasant gardens that lay at its heart. A few evening strollers passed by their position beneath the boughs of a tree, but none sparred them a second glance. Clad in the remnants of wolf furs and leathers she had acquired from her abandoned campsite on the way, Maria was at least passably modest enough to not draw too much unwanted attention.

Raising a hand Maria extended her finger to point to the manor beyond.

"Draugr," she explained. The pounding of her heart filled her ears as her chest heaved heavily from the run that had brought them here. The physical exertion had done little to stem the unquenchable fire that lay within her eyes and she shook with the anticipation of the damage she and Riaze could unleash upon the unsuspecting family within. Believing themselves safe within their city and behind their walls, their arrogance would be their undoing.

Turning to look at Riaze the fire burned hot in her gaze. "Draugr," she reiterated. He would come, he would share in the carnage with her. She did not need ask to know it would be so.

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APNewsbreak: Report details mass shooting in Ariz.

(AP) ? All four people killed by a former neo-Nazi before he turned the gun on himself this month in a quiet Phoenix suburb were shot in the head, according to a police report released Tuesday that paints the clearest picture yet of the gruesome crime scene.

Various Gilbert police officers and detectives wrote about what they saw at the home where they believe Jason Todd "JT" Ready, 39, shot and killed his girlfriend and three others, including a toddler, before killing himself in a domestic dispute.

Ready was the leader of the U.S. Border Guard, a group of armed civilians that patrols Arizona's desert for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

When they first arrived at the home, authorities saw the bodies of Ready, wearing only tan shorts and boots, and another man. Both were dead with pools of blood beneath their heads. A camouflaged gun was near Ready.

When police walked to the home's open front door, they saw the bodies of Ready's girlfriend, her daughter and her granddaughter, a 15-month-old girl named Lilly.

The women were clearly dead. But when officers checked the toddler, they found signs of life, according to the report.

"I could see brain tissue and a pooling of blood next to her head," wrote Officer Veronica Roden. "Her arms and neck were still warm to the touch, and we both detected a pulse on the inner part of her upper left arm."

Gilbert firefighters strapped the girl to a backboard and rushed her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

When officers went farther into the home, they heard a woman crying in a locked bedroom and kicked in the door. They found a 19-year-old sister of one of the victims. Because police had to clear the home, they forced the woman, Brittany Mederos, to walk by the bodies of her mother and sister, and her dying niece.

"Upon entering the hallway, the female observed the bodies on the floor at which time she began crying hysterically," wrote Officer Chris Zamora. "I advised the female to 'Just keep walking' as I continued to escort her, stepping over the body of at least one of the female victims and around the other two victims."

Another officer described having to tell Lilly's father, Jess Boggs, that the toddler was dead. He arrived after the police tape had been put up around the home and surrounding houses.

"Jess showed me a picture of Lilly on his cellphone," wrote Officer Michael Cluff. "I immediately recognized the child as the same child I had observed within the house. Jess seemed to recognize my reaction to seeing the picture, and he began to wail and cry."

Associated Press

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Column: Winning's grand, entertaining is enough - KCBD ...

By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Columnist

CHICAGO (AP) - The Cubs skulked back into town with their tails between their legs and plenty to answer for.

Then Monday dawned hot and hazy and by mid-afternoon, the sun was shining, the cold beer was flowing, the wind was blowing out and a fleet of baseballs hitched a ride on the jetstream over the walls at Wrigley Field. By the time the accounting was done, the Cubs had half of the eight home runs and an 11-7 win over the equally hapless Padres.

Throw in a pre-game flight by the eagle Challenger and a seventh-inning rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" by actor Brian Dennehy - in town starring in the play, "The Iceman Cometh" - and it was entertaining enough to send fans out the door wondering where the party was relocating and exactly what they were so upset about in the first place.

Cubs manager Dale Sveum wasn't about to remind them.

"Let's not kid yourself. You lose 12 in a row, you finally win. It's a big relief," he said afterward

Just don't count on celebrating for long. Even in bad years, the Cubs usually don't swoon until June. This year they couldn't even make it to Memorial Day. At this rate, they could be mathematically eliminated by the Fourth of July.

The last six of the Cubs' dozen straight losses came during a seven-day road trip at NL Central rivals Houston and Pittsburgh, two of the only half-dozen or so teams Chicago actually has a chance against. It was like being told to bring back dinner and spending all night at the bar instead, then returning empty-handed and praying fans hadn't changed the locks on the gates at Wrigley Field.

"Patience is something a lot of fans don't have," Sveum had said Sunday in Pittsburgh.

Yet he marveled the way Cubs fans had stuck by his team thus far.

"We all understand -- I'm a huge football fan and I don't understand the Oakland Raiders losing every game. That's the way it is."

In Chicago, maybe.

Even so, Theo Epstein wasn't inclined to press his luck. His title with the Cubs is president of baseball operations, but Chicagoans think of Epstein as the boy genius-general manager who ended the Red Sox' decades-long World Series drought and was brought to town to repeat the trick here. Never mind that he preached patience upon his arrival last October and despite his best efforts, still has only two everyday ballplayers - Starlin Castro and David DeJesus - who could start for most clubs, a barely adequate rotation and a mess in the bullpen.

Even Epstein made it sound like he didn't sign on for this.

"I think we're clearly better than this ... on both fronts, short- and long-term, there's work to do," he said at a hastily arranged news conference.

Unfortunately, though beyond "start scrapping and keep grinding for pride," Epstein was short on specifics on how to improve things over the short term.

"Long term," he added, not much more optimistic, "it underscores the magnitude of the job here and sort of how far we need to go to get where we want to be."

At a century and still counting, Cub fans are either the dopiest of most patient bunch in sports. And over the course of all that losing, they've learned to savor the distractions that are often more interesting than anything the team has been able to cobble together on the field. That's why they happily blame black cats, real goats and imaginary scapegoats like Steve Bartman for the ballclub's unending run of futility.

Winning is great, but in these parts entertaining is still good enough.

Last week's brouhaha was over whether Joe Ricketts, the conservative patriarch of TD Ameritrade and the family that owns the Cubs, was really planning to finance a nasty political attack campaign against President Barack Obama - and whether that would make it harder for the Cubs to gain concessions to modify Wrigley Field from the city's staunchly Democratic mayor, Rahm Emanuel, and the city council.

The week before that, it was the nostalgia kicked up by the retirement of one-time pitching phenom Kerry Wood and an essay in The Wall Street Journal calling for the destruction of Wrigley Field, suggesting the aging shrine was actually the reason for all that losing:

"Destroy it. Annihilate it. Collapse it with the sort of charges that put the Sands Hotel out of its misery in Vegas. Implosion or explosion, get rid of it. That pile of quaintness has to go. ... When a house is haunted, you don't put in a new scoreboard, add ivy, get better food or bigger beers_you move!"

Sounding more like a fan than the Cubs left-fielder, Alfonso Soriano considered the option for the briefest of moments.

"Leave this place? No, never," he said after going 3 for 4 with a homer and three RBIs. "You saw how much it was jumping when we got it going. Let's see what can happen now. We just had some tough moments before."

Which is, give or take a few years, is how the Cubs still refer to the last century.

___

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and follow him at Twitter.com/JimLitke.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Having Breast Cancer is not the End of the World

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You are depressed enough because of breast cancer. You are afraid that you cannot win the battle against one of the most threatening cancers. Well, you do not have to act like that. There are some ways to make your life better. At least, you do not think about your breast cancer all the time. One easiest thing to do is stay positive. You do not have to think too much. There are more patients with worst conditions. They cannot eat, sleep or even smile. You are more lucky right? Therefore, you need be grateful since you have more opportunities.

Next, you can search more information about breast cancer. There is a saying, ?you can have more confidence if you know your opponent?. Yes, that is right. Do not let this cancer beat you. It is more important to know more facts about breast cancer. Who knows that you can find a more effective way to heal your current condition? It is easy to find the needed information. You can search them in the internet. In addition, you can go to the library so that you can refresh your mind and get more knowledge about your disease from books or magazines.

What about going to beautiful places? Having breast cancer is not the end of the world. Your doctor might allow you to see the beautiful sceneries outside the boring hospital walls. It is really refreshing to see flying birds, blue sky, colorful flowers and many others. Moreover, you need to find positive circle that can helps you when you are down and depressed because of your disease. Meeting the breast cancer survivors is really good for you. It is for sure that you can learn a lot of life lessons from the survivors. They can inspire you to be a braver person.

Furthermore, you can meet your friends who also have breast cancer. No, you are not allowed to grief and weep. You meet your friends to support each other. There is no time for you to think junk thoughts. It is really useless. Instead of doing such things, you are suggested to make a diary. You can share your feelings, thoughts, or anything you want. Moreover, you are allowed to do your hobbies. Do not let the breast cancer stop you from your favorite activities. You can do whatever you want as long as you do not harm your health. So, enjoy your precious life.

For more information, visit the website at http://www.123cancer-info.com/

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Video: In Florida, winds pick up

Winds notched up to 65 miles per hour in Florida, where more than 100 people were pulled from ocean waters because of riptides. The Weather Channel?s Jim Cantore reports.

>> storm about to make landfall down south, we're joined by weather channel meteorologist jim cantore . jim, how is it looking out there?

>> reporter: well, lester, after we talked to you this morning, we had a nuisance tropical storm , now you've got something that's potentially a game changer and intensifying to be close to a hurricane, believe it or not. we have a whole new set of problems to expect. dark and ominous skies behind me. that means the storm is coming in. right around midnight we expect landfall. the center of this thing, about 100 miles offshore right now. so it's coming in fast and furious . the weather will, too. we're talking about power outages, very heavy rain in through here. anybody that didn't tie down their boats now have to be racing to do that, as these winds have notched up to 65. they could be 70 or even farther ahead as we go to the next advisory. we've had record highs, about 27 right now. only one degree from the all-time high at indianapolis 500 . all this warm weather, everybody wants to get in the water, and that's been very difficult to do. more than 100 people pulled from the waters over the last 24 hours because of the rip currents here. looking more like july 4th weekend, lester, than memorial day weekend .

>> we can see that surf behind you. and certainly behind the wind across your mike. jim cantore , thanks.

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American Express Boosts Customer Service with Transformed ...

American Express Boosts Customer Service with Transformed Leadership and Culture Just after writing my last blog on improving customer service by treating your employees better I came across an interview on Jim Bush, EVP of World Service, at American Express. The new leadership approach Jim describes Amex has used since he took charge of this role in 2005 provides powerful data and examples of how leading a customer focused culture can have a major impact on organizational performance. Since 2007 the S & P Financial Service Index of stock prices has dropped ? 50% while Amex?s stock price has gained 13%!

One of the first things Amex did was completely change their focus on their phone representatives who are the frontline servers to Amex?s main customers; cardholders and merchants. Calling them ?customer care professionals? they abandoned the old transaction, production line approach that focused on getting the caller off the phone as quickly as possible and on to the next call. Instead of measuring call times, Amex switched to using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) developed by Fred Reichheld, author and Fellow at the management consultancy, Bain & Company. NPS is based on ?the ultimate question? (one of his books): would you recommend this company to a friend?

This change lead to Amex overhauling its selection (they used to call it ?hiring?) process to find people with the right customer care attitude. They also revamped their training, leadership, and coaching approaches to help their customer care professionals build one-on-one relationships in solving customers? problems.

Here are a few key highlights from Jim Bush?s interview:

  • ?We field a survey annually and found that 7% of consumers feel they?re getting good service; 93% are not getting the service they expect. It?s an enormous void.?
  • We let the customer determine how much time they want to engage. That engagement drives value. We serve customers, not transactions.
  • We?ve been able to show that increased satisfaction drives increased engagement with American Express products, and that drives shareholder value. Great service is great business.
  • For a promoter who is positive on American Express, we see a 10% to 15% increase in spending and four to five times increased retention, both of which drive shareholder value. In fact our operating expenses associated with service have gone down because we?re more streamlined, and we limit friction points and errors.
  • In the past, 75% of it was on how, technically, you complete the transaction. Now it?s on how you create the relationship and build it through humanity, conversation, and engagement.
  • Giving our people freedom, boundary, and purpose, combined with holding them accountable, drives economic value.?

To read the full interview click on How Can American Express Help You? I?ve written quite a lot about leadership, culture, and customer service. Click on articles and blog posts. You can also check out our workshop/retreat on ?Leading a Customer-Centered Organization?.

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Online Relationships Work From Free Dating Services ...

Posted on May 28, 2012 under Online Dating | 3 Comments

Single people usually gather at the bars to seek dates. This is the old traditional way to find dates. In the new way, single men seeking women at a free dating service because it is easy and costless. In fact, free online dating services have been emerged that help to create many online relationships. If you are a new single person who does not know anything about online dating services, then you should read some articles to understand about the service. Generally speaking, you create your personal ad by introducing about yourself. You can post your photo if you want to. In your description of your profile, you can write the likes and dislikes. Online dating services have other singles like you who post their personals dating ads. Either you or other singles can contact with each other when a match is found.

Many online relationships are generated by first met at these free online dating websites. Single women looking for men register their profiles at these sites. After a single woman found her date, she leaves the site. By this time, she can communicate with her date through phone, email, or other means. This rule applies the same for a single man. Sometimes, you contact with a single person and do not get a reply back, you need to understand that this one is seeing someone right now. This single lady may not want to delete her profile yet because she may come back to the dating site looking new single men, if the current relationship does not work out.

Free dating services are great because many online marriages created in recent years. It is so popular that most of famous websites have personal ads, including Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and others. There are single people everywhere. Singles keep looking for their dream mates at these dating sites. So, you will see new faces of singles who register at these free dating services every day. Online dating site is a fun place to seek dates. You can find a date online at the comfort of your computer, in the living room, in the bedroom, and every where in your house. For just a few clicks of your computer mouse, thousands of singles showing up in front of you like a movie.

Many singles worry whether online relationships last long? Statistics show that a compatible relationship that you meet online always lasts for long, compare with a date you meet at the bars or nightclubs. The main reason is online singles look carefully at the others? personal ads before making decision to contact them. A person you meet at the bar is usually happened by the sexual attract between two single people. That?s why free online dating websites create long term relationships and marriages.

Meeting an online date is easy and simple. All you have to do is to register at these free online dating sites and then start dating. Your other dream mate is waiting online to meet you so taking action right now is a must. Good luck!

Jenny Rogers

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Treasure Coast Real Estate | KINGSMILL Homes For Sale May, 2012

by starfish on May 28, 2012

Find KINGSMILL Homes For Sale and KINGSMILL Home Values. We also have information on mortgages, insurance, movers and other Treasure Coast Real Estate Services for anyone looking to sell or buy a home in beautiful St Lucie COUNTY Florida.

Paul Kitchen and Starfish Team provide clients, family and close friends with professional, honest and dependable service. A resident of Treasure Coast, Paul is extremely familiar with the local neighborhoods including KINGSMILL, school districts and the Treasure Coast Real Estate market in this beautiful Florida town.

Paul Kitchen
Broker-Owner
Starfish Real Estate
8985 SE Bridge Road Hobe Sound, Florida 33455
(772) 539-8376
(800) 793-7304 toll free
Treasure Coast Real Estate
Treasure Coast Real Estate Blog

Starfish Real Estate

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