Chelsea wins Champions thriller

Drogba scores winner against Bayern Munich after equalizing match in 88th minute

Image: Drogba scoresGetty Images

Didier Drogba of Chelsea celebrates after scoring the winning penalty kick to win the Champions League title.

updated 7:28 p.m. ET May 19, 2012

MUNICH - Didier Drogba tied the match with a header in the 88th minute, and then scored the decisive goal in the shootout as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich to win the Champions League final, 4-3 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw Saturday.

The unlikely storyline of an English team beating a German team on penalties in a high-profile match provided a fitting end to a dramatic night, as Chelsea became Europe's champion club for the first time.

The often theatrical 34-year-old Drogba, playing possibly his last game for the club as his Chelsea contract expires next month, was at the heart of the show.

Drogba sent goalkeeper Manuel Neuer the wrong way on the final kick of the shootout in front of massed Bayern fans in their home Allianz Arena. Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger missed the previous penalty, hitting the goalpost.

"It was written, I think, a long time ago," Drogba said to British broadcaster ITV of Chelsea's turnaround since its turmoil in March. "This team is amazing. They never give up until the end."

The shootout was needed after Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech saved Arjen Robben's spot-kick early in extra time.

It was awarded for a foul by Drogba, who earned Chelsea an unlikely reprieve.

After 83 minutes of Bayern domination, Thomas Mueller broke dogged Chelsea resistance with a header past the outstanding Cech.

Chelsea's first Champions League title came four years after losing in a shootout to Manchester United.

Drogba succeeded where his captain John Terry, who was suspended for Saturday's finale, failed in missing the fifth penalty in Moscow four years ago which would have given the club's Russian owner Roman Abramavich the Champions League title he has craved.

Abramovich must now make a fascinating decision on the future of interim coach Roberto di Matteo, who took over from the fired Andre Villas-Boas after a last-16, first-leg defeat to Napoli, and inspired a team which then appeared sulky and fading.

Victory also sealed Chelsea's last remaining route into next season's competition which is crucial to its elite status and finances.

Everything seemed stacked against Chelsea when Bayern won the toss to send the shootout to the home, south end of its stadium.

After Bayern captain Philipp Lahm scored first, Juan Mata has his kick saved by Neuer.

Cech then saved Ivica Olic's fourth penalty for Bayern to put the otherwise excellent Schweinsteiger in the spotlight.

He struck the post to Cech's left and covered his face with his shirt.

Drogba stepped up and sealed victory and awaited the adulation of his onrushing teammates.

"He's a hero. Without him we're not here," said Lampard, who scored with Chelsea's third penalty. "I'd love him to stay. What he did tonight he's been doing all his career."

With seven starters from the two teams suspended, Bayern settled quickly against a visiting team set up to absorb pressure.

The Germans' tempo was often dictated by Schweinsteiger, who excelled after collecting a needless yellow card in the second minute for handball.

Toni Kroos, Mario Gomez and Robben all failed to find the target, and anxiety rose in the Chelsea defense when Jose Bosingwa's miscue conceded a corner.

Robben, the former Chelsea winger, threatened again in the 21st when he wriggled through a tiny gap to create a left-footed shooting chance. So often Chelsea's Champions League savior, Cech blocked with his right leg and deflected the ball high up against his right post.

Drogba was being kept quiet before he linked with Frank Lampard to create Chelsea's first good chance in the 37th. Salomon Kalou was teed up to shoot low but Neuer's save was solid.

Gomez, with 13 goals in the competition this season, then wasted two good chances to draw level with Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

First, his control failed when Ribery's misdirected shot flew to his feet, then the big forward wrong-footed Gary Cahill but shot high and wide.

Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes stomped back to the bench throwing his hands in the air.

The second half resumed with the same pattern, and Cole's outstanding defending denied Robben.

The England left-back hunted down Robben's break, then blocked the Dutchman's clear sight of goal from 10 yards (meters) in the 54th. The loose ball found Ribery in an offside position before he thought he'd opened the scoring.

Cole repeated his heroics five minutes later, dashing across to block Robben's shot from 15 yards.

In the 76th, Cech stretched to tip the ball over the bar as Ribery's cross at the goal line squirted up from Cole's lunging challenge.

Cole was then booked for fouling Mueller, who responded by directing a header which Cech gathered.

One minute later, Mueller eluded Cole with a late run and headed home to spark delirious celebrations among the Bayern players and fans.

They underestimated Chelsea's admirable resolve, and Drogba soared to score with a header that Neuer couldn't keep out.

Drogba's taste for the dramatic flared up in the third minute of extra time, as he clipped Ribery's heels in the penalty area.

Referee Pedro Proenca's decision to point to the spot seemed to stun the Bayern fans, and their anxiety was well founded.

Robben fired low to Cech's left, and the Czech `keeper blocked with his arm and body, then reached across to collect the loose ball.

Bayern came agonizingly close in the 108th, when substitute Olic slipped the ball across the goalmouth but teammate Daniel van Buyten failed to anticipate the simple tap-in.

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


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Chelsea wins Champions thriller

Didier Drogba scored the decisive penalty in the shootout as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich to win the Champions League final after a dramatic 1-1 draw on Saturday.

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Real Estate Crash in China Underway: Foreign Funding Down 80 ...

From Mish?s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Inquiring minds are reading an excellent report China Real Estate Unravels by Patrick Chovanec, a professor at Tsinghua University?s School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China.

The report confirms many of the things I said would happen in regards to the Chinese real estate bubble and GDP.

Here are a few items of note.

Developers, burdened by 70% leverage ratios and loans threatening to come due, rushed to complete projects already in their pipeline, to put those units onto the market and raise cash.

That rush to complete inflated real estate investments, allegedly up 23.5% in the first quarter. Other statistics from the report tell the real story.

  • Year-on-year sales in Q1, for all real estate, was down 14.6%.
  • Residential property sales were down 17.5%
  • Office sales were down -10.2%?
  • Sales in January-February were a disaster, falling 20.9% overall,
    compared to the first two months of 2011, -24.7% for residential.
  • Total amount of floor space ?for sale? was up 35.5%, compared to the
    same date last year
  • Floor space of residential units ?for
    sale? grew 47.4%.
  • At the end of 2011, total floor space ?under construction? was roughly 4.6 times the floor space sold
  • A year and a half worth of excess inventory is hidden somewhere in the pipeline
  • New starts in April fell 14.6% year-on-year and 27.0% month-on-month, for property as a whole
  • Housing starts fell -14.4% year-on-year and -23.4% month-on-month
  • Office starts fell -21.0% year-on-year in April, and -45.1% compared to
    March
  • Retail property starts fell -18.7% year-on-year, and -36.8%
    compared to March
  • Land sale revenues in April (RMB 27 billion) were down -54.7% compared to April last year
  • Foreign funding for property development was down -91.4% in March and -80.8% in April, compared to the same months last year.

Clearly a crash is underway. The above stats also show the soft-landing thesis is written on toilet paper.

GDP Analysis

I like the analysis by Chovanec on GDP implications and the highly-overrated ?soft landing? theory.

The ?resilient? growth in real estate investment that seemed to promise a ?soft landing? is not very resilient at all. It?s more like the last gasp of a market that?s running out of steam. Once the surge in completions plays out, the declining number of new starts will become the pipeline, and growth in property investment will flatten or go
negative.

Property investment accounts for roughly a quarter of gross Fixed Asset Investment (FAI), and net FAI accounts for over half of China?s GDP growth. As I noted in January, in a back-of-the-envelope thought exercise, if property investment plateaus (growth falls to zero), it could shave as much as 2.6
percentage points off of real GDP growth. If it fell 10% (in real, not nominal terms) it could bring GDP growth down to 5.3%.

At the time I first saw this dynamic in the data, when the Q1 numbers came out, I figured it would take several months to begin playing out. But the April numbers suggest it is already happening.

Chovanec notes if real estate investment drops by 10%, GDP will come in at 5.3%. What if real estate investment falls by 20% or 25%? Moreover, why shouldn?t it?

Nails in the Hard Landing Coffin?

One of the sillier stories making the rounds earlier last month was China currency move nails hard landing risk coffin

I responded at the time with ?

The longer China puts off rebalancing its economy, the bigger the crash later on. Moreover,
widening the band on its currency is a needed part of that rebalancing, and does not preclude in any way a huge slowdown in growth.

The structural imbalances in China are large and for now, still growing. However, huge cracks have appeared in real estate, and changes are
coming up with a regime change. Finally, peak oil alone makes many of the growth estimates we have seen for China outright impossible.

The real estate crash has arrived. The GDP crash will follow. For details, please see 12 Predictions by Michael Pettis on China; Non-Food Commodity Prices Will Collapse Over Next Three to Four Years; Nails in the Hard Landing Coffin?

Mike ?Mish? Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

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Burning rocks victim tells of strange horror

At first, Lyn Hiner thought it was a bug bite when she felt a sudden sting on her right thigh.

She gave her thigh a swat and the next thing she knew flames shot from her shorts where she stood in her San Clemente kitchen, eating an orange and attempting to plan the evening birthday date with her husband, Rob.

"Lyn sounded panicked," Rob Hiner said, sitting next to her on her hospital bed at the Grossman Burn Center at Western Medical Center Santa Ana. "She turned around and I saw flames coming from her pocket. I went to smack it and at the same time the house filled with smoke. Lyn screamed, 'get it out,' it was terrifying and confusing all at once."

In seconds Lyn Hiner dropped to the ground and rolled but the flames would not extinguish. An acrid smell, like firecrackers, filled the home and breathing was difficult.

Frantically the couple tried to bat the flames out. Then Rob yelled for Lyn to open her pants and he pulled as hard as he could to get them off.

Rocks fell from her pockets -- the ones Lyn and her two daughters, who are nine and 11, collected at Trestles at San Onofre State Beach several hours earlier.

An oily-like residue dripped to the hardwood floor as well, starting fires in the kitchen. Lyn ran to the sink, her right hand scorched, searing with pain.

As smoke filled the home, the Hiner's youngest daughter, who had been reading in the front room, ran out the front door. The family's border collie-mix bolted from the front door and across the street to Bonita Canyon Park. Their older daughter chased after the dog.

With screams coming from the home, next-door neighbor Jason Young, a captain with OC Lifeguards, jumped the railing between their homes and rushed in to help.

Rob called 911 and Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Jeremiah Prescott was at the home on Avenida Estrella within minutes. Orange County Fire Authority firefighters and paramedics rushed to the scene. Within minutes, Lyn and Rob were in the ambulance and the still sparking rocks were in a coffee cup in a corner of the ambulance as they rushed to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. The couple prayed together asking God for guidance.

Since the incident -- which occurred May 12 -- Lyn has been treated for second and third degree burns. She's undergone two surgeries for skin grafts on her right leg, right hand and the inside of her left thigh. She's endured pain and emotional trauma and will require weeks and months of physical therapy.

The couple's home has been inspected by Hazmat teams from Orange County Public Health. The kitchen floor has been ripped out and the walls and nearby bathroom have been sanitized. The home is inhabitable until construction can be done to restore the kitchen and all the appliances.

The rocks, described as a smooth orange colored one and a smaller green one, have been sent to a state lab for testing. Initial tests at the county health department revealed phosphate. Chemistry experts said the rocks may have been coated with phosphorous, a substance that can spontaneously ignite when exposed to oxygen.

Meanwhile officials from the U.S. Department of the Navy and from Camp Pendleton say they don't believe the substance stems from any military training exercises. The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is believed to not play a role in the source of the burning rocks, experts said on Thursday.

Despite the freakish accident, The Hiner's say their faith in God and the deeds of so many, including the first responders from the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Orange County Fire Authority, have helped them through the ordeal.

"We know bad things happen to many people," Lyn Hiner said. "I'm thankful God carried us through this. That Jason, the deputy, the firefighters and the doctors, the hospital staff, have all been with us. I know there are patients here that are going through a lot more than I am. I'm grateful it wasn't the girls and that it didn't happen on the freeway on our drive home."

Lyn Hiner said the Saturday at the beach is something the family does often. They had gone to the tide pools to look for interesting rocks, shells and other beach artifacts. It's an activity Lyn and her family have done for many years. As an artist, Lyn Hiner said she has always been drawn to unique-looking nature.

The rocks her daughters collected at the beach that day appeared smooth, slightly white and granite-like but nothing odd. She carried them for her daughters because they were in swimsuits. Then, for about three hours the family spent times with friends at a nearby house and their pool.

They drove home with plans to call the babysitter and go out for Rob's birthday, which had been the Monday before.

"That's how quick it went from 'let's get a sitter, to me sitting on the front porch with my hand and leg torched," Lyn Hiner said.

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Chinese activist who fled house arrest lands in US

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, center, arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012 in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, center, arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012 in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

(AP) ? A blind Chinese legal activist who was suddenly allowed to leave the country arrived in the United State on Saturday, ending a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations.

Chen Guangcheng had been hurriedly taken from a hospital hours earlier and put on a plane for the U.S. after Chinese authorities suddenly told him to pack and prepare to leave. He arrived Saturday evening at Newark Liberty International Airport and was whisked to New York City, where he will be staying.

Dressed in a white shirt and khaki pants and using crutches, his right leg in a cast, Chen was greeted with cheers when he arrived at the apartment in Manhattan's Greenwich Village where he will live with his family. The complex houses faculty and graduate students of New York University, where Chen is expected to attend law school.

"For the past seven years, I have never had a day's rest," he said through a translator, "so I have come here for a bit of recuperation for body and in spirit."

Chen urged the crowd to fight against injustice, and thanked the U.S. and Chinese governments, along with the embassies of Switzerland, Canada and France.

"After much turbulence, I have come out of Shandong," he said, referring to the Chinese province where he was under house arrest. The U.S. has granted him partial citizenship rights, he said.

Chen gave a short statement, which was greeted by cheers in Mandarin and English, but did not take questions from reporters.

The departure of Chen, his wife and two children to the United States marked the conclusion of nearly a month of uncertainty and years of mistreatment by local authorities for the self-taught activist.

After seven years of prison and house arrest, Chen made a daring escape from his rural village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy, triggering a diplomatic standoff over his fate. With Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Beijing for annual high-level discussions, officials struck a deal that let Chen walk free, only to see him have second thoughts. That forced new negotiations that led to an agreement to send him to the U.S. to study law, a goal of his, at New York University.

"Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind," Chen said before he left China. His concerns, he said, included whether authorities would retaliate for his negotiated departure by punishing his relatives left behind. It also was unclear whether the government will allow him to return.

In New York, he said China had promised him protection of his rights as a citizen there.

"I am very gratified to see that the Chinese government has been dealing with the situation with restraint and calm, and I hope to see that they continue to open discourse and earn the respect and trust of the people."

Chen's expected attendance at New York University comes from his association with Jerome Cohen, a law professor there who advised Chen while he was in the U.S. Embassy. The two met when Chen came to the United States on a State Department program in 2003, and Cohen has been staunch advocate for him since.

"I'm very happy at the news that he's on his way and I look forward to welcoming him and his family tonight and to working with him on his course of study," Cohen said.

Before he left China, Chen asked his supporters and others in the activist community for their understanding of his desire to leave the front lines of the rights struggle in China.

"I am requesting a leave of absence, and I hope that they will understand," he said.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland praised the quiet negotiations that freed him.

"We also express our appreciation for the manner in which we were able to resolve this matter and to support Mr. Chen's desire to study in the U.S. and pursue his goals," Nuland said in a statement.

The White House also said it was pleased with the outcome of negotiations.

China's Foreign Ministry said it had no comment. The government's news agency, Xinhua, issued a brief report saying that Chen "has applied for study in the United States via normal channels in line with the law."

Chen's supporters welcomed his departure. "This is great progress," said U.S.-based rights activist Bob Fu. "It's a victory for freedom fighters."

The 40-year-old Chen is emblematic of a new breed of activists that the Communist Party finds threatening. Often from rural and working-class families, these "rights defenders," as they are called, are unlike the students and intellectuals from the elite academies and major cities of previous democracy movements and thus could potentially appeal to ordinary Chinese.

Chen gained recognition for crusading for the disabled and for farmers' rights and fighting against forced abortions in his rural community. That angered local officials, who seemed to wage a personal vendetta against him, convicting him in 2006 on what his supporters say were fabricated charges and then holding him for the past 20 months in illegal house arrest.

Even with the backstage negotiations, Chen's departure came hastily. Chen spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in a hospital for the foot he broke escaping house arrest. Only on Wednesday did Chinese authorities help him complete the paperwork needed for his passport.

Chen said by telephone Saturday that he was informed at the hospital just before noon to pack his bags to leave. Officials did not give him and his family passports or inform them of their flight details until after they got to the airport.

Seeming ambivalent, Chen said that he was "not happy" about leaving and that he had a lot on his mind, including worries about retaliation against his extended family back home. His nephew, Chen Kegui, is accused of attempted murder after he allegedly used a kitchen knife to attack officials who stormed his house after discovering Chen Guangcheng was missing.

"I hope that the government will fulfill the promises it made to me, all of its promises," Chen said. Such promises included launching an investigation into abuses against him and his family in Shandong province, he said before the phone call was cut off.

Much as Chen has said he wants return to China, it remains uncertain whether the Chinese government would bar him, as they have done with many exiled activists.

"Chen's departure for the U.S. does not and should not in any way mark a 'mission accomplished' moment for the U.S. government," said Phelim Kine, a senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The harder, longer-term part is ensuring his right under international law to return to China when he sees fit."

___

Associated Press Writers Didi Tang, Gillian Wong and Charles Hutzler in Beijing, Andrew Duffelmeyer in Newark, N.J., and Matthew Lee in Washington, and videojournalist Annie Ho in Beijing contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Surf's up ? on landlocked lakes and rivers

2 hrs.

Landlocked surf bums jonesing to catch a wave may need to look no further than the nearest body of water, be it a lake, river or pond, thanks a new wave-making machine.

While wave makers are old news, the Spanish team behind?Wavegarden claim their contraption generates consistently ride-able surf in a much more energy-efficient fashion than any other device.

The waves are customizable, from gentle rollers for newbies and the kids, to challenging waves with big tubes for?you old pros stuck in Midwest cubicle farms.

The concept has been under development since 2005 and a prototype installation is in northern Spain. The company is now busy?marketing the wave-makers around the world. Check out the promo video below.

The length of the wave, according to the company, is only limited by the size of the available land. A 5.25-foot wave, for example, produces a 30-second tube over a length of 820 feet.

Minimum requirements to install the surf (yes, this does requires some landscaping) is an area of 656 feet by 164 feet, though enough room for the 30-second ride is recommended.

The Wavegarden can be retrofitted to existing bodies of water ? they need to have a fairly consistent water level and be able to be drained at least once a year for maintenance ?? or can be built from scratch.

Once built, the carbon footprint of creating waves with the machine is less than driving 30 minutes to catch waves at the beach, according to the company?s rough calculations.

Of course, even if you live in the Midwest, you are likely to have to drive a bit to find the closest Wavegarden ? but it might prevent you from jumping on a plane to Hawaii.?

Maybe.?

??Via Gizmag?

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 series, watch the featured video below.

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Kiss Aero goodbye: Latest Windows 8 build reveals minimalistic desktop UI (update)

Kiss Aero goodbye: Latest Windows 8 build reveals minimalistic desktop UI

It's safe to say that anticipation is high for the upcoming Windows 8 Release Preview, which will become available in the first week of June. While we're still curious to see if Microsoft can better integrate the desktop and Metro environments of its latest operating system, the company has now revealed a significant change to the desktop portion of Windows 8 -- a completely restyled visual appearance. As you might remember from the Consumer Preview, window borders and widgets featured a simplified and subdued look in comparison to the glass-like materials of Aero, which Microsoft now calls "dated and cheesy." With the latest refresh, however, the company has pushed its modernistic philosophy even further to reveal a spartan (yet functional) interface that draws less attention to the chrome elements and allows the user to focus more on content.

Microsoft's latest reveal was made as part of a larger, retrospective look at its development of Windows and the evolution of the operating system. At every step, the company states that its emphasis has been on the overall "learnability" of the environment. As such, Microsoft claims that it's making great strides to ensure that consumers may quickly get up to speed with the latest OS, and hints that it has a number of reveals yet to be seen. In its very next breath, however, it also emphasized people's ability to adapt and move forward, which suggests the number of changes might not be as conciliatory as some might've hoped. Regardless, we'll know for sure what Microsoft has in store in just a few weeks.

Update: Well, this is interesting. In the screenshot above, you'll notice a highlighted mail-esque icon at the bottom of the taskbar. As it would turn out, Techblitz recently discovered that Microsoft swapped that shot for a nearly identical replica, albeit without the icon. Is this miniscule peek into something new in the way of Windows Live mail or similar? At this point it's anyone guess, but we'll keep you posted if we find out more. You'll find the new screenshot after the break.

Continue reading Kiss Aero goodbye: Latest Windows 8 build reveals minimalistic desktop UI (update)

Kiss Aero goodbye: Latest Windows 8 build reveals minimalistic desktop UI (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 19:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Robotic elephant-like trunk is rather, um, manipulative

20 hrs.

Robotics engineers have turned to the almighty elephant trunk for their latest inspiration in the field of jamming, an actuation technique that employs rubber tubing, vacuum suction?and coffee grounds to get a grip on stuff.

The trunk-like manipulator is similar to the hoop-playing robot we pointed out earlier this year that uses a squishy balloon filled with coffee grounds to grab an object, grip it, and toss it.?

The gripping?? or jamming?? function comes as air is sucked out of the balloon, allowing it to conform to whatever it touches.?

In the case of the elephant trunk, developed the Robotic Mobility Group?at MIT, several coffee-ground-filled,?balloon-like rubber tubes are connected in series, each one with a separate vacuum valve. This means that individual sections can grip an object while the rest of the trunk remains flexible.

Four control cables allow for the maneuverability of the entire trunk. Combined with selective jamming, this allows for elephant-like manipulation.

The process of jamming each segment ? going from soft to rigid ? takes 0.2 seconds, as illustrated in the video below. As IEEE notes, the video is ?rather curious looking.??

??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 series, watch the featured video below.

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Family Activity: Treasures in the Sand : Ideas for Women Home and ...

When the weather turns hot and the kids are out of school some days you are left unsure how to entertain them. One tried and true method around our house is Treasures in the Sand. It is a version of a game I played as a child.? It is very simple to play, you take a small child-sized pool, fill it up with sand and then put any sort of small treasures in it.

My kids love the archeologist version of it the best.? I bury pieces of pottery and other such toy items (sometimes dinosaurs) and then they hunt for them. They spend time cataloging each item,discussing it, and sorts of things. Since we live in Georgia and it gets pretty hot, they say it?s like being in Egypt.? Use your imagination and just go wild with it, although a word of caution; I put a screen and tarp over the sand to keep any creepy crawly things out and it allows us to use the sand all summer long.? When all of nieces and nephews are here we throw pennies in and they race to see who can find the most.


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Demonstration in Tehran over Bahrain-Saudi union

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Raven-Symone: 'My Sexual Orientation Is Mine'

'I'm living my PERSONAL life the way I'm happiest,' actress tweets in response to a tabloid report she is gay.
By Jocelyn Vena


Raven-Symone
Photo: Paul Zimmerman/ WireImage

Raven-Symoné has taken to Twitter to address a National Enquirer report that she is gay. The tabloid published a story this week that the "Sister Act" star is currently dating "America's Next Top Model" contestant, AzMarie Livingston, and that they are living together in New York City.

According to sources, "Raven has lost almost 30 pounds, has done a whole image makeover, and now she is the star of 'Sister Act' on Broadway. She's at a point now where she doesn't care what her family thinks, and she's in love with AzMarie. She's a lesbian and wants to live that way."

The tabloid further reports that the 26-year-old's family does not approve of her lifestyle, however, "she told her parents she loves them, but her home -- especially her bedroom -- is nobody's business, and she was not going to back down, so they needed to accept it, period."

While Raven-Symoné neither confirmed nor denied the speculation on Friday, when she took to Twitter to open up about the rumor, she did make it clear that whatever she does in her personal life is her business.

"I'm living my PERSONAL life the way I'm happiest," she tweeted. "I'm not one, in my 25 year career to disclose who I'm dating. and I shall not start now. My sexual orientation is mine, and the person I'm datings to know. I'm not one for a public display of my life."

She continued that "however that is my right as a HUMAN BEing whether straight or gay. To tell or not to tell. As long as I'm not harming anyone. I am a light being made from love. And my career is the only thing I would like to put on display, not my personal life. Kisses!"

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