UFC: Will Ronda Rousey vs. Cris 'Cyborg' Finally Happen in 2015?

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Ten women have tried; 10 women have failed. Ronda Rousey is, with very little doubt, the best female fighter on the planet.

All doubt would cease to exist entirely if not for, you know,her.

Ifshe didn't exist, Rousey's eight armbars and two TKO victories would be plenty of reason to permanently carve her name in the record books under "best ever."

No, I'm not talking about Cat Zingano. She's all but booked her New Year's weekend ticket to Las Vegas for her UFC 182 bout with the champion, but she may as well not pay for the extra carry-on now since she won't be bringing back 20 pounds of UFC gold with her.Zingano's had a knack for starting slow inside of the Octagon; Rousey's had a knack for starting fast. Like, "you've maybe got three minutes so show me what you've got" fast.

Then there's Holly Holm. Should she get past the sacrificial lamb at UFC 181 in December, she's bound to earn a title shot with the queen. But Rousey's not dumb; she'll have no part of Holm's strikes. And let's be real, if Rousey wants no part of the standup, she'll have no part of the standup. So, no, we're not talking about Holm here, either.

It also doesn't look like Gina Carano's ready to trade her silver-screen paychecks to start doing her own stunts in the UFC. Even if Dana White did manage to add enough zeros to Carano's big payday, there's no reason to assume she'd be competitive after a five- or six-year absence from fighting.

All right, let's be honest here, you probably already guessed that I was talking about Cris "Cyborg" Justino. Her invincible aura may have come undone after she dropped her first boutkickboxing or MMAin almost 10 years, but there's still a big portion of the MMA community that wants to see her step into the cage with the UFC superstar.

Cyborg once claimed that she was physically unable to make the cut to 135 pounds, meaning a bout with Rousey would only ever be able to take place outside of the bantamweight confines. But the champion took a firm stance, essentially forcing Cyborg to make the cut to 135 or lose hope of any potential fight for her crown.

"I really wanna fight Ronda," she said onThe MMA Hourin August 2012"I really want to. She says bad things about me. I never say bad things about my opponent. I want to do my best in the octagon, and if she says she wants to fight me, she can come to my weight or at 140."

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UFC: Will Ronda Rousey vs. Cris 'Cyborg' Finally Happen in 2015?

Fully Staffed Holiday Homes Near Mykonos Town and Beaches – Agios Lazaros – Video

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Fully Staffed Holiday Homes Near Mykonos Town and Beaches - Agios Lazaros
http://www.royalvillaseurope.com/greece-rentals/luxury-villas-mykonos Set above the bay of Agios Lazaros, this lovely 4 bedroom villa is part of an ultra exclusive estate where comfort, quality...

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Take the pledge and swear against litter!

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We have the most beautiful beaches in the world, and it is the mission of Keep NSW Beautiful to keep them that way.

On Saturday November 1, beachgoers in NSW will Take the Pledge to swear against litter and keep our beaches clean.

Volunteers will line the coasts to raise awareness on this vital campaign.

There's no other coastline in the world like ours," Seven News anchor and ambassador for Take the Pledge 2014 Mark Ferguson said.

"Our beaches are the very best. And they're at their very best when they're clean. Don't spoil perfection.

Join in take the pledge - and let's keep our beaches spotless."

You can play your part! TAKE THE PLEDGE and VOLUNTEER here.

You could also WIN a 73 mini-mal surfboard! Just show your support on November 1 by heading to your local beach and posting a photo with the pledge sign using hashtag #HeyTosser.

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Take the pledge and swear against litter!

Google partners with Oxford University to accelerate artificial intelligence efforts

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Google is expanding its artificial intelligence initiative, hiring more than half a dozen leading academics and experts in the field and announcing a partnership with Oxford University to "accelerate" its efforts.

Google will make a "substantial contribution" to establish a research partnership with Oxford's computer science and engineering departments, the company said on Thursday regarding its work to develop the intelligence of machines and software, often to emulate human-like intelligence.

Google did not provide any financial details about the partnership, saying only in a post on its blog that it will include a program of student internships and a series of joint lectures and workshops "to share knowledge and expertise."

Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, is building up its artificial intelligence capabilities as it strives to maintain its dominance in the Internet search market and to develop new products such as robotics and self-driving cars. In January Google acquired artificial intelligence company Deep Mind for $400 million according to media reports.

The new hires will be joining Google's Deep Mind team, including three artificial intelligence experts whose work has focused on improving computer visual recognition systems. Among that team is Oxford Professor Andrew Zisserman, a three-time winner of the Marr Prize for computer vision.

The four founders of Dark Blue Labs will also be joining Google where they will be will be leading efforts to help machines "better understand what users are saying to them."

Google said that three of the professors will hold joint appointments at Oxford, continuing to work part time at the university.

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Google partners with Oxford University to accelerate artificial intelligence efforts

Google and Oxford University partner for artificial intelligence research

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I am a huge fan of artificial intelligence (AI). After all, it is the technology that might eventually makemy dream of a realistic robot girlfriend a reality. Sure, many people are wary of this technology, claiming it could lead to machines becoming self-aware and destroying humanity. However, those people are simply paranoid conspiracy theorists (who've watched the Terminator movies too often). AI is something that shouldimprove technology and help humanity overall.

Google is a very forward-thinking company, often on the forefront of technology and ideas. Today, the search-giant announces that its DeepMind division is partnering with the renowned Oxford University for artificial intelligence research.

"Google DeepMind will be working with two of Oxfords cutting edge Artificial Intelligence research teams. Prof Nando de Freitas, Prof Phil Blunsom, Dr Edward Grefenstette and Dr Karl Moritz Hermann, who teamed up earlier this year to co-found Dark Blue Labs, are four world leading experts in the use of deep learning for natural language understanding. They will be spearheading efforts to enable machines to better understand what users are saying to them", saysDemis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind and Vice President of Engineering at Google.

Hassabis further explains, "also joining the DeepMind team will be Dr Karen Simonyan, Max Jaderberg and Prof Andrew Zisserman, one of the worlds foremost experts on computer vision systems, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the only person to have been awarded the prestigious Marr Prize three times. As co-founders of Vision Factory, their aim was to improve visual recognition systems using deep learning. Dr Simonyan and Prof Zisserman developed one of the winning systems at the recent 2014 ImageNet competition, which is regarded as the most competitive and prestigious image recognition contest in the world".

In other words, Google is assembling a team of smart people to become something of a nerdy Justice League. The search giant will be the money behind the minds, as something of a financier. Of course, money aside, Google has many bright minds in-house that will surely contribute to this artificial intelligence think-tank.

Hopefully the team will put some focuson robot girlfriends, but if not, what types of projects would you like to see created as a result of this relationship? Tell me in the comments.

Photo Credit:katalinks/Shutterstock

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Google and Oxford University partner for artificial intelligence research

Google steps up its artificial intelligence research

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Google is expanding its artificial intelligence research, hiring more than half a dozen leading academics and experts in the field and announcing a partnership with Oxford University to "accelerate" its efforts.

The web giant will make a "substantial contribution" to establish a research partnership with Oxford's computer science and engineering departments, the company said on Thursday.

The company did not provide any financial details about the partnership, saying only in a post on its blog that it will include a program of student internships and a series of joint lectures and workshops "toshareknowledge and expertise."

Google is building up its artificial intelligence capabilities as it strives to maintain its dominance in the internet search market and to developnewproducts such as robotics and self-driving cars. In January it acquired artificial intelligence company Deep Mind for US$400 million.

The new hires will be joining Google's Deep Mind team, including three artificial intelligence experts whose work has focused onimprovingcomputer visual recognition systems. Among that team is Oxford Professor Andrew Zisserman, a three-time winner of the Marr Prize for computer vision.

The four founders of Dark Blue Labs will also be joining Google where they will be will be leading efforts to help machines "better understand what users are saying to them".

Google said that three of the professors will hold joint appointments at Oxford, and will continue to work part time at the university.

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Google steps up its artificial intelligence research

Google, Oxford University team up on artificial intelligence

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The company and venerable university will work together to advance the field of machine learning.

The skyline of Oxford University. Oxford

Google and Oxford University have formed a partnership to accelerate research on artificial intelligence.

The partnership will focus specifically on the fields of image recognition and natural language, Demis Hassabis, vice president of engineering at Google, said Thursday on the Google Europe Blog.

Hassabis is also the co-founder of DeepMind, a UK-based company that Google acquired in January. Little has been made public about DeepMind aside from its specialization in algorithms and machine-based learning protocols for e-commerce software, simulations and games.

The DeepMind team will be the group working specifically with two of Oxford's artificial intelligence groups. As part of the partnership, Google has also hired seven co-founders of the two artificial-intelligence groups, which had also formed startups.

Oxford professors Nando de Freitas and Phil Blunsom, as well as Edward Grefenstette and Karl Moritz Hermann, co-founded Dark Blue Labs last year and are experts in the "use of deep learning for natural language understanding." The specialists will focus on "enabling machines to better understand what users are saying to them."

Karen Simonyan, Max Jaderberg and Oxford Professor Andrew Zisserman are the co-founders of Vision Factory, which focuses on improving visual recognition systems using deep learning.

The three professors will continue to work at Oxford. As part of the collaboration, Google will make a "substantial" donation to establish a research partnership with the Computer Science Department and the Engineering Department at Oxford, including student internships, joint lectures and workshops.

"We are thrilled to welcome these extremely talented machine learning researchers to the Google DeepMind team and are excited about the potential impact of the advances their research will bring," Hassabis said.

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Google, Oxford University team up on artificial intelligence

Google teams with Oxford on artificial intelligence

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Google, the search company that's investing heavily in robotics, is teaming with Oxford University researchers to work on artificial intelligence.

Google, the search company that's investing heavily in robotics, is teaming with Oxford University researchers to work on artificial intelligence.

In January, Google bought the London-based artificial intelligence company DeepMind. Now the Google DeepMind group will work with two of Oxford's artificial intelligence (AI) research teams.

The teams will work on image recognition and natural language understanding, according to Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind and vice president of engineering at Google, in a blog post.

Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, called the collaboration a smart move since AI technology could boost Google Maps, search and Google+, the company's social networking service.

"AI can be used to make applications more predictive, as well as make robots smarter," he said. "Well, it's most directly about robotics but the intelligence can be ported to other applications. It could help anticipate user needs. AI could help apps figure out what users might do based on their past actions."

Member of the university's two research teams, have each started their own companies. Dark Blue Labs involves research on how to enable machines to better understand what users are saying to them. Vision Factory is working on how to use deep learning to build visual recognition systems.

Google has hired the seven professors behind these two companies, though the researchers will continue to work part-time at Oxford.

The company also will be making what it calls a "substantial contribution" to establish a research partnership with the university's computer science and engineering departments. A specific donation was not announced.

Google'a interest in robotics is relatively new.

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Google teams with Oxford on artificial intelligence

Freight Matters: Washington Aerospace Workers Ship and Receive Parts and Products Everyday – Video

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Freight Matters: Washington Aerospace Workers Ship and Receive Parts and Products Everyday
Orion Industries Aerospace Manufacturing has shipped precision metal products to the aerospace, defense, automotive, medical and marine industries since 1957. What do their work teams need...

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Freight Matters: Washington Aerospace Workers Ship and Receive Parts and Products Everyday - Video

B/E Aerospace (BEAV) Earnings Report: Q3 2014 Conference Call Transcript

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The following B/E Aerospace (BEAV) conference call took place on October 22, 2014, 08:00 AM ET. This is a transcript of that earnings call:

Company Participants

Other Participants

I would now like to introduce B/E Aerospace's Vice President of Investor Relations, Greg Powell. Mr. Powell, you may begin your conference. Greg Powell (VP of IR): Thank you, Candace. Good morning, and thank you for joining us this morning. Today, we are here to discuss our financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2014. By now, you should have received a copy of the news release we issued earlier this morning. If you haven't received it, you'll find a copy on our website. We will begin with remarks from Amin Khoury, our Founder, Chairman, and Co-Chief Executive Officer of B/E Aerospace, and then we will take your questions. For today's call, we have prepared a few slides to help you follow our discussion. You can find our presentation on the Investor Relations page of the B/E Aerospace website at BEAerospace.com. In addition, copies of the slides will be posted on our website for your to refer to after our call. Joining us on the call this morning are Werner Lieberherr, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, and Tom McCaffrey, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. As always, in our prepared remarks and our responses to your questions, we rely on the Safe Harbor exemptions under the various Securities Acts. And our Safe Harbor statements in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We will address questions following our prepared remarks. At that time, Candace will provide instructions. Please limit your questions to no more than two at a time. And now, I will turn the call over to Amin Khoury. Amin Khoury (Founder, Chairman & Co-CEO): Thank you, Greg, and good morning, everyone. As we get started this morning, I'd like to briefly highlight a number of important third-quarter events, items, and accomplishments. First, I'm pleased to report our strong third-quarter 2014 operating results, exclusive of charges. Revenues were up 24%, adjusted operating earnings increased 26%, and adjusted earnings per share was up 63%. That would be 29% using a comparable effective tax rate. Second, on the marketing front, we reported our best ever awards and orders for the nine-month period for our Commercial Aircraft and Business Jet segments. Werner will share specifics relative to new awards and orders in a few minutes. And in fact, we'll report some wonderful news which we received earlier this morning. Third, our plans to spinoff KLX from B/E Aerospace are progressing ahead of earlier expectations. On August 29, we filed our Form 10 registration statement with the SEC, and on October 10, we filed the First Amendment relative thereto. Subject to customary conditions, we now expect to be able to affect the distribution of the shares of KLX to B/E Aerospace shareholders by the end of 2014. Fourth, I'm pleased to welcome Joe Lower as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and a member of our B/E Aerospace executive leadership team who will be working directly with Werner Lieberherr and me. Joe's strong financial background and deep knowledge of the aerospace industry, having been with Boeing over the last 12 years, will serve Joe well in his new role at B/E Aerospace. I'm also pleased to welcome Mike Senft as KLX Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. Mike is a member of the KLX executive leadership team, and will be working directly with Tom McCaffrey and me. He has been a member of the B/E Aerospace Inc Board of Directors since February 2012, and, for more than 20 years, Mike has been a highly valued advisor to B/E Aerospace. Lastly, we announced this morning that we currently estimate that we will incur, during the second half of 2014, debt redemption costs of approximately $235 million, including the write-off of unamortized debt issue costs; approximately $43 million in legal, accounting and advisory costs; and approximately $67 million related to international tax initiatives. We also expect to incur business repositioning and separation costs of approximately $94 million.

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B/E Aerospace (BEAV) Earnings Report: Q3 2014 Conference Call Transcript

Sopping up proteins with thermosponges

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

22-Oct-2014

Contact: Nicole Davis nmdavisphd@gmail.com 617-823-3468 Brigham and Women's Hospital @BrighamWomens

Boston, MA A research team led by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has developed and tested a novel nanoparticle platform that efficiently delivers clinically important proteins in vivo in initial proof-of-concept tests. Nanoparticles, which are particles measuring nanometers in size, hold promise for a range of applications, including human therapeutics. The key advantage of the new platform, known as a thermosponge nanoparticle, is that it eliminates the need for harsh solvents, which can damage the very molecules the particles are designed to carry.

The study is published online October 21 in Nano Letters.

"A central challenge in applying nanoparticle technology to protein therapeutics is preserving proteins' biological activity, which can be inactivated by the organic solvents used in nanoparticle engineering," said Omid Farokhzad, MD, Director of the BWH Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials. "Our research demonstrates that the thermosponge platform, which enables the solvent-free loading of proteins, is a promising approach for the delivery of a variety of proteins, including highly labile proteins such as IL-10."

Protein-based therapeutics form an important class of drugs to treat a range of human diseases. However, significant challenges in their development have generally resulted in very slow development paths. To overcome these challenges, Farokhzad and his colleagues sought to create improved nanoparticle methods for delivering protein therapies.

The new thermosponge nanoparticles (TNPs) they developed are composed of biocompatible and biodegradable polymers. These polymers include a central, spherical core, made of the polymer poly(D,L-lactide), and an outer "thermosponge," made of a polaxomer polymer. The core can be either positively or negatively charged, to allow for the delivery of negatively or positively charged proteins, respectively. Importantly, the thermosponge shell can expand or contract as temperatures change, which permits the solvent-free loading of proteins onto the TNP.

The researchers selected a range of different proteins for loading onto the TNPs, including positively-charged interleukin-10 (IL-10) and erythropoietin, and negatively-charged insulin and human growth hormone. The proteins showed similar patterns of sustained release for four days after loading, indicating that the TNPs are able to effectively deliver a variety of proteins.

Further tests showed that the proteins loaded onto the TNPs retained their bioactivity throughout both loading and release from the TNPs.

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Sopping up proteins with thermosponges