Dana White Thinks Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos is Afraid of Ronda Rousey

Posted on by

UFC president Dana White doesn't think former Strikeforce women's champion Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos is excited to fight UFC's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.

"[Bantamweight] is the only division we have," said White on UFC Tonight. "It's been real interesting. You know, I've been in the fight game since I was 19 years old and I've been doing this for 15 years and what I get out of this deal with Cyborg is that she wants nothing to do with Ronda Rousey. She does not want to fight Ronda Rousey."

Santos and Rousey have been trading verbal jabs for months. Rousey has poked fun of Santos for testing positive for steroids and said she won't fight "Cyborg" unless she makes the 10 pound weight cut. There have been reports from Santos' camp that she knows making the extra cut in weight might endanger her health.

"We don't have a 145 pound women's division, so I don't know how this is going to end up," said White. "It's been weird."

There is no word if the UFC plans to sign Santos to a contract now that her suspension is over.

Related Content

Get more great MMA news and analysis over at Fightline.

Go here to read the rest:

Dana White Thinks Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos is Afraid of Ronda Rousey

Researchers create cyborg robo-battle-sparrow of doom

Posted on by

To learn more about bird behavior, Duke University researchers go all Dr. Frankenstein by reanimating a dead sparrow with robotics.

When sparrows attack. Robo-bird gets a beat-down from a living sparrow.

It's a surprisingly dangerous world out there in the trees. Sparrows sing, flit about, and fight like they're auditioning for a role on "Game of Thrones." Male swamp sparrows will even take their battles to the death. Before they get that far, though, there's a whole lot of wing-waving going on to mark their territory and signal their aggression.

Duke University biologist Rindy Anderson wanted to learn more about how these birds communicate with each other, so she and engineering undergraduate student David Piech built a cyborg robo-battle-sparrow of doom.

The Frankensparrow consisted of a miniature computer and robotics gear stuffed into the body of a dead sparrow. This allowed the researchers to control the wings. They took the Frankenstein sparrow to a breeding ground, played swamp sparrow invasion songs, and made it wave its wings at other males, the sparrow equivalent of flipping them the bird.

"I am broadly interested in male-male competition and in the mechanisms that maintain reliability in aggressive signaling systems," Anderson says.

She discovered the birds were much more aggressive when the cyborg taxidermy waved its wings than when it was sitting still or just twisting around. She believes the wing-waving signals are a method the birds use to warn each other off and avoid a potentially damaging sparrow smackdown.

I'm hoping the first time Anderson and Piech turned the sparrow on for a test drive, it was raining outside. Thunder sounded. Anderson raised her fists to the heavens as lightning split outside the window. "My creation lives!" she called out as the robo-sparrow flapped its wings. At least, that's how I imagine it went.

Read the original post:

Researchers create cyborg robo-battle-sparrow of doom

MMAFighting: 'Cyborg' doesn't want Rousey fight

Posted on by

The way UFC president Dana White sees it, former Strikeforce women's champion Cristiane 'Cyborg' Santos isn't too eager to step into the Octagon with UFC women's bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey.

Ever since talks of a Santos-Rousey women's superfight have surfaced, Santos has been adamant in her desire to fight at a weight higher than 135. In recent weeks, her manager, Tito Ortiz, has said her fighter will try to make it down to 135, but won't go through with it if it isn't safe.

In response, White said on Tuesday's edition of UFC Tonight that it's basically 135 pounds or nothing for Santos.

"[Bantamweight] is the only division we have," White said. "It's been real interesting. You know, I've been in the fight game since I was 19 years old and I've been doing this for 15 years and what I get out of this deal with Cyborg is that she wants nothing to do with Ronda Rousey. She does not want to fight Ronda Rousey.

White said he's ultimately not sure how this will end up.

"We don't have a 145-pound women's division, so I don't know how this is going to end up. It's been weird."

Read the original:

MMAFighting: 'Cyborg' doesn't want Rousey fight

Cyborg Lashes Out at Rousey; Challenges Her to 140-pound Catchweight Bout

Posted on by

COMMENTARY | On Feb. 23, Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche will become a part of mixed martial arts history, as the first women to step inside the number one testing ground in MMA, the UFC's Octagon.

The bantamweight title fight between the two will headline the UFC 157 fight card at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Given how dominant Rousey has been in her short MMA career, defeating all of her opponents via armbar in the first round, she has definitely earned the right to don the UFC's women's bantamweight title.

However, in order for her to cement her status as the baddest woman in the MMA, she'll eventually need to square up against former Strikeforce women's featherweight champion, Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos.

UFC president Dana White recently said he didn't think Cyborg wanted any part of Rousey during a recent appearance on UFC tonight. But Cyborg explained her position via Instagram, vehemently stating her desire to face Rousey.

"I am not afraid of Rhonda!" Santos wrote. "I will fight her anywhere and anytime for free - everyone knows I barely make 145- but I am willing to sacrifice and meet her half way at 140- I can't believe dana says I want nothing to do with Rhonda- what he wants me to do is fight Rhonda with both my hands tied behind my back or comatosed-so that she can have a chance-which is what making me fight at 135 is- to finally shut everyone up - i will fight Rhonda with one hand tied behind my Back at 140lb and still kick her ass and prove that I'm the real champ not her- and let the winner take ALL come on rhonda step up bitch!"

While it easy to understand Santos' frustration with the fact the UFC wants her to drop down to 135 pounds to face Ronda, she really doesn't have much of a choice.

Cyborg -- who ended the reign of the first female face of MMA, Gina Carano -- was once considered the best female mixed martial artist in world, but she lost some of her mystique when she tested positive for steroids (stanozolol) after her 16-second destruction of Hiroko Yamanaka in 2011. Santos was subsequently stripped of the Strikeforce featherweight title and issued a one-year suspension.

While Cyborg was serving her suspension, Rousey was busy winning MMA fans over to her side, taking the Strikeforce bantamweight title from Miesha Tate and successfully defending it against Sarah Kaufman. At this point, it's clear Rousey is the new face of women's MMA, and she's the one who'll get to dictate the terms of a potential fight between the two.

Given the fact bad blood between Rousey and Cyborg, it's obvious "Rowdy" will force the Brazilian to drop down to 135 pounds, if she wants to prove she's still the best female MMA fighter in the world. If Santos is serious about fighting Ronda, she needs to start figuring out the best way to get down to 135 pounds.

Read the original here:

Cyborg Lashes Out at Rousey; Challenges Her to 140-pound Catchweight Bout

Styrofoam from tsunami blankets Alaska beaches

Posted on by

By Reuters

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska cleanup crews last year found some beaches covered with polystyrene foam that floated across the Pacific from the 2011 Japanese tsunami and threatens wildlife, a state official told legislators on Tuesday.

A main concern of environmentalists and officials is that the lightweight specks, which have been broken down by storms and waves, will harm small animals. They could choke or die slowly from malnutrition if pieces block their intestinal system, officials say.

So far, no dead birds have been found on the beaches, Elaine Busse Floyd, acting environmental health director for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, told lawmakers in her report. But officials are on the lookout for animals harmed by the ingested foam, she said.

Polystyrene foam accounted for 30 percent of the weight of the total debris, compared to the usual 5 percent rate before the tsunami, she said. Considering that it is so light, "it's a huge volume."

Closed-cell extruded polystyrene is often referred to as Styrofoam, a trademarked name owned by Dow Chemical Co., which manufactures it for insulation and crafts, among other uses. It is not biodegradable because it resists breaking down in sunlight, so it can in theory last forever.

Scattered bits of foam are difficult to retrieve from the environment and are easily mistaken by animals for morsels of food, Floyd told a legislative committee in Juneau.

Animals are already munching on tsunami polystyrene foam, said Chris Pallister, president of the nonprofit Gulf of Alaska Keeper which conducted most of last year's beach cleanups.

"We have personally seen plenty of animals eating it, pecking at it, playing with it," Pallister said.

Cleanup crews have spotted foam bits in scat from bears and other animals, he said. "The question is, are animals metabolizing that or is it breaking down and being released into the environment?"

Read more:

Styrofoam from tsunami blankets Alaska beaches

McKendree University – Astronomy Lecture Chapter 4 – Video

Posted on by


McKendree University - Astronomy Lecture Chapter 4
This is a video Lecture recording for Astronomy 101 at McKendree University. This Lecture covers Chapter 4 from the Textbook on the History of Astronomy: Heliocentric/Geocentric Universe, Retrograde Motion, Kepler #39;s Laws, Newton #39;s Laws and the Universal Law of Gravitation.

By: ProfColby

See more here:

McKendree University - Astronomy Lecture Chapter 4 - Video

International Space Station patch designed by astronomy buffs at Granada Hills' Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences

Posted on by

Narek Baghosian and Florian Storz, members of the Astronomy Club at Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills, have designed a patch that will be carried on a privately funded flight to the International Space Station.

The patch was the winning entry in a contest sponsored by the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, which also selects student-devised research projects to carry into space.

The Astronomy Club meets Wednesdays, devising scientific experiments that could be conducted during deep-space missions within the future Orion program or future missions to Mars. The club's advisers are teachers Angel Ireys, Doug Pischell and James Emley.

The SSEP is a partnership between the National Center for Earth and Science Science Education and NanoRacks LLC.

Members of the Astronomy Club at the the Valley Academy of Arts and Science run by teachers Angel Ireys, Doug Pischell and James Emley.

Go here to see the original:

International Space Station patch designed by astronomy buffs at Granada Hills' Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences

AI Artificial Intelligence (2001) Movie Review – Video

Posted on by


AI Artificial Intelligence (2001) Movie Review
This is my review of the 2001 movie A,I, Artificial Intelligence. Please leave comments and rate this video. Please subscribe to see more great videos. My website is at awesomemoviework.blogspot.com See more videos at http://www.youtube.com My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com My Twitter: twitter.com My Blip.tv: transformerkenny.blip.tv My Webs.com: kenrogersprimemovies.webs.com

By: MrKARproductionslife

See the article here:

AI Artificial Intelligence (2001) Movie Review - Video

Engineers solve a biological mystery and boost artificial intelligence

Posted on by

Jan. 29, 2013 By simulating 25,000 generations of evolution within computers, Cornell University engineering and robotics researchers have discovered why biological networks tend to be organized as modules -- a finding that will lead to a deeper understanding of the evolution of complexity.

The new insight also will help evolve artificial intelligence, so robot brains can acquire the grace and cunning of animals.

From brains to gene regulatory networks, many biological entities are organized into modules -- dense clusters of interconnected parts within a complex network. For decades biologists have wanted to know why humans, bacteria and other organisms evolved in a modular fashion. Like engineers, nature builds things modularly by building and combining distinct parts, but that does not explain how such modularity evolved in the first place. Renowned biologists Richard Dawkins, Gnter P. Wagner, and the late Stephen Jay Gould identified the question of modularity as central to the debate over "the evolution of complexity."

For years, the prevailing assumption was simply that modules evolved because entities that were modular could respond to change more quickly, and therefore had an adaptive advantage over their non-modular competitors. But that may not be enough to explain the origin of the phenomena.

The team discovered that evolution produces modules not because they produce more adaptable designs, but because modular designs have fewer and shorter network connections, which are costly to build and maintain. As it turned out, it was enough to include a "cost of wiring" to make evolution favor modular architectures.

This theory is detailed in "The Evolutionary Origins of Modularity," published January 29 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society by Hod Lipson, Cornell associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Jean-Baptiste Mouret, a robotics and computer science professor at Universit Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris; and by Jeff Clune, a former visiting scientist at Cornell and currently an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Wyoming.

To test the theory, the researchers simulated the evolution of networks with and without a cost for network connections.

"Once you add a cost for network connections, modules immediately appear. Without a cost, modules never form. The effect is quite dramatic," says Clune.

The results may help explain the near-universal presence of modularity in biological networks as diverse as neural networks -- such as animal brains -- and vascular networks, gene regulatory networks, protein-protein interaction networks, metabolic networks and even human-constructed networks such as the Internet.

"Being able to evolve modularity will let us create more complex, sophisticated computational brains," says Clune.

Visit link:

Engineers solve a biological mystery and boost artificial intelligence

I Work at UA: Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering Amy Lang – Video

Posted on by


I Work at UA: Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering Amy Lang
While most of us are hoping to just make it through four years of college, not everyone decides to leave. Some choose to stay and teach. Meet Dr. Amy Lang. She works at UA. Original Release Date: August 31, 2009

By: UniversityofAlabama

Go here to read the rest:

I Work at UA: Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering Amy Lang - Video

AEROSPACE TUBING POLISHING MACHINE – Video

Posted on by


AEROSPACE TUBING POLISHING MACHINE
AEROSPACE TUBING POLISHING MACHINE Orbital abrasive belt grinding machine for tube polishing, buffing, linishing and satin finishing on bent and straight pipes or taper poles made of stainless steel, iron, brass, aluminium, titanium, carbon fibre or plastic as well as round, oval, elliptical or irregular section tubes .

By: GARBOLI eng

Here is the original post:

AEROSPACE TUBING POLISHING MACHINE - Video