Editorial: Bring on a new mascot for the University of Illinois chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Not quite the Terminator, but ‘muscle-bound’ robots are coming for the Army, Marines December 30, 2020 The Legged Squad Support System, or LS3, is demoed by engineers at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Legged robots such as this are likely to be early candidates for programs looking to add muscle to the machines for better stability and mobility on uneven terrain. (Sgt. Michael Walters/Marine Corps) Army researchers are looking to add muscle tissue to robot platforms, giving them “never before seen mobility and agility.”
The effort by scientists with the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command, Army Research Laboratory and Duke University and the University of North Carolina is looking first at adding muscle to legged robot joints rather than using actuators, according to an Army Research Laboratory statement.
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On Malgas Island, a flat landmass off South Africa’s Western Cape, Mukuzai Muyahamba scans the sky as thousands of Cape gannets circle overhead in a wheeling blur of white feathers, black tails, and yellow heads. But Muyahamba is waiting for a specific bird to return to its nest the one with a tiny GPS tag fitted to its leg. The tag was attached to record the gannet’s foraging patterns, and Muyahamba has a video camera trained on the bird’s nest to record its most captivating behavior: its dance.
All three species of gannets perform complex bill-fencing, preening, and head-bobbing rituals during mating, but also every time they return from a foraging trip at sea. Until recently, studies of these rituals, referred to collectively as a dance, have only considered their role in reproduction.
Jewish Ledger
WORLD NEWS 2020 – The Year in Review
JANUARY
• An estimate 25,000 people converge on Manhattan’s Foley Square and make their way to Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza, chanting “No Hate, No Fear,” where they hear from community leaders and organizations urging Jewish pride and unity in the face of escalating antisemitism. The march is in response to the steep rise in incidents of violence against Jews in New York City.
• James Harris, chair of the education committee of the Montclair, N.J. branch of the NAACP, slams Chassidic Jews at the town’s community forum, saying that he went to Jersey City “and I see these folks in long black suits and curly lots.”