South Carolina center stage in early 2016 talk

FILE - In this April 20, 2013 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden speaks in Detroit. Mere months after the 2012 election, South Carolina is a buzz of political activity with a slate of potential presidential candidates already looking ahead to the state's "first in the South" primary _ still three years away. Vice President Joe Biden and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz arrive to whip up their parties' faithful before Tuesday's special congressional election featuring the high-profile former governor. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski, File)

FILE - In this April 20, 2013 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden speaks in Detroit. Mere months after the 2012 election, South Carolina is a buzz of political activity with a slate of potential presidential candidates already looking ahead to the state's "first in the South" primary _ still three years away. Vice President Joe Biden and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz arrive to whip up their parties' faithful before Tuesday's special congressional election featuring the high-profile former governor. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski, File)

FILE - In this March 16, 2013 file photo, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas speaks in National Harbor, Md. Mere months after the 2012 election, South Carolina is a buzz of political activity with a slate of potential presidential candidates already looking ahead to the state's "first in the South" primary _ still three years away. Vice President Joe Biden and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz arrive to whip up their parties' faithful before Tuesday's special congressional election featuring the high-profile former governor. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - In this April 29, 2013 file photo, South Carolina Democratic Congressional candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch speaks in Charleston, S.C. Mere months after the 2012 election, South Carolina is a buzz of political activity with a slate of potential presidential candidates already looking ahead to the state's "first in the South" primary _ still three years away. Vice President Joe Biden and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz arrive to whip up their parties' faithful before Tuesday's special congressional election featuring the high-profile former governor. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt, File)

FILE - This April 30, 2013 file photo shows former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford speaking in Charleston, S.C. Mere months after the 2012 election, South Carolina is a buzz of political activity with a slate of potential presidential candidates already looking ahead to the state's "first in the South" primary _ still three years away. Vice President Joe Biden and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz arrive to whip up their parties' faithful before Tuesday's special congressional election featuring the high-profile former governor. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt, File)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? Mere months after the 2012 election, South Carolina is a buzz of political activity with a slate of potential presidential candidates already looking ahead to the state's "first in the South" primary ? still three years away.

Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a tea party favorite with national aspirations, were simply the latest politicians to do the presidential campaign tease with the state, descending on it Friday to whip up the partisan faithful ahead of next week's special congressional election. It features former GOP Gov. Mark Sanford and Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert.

In this conservative state that reliably votes Republican in national and statewide general elections, partisans already are getting a hefty amount of attention. Typically, South Carolina finds itself at the center of American politics for a brief time every four years during the presidential primary season, when it usually is the third state to weigh in on who should become the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

South Carolina's primaries have played an important role in the nominating process for both parties; the state gave Barack Obama a commanding victory in 2008 and until last year, every Republican nominee had won the state's primary since Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Years ahead of the 2016 contests, Republican and Democratic hopefuls alike already are starting to survey the landscape, court support and weigh in on local matters, with wide-open fields shaping up in both parties.

"The activists in this state are unhappy about the results of the presidential election," said Jay W. Ragley, a former executive director of the state Republican Party. "They're looking for someone who has a message which national Republicans can rally behind."

With Obama barred from seeking a third term, Democrats here also may be starting to seek their own consensus candidate.

This week, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a potential 2016 candidate, endorsed Sanford, and the party announced that Paul would hold fundraisers for Republicans in the state on June 28. Last month, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, talked up his record ? and heaped criticism on South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley ? during a Democratic event in Charleston, while former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, said to be eyeing another run after losing the GOP nomination last year, campaigned for Curtis Bostic, who lost to Sanford in a Republican run-off for the open congressional seat.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential 2016 candidate, was here months ahead of the pack, headlining the state's Silver Elephant dinner last year.

Absent thus far, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has longstanding ties to South Carolina going back to the time of her husband's presidency. The former first lady and New York senator has said she has not made any decisions about her future, but many Democrats are eager for her to step forward and campaigns urging her to run are underway.

In a sign of the hunger for Clinton, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi gushed over Clinton's experience during an event Thursday at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark., telling an audience, "I pray that Hillary Clinton decides to run for president."

Biden and Cruz were in the spotlight Friday evening ? speaking at party events about two miles from each other.

The vice president was headlining the state party's Jefferson-Jackson dinner and then dropping by an annual fish fry held by Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. Biden, who twice unsuccessfully ran for president, hasn't ruled out running a third time in 2016. But Biden's decision about whether to run seems unavoidably overshadowed by Clinton, who many Democrats say would eclipse the vice president should she choose to run.

While careful not to upstage the president with flagrant displays of ambition, Biden has kept at least a toe planted firmly in the political world since the start of his and Obama's second term.

He schmoozed with prominent Democrats from Iowa and New Hampshire ? the first two states to hold presidential primary contests last year ? during the inaugural weekend. He's making calls for the House Democrats' campaign arm, working to recruit candidates to help his party win the House next year. And last month, he traveled to Michigan to give the keynote at a state party dinner.

Biden became the figurehead for Obama's push on gun control, appearing countless times with gun violence victims and advocates to urge his former colleagues in the Senate to act. It was unsuccessful. Yet, Biden says he's not giving up the fight; he met with law enforcement officials about the issue Thursday. The same day, while in Mexico, Obama announced that Biden would play an active role in a new partnership with Mexico to strengthen the two countries' economic ties.

Cruz, meanwhile, was speaking at the GOP's Silver Elephant dinner, where Republicans were honoring former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint.

The Texan is new to national politics, having been in Washington just a few months after becoming the lone tea party candidate to win a Senate seat last year.

In just a few weeks on the job, the insurgent Republican ran afoul of GOP mainstays, prompted Democrats to compare his style to McCarthyism and voted against nearly everything of significance that came before him. Through it all, he made clear he intends to be a conservative standard-bearer.

All that endeared him to a segment of the party and sparked talk of presidential ambitions.

On Wednesday amid presidential buzz, Cruz issued a statement on his Facebook page: "In my short tenure, my focus has been ? and will remain ? on two things: fighting for conservative principles in the Senate and working to help elect strong conservatives to win a majority in the Senate in 2014." He added: "It is a continued source of amazement that the simple fact that I am working hard with like-minded senators to keep my promise is seen as newsworthy and cause for wild speculation."

His appearance here was only fueling the talk, though he was unlikely to address the issue head-on. Rather, he planned to use his speech to pay tribute to DeMint, an early supporter and mentor who recently stepped down to become president of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

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Lederman reported from Washington.

___

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-03-South%20Carolina-2016/id-68981b2ad1dc4f53a4118c6c4220a46e

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Artificial sense of touch gets smarter, lets robots really feel

The verdict's still out on whether or not androids dream of electric sheep. But their ability to feel? Well, that's about to approach levels of human sensitivity. We're of course talking about the sense of touch, not emotions. And thanks to work out of Georgia Tech, tactile sensitivity for robotics, more secure e-signatures and general human-machine interaction is about to get a great 'ol boost. Through the use of thousands of piezotronic transistors (i.e., grouped vertical zinc oxide nanowires) known as "taxels," a three-person team led by Prof. Zhong Lin Wang has devised a way to translate motion into electronic signals. In other words, you're looking at a future in which robotic hands interpret the nuances of a surface or gripped object akin to a human fingertip and artificial skin senses touch similar to the way tiny hairs on an arm do.

What's more, the tech has use outside of robotics and can even be levereged for more secure e-signature verification based on speed and pressure of a user's handwriting. And the best part? These sensors can be manufactured on transparent and flexible substrates like the one pictured above, which allows for various real-world applications -- just use your imagination. Pretty soon, even robots will have the pleasure of enjoying the touch... the feel of cotton and maybe even hum that jingle to themselves, too.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: Georgia Tech, Science

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/qdRcVZxQZ8k/

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Report: The Next Xbox Controls Your TV and Cable Box ? with Kinect

This would make a lot of sense in a lot of ways. According to the Verge, the next Xbox will control your TV, and makes some actual sense out of the rumored "always online" feature of the new console. It's also packed with some interesting new Kinect features that could foreshadow the direction Microsoft is headed. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/uSRyuYjUnm8/report-the-next-xbox-controls-your-tv-and-cable-box-++-with-kinect

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Non-invasive mapping helps to localize language centers before brain surgery

Apr. 8, 2013 ? A new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique may provide neurosurgeons with a non-invasive tool to help in mapping critical areas of the brain before surgery, reports a study in the April issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

Evaluating brain fMRI responses to a "single, short auditory language task" can reliably localize critical language areas of the brain -- in healthy people as well as patients requiring brain surgery for epilepsy or tumors, according to the new research by Melanie Genetti, PhD, and colleagues of Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland.

Brief fMRI Task for Functional Brain Mapping

The researchers designed and evaluated a quick and simple fMRI task for use in functional brain mapping. Functional MRI can show brain activity in response to stimuli (in contrast to conventional brain MRI, which shows anatomy only). Before neurosurgery for severe epilepsy or brain tumors, functional brain mapping provides essential information on the location of critical brain areas governing speech and other functions.

The standard approach to brain mapping is direct electrocortical stimulation (ECS) -- recording brain activity from electrodes placed on the brain surface. However, this requires several hours of testing and may not be applicable in all patients. Previous studies have compared fMRI techniques with ECS, but mainly for determining the side of language function (lateralization) rather than the precise location (localization).

The new fMRI task was developed and evaluated in 28 healthy volunteers and in 35 patients undergoing surgery for brain tumors or epilepsy. The test used a brief (eight minutes) auditory language stimulus in which the patients heard a series of sense and nonsense sentences.

Functional MRI scans were obtained to localize the brain areas activated by the language task -- activated areas would "light up," reflecting increased oxygenation. A subgroup of patients also underwent ECS, the results of which were compared to fMRI.

Non-invasive Test Accurately Localizes Critical Brain Areas

Based on responses to the language stimulus, fMRI showed activation of the anterior and posterior (front and rear) language areas of the brain in about 90 percent of subjects -- neurosurgery patients as well as healthy volunteers. Functional MRI activation was weaker and the language centers more spread-out in the patient group. These differences may have reflected brain adaptations to slow-growing tumors or longstanding epilepsy.

Five of the epilepsy patients also underwent ECS using brain electrodes, the results of which agreed well with the fMRI findings. Two patients had temporary problems with language function after surgery. In both cases, the deficits were related to surgery or complications (bleeding) in the language area identified by fMRI.

Functional brain mapping is important for planning for complex neurosurgery procedures. It provides a guide for the neurosurgeon to navigate safely to the tumor or other diseased area, while avoiding damage to critical areas of the brain. An accurate, non-invasive approach to brain mapping would provide a valuable alternative to the time-consuming ECS procedure.

"The proposed fast fMRI language protocol reliably localized the most relevant language areas in individual subjects," Dr. Genetti and colleagues conclude. In its current state, the new test probably isn't suitable as the only approach to planning surgery -- too many areas "light up" with fMRI, which may limit the surgeon's ability to perform more extensive surgery with necessary confidence. The researchers add, "Rather than a substitute, our current fMRI protocol can be considered as a valuable complementary tool that can reliably guide ECS in the surgical planning of epileptogenic foci and of brain tumors."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wolters Kluwer Health: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. Melanie Genetti, Frederic Grouiller, Serge Vulliemoz, Laurent Spinelli, Margitta Seeck, Christoph Martin Michel, Karl Schaller. Noninvasive Language Mapping in Patients With Epilepsy or Brain Tumors. Neurosurgery, 2013; 72 (4): 555 DOI: 10.1227/NEU.0b013e318282cdad

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/S8VbHVcMfSs/130408122314.htm

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Update: Police say 31-year-old woman killed along N. Central had ...

The scene of the crash along N. Central Expressway (KXAS-Channel 5)

Update at 3:41 p.m.: Richardson police have released the name of the woman who was killed this morning: 31-year-old Emily J. Krumrei of Frisco.

Police continue their investigation into her death, but Richardson police spokesman Sgt. Kevin Perlich says ?it?s possible she wasn?t stopping? for officers ?because she had several outstanding warrants for her arrest,? including in Dallas County, where, records show, she was indicted in April for possessing between one to four grams of cocaine. Perlich says she also has outstanding felony narcotics warrants in Smith County.

Update at 12:06 p.m.: In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Sgt. Kevin Perlich, a spokesman with the Richardson Police Department, said the woman was killed by a single bullet fired by a Richardson officer who feared for his life.

Contrary to earlier reports, said Perlich, the woman behind the wheel of the Lexus ?made contact with an officer standing in the roadway? after she fled from two other Richardson officers attempting a traffic stop. The officer wasn?t hurt, said Perlich, ?however the officer, in fear for his life, fired upon the vehicle.? The car traveled a short distance, said Perlich, then crashed into a guardrail.

Perlich said the incident began around 8:30 this morning, near the 600 block of Belt Line Road. Perlich said an officer was ?attempting to get a violator to pull over into a parking lot? ? most likely for speeding, he said, but the reason remains unclear. But the woman kept on driving, and the officer put out a description of the car and driver over the radio.

Shortly after that, Perlich said, an officer in a squad car saw the vehicle and attempted his own stop. Once again, she refused to pull over and kept driving through a residential area near N. Central Expressway. She turned to go east on Dumont Drive and headed for the frontage road to southbound N. Central Expressway.

There, said Perlich, ?a third officer near Dumont and the frontage road was working a traffic accident. He stepped out into the road and tried to get her to stop.? Instead, he says, the woman accelerated and clipped the officer, who, Perlich says, fired the single shot that struck the woman who has yet to be identified.

When asked if she was killed from the gunshot, Perlich said, ?From what we can tell, yes.?

She was taken to Medical City Dallas, where she was pronounced dead. Perlich said it?s not clear where the bullet struck her.

Perlich said two investigations ? one criminal, one administrative ? will now take place ?to make sure the shooting was within the law and within policy.? The officer will be put on leave during the investigation.

Update at 11:45 a.m.: Our Haley Thayer?s been at the scene for more than an hour, and officers aren?t saying what happened. Instead, they?re deferring to the Richardson Police Department?s public information office, which has yet to issue a statement concerning the incident.

Original item at 10:33 a.m.: Richardson police say a woman died this morning after crashing her car into a guardrail along the N. Central Expressway service road near Belt Line Road. She?d been involved in a chase with an officer, and, according to several media accounts, the officer fired at least one shot at the woman when her Lexus got too close to his cruiser.

Police say the chase began when the officer tried to pull her over. She refused and kept driving. A witness heard a single gunshot, according to a tweet from Jeff Smith of KXAS-Channel 5.

The woman eventually crashed her car into the guardrail and was taken to Medical City, where she was pronounced dead.

It remains unclear if she was hit by the bullet or if she crashed into the guardrail while trying to escape.

Richardson police have promised to send further details following a departmental briefing. We have a writer on her way to the scene. Updates to come. Meanwhile the southbound frontage road along N. Central Expressway at Belt Line is closed.

Source: http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/woman-killed-in-crash-on-n-central-service-road-following-chase-with-richardson-police-officer.html/

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International literary festival opens in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? Myanmar's first international literary festival opens Friday in Yangon, bringing together dozens of authors from around the world, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Irrawaddy Literary Festival, which runs through Sunday, comes as Myanmar relaxes its censorship rules, bringing new freedom of expression to authors, journalists, bloggers and comedians, many of whom have served time as political prisoners.

Myanmar shut its censorship office in August and a week ago officially rebranded the Press Scrutiny board, which was responsible for censoring publications, as the Copyrights and Registration Division.

Authors must still submit their books to the government for approval before distribution, and some of the old laws used to jail dissident writers remain on the books. But local authors say that for the most part, censors have put down their red pens and they can publish quite freely.

The festival is the latest in a series of "firsts" for this long-closed nation, where sweeping political reform has resulted in a rush of business and cultural engagement with the outside world. In recent weeks, Myanmar has seen its first marathon, its first big foreign rock concert ? by Jason Mraz ? and its first New Year's Eve countdown, an event inconceivable under old laws that banned public gatherings.

"Wild Swans" author Jung Chang, India's Vikram Seth, British historian Timothy Garton-Ash and New Delhi-based writer William Dalrymple ? a force behind India's hugely successful Jaipur literary festival ? are scheduled to attend this weekend's festival, along with more than 80 authors from Myanmar.

Myanmar's literature is little known abroad, thanks to half a century of isolationist rule and a lack of translation.

Only a handful of books have been translated from Burmese into English. It is difficult if not impossible for foreigners to read the work of leading local authors like Ju, Ma Thida and poet Saw Wai, who have helped shape Myanmar's tradition of literary dissent.

The few authors known overseas ? like Thant Myint-U, now a government adviser, and Pascal Khoo Thwe, the first Padaung tribesman to graduate from Cambridge University ? have lived for long periods abroad and wrote in English. They are not seen here as truly local authors.

The old government restrictions on publication have also cut off local readers from global authors. The international literature available here has, by and large, been limited to redacted versions of Russian and Western classics, by writers like Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell and John Steinbeck.

The festival director is Jane Heyn, wife of the British ambassador to Myanmar. Sponsors include Yoma Strategic Holdings and Myint & Associates, companies that have been cultivating international business partners as the U.S., Europe and Australia unwind economic sanctions against Myanmar.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-31-Myanmar-Literary%20Festival/id-c44ae12913224e33a940396a1dd2b6ee

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WSI Milton Expands Internet Marketing Team

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