SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) ? California is considering speeding up the release of some inmates while allowing other inmates with a violent history to become firefighters, under a proposal to cut crowding in state prisons Gov. Jerry Brown filed late Thursday night.
"The plan is ugly. We don't like it. But considering the inmates we have left in our prison population, it's the best plan we can come up with," Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said at a Friday news conference.
Beard said some of the options could undermine public safety, and said the state plans to appeal in an attempt to avoid going through with the measures.
The governor's plan calls for increasing early release credits for inmates and paroling elderly and incapacitated prisoners, while slowing the return of thousands of inmates who are being held in private prisons in other states.
Federal courts required the state to outline by midnight Thursday how it intends to meet a court-ordered population cap by the end of the year. A panel of federal judges threatened last month to hold the Democratic governor personally accountable if they decide he is not complying with their long-standing order, which already has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state already is sentencing thousands of lower-level offenders to county jails instead of prison. But the judges ruled that it must reduce its prison population by an additional 9,300 inmates to improve medical and mental health care for inmates.
The state's plan includes:
? Expanding the number of inmate firefighters by allowing participation by some offenders convicted of serious and violent crimes. The state has enough firefighters this year without taking that step, Beard said, but could do so in the future.
? Granting more early release or "good time" credits to inmates, including second-strike inmates who have serious prior convictions.
? Paroling elderly and medically incapacitated inmates.
? Increasing the use of drug treatment centers.
? Paying to house more inmates at county jails with extra space, and possibly at private prisons within California.
? Slowing the return of the 8,400 inmates who are being housed in private prisons in three other states at an annual cost of about $300 million.
Two other existing measures already will help reduce crowding.
The state will add space for 1,700 sick and mentally ill inmates when a new $840 million treatment facility opens in Stockton this summer. And the state projects that about 900 inmates will be freed because voters in November softened the state's tough three-strikes lifetime sentencing law for career criminals. Third-strikers with lesser offenses can apply for shorter sentences.
The administration argued against many of the proposals even as it presented the options to the court in a series of legal filings.
Most would require legislative approval, but the administration argued that Brown cannot be expected to "advocate for the Legislature to pass measures that would jeopardize public safety." However, the court has said it could waive state laws if lawmakers don't agree.
"It's still pretty defiant," said Michael Bien, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit over prison crowding. "They're saying we're not going to comply willingly, you're going to have to force us in some way, shape or form."
Brown said in a one-sentence tweet that "the state's filing speaks for itself."
Under the court order, the state must reduce the population in its 33 adult prisons to about 110,000 inmates by year's end.
The population already has been reduced by about 25,000 inmates under a two-year-old law that is sending felons convicted of what are deemed to be non-serious, non-violent and non-sexual offenses to county jails instead of state prisons.
Brown argued that most of the less serious offenders already have been removed from the state prison system, and that the state can no longer afford to provide expensive care in prisons at the expense of schools and other social services.
The federal judges ruled that the state can further reduce the prison population without increasing crime.
TODAY.com: Celebritieshttp://www.today.com/id/9409919/TODAY is America's favorite morning show on TV and the Internet. Get recipes and fashion tips, health and entertainment news, parenting, travel, and decorating advice and watch video clips any time from TODAY.com.Copyright 2013 msnbc.comen-ushttp://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Sections/TVNews/Today%20show/Miscellaneous/2008/TODAYContribs_Interactive/tdy-logo.vsmall.jpgTODAY.comhttp://www.today.com/Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:37:45 GMTNews60Jackson trial witness list includes stars, kidsThe extensive witness lists in the wrongful civil death trial brought by Michael Jackson's family includes some serious star power ? and his children. ]]>http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17969739-michael-jackson-trial-witness-lists-star-studded-include-his-kids?liteThe extensive witness lists in the wrongful civil death trial brought by Michael Jackson's family includes some serious star power ? and his children.The extensive witness lists in the wrongful civil death trial brought by Michael Jackson's family includes some serious star power ? and his children.Copyright msnbc.com 2013 ]]>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:34:30 GMTNewshttp://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17969739-michael-jackson-trial-witness-lists-star-studded-include-his-kids?lite'90210's' Ziering welcomes second daughterAnother girl, and with the same birthday as their 2-year-old, for Ian Ziering and wife Erin. ]]>http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17968237-90210s-ian-ziering-welcomes-second-daughter-with-wife-erin?liteAnother girl, and with the same birthday as their 2-year-old, for Ian Ziering and wife Erin.Another girl, and with the same birthday as their 2-year-old, for Ian Ziering and wife Erin.Copyright msnbc.com 2013 ]]>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:53:23 GMTNewshttp://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17968237-90210s-ian-ziering-welcomes-second-daughter-with-wife-erin?liteVince Vaughn and wife expecting second childDuring a recent visit to 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show,' the actor revealed he and his wife Kyla will soon have another little one in the house. ]]>http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17968230-vince-vaughn-and-wife-kyla-expecting-second-child?liteDuring a recent visit to 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show,' the actor revealed he and his wife Kyla will soon have another little one in the house.During a recent visit to 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show,' the actor revealed he and his wife Kyla will soon have another little one in the house.Copyright msnbc.com 2013 ]]>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:45:08 GMTNewshttp://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17968230-vince-vaughn-and-wife-kyla-expecting-second-child?liteFonda honored at Chinese Theatre ceremonyImpressive! Jane Fonda left her prints in cement alongside her father Henry Fonda's outside the former Grauman's Theatre. ]]>http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17968178-jane-fonda-leaves-her-prints-in-cement-at-chinese-theatre-ceremony?liteImpressive! Jane Fonda left her prints in cement alongside her father Henry Fonda's outside the former Grauman's Theatre.Impressive! Jane Fonda left her prints in cement alongside her father Henry Fonda's outside the former Grauman's Theatre.Copyright msnbc.com 2013 ]]>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:37:49 GMTNewshttp://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/29/17968178-jane-fonda-leaves-her-prints-in-cement-at-chinese-theatre-ceremony?lite5 fantastic Correspondents' Dinner momentsOn Saturday night, politicians and Hollywood broke bread together at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, but in speeches given by President Barack Obama and Conan O'Brien, the gloves came off. ]]>http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/28/17949026-5-fantastic-moments-from-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner?liteOn Saturday night, politicians and Hollywood broke bread together at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, but in speeches given by President Barack Obama and Conan O'Brien, the gloves came off.On Saturday night, politicians and Hollywood broke bread together at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, but in speeches given by President Barack Obama and Conan O'Brien, the gloves came off.Copyright msnbc.com 2013 ]]>Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:21:26 GMTNewshttp://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/28/17949026-5-fantastic-moments-from-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner?liteActor Jeffrey Wright busted for DWI in NYCAccording to the NYPD, officers pulled the actor over after they saw him driving erratically, and detected an alcohol odor coming from his vehicle early Saturday. ]]>http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/28/17957780-jeffrey-wright-busted-for-dwi-in-new-york?liteAccording to the NYPD, officers pulled the actor over after they saw him driving erratically, and detected an alcohol odor coming from his vehicle early Saturday.According to the NYPD, officers pulled the actor over after they saw him driving erratically, and detected an alcohol odor coming from his vehicle early Saturday.Copyright msnbc.com 2013 ]]>Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:52:03 GMTNewshttp://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/28/17957780-jeffrey-wright-busted-for-dwi-in-new-york?liteAmanda Bynes shaves half of her headAmanda Bynes' bizarre behavior has been tabloid fodder for years now, and the former child star has been fanning the flames on her personal Twitter account. ]]>http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/26/17931975-amanda-bynes-shaves-half-of-her-head?liteAmanda Bynes' bizarre behavior has been tabloid fodder for years now, and the former child star has been fanning the flames on her personal Twitter account.Amanda Bynes' bizarre behavior has been tabloid fodder for years now, and the former child star has been fanning the flames on her personal Twitter account.Copyright msnbc.com 2013 ]]>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:44:50 GMTNewshttp://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/26/17931975-amanda-bynes-shaves-half-of-her-head?litePeaches Geldof names son PhaedraPeaches Geldof, the daughter of singer and poverty campaigner Bob Geldof, welcomed her second child with husband Thomas Cohen on Wednesday, according to Hello! magazine. ]]>http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/26/17934125-peaches-geldof-names-son-phaedra?litePeaches Geldof, the daughter of singer and poverty campaigner Bob Geldof, welcomed her second child with husband Thomas Cohen on Wednesday, according to Hello! magazine.Peaches Geldof, the daughter of singer and poverty campaigner Bob Geldof, welcomed her second child with husband Thomas Cohen on Wednesday, according to Hello! magazine.Copyright msnbc.com 2013 ]]>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:07:19 GMTNewshttp://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/26/17934125-peaches-geldof-names-son-phaedra?liteAccess Hollywood sectionhttp://www.today.com/id/7358550/ns/today-entertainment/Newshttp://www.today.com/id/7358550/ns/today-entertainment/
Robotic insects make first controlled flightPublic release date: 2-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caroline Perry cperry@seas.harvard.edu 617-496-1351 Harvard University
In culmination of a decade's work, RoboBees achieve vertical takeoff, hovering, and steering
Cambridge, Mass. - May 2, 2013 - In the very early hours of the morning, in a Harvard robotics laboratory last summer, an insect took flight. Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, it leapt a few inches, hovered for a moment on fragile, flapping wings, and then sped along a preset route through the air.
Like a proud parent watching a child take its first steps, graduate student Pakpong Chirarattananon immediately captured a video of the fledgling and emailed it to his adviser and colleagues at 3 a.m.subject line, "Flight of the RoboBee."
"I was so excited, I couldn't sleep," recalls Chirarattananon, co-lead author of a paper published this week in Science.
The demonstration of the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot is the culmination of more than a decade's work, led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
"This is what I have been trying to do for literally the last 12 years," says Robert J. Wood, Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS, Wyss Core Faculty Member, and principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-supported RoboBee project. "It's really only because of this lab's recent breakthroughs in manufacturing, materials, and design that we have even been able to try this. And it just worked, spectacularly well."
Inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap almost invisibly, 120 times per second, the tiny device not only represents the absolute cutting edge of micromanufacturing and control systems; it is an aspiration that has impelled innovation in these fields by dozens of researchers across Harvard for years.
"We had to develop solutions from scratch, for everything," explains Wood. "We would get one component working, but when we moved onto the next, five new problems would arise. It was a moving target."
Flight muscles, for instance, don't come prepackaged for robots the size of a fingertip.
"Large robots can run on electromagnetic motors, but at this small scale you have to come up with an alternative, and there wasn't one," says co-lead author Kevin Y. Ma, a graduate student at SEAS.
The tiny robot flaps its wings with piezoelectric actuatorsstrips of ceramic that expand and contract when an electric field is applied. Thin hinges of plastic embedded within the carbon fiber body frame serve as joints, and a delicately balanced control system commands the rotational motions in the flapping-wing robot, with each wing controlled independently in real-time.
At tiny scales, small changes in airflow can have an outsized effect on flight dynamics, and the control system has to react that much faster to remain stable.
The robotic insects also take advantage of an ingenious pop-up manufacturing technique that was developed by Wood's team in 2011. Sheets of various laser-cut materials are layered and sandwiched together into a thin, flat plate that folds up like a child's pop-up book into the complete electromechanical structure.
The quick, step-by-step process replaces what used to be a painstaking manual art and allows Wood's team to use more robust materials in new combinations, while improving the overall precision of each device.
"We can now very rapidly build reliable prototypes, which allows us to be more aggressive in how we test them," says Ma, adding that the team has gone through 20 prototypes in just the past six months.
Applications of the RoboBee project could include distributed environmental monitoring, search-and-rescue operations, or assistance with crop pollination, but the materials, fabrication techniques, and components that emerge along the way might prove to be even more significant. For example, the pop-up manufacturing process could enable a new class of complex medical devices. Harvard's Office of Technology Development, in collaboration with Harvard SEAS and the Wyss Institute, is already in the process of commercializing some of the underlying technologies.
"Harnessing biology to solve real-world problems is what the Wyss Institute is all about," says Wyss Founding Director Don Ingber. "This work is a beautiful example of how bringing together scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines to carry out research inspired by nature and focused on translation can lead to major technical breakthroughs."
And the project continues.
"Now that we've got this unique platform, there are dozens of tests that we're starting to do, including more aggressive control maneuvers and landing," says Wood.
After that, the next steps will involve integrating the parallel work of many different research teams who are working on the brain, the colony coordination behavior, the power source, and so on, until the robotic insects are fully autonomous and wireless.
The prototypes are still tethered by a very thin power cable because there are no off-the-shelf solutions for energy storage that are small enough to be mounted on the robot's body. High energy-density fuel cells must be developed before the RoboBees will be able to fly with much independence.
Control, too, is still wired in from a separate computer, though a team led by SEAS faculty Gu-Yeon Wei and David Brooks is working on a computationally efficient brain that can be mounted on the robot's frame.
"Flies perform some of the most amazing aerobatics in nature using only tiny brains," notes coauthor Sawyer B. Fuller, a postdoctoral researcher on Wood's team who essentially studies how fruit flies cope with windy days. "Their capabilities exceed what we can do with our robot, so we would like to understand their biology better and apply it to our own work."
The milestone of this first controlled flight represents a validation of the power of ambitious dreamsespecially for Wood, who was in graduate school when he set this goal.
"This project provides a common motivation for scientists and engineers across the university to build smaller batteries, to design more efficient control systems, and to create stronger, more lightweight materials," says Wood. "You might not expect all of these people to work together: vision experts, biologists, materials scientists, electrical engineers. What do they have in common? Well, they all enjoy solving really hard problems."
"I want to create something the world has never seen before," adds Ma. "It's about the excitement of pushing the limits of what we think we can do, the limits of human ingenuity."
###
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
HARVARD SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES
The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) serves as the connector and integrator of Harvard's teaching and research efforts in engineering, applied sciences, and technology. Through collaboration with researchers from all parts of Harvard, other universities, and corporate and foundational partners, we bring discovery and innovation directly to bear on improving human life and society. For more information, visit: http://seas.harvard.edu.
WYSS INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICALLY INSPIRED ENGINEERING AT HARVARD
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University (http://wyss.harvard.edu) uses Nature's design principles to develop bioinspired materials and devices that will transform medicine and create a more sustainable world. Working as an alliance among Harvard's Schools of Medicine, Engineering, and Arts & Sciences, and in partnership with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston University and Tufts University, the Institute crosses disciplinary and institutional barriers to engage in high-risk research that leads to transformative technological breakthroughs. By emulating Nature's principles, Wyss researchers are developing innovative new engineering solutions for healthcare, energy, architecture, robotics, and manufacturing. These technologies are translated into commercial products and therapies through collaborations with clinical investigators, corporate alliances, and new start-ups. The Wyss Institute recently won the prestigious World Technology Network award for innovation in biotechnology.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Robotic insects make first controlled flightPublic release date: 2-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caroline Perry cperry@seas.harvard.edu 617-496-1351 Harvard University
In culmination of a decade's work, RoboBees achieve vertical takeoff, hovering, and steering
Cambridge, Mass. - May 2, 2013 - In the very early hours of the morning, in a Harvard robotics laboratory last summer, an insect took flight. Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, it leapt a few inches, hovered for a moment on fragile, flapping wings, and then sped along a preset route through the air.
Like a proud parent watching a child take its first steps, graduate student Pakpong Chirarattananon immediately captured a video of the fledgling and emailed it to his adviser and colleagues at 3 a.m.subject line, "Flight of the RoboBee."
"I was so excited, I couldn't sleep," recalls Chirarattananon, co-lead author of a paper published this week in Science.
The demonstration of the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot is the culmination of more than a decade's work, led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
"This is what I have been trying to do for literally the last 12 years," says Robert J. Wood, Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS, Wyss Core Faculty Member, and principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-supported RoboBee project. "It's really only because of this lab's recent breakthroughs in manufacturing, materials, and design that we have even been able to try this. And it just worked, spectacularly well."
Inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap almost invisibly, 120 times per second, the tiny device not only represents the absolute cutting edge of micromanufacturing and control systems; it is an aspiration that has impelled innovation in these fields by dozens of researchers across Harvard for years.
"We had to develop solutions from scratch, for everything," explains Wood. "We would get one component working, but when we moved onto the next, five new problems would arise. It was a moving target."
Flight muscles, for instance, don't come prepackaged for robots the size of a fingertip.
"Large robots can run on electromagnetic motors, but at this small scale you have to come up with an alternative, and there wasn't one," says co-lead author Kevin Y. Ma, a graduate student at SEAS.
The tiny robot flaps its wings with piezoelectric actuatorsstrips of ceramic that expand and contract when an electric field is applied. Thin hinges of plastic embedded within the carbon fiber body frame serve as joints, and a delicately balanced control system commands the rotational motions in the flapping-wing robot, with each wing controlled independently in real-time.
At tiny scales, small changes in airflow can have an outsized effect on flight dynamics, and the control system has to react that much faster to remain stable.
The robotic insects also take advantage of an ingenious pop-up manufacturing technique that was developed by Wood's team in 2011. Sheets of various laser-cut materials are layered and sandwiched together into a thin, flat plate that folds up like a child's pop-up book into the complete electromechanical structure.
The quick, step-by-step process replaces what used to be a painstaking manual art and allows Wood's team to use more robust materials in new combinations, while improving the overall precision of each device.
"We can now very rapidly build reliable prototypes, which allows us to be more aggressive in how we test them," says Ma, adding that the team has gone through 20 prototypes in just the past six months.
Applications of the RoboBee project could include distributed environmental monitoring, search-and-rescue operations, or assistance with crop pollination, but the materials, fabrication techniques, and components that emerge along the way might prove to be even more significant. For example, the pop-up manufacturing process could enable a new class of complex medical devices. Harvard's Office of Technology Development, in collaboration with Harvard SEAS and the Wyss Institute, is already in the process of commercializing some of the underlying technologies.
"Harnessing biology to solve real-world problems is what the Wyss Institute is all about," says Wyss Founding Director Don Ingber. "This work is a beautiful example of how bringing together scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines to carry out research inspired by nature and focused on translation can lead to major technical breakthroughs."
And the project continues.
"Now that we've got this unique platform, there are dozens of tests that we're starting to do, including more aggressive control maneuvers and landing," says Wood.
After that, the next steps will involve integrating the parallel work of many different research teams who are working on the brain, the colony coordination behavior, the power source, and so on, until the robotic insects are fully autonomous and wireless.
The prototypes are still tethered by a very thin power cable because there are no off-the-shelf solutions for energy storage that are small enough to be mounted on the robot's body. High energy-density fuel cells must be developed before the RoboBees will be able to fly with much independence.
Control, too, is still wired in from a separate computer, though a team led by SEAS faculty Gu-Yeon Wei and David Brooks is working on a computationally efficient brain that can be mounted on the robot's frame.
"Flies perform some of the most amazing aerobatics in nature using only tiny brains," notes coauthor Sawyer B. Fuller, a postdoctoral researcher on Wood's team who essentially studies how fruit flies cope with windy days. "Their capabilities exceed what we can do with our robot, so we would like to understand their biology better and apply it to our own work."
The milestone of this first controlled flight represents a validation of the power of ambitious dreamsespecially for Wood, who was in graduate school when he set this goal.
"This project provides a common motivation for scientists and engineers across the university to build smaller batteries, to design more efficient control systems, and to create stronger, more lightweight materials," says Wood. "You might not expect all of these people to work together: vision experts, biologists, materials scientists, electrical engineers. What do they have in common? Well, they all enjoy solving really hard problems."
"I want to create something the world has never seen before," adds Ma. "It's about the excitement of pushing the limits of what we think we can do, the limits of human ingenuity."
###
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
HARVARD SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES
The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) serves as the connector and integrator of Harvard's teaching and research efforts in engineering, applied sciences, and technology. Through collaboration with researchers from all parts of Harvard, other universities, and corporate and foundational partners, we bring discovery and innovation directly to bear on improving human life and society. For more information, visit: http://seas.harvard.edu.
WYSS INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICALLY INSPIRED ENGINEERING AT HARVARD
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University (http://wyss.harvard.edu) uses Nature's design principles to develop bioinspired materials and devices that will transform medicine and create a more sustainable world. Working as an alliance among Harvard's Schools of Medicine, Engineering, and Arts & Sciences, and in partnership with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston University and Tufts University, the Institute crosses disciplinary and institutional barriers to engage in high-risk research that leads to transformative technological breakthroughs. By emulating Nature's principles, Wyss researchers are developing innovative new engineering solutions for healthcare, energy, architecture, robotics, and manufacturing. These technologies are translated into commercial products and therapies through collaborations with clinical investigators, corporate alliances, and new start-ups. The Wyss Institute recently won the prestigious World Technology Network award for innovation in biotechnology.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Chris Kelly, of the rap group Kris Kross, has died, according to authorities. The pair's biggest hit was "Jump," part of a 1992 album. They were know for their rap delivery as well as a gimmick of wearing their clothing backward.
By Staff,?Associated Press / May 1, 2013
Jermaine Dupri DJs at a Celebration of LA?s Music Industry at the Getty House in February in Los Angeles. Dupri is credited with discovering rappers Chris Kelly and Chris Smith of Kris Kross. Kelly died on Wednesday.
Todd Williamson/Invision/AP
Enlarge
Chris?Kelly, half of the 1990s kid rap duo Kris Kross who made one of the decade's most memorable songs with the frenetic "Jump," has died, according to authorities.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Investigator Betty Honey of the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office said Kelly?was pronounced dead around 5 p.m. local time Wednesday at the south campus of the Atlanta Medical Center.
Honey said authorities are unsure of?Kelly's?cause of death and that an autopsy has yet to be performed.
Kelly, known as "Mac Daddy," and?Chris?Smith, known as "Daddy Mac," were introduced to the music world in 1992 by music producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri after he discovered the pair in an Atlanta mall. The duo wore their clothes backward as a gimmick, but they won over fans with their raps.
Their first, and by far most successful song, was "Jump." The hit, off their multiplatinum 1992 debut album "Totally Krossed Out," featured the two trading versus and rapping the refrain, the song's title. The duo had surprising maturity in their rap delivery, though the song was written by Dupri. It would become a No. 1 smash in the United States and globally, and one of the most popular of that year.
Their success led to instant fame: They toured with Michael Jackson, appeared on TV shows, and even had their own video game.
The group was never able to match the tremendous success of their first song, though they had other hits like "Warm It Up," and "Tonite's tha Night."
Earlier this year, the group performed together to celebrate the anniversary of Durpri's label, So So Def.
If you're looking to buy your first Bluetooth headset, you're probably not looking for a pricey, top-of-the-line model with a ton of features you never even knew existed. Chances are you're looking for something more like the $29.99 (list) Jabra Talk. It's easy to set up and use, and you can find it out there for well under its list price, which makes it about as much of an investment as a large pepperoni pizza. But let's make this clear: The Jabra Talk?isn't a great headset. The fit could be better, and noise cancellation is pretty poor. Still, if you're new to Bluetooth, it sounds pretty good and is a reasonably priced entry point.
Design, Fit, and Pairing The Jabra Talk looks like your run-of-the-mill Bluetooth headset. It measures 0.95 by 2.1 by 0.65 inches (HWD) and weighs 0.35 ounces. It's made mostly of matte black plastic, with a silver plastic line that runs along the outer edge, and a chunky strip that separates the front of the headset's face from the button on the other side. Controls are sparse. There's a power switch on the inside of the headset, right next to the earpiece. Two hidden LED lights indicate Bluetooth connectivity and battery life. Volume control is located on the bottom of the headset, and is easy to toggle while you're on a call. A multifunction Call button is located right next to your ear, and can be used to answer and end calls, redial numbers, and trigger voice dialing.
The headset uses an in-ear design and comes with three different size silicone ear buds and two different plastic hooks. I'm not a fan of the hook, even though they do make the fit more secure. I wasn't thrilled with the fit of any of the ear buds, either, but I found the middle size the most comfortable to wear without needing to hook myself in. Luckily, because the headset is light, once I established the proper fit I practically forgot it was there.
The Talk is automatically set to pairing mode the first time you turn it on. For subsequent pairings, all you have to do is hold down the Call button for a few seconds until the Bluetooth indicator begins to flash. From there, simply follow the instructions on your device for a standard Bluetooth pairing procedure. For this review, I had no trouble pairing the Talk with an Apple iPhone 4S?and a Sony Xperia ZL.
Sound Quality, Noise Cancellation, and Conclusions Once paired, you can initiate voice dialing by holding down the Call button for a couple of seconds. It will initiate whatever voice control you use, like Google Voice or Siri. I had no trouble making calls, asking Siri to play some music, or having Google Voice open up the calendar app. You can tap the Call button once to answer or end a call, and twice to redial the last number you were connected to.
Call quality is mixed. With the Talk in your ear, voices can sound a little digitized, with some fuzz around the edge, but overall volume goes loud and calls sound clear enough that you won't have trouble understanding anyone. But on the other end, calls made with the Talk have very low volume and sound a bit muffled. Even worse is that it sounds like there is next to no noise cancellation, so it's easy for your voice to get lost if you're calling from a noisy place. Calls made indoors were mostly fine, but this isn't the right headset for you if you plan to use it a lot while on the go.
The Jabra Talk doesn't have many additional features, but it supports A2DP, so you can use it to listen to streaming media like apps, audiobooks, music, and podcasts. The headset gets pretty loud, so volume isn't a problem, but for music, bass is basically nonexistent. Still, it sounds fine for podcasts, and most people don't use mono headsets for music anyway.
Range was fine; I was able to clear the standard 20 feet before sound started to break up. And battery life is okay, at 5 hours and 21 minutes. Jabra claims the headset can last up to eight days on standby.
The Jabra Talk doesn't have a ton of cool features or bar-setting performance. And if you plan to use it outdoors, its lousy noise cancellation means you should probably look for a different headset. But for just over $20, depending on where you buy it, I don't want to knock the Talk too hard. It's still a perfectly decent headset, especially if this is your first time using Bluetooth. It's actually a better choice than the similarly priced Samsung HM1800, since that headset lacks A2DP.
But if you're willing to spend a little more, the Plantronics M55?is our Editors' Choice for budget Bluetooth headsets. It costs nearly twice the price, but it has better call quality and noise cancellation, much longer battery life, and a sleeker design. The Plantronics Marque 2 M165?is another good option, while the Sony SBH20?gets you a unique clip-on design, along with excellent stereo sound quality through a pair of wired earbuds.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- Corinthian Colleges Inc. said Tuesday that it lost money in its fiscal third quarter, pressured by a decline in new student enrollments.
The Santa Ana, Calif., company, which runs Everest, Heald and WyoTech colleges and offers online degrees, lost $1 million, or 1 cent per share, for the three months ended March 31. That compares with a profit of $4.1 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier.
Earnings from continuing operations dropped to 3 cents per share from 14 cents per share. Stripping out impairment and severance charges in both periods, earnings from continuing operations were 4 cents per share compared with 16 cents per share.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 6 cents per share.
Revenue fell 2 percent to $400.2 million from $407.9 million. Wall Street was looking for $406.2 million.
New student enrollments dropped 5.7 percent to 26,738, while total student population declined 6.2 percent to 87,776.
Chairman and CEO Jack Massimino said in a statement that the drop in new student enrollments was mostly because of the loss of ability-to-benefit students at its Everest schools as well as a slight decline in online student enrollments. Ability-to-benefit students lack high school diplomas.
For the fourth quarter, Corinthian anticipates adjusted earnings from continuing operations of 3 cents to 5 cents per share. Revenue is expected in a range of $378 million to $388 million.
Analysts predict earnings of 4 cents per share on revenue of $386.2 million.
Corinthian also announced that Leon Panetta, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, have joined its board. The National Urban League is one of the biggest civil rights and urban advocacy organizations in the U.S.
Panetta previously served on the board from 2008 to 2009.
All of Corinthian's board members serve one-year terms and will stand for election at its annual shareholders meeting in November.
The company's stock shed 1 cent to $2 in morning trading.
The extensive witness lists in the wrongful civil death trial brought by Michael Jackson's family includes some serious star power ? and his children.
Another girl, and with the same birthday as their 2-year-old, for Ian Ziering and wife Erin.
During a recent visit to 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show,' the actor revealed he and his wife Kyla will soon have another little one in the house.
Impressive! Jane Fonda left her prints in cement alongside her father Henry Fonda's outside the former Grauman's Theatre.
On Saturday night, politicians and Hollywood broke bread together at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, but in speeches given by President Barack Obama and Conan O'Brien, the gloves came off.
According to the NYPD, officers pulled the actor over after they saw him driving erratically, and detected an alcohol odor coming from his vehicle early Saturday.
Amanda Bynes' bizarre behavior has been tabloid fodder for years now, and the former child star has been fanning the flames on her personal Twitter account.
Peaches Geldof, the daughter of singer and poverty campaigner Bob Geldof, welcomed her second child with husband Thomas Cohen on Wednesday, according to Hello! magazine.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vjM1TC1LK8BqswpqLeVESAnlvo40AoyI3Lseg-9U2HyeC9YUf2MPB9ZtcAIUIeqch0EO4JwjaGDRkpNjjszqptX6lq3Y0_YwU6JG57wbs=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 2-May-2013
Share ] 