RoboCop may be blasting his way into theaters this week, but in reality, a cyborg like him is probably still 100 years away from patrolling our streets.

PHOTOS: RoboCop: Science Fact And Fiction

But dont tell that to this team of undergrads from FloridaInternational Universitys Discovery Lab. Theyre already hard at work on a real-life RoboCop.Granted, its nowhere near as advanced as the tech depicted in the movie, but their Telebot is nothing to ignore.

The six-foot tall, 75-pound prototype combines telepresence and robotics to eventually allow disabled police officers and military personal to serve as patrol officers. Built from scratch, Telebot functions via an Oculus Rift headset, a motion-tracking vest, arm bands and gloves all worn by a remote person. The headset gives that person a live-feed of the robots field of vision while the vest relays movements to the robot. The motion-sensing gloves control robots hands.

The Telebot was made possible by Jeremy Robins, alieutenant in the U.S. Navy, who donated $20,000 towards the project to help his disabled veteran friends get back into the work force.

BLOG: X-Ray Glasses Help Surgeons See Cancer

Our next step is to fabricate the external shell of the robot and to tune up the softwareand finally, field test it, said Nagarajan Prabakar, an associate professor in the FIU School of Computing and Information Sciences.

via PopSci

Credit:FIU Discovery Lab

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Real-life RoboCop Taking Shape

By April Charlton/acharlton@timespressrecorder.com Email a friend Printer friendly

Diners in Pismo Beach restaurants, such as Rosas, must now request a glass of water due to drought conditions. Rosas has been serving Pismo Beach for 25 years. //Elisa Ramirez/Staff

Diners in Pismo Beach will have to request a glass of water from their server the next time they go out to eat in the city.

On Tuesday, the City Council unanimously adopted moderately restricted water supply conditions for Pismo in light of the states current drought.

Although the city has an ample supply of water to meet current demand, council members believed it would be prudent to implement restrictions to help combat dry conditions statewide.

If this (drought) continues, it could be really severe in the future, Councilman Ed Waage said. Pray for rain.

When Gov. Jerry Brown declared the drought emergency in mid-January, he asked citizens across the parched state to voluntarily reduce water usage by at least 20 percent and for municipalities to implement local water shortage contingency plans.

We do need to be mindful of the overall situation and conserve for the future, City Engineer Ben Fine told the council.

Under the citys municipal code, the council can declare one of four water supply conditions, including the recently adopted declaration, which falls one step below normal. Severely restricted and critical are the remaining two conditions that can be adopted under the code.

Each condition has various water-use restrictions associated with it, and under a moderately restricted supply, restaurants can only serve drinking water if a customer requests a glass.

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PB adopts mandatory water rules

How to do gutter cleaning fast
http://www.aquaforcepowerwashing.com call 678-887-9479 for a free estimate and the best way to clean gutters, see the gutter are design to work with water so what b...

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At North Harbor Dairy Farm in Sackets Harbor, it's clear Mother Nature has left her mark this winter with all the snow and ice.

"It's really put us behind for spring's work. We're probably three to four weeks behind because we've had to put so much more labor into moving snow," said Brian Robbins, the farm's general manager.

"It's a full-time job for at least one, most of the time two guys, just to keep everything plowed out and to keep us moving here on the farm," said Ryan Nortz, a farm employee.

Even the cows are feeling this winter's grip.

"There are issues with pneumonia and of keeping the barns closed up all night and not properly ventilated," said Robbins.

Another problem is the ice.

Even though the cows are inside, it can still get below freezing, which causes ice to form on the ground.

While it's not uncommon for the cows to slip, sometimes they'll fall and can't get back up.

A few cows have even died.

"When you're a big, heavy cow and you go down, it's hard to get back up. And they're an animal. Their instinct is to get back up and sometimes they hurt themselves even more," said Robbins.

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Ice, Snow & Cold Make Farm Life Difficult

Don #39;t neglect your gutters: Hire someone or do-it-yourself
Cleaning gutters isn #39;t a fun chore, but clearing them a regular basis can prolong the life of your gutters and downspouts. Skipping gutter cleaning can lead ...

By: Angie #39;s List

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Don't neglect your gutters: Hire someone or do-it-yourself - Video

A clean gutter is designed to draw water away from a home's foundation, according to Do It Yourself.com. When a gutter overflows with debris, it may also cause roof damage.

A gutter cleaning service may be priced by the square footage of the home, or the linear foot of gutter.Typical costs:

Article updated April 2007

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You get what you pay for. Lowest price is not always the best price.

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Cost of Gutter Cleaning - Estimates and Prices Paid ...

The City of Pismo Beach has an ample water supply; however, in response to the Governors declaration of a Drought State of Emergency for the State of California, the Pismo Beach City Council voted to declare Moderately Restricted Water Supply Conditions with modified restrictions.

The following restrictions are now in effect: Use of water which results in excessive gutter runoff is prohibited. Outdoor water use for washing vehicles, boats, buildings or other similar uses shall be attended and have hand-controlled watering devices, typically including spring-loaded shutoff nozzles. No water shall be used for cleaning driveways, patios, parking lots, sidewalks, streets, or other such uses except by the City contracted street sweeper, or as found necessary by the city to protect the public health or safety. Outdoor Irrigation. Outdoor irrigation is prohibited between the hours of ten a.m. and four p.m.; All customers are directed to use no more water than necessary to maintain landscaping. Restaurants shall serve drinking water only in response to a specific request by a customer. Use of potable water for compaction or dust control purposes in construction activities is prohibited. (Ord. 90-10 2 (part), 1990: prior code 13.06.040)

Further information can be obtained by calling the Public Works Department at (805) 773-4656.

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Restricted Water Supply Conditions in Pismo Beach

A life blighted: Andrew Johnson and an unidentified man inject in Caroline Lane. Photo: Julian Andrews

When a skinny fair-haired child was photographed in a Sydney lane being injected with heroin by an adult man, it broke every parent's heart and sparked a national outcry.

The image is so confronting, it scarcely seems real today. But then this was Sydney in the late 1990s - caught in the grip of a heroin epidemic and suffering from the sorts of policies that included handing free injecting kits to children on the streets.

Enter Andrew Johnson. On January 31, 1999, The Sun-Herald published the shocking image of the 16-year-old shooting up in a syringe-littered gutter, at a taxpayer-funded mobile needle exchange in Caroline Lane, Redfern. The image gave rise to the NSW Drug Summit and 18 months later the first medically supervised injecting room in the English-speaking world was opened. But while Johnson's picture proved a game changer in cleaning up the streets and reducing fatal heroin-related overdoses, did it prove the turning point for him, as his family had hoped?

A fortnight ago, a gaunt, dishevelled seemingly middle-aged man of the same name sat fidgeting and mumbling to himself in Mount Druitt Court, where he faced charges of destroying or damaging property, and stalking or intimidating with intent to cause fear of physical harm. The offences relate to a recent heroin-fuelled episode at the home of his parents.

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This was the boy in the laneway, exactly 15 years on. Homeless and hooked on heroin, aged just 31.

''He's beyond help now,'' his mother, Roseanna, says. ''The police say we would be better off trying to forget we have a son.''

Andrew Johnson leaves Mount Druitt court. Photo: Kate Geraghty

His aunt, Alice Scott, says: ''It's a tragic tale to which, sadly, there is still no end. Like throwing a pebble into a pond, the ripples have just got bigger and bigger.''

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The boy who broke Australia's heart

Gutter Cleaning - Polished Plastics

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Gutter Cleaning - Polished Plastics - Video

At 10th and Ferry streets in Easton, Greg Joseph chipped and scraped at stubborn patches of ice on a sidewalk with a long-handled shovel. He dislodged a chunk of gray-brown ice along the mouth of his driveway and pitched it into a puddle of slush along the gutter.

Nearby, a Cadillac sat buried behind a heap of plowed snow along 10th Street, and beneath a thick blanket of snow that fell Monday. Joseph, in an unzipped jacket, Jerry Garcia T-shirt, rubber boots and mustard-color knit hat, lamented this winter's frequent frozen precipitation, but figured he'd carry on.

"What are you going to do?" Joseph said. "You do the best you can."

That was the overriding theme Tuesday in the Lehigh Valley's three cities.

Ol' Man Winter has tossed about 40 inches of snow at the Valley so far this season, about 9 inches more than the average winter and there is a lot more winter to come. In fact, winter's next pass was expected Tuesday night into Wednesday morning with at least several more inches of snow, then freezing rain to join the legion of snow mucking up side roads and back alleys.

Though compacted snow frozen to roads makes the plowing difficult and travel spotty, the main byways in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton were mostly clear Tuesday. That isn't to say the roads couldn't be better. A good bit of Chew Street, for example, in the area of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, was still snow-covered late Tuesday afternoon.

The avenues in West Bethlehem are a snow-covered mess; parts of downtown Allentown remained ice-bound; and a lack of room to throw the snow made Lehigh Street in Easton into a series of snow bunkers with sawhorses guarding hard-fought parking spots.

Joseph said Easton's plows are doing what they can.

"They do good," Joseph said. "It's a tough, thankless job."

In Bethlehem, Public Works Director Michael Alkhal said this week's short turnaround between storms stresses the city's resources.

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Cities deal with a plowing nightmare