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NASA has unveiled Valkyrie, an advanced humanoid "superhero" robot that appears female and may one day be used to explore Mars. The “Valkyrie” robot, designed by NASA scientists to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), is 1.9-metres tall and weighs 125 kilograms. In Norse mythology, the Valkyrie were female figures who chose which fighters who died in battle were worthy of Valhalla. While officially a genderless humanoid robot, Valkyrie was designed to have female characteristics from the start,  IEEE  reports. It has a pronounced chest area, with internal motors that glow like   Iron Man, and padding to protect it from a fall. The flexible Valkyrie has 44 degrees of axes of rotation in its joints and is powered by a battery backpack, which can keep it operating for an hour. It can walk on its own, pick up objects and manipulate objects and tools, which are part of the requirements for the DARPA challenge,  CNET  reports. "We r...

      Like it or not health care reform is a reality.  President Obama has signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law and the “fixes” in the reconciliation bill are awaiting his signature.  Even with a law of more than 2,000 pages there are more questions than answers in how the new system will work.  Undoubtedly it will take volumes of new regulations and several years before all of the questions are answered.  In the meantime, here are the areas of most significant impact on Ohio employers: All plans will be required to provide dependent care coverage up to age 26, beginning September 2010. Plans cannot place annual or lifetime limits on the value of benefits received by any participant, effective September 2010 for annual limits and January 2014 for lifetime limits. Requires guaranteed issue and renewability (beginning January 2014) and no pre-existing exclusions for children (effective September 2010)....

This Oct. 15, 2013, photo, shows a view of the U.S. Capitol building at dusk in Washington.  (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) Print By  Andrew Krietz | akrietz@mlive.com  Follow on Twitter on December 03, 2013 at 12:40 PM, updated  December 03, 2013 at 3:41 PM U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township MLive.com File Photo   Update:  Rep. Justin Amash's spokesman, Will Adams, has been added to this story for reaction. WASHINGTON, D.C. — An even split of Democratic and Republican legislators back a bill supported by Rep. Justin Amash, aiming to end the country's domestic surveillance programs. The legislation,  titled The USA Freedom Act , would, if signed into law, curb the National Security Agency's ability to conduct communications sweeps and close a "back door" to information by requiring a court order when performing searches of Americans in data already collected without warrants. The Hill reported during the week...