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Category Archives: Cyborg

Hand of a Superhero

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Kevin Liles for The New York Times Ethan Brown, 8, of Opelika, Ala., was born with two fingers missing on his left hand. Now he wears a Cyborg Beast in black and red, his school colors. It looks like Ironman or Spider-Man, he said. The materials for a 3-D-printed prosthetic hand can cost as little as $20.=

Dawson Rivermans parents tried to help him make the best of it.

Born without fingers on his left hand, Dawson struggled to perform even the simplest tasks, like tying his shoes or holding a ball. God made you special in this way, his parents told him. But by age 5, Dawson was demanding tearfully to know why.

The Rivermans, of Forest Grove, Ore., could not afford a high-tech prosthetic hand for their son, and in any event they are rarely made for children. Then help arrived in the guise of a stranger with a three-dimensional printer.

He made a prosthetic hand for Dawson, in cobalt blue and black, and it did not cost his family a thing. Now the 13-year-old can ride a bike and hold a baseball bat. He hopes to play goalkeeper on his soccer team.

Hes realizing he can do things with two hands and not have to try to figure out how do them, said his mother, Dawn Riverman.

The proliferation of 3-D printers has had an unexpected benefit: The devices, it turns out, are perfect for creating cheap prosthetics. Surprising numbers of children need them: One in 1,000 infants is born with missing fingers, and others lose fingers and hands to injury. Each year, about 9,000 children receive amputations as a result of lawn mower accidents alone.

State-of-the-art prosthetic replacements are complicated medical devices, powered by batteries and electronic motors, and they can cost thousands of dollars. Even if children are able to manage the equipment, they grow too quickly to make the investment practical. So most do without, fighting to do with one hand what most of us do with two.

E-nable, an online volunteer organization, aims to change that. Founded in 2013 by Dr. Jon Schull, the group matches children like Dawson in need of prosthetic hands and fingers with volunteers able to make them on 3-D printers. Designs may be downloaded into the machines at no charge, and members who create new models share their software plans freely with others.

The materials for a 3-D-printed prosthetic hand can cost as little as $20 to $50, and some experts say they work just as well, if not better, than much costlier devices. Best of all, boys and girls usually love their D.I.Y. prosthetics.

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Hand of a Superhero

The Fall of the Cyborgs, Little Stalingrad Or Ukrainian Alamo by James Dunnigan February 16, 2015

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More Books by James Dunnigan

In eastern Ukraine, on 21th January, the saga of the defenders of Donetsk's airport, also known as "Cyborgs", ended with victory by the pro-Russian rebels. The Cyborgs earned their nickname with their tireless and stalwart defense of the airport for 242 days. This was a motley force consisting of Ukrainian Army soldiers, Territorial Defense soldiers, and volunteers from various paramilitary organizations, including the Right Sector. The Cyborg numbers varied between 100 and 200 throughout their battle. They were periodically supported, resupplied and reinforced by nearby Ukrainian Army units the closest of which were located two kilometers away from the airport terminal building the Cyborgs defended. The support included lots of artillery fire, which was very effective thanks to the Cyborg's forward position and excellent observation posts, especially the airfield's air traffic control tower. In addition there were counterattacks with small units of armor against pro-Russian rebel attempts to encircle the airfield.

Up until January, this setup has functioned reasonably well for the defenders, creating the Cyborg's legend, which in turn provided a great symbol, example, and morale boost for all the Ukrainian forces. However, during the recent de-escalation efforts, Ukrainian forces were forced to limit artillery use and counterattack maneuvers for political reasons. The Minsk Memorandum signed on 19th September urged all sides of the conflict to, among other things, withdraw heavy weaponry 15 kilometers away from the frontlines, withdraw foreign mercenaries, and cease offensive operations. With rebel takeover of the airfield this agreement is dead. To reinforce that rebel leaders have clearly stated that they will ignore the September ceasefire from now on.

Ukraine made serious efforts to honor this agreement in order to preserve the international support it enjoys, while the rebels, since late 2014, began ignoring the ceasefire terms. That meant more rebel artillery fire on the Cyborgs in addition to moving tanks and professional soldiers direct from Russia into this battle. This allowed the rebels to gain launch an offensive that surrounded the airport while also hitting the Cyborgs with continuous artillery and rocket fire. This advance made resupply and reinforcement efforts extremely risky, as the Ukrainian armored vehicles risked being fired on by the tanks and antitank missiles the rebels had moved forward in violation of the ceasefire.

On top of that, on January 13th, all the shelling done so far during the conflict led to the control tower collapsing, depriving the defenders of the ability to see the entire battle area. Noticing the rapidly deteriorating situation of the airport defenders, on January 17th the Ukrainian Army attempted a desperate, poorly organized counterattack against the rebel positions. The Russian troops (with the rebels) expected this and the attack failed with significant Ukrainian losses. The attack might have succeeded had not senior Ukrainian generals, far from Donetsk, not gotten involved with directing the operation. The main problem was that the counterattacking force was too small and the interference by senior commanders led to poor coordination and communication between the attacking units and bad tactical decisions that doomed the relief effort.

With the failed counterattack the Cyborg's were doomed. They were cut off from friendly forces, and the territory they held was pretty much limited to the terminal building, which itself was not the greatest defensive position. Recently built, it had a modern, light structure, which limited the cover provided by it, forcing the defenders to rely on improvised fortifications. The only truly effective cover from artillery fire was provided by the Soviet era tunnels beneath the airfield, which also had to be defended from separatist infiltration attempts.

The rebel troops and tanks attacked the terminal building with the help of some convenient fog. On January 19th, after taking some parts of the terminal, they used demolition charges to collapse parts of the terminal's first floor ceiling, peppering many defenders with a rain of debris which killed and wounded many of them. By the end of the 19th both sides claimed control of the airfield. But by the 21tst Ukraine admitted that the rebels had overrun the area. The rebels claimed to have taken 44 of the defenders alive.

What the rebels won was nothing more than a ruin. There was barely a metal skeleton left where the terminal, built for the Euro 2012 games at the cost of almost $900 million, once stood. Other buildings were also heavily damaged by the shelling, and the runways are full of craters created by constant artillery bombardment. No matter how the civil war ends, this kind of economic damage will take many years to repair, especially in a country as cash-stricken as Ukraine.

How will the Ukrainian forces take the defeat of the brave Cyborgs? Will they take the right lessons from their final battle? Only time will tell.

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The Fall of the Cyborgs, Little Stalingrad Or Ukrainian Alamo by James Dunnigan February 16, 2015

Classic Game Room Kickstarter – ETHEL THE CYBORG NINJA: Book 1 from Classic Game Room – Video

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Classic Game Room Kickstarter - ETHEL THE CYBORG NINJA: Book 1 from Classic Game Room
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1156035777/ethel-the-cyborg-ninja-book-1 Thank you for watching the video, I hope you enjoy it!!! Subscribe to http://ww...

By: Lord Karnage

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Classic Game Room Kickstarter - ETHEL THE CYBORG NINJA: Book 1 from Classic Game Room - Video


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