Hasta La Gadget!

What’s even more charming than kids in puffy winter coats? Kids getting to use that gear to its full potential, sledding, snowman-making, snowball fighting… everything winter was made for.

In the wake of what The Weather Channel is calling Winter Storm “Nemo,” here in New York, we’ve been enjoying the benefits of 11 inches of powder with little kids, so we asked our readers on Facebook to share their best recent shots from the Northeast and beyond. Check out the resulting snowstorm of cute below, and click to add your own pictures to the gallery.

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Cloudrobot is, potentially, the worst name we’ve ever heard for a product. Thankfully, if this robotic pugilist ever does come to market, we’re pretty confident it’ll be under a different brand. These fighters are not nearly as cute or pocketable as the Battroborgs that punched their way through the Engadget compound recently. In fact, these guys are down right intimidating. The product of six developers and engineers based out of Budapest, the 16-inch tall bots pack 21 motors, controlled by an AVR chip, that allow them a stunning range of motion and precision. The movements themselves are passed to the bot by a computer, which is currently running a crude simulation / video game. The punches, blocks and footwork are all triggered by a standard gamepad connected via Bluetooth.

Rather than risk serious damage to these expensive machines, their all metal bodies are protected from blows by Everlast-branded boxing gloves. And, in fact, they rarely come in contact with each other (at least in their current form). For now points are counted in the virtual environment, rather than in landed hooks and jabs. Which might not be bad since the bots gain quite a bit of mustard on their shots thanks to electromagnets in their feet that keep them anchored to the ring. Primarily those magnets are for stability, so that the occasional glancing blow doesn’t send them toppling over, but it also lets them “sit down” on their punches, just like a real boxer. The company is currently looking for an American partner to help them produce and market the robots. It also has a rather ambitious target price of $300 per combatant, which may have them making some tradeoffs in the final design. The best thing we can do, though, is let Cloudrobot speak for itself, so check out the video after the break.

Filed under: Robots

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WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to three states over three days after giving his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, going on the road to drum up support for his economic and other policy proposals, the White House said on Sunday.

Obama will travel to the Asheville, North Carolina, area on Wednesday, the Atlanta, Georgia, area on Thursday, and the Chicago area on Friday, the White House said in a statement.

Obama will seek support for new economic proposals as well his push for reform of U.S. gun and immigration laws in his Tuesday address, which is likely to be watched by millions of people.

“The president will travel to three different communities to discuss proposals, unveiled in the speech, that focus on strengthening the economy for the middle class and those striving to get there,” the White House said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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This week House Majority Leader Eric Cantor journeyed to the American Enterprise Institute to unveil a softer, cuddlier GOP.

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The British Academy Film & Television Arts Awards — or BAFTAs — were announced on Sunday, and “Argo” and director Ben Affleck were big winners.

“Argo” won Best Film from the BAFTAs, beating “Les Miserables,” “Life of Pi,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” and — once again — “Lincoln.” Since the Oscar nominations were announced on Jan. 10, “Argo” has bested “Lincoln” at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globes, Producers Guild of America Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Affleck, who was famously snubbed in the Best Director category by the Academy Awards, also defeated “Lincoln” director Steven Spielberg at the Directors Guild Awards. As has been par for the awards-season course, Affleck won Best Director at the BAFTAs as well, though he didn’t top Spielberg for the honor; Spielberg was not nominated in the category. (Michael Haneke, Quentin Tarantino, Ang lee and Kathryn Bigelow were.)

Beyond Affleck and “Argo,” the BAFTAs also honored Oscar favorites Daniel Day-Lewis (for “Lincoln”) and Anne Hathaway (for “Les Miserables”) in, respectively, the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories. Christoph Waltz won the BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actor. Waltz, who also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, is nominated for an Oscar alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tommy Lee Jones, Alan Arkin and Robert De Niro. (“Skyfall” star Javier Bardem replaced De Niro on the BAFTA list of supporting actor nominees.)

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