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FILED: April 28, 2010
Public Employees Retirement Board
Submitted on September 04, 2009.
Derrick E. Smith filed the briefs pro se.
John R. Kroger, Attorney General, Erika L. Hadlock, Acting Solicitor General, and Jamie K. Contreras, Assistant Attorney General, filed the brief for respondent.
Before Wollheim, Presiding Judge, and Brewer, Chief Judge, and Sercombe, Judge.*
*Brewer, C. J., vice Edmonds, P. J.
Petitioner seeks review of a final order by the Public Employees Retirement Board (board) that granted summary determination in favor of the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) and denied petitioner's request that PERS redeposit into his Tier Two variable account funds he had previously withdrawn from that account and was seeking to repay.Ā The board's final order, which affirmed and adopted the proposed order issued by the administrative law judge (ALJ), concluded (1) that petitioner was not entitled to have the funds withdrawn from his Tier Two variable account restored into that account and that PERS properly redeposited all of petitioner's repaid funds into his regular account and (2) that the doctrine of equitable estoppel did not apply to require that PERS redeposit a portion of petitioner's repaid funds into his variable account.Ā Petitioner assigns error to those conclusions.Ā We review for errors of law, ORS 183.482(8)(a), and affirm.
The facts in this case, as found by the ALJ and adopted by the board, are undisputed by the parties.Ā Petitioner was a Tier Two PERS member who participated in PERS's variable account program.Ā In March 2003, he terminated his employment with his PERS-participating employer.Ā In early August 2004, he requested to withdraw all funds from his PERS member account.Ā On August 20, 2004, PERS withdrew the amounts credited to petitioner's regular and variable accounts and refunded them pursuant to ORS 238.265.(1)
On August 31, 2004, petitioner returned to PERS-qualifying employment.Ā Within a year of the withdrawal of funds from his PERS account, petitioner sought to redeposit those funds into PERS.Ā In June 2005, PERS sent petitioner a letter regarding its estimate of his voluntary redeposit.Ā In July 2005, pursuant to ORS 238.105,(2) petitioner repaid the full amount withdrawn from his PERS account in 2004 plus accrued interest, as had been indicated in PERS's June 2005 letter.Ā In July 2006, PERS recalculated petitioner's redeposit amount and invoiced him for the unpaid balance.Ā In February 2007, petitioner requested that PERS redeposit a portion of his restored funds into the variable account.Ā PERS denied that request and explained, "It is customary PERS practice to transfer the variable account to the regular account immediately prior to a withdrawal.Ā Therefore, when you redeposited your funds, we restored your entire balance as a regular member account balance."
Petitioner requested a hearing to challenge the denial of his request.Ā Following that hearing, the ALJ issued a proposed order that reached the conclusions noted above, which the board later adopted.Ā The ALJ opined that, at the time of petitioner's voluntary redeposit under ORS 238.105, contributions and transfers to a member's variable account were prohibited by ORS 238.260(3)(b) and (5)(d).(3)Ā In addition, the ALJ reasoned that OAR 459-007-0025 directed that petitioner's voluntarily redeposited funds be added to his regular account.(4)Ā Moreover, the ALJ determined that, because the arrangement that petitioner sought was contrary to law, the doctrine of equitable estoppel could not operate in his favor.
On appeal, we understand petitioner to argue as follows:Ā (1) although OAR 459-007-0025 "allows PERS the discretion" to decide what action is necessary regarding a member's lump sum payments, including voluntary redeposits, OAR 459-007-0220 "conversely" allows members the opportunity to credit earnings to their variable accounts; (2) ORS 238.105 makes petitioner eligible for restoration of his variable account, and, although ORS 238.260(3)(b) and (5)(d) prohibit future contributions and transfers to the variable account, those provisions do not prohibit restoration of petitioner's variable account; (3) in "canceling" petitioner's variable account, PERS ignores the policy of ORS 238.260, which provides that, once a member places money in the variable account, it cannot be transferred back to the regular account except at retirement and in other particular narrow circumstances; and (4) the doctrine of equitable estoppel requires restoration of petitioner's variable account.Ā We write only to address petitioner's first two arguments and reject without discussion his remaining contentions.
We begin with petitioner's argument that OAR 459-007-0025 imposes a discretionary standard on PERS and that the rule is "converse" to OAR 459-007-0220.Ā We understand petitioner's argument to oppose the board's interpretation and application of the rule in denying his request to redeposit funds into his variable account.Ā In Jordan v. Employment Dept., 195 Or App 404, 408, 97 P3d 1273 (2004) (quoting Trebesch v. Employment Div., 300 Or 264, 273, 710 P2d 136 (1985)), we recognized that authorized representatives of an agency "'interpret the law in the process of applying it.'"Ā However, we ultimately concluded in Jordan that
"any interpretation of departmental rules resulting in a conclusion [opposite of that made by the reviewing board] would be implausible, would conflict with the rule's text, and would, therefore, deserve no deference.Ā [Don't Waste Oregon Com. v. Energy Facility Siting, 320 Or 132, 142, 881 P2d 119 (1994).]Ā Put another way, resolving this case requires no rule interpretation because, on the facts of this case, the rule is perfectly clear; deciding the case requires only straightforward application of the law to facts * * *."
Id. at 410.Ā Thus, where there is only one plausible way to interpret an agency's rule so as not to conflict with its own text, there is no interpretation by the agency, but merely a straightforward application.
At the time of petitioner's voluntary redeposit, as well as at the time of his earlier withdrawal, OAR 459-007-0025 (November 14, 2003) was straightforward as to its terms and definitions; subsection (5) of that rule directed that PERS "shall" credit member lump sum payments to a member's regular account.Ā The use of the word "shall" indicated that a mandatory, not a discretionary, action was required of the agency.Ā In addition, OAR 459-007-0025(1)(b)(B) defined "[m]ember lump sum payments" to explicitly include "[v]oluntary redeposit, as provided under ORS 238.105."Ā Further, contrary to petitioner's arguments, OAR 459-007-0220 (January 7, 2000) did not address how PERS was required to handle voluntary redeposits, but rather addressed how earnings or losses were to be applied to a Tier Two member's regular and variable accounts when that member withdrew his or her member account under ORS 238.265.(5)Ā For that reason, OAR 459-007-0220 was not "converse" to OAR 459-007-0025.
Given the clarity and specificity of OAR 459-007-0025 (November 14, 2003), resolving this case required only that the board apply the rule to the facts in a straightforward manner, without the need to interpret the rule--i.e., without the need to choose between at least two plausible meanings.Ā And, on these facts, we conclude that the board correctly applied the rule in determining that PERS was required to add all of petitioner's voluntary redeposit to petitioner's regular account.(6)
Turning to petitioner's argument under the governing statutory scheme, we conclude that ORS 238.105 also fails to dictate the result sought by petitioner.Ā When interpreting a statute, our goal is to ascertain the intent of the enacting legislature by examination of the statute's text and context, along with any relevant legislative history, and if necessary, by resort to relevant cannons of statutory construction.Ā State v. Gaines, 346 Or 160, 171-73, 206 P3d 1042 (2009); PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries, 317 Or 606, 610-12, 859 P2d 1143 (1993).Ā We give words of common usage that are not defined in the statute their plain and ordinary meanings.Ā PGE, 317 Or at 611.
ORS 238.105(1) provides that a member's repayment of funds previously withdrawn, plus interest, restores "the employee's rights in the system that were forfeited by the withdrawal[.]"Ā Petitioner equates restoration of an "employee's rights in the system" with restoration of an "employee's accounts."Ā We are not persuaded that the phrase "employee's rights in the system" is so limited in interpretation.Ā The statutory text and context indicate that the contours of an employee's restored "rights," under ORS 238.105(1), are shaped by the statutory and regulatory schemes governing PERS.Ā At the time of petitioner's withdrawal in August 2004, petitioner's rights in the system were therefore defined, in part, by the then governing regulatory scheme, which included the provisions of OAR 459-007-0025 (November 14, 2003).Ā As already discussed, OAR 459-007-0025 required that a member's voluntary redeposit be added to that member's regular account.Ā Thus, at the time of petitioner's withdrawal, petitioner was not entitled to have PERS credit to his variable account any future redeposit.(7)
For all the above reasons, we conclude that the board did not err in granting PERS summary determination and denying petitioner's request that PERS redeposit into his Tier Two variable account funds that he had previously withdrawn from that account and was seeking to repay.
1. Provisions of the statutes governing PERS, ORS chapter 238, have been amended in various ways since the relevant time period involved in this case.Ā Those amendments do not affect the substance of the statutory provisions that are material to the issues presented here.Ā For ease of reference, we therefore refer to the current provisions of ORS chapter 238 throughout this opinion.
ORS 238.265 provides, in part:
"(1)Ā Except as otherwise provided in this section, a member of the Public Employees Retirement System may withdraw from the Public Employees Retirement Fund the amount credited to the member account, if any, for the member if:
"(a)Ā The member is separated from all service with participating public employers;
"(b)Ā The member is separated from all service with employers who are treated as part of a participating public employer's controlled group under the federal laws and rules governing the status of the system and the fund as a qualified governmental retirement plan and trust;
"(c)Ā The member has not attained earliest service retirement age; and
"(d)Ā The separation from service is not by reason of death or disability.
"* * * * *
"(5) ĀWithdrawal of a member account under this section cancels all membership rights in the system, including the right to claim credit for any employment before withdrawal."
Under ORS 238.005(13)(a), "'[m]ember account' means the regular account and the variable account."
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2. ORS 238.105 provides, in part:
"(1) ĀWhenever, within five years after the employee is separated from all service entitling the employee to membership in the system, an employee who has withdrawn the amount credited to the member account of the member reenters the service of an employer participating in the system, the employee's rights in the system that were forfeited by the withdrawal shall be restored upon repaying to the board within one year after reentering the service of the employer, the full amount so withdrawn together with the interest that would have been accumulated on the sum had the amount not been withdrawn."
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3. ORS 238.260(3)(b) provides that, "[n]otwithstanding any other provision of this section, a member may not contribute to the Variable Annuity Account after December 31, 2003."Ā ORS 238.260(5)(d) provides that, "[n]otwithstanding paragraphs (a) to (c) of this subsection, a member may not elect to transfer funds under this subsection [from the member's regular account to the member's variable account] after December 31, 2003."
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4. At the time of petitioner's redeposit in 2005, OAR 459-007-0025(1)(b) (November 14, 2003) provided that "[m]ember lump sum payments include * * * [v]oluntary redeposit, as provided under ORS 238.105."Ā Further, OAR 459-007-0025(5) (November 14, 2003) provided:
"If the effective retirement date does not occur in the same year as the date of payment, the member lump sum payment shall be made a part of the member's regular account as of January 1 of the year following the date of payment."
Return to previous location.
5. OAR 459-007-0220 (January 7, 2000) provided, in part:
"For withdrawal of contributions of a terminated Tier Two member, not eligible for a retirement allowance, during a period for which no annual distribution of earnings or losses has been made, earnings or losses shall be applied to the Tier Two member's account to date of distribution as follows[.]"
(Emphasis added.)
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6. We note that petitioner has not challenged the validity of OAR 459-007-0025.Ā Thus, we do not address that issue.Ā See Robison Jewish Home v. SDSD, 145 Or App 446, 452 n 8, 930 P2d 862 (1996), rev den, 325 Or 368 (1997) (noting that, where the petitioner did not challenge the agency's authority to promulgate the governing rules, the procedures followed when making the rules, or the validity of the rules under Oregon law, the court did not address those issues).
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7. Petitioner also relies on Strunk v. PERB, 338 Or 145, 211-12, 108 P3d 1058 (2005), and argues that, as a vested member in the Variable Annuity Program, he is allowed to maintain--and thus restore--his variable account.Ā In Strunk, the court held that, although the wording of ORS 238.260(3) (2001), amended by Or Laws 2003, chapter 67, section 3, "does not support a continued right to contribute to the variable annuity account program, the wording does evince a legislative promise to reserve until the time of retirement any monies that a member has invested in the variable annuity account program for the purchase of a variable annuity."Ā Id. at 212.Ā The court then went on to ultimately conclude that the 2003 legislative changes, which were codified in ORS 238.260(3)(b) and (5)(d) and which discontinued permitting PERS members to contribute to their variable accounts, were not inconsistent with the legislative promise to reserve until the time of retirement any funds placed into the variable accounts.Ā Id. at 213. ĀThe court in Strunk was not confronted with the circumstances at issue here--i.e., whether after withdrawing from the system, a member is entitled to redeposit funds to the variable account, despite the prohibition on contributions and transfers to the variable account embodied in ORS 238.260(3)(b) and (5)(d).Ā We therefore do not find the analysis of Strunk to be controlling of the issues in this case and do not address petitioner's argument further.
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Sequential versus simultaneous application of multi-objective optimization and multi-criteria decision making: An empirical investigation
The multi-objective optimization paradigm prescribes that a multi-objective optimization problem should be solved in two steps executed in sequence. First an approximation of the Pareto set is determined, that contains as many non-dominated solutions as possible. Secondly, a solution is chosen among these Pareto-optimal solutions. Although a large majority of papers on multi-objective optimization focuses exclusively on the first step, the second step is equally important: a decision maker generally can only implement a single solution and will need a way to select one according to his preferences. In this paper, we empirically test the soundness of the sequential approach to multiobjective optimization and provide convincing evidence that it can be outperformed by a simultaneous approach, in which the decision maker's preferences are taken into account during the multi-objective optimization. To this end, we develop a simple tabu search algorithm for the multi-objective knapsack problem and combine it with the promethee multicriteria decision making method, both sequentially and simultaneously. The results of both approaches are compared both in terms of computing times and solution quality. The simultaneous approach is shown to strongly outperform the sequential one.
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|23 pages
|Date of creation:
|Oct 2010
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| Postal: Prinsstraat 13, B-2000 Antwerpen
Web page: https://www.uantwerp.be/en/faculties/applied-economic-sciences/
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Application Information
Scholarship Overview
This scholarship is for students graduating from Tri-West High School in Lizton, Indiana. To qualify for this scholarship, applicants must have attended Tri-West for at least two of their four years. Applicants must plan on pursuing a two- or four-year degree at a college or university in Indiana.
How easy is it to apply?
Not too bad
This scholarship's application process may have items such as essays that could take a couple hours.
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Relatively little!
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text:
The things they say:
"If I were to take a picture of this crowd right now, people would see some of your faces and the movements that are starting today. This is your moment to join those silent heroes of the past, individuals who stood in the very spot where you stand today. You now have the responsibility to carry the torch as we gather here… as hundreds of thousands did on this day 50 years ago." Movie star Forest Whitaker delivers a stirring address as he marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's iconic 'I have a dream…' civil rights speech, alongside stars including Jamie Foxx, Oprah Winfrey and Hill Harper and civil rights leaders like Rev. AL Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.


text:
Conqueror's Typographic Games winners
What if typography was a sport? Paper brand Conqueror's Typographic Games competition challenged designers to create typographic posters featuring the phrase "It's not what you win, but how you conqueror it"….
What if typography was a sport? Paper brand Conqueror's Typographic Games competition challenged designers to create typographic posters featuring the phrase "It's not what you win, but how you conqueror it"….
The Conqueror Typographic Games challenge, organised by Arjowiggins, was to create a typographical poster about sport using the above phrase. A jury chaired by French type designer Jean Francois Porchez and featuring CR editor Patrick Burgoyne among others, picked the winners from over 1,700 entries from more than 60 countries.
For the main prizes, the jury was asked to select from a shortlist comprised of the top 50 most popular entries as voted by the public online.
From those, Graeme Gauld of South Africa won the Gold Medal and a trip to London to see the Olympics (tickets included) with his illustrated letterform poster (above).
The following five Silver Medal winners each won a pair of Nike trainers:
by Luis Lourenco from Portugal
Zuleika Arroyo from USA
by Liz Pod, Australia
by Tomomichi Nishioka, Brazil
by Richard Thomas, UK
There were a further seven Bronze Medal winners (which you can see here).
The jury then made a separate selection with the UK's Gavin McGregor winning the Special Jury Prize for this entry
A further eight entries were chosen by the jury for commendation, all of which were displayed at a launch event at Colette in Paris. Here they are, in no particular order:
By Ahmed Naseer
By Anna Sau
By Charles Williams
By Jeffrey Chery
By Liam Jeal
By Enrico Visani
By Alexia Boiteau
By Mathias Doblhammer
All the Gold, Silver and Bronze medal-winning work will appear in a future issue of CR.
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text:
wrestling / News
What Happened After RAW Went Off The Air
Report by Noah Mark & Rajah.com.
After Monday's WWE RAW went off the air, WWE officials and medical personnel came down to the ring to tend to Vince McMahon. He was stretchered out of the ring while JBL and Michael Cole tended to him, looking very concerned.
John Cena's music hits and he tells the audience that Vince McMahon is being checked out by WWE doctors and "appears conscious." Cena says he knows Vince would not want the crowd going home on a down note – and announces that today is Sheamus' birthday and they're going to celebrate.
Cena calls out Sheamus and has the crowd sing Happy Birthday to him. There is a birthday cake in the ring for Shemus.
Dolph Ziggler's music hits and he confronts Cena and Sheamus. John Cena gives Ziggler an Attitude Adjustment and Sheamus gives him a Brogue Kick. John Cena grabs a bottle of water and throws it in Ziggler's face to revive him. Sheamus throws birthday cake in Ziggler's face to end the show and send the crowd home happpy.
Must-read news from around the site:
* Christina Milian looking thick in a tight, short dress
* J-Woww shows off her tight abs on Twitter
* Candice Swanepoel rolls around in a gold bikini
* Top 8 Movies of 2012
* Top 5 Actor-Musicans


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text:
Is It a Good Idea to Refer Your Social Media 'Friends'?
So much of our interactions nowadays take place on social media, making it incredibly easy to connect and build relationships with complete strangers with the click of a button. Over time, these virtual connections can morph into actual friendships. But would you feel comfortable referring one of your social media "friends" for a job and risking the possibility of vouching for a complete dud? Here's how to decide.
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner — You're in luck if the person is actually a winner in the professional world. There are some extremely qualified candidates out there who, unfortunately, lost their jobs due to the crash of the economy and are finding it difficult to land a decent job. In these cases, you'd be doing your social media contact a great service by offering him or her a job referral.
Friend of a Friend — You would be surprised how many "mutual friends" you have with others online. Chances are, the person you're thinking of referring knows someone that you're connected with as well. If you have any doubts about the person's credibility, then you might want to send a private message to the mutual friend to get their opinion on the situation.
Liar, Liar — According to Accu-Screen, it's estimated that "70 percent of college students surveyed who would lie on a resume to get a job they want." You don't want to end up in a situation where you're vouching for someone who isn't honest from the get-go, because that will only muddy the waters for you, and negatively affect your reputation. It's one thing to try and do something nice for another person by connecting them with potential employers, but it's another thing to make yourself look bad by referring someone who really isn't cut out for the part.
Curiosity Did Not Kill the Cat — Do a bit of research on the person before slapping your name on that referral. You might want to conduct a Google Search on the person's name, review their LinkedIn profile, and see if you can find anything on their social media profiles that questions their credentials and/or character. As Zora Neale Hurston puts it, "Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose." Therefore, feel free to poke around so that you're not the one left unemployed and scouting out for referrals!
Face-to-Face — If you are still unsure of referring your social media friend, meet them in person for a cup of coffee or schedule a video chat for you both to get acquainted. Think of the meeting as a mini-interview for you to base your decision on afterwards. From your one-on-one conversation, you should be able to judge whether or not you're comfortable enough to vouch for the candidate.
Don't be afraid to do your due diligence before dishing out the referrals for online friends that you're unfamiliar with. As mentioned above, many professionals aren't completely honest on their resumes, so do bit of prying before saying, "Yes." If the social media friend is being authentic, then he or she will not mind you verifying their credentials. If the person is weary of your meddling, then it's best to decline the recommendation to spare yourself the embarrassment in the end.
Tell Us What You Think
Have you referred someone from your social media networks? If so, how did it turn out? Share your experience on Twitter or in the comments section below.
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(Photo Credit: thetaxhaven/Flickr)
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Leah Arnold-Smeets
Leah Arnold-Smeets, owner of Emiko Consulting, is passionate about helping entrepreneurs capitalize on their strengths, improve on their weaknesses, and reach their full potential. Leah obtained her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration & Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Southern California (USC).
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text: [ This Very Simple Test Will Show If You're a Good Liar [VIDEO] By Drew Weisholtz January 30, 2014 Think you're a good liar? Here's an easy way to find out. Read More Category: Elsewhere Tags: elsewhere, liar test Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


text:
Lifesaving interventions drive down child mortality rates: UNICEFListen / Concerted global and national action over the past two decades has saved the lives of approximately 90 million children, according to a report released on Friday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The agency says effective and affordable treatments, as well as sustained political commitment, helped contribute to the drop in under-five deaths from 12.6 million in 1990 to 6.6 million last year.
However, UNICEF deputy chief Geeta Rao Gupta warns that without faster progress, the world will not achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of a two-thirds reduction in the child mortality rate until 2028.
"The global community has two years to avert this tragedy by fulfilling its promise to meet Millennium Goal 4 on time, by 2015. Yes, the challenge is significant to achieve MDG 4 by the end of 2015. An additional 3.5 million children's lives must be saved between now, 2013, and 2015. So we definitely need to accelerate progress urgently." (24")
The report shows that some of the strongest gains in child survival have been made in low-income countries.
For example, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal and Tanzania have reduced under-five death rates by two-thirds or more ahead of the MDG deadline.
Dianne Penn, United Nations.
Duration: 1'24″


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The Shadow Buddies foundation provides therapeutic dolls to children suffering from a variety of illnesses, disabilities and medical treatments, including cancer. The Victory Project teamed up with the foundation by donating two Sporting KC packages which were auctioned off during their annual gala on Sept. 23rd.
One of the donated packages was a private soccer clinic run by Sporting Kansas City teammates Soony Saad and Dom Dwyer. Last week the pair held a clinic for the KC Zoom – a Heartland Soccer team in Parkville, Missouri -- who won the auction. The boys had their hands full with the 14 nine-year-old girls and were surprised by how much the girls learned during their short time on the field. The hour long clinic included a variety of drills, including ball handling and shooting drills, and was capped off by autographs and photos with the players.
Follow @VictoryKC on Twitter for all the latest from The Victory Project.


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True fact: when I briefly waded my toes into the salty pool of sausage-flavored pizza-promotional journalism on Monday, I did not imagine it would lead to a 24-hour viewing of lumpy cheese enmeshed in the fatty tendrils of all sort of horrible meats.
I mean, I like pizza as much as the next guy. But I don't go in for tons of toppings, and I don't eat meat, and I'm not a huge fan of delivery chains. Again, you put it in front of me and I'll probably eat it, but never in my life has a sporting team's victory inspired me to order from one pizza chain or another. No offense to any pizza chains intended.
But I was sent so many photos Monday night of delivery pizzas pregnant with toppings that I sort of feel obligated to publish yet another piece of pizza-promotional journalism, no matter what smokey harm my soul might accrue. And you can't very well do a second bit of pizza-promotional journalism without at least some kind of value added, some combination of words to elevate this a pepperoni's width above a coupon-based circular mailing.
So I'll rely on the familiar crutch of quoting from a work of literature, attempting to give the impression that I'm actually well-read and don't just buy random 19th century novels that I can flip through to seize random quotes to append to random sportsy-blog items about football-inspired pizza monstrosities.
This is from Gogol's Dead Souls. It occurs rather early in the novel. I don't remember much about Dead Souls, except that everyone is always eating. Sturgeon, mostly. But I'm sure if it was updated for the 21st century, it would be pizza covered with sturgeon.
The dinner table, evidently, did not constitute for Nozdrev the main thing in life; the courses did not play a great role in the dinner; this dish or that was actually burnt; this dish or that hadn't even been thoroughly cooked. It was evident that the chef was guided for the most part by some weird inspiration and would pop into the pot the first thing that came to his hand; if the pepper-pot happened to be standing near by he would sprinkle in the pepper; if cabbage came handy, he would shove in the cabbage; he slopped in milk, ham, peas — in short, slap, dash, as long as it was hot, and as for the taste, well, some sort of taste would probably emerge in the end. But to make up for all that, Nozdrev leant heavily on wine.
That's about the best way I can summarize a 12-topping delivery pizza on short notice.
@dcsportsbog 12 toppings, winner winner #pizzadinner pic.twitter.com/vRdsXgU6uU
— Jason M (@HailYeahDC) October 21, 2013
Thank you Redskins, for this pizza with ten free toppings. It filled with joy and with sodium. @dcsportsbog pic.twitter.com/lWZiJm5OzN
— Lucas Irvin (@lurvin12) October 21, 2013
@dcsportsbog @KirkCousins8 Nothing tastes better than #redskins victory pizza #httr pic.twitter.com/smIdYwAmEK
— Kelly Ridings (@kellyridings) October 22, 2013
.@dcsportsbog they forgot my pepperoni, but put some pineapple in there! #runningoutoftoppings pic.twitter.com/GYkFo5PX6H
— Jorge GM (@porquejorge) October 22, 2013
@dcsportsbog I got the steinz vegetarian special – ran out of options after 8 veggie toppings so I just added cheese pic.twitter.com/3pnsq8Nqza
— Brandon M (@B_Maz) October 22, 2013
@dcsportsbog Apparently everyone in D.C. is doing this deal: I called @PapaJohns who said delivery time is estimated 1-2 hours #frustrating
— Zach Klitzman (@sportzak) October 22, 2013
It took a while, but here's my chicken, beef, extra cheese, pineapple, pepper and onion pizza. #httr cc @dcsportsbog pic.twitter.com/HBnwRGQlMf
— Zach Klitzman (@sportzak) October 22, 2013
Got my 10 topping papa johns pizza #HTTR @dcsportsbog pic.twitter.com/58TKJW8jsO
— Rob Jenkins (@robberyjenkins) October 22, 2013
@dcsportsbog #redskins 10 toppings, four of which are sausage. pic.twitter.com/4jPxkP1sc4
— Nicholas Wieroniey (@nwieroniey) October 22, 2013
@dcsportsbog @matt_terl @ivan_1er 12 toppings. Thanks Redskins. Go Bills. pic.twitter.com/WudNmyLHjq
— Bill Tuller (@billtuller) October 22, 2013
Hey @dcsportsbog, here's 10 from online. #toomanytoppings pic.twitter.com/gNNStbWzRe
— Paul Barrett Jr (@TheRealPBJr) October 22, 2013
My brother in Richmond got the 12 topping Skins victory pizza. Jealous. CC: @dcsportsbog pic.twitter.com/MRlgoJHqrq
— Matt (@theEsquire) October 22, 2013
10 topping* @PapaJohns @Redskins $9.99 pizza deal. #HTTR cc: @dcsportsbog pic.twitter.com/Q3ne14Pi2b
— Ryan Kelly (@RyanJKelly) October 21, 2013
Website only let me get ten toppings as well @dcsportsbog pic.twitter.com/AckUQ8RiSK
— Sarah Vorhauer (@SarahThrawn) October 21, 2013
@dcsportsbog Double Italian sausage, bacon, chicken, pineapple, pepperoni. pic.twitter.com/xixanPwpyV
— Addy Barnes (@AddyBarnes) October 21, 2013
@dcsportsbog pic.twitter.com/JOWvoq098N
— shep killion (@shepkillion) October 21, 2013
@dcsportsbog here's the pizza I finally ordered my friend for her birthday from Paris pic.twitter.com/zxLwZzXjt2
— shep killion (@shepkillion) October 22, 2013


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On top of St. Patty's Day today, it's also tabloid Thursday, and Star magazine is reporting that actor Bradley Cooper has betrayed Renee Zellweger. The tabloid claims to have photos that will break Zellweger's heart of Cooper getting friendly with two other A-list actresses.
The magazine says that Cooper is ready to break off their relationship of a couple of years for something new. They claim to have pictures of the actor sneaking around with other women, including Sandra Bullock and Jessica Biel.
But Cooper was just interviewed for his new movie Limitless and says that those rumors are false and that they're very happy together, but no rush to walk down the aisle.


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CRT power supply reference design offers standby of less than 1 Watt
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A leading global supplier of power management solutions, ON Semiconductor unveiled a GreenPoint reference design for CRT-TV power supplies that delivers standby power of less than 1 W. This energy efficient 160 W reference design addresses all functional blocks of the power supply and meets international regulations for low standby power dissipation.
"We developed, built and fully tested this CRT-TV power supply reference design to further demonstrate ON Semiconductor's ability to help deliver industry-leading power efficient consumer products to the market," said Andy Williams, vice president of ON Semiconductor's Power Conversion Division. "When developing this design - and all our GreenPoint power solutions - we worked closely with our worldwide customers to assure the creation of effective solutions that directly address present and future power needs. ON Semiconductor plans to continue to deliver 'green' solutions that ease the design burden on our customers for power supplies that are more and more efficient."
The Reference Design
To achieve breakthrough performance, the new CRT-TV GreenPoint reference design utilizes a number of ON Semiconductor's advanced power management devices and draws from the company's industry-leading discrete component portfolio.
The enabling device for the reference design is the newly introduced NCP1337, an enhanced Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) current-mode controller that eases the design of free running quasi-resonant power supplies such as those found in CRT-TVs. It combines a true current-mode modulator and a demagnetization detector -- that ensures full borderline/critical conduction mode in any load/line. The device eliminates the need for an external signal, by providing internal transformer core reset detection. Frequency is internally limited to 130 kilohertz (kHz) to facilitate the compliance with EMI conducted emission standards, the lowest limit being 150 KHz .
By monitoring the feedback pin activity, this controller enters ripple mode as soon as the power demand falls below a pre-determined level. The standby power of a 160 W CRT TV can be reduced to less than 1 W, while adapter no load consumption can match the most strengthens requirements. Because restart is softened by an internal soft-start and the frequency cannot fall below 25 kHz, no audible noise is emitted.
The NCP1337 features an efficient protective circuitry that, in the presence of an overcurrent condition, disables the output pulses and enters a safe burst mode when trying to restart. Once the default has gone, the device auto-recovers and the power supply resume operation.
Additional features include a bulk voltage monitoring function known as brown-out protection, an adjustable overpower compensation that tackles the effect of the input voltage variation on the maximum power a quasi-resonance PSU can deliver , and an Over Voltage Protection on the Vcc. An internal 4.0 millisecond (ms) soft-start eliminates the traditional startup stress.
The NCP1337 is ideal use in power supplies in CRT-TVs, notebook AC-DC adapters, offline battery chargers, other consumer electronics such as DVD players and set-top boxes, and any power supply where efficiency and low EMI signature are needed.
The device is offered in both an SOIC-7 and a PDIP-7 package and priced at $1.04 per unit in 2,500 unit quantities.
Supporting devices include the:
TL431 – a three-terminal programmable shunt regulator diode.
MC78L05 - an inexpensive, easy-to-use positive voltage regulator suitable for applications that require a regulated supply of up to 100 mA.
MUR420 and MUR460 – 200 volt (V) and 600 V 4 Amp (A) ultrafast SWITCHMODE™ power recitifiers.
BS108 - a 200 V 250 milliamps (mA) small signal, logic level MOSFET.
BC547 – an NPN silicon amplifier transistor.
A complete documentation package for the CRT-TV power supply is available - including description, schematic, bill-of-materials, Gerber images, and evaluation results. These materials are available at www.onsemi.com, as are the product specifications and other supporting information.
GreenPoint is ON Semiconductor's family of high-efficiency power supply reference designs that meet existing or emerging energy efficiency standards. GreenPoint reference designs include ATX power supply, CRT-TV power supply and the soon-to-be debuted Flat Panel TV power supply. For documentation package for these designs visit www.onsemi.com and do a keyword search of "GreenPoint".
ON Semiconductor is a preferred supplier of power solutions to engineers, purchasing professionals, distributors and contract manufacturers in the computer, cell phone, portable devices, automotive and industrial markets.
For more information, please visit ON Semiconductor's website at www.onsemi.com.


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As an indie developer, it's pretty hard to get your game noticed. If your game is so good that it single-handedly creates a new genre, then word of mouth might well be enough. Another dream scenario is if your game reaches some sort of tipping point where its own popularity carries it high in the sales charts for a long, long time. This latter scenario needs talent, of course you need a worthwhile product, but in my view it also needs some luck to get noticed by some big websites and get broad press coverage.
For the majority of us these are alas not likely scenarios, and with little funding available it's hard to promote your game. This blog post is the first part in a three part series about marketing an indie game and will cover what techniques we tried. The second part will discuss the results, so the costs and game sales and website traffic. The third and final part will summarise what might be learned, if anything.
We've been doing quite a bit of practical research into marketing the Xbox indie game Gerbil Physics. I have read what I could find on marketing on a budget and myself and the rest of the team have tried quite a few methods to promote the game; some free, some cheap but none outside a modest budget:
- Xbox Marketplace Charts – The Xbox Live dashboard charts showing "New Arrivals" and "Top Downloads" automatically feature all new games and can reach a very wide audience, albeit for a short time. For many developers this can be the start and end of their marketing, which is a pity as there are some quality games there that deserve a wider audience.
- Press Releases – We used the august Games Press for our press releases, screenshots and promotional marketing. As an indie developer you need to sign up and then you can post free press releases that reach a very wide games press audience. We toyed with the idea of giving our game some weird hook, like about how many ways it could have been configured, but settled on a more conventional set of press releases. Everything on the Games Press site is moderated and so maintains the high quality you would expect. We looked at other press release sites like Game Release that position themselves as "indie friendly" but weren't convinced they would be worth the 150 USD price tag. If anyone has used their site we'd be interested to know their experiences.
- Free Games – We gave away some 50 copies of the game to various individuals and via various websites. We ran a competition giving away free copies.
- Indie Review Sites – We submitted the game to some 40 or so websites that we'd classify as indie. This includes sites like XBLIG and xnPlay that are devoted to Xbox Indie games and genuinely want to see games do well and get some media attention. These sites naturally don't get as much traffic as the mainstream sites, but they're on the side of the indie dev and do a fantastic job of building awareness.
- Mainstream Review Sites – We submitted the game to some 20 or so websites that we'd classify as mainstream. This includes the likes of IGN and GameSpot and a whole raft of others, including the games and entertainment columns of some newspapers. Getting noticed here is a much tougher proposition.
- Online Advertising – This was an interesting marketing method, the brainchild of XBLIG's Neal Emery. The idea was 10 developers would club together and purchase a shared banner advert on some high-traffic websites. The advert would take the potential customer to a landing page that featured all 10 games at once. We ended up purchasing a slot for 20,000 advert appearances on sites like Official Xbox Magazine.
- Printed Leaflets – The ever inventive Pencel Games artist and designer Jon Goosens did a great job of designing promotional leaflets. I got 5,000 of these printed and then proceeded to try to get them placed into game stores.
The mainstream stores like Game (the UK equivalent to the US GameStop) were totally not interested and could only take promotional material if it were sanctioned by their head office. Independent stores were more open, and some few did take the leaflets. Interestingly, one independent store would not take the leaflets on the grounds that there was "nothing in it for them". I suggested that they might sell more MS Points cards but it turned out they didn't sell MS Points cards as there wasn't enough profit in it.
Plan A of getting the leaflets into game stores wasn't really successful, so Plan B was to distribute the leaflets through letterboxes in London. I was going to distribute these all myself, but it was a lot more time consuming than I had expected and I ended up paying for someone else to distribute them door-to-door.
- Seasonal Promotions – Using the Xbox Marketplace has lots of benefits, but it is limited what you can do with your game's price. It's not possible to put a game "on sale" for short periods. As we were already at the lowest price point anyway, we had to find other ideas for seasonal promotions. We came up with the idea of giving a game as a Valentine's Day gift, and an amusing poster was produced to encapsulate the idea. We then hawked this around websites and news sites asking them to publish a story about it.
- Game Website – We built a serviceable game website and there was already a vibrant art site both of which we tried to get traffic for.
- Online Store – We built a CafePress shop that allows Gerbil Physics-themed items like t-shirts, posters and buttons (badges) to be purchased. These products really are for marketing as the mark-up is very small and we don't really expect to be shifting boxes of stuff. In fact shifting one that wasn't bought by ourselves would be nice. CafePress offer a good service though, and they deal with the production of goods, handling payments and deliveries. All you have to do is provide the art.
- Twitter – We created a Twitter account and started building some followers.
- Blog – In all honesty, this blog is not intended to sell copies of games. It's really just to share the experiences of game development and hopefully help other developers.
- Facebook – We created a Facebook product page and added some media to it. We participate in the group page "Xbox Puzzle and Trivia Games" organised by same Neal Emery who setup the online advertising group mentioned earlier.
- Tell A Friend & Other Games – We added features in-game to allow players to easily message their Xbox friends saying that they should try the game. We also added a promo screen encouraging players to try the Indie title "Horn Swaggle Islands".
- Radical Long Shots – One thinking-outside-the-box idea that could have been awesome, was to aim high. Really high. Free copies of the game were sent to TV shows. Two free copies of the game were sent to the US's first children. Yes, that's right Malia and Sasha Obama got sent some promo codes, and who knows, had they ever seen game they might have liked it. If they have Xboxes.
Sales results and website traffic, or lack thereof, have been monitored since we launched the game on 7th December 2009. The next part in this blog series will give the hard facts behind sales and traffic and will try to analyse the cost/benefit of each of the above marketing methods.


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Let Us Defeat the IDF
In normal countries the majority would have been out of its mind by now: To let a relatively small group of disengagement foes dictate an agenda at such a high price is inconceivable.
The three arrows that indicate the routes for the attack that is being planned by the Jewish settlers and their supporters for this coming week are no less than the heart of a war map. Tens of thousands of citizens of the State of Israel are going to battle with their government, their parliament and especially the army and the police force of a sovereign state. This is a violent irredentism by a small minority that has a culture of its own and laws of its own for which the source of authority is not elected by a public. However, it has no objections to continuing funding from the state against which it is fighting for its war against that state.
This week, this battle map will compel the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police to deploy thousands of soldiers and officers to defend the state's sovereignty and laws at an unbearable cost. This is not a matter only of the cost per soldier or policeman, the price of the food and the fuel and the physical damage to vehicles that comes to tens of millions of shekels, but also of the neglect of the country's security during that time: Citizens will not be able to receive the service to which they are entitled from the police, the Magen David Adom emergency medical service stations will be on call for the war against Jewish settlers and the IDF will have to decrease its routine defense activity to build another layer and another layer around the Gaza Strip.
The citizens of Israel can rightly see themselves as abandoned during this time, thanks to the settlers. In normal countries the majority would have been out of its mind by now: To let a relatively small group dictate an agenda at such a high price and paid for from its pocket is inconceivable behavior. Isn't it at least possible to demand that this defensive operation against those who are subverting the government be paid for from the lawbreakers' budget?
But the settlers know they can still rely on someone. The majority that is paying for it will stay at home this time too as the orange convoys pass by and laugh in their faces for being suckers and continuing to obey the laws of the state. Mothers will continue to just click their tongues when they see their perspiring soldier sons or police husbands suffering the filthy verbal insults heaped upon them from every side. But it is not only a matter of insult. This time the Jewish settlers have learned the lesson of Kfar Maimon and are explicitly trying to exhaust the security forces. It appears this is no longer about a battle for preserving the holy land of Gaza, but rather a question of who will win. To achieve this aim they are prepared to trample even those who have already asked to leave the battle zone, prepare their new homes and start the next chapter.
There is no act more legitimate than the efforts of minorities to participate in the decision-making process. This is the essence of democracy. There is no greater crime toward it than the attempt by the minority to gain control of the monopoly on decision-making. The Middle East abounds with radical minority organizations that with a pretense of democracy are trying to topple governments and replace them with theocracies. In Israel, this has always been the Arab minority, especially the extreme religious part of it.
The Jewish population, since the establishment of the state, has in its vast majority adopted politics as the legitimate battlefield. A Jewish underground? The Temple Mount Faithful? The hilltop youth? Jewish assassins? All of these have been chalked up as margins of the margins, the hallucinatory and lunatic fringe. But what can be done when this fringe suddenly begins to move along three routes that are heading toward Gaza but in the end will harm Jerusalem? What can be done when the traditional role of Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir is now being played by "upstanding citizens" like settler leader Pinhas Wallerstein or National Union MK Zvi Hendel and when extremism has become the mainstream?
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text:
Hippocampus histrix
|Scope: Global
Language: English
Evanson, M., Foster, S. J. & Vincent, A. C. J. 2011. Tracking the international trade of seahorses (Hippocampus species) - The importance of CITES. Fisheries Centre Research Reports 19(2). Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Canada.
FAO. 2001. Tropical shrimp fisheries and their impact on living resources. Shrimp fisheries in Africa: Cameroon, Nigeria and the United Republic of Tanzania. FAO Fisheries Circular. No. 974. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
Foster, S.J. and Vincent, A.C.J. 2004. Life history and ecology of seahorses: implications for conservation and management. Journal of Fish Biology 65: 1-61.
Indian Ministry of Environments and Forests. 2001. Amendments to Schedule I and Schedule III of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (53 of 1972)..
IUCN. 2002. 2002 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 8 October 2002).
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (ver. 2012.2). Available at: http://www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 17 October 2012).
Jennings, S., Reynolds, J.D. and Mills, S.C. 1998. Life history correlates of responses to fisheries exploitation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 265:333-339.
Kuiter, R.H. 2000a. Seahorses, Pipefishes and their Relatives. A Comprehensive Guide to Syngnathiformes. TMC Publishing, Chorleywood, UK.
Lourie, S.A., Foster, S.J., Cooper, E.W.T. and Vincent, A.C.J. 2004. A Guide to the Identification of Seahorses. Project Seahorse and TRAFFIC North America, University of British Columbia and World Wildlife Fund, Washington D.C.
Lourie, S.A., Vincent, A.C.J. and Hall, H.J. 1999. Seahorses: an identification guide to the world's species and their conservation. Project Seahorse, London, U.K.
McPherson, J. M. & Vincent, A.C.J. 2004. Assessing East African trade in seahorse species as a basis for conservation under international controls. Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 14: 521-538.
Meeuwig, J.J., Hoang, D.H., Ky, T.S., Job, S.D. and Vincent, A.C.J. 2006. Quantifying non-target seahorse fisheries in central Vietnam. Fisheries Research 81: 149-157.
Morgan, S.K. 2007. The ontogoenetic ecology and conservation of exploited tropical seahorses. Department of Biology, McGill University.
O'Donnell, K.P., Pajaro, M.G., and Vincent, A.C.J. 2010. How does the accuracy of fisher knowledge affect seahorse conservation status? Animal Conservation 13(6): 526-533.
Perante, N.C., Pajaro, M.G., Meeuwig, J.J. and Vincent, A.C.J. 2002. Biology of a seahorse species Hippocampus comes in the central Philippines. Journal of Fish Biology 60: 821-837.
Perry, A. L., Lunn, K. E. & Vincent, A. C. J. 2010. Fisheries, large-scale trade, and conservation of seahorses in Malaysia and Thailand. Aquatic conservation: marine and freshwater ecosystems 20: 464-475.
Philippine Department of Agriculture. 1998. The Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998: Republic Act No. 8550.
Robinson, M.M. and Zhang, X. 2011. The world medicine situation 2011 (Traditional medicine: global situation, issues, and challenges). World Health Organisation (WHO), Geneva.
UNEP-WCMC. 2012a. CITES trade statistics derived from the CITES Trade Database. UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK.
UNEP-WCMC. 2012b. Review of Significant Trade: Species selected by the CITES Animals Committee following CoP15.
Vincent, A.C.J. 1996. The International Trade in Seahorses. TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, UK.
Vincent, A.C.J. and Sadler, L.M. 1995. Faithful pair bonds in wild seahorses, Hippocampus whitei.. Animal Behaviour 50: 1557-1569.
Vincent, A.C.J., Evans, K.L. and Marsden, A.D. 2005. Home ranges of the monogamous Australian seahorse, Hippocampus whitei. Environmental Biology of Fishes 72: 1-12.
Vincent, A. C. J., Foster, S. J. & Koldewey, H. J. 2011a. Conservation and management of seahorses and other Syngnathidae. Journal of fish biology 78: 1681-1724.
Vincent, A.C.J., Giles, B.G., Czembor, C.A. and Foster, S.J. 2011b. Trade in seahorses and other syngnathids in non-Asian countries (1998-2001). Fisheries Centre Research Reports 19(1). Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia [ISSN 1198-6727].
|Wiswedel, S. 2012. Hippocampus histrix. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012: e.T10070A16644674. . Downloaded on 24 November 2017.
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Build Log
Sterling S.E.5a electric conversion
After a thoroughly enjoyable and successful electric conversion of the Sterling 36" Aeronca C-3 for funbuild 4 I decided to give another Sterling kit a try. Sterling was bought by Estes at some point and reissued a few of their kits in the 90's. One of them was the S.E.5a, number A-17 from the old "A" line of rubber powered or control line kits that Sterling produced in the 60's and 70's. I picked the Estes version because it was cheaper and I felt less guilty about cutting in to it. The box says 24" wingspan but the original was 22" and the plans confirm it still is. The plans have obviously been redrawn but still look well laid out, complete and straightforward. I'm glad the parts outlines are on the plans since this is still a die-cut kit and I may have to make a few. The wood looks alright compared to old Sterling kits but the crunch is still there.
I've already decided to laminate the tail outlines to save weight and I figure the less wood I use out of the box the better. When I started removing and sanding the die-cut ribs I realized it would be less work to make them from scratch. Step one is to make some parts from copied portions of the plan. One nice thing about small models is you can reproduce parts of the plan you need with a home printer/scanner.
Thanks Glenn
With the C-3 I ended up cutting all the wood but still used the plastic pieces and decals so the kit really became unusable. Who would want to use Sterling wood in the first place, right? I'm already cutting all the wing pieces since there aren't that many but may still use the fuse formers that came with it, we'll see. I have a number of vintage Sterling kits that I would never build due to their collect-ability but I'm always on the lookout for incomplete or beat up ones to break in to.
I used two 1/16" x 3/32" wide balsa strips for laminating and built the tail feathers 3/32" thick instead of 1/16" as originally called for on the plans to give me extra sanding material, after sanding they'll be a little thicker than 1/16" for some added strength. The rudder came out pretty flimsy so I remade it using 3 plys instead. I have a hard time removing the strips from the foam shapes after the glue has dried so I wrapped the foam with a thin strip of blue tape beforehand this time and it worked great. I've heard some don't like building over waxed paper because glue still sticks to it but I like to leave flat parts stuck down until after I block sand.
"I've heard some don't like building over waxed paper because glue still sticks to it"
Wax paper just ain't what it used to be. Used to be that the only sticking with wax paper, was caused by glue getting down to the base paper through the pin holes. The last time I used it, almost every glue I used stuck to the surface, of the paper.
I don't think anything is like it used to be Les, they try to cut costs on material and the quality of the end product goes down. I almost exclusively use wood glue to build and, while it does stick to the waxed paper, releases fairly easy. I lift the part with the waxed paper attached about a quarter inch off the bench then gently push the paper down off the part through openings in the structure. One of the nice things about building over metal is you can use wood glue right on top of it and pop parts off with a razor blade. Apply a little car wax and CA releases too, this is also a good way of temporarily attaching jigs to power saw/drill press tables.
Parchment paper, I'll have to get some. After a couple evenings making shapes I got down to assembling some wing panels. As I mentioned before I decided to cut all the wing parts from scratch rather than use the stuff from the kit. I replaced the 1/16" square balsa spars with basswood and used lightweight balsa for everything else except the trailing edge and stringers where I used some harder stuff. I start by gluing the trailing edge, tip outline and ribs together then induce washout with a shim before gluing the rest. Notice the 1/16" shims at the leading edge, this is to align it with the front of the ribs which taper up on the bottom a little bit before meeting the leading edge
I'm going to keep things simple and light so only three channels on this one. Since it will be rudder only I matched the dihedral on the plans, they provide a template on the plans that I used to make a jig. I have also provided a shot of the rib outline to show the curve at the bottom leading edge. This is the first three channel kit I have built where the wing isn't flat all the way across the bottom and have no idea how this will change it's flight characteristics.
You're moving right along on tis one. Nice job so far.
I like your magnetic hold downs. A buddy gave me a stack of magnets but I don't have any sheet steel for the surface. Where did you get yours?
The Clark Y airfoil you posted is perfect.
After converting a lot of rubber free flight models I have come to the conclusion that the Clark Y is the best airfoil for the way I like to fly my models.
Good lift at a reasonably scale speed, not too draggy and minimum speed/pitch coupling.
A completely flat bottom airfoil has a very narrow speed range. Try to push it through the air faster and it will pitch the nose up. Chasing the pitch trim is very annoying and while fine for rubber free flight I don't use them on my conversions anymore.
Looking at the wing pic, did you shim the leading edge strip up off the surface to match up with the top of the ribs? Kinda looks like the strip is too low but it could be just the pic.
Dihedral, I used the free flight dihedral on my Sterling SPAD conversion.
The rudder is very effective and it turns well. I will do a nice snap roll too with only rudder. Last weekend I snapped to inverted, flew a half circle then pulled out in a half outside loop. Did it again but that time used rudder to roll into inverted, flew a half circle then rudder rolled back to upright.
Not scale, but kind of cool for a rudder only model. Only downside is the SPAD looks kinda goofy with a thick wing and dihedral.
Here's a pic of my SPAD for inspiration, hope you don't mind.
I got my steel sheet from a metal duct fabrication shop. You want something thick enough not to bend but thin enough to sit flat against the bench, I think mine is 10 gauge. Cold rolled steel from a metal welding shop is no good since it will never be truly flat and won't conform to the bench like sheet steel.
In post #11 nothing has been glued yet so your right, the leading edge is too low. In post #10 everything is being glued and you can see the shims there. I should have posted them in reverse order I guess.
Thanks for your input regarding airfoil and dihedral, it sounds like I should have a decent flyer when I'm done as long as I don't screw anything up. Your Spad looks great, that is an excellent in flight photo! How much is your AUW on it?
Wonder if one of the home improvement stores would have some sheet metal.
Looks like I was looking at the wrong pic. I see what you mean, the finished wing panel looks good.
SPAD weighs 13.4oz RTF with a 2 cell 800 battery installed.
Had to add 2oz of lead to the nose to get the cg close.
Pic was taken by Jay Smith with his whizzbang Nikon SLR camera that has about a bazillion pixels and a lens the size of a beer can.
I got dihedral and washout so now I need to decide on incidence. The plans show what looks to be about 3 degrees of positive incidence in both wings while the stab is at zero. I'm assuming the wings are mounted like this to eliminate down thrust at the prop which I like but I don't know if I should keep them equal. I think most non-aerobatic bipe models have positive incidence in their bottom wing only so the leading edges are closer together than the trailing edges but I don't have a lot of experience in this area. Any input or experiences on this subject would be appreciated
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I Want to End This Crazy Relation With My Friend
Personal Stories, Advice, and Support 6 People
I choose this experience over a year ago.I can not believe how long I had wanted to leave him. The honeymoon stage lastest a much shorter time than I thought. Well today I finally did it. I can't wait to be able to say a month later , no I have not spoken to him in XYZ amount of time. I will feel so proud of myself.
sandmoon 41-45, F 1 Response 1 Jul 3, 2014


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DEAR DR. DOUMA: I am about to give birth to my second child. In the first year of my first son's life I was scared to death that he might die of SIDS. Please help me. -- B.N., Warren, Pa.
ANSWER: Sudden infant death syndrome can cause pain and suffering well beyond the loss of a child. The guilt that many parents feel on top of their grief can be tragic and debilitating: ''If I had only paid more attention to my child, he would still be alive ...''
For many parents, like you and your husband, who worry that their child may die of syndrome, months of disturbed sleep is the result.
A recent study at the Harvard Medical School has detected an abnormality in the brain that is associated with SIDS. In the part of the brain that controls breathing and other vital functions, children who died of SIDS had a lowered ability to use the chemical serotonin to transmit nerve signals.
This does not mean it's inevitable that all children with the abnormality will die of SIDS, but it certainly means that parents should not shoulder the blame for such deaths.
SIDS is still a poorly understood disorder characterized by the unexpected and unexplained death of a seemingly healthy infant. Although uncommon, it is a leading cause of infant death occurring after the newborn period.
We know, for example, that most deaths from SIDS occur when an infant is between several weeks and 6 months old. The number of deaths by age peaks at 2 months of age. Most deaths occur between midnight and 8 a.m.
We also know that there is usually an increase in deaths due to SIDS during the flu season. SIDS is more common among ethnic and racial minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.
Other risk factors identified by analyzing the epidemiological information include low birth weight, teen-age or drug-addicted mothers and maternal smoking, and a family history of SIDS.
There are no ''symptoms.'' The most common pathology findings are small hemorrhages and mild inflammation and congestion in the throat and windpipe. These findings and others suggest that the infants who die from SIDS have had hypoxia, a decrease in the supply of oxygen in the bloodstream, either off and on or over a long period of time.
Not only is the cause unknown, but the way the death actually occurs is also a mystery. For example, it is not known whether breathing stops first or heartbeat irregularities occur first.
Some infants who have sleep apnea episodes subsequently die of SIDS, but most infants with sleep apnea do not die of SIDS and most who die of SIDS have not had identifiable episodes of sleep apnea.
I know all of this may not be very helpful to you and may even cause more anxiety. However, you can review the possible risk factors I've presented and compare them to your situation to have some idea as to the relative risk for your child.
Also, results of many recent studies suggest that SIDS is more common in infants who sleep on their stomachs and sleep on or near bedding that is extra fluffy. So the Consumer Products Safety Commission, in conjunction with Mattel, is sponsoring a national education campaign that, among other things, recommends the following:
Always put babies to sleep on their backs without soft bedding.
Only use the mattress provided by the manufacturer.
Check to see if a playpen has been recalled by calling the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission at (800) 638-2772.
Other closely related issues with playpen safety suggest you also:
Make sure the playpen hasn't been improperly altered or repaired; look especially for sharp, projecting objects.
Make sure the playpen's top rails lock into place automatically.
Make sure mesh-sided playpens have holes less than a quarter of an inch in size to avoid strangulation.
Caring for a young child is one of the most rewarding experiences of a person's life. Parents should take every care to prevent tragedy.
This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, October 2, 2001.
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text: The ghd Air has a choice of two nozzles, variable power and temperature controls, and a Cool Shot button to finish off your blow-dry and help to keep your style in place for longer. The ghd Air™ hairdryer has a powerful 2100W motor and advanced ionic technology to lock in more moisture – the result is softer, shinier hair, less frizz and a sleeker, straighter style. By interchanging the nozzles and adjusting the power and temperature of the blow-dry, you are able to perfect your drying technique according to the style you want, and hair will look healthier and shinier. The design is ergonomic to suit right and left-handed users.


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HERCULES — The city will wait up to seven weeks before making a final decision to go forward with selling the stalled Sycamore North housing and retail project or to look for new buyers.
The City Council voted 4-1 on Tuesday, with Vice Mayor Sherry McCoy dissenting, to allow additional time for the developer to clear two remaining issues by or before the council's Jan. 28 meeting. The agreement also allows city staff to bring matters before council ahead of the Jan. 28 date if there are pertinent issues that arise.
Two weeks, ago the council gave San Francisco-based Presidio Development Partners time to decide whether the Sycamore North project, now dubbed Town Centrale, was still financially feasible for the developer even if another approximately $6 million is added to the total cost.
On Tuesday, the developers said yes.
"We're prepared to close provided the project remains financially feasible," said Mark Conroe, who spoke on behalf of the developer during Tuesday's council meeting.
Conroe said his development partners haven't done a full, formal fiscal analysis, but he said they will complete one if they get an adverse ruling that could add additional cost to the project.
At issue is a pending ruling on whether the project developer will have to pay prevailing union wages to complete the project. The ruling, which is expected any day from the Department of Industrial Relations in Sacramento, could add an additional $6 million to the total project cost if it's decided that union wages must be paid.
A second issue still to be resolved is an eminent domain lawsuit filed by the city against the Bayside Homeowners Association over an alley behind the residential-commercial property that the developer needs to complete the property. The issue is pending in Contra Costa Superior Court, and a determination on that suit is expected this month.
If the city cannot provide a clear title, with the remaining issues resolved, the overall selling price could be negatively affected if the city advertised the property to other buyers. It made sense to wait for the remaining issues to be resolved, said Councilman Dan Romero.
Sycamore North started out as a city project but stalled in 2011, when Hercules ran out of money with more than $35 million spent and an estimated $30 million needed to finish. The initial plan had been for 96 apartments, 74 of them affordable, over up to 40,000 square feet of retail space.
The current plan is for Presidio Development Partners to finish the project as an upscale, market-rate apartment complex with about 140 units over 10,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurants and stores.
Also during Tuesday's meeting, the council unanimously elected Myrna de Vera to serve as mayor, with McCoy as vice mayor, as part of the annual mayoral rotation.


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The official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday that 663 shops producing pirated products, including movies, music CDs, software and books, were shut down from late last year to June.
China has struggled to deal with rampant piracy and the widespread production of bogus goods. Cracking down on such violations has long been a key demand from foreign businesses in China.
Trade groups say illegal Chinese copying of music, designer clothing and other goods costs legitimate producers billions of dollars a year in lost sales.
© 2017 CelebrityAccess and Associated Press (AP). All rights reserved. Website Use Agreement. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.


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About 35 Hurt in Prague Gas Blast
PRAGUE—A powerful explosion in the historic center of the Czech capital city was the result of a leaky gas pipe, not a terrorist attack, and there were no deaths from the accident, the city's mayor said Monday.
"It was a gas explosion and from all available information it was not a terrorist explosion," Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda said at a news conference.
Mr. Svoboda scaled back the number of injured to 35 from earlier...


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As a member of the Immigration Reform Caucus, I will have an opportunity to work with my colleagues to develop a comprehensive immigration reform package. I believe in border security first. We must stop the flow of illegal aliens into the United States. If we don't, our school systems, health care delivery systems and safety will continue to be compromised. The current law is not being executed efficiently. Our sheriffs, officers, and guards have too many impediments to be able to do their job effectively, which makes it much easier for illegals to come through our borders. For this reason, I am supporting the following legislation that would strengthen our immigration process.
* H.R. 140 - Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011
o This legislation amends the Immigration and Nationality Act by clarifying that a person born in the United States gains citizenship if the parents are: a) a citizen or national of the United States, b) a lawful permanent resident alien who resides in the United States, and c) an alien performing active service in the United States Armed Forces.
* H.R. 152 -- National Guard Border Enforcement Act
o To provide for the deployment of 10,000 additional National Guard troops along the international border between the United States and Mexico in support of border control activities until the Secretary of Homeland Security certifies that the federal government has achieved operational control of the border. The bill also authorizes the Secretary to exceed 10,000 troops upon the request of a state that shares a portion of the U.S. -- Mexico border if, despite deployment of the first additional 10,000 troops, operation control of the border has not been achieved.
* H.R. 997 - English Language Unity Act of 2011
o This legislation makes English the official language of the United States.
* H.R. 1505 -- National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act
o This legislationprohibits the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture from taking action on public lands which impede border security on such lands.
* H.R. 2000 -- Secure America Through Enforcement and Verification Act of 2011 ("SAVE Act")
o This legislation increases border patrol agents by 5,000, utilizes new technology and infrastructure to secure the border, and expands anti-smuggling enforcement programs through a pilot program using aerial surveillance, satellite, and equipment sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. In addition to expanding the E-Verify program and making it mandatory for all employers, the bill also expedites the processing and removal of illegal aliens by expanding detention capacity and increasing the number of immigration judges.
* H.R. 2463 -- Border Security Technology Innovation Act of 2011
o I have introduced this bill again this year, and it was passed by the Technology and Innovation Subcommittee of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on July 13. The bill focuses on key long-term technologies that could substantially improve the security of our nation's borders, including research into the routine operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for border and maritime security missions, research into tunnel detection technologies, and research to counter the use of counterfeit documentation for cargo and persons. The bill also directs the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a study into the use of biometric technology at the border. Finally, the bill includes provisions to extend a scientific advisory board that expired in 2008, requests input from the Government Accountability Office on long-term research trends in this area, and requires technical projects at DHS to include clear cost and operational requirements.
It is important that we recognize the significant contributions legal immigrants have made to the United States; however, I do not favor granting citizenship to someone for breaking an immigration law.
Source: http://ralphhall.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=22§iontree=5,22


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(1) Ecological science: the science concerned with the interactions of living organisms with each other and with their environment, also called bionomics.
(2) A branch of biology that deals with the distribution, abundance and interactions of living organisms at the level of communities, populations, and ecosystems, as well as at the global scale.
(2) The system within the environment as it relates to organisms living in it.
(3) A branch of sociology that deals with the relations of human beings with their physical and social environment, also called as human ecology.
Ecology is a broad science encompassing many fields. As such, ecology has various distinct subdisciplines; some of which are:
- Behavioural ecology
- Community ecology or synecology
- Ecophysiology
- Ecosystem ecology
- Evolutionary ecology
- Global ecology
- Human ecology
- Population ecology
Word origin: term coined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, from the Greek oikos meaning "house" and logos meaning "science".
Related forms: ecological (adjective)


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VIIBRE - Shared Resource Cores
VIIBRE Automated Biosystems Core (ABC)
The VIIBRE Automated Biosystems Core consists of:
- The PerkinElmer Opera QEHS 2.0
A fully automated, ultra-highspeed confocal spinning disk microscope for screening applications with motorized stage and z-focus drive, ultra-fast laser based autofocus (0.1s), 4 laser exitation sources and tunable UV/Vis, 3 Peltier-cooled CCD cameras, one non-cooled CCD, multiple options for fluorescent filter selections, simultaneous or separate exposures, and multiple air- as well as water-immersion objectives for precision imaging.
- In addition, we offer the following high-content image analysis software that seamlessly interfaces with large image quantities for batch analysis of high-content images:
PerkinElmer Columbus software or Volocity 3D analysis software. Columbus is a server-based comprehensive and intuitive software with pre-configured building blocks and semi-automated software that complements PerkinElmer's fully customizable, script-based Acapella image analysis software. Columbus also offers powerful machine learning capabilities. Volocity allows the user to measure and analyze your (large) image sets in 3D.
To learn more, schedule training or to utilize our Screening 4 Hire option, please visit the ABC website or contact Vanessa Allwardt.
VIIBRE Microfabrication Core (MFC)
The VIIBRE Microfabrication Core offers cleanroom facilities including photolithography and microfabrication labs, as well as expertise for the design, manufacture, and implementation of micro- and other small-scale electronic, mechanical, and fluidic devices.
Typical products include fluidic networks, pumps, valves, arrays of microfabricated traps and elements for cellular study, implantable devices for in vivo imaging, liquid and gas control systems, biological habitats and environments, microbioreactors, and more.
Our products are fully customizable, and consultants are available to discuss your specific needs and produce device and instruments for your research.
To learn more, schedule training or chat about your research needs, please visit the MFC website or contact David Schaffer.


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Start Slideshow
- Monte Rosa Alpine HutThis remote alpine retreat calls to mind classic James Bond architecture, complete with a futuristic design, advanced building technology, and killer views of the Matterhorn. Can't you just see Bond skiing down the glacier in a white ski suit, stealthily approaching his enemy's headquarters? You could imagine that the top of the roof pulls down to reveal a giant laser, which is used as a tractor beam to smash the moon into Earth as the villain demands 700 million 700 billion dollars from the US Government. Oh wait, sorry, we've been having nightmares about the economy. But seriously though, this hut outside of Zermatt in the Swiss Alps is for real. It's the Swiss Alpine Club's new Monte Rosa mountaineer's hut, and it's 90% energy self-sufficient.1
- Monte Rosa Alpine HutThe autonomous alpine shelter, which resides at 2,810 meters above sea level, was designed by the Department of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Technical University in Zurich (ETH)2
- Monte Rosa Alpine HutThe four-story building is used by mountaineers, from all over the world as a base camp from which to go on expeditions up the mountains and glaciers.3
- Monte Rosa Alpine HutThe retreat was designed by both students and professionals at the ETH in a combined effort to create a modern, efficient building. Interestingly, the structure was pre-fabricated from from wood and digitally optimized to become a state of the art hotel - so James Bond. The hut received a Holcim Bronze Award for Sustainable Construction upon its completion.4
- Monte Rosa Alpine HutSince the hut is situated at the edge of a glacier and outside of the range of power lines, it was designed to be 90% energy independent and very energy-efficient. The majority of its energy is generated from photovoltaic panels and solar thermal systems, while the rest comes from a cogenerative heat and power system as a backup source.5
- Monte Rosa Alpine HutMonte Rosa Hut Guest Room Layout6
- Monte Rosa Alpine HutMonte Rosa restaurant layout7


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St. Charles Parish President V.J. St. Pierre Jr. has vetoed the Parish Council's move to replace an engineering company on a sewer system repair project, saying the last-minute change at the May 21 meeting may have violated the state open meetings law.
However, St. Pierre acknowledged in his veto message that the wording of the ordinance led council members to believe that the administration was planning to award Environmental Engineering Services of LaPlace a major new engineering contract rather than tasking the firm to finish an existing project.
The estimated construction cost of the project to refurbish older parts of the sewer system in the Luling area is $1.2 million, rather than the $6.5 million project that the ordinance appeared to authorize. Much of that work has already been done.
The council voted to change firms after the public hearing on the original ordinance on a motion by Clayton "Snookie" Faucheux Jr. Faucheux said he wanted to give more work to local companies.
The LaPlace firm had been the engineer on the project to refurbish older sewer lift stations on the parish's west bank. The change gave the work to Civil and Environmental Engineering, a Luling firm headed by Danny Hebert, a former parish public works director.
The parish is using a low-interest state loan to pay for the work.
Parish Attorney Leon "Sunny" Vial III said at the time that the change in companies may have violated the law, which requires public notice before a vote.
Council Chairman Larry Cochran said Thursday that council members met with St. Pierre last week, and came away with a promise of better communication.
"We want to have some input on these engineering contracts,and we haven't been getting that. But we had a good meeting and we think there will be having better communication between council members and the administration," he said.
Faucheux said Thursday that he and other members who met agreed to uphold St. Pierre's veto so a new ordinance could be introduced.
"I have some problems with the part of his budget message that said what we did was illegal. I don't think it was. But we have an agreement that we will have more time to look at these contracts before they come before us," Faucheux said.
Under the parish charter, the council can vote to override the veto at Monday's meeting or at the following meeting on June 18.