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Sky high: Is county government to blame?
At this moment, the number of houses listed for sale in Albemarle County for over $1 million is 63. The number under $150,000? Zero.
The down side to a "best place to live," as any teacher, police officer (or reporter) can attest, is that Albemarle housing is not affordable for anyone earning a typical paycheck. And one school of thought holds that government regulation is to blame.
"I think the question of regulation driving up costs is not even academic," says Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum. "If it's mandated by a municipality that you must do something, that will increase the cost. The question is whether the public wants to pay for those mandates."
Board of Supervisors Chair Dennis Rooker begs to differ. He pegs supply and demand in an appealing area as the reason median real estate prices have risen 50 percent in the past five years.
"If you're in a very attractive community, the price of housing is more than in those that are not desirable," says Rooker, pointing to Southwest and Southside Virginia as places with plenty of low-priced housing.
Still, many in the building community call Albemarle's high-density, pedestrian-friendly "neighborhood model" a factor in the rising cost– and lack– of affordable housing.
The sidewalks, tree-lined streets, and green spaces now required by the county would have added $34,000 to the cost of a single-family house in "Timberwood," a section of the sprawling Forest Lakes subdivision built in 1997, according to a 2004 study by the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association.
"The question is whether government should mandate infrastructure," says Williamson. "I know neighborhoods that are nice without sidewalks on both sides of the street, where there are no street trees but there are trees in yards."
"I think everyone is concerned about affordable housing," says Dave Phillips, CEO of the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. "At the same time, the county passes regulations like the neighborhood model that give builders less flexibility."
The county's Comprehensive Plan was intended to cluster growth in designated areas like North 29 and Crozet. Could the regulations actually be pushing growth into the rural areas? Critics of the Neighborhood Model think so, and their view is supported by some recent statistics.
In 2004, only 53 percent of new home permits issued were in growth areas, down from a high of 70 percent the previous nine years, according to Albemarle planning director Wayne Cilimberg.
"Time is money," says Phillips. "It's easier and cheaper to build in rural areas," he says.
That's a scenario county officials want to fix. "We want to get those numbers much lower in the rural areas," says Cilimberg.
He also points out that Albemarle had high housing prices way before the neighborhood model came into being. "The place is popular," he says.
However, the popularity isn't causing a housing boom. In fact, Cilimberg says, the number of residential permits issued last year– 599– was the lowest since 1995. While he suggests that some projects in the pipeline will soon bolster that number, developers see it as further evidence that building in Albemarle is difficult.
"The problem with the neighborhood model is it's the only model the planning department and planning commission want to see," says Phillips. "But it was intended to be just one model."
"It's not mandatory," counters Supervisor Rooker. "The neighborhood model is only in growth areas." And Rooker argues that such a plan is necessary to accommodate the 1.5 to 2 percent annual growth in Albemarle.
"The goal is to try to protect the rural areas," says Rooker. "If you're going to be successful, you have to make an urban area attractive and make buyers want to live on a quarter-acre lot rather than a three-acre lot."
Clement "Kim" Tingley, who's running for Mitch Van Yahres' 57th District General Assembly seat, owns Tingley Construction, which specializes in affordable housing in the Richmond area. He says regulations there also drive up the cost of housing.
"Sometimes when people are spending money that's not theirs, they lose sight of what's no longer affordable," says Tingley.
Another 57th District candidate, Rich Collins, doesn't necessarily buy the idea that government restrictions on growth increase the cost of housing.
"Based on national surveys, there's no evidence that correlates growth management with housing price increases," says Collins, a founder of Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population. ASAP, as it's called, is dedicated to stopping growth, which critics say inevitably leads to higher housing costs and eradicates affordable housing.
Collins calls attacks on growth management a developers' ploy to imply that any environmental regulations are a cost to be passed through to the buyer.
"Developers say they're the good guys fighting for the buyer," says Collins. "It's disingenuous. The cost of government regulations is one developers take into account when they try to buy land." He contends they're not going to take on the risk of beginning a development unless they know they can make an acceptable profit.
However, Collins concedes that developers could be right about some regulations. In particular, he's concerned about any ordinance that requires more impervious surfaces or fails to naturally process storm water.
"We should never put on costs that cannot be justified by a corresponding public benefit," he says.
Collins, too, is concerned about affordable housing, and he believes housing, as a basic human need, should be treated differently than other commodities, with government making sure that safe and secure housing is available to those who don't make enough to buy in Albemarle.
Mortgage approvals are often calculated on the assumption that a home buyer can afford to pay 30 percent of her salary. That means someone making $35,000 a year could afford a $138,000 house– and that she's pretty much out of luck in Albemarle, where the median sales price was $262,975 in 2004.
Rooker doesn't believe more affordable housing was built before the neighborhood model was approved. And he says the county is taking steps, such as requiring that developers make some concessions to affordable housing in rezonings.
He holds up the Old Trail subdivision currently under construction in Crozet as the neighborhood model ideal, mixing million-dollar mansions with $175,000 townhouses.
The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors has taken police, teachers, nurses, and firefighters under its wing with its Work Force Housing Plan. Along with the Piedmont Housing Alliance, they've established a fund that helps buy down mortgages for these essential workers. "It's a key program," says Phillips. And it just won a national award.
But what about the grocery clerks, the day care providers, and social workers– not to mention the construction workers who build Albemarle's million-dollar mansions? Are they fated to continue to commute from Fluvanna, Nelson, Louisa, Greene, and Augusta counties to provide Albemarle's services?
Says Rooker, "There's no magic bullet. We live in an attractive area. At the end of the day, market forces determine the price of a house."
Gigantic houses sprout in Albemarle, while mid-level workers flock to surrounding counties for affordable places to live.


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Grocery Store Brands Do Well in Taste Tests
When the Food section of The San Francisco Chronicle took a look back at the year's blind tastings, they noticed quite a bit of love for grocery store generic brands.
"Panelists are choosing generic brands from Safeway, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods almost as often as name brands...In fact, in the 44 tastings from 2009, more than one-third of the winners were grocery store brands." So long to the stigma against cheaper, less prettily-packaged goods from the in-house brand?
The Chronicle's tasters were fans of baked goods from Trader Joe's and condiments from Safeway (especially the cocktail sauce and bread and butter pickle chips). Sifting through our tastings, we were also big on Trader Joe's in both the milk chocolate and olive oil tastings. Ain't no shame in that. Do you have a favorite grocery store brand product?
Related: Serious Eats Taste Tests

subset: commoncrawl


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Function: Mould-Proof; Function: Waterproof; Function: Soundproof; Function: Sound-Absorbing; Function: Anti-static; Function: Moisture-Proof; Function: Heat Insulation; Type: Vinyl Wallpapers; Usage: Household; Usage: Administration; Usage: Commerce; Usage: Entertainment; Feature: Environment Friendly; Feature: Extra Thick; Feature: 3D; Feature: Mildew Resistant; Feature: Self-Adhesive; Feature: Formaldehyde-free; Feature: Water Resistant; Use: Elders' Room; Use: Living Room; Use: Kitchen; Use: Wedding House; Use: Study; Use: Bedding Room; Use: Kids' Room; Vinyl Wallpaper Type: Paper Back Vinyl Wallpapers; Material: PLASTIC; Brand Name: jiadou; Surface Treatment: Exfoliator; is_customized: Yes; Style: Modern; Charge Unit: Yuan/Roll; Model Number: DM201; Pattern: feather; Pattern: feather;
Item Description
Sticker Sheet Size: 1Set/ 2 pieces of 38.5x200 cm
Finished Size: 77cm x 200 cm
Product Type: Creative DIY 3D Door Mural Wallpaper
Material: PVC
Feature: Easy operate, Environmental Protection, Durable, Waterproof, Self-adhesive
The product is only suitable for smooth and even surface, not suitable for rough or complex surface
- The Product you received consists of 2 separate parts .This Item is a DIY Product, It should be put together by yourself.
- Please allow 1-3cm error due to manual measurement
Product Show >>
New DIY Door Mural Sticker
VS Before and After Installation
We'd love to hear from you! Please call us at 1-517-680-0028 or feel free to email us at email@example.com.


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To suggest that Facebook is important to the bogan is akin to suggesting that it has only a touch of Chlamydia. Facebook has rapidly become the Alpha and Omega of the bogan's universe. It is the first thing a bogan engages with in the morning, and the last thing it gazes upon before it lays its head to rest. Within Facebook's innocent-seeming blue layout and unassuming fonts lies a panopticon of bogan self-satisfaction, passive aggression, shattered relationships, blurry photos and shame. There is little grammar or syntax.
The bogan's dependence on Facebook has grown so great in the brief few years that it has been aware of the site's existence, that it now views it as a publicly available, publicly funded service, much like electricity or water provision. Without any serious consideration, and purely on the basis of its now entrenched reliance on the site's validation portals, the bogan now knows it has as much of a right to Facebook as it does to freedom of speech and its fifth amendment rights.
The bogan does not like change. Facebook, however, like any growing company, is obliged to continually adapt its service offering to ensure its widening market is properly catered to. One of the consequences of this is that Facebook will periodically tweak the presentation of the site, subtly altering the ways its users interact with it and each other; a decision most likely based on the near infinite amount of data the company collects on user habits. Ergo, it stands to reason that any change to Facebook's layout comes in an effort to enhance the bogan's user experience.
That the changes are for the bogan's ultimate benefit matters not to the bogan, for the bogan was comfortably ensconced in the nourishing cocoon that was Facebook's old layout, seeing no need to go changing what is already a perfectly excellent site. Upon logging in to Facebook recently, the bogan discovered that Facebook's photos feature had been changed. It spent several seconds staring blankly at the now-unfamiliar method of viewing photographs, before reacting like a toddler that woke to find itself on a distant planet. It cried. All over the book of faces, it cried. On its status, it cried. On the comments section of its assortment of duckfaced photos, it cried. It cried by joining a group of other bogans who were also crying about these changes.
It will furiously make a comment on the wall of that bogan-rage-collective, effectively re-working the group's thesis statement, sans correct grammar and with at least one superfluous apostrophe, then proceed to familiarise itself with the new layout so it can efficiently upload photos of the previous night's clubbing and post passive aggressive status updates about whichever friend it got into a fight with that night. Fifteen minutes later, the bogan forgets that the layout has changed.


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The Oxford Story
Oxford Senior Living was founded in 2010 with a vision to enrich the lives of seniors every day with love and dignity by providing beautiful, innovative home environments and extraordinary staff who are empowered to get to know each resident and love each resident… Because you take better care of someone when you love them.
Oxford co-founder, Jason Wiley was always close to his grandparents growing up. He earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree in gerontology before dedicating his career to seniors. Along with decades of experience in senior care, Jason has also stood in the shoes of many Oxford families as his grandfather battled Alzheimer's disease. In 2010, Glen Carr House Memory Care Residence was built in Derby, Kansas. Today, four additional Oxford Glen Memory Care communities have been built throughout the Midwest, and the Oxford memory care model thrives in each Oxford Grand Assisted Living & Memory Care community.


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President Trump is due to unveil his 2019 budget next month, and it once again will include a whopping increase in proposed defense spending, according to The Washington Post. Trump is expected to ask for $716 billion for defense, an increase of 7 percent over 2018 levels and of 13 percent over 2017 spending.
Trump's budget is just a proposal — and a largely symbolic one at that. But it carries some weight as a political document, setting a White House target for Congress as lawmakers work to finalize a two-year spending deal that would exceed the caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act. The large increase in military spending also "signals a shift away from concerns about rising deficits," the Post's Greg Jaffe and Damian Paletta write. The proposed increase is so large that finding offsetting spending cuts would be improbable if not impossible.
The president's budget last year called for $668 billion in defense spending, "but the proposal was seen as something of a disappointment inside the Pentagon and among defense hawks in Congress," the Post notes. Late last year, Congress passed a bill authorizing $700 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2018, though that money has yet to be appropriated.
The new budget represents a win for Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has been pushing for a large increase in military spending. "As hard as the last 16 years have been, no enemy in the field has done more to harm the readiness of the U.S. military than the combined impact of the Budget Control Act, defense spending cuts and operating in nine of the last 10 years under continuing resolutions," Mattis said last week in presenting the first new National Defense Strategy in 10 years.
His efforts faced some pushback from White House officials including budget director Mick Mulvaney, "who worried that the deficit would explode with a large increase in military spending, combined with the president's tax cuts," the Post notes.
"If this [$716 billion] is the number," Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at CSIS, told the Post, "then the battle between Mattis and Mulvaney is over and Mattis won."


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Healthcare Services Group (HCSG) typically services long term care and nursing facilities and is now hiring a Light Housekeeper in your area! HCSG has a custom, state of the art training program!
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Software Powered by iCIMS


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Thanks Twitter, for bringing us first #liesgirlstell, and now trending topic #urahoe, in which users list ways to determine if a woman is a "hoe."
Here are some gems:
SmackurFavRappa: #urahoe if u have known me less than 7 days & u already want it
Because someone who is attracted to you and want to have sex with you must be a "hoe." Nice girls are reluctant and require extensive convincing.
jCOOP30331 #urahoe if u wear them stretchy pants where u can clearly see ass cheek division and camel foot in front!
Ah yes, the time-honored wisdom that you can determine a woman's sexual proclivities by the way she dresses. So useful in rape trials.
This is where #urahoe and the Christian right intersect. If Plan B is readily available, women will use it for regular birth control. And become hoes.
womanmarine206 #urahoe when ur phone never stops ringing and u no everyone
Popularity now = hoeness.
EllieLuvVP #urahoe if you have sex on ur period
This one reveals to anyone who still doubted that perceptions of female promiscuity and ideas of ritual purity are linked.
sartastic #urahoe If you're a guy and having an affair with a cougar.
Here's a stereotype we didn't know existed! Apparently guys who have sex with older women are hoes now. Sorry @aplusk.
But this one is the best:
PeteOMalley #urahoe if you are an agricultural tool used to agitate the surface of the soil around plants to remove weeds
As we believe a commenter pointed out last week, ho as in "skanky slutty woman" as in "the kind of woman who would have sex on her period, take phone calls, wear stretchy pants, and use emergency contraception," should really be spelled without an e. A "hoe" is a gardening implement, and we appreciate PeteOMalley's helpful tip for determining if we fit the bill.
#urahoe [Twitter]
Earlier: "I'm Pregnant," And Other "Lies" Twitterers Say Women Tell


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80:37 minutes (27.68 MB)
Women of Web # 43 September 25, 2007
Join Cheryl, Jen, Sharon and Bud Hunt, alias, Bud the Teacher as we question, chat, lose Bud for a little bit, ask hard questions, ask easy questions and giggle. We missed Vicki who was not feeling well. Enjoy the show and the chat, see you next week! Thanks to Everyday Jones and their Podsafe music, All I Said.


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Last year I fell for the Digital Storm ODE Level 3, an upper midrange gaming PC that still impresses on our performance charts. As much as I still like that system, Velocity Micro's Edge Z55 is my new gaming PC of choice. It's possible this Core i7-2700K-based desktop will look out of date when Intel's Core 3000-series Ivy Bridge chips launch in a few weeks, but multiple vendors have told me that Ivy Bridge isn't as overclockable as Sandy Bridge. If that's the case, expect the 2000-series CPUs will still be available in performance gaming PCs. For those of you shopping for such a desktop, the Edge Z55 is the best deal going for under $2,500.
Velocity Micro hasn't updated its desktops' exterior design in years, but I can't say there's anything particularly wrong with it. The square angles and vented front panel might seem plain-looking, but I'd take Velocity's unobtrusive design over the more garish gaming desktops out there any day.
If this system has one quirk it's that it's noisy. Each of the two graphics cards has its own fan, with a third, standalone fan mounted above them for added airflow. The liquid cooling apparatus attached to the CPU also has a particularly noisy fan. The Edge Z55's full-tower chassis precludes it from fitting into your living room, but if you had any other concerns about its space-appropriateness, be sure to factor in its loud operating noise.
|Velocity Micro Edge Z55
|Falcon Northwest Mach V
|Digital Storm ODE Level 3
|Motherboard chipset
|Intel X68
|Intel X79
|Intel P67
|4.9GHz Intel Core i7-2700K (overclocked
|4.4GHz Intel Core i7-3930K (overclocked)
|4.8GHz Intel Core i7-2600K (overclocked)
|8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
|16GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
|8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
|(2) 1.28GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti (448 cores)
|(3) 1.28GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 570
|(2) Nvidia GeForce GTX 570
|Hard drives
|(2) 60GB Intel SSD, 1TB 7,200rpm Hitachi
|128MB Crucial SSD, 2TB 7,200rpm Samsung hard drive
|120GB Intel SSD, 1TB 7,200rpm Samsung
|Optical drive
|Blu-ray/DVD burner combo
|Blu-ray writer/dual-layer DVD burner
|Blu-ray/DVD burner combo
|Operating system
|Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
|Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
|Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Like the Digital Storm ODE Level 3, Velocity Micro's Edge Z55 shoots for the gaming PC middle ground with its mid-$2,000 price tag. Fortunately, that kind of budget gets you a substantial gaming computer that makes few compromises. To Velocity Micro's credit, this Edge Z55 configuration also costs between $100 and $200 less than a similar build from other boutique vendors.
As with most Core i7-2000K-series CPUs, the quad-core 2700K in the Edge Z55 can reliably hit overclocking frequencies approaching 5GHz. That puts it on par with the Digital Storm's Core i7-2600K, and you'll notice that both systems have noticeably higher clock speeds than the more expensive Falcon Northwest Mach V. The Mach V comes with Intel's 3930K CPU, a six-core chip that offers 12 total processing threads via Hyper-Threading.
For a system that costs more than twice as much as the Velocity Micro and the Digital Storm systems, you'll see in our charts that the Mach V can't deliver the same processor performance. Its gaming speed is up to par, but overall it makes me question the value of the six-core 3900K series for gaming and consumer-oriented applications.
For the Velocity's other specs, it matches the Digital Storm system almost part-for-part. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics cards in the Velocity are actually a slightly slower variant than the GTX 570s in the Digital Storm system. That might account for the Digital Storm's higher price tag, but the 3D performance difference between the two is negligible. The fact that Velocity Micro achieves that parity for $100 less than Digital Storm helps recommend it.
With Nvidia's next-generation GeForce GTX 680 graphics cards already on the market, and Intel's forthcoming Ivy Bridge CPUs due out in a few weeks, you'd be right to ask whether this Edge Z55 build isn't hovering close to obsolescence. I don't think so.
Velocity Micro offers a single GeForce GTX 680 in the Edge Z55 for an extra $85 over the price of the GTX 560 Ti cards. That extra price roughly accounts for the added performance you'd see from a single GTX 680, so the option is there if you want it.
For Ivy Bridge, I can't say what the impact will be until we test it. New platforms always bring unique quirks, but as mentioned earlier, various boutique vendors have already told me that Intel's new CPUs won't overclock as high as the older-generation chips. In that event, you're better off with Intel's older tech.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
|Rendering multiple CPUs
|Rendering single CPU
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
|Extreme (1,920x1080)
|Performance (1,920x1,080, 16x AF)
|Entry Level (1,680x1,050)
Our application tests show how well the soon-to-be-old Core i7-2000-series chips hold up on mainstream applications. The six-core Core i7-3930K in the Falcon Northwest system falls behind the Edge Z55 on all but our Cinebench multithreaded test.
In fairness, the lower CPU clock speed on this Mach V was the result of that review unit's prerelease hardware, and Falcon Northwest and other vendors have since achieved clock speeds similar to those of the 2700K chips without too much trouble. The problem is that the 3930K and its accompanying X79 chipset alone can cost $1,000 more than the Core i7-2700K and a good X68 chipset motherboard.
Our Cinebench results show that Intel's high-end six-core CPU does provide some benefits, but without offering performance enthusiasts higher clock speed potential, its easy to argue that the Core i7-2700K in the Edge Z55 offers significantly better bang for the buck when it comes to consumer-oriented applications.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
|1,600x1,200 (high, 4x aa)
|1,280x1,024 (medium, 4x aa)


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seca 456
seca 456
The wireless reception of measurements on the PC is the decisive step toward electronic medical records. It also allows use of the software seca analytics 115.
You can eliminate annoying cable connections in the examination rooms and, with software seca analytics 115, you can store measurements in the seca database, feed them into an EMR system and provide other parameters per PDF (EMR-integrated). The labor-intensive process of documenting examination findings is turned into a speedy and paperless matter.


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Skinning in 3ds Max Animation with Biped
- Associating the Mesh
- Working with the Test Animation
- Correcting Skin Problems
In order for the biped's animation to move your character, you have to associate the character mesh with the biped's skeletal parts. This is accomplished through a process called skinning. Just as our own skin is moved by the motion of our bones and muscles, your mesh character is animated by means of a skinning modifier that deforms the mesh according to the rotation and position of the objects in the biped hierarchy. 3ds Max 8 comes with two modifiers that can be used for this purpose: the Physique modifier and the Skin modifier.
Associating the Mesh
So far, you've made a biped and fitted it inside the mesh. But if you animate the biped as it is, it will simply walk away and leave the mesh behind. To make the biped control the mesh and move it around, you have to associate the biped with the mesh.
After the biped is correctly associated with the mesh (skinned), each part of the biped acts just like a bone inside a body. For example, when the lower arm bone moves, the lower arm portion of the mesh moves with it. In this way, each part of the biped acts as a bone. The biped is, in effect, a collection of bones linked together automatically to save you work.
At the time the mesh is skinned, vertices on the mesh are associated with one or more bones via a weighting system. A capsule-shaped envelope is created around each bone based on the bone's size. Vertices that fall within a bone's envelope receive some weight from it, meaning they are moved by it. A vertex that falls within the capsules of more than one bone receives appropriate weights from each bone.
In this chapter, we'll be using only the Skin modifier. But first let's take a brief look at the history of its predecessor, the Physique modifier. Originally, the whole Character Studio plug-in had to be purchased separately. When the Physique modifier was first released in 1995, it was a very sophisticated and ambitious program that allowed you to control the biped's influence on the mesh. Physique has controls for including and excluding vertices from bones; a means to create muscle bulges in arms and legs according to the angles between bones; and "tendons" that extend the influence of the bones to other parts of the biped.
Professional animators complained that they needed a skinning mechanism within 3ds Max—one they didn't have to pay extra for. So the Skin modifier was created and delivered for free as part of the 3ds Max software. At first it lacked some of the sophisticated features of Physique, but over time it has continued to improve. Meanwhile, development has stopped on Physique. Like Biped, Physique is now included with 3ds Max and is essentially the same software that originally shipped, with a few bugs fixed.
In addition to skinning, the Skin modifier also allows the deformation of character-mesh objects by associating the bones with mesh vertices. This is done using the capsule-shaped envelopes, which control specific vertices.
The Skin modifier also includes the ability to define bulges based on the angles between bones. However, unlike Physique, Skin allows you to mirror the bone-vertex assignments from one side of the body to the other.
Skin Morph and Skin Wrap
The Skin Morph and Skin Wrap modifiers have been included with 3ds Max since version 7. Skin Morph allows you to fine-tune the way vertices respond, based on the angles between bones. It provides a more controlled method for creating muscle bulges, and for keeping elbows and knees from crimping when the angle between the bones is very sharp.
The Skin Wrap modifier expands on the Skin modifier, so that you're not limited to having bones drive the animation. Skin Wrap lets you use the vertex movement of a low-poly mesh to drive the animation of a high-poly character, for example. This means you can set up the animation with a low-poly mesh and fine-tune it with a faster playback speed before switching to the high-poly mesh for the final rendering.
Another use for Skin Wrap is to employ spline objects to drive the animation of a mesh. For example, you could animate a spline's vertices to mimic a wagging-tail motion, and then use Skin Wrap to make a mesh follow this motion.
Skin Wrap works at either the vertex- or face-deformation level. It offers a Mirror mode, just as the Skin modifier does. You can also "bake" the animation into the vertices so that the mesh retains its deformation independently of the controlling mesh or spline.
Preparing to Use Skin
Before applying Skin to a mesh, make sure the bones fit nicely inside the geometry. The initial envelopes, and thus the vertex weights, depend on the size and orientation of the bones. If the bones inside the mesh are too skinny, the envelopes will be too small, and the vertices will not become weighted to any of the bones.
Both Physique and Skin are best applied to objects rather than groups. If your objects have been grouped, we recommend that you ungroup them before applying Physique or Skin. In fact, for any character animation it's wise to make your own hierarchies and avoid the use of groups entirely, whenever possible.
Each weighting envelope is a capsule with an inner and outer gizmo. The vertices within the inner gizmo are completely affected by the movement of the bone. The vertices between the inner and outer bounds are weighted, or somewhat affected by the bone movement. The vertices that fall outside the gizmos are not at all affected by the bone movement.
You need to adjust each envelope so that it only affects the required portion of the mesh. You don't want the movement of the head, for example, to influence the arms or even the shoulders. You can do this initially when you associate the biped and mesh, but you'll also need to revisit each envelope after creating a test animation that shows you how the bone movement is influencing the mesh.
The general workflow of skin vertex weighting is to go through the bone envelopes and adjust the radius of each end of the capsules, as well as reposition the capsule ends to fit within the length of the biped skeletal bones. At this time you can also add additional cross sections to the envelopes to allow for finer control. Occasionally you will need to rotate the envelopes if they have been incorrectly oriented. This happens when the bones are wider than they are long.
In 3ds Max 8 there is a new command in the Skin modifier called Weight All Vertices. This command is turned on by default, and it ensures that every vertex in the mesh will be assigned to at least one bone object. In previous versions of the software, some vertices in the toes or fingers very commonly remained unassigned, requiring manual assignment to some bone. So keep Weight All Vertices turned on and you'll save yourself a lot of work; look for it near the bottom of the Advanced Parameters rollout.
Exercise 3.1 Associating Biped and Mesh
In this exercise, you'll associate a biped and its fitted mesh, and then check the envelopes for correct size and orientation.
- Load the file Rabbit_start_skin.max from the CD. Here you can see a rabbit mesh in the typical DaVinci pose, with arms spread out horizontally away from the sides of the body and feet slightly apart as well.
- Select the mesh then right-click and choose Properties to open the Object Properties dialog. In the Display Properties group,
turn on See-Through and then click OK.
Now the mesh is transparent. The biped is still hidden.
- Right-click again and choose Unhide All from the right-click quad menu.
Now you can see the biped within the rabbit mesh.
- Select any part of the biped and go to the Motion panel.
- On the Biped rollout, turn on Figure mode.
Notice that no change occurs in this mesh. The rabbit biped hasn't been animated in this file. (Often the biped will jump to a new location when Figure mode is turned on.)
- Select the mesh of the rabbit. The object is named rabbit_lr.
- On the Modify panel, click the drop-down arrow for the Modifier list and choose Skin. This adds the modifier to the mesh object.
- To add the biped objects as bones, go to the Parameters rollout. In the Bones group, click Add.
- On the list that appears, click All. Holding down Ctrl, click the Bip01 root object to remove it from the list. Then click Select.
- In the Parameters rollout, click Edit Envelopes.
Bip01 Tail (at the bottom of the list) is selected and its envelope highlighted in the viewport.
- In the list, highlight each biped object to display its envelope in the viewport. Notice that some envelopes are relatively small, and some are very large.
- Save your file as Rabbit_skin.max.


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Check out reviews left by other students or leave your own review. You could win a free scholarship.Add your Review
Eric from Ellendale, ND
Reviewer is A current student here.
1 of 4
Categories Comments Clubs and Activities
Lots of activities and groups to be a part of.
What to do for fun
Lifting center on campus. Big student lounge area. Movies and restaurants 40 minutes away.
Academic Rigor
Hard to keep up if behind on homework, but if kept up, grades should be fine.
Tips for prospective students
Keep up on reading and assignments
In three sentences
Trinity Bible College has a great family setting. It has great food. It has awesome people.
Katrina from Ellendale, ND
Reviewer is A current student here.
1 out of 1 people found this review useful. 2 of 4
Categories Comments What to do for fun
While Ellendale itself is a small town, there is still many things that can be done for fun. Going bowling at the bowling alley or even just hanging out at the gas station (they have ice cream!), there are many things students can do. Taking a weekend trip to Aberdeen is always popular too. But nothing can replace just hanging out with friends and having fun.
Food and Dining
The cafeteria is a great place to just hang out. While the food is not always the best, it is just part of student life.
Dorm Life
Living in the dorms is like living in one huge mansion it seems at times. My neighbors in the dorm halls become like family and we all have a good time just hanging out with one another. The RA's and the Resident Directors (for both boys and girls) is always ready to help in any way they can.
Academic Rigor
The professors are all equally serious about actually helping their students to learn the material. They are willing to give up their time to help a struggling student.
Tips for prospective students
I would check out Trinity if I was looking for a college to attend. Even if it is just for one year, Trinity is a good place to be.
In three sentences
I would recommend Trinity Bible College to any student that is serious about their academic career and learning more about God. The students and staff make the college feel like a home-away-from-home with their welcoming atmosphere and willingness to help with anything at all time. The academic programs at TBC are professional and high-notch programs that does a great job in preparing students for their career choices.
Jessica from Edmonds, WA
Reviewer is A current student here.
3 of 4
Categories Comments Great for these types of students
This place is great for anyone looking for an interesting small town college experience that will allow you to grow in a closer and more intimate relationship with God
Tips for prospective students
Keep your grades up! The higher the GPA, the more money you will get off of tuition. Stay motivated and don't let the college experience get in the way of your goals. Just remember this is a Bible College and you are held to higher standards than the typical college. Read the school handbook to make sure you are ok with all the rules and expectations for while you are there.
Bang for the buck
Since this school is a private 4 year, it is a little more on the expensive side. On the other hand, the school is very generous with the different scholarships available, and everyone is eligible for the majority of them. In my opinion, it is more than worth the money to come to school here.
Am enjoying being here
This place is an incredible experience and I highly recommend that anyone wanting to experience God's Word with a group of amazing Christians, this is the place to be.
Am learning a lot
This is a great school for those who wish to be surrounded by people in a godly environment while studying for your future career. The classes are extremely interesting, and there is a wide variety of classes to chose from. Since it is such a small school, the problem is never being wait listed for classes, but finding enough students willing to take it so they will offer it.
Brena from Le Mars, IA
Reviewer is A current student here.
4 of 4
Categories Comments Great for these types of students
Trinity is great for anyone interested in a business, music, early education, or ministry degree. Also if you enjoy sports, music, drama, student government, outdoors, snow, and small towns this is a place for you.
Tips for prospective students
If you want to come somewhere that you can do sports, ministry, and music all at once Trinity is a good school for that. Most colleges you can only do one extra activity but here the options are endless.
Am enjoying being here
Student life is amazing at Trinity. With fewer students on campus it truly feels like a big family. The opportunities are beyond what you could have at a big university.
Am learning a lot
I decided to come to Trinity because I was craving to learn more about God's Word and that is exactly what I have found here. The classes are small and the teachers can work on a more personal level with you. We even have a help center where we can have tutors help us on our papers.


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MITF 2020-2021 will begin on August 24th, 2020
Whatever your experience as an educator, the Israeli classroom experience is unique—allowing you to develop leadership skills while making a real, vital difference in the lives of Israeli students. Learn more about becoming a Masa Israel Teaching Fellow.
By living in the city where you work, you become part of the community—actively engaging with your neighbors though your volunteer projects, with host families and at local hangouts. Learn more about where we work.
Israel is a fascinating country where ancient meets modern. As a Fellows, you'll develop a deep, complex understanding of the country through both guided tours and time to explore on your own.
Created to address the achievement gap in Israel's public education system, the program invites talented, English-speaking college graduates to Israel as English teachers' aides. It's a challenging, rewarding experience for our Teaching Fellows, and a vital investment in Israel's future.


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Bridgeworth Financial of Birmingham, Ala., formed its own RIA on Thursday and is now affiliated with the LPL Financial (LPLA) hybrid-RIA platform. The group, which now includes 16 financial advisors and manages about $1 billion in client assets, was part of Lincoln Financial Advisors since 1994.
PinOak Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice previously with Ameriprise Financial (AMP), recently became part of Bridgeworth, as did two other advisors in the greater Birmingham area.
"We saw that forming our own RIA was best for our future growth, and we chose LPL for many reasons," said DeLynn Zell, managing principal of Bridgeworth Financial, in an interview with AdvisorOne. "We decided the hybrid model is best for us, as we still need a broker-dealer affiliation, and having multiple custodians was not quite as attractive."
Forming a custodial relationship with LPL, Zell says, should create "tremendous efficiencies for our advisors and clients."
"We are really excited about Bridgeworth Financial joining us, as they are a very special group of advisors," said Bill Morrissey (left), LPL Financial's executive vice president of business development, in an interview.
"With close to $1 billion in assets, the group serves high-profile, high-net-worth clients and has a good mix of fee-based and brokerage business," Morrissey said. "This is a terrific strategic partnership."
According to the LPL executive, the catalyst for Bridgeworth's "aspirational move" was the "desire to grow and evolve."
"What stood out for them was how our integrated hybrid platform could boost efficiency," he said, "how our practice-management support could help them grow organically, and how their expansion in the Southeast can be supported by this partnership."
In Zell's words, "The transition to LPL was simply [part of] an evolving business model that made this a better fit for our firm."
LPL Trends
Earlier this month, LPL Financial and Advantage Financial Group announced that AFG's equity partnership of 63 independent advisors with $2 billion in client assets was affiliating with LPL. Before its transition to the LPL Financial broker-dealer platform, AFG was affiliated with the broker-dealer National Planning Corp., which is owned by Jackson National.
AFG was NPC's primary office of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJ), with a total of 54 branch offices. The 63 AFG-affiliated indie advisors are now transitioning their securities registrations from NPC to LPL Financial, bringing client assets of roughly $2 billion.
In the second quarter, LPL says that 223 net new advisors joined the firm with $2.8 billion in net new advisory assets, representing 10% annualized growth." Also, total advisory and brokerage assets were $353.0 billion at the end of the quarter, a jump of 3.6% from $340.8 billion a year earlier. Assets under custody in the LPL Financial RIA platform grew 52.6% to $29.9 billion as of June 30, encompassing 166 RIA firms, compared with $19.6 billion and 128 RIA firms 12 months before.
"Macro trends are increasingly becoming a catalyst for large groups, especially independent teams to be looking at their options," Morrissey said. "The industry is consolidating quickly, and margins are deteriorating at many firms at the local level."
This is prompting many groups of advisors in the independent space to form partnerships with firms that best support them and their growth, he adds.
"With the hybrid-RIA platform, they are the RIA and we are the primary custodian. Because the assets on the same chassis, the technology is fully integrated, and advisors and staff only need to be familiar with one operating system."
This arrangement leads to "huge local efficiencies" and gives reps "lots of flexibility" while relieving them of some administrative work, Morrissey notes.
"The hybrid platform has become a platform of choice for larger advisors and groups of advisors," he said, adding that it allows them "to be very nimble in the marketplace when it comes to communicating with clients."


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How I Met Your Mother actress Alyson Hannigan and her husband Alexis Denisof are expecting their second child next year Us Weekly reports. Alyson's rep confirmed the news with the magazine. Alyson is thrilled to be pregnant!" a source says. "She's been wearing baggy clothes to cover the baby bump." The baby will join Alexis's and Alyson's daughter Satyana 2½.
Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof is expecting baby number two!
Posted by Alisa on Friday, December 16, 2011 / Comments: (0)
Former Heroes Actress Ali Larter took her beautiful boy Theodore, 1, to run errands in Brentwood, CA today (December 16).
Posted by Alisa / Labels: Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise / Comments: (0)
Mission Impossible actor Tom Cruise and his daughter Suri, 5, were spotted their hotel room in New York City today (December 16).


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I'm just a beginner seeking some answers. I'm creating a very simple database system for an airline company, just for learning purposes. Here are my questions:
- How to show relationships for entities that I created?
- How can I show normalization in a relationship? (at least third normalization form)
Thanks in advance,


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The best way to enjoy Baz Luhrmann?s big and noisy new version of The Great Gatsby ? and despite what you may have heard, it is an eminently enjoyable movie ? is to put aside whatever literary agenda you are tempted to bring with you.
I grant that this is not so easily done. F. Scott Fitzgerald?s slender, charming third novel has accumulated a heavier burden of cultural significance than it can easily bear. Short and accessible enough to be consumed in a sitting (as in ?Gatz,? Elevator Repair Service?s full-text staged reading), the book has become, in the 88 years since its publication, a schoolroom staple and a pop-cultural totem. It shapes our increasingly fuzzy image of the Jazz Age and fuels endless term papers on the American dream and related topics.
Through this fog of glib allusion and secondhand thinking, the wistful glimmer of Fitzgerald?s prose shines like the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan?s dock. If The Great Gatsby can?t quite sustain the Big Ideas that are routinely attached to it ? a fact that periodically inspires showboating critical contrarians to proclaim that it?s not such a big deal after all ? it nonetheless remains a lively, imaginative presence. The book may not be as Great as its reputation, but it is also, partly for that reason, better than you might expect. It is flawed and flimsy in some ways, but it still manages to be touching, surprising and, in its bittersweet fashion, a lot of fun.
All of which is to say that, whatever you think of Luhrmann?s energetic, brightly coloured rendering of the sad story of Jay Gatsby, the Trimalchio of West Egg, Long Island, it should at least be immune to accusations of sacrilege. Gatsby is not gospel; it is grist for endless reinterpretation.
Luhrmann?s reverence for the source material is evident. He sticks close to the details of the story and lifts dialogue and description directly from the novel?s pages. But he has also felt free to make that material his own, bending it according to his artistic sensibility and what he takes to be the mood of the times. The result is less a conventional movie adaptation than a splashy, trashy opera, a wayward, lavishly theatrical celebration of the emotional and material extravagance that Fitzgerald surveyed with fascinated ambivalence.
This is the first time Luhrmann has taken up an American source in an American setting (though his cast is mostly British and Australian), and his vision of 1920s Manhattan is exactly as naturalistic as his portrait of Belle Epoque Paris in Moulin Rouge, which is to say not very much. Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) is still a bully and a bigot, spouting the popular racist pseudoscience of his day. The gangster Meyer Wolfsheim (Amitabh Bachchan) is a bit less of a cringe-worthy anti-Semitic caricature than he was in 1925. The poverty of George and Myrtle Wilson (Jason Clarke and Isla Fisher) remains a grim contrast to the endless ease of Gatsby and the Buchanans. But all of these people occupy a cartoon America that no living person has ever visited.
Some of the finely shaded social distinctions that preoccupied Fitzgerald ? between Easterners and Westerners, new money and old ? are noted, but they don?t have a whole lot of resonance. We are in a world of artifice and illusion, confected from old-fashioned production-design virtuosity and newfangled digital hocus-pocus.
In the 3-D version, the viewer swoops and swerves through one of Gatsby?s parties in a movement that combines Vincente Minnelli-style suavity with the controlled vertigo of a theme park ride. As it happens, Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) compares the sybaritic scene at Gatsby?s mansion to ?an amusement park.? And Luhrmann?s peculiar genius ? also the thing that drives cultural purists of various stripes crazy ? lies in his eager, calculating mix of refinement and vulgarity.
Neither Fitzgerald nor Nick, his diffident mouthpiece, was immune to the seductions of hedonism and luxury, and the book does not entirely succeed as a critique of American materialism at what seemed to be its high-water mark. Luhrmann, for his part, does not resist at all. He fuses the iconography of dressed-up '20s decadence with the swagger of hip-hop high-end consumerism. Jay Gatsby has got money. He?s got cars. He?ll spend a hundred grand over by the bar.
But unlike, say, Jay-Z (an executive producer of the film), Jay Gatsby is a rich man whose modest background and criminal past are something to be hidden, sources of mystery, shame and potential ruin. To Tom Buchanan, Gatsby is ?Mr. Nobody from Nowhere,? while to Nick he is a shimmering enigma, first glimpsed through the window of his colossal home.
To those of us watching in our modest multiplex seats, he is a movie star. In previous incarnations he was Robert Redford, Alan Ladd and Warner Baxter, and now Leonardo DiCaprio has slipped into the ice cream suit and the curious diction. ?Old sport? may be the two hardest words for an American actor to say, but for Gatsby himself they were an affectation, so it is possible to overlook DiCaprio?s overdone accent. (I do wish he would try a performance without one, though.) More important, it is impossible to look away from him. His charisma has increased as his youthful prettiness has worn and thickened away, and he is beautiful, sad, confident and desperate in exactly the way Gatsby should be.
Everything in the movie ? and nearly everything in the novel ? passes through a double lens of romanticism. Gatsby is partly a creature of Nick?s imagination, and conjures up his own idealized vision of Daisy (Carey Mulligan), the girl he left behind and acquired his ill-gotten fortune to win back.
Is the tale of Daisy and Gatsby a credible love story? Fitzgerald himself was not sure, but Luhrmann, DiCaprio and Mulligan make it an effective one. At a crucial, climactic moment ? a scene in a suite at the Plaza Hotel ? the director mutes his irrepressible, circus ringmaster showmanship and plunges into undiluted melodrama. The music stops, and the camera cuts among the assembled faces as the emotional core of the film is laid bare.
That scene stands out in a movie that is otherwise gaudily and grossly inauthentic. Jay Gatsby is too, of course. He is self-invented and also self-deluded, spinning out fantasies for himself and others as easily as he gives parties. As a character in Nick?s ruminations, in Fitzgerald?s sentences and in our national mythology, he is a complete mess. This movie is worthy of him.
Directed by Baz Luhrmann; written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald; director of photography, Simon Duggan; edited by Matt Villa, Jason Ballantine and Jonathan Redmond; music by Craig Armstrong; production design and costumes by Catherine Martin; produced by Luhrmann, Martin, Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher and Catherine Knapman; released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Running time: 2 hours 23 minutes.
WITH: Leonardo DiCaprio (Jay Gatsby), Tobey Maguire (Nick Carraway), Joel Edgerton (Tom Buchanan), Carey Mulligan (Daisy Buchanan), Isla Fisher (Myrtle Wilson), Jason Clarke (George Wilson), Elizabeth Debicki (Jordan Baker) and Amitabh Bachchan (Meyer Wolfsheim).
The Great Gatsby is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Cigarettes, adultery, illegal hooch and other Jazz Age vices.
? 2013 New York Times News Service


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Washington State University researchers plan to use liquid nitrogen to create a frozen sperm bank from select honey bee subspecies.
Bee colonies face invasive mites, and are vulnerable to pesticide buildup due to treatment. On top of that, bees have undergone a loss of nutritional variety through the use of corn syrup as feed as their honey is harvested.
Any of these threats alone may weaken or kill a single hive, but scientists believe a combination of these leads to colony collapse disorder, in which worker bees abruptly disappear, affecting the entire local population.
Honey bee safety is so vital that the U.S. restricted live honey bee importation in 1922 after tracheal mites were discovered to be the cause of bee kills on England's Isle of Wight.
"The ban was fairly effective," said Susan Cobey, a WSU research associate. "It prevented tracheal mites from reaching our shores until 1984."
The downside is that import restrictions prevented bee breeders from accessing the wider gene pool to strengthen and diversify U.S. bee colonies.
"Honey bees, Apis mellifera, have 28 recognized subspecies -- in Europe, Africa, and Asia, the general vicinity of where honey bees are thought to have originated," said Steve Sheppard, professor of entomology at WSU.
After collecting bee semen from all over the world, three subspecies have been identified as having suitable genes for New World climate zones.
The semen will be collected from the strongest and best stock in Europe, then injected into the strongest and best queen bee stock from the United States.
Live semen will survive at room temperature for about 10-14 days, allowing for collection and transport back to the lab, where it can be frozen or injected into a queen bee's oviduct to fertilize it.
Sheppard's graduate student Brandon Hopkins discovered that liquid nitrogen can maintain semen viability for decades in the WSU Honey Bee Genome Repository.


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A photo featuring a 12-day old infant along with a photo of his father and his father's Gideon Service Testament has generated an enormous amount of online sentiment.
The infant in the photo is Landon Carpenter. His father, Andy, shown in the framed photo next to him, made the ultimate sacrifice in March while serving in the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.
Within days of being posted to the Seal of Honor page on Facebook, the photo received tens of thousands of "Likes" and comments. To date, the photo has received over 135 thousand "Likes" and more than 34 thousand comments.
We recently contacted Landon's mother, Crissie, who is LCPL Andy Carpenter's widow. She has been very touched by the public response to her baby Landon's photo.
"It is pretty incredible seeing the response to the photo. For those who have been moved by the photo, I just want to say thank you for taking that time out and remembering those sacrifices that are made by so many families," says Crissie. "The main reason I wanted to have this photo taken was to have a picture of Landon with his father.
"I wish I could tell you how Andy got his Gideon Testament, but I do not know. But I do know that he liked to take it with him to training when he had to be out in the field for a while. I remember when I found it with some of his belongings, it was in a Ziploc bag that protected it from weather damage, I assume. And, one of the cool things about it was he had our wedding announcement in it as a bookmark.
"God is definitely a huge part of my life and was a huge part of Andy's life as well. When Andy and I got married and I moved to North Carolina, where he was stationed, to be with him, I wanted us to go to church every Sunday that we could. I always had told myself, 'when I marry, I want to make sure God plays a huge role in our marriage and family.'
"Andy was a wonderful man and was very humble about things. He believed in God totally and was a great role model to everyone around him," she adds. "I know that his relationship had grown with God because I could tell."
Marcia Truitt of Inara Studios in Nashville, TN is the professional photographer who shot the photo. She too is amazed by the photograph's popularity.
"When I arranged and took this photograph I never imagined anyone but Crissie's family would see it and understand its deep sorrow," Marcia told us. "I am so humbled that it has touched so many lives and I only hope that it continues to bless those that see it.
"Landon's mother brought all of her husband's things which had just been shipped back to the U.S.," says Marcia. "She requested that we capture them in an image with Landon and this is how we laid them out. I found the size comparison of how tiny baby Landon looked next to his father's boots to be very striking."
The loss of her husband has given Mrs. Carpenter a great appreciation for the brevity of life. And she has words of wisdom to share with the rest of us.
"We never know when our last breath will be," says Crissie. "What happened to Andy is something I never thought would happen to us. But, it did. Don't take things for granted. I want every person out there to thank the good Lord up above for what they have in this life and who they have. Look at that person and tell them you love them. Hold your children and enjoy them and let them know every day how much you love them."
We thank Crissie for allowing us to share this very touching photograph and story with you.
And we thank our members, donors and other supporters. It is your support that helped make it possible to place this Gideon Service Testament into a young serviceman's hands before he went home to be with the Lord.


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2017-2018 Catalog
2017-2018 Catalog > Courses > MARK - Marketing > 5000 > MARK 5199-5699
Independent study in specific areas of marketing not covered by organized graduate courses. A maximum of six credit hours of independent study courses may be applied to a graduate degree. Independent study courses are available only to degree-seeking students. The student must request a faculty member to supervise the independent study, write a proposal and have it approved by the sponsoring faculty member and College of Business Administration coordinator of graduate programs. The proposal and the final report become part of the student's permanent record.


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With simple instructions and bright, clear illustrations, award-winning artist Taeeun Yoo invites children to enjoy yoga by assuming playful animal poses. And she sparks their imagination further by encouraging them to pretend to be the animal - to flutter like a butterfly, hiss like a snake, roar like a lion and more. Yoga is great for kids because it promotes flexibility and focus - and it's relaxing good fun! The charming pictures of children and animals and the lyrical text make this gentle introduction to yoga a book to be treasured.
Condition: Used. Excellent
Author: Taeeun Yoo
Illustrator: Taeeun Yoo
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Binding: Hardcover


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Duckworth Family History & Genealogy
Duckworth Last Name History & Origin
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The average age of a Duckworth family member is 70.3 years old according to our database of 5,237 people with the last name Duckworth that have a birth and death date listed.
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Transcribed by Will Graves State of North Carolina, Burke County: Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions October Term
On this 22nd day of October 1832 personally appeared in open court before the Justices of the Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions for the County & State aforesaid now sitting John Duckworth a resident of said County & State aged 74 years who being first duly sworn according to Law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefits of the Act of Congress passed June 7th, 1832.
That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers & served as herein stated (viz.): That he entered the service under Captain William Knox in the County of Burke, then Rowan, & State of North Carolina sometime in the year 1776. He entered said service for the term of six months or during the War. Colonel Alexander Martin commanded the Regiment. He has understood that he was subsequently Governor of North Carolina. The Company of Captain Knox rendezvoused at Salisbury North Carolina from whence they marched to Fayetteville & from there to Wilmington where the Regiment joined General Lee (Charles Lee). We were then marched down Cape Fear River to a place called Brunswick from thence we were marched to Charleston South Carolina & arrived there the day that Sullivan's Island was first attacked (date not recollected). He remained there till the 4th day of August 1777 – when I was discharged, my term of service being about nine months & a few [sentence ends here]. Captain Knox was accidentally shot by his Lieutenant Richard Grimes of which wound he died & on his deathbed requested that his company should be discharged. It was accordingly done & this is the reason why I did not serve the War.
Shortly after my return home I volunteered under Captain Thomas Kennedy and went a short expedition against the Cherokee Indians. In a short time after, I volunteered again under Captain John Harden and went another short expedition against the Cherokees. These expeditions did not exceed six weeks or two months. These expeditions were in the year 1777 or 1778. I then volunteered under Captain Thomas Lytle for six months during which time I was generally in a stockade or fort on the frontier of Burke County guarding against the Indians.
After this service I volunteered to go against the British & Tories under Captain Thomas Kennedy (Colonel William Sharpe commanding) & was marched into Lincoln County & was in the Battle at Ramsour's Mill. I was there wounded in the left shoulder & the ball is now plainly to be felt where it is lodged.
[Note: I felt the ball myself.
S/ Samuel Carson] Some time after this, Ferguson [Patrick Ferguson] came through the Country & a number of the citizens crossed the mountains & joined Colonels Shelby [Isaac Shelby] & Sevier [John Sevier] under the command of Colonel Charles McDowell. We returned & followed on to King's Mountain where we defeated Ferguson. At the time of this Battle my wound was not yet well & I fought with a tent [sic?] in my shoulder of considerable length. I still remained under Captain Kennedy & Major Joseph McDowell. Col. Campbell [William Campbell] & Shelby & Sevier commanded in the battle. Ramsour's
battle was on the 20th of June 1780 and the King's Mountain battle was in October following. This ended my service except some little scouting expeditions against the Indians. My whole services amounted to something upwards of two years.
I hereby relinquish every claim to a pension or annuity except the present & do hereby declare that my name is not on the pension Roll of any State or the Agency of any State.
Sworn to & subscribed the day & date above written in open Court. S/ John Duckworth Test: S/ J. Erwin, Clk
State of North Carolina, Burke County: Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions April Term 1833
This day personally appeared in open court before the Justices of said John Duckworth a citizen of said County who after being duly sworn according to law makes on oath the following amendments to his Declaration that he filed in said court at October Term 1832 in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June the 7th 1832. Swears that by reason of old age and consequent loss of memory he cannot swear positively as to the length of his service precisely but according to the best of his recollection he served not less than the periods mentioned below and in the following grades – one tour of nine months in the Continental line in the years of 1776 and 1777. In the last of 1777 or first of 1778, served two short tours against the Indians of not less than six weeks. In the latter part of the year 1778 or first of 1779, served a six months tour. In 1780 served a two months tour making in all 18 months and a half, all of which time I was a common Soldier. Questions by the Court --
1. When & in what year were you born I was born in the State of Virginia in the year of 1759.
2. Have you any record of your age I have not; only know my age by information of my Parents.
3. Where were you living when called into service & where have you lived since and
where do you now live I was living in Rowan County North Carolina and have since lived in Burke County North Carolina where I now live.
4. How were you called into service Answer: I volunteered in the year 1776 and served as a volunteer in all my tours and done much hard services.
5. State the names of some of the Regular officers who were with the Troops you served & such Continental & militia regiments as you can recollect and all other general circumstances that you can recollect.
I do not recollect any General officers that I was under only General Lee, General Rutherford, Colonel Cleveland, Colonel Campbell, Col. Shelby, & Colonel Charles McDowell &c &c.
6. Did you ever receive a discharge from the service Answer: Yes my pocketbook was stolen in which my discharge was deposited.
7. State the names of Persons to whom you are known in your neighborhood who can testify as to your character for veracity & good behavior and your services as a Soldier of the revolution.
I am well known to the Honorable Samuel Carson, Colonel Isaac Avery & the Reverend John Lilliman who can testify to my character for veracity & good behavior and refers the court to the affidavit of Thomas Lytle & Isaac Thompson herewith filed as the only persons whose testimony I can procure to prove my services.
Sworn to and subscribed the 23rd of April 1833. S/ John Duckworth Sworn in open Court
23rd April 1833 S/ J. Erwin, Clk


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Citroen SM: Accidental Death of an Icon
Hard cover book.
Covid 19 Update 29th September 2020: We are now accepting visitors for the collection of parts, however we ask that you call in advance to let us know when you are coming and please also wear a mask / face covering when you are in our reception area.
To place a parts order, please do so via our web shop if possible, or via email. Due to a reduction in staff levels and an increase in orders we may not be able to answer the phone at all times and most orders will take longer to be processed and sent than normal. Orders sent by normal Post: In order to minimise risk to our staff, we will only be posting on Fridays, or when our post bag fills up, whichever is sooner.


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The launch site - Baikonur
This historic cosmodrome, built on the barren steppes of Kazakhstan, is still the world's largest space launch facility even after nearly 50 years.
Built in 1955, when Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, Baikonur covers 6717 square kilometres and extends 75 kilometres from north to south and 90 kilometres from east to west. The base contains dozens of launch pads, five tracking-control centres, nine tracking stations and a 1500-kilometrem rocket test range.
It was from Baikonur that the first satellite to orbit the Earth was launched, and that Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the Earth, was launched into space and the history books in 1961. More recent cosmonauts include ESA astronauts Claudie Haigneré in October 2001 and Roberto Vittori in May 2002 – both on missions to the International Space Station.
Altogether it took two years to build the complex and the city of Leninsk had to be built nearby to provide apartments, schools and facilities for the thousands of workers involved in the project. However, Baikonur, the name of a mining town 350 kilometres away, was given to the spaceport to register Yuri Gagarin's historic mission. Eventually in the 1990s, former Russian president Boris Yeltsin renamed the city of Leninsk, Baikonur.
Baikonur has been used for all Soviet and CIS manned launches and for most lunar, planetary and geostationary orbit launches. Since 1993 Russia has rented Baikonur from Kazakstan.


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This article was originally published here on ForeignPolicy.com on Thursday, July 19.
"I am responsible for the stability of Egypt," Lt. Gen. Omar Suleiman said, his voice rising as his large fist slammed on the table to accentuate the point. That was my first experience with Suleiman, then President Hosni Mubarak's spy chief and all-seeing eye of Horus. It was the spring of 2005, and I was seated around a conference table in downtown Washington with a group of people far more senior than I. The conversation over stale bagels and bad coffee that morning dealt mostly with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The fist-on-table incident came at the end of the hour, when someone brought up the possibility of democratic change in Egypt -- almost as an afterthought. On July 19, Suleiman died of a heart attack while undergoing medical tests in a Cleveland hospital. He had been suffering from amyloidosis, a chronic disease related to abnormal protein deposits in tissue that affects the heart and liver, and his sudden passing came as a shock to his enemies and admirers alike. Suleiman's dismissal of reform was just as startling. It wasn't just the sound of his ample fist hitting the faux oak, but because his rejection of the idea was so straightforward. Even early in the days of President George W. Bush's "Freedom Agenda," Egyptian officials had become adept at bobbing and weaving their way through conversations about political change. It was a game in which they refused to say yes or no. But Suleiman -- the man closest to the apex of power in Egypt save members of the Mubarak family itself -- was having none of it.
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I have been in several different OPC church services over the years and wondered why the Doxology and the Gloria Patri as well as the historic creeds are sung/recited in corporate worship. I understand that the OPC subscribes to the Regulative Principle of Worship. How do these practices fit into this principle as they seem to be more of church tradition rather than commanded in the Scriptures? I am trying to understand the reasoning.
Thanks for your question sent to the OPC website regarding the regulative principle and the use of some hymns and creeds.
Like many Reformed denominations, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church is committed to the regulative principle of worship, which insists that God requires worship only according to what is expressly commanded in the Bible (Conf. of Faith 21.1ff, Deut. 12:32).
But, as you may know, what the regulative principle allows and disallows is a matter of controversy within the Reformed community. We pretty much all agree that God has commanded that the Church sing his praise and offer thanksgiving and that it concern itself with the whole counsel of God.
Insofar as the OPC views itself as the continuation of the Presbyterian Church in the USA as it existed in the 19th Century, its "traditions" (as you call them) reflect the view that hymns that conform to Scripture, though not specifically being Bible passages themselves, are consistent with the regulative principle, that is, with what God has commanded. The body of acceptable hymnody would include the Doxology and the Gloria Patri. You might be interested in reading the OPC General Assembly reports dealing with exclusive psalmody and related matters, Reports of the Committee on Song in Worship, which can be found here on the OPC website.
Likewise, our church finds no inconsistency in the use of confessional statements in worship in so far as they accurately present the teaching of God's Word. The OPC's Directory for the Public Worship of God (II.B.3.b) states, "It is...fitting that the congregation as one body confess its common faith, using creeds that are true to the word of God, such as the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed." These creeds are the historic faith of the Church and as such are instruments for teaching in public worship comparable to a sermon and are also means of addressing God. Just as prayer in general in worship can be either spontaneous or pre-prepared, so historical declarations of faith directed to the Lord are often prayerful, worshipful acts of commitment and renewal. 1 Timothy 3:16 leaves the impression that creeds were uttered in the worship of the early Church.
It should be noted that even within the OPC there is liberty for the local church not to use the creeds or any particular hymn. Many congregations regularly sing the Psalms, but not exclusively. Some congregations choose to sing only the Psalms without instrumental accompaniment.
I hope this brief answer provides a clearer understanding of the OPC's use of certain hymns and creeds.
"Questions and Answers" is a weekly feature of the OPC website. The answers come from individual ministers in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church expressing their own convictions and do not necessarily represent an "official" position of the Church, especially in areas where the Standards of the Church (the Scriptures and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms) are silent.
The questions come from individuals like yourself. If you have questions about biblical and theological matters, you are invited to send them by e-mail by using the "Pose a Question" link on the OPC home page or by clicking here.
At least one new question is posted each week, so there should always be something new here for you to read. (For those people who would like to look at previous questions and answers, they will continue to be available as well.)
The purpose of the OPC website's "Questions and Answers" is to respond to biblical and theological questions. Matters of church discipline, disputes, or debates go beyond the scope of our work. We recommend that you present your concerns in these areas to the appropriate judicatory. In most cases this will be to a local pastor, elder, or session. We do not want the website to replace personal involvement in, or commitment to, the local, visible church.
While we will respond to every serious questioner, we are not bound to give a substantive answer to every question, should we deem the question to be beyond the scope of our purpose or our own ability to answer.
You will receive an answer by e-mail. Please be patient as many of our respondents are busy pastors. The response to your question may take up to two (2) weeks. Some of the questions submitted will be chosen to be posted here, along with the corresponding answers.
Note that the "Questions and Answers" posted on the site have been editedall personal references are removed, Scripture references or from some source may be added, and sometimes portions are expandedto make the questions and answers more useful to a larger audience.
|© 2020 The Orthodox Presbyterian Church
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What happens when your deepest, most craziest dream...
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What happens after Harry and Ron leave hogwarts? Hermione is left to complete her education. With no one still with her at hogwarts from her year, she tries to get through the long year. Finally, Christmas break is nearing. But with hermione gone visiting Harry and Ron, is hogwarts in danger?
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Ask a Physicist Answers
How does a siphon work? — C
There's an old expression, "water seeks its level." The physics behind water's tendency to flow until all of it is at the same level is related to potential energy— energy stored in forces such as those of gravity. The higher water is, the more gravitational potential energy it has. Water, like everything else, accelerates in whatever direction reduces its total potential energy as quickly as possible. In the case of water that's not level in an open container, the higher water accelerates toward the lower water so that the higher water reduces its potential energy as quickly as possible. Open water always accelerates so as to level itself.
It's easy to understand how water seeks its level when you pour water from a higher open container to lower one. But when you connect those two containers with a pipe, the level-seeking process becomes much more mysterious. As long as the water goes only downhill through the pipe, the mystery seems minimal, but sometimes the pipe starts upward before it bends downward. This siphon shape is very puzzling. What allows the water to go upward as part of its level-seeking process?
The answer lies in the fact that water has more than one type of potential energy. In addition to gravitational potential energy, water has potential energy associated with its pressure. High-pressure water has more potential energy than low-pressure water, which explains why water tends to accelerate from high pressure toward low pressure—from high potential energy to low potential energy—even in the absence of gravity. Moreover, the pressure of water in a sealed pipe decreases with altitude, so the higher you look in that pipe, the less pressure potential energy you'll find. Because of this pressure effect, the total potential energy (gravitational plus pressure) of water in a closed pipe doesn't change, even as that water rises a short distance upward inside the pipe! Sure, the gravitational potential energy of the water is increasing as the water rises, but its pressure potential energy is decreasing by an equal amount.
In a siphon, where the pipe goes first upward from the higher container and then downward to the lower container, the weight of water in descending portion of the pipe actually decreases the pressure inside the rising portion of the pipe. As a result of this extra pressure drop, water in the high container can reduce its total potential energy by accelerating toward and then through the pipe. Water begins flowing through the pipe, even though it has to go upward for a short time during that passage. Surprisingly enough, its total potential energy is decreasing the whole time, even as it rises, because the pressure potential energy drops quickly enough in the pipe to more than make up for the rise in gravitational potential energy. This continuous drop in total potential energy helps to keep the water flowing smoothly, despite some of the slowing effects of friction in the pipe. As always, water seeks its level and the higher container empties into the lower container.This siphon effect relies on atmospheric pressure to allow the pressure and pressure potential energy to drop as the water travels upward inside the sealed pipe. But eventually the pressure of the rising water reaches zero and no further reductions in pressure and pressure potential energy are possible. That failure of the siphon effect occurs when the water is about 30 feet (10 meters) above the higher container. You can't use a siphon to lift water higher than 30 feet because above that height, an empty region will develop at the top of the pipe and stop the siphon process.
Answered by Louis A. Bloomfield of the University of Virginia


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4 Elements: Persona 3 PortableMarch 29th, 2011 by david brothers | Tags: persona, Video Games
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable is published by Atlus for Sony's PSP. Shigenori Soejima designed the characters for P3P, and also the characters for Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 and Catherine. His style is sharp and clean, fit for animation but just as attractive in the form of still images. He has a nice sense of fashion, and seems to be fond of shirts that ruffle, dark jackets, and black slacks. Shoji Meguro, composer of Persona 4's soundtrack, also did a solid job here. The score never interferes with the gameplay, instead enhancing the mood as needed. I like P3P quite a bit, though I'm maybe halfway through it thus far. I keep flirting with writing about it, though, and you know what? Enough pussyfooting. Four things about Persona 3 Portable that I enjoy:
Persona 3 Portable is about personal growth. The central metaphor for the Persona series, at least as far as I'm concerned, is growth as an individual. The characters must embrace their hidden talents or, as in Persona 4, come to terms with themselves before they can be turned into something radiant. In Persona 3, the cast is privy to a secret that most of society does not know. To make it through this horror, they have to depend on and learn to trust each other in battle. They form a group, Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad or SEES, that go out at night to try and make the world better.
The high school simulation puts the interpersonal growth of your character under your control, and that growth directly affects your performance in battle. You are in charge of making friends, and that involves what is essentially a dating game. You can hang out with people, you personally choose answers to their questions that reflect a number of different personality choices, and you can even date people. The role-playing aspect is interesting–if I choose an option I don't necessarily believe, I get a slight pang of guilt. That doesn't fit the character I'm choosing to play. These (fictional) characters are granting me a large measure of trust, and betraying that feels wrong.
Your character is the only one in the game that can create and utilize multiple Personas, while other players are stuck with Personas that are a reflection of their own personality in some way. Your character being able to possess several Personas is a nod to the fact that you, the player, are one of several billion possible people. So, since you can't possibly have one specific personality, you're given a selection.
Building relationships in the simulation portion of the game gives you greater power when it comes time to dungeon crawl. The stronger your relationships, the stronger your Personas are. It's a fitting simulacrum of real life. The better your friendships, the better your mental health, and the more self-actualized you can afford to be. It's like having a safety net. You know that you have help if you need it, and that lets you push forward.
To summon their Personas, the characters place a gun, called an Evoker, to their heads and pull the trigger. Rather than a spray of blood, what looks like broken glass erupts out of their skull and the Persona appears. Aside from being a cool visual, I think this represents something more. To really open yourself up, to share that light that's inside you, you have to put yourself at the whim of others. You risk being ostracized, embarrassment, and most of all, failure. The gun represents a tool to engineer the death of yourself, of your ego, and that allows your Persona to appear fully formed. Maybe you like to sing at karaoke, but it takes six shots of tequila to get you there. Those shots are your Evoker. The gun is the equivalent of pausing, taking a deep breath, and stepping forward.
Going to high school requires making friends. You can't make friends without opening up and genuinely building a relationship. Making friends makes you stronger, and more reliable in times of danger. Being stronger allows you to protect those friends. The act of protection forces you to open up and embrace your skill. And so we return to begin again. Everything is related, and all of it is more easily mapped to growing as a human being, than growing as a fighter or magician or whatever.
P3P is a PSP adaptation of a PS2 game, and required a bit of adjustment to fit the smaller screen and new context. P3P's story is told by way of a visual novel, which is an interesting way to do this type of game. Animation is kept at a minimum, and dialogue is still spoken, but the visuals are near-static images, and events are explained via stage direction. Rather than seeing someone slam a door, you hear the sound and you read the little caption box.
More than anything else, P3P reminds me of radio plays. Everything hinges on the actors involved and your own imagination. While comic books give you most of an image and let you fill in the blanks, P3P works more like an illustrated novel. Physical action is left entirely up to your imagination, while the look and personalities of the characters is given to you.
Strangely, this makes it even easier to be drawn into the game. The tradeoff between the specificity of animation and the freedom of imagination means that you have much more invested in the story. You create significant portions of the game as you play, and what you create fits into what is already created like a lost puzzle piece. Aigis, a robot girl, breaking into a character's room is paced according to your own thoughts. While listening to a conversation that's set around a table, you choose the table setting and the location of where the voices are coming from.
This is largely done unconsciously and entirely on the fly, but it helps make your playthrough yours, rather than something you watch. It's the equal and opposite brother of Hideo Kojima's cinematic heavy Metal Gear Solid franchise, where you aren't so much a part of the story at hand as along for the ride. In P3P, you are the ride. The characters move and think as you want them to. The only time you don't have a significant amount of control over them is when you're dungeon crawling.
P3P is full of things to do. I don't really dedicate a lot of time to playing games any more, and ones that require huge time investments to be enjoyed tend to get sold asap. In P3P, you can pick it up and go out and work on your friendships. Maybe you want to finally hit a certain rank with the Gourmet King, or begin dating Yuko. You can check and see when they're free and then pursue them. You can get short interactions with them or longer, more involved conversations.
Or you can run through a few floors of the dungeon. The floors tend to be short, maybe five minutes long on average, and are randomly generated, so while they are same-y, they aren't identical. Each set of floors is themed, enemies vary from floor to floor, and there are lost souls or treasures to be found in each section.
There's also a quest system that's handled by an otherworldly woman named Elizabeth. She isn't familiar with our world, so she requests certain items or to go on dates with you to explore the land. These quests give you bonus items or cash, and provide short-term goals in long-term gameplay.
Part of the high school simulation is building your stats. You have Academics, Charm, and Courage to worry about. These can be increased by studying, doing dangerous things, drinking coffee, getting answers right on a test, or any of a dozen things. Having a high Charm means that you can talk to certain girls or get specific prizes. High Academics helps you score higher on tests.
At a certain point in the game, you can walk a dog. While walking the dog, you may be joined by a teammate, and you'll have a brief characterization-building conversation. There's nothing particularly deep to it. It's just another information delivery system.
These choices, and the others I didn't mention, make for a well-rounded game. The way I'm playing now, I'm not going for 100% completion and maxed out relationships. Forget that–grinding sucks the fun out of everything. Instead, I dabble and try to get a taste of everything. It's made for an interesting experience, one where I'm okay if things don't happen like I wanted or if I miss something. I can always do something else, and it takes no time at all.
The art's really nice. I wasn't familiar with Shigenori Soejima's art prior to playing Persona 4, but his work in P3P is crucial. He has to provide a solid foundation for your imagination to fill in the blanks due to the overall lack of animation, and he does it well.
Characters are extremely well designed, and change as events in the game progress. Junpei has peachfuzz on his chin and a habit of wearing tank tops. Your character likes earphones. Everyone has summer, winter, and other special outfits. Mitsuru's high class nature and faux French affectations come through in her design. Fuuka is stylish, but subdued. Yukari's pink sweater and heart choker suggests things about her character. Aigis's limbs give her a creepy flair, like a clockwork teenager. I think my favorite design is Akihiko's, with his red sweater vest, suggesting a preppy kid, but his ever present bandage and fighting gloves suggest otherwise. There's real personality in the designs, but working within the constraints of a school uniform.
I like the way Soejima uses colors, too. Yukari's black uniform is hidden beneath her pink sweater. Ken's rocking a black and orange color scheme that works surprisingly well. Aigis is mostly white, save for her major joints and weapons. Mitsuru is black, white, and then red. Black, and to a lesser extent, red, is a dominant color in most of these designs, thanks to the school uniform, but the way it plays with the rest of the colors in these designs is interesting. The designs pop, distinct from each other but clearly related. The palette uses soft gradients and bright colors, and the end result is a game that's really very nice to look at.