text:
Nice shot! Its hard to catch em at the perfect time
Merv, Sl4sh, P4de, Embe, Slash
new movies.... my pede is here, blue one, later in the film...noname tires, broke rims, got Sandpaws on RPMs...whata beast..
Some serious drop, my Pede is here to..( Blue lid)
(bigger Blue one is my FLM Maxx
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Up is a new rcanka movie..this time at the real Dirt/BMX track..my Blue Stampede 4x4 are doming some HUGE airs..frontflips,back 2xback flips...
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Been a while and i miss the Stampede so i will get a new killer one ... MMP SCT PRO 2400 on 4s lipo...pics will be up later
Summer is soon here and i need one to run
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
can not wait dude you and your mates have killer trucks and make the coolest movies period
Famous last words...watch this!!!!
Thanks mate...this is what i ordered so far for a few min ago..
2 x RPM82232 RPM "Revolver" Wide Base Crawler Wheels (Black) (2) $14.58
2 x RPM80702 RPM Traxxas Slash 4x4 Front or Rear A-arms (Black) $21.98
1 x RPM80732 RPM Slash 4x4 Rear Bearing Carrier Set (2) $9.99
1 x MIP10130 MIP Rear X-DUTY CVD Kit (Slash/Slash 4x4) $61.99
2 x RPM73932 RPM Adjustable Body Mount Set (Slash 4x4) $18.50
1 x RPM70392 RPM Front Shock Tower $9.99
1 x TRA6777 Traxxas Wheelie Bar Mount/Rear Skidplate Set (Black) $5.49
1 x TRA6727X Traxxas Multi-Cell Battery Hold Down Set $5.49
1 x CSE010-0091-00 Castle Creations Mamba Max Pro 1/10 Scale Short Course Brushless Combo w/Neu-Castle 1415(2400kV) $239.
LXBAHE JConcepts Illuzion Ford F-250 2011 Super Duty Stmpd 4x4 1 $22.99
LXBPRM MIP X-Duty Front CVD Traxxas VXL 1 $59.99
LXAZRT MIP Heavy Duty CVD Drive Hub 5mm 1 $10.99
LXJE72 Traxxas Sponsor Decal Sheet 1 $2.79
LXDDV6 Traxxas Rod Ends Short w/Hollow Balls T-Maxx 2.5 (6) 2 $3.69
LXZUH8 Traxxas Heavy Duty Slipper Clutch Rebuild Kit Revo/Maxx 1 $8.69
LXAVNH Traxxas Battery Expansion Kit Stampede 4X4 1 $5.99
LXYSN6 Traxxas Caster Blocks Left & Right Slash 4x4 1 $4.59
LXYZJ5 Traxxas Front Hardened Steel Drive Hub Slash 4X4 1 $4.19
LXAAHD Traxxas Aluminum Bearing Adapter Blue Slash 4X4 1 $4.59
LXYSS6 Traxxas Input Shaft Slash 4X4 1 $5.99
LXYSR4 Traxxas Aluminum Motor Mount Slash 4X4 1 $36.99
LXXF62 Traxxas Pinion Gear 32P 16T E-Maxx 1 $2.99
LXAAVJ MIP Rear X-Duty CVD Axle Slash/4x4 1 $14.29
LXAAVK MIP Front X-Duty CVD Axle Slash/4x4 1 $14.29
LXAAVL MIP X-Duty Male Spline Bone Slash/4x4 1 $14.29
LXAAVM MIP X-Duty Female Spline Bone Slash/4x4 1 $14.29
LXAAVN MIP X-Duty Drive Hub Slash/4x4 1 $14.29
LXAAVR MIP Cup Point Set Screws M3x.5 (8) 1 $3.89
LXAWJZ MIP Cross Pins 3/32x5/8 (4) 1 $9.69
LXFCC1 MIP CVD Coupling Rebuild Kit Savage 21 1 $11.79
LXTAE8 RPM Revolver Wide Wheelbase Black (2) 2 $7.79
LXARKY RPM Rear Shock Tower Slash/Stampede 4X4 1 $10.59
LXKLZ7 Traxxas Spur Gear 0.8P 54T Jato 3 $2.79
PC7120 $20 Promotional Discount 1 -$20.00
The following items will ship to you from our Reno, Nevada distribution center
Estimated Arrival Date:7 to 14 days
LXBMSY RPM Rod Ends Long Blue 1/10 Traxxas 2 $9.69
LXHGC5 Traxxas Slipper Pressure Plate & Hub Alloy Revo 1 $7.29
NIB Traxxas Stampede 4X4 Rolling Chassis Roller
Got some 4s at home, will get 4 new ones later...
Got Badlands at home, will removém from the old broken rims, (god shape)
Got Moabs to
Got Sand paws to
to buy, is BigBore Swedish Edition (1/8 BB strock shocks)
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
that thomas is going to be a bad boy truck dude
Famous last words...watch this!!!!
Ordered some spare gear for the servo, just the shocks left...if im lucky, il have everything next week around Thur, Fri, Amain is shipped, tower procesing, flebay.. Maybe a day or 2 before it goes...
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
2400 on 4S. That will be a blast. Looking forward to the pics and your experiences with the beasty motor!
Nobody is born with experience
4s on that setup is insane. If I had a ramp, I know of a nice straight road leading to an empty house. I bet I could jump my p4de and clear the house on 4s.
I get to play with 4s for a bit anyways while my 3s lipo goes out for replacement...
Ofcourse il share what im using, feel free to ask anything
Il be using ******* Hardcase 4500/30c and 5000/20c 4s lipo, they are a direct fit, but must use the option battery-strap.
That bashing day was one of the first i drove with my mates..
Gearing will be like the last sessil. 54/16. I will use Revo slipper in my car.
Planning to do a "build a rock"et" solid Stampede" Thread all pics step by step part number and so on..have not decided yet but i do plan..
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
I have not ordered thoose packs yet. Got some 4s here, but will reenew the lipo park asap ... The lid is a Ford F-250...no blue metallic...maybe black?..Or regular blue with silver fednders?
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Ordered a GoPro HD2 camera..does Traxxas offer any bracket for the camera?, or do i have to fabricate one for my self...pne for mounting inside the lide, rear and the o. The side of the car ?...
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
It seems the Traxxas #6840 is a special mount for the GoPro. Not sure if it will work on your car.
Nobody is born with experience
Thanks mate, il look into it..
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Got hold on some NIB slingshots (1/8), XXXXX 12mm offset 17mm hex,Traxxas 1972 Lite-Dished Rear. Next is to find some nice 1/8 rims...
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Not sure what kind of wheels i will use for the Slingshots...
I kind of like the Prolines Split Six..
any thouhts or tip for other?..not sure about Crome..
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Split Six look nice. Chrome often looks good, but you gotta take care to take the chrome layer off before glueing.
Nobody is born with experience
Got first shipment yesterday, got a letter to that i have the huge amain or tower order on the LPO
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
With a parts order like that, can you really call this a p4de? Im following your thread closely as Ive just ordered a MMP/2400 combo as well. Id love to have the balls to make that order, but I have a wife instead, so i have to sneak them in $20 at a time. The only thing i would change is the body, but since a WK2 Jeep Grand Cherokee body doesn't exist (would love to match my actual car), i'll have to settle for something else. Looking forward to the build.
Thanks mr
Little more arrived today
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Soooon baby sooon
Got an extra NIB Stampede 4x4 besides the one i bought as a roller
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
you have got some mega stuff for your truck thomas its going to be psycho pede man love dubstep
Famous last words...watch this!!!!
Holy moly, that is a sweet pile of parts. Must have cost you a fortune.
Nobody is born with experience
Spenniepoos yes it will be inzane
Petertje60 it is a lot of parts, but i bought some spares when i was going , i dont like to talk about numbers, but around 1000+
Il start today to get it together
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
So it has started
Modified chassi to accept e bigger 4-Pole SCT motor
More power more slipper (revo)
Front hardned drivehub
On the way
New RPM ballcups
Last edited by Thomas P; 05-17-2012 at 05:37 AM. Reason: Adding pictures
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Can you elaborate on the slipper upgrade? You really think this is needed? What exactly are you replacing with? My 2400 combo is on order. Also, based on the dates of this thread, is this your second pede of nearly the exact same design? What happened to the first?
The slipper has a bigger area, not sure exactl if e Revo slipper is needed, it was on my "XL" Pede it was a must.
The first was sold last winter ...
Front shocks mounted BIG bore
Looks good with the RPM rev widebase
Sad that my shocks for rear was backordered and will be here monday
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Bought wrong pinion (pitch) will get a new one today.. Meanwhile i run stock 11T
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Temporary lid while the other are painted
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
First bash done, car worked flawless...some pic
Got a onboard Gopro Hero2 movie on the way up, not so god, first time im using it so...
Xtreme's Stampede 4x4
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12
Man, that is an awesome place to fool around with the beast. Nice video taken from a very nice car. Looks like a lot of fun!
Nobody is born with experience
Thanks Peter, do my best ..
Stampede 4x4 4s | Stampede 4x4 1/12


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FREEPORT — As the days grow colder, Carol Falconer, shelter manager at Friends Forever Humane Society, said she worries about being able to keep the dogs and cats in her care warm. Heating bills run high and while funding is OK, there is a need to raise money to insure operational costs are met.
Doug Toepfer, president of the humane society, said fundraisers held this past year have not done as well as expected. Sales from the annual rummage sale were down, but a bequest from the estate of Geraldine Trandel has made a difference.
Toepfer said more than $50,000 was donated to the shelter from the Trandel estate, which has helped make up funds used to pay operating costs. Money was also added to the reserve fund.
"We are holding our own, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done at the shelter," he said. "Projects have been put on hold at this time."
Meet the challenge
Jim and Sandy Dixon of Freeport have been lifetime supporters of the society. They have pledged to match donations to the shelter through the end of the year, up to $5,000. As of Sept. 21, $2,158.45 of that goal has been met.
A new fundraiser — a Halloween Pet Costume Contest — will be held Saturday. There will be prizes for the funniest, scariest and most original costume. There will also be a prize for the ultimate theme couple, with both pet and owner dressed alike.
Falconer said there will be a Cat vs. Dog Contest, where people come to the shelter and vote for one dollar, or add any amount to help raise the matching funds put forth by the Dixons.
Saturday's contest is open to any animal. Falconer said horses are welcome, too, and people don't have to have an animal to come.
"We are doing everything we can to get the money for the matching funds challenge," Falconer said. "This costume contest is something for fun, but what I think about is the money we need to help provide heat for the winter. We have our expenses. Just remember, this is all for the animals."
Jane Lethlean: 815-232-0133; firstname.lastname@example.com; @achates86

subset: commoncrawl


text:
hi gurus,
I want to download mp3 file instead of playing it with some player available with the pc. As this project is going to be a CD version, I could not use php/asp to trigger the save as dialog box on clicking a link. It is working with firefox and chrome browsers, but not in ie and safari. Any one please suggest ne a right direction to do this.


text:
Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera
not suprised. we do have a signature move called the "DC U-turn" where a driver, without warning, pulls a random u-turn in the middle of the block. just watched one as I typed this.
Post a Comment


text:
Hi. I'm Sayoko Murase. Welcome to the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday March 9, 2012.
The S&P 500 was little changed for the week late on Friday afternoon, while the NASDAQ was slightly higher, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was slightly lower.
Crude oil futures are slightly higher this week, trading $107.38 per barrel on Friday afternoon.
Gold futures are little changed this week, to $1711.77 an ounce in afternoon trading.
In notable economic news this week, the Labor Department said that employers added a better-than-expected 227,000 jobs in February. However, the unemployment rate was steady at 8.3 percent.
In corporate news this week, Nutrisystem (NASDAQ:NTRI) announced that it lost four cents per share in its fiscal fourth quarter, above analyst estimates of two cents per share. Revenue dropped to $66.9 million from $87.9 million a year ago.
American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) announced that earnings dropped to $51.3 million, or 26 cents a share, in the fiscal fourth quarter from $87 million, or 44 cents a share, in the same period last year. Revenue increased by 14 percent to $1.04 billion.
Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) reported that it earned $122.6 million, or $1.17 per share for the fiscal quarter ended on January 29 versus $113.4 million, or $1.05 per share, in the same period last year. Revenue for quarter increased by 13 percent to $1.27 billion from $1.12 billion as online sales increased 18.1 percent.
Zumiez (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) announced that fourth-quarter profit increased by 22 percent to 60 cents per share, beating analyst estimates by one cent. Sales increased by 18 percent to $183.9 million, ahead of estimates of $183 million.
Aeropostale (ARO) announced that fourth-quarter profit fell be nearly 67% to 32 cents per share, six cents below analyst estimates. Revenue fell by 3.7 percent to $808.4 million, beating estimates.
This is the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday March 9, 2012. Please join us on Monday for the 'Week Ahead Market Report."
For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm Sayoko Murase.


text:
Is there an online index for Linux Format?
Just recently I read a good article in Linux Format about grub 2.
I just cant find it now and I've looked through issues 154 to 157.
Does anyone know which edition of the magazine it was in, or if there is
an online index to articles even better.
Thanks in advance.


text:
Trainer and model Tony Giles aims for pro status in
the new physique bodybuilding
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Life+Style Editor
Tony Giles has spent his career making his body look good. As a personal trainer and fitness model (and occasional adult-film actor, under the name
Tony Da Vinci), he's probably pumped more iron than most smelters, sculpting his 5-foot-8 frame into a mass of twitching — but well-proportioned muscle.
Then last year, he did something entirely different: He trained as a bodybuilder.
That might sound like the same thing as weightlifting, but it's not. Competitive bodybuilders aren't about aesthetics as much as they are sheer size: The bigger, more grotesquely inhuman the bicep, the farther you go. And boy does it take a lot of effort.
When Giles entered the Europa competition in Dallas last summer, he fared very well, winning several accolades. He promised himself he'd compete again. And he is, this weekend.
Only this time, he's keeping it real.
"They started a new category this year: Physique," he says over a lunch of lean turkey. "It's not about size; they judge you in four categories: Conditioning, muscularity, presentation and overall package. There's no posing, and you wear board shorts [instead of a G-string]. I saw that and thought, 'I look like that category already! That's what I do!'"
What does that mean for Giles? It means the last two months have been hard on him, but tolerable.
This year's regimen has been easier as well because he did not have to substantially reconfigure his weight training and diet as he did for bodybuilding.
"I didn't want to put my body through that again," even though he found himself addicted to the results of his efforts and his success on the runway.
Since May, he has subsisted on the exact same diet day in and out: eight egg whites and a cup of steel-cut oats for breakfast, then every two or three hours alternating between 8 oz. of lean chicken and tilapia. Low carbs. No beef. Higher intake of good fats.
"Chicken of course is chicken," he says. "Tilapia is one of the leanest fish — low in Omega-3 fats. And the oils actually make your skin thinner, which lets your muscles pop more."
A symmetrical physique is the goal of this new category, which Giles says was instituted by the controlling federation to make bodybuilding appeal more to a mass audience: Many average folks are put off by the completely unachievable looks of the competitors at the top of their profession.
"A lot of the guys in this category [there's only one division, not several divided by weight class] are smaller like me," Giles says. "A lot of people see someone like me and think, 'That look could be achievable for me.'"
Giles' exercise routine has included vastly more cardio than he usually does, as well as lot of core stabilizing training. To get his proportions right, however, Giles had to sacrifice one thing: His legs.
"I have basically done no leg or back work [since I started training]," he says. His thighs have always been a selling point for Giles, reaching a circumference up to 27 inches. "My waist is only 29 inches, so my legs were almost as big around as my waist."
If things go well on Friday — that's when the prejudging takes place, and Giles finds out if he's even in the top 5 — he could qualify for the national competition in September, where winning qualifies you as a professional. He hopes to win, of course … but after all that tilapia, he's also craving a big juicy burger.
Europa Super Show, Dallas Convention Center, 201 Griffin St. Aug. 12–13.
For training information, call 469-835-5964.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 12, 2011.


text:
Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has hailed his team's character after their Champions League elimination on Wednesday night.
The Gunners ran out 2-0 victors at the Allianz Arena, which saw the tie end 3-3, which meant it was Bayern Munich who prevailed due to the away goal rule.
The hopes before the game were very slim as the first leg ended 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium to the German side and many people thought it would be a similar scoreline in Germany, however that was not the case.
Reports suggested before the game that Arsene Wenger was going to field a weakened team so that they could focus on the race for top four in the Premier League, however that was proven wrong once the game got started as the French manager fielded his strongest line-up possible apart from the omission of captain, Thomas Vermaelen.
Goals from Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny were not enough for Arsenal to advance any further, but Wenger could not hide his delight at his side's spirit and character.
Weneger told Sky Sports: "We were very, very close tonight. Maybe a few times we were lucky as well, but we had the chance of Gervinho, and there were maybe one or two set-pieces we could have done better.
"But the spirit and the performance was there, and overall we had a great go.
"The regret we have tonight is from the first game. We conceded a very bad goal in the last five minutes. If we had lost 2-1 at home, you can see how important that goal is tonight."
He added: "I know these players and I've said many times they have a fantastic attitude and spirit. We have the quality.
"Unfortunately, we have to go out of the Champions League, but the positive is, of course, the performance and the spirit."
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


text:
Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable
We've been given the heads up that Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable will be getting a temporary price reduction through April 2, 2013. While the original price is something I absolutely would have paid if I owned a PlayStation Vita, $29.99 does sound a bit more reasonable -- at least from a "normal" person standpoint.
I haven't seen the change take effect just yet, and I have a feeling many of you who were going to buy EDF 2017 Portable would have done so already, but something to watch out for, certainly. Share the good word. Also, that screenshot is possibly the most EDF image I've ever seen.... read more


text:
Mount Union College Presents Student Recital
April 22, 2010
The Mount Union College department of music will present a student recital on Tuesday, March 25 at 10:30 a.m. in Presser Recital Hall.
Students will present performances of works by Handel, Cole Porter and Bernhard Heiden. The instruments featured will be trumpet and piano, and there will be vocal performances as well.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the department of music at (330) 823-2180.


text:
Submission + - Russia wants to close YouTube for piracy (torrentfreak.com)
ge7 writes: Recently leaked confidential diplomatic cable reveals Russia's growing interest to shut down copyright infringing websites. 'Russia'(TM)s Deputy Minister of Economic Development said that not only do U.S. sites continue to offer pirated Russian movies, but that YouTube and Google should be shut down for not respecting local laws'. U.S. government has previously attacked torrent and link sites hosted elsewhere in the world, extradited foreign nationals for piracy and provided training on how to shut down piracy websites. 'Voskresenskiy went on to state that, in his opinion, no country in the world is prepared to fight Internet piracy. He argued that all existing laws, including laws in the U.S., are antiquated and do not address new technological trends. As an example, [Voskresenskiy] stated that YouTube and Google (as YouTube'(TM)s owner) should be shut down because they do not conform to current Russian IPR laws. He admitted that this was not feasible, but continued to emphasize that these entities need to follow local laws, even if the laws are outdated,' the cable adds.


text:
Harvard will host two home meets and the Ivy League
Championships in 2010-11 (David Silverman).
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard men's swimming and diving team has announced its 2010-11 schedule. The Crimson is slated to host two regular-season home meets as well as the 2011 Ivy League Championships in March.
After hosting a diving scrimmage the first weekend of November, Harvard opens its regular-season and conference schedule with a tri-meet against Dartmouth and Cornell in Hanover, N.H., Nov. 13. Harvard's home schedule kicks off the following Friday with a dual meet against Columbia, and the Crimson wraps up the calendar year with road meets against Boston University and Connecticut Dec. 3 and 4, respectively.
After a training trip to Puerto Rico over January break, Harvard travels to Brown to face the Bears Jan. 22, and hosts Penn the following day. The 2010-11 HYP meet will be hosted by Yale as the Crimson will square off against the Bulldogs and Tigers Jan. 28-29. Harvard will host the Ivy League Championships at Blodgett Pool March 3-5, for the first time since 2008, looking to claim its 23rd Ivy League title and first since 2008.


text:
Our many relationships with trees represent excellent examples of the various ways in which we are linked to our environment.
Let's think about the essence of trees. Close your eyes and let the word 'tree' fill your mind.
What do you see? One or several trees? A forest or a wooded landscape? Are you alone, with your family, among friends? Do work, free time or studies come into the picture? Social or ecological issues?
The pictures that spring up in your mind may relate to trees in your own life story: a tree planted to celebrate your birth, a swing hanging from a bough, a log cabin or tree house, climbing a tree branch by branch, playing in the fallen leaves in autumn, the cool shade under the trees in high summer, the trunk you leaned against for a rest, the breeze rustling through the leaves, a walk in the woods, outdoor exercise, collecting dead wood for kindling – which is one thing for a camper in North America and quite another for a woman in the Sahel, who must walk for miles to find the vital fuel to cook what little food she has.


text:
Manchester City will face Real Madrid for the first time in a competitive match after being drawn against Jose Mourinho's side in the Champions League group stage.
City have the toughest group of all in Group D with the Spanish champions Real, Dutch league winners Ajax and German double-winners Borussia Dortmund all dangerous opponents.
Chelsea, the defending European champions, also have a tough-looking task in Group E along with Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus and Nordsjaelland.
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2012, All Rights Reserved.
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text:
Philharmonia Chamber Players: Debussy & Saint-Saëns
Sunday 3 Jun 2018, 6.00pm
Royal Festival Hall, London
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, known in English as Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, is a symphonic poem for orchestra by Claude Debussy, approximately 10 minutes in duration. It was first performed in Paris on December 22, 1894, conducted by Gustave Doret.
Listening Guide: Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
The Philharmonia Orchestra's Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, talks about Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and its significance for the end of the Romantic Era.
To hear more about this piece, why not download our iPad app, 'The Orchestra'? Visit http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/app for more information.
The composition was inspired by the poem L'après-midi d'un faune by Stéphane Mallarmé, and later formed the basis for the ballet Afternoon of a Faun, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. It is one of Debussy's most famous works and is considered a turning point in the history of music; composer-conductor Pierre Boulez even dates the awakening of modern music from this score, observing that "the flute of the faun brought new breath to the art of music." It is a work that barely grasps onto tonality and harmonic function.
Source: Wikipedia
Sunday 3 Jun 2018, 6.00pm
Royal Festival Hall, London
Thursday 14 Feb 2019, 7.30pm
Royal Festival Hall, London
Thursday 28 Feb 2019, 7.30pm
Royal Festival Hall, London
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text:
Don't you love this Brooklyn Heights townhouse? Wouldn't you love to stay here on vacation? Well lucky for you, you can!
onefinestay is London's first unhotel in which travellers are given the chance to stay in a real London AND New York home while enjoying the comforts of a hotel. Their catalogue already contains more than 500 unique and individually designed apartments. They offer the opportunity of being a part of the city rather than just a tourist. onefinestay is an alternative way of travelling, in order to get to know a town like a local.
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text:
UPDATE: Boston Bombing Manhunt Suspect In Custody
This article is being updated in real-time as the story develops.
Update 8:45 p.m.: Police report they have successfully apprehended the second suspect and he is now in custody.
Update 8:31 p.m.: NBC News reports that a negotiator is now on the scene in Watertown.
Update 8:22 p.m.: A CNN reporter said law-enforcement officers told the suspect to "come out on your own terms" and "come out with your hands up."
Update 8:07 p.m.: The suspect is exhibiting "negative movement" while laying on his back, according to information distributed via Boston police scanner. CNN reports "a number of flashbang grenades" have been used. Reports emerge that the suspect was found via a heat-seeking device on a helicopter.
Update 7:53 p.m.: Information distributed via Boston police scanner stated that the suspect was not moving and that there had been a fire on the boat at one point, but it was unclear whether the boat was still burning. There was also discussion of flashbang grenades "lighting up" the boat and more heard on the scanner.
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev was reportedly cornered in a boat by law-enforcement officers following a series of gunshots that were heard Friday shortly before 7 p.m. EDT in the Boston suburb of Watertown.
The gunshots were heard by CNN reporters, and the network then showed footage in which the rapid shots could be heard. Both the Boston Globe and CNN reported that a source said the bombing suspect had been cornered.
The Globe initially reported that the suspect had been pinned down by police, but the newspaper changed its story shortly thereafter to say that sources said he was cornered in a boat in a Watertown backyard.
CNN reported that police said that the suspect has "something out of the ordinary" that may be a bomb or other weapon, which reportedly has police concerned for the safety of officers near the suspect.
Police told reporters on the scene shortly before 7:10 p.m. to ignore their decision to lift the lockdown on the Watertown neighborhood earlier in the day, and that folks in the area should stay inside their homes.
Shortly thereafter, CNN announced live that a police source had told it that the suspect was cornered in a structure of some kind and that officers were deploying tear gas in an effort to either draw the suspect out or get the individual to pass out.
Immediately following the gunfire, a large number of law-enforcement vehicles and officers headed in the direction of the shooting.
The world's eyes had been focused on Watertown almost all day Friday as authorities swept the neighborhood in search of the 19-year-old Boston Marathon bombing suspect.
The entire suburban community was locked down for most of the day by authorities, who urged all Boston-area residents to remain inside their homes until notified otherwise, as Tsarnaev is considered by law enforcement to be "armed and extremely dangerous," as FBI Special Agent Rick DesLauriers said this week.
Tsarnaev's 26-year-old brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed overnight in a wild altercation with law-enforcement officers that left one Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer dead and precipitated the massive manhunt.


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High Hopes for Hebrew School
A little girl, dressed in a beautiful new dress, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Hebrew school. As she ran she prayed, "Hashem, please don't let me be late! Please don't let me be late!"
While she was running and praying, she tripped on a curb and fell, getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress. She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again. As she ran she once again began to pray, "Hashem please don't let me be late...But please don't push me either!"


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The Sims 4 took a generous amount of time during EA's E3 press conference, showing off some of the gameplay set to be included in the latest installment of the series. EA and Maxis are also ready to announce a release date, with the latest generation of Sims ready to land on PC on September 2.
This new Sims game is promising more personality than ever before. Judge for yourself by watching the trailer below.


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They just need to be sure they regularly dose their cows with the right antibiotic...
Stop using methicillin and the resistance will go away. Microbiology 101.
It takes less than 10 divisions for the microbe not producing resistance to take over since it has a fitness advantage of not needing to invest energy in resistance.
If they were to employ scientists not partially, but fully, in this issue, we would have it solved by now. The prblem is that the long term answers by scientists would reduce short term gains desired by business.
Alas, pursuit of capital over what is right will again shoot us in the foot. The market has no long term plans or goals. Regulation and intervention with science is the only way now.
If they were to employ scientists not partially, but fully, in this issue, we would have it solved by now. The prblem is that the long term answers by scientists would reduce short term gains desired by business.
I cringe every time I hear people accusing scientists of scaremongering for the money. The big money in all the controversial areas is on the anti-science side, without exception.
Settle down you two. You do realize that the term 'scientists' is broadly encompassing? People that work for the evil industry. People whose moral compass shines brightly through the evil fog of the world (that's IT, no more caffeine this morning).
They don't live under volcanoes and play with obese felines. Well, most of them anyway.
First of all, bacterial resistance genes turn out to me much more complex than previously thought. Many resistance genes have evolved on cassettes [wikipedia.org] which have the ability to evolve irrespective of the host bacterial genome. So they are selected to hang around, even in the absence of the initial selection factor.
Further, these cassettes can be transmitted to OTHER bacteria even without antibiotic selection and annoyingly enough, tend to get lumped together into multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria. So, we've let the cat out of the bag - it was inevitable although we managed to make it a bigger problem faster than need be.
TL;DR antibiotic resistance is going to be around a long time whether or not we use the antibiotics. Scientists aren't all greedy douchebags. There are more things in heaven and earth, dear Slashdotters, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
They reject the casette when the selecting factor is removed. Fyi.
I'm really puzzled as to how you managed to read my post and get the exact opposite of what I was saying out of it.
Stop using methicillin and the resistance will go away. Microbiology 101.
It takes less than 10 divisions for the microbe not producing resistance to take over since it has a fitness advantage of not needing to invest energy in resistance.
Un fortunately that is not true. Now it is true that for some types of drug resistance that can happen. But in general some types of resistance, like for example eflux pumps, are so generic and cover so many function in the bug that they mechanism won't go away just because one drug is removed.
With an ever increasing pressure to drop prices so that the numbers in the next quarter (or, for the long-term corporate leaders, next 2 years) are met. Screw the fact that we're raising a whole class of nasty bugs that will enable us to relive the glory of pre-penicillin times, when something as simple as a cut meant possible amputation of the affected limb.
Antibiotic resistance is probably one of the worst things we're facing down in the coming century or so, right next to AGC. Both have the ability to have a tremendous negative impact on our lives, and both are a long time off - in other words, they are things no politician or corporate owner will want to touch while they're still working.
Karma's a bitch.
When the superbugs become immune to everything, the richarses will be just as screwed as us, and it'll probably serve them right.
What about the Free Market?
Antibiotic resistance is probably one of the worst things we're facing down in the coming century or so,
This is true, and finding MRSA in the wild brings this much closer be becoming a far more universal problem.
The playing field is vastly different than in the pre-penicillin days when the only hope of finding a "cure" was an exhaustive search to find a compound that would kill the bugs. The very name MRSA stems from resistance to penicillin type drugs. Now with rapid DNA sequencing we can not only identify MRSA much faster [huffingtonpost.com], but we _should_ also be able to find additional ways to kill it, including some phys [cdc.gov]
Actually, you can develop resistance to what you call "physical means", too, up to a point. Just look at the rise of triclosan resistance since the proliferation of antibacterial soap. There are even reports of some UV-resistant bacteria [slashdot.org] out there.
What's AGC? Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] was no help. Just want to make sure I know all the things I should be freaking out about.
Big agribusiness preemptively pumping their animals full of antibiotics to kill off their gut flora as "growth promotors", which packing them in like sardines, to make a quick buck -- a hack to make the animals bigger and more productive, but also to compensate for the filth and squalor the beknighted creatures are kept in...
What could _possibly_ go wrong?
...I'm a pharma researcher at we have active programs trying to create next generation antibiotics, but the simple fact is evolution works. Eventually things will become resistant. These kinds of practices HAVE to stop because, frankly, it's getting harder to come up with new antibiotics. We have some new ideas, new biology is being uncovered, and different routes to attacking bugs are being explored. But the fact is that there will be fewer and fewer new classes of antibiotics rolling out. Pay the higher price for milk so that when you get strep throat you don't die from it. This clearly penny-wise pound-foolish thinking. A politician would do well to stand in the way of these practices under the guise of making sure that being able to protect our citizens and children from the ravages of infection wasn't just a "really nice period of humanity during the 20th and early 21st century before everything was resistant to everything." Think about someone sawing your kids leg off and then decide if milk is worth a buck / gallon more to you.
Broad-spectrum == economical solution.
If each type of bacterial pathogen responded only to a narrow spectrum antibiotic, then when you got sick from a bacterial infection the lab would have to assay your blood to figure out which of the millions of bacteria in your system were actually causing the problem, then get you the right medicine. And the moment one of the pathogens mutates, the antibiotic would have less of an effect on it. So add up the expense of the lab work, the delays in treatment that would cause, the stock of custom pharmaceuticals that every pharmacy would have to carry, and it turns out that broad spectrum antibiotics are a whole lot cheaper and overall more effective.
Or to follow on to your suggestion of cocktails, what makes you suppose that any one cocktail wouldn't act exactly as a broad spectrum antibiotic? If a cocktail reduces the probability to P^2, (P^2)>0 is still true, so resistance is still possible.
The problems of resistance are not caused because the antibiotics are broad spectrum, but primarily by the proliferation of under-dosed environments. If you're going to use an antibiotic, it has to be present in a sufficient dose for an appropriate duration to actually kill all of the pathogens. A too-small dose, or a course of treatment that is ended early for any reason, will leave you with some bacteria that survived due to a low-level of resistance. Their offspring will thrive, and some of them will go on to offer higher resistance if your antibiotic treatment resumes.
If you're going to give it to cows, it should be done in response to a specific pathogen, and they should be given the full dose and course of treatment. Their waste should be kept away from other animals that might pick up the infection. But recognizing an infection in a cow, then isolating and treating it is expensive, so it doesn't get done as a first choice.
They don't. Some do. There is a lot of research is specific bugs.
Why do you think it's only one or the other?
"then a cocktail containing two antibiotics should have a probability P^2
no. Not even close.
Not only is it economically good, it can be scientifically good becasue often one bug follows another, and it's better for the patient if it is stopped before it becomes a physical issue.
The largest contributor to resistance strain is people not finishing there antibiotic regime, or not taking proper care of t
Obligatory XKCD. It seems that Randall Munroe is the Nostradamus of our time, having predicted all future events in his humorous comic strip:
http://xkcd.com/1147/ [xkcd.com]
Just stop using cow's milk.
60% of the global population can't digest milk once they become adults.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-08-30-lactose-intolerance_N.htm [usatoday.com]
Health researchers at Harvard have even come out and said cows milk isn't a necessary part of a healthy diet, it is something that is TOLERATED in a healthy diet if people don't get too much:
http://beforewisdom.com/blog/milkandbones/experts-lose-the-cows-milk/ [beforewisdom.com]
Some dairy foods can have as much or more cholesterol and saturated fat as meat.
There are substitute milks made out of almonds, rice, hemp or soy in many supermarkets now. You can use those or fortified orange juice to get plenty of calcium without the digestive stress or the many health, digestive issues of cows milk
60% of the global population can't digest milk once they become adults.
No, 60% of the global population can't fully digest milk sugar (lactose), which only constitutes 5% of milk by weight.
Of those people, many tolerate the undigested lactose to varying degrees, tied to geographical distribution of certain genes.
The other components of milk (water, protein, fat, calcium) can be digested normally.
What is the point of your post? Undigestable cow's milk sugar is still an integral part of milk for most of the world's adult population?
Why drink something that will give you digestive discomfort, take special pills to drink it or drink a processed version of it when there is no need?
My point was that what you said was a hyperbole, just like the title of the article you linked. You made it appear that 60% of the world population can't drink milk, which is simply not true.
Adults keep producing lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose), but at lower levels than at infancy. This doesn't automatically cause lactose intolerance. Some people still produce high enough lactase levels, others can tolerate higher levels of undigested lactose.
Most of the discomfort occurs when certain bacteria
It always cracks me up to see someone up on their soap box about some health or nutrition issue and then start throwing "saturated fat" and "cholesterol".
You know that saturated fat and dietary cholesterol aren't bad for us, don't you? That the conventional wisdom on obesity and cardiovascular health relative to saturated fat and cholesterol is junk science?
And yet you can do all the "right things" and still die within the margin of error of the "average lifespan". all that stress, all that effort, all that self denial, and for what? And others do all the wrong things and still live into their 90s. The stats are all over the place even once you take out the obvious stuff like smoking and eating nothing but bacon. My grandfather has had 5 heart attacks (1 minor, 2nd resulted in a shunt and pacemaker) surgery, he's nearly 90 and still going strong; turned out th
Nuts and soy are common allergens. Hemp, well, nobody's going to fall for that one.
If milk was in the traditional diet of anyone but us Whites, you wouldn't be so quick to say it should be dropped. Protect everyone else, but fuck us, right?
Milk is perfectly natural and healthy (for people with the gene to digest it, i.e. mostly Whites), and has evidently been part of our diet for thousands of years.
So? The people of Great Britain are generally NOT part of the 60% you talk about.
And the digestion issue you are talking about is mostly a problem dealing with lactose, which can be handled in a variety of ways.
The fact is that your argument is a non-sequiter in the context of this article.
Hey, look at that, before wisdom takes an quote out of contexts it and spins it
This anti-milk stuff is silly. Milk is healthy and a simple easy source of calcium for the majority of people, no specially modifed foods required. Milk is a simple easy source of food for a great many people. And milk is absolutely essential in a large number of hte foods we eat cause of this little thing called "cooking" which is really just chemistry, and the milk plays an integral part.
So get off you're soapbox and cut the hyperbull; just watch where you step, you were spewing manure from your face.
Just stop using cow's milk.
60% of the global population can't digest milk once they become adults.
Perhaps we should ban other foods that people don't tolerate [allergy-details.com] as well, such as wheats, oats, barley, corn, almonds, cashew nuts, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, soy beans, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds? Or perhaps we'll just let the lactose-tolerant keep their milk?
Ummm good....
I think, and have always thought, that the natural way of cultivating foods for human consumption is better. The business people strive to reduce loss and to increase production. But they forget to ask questions which has less to do with money such as environmental costs or anything to do with "long term" effects of short term gains.
Of course, as long as "everyone" is doing it, no one is responsible and of course if a few hold back from those practices, they will be swallowed up by those who do in the sho
Becasue organic produces less yield and kills people.
You note that pasteurization kills this. As we have known, organic milk is a huge risk. I could go on with numbers and figures and facts, and studies, but you probably wouldn't understand them, so I will sum up:
A) Shit flows down hill.
B) the udder is under the ass.
Wow, I love that sentence.
I completely understand what you mean.
We know how to handle the basic problems of food handling and processing. The problem is when we go too far beyond that. We challenge the forces of nature itself and when we do, we invariably lose.
We wash food, we pasteurize milk and cheese. Those are good to do. What's not good to do is drug our sources of food. It is well known that the over use of antibiotics breeds stronger bugs. Despite this knowledge they persist in the practice.
As long as the milk is properly pasteurized, it poses no threat to consumers, but anyone working directly with the animals bears a small risk of infection.
Pasteurize the cows.
This is what is wrong with corporations (and is also the fundamental flaw in american style libertarianism aka anarcho-capitalism) - the greedy bastards simply DO NOT GIVE A FUCK about the consequences of their actions, they just want a short-term boost to profits, no matter the cost to others.
They're not the ones who are going to be paying for it when people lose their limbs or organs or die horribly from MRSA, so it does not matter in the slightest.
We need a corporate death penalty for crimes like this -
Each honest calling, each walk of life, has its own elite, its own aristocracy based on excellence of performance. -- James Bryant Conant


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I Hope! I Hope! I Hope! I Hope! I Hope!
Now if only they can follow through. This has been needed since the '70s. Nothing but GOP trash came in and did not leave!!!
Democrats launch plan to turn Texas blue
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 1/24/13 4:45 AM EST
National Democrats are taking steps to create a large-scale independent group aimed at turning traditionally conservative Texas into a prime electoral battleground, crafting a new initiative to identify and mobilize progressive voters in the rapidly-changing state, strategists familiar with the plans told POLITICO.


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Cypress- It could be called it patriotic or even altruistic. But Walter and Dorothy Brown just called it 'doing the right thing'.
"I went around talking to people in the district about voting, and told them if they needed, we would pick them up and take them to the poll so they would be able to vote" Walter said, explaining how the concept came to life.
Since the 1970 's, Walter has been true to his word. He's run a free election day tax service during every single election since. His wife, Dorothy, used to work at the polls in their Cypress precinct . Retired now, she said she was joining her husband for the first time this year.
The couple said they would pick up anyone in need. Although both Walter and Dorothy have been long time members of the Democratic National Committee, they said their service was not about politics.
"Regardless of Democrat, Republican, Independent or who, we will take them to the poll" Dorothy said. "But, we will not tell them who to vote for, because that's their right to vote for who they want to vote for."
But the pair did admit there was one group of voters who received their special attention.
"We're mostly concerned about the older people, you know? We want to try to get them out to the polls so they have an opportunity to vote just like everybody else does" Walter told us.
And what if they didn't want to take advantage of that opportunity, we asked?
Walter said, "a lot of times people say, 'my vote don't count'. And I try to tell them, 'your vote do count,' and a lot of times they'll go."
You can reserve a ride to the polls in one of 3 vehicles the Brown's have lined-up for elections day. Just call (850) 592-4057 or (850) 272-4057.


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INTERNATIONAL. For the fourth consecutive year, Standard & Poor�s has been voted Best Ratings Agency at the International Takaful Awards 2011 in London, reinforcing its position as the leading rating agency for Islamic insurers.
Standard & Poor�s currently publishes research and ratings on 15 Takaful and Retakaful firms located in Bahrain, Kuwait, Malaysia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
In May 2011, it assigned ratings for the first time to start-up Islamic insurance companies Noor Takaful Family and Noor Takaful General, based in the United Arab Emirates.
�We are delighted to be recognized by the Islamic finance community once again for our ongoing commitment to supporting the development of the Shariah-compliant insurance sector,� said Yann Le Pallec, managing director of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
�Receiving this award is clear recognition of the value that investors have placed on our sustained analytical focus on Islamic finance over a number of years, and Standard & Poor�s will continue to look for new ways to serve the needs of Islamic investors with independent and objective credit ratings and risk assessment products.�
The International Takaful Awards are an initiative of the Middle East Business Forum and Afkar Consulting, with winners selected by a panel of Shariah judges, lawyers, journalists and practitioners from the world�s leading Islamic insurance firms.
Standard & Poor�s has also been named Best Rating Agency for Islamic Finance at The Asset magazine�s 2011 Asian Awards. The Asset magazine targets the community of leading corporate and financial decision makers in Asia.
Standard & Poor�s Takaful and Retakaful Ratings*
Hannover Retakaful Bahrain A/Stable
Takaful International Bahrain BBB/Negative
Wethaq Takaful Kuwait BB/Stable
Malath Cooperative Ins & Reins Co Saudi Arabia BBB/Positive
Mediterranean & Gulf Cooperative Ins Co Saudi Arabia A-/Stable
Saudi Re for Cooperative Reins Co Saudi Arabia BBB+/Stable
Tawuniya/The Company for Cooperative Ins Saudi Arabia A/Stable
Dubai Islamic Ins Co/Aman U.A.E. BBB/Stable
Noor Takaful Family U.A.E. BBB-/Stable
Noor Takaful General U.A.E. BBB-/Stable
Salama U.A.E. BBB+/Positive
BEST Re (L) Malaysia (Labuan) BBB+/Positive
BEST Re Family (L) Malaysia (Labuan) BBB+/Positive
Takaful Re U.A.E. BBB/Stable
Tokio Marine Retakaful Singapore AA-/Negative
*Ratings correct at July 27, 2011


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Airline Announces Kid Free Zone, Good Idea or Bad? [VIDEO] [POLL]
Crying babies and screaming kids are a part of life, but if your sitting next to them on a long flight it can get old really quick. That's why an airline has announced they are banning children from the first seven rows on long flights.


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The connection speeds are expected to be up to 1,000 times faster than currently available high speed internet. The map below shows the 12 neighborhoods that will have the fiber connections pulled directly to buildings. Current plans for Lake City are to have wireless towers at 145th / LCW and 125th/ LCW to provide wireless connections to the fiber.
This project is still at the front end and we may still have an opportunity to be selected as a neighborhood. Members of Lake City Neighborhood Alliance have requested information on how Lake City can be included. Stay tuned for more information.


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NEW YORK — When the Justice Department last week announced its record $1.9 billion settlement with the British bank HSBC, prosecutors called it a powerful blow to a dysfunctional institution accused of laundering money for Mexico's murderous drug cartels, Libya, and Iran.
But to some former federal prosecutors, it was only the latest case of the government's stopping short of bringing criminal money laundering charges against a big bank or its executives, at least in part on the rationale that could cause such banks to fail.
They say it sounds a lot like the ''too big to fail'' meme that kept big but sickly banks alive on the support of taxpayer-funded bailouts. In these cases, they call it ''too big to jail.''
''Shame on the Department of Justice. Shame on them,'' said Jimmy Gurulé, a former prosecutor who teaches law at the University of Notre Dame.
''These are actions that facilitated major international drug cartels to continue their operations,'' he said. ''Now, if that doesn't justify criminal prosecution, I can't imagine a case that would.''
An Oregon Democrat, Senator Jeff Merkley, wrote to US Attorney General Eric Holder after the HSBC settlement, saying the government ''appears to have firmly set the precedent that no bank, bank employee, or bank executive can be prosecuted even for serious criminal actions if that bank is a large, systemically important financial institution.''
Neil Barofsky, former inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and a former federal prosecutor, warned big banks could interpret the Justice Department's leniency as ''a license to steal.''
Since 2009, several European banks have paid heavy settlements related to allegations they moved money for people or companies on the US sanctions list: Credit Suisse, $536 million; Barclays, $298 million; Lloyds, $350 million; ING, $619 million; and Royal Bank of Scotland, $500 million.
While those cases involved deals with such countries as Iran, Libya, Cuba, and Sudan, the HSBC case was notable for the government's allegation that it also helped launder $881 million in drug-trafficking proceeds for Mexican drug cartels.
Prosecutors say they could not prove HSBC executives conspired to aid drug organizations or rogue nations. Breakdowns in security controls at the company occurred gradually, over decades, with a motive of increasing profits rather than committing crimes, they said.
Prosecutors also expressed fear of ''collateral consequences'' — that going further could have sunk a company that employs tens of thousands of people and is tied to the economies of the roughly 80 countries where it does business.
In 2002, the huge accounting firm Arthur Andersen was convicted of destroying Enron-related documents before the energy giant's collapse. It was forced to surrender its accounting license. Only after 85,000 people lost their jobs did the court case ultimately play out, with the Supreme Court overturning the conviction too late to save the business.
''From a policy standpoint, it's a pretty compelling argument,'' said Kevin O'Brien, a former prosecutor. ''Employees lose their jobs, towns where these businesses are located are negatively affected, stockholders which include a lot of moms and pops lose their savings."
Bill Black, a former financial regulator, scoffed at such a notion. ''Seriously, you want to keep felons in charge of a bank for bank stability?'' he said.
To critics of the government's approach, the HSBC case is a replay of the years immediately after the 2008 financial crisis, when people most responsible for it were not really punished. No high-profile bankers went to jail, nor has there been any large-scale effort to recover the giant bonuses awarded to executives of failed or nearly failed banks.
HSBC has rescinded deferred compensation bonuses and will partially defer bonus compensation for senior executives during the next five years.
''The guy who filed a false tax return, he's probably doing five years in prison,'' Gurulé said. ''And these guys — transactions with Iran, threatening to jeopardize US national security — they don't even get prosecuted."


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Because like the rest of the world, slashdot can't care about pure research, but instead only what can be put on a shelf and advertised by google now now! now!!!!?
We are working on a fix for that.... it should be ready in about 5 years.
It's like the kids in the back seat on vacation...
"Are we there yet?"
"20 minutes"
"Are we there yet?"
"20 minutes"
And 90 years later we were finally there...
You're doing it wrong.
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "10 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "10 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "20 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "30 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "50 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "80 minutes"
Eventually, they get the idea. And it makes it more engaging because you have to remember where you were last time, as well get to enjoy using a different series each time. Fib is one of my favorite.
BUT the fact the solar cells that are available today are basically the same as the ones 15 years ago
BUT the fact is that you've clearly not paid one iota of attention to the price difference between today's cells versus those of 15 years ago (just so you know, they're about 1/3rd the cost now), nor the chemistry differences between today's cells and those of 15 years ago (go back to 1996 and find me a mass-market CdTe cell, won't you? The largest PV manufacturer in the world is now CdTe)
That's all good and fine, but an article claiming that solar PV cells are 80% more efficient come up on Slashdot about once a month, each using a different method. Yet the cells we have today are nearly as grossly inefficient as they were 15 years ago. I'm glad price is moving forward, but even if in 15 years time panels are free if I still need to blanket the entire roof with shiny panels that have a high carbon footprint to produce, then really what's the point.
What we need is for these efficient cells to
Solar cells are actually significantly ahead of where they were 15 years ago. There's no huge jump, but there really can't be, as we're nearing the theoretical limit of simple pv cells. More complicated cells can do better, but again the maximum amount better is less than 3x, and that is all the improvement we can ever get.
Have a look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency [wikipedia.org]
and you'll see the slow but steady march of progress. That march is reflected in the commercial cells you can buy as well.
hmm, That article is suspect. They claim a payback of 1-4 years. I can't find any consumer cells that you can payoff in 4 years. I would like to see those numbers with with high end non-consumer grade cells pulled out of the equation.
" That march is reflected in the commercial cells you can buy as well."
1-4 years to pay off the energy required to manufacture them. After which they are a net benefit to our economies.
You can buy the cells anywhere. 15 years ago you could buy 14% efficient cells. Today you can buy 22% cells. Lab cells are approaching the theoretical limit of 29% for simple PV. That's a 50% improvement already, with another 30% on the table, whjch we will see gradually creep into commercialization over the next 15 years as we have over the last 15 years.
Every 2 months or so someone revolutionizes Solar Cells. Or at least that's what the articles suggest. Now I admit I don't keep to breast with current technologies, but has ANY of them reached production?
Yes, lots. The steady pace of innovation is slowly but surely raising the efficiency of cells toward a limit set by fundamental physics.
You keep saying that. Where is the on the shelf evidence?
On the shelves. Commercial efficiencies 15 years ago were about 14-15%. Today, about 22%.
So about the same as a typical gas car engine.
when they have this?
Awesome idea! Spread some of that sunless-tanning chemical on to your rooftop PV panels, and you'll be producing electricity 24/7!
Unfortunately, in the US at least, congress wimps out on the Production Tax Credit. This makes alternative energy more expensive than those existing industries that receive government funding in tax dollars. Since the consumer is only looking at their utility bill, they are under the notion that it cost them less (not recognizing the tax burden that may be factored into the lower utility bill), so they don't buy it. "When it cost as much as I'm using now, then I'll buy" attitudes prevent consumer adoptio
"Because like the rest of the world, slashdot can't care about pure research, but instead only what can be put on a shelf and advertised by google now now! now!!!!?"
No, it's because posting this information so early that it's useless for decision-making means it's just entertainment.
How is this too early for me to decide what grad school to attend for research in nanomaterials?
With this approach at the laboratory scale, Xu and colleagues were able to obtain a light-to-power conversion efficiency of 3.2 percent compared to 1.8 percent efficiency of conventional planar structure of the same materials.
So the efficiencies went from awful to slightly less awful.
This is the edition for the managers... they like big numbers when talking increases.
Actually, they over came some, until now, fundamental obsticals. That's the story.
To be pedantic, they have boosted the efficiency of LOUSY solar cells.
They've taken a 1.8% efficient solar cell and turned it into a 3.2% cell.
I wish the world's press offices would declare a moratorium on announcing breakthroughs in solar technology.
I wish the world's press offices would declare a moratorium on announcing breakthroughs in solar technology.
I don't complain because, since the deaths of FEDs and their ilk, I need something to take the place of the Display Tech. of the Week articles we used to get.
While I appreciate your snarky cynicism, Mr. Landis, not every advance in the world is measured in miraculous breakthroughs. Some things are hard and just improve incrementally through the hard work of people that give a shit. They work hard and figure out how to make things better a bit at a time. That's in contrast to the people that just sit back and do nothing while waiting for the miraculous breakthroughs. While asshats the world over snicker because these solar cells are "slightly less lousy", the people that give a shit will continue to bust their asses to make things better until the day when they cross the line that defines a "massively viable" solar cell. Then the critics will jump on board and ride the wave as if they had everything to do with it and were believers all along. Now THAT'S depressing and worthy of cynicism.
Don't be silly, we're right on the brink of a major breakthrough!
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/04/25/npfb-1978/ [bravenewclimate.com]
The 'greenies' have ben 'Microsofting* us for decades now. It's time to do something for -now- and plan for -later- when the big breakthrough lands.
* Microsoft: verb; To announce a feature or product that negates the value of the most likely competitor, but never actually deliver the product. See als: Real Soon Now.
Right. The current record for an experimental solar cell technology is around 42%. Mainstream commercial products run 12 to 20%. That's up from 6% in the original Bell Labs solar cells in the 1950s. Single-layer cells have a theoretical limit at 34%, but multi-layer cells can beat that somewhat.
It would be handy if the 25 teams claiming a doubling of solar cell efficiency would get together and make one really super-duper one wouldn't it.
I wouldn't expect their doublings to exactly multiply but it's bound to be, say, at least double as efficient.
It's still important
There's an use for decent but inexpensive cells.
Cheap but very inefficient is useless -- no point in covering your roof if it's not even going to power the TV, even if it's nearly free. Installation takes time and effort, after all.
Expensive and very efficient isn't that useful either. It might go on satellites, but 80% efficiency at $20/watt wouldn't make sense for most people.
Now in between those lies the interesting range. And if a technology from the cheap but not very useful kind ca
But innovations like this are exactly why solar efficiency has, in fact, slowly but steadily improved over the last couple of decades.
That sounds great when you mention it like that, but the reality is solar PV has an abysmal efficiency, and is still the single most expensive and realestate exhausting technology available. While I welcome every effort to improve it it does seem like there's a "breakthrough" in solar PV every month that never actually makes it to the market.
At the snail pace we are going solar PV will likely become a viable option just in time for the demise of the human.
PV has a theoretical maximum of 29%, so it isn't going to have any huge jumps from the current 22% efficiency. It will have to be a different fundamental design that goes higher than that (and perfect carnot conversion is only ~85% with solar, so we'll be lucky to triple today's efficiencies, ever.
PV has a theoretical maximum of 29%, so it isn't going to have any huge jumps from the current 22% efficiency.
Wrong. Crystalline silicon based PV has a theoretical max efficiency of 29%. Other forms of PV such as GaAs multijunction cells have already demonstrated efficiencies in the high 40% range and are rising.
Just like the other half-dozen or so solar cell improvements I've read about over the past few years.
They're taking the extra time to combine all the improvements together, so it gets delayed a little every time a new discovery is made. But when they're finished we should have solar cells that are 320% efficient at converting the sun's energy to electricity!
efficiency doesn't matter to me at all. Price / watt does
I don't care if they are 100% efficient if they cost $20billion / watt.
But show me one that is cheap enough to afford to cover my roof with that the end total wattage is enough to cover something close to my power use (or more) and I'll do it.
The % efficiency make absolutely no difference to me at all, zip, zero, nada. DON"T CARE!
The problem with price per Watt, while that's certainly important, is that, say for example with current Tech, covering every square inch of your roof with solar panels gives you, let's say 1kW, that's the maximum you can get out of the area of your roof. You'd need more area to get more power.
Now, increase the efficiency by 80%, and you get 1.8kW out of that same area. Of course, if the price increases more than 80%, then you are coming out behind, because even though you get more power, it costs more.
"efficiency doesn't matter to me at all. "
To prove you wrong, I will quote... you.
"But show me one that is cheap enough to afford to cover my roof with "
That is Price / watt.
"that the end total wattage is enough to cover something close to my power use "
That is Watt / m^2.... also know as Efficiency.
As you have correctly, and incorrectly pointed out, efficiency does matter.
$/kWh determines market adoption.
Watt/m^2 (after market adoption) determines sales channels and installation sites.
Price per watt is the end user's opinion of usefulness. You cover your roof with cheap inefficient crap and pat yourself on the back for being "green". Yet these technologies have quite the carbon footprint involved in the manufacture of solar panels. When you take the efficiency into account you can potentially reduce this footprint. Some made up numbers for your understanding:
10x 1m^2 panels, producing 10kW consumes 10MW during manufacture, and costs $1000 per panel. vs
1x 1m^2 panel, producing 10kW, con
But show me one that is cheap enough to afford to cover my roof with that the end total wattage is enough to cover something close to my power use (or more) and I'll do it.
On one hand you're saying you don't care about efficiency, but on the other you've put constraints on acceptable efficiency by stipulating the size of the array and the wattage. Efficiency matters, both because not everyone has an acre they can cover with cells and because there are costs that scale with the size of a solar cell array.
If this product can be reliable and cheaply produced it will rock the world. I feel that it will likely be buried away from public use or view for many decades.
The problem with current Solar cells is not efficiency. Well, in a way it is of course, because every improvement helps along the economics.
The real problem is that the panels require a huge amount of energy to produce as they rely on highly refined materials. So much energy is required that it takes years or decades to break even.
The energy returned on energy invested is actually quite good. The issue is that the manufacturing process is so darn expensive that it isn't very economical at the moment. This is also why terrestrial applications rarely use the kind of solar cells that go on satellites. There are cells with close to 40% efficiency, they're just stupidly expensive.
Actually, most solar systems have a 'carbon' (read energy + transport) payback period of about 1 year. It's really good tech, it's just a shame so many geeks are obsessed with nuclear and so buy into the whole bashing solar routine, so you hear this kind of rubbish everywhere.
Check out the Sahara Solar Breeder Project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_Solar_Breeder_Project [wikipedia.org]
If you get enough of them, you can make the process self-sustaining energy-wise, even accounting for manufacturing the cells and panels.
*Citation needed*
After a quick google search:
"Crystalline silicon PV systems presently have energy pay-back times of 1.5-2 years for South-European locations and 2.7-3.5 years for Middle-European locations. The U.S. is less than 1.5 years currently."
"two years for a PV system with monocrystalline solar cells"
And the final one I looked at said 2-4 years with 10-30% of that coming from the energy it takes to make the FRAME you're using to mount the solar cells.
So it takes years yes, but decades? That's not ev
Sorry, let me also add this as a reference:
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35489.pdf [nrel.gov]
It's the one I felt was most unbiased (not done by a solar cell manufacturer for example.) It's done by the US department of energy.
That all well and fine, but in the consumer world, tell me where I can get solar cells with a 4 year pay back.
Everywhere I looked it was 10-15 years.
The original question I was responding to was a question of is the power used to create the solar cells is made up during the life of the panel. The different question you seem to be asking is a question of break even costs. That's a longer time as profit and non-energy costs are also part of that equation.
Leaves on trees are actually not that efficient, it is just that it is so "cheap" for a tree to make new ones that it doesn't matter. If I could buy 250 W panels for $100, I would have my roof covered, even if they were twice the size of the current units.
I read about this in a New Scientist Magazine a looong time ago. They blasted silicon with a laser to produce small cones on the surface, which sounds exactly like the "3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform" described here.
Like someone else said, when it hits the market, then I'm interested about hearing about this.
According to the article, part of the cell is composed of cadmium telluride. Both are toxic and various compounds of tellurium stink to high heaven. I wonder what happens if the cells get caught in a fire?
The cadmium telluride is 0.5 micrometers thin, so there isn't actually that much of it.
According to the article, part of the cell is composed of cadmium telluride. Both are toxic and various compounds of tellurium stink to high heaven. I wonder what happens if the cells get caught in a fire?
Right, the cell is composed of cadmium telluride, which is a binary compound. That is different from saying the cell is composed of cadmium and tellurium, which are separate atomic compounds with different properties. Toxicity and fire studies on cadmium telluride are ongoing, but so far they have found th
There are multi-junction solar cells with a decent efficiency. That's teh kind that go on expensive sattelites. The problem is that such cells cost an arm and a leg so it is still cheaper to use the single-junction cells that get a much poorer efficiency. The kind of solar breakthroughs that might make photovoltaic competitive is reductions in the cost of teh manufacturing process. If you can find a cheap way to make the multi junction cells then the price per kWh will come down drastically.
Btw: The price per watt is useless as a metric because most of the time the cells don't give you their maximum power rating. What is interesting is the price per unit of energy averaged over a year. I.e $/kWh.
RFMD has licensed some NREL 3-junction technology, and is in the midst of the approx. 3-year project to take it from "we made one in the lab" to "we're mass-producing them in our foundry". I think they're going to rock the market in one to two years. http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2011/MAR/RFMD_030311.html [semiconductor-today.com]
"All forward-looking statements are present expectations of future events and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from
>>Btw: The price per watt is useless as a metric because most of the time the cells don't give you their maximum power rating. What is interesting is the price per unit of energy averaged over a year. I.e $/kWh.
Right, for example SunPower makes much more efficient panels than the ones I bought, but since I had plenty of square-footage on my rooftop, I went with the ones that provided the best bang for the buck, instead of bang per sqft.
Efficiency of a panel is only one component - price is ultimately
Wasn't there some other article posted here a year or so ago about the problem of one photon equaling one electron being the problem and that someone had discovered something that created a cascade effect so that one photon could become more than one electron? When are we going to see that on the market?
Chemistry researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory say they've improved the efficiency of typical solar cells by a whopping 80%....
So those crappy auto recharge panels I bought on clearance last month are almost twice as good now? How'd they do that from 2000 miles away? Wow, I gotta go plug 'em in!
Let's get the facts straight:
"With this approach at the laboratory scale, Xu and colleagues were able to obtain a light-to-power conversion efficiency of 3.2 percent compared to 1.8 percent efficiency of conventional planar structure of the same materials."
3.2% is pathetic. A quick Google search reveals some polycrystalline Cadmium Telluride cells developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that achieved 15% efficiency. It was published TWO YEARS AGO. [solarserver.com]
For once, FOR ONCE I'd like to see a genuine so
Oop, it wasn't published 2 years ago, it was last February. Damn European date format. Oh, well, argument still holds. The press release from Oak Ridge is deliberately misleading.
Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed. -- Neil Armstrong


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Ace, I really enjoy these fee-fi-foe-film pieces.
My concern about MSU is that what you have summarized for their offensive and defensive formations and playcalling is likely going to be different from what we will see on Saturday. Since Dantonio arrived in East Lansing, they seem to have an entirely different gameplan for us that they don't usually break out in advance.
This is less of a concern on D - I think that we can all predict their plan: stack the line, force Denard to throw, disguise coverage to exploit Denard's somewhat suspect decision making.
But, on offense, given their talent level, I expect that we will see some new stuff. If I were MSU (in which case I would have to shave 50 points off of my IQ, purchase tanning spray and wife-beaters in bulk and practice saying "brah" a lot), I would use some 2 TE sets to exploit some size advantages, and mix in a heavy does of Martin to exploit our weakness at stopping shiftier guys. Based on your preview, they have not done a ton of either of these things this year, which means that I expect them to do both against us.


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Premier League clubs once again dominated the international transfer market in 2013, topping the 1billion US dollar-mark for the first time.
EPL big guns Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal along with the rest of the Premier League, spent 1.1billion dollars (£660million) on overseas transfers last year, and of that more than £50million went straight into the pockets of agents.
The figures - revealed in the Global Transfer Market 2014 report, published by FIFA - only include international transfers between different countries.
Premier League figures released in November disclosed a total of £100million was paid to agents, including for domestic transfers.
After the Premier League, Italian clubs were the next biggest spenders on overseas transfers (£286million), followed by France (£253million), Spain (£192million) and then Germany (£144million).
Spanish clubs, however, were the biggest net earners for transfers, with net income of £150million.
The report also highlighted the growing influence of 'super clubs' such as Manchester City, Paris St Germain and Monaco, where wealthy owners provide huge sums for fast-track team strengthening.
The report states that across the world there were a total of 12,309 international transfers in 2013, 4% more than in 2012, and 90 per cent of these were free transfers with no fee paid.
"Players with Brazilian nationality were also represented most in the international transfer market with 1,558 transfers (13% of total transfers)," says the report, with 236 players moving to and from Brazil and Portugal.
FIFA's transfers matching system aims to provide a clearing house for all international transfers, with clubs having to register agents involved plus any fees and add-ons.
The system should be able to shed some light on the complicated deal that took Neymar from Santos to Barcelona, with much of the fee going to a company headed by the player's father.
Spanish prosecutors are investigating the deal after it emerged that Barcelona's original announcement that Neymar cost £48million did not include a further £25million in other fees.
Mark Goddard, general manager of the FIFA Transfer Matching System, would not be drawn on the case however.
He said: "Obviously the Neymar transfer was in the system and that has generated some recent interest - and we are now going to do everything we are required to do to make sure our obligations are met."
The row over the fee led to a change of president at Barcelona with Sandro Rosell quitting the post.
Source: PA


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The Savvy Aviator #62: What's That Going To Cost?
On a winter Friday evening a few years ago, a Texas-based aircraft owner loaded three family members into his Baron and flew to Kansas City to attend a weekend function. One of the aircraft's vacuum pumps failed over Oklahoma. Upon landing at Kansas City Downtown Airport (MKC), the owner asked the FBO on the field if they could replace the failed pump over the weekend, in time for his planned departure late Sunday afternoon. They said they could, and the owner gave them a go-ahead. When the owner and his family returned to MKC on Sunday afternoon, the owner was pleased to find that the pump had been replaced as advertised. But when he gave the FBO his credit card to pay the bill, he was told that the invoice wouldn't be ready until Monday when the bookkeeper returned to work. The FBO insisted that the owner sign a blank credit card slip to cover the work. The owner was initially unwilling to do this, but ultimately capitulated when it became obvious that was the only way to get the FBO to release his airplane. When the FBO's charge finally showed up on the owner's credit card, it turned out to be over $1,900. The pump was invoiced at $1,400 -- well above the manufacturer's published list price of $1,090 and almost twice the usual "street price" of $800. The labor charge was about $500 for a job that shouldn't have taken more than an hour. The owner was upset, of course. He fired off a nastygram to the owner of the FBO and vowed never to patronize them again. But in the final analysis, the owner was stuck paying a bill he appropriately considered outrageous. This sort of thing is hardly uncommon. I know one owner who was charged nearly $1,000 to have his Cessna 210 deiced in Memphis, another who was charged $350 for one hour in a heated hangar to melt the snow of his light twin near Boston, and yet another who was charged $180 at Washington Dulles to have two tires aired up on his Skylane. Most of these incidents occurred at large FBOs that cater mostly to the bizjet set. But such FBOs certainly aren't the only offenders. Not long ago, a mechanic removed a leaking fuel selector valve from a Bonanza and sent it off to a well-known FAA-approved repair station for overhaul. After inspecting the valve, the repair station quoted $2,000 to overhaul it. At this point, the aircraft owner wisely intervened, directed the repair station to return the leaky valve, and sent it to another repair station in California who overhauled the valve for $375. While these may be extreme cases, I sincerely doubt there are many aircraft owners among us who haven't felt blindsided by what they considered to be an unreasonable maintenance invoice from time to time. (Been there, done that, got the bloodstained tee-shirt to prove it.)
The First Commandment
In almost every such case, these unpleasant surprises occur because the aircraft owner authorized the work to be done without first asking what it would cost. In doing that, the owner broke the first commandment of aircraft maintenance:
Never permit a shop or mechanic to perform maintenance on your aircraft until you have received and approved a work order and cost estimate in writing. If and when you approve the work to be done, instruct the shop or mechanic explicitly not to exceed the cost estimate without first obtaining your explicit approval.
I find it amazing how often this commonsense commandment is broken. In almost every other sort of commerce, it would be absolutely unthinkable for someone to purchase goods or services without knowing what they will cost. Most of us would never buy a headset, a pair of sunglasses or a gallon 100LL without checking the price. Nor would we consider hiring a plumber to install a new water heater, a roofer to fix a leak, or a garage to replace a muffler without first obtaining a quotation or estimate. Yet more often than not, aircraft owners put their plane in the shop and authorize work to be done without obtaining even a verbal estimate, much less a written quote. Frequently, the first time they learn what the work will cost is when the work is finished and they are presented with the invoice. At that point, it is too late for them to influence the outcome; they can only complain and lick their wounds. (Show me an aircraft owner, and I'll show you an expert complainer and wound licker.) Why do we do this? I can think of three reasons:
- We're uncomfortable asking the shop or mechanic for a cost estimate.
- The aircraft has a known problem, but we don't yet understand what's wrong sufficiently for the shop or mechanic to estimate how much work needs to be done or what parts need to be replaced.
- The aircraft is in the shop for an inspection, so we don't yet know what problems are going to be found, much less what parts and labor will be needed to fix them.
Let's consider these three cases in turn.
Case 1: Uncomfortable Asking
I suspect the Baron owner was uncomfortable about asking the Kansas City FBO for a cost estimate to replace his failed vacuum pump. Perhaps he felt the FBO was doing him a big favor in agreeing to do the work over the weekend. (They weren't. Their labor rate was top-dollar, and they charged time-and-a-half for the weekend labor.) Or perhaps it was because this big-city FBO was one that catered largely to the bizjet crowd ... you know, the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" guys. Perhaps the Cessna 210 owner was uncomfortable about asking the FBO in Memphis what it would cost to deice his airplane because he thought it couldn't possibly be enough to worry about. (He found out otherwise.) Or perhaps it was because he felt he had no alternative but to have the airplane deiced, no matter what it cost. (There's always an alternative.) Whatever the precise reason for their discomfort, their failure to ask what the work would cost before authorizing it cost them dearly. It never makes sense to purchase goods or services without first asking what they will cost. Purchasing aircraft maintenance is just like any other purchase. The fact that it is not your field of expertise should never intimidate you into failing to asking key threshold questions like "What's that going to cost?" In fact, the less you know about something, the more questions you should ask before making a decision. Never feel embarrassed to ask for an estimate before authorizing work to be done on your aircraft. The only time it's bad form to ask the price is when someone gives you a gift!
Case 2: Don't Know What's Wrong
Sure, but what if you don't know what's wrong? Say you put the airplane in the shop because the engine has started running rough, but you don't know why. How can you possibly ask your shop or mechanic for a cost estimate under such circumstances? My answer is simple: Never ask a shop or mechanic to fix a problem unless you know what's wrong. That's like going in for surgery before your illness is diagnosed. Aircraft owners do this all the time, and it's an expensive mistake. I spend a lot of time discussing owner-performed troubleshooting in my seminars. In a nutshell, I advise aircraft owners to do as much troubleshooting as they possibly can before putting their aircraft in the shop. In my view, it's primarily the owner's job to troubleshoot and the mechanic's job to fix. It's often difficult or impossible for a mechanic to reproduce problems in the maintenance hangar. If we owners don't diagnose a problem before we put our aircraft in the shop, our mechanic often has no choice but to resort to guesswork, trying various things and hoping he gets lucky. When mechanics guess, owners pay through the nose. Returning to your rough-running engine: In a perfect world, you'll use your digital engine monitor and well-honed troubleshooting skills to diagnose the problem: e.g., a clogged injector nozzle, or a faulty bottom spark plug in cylinder #3. Then, you'll put your aircraft in the shop and obtain a cost estimate to fix the problem. But what if you can't figure out why the engine is running rough? In that case, you put your aircraft in the shop and authorize your mechanic to spend up to two hours (or whatever seems reasonable to you) troubleshooting the problem, and instruct him to report back to you with his diagnosis. Only then, when the problem has been diagnosed, do you ask for a cost estimate to fix the problem and (if the estimate is acceptable) authorize the repair.
Case 3: Annual Inspection
In the case of an annual inspection where, by definition, you don't know what problems will be found, my advice is similar. Put your aircraft in the shop and instruct your mechanic to perform the inspection (which is normally done at an agreed-to flat rate) and prepare a detailed list of discrepancies with a cost estimate to fix each one. At this point, sit down with the mechanic, go over the discrepancy list and estimates in detail, and come to agreement on exactly what repairs are to be done and what they will cost. Only then should you authorize the repair work to proceed. No matter what the situation, there is never a good reason to authorize a shop or mechanic to perform maintenance on your aircraft until you have received a detailed written estimate of what it will cost. If the shop or mechanic won't provide one to you, take your airplane elsewhere. Always know what it will cost before you say, "Go ahead." See you next month.
Want to read more from Mike Busch? Check out the rest of his Savvy Aviator columns.
And use this link to send questions to Mike.


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Our stance slightly misunderstood
After publication last week, I realized too late that reader John Overby's thoughtful letter mistakenly attributed my editorial stance July 11 — encouraging the community to contact federal representatives in support of federal funding of local school construction — in part to a statement written in a letter by a member of Congress.
Authority to act was not cited from anyone's letter, but from the very law Overby referenced in his letter.
In the third from the last paragraph, The Coulee Dam Community Act of 1957 gives the secretary of the Department of Interior the authority to do whatever it takes to make Interior's functions regarding the Grand Coulee Dam more efficient and economic.
It is no stretch at all to understand that that should include assuring that schools meet the standards expected by current and prospective employees and their families -- employees without whose contributions of labor and expertise the dam would cease to function. Given that the very reason it is impossible to raise the money through normal means is the abnormally high land holdings of the federal government, it is in the interest of the Department of Interior to contribute to the schools, so it can attract high quality employees.
From the act's Section 11:
"(b) The Secretary is authorized to enter into contracts with the municipality whereby either party might undertake to render to the other such services in aid of the performance of activities and functions of the municipality and of the Department of the Interior within or near Coulee Dam as will, in the Secretary's judgment, contribute substantially to the efficiency or economy of the operations of the Department of the Interior."
Scott Hunter
editor and publisher


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Performance goal
From Conservapedia
A performance goal is a target level of performance expressed as a tangible, measurable objective, against which actual achievement can be compared, including a goal expressed as a quantitative standard, value, or rate. Performance goals should be provided for short-term as well as for long-term assessment of program performance.
The term is most often used in business or economics, but can also be used in setting personal targets.
Performance goal quotes
- "Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor." - Brian Tracy
- "Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines." - Brian Tracy
- "Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor." - Brian Tracy
- "There is no achievement without goals." - Robert J. McKaine
- "Goals in writting are dreams with deadlines." - Brian Tracy
- "This one step - choosing a goal and sticking to it - changes everything." - Scott Reed
- "People with goals succeed because they know where they're going." Earl Nightingale
- "Until input (thought) is linked to a goal (purpose) there can be no intelligent accomplishment." - Paul G. Thomas
- "Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination." - Fitzhugh Dodson
- "Goals.There's not telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There's no telling what will happen when you act upon them." - Jim Rohn
- "You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures." - Charles C. Noble
- "We all need lots of powerful long-range goals to help us past the short-term obstacles." - Jim Rohn
- "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." - Zig Ziglar
- "Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets." - Nido Qubein
- "An average person with average talent,ambition and education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society,if that person has clear,focused goals." - Brian Tracy
- "The person with a fixed goal, a clear picture of his desire, or an ideal always before him, causes it, through repetition, to be buried deeply in his subconscious mind and is thus enabled, thanks to its generative and sustaining power, to realize his goal in a minimum of time and with a minimum of physical effort. Just pursue the thought unceasingly. Step by step you will achieve realization, for all your faculties and powers become directed to that end." - Claude M. Bristol
- "If you don't know where you are going, you'll probably end up somewhere else." - Lewis Carroll
- "Keep your eye on eternal goals." - John H. Groberg
- "People with goals succeed because they know where they are going... It's as simple as that." - Earl Nightingale
- "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal." - Hannah More
- "In the long run men hit only what they aim at." - Henry David Thoreau


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Darolyn Turner has not changed her opinion of the man accused of stabbing her brother in the heart in Thibodaux in August and letting him bleed to death.
Darolyn Turner has not changed her opinion of the man accused of stabbing her brother in the heart in Thibodaux in August and letting him bleed to death.
"I hate him," the 32-year-old said.
Dontrell Turner, 25, however, is trying to cope with his brother's death differently.
"I'm trying not to think negative things about anyone, and I'm trying to get my family on the same page," he said. "It's in God's hands."
Douglas Turner, 26, of Thibodaux was stabbed in the early morning hours Aug. 18 at Sanders Street and Gerald T. Peltier Drive as he and Jocobe Henderson, 21, argued, Thibodaux Police have said. In addition to his heart, Turner's lung also was punctured several times by stab wounds, the Lafourche Coroner's Office said.
Turner was pronounced dead at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, police said.
Douglas' funeral at Third Zion Baptist Church in Raceland was packed, said his mother, Cheryl Turner. There was not enough room for everyone to sit down.
"We cry over Douglas day and night, wishing there was some kind of way we could have helped," Darolyn said of herself and her mother.
They said it's still hard to believe Douglas is gone.
The night he died, Darolyn and several other family members and friends were out celebrating Douglas' birthday, they said.
"At one point, we was all having fun, laughing and clowning, and then something like this could happen," Dontrell said. "We have a small family; my mom's pretty much an only child. It's a tough situation."
Douglas had been flirting with an ex-girlfriend of Henderson's, and that may have been what they fought over, said Cheryl and Darolyn, neither of whom witnessed the killing.
Henderson's mother, Shenell Henderson Bertrand, said that wasn't the cause of the fight, though she declined to say what was.
The Turners said Henderson's family has not talked to them since Henderson was arrested.
"I want to give them time," Bertrand said.
Henderson recently was studying engineering at Grambling State University, Bertrand said. Now, Henderson is in the Lafourche Parish jail on a second-degree murder charge and a $1 million bond, records show.
"Douglas was a good kid," Bertrand said. "So was Jacobe."
If that hadn't happened, around this time of year, Douglas and Dontrell — inseparable brothers who grew up together, coached football together and had recently begun working together — would be meeting up to watch football on TV every chance they had, Dontrell said.
Douglas, who was a wide receiver for Thibodaux High and went to Coffeyville Community College in Kansas to play football, "was a sports person," Darolyn Turner said. Once he started working, first for Crescent Crown Distributing and then as a salesman for Frito Lay, he played on flag football teams.
Even though he supported local teams and loved college ball, his favorite team was the Philadelphia Eagles, Dontrell said.
He also played basketball at the Warren J. Harang Jr. Municipal Auditorium, and he would go crabbing and saltwater fishing "to relax his mind," she said.
Douglas was also a father of two — 1-year-old Dalaina Turner and 6-year-old Treyvon Alexander.
"He's still got all of her life to see," said Dalaina's mother Paige Castle, 25, who lives in Houma. Castle said she tries to visit Douglas' grave every Sunday.
When friends and family were cleaning out his apartment after his death, Dalaina sat on the couch and said "Da-da."
"Everyone just stopped cleaning, and we just looked at her," Castle said. "It was like she knew."
In her first year of life, there were a lot of things Dalaina would do for her father that she wouldn't do for her mother, Castle said.
"She wouldn't take naps or baths with me, but she would for him," she said.
As she was learning to walk, Dalaina also would do more walking with her father than her mother.
"She wanted her daddy to see her walk. … He'd take her out walking, he'd walk her around the block," Castle said.
Douglas also had been teaching Darolyn's 14-year-old daughter to drive, Darolyn Turner said. Now, the daughter doesn't feel like driving anymore.
"He was a loving daddy, caring and understanding," Castle said. "He made sure we didn't go without. … You don't find a lot of guys that's not drinking and smoking and partying. He was a real wholesome guy," Castle said.
Since his death, Dalaina regularly kisses her father's picture when she sees one, Castle said.
"Why'd they have to take somebody that good?" Castle said.
Turner had dated Keyouka Thompson, 26, for seven years before they broke up but stayed good friends, Thompson said. He would cook for her ("barbecue, fish, everything"), and she said she misses talking on the phone and texting with him.
When she learned he had died, "I dropped to the floor," she said. "I'm still recovering from it."
"He was a kind-hearted, loving person," she said.
Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or