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By: Shannon Ralph
Reason #23: I can't hear you.
One of the greatest tools for success in any marriage is the ability to completely ignore your spouse when appropriate. Yes, you love her. Yes, she is the center of your universe and the rock of your family. Yes, there are times when you hang on her every word and want to spend every waking moment in her presence. That is…until she turns freakin' ass nuts on you.
In any relationship, sometime you are the freakin' ass nut. Other times, you are merely the innocent bystander psychologically assaulted by the freakin' ass nut. Yesterday, I was the nut.
Before I tell you the whole sordid story, allow me to first mount a reasonable defense.
Defense Exhibit A: I was pre-menstrual. And not happy about it.
Defense Exhibit B: I have arthritis in my my right knee. I can go months and months without it ever hurting. Then it flares up out of the blue and I am completely crippled. Then I go months and months. Then I am a crippled. It is an exhaustibly vicious cycle. Yesterday, I was borderline crippled.
Defense Exhibit C: I suffer from debilitating allergic rhinitis this time of the year. Snot was oozing out of every orifice in my head.
Defense Exhibit D: I was nursing the beginnings of a yeast infection. (I realize that is probably waaaayyy more than you wanted to hear, but coming to know me on an uncomfortably and awkwardly intimate level is one of the many perks of reading my blog.)
Defense Exhibit E: I had been out of my birth control pills for a week because I was too lazy to go the Target Pharmacy to pick them up after getting off work. As a result, I was sporting a couple of nasty zits on my chin.
So….I was crampy, bloated, pseudo crippled, snotty, yeasty, and zitty. It was not one of my finest moments. And Ruanita, being the dear sweet partner she is, was completely attuned to my "issues" and was able to ignore my illogical and inexplicably angry rant.
So what happened?
I had bought Sophie this new dress with matching leggings from Naartjie. It was not a cheap dress. I got it on sale, but still. Normally, most of Sophie's clothes come from Target. Rarely do I spend much more than a couple of bucks on any of her clothing—for good reason. She is incredibly hard on clothes. As a tomboy princess, she loves girly clothes, but quickly ruins them while chasing frogs and wrestling with her brothers in the back yard. So I try to make sure she is in possession of a fairly cheap wardrobe most of the time. But I couldn't resist this particular dress. She looked absolutely adorable in it. Yesterday, we were going to my nephew's birthday party, followed by the first game of the WNBA Finals to cheer on our illustrious Minnesota Lynx. Sophie wanted to wear her new dress. Of course, I had no problem with my child looking adorable for the game.
My nephew's party didn't last as long as we had anticipated, so we had some time to kill before the basketball game. Ruanita suggested taking the kids to the park and letting them run out some energy before subjecting them to two hours sitting at a crowded game. Normally, I would have been totally on board with the kids expelling some energy. However, yesterday I was not quite feeling like myself. I replied, "But I don't want them to get dirty before the game."
"Dirty? Our kids don't get dirty at the park."
Okay…if you have children—particularly of the klutzy variety that I have—you know that kids do get dirty at the park. Ruanita was just plain wrong. However, in the midst of my snotty, yeasty haze, I allowed her to convince me that the kids would not get dirty before the game. So we headed to the park.
Ruanita and I parked ourselves on the nearest bench (that's why they're called "park benches," right?) to watch the kids play. Almost immediately—seriously, within seconds—Sophie fell in the tiny pebbles that covered the playground area. She came over to us in tears with a slightly bloody knee. And with brand new leggings covered in dirt and already worn thin in the knee.
I looked at Ruanita and declared, with more venom than I really intended, "Kids don't get dirty at the park, huh?" She ignored me, kissed Sophie's boo-boo and sent her on her merry way to play some more.
Within minutes, Sophie fell again. This time in the grass. To add a smear of mud and a lovely green grass stain to the knees of her new leggings. "Shit!" I yelled. "What the hell? Can she not walk?" Luckily, Sophie did not hear me, but Ruanita did. I continued to mumble about how I can't buy anything nice for the kids. And why in the hell would we take them to the park when Sophie is in her new dress anyway? And "Kids don't get dirty at the park, do they, Ruanita?" I was, in short, a complete and total bitch about Sophie ruining her new leggings. I knew I was being a bitch. I knew I was being totally irrational. I could always buy her another pair of matching leggings. Or Sophie could wear her adorable dress with any any of the multiple pairs of tights she has in her sock drawer at home. There was no reason whatsoever for me to get upset. There was certainly no reason for the venom that was oozing out of every pore of my body. I had inexplicably turned freakin' ass nuts on Ruanita.
And she knew it. She knew it was the snot and the zits talking and not her beloved spouse. She knew that there was no talking me down from the ledge at that moment. She knew that no amount of reasoning would calm me. As a matter of fact, reasoning with me would certainly have had the opposite effect. She knew arguing with me would turn ugly. Try as I might to turn the tide, I was one hundred percent completely invested in my freakin' ass nuts rant. I knew it was irrational, but I couldn't help myself. So how is a good spouse to respond?
She totally ignored me. Completely.
She walked away. She moved to another section of the park. She took the kids with her, as to shield them from their mommy's spewing anger. She left me on my park bench to stew. Alone. Eventually, I did calm down. The bitchy ooze leaking from every pore did eventually dry up. I was able to rejoin my family, forget about the stained leggings, and have a great time at the basketball game.
That, my friends—the ability to completely ignore your spouse when they turn freakin' ass nuts on you—is yet another reason why my marriage is just like your marriage.


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Microsoft is asking millions of Web searchers to break their longtime Google search habits and give the software giant's Bing search engine a new try in a catchy "Bing It On Challenge" that is aimed at growing Bing's market share in the search wars.
The "Bing It On" campaign was born out of a recent search study commissioned by Microsoft that looked at user opinions on the search engines they were using and the accuracy of the results they were getting, according to a post by Mike Nichols, chief marketing officer for Bing, on the Bing Search Blog.
"A while ago, we began to notice an interesting trend in our internal testing-for the first time our testing showed that Bing's Web search results were better than Google's," wrote Nichols. "We continued testing our results in several different ways as part of our regular work to improve our quality, and along the way an interesting pattern emerged-Bing was regularly beating Google in Web search results quality."
Those early findings inspired Microsoft to dive deeper to find out what it meant.
Further reading
"So, we asked an independent research company to do a statistically significant similar challenge test and our findings were confirmed-people preferred Bing Web search results nearly 2:1 over Google in blind comparison tests," wrote Nichols. "Since relevancy of search results is the No. 1 driver of search engine preference, the time is right for a wake-up call for searchers-better Web search results are available at Bing.com."
With that, Microsoft is unveiling the "Bing It On Challenge," a Web page where users are being encouraged to see for themselves how their Web searches are being conducted side-by-side by Bing and Google. The key is that both visible searches are not identified with their Bing or Google logos. Once at the Website, users enter a search term and are asked to judge which of the two search screens gives them the best search results. After five "rounds" of side-by-side, nonscientific, blind search comparisons, the site tells you which search engine you found most useful-Bing or Google.
So what's the point of this blind "taste test?"
"Our mission is to show people it's time to break the 'Google habit' and that Bing has reached a quality level that will make it easy to switch," wrote Nichols.

subset: commoncrawl


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Philly's Kurt Vile played the 40 Watt Club in Athens this past Saturday night, and there's an excellent audio recording of the show posted on Southern Shelter that you can download. Below, download Kurt's cover of The Boss's "Downbound Train" from the show.
Downbound Train – Kurt Vile + The Violators


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Dear Beautiful Creatures,
Lean in to truly know our affection towards you as we have Butterfly Kisses for you all! Today marked the day that Nayt became a Dad, and we talked about family, and dads, and siblings, and Zelda. as well as a little beer.
What a great episode for you this week!


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Barefoot in the Park might not be five star viewing, but it's a movie I love - and have loved for quite a bit - all the while. Its stars are Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, two of my favorite actors from that interchanging period between the decline of the studio system and the dawn of modern movies. I really like the both of them and they're absolutely fabulous in the film as a "stuffed shirt" Paul and free spirit Corrie. (They're also seriously beautiful looking together.) They are supported by a very bohemian Charles Boyer and a delicate Mildred Natwick, the graceful character actress I very much love. It is directed by Gene Saks (Cactus Flower).
The plot is a prime example of 1960s fluff, and its one of the main reasons I love it. In the 1967 trailer it's advertised as "one of the happiest movies," and I couldn't agree more. This is a pick-me-up sort of movie that I can always rely on to cheer me up, one I've seen countless times with my mom, so much so that I know all the lyrics to Shama-Shama. Each time I finish watching it, I feel like I've swallowed a big gulp of fresh air and it's always guaranteed to leave me with a smile on my face.
Jane Fonda plays Corrie Bratter, a pretty girl with a thirst for adventure and excitement. She's the type of character that'll never turn down the opportunity to do something wild, like dancing to exotic music, tasting strange foods, and appropriately, running barefoot through the park. She's madly in love with a man quite her opposite: Paul Bratter, played by Robert Redford. He's a quiet and neat attorney who likes to follow the rules, stay within the lines, and stick to the familiar. As it so often happens in romantic comedies, opposites attract, and the movie starts off with the newlyweds at the Plaza Hotel for a week long honeymoon that leaves Paul's lips "numb from kissing."
As he heads off to work on the last day of their honeymoon, Corrie rushes off to get settled in their new apartment. A small flat overlooking New York City, there are six flights (plus a steep stoop which Paul calls "that big thing out front") to reach the Bratter apartment at the top. Their apartment complex is also shared by some of "the greatest weirdos in the country," including a couple of whose sex no one is quite sure of. The bedroom can barely fit a bed and to Paul's chagrin, there's no bath, but worst of all, there's a hole in the skylight! They can't figure out how to work the radiator, and it's February, so they spend their first night in the apartment freezing as snow collects in their living room through the skylight.
But Corrie, being the free spirit she is, can't help but love the new apartment, as well as makes friends with the avant-garde bohemian that lives in the attic, Victor Velasco, played by Charles Boyer. He eats strange Japanese foods and scales the building to get into his apartment. Corrie decides to play matchmaker with Victor and her dainty mother, Ethel, (played by Mildred Natwick) who lives out in Connecticut and sleeps on a board each night - more like Paul than Corrie. Naturally, disasters occur which are exemplified by the Bratters' strange living conditions, and puts a humongous stain on the Bratter marriage. And, of course, all these events unfold in utter hilarity.
It's a super fun film. It is based off a Neil Simon play of the same name which premiered in 1963. The dialogue is truly funny, there's a dash of physical comedy involved, and the characters hit their marks. I'm sure there are those that definitely wouldn't agree with me, but in my humble opinion this is a good example of a fluffy movie that can be pretty darn excellent for its genre. To sum the movie up: it's a comical spoof on being newlyweds.
Okay, so now that I'm babbled enough about the movie - and I'm crossing my fingers you grasped the plot, but if you need some help still, check this out - let's get onto the recasting!
I have chosen the year 1943 to recast the film. Twenty-four years before the original release date, my version of the movie would have been released into World War II America, where fluffy, cheerful films were just the kind of getaway moviegoers needed at the cinema. The story is definitely a comedy, requiring a bit of physical comedy (that mainly has to do with the six flights to reach the Bratter apartment) that, if produced in 1943, could have even resulted in a screwball comedy. That's a entraining thought. The 1967 movie came from the stage as well as by then the screwball comedy was near extinct. But in 1943, this could have easily transferred in a ridiculous romp: with Corrie's vivacious, daffy personality and Paul playing her straight man.
As for the character of Paul Bratter, I have gone with Cary Grant. Cary, my favorite actor
Then there is Corrie Bratter, a young woman with a magnificent lust for life and thirst for adventure. For this role, I have chosen my second favorite actress, my favorite Swede, that wonderful doll, Ingrid Bergman. Perhaps casting early 1940s Ingrid in this role is against type. After all, there are probably quite a few other actresses at the time who would, by studio moguls, have been considered more appropriate for the role. Though it is true that Ingrid in the 40s did pretty much all dramas (though she did get to show off her comedic flair a little in The Bells of St. Mary's), there's no question that she could do comedy. She got opportunities to do so later in her career: Indiscreet (1958) - also with Cary - The Yellow Rolls Royce (1964), Cactus Flower (1969) - which was a role that had been originally offered to my Lucy - but never in her studio system days. Which is a shame because Ingrid was fantastic at comedy. She had good timing combined with a almost nonchalant subtly to her comedy, and she was fantastic. I adore Ingrid being funny. (She also nearly worked with the Queen of Comedy, Lucy, on an episode of Here's Lucy, but due to some technical difficulties it fell through. ugh. I could DIE.)
I also picked Ingrid because as it is well obvious to anyone who has seen Notorious (1946) - and if you haven't, please go and do so - that Ingrid and Cary have really some of the best chemistry on screen, especially amazing considering they were never romantically involved in real life, wonderful friends, but never lovers. (Though, in my fantasy world, they might've been married...) They re-teamed for Indiscreet twelve years later, a movie that's far from perfect, but I love anyways pretty much because of the two of them. That's a comedy, but I did want to cast them in something when they were younger, hence the year 1943 - Cary would've been thirty-nine, maybe a little long in the tooth for a newlywed but it wouldn't have mattered, and Ingrid would've been twenty-eight - and more youthful. Corrie and Paul are a couple that's really quite in love for a great deal of the picture and Cary and Ingrid would've captured that perfectly. It's the romance of Notorious (which was spoiled when they become bitter to each because of the project, etc.) in the setting of a movie like Indiscreet.
Also, at the end of the day, it only seemed fair that Ingrid & Cary should be the main players of my be recasting, for they were what inspired this blogathon (that time I did a tumblr text post wondering what a 40s version of The Sound of Music would be like with Maria and the Captain played by these two flawless beings).


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Who doesn't love a fabulous midi skirt? And doesn't the color just make you "green with envy?" LOL! I absolutely fell in love with this midi skirt because of the color. I'm so use to buying black that this color was a refreshing change. I wore this skirt a little bit above the waist because I felt the skirt was a little too long for my taste. I don't like for my legs to feel cut-off or short because of the length of the skirt. I love my calves and want it to be seen, LOL! I would say wear it to your preference. You could either wear it regularly on the hips as a midi skirt or wear it as a high-waist skirt. Since I decided to wear it as a high-waist skirt, I decided to pair it with a long-sleeved crop top. The black and white stripes on the crop top further allowed the green color to stand out. Since I like to find subtle ways to mix prints, I completed the outfit choosing a black heel with leopard print platform. You can keep the outfit simple by pairing it with a solid color heel or make it casual by pairing it with flat boots or sandals. Sometimes a shoe immediately pops in my head when I choose an outfit or it's not until the moment I put the outfit on, does a shoe come to mind. If you happen to be stuck with choosing the right shoe, think of where you are going and that should narrow down the options for you. In my mind, it's better to be over dressed than under dressed, that way you are sure to turn heads filled "green with envy"….or just turn heads nonetheless.
Outfit Details:
Top & Skirt: Forevers 21
Heels: Steve Madden
"Never envy someone; it elevates them in your mind to being superior to you. You should always believe that you are just as good as anyone else and that with hard work you can be the best you can be." – Jerry Bruckner


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I wish there was some sort of manual written for your life, things would seem safer I suppose, you would be able to avoid the tragic things without the surprises that lurked darkly behind.
In a world of feeling a misfit and out of place, fitting in with life itself never seemed to be such an option. It is just confusing as ever, floating around attempting to keep what is left together. Has been it a struggle? Perhaps in ways, yes and in other ways I can't be more grateful about it. School, Family, Break ups, the minimal drama at my job… its all been there for me to soak up.
Bored, we all get bored we grow desperate in search of something more, something to satisfy better, something to tame this gluttony for human existence. We lunge with the risks in mind, "But I am here, I am alive and this is who I am now"
I have recently been in the process of figuring out myself, do not get me wrong I know more or less the person I am to others, but there is this thirst for finding inner peace, with my body and soul. I should have gone on this journey a while ago when I had the opportunity.
Everything is so temporary, and yet we hold onto everything as if it was to last forever, things fall into an end, and when you keep pushing it forward, it only becomes more and more stale. Somethings are better left to when they expired, when something is in a process of decay, we can always grow something new from that pile of shit we put ourselves in.
So I must grow.


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I've always been super intimidated by this vegetable but after hearing from Sara how easy it is to prepare, I decided I should give it a try. So over the weekend, I bought my very first spaghetti squash and ... success!
Spaghetti Squash With Meat Sauce
Serves 2
1 medium spaghetti squash, halved and cleaned
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 pound ground beef (I used 93 percent lean)
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups marinara sauce (Look for no sugar added)
2 heaping Tbsp green olive tapenade
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Salt and Pepper
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Drizzle flesh side of squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set face down on a roasting pan lined with aluminum foil and bake for 35-40 minutes* or until the squash can be easily pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and set squash aside until cool enough to touch. Then, using a fork, shred the inside of each squash and create your strands of spaghetti.
While the squash is baking, you can prepare the sauce. Start by browning the ground beef in a medium skillet. Drain off fat and add diced onions and garlic. Cook for an additional 3-5 minutes or until onion has softened. Add marinara sauce and olive tapenade and simmer until squash is ready.
Combine about 1/2 cup of sauce with the spaghetti strands from each squash boat. Then, top each boat with additional sauce followed by the mozzarella cheese. Return squash to the oven for another 10 minutes to allow the cheese to melt.
This ended up being a super delicious dinner and much easier to prepare than I expected. A few takeaways from this experiment:
- Do not overcook the squash. I left mine in the oven an extra five minutes because I was chatting on the phone and forgot about it. As a result, my squash was a bit softer than I would have liked. Next time, I'll set a timer.
- Consider blotting the inside of the squash with a paper towel after creating the spaghetti strands. I thought mine turned out a tad watery.
- I'll definitely make spaghetti squash again - maybe next time a taco-inspired recipe?
Tell me: What's your favorite way to prepare spaghetti squash?
*Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your squash


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The private sector has long been a critical partner for the World Bank Group, providing necessary goods and services to countries in need while stimulating economies by creating new jobs.
Business has benefited from World Bank Group-financed contracts and the enhanced image and credibility that come from working on projects that help the greater good.
What should be a mutually beneficial relationship can quickly sour when corruption enters the picture. The World Bank Group's online list of debarred firms, currently at 634 entities, makes clear exactly which firms have run afoul of its policies. The list amounts to "naming and shaming," much to the chagrin of those firms and the countries in which they are headquartered — countries which are members of the World Bank Group.
While we have long maintained that bribes are bad for business, companies were not always convinced. However, more firms today and in particular those that have recently weathered the storm of scandal are delivering the message themselves, often to greater effect.
"Businesses that have had, and dealt with, an 'ethical problem' are often best placed to objectively assess the benefits of doing business cleanly," says a former participant in the World Bank's Voluntary Disclosure Program.
He adds, "Bad practice may secure a contract, but ensuring an acceptable profit on that particular — and subsequent — contracts gets harder. It is ultimately unsustainable unless the 'good' contracts are used to sustain costs attached to winning and delivering 'bad' contracts. From our experience, when bad clients know you will only do business cleanly, they either will not ask for bribes, or they simply don't invite you to bid."
Mabey Bridge is the only firm in the World Bank's Voluntary Disclosure Program which has forgone anonymity. It suffered the consequences of a corporate ethics investigation, experiencing a downturn in international trade, job losses, and a stain on its reputation. CEO Chris Droogan reports that his company took immediate steps to root its operations in business ethics, restructure its board, and put in place a robust anti-bribery system.
Other firms were compelled to sort out corporate governance issues in the public eye, and with the zeal of the converted, some have seemingly emerged with enhanced reputations. Faced with a growing controversy over suspicious payments, Siemens sought to ensure the survival of the firm through rapid changes in personnel, organization, and culture. Following a four-year debarment of its Russian subsidiary by the World Bank, and a $100 million settlement in support of worthy anti-corruption causes, Siemens' ongoing cooperation with World Bank investigations should help hold more corrupt firms and individuals accountable.
The case of Siemens alerts businesses everywhere that the risk of prosecution, fines, debarment, and damage to reputation can hit their bottom line hard. Of course, the greater loss is to people, especially in areas experiencing dire need for infrastructure, health, education and other projects to break the cycle of poverty. Money that finds its way into the pockets of the corrupt is money that is not spent on development.
The actions of major firms undoubtedly influence their competitors, and can create a spillover effect across entire sectors. The publishing firm Macmillan was debarred by the World Bank Group in 2010, indirectly prompting Oxford University Press (OUP) to look into its own operations. OUP ultimately settled with the World Bank Group, agreeing to the debarment of two of its units for corruption and a $500,000 payment. (It also paid nearly £1.9 million, or $3.2 million, in fines in the UK following action by the Serious Fraud Office.)
The CEO wisely recommitted the company to employing the highest ethical standards and bolstering its compliance program.
Matthew Herrington, partner at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C., has represented a number of firms that have faced legal action under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Herrington said he has seen a "revolutionary change" in the past decade. According to Herrington, risk management has become a top concern for executives, and corporate culture is changing accordingly. "More and more, a significant compliance-related dimension is factored into executive compensation."
The above-mentioned firms are back in business, qualifying to bid on World Bank-financed projects, and it remains to be seen whether they can continue to run clean operations indefinitely. Andreas Pohlmann, a former compliance expert for Siemens and who is now at the Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin, offers his inside perspective: "Once facing a compliance crisis, companies learn the hard way: Good corporate governance and being a good corporate citizen are the foundation of sustainable business success."
Heightened corporate compliance is not a panacea to fighting corruption in development. The instability that is percolating around the world is yet another facet of an already complex problem. The link between corruption and instability and their stifling impact on development is undeniable. Sound governments, strong institutions, and the rule of law will always be of utmost importance.
But while political stability around the world seems to grow more tenuous by the day, the positive shift among many private sector firms to embrace clean business is something worth capitalizing on.
This post originally appeared on the FCPA Blog.
Bribes are bad for business !
Bribes are bad for business ! When you live in a country as a foreigner missing the local language skills it is difficult to follow the regulations and the legal requirements related to your life. It is much more difficult when you have got a job/profession what you like and day by day you are working hard for the future of your own children. There are even international standards what can/must be 'over written' or simplified by the local rules. It is not easy to run your business in such circumstances. Stronger legal representation may help, however the additional costs would rise your expences. 'Bribe' is a kind of fee for help, many times without asking additional services !
The establishment in
The establishment in collaboration with corrupt polititians are a major stambling block towards entrepreneurship and development.It is incongruous for those in position of power to stymie struggling entrepreneurs and thus barring them from participating economically-in order to lift themselves out of poverty and their development.
Congratulations to Mr.
Congratulations to Mr. Leonard McCarthy and his team of dedicated professionals for taking on a herculean task which require enormous and continuous effort. Combating corruption and other forms of financial crimes in development projects are quintessential to ensuring that development funding are used for its intended purpose and reaching its intended beneficiaries.
Except for private companies that has engaged in corrupt activities and has as a result been subjected to sanctions by the World Bank, I would truly wish to see more action being taken against corrupt political leaders which to a great extent seem to escape any form of liability for their corrupt conduct especially in countries where they are able to manipulate the criminal justice system.


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Catalog Number: RLSURN02
Availability: In stock
We have made it as easy as possible to use the Release Scattering Urn. Once you place your order you may mail all the ashes to Cremation Solutions. We recommend shipping via USPS (Registered US Mail). This is the safest of all shipping methods. Once we receive the ashes we are very careful and have a tracking system in place, so you can be assured that there is never any chance of ashes being intermingled. We prepare the ashes and load the machine for you. The machine will be ready for scattering when you receive it. A heavy duty carrying case is included so you can safely transport the scattering urn to the scattering location.
For a more formal scattering ceremony you may wish to rent the Elevated Scattering Platform.
Easy to use
Create a powerful memorable final tribute
Clean controlled scattering


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Group Leader
The Group Leader is responsible for efficient program operations for Field Studies. This position maintains high visibility within the program, attending all events, activities, and field trips, observing classes, leading staff meetings, and serving as the main student supervisor during the field study. The Group Leader is the main parent contact during the program, coordinates all course logistics, and communicates schedules to students and staff during the program. The Group Leader confirms field trips and all aspects of the course itinerary, plans team-building and residential activities, and assures the safety and inclusion of all students. The Group Leader must be available twenty-four hours each day, seven days a week to respond to crisis situations. Staff can expect approximately twelve working hours of time off per week. The Group Leader's role varies depending on the location of the field study.
A bachelor's degree is required. Experience with high school students in a teaching or residential life supervision capacity is strongly preferred, as is experience with programs and/or curricula for academically gifted students. Experience with leading a group, arranging travel logistics and familiarity with the program site are valued. Strong leadership abilities and supervisory experience are required. Applicants must possess excellent organizational and planning skills, attention to detail, fiscal management experience, and the ability to work independently. Applicants must possess a genuine interest in the academic, social, and emotional growth of adolescents, exhibit maturity and a positive attitude, and be willing to serve as a role model for students. Commitment to working in a team environment is a must. There is a driving requirement for all field studies. Eligible drivers must possess a valid US or Canadian driver's license, be at least twenty-one years old, have an approved driving record on file, and be willing to drive students in Duke TIP vehicles. CPR certification is a requirement for this position, and applicants may work with the main office to meet this requirement. Group Leaders must live in program-sponsored housing and sleep in their assigned rooms each night. For positions traveling outside the United States, a valid passport is required and applicants must meet all visa and travel requirements.
Group Leaders are hired for the following programs:
Field Studies


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Difference between revisions of "Talk:UNESCO World Heritage List"
Revision as of 12:37, 10 April 2012
Rather than have individual articles for each of the sites, how about redirecting them to the relevant region/city article, within which would be the necessary information? I have just done this with Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall, both of which have links to official websites of their own within the region article. Any thoughts? --sjc196 15:56, 7 Apr 2004 (GMT)
The list is getting quite unwieldy now. how would people feel about ordering them by continent then country then site? It would feel more structured and be better for organising holiday tours, etc. -- User:bobkemp 20:00, 26 Sept 2004
By the way, I've broken the pattern with le Pont du Gard in France and given it a separate page. It's not particularly near any town. -- User:bobkemp 20:00, 26 Sept 2004
Need to ban links to nonexistant entries
Example of the problem : UNESCO (and other scientists) calls it the Cape Floral Region, but the inhabitants (incl. government) and travellers will refer to it as the Overberg, eventhough the Cape Floral Region is somewhat larger than the Overberg.
Now if I were to create a link to nonexistant Cape Floral Region, visitors to the list will think that nothing has been written on the topic. Even worse : A knowledgable person may start editing the topic, duplicating my work, and creating work that is not linked to from the Overberg topic.
If someone really needs a seperate topic for Cape Floral Region, they can mention it on Overberg, create it and then update this list to point to it. Nic 06:15, 15 May 2005 (EDT)
New Places in July - update before then? - volunteers?
Having quickly compared this list with the one at: worldheritagesite.org (easier to read than the official one), it seems that there are still a few gaps.
It is probably worth trying to get the list sorted out so that it looks good when new places are added in July.
"The 29th Session of the World Heritage Committee will be held in Durban, South Africa from 10 to 17 July 2005"
External links
These links are useful for research purposes: (moved from main page)
Editing guidelines
Proposal for how to handle various types of places:
Opinions? Jpatokal 08:44, 15 June 2007 (EDT)
Yep they sound like good guide lines though I have been linking to the 'Get Out' Section of nearest city just to avoid confusion if people follow the link and can't find relevant information. e.g. Messel Fossil Site the link is to Darmstadt#Get Out. Meltwaterfalls 07:54, 9 July 2007 (EDT)
Brazil's Atlantic Forest Reserves
Right, there are two UNESCO W.H. "sites" in Brazil that are infact a collection of seperate dispersed reserves. However, these reserves are pretty tiny, one is 11 hectares... would it be best to have a page for each site and then list the individual reserves there? -- Tim (writeme!) 14:05, 4 July 2007 (EDT)
I have tagged all articles listed here as {{Related|UNESCO_World_Heritage_List}}, but ran out of time before I could tag them all. If anyone wants to continue, please do so, but update this comment so we know how far you got. I'll check back to continue with this tomorrow.
Wikitravel:World Heritage Expedition
I've launched the Wikitravel:World Heritage Expedition to finally complete this. Let's get to work! Jpatokal 23:12, 6 December 2008 (EST)
Another list
I just added a link to the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network, for parks of great geological interest. Searching WT for "geopark" shows we have articles mentioning quite a few of these. I think this needs its own article. but I don't have time. Volunteers? Pashley 08:23, 12 March 2009 (EDT)
Alphabetical order?
It seems as though some countries have their sites listed by alphabetical order, while others are by year of inscription on the list? I think it makes more sense to have them in alphabetical order, especially for the longer lists, to make things easy to find. The year of inscription isn't really travel relevant, and we already are supposed to put it next to each site's listing for organizational purposes. --Peter Talk 14:46, 17 July 2009 (EDT)
Why is Australia the only country that has sites split by regions? Is there a reason for this? Shouldn't it be like all the others? 220.127.116.11 03:03, 22 December 2009 (EST)
Copper Canyon (Mexico)
Copper Canyon is listed under Mexico. However, it is not on the official UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. No mention of world heritage site in the Copper Canyon article on wikipedia. Listed as one of the "top 50 missing" sites on www.Worldheritagesite.org. I did find some travel company websites which called it a world heritage site, in their exuberance. I think it should be deleted? The Understand section on Copper Canyon also says "The Copper Canyon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site."
(newbie on wikitravel, less than a week experience, so still feeling my way on protocol and policy. Thanks) Bill Ellett 19:55, 20 July 2010 (EDT)
Where should territories, protectorites, and similar islands be placed?
Our World Heritage List is arranged geographically, by continent. When an area is geographically separate from its main country, this can cause a problem. Frequently, we have placed islands where they appear geographically. For example, someone planning a trip to France is not helped by knowing that there is a World Heritage site in New Caledonia (South pacific), so it is listed under Oceania. The breadcrumbs trail we use is also based on geographic location, so Bermuda IsPartOf the Carribean, not Europe. When the island is considered in the same continent or world region as the main country, they are listed under the country. So Italian islands in the Mediterranean are still listed under Italy.
Wikitravel seems not to let the bureaucratic oddities of organizations such as the UN dictate our structure. While their list shows all sites under the UN member which proposed the site, that should not confine us.
Before I either move the remaining islands to their appropriate world region or move the islands back to their parent country's listing, I want to seek consensus of which is right. (I would recommend moving the islands to the region where they are).
Should there be a link between the two locations? Someone apparently tried to do this for St Helena, though the display needs to be corrected. Should these sites be listed twice, once in the island and again in the primary country?
Affected entries include: Bermuda, Pitcairn Island, Netherland Antilles, Reunion Island, St Helena, New Caledonia, Gough Island, and Greenland.
It appears that in Wikitravel, Hawaii has been well-defined as part of North America, so won't open that question here. Bill in STL 21:38, 1 August 2010 (EDT)
World Heritage Articles
While many sites are just single-sites that are served well by our links to their respective cities, there are also a lot of sites that are given a single World Heritage Listing but actually contain many sites, sometimes even scattered about a country or across multiple countries. For these sites, I think it would better serve the traveler to have a separate article to list the sites and give a little information. That way we don't have those hideous mess sections, like Belgium's Flemish Beguinages. We can also avoid useless and somewhat offensive-to-the-traveler redirects, such as the Kii Mountains redirecting to Kansai which still doesn't tell anyone what sites in the region are part of the listing. ChubbyWimbus 16:42, 29 June 2011 (EDT)


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Our forums are also a great place to find the most recent news, product releases, tips, and rpg discussion. en Sun, 17 Feb 2019 00:11:53 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/pnpg_style/misc/rss.jpg http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/blog.php/2937-Tales-of-the-Olde-Phoenix An adventure in Windows http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1912-An-adventure-in-Windows Tue, 18 Nov 2014 14:11:45 GMT Not the MessySoft kind. Real solid physical windows with glass in them. Last Saturday we at long last got rid of the 90 year old windows a in... Not the MessySoft kind. Real solid physical windows with glass in them. Last Saturday we at long last got rid of the 90 year old windows a in this 90 year old house. The change is amazing. No rattles, hardly any road noise, and best of all no drafts. This comes courtesy of my wife wining the perfect loan contest at Quicken Loans where she works, The prize money paid for the new windows. Yea we are that domesticated, or homeowners, much the same really. Win a big prize and spend the cash on home improvement. It wasn't even a discussion. Gaming is coming up this weekend. We should enjoy the new warmer living room. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1912-An-adventure-in-Windows The Necrothredmancer http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1907-The-Necrothredmancer Wed, 29 Oct 2014 09:49:00 GMT I have noticed that the Fantasy campaign resources forum gets very little love. You go back four pages and you are back four years. Well there is... I have noticed that the Fantasy campaign resources forum gets very little love. You go back four pages and you are back four years. Well there is some good stuff in those pages that doesn't get any attention anymore. To rectify that I have been posting in those forums to bump the material to the front. To get the attention of people that have joined in the interval since it was posted,and slowly rolled off the front pages. As mentioned in the past I am slowly getting my 38 year old game out of my head and into a format it can be shared. The public parts of the game I will share. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1907-The-Necrothredmancer Once more into the breach... http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1905-Once-more-into-the-breach Sat, 18 Oct 2014 05:44:02 GMT Back again the intertubes have been boring. I have not been idle gaming wise. My Saturday group has started a new campaign with a Norse feel. ... Back again the intertubes have been boring. I have not been idle gaming wise. My Saturday group has started a new campaign with a Norse feel. They are out to become the rulers of the north. I have been working to get my long running game down in some coherent fashion. Two complete cities, Seahaven and Woodmanor two villages of importance Joy Island, and Malltranno, two more cities started Eyrie Keep and Hellsgate. My ancient and crumbling world maps have been scanned and I am slowly getting them cleaned up and posted as well. The Gazetteer and Atlas of Law are coming along nicely. And I am still writing for my game. I am fairly busy. Stuff I don't mind making public will appear on my website and in the Campaign Resources forum. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1905-Once-more-into-the-breach To blog or not to blog? http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1548-To-blog-or-not-to-blog Sat, 19 Feb 2011 06:19:33 GMT With some of the profile features back I decided to give the blogs another look. I still see no way to edit the blogs once posted. I don't have much to add right now. Gaming tomorrow. Last session got canceled due to people being sick or the weather being awful. I am jonesing for a game at this point. Blog edited. Thank you Farcaster. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1548-To-blog-or-not-to-blog After Action, May 30th. http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/414-After-Action-May-30th Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:50:12 GMT Ron -- *Johnny * male Elf, Toymaker Sue M -- *Sharpy * female 1/2 Elf fighter Tom -- *Sy* male mostly human psionic Sue S -- *Nelida* ... Ron -- Johnny male Elf, Toymaker Sue M -- Sharpy female 1/2 Elf fighter Tom -- Sy male mostly human psionic Sue S -- Nelida female mostly Human cleric with a few tricks. The session started with a bit of basking in the successful run to New City. It was decided to do some intelligence on the other gangs in the area, and see what it was going to take to absorb them. Discussed were: The Wallmen, a gang pieced together out of two fighting groups. The Redbirds: An older group that hangs around Sir Terry's house. In the middle of these discussions Terry comes to the gang. He says that an associate, Artie Moss has been kidnapped by Ajax corp. This could bode poorly for Mr. Moss's contacts, which are many. He pays the gang in advance, a +1 heavy pistol. They also get a picture of Artie Moss. Sy quickly finds Moss in the basement of a house in the trades. The four principles move uptown and look the options over. It is decided that Sy will risk a "seen once" teleport to get Moss. He pulls it off and they clear the area. They return to Terry's Villa. Both Sy and Johnny notice that Terry wears an unusual ring. A faceted ruby hawk, like the old Knights. Johnny asks him. Terry tells him that his assumptions are not unfounded, and to forget he ever even thought of that. Johnny forgets he asked the question. Terry tells the gang he must be circumspect in his actions. He cannot stick up too high. He introduces them to the Redbirds. The gang patrols with his backing. They return to the matter of the Wallmen. They are still barely talking to each other. Malkor the Knife keeps them together with sheer force of personality. He is an egotistical ass. Speak up with the good idea and he dismisses it only to have the same idea five minutes later. While clairvoying the Wallmen they see the two under leaders engaged in a little two backed beast. Two people that are nothing but hissy at each other normally. They move in on the location and catch the lovers in the buff. They take them back to the house and debate the next action. The two are ready to slit each other's throat, then they learn tha Malkor has been playing them for fools and knows the whole deal. Suddenly they like each other and hate him. A hit is arranged for Malkor. The Jets take him as he leaves his favorite eatery. (Cue the Godfather) The loving couple gut him and take over the Wallmen with the understanding that the gangs will merge. Johnny rewards their good ideas and so far it looks to be working. Idea being that if they man the towers along the western wall they can keep track of the truck traffic into and out of the Old City. Something might come of that. Binoculars will be required. The idea is tabled until that is taken care of. They buy lights for the outside of the townhouse. Lighting the whole neighborhood was discussed. Power is the problem. Closed up for the night, 25% XP reward for some good role-playing and well planned hits. Their gang took no damage. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/414-After-Action-May-30th Home Improvement 2: Revenge of the Tools http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/398-Home-Improvement-2-Revenge-of-the-Tools Fri, 29 May 2009 22:11:42 GMT Long done short, we didn't get it finished. All the field work was done Monday but the trim is still being worked on. So the room is going back together slowly, and we have gaming tomorrow. (UGH!!) Friday gaming is canceled this week due to three players being out sick. One I am worried about. The fellow has MD and can barely move. (He is in a power chair.) The flu is not a minor matter for him. Well hopefully we will be back to normal next week with Friday gaming. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/398-Home-Improvement-2-Revenge-of-the-Tools Love http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/381-I-lt-sarcasm-gt-Love-lt-sarcasm-Home-Improvment Fri, 22 May 2009 21:50:08 GMT No gaming reports? Wonder why? We are painting the bedroom and repairing the damaged plaster work this week. Sue is home form work. We started... No gaming reports? Wonder why? We are painting the bedroom and repairing the damaged plaster work this week. Sue is home form work. We started Monday, and have yet to touch paint. Rip out the damaged plaster and remove the bottom window trim. Two slight nicks to the right hand. Par for the course in demo work. That went simply enough. Big Issue, the window sill is split, warped and rotting. Must be replaced. Custom cut hunk of wood made by some long dead carpenter with his own three hands. Break out the power tools and all those hours watching The New Yankee Workshop. Cut and install the drywall. Not a big deal. Tuesday we have the drywall in and are ready for plaster. That is a slight deal as we have to blend the irregular wet wall thickness into the dry wall. Wednesday was getting stuff and plaster work. Nothing drastic there. Thursday it went to Hell. I gashed my right thumb open on a wood chisel and that took four stitches. We didn't have the bits we need for the router table (Nothing to do with computers.) So we cannot finish the window sill. Friday more running around with my thumb bandaged up for it's own protection. We got the router bits, the window sill is done and we have one more layer of plaster. We STILL have not touched paint. Doing anything is a bear as I have one and a half hands. It still falls to me to do the bits that involve power tools. We have three more days to finish this mess. Ghodd help us we are going to need it. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/381-I-lt-sarcasm-gt-Love-lt-sarcasm-Home-Improvment Penguicon 7, after action report. http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/339-Penguicon-7-after-action-report Mon, 04 May 2009 12:10:36 GMT Con over time to start catching up with PnP, and life. Right now the house is upside down turned from a weekend of flying in and out. I have... Con over time to start catching up with PnP, and life. Right now the house is upside down turned from a weekend of flying in and out. I have deliveries in the living room that I haven't even opened (everything arrived Thursday.) and opened boxes that have yet to be disposed of. Down side, no gaming this weekend. The Lugraica game was canceled due to three of us not being able to make it. And my Saturday game as well due to the Con. Result you are getting a Con report not a game report. By Friday I'll be itching to get into a game again. (BTW, I still think the blog interface lacks. Too small a window and you can't edit the posts. I'm writing this in Thunderbird to import.) Friday was the usual check in and check out the basic layout of the con. My Son and I did the usual lunch so I was set for food until the next ice age. Downer, the program book was written by Lilliputians. It was utterly unreadable, and I was hearing that from people with good eyes or the nearsighted. Positive, my friends were there as usual. Result it was a relaxacon for me. I did no programing. However it was fun. We didn't stay at the hotel this year and I missed that. Mainly it took my wife forever to get up and around Saturday morning. I was itching to get going and she wasn't. Not a problem when you have a room. I spent the Con SMOFing with friends (if you don't know what SMOFing is you are not cleared for that information.) I prowled the dealers room and some how managed to not spend the mortgage money. I did relieve Amber Fox (no website) of that ammonite bowl I have been lusting after for years. The Amber Fox BTW are Rich and Angie Fox, who sell jewelry and lapidary related items. Good friends as well as people that have a lot of my money. I took a reluctant pass on the model catapults. Neat, but large. Not to mention effective enough I couldn't really use them in the house. I got a couple of fanish t-shirts to replace my dwindling supplies of same. It seems to be the year some of my old favorites hit the rag bag. I spent time with Rich Tucholka and Tri-Tac Games I picked up the new Fringeworthy d20 PDF in the process. (Have patience please, they are still sorting out web site problems from AOhelL.) This year my computer geek friends and I ran a room party for the first time. MDLUG or Metro Detroit Linux Users Group hucked the bed from a hotel room, filled it with snacks and pop and it filled with fen. I good time was had and we gathered names for our announcement list (Yet to be created) The purpose was to raise awareness of our group in the local area. I believe it worked. We have our monthly meeting next Saturday. Postmortem then. More can be had at LiveJournal ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/339-Penguicon-7-after-action-report After Action, Saturday May 18th http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/313-After-Action-Saturday-May-18th Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:22:09 GMT Ron -- *Johnny * male Elf, Toymaker Sue M -- *Sharpy * female 1/2 Elf fighter Tom -- *Sy* male mostly human psionic Sue S -- *Nelida* female... Ron -- Johnny male Elf, Toymaker Sue M -- Sharpy female 1/2 Elf fighter Tom -- Sy male mostly human psionic Sue S -- Nelida female mostly Human cleric with a few tricks. Ben was absent due to family obligations. We picked up where things has left off. After selling the book they went back to the hideout to discuss what to do with all the money. They left one sheet of the ancient hand drawn porn with the scholar Luigi Burni took it for tests. It was valuable if old, but of little interest if simply good. Discussions were in progress when there was a scream form the street. Benny A gang member had been shot. Before anyone could react several more shots rang out and Benny was dead. Sharpy went to the second story window to give cover fire. Other gang members went out the back to come around via another street. Nelida turned cat and attempted to get Benny's body off the street, she was shot in the process but pulled it off. Sy and Johnny teleported behind one of the assassins and killed him very dead. Next round, Nelida finding that Benny was dead cast cure light wounds on herself. Sharpy continued covering fire managed to wing the second shooter.. Sy and Johnny moved around to get the next assassin. Third round Johnny got behind the second shooter and knocked them out. They were then dragged into the Gang house. The gang at the front hurried out back to find a scene of carnage. seven bodies littered the alley. Five from their own gang including the two Gang leaders and two from whoever the opposition was. The captured shooter was stripped proving to be a female half centaur. Legs, another gang member that happened to be a male half centaur was well interested. He was told to save if for later. She was drugged up until passed out and Sy went to work on her head. The gang quickly l;earned that she was a member of Rico's Raiders. This was a reconnaissance in force, an attempt to weaken the Jets for easy picking,. The raider had faired worse they they might have liked. They lost four of fifteen members with horsey girl spilling all the beans including the location of the Raider's hideout and internal organization Johnny decided it was time to finish this. The half centaur was tossed in the gang prison (they have one) Rico's Raiders have been a thorn in the side of several gangs in the area. Some talk and posturing had taken place about a joint raid on the Raiders. so far nothing had come of it. Johnny sent running to the known gangs in the area. The Catmen, led by a Leoman female, The East Side Elites, led by a supposed Dominan Don and the High Street Hellhounds, an Elven gang responded. Johnny said "We are taking down the Raiders who is in?" All present were in. The Hellhounds had an army demolition pack they supplied. Two charges. The Catmen had flash bang grenades. With the intelligence from the girl they set up the raid. The Elites would block the main door with an old car. The back door covered by snipers including Sharpy, who was placed to kill the roof guard.. Two holes would be blown in the building and they would go in shooting. Any separated rooms would get the flash bangs. The raid was pulled off in two rounds with only one light casualty to the Catmen. All eleven of the remaining Raiders were killed including Rico. 17 of their kept women survived. Those killed having died in the initial blast. The girls were taken in by the various gangs, 6 going with the Jets. Each gang got 500gp taken form the Raider's hoard. Nelida healed the one Catman solider wounded. All parted on good terms. The half Centaur girl was shown the head of Rico and given two choices., Join the Jets, or die. After some consideration, "Legs" being part of that consideration, she joined. Sy assuring the gang that she was upright about it. The Raiders, a mainly male group had not treated her well. At this point the few days that Burni has spoken of were past. He called the gang with news that indeed the porn was old, and offered them an additional 500 gp for the five sheets of ancient obscene drawings. They took it. A day later Burni himself shows up in a more beat up car to examine the Alabaster idols deep under the house. The larger of the two cannot be moved and is in the undamaged temple. However the smaller idol is saleable. Burni said that he would look for a patron willing to buy it. It was beyond his means to buy. he used his imager to take pictures. The session ended with a big block party thrown in the courtyard that resulted from tearing down the ruined house that the raiders had attacked them from. -- Saturday May 2 is canceled due to Penguicon. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/313-After-Action-Saturday-May-18th After Action report Saturday April 4-4 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/278-After-Action-report-Saturday-April-4-4 Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:04:10 GMT Here we are, blog and blog again. Another pointless spewing form the desk of. * After action, Saturday 4-4* With all players present we got... Here we are, blog and blog again. Another pointless spewing form the desk of. After action, Saturday 4-4 With all players present we got underway on time. Unheard of, but we try. The party finished the exploration of the levels under the house, they found an old Elven primer in the ruins of an archive storage room. Something that might be worth money. Old Terry paid a call and helped them clean out the temple of Demigorgon. He destroyed the idol, and that took care of the "evil" in the room. the gang took the skulls back to the crypts and placed them in one of the chambers with a door. Johnny rigged traps on the three doors that mattered, the one leading to the sewers, the one to the underground, and the one into the crypt. He was going to rig a secret door in the kitchen washroom so they could get in to the basement, that took a trip to Alleged Hardware. At the Hardware Johnny and the others shopped for the bits he needed while two unknowns where trying to pawn off a bot of hardware that "fell of the back of a truck". In poking into the unknown bit of gear one of the two found a high voltage capacitor. With a yell he was on the floor. Neldia cast a quick cure light on him and Johnny hit the pair up for payment, They tossed the gold at the party and fled. Sammy, the owner of Alleged Hardware pushed the still unidentified box at the group for the "entertainment". It is still unidentified. The door was quickly made. A runner reported that cops were raiding a tenement in the Jets territory. The party investigated. Two cars and four cop on the street. Bernie tried a friendly approach and was told to get lost with a gun in the face. He got. All except Bernie went in the back way and found four more cops in an upstairs hall. Bernie went back to the Gang HQ for backup. Shouting indicated they were "questioning" a female resident, loudly, about some object she claimed to have no idea of. Neldia cast a fear spell, the four in the hall fled. Meanwhile downstairs 11 gang members start to fire on the cops to scare them off. About that time the four under the effect of the fear come piling out the door. All eight flee the scene. Two more cops come out of the apartment with a woman in cuffs. Johnny back stabbed one and Nelida turned cat killing the other. The party gains two set of cop gear. With the resident's permission they searched the apartment, it seems her former boyfriend left a hidden compartment. A data stick is found with an address on the other side of the river. The data stick was successfully hacked and a file listing several of the missing gods with vague clues on how to recover same. Tom clairvoys the address after some research, it proved to be the lair of a rich and eccentric scholar with an interest in antiquities. They decide to use the book as an opener. they get the number for his comm off the comm itself and call him. An interview is set up for the "Bridge Bar" on the old city side of the bridge. The bar proves to be a clean joint a mile outside the city proper. It is frequented by bridge workers and middle management types from the factories. The next day they meet the man and his female gunboat. Berine tries to make time with the gunboat. He gets a number from her, for the morgue. However, talks with the Scholar are more profitable. They sell the book for 928 gp and get a contact. Play ended here for the night. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/278-After-Action-report-Saturday-April-4-4 After Action 4-1-09 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/265-After-Action-4-1-09 Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:33:41 GMT Friday was a quiet game of mostly Dungeons & Accountants. We got out of the dark and forbidding lands and back into civilization. We had some decent role play and walked unmolested to the coast. I guess we are big scary adventurers now. Bandits run the other way. It's been two game years since the campaign started. Raphael, my character is now 12th level as are most of the others. Raphael doesn't see himself as an intimidating person. It just does not occur to him that in the last two years he has gone from a common punk to someone that could blow a commoner away with a harsh look. So we have some money in our pockets. We are headed north again. Only now it is even further north as we are on the East coast and further south than we were. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/265-After-Action-4-1-09 Friday http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/261-Friday Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:22:16 GMT It's the busy weekend. Gaming this evening at OU, a MDLUG meeting tomorrow and my own game after that. So I'll be thin on the ground here at PnP for the weekend. I expect that tonight's game will be a soft one, lots of role-playing. Last week will killed a dragon, and this week we get back to civilization. For months we have not seen the sun. I play to enjoy every minute. Our pockets are full of loot and we managed to not get anyone killed. We even came out a character ahead. It should be fun tonight, I prefer role-playing over combat. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/261-Friday Oakland Friday Game: Mike Conn DMing http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/241-Oakland-Friday-Game-Mike-Conn-DMing Sat, 28 Mar 2009 06:59:42 GMT Well the Friday game session is finished again. Due to a change in work schedule my Son (Matthew) was able to join the Friday group. To our... Well the Friday game session is finished again. Due to a change in work schedule my Son (Matthew) was able to join the Friday group. To our buffet of side dishes (As he named it) he added a straight up fighter. I didn't know you could do those any more. The Party Ian -- Erisvet (sp) female Elf Ranger-Monk-Sorcerer (The last from a Chaos card) Ben -- Funkin, male Gnome Bard-Magician-Meister Jan -- Miles, male Half Dragon (chaos card again) Monk-Tattooed Monk. Mr. Z, -- Yorus, male Dwarf Ranger-bloodhound Me -- Raphael, male Half Centaur, Warlock-Cleric-Eldrich Disciple Matt -- Verd, male Human Fighter NPC -- Grudge male Half Orc Barbarian-Favored Soul-Pious Templar-Sanctified One We we finally got to the dragon we have been threatened with for weeks. We found her talking poor Verd's ear off, and proceeded to do exactly the wrong thing in fighting a Dragon, clump together. How this party got from 1st to 11th level without losing more PCs is a total mystery to me. We have a "hey diddle-diddle straight up the middle" fighting "style" that should get us killed every time. Raphael went around the big rock pillar flying and started to pepper the beast (An Aspect of Tiamat no less) from the back with Eldrich blasts. Everyone else piled on with Verd joining the fray from the rear of the Dragon. Funkin was tossed aside on the first breath weapon and took no damage. Rapheal was not in range to get hit either. Things moved quickly with the dragon taking a near max damage from Raphael, A critical power attack hit from Grudge and a good solid showing from Verd. She never got a second chance to breathe as they took plenty of hits and Yourus went down. She took s side step to get out of the crunch and got nailed on two AOOs that killed her, under 4 rounds. Yourus was quickly healed as was the rest of the party after she detonated. No one died, again, nothing short of a miracle. We found the holy book of Denneri we were looking for and took the hoard. The rest of the night was much Role-playing as nothing else offered itself for combat. However we like role-playing. I have the clerical book of the true teachings of the Goddess. Now I have to disseminate this to the congregations I encounter ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/241-Oakland-Friday-Game-Mike-Conn-DMing A light and a kangaroo: After Action Report, 3-21-08 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/219-A-light-and-a-kangaroo-After-Action-Report-3-21-08 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:59:26 GMT We have a new member of the group, Ben is up from Alabama and finds us agreeable. I look forward to seeing more of him. The adventure for the... We have a new member of the group, Ben is up from Alabama and finds us agreeable. I look forward to seeing more of him. The adventure for the night started in the Townhouse kitchen. Now this kitchen is a modern addition to the ancient hearth and hard work model that is under it. In the process of installing this kitchen, literally bolted on top of the old one the cellar stairs got blocked. The Scowler had no use for the basement. Unlike the upper floors he didn't bother to clear it out. A banging and scratching noise was heard. Adventure was conducted by: Ron -- "Johnny", Elven male toymaker Sue S -- Nelida Human female cleric Sue M -- "Stabby" Human female fighter Tom -- Absent Ben -- Bernie, Human male thief NPC -- Arlo -- human male fighter. One of the gang members. After a bit of banging back the Johnny unbolted the back of the wash room wall. Behind it was the stairs leading down. Down they went into the gloom to be attacked by a ghoul at the bottom of the stairs. Fight fight. Much shooting and stabbing later the ghoul was down. A human woman going by the lack of clothing on the beast. The cellar itself was uneventful having the long gone remains of its pantry past. However the busted out secret door held promise. Actually it held a torture chamber. The torture camber had Johnny positively gleeful. It was full of stuff he could use. It also had the well chewed bones of two more people. Gender undetermined. The bones were too broken and chewed to tell. With a through search it held a secret door as well. That room was more of a twisting hall. It was lined with rusted pikes, cases of matchlock muskets and broadswords. Stuff that hadn't been used in two hundred years. None of the stuff was that usable. The steel of the muskets and the swords had been preserved with grease, long dried out. The wooden fitting were toast and the powder and shot worthless. The lead could be recovered. At this point Johnny took an architecture roll. He rolled well enough to have known the guy that built the place. That told him that he had at least half the basement yet to uncover. Searching further found yet another door. This led into another hall. One full of skeletons, that wouldn't leave. After the initial reaction of KILL IT KILL IT! they fell back and considered. Johnny built a device to smash skeletons. It wasn't very mobile so they had to get the skeletons ot come to them. Bernie played bait and due to his thiefly skills only got tapped once. The skeleton smasher worked well. The hall was eeeevil as Nelida told the rest, who didn't really feel it. Another door was found, this one obvious. It was carved and creepy. It led into a chamber of horrors. The Temple of Demegorgon had an idol with skulls piled behind it. A sacrifice stone, a bowl for blood and the skins of eleven women piled in front of the altar. The other end had a table and thirteen chairs fo the feast on the flesh. To the North a door led into a chamber that was used for the butchering of the slain women, and the bones of one still hung from a hook. No treasure or monsters were found, but Nelida said the place was creepier. Another door led onward. This led to stairs down. Uncreepy. Another flight down and they found themselves in a crypt build under the house. The crypt had been throughly rifled by the cultists. All the skulls had been taken and the place throughly desecrated. They found a door they assumed to be into the sewers by the smell and the fact water was leaking around it. It is late in the rains and they can't open the door right now. MORE stairs down were found. The party is getting creeped out. This never ends. The two flights landed them in a room painted with frescoes of the ancient Elven gods. While they wondered at this the Ocher Jelly attacked. Stabby was quickly taken to -1 and Nelida dragged her away. The rest of the party started to pound the thing with gunfire. After Nelida healed her Stabby got back into it likewise. The poor Jelly never stood a chance. A further search proved there was a partly blocked passage to the south. A totally blocked passage to the East, and a nice open passage to the North. They took that. In the passage was a closed double door showing Elves at various occupations and a partly open door with MORE STAIRS! Sue S commented out of character. "Let me know when we see light and a kangaroo". They elected to check the big double doors. Within was an intact temple to the Elven goddess Curuthonielthe Skill Kindler. Goddess of workers and work. A 15 foot alabaster statue of the goddess graced the front of the temple. Johnny was thrilled again. He actual offered up one of his toys to the goddess. Mind you they haven't been seen in three centuries. On the front pew was a dead adventuring type. Someone that looked to have crawled in here and died of his wounds. They fell bad for him, and looted the corpse for the only treasure found that night. More exploration found a scriptorium and an archive behind the temple. I called the game at this point,m it was 1 AM and the DM was pooped. I gave a 30% award. More next time. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/219-A-light-and-a-kangaroo-After-Action-Report-3-21-08 More on the game. http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/206-More-on-the-game Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:45:34 GMT I don't like this narrow window. Can we at least get one as wide as the regular posts? Anyway. Yes, the Thindacarulle Game has started a new cycle of characters. I have spent the last two weeks madly flailing at the keyboard getting the game ready to rock in a serious way. Some enthusiasm from me I hope will jar the jaded old players back into a semblance of enthusiasm as well. After 33 years you need to switch things up once in a while to get the juices going again. I have made maps of the city and their gang hideout. I have created and keyed both groups and locations all around the city. I have player information folders. I have spent all my time on this. I never even got around to the editing pass on the Player's Manual now that I have someone willing to proofread the thing. Good news I got it done about 2:00 pm today. I have a little time to rest before I have gaming tomorrow with the guys at Oakland University. I play in that one. Meanwhile the Crusade of Conscience game continues here on PnP. It is going well in spite of some what spotty posting. Bearfoot Adam has been constant. That is a blessing. I am finding the game a challenge. It is different from what I usually run. I am enjoying that aspect. BTW, I still have room for one player. On Phoenixplay I am still running games with Jay Hailey. These are not publicly available so I should not tease. Star Trek and Bureau 13 are the two games played there. On the Olde Phoenix list there is a D&D game going. That one is discussible. I should have another after action report once the Saturday game comes off. Hopefully exciting things to tell. ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/206-More-on-the-game After Action report http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/204-After-Action-report Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:22:54 GMT Wanting something different we are playing in a Steam-shadow-punk-run version of the usual world. The one I set up for the alternate dimension... Wanting something different we are playing in a Steam-shadow-punk-run version of the usual world. The one I set up for the alternate dimension adventure. They are playing gang members in the Seahaven Barrios, the old city. The main city has moved across the river with all the shiny modern stuff and the 3000 year old Dowager City has been more or less left to rot. The gang holes up in one of the few of the ancient townhouses a that is intact. They are the very gang that helped that last party take down "the Scowler" a Magician working on not nice stuff. They have the house he was using, which is a vast improvement over the cellar they were living in. The gang being a total of 26 members including the PCs. Tippen Rad an NPC is the gang leader. This was established in the previous scenario. He and his squeeze Linda, a magician, are 3rd level and will have to be disposed of by the by. Fact is I'm planning to kill most of the gang in the near future. So the four characters (all names are not sticking right now). Ron has "Joey" male Elf Toymaker/hacker Tom's PC Human 1/4 Ane Psionisist. Telepath/Teleport/TK/ESP Susan "Nelle" (real name is a thirteen joined Norse) Cleric of the Sacred Self and psionic shape changer (cat only) and firestarter. Sue is running a "stabbly girl", Half Elf fighter that really wants a sniper rifle. The adventure involved the gang being low on booze. Now Joey (not his real name) the Elf tinkerer/hacker said he could finish the still if he had 20 feet of copper pipe. not to be had (stolen or scrounged) locally, and would cost 20 gp if they had 20 gp, which they did not. (The only reason their house has a working kitchen and bath is the Scowler had them retrofitted in. (One bath for 26 people shudder).) On a wet day late in the rains they head out on a mission of opportunity toward the old docks. Often a scene of illegal activity and the location of the "alleged hardware store". They encounter five members of a rival gang looking for trouble. Nelle hits leader boy with a "fear" spell and he flees, the rest follow and Stabby and Joey jump two of the fleeing gang taking them down. They bind their wounds and leave them in their undies. Haul includes a couple of light pistols, a couple of GP in mixed coin and a credit stick, a dubious treasure. Further down they pass close to the old Cemetery, a place noted as being "more lively" than the rest of town. They see several members of another gang running for all they are worth down a cross street. They look around the corner to see a dead thing shambling down the street. Nelle makes a turn attempt after everyone makes a fear check (having never seen such a creature) it turns around and shambles back into to Cemetery. They close the gate behind it. The two Psi-active PCs hear a voice say "Very good children." They leave, quicker. Next they pass a local semi legal brothel/drug den. They see someone passed out on the street. Investigation proves he is indeed passed out (not dead) and has little money. A good indication that Old Tammie tried to keep here there but he insisted on leaving. They rolled him to teach him a lesson. A few silver and a wallet that held five data sticks and an Ajax Corp ID card that wasn't his. last was a heavy pistol. Psychometry on the wallet proves it has an impression of worry. The ID card is "cold", too new to get a reading off of. They get down to the docks. A ship is in port with no flags. Nets cover activity from the ship to a warehouse. Tom's PC clairvoys the situation. Crates of Brom Oakenshield Dwarven whiskey are being moved from ship to dock. Six bottles to the case, and twelve cases to the crate. But how to get passed the security? Tom being spent for the day they fall back to rest and attack the problem in the morning. During the night Joey makes a couple of smoke bombs. Untraceable they will obscure things so Tom can get in and out without being seen. In the morning Tom scouts a spot where the cameras can't see him. He jumps in, making the roll for the dodgy location. Tosses the smoke grenade and it works. Grabs two crates, slightly over his weight limit and jumps back. That hurt, and he goes and lays down for a while having burned HP when he ran out of power points. The gang decides to drink one case, and sell the rest. That nets them 105 gp on the black market and a good time is had by all. Joey pays 25 gp at the alleged hardware to get the copper coil to finish the still. Next week will be a tapping in the cellar that the Scowler blocked access to when he installed the Kitchen. What horrors exist beneath the house? ]]> tesral http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/204-After-Action-report


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|BJ Fluff
The new fridge came with door shelves wide enough to put 4 litre jugs of milk in them!! And 6 bins for fruits, veggies, meats, cheese & other things. I'm spoiled for choice!! People talk about living off the grid but I'm not ready to give up running water, a big fridge & electricity just yet.
Since I never did go back to spinning for the Tour de Fleece after my rather disastrous beginning, I have managed to knit every day on my blanket. Except for the day I decided to wind off all the yarn I spun up LAST year on the Suzie Pro. Her extra bobbins were all FULL. And I filled all four bobbins last year with NEON Pink & Green for the Steven West Shawl that caught my eye. But, I never wound it off. I got involved with other projects & ended up just looking at it for a year. Time just goes so fast these days! So, I finally wound it all off in one evening. And ended up giving myself a wrist strain from using the niddy-noddy for so long!!
Suzie & I don't really like each other even though I've tried to love her. I suppose it was a bad match from the beginning even though I fell in love at first sight. I worked very hard at getting along with her snippy little attitudes & fast ways, to no avail. She doesn't like my under-twisted singles yarn & I don't like her galloping, tightly placed treadles. She's
|Blue Jeans


text:
International Journal of Antennas and Propagation
Volume 2013, Article ID 436808, 7 pages
A Novel Dual-Shorting Point PIFA (GSM850 to IMT-A) for Mobile Handsets
Department of Microwave Engineering, School of Electronic Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu 610054, China
Received 28 June 2013; Accepted 1 August 2013
Academic Editor: Xiao Ping Chen
Copyright © 2013 Pengcheng Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
A novel planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) with dual-shorting points is proposed for multiband mobile handsets. The antenna comprises a meandered strip, a feeding point, two shorting points, and a slotted ground plane. For bandwidth enhancement of DCS/PCS/UMTS/WLAN 11.b/LTE2300/2500 and IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced), the antenna applies a dual-shorting points design, which generates a multimode between 1707 and 2815 MHz. The proposed antenna has good impedance matching characteristics for GSM (824–960 MHz)/DCS (1710–1880 MHz)/PCS (1850–1990 MHz)/UMTS (1920–2170 MHz)/LTE (2300–2400 MHz, 2500–2690 MHz)/WLAN 11.b (2400–2480 MHz) and IMT-A (4200–4800 MHz). The measured radiation efficiencies of the proposed antenna were all higher than 60% in GSM850/900, DCS/PCS, UMTS, LTE2300/2500, and WLAN 802.11 b, and it is up to 86% in IMT-A.
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of wireless communications, the multistandard mobile communication systems (MSMCS) are required with low cost and compact size. Recently, the long-term evolution (LTE) system is introduced to afford better mobile services to the wireless wide area network (WWAN) and 4G (IMT-Advanced) [1–3]. Owing to the overall size limited for the placing of mobile terminal antenna, it becomes more difficult to achieve wide bandwidths. Conventional planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) are no longer a suitable option because of narrow bandwidth.
In order to obtain a wide frequency band, the coupled-fed structure is usually applied [4–7]. However, the performance, especially the high-frequency band, is susceptible to the width of the coupling gap. It is difficult to manufacture, and the cost will be increased significantly. Also, it is not suitable for IMT-A (4200–4800 MHz) operation. In order to obtain a compact-size antenna with large and multiple-frequency band, many other constructions for PIFA are applied with probe feeding [1–3, 8]. However, in these designs, it is difficult to realize multiband and wideband operations at the same time. Besides, with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) element [4–7, 9], the cost is increased inevitably.
In this paper, a compact and low-profile antenna is presented. The proposed design has a wide bandwidth, a reduced size, and a high efficiency [10–13]. The presented PIFA occupies a small volume of 46 × 19 × 5.5 mm3. In particular, low-frequency band operation is achieved by two parallel open-end slots on the ground plane. Based on the joint disposition of the PIFA and a meandered monopole in the structure, the multiband operation is realized. Reflection coefficient less than −6 dB is obtained in 704–970 MHz (31.8% relative bandwidth, GSM850/900), 1575–2820 MHz (56.7% relative bandwidth, DCS/PCS/UMTS/LTE2300/25000), and 3850–5490 MHz (35.1% relative bandwidth, IMT-A), respectively.
Another issue of mobile terminal antenna is the radiation efficiency. In our design, the efficiency is up to 69% at low-frequency band, it and is more than 52% in the high-frequency band. The structure of the rest of the paper is given as follows. In Section 2, geometric structure and prototype of the PIFA is first presented. With dual-shorting point structure, the effect of antenna geometric parameters on performance is discussed in details. To validate our design, simulation and measurement results are demonstrated in Section 3 for comparison. Finally, conclusions are summarized in Section 4.
2. Antenna Design and Parametric Study
The proposed antenna structure is shown in Figure 1. Length of handset boxes model used in the simulation and measurement is as those used today.
Its dimensions are given as follows: mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, and mm. The little inductor is only 2 × 2 mm2. But the presented PIFA totally occupies 46 × 19 mm2.
Figure 1(a) shows the 3D mode of the proposed antenna. Points A (A1 and A2) and point C are the shorting points and the feeding point, respectively. For practical mobile handset application, the PIFA is fed using a 50 ohm minicoaxial line at point C. At point B, there is a chip-inductor-loaded strip which contributes to a wideband covering the DCS/PCS/UMTS/LTE2300/2500 and WLAN 11.b operation [9–12, 14–16]. The chip inductor used in the PIFA has an inductance of 11.5 nH. With the shorting points A1 and A2 in Figures 1(a) and 1(b), the meandered strip is proposed as a PIFA with two shorting points. In Figure 1(c), the two slots of the ground plane are applied for the low-frequency resonant band and for enhancing the antenna return loss in the lower part of the band [7, 9, 14–16].
Based on the bandwidth specification of 3 : 1 VSWR (6 dB return loss), which is widely approved as the fundamental design requirement of the internal handset antenna, the simulated parameter of the proposed PIFA covers 745–1175 MHz, 1707–2815 MHz, and 3600–4900 MHz [11–13, 17–21]. The chip inductor with an inductance of 11.5 nH () is applied to the proposed PIFA. This chip inductor is used to improve the bandwidth required for DCS/PCS.
Figure 2 shows the influence of the chip inductor for parameter. Stronger influence on the impedance matching of DCS/PCS/UMTS can be observed, while the inductor is changed from 4 to 16 nH. When a smaller inductance is used, the obtained bandwidth is decreased due to the decreasing of its resonant mode. After the optimizing, the impedance matching is improved when is 11.5 nH. A comparison of the simulation reflection coefficient and the input impedance (including the real and imaginary parts) is presented in Figure 3. Quite different from the obtained two resonant modes at about 1800 and 2600 MHz of the proposed PIFA, there is only one resonant mode excited at about 1900 for the single-shorted point antenna. The structure is helpful in achieving better impedance matching for UMTS/WLAN 11.b/LTE2300/2500 operation. In addition, as seen in Figure 3(c), the excited resonant mode for the higher-frequency band (2300–3000 MHz) is contributed by dual-shorting points.
The resonant mode at 1700 MHz and 2600 MHz also shifts down with the increasing of the length of the meandered strip (the function ). In Figure 4(a), the simulated (1400–3000 MHz) is presented when the length varied from 2 mm to 4 mm. Besides, other parameters of the antenna are the same as given in Figure 1. Strong effects on the excited resonant modes indicate that proper selection of the is important in the proposed PIFA. The impedance matching over the DCS/PCS band is also strengthened. The simulated results of three different lengths , 3.8, and 4.6 mm are presented in Figure 4(b). Similar results can be observed compared with the results shown in Figure 4(a). The length of the meandered strip has a significant effect on the band of 4200–4800 MHz (IMT-A).
3. Measured Results
Based on the parameters study in Section 2, the PIFA prototype is manufactured as shown in Figure 5. Figure 6 presents the measured parameter and the simulated parameter. Because the value of is not accurate to 11.5 nH, the measured data result is even better than that of the simulation. Three wide operating bands have been obtained for the antenna.
The radiation patterns, the total efficiency, and the peak gain are measured by the SATIMO measurement system. Figure 7 shows the normalized pattern in three principal planes. The measured total efficiency including the mismatching loss for the proposed antenna is presented in Figure 8. Over the lower band (800–1000 MHz and 1600–3000 MHz, Figures 8(a) and 8(b)), the total efficiency and the peak gain of the operation frequency band are 52%–55% and 0.3–2.8 dBi, respectively. For the upper band shown in Figure 8(c), the antenna gain varies from 0.7 to 4.1 dBi, while the total efficiency is better than 52%. From the obtained results, the proposed design for PIFA is a good option for practical internal mobile applications.
4. Conclusions
This paper presents a new design for PIFA. Using two open-end parallel slots in the ground plane, a significant improvement in the antenna operational bandwidth at the lower-frequency band can be achieved. The higher-frequency operating band is achieved by comprising two meandered monopoles. Thus, triple-band impedance (704–970 MHz, 1575–2820 MHz, and 3850–5490 MHz) for VSWR ≦ 3 is obtained. The main design dimensions of the meandered strip are studied and discussed. Measured results show that the proposed antenna has good radiation characteristics, including total efficiency and peak gain. With the presence of the multiband and the wideband features, the proposed design of PIFA is attractive for the practical mobile phones.
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