Who has the hottest jam of the summer? Vote now for your favorites in hip-hop, pop, R&B, EDM and rock. By James Montgomery
<P><P>Kanye West, Carly Rae Jepsen, Justin Bieber and more are all vying for the song of the summer in MTV's inaugural Summer Jam Games.</P><P>The Olympics are officially underway in London, but they're not the <i>only</i> games going on: After a <a href="/news/articles/1690638/opening-ceremony-summer-jams-games.jhtml">lavish opening ceremony</a> on Friday (we lit a torch and everything), today, we're kicking off the first-ever <b>Summer Jam Games</b>, where the biggest names in the business will go head-to-head for summer supremacy ... with <i>your</i> votes determining the winners.</P><P>Like the <i>actual</i> Olympics, the Summer Jam Games bring together the best of the best — the Kanyes, Katys, RiRis, Biebers and Green Days of the world — to compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in their respective genres. Voting is now open — you can help spread the word via Twitter, using the hashtag #SJG — and polls will close at midnight ET on Sunday (August 5).</P><P><big><b><a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/2012/summer_jam_games/">Vote for your favorites now in MTV's Summer Jam Games!</a></b></big></P><P>On Monday (August 5), we'll announce the winners in each genre with an elaborate medal ceremony — anthems and everything — and all this week, we'll be breaking down the action with in-depth analysis from the MTV News braintrust. The competition for the Summer Jam gold is sure to be fierce, and with acts from all over the globe (the U.S., Canada, Barbados, Sweden, Turkey, wherever David Guetta's from) in the mix, <i>anyone</i> could come out on top. Of course, <i>you</i> get to decide who comes out on top.</P><P>And so, without further ado, here's a look at the field of acts competing in our inaugural Summer Jam Games. From battle-tested vets to upset-minded rookies, they've each trained hard to get here, and now, with dreams of gold dancing in their heads — and some serious summer-jam cred to their names — they're looking for your votes. Who has the hottest song of the summer? We're about to find out ... let the games begin!</P><P><center><a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/2012/summer_jam_games/"><img src="http://www.mtv.com/shared/promoimages/news/s/summer_jam_games_2012/summer_jam_games_logo/420x390.jpg"></a><br> <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/2012/summer_jam_games/"><b>Vote for your favorite song, discuss and share on Facebook and Twitter in the Summer Jam Games!</b></a></center></P><P><big><b>Hip-Hop</b></big><br> » 2 Chainz feat. Drake - "No Lie"<br> » Cash Out - "Cashin' Out"<br> » Chief Keef - "I Don't Like"<br> » DJ Khaled feat. Kanye West and Rick Ross - "I Wish You Would"<br> » G.O.O.D. Music feat. 2 Chainz - "Mercy"<br> » Meek Mill feat. Drake - "Amen"<br> » Nas feat. Swizz Beatz and Miguel - "Summer on Smash"<br> » Rick Ross, feat. Jay-Z and Dr. Dre - "3 Kings"<br> » Usher feat. Rick Ross - "Lemme See"<br> » Young Jeezy feat. Ne-Yo - "Leave You Alone"<br></P><P><big><b>Pop</b></big><br> » Carly Rae Jepsen - "Call Me Maybe"<br> » Flo Rida - "Whistle"<br> » Justin Bieber ft. Big Sean - "As Long As You Love Me"<br> » Katy Perry - "Wide Awake"<br> » Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa - "Payphone"<br> » Nicki Minaj - "Starships"<br> » One Direction - "One Thing"<br> » Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen - "Good Time"<br> » Pink - "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)"<br> » Rihanna - "Where Have You Been"<br></P><P><big><b>R&B</b></big><br> » Chris Brown feat. Wiz Khalifa and Big Sean - "Till I Die"<br> » Frank Ocean - "Thinkin' Bout You"<br> » JoJo - "Demonstrate"<br> » John Legend feat. Ludacris - "Tonight"<br> » Leah LaBelle - "Sexify"<br> » R. Kelly - "Feelin' Single"<br> » Robin Thicke - "All Tied Up"<br> » The-Dream feat. Pusha T - "Dope Chick"<br> » Trey Songz feat. T.I. - "2 Reasons"<br> » Usher - "Scream"<br></P><P><big><b>EDM</b></big><br> » Avicii ft. Salem Al Fakir - "Silhouettes"<br> » Calvin Harris ft. Ne-Yo - "Let's Go"<br> » David Guetta feat. Sia - "Titanium"<br> » Deniz Koyu - "Bong"<br> » Ellie Goulding - "Lights"<br> » Eric Prydz - "Allein"<br> » Havana Brown feat. Pitbull - "We Run the Night"<br> » Knife Party - "Rage Valley"<br> » Nicky Romero and Z-Roq - "WTF"<br> » Porter Robinson - "Language"<br></P><P><big><b>Rock</b></big><br> » Alex Clare - "Too Close"<br> » fun. - "Some Nights"<br> » Gaslight Anthem - "45"<br> » Green Day - "Oh Love"<br> » Grouplove - "Tongue Tied"<br> » Jack White - "Freedom at 21"<br> » JEFF the Brotherhood - "Sixpack"<br> » The Killers - "Runaways"<br> » Neon Trees - "Everybody Talks"<br> » No Doubt - "Settle Down"<br></P><P><b>Forget about the Olympics, <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/2012/summer_jam_games/">vote now in MTV's Summer Jam Games!</a> Polls are open and will close at midnight ET Sunday (August 5). Guide your favorites to golden glory, and help spread the word via Twitter, using the hashtag #SummerJamGames</b></p></p>
The new season of "Arrested Development" is happening. We mean actually, for real happening. Last week, Ron Howard tweeted out a picture of the first script, which was a nice sign of progress but not close enough to making new episodes a reality. Then today, Jason Bateman tweeted out two pictures of the under-construction set [...]
Square Enix is bringing the big guns of late when it comes to Android. In recent weeks we've seen the release of the mighty Final Fantasy III, and the original Final Fantasy that sneaked out just last week. It doesn't stop there though, as the prominent game developer is headed to Gamescom, in Germany, to show off their next Final Fantasy title for Android, Final Fantasy Dimensions.
While Dimensions will undoubtedly be the main attraction, Square Enix will also show off a number of future Android titles. There will be a couple of matching, strategy based games called Qwirkle and Motley Blocks, KooZac which is described as a mix of Tetris and Sudoku, and their own brain training game known as Mensa Academy will be out for testing. It's fantastic news for Android as a gaming platform, to see big name developers such as Square Enix getting on board.
As California uses one arm of state government to ax services and ask for new taxes, a seldom-watched arm is raking in cash hand over fist.
A review by this newspaper found that the state's 500-plus "special funds," like the ones at the center of this month's hidden-money parks scandal, have nearly tripled their spending since 2000 as highly scrutinized general fund spending has barely budged.
California now spends nearly $40 billion on special fund programs, more than every state except New York and Texas spends on its entire general fund. The special fund money pays for an amazing array of services, from major priorities such as mental health, hospital construction and highway repairs to obscure things like
bingo halls, acupuncture and midwifery.
Fees like the cost to enter a state park or the 5-cent recycling fee on a soda can -- not your taxes -- fuel the state's special funds. Yet more and more, the state is borrowing billions of dollars from these special accounts to balance the general budget used to fund such things as education and prisons.
"I think most people in their own budgeting would not do that -- if they had a car payment and a house payment they wouldn't borrow from one for the other," said state Sen. Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield, a Senate budget committee member.
Usually out of the spotlight, special funds make up one-fourth of all state spending and are now receiving rare scrutiny and will be the focus of
legislative hearings after finance officials found $54 million in funds hidden in two state parks accounts. An analysis by this newspaper showed the state's books for all the special funds were off by $2.3 billion, a discrepancy finance officials are now investigating.
The discoveries could result in political headaches for Gov. Jerry Brown as he tries to convince voters in November that the state needs tax increases to avoid massive cuts to schools and social programs.
"It just completely erodes any kind of trust or faith that the public should inherently be able to have in their governments," said Republican strategist Mark Standriff. "The public looks at this and says, 'Who's minding the store?' "
The state has drained nearly $4 billion in special fund balances to pay its general fund bills, a $1 billion jump over last year, even though the special fund fees are earmarked for other things and are supposed to be paid back.
The state chose to "borrow out of the left pocket to make up the shortfall in the right pocket," said state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, also a member of the budget committee.
The special funds are supposed to be raided only when they have adequate reserves, but that's not
always the case. For instance, in 2010 the fund that pays Californians for recycling their bottles and cans ran dry, forcing many supermarket recycling centers to close, after the state borrowed more than $400 million from the account to balance the general budget.
Think of the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund as a giant piggy bank filled with all those nickel and dime deposits you pay on soda, beer and bottled water at the supermarket. In the fiscal year ending June 30, the fund had $185 million in it, according to the state controller's office -- $71 million, according to the Department of Finance.
The Legislature can't simply take the money whenever it wants and use it for things like prisons or K-12 education. By law, the fund is restricted to paying refunds to consumers who return their containers at recycling centers, as well as other programs that promote recycling.
But lawmakers can borrow from the piggy bank pretty much whenever they like.
Similarly, the State Parks and Recreation Fund -- one of the two funds with hidden stashes -- can only be used for things like park maintenance and paying rangers' salaries. The money in the fund comes from park entrance fees, camping fees and park concessions. In the last fiscal year, about $90 million was collected.
Lawmakers concede that special funds have become more popular because voters do not trust politicians to spend their money wisely, feeling more comfortable with fees earmarked for specific uses.
"But it should not be the role of government to stockpile (special fund money) to balance the general fund budget," said Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo. "It seems we may have abused the system by accumulating more funds than necessary to meet the needs of those departments, and if that's the case maybe we're charging too much money."
Some fees can be lowered and raised only by the Legislature; others can be changed by an order from the governor or a department head.
Since 2000, special fund spending has jumped 181 percent, from $14 billion to $39.4 billion. During the same time, the general fund has increased a mere 17 percent -- more slowly than inflation -- from $78.1 billion to $91.4 billion?.
Another large piece of the state spending puzzle -- money borrowed by issuing bonds -- has more than doubled during that period, but at $11.7 billion still pales in comparison to the size of the special funds.
One reason the funds have grown is the increasing reliance on local governments to pay for services that used to be the state's responsibility, like last year's transfer of inmates from state prisons to county jails. When the state shifts the burden for providing more services to local governments, it transfers general fund money into new special accounts that cities and counties tap into.
Deputy legislative analyst Jason Sisney said the general fund relies on tax revenues that can swing wildly during economic ups and downs, which helped lead to the severe budget crisis over the past several years. The special funds, however, are mostly stable.
As of the end of 2011, the state had borrowed $3.6 billion leftover in various special funds to balance the general fund -- compared with $2.6 billion at the end of 2010 -- adding to what Gov. Jerry Brown coined a "wall of debt." The number of loans has increased from less than 100 to nearly 150 in a year, and many of them don't have dates for repayment.
On the one hand, borrowing from special funds has been "very important for helping the state to continue to provide critical services," Sisney said. "But on the other hand, the loans are going to have to be paid back eventually."
Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at Twitter.com/rosenberg17.
My name is Shon Hyneman and I?m a Husband of ten years to Londina Hyneman and Father of two children. I am a speaker and owner of Never Again Ministries which promotes Marriage Enhancement and Holistic Relationships from a Biblical perspective yet apply it to your everyday life. I am the author of four books If You Apply These Principles?God Is More Practical Than We Think (2008) It?s The Woman You Gave Me (2009) Workbook:Three Are Even Better (2010) and my latest book WISDOM: Preventing Problems Before They Happen (2012)How I became an author is through conversing with my Wife about various issues in Marriage and relationships from money to children to sex. In these conversations is where I would get my materials for my books. We would coach married couples and singles on the most relevant issues surrounding their lives. I?m an avid reader so material would come from books too. One key to writing a successful book is to be transparent to the readers. Not only talk about your achievements but talk about your failures and how you overcame adversity.Writers block happens to the best of us. What works for me is to step away from the notepad, desktop or whatever I use to write and do something else to take my mind off writing. Later on I come back to writing with a clear mind to write about my book?s topic. I try to take as many notes as possible when I have an idea for a book so when I write I already have a table of contents and at least a chapter to start with. That?s what works for me when I encounter writers block. I prefer to self-publish than to go with the traditional publishing company route. With today?s social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn one is able to promote their work online. I have an editor, graphic artist (for book cover design) and I purchased a block of ISBN numbers for future books I write. I also have a printing company I use when it?s time to order copies of my books in bulk. For marketing you can have a virtual book tour which is someone you pay for them to connect you with people who have their own radio shows and interview you on their blog. It?s a great and efficient way for an unknown author to get the necessary publicity they need.I suggest one write about what they are passionate about as opposed to what?s popular. Whatever one is passionate about they will go the extra mile to do the research for the necessary material they need for their book. Also, read as much as possible about what you are passionate about. For example, I am passionate about marriage and relationships so I read at least fifteen books a year on that topic. If one choose to use material from other books make sure you give them the credit. The last thing an author need is to be known for plagiarism.Guest post by?Shon Hyneman
Offshore use of vertical-axis wind turbines gets closer lookPublic release date: 30-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stephanie Holinka slholin@sandia.gov 505-284-9227 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Sandia National Laboratories' wind energy researchers are re-evaluating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) to help solve some of the problems of generating energy from offshore breezes.
Though VAWTs have been around since the earliest days of wind energy research at Sandia and elsewhere, VAWT architecture could transform offshore wind technology.
The economics of offshore windpower are different from land-based turbines, due to installation and operational challenges. VAWTs offer three big advantages that could reduce the cost of wind energy: a lower turbine center of gravity; reduced machine complexity; and better scalability to very large sizes.
A lower center of gravity means improved stability afloat and lower gravitational fatigue loads.
Additionally, the drivetrain on a VAWT is at or near the surface, potentially making maintenance easier and less time-consuming. Fewer parts, lower fatigue loads and simpler maintenance all lead to reduced maintenance costs.
Elegant in their simplicity
Sandia is conducting the research under a 2011 Department of Energy (DOE) solicitation for advanced rotor technologies for U.S. offshore windpower generation. The five-year, $4.1 million project began in January of this year.
Wind Energy Technologies manager Dave Minster said Sandia's wind energy program is aimed at addressing the national energy challenge of increasing the use of low-carbon power generation.
"VAWTs are elegant in terms of their mechanical simplicity," said Josh Paquette, one of Sandia's two principal investigators on the project. "They have fewer parts because they don't need a control system to point them toward the blowing wind to generate power."
These characteristics fit the design constraints for offshore wind: the high cost of support structures; the need for simple, reliable designs; and economic scales that demand larger machines than current land-based designs.
Large offshore VAWT blades in excess of 300 meters will cost more to produce than blades for onshore wind turbines. But as the machines and their foundations get bigger closer to the 10? megawatt (MW) scale turbines and rotors become a much smaller percentage of the overall system cost for offshore turbines, so other benefits of the VAWT architecture could more than offset the increased rotor cost.
Challenges remain
However, challenges remain before VAWTs can be used for large-scale offshore power generation.
Curved VAWT blades are complex, making manufacture difficult. Producing very long VAWT blades demands innovative engineering solutions. Matt Barone, the project's other principal investigator, said partners Iowa State University and TPI Composites will explore new techniques to enable manufacture of geometrically complex VAWT blade shapes at an unprecedented scale, but at acceptable cost.
VAWT blades must also overcome problems with cyclic loading on the drivetrain. Unlike horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs), which maintain a steady torque if the wind remains steady, VAWTs have two "pulses" of torque and power for each blade, based on whether the blade is in the upwind or downwind position. This "torque ripple" results in unsteady loading, which can lead to drivetrain fatigue. The project will evaluate new rotor designs that smooth out the amplitude of these torque oscillations without significantly increasing rotor cost.
Because first-generation VAWT development ended decades ago, updated designs must incorporate decades of research and development already built into current HAWT designs.
Reinvigorating VAWT research means figuring out the models that will help speed up turbine design work.
"Underpinning this research effort will be a tool development effort that will synthesize and enhance existing aerodynamic and structural dynamic codes to create a publicly available aeroelastic design tool for VAWTs," Barone said.
Needed: aerodynamic braking
Another challenge is brakes. Older VAWT designs didn't have an aerodynamic braking system, and relied solely on a mechanical braking system that is more difficult to maintain and less reliable than the aerodynamic brakes used on HAWTs.
HAWTS use pitchable blades, which stop the turbine within one or two rotations without damage to the turbine and are based on multiple redundant, fail-safe designs. Barone said new VAWT designs will need robust aerodynamic brakes that are reliable and cost-effective, with a secondary mechanical brake much like on modern-day HAWTs. Unlike HAWT brakes, new VAWT brakes won't have actively pitching blades, which have their own reliability and maintenance issues.
VAWT technology: A long history at Sandia
In the 1970s and 1980s, when wind energy research was in its infancy, VAWTs were actively developed as windpower generators. Although strange looking, they had a lot going for them: They were simpler than their horizontal-axis cousins so they tended to be more reliable. For a while, VAWTs held their own against HAWTs. But then wind turbines scaled up.
"HAWTs emerged as the predominant technology for land-based wind over the past 15 years primarily due to advantages in rotor costs at the 1 to 5 megawatt scale," Paquette said.
In the 1980s, research focused more heavily on HAWT turbines, and many VAWT manufacturers left the business, consigning VAWTs to an "also ran" in the wind energy museum.
But the winds of change have blown VAWTs' way once more.
Sandia is mining the richness of its wind energy history. Wind researchers who were among the original wind energy engineers are going through decades of Sandia research and compiling the lessons learned, as well as identifying some of the key unknowns described at the end of VAWT research at Sandia in the 1990s.
The first phase of the program will take place over two years and will involve creating several concept designs, running those designs through modern modeling software and narrowing those design options down to a single, most-workable design. During this phase, Paquette, Barone and their colleagues will look at all types of aeroelastic rotor designs, including HVAWTs and V-shaped VAWTs. But the early favorite rotor type is the Darrieus design.
In phase two researchers will build the chosen design over three years, eventually testing it against the extreme conditions that a turbine must endure in an offshore environment.
In addition to rotor designs, the project will consider different foundation designs: Early candidates are barge designs, tension-leg platforms and spar buoys.
The project partners will work on many elements.
Another partner, the University of Maine, will develop floating VAWT platform dynamics code and subscale prototype wind/wave basin testing. Iowa State University will develop manufacturing techniques for offshore VAWT blades and subscale wind tunnel testing. TPI Composites will design a proof-of-concept subscale blade and develop a commercialization plan. TU-Delft will work on aeroelastic design and optimization tool development and modeling. Texas A&M University will work on aeroelastic design tool development.
"Ultimately it's all about the cost of energy. All these decisions need to lead to a design that's efficient and economically viable," said Paquette.
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Offshore use of vertical-axis wind turbines gets closer lookPublic release date: 30-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stephanie Holinka slholin@sandia.gov 505-284-9227 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Sandia National Laboratories' wind energy researchers are re-evaluating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) to help solve some of the problems of generating energy from offshore breezes.
Though VAWTs have been around since the earliest days of wind energy research at Sandia and elsewhere, VAWT architecture could transform offshore wind technology.
The economics of offshore windpower are different from land-based turbines, due to installation and operational challenges. VAWTs offer three big advantages that could reduce the cost of wind energy: a lower turbine center of gravity; reduced machine complexity; and better scalability to very large sizes.
A lower center of gravity means improved stability afloat and lower gravitational fatigue loads.
Additionally, the drivetrain on a VAWT is at or near the surface, potentially making maintenance easier and less time-consuming. Fewer parts, lower fatigue loads and simpler maintenance all lead to reduced maintenance costs.
Elegant in their simplicity
Sandia is conducting the research under a 2011 Department of Energy (DOE) solicitation for advanced rotor technologies for U.S. offshore windpower generation. The five-year, $4.1 million project began in January of this year.
Wind Energy Technologies manager Dave Minster said Sandia's wind energy program is aimed at addressing the national energy challenge of increasing the use of low-carbon power generation.
"VAWTs are elegant in terms of their mechanical simplicity," said Josh Paquette, one of Sandia's two principal investigators on the project. "They have fewer parts because they don't need a control system to point them toward the blowing wind to generate power."
These characteristics fit the design constraints for offshore wind: the high cost of support structures; the need for simple, reliable designs; and economic scales that demand larger machines than current land-based designs.
Large offshore VAWT blades in excess of 300 meters will cost more to produce than blades for onshore wind turbines. But as the machines and their foundations get bigger closer to the 10? megawatt (MW) scale turbines and rotors become a much smaller percentage of the overall system cost for offshore turbines, so other benefits of the VAWT architecture could more than offset the increased rotor cost.
Challenges remain
However, challenges remain before VAWTs can be used for large-scale offshore power generation.
Curved VAWT blades are complex, making manufacture difficult. Producing very long VAWT blades demands innovative engineering solutions. Matt Barone, the project's other principal investigator, said partners Iowa State University and TPI Composites will explore new techniques to enable manufacture of geometrically complex VAWT blade shapes at an unprecedented scale, but at acceptable cost.
VAWT blades must also overcome problems with cyclic loading on the drivetrain. Unlike horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs), which maintain a steady torque if the wind remains steady, VAWTs have two "pulses" of torque and power for each blade, based on whether the blade is in the upwind or downwind position. This "torque ripple" results in unsteady loading, which can lead to drivetrain fatigue. The project will evaluate new rotor designs that smooth out the amplitude of these torque oscillations without significantly increasing rotor cost.
Because first-generation VAWT development ended decades ago, updated designs must incorporate decades of research and development already built into current HAWT designs.
Reinvigorating VAWT research means figuring out the models that will help speed up turbine design work.
"Underpinning this research effort will be a tool development effort that will synthesize and enhance existing aerodynamic and structural dynamic codes to create a publicly available aeroelastic design tool for VAWTs," Barone said.
Needed: aerodynamic braking
Another challenge is brakes. Older VAWT designs didn't have an aerodynamic braking system, and relied solely on a mechanical braking system that is more difficult to maintain and less reliable than the aerodynamic brakes used on HAWTs.
HAWTS use pitchable blades, which stop the turbine within one or two rotations without damage to the turbine and are based on multiple redundant, fail-safe designs. Barone said new VAWT designs will need robust aerodynamic brakes that are reliable and cost-effective, with a secondary mechanical brake much like on modern-day HAWTs. Unlike HAWT brakes, new VAWT brakes won't have actively pitching blades, which have their own reliability and maintenance issues.
VAWT technology: A long history at Sandia
In the 1970s and 1980s, when wind energy research was in its infancy, VAWTs were actively developed as windpower generators. Although strange looking, they had a lot going for them: They were simpler than their horizontal-axis cousins so they tended to be more reliable. For a while, VAWTs held their own against HAWTs. But then wind turbines scaled up.
"HAWTs emerged as the predominant technology for land-based wind over the past 15 years primarily due to advantages in rotor costs at the 1 to 5 megawatt scale," Paquette said.
In the 1980s, research focused more heavily on HAWT turbines, and many VAWT manufacturers left the business, consigning VAWTs to an "also ran" in the wind energy museum.
But the winds of change have blown VAWTs' way once more.
Sandia is mining the richness of its wind energy history. Wind researchers who were among the original wind energy engineers are going through decades of Sandia research and compiling the lessons learned, as well as identifying some of the key unknowns described at the end of VAWT research at Sandia in the 1990s.
The first phase of the program will take place over two years and will involve creating several concept designs, running those designs through modern modeling software and narrowing those design options down to a single, most-workable design. During this phase, Paquette, Barone and their colleagues will look at all types of aeroelastic rotor designs, including HVAWTs and V-shaped VAWTs. But the early favorite rotor type is the Darrieus design.
In phase two researchers will build the chosen design over three years, eventually testing it against the extreme conditions that a turbine must endure in an offshore environment.
In addition to rotor designs, the project will consider different foundation designs: Early candidates are barge designs, tension-leg platforms and spar buoys.
The project partners will work on many elements.
Another partner, the University of Maine, will develop floating VAWT platform dynamics code and subscale prototype wind/wave basin testing. Iowa State University will develop manufacturing techniques for offshore VAWT blades and subscale wind tunnel testing. TPI Composites will design a proof-of-concept subscale blade and develop a commercialization plan. TU-Delft will work on aeroelastic design and optimization tool development and modeling. Texas A&M University will work on aeroelastic design tool development.
"Ultimately it's all about the cost of energy. All these decisions need to lead to a design that's efficient and economically viable," said Paquette.
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Deadline: 9 November 2012 105 days, 6 hours, 39 minutes and 25 seconds
Contest?s website:http://www.gentletude.com/?page_id=2628 Open too: International Student at University Level or Graduate (studied? Italy, England, Switzerland, USA, Singapore, Argentina, Japan.)
Fees: -
Prizes:
1 International winner: ? 1,000 Euro per student or team (up to four members) ? Gentletude Award Certificate
2 International runners-up: ? 500 Euro for each ? Gentletude Award Certificate
10 international finalists: ? Gentletude Award Certificate
About:
The Gentletude Design Award is an international award for typhographic design students. The Award is run by the NGO Gentletude, a not-for-profit organization founded by Cristina Milani. The award aims is to encourage a new generation of designers to be creative and consider a term known but often not used: kindness.
Using the alphabet to create a message, students are asked to elaborate on a message inspired by the term ?gentletude? and including the words ?Kindness? and ?Attitudes?.
To Enter and for additional information go to: http://www.gentletude.com/?page_id=2628
ST. LOUIS (AP) ? The Laclede Group Inc., owner of Laclede Gas Co., said Friday that fiscal third-quarter revenue dropped sharply and profit fell 45 percent compared to last year, when asset sales boosted earnings.
Excluding that 2011 gain, the company said adjusted earnings rose 5 percent over last year.
Revenue plunged to $186.8 million from $344.3 million, which the company blamed partly on mild weather that hurt results at its gas-distribution utility.
Net income was $8.4 million, 38 cents per share, but would have been 40 cents per share excluding losses from derivatives, the company said. That was down from income of $15.4 million, or 69 cents per share, a year earlier, when the sale of excess propane inventories added $6.1 million or 27 cents per share to earnings.
Laclede Group, based in St. Louis, has about 625,000 residential and business customers in that area.
In afternoon trading, Laclede Group shares rose 57 cents at $41.36.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California may be struggling to make ends meet, but Governor Jerry Brown is still thinking big.
The 74-year-old governor is championing major public works projects, including a statewide bullet train network and giant tunnels for delivering fresh water, even as he tries to convince voters to approve a tax increase in the fall.
"I want to get shit done," Brown said this week as he unveiled a $14 billion project to move fresh water from north to south while protecting fish in the Sacramento river Delta. The proposal came less than a month after Brown green lighted a $68 billion high-speed rail system.
"Biting off too much? There's an election every two years and sometimes we get special elections!" he told reporters while introducing the water plan. "If the fear of electoral outcomes is going to be a basis of paralysis, we are never going to get anything done."
Brown in June signed a state budget that closed a nearly $16 billion deficit, but the plan relies on voters approving a ballot measure that will boost income taxes on the wealthy and temporarily increase sales taxes.
"The national equivalent would be Barack Obama talking about balancing the federal budget and at the same time unveiling a mission to Mars," said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution who was an aide to former Republican Governor Pete Wilson.
"On the one hand, he's telling voters we have no more money and need to raise taxes," Whalen said. "On the other hand, he wants to spend billions of dollars on projects like high speed rail and the water tunnels."
Though California has historically benefited immensely from government investment in technology, aerospace, higher education and other areas, today it does not seem like a state ready for a spending binge.
The city of Stockton recently filed for bankruptcy protection, and at least two other cities will likely soon do the same. The unemployment rate is among the highest in the United States, and many parts of the state are still reeling from the housing bust.
"BASTA!"
The state is notorious for political gridlock, and may have further undermined confidence with the discovery earlier this week that the state parks agency had a previously unknown stash of $54 million. Opponents of the tax measure have seized on that as evidence that the state doesn't know how to manage its money.
Further, voters in the fall are likely to face a host of local tax increase measures in addition to Brown's state tax hike. That's in part because one of Brown's major policy initiatives has been to push responsibility for some state services, such as prisons, back to the cities and counties.
"The more tax increases on the ballot, the harder it is to distinguish them and voters say 'Basta!'" said Steven Frates, director of research at the Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy, using the Spanish word for enough.
The city of La Mirada, in Southern California, is one of many that want voters to raise local sales taxes. "I'm not going to delude myself that it's not going to be a challenge," said City Manager Tom Robinson.
Brown has had difficulty lining up allies when it mattered most. His tax measures took the long route to the ballot, having to gather signatures after he failed to convince the legislature to approve the proposition. And his plan to reform public pensions is being ignored by the state assembly and senate.
Polls suggest that Brown faces a tough road. A recent Field Poll showed 54 percent support for his November tax plan, but a third of likely voters were less likely to back the plan if the legislature funded the bullet train.
Brown, though, is calculating that California's famous population of dreamers will seize on his vision, said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California.
"People are looking for something that will give them hope," he said. "Many people came here with a dream, and they dream of a better life."
Baldassare said that the key would be showing support that crosses political boundaries. Brown has proven to be a formidable campaigner in the past with the ability to build coalitions, and he'll need to do that again.
"He is going to need partners up and down the state," Baldassare said.
Brown could have waited until after the election to announce the water project, said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. "It's a calculated assessment, I believe, that showing leadership will benefit him," he said.
(Reporting by Peter Henderson and Jim Christie; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Anthony Boadle; Desking by Andrew Hay)
(This story was refiled to add dropped word in the thirteenth paragraph)
People Nike decide on the solution of homeschooling their kids for various factors.
For quite a few many years, homeschooling was the purview of those families who lived in rural locations and located the expense and/or time it will consider to move their young children to school unbearable. For these people today, homeschooling was and carries on to be the only real Nike option with regards to their children?s schooling. Lots of rural households have historically relied on their young children to assist around the house, and thus homeschooling allowed them to go after their scientific studies about the loved ones schedule, and work and training could be fit into the day based on a suitable timetable.
An additional Nike classic cause for households deciding upon the choice of homeschool was a basic disagreement with what was or is being taught in other schooling environments. Chief amongst this group are households whose religious beliefs clash with the prevailing educational strategies. Families who pick out the choice of homeschooling will not be topic towards the rigid curriculum of proven schools, and there are numerous selections in relation to homeschool sources that can offer as broad or as slim a field of research in terms of worldviews the father or mother wishes.
A far more current development within the reason individuals select to homeschool their young children is that of safety. School floor violence appears to be rising, and that has many mother and father anxious. They feel that the most beneficial approach to maintain their youngsters absent from harm is always to keep them close.
Hand-in-hand using the security issue is actually an issue for your kid?s self esteem. Bullying is really a widespread issue inside any school technique, as any mother or father nicely remembers from their very own college times. Quite a few parents can?t bear the believed of throwing their young children in to the kind of method that breeds a pack mentality, and therefore are picking out rather to possess them educated at household.
A very recent development within the factors for homeschooling may be the fluidity in selections that homeschooling youngsters enables. This really is specially obvious in Generation X, who seem to become pretty insistent on independence rather than becoming tied right down to any 1 place or situation. Homeschooling eradicates the must program all holidays about founded college vacations, because the speed is determined through the parent and child.
Lastly, parents may perhaps select to homeschool their youngsters for the reason that they just really feel they can do an improved work than any educational technique. Parent of gifted children do not need to see the youngster thrown away in the hard pressed for both sources and certified instructors method that community schooling represents, and private schools are turning into increasingly unaffordable to the common household. Mother and father who think their youngsters need to have the positive aspects of an additional intimate Nike 2012 schooling are hence turning for the choice of homeschooling.
The rise in reputation of homeschooling has meant a corresponding rise within the materials available for the parent who chooses to homeschool. There are actually sources available to meet any instructional desires, and using a small little bit of research a father or mother will obtain Nike Pas Cher the curriculum they really feel will finest match their children?s needs.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration launched a new partnership with private insurance companies, state officials and other stakeholders to scale up efforts to tackle widespread and increasingly sophisticated healthcare fraud.
Speaking from the White House at a table surrounded by leaders from many of the country's biggest health insurers, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder launched the new initiative, which builds on past efforts to root out crimes that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars every year.
"Bringing additional healthcare industry leaders and experts into this work will allow us to act more quickly and effectively in identifying and stopping fraud schemes, seeking justice for victims, and safeguarding our healthcare system," Holder said.
The project increases a focus on data sharing between public and private health insurers, using new technology that helps track medical claims in real time. Many large insurers have already signed onto the program, including Humana Inc, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc.
"In the past, we followed a ?pay-and-chase' model, paying claims first - then only later tracking down the ones we discovered to be fraudulent. Now, we're taking away the crooks' head start," Sebelius said.
Over the past two years, Holder and Sebelius have sought to identify major centers of healthcare fraud, meeting with local organizations, investigators, prosecutors and state officials to better understand the nature of common fraud schemes and to bring new stakeholders into the conversation.
Fraudulent claims to the government's Medicare health plans for the elderly are estimated to cost $60 billion a year, making it a focus of large-scale busts by the U.S. Department of Justice. In May, U.S. authorities conducted the biggest Medicare fraud sweep to date, arresting more than 100 people across the country - including doctors, nurses, office managers and other providers - for trying to defraud the system of nearly half a billion dollars.
Officials did not give specific details of how the new partnership would be rolled out. But department officials said that a third party would be brought in to conduct computer analysis to spot patterns of fraud and comb through millions of claims and other associated billing data.
The partnership announced Thursday builds on previous collaborations, including HEAT, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, designed to strengthen data sharing and partnerships at all levels of government.
Obama's healthcare law, known as the Affordable Care Act, earmarks hundreds of millions of dollars for anti-fraud measures and gives greater authority to insurers and law enforcement officials, including enhanced screening of Medicaid and Medicare providers and tougher laws and sentences for people who commit these crimes. Holder said that in 2011, anti-fraud initiatives recovered $4.1 billion in cases involving federal healthcare programs.
"That was a new record," said Holder. "Over the last three years, for every dollar we've spent fighting against healthcare fraud, we've returned an average of $7 to the U.S. Treasury, the Medicare Trust Fund and others.
"It's clear that our approach is working - and that our investments in anti-fraud efforts are yielding extraordinary returns. But - as today's announcement proves - this is only the beginning," he added.
(Additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Michele Gershberg and Lisa Shumaker)
Your computer is incredibly valuable to your business. It?s where you go to access the MLS, access e-mail, store your contacts, and get in touch with leads. What would you do if your computer?s security was compromised?
We see large corporations targeted by hackers and roll our eyes when a friend?s Facebook account suddenly spouts a spammy status update, but don?t forget that small and mid-size businesses can also fall victim to online thievery. As the real estate industry increasingly relies on online technology to function, we could be making ourselves more vulnerable. Hackers often target smaller businesses because they don?t have the tech know-how to prevent it that larger corporations do.
Before you come up with a plan to protect your computer, you need to understand exactly what you need and why. All the online security options available out there get confusing, so here?s brief rundown of the types of security available and what they?ll protect you from:
Anti-virus program. Computer viruses (much like their human counterparts) are made to spread malicious code from computer to computer through email attachments or other infected files. Viruses can be extremely disruptive to a small business, resulting in system crashes or deletion of files. Fortunately, programs?like Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG Free are free and protect, identify, and remove viruses from your computer.
Anti-spyware program. Spyware does exactly as it sounds ? spy on vulnerable computers, collect information (credit card information, passwords, codes), and pass that information to hackers. These spread by viruses or simply by visiting unsafe websites. Spyware can be devastating to small businesses who are looking to protect sensitive customer information. Luckily, Microsoft Security Essentials includes anti-spyware in addition to anti-virus for free. Additionally, MalwareBytes is a great alternative.
Firewall. Hardware or software-based firewalls are essential for keeping your network secure by setting up predefined rules for managing incoming and outgoing internet data. The purpose of a firewall is to separate your ?safe? local office network from the ?unsafe? internet. Network routers generally provide a reasonable hardware solution, while operating systems have a software-based solution. Additional software, such as ZoneAlarm Free provides free software to add an extra layer of protection.
Anti-adware program. Adware generally consists of software that automatically generats annoying advertisements that just won?t go away. Its sole mission is to prompt users to purchase through these ads (whether honestly or maliciously) in order to generate referral income to the developer. Lavasoft?s Ad-Aware or MalwareBytes are great free solutions to remove these annoyances.
Protecting yourself on the net doesn?t have to involve spending lots of money on security. A?Symantec Threat Report?found that 82 percent of data that was lost or stolen could have been avoided if a business had a cyber security plan in place. Keep in mind that you?re never really ?safe? from online threats, but knowing this, it?s even more important to develop a security plan and start protecting your computer.
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WASHINGTON?? Pilots' rights when dealing with Federal Aviation Administration disciplinary proceedings would receive a boost under a bill passed by Congress on Monday ? a measure written by a senator who was ordered to take remedial flying lessons by the agency after he landed his plane on a closed runway.
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The House approved the bill by voice vote. The Senate approved the measure last month. The bill now goes to the president for his signature.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who sent workers on the ground scrambling when he landed his plane on a closed runway marked with a giant yellow X at an airport in South Texas in October 2010. Inhofe said later he didn't see the workers and trucks on the runway until it was too late to safely abort the landing. The FAA didn't post a notice online warning pilots of the runway closure until days after the incident, he said.
Afterward, FAA officials ordered Inhofe, who has been flying for more than 50 years, to take remedial training as a condition for retaining his license. The senator complained he wasn't treated fairly by the agency and the process left him feeling powerless.
The bill requires the FAA to provide pilots with timely notice of actions that might affect their license. Pilots also could appeal FAA decisions in federal court if a first appeal to the National Transportation Safety Board fails.
The bill also clarifies what information the FAA must provide pilots when the agency issues orders that deny, amend, modify, suspend, or revoke a license. FAA would also be required to improve its program for notifying pilots of changes or events that could affect their flight plans, such as closed runways.
FAA officials didn't reply to a request for comment.
The bill was supported by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association, the two largest groups representing private pilots.
"Over the course of my years in Congress, I have helped an untold number of pilots facing the pressure of dealing with the FAA," Inhofe said in a statement. "This bill remedies many of the most serious deficiencies in the relationship between general aviation and the FAA, and ensures that pilots are, like everyone else, treated in a fair and equitable manner by the justice system."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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