Two of my favorite peoples in the world – Uncle Ruddy and Aunt Daphne. We took this picture during one of our many visits down to their home in Melbourne, FL.
Archive for January 2006
WASHINGTON – The 2006 National Defense Authorization Act signed into law Jan. 6 provides new or enhanced benefits in addition to a 3.1 percent pay raise for National Guard and Reserve members, a senior defense official said.President Bush signed the Legislation Jan. 6, providing a variety of benefits designed to bring reserve-component compensation more on par with what the active component receives, Chuck Witschonke, DoD’s deputy director for compensation, said during an interview with the American Forces Press Service and the Pentagon Channel on a range of issues related to the act.
The package provides other benefits that affect all forces, both active and reserve, including better overall compensation and improved quality of life, while promoting overall recruiting and retention, he said.
The law also provides a variety of benefits specifically targeting members of the reserve components. These include:
- Full housing allowance payments for reserve members called to active duty for more than 30 days, versus the previous 140-day requirement;
- Income replacement benefits to help offset the pay loss some reservists and guardsmen experience when called to active duty, based on specific guidelines to be established within the next six months;
- Accession and affiliation bonuses of up to $20,000 for enlistment in the Selected Reserve, and an increase for officers for service in the Selected Reserve, from $6,000 to $10,000;
- A bonus of up to $100,000 for members with a designated critical skill or who volunteer to serve in a designated high-priority unit; and
- Extension of eligibility for a prior-service enlistment bonus to include Selected Reserve members who previously received one.
Witschonke emphasized the new law does not guarantee that all servicemembers will qualify for these pays and benefits, or that those who do will receive the highest amounts authorized. Rather, he said, the law gives defense and service leaders the flexibility they need to tailor the force to meet operational, recruiting and retention goals.One big change in the new law is a provision that shortens the duty time before a reserve-component member qualifies for the full housing allowance. Reserve and Guard members called to active duty for more than 30 days will now get the full allowance, just as active-component troops do, Witschonke said.
Another benefit, the critical-skills retention bonus, will be “a very good tool” in helping keep members with important experience and training in the force and in maintaining readiness in high-priority units, Witschonke said.
The 2006 authorization act also increases recruiting bonuses for the Reserve and Guard, Witschonke said. The new law authorizes accession and affiliation bonuses of up to $20,000, to be offered as needed by the services, he said.
For reserve-component members who experience pay cuts when called to active duty, the new provision for income replacement will help reduce the strain military service places on the family, he said. “It can be difficult for a family that has been living on a certain income to now have less money, particularly at a time when they’re stressed by a change in their lifestyle” due to a military deployment, Witschonke said.
The income-replacement program won’t be instituted for six months, in accordance with the law. At that time, specific guidelines and qualifications will be issued, he said. This authority will end in December 2008.
These enhancements in reserve-component pay and benefits are particularly critical during the global war on terror, when members of the Guard and Reserve are playing a major role in U.S. national defense, Witschonke said.
More information about pay and benefits is posted on
Ok, so I was on my way today to pick up my son from school. In the back was my little daughter angelicly sleeping. Thinking nice thoughts and anticipating the glee from my son when I pick him up, then WHAM! this friggin’ huge white Ford F150, could’ve been a 250 even and cut me off for no freaking apparent reason. Before I could flip him the birdy I saw proudly displayed on the back of his truck….I serve my Country for 33 Years.
Hmmm….33 years…normally, I would give props, but his friggin jerk just headed me off. Not only did he disrupt my nice thoughts, he jepoardize my life, my little baby. I was ready to go head to head and rip this old vet a new….youknowwhatamean. Anyway, the momentary thought to annihilate the bast##@@ left as quickly as it came. I continue on and regain caught back up to my thought a few chains down the road. But I can’t help imagining how warp that 33 years serving bonehead must be.
· Architects and engineers rethink auto technology
· ‘Easy to drive, stackable vehicle for people to share’
· ‘Easy to drive, stackable vehicle for people to share’
Alok Jha, science correspondent, Thursday December 29, 2005
It is not every day that a concept car re-writes the rules of more than 100 years of motoring. In development for four years by a team of architects and engineers led by William Mitchell, former head of the school of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as part of his Smart Cities research group, a new MIT car is borne of a complete rethink of people’s relationship with their cars in the ever-expanding cities of the future.Prof Mitchell expects we will share cars that will be easier to drive in congested cities, will be pollution-free and can be customised at will. 
The city car concept, with styling input by architect Frank Gehry, will be completed and delivered by MIT to General Motors early next year.
“Primarily we’re interested in urban living,” says Ryan Chin, an architect and engineer at MIT’s media lab and a member of Prof Mitchell’s research group. “Everything scales down from what we think the city of the future is.”
The Smart Cities group focused on how cars could be better adapted to get round familiar problems of city life, namely congestion, pollution and parking. Motor companies are well aware of the issue. But the group felt the companies had missed the point, even with city cars such as the Smart, the iconic two-passenger cars introduced by Swatch and Mercedes in 1998.
“We have to think of city cars as not just small-footprint vehicles that can squeeze into tight spaces but ones that can work in unison and also be almost like a parasite that leeches on to mass-transit systems,” says Mr Chin. While Smart changed the way people think about parking and size, the MIT engineers felt that, as it had not been widely adopted and congestion and pollution problems had got no better, its success had been limited.
So the MIT team started from scratch to come up with their own concept: a stackable, shareable, electric, two-passenger car. “Imagine a shopping cart – a vehicle that can stack – you can take the first vehicle out of a stack and off you go,” says Mr Chin. “These stacks would be placed throughout the city. A good place would be outside a subway station or a bus line or an airport, places where there’s a convergence of transportation lines and people.”
The precedent for this type of shared personal transport is demonstrated with bicycle-sharing schemes in European towns and the ZipCar and FlexCar projects on the east and west coasts of the US respectively.
The MIT concept car is a complete re-think of vehicle technology. For a start, there is no engine, at least in the traditional sense. The power comes from devices called wheel robots. “These are self-contained wheel units that have electric motors inside,” says Mr Chin. “The interesting thing is that the wheel can turn a full 360 degrees so you can have omni-directional wheel movements. You can rotate the car while you’re moving, any direction can be front or back and you can do things like crabbing or translate sideways. It’s almost like you imagine yourself driving a computer chair.”
The wheel robots, complete with their own suspension, remove the need for a drive shaft and even the engine block, freeing up designers to make new use of the space in the car.
“Essentially the car will comprise four wheel-robots plus a customisable chassis,” says Chin. “The frame can be built specifically for each customer.”
Add wafer-thin, programmable displays that cover the interior and exterior of the car like a layer of paint, and you have a vehicle that can be customised at will. “You can imagine signalling being not just a static signal light but something more dynamic,” says Mr Chin, who suggests the words “reversing” or “turning left” could roll across the car’s body to declare the driver’s intentions. “From a heating and cooling point of view, you might want your car to be darker or lighter depending on weather. On the interior, you can customise your dashboard for each person. If I’m an elderly person, I probably want a very large speedometer so I can see it; if I’m a race-car driver, maybe all I want is a tachometer.”
The close proximity of cars in cities increases the risk of accidents, and the MIT car has a host of radical ideas to deal with this problem. Chief safety features include responsive seats that do away with the need for seat belts and air bags: these are based around a spine at the back of the seat with a number of “fingers” to embrace a passenger and hold them in place if the car detects that it is involved in an accident. And the cabin would absorb the impacts of crashes using new materials. “There is a new development in fluids that can be magnetised so that they move from liquid to solid state within a nanosecond. You can imagine using these fluids as a way of absorbing energy in an impact.”
Over the next few months the MIT team will complete the final design and present their results to General Motors, which will build the first prototype. Beyond that, Mr Chin is already trying to arrange a public test in the Far East. “We might do this in Hong Kong or in Singapore,” he says. “The interest in those places is that they are very dense, have mass transit and limited range. An island like Hong Kong would be a perfect place to test this because you have all those conditions.”
Whether the city car concept appears on garage forecourts as designed by the Smart Cities group or whether the technologies are taken forward individually remains to be seen. Chin says the group would be happy with either outcome.
Just a simply guy who sees goodness in most and constantly in search of all that is beautiful, good, and true. I have very few hangups, save the fact that I am fiercely intolerant of BS and people who deal in delusions. I consider myself unselfish, always ready to give a hand when I see the need. I am also equally unforgiving of those who take advantage of the goodness of others. Learning is a passion of mine. My primary field is Mathematics, but my passion goes well beyond that. I read a great deal, I also enjoy Philosophy, History, Computing/Technology and Contemporary World Affairs (mainly Politico-Military). I am pretty guarded with my privacy, but you can learn more about me by hitting the button at the top - "All About Me" and you can hit me up on Skype...my username is "Rupdawg" or check me out at any of my Social links under "Don't Stalk Me" below.
