The piloted solar-powered Gossamer Penguin flew for 1.95 miles at a public demonstration on 7 Aug 1980.
Steve Ptacek piloted the Solar Challenger in its first flight on Nov. 20, 1980, then he flew it across the English Channel 7 July 1981.
Both aircraft were designed by Dr. Paul MacCready.
I think the actual first piloted solar test flight was piloted by his 13-year-old son.

Isn't using batteries for takeoff cheating?

First? What was NASA's Helios then?

The work is "Il Silenzio" by composer Nini Rosso, and was written in the mid 1960s. It's relation to the bugle call "taps" is that it (rather obviously) quotes from Taps the same way that Tchaikovsky quotes La Marseilles in his overture "1812".

Never played in it's entirety because most people have never heard of the work or the composer. But it is certainly suitable.

Bank owned. Built in 1987. Most current owner in trouble with IRS, described on blogs as ponzi-schemer.

Ownership of mansion and cars important to demonstrate his success, build confidence of his investors?

Another previous owner Denny Hecker. Much baggage comes with house...

Recent book on the mansions of Lake Minnetonka laments the teardown of architecturally significant ones to subdivide the land and build multiple smaller homes. MUCH better to tear down the tacky ones, such as this.

Commenters above say it is morally bad to build homes suitable for posh entertaining. What do they have against people working in the catering trade? What do they have against landscapers? Why say that people who hire the members of my family should instead not build, but give the resources instead to people who don't work?
I don't understand.

It becomes fun in countries like Cambodia where both voltages are used and whoever built the house used whatever plugs were cheapest at the time. So I've seen 230V on American edison-style plugs, and 120 on Schuko.

"Got some as a gift when I complained to someone about sticky-labels messing up my expensive shredder. Used them on the "Easter Seals" address labels. Still have the blisters.

I'd always heard that the "tetris effect" was an adaptation that reduced an individual's performance in the real world, unless your job was as a show roadie packing a truck, or something.

The question I always ask myself is "what was my justification for purchasing this machine, and does it still do that function as well as when I purchased it?"

The US government has just effectively banned the sale of any youth fiction printed in 1985 or before,
The law is the "Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act" which took effect last Tuesday.
The instructions from the Federal government regarding children's books are very clear: If it was published after 1985 it is fine. If it was published in 1985 or before, and the resale value makes it uneconomical to have it professionally tested for lead content, it must be destroyed.

http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/smbus/cpsiasbguide.pdf

Consumer reports is one of the biggest cheerleaders of the odious Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (AKA the "War on Toys").
In short, if you make products for kids, you must now test every single component part of every single batch to guarantee that it does not contain anything unsafe.

Sorry Etsy sellers!

You see, Consumer Reports is concerned that when your kid eats his quad-bike he might ingest the tiny bit of lead that is included as part of the valve stem on each tire. And that would be bad.

And don't let me get started on the competency of Consumer's Union to do hedonic testing, or how they choose their quality criteria.

I would be careful to know the original context of the "english" phrase before I called any of the retranslations "good summaries". Lest I reveal how little I know of my own cultural heritage.

Every time I see a globe in a science-shop, antique-shop, or discount-home-store, I notice that it is either north-pole down or a slight movement from its precarious balance causes gravity to take it north-pole down. I find this aesthetically unpleasing, because I would like a globe that has its text upright in its at-rest position, and one that will stay in whatever position I leave it in.
I cannot understand why this is so.

What a great sci-fi secret defense weapon for the next big action film.