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Jay-Z Dropping New Album 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' on July 4
Jigga Man is coming back, and it sounds like he's going to be better than ever!
Keeping with the religious theme that seems oh-so popular these days (hello, 'Yeezus'!), Jay-Z announced (with a commercial) during last night's NBA Finals game that he would be releasing his 12th studio album 'Magna Carta Holy Grail,' on July 4.
HOV has assembled quite the rag tag group of collaborators for this album, and by rag tag we mean totally awesome. The preview video shows production genius Rick Rubin, along with Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and Pharrell all slaving away on Jay's tunes in the studio. To quote Rebecca Black here, "We, we so excited!"
Jay-Z muses quite a bit in the Samsung spot saying things like, "We don't have any rules, everybody is trying to figure it out. That's why the Internet is like the Wild West. The Wild Wild West. We need to write the new rules." He and his friend Kanye have surely written the rules on springing albums on the general public without much notice these past few years.
The few snippets of production showcased in the clip is truly intriguing -- we love the heavy bass tracks that sound like they were made to blast from a car with the windows down during summer.
And if you think YOU'RE excited for this release, you're in good company -- 'Magna Carter Holy Grail' has already sold 1 million copies, though it's not totally what you think. Samsung went ahead and purchased 1 million copies of the LP presumably to give to Galaxy users. According to the Wall Street Journal (via Spin), the technology multinational corporation bought each copy for $5, though it's still not clear whether Nielsen Soundscan will count these copies in the total sales.
The website for the album so far seems to be blacked out quite a bit, so we're guessing Jay-Z will gradually release more and more info like tracklisting, album artwork, collaborators etc... as the July 4 release date inches closer.
Alright, hurry up July 4 and get here already!


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We have announced it and previewed it before, today we can finally unveil the new Holiday 2012 campaign by Disney and Barneys New York – Electric Holiday. The campaign includes the below video and also special window installations at Barneys flagship location in New York City.
"Watch as Minnie embarks on a fantastical fashion adventure in Paris, where she walks the runway in Lanvin and rubs elbows with fashion-world figures like Linda Evangelista, Daphne Guinness, Naomi Campbell, Lady Gaga and many more."

subset: commoncrawl


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Request a Technical Training Course
If We Don't Have a Course on Our Schedule, You Can Request It!
If you don't see a course you're looking for, we may be able to add a course to our schedule. We teach the full IBM course catalog so we may be able to add your course to our schedule.
You can:
- Request a course be placed on our public schedule
- Request a private, onsite course be taught at your location
- Inquire as to whether there is a self-paced option
We would love to hear from you. Simply email us at firstname.lastname@example.com or give us a call at +91 9833997666.


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DailyDirt: Biological Curiosities
from the urls-we-dig-up deptBiology always seems like the messy and gooey branch of science. Biology contains a bunch of strange phenomena that seemingly exist just because they're possible. Here are just a few quirky biological discoveries.
- Asteroids could have been the original source of chirality in our biological history. Some carbon-rich meteorites seem to have an excess of L-isovaline (a chiral isomer of the biologically important amino acid, L-valine), but the reason why the excess exists is still a mystery. [url]
- There's a type of slime mold that has been dubbed the 'smallest farmer' -- since it can store and grow its own food. The single-celled amoeba eats bacteria and carries around its favorite food just in case local supplies run out. When it eats up all the bacteria in its neighborhood, it moves on and grows bacteria where it settles down next. [url]
- Japanese researchers have created a genetically engineered mouse that tweets like a bird. The research is supposed to investigate the origins of animal language, and it'll be really amazing when they grow a mouse that can tweet... on Twitter. [url]
- To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]


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Barry and Virginia Weinman establish Dean's Chair Fund at UH School of Medicine
$3 million gift will support mission of John A. Burns School of MedicineUniversity of Hawaiʻi
Margot Schrire
"Barry and Virginia Weinman are wonderful philanthropists who view challenges as opportunities and then contribute both their expertise and resources to convert such opportunities into realities. Our university and our community continue to benefit greatly because of their understanding of many opportunities - from entrepreneurship being at the core of business in Hawaiʻi, to recognizing a shortage of physicians, to the importance of being able to effectively transfer university research advances to the marketplace. We are so very grateful for their leadership in supporting UH Mānoa."
Virginia Hinshaw, Chancellor University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
HONOLULU - On July 31st, the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents voted to accept a gift of $3 million from longtime UH supporters and community philanthropists Barry and Virginia Weinman. The gift will establish the Barry and Virginia Weinman Dean's Chair in Medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).
The Weinmans established the fund to inspire additional endowment gifts in support of the University of Hawaiʻi and JABSOM during the last year of the Centennial Campaign, signal their support for new medical school dean, Dr. Jerris Hedges, and enhance the dean's ability to positively impact the future quality of health care in the state of Hawaiʻi. "Barry and Virginia continue to be agents for positive change at UH," said Donna Vuchinich, president of the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation. "This generous contribution will enable Dean Hedges to advance the education, clinical, research and community service missions of the medical school."The endowment will permit the dean to take advantage of unanticipated opportunities and address key priorities within the medical school. The funds may be used to recruit and retain talented faculty; to support quality research and provide seed research funding, particularly among promising junior faculty; to support initiatives which enhance the medical education curriculum; to better address the physician and health care work force shortage in the state, and to enhance the medical school's role in shaping health care policy for the state of Hawaiʻi.
"This critical funding will enhance our medical school's ability to be a driving force in the islands for excellence - in medical education, biomedical research, clinical practice and in health care policy, particularly in addressing the crucial health care and workforce issues facing our state," said Dr. Jerris Hedges, Dean of JABSOM. "We are deeply grateful to Virginia and Barry for their continuing support and their commitment to improving health care in our state." "Virginia and I are delighted to make this gift as part of the final phase of the university's Centennial Campaign," said Barry Weinman. "In my role as chair of the campaign, it is very rewarding to see our total at $239.4 million, with just $10.6 million to go to reach our goal."
The Weinmans have been staunch supporters of UH. In 2000, they became members of the University of Hawaiʻi's Founders Club when they presented the Shidler College of Business with $1.1 million to establish the Barry and Virginia Weinman Chair of Entrepreneurship and E-Business. Their additional gift of $250,000 initiated the Pacific Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business (PACE) at the Shidler College.
In 2006, the Weinmans pledged $1 million to UH to establish the Barry and Virginia Weinman Fellowship for ten medical students at JABSOM, to cover tuition and expenses for all four years of medical school. Through the fellowship program, the couple is addressing the ongoing shortage of doctors in Hawaiʻi. The Weinmans have requested that the recipients of the fellowships return to Hawaiʻi after internship and residency to practice in Hawaiʻi, especially in rural and underserved communities. Barry and Virginia are activists and have said, "We are concerned that Hawaiʻi is facing a serious medical crisis with many physicians leaving the Islands due to various obstacles, such as prohibitively expensive malpractice insurance as a result of a lack of medical tort reform legislation. Medicare reimbursement issues also must be addressed. The Legislature can't do much if anything, about Medicare, but has the power to reform escalating medical malpractice insurance premiums, as most other states have done, to help keep doctors in Hawaiʻi. Hopefully the Legislature will act responsibly in the next session before much more damage is done."
Virginia Weinman graduated from Stanford University Graduate School of Business as a Sloan Fellow and also has a master's in Marriage, Family & Child Counseling. She was founder and president of Allusions.com, a California multimedia development corporation. She was a Presidential Appointee to the Federal Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations, and was a US State Department delegate to the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. Virginia also co-founded Interactive Applications, and served as its CEO. The company, the first online manufacturing software and services business, merged with Boole & Babbage and later went public.
Barry Weinman earned a bachelor's degree from Clarkson College of Technology and a master's degree from the London School of Economics/University of Southern California (USC). He served as a US Navy officer on the USS Radford, and was a speechwriter and intelligence briefing officer for the Commander of US Naval Forces in Europe and for the US Ambassador to Great Britain. He held management positions with AT&T, IBM and Fairchild Semiconductor.
From 1988 to 1995, he taught in the USC Business School entrepreneurial program and lectured on venture capital to UH MBA students. Barry has been making venture capital investments since 1980. He co-founded Allegis Capital and Associated Venture Investors, Silicon Valley venture capital funds which invest in early stage technology companies. He is also co-founder and chairman of DragonBridge Capital, a merchant bank and venture capital fund, which assists Chinese companies in the capital formation process.
The Weinmans met while Virginia was attending UH and Barry was stationed in Hawaiʻi with the military. They have since lived in various parts of the world and now live in Hawaiʻi full-time. Barry is currently the chair of the UH Centennial Campaign Cabinet and Virginia is a Cabinet member. Barry is also a Foundation trustee and chairs the Foundation Board's Investment Committee.


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Students may not be at school today, but teachers are.
Students may not be at school today, but teachers are.
This school year, there are five school-led professional development days and 14 teacher workdays. There also are two early-release days which each school builds into their schedule.
During Thursday's work day, teachers across the county were the students.
At Clyde Erwin Elementary Magnet School, hundreds of second and third grade teachers, literacy coaches, instructional coaches, elementary technology facilitators, elementary exceptional child coaches and exceptional child and Title I teachers were gathered in the auditorium learning about N.C. Read to Achieve and more.
At Blue Creek Elementary School and Northside Elementary School, teachers were participating in AVID training.
At Jacksonville High School, teachers were invited to hear Sharon Favor discuss learning and best practices.
In Swansboro, teachers were learning more about the recently implemented safety procedures.
According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, teachers should participate in continued, high quality professional development.
Professional educators are required to have one renewal credit for both literacy and the specific academic subject area and 5.5 general credits in order to renew their teaching license, according to N.C. DPI. The license must be renewed every five years.
Administrators are required to have three credits focused on the school executive's role as instructional, human resources and managerial leader and 4.5 general credits.
National Board Certification, however, requires 7.5 credits for completion and two credits, one for both literacy and content, for 10 year renewal, according to N.C. DPI.
In Onslow County it includes the method and practice of teaching, successful planning and focuses on content areas, reading standards and exceptional children. It is taught by Onslow County teachers who attend training and then train other area teachers, Onslow County Schools staff, and educators from across the nation, according to information from the school system.
Among those at Clyde Erwin Thursday morning was Caroline Walcott, a third grade reading recovery teacher.
Walcott, who is in her third year of teaching, said she has attended a Reading Recovery Conference, participated in professional development at Meadow View Elementary for math and reading, and participated in system-wide training for math, reading and science.
�I think that they help you to inspire you to think outside of the box,� she said, explaining that the training provides fresh ideas and opportunities for hands on activities for students.
Ari Zahavi, a second-year third grade teacher at Queens Creek Elementary, said his professional development experiences have primarily focused on Common Core Standards and how to approach and teach them.
�They help me better understand what approach to take teaching,� he said.
The result, he said, is helping the students be �successful third graders� and helping the transition from grade to grade.
�Everyone is trying to achieve the same goal,� Zahavi said.
The goal, he said, is successful students.
According to school officials, teachers take a survey at the end of each summer about what they want or need for professional development.
�The results from the survey are broken down by school and school district and provided back to administrators and principals,� said Onslow County Schools Public Information Assistant Suzie Ulbrich.
Most of those opportunities, she said, are offered outside of the school day.
�We really look at protecting instructional time,� Ulbrich said.
Following the survey, Onslow County Schools Director of Professional Development and Academic Enrichment Michele Halley puts out three professional development publications each year highlighting opportunities throughout the year.
�There were 95 PD opportunities this year in these publications and there have been some additional opportunities available,� Ulbrich said.
Recent professional development has focused on Common Care and helping teachers understand the standards, according to school officials. The sessions also help teachers find ways to present it so every child learns at a level they understand.
�I think professional development is one of the things that feeds the soul of a teacher. It's important, it is good, relevant and research based,� Haley said. �... Professional development allows a teacher to grow and refine their skills to better serve your child.�
According to school officials, professional development is offered year round with many opportunities taking place over the summer. However, not much takes place during the spring and Christmas breaks.
Professional development opportunities through the end of June are currently available on the Onslow County Schools website.
Walcott said that a teacher's work day is more than classroom time.
On top of teaching, they also train and create visual dynamics for their classroom, including bulletin boards. She said they also tend to bring home grading and portfolios to work on.
In her case, she also assists with Odyssey of the Mind and Girls on the Run so four afternoons of the week are spent on extracurricular activities with students until about 5 p.m.
�Our job feels almost 24 hours sometimes,� she said. �...Our job is more than the classroom. It's really making a difference in those kid's lives that are in the classroom.�
Amanda Hickey is the government reporter at The Daily News. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Guidelines to help your project succeed
One of the most frequent questions I get from Black Belts and Green Belts I train is about the characteristics of a good Six Sigma project, particularly a first project. Define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) is a procedure that is useful for certain types of projects and terrible for others. What makes a good DMAIC project?


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4 Definitions of Sir
The meaning of the word sir, the definition of Sir:
n. - A man of social authority and dignity; a lord; a master; a gentleman; -- in this sense usually spelled sire.
n. - A title prefixed to the Christian name of a knight or a baronet.
n. - An English rendering of the LAtin Dominus, the academical title of a bachelor of arts; -- formerly colloquially, and sometimes contemptuously, applied to the clergy.
n. - A respectful title, used in addressing a man, without being prefixed to his name; -- used especially in speaking to elders or superiors; sometimes, also, used in the way of emphatic formality.
The word "sir" uses 3 letters: I R S
Direct anagrams of sir:
Words formed by adding one letter before or after sir, or to sir in any order:
a - airs rias sari b - bris ribs c - cris d - rids e - ires reis rise sire f - firs rifs g - rigs h - shri i - iris k - irks kirs kris risk m - mirs rims n - rins o - sori p - rips s - sirs sris t - stir
Shorter words found within sir:
List shorter words within sir, sorted by length
Words formed from any letters in sir, plus an optional blank or existing letter
List all words starting with sir, words containing sir or words ending with sir
All words formed from sir by changing one letter
Other words with the same letter pairs: si ir
Browse words starting with sir by next letter
Previous word in our database: sipunculid
Next word in our database: sirdar


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The six Mansfield ISD students who were selected as National Merit Semifinalists have advanced to the finalist round.
The students were entered into the competition by earning top scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
Out of 1.6 million entrants, only 15,000 students are selected as National Merit Finalists, making them in the less than 1 percent of high school students to earn the distinction.
The academically talented high school seniors will continue in the competition for approximately 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered in the spring.
Congratulations to the following National Merit Finalists:
National Merit Finalists are selected based on their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin or religious preference.
The National Merit Scholarship Program was founded in 1955 to identify and honor scholastically talented American youth and to encourage them to develop their abilities to the fullest. Learn more about the program here.
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Now available in paperback!
The Long Gaze Back, edited by Sinéad Gleeson, is an exhilarating anthology of thirty short stories by some of the most gifted women writers this island has ever produced.
Niamh Boyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Maeve Brennan, Mary Costello, June Caldwell, Lucy Caldwell, Evelyn Conlon, Anne Devlin, Maria Edgeworth, Anne Enright, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Norah Hoult, Mary Lavin, Eimear McBride, Molly McCloskey, Bernie McGill, Lisa McInerney, Belinda McKeon, Siobhán Mannion, Lia Mills, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Kate O'Brien, Roisín O'Donnell, E.M. Reapy, Charlotte Riddell, Eimear Ryan, Anakana Schofield, Somerville & Ross, Susan Stairs.
Taken together, the collected works of these writers reveal an enrapturing, unnerving, and piercingly beautiful mosaic of a lively literary landscape. Spanning four centuries, The Long Gaze Back features 8 rare stories from deceased luminaries and forerunners, and 22 new stories by some of the most talented Irish women writers working today. The anthology presents an inclusive and celebratory portrait of the high calibre of contemporary literature in Ireland.
These stories run the gamut from heartbreaking to humorous, but each leaves a lasting impression. They chart the passions, obligations, trials and tribulations of a variety of vividly-drawn characters with unflinching honesty and relentless compassion. These are stories to savour.
'It is impossible to mention all of the stories here. The feisty, fabulously angrily funny Lisa McInerny doesn't disappoint; neither does deep dark Nuala Ní Chonchúir. Ní Chonchúir's story overcomes my usual suspicion of historical settings – she "took me there" to paraphrase the title of Niamh Boyce's strangled heart-breaker. Mannion's story is one of the quieter ones, but its pitch-perfect pulse really stayed with me… it is a great pleasure to come across the likes of Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Anne Devlin, Evelyn Conlon and Christine Dwyer Hickey, who have been writing their fine stories since it was "neither popular or profitable"…The Long Gaze Back is a substantial harvest, a seriously comprehensive and celebratory volume.' – The Irish Times
'There's nothing girly about these stories; there are no cliches, no Mr Rights, no wedding bells, no evenings with Chardonnay. Instead, this collection represents the richness of women's lives, past and present. The joy, the compassion, the anger, the sadness. It's all there.' – Sunday Independent
"The overwhelming majority of stories in this collection are vibrant, profound and absorbing – strong evidence of what Gleeson calls "a palpable energy in Irish writing", and proof that, despite their exclusion from the anthologies of the bad old days, women writers have always been, and remain, at the heart of the Irish literary tradition.' – Sunday Business Post
'The Long Gaze Back blasts open the tunnel vision often applied to Irish literature and is a welcome addition to bookshelves, both academic and domestic.' – We Love This Book
'Excellent and necessary'. – Irish Independent
'I loved The Long Gaze Back, an anthology of short stories by Irish women writers. In the year of 'Waking The Feminists' and a national conversation about the exclusion of female voices from the artistic canon, Sinéad Gleeson's decision to create and edit this collection seems eerily prescient.' – Louise O'Neill, Irish Independent
'A refreshing and enlightening collection'. – Herald
'Epic in its scope and ambition'. – RTÉ Guide
'These are stories to be savoured and enjoyed. They invite you to seek out more work by these talented authors as each story is proceeded by a biographical brief that lists the authors' other publications. And I do now feel compelled to read much more by these writers…This is an anthology with many different points that you can spring off from, but it's also an important book with tremendous scope to be savoured by itself.' – Lonesome Reader
About the Editor
Sinéad Gleeson is a broadcaster and critic who presents The Book Show on RTE Radio 1. She writes about arts and culture, and reviews books for The Irish Times. In 2012, she edited the short story anthology, Silver Threads of Hope, and is the editor of The Long Gaze Back: an Anthology of Irish Women Writers to be published by New Island in Autumn 2015.
Sinéad Gleeson
C-Format, Paperback
Release Date
September 2016
Additional Information
|.400 g
|.215 × .135 × .18 mm
SKU: 9781848405486 - Need Help? Contact Us Leave Feedback
Categories: Anthologies, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Sinead Gleeson (ED), Spotlight.
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You all know how this works. We clean our house, put things away, have garage sales, donate and throw stuff away then we go shopping and by more "junk". What is our fascination with stuff, old or new doesn't matter but we all have stuff. Well we want OUT! Downsizing our Lives!
We are sick and tired of playing this "game". We want a simpler life and we are working hard to get to that point. But let me tell ya, it's easier said than done. Selling stuff in a bad economy is not always a great idea But we are determined to make the changes and wait for the day we can look around our new digs and say "Yep this is exactly what we wanted, simplicity!".


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natural oils provide nourishing moisture for smoother, softer, more supple cuticles.. pretty handy!
prime and protect nails with the ideal foundation for flawless manicure looks. find the perfect strengthening, ridge-filling or nourishing base coat tailored to every need.
the ultimate in advanced nail technology. nourish nails with these expertly formulated treatments.
shine brighter and smarter. add strength, durability and a brilliant, glossy finish. advanced top coats extend colour longevity and keep manicures looking their best.
America's nail salon expert. Since 1981.
© 2013 essie® - all rights reserved.


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Playing for the first time since taking sole possession of first place in the Missouri Valley Conference, Wichita State looks to stay there while continuing its dominance at home.
That may not be too tall of a task against a Bradley team that has struggled to win league road games in recent seasons.
The 20th-ranked Shockers will try to win their 20th straight home game on Saturday night when they take on the Braves, who have lost 22 of their last 24 conference games outside of Peoria.
Wichita State (18-2, 7-1) moved out of a first-place tie with No. 17 Creighton on Wednesday when it won 62-52 at Missouri State and the Bluejays lost 74-69 at Drake.
The Shockers won for the ninth time in 10 games and managed to avoid falling flat after a thrilling 67-64 victory over Creighton four days earlier.
"Since I've been here, we've been first or second in the Valley. We've always had winning teams," said senior guard Demetric Williams. "That's our expectation."
Wichita State has won by average of 17.4 points during its home win streak - tied for the sixth-longest in the nation - including a 78-41 victory over Bradley in the second game of the streak last January.
Cleanthony Early, the Shockers' scoring leader (15.5 per game), has played especially well lately. The junior forward has averaged 20.8 points on 55.4 percent shooting - including 14 of 31 (45.2 percent) from 3-point range - in his last six games.
Early had 24 points and eight rebounds as Wichita State closed on a 10-2 run for a 69-63 win at Bradley on Jan. 6.
After missing seven games with a broken thumb and scoring two points in his first game back, senior forward Carl Hall has sparked the club with 32 in his last two.
Despite their victories, the Shockers have shot 37.6 percent from the field and 9 of 44 (22.0 percent) from beyond the arc in their last two games.
Wichita State should be able to find some open looks against the Braves, who have allowed opponents to average 69.8 points while shooting 50.8 percent from the floor while losing four of six.
Each of Bradley's last 12 conference road losses has been by at least eight points.
The Braves (12-8, 4-4) have lost six in a row to the Shockers, including three straight in Wichita by an average of 23.0 points.
Wichita State, though, will have to find a way to contain Walt Lemon Jr., who has scored 42 points while shooting 6 for 9 from 3-point range in his last two games.
The junior guard scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting Wednesday at Evansville, but the rest of the Braves combined to hit 12 of 38 (31.6 percent) from the floor in a 66-56 loss.
Bradley will likely need a more complete effort if it hopes to derail a Wichita State team that ranks first in the MVC in scoring defense (59.7) and defensive field-goal percentage (39.2).
"There's going to be some physical play and there's going to be some holds and some grabs and some body-slamming in the Valley," Shockers coach Gregg Marshall said. "(Our guys) have to know that.


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August 4, 2015: Dr. Gregory Sivakoff (U. of Alberta) has requested optical monitoring of the galactic microquasar V4641 Sgr beginning immediately, and continuing for the next 120 days, or until it is no longer observable from your location.
Arlo Landolt should be familiar to most of the AAVSO community, not only as a friend and former councillor of the AAVSO, but as one of the leading figures of astronomical photometry and photometric calibrations. Arlo Landolt's work on standard stars has set the standard -- very literally -- for astronomical photometry for nearly half a century.
This information was originally published as a series of reports by AAVSO observer Doug West in 2003, outlining his experiments and calibrations of the Optec SSP-4 infrared photometer
SSP-4 Photometer Observation Report and Analysis #1
By Doug West
16 May 2003
The AAVSO has two new observing manuals for our instrumental observers: the recently released AAVSO DSLR Observing Manual, and the newly-published AAVSO Guide to CCD Photometry.
The AAVSO Guide to CCD Photometry, first published in September 2014, is designed to be a basic introduction and guide to using CCDs to perform photometry of variable stars. With care, you can use a backyard telescope to obtain astrophysically useful data that matches the quality of those produced by professional astronomers, using exactly the same principles and techniques that are used at larger research observatories around the world.
December 6, 2013: Observer Carlo Gualdoni reports via the cvnet-outburst mailing list that the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova AL Comae is in outburst, with a magnitude of V=12.74 on 2013 December 6.185 (JD 2456633.1185). Gary Poyner notes on the BAAVSS mailing list that this is the first observed outburst of AL Com since October 2007. Both visual observations and CCD time series are encouraged.
WZ Sge Outburst Update
This page is referenced in AAVSO Alert Notices 287 and 288.
Note (12/27/2013): This page was created in 2001, and some of the links shown are obsolete and no longer exist. Where possible, links have been updated and/or modern equivalents substituted.
Nova Delphini 2013 (also named V339 Del) is the biggest cosmic event in variable star astronomy this year, and this naked-eye nova is providing the community a wealth of new data on this important class of objects. The amateur astronomical community has made an enormous contribution of data for Nova Del so far, and now is a good time to review all that's happened so far in this nova outburst, and how the amateur community has played a role.


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NM Geology Studies Arsenic in Groundwater, July 2, 2001
SOCORRO, N.M., July 2, 2001 -- One of the current issues of New Mexico Geology focuses on an investigation of the levels and distribution of arsenic in ground water in the Socorro Basin.
"Arsenic in ground water in the Socorro Basin, New Mexico" details a recent study made by Lynn Brandvold of the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (NMBGMR), which examines the presence of high concentrations of arsenic in the Socorro ground-water basin, along the Rio Grande from San Acacia to San Marcial. Physical and chemical parameters, listed in three different tables, are summarized on a well-by-well basis for the 74 water wells included in the study.
Other articles in the periodical also provide a regulatory summary of the new arsenic standard, the cost of compliance with a new drinking water standard, and an evaluation of the costs and benefits of a lower arsenic maximum contaminant level for community water systems.
New Mexico Geology is published quarterly by NMBGMR, a service division of New Mexico Tech. A subscription to the award-winning journal costs $10 per year or $18 for two years. Individual issues may be purchased for $2.50 each. For more information about New Mexico Geology, or any other NMBGMR publications, write to the Bureau Publications Office, New Mexico Tech, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801, or call (505) 835-5410, or visit the Bureau's website at http://geoinfo.nmt.edu.


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|medical dictionary
1. An inorganic species or substance occurring in nature, having a definite chemical composition and usually a distinct crystalline form. Rocks, except certain glassy igneous forms, are either simple minerals or aggregates of minerals.
2. A mine.
3. Anything which is neither animal nor vegetable, as in the most general classification of things into three kingdoms (animal, vegetable, and mineral).
Origin: F. Mineral, LL. Minerale, fr. Minera mine. See Mine.
1. Of or pertaining to minerals; consisting of a mineral or of minerals; as, a mineral substance.
2. Impregnated with minerals; as, mineral waters.
<chemistry> Mineral acids, a salt of a mineral acid. Mineral tallow, a familiar name for hatchettite, from its fatty or spermaceti-like appearance. Mineral water. See Water. Mineral wax. See Ozocerite. Mineral wool, a fibrous wool-like material, made by blowing a powerful jet of air or steam through melted slag. It is a poor conductor of heat.
(01 Mar 1998)
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Wedding Singers in Somerset
Fantastic Wedding Singers to hire for superb wedding entertainment, parties and corporate events. Choose from soul singers, rat pack singers, opera singers and more. Secure bookings for complete peace of mind with Wow Entertainment Agency
Sort by: Featured | A-Z | Price [Lowest] | Price [Highest]
Showing 1-18 of 18 artists
Jack Parker
Jack is a professional singer with over a decade of experience having performed at over 500 weddings he has a reputation to boot. Now an Internationally requested vocalist, you'll be in good company when booking this extremely affable talent. He creates the perfect balance, setting, tone and atmosphere that can be appreciated by all.
Life and soul
Life and Soul covers a wide range of music from soul, motown, pop, party and jazz. Available as a solo, duo or with live band, Life and Soul is great entertainment for weddings and parties. Wedding Band / Soul Singer / Wedding Singer in London.
Male Vocalist Lee
Male vocalist Lee started performing in 2007 and has travelled around the UK since then, singing in a whole variety of shows, to different audiences. What initially started as a bit of fun at a couple of Open Mic events- quickly developed into the passion for captivating an audience that has now become his life!
Motown Singer
A classy, high-energy, solo show that spotlights some of Motown's best-loved material. Featuring all time greats from favourite Motown artists such as Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Temptations and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. Tribute Act / Motown Singer in London.
Mr Valentine
Mr Valentine is a highly experienced entertainer who has performed at the highest level. Offering a complete package of 2 x sets plus a DJ service for the night he offers unbeatable value with great entertainment. Rat Pack Singers / Wedding Singer in Hampshire
Powerful performances from this experienced young vocalist performing from a diverse repertoire which includes soul, motown, party and easy listening songs. Perfect for weddings and parties throughout the UK. Cabaret Singer / Wedding Singer in Yorkshire.
The Swing Star
The Swing Star is a much sought after jazz singer and one of the coolest kid on the block. Stunning vocal tributes to Sinatra, Dean Martin, The Rat Pack & Michael Buble as a solo singer or with a 3 - 18 piece live band. Jazz Singer / Swing Singer / Rat Pack Singer


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Metal Beyblade 2: Big Bang Bladers (Korea)
Rom number: 5779
Rom: Metal Beyblade 2: Big Bang Bladers Rom
File Details: Metal_Beyblade_2_Big_Bang_Bladers_KOR_NDS-LameFuck lamefuck-brzk.rar
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Credit: NikitaDS
Please do comment if this game works for you and include your firmware to help other users. It only takes 10 seconds. P.S We recommend Wood r4, better than most firmwares.
Note: Copy any of the above Metal Beyblade 2: Big Bang Bladers (Korea) rom download links and paste it into your browser to download.
If the file is in .nd5 format, rename it to .nds
Direct Link to NDS-KOR
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Ancestry.com has announced that their autosomal DNA Test, previously available only to members of Ancestry's search site, is now available to all US residents.
Read the press release:
(PROVO, Utah) – February 21, 2013–Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family history resource, today announced the public availability of its AncestryDNA test to U.S. residents. This easy-to-use, comprehensive test provides consumers with their genetic ethnicity and the unique opportunity to connect DNA results directly to any applicable Ancestry.com family trees, matching test takers with other close or distant family members. Combined, these features provide the most complete snapshot of one's family history that has ever been available.
Interest in using DNA to explore family history is growing. In a 2012 Harris Interactive survey, 56 percent of Americans—more than 110 million people—stated they would be interested in taking a DNA genealogy test. This number is 14 percent higher than the previous year. For many, this interest in family history extends far beyond American soil. Nearly two out of three respondents told Harris that learning about their family's roots outside the U.S. is one of the most important benefits of researching family history.
AncestryDNA picks up where the paper trail leaves off. Whereas older consumer DNA tests utilized only 46 DNA markers, this new test analyzes more than 700,000 DNA marker locations and cross-references them with its one-of-a-kind comprehensive worldwide catalogue of DNA samples. The combination of an individual's DNA with more than 40 million family trees and 11 billion records on Ancestry.com can help people find specific ancestors as far back as the mid-17th century by connecting with living relatives. Additionally, AncestryDNA gives people their ethnic breakdown by percentage from 20 populations including the British Isles or Native American—automatically tracing their ethnicity and displaying the results in an interactive and simple way.
"AncestryDNA provides consumers with exciting insights into their ethnic background and helps them find relatives who may hold the keys to exciting new family history discoveries," said Tim Sullivan, President and CEO of Ancestry.com. "As a company, we are committed to helping people connect with their past and we are excited to be able to offer a unique, affordable, and easy way for people to learn even more about their personal history."
AncestryDNA helps determine geographic and ethnic origins by comparing test-takers' unique DNA signatures to the DNA of people from across the globe. In the initial beta release, users were matched with a significant number of living relatives, and more than two million fourth-cousin DNA matches have been found for customers potentially sharing an ancestor in the database. As more people take the test, the database will continue to grow, providing a richer experience and more clues. People who have already taken the test receive regular updates with the latest findings. Because these results include the users' ethnicities, they may produce surprising findings that provide additional curiosities for future research. Since the launch, 7.7 million ancestors are now available to discover through family trees linked to DNA results.
"We believe that the cutting edge of DNA technology used in AncestryDNA will revolutionize the entire family history experience," said Ken Chahine, Senior Vice President and General Manager of AncestryDNA. "We have already seen huge success with our beta launch as users discover new clues and living relatives passed down through DNA. As more people take the test, we look forward to seeing even greater results and more family history connections."
Find out where you come from with an AncestryDNA test. You can learn even more about your family history by visiting Ancestry.com and signing up for a free 14-day trial.
Pricing and Availability
AncestryDNA is now available and tests start at $129 for Ancestry.com subscribers. Learn more at www.ancestrydna.com.
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. is the world's largest online family history resource, with approximately 2 million paying subscribers. More than 11 billion records have been added to the site in the past 16 years. Ancestry users have created more than 44 million family trees containing more than 4 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site www.ancestry.com, Ancestry.com offers several localized websites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.
About Ancestry.com DNA, LLC
Ancestry.com DNA, LLC is a subsidiary of Ancestry.com Inc. AncestryDNA uses a simple test to analyze an individual's DNA. AncestryDNA offers the potential of identifying new insights into people's ancient ancestry to help them collaborate with distant cousins and make even more discoveries in their family history. For more information visit www.ancestrydna.com.


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- http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/18/html/Installation_Guide/
- http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2013/fedora-18-install-guide/
This video shows you how to dual boot Fedora
The installer isn't as crisp as the Ubuntu installer but if you read the documentation and/or follow the examples other people have kindly left then it is quite a simple process.
I think the biggest problem people have when moving to Linux is the partitioning. Once you have mastered partitioning the rest is actually very simple.
The main problem for Windows users coming to Linux is that Windows doesn't care whether you have other operating systems or not. It wants to be the one and only operating system and so it will try and eat all resources available.
Linux is much more accommodating but to be accommodating it has to know where to put things so as not to overwrite what you already have.
Some Linux distributions try and make it easy for you. (Ubuntu for example). They give you options such as replace entire operating system or install alongside existing operating system. Whilst at the beginning this sounds great it actually takes the control away from you.
For instance when installing alongside Windows, Ubuntu will take the rest of the disk and create its own partitions. Now all your programs and documents will live in the same partition.
Fedora, Debian and other Linux operating systems give as much help as possible to guide you through partitioning but they really leave the control in your own hands. The documentation is there to help you with suggested configurations but at the end of the day it is your choice how to partition.
With the exception of partitioning the rest of the install is just as easy in Fedora as it is in any other Linux distribution.
First Impressions
KDE is great if you like widgets and you like stuff on your desktop. It is basically really for people who like to customise their experience.
Unity and Gnome are the opposite. Whilst you can do basic things like changing the desktop wallpaper, the rest of the desktop is fairly static.
The reason I prefer Gnome is that Unity has that bar down the left hand side which takes up real estate. Gnome provides a really clean desktop.
With Gnome you have a bar across the top. On the left is an activities menu and then a clock in the centre and on the right system icons for accessibility, sound, networking, battery and then user options.
You can pull up the activities menu by clicking with the mouse or by pressing the "Super" key which unfortunately on most computers still looks like a Windows icon.
The picture above shows you what you will see when you bring up the activities menu. You can now either click on an icon on the favourites bar which is down the left hand side or start typing. In the screenshot above I started typing "screenshot" and the relevant applications were shown on the screen.
On the right hand side of the screen is a list of open applications.
People have various issues with the way Gnome 3 works such as for instance the lack of a minimise and maximise button on the screen. The reason for no minimise button is that when you minimise the program normally goes into the taskbar but in Gnome it doesn't. The only program in the taskbar at the top is the currently active program. If you minimise a program the only way to get it back is to alt-tab into it or to open the Activities menu and choose the application on the right hand side of the screen. This means minimise isn't really minimising, it is hiding.
Personally I find Gnome very intuitive and easy to use. For a quick cheat sheet visit https://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/CheatSheet. It takes a little while for people who use traditional desktops to get up to speed but after a while you will find it second nature and it really works very very well.
Changing the desktop wallpaper
To change the desktop wallpaper click the "super" key and start typing "desktop". An option will appear for background which when clicked will enable you to choose from a set of stock photos.
There is quite a nice set of wallpapers available but I always like to go for one I find on the internet. An alternative way to set wallpaper is to find the image you like online, download it to a folder and then open the file in shotwell. You can then choose to set the image as the desktop background.
Connecting to the internet
Fedora like all modern Linux distributions makes it easy to connect to the internet. Just click the network icon in the top right hand corner and a list of wireless devices is available.
Both my home broadband and mobile broadband networks were found straight away. All I had to do was click on the network and enter the security key and I was connected to the internet.
Flash and MP3
Fedora is all about freedom and neither Flash nor MP3s fall into that category.
So what are the options? Well I normally in these occasions go searching for the quick fix of going to Google and searching for the answer.
As this is Fedora however I wanted to investigate the free options on offer to see if we can truly work without proprietary software.
Firstly there is the Flash issue. If you look in the Package Manager there is an option for Gnash, which is an open source Flash player. Gnash includes a FireFox add-in which is handy because the default browser in Fedora is FireFox.
I decided to try Gnash out and to see if it worked I went to Youtube and unfortunately the image below says it all.
I didn't have much success. None of the videos would play. I therefore decided to try another Flash site called Miniclip which has online Flash games to see if the problem was isolated to Youtube. Unfortunately none of the games could be played.
I read the Fedora documentation at this point (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flash).
With regards to Youtube, the Fedora documentation makes the suggestion to sign up for WebM support and after doing this I was able to watch a good selection of Videos. Not all of them worked but the majority did.
I could not find a way to get the games on Miniclip to play. I therefore bit the bullet and installed Flash.
The truth is HTML 5 will take over at some point and the reliance on Flash will become less and less but Flash will be around for quite some time yet. I have tried Gnash more than once in the past and it doesn't seem to improve. (Unless I am doing something wrong).
At the moment Flash is still one of those things that is used often enough on websites to make it a necessity.
Moving on to MP3s. Now the free compressed music format is OGG Vorbis.
In order to realistically use OGG Vorbis regularly I need a few things. Firstly I need my personal music device to be able to support OGG. Now whilst my current player doesn't support OGG there are a good selection of players available that do.
- Aisleriot solitaire
- Freecell solitaire
- Document viewer
- Image viewer
- Shotwell
- LibreOffice Draw
- Boxes – Virtual Machines
- Firefox – Web Browser
- Empathy – Mail Client
- Remote Desktop
- Transmission – BitTorrent
- LibreOffice
- Cheese – Webcam
- Brasero – Disk burning
- Rhythmbox – Audio
- Videos – Video player


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Mike6 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 73 diseños de 18 diseñadores freelance.
Activated Networks
We power social media campaigns that turn fans into passionate evangelists on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, FourSquare and MySpace. Our campaigns increase buzz, increase followers and increase traffic for major brands, with measurable results viewable in our social analytics dashboard.
We have invented this category by thinking ahead of the market and working with the right partners at key media companies.
We deliver more than just social media marketing. We deliver Innovation, Quality and Results.
Our customers tend to be marketing professionals at media companies or brand/media/advertising agencies. Our customers are looking to drive results using the most innovative social media marketing techniques and technologies.
Job titles of the people who hire us include: EVP, SVP, VP of Marketing, or Director of Marketing at Media companies, Film Companies, Music labels, and Major Brands and their agencies. The list also includes newer titles such as "Social Media Director" and "Digital Marketing Director".
A customer in our market might say something like, "I am seeing more and more traffic come from Twitter and Facebook and less from Search and other methods. All the users are on Facebook and Twitter and everyone wants to harness these new sites but does not know how. How can I leverage all these social networks to get traffic and buzz and look good at my company?"
We are looking for a logo to represent our new name, "Activated Networks"
Our old name is Thingfo, you can see the site and learn about us here: http://www.thingfo.com
We are re-naming to make our corporate name fit what we do: activate networks of fans online, to evangelize their favorite tv shows, movies, products and brands.
Here are a few things to think about:
1. We like the smooth, polished look here at our placeholder URL: http://www.activatednetworks.com
2. Enterprise Software + Web2.0 innovation. We want our logo to be strong yet convey that we are innovative and new.
3. The typeface should be clear, simple and bold. We want something that stands out. Again being careful not to be too fancy.
4. We need to be able to have a small version of the logo, for "powered by Activated Networks" which we put in the footer of our apps.
5. We prefer if an official font used for the logo is available at TypeKit
Here is an example of a logo that we like:
http://linkedin -- nice and simple
Please feel free to experiment with colors, we like that Apple-style polished chrome look but are open. We want to apply the new logo and color scheme to our website.
The files we will require are:
Print file format - .ai (CMYK)
Web file format - .png and layered .psd (RGB)
Please do not use any stock images or clip art in the logo
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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ISLAMABAD—Police on Monday found and defused a bomb planted under the car of a prominent Pakistani TV anchor threatened by the Taliban for his coverage of a schoolgirl shot by the militants, police said.
The bomb was made up of half a kilogram of explosives stuffed in a tin can, said Bani Amin, the police chief in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, where the incident occurred. It was placed in a bag and attached to the bottom of Hamid Mir's car, said Amin.
One of Mir's neighbours noticed the bomb under the car after the TV anchor returned from a local market, and the police were notified, said Rana Jawad, a senior official at Geo TV.
No group has claimed responsibility.
The Pakistani Taliban threatened Mir and other journalists last month over their coverage of an assassination attempt against Malala Yousufzai, a 15-year-old schoolgirl activist who was shot in the head by the militants in the northwest Swat Valley.
The Taliban targeted Malala for criticizing the militant group and promoting secular girls' education, which is opposed by the Islamist extremists. She is recovering in Britain.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik offered 50 million rupees ($500,000) for information about those responsible for the attempted attack against Mir.
The anchor said on TV after the incident that it would not deter him from speaking the truth.
"It was proven today that the Protector is more powerful than the attacker," said Mir.
He said he wasn't prepared to blame the Taliban for the attempted bombing, claiming he had received threats from others as well.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, a bomb hidden in a cement construction block exploded in the southern city of Karachi, killing one person, said senior police officer Farooq Awan. Four other people were wounded, he said.
The bomb contained about one kilogram of explosives and was detonated by a mobile phone, Awan said.
Pakistan suspended mobile phone service throughout most of the country on Saturday and Sunday to prevent attacks against Shiite Muslims during a major religious commemoration.
Despite the ban, a pair of bombings over the weekend killed at least 13 people.
Awan said he suspected the bomb in Karachi was meant to target Shiites over the weekend, but militants were not able to detonate it at the time because of the mobile phone cutoff.
Shiites are observing the holy month of Muharram. Pakistani Shiites on Sunday marked Ashoura, the most important day of the month.
Pakistan has a long history of Sunni Muslim extremists targeting Shiites, whom they consider heretics.
Also Monday, police said 16 addicts have died in the eastern city of Lahore after drinking cough syrup suspected of being toxic, said police officer Multan Khan.
Khan said they died at various hospitals in Lahore over the past three days. Two people were still being treated at the city's main hospital.
Police arrested the owners of three drug stores where the cough syrup was sold and sent a sample for analysis to determine whether it was toxic, Khan said.


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CAN solutions drive onto plant floor
Semiconductor technologies and strategies are helping implement the Controller Area Network protocol in industrial applications, fueling the demand for integrated industrial CAN semiconductor devices.
LONG ESTABLISHED and widely used in automotive applications, the Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol is steadily growing in industrial settings as a means to connect servos, sensors, controllers, and other machine control and automation devices. As a result, engineers are seeking to improve CANs performance and implementation in industrial networks, which is fueling demand for integrated industrial CAN semiconductor devices.
While most network specifiers in our reader industries wont work at the semiconductor device level, it will be useful to have a look at chip-level architectures to gain some understanding of how those design decisions effect network performance.
CAN originally was developed in the 1980s to provide multiplexed serial bus communications in vehicles. Its aim was to improve functionality and simplify, reduce, and lighten complex data wiring in automotive electronics.
Now designated as international standard ISO 11898, CAN is based on a mechanism that identifies transmitted messages purely by content rather than by the node address of the transmitting or receiving device, which is the case with most other bus systems. Consequently, all nodes on a network receive and evaluate messages based on relevance and priority, and act or discard them as needed. Messages can be targeted to specific nodes or sent to many nodes. This content-orientated addressing provides more system and configuration flexibility, allowing CAN nodes to be added quickly and easily to existing networks without adding hardware or modifying software.
CANs flexibility, ease of use, and reliability, combined with its cost-effective, wire-reducing capabilities, have increased its industrial popularity in recent years. AMI Semiconductor estimates that up to 20% of worldwide CAN implementations presently occur in the industrial sector. Applications using CAN include factory automation, warehousing, and building control. CAN networks also are used to connect systems, such as textile machines, printers, conveyors, ovens and refrigeration units.
Likewise, two higher-layer, CAN-based protocols, CANopen and DeviceNet, often are used in industrial automation. Historically, DeviceNet is employed more in North America. CANopen is successful in European automation and motion control networks, mostly in public transport, building automation, maritime electronics, and medical equipment applications, according to CAN in Automation (CiA), an international user and manufacturer association that develops and standardizes CANopen-based device and application profiles.
Naturally, there are some key differences between automotive and industrial environments, which industrial designers need to consider when selecting and implementing CAN technology. Many non-safety-related automotive applications typically use low-data-rate CAN specifications of less than 500 kbps, rather than the faster 1 Mbps needed for many industrial designs. Also, CAN hardware used on the plant floor obviously must handle longer cable lengths than wiring in vehicles, though data rates slow as distance increases.
Cable Lengths Affect CAN
Communications Speed
Run Length (meters)
Signal Rate (kbps)
The physical layer is one of the most critical components of a CAN network because its essential to delivering robust performance. In industrial applications, the physical layer typically will be the high-speed version defined by the ISO 11898-2 standard, which runs at up to 1 Mbps. This standard defines medium access unit (MAU) functions and some medium-dependant interface (MDI) features. To implement physical layer functions, CAN transceiver circuitry that combines connection to the two-wire bus with physical layer capabilities is required.
In recent years, this circuitry has been integrated into single ICs to minimize component count and simplify manufacture. Several major companies manufacture these devices, including Texas Instruments, Infinion, Phillips, Microchip, and AMIS. Figure 1 below shows a block diagram of the AMIS-30660 conformance-tested, Vd1.1-certified, ISO 11898-2-compliant, high-speed CAN transceiver device. Supplied in an SO-8 package, this ICs single-chip solution provides differential transmit capability to the physical CAN bus and differential receive capability to the CAN protocol controller, and provides high levels of protection against the transients found in industrial environments.
A block diagram of this Vd1.1-certified, ISO 11898-2-compliant, high-speed CAN transceiver device shows how an IC single-chip solution can provide differential transmit capability to the physical CAN bus and differential receive capability to the CAN protocol controller.
These newer CAN devices offer advantages over conventional off-the-shelf transceiver ICs, especially in protecting against electromagnetic susceptibility (EMS), electromagnetic emissions (EME) and electrostatic discharge (ESD). High-frequency energy exposures due to long cables can hinder CAN transceivers or halt their bus communications completely in severe cases. As a differential bus, CAN already is low-noise with respect to EME. These emissions are generated whenever digital logic is switched from one state to another, such as when signals are sent via I/O pins or when drivers are turned on or off.
Differential signaling, on which CAN is based, reduces noise coupling, which makes high signaling rates over twisted-pair cable possible. The optimum CAN transceiver is implemented so that current flowing in each signal line is equal but opposite in direction, resulting in a field-canceling effect that is a key to low noise emissions. Certain chip-level design techniques, if implemented correctly, will keep EME at a minimum. Some of these techniques are asynchronous switching of on-chip logic, applying slope control to reduce edges on switched signals, and matching phase and impedance of power drivers closely.
Electromagnetic immunity (EMI) also must be considered when selecting a CAN transceiver. Well-designed CAN transceiver chips are implemented in a symmetrical layout with matched timing of signal transmission at 180º offset, while keeping chip internal impedances at a minimum.
In addition, CAN chips are designed for robust common-mode rejection (CMR). The cause for common-mode rejection noise is the difference in the potential between grounds of sending and receiving nodes on the CAN. This noise can be picked up from fluorescent lights or switching power equipment such as power supplies and motors. Most available CAN transceivers feature a common-mode rejection range slightly above the required 2 V to +7 V for receiver inputs.
By implementing these design techniques, chip manufacturers can simplify implementation of CANs physical layer functionality by eliminating the need for a common-mode choke, which makes layouts less complex and reduces bill of materials. From the ESD perspective, the high-voltage semiconductor technology employed ensures a failure voltage in excess of 4 kV.
Careful design of CAN transceivers can ensure that the bus remains undisturbed if an unpowered device is connected to the bus network, while the use of built-in protection functions can guard against over-temperature and short-circuit conditions. A thermal protection circuit can trigger transmitter shutdown when junction temperatures exceed 160 ºC, while ensuring that all other IC functions continue to operate. Such protection is particularly applicable to conditions caused by a bus line short-circuiting. Using a built-in current-limiting circuit protects the transmitter output stage from damage caused by accidental short-circuit to either positive or negative supply voltage. Further protection can be provided in the form of a transmit data (TXD) dominant time-out function that prevents bus lines from being driven to a permanent dominant state; a problem that can result in the blocking of all network communication.
The availability of high-voltage, mixed-signal semiconductor technologies also allows engineers to achieve higher levels of system integration, and help them create true system on chip (SoC) ASIC solutions. For example, CAN transceiver and controller functionality can be combined in one IC to further reduce component count of CAN nodes. Higher-level integration also means that overall circuit size can be reduced, which increases space savings and opens up new possibilities that can include integrating CAN transceivers and control functionality directly into a sensor interface, actuator or motor, or adding new functions and performance without sacrificing existing board space.F
ISO 11898 standard specifications are based on a 40 m bus length with 0.3 m for stubs. This distance can be extended with a well-designed CAN transceiver. In fact, two buses can be connected by inserting AMIS-42700 one-chip CAN repeater between CAN-L and CAN-H lines. The chip has two CAN receivers and transmitters, protocol handler, and feedback suppression integrated. This one-chip CAN repeater allows designers of CAN networks simply to extend bus lengths, and allows development of a simple node for connect-disconnect applications.
The importance of integrated, miniaturized CAN interfaces is increasingly important as sensor geometries become ever smaller to fit into new applications. The added benefit of combining a CAN transceiver and controller on one chip is increased reliability, less required testing, and reducing complex component counts from two to one.
Finally, its worth noting that CANs foundation in the automotive arena gives industrial designers access to many robust and proven third-party tools and services that can support and speed development of CAN-based applications. These include tools for logically describing and configuring CAN networks at a high abstraction level, tools and services for standardizing of diagnostic data and interfaces, target code that can be used to implement a single application programming interface (API), and measurement and calibration tools and processes.
On the Physical Layer
CiA REPORTS THAT CAN defines the data-link layer and part of the physical layer in the seven-layer OSI model. ISOs standard also incorporates CANs specifications and part of physical layer, in this case, the physical signaling that includes bit encoding and decoding, or Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ), as well as bit timing and synchronization. In the chosen NRZ bit coding, the signal level remains constant over the bit time, and just one time slot is required for the representation of a bit. The signal level can remain constant over a longer period, so measures must be taken to ensure that the maximum permissible interval between two signal edges is not exceeded. This is important for synchronization purposes. Bit stuffing is applied by inserting a complementary bit after five bits of equal value, and the receiver has to un-stuff the stuff-bits, so the original data content is processed.
On the bit-level, which is OSIs level one/physical layer, CiA says CAN uses synchronous bit transmission. This enhances transmitting capacity, but also means that a sophisticated method of bit synchronization is required. While bit synchronization in a character-oriented transmission (asynchronous) is performed on receipt of the start bit available with each character, a synchronous transmission protocol there is just one start bit available at the beginning of a frame. To enable the receiver to correctly read the messages, continuous resynchronization is required. Phase buffer segments are therefore inserted before and after the nominal sample point within a bit interval (See Figure below).
To enable the CAN receiver to correctly read the messages, continuous resynchronization is required, so phase buffer segments are inserted before and after the nominal sample point within a bit interval. For synchronization purposes, a propagation delay segment is needed, in addition to the phase buffer segment time reserved for synchronization. Source: CAN in Automation
CiA adds that CAN regulates bus access by bit-wise arbitration. The signal propagation from sender to receiver and back to the sender must be completed within one bit-time. For synchronization purposes, a further time segment, the propagation delay segment, is needed in addition to the phase buffer segment time reserved for synchronization. The propagation delay segment takes into account the signal propagation on the bus, as well as signal delays caused by transmitting and receiving nodes. Two types of synchronization are distinguished: hard synchronization at the start of a frame and resynchronization within a frame. After a hard synchronization, the bit time is restarted at the end of the sync segment. Consequently, the edge, which caused the hard synchronization, lies within the sync segment of the restarted bit time. Resynchronization shortens or lengthens the bit time, so the sample point is shifted according to the detected edge.
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Monday, November 25, 2013
Verrazano's Odd-yssey
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, November, 25, 20`3--In trying to buff a shine on the weeks following the Breeders' Cup, perhaps a logical way of assessing these end times of 2013 is to neither call it an epilogue, nor coda, but more of a stud's last stand. Let's call it The Verrazano Redemption.
The Cigar Mile looks as fun and interesting as any race on the entire 2013 calendar. Shame it's after the Breeders' Cup, but that's a shame and an advantage these days. A shame because a race of this magnitude deserves better billing in the playoff picture leading up to the BC. An advantage because, despite running four weeks after the Super Bowl of Horse Racing, it provides a well-attended field to an otherwise time of year when you may ask why-should-I-even-watch-horse-racing-at-this-time-of-year?
For a casual fan, not many will care. For racing media, numbered as it is, it's some extra log for the fire. For owners, it's one last stab at proving their horse is worth selling out. This is Verrazano's Last Stand.
Sadly for him it'll be like Custer,s Last Stand, so aptly sketched by Gary Larson, creator of Far Side.
Verrazano is and will always be a two-turn fraud. He's big. He's imposing. But he's also like a flashy wide receiver who only runs deep posts, won't run over the middle and dogs it when it matters (no horse truly "dogs" it; it's what I love about horses, that they always run their hardest).
This is a race for black type and Verrazano needs it more than anyone in this field. Verrazano fit the Todd Pletcher Profile of Three-Year-Olds. He was precocious and unbeaten—and un-raced—heading into his sophomore year.
This last note, to me, is the stamp Pletcher wants to have on his legacy, that he can win a Derby with a horse that didn't race at two. The Sheiks want to win a Derby training their way in Dubai, then ship. Pletcher's mentor, Wayne Lukas, changed horse racing forever by shipping his horses all over the country. Pletcher must be looking for his stamp and trying to win a Derby with horses debuting at three may be his. It's never happened.
Verrazano won his maiden special weight on New Year's Day. A month later he won an allowance and in start No. 3 he won the Tampa Bay Derby. He handled the Wood Memorial too, where he circumvented a very slow pace. All Verrazano did was win horse races—and lure horse players into taking their money.
Looking back, given his precocity, the owners must be thinking they could've done something special with him as a two-year-old, maybe banked a couple million with a Champagne, a Juvy, maybe even a Remsen since he would like Aqueduct enough. But we don't choose these things; they choose us.
Verrazano was 4-0 heading into the Derby. He had those fresh legs that only a horse that hadn't run at two can boast. Then he finished 16th.
Then we didn't see him for a while. The Derby was his Iliad; he was lost, beaten, separated from his herd, captured by seductive nymphs. Seriously, how did the Greeks lose? What with Achilles and all? (Is Pletcher Achilles? All powerful, but with one weakness: An immense and ungodly amount of sensitivity located specifically below his soleus and above his heal?)
How would Verrazano come back from it? Where would his odyssey take him? He found micro-tests in Monmouth where he meddled with a cast of creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, blinding him, but in so doing pissing off Poseidon (10 furlong races?) who then destroyed his ship (any chance at an Eclipse?).
A win in the Cigar Mile may be a small triumph over Calyspo (Groupie Doll?), in a race home (Kentucky?) to Penelope (mare, after mare, after mare?).
Here we were knockin' on Verrazano. He's had it figured out from Day 1.
Written by Brendan O'Meara


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BERKELEY — Two suspects accused in the killing of the "Noteman" robber, whose literate holdup notes were his trademark in East Bay robberies 20 years ago, have been charged with murder with special circumstances that could lead to the death penalty.
Berkeley residents Michael Diggs, 28, and Kneitawnye Sessoms, 40, were charged Thursday in connection with their arrest in the slaying of 54-year-old Sylvan Fuselier in February. Fuselier was found dead Feb. 28 at his apartment in the 1100 block of Addison Street after police were asked by a friend to do a welfare check on him.
Sessoms was arrested Tuesday, and Diggs has been in custody since being arrested for a parole violation on March 12.
Fuselier was a suspect in 16 commercial robberies between 1994 and 1996, mostly in Berkeley and Oakland, when a robber left literate, even humorous, holdup notes that led to the "Noteman" nickname, according to Oakland Tribune archives.
Fuselier never brandished a gun during his robberies and tried to avoid confrontation at all costs, according to police at the time. He was later convicted of second-degree robbery for one of the heists and was discharged from prison after serving an undisclosed sentence in May 2004, according to records from the California Department of Corrections. Fuselier was busted after leaving fingerprints on a book he brought to a cash register while he allegedly tried to rob a Barnes & Noble bookstore in 1996.
Police have not revealed how Fuselier may have known Diggs and Sessoms.
The special circumstances were included in the charges because the killing came while Diggs and Sessoms were allegedly committing a robbery and/or burglary, court documents said.
Both were to be arraigned Thursday and were being held without bail.
According to an affidavit by Berkeley police Sgt. Peter Hong, Diggs admitted to killing Fuselier with two sharp instruments. Diggs and Sessoms were seen in surveillance video entering the apartment with Fuselier on Feb. 21. On Feb. 22, Sessoms was seen on tape leaving the apartment and wiping off the door as she left.
Police arrested Diggs on suspicion of possessing burglary tools and parole violation on March 12. Investigators later found property belonging to Fuselier during a search of Diggs' apartment authorized by a warrant.
Sessoms, reportedly Diggs' girlfriend, later admitted she was the woman leaving the apartment, Hong wrote in the affidavit.
Diggs was convicted of felony carjacking in 2006 and served an undisclosed prison term.
The arrests of Diggs and Sessoms has brought back attention to Fuselier's string of robberies in Alameda County two decades ago.
Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4789, and follow him at Twitter.com/3rderh.


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corroded wort cooler
Buying, building and using brewing equipment and apparatus. Product reviews and questions.
Moderator: slothrob
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
corroded wort cooler
The last time I used my wart chiller I made the mistake of leaving it in a weak bleach cleaning solution overnight. When I found it the next day the bleach had corroded a few small spots just through the outer skin of the copper. Can I still use it or is it time to buy a new one?
- cubangoose
- Light Lager
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:57 pm
Corroded Copper
I am not sure I have a clear answer for you because without seeing the chiller it is hard to say whether or not I would use it. I have read however that lemon juice can be used in cleaning corroded copper (I have never done this and am uncertain of the results). There are also other chemical products that can be used for removing copper corrosion (I don't know their names). If you were able to clean off the corrosion and it wasn't much to begin with I would not worry so much about using it. Although if the corrosion remains even after cleaning I would replace it. Here is a link to an article that addresses the use of copper in brewing as well as cleaning copper and may help you to make your decision:
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/librar ... iller.html
Hope this was helpful.
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/librar ... iller.html
Hope this was helpful.
- Pale Ale
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It's that time of year again! Below are my personal favorite albums of 2013. This year the list fell together fairly easily – due both to the excellence of the following albums and the lackluster nature of their competition. Though I'm shocked by my #1 album, which only recently knocked two other favorites from the top spot. The top three are really interchangeable, they are far too brilliant and too different from each other to truly rank. But I've been playing my #1 album on almost continuous repeat for the past three months, so it's undeniably my favorite of the moment.
Click on the album titles to read the full reviews, purchase the albums, and, in some cases, watch videos and/or download mp3s. And please feel free to comment with your own favorite albums (or songs) of the year.
*Honorable mention to Sara Bareilles' The Blessed Unrest, which I only heard for the first time this week – long after having compiled and scheduled my Top Albums list. It's impossible now to choose anyone to cut just to make room for Sara, but it's a good album nonetheless.
Muruch's Top 25 Albums of 2013
25. Rusty Belle: Common Courtesy
"…their multi-genre, multi-instrumental style runs the gamut from Americana and folk to rock, soul and blues…bluesy, sparse, soul-rock…delicious shades of Nick Cave"
24. Ian McFeron: Time Will Take You
"…What a delight this little folk-rock gem is!…produces the same immediate reaction of refreshment and affection as Adams' Gold – though there's more of a classic country-folk swagger."
23. Valerie June: Pushin' Against a Stone
"…unlike anything you've ever heard before…acoustic blues masterpiece swiftly carried along by Valerie's distintive voice… exquisite marriage of a low-fi folk melody and sweet, plucky bluegrass instrumentation…grinding, funky blues-rock sound associated with bands like The Black Keys and Alabama Shakes, but Valerie's voice and phrasing give it a soulful, gospel-folk spin"
22. Steve Martin & Edie Brickell: Love Has Come For You
"…Comedian turned bluegrass musician Steve Martin and singer Edie Brickell have joined forces…what a delight their collaboration turned out to be! Martin's deft, delicate banjo playing is the perfect complement for Brickell's gentle, melodious voice. "
21. Black City Lights: Another Life
"…a sexy and very moody collection. At times the band's dark, trippy electro-pop style sounds like a mix of Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Julee Cruise, Lacuna Coil and MS MR."
20. One Mile An Hour
"…brilliant, self-produced, self-titled debut album, which they accurately call a "complex, introverted outsider-folk record"…airy, panoramic, beautiful, unusual folk music…swirling, psychedelic folk guitar riffs, slightly raspy and softly plaintive vocals. A bit of Ray LaMontagne, a little Elliot Smith, even hints of Jeff Buckley and Pink Floyd and something totally Other – a ghostly, intangible mood. This is why I love music, why I love writing about music. This is inspiration"
19. Varous Artists: Variations on Chopin
"…puts an ambient and electro-pop spin on Chopin's classical melodies…magnificent, mindblowingly lovely…not your standard classical album…absolutely fantastic"
"…one of those albums I love more intensely with each listen…pure, old school American rock that often reminds me of classic Foreigner, maybe a bit of Scorpions or even Cinderella…big, theatrical voice of lead singer, Jimmy Gnecco, should also appeal to Muse fans"
Ours – Pretty Pain (mp3)*
17. Ruth Moody: These Wilder Things
"…The Wailin' Jennys are spawning some excellent solo albums…Moody's angelic, lilting soprano tangles with pop-polished bluegrass and folk. "
16. Ivan & Alyosha: All The Times We Had
"…comparison to The Lumineers is still fairly accurate. The two bands definitely share a certain multi-instrumental, melodic sensibility, but Ivan & Alyosha's music is distinctively different enough to stand on its own merit…as lovely, comforting and encouraging as an old friend…somewhere between Ryan Adams and The Low Anthem"
15. Melissa Ferrick: The Truth Is
"…absolutely outstanding…instrumentation is gorgeous, lush and elegantly Southern..phenomenal, thought-provoking"
14. Rykarda Parasol: Against the Sun
"…gives her signature noirish rock sound a modern polish without compromising its dark, artistic integrity…Rykarda uses her voice as much as any instrument: haunting moans and surprising ooh la la's…echoing yelps…melodic whistles…and Mamas & Papas harmonies…the kind of richly layered album that immediately mesmerizes and still gets even better with each listen"
13. Molly Drake
"…Nick Drake's mother. Molly was a very talented poet, composer, singer and pianist whose music obviously had a strong influence on her son's work. Sadly, Molly's exquisite music was mostly a family secret during her life and is only now being released to the public…the entire album features Molly Drake's unusually pretty soprano and piano in a lilting, old-fashioned parlour style of music. Her lyrics, however, delve into the same kind of elegant, poetic, somewhat melancholy introspection that her son would eventually explore"
12. Brooke Waggoner: Originator
"…an extraordinary collection…a beautiful, brilliant and absolutely enchanting album…thunderous piano crashes layered over bombastic horns and choral voices"
11. Bing Satellites
I'm bending the rules here a bit, as Bing Satellites has released too many albums this year to narrow down to one and the ambient nature of his music makes it difficult to differentiate one track from another. I especially like his latest release, King Midas in Reverse, and Twilight Sessions: Volume 11. We at the Muruch household have a giant Bing Satellites mp3 playlist that is on almost daily rotation. Bing's music is the perfect soundtrack for reading and relaxation.
10. Allison Crowe: Heavy Graces
"…what a lush piece of work…a touch of Celtic folk in the instrumentation, haunting backing vocals and a slow building, seething tension until Allison unleashes her wail…I predict we'll be seeing Allison Crowe not once but twice on our best of the year list."
"…a multi-instrumental, multi-genre sound that encompasses the atmospheric, high energy electro-pop of Butterfly Boucher, the folk revival instrumentation of Mumford & Sons and a dash of Hannah Fury's Gothic, antiquarian sensibility"
8. Janelle Monáe: The Electric Lady
"…as interesting, diverse and addictive as we've come to expect from Janelle and finds her collaborating with Prince, Erykah Badu, Solange, Miguel and Esperanza Spalding…artistic attention to detail combined with a gorgeous voice, a flare both for the dramatic as well as the funky and a science fiction churning imagination continue to put Janelle Monáe into a category all her own: Cyber-Soul"
7. Elton John: The Diving Board
"…finds Elton John making a welcome return to his musical roots with a basic piano-bass-drums set-up and features some of his finest piano playing in the past four decades…it's a sadly rare album these days with lyrics that actually mean something…The Diving Board already sounds like a classic and is a worthy release for the man behind "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Levon" and "Tiny Dancer.""
"…dramatic, bombastic, sexy, moody and utterly fantastic…falls somewhere between Florence + the Machine's delicious over the top theatrics and Great Northern's haunting melodies with a little extra rhythmic oomph…like Kate Rusby fronting a '90s trip-hop band like Faithless or Morcheeba…basically MS MR are everything I could want in a band…absolutely addictive and will surely be on my best of the year list"
"…will be battling Foxygen for my Top Album of 2013…Hem have all but perfected their "Metropolitan Country" sound and singer Sally Ellyson's voice is truly timeless…a dazzling transcontinental journey — by air and by sea"
4. Trent Dabbs: The Way We Look At Horses
"…a masterful and exquisite song cycle that brilliantly bridges the gap between Elliot Smith's pensive folk-pop and Ryan Adams' rustic alt-country…I'm so happy and relieved to have fallen in love with this album. I can't remember the last time I listened to an entire album repeatedly without skipping at least one track…moody, melodic and magnificent. It's certainly one of the best albums of the year and one whose songs stay with you long after it ends."
3. Foxygen: We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
"…If Foxygen's We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic isn't my #1 of 2013, we have a spectacular year of music ahead of us…the rare album that truly deserves to be called Beatlesque…elements of vintage psychedelic rock, modern indie- and garage rock, a bit o' The Animals, a splash of Elvis, a smidgen of blues and various other experimental feats that defy category. It's unusual, innovative and totally fantastic…a sublime slice of pop perfection."
2. Allison Crowe: Newfoundland Vinyl
"…plays like a lovely, vintage collection of traditional Irish and Canadian folk ballads, lively sea chanteys and drinking songs, parlour songs and country tunes with surprising retro, girl-pop harmonies woven throughout…full of dazzling melody and such a unique charm…Allison's voice is so strong and spectacular, I'm afraid Foxygen has fierce competition here for my favorite album of the year."
"…more than lives up to all the hype…one of those rare song cycles that flows seamlessly from beginning to end and keeps the same level of energy throughout…Lorde's signature blend of heavy, sporadic beats and witty, sardonic lyrics, which are often written from an outsider's point of view in a poetic style."
*all mp3s, streams & videos uploaded by & posted w/ permission of artists, labels and/or their PR reps


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On Wednesday, I shared the landscape plans for our front yard. Today, I thought I'd give you a little peek at what we are working on out back.
I'm pretty excited about this design plan because if all goes well, we will end up with a fireside seating area just to the west of our pool deck by summertime. We began excavating the area right after we moved into the house, thinning the waist high geraniums and thorny shrubs that grew beneath the worlds biggest ficus tree- like ever. Progress continued on into this past Fall with tree and stump removal, which then lead to recent weeks when we finally scaled down 5 inches of dirt in this area. Bringing the foundation down allowed us to work from a space aligned with our pool deck and eliminate water run-off hassles we have dealt with since moving in.
That obstacle aside, we're still working with some specific challenges that call for creative design- particularly because the yard slopes upward to the north and that grade was not formally tiered off it is in other areas backyard. The plan is to repurpose bit of the excavated dirt and create stepped planters along the fence, which will bring plantings level, while compensating for the grade. We'll use pressure treated wood planks to encase tall, golden hued Phormium, chosen because it will play off the dark slate fence and become a sharp backdrop for the rest of the space.
We're replanting a couple of sculptural trees on each end and will lay in some decomposed granite against a wash of grass brought right up to the pool deck for interest and color. Of course, here is also where we will place a large cement fire bowl surrounded by comfy seating. Pie in the sky will be an overstuffed sectional- either purchased or made (volunteers?)
Here's what I'm imagining:
But we still have a lot of work ahead of us. This is what it looks like in it's present state - partially prepped, but lots of dirt still to move out of there. The area looks teeny tiny from this angle, but there is another 3-4 ft beyond the dirt mound that we will be working with.
I threw a "free dirt" listing up on Craigslist and surprisingly, we've had a few takers. Who knew fill dirt was such a hot commodity?
Weather permitting this weekend, maybe we'll have an opportunity to make a little headway on this project. Two months and counting...


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Mayor's Office
Mayors' Records
The records of the Mayor's Office are located in BRG9.
An excellent introduction and guide to this collection is:
- LeFurgy, William G., Susan Wetheimer David, and Richard J. Cox, Governing Baltimore: A Guide to the Records of the Mayor and City Council at the Baltimore City Archives. (Baltimore: Baltimore City Archives and Records Management Office, Department of Legislative Reference, 1981).
Correspondence (Series 2):
Correspondence addressed to the Mayor from the years of 1797-1923 was indexed by the WPA's Historical Records Survey and are located in BRG9-2.
Individual Mayor's Papers:
The City Archives holds:
- folder listings for Mayors' Papers through 1971
- transmittal sheets for papers received subsequently
- a detailed folder level inventory for the Schaefer administration.
Biographies of the Mayors are to be found on the Maryland State Archives's Historical List of Baltimore Mayors. 1797-.
Mayor's Records in the Microfilm Collection
The Security Microfilm Collection of the Baltimore City Archives includes only a small fraction of mayoral records, mostly relating to:
- BRG9-18: Mayor Broening's Correspondence, Index, bca_m0200-201
- BRG9-30: Oath Books 1899-1962 bca_m0365
- BRG9-38: Personnel Appointments, Non-Civil Service, 1952-69 bca_m1588 1969-1986 bca_m5205-5209;bca_m5320-5321


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Francis Ledwidge
Francis Ledwidge (19 August 1887 – 31 July 1917 / Janeville, Slane)
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The mantra of retention is repeated again and again among fitness facility management. Unfortunately, while member retention is a major concern, often staff retention is overlooked. And staff turnover may be one of the contributors to the turnover of members.
One way to help keep staff onboard and happy is to recognize them for their hard work and dedication to the organization and the membership.
"Research shows that for people to keep actively involved in their jobs and your organization [you must] show them recognition as much as possible — at least once a week," says Adrian Gostick, co-author of The 24-Karat Manager, and director, marketing and corporate communications for Salt Lake City, UT-based O.C. Tanner Company, which specializes in helping companies motivate employees through comprehensive recognition solutions.
"While money is always a motivator, there is nothing more important to getting the most out of your employees then spending a few minutes a day to recognize the hard work they do," he says.
While traditional methods of formal recognition, such as Employee of the Month awards, certainly have their place, Gostick says that there is more to recognition than that.
"It is important and not that hard to create your own little personal ways to give employees a 'pat on the back,'" he says. "By asking employees as early as the interview what they would like you to do to show them they are doing a good job, you'll be able to make your recognition programs very personal, targeted and really give them what they want."
Here are some easy, fun and cost-efficient ways to show employees they are valued.
- Remember important days
By remembering days such as birthdays and anniversaries, employees will feel a connection to a boss that truly cares. To take it a step further, give them a present for their children's birthdays and make their family part of your family.
- Volunteer
"Everyone has tasks that they dislike more than others," says Gostick. "By doing that task for an employee, you are not only showing them that you understand, you are showing them that nothing is unimportant." Some suggestions are folding towels, wiping equipment down, mixing smoothies and entering new member information into the computer system.
- Give up something
If you have a parking spot for you, give it to a valued employee for a day or a week. Let someone use your office for meeting a client or a prospect. Even better, give up your free time and work a shift for a valuable employee.
- Take 'em out
Find out what your employees like and play to that. If they like baseball, buy them a couple of tickets to a game for making quota. If it's the opera that they like, get tickets to that. The key here is that not only does it show you value the job they are doing, it shows you know them and their likes.
"It helps employees feel like a person rather than a robot," says Gostick. "The key is to talk with and listen to your employees all year so you know what their interests are. Nothing would backfire more than giving generic tickets to every employee or giving tickets to something they would not like."
- Make work interesting
If someone has shown that they are capable of doing their job, give them an added responsibility or allow them to work on that special project. Having them try their hand at other jobs in the club (i.e., a personal trainer working sales) not only allows them to develop new skills, but it also shows that you think they are up to any task asked.
- Make work fun
There is no rule that work should be unpleasant or that employees should have to wait to be rewarded for working hard everyday.
"KFC has the lowest turnover rate in the fast food industry because it is a fun place to work," Gostick says of one of O.C. Tanner Company's clients. "Among the things that KFC does to make the day more fun for employees is allowing employees to make the most of their day. Employees can start a standing ovation for themselves whenever they need one and they sing songs to each other for birthdays, etc."
The old adage is true: finding good help isn't easy. So when a fitness facility does find someone good, it pays to keep them and keep them happy by showing them that they are appreciated.