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All hotels in Tirana, Albania
1 room, 2 adults
Rruga Kastriotet, 400 M from Casa Italia, Tirana, Albania, 800-491-6126
Prince Hotel, Tirana
Lowest price$41
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3-star hotel in Tirana with restaurant, bar/lounge
- Free WiFi
Main amenities
- 50 guestrooms
- Restaurant and bar/lounge
- Air conditioning
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For families
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- Hair dryer
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- Satellite TV service
What's around
- Tirana Expo Centre (0.4 mi / 0.6 km)
- National Museum of History (3.4 mi / 5.5 km)
- Ministry of Justice (3.5 mi / 5.6 km)
- National Bank of Albania (3.6 mi / 5.7 km)
- Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy (3.6 mi / 5.8 km)
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Prince Hotel, Tirana
Hotel Info: 866-539-8117from $41
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- Economy Double Room Single Use, 1 Queen Bed, Non Smoking
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- This hotel has 50 rooms
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- Government-issued photo ID required
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- No cribs (infant beds)
- Free WiFi in rooms
Nearby Three Star Tirana hotels
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Top Tirana hotels
Recently reviewed hotels in Tirana
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"I´ve stayed at City Hotel Tirana twice now and I have to say that each experience was great! The hotel is clean, comfortable, centrally located on a very nice and green street…"May 25, 2016
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"Very helpful staff and nicely located , friendly, modern facilities"May 8, 2016
- Brilant Antik HotelFrom
"Right in the center if the city, I had a very spacious room, faster wifi than I get in the US, and excellent service. Very clean. It's down a side street but not far from main…"Apr 9, 2016
- Dinasty HotelFrom
"Very friendly hotel with great standard. Kind and helpful staff. Very nice, convenient room. Available parking which is not common in Tirana. Close to the hotel there is great…"Dec 11, 2015
Special features
DiningOnsite venue - This restaurant specializes in Italian cuisine. Guests can enjoy drinks at the bar.
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Havelock Little League: Welcome
Please stop by Verduzco's Wrapz for lunch/dinner which is located in the Westbrook Shopping Plaza. If you go on a Tuesday or Wednesday, mention "Havelock Little League" and they will donate 7% to the league! Check out their Facebook page and give them a "like!"
*Congrats to Desmone's for taking 1st place in the league for the Majors!
*Congrats to Dairy Queen for taking 1st place in the league and 1st place during the Minor s Tournament!
*Congrats to Realini's for taking 1st place in the Majors Tournament!
If you are interested in coaching or volunteering, please fill out the volunteer form by clicking the link below and turn in to a board member: http://www.littleleague.org/Assets/forms_pubs/VolunteerApplication16.pdf
If you are new to Havelock Little League or if you have any questions
feel free to contact us directly:
Dave Bilger - (252)-723-3212 - email@example.com Williams - (252)-259-8792 - firstname.lastname@example.com
Please check back often as we update our website. You can also find our group on Facebook, just search for "Friends of Havelock Little League" and request to join!
The Havelock Little League board meetings are held the 3rd Sunday of every month @ 7:00 pm at the Township District 6 Fire Department (in Carolina Pines.)
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Reese Education Center Principal Farley Reeves remembers his first encounter with the newly graduated 2015 Frenship class.
Frenship initiated a search for its first full-time athletic director Tuesday, according to a news release from the Frenship Independent School District.
An "unmodified opinion" was given to the financial reports of Frenship Independent School District by an auditor during the Board of Trustees meeting Monday. Jeromy Stephens, an accountant with Davis Kinard & Co.
The Frenship Police Department arrested a minor last week following an anonymous gun threat made against the campus on a social media app.
The Tigers began their 2014 season on a bad note and fell to Levelland and Seminole, but have since improved to 13-4 under first-year coach Trent Hilliard.
KELLER - The Frenship boys basketball team defeated Fossil Ridge, 53-43, in its first matchup of the Keller tournament this weekend to spark a four-round tournament run before losing to the host team, 72-42, in the championship.
Q: Taking the team's record into account, what are your thoughts about the season?
A: "I think we started off at the beginning kind of rough.
The city of Wolfforth received a "clean opinion" from auditors at Terry and King CPAs during the City Council meeting Monday evening.
Ryan King of Terry and King CPAs said he believes the city is in a good position.
NEW BRAUNFELS - The Tigers continued their impressive season at the Cougarette Whataburger Classic this weekend and improved their record to 11-4.
With 11 seconds left in regulation, Frenship's Chandler Casey stepped to the free throw line to attempt two shots.
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Ted Cruz raised more than a few eyebrows last week when, barely a week into his presidential run, he proposed a radical plan to strip federal courts of the ability to decide cases involving marriage equality.
As Esquire's Charles Pierce notes, Cruz is echoing a time-honored rallying cry of people who are losing a battle in the federal courts: "Previous attempts include trying to remove the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over cases in a number of instances, including those involving school prayer, school busing, abortion, and pornography."
The strategy has also been used in recent memory by another prominent player in today's marriage equality debate: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.
Back in 2004, shortly after Moore was removed from his first stint in the court after he defied a federal court order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building, he worked with attorney Herb Titus to draft a bill that would have stripped jurisdiction over all such cases from the federal courts.
The bill, which would have barred federal courts from ruling on cases challenging officials who recognized "God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government," never made it out of committee, but it managed to garner 37 cosponsors in the House and five in the Senate; when it was reintroduced the next year, it was up to 50 House cosponsors and nine Senate cosponsors.
Despite the bill's failure to make it off the ground in Congress, it was a publicity boon for Moore. One of Moore's top financial supporters, the Christian nationalist and southern secessionist Michael Peroutka, spent $12,000 on a campaign to drum up support for the measure and accompanied Moore to at least one event touting it along with Peroutka's 2004 campaign for president as the nominee of the Constitution Party.
As far as we know, Moore hasn't spoken publicly about Cruz's idea to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over marriage issues. But it seems that on this issue, they are two peas in a pod.
To: Interested Parties
From: Paul Gordon, Senior Legislative Counsel, People For the American Way
Date: March 27, 2015
Re: Senate Republicans' Failure to Confirm Obama Nominees—By the Numbers
Three months into the 114th Congress, it's a good time to take stock of how the newly-Republican Senate is doing when it comes to processing circuit and district court judicial nominations. While they are rightly being criticized for the interminable delay in voting to confirm Loretta Lynch as Attorney General, they have also abdicated responsibility for confirming judges, having confirmed a grand total of zero so far. As they head home for a two-week break, Senate Republicans have made it clear that they have no interest in governing responsibly.
A useful basis of comparison is George W. Bush's final two years in office, when his judicial nominees were considered by a newly-Democratic Senate. In 2007, the Judiciary Committee under Chairman Patrick Leahy hit the ground running. There were numerous nominees from the previous Congress approved by the GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee but left unconfirmed at the end of 2006. Rather than force them into new hearings for the benefit of the new committee members, Chairman Leahy arranged for quick votes instead. The Committee also processed several first-time nominees. As a result, by end of March 2007, the Senate had confirmed 15 new judges.
The Senate ended up confirming a total of 68 circuit and district court judges during that two-year period. The chart below shows how today's Republican-controlled Senate compares to the Democratic-controlled Senate of Bush's last two years, and the pace of confirmations they will be compared to this year and next.
Another way of contrasting how seriously the Democrats took their job in 2007-2008 vs. the attitude of Republicans today is to track the number of vacancies. Judicial vacancies open regularly and predictably, since judges usually announce their intent to retire or go into semi-retirement up to a year in advance. Just to keep the number of vacancies even requires that several new judges be confirmed each month.
At the beginning of 2007, there were 56 circuit and district court vacancies. Throughout the next two years, the number of vacancies generally remained at 50 or fewer, getting as low as 34 in the early fall of 2008. Because an unusually high number of vacancies opened up after Election Day, that number had climbed back to 55 by Inauguration Day, but even with that increase, the number of vacancies ended up at about what it had been two years earlier.
Today, in stark contrast, the number of vacancies is climbing steadily, from 40 at the beginning of the year to 51 today.
We see the same thing with judicial emergencies, which have skyrocketed from 12 at the beginning of the year to 23 today. As the chart below shows, Democrats in the Senate during Bush's last two years did not allow the number of judicial emergencies to increase like that, and in fact the number generally remained steady or decreased during most of the two-year time.
Majority Leader McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley have their work cut out for them if they want to reduce the number of judicial vacancies and emergencies. It should not be difficult to do, if they take governance seriously.
Yesterday, PFAW Foundation Senior Fellow Jamie Raskin previewed his upcoming report, The Supreme Court in the Citizens United Era, during a member telebriefing. Executive Vice President Marge Baker and Senior Legislative Counsel Paul Gordon also joined the call to answer questions from members and discuss PFAW efforts to promote fair and just courts. Drew Courtney, Director of Communications for PFAW, moderated.
To kick off the call, Raskin reviewed another period during which the Court granted unprecedented constitutional rights to corporations. Lochner v. NY, Raskin explained, began an era in which government at every level was prevented from interfering with corporate contracts—and thereby prevented from passing sensible health and safety regulations.
Today, said Raskin, we're in an analogous period, with the Supreme Court now using the First Amendment as an excuse for expanding or inventing the political and religious rights of corporations. This time, it's beyond what we've ever seen before; the Citizens United and the Hobby Lobby cases both demonstrate how the Court is putting the interests of corporations over the rights of people and making it more difficult to hold corporations accountable for their actions. Other cases allow corporations to insulate themselves through a host of legal immunities while at the same time, they're able to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing who gets elected to office.
In responding to a question from a PFAW member, Baker outlined the two key ways to fight the Court's trend of empowering corporations over people: Elect Presidents who will nominate, and Senators who will confirm, Justices who share the ideology that corporations shouldn't be favored in their legal rights over people; and amend the Constitution, which PFAW and other groups are working on now. She also directed PFAW members to www.united4thepeople.org and www.getmoneyoutaction.org to get more involved in these issues.
You can listen to the full telebriefing here:
MADISON - Today, People For the American Way joined with Democracy 2020 coalition organizations to call for a defeat of Question 1, a constitutional amendment from right-wing extremists in the Wisconsin Legislature to make the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court a partisan position.
"Question 1 is a naked power grab by one branch of our state government trying to politicize another," said Scott Foval, PFAW Regional Political Coordinator. "Defending fair and non-partisan courts is a line that must be held in the Badger state. We cannot allow politicians who think no one is paying attention to rewrite the rulebook."
Foval was one of many activists at today's press conference calling for a "No" vote on Question 1 in the upcoming Spring Elections on Tuesday, April 7, 2015. The conference was held at noon at the Wisconsin State Capitol, and other speakers included Mike Wilder from the Democracy 2020 Coalition / Wisconsin Voices, Bert Brandenburg, Executive Director of Justice At Stake, former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, and Legislative Policy Director Analiese Eicher from One Wisconsin Institute.
On Saturday, roughly 2,000 activists gathered at Faith Assembly, a megachurch in Orlando, for the Awakening, an annual "Prayer and Patriotism event" organized by the Christian Right legal group Liberty Counsel. The Awakening, which Liberty Counsel organizes under the auspices of an amalgam of Religious Right groups called the Freedom Federation, brings together activists from the evangelical Right with the GOP politicians who want their votes.
At this year's event, GOP politicians including Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal (via video) and RNC faith director Chad Connelly shared a stage with far-right activists including "ex-gays," a phony ex-terrorist and at least two Religious Right leaders who insist that AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuality.
Here are five takeaways from a day with the core of the Religious Right.
1. Gay Marriage Will Send Christians To Jail
While some on the Right may be trying to shy away from the issue of marriage equality now that it could be on its way to a Supreme Court victory, the activists at the Awakening were not among them. Throughout the conference, marriage between gay and lesbian couples was portrayed as a demonic and existential threat to liberty, one that if allowed to proceed would end in Christianity being outlawed and Christians thrown in jail.
The Republican National Committee's faith outreach director, Chad Connelly, who was moderating a panel on abortion rights, echoed the Religious Right's rhetoric when he warned that LGBT rights activists are "coming for the church."
Far-right pastor Rick Scarborough, who was sitting beside him, agreed that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality, pastors will be forced to "participate in same-sex marriage " or be thrown in jail. Liberty Counsel's Harry Mihet, moderating a separate panel, issued a similar warning.
Scarborough repeated his warning when he told activists that a pro-equality Supreme Court ruling would outlaw anti-gay speech, thus undermining "the whole nature of America."
Multiple speakers compared a potential Supreme Court decision on marriage equality to Dred Scott, the infamous pre-Civil War decision that barred African Americans from citizenship, declaring that it should be met with similar resistance.
2. Losing The Church on Gay Rights Issues
Although the Awakening took place in what appeared to be a generationally diverse, multiethnic church, the crowd at the conference was overwhelmingly older and white. Throughout the conference, speakers bemoaned the fact that the Religious Right was losing support among younger Christians for its political agenda, especially its opposition to LGBT rights.
Liberty University's Rena Lindevaldsen told the audience at a breakout panel on "sexual rebellion" that when fellow conservative Christians ask her what the "big deal" is about LGBT rights, she responds "it's a big deal because it's a big deal to God." Marriage equality, she told the enthusiastic audience, matters to God because it is "the heart of where Satan's attacking":
Evangelist Franklin Graham also lamented that "a lot of pastors have quit preaching against homosexuality" out of fear of offending people in their churches who might have gay relatives. He told the audience that "God will bless you and he'll honor you" if you "don't shut up" about gay rights and abortion:
This was a crowd that had not given up on discredited "ex-gay" therapy. An "ex-lesbian" activist, Janet Boynes, was given a main stage speaking slot and "ex-gay" activist Greg Quinlan earned a roaring round of applause from the audience at the "sexual rebellion" panel when he announced that he had been "out of homosexuality for 27 years."
3. A Spiritual Battle Against Islam And Progressivism
Just as the crowd at the Awakening was upset that the conservative movement and the church have supposedly become less invested in fighting LGBT rights, they were also wary of any overtures between Christians and Muslims.
Graham declared that "Islam is a wicked system" and blasted Christians who say that Muslims and Christians worship the same God.
Kamal Saleem, the self-proclaimed "ex-terrorist" whose personal story has never quite held up to scrutiny , also warned that churches are being "invaded by 'Chrislam,'" lamenting that Americans are oblivious to the dangers of radical Islam: "We're watching American Idol and they are doing jihad." He also warned of what he called "jihad of the womb," or Muslim immigrants giving birth in order to outnumber Christians.
What activists at the Awakening saw as a war against Islam was merely part of a larger "spiritual battle" between good and evil, God and Satan. In the panel discussion he led on LGBT rights, Matt Barber declared that there is an "Islamo-progressive axis of evil" with a "common enemy": Christians.
Maine pastor Ken Graves repeated that theme when he declared that American Christians are fighting "militant Islam" and "militant homofascism" and secularists who want to establish a "secular humanist caliphate":
4. Time Is Running Out On America, And It's Up To The Church To Save It
Throughout the day, speakers warned that America is running out of time before it is lost forever, and that it is up to conservative Christians to get involved in politics to save the country.
Graham told the crowd that he is more politically outspoken than his father, Billy Graham, because America is in a more dire state of secularism. "When my father was born, the Ten Commandments were on the wall of every school in America. When my father was born, the teachers still led the class in the Lord's Prayer. Our country is not that anymore," he said, declaring that the 2016 election is the last chance for the Religious Right to save the country.
Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate, delivered a similar message, warning that "we are heading down in a direction that, let's be honest, no civilization has ever been able to recover from." Conservative Christians, he declared, must reinvest themselves in politics in order, to among other things, put the Bible in public schools:
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, another likely GOP presidential hopeful, told the crowd that prayer was needed to bring about "spiritual revival" and change the political direction of the country: "If God's people truly pray down a spiritual awakening, then the political landscape will change."
"This country did not start because some people had some brilliant ideas, although they did. This country happened because God's providence was the foundation of their brilliant ideas," Huckabee said. "Because of his inspiration, this country has been sustained throughout all of its history because of God's specific intervention in helping us to win battles we should never have one and in keeping us from losing battles we should have lost."
The RNC's Connelly also made a plug for conservative churches to engage in partisan politics , urging pastors to buck IRS rules preventing politicking from the pulpit and declaring that "voting is not political, it's spiritual."
5. The Religious Right And The GOP Still Need Each Other
One of the strangest moments of the day came when a George W. Bush impersonator walked onto the stage with Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver as he introduced Huckabee. Staver jokingly reassured the audience that it was not the former president's brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has clashed with the Religious Right over gay rights issues. It seemed to be a spontaneous addition to the program, it was hard not to see it also as a reminder to the audience of the potential power of the evangelical vote.
Unlike the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit, which has become the flagship gathering of the GOP and the Religious Right, the Awakening tends to attract only true believers in the cause. This year, Santorum and Huckabee spoke, while Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal submitted a video message. Connelly, who heads the GOP's outreach to evangelical voters, moderated a panel on abortion rights, but largely deflected difficult questions from the far-right crowd.
Connelly did not, however, shy away from right-wing conspiracy theories, responding to a question about the "culture of death" in end-of-life care by claiming that the Affordable Care Act's mythical "death panels" are "a reality":
It was clear throughout the day that however wary the Religious Right and the GOP establishment may be of each other, they still need each other. Speakers like Graham urged conservative Christians to revive the powerful Religious Right pressure machine to win GOP politicians to their side, whether or not they agreed with their issues. Meanwhile, the presence of the GOP candidates and Connelly indicated that this is a voting bloc that is still important to the party, however extreme its priorities may be.
If anyone had said four months ago that we'd still be waiting for the Senate to hold a confirmation vote for Loretta Lynch, no one would have believed it. Yet here we are. Although she was approved by the Judiciary Committee three weeks ago, Mitch McConnell just can't bring himself to schedule a floor vote for her.
Lynch is supremely qualified to be AG. Progressives and conservatives alike have written to the Senate praising Lynch and urging her confirmation. In fact, not a single one of the Republicans' own witnesses at her confirmation hearing actually opposed her confirmation.
Yet Republicans in the Senate continue to make a partisan brawl out of a consensus nomination.
Until now, regardless of which party was in the White House or in control of the Senate, the attorney general nominee has gotten a confirmation vote very quickly upon committee approval. But Lynch's nomination has been languishing on the Senate floor for nearly three weeks, longer than the wait-time for the past five attorney general nominees combined.
McConnell has jettisoned his promise to allow a vote this week. At the beginning of next week, Lynch will have been waiting for a floor vote as long as the previous seven attorneys general combined:
McConnell's latest excuse for delay is that the Senate needs to vote on a human trafficking bill first … a bipartisan bill that Republicans politicized by inserting an anti-choice provision.
The Lynch nomination was a great opportunity for Republicans to show the American people that they can govern. Instead, they've shown the American people that they won't pass up any opportunity to play politics, as they pile unheard-of delay after delay on the person who should already have been confirmed as our nation's first African American woman attorney general.
In a speech to this weekend's Awakening conference in Florida, Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver declared that a ruling in favor of marriage equality from the Supreme Court would deserve "no more respect than Dred Scott or Buck v. Bell," court rulings that, respectively, denied citizenship to African Americans and allowed mandatory state sterilization of mentally disabled people.
"I say this: If the Supreme Court can't get it right, or any judge get it right, on the fundamental, observable, natural created order of marriage as the union between a man and a woman, they can't get it right on anything, that's their own opinion, and it deserves no more respect than Dred Scott or Buck v. Bell," he declared.
He warned the audience that a "clash is coming" between religious liberty and LGBT rights that is "unprecedented in American history."
"Tax exemption, income tax exemption, property tax exemption, everything is going to be impacted," he said. "You cannot navigate around this. This is a collision of two trains coming in opposite directions on the same track. We are on the precipice of a collision of unprecedented magnitude."
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, after teaming up with Christian nationalist extremists to host his "The Response" prayer rally in Baton Rouge earlier this year, is now continuing his project of endearing himself to the far fringes of the Religious Right by addressing an annual conference hosted by Liberty Counsel this weekend.
Liberty Counsel's "The Awakening" event will bring Jindal, along with fellow likely GOP presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, together with some of the most unapologetically extreme Religious Right leaders, including Sen. Ted Cruz's dad Rafael.
With speakers from John Eidsmoe, a founding father of the Religious Right's current Christian nationalist thought, to Kamal Saleem, the phony ex-terrorist and prolific anti-Obama conspiracy theorist, the candidates are sure to be treated to an exciting array of far-right ideas.
Mat Staver
The Awakening is organized by Liberty Counsel, a legal arm of Liberty University founded and chaired by Mat Staver. Staver is particularly invested in anti-LGBT activism both in the U.S. and abroad, where he has spoken out in favor of laws criminalizing homosexuality. Here at home, he has warned that marriage equality will help bring about God's destruction of America and will be "the beginning of the end of Western Civilization."
Staver's extremism is not limited to LGBT rights. For instance, at the 2010 Awakening conference, Staver agreed with an audience member who asked if the Affordable Care Act created a private army of Brownshirts for President Obama.
Kamal Saleem
Kamal Saleem claims to be an ex-terrorist who worked for a number of Islamist groups before coming to America to build sleeper cells and ultimately converting to Christianity. The fact that Saleem's story doesn't add up — and that he's suspiciously reluctant to talk about the details — hasn't stopped him from being a popular speaker on the Religious Right conference circuit, where he impresses audiences with his insider knowledge that President Obama is a secret Muslim out to destroy America.
Saleem uses his literally unbelievable personal story to sell a wide range of conspiracy theories, including claims that President Obama attends a mosque in Washington, DC, on Christmas (while he is simultaneously in Hawaii) and that Islamists are working through Sasha and Malia Obama's babysitters to establish a shadow government.
In 2012, he told The Awakening that when President Obama appeared to be pledging allegiance to the flag, he was actually taking part in an Islamic prayer. The same year, he warned the Values Voter Summit that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be shutting down churches in America within the year:
John Eidsmoe
John Eidsmoe is one of the leading voices behind the Religious Right's effort to rewrite American history and law to reflect a specific "biblical worldview." Former Rep. Michele Bachmann, who was a research assistant on Eidsmoe's influential 1987 book "Christianity and the Constitution," cites him as an in influence and his work has permeated the segment of the Religious Right that seeks to take "dominion" over America to avoid God's judgment.
Eidsmoe has specifically warned that gay rights will bring about divine judgment on the U.S. and wrote a whole book, "Gays & Guns," arguing against allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, warning that they might molest children.
Eidsmoe, who has gotten in trouble in the past for speaking to white supremacist groups, is currently the "senior counsel and resident scholar" at the Foundation for Moral Law, the Christian nationalist group founded by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, a longtime ally.
Rick Scarborough
Rick Scarborough, a Baptist pastor and the head of the Religious Right group Vision America, is one of the most extreme voices in the anti-LGBT movement. Although he insists that he is neither a Democrat or Republican, but a "Christ-ocrat," he frequently allies with likeminded Republican politicians including Rick Perry and Mike Huckabee to get his followers to the polls.
Scarborough maintains that AIDS is God's "judgment" for "an immoral act," warns that the appointment of gay ambassadors would be perfect justification for God to nuke America, and once suggested filing a class action lawsuit against homosexuality.
Scarborough has also dabbled in anti-immigrant nativism, warning that "more non-white families" in the U.S. would lead to fewer Christians and that "if this country becomes 30 percent Hispanic we will no longer be America."
Franklin Graham
Franklin Graham, a son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, couples his international humanitarian work with an apocalyptic approach to American politics. He predicted that President Obama'sreelectionwould bring about God's destruction of America and railed that Americans "turned our back on God" by reelecting the president.
Graham's opinion of the Obama administration was only reinforced when he was disinvited from speaking at an event at the Pentagon because of hishistory of anti-Muslim rhetoric. He has since claimed that the White House has been "infiltrated by Muslims" and is being run by Muslims who "hate Israel and hate Christians." Just this week, he speculated that Obama's mother "must have been a Muslim," which he said explains why the president supposedly won't fight ISIS.
While he may worry that God is getting ready to judge America for President Obama, Graham has implied that the Almighty is smiling on Russian President Vladimir Putin because of his crackdown on LGBT rights in his country. Graham, who has long claimed that Christianity is on the road to being criminalized in the U.S., said last year that pastors must be prepared to get their "heads chopped off" in the fight against gay rights.
Matt Barber
Matt Barber, a former Liberty Counsel official who still hosts a daily radio program with Staver, is best known for his over-the-top bigoted anti-gay rhetoric.
Barber often frames his battle against LGBT equality and reproductive rights as a "spiritual war" in which he is on the side of God. He has called marriage equality the "bidding of the Devil" and warned that by legalizing same-sex marriage, America is " tempting the wrath of God." He claims that HIV/AIDS is divine punishment for homosexuality.
Barber is fond of comparing his opponents to Nazis, calling supporters of reproductive rights "modern day Nazis" and LGBT rights advocates "Rainbowshirts" who have "broken out the long knives" to go after Christians. At the same time, he has supported repressive anti-LGBT regimes around the world, praising Russian President Vladimir Putin's anti-gay crackdown and saying he'd like to see a ban on "gay propaganda" in the U.S., and defending Uganda's harsh criminal penalties for LGBT people.
Last year, Barber launched BarbWire.com, an online emporium for right-wing vitriol which he sees as part of his "war" against the "lies" that Satan tells through progressives.
Sen. Ted Cruz told Iowa talk radio host Jan Mickelson yesterday that he plans to introduce a constitutional amendment to allow states to ban gay and lesbian couples from marrying because court decisions in favor of marriage equality present "a real danger to our liberty."
The Texas Republican deflected Mickelson's questions on whether states could simply ignore a Supreme Court decision in favor of marriage equality, saying he preferred his constitutional amendment as a solution. "If the courts were following the Constitution, we shouldn't need a new amendment, but they are, as you put it quite rightly, making it up right now and it's a real danger to our liberty," he said.
Cruz told a group of Iowa pastors yesterday that judges who have made decisions in favor of marriage equality are "ignoring their oaths, ignoring the Constitution and legislating from the bench."
Concerned Women for America's legal counsel, Mario Diaz, stopped by Iowa CWA director Tamara Scott's radio program last week to discuss the Supreme Court's upcoming consideration of a number of marriage equality cases.
Scott, who is also a Republican National Committee member, told Diaz that LGBT rights advocates, "the group that exploits the term 'tolerant' as their poster," are actually "so incredibly intolerant to anyone with an opposing view."
Diaz agreed that a collision between LGBT rights and religious liberty is "inevitable," and that a Supreme Court marriage equality victory would lead to the "criminalization of religious beliefs."
"And it is one of the great tragedies that I think I put now at the feet of the Supreme Court, if they are considering finding a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the Constitution, they must consider, and I hope they are, that they will be effectively opening the door for the criminalization of religious beliefs, especially Christian beliefs."
Later in the interview, Scott and Diaz agreed that LGBT rights victories in the courts amount to, in Diaz's words, a "transformation of the form of government we have."
Pointing to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's comment that it wouldn't take "a large adjustment" for Americans to adapt to same-sex marriage, Diaz said she is planning to wave a "magic wand and declare that the country's ready now to move to same-sex marriage."
"And in a few years, when the country's ready for polygamy, then the country's ready for that also, and we continue down that track to anything that the majority of us agree about. It's just preposterous," he added.
National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown joined Iowa Republican National Committee member Tamara Scott on her radio program last week, where the two discussed the upcoming Supreme Court decision on marriage equality.
Brown told Scott that a pro-equality decision would be "illegitimate" and anti-LGBT groups would have to emulate the anti-choice movement after Roe and "build a movement that continues to stand and proclaim the truth."
He compared a potential marriage equality decision to infamous Supreme Court rulings upholding the Fugitive Slave Act, the prohibition on citizenship for African Americans, and school desegregation.
"It may be a generation or two down the line, but this lie about what it means to be a human being cannot stand. It cannot stand," he said. "And just because the Supreme Court says it's so, it doesn't make it so. The Supreme Court has had horrible decisions in the past, horrible decisions like the Dred Scott decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, the Fugitive Slave Act, Roe v. Wade. Just because the Supreme Court said it was so didn't make it so, and there was an obligation for people living in those times to stand up and say 'no this is wrong' and to fight with every ounce of their being for the truth."
He added that the movement would have to contend with "some weakness from Republican leaders on the marriage issue."
Earlier in the interview, Scott asked Brown about the decision to approve hormone therapy for Chelsea Manning, which Scott joked was part of a "witness protection program."
"Well, I don't know about that, but I do know that once you redefine what it means, or attempt to redefine what it means to be a man and a woman, then this clearly is the next step," Brown responded. "And I don't think people, at times we may not think deeply about what we're being asked to accept, especially on the issue of same-sex marriage, but what we're essentially being asked to accept is the very deconstruction of what it means to be a mother and father, husband and wife, and what it means to be a human being."
"And once you go down this road of acting as if the biological reality of mothers and fathers, husbands and wives doesn't matter, it doesn't exist, then the next step is to say that gender itself is a construct. And we're seeing that across the country, the next step on quote-unquote 'transgender rights,'" he said.
He added that transgender rights measures would have "profound consequences" that are being seen "across the country."
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore doesn't seem to quite understand the LGBT community that he is so set against, telling the Associated Press this weekend that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality, bisexual and "transgendered" people will then demand to marry two people each. "Can they marry two persons, one of the same sex and one of the opposite sex? Then, you've got a family of four or how many?" he asked:
Moore argues that no federal court, even the U.S. Supreme Court, has the right to define marriage.
"You're taking any definition of a family away. When two bisexuals or two transgendered marry, how large is that family? Can they marry two persons, one of the same sex and one of the opposite sex? Then, you've got a family of four or how many?"
Moore also resisted comparisons of his standoff with the federal courts over marriage equality to former Gov. George Wallace's stand against desegregation, saying that one major difference is that Wallace eventually backed down, and he won't:
Moore's actions have drawn inevitable comparisons to former Gov. George Wallace's 1963 largely symbolic "stand in the schoolhouse door" aimed at preventing desegregation at the University of Alabama, nine years after education segregation was ruled illegal.
Moore said there is another difference.
"George Wallace moved," he said, noting how the former governor eventually stepped aside.
"I can't move from my position because I'm bound to uphold the Constitution," Moore said.


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FOR HOME INSPECTORSMAHI is dedicated to excellence and professionalism for Maryland's home inspectors
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May 7, 2012
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The K2 Alexis 80 is a great first skate for fitness skating, but is also enough skate for the intermediate skater looking for an inexpensive skate. The Alexis 80 mixes K2's patented Softboot technology with a stability cuff offering a comfortable fit w... Read More
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Brittny Gastineau
Brittny Gastineau is an American model, socialite, and reality television personality.... more on Wikipedia
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There is something about reality television personalities that makes us hate so much more strongly than we do with fictional characters. Probably the idea that these are real people - even though most of us know these shows are heavily edited. This is a list of the people who made you want to go out and apply for a handgun just to shoot your own television. ...
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09/30/2015 | Government Shutdown Averted, FCC Shutdown Plan Shelved, for Now
The US House has gone along with the US Senate in passing a continuing resolution to fund the US Government until December 11.
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09/14/2015 | Antarctic VI0ANZAC Operation Faced Poor Weather and Propagation:
Despite adverse Antarctic winter weather, the VI0ANZAC special event made it on the air over the August 29-30 weekend.
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12/14/2014 | Cuban HF Emergency Net Stands Down
Cuban HF Emergency Net Stands Down.
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07/21/2014 | India's VO-52 Satellite Goes Dark
The VO-52 ham radio satellite has been decommissioned due to battery failure.
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02/10/2014 | First-Time W1AW/KG4 Guantanamo Bay Operation Set
W1AW/KG4 will be on the air February 26 through March 4 (UTC)!
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01/21/2014 | TT8ES Operation Approved for DXCC Credit
The 2014 operation of TT8ES has been approved for DXCC credit.
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12/30/2013 | ZD9KX Operation Approved for DXCC Credit
The 2012 and 2013 operations of ZD9KX have been approved for DXCC credit.
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11/29/2013 | Quickie Ascension Island DXpedition Set
ZD8UW will be on the air from Ascension Island December 2-6.
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Dumb walker, dumb me:(
Comments (8)
Awww, poor baby. :( That was probably terrifying! We don't have a walker, but my son has had his fair share of spills. In fact, he has a little bump next to his eye from knocking it on the corner of the coffee table yesterday. :( He's also pulled chairs and his little toy shelves over on top of himself. I'm glad your son is OK...don't beat yourself up over it. :)
Mama to my Bub since 11/16/11
Aww, poor baby. He will be just fine though :) Aiden has never done that, but I could see him getting close to doing that and that is when I could see he was getting too big for the walker! (He is big, 26-27 pounds) So we broke out a different one, it is a bit bigger with a removable seat, so that baby can push it around and practice walking and sit down/get out easily. Aiden loves it, we go for walks up our street, and (carefully lol, and our street is extremely quiet) he walks in front of me pushing it everywhere! Maybe you would be interested?
Mommy, RN. Diamond Boobies!
Don't worry mama! It happens to the best of us
This is why my pedi gave a handout stating " if you have a walker THROW IT AWAY!"...
Little Bunny 11-23-11
Baby #2 Due 02-15-14 It's a GIRL!!
EBF, co-sleeping, sposies, vaxing, non-circ'ing, AP SAHM PLATINUM ( . ) ( . )
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Look how far your child has come.
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This tag is to be used for questions that are about traveling by people who are over the age limit where they start to get reductions for age.
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Are there any websites or other resources that lists discounts or special conditions for seniors in Europe?
In some countries seniors have special conditions on the train, museums, etc. Relating a comment on this question I was wondering if there are websites or resources that list special conditions for ...
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Is there a discount on train tickets for people older than a given age in the Netherlands?
I am helping a friend to plan a trip in the Netherlands. He is 68 years old. Is there some discount on the train like in Belgium?


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Real news. Real funny.
Real news. Real funny.
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This Item qualifies for FREE Shipping*
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Product Information
The Crossover Grip uses a revolutionary applied technology
- Works with the body's natural physiology to gently place fingers in the proper position for gripping
- Uses the same great design as The Pencil Grip
- Has added wings to prevent fingers from crossing over each other
- Miscellaneous
Brand :Pencil Grip
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Weight :1.00 lbs. per Pack
Product Reviews


text:
Desk Lamp Hinge Fix
by wdebeaum, published
Thing Apps Enabled
Thing Info
The hinge connecting the head of my desk lamp to the arm broke, leaving the head dangling. I made a new one. It's not perfect (it's a little bit loose around the head, and the peg the hinge is on is too short), but it works.
Lamps get hot. I won't be responsible if your lamp melts this holder and burns your house down. You have been warned.
- Travel back in time to 2002.
- Buy a Martha Stewart "Architect's Work Lamp".
- Use it until the hinge breaks.
- Print each part listed at the bottom of the OpenSCAD file (I used ABS).
- Glue holder_top to the top of holder_bottom (I used ABS/acetone slurry).
- Insert hinge_inside into the larger hole in hinge_outside from the bottom(without gluing).
- Insert the square peg on holder_bottom into the hole in hinge_inside from the top (optionally gluing it).
- Slide the holder over the head of the lamp, putting the power cable and the remnants of the old hinge through the gap opposite the new hinge.
- Turn the holder so the old hinge remnant is trapped between holder_bottom and holder_top (see photo).
- Remove the other side of the old hinge from the arm by removing the screw.
- Insert the small hole in hinge_outside in the resulting gap, and replace the screw.
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|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Dec 31, 1991
|Filing date
|Oct 5, 1990
|Priority date
|Oct 5, 1990
|Fee status
|Publication number
|Vincent T. Kozyrski, Alan R. Peters
|Original Assignee
|The Fletcher Terry Company
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (6), Non-Patent Citations (2), Referenced by (22), Classifications (7), Legal Events (7)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
Apparatus for driving points, of the kind used by framers and glaziers, is well known in the art. A particularly desirable form of point driver is described and claimed in Kozyrski et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,307, issued Oct. 13, 1987.
It has in the past been recognized to be advantageous to power, by electrical or pneumatic means, machines of a nature broadly similar to point drivers. For example, Young U.S. Pat. No. 2,886,815, issued May 19, 1959, provides a clip application gun that includes pneumatic driving means for the staples utilized; and Maestri U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,364, issued Mar. 13, 1973, provides a tool for driving and setting headless nails and tacks, which may be operated mechanically or pneumatically.
In any such machine so powered, it is of course important that the action imparted by the pneumatic system be rapid and reliable. As far as is known, there has not heretofore been provided a pneumatically powered driver for framers' and glaziers' points which is entirely satisfactory from these, and other, standpoints.
Accordingly, it is the broad object of the present invention to provide a novel driver for framers' and glaziers' points, which is pneumatically powered and which affords highly reliable, rapid action for repetitively ejecting and driving such points.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide such a driver having incorporated therein a novel valve mechanism which is fundamental to the achievement of optimal operation.
Another object is to provide a novel valve mechanism that is suitable for use in a pneumatically powered point driver, for imparting thereto a highly reliable and rapid drive capability.
Additional objects of the invention are to provide such a point driver and valve mechanism affording the foregoing features and advantages, which are in addition relatively uncomplicated and inexpensive to manufacture, and highly efficient and convenient in use.
It has now been found that certain of the foregoing and related objects of the invention are attained by the provision of a machine for driving framer's and glazier's points, comprising a body, a hammer assembly supported by the body for reciprocal movement, fastener support means, pneumatic means, and an actuating member. The hammer member includes a push member which has a contact element that is movable along a path between first and second positions, during reciprocation of the hammer assembly, for driving contact with a fastener, so disposed by the support means as to intercept and contact the push member. The pneumatic means drives the hammer assembly; it comprises a piston cylinder providing a chamber, a drive piston reciprocally mounted in the cylinder chamber, and a valve mechanism operatively connected to the cylinder for controlling the entry and exit of air, thereby to effect reciprocation of the piston and, in turn, operation of the hammer assembly.
The valve mechanism includes housing means having an inside wall surface defining an axial passageway, and a valve core member slidably disposed for axial movement within the passageway. Two axially spaced sealing elements are provided on the core member, and two valve seats are provided by internal structure of the housing means. One of the sealing elements engages one of the valve seats in a first position of the core member, and the other sealing element engages the other valve seat in a second position thereof. The core member is configured to permit the flow of air from an outlet opening of the housing means in its "first" position, and to permit the flow of air between an inlet opening and the outlet opening in its "second" position. It also has a head portion which is disposed within the passageway in sealing, slidable engagement with the inside wall surface of the housing means.
Formed within the core member is a duct, which has one end opening in air-flow communication with the inlet of the housing means, and an opposite end opening on the outer surface of the head portion. A wall element overlies the adjacent end of the passageway of the housing means, and defines a head space over the core member. It has an opening, which is closed by a closing element on the actuating member in a first position thereof, the closing element being displaced in a second position of the actuating member to thereby permit the release of air. Air pressure counteracts biasing means that acts upon the core member, so as to force it away from the end wall element when the opening is closed, and release of the air permits the biasing means to thrust the core member in the opposite direction. Normally, the actuating member will be in the form of a trigger pivotably mounted on the machine body, and the piston cylinder will be provided by a housing disposed against the valve housing means.
The core member of the valve mechanism will preferably comprise a generally cylindrical pilot piece and an elongate spool piece. The pilot piece will have an axial bore, and the spool piece will have a tang component at one end inserted into the bore to join the pieces together and to cooperatively define at least a portion of the core member duct. Most desirably, the head portion of the core member will be of enlarged trans-axial cross section, as will be the corresponding axial portion of the passageway in which it is seated. In some instances, it will be desirable for the housing means to comprise two components, namely a housing member and a valve body, the latter being seated in an elongate cavity of the housing member, and having a bore in which the core member is seated, with internal structure of the valve body providing the valve seats.
A support wall at the bottom of the machine body, on which it will rest in normal use, may have an engagement opening to cooperate with a detent component on a slidably mounted member of the hammer assembly, engagement of the detent serving to prevent movement of the hammer assembly from its retracted position. The detent component will have a protruding portion, so constructed that when its outermost surface is brought to a level flush with the outer surface of the support wall the engagement element of the detent component will disengage from the opening-defining structure; this will release the assembly for movement toward its extended position.
Other objects of the invention are attained by the provision of a valve mechanism, having the features herein described.
FIG. 1 is a side elevational view, in partial section, showing a point driving machine embodying the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the machine of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary elevational view of the rearward section of the machine, as shown in FIG. 1 but drawn to a scale enlarged therefrom;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a second form of valve mechanisms embodying the present invention; and
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view similar to that of FIG. 4 and showing another form of valve mechanism embodying the invention.
Turning initially to FIGS. 1-3 of the drawings, therein illustrated is a machine embodying the present invention and consisting of a frame-like handle, generally designated by the numeral 10, a trigger generally designed by the numeral 12 pivotably mounted upon the handle, and magazine structure, generally designated by the numeral 14, disposed at the forward end thereof. The handle consists of two mirror-image sections, secured to one another by screws 16. A U-shaped, elongated metal channel, generally designated by the numeral 18, is mounted between the handle sections at the bottom of the machine, and is held in place partially by a transverse stop bar 20. The stop bar 20 is in turn secured between the handle halves by screws (not seen), and it carries a transverse bumper 22 made of a tough and durable resilient material, such as polyurethane. The other end of the channel 18 is secured by opposing bosses 24 (only one of which is visible) which project from the inside surfaces of the handle sections into the square openings 26.
A hammer assembly, generally designated by the numeral 28, is slidably mounted within the U-shaped channel 18; it consists of an elongated body portion 30 of square cross section, and an upstanding lug element 32 integrally formed with the body portion adjacent its forward end. Guide pins 34 traverse the handle sections and the metal channel 18 (the lateral walls of which are widened to accommodate the pins), two of which serve to constrain the handle assembly to reciprocal movement and to prevent its upward displacement out of the channel. A blind axial bore 36 extends inwardly from the forward end of the body portion 30, and seats a coil spring 38; the outer end of the spring bears upon the bumper 22, and thereby urges the hammer assembly in a rearward direction. Socket 40, which extends upwardly from the lower surface of the body portion 30 at a location adjacent its rearward end, slidably seats a cylindrical pin 42, which is formed with an axial bore 44 and concentric circular step elements 46 and 48; a coil spring 50 is seated in the bore 44, and serves to urge the pin 42 outwardly of the socket 40.
The body portion 30 of the hammer assembly carries an elongated, strip-like push plate, generally designated by the numeral 52, which is attached against the lower surface of the body portion and projects forwardly therebeyond. The rearward edge of the push plate 52 abuts against a protuberance 54 formed on the body portion 30, and it has associated means (not visible) by which it is affixed in place. A downwardly protruding, longitudinal rib element 55 extends to the leading edge of the forward end portion of the push plate 52, and the bottom wall 56 of the channel 18 is formed to accommodate the plate. In particular, the forward end of the bottom wall 56 has an outer slot section 58 therethrough, and a narrower, inner section 60, which is dimensioned and configured to slidably receive the rib element 55.
The magazine structure 14 defines a channel or passageway 62 for the containment of a stack of points, generally designated by the numeral 64, disposed in the path of movement of the push plate 52. A longitudinal gap (not shown) extends along the inner-most portion of the magazine structure, to permit entry of the nose portion of a follower piece (also not shown) into the channel 62; the follower piece is mounted upon the handle 10, and is spring loaded to bear upon the top of the stack 64 of points and thereby urge them toward the push plate travel path.
A cylinder housing, generally designated by the numeral 66, is mounted within the lower portion of the handle 10 adjacent the hammer assembly 28, constrained by the guide pins 34. The housing is elongated and defines at its rearward end a chamber 68 of cylindrical cross section, from which extends forwardly a bore 70 opening to a recess 79 at the forward end of the housing 66, the recess 79 being dimensioned and configured to receive the lug portion 32 on the hammer assembly 28.
The chamber 68 and bore 70 cooperate to receive an operating piston, generally designated by the numeral 72. The head 74 of the piston is disposed within the chamber 68, and the rod 76 thereof is disposed within the bore 70. An O-ring 77 is seated in a channel (unnumbered) extending circumferentially about the head 74, and provides a sliding seal against the surface of the cylindrical metal wall liner 78 seated within the chamber 68.
A valve assembly housing, generally designed by the numeral 80, is mounted into the rear of the handle 10, directly adjacent the cylinder housing 66. The valve housing 80 has a passage 82 formed downwardly into it, and it has an inlet opening 84 and an outlet opening 86 at spaced locations along the passage 82 and disposed to opposite (rearward and forward, respectively) sides thereof; the inlet opening 84 is provided with means (not illustrated) for engaging a pneumatic hose connector. A gasket 88 is interposed between the end surface of the cylinder housing 66 and the adjacent lateral surface of the valve assembly housing 80, and is provided with a hole 89 to permit air flow between the valve assembly housing 80 and the cylinder chamber 68.
A valve body, generally designated by the numeral 90, is disposed within the passage 82 of the valve housing 80. It has a downwardly extending axial bore 92, with inlet and outlet orifices 94, 96, aligned respectively with the inlet and outlet openings 84, 86 of the housing 80; the lower end of the bore 92 is vented simply by being open to the atmosphere. Internal shoulder structure 98 of the body 90 defines oppositely directed, frustoconical valve seat surfaces 100 and 102 within the bore 92, and O-rings 104, seated within circumferential grooves 106, sealingly engage the valve body 90 within the passage 82.
A valve core, generally designated by the numeral 108, is slidably seated within the bore 92 of the valve body 90. It includes a pilot portion 110, and spool and head portions 112, 120, respectively, disposed to the opposite ends thereof. The spool portion 112 carries a pair of sealing elements 114, 115, which are generally cylindrical but have confronting ends that are tapered so as to conform to, and form a tight seal against, the valve seat surfaces 100, 102. The sealing elements 114, 115 are held in place between the lower end surface of the pilot portion 110 and the axially spaced collar element 116, which cooperate with the two intermediately positioned circumferential shoulder elements 118.
The head portion 120 of the valve core is disposed outwardly of the valve body 90, within the section of the passage 82 of the housing 80 lying therebeyond; both the head portion and also the corresponding passage section are of enlarged trans-axial cross section, relative to the remaining portions and section thereof (including, as to the latter, the bore 92), respectively. A duct 122 extends axially through the pilot portion 110 and head portion 120. One end of the duct 122 opens onto the shallow depression 128 formed into the top surface of the head portion 120, and the opposite end joins a laterally extending pore 124, the latter being created by inserting a partial plug 126 into a radially extending hole (unnumbered) formed near the lower end of the pilot portion 110.
The valve assembly housing 80 defines a socket portion 132 at the bottom of the passage 82, in which is seated a coil spring 130. The spring bears upon the collar element 116 of the spool portion 112, urging upwardly the valve core 108. The housing 80 also defines a shallow annular recess 134 about the mouth of the passage 82, in which is affixed an end wall element 136, which spans the passage and forms a small chamber with the depression 128 when the valve core is in its fully elevated position. An aperture 138 extends through the wall element 136 to provide free air flow communication with the chamber so defined.
The trigger 12 is pivotably mounted on the handle 10 by a transverse pin 140; it is biased downwardly by a coil spring 142, which has its opposite ends seated in confronting recesses 144 and 146 formed, respectively, into the handle 10 and the trigger 12. A rubber sealing plug 150 is engaged in a hole 148 formed through the lower leg of the trigger 12, in registry with the aperture 138 through the end wall element 136 of the valve assembly. As will be appreciated, in its lowered position (not illustrated) the trigger 12 will cause the plug 150 to bear upon the top surface of the wall element 136, thereby sealing the aperture 138 to prevent air flow therethrough.
In operation, air will flow from the pressurized supply provided, through the inlet opening 84 of the handle 10 and the aligned orifice 94 of the valve body 90, passing into the pore 124 defined within the (unnumbered) hole and thereafter upwardly through the duct 122 and into the shallow chamber defined between the wall element 136 and the piston head portion 120. With the trigger 12 in its lowered position (just referred to), the pressure of accumulated air will bias the valve core 108 downwardly (from the position illustrated) against the force of the coil spring 130. This will cause the upper sealing element 114 to bear upon the valve seat surface 102, thus preventing the flow of air past that point while permitting flow from the cylinder chamber 68 past the lower element 115, for venting to the atmosphere. Under such conditions, the drive piston 72 will be brought to its retracted position (i.e., shifted to the right from that shown in FIG. 1), due to the force of the spring 38 in the hammer assembly 28, transmitted through the lug element 32 thereof.
Squeezing of the trigger 12 will of course elevate the plug 150 away from the wall element 136, thereby permitting air to discharge through the aperture 138. The release of the restraining force will permit the spring 130 to thrust the valve core 108 abruptly upwardly, thereby bringing it to the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, in which the upper sealing element 114 is displaced from the seating surface 102 and the lower sealing element 115 is engaged upon the surface 100. In this position air will flow through the orifice 94, downwardly about the reduced diameter section of the pilot portion 110, past the valve seat surface 102, through the orifice 96, the outlet opening 86, and the gasket hole 89, and finally into the drive piston chamber 68. The pressure of air will of course force the piston 72 forwardly, in turn driving the hammer assembly 28 in the same direction to thereby cause the push plate 52 to contact and eject the lower-most point in the stack 64.
Upon release of the trigger 12, and consequential closure of the aperture 138, the air pressure developed will again move the valve core 108 downwardly, simultaneously terminating flow into the piston chamber 68 and permitting the drive piston 72 to resume its retracted position.
It will be appreciated that the enlargement of head portion 120 increases the surface area of its top face, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of the air confined thereabove in driving the core 108 downwardly and in holding the sealing element 114 securely against the surface 102. Were it otherwise, leakage of air past the sealing element would tend to assist the spring 130 in elevating the valve piston, causing the core to tend to "float" and thus compromising the effectiveness, reliability and rapidity of operation of the machine. It will also be appreciated that the aperture 138 is sized so as to permit virtually immediate discharge of air when the plug 150 is displaced, and that the dimensions of the duct 122 and pore 124 are selected to afford optimal operation, contributing further to the effectiveness of the driving action.
Although not shown in the illustration, it will be understood that, when the hammer assembly 28 is in its rearward position, the outward force of the internal coil spring 50 will cause the larger, inner step element 48 of the pin 42 to engage within the circular portion 154 of the elongate keyhole slot 152, which is formed through the bottom wall 56 of the channel 18. This will serve to maintain the hammer assembly in its retracted condition, effectively rendering the driver inoperative despite actuation of the trigger 12. When however inward force is brought to bear upon the outer end of the pin 42, such as by placing the machine on a flat surface (as is invariably done in proper use), the element 48 will be displaced from the circular slot portion 154; this will present thereto the smaller outer step element 46, which is dimensioned to slide along the rectilinear slot portion and will thus render the driver operative. Needless to say, operation of the trigger with the machine in an unsupported position would expose the user, and others in the vicinity, to considerable risk of injury from ejected points.
Turning now to FIG. 4 of the drawings, therein illustrated is a second form of valve mechanism embodying the present invention. To the extent that it (and also the mechanism of FIG. 5, to be discussed hereinafter) has components and elements comparable to those of the driver shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, common numbers (albeit primed in some instances) are employed.
The valve housing 80' has a compound passage extending therethrough, consisting of a lower, relatively small diameter section 82' and a larger diamter upper section 82". The inlet opening 84' leads directly to the passage section 82', and the outlet opening 96' leads directly from it at a location intermediate the valve seat surfaces 100, 102, the latter being provided by the internal shoulder structure 98'. It will be noted that in this embodiment the assembly includes no separate valve body, and that the structure 98' is provided by the housing 80' itself.
The valve core consist of two pieces, a pilot piece generally designated by the numeral 156, and a spool piece generally designated by the numeral 158. The pilot piece 156 consists of a pilot portion 110' and a head portion 120', through which extends axially a duct 122', opening at its upper end to the shallow depression 128' formed into the top surface. The pilot piece carries two sealing rings 104, seated in suitably located circumferential channels 106.
The spool piece 158 includes a shaft portion 159, on which are provided an upper abutment element, in the form of a circumferential collar element 160 and a pair of intermediate retaining elements 118. The upper sealing element 114 is held between the element 160 and the upper retaining element 118, and the lower sealing element 115 is held between the lower element 118 and a washer 162, which is press-fit upon the bottom end of the shaft portion 159. The spool piece 158 is itself assembled with the pilot piece 156 by press-fitting the upper end of its shaft portion 159 into the lower end of the duct 122'. As will be noted, the upper collar element 160 is formed so as to define a gap along the lower end of the head piece 156; and although not visible, a longitudinal pore section extends along the length of the upper portion 159 of the shaft, thus providing air flow communication to the duct 122'.
A coil spring 130' is disposed in the passage section 82" with its lower end bearing upon the shoulder formed at the intersection with the section 82', and with its upper end bearing upon the underside of the head portion 120'; the spring 130' thus serves to urge the core assembly in an upward direction (i.e., displaced from the position illustrated in FIG. 4). Here again, an end wall element 136, having a central aperture 138, is seated in the recess 134 and overlies the mouth of the passage section 82" to form a head space with the depression 128'. The valve mechanism of FIG. 4 works in the same way as that previously described, with air passing into the duct 122' from the inlet opening 84' to force the core assembly downwardly. The sealing plug 150 on the trigger 12 also functions in the same manner to selectively permit or prevent the passage of air through the aperture 138.
Turning finally to FIG. 5 of the drawings, the valve mechanism shown is similar to that of FIG. 4 but utilizes a somewhat different form of the spool piece, generally designated by the numeral 158'. Instead of providing retaining elements 118, the spool piece in this embodiment employs a collar 164, which is press-fit onto the shaft portion 159'. Also, in place of the washer 162 the assembly of FIG. 5 utilizes a screw 166, which is engaged in the end of the shaft portion 159' to hold the lower sealing element 115 in place.
The driver of the invention, and the components of which it and the valve mechanism are comprised, may be largely of plastic construction, but metals will be used where appropriate, as will be self-evident and as has been mentioned hereinabove with respect to the cylinder liner 78. It should be appreciated that, with the exception of the valve mechanism and the associated operating and pneumatic features, the driver itself may be of conventional design; it may most desirably take the form described in the above-identified Kozyrski et al patent (modified as appropriate), the specification of which is therefore hereby incorporated by reference. Indeed, it should be understood that the valve mechanism itself has wide applicability, and can be used for machines and systems of a nature completely different from the point driver herein described, albeit that the combination therewith represents a unique and highly desirable embodiment of the invention. Many modifications can of course be made to the valve mechanism and the machine as herein described and illustrated, without departure from the novel concepts underlying the invention.
Thus, it can be seen that the present invention provides a novel driver, for framers' and glaziers' points, which is pneumatically powered and which affords highly reliable, rapid action for repetitively ejecting and driving such points. The invention also provides a novel valve mechanism incorporated into such a driver, which mechanism is fundamental to the achievement of its optimal operation, and the point driver and valve mechanism of the invention are relatively uncomplicated and inexpensive to manufacture, and are highly efficient and convenient to use.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Dec 13, 1954
|May 19, 1959
|Powers Wire Products Company
|Clip applicating gun
|May 20, 1965
|Apr 11, 1967
|Fastener Corp
|Fastener driving tool
|Oct 19, 1964
|Jun 6, 1967
|Josef Kihlberg
|Pneumatically operated stapler, nailing apparatus or the like
|Mar 24, 1971
|Mar 13, 1973
|Maestri B
|Tool for driving and setting headless nails or metal tacks
|Feb 23, 1973
|May 7, 1974
|Fastener Corp
|Safety assembly for fastener driving tool
|Mar 19, 1986
|Oct 13, 1987
|The Fletcher-Terry Company
|Driver for framer's and glazier's points
|Air, Inc. product catalog entitled "Fluid Power Components and Controls"--p. V-193, publication date unknown.
|Air, Inc. product catalog entitled Fluid Power Components and Controls p. V 193, publication date unknown.
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Dec 2, 1993
|Jan 3, 1995
|Aichi Toyota Jidosha Kabushikikaisha
|Impact wrench having an improved air regulator
|May 24, 2002
|Aug 31, 2004
|The Fletcher-Terry Company
|Point driver
|Jun 20, 2002
|Feb 2, 2010
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Method for processing data
|Nov 23, 2010
|Martin Vorbach
|Method for debugging reconfigurable architectures
|Mar 1, 2011
|Martin Vorbach
|I/O and memory bus system for DFPs and units with two- or multi-dimensional programmable cell architectures
|Aug 16, 2002
|Aug 9, 2011
|Martin Vorbach
|Method for the translation of programs for reconfigurable architectures
|Jun 5, 2012
|Martin Vorbach
|I/O and memory bus system for DFPS and units with two- or multi-dimensional programmable cell architectures
|Mar 4, 2011
|Nov 13, 2012
|Martin Vorbach
|Reconfigurable sequencer structure
|Mar 26, 2013
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Method for debugging reconfigurable architectures
|Jun 8, 2012
|Jun 18, 2013
|Martin Vorbach
|Pipeline configuration protocol and configuration unit communication
|Nov 4, 2011
|Jun 25, 2013
|Martin Vorbach
|Logic cell array and bus system
|Feb 9, 2011
|Apr 1, 2014
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Reconfigurable elements
|Sep 25, 2012
|Aug 12, 2014
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Reconfigurable sequencer structure
|Jun 30, 2009
|Aug 26, 2014
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Data processor having disabled cores
|Jul 7, 2011
|Oct 21, 2014
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Method for the translation of programs for reconfigurable architectures
|Nov 11, 2010
|May 19, 2015
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Processor arrangement on a chip including data processing, memory, and interface elements
|May 28, 2013
|Jun 2, 2015
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Logical cell array and bus system
|Oct 17, 2012
|Jul 7, 2015
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Methods and devices for treating and processing data
|Oct 21, 2010
|Jul 9, 2013
|Martin Vorbach
|Method of self-synchronization of configurable elements of a programmable module
|Oct 21, 2010
|Sep 2, 2014
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Method of self-synchronization of configurable elements of a programmable module
|Oct 21, 2010
|Oct 28, 2014
|Pact Xpp Technologies Ag
|Method of self-synchronization of configurable elements of a programmable module
|Nov 20, 2002
|Jul 24, 2003
|The Fletcher-Terry Company
|Point driver
|U.S. Classification
|227/130, 91/461, 251/33, 173/169
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Oct 5, 1990
Owner name: FLETCHER-TERRY COMPANY, THE, A CORP OF CT, CONNECT
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST.;ASSIGNORS:KOZYRSKI, VINCENT T.;PETERS, ALAN R.;REEL/FRAME:005472/0321
Effective date: 19900921
|Jun 30, 1995
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Apr 2, 1999
Owner name: BANKBOSTON, N.A., CONNECTICUT
Free format text: MORTGAGE ASSIGNMENT AND SECURITY AGREEMENT (LETTERS PATENT);ASSIGNOR:FLETCHER-TERRY COMPANY, THE;REEL/FRAME:009827/0646
Effective date: 19990401
|Jul 27, 1999
|Maintenance fee reminder mailed
|Jan 2, 2000
|Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fees
|Feb 17, 2000
Owner name: FLETCHER-TERRY COMPANY, THE, CONNECTICUT
Free format text: RECONVEYANCE AGREEMENT;ASSIGNOR:BANKBOSTON, N.A.;REEL/FRAME:010557/0964
Effective date: 19990907
|Mar 14, 2000
|Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee
Effective date: 19991231


text:
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios: And Other Stories (Paperback)Yann Martel
Paperback Published: 30/06/2005
- In stock
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This superb collection, hailed for its power, compassion and elegance, takes in the wide sweep of human experience. From the last hours of a condemned man, to the imaginary life of an AIDS patient, to the first performance of a bizarre new symphony, Yann Martel's stories are moving, thought-provoking and as inventive in form as they are timeless in content. They display the startling mix of dazzle and depth that has made him an international phenomenon.
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
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Does GPGPU programming only allow the execution of SIMD instructions? If so then it must be a tedious task to re write an algorithm that has been designed to run on a general CPU to run on a GPU? Also is there a pattern in algorithms that can be converted to SIMD architecture?
We started with Q&A. Technical documentation is next, and we need your help.
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, you can contribute.
Well, it's not quite exact that GPGPU only supports SIMD execution. Many GPUs have some non-SIMD components. But, overall, to take full advantage of a GPU you need to be running SIMD code.
However, you are NOT necessarily writing SIMD instructions. I.e. GPU SIMD is not the same as CPU SIMD - i.e. not the same as writing code to take advantage of x86 SSE (Stream SIMD Extensions), etc. Indeed, as one of the people who brough CPU SIMD to you (I was heavily involved in Intel MMX, one of the earliest such, and have followed the evolution to FP SIMD) I often feel obliged to correct people who say that CPU's like Intel have SIMD instructions. I prefer to consider them packed vector instructions, although I grudgingly call them SIMD packed vector instruction sets just because everyone misuses the name. I also emphasize that CPU SIMD isntruction sets such as MMX and SSE may have SIMD packed vector execution units - integer and floating point ALUs, etc. - but they don't have SIMD control flow, and they usually don't have SIMD memory access (aka scatter/gather (although Intel Larrabee was moving in that direction)).
Some pages on my comp-arch.net wiki about this (I write about computer architecture for my hobby): - http://semipublic.comp-arch.net/wiki/SIMD - http://semipublic.comp-arch.net/wiki/SIMD_packed_vector - http://semipublic.comp-arch.net/wiki/Difference_between_vector_and_packed_vector - http://semipublic.comp-arch.net/wiki/Single_Instruction_Multiple_Threads_(SIMT) although I apologize for not yet having written the page that talks about SIMD packed vector instruction sers, as in Intel MMX or SIMD.
But I don't expect you to read all of the above. Let me try to explain.
Imagine that you have a piece of code that looks something like this, when written in a simple, scalar, manner:
where function1() and function2() are simple enough to inline - say function1(x) = x*x and function2(x) = sqrt(x).
On a CPU. to use something like SSE, you would have to (1) divide the array up into chunks, say the size of the 256 bit AVX , (2) handle the IF statement yourself, using masks or the like. Something like:
You may not think this is so bad, but remember, this is a simple example. Imagine multiple nested IFs, and so on. Or, imagine that "some_condition" is clumpy, so that you might save a lot of unnecessary computation by skipping sections where it is all function1 or all function2...
I think you can get the picture? And it gets even more complicated when you have multiple arrays, and sometimes the data is aligned on a 256 bit boundary, and sometimes not (as is typical, say, in stencil computations, where you operate on all alignments).
Now, here's roughly what it looks like on something like a GPU:
Doesn't that look a lot more like the original scalar code? The only real difference is that you have lost the array indexes, A[i]. (Actually, some GPGPU languages keep the array indexes in, but most that I know of do not.)
Now, I have left out (a) Open/CL's C-like syntax, (b) all of the setup that you need to connect the Open/CL code to your C or C++ code (there are much better languages than CUDA or OpenCL - these have a lot of cruft. But they are available many places, on both CPUs and GPUs[**]). But I think I have presented the heart of the matter:
The key thing about GPGPU computation is that you write SIMD, data parallel cold. But you write it at a higher level than you write CPU-style SSE code. Higher level even than the compiler intrinsics.
First, the GPGPU compiler, e.g. the OpenCL or CUDA compiler, handle a lot of the management of data behind your back. The compiler arranges to do the control flow, tghe IF statements, etc.
By the way, note, as I marked with a [**], that sometimes a so called SIMD GPGPU compiler can generate code that wil run on both CPUs and GPUs. I.e. a SIMD compiler can generate code that uses CPU SIMD instructiin sets.
But GPUs themselves have special hardware support that runs this SIMD code, appropriately compiled, much faster than it can run on the CPU using CPU SIMD instructions. Most importantly, the GPUs have many more execution units - e.g. a CPU like AMD Bulldoser has 2 sets of 128-bit-wide FMACS, i.e. is capable of doing 8 FMACs per cycle. Times the number of CPUs on a chip - say 8 - giving you maybe 64 per cycle. Whereas a modern GPU may have 2,048 32b FMACs every cycle. Even if running at 1/2 or 1/4 the clock rate, that's a big difference.
How can the GPUs have so much more hardware? Well, first, they are usually bigger chips than the CPU. But, also, they tend not to spend (some say "waste") hardware on things like big caches and out-of-order execution that CPUs spend it on. CPUs try to make one or a few computations fast, whereas GPUs do many computations in parallel, but individually slower than the CPU. Still, the total number of computations that the GPU can do per second is much higher than a CPU can do.
The FGPUs have other hardware optimizations. For example, they run many more threads than a CPU. Whereas an Intel CPU has 2 hyperthreads per CPU, giving you 16 threads on an 8 CPU core chip, a GPU may have hundreds. And so on.
Most interesting to me as a computer architect, many GPUs have special hardware support for SIMD control flow. They make manipulating those masks much more efficient than on a CPU running SSE.
And so on.
Anyway, I hope that I have made my point
It's much cleaner.
More and more compilers are allowing the same code to run on both DCPU and GPU. I.e. they are increasingly supporting the clean "real SIMD" coding style, rather than the fake "pseudo-SIMD" coding style that has been necessary to take advantage of MMX and SSE and AVX up til now. This is good - such code is equally "nice" to program on both CPU and GPU. But the GPU often runs it much faster. There's a paper by Intel called "Debunking the 100X GPU vs. CPU myth: an evaluation of throughput computing on CPU and GPU", http://www.hwsw.hu/kepek/hirek/2010/06/p451-lee.pdf. It says GPUs are "only" 2.5X faster on average. But that's after a lot of aggressive optimization. The GPU code is often easier to write. And I don't know about you, but I think "only" 2.5X faster is not that much to sneeze at. Especially since the GPGPU code is often easier to read.
Now, there's no free lunch. If your code is naturally data parallel, great. But some coede is not. That can be a pain.
And, like all machines, GPUs have their quirks.
But if your code is naturally data parallel, you may get great speedups, with code that is much more readable.
I'm a CPU designer. I expect to borrow lots of ideas from GPUs to male CPUs run faster, and vice versa.


text:
The Food and Drug Administration proposed the first regulations
for mobile health applications on July 19, focusing on products that act
like medical devices, The Washington Post reports.
The rapidly growing area, which includes apps such as heart
monitors and X-ray viewing boards, are causing some alarm because officials want to
make sure they are safe for patients.
The FDA won't enforce
the guidelines until it collects feedback from health care providers and
manufacturers during the next 90 days, the article said.
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The latest version of the Defense Department-wide Enterprise Service Management Framework places more emphasis on managing IT risk.
Despite GSA's efforts to accelerate the FedRAMP approval process, the lack of agency reciprocity puts the program's central goals at risk.
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The agency is making strides in developing and deploying border technologies but still has some weaknesses.
Agencies have spent almost $23 billion on legacy IT over the past three years, according to reports to Congress. Is a revolving fund the answer?
The United Kingdom will go live with its governmentwide digital identity platform, GOV.UK Verify, in the coming days. The U.S. government will need a little more time.
What contracting officer representatives really think is needed to fix contract management.
By what stretch of the imagination is binary code running on a mobile platform FOOD or DRUG? You've got to be kidding me. Maybe we should get the EPA to regulate any website that advocates, uses, discusses, or mentions green technology, conservation, or the environment. Let's regulate the NRA website via the ATF. Let's regulate Ford's website through the DoT. I could go on, but I believe I've made my point.
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text:
With four games to go, the NFC East's collection of porous football teams is a scrunched-up mess with a combined record of 19-29. But the division will still send someone to the postseason, which means each team is still striving for a possible seventeenth game.
We've collected the latest headlines from around the division for your reading pleasure, and compiled each team's remaining strength of schedule for reference.
Someone has to win this division.