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Chelsea Pensioners support Forces Sauces and British Sausage Week
Chelsea Pensioners from the Royal Hospital Chelsea, have joined forces with sister Veterans charity Stoll to promote Forces Sauces on the eve of both Bonfire Night and British Sausage Week.
"We all like a good British Banger" says Chelsea Pensioner Douglas Payne. Adds fellow Veteran, Audrey Merton BEM, "Especially if there's some Forces Sauces to go with them!"
Stoll resident Bob Barrett is the founder of and inspiration behind the launch of Forces Sauces in 2013. While reflecting on how he could help raise money to assist other Veterans get their lives back on track, Bob's realisation that Brits spend over £400 million on their bottled sauces each year and his own entrepreneurial flair in running a small 'Beef Kitchen' at Stoll's main Fulham site adjoining Stamford Bridge for those attending Chelsea FC home matches, led to their creation. The Royal British Legion helped develop this by funding an apprenticeship scheme that helped Veterans to train as chefs and now continues to work with Stoll as partners in the Forces Sauces initiative.
Made using the traditional method of large open pans specially by the English Provender Company and now available online and in Waitrose and Tesco stores nationwide, every bottle sold leads to a donation to Stoll and their partners in this venture, The Royal British Legion.
Two varieties are produced: Corporal Ketchup, with its rich, real-tomato taste that is not too sweet, and Brigadier Brown with its perfect balance of rich and fruity, with a touch of molasses, dates, tamarind and others spices.
Most surprising of all is that these sauces are truly British, unlike other currently better known ones! Do your bit for Britain and your Veterans and insist from now onwards on only Forces Sauces – whether at home, at work or at your local take-away!
Stoll Head of Fundraising and Communication, Samantha Barber says, "Not only does this collaboration coincide with Bonfire Night and British Sausage Week but also with the run up to the country's annual Remembrance Day ceremonies when we remember all those who gave their lives so that we and our children may enjoy ours today safe and free. This really is a time to support our Veterans – and this is a brilliant and effective way of doing so."
For more information about Stoll, the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Forces Sauces, contact:
Stoll and Forces Sauces
Samantha Barber, Head of Fundraising and Communications on [email protected] or 020 7381 7488 or 07885 806986
Royal Hospital Chelsea
Katie Kennedy, Marketing and Communications Manager on [email protected] or 020 7881 5517 Ext: 517
Notes to editors
Supporting images featuring Chelsea Pensions Audrey Merton BEM and Douglas Payne are available from Samantha Barber (above) in standard media format for use in support of this story in the United Kingdom. Photographer: Hayden Murtagh.
About Stoll
Stoll (formerly Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation) is a registered charity which enables vulnerable ex-Servicemen and women to live as independently as possible by providing a comprehensive range of services and rehabilitative support. These include appropriate housing in several London locations, supported by a variety of health and wellbeing activities, outreach to Veterans living in the wider community, a monthly drop-in of 20 Veterans' agencies held in Stoll's Fulham site's Community Hall and a national scheme matching single Veterans of working age with social housing providers, the Veterans' Nomination Scheme.
The charity was originally founded in 1916 by the well-know theatrical impresario, Sir Oswald Stoll, to provide accommodation and support for wounded soldiers returning from the First World War and their families. Stoll continues to house disabled ex-servicemen and women to this day and is committed to building and sustaining communities within which ex-Service people can live independently, positively and healthily.
Stoll has its main site in Fulham where it provides 157 homes with further sites at Westway Beacons in East Acton (with 20 homes), at its Chiswick War Memorial Homes in Chiswick (with 36 homes) and, with its official opening in barely 2 weeks, at Wessex House in Hounslow (with another 33 homes). Approaching its Centenary year, Stoll has bold plans matched by growing need to provide additional homes in the South East of England.
About the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners
The Royal Hospital Chelsea was founded in 1681 by King Charles II to provide a home for 'the relief of veterans broken by age or war'. Sir Christopher Wren designed the Royal Hospital Chelsea and it was opened in 1692. Today the Grade I listed site is still home to some 300 In-Pensioners (more commonly known as Chelsea Pensioners), who are all former soldiers of the British Army. The Royal Hospital aims to provide the Chelsea Pensioners with a home, comradeship and the very highest standards of care during their advanced years, in recognition of their loyal service to the nation.
The Chelsea Pensioners
In their distinctive scarlet uniforms, the Chelsea Pensioners have become icons in London and around the world. They are the living embodiment, as well as a visual reminder, of the Nation's Covenant with her old soldiers. Current Chelsea Pensioners include veterans from World War II, Korea, Malaya, Borneo, The Falklands, Northern Ireland, Palestine and Cyprus.
How you can help
To find out how you can help or to make a donation to the Chelsea Pensioners' Appeal, visit www.chelsea-pensioners.org.uk or call 020 7881 5324. (Registered charity number: 1076414)
The Royal British Legion
The Royal British Legion's work is encapsulated in its motto: Live On – to the memory of the fallen and the future of the living. The Legion is the nation's biggest Armed Forces charity providing care and support to all members of the British Armed Forces past and present and their families. It is the national custodian of Remembrance and safeguards the Military Covenant between the nation and its Armed Forces. It is well known for the annual Poppy Appeal, and its emblem the red poppy. Find out more at www.britishlegion.org.uk


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Joan Smith's article, "They're not called soft subjects for nothing", panders to a lame stereotype of degree courses in "Madonna studies or equine tourism" (6 February). Tourism's contribution to the UK economy, currently £115bn a year, could grow by more than 60 per cent to £188bn by 2020. It would seem intelligent to train people to deal with this. The article asserts that "students from poorer backgrounds would make do with less challenging 'soft' vocational subjects like media studies". But the UK film industry alone employed 33,500 people and supported 95,000 jobs, contributing £4.3bn to the economy, according to Oxford Economics in 2007. Again, that takes trained staff.
We require more vocational courses at a time of economic instability – training people to imagine and then implement ideas. Of course, education is about preparing people for life, but it's a whole lot easier if individuals have work and income.
Smith concludes: "Learning to think critically is a better foundation for life than a course in running tourist attractions." Such a course requires all sorts of study and research: sociology, motivation, economics, management, marketing and languages. All require critical thinking.
James Derounian
Principal lecturer
University of Gloucestershire
Forty years ago, I was commissioned to design a hospital in Nigeria ("Hospital food needs urgent treatment", 6 February). Working in a Nigerian context, I was advised to design the wards on a Florence Nightingale model: beds on each side of the ward with cross-ventilation, a nurses' station at one end and, at the other, a covered space for relatives to cook meals for their loved ones. There's an idea for the NHS.
Francis Weal
Romsey, Hampshire
A complaint published about food at St Helier hospital was over four years old. Today, I am pleased to say, the breakfasts, lunches and dinners served at our hospitals have been independently rated "excellent" (Epsom) and "good" (St Helier). Patients choose from an extensive menu and those who need help have one-to-one assistance. If a patient misses a meal, snack boxes are available 24 hours a day. We also have times set aside solely for patients to eat meals, which allows staff to monitor their food intake.
Pippa Hart
Director of Nursing, Epsom and St HelierUniversity Hospitals, Surrey
It is a myth that the oyster used to be "a staple food of the working class" ("Wild oysters in danger of extinction", 6 February). When the industrial revolution and railways created a new market for fish and shellfish in cities, herring was the important seafood for urban workers; oysters, a minor luxury, were sold on the streets like hot chestnuts in winter. When Sam Weller remarks to Mr Pickwick as they drive through the East End that "it is a wery remarkable circumstance that poverty and oysters always seems to go together", he means remarkable that a luxury food should go with poverty, not that oysters are commonplace.
Professor Robert Neild
Trinity College, Cambridge
Don't huge bonuses imply that the banks are charging too much for their services or not paying enough to their investors? Our pension pots would be somewhat grander if the banks treated us with the same largesse as their staff.
Dave Morgan
Beddington, Surrey
Your excellent chart linking friend- ships between politicians and the big four banks omits customers (6 February), who could protest by changing banks. The Co-operative Bank, for example, did not go to the Government for a bailout, and lends only £105 for each £100 acquired, putting others to shame.
Leslie Freitag
Harpenden, Hertfordshire
Paul Vallely asks, "How are you?", and adds, "I hope you're not one of those dysfunctional people who takes such a question literally" ("Too much information...", 6 February). I am 23 and have lived in Cornwall, Jersey and Portugal. The majority in each place like to ask and be asked this, and listen to the answer. It is a simple way to get a feel for another's well-being.
Ed Johnson
Par, Cornwall
To your list of significant occurrences of the number 42 (6 February) you could add that, in the ASCii computer character code, 42 represents an asterisk. This, when used in a search algorithm, denotes "everything". Douglas Adams denied it, but I suspect this was the source of Deep Thought's answer.
Stephen Mullin
London EC1
Why do we think Sally Bercow was "naked except for a sheet"? The photo exposes no more than does an average evening dress. It is our febrile minds that conjure up images of the bedroom. If she is "semi-naked", so is every celebrity swanning down a red carpet.
Gilda Puckett
Ashford, Kent
Have your say
Letters to the Editor, Independent on Sunday, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5HF; email: firstname.lastname@example.com (with address; no attachments, please); fax: 020 7005 2627; online: independent.co.uk/dayinapage/2011/February/13
- More about:
- Architecture
- Fish
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subset: commoncrawl


text: Watch Darkweb (2016) Free Full Still, even the most dependably government-suspicious libertarians might be shaken by, say, the 3D printing of weapons, or the web publicizing of heroin, LSD and other unlawful medicines (now and again, to minors). Watch Darkweb (2016) Free Full Hd The last attempt was a distinguishing strength of the Silk Road, a website page arranged in the Deep web subset known as the Dark Net, where a freewheeling businessman alluded to either autonomously or taking all things into account as Dread Pirate Roberts — a false name cribbed from "The Princess Bride". freemoviesonlinemovies.net


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Best Of :: Arts & Entertainment
"La casa de los artistas" is the slogan Kukaramakara uses to promote itself — and it's hard to argue with that self-assessment. In a city where people bow to the temple of the DJ, it's refreshing to see a live music club stake a claim on prime real estate in Brickell. However, live music alone doesn't make for a great Latin nightclub — most Latin clubs employ some kind of live instrumentation. Kukaramakara has set itself apart by doing it well for several years. The Colombian import started out on NE 11th Street in the old Studio A space. But when the posh South American crowds shied away from the dicey area, Kukaramakara made the best decision by packing up and moving to the city's South American expat epicenter of Brickell. Their live bands keep true to the target audience, employing mainly Colombian and Venezuelan musicians who are able to keep the Latin club vibe 100 percent authentic. Drinks are pricey here, but Miamians don't go to the club to eat and slam booze. Enjoy a moderately priced happy hour at one of the countless places nearby and then head to Kukaramakara for the real draw: shaking your ass to live jams until you can pronounce "merengue" like a native, rolled r and all.
How do you know when an art gallery has catapulted into the art-world stratosphere? When collectors from Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris quickly buy out its entire stock at a major art fair. That was exactly what happened to Spinello Projects at the Volta New York fair, where major collectors plunked down serious cash to pluck 25 of Farley Aguilar's atmospheric paintings off the Spinello booth walls within two hours of opening its doors, to the delight of Anthony Spinello and his rising art star. Spinello, who has experienced a meteoric rise since he became a dealer in 2005, heads one of only two local galleries invited to participate in Art Basel Miami Beach the past two years running. It's no accident. The dealer has demonstrated a keen eye for spotting talent and represents locals ready to burst onto the national stage, from Aguilar to Santiago Rubino, Sinisa Kukec, Agustina Woodgate, Typoe, Manny Preires, and Antonia Wright. The main reason: He inspires fierce loyalty. For Spinello, the program he runs is a passion. He can often be found at his artists' studios or his gallery working elbow-to-elbow with the talents on their projects. Spinello has become known not only for producing edgy, thought-provoking, and seamlessly organized exhibits, but also for assembling a stable that functions as a family network of supportive talent rather than a roster of individual egos. In a business known for ruthless competitiveness, that level of loyalty is an all too uncommon trait.
During the past five years, Jillian Mayer has catapulted to national prominence as an artist and filmmaker who creates uncanny works that employ a postmillennial techno approach while blurring identities and parsing pop cultural memes. She burst onto the scene with her 2010 Scenic Jogging, in which the artist raced after bucolic screen-saver images projected onto Wynwood warehouses. That piece later won the Guggenheim's YouTube Play biennial, where it earned Mayer raves. The next year, Mayer followed with I Am Your Grandma — a viral, deliciously creepy gem in which she sings as the bizarre granny of her future progeny; it has earned 2.6 million YouTube views and counting. She also released Giving Birth to Myself, which headlined her solo show "Family Matters" at the David Castillo Gallery with a disturbing meditation on maternity where the sweat-soaked talent re-emerges as a baby slathered in acid-green slime. In 2012, Mayer and frequent collaborator and founder of the Borscht Film Festival, Lucas Leyva, snagged national headlines after their film The Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke screened at Sundance and earned the duo inclusion in Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film." Last year, Mayer's clever How to Hide From Cameras, a YouTube makeup tutorial on how to remain anonymous in an increasing surveillance state, was a finalist at the Museum of Contemporary Art's popular Optic Nerve video fest, while her film #PostModem, yet another collaboration with Leyva, screened at Sundance. These days, not only is Mayer riding a hot hand, but the wildly creative artist has also proven herself a chameleon-like changeling who's startlingly at ease with forever reinventing herself.
David Beckham is smitten with the idea of constructing a new Major League Soccer Stadium at PortMiami and calls the site perfect because it reflects a city that "is all about the water, all about the culture." Becks is right. For evidence, simply visit the planet's most popular port to discover Coral Reef City, Bhakti Baxter's first large-scale public artwork in Miami. For his eye-popping project, part of Miami-Dade County's Art in Public Places program, the homegrown artist created site-specific designs for the port's toll collection booths that reference the site's unique role as gateway to the tropics. Baxter collaborated with Coral Morphologic, a Miami-based scientific art endeavor led by marine biologist Colin Foord and musician Jared McKay to create the 18 unique designs that wrap each individual toll booth. Each delivers a stunning vision of our vibrant local sea life. To accomplish the feat, Baxter and his collaborators enlarged macro photographs of corals that inhabit the waters in and around Miami, creating a striking synergy between nature and art that captures our town's appeal as a pulsating paradise. The resulting explosion of the brilliant, rainbow-hued colors of the soft corals (technically known as zoanthids) delights not only the likes of Beckham and the millions of other visitors passing through on cruise ships, but also locals, who rarely get a chance to behold the mystery and beauty of the creatures populating our coastline.
Wynwood may be the heart of a growing global graffiti movement, but some of its murals are surprisingly soulless. Whether they depict a cool-ass dragon perched atop a mountain peak or cartoon characters committing acts of violence, many are brilliantly drawn but little more, like flashy wallpaper for warehouses. Few of the works strive to stir something inside passersby. On the southwest corner of NW Third Avenue and 27th Street, towering gold letters spell "I remember paradise" against a rainbow background. The mural, by Londoner Lakwena Maciver, is meant to invoke human longing for a lost era. "We all have this sense that there is something wrong with the world but that once there was something perfect," Maciver told New Times. It's a beautiful painting, and one that has formed the backdrop for Beyoncé Instagrams and glossy magazine spreads. But it's actually the mural cater-cornered that makes us nostalgic. There, a heavily tattooed man holds a gorgeous woman in a tender embrace. A shuttered doorway is transformed into a birdcage. The mural, by Peruvian duo Entes y Pésimo (Beings & Dreadful), perfectly captures modern-day Miami: young, Hispanic, interracial, part tattooed thug, part tender romantic. The man's face is pensive, his stance protective. The woman, unashamedly in love, stares straight out at you. How wonderfully disarming to walk through Wynwood on a weekend night, past posturing dudes and pretending chicks, and stumble upon such intimacy.
The eyes of Miami are stoned on Elmer's and see everything. The sleepy sentinels keep watch over Wynwood at NW 27th Street, make their mark on the Margulies Collection facing I-95, boldly impress passersby on Biscayne Boulevard, and peer down from above the kitchen at the bayside Standard Hotel. Whatever their location or color scheme, they are stacked by the dozens, sometimes even hundreds, and leave an impression whether or not you know the name of the man who wields the can that created the memorable work. The ignorance stops here, because the local artist deserves your recognition. "AholSniffsGlue" is not only the funniest street artist name in town, but it also gets to the heart of the whole droopy-lidded genius of his best-known trademark. But lazy eyes aren't all he draws. He's had solo exhibits of his multimedia artwork at Gregg Shienbaum and Mercenary Square and has been part of group affairs at Scope and Wynwood Art Fair. But it's the half-mast eyes that are his calling card and most notable addition to the Miami street art scene. Next time you see them, call it out: "AholSniffsGlue!" You'll look cool in front of your friends.


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Totes from BAGGU, bringing a little swagger to your shopping
Things we love: Colorful, bold, and ripstop totes from BAGGU!
So when you're traveling to and from your adorable abode, bring along a BAGGU. Being earth-friendly never looked so cute! Even cuter? They supplied these colorful and graphic backgrounds for my digital life. (Love!) http://baggubag.com/static/Earthday/downloads.html No, we don't sell these @ Apt2B but we love them and wanted to share them with you :)
- Tags: Fun Stuff
- Adam Hanin


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3. Set Goals that are Reasonable and Relevant When establishing goals, make sure they are meaningful. There
should be value in doing a particular activity. Each goal must be
relevant to the work you do each day and should be mutually agreed upon
by you and your manager.
Read more...


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|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Apr 30, 1985
|Filing date
|Feb 9, 1983
|Priority date
|Feb 9, 1983
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Theodore H. York
|Original Assignee
|Westinghouse Electric Corp.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (16), Referenced by (10), Classifications (6), Legal Events (5)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved demodulator for use in communication systems employing a binary phase modulated carrier. More particularly, the invention relates to novel sampling apparatus which provides performance and cost advantages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Coherent phase shift keyed digital modulation techniques are known to be especially suitable for electric utility power line carrier communication systems. The basic task of such systems is to transmit information over the primary and secondary distribution conductors between a central utility location and customer locations. The information may consist of remote meter reading commands, metering data, load shed commands, load status information, and various other data useful in automated distribution systems.
The data is converted at the transmitting end to strings of binary data bits in a predetermined message format. The data bits assume one of two possible states, typically referred to as "mark" and "space" or logic 1 and logic 0. The information, when converted to digital form, is referred to as baseband data.
In order to transmit the message from the source to the destination, the baseband data is modulated onto a carrier signal, generally of much higher frequency, through a coherent phase modulation technique by causing a 180� phase shift of the carrier whenever the baseband data undergoes a transition between mark and space. The modulated carrier signal is then coupled to the power line conductor and propagated to the destination.
A power line communication system employing coherent phase shift keyed modulation is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,964, issued Jan. 19, 1982 to John R. Boykin and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In the transmitter, the bipolar data bits are phase encoded onto the carrier with identical bit intervals or data symbol times defining a predetermined data rate and are synchronized with the carrier signal so as to be integrally related to the carrier signal frequency. In the receiving apparatus disclosed therein, the modulated carrier is hard limited to produce square wave carrier signals. The polarity of the hard limited carrier signals is then sampled at equal intervals at a sampling pulse rate selected such that the ratio of the sampling rate and the carrier frequency is not an integer. The sampling process enables the demodulator to determine the relative position of the square wave carrier frequency zero crossings. This information is in turn used to derive the phase of the incoming carrier signal relative to an internally generated reference signal. From this information, the demodulator then determines when the phase of the carrier signal undergoes a 180� shift and reconstructs the baseband digital data.
The period of the sampling signal in the demodulator of the aforementioned U.S. patent is normally set to N�1/m cycles of the carrier frequency where N and M are integers. This generates an "image" of the received signal at a reduced frequency of: ##EQU1## where fc is the original carrier frequency. The baud rate B is then established by determining the number of cycles K of the image frequency per baseband data bit. Therefore, if K cycles of fi constitutes one baseband data bit period, then the baud rate is:
B=fc /K(N�m+1)
For example, a CPSK system having the values m=8, N=5, K=4 yields a baud rate of B=76.2195 for a carrier frequency fc =12.5 KHz.
It can be seen that in order to provide a reasonably high baud rate, the values of N, m, and K should be as small as possible. In a microprocessor controlled system, such constraint places a considerable demand on the controlling microprocessor, since it must be interrupted every N�1/m cycles of carrier frequency to produce a sample pulse. For the above listed example with a carrier frequency of 12.5 KHz, an interrupt rate of 2.439 KHz is required.
Another characteristic of CPSK digital demodulators, such as described in the aforementioned patent, is a sensitivity to incoming signals having frequencies other than the desired carrier frequency. These additional frequencies to which the demodulator responds are called aliasing frequencies, and are the frequencies which produce the same image frequency for other valid denominators in the equation: ##EQU2## where N is constant. In the example given above: ##EQU3## Therefore, aliasing frequencies fa occur at: ##EQU4## and all solutions to the equation:
fa =12,500/41�(8�N�1)
for integer values of N unequal to 5.
To a limited extent, the sensitivity to aliasing frequencies can be reduced by proper filtering techniques, but it has the effect of reducing the performance of the demodulator under high noise conditions. By increasing the sampling rate, it is possible to improve the performance of the demodulator to permit detection of a weaker carrier signal in the presence of high noise levels. However, increasing the sampling rate raises the interrupt rate for the microprocessor, and the point is rapidly reached where performance is limited by computing capabilities of the microprocessor. It would therefore be desirable to provide a CPSK digital demodulator having a higher effective sampling rate without increasing the processing demands of the microprocessor. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a digital demodulator having a reduced sensitivity to aliasing frequencies.
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, there is provided a coherent phase shift keyed digital demodulator and method of coherent phase demodulation for detecting binary data symbols phase encoded in a sinusoidal carrier. The carrier is hard limited at the receiver to produce a train of rectangular wave signals at the carrier frequency having phase encoded data bits, with identical baud intervals or data symbol times defining a predetermined data rate. The baud rate is synchronized with the carrier signal so as to be integrally related to the carrier signal frequency. The polarities, or levels, of the hard limited carrier signals are sampled to produce an identically phased image signal of the incoming carrier signal. The phase of the image signal is then compared to an internally generated reference signal to produce a logic output signal, the state of which is representative of the logic state of the baseband data present in the modulated carrier signal.
The sampling process is characterized by samples which occur in a burst mode, in which the time intervals between adjacent samples are not necessarily equal. A burst of P samples are taken at each microprocessor interrupt, with the samples in each burst being spaced at intervals of 1/m cycles of carrier frequency. The next interrupt occurs N+P/m cycles after the previous interrupt, thus successive samples in adjacent bursts occur at intervals of N+1/m cycles of carrier frequency. For K cycles of image frequency per baseband data bit and for a given number of J interrupts per baseband data bit time: ##EQU5## For example, for K=4, m=8, N=5, and P=2, then J=(K�m)/2=16, and Ni =10 for all values of i. In other words, the interval between interrupts is constant for this example, but this is not required to use the invention. By providing a burst of two samples per interrupt, the same sampling rate is maintained as in the demodulator disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,964, thereby producing essentially the same performance. However, the interrupt rate is reduced by one-half, allowing the use of a less powerful microprocessor.
Where it is not necessary to reduce the burden on the microprocessor, the same burden may be used in the above example with P=4 to double the sampling rate and thereby increase the performance. In this second example, J is again equal to (K�m)/2, but Ni varies, with Ni =9 for four values of i and Ni =10 for all other values. In other words, for the second example, the intervals between interrupts are not constant, but are related such that the sampling process still generates a faithful image signal of the carrier. This gives an improvement in performance of about 2 db by increasing the number of samples/bit over which noise is averaged plus the decreased sensitivity to aliases in Gaussian noise without significantly increasing the computational burden on the microprocessor.
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description of the preferred embodiment as shown in the drawings briefly described hereinafter.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communications terminal including a coherent phase demodulator made in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the demodulator shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 includes graphs A, B, and C illustrating baseband data signals and prior art sampling techniques;
FIG. 4 is a graph showing the construction of a binary phase coded image signal from a group of polarity sample bits obtained by sampling of the phase modulated carrier signals;
FIG. 5A is a graph similar to FIG. 3C showing the sampling techniques incorporated in the present invention; and
FIG. 5B is an expanded graph of a portion of FIG. 5A.
Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown a communications terminal 10 including a receiver 12 provided between a power line carrier input 13 and a coherent phase demodulator 14 having an input 15 and made in accordance with the present invention. Before describing the demodulator 14, the characteristics of the communication signals to be processed by the receiver 12 and phase demodulator 14 will be described to provide a better understanding of this invention. The receiver 12 is generally similar to that described in the previously mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,969, but includes an improved phase demodulator 14.
The communications terminal 10 is intended, in one preferred embodiment, to be connected to a coupler 16 which is mounted in signal communication with at least one of the power line conductors 18. Such conductors are typically used by electric utilities to supply fifty or sixty Hz. electric power to customer locations having the communications terminal 10. The coupler 16 is responsive to a power line carrier 20 transmitted over the conductors 18 and intended to be received by the receiver 12. The carrier 20 is phase modulated with digital data to be recovered by the phase demodulator 14 of this invention.
As is well known, the transmission of the carrier 20 in a power line communications system combined not only the carrier and the sixty Hz. power, but also various interfering signal noise and extraneous signal frequencies. Furthermore, various and random attenuation and impedance characteristics at the carrier frequencies of interest can be introduced in distribution system power line conductors 18 by associated distribution equipment such as distribution transformers and power correction capacitors.
The phase demodulator 14 is intended for operation in a coherent phase shift keyed (CPSK) carrier communication system which causes binary data to produce phase changes in a single sinusoidal carrier signal or tone. The carrier waveform designated by the numeral 22 in FIG. 1 is a substantially ideal recovered form of the carrier 20 on the conductors 18, which is phase reversal modulated with bipolar baseband data bit message symbols which form a data transmission to be received by the terminal 10. Each data bit is coded as a zero (i.e. nominal) phase of carrier frequency or as a 180� phase reversal of the carrier frequency. Although the invention is described in conjunction with a phase reversal system employing two permissible phase states of the carrier, it is to be understood that the invention is not so limited and may be used in quadrature CPSK systems employing four permissible phase states, or in systems employing other numbers of permissible phase states. The data bits are synchronized with the carrier frequency, such that equal baseband data baud intervals are provided which include equal numbers of cycles of the carrier so as to define a predetermined data baud rate. Although the baud rate is synchronized to the carrier, neither the data baud rate nor the carrier frequency is required to be synchronized nor have any predetermined harmonic or subharmonic frequency relationship with the electric power frequency or any other synchronizing frequency or signal source for operation of the demodulator 14 in accordance with the present invention. By way of example and not limitation, one preferred range of carrier frequencies is about 9 to 15 KHz and one exemplary carrier signal frequency described herein is 12.5 KHz.
The general requirements of the receiver 12 and the phase demodulator 14 are to detect the presence of the carrier waveform 22 in the carrier signals 20 of the power line conductors 18, to determine the phase of the carrier signal with respect to a phase reference, to provide synchronization with the beginning and end of each message symbol or data bit interval thereof, and to correlate the transmitted polarity or binary logic state of each carrier data bit. To fulfill these requirements, the receiver 12 is adapted to distinguish the carrier 22 frequency in the presence of the typical noise associated with transmission of the 60 Hz electric power and the extraneously induced noise of power line conductors 18. A high pass filter 24 is provided to initially reject sixty Hz power frequencies and to pass a carrier frequency of interest. A signal conditioning unit 26 further filters, conditions, and amplifies the received signals so as to produce the substantially single frequency carrier waveform 22 with binary phase modulated data information coded therein. The circuit 26 typically includes a low pass filter to reject frequencies slightly above the carrier frequency and a diode clipper to remove spurious noise impulses. A further bandpass filter is included in the circuit 26, which in one preferred embodiment, has a bandpass bandwidth of approximately four hundred Hz with a center frequency of 12.5 KHz. Accordingly, the output of the circuit 26 is substantially the same sinusoidal carrier as initially transmitted or injected onto the conductors 18 in the presence of low noise. A zero reference axis 27 defines the positive and negative half cycles of the sinusoid carrier waveform 22.
The reconstituted carrier waveform 22 is applied to a hard limiter circuit 28 where the carrier signal is amplified and hard limited between about five volts DC and ground. This produces a train of square or rectangular wave hard limited carrier signals 30, applied to demodulator input 15. The instantaneous high and low states of the signals 30 correspond to the positive and negative cycles of the carrier waveform 22. The carrier signal frequency and all of the phase reversal keyed data information originally modulating the carrier phase characteristics is found in the signals 30. The transitions of the signals 30 between the high voltage and low, or zero, voltage levels correspond to the carrier sine wave 22 passing between positive and negative half cycles or phases to cross at its zero axis 27.
The phase demodulator 14 processes the hard limited signals 30 in predetermined fragmentary portions or segments of the carrier. The segments (shown in FIG. 3) of the signal 30 are sampled to produce binary phase coded image signals (Si) by operation of the phase demodulator 14. Thus, a carrier segment is, by analogy, a fragment or "chip" portion broken away from the carrier, and a phase image or replica is derived therefrom for processing to determine its phase angle characteristics. Each carrier segment, or chip, produces one cycle of image signal. In the broad general aspects of synchronizing the demodulator for coherent operation, polarity samples of each carrier segment are converted to relative phase angles in the form of a vector signal representative of the phase of that segment of the carrier signal 22. A reference vector is also generated, using for example, the double frequency vector technique described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,964 or the vector reversing technique described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 465,232 which was filed on Feb. 9, 1983 and is assigned to the assignee of the present application. Correlation signals derived from comparisons of the phase angle signal and phase reference signal in a phase detector are summed, compared, and processed to accomplish carrier synchronization, data bit synchronization, and data bit polarity ambiguity resolution, thus producing reconstituted binary data signals 32 at demodulator input line 33. The binary logic ones and zeros of the signals 32 represent the same baseband digital data information as included in the transmitted carrier information. The data signals 32 are applied to decode and control logic circuits which may have one or more of the functions as generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,874, issued Dec. 19, 1978, for a load management terminal having plural selectable address formats for a power line communication system.
Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown a functional block diagram of the improved phase demodulator 14 which is described in connection with its operation to process the signals shown in FIG. 3. The graph A in FIG. 3 shows a time graph of the logic states of binary baseband data message signals 36 which are used to produce the modulated carrier waveform 22. The beginning of each message includes a preamble (shown between times T0 and T2) of eleven data bits which includes nine alternate data bit zero's and data bit one's to provide synchronizing data bits. These are followed by two consecutive data bit ones which form polarity indicator data bits.
Time T2 represents the end of the preamble and the beginning of the information data portion of the transmission message. The overall length of the message is typically on the order of forty to two hundred data bits in length. The baseband data signals 36 originate at a transmitter, not shown, and are used to phase reversal key (modulate) a nominal carrier frequency to produce the phase modulated carrier.
The graph B in FIG. 3 illustrates, in an expanded view, one carrier data bit interval between times T0 and T1 in the hard limited carrier signals 30 of FIGS. 1 and 2. Each equal carrier data symbol interval begins and ends at a point where a phase reversal of the carrier signal occurs if the binary state of the baseband data bit changes from that of the previous data bit. The initial portion of the preamble includes alternate polarity data bits to establish synchronization in the phase detector 14 as will become more apparent from the description. Four of the aforementioned carrier segments are included within each data symbol interval and are delineated by times T0, T0-1, T0-2, T0-3, and T1. The carrier segments are actually formed by the demodulator 14 after polarity sampling operations and storage of a predetermined number of the polarity samples within the demodulator 14. A data symbol interval is equal to the four carrier segments.
In graph C of FIG. 3, one of the four segments of graph B is shown in a further expanded view and includes the times of eight samples produced by sampling pulses 37 provided in the prior art phase demodulator 14 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,964. FIGS. 5A and 5B show expanded views of a segment similar to Graph C, but includes the times of samples produced by the phase demodulator 14 constructed according to the principles of the present invention.
As can be seen in Graph C of FIG. 3, the sampling pulses produced in the prior art phase demodulator are evenly spaced and are generated with equal time intervals between each sample. Each sample interval is defined by an equal integral number of complete carrier frequency cycles plus a predetermined fraction of a cycle. In the aforementioned prior art demodulator, the sampling interval is equal to 51/8 cycles of carrier frequency to effectively sample every 45� of one complete cycle, or 360� of the carrier signal, but at a low sampling rate of 2439 Hz. With four carrier segments of eight sampling pulses each per baseband data bit, there are 32 equally spaced prior art sampling pulses for each data bit. At the carrier frequency of 12.5 KHz this provides a data bit transmission rate of 76.2 bits per second. With the sampling rate specified, 164 cycles of carrier frequency occur during each baseband data bit interval shown in graph B of FIG. 3, and 41 cycles of carrier frequency during each carrier segment. The polarity samples of the hard limited carrier signals 30 are used to determine the times and directions of zero crossings of the carrier waveform 22, thus defining the phase angle thereof to derive the baseband data information which was phase modulated onto the carrier.
The actual sampling process consists of determining the polarity of the square wave carrier frequency signals 30 at the instant of each sampling pulse. The sampling process produces a series of binary polarity indicating sample signals 43 (FIG. 2), with positive and negative carrier polarity indications represented by a bit stream of logic ones and logic zeros, respectively. The polarity indications 43 are sequentially stored in an eight-bit cell storage register indicated as the binary phase coded image signal Si store block 44 in FIG. 2. The storage of the group of eight-bit sample signals 43 generates and established one binary phase coded signal which is developed during the sampling of one carrier segment to complete effective sampling of one full cycle of the carrier. As can be seen in Graph C of FIG. 3, the prior art sample pulses effectively "march across" the carrier signals 30, with each successive sampling pulse occurring at an equal interval of 1/8 of a cycle later in the carrier waveform. After 41 cycles of carrier frequency, the eight sampling pulses have produced a series of eight polarity indication bits b7-b0 (FIG. 4) stored as an 8-bit signal Si used to generate one cycle of an image signal 48 corresponding to the carrier frequency waveform, but at a much lower frequency.
Any polarity indicator bit transitions (that is, from a positive polarity to a negative polarity) between, for example, sample bit b1 and sample bit b0 indicate that a zero crossing of the image 48 derived from the carrier waveform 22 occurred between the corresponding sample pulse times. The binary phase coded signals designated Si are thus temporarily fixed stationary phase images of the carrier segments. Accordingly, when adjacent polarity indicator bits are different in a data word constituting the signal Si, this is an indication of a zero crossing (ie. change in signal polarity) of the image signal.
Each of the sample bit positions within the signal Si is indicated by an octal number b7 to b0, corresponding to the most significant bit (MSB) to the least significant bit (LSB) of a binary register within the demodulator apparatus. The sample bit positions b7 to b0 also correspond to sample pulse numbers 7 to 0 for each carrier segment as shown in FIG. 3C. The polarity indicator bits of the signal Si are compared to determine adjacent bit transitions from positive to negative or vice versa by a zero crossing detector 46 which determines the octal count of the sampling pulses which bracket the transition and whether the polarity transition was positive or negative, that is, a logic zero to a logic one, or a logic one to a logic zero.
The process of building the Si data word will now be described. Referring to FIG. 3C, it can be seen that the sample pulse indicated as 7 near time T0 determines that, at that instant, the carrier signal 30 is negative. Accordingly, a polarity indication of zero is produced by the polarity sampling circuit 38 and stored in bit position b7 of the image signal Si store block register 44 (FIG. 4). Similarly, the sample pulse labeled 6 in FIG. 3C tests the polarity of the carrier signal 30 at a point 51/8 cycles or 45� later than that of sample pulse 7. Again, the polarity of the carrier signal 30 at the time of sample pulse 6 is negative. Accordingly, the polarity indicator bit is again a logic zero which is stored in bit position b6 of the binary phase coded image signal Si register 44. The same is true for the polarity of the carrier signal 30 at the instant of sample pulse 5, and a logic zero is also stored in bit position b5 of the signal Si register 44 of FIG. 4. At the next sample pulse 4, which is retarded 45� in the waveform from that of sample pulse 5, the polarity of the carrier signal 30 is positive. Accordingly, the polarity indicator bit produced by sample pulse 4 is a logic one, which is stored in bit position b4 of the binary phase coded image signal Si 44 of FIG. 4. In a similar manner, each successive sample pulse produces a polarity indicator bit which is stored in the corresponding bit position of the Si signal register 44. From these polarity indicator bits, it can be seen in FIG. 4 that a square wave image signal 48 can be reconstructed by the zero crossing detector 46 which is an accurate representation of the phase of the carrier signal 30, by determining the relative position of a zero crossing of the signal 30. The signal 48 shown in FIG. 4 is a portion of a cycle of the 2439 Hz. image signal which is derived from the 12.5 KHz square wave carrier signal 30 by the sampling process.
As is explained in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,964, the phase of the image signal 48 (which is the same as the carrier signal 30) derived from the zero crossing information determined in the manner just described, is used by a vector generator 60 to produce a double frequency vector which is averaged over a period of several carrier segments and divided to produce a phase reference vector representative of the nominal phase of the carrier signal 30. The vector generator 60 of FIG. 2 also generates a phase angle vector representative of the phase of one segment of the carrier signal 30. These two vectors are then compared in phase detector 76 of FIG. 2 to produce a correlation signal M at the output 77 of phase detector 76. The signal M is then processed by a data bit synchronization circuit 80 to determine the beginning and end of a baseband data bit which was modulated onto the carrier signal 30. When proper synchronization is accomplished, the signal M will assume either large positive values or large negative values. A large positive value of M indicates that the phase angle vector is very close to the phase of the phase reference vector, and a large negative value of M indicates that the phase angle vector is close to 180� away from the phase of the phase reference vector.
The output of the data bit synchronization circuit 80 is supplied to a data bit sign correlator 82 which determines whether the nominal phase of the carrier 30 or the 180� phase shifted reverse phase of the carrier signal 30 represents a baseband data one. This information is then processed by a data output circuit 84 to produce a faithful representation 32 of the baseband digital data originally modulated onto the carrier signal 30 by the transmitter. This data is then sent to message decode and control circuitry of the terminal 10 to produce the desired control action represented in the baseband data.
The described prior art demodulator is implemented in a microprocessor based system described in greater detail in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,964 and includes a microcomputer of the 6800 series available in commercial quantities from Motorola Semiconductor Products, Inc. The sampling pulses 37 are generated by an oscillator circuit and selectively applied through the data I/O ports of the microcomputer to the non-maskable interrupt NMI input of the central processing unit. Thus, each sampling pulse requires a separate interrupt to properly execute the polarity sampling function. As is well known, the processing of an interrupt in a microcomputer requires the execution of a certain number of "housekeeping" or overhead instructions. When it is desired to increase the performance of the demodulator by increasing the sampling rate, the point is rapidly reached where the processing of interrupts associated with each sampling pulse is limited by the maximum processing capability of the microprocessor.
The present invention is also preferably implemented in apparatus incorporating a microprocessor. Furthermore, the present invention employs a polarity sampling technique as does that described in connection with the prior art. However, the present invention provides that successive samples are spaced L+1/m cycles of carrier frequency apart, where L and m are integers and m is preferably chosen such that 1/m cycles of carrier frequency is an exact multiple of the microprocessor clock. 1/m cycles is furthermore on the order of the instruction time of the microprocessor. The interval between successive pulses, however, is not necessarily equal, in that the value of L is permitted to change between successive sample pulses. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the sample pulses are produced in bursts of P samples, with the interval between each sample pulses within a burst being 1/m cycles apart. In other words, for the sample pulses within a burst, L equals zero, and for adjacent pulses in different bursts L is some integer N.
Each burst of sampling pulses requires only a single interrupt, and the interrupt intervals are thus established in the present invention to be equal to Ni +P/m cycles of carrier frequency such that for J interrupts per baseband data bit time: ##EQU6## where K=Number of cycles of image signal per baseband data bit;
m=Number of sampling pulses needed to cover 360� of carrier signal waveform to construct a single cycle of image signal;
N=Number of complete cycles of carrier signal between interrupts;
P=Number of samples per burst.
This is a concise way of expressing the concept that the number of carrier frequency cycles summed over J interrupts, is equal to the number of carrier cycles per baseband data bit interval.
In one preferred embodiment, K=4, m=8, N=5 and P=2 and the sample pulses occur as shown in FIG. 5A. Then J=K�m2=16. Thus, Ni equals 10 for all values of i.
This can be seen in FIG. 5A which, in a manner similar to FIG. 3C, shows a train of signals 30 subjected to sample pulses 7 through 0 corresponding to similarly labelled sample pulses in FIG. 3C. However, the eight sample pulses of FIG. 5A occur in four bursts of two pulses, with each burst initiated by a corresponding interrupt I0 through I3. Sample pulses within each burst, such as the sample pulse 7 and 6, are separated by 1/8 cycles of carrier frequency. Successive samples in adjacent bursts, such as sample pulses 6 and 5 are separated by 101/8 cycles of carrier frequency. The relative position of sample pulse 7 through 0 on the waveform of signal 30 can be seen more clearly in FIG. 5B which shows portions of FIG. 5A in expanded form.
In other words, in the above-described embodiment, there are two sampling pulses produced by each interrupt. This reduces the interrupt rate of the microprocessor by one-half over the prior art demodulator described in the aforementioned U.S. patent which employs equal intervals between sampling pulses, yet the sampling rate remains the same. Therefore, the described embodiment allows the use of a slower, lower cost microprocessor having less processing capability. Performance of the disclosed embodiment is equal to or better than the prior art demodulator of the aforementioned patent, depending on the type and degree of noise present on the transmission channel.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the various functions of the demodulator just described are implemented in a 6803 microprocessor available in commercial quantities from Motorola. The clock frequency of the 6803 microprocessor is 1 MHz. With m=8 and a carrier frequency of 12.5 KHz, it can be seen that 5/8 cycles of carrier frequency equals 10 μsec, which is exactly 10 times the 1 μsec period of the microprocessor clock. Since the instruction times of the 6803 microprocessor is 2 to 10 μsec, it can be seen that 1/m cycles of carrier frequency (i.e., the interval between sample pulses) is on the same order as the instruction time. This is important when the timing between successive samples within a burst is established by successive instructions in the microprocessor. Longer instructions would not allow microprocessor control of the sample burst. Shorter instruction times would force the addition of otherwise unnecessary instructions in the sampling routine, destroying the advantage of reduced microprocessor loading generated by the reduced interrupt rate.
If it is desired to provide a digital demodulator having increased performance with the same microprocessor burden, an alternative embodiment is employed similar to the previously described embodiment, with the exception that P=4. Thus, the sampling rate is effectively doubled to provide increased performance, yet the interrupt rate is the same. In this alternative embodiment, J again is equal to K�m2=16, but Ni varies. Ni =9 for every fourth value of i and Ni =10 for all other values. In other words, there are 91/8 cycles of carrier frequency between the last sample pulse of one burst and the first sample of the next burst for some bursts, and 101/8 cycles of carrier frequency between samples of adjacent bursts for others. This gives an improvement in performance of approximately 2 dB without significant increases in the computational load on the microprocessor.
Although the invention has been described above in a preferred embodiment and in a single alternative embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that other alternatives and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Jun 2, 1969
|Jun 12, 1973
|Hallicrafters Co
|Digital data transmission system utilizing phase shift keying
|Oct 19, 1971
|Jul 10, 1973
|Gerst C
|Method and apparatus for binary data
|Jan 29, 1973
|Jun 4, 1974
|Us Air Force
|Burst phase shift keyed receiver
|Dec 7, 1977
|Aug 7, 1979
|Honeywell Inc.
|Quadrature correlation phase reversal pulse detector
|Jul 13, 1978
|Nov 13, 1979
|Telecommunications Radioelectriques Et Telephoniques Trt
|Phase discriminator in a receiver for a data transmission system
|Feb 13, 1978
|Dec 11, 1979
|Tractor, Inc.
|Digital phase detector and method
|May 22, 1978
|Jan 29, 1980
|International Business Machines Corp.
|Receiver for data transmitted by means of the interleaved binary phase shift keyed modulation technique
|Aug 17, 1978
|Feb 26, 1980
|Motorola, Inc.
|Digital demodulator for phase shift keyed signals
|Jan 8, 1979
|Jan 20, 1981
|Northrop Corporation
|In-phase quadrature demodulator for CPSK signals
|Jan 9, 1979
|Jan 20, 1981
|Northrop Corporation
|Digital coherent phase demodulator
|Jun 7, 1979
|Oct 27, 1981
|Lgz Landis & Gyr Zug Ag
|Detector to determine the presence of an electrical signal in the presence of noise of predetermined characteristics
|Dec 26, 1979
|Nov 3, 1981
|General Electric Company
|Receiver for phase-shift modulated carrier signals
|Oct 16, 1979
|Dec 29, 1981
|Post Office
|Phase shift keyed demodulator using recovered carrier with controlled phase offset
|Sep 21, 1979
|Jan 19, 1982
|Westinghouse Electric Corp.
|Coherent phase shift keyed demodulator for power line communication systems
|Feb 16, 1979
|Mar 2, 1982
|The Marconi Company Limited
|Carrier recovery circuit for use in a multi-level phase shift keying demodulator
|Apr 28, 1980
|Mar 16, 1982
|Sangamo Weston, Inc.
|Adaptive differential PSK demodulator
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Sep 10, 1985
|Jun 23, 1987
|Motorola, Inc.
|FM demodulator
|Apr 30, 1987
|Nov 28, 1989
|Loral Corporation
|Digital demodulator for frequency-division-multiplexed signals
|Dec 1, 1993
|Sep 20, 1994
|Electronic Innovators, Inc.
|Distributed intelligence engineering casualty and damage control management system using an AC power line carrier-current lan
|Dec 31, 1992
|Dec 27, 1994
|Pacific Communication Sciences, Inc.
|Phase estimation and synchronization using a PSK demodulator
|Jun 7, 1995
|Jan 14, 1997
|Pacific Communication Sciences, Inc.
|Frequency controller and method of correcting phase estimates in a PSK demodulator using frequency control
|Aug 11, 1994
|Mar 11, 1997
|Pacific Communication Sciences, Inc.
|Phase detector and a method determining the phase of received PSK symbols
|Jun 7, 1995
|Apr 29, 1997
|Pacific Communication Sciences, Inc.
|Timing recovery controller and method for adjusting the timing of synchronizing windows in a PSK demodulator
|Dec 30, 1996
|Sep 21, 1999
|Murata Mfg. Co., Ltd.
|Apparatus for varying a sampling rate in a digital demodulator
|Nov 28, 1994
|Oct 5, 1999
|Murata Mfg. Co., Ltd.
|Method for receiving digital radio signals and a digital radio signals receiver
|May 13, 2002
|Nov 14, 2002
|Carroll Sean C.
|Method and apparatus for communication in an environment having repetitive noise
|U.S. Classification
|329/304, 375/328, 375/340
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Feb 9, 1983
Owner name: WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION WESTINGHOUSE BLD
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST.;ASSIGNOR:YORK, THEODORE H.;REEL/FRAME:004093/0833
Effective date: 19830202
|Oct 12, 1988
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Jun 7, 1990
Owner name: ABB POWER T&D COMPANY, INC., A DE CORP., PENNSYLV
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST.;ASSIGNOR:WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, A CORP. OF PA.;REEL/FRAME:005368/0692
Effective date: 19891229
|May 2, 1993
|Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fees
|Jul 20, 1993
|Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee
Effective date: 19930502


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Assignment Bangkok(1972)
(Book 33 in the Sam Durell series)
A novel by Edward S Aarons
Paperback edition of LARGE PRINT TEXT. Very Good to Like New condition. Ex-library copy. Bright clean cover has very slight edge wear. Text is perfect. Blank last page has been removed. Same day shipping.
Genre: Mystery
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August 1988 : USA Paperback
|Title: Assignment Bangkok (Curley Large Print Books)
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October 1972 : UK Paperback
|Title: Assignment-Bangkok (Coronet Books)
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Trijicon HD's are on mine.
Posted in thread: glock 22 conceal carry on 11-28-2011 at 11:25 PM
I conceal a G22, FS H&K USP 45 and a G21 using the King Tuk from Galco. I've tried so many
different holsters and the King Tuk works the best. You can get them for $56 all day. I'm 6'2
and 210 and the...
Posted in thread: Best Night Sights? on 11-28-2011 at 08:43 PM
I have the Trijicon HD's and love them!
Posted in thread: Who else carries at church? on 11-28-2011 at 08:35 PM
Hello! I just joined a few minutes ago. Add me to the list; G21 every Sunday.


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Description: For many pastors, church administration may be their least favorite area of ministry. But whether they love it or loathe it, they probably spend more time on administration than on any other single area of ministry. This book will help pastors create and maintain effective structures that will enable them to spend most of their time on what they truly value. Describes church administration as a ministry in the small membership church. Outlines key steps to organize and manage time, volunteers, and resources of the small membership churches including multi-point charges. Gives practical methods for creating and maintaining viable structures for effective church management * Helps pastors organize their church(es), so that they can focus on what gives them the most satisfaction in ministry. * Helps pastors recruit and retain the right people for the right jobs, thereby maximizing ministry especially where resources are limited. * Gives pastors ways to sharpen their vision for local church and mission beyond the local church ministry.
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You may remember that artist Juan Ortiz recently embarked on a mission to create a retro-style print for every episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. Now the prints have been converted into four sets of shot glasses that cover episodes 9, 28, 53, and 75 (set 1); 2, 14, 59, and 66 (set 2); 27, 36, 44 and 70 (set 3); and 1, 7, 24, and 47 (set 4).
Hit the jump to check out additional pics, and look for the sets to drunkenly stagger into the Nerd Approved Shop sometime in April.
Star Trek Fine Art Shot Glasses—$15 per set


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Splendours of Dubai and Abu Dhabi
5 Days / 4 Nights
Private Tours
Are you looking for Dubai luxury tour package? Book Our Splendors of Dubai package tour to Discover the beauty of Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 5-days visiting the must-see attractions and wonders. Enjoy fun at Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa, Emirates Palace, Yas Island & Ferrari World and More.
- Arrival and departure transfers from Dubai airport
- Assistance of our guest relations during your stay
- All transfers by an air-conditioned vehicle.
- 4 Nights Accommodation at Dubai Hotel
- English speaking guide during the tour.
- English speaking driver during safari tour
- Entrance fees to all the mentioned sites.
- Entry ticket to Burj Khalifa floor 124
- Desert Safari tour sharing tour with Hummer car
- All taxes & service charge.
- Any extras not mentioned in the itinerary.
- Tipping.
Day 1: Dubai Airport Arrival
On the first day in Dubai package tour. You will be met on arrival at Dubai International Airport transfer to your hotel in Dubai for Overnight.
Day 2: Modern Dubai City Tour with Burj Khalifa
Enjoy your breakfast at your hotel, Pick up Between 09.00Hrs to 09.30Hrs. Your experienced local guide will pick you up in the morning from your hotel and drive you to Dubai Marina, an awe-inspiring city-within-a city with a cosmopolitan, free-spirited atmosphere and unique, invigorating lifestyle then drive across Palm Jumeirah, world's largest artificially made island abundant with opulent hotels and homes, with a photo stop at the iconic Atlantis Hotel.
On to Souk Madinat Jumeirah with its meandering paths and a bazaar-like atmosphere complemented with street cafes and boutique restaurants, After this enjoy a visit to Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world. at the end of your trip you will enjoy a visit of Burj Khalifa at the level 124, where you can all Dubai city. After that you will have a free time at Dubai mall or return to your hotel.
Meals: Breakfast.
Day 3: Abu Dhabi Day Tour
Enjoy your breakfast at your hotel, Pick up Between 09.00Hrs to 09.30Hrs, You will be picked up from your hotel to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. The fourth biggest mosque in the world which accommodates some 40,000 worshipers inside its walls, the mosque showcases the cultural diversity of the Islamic world. The tour continues into the heart of the city, Union Square before a drive down to the Corniche. Next will be Pass by Emirates Palace. From there, you will move onto Heritage Village. Finally, Enjoy the Photo stops beside Yas Island & Ferrari World. After a long yet adventurous day we will transfer you back to your hotel.
Meals: Breakfast.
Day 4: Desert Safari Tour
Enjoy your breakfast at the hotel, with free time to discover the city yourself; Pick up Between 14.30Hrs to 15.00Hrs. Afternoon time you will be picked up to drive across the mystic sands of dubai desert. The thrill begins as your driver takes you up and down the golden sands of Arabia before stopping on the highest sand dune, allowing you to enjoy the beautiful view. Here you can experience the thrill of sand-boarding. Then you will be taken on to a Bedouin campsite complete with a local attire and refreshment for your enjoyment. Be adventurous and try a camel ride. Return back to the camp and dine on a delicious barbeque dinner as the stars come out and an enchanting belly dancer and tanoura dancer perform a fascinating routine to Arabian music. Complete the experience with your very own shisha pipe, available in many aromatic flavours before heading to your hotel in Dubai.
Meals: Breakfast, BBQ Dinner.
Day 5: Fly Home
Enjoy your delicious breakfast at your hotel and then free time before your flight, then you will drive you to Dubai airport for your flight to Home
Meals: Breakfast.
Tour price currency is set to USD but you can pay in Euro or British pound. The prices quoted per person per tour all inclusive and prices are always updated to ensure you receive the lowest price possible. Prices valid till 30 December 2017, except during the high periods mentioned below.
High Periods:
ARAB HEALTH : JAN.29 to FEB.02.2017
GULF FOOD: FEB.25 to MAR.02.2017
ARAB LAP : MAR 19 to MAR 24. 2017
Eid Al Fitr : JUNE.23 to JUNE.27.2017
Eid Al Adha : AUG.30 to SEP.03.2017
Christmas and New Year : DEC.25 - JAN. 02.2017
Important to Know:
- We operate tours and transfers on private basis to suit your arrival and departure times.
- Pick-up times and locations will be provided by a sales person after the confirmation.
- Please provide us with your working cell phone number, so we can contact you in case of any changes.
- Hotels check in start at 14.00 pm at the hotel & check out last time at 12.00 in the noon.
- Tourism Dirham fees is applied by Dubai Department of Tourism and has to be paid by customers directly to hotels.
Children Policy
- Under 2 years old: free of charge if they do not occupy a seat.
- Under 10 years old: 75% of the total tour cost for an individual.
- Children from 10 years are considered adults.
Deposit and Balance of Payment
A down payment (50%) will be required when you confirm your booking as requested and it can be paid by credit or debit card (Visa / MasterCard) via Verisign Secured payment system on our website. The balance of payment (50%) is required to be paid upon your arrival/pick up to your tour director in UAE in cash.
Tour Voucher
After your trip is confirmed, we will email you with the final confirmation and voucher to print and bring it with you. Details will include: contact numbers for your tour operator, customer care and additional information for your convenience.
Cancellation Policy
Memphis Tours does not charge a cancellation fee for tours and excursions which is cancelled for disastrous reasons such as: volcanoes, earthquakes, or any reason that is out of control. Memphis Tours cancellation policy will be applied if cancellation happens due to personal or business reasons.
Travel Experience Since 1955
Memphis Tours is one of the pioneers which have great impact on travel industry for more than 55 years of experience.
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I quite like Sandwich, a European brand, well known for its quality and details. I adore their soft sweaters and flowy dresses. All these outfits are great, but I particularly would like looks 05 and 10. Oh, and can I please have such naturally wavy, long hair? Just for one day, even?
I was shopping in one of my favorite local boutiques, Aimee B, and they had a beautiful, buttery soft, deep gray leather handbag for sale, by Sandwich. Just beautiful. It has subtle details and is a nice, slouchy style of handbag, with two shorter straps and one really long strap. It is on my birthday list. (I'm looking for a pic. and will post it a.s.a.p - I want to know what you think of it) Have you purchased from Sandwich before?
/all images via their site/
7 comments:
Sandwich is very British looking, just lovely. Reminds me somewhat of the Anthroplogie look. I'll have to ask my daughter and co-blogger Kate who is a fashion stylist.ReplyDelete
i lovee these photos! :) they are stunning. so carefree. lovee the clothes, and totally agree with you, can i have that wavy hair for at least a day? :)ReplyDelete
I've never heard of them but could see myself wearing almost all of it. That gray handbag sounds divine too! I've been wanting to add one to my own line, you just reminded me!ReplyDelete
xo Mary Jo
Mary Jo, your collections are stunning! I practically drool over your clutches :) I would love to see your gray handbag, can't wait~ReplyDelete
Few items to check out here from sandwich_ http://www.luxualboutique.comReplyDelete
I am currently working with Veldhoven as a consultant(Sandwich_'s parent company) and I am lucky enough to have been invited to a couple of their sample sales! I can certainly vouch for the quality - all the designs are fabric driven and they only use the highest fabric standards. If you like Sandwich then you should check out their sister label Stills, which is even better!ReplyDelete
My dad got me a sandwich_ bag a few years when he was in Italy...it's falling apart now but I'm wondering where I can get another one? It is a little tiny bag with a shoulder length strap...I shortened the strap so I can wear it on my waist. If anyone knows please contact me!!ReplyDelete


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When you purchase a digital subscription to Cake Central Magazine, you will get an instant and automatic download of the most recent issue.
Cake carved--not the "shirt" pan--and covered in fondant. Hand painted using lemon extract and Americolors navy blue.


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iPhoto 4 is faster, simpler to navigate, and full of neat enhancements, from Smart Albums to new slideshow transitions. Whether you're upgrading or new to iPhoto, The iPhoto 4 Book will help you master it a whole lot faster. Not just the stuff you'd pick up by random pointing and clicking: all of iPhoto.
Since better images "in" equals better images "out," the authors start with tips on capturing better photos: not just basics like composition and lighting but also how to compensate for a slow camera (something that bedevils many film photographers). You'll walk through the iPhoto interface, tweaking to your taste, then import in every way imaginable -- from drag-and-drop through copying from iPhoto disc.
The authors next turn to iPhoto's improved organization features, including the aforementioned Smart Albums. They offer a full section on photo editing and another on sharing -- from QuickTime movies through professional prints. You'll walk step-by-step through building one of those sensational iPhoto books and getting it manufactured (a marvelous family gift if ever there was one). And, since iPhoto's only one piece of Steve Jobs's "iLife," you'll learn how to use your iPhoto-managed images in iMovie and iDVD, too.
There's even a three-chapter contribution from the legendary Andy Ihnatko, who's been writing about the Mac for more than 16 years (We fondly recall his Macworld and MacUser columns.) Ihnatko teaches you how to automate iPhoto 4 with AppleScript, then answers the type of questions your "Aunt Estelle" would ask, and even offers a few great digital camera tips of his own. (Bill Camarda, from the January 2005 Read Only)


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I have been to Williamsburg every year a couple times a year my whole life mostly staying at wyndham kings gate. This was my first visit to wyndham patriots place. This resorts is one of Wyndham's finest resorts. We visited at Halloween and the property had pumpkins and scare crows and lights though out adding the feeling of home and fall. The grounds are very clean and well manicured, the check in building is very cute and new. Check in isn't until 4 but we arrived at 1 and found no line and was promptly greatly and checked in with no problem. Front desk staff was very friendly and explained everything we needed to know. There was no pressure of a tour not even offered to us. We has a studio unit which was small but had everything you need. It smelled clean and everything was clean and fresh. The room seemed to be recently updated, it comes with a queen size bed, couch , table for 2 and a small kitchen with a fridge, stove top, oven , microwave, toaster etc. it didn't have a washer and dryer but there is a full size washer and dryer located in a room just on the first floor of the building. Customer service here is grade A, about a half an hour after we checked in we received a call making sure we got in okay and making sure all is well. We realized our DVD player wasn't working we called the front desk and within 5 minutes they sent maintenance who looked at it and returned within 5 minutes with a brand new blue ray player in the box. We also saw our celling light was out in the bathroom we called the desk when we returned to the room is was lite. I would return and recommend 100% !!!
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Travelocity, Orbitz, TripOnline SA, Cheap Tickets, getaroom.com, Cancelon and HotelQuickly so you can book your Wyndham Patriots Place reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.
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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
|Quantifying the Behavioral Response to Optogenetic Stimulation of Mechanosensory Neurons in C. elegans
|Nikolic, Milos
|Shaevitz, Joshua W.
|Leifer, Andrew M.
|Class Year:
|This thesis looks at the relationship between the neural activity and the behavior of a freely moving roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. We optically activate two mechanosensory neurons in vivo and use advanced image and statistical analysis to quantify the behavior, and consequently the behavioral changes that arise due to the perturbation of the neurvous system. We outline the procedure to measure and identify behaviors in a lower dimensional space, which allows us to explain the consequences of the activity of specific neurons, and to potentially use this analysis to further investigate functional structure of the animal nervous system. Despite technological advances, the ways in which animal brains function remain elusive due to the complexity of most animal nervous systems. The structure of most brains is also rarely well known. Our model organism has one of the best researched nervous systems in the animal kingdom. C. elegans is a transparent nematode whose brain structure has been studied in detail [29] and all of its 302 neurons and their connections have been identified. Yet, we still have only a limited knowledge of the neural dynamics and functions that specific neurons perform. One of the most interesting scientific questions today is how does the brain activity correlate with the behavior. Many experiments have been done in this field, like that of Sawin [21], but so far they have relied on subjective categorizations of behavior. We employ dimensionality reduction by Principal Component Analysis to objectively and mathematically categorize the most important components of animal behavior robustly [23, 25, 26, 27]. We find that the laser stimulation of the OLQ and CEP neuron alters the values of behavioral components we measure in a complex way, illustrating a non-trivial relationship between the activity of these two neurons and the motor activity of C. elegans. Moreover, we identify the behavior that the optogenetic stimulation of CEP neuron causes. Our ability to reconstruct the exact behavioral response thus draws a strong quantitative connection between the brain activity and behavior of C. elegans.
|45 pages
|Type of Material:
|Princeton University Senior Theses
|Appears in Collections:
|Physics, 1936-2016
Files in This Item:
|Adobe PDF
|Request a copy
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While quashing allocation of 214 coal blocks allotted since 1993, the apex court granted six months 'breathing time' to companies whose 42 blocks were cancelled, to wind up business
The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed allocation of 214 coal blocks out of 218 allocated since 1993. While announcing the judgement, the apex court granted six months 'breathing time' to companies whose blocks were cancelled, to wind up business. Only four ultra mega power projects (UMPPs), including NTPC and SAIL have been exempted out of the 218 coal blocks.
The Court asked Coal India Ltd to take over such blocks within six months and auction them. As per the apex court order, 36 operational coal blocks have been cancelled and they are ordered to stop production after 1 March 2015. Out of the 214 coal blocks, 168 of the allocations are cancelled with immediate effect while 42 has been given six months' grace time to wind up.
The Supreme Court also directed these 42 block holders to pay a penalty of Rs295 per tonne of coal extracted for making up for the loss highlighted by the CAG in its report.
In a draft report issued in March 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) accused the union government of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during 2004–2009. The CAG Final Report tabled in the Parliament put the figure at Rs1.86 lakh crore ($30 billion). Even the Parliamentary Standing Committee report on Coal and Steel states that all coal blocks distributed between 1993 and 2008 were done in an unauthorized manner and allotment of all mines where production is yet to start should be cancelled.
Last month, the apex court held that all coal block allocations made since 1993 till 2010 before pre-auction era during previous NDA and UPA regimes have been done in an illegal manner by an "ad-hoc and casual" approach "without application of mind".
While passing strictures on the Screening Committee, the Supreme Court, in its ruling on 25th August, had said, "...the entire allocation of coal block as per recommendations made by the Screening Committee from 14 July 1993 in 36 meetings and the allocation through the Government dispensation route suffers from the vice of arbitrariness and legal flaws. The Screening Committee has never been consistent, it has not been transparent, there is no proper application of mind, it has acted on no material in many cases, relevant factors have seldom been its guiding factors, there was no transparency and guidelines have seldom guided it. On many occasions, guidelines have been honoured more in their breach. There was no objective criteria, nay, no criteria for evaluation of comparative merits. The approach had been ad-hoc and casual. There was no fair and transparent procedure, all resulting in unfair distribution of the national wealth. Common good and public interest have, thus, suffered heavily. Hence, the allocation of coal blocks based on the recommendations made in all the 36 meetings of the Screening Committee is illegal."
The Screening Committee had allotted coal blocks to 29 state government public sector undertakings (PSUs) while 72 PSUs were allotted blocks through government dispensation route.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha, had said, "The allocation of coal blocks through Government dispensation route, however laudable the object may be, also is illegal since it is impermissible as per the scheme of the CMN Act. No State Government or public sector undertakings of the State Governments are eligible for mining coal for commercial use. Since allocation of coal is permissible only to those categories under Section 3(3) and (4), the joint venture arrangement with ineligible firms is also impermissible."
The apex court mentioned that no challenge was laid before it for the blocks where competitive bidding was held for the lowest tariff for power for UMPPs. Prashant Bhushan, counsel for Common Cause said that since allocation for UMPPs is in accord with the opinion given in Natural Resources Allocation Reference and the benefit of the coal block is passed on to the public, the said allocations may not be cancelled.
He, however, had pointed out that in some cases, the government has allowed diversion of coal from UMPP to other end user for commercial exploitation.
"Having regard to this, it is directed that the coal blocks allocated for UMPP would only be used for UMPP and no diversion of coal for commercial exploitation would be permitted," the Supreme Court had said in its judgement on 25 August 2014.
Today the public transport scenario in most major cities is pathetic. Uber, a US company, is offering some relief to Indians from the ever adamant auto and taxiwallas
In a remarkable turn of events, Uber, a US company, is in India with a radio cab service that is challenging not only the existing players like Mega Cabs, Meru and OlaCabs but also auto rickshaws, the unruly and polluting mode of transport for a large number of urban Indians today.
Uber, which translates to Super in German, is a company from San Francisco, US. Much like what Amazon is doing in every market it enters, Uber's first priority seems to be to gain market share. This has led to Uber's services being competitive even against auto rickshaws.
When Uber launched in America, it's proposition was to provide cab services using top-end cars like Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Now in india, Uber realises like most foreign brands in India, that it cannot win without attacking the low-priced segment. So, it has launched UberX, its economy version of Uber.
For India, Uber Black, the higher-end service uses Totoya Camry, Innova, Volkswagen Vento and the Nissan Sunny while UberX, which is the cheaper version, uses Maruti Swift Dzire, Toyota Etios and Tata Manza.
The whole process is very easy to use. You download an application onto your phone and supply the credit card details. Then you use the app to call car. You can see how far the car is and track its coming. You don't need to pay by cash or card each time. You account is simply debited when your ride is over.
With already crowded roads, replacing autos with cars is a decision, which will need a huge infrastructure push in almost all big cities. Autos are cheaper to maintain and hence can cut across a much wider drivership. What Uber has on its side, is its ability to take losses for longer than its competitors with a huge war chest, but the question is can it outbleed the Indian urban taxi and rickshaw market?
A price war has already begun in most metros. The graphic above shows Uber's promotional rates. These rates may or may not continue but as of now they seem to be under-cutting the competition. In response to these rates from Uber, OlaCabs fired its response by cutting prices for its budget cab service called Ola Mini. Ola has cut rates to become cheaper than even auto rickshaws in the respective urban centres (see chart below) atleast for longer distances.
In the niche segment that would want expensive cars or luxurious rides as their taxis, Uber has a clear lead, but the mass market where Uber is trying to break through cares less about the status value of an expensive car as against cheaper fares. Then comes the issue of pushback by the taxi and autos. The taxi unions are very strong as are the auto unions. Once they see their business under attack, will they keep quiet or use politicians to go after Uber?
It is interesting to note that Uber has been banned in Germany and has faced protests everywhere else. Uber works in some say because, "given the universality of clunkers and irregular service, the introduction of higher-quality, upmarket cars and a vastly improved notion of service - both of which Uber provides - is a definite benefit to American consumers." Indians are at the opposite end, having to beg taxis and auto rickshaws to take them and are sometimes forced to pay exorbitant rates.
Indian radio cab companies saw creaking public transport infrastructure as an opportunity. Now, with Uber upping the ante and becoming compeititive not only to taxis but also to autos, it becomes a wide open game. Already Ola Mini has slashed prices to approximately what rickshaws charge in Pune. Policymarkers have not been able to deliver better transportation for us. At least we have some relief from a global technology company.
Consumers in the US never received costly machines advertised as helping them obtain Bitcoins, the virtual currency
A federal court has temporarily shut down a company that failed to deliver products that it said would help enable the successful mining of bitcoins, which is a form of virtual currency that can be used as payment for goods and services obtained online.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in its first bitcoin case, alleges that Kansas City-based BF Labs, also called Butterfly Labs, bilked consumers out of at least $20 million and potentially up to $50 million by charging them thousands of dollars for computers it either never delivered or shipped so late after the orders that the machines had become obsolete.
Bitcoins can only be generated by mining, a process in which consumers are awarded bitcoins by racing to solve puzzles with their computers. But as bitcoins have become more popular and more miners have joined the network, it has become increasingly difficult for miners to make a profit, the FTC said.
RELATED: Class-action Lawsuit against CoinTerra's Bitcoin Mining Machine
Butterfly Labs offered a solution, by selling machines and services – costing between $149 and up to about $30,000 — that the company said would help consumers solve the puzzles quickly to obtain the bitcoins. However, more than 20,000 consumers who paid upfront for a mining machine that the company said would be delivered October 2012 never received them almost a year later. And those that were delivered were defective, obsolete or mining fewer bitcoins than the machines could have if delivered sooner, the FTC alleged.
"We often see that when a new and little-understood opportunity like Bitcoin presents itself, scammers will find ways to capitalize on the public's excitement and interest," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Courtesy: TruthInAdvertising.org


text: Draft for need unless its a reach. Then BPA. I want a whole new D line. I think we missed out on Kenny Vaccaro last year. He's damn good. Qb of the future? There will be good qb's still on the board in the 3rd and possibly 4th. I like hundley. Zach mettenberger and Tajh Boyd in the middle rounds.