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In a sixth-floor conference room of an office building near Nashville International Airport, Rodney Hatfield's BlackBerry buzzed with an incoming e-mail: "The Lord placed a vision on our hearts of a skaters' Bible. We really love the N.K.J.V. and would love to use this version. Who can I talk to regarding this? We hope to pack the study Bible with testimonies from pros, devotions, skating tips, etc."
Hatfield is the vice-president of marketing for the Bible division of Thomas Nelson Publishers, and the N.K.J.V. (the New King James Version) is its best-selling translation. Thomas Nelson has a history stretching back to 1798, and, in the American market, it is by some measures the largest Christian publisher, the second-largest publisher of Bibles, and the ninth-largest publishing house of any kind. The e-mail was from a Florida skateboard ministry, and Hatfield read it impassively but not dismissively. After all, one of the company's lead titles for the fall, "The Family Foundations Study Bible," had its origins in a similarly unsolicited suggestion from an outsider. True, that source was more estimable (a major Christian retailer) and the idea less fanciful. But the general principle—that Scripture can be repackaged to meet the demands of an increasingly segmented market—is at the heart of the modern Bible-publishing industry.
The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year. Calculating how many Bibles are sold in the United States is a virtually impossible task, but a conservative estimate is that in 2005 Americans purchased some twenty-five million Bibles—twice as many as the most recent Harry Potter book. The amount spent annually on Bibles has been put at more than half a billion dollars.
In some ways, this should not be surprising. According to the Barna Group, an evangelical polling firm, forty-seven per cent of Americans read the Bible every week. But other research has found that ninety-one per cent of American households own at least one Bible—the average household owns four—which means that Bible publishers manage to sell twenty-five million copies a year of a book that almost everybody already has. Thomas Nelson's Bible sales increased more than fifteen per cent last year, and such commercial possibilities have begun to attract mainstream publishers to an area dominated by a half-dozen Christian houses. Penguin published two new editions of the Bible this fall, and in July HarperSanFrancisco, part of HarperCollins, announced the creation of a Bible imprint. In June, Thomas Nelson, which last changed hands thirty-seven years ago, for $2.6 million, was purchased by a private investment firm for four hundred and seventy-three million dollars.
This is an intensely competitive business, and, despite the provenance of "The Family Foundations Study Bible," publishers rarely rely on mere inspiration. Another new Nelson release, "The Grace for the Moment Daily Bible," had a more typically strategic genesis: it is an extension of one of the publisher's most popular brands, a series of devotional books by Max Lucado, a Texas minister whose many titles have sold nearly fifty million copies. Nelson has seventeen imprints in addition to the Nelson Bible Group, and when it has a popular writer like Lucado it will spin him off into as many different lines as possible. The "Daily Bible" features Scripture portions paired with short essays excerpted from other Lucado titles. In the absence of such ready-made material, Bible publishers formulate projects using classic market research. Every year, Nelson Bible executives analyze their product line for shortcomings, scrutinize the competition's offerings, and talk with consumers, retailers, and pastors about their needs.
Nelson categorizes "Grace for the Moment" as an everyday-life Bible, whereas "Family Foundations" is a study Bible. The distinction points to one way in which publishers sell multiple copies of the Bible to the same customers. "They each have a different purpose," Hatfield told me. "It's kind of like a tool chest. All the tools are tools, but they're designed for doing different things." And there are distinctions within each category. There are study Bibles that focus on theology, on historical context, or on practical applications of Biblical teachings. There are devotional Bibles for new believers, couples, brides, and cowboys. On an air-plane recently, I saw a woman reading a surfers' Bible very similar to the proposed skaters' one. The variety is seemingly limitless. Nelson Bible Group's 2006 catalogue lists more than a hundred titles.
"I almost liken it to what happened in radio," Wayne Hastings, the publisher of Nelson's Bible division, said. "Look at satellite radio—what is that, a hundred and seventy-eight stations? And it's all niched. We're doing the same thing in Bibles." In this process, style is nearly as important as content. Bible publishers depend heavily on focus groups, surveys, and trend-spotting firms. For cover designs, they subscribe to fashion-industry color reports. Tim Jordan, a Bible marketing manager at B. & H. Publishing Group, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, said, "It doesn't have to be 'a King James Bible in black bonded leather, and we might offer it to you in burgundy.' In years past, that might have been O.K., but the game has changed."
Bible publishing in the twenty-first century involves an intersection of faith and consumerism that is typical of contemporary American evangelicalism. Peter Thuesen, a religious historian and the author of "In Discordance with the Scriptures," a history of Bible translation controversies in America, sees in Bible publishing "a growing comfort with commercialization." He explained, "Different kinds of packaging can always be seen by true believers as having an evangelical utility. If it helps reach people with the Word, then it's not bad. You can consecrate the market."
As with so much of American popular culture, the modern era of Bible publishing has its spiritual roots in the nineteen-sixties. Through the first half of the twentieth century, the Bible, literally hidebound, had been synonymous with the establishment. Though there had been two major American translations—in 1901 and 1946—they were scholarly and dense, and the archaic King James Version, of 1611, remained dominant.
Into this world came "Good News for Modern Man." Published by the American Bible Society in 1966, "Good News for Modern Man" was a Bible for the young and disaffected. It resembled a mass-market illustrated paperback novel. A year later, five million copies were in print. Other publishers were quick to follow this lead, according to Paul Gutjahr, a professor of religious studies and English at Indiana University. Tyndale House published the Living Bible, a freewheeling paraphrase. The spirit of the era is best captured by an edition of the Living Bible put out under the title "The Way," which features psychedelic lettering and photographs of shaggy-haired young people and describes Jesus as "the greatest spiritual Activist who ever lived." The success of these accessible, culturally relevant Bibles alerted publishers to a new world of possibility. They introduced women's Bibles in pastel colors, recruited celebrity pastors to write exegeses, and made room for breezy spiritual pep talks alongside, or instead of, the scholarly commentary.
"Good News for Modern Man" was revolutionary not just in its packaging but also in its text. Until then, major Bible translations in English had taken an approach now known as "formal equivalence," striving to maintain the sentence structure, phrasing, and idioms of the original Hebrew and Greek. The Good News Translation, as it's usually known, followed the precepts of "functional equivalence"—translating not word for word but thought for thought, with the goal of capturing the meaning of the original text, even if that required massaging the words or reordering sentences. Walter Harrelson, a Bible scholar who served on the committee that produced the relatively formal New Revised Standard Version, in 1989, likes to say that formal equivalence carries the reader back to the world of the Bible, while functional equivalence transports the Bible into the world of the reader. Harrelson is a proponent of formal equivalence, and argues that preserving the linguistic qualities of the ancient text reminds readers that the Bible is "a document from another world that is luminous and transforming of our world." Proponents of functional equivalence counter that, to the original audience, the Bible would have sounded contemporary and vernacular, and that translators should preserve these qualities.
The popularity of the "Good News" Bible proved that there was a following for functional equivalence, and other publishers began tinkering with the formula. By far the most successful has been the New International Version, a moderately functional text published by Zondervan in 1973. Highly readable, it was more accurate than its sixties predecessors and more theologically conservative than the 1946 Revised Standard Version. These qualities enabled it, by 1986, to supplant the King James Version as the best-selling translation in America.
The effect of the functional-equivalence approach on the message of the Scriptures is most striking when it comes to rendering metaphors. A literal translation of God's words to straying Israelites in Amos 4:6 reads, "I gave you cleanness of teeth." The New International Version eliminates the potential misreading that God was punishing the wicked with dental hygiene, and translates the phrase as "I gave you empty stomachs." Functionally equivalent translations, at their most radical, often bypass the exotic metaphors of the Bible entirely. Matthew 3:8, in the N.R.S.V., reads, "Bear fruit worthy of repentance." The Contemporary English Version (1991) reads, "Do something to show that you have really given up your sins."
It is estimated that there have been more than five hundred English translations of the Bible, and there has never been a time in American history when so many translations have been in widespread use at once. A large Christian bookstore may carry as many as fifteen, although the top six account for ninety-five per cent of sales. Considering that the King James Version lacked a significant rival for three centuries, one could question the necessity of so many versions. Publishers can point to the fact that new archeological discoveries are constantly shedding light on the best way to reconstruct the piecemeal documents that make up Scripture. Language use evolves, too, of course, though it's hard to argue that anything truly significant changed between the publication of the English Standard Version (2001), Today's New International Version (2002), and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (2004). A more important factor, it seems, is market demand for more choices. Different denominations want translations tailored precisely to their needs, and the more translations that are available the greater readers' desire for yet further variety.
There are also commercial incentives. The King James Version is in the public domain, but if a company wants to publish a study Bible or a devotional Bible using a modern translation, it will have to pay royalties to the owner of that translation. Commissioning a proprietary translation is often more cost effective in the long run, especially since it can be licensed out to other publishers. Kenneth Barker, a theologian who ran the committee that translated the N.I.V. and has worked on three other translations, told me that he doesn't think a new version will be needed for at least twenty-five years, but he doubts there will be such a long break. "We like to think that the motivation is all holy and pure," he told me, "but finances do enter the picture, and publishers and Bible societies like to have their slice of the pie."
The popularization of the Bible entered a new phase in 2003, when Thomas Nelson created the BibleZine. Wayne Hastings described a meeting in which a young editor, who had conducted numerous focus groups and online surveys, presented the idea. "She brought in a variety of teen-girl magazines and threw them out on the table," he recalled. "And then she threw a black bonded-leather Bible on the table and said, 'Which would you rather read if you were sixteen years old?' " The result was "Revolve," a New Testament that looked indistinguishable from a glossy girls' magazine. The 2007 edition features cover lines like "Guys Speak Their Minds" and "Do U Rush to Crush?" Inside, the Gospels are surrounded by quizzes, photos of beaming teen-agers, and sidebars offering Bible-themed beauty secrets:
**{: .break one} ** Have you ever had a white stain appear underneath the arms of your favorite dark blouse? Don't freak out. You can quickly give deodorant spots the boot. Just grab a spare toothbrush, dampen with a little water and liquid soap, and gently scrub until the stain fades away. As you wash away the stain, praise God for cleansing us from all the wrong things we have done. (1 John 1:9) **
"Revolve" was immediately popular with teen-agers. "They weren't embarrassed anymore," Hastings said. "They could carry it around school, and nobody was going to ask them what in the world it is." Nelson quickly followed up with other titles, including "Refuel," for boys; "Blossom," for tweens; "Real," for the "vibrant urban crowd" (it comes bundled with a CD of Christian rap); and "Divine Health," which has notes by the author of the best-selling diet book "What Would Jesus Eat?" To date, Nelson has sold well over a million BibleZines.
The success of the BibleZine was all the more notable for occurring in a commercial field already crowded with products and with savvy marketing ideas. This year's annual trade show of the Christian Booksellers' Association, in Denver, brought such innovations as "The Outdoor Bible," printed on indestructible plastic sheets that fold up like maps, and "The Story," which features selections from the Bible arranged in chronological order, like a novel. There is a "Men of Integrity" Bible and a "Woman, Thou Art Loosed!" Bible. For kids, there's "The Super Heroes Bible: The Quest for Good Over Evil" and "Psalty's Kids Bible," featuring "Psalty, the famous singing songbook." The "Soul Surfer Bible" has notes by Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm to a shark in 2003. "2:52 Boys Bible: The Ultimate Manual" promises "gross and gory Bible stuff." In the "Rainbow Study Bible," each verse is color-coded by theme. "The Promise Bible" prints every one of God's promises in boldface. And "The Personal Promise Bible" is custom-printed with the owner's name ("The LORD is Daniel's shepherd"), home town ("Woe to you, Brooklyn! Woe to you, New York!"), and spouse's name ("Gina's two breasts are like two fawns").
There is also a renaissance in the field of audio Bibles. This category has long been dominated by stentorian readings by prominent ministers, and by such famous believers as Charlton Heston, Johnny Cash, and James Earl Jones. The latest audio versions, by contrast, are sophisticated dramatizations that feature sound effects, original music, and large professional casts. In Denver, Zondervan showcased "The Bible Experience," featuring just about every black actor in Hollywood, from Denzel Washington to Garrett Morris, and starring Blair Underwood as Jesus and Samuel L. Jackson as God. The publisher of Zondervan, Scott Bolinder, spoke with excitement about the possibilities for distributing the book on iTunes. "A person hears about it, says, 'I don't know, I'm not parting with thirty-four dollars. But I'll try the Book of Revelation for a dollar-ninety-nine,' " he said. Thomas Nelson is already working on a rival version, in which Jim Caviezel reprises the title role in "The Passion of the Christ." Jason Alexander, of "Seinfeld," is signed on for an unspecified Old Testament character.
It is easy to ascribe a cynical motive to publishers' embrace of commercial trends. Tim Jordan, of B. & H., concedes, "You do get some folks that say you shouldn't treat the Bible as a fashion accessory or a throwaway." Nonetheless, he feels that, from the point of view of a serious religious publisher, fashion can't be ignored as a way of reaching new audiences. The point, he says, is "to expose as many people as you can, because we believe that it's God's word, we believe that it's life-changing, and we don't take that lightly."
In the middle of the summer, Nelson Bible's marketing team assembled at the company's offices, in Nashville, for a fall strategy meeting. The staff members radiated the efficient good cheer of marketing professionals everywhere. Rodney Hatfield, his thick hair mostly gray, sat at a corner of the conference-room table while Scott Schwertly, the marketing director, got things rolling. "If we're going to start with the 'Family Foundations' Bible, let's go ahead and pull out the five-by-five matrix for that title," Schwertly said. The matrix is a chart of twenty-five squares; an axis along the top identifies "Target Audiences/Needs," such as "Churches/Pastors," and an axis down the side shows "What you will do to reach them."
An unusual challenge of Bible marketing is that there is no living author to do promotion. As a result, endorsements by well-known pastors become crucial. These are often the only names that will go on the cover. Hatfield asked about targeting the pastors David Jeremiah and Rick Warren: "Maybe there's even a customized version of this that they can brand for their ministry." The megachurch movement has created attractive possibilities for Bible marketers. A single recommendation from the pulpit of the right pastor can mean ten thousand potential sales.
With the book's marketing budget set at sixty thousand dollars, ads in mainstream publications were out of the question, but Kelly Holt, a marketing specialist, presented ideas for a campaign to run in several Christian magazines, including SpiritLed Woman, MOMSense, and Rev!, a magazine for pastors. Holt said, "The imagery would be the tired family at Disney World who's waiting in line all sweaty and nasty, and the tagline would be, like, 'There's a better way to spend quality time together.' " In addition to the Christian press, Nelson has the advantage of being able to place ads for its own products in its BibleZines. Ads for Christian horror novels and a reality show about missionaries ran in "Refuel."
Next, the meeting proceeded to the "Grace for the Moment Daily Bible." The marketing budget for this was only about half that of "Family Foundations," because Nelson was counting on Max Lucado's name to do most of the selling. The marketing group had explored giveaways on Christian radio stations and a collaboration with DaySpring, a Christian greeting-card company owned by Hallmark, for a line of Max Lucado cards. The group also discussed promoting the book when Lucado made appearances at Women of Faith, a travelling ministry that holds two-day "spiritual spas" attracting as many as twenty thousand paying worshippers. The largest chunk of the budget was going toward consumer ads, targeting both men and women, in Christian magazines. "I need some feedback," another marketing specialist said. She held up a print ad—a white orchid on a satiny black background—that had been created to run in "Redefine," a new BibleZine for baby boomers.
Hatfield made a suggestion: "I guess what it doesn't say enough of is 'Max Lucado.' "
"That should be huge," Jennifer Willingham, a publicist, said dryly. "Drop out your image: white sheet of paper and 'Max Lucado Bible.' "
Although Bible sales in America have been robust for the past decade, the business is still fraught with anxieties. For one thing, Bibles are expensive to produce—two to four times the cost of a typical hardcover book—and retail at prices that often leave a very small profit margin. ("The Family Foundations Study Bible" lists at $39.99 for the hardcover and $59.99 for the bonded-leather edition.) The expense begins with the page count: most Bibles are nearly two thousand pages long. Publishers must often commission custom fonts that are thin enough to keep the Bible compact and dark enough to read, but not so dark that they bleed through the thin (and expensive) paper. Internal design is complicated, too, with footnotes, study notes, center-column references, charts, maps, and illustrations. Leather covers add to the outlay. Gilding, a labor-intensive process, can be simulated with a spray stain, but costs remain high. Thomas Nelson stitches most of its bindings, though other publishers have moved toward glue. Red-letter Bibles require two-color printing. Tabs, ribbons, and boxes add to the cost.
There is also concern that Bible publishers, for all their marketing ingenuity, have outsmarted themselves. Tim Jordan said, "There's been research that has shown that half the people who come into a Christian bookstore intending to buy a Bible, with money in their pocket, leave without one, because they get overwhelmed."
In an auditorium at the Christian Booksellers' Association show this summer, Nelson's Wayne Hastings, a dapper man, nearly bald with a trim mustache, took the stage for a seminar on this issue. For half an hour, he laid out his company's new research into customers' "felt needs." According to Nelson's findings, people don't come into a store looking for a specific translation—the criterion by which most retailers arrange their Bible shelves—but, rather, to meet a need. More than sixty per cent of Bibles are purchased as gifts. Others are bought by people with scenarios in mind: I'll study it before breakfast; I'll read it on the bus. Hastings's message was that booksellers need to orient their displays to this need. "Are you willing to break some paradigms?" he asked. Behind a curtain, his company had set up a prototype for the Bible department of tomorrow. It consisted of color-coded shelves and packaging, organized not by translation but according to Nelson's six felt needs. Nelson says that ninety-five per cent of retailers have responded positively, but the reaction from other publishers has been lukewarm. Zondervan wants to stick with a translation-based system, which, perhaps not coincidentally, benefits its popular New International Version. Tyndale and B. & H. accept the felt-need premise but are quibbling over the specific categories, and are skeptical about the feasibility of industry-wide color-coding. Tim Jordan said, "You're not going to go to all the potato-chip companies and tell these people, 'You've got to change your packaging to reflect some common color for the potato-chip aisle.' I don't think Frito-Lay is going to go for that."
The most obvious solution would be fewer choices, but, given the enthusiasm that consumers have shown for a diversified market and the investment that publishers have made in satisfying this demand, that's out of the question. The situation worries some people. Phyllis Tickle, a former religion editor of Publishers Weekly and the author of popular prayer books, told me, "There's a certain scandal to what's happened to Bible publishing over the last fifteen years." Tickle is contributing to a new Bible paraphrase for Nelson called "The Voice," which is intended for the progressive emergent church, so she is not entirely opposed to modern repackaging. The problem, as she sees it, is that "instead of demanding that the believer, the reader, the seeker step out from the culture and become more Christian, more enclosed within ecclesial definition, we're saying, 'You stay in the culture and we'll come to you.' And, therefore, how are we going to separate out the culturally transient and trashy from the eternal?" The consumerist culture in which BibleZines and the like participate is, to Tickle, "entirely antithetical to the traditional Christian understanding of meekness and self-denial and love and compassion." In Tickle's view, reimagining the Bible according to the latest trends is not merely a question of surmounting a language barrier. It involves violating "something close to moral or spiritual barriers."
Of course, Tickle is questioning an industry trend, not publishers' sincerity. "I have yet to meet the first head of house that wasn't in it with some sense of calling as surely as a clergyman is," she said. Sitting in the Zondervan suite during the Christian Booksellers' Association show, Paul Caminiti, the head of the company's Bible division, cited an appropriately Biblical parallel, a story from the Book of Acts about Philip the Evangelist and a man known as the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian eunuch "was really the chief financial officer for the Persian empire," he said. "He was a brilliant man. He was probably the Alan Greenspan of his day. But he has a text Bible—and he has been to Jerusalem, so he is one of these people who is spiritually intrigued—but he can't make head or tail of it. And it's not because he isn't smart. So God sends Philip alongside." According to the Bible story, Philip ran up to the Ethiopian's chariot and, in the King James Version, asked, "Understandest thou what thou readest?" The Ethiopian answered, "How can I, except some man should guide me?" Philip, Caminiti explained, "provides just a little bit of color commentary, and the light comes on." After listening to Philip's explication of the passage, the Ethiopian orders his chariot to stop by some water so that Philip can baptize him. "And that's what we're doing," Caminiti concluded. "We're coming alongside the text and providing some color commentary. And some color covers." ♦


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OAKLAND — For a fifth time in about five weeks, the Bank of the West branch in the Temescal district has been robbed, and this time police say the robber was a repeat offender.
Police said the robber entered the bank at 4900 Telegraph Ave. at 12:21 p.m. Wednesday and handed a teller a note demanding money. He left the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash. No weapon was seen, and no one was injured during the heist.
He is described as a black man, 25-30 years old, about 6 feet tall, with a slim build and a mustache. He was wearing a teal and purple New Orleans Hornets basketball team cap, a black jacket and black pants. Police believe he is the same man who robbed the bank on Dec. 6 and are now doubling the reward to $5,000 for information leading to arrest.
In the Dec. 6 robbery, a dye pack exploded in the money as the robber left the bank. The description of that man is similar to the description of the man who robbed the bank Wednesday, police said.
That Bank of the West branch was robbed three other times between Dec. 10 and Dec. 29. Police are also looking for three other men and a woman linked to the other December robberies.
The Oakland Police Department and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering a rewards for information leading to any of the suspects. Anyone with information should call the major crimes unit at 510-238-3326. Tipsters can also call Crime Stoppers of Oakland at 510-777-8572 or 510-777-2805.
Staff writer Harry Harris contributed to this report. Reach Kristin J. Bender at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/kjbender.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cadence Design Systems Software
Welcome to the home page of the Cadence Users Group at Cooper Union for the Advancment of Science and Art. This page contains information about the Cadence design tools used extensively in our analog and digital integrated circuit engineering classes. Students enrolled in the Electronic Systems and Materials track are required to take the Integrated Circuit Engineering (ECE341) class in the Spring Semester of their junior year. Each pair of students submits one or more circuits to a foundry for fabrication under the auspices of the MOSIS organization.
With funding from the Keck Foundation, an Integrated Circuit Engineering laboratory was established in 1994 with state-of-the-art computer-aided design (CAD) tools, computer platforms and their peripherals for the design of VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) circuits. Integrated circuits, comprising from 20 to 20,000 transistors are designed from the bottom up using industry standard layout and simulation tools. Cadence Design Systems make their tools available at a massive discount through their educational program. In 1998, the first steps were taken to replace the original hardware. A new server, a SUN UltraSparc II purchased by Cooper Union, was equipped with a RAID storage system to provide a significant decrease in the access time, combined with an increase in the level of data and program security. The speed of the network was upgraded from 10 Mbits/sec to 100 Mbits/sec and the original computers were replaced with fourteen Sun Ultra 10 workstations. This has reduced considerably the time required to process circuits through the different design stages.
Integrated circuit fabrication commences with a schematic drawing of the circuit using Cadence's Composer schematic editor. The schematic is then converted into a netlist for input to the Analog Design Environment circuit simulator to verify that its performance meets the required specifications. The behavior of the transistors is derived from parameters supplied by the silicon foundry.
The simulated schematic circuit is then laid out as a planar array of transistors using Cadence's Virtuoso Layout editor. A further netlist is extracted from the layout and resimulated with the passive parasitic components associated with the transistor interconnections. After verification, the layout is sent to the foundry for fabrication.
The Integrated Circuit Design Experience
Students, working in pairs to comply with MOSIS funding regulations, undertake four design exercises using MOS transistors. The first two exercises move the student, from transistors in schematic form, to the transistor as a planar device with a specific geometric pattern. The exercises comprise five circuits with increasing complexity. Simple inverting amplifiers, with a diode connected transistor as the load, are followed by inverting amplifiers with active current sources as the load. Specifications are limited to gain, slew rate, supply voltage and fabrication technology. Students use supplied small signal models to set the sizes of the transistors. After layout, the circuit is extracted and re-simulated with close attention to the upper 3dB frequency and the influence of parasitic capacitance. The circuit with the active current source load presents more of a challenge because the design of the biasing circuit is very much in the hands of the student. The principal outcome of this assignment is to gain familiarity with the layout and simulation software, and to reach the conclusion that the software is merely a tool used by the circuit designer.
The final part of the preliminary design exercises is a simple operational transconductance amplifier. The circuit is supplied with specifications still limited to overall gain and slew rate, with guidelines for quiescent current and goals for the CMRR, PSRR and frequency response. This exercise rapidly introduces the student to the concept and reality of compromise in integrated circuit engineering. The open-ended nature of the exercise usually presents a significant challenge to most students. During its execution, they gain confidence in design and start to learn the art of compromise.
Design exercise three is presented as a set of specifications for a complete operational amplifier with internal frequency compensation. Values for the open loop gain, unity gain frequency and phase margin must be met by the circuit; other parameters such as the CMRR, output voltage swing and common mode input range must satisfy minimum requirements but improvements are strongly encouraged. This exercise introduces a variety of scenarios into the design experience. Students start to appreciate that numerical simulation packages such as HSpice and Spectre often require intelligent intervention to achieve satisfactory convergence. The need to meet specifications, which often appear to be mutually exclusive, encourages the student to adopt a methodical approach to design. Within this exercise, there is a great deal is of latitude in the design process. The architecture of the amplifier is chosen by the student as is the structure of the layout. It is emphasized that the greater the effort expended in this assignment, the easier the final project will be. The outcome of the second exercise is a thorough grounding in the principles of integrated circuit engineering. The reward of a working amplifier, complete with layout, provides compensation for a tough exercise.
The final project is a MAD (mixed analog and digital) circuit. Currently, this is a phase-locked loop with a center frequency of 100 MHz. Previous circuits have included a four-bit flash ADC, implemented with between 400 and 500 MOS transistors; a three-bit ADC with an on board bandgap voltage reference. The ADC specifications include the input voltage range, sensitivity and the operating conditions. The overall goal remaining is to design the device to operate as fast as possible at 100°C. The first task of each group is to design a comparator within which positive feedback is used to achieve the highest gain with minimum propagation delay. Since this is to be used as a standard cell, great attention must be paid to layout both from the perspective of interconnection and isolation of analog and digital signals. The final part of the design is a thermometer decoder for the output of the comparator stack. This introduces students to CMOS digital circuits.
The ADC is a considerable project for junior EE students. We feel however that the difficulty of the exercise is a very valuable design experience for the reasons mentioned.
Integrated Circuit Engineering (ECE341)
Students entering this class are equipped with an understanding of the fundamental building blocks of analog integrated circuits and a thorough comprehension of frequency response and feedback. Focussing on analog design, the assignments for this class comprise a series of design exercises in which circuits are designed and laid out from the transistor level up. The first major circuit is an operational amplifier, chosen to bring together feedback, frequency response and blocks of transistors as circuit components. The other major exercise is a self-contained, four bit, flash analog to digital converter.
Integrated circuit fabrication and technology. Device modeling, thermal effects. VLSI CAD design tools. Circuit layout, extraction and simulation. Design and analysis of multistage MOS operational amplifiers, OTA architectures. Nonlinear circuits, comparators. Analog switches. Sample and hold circuits. Bandgap reference circuits. MOS digital circuit design and layout, hierarchical approaches. Final design project is a mixed analog/digital circuit, e.g., flash A/D converter.
Digital Integrated Circuit Engineering (ECE441)
Design of CMOS combinational logic gates, layout and simulation. Standard cell construction. State machines. Complex gate design- AOI, XOR, flip-flops. Sequential logic systems, clocks. Design of arithmetic building blocks, multipliers, memory, FPGAs. System design and HDLs. Floor-planning. System architecture. Term project to design and fabricate of an ASIC using a variety of VLSI CAD tools.


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This book is listed in:
- Programming ( 1,604 )
- Programming Languages ( 2,111 )
- Computers ( 7,656 )
Instant Zend Framework 2.0
Book Description
In Detail
Zend Framework 2 is a modern object-oriented PHP framework. It has lots of useful components, which are easy to use and user friendly, helping you get your job done faster. This book shows you how to use the framework components to build a practical MVC application. Topics covered in this application include validation, file upload, database CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) operations, and so on.
Instant Zend Framework 2 has been specifically created to provide you with all the information that you need to get up with Zend Framework 2 applications. You will learn the basic of Zend Framework 2, and get started with building your first Zend Framework MVC application. The book promises to deliver all the information you need to get started with Zend Framework 2.
Instant Zend Framework 2 starts with how to download Zend Framework 2 and the skeleton application, and then shows how to configure the skeleton application to use the Zend Framework 2. Then it takes you through step-by-step instructions of how to create and configure modules, controllers, views, models, helpers and so on. By following the instructions in the book, you will be able to build a small fully functional database-driven MVC application.
You will also learn how to use different framework components like the event manager, Zend log, and how to configure them with the module. This will give you an idea of how to configure any component with the module. After finishing this book you will be able to build a small database-driven web application with Zend Framework 2.
Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks. This book is fast-paced, practical guide that will provide step-by-step instructions for building a practical database-driven MVC application using Zend Framework 2.
Who this book is for
This book is for developers who possess entry level knowledge or who have no prior experience with Zend Framework. An understanding of object-oriented programming is important and experience with namespaces will be required.
- Hardcover: 52 pages |
- Publisher: Packt Publishing |
- Publication date: Aug 26, 2013 |
- Language: English |
- Format: Ebook


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Land Rover Discovery Concept Debuts In New York
Land Rover is ready to bring its LR4, known elsewhere as the Discovery, into the 21st century, and this Discovery concept shows some of the ideas that may make it to the company's next SUV. The sleek new model will most likely follow the lead of the Range Rover, moving to Land Rover's lightweight and aluminum-intensive PLA architecture, when it finally reaches production in about two years' time.
The Land Rover Discovery concept is a thoroughly sleek, modern vehicle that manages to retain the current model's basic design language. Its rounded nose features a prominent skidplate and a skinny grille opening with narrow laser-powered headlights, its flat doors have a rising character crease, and its liftgate has an asymmetrical license plate holder in reference to the similarly shaped rear windows on current Land Rovers.
Clever details abound, many of which are likely reserved only for the concept car. The Land Rover rides on 23-inch wheels; it lacks door handles, so the doors use gesture recognition to pop open when an occupant waves; the wipers hide under a movable flap at the base of the windshield; cameras are fitted to the sideview mirrors; and when the liftgate is open, an electrically operated "event platform" can emerge from the rear of the car to provide a bench for tailgating.
Fanciful, Functional Interior
The Land Rover Discovery concept seats up to seven, but the arrangement of the second-row bench and third-row chairs can be altered at any time. A touchscreen allows for folding any of those seats flat into the floor, so they serve as tables, or flush with the seat ahead for more cargo space. In fact, touchscreens adorn nearly all sides of the car. Up front, a giant color screen serves as the instrument cluster, while two touchscreens on the steering wheel give the driver more information and control over car functions. The center stack, too, is composed of two touchscreens; the lower one pivots open to reveal a special compartment in which phones and other electronics can charge inductively, without being plugged in.
Practical innovations include special Foglizzo H20w leather that is washable and, according to Land Rover, spill-resistant. A panoramic sunroof allows plenty of light into the cabin, and the back of each seat features a dock for a tablet computer, a coat hook, and a fold-out table.
All of the windows are what Land Rover calls Smart Glass, and can display almost any information desired, and their tint level can be varied from fully transparent to fully opaque at the touch of a button. In the case of the roof, the Smart Glass can also be used to show scenes like a starry night sky, a winter's day, or beautiful sunshine, no matter the actual weather. The windows, linked to eye-tracking cameras, can tell what a passenger is looking at and provide pop-up information on nearby attractions or monuments. For the driver, Smart Glass provides driving information on the windshield and can relay the view from rear-facing cameras onto the front windows.
One feature that can be projected on the windshield is the so-called Transparent Hood function that Land Rover previously announced. It uses cameras beneath the SUV to provide a virtual look at terrain when off-roading. Other tech features use a combination of lasers and cameras to help make life easier for Land Rover Discovery concept drivers. Laser Terrain Scanning uses sensors in the foglights to create a virtual map of the car's surroundings, which are then relayed to the instrument cluster screen. The Laser Referencing system can then "paint" laser marks around it to warn the driver or other motorists. Land Rover says the system could display a warning triangle on the road surface to warn other cars the Discovery is stationary, and it could project red warning marks if a parking space is too narrow to fit the SUV.
Land Rover's signature Terrain Response system, which manages the four-wheel-drive and traction-control systems for use on varying surfaces, benefits from a new function called Wade Aid. Using lasers, the system evaluates the depth of water ahead of the concept car and warns the driver if it's too deep to drive through. Terrain Response will also be able to plot a route for the driver, giving him or her recommends for the best way to traverse tricky off-road situations.
Perhaps the most interesting technical toy on this Land Rover concept is Remote Control Drive. The driver exits the vehicle and uses a smartphone or tablet computer, linked to the Land Rover's built-in wireless network, to drive it slowly over short distances. The point, Land Rover says, is that sometimes it's easier to maneuver a car when you can see it from outside: over "extreme off-roading" situations, when hitching a trailer, or potentially when moving in and out of a farm gate that must be closed behind the vehicle.
It's unclear how many of these innovative features would ever make it to a production Land Rover, but the Discovery concept clearly shows the direction of future Land Rover models. Look for more details on the future of the LR4 (known as the Discovery overseas) over the coming two years.


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Friday, January 27, 2012
Two Important Things Our Ancestors Knew About Community
Our ancestors knew a thing or two about life and community. They knew what it took to raise up kids, get through life and enter into the twilight with dignity.
My sense is that people these days are losing their understanding of why doing certain things is important.
Over the past year I have lost five friends and family members. The most recent being my mother earlier this month. Quite a banner year for someone who has never really had to deal with death.
The experience has taught me two important lessons that our ancestors knew about services and community gatherings. I hope you'll consider these points when the time comes for you to handle major life events.
1) Shared Community Events are Important
After my mother's service, my cousin told me something along the lines of "Coming together like this makes me realize how important it is for family to be together and stay connected." She is so right. I had the same reaction. In this frantic world that we live in it is so easy to get wrapped up in our own worlds and push our greater community of family, friends and neighbors aside.
Our ancestors knew that community events were important. They knew that community events created a bond that gave support to all the members involved. Marriages before the community publicly announced to the couple that they were not alone. Their family and friends and community would be there to help them get through the rough patches. Smaller events like baby showers, birthdays and anniversaries likewise further strengthened the ties of support and witness to life events. And so it is with funerals, that a community, no matter how large or small, comes together to provide support to those left behind. Our ancestors knew that with this support we could together make it through this journey of life.
Maybe there is something that we've forgotten as a society that we should revisit. Maybe we need to put more effort into creating ties and building the bridges that will strengthen and enrich our lives and encourage us in hard times.
2) Saying Goodbye as a Family or Community is Important
My mother died from complications due to Alzheimer's disease. When that happens, the one who passes has lost a connection with a social community often for many years except for select immediate family. Sometimes we are tempted not to hold a public service as a result. No matter what the situation at the end of life it is important to hold a service and allow family and friends and those who want to support us to attend.
Saying goodbye is really important. That one brief act will provide the closure you need to grieve and allow you to move on with the rest of your life. Those who opt not to attend a service, or not to have a service, are preventing the much needed chance to release those emotions no matter how complicated those emotions might be. A one hour service gives you the freedom of the rest of your life. Denying the need to say goodbye will hold you captive for a long, long time.
I say this because I didn't think I needed to attend my Mom's service. That I was fine on my own. I was wrong. Our ancestors knew how critical is was to say goodbye and to allow yourself to receive the support of others.
So the next time you pass on the chance to say goodbye to someone because the kids are sick, or you're busy at work or you don't like to fly, think again. Work will understand, bring the kids along and make it a road trip if you have to. Your life will be strengthened by the decision.
20 comments:
I hope you had an opportunity to say goodbye in another way - at another time. If you didn't I hope you'll make sure you do. You're right, it is very important! Please look after yourself Marian.ReplyDelete
I am so sorry to hear that you lost your mother this month. It doesn't matter the ailment or affliction there's a special bond with family and the communities that we are involved in: genealogy community, quilting community, school...etc. That's why we feel the connection even 100 or 200 years later. There's an imprint. And I agree with your cousin!ReplyDelete
Great post. Not only strait gut from the heart, but so very true. My own mother died aged 62 after a 20 year struggle with Alzheimer's disease. My sisters and I had the same reaction as you did .. That she had lost contact with people and that a private service was appropriate but we changed our minds and so many people turned up to honor her, to support our family and to celebrate her life. When my father passed away a few years later, I decided to take a leaf from my Irish ancestors.... and as my Dad was a musician we had a full musical tribute to him with an orchestra, jazz band and his grandchildren playing music. You are so right in saying that our ancestors knew the importance of family and community celebrations. We all need to elaborate life and family more! Thank you for your meaningful post. It has made me think!ReplyDelete
I am very sorry for your loss, also, and you have said so beautifully why these events are important to do, important to hold. We have lost many family members in the past ten years, and I would add one more thing to your post, it is a good time, and perhaps the last time, to honor the accomplishments of that person, the life they've lived, the impact they've had on us all, and in so doing, allow us an opportunity to grieve. Thank you, Marian.ReplyDelete
Nice, heartfelt post, Marian. I agree with everything you say. A funeral is like the final punctuation mark at the end of a life. Hard for the reader to move on from a sentence with no period, and hard for loved ones to move on from a life/death with no funeral. I'm glad you drew comfort from it.ReplyDelete
Lorine and everyone, I should clarify that I did go to the service. I didn't think I needed to but in the end my wise husband convinced me that not only I, but the whole family, needed to go. I don't think I would have been able to come to these realizations without having attended.ReplyDelete
Thank you for sharing, Marian. Your mom raised a really neat woman.ReplyDelete
No truer words have been spoken. It amazing how the passing of a loved one can teach us so much about life and ourselves. I think you will find as you continue through the grieving process your Mother will still be teaching you. Thank You for sharing Marian.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 27, 2012 at 7:45 PM
I'm sorry to hear of your loss.
May your mother rest in peace.
If there's anything we all need, it's family and community.
Family and community are held together by our hellos and goodbyes. Love, respect, happiness, and hard times fill up the center.
You take care.
Peace & Blessings,
"Guided by the Ancestors"
We should share the originality & uniqueness that once was someone that loved, and was loved by all. I've come across that expression of feelings many times in my cemetery travels. Invariably, though, they always seem to be from another time in our society. We have become not only desensitized to death, but to life. In the end, for one and all, it is important to take a moment to not only remember that they lived, but to remember that you are alive.ReplyDelete
So sorry for your loss Marian.
Yes. I come from a family that has recently not held services and I think we loss something by it. I know that I have.ReplyDelete
Oh, Marian, what a hard year for you. I know that in a sense you lost your mom when Alzheimer's took over her body and brain, but in a bigger sense you really lost her when she passed. And I'm sorry for your loss, for both of them. This post was right on target when it comes to community, family, and farewells.ReplyDelete
I'm sorry to hear about your losses, Marian, and you are so right about community support. When my mother died, we knew her wish was for a private family-only funeral. I've always felt bad about those who wanted to attend and were excluded from saying goodbye.ReplyDelete
What an important and heartfelt post, and I am so sorry for your loss. What you have said is so very true, and this sense of community was a huge part of what we spoke about at my mother-in-law's funeral just a little over a week ago. Despite below zero temps, many people showed up to help us to honor her life. At almost 90, many of her friends have gone before her, but the small town that she had lived in for the past 66 years were there. While it was a stroke that was the final straw, she had been living in a nursing home for the past 3 1/2 years because of vascular dementia. Many years of high blood pressure had taken its toll. Because of the lack of short term memory, we didn't know till that day how many people had faithfully visited her each week. It was a wonderful way to say goodbye.ReplyDelete
- Barbara SchenckJanuary 28, 2012 at 10:50 AM
Marian, I am so sorry for your loss, and I heartily agree with your sentiments. My mother died two years ago and didn't want a service. She was living 2000 miles from where she had lived for 75 of her 90 years, and felt she didn't know anyone. So we respected her wishes and didn't have anything where she was living. But when we took her ashes back to her beloved California, we made it a "road trip" which included a wedding and a drive down the California coast to all the places she loved. It was a perfect way to say good-bye, culminating in the interment of her ashes alongside my stepdad's and a graveside service that I am sure she would have approved of -- and she'd have been amazed and delighted at the people who attended.ReplyDelete
Marian, I've been thinking of you and happy to read that your journey through this time is NOT ALONE. It was also good to read that you found the error of your thinking in time to really take advantage of what grieving with friends and family will do for you. When my Dad passed, my Mom refused to attend the viewing, so my siblings and I were in charge. I found it the MOST positive aspect of that difficult time. I believe I actually sucked the strength out of folks when they shook my hand or hugged me. I believe my Mom missed receiving that strength and grieved alone too long. If I can possibly do it, I try to attend viewings of my friend's parents/children so that the "strength" can be sucked out of me, too.ReplyDelete
I am sitting here trying to find the right words to put in the comment box. Too many things running through mind after reading your post and the other comments. All I can really say is thank you for sharing in the way you do and sorry for your loss.ReplyDelete
Your post is very touching.
I went through a similar experience two years ago, when I lost my father, brother and aunt. We had other losses that year, as well. I am just beginning to feel like myself again. I was able to say good-bye and I am grateful to have had that opportunity. However, like all traumas in life, it takes a good deal of time to process the death of a loved one. The preson who said "time heals all," knew a good deal about the human spirit.
Thank-you for sharing your thoughts with us.
Marian, I accidentally found this post while I was looking for something else in your blog. Now that I see the title, it reminds me that I had seen it mentioned via another blog in my blogger dashboard. Because our family was then going through a lot of turmoil of our own, I had made a mental note to revisit. Of course, Murphy must have intervened and I never could find that link again. Glad I stumbled upon it today.ReplyDelete
You have documented a very important concept, and I really appreciate the way you chose to express it. I know it must be a hard time for you--perhaps I had so much trouble "finding" your post because I had just gone through a difficult family loss, myself, and so totally relate--and I am sorry for your loss.
I am so appreciative, though, of the fact that the community was indeed there to lift you up and allow you a safe place to grieve among loved ones. One thing I remember from family deaths of decades past was those friends who had that talent of coming to visit and somehow turning that black-darkness of mourning into the uplifting appreciation of good memories. Those "remember when" talents of some old family friends--close enough to know our loved one well, but removed enough from the situation to not be overwhelmed by it--were such a gift. A gift, unfortunately, that I'm afraid may be becoming a lost art as people shy away from these difficult life passages.
Your words are a vital reminder that we need to "be there" and *not* shy away from these times to lift each other up!
Great post. Not only strait gut from the heart, but so very true. My own mother died aged 62 after a 20 year struggle with Alzheimer's disease. My sisters and I had the same reaction as you did .. That she had lost contact with people and that a private service was appropriate but we changed our minds and so many people turned up to honor her, to support our family and to celebrate her life. When my father passed away a few years later, I decided to take a leaf from my Irish ancestors.... and as my Dad was a musician we had a full musical tribute to him with an orchestra, jazz band and his grandchildren playing music. You are so right in saying that our ancestors knew the importance of family and community celebrations. We all need to elaborate life and family more! Thank you for your meaningful post. It has made me think!ReplyDelete


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Eddie Vedder by Danny Clinch
Eddie Vedder by Danny Clinch
Framed print prices are for a 1" black frame with white matting. Upgraded Archival Framing includes UV protected glass (sometimes referred to as museum grade) and thicker, acid-free matting. For prints over 20"x30", additional options and custom framing, please contact us!
Danny Clinch has established himself as one of the premier photographers of the popular music scene. He has photographed many artists, such as Johnny Cash, Tupac Shakur, Bjork and Bruce Springsteen. His work has appeared in numorous publications, such as Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. After branching into video work, Clinch was nominated for a Grammy Award for directing the video portion for Springsteen's Devils and Dust dual disc release. Clinch has presented work in many galleries and published two books Discovery Inn (1998) and When the Iron Bird Flies (2000), which documented the Tibetan Freedom Concerts between 1996 and 1999.
Metallica performing at San Quentin Prison in California.
Tupac Shakur photographed by Danny Clinch for Rolling Stone Magazine. This image is widely regarded as one of the most famous photographs of Tupac; Clinch's photo session with the rapper gained much attention after his untimely death in 1996.
Read the Time Magazine interview with Clinch discussing the iconic photo session.
Johnny Cash shot at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, 1994. This image was used as the cover of Cash's 2000 album 'American III: Solitary Man.'
B.B. King photographed with his guitar at Howard Johnson's in New York City, 1996.
Jay Z smoking a cigar during the "Hard Knock Life" tour in 1999.
Bob Dylan photographed at the historic Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, 1999.


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Welcome to the premier Paintball Site in Southampton- Salisbury.
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Posted on Monday, April 14, 2014
Posted in Uncategorised, We RecommendTags: Dublin pubs, Irish people, Top 3 Dubklin
Boo Hoo …Elaine O' Connor ( Isaacs Hostel and Jacobs Inn staff) is sadly leaving us to head to the Big Apple or a year ..We will miss you Elaine and your blagging …Here are her final musings …. TOP 3 THINGS I'LL MISS ABOUT DUBLIN. Like many an immigrant before me, I've got my…
Posted on Friday, June 28, 2013
Posted in UncategorisedTags: dublin, Dublin pubs, foggy dew, temple bar, The palace, the porthouse
5 Bars in Temple Bar We Would Still Recommend We remember a time when Temple Bar was the heart of the city. It was a cultural heartbeat which pulsed throughout Dublin, enriching the city, its people and its tourists with the best drinks, foot-tapping music and a wide variety of choice. It was our Mecca….


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Forty Under 40
Louis A. Vitantonio Jr., 37
President, Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers' Association
Back in high school and college, Lou Vitantonio did a lot of the heavy lifting while others got much of the limelight.
That was when he was an offensive lineman for Solon High School and then the University of Dayton and John Carroll University.
Today, he's still at it, controlling the front lines and protecting not one quarterback, but more than 110 dealers that are members of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers' Association. The importance of his role as that organization's president isn't lost on him, and he says it's extremely humbling.
"It's a tremendous honor," he said. "This is no small organization — and I'm 37 years old."
Mr. Vitantonio, the youngest of three boys in his family, grew up loving both cars and sports. At 5'9", he wasn't the biggest of lineman. "The quarterbacks probably liked me because they could see over me," he said.
But he has big-time responsibilities today, running one of the largest dealer associations in the country, "including responsibility for the production of the Cleveland Auto Show, which is recognized as one of the top five auto shows in North America," said attorney Michael Cochran, who nominated Mr. Vitantonio for this year's Forty Under 40.
Former Cleveland-area auto dealer Stuart Zalud introduced Mr. Vitantonio to the auto business, and the dealers' association head credits Mr. Zalud with helping him navigate a path to his current job. Their friendship began when Mr. Vitantonio was in high school. It continued even though he banged up two of Mr. Zalud's cars, while moving them to be washed, during his time working at the dealership.
Mr. Zalud still helped him get his first job related to the auto dealers' association — selling tickets at the auto show. That led to his 15-year (and counting) stint at the group.
For a man who has been to nearly every auto show since he was a small child — and kept the new car brochures from every one — the job is a perfect fit. It's also a perfect fit for someone with the mentality of a good offensive lineman.
"This association, it isn't mine. I'm here at the will of the dealers, the executive committee and the board of directors," Mr. Vitantonio said. "I'm here to take care of them."


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Network flight recorder
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Garbage was way off…
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Remember that song back in the '90s? I'm only happy when it rains? Yeah, not so much when it comes to covering Spring Training down here in Florida.
The sky opened up with some heavy sheets of water this morning, forcing the Jays to move to their indoor cage for bullpen sessions and batting practice. It was a sloppy day all around with not a whole heckuva lot going on.
That's probably why the most interesting thing that came out of today was a tidbit from the Record, based out of the Waterloo/Kitchener area. In this fine piece, the writer takes a shot at Jays catcher Gregg Zaun, among others, with this dandy:
An aside, if you will, on Zaun: If this guy really did consume some human growth hormone, or whatever, he got sold a giant bill of goods from a crooked dealer. Zaun looks like a doughnut-scarfing mutual fund salesperson, not a pro-ball catcher.
Zaun had a good chuckle at pretty much being called a fatso. "I've come full circle," the catcher said with a grin. "I've been called diminutive, I've been called someone with a slight build, I've even been called a hobbit. But I've never been called fat."
Zaunie joked that he thought about sending the author some Krispee Kremes in honor of his work. With Sal Fasano standing closeby, I said, "Zaunie, it's better than being called a bratwurst-scarfing Bears fan." Fasano turned and threatened to knock me out, so I quickly reversed course (side note: I am a HUGE Bears fan and have been known to thrown down a brat or two in my time).
There's a section in the article where the writer refers to Frank Thomas as "Tubby Thomas," and he wrote, "If baseball spring training were truly a gruelling, gritty shape-up struggle, Frank Thomas wouldn't be so doggone fat, now, would he?"
Has this guy ever seen Thomas in person? Thomas is a huge man-beast — an intimidating behemoth of a person. One thing he is not is fat. He's large, yes, but the Big Hurt is solid. It's always nice how guys who are never around a team on an everyday basis feel the urge to take such swipes at players.
Oh, baseball news: Roy Halladay will start the second spring game, which is the first home game in Dunedin. Jesse Litsch will start the Grapefruit League opener, with Casey Janssen likely following him in relief. After Halladay, it'll be Dustin McGowan, A.J. Burnett and Shaun Marcum.
This rotation allows Halladay to pitch on Opening Day in New York and for Burnett to slot in as the No. 2 guy, following by McGowan and Marcum. As for Litsch and Janssen, people within the organization are still divided on the issue of who should be the fifth starter. I've heard some players vying for Janssen to remain in the bullpen.
Pray for sunshine tomorrow…
4 Comments
Kitchener eh? I smell a Tigers fan.
That or Marty York is working for "The Record". (Sounds like some university paper).
Can't wait for the season to start. That Halladay start on opening day in New York will be exciting. We crushed Wang last year, so bring him on. I assume he would be starting for the Yanks? But you never know.
Never speak ill of Garbage again.
Great, great band, and a truly killer live act.
Ladies and gentlemen, Matthew Leach of MLB.com's Cardinals' site has graced us with his presence. M, I wasn't dissing your precious Garbage — merely saying I was in no way happy that it was raining. The Dude abides…


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2 women face sentencing in 'gifting table' scheme
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Two Guilford women are facing sentencing after they were guilty of running a gifting table pyramid scheme.
Donna Bello and Jill Platt are scheduled to be sentenced Monday in federal court in Hartford. They were convicted in February of charges including wire fraud and filing false tax returns.
Prosecutors said Bello and Platt operated the scam from 2008 to 2011 and it often targeted women in financial distress. Prosecutors said the scheme involved women joining the clubs by giving $5,000 "gifts" to other table members. The new members climbed up the rankings by recruiting new members and left the tables after receiving $40,000 from new members.
Platt's attorney had said everything she did was legal and based upon the advice of lawyers. Bello's attorney denied it was a pyramid scheme.


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Wills vs. Trusts – Chesapeake Greenbrier Library
July 19 @ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
This is an educational session. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion of the basics of estate planning and discover which plan is right for you and your loved ones. Presented by Beth Ann Lawson. Read what Beth Ann's clients have to say about working with her!
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You can see here a basic map of Edinburgh from OpenStreetMap, but you can switch easily to other types of the map: Just choose the second option above the map and you can see Bing Maps, which offer other types of detailed maps of Edinburgh, related countries, geographical places etc. You can also switch to aerial and birds eye maps of Edinburgh there.
You may remember we offered other types of maps here also in the past, for example Google Maps, Nokia Maps and MapQuest Maps, and many kinds of their infomaps, like the traffic map, bike trails, weather map, map with photos and map of public transport from these sources. But some of these services cancelled their operations or changed the conditions under which their maps may be displayed. We sincerely hope you appreciate these new kinds of maps here, as you can see, for example, the difference between the OpenStreetMap vector map tiles from Mapzen shown by Leaflet here and the bitmap tiles from Bing Maps. We are considering adding more maps of Edinburgh in the near future again.
You may not only switch among different types of maps using the switches above the map, but you can also change settings of the map using controls on the map. See more details of Edinburgh using the zoom control on the left side or see street or terrain map of Edinburgh using the controls on the top of the map (Bing Maps). In the past you could also place the yellow figure (Google Maps) to see a street view of any interesting place, but this feature is not available here anymore. But you can see the Birds eye view on the Bing Maps here. Notice: Not all features are available everywhere. Some maps offer more details then the others.
Look below to see more useful information regarding Edinburgh and the map of Edinburgh. You can find links to other places related to Edinburgh, but there are also tips about how to easily print the map of Edinburgh, where to find detailed information about Edinburgh, how to plan your journey and much more. Our primary target is to allow you to compare different types of maps, but we would also like to offer you more when considering your travels and learning about the World.
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White Oleander
White Oleander
White Oleander is a toxic but beautiful flower, and it grows in all kinds of terrains - I love that about Oleander, because as a wanderer we have that in common!
Please note this is not an actual print photograph, but a digital download for your own personal use to print however you like! (click on the photo to view entire photograph)
Once you download, you're free to use this image however you want for personal use only. We recommend getting a giant engineer print if you want to go the fun route (available at Staples for less than $8!) or using other online services for higher quality prints - your options here are endless! Your .zip file will include a PDF with recommendations of my favorite online printing companies as well as a print release, should any printer require permission from the photographer before printing.
After purchase, you will receive a link to download the file that will expire in 24 hours - please download it ASAP! As this is a digital product, there are no reimbursements.
Thank you! Enjoy!


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Oil Drillers Find Massive Deposit in US
(NEW YORK) -- Drillers in Utah and Colorado are poking into a massive shale deposit trying to find a way to unlock oil reserves that are so vast they would swamp those of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.
A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated that if half of the oil bound up in the rock of the Green River Formation could be recovered it would be "equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves."
Both the GAO and private industry estimate the amount of oil recoverable to be 3 trillion barrels.
"In the past 100 years — in all of human history — we have consumed 1 trillion barrels of oil. There are several times that much here," said Roger Day, Vice President for operations for American Shale Oil (AMSO).
But along with the potential for success comes many hurdles. The cost of extracting the Green River oil at the moment would be higher than what it could be sold for. And in an environmental sense, the operation might require so much water it would compete with Denver and agriculture for vital supplies, the GAO report warned. The extraction could pollute underground streams, affect fish and other wildlife, and kick up so much dirt it would leave national monuments in a cloud of dust.
Nevertheless, the federal government has authorized six experimental drilling leases on federal land in an effort to find a way to tap into the riches of the Green River Formation.
GAO's report says commercial development of oil shale is "at least 15-20 years away."
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio


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Network Spinal Analysis™ (Network Care) is a revolutionary approach to wellness that applies low force touch at spinal gateways or certain contact points on the body. These gentle contacts help to assist the brain to connect more effectively with the spine and body, so individuals can develop new strategies for living and healing.
The intent of Network Care is to enable the body's own self generated mechanisms of movement and respiration to assist in the correction of mechanical tension and interference in the nervous system. Greater self-awareness and conscious awakening of the relationships between the body, mind, emotion, and expression of the human spirit are realized through this popular healing work.
Network Care is advanced through a series of Levels, each producing specific new abilities to adapt to the environment, make healthier choices, enjoy life and develop a healthier spine. During care, two spinal 'healing' waves develop which help improve spinal and neural integrity, adaptability, and significantly advance wellness as well as quality of life.
Network Care utilizes an outcomes assessment approach that combines a self-reported wellness profile with a clinical assessment to help review the emerging options for healing and an enriched life.
Open Office Hours:
Tuesday, 5pm - 6:30pm
Thursday, Noon - 1:30pm
Thursday, 4pm - 5:30pm


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ZXP SERIES 7 DS USB ENET CONNItem#:� YYI2-QX6091 �|�Model#:�Z72-000CD000US00
- Price:
- $3,148.99
- Shipping:
- In Stock, usually ships within 24 hours (Details)
Product Details
Time after time, it prints sharp vivid cards with precise color control. The ZXP Series 7 printer has an innovative design. It automatically adjusts to the thickness of the card, and ribbon loading is easy. With color-coded guides and a clear LCD control panel, it's simple for anyone to use.
Choose from numerous encoding and connectivity options, and if extra security or durability is required for cards, wasteless single- or dual-sided lamination is also available. Locking mechanisms protect the printer and media, and software provides further security by tracking and restricting activities as required.
Printer Type: Plastic card printer - dye sublimation/thermal transfer - color
Localization: United States
Print Speed: Up to 1355 cards/hour - monochrome � Up to 555 cards/hour - monochrome duplex � Up to 300 cards/hour - color � Up to 225 cards/hour - color dual-sided
Built-in Devices: Status LCD
Connectivity Technology: Wired
Interface: USB 2.0, LAN
Max Resolution (B&W): 300 dpi
Automatic Duplexing: Yes
Media Handling
Media Type: Adhesive back plastic cards, ABS cards, PETG cards, composite card, PVC card, PET cards, plastic cards
Max Media Size: CR-80 Card (3.37 in x 2.13 in)
Max Media Size (Custom): 3.37 in x 2.125 in
Card / Label Sizes: CR-80 Card (3.37 in x 2.13 in)
Media Thickness Range: 0.01 in - 0.05 in
Total Media Capacity: 200 cards
Media Feeders: 1 x automatic - 200 cards - CR-80 Card (3.37 in x 2.13 in)
Max Media Capacity: 200 cards
Output Trays Capacity: 100 cards
Networking: Print server
Expansion / Connectivity
Connections: 1 x USB 2.0 - 4 pin USB Type A � 1 x LAN - RJ-45
Cables Included: 1 x USB cable
Features: Security lock slot (cable lock sold separately)
Compatible with Windows 7: "Compatible with Windows 7" software and devices carry Microsoft�s assurance that these products have passed tests for compatibility and reliability with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7.
Compliant Standards: FCC Class A certified, ISO 7810
Power Device: Power supply - internal
Voltage Required: AC 120/230 V
Frequency Required: 50/60 Hz
Software / System Requirements
Software Included: Drivers & Utilities
OS Required: Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows Vista (32/64 bits), Microsoft Windows 7 (32/64 bits), Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32/64-bits), Microsoft Windows XP 32-bit
Environmental Standards
ENERGY STAR: Yes
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support: Limited warranty - 2 years � Limited warranty - printhead - 2 years
Environmental Parameters
Min Operating Temperature: 59 �F
Max Operating Temperature: 95 �F
Humidity Range Operating: 20 - 80% (non-condensing)
Dimensions & Weight
Width: 27.5 in
Depth: 10.9 in
Height: 12 in
Weight: 26.9 lbs
Additional Resources: Product Manuals
- Technology Guide: Choosing The Right Printer
- Technology Guide: How To Select The Best Large Format Printer
- Technology Guide: Print Media & Paper
- Technology Guide: Printer Cartridge Yields
- Technology Guide: Printer Safety
- Technology Ideas: How To Print CD/DVD Labels
- Technology Ideas: Personal Printing Projects
- Technology Introduction: Wireless Printers for the Home and Small Office
Manufactured by: Zebra Technologies
Warranty provided by: Zebra Technologies
UPC No:
Mfg Part No: Z72-000CD000US00
Box Size:
( Length:0, Width:0, Depth:0)
Shipping Weight: 44.0000 pound(s)
Click here for full warranty and support information
- Zebra Technologies logos are registered trademarks of Zebra Technologies. All others trademarks and copyrights mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.


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Multiple Choice: The Vitamin Debate
Should you pop at least one pill every morning? Or do vitamins offer only a false sense of security? Here's how to get the daily nutrients you need.
Q. I eat a healthy diet. Do I really need to take a multivitamin?
If your eating habits are stellar—you consume a wide variety of foods from all food groups, including whole grains, protein sources like lean meat, poultry, or fish, low-fat dairy products and nine servings of fruits and veggies daily—you may not need a vitamin. When it comes to getting nutrients, "food first" is the best course of action. "That's because foods contain important components that you don't always get in a pill, such as disease-fighting phytochemicals," says Rosalyn Franta Kulik, R.D., author of the American Dietetic Association position paper on fortification and nutritional supplements. Real health benefits, such as lower cancer risk and stronger bones, probably come from elements in foods working together—such as calcium interacting with protein in milk, or vitamin C and folate with the fiber in broccoli. In a recent study, postmenopausal women who got most of their calcium from foods had higher bone density than those who relied on supplements.
But the reality is, between busy schedules and bad choices most people don't eat well every day. The latest government food surveys show we're falling short—especially on magnesium and vitamins A and C found in fruits and vegetables, and vitamin E from nuts and seeds. A multivitamin can pick up some of the slack.
"Taking a multivitamin provides some nutritional insurance," says Paul Coates, Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements in Bethesda, Maryland. "But it's not a license to eat poorly." A reasonable compromise: Aim for a healthy diet, but pop one vitamin on the days that well-rounded nutrition isn't happening. And rest assured that a basic multi is considered safe—whether or not you really need it.
Q. Can taking a multivitamin give me more energy?
It can help if you're lacking in certain nutrients. The body acquires energy through calories—and although vitamins and minerals don't contain any calories, they do play a key role in energy production. The B vitamins—such as the folate in asparagus and the riboflavin in milk—help release energy from foods for the body to use, so skimping on those can make you sluggish. You can also feel tired and weak if you're iron deficient, because iron helps bring oxygen to cells, where it's used to create energy. Women are more prone to having iron-poor blood, thanks to losses through menstruation and lower intakes of iron-rich foods such as red meat. "If you can undo these deficiencies, through diet or a supplement, you'll definitely feel perkier," says Kulik. But before you load up, keep in mind that exceeding the recommended amount of any vitamin or mineral won't lift your energy level to greater heights.
Q. Should I buy a "special" multivitamin, like a women's formula or one for heart health?
Taking a gender-specific vitamin makes sense. Women's formulas often have extra calcium, folic acid, and iron. And while basic multis contain iron, which women need, men tend to get enough through food. Extra iron can be dangerous for males if they have hemochromatosis, a condition that can damage the liver and heart. So men might be better with a men-specific formula. Otherwise, these special multis are mostly marketing, says Tod Cooperman, M.D., president of ConsumerLab.com, which evaluates health products. When pills pack extra ingredients, such as lutein for eye health, it's hard to know whether the amount is enough to make any real difference.
Q. Do my kids need a multivitamin?
Skip it if your child's a great eater who likes lots of different foods—including dairy products, fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein-rich and fortified foods. But talk to your pediatrician if your child is:
Very picky: Extremely choosy eaters who consume only a few foods may need the added boost from a multi until they expand their food horizons.Vegetarian or vegan: Animal products like milk and meat pack essential nutrients—such as zinc to support the immune system and calcium to build bones—that these kids may miss out on.Superbusy: On-the-go tweens and teens often have hectic schedules that make healthy eating difficult. Skipping meals (even just breakfast) or regularly grabbing fast food at lunch can be a detriment to their daily nutrition.
Q. What about taking some extra antioxidants?
There's some hope that antioxidant vitamins such as E may help stave off cardiovascular disease, but research is mixed. Several years ago the large and long-term Nurses' Health Study found that women who took vitamin E supplements had lower rates of coronary heart disease. But in new research from Harvard Medical School, women who popped extra E, C, and beta-carotene had no greater protection against heart attacks, heart disease, or stroke than those who didn't take them. Another recent analysis of studies actually revealed a higher risk of death among those who took extra beta-carotene and vitamins A and E. "People seem to respond differently to these extra doses, and that's probably due to genetics," says Kulik. Talk to your doctor before taking vitamins or minerals beyond a regular multi—some may be unsafe given your health history or even interact with other medications you're taking. Another warning: Smokers shouldn't take high amounts of vitamin A or beta-carotene since research shows they may promote cancer.
Q. Are store-brand vitamins as good as pricier name brands?
In most cases, yes. Flashy labels and high prices don't mean the supplement is any better. In fact, when the Center for Science in the Public Interest analyzed multivitamins in 2003, several of its top picks were store brands from CVS and Kroger. If you do go with a store brand, choose one from a well-established chain. "It's more likely to use the same raw ingredients as the big manufacturers," says Coates. The store brands should also contain the same Daily Values as their name-brand counterparts—compare the labels to be sure.
Q. Should I take extra doses of some vitamins or minerals?
A standard multi is perfectly fine for most people—plus piling on supersize doses can be risky. For example, too much vitamin A can cause birth defects and liver damage. Excess vitamin C can lead to kidney stones in some people—and Australian researchers recently found no evidence that extra C helps prevent colds or reduces their length or severity. "Too much of a good thing isn't better," says Coates. With people eating so many fortified foods (including cereal, waffles, orange juice, energy bars, and vitamin-packed water), the chances of getting too much is even greater if extra supplements are taken.
But there are a few exceptions: Women who are not getting enough calcium from foods (most aren't) should consider a calcium supplement (with added vitamin D and magnesium) for bone health. Multis contain only about a quarter or less of your daily requirement because calcium is too large to fit in the pill. Plus, calcium has to be taken a couple of times a day since your body can't absorb more than 500 mg at a time (and you need more than 1,000 mg a day). But if you have disease or condition such as cancer or colitis, ask your doctor if you should be taking any extra vitamins or minerals.
A Multi-tude of Options
With aisles of bottles to pick from, selecting a multivitamin is tricky—but scanning labels can help. Here are five key things to look for.
Daily values (DV): You'll find these values listed on the right side of the Supplement Facts panel on all pill bottles, and they should be at or below 100%. Don't be wowed by superhigh DVs, since any excess of water-soluble vitamins (like C and B) will simply get flushed out through your urine. That's harmless in most cases, but megadoses of vitamin C can trigger diarrhea, and too much niacin can cause itching. Steep amounts of some vitamins (such as A) can be toxic to the body, and high doses of certain minerals (like zinc) can prevent others (like copper) from being absorbed.
Expiration date: The date on the bottle should be at least six months away. Ingredients can degrade over time and lose potency.
Reasonable cost: "Price is not a good indicator of quality," says Dr. Cooperman of ConsumerLab.com. One that costs roughly 5 cents to 10 cents a pill is reasonable—those far beyond that are probably not really worth it.
Quality control: Many bottles carry a seal indicating the product was tested by an independent organization. Seals to look for: ConsumerLab (CL) or United States Pharmacopeia (USP). You can also find out which products make the grade at consumerlab.com.
No crazy claims: A multivitamin can't cure disease, make you smarter, or burn fat. A lot of claims aren't regulated by the FDA—and most just aren't true.
What Are You Missing?
Even with the very best diet, some people may still need the extra boost from a multivitamin—or even more. Are you one of them?
If you are...PremenopausalBe sure to get...Folic acidFolic acid offers protection against neural-tube defects in fetuses, but it's most critical right before conception and in the first few weeks of pregnancy. Since about 50% of pregnancies are unplanned, you should get 400 mcg of folic acid every day (the amount most multivitamins contain) just to be safe.
If you are...Age 50 or olderBe sure to get...Vitamins B12 and DAs you age you lose the ability to fully absorb vitamin B12 from food. Elderly adults may also need vitamin D, especially those who are not exposed to much sunlight. Ask your doctor for a simple blood test that measures levels of both—and look for a multivitamin that's labeled "senior" formula.
If you are...Having heavy periodsBe sure to get...IronHeavy bleeding can leech iron from your body, making you feel tired and look pale. Most regular multis contain about 18 mg of iron, the amount that premenopausal women need daily. Ask your doctor if you should take more.
If you are...Vegetarian or veganBe sure to get...Vitamins B12 and D, calcium, and zincThese nutrients are typically found in animal foods like meat and milk, so taking a multi and calcium supplement is smart (especially for vegans, who avoid all animal products).
If you are...DietingBe sure to get...All of themIt's almost impossible to meet your nutrient needs from food alone if you eat less than 1,600 calories a day. A basic multi will help you cover your bases.
Originally published in the July 2008 issue of Family Circle magazine.


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By Abhishek Banerjee, KF13, Armenia
In 1991, the Soviet Union broke apart and Armenia re-established its independence. Declaring independence on 23 August, it was the first non-Baltic republic to secede. However, remnants of its Soviet history can be found throughout the country. Major infrastructure projects implemented under Soviet leadership still stand tall throughout the cities. However, as needs have changed, the buildings have been repurposed to adjust accordingly. One of the more interesting transformations across Yerevan has been the emergence of markets in former industrial or commercial buildings. These markets are basically comprised of dozens of narrow aisles with small storefronts selling clothing, household goods and other daily essentials.
These stores often started out as the secondary source of income in the family. However, considering the often low wages in many industries, they have evolved to become the primary source. Many of these entrepreneurs were teachers or factory workers but have since realized this is a better way to take care of their family.
Due to Armenia's limited manufacturing output, most of these owners have to make a trip to a neighboring country to get their product. Talking to some of the Kiva clients, the general consensus seems to be that Turkish products are perceived to be high quality and as a result, a higher price. However, given the closed border with Turkey, they have to go through Georgia which significantly increases their cost and more importantly, takes time. In recent years, a cheaper (and perceived to the lower quality) alternative has emerged: China. Some of the owners have started to procure from Chinese facilities which are not only lower cost but willing to work with the owners to set up delivery schedules where they don't have to make more than one or two trips to China.
Armenia is still far from a free and open market system. However, it has taken steps in that direction over the last two decades. Trade is still limited given that the country has closed borders with two of its neighbors. Nonetheless, cheaper manufacturing in other parts of the world and lower transportation costs have brought new products to the Armenian consumer.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the near future. If the border with Turkey were to open, I personally believe many of these owners will prefer to source from there. However, if it does not (and there is no indication of a quick resolution), China will likely continue to take over the Armenian markets over time due to both cost and convenience.
Abhishek Banerjee is a Kiva Fellow (KF13) currently based in Yerevan, Armenia. Want to volunteer with the Kiva Fellows Program? Learn more here and apply to be a Fellow!
Click here to join the Armenia lending group on Kiva!