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Tom Carolan necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 30 diseños de 10 diseñadores freelance.
We are launching a new website and need the help of a great designer. We are very excited about this new project and expect its success to surpass any of the other websites in our portfolio, such as http://www.BestHealthcareRates.com.
We are looking for an immediately recognizable and eye catching logo for our new website at http://www.InsuranceBestPrices.com. As you can see the logo currently being displayed is from http://www.BestHealthcareRates.com, we like this logo and would entertain similar ideas.
We have been experiencing tremendous growth over the last 24 months and expect that to continue. The chosen designer will help us continue that growth, with eye-catching and unique designs for all of our projects. We value creativity, timeliness, originality, and your ability to deliver projects on time.
Thank you for your interest in our projects, we look forward to working with you!
Our target audience is young married men and women. We will be targeting people who are comfortable shopping online for homeowners, health, life, auto and other insurance products.
We would like the logo to be brightly colored and pleasing to the eye. The chosen design will have longevity and will be a simple design. We envision a design that incorporates the website URL InsuranceBestPrices.com, without the "www".
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation
Mayfield Publishing Company, 2001 - Social Science - 213 pages
This lively and concise supplemental text uses analyses of everyday conversations and experiences to inspire students to think sociologically about society and about themselves as social actors.
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accept actions African Americans answer arise behavior believe better boss cause choice connections consider context course create culture date rape depends example feel football friends gender give habits happen hard harm human hurt ideas images imagine individual inequality interaction interdependence interpret invented keep kind knowledge Latino lives look matter means Moira Nhat Hanh ourselves Paths for Reflection patterns pay attention people's Perhaps person pornography Power Monger probably problem professor question racism reality reason Reification representations response result rules s/he Saddam Hussein seems sense sexual harassment sexual violence sexually objectify situation social class social world society sociologically mindful someone Suppose talk teachers tell things think sociologically tion true understand usually wealth white Americans woman women

subset: commoncrawl


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Congratulations to AAA Member, Niko Besnier!
Prof. Niko Besnier has received an ERC Advanced Grant for his multi-sited comparative ethnographic project that will investigate the migratory dynamics at play between selected developing countries and selected countries in the industrial world in three different sports, soccer-football, rugby union, and cricket.
In the last few decades, the erosion of the social and economic structures that previously provided straightforward raison d'être to men have transformed, in all societies of the world, masculinity into a problematic category. In the Global South, deepening economic, political and social insecurities have further compounded the fragility of masculinity. Younger men in particular find it increasingly difficult to secure a productive role in local economies, and many in the world's more destitute countries are investing their hopes in the possibility of becoming a successful professional athlete.
But athletic talent can only translate into economic productivity in the industrial North, and athletic migrations have become, for large number of boys, young men, families, villages, nations and states in the Global South, the solution for a masculinity under threat, the way out of economic precarity, and the embodiment of millenarian hope.
This multi-sited comparative ethnographic project seeks to investigate the migratory dynamics at play between selected developing countries and selected countries in the industrial world in three different sports, soccer-football, rugby union, and cricket. It explores ways in which these three sports represent for young talented hopeful in the Global South various embodiments of hope for the redemption of masculinity and of its productive potentials.
The research will open new theoretical avenues for an understanding of the constitution of masculinity in the context of globalisation, changes in the structure of nation-states and the meaning of citizenship, and the constitution of everyday lives in more destitute regions of the world.


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First-Hand:My Experiences as a Space Engineer: The Pre-launch Years
Contributed by: Sajjad (Saj) Durrani, IEEE Life Fellow
For more on the life of Sajjad Durrani see IEEE Oral History with Sajjad Durrani.
I worked on space-related projects for most of my career, but would like to start with some background. Accordingly, this write-up consists of four parts: a brief career history; general remarks about space projects; early education and formative years; and studies leading to the first engineering degree. Subsequent postings will discuss some satellite communications projects that may be of broad interest.
Career Summary
I began working in 1949 as a Lecturer at the Engineering College in Lahore, Pakistan, soon after receiving a B.Sc. (Honors) degree in Electrical Engineering there. Two years later, I got a scholarship for graduate studies, received a master's degree from the University of Manchester in England in 1953, and returned to teach at Lahore till 1959. During this 10-year period, I worked in power engineering, and my Master's thesis was on a Power System Analyzer. I spent the summer vacations working at power stations; a memorable summer was in 1955 in the northern mountains of Sweden, where a company, ASEA, was building an underground hydroelectric plant. In 1957 I spent six months in Germany, as one of 40 engineers from 20 countries chosen by a company, AEG, to show us their products after their recovery from World War II. AEG sent us for two months to language schools, followed by four months at their factories in different cities. (Incidentally, I joined the AIEE in December 1957, thus becoming an IEEE member when the AIEE and IRE merged a few years later.)
In 1959 I got an Assistantship at the University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, where I studied for a doctorate. There was not much emphasis on power at UNM, so I changed my field to antennas and communications. After completing my doctorate in 1962, I worked with GE's Communications Division in Lynchburg, Virginia for a little over two years. I then again taught for a year (1964-65) in Pakistan, as EE Department Chair in the old Engineering College, which was now a full-fledged university. This was followed by another year (1965-66) teaching and doing research at Kansas State University (KSU) in Manhattan, Kansas. I continued to teach as an Adjunct Professor in the University of Maryland, the University of Maryland University College, and George Washington University for many years, from the early 1970s to the early 2000s.
At UNM and GE, I worked on propagation issues, and at KSU I supervised a research study on back-scatter from a rough surface. This study was part of an overall NASA program (conducted by several research teams) to determine terrain properties through remote sensing, in anticipation of the Apollo moon landing. In our case, the idea was to determine surface roughness and sub-surface moisture content by examining a soil's refractive properties. Involvement in this study resulted in my long-lasting interest in space-related topics. Starting in 1966, I worked in the field of satellite communications (or satcom) till 1998. As a hobby during this period, I was active in the IEEE at the Section, Society, and national (or trans-national) levels, and in its Technology Policy Committees. The Policy Committees were run by a subsidiary, which went though several incarnations as IEEE-USAC, IEEE-USAB, and IEEE-USA. I thoroughly enjoyed both the work and the hobby, and all 32 years seemed to go by very fast. Time flies when you are having fun, as they say! Of course the "fun" is on the credit side; on the debit side, one's memory gets a little vague with passage of time, but I hope I've still got most of the facts right (or most of the marbles still in place).
Here is a short breakdown of these 32 years. From 1966 to 1974, I was with three companies – RCA Space Center, Comsat Labs, and Operations Research, Inc. (ORI). I then "found my home" in NASA and remained there for 18 years, alternating between the Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA Headquarters for two terms at each location. On retiring from NASA in 1992, I joined Computer Sciences Corporation, expecting to work part-time for a couple of years – but ended up working full-time on space-related projects for six years, because it was a fun job and I learned some new things. I finally retired in 1998, at age 70.
Since that final retirement, I have served as a Technical Advisor with the FCC and the State Department for a year each, under the IEEE-USA's Government Fellows Program. I have also been active in other volunteer organizations: Washington Academy of Sciences, DC Council of Engineering and Architectural Societies, and a Retirees Association. I believe I am fully retired now, but may end up in some other volunteer position. Only time will tell.
Space Projects
Most of my work on space projects was very enjoyable, since it required investigating new concepts to meet future needs. I was also lucky to have good team-mates and supportive bosses. However, since much of the technology was still in the formative stages, we had to be very careful in our predictions. This was especially true for NASA projects, which required prolonged analyses, followed by feasibility studies, proof-of-concept experiments, prototype development, and finally production and launch of the proposed spacecraft.
The entire process was very similar to, say, that of a prospector for diamonds, who has to sift through mounds of ore till he finds a piece that may be a nugget. Then he has to polish the piece over and over, and examine it from various angles again and again, till he is satisfied that it is indeed the genuine article.
Although the process was cumbersome, I rather liked it, because of what I had learned from my father. He was a lawyer (and later a judge), and he always stressed the need to examine all aspects of an issue, instead of focusing on just what appears to be important – because sometimes a seemingly minor issue can turn out to be very significant in making or breaking a case. I was reminded of this many years later, when a colleague reminisced about how his very expensive, state-of-the art equipment for space-borne use was almost destroyed during tests by a malfunctioning run-of-the-mill fuse!
As noted in the opening paragraph, I will describe some of the projects in future postings. Here I move on to the two other topics mentioned there.
Early Education
I was born in 1928 in the Punjab Province of India, which became a part of Pakistan after independence in 1947. Our educational system had 10 years of elementary through high school, followed by four years of college. I was home-tutored for several years, but joined a public school in the sixth grade, because a friend convinced my father that a school is good for kids, by teaching them how to interact with others and learn social skills. After finishing high school in 1942 near the top of my class, I was accepted in the Government College in Lahore, which had been established in the mid-nineteenth century and was the most respected college in the province. I took courses in physics and chemistry and languages, and majored in mathematics, which was my favorite subject, graduating in 1946.
The college offered many extra-curricular activities, and I joined quite a few, such as the Translation Society, the Drama Club, the Hikers Club, and so on. The Translation Society exposed us to foreign literature, and I remember translating some short stories from English into Urdu. In the Drama Club, I usually served behind the scenes, as the Stage Manager or the Prompter. (Please, no comments about "behind the scenes" activities. We were very well-chaperoned those days.) I even got a minor role in one of the plays, as a salesman trying to sell an oriental rug to a beautiful lady in a queen's court – and failing. (That was the highlight of my career as Persona Dramatis!)
As for the Hikers Club: one of our trips stands out. Over the Christmas holidays in 1945, our adventurous leader (a faculty member) decided to take us on a trip to the Himalayan foothills. After trekking for four or five days at altitudes of more than 12,000 feet, we approached a pass that would have taken us right up to the Tibetan border. However, it started to snow quite heavily, and the locals told us to quickly get back to safety at lower altitudes, otherwise we would be stuck there till April. So we took the "coward's way out" (as President Nixon would have put it), and turned back on our heels. We did see a couple of bears along the way, though, so it was fun.
What did I learn in these four years in a liberal arts college that was helpful later in life? I can count several things:
- Exposure to literature in the Translation Society helped me acquire writing skills, which came in handy when preparing our Project Reports or serving as the Associate Editor of a Technical Magazine many years later.
- Working as Stage Manager and Prompter in the Drama Club gave me organizational skills. It also taught me that it is OK to let others take the limelight so long as the team accomplishes its goals.
- The hike to almost the Tibetan border taught me that it is advisable to change directions if conditions change. Put another way, we learned "when to hold them and when to fold them."
- Extra-curricular activities in general showed me how to be a part of volunteer groups and promote our common objectives.
While majoring in math, I got a life-long love of the subject, and my children often laugh about it. For example, when one of my daughters was asked by her elementary school teacher what she enjoyed doing with her father, she said "we play cards and do math." And when her daughter was asked what she enjoyed doing with grandpa, she said "we talk about math." This is because I was always drilling her on things like: How many miles can one drive out of the way to find a cheaper gas station and still come out ahead, when the car runs say 30 miles per gallon, and the nearest station sells at $ 1.50 per gallon. (Those were the good old days of cheap gas!)
The First Engineering Degree
After graduating in 1946, I applied for admission to the Engineering College in Lahore. The College was an outgrowth of a technical school established in 1921, which was upgraded a few years later for studies leading to engineering degrees by the Punjab University. In 1946, the College accepted only 40 freshmen from the whole province on the basis of merit. In practice all applicants had already received a bachelor's degree from a liberal arts college, although the minimum requirement was two years of college with science and math. The engineering courses ran over three years, with specialization in one of three areas: civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering. (Several other disciplines were added during the next decade.) I chose Electrical Engineering, because I did not especially like buildings and roads, or engines and boilers. And I liked EE, because I thought it offered a greater intellectual challenge, as compared to other disciplines. (Do I hear applause from fellow EEs?)
We had a smooth beginning n 1946, but there was a big turmoil in 1947, with mass migrations from Pakistan to India and the other way around. Several of our teachers left, but only a few came over from India, so the College had to accept some practicing engineers as Instructors on temporary loan from their agencies. In 1949, the College accepted five new top graduates as Instructors, and I was one of them. Thus, I became a Faculty Member at the ripe old age of 21!
Well, that is it for now. In future postings, I will describe some of the satcom projects that I worked on over the years. In the mean time, I look forward to your comments, and to hearing from others who are willing to share their experiences with us.
Back to Human Space Travel Primary Sources


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The Universal Public Procurement Certification Council (UPPCC) is an independent entity formed to govern and administer the Certified Public Procurement Officer (CPPO) and Certified Professional Public Buyer (CPPB) certification programs.
The CPPO and CPPB programs are the most highly regarded and well-respected certifications among procurement professionals and their employers in the public sector. To date, the UPPCC has certified well over 10,000 professionals primarily within the US and Canada, but in other nations around the globe.
The UPPCC is composed of both a governing body known as the Board of Directors and The Board of Examiners whose primary responsibility is for exam development and administration. Both bodies are supported by a professional staff located in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.
UPPCC Strategic Initiatives - 2010-2015
In March 2010, UPPCC agreed to co-sponsor the Achievement of Excellence in Procurement (AEP) award.
In 1995, the National Purchasing Institute (NPI) founded the (AEP) award program. NPI is the public sector affiliate of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). The AEP is awarded annually to those organizations that demonstrate excellence by obtaining a minimum score on a rating of standardized criteria. The program is designed to measure innovation, professionalism, productivity, and leadership attributes of the procurement organization.
The program was created by the National Purchasing Institute to:
1. Recognize organizational excellence in public and non-profit procurement,
2. Encourage development of excellence,
3. Provide benchmarks for continued excellence, and
4. Increase awareness of public procurement as a profession.
More information including the electronic application and a list of all previous AEP recipients are available on the web at www.nationalpurchasinginstitute.org.


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Customer Support
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Weekly gold market review 06.05.15
Every gold investor is in expectation of an increase or stabilisation of interest rates at last. Nonetheless in favour of the Fed, the previous meeting on Wednesday shed light on the first increase of interest rates which is believed to take place in about a decade. This wait though is shaking prices up, particularly this week.
The policy statement for the current month will be based on labor market data, inflationary pressures and forecasts which depend in the financial development of different countries. But however the data were, the optimism fuelled by the figure of gold prices above $ 1,210 per ounce on 29 April continued on 30 April.
In spite of it, the recent publication of strong employment data in USA busted gold prices from $1,205 to nearly $1,180.50 on 30 April. The meeting with the Federal Open Market Committee also influenced gold prices in Asia, while in Europe it reached a session-high above $1,213.50 per ounce.
On Labor Day, gold prices were raising at a gradual pace before falling to $1,172, the lowest point of the week, and since March 19. Yet the precious metal shows strength against dollar – which regained ground when the previously mentioned positive data was published - and rising rates. During the weekend, the prices of gold remained at $1,178.54 per ounce.
On Monday 4, investors aimed at recovering from previous losses and investments in gold increased, increasing its price from $1,184.50 to $1,191.50. The main reason was the assumption of investors of a possible interest rate hike before the start of summer. That is why gold will likely gain support in the following weeks. Meanwhile in Japan, the so-called Golden Week – a public holiday – closed markets keeping gold prices stable in Asia.
On Tuesday 5, gold prices continued a steady growth to $1,199.30 per ounce when dollar started to lose its strength. Now it only remains to hope and wait the Federal Reserve to take a final decision soon to forecast the future price of this coveted precious metal.
The clients of Emgoldex have the opportunity to buy investment gold bars under the most profitable conditions regardless of the ups and downs of gold prices in the market. They do it in the online store and guarantee themselves a present and future with financial stability!
Share the latest news of the gold market and the best opportunity to find economic well-being!
Category: Gold news Publication date: 2015-05-06 12:10
|Gold Fixing | Price History


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Lennox Healthy Climate # 75X73 Catalyst Insert Assembly
Replace metal insert and lamps every 24 months. Replace insert more frequently if you notice a significant drop in odor removal efficiency. If you find that you need to replace the insert more frequently than every 24 months, consider source reduction and/or ventilation to reduce the levels of contaminants in your home
To ensure performance of the PureAirT Air Purification System, the filter, UV lamps and PCO metal insert must be changed-out according to recommended maintenance schedules:
PCO-12C / 20C (1st Generation): Filter changed annually, UV lamps and PCO metal inserts changed every two years.
PCO20-28 / 16-28 / 14-23 (2nd Generation): Filter, UV lamps, and PCO metal insert changed annually. Note: UV lamps will not necessarily burn-out after 1 year, but they will lose effectiveness (reason why we recommend annual change-out).


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An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more.
eGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac1 running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Learn how to update the software on your Mac.
An eGPU lets you do all this on your Mac:
- Accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL
- Connect additional external monitors and displays
- Use virtual reality headsets plugged into the eGPU
- Charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU
- Use an eGPU with your MacBook Pro while its built-in display is closed
- Connect an eGPU while a user is logged in
- Connect more than one eGPU using the multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac2
- Use the menu bar item to safely disconnect the eGPU
- View the activity levels of built-in and external GPUs (Open Activity Monitor, then choose Window > GPU History.)
eGPU support in apps
eGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to learn more.3
In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of apps:
- Pro apps designed to utilize multiple GPUs
- 3D games, when an external monitor is attached directly to the eGPU
- VR apps, when the VR headset is attached directly to the eGPU
- Pro apps and 3D games that accelerate the built-in display of iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro (This capability must be enabled by the app's developer.)
You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.
Use the Prefer External GPU option
Starting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac—including displays built in to iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro:
- Quit the app if it's open.
- Select the app in the Finder. Most apps are in your Applications folder. If you open the app from an alias or launcher, Control-click the app's icon and choose Show Original from the pop-up menu. Then select the original app.
- Press Command-I to show the app's info window.
- Select the checkbox next to Prefer External GPU.
- Open the app to use it with the eGPU.
You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps directly choose which graphics processors are used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU checkbox.
Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary display
If you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:
- Quit any open apps that you want the eGPU to accelerate on the primary display.
- Choose Apple () menu > System Preferences. Select Displays, then select the Arrangement tab.
- Drag the white menu bar to the box that represents the display that's attached to the eGPU.
- Open the apps that you want to use with the eGPU.
If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac defaults back to the internal graphics processors that drives the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it automatically sets the external display as the primary display.
Supported eGPU configurations
It's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. And if you're using a MacBook Pro, the eGPU's Thunderbolt 3 chassis needs to provide sufficient power to run the graphics card while charging the computer. Check with the maker of the chassis to find out how much power it provides, and make sure that it's enough to charge your connected Mac notebook.
Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.
Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU products
These products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:
- Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro4
- Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box4
- Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
- Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck5
AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56 and XFX Vega 56.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, XFX Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
Learn more
- To ensure the best eGPU performance, use the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with your eGPU or an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable. Also make sure that the cable is connected directly to a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac, not daisy-chained through another Thunderbolt device or hub.
- If you have questions about Thunderbolt 3 chassis or graphics cards, or about third-party app support and compatibility, contact the hardware or software provider.
- Software developers can learn more about programming their apps to take advantage of macOS eGPU support.
1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure to connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you log in and see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.
2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.
3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.
4. These chassis provide at least 85 watts of charging power, making them ideal for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro models.
5. Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac.
6. If you use Akitio Node with a Mac notebook, you might need to connect your Mac to its power adapter to ensure proper charging.


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Junk Bond Funds Clobbered Anew By $3.3B Weekly Withdrawal
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Even as the junk-bond sell-off has abated in the past week, investors continued to pull huge amounts of money out of junk-bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, withdrawing $3.3 billion from such funds in the past week, according to data just released by Lipper. It ranks among the top single-week outflows in market history, overshadowed only by the single-week record $4.6 billion net outflow a week ago. Like last week, the breakdown again shows the majority of that money ($2.36 billion) coming out of mutual funds.
Looking at some of those ETFs, the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG) closed at $92.42 Thursday, up $1.05 on the day and up 9 cents from a week ago. The SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) rose 42 cents to $40.27, up 4 cents on the week. The actively managedAdvisorShares Peritus High Yield ETF (HYLD) gained 55 cents Thursday to $51.03, up from $50.70 a week ago.
The junk-bond market was down 0.25% over the past week, cutting year-to-date returns to 2.76%, per a benchmark Bank of America Merrill Lynch index. The average junk-bond yield stands at 6.21%, at a spread of 502 basis points over Treasuries and a price of 103.2 cents on the dollar.


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|Jun '07
|Aug '07
|Hot 100
[Verse One:]
Girl, change into that Victoria Secret thing that I like
Tonight you're having me your way
Spray it there
Put our love in the air
Now put me right next to you
Finna raise temp' in the room
First rub my back like you do
Right there (uh huh) right there (uh)
You touch me like you care
Now stop
And let me repay you for the week that you've been through
Workin' that nine to five and stayin' cute like you do
Oh, oh, oh
I love it (I love it)
You love it (you love it)
Everytime (everytime)
We touchin' (we touchin')
I want it (I want it)
You want it (you want it)
I'll see you (see you)
In the mornin' (in the mornin')
Wanna put my fingers through your hair
Wrap me up in you, yeah
And love you till your eyes roll back
I'm tryna put you to bed, bed, bed
I'ma put you to bed, bed, bed
Then I'ma rock ya body
Turn you over
Love is war, I'm your soldier
Touchin' you like it's our first time
I'ma put you to bed, bed, bed
I'ma put you to bed, bed, bed
[Verse Two:]
I'm starin' at you while you're sleep
Irreplaceable beauty
Put my face up in your neck and breathe (Ooh, breathe)
Take you into my senses
Wake up it's time to finish
Round two, round two
Matter of fact, it's closer to three
She like, "How long I been sleep?"
Shawty kisses turn into the sweetest dreams
Like give it to me
And I can feel her tell me
"My angel, this is wonderful
Thanks for lettin me bless ya"
Come down, fly right
Drift back into heaven
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Watch the sunlight peak over the horizon
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
The sun ain't the only thing that's shinin'
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Now I'ma sned you out into the world with my love
Tell everybody, Ay
Aay, Ay-ay-ay, Aay, Ay-ay-ay, Aay, Ay-ay-ay, Ay
[Chorus till fades out]
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Friday, January 7, 2011
a Perl Garmin-FIT to space-delimited table converter
The code produces a space-delimited file with each column describing a field either contained in the FIT file or derived from data in one or more fields of the FIT file. I have a series of scripts for handling such files and generating plots from them, or they can be trivially loaded into a spreadsheet like oocalc or even Excel, or almost any other plotting package, using the "CSV" format. When importing the CSV, make sure spaces and not commas are selected as the delimiter.
The code's available here.
On Linux, simply save the file, make sure it has executable permission, then run it in the standard Linux fashion. On Windows, well, you're on your own. I avoid Windows whenever possible.
An example, where "% " is the command prompt, and where it is assumed "fit_to_cols" is in the execution path:
% fit_to_cols ~/Library/GoldenCheetah/djconnel/2010_11_14_10_13_04.fit
This plots data from a FIT file stored in my GoldenCheetah data directory.
% fit_to_cols /media/GARMIN/Garmin/Activities/2011-01-01-16-20-25.fit
This plots data directly off my Edge 500, which is plugged into the USB port.
% fit_to_cols -fn /media/GARMIN/Garmin/Activities/2011-01-*.fit
This plots all of my files from January 2011, identifying each file with a column "fn". Had I not used the "-fn" option, files would have been identified with a column "file" which contained the file name.
% fit_to_cols -h
This prints help information.
The major weakness of the code is it assumed fixed data in the FIT file. FIT is a lot more sophisticated than this: the data can vary from device-to-device. I've hard-coded my script with the data I'm most interested in from my Edge 500. Honestly I'm still trying to figure it all out.
After I'd gotten a functional version of this code together I found someone else had done something similar: fit2csv.pl. I think my code is somewhat more sophisticated than that one, since the latter assumes a particular order for data fields to be stored (I use the hash tables to look up the order) and it doesn't handle undefined values well. My code also allows for multiple files to be listed at once and has several derived parameters like dx, dy, and r.
Thanks to Kiyokazu Suto for doing such nice work on Garmin::FIT.
4 comments:
- Paul said...
On the ant+ website they have a "Fit SDK" that includes an java FIT to csv converter.
I found it fairly straight forward to create a little .fit to .csv to .tcx converter.
- January 7, 2011 at 9:46 PM
- djconnel said...
Thanks -- very interesting!
Java I don't know so well, and C++ I find very cumbersome to efficiently process data due to the need for allocation (in Perl allocation is implicit by reference). But working with the official SDK is obviously hugely attractive.
In any case, I'm almost done with my Perl project, so converting it over would be a lot of work. Maybe I'll try, however, as an exercise.
- January 8, 2011 at 6:05 AM
- David Pronk said...
This morning I managed to extract the contents of a .fit file using your perl scripts. What I am actually looking for is a way to repair a .fit file which appears to be corrupt. I can read it's contents but I am unable to upload it to the Garmin Connect site. Do you have any experience on this?
- October 2, 2012 at 4:37 AM
- djconnel said...
I've never been able to repair damaged FIT files, except to extract out portions prior to the flaw. You'd want a FIT to TCX converter, though, similar to the one which could be written with the SDK linked by Paul in the first comment. There's also one with the Garmin:FIT Perl module.
- October 2, 2012 at 6:04 AM


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The President's Ambassadors Program is a unique group of students selected from the 37,000 students at California State University, Long Beach to serve and represent the University in multiple capacities.
President's Ambassadors serve as official student representatives on behalf of the University and the University President at a variety of campus and community functions. President's Ambassadors showcase the excellence of CSULB to the University Community and are role models of professionalism, hospitality, character and Beach Pride.
The mission of the California State University, Long Beach President's Ambassador Program is to:
President's Ambassadors work collaboratively with President Conoley representing CSULB and its mission and goals. At the most basic level, they are volunteers who give their time, talent and enthusiasm freely for the advancement of California State University, Long Beach. How do they do this?
In the past, the Ambassadors have volunteered at events such as the Alumni Awards Banquet, Cherishing the Children, Jewels of the Night and Kaleidoscope.
We often collaborate with other offices on campus including the Beach Pride Center, Student Life and Development, and several academic departments.
The President's Ambassador Program is challenging, exciting and great way to gain valuable skills. If you have had experience in public speaking, leadership and want to give back to The Beach, you may want to consider applying.
Visit the recruitment page for details on how you can become a President's Ambassador and give back to CSULB.
Prior President, Robert C. Maxson, realized the best representatives of CSULB's excellence were students, and the President's Ambassadors Program was born. Since President Conoley's leadership at CSULB, she has embraced and supported the program whole heartedly, and has enhanced the President's Ambassadors roles and responsibilities within the university and the greater community.


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The schedule still accommodates seven class periods, while making time for a new study hall/intervention period, all within the 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. school day.
The new schedule was created by shaving three minutes from each class, reducing them from 50 to 47 minutes. In addition, one minute was taken from between-class passing times, and lunch period is reduced by seven minutes. The new schedule will not negatively impact concurrent enrollment classes.
Throughout the school year, San Juan High faculty and administration has worked in teams to improve school climate and ensure all students are learning and reaching their potential. The new class schedule is a direct result of those efforts.
"The scheduling team identified that a major hindrance to student success is that there was no time built into the regular school day to help struggling students. In the past, students who needed extra help have had to make the effort to meet with teachers before or after school, and many students were not willing or able to do that," said Chase Alder, SJH teacher. "Students fall further behind and it's very difficult to catch up."
At midterm of the first term this school year, 53 percent of students were failing at least one class. One week before the end of the term, it was 41 percent. At the end of the term, 20 percent of students had a failing grade.
The statistics show that far too many students are falling behind throughout the term and then scrambling to catch up and get a passing grade in the last week, while many students are unable to get caught up at all.
"As San Juan High faculty and administrators, we're not satisfied with the number of students who are failing a class," said Principal Bob Peterson. "Our goal is to provide time during the regular school day where we can intervene with students who are struggling and get them on track to success. We believe this approach will significantly reduce the number of students who receive failing grades each term."
Students will be assigned to a study hall class taught by teachers of non-core subjects. Students who are failing a core math, English, or science class will be identified by their teacher and will be pulled from the study hall class into small-group intervention sessions led by core teachers with peer tutor assistance.
During this time, the teacher will provide students with the specific help they need in order to succeed in the class.
Students with passing grades will use the 30-minute study hall for academic tasks, such as completing homework, studying for tests, and getting one-on-one help from teachers. An ACT prep class will also be offered.
Students will be expected to stay on task and utilize study hall time wisely. Students do not receive letter grades for study hall, but attendance and participation is mandatory.
SJH faculty members support this new initiative and believe that it will benefit all students, not just those who struggle with their coursework. Students will receive 2.5 hours of additional study time each week, freeing up more after-school time for extracurricular activities and family time.
As the program develops, opportunities for grade enhancement, higher-level learning, and college prep activities will likely be added. The new schedule also has the support of the Community Council and School District administration.
"I want to stress that the introduction of the study hall and intervention period is not a punishment for either those who are failing or those who are passing. It is simply an opportunity to catch academic problems while they are still relatively small and easy to fix, while also providing all students with more in-class time to complete assignments and get ahead with their schoolwork. We want to focus on intervention rather than remediation," Peterson said. "The new schedule is a work in progress, and may require some tweaking in the future, but we are very excited about this change, and ask that students and parents will be patient and supportive of this endeavor."
A letter has been sent to SJH parents with detailed information and a breakdown of the new schedule. If you have any questions, please call the High School at 678-1301.


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Bateman wrote:Very cool. Looks better designed than the factory solution on the Australia cars!
TonyWilliams wrote:Simple and well done, although I don't want to crawl under the car to get the tire!!
lion wrote:This is awesome, nice job!
I'll have to watch this thread, and see if you still like this setup in a few months.
Do you have the specs of the tire/wheel you purchased (or a link to the original auction)? Did you verify the wheel fits/drives ok?
Lasareath wrote:
The seller said it was an Altima spare.
TonyWilliams wrote:Lasareath wrote:
The seller said it was an Altima spare.
2002 - 2010 Altima spare should fit front and rear. The Nissan van spare won't (I have both).
http://www.ebay.com/itm/07-08-09-10-11- ... 1977796%26
Lasareath wrote:Tony,
I was told by somebody on this forum (i can't remember where) that since I have the 17" wheels that I can't put the 16" donut up front


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Neuroscience research suggests Dad can nurture too
Unlike the male pundits, politicians and even financiers who've opined freely recently about what they consider "natural" roles for mothers and fathers, with mom at home and dad at work, behavioral neuroscientist Kelly Lambert's methodical approach has led her to a much more complicated conclusion.
From her perch at Randolph-Macon College in rural Ashland, Va., Lambert has spent years designing elaborate experiments to test nurturing in both male and female rodents. She anesthetizes the animals, carefully removes their brains, firms the brains up with formalin, freezes them, then shaves them into slices thinner than a strand of human hair to study under a microscope.
What Lambert's rodent brain slices are revealing is nothing short of revolutionary, challenging the loud pundits and long-held cultural views that only mothers are wired for nurture.
Lambert, one of a small but growing number of scientists who study the biology of father behavior, is finding that not just mothers experience surges of hormones associated with bonding and nurturing. The same hormones increase, though not to the same degree, in fathers.
Rat mothers are not the only ones whose brains become sharper, making them more efficient foragers and more courageous and level-headed than females without offspring. Lambert has found that the same is true of fathers' brains. Fatherhood makes the male California deer mouse smarter, too.
Perhaps her most astonishing finding is that the mere presence of a pup is so powerful that it restructures even the brain of a virgin male common deer mouse, a member of what she calls a "sperm donor" species.
Unlike the monogamous, naturally nurturing male California deer mouse, the male common deer mouse, typically goes his merry way after copulation, leaving all the caretaking to the female. But the longer the "sperm donor" common deer mouse is exposed to a pup, Lambert's most recent studies show, the more his brain becomes wired for nurture.
"It's time that matters: face time, pup time," Lambert said. "That's what's so fascinating. We can take a male animal not predisposed to nurture and, with more time with pups, start seeing changes to the landscape of the brain."
Could those brain changes turn a "naturally deadbeat dad," as she calls them, into a nurturing, caregiving father?
"It's certainly a possibility," Lambert said.
Lambert's work on paternal brains and behavior is shaking up some basic assumptions about parenting. So is other emerging research on fatherhood, including studies that show that expectant human dads produce higher levels of the hormone responsible for breastfeeding and that fathers' testosterone levels drop after a baby is born.
"Her results are really quite stunning," said Patricia Churchland, a professor at the University of California at San Diego who writes frequently about the intersection of brain science and philosophy. "What she's finding about exposure to pups and the effect on the paternal brain is really very new and very, very important."
For years, biological and social scientists largely ignored fathers in their research. Even Lambert had to be nudged by a student to consider them.
It wasn't hard to justify paying less attention to fathers, Lambert said. In only 5 percent of mammal species do males become involved fathers. For the remaining 95 percent, males leave the burden entirely to the mother.
Scientific opinion, in turn, has shaped cultural attitudes that nature intended mothers not to be breadwinners, out in the world, but nurturers caring for children at home.
But if nature teaches anything, Lambert said, it's that there is no one way to parent. Reptiles are what she calls "drive-by parents," laying eggs and leaving offspring to fend for themselves.
But in 90 percent of bird species, both mothers and fathers care for their young, a product of monogamy and pair bonding for life, Lambert said.
Fathers play a critical nurturing role in other species, too. Giant waterbug fathers carry more than 100 eggs on their backs for several weeks until they hatch. Father seahorses carry fertilized eggs in a pouch, as if pregnant. "There's even a species of bat where the father lactates," Erica Glasper, Lambert's former student and now a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, said of the Dayak fruit bat in Southeast Asia.
And among the 5 percent of male mammals who become active caretakers -- which include humans -- the level of paternal involvement varies. Father owl monkeys and titi monkeys, or marmosets, actually spend more time carrying and feeding babies than the mothers do. So do male prairie voles.
Sue Carter, a behavioral neurobiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has spent her career studying prairie voles: "Sometimes they midwife the birth. They grab the baby and start licking it before it's even out of the membrane it's born in."
Carter's studies, like Lambert's, have found that virgin male prairie voles, when exposed to pups, experience a surge of the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin, the so-called "love" hormones that encourage social bonding, much as mothers do.
"We weren't expecting that," Carter said. "But we found that if you put a male prairie vole with a baby, he's going to start taking care of it immediately 80 percent of the time, even when it's not his and he hasn't seen it before. That's true in humans as well. A baby has very powerful physiological properties."
Lambert's lab is small, with two closet-sized rooms for rat and mouse cages, a long table and a small circular maze for her experiments, a counter with microscopes and shelves stacked with carefully preserved slices of rat and mouse brains. A poster for the movie "Ratatouille" decorates one wall.
An enormous freezer stands at the far end of the lab, stocked with almond-size rodent brains. It is next to the cryostat machine that makes slices no thicker than 40 microns, the diameter of about eight red blood cells. "Sort of like an Arby's slicer," Lambert said.
Lambert is fascinated by what she calls the brain's "neuroplasticity." Until recently, she said, scientists thought the brain never changed, that the neurons you were born with were the only neurons you'd ever have. "So you had to take care of them," she said, laughing.
But new work by neuroscientists is showing that environment and experience can physically shape the brain, she said, which in turn, can influence behavior in unexpected ways.
Lambert and her research partner Craig Kinsey, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond, were the first to report that motherhood made rats smarter, more emotionally resilient and physically agile. That groundbreaking finding was not only published in scientific journals but also became fodder for jokes on late-night talk shows.
Then one day, a student asked Lambert, "But what about the dads?"
Lambert was embarrassed that she hadn't thought to ask the question herself. She, her students and colleagues soon began experimenting with the California deer mouse and the common deer mouse.
She pulled out photomicrographs of the brains, comparing the two species. The brains of the more paternal California deer mice have much thicker bundles of vasopressin and oxytocin cell bodies and fibers that function "like an interstate highway" to more easily move the bonding "love" hormones through the hypothalamus, the reward and motivation center of the brain.
The brains of the uninterested common deer mouse fathers, in contrast, are wired to fear pups, she said.
But when Lambert began exposing virgin males of both species to pups, that's when things got really interesting.
The hippocampus -- the area of the brain involved in learning, deciding what to pay attention to and memory -- began producing new cells when virgin males were exposed to pups. The vasopressin fibers that move love hormones began to grow thicker even in the virgin non-nurturing common deer mice.
"That's what's so exciting," Lambert said. "We know moms' brains are wired from the start for nurture. But this shows that dads just may need more time to come on line and be paternal."
As Lambert packed up the brain slices, she contemplated the ongoing controversy about what's "natural" for mothers and fathers. Lambert's own mother stayed home, but, with only a high school education, she felt trapped in an unhappy marriage. Lambert worried about what was best for her two daughters when they were little, but having loving babysitters, a husband who shared caretaking responsibilities and a flexible job made her decision easier.
"I worried what I would be preparing them for if I were home full time -- I'm not the best homemaker -- and I wanted them to learn to be self-sufficient," she said. "So I took them to conferences with me, to my lab. I use what I do to prepare them for the world."
If nature teaches anything, Lambert said, it's that those species flexible enough to adapt to changing environments are the ones that survive.
"Life is messy. Every role is not carved in stone," she said. "If we say every family should be one particular way, if anything changes, you run the risk of becoming extinct."


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Nov. 12, 2005
STANFORD, Calif. -
In their eighth-straight victory at home, fourth-ranked Stanford defeated #14 UC Santa Barbara at the Avery Aquatics Center this afternoon, 14-6. The win improves Stanford's record to 16-5 this season, 5-2 in the MPSF. The UCSB record falls to 12-15, 0-6 this season.
The Cardinal took the early lead, with Thomas Hopkins, Michael Bury, and Peter Varellas making the first three goals of the game. At the end of the first period, Stanford had a 4-2 advantage over the Gauchos. With a 6-1 run in the second period, Stanford took the commanding lead. Peter Varellas saw the net three times in the third period, and the Cardinal ended the half with a 10-3 lead.
Extending the lead to 12-3, Varellas and freshman William Hindle-Katel scored the only two goals in the third quarter. UCSB picked it up in the fourth with a late run of three straight goals at 2:00, 1:37, and 1:02 remaining in the game. Freshman Travis Watts scored the final two goals for UCSB following sophomore Coulson Lantz' final goal. Stanford ended the match with Chris Jacobson's first goal of the game on a penalty shot with 26 seconds remaining.
Stanford's Varellas led the team today with five goals, tying his season high. Bury had three goals, Hopkins and Hindle-Katel each saw the net twice, and Andrew Drake and Chris Jacobson capped the game off with one goal apiece. Freshman James Sandman started at goal today and made six saves in the first three quarters. Junior Beau Stockstill closed the match with one save.
UCSB freshman Travis Watts and sophomore Coulson Lantz each made two goals to lead the Gauchos. Miles Price scored one goal in the first period, and Ramiro Saldain saw the net once in the second quarter. Goalie Rick Wright started the game with one save, and Jon Bonafede closed with six saves in two quarters.
The Gauchos continue action next weekend when they travel to Long Beach, Calif. to take on Long Beach State before hosting UC Irvine at 1 pm on Sunday at Campus Pool.
Summary 1 2 3 4 T Stanford 4 6 2 2 14 UC Santa Barbara 2 1 0 3 6 Stanford Scoring: Varellas 5, Bury 3, Hopkins 2, Hindle-Katel 2, A. Drake 1, Jacobson 1. UCSB Scorers: Co. Lantz 2, Watts 2, Price 1, Saldain 1. Goalie Saves: Sandman (Stan) 6, Bonafede (UCSB) 6, Stockstill (Stan) 1, Wright (UCSB) 1.