Blits

May 12th, 2008

Black’s & Lane’s Ident Tones for Surround: a way of keeping track of channels in a mixed surround-sound, stereo, and mono world. Developed by Martin Black and Keith Lane of Sky TV London in 2004, and used by Sky and the BBC to identify and lineup 5.1 broadcast circuits.
Proposed as EBU standard.

Of course, someone seated next to a loudspeaker in a large auditorium might consider even a surround sound event to be mono sounding, with all of the other channels overwhelmed by the nearby sound source. This is much less likely to be a significant problem in the home for TV broadcasts and home cinema sound systems though.

For singular equivalents of BLITS see Blit.

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1623 in science

May 11th, 2008

The year 1623 in science and technology involved some significant events.


Technology


Computers

  • Wilhelm Schickard invents the mechanical calculating machine


Births

  • June 19 - Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and physicist (died 1662)


Deaths

Resources

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Paddy Christie

May 11th, 2008
For more details of the GAA in Dublin, see Dublin GAA, Dublin GAA Honours and Dublin Senior Club Football Championship.


Paddy Christie, born in Dublin in 1976, is an Irish Gaelic footballer. He made his inter-county senior debut for Dublin against Armagh in April 1995 and usually plays in the full-back position. He plays for Ballymun Kickhams and served as captain of the Dublin GAA Senior football team in 2005. He was selected in the 2002 GAA All Stars Awards team at full-back. He has won three Leinster Championship medals in 2002, 2005 and 2006. Christie collected his 2006 Leinster senior football championship medal for 2006, although he did not make the first team and was did not make a substitute appearance. One of the highlights of his achievements at underage level was getting the triple with Ballymun Kickhams U-21 team by winning the Dublin Championship, the North League and then overall league winners in the same season. Christie was expected to make his re-appearance in the Dublin full-back line during the first round of the 2007 National Football League. This changed however, when Christie decided to dedicate himself to completing his Masters at University, although a possible return could materialise in time for the Championship.


External links

  • 1997 Profile of Christie

Resources

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Paul Harrison (pantheist)

May 10th, 2008

Paul Harrison is an environmentalist and the founder and president of the World Pantheist Movement.

For most of his life, Harrison has been a journalist and writer on the environment and Third-World development. His best known books are Inside the Third World (1979) and The Third Revolution (1993) (on population and environment). He also wrote “The Greening of Africa” (1987) about sustainable development for Africa, and “Inside the Inner City” (1983) about inner city poverty in East London. His book on pantheism, Elements of Pantheism, was published by Element Books in 1999.

Harrison has worked for several UN agencies and travelled to many Third-World countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In 1988 he received a UN Environment Programme Global 500 award for his writings on environment. He has edited the United Nations Population Fund’s “State of World Population,” and was editor-in-chief for the Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life. He was the lead author of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s “Atlas of Population and Environment.” Since 2005 he has edited the United Nations Environment Programme’s “Geo Yearbook: Overview of Our Changing Environment.”

Harrison was born in Oldham, Lancashire, United Kingdom, in 1945, and has degrees in European languages and literature (Cambridge); political sociology (London School of Economics); and a Ph. D. from Cambridge in Earth Sciences and Geography. Since 2002 he has lived in California.

In July 1996 he posted the first page of what became the scientific pantheism site, and in 1997 he started the mailing list that grew into the World Pantheist Movement.


External links

  • Harrison home page & profile
  • World Pantheist Movement
  • Scientific Pantheism Site
  • Elements of Pantheism
  • Atlas of Population and Environment
  • UNEP Geo Yearbook

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Clarence Young

May 10th, 2008

Clarence Young was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate for series of books for boys, the most well-known being the “Motor Boys” series.

The following series were published under the name Clarence Young:

  • Jack Ranger–6 volumes (1907-1911)
  • Motor Boys–22 volumes (1906-1924)–The first ten were illustrated by Charles Nuttall–Volumes 1, 2, and 8 ghostwritten by Howard R. Garis
  • Racer Boys–6 volumes (1912-1914)

The pseudonym “Clarence Young” was also used by Edward Stratemeyer for a few football stories published in turn of the century boys magazines.


External links

Resources

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List of Irish theatres and theatre companies

May 9th, 2008

áThis is a list of Irish theatres and theatre companies past and present.

  • Abbey Theatre, Dublin (The National Theatre of Ireland)
  • Ambassador Theatre, Dublin
  • Andrews Lane Theatre, Dublin
  • Capitol Theatre, Dublin
  • Civic Theatre, Tallaght, Dublin
  • Coliseum Theatre, Dublin
  • Corcadorca Theatre Company
  • Damer Theatre
  • Dan Lowrey’s Music Hall
  • Druid Theatre Company
  • Eblana Theatre, Dublin
  • Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork
  • Focus Theatre, Dublin
  • Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
  • Gate Theatre, Dublin
  • An Grianán Theatre Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
  • The Green Heart Company
  • Impact Theatre, Limerick
  • Irish Literary Theatre, Dublin
  • Leinster Hall, Dublin
  • Lyric Theatre, Belfast
  • Lyric Theatre, Dublin
  • Mechanics’ Theatre, Dublin
  • New Theatre (Ireland)
  • Olympia Theatre, Dublin
  • Passionfruit Theatre, Athlone
  • Project Theatre, Dublin
  • Queen’s Theatre, Dublin
  • Second Age Theatre Company
  • Siamsa Tire Theatre
  • An Taidhbhearc
  • Theatre Royal, Dublin
  • The Helix, Dublin
  • The Point Theatre, Dublin
  • Tivoli Variety Theatre, Dublin
  • Torch Theatre, Dublin
  • W. G. Fay’s Irish National Dramatic Company


See also

  • Irish theatre
  • List of Irish dramatists
  • List of Irish actors

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Charity care

May 8th, 2008

In the United States, charity care is health care rendered to patients unable to pay for some, in whole, or in part.

More specifically, the term refers to a scheme used by the state of New Jersey to provide reimbursements to hospitals and other health-care institutions which provide uncompensated or undercompensated health care to patients lacking private health insurance whose income falls below a certain amount but is too high to qualify them for Medicaid and are not old enough to be eligible for Medicare (New Jersey’s situation is somewhat unique among American states in that the state has no county or municipal hospitals).

The scheme provides free health care to uninsured state residents whose income is up to 200% of the federally designated poverty line, and provides discounts which gradually phase out at incomes between 200% and 300% of the poverty line; the patient’s liquid assets (not including the patient’s home and one automobile) must not exceed $7,500. Also, the maximum any individual qualifying for aid under the aforementioned criteria can be liable for in a single year is 30% of that patient’s gross income for that year. A special fund compensates the health-care provider—which may have furnished either inpatient or outpatient services—for the applicable difference in cost.

Some private health-care providers in other states—particularly those that are operated on a nonprofit basis (often by religious entities)—also provide free and/or low-cost health care to uninsured patients, using income thresholds similar to those observed statewide in New Jersey; but state laws vary widely as to how much, if any, reimbursement (usually in the form of tax credits) the institution receives for so doing (and in only one other state besides New Jersey—Washington—does an outright mandate exist to provide charity care). Perhaps the most famous example of such an institution is the Charity Hospital of New Orleans, founded in 1732 and now run by the Medical Center of Louisiana.

Many political moderates in the United States point to the success of the New Jersey program, and recommend its adoption at the federal level as an alternative to national health-insurance proposals advocated by many liberals.

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Resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization

May 8th, 2008

Resonance Enhanced Multi-Photon Ionization (REMPI) is a technique applied to the spectroscopy of atoms and small molecules. In practice, a tunable laser can be used to access an excited intermediate state. The selection rules associated with a two-photon or other multi-photon photoabsorption are different from the selection rules for a single photon transition. The REMPI technique typically involves a resonant single or multiple photon absorption to an electronically excited intermediate state followed by another photon which ionizes the atom or molecule. The light intensity to achieve a typical multiphoton transition is generally significantly larger than the light intensity to achieve a single photon photoabsorption. Because of this, a subsequent photoabsorption is often very likely. An ion and a free electron will result if the photons have imparted enough energy to exceed the ionization threshold energy of the system. In many cases, REMPI provides spectroscopic information that can be unavailable to single photon spectroscopic methods, for example rotational structure in molecules is easily seen with this technique.

Rydberg states, Rydberg molecules

High photon intensity experiments can involve multiphoton processes with the absorption of integer multiples of the photon energy. In experiments that involve a multiphoton resonance, the intermediate is often a low-lying Rydberg state, and the final state is often an ion. The initial state of the system, photon energy, angular momentum and other selection rules can help in determining the nature of the intermediate state. This approach is exploited in Resonance Enhanced Multi-Photon Ionization Spectroscopy (REMPI). The technique is in wide use in both atomic and molecular spectroscopy. An advantage of the REMPI technique is that the ions can be detected with almost complete efficiency and even time resolved for their mass. It is also possible to gain additional information by performing experiments to look at the energy of the liberated photoelectron in these experiments. (Robert N. Compton [1] formerly of O.R.N.L. and Philip M. Johnson [2] pioneered the development of REMPI. The technique was named by Johnson.)

In “Applied Laser Spectroscopy, ed. D. Andrews, VCH (1992), Chapter 9 “Laser Mass Spectroscopy” by K.W. Ledingham and R.P. Singhal” it is stated, that R.N. Zare is the namegiving instance to the REMPI process.


See also

  • Rydberg Ionization Spectroscopy
  • Compare with Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF)

ŏ

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First Elder

May 5th, 2008

The First Elder is a character on The X-Files, played by Don S. Williams. Also known simply as The Elder, and The Fat Man to fans. He is a member of the Syndicate, the shadowy organization that Cigarette Smoking Man and Well-Manicured Man also belong to.

Although no clear hierarchy is ever given for the Syndicate, First Elder seems to be the member in charge of things in the absence of Conrad Strughold, who is possibly unable to enter the U.S. and therefore unable to participate in most Syndicate meetings and activities directly.

The Elder is introduced in season 3 in the episode 3X10 titled “731″, along with the Well-Manicured Man. He is about 6′4″, 275lb, has a grave voice and is shown to be a stately, conservative gentleman, who enjoys horse racing, and is usually seen sipping a cup of tea while his fellow Elders discussed their concerns. Whenever he received distressing news, he generally weighed all options rather than breaking into anger. However, there were times when the Cigarette Smoking Man tried his patience, and he seemed to be livid under the surface. He did not share the Cigarette Smoking Man’s belief that killing Mulder would make him a martyr and thus risk exposure of the Syndicate.

The Elder only directly interacted with Mulder and Scully once, in “731″ when he approached Scully in a misinformation campaign. Playing on her skepticism towards all things extraterrestrial, the Elder managed to convince Scully that all alleged alien abductions (including her own) were actually the work of renegade Syndicate scientists who were conducting secret experiments on an unsuspecting populace.

In season 5, the Elder orders the assassination of the Cigarette Smoking Man. Whether he acted on his own, or other Syndicate members had knowledge of the plan is unclear. Months later, he was forced to welcome the Cigarette Smoking Man, who somehow managed to survive the attempt on his life, back into the fold. It was around this time a second extraterrestrial faction appeared, opposed to the alien Colonists, the faction that the Syndicate was collaborating with. The Well-Manicured Man suggested that the Syndicate should side with the rebels. The Elder refused, believing that only cooperation with the Colonists would ensure their survival.

In season 6’s “Full Disclosure” two-parter (”Two Fathers”/”One Son”), the Syndicate’s successful creation of the first true alien-human hybrid, Cassandra Spender, prompts them to deliver her to the Colonists, as per their 1973 agreement. At El Rico Air Force Base, the Elder and the rest of the Syndicate, including their families, arrive and await the Colonists, in order to not only deliver the hybrid, but also to be taken and become hybrids themselves. However, the alien rebels ambushed the Syndicate, and in order to prevent the Colonists from obtaining a hybrid, quickly incinerated them. The Elder, as well as most of the rest of the Syndicate, with the notable exceptions of Cigarette Smoking Man and Conrad Strughold, perished in the attack. Other members of the Syndicate are The Second Elder, The Third Elder and The Fourth Elder.

His known subordinates included the Senior Agent, the Red Haired Man, the Gray Haired Man, Scott Ostelhoff, and Quiet Willy.


Appearances

The First Elder Appears in the Following Episodes:

Season 3

  • “The Blessing Way”
  • “Paper Clip”
  • “731″
  • “Apocrypha”

Season 4

  • “Herrenvolk”
  • “Zero Sum”

Season 5

  • “Redux”
  • “Redux II”
  • “Patient X”
  • “The Red and the Black”
  • “The End”

The X-Files: Fight the Future (Movie)

Season 6

  • “The Beginning”
  • “Two Fathers”
  • “One Son”

Resources

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The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

May 4th, 2008

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs is an unauthorized biography chronicling the life of Steve Jobs, a co-founder of Apple Computer by Vanity Fair magazine writer Alan Deutschman. It covers his period at NeXT, an unexpected success at Pixar and his comeback to Apple followed by the introduction of iMac.

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