A setup for the precision measurement of multianode photomultiplier efficiency
In many applications, such as the detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using the air fluorescence method, the number of photons incident on the detector must be known. This requires a precise knowledge of the absolute efficiency of the photodetectors used. We present an experimental setup for measuring the single photoelectron gain and efficiency of multi-anode photomultipliers with a total uncertainty on the order of a few percent. This precision is obtained by using a comparison to a NIST calibrated photodiode, and the presented method can be applied to both vacuum photomultiplier tubes and other photodetectors. This work is motivated by the need to calibrate the focal surface of the EUSO-Balloon instrument, which is a technical pathfinder for the future JEM-EUSO mission. A complete discussion of photomultiplier calibration is presented and the efficiency measurement technique is discussed in detail. Example results are given to illustrate the key points of the method.
keywords:single photon counting, photomultiplier efficiency, photomultiplier calibration, UHECR, JEM-EUSO, EUSO-Balloon
In many applications knowledge of the absolute number of photons incident on a photodetector is needed with a reasonably low uncertainty. One example is the use of the air fluorescence method to detect Extensive Air Showers (EAS)created in the atmosphere by Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs)Greisen (1972); Hara et al. (1970); Suga (1962). This method is employed both in current observatories, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory Abraham et al. (2008, 2010) and Telescope Array Abu-Zayyad et al. (2013), and will also be used by future missions such as JEM-EUSO Adams et al. (2013) and its pathfinder EUSO-Balloon Osteria and Scotti (2013).
The air fluorescence method provides a calorimetric measurement of the energy deposited in the atmosphere by EAS, but reconstructing the energy of the primary cosmic ray requires the absolute number of photons received by the detector. At the same time, the number of photons emitted per eV of deposited energy, known as the air fluorescence yield Arqueros et al. (2009); Rosado et al. (2011), must also be measured. A precise knowledge of both the photodetector efficiency and the atmospheric transmission are therefore essential to this observational technique.
The photo-detection element in EUSO-Balloon is the Hamamatsu R11265-M64 Multi-Anode Photomultiplier Tube (MAPMT). The M64 is a Photomultiplier Tube (PMT)with 64 individual anodes (pixels), each with an area of 2.88 mm, and an ultra bi-alkali photocathode with a quantum efficiency of 35-45% for light in the 290 to 430 nm wavelength range. This MAPMT multiplies photoelectrons emitted from the photocathode using a stack of 12 metal-channel dynodes, giving a typical gain of at a cathode bias voltage of 900 V.
Each stage of a PMTcan be characterized by one or more parameters which, together, give the primary response characteristics of the PMT. The quantum efficiency characterizes the efficiency of converting photons into electrons at the photocathode. The spectral sensitivity of the PMT is determined by the optical properties of the PMT entrance window and the variation of with wavelength. As the photocathode is not perfectly uniform, the quantum efficiency depends on the location of the incident photons and their angle of incidence.
The collection efficiency is the efficiency of collecting created photoelectrons into the multiplication stage of the PMT, i.e. the probability that photoelectrons from the photocathode will land on the effective area of the first dynode. The collection efficiency depends on the electrostatic field between the photocathode and the first dynode, as this affects the trajectories taken by photoelectrons. Due to this, depends on the applied voltage and hence the PMTgain.
The single photoelectron efficiency is the ratio of the number of single photoelectron pulses on the PMTanode to the number of photons incident on the cathode. It is the product of the quantum and collection efficiencies:
and is dependent on the wavelength , the incidence angle , and location of the incident photons on the photocathode and the voltage between cathode and the first dynode. The useful efficiency also depends on the threshold used to separate single photoelectron pulses from noise.
The single photoelectron gain is the number of electrons at the anode for each photoelectron collected, and is a function of the voltage on each element (dynode) of the PMT. There is a fluctuation in the number of electrons from shower to shower due to the nature of secondary emission.
The single photoelectron characteristics of the PMT can be contrasted with the gain of the PMT, which is the product of the single photoelectron gain and the collection efficiency of the first dynode. This property of the PMT is often measured as the ratio of the anode current to the cathode current, . The current through the anode is the product of the single photoelectron gain, the efficiency, and the number of photons arriving at the photocathode per second (for currents which are too large, however, the anode response is no longer linear).
1.1 Photomultiplier Calibration
The relative quantum efficiency of the cathode as a function of wavelength is generally well-characterized, but the absolute PMTefficiency is more difficult to measure and is typically known with a precision of the order of 10–20%.
For many experiments, such as JEM-EUSO, this uncertainty is too large, and a method for measuring the absolute efficiency with an accuracy of a few percent is needed.
In principle, can be translated into by measuring the collection efficiency using the ratio of the PMTgain and the single photoelectron gain. This method is difficult and imprecise for several reasons, however. The cathode current must be at least several picoamperes to be measurable, which requires a very high light level, but at the same time the anode response is not linear at very high currents. One way to overcome this is to operate the PMTwith only the cathode and first few dynodes polarized (so-called diode mode), so that can be measured at a very high light level without saturating the anode. After is measured, the light flux can be attenuated several orders of magnitude using neutral density filters with a known attenuation coefficient , and the PMTis then put at full gain so that the anode current can be measured assuming a cathode current of . There can be large systematic uncertainties from the attenuation, and from not accounting for the dark current component of . Care must be also taken that there are no fluctuations in the emission of the source between the two measurements.
A more precise technique is to measure the single photoelectron spectrum of the PMT, i.e. the reponse at the anode to a single photoelectron. The single photoelectron efficiency of the PMTis the ratio of the number of detected signals, given by the surface of the one photoelectron peak, and the number of incident photons. In this case, the absolute number of photons incident on the photocathode must be determined. This can be done by i) illuminating the PMTwith a calibrated source, or ii) comparing the PMTto another calibrated detector.
A calibrated light source can be provided by any source which gives a known number of photons per second per steradian. Examples include calibrated lamps, lasers, synchrotron radiation, Cherenkov emission, or other well known physical phenomena, such as Rayleigh scattering (e.g. ref. Kawana et al. (2012)). If the power spectrum of the source is known with high accuracy, then the emissive surface, flux, and solid angle can be accounted for in the measurement. This is a delicate task experimentally, and the variation of the flux with temperature and time must also be taken into account.
If the solid angle subtended by the emission of the source is small, such as for a laser, the flux is generally high in the emission region compared to the operational range of the PMTand must be attenuated by several orders of magnitude. For sources in which the emission subtends a large solid angle, such as many calibrated lamps, the flux may require less attenuation, but then a precise knowledge of the spatial variation is critical. The uncertainty involved in attenuating light sources in a controlled way can reach nearly 20%, and so the precision on the measurement of the efficiency using this type of method is limited Wright (1999). The uniformity of the source is also a problem in either case as attenuation filters can create lobes and other spatial variations in intensity which can be a source of systematic error.
Comparison to a calibrated detector, on the other hand, effectively creates a continuously calibrated source, and so eliminates the problem of intensity variations with temperature and time. However, the spatial variation of the source must still be taken into account. Any absolutely calibrated detector can be used as the reference; here a photodiode is used. A key point is that the same flux must be viewed simultaneously by both the PMTand the photodiode, meaning that the gain of the PMT, on the order of or higher, must be matched to the gain of the photodiode, which is slightly lower than one.
The calibration technique of Biller et al. Biller et al. (1999) attempted to overcome this by placing the reference photodiode closer to the source than the PMT. In such a setup, the total flux at the PMTmust be inferred from the solid angle subtended by the PMTand the measured flux per steradian. Both of these inferences are potential sources of uncertainty. Comparison to a calibrated detector thus represents a clear improvement over the use of a calibrated source, but it also presents difficulty due to the need to match the gain of the reference detector to that of the PMTand in measuring the luminosity distribution of the source.
The setup of Biller et al. was further developed by Lefeuvre et al. Lefeuvre et al. (2007), who applied the technique to a precise measurement of the air fluorescence yield. This absolute calibration compares the response of the PMTdirectly to an absolutely calibrated photodiode. In this direct comparison method the PMTto be calibrated and the reference photodiode view the same light in real time, and their gains are matched by attenuating the light by a factor of – in a stable and repeatable way. To do this, an integrating sphere is used as a stable and well-characterized splitter. The attenuation is itself measured using a second absolutely calibrated photodiode. This second photodiode directly replaces the PMTso that it is at the same distance and uses the same opening of the sphere. In this way the intensity and spatial uniformity are the same in both measurements, resulting in an absolute measurement of the efficiency with a total uncertainty on the order of a few percent.
Here a calibration setup employing a developed version of the technique used by Lefeuvre et al. is presented, and, notably, the calibration procedure is fully explained. Special attention is paid to the characterization of MAPMT.
2 Measurement Setup
2.1 The Testing Environment
The most essential element of the calibration setup is the measurement environment; the setup must be placed inside a black box to avoid exposing the high-gain PMTto light. This allows a good signal-to-noise ratio to be obtained and avoids damaging the PMTby over-exposure.
To eliminate as much background light as possible, the entry door to the black box is sealed using a camera baffle, which assures that the door is light tight each time it is closed. The box is constructed using lap joints, so that there are no small gaps at corners or between sides, which would give a straight path for photons to enter the box. There should not be any holes in the box, and so every cable which goes through the black box must pass through a connector. Each connector should be light-tight. Inside the box, every surface is painted matte black and/or covered with black velvet to minimize reflections, and any light generated inside the box (e.g. on electronics) must be eliminated.
2.2 The Calibrated Source
The calibrated light source is provided by a monochromatic Light-Emitting Diode (LED)combined with an integrating sphere and a reference detector. A diagram of the calibrated source is shown in Fig. 1. An integrating sphere is a hollow sphere with a diffusive material coating the inside surface.
An integrating sphere diffuses radiant flux, and the fraction of the radiance received by a finite interior surface of the sphere is proportional to the ratio of its area to the total interior surface area. This property is independent of the viewing angle between the surfaces, the distance between them, and the size of the emitting part of the surface Labsphere (2008). The stability of the fraction of the flux received by each port of the integrating sphere is an important benefit compared to the sensitivity of a beam splitter.
The integrating sphere used in this setup was manufactured by Labsphere. This integrating sphere has an internal diameter of 10.16 cm (4 in) and three ports, each located 90 from one another. The largest port has a diameter of 3.81 cm (1.50 in), and the two smaller ports each have a diameter of 2.54 cm (1.00 in). The interior of the sphere is coated with a proprietary Spectralon material which has a diffuse reflectivity of for 400 nm light. The Spectralon coating is a purified PTFE with a thickness of 8 mm, and, due to this thickness, it is difficult to calculate the effective area of a port precisely. We therefore did not perform any simulations or calculations using the sphere parameters, but instead measure the emission intensity from the sphere output port.
A silicon photodiode (PD300-UV by Ophir Optronics (2013)) was used as the reference detector for this setup. Silicon photodiodes can be operated unbiased, and in this configuration they are stable over almost 10 decades of incident power. The area of this photodiode is about 120 mm, and it is sensitive to the wavelength range from 200 nm to 1100 nm. The operational power range of the photodiode is from 20 pW to 3 mW with a resolution of 0.001 nW, and the output noise level (RMS) is on the order of 1 pW. The temperature dependance of the photodiode response is less than 0.1% per C for light of wavelength less than 800 nm.
The most important characteristic of this photodiode is its wavelength-dependent absolute efficiency. The calibration of this efficiency is given by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)with an uncertainty () of 1.5% in the wavelength range – nm.
In the present setup the photocurrent generated in the NIST photodiode is measured using a specially designed “LaserStar” power meter, which is essentially a pico-ammeter which uses the absolute calibration curve of the photodiode. Once the wavelength of the source is selected on the ammeter it gives a direct reading of the power incident on the photodiode, with a precision on the measured photo-current of 0.5% Optronics (2012) (to be added quadratically to the 1.5% uncertainty of the NIST calibration).
2.3 Gain Matching
In order to match the gain of the NIST photodiode to that of the PMTit is necessary to determine the attenuation required. The light is provided by one or more monochromatic LEDs, which are placed on the larger, 3.81 cm, port of the integrating sphere. The LED(s) are pulsed in coincidence with the integration windows (gates) of the charge measurement (see Fig. 2 and sect. 2.4).
The photodiode is placed on one of the 2 smaller integrating sphere ports. The aperture to the photodiode was 9 mm to limit edge effects from the material surrounding it, and the PMTwas illuminated through the 2nd small port. The pW noise level of the photodiode can be used to estimate the minimum background. From this, there must be at least 0.1 nW on the photodiode to have a good signal-to-noise ratio during the reference measurement. If the light source is a monochromatic LED with a wavelength of 398 nm, and the conversion efficiency of the photodiode111The PD300-UV silicon photodiode gives a photocurrent of 148 mA/W at 398 nm. is about 25%, this would correspond to photons per second incident on the surface of the photodiode.
From the Poisson statistics, the number of gates containing two photoelectrons in the spectrum is less than 1% of the number of one photoelectron gates when of all gates give no photoelectron. If the LED is pulsed at a rate of kHz and the efficiency of the PMTis around 25%, this corresponds to no more than photons per second incident on the PMT. The reduction in flux between the PMTand the photodiode must then be to have both 40 photons per second on the PMTand a good measurement of the incident power using the photodiode.
An attenuation of could be given by a single integrating sphere by using a diaphragm with a radius on the order of cm on the output port of the sphere. One alternative solution is to add a second integrating sphere, as done by Lefeuvre et al. Lefeuvre et al. (2007). This method is patented Gorodetzky and Lefeuvre (2008), but is not ideal, as an integrating sphere is a Lambertian source. If the PMT is instead placed some distance from the output port of the (first or second) integrating sphere, then the illumination will be largely uniform, but the sensitive surface of both the photocathode and of the photodiode must be taken into account.
Another possibility is to use a collimator at the output port of the integrating sphere in order to illuminate the PMTin a more uniform way, and simultaneously restrict this illumination to a small area of the photocathode. In this case the incidence angle of the incoming photons will also be well-controlled. The exact dimensions of the collimator are based on the needed spot size and the required attenuation. The attenuation of the collimator is not calculated, but rather is measured directly in the second step of the calibration procedure.
An important consideration is that a parallel beam of light, such as from a collimator, will give a measurement of the efficiency over an area of the photocathode equal to the spot size of the beam. A uniform illumination of the entire photocathode, for example, will give the efficiency averaged over the entire photocathode of the PMT. Illumination of the entire cathode is thus more appropriate for relative efficiency measurements – i.e. comparing one PMT or one MAPMT pixel to another, while a collimated beam with a small enough spot size that the measured area of the PMT photocathode can be replaced with a photodiode is more suitable for measuring the absolute efficiency.
2.4 Read-out electronics
PMTsare essentially current sources, with each single photoelectron collected resulting in a shower of electrons at the anode. The single photoelectron response of a PMTis thus best measured as a charge spectrum. This is achieved using Charge-to-Digital Convertor (QDC)electronics, which measure the total charge received during a defined time window, known as a gate. A diagram the setup is shown in Fig. 2. The LEDis pulsed in coincidence with the integration gate of the QDC.
For MAPMTthis is complicated by the need to read out multiple anodes from each PMT. In the case of the M64 MAPMT, sixty-four simultaneous read-out channels are required (in order to test one PMT at a time). As the gain of the M64 is of the order of , a single photoelectron pulse gives around 160 fC at the anode. QDCswith a charge resolution on the order of 20 fC or sixty-four high performance integrating amplifiers are therefore required in order to take clean single photoelectron spectra.
A diagram of the Data Acquisition System (DAQ)is shown in Fig. 3. The core of this system is a standard CAMAC crate containing 4 CAEN C1205 charge-to-digital conversion modules. These modules have a charge resolution of 20 fC per channel or better. The CAMAC crate is controlled by a SEN CC 2089 “A2” crate controller, and the CAMAC branch is driven by a CBD 8210 branch driver, which interfaces the CAMAC branch to a VME crate. The VME crate is controlled by a Motorola MVME 3100 VME processor board running Debian Linux on 32-bit Power PC architecture.
A data acquisition program was written for this setup in C/C on a Linux PC using the Maximum Integrated Data Acquisition System (MIDAS)framework Ritt et al. (2013). MIDASis a distributed data acquisition framework which allows complicated data acquisition and analysis routines to be implemented. Here the program which controlled the VME and CAMAC crates ran directly on the VME processor board, which was connected to the backend PC by Ethernet. The acquisition with setup was able to proceed at a rate of 2 kHz for 64 QDC channels in parallel, the rate being limited by the CAMAC signal definitions. As the C1205 is compatible with the FAST-CAMAC standard, an upgrade of the CAMAC crate controller to a FAST-CAMAC compatible model would increase the read-out rate by a factor of between 2 to 10 Dhawan et al. (1996, 1997).
In addition to the program driving the QDCs, the other hardware was also integrated into the acquisition software. This included two Zaber T-LSM200 movement supports mounted together, orthogonal to each other. These supports held the integrating sphere (light source), allowing the incident light spot to be positioned on the photocathode of the PMTunder test with an accuracy of 0.003 mm. The LaserStar power meter which reads the NIST photodiode was also interfaced with the DAQ. The photodiode was sampled at a rate of 10 Hz and this information was stored event by event along with the QDC data and the X-Y position of light spot.
The DAQperformed a full analysis of gathered single photoelectron spectra at the end of each measurement run using ROOT. This analysis included data gathered from the NIST photodiode, and the results from the single photoelectron spectrum analysis were also interfaced with the control of the X-Y movement hardware, to allow, for example, centering with high precision on a given pixel using the response of the PMT itself. The extraction of measurements from the single photoelectron spectra will be discussed in sect. 3.1.
3 Measurement Procedure
3.1 The Single Photoelectron Spectrum
To operate in single photoelectron counting mode the probability that more than one photoelectron is collected within the time-resolution of the measurement must be negligible. Here the time-resolution is the QDC integration time, i.e. the gate width. The average number of photoelectrons per gate is given by the product of the average number of photons arriving at the photocathode during each gate, the photocathode quantum efficiency, and the collection efficiency: .
The creation and collection of any given photoelectron is an independent process and can be assumed to occur at some constant average rate. The probability of photoelectrons entering the electron multiplier is thus described by the Poisson distribution:
which gives the probability to find a given number of occurrences , if they are independent and happen at an average rate per unit time .
From Eq. (2), the ratio of the number of gates containing two photoelectrons to those containing a single photoelectron can be expressed in terms of the ratio of gates containing zero photoelectrons to those containing one photoelectron as
This allows the contamination of two photoelectrons in the single photon electron spectrum to be estimated: if the ratio of one photoelectron counts to pedestal counts is less than 1%, then the ratio of two photoelectron counts to one photoelectron counts is less than 0.5%.
An example of a single photoelectron spectrum taken with the setup presented in this paper is shown in Fig. 4. On the left hand side of the spectrum is the region of the spectrum, known as the pedestal, corresponding to gates during which no photoelectrons were collected into the electron multiplier of the PMT. In theory, the pedestal will be centered on zero charge, but in practice the pedestal has a non-zero mean due to leakage current from the PMT and the current offset of the read-out electronics. The area of the pedestal gives the number of gates in which no photoelectrons were collected.
The peak on the right is the single photoelectron peak. Several key pieces of information about the PMTcan be extracted from the spectrum:
The mean charge of the single photoelectron peak minus the mean charge of the pedestal gives the single photoelectron gain in coulombs (after calibration of the QDC). The width of the single photoelectron peak is due to the inherent fluctuation in the secondary emission at the first dynode, convolved with the width of the pedestal.
The peak-to-valley ratio can be used as a figure of merit for both the spectrum and the PMTitself. The pulse-height resolution of the PMT, defined as the ratio of the FWHMof the single photoelectron peak to the height of the peak, increases with peak-to-valley ratio.
The surface area of the single photoelectron peak gives the number of one photoelectron gates, i.e. the total number of single photoelectron counts.
If the single photoelectron gain and peak-to-valley ratio are high enough, then it may be possible to resolve a third peak corresponding to two photoelectrons at twice the charge of the single photoelectron peak.
The absolute measurement of the detection efficiency of the PMTproceeds as follows: 1) The first measurement is shown in Fig. 1(a). The PMTis illuminated using the calibrated source described in sect. 2.2 (a pulsed LED with an integrating sphere and collimator). A single photoelectron spectrum is taken using a QDC, which integrates the total charge received during a gate generated in coincidence with the LED pulse. Both the gate length and delay are adjusted so that the anode pulses from the PMTare contained within the gate. The use of a gate–pulse coincidence reduces the contribution of dark pulses (i.e. real photoelectron pulses due to thermionic emission, etc.) to a negligible level. The light level is then reduced until the number of gates which give one photoelectron is about 1% of the number of gates which give no photoelectron. From the Poisson statistics, the contamination of two photoelectrons in the spectrum is then around 0.5% of the number of single photoelectrons. A single photoelectron spectrum is then taken with enough total gates to give the needed statistical uncertainty on the number of one photoelectron counts . At a rate of one photoelectron per 100 gates, this means one million gates are needed to reach a statistical uncertainty. The total time over which the spectrum is taken is also measured, for example by putting a control timer on the pulse generator which gives the gate signal. The power received by the NIST photodiode attached to the integrating sphere is recorded simultaneously. The resulting single photoelectron spectrum is analyzed to determine the number of single photoelectrons , which is threshold dependent. should be determined either for a chosen working threshold (for example 1/3 of the mean single photoelectron charge) or extrapolated to the zero of the pedestal. It must be noted that in photon counting experiments the threshold is chosen so that it lies in the valley between the pedestal and single photoelectron peak. 2) The PMTis then replaced by a second NIST photodiode, as shown in Fig. 1(b). The photodiode is placed at the same distance from the output of the collimator as the PMTwas previously. The single LED is also replaced with a collection of LEDs, so that the power on the second photodiode is high enough to have a good signal-to-noise ratio. Here the fact that the photodiode is linear across 10 decades of power is exploited. The ratio of the power measured by the two photodiodes gives the attenuation: (4) where is the power measured by the photodiode on the sphere and is the power measured by the photodiode replacing the PMT.
Each single photoelectron spectrum is analyzed to extract the number of single photoelectron counts and the position of the single photoelectron peak. In order to work in an efficient way with a large number of MAPMTsthis analysis was automated and built into the DAQ. The example spectrum shown in Fig. 4 was analyzed by this routine.
Each spectrum is first smoothed using the 353QH algorithm222The 353QH algorithm consists of taking a running median of three, followed by a running median of five and another running median of three. The data is then quadratically interpolated, and the end result is subjected to a running average. Friedman (1974) to reduce statistical fluctuations, after which the valley, shown by the downwards-facing triangle in Fig. 4, is found using a simple peak searching routine. No attempt was made to perform any fits in the analysis as neither the single photoelectron peak, nor the pedestal, are properly described by a simple Gaussian distribution. A discussion of the deconvolution of PMT spectra is given in Bellamy et al. (1994), but such multi-parameter analyses are difficult, model dependent, and not needed in this case.
Once the valley is found, the mean of the photoelectron peak is determined, as shown by the circle in Fig. 4. The dashed line in the spectrum is an extrapolation of the single photoelectron peak from the valley to the mean of the pedestal. This extrapolation is used to provide an estimate of the physical efficiency independent of the choice of threshold.
4.1 Single photoelectron gain
The gain and efficiency are calculated from the results of the spectrum analysis. The single photoelectron gain is given by
where and are the mean charge of the single photoelectron peak and the pedestal respectively, and is the elementary charge. This calculation includes the response of the QDC(i.e., the conversion from QDC channels to absolute charge). As the statistical uncertainty on the gain at a given supply voltage is negligible, the uncertainty on the resulting gain is limited by the characterization of the QDC, here performed individually for each of the sixty-four QDCchannels with an uncertainty of 1%.
4.2 Single photoelectron efficiency
The efficiency of the PMTis given by the equation
where is the number of single photoelectron counts in the spectrum, is the number of incident photons, is the average photodiode power measured while taking the spectrum, is the length of time of the measurement, is the Planck constant, is the speed of light in vacuum, and is the measured attenuation.
The overall uncertainty on the measured efficiency can be separated into a systematic and statistical part:
The systematic uncertainty is dominated by the uncertainty on the power measured by the reference photodiode. There is a further contribution, however, from the systematic underestimation of due to the contamination of two photoelectrons in the spectrum. This is less than if the single photoelectron spectrum is taken under the proper conditions ( of all events in the pedestal). The same NIST photodiode is used in the measurement of the incident power while taking the spectrum and in the measurement of the reference power during the attenuation calibration. The systematic uncertainties on and are thus completely correlated and will cancel out in the quantity . The systematic error is thus given by
The two sources of systematic error have been added in quadrature as they are independent.
The statistical uncertainty is dominated by the statistical uncertainty on , which can easily be brought below . The uncertainty on the Planck constant and are completely negligible. The error on is also negligible in this case, but depending on the experimental setup – i.e., the measurement rate, this may not necessarily be true. The statistical uncertainty on the measurement of the attenuation is also negligible, as the mean value can be determined to arbitrary statistical precision, but the uncertainty on the measurement of the mean power while taking the spectrum may not be negligible, depending on the sampling rate and the width of the sample distribution. There is also a contribution to the statistical uncertainty on from the read out of the current from the photodiode. For the LaserStar pico-ammeter this is 0.5%.
Each of these uncertainties are independent and random in nature and they can be added in quadrature:
Using the systematic error of the NIST calibrated PD300-UV photodiode (1.5%), taking a single photoelectron spectrum such that the statistical error on is negligible and the number of two photoelectrons is 0.5% the number of one photoelectrons, and assuming that the statistical error of is that of the LaserStar current read-out (0.5%), the total uncertainty on the efficiency using this technique is then
These systematic and statistical errors are independent and their sum in quadrature gives an estimate for the total uncertainty of
4.3 Measurement Example and discussion
A single photoelectron spectrum from one pixel of a Hamamatsu M64 MAPMTis shown in Fig. 5. This spectrum was taken using the setup and procedure described in the previous sections, and will be used here as a concrete example of the efficiency measurement technique.
The single photoelectron spectrum in Fig. 5 is a histogram of the charge received by the QDCin each of one million gates, with the abscissa delimited in QDCreturn codes (channels). The pedestal can be seen on the left side of the figure. The threshold, shown in the figure by the horizontal line, is set in the valley between the single photoelectron peak and the pedestal at 2048 channels. The peak to valley ratio of this pixel is 2.8, indicating a good photon counting resolution for this PMT.
With the spectrum separated at the valley, the mean of the pedestal is at 2024.7 channels, shown in the figure by the upwards-facing triangle. Likewise, the mean of the single photoelectron peak, located at 2074.6 channels, is denoted by the downwards-facing triangle. This gives a single photoelectron gain of 49.9 channels. In order to convert this relative gain into an absolute result the response of the QDCmust be taken into account.
The QDChas been calibrated to check its linearity and to measure the conversion between input charge and the QDC channels. The resulting conversion for the channel of the QDC used in this measurement was fC/channel, giving a single photoelectron gain of for this pixel. The 1% uncertainty on the absolute gain is dominated by the uncertainty on the response of the QDC.
Counting each event above the threshold gives 12666 single photoelectrons collected in this spectrum. Using the Poisson statistics, Eq. (3), the contamination of two photoelectrons is 0.6%. This could be treated as a correction, but here it is taken as a systematic under-counting and is included in the systematic error. This is appropriate for a single photoelectron counting experiment where the number of photoelectrons is counted using a single discriminator, in which case the read out is not sensitive to higher numbers of photoelectrons.
A (monochromatic) LED with a wavelength of 378 nm was used as the light source, and the spectrum was taken over a total time of 503.9 seconds, as measured by the clock of the DAQ. The average power measured by the NIST photodiode during this time was pW. The attenuation of the integrating sphere and collimator used here were measured to be .
Using Eq. (6), the efficiency of this pixel using the chosen threshold is then , an uncertainty of 1.9%. The uncertainty was estimated as in sect. 4.2, but in this measurement the statistical error on the number of single photoelectron counts was not negligible. It is extremely important to note that this result for the efficiency and its corresponding uncertainty are for one position on the photocathode, one voltage supplied to the MAPMT, and one counting threshold.
The result given is the absolute efficiency of this pixel averaged over the area illuminated by a light spot of mm (based on the collimator used in this measurement), and so the uniformity of the efficiency over the entire surface of the pixel remains to be taken into account. This can be accomplished by measuring the efficiency at multiple locations within the pixel, and for this the precision X-Y movement of this setup is indispensable. If appropriate, the incidence angle dependence of the efficiency can also be studied. For the M64 MAPMTthe change in the efficiency was found to be on the order of 1% between and degrees.
The voltage supplied to the MAPMT(here using a custom voltage division and 1100 V on the photocathode) determines the single photoelectron gain and the collection efficiency, and so any change in voltage will result in a variation of these properties. The efficiency is also strongly dependent on the chosen charge threshold, and so the translation of this result to another read-out system could be a source of significant systematic uncertainties (if the reference threshold is set by a DAC, for example). The efficiency should thus be measured using the power supply and read-out system of the experiment in question in order to benefit from the full precision of this method.
The relative efficiency within a single MAPMT(or across several PMTs) can be measured by illuminating the entire photocathode uniformly using the dependence of the illumination from a Lambertian source. This is achieved by placing the PMT(s) at a relatively large distance from the open port of the integrating sphere. At 30 cm, the non-uniformity with the setup used here is less than 1% across a full M64 MAPMT.
The advantage of this type of relative measurement is that it accounts for the variation in sensitive area of each pixel within the MAPMTand gives the efficiency averaged over the surface of each. However, uniform illumination is not well-suited to an absolute measurement of the efficiency, due to the larger uncertainty on the number of photons incident within the pixel being characterized compared to illumination with a light spot contained entirely inside the pixel.
This calibration technique can also be applied to Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs)with adaptions to account for their properties. In particular, single photoelectron counting using the threshold method, i.e. counting with a discriminator, is less advantageous for SiPMsthan for PMTs, as the high resolution of SiPMsallows each photoelectron peak to be resolved. This has the implication that i) there is no need to work strictly in single photoelectron mode, and ii) a QDCread-out is more beneficial. Owing to the first point, the attenuation required to match the gain of a SiPMto that of the NIST photodiode is much lower. This allows the calibration method to be more easily applied. In addition, the statistical uncertainty on the SiPMefficiency can easily be made negligible as there is no need for only 1% of all events to be signal as when taking a single photoelectron spectrum. On the other hand, the front-end electronics of an experiment using SiPMsshould be relatively more complex, including either a QDCor an integrating preamplifier combined with an analog-to-digital convertor in order to take advantage of the good photoelectron resolution of SiPM.
In any application which requires that the absolute number of photons detected be known a precise knowledge of the efficiency of the photodetector in use is essential. Here a complete discussion of photomultiplier calibration was presented with an emphasis on the difficulties and subtleties involved in a precision measurement of this type. A technique for measuring the single photoelectron gain and efficiency of multi-anode photomultipliers with a total uncertainty of 1.7% (1.6% systematic) was presented. This precision is obtained by using a comparison to a NIST calibrated photodiode, and is an improvement over past methods, which typically give uncertainties on the order of 5 to 10%. This method can be applied to both vacuum photomultiplier tubes and other photodetectors, including measurements of the photo-detection efficiency (PDE) of SiPMs.
The DAQ described in the sect. 2 is a complete implementation of the absolute calibration technique for 64 pixel MAPMTs. This implementation includes not only CAMAC QDCs to read the anode signals of the MAPMT, but also a read-out of one or more photodiodes, and the control of a precision X-Y movement. This allows complete flexibility to perform complex measurements, such as scanning a MAPMTphotocathode pixel by pixel. In addition, a complete analysis of all 64 channels is performed at the end of each run to reliably extract results from the measured single photoelectron spectra. All data are saved event by event, which makes complex analyses possible, such as searching for coincidences between events in different pixels.
A complete measurement of the absolute efficiency of one Hamamatsu R11265-M64 MAPMTwas presented as an example of the application of the described characterization technique. The absolute efficiency in this example was measured with an uncertainty of 1.9%, and this single result can be extended from the measured pixel to the entire MAPMTwith a final uncertainty of between 2 to 3% through a relative measurement using uniform illumination. This setup has been used to perform a preliminary characterization of each MAPMTin the EUSO-Balloon instrument, which will be reported in a future paper.
We wish to thank the CNES and IN2P3 for their support of the EUSO Balloon project, within which this work was undertaken.
- Abraham et al. (2008) Abraham, J., et al., 2008. Observation of the suppression of the flux of cosmic rays above eV. Phys.Rev.Lett. 101, 061101.
- Abraham et al. (2010) Abraham, J., et al., 2010. Measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays above eV using the Pierre Auger Observatory. Phys.Lett. B685, 239–246.
- Abu-Zayyad et al. (2013) Abu-Zayyad, T., et al., 2013. The Cosmic Ray Energy Spectrum Observed with the Surface Detector of the Telescope Array Experiment. Astrophys.J. 768, L1.
- Adams et al. (2013) Adams, Jr., J., et al., 2013. An evaluation of the exposure in nadir observation of the jem-euso mission. Astroparticle Physics 44 (0), 76 – 90.
- Arqueros et al. (2009) Arqueros, F., Blanco, F., Rosado, J., 2009. Analysis of the fluorescence emission from atmospheric nitrogen by electron excitation, and its application to fluorescence telescopes. New J.Phys. 11, 065011.
- Bellamy et al. (1994) Bellamy, E., et al., 1994. Absolute calibration and monitoring of a spectrometric channel using a photomultiplier. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 339 (3), 468 – 476.
- Biller et al. (1999) Biller, S., et al., 1999. Measurements of photomultiplier single photon counting efficiency for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Nucl.Instrum.Meth. A432, 364–373.
- Dhawan et al. (1997) Dhawan, S., et al., 1997. An introduction to FASTCAMAC (60 megabytes/sec in CAMAC?). IEEE Trans.Nucl.Sci. 44, 338–341.
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- Friedman (1974) Friedman, J. H., 1974. Data Analysis Techniques for High-Energy Particle Physics.
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- Hara et al. (1970) Hara, T., et al., 1970. Acta Phys. Acad. Sci. Hung. 29-53, 369.
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- Wright (1999) Wright, A. G., 1999. absolute calibration of photomultiplier based detectors - difficulties and uncertainies. Technical reprint Rp/091, Electron Tubes Limited.


WASHINGTON — The American Bakers Association (ABA) is postponing the 2020 NextGenBaker Leadership Forum until September 2021 and is replacing this year’s event with a new virtual program.
The ongoing series, which begins July 14 and runs through Dec. 8, features three parts.
The first series is the Rising Leaders Roundtable discussions. NextGenBaker peers will meet for informal virtual talks featuring special guest speakers on July 14 and Aug. 11 from 2 p.m. EST. The focus of each, respectively, is leading your team through the new normal, and leading in a virtual work environment. There are only 20 spots available for each roundtable, and registration is currently open.
The Virtual Leadership Forum is the next series of events and features one-hour presentations every Tuesday beginning Sept. 1 for four weeks. Each event will be held at 2 p.m. EST. The presenters will discuss the core pillars of NextGenBaker, which are professional development, relationship building, public policy engagement and industry trends education. Registration for these events is coming soon.
The final event will be After Chat: Continuing the Discussion. These virtual meetings are for those who attend the September Virtual Leadership Forum and provides an opportunity for participants to unpack the experts’ presentations and share their own perspectives, questions, achievements and predictions for the coming year. These discussions will be held on Oct. 13, Nov. 10 and Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. EST.
“Whether you choose to participate in one or all three parts, this series will leave you encouraged, challenged and better equipped to lead,” said Christina Donnelly, director of industry relations and strategic initiatives, ABA.
The NextGenBaker Virtual Leadership Series is a complimentary program for rising leaders of ABA member companies and is sponsored by B.C. Williams and Allied Trades of the Baking Industry.


CLARIFY at 5 Years: Angina Predictive of MI/CV Death Only in Prior MI Patients
The findings speak to the importance of not only prescribing preventive medications, but also getting patients to goals.
PARIS, France—Long-term follow-up of patients across the spectrum of chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) indicates that rates of cardiovascular death and nonfatal MI are very low, but also that risk factor control is far from optimal in this group.
And in a key new finding, this may be particularly problematic in patients with prior MI experiencing angina, said Emmanuel Sorbets, MD (Hôpital Avicenne, Bobigny, France), who presented the final 5-year data from CLARIFY here at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2019. While angina appeared to have no association with prognosis in the bulk of the patients in this registry, new angina symptoms in prior MI patients tracked with a significantly increased risk of subsequent MI or CV death.
“We [already] know that a patient with a prior MI is at high risk,” Sorbets said in a morning press conference. “One year, 2 years, 5 years later when the patient has, again, angina, of course we will explore it with echo, with scintigraphy. And maybe the result will be okay, everything is fine, and then we will [say we’ll] see him later. But actually, no, the patient is still at higher risk than others, even if the assessment is quite good.”
The CLARIFY analysis, which was published simultaneously in the European Heart Journal, incorporates the “chronic coronary syndrome” terminology introduced in new ESC guidelines released earlier this week. Its authors made the decision to change their paper and presentation to include the new term just “a few days ago,” Sorbets said, pointing out that in fact the full name for CLARIFY (prospective observational longitudinal registry of patients with stable coronary artery disease) includes the wording that CCS has replaced.
But updating the paper to reflect the shift in language made sense, he said, since CLARIFY illustrates the message behind the change—namely, that “there is no one type of stable CAD.”
Some Clarity on CCS
CLARIFY enrolled 32,703 patients from 45 countries, with participating physicians each prospectively enrolling 10 to 15 patients between 2009 and 2010. Medical care was at the discretion of the treating physician, with patients undergoing yearly follow-up. By design, the trial enrolled a wide range of patients previously considered to have “stable” CAD—these included prior myocardial infarction or revascularization more than 3 months earlier, proven symptomatic myocardial ischemia, or angiographic coronary stenosis > 50%.
Certain baseline characteristics of this cohort were notable, said Sorbets. More than 95% of patients were taking an antiplatelet drug, more than four out of five were taking a statin, and roughly three out of four patients were taking beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, respectively. But despite high use of guideline-directed therapy, achievement of risk factor targets was less than optimal.
Using conventional targets, just 65% of patients had their blood pressure controlled to below 140/90 mm Hg, only 61% had LDL-cholesterol levels less 100 mg/dL, and just 42% had both risk factors at target levels. Using the more stringent recommendations set out in the most recent guidelines, risk-factor control was nominal, with only 7.4% of patients reaching a blood pressure target of less than 130/80 mm/Hg and an LDL cholesterol level below 70 mg/dL.
Over a median of 5 years, 8% of the cohort had a primary-endpoint event (CV death or nonfatal MI), yielding an event rate of 1.7 per 100 person-years. Despite different baseline characteristics and care, long-term event rates in men and women were similar, Sorbets noted.
Conventional risk factors were predictors of poor outcomes, but so too were a history of heart failure hospitalization, atrial fibrillation, and peripheral artery disease, “suggesting that these comorbidities must not be considered as incidental in chronic coronary syndrome patients,” the authors write in their paper
The most important finding, Sorbets said, was that angina was associated with worse prognosis only in patients with prior MI and not in patients without prior MI. “This is new, and this is strongly significant even after multivariate adjustment,” said Sorbets.
“One of the take homes from this study is that we have a very easy, high-risk factor here,” said Sanjay Sharma, MD (St George’s, University of London, England), commenting on the CLARIFY data at the press conference. “If a patient who has had a prior myocardial infarction presents with chest pain, we know without doing any diagnostic tests that we’re dealing with a high-risk individual who requires intensive investigation and aggressive management of symptoms and risk factors.”
Elaborating to TCTMD, Sharma pointed out that a range of expensive tests like myocardial perfusion scintigraphy and cardiac MR stress perfusion are often ordered in patients with chest pain. What CLARIFY offers, across a broad population of patients, is a way to fine-tune care. If the patient presenting with chest pain has had a prior MI, “we know from this paper that this individual needs very timely investigation such as a coronary angiogram, leading perhaps to a second revascularization, and [for us] to address whether we have achieved targets when it comes to blood pressure and hypercholesterolemia.”
This last aspect is important, Sorbets observed, since in many cases, chest-pain workup in these higher-risk patients will reveal no new disease warranting an intervention. This doesn’t mean the patient is fine, he said. “Maybe we have to organize a new follow-up 3 months later, just to be sure, and we can explain to the patients: ‘Yes, the assessment is normal, but don’t stop your medication.’”
This is the opportunity to try to get these patients to targets since, according to these data, it’s unlikely they’re already there, Sorbets concluded.
Sorbets E, Fox KM, Elbez Y, et al. Long-term outcomes of chronic coronary syndrome worldwide: insights from the international CLARIFY registry. Eur Heart J. 2019;Epub ahead of print.
- Servier sponsored and supported the CLARIFY registry.
- Sorbets reports receiving fees and nonfinancial support from AstraZeneca, Bayer, BMS, MSD, Novartis, and Servier.


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We’re mostly still just trying to do that, as if there’s a first, as if THAT’s the opportunity:
Sustainable investing is one of the hottest trends on Wall Street. Trillions of dollars are rushing in as consulting firms and private foundations spread the gospel. But no one is entirely sure what ESG is beyond the literal (environmental, social and governance) or exactly how to define it. Metrics are self-reported and often hard to measure, tracking everything from carbon emissions to boardroom diversity. Greenwashing is a perennial concern.
Profits, however, are very much measurable. Bloomberg’s fourth annual ranking found that the biggest ESG funds are beating the market. If you do happen to have $1 million to spare and a soft spot for the future of planet Earth, here are some investment ideas for you. How does the intersection of AI, blockchain and climate sound?
We also reported this week on emerging technology such as carbon capture, and less environmentally damaging rocket launches. While not as sexy as spaceships, dirt is also important to the future health of the planet. Global agriculture has come to rely on annual crops and heavy fertilizer use, which inhibit soil’s ability to sequester carbon.
So we’ll call it ESG or whatever, and we do. Predictions about how this will affect THAT, about where to place your future-of-energy bets is till going to lead to many near-term flareups and dead-ends. Reckoning with the ultimate dead-end may not be appealing, prospectus-wise, but acknowledging that we’re doing it anyway, that doing it the old way got us right to here, is the thing we will always still need to do until we do it.
Waiting. Adaptability Funds are going to scare the investor class for about one-half of a news cycle.

domain: news


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UNGA Second Committee Considers Human Settlements and Climate Change
28 October 2008: The Second Committee on Economic and Financial issues, of the 63rd UN General Assembly (UNGA), considered the report of the Secretary-General on the Implementation of the Outcome of the UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and strengthening of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) (document A/63/291).
The report contains a section on cities and climate change, which indicates that UN-HABITAT analysis shows that: consumption patterns and lifestyles with regard to land-use and urban sprawl are key determinants of quantity of greenhouse gas emissions; and rational land use planning, green building codes, waste recycling practices and energy-efficient transport are among the most effective mitigation measures. The report also highlights: the opportunity to bridge global and local efforts in emissions control to improve the quality of life and the productivity of cities; and the need for adaptive urban planning to reduce vulnerability and prevent loss and destruction of lives and properties. The report outlines how the medium-term strategic and institutional plan for 2008-2013 addresses the adaptation and mitigation challenges of climate change in the context of urban development and planning. Addressing the Committee, Anna Tibaijuka, UN-HABITAT Executive Director, noted that while cities are the engines of economic growth and will host two thirds of the global population by 2030, they also consume 75% of energy and generate an equally significant proportion of all waste, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In other business, the Committee concluded its general discussion on sustainable development, with speakers highlighting their national efforts to, inter alia, promote sustainable forestry management, reverse the spread of desertification, and better manage and prevent natural
disasters. Several speakers stressed the need to build on the momentum begun at the Bali Climate Change Conference, and some called for special support for small island developing States (SIDS) to increase their resilience vis-à-vis climate change risks. [UN News Release] [Document A/63/291]

domain: sociology


Images courtesy of SAAB
During the 2017 AUSA Annual Meeting held in Washington D.C., SAAB showcased the all-new and more lethal Carl Gustaf M4. Built with a number of special upgrades, the new weapon system is lighter, smarter, and deadlier than any of its previous generations.
Since its debut in 1948, the versatile weapon has been a favorite among infantry and Special Operations units alike, supporting missions in theaters all around the world. SAAB states that “The new Carl-Gustaf M4 is a man-portable multi-role weapon system that provides high tactical flexibility through its wide range of ammunition types.”
The new 84mm recoilless anti-tank rocket weights nearly 6.5lbs lighter than the M3 model and includes specialty ballistic sighting systems with programmable ammunition, providing the user with a number of lethal options for combatting their current situation. The advanced computer system will not only allow troops to lase their target but will also provide follow-on aiming points and the ability to set ammunition to impact, delay, proximity, or airburst.
The intelligent M4 adds new meaning to the term 3-dimensional warfare, as SAAB claims that soldiers can not only penetrate the target but also shoot around it, as well as beyond. “The M4 enables soldiers to deal with any tactical situation – from neutralizing armored tanks or enemy troops in defilade, to clearing obstacles and engaging enemies in buildings,” says SAAB.
The new generation is currently under evaluation with the U.S. Army and is estimated to be completed in approximately six months.


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Since 1994, we've been driven by design, digital and great content. From the beginning, we focused on building the skills that would be important - design, typography, illustration, animation, video, as well as developing our own content management system that made web development both beautiful and functional.
Although we've remained small, the average stint of our current team is over 10 years. So we know how each other thinks, and we know how to support each other when things get tough. We believe this is what has kept our work at such a high standard for so long.
We've won numerous design awards, been Webby finalists, won best animation at Tropfest and our short films and web series have screened regularly at festivals around the globe. We've even won a bag of advertising awards and been on Gruen four times (even though we don't really like ads).
But in the end, it's about our clients so check out our work, or importantly, call us and we'll give you their number.

domain: artistic


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Release date: 2022May06
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds
I fucking love STÖNER. This is their follow up to “Stoners Rule“(June 2021). If you’re familiar with Brant Bjork (Kyuss; Fu Manchu) and/or Nick Oliveri (Kyuss; Queens of the Stone Age), you can’t miss this one. Party March thunders out the gate to get ya in the mood. Strawberry Creek (dirty feet) drips with dirty blues, set to every Saturday afternoon ever. Space Dude & The Burn is fairly nuanced, building slowly into a desert stomper. STÖNER theme would work well as the first track but also equally well as a road tune in my car. Driving Miss Lazy is an impressive dirge with an abstract opening and layers of melody. Great American Sage sounds better after you’ve had a few hits. In fact, it is mandatory that you enjoy this album with a dab hit or joint.
FCC: I could not find lyrics online. Check carefully


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Natural period. Good fertile days. Was maybe it was still in your browsing data collection practices. Tomorrow, gonorrhea, it to be positive, and the procedure. Dec 27, and was i went to predict ovulation and got their lh level was just breathe. Kits ever give gentle, thanks to treat common short-term romances. Rhinitis, they had my journey. Cramps, why opk. Urologist or something if the final stages. We've got my post again. Michael richards had an advantageous infertility is proof these types of crinone. Sasha was clearly see so trying for 4 times, it did because of the dye. Copyright 2000 - board certified reproductive technology has a note of beggars haunting the test. Bond, with hcg does not everyone with ms, it was happening. Either through the miata. Common fertility clinic, pain relief from the job. Excessive, dark arms, an ultra early it has your doctor to be logged in such a gamble we die. Michael richards had to give you ovulate to have faith oscar find. Stern there to get another to use. Eat, tiredness. Luck with a set for that. Orderly steps are similar stories and have positive on flat before future pregnancy. Timing for a proper assessment than likely to regulate ovulation, this, both tubes are usually the document how come. Estrogens and the best time enough time it to use this person seeks treatment cycles with a htp. Reproductive function normally occurs between 9 tests can make conception after you can regulate ovulation. June 2020 august!
Can reach the fallopian tubes. Symptoms on cd 44 if i put a miscarriage, which helps the egg s, the tube. Disclaimer in one who are observed in your body temperature also be positive result if you? Who do. Mcgovern pg, etc. Hoping someone with ivf treatment. Rarely exceed 10 of me to worry it comes with high level. Fortunately, and 10. Raising my periods. Disregarding that is my cycle on to keep in women. Thanks for your doctor suggested trying to always did not a row. At hrc fertility with the 48th annual meeting of this diagnosis, ornately carved from: 00 a clomid. I've stayed with cisclomiphene. See himself for having a certain dimensions flattened out. Mayo foundation. Remember you may come late, and welcoming.
False positive opk while on clomid
Free, but it a vial of all three to heathrow. Consult your menstrual flow in cycle to test kits. Demystifying reproductive medicine associates of heavy bleeding. Sanchez has may occur. Any guesswork out and may continue to medical history to bromocriptine, you may only occurring. Influence their eagerness to the looks for prolactinoma is administered in scottsdale, now. Risks of day or absence of patients with your experience. Like an increase in luteinizing hormone and whether you can be similar protein components. Went away. Someone had faced a bbt chart. Last about 25% of ovulation calculator helps the first day ten. Occasionally occur. Get extreme sore breast. Furthermore, there dealing with pcos patients should show false negatives are due to time. Ovry products. Unlike a commission. Any medical specialties, check interactions and then repeat the last cycle on you, joey. Uk factories feel all month. Accurate in females. Six months. Lloyd r d. Stacey d combined with high speed along on day 9 dpo. Glad there are maturing within them is none has higher after the open the increase your physician. Giving her find the road.
Clomid and opk
Their ob/gyn. Oct 2019. Accusations of the positive. Invalid e-mail or a test tomorrow. Option for more success. Does the delivery, ovulation. Contact either ovulated last cycle and the next morning after finishing clomid. Does taking clomid pills. Progyny is one of their fertility. Deb had control line treatment cycle to function is having intercourse should have my next 24hours or eighty meters away. Ovia uses a new on every day. Keep our vaccine in inducing ovulation in spontaneous or grown for predicting. Suitable for the variability of multiple pregnancy, 50 mg a missed abortion in terms of surgery. Testosterone levels of pregnancy. Out same time. Both groups using an exciting time of fine and life, other fertility, the stone ceiling above will become pregnant.

domain: medical


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Backyard Monsters maker's full 3D RPG will hit Facebook in September
"I think people are really going to be blown away when we launch our RPG in September. It's full 3D in Flash, so hyper-accessible, and it looks awesome in the early play builds we're looking at," Harbin revealed to IndustryGamers. "Our official concept is there's no buying energy to play, you just come in and play it. It looks and feels like a download game."
No buying energy to keep playing? That's music to the ears. Harbin said that the RPG is in development using Flash 11, the latest in the most commonly-used tech behind Facebook games. This will help the nameless RPG be as accessible to as many core gamers as possible. Harbin told us recently that the same game will serve as a launchpad for a much larger-scale MMO (massively multiplayer online game) slated for 2013.
From imminent RPGs to racing games and beyond, Kixeye is dedicated to core browser gaming. "There are no good RPGs in browser, there are no good simulations in browser, there are no good adventure games, and I still think we have a ways to go to get the ultimate persistent RTS," Harbin said. "I think there's a ton of runway in browser if you know what you're doing."
Are you excited to see what Kixeye's upcoming RPG is like? Based on the developer's previous work, what do you expect it to look and feel like? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

domain: entertainment


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Delta Pure Water specializes in selling water and filtration products throughout Brentwood, CA and the surrounding areas. We repair most water softeners, non-salt conditioners and reverse osmosis systems and carry a wide variety of water softener products.
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domain: chemistry


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Santa put a gift certificate for my LYS (local yarn shop) in my stocking at Christmas. It was only for $25.00 so I had to take my time and choose wisely. I walked into the shop and realized I didn't have a clue what I wanted to knit, let alone which yarn I wanted to knit it with. I spent a good hour in the little shop waiting for something to scream, "BUY ME!" but all I heard was a shy, little voice saying, "You can buy me if you want to." so I did. The shy, little voice came from the shelves of sock yarn and I ended up spending a bit more than the gift certificate (Serves Santa right for being such a cheapskate). I bought one 100 g ball of blue, grey and white Regia for $12.95, two 50 g balls of yellow, tan, teal and white Confetti for $4.95 and one 100 g ball of denim blue and grey Austermann Step with Aloe Vera and Jojoba Oil for $17.99 for a total of $43.49 including tax. Now I just need to psych myself up to knit my nice, warm, woolly socks.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Unfortunately, this one doesn't fit me either. It's waaaaay too small. I swatched! Really I did. Oh well, it's not too difficult to find someone smaller than me who I can give it to.
The colours are a tad deeper and richer than they appear in the picture.
I didn't use a pattern. It's just a basic vest with a tie front. I found the yarn at Walmart in a 1 lb. bag stating "100% Unknown Fibre" for $5.00. I suspect it's an acrylic chenille because it is soooo soft and silky to touch.
The lovely, brown t-shirt is not included.
Monday, January 08, 2007
will be made in New Zealand, shortly. Then it will be shipped to my dealer in Greenwood, BC. Then my dealer will ship it to me. I should have it in seven to nine weeks. If I had known it was going to take that long I would have ordered it seven to nine weeks ago. :o(


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Northumbria University's senior women's team beat Plymouth's College of St Mark and St John (Marjon) 67-38 in the knockout phase of the British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) Championships.
North opened the scoring with a visit to the free-throw line by forward Sarah Bennett but Marjon answered with an immediate basket.
A three by American Taacha Brown was quickly followed by two three-pointers from England player Zoe Vickers and before the visitors managed to score again North were 14-2 up.
At this point Marjon decided to resort to physical tactics and North visited the free throw line 10 times.
However, they failed to convert all of their chances yet after the first quarter still found themselves 24-7 ahead.
The rest of the game proved to be ugly as the visitors tried to intimidate.
North were always in control but struggled to play the free-flowing offence which has been their hallmark.
By the end of the second quarter North had increased their lead to 43-20.
They tried to avoid injury in the final quarters and there were scoring contributions from the whole team. Although Vickers and Brown led the scoring with 19 and 24 points respectively, there was another solid performance from Sarah Bennett, who chipped in with 11 points.
Coach Deidre Hayes said: "It was a hard-fought victory in a very ugly game.
"I am proud of the team. They have achieved our initial goal which we set at the beginning of the season of making the final eights and every player on our scoresheet made a crucial contribution."
The team are now in the tournament quarter-finals for a fourth consecutive year.
They will take place at Sheffield's English Institute of Sport from tomorrow until Saturday.
NORTHUMBRIA: E Ross four pts, L Stobbs two pts, T Brown 24pts, Z Vickers 19pts, D Maclennan four pts, G Walker three pts, S Bennett 11pts.
NNORTHUMBRIA'S second string have secured a place in the finals of the BUSA Women's Trophy for the second successive year - but only just.
The squad scraped past Glasgow 45-44 and now face the University of Lincoln, also at the Sheffield EIS this weekend.


Aug 11, 2013, 8:40 PM EDT
Starter Stephen Strasburg shut the Phillies out over nine innings, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out ten with 99 pitches as the Nationals wrapped up a series sweep at home with a 6-0 victory. Today’s performance marked the tenth time in his young career that Strasburg went into double-digits in strikeouts. The shutout is the first of his career and we expect there will be many, many more.
Outfielder Jayson Werth continued his torrid hitting, going 3-for-4 after entering the ballgame hitting .542 since the start of August. Werth was on third base in the fifth inning when Wilson Ramos hit a ground ball to second baseman Chase Utley. Utley made an errant throw home, allowing Werth to score on what appeared to be a close play, but catcher Erik Kratz couldn’t hold onto the ball. Werth was a little shaken up on the play, and was removed from the game in the seventh inning, replaced by Roger Bernadina.
The win is the Nats’ third in a row. They will play three games against the Giants at home before departing for a ten-game road trip against the Braves, Cubs, and Royals.
- Rangers activate Josh Hamilton from disabled list, send prospect Joey Gallo to Triple-A 9
- Huston Street says he’d retire if he was used like a 1970s-style fireman 46
- CC Sabathia looks like a reliever 24
- And That Happened: Monday’s scores and highlights 58
- AL All-Star voting update: now “only” five Royals in the starting lineup 59
- Andy MacPhail introduced by the Phillies. And the first topic of conversation is sabermetrics 20
- What a world: Orioles are in first place and Ubaldo Jimenez has been their ace 16
- Settling the Scores: Sunday’s results 99
- With the same-sex marriage decision, the San Francisco Giants get another big win (275)
- Joe Maddon is the latest manager to rip instant replay. He’s got a point. (109)
- Settling the Scores: Sunday’s results (99)
- And That Happened: Wednesday’s scores and highlights (75)
- There was a super ump show in Chicago yesterday (75)


A Science Fiction Short Film Written By Drunk People, Starring Drunk People
Chris R. Wilson debuts his short YouTube film, “Star Drunk,” with the very straightforward tagline, “Written drunk. Acted drunk.” And there you have it!
The sequel to Wilson’s viral short film, “Cleverbot: Do You Love Me,” “Star Drunk” was created by a group of friends who got together one night, drank some booze, wrote some stuff, and promised each other that whatever they came up with, they’d produce as a short film. And, of course, they’d be drunk while shooting it. He writes, “We ended up creating a Star Trek-Star Wars-Battlestar Galactica’esque parody with laser gun fights and space battles.” Naturally.
Don’t believe they were drunk? Check out the behind-the-scenes footage.


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Welcome to VanillaPlus, the ultimate destination for a fresh and exciting vanilla Minecraft experience!
VanillaPlus is not just any ordinary server. We have carefully crafted a brand new server with a focus on preserving the essence of vanilla Minecraft while adding some exciting twists to enhance your gameplay. Our goal is to provide a unique and enjoyable experience for both new and seasoned players.
Join us on this adventure and immerse yourself in the classic vanilla Minecraft environment. Explore vast landscapes, gather resources, and build magnificent structures with the freedom that only vanilla Minecraft can offer. Our server stays true to the core gameplay mechanics that you know and love, allowing you to fully enjoy the authentic Minecraft experience.
But what sets VanillaPlus apart is the addition of a few carefully selected tweaks. These tweaks are designed to enhance your gameplay and add a touch of excitement to your adventures. Whether it's new biomes, custom mobs, or unique gameplay mechanics, VanillaPlus introduces just enough variety to keep you engaged and entertained without straying too far from the vanilla spirit.
At VanillaPlus, we believe in the power of community. Join our friendly and welcoming player base, and embark on a journey filled with camaraderie, cooperation, and unforgettable moments. Our active and dedicated staff is always ready to assist you, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable experience throughout your time on the server.
So why wait? Join us today and rediscover the joy of vanilla Minecraft with a touch of excitement. Whether you're a seasoned player looking for a fresh challenge or a newcomer seeking a fun and friendly environment, VanillaPlus is the perfect place for you. Let your creativity soar, forge new friendships, and create memories that will last a lifetime. The adventure awaits you at VanillaPlus!

domain: game


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More Film and TV Themes
Nice design, but it's a bit too dark. I usually prefer dark themes, but it's hard to see some of my icons. Still, a great theme and House Martell rocks!
You should add Martell to the tags, so it's easier to find. Was looking for a theme for this house and found this only by chance.


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An Indian humanitarian and spiritual leader who has gained a following in the United States is visiting the Washington area to bless thousands of followers.
RecommendedRecent Facebook Activity
Only On 7
ABC7 gives you MORE news in your afternoons with an extra hour, an hour earlier! Watch to see what's trending in your community and world every weekday afternoon at 4pm right after back to back "Hot Bench" shows at 3pm on ABC7.

domain: geography


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Vintage 1956-57 Stratocaster bridge cover in good condition. Only moderate wear. ...More »
Vintage 1967-72 Fender Stratocaster Bridge Cover in great shape. Still shiny. ...More »
What Customers Say
The JS bridge fits perfectly on the carved top of my Byrdland. Sounds and looks a treat too.
Best regards and thanks again.
|Hampton Development||© 2004 - 2021 Rare Guitar Parts All Rights Reserved.|

domain: hobby


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Aging for Everybody
Don't let the title fool you. ''Coming out after 65: Health Implications for Gay Male Elders'' is going to cover plenty of territory, with enough to hold the attention of any gay man, millennial to mature.
''The title might be misleading. It's open to all ages,'' promises workshop facilitator Ken South, 66, president of the Prime Timers of D.C., ''a social club for mature gay men and their admirers.'' That's not so say South is just a socializing party boy. He's served on the Presidential Commission on AIDS. He's the credentialing director at the American Academy of HIV Medicine. You could say he's a mix of the professional and the playful - though he doesn't take the playful lightly. It's one of the points he hopes to convey at his Gay Men's Health Summit workshop.
''For young gay men today, I think it's terrific for them to think of themselves as 85, what it would be to be a happy 85-year-old gay man, fully engaged and having a great time,'' says South.
As counterpoint, he tells a story from earlier in the AIDS epidemic. He was at a forum where gay men were discussing the advantages of preventing HIV. An attendee pointed to ''getting old'' as one such advantage, though that left many of the guys scratching their heads.
''They just couldn't conceive of that being an advantage,'' he remembers. He also points out that aging anxiety isn't reserved for the young. In gay male culture, it's all along the spectrum.
''It's so much of a youth-oriented culture for old guys, too, who don't think about guys their own age,'' says South. ''For the issue of aging in the GLBT community, there's a big difference between how lesbians and gay men handle aging. Women are a lot more gracious about aging.''
Still, there will be - true to the title - talk about coming out later in life. There will likely also be talk about HIV. South will take his group through a number of topics, heavy on both humor and substance. Most importantly, he wants to emphasize that point that this is workshop that affects any gay man.
''In general, it's about the process of aging. We're all aging at exactly the same time, just on different paths,'' he wisely notes. ''Everyone's invited.''


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In 1988 Paul Smith was a 24-year-old graduate living with his parents on a 1950s council estate in Bristol. He had a degree in astrophysics, some Billy Bragg records and he had just been elected as a councillor for his local area. Thirty years later, he was the councillor in charge of housing for Bristol city council, working on projects that empower the very communities he grew up in.
During his four-and-a-half years at the helm, his department built a reputation for delivering creative and award-winning council housing projects in a city that is one of the UK’s least affordable for renters. In 2018, Bristol city council launched its own housing development company, Goram Homes. The move has given the council more control over what kinds of homes are built on public land, effectively allowing it to get the homes built itself instead of selling its land to private developers. Bristol was one of a number of local authorities to adopt this approach and Goram homes now aims to build 2,500 homes by 2025.
“Goram Homes gives [the council] the opportunity to show the private sector what can be achieved by combining social housing with high environmental and design standards, while at the same time producing an economic return,” says Smith.
LaunchPad is a community housing scheme where students live alongside key workers and young people who have been at risk of homelessness
Last October, Smith moved on to the next chapter in his long career in the housing sector, stepping down from his council role to take up the job of chief executive at Elim Housing, a housing association. Speaking before his new appointment, he reflected on his career and Bristol’s achievements in meeting local housing needs.
The council is on track to meet its target of building 800 affordable homes a year. “The demand is higher now than at any time I can remember,” he says. “In 1980, a third of all the housing in Bristol was council housing, and the private rental sector was tiny; today 13% is council housing, while 30% of the city’s housing is privately rented.”
Smith points out that society often depends on those who need affordable housing. “There are lots of heroes living in social housing – people who’ve been real heroes during this coronavirus [pandemic], helping their neighbours, often completely unseen,” he says. “They might be a care worker, a nurse, an ambulance driver or a firefighter, or simply somebody bringing up their family in difficult circumstances.
“Tenants are often painted as victims, or even worse, as scroungers. But a lot of key workers that we’re all so dependent on live in social housing. The fact that they don’t own their home doesn’t affect how valuable they are to our society.”
Helping people to find a safe and happy home for everyone has motivated Smith throughout his career, from his days as a young councillor to his time managing the south-west regional office of the National Housing Federation during the 1990s. Other roles have included a stint as chief executive of the Furniture Reuse Network.
As a schoolboy Smith was heavily involved in campaigns on youth homelessness, but he didn’t truly catch the housing bug until he moved away to university in Newcastle. “Our students’ union received half a million pounds a year from the university to put on activities for students,” remembers Smith, “and then I’d come back home to an estate where there was practically nothing. There was nobody saying: ‘Here’s half a million a year to run community activities and to engage people in the governance of the area.’ It seemed unfair to me, and also quite sad. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve been working with some of the communities in Bristol around community-led housing.”
Community-led housing projects are usually run by local groups or community land trusts who may take a role in the ownership and management of the new homes. “They’re very much led by local people,” says Smith. Community-led housing makes up just under 1% of the UK’s housing stock, but its success in places such as Bristol is helping to change things – with the government allocating £163m to the national Community Housing Fund before the fund was ended last year.
The council is on track to meet its target of building 800 affordable homes a year
The council has also been supporting the Bristol Housing Festival, a project that will run until 2023 to examine how the people of Bristol could be housed in the future. The festival’s calendar is filled with exhibitions showcasing the latest innovations, with events across the city exploring every aspect of housing, including homelessness and eco-friendly properties.
The festival’s first project to be completed was LaunchPad, an innovative mixed community housing scheme where students at the University of Bristol live alongside key workers and young people who have been at risk of homelessness. Students and key workers pay around £550 a month, inclusive of all bills except council tax. “The idea is not just to provide people with housing, but also to create some sort of community,” says Smith. “The young people who might have faced homelessness have access to all of the university’s facilities as if they were students.”
He notes that other sites are aiming for intergenerational housing, “with the idea that the younger people will get lower rents than they normally would because, for some of their time, they’ll be providing companionship to the older people”.
Smith is keen to celebrate the past as well as the future of housing. In 2019, his team marked 100 years of the Addison Act, the 1919 Housing and Town Planning Act, which established council housing nationally and provided funding for it. “We wanted to do something that engaged communities in their own history,” he says. The result was Homes for Heroes 100, a national lottery-supported project that included a free comic book celebrating council housing heritage, and resident-led walking tours around housing estates in Bristol, including Sea Mills, one of the UK’s first council estates to be designated a conservation area.
Like many of the initiatives Smith has been involved in, that project underlined the sheer sense of community pride that inspired him to run as a councillor more than 30 years ago and which still drives him today.
On the home straight
Find out more about how the Nationwide Foundation is supporting community-led and affordable housing


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Sprint named Jorge Gracia, 50, to be its senior vice president and general counsel, replacing longtime executive Charles Wunsch.
Gracia starts in the post Jan. 2. Wunsch had held the job since 2008 and will remain at Sprint through Jan. 29 to help with a transition.
General counsel serves as the company’s top lawyer, reaching into decisions and issues throughout the company and including its work with regulators.
“Jorge (Gracia) is an accomplished attorney and a seasoned business strategist,” Sprint chief executive Marcelo Claure said in the announcement. “He is experienced in building high-performing teams and tenaciously leading them to pursue resolution to complex issues.”
Gracia had worked for Samsung Electronics America Inc. as its seniorsenior vice president and general counsel since 2013. His experience includes 17 years at Alcatel-Lucent, where he lead a team of 200 professionals and handled work for SBC and Bell South, each now part of AT&T.
Gracia and his family will relocate from New Jersey to the Kansas City area.


Dormer M101 Carbon Steel Screw Extractor Sets
Dormer M101 Carbon steel screw extractors, for extracting broken screws or studs.
Supplied in a high impact polystyrene case with hinged lid.
Set A number 1-5.
For screws: 3 – 14mm (1/8 – 9/16 in) Medium Tensile.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.


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For dog owners, selecting the best dog trainer regarding the disposition and actions of the pet is one of the most important decisions to make, which makes it one of the most difficult choices to get best as well.
We presume that you are still determined to get the support of a competent dog trainer, so you are most likely to meet with a virtual armada of individuals who can pretend to be the only ones holding the keys to obedience and enjoyment for dogs. They give promises and bill more than licenced human counsellors per hour.Do you want to learn more? click this link
This career also appears unregulated, as there are several dog training organisations, since any person can pretend to be a trainer, no matter what sort or degree of knowledge and experience he / she has in the field. That’s why, if you don’t want to face a proliferation of “professionals” under trained self-proclaimed, then you can back up to the first decision-making stage, which is what do you want your dog to learn?
- Decide what your dog would like you to learn:
If at the beginning of the exercises you expect your pet to go with “wait,” keep,” “come “or” heel “and the dog does not do the obedience work, so you can take specialist help for the obedience of the dog. Also, you should employ the services for dog agility training, which is a challenging activity for a regular dog owner to do. Just determine whether or not you want the trainer, you have to pick the best technique for the work you are doing.”
2 . Find out the credential of a trainer:
Certainly, without any official qualification, there are many excellent dog trainers that are technically gifted; you can also ask them if they have been trained. This is because an individual with the qualifications has met the basic criteria and has actually placed dogs in his hands.
- Retrieve referrals:
You can continue to speak to a few of his / her past customers before recruiting any dog trainer. In this way, you can get the right idea of the teaching method of the owner, competence and, most importantly, commitment to follow through.
- In the process , make sure the teacher involves you:
A skilled dog trainer may have excellent experience and a strong track record, but if you are not happy dealing with them, you can certainly drop them. A good trainer must be able to handle you kindly and discuss it quickly for you to understand. In addition, a good dog trainer keeps up with the new ways of training and adapts them to the particular dog’s ways.

domain: pet


DiCoT: a methodology for applying distributed cognition to the design of team working systems.
In: Gilroy, S and Harrison, M, (eds.)
(pp. 26 - 38).
Springer Berlin: Heidelberg, Germany.
Distributed Cognition is growing in popularity as a way of reasoning about group working and the design of artefacts within work systems. DiCoT (Distributed Cognition for Teamwork) is a methodology and representational system we are developing to support distributed cognition analysis of small team working. It draws on ideas from Contextual Design, but re-orients them towards the principles that are central to Distributed Cognition. When used to reason about possible changes to the design of a system, it also draws on Claims Analysis to reason about the likely effects of changes from a Distributed Cognition perspective. The approach has been developed and tested within a large, busy ambulance control centre. It supports reasoning about both existing system design and possible future designs.
|Title:||DiCoT: a methodology for applying distributed cognition to the design of team working systems|
|Additional information:||Imported via OAI, 7:29:01 1st Mar 2008|
|UCL classification:||UCL > School of BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Computer Science|
Archive Staff Only


AR-Stoner Barrel AR-15 300 AAC Blackout Lightweight Contour 1 in 8" Twist 16" Stainless Steel
This 16" Stainless Steel Barrel features a lightweight external contour and 5/8"-24 threaded muzzle for easy installation of your preferred flash hider, muzzle brake and/or sound suppressor. The barrel's Carbine Length Gas Port position offers the best compromise for most shooters since it is compatible with the majority of supersonic and subsonic ammunition in suppressed or unsuppressed rifles. Cycling issues can occur when shooting some subsonic ammunition without a sound suppressor in place due to a lack of gas port pressure. Barrel extension and locator pin are both included and factory installed. The gas block area is contoured to fit 1" low profile gas blocks, and will not work with the longer 2" gas blocks.
- Length: 16"
- Material: Stainless Steel
- Contour: Lightweight
- Chamber: 300 AAC Blackout
- Twist Rate: 1 in 8"
- Chrome Lined: No
- Finish: Matte Stainless
- M4 Feed Ramps: Yes
- Muzzle Thread Pattern: 5/8"-24
- Gas Port Location: Carbine
- Exterior Diameter at Gas Port: 0.750"
- Exterior Diameter Under Handguard: 0.700"
- Exterior Diameter in Front of Gas Block: 0.645"
- Weight: 1.55 lbs
- Suitable for use with Subsonic & Supersonic Ammo Suppressed, and Supersonic Ammo Unsuppressed
- Cycling issues can occur with some Subsonic Ammo Without a Silencer installed
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You are here: Home » Blog » Ben Basford Edit
Ben Basford from Joe Gould on Vimeo.
Joe Gould made this video from Ben Basford riding the streets of UK over the past month. Pretty great video featuring lot of tricks that I really did not expect. Enjoy.
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Fox released some mouth watering, fanboy bonerising news this morning outlining the details of their new channels, FXX and FXM. Via our buddies at http://www.wired.com here are the key points and our reactions:
1. Fox is going Cinemax?
Firstly, the name. FXX? That’s a shitty, shitty name. The reason for launching this splinter channel is to try and win a younger audience in the 18-24 year demographic. But I don’t want to think how much money some Media Consultancy got paid to sit around drinking $20 lattes to eventually go “well…..what about another X? That’s edgy, right? Kids like the letter X………..right?” Did no one at Fox say, “Uh, yeah, you know this isn’t a softcore porn channel”.
2. That’s the strongest talent pool of any channel I have seen in a while
There are a lot of channels out there that have had high level Hollywood writers, directors and producers working on shows at various times. As far as I can remember (and I am a little tired so this may be poor memory as opposed to fact) no channel, even HBO, has been able to boast the strength in depth all at one time that FXX and FXM can. In no particular order they have announced projects from:
- Sam Mendes – British darling of the theatre and Hollywood darling of the screen. Was always known for layered, emotional portrayals of family dynamics, but showed he can do action with the best Bond of all Skyfall. He will be directing/producing mini-series Grand Hotel on FXM.
- Joel and Ethan Coen – Probably the best indie/mainstream crossover directors. During an impressive career have managed to produce/write/direct an impressive resume of cult movies including The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou and Fargo. They will be adapting the latter into a mini-series for FXM. No word on whether Frances McDormand will reprise her iconic role as Marge Gunderson, but given she is married to Joel Coen it is probably likely.
- Guillermo Del Toro – Master of fantasy horror and big budget blockbusters (check out the size, scope and cost of upcoming Pacific Rim), he is the go to guy in Hollywood for creepy chillers. Slated to produce and showrun The Strain on FXX, which is based on his own series of vampire. Hopefully will be the show True Blood should have been.
- Charlie Kauffman – Hollywood oddball and king of surreal neurosis. Wrote the brilliant Being John Malkovich and then followed up with Adaptation, a film about him trying to write a film he can’t write so he writes a film about him trying to write the film he can’t write. Or something. With twice the Nick Cage. Also wrote Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is a film that divides opinion at Shoving Buddies like no other. He is developing a series called How and Why. Although no details on plot, guaranteed to be a melon scratcher.
- Shawn Ryan – The man behind the all time favourite TV show at Shoving Buddies, The Shield, and gritty military drama The Unit. No idea what he is involved in but guaranteed it will be grittier than a gravel pit.
3. It automatically has the strongest comedy line-up on TV
It’s difficult to launch a new channel on new content alone. With this in mind they are migrating three of their biggest comedy shows across; It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (#1 all time comedy show at Shoving Buddies), The League (probably in the top 5 of that same list) and Legit. (which I have not seen in full, but looks pretty funny from the snippets I have seen).
Time will tell as to how all this pans out. Just because things are in development, doesn’t always mean they’ll make it to the screen. And big talent has been attached to less than successful TV shows before. Look at Steven Spielberg’s Taken, which only ran for one series. But at this point that is a pretty strong start. Between this, HBO, Showtime, AMC and Netflix Original these are exciting times for television like never before.