test please delete

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Overview of the Elixir pre-processing
1.1 Scope of the data pre-processing
The scope of the Elixir MegaCam data pre-processing is to provide the user with an image which has been fully corrected for the instrumental signature across the whole mosaic. This means:
The photometry must be uniform across the field of view: a given star or galaxy has to have the same flux in the final image no matter where it falls on the focal plane.
The image must look flat in the case of deep sky exposure (not some star forming region which has intrinsically some large scale diffuse structures).
The bad pixels and the overscan regions must be set to the 0 ADU value.
The initial dynamic of the data must be preserved (no truncation).
If possible, all CCDs in the mosaic are astrometrically and photometrically calibrated (this part is discussed in the "CFHT Data Calibration" section of this site).
The input raw data are 16 bits unsigned data ranging from 0 to 65535 ADUs. Elixir pre-processing generates an output also in 16 bits unsigned but with the BSCALE and BZERO parameters judiciously used to properly represent the initial dynamic of the data on a 16 bits range even after the data have been scaled up during the flat-fielding process. There is no reason indeed to go to 32 bits as the noise in the signal (read noise or sky photon noise) still largely dominates the error budget versus the bit truncation error.

http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/Science/C...rocessing.html

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Habits to Practice for a Cat-Safe Home
From Franny Syufy,
Your Guide to Cats.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
Use Fire Judiciously

Keep lit candle arrangements out of reach of cats, and extinguish candles before leaving the room.
Franny Syufy
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Fireplaces and candles provide ambiance and warmth for cozy winter nights, but they present a real hazard to cats. We have a six-feet wide fireplace that opens from our great room to our bedroom. When our cats started using it as an entry path between rooms, we put it out of use. It now displays flower arrangements or decorative fans year-round. Make sure that fireplace screens are securely in place, and that there is no way for cats to enter.

http://cats.about.com/od/catsafety/ss/goodhabits_5.htm

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Here at Decorative Electric Fans.com we have Most Sensational New Home Décor Accents to hit the market in recent times! Demand for the product is growing daily and we offer you a wide range of Decorative Electric Fans to choose, from THE DECO BREEZE COLLECTION. Complement any room in your home or office, while displaying your flair for style. Our Decorative Electric Fans offer not only a cool breeze, but a beautiful and decorative look while cutting high cooling cost.

http://www.decorativeelectricfans.com/

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Twin blasts hit Iraqi market
Tal Afar was the site of a car bombing in October

Two suicide bombers, one in a car and the other wearing an explosives vest, have killed 22 people and wounded 26 in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar.

Police in the regional capital, Mosul, said that the attack on Friday was aimed at civilians in an outdoor market for vehicles.

It came a day after 202 people were killed in a series of explosions in a Shia area of the capital, Baghdad.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...8E30FEB982.htm

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Vehicles are non-living means of transportation. They are most often man-made (e.g. bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, and aircraft), although some other means of transportation which are not made by man can also be called vehicles; examples include icebergs and floating tree trunks.

Vehicles may be propelled by animals, e.g. a chariot or an ox-cart. However, animals on their own, though used as a means of transportation, are not called vehicles. This includes humans carrying another human, for example a child or a disabled person.

Vehicles that do not travel on land are often called crafts, such as watercraft, sailcraft, aircraft, hovercraft and spacecraft

Most land vehicles have wheels. Please see the wheel article for examples of vehicles with and without wheels.

Movement without the help of a vehicle or an animal is called locomotion. The word vehicle itself comes from the Latin vehiculum.

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The malaria parasite might make its human hosts smell more attractive to mosquitoes, perhaps explaining why the disease is so widespread, according to a study published in the September issue of PLoS Biology, the New York Times reports. Jacob Koella, an evolutionary biologist at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, previously documented how the Plasmodium parasite upon first entering its mosquito host manipulates the insect to make it more cautious about biting another human. However, Koella found that this behavior changes when the parasite has developed in the mosquito and is ready to move on to a human host. Mosquitoes carrying infectious Plasmodium parasites are twice as likely as other mosquitoes to bite more than one human nightly and spend more time on each host consuming blood, according to Koella. Plasmodium also requires time to develop in the human liver in order to produce offspring, called gametocytes, which are able to invade blood cells. These gametocytes are ingested by mosquitoes when the insects consume human blood.

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_r...=4&DR_ID=31908

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Origins: On
13 March 2002, the The Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) published excerpts of a translation of an article which had appeared in the Saudi Arabian daily newspaper Al-Riyadh on 10 March. The article, a column by Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma of King Faysal University in Al-Dammam, dealt with the "The Jewish Holiday of Purim":


Special Ingredient For Jewish Holidays is Human Blood From Non-Jewish Youth
I chose to [speak] about the Jewish holiday of Purim, because it is connected to the month of March. This holiday has some dangerous customs that will, no doubt, horrify you, and I apologize if any reader is harmed because of this.

During this holiday, the Jew must prepare very special pastries, the filling of which is not only costly and rare - it cannot be found at all on the local and international markets.

Unfortunately, this filling cannot be left out, or substituted with any alternative serving the same purpose. For this holiday, the Jewish people must obtain human blood so that their clerics can prepare the holiday pastries. In other words, the practice cannot be carried out as required if human blood is not spilled!!

Before I go into the details, I would like to clarify that the Jews' spilling human blood to prepare pastry for their holidays is a well-established fact, historically and legally, all throughout history. This was one of the main reasons for the persecution and exile that were their lot in Europe and Asia at various times.

This holiday [Purim] begins with a fast, on March 13, like the Jewess Esther who vowed to fast. The holiday continues on March 14; during the holiday, the Jews wear carnival-style masks and costumes and overindulge in drinking alcohol, prostitution, and adultery. This holiday has become known among Muslim historians as the "Holiday of Masks."

http://www.snopes.com/religion/blood.htm

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Moderate Drinking May Lengthen Life

More Isn't Better -- Heavy Drinking Is a Hazard, Study Shows By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
on Monday, December 11, 2006



Dec. 11, 2006 -- Moderate drinking may lengthen life, but heavy drinking raises the risk of death, Italian researchers say.

They define moderate drinking as two to four drinks a day for men; one to two drinks for women.

"Heavy" drinking is anything beyond that. Light drinking is greater than zero but below the moderate amounts.

The Italian study's definition of moderate drinking is higher than the typical U.S. standard of up to two daily drinks for men and one for women.

In the U.S., a standard drink is 12 ounces of regular beer, 8 ounces of malt liquor, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of liquor.

"Heavy drinkers should be urged to cut their consumption, but people who already regularly consume low to moderate amounts of alcohol should be encouraged to continue," write the researchers.

They included Augusto di Castelnuovo, ScD, of Catholic University in Campobasso, Italy.

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/130/117769.htm

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dang. lets get a couple of quick wins.

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only need a few more to get the edge on goonerism