text:
A Rare Mosque Sheds Light on Islam's Arrival in the Land of Israel
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Excavating an area of the Negev near the Bedouin town of Rahat, archaeologists have found the remains of an ancient Christian farmstead from around the 6th century CE. Nearby, Nathan Steinmeyer reports, they found a small mosque—one of the oldest ever discovered in Land of Israel—alongside an elaborate estate, both dating to about a century later. The findings are evidence of the swift transition from Christianity to Islam among the residents of a land whose Jews had largely been driven out. The short video below, from the Israel Antiquities Authority, shows an aerial view of the excavation of the mosque.
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The Apocalyptic Visions of Jacob Taubes and Meir Kahane
Samuel Goldman
A Dispatch From the Post-Religious Future
Will America Invite Israel to Join Its Multinational Coalitions?
Feb. 2 2023
From the Korean War onward, the U.S. has rarely fought wars alone, but has instead led coalitions of various allied states. Israel stands out in that it has close military and diplomatic relations with Washington yet its forces have never been part of these coalitions—even in the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraqi missiles were raining down on its cities. The primary reason for its exclusion was the sensitivity of participating Arab and Muslim nations. But now that Jerusalem has diplomatic relations with several Arab countries and indeed regularly participates alongside them in U.S.-led joint military exercises, David Levy believes it may someday soon be asked to contribute to an American expedition.
It is unlikely that Israel would be expected by the U.S. to deploy the Golani [infantry] brigade or any other major army unit. Instead, Washington will likely solicit areas of IDF niche expertise. These include missile defense and special forces, two areas in which Israel is a world leader. The IDF has capabilities that it can share by providing trainers and observers. Naval and air support would also be expected as these assets are inherently deployable. Israel can also provide allies in foreign wars with intelligence and cyber-warfare support, much of which can be accomplished without the physical deployment of troops.
Jerusalem's previous reasons for abstention from coalitions were legitimate. Since its independence, Israel has faced existential threats. Conventional Arab armies sought to eliminate the nascent state in 1948-49, 1967, and again in 1973. This danger remained ever-present until the 1978 signing of the Camp David Accords, which established peace between Egypt and Israel. Post-Camp David, the threats to Israel remain serious but are no longer existential. If Iran were to become a nuclear power, this would pose a new existential threat. Until then, Israel is relatively well secured.
Jerusalem's new Arab allies would welcome its aid. Western capitals, especially Washington, should be expected to pursue Israel's military assistance, and Jerusalem will have little choice but to acquiesce to the expeditionary expectation.
Read more at BESA Center
More about: IDF, U.S. military, U.S.-Israel relationship
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Game of Thrones is a puzzle. Or it's a map. Or, as our regular reviewer of the show insinuated, it's a mixtape. Whatever it is, it's certainly not television. At least not like any we've seen before. The show takes all of the elements that previous programs have presented throughout the medium's history. It doesn't willfully ignore those pieces, as Arrested Development's fourth season did. Rather it picks what it needs at any given time and saves the rest for a later date. This episode will have an A-story, that episode will feature a climax. The basics of storytelling are tampered with, for better and worse. Wedding vow reference intended.
Looking at the overarching stories that Game of Thrones' third season tells, coherent arcs can be found. There's Jamie's transformation from charming villain to sympathetic anti-hero (well, as close as a Lannister not named Tyrion is likely to get), which receives much of the season's best character development. There's the fall and further fall of Robb Stark and his army, culminating in one of the best sequences the show has ever pulled off, if not the very pinnacle of its achievements. Daenerys Targaryen freed slaves that she has assembled into a seemingly unbeatable army, especially when coupled with dragons. It's on that note the season chooses to end, and as Paul Krueger touched on in his review, it doesn't exactly feel like the right moment to send viewers off with. He thinks it too small, especially compared to other cliffhangers the show could have offered. I, as a non-reader knowing little that will happen in the future, thought the scene, while well-made, didn't serve in any real way as a culmination of the season that preceded it.
Here lies the main distinction between most of television and Game of Thrones. I don't want to call it a flaw, rather a unique attribute. The formatting of Game of Thrones does have many precedents, namely the soap opera. That genre also utilizes interlocking yet distinct storylines, where one character may not get properly explored for a number of episodes. The main difference of course (besides quality, and dragons), is that the traditional soap runs for five episodes a week all year round, whereas we get ten episodes of this show a year. That means that when a character only appears in half of the season's outings, and only does something of note in two or three of those, it can be difficult to leave an impact.
Again, this sounds too harsh. It so happens that almost every character leaves their unique fingerprint on the show by virtue of its incredible acting, writing and directing. Though Daenerys only appeared in one scene tonight, the performances, and the sheer scope of the camera-work allowed for it to not simply be another cog in the overall plot's machine. But, to go back to the point raised before, it hardly serves as a capper for a series of ten episodes. Thinking on every character and every story raised this year, I struggle to imagine anybody or place deserving of the final scene. Deserving in a narrative sense, of course, not a qualitative one. Previous seasons eluded this problem by putting an image so striking on screen. This one ends on a high, important note, sure, but it doesn't touch the reveal of dragons or White Walkers. It relies on a more emotional beat, one that lands mainly for Emilia Clarke's performance. But, again, it lands as a scene, not as a period (or ellipses, however you choose to imagine season finales).
Game of Thrones has never seemed all that concerned with the placement of its material, though. Sure, you put the Red Wedding at the end, and you don't start with Daenerys burning a town to the ground. There is a sense that the explosions happen at the end, but not much beyond that (as long as, it should be clarified, we're not talking about "Blackwater", which breaks the show's rules by conforming more to television structure). Characters and individual storylines build, with great purpose, but the episode itself loses much of its meaning. You could, were it not for chronological story telling, swap many scenes between episodes and still have the same complete package. Maybe this is untrue to an extent, but by and large stories seem thrown together so climaxes can be punched at the right time in one arc and reacted to by a character halfway across Westeros. Structure is purely for narrative purpose, not thematic, or even, really, emotional reasoning. Certain scenes may seem jarring in the context of their neighbors (as the Arya/Jon Snow companion piece showed tonight), and that's probably the only recognizable flaw found in this system.
By and large, Game of Thrones works. I had various issues with various scenes throughout the season, and the structure as a whole has often thrown me for a loop (especially when placed next to its Sunday night partner, Mad Men, a show that lives consistently through its short story-esque episodes). The way that Game of Thrones functions means that it lives and dies by virtue of individual sequences, rather than any whole of episode or season. Now this idea is joined by Game of Thrones as a narrative whole, but Brandon Nowalk and Todd VanDerWerff handled this idea perfectly at The A.V. Club last week, so I'll leave that larger picture to them for now. That's a fascinating conversation to have, but I'm more curious here how Game of Thrones works as television in units rather than as a whole.
Pushing last season's "Blackwater" aside, I find it difficult to imagine an episode of Game of Thrones ending up on my year-end "best of" list. "Rains of Castamere" is the closest the show came this season, but the Bran material in the episode, while not horrible, keeps the episode from being wholly great. It's not that great episodes can't juggle disparate tones, rather that when one ball is dropped that cannot be ignored despite what great triumph may occur later on. When every scene on Game of Thrones is its own piece of art, the season can be harder to diagnose for quality. In this case, and the case of seasons one and two, the good scenes outweigh the bad. But if a show were to take the structure that Game of Thrones sets forth and do it poorly, well it would end up being one of the worst shows on television. That would stem from it lacking quality not just as piecemeal, but those chunks not resulting in a climax or any episode-building tale.
This all sounds more negative than I mean it. When you see the grade below, you'll know how much I truly loved this season of television, and the ones that came before it. I'm not interested in trashing on Game of Thrones. Instead, I find it fascinating, as a step sideways for the medium. That is to say that I do not consider it more or less good due to its framework. It's another way of doing business, but it's an intriguing way, and one that here, at least, pays off greatly. I'm not even necessarily referring to the rewatching/mystery aspect discussed in The A.V. Club article linked above. I mean that few shows can pull of the utter devastation of the season finale's scene between Tyrion and Cersei. And shows more preoccupied with building an episode with thematic consistency or dovetailing plots may never attempt such a moment. Neither way is inherently good or bad, but Game of Thrones proves that this format can heighten emotion and intrigue in terrific new ways.
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text:
require 'test_helper'

class MSWSUSFindingsTemplateTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase

	def setup
		setup_test_database

		@file_name = "/tmp/ms_wsus_findings.pdf"
		@template_manager = Risu::Base::TemplateManager.new "risu/templates"

		@report = Report
		@report.title = "ms_wsus_findings Test"
		@report.author = "hammackj"
		@report.company = "None"
		@report.classification = "None"

		@templater = Risu::Base::Templater.new("ms_wsus_findings", Report, @file_name, @template_manager)
		@templater.generate
	end

	def teardown
		File.delete(@file_name) if File.exist?(@file_name)
	end

	test "should create #{@file_name} on template creation" do
		assert File.exist?(@file_name) == true
	end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Organization of Rare Diseases India presents an enchanting session on Rare Diseases
In an unmissable session on a topic that perhaps needs to be spoken about more- Rare Diseases, presented by ORDI, 4 expert panels sat with NewsX to reflect on various issues that are faced by Rare ...
Organization of Rare Diseases India (ORDI) recently presented an enthralling session on Rare Diseases on NewsX. There were 4 power-packed panels of experts that joined in the session that was divided into 4 segments covering various aspects concerning the topic. The four segments were:
Rare Diseases: The Untold & Unheard Saga
Rare Diseases: The Indian Scenario
RaceFor7- Walk/ Run/ Ride on 28th Feb
Rare Diseases: Hopes from the government
'Rare Diseases: The Untold & Unheard Saga'
Dr Meenakshi Bhatt, Consultant, Clinical Genetics, CHG, Bengaluru kickstarted the first segment by enlightening the viewers on Rare Diseases. Dr Bhatt said, "Rare diseases, as the name suggests are the diseases that happen very infrequently in the population. In countries other than ours, there is a definition, sometimes it is defined in certain countries as something that happens less than once in a population of 2 lakhs. In some other countries, there is a definition that 1 in 2,500 or less of the population is affected by a disease."
"In our own country, we do not have an accepted definition but I think once we are settled on a definition, it should be 1 in 5,000 people who are affected by a particular disease. Collectively, it has a huge impact because of nearly 7,000 Rare Diseases and we estimate that there must be at least 70 million people affected by it in India with a collection of these diseases. What does it do to the people? It affects many systems of the body and sometimes, one individual that's affected with the Rare Disease can have many parts of their body including their intelligence affected. So, it's very important that we recognize it early so that we can do something about it," said Dr Meenakshi.
This segment was also joined by Prasanna Shirol, Co-founder & Executive Director, ORDI, Sangeeta Barde, Co-founder Director, ORDI, Lalith S, Director, ORDI & father of kids with Sanfilippo syndrome, Arouba Kabir, Counselor & Mental Health therapist, Dr Sujatha Jagdeesh, Head of Clinical Genetics, Mediscan, Chennai, Dr Ann Agnes Mathew, Pediatric Neurologist, Baptist Hospital, Bangalore, Dr Shubha Phadke, Professor & HOD, Medical Genetics, SGPGI.
Giving an introduction of ORDI, Prasanna Shirol, Co-founder & Executive Director, ORDI said in his inaugural address, "ORDI is an umbrella organization which represents 7,000 plus Rare Diseases. Basically, we work in the area of advocacy, awareness and patient support."
Mr Shirol's quest to finding answers to multiple questions in the area of Rare Diseases led him to find the organization. He personally struggled through his life as his 22-year-old daughter is India's first Pompe patient which is a rare genetic and neuromuscular disease.
Joining in the conversation, Sangeeta Barde, Co-founder Director, ORDI said, "We really came to a conclusion that there is no organization who can look at this in the most holistic manner. So, if one has to really work in the area of Rare Diseases then how can it be most holistic when it comes to addressing majority of these challenges that people encounter. So, that was the reason for the birth of ORDI and the whole mission is therefore around representing the Rare Diseases here in India. It's not about one disease, it's about 7,000 diseases that we are talking about. Some of them are not even identified properly, their names are unavailable, patients are unidentified."
Other contributors of this segment of discussion were Dr Sumita Danda, Professor & Head, Department of Clinical Genetics, CMC, Vellore, T.S. Singh Deo, Health Minister, Chhattisgarh, Ashutosh, parent of a child of IEM, Samir Sethi, President at Indian Rett Syndrome Foundation, Dr Sarthak Kamath, MD, Psychiatry and is living with DMD, Vaishali Pai, Occupational Therapist & Founder, Tamahar Trust, Bengaluru, Manjeet Singh, President, LSDSS and he also lost his child to MPS, Dr Ratna Puri, Professor and Chairperson, Institute of Medical Genetics, Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, Dr Sanjeeva G.N., Associate Professor, Pediatrics, IGICH, Bangalore, Anil Raina, General Manager, Sanofi Genzyme, Gitanjali Sehgal, Co-founder, FSMA and is an aunt to an SMA girl and Sunila Thatte, Vice President & Head- R&D Solutions India at IQVIA.
Segment 3: RaceFor7- Walk/ Run/ Ride on 28th Feb
Racefor7 is a yearly event that ORDI conducts for the past 6 years. It symbolically represents the 7,000 rare diseases with 7,000 people running for 7 kilometres. Prasanna Shirol, Co-founder & Executive Director, ORDI said that it is a mass awareness run/ walk/ ride. He added that it is unique and largest such program in the world where so many people join to create awareness who are unaffected for causes like Rare Diseases. This year, this event will be held virtually tomorrow, to register, go to registration.racefor7.com.
Segment 3 panellists were Prasanna Shirol, Co-founder & Executive Director, ORDI, Sangeeta Barde, Co-founder Director, ORDI, Dr Meenakshi Bhatt, Consultant, Clinical Genetics, CHG, Bengaluru, Arouba Kabir, Counselor & Mental Health therapist, Sirisha, OI Warrior, President awardee, Anand Shah, Trustee of PPMD India, Uttam Sahoo, teacher & parent of Progeria child Aditya from Uttarakhand, Dr Suresh Hanagawadi, President, Karnataka Hemophilia Society & Professor of Pathology, JMM Medical College, Davangere, Dr Prakash Gambhir, Chief Medical Scientist, Lifecell & Fetomed and Sunila Thatte, Vice President & Head- R&D Solutions India at IQVIA.
Segment 4: Rare Diseases: Hopes from the government
In the last segment of the session on Rare Diseases, the panellists shared the challenges that the government perhaps needs to take account of. Taking the same conversation ahead, Dr Ratna Puri, Professor and Chairperson, Institute of Medical Genetics, Sri Ganga Ram Hospital said, "Being a doctor who has been working half lifetime with patients with Rare Diseases, I think we deal with a very large population and the priorities from the health administration side are probably different. We see our priorities as the most vital, I do agree with the parent community, they are vital because every child has a right to life but we are moving ahead and I hope that with all this, with the noise that is being created, with the platforms that are coming forward to take the voice and the importance of treating children with rare disorders, we are all waiting for a good Rare Disease policy."
The power-packed panel that joined this segment included Prasanna Shirol, Co-founder & Executive Director, ORDI, Sangeeta Barde, Co-founder Director, ORDI, Dr Meenakshi Bhatt, Consultant, Clinical Genetics, CHG, Bengaluru, Dr Ratna Puri, Professor and Chairperson, Institute of Medical Genetics, Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, Prasanna Shirol, Co-founder & Executive Director, ORDI, Gitanjali Sehgal, Co-founder, FSMA and is an aunt to an SMA girl, Manjeet Singh, President, LSDSS and he also lost his child to MPS, Samir Sethi, President at Indian Rett Syndrome Foundation, Dr Sanjeeva G.N., Associate Professor, Pediatrics, IGICH, Bangalore, Anil Raina, General Manager, Sanofi Genzyme, Sunila Thatte, Vice President & Head- R&D Solutions India at IQVIA, Dr Ann Agnes Mathew, Pediatric Neurologist, Baptist Hospital, Bangalore and Vaishali Pai, Occupational Therapist & Founder, Tamahar Trust, Bengaluru.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


NEW YORK, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Spherix Incorporated (Nasdaq: SPEX) a technology development company committed to the fostering of innovation and monetization of intellectual property, today announced that it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire 100% ownership of DatChat Inc. DatChat is a privately held personal privacy platform, focused on Encrypted Communication, Internet Security and Digital Rights Management.
DatChat recently launched its initial product, a messaging application for mobile smart phones available on iOS and Android. The app allows users to control sent messages on the recipient's phone. Additionally, the Company is expanding its platform to include a peer-to-peer secure email system that will be built on Ethereum blockchain technology. This system is intended to provide enhanced security, because there is no central storage point for messages, therefore they cannot be accessed by an unauthorized recipient. Once fully-developed, the DatChat blockchain technology is being designed to allow each message to become its own micro-blockchain that will be permissioned, private and controlled. The closing of the acquisition is subject to shareholder approval and other customary conditions.
In addition to the acquisition of DatChat and the integration of the DatChat team, Spherix is further solidifying its holistic move into this sector by establishing "Ether Mining Company" as a subsidiary of Spherix. The purpose of the subsidiary is to mine the cryptocurrency "Ether." Ether is a type of crypto token that fuels the Ethereum blockchain network, upon which DatChat's distributed network is being built.
Mr. Anthony Hayes, CEO of Spherix stated, "Cyber security is a rapidly-growing sector based on the ever-increasing threats to privacy and confidential information. News of data breaches at companies large and small are becoming increasingly frequent. We believe that the DatChat Platform offers a solution by giving users total control of their information after transmittal. We believe that the further development of the DatChat's messaging technology into an email application will be the next evolution of blockchain, and that it will allow for permanent and ephemeral chains, content delivery, mining and third-party application development.
DatChat Inc. was founded three years ago by a team dedicated to creating a personal privacy platform that always provides privacy, control and security. The DatChat Digital Rights Mangagement Technology ("DRM") is the core of the platform. First launching the DatChat Messenger, the Company is now focused on developing it's blockchain and "DRM" to solve cybersecurity issues, including issues relating to email, filestorage and financial transactions.
Spherix is committed to advancing innovation by active participation in all areas of the patent market. Spherix draws on portfolios of pioneering technology patents to partner with and support product innovation. Spherix has acquired over 100 patents from Rockstar Consortium Inc., and several hundred patents issued to Harris Corporation, covering a variety of methods and components involved in switching, routing, networking, optical and telecommunication sectors.


text:
Home / News / World News / UK's first satellite fails to reach orbit due to 'anomaly'
UK's first satellite fails to reach orbit due to 'anomaly'
The UK and Western Europe's first attempt to launch a satellite from its soil failed after an anomaly prevented it from reaching orbit on Tuesday
The UK and Western Europe's first attempt to launch a satellite from its soil failed after an "anomaly" prevented it from reaching orbit on Tuesday. The "horizontal launch mission" carried out by Virgin Orbit attempted to send nine small satellites into space from a 21 m rocket attached below the wing of a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet from Newquay in coastal southwest England.
The mission was touted as the first orbital space launch from the UK and Western European soil, and the first international launch of Virgin Orbit. The satellites were meant to be used for civil as well as defense purposes.
This comes as another blow to European space ambitions as an Italian rocket mission failed after lift-off from French Guiana in late December.
Virgin Orbit initially tweeted 'reached orbit', deleted later
The Virgin LauncherOne rocket detached from the Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, also called 'Cosmic Girl', over the Atlantic Ocean an hour and 20 minutes after the launch and ignited at an altitude of 10,670 m. More than 2,000 spectators gathered to cheer for the launch. However, later Virgin Orbit said that an anomaly occurred which prevented them from reaching orbit.
Virgin Orbit co-owned by billionaire Richard Branson, UK Space Agency
Virgin Orbit was founded by British billionaire and airline tycoon Richard Branson and is owned by a consortium including him and the United Kingdom Space Agency. The aircraft returned safely to Newquay and the rockets have been grounded.
UK largest producer of satellites after US
The UK space industry employs around 47,000 people and is second only to the US in terms of the number of satellites it produces. However, its satellites have been sent into orbit through foreign spaceports operated by the US or Kazakhstan. Earlier, Europe's Ariane 6 launcher was delayed and its access to the Russian Soyuz rockets was blocked due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope resumes operations after instrument glitch James Webb Space Telescope
NASA's Chandra Observatory captures chaotic galaxy merger National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Super-rare comet C/2022 E3's closest approach tomorrow: How to watch Technology
Historic! NASA's Perseverance Rover completes sample depot on Mars National Aeronautics and Space Administration
EU regulator fines Meta again; this time for WhatsApp Meta
EU ruling could change how Meta serves Facebook, Instagram ads Meta
China claims COVID-19 data transparent; European officials oppose travel curbs China
Putin threatened with missile strike before Russia-Ukraine war: Boris Johnson Boris Johnson
UK: PM Rishi Sunak fined for not wearing seatbelt; apologizes Rishi Sunak
Future is here: World's largest hydrogen-electric aircraft completes maiden flight Technology
BBC documentary on PM Modi propaganda, continues colonial mindset: MEA BBC
This company couldn't find paying billionaires for trip to space SpaceX
Hyperloop in India, Saudi Arabia much sooner than you think Hyperloop One
'Lot to do on Earth,' Bill Gates on space tourism Elon Musk
Defective flight control system part delays Virgin Galactic's Unity 23 Virgin Galactic


Efficient but not very comfortable.
Everything was very clean and well maintained, booking and registering worked perfectly. The automatic reception functioned as it should. However, the decor is cold and resonates, e.g. no curtains just a pull down blind. The sinks had no plugs which is inconvenient and not very ecological. The car park was not secured by a gate/barrier.
Experience was fine, hotel is easy to find and in a quiet location, just right for my night stop.
On an industrial site. No food nearby.
I have stayed in Ibis budget hotels many times on my travels through France. I have never stayed in one like this, it is situated on an industrial estate. There are no food outlets within easy walking distance. Would not recommend a stay here.
Dear Client, First of all, thank you for taking the time to write this review. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced during your stay. Thank you for choosing our property and would be delighted to welcome you again to enjoy another opportunity to serve you better. Best regards, Charlotte, Manager of the hotel.
The room was very clean and spacious. Lack of hand towel. Staying on a 2nd floor with a baby is not practical without a lift.
Our stay provided everything that we needed. The room was quiet, big enough for a couple of nights, clean and everything in there worked well. It was the no fuss room that we wanted. Thank you.
People at the desk were very kind and made their best to help efficiently.


text:
Chester Wind Band was formed back in 1989 by Peter McNulty, a former Headteacher of Blacon High School and the band's first Musical Director, Edward Milner. The band received some financial backing from The Lord Mayor of Chester and an award from the National Lottery Arts Fund which ensured further expansion and helped towards the purchase of new instruments.
In 2008 the band were featured live on the BBC Children in Need North West coverage, performing a selection of pieces at the Chill Factore in Manchester.
Along side regular events such as Hawarden Remembrance Parade, Countess of Chester Trees of Light service and the Eaton Hall Open Days, the band perform two main concerts per year (May and November) raising valuable funds for charities whilst working to secure it's own future. The "Last Night of the Proms" concert each November is certainly not one to be missed!
The band has gone from strength to strength over the years, growing in both size and musical ability and we are proud to still be affiliated with Blacon High School, who's ongoing support provides our rehearsal venue.
Chester Wind Band © 2022


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text:
\section{Introduction}
Mechanical resonators have multiple applications in science and technology and their operation in the quantum regime enable effective coupling to weak perturbations and to a variety of other quantum systems for precision sensing and quantum information processing purposes. The preparation of mechanical oscillators in well-defined quantum states have thus been the target of many efforts, and both thermalization with a low temperature environment~\cite{oconnell2010}, sideband microwave cooling~\cite{teufel2011}, and more elaborate heralding schemes~\cite{Vanner2013,rossi2018} have been employed or theoretically proposed. In this article, we propose and analyze a novel scheme for cooling of a cantilever, which makes use of a rare earth ion ensemble, doped into the cantilever material. In ref.~\cite{Molmer2016} we suggested to prepare such an ensemble by optical hole burning techniques such that light strongly detuned from all the ions can be transmitted through a spectral hole, while bending of the material causes strain and shifts the optical transition frequencies of the ions modifying their dispersive interaction with the light probe. Using realistic parameters, we argued in ref.~\cite{Molmer2016}  that it would be possible to resolve the thermal bending motion of the cantilever in much shorter time than the life time of the spectral hole. Here, we take the analysis further and derive the conditional state of the system subject to continuous homodyne monitoring of the transmitted field.

In Sec.~\ref{physicalsystem}, we introduce our system and motivate a Gaussian ansatz for the state of motion of a vibrational mode of the cantilever and of the quantized probe field. In Sec.~\ref{gaussianstate}, we derive and solve the equations of motion for the first and second moments of the Gaussian phase space distribution of the cantilever motion subject to optical probing. We obtain numerical and approximate analytical expressions for the position and momentum variances and we show sample trajectories for the mean displacement of the cantilever motion, conditioned on realistic measurement records. We argue that the reduced position and momentum uncertainty is equivalent to a cooling of the mechanical motion, and permits definition of an effective temperature of the cantilever far below the surrounding environment. By adding an active feed back mechanism, we show that this low effective temperature can also be translated into an effective ``freezing'' of the resonator where its mean position and momentum are not only precisely known but also constant. Finally, Sec.~\ref{conclusion} provides a brief conclusion and outlook.

\section{The physical system}\label{physicalsystem}

We consider the physical system depicted in fig.\ref{setup}, consisting of a transparent cantilever which is probed by a coherent laser beam. The interferometric set-up allows measurement of the quadrature of the transmitted beam which contains information about the bending motion of the cantilever: the cantilever material is doped with rare earth ions featuring a narrow optical transition which is shifted in frequency due to crystal strain. The inhomogeneously broadened absorption profile of the ion dopants is prepared by spectral hole burning to allow transmission of the probe laser field, but when the cantilever is bent, the spectral hole is distorted, and the dispersive interaction with ions causes an optical phase shift. For details, the full protocol of this strain-coupling is outlined in ref.~\cite{Molmer2016}.

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=8cm]{Figure1.pdf}
  \caption{A schematics of the set-up allowing to detect the vibrations of a cantilever using homodyne detection. The dimensions of the cantilever are $100\times10\times10$ $\mu m^3$, for more details, see Sec.~\ref{numericalapplication}.}
  \label{setup}
\end{figure}

The coherent beam of light with flux $\Phi$ can be thought of as a product state of segments of duration $\tau$, each containing a coherent state with average photon number $n=\Phi\tau$. We assume that, prior to interaction with the cantilever, the coherent states have null phase and real argument $\alpha=\sqrt{n}=\sqrt{\Phi \tau}$. In our previous work \cite{Molmer2016} we have shown that, by interacting with a bent cantilever with appropriately prepared spectral hole structure, the light beam experiences a phase shift proportional to the resonator displacement $X_{m}$, namely $\Delta\phi = k X_{m}$. A Fock state $|n\rangle$, for its part, undergoes a quantum phase shift, $|n\rangle \rightarrow e^{-i n \Delta\phi}|n\rangle$, where the phase shift per photon is equal to the phase shift of the coherent field amplitude. We write  $\hat{a}= \alpha+\delta\hat{a}$, such that the number operator $\hat{n}$ can be written
\begin{eqnarray}
\hat{n} & = & \hat{a}^\dagger \hat{a} = (\alpha +\delta\hat{a}^\dagger)(\alpha +\delta\hat{a})\nonumber \\
& \simeq & \alpha^2 + \alpha(\hat{a}-\alpha) +  \alpha(\hat{a}^\dagger-\alpha)  = \alpha(\hat{a}+\hat{a}^\dagger)-\alpha^2\nonumber \\
& = & \sqrt{2}\alpha \hat{X}_{ph} - \alpha^2.
\end{eqnarray}
Utilizing our assumption that the input coherent state $|\alpha\rangle$ have null phase, the effect of the Fock state phase factor $e^{-i n \Delta\phi}$ is hence approximated by the operator $e^{-i\sqrt{2}\alpha \hat{X}_{ph} k \hat{X}_m}=e^{-i\kappa_\tau \hat{X}_{ph} \hat{X}_{m}}$, where $\kappa_{\tau}^2 \equiv \kappa^2\tau \equiv 2 k^2\Phi\tau$. The exponential operator form reflects the unitary evolution of the joint state of the field and mechanical oscillators, which is governed by a coupling Hamiltonian $\hat{H} = \kappa_\tau \hat{X}_{ph} \hat{X}_{m}/\tau$.

\section{Gaussian state formalism}\label{gaussianstate}

We consider the joint quantum state of the mechanical oscillator bending mode and a single incident segment of the probe photon beam. The oscillator Hamiltonian and the interaction between the two systems are second order in their respective position and momentum quadrature operators $(\hat{X}_m,\hat{P}_m,\hat{X}_{ph},\hat{P}_{ph})$, and their time evolution for a short time interval $\tau$ is given by a linear mapping,
\begin{equation} \label{eq:map}
\left(
  \begin{array}{c}
    \hat{X}_m \\
    \hat{P}_m \\
    \hat{X}_{ph} \\
    \hat{P}_{ph} \\
  \end{array}
\right)
\rightarrow
\left(
  \begin{array}{cccc}
    1 & \omega\tau & 0 & 0 \\
    -\omega\tau & 1 & \kappa_\tau & 0 \\
    0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
    \kappa_\tau & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
  \end{array}
\right)
\left(
  \begin{array}{c}
    \hat{X}_m \\
    \hat{P}_m \\
    \hat{X}_{ph} \\
    \hat{P}_{ph} \\
  \end{array}
\right).
\end{equation}

The operators are expressed in dimensionless units, such that the variables defining the mechanical resonator are given by $X_m=x_m/x_0$ with $x_0=\sqrt{\hbar/m\omega}$ and $P_m=p_m/p_0$ with $p_0=\sqrt{\hbar m\omega}$.

If we assume an initial thermal state of the cantilever, both systems occupy Gaussian states and while they become correlated, the combined system maintains its Gaussian character due to the interaction. Gaussian states are fully characterized by their first and second order moments, and we shall hence identify the changes in these quantities for the cantilever observables due to the continuous interaction with the field and its subsequent homodyne detection.

For this purpose, we introduce the covariance matrix $\Gamma$ with elements $\Gamma_{ij} = 2 Re(\langle(\hat{q}_i-q_i)(\hat{q}_j-q_j)\rangle$, where $\hat{q_i}$ denotes the four quadrature observables and $q_i$ their expectation values.
Reserving the first two components for the mechanical degrees of freedom and the last two for the field, the covariance matrix separates in blocks,
\begin{equation}
\Gamma=\left(
         \begin{array}{cc}
           {\bf A} & {\bf C} \\
           {\bf C}^T & {\bf B} \\
         \end{array}
       \right)
        \label{Gammamatrix}
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
{\bf A}=\left(
         \begin{array}{cc}
           a_{11} & a_{12} \\
           a_{21} & a_{22} \\
         \end{array}
       \right),
       \label{Amatrix}
\end{equation}
represents the oscillator position and momentum variances and covariances, while the matrix {\bf B} describes the similar quantities for the field and {\bf C} represents correlations between the two systems. Prior to the application of each novel segment of the optical field, which is incident on the mechanical system in a coherent state, $\bf{B}$ and $\bf{C}$ take the initial values

\begin{equation}
{\bf B}_0=\left(
         \begin{array}{cc}
           1 & 0 \\
           0 & 1 \\
         \end{array}
       \right),
{\bf C}_0=\left(
         \begin{array}{cc}
           0 & 0 \\
           0 & 0 \\
         \end{array}
       \right).
       \label{BCmatrices}
\end{equation}

After the interaction of the two systems, the oscillator and the light segment are correlated as described by Eq.(\ref{eq:map}), which transforms the covariance matrix as
\begin{equation} \label{eq:update}
\Gamma \rightarrow {\bf S}\Gamma {\bf S}^T,
\end{equation}
where $\bf{S}$ denotes the 4x4 matrix in Eq.~(\ref{eq:map}).

If the transmitted light segment is discarded after the interaction, we merely retain the upper left block of $\bf{\Gamma}$ as our new mechanical covariance matrix $\bf{A}$, while replacing $\bf{B}$ and $\bf{C}$ by  $\bf{B}_0$ and $\bf{C}_0$ in $\bf{\Gamma}$ in Eq.~(\ref{Gammamatrix}) to accommodate for the interaction with the subsequent coherent segment of the beam. However, rather than discarding the transmitted field, we perform a measurement of the phase rotation of the optical field segment, right after its interaction with the cantilever. This is done by homodyne measurement of the quadrature $P_{ph}$. This measurement yields information about $X_{m}$, and for Gaussian states, the gain in information is represented by the following transformation \cite{Fiurasek2002,Giedke2002,Eisert2003} of the cantilever part of the covariance matrix
\begin{equation}
{\bf A}\rightarrow {\bf A} -\eta {\bf C} \left(
                       \begin{array}{cc}
                         0 & 0 \\
                         0 & 1 \\
                       \end{array}
                     \right) {\bf C}^T,
\end{equation}
where $ {\bf C},\ {\bf C}^T$ are extracted from $\Gamma$ after the update rule Eq.(\ref{eq:update}) and $\eta$ is the detector efficiency.

The field measurement outcome is governed by a Gaussian distribution with mean value $\langle \hat{P}_{ph}\rangle = \kappa_{\tau} \langle \hat{X}_m\rangle$ and variance $1/2$.  Denoting the outcome as $\langle \hat{P}_{ph}\rangle + \chi$, the mean value of the Gaussian distribution of cantilever observables is, indeed, shifted conditioned on the field measurement,
\begin{equation}
\label{eq.Measurement}
\left(
  \begin{array}{c}
    \langle \hat{X}_m\rangle \\
    \langle \hat{P}_m\rangle \\
  \end{array}
\right)
\rightarrow
\left(
  \begin{array}{c}
    \langle \hat{X}_m\rangle \\
    \langle \hat{P}_m\rangle \\
  \end{array}
\right)
+\sqrt{\eta} {\bf C}
\left(
  \begin{array}{c}
    0 \\
    \chi \\
  \end{array}
\right).
\end{equation}

In addition to the deterministic and stochastic evolution of the oscillator covariance matrix and mean values due the field probing and free evolution, we include the equilibration of the oscillator with its thermal environment at rate $\gamma$. This is done by adding the following terms to the rate equations in the continuous limit,
$da_{ii}/dt|_\gamma = -\gamma a_{ii}+\gamma(2\overline{n}+1)$ for $i=1,2$, $da_{ij}/dt|_\gamma=-\gamma a_{ij}$ for $i\ne j$, and $d\langle \hat{X}_m\rangle/dt|_\gamma = -\frac{\gamma}{2}\langle \hat{X}_m\rangle$, and $d\langle \hat{P}_m\rangle/dt|_\gamma = -\frac{\gamma}{2}\langle \hat{P}_m\rangle$. In the absence of any other terms, these rate equations would lead to a steady state with $ a_{11}=a_{22}=2 \rm{Var}(X_m) = 2\rm{Var}(P_m) =2\overline{n}+1$, representing the familiar mean energy  $\frac{1}{2}\langle \hat{X}_m^2 + \hat{P}_m^2\rangle = (\overline{n}+\frac{1}{2})$ of the thermalized oscillator.

To summarize, the mechanical resonator is described by the $2\times 2$ covariance matrix $\bf {A}$ (Eq.~\ref{Amatrix}) that evolves in a deterministic manner, and by mean values $(\langle \hat{X}_m\rangle, \langle \hat{P}_m\rangle)$ that follow from the combination of free evolution and the accumulated stochastic measurement record. This evolution is equivalent to the general quantum trajectory treatment of continuously monitored quantum systems by a stochastic master equation, but it is considerably simplified by the restriction to Gaussian states.

\subsection{Continuous limit}

Our division of the probe beam into segments of duration $\tau$ allows us to take the continuum limit, assuming the derivative to be given by $dx/dt=(x(t+\tau)-x(t))/\tau$. It is a special property of the Gaussian states, that the covariance matrix of the mechanical system evolves in a deterministic manner, independent of the measurement outcome. Putting all terms together, we thus get for the components of the oscillator part of the covariance matrix the following explicit equations:
 \begin{eqnarray}
\frac{da_{11}}{dt} & = & -\eta \kappa^2 a_{11}^2 + \omega(a_{21}+a_{12})-\gamma(a_{11}-(2\overline{n}+1))\nonumber \\
\frac{da_{12}}{dt} & = & - \eta \kappa^2 a_{11} a_{12} - \omega(a_{11}-a_{22})-\gamma a_{12}\nonumber \\
\frac{da_{21}}{dt} & = & - \eta \kappa^2 a_{11} a_{21} - \omega(a_{11}-a_{22})-\gamma a_{21}\nonumber \\
\frac{da_{22}}{dt} & = & \kappa^2 - \eta \kappa^2 a_{12} a_{21} - \omega(a_{21}+a_{12})\nonumber\\
                            &    & -\gamma(a_{22}-(2\overline{n}+1)).
\label{diffeq}
\end{eqnarray}
The first, non-linear term in the equation for $a_{11}$ shows that the variance of $X_m$ is reduced, and the proportionality with the measurement efficiency $\eta$ emphasizes that this squeezing of the oscillator position is conditional on the probing. The first term in the equation for $a_{22}$ shows that the unobserved $P_m$ undergoes an increasing variance due to the interaction with the probe field - a diffusive heating due to the spread in $X_{ph}$ of the incident state. Setting $\eta=0$ corresponds to no detection, and hence absence of the cooling/squeezing effect on $X_m$, while $P_m$ always heats up due to the interaction with the probe field. The effective anti-squeezing of $P_m$ ensures the Heisenberg uncertainty relation remains fulfilled even if there were no free rotation (at $\omega$), no heating and if $X_m$ were probed at unit efficiency. Due to the rotation, however, a mixing of the degrees of freedom subject to squeezing and anti-squeezing and heating leads, ideally, to reduction of both variances.

Together with the deterministic change of the covariance matrix and mean values of the mechanical position and momentum, the mean values of  $\hat{X}_m$ and $\hat{P}_m$ experience stochastic changes (Eq.~\ref{eq.Measurement}) associated with the measurement outcomes. In the limit of infinitesimal time steps $dt$, the difference $dW$ between the measured value and the expected mean value is stochastic with variance $dW^2 = dt$, corresponding to detector shot noise, and its explicit variation leads to the update equation for the mean values:
\begin{eqnarray}
\langle \hat{X}_m \rangle \rightarrow \langle \hat{X}_m \rangle +\sqrt\eta a_{11} \kappa dW \nonumber \\
\langle \hat{P}_m \rangle \rightarrow \langle \hat{P}_m \rangle +\sqrt\eta a_{21} \kappa dW.
\label{update}
\end{eqnarray}

\subsection{Steady-state solutions}

The nonlinear Eqs.~\ref{diffeq} can be solved analytically in the steady state limit. For $\gamma\ll\omega$ (which is readily fulfilled for realistic parameters, see \ref{numericalapplication}), the rapidly oscillating system is effectively subject to equal strength probing of $X_m$ and $P_m$, and the equations for $a_{11}$ and $a_{22}$ can be replaced by the average of the corresponding equations in Eq.~(\ref{diffeq}). The steady state variances, $\rm{Var}(X_m)= \rm{Var}(P_m)= a_{11}/2$ are then determined from the roots of a single quadratic equation, and we obtain

\begin{equation}
\label{eq:a11_steady_state}
a_{11}=\frac{-\gamma +\{\gamma^2+\eta\kappa^2\big[ \kappa^2+2\gamma(2\bar n+1)\big]\}^{1/2}}{\eta \kappa^2}.
\end{equation}

For the realistic system explored in \ref{numericalapplication}, we furthermore have $\gamma\ll\kappa$, and Eq.~(\ref{eq:a11_steady_state}) further reduces to

\begin{equation}
\label{eq:a11_steady_state_reduced}
a_{11}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\eta}}\sqrt{1+\frac{2\gamma}{\kappa^2}(2\bar n+1)}.
\end{equation}

This result explicitly reflects the competition between the cooling induced by the  measurements with efficiency $\eta$ and probe interaction strength $\kappa^2$ and the heating with rate $\gamma$. For the physical parameter range of interest, we obtain a significant reduction and favorable square root scaling of the position and momentum variances compared to their values in thermal equilibrium with the environment. We recall, however, that the reduction of these variances does not represent extraction of energy from the oscillator, as the mean position and momentum have finite random values. But since these values are known from the measurement record through Eq.~(\ref{eq:update}), we can either reduce them deterministically by application of a force to the system as demonstrated in Sec.~\ref{numericalapplication}, or we can merely retain our knowledge about their values and subtract them ``in software'' in applications of the system, e.g., for  sensing purposes.

We observe that the Eqs.~(\ref{diffeq},\ref{update}) have the same  formal structure as the Kalman filter equations~\cite{maybeck79}  for the estimated state and the variance of the estimate of a linear dynamical system. This is no coincidence: For a quadratic Hamiltonian with linear evolution of the position and momentum observables, quantum measurement theory assigns a conditional Gaussian quantum state, which fully characterizes the probability distribution for the observables by mean values and a covariance matrix. The evolution of these objects is equivalent to the classical Kalman filter, while the derivation based on quantum theory ensures, e.g., fulfillment of Heisenberg's uncertainty relation.

\section{Numerical investigation and active feedback}\label{numericalapplication}

In order to investigate numerically the outcome of the model in a realistic experimental example, we refer to our previous publication \cite{Molmer2016}. We consider the example of a $100\times10\times10$\,$\mu m^3$ cantilever with a bending mode frequency of $\omega =2\pi\times 1$\,MHz mode and an effective mass $m=1.1\cdot 10^{-11}$\,kg, corresponding to the cantilever depicted in fig.~\ref{setup}. The cantilever material consists of $\rm Y_2SiO_5$ containing a  0.1 \% doping of $\rm Eu^{3+}$ ions, with a $^7F_0 \rightarrow$  $^5D_0$ transition centered at 580 nm and a single ion natural linewidth of $ 2\pi\times122$\,Hz and a measured linewidth of typically $2\pi \times1$\,kHz at a temperature of 3\,K or lower. When using a spectral hole width of 6\,MHz, we previously determined the phase shift $\Delta\phi = k X_m$ to be $0.65 \,\mu$rad for a bending of $x_0=\sqrt{\hbar/m\omega}=1.3$\,fm, corresponding to the width of the quantum ground state of the cantilever. Thus, if $X_m$ is measured in units of $x_0$, $k= 0.65\,\mu$rad. Moreover, assuming a laser intensity of 1\,mW (\emph{i.e.} a photon flux of $\Phi=2.92 \times 10^{-15}$), we have $\kappa^2= 2 k^2\Phi=2\pi\times 197$\,Hz. Furthermore, we assume $\eta=1$, the initial temperature T=400\,mK (corresponding to a bath excitation $\overline{n}=9360$), and the bath coupling $\gamma = 2\pi\times 10$\,Hz.

A first consequence of the application of the probe laser is the shifting of the classical rest position of the resonator. This comes from the action on the mechanical oscillator of the same unitary time evolution operator $e^{-ik\hat{X}_m \hat{n}}$ that yields the phase shift of the field, and it occurs  independently of the measurement back-action. When the probe laser is turned on abruptly from a situation at thermal equilibrium where the resonator position and momentum are centered at zero ($\langle X_m\rangle=\langle P_m\rangle=0$), this leads to a large swing, and the resonator mean values will oscillate for a long time (of the order of $2\pi/\gamma$) before thermalization brings it to the new rest position. It is, however, possible to suppress this swing by applying the laser in a feed-forward procedure as the swing is governed by perfectly deterministic classical equations of motions. In our case, this simply consists in first applying the laser at half power for half a period $ \pi/\omega$ of the resonator oscillation, before applying the laser at full power. Indeed, after the first half period of oscillation, the classical motion arrives at its apex with zero average momentum, and this is the equilibrium phase space position for the oscillator subject to the full laser power.

Second, when the probe laser is on \emph{and} its phase is detected, the continuous monitoring leads to a rapid decrease in the uncertainty in position and momentum of the oscillator. This translates into a rapid decrease in the corresponding variances, and a concomitant localization of the Gaussian state which exhibits oscillations at angular frequency $\omega$ with a random phase and a random amplitude, determined stochastically from the measurement record. Note that because of the constant coupling with the thermal bath, the phase and amplitude will vary in time, but with a very slow rate governed by the coupling coefficient $\gamma$.

Third, from the outcome of the continuous measurement, and the corresponding knowledge of $\langle \hat{X}_m\rangle$ and $\langle \hat{P}_m\rangle$, if the intended application of the system requires so, one can apply a feed-back mechanism which will maintain the resonator position as close as possible to the rest position in phase-space. Owing to the continuous measurement process, the resonator will then rapidly acquire a fixed position with an uncertainty substantially smaller than the one governed by the thermal bath. Because the coupling to the thermal bath is relatively weak, the random fluctuations of the phase and amplitude of the resonator oscillation are relatively slow, and the feed-back mechanism is therefore robust against experimentally unavoidable time delay in the feed-back loop. As a demonstration, we have included time delays up to 1 $\mu$s in this process, without impacting the stability of the servo loop.

Figure \ref{var} represents the application of this sequence of operation for a resonator with an initial temperature of 400\,mK. Initially, no probe laser is applied and the uncertainty in resonator position is given by its temperature imposed by the thermal bath. When switching on the laser (without detecting its phase), using the feed-forward process described above, we displace the equilibrium position without modifying the effective temperature of the resonator. When the probe laser is applied and its phase after interaction with the cantilever is detected, the oscillator becomes localized in a sine-wave oscillation. After 10 $\mu$s, we apply the active feedback modulation of the probe power to keep the resonator as close as possible to the rest place, and the amplitude of the oscillations rapidly decrease to zero. The feed-back mechanism used here is based on the continuous evaluation of the amplitude and phase of the oscillation at angular frequency $\omega$ and the application of a small modulation of the probe laser intensity at frequency $\omega$, with an amplitude and phase continuously adapted to counter-balance the resonator oscillation, see bottom panel in Fig.~\ref{var}. In our numerical example, we have limited the gain of the feed-back loop to keep the relative modulation of the probe laser power lower than 10 \%, which implies a negligible impact on the measurement back-action process, in order to simplify numerical integration.

Note that the successive application of the above steps is only chosen for clarity. In practice, it is certainly possible to apply the feed-forward ramping of the laser power and implement the phase detection and the feed-back mechanism all together and immediately, so as to accelerate the progress towards the final steady state, should it be desirable for practical applications.

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=8.3cm]{PlotAllTime.pdf}
  \caption{Mechanical resonator subject to optical probing. The physical properties are described in the text ($\omega= 2 \pi \times 1$\,MHz, $\gamma = 2\pi\times 10$\,Hz, laser full power 1\,mW, initial temperature 400\,mK). The sequence used here is the following: 1) we start at thermal equilibrium with no probing laser; 2) after 1\,$\mu$s, we apply the probe laser at half power (feed-forward); 3) at 1.5\,$\mu$s we apply the probe laser at full power; 4) at 2.5\,$\mu$s we detect the probe laser phase continuously, which progressively localizes the resonator on a sine-wave oscillation with random amplitude and phase; 5) after 10 $\mu$s, we apply an active feed-back process (which includes a 1\,$\mu$s delay time) that keeps the resonator near its rest position by acting on the probe laser power. Top panel: mean position of the resonator (the thickness of the curve indicates the uncertainty); middle panel: two times the standard deviation (root-mean-square) of the position and momentum variables; bottom panel: variation in the probe laser power normalized to its final constant value, showing the excitation at half power and the oscillatory feedback modulation, conditioned on the measurement outcome.}
  \label{var}
\end{figure}

The steady state given in Eq.(\ref{eq:a11_steady_state_reduced}) leads to an uncertainty in the position of the resonator that corresponds to an effective temperature <~0.7~mK (or, equivalently <~15 quanta). This more than 600 fold reduction in effective temperature is a striking demonstration of how effectively the continuous monitoring extracts knowledge of the resonator state. Moreover, a large part of the decrease in $a_{11}$ and $a_{22}$ occurs at the beginning of the process (see fig.~\ref{var}): only 4\,$\mu$s after application of the continuous measurement, the effective temperature is already decreased to $\simeq$ 100\,quanta \emph{i.e.} $\simeq$4\,mK, a 100-fold reduction of the effective temperature. After 50\,$\mu$s, the effective temperature is already within less than 1\% of that of the steady state.

\section{Conclusion}\label{conclusion}

We have in this article presented a Gaussian state formalism that accounts for the evolution of a mechanical oscillator subject to continuous homodyne probing. The measurement outcome is stochastic, and the measurement back action entails a displacement of the oscillator, which one must know to benefit from the significantly reduced variance of the inferred position and momentum of the cantilever.
The increased purity of the quantum state accompanies a reduced entropy, and we refer to the process as measurement induced cooling (a term also used in ref.~\cite{Vanner2013}), as the residual energy of the system is mainly due to a precisely known oscillatory motion in phase space. We also show that this motion that can be arrested by application of a force. In particular, we can use a force which arises from interaction with the probe itself and perform a feedback according to the measurement of the resonator position by varying the intensity of the probe. Future work may incorporate separate studies of the so-called retrodicted state~\cite{Gammelgaard2013,Rossi2018,zhang2017,laverick2019} of the system, in particular, what do we know at time $T$ about the oscillator's position at the earlier time $t$, due to the measurements performed both until $t$ and after $t$, and how this can benefit application of the probed cantilever for force and motional sensing~\cite{tsang2019}.\\

\section*{Acknowledgements}

KM acknowledges support from the Villum Foundation and YLC from the Ville de Paris Emergence Program and from the LABEX Cluster of Excellence FIRST-TF (ANR-10-LABX-48-01), within the Program ``Investissements d'Avenir'' operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR). The project has also received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 712721 (NanOQTech).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Another book I just finished is called The Search. It is a history of search on the internet. While at first that may not sound like that exciting of a subject, I found the book to be very interesting.
It tells the story of Google and how they have come to dominate the search field. He explains why internet search works and also why it doesn't. He speculates about the future of search and how it will consume our lives.
Google set out to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible." They're getting closer. It may overtake our lives soon as all our decisions will be entered into a vast search database so that search will become automatic.
Some of it was fascinating and some of it was a bit scary. I also found my new favorite search engine A9.com. It learns by your search history and will improve your search results the more you use it. If you go ahead and click the link, I'd guess that A9 already knows your name.
Spooky. Get used to it!
Mary Jane La Vache, whose mother was killed in the World Trade Center attacks, admires a statue of Jesus holding the World Trade Center towers in his hands that she commissioned in memory of nine St. Ephrem's parishoners who died in the attacks.
The book that inspired my 6 part series on the "victorious life" was Tony Evans' Free At Last. Just finished it last night. It wasn't a bad book, had lots of good things to say. Perhaps he confuses a believer's freedom and liberty with unstoppable victory though.
All in all, his main point–that we have liberty in Christ because of His grace and all-sufficient work–was well done.
I did, however, also have a hesitation about his understanding of the old nature–it's a factory that turns out sin but the factory has been closed but the sin is still running around in the body. That's why it is important to save people as kids so they don't sin as much. Hmm. Not sure on that one.
Anyway, it was a fine book.
Has anyone ever used this verse in context?
The truth that sets people free is Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.
He's not talking about the pursuit of truth, the truth of WMD's, the truth of reality, or the truth of false fear.
There's only one truth that sets free: Jesus Christ.
A church youth leader who dragged a dead possum behind his car has avoided a possible jail term for what a magistrate described as extraordinarily antisocial behaviour.
"I'm at a loss to understand what process of logic would make any reasoning person, whether a teenager or an adult, to think that it was somehow humorous … to tie a dead animal to a car and then drive around with it in front of others," [the magistrate] said.
Well, you're not dealing with a reasoning person, you're dealing with a youth leader in a church. And, come on, it is kind of funny.
A 63-year old pastor has been indicted on charges of sexual assault of a 22-year old woman. She claims that the pastor raped her during an exorcism.
Should have sent this guy to Hitler.
Anyway, Devil made him do it. Apparently the pope of the time tried to do a long-distance exorcism on Hitler but it didn't take.
Hey, he would know, he's the pope's caster out of demons.


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Events2HVAC Blog - Events2HVAC Is Ready to Rock (RMS) and Roll!
Events2HVAC has a new event provider for Rock RMS! This means that churches using Rock RMS and the Room Management Plugin can use Events2HVAC to integrate room schedules to their HVAC system(s) – saving energy, time, and money. Thank you, Fellowship Greenville, for assisting us in developing this event provider for the Rock RMS community.
As illustrated in the diagram below, the new Rock RMS Event Provider pulls room schedules from the Rock Room Management Plugin, lines up 24 hours of schedules, and sends occupied/unoccupied commands to HVAC controls at the appropriate times. Pre-start and post-stop times are set in Events2HVAC for each piece of equipment to ensure that rooms are comfortable before each event begins. This integration eliminates the need to manually schedule HVAC, and reduces energy expenses by as much as 20%-30% by returning HVAC to unoccupied settings between events.
On the HVAC side, Events2HVAC is compatible with most building automation systems (BAS) and many types of wi-fi thermostats. If your church uses a BAS that is BACnet/IP enabled, Events2HVAC is an option for you. If your church uses wi-fi thermostats instead of a BAS, check our list of supported thermostats to see if yours are listed. If you are unsure about compatibility, contact sales@events2hvac.com, and we will check on it for you.
With the addition of the Rock RMS Event Provider, Events2HVAC now has more than 20 compatible room-scheduling systems. A complete list is available on our Event Providers page. This makes it easy for churches and other organizations to switch to a different room-scheduling system without losing their integration to HVAC controls. With Events2HVAC Professional, you can even pull schedules from multiple room-scheduling systems.
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text:
package icons;

import fr.adrienbrault.idea.symfony2plugin.Symfony2Icons;
import javax.swing.*;

public class SymfonyIcons {
    public static final Icon Symfony = Symfony2Icons.SYMFONY;
    public static final Icon SymfonyToolWindow = Symfony2Icons.SYMFONY_TOOL_WINDOW;
}


text:
Laws & Regulations SEC & Regulatory Bodies
Anti Money Laundering (AML)
Will Kenton
Will Kenton is an expert on the economy and investing laws and regulations. He previously held senior editorial roles at Investopedia and Kapitall Wire and holds a MA in Economics from The New School for Social Research and Doctor of Philosophy in English literature from NYU.
Somer Anderson
Reviewed by Somer Anderson
Somer G. Anderson is CPA, doctor of accounting, and an accounting and finance professor who has been working in the accounting and finance industries for more than 20 years. Her expertise covers a wide range of accounting, corporate finance, taxes, lending, and personal finance areas.
Guide to Financial Crime and Fraud
Types of Financial Crime and Fraud
What Is Accounting Fraud?
Financial Statement Manipulation
Detecting Financial Statement Fraud
What Is a Pyramid Scheme?
Ponzi Scheme Definition
Ponzi vs. Pyramid Scheme
Pump and Dump Scam
Racketeering
Common Types of Consumer Fraud
Who Is Liable for Credit Card Fraud?
How to Avoid Debit Card Fraud
Financial Crime and Fraud Examples
The Biggest Stock Scams of All Time
Enron Scandal
Ethics Violations by CEOs
Rise and Fall of WorldCom
Scandalous Insider Trading Debacles
Control and Regulation
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
What Is Anti Money Laundering?
How AML Works
AML vs. KYC
Money Laundering FAQs
What Is Anti Money Laundering (AML)?
Anti-money laundering (AML) refers to the laws, regulations, and procedures intended to prevent criminals from disguising illegally obtained funds as legitimate income.
Anti Money Laundering (AML) seeks to deter criminals by making it harder for them to hide ill-gotten money.
Criminals use money laundering to conceal their crimes and the money derived from them.
AML regulations require financial institutions to monitor customers' transactions and report on suspicious financial actiivity.
What's Anti-Money Laundering?
Understanding Anti Money Laundering (AML)
Anti-money laundering initiatives rose to global prominence in 1989, when a group of countries and organizations around the world formed the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Its mission is to devise international standards to prevent money laundering and promote its implementation. In October 2001, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, FATF expanded its mandate to include combating terrorist financing.
Another important organization in the fight against money laundering is the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Like the FATF, the IMF has pressed its member countries to comply with international standards to thwart terrorist financing.
AML laws and regulations target criminal activities including market manipulation, trade in illegal goods, corruption of public funds, and tax evasion, as well as the methods used to conceal these crimes and the money derived from them.
Criminals often "launder" money they obtain through illegal acts such as drug trafficking so the funds cannot be easily traced to them. One common technique is to run the money through a legitimate cash-based business owned by the criminal organization or its confederates. The supposedly legitimate business deposits the money, which the criminals can then withdraw.
Money launderers may also sneak cash into foreign countries to deposit, deposit cash in smaller increments to avoid arousing suspicion, or use illicit cash to buy other cash instruments. Launderers will sometimes invest the money, using dishonest brokers willing to ignore the rules in return for large commissions.
One rule in place is the AML holding period, which requires deposits to remain in an account for a minimum of five trading days. This holding period is intended to help in anti-money laundering and risk management.
Though anti-money laundering laws cover a limited range of transactions and criminal behavior, their implications are far-reaching. For example, AML regulations require banks and other financial institutions that issue credit or accept customer deposits to follow rules that ensure they are not aiding money laundering.
AML compliance officers are often appointed to oversee anti-money laundering policies and ensure that banks and other financial institutions are compliant.
It's up to financial institutions to monitor customer deposits and other transactions to ensure they aren't part of a money-laundering scheme. The institutions must verify the origin of large sums, monitor suspicious activities, and report cash transactions exceeding $10,000. In addition to complying with AML laws, financial institutions must ensure clients are aware of them.
Money-laundering investigations by law enforcement often involve scrutinizing financial records for inconsistencies or suspicious activity. In today's regulatory environment, extensive records are kept on just about every significant financial transaction. So when police attempt to trace a crime to its perpetrators, few methods are more effective than examining the records of connected financial transactions.
In cases of robbery, embezzlement, or larceny, law enforcement is often able to return the funds or property uncovered during a money-laundering investigation to the victims of the crime. For example, if an agency discovers money a criminal laundered to cover up embezzlement, the agency can usually trace it back to those from whom the funds were embezzled.
While closely related, there is a difference between AML and know your client (KYC) rules. In banking, KYC rules are the steps institutions must take to verify their customers' identities. AML operates on a broader level: they are the measures institutions take to prevent and combat money laundering, terrorism financing, and other financial crimes. Banks use AML and KYC compliance to maintain secure financial institutions.
What Are Some Ways that Money Is "Laundered"?
Criminals often "launder" money they obtain through illegal acts such as drug trafficking so the funds cannot be easily traced to them. One common technique is to run the money through a legitimate cash-based business owned by the criminal organization or its confederates. The supposedly legitimate business deposits the money, which the criminals can then withdraw. Money launderers may also sneak cash into foreign countries to deposit, deposit cash in smaller increments to avoid arousing suspicion, or use illicit cash to buy other cash instruments. They will sometimes invest the money, using dishonest brokers willing to ignore the rules in return for large commissions.
Can Money Laundering be Stopped?
Money laundering cannot be completely stopped but it can be reduced through constant vigilance. Financial institutions can monitor customer deposits and other transactions to ensure they aren't part of a money-laundering scheme. The institutions must verify the origin of large sums, monitor suspicious activities, and report cash transactions exceeding $10,000. In addition to complying with AML laws, financial institutions must ensure clients are aware of them. One rule in place is the AML holding period, which requires deposits to remain in an account for a minimum of five trading days. This holding period is intended to help in anti-money laundering and risk management.
What's the Difference Between AML and KYC?
While closely related, there is a difference between "anti-money laundering" (AML) and "know your client" (KYC) rules. In banking, KYC rules are the steps institutions must take to verify their customers' identities. AML operates on a broader level. They are the measures institutions take to prevent and combat money laundering, terrorism financing, and other financial crimes. Banks use AML and KYC compliance to maintain secure financial institutions.
Financial Action Task Force. "What Do We Do." Accessed Oct. 20, 2021.
International Monetary Fund. "IMF and the Fight Against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism." Accessed Oct. 20, 2021.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. "Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) & Related Regulations." Accessed Oct. 20, 2021.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. "Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)." Accessed Oct. 20, 2021.
Internal Revenue Service. "Cash Payment Report Helps Government Combat Money Laundering." Accessed Oct. 20, 2021.
Guide to Financial Crime and Fraud Guide
Fraud Definition
White-Collar Crime Definition
Understanding Corporate Fraud
How to Spot Financial Statement Manipulation
What Is Securities Fraud?
Pyramid Scheme Defubutuib
Ponzi vs. Pyramid Scheme: What's the Difference?
How Does a Pump-and-Dump Scam Work?
Racketeering Definition
Mortgage Fraud: Understanding and Avoiding It
Wire Fraud Definition
The Most Common Types of Consumer Fraud
Am I Responsible for Fraudulent Charges on My Credit Card?
Is Your Money At Risk of Debit Card Fraud?
The Biggest Stock Scams of Recent Time
Enron Scandal: The Fall of a Wall Street Darling
The Bernie Madoff Story
5 Most Publicized Ethics Violations by CEOs
WorldCom
Four Scandalous Insider Trading Incidents
Compliance Department Definition
Understanding Compliance Officers
Money laundering is the process of making large amounts of money generated by a criminal activity appear to have come from a legitimate source.
The USA Patriot Act is a law passed shortly after September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks increasing U.S. law enforcement agencies' intelligence powers.
Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT)
Combating the Financing of Terrorism is a set of policies aimed to deter and prevent funding of activities intended to achieve religious or ideological goals through violence.
What Is an Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS)?
A certified anti-money laundering specialist (CAMS) works to spot attempts to obscure the origins of the proceeds of crime.
A smurf is a colloquial term for a money launderer who seeks to evade scrutiny from government agencies by breaking up large transactions.
Suspicious Activity Report (SAR)
The Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is a tool provided under the Bank Secrecy Act for monitoring suspicious activities not ordinarily flagged under other reports.
Countries Where Bitcoin Is Legal and Illegal
Crime & Fraud
How Does Money Laundering Impact a Business?
Why Brokers Ask for Your Personal Information
Private Equity & Venture Cap
How Is Venture Capital Regulated by the Government?
What Methods are Used to Launder Money?
Cryptocurrency Regulations Around the World


The behind-the-scenes story of the largest data leak in history, which exposed economic corruption on a global scale.
In 2015, Bastian Obermayer, an investigative reporters for Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung, was contacted by an anonymous whistleblower calling himself/themselves(?) John Doe who somehow obtained a staggering archive of 11.5 million documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm with a client list representing heads of state and the global wealthy elite. As detailed in Alex Winter's informative if not wholly absorbing film, Obermayer collaborated with an international group of reporters over the next year to thoroughly investigate this unprecedented treasure trove of leaked documents while managing to keep their process under wraps until they were ready to publish. The doc perhaps could have benefitted from spending a bit less time on the investigation and more on its fallout – which directly or indirectly included the ouster of leaders from Iceland, Brazil, and Britain – but it succeeds in underscoring the essential role of journalism as a check on governmental power, and, through the tragic fate of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the real dangers journalist face in trying to expose the truth.


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Judiciaries in Federal Systems (2011-2017)
The Meyner Center, in partnership with the Forum of Federations, Canada, and School of Law at the University of Queensland, Australia, completed a project on judicial systems in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, European Union, Germany, India, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States–particularly the extent to which they promote the rule of law and also decentralization or centralization. The project was funded by the government of Quebec. A comparative volume stemming from this project is: Nicholas Aroney and John Kincaid, eds., Courts in Federal Systems: Federalists or Unitarists? Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.
Guide for Successful Devolution (2014)
London School of Economics Blog Site "A guide for successful devolution," October 13, 2014 by John Kincaid
This blog outlines key issues that need to be addressed by devolutions of power such as those involving U.K. devolution to Scotland and Wales.
Separatist Votes in Catalonia and Scotland (2014)
"How nations can cope with growing separatist movements," The Morning Call, October 5, 2014, p. 29, by John Kincaid.
The 2014 separatist votes in Catalonia and Scotland pose present and future challenges to democratic countries. This article suggests ways countries might peacefully deal with separatist movements.
Party Polarization and Washington Gridlock (2014)
"State-Federal Relations: States Still on the Defensive" The Book of the States. Lexington: KY: Council of State Governments, 2014, pp. 19-29, by John Kincaid.
Party polarization continues to sustain gridlock in Washington and produce state-federal tensions. States could reduce Washington's polarized gridlock by eliminating partisan gerrymandering and reforming primary elections, but states also are more polarized along red and blue lines. Polarization contributes to coercive federalism, and states are on the defensive in their relations with the federal government as indicated by state-federal conflicts over the Affordable Care Act, the Common Core, and REAL ID. Many observers tout state innovation as a counterbalance to Washington's gridlock but many innovations are polarizing because they are produced by one-party states and lack bipartisan traction. The federal government also preempts some state innovations and nationalizes others.
The Handling of Stray Dogs in Northampton County (2013)
Northampton Cty-Stray Dogs 2013 (PDF format)
Citizens United: A Victory for Freedom of Speech (2010)
Citizens United – A Victory for Freedom of Speech (Microsoft Word format)
This paper, written by Meyner Center Director John Kincaid, explores the controversial 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
"The ruling has drawn polarized responses, partly because our political and media elites are polarized, including the justices whose 5-4 ruling reflected the now common polarization between the Court's usual conservative and liberal factions, with the sometimes liberal, sometimes conservative justice, Anthony Kennedy, siding with the conservatives this time. This polarization raises serious questions about the integrity of the Court as a neutral arbiter of the federal Constitution.
The decision was polarizing, too, because it was bold. The majority rejected an opportunity to issue a narrower decision."
Consultation with the City of Easton, Pennsylvania (2007)
City of Easton: Early Intervention Plan Review
"This report has been completed pursuant to a contract between the City of Easton and Lafayette College's Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government. It is a Program Review of recommendations contained in the 2006 Early Intervention Report, which was completed by Public Financial Management, Inc. (PFM) with assistance from Keystone Municipal Services. Specifically, the scope of work included:
1. Meeting individually with each of Easton's five Department Directors and other employees to review the recommendations made in the PFM Report and to determine which of the recommendations have been implemented, rejected, or not completed yet;
2. Reviewing with each Department Director and other employees why any recommendations were rejected;
3. Addressing with each Department Director and other employees the realistic feasibility of implementing each recommendation;
4. Discussing with each Department Director and other employees additional operational issues that are both important, and of potential value to the efficient and productive delivery of public services; and
5. Offering recommendations to each Department Director and other employees to assist and guide them in achieving goals and objectives.
This report has five sections: (1) Introduction; (2) Executive Summary of recommendations that the Meyner Center believes should be priorities for the City; (3) Historical and Background Information; (4) General Observations; and (5) Program Review of the individual recommendations in each department."
Consultation with Forks Township, Pennsylvania (2009)
2009 Forks Twp Strategic Plan
"A municipality is, in many ways, a business, although a unique kind of business that measures its ultimate success by the quality of public services and assistance that it provides to its residents. It is difficult for any full-time business to be run effectively by a Board whose members work on a part-time basis; therefore, the elected officials need an effective administrator and staff that understand the policies of the Township, and the direction established by the Board. Forks Township has a Board of Supervisors whose members are dedicated to serving its residents. It also has an administrator and five Department Heads capable of administering the day-to-day activities of the Township. The most effective way to administer the municipality is to create a team consisting of the Board members and the full-time management staff. If they work together and communicate thoroughly, the Township can succeed in providing a high quality of public services and assistance to the residents of Forks. We recommend that the Board of Supervisors empower its Township Manager and Department Heads with the authority necessary to carry out the policies established by the Board. The Board should steer the boat, and leave the rowing to the staff. This delegation of responsibility by an informed Board to a skilled management team will result in an effective, efficient, and productively run municipality."
Bioterrorism Preparedness (2003)
Bioterrorism: State of Preparedness in the Greater Lehigh Valley and Warren County
"This report conveys the results of a January-February 2003 bioterrorism-preparedness survey of police, fire, EMS, hospital, and emergency-management first responders in Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, and Warren Counties conducted by the Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government at Lafayette College. The purpose of the survey was to obtain a general picture of the region's preparedness to respond to bioterrorism."
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In choosing a cure to America's economic problems, President-elect Donald Trump seems determined to apply a well-known Latin American medicine: import substitution. He is adamant about pursing an economic policy that gives strong preference to domestic production over buying goods from abroad.
Alluringly simple as this sounds, the validity of the concept has been disproved many a times. As emerging market countries, notably Brazil in the 1960s, found out, relying on such an approach usually only drives up costs for consumers and industrial end-users, while doing little — if at all —to improve a nation's productivity.
Moreover, most of Trump's prescription appears to be based on competitiveness problems related to low wage costs and 'currency manipulation' by China. Those factors, however, are no longer the main factors explaining the competitive gap of China.
Producers in China and other emerging economies now actually benefit from building national infrastructure and logistics that have surpassed many OECD nations. This is particularly true when compared to the US and its decades of underinvestment in the public sector.
China and other emerging market nations are also beginning to reap the fruits of their investments in education and R&D. Relying on a young population, these countries are now creating innovation in several sectors of the global economy that is key for competitiveness.
China may have joined the ranks of the world's 25 most-innovative economies in the Global Innovation Index produced by Cornell University, Insead, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation only in 2016. But the pace of its catching up is extraordinary. China ranked 43rd in 2009-10 and 29th in 2015.
According to a December 2016 publication of the US Council on Competitiveness ('2016 Clarion Call: A Competitiveness Agenda for the 45th President of the United States,' goo.gl/OcTfhe), China has the second-highest number of scientists per-million people. It is also already No. 1 in the latest Top 500 list of countries having the world's top supercomputers.
There are drawbacks and caution notes. However, once the innovation capacity is applied to the manufacturing sector, then the sky is the limit for China's competitiveness.
While manufacturing is on the rise in the emerging markets, rich countries — from the US to France and Italy to Japan — are coping with a bout of manufacturing decadence. Policymakers in virtually all major economies were only able to avoid the immediate onset of its consequences by maintaining artificially high domestic consumption. There were also efforts by corporate giants like GE seeking to retrace their own glory by heralding a 'manufacturing renaissance' that basically only happened in glitzy ads.
The US Federal Reserve's policy of money-pumping and negative interest rates also helped. Jobs were brought back, but generally only low-paid service jobs. Credit was extended mostly to the better off, which didn't help the broader economy. Since structural issues were not addressed, the US recovery continues to be a fragile one.
Enter Donald Trump. Greatly experienced in taking risky gambles on his corporate balance sheets, he was prepared to call the bluff of eternal soothsaying. He simply said that the emperor (read: manufacturing) was not wearing any clothes.
Trump is correct. But it is puzzling to see that he seems willing to adopt some policies that look very much like the early import substitution policies of Brazil: providing tax and other fiscal incentives to attract companies to invest and produce locally consumer goods; having high tariffs to protect the 'nascent industries', and providing ample public financing for national companies that produced inputs for the new industrial sector.
Of all the various policies proposed by Trump, increasing the levels of investments in infrastructure and logistics seems a good way to address the competitiveness challenge. However, without significant improvements —and more public investment — in the educational and innovation systems, infrastructure improvements will not be enough.
Of course, Trump can always opt to seek yet more recourse to a 'double wall'. He could build a physical one (closing the borders to the south) and a tariff one (threatening US producers that insist on making cheap imports from places like China). Both propositions are full of sound and fury, signifying very little.
If 'successful' at all, this would only help bring back low-wage jobs. Yes, more goods would be produced domestically. But, as with China until now, they would have comparatively little value added.
Trump's 'patriotic' approach is, thus, a recipe for a mediocre future for the US manufacturing sector. It skirts Trump's presumed real goal: bringing back well-paying jobs.
What is needed is a long-term commitment to improving education, innovation, infrastructure and logistics.
For all the lip service they like paying to these issues, when it comes to authorising real money, Republicans still find it hard to swallow.
Trump will preside over the world's largest economy from Friday. He better heed the emerging markets' lesson that shooting for import substitution remains futile.
donald trump\'s figment of deglobalization is not to see the light of the day.
he\'s playing half a century old negative tactics, will create mess before leaving. us citizenship value has already taken a perilous plunge.
his economic miracle promises are far unrealistic.


A wedding is a miraculous event that celebrates love and the union of soulmates. Even though it is one of the most important days of any bride and groom's life, a wedding takes a lot of time and effort. From putting together a guest list to decorating the venue and making sure that no one is allergic to the food served on the table, the soon to be newlyweds have a lot to think about. To capture the evening's happenings, emotions, and fun for a lifetime, it is important to make sure to get a professional photographer. The perfect photographer will capture even the smallest moments that will be treasured for years to come. Here are some important things that you should have in mind when choosing a wedding photographer.
As soon as you say yes-start looking for a photographer. Jokes aside, it is crucial that you begin your search for the perfect professional photographer as soon as possible. This is because most renowned photographers book their schedules even a year in advance. To make sure that you get the best quality possible, it is crucial to find someone that will make your vision come true. A good rule of thumb to do this at least six months prior to the actual date of the event.
An excellent photographer has a reputation for success which might make them a sort of local celebrity in your area. Ask around your town and find out who most people recommend taking wedding photos. Usually, a lot of people might have already gone through their wedding day, and it is not too difficult to find recommendations if you just ask. Also, try talking to your friends or other family members, because they might also be of great help. A reputable professional wedding photographer, Daniel Griffiths, is sure to capture all the precious moments of your big day. Griffiths also specialises in shooting scenes that make use of the natural surroundings. After checking some websites and looking at samples and reviews, you will need to narrow down the options to a few candidates. It is important to consider your wedding budget and whether the photographer can cater to your specific needs.
After finding a couple of candidates that you like, make sure to contact them and make an appointment for an interview. Notify each photographer that they should bring a couple of wedding albums as a sample of their work. It is important to look at their work because you will know what you will be getting and what is expected. Firstly, decide on the style that you prefer. Whether it is serious and traditional, or youthful and fun, it is a good idea to ask the photographer about their shooting style. When examining samples of their work, make sure to pay attention to a few basic things. Some important basics that you should focus on are colour, clarity, graininess, exposure and composition. Also, are the photos ordinary and "not so special", or does the photographer have an innovative style? Usually, someone who fancies the traditional look might prefer a photographer who does not like experimenting with their work. Getting to know the person that will be in charge of capturing the moments of your big day is important. Since you will probably spend your whole day with the photographer, making sure that he or she has a bright personality and is open to ideas is always a plus. Also, pay attention to the people in the photos. Are they posing in an organic way or does it seem forced? It is always a good thing if the photos seem spontaneous.
A lot of soon to be newlyweds think that the equipment has nothing to do with them. Nevertheless, it is important to make sure whether the photographer brings his own backup equipment. Accidents might happen, and it is vital to have a backup available. Also, ask the photographer about the program that they will be using to edit the photos. Someone who does not do any editing whatsoever should not be considered as a photographer at your wedding. Even though most people like the natural look, a little bit of editing makes a huge difference in the quality of your photos. By asking about the equipment, you show that you are confident in your ideas.
The final step to choosing a wedding photographer is determining the cost and signing the contract. Before doing anything, carefully read over the legal details. A lot of photographers might not include editing in the packet. Be sure to communicate clearly and set a budget. You should also ask how many hours you get in the packet. By doing all of this carefully, you make sure that there are no unpleasant surprises on your wedding day.
In summary, planning a wedding takes a lot of time and effort. By following these tips, you will successfully hire a professional wedding photographer who will make sure to capture all the moments of the happiest day of your life.