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A Con's Gambit
The credit for the hubbub was due to the aluminium dishes across the hall, in the hands of murderers, rapists, thieves and con-men, who could barely keep their senses in check, while committing the crime. The meal was not anymore banal than the vapid grey walls that drank the whites from the lights, keeping the monotony of depression within the prison walls alive.
"Two months are up," whispered Jake, without lifting his gaze from his plate. The listener knew he was being talked to, yet his reaction was absent. "Are we ready, Stuart?"
The deep blue eyes, had a fiery essence to it, barely repressed by the cunning smile that accompanied it. Stuart leered at Jake. "Yes, we are, Jake. I hope you have prepped Mike for this, too."
"Absolutively, man. I trust in your plan, man. You are a nice guy, but there is nothing like being too cautious, am I not right? So I ask again – is your plan foolproof? Because I'd hate to be caught in the act, and get incarcerated. I've heard life in prison is worse than my wife's chicken soup, and I have eaten that soup and I have been incarcerated; the comparison is only fair."
"We need to get him to meet up at the yard today. Spread the word. His freedom is near."
At the yard, the heat did little to energize the labourers, but did largely to deprive them of it. Only if life were as easy as the Shawshank Redemption, Jake thought. Mike huddled up with Stuart and Jake under a shade at the edge of the yard. Mike was a portly man, so much that his belly engendered a large shadow underneath.
"Yo, man. So, we plan to do it tonight, at 23:50. You have the watch safe with you, don't you? Do you need us to reiterate the procedure?"
"I have the watch and negative, I am confident I will pull this off. My cue will be when I receive the key to my cell tonight. I unlock the cell quietly, without attracting attention, and march to my left, until the end of the row, turn left, towards the cabin of the prison officers. At midnight, the shift changes, and in an orderly fashion, the new officers replace the existing ones. One officer who guards the door will be replaced, too. I have to climb up the wall, plug myself between the two walls with my limbs outstretched and catch the new officer that comes out of that door unawares."
Jake's cynicism over Mike's ability to accomplish the athletics was unrestrained.
"Ha Ha, very funny, Jake. I train cheerleaders for my living." His gaze shifted at Stuart, now. "If you know what I mean," he said with a wink.
"Get back to the damned plan!" You sick fuck, Stuart wanted to add.
"Now, I won't have time to bide, as I'll have to make the move before the fallen officer is found. Retreating back, walking past the corner through the yard where we are standing right now. It is on me to cross this yard unnoticed. The lights and the guards will notice squat when I make the moves," he gestured in a ballet move. "At 00:20 sharp, the barbed wires up the guard walls would be deactivated, and will stay the same for a minute, which is my window to make the escape."
Jake could not hold it back. "Mike, you weigh a hundred kilos and you are barely 5 and a half. I hope you are not overestimating your ability."
"You don't trust me."
"You're darn right, I don't. I'd trust better on a dog who claims that he can talk."
"How about a dog that sniffs and fucks your butt?"
Jake pulled a punch at Mike before Mike's mouth shut. He fell down instantly, pulled himself up in a jiffy, with movements agile and quick. Stuart knew for certain that Mike would pull this off.
"23:50," said Stuart, and left along with Jake. "You head to the location I asked you to."
"If I had a million in my pocket, I'd wager them all on a fiasco that is waiting in the dark only to come out and laugh at us."
"Enough of your pessimism, Jake," barked Stuart in a repressed grunt. "I had enough. This will not fail. Your job is to facilitate the key to his cell, on time – not before, not after, on time."
"Do you rather want to say that this must not fail?"
Stuart had the fire in his eyes all over again. "This will not fail," he said with sheer deliberation, making sure that the argument is pulled to a halt at that instant.
"How prepared is Tim?"
"I wrote a code for him on the backside of the book that I lent him. That was the only communication that I have had with him. He knows that this must happen tonight. All he has to do is code it on the main computer, and keep it running for exactly a minute, feigning malice in the Head Officer's computer. He is the IT guy, this must not be a challenge for him. At least not the kind that he cannot handle."
"Head Officer's computer?" Jake had his head blown up. His cheeks had turned red. "This is your fuckin' plan, man? How do you believe that the Head Officer is going to ask for the IT guy at fuckin' midnight? And tonight?"
Stuart smiled.
Tim's eyes were swollen, not for the sleepiness, but for the lack of it. He was anticipating a summoning from the Head Office, expecting a solution for the failure of the computer to turn on. They were oblivious to the fact that the problem was a creation of Tim, himself, that he had planted on the computer a fortnight ago. Now was a chance for him to plant the code on the computer and facilitate Mike's escape. A broad bridge to cross, but what was tough was imminent.
A familiar face stopped by at Stuart's cell the very next day. "It was you, was it not?" the guard asked Stuart through the vertical bars that separated them.
Stuart spoke not a word for a few moments. His eyes calm as an ocean. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"A computer code, which deactivated the electric barbed wires last night facilitated Mike's escape. Rings a bell?"
"Kind of. Sounds like poor security to me."
"Listen to me, Stuart. That you are not a killer, but that you participated in a ploy to kill someone is enough of a reason for you to stay in jail, but if you are caught –"
"I won't be caught. Not even if you rat me out to your masters."
The guard stood there in silence, staring at Stuart in despair. "You know you do not deserve to rot in this cell for far too long. Why are you risking a longer term?"
"I am not risking anything. Even if he was to be caught last night, he'd not rat me out. I have a leash on him, that enforces discipline, instills obedience."
Long fingers of the sun illuminated the prison cell, further illuminating the smile on Stuart's countenance.
"Stuart, you have a daughter for God's sake. Don't you love her enough to want to go back to her sooner than soon?"
The words brewed a storm in an otherwise composed weather, uprooting the composure off Stuart's face and wreaking havoc within him. He stomped up to the prison bars and grunted with all the strength he could gather. "I am doing all this only for her, do you understand?"
The sudden upsurge of emotions choked the guard's words at his throat.
"Do you understand, I ask?" Stuart bellowed again, not truly expecting an answer. "Do you know how it feels like to have your daughter raped in broad daylight? Do you know how deep a scar like this can go on her life? Do you, officer?"
The guard felt the small hairs standing up on the back of his neck. Realization arrived at him gently, with the words that Stuart spoke.
"I am doing all this for her, goddammit. What do you know about this escape, eh?"
"That you freed a guilty man, charged of rape." Cognizance hit him like a truck at full speed. "You," the guard whispered, and choked. His eyes wide as a planet, hairs stood up as in fear. "You did not free him. You… you freed him."
"Yes, officer. That is exactly I did. I rid this planet of a scumbag sooner than this frail system of justice could have. With the kind of money that he claimed he swam in, I'd rather eat him up before he was granted bail. And then what? Have another girl abused by his monstrosity? It does not take a scientist to learn that I have committed homicide, but given a chance, I'd do it again, officer. I'd fork that motherfucker's eyes out alive for the life that he has decided for my little angel. Tell on me, get me hanged, I am telling you I would die in peace, knowing that I have acquired vengeance on my daughter's abuser and there will be one less son of a bitch out there who'd act that act again."
A heavy voice came out of the officer's mouth. "Where is he now?"
"The last cabin on the banks. You'd have enough evidence to identify him."
The officer walked away, with a confluence of morality and law at his heart. His footsteps sounded as weighty as his heart. For the rest of Stuart's term, he never saw that officer again.
Author Nik VPosted on September 14, 2016 Categories CrimeLeave a comment on A Con's Gambit
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• Nutritionally supports the body's five main detoxifying organs.
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Enviro-Detox [Vital Nutrition]. Environmental pollutants and toxins can build up in the body, slowing the body's natural cleansing processes. Enviro-Detox is a combination of 13 nutrients selected for their ability to provide ongoing support to the body's organs that may play roles in detoxification: the liver, kidneys, lungs, bowels and skin.
Adults: Take 1 capsule with a meal three times daily. Drink one glass (8 oz.) of Nature's Spring water with capsules.


MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - Jan. 25, 2011) - Senator Judith Seidman, on behalf of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, today announced funding support under the Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP) for Radio Shalom of Montréal, to produce a radio documentary commemorating the MS St. Louis and addressing the dangers of anti-Semitism.
"We must never forget these dark chapters in our immigration history, " said Senator Seidman. " We must acknowledge the mistakes of our past so that we can draw lessons from them for the future."
CIC is providing $50,000 to Radio Shalom to produce The Voyage of the MS St.Louis, a Radio Diary. It is a series of 14, one-hour audio programs in both French and English produced by and for secondary school students to commemorate the events surrounding the St. Louis.
The MS St. Louis was a ship that carried over 900 Jewish passengers from Germany in 1939. They were unable to find refuge in North America and, after returning to Europe, many perished in the Holocaust. The project aims to increase students' knowledge of this incident and combat anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racism.
The CHRP funds community-based commemorative and educational projects that recognize the experiences of ethno-cultural communities affected by historical wartime measures and/or immigration restrictions applied in Canada's past. For more information about Canada' work to combat anti-Semitism and to learn about CHRP, visit: www.cic.gc.ca/english/multiculturalism/index.asp.


About The Royal Oak . Your Local Pub.
The Royal Oak is a fantastic community pub that you would be proud to call your local.
The pub is situated on the main road through the popular village of Exminster, just on the outskirts of the cathedral city of Exeter.
It's a true village pub that's family-friendly with something for everyone. A place where you're always welcome.
From the kitchen, you can enjoy a delicious seasonal menu with many dishes to choose from. Our Sunday roasts alone are worth popping in for!
In the warmer months, soak up the rays in our large beer garden while the children enjoy the play area. And don't worry, we haven't forgot the dogs either. That's right – our four-legged friends are welcome!


Aug. 7—Dutch oil and gas company SBM Offshore has disclosed in an earnings report that it could end up shelling out as much as $240 million to resolve an ongoing Department of Justice investigation concerning potential bribery payments made to government officials in Angola and Equatorial Guinea. Following the conclusion of a two-year internal investigation in April, SBM Offshore revealed that it had paid approximately $200 million in commissions to agents from 2007 through 2011. Details on the potential settlement inside.


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drone-strikes
Declassified Document Shows White House Staff Make Key Decisions About Drone Strikes
Hannah Gold · 08/06/16 04:40PM
A redacted version of a 2013 document that designates guidelines for the Obama administration's counterterrorism operations, including drone strikes, was declassified on Saturday as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU first requested the document be made public in the fall of 2013. The administration refused to comply with their request on the the basis of "presidential communications" privilege, the Washington Post reports.
Nitasha Tiku · 07/18/13 12:54PM
The grandfather of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, the U.S. citizen killed by a drone strike in Yemen, is demanding justice. "The government has killed a 16-year-old American boy. Shouldn't it at least have to explain why?"
What It's Like to Be Hit By a Drone Strike
Hamilton Nolan · 09/25/12 12:00PM
On January 23, 2009, shortly after President Obama took office, the U.S. military blew up two houses in Waziristan with missiles fired by drones. These were the first of nearly 300 drone strikes in Pakistan the Obama administration has carried out. Here is what it was like from the other side.
What Impact Will Anwar Al-Awlaki's Death Have In The West?
TPM · 10/01/11 09:30AM
The death of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric linked to al Qaeda's operations in Yemen, is likely to impact American Arabs and Muslims in positive fashion, according to Dr. Hussein Ibish, former communications director for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Commitee.
Germans Among Dead after Drone Strike
Max Read · 10/05/10 03:01AM
Five German citizens—alleged militants—were killed during a drone strike in Pakistan.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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greek literary terms
The Greek language arose from the proto-Indo-European language; roughly two-thirds of its words can be derived from various reconstructions of the tongue. akrasia ἀκρασία Lack of self-control, lack of command over oneself, incontinence (from kratos—power—so to be without power over one's self). 13 Essential Literary Terms Aristotle wrote that mastery over the art of metaphor is a sign of genius—and it turns out it he was right. Derived from the Latin word literature meaning "writing formed with letters," literature most commonly refers to works of the creative imagination, including poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, and … Literary Terms Irony, Tragic: The term applied to the situation, in Greek and other drama, in which the audience is aware of some impending catastrophe or important fact of which the characters are either totally ignorant or not fully aware, a condition rendered possible by the fact that Greek drama dealt with legends known to all the spectators. One of the most user-friendly is The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, ed. Hubris is extreme pride and arrogance shown by a character that ultimately brings about his downfall. Helios sends his chariot pulled by dragons to save Medea from Jason's wrath. Originality this does not necessarily mean that all literary types were of Greek 10. These works range from the oldest surviving written works in the Greek language until works from the fifth century AD. Matthew 16 *The dying Mercutio: Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man. The end product is a BIG PowerPoint that I think would be a useful go-to resource to incorporate throughout the year as you introduce new groups of terms. English. Greek Terminology in the Iliad Study Guide for Ancient Greek Literature Chats At Ancient Sites Athens Community. In ancient Greek tragedies, a prologue was the part of a play that sets forth the subject of the drama before the chorus entered. Glossary of Dramatic Terms Note: The Glossary is in alphabetical order. Literary devices, including simile, allusion, ... Paradox comes from the Greek word parádoxos, which means "beyond belief. 2. Also, rather than use special fonts It had three rows of oars on each side. Essentially full of artistry Greek mind became the foundation of the literature of the Western 8. originality 9. Originally, the term was used as a metaphor in Poetics by Aristotle, to explain the impact of tragedy on the audiences. A selection of terms we have discussed in class as of 12/8/08. ... and other beings dwelling under the earth [Greek, khthonios, under the earth, khthon, the earth] Term. Start studying "Elements of Greek Tragedy" Literary Terms. (CB) The rest of the terms will be the possible candidates for your second terms exam. *Thou art Peter (Greek petros), and upon this rock (Greek petra) I shall build my church. Chris Baldick (Oxford, 1990).More substantial (and also slightly more expensive) The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 4th edition, ed. Total Cards. A vocabulary list featuring Greek Mythology and Literature. Literary terms have a wide range of application, from the poet's beauty, to the speaker's persuasion, to the novelist's story development. Level. 6th edition. *Hyl e. Greek plays were not divided into acts. Fundamental » All languages » Greek » Terms by usage » Literary terms. Literary Terms. Greek terms whose usage is typically restricted to works of literature. The Greeks loved theater, and they wrote a lot of plays. An act can be sub-divided into scenes. 2. With the Literary Terms PowerPoint, I've included student note sheets with definitions for all 77 terms, as well as a list of just the terms that can be useful for games and review activities. The terms comedy and tragedy should sound familiar; Greek theater is still used to define the themes of modern literature. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet *Hic est sepulcrum haud pulchrum feminae pulchrae. If you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. Note: I do not know much Greek, and have derived these definitions from commentaries, particularly Seth Schein's The Mortal Hero, recommended by Maia Nestor, and Graham Zanker's The Heart of Achilles. Greek Literary Terms Até (Gk "blindness") The kind of blindness that does not permit a human being to see anything but from his own point of view, thereby limiting him (subjectivity). [Now superseded by later editions.]---. Essentially full of artistry Greek art is the highest form of classical art had such great love of beauty 7. Looking for an examination copy? HAGIOGRAPHY (Greek, "sacred writing"; also called hagiology): The writing or general study of the lives of Christian saints, either in liturgy or in literature.A single story dealing with the life of a saint is called a vita (plural vitae) or a saint's life. This approach to ending a tale has its origins in ancient Greek theater, where an actor in the role of a god might suddenly appear on stage to help bring about the ending of the performance. The importance of Literary Terms. diction: Literary word choice. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching. Various basic literature terms are also given Category:Greek poetic terms: Greek terms whose usage is typically restricted to works of poetry. In Greek mythology, Medea is a descendant of Helios, the god of the sun. Literature is a term used to describe written and sometimes spoken material. 3. They allow writers and speakers to make comments on society, politics, and trends. A god suddenly and unexpectedly intervening in the action of a play is a literary trope called deus ex machina, or the god in the machine. You'll read about heroes from Achilles to Zeus, and discover classic legends and plays. The sculptors of the famous 'Farnese Bull' were Tauriskos and his brother Apollonios Of Tralles and it is said to have been made from only one large block of marble at the end of the 2nd Century BC. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. For the best resource for these terms see F. E. Peter's Greek Philosophical Terms (New York University Press, 1967). Greek Philosophical Terms. 26. Personification: attribution of personality to an impersonal thing. Poets, Playwrights, Gods, and Heroes Read all about the fascinating world of ancient Greek mythology, drama, history, and religion with glossaries, lists, quizzes, crosswords, and more. Definition, Usage and a list of Hubris Examples in common speech and literature. Strategos - The name for the general of the Athenian army. Those terms with the asterisk will be the list from which the first terms exam will be drawn. alogo-muia ἀλογο-μυῖα Horsefly (Interestingly, after Plato, it connotes a number of ideas including in Theophrastus "excessive boldness" ). Looking through the Dictionary of Literary Terms, I found another, slightly different definition, 'the opening section of a longer work. Description. Students seeking a more complete listing--or a more detailed and comprehensive set of definitions and examples--should consult a good literary dictionary or encyclopedia (e.g, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics ). Literary terms are important in a wide variety of ways. There are many dictionaries of literary terms available. These two brothers spent a lot of time on the island of Rhodes. All the best! J.A. The following is a list of technical terms commonly used in the critical study of art and literature. Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in Ancient Greek dialects. Further Reading. Literary Terms in Mythology. Literary devices and terms are the techniques and elements—from figures of speech to narrative devices to poetic meters—that writers use to create narrative literature, poetry, speeches, or … Greek plays were not divided into acts. Hamartia (Gk "error") Errors made in ignorance through misjudgment, including moral errors of a … He believed that catharsis was the ultimate end of a tragic artistic work, and that it marked its quality. They were overthrown by their children, the Olympians. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Pub., 1993. Tyrant - The ruler of a Greek city-state, a tyrant was like a king. A theory or story of the genesis and development of the universe or the solar system. Act: A major division in a play. This sculptor was later taken by Asinius Pollio (A Roman Politician) from Rhodes and relocated in Rome. So, let's try out the quiz. For writers, strong device usage can elevate prose from meager to magnificent. didactic: A work "designed to impart information, advice, or some doctrine of morality or philosophy." Glossary of Literary and Dramatic Terms Act: A major division in a play. This webpage is for Dr. Wheeler's literature students, and it offers introductory survey information concerning the literature of classical China, classical Rome, classical Greece, the Bible as Literature, medieval literature, Renaissance literature, and genre studies. Subject. Oedipus Rex is a tragedy by Sophocles which tells the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes and to fulfil a prophecy that he would kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. Hubris in the Myth of Niobe . Cuddon, revised C. E. Preston (Harmondsworth, 1998). Take this quiz to learn and recall the Greek literary terms. The tragic Greek myth of Niobe is a story in which the punishment for hubris far exceeds the crime. . These stories serve as a cautionary tale against mortal impiety toward the gods. The Farnese Bull. The story is usually a reminiscence from the teller's life but at best is a related story of fact, as opposed to a contrived work of fiction. (See scene). The five act structure was originally introduced in Roman times and became the convention in Shakespeare's period. Trireme - A type of boat used by the Ancient Greeks. An act can be sub-divided into scenes. Cosmogony: Definition. 3. Titans - The Titans were the first Greek gods. The Greek kurios and Latin dominus appear as translated equivalents to adonai, but many modern ... A Glossary of Literary Terms. Among the most important Greek gods were the ones in the picture below: # Zeus, king of the gods The origin of the word anecdote comes from the Greek Byzantine period, A.D. 527 to 565 during the reign of emperor Justinian. The terms have been collected and adapted from various sources, listed at the end of this document. 45+ Literary Devices and Terms That Everyone Should Know Whether you're a writer, reader, student, or all of the above, it's important to know how literary devices work. A short quiz on various Greek and Latin Root words and Suffixes. The list is short, and the definitions are purposely brief. Not Applicable. (See scene). Hubris appears in many Greek myths, often as an example of hamartia, or a tragic flaw that leads to the hero's downfall.
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A Louisville native who left the corporate world for the commercial real estate industry six years ago now has started his own local firm.
And he believes his new endeavor will bring a little twist to a competitive market.
Tyler Chesser formally launched The Chesser Companies last week. It's a full-service commercial real estate firm that specializes in real estate brokerage and investment sales as well as professional development — including individualized coaching and mentoring services — for real estate investors.
Chesser said he could see the professional development part of the business appealing to real estate investors who are starting out, but he sees it applying to anyone who wants to take their business to the next level.
He described the company as a one-stop shop for clients to not only build out their real estate portfolio but also to build long-term partnerships.
On the real estate side, The Chesser Companies manages the marketing, sale and acquisition of commercial properties across multiple industry sectors, including multifamily, retail, office and light industrial deals in Kentucky and Indiana.
Chesser noted that many firms handle real estate deals and investment sales opportunities of all shapes and sizes, but his focus on professional development and training in the real estate realm is relatively new to the market. And it's something he's passionate about it, noting that professional growth is vital to avoid stagnation.
He said he is building a professional development program that will include formal agreements with seasoned real estate veterans who will serve as mentors.
Chesser has learned the business through trial and error. He previously spent time in international and digital marketing as well as direct sales for several major companies, including Texas Roadhouse Inc. and General Electric Co., so he had no background in commercial real estate when he entered the business as an agent half-a-dozen years ago.
He said he often felt like an outsider because he had no family members or mentors with experience in commercial real estate to turn to for advice or networking opportunities.
"It was really an uphill battle and a struggle to get my footing," he said.
But he did find his way, spending the past two years with Louisville-based Gant Hill & Associates LLC. He was the firm's vice president of commercial real estate investments until he left that position last week to launch this company. He was also honored as a member of Louisville Business First's 20 People to Know in Real Estate last year.
Chesser has started small, saying the firm will operate with him as principal and two staff members. The firm is close to moving into a small office on Chenoweth Lane in Saint Matthews. He declined to disclose the location or its size because the lease has not been finalized. Chesser also declined to discuss his startup costs for the venture but said he is personally funding the operation.
Chesser said he has enjoyed working with Gant Hill and his team and that he plans to keep those connections intact through his new venture. His goal is to build collaborations with other firms on deals and professional opportunities.
"You have to have those deep, strong relationships," he said, "and you have to keep those relationships to succeed."
I was involved as the broker in this deal for 2.5 years and we officially closed the deal last week. My client had been navigating this community for over 16 years from the beginning of the planning and development. The lesson here is stay focused, be persistent, expect and handle the unexpected and never give up. There were many times we could have thrown in the towel, and I think all parties are now very satisfied that we didn't.
What lessons have you learned from a real estate deal or project that has taken significantly more time to reach your goals in? Let me know in the comment section below!
Tyler's Entrepreneur of the Month Interview w/ Louisville G.R.I.N.D.
Check out my recent interview with Brandon Ray from Louisville G.R.I.N.D. where we discussed my definition of success, my journey in investment real estate, my morning ritual, personal development and more!
It was a joy sitting down with my friends and fellow multifamily investors, Jason and Pili Yarusi, on their Real Estate Investing Foundation Podcast. Please enjoy our discussion!
This thought really stopped me in my tracks. Thomas Edison, a man that most of us would agree left a legacy and significant impact, might be onto something here with this bold and controversial declaration.
As I reflect personally on this, I realize I usually am driven by continual improvement and a sense of discontent with where I am and where I want to be. However there are times in which my inner voice tells me I am too demanding on myself. Perhaps this conflict arises from some external forces at work causing me to believe I put too much pressure on myself to push forward, on to the next objective or to immediately become the next best version of myself. The dominant self talk in my head constantly encourages me to seek to reinvent my skills, to improve my knowledge, further my expertise. Sometimes it seems there are two voices fighting for my attention - one saying "keep climbing, no matter the price" and another saying "slow down, the pain isn't worth it!" I know which voice is dominant for me and can't say for certain it's the right approach, but Thomas Edison's quote has me considering.
The feeling of discontent, which is a dominant driving force in my life, causes a constant sense of tension physically within my body. At times it makes me feel like I've got weights bearing down on me. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It makes me feel stressed, rushed or even confused at times. I have become somewhat familiar with these feelings, but I do observe nonetheless how being discontent makes me feel. I frequently listen to the alternative voice telling me I could be better off abandoning this line of thinking. Maybe the alternative, satisfaction, is a more enjoyable life.
Like many of you, I have audacious goals. Mostly, they serve as an inspiration for my daily actions. Occasionally, they serve as a reminder that I have a very, very long way to go. The tension continues. Good and bad. Hero and villain. Discontent and satisfaction. I recently heard the suggestion for people like us to live with a sense of "blissful dissatisfaction," which resonated with me tremendously. Maybe the thought is, we can be discontent and satisfied with the growth, the progress and the process all at the same time? Perhaps that's the secret sauce. Let's keep traveling along the path together and find the answers to these questions.
Let me hear from you in the comments. Which camp are you in - discontent or satisfaction?


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\section{Introduction}
Ultra-low-noise lasers are indispensable ingredients for a wide range of applications, including optical gyroscopes \cite{lai2020earth}, optical atomic clocks \cite{newman2019architecture}, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems \cite{suh2018soliton}. Accurate measurement of ultra-low-noise frequency spectra is an essential prerequisite for optimizing their performance and advancing their applications. Hence, high demands are placed on measurement systems to characterize these lasers with low frequency noise floors and high intensity-fluctuation isolation.

Several methods have been used for laser linewidth characterization. Incoherent homodyne detection incorporates a fiber delay line exceeding the coherence length of the laser under test \cite{schumaker1984noise}. While the method measures relatively high frequency noise levels accurately, it becomes inappropriate as the laser linewidth reaches Hz levels, where the coherence length is on the order of $10^5$ km. Phase discriminators with sub-coherent-length delay have been proposed in such cases, either by locking to a quadrature point \cite{li2012characterization,lee2012chemically} or using self-heterodyne detection to shift the signal to the radiofrequency (RF) domain so as to avoid low-frequency technical noise \cite{van1992excess,ludvigsen1998laser}. However, optical-to-electrical (OE) conversion at the photodetector (PD) introduces additional technical PD noise, and relative intensity noise (RIN) of the laser may also be coupled to the output signal through the OE conversion. These factors prevent the detection methods from achieving the sufficiently-low noise floor required for milli-Hertz-linewidth laser characterization. At the same time, cross-correlation has been applied to frequency noise characterization in the RF domain as a mature method for measuring ultra-low-noise microwave signals \cite{walls1992cross}. This technique compares the signal against two references and correlates them to suppress the independent noise from the references. Similar techniques have been introduced in the optical domain to characterize sub-Hertz linewidth lasers with optical references \cite{xie2017phase}.

In this paper, we demonstrate a reference-free self-heterodyne cross-correlator for ultra-low-noise laser linewidth measurements. By employing two PDs for OE conversion in the conventional self-heterodyne method, the cross-correlation can eliminate the need for references while extracting laser noise. In addition, balanced photodetectors (BPDs) are used to minimize the RIN coupling ratio. The cross-correlator has a noise floor lower than 0.01 $\text{Hz}^2$/Hz and 40.4 $\text{dBrad}^2$ RIN suppression at 1 MHz offset frequency. Various commercial and lab-built lasers are used to benchmark the measurements, including an external-cavity laser (ECL) and a distributed-feedback (DFB) laser with and without self injection locking. Factors that may impact cross-correlator performance, including environmental noise coupling and delay length selection, are also discussed. The measurement can be readily generalized to other wavelengths \cite{tran2021extending} and may advance the development of next-generation laser sources through rapid measurement of noise.

\section{Measurement setup}

\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[width=132mm]{Fig1.pdf}
\caption{Schematic of the correlated self-heterodyne (COSH) measurement setup.
(a) Illustration of the setup. AOM, acousto-optic modulator; PC, polarization controller; BPD, balanced photodetector; HT, Hilbert transform, followed by a time-domain difference operation; FFT, fast Fourier transform.
(b) Self-heterodyne waveforms recorded by a high-speed oscilloscope.
(c) Frequency fluctuations extracted with Hilbert transform and time-domain difference. The red and blue lines refer to the frequency fluctuations from two BPD outputs marked by color in accordance with inset (a) (similar hereinafter). Laser frequency noise (common mode) indicated by the purple line and BPD-induced noise (differential mode) are contained in the extracted results.
(d) Power spectral density (PSD) of BPD output frequency given by FFT. The red and blue lines refer to the total noise PSD while the purple line indicates the laser frequency noise PSD (common mode). The deviation between them at high frequency is due to the BPD noise.
(e) Single-sideband (SSB) laser noise after cross-correlation and $G(f)$ in which the BPD noise has been eliminated.}
\label{FIG1}
\end{figure*}

The COSH setup is shown in Fig. \ref{FIG1}(a). A laser under test is split by a three-port acousto-optic modulator (AOM) into frequency-downshifted ($1^{\text{st}}$ order output) and unshifted ($0^{\text{th}}$ order output) portions. The former is polarization-controlled and then recombined with the latter delayed by a 1-km-long fiber, which forms a modified Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with a free spectral range (FSR) of 214.06 kHz. The three-port AOM acts as a variable splitter that also uses the unshifted laser power compared to a two-port modulator. On the output side, instead of one PD, both outputs are divided and received by two identical balanced photodetectors (BPDs). Using BPDs helps suppress RIN and using two BPDs allows cross-correlation between the electrical outputs and suppresses independent BPD noise. The whole optical section of the system is isolated from the external environment with an acoustic shield. The BPD outputs are recorded using a high-speed oscilloscope. The AOM is driven with a 55 MHz radio-frequency carrier which determines the center frequency of the recorded waveforms [Fig. \ref{FIG1}(b)], and the sampling rate of the oscilloscope is set to 250 MHz to prevent aliasing. AC coupling at the oscilloscope is used to block low-frequency components that are spectrally far away from the carrier. The time delay between the two channels is estimated to be less than 0.5 ns and will not be considered in the following analyses. 2 seconds of waveforms ($500 \times 10^6$ points for each channel, $1 \times 10^9$ points in total) are collected and transferred to a computer for data processing. While the record length is limited by the memory of our oscilloscope, it is sufficient to meet the noise floor requirements for the current measurements (see Section 4.3).

In the data processing part, phase fluctuations for each channel are extracted using Hilbert transforms and then converted to frequency fluctuation through time-domain difference [Fig. \ref{FIG1}(c)]. The Hilbert transform causes distortions at the endpoints of the waveforms, thus the first and last 40 ms ($10 \times 10^6$ points) for each channel are discarded after the Hilbert transform. The remaining points are divided into non-overlapping segments (rectangular windowing, similar to Bartlett's method for estimating power spectra \cite{bartlett1948smoothing}), each with a $\tau_R$ time length [corresponding to a resolution bandwidth (RBW) of $1/\tau_R$] and fast-Fourier-transformed to obtain the frequency spectrum at a given offset frequency. For lower frequency offsets, the RBWs are made smaller with the segment lengths adjusted accordingly. The power spectrum density (PSD) of BPD output frequencies suffer from BPD noise [Fig. \ref{FIG1}(d)]. To suppress this noise, the cross-correlation is calculated as the product between the Fourier coefficients of the two BPD output frequency spectra, averaged over all available segments. Owing to the independent nature of the two BPD noise sources, BPD noise can be suppressed compared to individual PSDs of BPD outputs. Finally, the cross-correlation spectrum is multiplied by a processing gain $G(f)$ to compensate the filtering effect from the MZI and recover the single-sideband (SSB) laser frequency noise result [Fig. \ref{FIG1}(e)].

\section{Modeling of the measurement process}

In this section, we model the properties of the output signal from the COSH measurements. In the following, all spectral densities refer to two-sided spectral densities unless indicated otherwise.

\subsection{Self-heterodyne noise detection}
To model the self-heterodyne method for noise measurement, we begin with an idealized derivation, where a frequency-shifted signal beats against a delayed signal and the resulting frequency noise is calculated. From the Wiener-Khinchin theorem, the frequency noise of the original signal can be understood as the Fourier transform of the phase time-derivative correlation function:
\begin{align}
S_\nu(f) &=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \left<\frac{\dot{\phi}(0)}{2\pi}\frac{\dot{\phi}(t)}{2\pi}\right> \mathrm{e}^{2\pi ift}\mathrm{d}t \nonumber\\
&=\frac{1}{4\pi^2}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \left<\dot{\phi}(0)\dot{\phi}(t)\right> \mathrm{e}^{2\pi ift}\mathrm{d}t
\end{align}
Here $S_\nu(f)$ is the frequency noise PSD of the input signal, $f$ is the offset frequency, $\phi$ is the optical noisy phase signal, $t$ denotes time, dot indicates derivative with respect to $t$ and $\left<z\right>$ denotes the ensemble average of $z$.

The self-heterodyne beating outputs a signal with phase $-2\pi f_\mathrm{c} t +\phi(t)-\phi(t-\tau)$, where $\tau$ is the delay time and $f_\mathrm{c}$ is the carrier frequency (determined by the AOM). We are thus interested in the frequency noise of $\nu(\tau)=-f_\mathrm{c}+[\dot{\phi}(t)-\dot{\phi}(t-\tau)]/(2\pi)$. By the time-shifting property of the Fourier transform we get
\begin{align}
S_{\nu(\tau)}(f) &=[2-\exp(2\pi if\tau)-\exp(-2\pi if\tau)]S_\nu(f) \nonumber\\
&=4\sin^2(\pi f\tau)S_\nu(f)
\end{align}
thus the frequency noise reads
\begin{equation}
S_{\nu(\tau)}(f)=4\sin^2(\pi f\tau)S_\nu(f)
\label{Eq_Snutau_simple}
\end{equation}
The transfer function in the above equations has zeros at integer multiples of MZI FSR ($f=1/\tau$, $2/\tau$, $3/\tau$ and so on). At these offset frequencies, destructive interference eliminates the phase difference at the MZI output. To compensate, the processing gain $G(f)$ should be chosen as
\begin{equation}
G(f)=\frac{1}{4\sin^2(\pi f\tau)}
\label{Eq_Gf_simple}
\end{equation}
We note that $G(f)$ diverges at integer multiples of the MZI FSR. This nonphysical divergence will be removed after the finite detection resolution bandwidth is properly considered (see discussion in section 3.3).

It is sometimes convenient to directly measure the phase noise corresponding to $S_{\nu(\tau)}(f)$, denoted as $S_{\varphi,\nu(\tau)}(f)\equiv S_{\nu(\tau)}(f)/f^2$ (e.g. by sending the RF signal directly to a phase noise analyzer). In this case,
\begin{equation}
S_{\varphi,\nu(\tau)}(f)=4\frac{\sin^2(\pi f\tau)}{f^2}S_\nu(f)=(2\pi\tau)^2 \sinc^2(f\tau)S_\nu(f)
\end{equation}
where $\sinc z\equiv\sin(\pi z)/(\pi z)$ is the normalized sinc function.

\subsection{Self-heterodyne noise detection using an AOM}
Here we present a more rigorous derivation based on the setup described previously. Various non-ideal effects can be incorporated and compared against the experiments.

We assume a laser input signal of the form
\begin{equation}
A(t)=\exp(-2\pi if_0 t)[1+\delta a(t)]\exp[-i\delta \phi(t)]
\end{equation}
where $f_0$ is the optical frequency. The $\delta a$ and $\delta \phi$ are relative amplitude fluctuation and phase fluctuation, respectively, and are assumed to be small within the time scale of $1/f_\mathrm{c}$, where $\delta \phi = \phi -2\pi f_0 t$. This indicates that the laser would have low noise, which is the intended regime for the cross-correlator. Discussions on using the setup to measure a high-noise laser can be found below in Section 4.2.

The frequency-shifted signal becomes
\begin{widetext}
\begin{equation}
A_1(t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\exp(-2\pi if_0 t)\exp(2\pi i f_\mathrm{c} t)[1+\delta a(t)]\exp[-i\delta \phi(t)]
\end{equation}
and the delayed signal becomes
\begin{equation}
A_2(t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\exp(-2\pi if_0 t)\exp(2\pi if_0 \tau)[1+\delta a(t-\tau)]\exp[-i\delta \phi(t-\tau)]
\end{equation}
where we have assumed that the AOM splits the light equally into two ports (which can be realized by adjusting the RF power input for the AOM).

The signals from the two arms are mixed at another coupler and form the MZI outputs. We do not assume \textit{a priori} that the coupler is perfectly balanced and write the two output amplitudes as
\begin{equation}
A_+=q_1A_1+iq_2A_2,\ \ A_-=q_1^*A_2+iq_2^*A_1
\end{equation}
where $q_1$ and $q_2$ are complex transmission coefficients. We further assume that the two couplers just before the BPDs are matched, such that the relative power between the two arms remains the same at the two BPDs. In this case, powers at individual PDs can be found from $P_\pm\equiv|A_\pm|^2$, and the RF power of each BPD output reads, up to a proportional constant,
\begin{equation}
\Delta P \equiv P_+-P_- = 2\mathrm{Re}[iq_1^*q_2\exp(2\pi i f_0 \tau)\exp(-2\pi i f_\mathrm{c} t)(1+\Sigma a)\exp(i\Delta \phi)] +\Delta|q|^2\Delta a
\end{equation}
where we have introduced some shorthand notations: $\Sigma a\equiv\delta a (t)+\delta a (t-\tau)$, $\Delta\phi \equiv \delta\phi(t)-\delta\phi(t-\tau)$, $\Delta a\equiv\delta a (t)-\delta a (t-\tau)$, and $\Delta |q|^2\equiv |q_1|^2-|q_2|^2$.

Next, the Hilbert transform is performed on $\Delta P$ to recover the analytic signal and extract the instantaneous phase. The terms within the brackets consist of the main part of $\Delta P$ and is itself an analytic signal oscillating at $f_\mathrm{c}$. The $\Delta a$ term may also influence the phase of the signal. However, only those frequency components of $\Delta a$ around the carrier frequency $f_\mathrm{c}$ contribute to the phase noise at low offset frequencies. As the self-heterodyne beating shifts the phase noise information to $f_\mathrm{c}$ where the amplitude noise of a laser is extremely low, this effectively isolates the laser RIN from entering the phase extraction process. We can therefore approximate the analytic signal by
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{H}\Delta P\approx 2iq_1^*q_2\exp(2\pi i f_0 \tau)\exp(-2\pi i f_\mathrm{c} t)(1+\Sigma a)\exp(i\Delta\phi)
\label{Eq_Hilbert_P}
\end{equation}
\end{widetext}
and the phase can be extracted as
\begin{equation}
\varphi=\Delta\phi-2\pi f_\mathrm{c} t+2\pi f_0 \tau+\mathrm{Arg}[iq_1^*q_2]
\end{equation}
After that, $\nu(\tau)$ is calculated from the time derivative of $\phi$, which can be approximated with a finite time difference:
\begin{equation}
\nu(\tau)=\frac{\dot {\varphi}}{2\pi}=-f_\mathrm{c}+\frac{\dot{ \delta\phi}(t)-\dot{\delta\phi}(t-\tau)}{2\pi}
\end{equation}
From here, the spectral density of $\nu(\tau)$ measured by a single BPD can be estimated and then used to recover $S_\nu(f)$ with the processing gain from Eq. (\ref{Eq_Gf_simple}). The results with cross-correlation can be further found in Section 3.4.

\subsection{Resolution bandwidth}
To compute $S_\nu(\tau)$ using the Wiener-Khinchin theorem, an infinite length of $\nu(\tau)$ would be required to complete the Fourier transform accurately. Using a limited amount of data leads to a finite resolution bandwidth, which will distort the measured frequency noise. Segmenting the data into shorter sections has a similar effect. Below we derive the modified PSD estimate and the corresponding $G(f)$ for the finite resolution bandwidth case.

In the calculation, $S_\nu(\tau)$ is estimated from the Fourier coefficients of the gated signal:
\begin{equation}
S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{gated}}(f)=\frac{|\hat{\nu}_\mathrm{gated}(\tau,f)|^2}{\int_{-\infty}^\infty w(\tau')^2\mathrm{d}\tau'}
\end{equation}
where $w(\tau')$ is the window function for gating and $\hat{\nu}_\mathrm{gated}(\tau,f)$ is the Fourier coefficient of the gated signal:
\begin{equation}
\hat{\nu}_\mathrm{gated}(\tau,f)=\int_{-\infty}^\infty \nu(\tau,t=\tau')w(\tau')\exp(2\pi i f \tau')\mathrm{d}\tau'
\end{equation}
Viewing $\nu(\tau)$ as random variables, the expectation of $S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{gated}}$ reads
\begin{widetext}
\begin{align}
\mathrm{E}[S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{gated}}(f)]&=\frac{\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \mathrm{E}[\nu(\tau,t=\tau')\nu(\tau,t=\tau'+\tau'')]w(\tau')w(\tau'+\tau'')\mathrm{e}^{2\pi if\tau''}\mathrm{d}\tau'\mathrm{d}\tau''}{\int_{-\infty}^\infty w(\tau')^2\mathrm{d}\tau'}\nonumber\\
&=\frac{\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\mathrm{d}\tau''\left<\nu(\tau,0)\nu(\tau,\tau'')\right>\mathrm{e}^{2\pi if\tau''}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \mathrm{d}\tau' w(\tau')w(\tau'+\tau'')}{\int_{-\infty}^\infty w(\tau')^2\mathrm{d}\tau'}\nonumber\\
&=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\mathrm{d}\tau''\left<\nu(\tau,0)\nu(\tau,\tau'')\right>\mathrm{e}^{2\pi if\tau''} w_2(\tau'')\label{Eq_gated_PSD_TD}\\
&=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}S_{\nu(\tau)}(f-f')\hat{w_2}(f')\mathrm{d}f'\label{Eq_gated_PSD_FD}
\end{align}
\end{widetext}
where we introduced $w_2(\tau'')$ as the normalized autocorrelation of $w$ and its associated Fourier transform $\hat{w_2}(f')$:
\begin{equation}
w_2(\tau'')=\frac{\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}w(\tau')w(\tau'+\tau'')\mathrm{d}\tau'}{\int_{-\infty}^\infty w(\tau')^2\mathrm{d}\tau'},\ \ \ \ w_2(0)=1
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\hat{w_2}(f')=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}w_2(\tau'')\exp(2\pi if'\tau'')\mathrm{d}\tau''
\end{equation}
From Eq. (\ref{Eq_gated_PSD_FD}), it can be seen that the effect of gating the signal results in convolving $S_{\nu(\tau)}$ with $\hat{w_2}$, which is equivalent to filtering the frequency domain trace of $S_{\nu(\tau)}$ with a response function of $w_2$ in the time domain from the viewpoint of Eq. (\ref{Eq_gated_PSD_TD}).

To see how this filtering of $S_{\nu(\tau)}$ impacts signal processing, we rewrite Eq. (\ref{Eq_Snutau_simple}) as
\begin{equation}
S_{\nu(\tau)}(f)=4\sin^2(\pi f\tau)S_\nu(f)=[2-2\cos(2\pi f \tau)]S_\nu(f)
\end{equation}
If $S_\nu(f)$ varies slowly within the MZI FSR scale ($1/\tau$), the gating filter only affects the term within the brackets. For the rectangular window used here, $w_2$ becomes a triangular window, and $S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{gated}}$ can be found as
\begin{equation}
S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{gated}}(f)\approx[2-2(1-\tau \mathrm{RBW})^+\cos(2\pi f \tau)]S_\nu(f)
\label{Eq_Snutau_gated}
\end{equation}
where $z^+=\max(0,z)$ is the ramp function and RBW is the resolution bandwidth of the rectangular window (equal to the reciprocal of its temporal width). The associated processing gain becomes
\begin{equation}
G_\mathrm{gated}(f)=\frac{1}{2-2(1-\tau \mathrm{RBW})^+\cos(2\pi f \tau)}
\label{Eq_Gf_gated}
\end{equation}
We note that the divergence of $G(f)$ is no longer present in Eq. (\ref{Eq_Gf_gated}) for any finite RBW, which can be explained as a spectral leakage of noise from other offset frequencies to integer multiples of MZI FSR. If the RBW is larger than one MZI FSR such that $\tau\mathrm{RBW}>1$, then Eq. (\ref{Eq_Snutau_gated}) and Eq. (\ref{Eq_Gf_gated}) indicate that the fringe pattern is completely averaged out by the filtering. In this case the systems work in the same way as an incoherent detection setup.

\subsection{Suppression of independent noise with cross-correlation}
While the optical signals are converted to RF signal at the BPDs, technical BPD noise (usually characterized by its noise equivalent power) will also be present in the output and is dominant in the current measurement system. This increases the phase noise of the output and limits the noise floor of the measurement without cross-correlation. We model this technical noise by adding noise terms, $\varphi_\mathrm{BPD,1}$ and $\varphi_\mathrm{BPD,2}$, for the extracted phase:
\begin{equation}
\varphi_{1}=\varphi+\varphi_\mathrm{BPD,1},\ \ \ \ \varphi_{2}=\varphi+\varphi_\mathrm{BPD,2}
\end{equation}
The noise will be transferred to the frequency signal:
\begin{equation}
\nu_1(\tau)=\nu(\tau)+\nu_\mathrm{BPD,1},\ \ \ \ \nu_2(\tau)=\nu(\tau)+\nu_\mathrm{BPD,2}
\end{equation}
where $\nu_\mathrm{BPD,1}$ and $\nu_\mathrm{BPD,2}$ are the noise terms after time-domain difference. In this case, calculating the Fourier coefficient of $\nu(\tau)$ leads to
\begin{equation}
\hat{\nu}_1(\tau,f)=\int_{-\infty}^\infty [\nu(\tau,t=\tau')+\nu_\mathrm{BPD,1}]w(\tau')\mathrm{e}^{2\pi i f \tau'}\mathrm{d}\tau'
\end{equation}
Assuming $\nu(\tau)$ and $\nu_\mathrm{BPD,1}$ are independent, the calculated PSD for $\nu_1(\tau)$ becomes
\begin{equation}
S_{\nu(\tau),1}(f)=S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{gated}}(f)+S_\mathrm{BPD,1}
\end{equation}
where $S_\mathrm{BPD,1}$ is the gated PSD for $\nu_\mathrm{BPD,1}$ noise and determines the measurement floor using only a single BPD.

To remove the BPD technical noise, both BPD outputs are used and cross-correlated to suppress the contribution of $\nu_\mathrm{BPD,1}$ and $\nu_\mathrm{BPD,2}$. The correlated estimate of $S_{\nu(\tau)}(f)$ is the product of two Fourier coefficients originating from different BPDs:
\begin{equation}
S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{corr}}(f)=\frac{\hat{\nu}_1(\tau,f)\hat{\nu}_2^*(\tau,f)}{\int_{-\infty}^\infty w(\tau')^2\mathrm{d}\tau'}
\end{equation}
Assuming $\nu(\tau)$, $\nu_\mathrm{BPD,1}$ and $\nu_\mathrm{BPD,2}$ are all independent, it can be readily shown that
\begin{equation}
\mathrm{E}[S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{corr}}(f)]=S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{gated}}(f)
\end{equation}
and includes only the contributions from laser noise. However, BPD noise adds randomness to the correlation and increases the variance of $S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{corr}}(f)$. This effect will be more obvious at high offset frequencies when technical phase noise from the BPD is converted to larger frequency noise (see Section 4.3), or at low offset frequencies while using a short delay line (where $G(f) \gg 1$). This can be improved by averaging over $N$ segments of data, which lowers the standard error of the mean by $\sqrt{N}$ times and therefore improves the signal-to-noise ratio by $\sqrt{N}$.

\section{Characterization of the setup}

\subsection{RIN suppression}
As noted in Section 3.2, the frequency-shifting process of the self-heterodyne setup effectively isolates RIN from coupling into the measured frequency noise. In order to characterize the RIN suppression performance of the cross-correlator, we measured the RIN conversion ratio with a setup shown in Fig. \ref{FIG2}(a). The measurement setup consists of an ECL (RIO ORION 1550 nm laser module) modulated by an AOM to generate an artificial RIN signal. The AOM carrier generated from the arbitrary waveform generator is amplitude-modulated by a single-tone sine wave with manually configured frequency and modulation depth. The carrier frequency is selected as the optimal modulation frequency of this AOM (here 55 MHz) to minimize amplitude-phase coupling during the modulation process. By measuring the frequency noise with and without the power modulation using the cross-correlator, the RIN conversion ratio can be determined. The modulation intensity is calculated from the modulation depth and calibrated by tapping 10\% of the modulated laser before the cross-correlator. All signals are recorded by the aforementioned high-speed oscilloscope.

Empirically, the RIN conversion to measured frequency noise can be described by
\begin{equation}
\tilde{S}_{\nu(\tau)}(f)=S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{corr}}(f)+f^2\alpha\times \mathrm{RIN}(f)
\label{Eq_RIN_emp_model}
\end{equation}
where $\tilde{S}_{\nu(\tau)}(f)$ is the measured frequency noise just before the processing gain, including RIN contributions, $\alpha$ is a proportionally constant that converts RIN to phase noise, and the extra $f^2$ factor further converts phase noise to frequency noise. For the reconstructed laser noise the above equation becomes
\begin{equation}
\tilde{S}_\nu(f)=S_\nu(f)+G(f)f^2\alpha\times \mathrm{RIN}(f)
\label{RIN}
\end{equation}
The single-tone modulations used in the actual measurements could not be quantified by a spectral density. Instead, the frequency noise intensity can be recovered from
\begin{equation}
P_{\nu}(f_\mathrm{AM}) = S_{\nu}(f_\mathrm{AM})\times\text{RBW}(f_\mathrm{AM})
\end{equation}
where $f_\mathrm{AM}$ is the modulation frequency. Similarly, phase noise intensity is related to the frequency noise intensity by
\begin{equation}
P_{\phi}(f_\mathrm{AM}) = \frac{1}{f_\mathrm{AM}^2}P_{\nu}(f_\mathrm{AM})
\end{equation}
By comparing $P_{\phi}(f_\mathrm{AM})$ against the amplitude modulation intensity, $\alpha$ can be extracted through a linear fitting process.

\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics[width=132mm]{Fig2.pdf}
\caption{(a) Experimental setup for RIN suppression characterization. CW laser: continuous wave laser, AOM: acousto-optical modulator, XCorr: cross-correlator [as in Fig. \ref{FIG1}(a)], AWG: arbitrary waveform generator, PD: photodetector, OSC: oscilloscope. (b) SSB laser frequency noise spectra under different modulation intensity at 963 kHz offset frequency. Inset: Phase noise intensity at 963 kHz as a function of modulation intensity. The solid black line is the linear fitting. (c) Frequency dependence of RIN conversion ratio. The shaded area stands for the confidence interval (99\% confidence probability) of the frequency noise intensity without power modulation. The frequency noise intensity baseline has been subtracted for comparison. The red circles are plotted as the converted frequency noise intensity (measured frequency noise intensity minus baseline) at different offset frequency corresponding to the power modulation frequency. The solid (hollow) circles indicate that the converted frequency noise intensity is inside (outside) the shaded area.
}
\label{FIG2}
\end{figure*}

The measured $\tilde{S}_\nu(f)$ under different modulation intensity at 963 kHz offset frequency are shown in Fig. \ref{FIG2}(b). The noise spurs at 29 kHz come from the ECL itself, which also appear in Fig. \ref{FIG5} and Fig. \ref{FIG6}. The inset of Fig. \ref{FIG2}(b) shows the linear fitting between the phase noise intensity and the modulation intensity. Here, the RIN to measured laser phase noise conversion ratio [$G(f)\alpha$] at 963 kHz (i.e., the slope of the fitting) is -46.4 $\text{dBrad}^2$ (2.29 $\times10^{-5}$ rad$^2$). From here, $\alpha$ can be found as -40.4 $\text{dBrad}^2$ (9.16 $\times10^{-5}$ rad$^2$).

As shown in Fig. \ref{FIG2}(c), a -20 dBc modulation intensity is selected for all measurements at different modulation frequencies, which is sufficient as an overestimation for RIN of a normal laser. The intrinsic laser frequency noise may obscure the presence of weakly-coupled RIN, and becomes a noise floor for the RIN conversion measurement. The frequency noise intensity without laser power modulation (i.e., the baseline) is measured 10 times and a 99\% possibility confidence interval (shaded area) for the RIN conversion signal is given by assuming that the measured frequency noise intensity is normally distributed. When amplitude modulation is applied, the frequency noise intensity (red circles) at the corresponding offset frequency is calculated and compared with the baseline. A measured intensity outside the confidence interval indicates significant conversion of RIN. RIN conversion has been tested at 20 kHz, 40 kHz, 80 kHz, 214 kHz (equal to the MZI FSR $1/\tau_0$, where $\tau_0$ = 4.67 ms is the delay time of the 1-km-long fiber), 321 kHz, 428 kHz, 642 kHz, 749 kHz, and 963 kHz. The modulation frequencies over 100 kHz match the integer and half-integer multiples of MZI FSR, corresponding to local maximums and minimums of $G(f)$, respectively. The measured frequency noises with artificial RIN coupling only fall outside of the confidence interval at 749 kHz and 963 kHz, which suggests that the RIN suppression is high enough for lasers at offset frequency lower than 1 MHz. We note that the $G(f)$ will amplify the RIN conversion at offset frequencies equal to integer multiples of the MZI FSR. However, as shown by the experimental data, the overall RIN conversion is not important in most cases.

Below we present a model for the origin of RIN coupling by considering signal leakage at the AOM within the cross-correlator [Fig. \ref{FIG1}(a)]. We assume that a small portion of 0$^\text{th}$ order light is leaked into the 1$^\text{st}$ order port at the AOM, which is supported by experimental observations. The net effect is that the amplitude for the frequency-shifted arm should be modified as
\begin{widetext}
\begin{align}
\tilde{A_1}(t) &=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\exp(-2\pi if_0 t)\exp(2\pi i f_\mathrm{c} t)[1+\delta a(t)]\exp[-i\delta \phi(t)]\nonumber\\
&+\frac{\epsilon}{\sqrt{2}}\exp(-2\pi if_0 t)[1+\delta a(t)]\exp[-i\delta \phi(t)]
\end{align}
where $\epsilon$ is a complex number that represents the leakage amplitude. The amplitude on the other arm $A_2$ remains the same. The BPD power now reads, keeping only the signals oscillating near frequency $f_\mathrm{c}$,
\begin{align}
\Delta \tilde{P} &= 2\mathrm{Re}[iq_1^*q_2\exp(2\pi i f_0 \tau)\exp(-2\pi i f_\mathrm{c} t)(1+\Sigma a)\exp(i\Delta \phi)] \nonumber\\
&+\mathrm{Re}[\Delta|q|^2 \epsilon \exp(-2\pi i f_\mathrm{c} t)(1+2\delta a(t))]
\end{align}
where the exponential of phase noise is linearized for convenience. The extra term results from the same-arm beating detected at the BPD. The analytic signal is given by, up to first order of $\epsilon$ and $\Delta\phi$,
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{H}\Delta P\approx 2iq_1^*q_2\exp(2\pi i f_0 \tau)\exp(-2\pi i f_\mathrm{c} t)\left[1+\Sigma a+i\Delta\phi+\frac{\Delta|q|^2|\epsilon|}{|q_1q_2|}\exp(i\theta_\mathrm{RIN})\left(\frac{1}{2}+\delta a(t)\right)\right]
\end{equation}
\end{widetext}
Here $\theta_\mathrm{RIN}$ is a phase angle that couples amplitude to phase:
\begin{equation}
\theta_\mathrm{RIN}=2\pi i f_0 \tau +\mathrm{Arg}[\epsilon]-\mathrm{Arg}[iq_1^*q_2]
\end{equation}
Performing phase extraction and time difference leads to
\begin{equation}
\tilde{\nu}(\tau)=\nu(\tau)+\frac{\Delta|q|^2|\epsilon|}{|q_1q_2|}\sin(\theta_\mathrm{RIN})\frac{\mathrm{d}\delta a}{2\pi \mathrm{d}t}
\end{equation}
For the worst case (maximal coupling) $\sin(\theta_\mathrm{RIN})=\pm 1$, and in the case when laser amplitude and frequency noise are independent, calculating the PSD gives
\begin{equation}
\tilde{S}_{\nu(\tau)}(f)=S_{\nu(\tau),\mathrm{corr}}(f)+f^2\frac{(\Delta|q|^2)^2|\epsilon|^2}{|q_1|^2|q_2|^2}\frac{\mathrm{RIN}(f)}{4}
\end{equation}
Comparing with the empirical model Eq. (\ref{Eq_RIN_emp_model}) gives
\begin{equation}
\alpha = \frac{(\Delta|q|^2)^2}{4|q_1|^2|q_2|^2}|\epsilon|^2
\end{equation}
and is directly proportional to the leaked power at the AOM.

\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Fig3.pdf}
\caption{(a) SSB frequency noise and frequency spectral density of a DFB laser.
(b) Simulated $S_{\nu(\tau)}(f)$ output of the system when a laser with high white frequency noise is used as input. The white noise levels are, from bottom to top: $5 \times 10^5$ Hz$^2$/Hz, $1 \times 10^6$ Hz$^2$/Hz, $2 \times 10^6$ Hz$^2$/Hz, $5 \times 10^6$ Hz$^2$/Hz, $1 \times 10^7$ Hz$^2$/Hz.}
\label{FIG3}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Dynamic range

\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Fig4.pdf}
\caption{SSB frequency noise of the DFB laser with SIL measured by the self-heterodyne method with and without cross-correlation. The deviation between them is due to the BPD noise as illustrated in Fig. \ref{FIG1}. The cross-correlator extracts the common mode SIL laser noise and suppresses the individual BPD noise to reach a 0.01 $\text{Hz}^2$/Hz noise floor at 1 MHz offset frequency. The simulated thermo-refractive noise is plotted in black for comparison.
Inset: the measured frequency noise error bar is interpreted as the measurement system noise floor here. With increasing averaging segment number $N$, the noise floor is reduced by $\sqrt{N}$. The blue trace is the same as the main figure.
}
\label{FIG4}
\end{figure}

To quantify the upper limit of noise the COSH setup can measure, we use a DFB laser for characterization. Limited by the laser cavity length and reflectivity of the output facet, the noise of a DFB laser can reach the level of 1 MHz, corresponding to a coherence length shorter than the 1-km-long fiber delay line. However, the measurable noise is not directly related by the delay line, but only limited by the carrier frequency (see below).

Measurement results for a free-running DFB laser are shown in Fig. \ref{FIG3}(a). The SSB frequency noise of the DFB laser is around $1.2 \times 10^5$ Hz$^2$/Hz at high offset frequencies, corresponding to a 0.75 MHz Lorentzian linewidth and a 267 m coherence length in fiber (assuming a fiber refractive index of 1.5). As the BPD noise is far less than the DFB laser noise, performing cross-correlation on the data provides negligible improvement. Note that the noise peak at 1.2 MHz is from the DFB laser. Combined with the estimate for the noise floor (see Section 4.3), the setup could reach over 70 dB dynamic range for frequency noise measurements.

To understand how the system behaves for higher laser frequency noise, simulations have been performed and the results are collected in Fig. \ref{FIG3}(b). Increasing the laser frequency noise above $1 \times 10^6$ Hz$^2$/Hz leads to a visible decrease of fringe contrast before multiplying $G(f)$. This can be attributed to the wide broadening of the carrier signal $\exp(2\pi i f_\mathrm{c} t)$. The components that are separated more than $f_\mathrm{c}$ from the carrier cross into the negative-frequency domain and will be reflected by the Hilbert transform. If such contributions are significant, Eq. (\ref{Eq_Hilbert_P}) is invalidated, and the laser frequency noise can no longer be reliably recovered. Choosing an AOM with higher modulation frequency and increasing the sampling rate for the oscilloscope could increase the upper noise limit at the expense of measurement time or memory. We note that fringes are still visible even if the noise level exceeds the MZI FSR (i.e. the laser coherent length is shorter than the delay length), unless the resolution bandwidth is chosen to exceed the MZI FSR [as given by $G(f)$].

\subsection{Noise Floor

Finally, the noise floor of the COSH method is verified using a DFB injection locked to a high-Q resonator. The laser linewidth coming from the compound laser-resonator system can be greatly suppressed \cite{dahmani1987frequency, hjelme1991semiconductor, kondratiev2017self} and have demonstrated record linewidth levels in integrated photonics platforms comparable to fiber lasers \cite{li2021reaching}.

Here, the aforementioned DFB laser has been self-injection-locked to a 7-m long, ultra-high-Q on-chip resonator (with an intrinsic Q factor of 150 million). The SSB frequency noise of this lab-built laser is then measured by the setup and results are shown in Fig. \ref{FIG4}.
Compared with a 1.4-m long spiral resonator \cite{li2021reaching}, larger mode volume further suppresses the thermo-refractive noise (TRN) and reaches 0.041 Hz$^2$/Hz at 100 kHz offset frequency. The numerically simulated TRN is also plotted for comparison.
The lowest measured frequency noise is $0.015 \pm 0.002$ Hz$^2$/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency, comparable with the previous work \cite{li2021reaching}.

The power spectrum density given by a single BPD output frequency without cross-correlation is also illustrated in Fig. \ref{FIG1}d. Since BPD technical noise is approximately white when characterized as phase noise, the independent BPD noise contribution to measured frequency noise scales as $f^2$ and is more apparent at high offset frequencies, which is confirmed by comparing the two traces in Fig. \ref{FIG4}. The spurs in the single-BPD trace are the BPD technical noise amplified by $G(f)$ and are also an indication that the BPD noise has significant contributions.
By using cross-correlation and averaging over $N$ segments of data, the noise contribution can be reduced by $\sqrt{N}$. Here, for the 20 kHz resolution bandwidth used for high offset frequencies, we have $N=38400$, and the signal-to-noise ratio is improved by 22.9 dB. As shown in the inset of Fig. \ref{FIG4}, the error bar of measured frequency noise (standard deviation of frequency noise from multiple segments) is interpreted as the measurement setup noise floor here, and larger N (proportional to the overall data length used) leads to a lower noise floor.
Assuming 0.05 mW optical input power at the BPD, the technical noise is equivalent to 0.10 Hz$^2$/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency, consistent with the blue trace in Fig. \ref{FIG4} inset. With $N=38400$, the noise floor with cross-correlation is suppressed to be 0.0005 Hz$^2$/Hz, consistent with the purple trace in the inset. At MZI FSR frequencies, the noise floor is enhanced but remains below 0.01 Hz$^2$/Hz around 1 MHz offset frequency.
The spurs of measured SSB frequency noise at higher than 1 MHz offset frequency is significantly higher than the noise floor and are believed to originate from the residual RIN amplified by $G(f)$.

\section{Discussion}

\subsection{Environmental noise coupling}
\begin{figure}[t]
\includegraphics[width= \linewidth]{Fig5.pdf}
\centering
\caption{Typical SSB frequency noise of a commercial ECL obtained using cross-correlator with/without an acoustic shield. The yellow trace is the test data as provided by the manufacturer.}
\label{FIG5}
\end{figure}
Acoustic noise may be present in the external environment and can couple to the measured SSB frequency noise through the fiber delay of the modified MZI. To minimize environmental perturbations, the optical section of the measurement setup is acoustically shielded with a foam box. To calibrate the external noise isolation from the shield box, we have applied additional acoustic noise in the environment and measured the ECL frequency noise. As is shown in Fig. \ref{FIG5}, the measured SSB frequency noise is smooth and no peaks can be found below 10 kHz offset frequency, compared to the case without the acoustic shield. Above 10 kHz, the effect of environment noise is not evident for the noise measurement system.
Meanwhile, the frequency noise measured with acoustic shield is consistent with the laser manufacturers specification sheet.

\subsection{Fiber delay length}
A major drawback of the current setup is the decrease of sensitivity at integer multiples of MZI FSR, where the frequency noise destructively interferes and $G(f)$ reaches its maximum. These frequencies can be adjusted by changing the fiber delay length. If the destructive interference is undesired over a wide offset frequency range, the fiber delay length should be short enough such that the first MZI FSR appears outside the frequency range. For example, a 10 meter fiber (with MZI FSR equal to approximately 20 MHz) ensures that no fringes appear below 20 MHz offset frequency.

A major disadvantage of using a short fiber delay length is the large systematic error of low-frequency noise. To demonstrate this, the 1 km delay line in the MZI is substituted with a 15 meter fiber and the ECL noise is measured. The results are presented in Fig. \ref{FIG6}. We note that there are frequency noise discontinuities when the RBW changes. For the purple trace in Fig. \ref{FIG6}, the calculated frequency noise ``jumps'' at 20 kHz, 40 kHz and 100 kHz, where different RBWs are chosen for the offset frequency intervals on both sides. On the other hand, the data measured using 1 km delay length (grey trace) gives a continuous result and is consistent with the noise data from the laser manufacturers specification sheet.

\begin{figure}[t]
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Fig6.pdf}
\caption{SSB frequency noise of the ECL calculated with different RBW configurations using 15-meter-long fiber delay line are plotted as red, yellow and purple traces.
The RBWs chosen at different offset frequency intervals (marked by shading) are shown at the top with colors in accordance with traces.
The gray line using 1-km-long fiber delay line is plotted as a reference and its RBW configurations are the same as the purple trace.}
\label{FIG6}
\end{figure}

The strong dependence of calculated noise on the RBW can be attributed to the non-white frequency noise spectrum of the laser. The gating filter acts differently on the spectrum compared to the white case and invalidates Eq. (\ref{Eq_Snutau_gated}). By using smaller RBWs, the calculated noise becomes closer to the true laser noise, as seen from the red trace in Fig. \ref{FIG6}.

\section{Conclusion}

In this paper we have demonstrated a correlated self-heterodyne (COSH) method to measure laser frequency noise with 0.01 $\text{Hz}^2$/Hz noise floor and high RIN rejection quantified by the coupling coefficient $\alpha = -40.4$ dBrad$^2$. Commercial ECL and DFB lasers with/without self-injection-locking are used to verify the performance. The cross-correlation noise floor is limited by the coupled RIN amplified by the processing gain $G(f)$ as well as residual BPD technical noise.

The setup described here can be further reconfigured to meet specific measurement requirements. For example, the RIN suppression can be further enhanced by using an AOM with higher ${0}^\text{th}$ order to ${1}^\text{st}$ order isolation. Temperature controllers can be installed to the 50/50 couplers to adjust the coupling ratio precisely and balance the MZI arms. On the other hand, if the expected laser noise frequency is high, then cross-correlation is not necessary and the memory depth of the oscilloscope can be decreased accordingly. A conventional PD can be used in place of a BPD if RIN is not a concern. Overall, the specific measurement setup and parameters introduced in Section 2.1 are targeted towards ultra-low-noise laser measurement mainly at high offset frequencies, while the basic principle remains universal.

The authors acknowledge Q. Yang and Y. Lai for helpful discussions. This project was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the LUMOS program (HR001-20-2-0044); and by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-18-1-0353).

Data underlying the results presented in this paper may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request. Code that processes oscilloscope data has been released as a Python package (\verb|pycosh|) and can be found at the Python Package Index (https://pypi.org/).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


In 1920, the first cohort of the newly formed College of Commerce and Business Administration at the University of Southern California distinguished itself right from the start: Among the many young men in that first class, there were also three young women.
Fast forward 100 years and the USC Marshall School of Business is notable for a similar reason: Its incoming full-time MBA class of 2020 is the first cohort to include as many women as men—maybe even a few more women—52 percent.
With the announcement on Monday, July 23, USC Marshall becomes the first top-ranked business school to achieve gender parity in an MBA program, an outcome sought by most leading business schools.
A 2017 report from the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit consortium of companies, business schools and the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) shows that the average enrollment of women in full-time MBA programs at 36 business schools rose to about 38 percent (37.8 percent), up less than 1 percent from 37.1 percent in 2016. In 2013 that number was 34 percent. At 12 of the schools—including Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University—women account for at least 40 percent of students.
Other studies suggest the number is lower. According to the business school accrediting body AACSB, the share of women to receive full-time MBA degrees from U.S. schools was below 38 percent from mid-2012 through mid-2017.
USC Marshall becomes the first top-ranked business school to achieve gender parity in an MBA program, an outcome sought by most leading business schools.
Experts cite a number of possible reasons for this, including timing and return-on-investment. Most MBA programs mandate several years of experience in the workplace before applying, making the average age of a first-year student to 28.
Research also shows that men with an MBA go on to out-earn their female counterparts as their careers mature.
But in reaching this milestone, USC Marshall is showing that it is committed to leveling the playing field for women in business.
Program administrators point to laying the groundwork over the past few years that increased messaging to prospective students and strengthened the applicant pool. Increased women's programing over that same time period, such as Women's Day and other events, played a role as well.
Experience some moments from the orientation of this monumental cohort.


PLEASE tell me you guys made Hobo Roasts growing up in the '80s and '90s. You didn't fully experience the magic of that era unless you made these on the regs. While wearing jams and watching Fresh Prince of Bel Air, duh. We had them once a week. And I mean it. My mom had our weekly meal rotation fine-tuned like wowza.
I think she even called them Hobo Joes. Or Hobo Joe's. No no, Joes. I don't knows.
But back then it was simple. You bought pre-made hamburger patties and plopped them in some foil. Topped them with sliced onions, carrots and potatoes. Drizzle with Worcestershire sauce, pinch the foil together and bake for an hour. Dive and in call it Frank. I mean good.
But you know me and my obsessive need to complicate things . . .
Not that I get all willy nilly with it. I stay pretty true to the original recipe, swearsies!
Which, speaking of – this one in particular comes from an oooooold Baptist church cookbook. I wanna say either late '70s or early '80s. There are no measurements and no concrete directions, which always makes me giggle slash twitch when it comes to old school recipes. You just DID. You didn't care too much about amounts or skill or whatevs. Just throw it together and slap it silly.
So the meat! I actually mixed ground beef and pork. The pork gives it a little more OOMPH. Some guts. But without getting overly tough, you know.
The FLAVOR of the patties though, is something we gotsa talk about. This will be the only part that you will fully take the reins yourself and go loco. Becauuuuuse I randomly found this meatloaf seasoning at a local garden nursery last month, and I've been putting it on and in everything. But listen! I just googled meatloaf seasoning, and look. It's everywhere. If you can't find that, an onion seasoning mix would totally work.
Another James Bond trick with this, is to use a mandolin! You know I've been begging you to buy a mandolin for Y-E-A-R-S now, so just do it already, for the sake of the baby ponies. It will transform your life. Because you want those onions and potatoes thiiiinly and evenly sliced, so that they cook at the same time and one bite isn't randomly crunchy, leaving you in a fit of defeated tears.
Oh! Let's start a band called Fit of Defeated Tears. We're gonna get so boo'd.
Look! One hour total. 50 minutes with the foil pinched together, and then during the last 10 minutes, open the foil up so that the veggies have a chance to brown juuuust a tad.
Speaking of pinching the foil – when I was a kid, my mom used to turn the foil corners up and in like devil horns, to indicate that it was mine because I didn't like onions! Hahahaha.
So what HAPPENS is the juices from the meat will collect in the bottom of the foil packets, so you can spoon it over each bite and basically weep for days to come.
It's sort of like camping food! But without bears and bugs and dying.
I also garnished with fresh parsley and parmesan because you know how I do.
In a large bowl, combine the beef, pork and meatloaf seasoning. Divide into four big meatballs and press into rectangular patties.
Place each patty in an aluminum foil pouch. Top with onions, potatoes and carrots. Season with a small pinch of salt and pepper. Seal up each foil pouch and bake for 50 minutes. Open each pouch at the top and bake 10 more minutes, allowing the veggies to slightly brown.
Let each pouch rest a few minutes, then garnish with fresh parsley and powered parmesan. GIT IN IT.
Your family is gonna lose their freaking minds.
You're killin' me Smalls! It's The Sandlot, of course! PS these look delish!
Wanna try a really old school German recipe? Have you heard of sauerbraten? My German Grandma made it often and we were crazyyyyy for that meal! The roast marinates in the fridge in a pot of vinegar, water, onions and some salt, pepper, and I forget if she put anything else in...anyway it marinates for about 2-3 DAYS! Omgeee!! She cooked it using the marinade, made a sour gravy and served it with potato dumplings, and homemade red cabbage. Best. Meal. Ever. Please try it Bev! Let's see what you can do with this!! Btw, these look delicious!
This recipe takes me right back to Day Camp when I was a little kid. You know, you are too young for overnight camp so you hang out with your buds at a week long camp (ours was done through our church) from about 9 in the morning until late afternoon and do goofy kinda- camp-like activities. On the last day, you got to stay 'late', like until 5 or something. For that night we always made Hobo Stew, which I swear was exactly what you've made here, but hold the fancy parsley and parm. Thanks for the trip back to my childhood.
I had a mandolin...and then I almost only had 8 fingers. Those things are SHARP!
Oh yeah! The guard is a MUST.
Yum! Made with fish, theses were called a Shore Lunch in our house. Ate those many Fridays during Lent. Love your version! I feel like you could really stuff them with veggies and the kids would eat them. Gotta introduce my daughter to The Sandlot! Thanks for the reminder!
What else was on that meal rotation? I have total nostalgia for 80s family suppers!
WELL - we did spaghetti and meat sauce once a week, Chicken Dorito, Chinese Fried Rice, and the rest of the time we were basically at church. Ha!
You're killin' me smalls! Sandlot!!! BEST movie!!! Looks delicious!
How was a 80's-90's kid without experiencing this?! Where is my mom...I'm gonna sue. In the meantime I NEED TO MAKE THIS.
I linked different brands in the post! Let me know if you didn't see that.
It should be very delicious, but it seems not easy to make. I just want to have a try tomorrow.


text:
productivity June 3, 2016
Here's a Cool Study on How to Motivate People to Do Boring, Mind-Numbing Tasks
By Jesse Singal
Photo: Lambert/Getty Images
How do you get people to put effort into tasks they find boring and pointless? It is an eternal human question, and there's still a lot of uncertainty about what the best answers are. But in a really cool, nicely executed study, the economists Stefano DellaVigna of the University of California, Berkeley, and Devin Pope of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago took an experimental approach to motivating strangers to perform a truly boring, thankless task.
This Is the Best Advice on Motivation I Have Ever Read
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Published on VoxEU.org (hat tip to Chris Blattman), DellaVigna and Pope's study sits in the broader field of behavioral economic "nudges," or the idea that people's behavior can be affected by subtle tweaks to their environment, or — more relevant here — to the language they encounter on forms, in the workplace, and elsewhere. To test the effects of various nudges, the researchers set up a highly oversimplified "workplace" scenario: They recruited almost 10,000 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers and asked them to "press the 'a' and 'b' buttons on their keyboards as quickly as possible for ten minutes." If you think about it for a moment, you'll realize that that would feel like an eternity.
To encourage the participants, the researchers presented them, at random, with one of 18 different sentences offering various incentives and pieces of information (unfortunately, this was the largest image available).
(The lines next to each dot represent a so-called confidence interval. If two dots have overlapping confidence intervals, it means they shouldn't be viewed as different, statistically speaking.)
In addition to the not-surprising result that people respond to monetary incentives, a few things jump out:
—Just asking people to try made a difference, as did mentioning the prospect of informal competition. When you think about it, this is a little bit weird. Why should some stranger running an Amazon Mechanical Turk task asking you to try hard motivate you? And why should seeing how well you did on a pointless task relative to a horde of anonymous strangers? This is what nudge-fans talk about when they express enthusiasm for small wording changes.
—Workers responded more to big numbers. The most "successful" language involved the prospects of relatively large sums (by the task's standards) — 4 cents per 100 points, or 40 cents for hitting the 2,000-point benchmark. The benchmark thing seemed particularly powerful: When people knew they had a specific goal to hit, they were much more likely to score within the higher ranges.
—Workers were less sensitive to specific quantities when the money was going to charity. This is perhaps unsurprising, but the Turk workers responded much more to the prospect of 4 cents for every 100 points when the money was going to themselves than they did to the prospect of 10 cents for every 100 points going to the Red Cross. View it as a silver lining, if you want, that the Red Cross language did better than the competition and "Please just try hard!" language.
It's hard to translate these insights neatly into the workplace, of course. Here, participants were asked to perform a task exactly once for a faceless stranger; office work involves going in or logging on day after day, navigating various personalities, dealing with burnout, and so on.
But some of this fits into prior behavioral econ findings: People respond well when you tell them they're not doing as well as their neighbors at something, for example. And rewards framed as large chunks are easier to parse and make more of a cognitive impact than smaller, incremental ones — even if the eventual amounts are the same. There are some lessons here, in other words, even if you're not a supervisor at a weird factory that produces a-b button pushes.
VoxEU.org
How Do You Encourage People to Do Pointless Tasks?