The Sad and Bizarre Post-Retirement Life of Jose Canseco

In the latest mishap, the former baseball star accidentally shot off one of his middle fingers.

It's been more than 13 years since Jose Canseco has played a major league baseball game. But retirement has not sapped the former Oakland Athletics star's ability to generate headlines. NBC reported Tuesday that Canseco, who now lives in Las Vegas, accidentally shot one of his middle fingers while attempting to clean a revolver. Leila Knight, Canseco's fiancee, told TMZ thatwhile surgery on the finger was successful, he will not make a full recovery.

A tremendously gifted athlete who combined power, speed, and a rocket for a throwing arm, the Cuban-born Canseco dazzled the baseball world in the late 1980s. In 1988, he became the first player to ever hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season, winning the American League MVP award in a unanimous vote. The next season, Canseco led the Athletics to a World Series victory against the San Francisco Giants.

Things have gone downhill since then. Traded to the Texas Rangers in 1992, he distinguished himself by once allowing a fly ball to clank off his head and over the fence for a home run. The remainder of his itinerant career, which included stops in Boston, New York, Toronto, Tampa Bay, and Chicago as well as a second stint in Oakland, saw occasional flashes of brilliance but not the sustained level of excellence he displayed in the 1980s.

Despite earning substantial amounts of money for decades, Canseco has had major financial problems in retirement. His search for cash and publicity led him to participate in celebrity boxing, semi-pro baseball leagues, mixed martial arts, and even Celebrity Apprentice, each venture meeting with little success.

Canseco is hardly the first famous athlete to squander his fortune. In a 2009 article for Sports Illustrated, Pablo S. Torre found that 60 percent of former NBA players went broke within five years of retirement, while for the NFL the fall was even steeper: 80 percent lost their cash just two years after hanging up their spikes. Megastars like Allen Iverson, Terrell Owens, and Curt Schilling have not been spared. But Canseco's fall from grace is especially poignant due to the very public way he spiraled down. Notorious for blowing off interviews and charity appearances, Canseco regularly bares his soul on Twitter, often begging Major League teams to give him another chance and describing his grief at being kept from the game of baseball.

Daniel Radcliffe a rapper's delight performing Blackalicious' Alphabet Aerobics

It seems all those years of muttering incantations as Harry Potter have given Daniel Radcliffe the gift of the rapper's gab.

The Harry Potter star, who is soon to feature in the upcoming film Horns, made a name for himself as of rap connoisseur in a surprise performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Talking Fallon through his interest in rap music from a young age, Radcliffe revealed his obsession with learning the words to every song.

"I think I was the first kid in my class to learn the all the words to Real Slim Shady," he said.

But by owning up to his passion for memorising "complicated, lyrically intricate and fast songs" Radcliffe backed himself into a challenge by Fallon: to rap the 1999 tongue twister from Blackalicious, Alphabet Aerobics.

Despite Fallon's admission that the song was "one of the trickiest, fastest songs" he knew, the former wizard star was more than willing to take the mic.

Radcliffe wowed with his effortless performance, impressing none more than Fallon who was just barely able to contain his excitement.

A cult classic, Alphabet Aerobics is the best known track of Blackalicious' 1999 EP A2G, featuring Gift of Gab.

The structure of the song is that every couplet is made up of words starting with the same letter, as it moves through the alphabet from A to Z.

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Aurora mini 18 Kit and PCB

The kit is also available at $29. All parts except Molex connectors and power supply are included.
Shipping is $5 for USA, $17 for the rest of the world.

Kit Contents (as pictured)

• 1x PCB
• 1x 10k Ohm (0603)
• 3x 220 Ohm (0603)
• 3x 2.2k Ohm (0603)
• 18x 150 Ohm (0603)
• 2x 0.1uF (0603)
• 2x 10uF (1206)
• 3x MMBT2907A
• 1x PIC24FV16KA302 (SS)
• 19x Tricolor LED (common-cathode)
• 1x Tactile Switch

Notes

• The PIC microcontroller is not pre-programmed. You need your own programmer such as PICKit 3, ICD 2, ICD3 to program the PIC microcontroller. (PICKit 2 does not work)
• The kit is also available with water clear LEDs instead of diffused type shown. Please specify if you want water clear LEDs (Special: $1 less for the water clear LEDs).
• The kit comes with one extra LED.
• Power connection cable (see the picture) - optional is available at $2 extra.

PCB only
Aurora mini 18 custom PCB price is $9.50. Shipping is $5 for USA, $17 for the rest of the world.

To purchase please go to my site - http://www.theledart.com/blog/archives/category/kits

Please view my Instructable for the detailed information on Aurora mini 18.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Electronic lock circuit diagram using one transistor

Using some electronic components can be made a very simple electronic lock. The electronic lock is based on a single active components. The keyboard can be purchased from the store or can be made using "push buttons".
Four buttons are connected in series (those marked with S1 + S4 in the scheme) between plus and the power transistor T1 through a 1k resistor.
The other four buttons (marked with S5 + S8 in the diagram) are connected in parallel with R2, between the T1 and ground. Relay will be activated only if S1-S4 are pressed, while none of the buttons is pressed S5-S8.
If at least one button is pressed this second group, the transistor will be put at the ground, and if one of the buttons S1-S4 is pressed, the transistor will not get the current and be maintained locked by R2.
Voltage of the circuit must be equal to the operating voltage of the relay used (type BD135 transistor can switch up 

Electronic timer with display electronic project using CMOS

Using this electronic scheme can be built an electronic timer which can be set to measure a maximum of 60 hours. The electronic timer allows the fixation of some intermediate time. On reaching this point, a buzzer will sound. The circuit is built using ICM7217 integrated circuit, manufactured by Intersil, which contains a CMOS counter up / down, with 4 digits and display properly.

IC3 is the clock generator circuit which provides a square wave with period 1 s clock signal is available on pin 3 (Q13). It can be divided by 60 in IC4, if necessary, measurement of longer than one hour.
When S6 is closed, power is connected and IC1 is reset by R9 and C5. S4's position determine if minutes or seconds are counted: not exceeding 59 h and 59 min (position 2) or 59 min and 59 s (position 1).
Miniature switches S10 S7 adjusts the display to indicate 20.00. In a short press of S3, this choice is stored by IC1. After that, S7-S10 is adjusted so that the display to indicate 35.00. Meanwhile, S1 must be open. Pressing S2 cause of integrative ICM7217C start counting backwards,starting from 35.00. When the display shows 20.00, buzzer sounds shorter. Now the clock can be stopped by closing S1 and the subsequent opening of S1, the clock restarts to count backwards to 00.00.
The clock can be reset with the S5, in this case, the buzzer sounds briefly and display shows 00.00.

Remotely momentary actuated button

When solar cells are not lit, T1 and T2 drive crashes. Capacitor C2 is discharged through the LED electronic relay, which is activated for a moment. In this way we generated a trigger pulse equipment of electrically isolated, no need extra power supply.

Alternating on off switch electronic project

A very simple alternating on off switch electronic circuit project can be designed using an 4096 CMOS hex inverter and some common electronic parts.
IC1is a regular Hex-inverter type and is constructed with MOS P-channel and N-channel enhancement mode devices in a single monolithic structure.
First push from this alternating on off switch activates the relay and another push de-activates the relay.

The type for D1 in not critical, even a 1N4148 will work.
Q1 transistor is an 2N4401 type , but can be replaced with some other type like : N100, NTE123A, 2N3904, 2N2222, 2N4013, etc.
For C2, if you find the relay acts not fast enough, you can change it to a lower value or use a ceramic cap of around 0.1μF.
The circuit can be powered from a 9 or 12 volts DC power supply circuit .
Unused input pins must be connected to an appropriate logic level and unused output pins must be left open.
Relay used in this project is an 6 volts relay type . R4 and LED1 are optional and can be removed from the circuit .