The purpose of this article is to provide a starter kit for multicanonical simulations in statistical physics. Fortran code for the q-state Potts model in d = 2, 3, . . . dimensions can be downloaded from the Web and this paper describes simulation results, which are in all details reproducible by running prepared programs. To allow for comparison with exact results, the internal energy, the sp...

Distance learning is rapidly becoming pervasive in every aspect of education. From elementary school through doctoral programs, information technology enables self-paced learning with some degree of distance from teaching professionals. Educators sometimes begin this online delivery system without fully examining the academic soundness of this approach. Other considerations are administrative m...

We investigate the properties of the host galaxies of X–ray selected (high frequency peaked) BL Lac objects using a large and homogeneous data set of high spatial resolution R–band observations of 52 BL Lacs in the EMSS and Slew samples. The redshift distribution of the BL Lacs ranges from z = 0.04 to z>0.7, with average and median redshifts z = 0.26 and z = 0.24, respectively. Eight objects ar...