diff --git a/commons/src/test/java/org/archive/util/BloomFilterTest.java b/commons/src/test/java/org/archive/util/BloomFilterTest.java
index 651fef94..ea74019c 100644
--- a/commons/src/test/java/org/archive/util/BloomFilterTest.java
+++ b/commons/src/test/java/org/archive/util/BloomFilterTest.java
@@ -21,7 +21,11 @@ package org.archive.util;
 
 import java.util.Random;
 
-import junit.framework.TestCase;
+import org.junit.Ignore;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+import static org.junit.Assume.assumeTrue;
 
 
 /**
@@ -30,7 +34,7 @@ import junit.framework.TestCase;
  * @author gojomo
  * @version $Date: 2009-11-19 14:39:53 -0800 (Thu, 19 Nov 2009) $, $Revision: 6674 $
  */
-public abstract class BloomFilterTest extends TestCase {
+public abstract class BloomFilterTest {
     
     abstract BloomFilter createBloom(long n, int d, Random random);
 
@@ -70,6 +74,8 @@ public abstract class BloomFilterTest extends TestCase {
      * Renamed to non-'test' name so not automatically run, because can 
      * take 15+ minutes to complete.
      */
+    @Test
+    @Ignore
     public void xestOversized() {
         trialWithParameters(200000000,22,200000000,32000000);
     }
@@ -81,15 +87,23 @@ public abstract class BloomFilterTest extends TestCase {
      * Renamed to non-'test' name so not automatically run, because can 
      * take 15+ minutes to complete.
      */
+    @Test
+    @Ignore
     public void xestDefaultFull() {
         trialWithParameters(125000000,22,125000000,34000000);
     }
-  
+
+    @Test
     public void testDefaultAbbreviated() {
+        assumeTrue("use -DrunSlowTests=true to enable this test (it takes about 25 seconds)",
+                "true".equals(System.getProperty("runSlowTests")));
         trialWithParameters(125000000,22,17000000,0);
     }
-    
+
+    @Test
     public void testSmall() {
+        assumeTrue("use -DrunSlowTests=true to enable this test (it takes about 20 seconds)",
+                "true".equals(System.getProperty("runSlowTests")));
         trialWithParameters(10000000, 20, 10000000, 10000000);
     }
     
diff --git a/commons/src/test/java/org/archive/util/ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest.java b/commons/src/test/java/org/archive/util/ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest.java
index 2873be5c..5685d3d0 100644
--- a/commons/src/test/java/org/archive/util/ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest.java
+++ b/commons/src/test/java/org/archive/util/ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest.java
@@ -18,25 +18,32 @@
  */
 package org.archive.util;
 
-import java.io.File;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
-
-import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
-import org.archive.util.bdbje.EnhancedEnvironment;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
+
+import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
+import org.archive.util.bdbje.EnhancedEnvironment;
+import org.junit.*;
+import org.junit.rules.TemporaryFolder;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+import static org.junit.Assume.assumeTrue;
 
 /**
  * @author stack
  * @author gojomo
  * @version $Date: 2009-08-03 23:50:43 -0700 (Mon, 03 Aug 2009) $, $Revision: 6434 $
  */
-public class ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest extends TmpDirTestCase {
+public class ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest {
+    @Rule
+    public TemporaryFolder tmpFolder = new TemporaryFolder();
     EnhancedEnvironment env; 
     private ObjectIdentityBdbManualCache<IdentityCacheableWrapper<HashMap<String,String>>> cache;
-    
-    protected void setUp() throws Exception {
-        super.setUp();
-        File envDir = new File(getTmpDir(),"ObjectIdentityBdbCacheTest");
+
+    @Before
+    public void setUp() throws Exception {
+        File envDir = tmpFolder.newFolder("ObjectIdentityBdbCacheTest");
         org.archive.util.FileUtils.ensureWriteableDirectory(envDir);
         FileUtils.deleteDirectory(envDir);
         org.archive.util.FileUtils.ensureWriteableDirectory(envDir);
@@ -44,16 +51,19 @@ public class ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest extends TmpDirTestCase {
         this.cache = new ObjectIdentityBdbManualCache<IdentityCacheableWrapper<HashMap<String,String>>>();
         this.cache.initialize(env,"setUpCache",IdentityCacheableWrapper.class, env.getClassCatalog());
     }
-    
-    protected void tearDown() throws Exception {
+
+    @After
+    public void tearDown() throws Exception {
         this.cache.close();
         File envDir = env.getHome();
         env.close(); 
         FileUtils.deleteDirectory(envDir);
-        super.tearDown();
     }
-    
+
+    @Test
     public void testReadConsistencyUnderLoad() throws Exception {
+        assumeTrue("use -DrunSlowTests=true to enable this test (it takes about 1 minute)",
+                "true".equals(System.getProperty("runSlowTests")));
         final ObjectIdentityBdbManualCache<IdentityCacheableWrapper<AtomicInteger>> cbdbmap = 
             new ObjectIdentityBdbManualCache<>();
         cbdbmap.initialize(env, 
@@ -95,7 +105,8 @@ public class ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest extends TmpDirTestCase {
         }
         // SUCCESS
     }
-    
+
+    @Test
     public void testBackingDbGetsUpdated() {
         // Set up values.
         final String value = "value";
@@ -129,6 +140,8 @@ public class ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest extends TmpDirTestCase {
      * expunged of otherwise unreferenced entries as expected.
      * @throws InterruptedException
      */
+    @Test
+    @Ignore
     public void xestMemMapCleared() throws InterruptedException {
         TestUtils.forceScarceMemory();
         System.gc(); // minimize effects of earlier test heap use
@@ -160,9 +173,4 @@ public class ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest extends TmpDirTestCase {
         System.out.println(cache.size()+","+cache.memMap.size()+","+cache.memMap.keySet().size()+","+cache.memMap.values().size()+","+countNonNull);
         assertEquals("memMap not cleared", 0, cache.memMap.size());
     }
-    
-    
-    public static void main(String [] args) {
-        junit.textui.TestRunner.run(ObjectIdentityBdbManualCacheTest.class);
-    }
 }
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlJob.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlJob.java
index 02bdbe2e..c96aa000 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlJob.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/CrawlJob.java
@@ -408,7 +408,7 @@ public class CrawlJob implements Comparable<CrawlJob>, ApplicationListener<Appli
      * (Note the crawl may have been configured to start in a 'paused'
      * state.) 
      */
-    public synchronized void launch() {
+    public void launch() {
         if (isProfile()) {
             throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't launch profile" + this);
         }
@@ -449,9 +449,8 @@ public class CrawlJob implements Comparable<CrawlJob>, ApplicationListener<Appli
         getJobLogger().log(Level.INFO,"Job launched");
         scanJobLog();
         launcher.start();
-        // look busy (and give startContext/crawlStart a chance)
         try {
-            Thread.sleep(1500);
+            launcher.join();
         } catch (InterruptedException e) {
             // do nothing
         }
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/Engine.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/Engine.java
index 31a018d3..875c3e6b 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/Engine.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/framework/Engine.java
@@ -317,7 +317,7 @@ public class Engine {
                 return true; 
             }
             try {
-                Thread.sleep(500);
+                Thread.sleep(250);
             } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                 break;
             }
@@ -329,8 +329,8 @@ public class Engine {
             break;
         }
         try {
-            // wait an extra second for good measure
-            Thread.sleep(1000);
+            // wait an extra quarter second for good measure
+            Thread.sleep(250);
         } catch (InterruptedException e) {
             // ignore
         }
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/AbstractFrontier.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/AbstractFrontier.java
index 4729f7b6..dd0df695 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/AbstractFrontier.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/AbstractFrontier.java
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractFrontier
                         }
                         reachedState(reachedState);
                         
-                        Thread.sleep(1000);
+                        Thread.sleep(250);
                         
                         if(isEmpty()&&targetState==State.RUN) {
                             requestState(State.EMPTY); 
@@ -384,7 +384,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractFrontier
                                 reachedState(State.PAUSE);
                             }
                             
-                            Thread.sleep(1000);
+                            Thread.sleep(250);
                         }
                         break;
                     case FINISH:
@@ -393,7 +393,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractFrontier
                         outboundLock.writeLock().lock();
                         // process all inbound
                         while (getInProcessCount()>0) {
-                            Thread.sleep(1000);
+                            Thread.sleep(250);
                         }
                         logger.fine("0 urls in process, running final tasks");
                         finalTasks(); 
diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/WorkQueueFrontier.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/WorkQueueFrontier.java
index 7d7a3b00..b37a75b2 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/WorkQueueFrontier.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/frontier/WorkQueueFrontier.java
@@ -727,7 +727,7 @@ implements Closeable,
             // next time
             if(getTotalEligibleInactiveQueues()==0) {
                 try {
-                    Thread.sleep(1000);
+                    Thread.sleep(250);
                 } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                     // 
                 }