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Two wheels & four: 'the great divide'
Posted 11 January 2005 - 11:02
Posted 12 January 2005 - 22:19
Isn´t it true that the traditional explanation of the divide between motorcycle racers and car racers is very much a social/economical divide?
Bikes were (are) cheaper than cars, so if you were (relatively) poor and wanted to go motor racing, you would choose a bike. Being better off, you´d probably choose a car.
It seems to me, that the names of the Brooklands racers Bill Boddy writes about in Motor Sport all have a certain posh accent to them - that certainly wasn´t the case in the reports I read in Classic Racer (another Haymarket magazine?) in the eighties.
Does this still hold true to a certain degree?
Car racing fanatic - Yamaha XS 650 rider.
Posted 18 January 2005 - 18:03
It seems I - very unintentionally - killed off an otherwise very interesting thread.
It may seem like a bad excuse, but maybe I expressed myself clumsily - Danish is my first language - or did I write something that I shouldn´t?
Or do I overestimate my own importance and is it just because there has popped so many other great `bike threads up ?
But - I really have been wondering about "The Great Divide", as I have felt it for many years, also among my fellow motorcycle riding friends.
I never quite understood it - I mean, of course it is different sports, but why eliminate one joy, because you have another ??
In the best intentions
Posted 18 January 2005 - 19:23
Didn't John Watson demo a sportscar in the Isle of Man one year and use plenty of right foot to the alarm of onlookers? Or is my memory playing tricks? Does anyone have any photographs of the event?
Posted 18 January 2005 - 20:29
Isn´t it true that the traditional explanation of the divide between motorcycle racers and car racers is very much a social/economical divide?
If it used to be true, the gap has shrunk considerably. Check the price of a "works-assisted" MotoGP racing bike today and you will be in complete state of shock. It costs almost TWICE as much as a brand new IRL car... or 4 times the price of a Porsche GT2...
Even a "production" bike can run you a cool $150K according to the most recent Yamaha catalogue.
Now a set of Dainese leathers will cost you at least twice as much as the suit worn by the Shoe hisself, and let's not even mention the boots and gloves compared to auto-racing implements.
And the crew is being paid the same, regardless if they work on two or four-wheel machinery.
The "social" issue is a whole different subject altogether, and no doubt there that most motorcycle racers of distinction had much more modest social origins than most successful car racers. One needs money to get started either way but one can prove his talent on two wheels for a LOT less in beginners formulas.
"Raced for 45 years both bikes and cars and still broke."
Posted 18 January 2005 - 22:37
A thing that puts me off bikes, more than any other, is the number of spills; I just don't happen to enjoy watching human anatomy making initimate contact with tarmac. Also, 8 out of the 10 guys I know who ride/rode motorbikes (on the road and two of them race, too) have been hospitalized at one time or another due to bike accident injuries. Motor racing on 4 wheels is crazy enough, on 2 wheels it is total madness - as is selling overpowered 2-wheeled monsters to young kids with surfeits of testoteron; boys are bound to get maimed and killed on big bikes, and they do, big time.
Being mostly a chassis-fan myself, there is not too much of it on bikes (or karts, if they are done properly!), but I always found, and still do find, motorcycle engines, racing variety or otherwise, very varied and technically extremely interesting (singles, multis in all kinds of configurations, two stroke, four stroke, air cooled, liquid cooled) - and also the aesthetically most interesting portion of the bike.
And, of course, being in love with the early 500cc F3 cars we all owe so much, even single cylinder motor cycle engines and chain drive can warm my old f@rt heart...
Posted 19 January 2005 - 19:25
Dan Gurney of course came up with a design that lowered the c of g but it seems moribund (?).
I haven't seen anything from our Kiwi friends about John Britten's marvelous designs. He tried wings on a bike! And succeeded in beating the works teams with brains and imagination rather than financial resourses.
The difference between bikers and car fans seems to be socio/economic and YOUTH. I made the (apparent) mistake of joining a bike chat group recently. It ended in tears with me withdrawing in the face of a fusilade of hostile posts from two young guys with nothing better to do than hurl insults. My crime? I had questioned the weight of the motorcylce the site was devoted to.
In 1980 when myself and two friends were organizing the first Historic Weekend at Westwood event we decided to make bikes an equal part of the programme so we invited the fledgling vintage motorcylce group to join us. They were thrilled but insisted that since they had half the number of wheels they should pay half the entry fee!
David B
Posted 20 January 2005 - 10:34
I haven't seen anything from our Kiwi friends about John Britten's marvelous designs. He tried wings on a bike! And succeeded in beating the works teams with brains and imagination rather than financial resources
The late great Rodger Freeth, in his biking days, fitted aerofoils front and rear to his Yamaha TZ750 in 1978 IIRC; and used it as his university engineering thesis! (I've got some pics somewhere)
Paul M
Posted 21 January 2005 - 07:41
Posted 21 January 2005 - 16:09
Posted 21 January 2005 - 17:15
I had fogotten about MV's use of wings earlier....
David B
Posted 21 January 2005 - 17:27
They reminded me of the diedral wings fitted by Maurice Philippe (after a drunken binge I guess) on the Vel's Parnelli Indy cars in 1972... after a quick test that frightened Al Unser, they were promptly removed from the cars and replaced by a conventional device parralel to Earth...
Maurice liked a good pint, and that day it showed.
Posted 22 January 2005 - 08:33
Not completely true. She may never have leaned out of any of Rudi's CATs, but if you were in England in the late '60s you could have seen her passengering (and leaning out of) several different conventional "front exit" outfits before teaming up with Rudi.
Posted 22 January 2005 - 16:21
Not completely true. She may never have leaned out of any of Rudi's CATs, but if you were in England in the late '60s you could have seen her passengering (and leaning out of) several different conventional "front exit" outfits before teaming up with Rudi.
Don, with all due respect, we were strictly discussing the Rudi Kurt outfit... I am very aware of the previous rides of Dana. I am also aware that she was seriously leaning from her high-chair to avoid swallowing British baby slop when only 2 years old. Who could blame her?
Posted 16 March 2005 - 14:25
steering of 1977-78 Seymaz
basic layout of the 1978 BEO-Imagine (driver kneels, passenger sits)
1979 LCR for B2B WC (driver Rolf Biland sits)
1979 LCR with fairing on
Paul M
Posted 16 March 2005 - 15:06
Paul M
Posted 16 March 2005 - 18:16
Very interesting, thanks!
Posted 16 March 2005 - 21:20
Thanks, Macca!
Sidecar chassis seem to inspire a lot of originality - highly asymmetric three-wheel cars in many ways, really. It just looks like such a dangerous proposition to me - like a car without seatbelts or roll hoop! From what I've seen, there chassis structures are still manufactured from riveted sheet aluminium alloy - but I suppose crashworthyness isn't much of an issue if you're thrown clear in any major accident?
BTW, I really like those old pen-and-ink technical drawings like the ones you posted - don't know why, but for some reason I prefer them to all the colourful, fancy 3D soild models and computer renderings we are presented with today - where half of the time it looks like the guy who steered the mouse and keyboard didn't really understand his subject, but sure made it look convincing anyway! Oh, well - I'm just an old f@rt that likes the human touch in an illustration, I guess...
Re the opening post: I suppose one could say that where cars and bikes are 'cross-bred', trikes and sidecar outfits have dominant bike genes, and such as the typical 500cc F3 car and other bike-engined cars have dominant car genes. And there were, of course, a few car-engined bikes - the name Münch comes to mind - and trikes, too.
(oie- fines beat me to it!)
Posted 16 March 2005 - 21:32
A three wheeler with a left hand chair corners better on a right hander, yes? So whereas a racing car has suspension geometry that pays more attention to camber change with roll on the outside wheels, would a sidecar outfit have suspension geometry on the " bike " wheels such that the camber change is controlled more on the inside?
(Hope that made sense : )
Posted 16 March 2005 - 21:57
If I understood you correctly, you do make sense!
This is pure speculation on my part - I've never studied the dynamics of sidecar outfits - but they appear to me to run on what looks like relatively wide, low profile car tyres, so camber change (and roll) is probably kept intentionally low by stiff springs and a low center of gravity (the wishbones I've seen are almost parrallel and equal length, which doesn't permit much roll), but then again with the pasenger moving about as he does, they have a solution to minimize the roll-induced camber/weight transfer problem that isn't available to us car folks!
Posted 19 March 2005 - 12:57
Posted 13 April 2005 - 12:45
Paul M
Posted 13 August 2006 - 19:43
Posted 13 August 2006 - 20:04
Originally posted by Toypop
More info on Owen Greenwood. Any idea what became of this machine?
Toypop...thanks for those scans. I have no idea what happened to it, but I'm fascinated that your first post on TNF homes in on Owen Greenwood and his infamous Mini Special. Do you have a special interest?
Posted 13 August 2006 - 20:25
"I saw it racing at Castle Combe in 66 or 67, it was a brilliant machine. It used to start from the back of the grid and then by the end of the first lap would be up in 3rd place and then win the race easily against top racers like Chris Vincent.
I used to see the rider working hard at the controls, it was stable but you could see him controlling the drifts.
I remember that he started off with drum brakes all round in the early days and then moved onto disks at the front. Later on he fitted a limited slip diff and special valve springs to obtain higher revs.
The body work had a polished aluminium look to it.
It was the start of a new generation of sidecar chassis which led to the worms and other riders experimenting with car engines.
I just want to know if it still exists today and if it is in a museum or something. I know Owen died a few years ago and also wonder if the passenger Terry is still alive."
He is very much into classic bikes, historic motorcycle racing and has many memories to tell. He is also very much interested in the engineering side of things. Alas his IT skills do not match his enthusiasm for the subject...
Posted 14 August 2006 - 12:00
Originally posted by Toypop
Posting on behalf of my father (57) who doesn't know how to use a PC
He's the same age as me, and I'm a youngster here
Toypop, you need to sort him out ;)
Posted 14 August 2006 - 15:52
anyway it was in classic racer mag for sale dept.
wonder if it got sold?
Posted 14 August 2006 - 20:32
Originally posted by philippe7
Rudi Kurth
......and by the way....he was also the first GP sidecar rider to put a lady ( and a nice looking british one ....) in the passenger basket . Dane Rowe, the lady was called
Here she is:
Posted 13 December 2006 - 12:51
While looking for something else in my albums, I found these two.........the first shows a professionally-built 500cc GP long-wheelbase hub-centre-steering 'worm' outfit from about 1990, the second an amateur attempt to copy the long-wheelbase aspect in a cheap way for club racing (I hope it was never finished!).
That looks to me like a fairly common long tubular chassis and yes it does look finished to me. What do you think is missing?
They are still very popular to this day at club level (and would be at National level if we had one at this moment), very controllable to drive and more stable generally over bumps than the hub centre steered outfits.
In fact, I think the last time Sean and Mark Hegarty won the British F1 series it was on a very similar machine, not more than about 5 years ago (a bit vague, my apologies).
A three wheeler with a left hand chair corners better on a right hander, yes? So whereas a racing car has suspension geometry that pays more attention to camber change with roll on the outside wheels, would a sidecar outfit have suspension geometry on the " bike " wheels such that the camber change is controlled more on the inside?
The difference between left and right corner speeds is quite minimal on the latest outfits. We have no suspension on the 3rd wheel at all, them's the rules, but the rear geometry has always (when correctly fitted) adjusted for camber roll (although we have generally less than an inch of travel so it's hardly noticeable). The front suspension as shown in that early photo (the front end design is different now) used to move purely up and down, which moved the centre point of the tyre contact relative to the centre through the 'kingpins' with varying chassis height. This led to bump steer and the nickname 'worms'. This has largely been corrected in the latest versions.
hope this helps a touch
steve english
Posted 13 December 2006 - 13:00
I've just altered the permissions so anyone can read that section of the forum.
I think you'll find some bits of interest


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Islamic hospitals
Islamic hospitals were sites of medical education from their establishment in the 900s CE. The most famous hospitals, including those in Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, contained lecture rooms, pharmacies and libraries. As important as reading and mastering texts was to instruction in the Islamic tradition, many students received practical training in hospitals. Some even observed patients at the bedside.
Many famous Islamic physicians took students onto hospital wards. Surviving texts, such as that produced by Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah in his book 'Uyun, and some student notes, reveal details of these early clinical rounds. Many contain instructions on diets and recipes for common treatments, including skin diseases, tumours and fevers. Some even suggest that students examined patients and made diagnoses. Most students were guided by their teachers in making observations. During such rounds, they were told to examine the patients' actions, excreta, and the nature and location of pain, as well as swelling. Students were also instructed to note the colour and feel of the skin, whether hot, cool, moist, dry or loose. At Cairo advanced students undertook examinations and even carried out simple medical procedures, such as venesection. Al-Razi gained much experience at the hospital he attended in Baghdad and encouraged other medical students to enter hospitals. Most practitioners, however, entered practice soon after completing their training without ever having treated a patient.
Related Themes and Topics
Related links
Techniques and Technologies:
P Horden, 'The Earliest Hospitals in Byzantium, Western Europe, and Islam' Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 35/3 (2005), pp 361-389
F A Hussain, The History and Impact of the Muslim Hospital (Council for Scientific and Medical History, 2009)


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Canadian crowds and bank robbers
TORONTO — Happy Canada Day everyone. The Mariners were kind enough to have a nice little pregame ceremony to honor this holiday, complete with a flyover by four NORAD jets, including a pair from the U.S. and a pair from Canada.
Also on the field were military from both nations. On the Canadian side, one of the RCMP officers was a woman named Martha Cormier, who happens to be Matt Stairs' sister. She's stationed at the RCMP's Kelowna detachment.
Hey, if you're not going to be in Toronto for Canada, this is the place to be. People flood down from Vancouver to see the Jays and actually make this place pretty pro Blue Jays. Honestly, this crowd of Jays fanatics seems louder than the fans who frequent Rogers Centre.
"Happy Canada Day," Jays skip Cito Gaston said. "It certainly helps that we have some fans here. Hopefully, they'll be cheering us on like they did last night. If you can't spend it at home, this is a great place to spend it."
Did I paraphrase Cito's quote or what? But, it's true. On Monday night, there were chants for Cito, a fine rendition of the Mar-co Scu-ta-ro chants, and at one point, there were loud cries of Hall-a-day! Hall-a-day! And believe me, the raucous Toronto fans didn't go unnoticed.
"It's kind of a weird thing, especially on the road," Halladay said. "Obviously, being close to Canada here [will bring out the fans], but it's a different feeling to go into a road city and be able to hear fans from your own town."
As for my day today, I enjoyed a nice five-mile run along Puget Sound this morning and as I was heading back into downtown with my earphones in and Arcade Fire blasting from my ipod, I noticed that there were a handful of helicopters overhead, which seemed odd. As I got closer to the street my hotel was on, there were cop cars and ambulances blocking my path.
Turns out that some bozo tried to rob a bank in West Seattle and the chase with the cops ended near my hotel. Last year, I had that huge gas pipe explosion near my hotel in New York. This year I get close to a big shootout in Seattle. While standing by and watching the happenings, I spotted a man wearing a Michigan State hat.
We got to chatting and it turns out that he knows some people in the Tigers organization and he works in the ticket office at MSU. We talked some baseball and he even invited to buy me a coffee so we could talk ball some more, but I was itching to get out of my workout clothes. So it was nice to me you, Richard. I'll take a raincheck on the coffee.
Also, asked David Eckstein today about a recent report that said he'd been fielding grounders at second base. He said no one told him to work out at second and he never fielded grounders, just turned some double plays. With he and John McDonald and Marco Scutaro splitting time at short, he just rotated over there on his own one day to help out during practice.
"It was funny," Eckstein said with a laugh. "My wife even called me and said, 'I read that you were fielding grounders at second base?' I wasn't. I did turn a couple double plays, but no one asked me to go over there. I did play second base until I got to the big leagues."
Today's lineups:
TORONTO (41-43) at SEATTLE (31-51)
at 10:10 p.m. ET at lovely Safeco Field
David Eckstein, DH
Marco Scutaro, 2B
Alex Rios, RF
Vernon Wells, CF
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Scott Rolen, 3B
Gregg Zaun, C
Adam Lind, LF
John McDonald, SS
PITCHING: RHP Jesse Litsch (8-4, 3.82)
Ichiro Suzuki, RF
Jose Lopez, 2B
Raul Ibanez, LF
Jose Vidro, DH
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Jeremy Reed, CF
Richie Sexson, 1B
Jeff Clement, C
Yuniesky Betancourt, SS
PITCHING: LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith (2-1, 2.66)
7 Comments
Thank you enigma and gsumner I was lost without this Blog.
It looks like Litsch is not sure of himself tonight lets hope they put up some runs on the board for him he may need them.
Lind is finally getting his chance and he is making the best of it.
10 hits in 5.2 inn. is bound to take it's toll.
Bullpen melt down so now we may loose to their bulpen.
Where is everyone let's talk baseball.
What did you guys think of those hats last night ? it didn't do much for me personally but it was a good attempt. It's not as if it was horrendous. Unfortunately these games are on too late for my taste so I wont be watching the jays for a bit and therefore can only talk fashion right now lol.
hey major league, I saw that bank robbery too. I was at the seattle series and despite the 2 losses, loved it. We saw BJ, AJ, Matt Stairs and Rance on the street. Great seeing everyone casually and being able to say hello. always sad to be home blogging and watching after seeing three games live. you have the best job in the world.


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Sperm Storage
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Difference between revisions of "The GenGIS Manual"
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* '''Save image as:''' (In development) Save ''Viewport'' contents to a PNG file.
* '''Save image as:''' (In development) Save ''Viewport'' contents to a PNG file.
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* '''Detail->Fine:''' Increase the level-of-detail of the map.
* '''Detail->Fine:''' Increase the level-of-detail of the map.
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* '''Detail->Coarse:''' Decrease the level-of-detail of the map.
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* '''Hide all layers:''' Hide all layers so they are no longer displayed in the ''Viewport''.
* '''Hide all layers:''' Hide all layers so they are no longer displayed in the ''Viewport''.
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* '''Lighting:''' Brings up the ''Lighting Properties'' dialog box which allows properties of the light source used to render the ''Viewport'' to be modified.
* '''Layout objects:''' Brings up the ''Layout Objects Properties'' dialog box which all visual properties of layout primatives to be modified.
* '''Layout objects:''' Brings up the ''Layout Objects Properties'' dialog box which all visual properties of layout primatives to be modified.
==== Help Menu ====
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Revision as of 17:31, 4 May 2009
We continue to develop the manual.
A recent version of the manual will soon be available in Media:.PDF format.
Introduction / Overview of GenGIS
Geography has always been an important component of evolutionary and ecological theory. But the advent of sequence typing approaches such as 16S ribotyping, DNA barcoding using the COX1 gene, and multi-locus sequence typing, gives us the opportunity to understand how communities of organisms interact, move around and evolve. This sequencing revolution is tightly coupled to the development of new algorithms for assessing and comparing populations based on their genes.
Coupled with these developments is the ready availability of high quality, public domain digital map data. By integrating molecular data with cartography and habitat parameters, we can visualize the geographic and ecological factors that influence community composition and function.
GenGIS is designed to bring these components together into a single software package that satisfies the following criteria:
Free and open source. GenGIS is released under a Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike 3.0 license, and we have made extensive use of other free packages such as wxWidgets, R, and Python. Making GenGIS freely available allows it to be downloaded and used anywhere in the world, and allows users to inspect and modify the source code.
User-friendly. Although GenGIS is built to deal with challenging scientific questions, our goal is to make the software as easy to use as possible. This is particularly important as many users will have little experience with digital map data, apart from applications such as Google Earth.
Adaptible and extensible. The principal strength of many open-source projects lies in the ability of a loosely organized community of users to develop and enhance the software: R and BioPerl are two examples of successful open-source projects with many contributors. Since the potential applications of GenGIS are much broader than those we have in mind, we aim to make it as easy as possible to extend its capabilities by exposing the internal data structures and offering a plugin architecture.
Platforms and System Requirements
GenGIS has been developed and tested on the following operating systems:
- Win32 (XP and Vista)
- Mac OSX 'Leopard'
Support for Linux is not a development priority at the moment. However, it should be fairly straightforward to port GenGIS to Linux and we will happily support any efforts to develop such a version. Similarly, let us know if you experience problems (or successes!) in trying to run GenGIS on an operating system not listed above.
GenGIS can have fairly demanding memory requirements, depending on the size of map that is loaded. We typically try to keep digital maps to a size of 10 MB or less. Please note that we have not tested GenGIS on Windows with anything less than a Pentium 4-class CPU, nor on anything older than a 2008-vintage iMac.
Citing GenGIS
The best citation for GenGIS will always be indicated in boldface on the [Main GenGIS page].
Where to go for help
The latest version of the GenGIS manual will always be available [here].
Tutorials are available [here].
We maintain a [FAQ] for GenGIS as well.
We may also at some point initiate a discussion forum.
Email beiko [at] cs.dal.ca if you have further questions about the software.
Getting the Release Version
If all you want to do is load in your data and start analyzing and visualizing them, your best bet is the latest Release version which is available [here].
Developer Version – building from source code
Building on Windows
GenGIS can be compiled using the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition solution file contained in win32/build/msvc. Please note that the Python console is only available for Release builds.
Building on Mac
GenGIS can be compiled using the Makefile contained in mac/build/gcc by typing 'make'. Development was done with gcc 4.3.3.
Input data
File dependencies
Currently there are four types of files that can be imported directly by the GenGIS application (i.e., not via the Python console or Rpy):
- The digital map file
- The location file
- The sequence file
- The phylogenetic tree file
Details of the requirements for these files are contained later in this section.
We currently require that you load the map file first, followed by the location file, after which any properly formatted set of 1 or more sequence and/or tree files can be loaded. To be considered in a visual or statistical analysis, every sequence in a sequence file, and every leaf in a phylogenetic tree, must be associated with one of the locations in the Location file.
Thanks to GDAL, GenGIS can import a wide array of digital map file formats and projections. We cannot provide direct support for GDAL, but there is a considerable amount of support available at the project website, and we have found the script 'gdal_merge.py' and the executables 'gdalwarp.exe' and 'gdal_translate.exe' to be very useful in preparing maps that can be handled by GenGIS.
Supported formats
GenGIS should be able to support any of the formats listed on this page due to the use of GDAL as our data reader, but many of these remain untested. We have had success with the following widely used formats:
- GeoTIFF
- Arc/Info ASCIIGRID
- USGS DEM (and variations thereof)
If you wish to use a specific projection, you must specify it before loading your map - GenGIS is unable to do reprojections on the fly. This is particularly true if you are loading the default world map (from GTOPO30) that ships with GenGIS: the default Mercator projection stretches the polar regions to an absurd degree, whereas Plate Carre or Robinson will provide a much less distorted world view.
GenGIS currently does not support projections in which a single point is displayed in multiple locations. The best example of this is the default world map, which is actually 'fudged' to stretch only from 89.9 degrees North to 89.9 degrees South latitude. Since the poles stretch across the entire upper and lower edges of a map in a projection such as Plate Carre, GenGIS is unable to display these properly.
To specify the projection before loading your map, right click "New Study : Study" in the Layers tab, and select Properties. Selecting the Projection tab will allow you to choose your projection.
IMAGE SS1-MapProj.jpg (to upload)
Typical limits on map size
The size of map you can load and usefully work with in GenGIS is proportional to the speed of your processor and amount of RAM you have. With 1 GB of RAM you should be able to work with maps that are 10 MB or slightly greater in size.
If the resolution of your map is too high to load efficiently into GenGIS, you can use one of the GDAL executables (gdalwarp or gdal_translate) to reduce the density of points in your map. This will of course decrease the level of detail you can see in the application, but is an acceptable tradeoff in many cases.
Location File
The location file must be provided in a comma-separated format (e.g., the .csv files that can be exported from Microsoft Excel). The first line of the file must be a comma-separated series of headers. Each subsequent line will contain a set of attributes for a single location.
The first three entries on each line must be:
- A unique location identifier
- A vertical coordinate, either decimal degrees of latitude or Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) northing. Note that positive values = north and negative values = south.
- A horizontal coordinate, either decimal degrees of longitude or UTM easting. Positive values = east and negative values = west.
The first line of the file must therefore begin with the following three column headings:
Site ID,Latitude,Longitude
Site ID,Northing,Easting
depending on the coordinate system.
After these three columns, you can specify anything you like in the Location file, including longer descriptive site names, environmental parameters, and a time stamp. So, for instance, a location file header might look like this:
Site ID,Latitude,Longitude,File Size,Environment Type,Geographic Location,Site Name,Country
Each of these values must then be specified for every entity (= row in the file), even if they are called NULL or some other placeholder value.
Sequence File
The basic specification of the sequence file is even simpler, with only two required field:
- A unique location identifier that is also found in the location file
- A unique sequence identifier
The first line of the file must begin with the following column headings:
Site ID, Sequence ID
As with the location file, after these essential columns any type of information can be provided. Note that the 'sequence file' need not contain any molecular sequence data, nor do the entities necessarily need to have a one-to-one correspondence to actual sampled sequences.
A simple sequence file might summarize the taxonomic classification of each sampled sequence:
Site ID,Sequence ID,Best_match,Species,Genus,Family,Order,Class,Phylum,Superkingdom
As with the location file, each row of the sequence file must define a value for each of the columns identified in the header line.
Phylogenetic trees
Input phylogenetic trees should adhere to the Newick file format, with the additional constraint that leaf labels must match up exactly with either a Site ID from the location file or a Sequence ID from the sequence file.
The Environment
The graphical user interface for GenGIS consists of a collection of different interface elements. All features of GenGIS can be access through the Menu. The most commonly used features are exposed on the Toolbar. Data loaded into GenGIS is organized into a Layer Tree, which is made explicit to the user in the panel on the left. This hierarchical structure provides a natural organization of data and allows the properties of related data items to be set easily. Data visualizations are displayed in the 3D Viewport. Mouse navigation within this 3D environment follows a standard world-in-hand navigation model. Alternatively, the camera position and angle can be modified using the Navigation Widget, which also provides an overview map. The Console provides feedback to the user such as the results of statistical tests and warnings about potential problems with loaded data. Almost all features available through the graphical user interface can be accessed within the Python Console window. This includes loading data layers, modifying camera parameters, and accessing location or sequence data. Information about interface elements or graphical features within the Viewport is displayed on the Statusbar.
Menu Items
File Menu
- New study: (In development) Creates a new study. A study can contain any number of maps, location sets, sequence data files, and geographic tree models.
- Open study: (In development) Open a previously saved study.
- Save study: (In development) Save the current study.
- Save study as: (In development) Save the current study under a new filename.
- Save image as: (In development) Save Viewport contents to a PNG file.
- Exit: Exits the program.
View Menu
- Panes->Side Panel: Hide/unhide the left side panel containing the Layer tree.
- Panes->Console: Hide/unhide the bottom panel containing the Console and Python Console.
- Camera Position->Default: Move camera to its default perspective position.
- Camera Position->Top: Move camera to give a top-down view of the map.
- Detail->Fine: Increase the level-of-detail of the map.
- Detail->Coarse: Decrease the level-of-detail of the map.
Layer Menu
- Add map: Add a map to the currently selected study.
- Add location set: Add a location set to the currently selected map.
- Add sequence data Add sequence data to the currently selected location set
- Add tree: Add a geographic tree model to the currently selected map.
- Remove layer: Remove the currently selected layer.
- Hide all layers: Hide all layers so they are no longer displayed in the Viewport.
- Show all layers: Show all layers in the Viewport.
Settings Menu
- Lighting: Brings up the Lighting Properties dialog box which allows properties of the light source used to render the Viewport to be modified.
- Layout objects: Brings up the Layout Objects Properties dialog box which all visual properties of layout primatives to be modified.
Help Menu
- About: Brings up an About GenGIS dialog box which contains a link to this website in addition to other information.
Toolbar Buttons
You can move the map by holding down the left mouse button while moving the mouse. To change the pitch of the camera, hold the right mouse button down and move the mouse up and down. Similarly, to rotate the map move the mouse left or right while holding down the right mouse button. The camera can be zoomed using the scroll wheel on your mouse.
The navigation widget can also be used to navigate around the map. The arrows at the top of the widget allow the map to be moved while the plus and minus button let one zoom in and out of the map. Clicking on the compass and dragging the mouse around the compass face allows one to rotate the map. User can jump to a specific point in the map by clicking within the overview map.
Predefined Views
GenGIS also provides two convenient default views. To quickly switch to a perspective view or a top down view use either the View→Camera Position menu items or the corresponding toolbar buttons.


text:
STOCKHOLM (AP) _ ABBA wants to be remembered for more than just catchy hits.
A museum opens in Stockholm on Tuesday to show off band paraphernalia, including the helicopter featured on the cover of their ``Arrival'' album, a star-shaped guitar and dozens of glitzy costumes the Swedish band wore at the height of its 1970s fame.
But some gear is definitely not on show. Band member Bjorn Ulveaus says certain items are ``forever lost,'' conceding only that they are ``embarrassing'' tight costumes he wore when he was ``slightly overweight.'' He declined to say more.
Some 40 sets of the trademark shiny flares, platform boots and knitted hats are on display. Visitors can try on costumes, record music videos and sing such hits as ``Dancing Queen'' and ``Mamma Mia'' in a studio.
From the Associated PressAssociated Press


text:
Under Our Charge the Utes and the Unitarians
By Ted Fetter.
Although the relationship between the Ute tribe and the American Unitarian Association, a principal forerunner to the UUA, is not well known, the two share a significant story together. The Unitarians became, in effect, agents of the United States Government in its policy toward Native Americans.
In the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant set out a new policy toward Native Americans. Dubbed the "peace policy," it involved religious organizations in the operation of the 69 Indian agencies that were located throughout the country on reservations. There were at least three reasons for involving religious professionals: there would be less corruption, a greater chance for resources from the denominations, and increased likelihood of converting the Indians to Christianity, a major step toward assimilation.
As part of that program, the American Unitarian Association (AUA) accepted responsibility for two Ute agencies in Colorado. Between 1871 and 1878, the Unitarians nominated five different men, including four ministers, to serve as Indian agents for the two agencies. The responsibilities of Indian agents were to carry out government policy, distribute the supplies as guaranteed by treaty (but seldom delivered in full or on time), hear Indian grievances against whites (but without any power over white settlers), and investigate and deal with white complaints against the Indians. Indian agents were also to insist that the Natives learn English and learn how to farm.
The Utes were a proud people. They lived in what they called the "Shining Mountains," most of what is now Colorado. They prospered as hunter-gatherers, using summer and winter camps to follow buffalo and other game. Houses that could not be moved seemed impractical, and there was no need or desire to cultivate crops. In Robert Emmitt's book The Last War Trail: The Utes and the Settlement of Colorado, Saponise Cuch is quoted: "It was a life with little hunger and want, where play and humor were taught to smother pain, sickness and death; a life where the good play of the hunt brought food, and the pleasure of the dance brought a man a wife, a woman a husband; a life where a man owned little and belonged to everything."
When whites came to Colorado, the Utes emphasized diplomacy to avoid war. They agreed to limit their lands in the Treaty of 1868. When gold discoveries fed settlers' appetite for Ute territory, they were forced to give up more land. Nevertheless, the Utes sought to live on the land they still had and in accord with the dictates of the treaties.
The Unitarians who came as Indian agents were hard working, honest, and dedicated. They saw the needs of the Utes and tried their best to assist them. For example, when the supplies guaranteed by the treaties were not provided as promised the agents entreated Washington to meet its obligations. When white settlers came onto the reservation in violation of the treaties, they objected to this encroachment, but were unable to force the whites to leave or to get local law enforcement to remove them. When the government insisted that the Utes farm their lands, the agents pointed out that much of the reservation was arid, experienced frost twelve months a year, and was infested with grasshoppers.
Rev. Edward H. Danforth, Indian Agent at White River, Colorado, wrote this in his annual report dated August 31, 1877: "Fourteen different families have commenced in a small way at farming. Unfortunately for them and the esteem in which the work will be held in future the grasshoppers, the extraordinary drought, and July frost have cut their crops off entirely. About twelve acres were prepared and planted by Indians — potatoes, corn, garden vegetables, and oats were planted and sown, but they will get nothing for their labor."
While well-intentioned, the Unitarian Indian agents were not very effective. Though they tried to be helpful, they were politically naive in their relations with the Indian Affairs Office in the Department of the Interior and with local political leaders. They were not able to secure added funding from the AUA for schools; generally the agents' wives were the teachers for Ute children. And they were not good managers of the resources and staff the government supplied.
In addition, some of the Unitarian agents had personalities that stood out as odd on the Colorado frontier. The best example is Rev. J. Nelson Trask. Trask arrived at the Los Pinos Agency in 1871, and from the start he seemed strange. One historian writes: "Trask walked about the agency in a dark blue swallow-tail coat, skin-tight trousers, and, to protect himself from the sun, an old-fashioned floppy beaver hat with a broad brim, and a set of green eye goggles." Trask was one of several agents who had a strong moral sense that the Indians were not being treated fairly but who could not establish a satisfactory relationship with the Utes, to say nothing of a working relationship with local officials in Colorado.
Most importantly, the Unitarian Indian agents were part of the United States government policy towards Native Americans, a program that forced the Indians to choose between annihilation and assimilation. These agents implicitly adopted a stance that supported assimilation of the Utes into the dominant culture, trying hard to teach English, encouraging adoption of settled agriculture in an unforgiving climate, and succumbing to white intrusion on Ute land. While sympathetic to the Utes, they could see no alternative.
The interaction between the Utes and the Unitarians ended in 1878 and 1879. Rev. Danforth had wanted to end his service at White River. In 1878, without consulting the AUA, the United States government appointed Nathan C. Meeker as its Indian agent. Although Meeker was not a Unitarian, he continued to correspond with the AUA and to seek its guidance and assistance. Meeker was much stronger than his predecessors in his insistence on agriculture and his forcefulness in dealing with Ute leaders. His intransigence led to conflict and strife with many Utes. The difficulties climaxed with his murder. "The Utes killed Meeker for his inability to understand the Indian people he was supposed to represent. They drove a barrel stave through his throat so in the afterlife he could not tell lies." As a result of the so-called Meeker Massacre, the Utes were forcibly removed from their precious Colorado homeland in 1880 and relocated to parched, dry land in eastern Utah. The program in which the Unitarians played a part had reached its conclusion: the Utes lost their Shining Mountains forever.


text:
Redwood Community Radio Board of Directors
4 PM- 23 July, 2013
Healy Senior Center, 456 Briceland Road, Redway
I.Call to Order: Meeting Ground Rules and Opening Comments from President
II.Roll Call: Suzanne Beers, President, Board-elected; Siena Klein, Vice President, MemberŌĆÖs Rep; Noel Soucy, Secretary, ProgrammersŌĆÖ Rep; Nella White, MembersŌĆÖ Rep; Jordan Jumpshot, ProgrammersŌĆÖ Rep; Antonia Lamb, board-elected; Marcy Stein, ProgrammersŌĆÖ Rep; ex officio member: Jeanette Todd, Station Manager.
Absent: Julia Minton, Treasurer, MembersŌĆÖ Rep.
III.Approval of Minutes: May and June. Not approved yet.
IV.Approval of Agenda: Agenda was approved.
V.Open Time: Speakers will be assigned an amount of time not to exceed 5 minutes
Jama- Thanks Suzanne for your service to the Board. Jama wanted to acknowledge the time Suz put in to this organization. Jama would like to see us start paying the Senior Center for Board Meeting space. Also it would be good if we could help out the Senior center and volunteer for the yard sale. It is important for the Board not to micromanage staff, however the Bylaws require the Board to ensure equal access to the airwaves and quality programming.
VI.Management Report (See written report in Public File)
Some items in the Compliance Calendar are finished, and we got an extension on our CPB audit. Jeanette is wondering what people think about closing the office on Fridays to allow Staff that work on Friday to stay focused.
VII.Discussion/Questions for Management
Jama- Wants to hear about who is organizing for the ROTR Coffee Booth. She would like to see this work not predominately done by Jeanette.
Jeanette- The idea is for the volunteer coordinator to organize volunteers and not work at the festival. Our Coffee Booth coordinator has proposed to take a certain percentage of the profits for running the booth, and Jeanette is working out the details. The ŌĆ£Fundraising StipendsŌĆØ policy could use clarification.
Suz- Is the License Renewal Application ready for August 1st?
Jeanette- The application is not ready. Jeanette doesnŌĆÖt have any law experience, and made some calls to find out if we could contract with someone for this. She got a quote for around $8,000, but that is too expensive.
VIII.Finance Committee Report
The Treasurer is absent. Barb Truitt reported that she has been working with the Finance Committee, and will be funded by Humboldt Area Foundation through the remaining Technical Assistance Program funds. She has spoken with Jeanette and Julia about revamping the Chart of Accounts to more closely align with CPB requirements, asap, so that future budgeting and long-awaited Cash Flow Projection can be done with that new Chart. SheŌĆÖll have a report for the Board at the August meeting.
Barb recommends that one person at KMUD looks at every element with frequent regularity. Jeanette has too much on her plate to do this, and itŌĆÖs not clear who can.
Jama said that at the Finance Com. meeting, when time was up they hadnŌĆÖt achieved a new budget draft to propose to the Board.
Jeanette reported that she and Dian worked on the line items that had been identified at the Finance meeting -- Office Supplies, Studio Supplies, and News Dept. 50% of the items in the Office Supplies line had been mis-categorized, which led to the over-budget amount. Same with Studio Supplies, to a lesser extent. Because we havenŌĆÖt hired a second news anchor, the pay for that person has been coming out of News Stringers, so that line is over-budget.
IX.Unfinished Business
A.Technology Proposal- Tabled unanimously.
B.Compliance Calendar Revision- Tabled unanimously.
C.Appointments to the CAB- Rick asked us to table that. Suz moved to table this item until next month. Antonia seconds. Two abstained, motion passes to table.
X.New Business
A.Appointments to the Grievance Panel- Marcy moves that we appoint Carol Van Sant and Sandy Tilles. Siena seconds. Board approves the appointments unanimously.
B.Policy Revision ŌĆ£Fair Access to the AirwavesŌĆØ- replacing the Fairness Doctrine. An initial discussion occurred, and language will be proposed later.
C.Policy Revision- Disciplinary Policy- Jordan moves to approve this policy revision, the draft dated July 19. Siena seconds. Unanimous. This will receive its second consideration next month.
D.Budget Approval- Suz would like to charge the Finance Committee to have a special meeting to create a budget that we can approve before the next meeting. Antonia moves that we table budget approval until next month. Marcy seconds. Unanimous.
E.Call for nominations for Board-elect seats. None at this time; nominations are due by August 21.
F.Close office to public one day a week- Nella moves that we provisionally close the office for one day a week, and that we re-evaluate in three months, except in case of an emergency. We leave the decision up to Jeanette to decide which day to close the office. Marcy seconds. Unanimous.
A.ProgrammersŌĆÖ Reps- The Block Party was really great. There was a Programmer and Volunteer Party before that. Both events went really well. There were programmers there that we havenŌĆÖt seen. Just offer free beer, and they will come.
B.MembersŌĆÖ Reps- The Ballots have been mailed out, and will be counted on August 20th.
C.Community Advisory Boards (CABŌĆÖs)- No report this month. Jeanette thinks the CABs need direction. We need to ask them for things. We should show them the CAG report from KHSU. Jordan offers to edit the KHSU CAG report for our CABŌĆÖs use.
D.Correspondence Secretaries- Thankyous- Rich Franciscovich for weed whacking which reduced fire danger, and helping to save KMUD from a brush fire yesterday, Marty Messenger of County Roads for dropping off and picking up signs to close the road for the Block Party, Darren Tomasini at Dazeys, Northern Nights for giving us a booth space, The Mateel for loaning shade tents. During the break Suzanne received a gift and a thank you card, since she will miss the August meeting, when her term ends.
E.Staff meeting report, and appoint next Board member(s) to attend
XII.Other Committee Reports
A.Development, including Pledge Drive Subcommittee ŌĆō The Pledge Drive Committee is moving along with planning the upcoming August Pledge Drive.
C.Policy- See Written Report in Public File. We need another Board Member on the Policy Committee.
D.Website ŌĆō See Written Report in Public File.
E.Elections- Ballots should be mailed on 5th business day in July. At Executive Committee we acknowledged that the ballots were going to be sent out at a later date. The Ballots were mailed out today, July 23rd. Members will still have the same amount of time to vote, and the Ballots will be counted on August 20th.
XIII.Scheduling -- proposed meeting times are:
A.Board of Directors: 27 August, 4 pm, Healy Senior Center
B.Executive Committee: 12 August, 3 pm, Studio B
C.Finance Committee: 20 August, 3 pm, KMUD
D.Development Committee: 5 August, 3 pm, KMUD
E.Policy Committee: 12 August, 11 am, KMUD
F.Website Committee: 13 August, 10 am, KMUD
G.Board/Staff Strategic Meeting: August TBA
XIV.Closed Session- Personnel items
Minutes respectfully submitted by Noel Soucy, RCR Vice Pres, on 12 December 2013.


text:
Visual Observers Reports and Discussions.
Posted 13 August 2013 - 03:27 PM
With the thread we visual observers have been using, "Hope some of you guys are out there tonight" getting a bit long in the tooth, and a little diverse in subject matter, I thought it would be a good idea to open a new post dedicated to the visual side of our hobby. Anyone with a visaul report to make, regardless of his/her main interest in the hobby, is invited to post their visual observations here. This would be mainly for Celestron,Nexstar scopes, but I'm sure the Mods won't mind reports from "other" scopes we own.
Sorry I don't have a report to start the ball rolling. The weather still refuses to play ball.
If you lads respond and start posting here, all well and good. If not, I will ask the Mods to delete it. Please let me know how you feel about it.
Regards. Peter.
Posted 13 August 2013 - 05:56 PM
I was out Saturday night but the humidity was pretty thick. I did get to see M31 and could barely make out M8. Wanted to stay out long enough to see the Pleiades, but I was getting tired so I packed it in. Seeing was dismal. Come on cooler weather.
Posted 13 August 2013 - 07:18 PM
Posted 13 August 2013 - 07:39 PM
Earlier Sunday I brought my scope out to get a shot of the moon. Last night the clouds were coming fast but I set the scope up on the deck and managed to get in 45 minutes of lunar observing and trying out my new Baader zoom. The seeing wasn't too good and thin clouds were moving through (a nice sight, really) but it was pleasant out. I quick solar system align on the moon did a fine enough job of tracking.
It should clear up later in the week and I hope to take my scope out to some dark skies for a bit of fun with no camera involved but the moon will be in the way.
I've posted this in another thread:
Shot over the last month:
Posted 13 August 2013 - 08:26 PM
Spot on! I think this is a good idea
Weather hasn't been the best here. I planned on doing some observing when my daughter was down this past weekend but we had a lot of clouds. I did get out with a pair of 7X35 binocs with a very wide FOV and enjoyed Sagittarius and Scorpio. I was out last night for awhile and I saw one very good Perseid that last about 2 seconds. Nothing after that. Hope to get out some this weekend if it is clear...
Posted 14 August 2013 - 06:20 AM
Thanks for your support. Good you were, I like me last week, able to snatch some time to observe.
Unfortunately, Sagittarius and it's wealth of goodies never gets much above 17deg for me at 53 and a bit North, with M11 topping out at around 30 deg. The good side is that it skirts my horizon for 3 months or more, so I get a few goes at it.
Hi James,
Thanks for your support. We'll see how it developers. Should be good to exchange experiences both viewing and equipment wise, plus the god awful weather.
Hi Nodalpoint,
Many thanks for your report and support. Pleased you managed to capture a few of the Perseids. Well done on seeing the "green flame beauty". The show has been clouded out so far here in Yorkshire. May catch one or two still if the skies clear.
Hi Tony,
Thanks too for your support. Hope others will use it too. It would be able to throw ideas/ viewing experiences etc around in one place. Time will tell. Good to hear you saw something while your daughter was visiting. Binoculars are a good fall back when all else fails.
Let's hope our skies clear soon.
Regards. Peter.
Posted 15 August 2013 - 04:23 AM
Will try for Sagittarius and surrounding area again if the forecast holds good.
Regards. Peter.
Posted 15 August 2013 - 12:23 PM
we can see so much with these scopes, it is nice to discuss of what we see and not only what we play with
i will start by writing that buying the Herschell 400 book by Steve o'meara is a great idea. it gives observation goals doable with the 8se.
from a dark site i managed to see the faint galaxy near M13. only a faint fuzzy but before i started using this guide i was unaware of its existence. the fun is mainly to use charts and finder without using the go to.
Posted 15 August 2013 - 05:53 PM
Just read the thread on the field book, "Objects in the Heavens" and ordered it. Looks like it will be a good field book...
Posted 15 August 2013 - 05:54 PM
Posted 16 August 2013 - 07:21 AM
Herschel 400 is indeed a good book to have. I have it along with Turn left at Orion, which looks like it is based on the same format as, although much less detailed, Herschel 400.
As for it being fun using charts instead of Goto, I 'm afraid I have to disagree. The fun for me is in observing heavenly objects, not spending half my time trying to find them.
When I switched from my slow mo controlled Newt to the Goto 6se it was one of those " why did I wait so long " moments. I know, I'm a lazy begger.
Thanks for your support. Look forward to yours, and everyone else's, further contributions.
Regards. Peter.
Posted 16 August 2013 - 08:53 AM
Posted 16 August 2013 - 12:33 PM
Tonight should be good for seeing the nova if the moon doesn't wash out the sky too badly. Using the NexStar mount go to Stars>Asterisms>Diamond Cluster. The nova should be somewhere northwest of that. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I realize this is a visual observing thread but I'm attaching a couple photos. I'm able to put my ASI120MM camera into the scope and take images of what I'm looking at, quick and dirty. Even though my background is in fine arts, I can't draw well enough to make decent stick figures so sketching is a no go. This is my substitute.
Posted 16 August 2013 - 12:51 PM
they are excellent, very nice job
Posted 16 August 2013 - 02:02 PM
Your pics are very good and welcome, they being done while observing. Thanks for your report.
To compliment the Baader zoom, I have 3 W.A eyepieces of 26mm, 30mm and 38mm. All are 2" E.Ps in order to maximize the F.O.V
My skies are clear right now, so I too am making preps for a nights observing.
Regards. Peter.
Posted 17 August 2013 - 12:59 PM
Last night the moon was too bright to do anything but look at the moon, and seeing how I'm new to owning a telescope, of course I'm going to look at it. I made images of Clavius and Copernicus while sitting at the eyepiece (it's kind of sci fi to me) then turned my attention to the new nova. I was able to find it pretty fast and made a quick capture to see if I could line up the stars with online photos of the nova to make sure I had it. With the moon out it was not a naked eye object from my vantage point. Nevertheless, it was easy to find both by going to nearby NGC 6905 or putting in the RA/Dec.
Posted 17 August 2013 - 10:23 PM
I've attached some pics even though you can't see much detail in the planets. Thanks for looking.
Posted 17 August 2013 - 10:24 PM
Posted 18 August 2013 - 03:29 AM
First target was M11. It is a gem of an O.C. and looked great in the 26 mm 70 deg E.P. On to NGC6823 a nice, if small O.C. Then on to the Coat Hanger Asterism. This is a favourite of mine and looks great in the 9x50 finder. M27 (Dumbbell) next. Spent time here with the UHC filter making a world of difference. Lots of wispy cloud about but x200 showed some detail and lots of nebula. Next was NGC6834 an unusual OC. it's shaped roughly like an edge on galaxy with a line of 5 brightish stars running along the Lenght of the cluster. Took in I.C 4756. This is a lovely rich open cluster come star field. Best view was again through the 9 x 50 finder. Had a quick look at OCs NGC6709 and 6934 before popping along to G C M15. Stars were easily resolved in the 11inch and at x230 it put on a great display. Clouds are now gathering (23.30) with a vengeance, but I press on to M2 for another excellent view of a GC. Then on to NGC 7009 the Saturn Nebula. Not the greatest view due to the fact that it was low in the sky (25deg) and in hazy cloud. None the less, the UHC filter enhanced the view. It's now 00.30 and the clouds are making it difficult to continue. Had another look at M11 and called it a draw or the night.
The 1100 performed flawlessly. Same brilliant optics as the 8se but with 3 inches of extra aperture to make everything bigger and brighter. The other big advantage it the stability. The 1100 on it's tripod is rock steady.
On the two nebula I viewed, the UHC filter made a big difference. Well worth the price.
All in all I had a great 3 hours or so in the company of a fine telescope.
Edit... For the Open clusters I use my 26mm, 30mm, and 38mm 70deg eyepieces. I use the Baader zoom on M15, M2 and the Saturn Nebula.
Regards. Peter.
Posted 18 August 2013 - 04:27 AM
If these are quick and dirty, I'll certainly be one of the first to put on the running shoes and hide the soap !
Best regards,
Posted 18 August 2013 - 04:37 AM
I too attempted a shot at Uranus,.... back in '06. No detail but just nice to say I'd "got" it !
What I like about your two images, (if shot under the same conditions), is the well illustrated comparison in the distance related size between Uranus and Neptune.
Congratulations on such a presentation ! :bow:
Best regards,
Posted 18 August 2013 - 05:21 AM
Regards. Peter.
Posted 18 August 2013 - 07:02 AM
I see you stayed out longer than me, you old night rake.
Regards. Peter.
Posted 18 August 2013 - 08:22 AM
Sorry I'm not familiar with your English slang. Could you explain a "night rake". Believe me I paid for it the next day. The kids wake up early and make plenty of noise . My forecast called for clouds last night, but by 9:00 it cleared. Unfortunately, this old night rake was dead tired !
Posted 18 August 2013 - 08:43 AM


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Pickleball is a racquet sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis and table tennis.
Two, three, or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, similar to a wiffle ball over a net. The sport shares features of other racquet sports, the dimensions and layout of a badminton court, and a net and rules similar to tennis, with a few modifications.
When: Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays
Time: 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Where: Gym
Contact: Gabe Carlson-515-327-6000


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Oliver McNally made all four of his free throws and finished with nine points in the win over No. 20 FSU (Kerzner International/Issac Baldizon).
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – The Harvard men's basketball team earned its first win over a top-25 team since 2009, as the Crimson topped No. 20 Florida State, 46-41, in a defensive contest during a semifinal game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament Friday afternoon.
The Crimson, which improve to 5-0 on the season will face Central Florida in the championship game Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The game will be shown live on Versus.
Oliver McNally led the Crimson in scoring with nine points, while Saunders added seven. Harvard held the Seminoles to only 17 field goals, as FSU (5-1) shot 36.2 percent from the floor. The Crimson outrebounded FSU, 40-30, with Keith Wright leading the way with eight boards for Harvard. Brandyn Curry made five steals for Harvard, which forced 16 Seminole turnovers. FSU's Michael Snaer was the only player on either team to reach double figures, as he finished with 10 points.
FSU's 41 points was the least for a Harvard opponent since the Crimson held Dartmouth to 40 points in a 59-40 win in Hanover, N.H., Jan. 6, 1996.
McNally gave Harvard a 2-0 edge early with two connections from the foul line, as neither team managed a field goal until the 15:04 mark when McNally nailed a trey to make it 5-0. Midway through the half, Jonah Travis nailed two free throws to give Harvard a 7-0 lead. The Crimson defense held tough until just under nine minutes left in the stanza, as FSU missed its first 14 shots of the game over the first 11:11 of action.
With just under six minutes left in the first, Steve Moundou-Missi hit a basket to give the Crimson a 10-9 lead. With time winding down, Webster nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game, 14-14, heading into halftime. The 28 combined points by Harvard and FSU in the first half tied a record for fewest points in a half in the shot-clock era (since 1986). Harvard shot 3-of-23 (.130) from the field, while the Seminoles were 5-of-24 (.208) in the half. The Crimson also came down with 25 rebounds, with Wright grabbing a team-best six.
Kyle Casey opened the second with a thunderous alley-oop after Curry tossed up a pass just to the right of the hoop, making it 16-14. With just under 15 minutes left to go, Wright added a two-handed jam to give Harvard a 19-16 advantage. Saunders drove the lane for a dunk of his own moments later as Harvard led, 21-16, with 12:47 remaining.
With 8:53 to go, Wright dunked the ball with authority on the fast-break and made the free throw after being fouled, giving Harvard a 26-24 advantage. On the Crimson's next trip down the floor, Laurent Rivard drained a trey to make it 29-24. Curry connected with Moundou-Miss for a lay-up with 7:19 to play, as Harvard opened a seven-point lead, 31-24.
Rivard buried another triple to give Harvard a 34-26 lead with just over six minutes to play. Wesley Saunders hit a layup with 4:15 to go, making it a 36-29 game in favor of the Crimson. Saunders stepped up to the free-throw line with 2:49 left, hitting one to give Harvard a five-point cushion, 37-32.
With 57 seconds left, Curry hit a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired and then made two free throws after being fouled on the next possession to give Harvard a 42-34 lead, putting the game out of reach.
The Crimson finished the game 12-of-44 from the field (.273), but was 17-of-24 from the foul line (.708). The Seminoles only made 4-of-10 foul shots (.400).
Prior to upsetting Florida State, the Crimson last defeated a top-25 team when Harvard downed another ACC team, No. 17 Boston College, 82-70-, Jan. 7, 2009.
Harvard Head Coach Tommy Amaker
"We are thrilled to be in the position we are to play a very unusual type of game this afternoon with the stats sheet – I don't think I have ever seen a game like that. I kind of find it hard to come out on top against a national ranked and outstanding defensive team with Florida State. I am very pleased with the effort that our guys have shown at Battle 4 Atlantis. We are a veteran ball club and we went against another veteran ball club and both teams were trying to find their way through this and we were fortunate to have made some plays down the stretch and inbounding the ball to come out with a victory."
"Brandyn is our best playmaker. We always want the ball in his hands to make a play and to score as well. The three pointer he made late in the game was a huge shot and he also made some terrific basketball plays – finding other players open. We had to have a group effort, especially on the defense side at the end. Everyone was helping to rebound. "
Harvard Senior Guard Oliver McNally
"I think we were really solid. We didn't really have a specific focus on one FSU player. We stuck to our defense strategy that we have been doing the whole year, but neither team shot the ball very well."


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Six Nations
Ireland name Jamie Heaslip captain
ESPN Staff
January 17, 2013
Jamie Heaslip will skipper Ireland in the Six Nations © Getty Images
Analysis by ESPNscrum's Graham Jenkins
Ireland boss Declan Kidney has named Leinster's No.8 Jamie Heaslip his skipper for the forthcoming Six Nations.
Heaslip will preside over the 39-man training squad that was unveiled on Thursday. The party includes six uncapped players who will remain hopeful of getting a run out in the Six Nations but will also be in the frame to play England on January 25 in the Irish Wolfhounds' match.
Kidney has opted to call up Connacht's uncapped duo Robbie Henshaw and Dave McSharry while Ulster's Paddy Jackson has also got the nod. And there are also call ups for Ulster's Lewis Stevenson, his team-mate Paul Marshall and Leinster's Ian Madigan.
Madigan's team-mate Luke Fitzgerald gets the nod despite having played just 124 minutes of rugby for Leinster since April last year. He last turned out for Ireland before the 2011 World Cup but with the British & Irish Lions tour on the horizon, he will hope to force his way back into the frame and add to the Test cap he collected in 2009.
And it is Fitzgerald's Leinster team-mate Heaslip that will lead the party. He led Ireland during the autumn series with former skipper Brian O'Driscoll sidelined but despite O'Driscoll's return to the training squad, Kidney has opted for the No.8.
"I was incredibly honoured when Declan asked me back in November to lead the team in Brian's absence," Heaslip said. "To lead your country is the ultimate in any sport. To get the opportunity again, considering what an inspirational leader Brian is and the other players who could have been chosen to captain the team, is even more humbling. I know Brian as a teammate and as a friend and I will be relying on his and the other players support as we head into the Championship."
O'Driscoll claimed he was "very disappointed" to miss out on the captaincy but he will support Heaslip fully. O'Driscoll said: "The captaincy has been a big part of my career and life over the last number of years, and while I was naturally very disappointed not to be leading the team in the Six Nations, when I talked it through with Declan I accepted the reasons behind the decision.
"I've always known that the Rugby World Cup in 2015 was most likely a bridge too far for me, so at some point a player, who will most likely be there for the tournament, needs to build that captaincy experience. Jamie will do a fantastic job and along with the other senior players in the leadership group, I will be giving him all of the support that he needs."
And with O'Driscoll having spent much of the last year on the sidelines, Kidney wants his talismanic centre to be focusing purely on his own form rather than the added distraction of the captaincy.
"Jamie had done a really good job for the squad and management during November and I felt that now was the correct time to do this," Kidney said. "Brian has had very little rugby in the last number of months and I think he deserves the space and time to concentrate on getting himself back playing fully fit.
"We need Brian the player just as much as we need Brian the captain and typical of the man and the selfless way he has contributed to Irish Rugby and the Ireland team, he has said that the captain and the team would have his full support."
Ireland kick-off their Six Nations campaign on February 2 against 2012 Six Nations champions Wales and Kidney is relishing the chance to see his team build on their morale boosting win over Argentina in November. He will also cast a watchful eye to the Wolfhounds' match on January 25 in which the likes of O'Driscoll and Fitzgerald are rumoured to be in the frame for a run out.
"Our priority is the Wales game, but there is an opportunity in the Wolfhounds match for some of the players as we head into the Six Nations. While the majority of our focus is on the preparations for the Wales game, the coaching staff felt it made sense to have time with the wider group of players and also to have two fully fit teams on the field ready to train after what is usually an attritional end to the group stages in Europe.
"There are quite a few players who have been out injured and could be lacking game time, so this will be the ideal chance for them and the newer members in the squad to challenge for places in the senior team. After the Wolfhounds game we will able to name a smaller squad which will train together and prepare for the Wales game."
Ireland training squad:
Forwards: Michael Bent (Leinster), Rory Best (Ulster), Tom Court (Ulster), Sean Cronin (Leinster), Declan Fitzpatrick (Ulster), Cian Healy (Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Leinster), Iain Henderson (Ulster), Chris Henry (Ulster), David Kilcoyne (Munster), Mike McCarthy (Connacht), Sean O'Brien (Leinster), Donncha O'Callaghan (Munster), Peter O'Mahony (Munster), Mike Ross (Leinster), Donnacha Ryan (Munster), Lewis Stevenson (Ulster), Richardt Strauss (Leinster), Devin Toner (Leinster)
Backs: Isaac Boss (Leinster), Darren Cave (Ulster), Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster), Keith Earls (Munster), Luke Fitzgerald (Leinster), Craig Gilroy (Ulster), Robbie Henshaw (Connacht), Paddy Jackson (Ulster), Rob Kearney (Leinster), Ian Madigan (Leinster), Paul Marshall (Ulster), Conor Murray (Munster), Fergus McFadden (Leinster), Dave McSharry (Connacht), Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster), Ronan O'Gara (Munster), Eoin Reddan (Leinster), Jonathan Sexton (Leinster), Andrew Trimble (Ulster), Simon Zebo (Ulster)
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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Welcome to the Connecticut 4-H Data Hub!
These three interactive tools are designed to:
- Explore and learn about the reach of the 4-H program based on a variety of demographic variables such as gender, race, ethnicity, and residence type.
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Navigate each tool's tabs to look at the data from different perspectives. You'll find helpful definitions to the right to aid in your research.
Helpful Definitions of Delivery Modes
- Organized 4-H Club: An organized group of youth, led by an adult, with a planned program that is carried on throughout all or most of the year. This category is broken up into community, in-school, after-school, and military clubs.
- Special Interest/Short Term Program: Groups of youth meeting for a special learning experience that involves direct teaching by extension staff or trained volunteers.
- Camping Program: Youth taking part in an Extension planned educational experience of group living in the outdoors. This category is broken up into overnight and day camping.
- School Enrichment Program: Groups of youth receiving a sequence of learning experiences in cooperation with school officials during school hours to support the school curriculum.
Select a Dashboard
Includes trends for all delivery modes in 4-H programming.
Data is based on all group enrollments within 4-H Online.
Data is based on all individual enrollments within 4-H Online.


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Sony Music Entertainment and Simon Cowell Launch New Global Venture: 'Syco'
Jan 19, 2010, 10:50 ET
LONDON and NEW YORK, January 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Simon Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment today announced the creation of a new long-term global venture to focus on the production and exploitation of music, television, film and digital content.
The new venture will own all of the existing Syco television and music assets, which include the global TV franchises "The X Factor" and "Got Talent", as well as superstar artists such as Leona Lewis, Susan Boyle and Il Divo. The new venture, which will continue to use the "Syco" name, will be co-owned by Sony Music and a Simon Cowell-owned company. Syco will be based in London and will also have offices in Los Angeles.
As the first project under the new Syco banner, Fox Television announced (on January 11th) that it will launch the U.S. version of the worldwide hit TV show, "The X Factor", in the fall of 2011. Cowell will serve as both executive producer and judge on the U.S. version of the show.
"The X Factor" is a Syco-owned television format, which currently airs in 17 countries and has been the #1 UK entertainment show for the last three years, reaching record UK audiences in 2009 of 20 million with 60% audience share. "The X Factor" is the No.1 music- entertainment format in Europe.
In addition to "The X Factor", Syco is also the owner of the "Got Talent" TV format which currently airs in 27 countries and is the UK's most successful TV format export. In 2009, "Britain's Got Talent" launched the global music career of Susan Boyle, whose debut album, "I Dreamed A Dream", sold over 8 million albums in six weeks, making it the world's biggest selling album of 2009 and the fastest selling album in history.
Syco is also the record label home for such diverse international recording stars as Leona Lewis and Il Divo. Cowell has worked with artists selling more than 180 million albums and delivered more than 150 No.1 records. In 2009, Cowell was named No. 1 in Hollywood Reporter's Top 50 Most Powerful in Reality TV and one of Entertainment Weekly's Top Entertainers of the Year.
"I have had a fantastic relationship with Sony for many years and I'm delighted we are launching this venture together," Cowell said.
"Over the past 20 years, Simon Cowell has been a great partner and is an integral part of the Sony Music global family. We are extremely excited to be able to continue and further develop our relationship with Simon, and significantly grow the Syco venture," said Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, CEO, Sony Music Entertainment.
"Simon Cowell is one of the most prominent and successful creative music and television executives in the entertainment business today. This new venture will allow Sony Music and all Sony divisions to develop and pursue a host of new opportunities with this supremely talented individual," said Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President, Sony Corporation.
"I am absolutely delighted that we have been able to extend our long and mutually beneficial partnership with Simon. He is an inspiring and stimulating business partner and working with him closely over the last 10 years has been an absolute pleasure. With the launch of "The X Factor" in the US, we look forward to replicating the unprecedented success the show has had in the UK globally," said Ged Doherty, Chairman and CEO, Sony Music Entertainment UK.
NOTES TO EDITORS: - "Syco" with offices in London and Los Angeles, is a global music, television, film and digital production and exploitation joint venture between Simon Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment. - Prior to the creation of the new Syco venture, Syco was the name used for Cowell's music and television activities within Sony Music Entertainment UK. Syco currently employs a staff of 28. - Sir Philip Green will be an advisor to Simon Cowell and a shareholder in the company, majority owned and controlled by Cowell, which will serve as the partner with Sony Music in the new Syco. - Syco Television, produces the BAFTA Award-winning "The X Factor" which airs in 17 countries and has topped the charts in Europe and in the U.K, where Cowell continues to serve as both executive producer and judge. "The X Factor" 2009 reached UK audiences of 20 million (60% audience share), and in Denmark, the audience share reached a record high of 80%. - Syco Television is also the owner of the "Got Talent" television format which airs in 27 countries worldwide. - Cowell also executive produces "America's Got Talent" and judges and produces "Britain's Got Talent. - In late 2009, Syco Music's Susan Boyle became the biggest selling artist in the world, when her debut album "I Dreamed a Dream" sold over 8 Million albums in just 6 weeks, making it the fastest selling album in history. To date it has reached No.1 in the album charts in 21 countries. - Cowell has worked with artists selling more than 180 million albums and more than 150 No.1 records. - In 2009, Cowell was named No. 1 in Hollywood Reporter's Top 50 Most Powerful in Reality TV and one of Entertainment Weekly's Top Entertainers of the Year.
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment is a global recorded music company with a roster of current artists that includes a broad array of both local artists and international superstars. The company boasts a vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordings in history. It is home to premier record labels representing music from every genre, including American Recordings, Arista Nashville, Arista Records, Aware, Battery Records, Beach Street Records, Black Seal, BNA Records, Cinematic, Columbia Nashville, Columbia Records, Epic Records, Essential Records, Flicker Records, Fo-Yo Soul, GospoCentric, Hitz Committee Entertainment, J Records, Jive Records, LaFace Records, Legacy Recordings, Masterworks, Polo Grounds, RCA Records, RCA Nashville, RCA Red Seal, RCA Victor, Reunion Records, Slightly Dangerous, Sony Classical, Sony Music Latin, Star Time International, Verity Records, and Volcano Entertainment. Sony Music Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.
Media Contact: Sony Music Entertainment Liz Young Simon Cowell / Syco Ann-Marie Thomson Head of Media, Syco firstname.lastname@example.com Sony Music UK Paul Bursche email@example.com
SOURCE Sony Music Entertainment


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Directors' Compensation and Board Practices in 2008
- Authors:
Publication Date:
December 2008
The current financial crisis and worsening economic forecast will likely heighten public scrutiny of and shareholder pressure on boards. Directors' compensation and board practices are also likely to receive increased attention. This report provides benchmarks useful in considering compensation levels and compensation elements for corporate boards, as well as information on board practices (e.g., board size, diversity, and independence) at a time when more eyes than ever are on decision-makers directing the course of U.S. companies.


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By completing your order, you understand that the products(s) you are purchasing are U.S. models and may have power / voltage requirements different from that of your country.
Prices shown in currencies other than US Dollars are estimates based on current exchange rates. We will charge your credit card in US Dollars on the day your order is shipped, and the conversion to your local currency will be done at the prevailing rate by your credit card issuer.
PSSL will not mark your parcel as a "gift", declare a value lower than the actual price paid, or otherwise prepare false customs information.
The ADJ UB 12H is a 41.75-inch (1-meter) professional grade indoor linear fixture powered by twelve 6-Watt HEX (6-IN-1) LEDs. Its bright chromatic 40-degree beam angle provides vibrant TRI color mixing designed for washing stages, walls and dance floors. Its rugged casing with patent pending Quick Align end locking allows for a seamless output of light with no breaks of color.
UB 12H features built-in Color Macros (built-in colors), 0-100% dimming and variable speed strobe. Plus, it offers flexible programming from its on-board 4-Button LED DMX-512 menu, or from the ADJ UC IR wireless remote included inside the box.


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Construct Points for Geometric Figures with the TI-84 Plus
You can tell the TI-84 Plus calculator where you want to construct a freestanding point in two ways: Use the arrow keys to identify the location of the point, or tell the calculator the coordinates of the point. A freestanding point is not intended to be part of another object such as a point on a line or a point on the circumference of a circle.
Both ways are described in the following steps. To construct a freestanding point, follow these steps:
Press [GRAPH][WINDOW][1] to select the Point tool from the DRAW menu.
"Point" appears in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the location where you want to construct the point and press [ENTER].
As you move the cursor, the coordinates of its location appear at the bottom of the screen. The point is constructed at the location of the cursor.
After pressing [ENTER] in this step, you can precisely locate the point by giving the calculator the coordinates of that point. You can also label the point.
Press [ENTER] or move the cursor away from the object.
This is a crucial step. If it is not followed, then the last point you constructed may vanish when you ask GeoMaster to perform another operation.
After constructing one point, the Point tool remains active until you deactivate it. So if you want to construct more points, just repeat Steps 2 and 3. When you're finished using the Point tool, deactivate it by pressing [CLEAR] or by selecting another menu item.
How to Measure an Angle with GeoMaster
For GeoMaster on the TI-84 graphing calculator to recognize the existence of an angle, tha...


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The long and increasingly surreal legal battles between former Megaupload owner and founder Kim Dotcom and the US Government over whether or not he will be extradited to the United States to stand trial over what has been described as the largest copyright infringement in US history has taken yet another unexpected turn with the news that a New Zealand high court has ruled that authorities in the country have to reveal information about their illegal surveillance of him, as well as opening the door to his claiming financial damages for their involvement in a raid made to his mansion back in January this year.
The new ruling, from New Zealand High Court judge Helen Winkelmann, orders the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau to turn over records of its unlawful spying activities to Dotcom and his legal team, as well as reveal what – if any – information had been shared with the international intelligence community known as Echelon, or "Five Eyes." Winkelmann explained that the GCSB had acted unlawfully by spying on Dotcom without checking his residency status at the time (Although Dotcom is officially a German national, he has been a New Zealand resident since February 2010; the GCSB is not authorized to spy on NZ citizens).
Even more embarrassingly for New Zealand authorities, Winkelmann said that Dotcom could now, should he wish, pursue legal action against the Government Communications Security Bureau and New Zealand police for their actions, in relation to the January raid, which resulted in the seizure of cell phones, computers and hard drives and "several luxury cars," according to reports at the time. The ruling is just the latest black eye for New Zealand authorities in this matter; in September, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was forced to apologize to Dotcom when it first emerged that the raid had been illegal, describing the GCSB's lack of appropriate research into Dotcom's residency status as "hugely disappointing," and ordering a full investigation into the absence of oversight.
Central to the developments to many is the question of whether or not this ruling, or the potential of further revelations of potential illegality surrounding the New Zealand investigations, could impact the US' attempts to bring Dotcom to the States to stand trial on charges of fraud, money laundering and copyright infringement. Currently, an extradition trial has been scheduled for mid-2013, although Judge Winkelman admitted in her ruling that "there is a risk that the addition of GCSB to this proceeding will delay the extradition proceeding." She went on to say, however, that "in reality, I think that is not a likely outcome."
Responding to the ruling, Dotcom Tweeted "Let's see about US involvement in illegal GCSB spying on New Zealand residents. The truth will come out, in court." Something tells me that this won't end quickly…
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