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Northern Territory, self-governing territory of Australia, occupying the central section of the northern part of the continent.
The Northern Territory is bounded by the Timor and Arafura seas to the north and by Western Australia to the west, Queensland and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the east, and South Australia to the south. It is approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from north to south and 600 miles (970 km) from east to west and occupies more than one-sixth of the Australian landmass. It is largely tropical in the north and semiarid in the far south.
Constitutionally, the territory was inferior in status to the states until 1978, and it had limited legislative powers until self-government was granted in that year. Its development since 1911, when it was transferred to the Commonwealth of Australia from South Australia, has been a major item of expenditure in terms of works, services, and inducements to producers to accept the risks of an uncertain physical and economic environment. The nature of the climate, the poor soils, distance from assured markets, and problems of recruiting labour have been considerable handicaps. Nevertheless, increased mining activity in the early 21st century significantly strengthened the economy. Moreover, since the end of the 20th century the population of the Northern Territory has become one of the fastest-growing in the country; most residents are concentrated in and around the capital city, Darwin. Area 520,902 square miles (1,349,129 square km). Population (2016) 228,833.
The coastline is flat with low headlands and is mostly fringed with mangrove swamps. There are many offshore islands, of which Melville and Bathurst islands and Groote Eylandt ("Big Island") are the largest. Inland from the coastal belt and the Arnhem Land plateau there is a gradual rise southward to the town of Tennant Creek on the vast plateau (1,000–2,000 feet [300–600 metres]) of ancient Precambrian rock that extends south and west into the neighbouring states. Farther south, Alice Springs is situated on an alluvial plain in the MacDonnell Ranges, where Mount Zeil reaches 4,957 feet (1,511 metres) above sea level, the highest point in the territory. There are remarkable tors (prominent rocky hills) 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Alice Springs, including Mount Olga (3,507 feet [1,069 metres]), which is the peak of Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), a group of some 30 monoliths and domes, and Uluru/Ayers Rock, a red, ovoid monolith rising to an elevation of 2,844 feet (867 metres). In the territory's southeastern corner is the largely uninhabited Simpson Desert, which extends into the neighbouring states of Queensland and South Australia. To the north of the desert and also stretching into Queensland lies the Barkly Tableland, a grassy upland with an average elevation of 1,000 feet (300 metres).
Drainage and soils
A number of rivers, of which the Finke and the Todd are the largest, flow from the south-central ranges after rainstorms. Areas north of the Precambrian plateau are drained by some substantial rivers: the Victoria, 350 miles (565 km) long, and the Daly, 225 miles (360 km) long, flow to the Timor Sea; the Katherine flows southwest from Arnhem Land to join the Daly; the Adelaide, Mary, and South and East Alligator rivers enter Van Diemen Gulf; and the Roper and the McArthur flow east and northeast into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
More than one dozen soil types are found in the Northern Territory. Deep, earthy soils are especially common in the northern segment of the territory (a region known as the "Top End"), but they are also found in the Sturt Plateau south of the town of Katherine, in the central region near Tennant Creek, and in southern parts of the territory (i.e., central Australia—called the "Centre," vis-à-vis the Top End). Iron-rich basaltic soils are found in the Victoria River basin, as are small tracts of soils with high concentrations of calcium carbonate. Cracking clays are prevalent in the alluvial plains of the Victoria, the coastal floodplains of the northern region, and the Barkly Tableland. The well-developed soils of the semiarid Katherine, Douglas, and Daly river regions are farmable and are considered to hold great potential for agricultural development. Highly saline soils and sands are found along the coastline. The Arnhem Land plateau and most of the southern part of the territory are too dry to cultivate, with shallow, gravelly, infertile soils. The Simpson Desert is remarkable for its dunes and ridges of red sand. Erosion is a major land-management issue in most areas of the Northern Territory.
The territory has a monsoonal climate regime with two seasons: a wet summer (November to April) and a dry winter (May to October). Precipitation is extremely variable and falls largely in summer. The change from the north, where the annual rainfall is 60 inches (1,525 mm), to the southeast, where it is only 5 inches (130 mm), reflects the diminishing influence of the northwestern monsoon and an increasing dependence on tropical thunderstorms. Only about one-third of the territory has an annual rainfall of between 15 and 40 inches (380 and 1,015 mm)—the effective limits of agricultural development. The climate is hot and, in the north, uncomfortably humid for eight months of the year. Mean temperatures at Darwin are 84 °F (29 °C) in January and 77 °F (25 °C) in July, and at Alice Springs 83 °F (28 °C) in January and 53 °F (12 °C) in July. The north is free from frosts, and tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may occur during the wet season.
Plant and animal life
Some forests with vegetation common to the Southeast Asian peninsula and archipelago exist in Arnhem Land, but otherwise the northern vegetation is open woodland with low eucalypts and tall grasses of low nutritive value for livestock. In the main cattle areas of the Victoria River Downs and the Barkly Tableland, an open-tussock grassland on heavy, gray-brown cracking soils is dominated by Mitchell grass (a perennial Astrebla species) with subdominant Flinders grass (species of Iseilema) and herbs. In the valleys an association of mulga (an acacia tree) with short grasses is a valuable fodder resource. Mixed mulga-spinifex scrub occupies the red plains of the desert nearby, and farther to the west is a desert of hummock grassland composed of widely spaced clumps of spinifex and Triodia. A broad-leaved species of mulga, the witchety bush, harbours a grub much sought by Aboriginal peoples as food.
The Northern Territory is home to roughly 400 species of birds including various parrots, cockatoos, pigeons, and lorikeets in the rugged central and northern regions; pied imperial pigeons in the rainforests; and singing bush larks, button quail, and flock bronzewings (a type of large pigeon) in the Barkly Tableland. Wading shorebirds and geese are plentiful in the northern wetlands. Some birds, especially coastal species and certain pigeons, are migratory, spending only part of the year in the territory. Among the species endemic to the Northern Territory are the white-throated grass-wren (Amytornis woodwardi), the banded fruit dove (Ptilinopus cinctus), and the chestnut-quilled rock pigeon (Petrophassa rufipennis).
Some 150 species of mammals live in the territory, including several species of rock rats (especially in Arnhem Land), many bats, nearly two dozen marine mammals, and a variety of marsupials. Kangaroos are widely distributed, but some species have restricted habitats: red kangaroos are adapted to the arid regions, rock wallabies and antilopine wallaroos inhabit the rocky ridges of the northwest, and black wallaroos are restricted to the sandstone escarpments of Arnhem Land. The echidna, an unusual egg-laying mammal, also lives in the Northern Territory, as do the dugong and Irrawaddy dolphin, which are marine mammals. Black wallaroos, along with several species of rock rats, mice, and bats, are endemic to the territory. Formerly domestic animals now existing as large wild populations include camels, water buffalo, cattle, pigs, goats, ponies, horses, and donkeys.
Skinks are the most abundant of the territory's reptiles and are represented by more than 100 species. Saltwater and freshwater crocodiles are also native to the region, as are marine turtles and nearly 100 varieties of snake, more than one-fifth of which are marine species. The most notable frogs include the ubiquitous green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) and the magnificent tree frog (L. splendida). Other frogs, in the southern part of the territory, emerge only after heavy rain. Among the territory's fish, the barramundi is the best known.
Population composition
Aboriginal people have lived continuously in the Northern Territory for at least 40,000 years, having migrated from adjacent parts of Southeast Asia. It is estimated (roughly) that between 35,000 and 70,000 of these indigenous people were resident in the territory when the British began to establish military settlements in the early 19th century. Although no accurate counts of the Aboriginal population exist prior to the mid-20th century, the number of indigenous people is believed to have dropped between the arrival of the Europeans and the end of World War II, primarily as a result of disease, despair, and general neglect by the administration. After World War II, however, the indigenous population grew steadily, and by the early 21st century Aborigines constituted more than one-fourth of the territory's total population.
Formerly resident in foraging areas throughout the territory, most Aboriginal people have been resettled as a consequence of government policies. More than one-fourth live in urban areas, generally in suburban housing but also in Aboriginal living areas or town camps. Many also live in rural towns established by missionaries and government officials as part of the now-defunct policies of protection and assimilation. The remainder of the indigenous population live in small rural outstations located on traditional Aboriginal lands, where access to standard housing and services such as electricity is often limited.
Roughly half of the Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory speak an Aboriginal language, and dialects are numerous. Aboriginal languages are agglutinative; that is, they combine into single words two or more elements of distinct and separate meaning. The languages spoken in the northern part of the territory, however, are different in structure and vocabulary from those of the Aranda peoples in the south.
Between 1824 and 1849 the British made several abortive attempts to establish a trading settlement on the coast; attempts were also made by the South Australian administration between 1864 and 1867. The first successful settlement was at Port Darwin in 1869. When gold mining at nearby Pine Creek and associated railway construction created a labour shortage, Chinese workers were brought in from Singapore and Guangzhou (Canton). By 1888, when immigration restrictions were imposed, the Chinese population numbered about 7,000.
Subsequent immigration was mostly from Europe, but, as restrictions eased in the 1970s, more immigrants started coming from other areas, especially Southeast Asia. Since the late 20th century, the number of Southeast Asian immigrants (largely from the Philippines) has nearly equaled the combined total of newcomers from New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Numerous ethnic associations reflect the dozens of countries that have contributed to the territory's heritage. The majority of the territory's population, however, is Australian-born, having migrated there from other Australian states. Most of the non-Aboriginal people live in one of the few urban centres.
For much of the period prior to World War II, population growth rates were sluggish. In the second half of the 20th century the population increased rapidly, but the rate of increase was subject to considerable variation because of economic boom and bust and the effects of Cyclone Tracy in 1974, which destroyed most of Darwin. The population remained youthful in the early 21st century, with the highest birth rate in the country and nearly two-fifths of all residents under the age of 25. However, the territory's death rate was also the highest and life expectancy the shortest, owing largely to a mortality rate among Aboriginal peoples that continued to register well above the national average—which, to some extent, was attributable to limited access to quality health care in rural regions.
Settlement patterns
Despite the large size of the territory, roughly two-thirds of the inhabitants live in and around Darwin and Alice Springs. Away from those centres, settlement is widely dispersed and focused on a handful of mining towns, Aboriginal towns, and rural service centres. Most of the land area is either uninhabited or very thinly populated, reflecting the predominance of pastoral and Aboriginal land use. Remote homesteads on large cattle stations form the base of the rural settlement pattern. Densities in pastoral areas have declined because of the amalgamation of properties and the mechanization of ranching. Since the granting of Aboriginal landrights in the 1970s, there has been an increasing dispersion of the population, as Aboriginal people have settled in small clan-based communities of fewer than 100 people, known as outstations.
The main urban centre, Darwin, is located on the northwestern monsoonal coast overlooking the Beagle Gulf. It serves as a focus for the Top End region. As the legislative capital and home to more than half the population, Darwin also performs many territorywide functions. Darwin had early pretensions as a port and trading settlement, but it has developed primarily as an administrative centre, with jobs in public administration and defense, utilities, and education, health, and community services accounting for nearly one-third of the city's employment. The second largest town is Alice Springs, located in the arid MacDonnell Ranges in the southern part of the territory, close to the Tropic of Capricorn. It is the main service provider for the Centre region and is also a base for tourists visiting central Australia.
The economy of the Northern Territory has long been anchored in government administration, defense, and other public services. More recently it has been buttressed by production from onshore and offshore petroleum and natural gas reserves; Darwin began to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2006. The territory's unique natural environment and Aboriginal heritage have been the foci of an expanding tourism sector. In the early 21st century the Northern Territory was the fastest growing of all Australian states and territories, although it remained the smallest contributor to the country's gross domestic product.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing constitute only a small proportion of the territory's overall economy. Nearly half of the territory's area is used as grazing land for livestock, predominantly beef cattle. Most of the remaining land is classified for traditional indigenous use. Forest resources are generally protected for their biological and cultural value.
Cattle are raised largely in open-range conditions on extensive cattle stations with low carrying capacity. In addition to meat, the cattle industry exports live cattle, mostly to customers in Asia. Buffalo and buffalo meat are also exported, albeit in limited quantities since the 1970s as the industry has continued to recover from large-scale herd reduction implemented as part of a national bovine tuberculosis eradication program.
Aridity is a major constraint on arable farming, and irrigated production is localized and of small scale. Land used specifically for agriculture and horticulture accounts for less than 1 percent of the territory's area, and horticultural activities are generally limited to places near the urban centres. Mangoes are the leading product, followed by melons, bananas, grapes, and vegetables (primarily cucumbers, bitter melon, and okra).
Fisheries have remained an important component of the broader agricultural sector. Shrimp trawling is practiced in the Timor and Arafura seas, while inland and coastal aquaculture—especially of barramundi, prawns, and pearl oysters—is expanding in the Top End region. Crocodile farming, introduced in Darwin in the 1970s for meat and hides, has continued to grow.
Resources and power
Although the production of minerals (including petroleum and natural gas) accounts for nearly one-fifth of the territory's economic value, mining is mostly capital-intensive and employs relatively few people. The territory has low-cost uranium reserves, with the Ranger mine in the Alligator Rivers region remaining the country's primary producer; there are other high-grade deposits that have yet to be exploited. Bauxite is mined at Gove, and a manganese mine on Groote Eylandt is one of the world's largest producers. Large deposits of lead, silver, and zinc are worked in the McArthur River region, which is also a source of diamonds. Scattered gold deposits are mined, with the focus of activity in the Tanami Desert.
With large hydrocarbon reserves in the Timor Sea and the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf west of Darwin and in the Amadeus Basin in central Australia, the territory's production of oil, natural gas, and, more recently, LNG has been increasing. Natural gas from the Amadeus Basin is used to generate most of the power for the territory's main urban centres. The Channel Island thermal power station near Darwin has been supplied with natural gas by pipeline from fields west of Alice Springs since the mid-1980s; in the early 21st century, agreements were signed to bring more natural gas from fields in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf into the existing pipeline. The territory also has been investing in alternative resources including methane gas and solar and wind power.
Output from the manufacturing industries in the Northern Territory was, until the late 20th century, only a tiny proportion of the overall economy and consisted primarily of food, beverages, and basic and fabricated metal products. A Trade Development Zone was established in Darwin in 1985 to stimulate investment in manufacturing for export, and by the early 21st century the sector had become a significant component of the territory's economy. Alumina and LNG are the leading products, while alumina, cultured pearls, and, increasingly, LNG are the territory's primary exports. Although manufacturing is a growing area of the economy, the sector continues to account for a small fraction of the territory's employment. Most of the manufacturing jobs are in machinery and equipment production.
The services sector provides well over half of the territory's economic output and employment. The main activities are public administration and community services. Employment in the defense forces increased significantly at the end of the 20th century when an air base was established at Tindal near Katherine and a cavalry regiment was relocated to Darwin to add to existing army, air force, and naval facilities. Education and health services are also important, providing a considerable proportion of the territory's employment. Real estate and related services, which grew significantly just after the turn of the 21st century, have come to constitute another major component of the territory's economy.
The tourism sector employs a significant portion of the workforce and generates one of the largest contributions to the territory's economy. Although the territory government financed the construction of international-standard hotels and casinos (later sold to private firms) and the resort town of Yulara in the late 20th century, ecotourism and cultural tourism have come to be the strongest segments of the sector.
Compared with other Australian states, the Northern Territory has a relatively underdeveloped transportation system, a reflection of its small population base and the vast distances to be traversed. The backbone of the road system is provided by the Stuart Highway, which runs south from Darwin to the South Australian border and connects most of the territory's urban centres. Upgraded by the military during World War II, the highway is entirely paved. Major routes branching off the Stuart Highway include the paved Victoria Highway from Katherine to the Western Australia border, the paved Barkly Highway from Three Ways into Queensland, and the Arnhem Highway, which is paved from Darwin to Jabiru. The majority of rural roads are unpaved and subject to temporary closure after rain.
Many remote rural settlements are inaccessible by road and rely on air transport. Until the introduction of long-range jet aircraft in the 1960s, Darwin was an important refueling and service centre for international air travel, providing a first and last port of call in Australia. Regular international air connections have since been established to a number of countries, including India, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Until the early 21st century, the only railway line in the territory ran from Alice Springs to Adelaide. An extension of the rail line northward from Alice Springs to Darwin was completed late in 2003. In 2004 the Ghan passenger train (named for the Afghan cameleers who once transported mail, goods, and passengers throughout central Australia) inaugurated its north-south transcontinental service from Adelaide to Darwin. The Port of Darwin provides container services, a roll-on/roll-off facility, and a fishing harbour mooring basin. At the end of the 20th century, a new bulk handling facility opened at the port's East Arm.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
Australia: South Australia…area thereafter known as the Northern Territory, which earlier had been technically part of New South Wales; the change entailed adjustment of boundaries. (The territory became the concern of the federal government in 1911.)…
South Australia: Aspirations and disappointments…when South Australia acquired the Northern Territory in 1863, the colony mounted ambitious plans for its development and settlement. The territory's chief town, Darwin, was sited on the continent's northern coast, and the Overland Telegraph Line from Darwin to Adelaide was completed in 1872. But South Australia had overreached its…
flag of the Northern Territory…developed somewhat slowly in the Northern Territory. The Sturt's desert rose, which became the territorial floral emblem on July 12, 1961, recalls in its general shape the Commonwealth Star on the Australian national flag. The territorial colours—ochre-red, black, and white—were officially recognized on February 17, 1964, and are said to…
Australia, the smallest continent and one of the largest countries on Earth, lying between the Pacific and Indian oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia's capital is Canberra, located in the southeast between the larger and more important economic and cultural centres of Sydney and Melbourne.…
Continent, one of the larger continuous masses of land, namely, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia, listed in order of size. (Europe and Asia are sometimes considered a single continent, Eurasia.) There is great variation in the sizes of continents; Asia is more than…
More About Northern Territory3 references found in Britannica articles
Assorted References
- administration by South Australia
- flag history


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NEW YORK - After a nearly 20-year absence, Italian carmaker Alfa Romeo is returning to the U.S. market.
NEW YORK � After a nearly 20-year absence, Italian carmaker Alfa Romeo is returning to the U.S. market.
Alfa CEO Harald Wester said yesterday that the company plans to ship about 100 4C sports cars to the U.S. in June.
Alfa expects to ship a total of 800 cars to the U.S. this year, including 500 limited-edition 4C models. Wester expects 4C shipments will grow to 1,200 to 1,300 per year in 2015 and beyond.
�It�s just an appetizer,� Wester said at the New York auto show, where the 4C is displayed next to its sister Italian luxury brand, Maserati. Wester is also the head of Maserati.
Wester won�t yet say which U.S. dealers will sell Alfas, or how customers can order them. Alfa�s parent company, Italian automaker Fiat SpA, will release more details next month.
Alfa Romeo, founded in Milan, Italy, a little more than 100 years ago, was sold in the U.S. for around 40 years until 1995, when it retreated because of quality issues and falling sales. U.S. Alfa sales peaked at 8,200 in 1986. The sporty Spider was the company�s best seller here.
Wester calls the 4C an �affordable supercar,� which will start around $54,000 (or $70,000 for the limited-edition model). It�s handmade in Modena, Italy, in limited numbers, partly because of its carbon-fiber components. It has a 1.7-liter turbocharged, four-cylinder engine with 240 horsepower.
Wester said Alfa sold 85,000 cars in Europe last year, which is by far its largest market.
It also sells limited numbers of cars in South America, Australia, Japan and the Middle East.

subset: commoncrawl


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Programs abroad are open to all students with a solid academic record and appropriate preparation (prerequisites). Many students use a semester off-campus to develop an academic interest outside of or in addition to their major, and virtually any off-campus program would provide a sociology major with great opportunities for comparing how different societies work.
Some programs have courses and internships you may not be aware of. We provide this list of suggestions by way of helping you begin to consider your options. We encourage you to meet with your sociology advisor and/or come to our office in Carnegie to discuss your options.
Language of instruction: English
The Shanghai, China program runs both fall and spring semesters. Its focus is on the rapid modernization and new economic developments in the most populous nation in the world. The curriculum is limited to required courses in Chinese language, history, government, and economics. However, the program as a whole introduces students to many sociological aspects of contemporary Chinese society. Students come from a wide range of U.S. colleges. The pre-requisite is a course dealing with some aspect of the Asian world.
Language of instruction: English
The Denmark program runs fall and spring semesters and offers many elective courses of potential interest to sociology majors. Sociology majors can earn credit towards the major in 12 different courses (please see CIIS for more info.) A week-long study tour is another feature of this program. A 3.0 gpa is required and students take 5 courses on this program, including Danish. Junior or senior standing is strongly recommended.
Language of instruction: English
The program in London is offered fall and spring semesters, and includes Soc/Hist 245: Britain in the 20th Century. This course may be elected at the 300 level (with department chair approval) with the student having an additional tutorial meeting and doing an independent research paper on a topic of interest. ND 250 (the core, required course) begins with field trips which take students to different parts of London and into different sub-cultures of London; this concludes in a 4-week long internship in the last month of the program. These internships are tailored to student interests and have included placements with political parties and social service agencies, with humanitarian NGO's such as Oxfam, health and mental health clinics, and the like.
Language of instruction: English
The India program runs in the fall only. Students must take all four classes offered: these include a course on the history of India and an anthropology course on society, politics and economy of contemporary India. Each student designs an independent project in consultation with the India program coordinator and his or her major advisor during the preceding spring semester.
Language of instruction: English
The Kenya program (both fall and spring) offers opportunities for insight into the processes of modernization in a developing country. The core course, AFS 337: Culture, Environment, and Development in Kenya, takes students into four or five different kinds of societies within Kenya. The final 4 weeks of the program involve an independent project which can be tailored to a sociology major. Previous students have worked with a wide range of NGO's on environmental and development issues, in refugee camps, in centers for homeless children, in AIDS children's organizations, and with grass roots political organizations.
Language of instruction: French (fall) English (spring)
The fall or year program is for students who have completed the equivalent of 4 college semesters of French. While no sociology course is offered in the fall, year-long students may direct enroll in sociology courses at the University of Rouen during the spring term. They also do a January internship which may be related to the student's interests.
The spring program (in English) is on comparative French cultures, and students study in Quebec and Senegal as well as in Rouen, France. Students need only 1 semester of French as a pre-requisite.
Language of instruction: English and Japanese
SLU has exchange programs with two Japanese universities, one in Tokyo and one in Nagoya. ICU in Tokyo is only full-year, while Nanzan offers a semester program. Both universities are noted for their language study programs and all SLU students take intermediate or advanced Japanese. Students make elect sociology courses which are taught in English. Japanese 102 or its equivalent is required.
Language of instruction: Spanish
The Spain program may be elected for fall, spring, or the full year. The pre-requisite is Spanish 201 and 202. No sociology courses per se are offered although the program provides ample opportunities to learn about another society. The Spain program begins with a course on "the Spanish Village" with students living in small communities outside of the capital and studying these closely. Students staying for the year do a January internship which can be in a sociology-related area.
Washington D.C.:
Language of instruction: English
This program at American University is organized around specific tracks. Students take a seminar in their chosen track and work in a related internship. Tracks likely to be of special interest to sociology majors include: American Politics, Justice, Transforming Communities, Public Law and Journalism.
Direct enroll programs in universities with a full curriculum in sociology
Language of instruction: English
Students enroll at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. The sociology department
department is large.
Language of instruction: English
Direct enrollment at Trent University
Costa Rica:
Language of instruction: Spanish
If you have completed Span 201 or the equivalent, you are free to enroll directly in the sociology courses offered at the Universidad de Costa Rica.
Language of instruction: English
The program's core required course is "Caribbean Culture and Society," with a particular emphasis on the role of Carnival. Students direct-enroll in two elective courses at the University of the West Indies, which offers a variety of sociology courses. Program includes a service learning component. (Spring only)
Language of instruction: English
As an exchange student at Fisk, all of the sociology courses offered are available to you. (Spring only)
Language of instruction: Varies
Minimum 3.0 GPA and exceptional responsibility required. Junior or senior standing recommended.
The ISEP program offers 26 universities with a full sociology curriculum in English. Programs include the U.K., Italy, Fiji, Korea, Ghana, and Botswana.
New Zealand:
Language of Instruction: English
Students may take courses in the sociology department at University of Otago, Dunedin.


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Hey, I'm about to start building a mini ramp in my garage before the winter sets in. I don't have very much space so it is only going to be 2 feet tall with a 60 inch radius for the transition. Does this seem too tight? and sadly i will only be able to have 1 foot platforms which is pretty small but i can't really change that. Also, i was planning on having a 5 foot flat but am not sure if this will be too small. It is also gonna be 5 feet wide.
Comments and critique would be much appreciated.


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Opportunities for Youth: Bridging the Gap
In preparation for Sri Lanka's next Country Partnership Strategy with the World Bank, we've been consulting with numerous groups, including those representing youth, for their ideas and feedback. Traveling to all corners of the country and interacting with many youth groups in Sri Lanka, it is clear that youth want more -- more opportunities, more facilities, more acceptance, more inclusion.
In contrast, discussing the same issues with the older generation, their view is that youth are unskilled, lack exposure to real-world challenges, are not dependable, and are too picky about available jobs.
The gap between the perceptions and aspirations of the two groups seems like the two rails of a railway track that are never destined to meet.


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Tim Tebow is the biggest name among NFL cuts for the second time in three years.
Tebow had seemingly won the No. 3 QB job when Philadelphia traded Matt Barkley to Arizona on Friday.
But coach Chip Kelly cut the unconventional quarterback who showed improved accuracy since his first stint in the NFL.
"We felt Tim has progressed, but we didn't feel he was good enough to be the (No.) 3 right now," Kelly said.
Tebow last played in a regular-season game in 2012 with the Jets, who traded for him a day after Peyton Manning went to Denver. The Patriots cut Tebow in 2013 when he failed to win a job as Tom Brady's backup, and Tebow spent last year in the...


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BlRR Recommended! Third full-length CD, first pressing of 500 copies comes in a full-colour circle-cover. First part of the "tjukurrpa-trilogy". (Transgredient Records TR-01a) (01/2001)
Troum are a Bremen, Germany based duo formerly... (More Info. Here)
BlRR Recommended! first pressing of 1000 copies comes in a full-colour circle-cover. Third part of the "tjukurrpa-trilogy" (11/2003)Tjukurrpa (Part Three: Rhythms and Pulsations) is very much what the title suggests. The music on Part... (More Info. Here)


text: The Beatles Forever Favourite Track: Help! (Help)Favourite Album: Help! Favourites LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE BEATLES! news 6 13 The Beatles' U.S. Albums Are Out Now! Celebrate 50 Years of Globe-Sweeping "Beatlemania" with The U.S. Albums, a new 13CD Beatles collection spanning 1964's Meet The Beatles! to 1970's Hey Jude. The albums have also been Mastered For iTunes and are available digitally from the iTunes Store. On February 7, 1964, The Beatles arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, greeted by scores of screaming, swooning fans who rushed the gate to catch a glimpse of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they took their first steps on American soil. Two nights later, on Sunday, February 9, 74 million viewers in the U.S. and millions more in Canada tuned in to CBS to watch The Beatles make their American television debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show." You can order the U.S. albums and the U.S. boxset from the official Beatles stores and from your local retailer: US STORE | UK STORE | JAPAN STORE | BRAZIL STORE | YOUR LOCAL RETAILER | iTUNES Read more Embed The Beatles On Air Radio! news 3 3 The Beatles On Air radio plays 14 clips of songs from the brand new album "On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2"! Just click on the tuning buttons to start the playback. You can embed the Beatles onto your own website or blog - in this news story, you can view the radio - just click on the embed link and copy the embed code. You can also dedicate a song to someone - just use the Twitter hashtag #beatlesdedication and it will play along the radio players everywhere! Read more Past Masters album 14 17 The Beatles album 33 65 With The Beatles album 30 21 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album 50 52 Let It Be album 26 23 Yellow Submarine album 13 10 Rubber Soul album 46 56 Revolver album 48 45


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Sony BC-U2 Battery Charger
The Sony BC-U2 Battery Charger can charge two Sony BP-U30 or BP-U60 batteries at once and also doubles as an AC power adapter for the Sony PMW-EX1 camcorder. It also includes a charge status indicator to assist with gauging battery charge levels.
This charger is only compatible with the Sony BC-U30 and the Sony BP-U60 batteries.
There is no manual for this product.


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Or download our app "Guided Lessons by Education.com" on your device's app store.
Inside-Out Anatomy: The Digestive System
Looking for a way to learn about your insides without having to sit in front of an x-ray? Look no further than our Inside-Out Anatomy series, which lets you see your body in a whole new light. You can learn about the digestive system here, and see how it helps nutrients travel throughout your body.
See the rest of the "Inside-Out Anatomy" series Here.


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Last updated: May 08, 2012
Genetic Association Information Network Launched
Genetic Association Information Network Launched
Novel Public-Private Partnership Created to Unravel the Genetics Of Common Disease Through Whole Genome Association Studies
WASHINGTON - Wed., Feb. 8, 2006 - The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Pfizer Global Research & Development, New London, Conn., today announced the launch of a unique public-private medical research partnership - the Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN) - to unravel the genetic causes of common diseases over the next three years. The information derived from GAIN will be publicly available to researchers world-wide.
GAIN brings new scientific and financial resources to the NIH's existing whole genome association programs, encouraging all partners - across and beyond NIH - to work together toward the common goal of understanding the genetic contributions to common diseases. Organizers of the GAIN partnership believe the model holds promise of achieving rapid, scientifically sound results that any single researcher or institution working alone would be hard-pressed to equal.
GAIN is designed to help medical researchers quickly identify the many genetic contributions to common illnesses such as heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and stroke by comparing the genetic makeup of people with the disease to people who are healthy. Identifying genetic differences between these two groups will speed up the development of new methods to prevent, diagnose, treat and even cure common illnesses.
"Our partnership with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to speed up this research exemplifies the aim Congress had in mind when it established the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health to support the mission of NIH," said John E. Porter, Vice Chairman of the Foundation's Board of Directors. "Through the generous financial support of Pfizer and other private sector participants, NIH will now be able to launch immediately this exciting initiative. As with other large FNIH public-private partnerships, such as the Grand Challenges in Global Health, the interaction of scientists from the public and the private sector dramatically increases the likelihood that this initiative will get off to a quick and efficient start that will genuinely produce important advances for all patients."
The Foundation for NIH will manage GAIN with guidance from leading scientists from the National Institutes of Health and Pfizer, as well as outside experts and project partners. Pfizer has led the private sector by committing scientific and financial support, including an initial $5 million to set up the management structure for GAIN, plus an estimated $15 million in genotyping capacity to study five common diseases. The genotyping services provided by Pfizer will come from its partnership with Perlegen Sciences, Inc., of Mountain View, Calif.
"We've translated early information from genetic research into potentially valuable medicines for HIV/AIDS, heart disease, and prevention of organ rejection, but these advances have only scratched the surface of possible revolutionary approaches to treat and cure diseases," said Martin Mackay, Senior Vice President Worldwide Research & Technology, Pfizer Research & Development. "Pfizer, the NIH and other public/private biomedical research interests have complementary missions greater than the sum of their parts. Our hope is that this public/private initiative will encourage a deeper collective understanding of the genetic factors of disease, for major new therapeutic advances."
In addition, Affymetrix, Inc., a Santa Clara, CA company that provides tools for use in genomics-related research, has agreed to provide its support to GAIN by donating 500K DNA microarrays, which will be used to find the genetic variations associated with two common diseases. FNIH is actively seeking additional partners, and anticipates strong interest in participating in GAIN among other industry leaders, disease advocacy groups, and philanthropists to enable the investigation of additional diseases.
The GAIN initiative proposes to raise $60 million in private funding for genetic studies of common diseases. The initiative does not require new expenditures of public funds nor will it be implemented at the expense of any existing or pending publicly funded biomedical research programs.
"This initiative would not have been technologically possible only a year or two ago," said Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., Director of the NIH, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. "Over many years, NIH has spent billions of dollars to collect and study patient populations with a wide range of illnesses which can easily be part of this initiative. In addition, we now have the results of the Human Genome Project and the International HapMap Project to guide us, and we can apply newly available technologies, developed with NIH support, that have reduced the cost of genotyping more than 100-fold, making such a comprehensive effort affordable."
Dr. Zerhouni added: "We now stand on the threshold of creating a future that will revolutionize the practice of medicine by predicting disease, developing more precise therapies and, ultimately, pre-empting the emergence of disease."
The genetic analysis focuses on the alternative spellings - called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs - that normally occur in the sequence of the 3 billion DNA letters that make up a person's genome. SNPs are like single-letter variations in the spellings of a word. Most of these variations occur at single letters in the genetic code and are biologically meaningless. But a small fraction of these differences alter the function of a gene - often only slightly. Combining the effect of many slightly altered genes may significantly increase the risk of a specific disease, but identifying such a complex set of genetics differences is challenging. Finding these disease-causing variants is one of the highest priorities of current biomedical research.
"Virtually all diseases have a hereditary component, which is transmitted from parent to child through the three billion DNA letters that make up the human genome," said Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at NIH. "But progress in identifying the genetic factors that influence health or disease, or even the response to treatment, has been difficult. This initiative promises to identify rapidly the many genes in an individual that, taken together, contribute to an increased risk of illness - or that increase the chances of a healthy life. As these genetic underpinnings become clear, researchers will be empowered to develop targeted treatments that either prevent illness from occurring or treat it effectively once it does."
There are about 10 million common SNPs in the human population. Scanning the genomes of large numbers of patients for such a large number of variants would be prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, a major shortcut has been discovered that reduces the workload about 30-fold. The International HapMap Project, led by the NIH and completed in October 2005, demonstrated that the 10 million variants cluster into local neighborhoods, called haplotypes, and that they can be accurately sampled by as few as 300,000 carefully chosen SNPs. New technological systems allow these SNPs to be systematically studied in high-throughput facilities that dramatically lower the cost.
An investment of $3 to $6 million is needed for the first stage of genotyping in each study of 1,000 to 2,000 patients with a specific disease and a similar number of people who do not have the disease (controls). Follow-up studies to validate the results with additional patients and controls, data analysis, and patient management expenses-efforts beyond the scope of GAIN-will add to these basic costs. It is important to note, however, that these costs are a small fraction of what has already been invested by the NIH in enrolling these study subjects, examining them, carrying out extensive laboratory investigations, and collecting their DNA.
The foundation will invite investigators at universities and research centers worldwide to submit applications to have genotyping performed on existing DNA samples from patients with specific diseases and control individuals in case-control studies. The genotyping will be free to the investigators. The genetic results will be made available to any qualified scientists to use. FNIH expects to begin accepting applications for genotyping in spring 2006. Eligibility and online submission procedures will be posted on the Foundation for NIH Web site, www.fnih.org.
In addition to representatives from NIH, Pfizer, and leading independent scientists, GAIN's leadership will include representatives of other partnering corporations, private foundations, and advocacy groups, as well as concerned individuals. The project will be guided by a steering committee representing all partners and coordinated by the FNIH. A peer review committee and technical advisory board will provide additional scientific rigor to the project.
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health was established by the United States Congress to support the mission of the National Institutes of Health - improving health through scientific discovery. The foundation identifies and develops opportunities for innovative public-private partnerships involving industry, academia, and the philanthropic community. A non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation, the foundation raises private-sector funds for a broad portfolio of unique programs that complement and enhance NIH priorities and activities. The foundation's Web site address is www.fnih.org.
The National Institutes of Health -- "The Nation's Medical Research Agency" -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
The National Human Genome Research Institute is one of the 27 Institutes and Centers that make up the National Institutes of Health. NHGRI led the NIH's portion of the Human Genome Project, which was completed in 2003, and the International Hapmap Project, which was completed in 2005. NHGRI now works to translate genetic knowledge into medical advances. Additional information about NHGRI can be found at www.genome.gov.
Pfizer Global Research & Development is the world's largest privately-owned biomedical research organization. Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures and markets leading prescription medicines, for humans and animals, and many of the world's best-known consumer brands. More information about Pfizer can be found at www.pfizer.com
FNIH Contact:
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(301) 435-6248
NIH Contact:
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Like many health problems, injuries are usually preventable. Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death among people age 15 to 24, both in the United States and among U.S. citizens traveling abroad. The mortality rate from injuries in this age group is almost three times higher among overseas travelers.
In a study of Peace Corps volunteer deaths, 70 percent were due to unintentional injury. Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of injury deaths and of emergency evacuation.
You may be at increased risk of injury if:
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Impact of Mental Illness
What do you know about Mental Illness?
Did you know that one in four adults-about 57.7 million Americans experience a mental health disorder in any given year? One in seventeen lives with a serious mental disorder such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder. One in ten children lives with a serious mental or emotional disorder.
About 18.7 percent of adults or an estimated 40 million individuals live with anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder and phobias.
Did you know that one-third of adults and one half of children with a diagnosable mental disorder receive mental health services in a given year?
Did you know that individuals living with a mental illness face an increased risk of chronic medical conditions and adults with a serious mental illness die 25 years earlier than other Americans?
Did you know suicide is the eleventh- leading cause of death in our country and the third leading cause of death for people ages 10-24 years? Ninety per cent of those who die by suicide have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.
Did you know that twenty-four percent of state prisoners and twenty-one percent of local jail inmates have a recent history of a mental health disorder?
Did you know that fifty percent of high school students with a mental disorder age 14 and older drop out of high school? It is the highest drop rate of a disability group.
Mental illness is medical condition, (such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer) that disrupts an individual's thinking, feeling, mood and ability to relate to others and daily functioning.
Mental illness can affect individuals of any age, sex, race, religion or income. The illness is not caused by someone's style of living, character or upbringing.
As people become familiar with their illness, they begin to recognize their own unique patterns of behavior. If an individual recognizes these signs and seeks effective care and timely care, they can often prevent relapses. However, mental illness has no cure and treatment must be continuous.
The good news is that most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can find relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan and begin the journey of recovery.
Recovery is a process and not an event and everyone's recovery is different. Recovery also involves attaining and maintaining physical health.
The downside is that mental health funding for services and care have been drastically cut and continue to be the target of our federal and state legislatures. These reductions have noticeably had an effect on research and treatment. It is without saying, has had an effect on not only on individuals but also society's attitude and behavior.
NAMI Putnam (National Alliance on Mental Illness) is involved in advocating and educating our community about mental health issues. We invite families, friends and those diagnosed with a mental health disorder to attend our monthly speaker series held on the third Wednesday of every month at the Mahopac Library from 6:45 to 9:00 PM.
In addition, NAMI Putnam offers a free twelve week education program, Family to Family, for those families and friends who have a loved one diagnosed with a serious mental illness. NAMI Putnam also offers to the general public NAMI's In Our Own Voice Program. This program is a valuable resource because it puts a face on people living successfully with a mental illness.
For additional information please contact NAMI Putnam at 845-363-1478 or visit us on our website: http://namiputnam.org.


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Moderator: Community Team
saxitoxin wrote:Serbia is a RUDE DUDE
may not be a PRUDE, but he's gotta 'TUDE
might not be LEWD, but he's gonna get BOOED
drunkmonkey wrote:I honestly wonder why anyone becomes a mod on this site. You're the whiniest bunch of players imaginable.
Ron Burgundy wrote:Why don't you go back to your home on Whore Island?
Robinette wrote:Kaskavel wrote:Seriously. Who is the female conqueror of CC?
Depends on what metric you use...
The coolest is squishyg
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text: Carsten Aulbert wrote: > Hi all, > > sorry in advance for this vague subject and also the vague email, I'm > trying my best to summarize the problem: > > On our large cluster we sometimes encounter the problem that our main > scheduling processes are often in state D and in the end not capable > anymore of pushing work to the cluster. Hi Carsten Are you using a "standard" cluster scheduler (SGE, PBS, ...) or a locally written one? > The head nodes are 8 core boxes with Xeon CPUs and equipped with 16 GB > of memory, when certain types of jobs are running we see system loads of > about 20-30 which might go up to 80-100 from time to time. Looking at > the individual cores they are mostly busy with system tasks (e.g. htop > shows 'red' bars). Hmmm... These are your head nodes? Not your NFS server nodes? Sounds like there are a large number of blocked IO processes ... try a vmstat 1 and look at the "b" column (usually second from left ... or nearly there). Lots of blocked IO processes can have the affect of introducing significant latency into all system calls. > stat -tt -c showed that several system calls of the scheduler take a > long time to complete, most notably open and chdir which took between > 180 and 230ms to complete (during our testing). Since most of these open > and chdir are via NFSv3 I'm including that list as well. The NFS servers > are Sun Fire X4500 boxes running Solaris 10u5 right now. Hmmm.... What happens if you make these local to each box? What are the mount options for the mount points? We have spoken to other users with performance problems on such servers. The NFS server/OS combination you indicate above isn't known to be very fast. This isn't your problem (see later), but it looks like your own data suggests you are giving up nearly an order of magnitude performance using this NFS server/OS combination, likely at a premium price as well. > A standard output line looks like: > 93.37 38.997264 230753 169 78 open > > i.e. 93.37% of the system-related time was spend in 169 successful open > calls which took 230753us/call, thus 39 wall clock seconds were spend in > a minute just doing open. > > We tried several things to understand the problem, but apart from moving > more files (mostly log files of currently running jobs) off NFS we did > not move far ahead so far. On > https://n0.aei.uni-hannover.de/twiki/bin/view/ATLAS/H2Problems > we have summarized some things. I didn't catch if these are tcp/udp mounts. What are the mount options? > With the help of 'stress' and a tiny program just doing open/putc/close > into a single file, I've tried to get a feeling how good or bad things > are when compared to other head nodes with different tasks/loads: > > https://n0.aei.uni-hannover.de/twiki/bin/view/ATLAS/OpenCloseIotest ... and these results do in fact confirm the comment I made about the NFS server/OS combo not known to be fast. From my laptop running a Ubuntu 8.10 variant over gigabit to a known very slow NFS server ... ./measure.exe /misc/crunch/home/landman/test2 Wrote 24905 times into /misc/crunch/home/landman/test2, speed is 421.14/s, time elapsed: 59.14s from a different server in a different location to a JackRabbit-S server over NFS on a single gigabit with default mounts (this server running a long IOzone) ./measure.exe /mnt/d/1 Wrote 124312 times into /mnt/d/1, speed is 2072.99/s, time elapsed: 59.97s and from the same starting point but to a JackRabbit-S server over NFS on a single gigabit with default mounts (this server idle) ./measure.exe /mnt/d/x Wrote 134426 times into /mnt/d/x, speed is 2270.79/s, time elapsed: 59.20s This system would be roughly similar to your d02 machine. ly Assuming you aren't using mount options of noac,sync,... Could you enlighten us as to what mount options are for the head nodes? Also, the way the code is written, you are doing quite a few calls to gettimeofday ... you could probably avoid this with a little re-writing of the main loop. If you are using noac or sync on your NFS mounts, then this could explain some of the differences you are seeing (certainly the 100/s vs 800/s ... but not likely the 4/s) However, if you notice that h2 in your table is an apparent outlier, there may be something more systematic going on there. Since you indicate there is a high load going on while you are testing, this is likely what you need to explore. Grab the atop program. It is pretty good about letting you explore what is causing load. That is, despite your x4500's/Solaris combo showing itself not to be a fast NFS server the problem appears to be more likely more localized on the h2 machine than on the NFS machines. http://freshmeat.net/projects/atop/ Joe -- Joseph Landman, Ph.D Founder and CEO Scalable Informatics LLC, email: landman at scalableinformatics.com web : http://www.scalableinformatics.com http://jackrabbit.scalableinformatics.com phone: +1 734 786 8423 x121 fax : +1 866 888 3112 cell : +1 734 612 4615


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Military model of nomads has formed the basis of the socio-political structure of large nomadic communities on the huge historical period.
Opinions experts, analysis of scientists, simulation of different situations will allow the viewer to understand the twists and turns of the difficult history of the Steppe. And computer graphics features are to help visually see certain nuances in everyday life, gear, and field manuals and constructions nomads.


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Born in England and raised in Canada, the well-traveled Ralph Murphy has worked extensively on both sides of the Atlantic during his music career. His first #1 song in Europe was "Call My Name" by James Royal (1966). After several years as an artist and producer, Ralph moved to New York in 1969 to produce the band April Wine (two gold albums; one platinum). In 1971, Ralph had his first Country hit in Nashville with "Good Enough To Be Your Wife," #2 for Jeannie C. Riley. By 1976, Ralph and business partner Roger Cook opened Pic-A-Lic Music in Nashville. During the decade of its existence, the company prospered, more of Ralph's songs became hits ("He Got You" for Ronnie Milsap; "Half The Way" for Crystal Gayle), and Ralph served as president of NSAI. Ralph is now Vice President for ASCAP Nashville.
Murphy's Laws of Songwriting - Official Site
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A Look At The #1 Country Songs for 2004
The Song As A Script
The 7:00 A.M. Rule
What Publishers Really Want
Know Your Own Strengths
Overcoming "Writer's Assumption"
Looking Back on What's to Come
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Alton Sterling's family files lawsuit against city for wrongful death
The wrongful death lawsuit seeks unspecified damages
The wrongful death lawsuit seeks unspecified damages
The wrongful death lawsuit seeks unspecified damages
The children of Alton Sterling, a man fatally shot by a police officer during a struggle outside a convenience store, have filed a lawsuit against the city of Baton Rouge.
The wrongful death lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and said Sterling's shooting happened because of poor police training and inadequate procedures.
Officer Blane Salamoni shot Sterling six times July 5, 2016, outside a store where the 37-year-old Sterling was selling homemade CDs. The officer said Sterling was reaching for a gun in his pocket when he shot him.
The U.S. Department of Justice decided against filing charges because investigators could not prove that the officers acted unreasonable and willfully. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced his office opened a separate investigation.
Several cities have agreed to million-dollar payouts in recent years in cases of killings by police. The Minneapolis suburb of St. Anthony agreed to a nearly $3 million settlement with the mother of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old school cafeteria worker shot five times by Officer Jeronimo Yanez during a July 6 traffic stop after Castile informed him that he was carrying a gun.


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- Have you selected appropriate templates from the GMOS OT library? Have you gone through the checklist in the Top-level Program Overview note and included relevant standardized notes? Add notes with information about the program and acquisition that will make it easier for the observer. Try to use the standardized notes provided in the OT Library.
- In the GMOS component, check that readout, translation stage, and ROI are correctly defined for the observation type. If in doubt, see the relevant examples in the GMOS OT library. Make sure that nighttime science observations have the Translation Stage set to Follow and daytime calibrations set to "Do Not Follow" or "Follow in Z Only" (GMOS-S). Check also that the Region of Interest that will be read out is appropriate for the observation type and that the read mode is set to Fast Read/Low Gain for acquisitions, daytime calibrations etc, and to Slow Read/Low Gain for science observations (or Fast Read/High Gain for bright targets). The CCD readout must be set to Use 12 amplifiers for the Hamamatsu GMOS-N and GMOS-S CCDs.
- Is the binning set appropriately for the instrument configuration and requested observing conditions? Basically, make sure your are optimizing the pixel sampling of the spatial resolution (GN/GS) and/or the spectral resolution.
- Are the integration times reasonable? Individual imaging observations should not be longer than 10-15min, individual spectroscopy observations should not be longer than 20min (GMOS-S and GMOS-N Hamamatsu CCDs, due to the high rate of cosmic rays). Short exposures result in large overheads from the readout of the detectors, and may give data dominated by the read-noise.
- GMOS observation sequences that take longer than ~3 hours to execute will likely not be executed all on one night, and you must allow adequate time for re-acquisitions on subsequent nights when filling the allocated time. Have you read the details about the overhead calculations? Have you added a note explaining how many reacquisitions you have assumed for the calculation of the overheads? Taking the correct overheads into account, do your defined observations fit within the allocated observing time? Is there an appropriate mix of science exposures and baseline calibrations in the sequence? Spectral flats at redder wavelengths should be taken about once per hour, while flats at bluer wavelengths can be taken in the daytime.
- Have you checked Baseline Calibrations to see what is offered/required.
- Baseline arcs and flats should be set up using smartcals now. Choosing a flat (as observe element) within a science sequence will automatically set up a baseline nighttime partner calibration with an optimal exposure time. Choosing an arc within a science sequence will automatically set up the correct exposure time but these must be set to nighttime program calibration. Within a daytime arc sequence, this will be set up as daytime partner calibration. If you feel you need a different exposure time (e.g., because the desired grating/filter/wavelength/slit width combo is not known by the smart cal library), please contact your Gemini program Contact Scientist, or file a helpdesk ticket. As of 2012B, arcs and flats configured manually will no longer be checked by either the NGO or Contact Scientist. Any time lost will be charged to the PI. .
- Have all observation classes been set correctly?
- Have you considered the effects of differential atmospheric refraction on your data? The default position angle has been set to 90deg in the GMOS-N and GMOS-S Libraries, as for most science targets this will minimize the slit losses. However, if your target Declination differs from the observatory latitude by more than ~ 25-30 deg (for targets observed with GMOS-N Dec > +50 or Dec < -10, for targets observed with GMOS-S Dec > 0 or Dec < -60), at a minimum the position angle should be changed to 0 deg if possible. More information is available on why target Dec influences the choice of default position angle.
If desired, take longslit observations at the parallactic angle. To do so, please include a
note with the title
in the program. If this is not possible, the hour angle/airmass constraints can be chosen to ensure that the target is observed closer to transit. These will need to be approved by the appropriate head of sci ops.
- Guide stars
- Are guide stars selected for the GMOS OIWFS? The PWFSs are not used for observing sidereal targets with GMOS in most cases. First, select the position angle mode (Fixed, Allow 180deg flip, Average parallactic) in the GMOS component as appropriate. The automatic guide star selection service will select an appropriate guide star for the specified observing conditions. Alternatively, the PI can still choose a guide star using the Manual GS button on the OT position editor. For manual guide stars, ensure that the guide star can be reached for the selected position angle, that the guide star is within the magnitude limits for the OIWFS, and that all guided offset positions can be reached. Check that the probe arm is visible and falls within the green box in the position editor. Fix any red offset positions. The UCAC4 catalog should be used whenever possible for choosing guide stars as the magnitudes are usually reliable.
- Ensure guide stars are stars and not galaxies.
- Calibrations
- Check that appropriate calibrations are included in the program. To see which baseline calibrations/standards are recommended, see Baseline Calibrations.
- For baseline spectrophotometric standards or twilight flats, make sure that the target component is left blank or excluded.
- If the PI requires calibrating standards beyond what is offered in the standard baseline calibrations, these must be defined, including a specific target, and time will be charged against the program for the observation. Observing class should be set to Nighttime Program Calibration. Baseline standards are set to partner calibration.
- Imaging
- Note that binning is recommended for imaging observations in IQ70 conditions or worse.
- Have you considered spatial dithers for imaging? There are gaps between the three detectors in GMOS, illustrated on the GMOS imaging page and whose approximate positions are indicated in the OT position editor.
- If imaging in the i, z, Z, and Y-filters, have you considered how to handle the fringing? In GMOS-N and GMOS-S the fringing becomes apparent redward of about ~800 nm and is about ~2% of the background level in the Y-band (GMOS-N and GMOS-S), and ~1% (GMOS-N)/less than 0.5% (GMOS-S) in the z'-band. A minimum of 5 exposures is recommended in order to generate a good fringe frame.
- Baseline photometric standards should not be defined within the program. These baseline standards are already taken on each photometric night that imaging data is obtained. If the PI wishes to have more than one taken, or insists on having one taken with a program defined for CC70 conditions, then a program standard with target component will have to be defined in the program by the PI.
- Spectroscopy
- Have you considered spectral dithers for spectroscopy? There are gaps between the three detectors in GMOS, illustrated on the GMOS long-slit spectroscopy page. If complete wavelength coverage is essential, then two sets of observations with slightly different wavelengths are needed. The recommended minimum shifts are ~20nm for the R150 grating, ~7.5nm for the R400 grating, and ~5nm for all other gratings.
- At long wavelengths, fringing becomes a problem. If not using N&S to correct for the sky background, it is best to use spatial dithers from which fringe frames can be generated.
- Ensure that all the appropriate baseline calibrations (nighttime GCAL flats, twilight flats, daytime CuAr, mask image obs [for MOS], and spectrophotometric [flux response] standards) and acquisition observations are included.
- For spectroscopy at wavelengths longer than about 850 nm, the wavelength calibration can be improved by including 2nd-order CuAr lines in the wavelength calibration. In this case, it may be beneficial to take additional CuAr exposures without any order-blocking filter. An example line list can be found here.
- Have you included the appropriate acquisition observations?
- If an observation includes an unusual or non-standard acquisition (eg. off-axis long-slit or IFU where the guide star cannot be accessed with the science target on-axis, blind offset acquisitions, MOS acquisitions with large initial offsets, etc), include the appropriate OT Library standardized note in the program. The text of the note can either describe the acquisition or point to other notes within the program. Using these standardized notes should minimize acquisition errors and observers won't be surprised. See the OT library for examples of non-standard acquisitions. See COMPLETE EXAMPLE: Longslit (extended/double/off-axis source), for cases where the science object is either extended by more than 15", a double source where the targets are separated by more than 20", or a target which is more than 20" off-axis in the q-direction.
- BLIND OFFSETS: Use when targets are too faint to be acquired within 5 min of imaging.
- Make sure that a User1 target is defined with coordinates on the same astrometric system as the science
- Make sure the blind offset User1 star has a name, preferably something like 'Reference Star' or 'Blind offset star'
- Offset star should preferably be within 20 arcsec of the science target. The accuracy of blind offsetting is better than 0.1 arcsec for offsets less than 20 arcsec.
- For the blind offsetting to work, it is essential that the same guide star can be reached for the bright object and the science target.
- Include a note in the program to warn the observer of the non-standard acquisition.
- If your longslit or IFU spectroscopic observations involve complicated alignments, crowded fields, or targets fainter than about R=18 (eg. if the target is not obvious in the OT position editor with the Digitized sky survey 2 image loaded), you need to prepare finding charts. Such a finding chart should indicate the target/s and display the orientation (preferably North up and East to the left) and scale. Finding charts should be uploaded through the OT.
- Have you included the observation for the flux (spectral-response) standard? For MOS, standard star observations should be taken at 2-3 central wavelengths in order to span the full wavelength range over the mask (see the Description in the MOS Baseline Calibration Examples in the OT LIbrary). Otherwise, if spectral dithers are used in the science, only one central wavelength will be observed for the flux standard. Do not include a target component (or if included, please leave the target blank) for baseline standards. The observer will choose one appropriate for the time of the observation.
- Have you considered using Nod&Shuffle for spectroscopy in the red?
- If using N&S, check that electronic offsetting is chosen if small offsets (< 2.0arcsec) have been defined (this will reduce overheads significantly).
- Recommended exposure times are 60s for CC50/70 and 30s for more variable and thick cloud conditions.
- The nod should be less than half the length of the slit if the observation intention is to keep the object within the slit for both nods. For large nods, if the guide star cannot be reached at the sky position, make sure the OIWFS is set to freeze.
- Ensure that the shuffle distance defined in the Nod & Shuffle tab makes sense. For microshuffling, the distance should be the same as the slit length (but must be an even number of rows if binning by 2).
- Check that a N&S dark is defined in order to correct for charge traps. For deep observations it is also recommended to translate the detector a few pixels in the y-direction between N&S observations. Check that the observations have been split into multiple dithered exposures, with the translation of the detector set by the DTA-X offset. For GMOS-S new detectors, charge traps are not present therefore N&S darks and DTA-X offsets is no longer necessary, but if these are defined the minimum allowed value for DTA-X offset is -2
- For IFU observations, make sure that the guide star can be reached in both the acquisition and science observation. If it is not possible, choose a guide star appropriate for the science observation and include a standardized note in the program warning of this.
- Binning: check that the Y-direction is left unbinned since the width of each IFU fiber is only 5 unbinned pixels. Since the spectral resolution in the IFU is equivalent to 4.26 unbinned pixels, binning in the spectral direction for very faint objects may be useful.
- If you are using the IFU in two-slit mode, you will have to use one of the color filters to avoid overlap between the spectra. For IFU observations in one-slit mode, IFU-R should be chosen over IFU-B (IFU-R is recommended over IFU-B for both GMOS-N and S)..
- If your program is a MOS program, have you defined any pre-imaging along with mask observations?
You will get the chance to modify the MOS observations once you design your mask.
However, the pointing and PA of your target cannot be changed between the pre-imaging
and the MOS observations.
- If taking pre-imaging, make sure the MOS pre-imaging option on the OT GMOS component is indicated.
- If no pre-imaging was taken, make sure the acquisition starts with a mask out of the beam step for coarse alignment.
- For MOS programs, have you included the required daytime calibration mask image(s) .
- If your program is a MOS program, prepare yourself for the mask design by reading the MOS instructions in detail and installing the required software.
- Mask names must be in the correct format: ie for program GN-2003B-Q-27, the mask names should be GN2003BQ027-01 and GN2003BQ027-02 for the first and second mask, respectively.
- If a mask was designed from a catalog, make sure the RA, Dec, and position angle entered in the OT are the same values used for making the mask. You can extract the RA and Dec information from the MDF file or pseudo image (eg by using "thselect {maskfile.fits} RA_IMAG,DEC_IMAG" or "hselect {psuedo_image} RA,DEC in pyraf). Check the PA by comparing the pseudo image orientation (after inverting y and rotating to the PA listed in the OT) with eg. a DSS image in the OT position editor.


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Sometimes it's the little things that turn out to be the biggest problems in the end.
Continue Reading Below
Right before the end-of-the-year holidays when the family gathers is a good time to think about some retirement-planning details that can make life easier when the inevitable happens.
Paul Mauro, managing partner of Legacy Financial Advisors, says when he settles an estate after a death, he often encounters these five issues that make the job harder for him and the bereaved family. Here are the problems and what you can do to avoid them.
Who are you, anyway? If you are John Robert Jones on one document and Robby Jones on another and J.R. on a third, your family will have to prove you are one and the same person. Discrepancies in birth dates and Social Security numbers are even harder-to-resolve issues.
You own what, where? If you own property in more than one state -- a cottage in Wisconsin or a home in Florida -- your survivors will face probate in both places unless you've put in place a trust or other legal plan to avoid it. At least, discuss the problem with your financial adviser or an attorney. Forcing your heirs to go through probate in two states can cost thousands and multiply their gray hairs.
Keep the paperwork current. Dealing with death or Alzheimer's -- yours or your spouse's -- is doubly difficult if nothing is up-to-date and you aren't there or you're not able to sign off on the changes. Mauro advises making sure you have the right papers to control your spouse's retirement as well as your own.
Hand over the jewelry. Families can have a meltdown over things such as diamond rings. Divvying up personal items either by giving them away while you're still there to accept a loving thank you or in writing as a part of your will can help keep the family friendly.
Have a plan for the toys. If you collect hard-to-value and hard-to-sell things such as woodworking tools or postcards from every country in the United Nations, hand the collection off to someone else who will love these items as much as you do -- or leave precise instructions for donating or getting a fair return on the sale of them.
Your generosity and thoughtfulness in taking care of these retirement and estate-planning details will be one of the best holiday gifts you can give your loved ones.


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Everyone has at least one skill that doesn't have a practical use.
Mine is the ability to name every movie ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
I absorbed that knowledge from years of reading critical studies of the Oscars, to the point where, if someone blurts out any year from 1928 to the present, I can pinpoint that year's winner within three seconds. Go ahead, try me — my number is at the bottom of this column.
I guess having that photographic memory has one practical use: It gives me a leg up in making Oscar predictions. The last time I can remember wrongly handicapping the winner was in 1998, when I picked "Saving Private Ryan" over "Shakespeare in Love," but I don't think even Shakespeare's descendants predicted that upset.
In many ways, the Best Picture race is similar to a presidential primary. Both are contests ostensibly about choosing the "best" candidate, but more often award the most politically prudent and least divisive choice. Sometimes, a movie will top the list because it's a popular smash ("Titanic"); sometimes, voters will favor it over a volatile contender ("Crash" over "Brokeback Mountain"); other times, the Oscar serves as a consolation prize (would "The Departed" have taken the gold without Martin Scorsese's name on it?).
This year, the field seems more open than usual, without one film that seems a sure bet to win it all — you know, like "Saving Private Ryan" or "Brokeback Mountain." And so, with the Oscar nominations having come out Tuesday, I propose the Independent's first annual Outguess the City Editor Contest.
Between now and the Feb. 26 ceremony, email your predictions for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress to email@example.com. Whoever gets the most right will get a mention in this column after the show. The only catch is that you have to do better than me. Here are my picks:
Best Picture: Under recently adopted rules, the Academy now nominates up to 10 movies for this award — which just means there are more also-rans than in the past. Of the ones with a fighting chance, "The Help" has too many outspoken detractors, "Midnight in Paris" is lightweight, and "The Descendants" may be too talky and low-key to entice enough votes.
So it really comes down to "The Artist" and "Hugo," both of which celebrate the early days of moviemaking. The latter gets my personal vote as the year's best film, but "The Artist," which recently won the Golden Globe and the Producers Guild Award, seems to have the momentum.
The pick: "The Artist"
Best Director: Usually, this one matches the Best Picture winner. Scorsese ("Hugo") and Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris") have won before, Alexander Payne ("The Descendants") may have a better shot in the screenplay category, and Terrence Malick baffled as many viewers as he charmed with "The Tree of Life." So that leaves Michel Hazanavicius, whose obscure (and hard-to-pronounce) name will benefit from having "The Artist" behind it.
The pick: Michel Hazanavicius
Best Actor: This one, at least, should come down to a pair of household names: George Clooney ("The Descendants") and Brad Pitt ("Moneyball"). Pitt had a career year in 2011 and could just as easily have been nominated for "The Tree of Life." Clooney, though, has dominated the industry for the last decade as an actor, director and writer, and the Academy will probably take this opportunity to give him his first Oscar for a leading role.
The pick: George Clooney
Best Actress: Meryl Streep ("The Iron Lady") and Michelle Williams ("My Week With Marilyn") won the Golden Globes, but both performances got more acclaim than the movies they were in. So this one will likely go to Viola Davis ("The Help"), who starred in a box-office smash — love it or hate it — that eked out a Best Picture nod.
The pick: Viola Davis
Best Supporting Actor: No one in this category really leaps out as a front-runner, but Christopher Plummer ("Beginners") looks like the safest bet after winning the Golden Globe. Plus, the Academy often uses the supporting categories to honor industry veterans — Don Ameche in "Cocoon," Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine," and so on.
The pick: Christopher Plummer
Best Supporting Actress: Part of me says Octavia Spencer will win this for "The Help," but I have a growing hunch that Melissa McCarthy will pull an upset for "Bridesmaids." She appeared in a box-office smash that got just two nominations; she's an offbeat contender in a category that often favors them (remember Marisa Tomei for "My Cousin Vinny"?); and frankly, if that speech about the female Fight Club wasn't Oscar-worthy, I don't know what is.
The pick: Melissa McCarthy
City Editor MICHAEL MILLER can be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at email@example.com.


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Grandparents Raising their Grandson
"I recognize that without Head Start and Early Head Start intervention, our grandson would not be successful in school today." – Vivian Decker, former Head Start grandparent, Clarkson, KY
My husband and I gained custody of our 18-month-old grandson in December 2004. We enrolled him in Early Head Start (EHS), and he continued onto Head Start. In EHS, he was diagnosed developmentally delayed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. He required speech, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. With the dedicated efforts of his EHS nurturers and Head Start teachers, he transitioned to kindergarten and is now in elementary school. He is an avid reader, thanks to his Head Start experience. His math skills are great. By first grade, his progress reports indicated that everything was excellent; he has mastered all skills and has just some difficulty with penmanship. Wow! This child came to EHS at 18 months muttering sounds and unable to speak. He could not walk independently and did not attempt to feed himself. He suffered from tremors constantly in his hands and arms. I recognize that without Head Start and Early Head Start intervention, our grandson would not be successful in school today. We are forever grateful for the opportunity to have been in Head Start.


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Officially licensed 5 gal. bucket. Used to haul parts, paint, topsoil and other household and work-site items. This plastic bucket holds up to a 9 in. bucket grid and features the college team logo on its side.
- Use for mixing paint, hauling topsoil, store parts and for other purposes
- Ideal for use as a utility pail on work sites
- Holds up to a 9 in. bucket grid
- Plastic construction for durability


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Social Activities
The RPCVs of Colorado love to get together! In addition to regular meetings, there are monthly happy hours, a bi-monthly book club and annual events like the Annual Ski Trip, Winter Holiday Party and Summer Picnic. Other regularly scheduled events include Ethnic Lunches, cultural films and plays and even a kickball team. If you are interested in meeting more RPCVs, come to a social event listed on the event calendar. If you have a great idea for our next happy hour location, a great place to eat ethnic food or some other way that RPCVs can get together, consider joining the Social Events Action Team! For more info on any social event, please contact us using our contact form (select Social events)


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