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Daynotes
Journal
Week of 6 August 2007
Latest
Update: Saturday, 11 August 2007 10:48 -0400 |
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09:02
- Barbara
returned last night to a chorus of barking and tail-wagging. And that
was just me. The dogs were happy to see her, too.
Her new Pentax K100D body performed well, once she got a set of working
AA cells installed. I'd charged eight Powerex 2500 mAh AA cells for her
(two sets), but there was apparently at least one defective cell in
each set. She probably could have swapped cells around until she found
a working set of four, but it was easier just to install a set of four
AA alkalines, so that's what she did.
I wondered how long a set of alkalines would last. Barbara shot about
100 images with the alkalines, including perhaps 25 with flash, and the
battery indicator in the camera still shows a full charge. I'm going to
shoot with this set until it dies, but it's nice to know that regular
AA alkalines are usable in an emergency. I remember using some early
digital cameras that ate a set of alkalines after literally only a
dozen shots. Even 100 images on a set is reasonable, and it looks like
I'll get much more than that.
There are lots of new blog entries
posted on the Blue Planet Run site, including one by Mary. The common
thread that runs through nearly all of them is happiness at returning
to the USA.
In one of his blog entries, Heiko Warner talks about the realities of the run versus the official BPR stroll-in-the-park update stories.
As you can see, things are not always going as smooth as you may think
while reading the daily updates and look at some of the beautiful –
often staged – photographs taken somewhere along the route – some in
locations we don’t even pass through while running. I am not sure why
much of the actual run is focused on only a few of us and is being
portrayed as some kind of a beach vacation where people are worried
about massages and getting a manicure. The running schedule is rather
harsh at times, and real daily life on the road is shown rarely.
This from a guy who'd just been knocked down and nearly run over by the
team van, and who's a member of team of four runners all of whom were
too sick or injured to run. But they ran anyway. And all of the teams
cover for each other, willingly, taking on shifts for other teams who
are in even worse shape than they are or lending a team member to a
troubled team, knowing that that team would do the same for them.
Until recently, BPR has trivialized those efforts, making it seem that
the run has been problem-free. Fortunately, someone at BPR has
apparently come to his senses, and in the last week or so the updates
have included more realistic depictions of the challenges the runners
face. I'm not sure what BPR thought they were accomplishing by making
this run look easy, when it's anything but.
For the next couple of months, I'll be doing serious heads-down writing
on the home chem lab book. I'll continue to post updates here, perhaps
even daily, but they'll mostly be short.
I've written a lot of books, but somehow it always comes as a surprise
how much work is actually required to write a book. I guess at the back
of my mind I must be thinking that this should get easier with
practice. It doesn't, or at least it doesn't for me.
I also need to start talking to the folks at O'Reilly about my next
book. As another author once said to me, when we wake up every morning,
we're unemployed. I get very uncomfortable if I don't have at least one
book and ideally more than one under contract well before I finish the
book I'm currently working on.
09:18
- Oops.
From: Barbara Fritchman Thompson
To: Robert Bruce Thompson
Date: Today 08:42:58
Re: Saturday post
"He cleaned it out, so presumably the Trooper will start normally when Barbara gets back."
Actually, he took off the cable,
I scraped the connector and posts with my pocket knife myself. Small
point, but being a woman, I thought you should correct that point so as
not to appear as the helpless female.
08:29
- Still working on the home chem lab book.
The Blue Planet Run website has a bunch of new blog entries posted, including one by Mary Chervenak. You can see them here. There's also a new video report on Mongolia, in which Mary features.
The run reaches the California-Nevada border late this afternoon their
time. They spend a day running across Nevada and then enter Utah.
I hope it isn't as hot and humid there as it is here. Our high
temperature was 98F (37C) yesterday, and the highs this week are
forecast to be in the mid- to high 90s, with the wind
chill reaching 105F. The dogs and I won't be spending much time
outdoors.
08:28
-
Yesterday afternoon about 5:00, the dogs started barking like crazy. It
was too early for Barbara to be home, and this was their excited bark
as opposed to their intruder warning bark. I finally got up and looked
out the window. Jasmine and Missy were out in the front yard. (Missy is
Duncan's and Malcolm's girlfriend, a pretty little Yorkshire Terrier.)
Jas was on both crutches, poor kid. When you're 14, it must really suck
to be on crutches for your entire summer vacation. She starts back to
school in a couple of weeks, her first year in high school. I asked Jas
if she was looking forward to high school and she said she wasn't. The
classes don't worry her, but the change in schools does. More
particularly, I suspect, it's the change in teachers and classmates
that worries her. She'll be making a big change from the familiar to
the unfamiliar. Everyone is telling her that high school will be more
challenging, which I'm sure is intimidating.
Jasmine gets pretty much straight A's. She works her butt off, and I
suspect she thinks that's why she gets straight A's. In fact, I think
she could probably have slacked off quite a bit and still gotten
straight A's. But Jas is the sort of kid who comes home with a 98 or 99 on a
test and is really upset with herself for not getting 100.
A month or so ago, I suggested to Kim that she have Jasmine's IQ tested
to find out which fields Jas would be best-suited for. Right now, Jas
wants to be a physician. I suspect Jas is bright enough to be a good
physician, but trying to judge an extremely deferential 14 year old
girl makes it tough to know for sure. Like a lot of girls, Jasmine
tends to undervalue her own abilities, particularly in stuff like the
hard sciences and math. She is taking some honors courses this coming
year, but she shies away from the idea of taking AP courses later
on, although I suspect she'd do well at them. Kim is concerned about
Jasmine's lack of confidence, and once Jasmine gets into the swing of
high school we'll be doing what we can to boost her confidence.
The Blue Planet Run entered Nevada yesterday afternoon. At 0730 my time (EDT), I think they were about here,
at the intersection of South Moapa Valley Road and Waterfowl Road. At
about 1800 my time, they'll depart Nevada and cut through a small part
of Arizona on their way to Utah.
Mary Chervenak is scheduled for a day off once they reach Utah. I hope
she gets it. She started on Team Silver (which was actually named Team
Gray originally) and later moved to Team Green. BPR had purchased
airline tickets ahead of time for the flight from Japan to San
Francisco, and those tickets were for particular individuals. That
meant they ended up re-forming the original teams for the flight over,
and they've stuck with those original teams until now. At some point, I
expect them to rejigger the teams, which means Mary could end up losing
her day off.
As I said to Mary and Jo Rogan the other day, I think BPR made a major
blunder by dividing the runners into so many small teams. If it had
been me, I'd have created two teams, Blue and Gold or whatever, and
assigned 12 runners to each of those teams. I'd have assigned one of
those teams to run from midnight to noon every day and the other
from noon to midnight. That way, they'd each have run times during the
day and during the cooler evening/night hours. (I suppose they could
have made the break points at 0100 or 0200 to divide the night hours
more evenly.)
Each team would have an 80 mile daily run, which means only eight of
the 12 runners would need to run on any given day. If everyone remained
healthy, each runner would have two days on followed by one day off,
which is a more reasonable schedule for a run that lasts 95 days. When
they did have injuries or illnesses, they'd have enough in reserve to
deal with them without putting too much burden on the healthy runners.
With the small teams, they've committed the fundamental tactical
error of creating a piecrust defense--thinly scattered resources and no
reserve. And, predictably, they've seen the inevitable results of that.
Defeat in detail.
Larger teams would have several other advantages. Logistically, it'd be
much easier to deal with the problems they've encountered, everything
from illnesses and injuries among the runners and support staff to
mechanical breakdowns. And it would also help them eliminate the sleep
disruption problems they've had, with runners constantly having to run
different shifts around the clock. Basically, all 21 of the runners
have been constantly jet-lagged for the last two months because they've
not been able to sleep on a regular schedule.
Update from Paul.
From: Paul Jones
To: Paul Jones
CC: <many recipients>
Date: Yesterday 21:19:30
Re: vegas
Hi all,
I just had breakfast with Mary at
2pm at the Excalibur in Vegas. A few months ago, I'd have bet good
money I'd never write that sentence. What I've learned in Vegas is:
don't bet good money. I'm now in St. George, Utah, where her team will
end the evening. They ran last night through the Mojave. Unfortunately,
the team van went off road and buried itself up to the axle in
sand. At the same time, they'd been assigned a route that had been
tagged "day only" by the route planners. So of the 40 planned
miles they would only do 16 or so. Now, I don't know about you,
but for me at this point that would be a blessing but they were all
irritated they didn't get a full run in. Mary had about five miles
through fairly deep sand and just when she had got back to the road
they pulled her because of "traffic". She says she was 200m from the
exchange point and there was just a smattering of cars (it was 0330 in
the Mojave). Of course, she compared the traffic there with the M-7
where they wouldn't pull her and..you can imagine the comparison.
If you've read some of the other
blogs and the (new again) website, you have probably noticed a change
in tone. Team Yellow (Heiko, Paul, Laurel and Rudy) had a really rough
time starting in China and haven't pulled punches in their discussion
of the run. One of the daily updaters wrote some more honest updates
and got pulled. I'm not sure why the sudden change in tone. I suspect
that lines of communication broke down in Siberia not just between
runner and family but between runner and Run. Now that they're
back up, I think there is confusion as to what, if anything, should be
done. I think, talking to a few of the runners - at least this is
Mary's take - is that while the run has been very difficult and not
always accurately portrayed in the BPR updates and website, that the
positive outweighs the negative and that the positive has been
extraordinary. There is a strong bond between teammates. I believe
their irritation isn't at having suffered but at having their suffering
portrayed as partying or ignored altogether by the organizers.
Together, they are a very strong and impressive group.
I'm off to find a dark spot for
my scope (it's clear!) and dinner, not necessarily in that order. More
tomorrow for a full accounting of Team Silver's latest shift. They'll
move to the 0300-0900 shift starting on August 9, somewhere in southern
Utah.
When I read the part about "One of the daily updaters wrote some more
honest updates and got pulled" I had this vision of a giant hook
reaching out and snatching one of the runners, but that turns out not
to be the case.
Paul called us last night to gloat. He had his 15" Obsession telescope
set up at a very dark site south of St. George, Utah, and wanted to let
us poor haze-bound folks know about his good fortune. When I asked him
if he'd meant that one of the runners got pulled for writing the truth,
Paul said it wasn't a runner but one of the BPR staff who'd been
writing the daily updates.
Barbara and I are looking forward to seeing Mary again, which should
happen in a month or so. We'll go out for Mexican food, or have pizza
on our deck, or something. Anything but Chinese food, which Mary says
she'll never eat again. I told Mary that I'm a bit concerned about
third-world cooties. Not to worry, though. I have N100 respirator masks
for Barbara and me, and I'll wand Mary down with my CDV-715 radiation survey meter before we sit down to eat.
10:17
- I enjoy watching Cali Lewis on GeekBrief TV, but she is one scary driver.
13:00
-
At noon, our weather station read 97.6F (41C). I took a digital lab
thermometer outside to verify that, and it read 97.4F. Our forecast
high today is 102F. The dogs and I are staying in other than brief
visits to the shady part of the front yard.
08:20
- Update from Paul.
From: Paul Jones
To: Paul Jones
CC: <many recipients>
Date: Yesterday 20:17:26
Re: Are we in Siberia?
Where to begin? My day began at 7am with a knock on the door. I sprang
out of bed, happy to greet the bright new day and my wife in from her
triumphant final leg of the graveyard shift...wait. Wife not looking so
triumphant. Day looking a bit too bright. Two bags go wizzing past my
head. Wheels turn. There should be a third bag. Mary is talking, but
having been awake about a minute and a half I'm not really listening.
It turns out that somewhere between mile 43 of Nevada 167 in Lake Mead
National Recreation Area and the hotel in St. George, UT (a 2 hour and
14 minute drive - I timed it (see below)) Mary's backpack went missing.
Debate raged (we'll leave details out, especially since they seem sort
of fuzzy, save Mary knows it was in the van at mile 43). The driver
refused to go back to look for it. A non-exhaustive list of the
contents of the bag: passport, cash, credit card, driver's license,
contact lenses, prescription sunglasses, biking sunglasses, computer,
camera, DVDs, running shoes with prescription orthotics (tied to bag).
As I said, wife not looking triumphant. Wife, in fact, looking just
about as mad as husband has seen her. We head, at a relatively high
rate of speed, faster each time I look to my right, back to the last
known position of the bag and search for a few hours. No luck. We
return to the hotel, hastily check out and determine a shopping bag of
less valuable items is also missing. We eat lunch and buy a wallet and
new (cheap) backpack. I continually ask questions, the answer to which
is: "It was in the backpack" I try to stop but can't. "Where is the
next hotel?" "It's in the backpack." "When do you run next?" "It's in
the backpack." "What was the name of that guy we met the other night?"
"It's in the backpack." You get the idea. We begin the drive to
Escalante (about three hours). Mary dozes, having not slept all night.
About 2pm, I cut off a silver van coming from the north as I merge onto
Utah 12, heading into Bryce Canyon. Silver van phones us - that
shouldn't happen. It is Alyson, our friend and now masseuse to Blue
Planet Run (another essay in itself). Alyson had had her reservation
changed from St. George (a 2 hour drive from Vegas) to Escalante (a 5
hour drive) without anyone telling her. We pulled over and she told us
that Mary's bag has been found and she is to call Runner Services. Cell
phone coverage is spotty in central Utah the way a nice clean floor
upon which one crumb has fallen is spotty. We locate the crumb and call
Runner Services. Apparently the bag was recovered and is in a BPR van,
somewhere, on its way to Escalante. Whoo. We do a little happy dance
among red rocks and then drive on to Escalante. I have wireless
internet coverage but no cell coverage. For some reason, I always
marvel at that.
The lady at the hotel desk seemed confused by us: Alyson, Mary and I.
Mary and I claim to be married but want two rooms under reservations
with two names. I'm staying two nights, she three. Mary and Alyson
claim to be part of the Blue Planet Run, I do not. If I hadn't already
written a long, nonsensical paragraph I'd go through the whole Abbott
and Costello routine which ensued.
In other news, the running goes well. The Run is through the Mojave and
Mary had a nice run along Lake Mead, near the Valley of Fire State
Park, which I highly recommend next time you're in Vegas. They're
upfront with you: put your money in the bin, they say.
The skies were clear and the stars beautiful. All the night runners
have commented. Mary's next run in on the 0300-0900 shift on August 10.
Sorry for the rambling email, but it has been a day. Food and sleep, hopefully in that order.
Uh-oh. I wonder if that driver realizes how close he came to suffering the Fist of Death.
And I wonder if Paul realizes how close he came to, well something.
That hotel clerk probably thought something kinky was going on, and
that's no joke in Utah. I think they shoot you. Or perhaps force you to
marry both women.
I'm getting really short of DVD+R discs. I'm down to about 50, so it's time to re-order.
I've been using and recommending Verbatim MCC003 DVD+R discs for years,
but recently they've reportedly changed both their packaging and their
dye formulation. I've read several reports by knowledgeable people
about problems with the new Verbatim DVD+R discs. I haven't seen any of
them, so I can't really comment, but I'm concerned enough that I'm
going to start using Taiyo-Yuden discs for anything that matters, at
least until I have more information about the new Verbatim DVD+R discs.
I say "new", but apparently Verbatim has been shipping these for quite
a while. That's one drawback of my habit of ordering fairly large
quantities at once. When a company reformulates, I may not find out
about it for some time, and when I place another order I may
unexpectedly end up with a large number of discs that use a
different formulation than what I'm used to using.
Unfortunately, NewEgg doesn't carry Taiyo-Yuden DVD+R discs. Also
unfortunately, TY discs are frequently counterfeited, so I'm
immediately suspicious of any vendor who sells supposed TY discs at a
bargain price. Rima.com seems to be
a reliable source. I'm going to order five 100-disc spindles of 16X TY
DVD+R discs later today, which will cost $40.50 per spindle delivered.
08:20
-
I don't know what our high temperature was yesterday, but when I took
the dogs for a brief out at 1700, our weather station was indicating
101.8F (43.6C). That's a good temperature for a hot tub. Come to think
of it, the humidity in a hot tub wouldn't be all that much higher,
either.
Today is supposed to be more of the same. At least there's supposed to
be a cold snap over the weekend. Tomorrow's high is forecast to be only
91F.
Update from Paul.
From: Paul Jones
To: Paul Jones
CC: <many recipients>
Date: Yesterday 14:57:36
Re: Re: Are we in Siberia?
The bag is sitting beside me,
intact. It was found on the road by a non-BPR person who called
the number and turned it in, anonymously. There are some awfully good
folks out there.
From: Robert Bruce Thompson
To: Paul Jones
CC: Mary Chervenak, Barbara Thompson
Date: Yesterday 16:13:28
Re: Re: Are we in Siberia?
On Thursday 09 August 2007 14:57, you wrote:
> The bag is sitting beside me, intact. It was found on the road by a
> non-BPR person who called the number and turned it in, anonymously.
> There are some awfully good folks out there. -Paul
That doesn't really surprise me. I think most people are basically decent and act according to the Golden Rule.
Last night, I was telling Barbara
about my encounter with the mailman yesterday afternoon. I heard the
mail arrive and went out on the front porch to get it, by which time he
was just walking back to his truck after delivering the neighbor's
mail. It was close to 100F, so I shouted to ask him if he'd like a
glass of icewater or iced tea or something. He shouted back that he
greatly appreciated the offer, but he already had plenty of icewater.
People all along his route had been bringing cold drinks out to him.
Which reminded me of the time I
was working during college summer vacation for the Pennsylvania highway
department. We were out running a paver one very hot August day. I was
one of the flagmen, which is the most miserable job you can imagine,
particularly when you're running a paver. You have to literally run
from place to place, because the paver just keeps rolling, with a
continuing series of dump trucks delivering hotmix to it. We sometimes
paved as much as 15 to 20 miles over a 12-hour day (so, yes, Mary, I
actually have run 15 or 20 miles in one day in this kind of heat; I'd
forgotten about that.)
Anyway, it was late afternoon,
and about 100F in the shade, but we were in the sun. I'd stopped a line
of traffic and stood waiting until the flagman on the other end radioed
me to tell me he'd stopped traffic his way. I waited until the last of
his line came through and then waved my line to go ahead. Two or three
cars went past me, and then one pulled up and stopped next to me. There
were two college-age girls in it, with a McDonalds bag between them.
The girl in the passenger seat rolled down her window, handed me her
Coke, and said, "Here. You need this more than I do." I hope she has a
long and happy life.
From: Jack Jacobson
To: Robert Thompson
Date: Today 13:37:53
Re: Backup Strategies
Hi Robert,
I've read your backup strategies, if I'm not mistaken I think you use DVDs as a primary source, although in the past you used tape. I personally use USB drives, they seem much simpler (require less time) for my forgetful mind, and I keep them in different locations for redundancy.
My question is, do you think the data integrity of the DVDs is adequate? I ask because of info on this site.
As always, I'm interested in your comments.
From: Robert Bruce Thompson
To: Jack Jacobson
Date: Yesterday 13:56:33
Re: Backup Strategies
Hi, Jack
He's confused about almost everything. I should probably write up an
essay on backing up, but right now I just don't have time. There are a
lot of issues, but basically what I'm doing now is:
1. Making daily backups of my entire working directory (including my and Barbara's Linux home directories) in five locations:
a. The primary hard disk (sda) of my Linux box.
b. Two additional hard drives (sdb and sdc), which are internal drives in my Linux box.
c. Two additional hard drives (sdd and sde), which are external USB 2.0
drives connected to my Linux box. One and usually both of those goes
with me when I leave the house for anything longer than walking the
dogs.
2. Making weekly (Sunday) backups of my working directories to DVD+R
discs. (I used to make daily DVD+R backups, but that added little
redundancy and generated a lot of discs.) Those go into a 48-disc
wallet that contains the last six months or so of Sunday discs, along
with full sets of my archive and holding (short-term archive)
directories. Again, that wallet goes with me when I leave the house.
3. Each time my holding directory fills up, I move the contents to my
archive directory and burn a new set of archive discs. The old set of
archive discs and the holding disc (which makes the old archive set
current) get moved off site.
If you use good DVD+R discs in a good drive, and if you store those
discs properly, there shouldn't be any problem. I've gone back and done
detailed surface scans on DVD+R discs that were burned years before,
and I found no degradation. Reports of very premature disc failures
are, I think, the result of people who don't know what they're doing,
use cheap blanks, store them improperly, and so on. A top-notch DVD+R
disc (like Taiyo-Yuden) should last for many years if it is burned and
stored properly. I think the gold-based discs are simply overkill, and
I've seen no convincing evidence that they are any more archivally
stable than first-rate standard discs like the Taiyo-Yudens.
08:40
- This is huge. The judge in the SCO/Novell and SCO/IBM cases just ruled that Novell owns the copyrights to Unix, which guts SCO's cases against both Novell and IBM. It's all over but the shouting.
Brian Jepson, my editor at O'Reilly, sent me galley PDFs yesterday of the two initial narrative chapters (Introduction to DSO Observing and Observing Equipment)
and thirteen more constellation chapters. The layout of the narrative
chapters needs some work, but the constellation chapters just need
careful proofing. I made it through eight of the constellation chapters
yesterday, and will finish the remaining five today. That'll leave 25
constellation chapters remaining to be proofed. I'm sure I'll be
getting them shortly.
Update from Paul.
From: Paul Jones
To: Paul Jones
CC: <many recipients>
Date: Yesterday 23:15:55
Re: Are we in Siberia? No, Mongolia.
Someone call John Muir or Ed
Abbey. There is still wildness in America. The Blue Planet Run
fell silent for much of the day today as they passed through Bryce
Canyon National Park, through Escalante, Utah, where they threw an
impromptu party and into the Escalante Grand Staircase National
Recreation Area. Having driven through this area a few years ago, I
knew what was coming, but the team appears to have been taken by
surprise. Cell phones do not operate. While contact can be made when
teams check into hotels, phone contact was essentially zero today. A
bad day for it, as the pilot van carrying the medical team blew a
radiator. Team Silver ran downhill for 40 miles and then caught
the Hall's Crossing ferry across Lake Powell and spent the day, indeed,
they are still in, Blanding, Utah. I discovered I can send a text
message to an email address and Mary discovered she can respond by
email to a cell phone. A new era in marital communication thus dawns.
I had a fantastic hike in Capitol
Reef National Park today and a fantastic night out with the telescope
in Escalante NRA last night. I managed to find a spot at which I could
not see an artificial light or any light dome associated with
artificial lights. As I said, southern Utah is still quite wild.
Team Silver will run toward Moab
from 0300-0900 August 11 and then drive to Fruita, CO. Word on the
street is that Mary will be transferred to Team Orange (Sean, Brynn,
Sunila) over the weekend but that is unofficial. The last word on the
lost bag is that it was found by a fisherman on his way to Lake Mead.
It turns out it was the pair of shoes tied to the bag that stopped him;
he thought it was a body. He turned it in anonymously and, as Mary
said, she'd have gladly given him all the cash in the bag as a reward.
The Perseid meteor shower peaks
this weekend (Sunday AM is best) so if you're lucky enough to be
somewhere not hazy (sorry, everyone in Winston-Salem), have a look.
Have a good night. -Paul
And bad news from Mary. In her latest blog entry, Mary says, "I exfoliated." So I sent her this:
From: Robert Bruce Thompson
To: Mary Chervenak
CC: Paul Jones, Barbara Thompson
Date: Yesterday 15:12:41
Re: Exfoliation
> I exfoliated.
I wasn't entirely sure what that word meant, so I looked it up in my scientific dictionary. Do you mean that you:
1. Lost your leaves (or perhaps bark)
2. Developed erosion channels due to weathering
3. Were reduced to a pile of small pebbles and aggregate
Inquiring minds want to know.
I hope it's not #1. You're much
too young to lose your leaves. Come to think of it, you're much too
young to develop erosion channels or be reduced to a pile of pebbles
and aggregate.
I hope things are going well for you.
From: mary chervenak
To: Robert Bruce Thompson
CC: Paul Jones, Barbara Thompson
Date: Yesterday 23:02:36
Re: RE: Exfoliation
You are correct. I have lost all my leaves.
You read it here first. And some people say that bloggers aren't real journalists.
10:48
- Ah. It's a girl thing. BGrigg over on the messageboard explains:
Exfoliation.
I knew what she meant. It's also
used to describe the act of removing dead skin, especially from feet.
It's what women do at a spa.
I only know this as I work for a
printing company, and once had to proof read a brochure for a spa. I
have NO idea why they seem to like having hot rocks placed on their
bodies, so don't ask!
Which sounds painful to me. And speaking of painful, I just finished
reviewing the PDF galleys for constellation chapters 13 through 25 and
sent them off to my editor.
00:00
-
Copyright
© 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Robert Bruce
Thompson. All
Rights Reserved.