text:
\section{Introduction}

This paper presents a catalogue of morphologically classified galaxies
from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS: York et al. 2000), Data
Release Three (DR3; Abazajian et al. 2005).
We limit our sample to a rectangular region of the equatorial area
in the Northern sky (R.A.$\approx 9^h.7-15^h.7$) of 230 square degrees
that comprises 2658 objects brighter than the $r$ band Petrosian
magnitude $r_P\leq 16$ that are listed as extended in the DR3
photometric catalogue. The classification is performed by visual
inspection by three people independently, and the final classification
is obtained from the mean. We obtain a sample of 2253 galaxies, of
which 1866 have spectroscopic information in the SDSS.

Visual classification is a labourious and somewhat subjective
procedure.  Nevertheless, this remains the best approach to classify
each galaxy into a Hubble type with high confidence, at least for
bright galaxies. There are a number of methods that use
photometric and/or spectroscopic parameters developed for large scale
samples to classify galaxies. Those classifications are correlated
reasonably well with visual Hubble types, but are substantially
contaminated by galaxies that belong to obviously wrong classes if
visual inspection is made.  The identification of Sa galaxies is
particularly subtle. The classification of Sa galaxies often scatters
across elliptical to late spiral galaxies, if one uses photometric
and/or spectroscopic parameters as indicators.  On the other hand, it
is not difficult to identify disks of Sa galaxies with visual
inspection. Colour or spectroscopic parameters are sensitive to the
star formation activity, so galaxies that show such activities are
typically classified as a late type if those parameters would be used.
For the moment it is difficult to replace the classification with a
quantitative measure.

Our work follows the traditional line of the Revised Shapley Ames
Catalogue (Sandage \& Tammann 1980), the Reference Catalogue of Bright
Galaxies (de Vaucouleurs \& de Vaucouleurs 1964, RC1; de Vaucouleurs et
al. 1995, RC3), the Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies (Nilson 1973) and
several others (e.g., Marzke et al. 1994; Kochanek et al. 2001; see
also Blanton et al. 2005; Driver et al. 2006, which carried out
rudimentary visual classifications).  The size of our sample is
moderate, but it is based on accurate photometric criteria to define
the basic catalogue and provides a photometrically homogeneous sample
that can be used for a variety of galaxy studies. We have
endeavoured to alleviate subjectivity of visual classification by
taking a mean of three independent classifiers.

This catalogue also allows us to verify the quality of the SDSS
photometric catalogue at the bright end. Definite photometric criteria
are applied to produce a galaxy sample that is to be targeted for
spectroscopic observations (Strauss et al. 2002). The problem is that
we are not able to produce a genuine galaxy catalogue with simple
numerical criteria.  The catalogue obtained may thus contain objects
that are not genuine galaxies, such as double stars, stars with
somewhat deformed images, ghosts, satellite images and `shredded'
objects (caused by failures in deblending of large bright galaxies).
On the contrary, an application of stricter criteria would miss many
true galaxies, so that a compromise is needed. We visually inspect all
objects that are selected with a rather loose criterion for extended
objects, which permits quantification of the contamination and
completeness of the photometric catalogue produced by the SDSS target
selection on the bright end.

We also give a subsidiary catalogue of $r'_P\le 15.9$ galaxies that
were contained in the Early Data Release (EDR: Stoughton et al. 2002),
since a number of scientific publications
(Nakamura et al. 2003; Ohama 2003 (TBC:2002?);
Fukugita et al. 2004; Ball et al. 2004; Nakamura et al. 2004;
Yamauchi et al. 2005; Tasca \& White 2005)
have used this earlier
version of morphologically classified galaxy cataloge.
Identification of all objects in both
catalogues is also given.
We note that the revision in the estimate of morphological
type is small, if any, for individual galaxies and
the results given in the earlier papers will
change little with the use of the present catalogue.

We refer the reader to the other publications for detailed
descriptions of the SDSS related to our study: Gunn et al (2006) for
the telescope, Gunn et al. (1998) for the photometric camera, Fukugita
et al. (1996) for the photometric system, Hogg et al. (2001) and Smith
et al. (2002) for external photometric calibrations, and Pier et al.
(2003) for astrometric calibrations.  We also refer to Abazajian et
al. (2003; 2004) and Adelman-McCarthy et al. (2006) for other data
releases from the SDSS, which discuss the successive improvement of
the pipelines used to derive the basic catalogues.

\section{Procedures}

Our rectangular region is defined by $145^\circ<\alpha_{\rm
J2000}<236^\circ$ and $-1^\circ.26<\delta_{\rm J2000}<1^\circ.26$,
covering an area of 230 deg$^2$.  This area fully encompasses SDSS
survey stripe 10 but the region of primary observations that takes
account of overlaps between stripes is somewhat rounded towards its
corners. So we supplement the missed part from neighbouring stripes
(stripes 9 and 11) to make the area strictly rectangular in celestrial
coordinates. We take photometry from DR3, and select all extended
objects\footnote{Technically, the selection is made using flag {\tt
type}=3 (galaxy), not {\tt saturated}, and not {\tt satur\_center} for
all colour bands.  Objects that are flagged as {\tt type}=3, and not
{\tt satur\_center} but flagged as {\tt saturated} are visually
inspected and included into the catalog when appropriate.  } that are
brighter than Petrosian magnitude $r_P=16$ (see EDR and Strauss et al.
2002 for the precise definition) after the Galactic extinction
correction (Schlegel et al. 1998). There are 2658 such objects in the
DR3 catalogue that are produced from Version 5.4 of the photometric
pipeline.

We note that there are some gaps (0.03 deg$^2$ altogether) within the
region that concerns us. There are five fields ($13.'5\times 9.'0$)
for which the photometric pipeline did not process the data (the
actual gap is somewhat smaller due to overlaps with adjacent
fields). This happens when the field contains very bright galaxies or
stars with conspicuous spikes, and the completion of deblending
required more time than the pipeline limit.  Any galaxies located in
these fields are not included in our sample.

All objects are visually inspected by three classifiers (MF, ON, SO)
independently.  This sample is contaminated by non-galactic objects.
Our initial sample of 2658 objects includes a number of sources that
are not galaxies (stars, satellite trails, optical defects) as well as
multiple entries for a single object (primarily due to deblending
failures).  Removal of these objects produces a final sample of 2253
galaxies.

Morphological classification is carried out in reference to {\it The
Hubble Atlas of Galaxies} by Sandage (1961; Hubble Atlas hereafter) by
three classifiers using the SAOimage viewer. We use the monochromatic
$g$ band image, which is similar to the commonly-used $B$ band image
for classification, and is sensitive to HII regions and arm
structures.  It is important to inspect images with both linear and
logarithmic scales in the viewer with varying contrast levels. This
occasionally produces a systematic difference from classifications
based on photographic materials.  We intentionally avoid using colour
information so that morphology is solely determined by the
appearance, as has been done traditionally. This allows us to
consider the correlation between morphology and colours in an
unbiased way.

We consider classification into 7 classes, $T=0$ (E), 1 (S0), 2(Sa),
3(Sb), 4(Sc), 5(Sd) and 6(Im), allowing for half-integer classes. We
do not adopt more detailed classes such as those defined in RC3 (which
has 16 classes in $T$), since our experience with the SDSS data
(comparing results from the three classifiers) is that a finer
division is unwarranted. The Hubble Atlas does not define Sd and Sdm.
We assign the latest of the Sc galaxies in the Hubble Atlas as
Sd$-$Sdm so that our classification scheme matches with that in
RC3. Irr I of the Hubble Atlas is denoted as Im in this paper, also in
agreement with RC3.  We assign $T=-1$ when we are unable to classify a
galaxy into a conventional Hubble type. We indicate by a symbol ``p''
when some peculiarity is noted in a galaxy (such as somewhat disturbed
shapes, rings, dust lanes etc. as in the Hubble Atlas)
even though it can be classified into a regular, $T\ne -1$, Hubble type.  The
relation between our $T$ and $T({\rm RC3})$ is shown in Table 1.  We
note slight biases in our classification towards integer $T$. We are
not concerned with whether galaxies have bars or not.

During the classification we noticed that not all galaxies fell
nicely into the Hubble sequence, but whenever reasonable
we classified a galaxy into the $T=0$ to 6 scale. This leads to
a number of cases where the appearance of the galaxy may not match well
with the appearance of the Hubble Atlas prototype, but we view this
as preferable to a catalogue containing a large number of
unclassifiable ($T=-1$) objects. Our catalogue contains 33 galaxies
with $T=-1$.

We noted that some galaxies, notably among those with $T=-1$, show a
common feature, characterised by a high surface brightness and a
smooth light distribution, but their appearance is definitely not that
of E or S0 galaxies. These objects frequently have more irregular
shapes than early-type galaxies, but the light distribution is too
smooth and/or surface brightness too high to be classified as Im. They
appear to be reminiscent of Irr II in the Hubble Atlas or `amorphous'
galaxies introduced by Sandage and Brucato (1979), who characterised
them as `not E, S0, or any type of spiral no matter how peculiar, but
rather have an amorphous appearance to the unresolved
light'. Gallagher \& Hunter (1987) used the term amorphous to
represent `all galaxies with E/S0-like morphologies whose other global
properties resemble irregular galaxies.'  These definitions, however,
are not quite clear.  These galaxies tend to show a red colour. We
confirmed that most of the galaxies of this type in our sample
show red colours, although we did not use the colour
information when we classified galaxies. We indicate by ``am'' when we
encounter those galaxies, whether they are left unclassified or
classified into regular types (see a figure given at the end of
Section 3).

If the SDSS photometric pipeline determines that an image is actually
composed of more than one component, the `parent' image is deblended into
`child' images (Lupton 2006). The child images may be
further deblended if they are judged to be formed of more than one
component.  When confronted with a large, complex surface brightness
pattern, the deblender `shreds' a bright extended galaxy into a
multitude of components, which can obviously affect the morphology of
the galaxy (and also photometric measurements).  (An extreme example
is the separation of a nucleus, which may look as S0, from a spiral
galaxy.)  For this reason it is important to inspect both parent and
child images for all objects to ensure correct classifications.

Each classifier independently carries out the classification of each
galaxy at least twice. The results are then compared, and when the
results for an individual galaxy differ by more than 1.5 units in $T$,
all classifiers reinspect the galaxy in question and make a final,
independent assessment.  The adopted morphological classification is
the mean of the measurements of the three classifiers.

The panels in Figure 1 display the correlation in $T$ among the three
classifiers.  The dispersion is 0.4, or $\approx$1 in the RC3 $T$
scale. This is probably as good as can be expected for visual
classification; for example, $\delta T({\rm RC3})=1.8$ in Lahav et al.
(1995), a study that used photographic prints.

The final SDSS sample contains 218 galaxies that have assigned
$T$(RC3) in the RC3 catalogue. Figure 2 shows the correlation of
T(RC3) versus those from our classification for those common galaxies.
The correlation is generally good; however, there is a systematic
difference in the classifications in that S0/a to Sa(Sab) galaxies in
RC3 are classified somewhat later to Sa to Sb (occasionally to Sc) in
our catalogue.  On the other hand, our E and S0 galaxy samples do not
contain any galaxies that are classified as S0/a or later in RC3.  We
suspect the main reason of the discrepancy to be that our
classification is based on high dynamic range and high contrast CCD
images, which allows detection of arm structure and detailed texture
that could not be apparent in a single photometric image. This will
drive our classification of disc galaxies towards later types,
compared to those in the RC3 catalogues.

The quality of the photometry is also examined by visual inspection of
images, to check whether the SDSS atlas image contains the entire
image of the galaxy. If these data contain extra objects or parts of
the galaxy are erroneously removed by the deblender, flags are
attached. The position of spectroscopic fibre, which has a diameter of
$3''$, is also inspected.  When the fibre is not centred on the
nucleus, but is assigned to a region of the galaxy (e.g., a bright HII
region), the spectroscopic information is accepted but flagged.

\section{Catalogue}

Table 2 presents our final catalogue from DR3 ($r_P\le 16$) in the
order of right ascension, but only the top 20 lines are shown in the
printed version of the paper. The entire catalogue is available in an
electronically readable format.  The catalogue contains 15 columns
with the following information:

\begin{itemize}
\item
Column 1:
catalogue number;
\item
Column 2:
photometric identification number in DR3. The numbers
mean run (observation) $-$ rerun (photometric
data reduction) $-$ camcol (camera column) $-$ field $-$ object id
(see DR3 for details);
\item
Column 3:
right ascension (J2000), in decimal degrees;
\item
Column 4:
declination (J2000), in decimal degrees;
\item
Column 5:
photometric identification number in EDR (see explanation for Column 2);
\item
Column 6:
$I_{\rm sample}$ flag for catalogue inclusions: [3]
in both DR3 ($r_P\le 16$) and
EDR ($r_P\le 15.9$); [2] only in DR3 ($r_P\le 16$);
\item
Column 7:
$I_{\rm target}$ flag for spectroscopic target selection: [0] not targeted;
[1] targeted but not observed; [2] observed; [2:] fibre positioned off-nucleus,
but on some other part of the object carrying the
specified photometric identification;
\item
Column 8:
morphological index $T$: the mean of three classifiers
rounded to the nearest integer or half-integer;
\item
Column 9:
standard deviation of morphological indices among three classifiers;
\item
Column 10:
$I_{\rm ph}$ photometry quality: [0] good photometry
(typical error expected to be smaller than approximately 0.1 mag based
on visual estimates); [1] photometry is accurate if one uses the
magnitude given to the parent image; [2] some errors, say 0.3 mag
(with visual estimates), is suspected in photometry; [3] poor
photometry. (Note that these flags are somewhat subjective.) Flags 2
and 3 are occasionally appended by p or c, which means that more
accurate magnitudes may easily be obtained by applying aperture
photometry centred on the designated object using parent or child
atlas image frames, respectively.
\item
Column 11:
Petrosian $r$ magnitude (of the child image) after correcting for
Galactic extinction;
\item
Column 12:
spectroscopic identification number:
spectroscopic plate number$-$ mjd $-$fibre number;
\item
Column 13:
heliocentric redshift;
\item
Column 14:
confidence level of redshift measurements;
\item
Column 15:
remarks: `p' stands for peculiar, and this flag is
given only when galaxies are classified into normal types. `am' is
given to galaxies with an amorphous appearance. `int' stands for
interacting, and 'd-nucl' for double nuclei within a single galaxy.
`double' and `multiple' stand for more than one galaxy in the child
field, while interactions among them are not apparent.  The PGC number
is provided when the galaxy is identified with that listed in RC3.

\end{itemize}

In the bottom of Table 2 we append a
similar catalogue for 22 objects that are included only in our EDR
sample ($r_P\le 15.9$). All of the galaxies have Galactic-extinction
corrected $r_P>16$ in DR3; This change from the EDR measurement is due
to reprocessing the EDR data with the improved DR3 photometric
pipeline.  Flag [1] is assigned to Column 6, `flag for catalogue
inclusions'.  We carried out reclassifications for the EDR sample, but
the change compared to the earlier catalogue is insignificant.

Figures 3$-$7 display examples of $gri$ colour synthetic images of
galaxies (20 each) that are classified as $T=0-4$, taken from Catalog
Archive Server (CAS).  Figure 8 shows images for $T=5$ (8 galaxies in
the top) and $T=6$ (12 galaxies in the bottom).  Note that detailed textures
are not quite visible on these pictures and the contrast is not always
well represented, so that these printed images are not always appropriate
for the purpose of classification.  Figure 9 shows 12 galaxies, which
we classified as interacting; the four galaxies in the bottom row have
double (multiple) nuclei.  Figure 10 shows 16 galaxies to which we
give amorphous (``am'') flags.  The size of pictures are all $1'\times
1'$.

\section{Verification of the photometric catalogue of DR3}

We have adopted a set of inclusive selection criteria so that few
galaxies are missed in our initial sample.  This selection is
substantially looser than that adopted in the operational
spectroscopic target selection for galaxies (Strauss et al. 2002).

Among 2658 extended objects in our sample, 2253 are unique
galaxies. There are 27 examples of galaxies that are included two or
more times in the initial list; this primarily arises from deblending
difficulties.  Also included in our original set are 211 stars
(approximately 80\% of which are double stars) and 167 spurious
objects, such as satellite trails, diffraction spikes of bright stars,
ghosts, failures of deblending or of removal of bright stars that
saturate the CCD, and empty fields with no designated object (which
happen typically when imaging of the same fields with other colour
bands was hit by satellite trails). Nearly all stars (206 out of 211)
can be rejected if one imposes the condition $g({\rm PSF})-g({\rm
model})>0.5$ for the selection of galaxies, which is tighter
than the one used in target selection, $r({\rm PSF})-r({\rm
model})>0.3$. The former condition rejects six true galaxies (one
among them looks like an AGN); 61 spurious objects, however, escape the
rejection and contaminate the galaxy sample.

Among the 2253 galaxies, 2213 (98.2 \%) are chosen by SDSS target
selection, and 1866 (82.8\% of the entire galaxy sample) are actually
spectroscopically observed\footnote{Note that stripe 10 was observed
in early days of the SDSS observation, when the tuning of
spectroscopic observations was still immature. We suspect a higher
rate of spectroscopic observations for stripes observed in later
times.}.
The completeness of the spectroscopic observation in our sample
is essentially uniform from early- to late-types within Poissonian error.
One reason for missing spectroscopy is the fibre separation
constraint (fibres on a given plate must be separated by at least
$55''$, Blanton et al. 2003b). In cases where a galaxy and a quasar
candidate conflict, the fibre is assigned to the latter.  We found a
few patches for which spectroscopic observations were not carried out
for unknown reasons. We also found that 168 more targets are set by
target selection on non-galactic objects, of which 18 are
observed\footnote{We suspect that these rather large numbers are
likely due to deblending errors of the early immature version of
photometric pipeline used for spectroscopic target selection, since
spectroscopic observations are carried out in early stages of
SDSS operations for the region that concerns us in this paper.}

The survey samples are summarised in Table 3. The spectroscopic
sample is quite clean even for bright galaxies of our smaple,
but with a completeness of
83\%. We wish to inject a note of caution to the use of SDSS
photometric galaxy catalogues. The target-selection algorithm of
Strauss et al. yields a sample of galaxies with good completeness,
only 2\% of galaxies missed, but suffers a 7\% contamination by stars
and spurious objects.

In order to examine the statistical completeness, we show in Figure 11
the number of galaxies as a function of $r$ magnitude.  The solid line
shows $N\sim 10^{0.6r}$ expected for Euclidean geometry. The data
indicate that the galaxy number count deviates little from this line
from 10 to 16 mag. A slight excess at bright magnitudes is consistent
with the Poisson statistics.  This implies that we have not missed too
many galaxies even in the bright end of the sample at 10$-$10.5 mag.
The spectroscopic sample is indicated by shading, which shows that the
spectroscopic completeness stays nearly constant for $r>12.5$. The
thick shades indicates galaxies that carry a flag for
photometric errors, which increases towards brighter magnitudes,
from 5\% at $r=15.5$ to 20\% at $r=13$.
The number count for each morphological type
is shown in Figure 12. All curves are consistent with
$N\sim 10^{0.6r}$ up to statistical errors, indicating
homogeneity in morphological compositions, and therefore
morphological fractions change little as a function of
magnitude to $r=16$.
We note, however, that the region considered has some
over-density at $z\sim0.8$ where more early-type
galaxies are included (see Figure 2 of Nakamura et al.). This may cause a
slight deviation from the smooth $10^{0.6r}$ growth.

An additional test is carried out for the completeness
by comparing galaxies in our sample
with those in RC3 and Updated Zwicky
Catalogues (Falco et al. 1999). The RC3 contains 269 galaxies in our
survey area; 15 of these are not in our catalogue. Nine of the 15 are
too faint to us ($r>16$), and 2 are omitted because they lie too close
to the edge of our area.  Three (PGC33550, PGC39695; PGC39705) are in
the field for which the SDSS photometric pipeline could not process
the frame due to the presence of the excessively bright stars (for the
first two) or the bright galaxy itself (PG33550, $B_T=9.8$). The one
(PGC53499=NGC5792) is a bright galaxy but lies too close to a very
bright star.  In summary, only 4 of 258 RC3 galaxies that should have
been included in our catalogue were missed.

A similar result was obtained in a comparison of the 394 updated
Zwicky Catalogue objects in our survey area; 14 of these objects were
missed.  One Zwicky galaxy (one of a pair of interacting galaxies) was
shredded by the deblender into components that all had $r>16$, and
hence dropped from our catalogue. In total, four bright Zwicky
galaxies (there are three in common to those we found for the case
of RC3) that should have been in our catalogue were missed by the SDSS
photometric pipeline.

From these tests we conclude that galaxies are well sampled to as
bright as 10 mag, unless they are accidentally located close to very
bright stars. The most important cause of missing bright galaxies is
failures of deblending in the presence of vary bright
stars or galaxies themselves; we missed the fraction of the region,
$\approx1.3\times10^{-4}$.  We expect that the incompleteness will
become an important issue for $r \lesssim 10$.
A comparison with the RC3 catalogue (which includes
all Zwicky galaxies) shows that
incompleteness for low-surface brightness galaxies
is no more than that in RC3.

\section{Statistics}

Figure 13 shows histograms of the morphological type
distribution of
galaxies for both photometric and spectroscopic samples. We use only
seven classes, grouping half those classified into half-integer $T$
into each adjoining integer bins. The fractional morphological
composition of our catalogue breaks down to E: E/S0$-$S0: S0a$-$Sab:
Sb$-$Sc: Scd$-$Sdm: Im = 0.14: 0.26: 0.25: 0.28: 0.038: 0.014. A $B$
band study summarised by Fukugita, Hogan \& Peebles (1998) gives a
relative frequency of E: S0: Sab: Sbc: Scd: Im = 0.11: 0.21: 0.28:
0.29: 0.045: 0.061.
A somewhat higher fraction of early type galaxies in our sample
is ascribed to our galaxy selection in the $r$ magnitude, which
will select a larger fraction of early-type galaxies than would be
present in a volume-limited sample. Our small fraction of Im galaxies
arises from the intrinsical small luminosity of these sources that
makes the sampling volume small.  These issues are discussed in
Nakamura et al. (2003), where the morphologically classified
luminosity function is derived.

We identified 25 galaxies which are interacting, and an additional six
that display features that suggest interacting.  Of this set of 31, 16
have such disturbed morphologies that they are assigned $T=-1$
(unclassified). In our galaxy sample 12 galaxies have double
(or multiple) nuclei, and four of these are also counted as
``interacting'' and 1 suspected interacting. Adding double-nucleus
galaxies, we arrive at 33$-$38 interacting galaxies in our catalogue,
i.e., the rate of interacting galaxies in a nearby magnitude-limited
galaxy sample is 1.5-1.7\%.

The mean colours of galaxies after K corrections (Blanton et
al. 2003a) are given in Table 4. We have rejected galaxies for which
poor photometry is suspected ($I_{\rm ph}\ge 2$).  This information
supersedes the mean colours given in Shimasaku et
al. (2001)\footnote{Shimasaku et al. (2001) do not include K
corrections due to a lack of redshift at that time. Although the
galaxies are all at low redshift, the absence of K corrections make
galaxies, especially those of early types, redder by a non-negligible
amount.  Without the K correction the colours quoted below in this
paragraph will be 1.85, 0.89, 0.41 and 0.28 for the sample used in the
present paper.}.  The colours, except for $i-z$, form monotonic
sequences from red to blue with increasing $T$, including half integer
types that are not shown in this table.  The scatter of colours among
different galaxies at given $T$ is larger than the difference between
the mean colours of the neighbouring types. For example, the mean
colours of E galaxies for $u-g$, $g-r$ and $r-i$ are within one
standard deviation of those of Sa galaxies. The $i-z$ colours stay
essentially constant from E to Sab. For later types, some bluing trend
is present in $i-z$, but the scatter widens and is larger than the
variation.
The mean colours of E galaxies are $u-g=1.73\pm0.18$ (1.99),
$g-r=0.77\pm0.04$ (0.77), $r-i=0.39\pm0.03$ (0.43), $i-z=0.18\pm0.04$
(0.36), where the numbers in parentheses are the spectrosynthetic
calculation of Fukugita et al. (1995). There is a significant
disagreement in the reddest colours, as was noted by Shimasaku et al.
(2001).

\acknowledgments

This work was supported in Japan by Grant-in-Aid of the Ministry of
Education. MF received support from the Monell Foundation at the
Institute for Advanced Study.

Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation,
the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and
the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS Web Site is
http://www.sdss.org/.
The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the
Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the
American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam,
University of Basel, Cambridge University, Case Western Reserve University,
University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for
Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University,
the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for
Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory,
the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute
for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University,
University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University,
the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Gotcha! Extreme Paintball (também conhecido como Gotcha! na Europa) é um jogo eletrônico de tiro em primeira pessoa de paintball desenvolvido pela Sixteen Tons Entertainment e publicado pela Gathering of Developers, lançado em 31 de julho de 2004. É considerado um jogo eletrônico de tiro em primeira pessoa não violento.

Jogabilidade
Gotcha! Extreme Paintball é um jogo de tiro em primeira pessoa no qual os personagens jogam paintball. É inspirado em particular em Counter-Strike. O jogo pode ser jogado sozinho ou com outras pessoas. Existem 12 marcadores diferentes e também granadas coloridas que você pode usar e equipar sua equipe. O cenário é que você e seu time estão jogando Gotcha (também conhecido como Paintball). Você pode jogar em uma liga com 28 equipes e competir em 17 locais diferentes. Os modos multijogador incluem (Team-) Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Flag Elimination, Team Elimination, Last Man Standing e (Team-) Kill the King. O personagem pode se agachar, deitar ou desviar.

Recepção
Gotcha! Extreme Paintball recebeu críticas mistas a médias.

Para Etienne Froment da Xbox Gamer, o jogo "é, em última análise, uma boa surpresa" no Xbox. Ao contrário de Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball, que "oferece apenas simulação bastante 'pesada'", Gotcha! oferece jogabilidade nervosa e uma atmosfera terrivelmente alucinante."

Ludovic Bechtold da JeuxActu dá a pontuação de 12/20 para a versão Windows do jogo, que explica da seguinte forma: "Não esquecemos suas deficiências na inteligência artificial, seus gráficos desatualizados e sua animação ridícula, mas não tenho vergonha de dizer que sim, me diverti muito em Gotcha!, mesmo que só chegue perto do grande Counter-Strike. Ele aponta como pontos fortes o lado "divertido e rápido de jogar" e os "vários modos de jogo".

Jean-Marc Wallimann de Jeuxvideo.com, testando a versão de Windows, também deu uma pontuação de 12/20. Ele acha os mapas pequenos, mas satisfatórios: "Eles estão cheios de lugares para se esconder e esperar enganosamente a chegada de adversários. No entanto, teríamos gostado mais das chamadas passagens secretas, ou desvios, para ter a opção de correr na pilha ou pegando a equipe adversária por trás." Nicolas Charciarek, por sua vez, dá à versão Xbox uma pontuação de 9/20. Ele faz uma observação semelhante sobre os mapas, mas menciona "problemas de jogabilidade ausentes da versão para PC que poluem o jogo", e julga grosseira a realização dos ambientes e dos personagens. Ele acrescenta que "o modo solo é de interesse limitado, sendo os bots de uma inteligência relativa".

Kévin Kuipers da Gamekult dá à versão Windows uma pontuação de 3/10. Ele diz que "o paintball é obviamente muito desinteressante quando jogado virtualmente, e Gotcha! prova isso mais uma vez. Segundo ele, a jogabilidade do jogo e a inteligência artificial são ruins. No entanto, ele aprecia "o aspecto técnico [...] muito correto com conjuntos bem modelados e alguns efeitos interessantes."

Thomas Weiss, da PCGames, deu uma pontuação de 5.2/10, afirmando que o jogo teria um apelo maior se tivesse os requisitos técnicos necessários, como projéteis com explosões espetaculares. Graficamente, o título "lembra de Counter-Strike: salas angulares, texturas borradas, quase nenhum efeito de partículas, exceto pela água bonita". A jogabilidade não é considerada ruim, mas apenas "comum".

Para Sébastien Delahaye, da NoFrag, "o jogo é de pouco interesse", por causa da IA "enlouquecedoramente estúpida", da jogabilidade "falhada", da "técnica titou [e do] som para combinar". Ele conclui descrevendo o jogo como "uma porcaria muito bonita".

O aspecto não violento de Gotcha! Extreme Paintball é elogiado por Kévin Kuipers, o que o torna acessível aos mais jovens; para Jean-Marc Wallimann, o título não é mais uma versão de terroristas enfrentando contra-terroristas, mas quer ser mais bem-humorado, alinhando-se com a cultura do paintball.

Jogos eletrônicos de 2004
Jogos eletrônicos em primeira pessoa
Jogos eletrônicos multijogador e um jogador
Jogos para múltiplos jogadores online
Jogos eletrônicos para múltiplos jogadores
Jogos eletrônicos para um jogador
Jogos eletrônicos desenvolvidos na Alemanha
Jogos eletrônicos ambientados na Argentina
Jogos eletrônicos ambientados na Austrália
Jogos eletrônicos ambientados no Japão
Jogos eletrônicos ambientados na Rússia
Jogos eletrônicos ambientados no México
Jogos eletrônicos ambientados no Reino Unido
Jogos eletrônicos ambientados nos Estados Unidos
Jogos eletrônicos ambientados na França
Jogos para Windows
Jogos para Xbox

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


As shopping traffic for new vehicles has increased at showrooms in India, dealers have focused on maximizing sales conversions rather than providing a satisfying customer purchase experience, according to the J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2015 India Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study released today.
Now in its 16th year, the study examines seven factors that contribute to new-vehicle owners' overall satisfaction with their sales experience (listed in order of importance): delivery process, delivery timing, salesperson, sales initiation, dealer facility, paperwork and deal. Satisfaction is calculated on a 1,000-point scale.
Study findings show that purchase reasons and shopping behavior vary significantly across demographics.
A larger proportion of younger buyers (30 years and younger) place a greater emphasis on vehicle design, performance and features as purchase criteria for their vehicle, compared with all other age groups combined (43% vs. 35%, respectively). Additionally, using the internet as a source of information for vehicle purchase is higher among younger buyers than among all other age groups combined (32% vs. 26%, respectively).
Satisfaction with the delivery process and delivery timing declines the most year over year, dropping by 9 points in each factor.
The average time for vehicle delivery has increased to 11 days after booking in 2015 from 9 days in 2014. Shoppers expect to be shown the same model variant that they intend to purchase. Currently, non-compliance on this aspect of the purchase process is 16 percent in the market in India, resulting in a 40-point decline in overall satisfaction.
More than one-third (39%) of new-vehicle owners visited showrooms at least three times during their shopping process, up by 4 percent from 2014. Satisfaction among these owners is 25 points lower than among those who visited showrooms two or fewer times.
Among new-vehicle owners who are highly satisfied with their purchase experience (sales satisfaction scores 922 and above), 82 percent say they "definitely will" recommend their purchase dealer to family and friends and 74 percent say they "definitely will" purchase the same vehicle make in the future. Conversely, only 41 percent of highly dissatisfied owners (scores 801 and below) say they "definitely will" recommend their purchase dealer to family and friends and 37 percent say they "definitely will" repurchase the same brand.
Toyota and Mahindra rank highest, in a tie, with a score of 872 each. Toyota performs particularly well in the sales initiation factor and Mahindra performs highest in the paperwork factor.The 2015 India Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study is based on responses from more than 7,895 new-vehicle owners who purchased their vehicle between September 2014 and April 2015, and includes evaluations of more than 75 models within the mass market segment. The study was fielded from March to July 2015.
J.D. Power Asia Pacific has offices in Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok that conduct customer satisfaction research and provide consulting services in the automotive, information technology and finance industries. Together, the five offices bring the language of customer satisfaction to consumers and businesses in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Information regarding J.D. Power Asia Pacific and its products can be accessed through the Internet at india.jdpower.com.


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P.R. accepted into White House 'TechHire' program
December 1, 20160824
This TechHire designation shows that Puerto Rico has the partners, employers, training providers, and the civil leadership support needed to implement and scale tech job opportunities for everyone.
Puerto Rico has been announced as one of 19 TechHire communities dedicated to creating pathways for more U.S. citizens to access well-paying tech jobs and expanding local tech sectors in communities across the country, the White House announced Thursday.
Puerto Rico will be joining a national network of 70 TechHire communities in receiving support to spearhead efforts to help overlooked and underrepresented Americans start technology careers.
"The TechHire initiative will enable us to become better at bridging the tech talent gap on the island, identifying the needs of employers and continuing to train in the highest in-demand skills and programming languages," said Sofia Stolberg, CEO of Piloto 151 and Codetrotters, adding the designation demonstrates the progress Puerto Rico has made in the past several years building a stronger tech talent pool and ecosystem.
"We're very proud of this historic designation which is the culmination of a broad based alliance uniting local public and private sector players who are committed to ensuring that Puerto Rico becomes a world-recognized tech hub in the near future," she said.
Puerto Rico's designation as a TechHire Community was only made possible thanks to a joint multi-sector effort to support new career development initiatives with a focus on creating 100 new full time positions in 2017.
Leading the way from the government sector was the Department of Economic Development, fully supporting Piloto 151 and Codetrotters Academy in the coordination of efforts along with over a dozen organizations and employers, including the Puerto Rico IT Cluster, the Science and Technology Research Trust, Grupo Guayacán, the San Juan Tech Meetup, Parallel18, HackPR, Rocksolid Technologies, Wovenware, and Migo IQ, among many others.
All TechHire communities go through an intensive and competitive application process to demonstrate their level of commitment and readiness in expanding the technology sector. This TechHire designation shows that Puerto Rico has the partners, employers, training providers, and the civil leadership support needed to implement and scale tech job opportunities for everyone.
"We're very pleased to welcome Puerto Rico to the TechHire Initiative," said Tess Posner, Managing Director of TechHire at Opportunity@Work.
"Puerto Rico has demonstrated a true commitment to making opportunities in tech more inclusive in your community, and we at Opportunity@Work look forward to working with you to help implement, grow, and amplify your efforts," Posner said.
The other 19 communities that will join the National TechHire Initiative in today's announcement are:
Alachua and Bradford Counties, FL
Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico
Tampa Bay Metro Region, FL
Trenton City, NJ
Related tags : Piloto 151Puerto RicotechWhite House
FINRA fines Merrill Lynch $7M; $780K goes to PR clients
AT&T grants $28K to USVI nonprofit to promote STEM
Hey Buddy!, I found this information for you: "P.R. accepted into White House 'TechHire' program". Here is the website link: https://newsismybusiness.com/accepted-techhire-program/. Thank you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The first thing I saw when I landed at Mizoram's whitewashed bird's nest of an airport—a concrete block nestled between steep, bamboo-covered hills—was a cross. It stood erect and blazingly white in a shabbily landscaped plot of grass between the terminal and the airport's lone runway. Bold red letters printed across the patibulum—which, mercifully, I couldn't make out until I was off the 30-seat propeller jet and walking across the tarmac—read THY KINGDOM COME.


Planning to get a new credit card? Go for J.Jill Credit Card, they provide an easy to use enroll portal for their customer to apply for a new credit card. J.Jill credit card is issued by Comenity Bank. J.Jill is a leading multichannel fashion retailer of women's apparel, accessories, and footwear.
You can take 5% off every subsequent purchase with your J.Jill credit card.
Card owners will get 10% off for their entire birthday month.
J.Jill credit card provides special offers, sneak previews, and exclusive events.
To apply for J.Jill Credit Card the users will have to at least 18 years of age and should have a valid government-issued photo ID. Users are needed to have a U.S. Social Security Number and should be a US resident. Along with all these, the users will also require a street, rural route or APO/FPO/DPO mailing address (no P.O. Box addresses). Here we've illustrated the application method along with the method for checking application status for which they'll require their reference number. Card owners can also cancel their application if they wish too.
Step 1- To apply for J.Jill Credit Card the users will have to go to the credit card Homepage [comenity.net], scroll down and click on 'Apply'.
Step 2- The users will be taken to the next page where they've to enter the required information.
Step 3- Next, the user will have to review the Terms and Condition and check the 'I Agree' box .
Step 4- Finally, the user will have to click 'Submit' to end the process and successfully complete the application for the credit card.


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Bonalumi Sculptures, Mazzoleni London
Curated by Francesca Pola, this exhibition features a selection of significant sculptural works exemplifying the influential six decade career of Italian artist Agostino Bonalumi (1935-2013). The bold sculptures and inventive canvases of this pivotal figure of Post-War Italian Art helped to shape the course of Abstract Art, alongside artists such as Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani who sought to blur the boundaries between the two and three dimensional.
Bonalumi is most recognised for his Picture-Objects, created through 'extroflection' – a process using frames fixed to the backs of canvases to deform them, which led to later work including sculptures and immersive environments. Born in Vimercate, Milan, Bonalumi was a self-taught painter who took up art after abandoning his mechanical design studies. His artwork has been exhibited internationally since the late 1950s, although he was also involved in set and costume design: in 1970 collaborating with Susanna Egri's ballet Partita, Verona, and in 1972 with the ballet Rot, Rome. In 2001 he was awarded the Presidente della Repubblica Prize by the National Academy of San Luca, while his work is held in several museum collections including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
Including large-scale forms in fibreglass next to those created in bronze to reflect light, and wall based works created from metal sheets structured to give movement, the exhibition is a comprehensive overview of the artist's broad oeuvre. Despite the work dating from the 1960s until the 2010s, in its materiality the work appears incredibly contemporary even today, and makes clear Bonalumi's significant contribution to the ongoing development of art history.
Bonalumi Sculptures, 6 February – 8 May 2015, Mazzoleni, 27 Albermarle Street, London W1S 4HZ.
To find out more, visit www.mazzoleniart.com.
Follow us on Twitter @AestheticaMag for the latest news in contemporary art and culture.
1. Agostino Bonalumi, Bronzo, 1969-2007. Courtesy of Archivio Bonalumi and Mazzoleni London.
Peter Fraser at Tate St Ives
Entering photographer Peter Fraser's retrospective exhibition is like holding a magnifying glass up to everyday life. Like a Master painter, Fraser pays great attention to composition, colour and light.
Daddy, Short Film, ASFF
Screened at ASFF 2012, Daddy is a visceral expression of director Sydney Southam's knowledge of her father's suicide. The artist film depicts Southam's privileged, yet tragic background.
6 To See This Bank Holiday Weekend
The Bank Holiday is a great time to explore new exhibitions. From Amsterdam to New York we uncover the best in contemporary art in international galleries across a variety of practices.


โรงแรม โรงแรม สร้างขึ้นในปี 1905 โรงแรม โรงแรม ได้รับการปรับปรุงใหม่ทั้งหมดในปี 1999 โรงแรมสร้างขึ้นโดยมีชั้นหลักชั้นเดียวโรงแรมมีห้องพักทั้งหมด 86 ห้องโรงแรมแห่งนี้มี ห้องเตียงคู่ 89 ห้อง.
What a fantastic hotel!! The food was fantastic, the beds were super comfortable and the rooms were spacious and immaculate. Nothing was any bother for the wonderful staff and I will definitely be back!
The hotel is conveniently located in the centre of town. The rooms were spacious and the beds were comfortable. The bathroom didn't have an extractor fan and steamed up terribly everytime someone had a shower. The hotel was clean, a bit dated in the decor and very overpriced for what we got.
Comfortable twin beds in a spacious room. elegant older style hotel with very attentive staff.
Comfy bed, quiet rooms, spacious rooms.
first time visited in aberdeen. it is very good location far from union square & city centre. if need for korean food & orental food? we can use for CJ restaurant on middle of huntly street.
it is a clean hotel and with helpful front counter staff. the bed is firm and we have a good night sleep.
Everythig was great, except the condition of window where I was keep waking up during the night by the sound of wind. But, I assume because it is near the sea and is Scotland.
Our stay at the Copthorne was great only complaint is parking. We were not aware you had to book your space at time of booking your stay. This was not highlighted.
Good value, great location , very clean.
Beautiful rooms, clean rooms, great staff good.
Several things from the ventilation system to the toilets were in need of repair and hotel understaffed we had to carry our own bags. Excellent waitresses tried to make up for shortcomings and food was good. Double room was very small and noisy. Not recommended!
Nice hotel - clean - in the city center.
Spent a night here. Lovely hotel, good location, friendly, helpful staff and lovely food. Room was very spacious, with large comfortable bed and well appointed. Definitely will stay again. Hotel is conveniently situated in the centre of Aberdeen, convenient for shops and theatre. Handy underground parking also.
สถานีรถไฟ Aberdeen - ระยะ 0.84 กม.


This week's inspiration is a Stocking Gift Card Holder made from the amazing Tags & Trimmings bundle! Did you know this bundle contains a gift card holder that is behind this gorgeous and elegant stocking?
Check this out! My family – including some of the grandkids are at a place where it is difficult to buy for them. In fact the only thing on my Freshman Grandson's Xmas list is gift cards! (Yes, I have a Freshman Grandson!) I don't just want to give a gift card without some fun packaging – Christmas is a special time and the gifts should be special. . . so for the gift cards, I need to have a special place to put them. The Tags & Trimmings bundle from the Holiday Catalog can be a solution for that!
The Elegant Eggplant with the Platinum Foil cardstock is the PERFECT elegant combination. The stocking was stamped with the Marbled background stamp to add dimension and elegance. The stitching on the cuff, heel and toe pieces are part of the framelits included in the Tags & Trimmings bundle. They certainly add that bit of detail that make this project amazing.
The finishing touch is the Holly, Berry and Metallic Thread. The die cuts come from the same bundle. You'll love this bundle!
Check out this video on putting your stocking & gift card holder together!
Please let me know if you are enjoying the Santa's Elves Design Team projects!


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Rick Scott Tears Into Joe Biden Over Administration's Iran Plans
Sen. Rick Scott from Florida raked President Joe Biden and his administration over reported plans by the White House to ease up on sanctions that have been placed on Iran.
"Iran has shown time and time again that it cannot be trusted, yet President Biden is insistent on getting the United States back into the disastrous Obama-Biden Iran nuclear deal that does nothing but reward the Ayatollah and his regime," Scott explained.
"This is just a repeat of his failed decisions as vice president. President (Donald) Trump was right to cancel this horrible deal and the sanctions his administration levied on Iran are working. Easing sanctions on a government that wants to destroy Israel and chants 'Death to America' is unthinkable," he said.
"Biden needs to stop with this weak and misguided strategy and keep maximum pressure on the Ayatollah until Iran is no longer a threat to U.S. national security," Scott continued.
"Reports that the Biden Administration is considering easing sanctions on Iran are alarming. Iran has shown it cannot be trusted and the U.S. should not return to the failed Obama-Biden Iran nuclear deal," Scott tweeted out on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the administration is open to easing sanctions against critical elements of Iran's economy as Biden looks to return to the 2015 nuclear deal after Trump withdrew from it in 2018.
Politico reported last month that Biden administration officials have proposed a plan "to jump-start the talks" by offering to remove some sanctions on the country in exchange for Iran ending some of its nuclear projects.
House Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., has called the report "troubling and bewildering." He said that "this decision would threaten American and Israeli national security, undermine our alliance with Israel, and reward the largest state sponsor of terrorism with billions of dollars for them to reinvest in military weaponry and proxies to kill American service-members and our allies abroad."
Some Republicans have decided to strike back at the White House with a brand new bill revealed on Wednesday called the Maximum Pressure Act which supports the sanctions that have been placed on Iran.
"In the first 100 days, President Biden has exhibited a troubling pattern," Rep. Jim Banks stated at a press conference where the legislation was unveiled.
"He's talked a big game while returning to the same Obama-era weakness that emboldened our adversaries and made American families less safe. His foreign policy seems to be defined by the approach of 'speak loudly and carry a twig…'" Banks went on to say.
"That's why we're here today, to communicate to the Biden administration that we will fight to maintain sanctions on Iran and show our adversaries that if Joe Biden temporarily lifts sanctions, we will reimpose them later," Banks continued.
"We're seeing Biden's weak approach take route with regards to Iran," he went on to add.
Israel is one of our most important allies in the Middle East. We cannot afford to torch that friendship, nor is it morally acceptable to put them in a position where they are at risk from attacks coming from Iran. This is a no-brainer.
Well, a no-brainer for someone who isn't just trying to push an agenda.


Fund raisers who have spent five years working towards a memorial for miners who worked at a Rotherham colliery have won planning permission to install a 2.5 metre high statue, despite objections from some residents who believe it will overshadow an existing war memorial.
The sculpture will go up in Coronation Park in Dinnington, along with a plinth to take the names of miners who worked at the colliery there and will sit alongside a half pit wheel and war memorial already in the park.
Planners at Rotherham Council who approved the scheme were told there had been 21 letters of support and nine objections, with some people feeling the new structure would detract from the setting of the war memorial.
Objector Jean Hart told a planning board meeting: "There are already official memorials for Dinnington Colliery and miners.
A group of fund raisers has been working on the project for five years and spokesman David Smith told the meeting they had support from the Dinnington Town Council and also that there were no objections from the Royal British Legion.
"It has massive support throughout the town," he said.
Coun Bob Walsh questioned whether it was correct to include some rather than all of the names of former Dinnington colliers on the memorial, but described the statue design as "wonderful".
Permission was granted on a unanimous vote.


The Iraq war was a multiple assault on the foundations and rules of the existing UN-centered world order. It called into question the adequacy of the existing institutions for articulating global norms and enforcing compliance with the demands of the international community. It highlighted also the unwillingness of some key countries to wait until definitive proof before acting to meet the danger of the world's most destructive weapons falling into the hands of the world's most dangerous regimes. It was simultaneously a test of the UN's willingness and ability to deal with brutal dictatorships and a searching scrutiny of the nature and exercise of American power. The United States is the world's indispensable power, but the United Nations is the world's indispensable institution. The UN Security Council is the core of the international law enforcement system and the chief body for building, consolidating and using the authority of the international community. The United Nations has the primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security, and is structured to discharge this responsibility in a multipolar world where the major powers have permanent membership of the key collective security decision-making body, namely the UN SecurityCouncil. The emergence of the United States as the sole superpower after the end of the Cold War distorted the structural balance in the UN schema. The United Nations is the main embodiment of the principle of multilateralism and the principal vehicle for the pursuit of multilateral goals. The United States has global power, soft as well as hard; the United Nations is the fount of international authority. Progress towards a world of a rules-based, civilized international order requires that US force be put to the service of lawful international authority. This book examines these major normative and structural challenges from a number of different perspectives.
Charlotte Ku, Legitimacy as an Assessment of Existing Legal Standards: The Case of the 2003 Iraq War, 397 (2006).