For the Scottish mathematician, see Daniel Edwin Rutherford.
Daniel Rutherford FRSE FRCPE FLS FSA(Scot) (3 November 1749 – 15 December 1819) was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is most famous for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772.
Daniel Rutherford Mezzotint engraving after a portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn.
The son of Professor John Rutherford (1695–1779) and his wife, Anne Mackay, Daniel Rutherford was born in Edinburgh on 3 November 1749. He began college at the age of 16 at Mundell's School on the West Bow close to his family home, and then studied medicine under William Cullen and Joseph Black at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a doctorate (MD) in 1772. From 1775 to 1786 he practiced as a physician in Edinburgh.
In 1783 he was a joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was president of the Harveian Society in 1787. At this time he lived at Hyndford Close on the Royal Mile.
He was a professor of botany at the University of Edinburgh and the 5th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 1786 to 1819. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1796 to 1798.
His pupils included Thomas Brown of Lanfine and Waterhaughs.
Around 1805 he moved from Hyndfords Close to a newly built townhouse at 20 Picardy Place at the top of Leith Walk, where he lived for the rest of his life.
He died in Edinburgh on 15 December 1819.
In 1786 he married Harriet Mitchelson of Middleton.
Rutherford was the maternal uncle of the novelist Sir Walter Scott.
Rutherford discovered nitrogen by the isolation of the particle in 1772. When Joseph Black was studying the properties of carbon dioxide, he found that a candle would not burn in it. Black turned this problem over to his student at the time, Rutherford. Rutherford kept a mouse in a space with a confined quantity of air until it died. Then, he burned a candle in the remaining air until it went out. Afterwards, he burned phosphorus in that, until it would not burn. Then the air was passed through a carbon dioxide absorbing solution. The remaining component of the air did not support combustion, and a mouse could not live in it.
Rutherford called the gas (which we now know would have consisted primarily of nitrogen) "noxious air" or "phlogisticated air". Rutherford reported the experiment in 1772. He and Black were convinced of the validity of the phlogiston theory, so they explained their results in terms of it.
The standard author abbreviation Rutherf. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
^ Waterston, Charles D.; Macmillan Shearer, A. (July 2006). Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002: Biographical Index (PDF). II. Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. p. 812. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
^ "College Fellows: curing scurvy and discovering nitrogen". Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
Daniel Rutherford (1772) "Dissertatio Inauguralis de aere fixo, aut mephitico" (Inaugural dissertation on the air [called] fixed or mephitic), M.D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
English translation: Leonard Dobbin (1935) "Daniel Rutherford's inaugural dissertation," Journal of Chemical Education, 12 (8) : 370–375.
See also: James R. Marshall and Virginia L. Marshall (Spring 2015) "Rediscovery of the Elements: Daniel Rutherford, nitrogen, and the demise of phlogiston," The Hexagon (of Alpha Chi Sigma), 106 (1) : 4–8. Available on-line at: University of North Texas[permanent dead link].
^ Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent (1965). Elements of chemistry, in a new systematic order: containing all the modern discoveries. Courier Dover Publications. p. 15. ISBN 0-486-64624-6.
"Rutherford, Daniel" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.


Heng Huat Resources Berhad Initial Public Offering (IPO) received an overwhelming response with its public portion of 7 million shares. It was oversubscribed by 60.25 times. The IPO attract 14,863 applications or 428.7 million shares.
Notices of Allotment will be dispatched by post to all successful applicants on or before 24th July 2014. Heng Huat Resources is expected to be listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on 25th July 2014 under stock name "HHGROUP".


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Ryan Henk Donk (Amsterdã, 30 de março de 1986) é um futebolista profissional surinamês que atua como zagueiro.

Carreira
Ryan Donk começou a carreira no RKC Waalwijk.

Naturais de Amsterdã
Futebolistas do Suriname
Futebolistas dos Países Baixos
Futebolistas do RKC Waalwijk
Futebolistas do AZ Alkmaar
Futebolistas do West Bromwich Albion F.C.
Futebolistas do Club Brugge Koninklijke Voetbalvereniging
Futebolistas do Galatasaray SK
Futebolistas do Real Betis Balompié
Jogadores da Seleção Surinamesa de Futebol
Jogadores da Copa Ouro da CONCACAF de 2021

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Tortoise SVN Command Problem I am trying to use the Tortoise SVN command line utility TortoiseProc.exe. The docs suggest that a command line like this:
"TortoiseProc.exe" /command:diff afile.cpp`

should do a diff and display the results in the configured diff viewer (in my case Tortoise's own one), but instead nothing happens - the viewer is not launched & no error messages appear.
If I do:
svn diff afile.cpp

from the same directory, I get the normal Subversion diff text output.
Paths are OK, Tortoise works fine from the context menu, so what am I doing wrong?

A: You need to put /path: before the name of your source file:
"TortoiseProc.exe" /command:diff /path:afile.cpp

Tested on my TortoiseSVN.
See http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/nightly/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-automation.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home Computational Biology How Brains Map Visual Stimuli: A Comprehensive Model
The image shows a mosque in Iran, to symbolize the diversity of our visual world (Credit: Negar Najafian)
Spatial Biology
How Brains Map Visual Stimuli: A Comprehensive Model
By Anjali A. Sarkar, PhD
Just as cartographers have created manageable maps of our planet and enabled travel and development, our brain maps our diverse sensory inputs to our credit-card sized cerebral cortex to enable perception and understanding. For reasons unclear, different facets of visual stimuli are mapped in the primary visual cortex in patterns that differ across species.
In a new study published on April 28, 2022, in the journal Nature Communications, ("A theory of cortical map formation in the visual brain"), scientists from SUNY College of Optometry in New York, Caltech in Pasadena, and the Charity-University Medicine in Berlin, have analyzed electrophysiological recordings of visual stimuli to develop a computational model that formulates a general theory of how the cerebral cortex maps the visual world.
Jose-Manuel Alonso, PhD, MD, a professor of biological and vision sciences at the SUNY College of Optometry, is the senior author of this study.
Senior author of the study, Jose-Manuel Alonso, PhD, MD, professor of biological and vision sciences at the SUNY College of Optometry said, "In a series of papers that started with my postdoctoral studies, my laboratory has been providing increasingly stronger evidence that the orientation maps described by Hubel and Wiesel emerge from the cortical mapping of spatial position provided by two major visual pathways that signal stimulus light-dark polarity, the ON (light) and OFF (dark) pathways. As the evidence became stronger, we started working on a theory of cortical map formation that could fully explain a large body of experimental data, including data already available in the scientific literature and new data that we obtained to specifically test the theory."
The theory of cortical map formation proposed in this paper suggests, interspecies diversity in these patterns emerges from species variations in the thalamic afferent density sampling sensory space.
Since each point in the visual field is mapped by neurons into circular receptive fields in the two-dimensional cerebral cortex that sample the input's spatial position, eye source (right or left eye), polarity (light or dark), and orientation, increasing the number of inputs per visual point improves visual sampling but also increases the need for larger visual cortical areas and therefore larger brains.
Through analysis of electrophysiological recordings across species, the authors found, with evolution, visual sampling (afferent sampling density) increases the size of the visual cortex that represents the same visual point. This allows the segregation of input signals and cortical areas by multiple dimensions. It also allows the inputs to combine into clusters of cortical neurons that maximize the diversity of stimuli extracted from each visual point. This maximization process based on the sorting and mixing of input signals in the visual cortex creates a pinwheel pattern for stimulus orientation that forms rich, multi-dimensional maps of our visual worlds.
A simulated cortical map (Credit: Sohrab Najafian).
The authors noted, "We illustrate the theory with an afferent-density model that accurately replicates the maps of different species through afferent segregation followed by thalamocortical convergence pruned by visual experience."
The significance of the model proposed in the current study is that it explains the formation of maps for multiple stimulus dimensions—spatial position, eye dominance, light/dark polarity, orientation, spatial resolution, and low-pass spatial-frequency filtering—in the primary visual cortex, across species. The work uses standard computational modeling and electrophysiology recordings to test multiple predictions of the theory.
"The theory/model replicates with exquisite accuracy a large body of neuronal data collected by multiple labs across the world including our own over several decades," said Alonso. "Our theory has three important features that greatly increase its biological significance: First, the theory relies on the sorting of thalamic afferents by function, an extremely well-preserved principle of afferent organization in the mammalian brain; second, it follows very closely all major developmental stages of the primary visual cortex; and third, it predicts a close relation among cortical topographies for multiple stimulus dimensions that can be used to simulate very accurate visual maps in the future."
"The authors have discovered that the specific organization of a cortical two-dimensional map arises as a function of the interplay between the density of synaptic boutons and the nature of the information arriving to the cortical map," said Stephen Macknik, PhD, a professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology & pharmacology at the Downstate Health Sciences University who was not involved in the current study. "The visual cortex is arranged for four dimensions. This new discovery describes how the organization of these four dimensions follows from the density of synaptic boutons arriving into the cortex to describe each dimension."
The authors speculate that the model proposed in this study may be applicable in explaining sensory mapping in other areas of the brain since neural tracts use similar mechanisms for axon segregation and pruning.
Macknick said, "What is truly exciting about this fundamental discovery is that it will generalize to all regions of the cortex, including those that are not already well understood. In the case of the visual cortex, we already knew the map, but with this new discovery we can predict the map of any cortical region, even when we do not know its function, by determining the density of the boutons entering the region. Its relatively easy microscopy work to determine this density number, compared to the years or decades of neuroscientific research necessary to determine the precise function of a cortical region, so this discovery stands as one of the most important discoveries ever made in cortical research in the brain."
The ability of the model to predict topographic relations among all stimulus dimensions represented in a visual map may facilitate accurate reconstructions of the multi-dimensional maps needed for cortical implants. In future studies, Alonso's team and his collaborators will focus on the functional implications of the model for other brain maps, human visual perception, and diagnostics/ therapies of visual disorders.
computational modeling
cortical mapping
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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U-369  – niemiecki okręt podwodny (U-Boot) typu VII C z okresu II wojny światowej. Okręt wszedł do służby w 1943 roku.

Historia
Wykorzystywany jako jednostka szkolna i treningowa w 22., a od marca 1945 roku w 31. Flotylli U-Bootów, w związku z tym nie odbył ani jednego patrolu bojowego i nie zatopił żadnej jednostki przeciwnika.

Poddany 9 maja 1945 roku w Kristiansand-Süd (Norwegia), przebazowany 29  maja 1945 roku do Scapa Flow. Zatopiony 30 listopada 1945 roku podczas operacji Deadlight.

Bibliografia

Niemieckie okręty podwodne zatopione w ramach operacji Deadlight
Okręty podwodne typu VIIC
Zatopione niemieckie okręty podwodne typu VII


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Transcontinental Railroad
Mountain Passes: Donner Pass
July 15, 2020 Barbara Gregorich	3 Comments
In 1844 a group of emigrants bound for California, the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party, which consisted of ten families from Iowa, became the first overland settlers to cross the Sierra Nevadas. They followed the route of the Truckee River and crossed through a pass which had a very steep ascent from the east, but a more gradual ascent from the west.
For perhaps two or three years, this pass may have been referred to as Stephens Pass. But after the winter of 1846-47, it was always called Donner Pass.
In spring of 1846, approximately 7,000 covered wagons, traveling in small groups of 10-20, left Independence, Missouri, to cross 2,500 miles of plains, deserts, and mountain ranges. The emigrants were heading to California or Oregon. Some of these wagon parties were large, with thirty or forty wagons to the train. Others were smaller, with ten wagons to the train. The group led by George and Jacob Donner was small.
Donner Pass
It was also ill-fated. Nothing seemed to go right for the Donner travelers. Heavy rains stopped them in their muddy tracks. Flooded rivers delayed them further. Heavy rocks and boulders slowed them to a mile a day in some places. But worst of all, they were following bad advice — advice from ex-Confederate major, nouveau-Californian lawyer Lansford W. Hastings, who wrote The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California, which suggested to the westward bound that they could shorten their journey significantly by taking a shortcut.
Following the regular wagon train route through South Pass in Wyoming, the Donners reached Fort Bridger by the end of July. There the men, women, and children spent four days resting their oxen and repairing their wagons.
But after the Donner party left Fort Bridger, it took a shortcut route. Tragically, this route was not only more difficult than the regular one, but also 125 miles longer. Rough ground, tangled undergrowth, and deep sands delayed the wagon train a whole four weeks. All the delays, both nature-made and human-made, contributed to the disaster that took place at Donner Pass.
Wagon trains tried to make it through the Sierra Nevadas before the end of September. Due to delays, the Donner Party didn't reach the pass until October 31, 1846. They built a camp 1,000 feet below the summit of the long and difficult mountain pass. On the other side was the downhill route, safety, and Fort Sutter, California.
Mountain Range: Sierra Nevada Mountains
Elevation: 7,239 feet (2,206 meters)
Location: On the Nevada-California border, in the El Dorado National Forest of California.
But that night a storm dropped five feet of snow into the pass, blocking it completely. The wind blew the snow into twenty-foot drifts. Men, women, children, and animals sank into the snow and could not move forward. Wagons slid backwards. The next day it snowed more . . . and more . . . and more. The Donner group was blocked in the mountain pass. They built small cabins to live in.
Their food ran out. They ate leather, bones, twigs, and dirt. And then they ate the bodies of those who died. By the time rescue came, in February and April of 1847, only 46 of the 87 emigrants remained alive. When they reached California, the survivors told the tale of how they were trapped and what they did to stay alive. Ever since, the pass has been called Donner Pass.
In 1863, less than twenty years after the Donner Party, another group entered Donner Pass. This was a larger group — thousands of Chinese men. They had been hired by the Central Pacific Railroad to build bridges, dig tunnels, build retaining walls, and lay railroad track from California eastward. The Central Pacific would build eastward and the Union Pacific would build westward. When they reached one another, the United States would have its first transcontinental railroad. This would allow people, livestock, and goods to travel across the land more easily than ever before.
Theodore Judah was the engineer who laid out the route of the Central Pacific, which included 105 miles of track through Donner Pass. So accurate was his planning that today, more than 150 years later, nobody has found a better route across the Sierra Nevadas.
In order to get the tracks through Donner Pass, the Chinese workers blasted tunnels. Fifteen tunnels in all. Tunnels allowed the trains to travel at a lower grade — instead of following the pass to its top, the tracks followed a less steep route by going through a tunnel.
Work on the tunnels through Donner Pass continued year round. In the winter of 1866-67, forty-four snowstorms raged. One of the storms blew for two full weeks and dropped ten feet of snow. But the railroad crew, thousands strong, supplied with food by the railroad, dug huge tunnels through the snow. Back and forth the workers moved through the snow tunnels, in order to work on the real tunnels — those they were blasting through the mountain sides.
On May 10, 1869, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific met in Provo, Utah. At long last, the United States had a transcontinental railroad. Today trains going to and from California still use Donner Pass and the railroads still use the tracks built by Chinese workers more than 150 years ago. Interstate-80 also goes through Donner Pass.
Fierce winds pack
sudden snow,
fill crevice
and crack,
block route
front to back —
under attack.
Barbara Gregorich's previous blog on mountain passes was Bridger Pass.
Central Pacific RailroadChinese Railroad WorkersDonner PassSierra NevadasTranscontinental Railroad
Mountain Passes: Bridger Pass
June 1, 2020 Barbara Gregorich	5 Comments
In 1849 Major Howard Stansbury of the US Army Corps of Topographical Engineers was assigned the job of exploring and surveying Great Salt Lake and its surroundings. In 1850 the Stansbury Expedition employed mountain man Jim Bridger to guide them through areas of the Rocky Mountains. It was during that time that Bridger found a pass south of South Pass and led the expedition through it. The significance of this pass (named Bridger Pass) was that it cut 61 miles off the distance of the Oregon Trail. In the mountains a wagon train may have averaged ten miles a day, so Bridger Pass could have saved immigrants a full week of travel as they headed to Oregon.
James Bridger was born in Virginia in 1804. At a very young age he went west to St. Louis, where he worked as a blacksmith. In 1822, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Missouri River Expedition to further explore much of the territory that Lewis and Clark had traveled. Bridger was the youngest man on the trip.(Jedediah Smith was on this expedition, as were Hugh Glass and Thomas Fitzpatrick — all three of them mountain men (trappers and explorers). Many members of the expedition, among them Jim Bridger, stayed in the mountains to trap furs after the expedition had ended. Mountain men traveled thousands and thousands of miles, zigzagging across the west, blazing trails, finding rivers, lakes, and mountain passes.
In order to survive in the wild Bridger learned to speak with anybody he met. He spoke not only English but also Spanish and French and six different Indian languages. In addition, he was fluent in sign language.
In 1843 Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez opened a trading post in Utah Territory. Their outpost came to be called Fort Bridger — a very important stop on the route west. Wagon trains stopping at Fort Bridger were able to buy food; re-shoe their horses, mules, and oxen; repair their wagons or buy other wagons; and receive further directions on where to travel and how to do it. The Donner Party stopped at Fort Bridger on its way to California in 1847.
Although California was admitted to the Union in 1850, statehood did not make communication with the far western state any easier. Business and personal mail still took months to reach California via wagon train or ship. The Butterfield Overland Mail Company was a stagecoach line that carried passengers and mail to the west, too. At first the stage took the southern route through Sitgreaves Pass to Los Angeles, then north to San Francisco. Later it switched to a northern route going through South Pass. And then it abandoned the South Pass route for the Bridger Pass one. Still, a letter sent by stagecoach took weeks and weeks to arrive in California.
In 1860 the founders of the Overland Mail did something very bold: they started a mail service of relay riders whose sole job was to carry saddlebags of mail from the end of the telegraph line in St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. The Pony Express, as it was called, employed young men who weighed approximately 120 pounds, so that their body weight would not slow down the horses too much. The men were young, with an average age of 20, and one rider was 11 years old.
Each rider was paid $100 for a month of work. He rode from 75 to 100 miles, changing horses every 10 to 15 miles at one of the 185 Pony Express stations along the route. At the end of 75 or 100 miles, the rider passed his mail on to another rider. One rider left from the east and one from the west once a week. Via the Pony Express the mail reached California in just eight days in summer, twelve days in winter. These riders galloped east and west through Bridger Pass.
Started in April of 1860, the Pony Express ended in October of 1861 — a mere eighteen months. It ended when the telegraph line across the continent was completed and messages could be communicated in a matter of minutes. By connecting California to the Union via speedier mail, the Pony Express helped keep that state on the Union side during the Civil War. In addition the Pony Express proved that the central route across the United States — through Bridger Pass — could be traveled all year long and was the best route connecting the different sides of the country.
Bridger Pass was significant in another transportation-and-mail way, and that had to do with the Union Pacific Railroad. Before the Civil War the federal government had plans to build a transcontinental railroad. Although the bill providing for this railroad was passed in 1862, and work on the railroad began then, it wasn't until after the Civil War ended that the government went full speed ahead with the transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific Railroad headed west from Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific headed east from Sacramento, California. (The tracks met in Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.)
The chief engineer of the Union Pacific was General Grenville Dodge, who had served in military intelligence during the Civil War. According to some accounts Dodge, wanting to shorten the route of the Union Pacific in any way he could, asked Jim Bridger if there was an alternative to South Pass. According to these accounts Bridger encouraged Dodge to do what the Overland Mail and Pony Express had done — use the mountain pass that Jim Bridger had discovered in 1850. Dodge and the railroad engineers investigated Bridger Pass and decided that building the railroad through it would indeed save time and money. And so the tracks of the Union Pacific were laid through that pass.
Mountain Range: Sierra Madre
Elevation: 7,532 feet
Location: On the Continental Divide in southeastern Wyoming, near Medicine Bow National Forest.
In order to speed up the laying of railroad track across 1,776 miles, the government urged the two railroads to "race" each other. For every mile of track laid, each railroad was granted $48,000 in government bonds plus 12,800 acres of land. In order to lay more miles of track the Union Pacific offered male passengers reduced fare if they would help lay the railroad beds and tracks.
The Union Pacific (which had to dig a mere four tunnels compared to the Central Pacific's fifteen tunnels) won the race, and General Dodge credited Jim Bridger for this. Bridger died in 1881, one of the last of the mountain men. In 1904 General Dodge had a monument erected over Bridger's grave, crediting him for discovering Bridger Pass and helping lay the route of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Not only was Bridger Pass a great route for the railroad, it turned out to be the best route for Interstate 80, which runs from Teaneck, New Jersey to San Francisco, California. Exploration, immigration, communication, transportation — Bridger Pass played a prominent role in each.
Bridger Pass
hoof beats, dust cloud,
skinny rider, bursting
saddlebags: why not stay a while? —
so long!
Barbara Gregorich's previous blog on mountain passes was Crowsnest Pass.
Bridger PassInterstate 80Jim BridgerMountain PassesOverland MailPony ExpressTranscontinental Railroad


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Ground Forces Munitions Intelligence Washington
Mechanic and Maintenance (13) Technology and Networking (7) Supply and Logistics (5) Police and Protection (4) Medical (2) Admin and Relations (2)
Transport (1) Engineer (1)
Pennsylvania (4) District of Columbia (1) North Carolina (1)
35G Imagery Analyst
Pennsylvania - Army National Guard Washington, PA, USA
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and as a Geospatial Intelligence Imagery Analyst for the Army National Guard, those words protect the lives of U.S. personnel in the field. National Guard Geospatial Intelligence Imagery Analysts examine and interpret imagery information about enemy forces and provide commanders with an accurate picture of the battlefield. This information is critical to planning for our Nation's defense. You'll earn a secret clearance and work with other intelligence professionals, gathering data and studying images required for tactical and operational plans. You'll analyze aerial and ground photographs, as well as electronic imagery of enemy ships, bases, missile sites, and industrial facilities, identifying enemy equipment, weapons and operational forces. Your geographical analysis of land and sea will be crucial to your Commander's ability to battle plan. Job Duties Produce intelligence by analyzing images,...
35N Signals Intelligence Analyst
The Army National Guard uses powerful technology to collect information from foreign signals, and it's the Signals Intelligence Analyst who makes it possible for the Guard to use this information to their advantage. Analyzing foreign communications helps our military experts better plan our Nation's defense. As a Signals Intelligence Analyst, you will intercept and analyze foreign communications; relay intelligence reports regarding combat, strategic, and tactical intelligence information; and study and locate radio signals to understand the tactics and organization of foreign military forces. Job Duties • Maintain analytical working aids and databases • Assist in the emplacement, camouflage, and recovery of surveillance systems • Prepare technical and tactical intelligence reports Some of the Skills You'll Learn • Analyzing communications information using technical references • Preparing technical and tactical intelligence reports...
35T Military Intelligence Systems Maintainer/Integrator
As an Army National Guard Military Intelligence (MI) Systems Maintainer/Integrator, you'll earn a security clearance and play a vital role in ensuring MI computer systems, networks, electronic warfare and intercept devices operate on the battlefield without fail. As the subject matter expert on MI systems, you ensure MI Soldiers can find and never lose the enemy. You enable the ongoing process of military intelligence collection and analysis, so our military experts can better defend our Nation. Specific duties as an MI Systems Maintainer/Integrator include: maintaining, testing, and repairing communications equipment; maintaining and integrating MI computers and networks; assessing and extracting data from fixed, portable, and wireless storage/communication devices; and performing operational checks on MI aerial platforms, sensors, and systems. Some of the Skills You'll Learn Virtual Machine, Server, and Database Administration and Management Microsoft,...
North Carolina - Army National Guard Washington, NC, USA
District of Columbia - Army National Guard Washington, DC, USA


text:
Baltimore 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 7 1
NY Yankees 0 1 5 3 0 0 0 4 x 13 15 0
W: L. Gil (1-0) L: A. Wells (1-2)
4:05 PM PT5:05 PM MT6:05 PM CT7:05 PM ET19:05 ET23:05 GMT7:05 4:05 PM MST6:05 PM EST6:35 PM VEN3:05 UAE (+1)5:05 PM CT, August 3, 2021
Yankee Stadium, New York City, New York Attendance: 30,815
C. Mullins, CF 4 1 1 0 1 0 1 .321 .384 .546
R. Urías, SS 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 .285 .358 .424
R. Martin, SS 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
R. Mountcastle, 1B 4 0 2 1 3 0 1 .262 .307 .468
A. Santander, RF 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 .235 .286 .383
R. McKenna, LF 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 .191 .308 .258
A. Hays, LF-RF 4 0 1 0 1 0 1 .237 .291 .427
D. Stewart, DH 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .202 .317 .341
P. Severino, C 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .228 .303 .369
M. Franco, 3B 3 0 1 0 2 0 0 .215 .262 .377
P. Valaika, 2B 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .192 .251 .280
D. LeMahieu, 2B 4 2 2 1 4 0 0 .264 .342 .359
T. Wade, 3B 1 1 1 2 2 0 0 .211 .286 .263
A. Rizzo, 1B 5 2 2 1 2 0 0 .438 .545 .813
A. Judge, RF 5 2 2 1 5 0 1 .281 .372 .512
G. Stanton, DH 5 2 2 4 5 0 0 .253 .352 .452
J. Gallo, LF 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .216 .371 .474
G. Sánchez, C 4 1 2 1 3 0 1 .213 .325 .448
G. Torres, SS 3 1 2 2 3 0 0 .246 .326 .340
R. Odor, 3B-2B 4 1 1 0 1 0 1 .227 .298 .428
G. Allen, CF 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 .270 .417 .432
2B: Bal 2, R. Mountcastle (19), M. Franco (20). NYY 5, D. LeMahieu 2 (17), T. Wade (2), G. Sánchez (12), G. Torres (14).
HR: NYY 2, A. Judge (22), G. Stanton (17).
HR Detail: NYY, A. Judge (Inning: 8 , 2 Out, 0 on) off S. Anderson, NYY, G. Stanton (Inning: 4 , 2 Out, 2 on) off A. Plutko.
Scoring Position: Bal - 1 for 6.NYY - 7 for 13.
SF: Bal 0, NYY 1, G. Torres (1).
A. Wells, (L 1-2) 2.1 7 6 6 0 2 0 15 63 28 - 35 7.64 .316
A. Plutko 1.2 3 3 3 0 2 1 8 36 11 - 25 5.53 .285
K. Akin 3.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 10 35 9 - 26 7.66 .327
S. Anderson 1.0 4 4 4 0 0 1 7 30 13 - 17 9.16 .333
L. Gil, (W 1-0) 6.0 4 0 0 1 6 0 23 88 26 - 62 0.00 .182
S. Ridings 1.0 1 0 0 0 3 0 4 16 3 - 13 0.00 .250
B. Koerner 2.0 2 1 1 1 0 0 9 34 18 - 16 4.50 .286
Errors: Bal 1, C. Mullins (4).
Double Plays: NYY 1, (Odor to Torres to Rizzo).
Wild Pitches: Bal 1, S. Anderson.
Hit by Pitch: Bal, M. Franco by B. Koerner. NYY, G. Allen by A. Wells.
Umpires: HP--Cuzzi, 1B--Hallion, 2B--Moore, 3B--Ripperger.


Today Sony announced the lens I've been waiting for: the Sony 24, f/1.4 GM. I got a sneak preview of this lens on Maui last week, and again once I got home home. Hurricane Olivia, my workshop (no one was supposed to see me using the lens), and food poisoning significantly limited my use of it, but I did get to play with it enough to share a few thoughts.
Night photography is all about capturing light, the more the better. We bump our ISO as high as the image quality permits, dial in our lens's widest aperture, and open our shutter as long as we can without obvious star streaks, pushing each exposure variable as far as possible squeeze out every last photon. The shortcomings of each of these compromises is mitigated by an improvement in the others, which is why night photography with the fastest possible lens means I can get the same exposure with a little less star motion and/or noise. So f/1.4 is great, currently pretty much as good as it gets for a lens wide enough for night photography.
Of course fast and wide isn't much good if the lens is lousy, or difficult to use. I haven't used the 24 GM a lot, but I've used it enough to know that lousy and difficult won't be a concern.
My very first impression, and I suspect this will be everyone's first impression, is how small this lens is. When I knew it was coming my way I started strategizing how I'd rearrange my bag to accommodate it, but it turns out all I needed to do was empty the slot with a couple of extension tubes and my 2X teleconverter. Contrast that with the Sigma 20mm f/1.4, which is an absolute beast of a lens, both in weight and volume, that could never just live in my bag. But I flew home with the Sony in my bag and was completely unaware of the extra weight. Well done, Sony!
I only got one night to use the on Maui before I had to return to the real world, and my location options had been severely limited by the recent passage Tropical Storm Olivia (downgraded from a hurricane shortly before landfall), so I drove about half-hour from my condo in Napili to the ultra-dark skies on the northern-most tip of West Maui, where I stumbled in the dark down to the edge of a cliff above the Nakalele Blowhole and shot into a 30-MPH headwind. Not the most ideal conditions, but I made it work for my purposes.
The benefit of a fast lens like this is not just the amount of light it allows into an image, it starts with the simple ability to see enough to simply compose and focus. And as I expected, both composition and manual focus were a piece of cake with Sony 24 1.4. For the Maui night shoot I composed, then magnified the viewfinder of my Sony a7SII and twisted the focus ring until the stars were the finest possible points of light—it took all of about 3 seconds. After my first exposure I magnified the image to verify that it was indeed sharp, then didn't worry about focus again.
The image on the right features the dimmest part of the Milky Way, opposite the brilliant galactic core we all love to photograph. As a bonus, I also captured M-31, the Andromeda Galaxy—its fuzzy glow in the upper right has traveled over 2 million lightyears and is the farthest we can see with the unaided eye.
I'd have liked to have done more starlight photography after getting home from Maui, but by the time I recovered enough from a most unwelcome bout of food poisoning that showed up the day I returned, the moon was too prominent in the night sky. Nevertheless, a couple of days ago I sucked it up and drove out to the foothills about an hour from my home and put the lens through its paces beneath a 70 percent gibbous moon.
With the moon high over my right shoulder I looked for scenes facing northeast, where the skies were the least polluted by city glow. I eventually settled on a nearby hillside dotted with oaks fortuitously punctuated by an organized formation of the only clouds in the sky. With so much moonlight present I went with the Sony a7RIII instead of the Sony a7SII. Shooting moonlight at f/1.4 enabled me to get away with a 10-second exposure at ISO 1600.
In the past I've usually auto-focused on the moon for my moonlight scenes, but for laughs this night I tried autofocusing on the trees and was shocked to hear my focus indicator beep. Wow, I've never been able to autofocus on anything by moonlight, even when the moon was completely full. Next I tried autofocusing on a random star and again heard the confirmation beep—another first. And finally I magnified the view and manually focused on the tree: 3-for-3. Admittedly, with the recent ability to do starlight photography (moonless nights), I don't do as much moonlight photography as I once did, and I've never done it with an f/1.4 lens (because it really isn't necessary). Nevertheless, I think night focus struggles will be a thing of the past with this lens.
Processing my night images, the first thing I checked was the stars in the corners. In many years of night photography I used three dedicated "night" lenses (lenses that I only use for night photography): Zeiss 28mm f/2, Rokinon 24mm f/1.4, and Sigma 20mm f/1.4. In quest of more light I've shot all of them wide open, but I've had to live with a fair amount of coma (comatic aberration). My first reaction is that is that this lens is cleaner wide open than any of them.
I haven't had tons of time to spend with my images, but my first impression is that I'm blown away by this lens. I've grown to accept that if I want quality in a lens I need to accept bulk along with it. Apparently that's not the case, because this lens gave me crazy sharp images wide open, yet felt not much larger than a baseball in my hand.


We can see that by November 2009, it was clear that government income would in fact be slightly higher than had been expected for the previous year (2008-09).
Quite simply, the GFC did not blow any holes in the budget at all. As recently as November, the Government fully expected its revenues for this year to finish higher than they were for 2008-09.
So, why is there a problem with the budget then?
Three important things to notice.
Firstly, the government had revised up its original estimate for "Receipts" in the 2008-09 year, by $2.8bn. So they had received more income than originally expected for that year.
Secondly, the government had also revised up its original estimate for "Payments" in this year, 2009-10, by $1.8bn. In other words, in just 6 months between the May 2009 Budget and the November 2009 MYEFO, their "Payments" (ie, spending) blew out by $1.8bn over the original estimate.
Thirdly, notice that the government "Payments" figure of $338.39bn for 2009-10, is an increase of $22.347bn on 2008-09. And that was an increase of $44.203bn on 2007-08.
In the most recently updated Government budget figures, for the 2007-08 year the budget showed "Receipts" of $294.917bn, versus "Payments" of $271.843bn. That is, a Howard Government-delivered surplus of $23.074bn.
By November 2009, the Budget MYEFO (Appendix B, Table B1 above) showed that Rudd Government "Receipts" were expected to be down by just $3.01bn compared with 2007-08, and a mere $0.77bn compared with 2008-09.
Simply, the GFC has actually had almost nil impact on government revenues. We can see that even back in the May 2009 Budget, the government had estimated only a 2.7% fall in "Receipts" for 2009-10 compared with 2008-09. Lindsay Tanner lied.
Rudd Government "Payments" (spending), however, are a very, very different story.
In 2007-08, Government "Payments" were $271.843bn. But by November 2009, the Rudd Government's MYEFO (Appendix B, Table B1 above) shows that "Payments" have blown out to an estimated $340.166bn. That's a massive increase in annual government spending – an extra $68.323bn per annum versus 2007-08, and an extra $24.12bn versus 2008-09.
As you can see, Lindsay Tanner lies when he tries to blame the GFC for the Rudd Government's "huge budget problem". There is almost no loss of revenue – the "huge hole" in the budget is entirely due to panicked, massive, wasteful Rudd Government spending.
Lindsay Tanner lies when he accuses the Opposition of punching "a huge hole in our savings initiatives". The $2bn "savings" related to the health care rebate – a broken election promise by Rudd – is a tiny fraction of the massive spending spree that Tanner's team have done in two short years. And it is a tiny fraction of the $48.49bn in Interest-only debt repayments, that we-the-taxpayers must pay back in just four years to 2013.
The Rudd Government has no plan whatsoever to return the budget to surplus.
They are still borrowing well over $1 billion a week.
And their "plan" is nothing more than hope. The hope that another China-fueled mining boom will rescue the budget for them. This is an increasingly ridiculous hope, as more evidence emerges almost daily of huge structural problems in China's property and banking sectors.
Lindsay Tanner certainly will not tell Australia the simple truth. That our debt is too big already.
The facts of history show, we cannot pay it back.
We also know the government is lying about the budget, because buried in the 2009-10 MYEFO budget papers is proof that the government has fiddled the books. Specifically, to "hide the increase" in government spending as a % of GDP. See my article here.
The figures don't lie. The problem is that perhaps less than 10% of Australians have the attention span to read and understand this post. Somehow this message has to be simplified and gotten out into the MSM and to the parliamentarians.
I don't know if your argument is correct, not that I'm doubting your integrity or the facts, but armed with this, one or more highly paid commentators/journalists should be using the limitless resources they have to validate your commentary and hold Tanner et al to account!
Again. Well done. And as an aging and weary taxpayer, I say thank you.
I had suspected that Barnaby was right.
However what really worries me is that crude oil production stopped increasing in May2005 reached a peak in July 2008 which caused the GFC.
It is reliably expected that oil production will start falling in 2014.
All this means that Peak Oil is NOW !
As we go down the slope we need considerable funds to retrain people to cope with the unemployment that will increase and to restructure our economy.
However this Rudd government has given us debts instead.
Bl**dy idiots ! they were warned about this but chose to ignore the problem.
I believe Barnaby spoke about peak oil some considerable time ago, but please Barnaby, ignore the unspoken agreement to ignore peak oil and shout our problem from the Senate.


ANZ is offering ANZ Financial Planning customers an advice review at no expense.
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This includes an advice review at no expense if you have received advice from an ANZ Financial Planner and are concerned or uncertain about your current financial position.
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Read the full media release to find out what this means for ANZ Financial Planners and customers.


text:
Q: Is it possible to implement an HTTP proxy using com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer? Is it possible to implement an HTTP proxy using com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer?
Based on the Javadoc, I understand that in order to provide handlers for requests, I have to provide a mapping between a "context" and a handler.
However, the syntax of the context strings seems to preclude HTTP requests that include a full URL, rather than just a pathname component, i.e. the type a proxy has to handle.
(Note: the com.sun.net.httpserver package is documented as part of Java SE since Java 6; it's not at all clear that it's an unsupported, internal package...)

A:
However, the syntax of the context strings seems to preclude HTTP requests that include a full URL, rather than just a pathname component

Despite the examples given, and with the proviso that com.sun packages don't have the same compatibility guarantees as the rest of Java, you can call createContext with a path of / and your handler will receive requests with full URIs.
In testing, http://test wasn't accepted, but http://test/ with a trailing slash was. This doesn't seem like something suitable for production use, but it may be acceptable for your purposes.


New England Footwear recently sent me a pair of GoLite "Fire" shoes to test and review. Today I completed my final trail test-run with the recently released shoes. This shoe review will contain mostly pictures and some commentary, in an effort to show you how these shoes performed in each circumstance; from packed trails, to slick sandstone and hard mountain rock. We reviewed several other pairs of trail running shoes, but only one pair was chosen for an all-expenses paid road trip trail shoe review.
Let's begin the review at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Ranger Bill at Arches told us that you must stay on the marked trails, otherwise you are "busting the crust." We assure you and Ranger Bill that there was no busted crust while at the park. The GoLite Fires handled the slick rock, dirt and red sand without any slips.
Next we go to Goblin Valley, Utah. This State Park is an incredible scene to behold. The entire park is covered with small sandstone structures that look like thousands of aliens who set up shop in the middle of Utah for a family reunion. You can't help but run from structure to structure, scaling the dusty sandstone just to see if you can identify any of your relatives.
Next we go to the Manti LaSal National Forrest. Three pictures show the topography that was thrown at the shoes this time. The shoe proved to have incredible stability on the uneven surfaces, and yes, they handled the plain old packed trail just fine.
Next, Rock Canyon. This canyon is well, rocky. The shoes handled the uneven, rocky terrain with ease.
The final trail run was Grove Creek Canyon. Every kind of terrain imaginable is on this trail: gravel, dirt, rocks and shale. Of all the trail runs, this had the steepest terrain and the most rugged off-road conditions. The shoes exceeded our expectations here, too.
Miles driven for this review: 880 miles.
Shoe Test Miles: 29 total miles running, walking, scrambling and just looking good.
We loved the customizable antimicrobial footbed, it provided the precise fit for my narrow foot. The insole design allows for perfect customization for narrow, medium and wide feet.
The all new "glove fit" integrated with the tongue and laces made my foot feel secure and snug. At first, there's a feeling to adjust your socks when you slide your foot in the shoe, but when you tie the laces, you're glad it's there.
The shoe offers optimal balance of cushion and torsion. GoLite's trademark "NeoFoam" wraps around the entire shoe and offers protection and support. It also cleans up nicely.
The best "Trail Claws" and "Paw Pads" provide more surface contact with the ground.
Gripstick™ rubber is an exclusive high-grip compound that offers extra traction on slick surfaces.
The heel cradle keeps your heel right where it belongs.
Ample toe protection – see the pictures!
It has incredible light-weight performance: the shoe is true to the brand, weighing in at only 14.00 oz.
Shoes of the day: GoLite's Fire. We think even Smokey the Bear would like these Fires! But don't Go-lite any fires without his permission.


What does a special constable do?
Special constables are trained volunteers work alongside regular officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), as part of the Community Policing Team.
Specials come from all walks of life and a range of careers.
Whilst on duty, special constables have the same powers as regular officers.
In return for their commitment of a minimum of 16 hours a month, special constables receive first class training, support and the uniform and equipment to carry out the role.
Why do people become special constables?
Are Specials different from PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers)?
Yes. PCSOs are members of police staff who work alongside police officers out in the community.
Special constables are trained volunteers who when on duty have the same powers as regular police officers.
Are there different types of Specials?
No. Wiltshire Police does not have different roles within the Special Constabulary, but there are opportunities to gain specialist skills in roads policing.
The Special Constabulary are looking into opportunities to specialise in different areas of the Force.
As a Special you can work towards promotion through the ranks.
Is there minimum age limit?
You can apply to become a Special aged 17 years and six months but you cannot be appointed or attested (given police powers / warrant card) until you are 18 years old.
There is no upper age limit, although you must be able to pass the recruitment process which includes a fitness test and reasonably fit and a medical.
Are there any residency restrictions?
Yes. All applicants need to have resided permanently in the UK for a minimum of three years prior to applying. However if you have resided outside the UK for a time but can provide sufficient information to enable meaningful checks to be conducted in relation to that period, we will consider your application alongside the information you provide.
Do I have to pay for a uniform and equipment?
No. All equipment including uniform is provided free of charge. Agreed travel and out of pocket expenses will be paid.
The Special Constabulary will give you the opportunity to develop your skills and challenge yourself in an interesting and exciting environment.
How many hours will I have to volunteer?
You must serve at least 16 hours a month. On occasion you will be asked to complete specific duties, such as concerts, county shows.
There is no limit on the number of hours you volunteer.
Do Special Constables have to sign up for a minimum term?
No but applicants do need to be dedicated and committed to the role.
I am or have been a member of BNP or similar organisation. Is that automatically a bar to appointment?
I have a tattoo - is that a problem?
Tattoos are not necessarily a bar to appointment. However some tattoos could potentially offend colleagues, members of the public or could bring discredit to Wiltshire Police. If you have tattoos, please take a photograph and send in with your application form, together with a description, their size and location.
I have health issues - is this a problem?
Applicants must be in good health and sound constitution and be able, both physically and mentally, to perform the duties of a Special Constable if appointed. If you have a disability we will make adjustments where it is reasonable to do so. During the assessment day applicants will undertake a medical examination.
If I become a special constable will it help me get into the regular police?
There is no direct advantage but clearly being a special constable will provide a valuable insight into policing. Quite a number of our special constables have gone on to become regular officers.
In terms of employment history, how far do I have to go back?
During the recruitment process we will ask for five years of employment or education history. Please also include full details of any military service, regardless of when that was.
Is anyone excluded from applying?
What are the Nationality rules?
Police officers are in a privileged position and could therefore be considered potentially vulnerable to corruption. Applicants who have existing County Court Judgements outstanding against them or who have been registered bankrupt and these debts have not been discharged will not be considered.
Applicants who have been declared bankrupt will only be considered three years from discharge of the debt.
If you have an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) please contact the Wiltshire Police Vetting Unit.
Ideally, you should not have a criminal record. Some minor convictions may not preclude you. You must declare any conviction, civil or military (including minor and juvenile offences, cautions, bind-overs, reprimands and fixed penalty notices) regardless of how long ago these took place. Failure to declare any of these will result in rejection.
Spent convictions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 must be declared.
Finally you must also declare if you have ever been involved in any criminal investigation whether or not this led to prosecution (either of yourself or others).
No. The role of special constable is voluntary. Agreed travel and out of pocket expenses will be paid.
Where in the county will I be based?
Specials will form part of the Community Team and will be part of one of the seven teams across the county.
Some specials prefer to be based locally within their own communities whilst others prefer to be based within another town. We will work with you to identify a team that is suitable for your needs.
Do I get to choose when I work?
Yes. We ask that specials organise their shifts with their Community Policing Team Sergeant so the team know when to expect you and include you in any team plans.
On occasions we will ask if you are available to work a specific shift to support an event or operation.


1980-08-14 Assigned to ANIMAL TOYS PLUS, INC. A CORP. OF N.Y. reassignment ANIMAL TOYS PLUS, INC. A CORP. OF N.Y. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST. Assignors: HILLS ISAAC A.
A manipulatable toy puppet is supportable on a human torso and also on a display support in a manner which resembles the torso-supported puppet. The puppet's arms are detachably secured around the manipulator's neck by Velcro-type fasteners, and the puppet's legs are secured about the manipulator's waist by an adjustable elastic band. The puppet figure is made of a soft plush-covered material to simulate animal fur. The display support has a humanoid-like portion which resembles the upper part of a human, and an arm support portion which resembles the upraised human forearm. Hence, the body of the puppet can be supported on the arm support portion, and the puppet's arms and legs can be mounted on the display in a manner which simulates the hugging-type pose in which the puppet is supported on a human being.
This invention generally relates to a toy puppet and, more particularly, to a puppet which is supportable either on a human torso for manipulative play action purposes, or on a humanoid-like display support for display purposes.
Small- and large-scale manipulatable puppets resembling an animal, person or like figure are well-known for their play value and entertainment appeal to all audiences, especially children. Such puppets include the full-bodied articulated puppets having jointed string-supported limbs which are separately manipulatable from above the puppet, as well as miniature finger puppets and hand puppets. The finger puppets are manipulated solely by the manipulator's fingers, whereas the hand puppets generally require the manipulator's entire hand. The manipulator may use all the fingers of his hand to move the puppet's mouth or, in some cases, the manipulator inserts at least one finger into the puppet head, and inserts his other fingers into the puppet's respective limbs to provide full-bodied puppet movement.
Although generally satisfactory for their intended play nd entertainment purposes, as well as for educational and physical coordination purposes, the finger- and hand-puppets of the prior art are miniature figures in the sense that they must generally conform to the size of the manipulator's fingers and/or hand. In order to provide a more life-sized puppet, it is desirable to increase the overall dimensions of the finger- and hand-puppets to a size which is larger than the average human hand. However, only the puppet head of such larger-sized puppets is directly supported by the manipulator's hand. The puppet arms and legs are typically left unsupported and unmanipulatable. Such dangling limbs impart a very unappealing and undesirable limp apperarance for the puppet. As a result, the limp puppet not only fails to create the impression of a realistic-looking large-scale puppet figure, but also fails to properly display the puppet in, for example, a commercial setting.
In order to increase the play, entertainment, educational and coordination value of a large-sized puppet, it is very desirable for the puppet to assume an embracing-, cuddling- and hugging-type posture with the person. To the best of my knowledge, no manipulative puppet exists in the prior art which is supportable on the manipulator's person, or which is positioned in a hugging-type posture during use.
Accordingly, it is the general object of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a more realistic-looking, larger-sized puppet which is manipulatable by the manipulator's hand and arm, and which is supportable on the manipulator's torso during such manipulation.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a manipulative puppet which assumes an embracing-, cuddling- and hugging-type posture with the manipulator's person.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a more realistic-acting toy puppet which is manipulatable by the manipulator's hand and arm in a manner such that the manipulator's hand and forearm are within the puppet and essentially hidden from view.
A further object of this invention is to provide a cute and lovable animal-like puppet whose arms cling around the manipulator's neck, whose legs grasp around the manipulator's waist, and whose face faces the manipulator's face.
Still a further object of this invention is to provide a toy puppet which is fully supportable on a display stand without having any of its limbs dangling freely.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a display-supportable puppet which simulates a human body-supportable puppet.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a toy puppet which is supportable not only on a human torso, but also on a display.
Another object of this invention is to increase the play, educational and physical coordination value and entertainment appeal for all audiences, especially children.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an attractive toy puppet which can serve as an imaginary playmate for children.
In keeping with these objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter, one feature of the invention resides, briefly stated, in a toy puppet which is supportable not only on a human torso, but also on a display support. In a preferred embodiment, the toy puppet has a figure which resembles an animal-like figure. The puppet has a hollow puppet head, a hollow puppet body mounted on the puppet head, a pair of upper puppet limbs or arms extending from the upper part of the puppet body, and a pair of lower puppet limbs or legs extending from the lower part of the puppet body. The puppet figure is preferably made of a soft, plush cotton-like material which bounds an interior cavity that is located within the puppet head and body.
As noted above, the toy puppet is supportable on a manipulator's torso. In accordance with this invention, torso-supporting means are provided on the puppet figure for supporting the same on the manipulator's torso. The torso-supporting means includes neck-supporting means for securing the puppet arms around and behind the manipulator's neck region, and waist-supporting means for securing the puppet legs behind the manipulator's waist region. In a preferred embodiment, the neck-suppporting means constitutes a pair of quick connect-disconnect Velcro-type fasteners each mounted on an end region of the puppet arms, and preferably on the puppet hands. This permits the puppet arms to be detachably interconnected behind the manipulator's neck. As for the waist-supporting means, this constitutes an expandable member, such as an elastic rubber band, which is permanently connected between the end regions of the puppet legs, i.e. on the puppet feet. The elastic band completes the encirclement of the manipulator's waist. The elastic band expands or contracts, as needed, in order to accommodate to the differently-sized manipulators' waist regions.
Thus, the torso-supportable puppet has its puppet arms wrapped around the manipulator's neck, and its puppet legs wrapped at least about the major portion of the manipulator's waist. The manipulator thereupon freely inserts his hand, with clearance, into the hollow puppet head to manipulate the same, and freely inserts at least a major portion of his forearm, with clearance, into the hollow puppet body to manipulate the same. The manipulator's hand and forearm are located within the interior cavity and are effectively hidden from the view of the audience. This posture for the puppet can be described as embracing, cuddling and hugging the manipulator.
The aforesaid puppet posture greatly increases the play value and entertainment appeal for children, because it appears that the puppet is hugging the manipulator in a loving manner. Also, because more than just the hand is inserted into the interior cavity of the puppet, the puppet is of a larger size as compared to the finger- and hand-puppets of the prior art. This results in a more life-like appearance for the puppet. Further, even though the puppet arms and legs are not supported or directly manipulated by the manipulator's hand or forearm, the puppet's arms and legs are not left unsupported and dangling freely. Instead, the puppet's arms and legs are supported by the manipulator's torso.
In accordance with another feature of this invention, the top puppet described above is also supportable on a display support in a manner which resembles the above-described human torso-supported puppet. The display support comprises an upright humanoid-like portion which generally resembles the upper portion of a human, and an upright arm support portion which generally resembles the upraised human forearm. The upright arm support portion is located closely adjacent to, and spaced apart from, the humanoid-like portion. The humanoid-like portion includes a neck-like display portion and a waist-like display portion.
In order to support the puppet on the display support, the upright arm support portion is freely insertable, with clearance, into the interior cavity within the puppet head and body. Thereupon, the puppet arms are detachably secured behind the neck-like display portion, whereas the puppet legs are secured around the waist-like display portion.
The display-supported puppet again assumes a lovable hugging-type posture with the humanoid-like portion of the display support. This display posture simulates the pose in which the puppet is supported on the human manipulator. The puppet's arms and legs are not left dangling freely, but are supported at all times. Hence, the display-supportable puppet makes a very attractive and attention-getting display to attract consumers.
FIG. 7 is a sectional top view taken on line 7--7 of FIG. 5.
Referring now to the drawings, a human torso-supported puppet is shown in FIG. 1, and a display-supported puppet is shown in FIG. 5. The puppet in FIG. 1 resembles a whimsical frog-like animal, whereas the puppet in FIG. 5 resembles a whimsical monkey-like animal. It will be expressly understood that the present invention is not intended to be limited to such animal figures, because there is virtually an infinite variety of other figures that could have been selected. For example, the puppet figure can be designed to have any animal, person, fish, cartoon character, movie character, science fiction character or like configuration. The description provided below has been limited to frog- and monkey-like animals merely for ease of explanation.
Turning now to FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 identifies a fancifully-arranged frog-like animal toy puppet figure. The frog puppet figure 10 has a puppet head 12 having a whimsical expression; a puppet body 14 connected to the head 12; a pair of upper puppet limbs or arms 16,18 connected to the puppet body 14 generally adjacent the head 12 and extending outwardly away from the body 14; and a pair of lower puppet limbs or legs 20,22 connected to the puppet body 14 remotely from the head 12 and extending outwardly away from the body 14.
The frog puppet figure 10 is made of a soft manipulatable material, such as cotton cloth material, whose exterior surface is substantially covered by a soft plush material to simulate animal fur. The puppet arms 16,18 and legs 20,22 are each preferably sewn to opposite sides of the body 14. The puppet head is likewise sewn on the top of the body 14.
At the end of each puppet arm is provided a puppet hand 24 or 26 (see FIG. 2) which is covered with a differently-colored plush material. The puppet hands are sewn to the free outer end regions of the puppet arms. Similarly, at the end region of each puppet leg, is provided a puppet foot 28 or 30 (see FIG. 4) which is covered with a differently-colored plush material. The puppet feet are sewn to the free outer end regions of the puppet legs.
As best shown in FIG. 3, the puppet head 12 and body 14 are hollow, thereby defining an interior cavity 32 within the puppet figure. The cavity 32 has an access opening 34 located in the rear tail end region of the puppet animal. The access opening 34 and the cavity 32 are dimensioned to readily permit free insertion of the manipulator's hand and forearm therethrough and therein. The puppet figure 10 is dimensioned such that the manipulator's hand 36 can fit, with clearance, within the hollow puppet head 12, and at least the major portion of the manipulator's forearm 38 can fit, with clearance, within the hollow puppet body 14 along the spine of the puppet. The manipulator's fingers are preferably inserted in upper and lower puppet mouth pocket portions 40,42 on the head 12 to permit the simulation of mouth movement.
It will be noted that the overall dimensions of the puppet head 12 is larger than the average size of the human hand. The extent to which the human forearm is inserted into the puppet depends on the length of the human forearm which, of course, depends upon whether the manipulator is an adult or a child. Nevertheless, the length of the puppet body is about the average size of the human forearm and is intended to extend over at least a major portion of the same.
As for the puppet arms, they are each dimensioned to extend from the puppet body to a point behind the manipulator's neck when the puppet is positioned in the region generally adjacent the manipulator's chest. Each arm extension measures approximately 15 inches in a preferred embodiment. As for the puppet legs, they are each dimensioned to extend from the puppet body to a point at either side or behind the manipulator's waist when the puppet is positioned in the region generally adjacent the manipulator's chest. In a preferred embodiment each leg extends for a distance which measures about 17 inches. The overall height of the puppet figure is about 29 inches such that it essentially extends over the manipulator's chest and presents a relatively large-scale and full-bodied appearance.
In accordance with this invention, torso-supporting means are provided for supporting the puppet on the manipulator's person, preferably on his torso. As best shown in FIG. 2, the torso-supporting means includes neck-supporting means 44,46 on the puppet hands 24,26 and operative for securing the puppet arms 16,18 together to form an openable loop which encircles the manipulator's neck region. In a preferred embodiment, the neck-supporting means 44,46 constitutes a pair of quick connect-disconnect fasteners of the Velcro-type. The Velcro-type fasteners 44,46 are easily detachable to permit ready removal of the puppet arms from around the manipulator's neck, as well as being easily connectable to secure the puppet arms in place around the manipulator's neck. The Velcro-type fasteners engage each other with sufficient strength to easily support the weight of the puppet. It is also contemplated that the neck-supporting means be a closed loop which may be slipped over the manipulator's head.
As best shown in FIG. 4, the torso-supporting means also includes waist-supporting means 48 on the puppet feet 28,30 and operative for securing the puppet legs 20,22 together to form a closed loop which encircles the manipulator's waist region. In a preferred embodiment, the waist-supporting means constitutes an elongated expandable member 48, such as an elastic rubberband, whose opposite ends are permanently connected to the puppet feet 28,30. The elastic band 48 is adjustable in length, i.e. it either expands or contracts as required, in order to adjust the distance between the puppet legs 20,22 to accommodate differently-sized manipulators' waist regions. It is also contemplated that the waist-supporting means be an openable loop which may be strapped around the manipulator's waist.
In use, the closed loop formed by the puppet legs 20,22 and the band 48 is slipped over the manipulator's head and pulled down over the manipulator's shoulders until it is properly positioned around the midriff section of the manipulator's waist. Of course, the manipulator could equally as well step into the closed loop and pull the same up over his hips until it is properly positioned around the manipulator's waist. The puppet arms 16, 18 are then placed over the manipulator's shoulders and fastened behind the manipulator's neck by engaging the Velcro-type fasteners 44,46 with each other. As described above, the user then inserts his hand through the access opening 34 and thereby reaches up inside the puppet interior cavity until the hand is located within the puppet head 12 and the forearm is located substantially within the puppet body 14. The softness and flexibility of the puppet material permits the manipulator to manipulate the puppet as desired.
Turning now to FIG. 5. a puppet 10' is supported on a display support 50 in a manner which resembles the human torso-supported puppet 10 of FIG. 1. The puppet 10' has a monkey-like configuration although, as noted above, any shape could have been selected. The puppet 10' has a hollow puppet head 12'; a hollow puppet body 14'; a pair of puppet arms 16',18'; a pair of puppet legs 20',22'; a pair of puppet hands 24',26'; a pair of puppet feet 28', 30'; an interior cavity 32'; and an access opening 34'. All of the just-described puppet parts, as well as the neck-supporting means 44', 46' and the waist-supporting means 48', are all analogous in structure and function to the corresponding parts of the puppet 10, and hence, will not be repeated for the sake of brevity.
The display support 50 includes an upright humanoid-like portion 52 which resembles the upper part of a human being. For example, the humanoid-like portion 52 has a head-like display portion 54; a neck-like display portion 56; an upper torso display portion 58; and a waist-like display portion 60. The display support 50 also includes an upright arm support portion 62 which resembles the upraised human forearm. The arm support portion 62 is bendable to an L-shaped configuration (see FIG. 6) along the bend-line 64.
Humanoid-like portion 52 is located adjacent to, and spaced apart from, the arm support portion 62, thereby defining an upright vertically-extending slot 66. Below the slot 66, a transversely-extending base support portion 68 interconnects and supports the humanoid-like portion 52 and the arm support portion 62. A rear flap 70 (see FIG. 7) is mounted for swinging movement on the rear of the display support 50 to support the same on any mounting surface, such as a store counter-top.
In use, the provision of the slot 66 permits the arm support portion 62 to be freely inserted, with clearance, through the rear access opening 34' and into the interior cavity 32' of the puppet 10'. The arm support portion 62 is pre-bent into the L-shaped configuration of FIG. 6 in order to support the puppet 10' in all three dimensions, thereby imparting a more realistic appearance to the display. In a manner analogous to that described above, the puppet legs 28', 30' are mounted around the waist-like display portion 60, and the puppet arms 16',18' are connected behind the neck-like display portion 56. The puppet 10' appears to be supported on the torso-like display portion 58.
The display support 50 is self-supporting when the rear flap 70 is moved from a storage position in which it lies co-planar with the display support 50, to a display position in which it lies normally of the display support 50. The self-standing display support 50 makes for a very attractive and attention-getting display which simulates the human torso-supported puppet.
While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a torso- and display-supportable puppet, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
(b) torso-supporting means on the puppet figure, for supporting the same on the manipulator's torso, said torso-supporting means including neck-supporting means for securing the upper portion limbs around the manipulator's neck region, and waist-supporting means for securing the lower puppet limbs around the manipulator's waist region, whereby the torso-supported puppet is manipulatable by both the manipulator's hand and forearm while mounted in embracing relation on the manipulator's torso.
2. The puppet as defined in claim 1, wherein the upper puppet limbs are dimensioned to at least encircle the manipulator's neck region; and wherein the neck-supporting means includes detachable fastening means on the upper puppet limbs, for detachably connecting the upper puppet limbs to each other behind the manipulator's neck region.
3. The puppet as defined in claim 1, wherein the lower puppet limbs are dimensioned to at least partially encircle the manipulator's waist region; and wherein the waist-supporting means includes an adjustable fastening means on the lower puppet limbs, for adjustably interconnecting the lower puppet limbs to each other behind the manipulator's waist region.
4. The puppet as defined in claim 3, wherein the adjustable fastening means includes expandable means connected between the lower puppet limbs, for adjusting the distance between the lower puppet limbs to accommodate differently-sized manipulators' waist regions.
5. The puppet as defined in claim 1, wherein the puppet figure has a hollow puppet head in which the manipulator's hand is freely insertable, and wherein the puppet figure has a hollow puppet body in which at least the major portion of the manipulator's forearm is freely insertable, whereby full manipulation of both the puppet head and puppet body is permitted while the puppet is supported on the manipulator's torso.
6. The puppet as defined in claim 1, wherein the puppet figure has an animal-like configuration and has an exterior soft covering which is at least partially covered with plush material.
(c) display-supporting means on the puppet figure for supporting the same on the display support, said display-supporting means including neck-supporting means for securing the upper puppet limbs around the neck-like display portion, and waist-supporting means for supporting the lower puppet limbs around the waist-like display portion, whereby the display-supported puppet is displayed in embracing relation in a manner resembling a human torso-supported puppet.
8. The display-supportable puppet as defined in claim 7, wherein the upright arm support portion bounds an upright slot with the humanoid-like portion; and wherein the display support includes a base portion extending between the humanoid-like portion and the upright arm support portion below the slot.
9. The display-supportable puppet as defined in claim 7, wherein the upright arm support portion is bendable along an upright bend-line to support the puppet in three dimensions.
(b) torso-supporting means on the puppet figure, for supporting the same on the manipulator's torso, said torso-supporting means including neck-supporting means for detachably fastening the upper puppet limbs to each other behind the manipulator's neck region, and waist-supporting means for fastening the lower puppet limbs to each other behind the manipulator's waist region.
11. The puppet as defined in claim 10, wherein the neck-supporting means includes a quick connect-disconnect fastener at each end region of the upper puppet limbs; and wherein the waist-supporting means includes an elongated expandable member at each end region of the lower puppet limbs, said expandable member being expandable to accommodate differently-sized manipulators' waist regions.
(c) display-supporting means on the puppet figure for supporting the same on the display support, said display-supporting means including neck-supporting means for detachably fastening the upper puppet limbs to each other behind the neck-like display portion, and waist-supporting means for fastening the lower puppet limbs to each other behind the waist-like display portion, whereby the display-supported puppet is displayed in embracing relation in a manner resembling a human torso-supported puppet.
13. The display-supportable puppet as defined in claim 12, wherein the neck-supporting means includes a quick connect-disconnect fastener at each end region of the upper puppet limbs; and wherein the waist-supporting means includes an elongated expandable member at each end region of the lower puppet limbs.
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