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Home / ASCS / Cocopah Speedway / Press Release / Cocopah Speedway on deck for Lucas Oil ASCS
Cocopah Speedway on deck for Lucas Oil ASCS
Dirt Racing News
TULSA, Okla. (February 24, 2013) With the season opening events at the Tucson International Raceway complete, the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV American Real moves to the Cocopah Speedway in Yuma, Ariz. for the first two rounds of the Cocopah Cup Challenge presented by the Cocopah Casino.
Making their first visit to the Arizona oval in 2012, the wide, slick surface made for a memorable weekend as Dustin Morgan grabbed his first Lucas Oil ASCS presented by MAVTV American Real victory on the series opening night at the three-eights mile oval followed by what some have called the "pass of the season" when Danny Wood worked by Jason Johnson for the win on the closing lap.
Paying $3,000 and $4,000 to win in 2012, the series second visit to the Cocopah Speedway will feature a $3,000 pay day on Friday, March 1 before giving way to Saturday's $10,000 winner's share.
With newly rebuilt grandstands, expanded pit area, and improved amenities, Director of Operations Greg Burgess said in an interview on Jan. 21, 2013 that the Cocopah Tribe, who owns the Cocopah Speedway and Cocopah Casino, believe events at the Cocopah Speedway can evolve into a major event for Sprint Car racing, "The Tribe in really behind the Speedway. We live in a real motorsports oriented community and we want to build a signature event that can grow year after year. Something similar to events like the Short Track Nationals and Knoxville Nationals."
Coming out of the 2013 season opener, defending National Champion Jason Johnson finds himself playing catch up, after engine woes put the Stenhouse / JJR Motorsports No. 41 seventh in points, directly behind 2012 season rival Wayne Johnson who recorded a pair of top ten finishes in the Oil Medics / Williams Motorsports No. 77x Maxim.
Currently Brian Brown leads the Lucas Oil ASCS presented by MAVTV American Real driver points with Roger Crockett trailing by seven. Returning to full time competition in 2013, Jeff Swindell currently holds the highest position of the National Tour regulars in third with Johnny Herrera and Tony Bruce, Jr. making up the top five.
Events at the Cocopah Speedway will be preceded by a press conference and Fanfest that will be happening Thursday, Feb. 28 on the lawn of the Cocopah Casino. Fanfest will include meet and greet with the drivers as well as live music and drinks. Fanfest is scheduled to begin at 4pm and will extend through 8pm.
Events at the Cocopah Speedway will be paired with the Racer's Advantage Store ASCS Southwest Region.
Series:Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV
March 1 - Cocopah Speedway - Somerton, Arizona - Cocopah Cup Challenge (Round 1)
November 8 - Cocopah Speedway - Somerton, Arizona - Cocopah Cup Challenge (Round 3)
Track Information: Cocopah Speedway
Address: County 15th Street & US 95 Somerton, AZ 85350
Website: www.cocopahspeedway.com
Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV - A Look Ahead:
March 1 - Cocopah Speedway - Cocopah Cup Challenge - Somerton, AZ
March 22 - Devil's Bowl Speedway - Matt Clevenger Memorial - Mesquite, TX
Cocopah Speedway on deck for Lucas Oil ASCS Reviewed by Dirt Racing News on Sunday, February 24, 2013 Rating: 5
Tags ASCS X Cocopah Speedway X Press Release


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Google brings first American operations center to Southaven
by WLZA Lazer 96.1 | posted in: Mississippi News | 0
Back in December, Google announced that they would be placing its first U.S. operations center in north Mississippi. Today, the tech giant announced which city the center will be located in.
Southaven, which is 15 minutes away from Memphis, will be the home of the new 60,000-square foot facility.
"I am truly honored and excited that Google has chosen to open their new operations in Mississippi," Governor Tate Reeves said. "This is a true testament to our skilled workforce and the increasing economic strength of our great state. Mississippi and the Southaven community welcome Google with open arms, and we look forward to growing this partnership and creating opportunities for success for years to come."
The center will be on Airways Boulevard once the construction process is completed. For the time being, Google will have a temporary office in Memphis.
The company plans to hire 100 employees by the end of 2020.
The post Google brings first American operations center to Southaven appeared first on News Mississippi.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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I love thinking. It's one of my favorite things about this job.
I put on a new listing a few days ago. We pushed the pricing envelope a little.
We didn't get any showings the first day, which is a good sign of how far we pushed it.
The second day we had several showings scheduled.
We got an offer from the first showing. It was for less than the full amount. Another sign we were pushing the asking price a bit. It was still a really good offer though.
My sellers asked about countering for full price. We really didn't have much to lose by asking, so I said sure. I had a few things running through my mind though. I was thinking about how soft the market responded to this house at this price. I was thinking about how the buyer's agent is somebody I know. She is a great agent. She knows that in this market, you have to make your best offer right off the bat…and their offer was below the list price. I was thinking to myself "What can I do to motivate these people to pay full price and not weaken our position to negotiate later?" I was afraid they would stick with their original offer and wait and see if we even got another offer. If we hadn't gotten another offer, they would know that their offer was at least the best one we had or why would we be countering it? I also know the buyer's agent would have asked if we had multiple offers. By saying no, it would be further proof that their offer was still the best and maybe the only one we would get. The buyer's may have said no to our counter.
So, the only thing I could do was create a situation where they had to respond to our full price counter offer BEFORE the remaining showings happened. Once the last showing happened, we didn't have anything to motivate them if we had not gotten another offer.
Then all the sudden, a thought popped in my mind. I asked my sellers if I got the buyers to go full price, would they be willing to sign off on it immediately. They said yes.
I then told the buyer's agent that if her people would go full price, I would cancel the remaining showings and my people were holding their phones in their hands right now ready to electronically sign off on the deal.
A few minutes later, it was all done. The sellers are happy. The buyer gets a house in a tight market. And I get to work with an agent I trust and respect.


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Q: How to keep track of visited points in C++ I am doing a problem in c++ that has to keep track of points that are visited in a traversal.  The point is basically,
struct Point {
  int x;
  int y;
};

My first thought to solving something like this would be to use something like
std::set<Point> visited_points;

or maybe
std::map<Point, bool> visited_points;

However, I am a beginner in c++, and I realized you have to implement a Compare, which I didn't know how to do.  When I asked, I was told said that using a map was "overkill" in a problem like this.  He said the better solution was to do something like
std::vector<std::vector<bool>> visited_points;

He said std::map was not the best solution, since using a vector was faster.
I'm wondering why using a double vector is better in terms of style and performance.  Is it because implementing a Compare is hard for a Point?  A double vector feels hacky to me, and I also think it looks uglier than using a set or map.  Is it really the best way to approach this problem, or is there a better solution I don't know about?

A: If someone asks you, in abstract, "What is the best way of keeping track of objects I've visited?", then you would be forgiven for replying "Use an std::unordered_set<Object>" (usually called a hash table for languages other than C++). That's a nice simple answer and it is often correct if you don't know anything at all about the objects. After all, a hash lookup is (expected) O(1), and in practice is usually quite fast.
There are a few caveats, the biggest one being that you will need to be able to compute a hash for each object. The C++ standard library does not (yet) come with a framework for computing hashes of arbitrary objects, not even PODs, and rendering an object as a string in order to be able to take advantage of std::hash<std::basic_string> is usually way too much work (unless the object is already a string, of course).
If you can't figure out how to write a hash function for you object, you might then think about using an ordered associative container (aka a balanced BST). However, that is not a good idea. Not because it is difficult to write a comparison function. Writing comparison functions is usually trivial, particularly for PODs; you can leverage the fact that std::tuple implements a comparison function for every tuple whose element types are all comparable.
The real problem with ordered associative containers is that they are high overhead. Element access is slow: O(log n), not O(1), and the constant is not small either. And the bookkeeping data required to maintain the balanced tree is much larger than the two-pointer hash-table node (and even that is quite big for small objects). So ordered associative containers really only make sense if you need to be able to traverse them in order. Generally, "visited" maps don't need to be traversed at all -- they are just used for lookup.
Both ordered and unordered containers have another problem: the objects in the container are individual dynamic memory allocations (the API requires that references to the objects in the container must be stable), so over time the individual objects end up getting scattered across dynamic memory, leading to a lot of cache misses.
But, really, even before you start thinking about how easy (or difficult) it will be to hash your objects in order to keep them in a hash-set, you should think about the nature of the objects you are tracking. In particular, can they be easily indexed with a small(-ish) integer? If so, you could just use a vector of bits, one bit per possible object. That's an efficient representation, both for access speed (definitely O(1)) and for space, and it is optimal for memory caching.
If your objects are easily numbered then bit-vectors will be an attractive alternative. One bit per object is (literally) two orders of magnitude less space than a hash-map, so unless you expect your visited map to be extremely sparse (rarely the case in algorithms which need a visited map), it's going to be a big win.
In the case of your problem, which I gather has to do with keeping track of points visited in a rectangular array such as a gameboard or an image, it is clear that the bit vector approach is going to work out well. It's true that you require two levels of indexing (unless you reduce the two indices into a single integer, which is quite easy if you know the dimensions), but that doesn't add much overhead.
Although there are doubts about how good an idea it was, the C++ standard library special cases std::vector<bool> to really be a bit vector. That makes it impossible to create a native pointer to a single element of the vector (which is why many people consider std::vector<bool> to be a hack), and creates some other odd issues when you try to use it as a vector. But if all you want is a bitmask -- as in the case of a visited map -- then it is a pretty good solution.
C++ also offers real bit vectors -- std::bitset -- but unfortunately these need to have their size known at compile time. Boost offers dynamic_bitset, which is a kind of std::vector<bool> written with hindsight, so it's also worth looking at.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Rachel King to become the first female jockey to compete in Australia's richest race
By Bianca Farmakis| 3 months ago
Rachel King will be the first female jockey to compete in Australia's richest race.
Rachel King will make history this weekend as the first female jockey to compete in the richest horse race in the country, The TAB Everest at Randwick.
The esteemed event, taking place this Saturday at Sydney's iconic Randwick racecourse, will see 12 jockeys and their horses compete against one another on a 1200-metre track, racing towards the hefty prize purse.
Ahead of her historic debut at the $15 million dollar event, King tells 9Honey her preparation has been "business as usual".
RELATED: Queen Elizabeth's horse wins at Royal Ascot for the first time in four years
King, 30, has secured more than 350 wins in her career as a jockey. (Supplied)
"The magnitude of the event and prize money is life changing," King explains.
"It's just nice to be able to have the opportunity to compete and do my best."
King, 30, has secured more than 350 wins in her career as a jockey but remains grounded by her humility and passion.
"Ever since I can remember I grew up in the UK loving and riding horses," she shares.
"The only way Dad could get me to go to school was to drop me off and pick me up on one of his racehorses. The deal worked out well for both of us!"
'She always has a huge smile': Sophie Wessex on the Queen's love of horses
Queen Elizabeth's horse wins at Royal Ascot
New photos show the Queen horse riding in Windsor during lockdown
Queen Elizabeth pictured horse riding while on holidays at Balmoral
King competed in her first race in Sydney in 2016, and now follows a strict regimen of morning track-work, physio appointments and race riding midweek to prepare for her events.
RELATED: What you can and can't do on Melbourne Cup Day
"Ever since I can remember I grew up in the UK loving and riding horses." (Supplied)
Though she acknowledges a gender imbalance exists in the horse riding industry "by sheer numbers", King says it has changed dramatically through the decades, and in her experience "everyone gets a fair opportunity."
"Riding on horseback is one of the few sports in the world where women and men compete equally," she says, adding, "and my male colleagues are all supportive as well."
King moved from England to Australia more than six years ago, securing an apprenticeship with iconic trainer Gai Waterhouse that she says gave her her "chance" Down Under.
The jockey maintains her mantra is "work hard, be dedicated and find a good group of people to help support you along the way."
King moved from England to Australia more than six years ago, securing an apprenticeship with iconic trainer Gai Waterhouse. (Supplied)
It's a respect she hopes to show to horse Eduardo, and trainer Joseph Pride in Saturday's race.
King's major milestone comes in the wake of her having to delay another — she was forced to postpone her July wedding in the UK with partner and fellow jockey Blake Spriggs due to the pandemic.
The jockey says "spending time" with her fiance and the couple's "two beautiful dogs", named Amber and Aria, have been "great distractions" from the nerves settling in ahead of the race.
"Everyone is really supportive and super excited," she says.
King describes the connection she has with her horse as "something special." (Supplied)
"My family and friends in the UK will be cheering on, and I have a group of close friends and my fiancee's family attending the races in one of the restaurants, so they'll be trackside at Royal Randwick."
A self-described "horse lover" and "adorer of animals all shapes and sizes", King describes the connection she has with her horse as "something special."
"It's based on trust, confidence and instincts and it goes both ways between rider and horse," she shares.
And when it comes to being labelled the first woman to compete in the TAB Everest race, King muses:
"It's a label I'm happy to honour in the world's richest turf race."
Property News: When it comes to a partner's annoying home habits, should we live and let live? - domain.com.au


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Trail Report
Keep us groomin'!
Every donation keeps that sled running!
$10.00 $20.00 $25.00 $30.00 $50.00 $75.00 $100.00
recent contributors:
Laurel Y. 1/30/2023
Nicole F. 1/29/2023
Derek H. 12/26/2022
Raymond J. 11/21/2022
Carol A. 11/21/2022
Thomas K. 10/6/2022
Jennifer H. 3/26/2022
Frank F. 2/18/2022
Chris M. 2/18/2022
Ailese S. 2/14/2022
About KNS - Past and Present
The Kalamazoo Nordic Skiers group formed in the winter of 2002. In response to an upsurge of local interest in cross country skiing, several skiers petitioned the Kalamazoo County Parks Department to ask if county park land could be groomed for both inline (traditional) and skate skiing.
The response from the Parks Department was positive, and the group set about borrowing equipment with which to groom River Oaks Park, located several miles west of Galesburg. Grooming for skate and inline skiing commenced shortly after the first snowfall of that year, and continued until the snow melted in the spring.
Although the initial grooming effort at River Oaks Park proved moderately successful, the group decided to try an approach that would allow the general public greater access to the snow grooming. Representatives of KNS asked permission of the Kalamazoo City Parks and Recreation Department, owner of the Milham Park Golf course, at the corner of Milham Road and Lover's Lane, in Portage, to groom that facility for cross country skiing. The head of the Parks department said they were willing to give the project a trial run.
In the winter of 2003, again using a borrowed snowmobile and groomer, and with assistance from the Kalamazoo Municipal Golf Association, trails were groomed at Milham Park Golf course.
The effort was successful. Scores of cross county skiers took advantage of the approximately two mile perimeter loop around the golf course. Local ski racers were able to put in many hours of training on the course, and recreational skiers and families enjoyed easy access to the trail and smoothly groomed, gently rolling course.
Expecting to duplicate the grooming in 2004, the group was disappointed to learn that a legal liability issue had cropped up at the last moment. As a consequence, the Kalamazoo Nordic Skiers group was not able to groom cross country ski trails at Milham Park Golf course that winter.
In the winter of 2005, Kalamazoo Nordic Skiers learned that the generous party who had been loaning the snowmobile and groomer necessary for the implementation of a cross country ski venue was moving up north, and taking his equipment with him.
Determined to take matters into their own hands, the KNS group decided in late 2005 to purchase a snowmobile and groomer. Charter members pooled money and started the hunt for the appropriate grooming equipment. They located and purchased a used long-track Ski Doo snowmobile, and a trailer with which to haul it around. The group already owned a home made snow roller, and in the fall of 2006 purchased a professional snow groomer that will enable compaction and grooming of snow for skate skiing, and also to set track for inline, or "classic," cross country skiing.
With permission to groom Milham Park Golf Course in hand and the grooming equipment at the ready, all KNS needs in winters to come is six inches of snow on the ground to start producing an easily-accessed groomed ski venue, open to the public.
© Kalamazoo Nordic Skiers Photographs by Zolton Cohen Site & Hosting by NewmanIT


As many of you have attended or will attend Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" ballet, this is a repeat post from exactly 4 years ago that is still relevant today.
The great Russian Romantic composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is one of my favorite composers. Who would have thought that this proud Russian would play such an important role in American tradition and the Americana heritage.
His music is played every year, without fail, during two holiday seasons in America.
During America's most important holiday, Independence Day, July 4th, the celebration of the fireworks won't end in many cities around the country without an orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Although this music has nothing to do with America, it has developed into a staple of the July 4th holiday, as we have taken it to represent the spirit of the brave in war and the resulting triumph. The exhilarating triumphant finish represents America at its exceptional best.
Then during the Christmas season, the signature classical musical piece performed every Christmas [during the season] is Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker. The Nutcracker is a two act ballet performed in concert halls everywhere in America just before and after Christmas.
Tchaikovsky's"1812 Overture"and "The Nutcracker", while not written with America in mind, have become just as American as apple pie, performed every year in this great country.
I bring up this post today, because tonight [Saturday Dec. 27, 2014] the fetching Mrs. B and I are attending Houston's Wortham Center tonight to see Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker performed by Houston's world class Ballet. While I am not a big fan of the ballet, who could not love a ballet which contains the beautiful melodic music of the great Russian romantic era composer. That is why Tchaikovsky's ballets are so widely beloved in America.
We went last year to see the Nutcracker performed by the Houston Ballet and were so wowed by it, that we had to come back this year. I will say ahead of time, Bravo, Houston Ballet!
Please turn up the volume, sit back and enjoy this romantic music enjoyed at concert halls all across America during the Christmas season from the great Romantic Era Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.


Fam.. I thought this was a funny blog I previously wrote.. I was thinking about it since I'm about to start the job hunt again soon.. enjoy!
UNTIL I decide...a mofo is hungry...but I decide first I wanna go to the mall and see what it has to offer...I hit that up and notice that I have hardly seen any white people...ummm mmmmk. I wander around..check out the eye candy and buy a couple things...and decide I just have to have some Long John Silver's food..simply because I don't think where I lived we had one...and I was missing that damn food..
So I rolls up to the drive thru..and I'm a bit confused as to the way its laid out..there are two lanes and either way you pull in ..you're f'd.
So i pull in to the lane closet to the drive thru window...assuming this makes sense and i dont see a sqawk box but im thinking mmmmk. whatevs..
I look out my window on the drivers side and notice that there's this tube like looking thing like when you go to the bank and you go thru the drive thru...again..mmmmk. The drive thru window is on my passenger side so im thinking how in the hot hayle am i supposed to get my food???
Ya'll aint ready...u just aint..b/c if you weren't there u just wouldnt believe me. Hell I wouldn't believe me. I swear to gawd I wish I would have taken a picture..
I ordered my food thru some invisible sqawk box LOL...then the voice says..."put yo money in dat bucket"..
Take a deep breath..and place my money in the bucket and it shoots off into the sky again...so now im confused...like how in the hot hayle am i gonna get my food....and before I could find my phone to call someone about this hot ghetto mess...the bucket comes sailing down again...and I ask the sqawk box...umm how do i get my food? Do I need to come in??
This ghetto heffa says: It's in dat bucket if you look"
gawd i hate mofos....and even worse..i hate country mofos. no..i take that back. i loves me a country man..but dammit there's nothing worse than a ghetto country mofo.
So I lean over and see the LJS yellow bag grab it and dig around the bottom of the bucket for my change and get the hell out of dodge. I dont even think I ate that food..LOL..
Lesson Learned: Don't eat out in strange places with weird building layouts..especially drive thru's..you never know where the hell your food is coming from.
@Meik...that's your fault. When the bucket came down, I would have just drove off, call the USDA and gave them the address...As you say so eloquently...That is all!


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Chronology of fighting the fraud of Binance Aims, tasks and assistance to the project International petition
Active position: What to do? Class action suit against Binance
Structure of Binance:
Legal persons
Traders' Complaints
BULL/BEAR tokens
Fraud with NDA
About Binance
Make a complaint:
BNB Tokenomics - Fraud and Illegal Security
As a reminder, Binance recently reported on the next quarterly BNB burn. The exchange has withdrawn from circulation a record number of tokens - 3,477,388 BNB. The company said that they did it in accordance with the white paper, although the document itself disappeared from the part of the site where it was originally posted. Now it can only be found on the information page about BNB and then, the material is clearly after editing and making edits:
On May 12, the white paper still existed in the public domain at the link, but then at some point it was removed from there. An interesting fact is that the mechanism for burning tokens in different versions of the document was stated in different ways, the description of the mechanism for burning is different. The first claimed that Binance would channel 20% of its net income towards quarterly token buybacks. In the second, they will be destroyed based on the trading volume of the Binance scam exchange, without specifying the volume and timing of burning:
Users and the crypto community criticized Binance for an opaque (fraudulent) token burning mechanism and expressed the opinion that such behavior does not correspond to the spirit of the open source community, as well as a basically transparent business that raised money for the Binance exchange through ICO:
For an open source project claiming all kinds of uses and improvements over fiat / legacy, it kind of needs to be open source and therefore transparant.So changing the core rules of the monopoly game without telling anyone what those are and pretending otherwise. No bueno imo
On July 18, Changpeng Zhao tried to explain and reassure users with lies, spoke out - how the BNB tokenomics works. Analyst Larry Chermak decided to analyze the material provided by CZ and find inconsistencies in it, since it was not difficult:
For example, Zhao compared the fees for converting fiat to cryptocurrencies on Binance versus credit card fees, concluding that the latter are 100 times higher. Chermak emphasized that credit card holders never pay 3% for settlements, and most cards also have a 1-2% cashback - that is, CZ at this moment exclusively deceives users and embellishes the usefulness of the BNB token. CZ stated that during the ICO, part of the tokens were assigned to team members, and the team can spend them if they want and whenever they want at their discretion. But in 2019, according to Chermak, CZ said that the team would send its share of tokens to destruction - thus either in 2019 CZ lied or is lying at the moment in 2020, or CZ is lying constantly and without stopping:
The head of Binance stressed that burning tokens allegedly makes them "more valuable." The wording in English can be interpreted as if he meant exactly the price (in our understanding - the cost), and not a rarity. CZ acknowledged that Binance made changes to the white paper, but they were "immaterial" and changes were made in secret from users, without notifications or messages about changes to the main document. He added that the quarterly burnings will continue as only the wording in the document has changed.
"The fact that users don't know how the combustion mechanism works is significant. But as you wish. "
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Why isn't Ray Clark admitting he was fooled?
Back in 1994, Keith Skues cobbled together a load of previously published material to which he added his nonsense about Ronan O'Rahilly: He called it 'Pop Went the Pirates', and it went into a second edition in 2009 and on his page 11, he wrote:
"Ronan O'Rahilly .... had already found seven millionaire backers including Jocelyn Stevens .... Mr John Sheffield .... and Mr Jimmy Ross."
He offered no proof, and the reason he could not do so is because Keith Skues was making stuff up, or borrowing rubbish from other sources: "Mr Jimmy Smith" did not exist! He got that silly story from Ian Cowper Ross who originally wrote a roman-a-clef work in 1990 about a man named "Jimmy Shaw".
Then in 1991, on BBC-TV, Ian Cowper Ross began to tout the idea that "Jimmy Shaw" was really his father Charles Edward Ross, and he became "Jimmy" when Ronan O'Rahilly began to call him by that name. That was on a supposed first meeting in which O'Rahilly hit up Ross for money!
Good start by addressing someone more senior than you, who you have never met before, but who you want money from, by calling that person by the wrong name!
So where did that apocryphal tale come from?
The answer is that it came from Ian Cowper Ross' 1990 novel.
That book refers to a "Jim" and a "Jimmy" and to a man with the surname of "Shaw", but not "Jimmy Shaw". In 1991, its author who is Ian Cowper Ross, began to turn his novel into a kind of roman-a-clef biographical account of his father, Charles Edward Ross. That is when the insolent behavior of O'Rahilly is supposed to have taken place, but that incident never happened in real life.
Almost as soon that "Jimmy Shaw" was turned into "Jimmy Ross", Keith Skues came along and endorsed it as fact! He claimed on page 11, that:
"O'Rahilly formed a company which was registered in Ireland and known as Planet Productions, but he had an office at 52 Fetter Lane, London EC4. He made himself a director - the company was worth £350,000. Radio Caroline was owned by Alrana and registered in Liechtenstein."
The problem for Skues is that it reveals his own lack of credibility. Not only did "Jimmy Ross" not exist, but neither did the office at 52 Fetter Lane! Neither does the company that he refers to fit into his timeline. That is because Planet Productions Ltd was not registered until February 25, 1964, and that was long after the mv Fredericia had been purchased and taken to Rotterdam by Wijsmuller.
Another problem for Skues is that the first 'Radio Caroline' programs were recorded on tape at 47 Dean Street, which was the home of Project Atlanta Limited. That company had been registered in August 1963, which was long before Keith Skues got involved with 'Radio Caroline'.
Keith Skues has a lot to say for a man who just makes stuff up!
However, Skues had help from Ray Clark who has also published two editions of his own book about 'Radio Caroline'.
The first edition of Clark's book was published in 2014, and he relied heavily on an interview with Ian Cowper Ross for his source material. On his own page 37, Ray Clark added these words:
"Ian Ross had a very wealthy father, a financier in the City, who owned the Jensen car company and had interests in numerous other businesses, including a London bank and the Buxted chicken brand."
Ray Clark offered no proof for this statement, but in 2019, just before Paul Rusling released his equally silly 'bible', Ray Clark published his second edition which now had an Index listing on his page 351 for "Ross, Charles (Jimmy)" with four referenced pages of nonsense.
Working backwards from his page 144, Clark claimed to be quoting "Barry Ainley, Planet Productions, general manager" in material he claimed to have obtained from Offshore Echoes magazine, but with no date or page number. This quotation begins: "Jimmy Ross said, 'would I go and run Radio Caroline?"
Since "Jimmy Ross" did not and does not exist, it is highly unlikely that Barry Ainley who did exist, would have made such a remark - unless he was working with Ian Cowper Ross who began this silly tale about the non-existent "Jimmy Ross". If anything, Charles Edward Ross would have been called "Charlie" by his friends and colleagues.
The name "Jimmy" had been invented by Ian Cowper Ross - as the name for his fictitious character called "Jimmy Shaw"!
Next in the Ray Clark Index is an unnumbered picture page 124, on which is a bogus telegram with a caption that reads: ".... from a jubilant Ronan to Caroline financier 'Jimmy' Charles Ross". That bit of fabricated nonsense goes back to the imagination of Ian Cowper Ross! Funnily enough, the actual wording on the made-up telegram shows that it is addressed to "Mr Ross"! Nowhere does it say "Jimmy" or even Charles Edward.
It is in fact a fake document that was either handed to Ray Clark by Ian Cowper Ross, or Ray Clark made up this fake document himself. It could just as easily be read from Ronan to Ian, which is far more plausible because the fake 'telegram' says: "Congratulations. Without you it would never have happened. Love Ronan."
What is the "it" factor? Deception and lies, obviously. That is what the hard evidence reveals!
Now we go back from the Index to Ray Clark's pages 45 and 46, to read these jewels of make believe revisionism:
"Ian Ross had a very wealthy father, New Zealand-born Charles Ross, a financier in the City, who had interests in numerous businesses; including a London bank, the Jensen car company and the Buxted chicken brand, although he had no connection with the Ross fisheries company ...."
Just cast your attention back to page 37 in the first edition of Ray Clark's book published in 2014, in which he wrote:
In that first 2014 edition "Jimmy Ross" who did not exist, "owned the Jensen car company," but now in 2019, his attachment to Jensen had been demoted to an "interest". Jensen which had its factory and headquarters in Birmingham, sold out to Norcros in 1959 which then dumped it in 1966 after failing to rescue this unprofitable venture. A lot has been written about Jensen and its managers and owners, and Charles Edward Ross is not among any of the names listed!
What is this "bank"?
Clark does not tell us, neither does he explain his references to the "Buxted chicken brand", which is clearly a brand that Ray Clark knows nothing about! That is why others began adding references to Ross Frozen Foods; MacFisheries and even CarPhone Warehouse and even turning Charles Ross into Carl Ross! The stories get sillier by the second.
Back on page 46, Clark let Ian Cowper run wild with his story in which his fiction of 1990 was becoming evermore 'fact' in the year 2019, which was just before Rusling added to the confusion by publishing his print-on-demand 'bible'. On that same page 46 of Clark's book, Ian Cowper Ross identified his father as a "stockbroker":
"Dad was involved with a little bank called Close Brothers that was his base, I think they came in. If he recommended something, people bought it, he had a reputation, they thought it was a flutter. Anyway they put the money in that night."
So the bank referred to later by Clark is identified earlier by Ian Cowper Ross as "a little bank called Close Brothers". That's more of the same kind of name-dropping used concerning Jensen and Buxted. Clark didn't check this information out because he guessed that no one else would either. He guessed wrong!
But who were "they", those people who bought in for "a flutter"?
".... (he) rang his mates Jocelyn Stevens, John Sheffield, and these stockbroker guy who were in his kind of gang."
That is what Ray Clark wrote in the second edition of his book.
According to Ian Cowper Ross this "gang" must have had money to burn and common sense in short supply because they turned over to Ronan O'Rahilly a suitcase full of cash the very next day. Clark's recital gets worse the more he cites Ian Cowper Ross, because young Ronan O'Rahilly supposedly then sent his mate Christopher Moore, who Ian describes as a "gigalo" who gained his experiences on board cruise ships, to go off and buy the mv Fredericia - with cash.
Ian Cowper Ross has wound-up the entire anorak community with his growing tales of nonsense, which means that the real story has never been told.
Or has it?
We discovered that back in 1964, serious British journals such as the 'Economist' and 'New Statemen' were getting very close to the real story. That was bad for the people pulling the political strings behind the commercial radio lobby, and they needed to create a diversion. So they prodded Jocelyn Stevens to speak up, but that was still too close for comfort. So Jocelyn turned the blarney factor over to Ronan O'Rahilly, who in turn was fed material over the years by Ian Cowper Ross.
So what is the "real story" about 'Radio Caroline', if it not the one published by Ray Clark?
That is what we are unravelling by retracing the life story of Charles Edward Ross.
So far we have traced his background to grandparents New Zealand, and then, thanks to documents such as the British Electoral Rolls, we tracked his emigration to England.
We know where he was from the 1930s through to the early 1960s. We know about his first marriage and his son by that first marriage. He is Ian's stepbrother. We also know about his father's divorce and his second marriage, and we know all of this from public records.
We know a lot about Ian's stepbrother who was both a failing promoter of musicals and the operator of a car wash and restaurant. We know about his stepbrother's business partner, and even the death of Ian's stepbrother, and where he is buried.
We know all about Ian's twin-set of aristocratic in-laws and their ties to both the British Crown, and to a scam involving the Beatles that may have led to murder!
We also know what Ian did during the rest of the Sixties after the Marine Offences Act, and his long-running ties to a man who went to work at the original 'Caroline House', before it moved to 6 Chestefield Gardens. We know who owned that property, and how 'Radio Caroline' came to be based there.
We now know all of that and a whole lot more about Ian Cowper Ross, which, if you knew what we now know, would make any offshore radio enthusiast demand an immediate refund from all of the people who have swindled them with their fake stories about 'Radio Caroline'. The scammers want money and they don't care what they have to do to get it.
Now you know why a bunch of vanity-seeking publishers and broadcasters do not like this project at all!
Too bad for them. This project will continue until it emerges in book form, but we won't be hurried and we won't be intimidated.