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With a range of facilities offering this widespread and loved dish, you will not be deprived of your slice of pizza, but also find other delicacies such as pasta prepared in a variety of ways.
Vera pizza Napoletana.
By building on a tradition of preparing delectable local dishes with a Mediterranean flavour and by honouring the Rijeka's gastronomic heritage, chef Dušan Džimbeg has introduced the "Small Menu", which includes delicacies, such as humus, pork bellies, tagliatelli with prawn and truffles, "pljukanci s kumbasicon" (pasta with sausage), veal carpaccio, salmon fillets, as an addition to the legendary pizzas of the "Mediterranean" gourmet selection.
It is fitting that the "Small Menu" is subject to change depending on offers at the current farmer's market as the bistro is located where a farmer's market once stood.
Rica Gluten Free is a healthy food establishment with a variety of gluten-free dishes and desserts. The rich gastronomic offer is presented in a pleasant atmosphere where you can eat pizza, snacks, sandwiches and a variety of desserts and baked goods of your choice - gluten, egg, lactose, sugar-free and adapted for vegans.

subset: commoncrawl


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The INNANETAPE by SAVEMONEY rapper Vic Mensa has made his year more intriguing by the week. From appearance at MTV's Rapfix to impressive Five Fingers Of Death freestyles, the young genius is creating an indelible mark. Check the recap of his tour stops.
Young Netscape comes through with the video for the Eliza-assisted "YNSP" off INNANETAPE. This is basically the same beat Dahi used for "Bout It, Bout It," with minor adjustments. Young producers save peso too.
Vic Mensa with a new song that he raps to in a studio session before it even comes out. Be blessed.
Vic Mensa appears on BET's The Backroom program and rips the mic for three minutes straight. Stay woke and make sure you check out Vic's INNANETAPE.
Vic Mensa gives an inside look into the production of the INNANETAPE.


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Date: May 02, 2020 to May 02, 2020
Where: Zeeland Street Market, 2031 Perkins Rd, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, 70808
Phone: N/A
Event Type:
Ticket Price: N/A
Songwriter/producer Dan Penn has been a quiet force behind Southern soul music for over thirty years. Always moving just out of view of the limelight, Penn has produced and written hits for the Box Tops, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin and Ronnie Milsap, among others. Originally from Vernon, Alabama, Penn began his career as a performer, leading several white R&B bands around the Muscle Shoals area. Achieving early success by selling a hit song to Conway Twitty ("Is a Bluebird Blue?"), the songwriter eventually moved to Memphis, joining producer Chips Moman at his American Studios. Together the two, along with Penn's writing partner, organist Spooner Oldham, wrote and/or produced several hits for the Box Tops, such as "The Letter" and "Cry Like a Baby," throughout the late '60s. Penn eventually returned to Muscle Shoals during the period when Atlantic Records vice president Jerry Wexler was bringing acts like Aretha Franklin and Solomon Burke down from New York to record there. This led to Franklin cutting the Penn/Oldham composition "Do Right Woman," and for the next several years, Penn compositions such as "Dark End of the Street," "Woman Left Lonely" and "I'm Your Puppet" became soul classics and were recorded by such greats as James Carr, Janis Joplin and Dionne Warwick, respectively. Nobody's Fool Never really considered a performer, in 1994 Penn released the long awaited follow up to his 1973 solo album Nobody's Fool. This album contains Penn performances of songs that others are known for such as "I'm Your Puppet," as well as new material. Moments from This Theater followed in 1999.


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|Tanzanian shilling(TZS)
|Swahili & English
Dar es Salaam
Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the early 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964. One-party rule came to an end in 1995 with the first democratic elections held in the country since the 1970s. Zanzibar's semi-autonomous status and popular opposition have led to two contentious elections since 1995, which the ruling party won despite international observers' claims of voting irregularities.
[+] Geography
Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Kenya and Mozambique
Geographic Co ordinates
Land Boundries
Total:3,861 km
Border countries:Burundi 451 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo 459 km, Kenya 769 km, Malawi 475 km, Mozambique 756 km, Rwanda 217 km, Uganda 396 km, Zambia 338 km
Geography - note
Kilimanjaro is highest point in Africa; bordered by three of the largest lakes on the continent: Lake Victoria (the world's second-largest freshwater lake) in the north, Lake Tanganyika (the world's second deepest) in the west, and Lake Nyasa in the southwest
[+] People
Country comparison to the world:30
note:estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2010 est.)
Ethnic groups
mainland - African 99% (of which 95% are Bantu consisting of more than 130 tribes), other 1% (consisting of Asian, European, and Arab); Zanzibar - Arab, African, mixed Arab and African
mainland - Christian 30%, Muslim 35%, indigenous beliefs 35%; Zanzibar - more than 99% Muslim
Kiswahili or Swahili (official), Kiunguja (name for Swahili in Zanzibar), English (official, primary language of commerce, administration, and higher education), Arabic (widely spoken in Zanzibar), many local languages
note: Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of the Bantu people living in Zanzibar and nearby coastal Tanzania; although Kiswahili is Bantu in structure and origin, its vocabulary draws on a variety of sources including Arabic and English; it has become the lingua franca of central and eastern Africa; the first language of most people is one of the local languages
[+] Government
Country Name
Conventional long form:United Republic of Tanzania
Conventional short form:Tanzania
Local long form:Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania
Local short form: Tanzania
Former:United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar
Government Type
Name:Dar es Salaam
Geographic coordinates: 6 48 S, 39 17 E
Time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
note: legislative offices have been transferred to Dodoma, which is planned as the new national capital; the National Assembly now meets there on a regular basis
Administrative divisions
26 regions; Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Iringa, Kagera, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Lindi, Manyara, Mara, Mbeya, Morogoro, Mtwara, Mwanza, Pemba North, Pemba South, Pwani, Rukwa, Ruvuma, Shinyanga, Singida, Tabora, Tanga, Zanzibar Central/South, Zanzibar North, Zanzibar Urban/West
26 April 1964; Tanganyika became independent 9 December 1961 (from UK-administered UN trusteeship); Zanzibar became independent 19 December 1963 (from UK); Tanganyika united with Zanzibar 26 April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; renamed United Republic of Tanzania 29 October 1964
National Holiday
Union Day (Tanganyika and Zanzibar), 26 April (1964)
25 April 1977; major revisions October 1984
Legal system
based on English common law; judicial review of legislative acts limited to matters of interpretation; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
18 years of age; universal
Executive branch
Chief of state: President Jakaya KIKWETE (since 21 December 2005); Vice President Dr. Ali Mohammed SHEIN (since 5 July 2001); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government
Head of government:President Jakaya KIKWETE (since 21 December 2005); Vice President Dr. Ali Mohammed SHEIN (since 5 July 2001)
note: Zanzibar elects a president who is head of government for matters internal to Zanzibar; Amani Abeid KARUME reelected to that office on 30 October 2005
Cabinet:Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members of the National Assembly
(For more information visit the World Leaders website)
Elections:president and vice president elected on the same ballot by popular vote for five-year terms (eligible for a second term); election last held on 14 December 2005 (next to be held in October 2010); prime minister appointed by the president
Election results:Jakaya KIKWETE elected president; percent of vote - Jakaya KIKWETE 80.3%, Ibrahim LIPUMBA 11.7%, Freeman MBOWE 5.9%
Legislative branch
unicameral National Assembly or Bunge (274 seats; 232 members elected by popular vote, 37 allocated to women nominated by the president, 5 to members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives; members serve five-year terms); note - in addition to enacting laws that apply to the entire United Republic of Tanzania, the Assembly enacts laws that apply only to the mainland; Zanzibar has its own House of Representatives to make laws especially for Zanzibar (the Zanzibar House of Representatives has 50 seats; members elected by universal suffrage to serve five-year terms)
Elections:last held on 14 December 2005 (next to be held in October 2010)
Election results:National Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - CCM 206, CUF 19, CHADEMA 5, other 2, women appointed by the president 37, Zanzibar representatives 5 Zanzibar House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - CCM 30, CUF 19; 1 seat was nullified with a rerun to take place soon
Judicial branch
Permanent Commission of Enquiry (official ombudsman); Court of Appeal (consists of a chief justice and four judges); High Court (consists of a Jaji Kiongozi and 29 judges appointed by the president; holds regular sessions in all regions); District Courts; Primary Courts (limited jurisdiction and appeals can be made to the higher courts)
Political Parties and Leaders
Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Party of Democracy and Development) or CHADEMA [Bob MAKANI]; Chama Cha Mapinduzi or CCM (Revolutionary Party) [Jakaya Mrisho KIKWETE]; Civic United Front or CUF [Ibrahim LIPUMBA]; Democratic Party [Christopher MTIKLA] (unregistered); Tanzania Labor Party or TLP [Augustine Lyatonga MREME]; United Democratic Party or UDP [John CHEYO]
Political pressure groups and leaders
Economic and Social Research Foundation or ESRF; Free Zanzibar; Tanzania Media Women's Association or TAMWA
International organization participation
ACP, AfDB, AU, C, EAC, EADB, FAO, G-6, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, NAM, OPCW, SADC, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Diplomatic representation in the US
Chief of mission: Ambassador Ombeni Yohana SEFUE
Chancery:2139 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
Telephone:[1] (202) 939-6125
Diplomatic representation from the US
Chief of mission:Ambassador Alfonso LENHARDT
Embassy:686 Old Bagamoyo Road, Msasani, Dar es Salaam
Mailing address: P. O. Box 9123, Dar es Salaam
Telephone: [255] (22) 266-8001
Flag description
divided diagonally by a yellow-edged black band from the lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the lower triangle is blue; the banner combines colors found on the flags of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; green represents the natural vegetation of the country, gold its rich mineral deposits, black the native Swahili people, and blue the country's many lakes and rivers, as well as the Indian Ocean
Tanzania - Wikipedia
Tanzania - CIA World Fact Book
Tanzania - BBC
Tanzania - Timeline - BBC
Tanzania High Commission Office (TANZANREP-UK), London
Newspapers - AllAfrica Tanzania East African Business Week IPPMedia Arusha Times
East Africa News IRIN Tanzania ReliefWeb Tanzania Majira Mwananchi
Tourism - Ministry Of Tourism


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NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for rehearing under Rule 22 as well as formal revision before publication in the New Hampshire Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter, Supreme Court of New Hampshire, Supreme Court Building, Concord, New Hampshire 03301, of any editorial errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion goes to press. Opinions are available on the Internet by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of their release. The direct address of the court's home page is: http://www.state.nh.us/courts/supreme.htm
No. 2002-0210
REPRESENTATIVE PETER BURLING & a.
GENE CHANDLER, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE & a
Argued: June 11, 2002
Opinion Issued: July 26, 2002
Hatem & Donovan, P.C., of Salem (Michael D. Hatem and Bonnie J. Boulanger on the memorandum, and Mr. Hatem orally), for the petitioners.
Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, LLP, of Concord (Michael J. Connolly and Christopher H.M. Carter on the memorandum, and Mr. Carter orally) for the Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
Betsy B. Miller, house legal counsel, by memorandum and orally, for the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
John M. Pratt & a., by memorandum, and Mr. Pratt orally, pro se, as amici curiae.
Barry J. Glennon, staff attorney, of Concord, filed no memorandum, for the Secretary of State.
Per Curiam. Daniel Webster once said, "[T]he right to choose a representative is every mans portion of sovereign power." Luther v. Borden, 48 U.S. (7 How.) 1, 30 (1849) (statement of counsel).
For the first time in the history of this State, the supreme court is required to scrutinize the process of apportioning the peoples right to vote in the election of representatives. That scrutiny has revealed significant anomalies, perpetuated for many years in the legislative redistricting process, which have undermined the principles of equality upon which the New Hampshire House of Representatives was founded. See N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 9. Rather than protecting the peoples constitutional right to "one person/one vote," a system has evolved that falls far short of that ideal. We hold, therefore, that the current method of creating districts fails to insure that "every voter is equal to every other voter" in this State. Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, 380 (1963).
This court has been drawn reluctantly into what is primarily a legislative task. "It is not our function to decide the peculiarly political questions involved in reapportionment, but it is our duty to insure the electorate equal protection of the laws." Silver v. Brown, 405 P.2d 132, 140 (Cal. 1965). Therefore, when the legislature has failed to act, it is the judiciarys duty to devise a constitutionally valid reapportionment plan. See Scott v. Germano, 381 U.S. 407, 409 (1965) (per curiam).
In furtherance of that duty, we establish a plan for new house districts. Accordingly, RSA 662:5 (1996) is no longer applicable. This plan corrects the constitutional deficiencies in the existing districts and eliminates the present inequities. We are primarily governed by the constitutional requirement of "one person/one vote." In addition, in this case, we are able to adhere to other New Hampshire constitutional requirements and traditional State redistricting policies. We are indifferent to political considerations, such as incumbency or party affiliation. The plan we establish restores as nearly equal weight as possible to the votes of the people of New Hampshire. We do this by eliminating floterials and creating as many single-member districts as possible, with as few multi-member districts as necessary.
I. Background and Procedural History
The New Hampshire Constitution requires the legislature to redraw each representative district "as equal as circumstances will admit" every ten years, based upon the decennial census. N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 9; see N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 11. In anticipation of the results of the 2000 census, the house began the reapportionment process in January 2001 with the introduction of House Bill (HB) 420.
According to the 2000 census, between 1990 and 2000, New Hampshires population grew more than 10%, increasing from 1,109,252 citizens in 1990 to 1,235,786 citizens in 2000. This growth was unevenly distributed between the northern and southern portions of the State, however, with the largest population growth occurring in the south. As a result, it is undisputed that following the 2000 census, the existing representative districts, established in 1992 pursuant to the 1990 census, violate both the State and Federal Constitutions. See N.H. CONST. pt. I, art. 11; N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 9; U.S. CONST. amend. XIV; RSA 662:5.
In the winter of 2002, after a series of public hearings on proposed reapportionment plans, HB 420, containing a new apportionment plan for the house was passed by both the house and the senate along party lines. The Governor vetoed the bill, however, on April 3, 2002. The house considered the Governors veto on May 22, 2002, but was unable to achieve the two-thirds vote necessary to override it. As a result, HB 420 did not become law. See N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 44.
In April 2002, the eleven petitioners, all incumbents, filed a petition for original jurisdiction requesting the court to declare the existing representative districts unconstitutional and to impose a deadline for the legislature to enact a valid reapportionment plan for the house. Given the imperative to establish a redistricting plan consistent with constitutional requisites before the 2002 elections, the court accepted jurisdiction. See Monier v. Gallen, 122 N.H. 474, 476 (1982).
Because the senate and house recessed on May 22, 2002, without enacting a house reapportionment plan, the court determined that it must establish a constitutional reapportionment plan for the house before a 2002 election could be held. See Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 585 (1964); Connor v. Finch, 431 U.S. 407, 415 (1977).
The court has endeavored to reapportion the house as fairly, as efficiently and as quickly as possible. It ordered the parties to submit constitutional reapportionment proposals by June 6, 2002. The court further required that any proposal submitted be based upon the 2000 census data and comply with the constitutional principle of one person/one vote. Oral argument was held on June 11, 2002. It was not until July 16, 2002, that the parties finally provided the court with all necessary information. This decision follows ten days later.
The court informed the parties of its intent to appoint Bobby Bowers, Director of the South Carolina Budget and Control Board Office of Research and Statistics, as its technical advisor in this case because it is an "extraordinary [one] where the introduction of outside skills and expertise, not possessed by the judge, will hasten the just adjudication of a dispute without dislodging the delicate balance of the juristic role." Reilly v. United States, 863 F.2d 149, 156 (1st Cir. 1988). Without objection, the court appointed him pursuant to its inherent authority. See id. See generally State v. Coon, 974 P.2d 386, 395-96 (Alaska 1999) (discussing authority of courts to appoint expert technical advisors). Bowers was appointed to serve the same role in this case as he was appointed to serve in Below v. Gardner, 148 N.H. ___ (decided June 24, 2002).
We have reviewed, in detail, each plan filed in accordance with court deadlines and have also considered the written and oral submissions of the parties.
II. Governing Principles
The New Hampshire Constitution is the supreme law of this State. See Merrill v. Sherburne, 1 N.H. 199, 217 (1818). The oath we took to honor that constitution makes it our duty to apply the State Constitution when it does not conflict with the United States Constitution. See State v. LaFrance, 124 N.H. 171, 177 (1983).
A. One Person/One Vote
1. History of Part II, Articles 9 and 11
We begin with a discussion of the one person/one vote standard under our own constitution. The New Hampshire Constitution guarantees that each citizens vote will have equal weight. N.H. CONST. pt. I, art. 11. With respect to the house of representatives, this right is assured by Part II, Articles 9 and 11 of the State Constitution.
Part II, Article 9, as amended in 1964, requires that the house of representatives be "founded on principles of equality" and that representation in the house of representatives "be as equal as circumstances will admit." N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 9. Part II, Article 11, as amended in 1964, states, in pertinent part:
When any town, ward, or unincorporated place, according to the last federal decennial census, has less than the number of inhabitants necessary to entitle it to one representative, the legislature shall form those towns, wards, or unincorporated places into representative districts which contain a sufficient number of inhabitants to entitle each district so formed to one or more representatives for the entire district. In forming the districts, the boundaries of towns, wards and unincorporated places shall be preserved and the towns, wards and unincorporated places forming one district shall be reasonably proximate to one another.
N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 11.
Both articles were last amended as a result of the Constitutional Convention in 1964. See Journal of Constitutional Convention 334, 358 (1964). Before 1964, Part II, Article 9 required the legislature to reapportion the house of representatives every ten years, following the taking of the national census. See Levitt v. Stark, 233 F. Supp. 566, 567 (D.N.H. 1964). It further provided:
The number of inhabitants necessary to entitle any town or ward to representatives additional to the first shall be for each additional representative twice the number of inhabitants required for the first representative, so that the mean increasing number for every additional representative shall be twice the number required for the first or one representative.
Id. (quotation omitted).
Before 1964, Part II, Article 11 required the legislature to provide representation for towns or wards having fewer than the number of inhabitants to entitle them to a representative "in at least one session in every ten years." Id. at 567-68 (quotation omitted). These towns or wards elected a representative "such proportionate part of the time as the number of its inhabitants shall bear to the requisite number established for one representative." Id. at 568 (quotation omitted).
In 1961, the legislature set the number of inhabitants entitling a town to one representative at 822. Id.; see Laws 1961, ch. 275. It also established the election years in the decade to follow in which towns having fewer than 822 people were to elect a representative. Levitt, 233 F. Supp. at 568; see Laws 1961, ch. 275. Under the 1961 law, the smallest of these towns elected a representative to only one out of the five legislatures to be called in the decade, and the largest of these towns elected a representative to four out of the five legislatures to be called in the decade. Levitt, 233 F. Supp. at 568. Inhabitants of unincorporated places had no representation. Id. Thus, before 1964, representation in the house was essentially based upon a principle of one town/one vote, not one person/one vote.
At the 1964 Constitutional Convention, resolutions were introduced to amend both Part II, Article 9 and Part II, Article 11 to comply with recent United States Supreme Court decisions. The Governor supported amending Part II, Article 9 because he was "convinced that our present requirement that a town or ward have twice as much population for each additional representative as it needs for the first, would be declared unconstitutional." Journal of Constitutional Convention, supra at 48. He urged delegates to amend Part II, Article 11 so as to "provide a system of full-time representation in the House of every citizen in New Hampshire" and, thus, "forestall action by the courts." Id. The Governor warned that if the convention failed to amend these articles, "precedents in other states show that the courts will take action in your place." Id.
Approximately one week after the convention began, the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire issued its opinion in Levitt. In Levitt, the federal court stated that it "entertain[ed] serious doubt of the federal constitutional validity of the New Hampshire method for selecting the members of the legislature." Levitt, 233 F. Supp. at 569. The court noted, however, that the United States Supreme Court had not yet held that both houses of a bicameral state legislature had to be apportioned on the basis of population, and intimated that if only one of the houses of the New Hampshire Legislature were apportioned on the basis of population, the other house might survive federal court scrutiny. Id.
Before adjourning on June 10, 1964, the convention successfully passed a resolution to amend Part II, Article 11. The resolution to amend Part II, Article 11 "was intended to grant to the General Court the power to create districts where there are towns, wards and unincorporated places which are too small to be entitled to one full-time representative." Journal of Constitutional Convention, supra at 231. As one delegate noted, "At the present time, such towns, wards and places send representatives on a part-time basis only" and the delegates "have been warned in [Levitt] that this provision for part-time representation is probably unconstitutional." Id.
The amendment was also intended to give the legislature "a large measure of flexibility in forming districts." Id. Thus, the legislature was not confined to drawing single-member districts, but was authorized to form districts that were represented by "one or more representatives." Id.; see Opinion of the Justices, 111 N.H. 146, 150-51 (1971). Nor was the legislature required to form these multi-member districts only from the towns, wards and places that formerly had only part-time representation. The reference to "those towns, wards or unincorporated places" was not intended to limit the legislatures discretion as to how to form multi-member districts. Journal of Constitutional Convention, supra at 231. As one delegate observed, "[W]e cannot here draw up a districting. That is a matter which will have to be taken up with the Legislature." Id. at 220.
The requirement that the towns, wards and places within a district be "reasonably proximate" to one another was also intended to give the legislature flexibility in drawing house districts. The convention delegates "felt that the Legislature should join towns and places which are close together wherever possible, but that there might be some instances where it would be just that two or more towns in the same county be put into a district though not adjacent or very close to each other." Id. at 231. The amendment the delegates passed, however, did not require the legislature to maintain county boundaries. Id.
The convention was unable to pass a resolution to amend Part II, Article 9 before adjourning on June 10, 1964. See id. at 399-402 (history of resolution nos. 4, 19 and 29); Levitt v. Maynard, 105 N.H. 447, 450-51 (1964). The convention reconvened on July 8, 1964, however, following the United States Supreme Court decision in Reynolds. In Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 576, the Court held, for the first time, that the Equal Protection Clause of the Federal Constitution requires both houses of a bicameral state legislature to be apportioned on the basis of population. See Levitt, 105 N.H. at 450-51. When it reconvened, the convention resolved to amend Part II, Article 9 to state that the house of representatives was "founded on principles of equality" and to require that representation in the house be "as equal as circumstances will admit." Journal of Constitutional Convention, supra at 351-53, 355, 358; N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 9.
In light of the history of the 1964 amendments to Part II, Articles 9 and 11, we hold that these provisions are at least as protective of a citizens right to vote as the federal constitutional standard of one person/one vote. Accordingly, we need not undertake a separate federal analysis and we base this decision upon our State Constitution. See State v. Ball, 124 N.H. 226, 233 (1983). We rely upon federal cases interpreting the Federal Constitution only to aid in our analysis. See id.
2. Substantive Requirement of One Person/One Vote
"[T]he overriding objective [of apportionment] must be substantial equality of population among the various [legislative] districts, so that the vote of any citizen is approximately equal in weight to that of any other citizen in the State." Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 579. Although "absolute population equality" need not be achieved, Karcher v. Daggett, 462 U.S. 725, 732-33 (1983), a court devising a remedial apportionment plan for a state legislature "must ordinarily achieve the goal of population equality with little more than de minimis variation." Chapman v. Meier, 420 U.S. 1, 26-27 (1975). "[A]ny deviation from approximate population equality must be supported by enunciation of historically significant state policy or unique features." Id. at 26. In devising a court-ordered remedial apportionment plan, we must also act "circumspectly, and in a manner free from any taint of arbitrariness or discrimination." Connor, 431 U.S. at 415 (quotation omitted).
a. Single- and Multi-Member Districts
To achieve "substantial equality" in an apportionment plan, States generally use two types of districts: single-member districts consisting of one representative elected by the districts voters, and multi-member districts from which more than one representative are elected. See Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73, 88 (1966); see also G. Moncrief & R. Joula, When the Courts Dont Compute: Mathematics and Floterial Districts in Legislative Reapportionment Cases, 4 J.L. & Pol. 737, 741 (1988).
Single-member districts are preferred. See Connor, 431 U.S. at 415; Chapman, 420 U.S. at 19. Use of multi-member districts is constitutionally permissible, however, unless the districts are designed to or would "minimize or cancel out the voting strength of racial or political elements of the voting population," Fortson v. Dorsey, 379 U.S. 433, 439 (1965); see Opinion of the Justices, 111 N.H. at 150-51, or their use "produces deviations from substantial equality beyond the range of constitutional tolerance," Opinion of the Justices, 307 A.2d 198, 209 (Me. 1973) (quotation omitted).
b. Floterials
A third method of representation used in a very few States, including New Hampshire within the last few decades, is a "floterial." See G. Moncrief & R. Joula, supra at 742. A floterial has been described as a district that "floats above" several distinct districts. See id. at 738 (quotation omitted). Floterials, as constructed in New Hampshire, have led to unusual results and voting right inequities.
For example, in Carroll County, the 1992 house reapportionment plan included three floterials: Districts 3, 8 and 10. A map of the 1992 plan for Carroll County is attached to this opinion as Appendix A. Each floterial consisted of some locations that were part of the floterial only and other locations that were part of either a single-member or multi-member district, in addition to the floterial.
Carroll County District 10 was a floterial with two representatives covering four towns, Moultonborough, Sandwich, Tamworth and Tuftonboro, with a total population of 8,029, according to the 1990 census. Moultonborough was also a single-member district with one representative for the towns total population of 2,956. Thus, voters in Moultonborough voted for three representatives and voters in the other three towns voted for two representatives.
Also in the 1992 plan, Carroll County District 8 consisted of one floterial representative for Wakefield, Wolfeboro and Brookfield. In addition, Wakefield was a single-member district with one representative for the towns population of 3,057 and Wolfeboro was a single-member district with one representative for the towns population of 4,807. Because of the floterial, voters in both Wakefield and Wolfeboro voted for two representatives, despite the difference in the population of these towns.
Finally, Carroll County District 3, a floterial, consisted of six communities: Bartlett (population 2,290), Chatham (population 268), Conway (population 7,940), Hales Location (population 0), Harts Location (population 36), and Jackson (population 678). Using 1990 census figures, the combined population of the six communities in District 3 was 11,212. The floterial representative covered all six communities in District 3. Additionally, four of the six communities in District 3 (Bartlett, Chatham, Harts Location and Jackson with a combined total population of 3,272) were also in District 1, a single-member district; the other two communities in District 3 (Conway and Hales Location with a combined total population of 7,940) were in District 2, a multi-member district with two representatives. The result of this configuration was that voters in Harts Location, population 36, voted for the same number of representatives as the voters in Bartlett, population 2,290.
We select Carroll County as an example because it best illustrates that floterials are usually complicated and often confusing. By contrast, the court plan for Carroll County, attached as Appendix B, simply has one single-member district and four multi-member districts, each with four or fewer representatives. Moreover, as explained more fully in Sections III and IV below, when the towns within a floterial have vastly different populations, the use of the floterial can cause substantial deviations from the one person/one vote principle. See G. Moncrief & R. Joula, supra at 745. While the New Hampshire Constitution specifically contemplates the use of multi-member districts, see N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 11, it is silent as to floterials.
B. Other State Constitutional Principles
In addition to requiring that representative districts be drawn "as equal as circumstances will admit," the New Hampshire Constitution directs that any apportionment be based upon "the last general census of the inhabitants of the state taken by authority of the United States or of this state." McGovern v. Secretary of State, 138 N.H. 128, 131 (1993) (quotation omitted); N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 9. The State Constitution also mandates that: (1) the house of representatives be comprised of no fewer than 375 and no more than 400 members; (2) no town, ward or place be divided unless it requests to be divided by referendum; and (3) the boundaries of towns, wards and places be preserved. N.H. CONST. pt. II, arts. 9, 11, 11-a. As previously discussed, the New Hampshire Constitution also requires that the towns, wards and places in a district be "reasonably proximate to one another." N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 11.
C. Traditional Reapportionment Principles
We also consider the States traditional redistricting policy of maintaining county boundaries. See Boyer v. Gardner, 540 F. Supp. 624, 629-30 (D.N.H. 1982). Preserving county boundaries has been important historically because "the state representatives of the districts of each county comprise the County Convention, which has the power to raise county taxes, make appropriations, and authorize the purchase or sale of county real estate." Id. at 630 n.10; RSA 24:1 (2000), :13 (2000), :13-a (2000).
A second consideration is that representative districts have traditionally been comprised of contiguous territories. "A State may legitimately desire to maintain the integrity of various political subdivisions, insofar as possible, and provide for compact districts of contiguous territory in designing a legislative apportionment scheme." Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 578.
III. Determining Whether a Plan Complies with One Person/One Vote
The established method to determine whether a reapportionment plan affords citizens an equal right to vote is to calculate the extent to which the plan deviates from the ideal district population. See New York City Bd. of Estimate v. Morris, 489 U.S. 688, 700, 700-01 n.7 (1989). The first step is to determine the ideal population. To calculate the ideal population of a single-member district, the state population is divided by the total number of state representatives. In New Hampshire, assuming that the house contains 400 members, the ideal population for a single-member district is 3,089 (1,235,786 people divided by 400 representatives). The ideal population for a multi-member district is expressed as a multiple of the ideal population for a single-member district. In New Hampshire, the ideal population for a district with three representatives is 3,089 multiplied by 3, or 9,267.
Once the ideal population is calculated, it is then possible to determine the extent to which a given district population deviates from the ideal. Relative deviation is the most commonly used measure and is derived by dividing the difference between the districts population and the ideal population by the ideal population.
For example, the relative deviation for a single-member district in New Hampshire with a population of 4,000 is calculated by subtracting 3,089 from 4,000 and dividing the difference (+911) by 3,089. The relative deviation is 29%. For a multi-member district, the relative deviation is calculated using the "aggregate method," which aggregates the total number of representatives and the total population in the district to calculate deviation. Thus, for a district with a population of 8,000 and three representatives, the difference between 8,000 and 3 x 3,089 (9,267) is divided by 9,267, and the relative deviation is 14%.
Using the relative deviation, one can calculate the range of deviation by adding the largest positive deviation and the largest negative deviation without regard to algebraic sign. See Abrams v. Johnson, 521 U.S. 74, 98 (1997). Thus, in the example above, 29% and 14% yields a range of deviation of 43%.
IV. Plans Submitted by the Parties
We have carefully reviewed each plan against the neutral principles set forth above. All of the plans submitted for our consideration suffer from the same flaws. None is appropriate for wholesale adoption by the court. Moreover, none is appropriate for use as the courts starting point.
First, all of the plans contain erroneous population figures. All of the submitted plans were based upon ward boundaries drawn after the 2000 federal census was conducted. None of the plans identified which boundaries had changed, their location, or the data from which the changes were derived.
Despite repeated requests, the parties did not forward this information to the court until July 1, 2002. After the court received the information, it discovered that there were discrepancies between the ward populations as reported by various cities and as reported in federal census data. This fact alone would require us to reject the parties plans. However, the court notified the parties of the discrepancies, and on July 16, 2002, the parties filed a joint stipulation to the accuracy of most of the federal census data. The only portion of the data the parties disputed concerned the federal census data for Manchester wards 5, 6 and 7 as reconfigured after the 2000 census. After reviewing the boundaries used by the city of Manchester for wards 5, 6 and 7, the court learned that the city did not use census block features as ward lines in two areas in these wards. Accordingly, the court used the census block features that were closest to the ward lines set by the city.
Although the parties stipulated to the federal census figures for all other cities with changed wards, the cities of Dover and Claremont filed separate partial objections to the figures for their cities. The court was able to verify the information submitted by Dover, but was not able to verify the information submitted by Claremont. Thus, the court used the information submitted by Dover in constructing its plan, but did not use the information submitted by Claremont.
More importantly, all of the plans miscalculate the extent to which they deviate from the one person/one vote principle. All of the plans rely upon floterials and use the aggregate method to calculate the deviation of the floterials. The aggregate method is appropriate for multi-member districts, but is not appropriate for the floterials in the parties plans because it masks substantial deviation from the one person/one vote principle.
For example, in the plan submitted by the house, the towns of Epping (population 5,476) and Fremont (population 3,510) are combined in a floterial with one representative. Each town also constitutes a single-member district and thus each town has its own representative. The plan calculates the deviation as if all three representatives represents both towns together (-3.03%). In fact, each town is represented by one representative as well as a floterial representative. Thus, treating this floterial as if it were simply a three-member district is misleading.
Similarly, in the plans submitted by the speaker of the house, Brentwood, Epping and Fremont are single-member districts and all three are also part of a floterial. The plans calculate the deviation as if the representative for Epping, the representative for Fremont, the representative for Brentwood, and the floterial representative represent all four towns. They do not. In fact, each town is represented by its own representative and also the floterial representative. Again, treating this floterial as if it were simply a four-member district distorts the actual deviation.
The parties rely upon Boyer, 540 F. Supp. 624, as support for their use of the aggregate method. In Boyer, the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire reviewed the constitutionality of the seventeen floterials included in the 1982 New Hampshire legislative apportionment plan under the Federal Constitution. Id. at 625-26. In assessing the validity of the floterials, the court ruled that it was proper to apply the aggregate method of calculating the range of deviation. Id. at 627-28. Boyer, however, is not binding on this court when we are construing our own constitution. Moreover, we believe that, particularly as used by the parties in this case, the aggregate method obscures substantial deviations from the one person/one vote principle. See G. Moncrief & R. Joula, supra at 745.
No party has argued that, to the extent a plan relies upon floterials, the deviations for the floterials should be calculated using the component method. See Appendix C. Nor has any party relied upon Morris, 489 U.S. at 700-02, 702 n.9, in which the court apparently relied upon a version of the component method to calculate total deviation in districts that had both single-member and at-large representatives. Here, unlike Morris, we have a record devoid of application of the component method to floterials.
Nonetheless, our own calculations indicate that even using the component method, the range of deviation produced by the floterials in the plans submitted is unacceptably high. For example, in the speakers plans, the deviation created by the Rockingham District 25 floterial (Brentwood, Epping and Fremont) is -18.1% for Brentwood and +22.3% for Epping, yielding an overall deviation of 40.4%. In the house plan, the deviation created by the Rockingham District 24 floterial (Fremont and Epping) is -18.3% for Fremont and +10.1% for Epping, yielding a total deviation of 28.4%. In the petitioners plan, the deviation created by the Rockingham District 9 floterial (Epping, Newfields, Newmarket and Nottingham) for Epping alone is 37.2%. Even without analysis of all of the floterials in each plan, these few examples demonstrate impermissible deviations, which are also far in excess of the deviation in the plan the court establishes today.
Another method for calculating the deviation for a floterial is the same as the method for calculating the deviation for a single-member district; this method results in exceptionally high deviations. Under this method, the ideal population (3,089) is subtracted from the floterial population and the result is divided by the ideal population. For example, a floterial that has a population of 10,000 -- and there are many this size or larger in the plans submitted --would have a deviation of 223%.
Because each plan miscalculates the deviation for floterials, the plans necessarily miscalculate their range of deviation. The properly calculated ranges of deviation for all of the submitted plans significantly exceed "the range of constitutional tolerance." Opinion of the Justices, 307 A.2d at 209. All of the submitted plans thus deviate substantially and impermissibly from the one person/one vote principle.
Further, all of the submitted plans openly embrace political agendas. For instance, in the plan submitted by the speaker, he asserts, over the minority leaders objection, that one of the districts was created "despite a high deviation and a subsequently necessary floterial, at the request of the Minority Leader." Similarly, in the supporting memorandum submitted by the house, the house notes that certain districts have been apportioned to preserve incumbent seats, the apportionment of one district in Merrimack County "was part of a bi-partisan agreement," and the apportionment of a district in Sullivan County was also "a political agreement." At oral argument, the parties accused each other of crafting apportionment plans to achieve partisan advantage. While political considerations are tolerated in legislatively-implemented redistricting plans, they have no place in a court-ordered plan. See Wilson v. Eu, 823 P.2d 545, 576-77 (Cal. 1992); see also Wyche v. Madison Parish Police Jury, 769 F.2d 265, 268 (5th Cir. 1985) (per curiam).
The degree to which the submitted plans may reflect political considerations is perhaps best illustrated by how each plan treats the same cities and towns differently. For example, in the speakers plans, the city of Berlin (population 10,331) constitutes a multi-member district with three representatives and is also part of a two-representative floterial that includes twenty-two other towns (from Beans Grant to Whitefield).
By contrast, in the house plan, Berlin has no dedicated representatives. Rather, it is part of two multi-member districts, each with two representatives. The first multi-member district has thirteen other towns and the second has nineteen other towns. The towns in the first multi-member district are also part of the second multi-member district.
In the petitioners plan, Berlin, Jefferson, Milan and Randolph are in one multi-member district that has four representatives. And, in the amici plan, Berlin, along with eight other towns, is part of a multi-member district that has four representatives.
Based upon our review of the submitted plans, we conclude that none can be adopted by the court. Each plan relies upon incorrect population data. Each plan miscalculates the overall range of population deviation. Each plan has "calculated partisan political consequences (the details of which are unknown). . . . We have no principled way to choose [among] the plans, especially knowing that we would be endorsing an unknown but intended political consequence by the choice we make." Wilson, 823 P.2d at 576-77.
Accordingly, the court has devised a reapportionment plan consistent with neutral State and federal constitutional principles.
V. Courts Plan
The courts plan, which is attached as Appendix D, retains the same number of representatives (400) as in the 1992 house plan. The courts plan creates eighty-eight representative districts, none of which is a floterial. Five are single-member districts, fourteen are two-member districts, twenty-four are three-member districts, fourteen are four-member districts and thirty-one are districts with more than four representatives. Thus, 65% of the districts have four or fewer representatives.
All of the districts are comprised of contiguous territories. No town, ward or place was divided unless it had requested division by referendum. See N.H. CONST. pt. II, arts. 11, 11-a. Nor were county boundaries crossed in creating the districts.
The courts plan has a range of deviation of 9.26%, which is dramatically lower than the range of deviation in any of the submitted plans. The plans deviation range was derived by adding the deviations of the highest relative positive deviation (Nashua ward 2 at +4.72%) and the highest negative relative deviation (Manchester ward 9 at -4.54%). These deviations were calculated by using the traditional method to calculate the deviations of single-member and multi-member districts. See Morris, 489 U.S. at 700, 700-01 n.7. Given the small population of this State, the unusually large size of its house of representatives, and our State Constitution and traditional redistricting policies, we hold that a deviation range of approximately 9% achieves "substantial equality." Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 579.
New Hampshire has the largest state house of representatives in the country. See Council of State Governments, 33 The Book of the States at 70 (2000). New Hampshire also has one of the smallest state populations in the country. According to the 2000 federal census, New Hampshire ranks 41st in population. See U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2001 at 21 (121st ed. 2001). Because New Hampshire has such a large house of representatives (400 members) and such a small population (1,235,786), it takes very few people to affect deviation substantially. For instance, a 10% deviation represents only 309 people, and a 1% deviation represents a mere 31 people.
By contrast, Pennsylvania, with the next largest house of representatives (203) has a much larger population (12,281,054, according to the 2000 census). See Council of State Governments, supra at 70; U.S. Census Bureau, State and County QuickFacts Pennsylvania, available at http://quickfacts.census.gov./qfd/states/42000.html. The ideal district population in Pennsylvania is 60,498 -- about twenty times the size of the ideal district population in New Hampshire. A 10% deviation from the ideal district population in Pennsylvania represents 6,050 individuals -- about twenty times the number of individuals represented by a 10% deviation from the ideal district population in New Hampshire (309 people).
Even Maine, with a population that is similar in size to New Hampshires (1,274,923, according to the 2000 census), has a larger ideal district population than does New Hampshire. U.S. Census Bureau, State and County QuickFacts Maine, available at http://quickfacts.census.gov./qfd/states/23000.html. The ideal district population in Maine is 8,443. This is because the size of the Maine House of Representatives is only 151 representatives, compared to New Hampshires 400 representatives. See Council of State Governments, supra at 70. A 10% deviation in Maine represents more than 800 people -- almost three times the number of individuals represented by the same deviation from the ideal district in New Hampshire (309 persons).
The court did not use the 1992 house districting plan as its starting point because it was of dubious constitutionality at the time it was passed. The range of deviation for the 1992 plan, using the 1990 census figures, was at least 49.7%. Deviations in this range are too high to be justified by any state interest. See Gaffney v. Cummings, 412 U.S. 735, 744 (1973); Morris, 489 U.S. at 702.
Moreover, the 1992 plan relied heavily upon floterials. Although it ostensibly contained seventy-two single-member districts, only nine of these districts were true single-member districts. The rest were created by floterials. For the reasons stated above, we reject floterials as an unsound redistricting device. The range of deviation calculated above did not include the floterials. Had they been included in the calculation using the component method, the range of deviation would likely have been higher.
The court attempted to create as many true single-member districts as possible, but the mathematical reality is that only a handful of towns have a population that is close to the ideal district population of 3,089.
Although the courts plan achieves a range of deviation that complies with the one person/one vote principle, the court considered taking steps to reduce the deviation range even further. The court discovered, however, that reducing the range of deviation further required dividing wards into single-member districts. Dividing wards would violate Part II, Article 11-a of the New Hampshire Constitution. Indeed, if the court divided one ward, it would have no principled basis for keeping the boundaries of any other ward intact. In other words, if the court were to ignore the boundaries of one town, ward or place to create a single-member district, it would have no valid reason not to create single-member districts statewide.
Although creating 400 single-member districts statewide would have resulted in little or no deviation, such a radical restructuring of the house was not only not required by the one person/one vote principle, but would have contravened other State constitutional imperatives.
The court endeavored to create multi-member districts that had as few representatives as possible because of its concern that large multi-member districts may tend to dilute the voting strength of racial or political elements of the voting population. See Opinion of the Justices, 111 N.H. at 151. Although we are not called upon, today, to determine the effect of RSA 656:5 (Supp. 2001), requiring majority party candidates for the house to be listed first on all ballots, the number and size of multi-member districts in this plan may justify the concern about the statute raised at oral argument by the amici.
Large multi-member districts exist in the courts plan for three reasons: (1) the city or town did not request division, see N.H. CONST. pt. II, art. 11-a; (2) a city divided into wards had not properly drawn its ward boundaries; or (3) joining contiguous towns and/or joining contiguous wards was required to produce deviations within the 5% range.
For instance, the court discovered that in the city of Rochester, city officials used features unrecognized by the United States Census Bureau as ward boundaries and used its own enumeration, instead of federal census data, to determine ward populations. "An actual census taken by an individual city . . . [is] not . . . a general census taken by the authority of the United States or of this State," as required by Part II, Article 9 of the New Hampshire Constitution, and may "not be used as a basis for apportionment." Opinion of the Justices, 111 N.H. at 150 (quotation omitted). Accordingly, the court was required to consider the city of Rochester as a whole and did not use the citys ward boundaries. It is now the largest multi-member district.
Similarly, the court was forced to consider the city of Claremont as a whole, rather than to use its ward boundaries, because the court was not able to verify the populations totals provided by the city for its adjusted wards.
One of the largest multi-member districts, Salem/Windham, has 13 representatives, the same number which the two communities had between them under the 1992 plan.
In Manchester, wards 2, 3, 10 and 11 are combined into an eleven representative multi-member district because it was the only combination of wards that considered in light of all other towns, wards and places, would produce a deviation of less than 5%.
In devising the reapportionment plan, the court did not consider the impact upon either political parties or incumbency.
VI. Conclusion
The court recognizes that its redistricting plan changes house districts significantly. These changes were unavoidable because past house districting plans have not given the fundamental democratic principle of one person/one vote the attention and weight to which it is entitled. The courts plan reinstates the primacy of this principle and ensures that "the vote of any citizen is approximately equal in weight to that of any other citizen in the State." Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 579.
This plan is effective immediately and the injunction against the house filing period is dissolved as of 12:01 a.m. July 31, 2002. Unless otherwise ordered by the court, the filing of any motion to reconsider shall not stay the effective date of the plan.
So ordered.
BROCK, C.J., and NADEAU, DALIANIS and DUGGAN, JJ., concurred.
|Carroll County N.H. House Districts 1992
|Appendix A
|Carroll County House Districts Court Plan 2002
|Appendix B
|Component Method
|Appendix C
|N.H. House Districts Court Plan 2002
|Appendix D
|Manchester Area Map Court Plan 2002
|Appendix E
|Nashua Area Map Court Plan 2002
|Appendix F
|Concord Area Map Court Plan 2002
|Appendix G
|Dover Area Map Court Plan 2002
|Appendix H
|Population Summary Report Court Plan 2002
|Appendix I
|Full Geography Report Court Plan 2002
|Appendix J


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== Goals in Screenshots ==
== Goals in Screenshots ==
Revision as of 14:57, 23 March 2007
Goals in Screenshots
Some screenshots of trees in other games, this is eventually what we hope to end up:
More screenshots: UnitreeGoals
Tree modelling requirements
Every tree should consist of a single mesh with 2 materials. 1 Material for the trunk, 1 Material for the leaves.
Triangle count should be kept below 2000 triangles for an average tree. Exceptions can be made if it is really really necessary but please keep all trees below 3000 triangles.
Trees don't need to come with multiple lod meshes, instead focus your time on making the trees look best with 2000 triangles.
Please make sure the pivot point of the tree mesh is exactly at the root of the tree, that is at the point where the tree should meet the surface it is placed on. Also make the branch slightly longer so it extends a little bit into the terrain. This will help with reducing lod artifacts from the terrain being simplified when far away. (Otherwise trees might start floating slightly in the air).
Please provide trees in the fbx format. It is easiest to import into Unity and other modelling applications
Unity tree rendering algorithm
The goal for the tree renderer is to use high quality custom lighting for the trees and do automatic billboarding, but no additional mesh based lod.
We will use a spherical harmonics based shader. Lighting will be handled specially to simulate the self shadowing effect of trees. The shader will be made available to Unitree members as soon as it is working solidly. The tree leaves will have some simple waving animations using vertex shaders.
The goal is to render around 10 trees around the player using the original tree mesh. Total triangle count for it will be 10 * 2000tris = 20.000 triangles for nearby trees.
All other trees will be rendered using billboards. The billboard texture will be automatically generated from the original tree mesh by drawing into Render Textures with the exact same lighting used for rendering the original tree. This way there is no difference between drawing the billboard and the original tree, if rendered into the same resolution render texture. The resolution of the render texture will probably be different, so you will see a pop but it will be very small.
By using billboards for far way trees we can easily render 10.000 trees with no big performance hit. Rendering those 10.000 trees will be as expensive as rendering the 10 close up trees. Now thats scalability.
The reason for leaving out mesh based lod is that it is hard to make closely matching tree meshes with lower resolutions. At the distance where mesh based lod is not very visible, we might as well use billboards.
Low poly tree example
Download the low poly example tree here: Low_polytree_example.zip
The tree contains only 920 triangles.
Download the project folder containing the fbx file for the whole tree, to see how it was made:
The tree itself is maybe not be the very best but it shows how to get a lot of detail and coverage into a low poly tree.
One branch with leaves is done with only 6 triangles and shows quite a bit of curvature. You can add more triangles for even more curvature. But the main point is: When making trees, work with triangles not with quads. If you use quads you basically need twice as many triangles to get the same curvature on branches.
The tree itself wastes a lot of fillrate by having large polygons but almost everything is invisible due to the alpha. This should be avoided for performance reasons and of course because the goal is to make dense trees.
This is one of the things that makes oblivions trees look great. They are so dense you cant even see through the leaves.
Unitree Texture Library v1.1
You can download a zipped folder that contains reference photos, tileable bark textures and high res leaf textures with an alpha channel. These textures are Unity ready and can be used for your tree models.
Here are the trees currently included:
Silver Poplar
Green Ash
Blue Spruce
New in v1.1:
Mountain Ash
Chinese Elm
Black Walnut
If you want to contribute textures please email them to youngamaker at rushmore dot com
Unitree Shading
We now have basic shader implementation ready. These will be made to look better, but the overall shading level will remain the same - hence these are the ones to gauge by.
Work in progress
Add zipped trees or screenshots of trees you are working on here. The Trees


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Truth is not simply what works.
Pursue truth anyway. Walk along His road where the air is clear, where you can breathe again.
To face Truth head on, look into His eyes. This is not ideological talk, without substance or form. This is reality. Jesus Christ. The passion carried in my heart to know Him and to make Him known. He's real. When you seek Truth, He's always there to reveal Himself to you, up close and personal.
If you have been led down a path of religion, I no longer question why you're not interested in Jesus Christ. Religion bypasses intimacy and relationship in favor of anything else…anything but the simplicity found in Christ and His love for us.
He offers His path – security, identity, love, acceptance. I believe this is something every person's heart desires, whether they know it or not.
It's important to know what Truth is and what Truth is not. I'll write a series of blog posts about Truth, what He is and what He is not. Keep in mind that Jesus is the way, the Truth, and the life.
Point #1 Truth is not simply what works.
Jesus gives us a choice. We choose to follow His heart not ours. We must decide walking with Him is greater than the pull of the world and all it has to offer to us. The journey does not promise a smooth path. There are lots of uphill battles as well as places where you can't see far into the distance. Along the way, I discovered that He satisfied the deepest longings of my heart as I walked in sync with His heart.
When walking along this path, it's easy to assume that if one follows Truth, it would somehow work. And, by work, I mean a flow, an ease to the movement of your life. It doesn't always work that way.
I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I realized many years ago, He answered the deepest longing of my heart for significance. He showed me a way to walk right in the lowest time of my life – my marriage was failing, I was drinking too much, and the list of failures goes on and on.
He showed up with a promise. "I'll never leave you or forsake you." He called me to walk with Him. I'm walking with Truth, in Truth but this path isn't what I expected. I say, "I expected". It is though what He expected for me. This is a path in life, perfectly tuned to my journey.
Along the way, I questioned, "Is this the right way? Is He worth it?"
Many times, everything in me cried out to turn around, get off this path and opt out of everything.
His still small voice said, "Follow Me. I don't disappoint AND I know what is good for you."
Christianity is an adventure, a journey into relationship with Jesus Christ. Anything less than that? It's called religion.
Truth is not simply what works.
Truth is a journey in knowing Christ through all of life, wherever the journey leads.
In Christ,


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Mann and Overton sales force expands in Liverpool and the North West
Mann and Overton have underlined their commitment to drivers in Liverpool and the North West by signing up two new sales executives. The two salesmen will be based in and around Liverpool to ensure drivers get first class friendly service all the time. The expansion of the sales team to cover Liverpool specifically as well […]Read more


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We inform and help you perform each procedure step by step, we will tell all documentation to submit and everything related to the action that needs processing.
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Please consult with professionals Tot Gestió in Platja d'Aro for his residence permit or any action on foreigners.


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As part of my FREE evaluation to assist you, it is always helpful if you would fax or scan your ticket to email to me.
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Leveraging your Global Experiences
Having multi-cultural competencies make you a more attractive candidate in a competitive job market.
What are Employers Looking for?
US News listed five skills employers are looking for in a potential college graduates. These skills include collaboration, communication, problem-solving, time management, and leadership.
All of these skills are honed and developed during your study abroad experience! It is important to express the new skills and abilities you have acquired abroad when you are writing resume and interviewing with potential employers.
Global Experience in a Resume
When you are creating your resume, add a section that lists your international experiences. In a QS Intelligence Unit survey, fifty-four percent of U.S. employers responded that they looked for or valued international experience when recruiting. Listing your experiences shows employers that you are a globally competitive applicant, and highlights the skills and multi-cultural competencies you have developed.
For more information on resume preparation and interview technicques, visit Career Development & Community Engagement.


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Sky News to its reporters: 'check with us before you tweet breaking news'
According to a report by The Guardian, Sky News has instituted new rules for its reporters when it comes to Tweeting news from their personal accounts.
The report references an internal email sent to Sky News journalists about how to conduct themselves on the micro-messaging platform with a series of new guidelines.
The new guidelines include a ban on retweeting publications or people reporting on breaking news, especially journalists that are competitors. The new guidelines aren't just about news though, as the publication has also told its employees to "stick to your beat" and not to tweet about non-work things from their professional accounts.
Other interesting rules that Sky News journalists must follow are:
- Where a story has been Tweeted by a Sky News journalist who is assigned to the story it is fine, desirable in fact, that it is retweeted by other Sky News staff.
- Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process.
- Always pass breaking news lines to the news desk before posting them on social media networks.
While these might sound like some heavy-handed restrictions, a Sky News spokesperson had this to say about the new guidelines:
Sky News has the same editorial procedures across all their platforms including social media to ensure the news we report is accurate.
Every news organization has to now look at Twitter as a global publishing platform where any tweet can be shared to millions within seconds, thus making it even more important to report accurately at all times. Just a few weeks ago, CBS fired a blogger for reporting on the death of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, citing an erroneous report from another blog. That news spread on Twitter within moments, becoming a trending topic almost instantly.
Read next: Apple requires iPhone developers to submit Retina screenshots, may herald end of 3GS era


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Shane McCartney brings a little bit of Southern American cooking to James Street North every time he opens a new restaurant. But before he expanded up and down the street, McCartney's started with 282 James Street North. To this date, Saltlick is McCartney's favourite restaurant he owns. It was only natural to interview McCartney in the place where it all started.
Hands-on farmhand
McCartney picked up cooking through extensive research and reading. While other cooks were learning from others, McCartney was teaching himself.
"I learned and I studied it for a long time. I never had anybody show me how to do a brisket, I kind of just read a lot, watched a lot, went down South and experienced it and then I came up with my own method," said McCartney.
One method McCartney uses for preparing briskets is injection, which refers to the addition of a mixture of sauces to give the meat more flavour. The exact mixture varies from cook to cook, so even among those who inject, the outcome is not the same.
Self-teaching seems to be a theme with McCartney, who built the smoker that smokes the meat day and night at the back of Saltlick. Rows upon rows of meats hang from the smoker, smelling like a campfire and warming employees in the cold months.
Shane McCartney has also learned with his stomach. "I go down south quite a bit. Last time I went to Memphis, Nashville, Baton Rouge and New Orleans and I ate my way through there."
While he loves the food from the South, Hamilton is home. To McCartney bringing that kind of cooking here is a happy compromise.
282 James Street North
Before Saltlick was Saltlick, it was a deli. Before that, McCartney worked for a corporation opening restaurants for them. He was living above the James Street North bar, the Brain, and commuting to Toronto, where he worked as a chef. Five years in, he was offered a job as a cook for Jack and Lois, a retro diner that is a three minute walk away from Saltlick. McCartney watched the food scene grow in Hamilton from the heart of it all. When an opportunity to buy a piece of land on the street popped up, he claimed it and hasn't looked back since.
"I flipped this place from a deli into Saltlick. I opened Knead Pizza and our new place, Bar Sazerac, so I am pretty invested in this street," said McCartney.
A street bustling with new and old restaurants, James Street North harbours its own community of chefs. McCartney can attest to that. "We all know each other. The community is so small; the chances are that the staff at Lake Road Restaurant worked here once or visa versa. Everyone kind of just bounces around," he said.
Food for the family
At Saltlick, it is all about the quantity. Perhaps not the place for picky eaters, Saltlick serves food family-style. Everyone at one table orders the same food that comes out on a large wooden slab and gets passed around.
At other restaurants, you may find yourself torn over several options. There is no chance of lamenting a missed option at Saltlick, where you can order from three to five meats and two sides to share for the whole table.
"The food here is very 'me'. I am big into four, five ingredients that are really powerful on their own and are put together nicely [and sourced] as local as possible. I enjoy eating several small portions. A steak and potatoes is boring halfway through it, so it is nice to move on to some other flavours," said McCartney. "The big part of this place is about sitting with your friends, sharing in the experience together. You are forced to share, which is the way most people grew up on their Sunday evening."
The customers who eat at Saltlick might as well be eating in McCartney's home kitchen – he eats the same meals at home. "It was a selfish idea because as I was saying, this is the way I want to eat," admitted McCartney.
Where there's smoke
McCartney brands Saltlick as the modern version of a Southern smokehouse. A Southern cooking staple is smoking. Although it originated as a method for storing meats for extended periods, smoking became a delicacy in the food industry for its flavour. The time the meat spends heating in the smoker breaks down the connective tissue and renders out the fat.
"I go down south quite a bit. Last time I went to Memphis, Nashville, Baton Rouge and New Orleans and I ate my way through there."
Shane McCartney
Owner, Saltlick
"We use all-natural charcoal as our fuel source and then we use post oak and cherry for our flavour. We don't use any propane or any gas or anything like that," said McCartney.
Flavour is time, as smoking is an around the clock process. Briskets take 12 and 13 hours, pork 18 to 20 hours. The process pays off, with many customers' favourite item on the menu being the brisket. McCartney himself loves the ribs.
"The ribs are the best ribs I have ever had, and I am not just saying that because they're mine. We use back ribs, which are a really meaty cut. So you get a nice big mouthful of flavour."
History and tradition
Saltlick's unique décor features an amalgamation of old and new. The painting of a ham with the word "Ont." written over is a pun on Hamilton and appropriately represents the meat restaurant. The Atlantic Fish sign hanging over the front windows, not so much. Saltlick has never offered fish, so the sign is an odd choice. As it turns out, the piece of land McCartney bought used to sell fish.
"When I purchased the building, the last business that was in it was Atlantic Fish. That sign was on the outside but I cut it down and put it in here. It is a little bit of history. The butcher block over there is from a little Italian deli that was here in the 40s and 50s," said McCartney.
As for the display at the front of the restaurant that features toy cows grazing in a pasture, it was the original eel tank. Where Atlantic Fish had live eels, Saltlick has fake cows. "I don't know why I decided to keep it. You don't see these any more," said McCartney.
The story behind the name for Saltlick is a bit more personal for McCartney. "When I was a kid and I grew up on my uncle's farm, the first job I got to do was drive the tractor around and deliver all the saltlicks throughout the field. We were going to call it a meatery at one point, but we decided to go with smokehouse because it was a real direct approach."
"The big part of this place is about sitting with your friends, sharing in the experience together."
Shane McCartney
Owner, Saltlick
Greener pastures
For those looking for bold flavours and shared meals, Saltlick is the place. For those who are already a fan of McCartney's work, it will not be long before he comes out with something new, and likely Southern-inspired. More recently he opened Knead Pizza, his only non-Southern themed restaurant, Big Tobacco that does low country, shrimp and grits on Hess and Bar Sazerac that mimics a New Orleans oyster bar on James Street North. The next one? "It would be cool to have a pizza, records, beer, and pinball place," said McCartney.


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Also in Slate: Martha C. White explores California's domination of the international almond market, Boeing's push to sell more aircraft overseas, what a tiny software firm can teach us about the future of American exports, and how exports can save the American economy.
There's a temptation to perceive American manufacturing as something like Mickey Rourke's character in The Wrestler: unstoppable in its heyday but now mired in bloat and nostalgia as young upstarts move in to take its place. It's an assumption that has existed at least as long as Bruce Springsteen's career. But it's not true.
Yes, the United States has lost manufacturing jobs. We've shed about 5.5 million of them in the past decade, down to about 11.5 million today. Despite this, we still lead all other global economies in manufacturing output. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, American factories churn out $1.6 trillion worth of stuff each year. Patricia Mears, director of international commercial affairs at NAM, says roughly 60 percent of that total is exported.
While the industry's public face tends to be dominated by behemoths like Boeing, GE, and Ford, the majority of manufacturing firms in the United States employ four people or fewer. Fewer than 20,000 out of a total of nearly 300,000 companies employ more than 100 workers, according to Census Bureau data. Since many of these smaller firms either don't export at all or do so only minimally, coaxing them to look overseas for customers is a key step toward the Obama administration's goal of doubling exports in five years. The hurdles to exporting are much higher for small companies; it's also much tougher for government agencies to identify all the small would-be exporters out there, convince them exporting is a good idea, and offer logistical and financial support to make it happen.
Marlin Steel Wire Products, a manufacturer of wire baskets and fabricated metal items, is already a convert. Just two years ago, the Baltimore-based company exported 5 percent to 10 percent of its orders. Today, about $600,000 of Marlin's $3.5 million in annual revenue comes from exports. The company has gone from 20 to 30 employees in that same time period and projects a $1 million increase in revenue for this year. Company president Drew Greenblatt, who's owned the firm since the late '90s, credits export business with keeping Marlin in the black and helping it to grow even as the United States slogged through a recession.
The 42-year-old company got its start making baskets for bagel bakeries. When Chinese competitors undercut Marlin's prices, Greenblatt decided to expand to other wire and metal products for industrial customers. The factory makes baskets to hold delicate aircraft engine parts and pharmaceutical beakers as they go through washers before being assembled or packed; its in-house engineers design custom shapes and specifications for the assembly lines of companies like Boeing and Toyota.
Around five years ago, Marlin put a toe into the export waters with the odd shipment to Canada or Mexico and quickly realized that the key to growth lies in sales to overseas customers. By 2014, more than half of Marlin's production will be exported. Greenblatt is bullish that "Made in the U.S.A." is still a good marketing hook, especially for companies cranking out items that are going to be incorporated into other machines or assembly lines. (If your cordless drill or hair dryer breaks, you grumble and go to the store to buy a new one. But if a factory's conveyor belt motor dies, the entire production line can come to a standstill until it's fixed—not a prospect any owner wants to contemplate.) In recent months, manufacturing heavyweights like Ford and GE have shifted some production back to the United States from offshore facilities or suppliers, and the higher quality of domestically produced goods is a major reason.
Focusing on quality over low prices isn't a new tactic; for the past half-century, German manufacturers have set themselves apart and commanded a premium by promising precision. Marlin does this by investing heavily in technology, from computer-aided-design software that costs $35,000 and must be updated every couple of years to giant robots that can bend metal into hooks or stamp sheet metal into forms, all calibrated to less than one-tenth of a millimeter. Greenblatt says he's made "the biggest investment of my life" in the last few months: new robots that cost the company $700,000.
Of course, getting this kind of investment capital is an uphill battle these days, especially for small businesses. Thanks to its history of turning a profit even through the recession, Marlin was able to obtain favorable terms from lenders, but it wasn't easy. "It's a challenge, because we're in a world where banks are very skeptical," he says. "Even if you're a good company, they still put you through the wringer."
Small companies that export also have to worry about money when it comes to getting paid: If a buyer in another country absconds with the merchandise or goes bankrupt before making payment, there's very little recourse for the company. For this reason, the Export-Import Bank is ramping up the program through which it provides payment guarantees for exporters. Chairman and president of the Ex-Im Bank Fred P. Hochberg says the amount of small-business loan guarantees and credit insurance the bank provides rose from $4.4 billion last year to around $5 billion this year. Marlin's Greenblatt can't give enough praise to the Ex-Im Bank's insurance program. For a premium of roughly half a percent of the price of the sale, he's covered in the event of nonpayment.
Greenblatt still worries about lower-priced Chinese competitors, saying Marlin would be able to win more bids both at home and overseas if the U.S. government pushed for enforcement on trade-related issues. First, there's the longstanding contention that the renminbi is manipulated to be artificially low. Economists differ in their estimates of exactly how much it's undervalued, but most agree that the currency is worth less than it would be if it were allowed to float. So far, though, U.S. officials like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner haven't had any luck persuading Chinese leaders to loosen their grip on the yuan.
Video: The story behind the success of Marlin Steel:
For industrial manufacturers like Marlin, another competitive disadvantage comes from the price of steel. China subsidizes its steel industry, an action to which Washington has responded by imposing import duties on certain Chinese-made steel products. (The two countries took this tiff to the WTO, which sided with the United States in a recent decision.) Greenblatt says Marlin lost a bid for 5 million wire forms; his company came in at 6.5 cents per unit, while the Chinese company sealed the deal with a bid of 5.9 cents per unit. Steel costs for Marlin were about 3.5 cents for that job versus 2.5 cents for the Chinese firm. "It literally happens every day," Greenblatt says of losing projects to Chinese companies because the combination of a weaker currency and cheaper raw materials lets them undercut Marlin.
Greenblatt is also agitating (along with many Republican members of Congress) for the president to move forward on a trio of free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea that have been in limbo since the end of the Bush administration. Marlin's sizable Japanese customer base is an indication to Greenblatt that the company would have similar success courting South Korean customers if tariffs were rolled back.
Despite challenges, Greenblatt is practically effusive when he talks about the potential for Marlin and hundreds of other small companies like it to grow through exports. "Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers are not Americans," he says. "The biggest chunk of the world is outside our borders. That's where the money is."
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My love for a good potato hash is well known. I'll gladly whip one up for a leisurely breakfast on the weekend (while in my pajamas, of course). We had a few stalks of asparagus leftover from dinner this week, and they made a great addition to a few roasted potatoes and creamy leeks. Now, you could omit the eggs and use this recipe as a building base for dinner, or top it with a sunny side up egg and a little sriracha for a special breakfast. Either way, add your spring veggies to your breakfast this week, you won't regret it.
Spring Potato Hash
1/2 pound rainbow or red potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 bunch of asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 leek, diced
2 spring onions, diced
2 eggs
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Place diced potatoes and baking sheet and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil, and salt and pepper, coat evenly. Roast potatoes for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through. Set aside once cooked.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add remaining olive oil and leeks and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add asparagus and 3/4 the spring onions. Cook for 3 minutes until asparagus has slightly softened. Add cooked potatoes and toss to combine. Serve with your favorite eggs.


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How a prize from Ponoko is turning one idea into a multi-institution beta test.
We asked what you would do with a free 24-month prime subscription to Ponoko's Personal Factory 4, and in just 5 days we received nearly 90 entries describing some truly incredible ideas and compassionate causes.
It wasn't easy, but in the end there was one combination we couldn't resist: parrots and robots!
Designing And Building A Robot
Everything you need to know about designing & building a robot.
At Binghamton University BERG lab, parrots are using "squawk-activated" computer games to control robotic animal feeders.
The project is lead by lab coordinator Constance Woodman and 7 researchers examining animal communication networks.
Connie and the lab needed an affordable way to make prototypes and custom robots. With their free Ponoko prime subscription, they can source the bulk of their robot building materials all from one place, have them cut to exact specifications, and shipped directly to the lab.
After fabbing a working design, Connie plans on giving away robots to other labs and pet owners. She also wants to release a how-to video with free SVG files so anyone can make or improve the robot.
To thank Ponoko for the free subscription, Connie has put together a fantastic video that's as smile-inducing as it is astonishing.
"We're so excited to receive the 24-month subscription to Ponoko's Personal Factory!" said Connie.
"As explained it the video, we'll use the subscription to further develop the Digital Enrichment project by making compact, parrot-proof robot casings to mount on the outsides of bird cages."
More about how parrot controlled robots work, after the jump.
First, the parrot interacts with a squawk-controlled interface such as flash-based game. (You can play these sound activated games yourself.)
The robot receives input from the headphone jack of any device and then runs the appropriate action based on the tone it recieves.
So if the bird can match pictures in a card game on your laptop or tablet device (propped up safely outside the cage), the bird will get a goodie.
Or you can set a playlist on your ancient Zune MP3 player to randomly give the bird toys or treats throughout the day.
More information can be found at DigitalEnrichment.org
Congratulations to Connie!! We can't wait to see your ParrokoBots!


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Much ado has been made about the latest breed of hard rock heroes, from whiz kid emo-rockers to scary-masked nu-metal madmen, both of whom, in their own canny way, spit out speedy, lo-fi riffs whilst touting angry bad-boy rhetoric. Lethargy are you'll be pleased to know, cut from a refreshingly different cloth.
This is a band that merges two highly valuable commodities; that's riff driven hard rock and seriously impressive, some might say spellbinding, musicality. Sure, it's been a long time coming but, thank god, they've finally arrived…and in some style too.
Born and raised in South Wales, Neath to be precise, this four-man crew has hauled themselves up by their boot straps with one specific and infinitely noble goal in mind – to become one of the best groups of their generation.
It's a tall order, but ambition and drive is something these guys have in spades. That's not to say Lethargy are boxing above their weight – clearly they have it in 'em to lay waste to the competition – but they want to win by pushing their own personal musical and personal boundaries to the max. And that's a very good thing indeed.
Official Website
Lethargy use
RS66LD Swing Bass
R10 Roto Yellow 6 String Electric


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How to Plant Esperanza
Esperanza (Tecoma stans), also called yellow bells, yellow trumpet, trumpet-flower or yellow elder, grows as a perennial flower in U. S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8 and above. In colder climates, it is grown as an annual. The trumpet-shaped flowers appear in the spring and persist through fall. The flowers have a pleasing fragrance that attracts bees, but the honey produced is poisonous. These deciduous shrubs grow to be 3 to 6 feet tall and spread to cover up to 4 feet in diameter.
Planting Seeds Indoors
Collect esperanza seeds from seedpods that have dried on the plant. Remove the seed from the pods.
Start esperanza seeds in 6-inch pots filled with sterile potting soil. Plant two or three seeds per pot, approximately 1/8 inch deep. Water the soil with a fine mist to prevent the seeds from washing away.
Keep the soil moist. The seeds should germinate in approximately two to three weeks.
Thin the plants once the seedlings have reached 2 inches in height. Leave only the strongest plant in each pot.
Transplant the seedlings into the garden when they reach 4 to 6 inches in height.
Transplanting Seedlings Outdoors
Transplant esperanza outdoors in midspring, after all threat of frost has passed. Prepare a well-drained bed located in full sun, amending the soil with a 3-inch layer of organic compost or well-rotted manure mixed into the bed.
Dig a hole two to three times the size of the root ball and just deep enough to hold the plant at ground level. Allow 3 to 4 feet between plants.
Remove the plants gently from the containers, and place them in the holes. Backfill with the native soil, and tamp it down firmly around the plants.
Water your esperanzas often, keeping the soil moist, but not wet, until the plants are established. Water deeply to encourage root development. Gradually increase the time between watering as the shrubs become established. Mature esperanza plants need water weekly, more often in hot dry weather.
Things Needed
- esperanza seed pods
- 6-inch pot
- Sterile potting soil.
- Fine mist sprayer
- Trowel
- Organic compost or well-rotted manure


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SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— The march of the healthy food movement is picking up the pace in San Francisco where new efforts are targeting corner stores that don't sell enough fresh fruits and vegetables, or any at all.
Supervisor Eric Mar made headlines when he got the city to ban McDonald's Happy Meals because happy didn't necessary mean healthy. Now he's back with a new proposal to establish a Healthy Food Incentive Program to encourage small corner stores to stock fresh produce.
"It's getting healthier types of retail businesses that promote healthier living into key areas of San Francisco that really need it," Mar said.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:
Places like the Tenderloin and the Bayview District, which are short on full service supermarkets and long on corner stores, mainly have stores stocked with alcohol, cigarettes and frozen foods.
19-year-old Malaysia Sanders said fresh produce would have been nice when she was growing up in the Bayview.
"I want to encourage whoever cares about health and health in the communities to really support a program like this because it would really help the people in the community that I live in."
Mar hasn't settled on what the incentives might be to encourage merchants to sell more fresh food, but it might include small business loans or some hands-on assistance from the city to make the switch to fresh produce.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Shigeaki Nishina, Jose Nanez, Mitsuo Kawato, Takeo Watanabe; Global motion is processed as the entire unit but learned locally. Journal of Vision 2009;9(8):859. doi: https://doi.org/10.1167/9.8.859.
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© ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)
A growing body of evidence by human imaging and monkey single-unit recording studies has indicated that global motion such as radial motion (expansion and contraction) and rotation as entire units are processed in MT+ and MST, respectively. Although perceptual learning of global motion is broadly reported, it is still unclear at which stage of visual processing the learning occurs. To address the question, we examined whether perceptual learning occurs on the basis of local or global motion as a result of improvement of performance in detecting a global radial motion in a display in which expanding or contracting dots slightly outnumber oppositely moving dots. First, the results showed improvement in detection performance specifically on the trained motion direction (expansion or contraction). Then, we measured the degree of transfer of the learning effect by presenting test stimuli spatially shifted so that the region of the test stimuli partially overlapped the trained region. We found that the degree of transfer was entirely dependent on similarity of local motion directions in the test stimuli to those in the trained stimulus in the overlapping area, irrespective of whether or not a test stimulus contained the same global motion direction as the trained stimulus. These results indicate that perceptual learning of a global motion stimulus, at least in the present setting, occurs at the stage of local motion processing. Interestingly while global motion is most likely processed as an entire unit in some stage of processing, it may not be learned as an entire unit however.
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