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Leave It To The Experts
This story appears in the November 1999 issue of HomeOfficeMag.com. Subscribe »
A homebased business is usually a one-person show. In exchange for the freedom of running a business out of your home, you have to wear a number of hats: CEO, CFO, human resources guy, even office manager. But when it comes to purchasing new computer hardware, wiring small networks or troubleshooting printer jams, you don't have to go it alone. An Information Technology Consultant (ITC) can serve as a "virtual MIS department" for your business, evaluating technology needs, implementing solutions and maintaining systems already in place.
Even if you are tech-savvy enough to do it all by yourself, hiring an ITC to look after your technology needs can free you up to pursue other interests, like building a successful business or having a family life.
So how does a homebased business owner with a layperson's knowledge of computers hire, pay and intelligently discuss problems with an ITC? Read on to figure out exactly what you need, when you need it, how to get the most from your ITC and how to get the most for your money.
Finding Your Dream ITC
The Internet can be an invaluable resource for finding a competent, reliable ITC in your area, but like most products and services advertised in cyberspace, you shouldn't take what you see at face value, according to Ramon Ray, small-business technology analyst and consultant, founder and CEO of Family Computer Consulting Services in New York City and publisher of the online newsletter Smallbiztechnology.com. "There are a lot of places on the Net where you can find consultants, but just because they have a nice-looking Web site, that doesn't tell you if the guy is a scam artist or if he just got out of jail," says Ray. "That's where word of mouth comes into play. If [an ITC] can provide you with the name of a client you've heard of, or if your own network of friends can say good things about this guy, I would rely on that. You should also ask for references. If [the ITC] is good, they'll be prepared to give you some. And if they don't have references, that can also be a good indicator."
When it comes to complex projects like designing a small network or programming a database, an ITC should have some certification, or at least some verifiable experience with these types of projects, says Andy Chang, vice president of sales and marketing at NDC Communications Inc., a Sunnyvale, California-based maker of SOHO networking products. "Certification, whether it's a MCSE (Microsoft Certified Software Engineer) or a CNE (Certified Novell Engineer) can tell you something about the person's level of knowledge, but there is really no substitute for hands-on experience," Chang explains. "Before hiring for a big project, you need to find out what kind of projects the ITC has been involved in, whether it's networking, installing software or writing software applications for specific kinds of businesses. You should know exactly what applications they worked with, or what role they played in their previous job."
Once you've decided on an ITC, the next step is to work with the professional to produce a proposal, which spells out the services the consultant will provide, the equipment needed for the job, the time frame for completion and the amount and method of payment. "The written agreement is the core of the whole relationship," says Chang. "How closely the ITC adheres to the provisions of the proposal also tells you a great deal about their professionalism. If they're not meeting the schedule or goals they mapped out in the proposal, or are coming to you for more money above the agreed upon amount, that can be a bad sign."
Language Barrier
For a homebased business owner unfamiliar with computer terminology, discussing technology needs with your ITC can be a frustrating experience. Still, you don't need to be fluent in technospeak to express yourself clearly.
Chang suggests describing your technology needs to the ITC in terms of applications, rather than specific brands or model numbers. "Tell them your objectives, what you want the technology to help you achieve," says Chang. "If you prepare an itemized list, the ITC should be able to translate those objectives into a series of project goals, software and hardware requirements that will accomplish those objectives."
Ramon Ray agrees that the burden of clear communication lies on the shoulders of the consultant. "If the ITC is good, he'll keep his mouth shut and eyes open, listen to the business owner and figure out what the technology needs of the business are, because oftentimes business owners can't say what products they need, but they can say what problems they're having that may be solvable with technology. Don't try to give the ITC all the tech talk, and say we need this and that, because you really may not need what you think. Tell that person where you want to end up at, and see what solutions he can come up with."
What To Pay?
The next part of the proposal should lay out the billing arrangement, and whether it's on an hourly or per project basis. The payment methods you specify should depend on the type and size of the job the ITC will be doing, says Chang. "If you're looking at a very small project, like troubleshooting, which should take no more than half an hour to an hour, you should pay at an hourly rate. If the consultant is any good, it should take no more than three hours to solve a problem, assuming you're a small business with less than five or 10 PCs. But if you want them to build an e-commerce site or a Web page, I would suggest asking for an overall proposal with a one-time project cost. That would be much more economical."
Ramon Ray warns entrepreneurs to use hourly rates very cautiously. "An hourly project should really be something you can quantify. If they're helping you enter 100 names into a database, you can kind of quantify that, but if you pay hourly for something like installing printers, watch out! If something happens, and the installation takes longer than it should, you're going to be shelling out a pile of money for something you should have paid a predetermined fee for. As an IT consultant myself, I shy away from charging at an hourly rate because I don't want clients thinking I'm scamming them."
As part of a project proposal, many consultants list the costs of the computer equipment necessary to implement a technology solution. In the past, these prices could be somewhat inflated by consultants in an effort to increase their profit margins. According to Chang, while this tendency hasn't completely disappeared, the pricing information widely available on the Internet has changed the market. Now business owners can compare prices and search for the best bargain on hardware, forcing consultants to focus more on providing value-added services like installation and customization.
"If you're knowledgeable about technology, you should use the Internet to check out the lowest prices for the hardware and software based on the specs given by the ITC," says Chang. "Or you can buy the hardware yourself and ask the ITC to do the value-added work. But if you don't want the hassle, or don't know tech, the best thing to do is get quotes from at least two different consultants and compare them."
Panic Buttons
In a corporate environment, the MIS department is tasked with responding to computer crashes as quickly as possible in order to keep user downtime to an absolute minimum.
Should the "virtual MIS department" for a homebased business have the same responsibilities? According to Ray, unless your business would suffer tremendous losses from unscheduled computer downtime, keeping your IT consultant on call for after-hours or weekend visits would be prohibitively expensive. "If you're a normal 9-to-5 business, emergency on-call service is an expense you can really do without. I've found it very rare for a computer to simply break down."
Ray compares IT consultants who offer 24/7 on-call service to manufacturers who sell consumers costly extended warrantees with the purchase of a telephone or other product, suggesting you can head off computer emergencies by scheduling regular maintenance of your systems-during normal business hours.
If you're running a business where a midnight computer crash would spell disaster, you have several options for after-hours tech support. Ranging from most to least expensive, you could put in an emergency contingency clause in your consultant's proposal or service contract, making it mandatory for the ITC to provide 24-hour on-call service at a specified rate. Again, if you don't stand to lose a lot of money from a computer crash, it may not make sense to pay the extra charge for this kind of emergency or on-call service.
There are also several 24-hour tech support hotlines, which, for a relatively small fee (far less than an unscheduled 2AM visit by your ITC), talk you through the process of diagnosing and repairing software crashes.
Finally, some consultants with nervous clients have taken to building their own Web site with a FAQ section where the business owner can go during non-business hours to find answers.
Building a good working relationship with a tech consultant provides much more than just advice on your next computer purchase. It also offers you something you can't buy in any store: peace of mind.
Rescue Me
Microsoft Business Advantage
This Web resource created specifically for small to medium-sized businesses with five to 500 PCs features a referral engine linking to local technology experts, as well as software licensing information.
Ontrack Data Recovery
(800) 872-2599, http://www.ontrack.com
If you have lost or inaccessible data on your hard drive or floppy disks, Ontrack Data Recovery is the place to get help. Solutions range from in-lab and remote services to cost-effective do-it-yourself software.
Intel's Answer Express (888) 795-7357, http://www.intel.com/answerexpress/index.htm
Answer Express supports more than 200 leading software titles--plus hardware and peripherals--
and offers help with installations, troubleshooting and how-to questions.
Contact Sources
- NDC Communications, Inc.,http://www.sohoware.com, e-mail: email@example.com
- Family Computer Consulting Services, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


text: Reviews Profile Photos Map Leave a Review Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Review text Select a rating Name * Email * Website Notify me of new posts by email. No Records FoundSorry, no records were found. Please adjust your search criteria and try again. Google Map Not LoadedSorry, unable to load Google Maps API. Driving Walking Bicycling Public Transport Miles Kilometers

subset: commoncrawl


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ESSAY- Station take: Valley Net radio station under death watch
Interstate 81 snakes along the Valley side of the Blue Ridge, far from major population centers, yet choked with tractor-trailer traffic grinding against the frequent steep grades. The route cuts through some of the nation's most historic countryside. The Civil War was a relative latecomer to the Shenandoah, the bountiful basin shaped by the Revolutionary War, and the French and Indian War before it. Towns like Winchester trace back to a log fort on hill near a stream, circa 1750. I-81 is a basically overgrown, but a vital farm-to-market-and-back track for the entire East Coast.
The region's relative isolation is balanced by a techie overlay, incubated by the large universities in Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and James Madison in Harrisonburg. There are Net-savvy tinkers and entrepreneurs in those rolling hills. In nearby Waynesboro in June 2006, I81.fm– a Net radio station clearinghouse for the region– was born.
And, absent an 11th hour compromise on the licensing fees Net radio operators must pay, I81.fm– serving 35,000 listeners a day– will soon die.
"This will force us into bankruptcy, no question about it," station partner Donnie Mowbray tells the Daily News Record of Harrisonburg.
The paper also reports that plans by the campus station of James Madison, along with that of Eastern Mennonite University which started Virginia's first public radio station in 1955, to stream broadcasts online have been put on hold indefinitely due to the royalty rate changes.
As tempting as it might to blame this outcome on some technical public policy breakdown– or on a positively loathsome Congress, languishing with a 14 percent approval rating– one cannot.
Net radio went from a medium glowing with promise at the turn of the century to a historical footnote in less than a decade. Not the stuff of accident. Nor is this predicament exactly new. The broad outline of what would happen if essentially non-profit stations were forced to pay performance royalties not based on their revenue but on their listener base, was clear five years ago.
Yet a ready-made grassroots nationwide broadcasting network has been unable to gain any traction on the issue and stay the execution. How is that? It began with a lie over 15 years ago.
At the first stirrings of CDs and DAT– digital audio tape, for those under 40, not in the music biz, or who may have blinked– the content providers heralded a new digital age, one with clear benefits to consumers. No more scratchy LPs or bird-nests of cassettes gone wrong. Crisp, clear digital sound.
But a menace lurked. The digital "perfect copy." Digital audio held the potential to allow perfect, bit-for-bit reproductions of copyrighted material. This meant that slackers, hackers, petty thieves, dreaded pirates, and now perhaps even Mennonites, could duplicate music at will, with no loss in fidelity. Forever.
This future seemed plausible, likely even. Until it became clear that digital audio was not the same as perfect audio. That's obvious now with just one listen to a compressed 128-bit iPod file.
Turns out digital is not perfect. Digital can be crap. And a perfect digital copy of perfect crap is still crap.
But that was not widely understood in October 1992, when President George Bush signed the Audio Home Recording Act, which taxed digital audio equipment and media in order to "pay back" copyright holders for their added risk in this brave new digital era. Next, the World Intellectual Property Organization debates of the mid-'90s advanced the idea that the United State had to "normalize" its copyright rules to the rest of the world, a world that, interestingly enough, lacked either fair use or a First Amendment. The bit was flipping.
This in turn birthed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, the proximate cause of Net radio's demise, albeit routed through an amazingly facile U.S. Copyright office. The Copyright Office has sided with current copyright holders in every meaningful decision on digital audio, dashing hopes that it would serve as a bulwark against the immense lobbying power the copyright holders hold over Congress.
Make no mistake, the death of Net radio is merely a means to an end– the end being the rollback of any notion of fair use of copyrighted digital content. The goal is nothing less than a licensing regime for all digital music that recognizes no ownership rights, fair or otherwise. In its place will be a digital licensing fee tacked on to every broadband customer's bill, right alongside the other mysterious fees and taxes that serve the political status quo.
It may take another 10 or 12 years for this to happen, but its application is a mere technical extrapolation of current policy. If Net radio operators who make no money from their operations can be charged performance licensing fees, all broadband users can be as well.
And it will be no accident. And no mistake. Especially the silence that greets those who do not pay.
This essay first appeared in Reason, a free-market, liberty-oriented monthly.


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Today's modern muscle cars are something to behold. Even the lowly six cylinder models – once only an after thought – now musters over 300 horsepower, which is significantly more than even their V8 predecessors of only a few years ago.
If you drive your muscle car like we do, you've probably cycled through your fair share of tires. The high performance tire market is more crowded today than it has ever been. With internet sales challenging local retailers, there are tires available literally from companies worldwide, and finding the right tire for your muscle car, especially a daily driver, can be more confusing than ever. The wrong tires could leave you disappointed with either not enough performance, or the wrong kind for your daily commute.
Mickey Thompson has long been a a leader in tires for race applications, classic muscle car and pro street cars. If you've been to a dragstrip, you've no doubt seen M/T tires in action. They also offer an extensive line of tires for trucks and off road applications. Now M/T is making a big move in the ultra high performance handling tire market with the M/T Street Comp.
With late model muscle cars all the rage right now in the performance aftermarket, M/T decided it was time to step up and get their share of that action as well. "The modern American muscle car owner has been using our ET Drag, ET Street & ET Street Radial products for years, it was time for Mickey Thompson Tires to put its legendary performance on the streets," said Don Sneddon of Mickey Thompson.
The M/T Street Comp
The modern American muscle var owner has been using our ET Drag, ET Street & ET Street Radial products for years, it was time the Mickey Thompson Tires put its legendary performance on the streets – Don Sneddon
With the goal in mind of creating a high performance street tire for today's modern muscle cars that could outperform the best the market currently offered, Mickey Thompson pooled its worldwide resources and began development of the Street Comp UHP tire.
It took the company about two years to develop the tire. "We wanted the Street Comp to have all the latest bells and whistles, while paying attention to what true gear heads said they would want in a tire," said Sneddon. A great deal of technology went into the tire, including borrowing from other already successful M/T products. M/T's top tire engineers spent months developing the tread design, and proper rubber compound for this tire. The company conducted extensive track testing at their private test facility utilizing the modern modern muscle cars as test mules.
"The Street Comp was developed specifically for the modern American muscle car with performance being the number one goal," said Sneddon. The tires feature an asymmetric tread design common on many UHP tires. They're designed to perform in both wet and dry conditions, and have a uniform tire quality grading (UTQG) of 300 AA A. That puts their treadwear in the middle range for the wear rating for most UHP tires.
Fitments are available for rims from 17 to 20-inches in diameter, and seven and a half to ten inches in width. You can find a complete chart of all the sizes available on the Mickey Thompson Tires web site.
Construction and Design
While this tire draws upon M/T's extensive experience in developing race, and high performance tires this is not a dedicated track, or DOT race tire. This is a street tire that was designed for performance street cars in daily driving situations, with a design that is intended to maximize both dry and wet traction. The Street Comp UHP also features several elements intended to maximize wear.
The asymmetric design of the tread means that on standard fitments the tires can be cross rotated, or changed side to side. This increases tread life, while reducing irregular wear patterns.
We wanted the Street Comp to have all the latest bells and whistles, while paying attention to what true gear heads said they would want in a tire. – Don Sneddon
The outside tread features large shoulders which help maximize the tire's cornering ability. The shoulder elements are tied together in pairs to improve traction, and stiffness. The wide circumferential grooves near the center of the tire improves wet traction, and avoid hydroplaning. At the same time the wide center rib improves steering responsiveness.
All of this translates into a tire that will last longer, and handle as well as, if not better than many similar tires on the market. During their testing Mickey Thompson claims that the Street Comp UHP actually beat competitors in lap times. These tests were performed for both wet and dry conditions.
While the lap times sell enthusiasts on performance capabilities, the overall performance of the Street Comp was measured, and compared in testing. There are key real world performance figures that must be taken into consideration for both the street, and track. Components that perform amazingly at the track are often ill suited for the street. M/T was careful in their development of the Street Comp UHP to lean heavily towards the street going aspects of tire design, while maximizing the tires performance.
Testing was broken into wet and dry segments. Key variables in how the test car handled included:
Understanding Tire Ratings
The M/T Street Comp UHP has a Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG), also known as treadwear rating, of 300 AA A.
UTQG is a standard developed by the US government for rating tires, to assist consumers in making a tire purchase. UTQG measures, treadwear, traction, and temperature.
Treadwear is the first number in the rating. In theory, a 300 rated tire should last twice as long as 150 rated tire.
Traction is represented by the second piece of information, in this case AA. Traction is a measurement of how well the tire can stop on a wet surface, this is tested on both asphalt and concrete.
The last grading is temperature. the tire's ability to dissipate heat.
Wet Testing:
- Braking grip
- Driving grip
- Lateral grip
- Off throttle understeer
- Off throttle oversteer
- On throttle understeer
- On throttle oversteer
- Controllability
- Hydroplaning/Aquaplaning resistance.
Dry Testing:
- Steering precision
- On-center feel/feedback
- On-Center response
- Off-Center feel
- Off-Center response
- Linearity/Progression
- Turn In/transient response (emergency lane change maneuver)
- Recover/Yaw damping (emergency lane change maneuver)
Twisting with the Coyote
M/T sent us a set of tires for our project Wild E Coyote, 2011 5.0 Mustang. We mounted the 275/40/18's on all for wheels, installed them on the car, and set out to see exactly what they're all about. The first thing we noticed is how quiet this tire is. We've driven a lot of cars, with a lot of different tire models on Wild E Coyote. Track and high performance tires generally sacrifice comforts like ride harshness and noise for asphalt-scorching performance. That's not the case with the Street Comp UHP – it is extremely quiet for a high performance tire. Even cruising at interstate speeds they don't drone or whine, meaning we can still cruise comfortably on our daily commute, but not have to worry about changing tires if we want to hit the autocross, or just go for a spirited weekend drive through the back roads.
Through the corners, and tight turns these tires respond like those with half the tread life rating; they feel like a tire with a much lower treadwear rating. Due to the stiffer sidewall construction we could run 32 psi in the tires without folding them over on hard turns. Their handling characteristics make our highly modified GT a real hero in the curves.
Even in the rain we can't fault the Street Comp UHP. Rarely do you find a tire that's such solid combination of both wet and dry performance. Often tires in this segment are a dream on warm or hot dry tarmac, but a nightmare in the rain. This is not so with the Street Comp UHP. Scary moments are a thing of the past, and Wild E Coyote is safe from dancing with any guard rails.
The Mickey Thompson Street Comp UHP is available for sale now. If you're looking for a replacement tire or an upgrade for your modern or even classic muscle or high performance car, these definitely deserve strong consideration, especially if that car is a daily driver.


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Belgian Racism Protest: Woman Sets Self Ablaze
[International News Update]
The horrifying sight which traumatized shoppers and office workers in the centre of Luxembourg City last week has now been labeled as a protest against racism.
The Belgian woman of Congolese origin who set herself alight in the middle of Place d'Armes told witnesses that she was doing it to protest against racism, moments before she carried out the desperate act which has left her in hospital fighting for her life.
Maggy Delvaux-Mufu, a mother of three in her forties, alerted several national newspapers late on Tuesday morning last week that she would be burning herself alive on place des Martyrs at 12.45 am, before setting out accompanied by her husband to walk through the centre of town to her rendezvous.
The police were alerted and officers were deployed to the Rousegärtchen. But the woman changed her plan when she came across a group of journalists gathered to cover an event organized by the 'Mouvement écologique' on Place d'Armes, opposite the Cercle municipal. She soaked herself in petrol before confronting the members of the press, announcing that she was about to sacrifice her life to protest against racism.
Moments later, she struck a match, turning herself into a human torch in front of hundreds of people. Delvaux-Mufu' s husband and passers-by jumped on the burning body, attempting to stifle the flames with coats and jackets. The scene made several people feel unwell and many witnesses who filled the square at lunchtime were traumatized by the woman's shrieking screams of unimaginable pain. The flames were already extinguished when police, rescue services and the fire
brigade arrived at the scene.
One person is reported to have vomited after seeing the woman being transported into an ambulance. The events in Place d'Armes have also started a controversy regarding the authorities' lack of psychological support for witnesses.
Delvaux-Mufu was taken to the Bon Secours hospital in Metz, where she is being treated in a specialized ward for burns and is fighting for her life. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa visited the woman and her family at the hospital last week.
RTL television was the first to run a news flash about the incident on its website on Tuesday afternoon last week. 352 reported the bulletin in its news in brief section, shortly before going to print. Events preceding the incident only came to light later on in the week.
(Congo Vision November 11)
To comment or to subscribe to or advertise in New York's leading Pan African weekly investigative newspaper, or to send us a news tip, please call (212) 481-7745 or send a note to firstname.lastname@example.com
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I think you have "Filtered HTML" turned on here. If you switch to "Full HTML," it will probably...


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Get paid to exercise; get fined if you don't
App uses financial fear to motivate workouts
ORLANDO, Fla. – We've all been there. It's dark outside already. It's been a long day at the office and the last thing we want to do is hit the gym or lace up our running shoes. But Melissa Boyink has been staying motivated for the last few months thanks to an smartphone app that pays her when she works out, and fines her when she doesn't.
"I've been doing it consistently for a couple of months now and I haven't missed a workout," said Boyink.
It's called GymPact and it allows users to set up a 'pact' that outlines how many days a week they will commit to working out.
The user also sets up how much they will be fined if they miss a day.
Boyink's pact calls for a four day a week routine, or a fine of $10 a day.
"There was one night specifically where I was like okay it's 10 dollars or you go out and run in the rain, and I went out and ran in the rain, because it's 10 dollars," she said.
The app pays minimal returns when users meet their pacts, taking money from the couch potatoes that were fined.
Within 6 weeks of using the app, Boyink had earned nearly $10 and had not missed a single workout.
GymPact uses the phone's GPS location controls to pinpoint when a user is at the gym.
They check in and have to stay at least 30 minutes for the workout to count.
It also syncs with apps like Runkeeper and MapMyFitness for some smartphone users.
But again, the user has to be doing at least 30 minutes of continuous activity for the workout to count.
If you use a JawBone or FitBit wristband, you can use your steps per day to count towards your pact.
Fitness Instructor Nicole Copare tested out GymPact to see if it was something she'd recommend for her clients, and she found a few shortcomings.
For instance, she said 30 minutes of continuous exercise is not necessary for someone to get a good workout. If they did 20 minutes or two sets of 20 minute exercise in the same day it would not count.
Also, the app does not allow users to check in or get credit for things like outdoor boot camps or group fitness classes that meet away from a an actual gym.
A representative from GymPact said that right now iPhone users can get around that by using a feature that tracks continuous motion with the app.
That tracks a workout even if it is inside the home.
The feature is only available on iPhone right now, and the company did not have a timeframe for when it would be available on other devices.
For Boyink, the biggest drawback is that GymPact does not encourage her to do various types of exercise.
An intense run counts the same as a walk or a check-in to the gym regardless of how hard she works out.
"I wish you'd be able to schedule a certain types of number of workouts at week. I think that would get me closer to my goal," she said.
But before she was using GymPact she had little motivation at all.
"I think it's an excellent idea. It's kept me motivated and gotten me out of the house when I normally wouldn't go," she said.
Just last week the GymPact app expanded to include various types of 'pacts'. Now users can add a food logging or veggie pact.
The pacts work the same as the workout pact, users agree to log their eating habits a certain number of days a week or eat a certain number of vegetables and take pictures of them.
GymPact on iTunes:
GymPact on Google Play:
Copyright 2014 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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MatraSport Forum
Each model
Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
« previous
next »
Topic: Alfa Power (Engine conversion) (Read 34006 times)
Full Member
Posts: 67
Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
August 01, 2011, 08:37:00 pm »
I'm going to try and fit an Alfa 2.0 twin spark engine in my 2.2 Murena
I want to make it a road legal trackday car. (definitely not a comfy cruiser)
So I have lots of questions and I'm hoping the good people on this forum can help me out a bit.
The most pressing question at this moment is; Should I use a subframe like the v6 conversion or mount it to the chassis like the original engine?
YaBB God
Posts: 1169
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #1 on:
August 02, 2011, 10:39:23 am »
Why the 2.0 Twinspark?.. there are a lot of MUCH better engines to use!
Full Member
Posts: 67
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #2 on:
August 02, 2011, 12:43:51 pm »
I think most Alfisti would disagree with that statement
I'm not a member of that cult but I do think the 2 liter 8v twinspark is a great engine.
But if there are so manny other better engines please name them. My 1.6 might be in for a new drivetrain.
But stick to the 4 cillinder inline lumps. I'm not interested in V-whatever strait 5/6 boxer or rotery engines.
Last Edit: August 02, 2011, 12:49:36 pm by uberprutser
YaBB God
Posts: 1169
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #3 on:
August 02, 2011, 12:51:06 pm »
For the 1.6 Murena the Peugeot XU 1.9 Gti series would be my first choice. They are supposedly some of the simplest engines to fit as they share a common engine mount with the talbot unit. Some of the people here has done this conversion so you would not be starting from scratch either. and I think Carjoy in Holland can help you out too.
Apart from that these engines are also cheap to buy, easy to maintain, and tuning parts are abundant!.
YaBB God
Posts: 653
Owner of Bagheera, Rancho, Murena & Espace
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #4 on:
August 02, 2011, 12:54:25 pm »
I like the box that you have for testing
If you need a sub frame or not is difficult to say for those of us who have not seen you test set up. Are you able to connect the Alfa engine to the Murenas points for engine mounts?
Further 1.6 and 2.2 Murena chassis are different in the engine compartment.
Full Member
Posts: 67
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #5 on:
August 02, 2011, 01:24:28 pm »
The peugeot engine has been put in manny 1.6 Murena's.
And if you want to keep the fueltank this is a good sollution.
But I have 2.2 and don't mind moving the fuel tank to the front of the car.
I also think that the alfa engine wil beat the peugeot engine. (MI 16 excluded)
I've considered Honda since I loved my CRX but all Honda's seem to have the gearbox on the wrong side.
I guess a subframe would be easier since there are not that manny points to mount an adapter.
YaBB God
Posts: 653
Owner of Bagheera, Rancho, Murena & Espace
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #6 on:
August 02, 2011, 03:49:40 pm »
Re Honda powered Murena. Check this out:
YaBB God
Posts: 566
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #7 on:
August 02, 2011, 06:32:42 pm »
Full Member
Posts: 67
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #8 on:
August 03, 2011, 08:09:28 am »
Interesting link about the honda engine to bad there are no pictures. Would have loved to see some photos. But such a setup would be to expensive for my budget and way to powerful for my limited driving skills. But I will reconsider a Honda engine when my 1.6 engine dies.
@michaeltalbot; I don't get your reply.
Jon Weywadt
YaBB God
Posts: 998
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #9 on:
August 03, 2011, 08:36:40 am »
Quote from: uberprutser on August 03, 2011, 08:09:28 am
Interesting link about the honda engine to bad there are no pictures. Would have loved to see some photos. But such a setup would be to expensive for my budget and way to powerful for my limited driving skills. But I will reconsider a Honda engine when my 1.6 engine dies.
@michaeltalbot; I don't get your reply.
The Honda pictures are there. You need to be logged in as a member to see the pictures.
Matranaut par excellence
YaBB God
Posts: 566
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #10 on:
August 03, 2011, 08:46:12 am »
Think that You don't want my reply at real
Just few facts:
AR 2,0 TS - 148 bhp, 181 Nm
Matra 2,2 S - 144 bhp, 187 Nm
Conversion costs for 2,0 TS - min. 1000,-E (axleshafts, el.fuelpump, silenblocs, exhaust, electrics, etc.)
Costs for Murena 2,2 S - max. 1000,-E (carbs 500,-E, "S" cam rebrushing 220,-E, new "Turbo" gasket 50,-E, lightening flywheel + work cca 150,-E)
Sorry but
Murena S in good condition and setting is a very fast car. I can do the very simillar time on the circuit as BMW M3, Audi Quattro 2,1T, Mercedes 2,5 Cosworth, Porsche 911 3,0, in acceleration last time I beated Mercedes E500 W124 (330PS) and he was doing as much as possible, we are friends. Problem is, that every second Murena owner thinks about tuning instead of putting his engine into a perfect condition (which could gain more bhp than "racing" air filter, tuned exhaust or installation of another - old - engine).
I know, that You have allready bought that AR engine, and You won't stop Your project, also that it is Your car, so do what You think, but I tried to explain You that it will be so much work, money and time wasted for very doubtful result...
Full Member
Posts: 67
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #11 on:
August 03, 2011, 09:19:11 am »
Actually it's even worse. The Alfa only produces 143 HP
And besides that I have a spare 2.2 lump laying around. I would only need a fast cam to create and S engine.
But I get it, you are a bit of a purist. That's o.k. Me I like the engineering challenge and I love to see other people modify their car. Although some creations are horrific, their passion and ingenuity is what counts.
Let me ask you one rhetorical question; What would you do when we run out of oil and the only way to drive your Murena would be to convert it to a ethyl or electric?
Would you still want to enjoy you car or would you just stare at it in the driveway?
Selling, of course is not an option
Jon Weywadt
YaBB God
Posts: 998
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #12 on:
August 03, 2011, 10:05:43 am »
Quote from: uberprutser on August 03, 2011, 09:19:11 am
Would you still want to enjoy you car or would you just stare at it in the driveway?
I know this thetoric question was not for me, but personally I would take out the windshield, hitch up a 4-span of Clydesdales and cruise around town. 4 hp is plenty for such a light car and I want others to have time to see and enjoy its beauty.
Matranaut par excellence
YaBB God
Posts: 566
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #13 on:
August 03, 2011, 11:43:08 am »
You're very right, I'm a purist
my biggest sin is using those beautifull BBS RS1 15" rims on my Murena, but I have original repainted wheels with new Bridgestones for meetings
I understand Your motive, but if You're going to invest Your time, effort and money, wouldn't it be for something more "efectivelly"? I mean - one friend of mine is working as a design engineer for VW group, Mercedes-Benz, etc. He will never buy a new car because he knows how much they are ripped off because of costs reductions everywhere (for ex. they are welding the chassis as short time as possible with as small voltage as is enough for NCAP tests, metal sheets are thiner and thiner and everything is done for minimise the production costs... but that's Off Topic). He owns a lot of older cars, also one Murena 2,2 which is under "reconstruction" - possibilities of my friend are very wide so he decided to improove that old 2,2 Chrysler-Simca engine. Used forged pistons, lightened piston rods, special bearings, exhaust is calculated exactly with camshaft and bigger carburetors, stiffers valve springs, etc. He spent cca 6000,- Eur and reached 230PS at 7400 rpm (if I remember good). But from outside, the engine will still look as the original
I saw a lot of modifications of Murena, some of them really far away from Murenas idea (those Honda, Mazda, Ford, etc. engines), some acceptable for me (Peugeot 505 Turbo - what in fact is an evolution of our 2,2 engine, 1,9 GTI or Mi16 - as evolution of 1,6 Murena), some of them done very cleanly, some of them are stupidly difficult and "piggy" (if it has the right sense in English language
), but realy think that there have to be some "plus" at the end suitable to Your effort.
And to Your question
I really don't believe to all these theories. Look how long we had to spend money for ecobusiness in the name of CO2 and heating of the Earth. All emision fees, taxes and restrictions, and now scientists found that CO2 aren't too much wrong and also that in fact we are going to face small Ice age. I think that there are some cycles in weather and human effect is irrelevant, or I have to say - personal car traffic, which is most taxed, has the minimal influence on it. One big ship engine produces in 1 hour same ammount of CO2 as one car in 5 years, and I have read that the biggest 10 transatlantic ships are producing more emisions than all cars all over the world. Than count airplanes, factories in China with no filters and controls, and many more. And Europoliticians will say that we have to pay, that our car produces more CO2 than new one? Do I have to believe them? It's only (eco)business, like it was for all times in history, people are still the same, so I don't think that we will be alive when there will be only electromobiles
Oil gigants will do everything to keep us dependent on them and I don't believe to politicians that there is not enaugh of oil. And at the worst, I could make a covered GPL modification
PS: but back to Murena - if You want I can find a contact to one firm in Belgium, where You'll send Your 2,2 cam + 220,-E and they will send You the 2,2 S cam - I did the same.
Last Edit: August 03, 2011, 11:53:35 am by michaltalbot
Sr. Member
Posts: 120
Re: Alfa Power (Engine conversion)
Reply #14 on:
August 03, 2011, 02:42:28 pm »
The engine from my current Peugeot 207 is a little gem and would be great in a Murena. I believe it is the same engine as that in the BMW Mini. The engine is so smooth and feels powerful even although mine is only the 88Kw model. If more power is required one of the turbo variants would make the Murena a fast and beautiful car in my opinion.
Ron Murrell
Ron Murrell
Sydney, Australia
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text:
Mapmakers' Myths and the Apple Map Fiasco
Author Simon Garfield discusses his new book, "On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks," with WSJ Weekend Review editor Gary Rosen.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... many people the day may not remember that there was a time when to get from place to place some were in the world you would have this thing called a nap ... it was a physical object you would unfold that you would hear add that someone might be your navigator while you drove around or tried to walk someplace ... that world is largely disappeared and now we have all of our gadgets are gadgets though sometimes trick us ... and our recently Apple got in big trouble for its malfunctioning map app ... someone who was acting kind of pleased by that ... is our guests today ... Mr. Simon Garfield Hosein and ... I that ... Simon is the author of a splendid new book called on the map ... a mind expanding exploration of the way of the world looks been outside in the new I think were little tickled by this whole ... I'm foul up ... with the Apple map application because I it's a kind of a useful reminder of of of ... the map making them history that you're account in your book ... it sure I've been Appelbee the harder that is also the last item to look ... for ways to need to take time and I think ... he is that I did wake up in every minute of class was kind of ... horrified this that ... and everyone else on my view ... sch ... pretty quick ... as you said you know it in my view the fact that in the US we use to be fallible ... all the time that we've come to expect in the mass great maps and a slew of that it's it's kind of interesting that we yet we we reacted the way we do when when when things go ... wrong the the the history of the things going on is ... is kind of a little bit in a mini shoot you go back to ... ancient Greece to the mass back at us in touch the needs and ... Coney ... Island song about two thousand years ago so I'm ... and they lived a long haul ... traffic a cool with ... that ... all of these mass being out of the great ... influences on how long this I'm thinking the beach time in five short time that he could ... and in fact ... you know the and ... methods that ... was that that tell us a little bit more about that because the one of the I think very amusing and interesting parts of the book ... is you're talking about how ... the the great part of the first of the past and we don't want to demean these ppl in any way when you're talking about how it is we came to know our world ... Ptolemy in a very scientific way help the salon but when Tommy didn't know precisely where something was he would ... walk she ... may be happy when they change the things I mean that ... you know the history of how so it's it's um Makers accidently app holding ... the vacuum ... they paid any in the idea that you can assume the night he wants to dream ... knowledge and ... in the twenty oh ... spaces that will blow you he's the coolest ... fill in nicely ... you know who I'm with the ... one looking wants this adds ... up and soul into making that's the ... only way to get the tissues when a ... man ... yes ... we know you and the the the way of mentioning that she ... loved it she ... was basically ... I'm that ... that you know that that that that watchmaker ... actual house and in the aviation century the full and that is ... this what can he said ... these guys they go issues around us but in the new three column ... and they knew that the US with two mph ... I'm the deal to go in and of floss ... well ... I ... got the idea of ... the time to stop and ... read ... it ... the incident the time ... we may ... see a thing and and that some in the BB we've lost a son on this with the new ... technology to support American following this history is demand out I think one of the most amusing things have to be that for more than two centuries as I understand it across hundreds of maps ... California ... was thought to be an aisle ... so so can you tell us a little bit about that ... yes ... it is upping the ante Sentra about sixty eight is up to the California with with now and it was totally fixed ... to the mainland and I wanted to be happy about that until and explode ... the the the the the the seventy ... s As entry ... when ... I'm ... one unusual with ... lenders and ... and and and it's true that God forbid it ... what he thought was that in California ... and the name ... the little that is the new netbook would go to Xinyu which was a time when the time making ... capital of the world ... I'm a bit of hundreds of massive California with ... her in the very ... beautiful thing ... it was a well I'm I'm advantages ... I didn't get a good kid and about two hundred and fifty cents from us that the law ... Congress passed the last time that it is not a Japanese man ... in ... eighteen sixty ... items that way ... many SEO ... SEO ... the eighteen sixty was found with the London just to come around to what we were talking about at the first well ... so ... Apple is going to work out of problems with its apps and leave ... depend utterly on the is the GPS ... systems and they tell us exactly where we need to go and we we we know our world ... perfectly ... with scientific certainty so so what's wrong with that what we lost ... while the ... adage that he's a GPS ... the loss of things a mess and the tentative deal of GPS now so let's ... show them some stuff to be let on and on ... Tuesday and and that's the political will to want to go see Wall E Lee this as well is that limits the map to know I ... think my kids we didn't know who took the lead and they will why should we you know it is the time it is ironic that in all the GPS ... in your top ... Annie in WA ... neo Nazis before the whole wide wide world ... and that's basically just a great ego centric way ... of looking at the low ... blows up in a contest in these small ... so that we can find a way to coast to coast without really knowing ... how we go there ... looking up ... seeing look at last ... I'm pseudo that ... both the PC at mass is well now that it's the computers they will vote the Senate and that was used ... to cool maps and you know I think today is the DiamondTouch tension in the great sausage to ... you know we we ... we really use though I did ... this to on a weekday ... this is um ... that said you know when we left on expensive Apple Mac snack medical and directed to ... long Apple some awful things ... the thing that I ... was a treat ... I would say that I wouldn't read my last full full that she she got ... a very good that Simon Garfield the author of on the map thing so much for joining us ... great Auntie ... for Wall Street Journal weekend Revue I'm Gary Rosen ...


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text:
05 July 2011
Dougall: A Reverend
In memory of Robert Dougall, Cabinetmaker
d. 27.5.1894 age 58y
Also his son James d. 5.3.1825 age 2y
Erected by his surviving son
the Rev. John Dougall,
Minister of St Andrew Scots Church, Sydney
On receiving this transcript from Scottish Monumental Inscriptions I questioned the fact that Robert, born ca.1836, could have had a son born in 1825. Project spokesperson Helen is the nicest lady imaginable and sent me a photograph of the headstone which is very clear that the cabinetmaker died in 1854.
One would expect that this monument was erected when the father died in 1854 or shortly thereafter, if John Dougall was visiting from Australia. Constructing more exercises for myself, who was this Rev John Dougall and do his ancestors relate to mine? Since I highly doubt a close relationship to my Midlothian Dougalls, I made this a purely Internet tangent.
Even though Australia does not have the only Sydney in the world, I quickly eliminated Sydney, Nova Scotia, as a target. It does have a St Andrews Church, now United Church of Canada, but its history is not revealed online.
Scots Presbyterian Church in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, was founded in 1823 by Rev. John Dunmore Lang (1799-1878). The church's website has a sketchy nineteenth-century history, mainly concerning Dunmore Lang's career. He was the first Presbyterian clergyman to serve "the Convict Colony." No other clergy names appear during his tenure, nor is Dougall's name in the list of inducted ministers post-1878. I'm thinking this doesn't necessarily exclude his being a temporary acolyte, but did he enhance his own stature on his father's gravestone?
There is no death registered for John Dougall 1854-1920 in the less-than-comprehensive "Australia Deaths and Burials 1816-1980" on FamilySearch.org. The index to Statutory Deaths in Scotland on ScotlandsPeople gave 106 results all over the map between 1855 and 1920... too much for my dwindling credits to pursue a man whose main identifier is a father called Robert. If Rev John stayed in or died in Scotland, I've no idea where he might have lived or preached.
But "Australia Death Index, 1787-1985" on Ancestry.com shows a Rev John Dougall died in 1871 in Sydney, Woolloomooloo, New South Wales: no. V18713114 102—appearing to be the official death registration number. The search results also show plain John Dougall died 1871 NSW, father ROBERT, mother SUSAN, registration place Maitland West, NSW, no. 4258. It appears the second entry is from "Australia Cemetery Index, 1808-2007" on Ancestry.
Interestingly, a Mrs Dougall died 1871 in Woolloomooloo no. V18713115 102, also registered as Susan Dougall at Maitland West NSW, no. 4261. Her parents are not named. Woolloomooloo is a district in the city of Sydney. Notice the juxtaposition of the registration numbers. Was Susan the Reverend's wife? Mother? Daughter? Did they die at the same time? And why are they buried in Maitland, about 160 km miles north of Sydney? You can see that obtaining the death certificates and/or burial information would presumably be more revealing.
Next move, back to Scotland: on the new FamilySearch.org for a parish birth/baptism for a John Dougall 1820-1840. Great ... 287 results ... all the MacDougalls and even some Douglas entries (Patience, self! this happens in some databases). No, skip that and go to the IGI at the old FamilySearch.org where I get one result (filters allowed, thank you): John was baptized 3 June 1824 in Edinburgh parish, Midlothian, son of Robert Dowgall and Susan McCulloch (OPR extraction). This does not conflict with a brother James who was born before March 1823 according to the gravestone.
Duly following up, thanks to FreeCENScotland I find John as a 16-year-old in Robert and Susan Dougall's 1841 Edinburgh household (their only child) at 39 Albany Street, and as a 26-year-old divinity student in 1851.
Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae should help me out here, but Dougall's entry was the barest possible outline: born in Edinburgh in 1824; arrived in New South Wales in 1853; served 1854 at St Andrews, Sydney, and East Maitland 1869-1871; died in 1871.[1] It seems likely he attended either Divinity School (Kirk of Scotland) at the University of Edinburgh or New College (Free Church).
One notices the odd gap in Fasti from 1854 to 1869. Or is it a gap? Maybe the entry means he was continuously at the Scots Church until his appointment to East Maitland. However, it seems the man was barely settled in Sydney when his father died, so he might have taken an extended leave in Scotland. From the Sands Directories for Sydney and New South Wales 1858-1933 (intermittent) on Ancestry I learned that Rev John Dougall was resident at 450 Kent Street, central Sydney, from 1861 to 1868. The street number fluctuated a little— 450, 452, 458, 460—Kent Street.
Did John bring his mother Susan back to Australia with him? Did he marry a Susan? Both Scottish and Australian marriage indexes were searched 1851-1861 and later. Three possibles emerged: to Agnes Isabella Laing in 1853 (Edinburgh city); Elizabeth Howarth in 1859 (Goulbourn, New South Wales); and Agnes Graham in 1861 (St Michael's, Linlithgow). There are no appropriate deaths indexed in New South Wales for Dougall women with these forenames. The directories online are not consistent enough to indicate if a "Mrs" Dougall survived him.
I have not ordered certificates, contacted the churches, or explored potential children/descendants. Any possible connection to my Dougalls will be back in the 18th century or earlier.
Were John and Susan the victims of a local accident or mutual illness? If I had the precise dates of deaths, I could search the Sydney Morning Herald, digitised at Australia Trove by the National Library.
A one-dimensional exercise has minimally placed the Reverend in the location where, ca.1854, he said he was. It seems a shame he must have served a congregation that may now have no collective memory of him.
[1] Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, vol. VII (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1928), 587; digital image, Internet Archive (http://www.archives.org/ : accessed 1 July 2011), 587.
7 comments:
- Judy Webster said...
An interesting story. What a shame that civil registration in New South Wales did not begin until 1 March 1856.
- Tuesday, 25 October, 2011
- BDM said...
Thanks for coming by, Judy. You have an amazing website! My indirect connections with Oz all seem to be in NSW.
- Tuesday, 25 October, 2011
- dewi said...
Hi Brenda;
I am new to the Dougall ancestry world, but over the past few months I have been trying to research my Dougall ancestors.
I live in Nova Scotia, my father, John F. Dougall, immigrated to Canada from Aberystwyth Wales when he was 19.
John F. Dougall was born in 1907, to parents William Stuart Dougall and Rose Emily Anne Jones.
His siblings were William Thomas Dougall, Rose Emily Dougall, Violet Clara Dougall, Georgina Lucy Dougall and Rosie Dougall.
My father's sister, Rose Emily Dougall immigrated to Quebec in 1926 but relocated to Nova Scotia soon afterwards.
My father changed his surname from Dougall to McDougall in 1927, when he arrived in Canada, then in the early 50's he changed it again to MacDougall.
I am in the process in researching the Dougall family history, which is not an easy task, as we all know.
My great grandfather, James Stewart Dougall was born in Paisley Scotland.
Any assistance in finding out about my ancestors would be greatly appreciated
Thank you,
J.David MacDougall
- Sunday, 13 November, 2011
- BDM said...
David, none of your Dougalls look familiar to me although I'm aware of some in & around Glasgow preceding the time my ancestor emigrated. You have already made progress by 'reaching' your gt-grandfather in Paisley, Scotland. Best wishes!
- Friday, 18 November, 2011
- Unknown said...
Death notices found at Trove.
DEATHS. On the 13th instant, at the manse, East Maitland, after a few days' illness, the Rev. JOHN DOUGALL, aged 46 years. (Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 15 June 1871, page 1)
Died at the Manse, East Maitland, on the 19th instant, Mrs. Susan Dougall, relict of the late Mr. Robert Dougall, Edinburgh, and mother of the late Rev. John Dougall, minister of St. Stephen's Church, East Maitland, aged 76 years. (Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), Tuesday 20 June 1871, page 1)
- Sunday, 05 March, 2017
- BDM said...
Isn't that great? Thank you, Jean Ffrench, I am grateful! That clears up the relationship of son and mother. And six days between their deaths. Maybe the proximity was coincidence, or else a contagious illness could have hit the neighbourhood.
- Tuesday, 07 March, 2017
- Henri Quin said...
In Trove, under NSW Government Gazettes, Fri 30 Jan 1857 there is a list of ministers of religion registered for celebration of marriages in the colony. Dougall John, Church of Scotland , Kent St. South is listed.
It is interesting that you mention John Dougall lived for a while in Wooloomooloo, as there was an important breakaway Presbyterian Church from the Scots Church on Church Hill, Sydney, established at Wooloomooloo, in Palmer St.
And very curiously, Dougall is not in the index of the authoritative biography of John Dunmore Lang, Days of Wrath. I am really puzzled by this. I am trying to find out where someone I am researching was married, all I had was Kent St. South, but now I am grateful to have some precise numbers to focus on in my search of that long street. Thanks
- Saturday, 30 March, 2019


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Toma elected to Royals Hall of Fame
Legendary groundskeeper becomes Hall's 25th member
"The cheapest insurance for any athlete is a good, safe playing surface."
This simple philosophy is why George Toma has overseen every Super Bowl field, was named a consultant for the 1984 and 1996 Olympic Games, has worked NFL games in London, Tokyo, Berlin, Barcelona and Mexico and soccer's World Cup. He is the most influential groundskeeper in professional team sports history, and is widely remembered for his work in Kansas City. Today, the Kansas City Royals are proud to announce the "Nitty Gritty Dirt Man" as the 25th member of the Royals Hall of Fame.
Toma is the first inductee elected through the Royals Hall of Fame Veterans Committee, which is part of a redesigned voting process established in 2011. The veterans committee vote -- taken in even numbered years -- considers the candidacy of non-field personnel in addition to players and managers no longer eligible for election by regular phase of Royals Hall of Fame voting. The committee consists of 16 members, comprised of select Royals Hall of Fame members, Royals' executives and members of the media. Candidates must be named on at least 75 percent of all ballots cast to be elected.
Toma was born Feb. 2, 1929, in the coal mining town of Edwardsville, Pa. After losing his father to black lung disease at the age of 10, Toma worked odd jobs to help support his mother and sister before getting his big break in groundskeeping. His neighbor, Stan Schleker, was the groundskeeper for the Wilkes-Barre Barons -- a Minor League affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Schleker hired Toma when he was 13. The Barons played at Artillery Park, the site of where Babe Ruth hit the longest home run of his career, a long ball that traveled more than 600 feet during an exhibition game.
Legendary baseball owner Bill Veeck bought the Indians in 1946. He promoted Toma to head groundskeeper. At that time, the Indians were generally regarded as having the best groundskeeper in baseball, a man named Emil Bossard. Toma spent several Spring Trainings learning from Bossard.
In 1950, Toma was drafted, and he served two years in Korea as part of the 15th Field Artillery, Second Division. After the Korean War, he returned to Wilkes-Barre and continued working as a groundskeeper at Artillery Field. In 1955, Toma moved to the Detroit Tigers AAA affiliate -- the Buffalo Bisons. He continued to move up the ranks, but just like any Minor League ballplayer, he had Major League ambitions.
Park Carroll, general manager of the Kansas City Athletics, called Toma in 1957 and offered him a job as the head groundskeeper. Kansas City's Municipal Stadium enjoyed an iconic history, but it was widely ridiculed as having the worst playing surface in baseball.
He also received an offer from Bob Howsman, the owner of the Denver Bears -- the New York Yankees AAA affiliate.
Howsman offered Toma a chance to work with the Bears in Denver for a year. Afterward, he'd be promoted to work at Yankee Stadium in New York. Toma called his mentor, Bossard, and received this response:
"Son, let me tell you, don't go. There's no drainage or irrigation in the springtime, so it floods you out. In the summertime, it gets so hot that it bakes you out."
Toma decided to take the job in Kansas City.
How do you fix a field on less than a shoestring budget? Toma and his crew, which consisted of one full-time person and students from Lincoln and Central High Schools, gathered broken seats and cardboard and sold it for cash to buy seed and cow manure to help the grass grow. The field quickly turned around thanks to Toma's creativity, and he was soon receiving job offers from other teams. He turned down more lucrative opportunities because he loved Kansas City and appreciated the support of new Athletics owner Charlie Finley. Finley was never a Kansas City favorite, but he treated Toma and his grounds crew with utmost respect.
Luckily for Toma, Finley was his boss when the Chiefs moved to Kansas City in 1963. His first interaction with Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt was in 1962. Toma saw a man he didn't know walking on the field and ran over and gave him the riot act. An hour later, Mayor Roe Bartle stepped out of a limousine with Jack Steadman, president of the Dallas Texans (future Kansas City Chiefs), and Hunt, whom Toma had just yelled at earlier in the day. There were no hard feelings after the incident, and Toma was glad to have the challenge of prepping the field for both baseball and football. Just as the field received rave reviews from baseball players, football players called it the best field in football. Soccer matches were also occasionally played on the field, and the legendary Pele called it the second best soccer field he had ever played. Toma's growing reputation earned him the job of prepping the field for the first Super Bowl at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1967.
When the Chiefs moved to Arrowhead in 1972 and the Royals to Royals Stadium in 1973, Toma worked with both teams. Having the best groundskeeper in sports in charge of artificial surface fields left many people wondering if his talents were being wasted. Fans came up with bumper stickers and banners reading "Let George Do It!" But Toma, being a team player, dutifully took care of the turf, landscaping and even Royals founder Ewing Kauffman's lawn.
Toma worked on artificial turf before and knew there was much more to maintenance than just cleaning it with a vacuum. The original turf at Royals Stadium lasted only one year before it had to be replaced. However, the replacement lasted well beyond its prescribed lifetime because of the work and dedication of Toma and his crew. When Kauffman Stadium advanced to natural grass, Toma was there to help make it perfect. The lush green grass took the ballpark from beautiful to nearly perfect on Opening Day 1995, and, fittingly, Toma threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Toma remained with the Royals and Chiefs until he retired in 1997. While with the Royals he worked the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, NFL games, the 1984 and 1996 Olympic Games, 1994 World Cup, 1997 Maccabee Games in Israel and a countless number of consultant jobs. In post-retirement, he still works the Super Bowl and is now in charge of the Minnesota Twins Spring Training fields in Ft. Myers, Fla. In 2001, he was honored by the Professional Football Hall of Fame with the Daniel F. Reeves Pioneer award -- just one the many honors and accolades awarded for his unprecedented career.
The Royals Hall of Fame is honored to salute the career of this Kansas City legend and true sports pioneer -- the man George Brett says is simply:
"The greatest groundskeeper is the history of the game."
On Aug. 31, 2012, at Kauffman Stadium, Toma will take his rightful place in the Royals Hall of Fame.


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DMX Speaks On Reuniting With Swizz Beatz! (Ruff Ryders Album)
XXL reports "While the Dog didnt offer too many details about his much anticipated reunion album with the Ruff Ryders, he says they have already been in the studio and recorded new tracks."
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There was an interesting article in The Guardian on Saturday 20th July, reporting on 25 "anti-aging fixes - without surgery". What a relief to find someone writing about cosmetic surgery not being the first resort in their fight against the effects of living longer. Unfortunately, it's not all good. The fact that the writer is only 38 and a half is a little dispiriting,
Silver Grey Mountain Bikers
When the Tour de France 2013 entered its third and final week and was about to finish in Paris, so our thoughts turned to two-wheeled sports.
We came across these two stories about people well into Silver Grey territory, but mountain bikers rather than road cyclists.
Was it me or was it the way it was written?
Had a short trip in mid-July to the waves of North Cornwall, where we were on the hunt for some Silver Grey stories.
The Guardian has this story about 6 professional athletes who continued their careers way past the age at which most people are able to keep up with their younger competitors.
Tom Woodring is a 62-year-old who plays semi-pro football...
Here's a great story courtesy of BBC NewsOnline http://news.bbc.co.uk . Canadian Olga Kotelko is 91 and she took up Track and Field Athletics at the age of 77.
Surfing's for kids, right? Have look at this - and think again
The ski resort of Val d'Isère has a system of rewarding long-time regular clients with "Médailles de Fidélité" (Loyalty Medals). Every year they have a "Fête des Médaillés" consisting of giant slalom races and a prize-giving ceremony later in the day.
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Paleontologist Donald Johanson's account of the discovery of the creature now known popularly as "Lucy" reads like a Hollywood script that is full of mystery, excitement, and emotion. In his own words, "Lucy was utterly mind-boggling" (Johanson and Edey, 1981, p. 180). He tells of feeling a strong subconscious "urge" to go (with American graduate student Tom Gray) plot an area of Hadar, Ethiopia, known as "locality 162." The superstitious paleontologist even recalls writing in his daily diary that he was "feeling good" about the day. So, on November 30, 1974, Johanson (who was serving at the time as the director of the Cleveland, Ohio, Museum of Natural History) and Mr. Gray loaded up in a Land Rover and headed out. After several hours of surveying in 100+ degree heat, the two decided to head back. However, on returning to their vehicle, Johanson suggested they take an alternate route in order to survey the bottom of a nearby gully. Johanson wrote: "It had been thoroughly checked out at least twice before by other workers, who had found nothing interesting. Nevertheless, conscious of the 'lucky' feeling that had been with me since I woke, I decided to make that small final detour."
Buried in the sandy hillside of the slope was an arm bone—the single bone that eventually led to the unearthing of a skeleton that was nearly 40% complete. While the description of this now-famous find might lead one to think that it was similar to some serendipitous treasure unearthed in a movie script, the truth is far from that. The fossils Dr. Johanson unearthed were destined to become one of the most famous (and most controversial) finds of all time, and would shake every single limb on the alleged hominid family tree, completely upsetting then-current theories about how man came to be bipedal. Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin wrote of the find: "Johanson had stumbled on a skeleton that was about 40% complete, something that is unheard of in human prehistory farther back than about a hundred thousand years. Johanson's hominid had died at least 3 million years ago" (1978, p. 67, emp. added). But, as additional studies were carried out, it became obvious that this "missing link" was "too good to be true."
Dr. Johanson named his find Australopithecus afarensis—the southern ape from the Afar depression of northeastern Ethiopia (Johanson, et al., 1978, 28:8). The creature quickly earned the nickname "Lucy," after the Beatles' song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which was said to be playing all through the celebratory night back at Johanson's camp. The fossil, officially designated as AL 288-1, consisted of skull fragments, a lower jaw, ribs, an arm bone, a portion of a pelvis, a thighbone, and fragments of shinbones. It was said to be an adult, and was dated at 3.5 million years. [Johanson also found at Hadar the remains of some 34 adults and 10 infants, all of which he dated at 3.5 million years.] In their assessment of exactly where this new species fit in, Johanson and colleague Tim White took pride in noting: "These new hominid fossils, recovered since 1973, constitute the earliest definitive evidence of the family Hominidae" (1979, 203:321). Not only was this fossil find unusually complete, but it also was believed to have been from an animal that walked in an upright fashion, as well as being the oldest human ancestor—the equivalent of a grand slam in baseball.
Having collected the fossils, Johanson and White were responsible for publishing their descriptions, as well as giving their interpretation of exactly how they fit into the hominid family tree. Not wanting to waste valuable space on the description of A. afarensis in one of the major science journals, they ultimately decided to publish it in Kirtlandia, a relatively obscure publication of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Then, in what was either an extremely naïve (albeit zealous) move, or a calculated and ambitious one, Johanson and White decided to bump the Leakey's prized Australopithecus africanus off the main hominid tree and replace it with A. afarensis (for their full assessment, see Johanson and White, 1979). Leakey's A. africanus was relegated to a tangential side branch that went—literally—nowhere. This decision eventually would weigh heavily on Lucy as she fell under attack from scientists who felt she was nothing more than another example of A. africanus—or worse, an animal with numerous chimp-like qualities.
One of the ironic discoveries regarding Lucy had to do with the size of her skull. Prior to her discovery, evolutionists had assumed that these ape-like species had evolved larger brains, which then allowed them to crawl down out of the trees and begin foraging for food on the ground. According to evolutionary timelines, the creatures adopted bipedalism as their primary form of transportation, and once on the ground, began to use tools. Lucy, as it happened, took this nice, neat little story and turned it upside down. Her brain case was not enlarged. In fact, from all appearances, it was comparable in size to the common chimpanzee. And yet, Johanson and White steadfastly defended the position that this creature walked uprightly like man. They noted:
Bipedalism appears to have been the dominant form of terrestrial locomotion employed by the Hadar and Laetoli [in Tanzania—BH/BT] hominids. Morphological features associated with this locomotor mode are clearly manifested in these hominids, and for this reason the Laetoli and Hadar hominid remains are unequivocally assigned to the family Hominidae (Johanson and White, 1979, 203:325, emp. added).
Dr. Johanson insisted that A. afarensis was the direct ancestor of man (see Johanson and Edey, 1981). In fact, the phrase "the dramatic discovery of our oldest human ancestor" can be found emblazoned on the cover of his 1981 book, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind. Numerous evolutionists, however, strongly disagree. Lord Solly Zuckerman, the famous British anatomist, published his views on the australopithecines in his book, Beyond the Ivory Tower. He studied these creatures for more than fifteen years, and came to the conclusion that if man did, in fact, descend from an apelike ancestor, he did so without leaving a single visible trace in the fossil record (1970, p. 64). Some might complain, "But Lord Zuckerman's work was done before Lucy was even discovered." True, but that misses the point. Zuckerman's research—which established conclusively that the australopithecines were nothing but knuckle-walking apes—was performed on fossils younger (i.e., closer to man) than Lucy!
And therein lies the controversy. If Lucy and her descendants were discovered to be nothing more than apes (or chimps), then all of Johanson's fame and fortune would vanish instantly—like an early morning fog hit by a hot noonday Sun. Remember—this single discovery made Johanson's career. Upon returning the entire Hadar hominid fossil collection to the National Museum in Ethiopia (as he previously had agreed to do), Johanson recounted:
Lucy had been mine for five years. The most beautiful, the most nearly complete, the most extraordinary hominid fossil in the world, she had slept in my office safe all that time. I had written papers about her, appeared on television, made speeches. I had shown her proudly to a stream of scientists from all over the world. She had—I knew it—hauled me up from total obscurity into the scientific limelight (Johanson and Edey, 1981, p. 374, emp. added).
Thus, one can understand why he would have such a vested interest in keeping this fossil upright and walking on two feet. If others were to discover that Lucy was not a biped, then her hominid status would be called into question—something far less rewarding for Dr. Johanson, professionally speaking.
Did Johanson examine the evidence prior to making his decision about Lucy's ability to walk uprightly? Or was Lucy "upright" and "walking" even before all of her fossils were uncovered—i.e., from the moment that single arm bone buried in the sand was discovered? Johanson admitted that, immediately after seeing the single arm bone, "This time I knew at once I was looking at a hominid elbow. I had to convince Tom, whose first reaction was that it was a monkey's" (Johanson, et al., 1994, p. 60, emp. added). However, as more and more researchers gained access to the fossils (or replicas thereof), Lucy's "hominid" status began to be questioned—seriously questioned!
We would like for you to examine the evidence regarding this famous fossil find, and then determine for yourself whether Lucy and her kin were, in fact, our ancestors—or merely ancient apes or chimps. As a start, consider the following anatomical discoveries that have been made since Johanson's initial declaration of Lucy as a entirely new hominid species.
A great deal of the "hype" regarding Lucy has been pure speculation from the very beginning. In fact, incredible though it may seem, even the gender of the creature is now being called into question. Johanson's original assessment was: "The most complete adult skeleton is that of AL 288-1 ('Lucy'). The small body size of this evidently female individual (about 3.5 to 4.0 feet in height) is matched by some other postcranial remains..." (Johanson and White, 1979, 203:324). And yet, in his original review, Johanson's description of postcranial [below the skull—BH/BT] data was both speculative and deficient. Johanson and his colleagues recorded "strong dimorphism in body size; all skeletal elements with high level of robusticity in muscle and tendon insertion; pelvic region and lower limbs indicate adaptation to bipedal locomotion..." (Johanson, et al., 1978, 28:7-8). It was from the shattered fragments of the pelvis that Donald Johanson interpreted the AL 288-1 fossils as being those of a female—primarily due to the diminutive size. But these bones were far from being problematic. As Hausler and Schmid discovered:
The sacrum and the auricular region of the ilium are shattered into numerous small fragments, such that the original form is difficult to elucidate. Hence it is not surprising that the reconstructions by Lovejoy and Schmid show marked differences (1995, 29:363).
In regard to Lucy's pelvis, Johanson affirmed:
Lucy's wider sacrum and shallower pelvis gave her a smaller, kidney-shaped birth canal, compared to that of modern females. She didn't need a large one because her newborn infant's brain wouldn't have been any larger than a chimpanzee infant's brain (Johanson, et al., 1994, p. 66).
That admission begs the question as to why this fossil was not categorized from the outset as simply a chimpanzee. But this gender declaration poses additional problems for Lucy. As Hausler and Schmid went on to note: "If AL 288-1 was female, then one can exclude this species from the ancestors of Homo because its pelvis is certainly less primitive than the pelvis of Sts 14 [the designation for a specific A. africanus fossil—BH/BT]" (1995, p. 378). Both of the pelvises mentioned display some degree of damage, and both are missing critical parts, but it should be noted that in regard to the Lucy fossil, more than one attempt was made at reconstruction.
After various reconstructions of the inlet and midplane of Lucy's pelvis, along with comparisons to other fossils and modern humans, it became evident that the shape of Lucy's pelvis was not structured correctly for the eventuality of a birth process. The pelvis was just too narrow to accommodate an australopithecine fetus. Hausler and Schmid noted that Lucy's pelvis was ridgeless and heart-shaped, which means that "she" was more likely a "he." They wrote:
Contrary to Sts 14 [designation for a specific A. africanus fossil—BH/BT], delivery [of a baby—BH/BT] in AL 288-1 would have been more complicated than in modern humans, if not impossible, due to the protruding promontorium.... Consequently, there is more evidence to suggest that AL 288-1 was male rather than female. A female of the same species as AL 288-1 would have had a pelvis with a larger sagittal diameter and a less protruding sacral promontorium.... Overall, the broader pelvis and the more laterally oriented iliac blades of AL 288-1 would produce more favourable insertion sites for the climbing muscles in more heavily built males.... It would perhaps be better to change the trivial name to "Lucifer" according to the old roman god who brings light after the dark night, because with such a pelvis "Lucy" would apparently have been the last of her species (29:380, emp. added).
This declaration produced an immediate reaction from the evolutionist community, as many scientists worked diligently to try to defend Lucy. If Hausler and Schmid's conclusion is correct, then this implies that the equivalent female of this species would be even smaller—something unheard of in trying to compare this creature to modern-day humans! Lucy's pelvis is not what it should be for an upright-walking hominid—but the dimensions fall easily within primates found among the family Pongidae (apes).
But what do Lucy's arms and legs tell us in regard to her locomotion? If she were a biped, surely her upper and lower extremities would point to an upright stance. After all, the bone that led to Johanson's discovery of Lucy was that of an arm. Yet the bony framework that composes Lucy's wrists may be the most telling factor of all. Brian Richmond and David Strait of George Washington University experienced what many might call a "eureka!" moment while going through some old papers on primate physiology at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
"We saw something that talked about special knuckle walking adaptations in modern African apes," Dr. Richmond said. "I could not remember ever seeing anything about wrists in fossil hominids...Across the hall was a cast of the famous fossil Lucy. We ran across and looked at it and bingo, it was clear as night and day" (see BBC News, 2000).
The March 29, 2000 San Diego Union Tribune reported:
A chance discovery made by looking at a cast of the bones of "Lucy," the most famous fossil of Australopithecus afarensis, shows her wrist is stiff, like a chimpanzee's, Brian Richmond and David Strait of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., reported. This suggests that her ancestors walked on their knuckles (Fox, 2000).
Richmond and Strait discovered that knuckle-walking apes have a mechanism that locks the wrist into place in order to stabilize this joint. In their report, they noted: "Here we present evidence that fossils attributed to Australopithecus anamensis (KNM-ER-20419) and A. afarensis (AL 288-1) retain specialized wrist morphology associated with knuckle-walking" (2000, 404:382, parenthetical item in orig.). They went on to observe:
Pre-bipedal locomotion is probably best characterized as a repertoire consisting of terrestrial knuckle-walking, arboreal climbing, and occasional suspensory activities, not unlike that observed in chimpanzees today. This raises the question of why bipedalism would evolve from an ancient ancestor already adapted to terrestrial locomotion, and is consistent with models relating the evolution of bipedalism to a change in feeding strategies and novel non-locomotor uses of the hands (404:384).
Moreover, additional evidence has come to light which suggests that Lucy is little more than a chimpanzee. Johanson and his coworkers admitted in an article in the March 31, 1994 issue of Nature that Lucy possessed chimp-proportioned arm bones (see Kimbel, et al., 1994) and that her alleged descendants (e.g., A. africanus and H. habilis) had ape-like limb proportions as well—which is a clear indication that she did not evolve into something "more human."
Not only have Lucy's wrists and arm-bones been called into question, but there also is a mountain of evidence that demonstrates this creature was better adapted for swinging through the trees, like modern-day chimps. After thoroughly examining A. afarensis fossils, Stern and Susman remarked: "It is demonstrated that A. afarensis possessed anatomic characteristics that indicate a significant adaptation for movement in the trees" (1983, 60:280). They went on to comment: "The AL 333-91 [designation for a specific A. afarensis fossil—BH/BT] pisiform [bone of the hand—BH/BT] is 'elongate and rod shaped' and thus resembles the long, projecting pisiform of apes and monkeys" (60:281, emp. added).
Stern and Susman's research detailed the fact that the hands and feet of A. afarensis are devoid of the normal human qualities assigned to hands and feet. Instead, their research demonstrated that these creatures had long, curved fingers and toes typical of arboreal primates. [In reading through the following descriptions of the fossils, bear in mind that the zoo in St. Louis, Missouri, proudly displays a life-size replica of Lucy with perfectly formed human hands and feet.]
Stern and Susman commented: "The overall morphology of metacarpals II-V [bones that comprise the hand—BH/BT] is similar to that of chimpanzees and, therefore, might be interpreted as evidence of developed grasping capabilities to be used in suspensory behavior [swinging in trees—BH/BT]" (60:283). In looking at the morphology of the fingers, they affirmed:
The markedly curved proximal phalanges [bones of the fingers—BH/BT] indicate adaptation for suspensory and climbing activities which require powerful grasping abilities.... The trapezium [bone at the base of the first digit—BH/BT] and first metacarpal are very chimpanzee-like in relative size and shape.... Enlarged metacarpal heads and the mildly curved, parallel-sided shafts are two such features of the Hadar metacarpals not seen in human fingers. The distal phalanges, too, retain ape-like features in A. afarensis.... On the other hand, the Hadar fossil falls within the range of each ape and less than 1 SD [standard deviation—BH/BT] unit away from the means of gorilla and orangutan (60:284).
In their concluding remarks, Stern and Susman remarked:
It will not have escaped the reader's attention that the great bulk of evidence supports the view that the Hadar hominid was to a significant degree arboreal.... We discovered a substantial body of evidence indicating that arboreal activities were so important to A. afarensis that morphologic adaptations permitting adept movement in the trees were maintained (60:313).
In the September 9, 1994 issue of Science, Randall Susman reported that the chimp-like thumbs in A. afarensis were far better suited for tree climbing than tool making (Susman, 1994). Lucy also possessed a nonhuman gait, based on ratio of leg size to foot size (see Oliwenstein, 1995, 16[1]:42). One researcher even went so far as to suggest that A. afarensis was little more than a failed experiment in ape bipedalism, and as such, should be consigned to a side branch of the human evolutionary tree (as reported by Shreeve, 1996). So not only were Lucy's ribs and pelvis wrong, but her limbs also were physiologically more conducive to swinging around in treetops.
One of Donald Johanson's specialties is identifying differences within the teeth of alleged hominids. In fact, in his original description, he gave a great deal of attention to the dentition of A. afarensis. By measuring the various differences in molars and canines, he systematically assigned various fossils to predetermined groups. However, even his highly trained eyes may have missed some important microscopic data. Anthropologist Alan Walker has been working on ways of possibly determining behavior based on evidence from the fossil record. One of his methods includes quantitative analysis of tooth microwear. Using image enhancement and optical diffraction methods of scanning, Walker believes he might be able to reconstruct ancient diets from paleontological samples. In speaking of Walker's material, Johanson noted:
Dr. Alan Walker of Johns Hopkins has recently concluded that the polishing effect he finds on the teeth of robust australopithecines and modern chimpanzees indicates that australopithecines, like chimps, were fruit eaters.... If they were primarily fruit eaters, as Walker's examination of their teeth suggests they were, then our picture of them, and of the evolutionary path they took, is wrong (Johanson and Edey, 1981, p. 358).
So we now have impressive evidence that Lucy and her kin ate fruit from trees, rather than foraging for food on the ground.
Due to the impossibility of reconstructing Lucy's skull from the few fragments available, the determination that Lucy walked uprightly like a human had to be derived from her hips and ribs. Peter Schmid, a paleontologist at the Anthropological Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, studied Lucy extensively, and summarized his efforts as follows.
When I started to put the skeleton together, I expected it to look human. Everyone had talked about Lucy as being very modern, very human, so I was surprised by what I saw. I noticed that the ribs were more round in cross-section, more like what you see in apes. Human ribs are flatter in cross-section. But the shape of the rib cage itself was the biggest surprise of all. The human rib cage is barrel shaped, and I just couldn't get Lucy's ribs to fit this kind of shape. But I could get them to make a conical-shaped rib cage, like what you see in apes (as quoted in Leakey and Lewin, 1992, pp. 193-194).
Ribs can be "tweaked" and rotated so that they appear more "barrel-like" or conical, but the best (and correct) arrangement is the original morphology. The facets from the ribs that line up on the vertebrae provide a tighter fit when aligned correctly. In Lucy's case, her ribs are conical, like those found in apes.
When Lucy first arrived on the scene, newsmagazines such as Time and National Geographic noted that she had a head shaped like an ape, with a brain capacity the size of a large chimp's—about one-third the size of a modern man's. In an article that appeared in New Scientist, evolutionist Jeremy Cherfas noted: "Lucy, alias Australopithecus afarensis, had a skull very like a chimpanzee's, and a brain to match" (1983, 93:172). Adrienne Zihlman observed: "Lucy's fossil remains match up remarkably well with the bones of a pygmy chimp" (1984, 104:39). It should be no surprise then, that in Stern and Susman's 1983 analysis of afarensis, they pointed out:
These findings of ours, in conjunction with Christie's (1977), observation on enhanced rotation at the tibio-talar joint in AL 288-1, Tardieu's (1979) deductions about greater voluntary rotation at the knee in AL 288-1, Senut's (1981) and Feldesman's (1982a) claims that the humerus of AL 288-1 is pongid in certain of its features, and Feldesman's (1982b) demonstration that the ulna of AL 288-1 is most similar to that of Pan paniscus [a chimp—BH/BT], all seem to lead ineluctably to the conclusion that the Hadar hominid was vitally dependent on the trees for protection and/or sustenance (60:311).
All of these characteristics led inevitably to the conclusion that Lucy was simply a chimp-like creature. And yet, more than a decade earlier, Charles Oxnard, while at the University of Chicago, already had passed judgment on these creatures. His multivariate computer analyses indicated that the australopithecines were, in fact, nothing but knuckle-walking animals (1975).
You might well be asking yourself why this charade has been allowed to go on this long. The answer—woven around power, fame, and money—can be found in Johanson's own words.
There is no such thing as a total lack of bias. I have it; everybody has it. The fossil hunter in the field has it.... In everybody who is looking for hominids, there is a strong urge to learn more about where the human line started. If you are working back at around three million, as I was, that is very seductive, because you begin to get an idea that that is where Homo did start. You begin straining your eyes to find Homo traits in fossils of that age.... Logical, maybe, but also biased. I was trying to jam evidence of dates into a pattern that would support conclusions about fossils which, on closer inspection, the fossils themselves would not sustain (Johanson and Edey, 1981, pp. 257,258, emp. added).
He went on to admit: "It is hard for me now to admit how tangled in that thicket I was. But the insidious thing about bias is that it does make one deaf to the cries of other evidence" (p. 277).
Some are asking if A. afarensis is more primitive than A. africanus, or if they are one and the same? Others point to the many chimp-like features, and question whether Lucy ever walked upright at all? But, in the March 1996 issue of National Geographic, Donald Johanson himself admitted: "Lucy has recently been dethroned" (189[3]:117, emp. added). His (and Lucy's) "fifteen minutes of fame" are over. As Lee Berger declared: "One might say we are kicking Lucy out of the family tree" (as quoted in Shreeve, 1996). Fascinating, how often the hominid family tree is pruned!
BBC News (2000), "Ancestors Walked on Knuckles," [On-line], URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/687341.stm.
Cherfas, Jeremy (1983), "Trees Have Made Man Upright," New Scientist, 93:172-178, January 20.
Fox, Maggie (2000), "Man's Early Ancestors Were Knuckle Walkers," San Diego Union Tribune, Quest Section; March 29.
Hausler, Martin and Peter Schmid (1995), "Comparison of the Pelvis of Sts 14 and AL 288-1: Implications for Birth and Sexual Dimorphism in Australopithecines," Journal of Human Evolution, 29:363-383.
Johanson, Donald C. (1996), "Face-to-Face with Lucy's Family," National Geographic, 189[3]:96-117, March.
Johanson, Donald C. and Maitland Edey (1981), Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind (New York: Simon & Schuster).
Johanson, Donald C., Lenora Johanson, and Blake Edgar, (1994) Ancestors: In Search of Human Origins (New York: Villard Books).
Johanson, Donald C. and Tim D. White (1979), "A Systematic Assessment of Early African Hominids," Science, 203:321-330, January 26.
Johanson, Donald C., Tim D. White, and Yves Coppens (1978), "A New Species of the Genus Australopithecus (Primates: Hominidae) from the Pliocene of Eastern Africa," Kirtlandia, 28:2-14.
Kimbel, William, Donald C. Johanson, and Yoel Rak (1994), "The First Skull and Other New Discoveries of Australopithecus afarensis at Hadar, Ethiopia," Nature, 368:449-451, March 31.
Leakey, Richard and Roger Lewin (1978), People of the Lake (New York: E.P. Dutton).
Leakey, Richard and Roger Lewin (1992), Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human (New York: Doubleday).
Oliwenstein, Lori (1995), "Lucy's Walk," Discover, 16[1]:42, January.
Oxnard, Charles (1975), "The Place of the Australopithecines in Human Evolution: Grounds for Doubt?," Nature, 258:389-395, December.
Richmond, Brian G. and David S. Strait (2000), "Evidence that Humans Evolved from a Knuckle-Walking Ancestor," Nature, 404:382-385, March 23.
Shreeve, James (1996), "New Skeleton Gives Path from Trees to Ground an Odd Turn," Science, 272:654, May 3.
Stern, Jack T. Jr. and Randall L. Susman (1983), "The Locomotor Anatomy of Australopithecus afarensis," Journal of Physical Anthropology, 60:279-317.
Susman, Randall L. (1994), "Fossil Evidence for Early Hominid Tool Use," Science, 265:1570-1573, September 9.
Zihlman, Adrienne (1984), "Pygmy Chimps, People, and the Pundits," New Scientist, 104:349-40, November 15.
Zuckerman, Solly (1970), Beyond the Ivory Tower (New York: Taplinger).


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How did you first become interested in your specialty?
My background in engineering, journalism, psychology, communication all come together in my area of interest—user aspects of media interfaces.
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The most exciting part of my job is that I teach and do research on new media, which, as the name implies, continue to be new all the time!
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My web page (http://comm.psu.edu/people/sss12) features a video that shows my leisure activity as a jazz DJ.
Title: Distinguished Professor and Co-Director, Media Effects Research Laboratory
Last Updated November 17, 2009


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Video: Jon Stewart Calls for a Pizza Truce...But Not Before Getting in Some Final Digs
In the ongoing battle between Jon Stewart and what seems like all of Chicago, the Daily Show aired the latest installment last night in a three-part series called "Strife of Pie."
For those of you out of the loop, a brief recap: last week Jon Stewart launched into a tirade that can only be described as epic, decrying Chicago pizza. Understandably, the response was immediate and intense—offended local news outlets, defensive Chicagoans, Rahm Emmanuel's taunting instagram, and a visit to NYC by Marc Malnati, of Chicago pizza institution Lou Malnati's.
Some sort of comeback on Stewart's part was inevitable, and comeback he's delivered. The gist of his response to the various complainers? Get over it and do your jobs. The premise of the second segment (featuring Steve Buscemi, Matthew Broderick, Jason Jones, and Michael Strahan) is that pizza isn't just pizza to New Yorkers—it's magic.
In the final segment, Stewart takes Marc Malnati up on his offer, bringing him onstage bearing deep dish pizza. A few bites of Marc's "very tasty" pizza are enough, and Stewart calls for a truce between the two cities (but not without casting some shade on California pizza right at the end).
Is it enough? Apology accepted? Did he capitulate too easily? Wherever you stand, have at it in the comments!
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