What are your experiences, interests and areas of expertise?

[_gramps]

Hi. I'm 48 years young (trying to keep up with Harmony in the "young" department).

By the way, Happy Birthday to "that other guy."

Born in D.C. Raised in SLC. Served a mission in England.

Undergraduate degree in British Literature, with a minor in Philosophy.

Law degree from the Midwest, somewhere.

Lived in Japan (10 years) and now in Germany (3 years). Teaching at the university here in town and at another in a different part of Germany, not too far away.

When the weather warms up, you can find me on the sandstone, climbing, in one of the most famous climbing spots in the world.

Currently, working on a paper for possible publishing, reviewing the 1st amendment religion clause and and its relation to tort liability (right now, just church court punishment/excommunication procedures) against churches in the u.s. (a state-by-state and federal district review).

I like to travel as much as possible. I've been to Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Nepal, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, most of Europe (haven't been to Spain and Portugal yet), Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Last summer walked 33 days from Venice to Munich through the Dolomites. This August, flying to China and crossing into Kyrgystan for some mountain trekking.

Resigned formally from the Mormon church last year (out for 20 years).

[_Mary]

I have published one article on the origins of GPS which has stirred up things and am working on another one. The number of deceptive and just wrong statements which have been published is just amazing. Some are by people exaggerating or making up their achievements. Others are written out of ignorance.

Richard

Richard, I just asked my husband for a quick over-view. Not about the invention of GPS which he said came out of the American defence program, but how it was used. He was saying that Plessy were working on their own version about 15 years back. Also, that the Americans (when they made it public under Clinton) limited the accuracy somewhat, which some company's got around anyway. He was also saying that the Americans have insisted that all mobiles must be traceable (post 9/11 among other things), though the technology is there at the moment to locate at an accuracy of about 100m.

Thoughts!!!

Mary

[_Jersey Girl]

Yay!! This is fantastic...

Anyone else want to chime in. What about you Dr Shades. You have always been a bit of a mystery (to me anyways!).
Any chance of (just a little) background!!!

Oh, I kind of like the mystery of Dr. Shades! Thanks, Miss Taken for creating this thread, it's great to read about the background of folks on the board!

Jersey Girl

[_richardMdBorn]

I have published one article on the origins of GPS which has stirred up things and am working on another one. The number of deceptive and just wrong statements which have been published is just amazing. Some are by people exaggerating or making up their achievements. Others are written out of ignorance.

Richard

Richard, I just asked my husband for a quick over-view. Not about the invention of GPS which he said came out of the American defence program, but how it was used. He was saying that Plessy were working on their own version about 15 years back. Also, that the Americans (when they made it public under Clinton) limited the accuracy somewhat, which some company's got around anyway. He was also saying that the Americans have insisted that all mobiles must be traceable (post 9/11 among other things), though the technology is there at the moment to locate at an accuracy of about 100m.

Thoughts!!!

Mary

The accuracy for civilian uses was degraded prior to the Clinton years. It was eliminated in 2000. By mobiles I assume that you mean cell phones. An article I wrote on it is
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/626/1

I'm just to the right of my dad in the photograph.

What do you mean by Plessy? The Russians have their Glonass systems and the Europeans are trying to get Galileo going.

Richard

[_Mary]

My hubbies a silicon chip designer, and GEC Plessy semi-conductors were a company he worked for that were designing the electronics that recieve the signal. (radio reciever and decoder) Loads other than Plessy that were at it though. (15 years ago)

It's all a foreign language to me. My hubbie worked on the design team for Bluetooth (Ericssons). I try to keep up!!!

I just read the article though. Wow. Great stuff.

for what it's worth, when I asked my hubbie if he knew who had invented GPS, he responded that as far as he was aware, it was a joint effort out of the dod!!!

[_Mary]

Richard, my hubbie is acutely aware of inventions where other people get the credit. Edison/Swan. Trevithic/Stephenson. Dison (bagless vacuums)/who lifted the idea from industrial dust extractors, changed the application and patented it!!

He'd support your efforts 100%!!!

[_richardMdBorn]

Richard, my hubbie is acutely aware of inventions where other people get the credit. Edison/Swan. Trevithic/Stephenson. Dison (bagless vacuums)/who lifted the idea from industrial dust extractors, changed the application and patented it!!

He'd support your efforts 100%!!!

Thanks for your kind comments. Things like this make up for the recognition taking a while to come (my dad accepting the National Medal of Technology from the President on 2/13/2006)

http://www.nationalmedals.org/2004photo ... ton-72.jpg

A two minute video about my dad's career starts three minutes into this:

http://www.nationalmedals.org/videos.htm

Go to The Lives and Accomplishments of the 2004 National Medals Laureates (256)

Richard

[_Mary]

Yay!! This is fantastic...

Anyone else want to chime in. What about you Dr Shades. You have always been a bit of a mystery (to me anyways!).
Any chance of (just a little) background!!!

Oh, I kind of like the mystery of Dr. Shades! Thanks, Miss Taken for creating this thread, it's great to read about the background of folks on the board!

Jersey Girl

Great thread, huh Jersey girl! Some pretty great people posting here!!! I pick up things gradually. I know the Dude has a background in DNA studies? Dale (of course) in the early history of the church, Mak's indicated his area of expertise. I just learned from another thread that Shades has an English degree.

Hopefully some more people will post, cause I think we all benefit from knowing a bit more about each other. (nothing too detailed of course..)

[_cacheman]

I'm new to this board, but I have been a sporadic and infrequent participant on ZLMB, then FAIR and MAD. Altogether, I've been around these boards for 5 years.

My family converted when I was a boy, and was very active until after my mission. I began traveling soon after my mission, and tried my hand at being a musician. When that didn't pan out, I came back to the states, and moved around aimlessly for a while. Finally, I returned to Utah, got married and eventually went to school. Along the way, I became active in the LDS church again, and ended up getting sealed to my family about 6 years ago. Soon after, I left the church, and followed a new path.

Now, I'm finishing up a doctorate in Plant Science, and currently looking for work. I enjoy being with my family, playing with plants, music, running, hiking, and kicking back.

That's about it....

cacheman

[_Jersey Girl]

harmony:

Some day I'll make it to Utah and maybe some posters here would like to raise a glass (in my case, of Diet Pepsi) to the amazing discussions we have here, and we could break bread together.

Could you make it late May or early June? And could we go to IKEA? And Sweet Tomatoes? And Temple Square? Pleeeeeze? I'll be the one driving the Uhaul.

Jersey Girl
:-)