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                                       Optimum

                          Population

                                         Trust     JOURNALS

 


Direct link to pages (in case you know which page to go to):

  1[   ]      2[   ]      3[   ]      4[   ]     5[   ]       6[   ]       7[   ]       8[   ]       9[   ]      10[   ]     11[   ]     12[   ]      13[   ]     14[   ]     15[   ]     16[   ]      17[   ]    18[   ]     19[   ]   20[   ]     21[   ]     22[   ]     23[   ]     24[   ]      25[   ]     26[   ]      27[   ]     28[   ]     29[   ]

 

Last updated on 10 January 2007, the main changes made to this site were:

1.      Additions to Chapter I:–  All OPT Journals have been added up to the most recent one, namely Vol. 6, No 2, October 2006.

2.      the index (which is available at the start of  Chapter II) has been brought up to date.  It now consists of 14 pages + the author index..

3.      I add here, for the first time, something which visitors to a site are, I feel, entitled to know, namely how vast it is.  It consists of 61 files using just under 5 MB of space.   The index is necessary!

For more information about the site, its origins, design, purpose and background, see the foreword.  The only advice I’ll put here is about the quirks of this site.  While the division of this long page into Chapters has considerable advantages, the disadvantage is that if you follow a link by double clicking on it, hence opening the file in the same window, when you return you may well not return to your point of departure within this page.  You can overcome this, if you wish, by opening a link in a new window.  This of course only applies to external links, that is links to files outside this page.  For ease of identification, such links are in bold (although the Contents page is an exception, bold print being mainly used although the links are internal to this page.  

 

 

* * *     End of Title page    * * *

 


 


This is the Contents page                                    2.F4                     Title page

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Contents of this site

   Chapter                                                                                                        Pages

           Title page  (with its link to the main OPT site)                                       1  

I.         OPT Journals                                                                                  3  

II.       Index to OPT Journal, subjects, titles of papers, authors            8  

III.      OPT published papers on carrying capacity                                 9   

IV.      OPT published papers on energy                                                10   

V.       OPT draft papers on carrying capacity                                       11   

VI.      OPT draft papers on energy                                                        12   

VII.    A study of the Living Planet Report 2002                                   13  

VIII.   An Energy Primer                                                                        16   

IX.      Contacts and about this site                                                        21   

X.       Frequently Asked Questions  (FAQs)                                         22   

 

 

* * *     End of Contents     * * *

 


 


 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   3.E3                                                     Title page

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Chapter I

 

OPT Journals

 

 

Publications offered in this Chapter I for downloading

 

In this chapter, each ‘page’ covers one OPT Journal issue.  And on each ‘page’ a link is offered to open in a new window (in Word 2000 code), the Introduction to that issue (a single printed page unless otherwise stated).  The Introduction describes the essential themes of that particular issue.  Next on this ‘page’ are the Contents of the issue.  Next is a link which allows the whole journal to be downloaded (in Word code).  Although diagrams are sometimes missing, often the Excel Figures are embedded objects, or icons which lead to files available for opening.  Note that by right-clicking on all links, you get the option to open the file in a new window.  That is the option to choose if you want to come back to the same place in this htm file. 

Below are direct links to the places on this htm page where the above mentioned facilities for each individual issue of the OPT Journal are offered:

N.B.  The following are only links to other ‘pages’ on this site, where downloads of the introduction page or the whole journal are offered.

Vol. 6, No 2         OPT Journal October 2006

Vol. 6, No 1         OPT Journal April 2006

Vol. 5, No 2         OPT Journal October 2005

Vol. 5, No 1         OPT Journal April 2005

Vol. 4, No 2         OPT Journal October 2004

Vol. 4, No 1         OPT Journal April 2004

Vol. 3, No 2         OPT Journal October 2003

Vol. 3, No 1         OPT Journal April 2003.

Vol. 2, No 2         OPT Journal October 2002. .

Vol. 2, No 1         OPT Journal April 2002 

Vol. 1                         OPT Newsletter September 2001 (an ‘unofficial’ Volume 1 of the OPT Journal


 


 

 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   4.G5                     Title page

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OPT Journal October 2006, Vol. 6, No 2

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue) {2/intr62}

  3      Clive Ponting’s A Green History of the World, Part 3.  Martin Desvaux

14      Climate Change and Rising Sea Level — an Update,  John Nunn

20      Planets for Ecological Footprints and Carbon Absorption, Andrew Ferguson

22      Planet Earth - Users and Losers, Sangeeta Sonak

25      Population Limits and Environmental Resources, David and Marcia Pimentel

27      The 20% “Uncontrollables” Limit,  Andrew Ferguson

28      Lagoons of Silence within the Renewables Lobby,  Andrew Ferguson

30      Why Population Concerns are not ‘Politically Correct’, Jim Duguid

31      Scientific and Journalistic Goofs II,  Andrew Ferguson

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal, 6-2 issue  (32 pp., in Word for Windows code, 317 kb).{2/optj62.doc,  2006. Oct} 

 


 


 

 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   5.G2                     Title page

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OPT Journal April 2006, Vol. 6, No 1

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue) {2/intr61}

  3      Clive Ponting’s A Green History of the World, Part 2.  Martin Desvaux

13      Human Prospects over the Next 70 Years, Andrew Ferguson

16      Population Crises and Population Cycles, Claire and WMS Russell

18      A monograph on Hartmann’s The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, Andrew Ferguson

23      Other views on Hartmann, Lindsey Grant, Val Stevens, James Duguid

25      On Development, Demography and Climate Change, Tim Dyson

29      An Expanded Glossary of Wind Terms, Andrew Ferguson

31      Paths to Wisdom, Number 2, Val Stevens

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal, 6-1 issue  (32 pp., in Word for Windows code, 284 kb).{2/optj61.doc,  2006. Apr} 

 


 


 

 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   6.G8                     Title page

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OPT Journal October 2005, Vol. 5, No 2

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue) {2/intr52}

  3      Clive Ponting’s A Green History of the World, Part 1.  Martin Desvaux

  8      A Plain Man’s Questions Concerning Wind Power, Edmund Davey and Andrew Ferguson.

13      A Plain Man’s Questions: Wind Power in Theory and Practice, Andrew Ferguson and ‘George’.

18      Why Wind Power Works for Denmark, Hugh Sharman

22      Wind in Wisconsin, Andrew Ferguson 

24      Population, Migration, and Globalization,  Herman Daly

25      The Hydrogen Economy:Reality or Fantasy, Andrew Ferguson   

32      Paths to Wisdom, Number 1, Jay Hanson

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal, 5-2 issue  (32 pp., in Word for Windows code, 215 kb).{2/optj52.doc,  2005. Oct} 

 


 


 

 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   7.G6                     Title page

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OPT Journal April 2005, Vol. 5, No 1

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue) {2/intr51}

  3      The Solar Fraud: Why Solar Energy Won’t Run the World, Howard C. Hayden.

  9      Energy at the Crossroads, Vaclav Smil

14      The Collapsing Bubble by Lindsey Grant

15      God Bless America, Edmund Davey

18      The Depth of Delusion, Andrew Ferguson

21      Web of Deceit, Mark Curtis

23      The Roots of Delusion: a Quest, Andrew Ferguson 

26      Assessing the Millennium Assessment, Andrew Ferguson   

29      The Way: An Ecological World-View, John Gray and Edward Goldsmith

30      Scientific and Journalistic Goofs, Albert A. Bartlett.

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal, 5-1 issue  (32 pp., in Word for Windows code, 218 kb).{2/optj51.doc,  2005. Apr} 

 


 


 

 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   8.A1                     Title page

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OPT Journal October 2004, Vol. 4, No 2

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue) {2/intr42}

  3      Climate Change and Sea Level in Relation to Population, John Nunn.

  9      Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier, Andrew Ferguson

15      Vexponential Growth in the 21st Century, Andrew Ferguson 

18      Comparing WROG Periods, Andrew Ferguson

21      Population Growth in The United States and Canada:
A Role For Scientists
, Peter Salonius

22      Capacity Factors — a simple analogy, Andrew Ferguson

23      The Relative Cost of PV and Wind Power, Andrew Ferguson

28      A Rule of Thumb for PV Annual Capacity Factors, Andrew Ferguson

32      Strangely Like War: The Global Assault on Forests,  Derrick Jensen
and George Draffan

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal, 4-2 issue  (32 pp., in Word for Windows code, 335 kb).{2/optj42.doc,  2004. Oct} 


 


 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   9.D4                     Title page

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OPT Journal April 2004, Vol. 4, No 1

CONTENTS

Page 

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue) {2/intr41}

  3      A Green History of The World by Clive Ponting, and The Rapid Growth of Human Populations 1750-2000 by William Stanton; a review by Roger Martin

  6      The Rapid Growth of Human Populations 1750-2000 by William Stanton — the publisher’s introduction

  8      World History: a New Perspective by Clive Ponting; a review by Andrew Ferguson 

13      The March of Folly: from Troy to Vietnam, Barbara Tuchman

14      Limits to Wind Power, James Duguid, John Dyson, and Andrew Ferguson

18      The Meaning and Implications of Capacity Factors, Andrew Ferguson

26      Hydrogen and Intermittent Energy Sources, Andrew Ferguson

30      Hydrogen Fantasies, Andrew Ferguson

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal, 4-1 issue  (32 pp., in Word for Windows code, 168 kb).{2/optj41.doc,  2004. Apr} 


 


 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   10.E7                     Title page

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OPT Journal October 2003, Vol. 3, No 2

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue) {2/intr32}

  3      2nd Footprint forum, Part II: Ethics of Carrying Capacity,
introduced by Andrew Ferguson

  6      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part II, from Colin Campbell

  7      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part II, from Jill Curnow

  8      A few words on William Stanton’s The Rapid Growth of Human Populations 1750-2000: Histories, Consequences, Issues, Nation by Nation

  9      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part II, from James Duguid

10      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part II, from John Guillebaud,
Co-Chair of OPT

11      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part II, from David and Marcia Pimentel of Cornell University.

13      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part II, from J. Kenneth Smail of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.

14      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part II, from William Stanton, of OPT.

15      An Overview of the 2nd Footprint forum, Part II, Andrew Ferguson

18      A Plain Man’s Questions Concerning Time-independent Renewable Energy
Back-up
, Edmund Davey and Andrew Ferguson

21      Verdict on the Hydrogen Experiment: an Update, Andrew Ferguson

28      The Crucial Limit: 11 cubic km of Carbon per Decade, Andrew Ferguson

32      Keeping an Eye on the Broadsheets, collected by James Duguid

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal, 3-2 issue  (32 pp., in Word for Windows code, 220 kb).{2/optj32.doc,  2003. Oct} 


 


 

Chapter I—OPT Journals                                   11.H5                     Title page

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OPT Journal April 2003, Vol. 3, No 1

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction  (describing contents of this issue) {2/intr31}

  3      Wind/biomass Energy Capture: an Update, Andrew Ferguson

11      Implications of the USDA 2002 Update on Ethanol from Corn, Andrew Ferguson

16      A Plain Man’s Questions Concerning Liquid Sunshine,
Edmund Davey and Andrew Ferguson

18      Global warming: extracts from an interview with John Houghton

19      Declining populations: extracts from Anthony Browne

20      Yes Johannesburg was a WSII, Andrew Ferguson

21      China’s success cancelled out by the USA, Andrew Ferguson

23      The Social And Ecological Consequences Of Globalization, Andrew Ferguson

26      A Plain Man’s Questions Concerning Eco-footprinting, Edmund Davey and Andrew Ferguson

30      Bjorn Lomborg, Spin Doctor Extraordinaire, Jill Curnow of Sustainable Population Australia

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal, 3-1 issue  (32 pp., in Word for Windows code, 163 kb).{2/optj31.doc,  2003.Apr} 

Note that this issue includes Table 1 and Table 2, which show the “Monthly, and hence yearly, capacity factors from Wind Stats Newsletter” for Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden.”  Table 1 covers the period Oct-98 to Sep 99, and Table 2 the period Oct-99 to Sept 2000.  The Excel file offered for download covers both these tables.

 


 


 

Chapter I (cont)—OPT Journal                          12.C4                     Title page

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OPT Journal October 2002, Vol. 2, No 2

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue). {2/intr22.doc}

  3      2nd Footprint forum, Part I, introduced by Andrew Ferguson 

  6      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part I, from Jill Curnow of
Sustainable Population Australia Inc

  7      Contribution to the 2nd Footprint forum, Part I, from David Pimentel of
Cornell University 

  8      2nd Footprint forum, Part I the concluding Implications, Andrew Ferguson  

23      A Plain Man’s Questions Concerning PV, Part I, Edmund Davey and Ferguson 

31      The Cost of ‘Stand Alone’ PV Electricity, Andrew Ferguson 

33      A Plain Man’s Questions Concerning PV, Part II, Edmund Davey and Ferguson 

38      Wind/biomass Energy Capture, Andrew Ferguson  

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal 2-2 issue  (40 pages, in Word for Windows code, 260 kb). {2/optj22}

Page 29 of this issue displays part of an Excel file, referring to the year 1997, based on an, “Analysis of PV data from Toledo, Spain, taken from:

 http://www.toledopv.com/ingles/masesp.htm (on 25/04/2000)”. 

Page 30 uses the same template for the spreadsheet, but covers the year 1998.  Both spreadsheets are incorporated into the above OPT Journal file, hence its large size.  The crucial factors to emerge from these spreadsheets is that, although in all cases the PV cell efficiencies are 17%, the capacity factor (proportion of rated power delivered to the grid) was 14%, and the ratio of “energy delivered to the grid, to the insolation on a horizontal flat surface of the same area” is about 9% (10% using the more tightly packed BP modules). 

 


 


 

Chapter I (cont)—OPT Journals                          13.B3                     Title page

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OPT Journal April 2002, Vol. 2, No 1

CONTENTS

Page

  2      Introduction (describing contents of this issue). {2/intr21.doc}

  3      OPT news from Chairman Edmund Davey

  5      OPT Position Statement, 2002 (resulting from 2001 questionnaire)

  7      The Petro-population Parallel, Gard Binney

  9      Verdict on the hydrogen experiment, Andrew Ferguson10        Convention to combat desertification — brief notes.

11      Monograph on Brown’s Eco-economy, Andrew Ferguson

14      Earth Day, as seen by the Earth, Donella Meadows, and Global Forest Prospects in a World of Six Billion, Annie Faulkner  

15      Thoughts on Why Canada Needs a Population Policy, Cassils and Weld 

18      Monograph on the Carrying Capacity Implications of Plimer’s “A Short History Of Planet Earth” Andrew Ferguson. 

23      A question of survival, extracts from an article by Edward Goldsmith 

24      Ice Age, Glacial and Interglacial, Andrew Ferguson 

27      The Population Implications of Houghton’s “Global Warming: the Complete Briefing,” Andrew Ferguson

31      OPT and the media

 

Download the whole of this OPT Journal 2-1 issue (32 pages, Word for Windows code, 168 kb).  {2/optj21.doc}

 


 


 

Chapter I (cont)—OPT Journals                          14.G7                     Title page

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OPT Newsletter September 2001, Vol. 1

The first issue of the ‘OPT Journal’ was actually a newsletter of eight pages.  It only nominally counts as Vol. 1, No 1; the convenience of this is that it allows Vol. 2 to start in a year which matches the digit, 2002.  There is another difference: Vol. 1, No 1, the newsletter, came out in September, while April and October are the normal months of publication of the OPT Journal.  What follows is the essence of the Introduction to the 8 page newsletter, explaining its rushed production:

 

We have decided to aim to produce an OPT newsletter in October and April, so as to slot in with the production of The Pherologist newsletter.  There are many members of OPT who also take the EPOC newsletter.  Occasionally there will be duplication of material, depending on how important it is.  The reason for this newsletter being early is that we thought John Barker’s precipitate action in circulating his own ideas about an ‘OPT Position Statement’ might lead to some confusion, which should be laid at rest without delay.  Edmund Davey explains the circumstances.

 

Incidentally, EPOC and The Pherologist ceased to function in November 2003.  As considerable portions of the newsletter were pasted in and photocopied, a fair bit is missing from this electronic version.  Nevertheless, perhaps I can claim that the newsletter is of particular value because it contains Perceiving the Population Bomb, which was first published in WorldWatch, the journal of the World Watch Institute.  Maybe the piece is as succinct a summary of the essence of the problems we face as can be managed.

 

CONTENTS

Page

  1      Introduction

  2      OPT news from Acting Chairman, Edmund Davey

  3      Energy Use And Australia’s Carrying Capacity by Jill Curnow

  5      Perceiving the Population Bomb by Andrew Ferguson

  7      USA Population Growth projected to 2100

  8      US Immigration’s Estimated Impact on Population Growth 1990-2000

 

Download the whole of this OPT Newsletter, Vol. 1, issue (10 pp.in this electronic version, Word code, 57 kb) {2/optj1.doc}

 

* * *     End of Chapter I  OPT Journals     * * *

 


 


 

Chapter II—Index to OPT Journals                      15.B8                     Title page

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Chapter II

 

Index to OPT Journals

(includes subjects, titles and authors of papers in OPTJs, and titles of other papers.)

 

The index to the subjects, titles and authors of papers in the OPT Journals is available at optind.doc, Word file (164 kb, 19 printed pages).  The file contains two indexes: the first is arranged by subject, and the second arranged by author, with the titles of papers shown alphabetically under each name.  {2/optind.doc}

Index to titles of other papers.  Since the chapters to which the various papers (other than those published in the OPT Journals) have been allocated is somewhat arbitrary, below is an alphabetical list of the downloads made available on this website:

Biomass & the Solar Fraction                                                                                                 Chapter VI

Biomass and Energy                                                                                                                  Chapter IV

Energy Primer (for American 11" by 8.5" paper)                                                Chapter VIII, page 27

Energy Primer (for European A4 paper)                                                             Chapter VIII, page 27

Enlightening the Energy Fantasists                                                                                       Chapter VI

Ethanol from Cellulose: Prospects and Implications                                                          Chapter VI

Guide to this OPT Journal web site (open in New Window)                                                               

Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier                                                                                              Chapter VI

Index (to LPR 2002)                                                                                                  Chapter VII, page 21

Intractable Limits to a Sustainable Human Population                                                      Chapter IV

Limits to PV Power in the USA                                                                                               Chapter VI

LPR 2002, Table 2                                                                                                    Chapter VII, page 21

LPR 2002, Table 2E (OPT extended version of Table 2)                                    Chapter VII, page 21

Notes (to LPR 2002)                                                                                                   Chapter VII, page 21

Overview of Ecological Footprints & 3 Responses                                                                Chapter V

Planning for the Demise of Cheap Energy                                                                            Chapter IV

QandA file (“Questions and Answers” — short for “A Plain Man’s Questions  
Concerning the Living Planet Report 2002”)                                                   Chapter VII, page 21

Renewable Energy and Commonsense Check-lists                                                             Chapter IV

Renewable Liquid Sunshine: its scope and limits                                                                Chapter VI

Scientific and Journalistic Goofs                                                                                           Chapter VI

Sugarcane and Energy                                                                                                              Chapter IV

The Assumptions Underlying Eco-footprinting                                                                    Chapter III

The Essence of Ecological Footprints and
The Logical Foundations of Ecological Footprints                                                        Chapter III

The Pervasive Problem of Photovoltaics                                                                                Chapter VI

The Solar Fraud: Why Renewable Energy Won’t Run the World                                    Chapter VI

The Twilight Years of Aeons of Ancient Sunlight                                                                Chapter V

The Unguarded Optimism of the Guardian                                                                           Chapter VI

World Carrying Capacity: an interim report                                                                       Chapter III
(plus an Introduction thereto)

 

* * *     End of Chapter II Index to OPT Journals      * * *

 


 


 

Chapter III—OPT published papers                     16.B5                     Title page

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Chapter III

 

OPT published papers on
carrying capacity

 

 

The papers listed here do not include those which have already appeared in the OPT Journal, as those papers are made available in Chapter I. 

 

The Assumptions Underlying Eco-footprinting  (52 kb, 9 pages), by Andrew Ferguson. This first appeared in Population and Environment, in 2002 (Vol 23, No 3, pp. 303-313).  Its main function is to explain the effects of yield factors and demonstrate why the eco-footprinting methodology of dealing in worldwide productivity does not introduce significant distortions. {assuef.doc}

 

The Essence of Ecological Footprints and The Logical Foundations of Ecological Footprints, (14 pages, 84 kb) by Andrew Ferguson.  Here two intimately related papers are put into one file.  ‘The Essence …’ was published — in a somewhat curtailed form — as a letter in Ecological Economics (Vol. 31—318-319).  It arose in response to a long article about eco-footprinting by Jeroen van den Bergh and Harmen Verbruggen which had appeared in an earlier issue of Ecological Economics.  The ‘Logical Foundations…’ paper was an attempt to expand what I had lacked space to say in ‘The Essence…’Logical Foundations…’ first appeared in 1999, in the journal Environment, Development and Sustainability Vol. 2, pp. 149-156.  Its essential point is that ‘biocapacity’ is at least as important as the Footprint size; moreover biocapacity is less prone to error in measurement. {esslog.doc}

 

World Carrying Capacity: an interim report (12 pages, 60 kb, offering within it a 55 kb Excel table), by Andrew Ferguson.  This was first published for limited circulation in October 1998.  The history of its development provides an insight into the use of eco-footprinting for determining carrying capacities, so I have written an introduction (26 kb) to provide a full background.

 

* * *     End of OPT published papers on carrying capacity      * * *

 


 


 

Chapter IV OPT published papers on energy        17.G9                     Title page

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Chapter IV

 

OPT published papers on energy

 

 

 

The papers listed here do not include those which have already appeared in the OPT Journal, as those are made available in Chapter I. 

Intractable Limits to a Sustainable Human Population (31 July 2004, 9 pages, 82 kb) by Andrew Ferguson.