I received your Mars postcard last week, many thanks! It took me a while to find the monkey hidden in the picture, but once found it was clear as day. Also, regarding you-know-what, I received the EUR 12000 payment last night. The shipment should arrive in three days if the container doesn't break.

Cheers,

Juha

Thanks for the postcard - it's proudly placed on my desk at work next to the "South Park Phil" that Jim (who sits next to me) created.

I hope you didn't sell my address to junk mailers. I'll be keeping an eye on the level of junk mail I receive, and if it goes up significantly in the next month or so, I know who to sue :o)

Cheers

jy't 'n befokte webtuiste, en ek geniet elkeen van jou "How much is inside" avonture, "Science Club Episodes" eksperimente, jou simpel "Pranks" wat jy op mense trek en jou "Incredible Creations" wat jy maak. Hoop die godin van geluk wat jou elke jaar 'n tikkie op die kop gee vir geluk, kom weer 'n keer om en bliksem jou uitmekaar...:-)

Gooi mielies

Francois Roux

PS. Seeing as many of my friends also regularly visit your site, I wrote you a message in my native tongue. It's called Afrikaans, it's largely a mixture of the Dutch languages, but also includes many derived words coming straight from english. It started out just about 300 years ago when Jan Van Riebeeck first landed in Cape Town and decided to start a colony, which is where South Africa started. I've however translated it into english so that you may check it...

Rob,

you've got a fucking good website, and I enjoy every one of your "How much is inside" adventures, "Science Club Episodes" experiments, your stupendous "Pranks" that you pull on people and your "Incredible Creations" that you create. I hope that the goddes of luck which gives you a knock on the head for luck every year, comes around again and busts your ass...:-)

comparisons.

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This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate.

The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/01/20/MNGO54DC261.DTL

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Tuesday, January 20, 2004 (SF Chronicle)

Promoter's parties linked to 4 deaths/Boy, 15, killed in S.F. as crowd spills out of hip-hop event

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

A Berkeley man who has staged several underground hip-hop parties around

the Bay Area that have resulted in violence was the promoter of a fight-

marred event in San Francisco over the weekend at which a 15-year-old boy

was shot to death, police said Monday.

The boy was the fourth person to be killed since 1996 at or after events

put on by Eugene Cockerham Jr. Police say the 33-year-old Cockerham, a

former bouncer, rents halls and other public spaces by telling owners he's

throwing a relatively innocuous event such as a birthday party or

fraternity bash. The gatherings turn out to be raucous parties at which

security guards sometimes are overwhelmed, authorities and building owners

say.

Police say that was the case Saturday night at the event Cockerham

organized at the Tenderloin YMCA's theater at 220 Golden Gate Ave. The

boy, Mission High School student Scharod Fleming, was shot to death and

two other people were wounded when someone opened fire on the street

outside the theater, investigators said.

YMCA officials said Cockerham had told them he was throwing a party for a

Berkeley fraternity and that about 100 people would attend. Instead,

hundreds of people converged on the YMCA for a $10-a-head party that

featured two disc jockeys and had been advertised on flyers, police said.

"A lot of kids never went inside," said Inspector Marta McDowell of the

homicide detail. "They were just out on the street, where they were

hanging out."

Two fights broke out before security guards cleared the hall, police said.

The combat spilled into the street, and Scharod was shot.

Martie Bolsinger, president and CEO of the San Francisco YMCA, said

Cockerham had held an event there in December, also billed as a fraternity

party, without any problems.

Police say they want to question anyone who attended Saturday night's

party but have had little success.

"By the time we got there, they were gone," McDowell said. "The shooting

occurred, and they all leave. There was no one there. I can't even find

anybody yet who was with (Scharod.)"

Police want to talk to Cockerham about the event and say they are trying

to determine whether he broke any laws. A San Francisco ordinance requires

that promoters of certain public events obtain city permits and that

police investigate the applicant's background, according to a lawyer who

sued on behalf a man who was wounded at a Cockerham bash in 2000.

Cockerham did not return repeated phone calls for comment Monday. He has

declined to comment in the past after violence broke out at his events.

Authorities in the East Bay say several Cockerham-produced parties have

ended with lootings, fights or car sideshows. Four people have been

wounded by gunfire in addition to the four who have been killed.

In November, attendees at a Cockerham party at a restaurant on Solano

Avenue in Albany started a brawl that caused $3,000 in damages but no

serious injuries, police said.

In May 2002, 25-year-old Donald Ivan Tate Jr. was shot to death after a

party Cockerham organized after a concert at the Chronicle Pavilion in

Concord. Two months later, two people were shot after police in Berkeley

broke up an event Cockerham staged.

In April 2000, Reginald Whitney of San Francisco sued Cockerham and St.

Gregory's Armenian Apostolic Church after Whitney was shot 11 times at a

Cockerham-organized "thong party."

Whitney accused Cockerham of failing to secure a permit for the event.

Police said the shooting happened when members of the Bayview neighborhood

gangs Big Block and Westmob started fighting. Whitney was an innocent

bystander.

Scott Dunning, Whitney's attorney, said the church had accepted cash from

Cockerham for the hall rental and hadn't asked questions about the

gathering. "If they would have applied for a permit, he probably wouldn't

have gotten one, " Dunning said. In court depositions, Cockerham said he

had applied for insurance for the event but never paid the premium,

Dunning said. As a result, the church was liable for the damages. The

church settled out of court.

Vasken Farajian, who manages the church's hall on Brotherhood Way, said

Cockerham had told the church that the event was a fund-raiser for

scholarships for African American students at San Francisco State

University. Only later did Farajian learn that it was a party that drew as

many as 2,000 people to the hall, which has a capacity of 500.

When the shooting started, panicked men and women who had stripped down to

their thong underwear fled without their clothes, Farajian said.

"We had rented out the hall for years. Nothing like this had ever

happened," he said. "We are more careful now."

Two other Cockerham-produced parties in the summer of 2000 in Sunnyvale

ended with lootings, fights with police and shootings, police said,

although no one was injured.

In 1996, a melee broke out at Oakland's Eastmont Mall during a rap concert

promoted by Cockerham and an associate. Crowds threw bottles and rocks at

police and raced their cars up and down nearby streets. Two men were

killed when the car they were racing crashed through a fence and into a

playground.

McDowell said she plans to talk to the San Francisco city attorney's

office about Cockerham's activities.

"I'd like to see his name in the paper, so people will recognize it and

people won't rent to him anymore," she said. "He just takes his money and

runs."

E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken

I have a question that I have been curious about for some time:

how many steaks are on a cow?

I figured there would be some average number of steaks or something like

that.

cool site, good work, much appreciated,

Josh

Waterloo, ON, CANADA

I have just returned from my Winter break and I wanted to do a follow up on the

project. I have good news, the sculpture is still there and besides it bending

a little from the weather, it is still standing strong (I felt as though

administration would take it down within a matter of hours after attaching it).

Moving onto your question about the construction.

I first "borrowed" some wood from the painting department for the body.

I cut it and stained the wood so that it would last longer in the winter

conditions outside.

The sculpture dept is pretty well equipped with table saws and drill presses,

so the actual building was easy (especially since I spent the last few days in

various classes working out the measurements)

The worst part of doing it was having it up long enough for the sculpture Prof

see it (he likes pranks like that) but the actual sculpture was too big to get

through the doors so I had to put it together outside. This was no easy task,

especially in -10º weather. I had to fasten the bolts on really tight so that

they would have less of a chance of the wings falling down.

The base of the construction was particularly difficult because the anchor

bolts (at the instillation site) were installed unevenly making the drilling

the holes tricky. My first attempt was a horrible failure but my second was a

glorious success. I used a 15 in diameter circular ceramics board

(also “borrowed”) and did a few things to stabilize and support the sculpture

(triangle blocks at the base). I cut out the holes for the sculpture with a

jigsaw and sanded it down for a snug fit.

The instillation was also somewhat difficult.

I had already done some reconnaissance for the sculpture to be mounted and a

few obstacles were preventing me from doing so.

There was a quarter inch of ice resting above the cement platform.

I took care of it with a hammer

One of the platform anchor bolts was rusted disabling my attempts to get a bolt

onto it

I took care of it with a small metal hand sander

It was a struggle to mount it with a tree branch in the middle of the way

I took care of it with my pocket knife

I attached it and tightened the bolts with a adjustable wrench

All the while in below freezing temperatures.

Very worth it though.

Have a good one

Graham Davies