Outside the Box: A New Perspective on Operation Windsor—The Rationale Behind the Attack on Carpiquet, 4 July 1944

Operation Windsor never seemed to fit. Why, one asks, would the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division launch a major operation to seize Carpiquet village and airfield a mere four days before I British Corps started the much larger three-division Operation Charnwood to seize Caen? It seemed a distraction from the main effort—a needless diversion of resources. This view was reinforced by the standard interpretations of the battles as reflected in the two introductory quotations: Windsor as a prelude to Charnwood. I had succumbed to what I will call the black box syndrome. I looked only within the analytical framework established by countless historians from C.P. Stacey to Terry Copp3 to John A. English, and, like them, saw Operation Windsor as a precursor to Operation Charnwood. It was upon visiting the battlefield in 1997 and 1998 with the Canadian Battlefields Foundation student study tour that I gained a more complete understanding of the battle. For it is only on the field itself that one can understand that Operation Windsor had very little to do with Operation Charnwood, and so much more to do with Operations Epsom and Jupiter. Epsom is familiar to any scholar of the campaign, but Operation Jupiter, the 43rd Wessex Division attack on Hill 112, is more obscure. It was the ground that showed me the link which was reinforced by a close review of the I British Corps operations log. In this article I will try and show that the traditional interpretation of Operation Windsor has suffered from a “Canada-centric” bias that fails to relate the ground to the battle and assumes that all that precedes Charnwood must be setting the stage for that battle. First a review of the traditional interpretation is required

Slow, Continuous Beams of Large Gas Phase Molecules

Cold, continuous, high flux beams of benzonitrile, fluorobenzine, and anisole have been created. Buffer-gas cooling with a cryogenic gas provides the cooling and slow forward beam velocities. The beam of benzonitrile was measured to have a forward velocity peaked at 67 $\pm 5$ m s$^{-1}$, and a continuous flux of $10^{15}$ molecules s$^{-1}$. These beams provide a continuous source for high resolution spectroscopy, and provide an attractive starting point for further spatial manipulation of such molecules, including eventual trapping

A Method for Preparation and Readout of Polyatomic Molecules in Single Quantum States

Polyatomic molecular ions contain many desirable attributes of a useful quantum system, including rich internal degrees of freedom and highly controllable coupling to the environment. To date, the vast majority of state-specific experimental work on molecular ions has concentrated on diatomic species. The ability to prepare and readout polyatomic molecules in single quantum states would enable diverse experimental avenues not available with diatomics, including new applications in precision measurement, sensitive chemical and chiral analysis at the single molecule level, and precise studies of Hz-level molecular tunneling dynamics. While cooling the motional state of a polyatomic ion via sympathetic cooling with a laser cooled atomic ion is straightforward, coupling this motional state to the internal state of the molecule has proven challenging. Here we propose a new method for readout and projective measurement of the internal state of a trapped polyatomic ion. The method exploits the rich manifold of technically accessible rotational states in the molecule to realize robust state-preparation and readout with far less stringent engineering than quantum logic methods recently demonstrated on diatomic molecules. The method can be applied to any reasonably small (less than about 10 atoms) polyatomic ion with an anisotropic polarizability

Lexus Lanes or Corolla Lanes? Spatial Use and Equity Patterns on the I-394 MnPASS Lanes

A 2004-2006 longitudinal panel survey of I-394 residents found support levels at over 60 percent for the congestion priced High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane, known to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as MnPASS. This number varies only slightly when sorted by income levels, gender, and education levels, suggesting that the arrangement is perceived as equitable. However, people with higher incomes use the system more often and thereby capitalize on the direct benefit more often, a finding consistent with other studies. Previous research has not revealed whether higher incomes actually cause people to use the MnPASS option more often or whether HOT lanes have simply been built along high income corridors, such as I-394. This paper aims to separate the effects of income and location on use to provide a more robust understanding of equity concerns. Using data provided by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Method 3 (HC3) regressions, this paper suggests that location and income both explain HOT lane use.Minnesota, Minneapolis, HOT Lanes, Congestion Pricing, Road Pricing, MnPASS, Value Pricing, Social Equity

Next Generation User Skills

The world is awash with statistics on the impact of the web on 21st century living, learning and working. They are accompanied by the pronouncements and predictions of experts from every camp, from those heralding a new brave new world of co-creation and choice, to warnings from the dark side in terms of ethics and educational standards, tempered by increasing recognition that ‘we’ may no longer be in control of such matters. Meanwhile, surveys report that around 80% of businesses have invested in IT and 60% have websites. Whilst the extent and value of adoption differs significantly across businesses and sectors, the foundations for new ways of working and doing business are broadly in place, with older and static businesses typifying the laggards. It would not be unsafe to project that, by 2013, even more people will be required to use ICT in the workplace and in their everyday lives, increasingly involving online communication and web-based applications. This represents a scenario to which those responsible for developing curricula and awards must respond – in the primary and secondary phases, vocational and applied learning, work based and adult community provision and higher education. To ensure the relevance of and to influence the ongoing enhancement of user ICT provision and the associated awards, Digital 2020 and the Scottish Qualifications Authority jointly commissioned Sero Consulting to develop a vision for ICT user skills in 2013 – ‘Next Generation User Skills’ – taking account of: • Skills that all employers will need, which they may not currently recognise. • Skills that people (especially young people) will already have, but which may not be accredited. • Essential skills for living and learning in a digital age. This paper is drawn from the resulting public report, ‘Next Generation User Skills – Working, Learning & Living Online in 2013’ (September 2008), which provides: • An overview of the current ICT user skills landscape. • A model representing digital activities and competencies that might constitute the ‘Next Generation User Skillscape’. • A mapping of that activity space onto tools and awards, with a gap analysis identifying weaknesses in provision. • An overview of the recommendations to the report sponsors