Dear Leg 208 Shipmates and Investigators,

I hope you enjoy being back home and look back on the Leg 208 success with 
pride and a smile while appreciating the few important things we were deprived 
of during the cruiseŠ.

Several updates for you are posted on my webpage at: http://www-
odp.tamu.edu/sciops/staff/blum/ as downloadable Excel files and stuffed 
folders, and at other sites given below.

1. PRELIMINARY REPORT (PRT)

Our publications staff is in the process of preparing the Leg 208 Preliminary 
Report for your review. You should receive a URL address next week. 
Download the PDF file, send me comments by fax or email, and I will compile 
them. In also posted the original PRT material we left the ship with on my 
webpage in case you need something urgently or you need some original files 
(note: itıs a large, stuffed folder, ~117 Mb).

2. AGE MODELS AND MASS ACCUMULATION RATES

I updated the age model and MAR figures and tables, accommodating 
comments from the biostratigraphy group on the age model and fixing an error 
in the MAR calculations. The MAR error resulted from the lack of dry density 
and/or carbonate values in some age intervals, mostly those associated with 
condensed sections. This "over-sampling problem" had not occurred in earlier 
applications and its inadequate processing therefore went undetected until the 
very end of Leg 208. The updated material is posted on my webpage and will 
be incorporated in the PRT.

3. SAMPLE REQUESTS

The latest sample request list is posted on my webpage as an Excel workbook. 
The first worksheet (SUM1) is the line-by-line summary of all requests. Gray 
italic items were sampled on the ship, black items are to be sampled in 
Bremen, red items require further discussion and final decision. You can "filter" 
the entries using the pull-down menus in the top row, for instance, for your 
name, a site, and the 2-BCR (pending) requests only. Please verify that all your 
requests are listed correctly and let me know immediately if modifications are 
required. The second page (SUM2) is a list of all formal request in the ODP 
database ­ I added the totals for each request as well as the grand totals, and 
some comments. Please check that list also. 

In the next few days I will prepare "sampling site summaries" (see first 
example on the "1262" worksheet), which will identify overlaps, gaps, conflicts, 
etc. The curator (John Firth) and I may then suggest adjustments to sampling 
intervals to accommodate everyone. For instance, if we have one request at 2.5 
cm and another request at 3 cm within the same interval, it will make sense or 
even be necessary that the requestors agree on a common sampling rate. 
Similarly, you may want to adjust top and bottom (mcd) of your interval to 
conform with those of other investigators.

In the final phase, to begin next month, the repository staff will prepare detailed 
sampling templates for the Bremen sampling party. At that time we should not 
see any request changes anymore.

4. SAMPLING PARTY

You may have received Jimıs note listing the USSSP-approved/funded 
participants to the Bremen sampling party: Zachos, Bowles, Lohmann, 
Schellenberg, Nicolo, Risselman. We are still on for August 4-8. More 
information will be forwarded to participants shortly so they can make travel 
arrangements.

5. RESEARCH TITLES

The Excel table is also posted on my webpage. 

6. CORE IMAGES

Matt Mefferd has restored both the SID and the JPEG files brought back from 
leg 208 to our webserver. The URLs are:

http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/208_IR/VOLUME/CORES/DITIMAGE/

http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/208_IR/VOLUME/CORES/JPEG/

These files are protected from outside access for the duration of the 
moratorium by the following username and password:

user: leg208
pass: ktbound

Note: On Macintoshes, the headers of the JPEG/SVG core summary images 
are cut off for some reasons ­ this has not yet been fixed.

7. DATABASE PASSWORDS

Our database administrator will send you your moratorium data access 
password shortly ­ it is the same you received on board to complete the cruise 
evaluation.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Peter