Grant for Antonio et al

[frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>]

Here is the status of the "Grant for Antonio" which (for those of you 
that just tuned in) was donated by the members of this Dinosaur Mailing 
list over the last month.  (Total donations were around 1100 dollars 
US) This money will be used by the Italian Paleontologist Fabio Marco 
Dalla Vecchia to study an important basal Hadrosaur (nicknamed 
Antonio).  This is probably the first time a paleontologic internet 
mailing list has done anything more than talk about paleontology, this 
list is making paleontology!

Enough bragging on the list members.

I have all the checks in an account now.  We just had a 4 day national 
holiday (the 4th of July) and because of that, ironically perhaps,  the 
100 pound check from England has not cleared yet (8 days) but the good 
news is all the rest of them have cleared.  As a result I am not sure 
of the overall timing on the overseas bank transfer at this point. 
Rather than sending a partial amount, I will wait and send the whole 
thing. Then, since all those checks were cut to me, I will make a 
charitable donation to the 501C corp, the National Foundation for the 
Geosciences in Jackson Hole, Wyoming chaired by Wallace Ulrich 
(mentioned it in a previous post).  (This extra step will cancel out 
the "income" generated to me my the checks with the "charitable 
donations to a non-profit organization and eliminate any federal tax 
liability I have because of this.) Mail from here to Jackson Hole will 
take a few days as I think they still use the Pony Express within 
Wyoming.  It will take a few days for that check to clear then Wallace 
can bank transfer the funds to you (Fabio).  If any of you wish to 
establish fund for support of the Geosciences, this foundation is for 
you.

Next topic.....

Hell Creek is living up to it's name this week, the temperatures this 
week will hoover around 100 degrees F.  Morning and evening are the 
only times to collect comfortably.

The Rock Pile Museum (Gillette Wyoming), the Glenrock Museum, (Glenrock 
Wyoming), a group of organized volunteers from Gillette and my ranch 
are trying to organize an excavation of what appears to be a tight pile 
of bones from a single (very nicely preserved) juvenile Triceratops I 
found about a mile from my house on a neighboring ranch.  As always, 
any corporate sponsors would be welcome as it is mostly a volunteer 
effort.  The press of supporting the effort might do some energy 
company doing business in northeastern Wyoming good. Any takers can 
contact me.  You can see some of the bones I have already removed by 
looking around my website at 
http://www.cattleranch.org/pages/730804/index.htm for large Triceratops 
bones.  They all came from the very surface that site which is a 
bentonitic muddy shale maybe 5 feet thick in the upper Hell Creek.

Frank Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming

FB

On Jul 6, 2005, at 7:24 AM, Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia wrote:

> Dear Frank,
>
> I accounted the donations from paypal and I will start the work the 
> next week.
> Best wishes
>
> Fabio