placeFlag <- function(theFlag, x,y, 
		flagSize=15, 
		flagBase=NA, 
		border=NA, 
		lwd=1, 
		cex.flag=1,
		pos=0 ) {
#
# v0.4

  if(pos<0 | pos>8) {
  	stop("pos (position) needs to be between 0 (center) and 8 (southeast)")
  }
  pos <- round(pos)

  if(is.na(flagBase) ) {
    flagBase = "http://www.kvasaheim.com/flags/"
  }
  thisURL = paste(flagBase,"flag",flagSize,"-",theFlag,".png",sep="")

  flagPNG <- readPNG( getURLContent(thisURL) )


#$$$
width  = dim(flagPNG)[2] * cex.flag
height = dim(flagPNG)[1] * cex.flag
#$$$


  x = grconvertX(x, from = "user", to = "device")
  y = grconvertY(y, from = "user", to = "device")

  xLeft   = x - 0.5*width
  xRight  = x + 0.5*width
  yBottom = y + 0.5*height
  yTop    = y - 0.5*height

# adjust for pos value

  if(pos==1 || pos==5 || pos==8) { yBottom=y+height; yTop=y }
  if(pos==3 || pos==6 || pos==7) { yBottom=y; yTop=y-height }
  if(pos==2 || pos==5 || pos==6) { xLeft=x-width; xRight=x }
  if(pos==4 || pos==7 || pos==8) { xLeft=x; xRight=x+width }


  xLeft = grconvertX(xLeft, from = "device", to = "user")
  xRight = grconvertX(xRight, from = "device", to = "user")
  yTop = grconvertY(yTop, from = "device", to = "user")
  yBottom = grconvertY(yBottom, from = "device", to = "user")

  rasterImage( flagPNG, xLeft,yBottom, xRight,yTop )

  if( !is.na(border) ) {
    rect(xLeft,yBottom, xRight,yTop, border=border, lwd=0.5)
  }


}