RewriteEngine On
#if uri matches a file or directory, do nothing and stop processing rules
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
#rewrite uri, special case when browsing in my userdir
#(due to base url expansion issues related to ~user format)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/~fredkilbourn/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /~fredkilbourn/public/phenomena/?uri=$1 [QSA,L]
#rewrite uri
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ ?uri=$1 [QSA]