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The second International Congress of Complex Systems in Sport.
|Many sport scientists are starting to apply the tools and concepts of non-linear dynamics, dynamical systems theory, chaos theory, and thermodynamics to analysis of sport behavior. One aim of this meeting was to encourage and promote such applications. Four main themes recurred throughout the conference: nonlinear dynamics of individual movement coordination (self-organization and metastability in athlete movement patterns, new techniques to collect and analyze the movement patterns of individual sports performers, and differential training); complex techniques to analyze team dynamics (emerging techniques to collect and analyze the movements of players in competition, and high-level variables that characterize team game dynamics); creativity and decision making (how training environment encourages or prevents emergent decision making, the coach's role in developing creative athletes, and techniques to analyze creativity); and training perceptual skills and multimodal perception (individual factors relating to perceptual skill, perception and action coupling, adding noise to perceptual information, and training strategies). Implications for scientists: complex systems may be useful in team dynamics, differential learning may enhance learning, visual search studies should be done in-situ, and virtual reality may overcome shortfalls of video based perceptual studies. Implications for coaches: constraints should be manipulated to optimize learning, task difficulty influences motivation and skill development, and creativity stems from metastable states.
|Article Type:
|Conference notes
Sports sciences
(Conferences, meetings and seminars)
Complex systems (Conferences, meetings and seminars)
Complex systems (Usage)
Chaos theory (Usage)
Croft, James L.
Button, Chris
Dicks, Mathew
|Pub Date:
|Name: Sportscience Publisher: Internet Society for Sport Science Audience: Academic Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Health Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2009 Internet Society for Sport Science ISSN: 1174-9210
|Date: Annual, 2009 Source Volume: 13
|Geographic Scope: Portugal Geographic Code: 4EUPR Portugal
|Accession Number:
|Full Text:
The second International Congress of Complex Systems in Sport
(ICCSS) was held in Funchal, Portugal, November 4-8, 2008. The meeting
included delegates of the tenth European Workshop on Ecological
Psychology. There were 220 attendees from 24 countries, and the program
consisted of five keynote addresses, 14 symposia, 10 free communication
sessions, two poster sessions, and a pre-conference workshop. Abstracts
of the keynote addresses are available at the conference site, and
selected abstracts are to be published in the International Journal of
Sport Psychology. The next ICCSS conference will be held in Lithuania,
September 14-18, 2010.
Nonlinear Dynamics of Individual Movement Coordination
The keynote by Keith Davids on The athlete-environment relation as a complex system: implications for sport pedagogy was presented in absentia as a pre-recorded video. This interesting talk highlighted the emergent nature of movement patterns, cognitions and decision-making during practice. An important message was that coaches need to identify and manipulate pertinent informational and task constraints so they can push athletes into a region of self-organized criticality during practice! In layman's terms, creative patterns of movement behavior can result from athletes learning to adapt their skills to continual changes in practice conditions. For example, it was noted that elite sports performers like Don Bradman and Tiger Woods have engaged in a large amount of creative and highly challenging practice in order to hone their extensive skill base. Hence encouraging movement variability during practice can be beneficial for long-term motor learning, leading to novel, creative behaviors. Davids also pointed out that attaining expertise for many athletes involves reaching a metastable state, where a number of movement options can be used for a given circumstance. The challenge for pedagogists is to understand how to design optimal learning environments to encourage athletes to achieve technique metastability. Specific examples of the ideas presented by Davids were seen in subsequent presentations on tennis serving (Moreno), swimming (Seifert), and ball-catching tasks (Tijtgat).
On the third day of the conference, we attended a symposium titled Complex movement analysis for complex training approaches. Presentations were made by Schollhorn, Beckmann and Janssen. Initially they highlighted the importance of exploratory data analysis approaches, like linear cluster analysis and nonlinear artificial neural nets, in revealing previously unidentified structures in human movement dynamics. The traditional method of analyzing movement patterns by comparing previously selected variables ignores these structures.
Schollhorn also introduced an innovative practice concept termed differential training, which appears to improve skill acquisition. In differential training, "noise" (random irrelevant movements) is introduced during practice of a target skill. An example of a differential training drill was provided where soccer players in a shooting drill were asked to make a different unrelated action (e.g., hop, skip or jump) while preparing to shoot the ball. The aim of differential training is to induce continuous changes in movement executions by avoiding repetitions, removing corrective instructions and emphasizing discovery practice. Positive benefits of differential training (largely by Schollhorn and colleagues) have been reported with shot putting, soccer skills, basketball and skiing.
On the final day of the meeting, Jia-Yi Chow presented on the role of practice in learning coordination patterns. He argued that skilled performers exploited different solution spaces to meet the same task goal. Such observations support the concept of degeneracy in the control and coordination of human movement. Interestingly, some evidence of increased variation in movement patterns existed during learning but it was not a pre-requisite for a switch between preferred movement patterns. Chow pointed out that informational and intentional constraints can guide the learner's search for effective movement solutions particularly whilst practicing self-paced, complex skills (in this case, a soccer-chipping task). Future research needs to map or scan the intrinsic dynamics of individual learners and examine changes to those dynamics after a learning intervention. Chow and colleagues have referred to ongoing work based on key concepts from nonlinear dynamics and ecological psychology as nonlinear pedagogy.
A keynote presentation from Yeou-Teh Liu on Bifurcation and self-organized criticality in motor learning was provided on the first full day of the meeting. Liu categorized two motor learning phenomena: acquiring a new motor skill, and improving an exiting motor skill. Most of the theoretical and empirical research literature in motor learning has been concerned with the latter phenomenon. However, acquiring new coordination patterns exists more often in practice.
Liu reminded us that although practice time is an important variable in the motor learning process, task difficulty also plays a crucial role in modulating the learning dynamics. In the motor learning process, a critical point occurs when a learner experiences the transition from failure to success. At a given task difficulty, increasing practice time may cause a transition from failure to success. However, increasing task difficulty may lead to a point where the success mode is no longer stable and a transition to the failure mode occurs. When the skill level is low (lack of practice) or the task difficulty is high the probability of success is very low, which reduces motivation and thus the effectiveness of learning. On the other hand, when the probability of success is very high, the challenge and the motivation are reduced. Liu showed that, when learners have control over the selected task difficulty during practice, there is an attractive critical manifold in the skill/difficulty space that has the optimal success rate of 50%. A self-organized practice condition also provides a higher improvement rate in performance outcome than a traditional, progressively increasing
difficulty condition.
How can the findings described above be interpreted by sport scientists and coaches? Informal discussion with experienced coaches attending the meeting suggested that they were aware of skill matching difficulty principles. A better understanding of this concept may allow us to anticipate when these conditions will occur and therefore help organize and optimize individualized, skill-focused practice schedules.
The take home messages in relation to the nonlinear dynamics of movement coordination were:
* Nonlinear analysis of technique provided evidence that movement patterns are constantly varying (even in skilled performers) because coordination is dependent on many factors, such as general behavior, intentions (e.g., to deceive an opponent), task difficulty, fatigue, and emotion.
* The coach/sport scientist should be aware of influential constraints on performance. Manipulating constraints in practice can be an effective way of preparing the performer to succeed.
* One hot discussion topic at the meeting was the differential learning approach, which is characterized mainly by randomly adding variable elements to the target movement. In contrast to classical learning approaches, differential learning studies have indicated better progress in learning even during the retention phase.
* The effectiveness of motor learning is affected by the size of movement variations within practice.
* Skill progression/improvements can be monitored by measuring variability and monitoring for irregular patterns (which often precede change).
* The skill-matching-difficulty principle is vital for coaches to understand. By manipulating task difficulty appropriately coaches can enhance the athlete's motivation.
Complex Techniques to Analyze Team Dynamics
Movement patterns exhibited by teams on the field of play undoubtedly represent a complex system that is often difficult to interpret. A symposium chaired by Duarte Araujo focused on the analysis of team games as complex systems. The purpose of such analysis is to identify collective (high-level) variables that describe, characterize, and explain the game. Description of patterns may enable researchers to predict transitions that lead to changes in the dynamics of play. A prominent researcher in this endeavor is Tim McGarry who presented his work on squash and basketball. McGarry showed that athletes can identify patterns of play from simple, point-like representations of players moving around on a court. He argued that complex team sports are composed of multiple, dynamic couplings among dyads of players and that these groupings are underpinned by similar principles of coordination dynamics. For example, all defensive players in basketball attempt to maintain a spatio-temporal relationship between themselves, their opponents and the area they are defending. In squash, this relationship can be observed as an anti-phasic (alternating) relationship of the players about the T-location of the court until the stability of this pattern is disrupted.
Unfortunately, Peter Beek could not present at the symposium. In Beek's abstract he noted that for match analysis to mature, more global measures are required that capture higher-order features of unfolding or played matches-features that are colloquially referred to by soccer professionals as connection between lines, space or distance between lines, defense-attack transitions, effectiveness of ball circulation, and the like. From a behavioral perspective, Mendes and colleagues suggested that players can be considered linked when a player passes the ball to a teammate or when players change position on the field due to teammate's displacement. Using footage from elite water polo matches to provide evidence, Mendes proposed that these two levels of linkage allow innumerable possibilities of interactions amongst players on a team. Whilst at an early stage of development, the ultimate goal of such research is to understand the dynamics of both teams during competition.
Two different approaches to analyzing team dynamics emerged at the meeting. The first, exemplified by Martin Lames, involved a rudimentary analysis of all player positions. Positional data of 22 players in the 2006 final of FIFA World Championship were used to calculate the centroid position of all a team's players and its variability. There was a tight in-phase coupling up and down the pitch between the centroids of the two teams with approximately 10 meters between them. Defenders and attackers move at all times in the same direction. In addition, the range of the team (the spread of the players) was also tightly coupled.
The second, more common approach concentrated on small-sided games. The advantage of such situations include: less volume of data, representation of sub-units within a game, and focus on finding variables that explain breaks in game play. Passos and colleagues used the analogy of free-flow and congestion in traffic jams in an attempt to explain collective patterning in rugby. In situations where the distance between attack and defense sub units is below some threshold, the ball carrier and support players seem to adjust running trajectories and speed to avoid defenders and maintain proximity with teammates. It is possible that some combination of inter-player distances may be useful in predicting game breaking situations. Correia, another PhD student within the same group, ,attempted to explain transitions in play near the try line using angles between best fit lines through player positions of each team. They hope this measure of system symmetry will predict movement of play up toward the goal line. Frencken tracked soccer players in small sided games and highlighted the limitations encountered by himself and others seeking to analyze full team sports.
One data collection and analysis tool that received some attention at the meeting was TACTO, which was discussed in a symposium chaired by Orlando Fernandes. TACTO or Tool for Applied and Contextual Time-series Observation is a software package written in Matlab that uses manually recorded virtual position coordinates and applies approximate entropy (ApEn) to measure the regularity of patterns. A time series containing many repetitive patterns has a relatively small ApEn; a less predictable (more complex) process has a higher ApEn. Folgado and colleagues used this approach in football to show that different players on the pitch exhibit different, characteristic ApEn values and that ApEn can be used to evaluate performance fluctuations.
A related symposium explored alternative ways to analyze team sports based on player positional data. Koen Lemmink articulated that the potential for multiple player tracking was increasing across a number of sports and that the dynamical systems approach is ideally placed to model and analyze such complex datasets. However, his presentation only covered 1 vs 1 situations in sports such as tennis, basketball and rugby. Passos and colleagues used the TACTO software to track Portuguese rugby union matches. They were interested in comparing the rate of change of relative position between teammates for the intra-team analysis and between attackers and defenders for the inter-team analysis. They found that players adjusted their relative positions to the specific performance setting, using information such as positions of the opponents or teammates, rather than in some stereotypical planned fashion. It was concluded that players' decisions and actions were governed by local emergent rules rather than by outside agents or predetermined action sequences.
From a technological aspect, Rick Shuttle-worth presented a practical method for tracking multiple players in real time using wireless radio-frequency technology. As an example, he showed results from a dynamic 2 vs 1 netball task where the goal was to make as many passes as possible in a fixed time. The movement patterns of netball players differed from those of other team sport athletes.
The take home messages in relation to analysis techniques for measuring team dynamics were:
* Analysis tools of nonlinear dynamics shows early but promising signs in improving our understanding of complex team dynamics in performance situations.
* At present, most research is limited to analyzing how small groups of players interact, but the ultimate goal is to analyze complete full-sided games.
* A number of player-tracking techniques are being explored, each with strengths and weaknesses. Researchers in many countries are striving to develop an accurate, reliable and non-invasive tracking technique that can be used in competition.
* The relationships or loose couplings that players and sub-groups of players develop in team sport are self-organizing features of a complex system. Rudimentary variables (e.g., relative phasing, centroid, approximate entropy) are being applied and developed to measure such features.
* For match analysis to mature, more global methods and measures are required that can capture higher-order features of unfolding or played matches.
Creativity and Decision-Making
Two symposia of note were devoted to creativity and decision making. Daniel Memmert presented a new tool to analyze creativity called Game Test Situation. GTS involves setting up a context-dependent real world setting that can provoke creative behavior in recurring comparable situations. In the test using gaps, four attackers have the task of playing the ball past three defenders in the midfield into an opposite part of the field. The GTS allowed for two different kinds of passing skill (hand and foot) in a system where the players took turns (two rounds for each person). For the future, GTS may be of some use in the training of children and youth (diagnostics of development and talent) and the evaluation of theories on the training of tactics. Jurgen Perl presented a new neural network approach for analysis of creative behavior in representative situations of team sports. The concept called Dynamically Controlled Neural Gas combines two existing neural net techniques. The analysis was able to separate main process types and reproduce creative learning processes by using simulation. It achieved a surprisingly high correspondence between simulated learning profiles and those obtained from the creativity tests of 43 children. The network could simulate the types of the 9step learning profiles and also reproduce good, medium and bad levels of creative learning. This approach has potential to explain how spontaneous decision-making emerges in sports situations. Finally, Robert Hristovski talked about Metastability and situated creativity in sport. Existing research has shown that novel and creative behaviors can spontaneously emerge when a complex system is poised in the metastable state. In this presentation Hristovski argued that novel actions might emerge by enabling an athlete or team to explore the metastable region of the action workspace through carefully manipulating key practice task constraints. He used an example in boxing where manipulating the distance of the target to be punched led to spontaneous alterations in preferred punch sequences. Whilst creativity in sport is a challenging and not particularly well understand concept, creativity researchers have potential to influence high-performance athletes in the future.
An interesting symposium on Collective decisions and actions-New challenges for research, training and match analysis described techniques used by Pedro Passos and colleagues to analyze collective decisions made in Rugby Union. In an intra-team analysis the interpersonal distance between players within the subunit over time was used to define the geometric centroid. For the inter-team collective variable they calculated the angle of vector-linked centroids (from the defense sub-unit to the attack sub-unit) with an imaginary horizontal line parallel to the try line. The authors (and members of the audience) identified a number of limitations with each collective variable, and other variables are likely to be the focus of future work. For example, Milho suggested variables such as the sum of the players' interpersonal distance, and the spatial distribution of the players in the sub-unit that defined the polygonal area (i.e. the shape and size of this area may describe the level of connection amongst teammates).
Training Perceptual Skills and Multimodal Perception
The ICCSS and EWEP combined meeting brought together many presentations on human perceptual skill. The underlying theoretical foundation throughout the meeting was an ecological psychology approach to perceptual skill. In particular, the keynote presentations given by prominent researchers Professor Michael Turvey (The ecological perspective, past and future) and Professor David Lee (Natural solutions to complex problems) gave the audience an overview of some the main tenets of this theoretical approach.
In short, the goal of experimenters conducting research from an ecological perspective is to understand the relationship between information held within the environment and its role in directing perception and controlling actions. As emphasized by Turvey, there is necessity in understanding the complementary relationship between an animal and its environment. In sport, each competitor is seen as having different action capabilities (e.g., body composition, height, strength, speed, technical proficiency, etc.) that are thought to influence the information they seek as they exploit affordances or opportunities for action offered by a set of environmental conditions. There is no optimal recipe of perceptual information (e.g., "watch the ball") or perceptual search strategy that will suit all athletes.
In skill acquisition research there is currently a concentrated effort to accurately sample the task environment to which an athlete is typically exposed during competition. This ensures that the information available for perception and action in experiments represents the information performers would attend to during actual competition.
Another key message was allowing participants to move in direct response to the perceived information during experiments. While perception is believed to provide information for action, the resulting movement is thought to generate further information (e.g., a golfer may not be able to accurately judge the slope of a green from one perspective, so they move to generate more information). Such behavior is abundant in everyday life and couples the relationship between information and movement in a flowing, perception-action cycle.
Considering the brief overview given above, it is obviously important to ensure fidelity between competition and training conditions, with emphasis on replicating the information for perception and action. For example, in his keynote Keith Davids presented data demonstrating some of the performance differences present in skilled batsmen when facing deliveries from a bowling machine in comparison with a live bowler (live conditions are also termed in situ). When opposing a bowler, batsmen were shown to initiate their shots prior to the bowler's ball release, because their movements become tightly geared, with practice, to information from the bowler's delivery. However, when facing the bowling machine there is no information available from the bowler's run-up and delivery action, implying that under these task constraints, batsmen have to rely on ball flight information alone. These tasks differ considerably in the nature of the information present, which ecological psychology proposes as instrumental in forming specific information-movement or perception-action couplings. For another example demonstrating how differing task constraints influence coordination in triple-jump training, see Wilson et al. (2009).
Further implications for cricket batsmen training with bowling machines were discussed in the presentation by Croft, who measured the effect of different ball speeds on the ability of batsmen to track the ball once released from a bowling machine. The preliminary data suggested that there was no global perceptual strategy used by all batsmen, implying the importance of accounting for the functional variability of perceptual strategies in any training instruction or practices. Also in cricket, Mann examined the counter-intuitive idea of blurring the vision of batsmen by fitting them with overcorrected contact lenses. Initial data suggested that a condition that left the batsmen with shortsighted vision did not actually decrease performance when compared with normal vision. Interestingly, anecdotal comments from some of the skilled batsmen participating in the study indicated that they actually preferred batting in the blurred vision condition! Such suggestions are consistent with the differential training concept discussed earlier. A training intervention research study is now needed to evaluate the significance of any potential learning that may be present after wearing contact lenses.
Perhaps some of the most fruitful contributions to understanding perceptual skill acquisition were presented in the symposium titled Calibration and the education of attention in perception-action coupling. Acquiring perceptual skill is a process of learning to attend to the most useful information in directing perception and controlling actions. The environment is believed to contain a manifold or continuum of informational variables that differ in the degree to which they are useful to a player. The nature of this information differs relative to the action capabilities of the respective athlete. For example, in rugby a fast and agile player may search the playing field for information specifying gaps in a defensive line that they could use during an attacking break, whereas a slower player requires more space or time to break a defensive line and so may search for comparatively larger gaps or weaker tacklers in the opposition team.
In team sports, this environmental information is likely to be held within the kinematics of the opposing players. While there are numerous plausible information sources that a player may draw upon to guide their actions, van der Kamp emphasized that an informational variable can be considered more useful if it can be exploited across a larger variety of situations without resulting in performance decrements. In contrast, information is considered less useful if its use leads to accurate performance in only one or a few situations. Furthermore, during learning, it is likely that players will switch between different information sources within the environment as they seek to explore alternative information-movement couplings. Therefore, during the design of training practices, Jacobs suggested that it would be more beneficial for athletes to learn under constantly variable conditions. This strategy would provide exposure to variable task constraints in which players must adapt their behavior to constantly changing information. Learning is variable, and it is important to design training drills that reflect this learning process.
Over the past three decades, experimenters have used eye-movement systems as a means of recording visual search strategies of athletes. Savelsbergh presented work from a research study that examined the effect of an innovative video-based training intervention on recreational football players. Inexperienced goalkeepers observed film clips presented on a life-size video display and judged the direction of penalty kicks by moving a hand-held joystick. The perceptual learning (education of attention) group practiced with film clips that were edited to include a spotlight that moved over the relevant information during the penalty taker's run-up. The training group practiced with the same film clips without any editing, and the third group served as control. There was a change in visual search behavior for the perceptual training group, although this was not significant compared with the training or control groups. Similarly, performance accuracy did not improve for the perceptual training group in comparison with either of the other groups. It is difficult to conclude whether the study demonstrated any evidence of video training providing a benefit to perceptual skill. Furthermore, there was no transfer test, meaning that it is not possible to evaluate whether such training intervention improves performance for in situ constraints. Indeed, much of the current perceptual training literature is relatively inconclusive with regards to the transfer and applicability of laboratory training protocols. Those studies that have included transfer tests thus far are mixed with regard to their effectiveness.
A possible explanation of the equivocal application of video training may be indicated by findings presented by Dicks, who compared the gaze and movement behaviors of goalkeepers for video simulation and in situ conditions. Goalkeepers faced penalty kicks distributed across five different experimental task constraints: video-simulation verbal response, video-simulation anticipatory response, in-situ verbal response, in-situ anticipatory response, and in-situ interceptive response. Goalkeepers were more accurate in anticipating the direction of the penalty kick for the in-situ in comparison with the video-simulation conditions. The more accurate performance for the in-situ conditions coincided with significantly more efficient visual search strategies in comparison with the video conditions. Goalkeepers spent more time fixating upon body based locations in comparison with the ball for all anticipatory and verbal response conditions, whereas the opposite was found in the in-situ interceptive condition.
A possible interpretation of these findings is that the video simulation conditions force players to rely on information presented by the penalty taker to anticipate kick direction, as only minimal ball-flight information was available for these conditions. The resulting simulation of the task constraints is not representative of those that are normally encountered in situ. Indeed, the findings further suggest that the two anticipatory in-situ simulations fail to adequately represent the task requirements for the in-situ interception condition. The results exemplify the importance of specificity in the design of training practices that emphasize the learning of functional information-movement couplings. Failure in the design of training drills to fully capture the nature of information available to players during match performance conditions may result in the acquisition of a diminished set of perceptual skills that are not compatible with the precise coordinated actions that are replete in expert sports performance.
Also using the penalty kick task, Lopes reported data on the relationship between the penalty taker and the goalkeeper. This study offered a representative experimental approach in which the behaviors of goalkeepers and penalty takers were manipulated under in-situ conditions. For example, the placement of the goalkeepers within the goal was altered to offer more space in one particular side of the goal. In addition, the penalty taker was given instruction to either base their kick direction on the behavior of the goalkeeper or independent of their opponent's action. The initial data presented indicated different results in comparison with a similar experimental set-up (e.g., Masters, van der Kamp & Jackson, 2007) that had previously been conducted under video simulation conditions. Manipulation of both players' behaviors in sporting dyads may prove a fruitful approach for development of representative task designs in sport.
So where does this leave video simulation tasks as a potential training method? Should such practices be ignored completely when designing future learning conditions? A body of research in its infancy that may suitably replace any need for video training is the application of virtual reality replications of sports environments. For example, the poster presentations of Watson and Craig (Collision detection in rugby union: What variables are key in assessing whether or not a gap is "makeable"?), and Brault, Kulpa, Bideau and Craig (1 vs 1: How do we anticipate the direction in which a player will run?) both considered the development and application of interactive immersive virtual reality techniques to study 2 vs 1 and 1 vs 1 situations in rugby union. Watson and Craig required participants to judge with a yes/no button response whether they perceived it possible to run between two approaching defenders. The starting and finishing distance between defenders was varied, as was the moment the virtual display was terminated. A critical gap of 1.1 m brought about errors in judgment: defensive gaps above or below the 1.1 m value were largely judged correctly by participants as being either passable or non-passable. Moreover, the players were able to pick up information about end-gap size ahead of time from the dynamics of gap closure. However, the authors acknowledged that a limitation of the research program was a failure to ensure that the participants produced an action response.
Brault and coworkers simulated the attacking run of a rugby union player in a virtual environment to measure how the kinematics of the attacking player's movements influenced the defender's anticipatory judgments about future running direction. A complementary biomechanical analysis study showed that during an attacker's deceptive movement, the shoulder rotation was exaggerated and the centre of mass was higher at the start of the movement, resulting in a large overall drop towards the end of the movement. The exaggerated shoulder movement in deceptive movements entrained a significantly greater percentage of false responses than in the non-deceptive trials. The findings from the two highlighted poster presentations indicate the potential of virtual environments as a means of measuring the perceptual skill of athletes. To date, verification is still required to understand whether there is fidelity in athletes' perceptual behaviors for virtual environments and in-situ conditions. Similar to video simulations, a current weakness in the above studies is a failure to ensure that players produce a movement response that is relative to the actions of the opponent/s in the observed display.
Frisoli and coworkers attempted to overcome these criticisms in a study using a rowing ergometer with a virtual reality simulator. The project focus was development of a rowing simulator for elite athletes that is integrated into a virtual reality environment. The research team is conducting a detailed and thorough set of analyses to ensure that the simulator closely matches the exact conditions of rowing on water. Additional to the two virtual reality studies described in rugby, the simulator being developed by Frisoli et al. aims to replicate the auditory and haptic information available for perception in addition to visual information. Thorough steps are being taken to verify whether the kinematic action and force generation that characterize the rower's performance on water is replicated when performing in the simulator. The presentation gave only an overview of some of the work, making it difficult to evaluate the potential impact of the virtual environment as a training tool, although the technology used in the simulator set-up certainly appeared to be impressive. Links: more on this project and on some of the current virtual reality technologies.
This part of the meeting covered considerable ground in relation to perceptual skills and training. Some take home messages were:
* Owing to each athlete having their own physical capabilities, there is no optimal recipe of perceptual information or perceptual search strategy that will suit everyone.
* While perception provides information for action, the resulting movement is thought to generate meaningful information. This cyclical process has profound implications for training.
* Training environments should replicate the information for perception and action present in competition
* Adding noise to perceptual information may benefit skill acquisition.
* A source of perceptual information may be
more useful if it can be exploited across a larger variety of situations without resulting in performance decrements.
* There is at best inconsistent support for the concept of video simulation training. We don't know enough about whether improved visual search characteristics (for example) lead to improved performance.
* Virtual reality training environments (in which an athlete's movement is linked in real time to their perceived environment) may soon replace the concept of video-based perceptual training.
Implications for Scientists
* Analysis of game sports as complex systems may enhance understanding of how performer/team dynamics are organized. Investigate current match analysis techniques and seek advice on how to implement complexity science approaches.
* Whilst promising, the concept of differential learning demands rigorous testing at different skill levels. What mechanism underpins improvement, and is it an effective, safe way to learn motor skills? Prioritize funding for research to examine the concept of differential learning.
* Match-analysis techniques are evolving quickly. A multidisciplinary approach is required in which sport scientists and computer scientists/mathematicians work together to develop high-order procedures which characterize complex game dynamics. Explore and develop new collaborative team approaches to match analysis.
* Visual search research performed in-situ is required to verify/generalize existing knowledge about perceptual skill in sport. Utilize representative designs in perceptual skill research.
* Virtual reality environments have significant potential to address many concerns associated with typical perceptual training environments. Investigate use of virtual reality in training perceptual-motor skills
* Objective variables that can characterize effective decision-making and creativity are required to advance research in this area. Explore the link between biomechanics and decision making particularly in deceptive movements.
Implications for Coaches
* Athletes should be encouraged to learn to adapt their skills to continual changes in practice conditions. Devise training activities that challenge the stability of athlete's movement patterns through manipulation of constraints.
* Athlete motivation is directly influenced by task difficulty. Manipulate task difficulty regularly to maintain optimal levels of motivation. If a task is too easy for an athlete, they won't progress.
* Athlete creativity demands metastable coordination patterns and conducive practice environments. Avoid over-reliance on repetitive, prescriptive training. Encourage athletes to take ownership of their learning.
* Perceptual training research is inconclusive regarding benefits for performance. Determine and highlight information sources that athletes can use to support a variety of actions (e.g., proprioception, sense of balance, auditory cues, vision)
Chow JY, Davids K, Button C, Shuttleworth R, Renshaw I, Araujo D (2007). The role of Nonlinear pedagogy in physical education. Review of Educational Research 77, 251-278
Fajen BR, Riley MA, Turvey M (2009). Information, affordances, and the control of action in sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology 40, 79-107
Frank T, Michelbrink M, Beckmann H, Schollhorn W (2008). A quantitative dynamical systems approach to differential learning: self-organization principle and order parameter equations. Biological Cybernetics 98, 19-31
Glazier P, Davids K, Renshaw I, Button, C (2005). Uncovering the secrets of "the Don"-Bradman reassessed. Sport Health 22, 16-21
Guadagnoli M, Lee TD (2004). Challenge point: A framework for conceptualizing the effects of various practice conditions in motor learning. Journal of Motor Behavior 36, 212-224
Memmert D, Perl J (2009). Analysis and simulation of creativity learning by means of artificial neural networks. Human Movement Science 28, 263282
Wilson C, Simpson S, Hamill J (2009). Movement coordination patterns in triple jump training drills. Journal of Sports Sciences 27, 277-282
Acknowledgement: partial funding for the authors was provided by Sport and Recreation NZ.
Published May 2009 [c]2009
James L Croft (1), Chris Button (2) and Mathew Dicks (2)
(1) Institute of Sport and Recreation Research NZ, AUT University, Auckland 0627, New Zealand; Email. (2) School of Physical Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; Email, Email. Reviewer: Duarte Araujo, Faculty of Human Kinetics, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal.
|Gale Copyright:
|Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.


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Woodrow W. Butler, 94
Woodrow W. Butler, 94, of Blackfoot passed away peacefully in his sleep, Dec. 16, 2012 at his home.
He was born Sept. 17, 1918 in Idaho Falls to Ralph Francis and Carrie Lenore Beckley Butler. He was the middle child of 15 children, 14 of whom lived to maturity.
He was raised on a homestead in the Bone-Willow Creek area of Bingham County. He attended school through the third grade in that area. After the school district closed there, the family moved to Idaho Falls for school in the fall and later bought a small place in Blackfoot where he attended school through tenth grade.
Then he and his brothers tended to the cattle on the homestead during the winter until he was inducted into the Army in June of 1941. He served in the States, including protecting the Golden Gate Bridge until 1943 when he was transferred to the Philippines and the Pacific Theater until the end of the war.
He was discharged in November 1945 and worked several jobs, mostly railroad until he and later his brother leased the homestead from their father.
They continued the ranching operation and in 1955, he met and married Bertha May Halton, a school teacher at Firth.
They continued the ranching operation and in 1958 they purchased the old Hebe Taylor farm on Rich Lane near Blackfoot for a winter base. They purchased the homestead, which they still own, about 1970.
Woodrow served his ranching and farming community in many ways throughout t his life with roles on the Eastern Idaho Grazing Association as a director for 20 years and as vice president for 10 years, and on the board of directors for the Eastern Idaho Water and Blackfoot Slough companies. He received the Million Miles in the Saddle Award from the Idaho Cattlemen's Association for his outstanding achievements and contributions to the sustainability of the cattle industry.
He and Bertha are the parents of five children, 2 boys and 3 girls —Brett W. Butler (son, Cole); Rance B Butler (sons, Slade and Dillon Woodrow, daughters, Jenny Lou, Serena and Samantha (Ryan Nolis); Carol Ann Butler Reid (sons, Tye (Heidi), Lucas and Conner; Terri Lee Butler (Jonathan) Bates; and five great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be conducted at 3 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 at Hawker Funeral Home, 132 S. Shilling Ave. Family will meet with friends and loved ones one hour prior to services.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Southeast Idaho Community Action Agency (SEICCA) in Blackfoot.
A life celebration will be held at the Elks Lodge following the service. Those who are unable to attend the service may view the live broadcast online during the time of the service only at www.hawkerfuneralhome.com.
Condolences may be sent to the family at firstname.lastname@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ridership on the New Haven Line set a new record in 2012 with 38.8 million rides and according to MTA, Stamford was the biggest outlying station and busiest suburban work destination of 2012 with some 5,300 people getting off morning trains from both directions.
Metro-North's service plan can accommodate approximately 33 percent of the regular ridership on the New Haven Line.
Con Edison said it is working with Metro-North to try to establish alternative power sources to serve the New Haven line, but noted that repairs of this nature typically take two to three weeks.
A statement on MTA's website read, "Metro-North is working with Con Edison to try to establish alternative power sources to serve the New Haven Line. Con Ed crews are working around the clock to make repairs to a feeder cable that failed...Another feeder normally providing service to the New Haven Line was out on scheduled repairs to accommodate upgrades required by Metro-North."


text:
Snagged His First Game Ball…Green Hat and All.
Dodgers vs Rockies…Salt River Fields
"D" in the Desert
This day started out exactly the way I like it. We showed up early and were greeted with two Diamondback batting practices.
As I said there were two BP's today and during the second one it was just Mike, Dan and I snagg'n. It was game on and I snagged eight baseballs.
I live for days like that.
Behind where we were snagg'n baseballs was a six foot fence lined with barbed wire. Several of the BP homers hit bounced on the road and landed on the other side of the fence. I looked but couldn't see a way to get over the fence and snag those baseballs so I forgot about them.
Next thing I know I see Mike walking up to me with a handful of baseballs. Mike found a weak spot in the fence and was able to get through it and snag those stranded baseballs. He also found a couple of balls that were missed hidden in the bushes.
For that bit of top-notch snagging I think Mike deserves an award.
I'm awarding Mike the first annual:
"Robert Harmon Award for Creative Ballhawking"
To quote Robert "Baseballs do grow on trees". Mike proved that.
The Rockies decided to take their BP in the cages…it figures.
Here's "The Deuce", caged and protected from his adoring fans.
Jordan Pacheco
Chris Nelson was kind enough to sign a baseball for me.
Here are some inside the stadium pictures pre-game.
I headed over to the Dodgers side to try to get Mark Ellis to sign the live game ball he tossed me last season but I never saw Mark on the field pre-game. As the Usher was scooting us away after the National Anthem Andre Ethier walked up to the edge of the dugout and started signing for folks.
I waited and Andre signed my baseball last.
He signed it on the sweet spot for me, I didn't even have to ask.
Thanks Andre!
When I see Captain Earthman I know all is as it should be as far as baseball is concerned.
The crew out on the berm. Check out Mikes hat.
Tulo's Bobble.
Former Rockie Mark Ellis.
In the sixth inning Wilin Rosario hit foul ball along the first base line. The new owner of that baseball was none other than my partner in crime down here in Phoenix…Mike the Rox Addict.
Mike gave away his first ever game ball to Mary the Usher because it was her birthday.
Here's Mike pictured with Mary on TV…Classy move Mike 🙂
As much as we wanted a win to cap off one hell of a day it wasn't happening.
Padres get the win over the Rockies 9-6.
I'm "D" The Ranter, feel'n fine but running a bit behind.
Next blog entry…Rangers vs Brewers Maryvale Baseball Park.


text:
I am working on decorating and filling the house so I haven't really taken my own pictures.
We have already removed the huge bush thing
Front door
Front room.
We don't have a grand piano, so it currently is empty.
Dining Room
We don't have neat eaters (white carpet in a dining room?)
so its currently a playroom.
Living room
We bought a brown leather sectional because we though theirs looked good
We also have a clock where they do.
Butler's Pantry.
The other side is a closet with shelves where we keep our food.
We have a buffet in this spot.
They took their island. Someday I hope to have one.
Eating area in the kitchen
Half Bathroom on main level
Bonus room upstairs
We use it as a play room / tv room for the girls
(yes that would be 2 playrooms in our house)
Upstairs hallway
Master bedroom
This is Ariel and Arianna's room.
We plan to paint this very dark brown very soon
Annabelle's room
She loves the desk
Girls' bathroom
We also plan to paint this very dark brown very soon
Landing on the steps
Master bathroom
the toilet is on the other side of the shower wall
The huge closet is across from the sink
The people who lived here had a ton of furniture. We are slowly but surely filling the house and decorating it. Everything is really great and we only have to paint 2 rooms.


text:
SPT JCR Manager is a simple Web application used to view and manage Java Content Repositories. The application supports viewing the contents of a repository through a tree view, or through querying (XPath, SQL) or searching the entire repository. It supports CRUD operations on Nodes and properties (all standard types mandated by the specifications are supported).
The SPT Relational Database Web Tool (RWT) is a simple application that can help developers connect to databases configured as a DataSource in the application server or directly through JDBC. The RWT application attempts to replicate basic features found in the popular Aqua Data Studio application. Per user settings (saved connection parameters, saved queries), single and batch query processing, a history browser, multiple query browsers, a tree view of database metadata, and other features are supported. Full source code is available.
A system optimization tool.
A micro Linux distribution for securely hosting a Tor server.


text:
Federal Government intervention hasdestroyed or driven many U.S. Based businesses and their related jobs to other Countries. The U.S. Congress has lost control of the IRS. The Constitution means nothing to many in the U.S. House and Senate. No Constitutionally required Federal Budget has been passed in years! Vote buying by those with the money to influence elections for personal gain and further prostitution of Our Representatives and Senators is rampant! The perversion of Federal Tax Code has destroyed the idea of Citizen representation and "equal" taxation originally instituted by the U.S. Constitution. Most of the current Congress continues to support an IRS strangle hold on every U.S. Citizens throat!
The past and current goals of these corrupt Federal Representatives and Senators consist of talking about the same failed Federal Tax ideologies. Their goal is to stir up discord and discontent between Citizens of different income levels. Unfortunately this tried and true tactic continues to divide and conquer Citizen opposition to the current failed Federal Tax Code. It is time for the Citizens of the United States to wake up! We must not continue to allow our self centered thinking to divide us. The current intimidation imposed by the Federal IRS must stop! Citizens will continue to suffer under the current out of control oppressive Federal IRS until we choose to stop the abuse.
A few so called Representatives who are Members of the House Ways and Means Committee are leading in this continued perversion. Their collective decisions and control have lead to constantly increasing Federal Taxation. Representative Camp is the ring leader in these efforts. He and the other Members keep HR:25 locked up in Committee. He and his henchmen are responsible for stopping any substantive debate concerning HR:25 on the House floor! These Controllers in Congress fear HR:25 because they know it will return us to a Constitutional "equal" Federal Tax System. HR:25reinstates the original intent of the Constitutions' "equal" requirement specified by the original wording of the U.S.Constitutions' Article 1.
The 16th Amendment perverted the concept of Citizen control as it pertains to Federal powers of Taxation. HR:25 is the only tax related Bill before Congress that requires repealing this mistake. False pretenses were used to fool our grandparents and parents into passing the 16th Amendment. They made the mistake of trusting the Federal Governments Representatives. We the People are now subjected to a Federal Tax Code that serves no purpose other than lining the pockets of the Snake Oil Salesmen in the U.S. Congress!
The current failed Federal Income Tax must be pulled out by its corrupt roots and thrown on the trash heap of Failed Government ideologies. Our Representatives and Senators who fail to tell the truth concerning HR:25 must be replaced! Do not make the mistake of posting your vote in favor of a Republican or Democrat in up coming elections, both Parties are responsible for our current failed Federal Tax System. Both Parties promote division between Citizens. Please vote for Candidates who support and will demand passage of HR:25.
There are currently 71 Members of Congress willing to tell the truth. They are the Co-sponsors of HR:25 / S:122. Don't be fooled by the "Flat taxers"! Study our history and you will find the 16th Amendment and our current failed Federal Income Tax were both sold to our parents and grandparents as a "Flat Tax" on the top 1% of income earners! There can be no substantive, effective change in Federal Tax Codes without repeal of the 16th Amendment
Please don't take my word for anything stated hear. To discover the truth about our failed Federal Tax Code and the positive attributes of HR:25, go to www.fairtax.org or http://thomas.loc.gov/home/LegislativeData.php?n=Browse. Read the Bill for yourself, it is only 131 double spaced typed pages long. Yet it totally replaces the thousands & thousands of pages making up our current failed Federal Income Tax Code!
Fred Walker
Currie, N.C.
Email: email@example.com


text:
DOVER — One of New Jersey's most influential architects, Fred Wesley Wentworth, hailed from Dover, N.H. The Dover Public Library is pleased to host, on Monday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m., Richard Polton, the author of a new book about this forgotten architect who is buried at Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover. Polton's new book is entitled "The Life & Times of Fred Wesley Wentworth: The Architect Who Shaped Paterson, NJ and Its People".
Wentworth, born in 1864, attended Dartmouth College and became a highly influential architect in Paterson. However, very little has been publicly known about him until now. Wentworth designed approximately 40 buildings in Paterson from 1890 through 1940 — everything from hospitals, schools, hotels, beautiful homes and commercial buildings to original, groundbreaking designs for the burgeoning movie palaces of the era. During this time, Paterson was a place of movers and shakers — it was home to a vice president of the United States, a governor who became U.S. Attorney General, manufacturing and retail entrepreneurs, innovators, and captains of industry — and they were all clients of Fred Wesley Wentworth.
"If you lived in Paterson during the 20th century, you lived in a city built by Wentworth," says Polton, who grew up in Paterson. "Yet I had never heard of him until I stumbled across a book of his on eBay. The more I researched his life and work, the more I was fascinated by the breadth and quality of his career, the relationships he formed with his clients, and the enormous changes he witnessed in Paterson during his lifetime."
Born in Boxborough, Mass. in 1864, Wentworth was raised and educated in Dover. His father, William Trickey Wentworth, was born in Hiram, Maine in 1822, but spent most of his adult life in Dover. He owned Long Hill Farm, a successful dairy farm a mile outside of town. The elder Wentworth was active in politics, serving as selectman, school commissioner, councilman, alderman and state legislator. Fred Wesley Wentworth's mother was Lucinda Phipps (MacDonald) Wentworth, born in New Hampshire and from a well-established local family.
Early in his career, Wentworth designed the Lucius Everett Varney residence on Arch Street in Dover, which still stands today. Built in 1905, it is among the grandest homes in Wentworth's portfolio. Lucius was a classmate of Wentworth's at Dartmouth and practiced patent law in New York City, but called Dover home. Both men were members of the Casque & Gauntlet Society at Dartmouth, and both are buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover.
Among Wentworth's most significant clients was Jacob Fabian, a Jewish entrepreneur and entertainment industry mogul. Together the two men pioneered the design of movie palaces, building six in New Jersey, including the Stanley Theater in Jersey City, still intact today. Their long-standing collaboration also resulted in a major synagogue and social buildings that formed Jewish life in Paterson in the early 1900s, helping a generation of immigrants become the Americans they yearned to be.
Author Richard Polton, who lives in New Jersey, is a founding principal of Value Research Group, a real estate valuation and consulting firm and specializes in issues of affordable housing and urban redevelopment. He studied American history at Columbia, architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and city planning at MIT. He is also on the board of trustees of the Hamilton Partnership for Paterson, a nonprofit organization helping to launch the Paterson Great Falls National Park.
With more than 130 photos detailing Wentworth-designed buildings and events during his lifetime, "The Life and Times of Fred Wesley Wentworth" uncovers a forgotten history of one of the most overlooked, but influential, architects in New Jersey's past.
This program is free and open to the public. Copies of Mr. Polton's book will be available for sale. Please call the Library, 516-6050, for more information.


text: Women Correctional Officers in California, 1979 (ICPSR 8684) Published: Mar 30, 2006 Cite this Study | Share this study × Citation Holeman, Herbert, and Krepps-Hess, Barbara J. Women Correctional Officers in California, 1979. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2006-03-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08684.v2 Export Citation: RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.) EndNote Principal Investigator(s): Herbert Holeman; Barbara J. Krepps-Hess https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08684.v2 Version V2 Analyze Online Slide tabs to view more At A Glance Data & Documentation Variables Publications Export Metadata Staff Project Description Summary This study examined women correctional officers working in the 11 institutions for men operated by the California Department of Corrections in 1979. For Part 1, Census, researchers conducted a census of all 386 female correctional officers working in these institutions to collect demographic characteristics and baseline data. For Parts 2 (Staff) and 3 (Inmate), a survey was administered to staff and inmates asking their opinions about differences in performance between male and female correctional officers. Part 4, Profile, contains demographic and background data for the officers participating in the Part 2 survey. For Parts 5 (Female) and 6 (Male), researchers gathered job performance data for female correctional officers in 7 of the 11 institutions, as well as a matched sample of male correctional officers. Variables in Parts 1 and 4-6 include demographic information such as age, ethnicity, marital status, number of children, and educational and occupational history. Other variables measure attributes such as age, weight, and height, and record career information such as date and location of permanent assignment as a correctional officer, any breaks in service, and other criminal justice work experience. Additional variables in Parts 5 and 6 include job performance measures, such as ratings on skills, knowledge, work habits, learning ability, overall work habits, quality and quantity of work, and commendations. Parts 2 and 3 present information on staff and inmate evaluations of male and female correctional officers performing specific roles, such as control work officer, yard officer, or security squad officer. Additional variables include opinions on how well male and female officers handled emergency situations, maintained control under stress, and used firearms when necessary. Questions were also asked about whether inmates' or officers' safety was endangered with female officers, whether women should be hired as correctional officers, and whether female officers were gaining acceptance in correctional facilities. Citation Holeman, Herbert, and Krepps-Hess, Barbara J. Women Correctional Officers in California, 1979. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2006-03-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08684.v2 Export Citation: RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.) EndNote Funding United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (79-NI-AX-0096) Subject Terms correctional facilities criminal justice system gender roles women Geographic Coverage United States California Scope of Project Time Period(s) 1979 Methodology Sample Part 1 was a department-wide census of every female correctional officer working in 11 California male inmate institutions. For Parts 2 and 4, officer survey responses and profile data were collected from male and female correctional officers in seven institutions. A proportionate stratified random sample was conducted, using the seniority listing of correctional officers. The sample was stratified by sex and institution to be representative of all correctional officers in California. Within each strata, 10 percent of the officers were selected. For Part 3, survey responses were gathered from structured attitude questionnaires given to 400 inmates from 7 institutions. The selection was made from 75 percent of the mainline inmates out of a population of 25,838 male felons. For Parts 5 and 6, job performance data from 168 female correctional officers were matched (using age and job tenure) with 168 male correctional officers. Only 7 of the 11 institutions were used, since 4 of the institutions employed less than 24 female officers. For this reason, 24 women and 24 men were selected from each of these 7 institutions. For those institutions employing more than 24 women officers, a random-digit table was used to select 24 women. Universe Male and female correctional officers and male felons in 11 California male inmate institutions. Data Source personnel records, and self-enumerated questionnaires Data Type(s) census/enumeration datasurvey data Version(s) Original Release Date 1987-10-12 Version Date 2006-03-30 Version History 2006-03-30 File CB8684.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.2000-09-25 ICPSR reformatted the data, recoded system missing, and checked for undocumented codes. SAS and SPSS data definition statements were also created for this collection by ICPSR. A revised codebook, including a data completeness report, was created by ICPSR, which now includes the former Part 1, Study Information, file that had been listed on the ICPSR Website. As a result, the data files have been renumbered from the order in which they were presented on the website. In addition, the principal investigators' original hardcopy documentation was converted to Portable Document Format (PDF).1987-10-12 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:Standardized missing values.Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes. Notes The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution. This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.


text:
- Couple Stories : The Conference Room
The Conference Room
I wait for you after hours in the conference room of your firm. I need to sign these papers for the deal to close. You appear and I am stunned. You introduce yourself as Ms. Cole, but ask me to call you Jana. I am mesmerized by your beauty and sexiness. You are in a very smart business suit. You are wearing a modest skirt, and have very shapely legs. You are a very pretty little blonde, and I immediately feel electricity between us. Your smile is making me lose my senses. Your eyes are very blue, and seem to twinkle. As I sit and read the documents that you have prepared, you lean in close over my shoulder. You look even cuter and sexier in those reading glasses. I can smell the faint perfume scent. I feel your breast brush my shoulder. Am I mistaken, or is there an attraction too? I turn my head to ask a question, and our lips almost meet. You blush just a little, and pull away smiling. I take the big chance on getting slapped and needing a new lawyer. I stand and quickly kiss you. You resist slightly at first, but soon melt. I can feel you move into be closer as we press together. My tongue is in your mouth and your hands are behind my head pulling me in deeper. I run my hands down that tailored suit and feel your hard nipple through the fabric. I squeeze it firmly and feel your tongue respond in my mouth. I feel your hands move to my swelling cock and rub me through my slacks. I pick you up and place you on the edge of the conference table as we continue to kiss and touch. My hands go under your skirt, and to my surprise, I find a bare, partially shaved pussy. I can feel how wet and ready you are. I probe your wetness and find your very hard clit. I feel you shudder as I begin to massage it slowly. I lay you back gently on the table and unbutton that suit. I unbutton your blouse as well and pull up the small lacy bra that you wear. I hungrily suck your hard nipple deeply into my mouth as I play with your pussy under your skirt. I kiss my way down your body. And push your skirt up as I reach your hips. I bend and kiss the wet lips of your sweet little pussy, just below the little "landing strip" that you don't shave. Your pussy lips are smooth and soft, as well as very wet as I slowly lick you open. My tongue probes deep inside you now as I slide a finger back inside your pussy as well. My tongue and lips find your swollen little clit and I suck and tease it while I slide a second finger inside your tight little pussy. Your hands are in my hair, pulling my face in, wanting to cum on it. I work your clit with my tongue and lips and soon feel you begin to cum for me. I hear your soft moan as I lick you harder, pushing you further over that edge. After you have cum in my mouth, I rise and work my slacks open, dropping them as I stand at the tableside between your spread legs. I rest you heels on my shoulders, and rub my cock against your wet cunt. I play with your sensitive clit with my cock head, and tease your lips. You look up at me, and say firmly "Fuck me!" and I do just that. In one swift stroke, I bury my hard cock inside you. My thumb rotates on your clit, and the other hand squeezes your hard nipple. I drive it deep with every stroke, and you work your ass on that polished table to fuck me back. After a time, as we lock glances, I say "I want it from behind" and we uncouple momentarily. You stand and bend over the table, laying your upper body over it and showing me that sweet little ass. I step in, and plunge my cock back inside that hot pussy. Holding your hips, I fuck you long and hard. I hear you say "Yea, fuck me!" and work even harder. About ten minutes into it,
I feel you arch, and know that you are cumming hard again. I pound you as hard as I can till you are spent. I feel you reach back, and take my cock as I am pulled out slightly. You guide it to your ass, and whisper, "Fuck me here, I want your cum there" I am pleased, and quite surprised, and push my well lubed dick into your very tight asshole. It takes a bit, and you pushing back, but I slide inside you. The feeling is awesome, and I begin to fuck you. I know, after all the fucking and teasing, and this incredible sensation, that I'll cum soon. I work it for as long as I can, then tell you "I am going to cum soon!" I feel you fuck me back harder, and I fill your ass with my hot load. We hurriedly dress together, now somewhat embarrassed by the situation. We finish our business and she walks me out to the elevator. I watch that ass as she walks away, thinking I just had the luckiest night of my life.....


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text:
From the It-Was-Bound-To-Happen-Sooner-Or-Later File:
February 17, 2006
(Y'all! Thank you so much for all the awesome diaper tote suggestions. I want about ten of them. At least. Oh wait, did I see that one before? Shit. Now I want eleven. And because together we've pretty much covered the Entire Universe of Cool Diaper Bags for the Non-Frumpy Mama, I'm going to pool all the suggestions and create a shopping guide. Because I have ALWAYS wanted to create a shopping guide of some sort, but have been too lazy to actually research it my damn self. So...thank you for doing all the work. Suckers.)
Last night we went out for dinner (u could save that $ and stay home! wh0RE!). Noah fell asleep during the car ride to the restaurant (if u loved Noah u would sell that car t00 and walk everywhere!), and Jason dropped me off while he went to find parking.
I went in, got our table and happily settled in with the wine list (OMFG!) and waited for Jason and Noah to join me.
Minutes later, Jason arrived. I waved and he casually strolled over and sat down.
I stared at him for a few seconds. I took a deep breath. I focused on keeping my cool. Also on keeping my eyeballs from exploding.
"Jason," I said, in a calm, low voice. "Where. Is. The. Baby?"
His eyes got very wide, and without a word, he jumped up and bolted back out the door.
When he returned, sleeping babe in tow, the table next to us applauded.
"DUDE." said our slightly horrified waitress. "DUDE."
DUDE is right, because I now have something to hold over Jason's head FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, and I couldn't be happier about that, since maybe now he'll stop asking if Noah looks a little cross-eyed because I sort of let him fall off the couch that one time.
I am properly gobsmacked at your duncity and recklessness, dude.


text:
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text:
Robin van Persie has become the top goalscorer of all time for Netherlands following a hat trick against Hungary on Friday.
The Manchester United striker went into the penultimate World Cup 2014 qualifier with 38 goals in 78 games for the Oranje, and the pressure was off for the hosts, who had secured a spot in Brazil next summer in September.
Van Persie scored after 16 minutes to prove that the Dutch were not resting on their laurels with a looped header to open the scoring, before Kevin Strootman and Jeremain Lens added to the lead.
The Oranje skipper drew level with Patrick Kluivert's 40-goal tally on the stroke of halftime with another header and he celebrated by hugging Kluivert, who is one of Louis van Gaal's assistant coaches in the international set-up.
Van Persie broke the mark in the 53rd minute off a feed from Arjen Robben -- who set up van Persie's second goal as well -- before being subbed off for Dirk Kuyt in the 61st minute with the Dutch leading comfortably 5-1. Netherlands went on to complete an 8-1 victory.


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Honeywell TB6575B1000 SuitePro Fan Coil Thermostat - 120/240 V - 2 Pipe
About This Thermostat
|System Compatibility:
|Line Voltage
|Power Options:
|line voltage - 120/240
|Heat/Cool Changeover:
|Automatic or Manual
|Programmable Fan:
|Temperature Limits:
|Keypad Lockout:
|Vacation Hold:
Honeywell TB6575B1000 SuitePro Fan Coil Thermostat - 120/240 V - 2 Pipe. The SuitePRO is a family of Digital Fan Coil thermostats for residential and commercial applications such as hotels, condominiums, school classrooms, etc. TB6575B1000 - 2-pipe with seasonal heat/cool changeover; 120/240 VAC.
Suitable for multiple applications. Changes in output wiring and external links between wiring terminals allow you to configure the thermostat for the appropriate application.
The applications that are available are:
- Heating or Cooling only
- Two pipes: Heat or Cool with Manual Changeover
- Two pipes: Heat or Cool with Seasonal Changeover (requires optional pipe sensor)
- Two pipes: Heat or Cool with Auxiliary Heat and Manual or Seasonal Changeover (requires optional pipe sensor)
. Simple, intuitive user interface and ease of installation.
. Attractive modern styling ideal for hotels and condos.
. Digital display of ambient temperature, setpoint, mode icons when cooling or heating relays operate, when energy savings mode is active, and fan status.
. Four buttons allow manual control of system operation, fan speed, and temperature setpoint adjustment.
. VersaSpeed T Fan Ramp Algorithm automatically adjusts Low, Medium, High fan speed.
. Optional freeze protection feature that turns on heat, if necessary.
. Activity sensing algorithm sets back thermostat to economy mode.
. Auto fan rest option sets back fan to auto mode.
. Energy savings mode -- external energy savings input from dry contact such as time switch, occupancy sensor, or hotel cardkey overrides comfort setpoint with selectable setback heating or cooling setpoints.
. Energy savings input configurable as a normally open or normally closed dry contact.
. Proportional plus integral (P+I) control algorithm for precision temperature regulation.
. Selectable C or F.
. Adjustable deadband, in auto changeover mode, for heat and cool control.
. Adjustable maximum heating and minimum cooling setpoint limits.
. Installer setup mode allows changes of operating parameters.
. EEPROM permanently retains user settings, including setpoints, during power loss (no batteries required).
. Capability to display temperature sensor failure for easier troubleshooting.
. Optional remote temperature sensor and remote pipe sensor.
Description - 3-Speed Fan Coil Thermostat; 2 pipe Manual/Auto Heat/Cool changeover, 3 speed fan, Supply voltage: 120/240 Vac 50/60 Hz
Application - 2 pipe fan coil, Heat/Cool manual/auto changeover, 3-speed fan, 120 - 240 Vac
Changeover - Manual/Auto
Switch Positions (System) - OFF-HEAT-COOL-AUTO
Switch Positions (Fan) - HI-MED-LOW-AUTO-OFF
Color - Premier White®
Setting Temperature Range (F) - 50 F to 90 F
Setting Temperature Range (C) - 10 C to 30 C
Voltage - 120 Vac (+/- 10%) or 240 Vac (+/- 10%)
Frequency - 50 Hz; 60 Hz
Electrical Ratings - 120 Vac, Fan Rating: 6.0 A, Relay Rating: 1.0 A; 240 Vac, Fan Rating: 3.0 A, Relay Rating: 1.0 A
Display - LCD
Mounting - Direct mounting on horizontal 2 x 4 in. (50mm x 75 mm) junction box.
Dimensions (in.) - 3 13/16 in. high x 5 13/16 in. wide x 1 1/8 in. deep
Dimensions (mm) - 97 mm high x 148 mm wide x 29 mm deep
Operating Humidity Range (% RH) - 5 to 95% RH, non-condensing


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Can we still be friends?
Can we still be friends?
I'm in too! I found out the other day that my sheep hunt is going to be in the DIY issue. I have never submitted a story before, so I hope it turns out well.
Good for you timber stalker! That's awesome! Will it be a story?
Awesome Timberstalker!
Looks like a few EF members are going to be in! I am really looking forward to this issue.
I believe my story was published, we will see in a couple weeks!
Congrats Ikeepitcold and Timberstalker. I'm looking forward to that issue .
It sounds like this issue is going to be pretty Epic! With the "rough" look to the covers and with the shear amount of content in this issue it's gonna be a good one! Oh and two of us on the EF are in it! What More can a guy ask for?!


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WASHINGTON -- Obama administration lawyers Friday strongly urged Justice Sonia Sotomayor and the Supreme Court to drop an appeal from the Little Sisters of the Poor and other Catholic groups who object to the so-called contraceptive mandate in the new healthcare law.
Nonprofit religious charities already can "opt out" of the requirement to pay for insurance coverage for contraceptives and therefore have nothing to complain about, U.S. Solicitor Gen. Donald Verrilli told the court.
"With the stroke of their own pen," the nuns and other Catholic charities "can secure for themselves the relief they seek from this court, an exemption from the requirements of the contraceptive-coverage provision," he wrote in a brief filed Friday morning. All the group needs to do is file a letter seeking an exemption, he said.
Moreover, because the nuns get their insurance coverage from another Catholic group that is also exempt from the rule, the nuns' employees and their family members "will not receive contraceptive coverage" once they file for the exemption.
"Completion of that certification would result in the complete denial of coverage for the drugs and devices to which [they] object," he wrote.
On New Year's Eve, several lower courts and Sotomayor granted a temporary reprieve to several Catholic groups, shielding them from requirements of the new law. Their lawyers had said the groups faced "draconian fines" if they failed to provide the contraceptive coverage to which they object, fines that would begin as soon as the law took effect.
But Verrilli said the appeals from those groups were based on a false premise, and that the healthcare law permits religious groups to opt out of paying for insurance coverage of contraceptives.
The justices are expected to consider the issue early next week and decide how to proceed.
Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook
Twitter: @davidgsavage


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Katrina Markoff, the founder of high-end Chicago chocolatier Vosges Haut-Chocolat, is nearing completion on two high-profile projects: a winery-style chocolate facility in Logan Square and an education center at a cacao plantation and eco-lodge in Belize.
Markoff isn't ready to talk about the Logan Square project, her spokeswoman said. But in an interview last week, she said she hopes the Belcampo farm in Belize will become the source of a majority of Vosges' cacao once its plants mature.


text:
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#32 wrote:The ESPN forums!?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
"Dudes... I think we could trade Mickael Pietrus, Patrick O'Bryant, a few first round picks, and cash... for Kevin Garnett!!!"
Migya posts there????????
Moderators: Mr. Crackerz, JREED, Guybrush, 32
sixerdave wrote:Hey is1531, what's going on? We miss you in the Sixer forum. I was able to get to a Warrior game this year, when they played the Sixers. Not a far drive from down here in San Jose.
I could not agree more. With each game the Nuggets play, they look more and more out of sorts. They are just one game over .500, and are playing like a bunch of individuals, not a team of basketball players.
The Warriors have a lot of players who can contribute, and who better to make it work than Don Nelson. When Richardson gets back, they will be able to run teams out of the gym with their depth. Also, Richardson and Harrington both provide mismatches as they can take smaller players into the post and bigger players outside.
The key will not be how the Nuggets play, but how the Warriors play. When a team is clicking, it doesn't matter how the rest of the league is doing.
It would be nice to have a bigger stronger PF, but they will probably have to make what they have work. I think with J Rich, Pietrus, Jackson, Harrington, Barnes, etc. they could put a player out there and bring in a big, maybe from Detroit.
is1531 wrote:You guys are like foreigners.I quit your ice cold website.You guys have no manners.All you guys do is make wise cracks.Just cut me from the website.Now I see why nobody comes here.Just a bunch of punks and loud mouths.
I am following basketball since 1962,so I do not need silly advice from punks on this website.Do not write back.I just quit.


text:
A Useful Diversion
When McCarthy first started working at the Tompkins County Solid Waste Management Division, its waste diversion rate was 40 percent. In other words, 60 percent of the solid waste in Tompkins County ended up in a landfill. Since then, those numbers have been reversed, and division's current waste diversion rate is 60 percent. The division's goal, McCarthy says, is to reach 75 percent in the next four years and 85 percent by 2031.
According to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, the average diversion rate for county waste facilities in New York is 20 percent. Other counties across the state routinely call Tompkins County Solid Waste Management Division to ask for advice, and the staff is often invited to state conferences to share its best practices.
So how did the division get so successful?
"One reason is the financing of the division," McCarthy explains. "Our revenues—which come from an annual fee, disposal fees, and money from the sale of recyclables—fund our programs. If you look at other areas of the state, you'll find that some county programs are funded solely by recycling revenues. So fluctuations in the economy affect the program."
Because county residents have to purchase a trash tag for each bag of garbage they set out to be hauled to a landfill, the more they throw away, the more they have to pay. In the long run, people realize that it's cheaper to keep as many things out of the waste stream as they can.
The waste management division also partners with community organizations, including Finger Lakes ReUse, which gives new life to old junk. Finger Lakes ReUse accepts discarded computers that are then data wiped, refurbished, and resold. The organization offers a program in its eCenter that teaches students basic computer repair and troubleshooting skills. When the program ends, students get to keep the computers they've worked on.
Although some Tompkins County residents are constantly on the lookout for creative ways to be sustainable, people don't have to be green in everything they do, explains Stephanie Egan-Engels '06, who until this past August worked with McCarthy implementing and promoting recycling and reuse programs at the solid waste management division.
"Just find one thing about the sustainability effort that resonates with you, focus on that to the best of your ability, and you've done your part," she says.
Wasteland continues with:
Christopher Bodkin '11 and his business that recycles hospital surgical tape
Shams-il Arefin Islam '06 who is helping garbage grow the economy
– Keith Davis


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Lawyers Debate Dallemand's Contract | News
Lawyers for a Bibb County man and for the school board are debating whether School Supt. Romain Dallemand's contract is valid.
Bibb County Superior Court Edgar Ennis is hearing arguments on a lawsuit filed by Brad DeFore.
His suit argues that Dallemand's contract is illegal, and the school board acted illegally when it approved it. He's asking Ennis to throw out the contract and invalidate any payments under the contract.
In his opening statement, DeFore's lawyer made four main points:
He said the Dec. 3 board of education meeting when Dallemand's contract was approved violated the state's open meeting law.
He says even if the meeting was valid, the contract ultimately signed was different than the offer approved by the board.
And he said the Georgia State Constitution prohibits public agencies from entering into multi-year contracts.
Finally, Cox noted that Dallemand's contract gives the superintendent a severance package even if he is fired for cause.
The school board's attorney, Ben Mathis, said, "There's nothing in this contract that is inappropriate."
He said, "It would come as a shock to every school district in Georgia that you can't have a multi-year lease for a superintendent."
And Mathis said severance pay like that contained in the Dallemand contract is very common.
The first witness, former school board chairman Tommy Barnes answered questions about the
timetable of their negotiations with Dallemand last year and how the
contract was approved.
The hearing broke for lunch around 11:30 ..