text:
Blending human and software intelligence is the new territory for enterprise applications. By providing support for human cognitive processes, future enterprise apps will engage humans as an integral part of the business process of interest. (See Figure 1.) PwC calls such applications mindful apps.
As discussed in the article, "The future of enterprise apps: Moving beyond workflows to mindflows," , mindful apps model human thinking patterns as part of the business process, use context, and deliver intelligence in the moment to augment the capacity of employees to add value through knowledge work. Mindful apps interact and present information based on human thinking patterns. This integration of the human element is in contrast to much of the history of applications, which has largely limited or eliminated human involvement in business processes in pursuit of the automation of end-to-end processes.
CIOs have spent decades putting in place the core applications, data, and infrastructure to serve the enterprise and its users. Leveraging that core certainly has ongoing advantages, and the core will continue to evolve. Mindful apps extend the core to new use cases and allow CIOs to find new areas of value creation.
Many characteristics differentiate mindful apps from traditional apps. Some key differences include:
Mindful apps borrow many characteristics from the emerging capabilities of mobile apps. (See Table 1.) "Mobile apps will play a big role in this requirement [real-time interfaces and insights that fit with how work is done], as they allow me to integrate data and context with the workflow," says Isaac Sacolick, CIO of McGraw Hill Construction. Therefore, the design and development of mindful apps build on methods and technologies that enterprises may be using already in their mobile apps effort. The article, "Technologies that enable mindful apps," describes many of these methods and technologies.
Figure 1
Mindful apps engage humans as an integral part of a process
Workflows have been a foundational concept in traditional applications for automating business processes. The foundational concept for mindful apps is what PwC calls mindflows. Mindflows are goal-driven thinking patterns—such as comparing, evaluating, and summarizing—used by anyone engaged in complex analysis and decision making. The journey to the goal might have many potential paths and usually unfolds in iterative divergence-convergence patterns. (See the section "Surfacing mindflows" later in this article.)
The opportunities for mindful apps are everywhere. A significant portion of enterprise work is unstructured, ad hoc, nonstandardized, or variable—in other words, knowledge work performed under variable degrees of uncertainty. Consider HR, as an example. Most activities for hiring, onboarding, coaching, and performance evaluation are bathed in information complexity and knowledge intensity. Mindful apps can help.
Table 1
The characteristics defining mindful apps borrow a great deal from the characteristics of mobile apps, although not all mindful apps in the future will be used on a mobile device
Figure 2
The guiding principles for designing mindful apps focus on the user experience
Designing, developing, and deploying mindful apps are a shift from writing detailed specs, buying, configuring, and deploying a traditional enterprise application. Although certain mindful apps could be purchased as a complete tool from IT applications vendors, CIOs should expect some need for custom development, given the tight relation of mindful apps to persona or individuals in specific roles. Such customization is not unlike the custom mobile app development already under way at many enterprises.
There is no established template for building mindful apps, so understanding the guiding principles for design is crucial. The user experience is of singular importance. "The user experience is the key underappreciated enterprise critical success factor," says Bill Murphy, CTO of Blackstone, an alternative asset management company. Because mindful apps are personal, about the thinking self, and about accomplishing ad hoc knowledge work, the user experience provides a holistic way to understand and address all of the concerns together at the design stage. In PwC's experience, and as shown in Figure 2, four principles are the keys to developing winning user experiences:
The simplicity of the interface does not mean there is no complexity. The complexity in the app is abstracted to other layers, such as the mindflows, the workflows, business logic, predictive or real-time analytics models, the architecture, and other elements. The objective is to hide the complexity behind the scenes to limit the cognitive load on the user and to integrate the human-computer dialogue as a flexible interaction for better decisions and results.
Mindflows are the foundational concept for mindful apps, and there are many approaches to surfacing them. SAP uses design-thinking methods to understand the mindset of its users.1 Oracle uses digital body language to capture, understand, and predict what is going on in a user's mind.2
Many organizations use multiday workshops to gather the insights and raw materials for mindflows. PwC conducts workshops as a start to the design activity to understand the goals and externalize the thinking patterns. Workshops can have different emphases. A discovery workshop focuses on solving complex user interaction scenarios and results in mindflows, use cases, and rough mockups. An ideation workshop focuses on "next-generation" application concepts, and the outputs are user stories and rough mockups.
Sometimes the best way to understand the user's mindflow is to think like the user. Blackstone's Murphy relies on such a method. "The bridge between the business and an excellent solution is best provided by technologists from the product development team who are completely engrossed in the business, so they can help make those decisions and not rely on just asking somebody," he says. "Once we understand the problems, we're pretty confident we can solve them."
All of these approaches externalize the thinking patterns of the user by seeking answers to questions such as: How did you get here? What information do you need now? What are you trying to understand? What will you do next? What would you like to do next in an ideal scenario? The objective is to draw out the iterative divergent-convergent flow of mind states and the information requirements that guide the movement across the states. (See Figure 3.) The result is a flow across underlying thinking patterns, such as inferring, analyzing, classifying, evaluating, comparing, summarizing, and others. These patterns inform the design of the software. Focusing on pattern means the software does not need to identify and model all the permutations of the flow. Good software design will adapt to new situations as well as discover flows over time.
Figure 3
To make mindflows explicit is to capture the iterative divergence-convergence patterns across mind states and the information requirements that guide the movement across the states
Most businesses perform many activities that can be adapted for the design of mindful apps because of the similarities in approaches and outputs. Among these are ideation, 360-degree information gathering, convergence of themes, divergence based on testing themes with users, iterations to new themes, conclusions, prototypes, feedback, and others.
Mindful apps can usually be rolled out in weeks rather than months or years and then incrementally refined or made feature rich over time. Much like mobile apps, they typically target a focused, well-scoped, goal-driven activity. For developers of mindful apps, rapid development and deployment capabilities are essential. Apps should start small and evolve to include the activities and flows they support.
Once enterprises support complex decision making by using mindful apps, organizational and individual learning will occur. This learning will transform the decision environment and how work is done, requiring a rapid response by the development team for the app to continue to be useful. App developers don't have the luxury of long lead times for design, or an expectation of app longevity without constant tuning. Users will quickly recognize when the data, analytics, or patterns become stale.
The good news is that apps design and development can harness application programming interfaces (APIs) and agile capabilities, such as DevOps, which have emerged to support rapid, iterative development and deployment with scale.3 "Agile methods are a core aspect of our development methodology. We've introduced agile principles and methods to our businesspeople, for example, and they think about their business needs and how to prioritize requirements using agile," says McGraw Hill Construction's Sacolick.
While not all mindful apps are mobile, many are and more will be. Mobile apps are introducing new expectations around user interfaces. "Mobile platforms are creating new energy around the user interface," says Pat Garrehy, founder, president, and CEO of Rootstock Software, which develops cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain software. This shift is not a simple case of rethinking or redeploying the desktop interface to the mobile platform. "We must really think about how the app is going to be used, which will be different from how it was or will be used on the desktop," he adds. Externalized mindflows are a resource in this regard and can be a key input into interface design. For example, an interface for the thinking patterns of comparing will differ from those for the thinking patterns of evaluating or summarizing.
Another key difference from the desktop is that instead of the user adapting to the app, the app adapts to the user. "Everybody had the same user interface 20 years ago. That is definitely different now," Garrehy says. "Customers can take their favorite third-party app, create new interfaces, and put them on top of ours and other applications. Users will develop their own interfaces in effect." So although developers will design the ideal interface, it needs to have an adequate level of personalization features to be widely useful.
Another challenge is to balance the smaller screen size with the rapidly growing data pertinent to the task at hand. "Mobile devices offer smaller screen sizes, so the presentation of information should be deeply thought out ahead of time and not left to users to create on their own," McGraw Hill Construction's Sacolick says.
The rise of mindful apps challenges the prevailing operating models of IT organizations. Many organizations are reactive and address new requests by starting a project that ends after some time and that releases the resources to work on other projects. This approach inherently breeds short-term thinking.
In contrast, mindful apps evolve over time. Rather than a big bang implementation, they start small and grow in capability and impact. Murphy operates his organization as a collection of product-focused teams. "The product-focused commercial teams have much more incentive to focus on the long term and to treat their solutions as a living, breathing thing," he explains. "My goal here really has been to orientate us as a product-focused organization to make the long-term investments. Sometimes that's painful on the prioritization side. But when you do it, the benefits start to add up once you get the momentum going."
The impact is not limited to the operating model. IT architecture also changes for the better. "If we could build the perfect blue-sky architecture, there would be a complete decoupling among the workflows, the data services, and the user interfaces," Sacolick says. The objective is to be ready to tap an ever-increasing list of data sources, as well as to individualize the interfaces to the persona or individuals. "Then I would have the freedom to source data as needed from any internal or external source. This is in essence what we are trying to do."
Mindful apps reenergize the partnership model between IT and the business, whether it is in development or overall governance of IT systems and processes. The reality is that mindful apps will pull the IT organization deeper into how work is done, because it must engage with the mindflows. And as a result, mindful apps will provide a new avenue for collaboration. "The only way to understand buyer [or user] behavior is to look at the digital data. The only way to work with that data and get in front of the mindflows is to analyze, process, and build flows based on that digital data. We have two paths to get there: either marketing teams become more technology oriented, or IT teams become more marketing oriented," says Steven Woods, group vice president of software development at Oracle.
Mindful apps are not intuitively tangible. They are designed to inform a thinking process, not control the process. Mindful apps are more than an extension of IT's normal methods and toolkit. They challenge the fundamental basis of IT's focus on precision and control. Thus, CIOs may struggle with the best path for adoption in their enterprise.
With the goal of helping CIOs think about mindful app adoption, the following sections of this article present a CIO perspective on some key questions and responses.
Mindful apps are not just a variation on business intelligence (BI). Yes, the users are engaged in research-centric or knowledge-centric processes. However:
The CIO should think of mindful apps as the logical evolution of making systems more productive for users than BI alone could accomplish.
Most CIOs are familiar with business process reengineering (BPR) and have used it successfully. But they can't just apply BPR because BPR was ideal for the big problems that are common across the enterprise and for which a common business process model is designed. Thinking is personal, dynamic, and builds by nature, and the specific outcome is unknown until the user "gets there." Common workflows are not likely to be effective across all these thought patterns.
Each thinking role in the enterprise has different thought patterns and different issues to resolve. From users' individual digital trails (their digital body language), a mindful approach derives the patterns of individual users' inquiries and actions. The linear approach of BPR does not allow the iterative flexibility required for mindful apps.
It's true, mindful apps might evoke memories of knowledge management (KM) or expert systems, both of which struggled for enterprise-wide adoption. However, there are fundamental differences between mindful apps and these earlier systems.
A mindful app is designed with a cognitively manageable scope. It breaks big tasks into smaller manageable experiences. It is therefore tractable and can be developed in weeks or months. Most expert systems and KM efforts become overwhelming because they take on the scope of the whole enterprise or an entire profession, such as medicine or law.
Mindful apps focus on intelligence in the moment—that is, the information, questions, or actions likely to be most relevant to the time, place, and circumstances of the user's current context. In contrast, the typical KM system focuses on all contexts. Hence, KM systems become too resource-heavy, too complex to operate, and too difficult to parse in the moment.
Mindful apps separate reasoning and flow, bringing flow into the app and leaving reasoning to the human, whereas expert systems tried to model the reasoning, which is a difficult task in many use cases. Instead, mindful apps model the mindflow (the states through which a user moves while carrying out a task) and the information that causes the change of state, not the complexity of reasoning and decision making.
Because of growing digitization and the rise of cloud and mobility architectures and infrastructure, new information (such as mindflows and digital body language) is accessible to apps today. That information was not available in the past. These new facts could benefit expert systems and KM solutions, as many of them are likely to evolve in the mindful direction.
Does a mindful app project require recruiting new, unproven people into an established culture? To address this question, it is helpful to separate talent into two domains: mindful app design, and mindful app development and deployment.
Talent for mindful app design. Mindful app design will require skills that might be new to IT. Design thinking requires an information decision psychology mindset that would include capabilities such as those that a user story modeler, researcher, business analyst, data scientist, visual thinker, or graphics artist would have.
Rather than thinking of these capabilities as entirely new in the abstract, it is useful for CIOs to think in relative terms, leveraging skills from roles that do exist. For example, Blackstone's Murphy says, "I liken my designers to journalists, where the most important part of their job is to come up with the right questions so they can draw out the important problems of our user base." Journalism is one model. It incorporates the elements of research and analysis and the ability to form and manifest user stories in compelling ways.
Marketing is another model. Marketing, especially marketing planning, relies on abilities similar to those of design thinkers: collecting and categorizing detailed information about users' behaviors combined with the skill of interpreting the data and projecting future behavior patterns.
Research is a third model. Research groups have talent that is proficient at designing research processes (roughly akin to developing user stories), establishing hypotheses (goals), analyzing information, drawing conclusions, and documenting findings and conclusions.
Within IT itself, the talents of really good business systems analysts (BSAs) may be an excellent starting point, but with a key difference: designing a mindful app is much more data intensive, iterative, and open ended than a BSA's usual work and work product.
Some current employees may be able to apply skills they possess but have not yet had the opportunity to use. For example, some employees' academic backgrounds may include psychology or other valuable foundational skills.
Talent for mindful app development and deployment. For crucial IT support roles in mindful app development and deployment, these IT skills are needed:
CIOs can help the enterprise decide whether to improve the skills of current staff or to bring talent from outside. If IT leads the mindful app project, a rotation into IT from another enterprise group is always beneficial and usually welcome. The previous lists are guidelines for helping that assessment.
Thinking is the essence of mindful apps. Henry Ford famously said, "Thinking is hard work, and that is why so few people do it." It is hard work, so one of the important mindful apps design principles is to simplify complex thinking processes by decomposing them into smaller, manageable thinking patterns—a feat achieved by defining the mindflows that make up any cognitive activity. By decomposing a thoughtful activity into bite-sized experiences, an app can target each stage with information and analytics that are a better fit for that stage of the thinking process.
The growing digitization of the enterprise and rapid innovations in cloud, mobile, analytics, and social technologies present a key opportunity for CIOs to invest in the talent, technologies, and design and development methodologies needed to be successful with mindful apps. There is much to learn, as blending human cognitive processes and software intelligence with enterprise business processes is a brand new field of endeavor, and few IT organizations have experience with it. But the pursuit of excellence in developing this capability will pay off in ways that IT's long-standing role in promoting productivity never has. It will impact the effectiveness of decisions, reasoning, analysis, and all nature of knowledge work that are so commonplace and crucial to any enterprise's operations in all of its functions.
CIOs have an excellent perspective on the entire enterprise, its current information capabilities, and its future information plans. CIOs have learned how to codify complex decision making in enterprise applications and can leverage that experience to engage with mindful apps. In particular, CIOs should:
The opportunity to advance enterprise thinking with mindful app support is big and highlights the next leap in bringing enterprise applications that have greater value to businesses. The outlook for CIOs, as they demonstrate mindful leadership, is excellent.
1. See the interview, "User mindsets are driving the future of applications," .
2. See the interview, "Using digital body language to transform applications," .
3. For more discussion of DevOps, see Technology Forecast 2013, Issue 2.


text:
Hollywood star Vincent Gallo is the latest celebrity to model for G-Star's new advertising campaign. You might remember him from such films as "Buffalo '66" and "GoodFellas." Gallo's rugged and raw looks is in stark contrast to British actress Gemma Arterton's classic, soft beauty, who remains G-Star's female campaign model. Shot by iconic photographer and film maker Anton Corbijn, the G-Star RAW Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign will go live widely in md-September. In the campaign, which is a series of black and white images, both Vincent and Gemma wear the 3301 by G-Star RAW.
Besides the G-Star 3301 Straight Leg Jean, also featured for Autumn/Winter 2011 are the CL Blazer and the Essential Arc Western Jacket (above). As Shubhankar Ray, Global Brand Director of G-Star RAW explains: "Vincent is unorthodox, authentic, imperfect and raw; all characteristics matching G-Star's DNA. We are happy to have an independent trailblazer and cultural artist like Vincent as our new face." A New York native, Gallo is an American artist, filmmaker, actor, musician, businessman and Grand Prix motorcycle racer. For more information, go to G-Star online's Collaborations page.
—Kathy Ng Hassan
Tags: actors in jeans, celebrities in jeans, celebrity endorsements, G-Star Raw, Gemma Arterton, men's jeans, raw denim, straight leg jeans, Vincent Gallo

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Member Since: 11/17/08Send Nisha1983 a Message Give Nisha1983 a Gift Add Nisha1983 as a Friend
beautiful friend and sister great person and friend an angel a fantastic friend my friend too Miss you very beautiful person and friend very charming and friendly successful great smile always nice to talk to smart awesome sister wants to learn about US traditions beautiful willing to explain things to people
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Outside of going to Shabbat services, then going to a party that night to celebrate Chanukah! Afterward going to the lighting downtown for the public Chanukah lighting! It's a great time to be together downtown!
I know that i will find something to do it will just take longer due to the economy and other things, in the long run I will find something and all is good
Thank you very much for your compliment, at times my eyes go crossed due to the amount of time that I look at a computer screen and I know your feeling but the only thing i want right now is my Assoc degree to help me find a better job but still trying to find any type of job now
my units are 10 week classes and do quizzes during that time and i write papers and do power points for both classes
that sounds nice and good, here in gets during the summer in the high 90s F and maybe the lows in the 70sF at night
it is but miserably cold the lows in the low digits last night it was only 2 degrees F and the high today maybe 30 degrees F, it is pretty until people start driving on it
I am doing good thank you for asking
we got about 6 inches of snow here in reno and about 5 feet of snow in the mountains my studies are coming along so far so good
good evening Nisha
Hi Nisha good to see you !!! how have you been lately hope all is well
Keep on representing strong, intelligent women in Process Management. I enjoyed talking to you too!
good to see you also and i am concentrating on my studies Thank you very much for saying that
Well, in all most of the household I know, the Female is rules the roost. I can agree that sometimes women can be difficult at times. How do you deal with the difficulty?
I feel I can do anything I set my mind to do. With that being said, I would like a position where I can save a company money or streamline processes.
Do you come across resistance from males during your day to day work? I may be mistaken, but do you find India as being a patriarchal society?
Hi Nisha How are you ? good to see you and hope all is well
I will be popping in and out while I am doing some studying and I want to wish you a great evening and have a great day tomorrow
Hi Nisha,
What part of India are you working in? I was reading an article India is really up and coming, from an economic stand point. I am currently looking for a job. I have a little experience in the project management field. I found this job quite challenging because you have to manage expectations, and you are really dependent on a lot of other people for a sucessful outcome.
What is your biggest challenge?


text:
Drawing up to the provisional agenda for a regular session
Rule 9
1. The Executive Director shall submit to the Governing Council at each regular session the provisional agenda for the following regular session. The provisional agenda shall include all items proposed by:
(a) The Governing Council;
(b) A state Member of the United Nations or member of a specialized agency or of the International Atomic Energy Agency;
(c) The General Assembly;
(d) The Economic and Social Council;
(e) The Executive Director.
2. Item proposed under (b) above shall be accompanied by an explanatory memorandum and, if possible, by basic documents which shall be submitted to the Executive Director at least forty-nine days prior to the opening of the session.
3. In drawing up the provisional agenda, the Executive Director shall take account of suggestions made by the Environment co-ordination Board, a specialized agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and appropriate United Nations body, or an intergovernmental organization referred to in rule 68 below. He shall also consider suggestions from the international non-governmental organizations referred to in rule 69 below.
Communication of the Provisional agenda
Rule 10
After the Governing Council has considered the provisional agenda for the following session, the provisional agenda, incorporating any amendments
made by the Governing Council, shall be communicated by the Executive Director to all States Members of the United Nations or members of the specialized agencies and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Chairmen of subsidiary organs of the Governing Council as appropriate, the President of the General Assembly when the Assembly is in session, the President of the Economic and Social Council, the appropriate United Nations bodies, the specialized agencies, the International Atomic Energy, the intergovernmental organizations referred to in rule 68 below and the international non-governmental organizations referred to in rule 69 below.
Supplementary items
Rule 11
Any authority entailed to propose items under paragraph 1 of rule 9 may propose the inclusion of supplementary items in the provisional agenda considered by the Governing Council. The request for inclusion of a supplementary item shall be supported by a statement from the authority proposing it except in the case of the General Assembly, regarding the urgency of the consideration of the item. The executive Director shall Communicate to the Governing Council nay requests for the inclusion of supplementary items received before the commencement of he regular session, together with such observations as he may wish t make.
Adoption of the agenda
1. At the beginning of each regular session, subject to the provisions of rule 15 and after the election of officers when required under rule 18, the Governing Council shall adopt its agenda for the session on the basis of the provisional agenda and any supplementary items proposed in accordance with rule 11.
2. A State Member of the United Nations or member of a specialized agency or the International Atomic Energy Agency which has requested the inclusion of an item in the agenda under rule 9 or 11 above shall be entitled to be heard by the Governing Council on the inclusion of the item in the agenda for the session.
3. The Governing Council shall normally include in its agenda for the session only items for which adequate documentation has been circulated to members at least forty-two days before the beginning of the regular session of the Governing Council.
Allocation of items
Rule 13
The Governing Council may allocate items among the plenary meetings of the Governing Council and session committees and working parties, if any, set up in accordance with rule 60, and may refer items without preliminary debate in the Governing Council to:
(a) One or more or its subsidiary organs, it any, set up in accordance with rule 62, for examination and report at a subsequent session of the Governing Council;
(b) The Executive Director, for study and report at a subsequent session of the Governing Council; or
(c) The prepares of the item, for further information or documentation.
Provisional agenda for a special session
Rule 14
The provisional agenda for a special session shall consist only of those items proposed for consideration in the request for the holding of the session. It shall be transmitted to the authorities mentioned in rule 10 at the same time as the notice covering the Governing Council.
Revision of the agenda
Rule 15
During a regular session, the Governing Council may reverse the agenda for the session by adding, deleting, deferring or amending items. Only items, which the Governing Council considers to be urgent and important, shall be added to its agenda during the session.


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Adrienne Vittadini Holt Boot
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Item # 254039
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- Imported
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By: redge
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March 08, 2013
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February 13, 2013
They are tall enough
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By: ExpertShopper
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November 20, 2012
Awesome Boots
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text:
Submit News
Samsung Planning to Release a Smart Watch
Tiffany Kaiser
March 19, 2013 10:42 AM
Recipient E-mail
Sender E-mail
No specifics about the watch have been released yet
Apple better watch its back: Samsung is racing to
release a smart watch
, too.
As the global market for smartphones heads toward saturation (its growth is expected to slow to 9.8 percent in 2017 from 27 percent this year), tech companies are moving forward to the next big thing -- wearable devices.
Reports indicate that Apple will release a smart watch, which acts much like a smartphone, as soon as this year. But it looks like Apple's biggest smartphone competitor has the same idea.
"We've been preparing the watch product for so long," said Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile business. "We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and
the watch
is definitely one of them.
"The issue here is who will first commercialize it so consumers can use it meaningfully."
Hee didn't mention any specifics about Samsung's smart watch, such as what it will feature, how much it will cost and when it will be available.
Samsung is likely hoping to beat Apple to the punch because a smart watch could multi-task and connect to devices such as smartphones and tablets -- meaning that the first company to sell a smart watch could hook customers into their particular platform.
While making it to the finish line first will have its advantages, Samsung could also have the upper hand when it comes to pricing, since it makes its own chips and displays. Apple is notorious for having much higher-priced items.
Not much is known about Apple's smart watch either, but a few details have leaked in recent months. For instance, Apple is
building the watch's iOS from the ground up instead of starting with the iPod nano's touch operating system (which has a screen about the size of a watch); the company is
working on the iPhone's iOS so it can support the device; it will likely have many iPhone-like features, and it could be
released later this year
Last month,
a patent application
for a
"Bi-stable spring with flexible display" was
filed by Apple
in 2011. It described a
bi-stable spring that would be made out of thin steel and wrapped in fabric covering, then heat-sealed. The display would be located on one side of the bracelet (overlaid with an adhesive) and the logic board and battery would be placed on the other side.
It also showed a universal fit, a plethora of onboard sensors, wireless charging, etc.
The fact that Samsung is also now releasing a smart watch is meaningful to the mobile device market, as Samsung is
Apple's No. 1 competitor
in the smartphone realm.
Apple's iPhone only represented about 19 percent of worldwide smartphone shipments in 2012 while all Android-powered smartphones accounted for about 70 percent.
Android will even beat Apple in the tablet sector
this year, according to a new report from IDC.
According to IDC, iPad shipments are expected to make up 46 percent of the tablet market for 2013, down from 51 percent in 2012. Android-powered tablets are expected to increase their market share to 49 percent in 2013, up from 42 percent in 2012
"Then they pop up and say 'Hello, surprise! Give us your money or we will shut you down!' Screw them. Seriously, screw them. You can quote me on that." -- Newegg Chief Legal Officer Lee Cheng referencing patent trolls
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text:
National Quilt Collection
"Quilt": A cover or garment made by putting wool, cotton or other substance between two cloths and sewing them together. An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, LL.D., New York 1828.
The National Quilt Collection incorporates quilts from various ethnic groups and social classes, for quilts are not the domain of a specific race or class, but can be a part of anyone's heritage and treasured as such. Whether of rich or humble fabrics, large in size or small, expertly crafted or not, well-worn or pristine, quilts in the National Quilt Collection provide a textile narrative that contributes to America's complex and diverse history. The variety and scope of the collection provides a rich resource for researchers, artists, quilt-makers and others.
Part of the Division of Home and Community Life textiles collection, the National Quilt Collection had its beginnings in the 1890s. Three quilts were included in a larger collection of 18th- and 19th-century household and costume items donated by John Brenton Copp of Stonington, Connecticut. From this early beginning, the collection has grown to more than 500 quilts and quilt-related items, mainly of American origin, with examples from many states, including Alaska and Hawaii. Most of the contributions have come to the Museum as gifts, and many of those are from the quilt-makers' families. The collection illustrates needlework techniques, materials, fabric designs and processes, styles and patterns used for quilt-making in the past 250 years. The collection also documents the work of specific quilt-makers and commemorates events in American history.
Learn more about the quilt collection and step behind the scenes with a video tour.
"National Quilt Collection - Introduction" showing 2 items.
1839 Frances M. Jolly's Quilt Top
- Description
- The embroidered inscription "Frances M Jolly 1839" graces the center medallion of this quilt top. This signed and dated silk-and-wool-embroidered quilt top came from an African American family, and the maker, Frances M. Jolly, was said to be an ancestor of one of the donor's grandparents. The family, of whom little else is known, is said to have lived in Massachusetts and moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina.
- A 37½-inch black square set diagonally in the center with red corner triangles is the focal point of this quilt top. It is surrounded by three borders: a 9-inch black, a 10-inch orange, and an 11-inch black. Appliquéd flowers, leaves, and vines embellished with braid and embroidery decorate the surface.
- The edges of the appliquéd motifs are not turned under, but are held in place by buttonhole stitching in matching or near-matching thread colors. Silk or cotton threads are used for securing the appliqué motifs, stitching, and the embroidery, except for the inscription, which is chain-stitched in red wool. The quilt has both hand and machine stitching. The outer two borders are machine-stitched, indicating that they were joined after 1860 when sewing machines became common in households. Wool fabrics are used for both the pieced sections and the appliquéd motifs. Wool and silk braid and silk ribbon contribute to the overall design.
- Little is known about Frances M. Jolly. A headstone in the White Cloud Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Calloway County, Missouri bears the name "Frances M. Jolly dau of E. H. and A. M. Jolly Feb 15, 1915 and Feb. 11, 1916." Whether this has a connection to the Frances M. Jolly that is inscribed on this quilt top is a question that remains to be answered with further research and information.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1839
- quilter
- Jolly, Frances M.
- ID Number
- 1983.0241.01
- catalog number
- 1983.0241.01
- accession number
- 1983.0241
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1885 - 1886 Harriet Powers's Bible Quilt
- Description
- Harriet Powers, an African American farm woman of Clarke County, Georgia, made this quilt in about 1886. She exhibited it at the Athens Cotton Fair of 1886 where it captured the imagination of Jennie Smith, a young internationally-trained local artist. Of her discovery, Jennie later wrote: "I have spent my whole life in the South, and am perfectly familiar with thirty patterns of quilts, but I had never seen an original design, and never a living creature portrayed in patchwork, until the year 1886, when there was held in Athens, Georgia, a 'Cotton-Fair,' which was on a much larger scale than an ordinary county fair, as there was a 'Wild West' show, and Cotton Weddings; and a circus, all at the same time. There was a large accumulation farm products--the largest potatoes, tallest cotton stalk, biggest water-melon! Best display of pickles and preserves made by exhibitor! Best display of seeds &c and all the attractions usual to such occasions, and in one corner there hung a quilt-which 'captured my eye' and after much difficulty I found the owner, a negro woman, who lives in the country on a little farm whereon she and husband make a respectable living . . . . The scenes on the quilt were biblical and I was fascinated. I offered to buy it, but it was not for sale at any price."
- Four years later, Mrs. Powers, at the urging of her husband because of hard times, offered to sell the quilt, but Miss Smith's "financial affairs were at a low ebb and I could not purchase." Later Jennie sent word that she would buy the quilt if Harriet still wanted to dispose of it. Harriet "arrived one afternoon in front of my door in an ox-cart with the precious burden in her lap encased in a clean flour sack, which was still further enveloped in a crocus sack. She offered it for ten dollars--but--I only had five to give." Harriet went out to consult her husband and reported that he said she had better take the five dollars.
- Mrs. Powers regretfully turned over her precious creation, but only after explaining each of the eleven panels of the design, which Jennie Smith recorded. Briefly, the subjects are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a continuance of Paradise with Eve and a son, Satan amidst the seven stars, Cain killing his brother Abel, Cain goes into the land of Nod to get a wife, Jacob's dream, the baptism of Christ, the crucifixion, Judas Iscariot and the thirty pieces of silver, the Last Supper, and the Holy Family.
- In her narrative about the quilt, artist Jennie revealed why she was so taken with it: "Her style is bold and rather on the impressionists order while there is a naievete of expression that is delicious." In recent times, historians have compared Harriet's work to textiles of Dahomey, West Africa.
- The Bible quilt is both hand- and machine-stitched. There is outline quilting around the motifs and random intersecting straight lines in open spaces. A one-inch border of straight-grain printed cotton is folded over the edges and machine-stitched through all layers.
- Harriet Powers was born a slave near Athens, Georgia, on October 29, 1837. At a young age, she married Armstead Powers and they had at least nine children. Some time after the Civil War, they became landowners. Eventually, circumstances forced them to sell off part of the land but not their home. The date of Harriet's death, Jan. 1, 1910, was recently discovered on her gravestone in Athen's Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1885-1886
- quilter
- Powers, Harriet
- ID Number
- catalog number
- accession number
- 283472
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center


text:
Make a trip over to Brooklyn's Bird boutiques as their end-of-season sale gets even better! With markdowns of up to 75% off, shop their amazing dresses and coats from Tsumori Chisato, Mayle, Zero + Maria Cornejo, Mociun,3.1 Phillip Lim, and more. Denim deals on jeans by Acne, APC, James, Simon Miller, Earnest Sewn and 18th Amendment are at bargain basement prices.
[nggallery id=15]
Bird, 220 Smith Street, (corner of Butler Street), Cobble Hill; 718-797-3774; 316 Fifth Avenue, (between 2nd and 3rd streets), Park Slope; 718-768-4940; and 203 Grand Street, (between Bedford and Driggs avenues); Williamsburg; 718-388-1655.
–Nikki Cho Russo
Tags: 18th Amendment, 3.1 Phillip Lim, A.P.C., Acne, Earnest Sewn, James, Mayle, Mociun, Simon Miller, Tsumori Chisato, Zero + Maria Cornejo


text:
All photos/art by Carl Tremblay
He got his first model train when he was 5; it was an American Flyer and he still has it. More than 50 years later, Bruce Cloutier is still into trains — right up in the cab, in fact. Following 32 years of elementary-school and college teaching, Bruce turned his summer train job into a second career. Now a certified engineer for Green Mountain Railroad, he takes passengers on the two-and-a-half-hour round trip between Bellows Falls and Chester Depot four days a week in the summer (including twice a day on Saturdays and Sundays) and twice daily in foliage season. "Foliage is the big draw," he notes, "with up to 600 folks on board." The train pulls vintage 1930s passenger coaches, and one restored 1913 wood railcar, at speeds of up to 30 mph. "It's pretty hard not to smile when you're up here," he says.
Green Mountain Flyer, 54 Depot St. 800-707-3530, 802-463-3069.


text:
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But don't just take our word for it, see what people are saying on Trip Advisor:
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Combining a dollop of traditional Scottish hospitality with a pinch of vibrant city life, today's deal is a sure-fire hit when it comes to booking a much-needed break...
We're offering you a 2-night Perth break for 2 people including breakfast for £69, or a 3-night break for £89, saving you up to 57% off Dunallan Guest House's prices.
Pretty Dunallan Guest House is ideally situated within a few minutes' walk from Perth city centre and is famed for the warmest of welcomes, delicious breakfasts, impressive service and comfortable accommodation offered to each and every guest. With the option of staying for two or three nights, you'll check in to your en-suite bedroom complete with all mod-cons including a TV with Freeview, Wi-Fi, tea and coffee facilities and toiletries, before settling in for a great night's sleep. When you wake up in the morning, you'll be treated to a full Scottish breakfast - just the ticket to set you up for the day!
Once you've torn yourself away from the many charms that the dog-friendly Dunallan Guest House has to offer, you'll discover just how convenient it is if you'd like to explore. It's an ideal base to see the stunning scenery, castles, distilleries, lochs and glens nearby, or for playing a spot of golf at Murrayshall, King James, Craigie, the famous Gleneagles or St Andrews. The idyllic and breathtaking surroundings also make Perthshire a haven for walking, cycling, fishing, golfing and active sports. The city of Perth boasts the St John's indoor shopping centre, and you will also find many independent stores, specialist shops and boutiques, a wealth of bars and eating places to suit any taste. In the evening, why not enjoy a quiet drink, eat at a fine restaurant, or take in a show at the Perth concert hall? It all sounds absolutely wonderful to us...
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text:
Academic Paper
|A growth curve analysis of novel word learning by sequential bilingual preschool children
|Pui Fong Kan
|University of Minnesota
|Kathryn Kohnert
|University of Minnesota
|Linguistic Field:
|Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition
|Subject Language:
Hmong Njua
|Longitudinal word learning studies which control for experience can advance understanding of language learning and potential intra- and inter-language relationships in developing bilinguals. We examined novel word learning in both the first (L1) and the second (L2) languages of bilingual children. The rate and shape of change as well as the role of existing vocabulary in new word learning were of primary interest. Participants were 32 three-to-five-year old children. All participants had Hmong as their L1 and English as their L2. A novel word learning paradigm was used to measure children's acquisition of new form–meaning associations in L1 and L2 over eight weekly training sessions (four in each language). Two-level hierarchical linear models were used to analyze change in the comprehension and production of new words in Hmong and English over time. Results showed that there were comparable linear gains in novel word comprehension and production in both the L1 and the L2, despite different starting points. Success in novel word learning was predicted to some extent by existing vocabulary knowledge within each language. Between-language relationships were both positive and negative. These findings are consistent with highly interactive dynamic theories of sequential bilingual language learning.
This article appears IN Bilingualism: Language and Cognition Vol. 15, Issue 3.
Add a new paper
Return to Academic Papers main page
Return to Directory of Linguists main page


text:
Does the Momentum Boost From Fighting Help Teams Win Games?
Jonathan Willis
January 11 2012 02:40AM
It's a scene anyone who watches NHL hockey has seen: two players squaring off, dropping the gloves, and going at it. One player might dominate the other, the two players might draw more or less even, but after the fight the teams will generally get back to playing 5-on-5 hockey (barring an instigator penalty to one player.)
Usually, one team will come out playing better after the fight. And usually, the commentator that evening will make a point of mentioning that Player X's big fight win and/or willingness to go toe-to-toe with a beast like Player Y has given his team momentum.
Is there any truth to that story?
According to Terry Appleby of Power Scout Hockey, fights do swing momentum. Appleby measures 'momentum' by recording how often NHL teams take shots – if a lot of time passes between shots, they have less momentum; if they get a lot of shots off in a short time period, they have more momentum.
Appleby's full piece on fighting is here. It has two key problems, both of which he recognizes – and since he recognizes them, I'll use his own quotes to highlight them.
If a team's fights occur without any regard to team or opponent momentum, then the team will score at an average gain of about a 0.1 of a goal. If so, this would require about 60 fights to score a win. But good coaches don't do things randomly - preferring to pick the opportune time to change team momentum. In such cases scoring will double to about 0.2 of a goal and the team will require only about 30 fights to get a win.
(bolding mine)
Appleby notes that a team will pick up an extra win, on average, for every 60 fights on their team. This number drops to every 30 fights if a coach is judicious about when he uses his fighters. This, however, is contingent on ignoring the impact on the opposing team - because Appleby finds the momentum swings both ways; in other words, both teams shoot more after a fight. The extra 0.1 goals the team might get after a fight, in other words, are generally cancelled out by the 0.1 goals the other team will get after a fight.
Here's the second problem identified by Appleby:
For interest sake, further study into the impacts of fighting on team momentum could add more context to these results. Other factors that could influence the fight/momentum analysis include 3 minutes after the fight versus other time ranges, who won the fight, the score, period, shots by line, powerplay opportunity, time in period, time of year, and quality of opposition. These will be explored with future research depending on availability of the data required.
There's lots of other things that happen at the same time as fights. Most fighters are fourth line guys – and most fourth lines don't generate a lot of shots. How much of the shot increase is generated by the fact that the fourth-liners are off the ice and a team's skilled players are on it? Some fights come with other penalties – Appleby's piece seems to indicate that they haven't allowed for the impact of penalties on shot volume.
Let's look at the example Appleby used – a December 7, 2011 fight between Buffalo's Matt Ellis and Philadelphia's Marc-Andre Bourdon. According to Appleby, "a fight between Ellis and Bourdon at the beginning of the second period sparked an immediate increase in momentum for Philadelphia and a subsequent goal by Matt Read." Looking back at the game log for that night, we see that Ellis was assessed an instigator penalty for picking the fight with Bourdon after Bourdon took a boarding penalty. Yet, Philadelphia walked away with the 'momentum' while Buffalo remained flat-lined – despite the fact that Ellis did what is typically considered to be the right thing in standing up for a teammate after an illegal hit.
(Also interesting in that same game is the fact that another fight – between Corey Tropp and Zac Rinaldo – at the end of the first period seems to have had a negative impact. Both teams were pressing heavily in the first, but after the fight both teams came out flat in the second period.)
Fortunately, there are other studies into the impact of fighting. Statistical wizard Gabriel Desjardins tried a different approach, looking at only fights with a clear winner and then checking to see how scoring changed for the team that won the fight. The full piece is here, the conclusion is quoted below:
Now before you get excited about your favorite team signing a new goon, remember that an NHL team needs to improve its goal differential by approximately six goals to win one additional game. So winning a fight is worth a little more than 1/80th of a win in the standings; given that the best fighters might win at most ten fights in a season, the direct benefit is probably on the order of having the equipment guys make sure nobody's playing with an illegal stick.
Then there's Phil Birnbaum's post at Sabremetric Research. Inspired by Appleby's piece, Birnbaum runs through a long list of simulations and reviews truckloads of game data (the full post is well worth reading if you have any tolerance for math), and then comes to the following one-line conclusion:
At best, there might be a small effect in certain specific circumstances ... but much, much less than sportscasters make it out to be.
My personal take on all of this is primarily based on the evidence presented in the three posts above, watching a bunch of hockey, and some basic knowledge of how confirmation bias works. It can be boiled down to a few key points:
1. In some cases, it's all but impossible for a coach to know if a fight will benefit his team or the other team more on the scoreboard – it's always a double-edged sword.
2. The impact of a fight on the scoreboard is generally pretty small – we all remember fights that were quickly followed by a goal, but tend to forget the ones that weren't.
3. Given the relatively low impact and the chance of a negative impact, a coach with a fighter at his disposal would be well-advised to use him if a) his team is already trailing in the game and b) he's reasonably confident that his fighter will win the bout. A coach with the lead or a fighter outmatched by the other guy is probably better off leaving him on the bench.
January 11 2012, 06:37AM
I finally figured it out!~ The Oilers need Semin...that dude will b!tch slap the momentum back in our favor~
Seriously though there's been a few games where I thought Renney should have sent Hordichuck out right after a bad goal to try and get the momentum back, even just to take a run or two at the other teams better players, to often hordichuck gets staples to the bench in a time of need.
January 11 2012, 07:27AM
Another analysis of fighting, this one for fights between '67 and '85, draws no strong conclusions about their impact on games' outcomes: Sabermetric Research: Do hockey fights lift a team's performance?
In response to commenter #1 and #2: You do realize that he came to the conclusion that, while yes it does have an impact, but it is very insignificant and has an equal chance of backfiring, right? Not exactly a positive thing.
January 11 2012, 11:40AM
Just to address a few of the comments here, I'm trying to answer one very specific question - what impact fighting has on the scoreboard - rather than look at the whole issue.
Willis, "fighting in hockey" is a Canadian Pandora's Box. The numbers correctly have limited application, but you'll never be able to limit the discussion of said topic.
Looking at those numbers I conclude that having a one-dimensional fighter on your bench is a waste of a roster spot...from a scoreboard perspective.
Quantifying fighting's value (e.g.: beat 'em in the alley, confidence, defend your star players) would be a challenge, but I'm glad to eliminate the fiction of "momentum".
@Jonathan Willis
With all due respect, fighting doesn't win hockey games. Shooting the puck in the net more than the other team does. Putting direct statistics towards whether a fight builds enough momentum to win a game and saying "60 fights = a win" is a little bit odd. I'm sure some teams get more pumped up than other teams after a specific fight (say Team X player absolutely dummies Team Y player) and that energy can carry on for a few minutes, but often times, as somebody pointed out, there are crappy teams out there that use the odd fight to let the superior team know that they can't have the win as easy as they may have thought, or any team sending a message to another team to let them know that they can't take liberties on their star players. Sometimes that lands a team that instigated in the box for a PK, but players would agree that it was a penalty worth taking, so sometimes that momentum is used up killing the penalty. That's where trying to add statistics to fighting for momentum and their effects specifically on winning falls off the wagon for me. Fighting is a tool used in many different circumstances based on how the game is being played, and who the players are. It's not black and white and shouldn't be dissected as such.
That's just my .02
It is pointless to look at one fight and its aftermath and predict on that basis the effect of all fights over the course of many games.
The question is really what effects do fights have on the players, their teams, their fans, and the owners of the team over the course of a season or many seasons. The only people who benefit from fights are the owners of teams whose fans come to games for the violence (increased revenue from attendance), rather than for the hockey. There are lots of studies showing that violence in hockey (usually fights are used as the marker for violence) does not lead to increased team success. And we just have to look at the deaths this past summer to see what effect it can have on the players.
From: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_2_62/ai_100202310/?tag=content;col1
Variations in NHL attendance: the impact of violence, scoring, and regional rivalries - Discrimination and The NHL
"Fighting was used as a proxy for violence. The empirical results revealed that teams that fight more often tend to draw more fans. This was consistent across countries in terms of a positive influence, although the size of the coefficients reveals that this effect is magnified in the United States."
"It appears that fans prefer teams that win and have tendencies toward fighting and violence, as opposed to high-scoring, low-violence teams."
Tex Med. 1999 Apr;95(4):66-9. Winning the Stanley Cup Final Series is related to incurring fewer penalties for violent behavior. McCaw ST, Walker JD. SourceDepartment of Health, Physical Education & Recreation, Illinois State University, USA. Abstract Catastrophic and disabling injuries are being reported more frequently in ice hockey. Within the science of injury prevention, all possible avenues are being explored to address this devastating problem, especially in the areas of protective equipment playing rules, teaching techniques, and awareness programs. Ice hockey injuries are in many cases caused by violent player behavior, which may be supported by coaches who believe that such behavior contributes to winning. To determine whether a relationship existed between violent player behavior and game outcome, 1462 recorded penalties from all 18 Stanley Cup Final Series from 1980 through 1997 were analyzed with a 2 x 2 chi-square analysis. A statistically significant association (chi-square = 7.111, P = .008) was found between violent player behavior and series outcome, with the team drawing fewer violent penalty minutes being the winner of 13 of the 18 series. A period-by-period analysis of violent penalties incurred by the losing teams revealed a statistically significant difference between the first and third periods, with losing teams demonstrating more violent player behavior in the first period than in the third period. The results suggest that violent player behavior may be counterproductive to a favorable game outcome. Coaches at the highest level of competition may wish to adjust their team policies and recruiting practices to benefit from the plausible strategic advantage of reducing violent player behavior. This research was presented at the 1998 Ice Hockey World Championship International Symposium on Medicine and Science in Ice Hockey in Zurich, Switzerland, on Saturday, May 9, 1998, and published in the symposium's supplement, "Safety in Ice Hockey IIHF 1998."
January 11 2012, 04:06AM
Ya, whatever, Willis. We all know statistics are dumb,and this is just another way for you annoying "numbers guys" to take fighting out of the .... wait...what?
Fighting might be statistically significant?
Oh, ummm, *ahem* .... well then ... buy you a beer?
January 11 2012, 08:02AM
They actually found that fighting increases response on both sides? Imagine that. Who would have thought an increase in adrenalin on young athletes already packing tons of testosterone would increase their performance?
The question should be...
Does fighting create publicity? (exposure)
Does a team that has no chance to stand up for themselves because they are wimps, have any self esteem or ability to withstand being bowled over like a bunch of (sissies)?
What you said in your last sentence.
I don't know if you can attach numbers to it, but there is no downside when an opposing team is accutely aware that you're not only good enough to handle them on the scoreboard, you're tough enough to beat the hell out of them, if need be.
January 11 2012, 09:58PM
I actually could care less if there is momentum gain in fighting.What I do care about though is seeing liberties being taken by opposing players towards the young guns as well as other smaller players. I think that some of these injuries may well not happen if players know they will likely pay a painful price for taking cheap shots on our young guns as well as our smaller players.
They actually found that fighting increases response on both sides? Imagine that. Who would have thought an increase in adrenalin on young athletes already packing tons of testosterone would increase their performance?
The question should be...
Does fighting create publicity? (exposure)
Does a team that has no chance to stand up for themselves because they are wimps, have any self esteem or ability to withstand being bowled over like a bunch of (sissies)?
Applying mathematics to the actual affect that fighting has on hockey doesn't really tell the tale, imo. While it's nice to see that somebody has gone out and done the research, it doesn't really take into account what fighting does to the mentality of the player (or fan). There are different kinds of fights; Staged goon fights, player protection fights, and straight up heat of the moment fights looking to add this momentum. Goon fights are probably less effective on the scoresheet out of those examples, but as a Coach, Player or a Fan, I would expect my players to stick up for one another and would like to see the instigator taken out of the game to help re-instill respect through fear of accountability (which doesn't exist in today's NHL, sadly). If somebody takes a run at one of the the kids (RNH, Eberle), somebody better do something, end of story, and I don't care if it has any bearing on the score. Lecavalier is a good example of fighting for momentum. When he takes on the Iginla's and Zdeno Chara's, his team had better up their game, period. That's leadership. When Wendel Clark attacked McSorely after flattening Gilmour, it was a clean hit, but hard to tell in the heat of the moment. Had to be done, no question at all, you do that kind of thing, you answer to it. Fighting has a place in hockey and as entertaining as a good Goon battle can be, it's the other fights that the fans, players and coaches really love and hockey requires. The Lecavalier type fights are the ones that bring people out of their seats and amp up the building. Like when little Samwise Gagner drops em... those are the ones that take me by surprise and open two beers at once. Math or no Math. (P.S. That Ottawa/Philly battle was so good)
Nice distraction article. It keeps us from hammering on which player(s) needs to go.
Gagner fights - TRADE GAGNER! Wait, uh Hemmer doesn't fight - TRADE HEMMER!
Hey! COH is showing nipple:
A true brawl right here. Gotta love the minor leagues.
January 11 2012, 09:20AM
I also think that a fight has a better chance of changing the momentum in your favour when it is a guy who usually doesn't fight but is a leader on the team. When an Iginla/Lecavlier type player goes out and fights it gets their respective teams going because not only is that guy their captain but he is generally leading the way in stats. You see your captain fighting and it (should) inspire the rest of the team to go out there and be better. I feel similarly when Gagner goes out there and drops the gloves especially when he goes toe to toe with a guy like Jokinen and holds his own. Even if they don't come out and score it appears to be a great motivator the the players.
What you said in your last sentence.
I don't know if you can attach numbers to it, but there is no downside when an opposing team is accutely aware that you're not only good enough to handle them on the scoreboard, you're tough enough to beat the hell out of them, if need be.
An opportune time to query... what was Vancouvers captain doing this weekend when he was engaged in THE skirmish, then... oddly excused himself to go sit on the bench thus leaving "his" team outmanned.
I understand he isnt much good on the power play sitting in the penalty box and clearly isnt much of a fighter, but even a wee bit of posturing would have gained him some credibility.
Odd ducks them Sedins... and that was odd even by their standards.
January 11 2012, 09:54AM
Another thing that's missing from the math. What if your team flat out sucks? You can have your captain go beat the crap out of the other teams captain but at the end of the day if the other team just throws out a line that dominates what line you have to put out motivation can only go so far.
And on the flip side of that, if you're team is really good and down by one and there is a motivating fight that probably will have a bigger impact.
Gee, if only I had read or commented about his before somewhere. Hmmmmm....
January 11 2012, 11:06AM
Do people with multiple personalities have to fill out a Cencus Canada form for each one?
January 11 2012, 11:16AM
This is something that shouldn't be decided by stats. This site has the resources, ask Jason Strudwick.
January 11 2012, 11:44AM
This is something that shouldn't be decided by stats. This site has the resources, ask Jason Strudwick.
Gee, wonder if he'll say that every fight is a boon.
"Really shows us that we have someone standing up for us"
January 11 2012, 12:18PM
~Calgary must have been really pumped when Ivanans fought Mac~*
Macintyre's first game in Rexall is a perfect example of Swaying momentum after he fight. It's 2-0 Calgary, He hits Boyd in the corner, Prust comes to the defense of his teammate, Edmonton scores 3 in the next 7 minutes and win 3-2.
Game highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONmeBbwKeC4
@VBS Suicide due to mental illness (life-long), a drug overdose and autoerotic asphyxiation are all causes of death not related to, or caused by fighting last I checked. The discussions surrounding the deaths of the players in the summer were well out of hand, out of order and had little or nothing to do with their deaths, save Probert, maybe.
People go to games to see hockey. Fighting is a part of the game, not exactly the sideshow many make it out to be. Using it as a marketing tool? Fine, no problem with that. Go to a game not knowing anything about hockey to see a fight, chances are you see a good game and no fight. Double the reason to return.
January 11 2012, 02:56PM
Intimidation has a much larger role in the game than fighting does. 2 Oiler players most affected by this aspect of the game are Magnus Paajarvi and Sam Gagner. Both would rather stay wide and out of danger rather than stare down and engage the belly of the beast.
January 11 2012, 03:22PM
Intimidation has a much larger role in the game than fighting does. 2 Oiler players most affected by this aspect of the game are Magnus Paajarvi and Sam Gagner. Both would rather stay wide and out of danger rather than stare down and engage the belly of the beast.
Oddly enough its not the fighters who do that type of intimidation. It's big hulking "Sutton-like" Dman who will put their elbow through your skull.
January 11 2012, 04:59PM
Intimidation has a much larger role in the game than fighting does. 2 Oiler players most affected by this aspect of the game are Magnus Paajarvi and Sam Gagner. Both would rather stay wide and out of danger rather than stare down and engage the belly of the beast.
I agree, intimidation is one piece and like Robin's blog from a few years a ago outlined, the added confidence that having a fighter gives would be my two biggest reasons to employ fighters.


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text: July 02, 2013 STEUBENVILLE, OH—A diverse coalition of national religious leaders and scholars—including Franciscan University of Steubenville sociology professor Dr. Anne Hendershott—spoke out against the finalized version of the Health and Human Services Mandate, at a July 2 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.In a signed letter titled "Standing Together for Religious Freedom," the religious leaders called upon the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand conscience protections to cover any organization or individual that has religious or moral objections to covering, providing, or enabling access to the mandated contraceptive drugs and services.Speaking at the press conference were Archbishop William E. Lori, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; Russell D. Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Dr. Yuri Mantilla, chairman of the Justice Initiative of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and Dr. Anne Hendershott, a professor in the Psychology, Sociology, and Social Work Department at Franciscan University.In her remarks, which were carried live on C-SPAN 1, Hendershott decried that the HHS mandate provides insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs such as Ella and Plan B, contraceptives, and sterilization procedures."This mandate will require me—as a faithful Catholic—to purchase insurance that my Church teaches is seriously immoral," said Dr. Hendershott, noting that the mandate "forces me and my religious employer to pay for or facilitate access to products and services that are in opposition to our deeply held moral and religious beliefs."Hendershott singled out a less-publicized aspect of the HHS mandate "that allows the minor children of employees of 'accommodated' religious institutions to avail themselves of contraceptives, sterilization, or abortifacient drugs without their parents' knowledge."Those of us who work on Catholic campuses—or other Christian institutions—disagree. We have already been injured by this unjust mandate because our constitutional right to religious freedom has already been compromised. The refusal by the Obama administration to classify religious institutions like Franciscan or Notre Dame as religious employers has already compromised our religious rights. There is every indication that this will escalate." (Read Dr. Hendershott's complete statement below.) The open letter presented at the press conference was signed by 61 religious representatives of many faiths, including some signatories that do not hold doctrinal objections to the use of contraception, yet protested the mandate "for its encroachment on the conscience of our fellow citizens."In May 2012, Franciscan University sued the federal government stating that the HHS mandate constituted a grave threat to Franciscan University's ability to continue teaching from the heart of the Church. Franciscan's lawsuit was one of 12 lawsuits filed concurrently by 43 Catholic organizations, dioceses, and archdioceses.


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Earth Day is less than a week away and there are lots of events to check out to participate in for a great learning experience for the whole family. One of the beautiful landmarks of Manhattan, Grand Centrail Terminal, is host to Earth Day New York's 40th anniversary celebration! Events include a week long exhibit in Vanderbilt Hall and an Earth Fair on Vanderbilt Avenue.
Events scheduled for April 19th-24th, 2010 is as follows:
Historic Grand Central Terminal will be the home base of the 40th Anniversary celebration of Earth Day in New York. Starting on April 19th, Earth Day New York will kick off a week??™s worth of activities at Grand Central Terminal, including a six-day indoor Earth Fair at Vanderbilt Hall, April 19th-24th; and a two-day outdoor festival on Vanderbilt Avenue, April 23rd-24th. This event will also support Earth Day New York??™s newly-launched E Campaign, an ongoing initiative to make every day Earth Day, which includes a short promotional film featuring celebrities such as Matthew Modine, Adrian Grenier and Deepak Chopra.
Major sponsors of Earth Day in New York include the Metropolitan Transportation Authority,Toshiba, Home Depot and Con Edison. Media sponsors, including Planet Green, The New York Post, Metro NY and Treehugger.com have also partnered with Earth Day New York to further spread the message of the E Campaign. With their support, the E Campaign will make its way into every household across the nation with a message that will inspire Americans to talk about what they are doing to ???Be the E.???
Earth Day events at Grand Central Terminal include:
* The Green Shows EcoLux boutique, a high-fashion boutique selling sustainable clothing from designers such as Samantha Pleet, House of Organics and DLC Brooklyn, among many others.
* Toshiba, partnered with Twitvid, streaming live video from the event to Twitter, and giving out Toshiba Camilo Twitcams to select attendees who participate by uploading their own ???Be the E??? video messages.
* A display of Giant Earth Images, a series of environmentally-themed art and quotes from iconic artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Keith Haring.
A complete listing of Earth Day related events taking place in the New York is available at www.eday40.org.
–Nikki Cho Russo
Tags: Con Edison, Earth Day, Grand Central, Home Depot, Metro NY, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Planet Green, The New York Post, Toshiba, Treehugger.com


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McSweeney's Internet Tendency, an Internet-famous humour website, recently had a new columnist contest. One of the winners was a woman from Oregon who had a strange perspective on refugees from Somalia.
It was well received by some people, but not by others. Now #IDontHaveFactsToBackThisUp, but it looks as the people who liked it were mostly white, and the people who didn't were mostly not white. A good rule to follow with racism is that if people of colour think something is racist, it probably is.
My forever-and-a-day galpal Safy pointed out exactly why this column is a problem, and why McSweeney's should rethink its decision to publish it, no matter how ironic they were trying to be.


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NICE was created in Italy by Mr. Andrea Palama; a renowned Italian designer of fashion watch and accessories design. Started in 1991 in Italy; our company has been expanding its worldwide operation capacity; strengthening our design team and production effectiveness. NICE watches received great success in European Union; Asia; Middle East; North America and Latin America. Led by a team of industry veterans and awards winning Italian designers; yielding high quality watches with unique designs. We have also collaborated with various leading brands; such as Puma; Anne Klein New York; Jennifer Lopez; Naj Oleari and Speedo; just to name a few; proving the creativity and ability that is behind the creators.
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Robert R. Van Meter, 79, Elizabethtown, died Monday, July 1, 2013, in the Community Living Center of the Marion VA Hospital.
A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, July 4, 2013, at the Leamington Cemetery. Visitation will be 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, 2013 at the Cox & Son Funeral Home in Ridgway.
He is survived by two sons, one daughter, four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and a special friend.
Location, ST | website.com


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May 2, 2014
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Easy Jam Filled Muffins - A perfect kiddie treat
December is a hectic month. Socializing, vacation plans, festive madness all around. More so for me as it was my son's 3rd birthday on 4 December and I took on myself what only a few crazy (foodblogger) moms would - ie. Catering to a small crowd of some 18 kids and 2 dozen adults all by myself (a couple of things ordered from outside though, including the cake) and also hand making all the decorations and buntings.
got the most amazing cookies to the party which had the kids all quiet and focussed on eating. They were called World Peace cookies by Dorie Greenspan for a reason, but given that we had kids from a few different countries from around the world, it was almost like the World Peace cookies were being served to a mini UN delegation (which is what our friend Vinod remarked). Since I went through quite some dilemma on what to serve in a kiddie's birthday party with adults, I'm sharing the menu with you, in case any of you plan to do the same, it can give you an idea.
Jelly Boats were a big hit with the kids (and some adults too)
Kids' Menu
Potato wafers
Banana- Blueberry Bread
World Peace Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cucumber Sticks
Tomato Cheese Spread Sandwiches
Jam Sandwiches
Jelly Boats (Tarla Dalal's recipe)
Kokum Sherbet in recycled Olive / Jalapeño bottles
For Moms & Dads
Kokum sherbet with mint sprigs
Masala Chai (was perfect for the outdoors on a cold winter afternoon)
Rosemary Shortbread
Peanut Butter Brownies (Rachel Allen's recipe)
Hummus with Cucumber Sticks
Kachori with sweet chutney
Everyone, including me had loads of fun and the food was well liked by everyone. The rosemary shortbread was the star for me. What an amazing discovery from the NYTimes website! I have made another batch within a week and nearly everyone whom I've shared it with is in love with this buttery-melt in your mouth-dainty smelling cookie. Because I am a good girl and I believe in sharing, here is the
recipe link
for you. Remember me for good karma when people want to kiss your fingers after eating this.
Another fun thing that happened this week and it was to
get featured in Bangalore TimeOut
, complete with a picture of me in my
not so spic-n-span kitchen. But that's how busy kitchens look like, right? Right! If you subscribe to Bangalore Time Out, check out Page 62.
Back to the subject of this post, these jam filled muffins are a wonderful treat for your kids. Imagine the surprise in their eyes when they break open a plain boring-looking muffin to find their favourite jam oozing out, like a cute Jack in the Box.
Not just kids, I'm sure adults will love it too. Especially if you fill a little adult something inside, like Orange Marmalade or Vodka-infused Jam (Ideas credit :
Monika, Sin-a-mon
I made these in 30 minutes to surprise a friend on her birthday. So it's something you can rustle up in a jiffy even when your kid brings his/her friends home without a notice ;) The muffins were soft and mildly sweet to contrast the sweet jammy filling inside. And a little dusting of icing sugar makes everything look pretty.
Jammy muffin with little extra bit of bitter marmalade for me
Jam Filled Muffins
Adapted from Muffin Bible
Makes 12 regular sized muffins or
24 mini muffins
Printable version of recipe
1 ½ Cups All purpose flour
½ Cup Sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ Cup Butter
½ Cup yogurt
¾ Cup Juice (Use one that matches with the jam flavour. I used Dark Grapes juice)
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Jam (upto 12 tsp, I used black currant jam)
Icing sugar
Preheat the oven.
Line a 12 muffin tin with paper liners or grease well and keep aside.
In a large bowl, mix well (with a fork) flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar.
In a microwave safe glass bowl, melt butter (20 seconds).
Add to this cold yogurt, juice and vanilla extract.
Check if this mix has come to room temperature and then add one beaten egg.
(If you add egg to hot melted butter, it will scramble, hence the precaution)
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and lightly combine with a fork until they come together. Do NOT beat or overmix. This will make your muffins rock like.
Spoon a little over a tsp of batter in each muffin liner. Place around a tsp of jam over this and cover with 1-2 tsp of batter, dividing the batter evenly between 12 cups.
Bake at 180 C for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. (some melted jam may stick to skewer, but that is okay)
Remove and dust with icing sugar.
Please note that I added little under a tsp of jam as I thought the jam would melt inside the oven itself and make the muffins look messy. Turns out I was wrong. You can be generous with the jam filling, and it wont spill out as most of the liquid part gets absorbed into the muffin while baking.
In case you want to know where i found the pretty muffin liners - they are from General Food Additives, Sheshadripuram, Bangalore. That one little shop can take care of your baking needs completely.
Fresh from the oven
Kid friendly


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