text:
Seeing as how the server browser seems to be working quite nicely, it seems that a matchmaking thread would be more proper.
At least, it should simplify things so players can avoid having to use Hamachi/etc.
Yeah, my dad had to reinstall his copy of Windows cuz of a virus; and as a result, I had to reinstall Hamachi and create a new account. I used the same name so people (hopefully) wouldn't get confuzzled.
Seeing as how the server browser seems to be working quite nicely, it seems that a matchmaking thread would be more proper.
At least, it should simplify things so players can avoid having to use Hamachi/etc.
This one should be used for everybody's contact info:
This is to be able to match with people. You know their email or instant messenger name, and then contact them. If not, matchmaking can be done by PM or something. Though if someone wants to make a thread for matchmaking particularly, be my guest.
MSNMSG: taffermail {at} hotmail.com
Yahoo: -
Modem: Cable 10Mb/1Mb
E-Mail: taffermail {at} hotmail.com
Location: Finland
I'm usually available during evenings (timezone: +2 GMT) and I will idle in #thief IRC channel on StarChat server. Though I have to fix some firewall problems first as I can only see the global server and host games properly on my mini laptop.
You know it'd probably be a lot easier to organize these with Steam's friends list. You can also make community groups with their own chat rooms.
Not everyone has Steam...GASP!!
Anyway if anyone does, you can add me to your friends list and we can give this a shot. My account name is firstname.lastname@example.com.
That's like saying people "should" have big screen TVs. Not everyone does, not everyone wants one, and not everyone can afford one. It doesn't matter that steam is free, if there's no other reason to log on than to make a group, then what's the point?
If more organization is something people want, that's a different story. I know AOL instant messenger has chat rooms, as does yahoo messenger. And if neither of those work, there could be multi-IM sessions.
Ah, I see. That's a good argument, but personally I would say that Steam is not the best choice then. Maybe if there was some other way to do it. I know hamachi is a good option, since you may have to use hamachi anyway if the other player is behind a firewall. But I think since Tos added a master server that hamachi had become obsolete for me, as players can connect without it if I lower my firewall to medium.
MSNMSG: mail(at)0815x(dot)de
Modem: DSL (400MBit/30MBit)
Location: Germany - Hesse
Last edited by flying_hope; 24th Jun 2017 at 21:19.
If push comes to shove, I guess I could lend my talents for a custom-built chat server if I can ever figure out how to get the .Net net code to work without the debugger yelling at me.
I think that a chat room of some sort would definitely simplify setting up games and finding other players. I'll lend whatever support I can to any efforts to create one.
Not a matter of willingness, really. More a matter of learning what needs to be done and how to do it. I can find it, I just have to find the right search parameters to coax the right answer outta MSDN.
Short answer is, I can do it, I just need some time.
Y'all are great! We're lucky to have so many talented & dedicated taffers to make Thief even better!
There's really no easier way to do it IMO; no matter what you do, it requires someone to "have" something to chat. In terms of implementing it to thief MP, that would be the most ideal, as it would mean no downloading of additional program(s).
HOWEVER, I believe that all windows users with windows XP could set up a "meeting" with Microsoft Net Meeting, perhaps?
Ganac aka strongsad
Modem: Fiberoptic 'tubes, biatches!
E-Mail: th3m@$t3ri$@w@y at hotmail dot com
Location: Washington state
Time on: Probably 4pm 10 pm pacific
I'm working on the chat app, which I'm calling RIM (short for Ravynous Instant Messanger) for now, after having put it off for a while (mostly working on my game and gaming), currently I'm working on the server and some basic interface design and whatnot. It won't be the most terribly complicated thing in the world, but it should provide us a nice place to congregate and whatnot.
Dan or Dan7
Modem: Cable 10Mb/1Mb
E-mail: email@example.com
Location: Bulgaria, Eastern Europe
Time zone: GTM +2
Very eager to try this soon!
Yo hit me up guys, I am really eager to try Thief Multiplayer. I just installed it and was sad to see no central servers .
ABlix is my TTLG name, duh!
AIM: ABlix000 (your best bet to contact me aside from Skype)
Skype: ablix000
MSNMSG: firstname.lastname@example.com
Yahoo: ablix000
Modem: 10mbps down / 768kbps upload
E-Mail: why do you need my email you darn spammer?
Location: Upstate/Central/Western New York. Somewhere in the Syracuse/Rochester/Buffalo area.
Play with me guys and gals! Let me give this invention a try (I was surprised to see how small of a file size the install was).
MSNMSG: shygreenmoon [at] gmail [dot] com
E-Mail: shygreenmoon [at] gmail [dot] com
Modem: Wireless, cable speed
Location: California, USA
Hey everyone,
I'm a long-time lurker on these boards, and I've been an avid fan of Thief since the first Thief came out way back when. I'd like to join in on any multiplayer options for Thief, if there are still spots available. I'd also like to offer any help, should it be needed. Thanks
Hi ShyGreenMoon. Welcome
I'm sure someone will want to play with you, that's what this thread is for! Maybe this weekend a few of us could start a game? Also, if anyone has XFire you could hit me up there... I've got a Clan that tracks Thief hours. :P
Just for info, the current beta of GarrettLoader has support for Thief 2 and System Shock 2 multiplayer games.
Basically it works by detecting if you have SS2 or Thief 2 multiplayer installed, providing you an additional tab in GLs interface called MULTIPLAYER OPTIONS.
In the tab you can specify your IP address (if you are hosting the game), player name and if you are available for thief 2 or ss2 games. GL will then maintain a broadcast systems DB on the GL server and distribute your player name and IP address to other GL users also doing the same. Those people will then see a popup appear with a list of players wanting to play, the FM they have installed (if they do) and IP addresses if they are hosting.
You can then join the games whenever.
A few notes on this:
- Its not 100% finished so its may be a little buggy.
- Its limited at the moment and works best on System Shock 2 (in terms of launching System Shock 2 with Multi-player settings defined), Thief 2 settings need to be worked out.
- The popups don't show well if you are actually playing thief or any other direct X game full screen. If you have dual screens the popup appears on the second screen which is fine.
- GL does a check for new players every 5 mins at the moment so its possible you can miss people, you also have to mark yourself as available for a game in order to start the checking process.
- I haven't yet worked out how to do Private messaging on the process yet so that you can let people know you will join a game. As it is you would just join the game.
EDIT: I aim to have most of these resolved soon as its the main thing I will be working on this week but hopefully by the end of the month it will be fully working (albeit still with the Direct X display issue as I don't know how to do a directdraw layer draw using Visual Basic).
If you can think of other info that may be required here then let me know via a PM and I'll see if I can add it in.
Last edited by potterr; 10th Mar 2009 at 13:33.
That sounds awesome potterr!


text:
Topics covered:
- conceptually how to add scripting/modding ability to your game
- expanding on object interaction
- game loops
Technology used:
- VB.NET 4.0 framework
- Keep the images in the execution directory of the executable.
- the startup script file name is 'myscript.txt' - that also needs to be in the executable's directory.
What is scripting?
Scripting, in respects to a videogame, is a way to provide commands to the game engine that are interpreted and modify the state, properties of the actors, or generate new objects per their interpretation. If you make your game flexible enough you can enjoy a controlled avenue rich with development, content creation, and happy users without needing to recompile the game!
The gist is you review your game, determine what you would like to have affected by scripts, any actions for those affected areas, and then gin up some rules on matching unique command names and actions! It sounds complex, but it is not that bad.
Examples of games with scripting:
How does it relate to a video game?
When folks write their game (or game engine and game) there is a sort of tunnel vision. They see the game loop as a closed system, written in a specific language, and with specific states. There is no room to shoe horn in an 'on the fly' debug mode, scripts to modify game play (or test cases), or allow post modding of their game. All of this can happen, without the need to recompile, and on the fly!
What are common scripting points?
Typically there are two main script entry points into your game loop - at the start, or through a 'console input' by the user.
One would typically see a start-up script modify a large number of game environment options (such as level design, background, object start locations, etc) and is pretty complex.
A 'console input' is often for quick changes and are one liners. This would be things like turning on 'god mode' or 'no clip', unlocking a door, or advancing milestones in a preset quest.
People get bogged down in their game's complex states and ultimately are too consumed by the details that it seems impossible to wedge some sort of fancy script insert point into their loop, but this is not true.
If you look at a typical game loop there really only four major parts
- the start up
- the update
- the draw
- the exit
We know the start up scripts would be best in the first option, typically the check is best when the game window and objects are made, but before you kick off the timing engine. If the script needs to interact with objects (set locations, image, inventory, etc) it is best to change that before the engine starts processing updates.
The 'console input' is just a trigger off the key press event, right? A quick call to pause the game's update, input of the script command, process the input, and resume game play!
Conceptually it is difficult for people to get out of their engine's rut and see they can dynamically affect their game states, and objects, with little fuss.
The example:
Programmatically I am using my old game setup from this tutorial ( OOP with Video Game Basics Part 1 ). I modified the Entity class to have a few more directions of movement, and the user class to use those movements and have a method open to changing its color. The real magic is in the engine modifications.
The gist is the game starts up, loads an image, and moves the blue block around the screen without user input. I would like to change the path of the movement, color of the object, display information about the object, and turn on a universal boolean to illustrate affecting larger portions of the game.
Conceptually the format for the scripts were to be:
The action would be a single character would direct my interpreter to what action to perform, and the modifier is needed to say how much or to what.
The actions I would like to be able to access is:
d - direction of the block's movement.
-- -- Modifier is a value 0 through 8 representing one of the directions in the Entity.MovementDirection
c - color change.
-- -- Modifier is one of the strings: red, blue, or green. This would have the user object change the image/color accordingly.
p - print user information. Useful for debugging.
-- -- modifier: none.
g - 'god mode'. Use to be impervious to damage, enemies, etc. Functionally vacant with this demo, but it illustrates the global 'switch' system that can be built to react to user input.
-- -- modifier: 1 to turn on, anything else to turn off
I also envisioned stringing multiple script commands together separated by semicolons ( ; )
An example of:
means change the block's color to red, and its direction to 'up'.
A decent representation of in game object changes, visual changes, and game state changes!
In the form's class here is the interpreter engine. It takes in a string, cleans it up, and attempts to fit it against the known scripting rules. Going forward I can add more interpreter rules here and not need to make crazy changes elsewhere!
To be clear - the console script commands and the 'start-up script' commands run on the same rules. They are just two different penetration points into the game loop but provide the same information!
''' <summary> ''' ParseScript takes in a potential script line and tries to match it up with a known script interpretation rule. ''' </summary> ''' <param name="input"></param> ''' <remarks></remarks> Private Sub ParseScript(ByVal input As String) Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("ProcessConsoleInput: {0}", input)) Dim sTokens() As String '-- in case there are multiple lines on one line If input Is Nothing OrElse input.Trim = String.Empty Then Exit Sub '-- if nothing then do nothing. input = input.Trim.ToLower '-- to keep uniformity - throw everything to lower case sTokens = input.Split(CChar(";")) '-- you can string multiple scripted actions together by using a semicolon.. break those a part. For Each temp As String In sTokens If temp.Trim.Length > 0 Then '-- this quick scripting engine checks for the first letter. If it is a known first letter then check the rest of the line for the action. Select Case temp(0) Case "d"c '-- direction change '-- The thought was to have a <character>:<action> '-- in this case any number that corresponds to Entity.MovementDirection's number system works. If Char.IsNumber(temp(2)) Then If CInt(temp(2).ToString) >= 0 AndAlso CInt(temp(2).ToString) <= 8 Then _eLastMove = CType(temp(2).ToString, Entity.MovementDirection) End If End If Case "p"c '-- print character info Debug.WriteLine(_oUser.Print()) Case "c"c '-- change color If temp.Contains("red") Then _oUser.LoadNewImage("red.png") ElseIf temp.Contains("blue") Then _oUser.LoadNewImage("blue.png") ElseIf temp.Contains("green") Then _oUser.LoadNewImage("green.png") End If Case "g"c '-- god mode - display text to show you are in 'god mode'.. flip a boolean If Char.IsNumber(temp(2)) Then If CInt(temp(2).ToString) = 1 Then _bGodModeOn = True Else _bGodModeOn = False End If End If End Select End If Next End Sub
Clearly some of that code can be tightened up, but you see how easy it is (with a switch statement and some if statements) to take gibberish input and enact sweeping changes under the game hood!
With respects to the penetration points there are two.
The first is the 'console input'. When the Keys.Oemtilde is pressed the game pauses, puts up an input box to ask for script input, processes the input found, and returns the game play. This means I can change mechanics on the fly!
''' <summary> ''' Important key command here. When the user hits the tilde (~) pause the game, ask for input to pump through the scripting engine, and resume game play. ''' </summary> ''' <param name="sender"></param> ''' <param name="e"></param> ''' <remarks></remarks> Private Sub Form1_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles Me.KeyDown Select Case e.KeyCode Case Keys.Escape Me.Close() Case Keys.Space _bPause = Not _bPause Case Keys.Oemtilde'-- ask for console input _bPause = True ParseScript(InputBox("Console command", "Console Command")) _bPause = False End Select End Sub
The second input point is the startup. I am cleverly looking for a single script file called "myscript.txt" in the execution location of the game. If nothing is found then move on, but if it is found start reading each line and see what suggested changes can be made.
Public Sub New() ' This call is required by the designer. InitializeComponent() ' Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call. Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint, True) Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer, True) Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, True) Me.Height = 500 Me.Width = 500 '-- create our user to be drawn. _oUser = New User _oUser.ScreenHeight = Me.Height '-- to prevent moving off the screen! _oUser.ScreenWidth = Me.Width '-- to prevent moving off the screen! '-- Important piece here - before the game engine starts, check to see if a script exists or not! CheckForScript("myscript.txt") '-- setup our timer as the engine to process. _timer = New Timer _timer.Interval = 100 _timer.Start() End Sub ''' <summary> ''' Check a specific file location for a script file. If said script file exists read each line and run it through the 'script parser'. ''' </summary> ''' <param name="location"></param> ''' <remarks></remarks> Private Sub CheckForScript(ByVal location As String) Dim sr As IO.StreamReader Dim sTemp As String Try '-- always check to see if the file exists If IO.File.Exists(location) Then '-- set up the reader. sr = New IO.StreamReader(location) Do '-- read each line (maybe multiple commands per line?) sTemp = sr.ReadLine '-- try to process that script line ParseScript(sTemp) Loop Until sTemp Is Nothing Else Debug.WriteLine("File does not exist! " + location) End If Catch ex As Exception Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message) End Try End Sub
Example screen shots:
Running normally
Console input of: c:green;d:4
Changes the color to green, and the direction.
Start script: g:1
starts game with 'god mode' on.
At the end - it is just this simple to get a script interpreter up and running in your game. Recognize the basic game loop, pick the two obvious entry points (script file or 'console input'), and structure your script rules. The rules are just products of thinking what you want to have external access to (images, object properties, levels, etc), and writing a quick rule-to-action interpreter for them!
Advanced topics:
- try adding python or lua to the mix
- expand the rule set to alter other game aspects
- try using multiple objects (with unique ids) and add to the interpreter function the ability to specify a single object (by its id) and have changes only affect that instance
The code behind of the form/game window.
Taking the advice of BetaWar (from this thread I decided to put the entire project on github. You can find it here: https://github.com/m..._game_scripting

subset: commoncrawl


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Lucena to hold 2nd LGBT Pride on Dec. 9
Pride will re-visit Lucena City on December 9. Last 2014, the first LGBT Pride was held in Enverga University; it was the first such gathering in Quezon Province, helmed by EU Bahaghari.
Pride to re-visit Lucena City on December 9.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community of Lucena in the Quezon Province will again reconvene for its second LGBT Pride gathering following a hiatus.
Last 2014, the first LGBT Pride was held in Enverga University; it was the first such gathering in Quezon Province, helmed by EU Bahaghari, and supported by other organizations at Enverga University in Lucena City, including Alpha Phi Omega – Chi Chapter, STAND Enverga, Envergans Ayaw Sa Tofi Alliance, and Guni-Guri Collective.
The first Pride called for the equal treatment of LGBT people, recognition of their rights, and protection within the educational institutions; even as it also called for focus on other issues faced by students, including hikes in tuiton and other fees.
In 2015, a Pride event was not held, though the community gathered for the #EqualityWithoutBorders cultural night, which called for the need to continue the LGBT struggle.
This December 9, the #2ndQuezonPride will happen a day before the International Human Rights Day on December 10.
EU Bahaghari is the only LGBT student support group in Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation in Lucena City.
For more information, visit EU Bahaghari.
In the Scene
Clubs and bars must support women by cracking down on sexual aggression
Women practicing 'feisty femininity' overtly resist unwanted encounters and this approach can arguably play a role in ending gendered violence. However, such responses may expose women to risks and place the labour of managing unwanted incidents onto women directly.
Nightclubs and bars must create a supportive environment that cracks down on unwanted sexual attention and allows women to enjoy their nights out, according to a new study.
Increasing numbers of women are prepared to speak back to sexual harassment while enjoying a night out with female friends by confronting the men responsible and telling them clearly and robustly that their behavior is unacceptable.
But researchers say that such a response – which they dub 'feisty femininity' – is complex and can result in backlash. It, therefore, needs businesses within the Night Time Economy to take seriously unwanted encounters in order to foster safer venues and help to end gendered violence.
Researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Liverpool worked with colleagues at Liverpool John Moores University to explore women's navigation of unwanted sexual attention when in bars and nightclubs. "Unwanted Sexual Attention in the Night-Time Economy: Behaviors, Safety Strategies, and Conceptualizing 'Feisty Femininity'" by Clare Gunby , Anna Carline, Stuart Taylor and Helena Gosling is published in Feminist Criminology.
They conducted focus groups with young women in Liverpool and discovered two broad forms for unwanted sexual attention when women went out: 'the pick-up routine', which men used to start sexual encounters; and 'showing off for the lads', where males engaged in undermining and abusive interactions with women for the purpose of impressing their male friends.
Encountering 'the pick-up routine' tended to prompt the use of 'diplomatic' rejection responses, which were carefully constructed in order to manage a potentially aggressive reaction. In contrast, 'showing off for the lads' approaches were more likely to spark a robust 'feisty' rebuttal from the targeted woman.
Article author Dr. Clare Gunby, from the University of Birmingham's Institute of Applied Health Research, commented: "Young people, globally, are starting to demand accountability for sexist structures and norms, partly due to the re-emergence of feminism and activism on University campuses and beyond.
"Women practicing 'feisty femininity' overtly resist unwanted encounters and this approach can arguably play a role in ending gendered violence. However, such responses may expose women to risks and place the labour of managing unwanted incidents onto women directly.
"Indeed, our participants felt that staff in nightclubs and bars did not take their concerns around safety seriously. Hence, women's informal strategies for dealing with unwanted attention become especially important because more formal lines of recourse often remain unavailable.
"Venues must, therefore, play a key role in creating a safe environment that makes it clear that unwanted sexual aggression will not be tolerated. There must be a multipronged approach across the Night Time Economy to addressing sexual violence."
The study sheds light on women's navigation of unwanted sexual attention when in bars and nightclubs – about which little is known, especially in the UK context. In addition to 'feisty femininity', the researchers found that women had developed three other risk management solutions:
- 'Emotion management' – offering a tactful and diplomatic explanation for their lack of interest (in order to mitigate negative reactions when rejecting men).
- 'Men as protector' – specifically going out with male friends or using a boyfriend (actual and mythical) to reduce the likelihood of an unwanted encounter.
- 'From individualism to camaraderie among the girls' – cutting an evening short, moving to another venue, laughing off unwanted attention or stepping in to stop men from exploiting drunken friends and strangers.
"There was a shared reticence to report unwanted incidents to venue staff or police as women felt that any report would be shrugged off and that no one would care due to the perceived normality of such practices when out in bars and nightclubs," Dr. Gunby notes.
"The lack of formal sanction for such behaviors could arguably play a role in their maintenance, prompting women to fill this gap by taking it upon themselves to monitor friends and strangers."
Violence and adversity in early life can alter the brain
People exposed to childhood adversity may also be more likely to have brain changes in adolescence that indicate an altered response to threat, according to a new study.
Childhood adversity is a significant problem, particularly for children growing up in poverty. Those who experience poverty have a much higher risk of being exposed to violence and suffering from a lack of social support, which can have long-term consequences including higher rates of diabetes, cancer, and other diseases.
People exposed to childhood adversity may also be more likely to have brain changes in adolescence that indicate an altered response to threat, according to a new study by University of Michigan's Christopher Monk and Leigh Goetschius, and others. However, social supports may act as a buffer and reduce the negative effects of early-life stress.
The researchers analyzed data collected from 177 youth aged 15-17 who had taken part in an American study that had collected data since the participants since birth. Around 70 percent of the participants studied were African-American and almost half lived below the poverty line.
The researchers scanned the brains of the participants with MRI, focusing on the white matter connectivity between several key areas: the amygdala, which is known to play a role in fear and emotion-processing, and specific regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Earlier work by this research team established that reduced connectivity between the two brain regions is linked to a heightened response to threats by the amygdala.
The scans suggest a link between violence exposure and social deprivation in childhood. When the children in the study experienced more violence (abuse, exposure to intimate partner violence, or neighborhood violence) and social deprivation (child neglect, lack of neighborhood cohesion, and a lack of maternal support), the researchers observed reduced connectivity between the amygdala and the PFC in adolescence.
Neither variable was on its own linked to brain changes. When a child experienced violence but also had social support, the reduced connectivity wasn't evident. The same was true when a child experienced social deprivation but no violence. "The implication is that social deprivation may exacerbate the effects of childhood violence exposure when it comes to these white matter connections. Social support, on the other hand, may act as a buffer," says Monk.
The researchers were surprised to find no link between brain changes and mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. But because mental health issues often arise during the transition from adolescence to one's 20s, they plan to follow up with the study participants to track mental health and determine whether the associations between violence exposure, social deprivation, and brain changes persist.
It is worth noting that LGBTQIA people are more likely than their peers to live in poverty, according to a 2018 report that showed how indicators of economic disparity including food insecurity, housing instability, low-wage earning potential and unemployment and under-employment are all heightened for LGBTQIA communities.
Specifically, the report found that 25% of LGBTQIA people experienced a period over the last year when they did not have enough money to feed themselves or their family, compared to 18% of non-LGBTQIA people.
Only 35.6% of women, 23.2% of men say trans athletes should participate in sports aligned with their gender identity
Also, the study shows people who have contact with transgender, gay and lesbian people as well as those with stronger egalitarian attitudes are more favorable toward transgender participation, whereas those with high moral traditionalism are more opposed.
In the US, as several states draft legislation that would force student-athletes to play as their gender identified on their birth certificate instead of on a team that matches their gender identity, a team of political scientists investigated underlying factors that drive public opinion on transgender athletes.
The new study shows while women in general are more supportive than men of transgender athletes participating in sports by gender identity instead of biological sex, women who are sports fans are more likely to oppose it, holding views that resemble male sports fans.
The research recently published in the journal Sex Roles investigated public attitudes toward the participation of transgender people in sports by using data from a 2015 survey of 1,020 adults across the U.S.; the data was previously used by the same researchers to analyze public opinion on a variety of transgender rights issues.
Dr. Jami Taylor, professor of political science and public administration at The University of Toledo who focuses on transgender politics and policy, is part of the team who found that attitudes about transgender athletes are strongly shaped by an individual's characteristics, political values and personality traits.
Also, the study shows people who have contact with transgender, gay and lesbian people as well as those with stronger egalitarian attitudes are more favorable toward transgender participation, whereas those with high moral traditionalism are more opposed.
"This is a very complicated area, and there are legitimate concerns about fairness for both transgender athletes and those who are not transgender," said Taylor, author of the 2017 book "The Remarkable Rise of Transgender Rights." "We need to have thoughtful policies that ensure fair competitions but also ensure that transgender athletes aren't discriminated against. As governments, nonprofits and businesses begin to craft policies that decide how and with whom transgender athletes will compete in sports, they need to avoid one-size-fits-all solutions because of the complexity of the issues."
"Given the gendered nature of sports and the resistance to the issue among sports fans – both male and female – policymakers will likely need to tread carefully and should have a care in this area as they craft policy solutions. Our work might be helpful to inform policymakers, as well as advocates who promote inclusion."
Research contributors include Taylor; Dr. Andrew Flores, assistant professor in the Department of Government at American University and lead author of the study; Dr. Donald Haider-Markel, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Kansas; Dr. Daniel Lewis, associate professor of political science at Siena College; Dr. Patrick Miller, associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kansas; and Dr. Barry Tadlock, professor of political science at Ohio University.
Current policy depends on the position of governing bodies, such as the NCAA at the collegiate level, and applicable laws that may vary by location. For instance, California law requires that transgender students be treated according to their gender identity, not biological sex.
The issue, according to lawmakers proposing new legislation in New Hampshire, Washington, Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri, is whether transgender-rights protections are leading to unfair competition in women's sports, referencing male-to-female transgender students and arguing they have natural physical advantages over biological females.
However, the study cited a female-to-male case: Mack Beggs' victory in the Texas Class 6A girls' state wrestling championship in 2017, even though the female-to-male transgender student started his transition two years prior and took testosterone injections.
"It was a ridiculous situation. He wanted to wrestle with the boys and received harsh treatment from fans when he was forced to compete with girls," Taylor said. "Due to his success, parents accused him of cheating, but the rule in Texas was he had to compete according to the gender on his birth certificate, which was a girl. If he was in California, he would've competed against boys."
The study finds that 35.6% of women agreed with allowing transgender athletes to participate in sports aligned with their gender identity, compared to 23.2% of men.
As the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo approach, Taylor calls the Olympics reasonably inclusive to transgender athletes and commends the International Olympic Committee for its attention to both human rights and fair competition.
"The International Olympic Committee no longer requires transgender athletes to have had surgery, but there is a strict requirement around hormonal management," Taylor said. "It's far less restrictive for female-to-male athletes than for male-to-female athletes, which seems to be a reasonable attempt to grapple with this complex issue. Importantly, the IOC's approach looks at evidence in this evolving area."
Boys who are bullied online may have more risky sex
Adolescent boys who are cyber bullied pursue risky sexual behaviors more frequently than girls who are cyber bullied. Results may reflect a culture of toxic masculinity and highlight the need to pay special attention to male victims, who may be reluctant to self-identify, and therefore, at greater risk of negative health outcomes.
Peer victimization is associated with adverse psychological and behavioral problems, including depression and risky health behaviors such as substance use and unprotected sex with multiple partners. This is according to a A collaboration of researchers at Louisiana State University, University of Missouri, and University of Tennessee in the US.
The study, "Peer victimization, depression and sexual risk behaviors among high school youth in the United States: a gender-based approach", by Youn Kyoung Kim, Mansoo Yu, Courtney Cronley and Miyoun Yang has been published in the International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health. The authors examined gender differences in the relationships between four types of peer victimization (school bullying, cyber bullying, physical dating violence, and sexual dating violence), depression, and risky sexual behaviors among US high school students.
In 2015, approximately one-third of high school students in the US alone reported having sex recently. Of these, 43% had not used a condom, 21% had drunk alcohol or used drugs before sexual intercourse, and 14% had not used any contraception.
Recent research suggests that adolescent boys who are cyber bullied pursue risky sexual behaviors more frequently than girls who are cyber bullied. Results may reflect a culture of toxic masculinity and highlight the need to pay special attention to male victims, who may be reluctant to self-identify, and therefore, at greater risk of negative health outcomes.
For this newer study, the researchers analyzed the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior System Survey, a nationally representative survey of US high school students containing data from 5,288 individuals who reported having engaged in sexual intercourse. The results show that all types of peer victimization are related to symptoms of depression for both females and males, and physical and sexual dating violence are associated with increased risky sexual behaviors. However, school bullying does not predict risky sexual behaviors. Among males, cyber bullying predicts increased risky sexual behaviors and the relationship is greater when a boy is depressed.
Bullying is, of course, a big issue for members of the LGBTQIA community.
In April 2018, for instance, a study that investigated gender expression and victimization of youth aged 13-18 found that the most gender nonconforming students reported higher levels of being bullied, were more likely to report missing school because they feel unsafe, and are most likely to report being victimized with a weapon on school property.
The effects of bullying are also long-term. In November 2018, another study found that 35.2% of gay/bisexual men who had experienced frequent school-age bullying experience frequent workplace bullying. Among lesbian women, the figure was 29%.
"It is critical to create safe and private spaces for boys to share their experiences, and we hope that this research will encourage schools to consider efforts to destigmatize victimization through peer mentorship and open communication," said Youn Kyoung Kim.
Progressive gender beliefs in teen boys may be protective against violence
Adolescents with more equitable gender attitudes – those who felt boys and girls deserve equal opportunities and respect – had lower odds of reporting violent behaviors.
Teenage boys who witness their peers abusing women and girls are much more likely to bully and fight with others, as well as behave abusively toward their dates, compared to teenage boys who don't witness such behaviors, according to an analysis led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Conversely, the study found that adolescents with more equitable gender attitudes – those who felt boys and girls deserve equal opportunities and respect – had lower odds of reporting violent behaviors. The results are published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
"The #MeToo movement brought to light how pervasive sexual violence and derogatory behavior toward women is in our society," said lead author Elizabeth Miller, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics, public health and clinical and translational science at Pitt. "Our findings highlight the wide-ranging impact that witnessing sexual harassment and dating violence has on our teenage boys, and present an opportunity to teach adolescents to challenge negative gender and social norms, and interrupt their peer's disrespectful and harmful behaviors."
This study is the first to gather information from U.S. male adolescents in community-based settings, rather than schools or clinics, about multiple types of violence, including bullying and sexual harassment, and the role of gender norms and peer behaviors.
Miller and her team surveyed 866 13- to 19-year-old boys at after-school programs, libraries, churches and other youth-serving organizations in 20 lower-resource Pittsburgh neighborhoods. The teens completed the surveys anonymously between August 2015 and June 2017 as part of a larger study evaluating the effect of a prevention program to reduce sexual violence. Seventy percent of the teens identified as African American and 21% as Hispanic, multiracial or 'other.'
Of the 619 boys who had ever dated, 1 in 3 reported using abusive behavior toward someone they were dating in the previous 9 months. Sexual harassment, whether dating or not, was also common, with 485, or 56%, saying they'd engaged in such behavior. And 587, or 68% of the respondents, said they'd been in physical fights, or threatened or injured someone with a weapon.
Boys who said they'd witnessed their peers engaging in two or more of nine different harmful verbal, physical or sexual behaviors toward women and girls – such as making rude or disrespectful comments about a girl's body – had 2 to 5 times higher odds of engaging in a variety of violent behaviors, some having nothing to do with women or dating.
"This reinforces that pressure to conform to stereotypes about masculinity that perpetuate harmful behaviors toward women and girls is also associated with getting in a fight with another guy," said Miller, who is also director of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at UPMC Children's. "These behaviors aren't happening in silos – if we're going to stop one, we need to also be addressing the other."
Interestingly, the research team did not find that teens who reported having more gender equitable attitudes were any less likely to engage in homophobic teasing, something three-quarters of the survey respondents endorsed.
"It's a puzzling and troubling finding. We believe it may be because these teens have normalized homophobic teasing – it is so commonplace, they may see it as a form of acceptable, possibly even pro-social, interaction with their peers," said Alison Culyba, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at UPMC Children's. "This study illustrates the need for cross-cutting prevention strategies that address multiple aspects of youth violence."
As part of their study, this team of researchers are evaluating a sexual violence prevention program called Manhood 2.0. Miller has also conducted research on a program called Coaching Boys into Men that guides middle and high school coaches in talking with their male athletes about stopping violence against women and girls. Both Manhood 2.0 and Coaching Boys into Men involve reinforcing more equitable gender attitudes and increasing the number of youth who intervene when witnessing peers' disrespectful behavior.
Kelley A. Jones, Ph.D., of UPMC Children's and Pitt, is senior author of this research. Additional authors are Alison J. Culyba, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., Taylor Paglisotti, B.A., Michael Massof, M.P.A., and Qi Gao, M.P.H., all of UPMC Children's and Pitt; Katie A. Ports, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Jane Kato-Wallace, M.P.H., of Promundo-US in Washington, DC; Julie Pulerwitz, Sc.D., of the Population Council in Washington, DC; Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Kaleab Z. Abebe, Ph.D., of Pitt.
From as young as 4, children see males as more powerful than females
When the children had to consider their power relation with a person of the same gender as themselves, the girls and boys both largely identified with the dominant character.
As early as 4 years old, children associate power and masculinity, even in countries considered to be more egalitarian like Norway. This is what scientists at the Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) report, in collaboration with the Universities of Oslo (Norway), Lausanne and Neuchâtel (Switzerland), in a study published in Sex Roles. They also show that in some situations the power-masculinity association does not manifest in girls.
Little is known about how representations of power interact with gender in early childhood. Researchers at the Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1), in collaboration with the Universities of Oslo (Norway), Lausanne and Neuchâtel (Switzerland) wanted to know whether children aged 3 to 6 years old in France, Lebanon, and Norway attribute more power to masculine figures than feminine figures.
In a first experiment, they showed the children a picture with two non-gendered individuals. One of them adopted a dominant physical posture and the other a subordinate posture. First the children had to guess which of these two individuals was exerting power over the other. Next they had to assign a gender to each individual (Who is the girl? Who is the boy?). The results reveal that from 4 years old, a large majority of children consider the dominant individual to be a boy. The power-masculinity association was observed in both boys and girls, and just as much in Lebanon as in France and Norway. However it was not significant in 3-year old children.
In a second experiment, this time in children aged 4 and 5 years old all in school in France, had to imagine themselves in the picture and imagine the other person as a boy or a girl. When the children had to consider their power relation with a person of the same gender as themselves, the girls and boys both largely identified with the dominant character. But when they had to consider their power relation with a person of the opposite gender, boys identified more often with the dominant character whereas girls did not significantly identify more with one or other of the characters.
Finally, in a third experiment, children aged 4 and 5 years old in Lebanon and France watched a series of exchanges between two puppets, one representing a girl and the other a boy, behind a board (1). In one case, the puppets were getting ready to play a game together and the child heard one impose their choices on the other. In the other case, one puppet had more money than the other to buy ice cream. In France and Lebanon, most of the boys thought that the puppet that imposed their choices or that had more money was the male puppet. However, the girls in both countries did not attribute the dominant position preferably to one or other gender.
These results show that children have early sensitivity to a gender hierarchy, though in some situations girls do not associate power and masculinity. The scientists now hope to find out what power forms they attribute to feminine figures and whether they legitimize the expression of gendered power.
1 The puppets, which were shown to the children before being hidden behind the board, were manipulated by the same speaker and "spoke" with the same voice, working as in a cartoon. So, behind the board, it was not to possible to differentiate them by their voice.
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Green House Are you inspired to have a new look home this year? After a wonderful trip to the Josef Frank exhibition at the Fashion & Textile Museum I find myself seeking vibrant colours, textiles and patterns. My colour prediction for 2017? It's got to be green! Let's begin by painting some drab walls … […]
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Let's go green in 2017 : ideas for home makeovers
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Vercellone provides the familiar three-part division of capitalist history. Built into it is an assumption that workers fight for a combination of autonomy in labor processes, for better wages, and for skill preservation ("socialization of access to knowledge"), and these factors determine capital formations and modes of capitalist control over labor:
(1) formal subsumption, when workers still controlled labor processes but relied on outside capital. Workers underwent 'precarisation', that is to say, their livelihood was made insecure and dependent on wages. Thus they were compelled to work to survive. This wage dependency could seem like freedom, though, in some workers' experience -- the ones who were no longer serfs, for instance.
(2) real subsumption, or Fordist relations of production, in which the division of labor has separated out management of labor processes from their execution. "The attempt to save time, founded on the law of value-labour, is accompanied by the reduction of complex labour into simple labour and by the incorporation of knowledge in fixed capital and in the organization of the firm." In other words, Taylorist management styles and machines make craft knowledge irrelevant among workers in factories. Craft knowledge survives only in fringe production as nostalgic artisanship while mass-produced goods made in assembly-line style factories come to dominate markets. Working for wages becomes a technological necessity -- modern production by and large becomes too complex to be done as a lone artisan.
Capital assumes control over the making of stuff and the making of demand for stuff -- forcing/enticing people to be happy with mass-produced goods. The mass production process dictates what sort of stuff is on the market and a grateful mass market is expected to accept it without customization options -- without it speaking to them as individuals. (The one color of Model T is the quintessential example.)
Labor is separated from leisure in this stage, as it is deliberately separated from "intellectual and creative quality" by management, who seeks to control proprietary work processes. Wages and the consumption culture that derives from them contribute to this separation of spheres. The welfare system of a living wage
(3) cognitive capitalism, or post-Fordism, or immaterial labor, or the general intellect, etc., in which labor processes become indistinguishable from the self-managed, quasi-voluntaristic life processes of workers. Less explicit management and compulsion needs to happen, labor processes require less hierarchical direction as technological developments allow for the more or less unobtrusive harvesting of useful information, knowledge, innovation, affect, etc. from the life processes. "The productive value of intellectual and scientific labour becomes dominant and knowledge re-socialises everything, becoming the principal productive force." More productivity can be reaped by encouraging worker-driven innovation and unstructured social cooperation (albeit mediated and monitored), not treating them like assembly-line drones. Friendship and sociality and public self-fashioning (identity manufacture and confirmation/validation) are made productive -- a kind of covert labor. But with less control over the labor process, capital must assert control through financialization. Capital "will tend to privilege indirect forms of domination of production and of the mechanisms of surplus appropriation realized by means of the sphere of monetary and financial circulation." In other words, if you are a capitalist, don't run factories; run banks.
Financialization is corollary of a more autonomous worker -- it allows for indirect ways of exploiting that worker, so that the worker can feel more in control in a local sense (choosing where and when to work), even though the choices are circumscribed at a "way of the world" level. The "cycle of valorization" is "ever more autonomous from a social labor process which it no longer subsumes in real terms." The worker is producing in the "social factory," and expropriated at the level of financialization.
Precarization at this stage is not a matter of possibly starving; it's a matter of feeling irrelevant, unfamous, uncool, out of date, etc.
At this stage, the fragment on machines comes into play and Marx's hypotheses about the "general intellect". The general intellect,as I understand it, is the lived praxis of the knowledge about everyday life within capitalism, the making of ideas or memes or new semiotic information or new meanings for goods, and so on. Fordism relies on a bargain with workers, enriching their general education and leisure time to compensate for meaningless working life. But this lays the foundation for the "crisis of Fordism" as better-educated workers living a more personalized and individuated life in leisure time begin to demand more-meaningful work. A generalized demand for meaning characterizes consumer capitalism -- consumption becomes a form of production of meaning.
Marx writes: "the saving of labor time [is] equal to an increase of free time, i.e. time for the full development of the individual, which in turn reacts back upon the productive power of labor as itself the greatest productive power." Educational development in free time changes the nature of labor, the de facto social contract between capital and labor. Capital wants the old form of value, based on control of direct labor and labor time (keeping people in the office, paying them by the hour) -- but the new productive forms of labor have become social, happening online in various forms of innovation in lifestyles and fashion and so forth. So capital tries to strengthen intellectual property laws, create artificial scarcities in knowledge to reassert control. But now technology no longer supports a wage-paying system of labor control. Now technology supports networks, and the wealth of networks. Only massive state intervention could enforce the intellectual property laws that would restore the old regime of capital control over labor processes and innovation.
Hence this seems the key passage to me from the Fragment on Machines:
In this transformation, it is neither the direct human labour he himself performs, nor the time during which he works, but rather the appropriation of his own general productive power, his understanding of nature and his mastery over it by virtue of his presence as a social body – it is, in a word, the development of the socialThe source of value is networked humans coming up with new instantiations of generalized, shared collective knowledge about living in current times (the "general intellect"). Value is created there, in networks, in what Vercellone calls the "the totality of social times", not by machines streamlining production processes.
individual which appears as the great foundation-stone of production and of wealth.
But with production being done outside of wage paying situations, and appropriation of that value not benefiting the workers, the argument for a social wage mandated by the state strengthens -- this would enable workers to continue to learn, self-fashion, form identities, innovate lifestyles without stultifying fear of earning money. Immaterial labor seems well suited to fit with a social wage and indirect methods of capital expropriation of value generated on networks (or to put that less pejoratively, entrepreneurs can find value on networks and profit while the value creators live their lives and get paid in identity, knowledge and self-satisfaction in creativity.)


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Sally asks Suzy over for a play date. Suzy's mother learns through neighborhood gossip that Sally's family recently adopted a man-eating Bengal tiger named "Roscoe." Ignoring the advice from animal experts, Sally's parents have decided not to enroll the family in tiger training due to their busy schedules.
Instead of keeping this known killer in a cage, the family lets it roam freely in the house. Sometimes they put Roscoe behind closed doors when guests are over. However, 5-year-old Sally always seems to sneak her way into the forbidden room to show her classmates Roscoe's shiny teeth and sharp claws.
The reason Sally's parents decided to adopt Roscoe is for protection. They believe that simply owning an untrained beast will ward off any human predators who consider entering the house. Even though they live in a quiet and peaceful neighborhood, they feel one can never be too safe.
Suzy's parents think it would be too awkward to decline a play date. They've heard of other parents refusing to allow children into Sally's home because of the man-eating animal, and it caused tension in the neighborhood. After a long lecture about the dangers of Roscoe, Suzy's parents hesitantly allow her to visit Sally.
An hour into the play date, the phone rings at Suzy's house. Her parents answer to the sound of sobbing on the other end. It seems the warnings about Roscoe just fueled Suzy's curiosity, and she could not resist a look at the beast.
Her parents will forever blame themselves for the loss.
Would you believe that nearly 40 percent of American households have a Roscoe in their midst?
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Roscoes," otherwise known as guns, cause twice as many deaths in young people as does cancer, five times as many as heart disease and 15 times as many as infections.
Despite the shocking statistics showing that household firearms are infinitely more dangerous to the people inside the home than any outside threat, gun owners still become indignant when the government attempts to moderate their Second Amendment rights. Many gun advocates justify their stance by saying the problem is not the gun; the issue is the irresponsible gun owners who leave weapons available to children.
However, without strict laws as to how firearms should be stored in the home, most guns are as unpredictable in their potential to kill as a man-eating animal.
Anthony Senatore, a 33-year-old father from Toms River, N.J., is a recent example from the ever-deepening pool of negligent gun-owning parents. On April 8, his 4-year-old son found a loaded .22-caliber rifle lying around the house. He took the gun outside to show his play date, Brandon Holt, and ended the 6-year-old's life with a fatal shot. Despite being charged with second-degree endangering of his own children, and third-degree endangering of Holt, Anthony Senatore was free the night of his arraignment. He posted the $100,000 and walked out with his Second Amendment right to bear arms intact.
Did he learn his lesson? Possibly.
Did the parents of Brandon Holt learn their lesson? Undeniably.
As a new mother, these tragic stories strike a distinct chord. What if I unknowingly allow my daughter to enter a home like Sally's or Senatore's? Would I not be just as careless of a parent if I did not scrutinize the gun-control policies of the homes she visits?
With the inert state of gun control in government, parents like me are left finding ways to avoid a face-to-face encounter between our children and a metal barrel.
Parents need to qualify a house before entering by asking the following questions:
• Do you own any weapons?
• How do you store your weapons?
• Could you please check to make sure your weapons are securely locked before my child enters your home?
I am not asking because I believe the right to bear arms should be taken away necessarily. I am simply asking because the thought of receiving a phone call with news of my daughter playing with Roscoe keeps me up at night.
Melissa Schulte is a freelance writer and mother from Maple Grove.


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Read the following from Peter King's MMQB column over at si.com. (For the full story, go here). I know a good many of us were annoyed by his wife back in 1999 when Warner was dominant with the Rams, but this is cool, really cool. What a neat thing to do – especially considering they've made it a practice to do it anonymously.
Good Guy of the Week
Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner.
Karen Crouse of the New York Times wrote a good feature on Warner in last Friday's paper, with a prescient story as the lead. Seems that Warner, wife, Brenda, and one or more of the Warner children have a practice the night before football games. They sit at their table in a restaurant, look over the dining room, and pick out one family. Warner then informs the wait staff that, anonymously, he'd like the dinner tab of that family of strangers added to his.
Crouse wrote the Warners have been doing this for several years "as a way of instilling in their children the joy of giving," and quoted Warner thusly: "We want our kids to grow up knowing that because of football we are so blessed."
Just another reason why you can never say enough good things about Kurt Warner.


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Making Sure the Job Gets Done
If you've been reading this blog over the last week or so, you'll have noticed that the big story in education has been the highly suspicious handling of an evaluation of Washington, DC's, voucher program by the supposedly politics‐out‐of‐policymaking Obama administration. The evaluation shows voucher students making clearly superior readings gains to students who applied for but did not receive vouchers, while math results were equal. In other words, vouchers seem to work. But it doesn't matter: For all intents and purposes Congress killed DC choice last month, and throughout that murderous process this study was being held under wraps — for numerous possible, but all unacceptable, reasons — in the United States Department of Education.
Well, on Saturday the Washington Post editorialized about the whole stinkin' mess, and in so doing revealed something new: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan decided not to allow any new students to enroll in the program for the 2009 – 2010 school year, despite the program not being scheduled to end until 2010 – 2011. And, though it is close to unthinkable politically that both Congress and the DC City Council will reauthorize the program — just as Congressional enemies of educational freedom planned when they wrote those stipulations into law — it is not absolutely impossible. But in good hitman style, Duncan is making sure the job gets done, holding the pillow over the victim's face as long and tightly as possible to make sure there won't be any unforeseen and inconvenient coming back to life.
Oh, and irony of ironies? According to the Post, Duncan is doing this extra bit of dirty work because [italics added] "it is not in the best interest of students and their parents to enroll them in a program that may end a year from now."


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Build Your Own - Daily System Components - Espresso stain
- Overview
Clever and versatile, our modular Daily System is the ultimate home-office assistant. To create a system that's ideal for your space, click here to view our Daily System Tool.
- Frame is stained in espresso.
- Frame is crafted of MDF with hardwood veneers.
- Stainless steel hardware.
- Whiteboard & Whiteboard Calendar are magnetic and includes a marker, an eraser and two magnets.
- Chalkboard is magnetic and includes chalk, an eraser and six magnets.
- Pinboard includes twenty pushpins.
- Create a system that works for you! Daily System Tool
- Multi-use entry organizer does not include chalk and magnets.
- MDF is an engineered wood that lends exceptional strength and ensures the system's structural integrity over time.
- The use of veneers results in high-quality furniture that has flawless surfaces and consistent color tones, and that will not be subject to cracking.
- 12" rod includes two screws and two anchors.
- 24" rod includes three screws and three anchors.
- Requires the 12" or 24" Top Display Rod (sold separately).
- Imported.
- Dimensions & Care
- 12" Top Display Rod
- 24" Top Display Rod
- Chalkboard: 24" wide x 19" high
- Corkboard: 12" wide x 19" high
- Flatware Caddy: 11.25" wide x 3.5" deep x 5.25" high
- Kitchen Towel Holder: 24" wide x 7.75" deep x 3.25" high
- Letter Bin: 12" wide x 19" high
- Office Organizer: 12" wide x 19" high
- Pinboard: 24" wide x 19" high
- Mirror With Hooks: 12" wide x 21" high
- Multi Use Entryway: 12" wide x 3.25" deep x 31" high
- Paper Towel Holder: 14" wide x 4" deep x 1" high
- Recipe/Tablet Holder: 8" wide x 2.5" deep x 10.25" high
- Row of Hooks: 12" wide x 3.25" deep x 5" high
- Whiteboard: 24" wide x 19" high
- Whiteboard Calendar: 24" wide x 19" high
- 12" Ledge: 11.75" wide x 5.5" deep x 2" high
- 12" Ledge Maximum Weight Capacity: 10 pounds
- 24" Ledge: 24" wide x 5.5" deep x 2" high
- 24" Ledge Maximum Weight Capacity: 15 pounds
- Wipe with a soft, dry cloth.
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View the complete Shipping and Delivery Information page.
You can return eligible item(s) within 30 days of receiving an order or 7 days for Quick Ship upholstery items for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required. Monogrammed items and Made to Order furniture or rugs are not eligible for returns. Review the full list of ineligible items and our refund policy below before starting the process.
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- Page 1 Barnes & Noble Nook HD Review
- Page 2 Screen and Interface Review
- Page 3 Apps, Games and Browsing Review
- Page 4 Video, Music, Battery Life and Verdict Review
- Lightweight, with good ergonomics
- Good value
- Great screen
- Limited app selection, expensive apps
- No movie rental in UK yet
- Patchy performance
- Poor app selection, expensive apps
Key Specifications
- Review Price: £159.00
- 7-inch 1,440 x 900 pixel IPS screen
- 8/16GB internal memory
- microSD memory card slot
- Customised Android 4.0 software
- 10-hour battery life
In the US, Barnes & Noble and the Nook range of eReaders are well-known. But here in the UK, neither name holds much weight. Like Hershey's chocolate, they're around, but haven't yet woven themselves into the cultural fabric of the country.
However, the Barnes & Noble Nook HD is no limping entry to the tablet game. With a high-resolution 7-inch screen, dual-core 1.5GHz processor, aggressive £159 starting price and expandable memory, it wants to lure people away from the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7. And for at least a handful of people, it should do.
Like the Amazon tablet, it offers access to a handful of content portals, supplying games, apps, videos, books and magazines. It wants to be your ebook reader, as well as letting you perform tablet tasks like checking email, browsing the web and – naturally – playing Angry Birds.
Barnes & Noble Nook HD – Video Review
Barnes & Noble Nook HD – Design
One of the key taglines Barnes & Noble has stuck on the Nook HD tablet is that it's the lightest 7-inch tablet around. At 307g, it's lighter than the Google Nexus 7, 340g, and the Kindle Fire HD, which is a hefty 395g.
Being lightweight may be a design focus, but being desperately small and slim is not. Instead, Barnes & Noble has given ergonomics precedence. There's an inch-wide grey bezel around the sides of the screen surround, acting as a thumb rest intended to supply the most relaxed grip possible.
This generous bezel works in partnership with a soft-touch back that has a curved ridge that sits under your finger, making the Nook HD much more comfortable to hold than the Amazon Kindle Fire HD. However, like the Amazon tablet it's not quite a beauty.
The Barnes & Noble Nook HD's outer body is made up of four different parts. Its screen surround is glass and there are three grey plastic elements that form the front, the sides and the rear. The back and front bits are matt, but the sides are glossy and the unmistakeable seams that outline each betray the tablet's budget roots.
It is significantly more distinctive-looking than most cheap Android tablets, though, the contoured grey plastic front giving the curious impression of a device that's already in a case. There is a functional benefit the non-flat front – it helps to protect the screen when the tablet is laid down face-first.
There's another key hardware difference between the Nook HD and its key rivals too. It has a microSD memory card slot on its bottom edge, unlike the Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD, which make you stick to the 16GB or 32GB of internal memory. Expandable memory makes the relatively poor amount of integrated storage you get here easier to forgive.
The lower-end Nook HD model has just 8GB of internal memory, costing £159, and the 16GB edition tops off the range at £189. It's therefore slightly more expensive than both the Amazon and Google alternatives. They offer double the storage for roughly the same price, but being able to boost storage with an inexpensive microSD card will be a huge bonus for some. Cards up to 64GB capacity are supported, ramping up maximum capacity to 80GB. Nowadays, even ultra-high capacity cards like this aren't too pricey, available for around £40.
Barnes & Noble really wants you to use its own online stores to consume content like movies, TV episodes, books and apps, but you can also transfer files to the memory manually fairly easily. Plug the tablet in to a computer using the supplied cable and both the internal memory and any inserted memory card will show up as disk drives, ready to dump files onto.
Rather than using a standard microUSB connector, though, the Barnes & Noble Nook HD has a proprietary socket that's a dead spit of the old 30-pin Apple plug. This connection is also used to charge the internal battery – a power adapter that the cable plugs into is included as standard.
The only other socket on the Nook HD is a 3.5mm headphone jack, which sits up top. There's no video output, which does feature on the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, although you can buy a bespoke HDMI output cable that plugs into the tablet's main socket.
From a pure hardware design perspective, there's no clear winner in the sub-£200 7-inch tablet war yet. Ergonomically, the Nook HD is superior to the Kindle Fire HD, but both are a way off the Apple aesthetics of the iPad mini. And while not everyone will appreciate the ebook reader-like design of the Nook HD, it's roughly on-par with the Google Nexus 7 in build quality and aesthetics.
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'Back to Uncertainty: Considering Other Possibilities'
"In its eighth year in the welcoming surroundings of The Market Place Theatre in Armagh, the John Hewitt International Summer School will offer yet another attractive and stimulating programme of events – readings, talks, workshops, discussions, exhibitions and outstanding evening entertainment - something for everyone!
An impressive line-up of writers and performers will join esteemed visiting speakers who will address the challenges of history and identity suggested by this year's theme, which drew its inspiration from the poem Hand Over Hand [1967] by the celebrated Northern poet and political thinker, John Hewitt:
This billowing freedom threatens to
Smother me with euphoria.
Hand over hand eagerly I crawl
Back to uncertainty.
Smother me with euphoria.
Hand over hand eagerly I crawl
Back to uncertainty.
In a society as deeply separated in its perceptions of identities and symbols as Northern Ireland, Hewitt appreciated that the certainties of one group were challenged directly by those of the other. So, he welcomed 'uncertainty' as a stance between two traditions, where he could appreciate both the Protestant culture of his birth and that of his Catholic neighbours.
As a political thinker, Hewitt was describing what is, perhaps, the only meaningful way of coping with deep differences. Rather than denying them, or elevating one identity or version of the truth above all others, he recognised success in politics as the capacity to bridge differences. To achieve this requires the starting point of 'uncertainty', which opens the door to imagining the 'other' and their place.
So come along to The Market Place Theatre at the end of July for a week, for a day or for an individual event or two and be stimulated, challenged and entertained! There is one certainty - you will be more than welcome!"


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Want a unique and fun-filled dining experience while staying at the Empress? How about an opportunity to explore the world, while leaving your passport at home? Forty Two, the restaurant at the Clinton Presidential Center, offers this opportunity at its Around the World dining event. Every third Thursday of the month, they invite guests to explore the sights, sounds and flavors of countries across the globe. A different country is featured every month, giving diners the chance to have their taste buds take a tour from Italy to India, without having to leave Little Rock.
A five-course tasting menu provided, with a bargain price of only $27.95, giving visitors the unique chance to sample distinctive flavors from around the world while enjoying a beautiful waterfront Arkansas setting. Enjoy the culture of Melbourne, Australia on July 17th, and then come back for Jeonju, South Korea on August 21st!
Reservations are required, as this event is extremely popular and seating is limited. See more at Forty-Two's website. Or you can call them at 501-537-0042 to make your reservation.


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10 July 2013 at 7.28pm | 1 Comment
Canadian tenor Joseph Kaiser is unwell and has had to withdraw from the role of Flamand in The Royal Opera's concert performances of Capriccio.
The role of Flamand will now be sung by British tenor Andrew Staples. His roles for The Royal Opera have included Tamino (Die Zauberflöte, 2013 revival), Artabanes (Artaxerxes), Narraboth (Salome) and First Man in Armour (Die Zauberflöte, 2008 revival). Other recent roles include Ferrando (Così fan tutte) for Opera Holland Park, Lysander (A Midsummer Night's Dream) for Garsington Opera and Belfiore (La finta giardiniera) for La Monnaie, Brussels.
The rest of the cast remains the same.


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A. Aubry published a paper entitled "Les Logarithmes avant Neper" in the 1906 edition of L'Enseignement Mathématique signed simply "A. Aubry (Beaugency, Loiret)". Does anyone know what the A. stood for (perhaps Auguste?) or anything more about this A. Aubry?
The only other reference I've found is that it may have been the same A. Aubry that wrote the forward to "Carrés Magiques au degré n" by Général Cazalas but this is pure conjecture.
Thanks in advance for any insight.
Cheers, Scott


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IT Itch invites entries for its inaugural prize in web poetry. Designed as an opportunity for amateur digital communicators to share their work and for tech-minded professionals to dabble in a creative art-form, the prize is open to everyone and submissions will be accepted from any country.
Submitted poems must be about this year's theme – Search Engines – but poets are free to use whatever style they choose.
Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of IT. Poetry is a search for ways of communicating and we are desperately in need of new ways to communicate about technical topics. With this prize we are hoping to share the burden of our poetic pains, throw a few stones into the information technology mineshaft and listen for the reverberations. Our ultimate aim is to make IT more easily understandable and accessible to everyone – we would far rather have poets writing our user manuals than tech-geeks.
- IT Itch CEO
There is no cost to enter the poetry competition and the winner will receive a cash prize of $300 NZD.