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Tubes and Pipes
Hollow Sections
Rebars
Mechanical and Industrial Application
Process and Power
Construction and Building
Hot Briquetted Iron: trials in progress
Reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is one of the priorities of the steel industry in the world. One of the fastest decarbonisation option is to switch steel production from conventional converters to electric arc furnaces. This will involve the increase of scrap demand and the potential scarcity of such valuable raw material.
Železiarne Podbrezová (ZP) has since many decades adopted the virtuous steelmaking cycle based on scrap recycling through electric arc furnaces. And in order to be ready to face different future scenarios it has started the trials of an alternative to scrap and pig iron: Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI), the compacted form of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI).
DRI can obtained through specific technologies involving the reduction of iron ore by using natural gas or hydrogen. That results in a substantial saving in CO2 emissions if compared to pig iron production in blast furnaces.
"HBI briquettes have a chemical composition similar to pig iron. They have no tramp elements, especially copper and tin. The use of HBI thus reduces the content of undesirable elements in the steel" explained Ing. Stanislav Turňa, steelworks technologist. "The briquettes contain more than 80 % iron. They can partially replace the steel scrap."
And how does the smelting work? "HBI material is added to the steel scrap, which is then smelted in an electric arc furnace. As the proportion of HBI increases, the melting time increases. This consumes more electricity, oxygen and other raw materials. The production characteristics of the EAF furnace with high HBI contents are different from the process using steel scrap due to the higher content of oxides and carbon. If a larger amount of HBI were fed into the furnace, this would require the creation of new melting programs, or the installation of new types of burners and modified additions such as lime or dolomite lime (dolomite)."
HBI as a ferrous scrap alternative
In February, we used HBI in the steelworks. So far, it is just a trial: "The HBI was tested in our steel mill in 2005. At that time, we were producing special steel for the automotive industry" mentioned Mr. Turňa, adding that HBI has been not in use since 2011. Now, after more than ten years, the steel plant has completed a new round of tests with HBI.
"We assume that there could be a shortage of scrap in the future. As mentioned, we must look for alternative solutions. Moreover, due to the emissions, many steelworks are also decommissioning blast furnaces, which will reduce the availability of pig iron. This raw material is part of the electric arc furnace charge. That is why our ironworks started trial production of steel with HBI" he added.
A complex process optimization
ZP has already completed the first smelting trials and the results are under evaluation. "We made 60 heats. We went systematically from smaller to higher quantities. Gradually, we discovered shortcomings, optimized the production process and looked for a way to make smelting more efficient. We also tracked the costs. To date, we have used almost 400 tons of HBI material for the tests" said S. Turňa.
HBI could be able to replace steel scrap in the future, however "we must realize that such smelting is not the cheapest solution and the complete replacement of scrap with HBI isn't currently being considered" the technology leader replied.
The use of HBI also means a change for the employees themselves. "In addition to the standard smelting parameters, the employees have to monitor whether the HBI is molten or stickers on the walls or on the ground of the electric arc furnace are occurring. The whole process is a novelty. Most of us came in the contact with it for the first time" said the technologist, pointing at the colleagues who monitored the smelting process during the tests.
Our ironworks conducted the tests using five, seven and ten tons of HBI per batch. The technologists and the steel mill staff are evaluating the collected data, trying to obtain the optimal production process parameters.
The dynamics of steel industry in the years to come are uncertain, but ZP with this experimental campaign and the other ongoing research activities aims to be ready to face any circumstances, being at the forefront of technical development in order to remain efficient and competitive under every scenarios.
Article written by
Luca Orefici
Green Manager
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You are here: Home / Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings / ABCFM Companies
March 11, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
ABCFM Companies
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), based in Boston, was founded in 1810, the first organized missionary society in the US.
"The American Board of Foreign Missions, however, can neither claim, nor does it desire exclusive patronage. There are other Foreign Missionary Societies, for whom there is room, for whom there is work enough, and for whose separate existence there are, doubtless, conclusive reasons."
"The system of operation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions may be considered under two divisions, – its Home Department, and its Foreign Missions. … The Board has established missions, in the order of time in which they are now named at Bombay, and Ceylon; among the Cherokees, Choctaws, and the Cherokees of the Arkansaw (and later) Asia."
Then, they decided to send a Company of missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. The Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in giving instructions to the pioneers of 1819 said:
"Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. … Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high. You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization." (The Friend)
Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the "Missionary Period"), about 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.
Pioneer Company
Left Boston, MA October 23, 1819; arrived at Kailua-Kona April 4, 1820 aboard the 'Thaddeus'
Second Company
Left New Haven, CT November 20, 1822; arrived at Honolulu April 27, 1823 aboard the 'Thames'
Third Company
Left Boston, MA November 27, 1827; arrived at Honolulu March 30, 1828 aboard the 'Parthian'
Fourth Company
Left New Bedford, MA December 28, 1830; arrived at Honolulu June 7, 1831 aboard the 'New England'
Fifth Company
Left New Bedford, MA November 26, 1831; arrived at Honolulu May 17, 1832 aboard the 'Averick'
Sixth Company
Left New London, CT November 21, 1832; arrived at Honolulu May 1, 1833 aboard the 'Mentor'
Seventh Company
Left Boston, MA December 5, 1834; arrived at Honolulu June 6, 1835 aboard the 'Hellespont'
Eighth Company
Left Boston, MA December 14, 1836; arrived at Honolulu April 9, 1837 aboard the 'Mary Frazier'
Ninth Company
Left Boston, MA November 14, 1840; arrived at Honolulu May 21, 1841 aboard the 'Gloucester'
Tenth Company
Left Boston, MA May 2, 1842; arrived at Honolulu September 21, 1842 aboard 'Sarah Abigail'
Eleventh Company
Left Boston, MA December 4, 1843; arrived at Honolulu (via Tahiti) July 15, 1844 aboard the 'Globe'
Twelfth Company
Left Boston, MA October 23, 1847; arrived at Honolulu February 26, 1848 aboard the 'Samoset'
The 'Companies' are essentially groups of missionaries traveling together. Several individuals, not part of the 12-companies, also served in the Hawaiian Islands Mission.
The Missionaries included ordained ministers of the Gospel, physicians, teachers, secular agents, printers, a bookbinder and a farmer.
Most of them were young people, still in their twenties, full of life and enthusiasm. All were pious and accustomed to "lead meetings." Some were scholars able, when the native language had been mastered, to put into Hawaiian the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek.
Extract from a letter from Richard H. Dana, Jr., Esq., of Boston, written at the Sandwich Islands, and first published in the New York Tribune, June 5, 1860.
"It is no small thing to say of the Missionaries of the American Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this whole people to read and to write, to cipher and to sew."
"They have given them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary; preserved their language from extinction; given it a literature, and translated into it the Bible and works of devotion, science and entertainment, etc., etc."
"They have established schools, reared up native teachers, and so pressed their work that now the proportion of inhabitants who can read and write is greater than in New England …"
"… and the more elevated of them taking part in conducting the affairs of the constitutional monarchy under which they live, holding seats on the judicial bench and in the legislative chambers, and filling posts in the local magistracies."
Click HERE to view/download Background Information on the ABCFM Companies (including the names of the members of the respective companies).
Brig_Thaddeus-Friend19341101
Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, ABCFM, Missionaries

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ron Hall is a wealthy international art dealer. Denver Moore grew up picking cotton in slavery-like conditions and later lives on the streets.
Deborah Hall volunteers at a homeless shelter and she wants to live her Christian faith to love others unconditionally. Deborah meets Denver at the shelter and asks her husband, Ron, to befriend him. Their friendship develops, they teach each other about faith and love and their lives change forever. This is a true, inspiring story full of words of wisdom and life lessons showing how helping others really can make a difference.


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package com.github.zdsiyan.maven.plugin.smartconfig;

/**
 * SmartconfigException.
 *
 * @author Kevin Zou <kevinz@skfiy.org>
 */
public class SmartconfigException extends RuntimeException {

	/**
	 *
	 */
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 6034000425457909822L;

	public SmartconfigException(String message) {
		super(message);
	}

	public SmartconfigException(String message, Throwable cause) {
		super(message, cause);
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Narrowing your focus is all the rage among business and productivity gurus these days, but does it apply to all professions across all industries? Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel refuses to listen to his managers if they attempt to discuss anything beyond their top priority for the quarter, but this approach would never work for real estate professionals. After all, you wear too many hats! And while it's impossible to master every imaginable skill, identifying your weak points and gaining proficiency in those areas could greatly improve your bottom line.
Tech Literacy: Feel free to skip this section if you consider yourself a techie (or you're a millennial who sent your first email before you could walk). As for everyone else? Remember, everything new seems overwhelming at first—from driving a stick shift to posting on Facebook. Thirty years ago, could you even imagine yourself reading a digital newsletter article on the World Wide Web?
If you lack basic computer skills, take a look at LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, or another one of the many online training sites. Once you master the fundamentals, it's a lot easier to learn the more advanced concepts you use on common programs and platforms, from MS Word to the MLS!
Whatever you do, don't let fear hold you back. As a real estate professional, you've become an expert in a field that bewilders most outsiders. We're all newbies in the beginning, and you'd never chastise a first-time home buyer who didn't understand how FHA loans work. Learning something new takes patience and persistence, and technology will open the door to opportunities you never knew existed.
Basic Bookkeeping: Did you know that most self-employed professionals significantly underreport their expenses? Basic bookkeeping is simple, and you could probably master a program like QuickBooks after a few hours of training. Again, many websites offer simple tutorials.
Another great option is FreshBooks, a cloud-based accounting solution that lets you manage accounting from your computer or mobile device. You can take pictures of receipts, upload bank and credit card statements, review your "cash on hand," etc.
Organization: It's not very exciting, but implementing a simple system for organizing your task list and your appointments will reduce your stress level and increase your productivity. There are tons of different systems you can use to get organized and manage your time, including Instagram-worthy bullet journals, simple spreadsheets, or apps like Evernote or FocusList.
Of course, if jumping in with both feet seems daunting, you can always find a seminar that teaches basic organization techniques. The bottom line is that you need a system, and some very clever people have already done the hard work for you. All you need to do is learn a system and stick with it until it becomes a habit.
Negotiation: If you like to make people happy (and most real estate professionals do), you might find negotiation a bit challenging—even if you've been in real estate for years! It's important to remember that negotiation is a normal part of doing business, and your clients are relying on you to hash out the best deal possible.
There are a host of well-documented techniques that give you leverage in your negotiations. Negotiation seminars abound, and if you can afford it, Karrass offers some of the best in the world. For a less expensive option, you can always explore Amazon for the highest rated books on the subject. Or check out our blog for a quick guide on how to negotiate like a pro!
Marketing: You likely have the sales side of your business down—making connections, demonstrating your unique selling points, and closing deals. However, if you're not properly marketing yourself, you're missing an important piece of the puzzle. Make sure you're tapping into all the marketing channels available to you (e.g., blogging, social media, community outreach, various types of on- and off-line advertising, and marketing newsletters). Your website should be attractive and easy to navigate, and your listings should include enticing photos and powerful descriptions.
Marketing is largely about brand awareness, and in this case, that brand is YOU! That's why Old Republic Home Protection offers over a dozen free marketing tools for real estate agents, including customizable newsletters, farming tools, open house door hangers, and more.
While this list is by no means exhaustive, there's a good chance that you could improve on at least one of these skills. With a little extra time and effort, gaining proficiency in technology, bookkeeping, organization, negotiation, and marketing could take your business to new heights.


PRODUCT MXE-5500 Series : บริษัท ดับบลิวเจเทคโนโลยี จำกัด | W.J. TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD.
ADLINK?s MXE-5500 series equipped with 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6820EQ/i5-6440EQ/i3-6100E processors, boosted computing power by up to 30% over previous generation CPUs, up to 30% faster graphics performance and accelerated HW media codecs support Ultra HD 4K display, the dual-channel DDR4 2133 MHz SO-DIMM sockets support for up to 32 GB of memory.


text:
Quadri Aruna
The elated player has vowed to even work harder
Table tennis superstar, Quadri Aruna, has set yet another record.
This is coming just a few days after his historic feat in Houston Texas, United States, where he emerged as the first player from the continent to make it to the quarter-final stage at the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships.
The latest record for Aruna is coming on the heels of the latest ITTF ranking released on Tuesday where the Nigerian soared to the 13th position; the highest ever attained by an African player.
The Nigerian was ranked 17th in the world before the tournament in Houston but Aruna gained four steps up in the ranking to be rated 13th in the ITTF ranking being the first by an African.
Being the biggest mover among the top 20 players in the world, Aruna has continued to raise the bar for other African players to emulate with his superlative performance at major competitions.
Already, he has earned a place among the top 20 players invited for the 2021 World Table Tennis (WTTF) Cup Finals scheduled for December 4 to 7 in Singapore.
An excited Aruna said after the ranking was released it meant more work for him.
"I am so excited to improve my world ranking, and this means I must work hard to remain on top in the world. This is another task I must face in my career, and I will not relent to do my best as I look forward to the WTTF Cup Finals taking place this weekend in Singapore."
For the President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Ishaku Tikon, the latest feat achieved by Aruna would surely motivate other upcoming players to work harder.
"We are so excited that within one week, Aruna has set two African records as the first to reach the quarterfinal of the World Championships as well as the first African to be ranked 13th in the world. This for us as a federation means we must find another Aruna who can exceed what he has done.
"Our focus remains the cadet and junior and we are going to ensure we organize tournaments and expose them to international competitions. I must also commend Aruna for his conduct within and outside the table because he has shown to be a good ambassador of the sport and we hope to complement this feat by ensuring we unearth more Arunas," Tikon said.
Lagos Marathon: Shaibu to run alongside Sanwo-Olu in February
UPDATED: Australian Open: Djokovic loses appeal, will now be deported
Commonwealth Games: Judo Federation postpones trials to February
Australian Open: Djokovic to be deported
Handball federation releases events calendar for 2022
Doping: Man charged to court for allegedly supplying drugs to Okagbare
Many feared dead as boat carrying school children capsizes in Kano


To get into the building, please scroll through the callbox to find SF Pole and Dance and we will buzz you in.
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Copyright 2019, San Francisco Pole and Dance.


Today we read Jesus talking with an expert of the law. While Jesus talks with him, he shares a story. These stories are called parables, and Jesus uses them to teach us important lessons. This is a well known parable of the Good Samaritan, but after reading and learning about the heart of the law this Lenten season, it shines a different light. The expert of the law thinks he already knows the law, and wants to justify himself, but Jesus shows that he doesn't know the heart of the law.
In the parable, the two people who do not help the poor beaten up man are very similar to the expert of the law. They are the priest and Levite, and just like the expert, they know the law very well. They know what is clean and unclean, how to live correctly and incorrectly, and all the details of the rules. However, when it comes to saving a person's life, does the law help them? Actually, it hinders them! If the priest and the Levite touched unclean blood or even worse, a dead corpse, it will make themselves unclean! Then they won't be able to their priestly or Levite duties! They are using the law in the wrong way.
No wonder Jesus is so frustrated and angry at the Pharisees who twists God's good law! Even before this expert can go to his enemies, he must relearn what the law is about. The law was given to love and save, and it reminds us of what we read back in Day 23 about the Sabbath. Jesus is asking the same question: what is lawful- to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?


Great Spangled Fritillary on Swamp Milkweed I had one heck of a week on this patch of Swamp Milkweed all kinds of butterflies came and stuck to it for photos. The trick was picking the angle to get the best background.
Nicely composed, good color and detail. Well done.
Another stunning butterfly photo. Great detail and the background is perfect.
Your photos are incredible. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Love the detail and the color again. Great shot.
utterly gorgeous photo, sooo clear, fabulous.
Beautiful shot of this butterfly. All of your nature photos are beautiful. Are you a professional nature photographer? If not,you should be.


text:
Bolonia is a coastal village and beach in the municipality of Tarifa in the Province of Cadiz in southern Spain. It is located on the Atlantic shore,  by road west of Tarifa, but is much closer in terms of coastal distance. The beach and bay is also known as Playa de Bolonia ("Bolonia Beach"), Ensenada de Bolonia ("Bolonia Cove"), or Bolonia Bay. The ruins of the Roman town of Baelo Claudia are located near the beach, considered to be the most complete Roman town ruins yet uncovered in Spain. The beach is about  in length, with an average width of about . In 2011 it had a population of 117 people.

References

Populated places in the Province of Cádiz
Tarifa
Beaches of Andalusia
Nude beaches
Populated coastal places in Spain

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
EGS: NP Discussion
EGS Comics Area
Comic Discussion
NP: Friday, July 15, 2016
Welcome! 03/05/2016
Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change. If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away. I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
np NP: Friday, July 15, 2016
By hkmaly, July 15, 2016 in EGS: NP Discussion
cool robot person
hkmaly 478
LocationEU
http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=486
I think the game has different definition of "stealth" than is normal. But if it's fun ...
Also, apparently, different definition of "nailed down". Grace left the cyborg hand and the test tubes there. And even microscope.
Whole story line references:
Comics 472: NP: Monday, June 13, 2016
Comics 473: NP Wednesday June 15, 2016
Comics 474: NP Friday June 17, 2016
Comics 475: NP, Monday June 20, 2016
Comics 476: NP: Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Comics 477: NP, Friday June 24, 2016
Comics 480: NP: Friday, July 1, 2016
Comics 481: NP: Monday, July 4, 2016
Comics 482: NP Wednesday July 6, 2016
Comics 484: NP Tuesday July 12, 2016
Comics 485: NP, Thursday July 14, 2016
Comics 486: NP: Friday, July 15, 2016
Comics 486: NP Monday July 18, 2016
Comics 488: Wed, July 20th, 2016
The Old Hack 2,230
Forum Grump
Ah, shadows of the early days of tabletop roleplaying games. Where you grabbed all the valuables no matter how lawful good you were, because 1 GP = 1 XP.
mlooney 1,465
Grumpy old fart member
LocationSome place you might not want to go to
22 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
I always hated that. Which is one reason Project X isn't using an OSR game as it's fantasy half. They are too tightly tied to that and untwisting the XP needed vs XP rewarded knot is more trouble than it's worth.
38 minutes ago, mlooney said:
Trust me, I hated it, too. I came up with house rules for awarding XP for nonlethal and nonavaricious ways of advancing plot and goals long before it got built into newer roleplaying games.
Stature 96
✨✨☀
Location/ Location / Location
GTA-like feel. Not good.
It feels counterintuitive to leave all the people behind in the floor like that, and to not take all the available loot (weight notwithstanding, as long as they are not props).
Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,272
King of Denial
LocationOn the banks of the Manatee River in Florida
Is it possible that game mechanics may not be the best way to tell tales of character growth and development?
mlooney and The Old Hack reacted to this
Aura Guardian 57
Awesome Member
If and when I design a game system, small bonus XP for nonlethal takedown (in a realistic way), and MORE bonus XP for each person NOT taken down. How's that sound?
3 minutes ago, Aura Guardian said:
That might work very well for something like Thief. To be fair, in a Diablo-like it is probably OK to stay with XP for kills.
hkmaly reacted to this
CritterKeeper 1,099
Taking the long way 'round.....
Location: Greater Chicagoland
I lean towards bonus XP for clever ways around obstacles of all sorts, genuine role-playing, cooperation, and good puns (with penalties for bad puns).
The Old Hack reacted to this
Scotty 1,054
Canadian Lumberjack that lives in an Igloo
LocationCanuckistan
Thief was good in that it was challenging, you only had so much to start with and you had to be mindful of when to use your equipment, you also had to be aware of your environment. At the same time the only way you could increase your chances of success in later levels is if you collected all the valuables in the previous one so that you could afford enough items to take with you.
I do seem to recall that none of the guards ever got back up after getting knocked in the back of the head with a blackjack....
42 minutes ago, Scotty said:
Once again, a cosh or a blackjack is really only a less lethal way of taking someone down, not really a nonlethal one. And you have to know exactly what you are doing -- if you don't, the odds of killing your victim increase dramatically.
1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:
My general rule is you get XP for defeating the threat. That doesn't mean you have to kill it, sneaking past it can count as a defeat, depending on what it is and how you sneak. There are some times that actually killing the threat is the wrong thing to do. For example if the "threat" is the king. Killing him, or trying to, in full court, not a good idea.
Random Wanderer 13
1 hour ago, mlooney said:
Oddly enough, in one campaign I'm still in the middle of, not all that long ago the threat was the king, and killing him actually turned out to be the best solution. To be fair, though, he had had the previous king assassinated, was causing a civil war to try to kill the rightful heir to the throne, and was actually attempting to destroy the kingdom internally so the upcoming invasion could wipe it out with minimal casualties...
mlooney, The Old Hack, ijuin and 1 other reacted to this
It's the zillions of guardsmen and a dozen or so of court mages that kind of make killing the king tricky, no matter how much he needs it.
Plus that sort of king tends to have at least one evil high priest with raise dead hanging around making weird noises that scare the kids.
Drasvin and Ser Pentrose reacted to this
Don Edwards 459
LocationEarth, I think. Is this Earth?
My daughter has a story of a an RPG where the other players persuaded her to play a gnome thief - and then their characters immediately started with jokes about short people...
She managed to persuade the king that kidnappers were after him, escort him to a place of safety, go back and convince the royal councillors that the king had been kidnapped and they should choose her as the courier for the ransom money, frame the rest of her party as the kidnappers, bring the king back and collect a reward from him for protecting him from the kidnappers, and then rescue the rest of the party...
... there were no kidnappers...
(This involved a LOT of notes to & from the DM. Just to make things confusing, some of the notes she passed said things like "think a moment and then tell me no".)
Ser Pentrose, banneret and hkmaly reacted to this
I once did that scenario with a kingdom where powerful nobles were trying to destroy it internally, too. The old king was dead, leaving only a daughter to hold the throne, so wild plotting commenced. But the plotting slowly ground to a halt. First, the most aggressive of the plotters died in a hunting accident. This occurred when he was somehow placed in a trebuchet that was primed to launch and he got fired hundreds of yards away to impact in a noxious swamp. The second plotter, who was also a suitor, suffered from a stroke that was so bad that it not only crushed the back of his skull but also most of his neck and his left shoulder. The third committed suicide by running screaming through his home while beating himself to death with an iron bar. The fourth died when an accidental fire burned his home down and shot everyone trying to escape through the windows with crossbow bolts.
After that, the rest of plotters got the hint and decided not to tempt the new queen's wrath any longer. It did not save them, mind. They had the privilege of occupying the front ranks of the army when the Queen ordered the neighbouring kingdom plotting against hers invaded. They all died as war heroes.
The players treated the queen of that kingdom very respectfully.
PocketNinja and hkmaly reacted to this
10 hours ago, mlooney said:
12 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:
Killing king in full court might be bad idea, but still XP worthy - in fact, so daring act should get more XP than killing the king later in garden. Of course, it would be VERY hard to survive even the attempt - that's WHY it will get more XP.
Totally agree with XP for defeating the threat / overcoming an obstacle. But I don't agree with giving XP for "holding to the script". And NPCs unkillable for plot reasons are something which belongs to computer games, where the variability needs to be limited: in desk game, DM is supposed to adapt to anything the players decide to do. So, it SHOULD be possible to kill even the king, the guards which will try to prevent it shouldn't appear from thin air unless it's work of court mage and if players succeed, there may be someone ready to thank them ... and try to dispose of them later, after they help him with several other ... obstacles.
Of course, there may be XP gain (or loss for failing) for playing in accordance with their alignment and for ability to explain the reasons and motivations the characters have for the actions.
8 hours ago, Random Wanderer said:
To be fair, though, he had had the previous king assassinated, was causing a civil war to try to kill the rightful heir to the throne, and was actually attempting to destroy the kingdom internally so the upcoming invasion could wipe it out with minimal casualties...
Note that this counts as good reason IF the party is good. Evil party is more likely to do the destroying of kingdom themselves.
8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:
And did they later succeeded in killing her? ... or it WASN'T preparation for future campaign?
It's actually good example of the fact that players are rarely first adventurers appearing in the world. If it would be easy to kill the king and replace him, someone would already do it - or, more likely, someone DID it and it kept happening until the king (or queen in this case) was someone capable of keeping that title.
I rather strongly don't use plot armor. Other than for Gods. And even then you can kill their "mortal form" which stops them from messing with mortals for a year and a day. Also stops their clerics from getting spells,which tends to piss off people that have power beyond their spell casting, and there is the 366 days later gunning for you to deal with. They only way to kill a God is to kill all of it's mortal belivers. Of course if you are doing that you count as a well, so it doesn't die until you do as well.
In well on 42 years of gaming, 30 of it mainly as a DM exactly 2 gods have been killed. I had my character kill him self at the climax of a 15 year game time (4 year real time) game that was centered on killing off a minor god and his cult, which had killed every one in my village. Truely epic game. 0th edtion D&D, 3 booklets plus Greyhawk for the rules.
I rather strongly don't use plot armor. Other than for Gods.
I would emphatically second this. Never ever use plot armour (again, with the possible exception of Gods) as it is cheating the players. Not even for the player characters themselves. Death needs to be a looming possibility for everyone and even the most powerful master villains or epic heroes need to be fallible.
Mind you, this is not the same as saying that it should be easy to kill anyone. In my Occidentia campaign it would certainly be possible to kill the Byzantine Empress -- once you managed to outwit the Imperial Guards, subvert her massive and paranoid network of spies and counterintelligence, penetrate intricate magical defences erected by the Court Wizards and (last but not least) outmaneuver the Empress' own highly cautious routine of self-preservation. Just remember that all of the above are good at what they do as they get a LOT of practice. Also remember that even arousing suspicion of having intentions against the Empress is as good as a death sentence, of if she is feeling merciful, lifetime imprisonment in a high security jail.
Still, on a more everyday basis and with characters the PCs are more likely to meet, it means that if the players play it smart and/or get lucky, they can take any of their personal enemies down. The above was an extreme example as the likelihood of the players making the personal enmity of someone that high up is very low. Unless they really work at it, in which case they only have themselves to thank for it.
In short, I consider plot armor an abomination. It's unfair to players, demoralising as all out and it makes the game boring for everyone. What fun is it to run a campaign if your players can't surprise you?
4 hours ago, mlooney said:
Gods who NEED plot armor shouldn't get it. Either it's small God with just few hundreds of believers and no other source of power, and then it's valid target, or it's someone in league of Lord of Nightmares ...
Of course if you are doing that you count as a well,
Why? If you are supposed to kill everyone who know about that God existence, it would be pretty evil and likely impossible. Sure, if you are too focused on the killing, it may be problem, but I'm sure some wise guy can teach you how to "let go" and kill that God without committing suicide. In fact, might be better to contact one even sooner, because you need to be sure to not accidentally kill the believers in name of their God, which might count as sacrifice ...
Alternatively, if you are doing it in service of some other God, that should prevent you from keeping your target alive as well.
I think the theory is that deities get power from those who believe they exist.
How much effort will YOU put into killing a being that you don't believe exists? Probably, none. The fact that you are trying to kill it pretty much demonstrates that you believe it exists - and, therefore, are giving it power.
(The catch is - if you presumably-incorrectly believe that a deity gains powers only from its worshippers, then once you are sure all its worshippers are dead YOU will STOP believing it exists. But how about the people who believe it exists yet don't worship it? Such as most pantheists who have heard of it?)
18 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:
I believe that if we ask the good Pharaoh here, the chosen MO of ancient Egypt when wanting to utterly destroy an entity -- divine or mortal -- was to destroy all records of it, especially of its name. To speak of it as little as possible and when one did speak of it, to never name it but rather refer to it with some sort of derogative that granted it as little respect (and hence power) as possible. 'The creature', for example. Once the so treated being's name was completely erased and all record of it destroyed and forgotten, the target would be destroyed, too.
InfiniteRemnant 141
LocationMy human's apartment.
I think the intention was to give people an incentive to do -one- of those things, so that particular play-styles weren't getting ignored... not all of them at once.
2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:
The catch is - if you presumably-incorrectly believe that a deity gains powers only from its worshippers, then once you are sure all its worshippers are dead YOU will STOP believing it exists.
That is pretty good solution, actually. Believing that something existed in past but don't exist anymore should be safe.
But how about the people who believe it exists yet don't worship it? Such as most pantheists who have heard of it?
They may stop believing for the same reason. If the fact that someone killed every believer of that god become public knowledge, I mean. The "deity only gains power from worshippers" can be self-fulfilling belief.
(Note that it's obvious the deity get more power from worshippers than from the people who just knows about it - otherwise it wouldn't work so hard on getting worshippers. It's possible that deity without worshippers but with people who know it exists still lives, but in something like a coma, unable to act. Until someone decides to start believing ... or until people stop believing it exists.)
I believe that if we ask the good Pharaoh here, the chosen MO of ancient Egypt when wanting to utterly destroy an entity -- divine or mortal -- was to destroy all records of it, especially of its name. To speak of it as little as possible and when one did speak of it, to never name it but rather refer to it with some sort of derogative that granted it as little respect (and hence power) as possible. 'The creature', for example.
Question is if it was really necessary or if they just wanted to play it safe.
Note that it didn't really worked with Voldermort.
1 hour ago, hkmaly said:
It was a belief system. It is not a question of whether it worked or not, it is a question of whether those who practice it believe in it or not.
Voldemort is a poor comparison. The reason no-one spoke his name was that they were afraid of doing so. A fear deliberately inculcated by Voldemort himself by spreading the rumour that his attention might be drawn by naming him. He may or may not have also actually struck at some of those who did to help spread that fear. You will note that the toughest of the heroes refused to submit to Voldemort's intimidation, including Dumbledore and of course Harry himself.
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Sharing stories from family history: Robert Crookston's testimony of the Prophet
byDeseret News | Mar. 15, 2012
Growing up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I knew of the church's pioneer legacy and had some idea of my own pioneer ancestry, although I wasn't sure on a lot of the specifics.
During family trips to Salt Lake City or church history sites in Missouri and Illinois, and later Ohio and New York, we would pass by a place and my parents were ready to share "you know you had an ancestor who …. "
Opinions & Features Family History Church History Joseph SmithFamily History,Church History,Joseph Smith,Opinions & Features
In 1989, an Attack Was Planned on a Latter-day Saint Temple—Then a Miracle Happened
Chad Hawkins, adapted from "Holy Places"
10 Things You Didn't Know about the Angel Moroni Statue
Kelsey Berteaux and Jannalee Sandau
What Happened to Joseph and Emma Smith's Children?
Jannalee Sandau
10 Things You Didn't Know About Emma Smith
Angels, False Imprisonment, and the Story Behind "The Spirit of God"
Danielle B. Wagner
5 Little-Known Facts About the Publication of the Book of Mormon
Editors of The Joseph Smith Papers


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Piéron's Law is a psychophysical regularity in signal detection tasks that states that mean response times decrease as a power function of stimulus intensity. In this article, we extend Piéron's Law to perceptual two-choice decision-making tasks, and demonstrate that the law holds as the discriminability between two competing choices is manipulated, even though the stimulus intensity remains constant. This result is consistent with predictions from a Bayesian ideal observer model. The model assumes that in order to respond optimally in a two-choice decision-making task, participants continually update the posterior probability of each response alternative, until the probability of one alternative crosses a criterion value. In addition to predictions for two-choice decision-making tasks, we extend the ideal observer model to predict Piéron's Law in signal detection tasks. We conclude that Piéron's Law is a general phenomenon that may be caused by optimality constraints.
Here α and β are scaling parameters that determine the slope of the function and γ is an intercept (Luce, 1986). The specific parameter values differ between application domains.
Originally, Piéron's Law was formulated as an effect of stimulus intensity (Piéron, 1914). For example, when participants were instructed to press a button as soon as a light was switched on, MRTs were found to follow a power law decrease with increasing luminance of the light. Over the last century, the law has been reported in many different domains, including brightness detection (Piéron, 1914), tone detection (Chocholle, 1940), taste detection of dissolved substances (Bonnet et al., 1999), odor detection (Overbosch et al., 1989), heat detection (Banks, 1973), and the go/no-go task (Jaskowski and Sobieralska, 2004).
In recent years, Piéron's Law has been found to hold in two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) tasks as well (Pins and Bonnet, 1996; Palmer et al., 2005; Stafford et al., 2011). Similar to the initial studies that reported Piéron's Law, MRTs were found to decrease as a power law with increasing stimulus intensity, even though the task was not a signal detection task but instead a choice task. For example, Stafford et al. (2011) demonstrate that reaction times in the Stroop color naming task scale according to a power law with the luminance of the color dimension.
These studies raise the question whether Piéron's Law describes a specific relation between stimulus intensity and MRT or whether Piéron's Law is related to the more general notion of discriminability in (perceptual) decision-making. Thus, the typical power law decrease in MRT is not only observed with increasing stimulus intensity, but also when a decision becomes increasingly easy. One reason for arguing in favor of this hypothesis is that the typical stimulus detection task that is associated with Piéron's Law can be thought of as a 2AFC task. The decision that is required is that between providing a response or withholding a response. The stimulus intensity can now be thought of as a factor on the decision difficulty, because a low intensity stimulus discriminates poorly between the two response alternatives (respond or withhold a response).
In this paper we hypothesize that Piéron's Law extends to the more general notion of stimulus discriminability. We first show data that support that MRTs in a 2AFC task decrease as a power law with increasing discriminability of the choice alternatives. In particular, we show that the relation between MRT and stimulus discriminability is better supported by a power function than by an exponential function. This comparison quantifies the likelihood that stimulus discriminability indeed leads to Piéron-like behavior. The experimental result supports the idea that Piéron's Law is more broadly applicable than only in stimulus detection paradigms. Next, we discuss how Piéron-like behavior may be a consequence of optimal decision-making. That is, we present a Bayesian ideal observer model (e.g., Brown et al., 2009) and show that it predicts that MRT decreases as the power of the discriminability of the choices increases. Finally, we extend the Bayesian ideal observer model to include stimulus detection behavior, and discuss under what assumptions optimal stimulus detection would lead to Piéron's Law.
In the process of studying Piéron's Law in a 2AFC task, we also make a methodological point: Although never explicitly formulated in this way, Piéron's Law relates stimulus intensity to mean detection time, rather than mean response time. To account for the non-detection related components of the response time, an intercept parameter is added (γ in Equation 1). To study the relation between stimulus discriminability and decision time in the 2AFC paradigm1, we separately estimate the non-decision time using a more elaborate choice-response time model (the Linear Ballistic Accumulator model, Brown and Heathcote, 2008). For comparison, we also include the analysis without this additional procedure, and show how this leads to different – implausible – results.
A 2AFC task that is perfectly suited to address the question at hand is the random-dot motion task (RDM, Ball and Sekuler, 1982; Britten et al., 1992; Salzman and Newsome, 1994; Shadlen and Newsome, 2001; Churchland et al., 2008; Forstmann et al., 2008, 2010a,b; Niwa and Ditterich, 2008; Ho et al., 2009; Mulder et al., 2010; Van Maanen et al., 2011). In this task participants are required to indicate the apparent direction of motion of a cloud of dots that is presented on a computer screen. Typically, a percentage of the dots moves in a designated direction (the target direction), while the remaining dots move randomly. The choice alternatives are presented on a fixed distance from the center of the dot cloud, and their similarity can be manipulated by changing the angular distance between the alternatives, as in Figure 1.
Figure 1. RDM stimulus display. A proportion of the dots move in a target direction indicated by the arrows, while the remaining dots move randomly. The discriminability of the target is manipulated by changing the angular distance (d) between the alternatives.
In Experiment 1, participants were asked to make a choice between two alternative directions of motion. We manipulated the angular distance between the response alternatives to operationalize choice difficulty. Response alternatives that were in close spatial proximity were hypothesized to be hard to discriminate. Response alternatives that were not in close spatial proximity were hypothesized to be easy to discriminate (Figure 1). Note that in this experiment we do not manipulate stimulus intensity, as the dot cloud remains the same in all conditions. Therefore, evidence for a power curve in this experiment would support the hypothesis that Piéron's Law is a general relation between MRT and stimulus discriminability.
Six students (three female, age range 18–20) from the University of Amsterdam participated for course credit. All had normal or corrected-to-normal vision.
To create the moving-dot kinematogram we used the Variable Coherence Random-Dot Motion (VCRDM) library for Psychtoolbox in Matlab (Brainard, 1997)2. The appearance of motion in VCRDM is created by controlling the location of a subset of dots for three frames in a row. That is, when the second frame is drawn, the location of a subset of dots will be recomputed to align with the target direction. The location of the remaining dots is randomly assigned. The size of the subset –often referred to as the coherence level – is under the experimenter's control. We set the coherence at 25%. Pilot studies with several levels of coherence indicated that at a coherence of 25% participants performed above chance for the hardest conditions, whereas they performed below ceiling at the easiest conditions. Each dot consisted of three by three pixels, and the initial locations of each dot sequence were uniformly distributed in an aperture of 5 visual degrees diameter.
Participants were instructed to indicate the apparent direction of motion of the random-dot kinematogram. The two-choice alternatives were represented by two circles (one blue, one yellow) that were located at 5 visual degrees from the center of the aperture. If the direction of motion was toward the blue alternative, the participants were required to press "z"; if the direction of motion was toward the yellow alternative they were required to press "m." The location of the alternatives was randomized over the top half of the imaginary circle. However, the blue alternative always remained to the left of the yellow alternative. Therefore, the "z" and "m" response mapping was always congruent with the target positions on the screen. The angular distances between the alternatives were exponentially distributed, to maximize the probability of diverging model fits. Consecutively, the angular distances were 11.5°, 16°, 22.5°, 32°, 45°, 64°, or 90°. The presentation order of the different angular distances was pseudo-randomized in such a way that there were never more than two consecutive trials with the same angular distance between the alternatives.
After a short training session with 14 trials (2 for each angle) the experiment was presented in seven blocks of 210 trials each. After each block, the participant could take a short break. Participants received feedback on the accuracy of their response: A screen stating "Correct!" or "Incorrect!" remained visible for 400 ms. At the beginning of each trial, a red fixation dot was presented together with the alternatives. After 500 ms, the RDM stimulus was presented which remained on screen until the participant made a response. If the response was faster than 200 ms a feedback screen appeared that stated "Te snel!" (too fast). If the participant did not respond within 2000 ms, the feedback "Incorrect" was given.
We fitted both functions using standard simplex optimization routines (Nelder and Mead, 1965). This was repeated 10,000 times with randomized initial values to avoid local minima. To determine goodness of fit, we computed the correlation between the MRT for each angle and both models' predictions for each angle. In addition we computed Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC, Schwarz, 1978; Raftery, 1996) values for each model to obtain the evidence ratio. The evidence ratio for the power function over the exponential function is computed according to (Wagenmakers and Farrell, 2004). This expression quantifies how many times more likely the data are to have occurred under the power function than under the exponential function, given their respective BIC values.
In addition to these simple model fits, we fit a more complex model in which the intercept parameter (γ) is fixed for all conditions. This method provides more constraint on the parameter that we are least interested in (γ), allowing for a clearer interpretation of the non-linear model fits that describe the choice behavior. We first estimate the time required for non-decision related processes using the full RT distribution and the error rate and then use these estimates to fix γ in the power and exponential curves.
To estimate γ, we fit the linear ballistic accumulator (LBA, Brown and Heathcote, 2008) model to the data (Figure 2). The LBA model assumes that a decision is made by the accumulation of evidence for a particular option until a decision threshold has been reached. In the LBA model, the decision threshold b is a free parameter. The starting point of the accumulation is drawn from a uniform distribution [0, A], with A as a free parameter. The speed of the accumulation of each alternative i is controlled by a specific drift parameter vi (and typically a common drift variance parameter s). Because each response alternative is represented by a separate accumulator, the accumulator that reaches the threshold the quickest determines the response, and the time required to reach the threshold is the decision time. Crucially, the LBA model also has a parameter that quantifies the amount of time required for peripheral, non-decision processes (that is, the intercept γ).
Figure 2. LBA model. The accumulator representing response alternative 1 is on average faster than the competing accumulator. The model therefore predicts that response alternative 1 will be selected on the majority of trials. See text for details.
In LBA and related response-time models, stimulus differences are often modeled by allowing drift rate to vary (e.g., Brown and Heathcote, 2008; Wagenmakers et al., 2008; Ho et al., 2009; Van Maanen et al., 2009; Van Maanen and Van Rijn, 2010). Therefore, in the first LBA model that we fit to the data (i.e., Model 1), we allowed the drift rate of the model to vary over the different angular distances, with all other parameters fixed. In addition to drift rate, Model 2 also allows the non-decision time to vary over the angles. Although there is no theoretical reason for this assumption, it is important to assess that in the data the non-decision time does not vary over angles, so that we can estimate a single value for γ. Models 3 and 4 are identical to Models 1 and 2 but in addition allow the drift rate variance to vary over angles (Churchland et al., 2011). Parameter values were optimized using quantile maximum likelihood estimation (Heathcote et al., 2002), using the 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 quantiles of the RT distributions for correct and error responses.
We excluded trials in which the participants failed to respond in time (over 2000 ms, 3.3% of the trials) as well as trials in which the participants responded too fast (faster than 200 ms, 0.9%). Table 1 presents the mean accuracy per condition; Figure 3 presents MRT of the correct responses, for each participant separately. The results show that MRT decreases with the angular distance, whereas accuracy increases. This is consistent with the idea that smaller angular distances are more difficult and would therefore lead to more errors and slower correct responses. Participant 3 displays behavior that does not clearly follow this result, although the smallest angular distance yields slower responses than the widest angle. We could not find a reason why this participant displays behavior that does not follow our hypotheses. Therefore, there is no reason to exclude this participant from the analyses. However, it should be noted that the results do not hinge on this participant, and would stand even if we would exclude this participant.
Table 1. Average accuracy scores per angular distance (and average within-subjects standard error of the mean, Loftus and Masson, 1994).
Figure 3. Mean response times (MRT) as a function of angular distance. Each plot represents the data from one participant. (Error bars represent within-subjects standard error of the mean, Loftus and Masson, 1994). The best fitting power function and the best fitting exponential function are overlaid.
Table 2 presents the goodness of fit of the power and exponential functions presented in Equations (2) and (3), as well as evidence ratios. The fact that the evidence ratios are between 0 and 1 indicates that there is slightly more evidence in favor of the exponential function than the power function.
Table 2. Correlation coefficient (ρ), BIC values, and evidence ratios (Wagenmakers and Farrell, 2004) for the three-parameter power function and the exponential function for each participant.
It is misleading to accept these model results at face value, because the parameter estimates cannot be interpreted in psychological terms. A plausible interpretation of these functions should be that each response consists of a decision and additional processes such as stimulus encoding and response execution (cf. Sternberg, 1969; Luce, 1986). The additional processes are captured by the intercept γ, whereas the actual decision process is captured by the remaining time course. This interpretation entails that γ should be in a reasonable range of ∼200 to ∼500 ms. However, γ ranges here from 0 to 810 ms (Table 3). While a negative value for this parameter is impossible because it would suggest a negative duration3, a value of γ = 0 ms suggests that no time was required for processes unrelated to the decision. On the other hand, a value of γ = 810 ms is higher than some of the observed response times (and even higher than the MRT for large angles), which also makes it impossible to interpret γ as non-decision time. Thus, the under constraint of these non-linear models leads to implausible parameter estimates, and therefore the results lack psychological credibility. Because of the unexpected behavior of Participant 3, the best fitting parameters take different values than for the remaining participants.
Table 3. Best fitting parameter values for the three-parameter power and exponential functions.
For these reasons, we take a more elaborate approach in fitting the power and exponential functions by first fitting an LBA model to the data and then estimating the parameters of the non-linear functions on the decision time. The LBA model that best balanced model fit with the number of free parameters was Model 1, the model in which only drift rate varied over angles. The average BIC value for Model 1 over participants was 7092, which was considerably less than any of the other models (7149, 8276, and 7307, respectively)4. Thus, the BIC results indicate that only drift rate variations were required to account for the data and no additional parameters were needed.
For Model 1, the best fitting parameter values are presented in Table 45. As expected, the LBA model captures the increase in mean drift rate with increasing angular distance. The estimated non-decision time parameters (γ) seem to be in a reasonable range of 270–500 ms.
Table 4. Best fitting LBA model parameters for the data of Experiment 1.
The LBA model allowed a more constrained estimation of the non-decision time parameter γ. We can now estimate power and exponential curves using this parameter estimate to assess whether the data follows a Piéron-like pattern. We fitted Equations (2) and (3) to the data of Experiment 1, allowing two free parameters (α and β), and one fixed parameter γ. Again, we fit both functions using standard simplex optimization routines (Nelder and Mead, 1965). The best fitting exponential and power curves are presented in Figure 3 (the best fitting parameters are presented in Table 6).
The results show that the power function was the best fitting model for all participants. Table 5 presents the goodness of fit for the exponential and power functions presented in Equations (3) and (2). The power function is consistently the better model, as indicated by the lower BIC values and higher correlations. Although the data of Participants 3 and 4 do not clearly distinguish between the models, the power function clearly is the better model for the remaining participants. In terms of the evidence ratio, the power function is 15 to 415 times more likely than the exponential function for these participants. This suggests that an increase in angular distance yields a power law decrease in MRT, and not an exponential law. The model comparison of the psychologically constrained models thus shows that behavior in 2AFC tasks is Piéron-like when the discriminability of choice alternatives is manipulated.
Table 5. Correlation coefficient (ρ) and BIC values for the two-parameter power function and the exponential function for each participant.
Table 6. Best fitting parameter values for the two-parameter power and exponential functions.
In detection tasks, Piéron's Law relates MRT to stimulus intensity by means of a power function (Equation 1). Experiment 1 showed that MRT and choice difficulty in a 2AFC task are also related by means of a power function. This result suggests that Piéron's Law may generalize to choice behavior in which the discriminability of the correct alternative relative to the incorrect alternative is manipulated, instead of the intensity of the stimulus. To understand better why participants in Experiment 1 behave in accordance to Piéron's Law, we developed a Bayesian ideal observer model. This model assumes that participants make the optimal choice, given the uncertainty of the task (for example, a noisy stimulus).
in which alternative 1 is chosen if θ* ≥ θ/(1 − θ) and alternative 2 is chosen if θ* ≤ (1 − θ)/θ (Baum and Veeravalli, 1994).
until the decision threshold has been reached6.
with C = log θ*. Because St ∝ (μ1 − μ2)2, Equation (7) entails Piéron's Law (Equation 1) with the intercept γ = 0.The value of the scaling parameters α and β depends on the threshold and the variance in the assumed Gaussian distributions.
To corroborate this result, we explored the model's behavior as a function of angular distance by running a 2AFC simulation. That is, the model had two response options and we manipulated the angular distance from 11.5° to 90°. In addition, we modeled a range of response criteria (from 0.6 to 0.9). The variance of the sampling distribution was kept constant at σ2 = 4. The result of these simulations are presented in Figure 4. Each data point in Figure 4 was estimated using 10,000 Monte Carlo samples. The model's behavior exhibits Piéron's Law: when transformed to a log-log-scale the relation between angular distance and MDT is approximately linear. This pattern is observed independent of the response criterion (θ*) that is being adopted.
Figure 4. Ideal observer model behavior as a function of the angular distance between alternatives, for four different response criterion values. Left: Mean decision time (MDT) vs angular distance. Middle: log MDT vs log Angle. Right: Proportion correct vs Angle. θ*: response criterion value.
These simulations are in line with the results from Experiment 1, and together the model and experiment support the view that Piéron's Law is a consequence of optimal behavior, at least in perceptual 2AFC tasks. To extend these results to the traditional field of application of stimulus detection, we demonstrate how the ideal observer model predicts Piéron's Law in stimulus detection experiments.
Piéron's Law emerges from an ideal observer model for stimulus detection if the likelihood of the presence (or absence) of the stimulus at each time step scales linearly with the stimulus intensity. In that case, MDT will decrease with stimulus intensity according to a power function (Equation 7) which will result in Piéron's Law. Figure 5 presents the results of a simulation of this process. On each time step a value is drawn from a Gaussian distribution with stimulus intensity as the mean and σ = 0.005. The stimulus intensities ranged from 0.01 to 0.05. Equation (8) was computed until the posterior probability exceeded threshold (θ*), and the number of time steps required was recorded. Each data point in Figure 5 was estimated using 10,000 Monte Carlo samples. Again, the linearity in log-log space illustrates that the non-linear relation in the MRT data follows a power curve.
Figure 5. Ideal observer model behavior as a function of stimulus intensity, for five different response criterion values. Left: Mean decision time (MDT) vs stimulus intensity. Right: log MDT vs log Intensity. θ*: response criterion value.
Piéron's Law has previously only been studied in experiments in which stimulus intensity was manipulated. Here, we hypothesized that Piéron's Law may be a special case of a more general relationship between choice difficulty and mean response time. To support this conjecture, we performed an experiment in which the difficulty of choice in a random-dot motion paradigm was manipulated by adjusting the angular distance between two response alternatives. We found a power law relation between angular distance (discriminability) and mean response time, supporting our hypothesis of a general mechanism behind Piéron's Law. A Bayesian ideal observer model showed that participants performing a 2AFC task may respond in a Piéron-like manner because it is the optimal way of minimizing overall response times (for a fixed error rate). The ideal observer model can also be extended to stimulus detection behavior, showing that Piéron's Law reflects optimal detection behavior under varying stimulus intensities.
One particular aspect of our study deserves some additional consideration. We conclude that the decline of MRT with choice difficulty in Experiment 1 can be best described by a power function. An important step toward this conclusion was to determine which part of the observed response time we wanted to explain. As we have argued, directly fitting the models to the observed data does not provide enough constraint to make an appropriate model selection inference. Therefore, we first determined the decision time by subtracting an estimate for the non-decision time from the RTs. The non-decision time was estimated using the LBA model of choice-response time (Brown and Heathcote, 2008).
The validity of this approach rests on the extent to which it is reasonable to exclude non-decision time and focus on decision time. Because the exponential and power functions also implicitly focus on decision time, we believe that in this study, our approach is plausible. After subtracting non-decision time the evidence in favor of the power function was overwhelming, which was not the case for the models that were directly fitted to MRT. In some instances, the traditional approach may lead to an accurate estimate of the non-decision time parameter. In those cases, a more elaborate two-step fitting approach may not appear to be necessary. However, even in such cases we recommend the two-step fitting approach.
It should be noted that although we used a specific processing model to obtain appropriate non-decision time estimates (the LBA model), the same results could have been obtained with any other model that takes the variance in the RT distribution into account (e.g., Donkin et al., 2011). Where the LBA model is a full process model that attempts to describe many aspects of decision-making, we could have also used simpler process models (e.g., the EZ diffusion model, Wagenmakers et al., 2007), or even any descriptive model of the RT distribution (Matzke and Wagenmakers, 2009).
In summary, we have shown that MRT in a 2AFC task decreases with stimulus discriminability according to a power function. In addition, we provided a Bayesian ideal observer analysis of both 2AFC tasks and stimulus detection tasks. This analysis showed that optimal behavior in these tasks follows a power function when stimulus discriminability is manipulated. These results support the view that Piéron's Law originates from optimal information processing.
Leendert van Maanen, Raoul Grasman, Birte Forstmann, and Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Leendert van Maanen, Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Plantage Muidergracht 24, 1018 TV Amsterdam, the Netherlands, e-mail: l.vanmaanen@uva.nl. We thank Helen Steingröver for data collection. This research was supported by VENI and VIDI grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.
^We use decision time to refer to the time required to make a choice in 2AFC tasks, and detection time to refer to the time required to detect a stimulus in a stimulus detection task.
^The library can be downloaded from http://www.shadlen.org/Code/VCRDM.
^We constrained the simplex routine to only allow positive values. Without this constraint, the best fitting models included values of γ < 0 ms.
^These BIC values are higher than the BIC values obtained with the power and exponential functions because here we fit the quantiles instead of MRT.
^The model fit itself is presented in the Appendix.
^Because of the circular arrangement of response alternatives in the RDM task a slightly more accurate sampling distribution would be the von Mises distribution, which can be thought of as a Gaussian distribution wrapped around a circle. Because this distribution leads to similar results we chose to use the more generally applicable Gaussian.
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Figures A1–A6 present the fit of the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model to the data of Experiment 1. Each figure represents the data (black circles) and model fit (red lines) for one participant. The top line represents the cumulative RT distribution of correct responses, the bottom line represents the cumulative RT distribution of incorrect responses. Both lines are weighted to the probability of an incorrect response. Each graph represents the different angular distances (d) used in Experiment 1.
Figure A1. LBA model fit for Participant 1.
Figure A2. LBA model fit for Participant 2.
Figure A3. LBA model fit for Participant 3.
Figure A4. LBA model fit for Participant 4.
Figure A5. LBA model fit for Participant 5.
Figure A6. LBA model fit for Participant 6.
Copyright: © 2012 van Maanen, Grasman, Forstmann and Wagenmakers. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited.


This is how I write. I take a moment – an image, a memory, a phrase, an idea – and I hold it in my hands and declare it a treasure – Lucy Calkins.
This was one of the most profound and long-lasting writing lessons I taught last year. It was something both myself and the children in my class would return to and talk about time and time again. By the end of the year, children understood and could articulate themselves when I asked: What is the 'diamond moment' here?
At the beginning of the year, I noticed that many of the children, whilst great at coming up with universal topics for writing – were unable to zoom in on the quality of the topic. It was too 'universal'. Too large. Too general. When I finally gave this lesson – a lesson on finding the moment – the briefest of moments in a topic that are most significant to write about – the children's writing transformed. It became part of our class meta-language and I hope something the children will keep as a lesson for a lifetime.
It was in our class writing project on memoir that the lesson was first taught. It was an attempt to focus the children on the personal and poetic significance of the experience they wished to to retell. In many ways, children took what would otherwise be the most ordinary of events and made them sound and read as extraordinary. It worked beautifully. It was about adding more than a 'recount of a past event'. Where was the significance – where was the poetry? Where were the details? Where was the storytelling?
What was realised by myself and the children was that actually – you don't need to have been to Disneyland or a Caribbean island to have something memorable to write about.
To this day, this writing project was the best I've ever conducted. What surprised me though was how the concept of searching for that diamond moment could be translated to all other genres.
The idea of a 'diamond moment' began to be used in the children's story writing and non-fiction projects. Children were able to turn massive epic sagas into short, snappy and wholly entertaining flash-fictions. Their non-fiction texts all of a sudden had a new sharper focus – explaining and sharing personally significant things – things that they truly cared about – to their readers.
If you liked this blog post, you may also like to read about our approach to writing we call Real-World Literacy.
Atwell, N. (2014). In the Middle: Writing, reading, and learning with adolescents, (3rd Ed) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.


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Veterinary Technician Schools in Delaware
Delaware contains one school that offers veterinary technician programs. Delaware Technical and Community College-Owens	has a total student population of 4,787 and is the 5384th	highest ranked school in America.
Veterinary Technician students from Delaware schools who go on to become veterinary technicians, veterinarians, veterinarian assistants, veterinary scientistss, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 79,200 people working as veterinary technologists and technicians alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $30,580. Also, Veterinarians make on average $90,110	per year and there are about 54,130	of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Delaware alone, there are 170 employed veterinarians earning an average yearly salary of $99,290. Veterinary technologists and technicians in this state earn $31,250/yr and there are 220 employed.
Also, within the veterinary technician schools in Delaware, the average student population is 2,228	and average student-to-faculty ratio is 16 to 1. Aside from veterinary technician, there are 540 total degree (or certificate) programs in the state, with 2,476	people on average applying for a school. Undergraduate tuition costs are normally around $3,732, but can vary widely depending on the type of school.
Delaware Interesting Facts
Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States constitution. It did so on December 7, 1787.
Delaware shares a semi-circular border with Pennsylvania. The border was drawn at the time of the original land grants to William Penn from King Charles II and the Duke of York.
The nation's first scheduled steam railroad began in New Castle in 1831.
The United States battleship Delaware was commissioned in 1910.
Delaware is the only state without any National Park System units such as national parks, seashores, historic sites, battlefields, memorials, and monuments.
Top National Parks in Delaware:
Browns Branch County Park »
Lums Pond State Park »
Cape Henlopen State Park »
Mark Eaton »
Robert Crumb »
Judge Reinhold »
Veterinary Technician Information
Salary Details for a Veterinarian
Online Veterinary Technician Schools
Online Veterinary Technician Programs
Online Veterinary Technician Courses
Related Subjects - Schools in or near Delaware
Veterinary Technician Schools in New Castle
Veterinary Technician Schools in Dover
Delaware Technical and Community College-Owens
Route 18, Seashore Highway, Georgetown, Delaware 19947
Delaware contains one school that offers veterinary technician programs. Delaware Technical and Community College-Owens has a total student population of 4,787 and is the 5384th	highest ranked school in America.
Cities in Delaware
States Near Delaware


Beautifully illustrated article from the Western Mail earlier this week.
Says it all really. And yet, there are drivers who claim this still isn't enough.
We have places in Germany where the speed limit is 7km/h (about 4mph) which are called 'play streets'. I am regularly shouted at, honked and/or revved at for going 'too slowly' on these roads.


A 1920x1080 set of menus and loading screens for NWN2 based on the pre-expansion versions.
The menus and loading screens for NWN2 were designed for a 4:3 monitor aspect ratio, and on a modern widescreen display will appear either stretched out horizontally or have black bars on the sides.
Additionally, when you patch your game to the latest version, the vanilla menus are changed to a Storm of Zehir theme, which, while well-designed, is a little too specific for my taste -- and was especially inappropriate when I hadn't yet played the OC or Mask of the Betrayer!
This interface mod provides a menu and loading screen background based upon the original vanilla version, but edited to full HD widescreen format. I made them in such a way as to have as little distortion as possible, and none in the focal area. They should scale down to lower widescreen resolutions as well.
Also available here is a background to add a little more life to the character creation and level-up screen and other screens that use the same background. Install this by placing it in the same location as the others. You can replace this with any wallpaper of your choice if you save your chosen wallpaper as a TGA with the same name as this one. It will need to be in a 16:9 aspect ratio or it'll be distorted.
According to a report, these also worked satisfactorily at the non-16:9 resolution of 1680x1050.
Neverwinter Nights 2 with both expansions.
This mod overrides certain graphics from Expansion 2: Storm of Zehir, and I've only tested it with Neverwinter Nights Platinum, which includes both expansions. It may also work on the vanilla game with the latest patch.
The mod is provided in a compressed folder. You can move this folder into your override folder, or if you prefer to keep your override folder empty, it should also work if you move the folder into your UIcustom folder.
Both override and UI folders are usually found in DocumentsNeverwinter Nights 2override and DocumentsNeverwinter Nights 2ui respectively. See this wiki page for more information on installation directories.
You should know if it's working or not as soon as the main menu screen appears.
You are welcome to improve upon my work.
This was a solo effort, but I'm always indebted to the modders/builders who have contributed to the accumulated body of knowledge on the web, to allow me to know where to start in the first place.
Image for optional background from official Neverwinter wallpaper.
I can be contacted on the Nexus Network as Tchos, or the Bioware Social Network also as Tchos, or through my gaming blog.


Richard William Claydon, age 81, died Saturday, February 15, 2014 at Granville House. A native of Troy, NY, he was the son of the late John W. Claydon and Madalene Ralston Claydon. He was a member of Stovall United Methodist Church, one of the founders of ACIM and former treasurer. Richard retired from G. E. Corporation in Stamford, CT in 1992 after 30 years of service and was a veteran of the US Navy.
Funeral services will be conducted on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 2:00 PM from Stovall United Methodist Church by Reverend John Yount. Burial will follow in Meadowview Memorial Park with military honors.
Surviving is his wife, Mary M. Claydon; daughters, Michele Cash Timothy of Oxford, and Margaret "Peggy" Claydon, of Oxford; a brother, John C. Claydon of Wynantskill, NY; grandchildren Tiffany A. Cash and Shannon Cash.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Stovall United Methodist Church Endowment Fund, c/o Jean Gill, PO Box 1078, Oxford, NC 27565.
Gentry-Newell & Vaughan Funeral Home is assisting the Claydon family. For online condolences, go to www.hallwynne.com and select obituaries.
Mrs.Claydon,Michelle and Peggy,We are so sorry for your loss.Although I never really got to know him that well,I could tell he was a class act.Just know that you all will see him again one day.Our sincere condolences go out to you all.
Our prayers and love are with you. So many wonderful memories and stories of special cousin Rich from my mom and all of us Grassi's.


This summer, London's ultra-posh Claridge's hotel is getting a dose of classic New York City grit with a weeklong pop-up of Manhattan's beloved Dead Rabbit. The award-winning bar—which claimed the number one spot on last year's World's 50 Best Bars list—will be serving up its signature cocktails and small bites at the Claridge's bar from August 15 through 22.
The brainchild of Irishmen Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry, the Dead Rabbit's three-story New York City flagship has become a must-hit hot spot for cocktail aficionados around the world, thanks to its raucous 19th-century tavern atmosphere and expertly crafted tipples. The Claridge's pop-up will re-create the bar's second-floor parlor-style lounge, complete with period furnishings and ragtime piano playing. The pop-up will also remain true to the Dead Rabbit's signature service and style, greeting guests with a welcome drink before sitting them down to peruse a modified version of the original's comic book–style menu, which depicts the bloody history of the bar's namesake Dead Rabbit gang, a criminal troupe that controlled Lower Manhattan during the mid-19th century.


This season at Sass & Belle, we extend our homeware range to glassware. Included are this Mr & Mrs set of champagne flutes. The perfect gift for newlyweds and love birds, one glass has 'Mr' printed on and the other 'Mrs'. Both words are printed on in a bold font and make for a stylish and contemporary design.


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Home / Driving / Auto / Auto Care / How To Inspect Auto Belts And Hoses
How To Inspect Auto Belts And Hoses
Brakes. Headlights. Wipers. Tires.
Parts like these should be on your routine inspection checklist. But what about belts and hoses? Easy to overlook, worn belts and hoses could trigger major auto troubles—from an overheated engine to the sudden loss of power steering.
Luckily, all it takes is a little preventative maintenance—and a peek under the hood—to sidestep expensive (and potentially unsafe) breakdowns. "Belts and hoses are very cost-effective to maintain," says Jeff Cox, president of the Automotive Maintenance and Repair Association. "But if they fail, the resulting damage could cost thousands of dollars to repair." Here's how to make sure yours are in working order.
This multi-grooved rubber component in the front of the engine snakes around various pulleys to drive some of your car's most important accessories, including the alternator, water pump, power-steering pump and air-conditioning compressor.
Prior to the early 2000s, cracks were an easy visual indicator of a worn belt. Today, most belts are made from advanced compounds that resist cracking. So how can you tell if you have a bad belt?
Cox recommends heading to a service center or auto-parts retailer and purchasing a belt-wear gauge. Place the handy pocket-size device (which typically costs less than $10) over the ribbed section, then read the instructions to know what your particular gauge indicates. This will identify whether the belt has experienced excessive wear and requires replacement.
While you're under the hood, check for fraying along the edges of the belt. This could be a sign of a belt-alignment issue.
Notice discoloration? If so, that might signal contamination from engine fluids, which could break down the rubber. Time to take your vehicle in for service.
Coolant, Radiator And Outlet-Heater Hoses
Hoses also play a vital role in vehicle performance. Perhaps most importantly, they circulate coolant between the radiator and the engine (via the radiator hoses), then take that warmed-over liquid to the heater core (through the outlet-heater hose) to help warm up the passenger compartment.
Over time, these temperature changes could cause rubber hoses to harden. And acids from the coolant can weaken the linings of the hose from the inside. This is known as electrochemical degradation, or ECD.
If the heater hose goes bad in the winter, you're in for a chilly ride. But it's important to know that a leak in any of the above hoses could cause coolant to drain out of the vehicle and result in serious engine problems.
"Visual cues are really the determining factors," says Cox. He offers these signs of potential failure:
When the engine is cool, look for degradation on the hoses by squeezing along the hose. "You want it to be pliable," says Cox. "It should go back to its normal shape."
Check for cracks around hoses, which could indicate the rubber is breaking down. Notice any rust around the fasteners? Get your car checked out immediately, as the hose could be close to breaking away from the engine or radiator.
Inspect for leaks at the heater-core outlet. A loose fastener at the heater core could cause coolant to seep into the carpet of the vehicle's interior. "You can usually smell it," says Cox. "The coolant has a sweet smell—almost like maple syrup."
Finally, search for any kind of heat damage. "You'll notice swelling and discoloration in the hose," Cox adds. "Those are definite signs it should be replaced."
As far as how often to inspect these parts, Cox recommends checking out the belts and hoses (or having your service provider do so) at every oil change. Also, it's a good idea to check them before long road trips, because no one wants to spend a vacation stuck on the side of the road.
If you're ever stranded on the road, having Emergency Roadside Service (ERS) could get you out of trouble ASAP. (It's available through your GEICO Mobile app.) Add ERS to your policy for just pennies per day per vehicle.
Read More: What To Do If Your Car Overheats
By Rod O'Connor
How To Replace Windshield Wiper Blades On Your Car Or Truck
11 Emergency Essentials To Keep In Your Car
Premium Vs. Regular Gas: What's The Difference?
Filed Under: Auto Care


Get me some calls !
Paying for DOG & CAT calls?
Let's face it, dog and cat calls are part of the industry. There are ways to minimize the amount you get and PAY for.
Many of our clients have a 50 to 60 percent closing rate from our calls. It's because our calls are targeted. Quality not quantity.
Many companies in the industry charge a flat fee for metro areas. Don't pay a good fee for little to no calls.
You pick the metro area including the cities you service. We do not force you to take calls in other areas including bad calls.
When you sign up, the calls go to only you. You are the only company listed on the page. We do not sell the same call twice.
We know what type of calls earn you the most money. We understand the industry which allows us to target clients better.
We understand what drives the traffic. We will work with you to make sure we have the right wildlife pages in place in the correct cities.
We accept all forms of credit cards. Billing is done online. All payments made online. Simple, clean and no contracts.
Tired of companies billing you thousands of dollars for horrible calls? We sell QUALITY not QUANTITY. We understand your industry. We know what type of calls generate you the most money. Our clients are amazed how good our calls are.


When there's a problem with the roof on your home, you need a skilled roofing contractor to take care of the repair work. Zenith Roofing & Remodeling, LLC is home to the roofer you're searching for in Haughton & Shreveport, LA.
We'll make sure your home remains protected in all types of weather. Contact us for roof inspection, repair and replacement services. We also offer basic remodeling services to fix damage inside your home.
We service an area within 80 miles of Haughton & Shreveport, LA, including Shreveport and parts of East Texas. Contact Zenith Roofing & Remodeling today to speak with a skilled roofing contractor who can fix your damaged roof.
We'll install a new roof to replace your old or damaged one.
We offer professional shingle repair services after a storm.
We'll assess the damage to your roof.
Our roofing contractor will act as a middleman between you and your insurance company. Your adjuster should know about all the damage inside and outside of your house. You can get an estimate from us whether or not you want to go through an insurance company.
Schedule a free roof inspection in Haughton & Shreveport, LA by contacting Zenith Roofing & Remodeling today.
The owner of Zenith Roofing & Remodeling got into the roofing business in 2015 and started the company in May of 2018. We stand behind the quality of our work and our materials. When you hire our team, you'll receive honest and reliable services from a fully licensed and insured roofer who believes in face-to-face interaction.
Call 318-773-8010 today to schedule your free inspection with a roofer in Haughton & Shreveport, LA.
Copyright © 2019 Zenith Roofing & Remodeling, LLC, all rights reserved.


We were tasked to perform a full 3D laser scan of the Subaru EJ25 engine block for research and development purposes. Both halves of the engine block were scanned from all directions, allowing us to capture all the intricate details inside and out. The data, accurate to 40 microns (1.5 thou), is perfectly suitable for precision reverse-engineering and development.


Now even muggles can see how they'd look chasing the Golden Snitch on a Nimbus 2000.
That's because Snapchat is gifting Harry Potter fans with a 3D Bitmoji Lens that adorns their digital doppelgängers in the robes of the houses of Hogwarts.
To cast this AR spell with your Snapchat wand, just long-press the camera view to pull up the Lens carousel and scroll to the Harry Potter icon. Then place your cartoon likeness in your environment with your smartphone's rear-facing camera. No sorting hat is needed to select between Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, just tap the screen to switch your allegiance. However, you will need to make sure the Bitmoji app is linked to your Snapchat account.
The experience serves to whet the AR appetites of Harry Potter fans waiting for the release of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the forthcoming location-based AR game from Niantic.
Earlier this year, the app also marked Superman's 80th birthday with a 3D Bitmoji scene.
Perhaps we'll see a Godzilla AR experience next year for the monster's 65th anniversary (and new movie)? Considering the rate at which movie studios are churning out AR content to promote their films, I'd say its all but certain.