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The Most Likely Scores in the World Cup Final
After one of the most astonishing score lines in the history of the World Cup on Tuesday — Germany 7, Brazil 1 — nothing that happens in Sunday's World Cup final would be a total surprise. But we do have estimates of the most likely final scores for the game.Germany is a 63 percent favorite to defeat Argentina, according to the FiveThirtyEight forecast. Argentina had a slightly higher Soccer Power Index (SPI) rating when the tournament began, but Germany has seen its rating rise, particularly after its thrashing of Brazil, and it now ranks No. 1 by some margin. Betting lines also have Germany favored.The SPI match predictor allows us to predict the number of goals scored and allowed for each club. It calls for 1.7 goals by Germany and 1.2 by Argentina.There are a couple of problems with this — for one thing, a team cannot score seven-tenths of a goal. So the match predictor uses a version of a Poisson distribution, which calculates the probability of the teams finishing with any whole-number score. For example, if Germany scores an average of 1.7 goals, how often does it score exactly two goals or exactly three goals? That's what a Poisson distribution does.Another issue is that the match predictor is calibrated on the basis of 90-minute matches when knockout-round games can go to extra time. To account for extra-time results, we ran an additional Poisson regression based on the results of extra-time games in major international tournaments since 2005. (In geek speak, we're nesting a Poisson distribution within another Poisson distribution.) All of that produces the following heat map:Read left to right for Germany's score and top to bottom for Argentina's. Boxes in which the score is still tied after extra time represent cases where the game goes to penalty kicks (there is about a 14 percent chance of this happening). The 10 most probable scores are as follows:Germany 2, Argentina 1Germany 1, Argentina 0Argentina 2, Germany 1Germany 2, Argentina 0Argentina 1, Germany 0Germany 3, Argentina 11-1 draw (game goes to penalties)Germany 3, Argentina 2Germany 3, Argentina 0Argentina 2, Germany 0What are the odds of another 7-1 scoreline? The model says there is only about a 0.06 percent probability of such a score favoring Germany (about one chance in 1,600). There's even less of a chance — more than 10,000-to-1 against — of the same score favoring Argentina.But these figures may underestimate the chance of astonishingly lopsided results. The mathematical basis for the Poisson distribution is the assumption of independent trials. This is a little inexact (it describes a special case of a Poisson distribution called a binomial distribution), but a Poisson distribution is treating a soccer game something like this:Suppose we expect Germany to score 1.7 goals on average in a 90-minute game against Argentina. That translates into about a 2 percent probability (1 chance in 50) of scoring a goal in a given minute of play.So we can run an experiment where we randomly draw ping-pong balls from a set of 90 lottery machines, one representing each minute of the game. In each machine, there are 50 balls, one labeled GOAL! and 49 blanks. The probability of drawing a GOAL! from one machine doesn't affect what happens with the next one. (This is the assumption of independent trials.) After we've drawn balls from all 90 machines, we count the number of GOAL! balls. This represents how often Germany scored in the game.We can repeat the experiment a bunch of times. Most commonly, we'll wind up with something like one or two GOAL! balls. But other times we'll have drawn zero or four or six. The relative frequency of these outcomes represents the Poisson distribution for Germany's score.As strange as this experiment might seem, it isn't a bad mathematical approximation of a soccer game. And for the most part, Poisson distributions do a good job of modeling real-world soccer scores.But there are some complications. For instance, we may have some estimate of how the absences of Neymar and Thiago Silva might affect Germany's chances of scoring against Brazil. But there is some uncertainty around that: Maybe Brazil plays more fluidly when it isn't waiting around for Neymar to do something, or maybe it breaks down. This is equivalent to not knowing exactly how many GOAL! balls and blanks there are in the ping-pong machines. This uncertainty will tend to slightly increase the number of extreme outcomes (Germany scoring zero goals or a lot of goals) that we observe in the real world.Another issue is that the texture of play in soccer depends to some extent on the scoreline. Play is usually tighter and more conservative in a drawn game and then opens up once the tie is broken. As a result, standard Poisson distributions slightly underestimate the chance of draws and of some wild scores, such as 5-2. (The variant of the Poisson distribution that we use is meant to address this problem.)For the most part in sports, these complications are not worth worrying about. There are cases where a Poisson distribution or a normal distribution isn't perfect — normal distributions seem to slightly underestimate the number of extreme outlier scores in sports — but they usually hold up reasonably well. Nobody gets hurt when you say that Germany has only a 1-in-4,000 chance of winning by six goals when it actually had a 1-in-400 chance.But real-world distributions are often slightly fat-tailed, meaning that extreme outliers happen more often than the normal distribution predicts. And — outside the sports world — using the wrong model can cause real problems, underestimating the chance of an earthquake or a financial crisis. read more
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Conventional and FancyStats Rate The NHLs Deadline Trades Much Differently
This year's NHL trade deadline saw quite a few transactions — 74 veteran players switched teams in the month leading up to (and including) the March 2 moratorium — and some of the moves could shift the league's balance of power with the playoffs a little more than a month away.In anticipation of Monday's cutoff, we listed about 35 likely trade candidates and their possession metrics, to get a sense of who the advanced statistics would favor if any of them were dealt. But now that all the deals have been cut, how highly do the numbers regard the big names moved at the deadline?It totally depends on which numbers you look at. Conventional stats — such as goals, assists and plus-minus, as synthesized into point shares above replacement (PSAR) — favor players like newly acquired Detroit winger Erik Cole. Cole bounced back from a pair of down seasons to average a goal every three or so games with a +4 rating (on a Dallas team that's -11 overall) before being traded. That performance was enough to lead all deadline acquisitions in 2014-15 PSAR. But as we've learned, the NHL's #EnhancedStats movement emphasizes more than traditional counting statistics.Advanced metrics such as Corsi and Fenwick (ahem, "shot attempts" and "unblocked shot attempts") started a trend in player evaluation of focusing on his ability to improve his team's puck-possession rate while on the ice. If possession is a reliable path to team success, the reasoning goes, you want to stock your roster with players most associated with strong team possession rates when they're in the game.Now, Stephen Burtch's Delta Corsi (dCorsi) and Domenic Galamini's Usage-Adjusted Corsi have pushed attempts to isolate a skater's effect on his team's possession rate even further. The relatively new twist provided by those stats? Attempting to account for player-usage factors — such as position played, teammate and opponent quality, zone starts and even faceoff winning percentages in dCorsi's case — on a player's possession rate in addition to looking at on-ice versus off-ice differences.In the past, you'd have to eyeball a player's workload and usage as a means of context for, say, his relative Corsi. But these new stats attempt to bake those contextual factors into a single number by comparing a player's actual possession rate to what we'd expect of an average NHL player at his position if placed in the same situations.1This is similar in theory to the way researchers have sometimes attempted to measure individual fielding in baseball, under which a defender's actual plays made in the field are compared with expected play counts based on balls in play sent in his direction.You might think there'd be a decent amount of crossover between conventional numbers and these new possession-based advanced stats, but the correlation is practically nonexistent. Rescaling PSAR against an average baseline to make an apples-to-apples comparison, I found essentially no relationship with Burtch's dCorsi Impact (which gives players more credit for maintaining strong possession rates relative to average in greater amounts of ice time) this season:Take Cole again. Despite his solid counting stats and a very good point share tally, Dallas's possession rate when Cole was on the ice was actually lower than what would be expected from an average player in the same situations with the same teammates and opponents. Or take FiveThirtyEight favorite Jaromir Jagr, whose relatively down conventional stats belie a player still capable of driving play with the proverbial skills that don't show up in the box score.They're not alone among the bigger-name deadline acquisitions. Much was made when the Arizona Coyotes shipped away center Antoine Vermette and defenseman Keith Yandle. Both players were solid PSAR contributors for Arizona this season but also ranked among the least valuable dCorsi players at their respective positions.Meanwhile, Zbynek Michalek, another former Coyote, boasted extremely unimpressive counting numbers (8 points and a -6 rating in 53 games) even by the standards of his position but ranks as one of the best defensemen in hockey according to dCorsi Impact.In case it wasn't clear by now, all this goes to show that it's nearly impossible to guess whether a player is a possession star or scrub based on his conventional numbers. As is the case with most of these new-school-versus-old-school metric battles to recently crop up across almost all sports, a player's true value probably lies somewhere in between. But in hockey, that fact just underscores how little we still know about who's helping and hurting their teams. read more
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Geno Smith Wasnt Better Than His Backup
In the most surreal bit of sports news to hit Tuesday's wires, Geno Smith, the incumbent starting quarterback for the New York Jets, is going to miss six to 10 weeks with an injury. And it wasn't just any kind of injury; it was the kind you get when a teammate punches you and breaks your jaw.According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, now-cut linebacker IK Enemkpali slugged Smith because he failed to reimburse Enemkpali for a $600 plane ticket. Jets fans — at least, Jets fans in the FiveThirtyEight office — rejoiced. But coming into the preseason, this Jets team showed at least a vague sense of promise. Are the Jets really better off without Smith? Last year, New York went 4-12 (3-10 under Smith) with one of the NFL's worst passing offenses, and Smith was pretty bad for the second straight season. In fact, his career has gotten off to one of the worst starts of any QB since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Although Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Terry Bradshaw kicked off their careers with equally bad passing efficiency numbers, it's far more likely that Smith is a talent on par with, say, Kyle Boller than that he's harboring hidden star potential.And while Smith will be 25 this season, an age at which QBs still show a decent amount of improvement, the typical aging curve wouldn't even carry Smith to league-average status at his peak.Meanwhile, the Jets' backup quarterback isn't a bad one. Longtime Buffalo Bills starter Ryan Fitzpatrick occupied the seat behind Smith and — statistically speaking — he's probably a better QB than the man slated for the huddle, at least in the short term. Over the past two seasons (when he was with the Houston Texans and the Tennessee Titans), Fitzpatrick's Total QBR1ESPN's play-by-play-based measurement of quarterbacking performance, which grades on a 0-100 scale. of 54.1 was better than Smith's 41.2 mark during that span, and Fitzpatrick's cumulative ProFootballFocus grade of +11.3 vastly outpaced Smith's total of -37.3. By the numbers, the Jets are better off with the glass-jawed Smith out of the game, holding a clipboard on the sidelines.Of course, these kinds of assessments always come with the caveat that individual football statistics are obscured by countless interactions, coaching decisions and other contextual factors. And the Jets did add a good receiver over the offseason, Brandon Marshall, so it's possible Smith would have improved significantly in 2015 had he not run afoul of Enemkpali's fist. But Jets fans shouldn't worry too much about what might have been: The team's offense will probably be better with Fitzpatrick under center than it would have been with Smith. read more
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The Weaknesses Of The Four Remaining NFL Playoffs Teams
The NFL's conference championship weekend is finally here. In the video above, FiveThirtyEight's Neil Paine breaks down the two matchups. Share on Facebook
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The NHL Has Accomplished Its Goals
If you've been paying attention to the 2017-18 NHL season, you may have noticed something: There is no shortage of goals. We're more than a third of the way through the season, and scores are, on average, the highest they've been since 2005-06. Through Sunday, there have already been 31 games settled in regulation in which the teams combined for double-digit goals. A year ago there were only 45 such games across the whole season. We're still a long way away from the 1980s golden era of goals, but for a league that's been repeatedly criticized for being too low-scoring, this sudden glut can only be read as a positive development.It's difficult to point to just one cause for the scoring uptick. The league instituted a number of rule changes at the beginning of the season,1The NHL did something similar after the lockout of 2004-05, introducing a sweeping array of rule changes with the express purpose of increasing goal scoring. and those changes have contributed to an increase in power play opportunities — teams are averaging 3.3 power play opportunities per game so far this season, the highest mark in five years.2Those changes also include a crackdown on slashing and a conservative interpretation of what a center can and cannot do at the faceoff dot: If a center does not stand squarely facing his opponent's side of the rink, he is subject to being thrown out of the dot. If that happens consecutively to centers from the same team, that team will be subject to a bench minor. The league wants to see less stick work and less cheating on the faceoff dots. And it's evident the league wasn't kidding about cracking down on slashing — through Sunday, officials had doled out 623 penalties for slashing. That number was just 791 for all of last season. Slashing0.641.22+0.58 Hooking1.030.97-0.07 Holding0.640.67+0.03 The box is getting crowdedMinor penalties per NHL game over the past two seasons Roughing0.840.67-0.18 More power play opportunities translate to more odd man advantages, which translate to more shots on net per game: Teams are surrendering more shots per game (31.6) than they have in the past three decades. The math is simple: more shots on goal equals more pucks finding the twine.And even though goals against averages are up across the league — the current mark of 2.76 is the highest it's been in a decade — the goaltenders cannot be blamed for the league's recent scoring outburst. Among qualifying goalies,3We looked at goalies who've played at least 200 minutes. the league average save percentage (92.18) is slightly higher than the league average expected save percentage (92.13), which is the save percentage an average goalie should post given the quality of shots faced.This suggests that goalies are actually outperforming expectations. During the 2016-17 season, goalies stopped fewer pucks than the data suggested they should have stopped (an actual save percentage of 91.94 versus an expected save percentage of 92.17), and yet goals per game totals remained roughly in line with numbers from the preceding nine seasons.Goalies in 2017-18 are also outperforming their peers from the previous year on high danger shots (unblocked shots with an expected scoring percentage of 9 or greater); this year's cohort is stopping 79.4 percent of shots considered dangerous, while last year's stopped just 78.5 percent of those shots.Even though teams are converting their power plays with effectively the same efficiency they did in 2016-17, they're getting more of those man advantage looks, and likely the rule changes — and not poor goalie play4Goalies are always getting blamed; we need to stop blaming those poor goalies. — offer the truest explanation for the higher-scoring brand of hockey being played in the NHL at the moment.And let's not forget the cadre of young offensive talent that has flooded the NHL in the past several seasons: Last year, six of the top dozen goal scorers were 25 years old or younger. And the top point getter (Connor McDavid) was just 20. All of these very young men are already sharing the leaderboards with future Hall of Famers like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, who are still both in the primes of their careers. This overlap of generational talent could be contributing to all the scoring, too.To be sure, no one in the league office of the NHL is losing sleep over this. More scoring is good news for a league that has been plagued by a spate of absurd calls from pundits to not only tweak the rules of the game, but to change the shape of it too. Reprimanding centers for lining up at the dots incorrectly? Fine, we can all live with that. But making the nets bigger? That's downright sacrilege. Thanks to the relatively high-scoring climate of the present-day NHL, maybe we can put that tired argument to bed once and for all. Interference0.640.71+0.08 Goalie interference0.100.09-0.01 High stick0.690.58-0.10 Tripping1.081.20+0.12 Holding stick0.110.07-0.03 Penalty2016-172017-18Difference All minors6.657.09+0.44 Cross checking0.300.31+0.01 Through Dec. 17. Differences may not add up because of rounding.Source: ESPN read more
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Khris Davis Isnt Batting 247 😱
Past 572 at bats, .247 becomes possible at three of every four numbers. So last year's quest got quite a bit easier on Sept. 29 when Davis hit at-bat number 572, a career high. The odds of Davis ending the past four seasons with a .247 batting average even with the perfect number of hits are still just 9.4 percent.Put another way: Davis finished 2018 with 576 at- bats. If he had gone to the plate just one more time and gotten a hit, he would have finished with a .248 average. If he had made an out, he would have been at .246.1A walk would have left it the same, of course. Davis was pulled in the sixth inning of the season's final game, by the way.The chase for .247 isn't impossible, but it is mathematically very unlikely. Of course, it was also unlikely the past four seasons. The powers of rounding and opposing pitchers haven't stopped Davis before. We believe in you, Khris.Check out our latest MLB predictions. The most amazing active streak in baseball might be the most unlikely streak in history.I'm talking, of course, about Khris Davis's batting average. Davis has hit exactly (or, more precisely, rounded to) .247 for not one, not two, not even three but four straight seasons, from 2015 through 2018.This year appears to be different. Davis is currently hitting .230, and while there's still a long way to go this season, .230 is not close to .247. Baseball appears to be broken.Assuming he stays healthy the rest of the year and plays in roughly the same amount that he did in 2018, Davis needs to hit .282 for the rest of the year to continue the streak. That's certainly not impossible.Davis also should be hitting closer to .247 based on some of his advanced metrics: He has a higher average than he did last year on balls in play (.274 to .261) and a lower strikeout rate (26.3 percent to 26.8 percent). With those components improving, we'd expect Davis to have a better batting average. Statcast metrics tell a similar story. Davis is seeing roughly the same pitches to previous seasons and swinging and making contact about as often. The difference isn't seeing better pitchers.One clear difference with Davis — in addition to his inexplicably non-.247 average — seems to be his power. Davis has hit just 17 home runs in 2019. He finished last year with 48, and at this point in the year he had hit 32.Likewise, his hard-hit rate and average launch angle have plummeted. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a pair of injuries may be limiting him, and Davis said he's been choking up, possibly leading to weaker hits.Some of the difference, as is often the case in baseball, is luck. Davis has made 24 outs this year on balls in play with an expected hit probability (based on launch angle and exit velocity) of over 50 percent. This particular lineout had a .797 expected batting average, or a nearly 80 percent chance of landing for a hit:Video Playerhttps://fivethirtyeight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/9aa1f874-c4f7-4697-a17a-223828fbd499.mp400:0000:0000:17Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.Overall, according to Statcast, Davis has an expected batting average of .242 based on all his batted balls. With slightly better luck, Davis could be right where he's been the last four years.It's worth remembering how fickle batting average can be. The difference between Davis's batting average from this year and last year is just six missing hits, which says a lot more about batting average than it does Khris Davis. It also suggests that the decline in homers alone might be keeping him out of .247 range.To reach the fabled average, Davis needs a hot finish to the season — and, fortunately, he's had even better hot streaks before in his career. Last year, from June 29 to Aug. 23, he hit .316 in 177 at-bats with 19 home runs over 46 games. Davis will have about as many at-bats for the rest of the year, and he doesn't need as many hits. If the power comes back, it's easy to imagine a similar stretch.Besides opposing pitchers, another enemy threatens Davis's batting average streak: rounding.Let's say Davis finishes the season with 520 at-bats, a reasonable number based on his playing time. If he has 128 hits in those at-bats, his average rounds to .246. With one more hit, though, it would increase to .248. There's a decent chance that Davis has no mathematical chance of repeating his .247 average.The odds of having a number of at-bats for which a .247 average is impossible are close to 50-50. If Davis finishes with a number of at-bats between 500 and 571 that is two or three more than a multiple of four, he can hit .247. Otherwise, he cannot. read more
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By the numbers Ohio State rolls Penn State as Barrett takes control
OSU redshirt sophomore QB J.T. Barrett (16) stiff arms Penn State redshirt sophomore defensive end Garrett Sickels (90) during a game at Ohio Stadium on Oct. 17. OSU won, 38-10. Credit: Samantha Hollingshead / Photo EditorOn Saturday morning, the Big Ten East's four heavyweights (Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State) were all undefeated in conference play and a combined 22-2 on the season (those two losses were against currently undefeated teams in Utah and Temple). After a stunning victory by Michigan State and an excellent performance by OSU, the true top dogs of the division have become just a little more clear.With the season already halfway done, OSU coach Urban Meyer still seems no closer to deciding on which quarterback will take the reins to the offense than he did during the entire offseason. After OSU's most dominant performance of the season, however, it doesn't seem to matter. At least not yet.Despite once again falling behind early and failing to score in the first quarter, the OSU offense stepped on the gas in the second and put up 21 unanswered points against a stout Penn State defense en route to a 38-10 blowout win.Ever since Meyer began to phase J.T. Barrett into the game more last week, the redshirt sophomore quarterback has been electric, leading the Buckeye offense to 10 touchdowns and a field goal in 11 red zone appearances. Barrett finished the game completing all four of his passes for 30 yards and two touchdowns to go along with 102 yards and two more touchdowns on 11 carries on the ground.Redshirt junior Cardale Jones ended the game 9-of-15 passing for 84 yards, his lowest yardage total for the season. Meanwhile, junior running back Ezekiel Elliott, a stalwart for the Buckeye offense, pounded away 153 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries. In total, OSU managed to gain 429 yards and 25 first downs against one of the top defenses in the nation.Penn State junior quarterback Christian Hackenberg, claimed by some to be the highest-rated quarterback for next year's NFL draft, was ineffective all night long, finishing the night 7-of-13 passing for 120 yards. However, true freshman running back Saquon Barkley looked impressive for the Nittany Lions as he gashed the Buckeye defense for 194 yards on 26 carries after missing the previous two games for Penn State.Penn State will host a struggling Maryland team next week as it fights to become bowl eligible, while OSU will travel to Rutgers in search of its nation-leading 21st straight victory. By the numbers:4: OSU's current win streak against Penn State, its longest in the history of the programs.17-13: The all-time record between Penn State and OSU, favoring the Buckeyes.1: The amount of losses OSU has suffered against Big Ten competition at night in Ohio Stadium. The team that beat them? Penn State in 2008 by a score of 13-6.23: The number of consecutive games in which redshirt junior wide receiver Michael Thomas has caught a pass for the Buckeyes. He currently leads the team with 433 yards and 30 receptions.108,423: The number of fans crammed inside the 'Shoe last night, the second-largest crowd in history to watch the Buckeyes play.9: After last night, Elliott became the ninth running back in OSU history to rush for 3,000-plus career yards. He currently has 3,028 yards to his name.38: Under current coach James Franklin, Penn State prides itself on having a great defense. The 38 points put up by the Buckeyes were the most given up by Penn State in a game since 2013, when the Nittany Lions also played in Columbus and got embarrassed 63-14. 3: Since 2010, Penn State has allowed its opponents to rush for more than 300 yards in a game only three times. All three times, it was against the Buckeyes inside Ohio Stadium. read more
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Mens basketball Keita BatesDiops injury could have been worse now ahead of
Sophomore forward Keita Bates-Diop talks to the media on Feb. 23 for the first time since his surgery on his left shin. Credit: Jacob Myers | Assistant Sports EditorNot much has gone right for the Ohio State men's basketball team this year, making it all the more difficult for sophomore forward Keita Bates-Diop as he goes through rehabilitation after surgery on his left shin.The Buckeyes lost arguably their most dynamic player following a 76-75 loss to Purdue on Jan. 5. Bates-Diop sat out that game and coach Thad Matta informed the media in the postgame press conference that the forward would redshirt and be out for the year. Since that game, Bates-Diop has had surgery and his recovery is ahead of schedule.But the injury could have been devastating."It was getting close to what could've been a compound fracture, which — Kevin Ware, Paul George — that's what would've happened," Bates-Diop said. "Don't know when it would've happened, but if I would've kept playing, it was a possibility. It was already decided I wasn't playing, but when they said that, there was no chance I was coming back."The 6-foot-7 forward from Normal, Illinois, had been dealing with the injury since the summer when another player made hard contact with his shin. He came back and still wasn't 100 percent, so the team mandated that he receive X-rays. "(The coaches) could tell something was wrong," Bates-Diop said. "I wasn't playing like myself. I was playing at a high level in the summer, until I did something wrong." Bates-Diop then suffered a right ankle injury against Providence on Nov. 11. He missed five games with that injury, but it wasn't until December that his shin began bothering him again. Bates-Diop recalled stopping abruptly versus Youngstown State on Dec. 20 when he felt a pain shoot through his leg. From then on, his injury didn't progress any and he was shut down for the season.Through the season Bates-Diop said he was near full health. He admitted on Thursday that wasn't the case."I told you guys that I was close to being 100 percent. I was not," he said. "I lied. I was never 100 percent. I was never close."Bates-Diop said that he had a rod placed in his left leg from just below the kneecap down to just above the ankle. He has two screws in his leg, one in each spot to anchor the rod. He said that the one near his ankle will likely be taken out. He was supposed to be on crutches for two to three weeks but was only on them for one week.As far as conditioning and lifting is concerned, Bates-Diop is working on upper-body strength, so by the time summer rolls around he can jump into skill drills.On top of all that, two weeks ago, Bates-Diop's brother collapsed during practice and was transported to the hospital, causing the Buckeye to head home. His brother was discharged from the hospital days later and Bates-Diop said his brother returned to school Thursday for the first time.While that was going on, OSU has fallen to 15-13 and 5-10 in the Big Ten before it plays No. 16 Wisconsin on Thursday night. Bates-Diop said one of the most difficult aspects of his injury is knowing he can't contribute to a team who's struggling mightily. "It's been very hard," he said. "Just dealing with everything I've been personally through and then the team. It's been a rough few months … since New Years."Bates-Diop was averaging 9.7 points and 5.2 rebounds before the injury. He said that he has taken a new role on the sidelines and has a new perspective outside the game that other players don't have — something he's hoping to carry over to next year."I think mental preparation toward the game. I was playing at a high level. I can get that back," he said. "But looking from the outside in, now I can change my mentality from the game. All that stuff I can teach these guys, especially the younger guys on what to do and what not to do." read more
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Mens basketball Big Ten unveils 201718 conference schedule
The Big Ten Conference released the 2017-18 men's basketball conference schedule, giving Ohio State first-year coach Chris Holtmann his first look at a packed calendar, which features two games in December and home-and-homes with Michigan and Indiana.The Big Ten was forced to schedule two conference games in early December due to the conference tournament being played at Madison Square Garden in New York, the week before the NCAA Tournament is unveiled in March. Traditionally, the Big Ten tournament has been the final conference tournament to end before the NCAA selection show.Ohio State will open Big Ten play with a trip to Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 2 for its only date with the Badgers, which follows the Phil Knight Invitational in Oregon and the Big Ten/ACC Challenge game against Clemson. Then the Buckeyes play at home two days later versus Michigan.Holtmann and his team will play one game at home against Michigan State (Jan. 7), Maryland (Jan. 11), Nebraska (Jan. 22) and Illinois (Feb. 4), and they will play one game on the road against Wisconsin, Northwestern (Jan. 17), Minnesota (Jan. 20) and Purdue (Feb. 7).Ohio State's conference opponents it will face twice are Michigan, Indiana, Rutgers, Penn State and Iowa.The Buckeyes have three consecutive road games from Jan. 14 to Jan. 20 followed by a four-game home stand from Jan. 22 to Feb. 4. Ohio State will end the season at Indiana, Holtmann's third away game in four games. Sun. Nov. 5vs. Wooster (exhibition)Columbus Sat. Dec. 16vs. Appalachian StateColumbus Sun. Nov. 19vs. NortheasternColumbus Sat. Jan. 20vs. Minnesota (Super Saturday)New York (Madison Square Garden) Thu. Jan. 25vs. Penn StateColumbus Thu. Nov. 23vs. Gonzaga (PK 80)Portland, Oregon Sun. Jan. 7vs. Michigan StateColumbus Mon. Jan. 22vs. NebraskaColumbus Sun. Feb. 18at MichiganAnn Arbor, Michigan Sat. Feb. 10vs. IowaColumbus Mon. Dec. 4vs. MichiganColumbus Tue. Feb. 20vs. RutgersColumbus Fri. Nov. 24Florida/Stanford (PK 80)Portland, Oregon Tue. Jan. 30vs. IndianaColumbus Sat. Dec. 23vs. North Carolina (CBSSports Classic)New Orleans Thu. Jan. 11vs. MarylandColumbus Wed. Feb. 7at PurdueWest Lafayette, Indiana Tue. Dec. 19vs. The CitadelColumbus Sat. Dec. 30vs. Miami (OH)Columbus Sun. Jan. 14at RutgersPiscataway, New Jersey Fri. Feb. 23at IndianaBloomington, Indiana Sun. Nov. 12vs. Radford Columbus Sun. Nov. 26TBA (PK 80)Portland, Oregon Sat. Dec. 2at WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin Sat. Dec. 9vs. William & MaryColumbus Sun. Feb. 4vs. IllinoisColumbus Thu. Jan. 4at IowaIowa City, Iowa Fri. Nov. 10vs. Robert MorrisColumbus Wed. Jan. 17at NorthwesternRosemont, Illinois (Allstate Arena) Thu. Feb. 15at Penn StateUniversity Park, Pennsylvania Wed. Nov. 29vs. Clemson (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)Columbus Thu. Nov. 16vs. Texas Southern Columbus read more
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Gallery Mens Hockey vs Michigan State
Members of the men's hockey team huddle up prior to the start of game one during Ohio State's hockey game vs. Michigan State on March 1. Ohio State won 5-1. Credit: Nick Hudak | For The Lantern The Ohio State Men's Ice Hockey team took on Michigan State on March 1 and March 2 at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus. Ohio State won game one 5-1 but lost game two 3-2. Photos by Nick Hudak and Casey Cascaldo.
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Currency Risk and Retirement: Whither the Dollar?
If you're nearing retirement, or even just starting to plan for retirement, you've probably started putting together a list of all the things you need to do and all the things you need to avoid. Make the right investment choices, diversify your portfolio, save more money, come up with a budget. You think you've taken care of every possibility, thought of every eventuality, and made multiple contingency plans just in case anything goes awry. But have you thought about currency risk?
Americans have been both blessed and cursed that the US dollar has acted as the world's reserve currency since the end of World War II. The Bretton Woods monetary system that was enacted in the aftermath of the war established the dollar as the reserve currency of choice, backed by a certain amount of gold, with the dollar redeemable by foreign governments for gold. That was supposed to bring stability back to a world monetary system that had been reeling for over 30 years from a combination of wars and depressions.
Americans were blessed because the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency meant that it would always be in demand by foreign countries. That pre-eminent status would mean lower borrowing costs for government debt, ease of foreign trade, etc.
Americans were cursed because their government officials very quickly realized that they could take advantage of the dollar's reserve currency status to create more dollars and use those dollars to buy more goods before that monetary inflation showed its face in the form of higher prices.
Other countries eventually got wise to this money printing and began to redeem their dollars for gold. Facing an eventual depletion of gold reserves, the United States decided to close the gold window in 1971, removing the last remnant of gold backing the dollar had left. From then on out, the dollar would be a fiat paper currency freely floating against other world currencies.
Since the closing of the gold window, the dollar retained its reserve currency status, both out of force of habit and because there was really no other currency that could serve as a credible alternative. But that has begun to change.
China has begun making real efforts to establish its currency, the yuan, sometimes called the renminbi, as an alternative to the dollar. Both Russia and China have pledged to reduce their reliance on US-based payments systems, creating payment clearing systems denominated in yuan. As a response to US sanctions, Russia has just announced that it is taking even further steps to reduce its dependence on US payments systems and the dollar. Since sanctions nowadays often rely on cutting off foreign countries' access to the US financial system, if other countries preemptively avoid that access then sanctions will have no effect.
The danger in the United States government weaponizing the US financial system in that manner is that other countries will inevitably create competing payments system that bypass the US, and may eventually adopt currencies other than the dollar to settle payments. As Russia and China are both large gold producers and gold consumers, there is even speculation that any future world monetary system may revolve around a gold-backed yuan.
For Americans who are used to the dollar's dominance, that could wreak havoc on their investments. It won't happen immediately, but 20, 30, or 40 years from now US financial markets could find themselves in real upheaval as the demand for the dollar drops. Since Americans' financial investments and assets are dollar-denominated, that could hurt them badly.
That's all the more reason to hedge against that currency risk by investing in gold. Gold is a universal currency. Every country recognizes the monetary role of gold, which is why every central bank holds or tries to hold gold. When demand for dollar-denominated stocks and bonds falls as the dollar loses its status as a reserve currency, gold will step into the breach for American investors, as gold-denominated assets will outperform dollar-denominated assets.
Gold will serve to shore up retirement portfolios, protecting wealth and retirement assets. Gold is in demand all across the world and always will be. So if you want to ensure that your assets are still working for you in retirement, make sure to make gold a vital part of your investment portfolio.


text:
module Picologic.Solver (
  solveProp,
  solveCNF,
  solveOneCNF,
  clausesExpr,
  addVarsToSolutions
) where

import Picologic.AST
import Picologic.Pretty
import Picosat

import Data.List
import Data.Maybe(mapMaybe)
import qualified Data.Map as M
import qualified Data.Set as S
import Control.Monad.Writer

-- | Yield the solutions for an expression using the PicoSAT solver.
solveProp :: Expr -> IO Solutions
solveProp p = solveCNF $ cnf p

-- | Yield the solutions for an expression using the PicoSAT
-- solver. The Expression must be in CNF form already.
solveCNF :: Expr -> IO Solutions
solveCNF p = if isConst p
             then
               return $ if eval M.empty p
                        then Solutions [[]]
                        else Solutions []
             else do
                 solutions <- solveAll ds
                 return $ Solutions $ mapMaybe (backSubst vs') solutions
  where
    cs = clausesFromCNF p
    ds = cnfToDimacs vs cs
    vs  = M.fromList $ zip vars [1..]
    vs' = M.fromList $ zip [1..] vars
    vars = variables p

-- | Yield one single solution for an expression using the PicoSAT
-- solver. The Expression must be in CNF form already.
solveOneCNF :: Expr -> IO (Maybe [Expr])
solveOneCNF p = if isConst p
                then
                  return $ if eval M.empty p
                           then Just []
                           else Nothing
                else do
                  solution <- solve ds
                  return $ backSubst vs' solution
  where
    cs = clausesFromCNF p
    ds = cnfToDimacs vs cs
    vs  = M.fromList $ zip vars [1..]
    vs' = M.fromList $ zip [1..] vars
    vars = variables p

clausesFromCNF :: Expr -> [[Expr]]
clausesFromCNF p = [ [ case lit of
                       v@(Var name) -> v
                       v@(Neg (Var name)) -> v
                       x -> error $ "input not in CNF: \n" ++ show p
                     | lit <- ors [clause] ]
                   | clause <- ands [p]]

ands :: [Expr] -> [Expr]
ands [] = []
ands (Conj a b : xs) = ands [a] ++ ands [b] ++ ands xs
ands (x:xs) = x : ands xs

ors :: [Expr] -> [Expr]
ors [] = []
ors (Disj a b : xs) = ors [a] ++ ors [b] ++ ors xs
ors (x:xs) = x : ors xs

cnfToDimacs :: M.Map Ident Int -> [[Expr]] -> [[Int]]
cnfToDimacs vs = map (map encode)
  where encode (Var ident)       = vs M.! ident
        encode (Neg (Var ident)) = negate $ vs M.! ident

-- | Yield the integer clauses given to the SAT solver.
clausesExpr :: Expr -> [[Int]]
clausesExpr p = ds
  where
    cs = clausesFromCNF p
    vs  = M.fromList $ zip vars [1..]
    vars = variables p
    ds = cnfToDimacs vs cs

backSubst :: M.Map Int Ident -> Solution -> Maybe [Expr]
backSubst env (Solution xs) = Just $ fmap go xs
  where
    go x | x >= 0 = Var (env M.! x)
    go x | x < 0 = Neg (Var (env M.! abs x))
backSubst _ Unsatisfiable = Nothing
backSubst _ Unknown = Nothing

addVarsToSolutions :: [Ident] -> Solutions -> Solutions
addVarsToSolutions vars (Solutions sols) = Solutions $ concatMap addVarsToSolution sols
  where
    addVarsToSolution sol = map (sol ++) $ sequence  [ [Var v, Neg(Var v)] | v <- newVars $ head sols ]
    newVars sol = vars \\ concatMap variables sol

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Quick Access to Mass EEA site.
Energy and Environmental Affairs
Agriculture, Fishing & Hunting
Land Use, Habitats & Wildlife
Water & Climate Change
Recreation, State Parks & Beaches
& Hunting
& Wildlife
& Beaches
Creating a Clean, Affordable, and Resilient Energy Future for the Commonwealth
Winter Energy Workshops for Farms
/ Green Business /
Gerry Palano
Energy/Energy Efficiency Coordinator, Department of Agricultural Resources
View Gerry's Complete Bio
The Winter Farm Energy Workshop series on technical assistance and financial incentives for farms and forest product businesses began its fourth season this winter. Intending to inform farmers across the state about funding and technical assistance available for renewable energy or energy efficiency projects, these free workshops provide current information and offerings from a number of state and federal programs. Included are presentations from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Rural Development (RD) Rural Energy for America Program (REAP); USDA's Natural Resource and Conservation Service (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP); USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) Loan Programs; Massachusetts state electric and natural gas programs; the Mass Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) renewable energy programs;the Massachusetts Farm Energy Program (MFEP); and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR)AgEnergy Program. Policy and legislative incentives such as net metering, renewable energy certificates (RECs), solar carve-out, and state and federal tax benefits are reviewed as well.
These workshops are sponsored by the Massachusetts Woodlands Institute (MWI), Berkshire-Pioneer Resource Conservation and Development Area (RC&D) in Amherst, and Patriot RC&D of Westford, and MFEP – a statewide collaborative effort to streamline technical and financial assistance available to help Massachusetts farmers reduce energy demand and increase profits. Created as a pilot and now completing its third year, MFEP has assisted more than 100 farms and helped implement more than 50 energy projects. Funded through grants from NRCS and MDAR, the one-stop-shopping program is gaining recognition as "Energy Central" for farms across the Commonwealth.
Federal partners last year provided over $2.6 million for 31 farm energy projects, including wind and solar installations and energy efficiency initiatives. Working through the MFEP in 2010 alone, Massachusetts agricultural energy projects resulted in annual savings of over 963,000 kWh of electricity, 20,600 gallons of fuel oil, 10,400 therms of natural gas, 130,600 gallons of propane, and 19 cords of wood – reducing agricultural emissions of CO2 by over 3,200 tons.
Among the many farms that have benefited from the knowledge of programs and services available through the Farm Workshop Series is Winter Moon Farm in Hadley, an almost year-round diverse vegetable growing operation. Winter Moon secured a REAP grant of $35,670 with the help of grant writing assistance from Massachusetts Woodlands and MFEP, as well as an AgEnergy grant of $11,990, and various tax benefits toward its 34 kW roof-mounted solar PV system. As a result, Winter Moon expects its clean energy project to pay for itself within seven years and – more importantly – help provide long-term energy and farm operation sustainability.
This year farm energy workshops were held in Amherst, Leominster and Carver, with one remaining at the Lanesborough Town Hall on February 11. To register, please contact Emily Boss, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, at 413-397-8800 or emily@masswoodlands.coop. For more information about the workshops or MFEP services, please contact Ann Gibson agibson@berkshirepioneerrcd.org or Darlene Monds Darlene.Monds@ma.usda.gov at 413-256-1607 or Gerry Palano at 617-626-1706, Gerald.Palano@state.ma.us. Additional information is at http://www.berkshirepioneerrcd.org/mfep/
lcapone
As Deputy Director of DOER's Green Communities Division, Lisa helps lead a team devoted to working with Massachusetts cities and towns to realize environmental and cost benefits of municipal energy efficiency and renewable energy. Prior to joining DOER, Lisa worked in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs from 2007 to 2012, first as Press Secretary and then as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Public Affairs. Her previous communications and public relations experience includes both government and the private sector, where, as principal of upWrite Communications, she served clients such as The Trustees of Reservations, The Nature Conservancy, and Partners Health Care/North Shore Medical Center. She began her career as a journalist, covering Beacon Hill for the State House News Service, and later wrote for a variety of other publications including The Boston Globe, Teacher Magazine, Animals Magazine, and The Gulf of Maine Times. The author of two books, Lisa serves on the board of the Saugus River Watershed Council and resides with her family in Melrose.
Massachusetts Named Most Energy Efficient State posted on Sep 28
Commonwealth Earns Top Mark on American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy Scorecard BOSTON – The Baker-Polito Administration today announced the Commonwealth has been named the most energy efficient state in the nation by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) for the seventh consecutive …Continue Reading Massachusetts Named Most Energy Efficient State
Savings Milestone for LED Lighting at State Facilities posted on Jul 17
Light bulb swap out program has saved an estimated $5 million to date since 2012 Who knew that changing light bulbs could save millions of dollars? Well, that's exactly what's happened at 39 state colleges, universities and agencies that have installed more than 85,000 high …Continue Reading Savings Milestone for LED Lighting at State Facilities
Baker-Polito Administration Sets 200 Megawatt-Hour Energy Storage Target posted on Jul 10
In accordance with bipartisan energy diversification legislation signed by Governor Baker in August 2016, the Baker-Polito Administration announced a 200 Megawatt hour (MWh) energy storage target to be achieved by January 1, 2020. The target, set by the Department of Energy Resources (DOER), builds upon …Continue Reading Baker-Polito Administration Sets 200 Megawatt-Hour Energy Storage Target
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Runje Zip Off Pants Women are robust and very elastic hiking pants which can also be worn as shorts. The Runje Zip pants are made from abrasion-proof nylon with 4-way stretch. Thanks to the Midori treatment, the pants tackle the issue of moisture management with ease. The pants can be easily transformed into shorts using a zipper. These simple and compressible pants are also ideal for longer tours.


text:
Unique and Affordable Things to Do in Lexington
Things to Do for any Budget
Lexington is a town like no other, so it's only natural that it's full of memorable and unique things to do.
Outdoor Concert at The Burl
For starters there's the Railbird Music Festival, which is Lexington's own summertime music festival hosted at the Keeneland racetrack. In years past this music festival has hosted talents such as the Dave Matthews Band, Hozier, My Morning Jacket, and a bevy of local talent. The Burl is another opportunity to enjoy some local talent. The Burl is a live music venue that also has a full feature 1980's arcade, and you can oftentimes find a food truck there.
Greyline Station
Greyline Station was once a bus station, and has since been renovated into a unique shopping experience. Filled with cafes, boutique shops, and even a live market, there's nowhere else in the city quite like it. Lexington is also the perfect place for vintage shopping for both furniture and clothes. Stores like RELIC and Street Scene Vintage are a must visit.
The Grove - Harvey's Bar and Beer Garden
Enjoy the best of both worlds at Harvey's Bar & Beer Garden, which has signature cocktails, hand-picked wines, and local brews on tap. It's also the perfect place to enjoy the outdoors and a truly unique ambiance. There's also Bear & The Butcher, a two-story, open-air popular hotspot that serves local sausages, street tacos, and more.
At the same time, having a good time doesn't need to break the bank. Lexington is full of affordable and free things to do, and here are just a few of them.
The Loudoun House
Lexington is home to a thriving art scene and a variety of museums and galleries, many of which are completely free to the public. 21C for instance, is entirely free to the public and features some of the best modern art in the world. The Loudoun House is home to the Lexington Art League, as well as a number of galleries, studios, and classrooms. The building in of itself is a piece of art, seeing as it is one of Kentucky's finest examples of Gothic Revival Architecture. There's also The University of Kentucky Art Museum, which features a rotating selection of installations and pieces, and is entirely free to the public, not only students.
Tasting Tours
Buffalo Trace Distillery
Ale-8-One is Kentucky's signature soft drink, and has been bottled in Winchester since 1926. Tour the plant completely free of charge any Thursday or Friday. If you're a fan of more adult drinking, there's also free tours of the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Bourbon is a staple in Kentucky's culture, and Buffalo Trace Distillery is a perfect representative of that, with a tour that is both informative and delicious--just be sure to make your reservations beforehand. You might get hungry after all that, which is the perfect excuse to venture over to Boone Creek Creamery. They are one of the last artisan cheese facilities in the entire country, and they offer tours and tastings completely free of charge.
Bluegrass Country Driving Tour
The Lexington Visitors Center offers a free Bluegrass Country Driving Tour, which will highlight some of the gorgeous views of the Kentucky countryside. There's also the (very affordable) option to admire the countryside by taking the Bluegrass Scenic Railroad. It'll give you a unique look at the Kentucky River, tobacco farms, and there's also a museum where you can learn more.The Lexington Visitors Center offers a free Bluegrass Country Driving Tour, which will highlight some of the gorgeous views of the Kentucky countryside. There's also the (very affordable) option to admire the countryside by taking the Bluegrass Scenic Railroad. It'll give you a unique look at the Kentucky River, tobacco farms, and there's also a museum where you can learn more.
Raven Run
Raven Run is a stunning and vast nature preserve found just outside of downtown Lexington. It is the perfect place to exercise, stroll, or just admire the beautiful local flora and fauna that call the bluegrass region home. Similar to Raven Run, there is also the 100 acre Jim Beam nature preserve, which gives you yet another opportunity to get up close to Kentucky's wildflowers and wildlife. For a more structured experience there's The University of Kentucky which has a gorgeous arboretum on campus that features an impressive collection of plants, and is free of charge to visit.
Horse Farm Tours
Bourbon Distilleries
Brewgrass Trail


Ray Quiel is nationally recognized expert in forensic arts and forensic pedagogy. He is also an award-winning Teacher, inductee into the Forensic Hall of Fame (EMU), Emeritus Director of Forensics, and a Distinguished Service Award Winner. At EMU since 1973.
His research focuses on the power of metaphor, especially the enduring influence of equine metaphors.
He is a consummate generalist with an irenical worldview.


An Interview with Director of Complex Diseases in Clinical Partnerships, David Kavanagh, by Eimear Doyle.
Having it every-which-way: Part-time farmer/ Full- time scientist, David talks with me about start-ups, air-miles, science, transience, and goats, of course!
David, what made you want to work in science?
My parents would say I was always asking questions…Why? Why? Why? I was a "tearaway" in school…really! But I was always good at biology, had a great teacher, so I gravitated towards it.
First year General Science was tough though as I hadn't had the opportunity to study physics and chemistry for the Leaving Cert–I did a Biochemistry undergrad in UCC, then a PhD in biochemistry -cardiovascular research. It was cell level work, lab work in UCD, so I moved up to the big smoke.
What is your special work arrangement with GMI?
GMI is a great company. I can enjoy flexibility, lifestylewise, and I need that as I've an interesting work / life set up. My wife is a school principal in Killarney and we have a farm - cows, goats — a weekend job. Farm animals look after themselves! Right??
It's an interesting blend of two worlds that are very different - GMI at the cutting edge of research: exciting, great team and intellectually very stimulating; and living on a farm in the country side - the polar opposite, but a great escape. If I gave up one or the other, I would miss it.
How did you find the move from academia to a more commercial setting?
I had a start up idea that came out of my PhD - a search engine for a research product- and I built a team around it. It started in UCD, then went on to the NDRC (Accelerator programme).
After three years I sold the business and worked for the company that acquired it - in The States and in Sri Lanka. It was a great journey, as I saw the business side of science, made loads of mistakes, and learned a lot personally.
Before I joined GMI, I was working with an Irish business services consultancy team in the area of American healthcare. Which was also great learning and experience. After two years, I was keen to get back into a science and start-up atmosphere.
What led you to GMI?
I encountered GMI in UCD. I met Maurice and knew Sean was involved, and I had met Dan through NDRC. We started having some discussions and was really excited about the potential of what the guys were trying to achieve.
When you take on a new role, there are key things that are important to think about: Will this job fulfil me? Does it excite me? Does it present challenges that are worth solving? GMI ticked these boxes straight away. But could I afford to take the financial risk? Was it secure enough to join an early stage company… Step out of a permanent job that was well paid? At a certain age, it takes some time to get comfortable with that. But it felt right and that's how it played out.
Our team is responsible for starting the collaborations, setting up the relationships, discussions with the doctors.
Our job is to take that study, designed as a national programme and excite people about it. The doctors have to be excited, which is a huge focus, but, equally, the participants need to be excited. It's our job to get those studies up and running.
Science is amazing, day-to-day it's a really fun team to work with, a great sense of growth and fun.
I'm impatient and direct. I get easily frustrated if I feel that we're not making significant progress…it gets to me. Managing that is a challenge. We're a growing organisation and not every growing organisation is figured out - and this has to be kept in perspective.
In another life, what would you be doing and why?
A farmer - I have the best of both worlds. I also play music, the guitar …. even did gigs…. But I wouldn't do it professionally. Science and farming have a lot of things in common. Increasingly agriculture is very scientific. I choose both.
What would you bring to a desert island and why?
Water. A guitar. A book. But is there foliage? Grass?
How would you describe the culture of GMI?
If you won the Lotto would you keep your job and why?
Yes - I don't do the lotto; so I am never going to win it. What about you?
If I won the lotto? I would become a professional swimmer.
Double jobbing??? Weekend farmer/weekday scientist. From Leinster to Munster and back. Finding his groove…..and I have trouble fitting in my swimming sessions!


Tyreke Evans will start on Monday vs. the Pistons.
Both Darren Collison (groin) and Wesley Matthews (hamstring) are out so Evans will be starting next to Corey Joseph. Evans has been outside of the top-300 for the past two weeks and only playing 21.9 minutes so maybe this is what he'll need to wake him up.


text:
by Van ©2010
_____ _____ _____
To see the actresses I would cast in the movie version of A FEW DAYS @ Seaglass
follow the link below and use your browser's "Back" feature to return.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
Our Story Concludes
Faith thumbed the buzzer beside the steel door of Del's loft apartment. She'd already had to use the spare keys Del had given her to enter the building, so she was unsurprised at the lack of response. She inserted the appropriate key, turned the lock, then opened the door.
"Oh, Del," she sighed as she crossed the threshold. She closed the door and engaged the deadbolt and the heavy top and bottom throw-bolts. Click! Chunk! Chunk! She then walked to Del's computer desk/work-table, deposited her purse and the package she'd been carrying, then turned to face the center of the loft.
Most of Del's place was one large, open space with a twenty-foot ceiling, and the only fully enclosed rooms in the conventional sense were the bathroom and a small utility closet. I-beams and stanchions supported an elevated sleeping loft that extended from the back wall. Access was by means of a spiral staircase. The kitchen was off to one side and the entire exterior wall was one big bank of windows. Normally, they afforded an unremarkable view of the unremarkable facade of the unremarkable apartment building across the street; but, at the moment, full-length, natural cotton drape-panels hanging from a wire track were providing complete privacy.
The owner of the loft was in the center of the space. Her arms were raised and she was hanging in midair! A kitchen stool was lying on its side a couple of feet behind her dangling feet. Del was naked, but for the pair of black leather cuffs buckled around her ankles, the pair of fleece-lined suspension-cuffs on her wrists, and the panel-gag strapped across her lower face. She was at full stretch, of course, with her wrists three feet apart and her ankles padlocked together. Her hair was up, coiled atop her head and held (presumably) by hairpins, although a thin, wispy stand had found its way free from the arrangement and was dangling to the side of her gagged face. She stared at Faith and forced a moan past her gag. "Mrrfh."
Faith could tell her friend wasn't in great distress. The heating system was turned up to an unseasonable level, accounting for the patina of sweat glistening on her tan skin, but her gagged expression signaled embarrassment and chagrin rather than pain. "Hold your horses, Del," Faith chuckled. "Let me check this out." She walked a slow circuit around the naked captive, inspecting her predicament and admiring her friend's toned, helpless body. Sooooo beautiful, Faith marveled. She focused on her helpless friend's dark, curly, pubic thatch. Hmm, needs a trim... Her smile turned a tad sinister. Or maybe a shave.
Del had rigged a steel cable and winch to suspend her bicycle over the main space. This kept it out from under foot when not in use while letting it serve as decoration. One end of the cable was anchored to a side wall by means of an eye-bolt up near the ceiling. The cable then traveled through a pair of pulleys clipped to eyelets in either end of the top of a three-foot steel bar; on to an eye-bolt on the opposite wall; then down to a hand-cranked winch bolted to the wall at shoulder height. The bar also had bottom eyelets, and normally they held a pair of padded, double-fork hooks that cradled the bike's handlebars and seat.
At the moment, however, the bike was leaning against a bookcase, the forked hooks had been replaced with simple snap-hooks, and the only thing suspended from the system was Delfina.
"Why the hell did you do this to yourself?" Faith demanded. "Never mind," she sighed, shaking her head. "I know why. 'Research.' Christina has created a monster. I should be surprised when I don't come over here and find you naked and tied up. Make it, how the hell did you do this?"
Faith righted the stool, kicked off her heels, and climbed onto the seat. "You're an idiot, you know that?" She unbuckled the gag and helped Del ease the attached plug from her mouth. It turned out to be a double-sided retainer of black PVC. "When did you buy this monster?" she demanded.
Delfina swallowed and licked her lips. "It arrived this week. It works."
"I bet," Faith muttered. "Well?"
"Well, what?"
"How did you do this yourself?"
"Oh, yeah. Piece of cake." Del nodded at the bar overhead. "I reached up and snapped the cuffs' rings through the hooks, then stepped off the stool."
Faith examined the hooks in question. They were equipped with spring-loaded swing-gates, insuring that whatever was being held by the hooks wouldn't slip free when they weren't under load. Right now, of course, gravity was the factor responsible for keeping Del a helpless prisoner. Faith shook her head. "It still had to be difficult."
"I had to experiment 'til I got the bar at the right height," Del explained. "Too high and it's difficult to reach the hooks. Too low and it's tricky to swing back onto the stool after I decide I've had enough."
"And being a colossal klutz," Faith sighed, "you tipped over the stool, anyway."
"Well, yeah," Del admitted, "but I've only been hanging here a half-hour. It's not so bad."
"Del," Faith sighed, "people die like this. It's a method of execution. Perhaps you've heard of it? Crucifixion?"
"I know," Del responded, "but it takes days 'til your diaphragm gives out and you finally suffocate. Anyway, you're early."
"Only by an hour," Faith countered. Gag in hand, she stepped off the stool and walked around to face her suspended friend. "We had a deal," she lectured. "You know you're not supposed to experiment like this without telling me ahead of time."
"I told you," Del protested.
"You told me to come over for dinner," Faith huffed. "You're didn't tell me you were up to something dangerous. What if I had a late meeting? What if I just decided to blow you off?"
"Uh, in that case... I guess I'd be screwed," Del admitted.
"Well and royally screwed," Faith sighed, shaking her head. "Like I said, Chris has created a monster." She pointed to the package on the desk. "That's the galley-proofs of Saddle Soap."
Saddle Soap was Del's new novel. In it, a female detective went searching for a missing friend who was into the local BDSM scene. The detective posed as an aspiring bondage model, so as not to arouse suspicions. Eventually (inevitably), things went wrong and she found herself a prisoner at a kinky, private country club, where she learned a great deal more about being a "pony-girl" then she would have liked.
"Final mark-up is next Wednesday in my office," Faith added. "I'll send you an e-mail with the time."
"Fabulous," Del sighed, "now, let me down and I'll get dressed and start cooking dinner."
Faith smiled. Del's toes were on pointe. Her muscles were sharply defined—her abdomen as taut as a drum head and her breasts stretched flat—as flat as their volume would allow, that is. "Well, I'd hate to ruin your experiment," Faith purred. "I assume this is something that might find its way into the follow-on to Saddle Soap?"
"Possibly," Del answered with a grin. "The ol' tortured-by-the-villains-for-vital-information bit. Hardly groundbreaking, but I want to give it a try. Uh, let me down?"
"How far along are you with the follow-on?" Faith inquired.
"Halfway to the rough draft," Del answered, "and no, you can't see any chapters. Not yet. Now, let me down if you want to eat."
"If you're going to be rude..." Faith returned the stool to the kitchen area, then removed her jacket and draped it over the back of a chair. "It's too hot in here," she complained.
"Not to me," Del chuckled.
"Actually," Faith said, "there's no need to cook at all. There's an Armenian place I've been meaning to take you to, and they do takeout." By this time she'd also removed her blouse and skirt and was clad in only pantyhose, panties, and bra. "This is better," she sighed.
Del mustered her best cajoling, pitifully sad smile/pout. "I'd really like to be let down."
Faith grinned and strolled to the winch on the wall. "If you insist." She thumbed the switch to the "DWN" position and began turning the hand crank. The pawl rattled against the gears as the drum turned. Click-click-click-click-click...
"Thank you," Del sighed.
Faith continued lowering the suspended captive until Del's toes were about four inches from the floor, then stopped. "Is this far enough?"
"What? No!"
Faith gave the crank a partial turn. Click-click-click. "How 'bout now?"
"Faith!" Now Del's toes were about three inches from the floor.
"Don't have a cow," Faith chuckled. "I'm just helping you with your research. Tell me what I want to know or I'll lower you into this pit full of... Hmm... Snakes? Spiders? Hungry rats? Dyspeptic ferrets?"
"Thanks for being a friend," Del sighed. "I'm suffering the agony of total suspension, you know."
"It's your plan," Faith countered. "And since those cuffs are wide and well-padded and designed for this sort of thing and you're obviously not in agony, I'm just availing myself of the opportunity to be a total sadistic bitch. I love your hair like that, by the way. Very Gibson girl. You ought to write something set in that period. Corsets, camisoles, frilly knickers, stockings and garters, button-down shoes, rakish cads with long mustachios and even longer whips, naughty French maids who tickle and tease their helpless mistresses... Think about it."
"Too much research," Del responded. "Too much research of the non-fun variety." She sighed, again. "You're really going to leave me like this?"
"Don't be absurd," Faith chuckled, and turned the crank. Click-click-click... click... click! "There," she said, and locked the winch.
Del's toes and the balls of her feet were on the hardwood floor, but her heels were still in the air. "Great," Del huffed. "Now you're only a semi-sadistic bitch."
"And loving every minute of it," Faith chuckled. She was climbing the stairs to the sleeping loft.
Del watched over her shoulder. "Taking a nap?"
"Looking for something," Faith answered. She was rummaging in Del's chest of drawers.
"What?" Del demanded.
"Where do you keep that—never mind!" She'd opened the nightstand drawer. "Found it!"
"Found what?" Del's eyes widened. "Oh."
Faith was descending the stairs with Del's wand-style, Hitachi vibrator in her left hand and the coil of its attached extension cord in her left. "Have you packed for next week?"
"It doesn't take long to pack a bikini," Del answered.
"Be sure and bring your little black dress, or something similar." Faith plugged the extension cord into an outlet near the desk. "Chris says we're definitely going back to that seafood place."
"Nobody dresses at Pantera Key," Del chuckled.
"Bring it anyway," Faith ordered. She was walking towards Del, the Hitachi in one hand, the gag in the other, and a very self-satisfied grin on her face.
"Aren't we bossy," Del sighed, and tugged on her wrist cuffs—or, more precisely, her biceps flexed a little. Her semi-suspended condition didn't allow enough slack for a bona fide tug.
"I am, anyway," Faith purred as she set the vibrator on the floor, then readied the gag. "You're not in a position to boss anyone, are you?"
"I thought you were gonna order takeout?"
"I'm early, remember," Faith countered. "There's plenty of time to call in an order. Anyway, back to Pantera Key. It's a two week vacation. I expect you to get some writing done, but I don't want you and Chris and Polly to spend the entire time banging away at your computers and ignoring me completely."
Del laughed. "Selfish much? I'm sure Chris or Polly or myself will find ways to keep you entertained. I bet Chris has some new toys."
"Be sure and pack this thing," Faith said, waving the double-retainer strap-gag in Del's face. "Polly will hate it."
"It's not that bad," Del stated. "I'll show you later."
"You'll show me now," Faith chuckled, and "forced" the plug into Del's mouth. The captive didn't actually resist. Faith stepped behind Del and buckled the strap.
"M'rrpfh!" Del complained. Faith had pulled the strap tighter than it had been before, when Del had gagged herself.
"It certainly seems pretty effective," Faith purred. "Let's give it a good test." She stepped to Del's left side, put an arm around her waist, and delivered a resounding slap to her right butt-cheek. Whack!
"Nrrrf!"
"What's that, Del?" Whack! "You don't want a spanking? Whack!
"Nrmfh!"
"Well then—" Whack! "You should follow the rules—" Whack! "And not do self-bondage without telling me ahead of time—" Whack! "Got it?" Whack!
"Mrrr!"
"All right. We have an understanding. One more for good measure." Whack!
"Yes, I really am a sadistic bitch," Faith chuckled. "You're absolutely right." She continued her embrace and began a massage of Del's butt with her right hand, the hand that moments before had been the instrument of punishment. "What a pretty shade of pink," she purred.
Del shivered in her self-imposed bonds as Faith's hand continued its gentle, circular motion.
"You're not fooling anybody, you know," Faith purred, continuing her massage. "Least of all me." She eased her hand between Del's butt-cheeks and began sliding the edge of her palm against her labia. "You're wet, Del," she stated.
"Mrrrpfh!" It was a moan, but not a protest.
"Why are you naked, Del?" Faith continued. "Surely you learned everything you'll ever need to know about what it's like to me a nude captive at Seaglass. Are you naked for me, Del? Did you really tip over the stool by accident, or did you wait 'til you heard my key in the lock, then do it on purpose?"
"Nrrrrr."
"No matter," Faith chuckled. "The result is the same. You're mine, Delfina Shaw. You're mine all night, and I finally get my revenge for what you did to me on my birthday."
They played like this about once a month. Not exactly like this, of course. It was always delightfully different. And it wasn't a regularly scheduled thing. Situations just seemed to pop out of nowhere and one of them would find herself the naked, bound, and gagged plaything of the other—about once a month. Sometimes Del would be the one on top, and sometimes it would be Faith. And more often than not, especially when they made a weekend of it, they'd switch roles at some point. It was a lot of fun, and it let Del continue the "research program" she'd started at Seaglass; but each encounter happened entirely by chance—or so they kept telling themselves.
"Now, down to business," Faith purred. She knelt and picked up the Hitachi, then resumed her one-handed embrace. She thumbed the switch on the handle—buzzzzz—nestled the throbbing saddle against Del's labia, and held it there.
Del flinched and squeezed her eyes shut. "M'mmmpfh!"
"We'll do this for one hour," Faith whispered, her lips an inch from Del's left ear, "until the time you told me to arrive. Then, I'll make my call. When the food arrives, I'll do my best to shield your naked, helpless, suffering body from the delivery boy, but he might see something. After all, you're in plain sight from the door."
"Mrrrf!" She's kidding, Del thought, I hope.
Faith was right about Del being wet. She'd been wet before Faith arrived. Her pussy had already started feeling a tad lubricated when she finished locking her cuffs to the bar. She stepped off the stool, and she was unmistakably wet. Then, when she tipped over the stool and realized with absolute certainty that she was well and truly helpless! And it really had been an accident... not that it really mattered. Anyway, after the initial wave of panic, she was really wet. Bzzzzz... And now, it felt like her pussy was melting! BzzzZZZzzz... Faith was varying the pressure—pressing the vibrator hard—then easing off—then pressing it again. BzzzZZZzzzzzz... She was playing her like the proverbial Stradivarius. BzzzZZZzzzZZZZZZzzz...
"I've reached a decision," Faith whispered. "I'm going to leave you like this all night. And in the morning, I'm going to crank you up high, turn on all the lights, open the drapes, and leave."
"Nrrrrrfff." It was a quiet, moaning plea.
"I'm sure one of your neighbors across the street will notice you, eventually." Faith's tongue probed Del's left ear, then she nibbled the lobe and gummed the outer shell. "Once the sun sets and it gets dark, somebody's bound to notice... eventually."
"Mmmmm." Del knew with certainty that this time Faith was kidding. At least, a part of her was certain. Mostly, she was... distracted... very distracted. BuzzzZZZzzz...
"Cum as many times as you want, Del-licious," Faith whispered. "We have all night."
BuzzzZZZzzz...
A FEW DAYS @ Seaglass
AT SEAGLASS
Christina was in the spare bedroom on the second floor, the one furnished (unfurnished) as an inescapable prison cell. The slats of the sunscreen/storm-shutter were open, allowing as much light to enter the dreary space as was possible with the shutter lowered and the metal grill padlocked in place. Chris was naked, and her arms were behind her back and zipped and buckled into a leather arm-binder. In addition, her ankles were buckled in leather cuffs, and the cuffs were clipped to the D-ring at the tip of the binder's mitten, enforcing a strict hogtie.
The arm-binder was of the single-sleeve variety, and it was new, having arrived in the mail less than a week before. Polly had experienced its tight, elbow-crushing embrace right out of the box, but this was Christina's first encounter. The black leather "garment" was top-of-the-line. The leather was subtle and soft, and the buckling straps sewn into the top and around the wrists were wide and thick. Some manufacturers sold similar products that were baggy and loose. They might still be effective restraints, but Chris considered them quite unattractive. This model, however, hugged Christina's arms and hands like a second skin, a tribute to the artistry and skill of its pattern maker. Although tightness alone was enough to make it inescapable, a pair of straps stretched from under each of Christina's armpits, crossed over her chest, traveled over the opposite shoulders, and were buckled to the top of the binder.
All of the binder's chrome-steel buckles were lockable, and the over-sized pull of the heavy-duty zipper running the sleeve's length clipped over the tab of the top buckle, allowing one padlock to secure both; however, neither the arm-binder nor Christina's ankle cuffs were, in fact, padlocked. Of course, unless Chris suddenly discovered her toes had magically become as dexterous as her mitten-encased fingers, they might as well have been.
Christina was also gagged, and it was a new model that had arrived with the arm-binder. Its mouth-stuffer was an oversize pouch of stuffed leather, and holding it in place was a harness of thin straps that caged her head like an equestrian headstall. To anchor the plug, a pair of straps buckled at the nape of her neck, another pair buckled under her chin, and a third traveled across her cheeks, met at her brow, stretched across her crown, and buckled in the back. Additional straps linked the parts of the system together. When properly adjusted, the harness encased the wearer's head and effectively locked her jaws around the plug. As usual, Polly had been up to the task. The soft plug filled Christina's mouth to capacity, leaving only enough space for a portion of her copious drool to ooze forth and dribble to the floor.
The Mistress of Seaglass was on her stomach, with her thighs, tummy, and breasts pressed against the unforgiving floor. She was near the wall opposite the closed and locked closet, and Polly had not been thoughtful enough to deploy the doggy-bed and ease Chris' condition. She'd already tried rolling onto her side, onto both sides, and onto her back. There was no comfortable position. Her shoulders ached like crazy, and her jaws felt like they were permanently locked around that insidious plug.
One day a month, Christina sighed. It's only for one day a month. That was the deal she'd struck with her protege in the aftermath of 'The Delfina Shaw Affair'. She owed it to Little Bit to let her experience the thrill of being the one in charge, now and then. And, truth be told, Chris was finding a little refresher training as bottom to be a good thing. Recreational aspects aside, the research was helping both of them with their writing.
Just then, the key rattled in the lock and the door opened. Polly had returned. "Miss me?" she giggled, then walked over to the captive, knelt, and began the somewhat involved process of unbuckling her gag.
"Gagh!" Christina gasped as the plug was pulled from her mouth. "That thing is nasty—" She licked her lips and worked her lower jaw. "—just like you said."
"And the single-sleeve?"
"Also nasty," Christina sighed, "also like you said."
Polly tossed the gag to the floor, then padded to the closet and unlocked the door. She was wearing a pair of denim cut-offs—"Daisy Dukes" Chris called them, although she'd had to explain the reference to Polly—and a white cotton blouse. A terrycloth headband was keeping her blond hair flowing back and out of her face. Her feet were bare, as always. She grabbed the doggy-bed, then closed and relocked the closet door. She tossed the mat in the corner, about as far from her hogtied mentor as was possible, then padded over and settled on the soft, sage-green fleece in a semi-lotus with her back against the wall.
"What are you grinning at?" Christina demanded.
"Teri made the grocery delivery," Polly announced, "and she was nice enough to bring the mail. The sleep-sack has arrived!"
"It's about time," Christina huffed. "I was thinking it wasn't going to get here before the city-slickers showed up."
The sleep-sack in question was a sheath of unbleached, cotton canvas. It left only the wearer's head exposed, and had internal sleeve-pockets to trap her arms against her sides. The main sack was closed by a pair of zippers that ran along the top, their lockable tabs meeting over the crotch area. Next, thin cord was laced through a double-row of grommets, snugging the canvas against the wearer's body. Then, wide, heavy straps of cotton webbing with friction buckles closed around her feet, ankles, knees, thighs, waist, above and below her breasts, and around her throat. D-rings ran down either side, positioned to lash the wearer in place or to serve as suspension points.
In preparation of its arrival, Chris and Polly had already installed concealed pad-eyes under the wooden frame of the bed in the guest room—the furnished guest room—and had elastic bungee cords ready to anchor a sleep-sacked visitor to the bed. The cords had snap-hooks at either end, and were sized to provide uniform stretch. They knew they might have to make adjustments in the individual lengths, but that was the sort of thing that could only be worked out with an operational test.
"Excellent," Christina sighed, rolling her shoulders. "You can try it out tonight."
Polly's smile turned evil. "I can try it out? It's my turn to be resident bitch-goddess, remember? I don't turn back into a submissive pumpkin 'til sunrise tomorrow."
"Yes, I remember," Chris said, dryly, rolling her shoulders, again. "Okay, I try it out. Now, we agreed no more than two hours in this damn sleeve. You are keeping track, aren't you?."
"Sorry, but it isn't time," Polly chuckled. She stood, unzipped and pulled off her shorts, peeled off her panties, then sat back down. "If you're gonna be such a big baby, I'll let you out and we can have some lunch, but first, I have a task for you to perform. Can you guess what it might be?"
Christina heaved a sigh, then started squirming towards her grinning Mistress-for-a-Day. "Remind me to have you refinish this floor," she muttered, "naked, hogtied, and with the sanding block strapped in your mouth."
"That won't work," Polly giggled.
"Then we'll rent an orbital sander and I'll clamp a double-dildo harness to the handle." Christina continued crawling, inchworm fashion, towards Polly. "You can vibrate your way across the floor, gagged and locked in chains. It should be most entertaining."
"What a creative mind you have!" Polly giggled. Christina was still less than halfway to her goal. "Move it," the little blonde commanded, waving her right hand in an imperious manner. "Polly's pussy is lonely."
◄ Chapter 9
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text:
El nü shu () es un sistema de escritura silábico que fue usado entre mujeres en la región de Jiangyong en Hunan, provincia del sur de China.

Idioma

A diferencia del chino escrito, el cual es logográfico (cada carácter representa una palabra o parte de una palabra), el nü shu es fonético, contando entre 600-700 caracteres que representan una sílaba en los lenguajes locales yao y yi. Esto es aproximadamente la mitad requerida para representar todas las sílabas, incluyendo las distinciones tonales; evidentemente, se usan dígrafos para ayudar a la lectura. Muchos caracteres Nü Shu se derivan de otros procedentes del chino estándar, aunque otros aparecen como derivaciones más o menos personalizadas. La escritura se realiza de arriba abajo y de izquierda a derecha.

Historia

En la antigua Hunan, la enseñanza del nan shu o "escritura de hombres" estaba vedada a las mujeres (véase lenguaje escrito chino). Se inventó entonces el nü shu y fue usado en secreto por las mujeres. Ellas aprendían el idioma transmitido de madres a hijas o entre cuñadas. Algunas veces los caracteres sirvieron como marcos decorativos o en artesanía, dada su forma más estilizada y estética que la forma "masculina". La mayoría de los escritos forman poesías con líneas de verso de cinco o siete caracteres.

A pesar de que la lengua nü shu existía desde el  de nuestra era, no fue conocido al mundo hasta 1983, debido al intenso secretismo que siempre ha rodeado a esta lengua.

Antes de la Revolución Cultural, era costumbre quemar cualquier escrito en nü shu durante el funeral de su autora, para que le acompañaran al otro mundo. Durante la revolución, fueron destruidos miles de manuscritos en nü shu, en parte debido al miedo que provocaba una lengua secreta y en parte por la misión de los Guardianes Rojos de destruir cualquier indicio de culturas antiguas. Como resultado, sobrevivieron muy pocos manuscritos en nü shu.

Tras la Revolución china, las mujeres tuvieron acceso a la educación y el nü shu cayó en desuso. El 23 de septiembre de 2004 murió Yang Huanyi (también llamada Yang Yueqing), de 98 años, viuda de un granjero, la última persona que hablaba este idioma. Yang fue una de las principales representantes de China en la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre la Mujer, celebrada en Pekín en 1995 y aprovechó esa ocasión para entregar a los estudiosos gran parte de las cartas, poemas y artículos que había escrito en ese lenguaje, que fueron recopilados por la prestigiosa Universidad de Qinghua en un libro publicado el año 2005.

Tras el esfuerzo realizado por la señora Huanyi, el gobierno chino ha empezado a esforzarse por recoger y recopilar los escritos, a fin de poder conservarlo como parte invaluable de la rica y rara herencia cultural china.

Situación actual

En verano del 2005, el sistema de escritura estaba siendo preparado para convertirse en el centro del turismo local, con previsiones para la realización de conexiones de autobús desde otras áreas de China a finales del año. El Jardín de Nü Shu en Jianyong posee una gran aula educativa abierta a los estudiosos del tema y una pequeña colección de bordado, "cartas del tercer día" donadas a recién casadas y utensilios de la vida diaria de las mujeres locales. Hay dos maestros de nü shu en el centro y unos treinta a cuarenta estudiantes que han completado el curso de un año.

En el pueblo, la señora He realiza "cartas del tercer día" en nü shu con traducciones en mandarín, encuadernados en la tela tradicional y cubiertas bordadas, y las vende a estudiosos y turistas. Está enseñando a su nieta a escribir en nü shu.

La escritura y lo que la rodea han atraído inversiones extranjeras, con dinero de Hong Kong pagando infraestructuras en posibles centros turísticos y una beca de 209.000$ de la Ford Foundation para construir un museo del nü shu, abierto en 2007.

Véase también

 Hiragana, un sistema de escritura japonés usado inicialmente por mujeres, como Murasaki Shikibu en La historia de Genji.
 La novela de Lisa See, El abanico de seda (Snow flower and the secret fan, 2005), que centra su argumento en el uso de esta lengua entre las mujeres de la provincia de Hunan en el .

Enlaces externos
En Español:
 El renacimiento del nushu
En inglés:
 The World of Nu Shu: a detailed history of Nü Shu and numerous illustrations.
 6-paragraph article of AncientScripts.com
 Details of Nushu at Omniglot.com
 A documentary about Nü Shu on CCTV website
 An audio interview with journalist and culturalist Lisa See on her research of Nü Shu

Sistemas de escritura
Alfabetos fonéticos
Idioma chino
Silabarios
Hunan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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