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Sold a Story (Podcast)
Transcript of Sold a Story E2: The Idea
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Episode 2: The Idea
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Emily Hanford: This is my big microphone.
Dan Corcoran: OK.
Hanford: All right, so will you just tell me who, who you are?
Corcoran: My name is Daniel Patrick Michael Corcoran. I am Irish.
Dan Corcoran grew up in a big Irish Catholic family in Michigan. There were twelve kids. He was number 11. And he struggled in school.
Corcoran: Didn't make it through the second grade because they held me back in the first grade. Um, I finally made it through the second grade. Went to the third grade. Same thing. Everything just kept following me.
He wasn't learning how to read. He couldn't spell. He would do everything he could to avoid reading and writing. Make up excuses. Get in fights.
Corcoran: People would laugh at me. Well, I'd turn around and look at 'em, like, "Don't do that or I'll kick your behind."
Dan never learned to read very well. But he got passed along. Graduated from high school. Took a job at the GM plant. Was let go after he got in a fight.
Corcoran: So I joined the Navy. And, um, I was boots in country in Vietnam, which means I was actually not on a ship, but I was Naval support and I worked for the chaplains. Chaplain Camfield, he knew right off the bat I couldn't read very good and I couldn't spell, so what he did is he had one of the other chaplain's assistants do all that stuff.
Dan did things like help arrange Jeeps and helicopters for the chaplains.
Corcoran: I got 'em where they needed to be. I had whatever they needed for their services. Like the cross – I polished that cross I don't know how many times. And um, I had to set up times where we'd go in and visit the sick and the dying.
Hanford: So you were like logistical support for the chaplains, kind of?
Corcoran: Oh yes. Yes, I was. There were some really touching moments. Um, it was the Tet Offensive of '68 and we got hit really bad that night in Saigon. Uh, there was a lot, a lot of stuff going on. And I remember chaplain Camfield says, "Well, strap up because we're, we're going to some of these different outposts." So we did. And we were out there for about three or four days. And went and helped the sick and prayed with the sick and all that stuff, and I was just kind of a tail-along. But he got the point where he was making me talk to these guys. And just listen to them. And I was a pretty good listener. I remember this one guy that, we came in and Chaplain Camfield says, "I want you to go talk to him." Well, his face and head was all wrapped up and he had one eye he was looking out of, and he had IVs all over him. And he noticed I was there and he stuck his hand out for me to hold on to his hand…Which I did. And uh, there was a nurse walking by and I, I asked her, I says, "Why aren't you taking care of him?" She just shook her head. I thought, what the hell is that all about? And then I finally realized this guy hasn't got a fighting chance. But before he died, he wanted me to write his mom a letter. I grabbed a piece of paper, a tablet that was next to his bed. And I just started writing. But I was straight (unintelligible). I didn't know what the hell to write. I couldn't spell. And he was telling me what he wanted me to write his mom. You know. He died. And I took the piece of paper and I just crumpled it up and put it in my pocket. I can't remember the guy's name. I knew he was a Marine. And uh, that just uh, that messed me up for a while. For quite a while.
Dan Corcoran came home from Vietnam later that year. He got out of the Navy. Worked a series of odd jobs. Stocking shelves, selling cemetery lots…
Corcoran: Worked for a lot of construction companies because, you know it was a shovel. It was a saw. It was a hammer. Um, stuff like that. Stuff I knew I could catch on to. Stuff I didn't have to read too much. Even though I could read a blueprint fairly decent. Um, my wife, God love her, um, she was always there by the phone. 'Cause I could call her and say, "Diane, I don't know how to spell this damn word. And I can't understand this." And I'd spell it out to her, tell her what the word was, and she'd tell me. Um, there was always that, uh, always that struggle. Always that, God, will I ever learn? You know.
It's not that Dan couldn't read at all. He knew some words.
Corcoran: Yeah, like "an" and "the" and "OK" and, uh, "boy" and "girl."
Short words. Common words. Words that he saw over and over again. Eventually, some of those words would stick in his brain.
Corcoran: But there's so many words out there.
That was his problem. There are so many words out there. And most written words were mysteries to him. He didn't really know what to do with them, how to unlock what they said.
This is Episode 2 of Sold a Story, a podcast from American Public Media. I'm Emily Hanford.
When Dan Corcoran was a little boy in the 1950s, no one really understood how people read or how little kids learn to do it. There were theories, but no one really knew for sure. Since then, there's been a huge amount of research. Thousands of studies. And what was once a big mystery is now common knowledge among cognitive scientists and psychologists and other researchers who study how people learn. But it's not common knowledge among teachers. And for the past few years, I've been trying to figure out why. What I've discovered is there's an idea about reading that runs counter to the scientific evidence. This idea is deeply entrenched in American education. Teachers learn about this idea in college. They learn about it in training they get on the job. The idea is in their curriculum materials. It's in tests they use to figure out a student's reading level. This idea is everywhere.
(Music ends)
Here's the idea.
Beginning readers don't have to sound out words. They can. But they don't have to because there are other ways to figure out what the words say.
That's it. That's the idea.
It's the idea that those word-reading strategies you heard about in the last episode are based on. Remember those? Look at the first letter. Look at the picture. Think of a word that makes sense. Those are ways for beginning readers to figure out what a word is without sounding it out.
In this episode, I'm gonna tell you where this idea comes from. I'm gonna tell you what's wrong with it. And then, I'm gonna tell you what happened with Dan Corcoran.
Our story starts on the other side of the world. In New Zealand. In the 1940s.
A young woman named Marie Mildred Irwin was in her second year of teachers' college. In Wellington, the capital city where she'd been born. Marie and her classmates were given an assignment: find a child who is having trouble learning how to read.
Marie Clay: And do something about it. No guidance.
This is from a radio interview. Marie died in 2007 so all the audio you're going to hear of her was recorded years ago.
Clay: I found a little boy who was about 11 at one of the center city schools. And uh, did what I could for him. And, um, I don't remember what the outcome was. So I think it probably wasn't terribly spectacular. But I do remember working with him and being very interested in trying to get something working with this child.
This little boy got her thinking about a question that would come to define her career: what can be done to help struggling readers?
Marie Irwin went on to be a teacher and then worked for the New Zealand Department of Education. By the early 1960s, she had married. Her name was Marie Clay. And she was working on a doctorate at the University of Auckland. She was still interested in kids who were having a hard time reading. She'd noticed they weren't getting much help in school. She said: "We have a school system which allows the good readers to get better and the poor readers to drop further and further behind."
Clay: So the problems were sort of getting really ingrained. And my idea when I started my special research here in New Zealand was – could, could you see the process of learning to read going wrong?
So she designed a study to try to understand what was going on with the kids who were having a hard time learning how to read. I'm gonna tell you about that study in a minute – because in time, Marie Clay and her research would influence the way millions of children around the world are taught. But first, a little background on what was going on with reading instruction at the time.
Before the 1960s, in a lot of English-speaking countries, there were basically two different approaches to teaching children to read.
Archive tape: This is Pat.
There was the phonics approach where beginning readers were taught how to sound out words and then practice in books like this.
Archive tape: Pat is a cat.
The other approach to teaching reading was known as the whole-word method.
Dick and Jane: Come here Dick. Come and see Puff.
Dick and Jane books were the whole-word method.
Dick and Jane: See Puff play. See Puff jump. See Puff jump and play.
In a Dick and Jane book, the idea was not for children to sound out the words. The idea was for them to see the same words over and over again and memorize them. Store words kind of like pictures in their mind.
In New Zealand, Dick and Jane were known as Janet and John. Same kind of books. Same idea about how kids learn to read. But by the early 1960s, New Zealand had done away with the Janet and John books. New Zealand had gotten rid of phonics instruction too. Because there was a new idea. The new idea was that beginning readers shouldn't be focusing on learning to read words. They should be focusing on getting meaning from what they were reading.
So, the New Zealand government started distributing a new kind of beginning reading book to schools. They were known as the "little books."
Boy reading: The Pet Show.
This is a boy reading one of those little books. It's called The Pet Show.
Boy reading: This is the day the pets come to school. A lamb comes to school. A cat comes to school…
These books sound a lot like Dick and Jane. But there's a key difference. The vocabulary in these books isn't limited to simple words like Puff and play. There are words with difficult spelling patterns – words like lamb – and calf and William.
Boy reading: Mary comes with the calf. Penny comes with the pig. William the goat will not come…
There are pictures in the books to help kids figure out the words. But the basic idea is that getting meaning from the story is more important than getting the words right. And that if kids focus on understanding what they're reading, they'll figure out what the words say.
Boy reading: "Come here, William!" they shouted.
This new approach to teaching reading was called the "book experience" approach in New Zealand. In the United States, it came to be known as "whole language." Not to be confused with the "whole word" method. Whole language was basically the idea that learning to read is easier for kids – and more interesting – if they start with whole stories, whole sentences – not individual words.
Mark Seidenberg: Whole language essentially said, "If we create a literacy-rich environment that is highly motivating and provides the right sort of materials, the children will figure out how reading works."
This is Mark Seidenberg. He's a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin who studies reading. He says the core belief in whole language is that learning to read is like learning to talk. That it happens naturally, through exposure to books.
Seidenberg: The essential idea is basically you learn by doing. So, children are supposed to learn by doing, not be told what to do. There'll be a minimum of instruction because kids will just figure it out as long as the environment is supportive.
But some kids were not figuring it out. Marie Clay wanted to know why. And she wanted to come up with a way to help the children who were struggling. So she began the study I mentioned earlier. It was 1963, the same year schools in New Zealand started using those little books. Clay identified 100 children in Auckland in their first year of school. And she observed them for an entire year.
Clay: I went into classrooms. I recorded exactly what children were saying and doing. And this gave me new insights for building, um, almost a new theory of how our children were learning to read.
Clay observed those 100 kids closely. She wanted to know: what were the good readers doing? And what were the poor readers doing that was different?
She came away from that study and subsequent research with her theory. Her basic idea was that good readers are good problem solvers. They're like detectives, searching for clues. She wrote: "You will be familiar with the old game 'Twenty Questions.' Reading is something like that game." According to Clay's theory, when good readers come to a word they don't know, they ask themselves good questions. Like, what word would make sense here? For example, if a girl in a story is getting ready to ride a horse, and she puts something on her horse that starts with an "s"…the word must be "saddle."
Clay also noticed there are things good readers don't do. They don't laboriously sound out words. They don't get stuck on the letters. She thought good readers use the letters in words as one of their clues. But she was convinced that letters are not very good clues. Not that reliable and sometimes just kind of confusing. She concluded that good readers use the letters in words in an "incidental" way. She thought they just skim the letters to confirm they're getting the meaning of what they're reading. And their last resort when figuring out a word is to sound it out.
This was Clay's theory of how good readers read. The theory she came up with while observing children trying to read those little books. She didn't think there was anything wrong with those books or with the way schools were teaching reading.
But it was clear to her that some kids needed extra help. And she wanted to come up with a way to help those kids. So in 1976 she created a program to teach poor readers the strategies that she thought good readers use.
She called her program Reading Recovery. At first, children would come to a lean-to behind an old house at the University of Auckland. Within a few years, Clay's Reading Recovery program was in schools all over New Zealand.
Clay: Barbara, how does a Reading Recovery lesson begin?
This is a video of Clay and one of her colleagues in 1987.
Barbara Watson: Well, it begins with easy reading. And we use a wide range of little books, little story books…
Clay and her colleague are sitting at a table with a box of little books. Kids haven't been taught how to sound out the words in these books – but they're considered "easy reading" because the child and teacher have read these books together many times before.
Watson: Can you explain why we do easy reading?
Clay: Well, there are lots of advantages in it…
This is Marie Clay again.
Clay: The easy text gives the child a chance to practice all the reading strategies that they've learnt so far. Ah, to put some of the complicated, uh, behaviors together which I sometimes call "orchestrating" the reading behavior. To do fluent reading right from the very beginning…
The idea here is to get books into children's hands. And give them strategies to deal with the words they haven't been taught how to read.
Marie Clay's Reading Recovery program is just for the lowest readers in a class. And just for children in their second year of school – the equivalent of first grade in the United States. Each child meets with a Reading Recovery teacher every day for 30 minutes for 12 to 20 weeks. It's intensive, one-on-one tutoring. And there's intensive training for the teachers, too. They spend a year reading Clay's books and learning her theory. Sandra Iversen was trained as a Reading Recovery teacher in New Zealand in the 1980s. She says the key part of the Reading Recovery lesson is when the child reads a book out loud and the teacher marks down all the errors the child makes.
Sandra Iversen: And then you had to analyze the cues.
The cues.
A Reading Recovery teacher is supposed to figure out what clues a student is using to figure out the words. Clay called them cues.
One cue for figuring out a word is the context – can the meaning of the sentence tell you what the word is?
Another cue for figuring out a word is the syntax – or the structure of the sentence. For example, does a noun fit here? Or a verb?
And a third cue for figuring out a word is the visual information – that is, the letters in the word.
Here's how it works in practice. Let's say a boy is reading a book and the sentence says: "The baby is napping." But the boy says: "The baby is sleeping." According to Clay's theory, the boy was paying attention to meaning as he was reading. But he was neglecting other cues – like the letters. So the teacher might ask, "What's a word that starts with the letter 'n' that would make sense here?" But Sandra Iversen says Reading Recovery teachers were not supposed to tell kids to sound out the word.
Iversen: No. You could tell them to look at the first letter. And it'll pop out of your head. If you're looking at the picture as well. You know, look at the first letter and it will pop out.
Marie Clay did not believe in phonics instruction. In one of her books, she described phonics as "nonsense."
Sandra says a child with a good oral vocabulary could usually come up with a word by looking at the picture in the book. Then the Reading Recovery teacher would ask the child to check the word to make sure it was right.
Iversen: You would say, "Does that make sense?" And then you would say, "Well, does it sound right?" And the last thing you might say was, "Well, would those letters fit?"
If these questions sound familiar, it's because you heard them in the last episode.
Teacher: Does it make sense?
This is the teacher who was helping Charlie and his classmates get the word "miss."
Teacher: Does it sound right? How about the last part of our triple check? Does it look right? Let's uncover the word and see if it looks right…
Teaching kids to read this way has become known as "three cueing." It's not a term Marie Clay used, as far as I know. But three cueing is based on her theory of how people read. An influential academic in the United States came up with the same basic theory at about the same time. The cueing theory provided justification for not teaching children how to sound out words…because the theory was that good readers don't have to know how to do that. They have other ways to figure out what the words say. This made sense to Sandra Iversen. She says she was kind of lost trying to teach kids to read. And then Marie Clay showed her a way.
Iversen: Marie was the goddess. You know. And, and I followed her faithfully. I loved her. Yeah.
Marie Clay became a hero to lots of teachers. Because she was saying we can identify kids who are struggling readers – like that 11-year-old boy she worked with when she was in college – and we can help them. We can make sure they don't get left behind. Clay said that 95% of the children in Reading Recovery could get up to the average reading level of their class – if the teachers were well trained and the program was well run. She said children who were successful in Reading Recovery in first grade would never need reading help again.
Clay: This is like an immunization. It's, uh, something you bring in early. Or another way I look at it is I call it – it's like an insurance policy.
Her program caught the attention of people around the world. Including three professors in the United States, at Ohio State. One of them had read a newspaper article in 1982 that said 30% of first graders in the Columbus, Ohio public schools were being held back. She thought, maybe Clay's program could help. So she and her colleagues went to New Zealand. They met Marie Clay. And in 1984, they brought her to Ohio to train teachers. Reading Recovery started in Columbus and soon spread to other districts.
Sharon Gilbert: Wow, we have never seen anything like this. The child is learning. The teacher is learning.
This is Sharon Gilbert. She became a Reading Recovery teacher in the Marion City Schools in Ohio in 1985.
Gilbert: And in the early years we had lots of phone calls from school districts on the East Coast and other places and they wanted to come to Marion to visit, they wanted to come to Ohio State to visit. They wanted to see – what is this new and wonderful thing?
Reading Recovery spread quickly across the United States. The U.S. Department of Education and state legislatures provided funding for its expansion. Reading Recovery is expensive. It's one teacher with one student, every day for 30 minutes. A recent estimate put the current cost at up to $10,300 per child. But the promise was that if schools made the investment when children were in first grade, they wouldn't have to spend money later on expensive remedial programs in the upper grades.
The Ohio State professors who brought Reading Recovery to America conducted studies of the program. Their research showed that most first graders who went into Reading Recovery were successful. We're gonna come back to that research in a later episode – to talk about how that success was measured, and whether the children ended up better off in the long run. But back in the 1980s and '90s, a lot of people believed that Reading Recovery was the best way to help children who were struggling to learn to read. Powerful people.
(Music: "Hail to the Chief")
President Bill Clinton visited an elementary school in Virginia in 1998 and raved about Reading Recovery.
Bill Clinton: I'm a big fan of the Reading Recovery program. And if you look at the research, it has about the best long-term results of any strategy.
The president was joined by his education secretary, Richard Riley.
Richard Riley: Frankly, this reading by the end of the third grade we think is probably as important as anything in this country. And if a child is having difficulties, this, this concentration through the Reading Recovery program just makes so much sense to meet that, that national goal.
By the end of the 1990s, Reading Recovery was in more than one in five American schools. In 49 states. And it was all over the English-speaking world. Australia. Canada. Britain. The queen of England made Marie Clay a dame. The female equivalent of a knight. It's hard to overstate the influence Clay had. Listen to how she was introduced on this radio program in 1999.
Announcer: Now Dame Marie Clay's name often appears in select company with that of Lord Ernest Rutherford who won the Nobel Prize for his theory of the structure of the atom, or Sir William Pickering who helped put the first man on the moon. There's nothing fanciful in the comparison….
Marie Clay was being compared to famous scientists because she had not just come up with a program to help struggling first graders. She had come up with a theory to explain one of the mysteries of the human mind: how people read. But Marie Clay's theory about how people read was just that – a theory. Even Marie Clay wasn't sure it was right.
Announcer: And finally this evening, someone who's had a profound influence in New Zealand schools, Dr. Marie Clay, author of many books about the teaching of reading…
This is Clay on a Radio New Zealand program in 1978.
Host: Looking at small children it's always seemed to me that this was one of the areas where we could legitimately use the word "magic" about how they learn things. Would you agree with this?
Clay: I would. And I think if you really pushed some of the most, um, forward-thinking theorists in reading today, you'd see that they are saying very clearly – there is this and that area of reading about which we know nothing. We don't know what's going on behind the eyes in these particular areas. And they're also saying, as far as I can see, it's unlikely we will ever know. So that will remain magic and all we can do in these situations is to arran – um, arrange good situations for children to respond to and then just guide their responding. They have to do the learning.
What Marie Clay didn't know when she was on that radio program back in 1978 is that scientists were about to do exactly what she thought wasn't possible. They were about to figure out what's going on behind our eyes when we're reading. They were about to figure out how people read. And it doesn't work the way Marie Clay thought.
That's coming up after a break…
** BREAK **
In 1954, a boy named Reid Lyon went off to elementary school. He was going to become one of the nation's top reading scientists. But as a little kid, he couldn't do it.
Reid Lyon: I couldn't read worth a lick. And that was, uh, kind of a traumatic experience for me.
He remembers getting Dick and Jane books in school. And he just didn't get it. He says it was his mother who finally taught him how to read. She showed him how to decode the words. Sounding them out with him, over and over. Eventually, he became a good reader. But when he graduated from high school in 1966, he says he wasn't ready for college. So he joined the Army.
Lyon: That was something that landed me very quickly in Vietnam.
He was there at the same time as Dan Corcoran, who you heard at the beginning of the episode. Reid Lyon saw heavy combat in Vietnam. He fought in the Tet Offensive. He was almost killed once when a piece of shrapnel just missed his head. He retrieved the shrapnel from the tree behind him and carried it with him for years. Some of his buddies returned home from Vietnam with horrible head injuries. And some of them had lost their ability to read.
Lyon: That was a tough thing to watch. But also an interesting thing – I wondered why that was?
He wanted to understand reading and the brain. So he went to college, to study neuroscience. He got a PhD. Started doing basic research about regions of the brain that contribute to the development of skilled reading. And trying to understand why some people struggle to learn to read, like he did.
This was the 1970s and 1980s. Scientists all over the world were getting interested in reading. They had new techniques and tools to study how people read – things like brain scans and eye-tracking technology. And they started testing out various ideas and theories. Like the idea that skilled readers use the letters in words in an incidental way – that they just skim the letters to confirm they're getting the words right. That's what Marie Clay believed. So did many other prominent academics. But was it true?
James Kim: There was a scholar named Keith Rayner who developed eye-tracking technology.
This is James Kim, a professor at Harvard who has written about the history of reading research.
Kim: And what eye-tracking technology allows us to do is it allows us to see what the human eye does when it reads text.
And what Keith Rayner's studies showed is that good readers process virtually every letter in every word as they read.
Kim: They didn't skip, they didn't look at whole words. And that finding was replicated over and over again.
Eye-tracking studies showed that good readers rely on the letters to know what the words say.
Another part of the cueing theory scientists started testing out is whether readers can use meaning and context to accurately identify words. If you cover the word with a sticky note, can you guess what it is? The answer is – you can try, but you'll be wrong a lot of the time. Experiments showed that even a well-educated, skilled reader could predict only about one in four words using contextual clues. Other studies showed that it was less-skilled readers who were more dependent on context for word recognition. Skilled readers were able to recognize words without relying on context at all. They could read isolated words instantly and accurately. It turns out that skilled word reading is not a detective game. It's not a game of "Twenty Questions" like Marie Clay believed. It's much more efficient than that. Skilled readers see a word and recognize it, in a split second.
By the 1990s, it was clear from the research that Clay's theory of how good reading works wasn't right.
Lyon: At its core, the theory was inaccurate. It wasn't tenable.
This is Reid Lyon again. He says what Marie Clay had described with her theory is the way that many poor readers read. People who have a hard time making sense of the relationships between letters and sounds come up with other strategies to figure out what the words say. They do things like – look at the first letter of a word, think of a word that makes sense. They guess a lot. Maybe getting the gist of what they're reading. But often not enjoying reading much, because it's slow and laborious, and kind of confusing. Reid Lyon knew this because he was seeing it in studies of real children. Large, federally funded studies that he was overseeing.
Lyon: It was pretty clear after a while that the readers who were having difficulty – you know, young first graders and second graders who were having difficulty – were actually the children that did try to use context. And it slowed them down further.
By the 1990s, Reid Lyon had moved from doing his own research in university labs to becoming what was essentially the government's top reading scientist. He was head of a branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The NICHD. The NICHD had established a reading research program back in 1965. By the late 90s, NICHD scientists had studied the reading development of more than 34,000 children and adults. Some of those studies were devoted to understanding skilled reading. Others were devoted to understanding reading difficulties.
Lyon: One question was – is reading the same as listening and speaking?
And in particular, do human beings learn written language the same way they learn spoken language?
Lyon: And the clear answer to that was no.
Research shows that human beings are born with brains that are wired to acquire spoken language. No one has to teach us how to talk. We learn to talk by being talked to.
Dad: Is Pop by the tub?
Son: No.
Dad: No.
This is my husband reading our son a story when our son was a toddler.
Dad: Is Pop in the cabinet?
Dad: No (laughing). It's just my toothbrush and toothpaste.
Son: Toothpaste.
Dad: Yeah.
I think this might be the first time my son said the word toothpaste.
But research shows that learning how to say words is different than learning how to read them. We are not born with brains that are wired to read. Human beings can get really good at reading. But our brains have to change for us to become good readers. And sounding out written words is a key part of this process.
Kah'Marii (sounding out words): S-a-v – saved!
This is Kah'Marii. He's in first grade. And he's on Zoom with his teacher, learning how to sound out words.
Kah'Marii: d-o-z-ing – dozing!
Kah'Marii is looking closely at each word.
Kah'Marii: s-m-i…
Trying to sound it out…
Kah'Marii: smi – ing
…and then suddenly realizing – it's a word he knows!
Kah'Marii: Smiling! Smiling. Smiling.
This process of connecting the pronunciation of a word with its spelling and its meaning is critical.
It's how your brain stores the written form of a word in your memory. You are born with a brain that can remember the pronunciation of words and the meaning of words. And as you connect the pronunciation and meaning of words with their spelling, you create new neural pathways that allow you to remember written words. Once a typically developing reader has looked carefully at a word a few times and sounded it out and identified or figured out what the word means, the written form of that word gets mapped into their memory. And once a word has been mapped to your memory like this, about the only thing that can take it away is a brain injury. Otherwise that word is there for you, always, in an instant. You don't have to sound it out or do anything conscious to recognize the word anymore. But you know the word because at some point you sounded it out and you connected the pronunciation of that word with its spelling and its meaning.
For some people, learning how to read words is pretty easy. Just a little bit of instruction and a lot of exposure to print is enough.
Bruce McCandliss: So some children really just have this knack.
This is Bruce McCandliss. He's a cognitive neuroscientist at Stanford.
McCandliss: They're really great at like, hearing all of the individual sounds within words, they play around with them a lot, and when they are exposed to reading, they start to make all of these connections sort of beautifully.
But for a lot of kids, making the connections between print and speech is pretty hard. They need someone to teach them how to do it. And the kind of instruction a child gets can put that child on the path to skilled reading, or not.
Bruce McCandliss did a study in 2015 to try to understand how different teaching methods affect reading development. He and his colleagues made up a new written language and brought people into their labs to learn this language. They divided their subjects into two groups. One group was taught the relationships between the symbols and sounds in this new language. The other group was told to just look at the whole words – the clusters of unfamiliar symbols – and try to remember them.
At first, both groups were learning.
McCandliss: Learning occurs in both cases. Like, people can master, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 of these words.
In fact, the students who were memorizing the whole words did better at first. Learning was slower for the students focusing on letter-sound relationships. But those students were soon able to read more words than the group that hadn't been taught letters and sounds. And when Bruce and his colleagues looked at what was going on inside the brains of their study participants, they saw something interesting. People who were sounding out the words were reading differently than the other group.
McCandliss: By really encouraging people to think about and attend to the nuances of the print and how they relate to the pronunciation, we see this activation pattern that looks a lot like what the expert reading circuitry looks like.
In other words, the people who focused on letter-sound relationships increased activity in areas of the brain that are associated with skilled reading.
People who were not taught to focus on letters and sounds used a different neural network to read. A network that is not as efficient or effective at helping you map written words into your memory. Other experiments – with adults and children – have shown similar patterns of brain activity.
How a person is taught affects what areas of the brain they use to read. And you want to use the parts of your brain that are going to be most efficient and effective at helping you map words into your memory. Because that's how you become a good reader. You're not using your brain power to identify the words. You're using your brain power to understand what you're reading. And that's the goal. Bruce McCandliss says teaching kids that they don't have to look carefully at words and sound them out is putting many of them at risk of never getting there. Of never becoming good readers.
McCandliss: I think more and more people are starting to recognize that there's a pretty significant number of kids out there that we're neglecting their needs. And the kids struggle and they suffer, and at times I've run reading clinics where the kids break down like the fourth word into a reading test and start crying and telling you that they're, they're a defective person who is stupid and doesn't belong in school and hates school and never wants to do anything with reading ever.
When I first started doing all this reporting on reading a few years ago, I didn't realize how many people have a hard time learning how to read. I think it came pretty easily to me and to my kids, and I didn't think about it much because I didn't have to. But according to Reid Lyon, the guy who oversaw all that reading research at the NICHD, learning to read is a formidable challenge for a lot of people. He estimates that about 60% of kids need direct and explicit instruction. If they don't get it at school, they might get it at home. But if they don't get it, they're not likely to become very good readers – or spellers. And within that sixty percent of people who need good instruction, there's a group of people who need a lot of good instruction. Because learning to read is really, really hard for them. It's not about intelligence. There are very, very smart people who struggle to learn how to read. But what the research shows is that nearly everyone can learn how to do it – if they are taught.
Corcoran: There was always that, uh, always that struggle.
Remember Dan Corcoran? The struggling reader you met at the beginning of the episode?
Corcoran: Always that God, will I ever learn? You know. And I did.
Dan Corcoran was taught how to read when he was 54 years old.
Here's how it happened. Dan noticed an announcement in a local newspaper.
Corcoran: All I seen it was – reading, helping kids. Or something like that.
He couldn't actually read the whole article but enough to get the gist. He showed it to his wife.
Corcoran: And so we called and within an hour we're settin' on their front porch. That's how I remember meeting Nora.
Nora Chahbazi: And I can picture you on that, my doorstep.
Corcoran: Sitting on the front porch?
Chahbazi: Yeah, on the front porch, and, um…
Nora Chahbazi was getting ready to open a tutoring center in Flushing, Michigan. Dan didn't have much money. He was working as a house painter at the time.
Corcoran: And I'm thinking, "Man, we can barter this. We, we can do some kind of bartering." And then she said she was Irish. And I said, "Now I know we can barter!" (laughs) So, and that's what we did.
Dan painted Nora's tutoring center. And Nora taught Dan how to read.
Hanford: What did she teach you about the way words work that unlocked 'em for you a little bit better?
Corcoran: Um, sounds. Um, drawing 'em out with your finger. OK. Writing 'em on the whiteboard, just over and over and over again. And the next thing you know, you can – De – duh – suh-i-m – ber. You got it. That's December.
He's looking at a calendar on the wall. It says at the top: "Calendar: Yearly Planner." I ask Dan how he would have read those words earlier in his life – before Nora taught him how to read.
Corcoran: Ah, maybe, "er-ah." Pshhh…I don't know what it is. And then, C-a – I got Cal – c-a-l – and the rest of it has got to be calendar. Ah, that last word. Pl. Pal – er. Shit, I don't know. Is that? Since I've learned to read much better, it's "planner."
For Dan, reading used to be like a detective game. Most words were puzzles and he was searching for clues. He had strategies. Look at some of the letters, make a good guess. That's how Marie Clay described skilled reading. But it's not the way skilled reading works. What Clay was observing – what she could see – does not explain what's going behind our eyes as we read. It does not explain what's going on inside our brains. Clay didn't know it, but she was actually describing the way that poor readers read. "Look at the first letter." "Think of a word that makes sense." These are the strategies that struggling readers use to get by. No one has to teach them these strategies. They'll come up with them on their own if they don't know how to read the words. Which is why it's all the more shocking that in schools all over the country, kids are actually being taught these strategies.
Seidenberg: There's no question that it's making it harder for children to succeed.
This is Mark Seidenberg again, the cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin. He says the word-reading strategies are harming some children.
Seidenberg: Making it this much more difficult to acquire just the really basic foundational reading skills sets them off in a very bad direction. You know, you get reports of children who finally do succeed at reading with this kind of one-hand-tied-behind-your-back sort of approach, but they really don't like reading. Uh, some kids do finally make it. But man, it was really painful.
Little kids, in classrooms all over the country, are being taught to read the way that poor readers read. But their teachers have been taught that this is how good readers read. According to a 2019 survey, Marie Clay was the researcher most likely to be introduced to teachers when they were in college. Followed close behind by two American women who turned Marie Clay's program for struggling first graders into a popular approach for teaching all kids to read. I'm going to tell you about that in the next episode.
But I want to tell you one more thing about Dan Corcoran before we go.
Hanford: A couple more questions and then we're done. But how has it changed your life to be able to read better?
Corcoran: Huh. Well, uh, how does it change my life? Much, much better. Um. Not scared to try things. Uh, I've, uh, started a couple of businesses since I've learned how to read.
Hanford: Could you have started those businesses without the reading skills you have now?
Corcoran: No. No way. No. You gotta read contracts, you have to read reports. You have to read, uh, you just gotta read.
Corcoran: I mean there's so much (laughing). But I also, I question a lot. My sons, it drives 'em nuts. That I question contracts. I question words in contracts. Umm. But if we don't know what that means, we could be up for lawsuits or in trouble. So.
The company that Dan started with his sons installs ramps and doors and grab bars for disabled veterans. The men and women who made it home from war but need help with daily life.
Corcoran: So any way we can help a person get in and out of their home, their bathroom, their car, the living room, you name it. That's what we do.
And every month, Dan gives part of his income to support Nora Chahbazi's tutoring center. He refers to his donations as "tithing." Like tithing to a church. He says he does it because lots of kids still aren't learning to read – just like him 70 years ago.
Corcoran: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know. There's a lot of us out there but a lot of us cover it up really good.
Corcoran: Why do we have to go through that though? Why?
Next time on Sold a Story…
George W. Bush: We will launch a new initiative called Reading First.
Bush: But we will only support effective programs. Effective reading strategies.
Teacher: What is that word?
Kids: Eats.
Teacher: Sound it out.
Teacher: What word?
Teacher: Start from the beginning of that sentence. Go on.
Christine Cronin: It felt like going back to that classroom where everyone is sitting in rows and everyone being in lock step. And that felt really bad.
Lyon: I'd have five teachers two inches from my face just tearing me up and down.
Carrie Chee: You know, the sense of war with reading wars is very true. That you just absolutely reject other pieces of evidence coming at you because you can't believe their source.
Sold a Story is a podcast from American Public Media. It's produced by me, Emily Hanford, with Christopher Peak. The audio editor is Catherine Winter. Dave Mann and Andy Kruse are the digital editors. Mixing and sound design are by Chris Julin and Emily Haavik. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. We had reporting and production help from Angela Caputo, Will Callan and Chole Marie Rivera. Fact-checking by Betsy Towner Levine.
Special thanks to Chris Worthington, Lauren Humpert and Kristine Hutchens. And also to Cooper Marsden, Joseph Wycoff and Melanie Esplin.
The final mix of this episode was by Derek Ramirez.
We have a website where you can find more information about this podcast. And links to the reporting we've been doing on this topic for years. It's SoldaStory.org. There's also a new piece where I recommend ten essential things you can read if you want to know more about the science of reading. It's up now at SoldaStory.org.
Support for this podcast comes from the Hollyhock Foundation, the Oak Foundation, and Wendy and Stephen Gaal.


text:
Scott Macom Hosts Fire N Ice Every Sunday Night on WOND
Scott Macom has had one of the most diverse career paths of any person we've ever interviewed. After attending Villanova University he worked as a trader on Wall Street right as the bottom fell out of the market in 1987. Then it was off to Law School at the University of Akron. He practiced law in Ohio until becoming the youngest judge ever appointed to the bench in that state. After his three year term he moved to New Jersey where he set up a law practice. He has written several books, is fluent in Russian, is a member of the National Ski Patrol and a Volunteer Firefighter.
But it's his love of cooking that lead him to his current position as a radio DJ. Through the years Scott began writing for a cooking magazine and became immersed in the food world. He was invited by New Jersey AM radio station WOND as a recurring guest on a cooking show for Table for One and did such a good job, the station made him an offer.
In a recent interview with Scott he recalled the day they approached him. "Eventually the staff upstairs came down and said, 'Hey you're really good on the radio. Do you want your own show?' And I said, 'What would that be about?' They said, 'Do you want to do a law show?' And I said, 'Oh god no, I do that all week.'"
Scott began thinking about the kind of show he could do. While at a Chowder Fest in Long Beach Island, he ran into a fellow food journalist, Rich Dobbins, with whom he shared a similar sense of humor. Scott got a crazy idea. "I asked him if he wanted to do a radio show together. He said, 'What would it be about?' I said, 'Well I'm definitely fire and you're definitely ice so why don't we call it Fire N Ice?'"
So now they had a name, but what would they talk about? "We ended up going with intellectual humor… the smart side of humor, kind of like The Big Bang Theory on radio. There's no sports, there's no politics, there's no smut. You can learn something but at the same time have a really, really good time."
There's no rhyme or reason to the guests on Fire N Ice. They have ranged from rocker Ted Nugent to Space Shuttle Commander Terry Hart. He's interviewed artists, museum curators, photographers, authors, scientist, announcers and more.
Scott enjoys talking to all his interviewees but has a soft spot for one. "My favorite guest probably was Ted Nugent because we got to talk about hunting for the first 15 minutes of his interview to promote his show. My dream interview is Steven Hawkins, but I've got so many different people I would love to talk to."
With all this pop culture knowledge we knew Scott would have an interesting answer to our question, which pop culture icon would he choose to walk in their shoes for one day. "Andy Warhol. Because I think it would be so fantastic to be in that weird, weird world that he lived in. I would love to be in there. It would only be for one day because I don't think you could take it for more than one… I think I would also have loved to have been a fly in the Oval Office when Richard Nixon was wiping out those tapes. I think that would have been an awful lot of fun to watch that, too."
And with all his varied interests, we wondered what he would choose to say he was most passionate about. "I am the most passionate about sucking the marrow out of life."
Tune in to Fire N Ice on WOND 1400 am or listen live online at www.wondradio.com Sunday nights from 5-7 p.m. EST.
Labels: Interviews, Radio

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
CREATE TABLE World (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    randomnumber INTEGER NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO World (id, randomnumber) VALUES (1, 101);
INSERT INTO World (id, randomnumber) VALUES (2, 102);
INSERT INTO World (id, randomnumber) VALUES (3, 103);
INSERT INTO World (id, randomnumber) VALUES (4, 104);
INSERT INTO World (id, randomnumber) VALUES (5, 105);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Confusions regarding proof of tensor products preserve right exactness This is a follow-up to my previous question.

Question:
How are they able to replace $A \otimes M$, $B \otimes M$ and $C \otimes M$ by $A \times M$, $B \times M$ and $C \times M$ respectively in the commutative diagram?
I'm especially confused here since the tensor product doesn't just consist of simple tensors. It's possible that some weird linear combination $\sum_i a_i \otimes m_i$ lies in $\ker(j \otimes 1)$ but the individual simple tensors $a_i \otimes m_i$ don't, where each $a_i \in A, m_i \in M$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Tobias Kasperlik looks skeptical as he settles into the driver's seat of the E-Golf. True, there's nothing in the vehicle interior that's unfamiliar to the head of Rheinmetall Automotive's Aftermarket division, but when he pushes the start button – apart from the dashboard displays lighting up – nothing seems to happen. But then suddenly, the vehicle starts to move, silently accelerating.
This is the first time Kasperlik has ever driven a vehicle powered solely be electricity. He's keen to experience the vehicle, wondering out loud whether the market is ready for e-vehicles, especially given the still patchy infrastructure. But after just a few meters, he's clearly impressed: "The acceleration is amazing." It remained to be seen how the vehicle would react to the Northern-Germany-born executive's dynamic driving style on a freezing cold day in Düsseldorf. He knows his way around Düsseldorf, having completed his legal internship in the city. Even then, it was clear to him that he didn't want to practice law. What's more, ever since he was a young teenager, he'd had a passion for "everything on two or four wheels that was fast." His first car, a not-exactly-speedy Opel "Kadett A" already earmarked for the scrapyard, was given to him by an Opel dealer. He was just 14 at the time. Learning the hard way, he and a friend completely rebuilt the transmission, among other things, and eventually managed to get the vehicle up and running again. The question as to whether the proud young mechanic ever drove the car himself remains shrouded in secrecy.
His passion for the automobile never waned. While he was studying law in Münster, he was able to top up his income by selling classic cars. Kasperlik was primarily interested in rust-free automobiles, which he would search for in the arid American West. This combination of hobby and travel turned out to be a big plus for his continued legal training, for he was one of very few young lawyers selected to spend part of their internships in the United States.
His international training also came in handy after Kasperlik passed his second state legal exam. When looking for his first job, his love of cars naturally drew him to the automobile industry: he found his niche at Mannesmann VDO, where the purchasing department was looking for a lawyer with international experience.
He was supposed to provide his purchasing colleagues with legal support: "I was very surprised by how few things were contractually documented back then, even in major transactions between customers and suppliers that involved major capital expenditure. On the other hand, disputes were rare." Today, according to Kasperlik, companies are a lot more likely to go to court, due in part to the enormous size of the sums in dispute, for example when large numbers of defective products have to be recalled. In the meantime, Kasperlik – as if acting on instinct – repeatedly eyes the Golf's range indicator. He's been driving now for 15 minutes, and the batteries are still good for another 228 kilometers. After embarking on his career, he found himself involved in the operational side of the business far more quickly than he expected. Kasperlik, a 57-year-old family man with two daughters, says his career has been a perfect combination of technical, commercial, and legal work – even though he has to admit that he's had less to do with actual cars than he originally expected.
From the outside, it almost looks like any other Golf. Under the hood, though, everything's definitely different.
But his lifelong hobby of collecting and restoring old cars still stands him in good stead, with the accent on sleek design and powerful engines. His current favorites are a 1962 Jaguar E-Type coupé and a very rare Intermecchanica Italia from 1969, of which only around 300 were produced.
In the meantime, Kasperlik has driven through Düsseldorf's famous Old Town, already warming-up for this year's carnival. After stopping in the city's Medienhafen district, he heads back to the other side of the Rhine. Precise and to the point, he sums up his impressions in true Northern German fashion: "Better than expected," declares this fan of classic Porsches. "The Golf is unusually quiet and handles just like other members of its family. And the acceleration is impressive." It all comes down now to getting the operating perimeters right, things like charging times. And speaking of charging: after 27 kilometers of driving at moderate speeds in urban traffic and in wintery conditions (without anyone feeling cold in the passenger compartment!), the E-Golf – which incidentally has a very roomy trunk – still had a range of 171 kilometers.
After such a short trip, recharging wasn't really necessary: at the end of the test drive, the E-Golf still had a range of 171 kilometers.


text:
World March 20, 2021 <March 20, 2021
Government agreement, green light to order. Dragi: "Important response to poverty. April 8 to 11 billion businesses "
This order is an important response to poverty with the need to help businesses and workers. This is a partial answer, but it's the maximum we can do with this order. Mario Draghi gives the green light to a system that aims to "give everyone more money and pay as fast as possible". Payments will begin on April 8, "if all goes well, 11 billion will enter the economy circuit," explains the Prime Minister, explaining how the newly dismissed order will work in favor of the self-employed. . But above all, he hopes that the "reduction" of those who suffer "job loss and recurring loss of benefits" will be favored. Of course, the head of government said, "This order is a partial answer, but this is the best we can do. Three-quarters of the money is allocated to businesses." No wonder Palazzo underlined Chigi's number one, "We have already considered the theory that a second share can be obtained while presenting the financial and economic document". Funds, of course, also create additional public debt. But here the Prime Minister is very clear: about this is not the time to think about it. The rules of the Stability Agreement will be discussed, and it is difficult to keep them that way: debt requests have been made in Germany, Spain and France. The time will come to look at public debt, but this is not the case in an economy that is in a recession. In short, despite the growing debt, "this is not the time to think about it." To those who are skeptical about quoting tax bills, the head of government replies, "This is a general amnesty. Within a bracket, the income limit, for a very small amount, allows zero bills. The overburdened government tells me to deal more efficiently with tax evasion. Importantly, the fact that amnesty is available today would not solve the problem.
See also Town Corridor admits new funds dismantles device for placard crackdown
After a two-and-a-half-hour arms race, Minister Daniel Franco and Prime Minister Mario Draghi passed a mediation order in the folder node, raising doubts about a broader amnesty. So yes to cancel old files, but only with income tax not exceeding 30,000 euros. The white-shot shot on the cards is valid until 2011, initially it must be in the period 2000-2015. Until 2015, this was the mediation reached at CDM, and the cancellation should be linked to an upgrade for the efficiency of the collection system requested by Lega and Fi. The impression I got from the CDM today – Mario Draghi explains – was a satisfying experience to see everyone sharing on the table and trying to reconcile different perspectives, and above all it went well for me. We do not anticipate new changes, and the next few days will be crucial: we will try to see how the economy, the vaccination campaign, and the pandemic go. " Yes, it is another crucial issue for the Pandemic government, but above all for the country. The head of government here explains that the slowdown in the vaccination campaign was not devastating. Ast I have not yet made a reservation, – explains the Prime Minister – but my age has entered those who can access vaccination, I will do it, of course I will do AstraZeneca. My son did this yesterday in London, no doubt, no defense. Finally, a joke about the future of government. "Parliament will decide its time horizon – he says – my job is to try to do it the way I consider it and the way ministers share it, as soon as possible, but the horizon is defined only by parliament."
See also Plane crashes with 132 people on fire in China: fire China Eastern stopped all their Boeing 737-800 aircraft
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G7, Draghi: "Comprehensive Growth Policy" Palazzo Chigi: "Leaders share PM's line"
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text:
package com.example.mobilesafe;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.SharedPreferences;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;

import com.example.mobilesafe.Service.AddressService;
import com.example.mobilesafe.Service.CallSmsSafeService;
import com.example.mobilesafe.Service.WatchDogService;
import com.example.mobilesafe.ui.SettingClickView;
import com.example.mobilesafe.ui.SettingItemView;
import com.example.mobilesafe.utils.ServiceUtil;

/**
 * Created by abc on 2016/1/30.
 */
public class SettingActivity extends Activity {

    //设置归属地显示
    private SettingItemView siv_show_address;
    private Intent showAddress ;
    private Intent startWatchDog;

    //设置黑名单拦截
    private SettingItemView siv_callsms_safe;
    private Intent showSafe;
    private SettingItemView siv_update;

    private SettingClickView siv_changbg;

    private SettingItemView siv_watchdog;

    private SharedPreferences sp;
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_setting);
        sp=getSharedPreferences("config",MODE_PRIVATE);
        siv_update= (SettingItemView) findViewById(R.id.siv_update);
        siv_watchdog= (SettingItemView) findViewById(R.id.siv_watchdog);
        //判断是否设置自动更新
        if(sp.getBoolean("update",false)){
            siv_update.setChecked(true);
        } else {
            siv_update.setChecked(false);
        }
        siv_update.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                SharedPreferences.Editor editor = sp.edit();
                //判断是否选中
                if(siv_update.isChecked()){
                    //已经选中
                    siv_update.setChecked(false);
                    editor.putBoolean("update",false);
                }else {
                    //没选中
                    siv_update.setChecked(true);
                    editor.putBoolean("update",true);
                }
                editor.commit();

            }
        });

        //判断是否设置显示来电归属地
        siv_show_address= (SettingItemView) findViewById(R.id.siv_show_address);
        showAddress = new Intent(this,AddressService.class);
        boolean isRunning =ServiceUtil.isServiceRunning(this,"com.example.mobilesafe.Service.AddressService");
        if(isRunning){
            //监听来电服务正在运行
            siv_show_address.setChecked(true);
        } else{
            //监听来电服务未运行
            siv_show_address.setChecked(false);
        }
        siv_show_address.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                SharedPreferences.Editor editor = sp.edit();
                //判断是否选中
                if (siv_show_address.isChecked()) {
                    //已经选中
                    siv_show_address.setChecked(false);
                    stopService(showAddress);
                } else {
                    //没选中
                    siv_show_address.setChecked(true);
                    startService(showAddress);
                }
                editor.commit();

            }
        });
        //判断是否设置显示黑名单拦截
        siv_callsms_safe= (SettingItemView) findViewById(R.id.siv_callsms_safe);
        showSafe = new Intent(this,CallSmsSafeService.class);
        boolean SafeisRunning =ServiceUtil.isServiceRunning(this,"com.example.mobilesafe.Service.CallSmsSafeService");
        if(SafeisRunning){
            //监听来电服务正在运行
            siv_callsms_safe.setChecked(true);
        } else{
            //监听来电服务未运行
            siv_callsms_safe.setChecked(false);
        }
        siv_callsms_safe.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                SharedPreferences.Editor editor = sp.edit();
                //判断是否选中
                if (siv_callsms_safe.isChecked()) {
                    //已经选中
                    siv_callsms_safe.setChecked(false);
                    stopService(showSafe);
                } else {
                    //没选中
                    siv_callsms_safe.setChecked(true);
                    startService(showSafe);
                }
                editor.commit();

            }
        });

        //判断是否设置看门狗
        startWatchDog = new Intent(this, WatchDogService.class);
        boolean wacthdogIsRunning =ServiceUtil.isServiceRunning(this,"com.example.mobilesafe.Service.WatchDogService");
        if(wacthdogIsRunning){
            //监听来电服务正在运行
            siv_watchdog.setChecked(true);
        } else{
            //监听来电服务未运行
            siv_watchdog.setChecked(false);
        }
        siv_watchdog.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                SharedPreferences.Editor editor = sp.edit();
                //判断是否选中
                if (siv_watchdog.isChecked()) {
                    //已经选中
                    siv_watchdog.setChecked(false);
                    stopService(startWatchDog);
                } else {
                    //没选中
                    siv_watchdog.setChecked(true);
                    startService(startWatchDog);
                }
                editor.commit();

            }
        });

        final String[] names={"半透明","活力橙","卫士蓝","金属灰","苹果绿"};
        siv_changbg= (SettingClickView) findViewById(R.id.scv_changebg);
        siv_changbg.SetTitle("归属地的提示框风格");
        int which = sp.getInt("which",0);
        siv_changbg.SetDec(names[which]);
        siv_changbg.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                //弹出一个对话框
                int dd = sp.getInt("which",0);
                final AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(SettingActivity.this);
                builder.setTitle("归属地的提示框风格");
                builder.setSingleChoiceItems(names, dd, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                        //保存选择
                        SharedPreferences.Editor editor = sp.edit();
                        editor.putInt("which", which);
                        editor.commit();
                        siv_changbg.SetDec(names[which]);
                        //取消对话框
                        dialog.dismiss();
                    }
                });
                builder.setNegativeButton("取消", null);
                builder.show();
            }
        });

    }

    /**
     * 恢复时候再次进行判断
     */
    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();
        boolean isRunning =ServiceUtil.isServiceRunning(this,"com.example.mobilesafe.Service.AddressService");
        if(isRunning){
            //监听来电服务正在运行
            siv_show_address.setChecked(true);
        } else{
            //监听来电服务未运行
            siv_show_address.setChecked(false);
        }
    }
}


text:
Copyright 2011 - M.Bandli - Historic Meteorites
COSBY'S CREEK
Discovered before 1837 - Iron, IAB-MG
SALES - THE BANDLI COLLECTION - METEORITE HUNTING - CONTACT - HOME
Historical Notes: The Cosby's Creek masses were discovered in the southwestern part of Cocke County, Tennessee sometime before 1837. Two masses were found in close proximity on a hill near the creek.
For some time the details of the masses were kept secret because the finders believed that they were valuable silver ore. After their discovery, some of the inhabitants tried to break the largest mass into pieces with sledge hammers but failed. They then roasted the it in a "log-heap" where it became brittle and broke it in to fragments using cold chisels and spikes. The fragments were subsequently transported some 30-40 miles by a mountain wagon to two separate forges where they were wrought into "gun-scalps", horse-shoes, nails, and other common items.
In a set of letters dated 1845 from Judge Jacob Peck (1779 - 1869) to Prof. Charles Upham Shepard (1804 - 1886), Peck writes:
"I have been informed, that part of it was taken to the forge of Peter Brown, in Green County, and there forged. I understand that a man by the name of McCoy, had a neat bar forged from it for making a gun- barrel, which, to use the expression of Brown's son, 'was as bright as silver.' In the conversation, young Brown informed me that he thought a piece of the iron in its natural state still remained. On searching, it was found by a little girl of the family. It weighs more than a pound, and had been preserved by the family as a nut-cracker."
Peck also describes how the large mass appeared prior to its destruction:
"The original mass was one of rare character, and ought to have been preserved entire. Much of it was composed of large and perfect octahedral crystals."
Though the largest mass was never officially weighed prior to its demise, it was estimated to weigh approximately one ton. The smaller mass weighed 112 lbs and was sold by a mountaineer, eventually ending up in the custody of Gerard Troost (1776-1850). In 1839 Troost recognized the material as meteoric iron and published his treatise in several scientific journals.
In the end, nearly all of what would have been an incredible one ton (~907 kg) crystalline iron was destroyed and forged. Today, between both masses, which were estimated to weigh a total of 970 kilograms, only ~90 kg is preserved.
Gordon, S.G. (1934), Meteorites in the Collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia , 35 (for 1933) , pp 223-231.
Grady, M.M. (2001), Catalogue of Meteorites , 5th edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Shepard, C.U. (1847), Report on Meteorites. The American Journal of Science and Arts, 4, November, pp 83-85.
Collection No. B263.1 - A 3.38 gram natural fragment measuring 16 x 12 x 9 mm.
Provenance: Gerard Troost (1776-1850); to William S. Vaux (1811-1882); by deposit to The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP); by transfer to The Karl Collection; by transfer to The Tricottet Collection.
Above: Photo excerpt from Gordon's 1933 ANSP Catalogue showing matching collection number. Below: Provenance.
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Scientific Exchanges
March - August, 2016: Pawel Czaja
My research interest comprise magnetic shape memory alloys, which are a unique class of "smart" materials capable to provide response to an external stimuli such as to changes in temperature, stress or magnetic field. The underlying phenomenon of this exceptional behaviour is related to the coupling between structure and magnetism, which is further associated with a reversible martensitic phase transition. This transition is a solid to solid, thermoelastic phase change between two iso-chemical polymorphs with distinct differences in structural and magnetic properties. The magneto-structural coupling leads to a variety of fascinating and complex physical phenomena including giant magnetic field induced strain, giant magnetoresistance, giant magnetocaloric effect etc., which render these systems highly interesting for variety of applications in smart materials technology (e.g. actuation, sensing, magnetic cooling, energy harvesting).
An important consideration in studying and developing the functional properties of magnetic shape memory alloys is the analysis of magnetic microstructure. This is motivated by the fact that domain patterns form the mesoscopic link to macroscopic properties of magnetic materials. Therefore detailed investigation of magnetic domains arrangement, their dynamics is indispensable for better understating and more effective control of many of functional properties of magnetic shape memory alloys.
The Dresden Fellowship scheme provided me with a wonderful opportunity and means to enter this extraordinary and aesthetically beautiful world of magnetic domains and their structures. Except from looking into magnetic domains we have also studied by use of TEM precursor phenomena preceding the onset of the martensitic phase transition in Ni-Mn-Sn Heusler alloy belonging to the family of magnetic shape memory alloys. Some attention was also given to the microstructure of novel metal-ceramic composite material with some potential for automotive and aviation industry. I had access to fantastic and highly capable scientific instruments including scanning and transmission electron microscopes, polarised light microscopes, X-ray microtomography, great facilities for sample preparation and ever willing, well skilled staff who has never offered me help without a smile.
Throughout my stay I gathered an abundance of scientific data, most of which are without precedence in state of the art literature on the subject and no doubt it will bring scientific publications increasing the visibility of DCN among the considerable shape memory alloys community worldwide. This however would not be possible without interaction with the Fraunhofer Institute (IKTS) and Leibnitz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (IFW), where I am particularly indebted to prof. Rudolf Schaefer one of the luminaries in the magnetic domains' universe.
One of the goals of the Dresden Fellowship is to foster and stimulate the collaboration between the host organisation and the visiting researcher's workplace. Taking into account that plans for future collaboration and joint German-Polish projects, now at the end of my stay, are coming down the pipeline I am convinced that this goal has been achieved and I will enjoy more productive interaction with DCN, IFW, IKTS in the future to come.
As well as on scientific it was equally great and very educating experience on a human level too, since I was able to interact with a multinational team of researchers and function at the core of a well organised and exceptionally effective group. At this point I would like to take the opportunity and express my hearty thanks to all the colleagues and staff who supported me throughout my stay not only professionally but also with friendly and comfortable atmosphere, which made it for a pleasant environment to work in.
My special thanks are reserved for prof. Ehrenfried Zschech, who is a great mentor and science enthusiast and above all an inspiring researcher.
October - Dezember, 2015: Ewa Bulska
Ewa Bulska (Faculty of Chemistry, Warsaw University of Technology)
From October 2015 to the end of December 2015 I had the possibility to be on a fellowship of TUD at the Dresden Center for Nanoanalysis (DCN). My main cooperation partner at the TUD was Professor Ehrenfried Zschech. During my stay in Dresden we were working on the characterisation of various type of solids, namely on the hierarchical materials. We performed preliminary examination by SEM (the most advance model of SEM instrumentation, allocated at the Barkhausen building, (Helmholtzstraße 18) of the structure and elemental composition of the samples, e.g. bones and alloys, the samples which were preliminary characterised at my home institution University of Warsaw. During my stay in Dresden I was performing measurements together with Prof. Zschech's PhD student Maria Aranzazu Garitagoitia. The investigation will be continued, and the draft manuscript for a common publication in a peer-reviewed journal was written.
We did start working on a common publication related to the characterisation and imagining the plant tissues towards the investigation of the distribution and the transportation of various bio-active elements. The work is in progress, and it is plan that the paper will be submitted till the end of March 2016.
A good example of the common work is that we did start working on the review paper, which is focused on the use of various imaging techniques for the characterisation of solids, their analytical performance, advantages and limitation with the examples of various solids. This work is in progress, still need more work on the bibliography and will be completed, as planned, till the end of June, 2016.
During my stay I gave presentation in two seminars. In the first one on 27.20.2015, I presented my work, experience and the possible topics which could be of interest for further collaboration; in the second one on 11.11.2015, the topic was devoted to the investigation of archaeological objects by various instrumental techniques.
Knowing the strong involvement of Prof. E. Zschech with the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS, I was able to visit the Institute, met a number of scientists and discussed possible fields of collaboration.
Besides my main contact with Prof. E. Zschech, I was also interacting with Prof. Karol Kozak from Medical Faculty at TU Dresden, with whom we are planning to work on the various materials which could be used for medical purposes.
During my stay I also took the opportunity to visit Leipzig, where I spent some time in the beginning of my scientific carrier (80th of last century), obtaining the fellowship at the laboratory of Professor Klaus Dittrich at the Karl-Marx Universitat, I took the opportunity to visit my colleagues in Leipzig.
Definitely I was impressed about the laboratory at DNC at TUD and its new instrumentation, which could be used by various scientific group from Dresden. I was lucky to have the possibility to perform measurements with my samples, which I brought with me. This is in my view the strength of TUD, it established a well equipment laboratory, which attract others to join. I appreciate the management support and the scientific discussions with Prof. Zschech.
In my view the most important is to intensify the exchange of faculty members, also those from the administration, which should be of benefit especially when the new international joint research projects are in a preparation stage. I also strongly believe that joined cultural programs, where staff members and students are engaged would be of mutual benefits not only for both universities but also for regional cooperation.
March - May, 2015: Anna Kaya Lewandowska
Anna Lewandowska (Faculty of Material Science and Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology)
From March 2015 to the end of June 2015 I had the possibility to be on an internship in the Dresden Center forNanoanalysis (DCN). The internship was a part of NanoMat project, established on Faculty of Material Science and Engineering at Warsaw University of Technology. DCN was chosen by me as a host institution because of its high experience in 3D material analysis and high quality of laboratories. During my stay I made X-ray tomographies of Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell components using ZEISS Xradia Versa. The tomographies of both electrodes (the anode and the cathode) were done and also new cathode components were investigated. For further image postprocessing software like Aviso or Mimics were used. The result of my work is a 3D analysis of the components. Also 3D geometrical models were created. Obtained result are important for further research on improving material components for MCFC.
In my opinion the internship in DCN in TU Dresden was very successful. I did experiments which will be further used in my PhD thesis. I had the possibility to broaden my knowledge in the field of 3D material tomography. I also gained valuable experience working in international team.
October- December, 2014: Katarzyna Berent
Katarzyna Berent (Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland)
Mainly I collaborated with prof. Ehrenfried Zschech, Dr. Markus Löffler and Sayanti Banerjee. The subject of my work was focused on the characterization of silicon and germanium nanowires. Using high resolution focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM FEI Helios NanoLab 650) we studied Si and Ge NWs, they have been also investigated for their application in nanoelectronic devices. The formation of single-crystalline Si nanowire heterostructure by the solid-state reaction between a Si nanowire and Ni contact pads was studied. We analyzed the strain induced Si-NiSi2 nanowires with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The next step, as originally proposed, we measured the crystallographic orientation of nanowires using HR-TEM. I also had the pleasure to work with scientists from Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) in Dresden. An understanding of the atomic-scale chemistry that governs semiconductor nanowire growth is crucial for the precise control of nanoscale physical properties, especially for electronic applications. Therefore, the next step will be in situ TEM studies of Si nanowires. In situ TEM is a powerful tool for the study the growth process, reaction mechanism and thereby to control the dimension of the Si region, the potential gate of a Si nanowire transistor. The following joint research will be carried out in the laboratory of Analytical Electron Microscopy at the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science of Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. The collaboration between DCN and IMIM PAS will involve exchange and analysis of data on TEM experiments. The results of our collaboration will be published in scientific journals.
June/July, 2014: Malgorzata Lewandowska
Malgorzata Lewandowska with other Fellows and the Rector of the TU Dresden, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans Müller-Steinhagen (left picture) and with Gerhard Rödel (Vice-Rector for Research of the TU Dresden) (right picture)
Malgorzata Lewandowska – professor at the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering of Warsaw University of Technology, Poland.
She was a guest scientist at the DCN from June to July 2014. Her scientific interest is focused on ultrafine grained and nano-crystalline materials. The goal of her research stay was to establish a closer collaboration between the Warsaw University of Technology - Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering - and the Technische Universität Dresden - Dresden Center for Nanoanalysis - in the field of nanostructured materials and their characterization applying advanced analysis techniques including high-resolution electron microscopy and X-ray microscopy. Nanostructured materials have attracted significant scientific interest due to their superior mechanical and physical properties. They are prospective for a number of applications, including leading-edge electronic industry. Particularly, the microstructure of advanced on-chip interconnects has to be engineered to fulfil performance and reliability requirements for advanced electronic products. For this field of research highly sophisticated materials analysis techniques are needed, e. g. high-resolution electron microscopy and X-ray microscopy to understand microstructural factors influencing the properties of nanostructured materials.
March/April, 2014: Agustín R. González-Elipe
Agustín R. González-Elipe - professor at the Nanotechnology on Surfaces Laboratory of the Institute of Materials Science of Sevilla, Spain.
The strategic goal of this stay is to establish a closer collaboration between the Nanotechnology on Surfaces Laboratory of the Institute of Materials Science of Sevilla (ICMSE, joined center between the CSIC and the University of Sevilla) and the Dresden Center for Nanoanalysis at Technische Universität Dresden. This collaboration should pave the way for a long term cooperation between the two centers in view of other more ambitious initiatives and common research in the field of advanced materials. Both Institutes are quite committed in the development and characterization of nanomaterials aimed for a wide range of functional applications. In this context, not only the synthesis and the processing of the materials are of the outmost importance, but also their characterization at nanometric and even atomic scales. In fact, in the field of research of nanomaterials highly sophisticated analysis techniques (e. g. high-resolution electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopies or X-ray microscopy) are needed to unravel their structure, microstructure and properties, all of them related with the intimate organization of matter at nanometric scale.


Dudley College's Advance II block is the UK's first to use integrated project insurance. Elaine Knutt meets the team that is pioneering a non-confrontational approach.
Meet the team delivering what is likely to be the most radical construction project underway in this country – the £12m Advance II teaching block for Dudley College, west midlands. It's the official government trial project for integrated project insurance (IPI), one of three alternative procurement models outlined in the Government Construction Strategy 2011-15. Although several previous projects had aspirations to adopt IPI, Dudley will be the first to realise a long-held industry ambition.
So client, consultants, main contractor and specialists have walked away from traditional procurement, abandoned traditional contracts and their legal relationships, and instead created a project Alliance – a "virtual company" acting with a single goal, and a single profit and loss account. The entire project is wrapped in the integrated project insurance policy, protecting the client's investment and the team's liabilities.
With the policy in place, pooling risk proportionately and removing individual liability, conventional mindsets about protecting each firm's interests and deflecting future claims are erased. To support the innovative new strategy and provide reassurance to the insurers, there are a trio of new members of the team: the Alliance manager, the TIRA (technical independent risk assurer) and FIRA (financial independent risk assurer).
At Dudley, where Advance II is joining its sister building Dudley Advance, the aim is to shave 30% off the construction programme, and deliver a capital cost saving of up to 20%, achieved by giving all parties "ownership" of design decisions and input into balancing risk and resources.
Specialist subcontractors for the envelope and M&E installation have been on board from day one, developing architect Metz's design through collaborative workshops. So instead of the zig-zag of the architect's design being reworked by a contractor, sent to bidders for pricing and modification, then returned to the contractors for further modification, IPI follows an efficient straight line.
And rather than a "pain/gain share" mechanism, a feature of many collaborative projects, the returns are calculated upfront – giving each member of the Alliance team a guaranteed profit plus contribution to overheads, based on their average performance on similar projects. Again, the aim is to short-circuit the conventional attitudes to budget increases and align the client and the commercial self-interest of the project team.
So when Construction Manager dropped in a design development meeting and asked the assembled team members how it feels to walk the high wire of construction innovation, the responses, not surprisingly, split according to individuals' attitude to change.
The Advance II project has already cleared several significant milestones. After the Alliance team was put together in a competitive process following the college's OJEU advert, it signed the 35-page Alliance contract and developed an indicative design. Once that had been approved by the clients and insurers, the policy was incepted, relieving the team of individual liability, and leaving them free to concentrate on the next possible outcome. Phase 2 – design development and project delivery – is currently underway.
But as well as delivering a ground-breaking procurement route, Advance II will create a cutting-edge Centre for Advanced Building Technologies, training the next generation for digital construction. The new 3,435 sq m centre includes specialist project areas, a carbon-friendly technology area, a digital centre for BIM and virtual environments, a fabrication and welding workshop around a four-storey "internal building site", called The Hangar. In addition, the Level 2 BIM data for the project will be used as a teaching resource.
Many in the industry will have a general understanding of how IPI works, as it has been articulated in multiple articles long before it materialised in Dudley. Backed by Constructing Excellence, the Movement for Innovation and the Strategic Forum, it was proposed for a project at Stockport General Hospital in 2008, nearly got off the ground for an £8m training wing at the Royal Marines' Lympstone base in Devon, and was considered by a care home developer for a project by contractor Stepnell.
Throughout, its main cheerleader has been Martin Davis, former chief executive of M&E contractor Drake and Scull, and now director of Integrated Project Initiatives (IP Initiatives), a consultancy that has acted as project mentor at the Dudley project, and will have a role in any future projects that wants to officially trial IPI under the government programme.
As Davis explains, the aim of this Cabinet Office clause is to ensure that a watered-down version of IPI doesn't get taken up by the market – and dilute the potential case for it. "Take-up of IPI has been slow, but that's partly because we didn't want anyone else jumping on to the bandwagon. But when it's proven, we don't want to hang on to it," says Davis.
As Davis and his fellow director Kevin Thomas highlight, the Dudley team are the inheritors of a generation of "exemplar" collaboration projects from the turn of the millennium. Defence Estates' "Building Down Barriers", Heathrow Terminal 5, the MOD's Andover project, and Glaxo Wellcome's FUSION – itself steered by Thomas – trialled methods of creating collaborative, integrated teams and largely enjoyed successful outcomes.
But while the ideas they championed, such as two-stage tendering, partnering and "open book", can achieve good results, experience has taught Davis that efforts to integrate client and supply side tend to fall down when the financial arrangements were at odds with commercial self-interest. "If you want to get the best out of human nature, you've got to get the money right and align people's interests," he says.
The key to developing IPI was a chance meeting with an insurer, who suggested that the missing feature in collaborative projects was a simple indemnity policy that would bind teams' together. As Thomas explains: "Instead of the policy being triggered by a mistake, you insure the outcome – it doesn't matter who did it, it only matters that you fix it." Plus, there's the financial impact – according to Davis and Thomas, for every £1 made in actual claims, £5 is spent on legal and forensic costs to establish liability.
"The insurers were surprised we were unsure what the voting rights were - we've never had to vote on anything."
The Dudley project is now progressing well, and is due to open for the autumn term in 2017. Thanks to a grant from Innovate UK, the full story of the project and its achievements will be thoroughly researched by a team at the University of Reading and disseminated to the industry. But, assuming the project delivers on its aspirations, will the Dudley project advance the industry towards wider use of the IPI concept, or will it forever remain as an "exemplar" rather than a pioneer?
Davis and Thomas acknowledge that IPI is suitable for a fairly narrow band of projects: they need to be relatively complex with key subcontract packages, but with committed clients able to deliver hands-on, top-heavy management in the early stages.
"Some clients want the cost overspend insurance, but aren't prepared to do the collaboration and the Alliance team," says Louise Lado-Byrnes, also a director of IP Initiatives. Also, any project has to fit in a value band the insurance industry can cope with. "Because it's new to the underwriters, they're making the insurance available from their balance sheet, so we can only get £2-3m of loss cover," explains Thomas.
Plus, there is the challenge of persuading clients to try something so radically different. "It fundamentally challenges the way organisations run, and public clients have certain procedures. The big framework operators think they've got a process that works fine, and it's difficult to expect people to apply initiatives on top of their own initiatives," says Thomas, although he suggests that if teams are doing well already, they will enjoy even more success by applying new innovations.
Advance II kicked off when Dudley College published the OJEU procurement notice in September 2014, setting out its expectations on IPI. Shortlisted bidders then took part in team-based behavioural workshops to assess which firms would be best capable of forming an alliance, with the successful bidders appointed in February 2015.
Though the college hoped that specialist sub-contractors would respond, in the event none did: specialists usually rely on Tier 1 contractors to bring them on board. So key suppliers H&H Architectural and Derry Building Services were appointed following a separate process.
By May 2015, the six key parties – the client, Speller Metcalfe, Metz Architects, services engineer and project coordinator Fulcro, H&H and Derry – had signed the 35-page Alliance contract, which replaces the normal contract, sub-contract and consultants' appointment documents, and binds the Alliance into a virtual company. It was drafted by IP Initiatives with assistance from lawyers, and is apparently written "in the style of" the NEC suite.
The team members acknowledge that getting to signing stage wasn't straightforward, with a significant amount of research and due diligence undertaken before signing the contract. Plus, there was the time chalked up in meetings. "I am conscious that we do have these big, set-piece meetings. But we're getting to the point where they're more efficient," says Rob Kennedy of MDA, which acts as the Alliance manager.
Thereafter, the team progressed to an indicative design for the scheme. "It was just sufficient design to give the board confidence we can build it to suit the brief," explains Fulcro's Mike Murray.
After being scrutinised by the TIRA and FIRA, the integrated policy was incepted and phase 2 design development began. "Now we're in phase 2, we're focusing on work packages and but not doing a traditional tender pack," Murray adds.
Phase 2 is in fact the project delivery phase, where the team turns their outline solution first into virtual reality, and then builds it. Phase 3 commences at completion, embracing Government Soft Landings and a handover period.
Under IPI, the client, contractor, key sub-contractors and consultants become joint signatories of a whole-project insurance policy. The policy now in place at Dudley is unique in the UK, although it has similarities to the arrangements at Heathrow Terminal 5. It covers both the project's technical integrity for 10 years as well as its cost outcomes, replacing client's latent defects cover, consultants' professional indemnity policies, and the contractor's third party and all risks policy.
But before the policy could be put in place, the insurer needed certainty that the design is viable, and the cost risks have been controlled. The scheme's design was scrutinised by the TIRA, a role taken by Belgian multi-disciplinary practice SECO, as the role of insurer's technical adviser is well-established in Belgium. And the FIRA validating the budget and risks is Rider Levett Bucknall, a veteran of Building Down Barriers.
However, Mike Murray of Fulcro points out that the prospect of reduced premiums is only one component of what an IPI policy has to offer: "Having PII insurance covered by the IP insurance means I don't waste my time putting up evidence of what my decisions are based on. It's not the cost of the claim, it's the man-hours cost of defending the claim.
The college's budget, channelled through a Project Bank Account, covers the direct salary costs of each member of the Alliance, plus a profit margin and contribution to overheads. These "direct costs" are ring-fenced and can't be diverted. "The basis of the Alliance is that people get paid their direct costs, which are defined in the contract," explains Dudley College's Steve Johnson.
The figures are based on the average return each member made on comparable projects in the past three years, so that the Alliance members know that each partner round the table is getting a fair price based on an objective assessment of market value. "It's not a pricing exercise, it's a factual exercise," says Davis.
"What attracted us was the opportunity to interact with the client. There's no confrontation, no backside-covering."
In fact, the process laid down by IP Initiatives does not specify that the financial details of each member's remuneration should be made available to the rest, but the Alliance members opted for full transparency – everyone round the table knows what everyone else is worth.
The financial outcome for the Alliance members depends on whether the not the project comes in on budget. If there's an underspend, members would share that in proportion. In the case of an overspend, or a defect arising within 10 years of completion, the additional costs would be covered proportionately by all the Alliance members up to the £400,000 excess on the project insurance policy. Then the policy would kick in, to give an additional £2m of cover. If there is a problem costing over £2.4m, the college itself would have to dip into its own pocket.
While IPI can work without BIM, the contention is that BIM won't deliver full benefits without IPI, at least at Level 3, which implies real-time data sharing rather than sequential design development and separate roles.
Unusually, the EIRs were jointly written by the Alliance members "Clients often get the consultants to write the EIR, or they hand over the maintenance strategy to a services provider. But here the EIRs have been written together. It's about putting in the time to unlock what the college actually wants from the building," says Mike Murray of Fulcro.
In another example of integration, Fulcro will use the same BIM design tools as the M&E fabricator, namely CAD MEP 3, to eliminate any problems of data translation between packages. "We had a dialogue with Derry and said 'our experience is this' and they're happy with that," says Murray.