text:
\section{Introduction}

The behavior of a single human being is not always reducible to the physiological and psychological processes alone. The presence of a large number of factors affecting the psychological processes has afflicted the research  of both the informative experimental observables and the simple and effective models of cognition. The factorial analysis and other sophisticated statistical procedures \cite{Cattell1966,Comrey1992} clearly demonstrated the complexity of the human behavior and the necessity to include in such analysis the role of the environmental information factors, elaborated and filtered by the cognition.

While in classical cognitive models the influence of the individual characteristics on the social dynamics was considered to be predominant, the understanding of the role of the group, drove the Social Cognition Psychology toward the definition of new concepts \cite{Newman,Fortunato,Zhang1994}. Since the works of Kurt Lewin~\cite{Lewin1943}, the \textit{Psychological Field}, hereafter PF for short, has been the main concept that has merged the cognitive psychological theories -- \textit{i.e. the study of the single human mental processes} and the social psychology constructs.

At the same time, sociology and social psychology offered a new perspective: the group structure of interacting humans is a crucial factor affecting the individual psychological processes and the efficiency of problem solving tasks~\cite{Leavitt1951,Bavelas1950}; moreover this provide also a reliable proxy the the group dynamics~\cite{Bion,Vilone2011}.

The PF theory essentially underlines that  individual's acts, for instance thoughts, decisions, behaviors, are originated by a series of \lq\lq fast, frugal and smart\rq\rq mental processes named \textit{cognitive heuristics}~\cite{Gigerenzer1996,Gigerenzer2011,Simon1976} that are affected by the individual internal characteristics but also by the \lq\lq psychological environmental features\rq\rq. The latter being defined by the \textit{social cognition}~\cite{Neisser1967,Festinger1950} as the ensemble of all external factors affecting the human decisional processes. The experimental measures of PF is a complex task, given human ability in detecting non-semantic messages and their influence on the emotional content. However, nowadays there is the possibility of performing experiments using a computer interface, and therefore to measure many components of communication, the only source of ambiguity remaining in the semantic contents of the exchanged messages.

The goal of our experiment was to discover the strategies (heuristics) that the subjects adopted to cope with the social problem posed by the tasks: assessing their own affinity with others in presence and absence of an imposed topic. In the second task we furthermore asked the participants to reach consensus at least in some groups.
In particular, we wanted to design an experimental controlled setting and a set of related procedures, in order to detect the effects due to the subjects' PF features. Moreover we made the working assumption that moods and perceived mutual affinity can produce results complementary to a full semantic analysis. Our results will rely on the perception of the PF by the involved agents. We have thus developed a chatline allowing us to record the interactions among a group of ten participants~\cite{Guazzini2010}. The environment mimics an unstructured group of initially unknown agents. Each member can communicate with all the agents at once, \textit{i.e.} through a public communication channel; a second private channel exists, allowing each agent to choose to which address his/her messages.
The chat interface has been designed in order to easily detect the mood and the target of the messages, but also the \lq\lq perception of the others\rq\rq , through the exploitation of dedicated tools on the interface (i.e. the private radar). Eventually all such information can be merged together to spatially represent the perception of the social geometry of the group, that we consider to be affected mainly by the subjects' PF.

We also propose an analysis of the group stability by studying the excess/defect of polarized triangles in the resulting social network, i.e. triangles whose links can have positive and/or negative content. Because of our working assumption, the social network has been built considering both the number of messages and their mood. Finally the number of the three vertex cliques (i.e. triangles) can be easily carried out by standard techniques. Szell et al. \cite{Szell2011} have shown that such structures can be used to accurately describe the cognitive network and can be related to the cognitive task which is shaping the network structure itself. Some of these structures can became \lq\lq unstable\rq\rq  depending on the constraints of the task, and this should happen when they are not effective or useful to solve the social problem the agents are faced to. Hence the excess/defect of such polarized triangles constitutes a good experimental observable for the characterization of the cognitive tasks and of the cognitive strategies used by both the subjects and the \lq\lq group entity\rq\rq to solve the social problem~\cite{Brautbar2011}.

The paper is organized as follows. In Section \ref{Section: Experimental_framework} we present the experimental tool and we define the main observables exploited in the data analysis. The samples and the experimental procedures are then introduced and the statistical and network analyses are described in subsections \ref{Sample and Procedures} and \ref{Statistical and Structural Analysis}. Finally,  the results are illustrated and discussed in sections \ref{Section: Results} and \ref{Section: Discussion}.

\section{The Experimental framework}
\label{Section: Experimental_framework}

The proposed framework is composed by a chatline interface, a computer room and a server used to record all the activities: messages exchanged, associated mood, personal perception of mutual affinities, etc ...

\subsection{Chatline}
The chatline interface is composed by two textual windows, one for communicating with the rest of participants in a public way, and one to communicate with a selected one in a private way (Fig. \ref{fig:Interfaccia}).

To keep agent's anonymity and to remove the influences due to the visual perception of each agents, we included in the interface two \lq\lq radars\rq\rq , where the avatars representing the other participants may be placed. Radars are labelled as \lq\lq public\rq\rq and \lq\lq private\rq\rq: the public one can be seen by all other agents and each agent can only move his/her own avatar. The agents have to move the avatars according their perceived proximity with the others.
On the other hand, on each private radar, owner agent can move all other avatars while his/her own is blocked in the center. In this way we offer an equivalent of the non-verbal communications (the public radars) similar to change place so to be closer to a given person, and a mnemonic aid (the private radar) for the representation of others' identities and their perceived social proximity, as seen by each user.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=10cm]{fig6.eps}
\caption{Chat interface}\label{fig:Interfaccia}
\end{figure}

In order to reinforce this interpretation, messages are darker the closer is the sender to receiver in the public radar, and vice versa becoming clear the farther the sender. This is because as in real life a person often tend to interact more with people which feels closer to him/her, then here we wanted to have the same effect. Moreover, this setting makes the communication among individuals more efficient.
Finally, as already states, each message can be characterized by the sender with a \lq\lq mood\rq\rq, represented by a small icon with thumb up, down or neutral. For an exhaustive description of the tool the interested reader can consult reference~\cite{Guazzini2010}.

From each communication channel, private and public textual chats and private radar, we have extracted the relevant events from the log file, and computed several indicators to describe both the communication and the cognitive network. Since the semantic content of a message crucially depends on the cultural context, and having already scheduled future experiments with people coming from different countries (and cultures), we decided to base our analysis only on the timing and number of messages exchanged by agents~\cite{Nguyen2009}. Of course the semantic aspects represent a very relevant dimension to analyze and such analysis will require a dedicated work.

\subsection{Sample and Procedures}
\label{Sample and Procedures}

The experimental sample is composed by $100$ volunteer students of the Psychology Faculty of the University of Florence (Italy). All participants were  Italians with an age ranging from $20$ to $26$.

These $100$ participants were randomly assigned  to one of the $10$ experimental sessions each one composed thus by $10$ individuals; we stratified the sample in equivalent clusters in order to obtain sessions where people do not know each other. The sample was also stratified on the base of the gender to obtain experiments with $5$ males and $5$ females. The experimental setting was located into a computer room of the Psychology Faculty, and the ten computer locations  have been enclosed in kiosks so that no subject could see the others. The experiment duration was of $60$ minutes organized in two parts, a first $15$ minutes long training phase where the software interface was illustrated and the task requirements administered, and a $45$ minutes long experimental phase of virtual interaction.

After a random assignment of a nick name and of a position in the laboratory, all the subjects were instructed throughout a standardized slide presentation on how to use the chat interface and  the task requirements. They were asked to accomplish one of the two tasks during the session, labelled respectively as Blank and Topic modality.

The Blank modality was designed as \lq\lq control task\lq\lq and consequently its target was to introduce the smallest possible number of constraints and possible biases. Accordingly, we selected a daily solved social problem, estimating the affinity with another subject by freely chatting for $45$ minutes. The participants could interact using  public and private rooms, and were explicitly asked to assess  their perceived affinity with the others and reporting them on the private radar before the end of the experiments. The affinity with someone was defined as the perceived degree of similarity in terms of opinions, beliefs and attitudes.

The Topic modality was designed to introduce a first constraint affecting the same task as before (and maybe/presumably the psychological field).  Subjects were asked to participate in a role game where they belonged to an \textit{ethic committee} that was charged to reform the law that controls the researches involving animals. The requirements were  to discuss about the given topic, developing before the end of the experiment one or more shared ethical positions, and assessing the affinity space accordingly~\cite{Crowne}.

\subsection{Statistical and Structural Analysis}
\label{Statistical and Structural Analysis}

By analyzing the log files of the experimental sessions we extracted all the observables useful to describe the communications and the perceived affinity among subjects.

We define a  Markov matrix where each element $M^t_{ij}$ represents the probability  to observe a message from the subject $i$ to the subject $j$ at time $t$,
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:Message_Matrix}
M_{ij}^{t}=\frac{W_{ij}^{t}}{\sum_{k=1}^{N} W_{ik}^{t}}\, ,
\end{equation}
where $W_{ij}^t$ is the number of messages sent by $i$ to $j$ until time $t$.

The major role in our investigation is played by the affinity space, that is the $n-1$ dimensional space determined by the overlapping of the $n$ subjects' affinity spaces. Since subjects were asked to indicate their perceived affinity with the others by using their private radars, affinity is assumed to correlate with the distance among the icons. At the beginning, the distance among icons for all the private radars is  $0.25$, half of the radius of the radar circle. We define the affinity variable as
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:Affinity_distance}
\delta_{ij}^{t}=2d_{ij}^t,
\end{equation}
where $d_{ij}^t \in (0,0.5)$ is the distance between individual $i$ and $j$ in the private radar of individual $i$ and $\delta_{ij}^t \in (0,1)$ is the perceived affinity of $j$ that $i$ has at time $t$. For sake of simplicity we  consider only the final state of the affinity space, that is, the final state of the ten private radars at the end of the $45'$ experiment.

The social distance $\delta_{ij}^{t}$, Eq. \eqref{eq:Affinity_distance}, has been used to represent the affinity network perceived by the subjects. Finally, $\delta_{ij}$ has been used to study the structure of the cognitive networks shaped by the tasks and the communicative precursors of the final perceived affinity.

The structural analysis has considered the networks defined by the spaces taken into account.

For all the subjects the normalized average activity for the $9$ spaces were calculated. Concerning the private radar, since each subject has his/her own strategy for managing his/her private radar, \textit{i.e.}, imposes a personal metrics to the displacements of icons, we first normalized all the rough original distances,
\begin{equation}
	\label{eq:Affinity_normalization}
	\widehat{\delta_{ij}}=\frac{\delta_{ij}-\min_k(\delta_{ik})}{\max_k(\delta_{ik})-\min_k(\delta_{ik})},
\end{equation}
and converted them to binary values,
\begin{equation}
	\label{eq:Affinity_recoding}
	\Delta_{ij}=\begin{cases}
	  +1, & \mbox{if }\widehat{\delta_{ij}} < 0.5,\\
	   -1, & \mbox{if }\widehat{\delta_{ij}} > 0.5.
	\end{cases}
\end{equation}

At end of this procedure we have two groups for each individual, according to the value  of $\Delta_{ij}$. This variable was used to investigate the mutual affinity of the subjects, comparing the groups defined from this observables with respect to the registered communication dimensions. We adopted the Student \textit{t}-test for independent samples in order to compare the averages of the two groups, considering only those dimensions characterized by a $t$-value larger than $2$.

The group level analysis required a different approach due to the peculiar setting represented by the small group dynamics. The most used indicators for describing the group structure are  based on the concept of cluster, but in psychology it is known that there are different nested structures, with different strengths, sizes and characteristics for the human social networks. In order to take into account this fact we defined a clustering spectrum as follows. Given a threshold parameter $p$ in the interval $(0,1)$, the number of final clusters for the space considered is obtained by comparing the elements of matrix $M$ to $p$.
\begin{equation}
\label{pippo}
  \hat{M}_{ij} = \begin{cases}
    1 & \text{if $M_{ij}^{t_{fin}} > p$,}\\
    0 & \text{if $M_{ij}^{t_{fin}} < p$.}
    \end{cases}
\end{equation}
In practice, we define two individuals as connected if when the experiment has finished their probability to exchange a message is larger then a threshold $p$.
The group structure can be consequently represented by plotting the number of clusters in $\hat{M}$ versus $p$.

Given the small size of the analyzed networks, we considered not only the number of clusters but also their relative size by  computing the Derrida coefficient~\cite{Wuensche:2011},
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:Derrida_coeff}
D_{\hat{M}}(p)=\sum_{i=0}^k \frac{S_{i}^2(p)}{N^2},
\end{equation}
where $D_M(p)$ is the Derrida coefficient for the matrix $M$ with threshold $p$, $S_i(p)$ is the size of the cluster $i$ and $N$ is the size of entire network.

To obtain a more in-depth representation of the cognitive network, we develop a criterion based on the affinity space to characterize the links among subjects as positive, neutral or negative. First we computed for each subject the average distance of the icons from the centre in his/her private radar,
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:Average_Distance}
\overline{\delta_i}=\frac{\sum_{j\neq i;j=1}^N \delta_{ij}}{N-1},
\end{equation}
so  to define an individual radar metrics.  Then we considered as positive the relations with those icons positioned closer than the average distance. The relations were supposed as mild negative if the distances between icons were larger than the averages but lower than the icons initial distance $(0.25)$, while they were labelled  negative if the icons were also farther away from the center than the initial distance. Finally we built the resulting network adjacency matrix $A_{ij}$ with the following rules: we create a positive link between two nodes if both the relations were positive (i.e. $\delta_{ij} < \overline{\delta_i}$ and $\delta_{ji} < \overline{\delta_i}$), in all the remaining cases we create a negative link.

The discretization of the links allowed to compute the number of polarized 3-vertex cliques, or triangles. The triangles, where each vertex represents an individual, are the 3-cliques of the network created by means of equation~(\ref{pippo}). The four  possible triangles are represented in Fig. \ref{Triangles_ex}, and have been labelled  as $X$,$Y$,$\Omega$ and $W$-triangles.

\begin{figure}[t]
\centering
\begin{minipage}[c]{.45\textwidth}
	\centering
	\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{XTriangle.eps}
	\vspace{-5mm}

\end{minipage
\hspace{10mm
\begin{minipage}[c]{.45\textwidth}
	\centering
 	\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{YTriangle.eps}
 	\vspace{-5mm}

\end{minipage}
\vspace{10mm}
\hspace{10mm
\begin{minipage}[c]{.45\textwidth}
	\centering
	\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{ZTriangle.eps}
	\vspace{-5mm}

\end{minipage
\hspace{10mm
\begin{minipage}[c]{.45\textwidth}
	\centering
 	\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{WTriangle.eps}
 	\vspace{-5mm}

\end{minipage}

\

\

\caption{The 3-Vertex cliques (triangles) are efficient indicators of a network structure. In the cognitive networks is frequently possible to characterize the links, for instance as \textit{positive} or \textit{negative}, in this case there are only 4 possible undirected triangles (e.g. X-Full Positive (+++);Y-Hybrid Positive (+-+); $\Omega$ -Hybrid Negative (--+); W-Full Negative (---)).}\label{Triangles_ex}
\hspace{10mm
\end{figure}

For each experiment we compared the number of triangles of each type with the average number of the polarized triangles in $100$ networks containing $10$ nodes and generated by randomly assigning the same number of positive and negative links, and eventually computing  a \textit{z}-score for each of triangle types, a dimensionless quantity that indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. As usual, we adopted as a threshold the value of $\textit{z}=1.96$ that indicates a result corresponding to a marginal probability of $5\%$.

\section{Results}
\label{Section: Results}

All the experiments look very similar in terms of node activity for the public environment, while they show a great variability in the private messages space. We report two generic examples in Fig. \ref{fig:activities_Public},  for the Blank and the Topic modality. The public activity of all nodes seem to converge towards a typical value and appear to become quite stable after the first half of the experiment. This behavior appears to be the same for all the $10$ experiments. The typical value of the average number of messages variates more  among experiments than between the two experimental modalities.

\begin{figure}[h]
  \begin{center}
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
    \includegraphics[width=0.45\columnwidth]{1B.eps}&
    \includegraphics[width=0.45\columnwidth]{2B.eps}\\
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
    \caption{Time evolution of the average agents' normalized activity in the public space (average number of messages per minute), for both Blank modality (left) and Topic modality (Right)}  \label{fig:activities_Public}
\end{figure}

The weighted centrality of the $10$ subjects within this space appears to converge for all the experiments to the critical value of $\frac{1}{N(N-1)}$, \textit{ i.e.}, the value of a fully connected network.

On the contrary, the participant activity in the private space shows a high variability, as reported in Fig.~\ref{fig:privato}.

\begin{figure}[h]
  \begin{center}
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
    \includegraphics[width=0.45\columnwidth]{3Messages.eps}&
    \includegraphics[width=0.45\columnwidth]{4Messages.eps}\\
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
    \caption{Time evolution of the agents' normalized activity in the private space (average number of messages per minute), for both Blank modality (left) and Topic modality (right)}\label{fig:privato}
\end{figure}

We analyzed the quantitative differences between the Blank and Topic communicative behavior of the group by means of the ANOVA. We have reported in Table \ref{table:ANOVA}  the communicative variables that are significantly different between the two experimental conditions.
The Blank unconstrained modality is characterized by a larger number of messages than the Topic modality. This quantitative trend describes also the number of messages directed to a single agent as well as the total number of positive messages.

Interestingly, only the positive mood seems to be able to discriminate between the two experiments, while the negative messages do not appear to differ significantly.

Concerning the private radar management (\textit{i.e.}, the affinity assessment process), the average number of displacements on the radar has been larger for the topic modality as well as the average normalized distance among the icons.
\begin{center}{
\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{Analisys of Variance between \textit{Blank} and \textit{Topic} related variables}
 \centering
\begin{tabular}{crrr}
\hline\hline
\textbf{Communicative Variable} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{F}} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{Blank}} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{Topic}} \\ [0.5ex]
\hline
Messages & 8.54* & 310 & 228\\
\textit{Directed} messages & 23.21* & 38 & 21\\
Positive messages  & 34.22* & 23& 8\\
\hline
Public Messages & 7.31* & 296 & 222 \\
Public Positive Messages & 21.28* & 203 & 96 \\
Private Messages & 8.77* & 14 & 6 \\
Private Positive Messages & 19.31* & 6 & 1 \\
\hline
Displacements: Private Radar & 7.92* & 1.4 & 2.4 \\
Average Distance: Private Radar & 11.81* & .098 & .123 \\[1ex]
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table:ANOVA}\\
* : $\textit{p.} < .01$
\end{table}
}\end{center}

We investigate the differences in  private radar behavior with respect to the experimental modality by means of the Student \textit{t} analysis, Table \ref{table:StudentT}.
We considered the two groups defined by the Eq. \ref{eq:Affinity_recoding}  comparing the typical behaviors towards a \textit{close} agent with that towards a \textit{far} one, for both the Blank and the Topic cases.
The  typical strategy for the Blank modality seems to be quite evident using the communicative variables we have registered. Agents exchange more messages with their inner circle than with the outer one. The variables which appear to be significantly affected by the task are the total number of positive messages, and the number of public and private total and positive messages.

Remarkably, no significant difference emerges for the topic modality, where the strategy assessment of affinity seems to be unrelated with the communicative dynamics.

\begin{center}{
\begin{table}[h]
\caption{Student \textit{t} on communicative variables between \textit{Close} (A) and \textit{Far} (B) agents on the private radar }
 \centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|r|r|r|}
\hline\hline
\multicolumn{4}{c}{\textbf{Blank modality}}\\
\hline\hline
\textbf{Variable} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{t}}& \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{A}} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{B}}\\
\hline
Average Radar Distance & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{-} & 0.31 & 0.82\\
\hline
Global Messages & 4.84* &  0.15 & 0.10 \\
\hline
Positive Global Messages & 3.22* &  0.15 & 0.09 \\
\hline
Public Messages & 3.53* &  0.13 & 0.10 \\
\hline
Public Positive Messages & 3.26* &  0.12 & 0.10 \\
\hline
Private Messages & 3.36* & 0.15 & 0.05 \\
\hline
Private Positive Messages & 3.69* &  0.09 & 0.01 \\
\hline\hline
\multicolumn{4}{c}{\textbf{Topic modality}}\\
\hline\hline
\multicolumn{4}{|c|}{No significant difference}\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table:StudentT}\\
* : $\textit{p.} < .01$
\end{table}
}\end{center}

\begin{figure}[h]
  \begin{center}
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
    \includegraphics[width=0.45\columnwidth]{DerridaP.eps}&
    \includegraphics[width=0.45\columnwidth]{DerridaR.eps}\\
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
    \caption{Derrida spectrum for Blank modality (blue line) and Topic modality (red line) is reported for the private messages space (left plot) and for the private radar space (right plot)}\label{fig:Derrida}
\end{figure}

\begin{center}{
\begin{table}[h]
\caption{ Frequencies of $\Omega$-triangles and \textit{z}-scores for Blank and Topic modalities}
 \centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|r|r|r|r|r|r|r|r|}
\hline\hline
\textbf{} & \multicolumn{4}{c|}{\textbf{Blank}} & \multicolumn{4}{c|}{\textbf{Topic}}\\
\hline\hline
\textbf{Exp} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{+}} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{-}} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{$\Omega$}} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{\textit{z}$\Omega$}} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{+}} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{-}} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{$\Omega$}} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{\textbf{\textit{z}$\Omega$}}\\
\hline
1 & 18 &  34 & 14 & 1.4 & 26 & 38 & 23 & 1.3\\
\hline
2 & 22 &  40 & 18 & 0.1 & 18 &  50 & 29 & 1.8\\
\hline
3 & 16 &  28 & 9 & 1.4 & 14 &  48 & 24 & 2.6\\
\hline
4 & 10 &  48 & 16 & 1.7 & 32 &  40 & 33 & 2.1\\
\hline
5 & 12 &  30 & 3  & -1.2 & 14 &  54 & 32 & 3.6\\
\hline\hline
Average Value & 15.6 & 35.9 & 12 & 0.68 & 20.8 &  46.1 & 28.2 & 2.28\\
\hline\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table:Triangle_Omega}\\
\end{table}
}\end{center}

In Fig. \ref{fig:Derrida} we show the average Derrida coefficient functions for the private messages space and for the private radar space, for the Blank and the Topic modalities. As we will discuss in the next section, by means of the Derrida coefficient we investigate the typical dispersion of the icons. The two figures show some differences in the distribution of the cluster size with respect to the experimental conditions.

We finally investigated the density of the \textit{polarized triangles} (see Section \ref{Statistical and Structural Analysis}).

First for each experiment we computed the number of positive and negative links among subjects. We also computed the number of the four possible polarized triangles. The data for the Y triangles are reported in Table \ref{Triangles_ex} for all the experiments.

\section{Discussion and Conclusions}
\label{Section: Discussion}

The goal of our experiment was to discover the strategies (heuristics) that the subjects adopted to cope with the social problem posed by the tasks: assess own affinity with others in presence and absence of an imposed topic in a virtual chatline, without considering the semantic content of messages. We assume that the provided environment is not affecting the emotive/cognitive processes so that our results are valid also for a second task we furthermore asked the participants to reach consensus at least in some groups.

We assumed that the proposed tasks are so common in everyday life that all subjects owned well-established personal strategies.
We  tried to put into evidence the similarities and differences in strategies between the two tasks.
We focused the analysis on structural data (number of messages, timing, position of graphical elements), trying to focus on context-free characteristics of the group dynamics.

A common ingredient of many recent studies in the field of socio- and econo-physics
is the concept of affinity (or social distance) among subjects. The affinity is considered a fundamental parameter to model the opinion evolution of the group. In our experiment we explicitly asked participants to assess their affinity or distance with others by means of icons on a display called private radar. Consequently, we investigated the relationship between the communicative dynamics and the personal assessment of affinity, as revealed by the private radar.

First of all, we can notice that the public activity of subjects in the two modalities seems approximate the same regime, (Fig.~\ref{fig:activities_Public}). A common feature of the average activity and centrality is that
in all the experiment the relative rank of subject shows little variation (the more prolix remains so, similarly to the less prolix). However,
 after the half of the experiment period,  all subjects' activity becomes rather stationary.

We can interpret this behavior by assuming that the average time needed to establish a group structure (speaker hierarchy, leader role, etc.) is about 20 minutes, for a group of 10 participants. This implies that we can safely perform measurements on the second half of the experimental period and consider them as "stationary" quantities

On the contrary, the participant behavior in private is quite different and is much more changeful (Fig.~\ref{fig:privato}). This seems to imply that the formation of allies and cliques is a much slower process, probably due to the complexity of mutual relationships. Therefore, we can expect that the private communications are much more informative of the group dynamics than the public ones.

The analysis of variance of several quantities in the two modalities (Table \ref{table:ANOVA}) reveals other informations about the differences in communication strategy and affinity assessment. The Topic modality, having a quite stricter requirement, is characterized by a smaller number of messages but larger displacements on the private radar.
Also the normalized average distance in the private radar is larger in the Topic modality. Since the normalization puts the nearest icon at the origin, and the farther at normalized distance one, a larger average distance indicated a more skewed distribution of icons.

The Blank modality distribution (blue line) suggests that no typical structures emerge from the private dynamics, and consequently a smooth decreasing distribution represents the relation between the cluster size and their probability of existence.

In Topic distribution (red line) a typical coarse graining of the network clusters seems to emerge. In spite of the noise in data,    a plateau is detectable for the Derrida value of $0.32$, suggesting  a partition in three groups for the final communicative private network.
For large $p$, the two curves became almost undistinguishable indicating that the short distance distribution is independent from the task.

The same analysis has been conducted on the private radar space, where by means of the Derrida coefficient we investigate the typical dispersion of the icons. The average Derrida coefficient functions for the private messages space  and for the private radar space are reported in Fig. \ref{fig:Derrida}, for the Blank and the Topic modalities.
Since the Derrida coefficient is an indicator of the number of clusters, going from 1 (all in a single cluster) to $1/N$ ($N$=number of nodes) for no clusters at all~\cite{Wuensche:2011}.
Both curves have a similar sigmoid shape, and the same asymptotic behavior, however for small $p$ the Blank modality has a longer initial plateau. Nevertheless, in the Topic modality (red line), the icons appear characterized by a larger average distance from the centre but less dispersed than in the blank modality.

Our interpretation of the results is that people in the Blank modality is more concentrated in showing themselves, while in a topic modality one gives more attention in reading other messages and trying to infer other's mutual relationship.
On the other hand, the number of polarized links is larger in the Topic modality than in the Blank one.

In particular, whilst the X, Y and W triangle distributions are not significantly different from the null hypothesis in all the experiments and both modalities,
we found that the $+--$ ($\Omega$) triangle distribution in the Topic modality (Table \ref{table:Triangle_Omega}) is significantly different from the null-hypothesis, revealing a strategy that goes beyond the pair relationships. Indeed, such a clique could represent a situation in which two individuals are allied against a third one, suggesting among the possible interpretations, that the cognitive strategy adopted by the subjects is inspired by the principle \lq\lq the enemy of my enemy is my friend\rq\rq.

According to such a strategy, only the cliques X and $\Omega$ are stable, while the Y and W are unstable. So, if the inner dynamics of the system is pairwise, not only a final situation with all negative links is also possible, but the density of $\Omega$ triangles should be the same as in a system where the sign of the links is uniformly picked at random. Instead, in the topic modality part we see that the final distribution is not consistent with a pairwise interaction among individuals, meaning that every agent sets his/her relationship with another one taking care of his/her entire neighborhood, and \lq\lq the enemy of my enemy is my friend\rq\rq can be assumed as a possible good strategy to form alliances against a common opponent, and reach a stable configuration.

The angular distribution of icons in the private radar (both modalities) however does not show any tendency to cluster: people used this instrument to remember others' distance, but not for remembering alliances. The analysis of the polarized 3-vertex cliques could be a precious observable for the human network analysis \cite{Szell2011,Leskovec2010}.

The analysis of the Student \textit{t} confirms the use of different strategies of affinity assessment in the two modalities (Table \ref{table:StudentT}). In the Blank modalities, there is a large correlation among the exchanged messages and the final affinity, while this is not true for the Topic modality.

While participants in the Blank modality seem to follow the classical assumptions of opinion formation theories, where the frequency of interactions is determinant for diminishing the social distance (or increasing affinity) and consequently determining the convergence of opinions, this behavior is not present in the Topic modality, although part of this task concerned the formation of group of coherent opinion.

We interpret this difference as a signature of the adoption of different strategies or heuristics. We suppose that in the Topic modality the semantic content of exchanged messages played a major role, and that participants preferred to infer other's opinion by observation and not by direct communication.

This supports the assumption by Lewin about a strong group effect on individual behavior (psychological field); most of quantities that we analyzed do not exhibit differences at the level of the single individual in the two modalities, except the explicit assessment of affinity with others, which is a group-related quantity. From these results it seems that, at least in a controlled chat experiment, it is not possible to understand (and modeling) the group behavior starting from the observation of a single individual, and on the other hand it is not possible to understand the evolution of the individual cognitive heuristics without taking into account the interdependency between the individual strategies and the group structure.
Further investigations and an analysis of the semantic content of messages are required in order to confirm these hypotheses and extend them in real-life situations.

\section*{Acknowledgments}
This work was partially funded by the European Commission under the FET-AWARENESS RECOGNITION (257756).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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Miltech Simulations announces MV-22B Osprey and Amphibious Ready Group for MSFS (updated with video)
MSFS, News
News, Microsoft Flight Simulator, MSFS, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, Miltech Simulations, Maryadi, MV-22B, Osprey, Aircraft Carrier
The company took developer Maryadi in to get this release out which you will be able to use with another product, "Amphibious Ready Group".
If the name doesn't ring a bell, Maryadi is the person behind the excellent MV-22B for FSX and P3D . He has now teamed up with Miltech Simulations , a company that has released a couple of carriers for MSFS.
So, it's not a huge surprise that the result of this partnership results in an Osprey and some vessels for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The MV-22B Osprey seems to continue the amazing quality level that Maryadi has gotten us used to and it will bring:
Comprehensive simulation of the aircraft instrument and systems.
Realistic manual operation of engine nacelles based on airspeed, as per the real-life counterpart.
Full Simulation of BFWS (Blade Fold and Wing Stow) Procedures.
Accurate simulation of Auto-Hover capabilities, Auto-Flaps, and custom-coded Autopilot.
Custom VTOL/STOL Flight Dynamics, including realistic behavior of the aircraft handling during movement of the engine nacelles.
Fully simulated Vortex Ring State: Dangerous aerodynamic stall condition that results in an uncontrollable descent of the aircraft. Realistic simulation of VRS Recovery maneuvers.
Accurate simulation of the gearing system connecting both proprotors, allowing for 1 engine operations at reduced performance.
Engine overstress limitations as per the real aircraft – engines cannot sustain full throttle for long periods of time.
8 Liveries, including Marines, Japan Ground Self Defense Force, US Navy (Fictional) and US Air Force (Fictional)
As for the second product, the one that I said we will be able to use the Osprey in, it's called "Amphibious Ready Group" and it will feature vessels, missions, and landing challenges, all focused around the MV-22B.
In this pack, we will be getting "ultra-detailed renditions of USS America (LHA-6), USS San Antonio (LPD-17), USNS Mercy (T-AH-19), USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3) and USS Virginia (SSN-774)". These will be placed around 16 locations worldwide and we will be able to use them as starting spots since they will have "spawnable hard decks to take off and land on".
We will be able to use them with the MV-22B on operations that will range from offensive coastal landings, humanitarian missions, medical evacuation, and Carrier Onboard Delivery missions.
Miltech Simulations is also adding four bush trips and two landing challenges.
All this will come out on November 4th, 2022 but the company is looking into the future and they also announced the development of an "Osprey Airport Pack", which will bring MCAF Quantico, AFB Hulburt Field, and MCAS New River. This pack should be available in 2023.
All these products will be exclusively sold by ORBX and the Microsoft Marketplace.
Cowan Simulation updated their Bell 206B3 for MSFS

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Tag: California Dreams
Flashback Friday-90's Television Teens-Sweet Valley High (1994-1998), California Dreams (1992-1997) & Saved By The Bell (1989-1993)
To a certain generation, there are some television shows (as corny or ridiculous as we may think of them now), that take them back to a simpler time and place.
In the 1990's television for the younger generation was pretty much cookie cutter. In honor of my generation's younger years, this post takes us back to a time when our lives were not so complicated.
The first show I am going to write about is Sweet Valley High (1994-1998). Based on the books by Francine Pascal, the television show follows the lives of the teenage blonde California twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield (Cynthia and Brittany Daniel). Jessica is outgoing, fashionable sister while Elizabeth is the quiet, literary type.
Let's face it, this show and the books are not that deep. But there is something other teenage lives that always seem to bring any audience in.
The second show is California Dreams (1992-1997). The show followed a teenage band, The Dreams as they play music and work through the experience that is being a teenager.
Again, this show was not that deep. But for the then teenage generation, the music was cool and the stories were comparable their own lives.
And finally, the show that started it all: Saved By The Bell (1989-1993). Relying on stereotypes: the charmer, the nerd, the jock, the fashion victim, the cheerleader and the brain, this was must see television for a generation.
Let's face it. The show is very much part of it's era. Everything from the clothes to the technology screams early 90's. But it is a classic and continues to be must see for teenagers, even if reruns.
Do I recommend them? Why not?
Author WritergurlnyPosted on August 14, 2015 Categories Books, Flashback Friday, TelevisionTags California Dreams, Saved by the Bell, Sweet Valley High2 Comments on Flashback Friday-90's Television Teens-Sweet Valley High (1994-1998), California Dreams (1992-1997) & Saved By The Bell (1989-1993)
Jimmy Fallon has great taste in television. And he has made me feel quite old. A few years ago, he reunited the California Dreams cast.
This morning, a youtube video was released of a partial Saved By The Bell Reunion. The 90's child in me did a happy dance.
Author WritergurlnyPosted on February 5, 2015 October 8, 2022 Categories TelevisionTags California Dreams, Jimmy Fallon, Saved by the Bell, youtube videoLeave a comment on Feeling Old
My Portfolio: https://adinabernstein.contently.com/: Feeling Old
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Fresh 2016 Mercedes Benz Gle Class is free HD wallpaper. This wallpaper was upload at November 3, 2017 upload by admin in Mercedez Benz.
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Evergestis eurekalis is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by William Barnes and James Halliday McDunnough in 1914. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Arizona, California and Utah.

References

Evergestis
Moths described in 1914
Moths of North America

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
How to play jazz music scale
A scale that represents the fundamental frequency of music and is commonly used by jazz musicians.
A scale is also commonly used in classical music.
The scale is based on the ratio of one tone to another, with one tone being the lowest frequency.
The musical scale is a key to understanding how music is made, and how it relates to the human brain.
The American composer and musician John Cage, a pioneer of jazz, first discovered the scale, which he called the Bb chord.
It's a chord that has five notes, which is the fifth tone of a chord.
In jazz, the fifth note is called the fifth, or chromatic, of a Bb.
This chord is also called the blues, because of the blues-influenced sound it makes.
To learn how the scale is used, learn how to play the blues scale in jazz.1.
The First Fretless Scale in Jazz: Bb and DbCmaj7.
The Bb-Db-Cmab Scale: A Dmaj chord that's played on a guitar.
Dmaj is an ancient Latin word meaning "to play."
The scale was introduced to jazz in the mid-1920s by jazz singer and composer Jack London.
London used the scale in his music, and he used it to develop the scale's distinctive sound.
London, who was known for playing the Bmaj, played the B-D-C chord as an alternate to the Bbmaj, a B-flat dominant chord.
When London wrote his tunes, he often played the Dm7, which was the highest note on his scale.
London was one of the first jazz musicians to use the scale.2.
The Cmaj Scale: Cm7.
Another Cm6 chord that uses a Bbm7b-flat major seventh to create a dominant 7th.
This scale is often used by contemporary jazz musicians as a basis for improvisation.
Cm7 is a common chord that jazz players use to develop a chord progression.
Cm chords have an F chord in the root position, and then a minor 7th chord, which forms the major seventh of a Cm chord.
This progression is known as the B7b7 progression.3.
The Dm4-Dm7 Scale: Dm6.
This Dm chord is an interval-based chord that also has a major seventh.
The dominant seventh of this chord is a Dm, which creates a seventh-natural-minor.
It can be found in blues and jazz music.
The Dm and the D7 are used interchangeably in jazz, but Dm chords are sometimes used to build a melody.4.
The Ebmaj scale: Ebm7Dm, Fm, D7D7, Ebm, A7, Dm5, D.
Bm5.
The Em7 chord is used as the second, third, and fourth of the Ebm chord progression, and is often seen as a harmonic progression in jazz music, as opposed to the other two Em chords in other music genres.7.
Bb7-D7 scale: Bm7-Bb7D, F7-F7, B7, F, D-B7, A6.
The major scale of the B4 chord is commonly heard in jazz in this key.
A major scale is an extended, augmented, and diminished scale.7b,7c,7d,7e,7f,7g,7h,7i,7j,7k,7l,7m,7n,7o,7p,7q,7r,7s,7t,7u,7v,7w,7x,7y,7z,7.
A major scale, a common jazz scale, is the scale that's commonly used to play a chord progressions in other genres.
For example, the G major scale plays the G chord.
Another common scale is the B major scale.
A jazz scale is sometimes referred to as the "Cm6-D6 scale."
It's used in other musical genres as well.
For instance, in classical composition, jazz scales often use the Cm, C, D, and Em6 chords.
In music, the A minor scale is commonly played on guitar.
A chord progression in the B scale is called a "b7 chord progression."
The B scale also uses a major scale called the C major scale to create harmonic progressions.
The A major scales is often played on the guitar.
Category: Upcoming Events
Tags: jazz music, music scale


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Don Coyhis
By websterpark | June 1, 2019
"No one is more deserving of a recovery advocacy lifetime achievement award than Don Coyhis. Don's efforts through White Bison have been the heart and guiding star of the new recovery advocacy movement. We have been richly blessed by Don's vision and his voice and we cherish the mentoring he has so graciously given to…
Beverly Haberle
Bev Haberle served for 40 years as the Executive Director of The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc., a non-profit recovery community organization that provides prevention, intervention, education, advocacy, and addiction recovery solutions. For the past 22 years, Bev served as the Project Director for Pennsylvania Recovery Organization-Achieving Community Together (PRO-ACT), a grassroots advocacy initiative that promotes…
Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek
Mary Jeanne Kreek, MD, is a graduate of Wellesley College and of the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and is a Professor and the Head of the Laboratory of the Biology of Addictive Diseases at The Rockefeller University in New York City. Dr. Kreek went to The Rockefeller Institute in 1964 to join…
Johnny Allem
William L. White
Mama's in Recovery: Alannah's Story
A Rendezvous with Hope
In Others' Words
Relax and Recognize Stress Awareness Month
Research Opportunity Alcohol Use Disorder


text:
Professor Sir Alan Peacock
Alan Peacock was Professor of Economics at Edinburgh, York and Buckingham University where he became its first Vice Chancellor. He served at one stage as Chief Economic Adviser of the UK Department of Trade and Industry.
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New experiences take you outside your comfort zone, open your mind and allow for new dimensions of personal growth. When you return from having done something you've never done before, you see the world anew. Your perspectives and horizons shift. Life is transformed.
Take a helicopter flight over the Cape Winelands with a picnic lunch in an historic wine estate.
Go Big 5 game spotting by mokoro in the Okavango Delta.
Enjoy the quiet majesty of a hot air balloon safari over the Serengeti ending with champagne breakfast.
For lovers of fine cuisine, there's unforgettable dune dining in the Namibian desert, a dinner table over the thundering Victoria Falls, picnic on a private Zambezi River island with a local choir for entertainment, cooking a meal with a local Cape Malay family in their home or experiencing a fresh seafood braai on an exclusive beach with a glimpse into ancient beach-combers by a local historian.
Be awed by private close-up whale-watching from a boat in Hermanus.
Savour a private wine cellar tasting with an imminent vineyard owner and first-hand sabrage demonstration.
For beauty, nothing beats a private tour of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, guided by one of the Cape's top botanists.
Take the time for desert stargazing in a sophisticated Namib observatory hosted by an astronomer.
Get right up close in a Save the Rhino darting and tracking programme, with specialist rangers and conservationists.
Explore the "bucket-list" Rwanda silverback mountain gorilla tracking experience with a private talk by the vets who work so hard to conserve them.


Joe presents Moritz Richter with his Bikes for Kids certificate. Marcus, Moritz's father, and Allison Quast-Lents, owner of Motorless Motion, helped Moritz pick out his mountain bike.
After competing in Field Day events at Donald L. Pavlik Middle School in Alma, Moritz Richter thought he would receive a paper certificate, or maybe a coupon for some free food, but he was pretty surprised when his teacher told him he won a mountain bike.
Richter, 12, did not win the bike for his skills on the field, but for his compassion in the classroom. His teacher, Danette Guild-Hubbard, nominated him for Barberi Law's Bikes for Kids program. The program recognizes children who are doing good things in their communities.
"We wanted to do something to recognize those children in our community that quietly do things to help others," Attorney Joseph Barberi said.
Guild-Hubbard was Richter's homeroom teacher, and she nominated him to win a mountain bike from Motorless Motion. In her nomination, she wrote about how Richter's family is from Germany, though he was born in the United States, and how he is an English as a second language student. She said he did a variety of things to help her throughout the year, but one act of kindness really stood out to her.
Richter and his parents, Marcus and Ellen, did not know that Guild-Hubbard nominated him for the Bikes for Kids program. After being contacted by Barberi Law, Marcus got in touch with Guild-Hubbard and asked her if she wanted to tell Mortiz the news.
Richter and his parents came to downtown Mt. Pleasant Saturday, June 18, to pick out his new bike. Allison Quast-Lents, owner of Motorless Motion, helped Richter pick out his bike, helmet, and lock. She also showed him how to properly take care of his bike, and also told him some things to keep in mind while riding it.
Richter was very excited to be recognized for helping others. He said he likes to help others because it makes them feel better. He also talked about the classmate he helps.
Richter's parents were happy to have their son appreciated for the kind things he does. They said he doesn't look for recognition, but it's always nice to be appreciated.
Riley Jr., Crystal, Marley and Libby Olson stand with Libby's new bike in front of Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant.
When Libby Olson was 7 years old, life as she knew it changed forever. She started to fear leaving the house, she would cry all day long, she was in constant pain. Her mom, Crystal Olson, said doctors didn't believe there was anything really wrong with Libby. Finally, in October 2015, a doctor in New York diagnosed her with PANDAS, Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections.
This spring, Crystal saw a post about Barberi Law's Bikes for Kids program on Facebook and decided to nominate Libby, 10, to win a bike.
Libby, along with her mom, brother, sister, nana and papa, came to Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant on Friday, June 24, to pick out her new mountain bike, helmet, and lock. She was chosen as the second winner in the Bikes for Kids program.
Libby was really happy when she found out she won the bike for being kind and wanting to help others.
One of Crystal's friends who is homeless recently moved in with the family, which also includes an older sister and Libby's dad, Riley. Libby gave up her room so their new guest would have a place to call her own.
Crystal was really excited to learn Libby was chosen by Barberi Law to win the mountain bike.
Crystal stays home full-time to care for Libby. Libby's teachers from Ganiard Elementary in Mt. Pleasant came into their home to help keep her on track with her schoolwork. She will be in fifth grade in the fall at Fancher Elementary in Mt. Pleasant.
Joe presents Joe Dawe with his Bikes for Kids certificate. Dawe's parents, Heather and Daryl, and Allison Quast-Lents, owner of Motorless Motion, were there, too.
On Friday afternoon, it was hard to tell who was more excited, the 10-year-old boy or his dad. They both walked into Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant with huge smiles on their faces, as Joe Dawe, 10, of Ithaca, came to pick out his new mountain bike.
Joe wasn't getting a bike because he had outgrown his other one, but because he was being recognized for volunteering to help out a classmate. Joe's dad, Daryl, had been trying to think of a way to reward his son for being kind. He said he saw a flyer for Barberi Law's Bikes for Kids program and felt like it was the perfect way to recognize his son.
Dawe coaches wrestling and was a little leery of the time it would take for Joe to walk this other boy to the car. He said after school is normally a time when he rushes around to get right to practice.
Joe's mom, two younger sisters and little brother all came to Mt. Pleasant to watch as he picked out his new gray bike, helmet and lock. Both his parents told him how proud they were.
"Joe, just continue thinking with your heart and your mind, and it's going to take you places," his mom, Heather, said.
Joe and Jaylin Bradbury stand with her new mountain bike outside Motorless Motion.
Imagine going about your day, and all of a sudden, your hair starts to fall out in clumps. For Jaylin Bradbury, 8, of Shepherd, that is exactly what started happening to her last year.
Jaylin was diagnosed with alopecia, a condition where the immune system attacks hair follicles, and doctors don't know what is causing the hair loss. Since she was losing most of her hair, Jaylin decided to donate what hair she had left to a program that makes wigs for kids, since she now wears a wig.
So, when her mom, Tina, saw a Bikes for Kids flyer in Jaylin's Friday folder from school, she decided to nominate her. Tina submitted the nomination at the beginning of June, so when Barberi Law contacted her to tell her Jaylin had won in the last week of June, she was excited.
"I had forgotten about it because I had nominated her a while ago, so I was surprised to get the call," Tina said.
Jaylin, her mom, her dad, Jason, her aunt and her mom's fiancé came to Motorless Motion on Wednesday to pick up her new bike, helmet, and lock. Jaylin didn't find out until that morning she was chosen to win the mountain bike.
Jaylin said she was very happy to win and was excited to start practicing on her new bike in her long driveway.
She said she chose to donate her hair because other people did it so she could have a wig. So, she wanted to help another child get a wig.
"It makes them feel better," Jaylin said.
Tina said Jaylin hasn't let her hair loss affect her too much. She participated in Girls on the Run this spring, as well as softball in Shepherd.
Jaylin has been using steroid cream on her scalp for a year to try and stimulate the hair follicles and get her hair to start growing back in. Tina said the first cream wasn't working, so doctors prescribed another one. If the creams don't work, the next treatment would be injections into Jaylin's scalp. Tina said they hope to avoid going that route.
David Barberi presents Mitaya Collin with her Bikes for Kids certificate at Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant.
On Mitaya Collin's 11th birthday, she celebrated with a new bike from Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant. It wasn't a gift her family bought, but a reward for being kind and always putting others first.
Collin was chosen as the fifth winner in Barberi Law's Bikes for Kids program. Her grandma, Connie Napier, nominated Collin to win.
Collin will be a sixth grader at Mary McGuire Elementary in Mt. Pleasant this fall. Her favorite subject is math, and she loves to spend time climbing trees in her yard and swinging with her friends. She enjoys helping others whenever she can.
She said she thinks other kids will be inspired to be kind when they read about other kids, like her, being recognized for the good things they do.
Her mom, Emma Stickney, said it was a bittersweet day for Collin. It was her first birthday without her dad, and she had already gone through his birthday and Father's Day without him. Stickney was thankful Collin had something positive to take her mind off her loss for a little bit.
Stickney said Collin was very excited to learn she had won a mountain bike.
"She said, 'I've got skills I didn't even know I had,'" Stickney said.
Napier said Collin loves little kids, especially her little brother and sister, and always helps take care of them. She said Collin is very sympathetic to others.
"Even though she lost her daddy, she recently hugged me at my father's funeral, and said, "'You're OK Grandma, it'll be all right,'" Napier said in her nomination.
Easton Damude, 10, picked out his bike at Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant.
Three years ago, James Damude told his kids they needed to come up with some ideas on how to spend their summer vacation. He didn't want them anchored in front of the television, or playing video games all day. So, the kids started making a list. Their idea, a lemonade stand, has grown into something bigger than they imagined.
Easton Damude, 10, was nominated to win a bike through Barberi Law's Bikes for Kids program for his work at the Midland lemonade stand, which raises money for foster kids to go to summer camp. Easton, his sister, Sydney, 8, his sister, Emily, 5, his brother, Silas, 3, and his dad came to Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant Thursday to pick out his new bike.
Damude said he studied business at Northwood University in Midland and wanted to teach his kids some of the basic principles. He said the lemonade stand has helped him do that.
The family runs the stand, Sweet Sydney's Old Barn Lemonade Stand, at the Midland Area Farmers Market and other events around the area. The kids are paid $5 an hour to work at the stand. They started out just serving lemonade, but now sell lemon drop candies and lemon-scented soap and candles. There is no set charge for cups of lemonade, it is all based on donations. They also ask local businesses to act as sponsors and put their logos and names on the back of T-shirts they sell.
"It only works because of the generosity of the people," Damude said.
In 2015, the Damudes donated $3,000 to send foster kids to Mid-Michigan Royal Family Kids Camp this summer. Although the stand accepts any donation for a cup of lemonade, those that give $100 or more become "Lemonade Angels" and have an all-access pass to lemonade from the stand.
Easton was excited about winning a mountain bike, helmet and lock from the Bikes for Kids program. His family didn't know about the program, so they were surprised to hear Easton had won. Geoffrey Rettig, chief assistant prosecutor in Midland County, nominated Easton to win the bike. Easton is the paperboy in Rettig's neighborhood, and Rettig thought a new bike could help Easton on his paper route.
Rettig talked to Damude at a summer block party in their neighborhood and found out just how involved the family is in the community. Rettig felt Easton should be recognized for his professionalism and his work to give back to the community.
Easton will be a fifth grader at Midland Academy. He and Sydney had a chance to speak to students at Northwood University in June about their lemonade stand. They spoke about social entrepreneurship at the weeklong camp, LAB (Learning About Business), and served the participants lemonade afterward.
Xander Bardell, 11, of Mt. Pleasant, stands with the teacher who nominated him, Rachel Jaksa, attorney Joe Barberi, his mom, Dawn, and his dad, Mike, at Motorless Motion.
When Fancher Elementary teacher Rachel Jaksa looked at a Bikes for Kids flyer she was supposed to distribute at school, she immediately thought of one deserving student.
Jaksa, a fifth-grade teacher, nominated Xander Bardell, 11, of Mt. Pleasant, to win a mountain bike from Motorless Motion in Mt. Pleasant for the quiet things he does to help others.
Bardell came to Motorless Motion to pick out his bike, helmet and lock on Tuesday, July 26, with his parents, Mike and Dawn, and Jaksa. His parents didn't know Jaksa had nominated him to win a bike.
Bardell said his parents initially teased him about getting a call from his teacher, making it sound like he was in trouble.
Bardell said he enjoys helping others to keep them caught up on their schoolwork and make sure they know what they are doing.
"I like the feeling of knowing they're going to be able to do it," he said.
He will be a sixth grader at Fancher this year and has been attending the Youth Police Academy in Mt. Pleasant. The three-week program is for kids in fifth through seventh grades, and students have to write an essay and be selected for the program.
"I want to be a police officer, or maybe a famous baseball player," Bardell said.
Jackson Beery, 11, and his family picked up his new mountain bike at Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant.
When Jackson Beery, 11, of Saginaw, was given a class assignment to create something that he could sell and give the proceeds to charity, he decided to write a book about his brother.
Jackson's book, "Differences Make No Difference," was published and sold via lulu.com. The 30-page book features photos of Jackson and his 6-year-old brother, Chase. More than 300 copies have been sold, and Jackson raised $2,005 to send to Africa.
Jackson's dad, Matt, traveled to West Africa on a mission trip several years ago to help with construction of a church. Jackson chose to send his money there to help the missionaries.
"So far, they have used the money to pay for medicine for two children with epilepsy, and the school fees for a first-grade girl who is an orphan," Amber said.
Jackson was excited to come to Motorless Motion on Wednesday, Aug. 3, to pick out his new bike, helmet, and lock. His parents, Chase, and his sister, Reese, came with him.
Jackson didn't know his mom nominated him for Bikes for Kids after seeing another one of the winners featured on WNEM-TV's website. He talked about why he decided to write a book about Chase.
"Kids with special needs are just as cool and awesome as other kids," Jackson said.
He said he was happy that he could create a project that raised money to help other people.
"We're all people, and God made us, and no one is better than others," Jackson said.
His parents are very proud of all he has accomplished, so far.
"It's really neat to see that compassion in him already at 11," Amber said.
Jackson will be a sixth-grader at Swan Valley Middle School in Saginaw this year.
Carter Dole, 10, and his mom came to pick up his new mountain bike at Motorless Motion in downtown Mt. Pleasant.
Carter Dole, 10, of Mt. Pleasant, has helped a special needs student at his school since they were both in first grade. But to Dole, it was just a way to make a new friend.
Dole was nominated by his fourth-grade teacher at Vowles Elementary, Laurie Richards, to win a bike through Barberi Law's Bikes for Kids program.
Dole and his mom, Jill, came to Motorless Motion on Thursday to pick out his new mountain bike, helmet, and lock. Dole was happy and surprised that Richards nominated him.
"She's always doing something different from everyone else, and it's always fun," he said about Richards' classroom.
Aside from making new friends, Dole talked about another reason he likes to help people.
"Because if you don't, they will just get bullied because they can't do things others can," he said.
Jill also was surprised to find out Dole was nominated for the Bikes for Kids program, but she was happy her son's teacher recognized him for his kind behavior.
Dole will be a fifth-grader at Fancher Elementary in September. He has an older sister and a younger brother and was excited to win a bike for himself.
"I will use it a lot, and I will have something Carly and Bennett don't have," he said.
Chelsea White, 13, of Shepherd, picked up her mountain bike at Motorless Motion in Mt. Pleasant.
As a Young Marine, Chelsea White, 13, of Shepherd, participates in many activities that teach her a variety of life skills. As part of her training over the past two years, she has enjoyed many community service opportunities.
White, who will be an eighth-grader at Shepherd Middle School, was nominated to win a mountain bike from Barberi Law's Bikes for Kids program by her Young Marines unit commander, John Smith.
White was "overjoyed" when she found out she won a bike from Motorless Motion. She didn't know Smith had nominated her.
White, her mom, Krissy Giffin, and her sister, Jordyn, came to Motorless Motion to pick out her bike, helmet, and lock. White talked about why she likes helping others.
"It gives me good satisfaction to know I'm helping people, to know I'm at least out there doing something," she said.
White said if she needed help, she wouldn't expect someone to help her. But, she believes it's good to be there for others and not expect anything in return.
"Nobody really deserves to be left alone," she said.
White is a devoted artist, who loves the outdoors. She attends Young Marines every other Saturday throughout the year. She has visited the police station and jail in Mt. Pleasant, seen how the Jaws of Life works and taken part in an outdoor winter camping trip at Deerfield Nature Park, where she got to build her own shelter.
Giffin said she was very proud of her daughter.


text:
El tirà reial sociable  (Myiozetetes similis) és un ocell de la família dels tirànids (Tyrannidae).

Hàbitat i distribució
Bosc obert, matoll alt, clars del bosc i proximitat de l'hàbitat humà, a la llarga de corrents fluvials de les terres baixes des de Mèxic al sud de Sonora, Sinaloa, oest de Durango, Zacatecas, sud-est de San Luis Potosí i sud de Tamaulipas, cap al sud a la llarga d'ambdues vessants, incloent la Península de Yucatán, fins Costa Rica, a les terres baixes al sud-oest de Costa Rica, oest i centre de Panamà. Oest de l'Equador, nord-oest del Perú. Des del nord, centre i est de Colòmbia i Veneçuela, cap al sud, a través de l'est de l'Equador i est del Perú, nord i est de Bolívia i Brasil fins al nord-est de l'Argentina i Paraguai.

Referències

sociable


About one in six People undergo depression of their lifetime. It's essential to appreciate that feeling down at times is a traditional part of life. Several persistent symptoms in addition to low mood are required for a prognosis of major depression, however people with only a few – however distressing – signs may benefit from therapy of their subsyndromal" depression.
Depression would not discriminate who it affects by age, gender, race, career, relationship status, or whether or not an individual is wealthy or poor. It's also essential to talk to your physician about potential treatment for depression in addition to different situations that may occur with it. A depressed temper is a traditional response to loss, life's struggles, or injured shallowness.
In older adults depression might manifest extra subtly as they tend to be less more likely to admit to emotions of unhappiness or grief and medical illnesses which are more frequent on this inhabitants also contributes or causes the depression. A center college trainer with continual depression asks for the accommodation of leave one afternoon a week for a sixteen-week interval so she will be able to attend an intensive out-patient therapy program beneficial by her psychological health practitioner.


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Case against HS2
HS2 Route
Posted on 29th December 2013 by Joe
As Transport Secretary hits the road, here's what happened last time.
Much to the surprise of many, according to the Nottingham Post, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin will be holding a surgery for people whose homes are affected by HS2 at Strelley Hall, just outside Nottingham on January 13th from 9.30am. You can book appointments by calling 0115 943 6507.
What isn't known at this stage is whether this will herald the start of a series of meetings along the Phase 2 route of HS2. This is the first time a Transport Secretary has tried to engage with the people directly affected by HS2 for over three years.
Here's what happened last time;
No related content found.
One comment to "As Transport Secretary hits the road, here's what happened last time."
From the MP's newsletter, "this is not an event to lobby Patrick about the wrongs of HS2." In my view, the MP is concerned about re-election. The seat is extremely marginal and the MP has always supported HS2. Hence this second propaganda roadshow at Strelley.
It's likely that HS2 has already cost the last remaining green belt land at Toton (adjacent to the proposed station). No public meetings about HS2 have ever been held in Toton.
Local councils commissioned a report from Volterra for £35k on maximising the economic benefits of HS2 at Toton. The report's only recommendation was to build a housing estate on the green belt land there. Interestingly, the report was concerned that any capacity release would harm Nottingham's economy. (Half of the existing Nottingham-London services are already cancelled in HS2's business case.)
Simple ways to help
Donate to Stop HS2
Visit the Stop HS2 shop
Donate while you shop
HS2 locks horns with Bechtel in bid to break contract stalemate - City A.M.
On track for digital transformation success: What digital transformation can learn from HS2 - TechNative
How final cost of HS2 will be less than nothing – Yorkshire Post letters - Yorkshire Post
Wendover Bypass: £1.51 million project to reduce HS2 noise to get underway in August - Bucks Free Press
HS2 reveals designs for Automated People Mover - GOV.UK
Leadsom calls for review of HS2 Business Case, Labour want independent peer review
Lord Berkeley says HS2 Ltd has paid off Whistleblowers and is 'Rampant with fraud'.
HS2 Debate, Wednesday 10th July
HS2 Extend Their Cloak of Secrecy, Demanding the Signing of 276 Gagging Orders.
Commons Library Alters Briefing to Prove £65bn HS2 Cost Estimate Came From Government.
2010-2019 © STOP HS2 – The national campaign against High Speed Rail 2


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The reason gun owners must have a concealed weapons permit is because, with the exception of three states, it is required by state law. There is no federal law requiring a concealed weapons permit. However, if you wish to avoid fines and, sometimes, jail time, you must have a permit recognized by any state you wish to carry a concealed weapon in.
In order to successfully apply for a concealed weapons permit you must meet several criteria. Although the requirements vary between states, applicants will often be required to complete a training course, be eighteen years of age or older, and be subject to a background check. Certain criminal convictions may disqualify an applicant from obtaining a concealed carry permit. In some states, the mentally ill and those with drug addictions are not allowed to carry concealed weapons.
Permits to carry concealed weapons are issued on a state by state basis; Alaska, Vermont, and Arizona are the only states which allow concealed carrying without a permit. Wisconsin and Illinois are the only states that do not allow citizens to carry concealed weapons.
Some states recognize other states' concealed weapon permits; for example, a concealed weapons permit for Montana will also be recognized in Texas. However, there is no uniform federal law or federal concealed weapons permit. That means that each time a concealed weapon is taken to another state, it is important to check that state's requirements and comply fully with them, regardless of how short the trip to that state may be.
Failing to obtain a permit can result in charges that are either misdemeanors or felonies. The penalties for being caught carrying a concealed weapon without a permit vary from state to state. They are typically harsh and can include large fines and jail time.
Even with a concealed carry permit, there are still locations where it is illegal to carry a gun. Many states ban carrying concealed weapons on school grounds, and some states ban concealed weapons on college campuses and in other government and public buildings.
In 2008 the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment allows for citizens to own and keep guns for self-defense purposes. The Second Amendment states that "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Prior to this Supreme Court ruling, it was disputed whether or not the Second Amendment allowed for an individual right to bear arms, as opposed to a collective right to bear arms, specific to the establishment of a militia, that did not guarantee individual gun rights.
"Gun Control." The New York Times.
"Justices, Ruling 5-4, Endorse Personal Right to Own Gun." The New York Times. June 27, 2008.
Adams, Sara. "Reasons for Concealed Weapon Permit." , https://legalbeagle.com/6721365-reasons-concealed-weapon-permit.html. Accessed 20 April 2019.


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text:
Q: buttons background images stretched (wrap_content or dp usage) i'm setting background images to my custom buttons. I made a screenshot for my app and mentioned that when i'm using "wrap_content" for the width and height of the button, the button is stretched. When i'm fixing a size in dp, it will appear nice ( ex: in my mdpi folder i have 48x48px icons, so i put 48dp in width and height). Can you please explain me why?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/definition_layout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:padding="5dp"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true" >

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/buttons"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:padding="5dp" >

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/addToFavorites"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        android:background="@drawable/favorites_button" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/fontup"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        android:background="@drawable/fontup_button" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/fontdown"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        android:background="@drawable/fontdown_button" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/comment"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        android:background="@drawable/comment_button" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/speak"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        android:background="@drawable/speak_button" />
    </LinearLayout>

    <ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_below="@id/buttons">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/image_frame"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    <WebView
        android:id="@+id/webView1"
        android:layout_below="@id/image_frame"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    </LinearLayout>
    </ScrollView>

    </RelativeLayout>

The code above shows my XML file. You can check this link to view a screenshot for my problem:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/phnxt5p335ltqef/buttons_icon_altered.png

A: It is pretty easy:

*

*Use ImageButton instead of Button

*set the background attribute to null

*set the src attribute

*set the scaleType attribute to centerInside
Working example:
<ImageButton
android:id="@+id/my_awesome_button"
android:scaleType="centerInside"
android:background="@null"
android:gravity="center"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:src="@drawable/my_awesome_drawable"/>

Note:
You can also use a dp value instead of "wrap_content".
I hope it helps.

A: It appears stretched because "wrap_content" means android will stretch the image to fit the enclosing layout.
In your case, the buttons in the linear layout will take as much space as they can within the layout. So unless you set the height and width for the buttons, they will stretch out to fill the space occupied by the linear layout and consequently, their background images will also stretch along with the buttons.
But if you set the button size to 48dp, then the images won't have to stretch since they are also 48px in size and hence they will  look nice.
Go through the excellent official developer docs for more info on layouts here:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/declaring-layout.html
and for learning how to manage your layouts and assets for multiple android screen sizes and resolutions here:
https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html

A: You can avoid the button background stretch by setting minWidth & minHeight to 0dp
<Button
    android:id="@+id/addToFavorites"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:minWidth="0dp"
    android:minHeight="0dp"
    android:layout_margin="5dp"
    android:background="@drawable/favorites_button" />

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
You are at:Home»The Integrator»Cybersecurity»Government Agencies Can Prevent Cyberattacks Through Good Cybersecurity Hygiene and Employee Education
Government Agencies Can Prevent Cyberattacks Through Good Cybersecurity Hygiene and Employee Education
By News Desk on October 10, 2021 Cybersecurity, Features
Written by: Wissam Saadeddine, Infoblox
The public and private sectors have many differences, one characteristic is similar; that is cybersecurity and threats. Both sectors feel the pain of not having a sufficient community of trained and available security staff to hire, both are constant targets of phishing and related social engineering attacks and both are trying to balance the three-pronged attacks of the pandemic, the relocation of employees to work-from-home status and increased risks from attacks on cloud assets.
Wissam Saadeddine, Senior Manager MENA, Infoblox
The following are considered to be the noted challenges for both government and private sectors:
Workers are being required to work from home with available resources
IT and security staff must provide WFH employees with new equipment, which has major implications for IT budgets
Users are connecting to government networks from untrusted and often compromised home networks
Users are employing personal equipment and IoT devices to connect to government networks and clouds that might not be secured to the governmental agency's security standards
Government operations potentially can impact much larger groups of people than a corporate attack. Depending on the government entity targeted, the effect could impact critical infrastructure at all levels. The COVID-19 effect of draining critical financial resources to fund purchases of hardware and software for newly displaced employees, plus expenses for significant increases of cloud services and, in some cases, a forced digital transformation from the on-premises data center to cloud-based assets, is putting a strain on both financial and staffing resources.
From the citizenry perspective, the pandemic has opened the proverbial Pandora's box of fake "official" websites devoted to COVID-19, misinformation from websites purporting to be the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other government and medical facilities that are watering holes for malware and ransomware attacks on hospitals delivered in emails purporting to be information about COVID-19.
What can government agencies do to defend themselves against such attacks?
While public and private sectors have some differences when it comes to issues such as disclosure and confidentiality, the basis is the same. At the core is user education. Helping government employees understand good cybersecurity hygiene is essential. With the vast majority of office-based government employees working at home, agencies need to focus on the basics of identity management; implementing zero trust to protect networks from untrusted users, devices, applications, and network connections; and ensuring that data is protected from unauthorized egress and access.
For those governmental agencies without existing threat intelligence capabilities, now would be a good time to invest in a comprehensive program that includes a mix of traditional data feeds, specialized feeds focusing on specific requirements for a given agency, an open-source intelligence (OSINT) feed, and greater emphasis on understanding the threat intel an agency already is generating from its existing SIEM systems and related log systems.
Government agencies also should take advantage of several emerging technologies to further enhance their existing security policies. For example, security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) enhance the speed and reliability of existing operations. For cloud-based operations, a cloud access security broker (CASB) is on-premises or cloud-based security policy enforcement placed between cloud server consumers and providers. It interjects enterprise security policies as cloud-based assets are accessed.
Continuous management and monitoring add another dimension to protecting government networks. As a key target of bad actors and nation-state cyber attackers, continuous monitoring is essential; any lapse can let attackers have access to a system, even if just momentarily.


Mixed dal or lentils dosa or bele dose recipe explained with step by step pictures. This mixed dal (lentils) dosa or bele dose is very tasty and healthy. This dosa is also popular by name pancharatna dosa because 5 types of dal or lentils are used. So this dosa is very good for growing kids.
This dosa recipe is from my friend Manjula. She is very innovative in her cooking and she is a great cook. So in the future I will be sharing many of her recipes here. Mixed dal or lentils dosa is a quick dosa recipe as there is no fermentation required. But however if you have time you can ferment it for few hours for better result.
We have many dosa recipes explained. I have listed few dosa recipes below, which you must try.
Or if you are looking for more Karnataka style breakfast recipes, then do check our breakfast recipes page. Let us get on to the mixed dal or lentils or bele dosa recipe.
Rinse and soak rice and dals (lentils) for 4 - 5 hours.
After soaking, drain the water and grind until smooth using required water.
At the end add in ginger, green chili, cumin seeds and coriander leaves and grind again until smooth.
The batter should be slightly thinner than the regular urad dosa batter. Add in salt and mix. Keep it aside for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the batter is ready to prepare tasty dal dosa or bele dose. If you have time ferment it for few hours. This dosa tastes good either way.
Heat the pan, pour the batter and make thin dosas. Drizzle oil or ghee from top.
Fold and take out the dosas once they are cooked.
And if you ferment it for few hours then the dosa texture will be different, they will turn soft. I like both with and without fermenting. You decide depending on your taste.


On the upcoming 28th, "BTS trasparent T-money" is going to be exclusively available in stores of CU, a Korean CVS brand.
According to CU, they have been experiencing a great increase in transportation card sales since they started collaborating with Kakao Friends and BTS.
The reason behind the large increase in transportation card sales is that the collaboration with characters and idols are gaining massive popularity from teenagers. Also, transportation card is not just a means to pay for transportation but now is a main instrument for adolescents to pay as well as to show their own individuality.
The T-Money consists of 7 different designs each one with each BTS member on it. What is touted about the item is the visual feature of having a sophisticated appearance with the usage of transparent material.
If you purchase any products in CU with the card, you get points that are worth 2% of the price of the purchased product saved to your CU membership. In addition, the card holders are subject to monthly 30% discount on a variety of products.
It has been announced that only a limited supply of 200 thousand cards are going to be available.


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text:
A Family Story
By Pam Gleason
Secretariat's Meadow: The Land, The Family, The Legend. Kate Chenery Tweedy and Leeanne Meadows Ladin. Dementi Milestone Publishing, 2010. Hardcover with illustrations. $29.59.
Last October, the Walt Disney movie Secretariat had a $12.7 million opening weekend and went on to gross just under $60 million. This made it the 58th highest grossing movie in the United States in 2010 – it made about 45 times more money than Secretariat himself did on the racetrack, although his lifetime stud fees were considerable.
Although it did not approach the box office gross of blockbusters such as the number one movie Toy Story 3 (which made $415 million), Secretariat was nonetheless a successful film that introduced a whole new generation to the big red stallion who was, by all odds, the greatest racehorse of our time.
The movie version of Secretariat's life may have been an entertaining tale, but those who know a little bit about his real story may have been bothered by the things the movie glossed over or left out. For instance, we meet Secretariat and see him getting his start in life as an underdog of sorts, but what about Riva Ridge, the racehorse just a year older than Secretariat that was also bred by the Chenery family and also born at The Meadows in Virginia? When Secretariat was a 2-year-old, Riva Ridge was winning the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, and yet his name never comes up in the movie. Of course the Disney version had to simplify things for a wide audience, but wasn't Secretariat's real history even more compelling than the one presented on the screen?
Fans of Secretariat who are sticklers for the truth will be much happier with the book Secretariat's Meadow, written by Kate Chenery Tweedy and Leeanne Meadows Ladin. Kate Chenery Tweedy is the daughter of Penny Chenery, the owner of Secretariat (portrayed by Diane Lane in the film.) Kate was a teenager when Secretariat was racing, and, although she was certainly not involved in his everyday life, she does provide an inside perspective that is lacking in most other books that celebrate the great Triple Crown winner. In fact, according to the book's promotional material, this is "the first and only Chenery family account of events." The book includes a foreword by Penny Chenery, and over 200 pictures from her private collection, many of which have never been published anywhere else.
The idea for this book was conceived in the spring of 2007, just after Penny Chenery sold Disney the rights to her life's story. At that time, Kate Chenery Tweedy began her collaboration with Leeanne Ladin, a freelance writer and owner of Free Rein Writing in Virginia. Their goal was to set down the history of The Meadows, the Virginia Thoroughbred farm where Secretariat was born and where he first learned to run.
Accordingly, a good two thirds of the book are about the farm and Chenery family history. It starts at the beginning, when the British first took the fertile land from the Yunngamund and Pamunkey tribes in 1607. It goes on to tell the story of how Penny Chenery's ancestors acquired the land, and how their fortunes were affected by the events of American history – the Civil War and various "panics" and depressions.
The most compelling part of the book is its portrait of Chris Chenery, who was Penny's father, (and referred to throughout the book as "my grandfather.") Although Chris Chenery visited his grandparents' farm when he was a child, he did not live there. His father, Jimmy Chenery, scrambled for a living in various cities, and Chris grew up impoverished, but highly driven and ambitious.
"My grandfather, Christopher T. Chenery, spent his life pursuing two great passions. The first was making money and providing financial security for himself and his loved ones. The second was horses." And he would be successful in both pursuits, first striking it rich in securities, then in Thoroughbred bloodlines. He made his first million in 1928, and, unlike many other 1920s millionaires, he didn't go from riches to rags when the stock market fell in 1929. His fortune was in utilities and people don't stop needing the water company when they lose their jobs.
In 1936, at the height of the Depression, he returned to Virginia and bought the Meadows, which had been sold out of the family 24 years earlier. He also bought horses. First they were polo ponies and foxhunters, because he was an active, sporting sort of man. Then he suffered at heart attack at the age of 50, which curtailed his activity. So he turned to racehorses. He transformed the Meadows into a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm, and got lucky right away. He October-November 2011 The Aiken Horse 73 had an eye for a horse and he was friendly with people in high places, people like Arthur Hancock, the owner of Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, who would give him access to some of the best bloodlines in the sport.
The Meadows, states the book, was an empire founded on broodmares. The first great broodmare was Hildene, a $750 bargain filly sired by Bubbling Over, the 1926 Kentucky Derby winner. Hildene was the dam of five stakes winners, including Hill Prince, who would be horse of the year in 1950 and wind up in the Racing Hall of Fame. Her next great son would be the 2-year-old horse of the year, First Landing. Hildene's granddaughter Cicada romped home first in the Kentucky Oaks for fillies, and many people thought she could have won the Derby – the only reason she wasn't entered was that her stablemate Sir Gaylord, another Meadows homebred, was slated to run in the big race. (Sir Gaylord, who was Secretariat's half brother, had to be scratched, after injuring himself in a workout the Thursday before the race.) By 1962, The Meadows had produced 31 winners and 16 stakes winners and it had won a full quarter of the races it entered. It also made a yearly profit, and had garnered purses in excess of $4.3 million.
The book goes on to describe how Penny Chenery, who had always been an avid horsewoman, came to be in charge of her father's breeding and racing operation as he was sinking into ill health and senile dementia. It tells how Riva Ridge saved the day with his astounding racetrack success and his Derby win in 1972, making it possible for Penny Chenery Tweedy to campaign Secretariat rather than sell the farm and disperse the stock that year.
The book does not attempt to tell Secretariat's own story in detail – that has been done before in other books. In fact, it refers readers to William Nack's Secretariat – the Making of a Champion, the book upon which the movie was based. But it does have details you won't find anywhere else. For instance, it includes interviews with the grooms who worked at the Meadows when Secretariat was a colt – African-American men whose names have rarely been cited, but whose expertise was instrumental in bringing up the young racehorses in the Chenery establishment. It also includes Kate Chenery Tweedy's personal recollections of Secretariat, both as a colt and as a racehorse, giving a sense of what it was like to be in the Tweedy family in those heady days in the early 1970s.
Chris Chenery died on January 3, 1973, before Secretariat's Triple Crown year. As was shown in the movie, Penny Chenery had to syndicate the colt that winter to avoid selling him outright. Her father's will left no provisions for anyone in the family to continue the breeding and racing operation at the Meadows. Secretariat was retired to stud at Claiborne Farm after his 3-year-old year – Riva Ridge went with him. The Meadows was sold in 1978, along with the remarkable broodmare band. After going through several owners and falling into disrepair, the grand old farm was finally purchased by the State Fair of Virginia and is now The Meadow Event Park. New buildings have been constructed, but some of the old stables were restored, and the new park which holds various types of events, is now a monument to the farm's equestrian history and the future site of the Museum of the Virginia Horse.
Lovers of history and horse racing will appreciate Secretariat's Meadow.
Posted by Three Runs Plantation at Monday, January 16, 2012