From a draft of a soliciting letter mailed to me recently, for my signature (details concealed):

[Institution X has made N grants to scholars over the years] – people who have and are making important contributions to [science].

(The problematic piece is boldfaced.) The draft was prepared by highly educated people who write a lot in their work, but still they came up with this example of a classic type of non-parallel coordination, with two conjoined complement-taking verbs (here, perfect have and progressive are) but a complement with a verb form appropriate only to the second, and not to the first (perfect have governs a past participle, progressive are a present participle: have made, are making). This is “government of verb form by the nearest”.

What I said to the colleague (and friend) who sent me the draft is that I have in fact studied the phenomenon, adding:

I don’t view it as a lapse in grammar, but a great many people do, and I would probably look foolish if this went out under my name.  Grammatical sticklers would insist on:

… people who have made and are making …

Actually, I used to view such examples as lapses in grammar, but over the years I have softened my assessment. As far as I know, I don’t use this sort of government myself, but I have come to think that for many people it’s not an inadvertent error, as many usage advisers have thought, but just an aspect of a grammar somewhat different from mine — a variant construction.

1. The usage literature. I’ll start by surveying some treatments of government of verb form by the nearest in the usage literature, then go on to look at some Language Log discussions of it and to the analysis of it.

The usage advice generally views the examples as involving illegitimate ellipsis (of the first complement verb), and hence of a failure to Include All Necessary Words. That is, the fault here is said to lie with the missing first complement verb; the literature “blames it on a word” (see here) and advises that this word be included.

The phenomenon comes up five times in the files of the Stanford OI! project. In chronological order:

(Fowler, H.W. 1926. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. London: Oxford University Press.) From pp. 134-6: Verbs: do not omit second part of compound verb if its form changes: “No State has [adopted] or can adopt“

(Pink, M. Alderton. 1948. A Dictionary of Correct English. London: Pitman.) From pp. 122-3, on maintaining parallel structure: “always has (done), and will continue to do“: change of tense –> do can’t apply to both

(Bernstein, Theodore. 1958. Watch Your Language. New York: Macmillan.) P. 146: the understood word must be in the same form – number, tense, person – as the explicit one; insert other form in … ”all men who have [served] or will serve“

(Bernstein, Theodore. 1977. Dos, Don’ts, and Maybes of English Usage. New York: Times Books.) From pp. 70-1: Ellipsis Slips: when the verb form changes, include both forms: “I have not [advocated], nor do I now advocate…“

(Copperud, Roy H. 1980. American Usage and Style: The Consensus. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.) Summarizing material from pp, 122-3: can’t omit the second part of a compound verb when there’s a change in number or form: filed can’t be omitted from “a firm has [filed] or is about to file for a franchise”

Then in a 2005 Language Log posting, I looked at two more recent handbooks:

(Lunsford, Andrea & Robert Connors. 1999. The New St. Martin’s Handbook.  4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.) P. 263 mentions: “I had never before and would never see such a sight.”

(Hacker, Diana. 2004. Rules for Writers. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.) P. 93 mentions: “Mayor Davis never has and never will accept a bribe.”

Both handbooks identify the problem in determination by the nearest as omission of words: “Add words needed to complete compound structures” (Hacker); “including all necessary words” (Lunsford & Connors).

2. Language Log. In addition to the long 2005 posting on parallelism in coordination just cited, I looked specifically at government of verb form by the nearest in one section of a 2004 posting, starting with “If you have or would apply …” reported to me by a colleague in e-mail (my colleague judged it to be straightforwardly ungrammatical) and going on to note further examples:

On ADS-L on 4/11/04, I reported that a grad student had sent me the example (from a friend in e-mail) “I could (and have) watched people play that game for hours.” Here there are two coordinated auxiliary verbs, requiring two different verb forms (base and past participle, respectively), which should (according to some hypotheses about reduced coordination) result in an irresolvable conflict, and ungrammaticality — but, instead, the form required by the nearer conjunct (the second one) determines the verb form. Similar examples can be found in more elevated contexts:

(Ex 1) There are plenty of venues at which Mr. Chirac could, and has, demonstrated his rapport with Mr. Schroeder. (New York Times editorial, “Playing Politics with D-Day”, 1/19/04, p. A20)

(Ex 2) To the Editor: The United States government’s attempts to manipulate the world price of crude oil by increasing gasoline taxes or by releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve have and always will fail. (Richard J. Stegemeier, “retired chairman and chief executive of Unocal Corporation”, New York Times letter, 5/27/04, p. A30)

As I reported on ADS-L: “The grad student suggested I do a Google search on “could +and have” — which yielded over 8k hits (without going into Google groups)! Some of these are irrelevant, of course, but, still, the number is huge. Actually, “would +and have” netted over 17k hits. Even “might +and have” got about 2k. So there’s a hell of a lot of determination by the nearest going on in unguarded writing.

… I’d imagine that government by the nearest is also common in speech, given how incredibly frequent it is in writing. I’m tempted to suggest that government by the nearest conjunct is in fact the rule for vernacular English — which would explain why it’s so hard to teach people to avoid this construction in formal writing.”

Since then I’ve collected quite a few cases on the fly, including many in speech (in particular, from news reports on National Public Radio), many in informal writing (on mailing lists, blogs, newsgroups, and the like), and some in mre careful writing. A few examples:

Malibu tends to astonish and disappoint those who have never before seen it…  I had not before 1971 and will probably not again live in a place with a Chevrolet named after it. (Joan Didion, quoted by Jon Winokur in a column in Funny Times)

Analysts say that’s evidence Microsoft should – and likely is – taking Google much more seriously. (AP story in Palo Alto Daily News, “Google, Microsoft battle it out”, 11/22/04, p. 18)

…I bring Adrienne up to date on the high-speed moves in the direction of the nursing home and on the rational family conferences that should, but decidedly are not, taking place over this momentous decision… (Judith Levine, Do You Remember Me? (NY: Free Press, 2004), p. 222)

It’s a crime he says he did not and could not have committed. (Lynn Neary, NPR’s Morning Edition Sunday, 4/29/07)

That last example inspired me to do a Google search on “did not and could not have” on 4/29/07, which pulled up ca. 19k raw hits, many of them from administrative, legal, etc. contexts. As in this court opinion:

… to contest the medical necessity of a procedure after the fact, Trigon did not and could not have suffered such prejudice under the facts of this case. (link)

In combination with the difficulty of teaching people to avoid such examples in formal writing — students are often puzzled to be told that they have to replace “could (and have) watched people”, which they judge to be entirely natural, by the longer and clunkier “could watch (and have watched) people” — such frequent instances brought me to think that these elliptical coordinations represented just another variant construction in English, one that I don’t use myself.

3. Analysis. As I pointed out in my 2005 posting on parallelism, the handbook treatments of what I called there “factorable coordination” are inexplicit and confused, and I tried to clarify things some. In factorable coordination, involving expressions of the form X [Y and Z] or [Y and Z] X, conjuncts Y and Z (I’ll restrict myself to two conjuncts in this discussion) are associated with a factor X. One condition usually placed on (some types of) factorable coordination is

Distributivity: the factor must be syntactically well-formed in combination with each of the conjuncts.

That is, the syntactic well-formedness of [Y and Z] X depends on the syntactic well-formedness of both Y X and Z X. (There are several ways to incorporate this condition in a system of syntactic description, but for my purposes here, we can just treat it as a stipulation.) So government of verb form by the nearest is problematic, because in these cases Y X is not syntactically well-formed (though Z X is).

Another way of looking at things is that in government of verb form by the nearest there’s a conflict between the two sub-conditions of Distributivity, one of which requires the factor X’ that is syntactically compatible with Y, while the other requires the factor X” that is syntactically compatible with Z. The handbook accounts then assume Distributivity in the form above (in which it’s a condition on syntactic form), and also assume that conflicts between conditions are irresolvable and so yield ungrammaticality.

Occasionally, people maintain to me that these hypotheses not only hold for English, but necessarily hold for English: they are just a matter of “logic”. But there’s a considerable literature on types of coordination that run counter to one or both of these hypotheses.

In the case at hand, in fact, there are two lines of analysis (not very different from one another) for these syntactically non-parallel coordinations. In the first, the two conjuncts are required only to be semantically compatible with the factor (this condition is needed in any case), and the verb form of the factor is stipulated to be determined by the second conjunct. In the second, a conflict between the two sub-conditions of Distributively in government of verb form is stipulated as being resolved in favor of the second. (There is a considerable literature on principled resolution of feature conflict.)

The difference between varieties where government by the nearest is disallowed and those where it’s available as an alternative to fully parallel coordinations is then just the difference between not having vs. having an alternative coordination construction with one of these stipulations.

Motor planning is what happens when a child figures out how to interact with their environment.  In other words, it is the process that happens when they decide they want to do something (like roll over) and then their brain sends the message to their muscles and their muscles work like a symphony in that they all turn on and off at the right time to produce a coordinated movement that will allow the child to roll over.  This is not something that your child just wakes up with one day.  Motor planning develops as your child develops and goes through the developmental sequence.  This is why it is important for your child to have adequate opportunities to explore their environment and ‘figure’ things out.

Having your child spend time on activities such as tummy time is not just a waste of time.  From this position they begin to learn how to push themselves up and roll over.  Part of their motor development is the process of ‘figuring it out’.  This is how they develop their motor planning.  When a child first starts standing you may see them bouncing up and down in their crib by bending and straightening their legs while they hold onto the rails.  This is one of the ways they learn how their muscles work.  Motor planning happens with all level of skills, its our way of becoming masters at a movement.  Just think about jumping jacks, having to coordinate the arms and the legs takes time.  Some people pick it up faster than others but everyone requires practice.

I have seen that a lot of times, we want to help our kids out when they get frustrated with trying to figure out how to do something such as crawling over an elevated surface.  By letting them work on it and encouraging them, but not doing it for them, you are actually helping them to enhance their motor planning skills.  The more they get to practice figuring things out the easier it will be for them to generalize their newly developed skills to new and different environments.  It will also help build their resilience for dealing with new situations.  I realize that there is a fine line between letting them figure it out and letting them get so frustrated they have a tantrum.  What I usually do is give them a little help when they start to escalate their frustration.  For example if they are trying to crawl over a cushion and they can’t figure out how to do it I may bring one of their knees up and let them bring the other knee up.  Or I may stabilize one leg so they can get the leverage to bring the other one up.

I think the biggest area I see this becoming a problem today is in sitting.  We get so excited when our kids can sit up on their own that we are constantly placing them in sitting rather than letting them figure out how to get into sitting.  One way around this is to help them get into the sitting position rather than just picking them up and putting them in sitting.  With gross motor development its not just the end result that’s important, its how they get there as well!  This is how they develop and enhance their motor planning.  One more quick example is when you first learned to drive a car.  It required practice in order to be able to steer, brake, check the mirrors, change lanes, etc.  Now you can drive without even thinking about it.  If you had never been given that practice time do you think you would be able to drive as easily.  For your child, learning to move in and out of positions and physical play time in general is their practice time!

Select your organization well!  Your well being depends upon it.

We all want to see ahead.  I am going to tell you that we cannot.

Yet we as surely as we court disaster when we get behind the wheel of the car when we have been drinking, we can run our organizations recklessly. You will get out of a car that is driven by a drunk, and you should aim to stay away from badly run organizations or at least to replace its management!

Let’s assume for a moment that you are one step back and you are choosing an organization.  Yes, choose. Even in a wicked recession, we choose. We choose which jobs we look at.  We choose which companies we research and approach.

Even as outsiders, there are 5 things to look out for to check the health of the organization.

These ideas are based on “systems theory”.  I hope any systems theorists reading this will comment.

One: We are continuously mindful of how well we are doing as a team and what it takes for the whole team to win

In plain language: Do people say “we” and do they talk about real things.  Do they say things like “In December, the market is slow for us.”

Do they talk in terms of taking everyone with them?  Do they make sure all the stragglers keep up and do they all cross the finishing line together?

Two: Everything matters, everything is connected to everything and connections get stronger with use!

In plain language: When you first approached the organization, did they start to “dance” with you?  Or were they stiff and rigid?  At the other extreme, were they hopelessly muddled?

Do they treat you like “white water”?  Do they work with the river and paddle gently or do they, at one extreme, fight the river [you] or at the other, not guide their canoe efficiently [be too relaxed and out-of-it]?

Is there feeling “give and take” or is the a feeling of force and rigidity or the opposite, no order at all?

Three: History happens once.  Nothing will ever happen again

In plain language: Do people in the organization tell a story of where the company came from and where they are going to?  Or is the company a skeleton of procedures without any flesh?

When they  talk to you about your story, do they attend to relevant parts or are they distracted by inconsequential details?

When something surprises them, do they ask questions or do they dismiss what they don’t understand?

Do they ask you how you would do things out of curiosity (and not as a test of right and wrong)?

Four: Birds fly in a flock without anyone giving orders!

In plain language: Are there 2 or 3 principles that govern this organization and are those sufficient to coordinate team work?  Do people point to the team work with evident pleasure?  Do they marvel that so much gets done with so little bossing around?

If you ask them what it would take to succeed on the job or fail on the job, can they give you 1 or 2 points or do they point you to manual that they haven’t read?

Five: Has the organization made unusual discoveries about what is good, true, better and possible?

In plain language: Do people talk about times when they were working as usual and then they stumbled over a new solution that was much better than they had done before?

Are they slightly mystified about how that happened?  That’s a good sign.  Mutation is healthy and it is only mutation when it is a surprise!

Qualify the organization

In sales, we only spend a lot of time on customers who need our products and services, who have the money to buy, and who intend to buy.  We “qualify” our customers.

We also have to qualify our organizations and move towards those who are healthy!

Rating an organization

When you talk to someone about a job, rate the organization on each of the five points.  How do they stack up on a scale of  0 to 25?  Try it and rate organizations that are right under your nose.  See if you haven’t got far healthier organizations right under your nose where you live!

Join up with people who will last the recession!

An inflexible organization will not last the recession.  And nor will one who is not organized at all.

Look for a healthy firm.  They will have the internal flexibility and mindfulness to adapt to the chaos in the environment. They will organize their affairs so you can grow. They will enjoy what they do and you will too.

Happy hunting and happy choosing!

It is obvious to anyone in the business of media, advertising, and promotion that Twitter and other social networking applications have been become critically important in the generation and dissemination of information. But what else could we do with this? I have a couple ideas.

1. Elections. I was at the Young Democrats of America national convention this August in Chicago where one side of the ticket led by current YDA President Crystal Strait had the election bought and paid for.  Part of why money was so influential in this election is that you didn’t have to literally buy the entire delegation from particular states; you only had to buy the state leadership because it is the state chair who tallies and reports delegate votes. State Young Democrat leadership also rents the hotel rooms and arranges travel with the implicit message that if you are not here to vote for the person they want you to support, you’re going to have to find your own way home. It is hard to maintain the integrity of a ballot when you can control all parts of that process.

How can Twitter change this? Simple. It would be a trivial exercise to have Twitter create an elections application based on their platform. You could register the phone numbers for individual delegates at registration or alternatively assign each delegate a secure ID that they use to tweet votes. No one votes who isn’t registered and cleared by the organization, since you’re able to control access to the voting mechanism, and as a (presumptively) independent and unbiased third-party organization, Twitter can maintain ballot integrity since it’s a trivial exercise for them to ensure the secrecy of the ballot. This guts the ability of state or national officials to control their voting blocs. And since everyone has cell phones anyway, the platform’s infrastructure is already in place. You get all the benefits of electronic voting and none of the disadvantages. There are a few other objections but I’ll address them without loss of generality later on.

2. GPS navigation devices. A friend and I were driving through St. Louis today and her GPS navigation system led us to a highway that was closed for construction (and had been closed for the better part of the past year) and I was reminded of a conversation I had a couple years ago with Dr. Ron Harstad, who presciently asked how we could use cell phone technology to route traffic more efficiently.

The operative principle is that the interface determines behavior. Imagine if there was a realtime integration of GPS navigation with Twitter. Instead of unique avatar names, you could identify posts with a unique identifier for the time and exact geographical navigation and scroll the most recent and most important posts along the sidebar. Crowdsourcing realtime information about traffic routes is both eminently feasible and pretty cheap, since the only additional work you’d have to do is add on a Twitter interface specific to the GPS system. Combatting things like spam or bad information is something that we’ve learned is really feasible through crowdsourcing and the only real work is to design the interface appropriately. You can take a look at Google Earth, where crowdsourcing has added incredible richness and value to an application that would be otherwise prohibitively expensive to engineer, or Facebook or Digg, where posts are subjected to realtime evaluation as users are able to evaluate which signals are valuable and which are not. Imagine the potential for coordinating and managing large emergency situations particularly.

Now to address objections. Generally speaking, objections to these proposals are all parametric questions that we can easily engineer around. Questions of security: how can we preserve a ballot’s integrity or prevent people from misusing realtime emergency navigation data can generally be addressed with the right set of protocols (you have a 3rd party control the voting platform or time-delay realtime emergency tweets in appropriate situations). Questions of workability: can we depend on telephone communications and satellites? What if Twitter goes down? These problems are generally managed by ensuring redundancy in the system. Questions of access: not everyone has a  cellphone (fortunately almost everyone does and they are really cheap).

Thoughts?

This venue has recently been added on Expopedia, the tradefair service finder. Visit our website for more information.

Art Cube
Wiedauwkaai 52
9000 Gent (Belgium)
More information about Art Cube …

An overview of the available activities for Art Cube …

• Events / exhibition organisation
• Stand construction: custom build
• Managementsystem / Software
• Rental: flowers and plants / Floral decoration
• Rental: party material
• Rental: furniture
• Consultancy
• Training / Coaching / Education
• Security: coordination
• Floorcovering / Carpet
• Catering / Food & beverages
• Webdesign
• Transport
• Rental: audio visual, ICT
• Cleaning
• Waste treatment / Refuse disposal
• Subcontractor
• Handling
• Hotels
• Banners
• Marketing
• Badges / Entrance tickets
• Rental: displays / showcases
• Standmaterial / Modular systems / Walls / Woodwork
• Rental: lighting installations
• Displays (design/fabrication)

This venue has recently been added on Expopedia, the tradefair service finder. Visit our website for more information.

Antwerp Engineering Company
Indiëstraat 10
2000 Antwerpen (Belgium)
More information about Antwerp Engineering Company …

An overview of the available activities for Antwerp Engineering Company …

• Events / exhibition organisation
• Stand construction: custom build
• Managementsystem / Software
• Rental: flowers and plants / Floral decoration
• Rental: party material
• Rental: furniture
• Consultancy
• Training / Coaching / Education
• Security: coordination
• Floorcovering / Carpet
• Catering / Food & beverages
• Webdesign
• Transport
• Rental: audio visual, ICT
• Cleaning
• Waste treatment / Refuse disposal
• Subcontractor
• Handling
• Hotels
• Marketing
• Badges / Entrance tickets
• Rental: displays / showcases
• Standmaterial / Modular systems / Walls / Woodwork
• Rental: lighting installations
• Displays (design/fabrication)

I think we can agree that yelling at people in frustration is not the best way to pass on information. (See yesterday’s post and comments.)

But when we’re playing in a group in a MMO, a lot of information needs to be communicated quickly. Are we trying to focus fire and if so, does everyone know what they are supposed to be hitting at any time? Do you need to ask another player to remove a debuff from you? Have you just used a cooldown that your tank or healer or dps needs to know about? Are you going to assume someone else’s role because they just died in combat?

A lot of our abilities are designed to interlock with each other. A buff from one player might significantly affect the abilities or optimal ability use of another. If you have debuffs, you need to know when to use them. When you think about it, that’s a crazy amount of information that needs to be assimilated quickly.

So how do we do it?

• Pre Pre-planning. This is where you discuss the fight and tactics in detail on a bboard before you even step into the instance.
• Pre-planning. If you know what will happen in a fight, you can pre-arrange the kill order, any crowd control, any other tactics, and roughly when significant buffs will be used.
• UI. We rely heavily on the user interface for information about when players have buffs or debuffs active on them. This is automatic information provided by the game (and the UI addons, if you use them) and doesn’t require anyone to actually say ‘I’m poisoned!’
• Flashy graphics. Some spells just come with very unmistakeable graphical effects that no one can miss if they’re paying attention.
• Boss cues. Some bosses will cue before they make a special attack with either a graphic or some kind of yell. Games don’t tend to use pure audio cues; I’d like to think this was in respect of deaf gamers but it’s probably just because they know a lot of people play with the sound off.
• Text and macros. Sometimes the easiest way to inform your group or raid when you’ve used a cooldown or buff is to macro in an automatic comment on group or raid chat when you activate it. eg. ** Just used Bloodlust ** The only problem is … not everyone reads text chat in the middle of a fight.
• Shout on voice chat. Best saved for if something really unexpected happens and pre-arranged plans have to change on the fly. Also probably best left for the raid leader.
• We don’t. No one says or types a word. We just assume we roughly know what they’ll be doing and go with it. (Really common in 5 man instances in WoW these days, or any content where it isn’t critical to micro-manage.)

Either way, it is a huge amount of information to process and I think regular raiders often forget how enormously overwhelming it may have felt when you first tried a raid, particularly as a healer or debuffer.

Broadcasting Taunts

Given the sheer amount of information flying around, I’ve always tended to the cautious side when I’m deciding which of my abilities and cooldowns to publicise. I was thinking about this lately because with the heroic beasts fight, we do a lot of tank switching in the first part. So I picked up an addon which would automatically tell people on the raid channel when I’d used various different abilities. What I really wanted was to let people know if a taunt had failed, but I figured I might as well add an inform about Shield Wall also (it’s a tanking cooldown).

You know the worst part? Not people complaining about spam because actually no-one complained. I got the impression it was felt to be generally useful. Nope, the most difficult part about automatically informing your group when you use an ability is that … they automatically also get informed when you press the button by mistake.

You don’t realise how naked this makes you feel until you try it. I mean, OF COURSE I press taunt at the wrong time sometimes. So does every tank who ever lived, unless they have it bound somewhere really inaccessible. If it’s not being broadcast, you just whisper to the other tank afterwards and apologise. They’ll shrug it off, we all do it. If using taunt by mistake means it wasn’t up when you really needed it then you can always fake that it missed or failed. But if you broadcast your abilities, then suddenly your entire raid becomes a backseat driver. Or at least it can feel that way.

So one positive side to broadcasting my taunts and cooldowns? You can bet I’m way more careful with them now. There’s no doubt that it’s made me a better player, in that sense at least.

Well, hello there and thank you very much!  Panther Elvis wants to remind you, as you get ready for your week off for Thanksgiving,  to make sure you remember the important UPREP event that will take place on March 20^th and that you make sure you tell all your friends and family about it if you see them during vacation!

You Ain’t Nothin’ But A Hound dog if you don’t know what I’m talkin’ about, so listen close little mama:

The event is the annual UPREP Fundraising Auction and this year’s them is “Viva Las Vegas!”  There will be all sorts of opportunities to gamble for a good cause – and you won’t even end up doin’ the Jailhouse Rock!

We still need lots of volunteers, so give Diane Hurner a holler if you want to help out

–      her number is 530 – 242-0424

–      or you can email her at dianehurner@yahoo.com.

The big event happens on Saturday, March 20^th at the beautiful new GAIA Hotel in Anderson – that’s Gaia Hotel, not Heartbreak Hotel pretty mama!

With glitz, glamour, gastronomy, and gamblin’ tickets to this event, or buying a whole table, would make a great gift !

Now, Don’t Be Cruel – put on your Blue Suede Shoes and mark the date on your calendar – It’s Now Or Never!

Happy Turkey Days – see you in Vegas!

Il NO B Day Amsterdam del 5 dicembre vola in alto:

A causa del numero altissimo di adesioni siamo passati di categoria: il 5 dicembre la manifestazione avra’ quindi luogo nel DAM.
La manifestazione e’ ufficialmente autorizzata dal comune e abbiamo tutti i necessari permessi. Appuntamento cambiato dunque a 5 dicembre, ore 15:00 piazza Dam, lato obelisco!

cercate di spargere la voce affinche’ tutti lo sappiano, approfittate per invitare piu’ e piu’ persone, che la piazza possiamo anche rischiare di riempirla!

NO B Day Amsterdam : 5 dec. Upgraded!
Because of extra-large number of people attending the event we have been upgraded from Leidseplein to DAM square. It is an officially authorized gathering. Please help spread the news to be sure everyone knows: 5 December, 15:00, Amsterdam DAM Square, the obelisk side !

Take the chance to send the news around again. Let’s fill the square with anger and hope!

HOW TO GET THERE?

I recently read this story on NPR about a study in Neurology on handwriting skills that links autism to difficulties with motor skill acquisition.   The NPR article mentions that the delayed motor skills, a result of poor motor planning (or the ability for the brain to talk to the muscles so that they can all work together to do the desired movement) may have a significant impact on social skills and communication.  In my experience I have found that children who are diagnosed with autism, autism spectrum disorder, or PDD have poor motor planning and require increased amounts of repetition and practice to learn a new skill, and then even more practice and repetition to master it so that they can generalize it to everyday life.  In fact I also found an article that looks at brain imaging and discovered that children with autism used a part of the brain that required more conscious thought to perform an activity while children without autism used an area of the brain that was for automatic movements.

I have found these articles to be enlightening with regards to what I have seen with the various children I treat.  In addition, it opened up a slew of questions for me, the biggest one being ‘What exactly are the effects of delayed motor skills and poor motor planning on social interactions and social skill development in all kids, and does this affect them in the school setting (i.e. their educational experience)?’  Basically what are the long term effects on social development of delayed gross motor skill acquisition?

Dupre´Logistics monitors it’s drivers.

Statistics suggest that a significant percentage of accidents are caused by human error. A major contributing factor in a number of these cases is fatigue. It is important to understand what fatigue is and how to deal with it. Dupre´Logistics hold their team accountable by measuring fatigue through Circadian Technologies’ CAS System.

Fatigue is more than just a general feeling of tiredness. It is a loss of our ability to remain vigilant, to perform a task, to maintain situational awareness, to think clearly and logically, to react appropriately and to maintain motor coordination skills. Very simply, when a person is fatigued, he is more prone to making mistakes. Fatigue affects everyone, even the most professional and dedicated people. It is not a question of mind over matter. Rather, it’s the body’s natural physiological response to working too much or getting too little sleep or rest.

Fatigue is monitored by examining the following 9 variables:

• Average sleep length per day
• Percentage of time below red and yellow thresholds on duty
• Average duration of episodes below red on duty
• Average alertness score while awake
• Number of recovery breaks per week
• Hours of work per week
• Hours of work per shift
• Biological limitations for sleep recovery
• Time of day activity occurs

Source:  Circadian 24/7 Workforce Solutions and Dupre´ Logistics

I came across a posting today at WebMD about commonly held Fitness Myths.  I consider myself a bit of a “de-MYTH-stifyer”, so I read the list with great interest.  Of all of the solid information the article had to offer (you can’t spot-blast belly fat for example) there was one myth that stood out:  Myth #8.

Fitness Myth #8: Machines are a safer way to exercise because you’re doing it right every time.

Although it may seem as if an exercise machine automatically puts your body in the right position and helps you do all the movements correctly, that’s only true if the machine is properly adjusted for your weight and height, experts say.  “Unless you have a coach or a trainer or someone figure out what is the right setting for you, you can make just as many mistakes in form and function, and have just as high a risk of injury, on a machine as if you work out with free weights or do any other type of nonmachine workout,” says Schlifstein. (Emphasis added)

The truth is, we have become dependent on machines for our fitness.  We depend on them to tell us how to sit, how much weight to lift and how far to extend our range of motion.  This is a trend that is as old as the fitness movement itself; with roots in the circuit training and cardio machine boom of the 80’s.  A great big segment of exercisers believe they can’t get a good workout without their favorite machine.  You know what I have to say to that?  Bollocks.  That’s right – BOLLOCKS! 

Your fitness is no more dependent on a machine than it is on the tooth fairy.  And while the WebMD article points out that  machines don’t guarantee an injury-free workout; it doesn’t tell the whole story.  So I will.  Not only do machines not guarantee your safety, THEY DON’T GUARANTEE RESULTS EITHER.  That’s right, I said it.  If you are locked into a gym membership until the next ice age, I am sorry, but the truth had to be told.  All that big equipment won’t get you anywhere you want to go – -  if where you want to go is healthier, happier and better able to function in real life.  It might get you big.  It might get you thin.  But it can’t get you truly fit.   

The health and fitness industry has sold us a bill of goods.  They have told us that big bulky equipment will get us the results we want and that simply isn’t true.  Why would they do that?  They have 17 Billion reasons every year to keep singing this song.  Bottomline?  The health and fitness industry is driven by sales.  The sale of big equipment, big gym spaces and even bigger membership numbers.  We have been systematically conditioned into thinking that we can’t get fit without involving a third party and the failure of 40 years of that kind of thinking speaks for itself.  Americans have never been fatter, sicker or less productive.  Something has to change.

Fitness, true fitness, is not dependent on a machine, or a gym or any other outside force.  True fitness is dependent on one thing:  that beautiful brain between your ears.  The same one you were born with and the one you are going to have to use if you want to be truly fit.

I want to empower you to take back your fitness from the big corporations and health club conglomerates that have stripped you of your dignity and your wallet.  It might seem scary at first, but I promise it is worth it.  What you have to gain is the life of your dreams and the body that can take you there.  No membership, no machines, no crazy diets required.  All you need is you:  your body, your mind, your will…you.  Stay tuned, right here, for all the common sense information you need to take back your health and be truly fit.

Continuing the thought of Ezek. 1:4-5(about the Lord as the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum, out of which come the four living creatures), today I enjoyed this beautiful picture of the coordination that we need in the church life.

The Four Living Creatures – A Picture of the Coordination

The four living creatures had four wings: with two they covered themselves, and with the other two they were joined to the neighbouring ones. Each one of them was facing a different direction/side: one was facing north, another was facing south, another west, and another the east. And as they moved, the purpose of this wonderful coordination was to carry out the divine administration, to express God, to accomplish God’s Government, and it is also for God’s move. God basically didn’t do anything by Himself – everything He did was through and by the four coordinated moving living creatures.

It seems like they were all back-to-back, not facing one another and not having almost anything in common(in the direction they were facing). The coordination of the four living creatures was not in themselves – it was in the joining wings, the eagle wings. The eagle wings in the Old Testament represent the divine power, the divine strength, and the divine supply. Our coordination in the church life, for God’s move / administration / government / expression is not of or by ourselves – but in our joining God as our power. Whatever we have / do / can do / are in ourselves leads not to oneness but to division and separation; in the church life, we need to deny ourselves and take God as our strength, power, supply, and as the joining One!

The most interesting thing about the move of the four living creatures was that they did not turn – they all went straightforward as they moved! So if the one facing north took the lead to go forward, the others followed by not turning but going either backwards or sideways. This is what we should do in the church life: when one takes the lead to preach the gospel, for example, we all follow by being joined to him in spirit. We just have to follow the leading of the Spirit in the other adjacent members of the Body the Lord put us with. Even if this means that we deny ourselves and take someone else’s way and burden as ours, this leads to the sweet coordination that is actually God moving on the earth. This is again not in ourselves(all we want in ourselves is our own way / burden) – but in the spirit(mingled with the divine Spirit) – in the touching of the wings, in the praying together in the Spirit, in the much and thorough prayer to be built up and blended…. and here, in this touch of the wings, in the vital prayer together, seemingly-different people become one with one another and the Lord for His move, administration, government and expression!

Lord, gain the reality of the four living creatures today with us in the church life! Not for ourselves and not in ourselves – only for You and in You this can be possible, Lord!  Have Your way in us – gain the coordination among us!

The coordination training we received as children through the developmental stage of crawling set the foundation for right and left brain hemisphere communication. Since the right hemisphere of the brain controls the muscles on the left side of the body and visa versa, the oppositional nature of arm and leg coordination during crawling activates the nerves across the corpus callosum connecting the two brain hemispheres. As adults, the continued integration of the two sides can result in better coordination, balance and efficient movement. The nerve networks can be stimulated and developed through cross-crawling exercises that utilize oppositional movement patterns.

Although you could crawl on the floor, the “crawling” in cross-crawling does not mean you have to replicate the movement of babies.  The main intention of every exercise is to use the opposing arm and leg. The exercises can be performed in supine, quadruped, sitting, or standing positions. It is also beneficial to try variations that move the limbs in the sagittal, coronal or transverse planes for better spatial awareness.

The following are some samples, but certainly not all the possible options. Be creative and come up with your own choreography that serves the needs of your clients. Do a few repetitions of each action focusing on the ones that are most difficult for your client to achieve. A more challenging combination is to string several different variations in a row requiring quicker changes, rather than repeating one exercise several times. Even harder is to do a combination of several different variations and then decrease the time it takes to complete the entire set.

If your client has difficulty performing cross-crawl exercises, that is an indication that coordination skills are lacking and the exercises should be added to your client’s daily practice. The senior population is one that can especially benefit by preventing falls (and possible breaks) though improved balance and coordination. In addition, clients with a homolateral gait (monkey walk) where the same arm and leg swing together can also benefit. I started doing these exercises with one of my clients who has Parkinson’s and he found them to be very useful in improving his gait and spatial awareness.

CROSS-CRAWL EXERCISES

Supine:

1) Lie of the floor with knees bent and feet flat of the floor. Cross the right elbow to touch the left knee. Return to the starting position. Repeat on the opposite side touching the left elbow to the right knee.

2) Lie flat on the floor with straight legs together and straight arms by your sides. Slide open the right arm along the floor and left leg away from the midline along the floor at the same time and return them back to the center starting position (similar to the action of making a snow angel). Repeat on the other side sliding the left arm and right leg away and back.

Quadruped:

1) Start on all fours with hands below the shoulders and your face looking toward the floor. Simultaneously reach the left arm parallel to the floor by your ear and right leg off the floor in the opposite direction behind you parallel to the floor. Return them at the same time and repeat the opposite side using the right arm and left leg.

2) Try the above exercise with variations. Reach the left arm to the side (rather than overhead) parallel to the floor and take the right leg either back or sideways off the floor to the opposite side like airplane wings (leg side off the floor is more challenging to core strength). Repeat the opposite side using the right arm and left leg.

Sitting:

1) Sit in a chair with feet flat on the floor and arms down by your sides. Step the left foot forward on the floor and reach the right arm out in front of you parallel to the floor. Return to the starting position and then reach the right foot and left arm. This exercise could also be performed with the left foot stepping to the side and the right arm reaching laterally to the opposite side or the left arm reaching back while tucking the right leg under the chair (reaching behind would not be recommended for someone with shoulder issues).

2) Sit in a chair with feet flat on the floor and arms down by your side. Simultaneously step the left foot over the right foot onto the floor, take the right hand and place it on the left hip, and touch the left index finger to the nose. Return to the starting neutral position. Repeat to the other side moving the right foot across the left foot, left hand to right hip and right index finger on your nose.

Standing:

1) Stand with legs hip distance apart and arms by your sides. Raise the right arm reaching toward the ceiling while simultaneously bending the left knee and raising the knee off the floor in a marching position. Return to the starting position. Do the opposite side raising the left arm and right knee.

2) Stand with legs hip distance apart and arms by your sides. Touch the right elbow to the left knee while simultaneously touching the back of your head with the palm of your left hand. Return to the starting position. Do the opposite side touching the left elbow to the right knee while simultaneously touching the back of your head with the palm of your right hand.

 ________________________

Balance can be improved in the senior population not only with cross-crawling exercises, but also exercises that cross the midline to transfer weight from one leg to another. One of my clients was going to quit her line dancing class because she was frustrated with her poor balance negatively affecting the quick transitions required by the choreography. After about a month and a half of practicing her exercises daily at home, the transition was remarkable! She no longer had problems with her balance and was able to perform more complicated steps. She would have missed out on something fun that provided exercise and social contact had she not made a commitment to practicing.

CROSSING THE MIDLINE

The “jazz square” is useful for practicing weight transfer from one leg to the other crossing the midline. Some people teach the jazz square starting with a forward step, but crossing the midline first may be more useful to practice weight transference.

Jazz Square:

Start standing with legs together. Cross the right leg over the left and transfer the weight to the right foot. Pick up the left back leg and step backward. Shift your weight right to step sideways onto the right leg. Step the left leg forward. The weight will be on the left leg (instead of on two feet as in the beginning) and the step begins again with the right leg crossing over the left to transfer the weight to the right foot. Repeat to the same side several times. Try it on the other side starting with the left crossing over the right, step back with the right, shift side with the left foot and step forward with the right foot.

Switching sides can add a level of challenge. When changing sides the last move in the step is dropped. There are a total of four moves in the step (cross, back, side, front). Perform the jazz square three times with the right foot crossing first over the left foot first. On the fourth set only do the first three moves (cross, back, side). This will put the weight on the right foot. Start the jazz square using the left foot crossing over the right for three sets. On the fourth set only do the first three moves (cross, back, side). This will put the weight on the left foot and the pattern can begin again.

 ________________________

Coordination and balance are learned skills that begin in our earliest developmental stages. These abilities are perfected through movement challenges and practice. The body in its effort to be efficient will provide less wiring for these activities if they are no longer being used. As we age our activities must reflect a movement vocabulary commensurate with the quality of life we wish to maintain. Cross-crawling exercises that integrate brain function can improve coordination and balance making us more alert and aware. Once again the old adage of “use if or lose it” rings true.

« On nous grappille peu à peu tous nos acquis sociaux et on nous pousse à prendre de plus en plus de risques dans le travail… Je n’ai plus la flamme, je vais quitter cette boîte“

A l’initiative de la coordination BIATOSS

Samedi 28 novembre 2009 à 14h30
Projection suivie d’un débat
Cheminots
Un film écrit et réalisé par Luc Joulé et Sébastien Jousse
http://www.cheminots-lefilm.fr/

Le train est synonyme de réseau, de collectivité. Unité et cohérence ont été les maîtres mots de la culture cheminote. Or aujourd’hui, l’entreprise vit un moment de rupture dans son histoire, qui l’emmène vers la division et l’éclatement. Des valeurs différentes sont désormais à l’œuvre et induisent un bouleversement culturel profondément déstabilisant. La solidarité a tendance à disparaître, remplacée par des échanges marchands. Ce qui prime dorénavant, c’est la rentabilité.

Université Paris 8 – Amphi X – 2 rue de la Liberté à Saint-Denis
Métro Saint-Denis université (ligne 13)

Accès libre sur réservation avant le 25 novembre  en écrivant à : biatoss@gmail.com

Dans Cheminots, des mots qui font écho.
« Diviser pour mieux régner, on y est ! heureusement qu’on n’a pas l’esprit de la direction, qu’on reste solidaires. »
Paroles de cheminots…  Paroles de BIATOSS ?

The next Safe Routes to School stakeholder meeting will be Thursday, November 19, 3:15 to 4:30 PM at Mark Twain Elementary School. As always, we’ll split the meeting between talking about issues, programs, and projects at the specific school, and general Safe Routes information. Though we realize that no one will be able to make all the meetings, we hope that you can make several during the school year. We meet once a month on the third Thursday, at a new school site each time.

We have a genetic urge to reproduce and eat alot.  That ain’t rocket science.  Too many babies, too many people, eating too much and we have got a problem.  The good news?  All in the urges in the world can not FORCE a human being to do something against his will. 

What this article does is make a good case for what we are up against from our own biology.  The challenge?  To map out a strategy to overcome these urges to do what is good for our bodies, our species, our world. 

Enjoy the article.  I found it thought provoking.   Hopefully, you will too. 

Will we fight our genetic urges? Slim chance | Helen Rumbelow – Times Online.

3208752    สัมมนาสหสาขาทางทันตกรรมหัตถการและวิทยาเอ็นโดดอนต์    Seminar in Interdisciplinary Coordination in Operative Dentistry and Endodontics

การอภิปรายเกี่ยวกับการวางแผนการรักษาผู้ป่วยทางทันตกรรมหัตถการและวิทยาเอ็นโดดอนต์ที่เกี่ยวข้องกัน โดยมีการนำเสนอผลงานผู้ป่วย ได้แก่ ประวัติทางการแพทย์และทันตกรรม อาการสำคัญที่ผู้ป่วยแจ้งให้ทราบ ลักษณะอาการที่ตรวจพบ การพิเคราะห์โรค แผนการรักษาขั้นต้น การประเมินผลหลังการรักษาขั้นต้น และแผนการรักษาขั้นต่อๆ ไป พร้อมเหตุผลในการเลือกวิธีการรักษานั้นๆ โดยเน้นความสำคัญของการจัดลำดับการรักษาที่ครบวงจร

(Treatment planning for related Operative Dentistry and Endodontics patients requiring interdisciplinary coordination of treatment by way of case presentations: medical and dental histories, evaluation after initial treatment, and planning for further treatment including rationales, emphasizing the sequence of comprehensive treatments.)

(3208752 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3215748    สัมมนาสหสาขา    Seminar on Interdisciplinary Coordination

การอภิปรายเกี่ยวกับการวางแผนการรักษาผู้ป่วยโรคปริทันต์อักเสบที่ต้องมีการรักษาที่เกี่ยวเนื่องกับสาขาอื่นทางทันตแพทยศาสตร์ โดยมีการนำเสนอรายงานผู้ป่วย ได้แก่ ประวัติทางการแพทย์และทันตกรรม อาการสำคัญที่ผู้ป่วยแจ้งให้ทราบ ลักษณะอาการที่ตรวจพบ การพิเคราะห์โรค แผนการรักษาขั้นต้น การประเมินผลหลังการรักษาขั้นต้น และแผนในการรักษาขั้นต่อๆ ไป ฟร้อมเหตุผลในการเลือกวิธีการรักษานั้นๆ โดยเน้นความสำคัญของการจัดลำดับการรักษาแบบครบวงจร

(Discussion on treatment planning for periodontitis patient requiring interdisciplinary coordination of treatment by way of case presentations; medical and dental histories, chief complaints, clinical findings, diagnosis, planning for initial treatment, evaluation after initial treatment, and planning for further treatment including rationales, emphasizing the sequence of comprehensive treatmerts.)

(3215748 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

This little known article, the Soft American, was written in 1960 by then President-Elect John F. Kennedy.  The status of President Elect carries with it a great amount of power in a town that admires popularity.  At a time when JFK had peak political capital, he chose to write an article about the health and fitness of the American people. 

This article is unique because it was written prior to the age of super muscle men and cardio mania that would start in the 70’s and continue to this day.  As such, it gives a glimpse into the historical connection between physical fitness, metal prowress and a strong society that is not tainted by the current climate of strength and cardio centric exercise.  By connecting fitness to the ancient Greeks and Romans, JFK reminds us what it means to be truly fit at a time when the true definition of fitness had not been hijacked by celebrities and corporate america. 

Why is this important?  Our country hangs in the balance.  Never before have more Americans been less healthy, less happy, less productive.  I believe this is directly connected to a consistent, disturbing trend of poor performance of our great country both economically and academically when compared with the rest of the world.  This movement toward mediocrity is rooted in a lack of discipline that can be seen in the waist lines of our citizens.  The cure?  Individuals must throw off their bad habits, disregard popular opinion and take responsibility for what they do with their bodies. 

Enjoy the article.  It is a gift from JFK to us through the generations.  His wisdom is as true today as it was then. 

But no matter how vigorous the leadership of government, we can fully restore the physical soundness of our nation only if every American is willing to assume responsibility for his own fitness and the fitness of his children. We do not live in a regimented society where men are forced to live their lives in the interest of the state. We are, all of us, as

JFK: A champion of true fitness

free to direct the activities of our bodies as we are to pursue the objects of our thought. But if we are to retain this freedom, for ourselves and for generations yet to come, then we must also be willing to work for the physical toughness on which the courage and intelligence and skill of man so largely depend.

All of us must consider our own responsibilities for the physical vigor of our children and of the young men and women of our community. We do not want our children to become a generation of spectators. Rather, we want each of them to be a participant in the vigorous life.

Bibliothèque Universitaire Pierre et Marie Curie

Profil de poste de BIBLIOTHÉCAIRE contractuel(le)

La bibliothèque universitaire Pierre et Marie Curie recrute un(e) bibliothécaire contractuel(le).

Début du contrat : immédiat

Fin du contrat : 30 juin 2010

Lieu d’exercice : Section Biologie Recherche / BUPMC

Activité : 100 % 35 h hebdomadaires – 1 ouverture à 08 H 45 et 1 fermeture à 18 h obligatoires par semaine.

Fonctions :

Adjoint responsable de section

Gestion des Publications en série imprimées

Suivi et actualisation du Portail des Bibliothèques \ section BR

Participation à l’animation culturelle

Participation formation Master Biologie

Rémunération brute mensuelle : 1607,93 € (+ indemnités de résidence + éventuellement SFT)

Contact : Claire SONNEFRAUD 01 44 27 59 65 claire.sonnefraud@upmc.fr

Le (la) bibliothécaire contractuel(le) est placé(e) sous l’autorité directe du conservateur responsable de la bibliothèque de Biologie recherche, section documentaire de la Bibliothèque universitaire Pierre et Marie Curie. La section Biologie recherche, composée de 7 agents titulaires et contractuels, dessert la communauté des enseignants-chercheurs, chercheurs et les étudiants à partir du niveau M de l’Université Pierre et Marie Curie. Elle développe un fonds spécialisé, le signale et le met à disposition de ses usagers.

Activités

Gestion des collections………………………………… ………………… … … 19 h 00 (~55 %)

Ressources continues support papier : périodiques, suites et séries

Traitement et suivi des transferts, des doubles et des dons dans le contexte de la conservation partagée des périodiques scientifiques

Poursuite de la réorganisation et de la restructuration des collections de périodiques papiers (salle de lecture et deux réserves) dans le contexte de la conservation partagée des périodiques scientifiques en Île-de-France

Ressources numériques : E – book, archives pérennes, bases de données, Bouquets de revues électroniques

Suivi des supports communicationnels

Suivi de la mise à jour et de la valorisation sur le portail documentaire \ BR des abonnements

Tests et pertinence de nouvelles ressources proposées par la documentation électronique

Monographies

Supervision et coordination du circuit documentaire des Monographies

Responsable de la parution trimestrielle de la liste Nouveautés sur le Portail documentaire

Participation à la politique d’acquisition et à la veille documentaire

Accueil et service public……………………………………… ……………………10 h 00 (~25 %)

Refonte de la signalétique de la bibliothèque

Participation aux permanences de service public à raison de 8 heures/semaine : inscription, accueil et orientation bibliographique de premier niveau des lecteurs, enregistrement des prêts et retours de documents

Suivi mail générique de la section 

Service public : responsable de la formation interne SIGB (modules circulation, recherche), formation accueil du public en sciences

Suivi des dossiers liés à l’inscription, au PEB, aux tarifs, règles de prêt, règlement intérieur

En charge du suivi et respect de l’espace commun collaboratif \ Biologie Recherche : mise à jour des fiches pratiques, de la signalétique, des plaquettes locales de communication

Suivi et transfert au responsable de section des indicateurs liés au service public

Aide à la recherche bibliographique et à l’autonomisation des usagers sur les postes informatiques publics

Portail documentaire ……………………………………………………………3 h 00 (~10%)

Coresponsable du contenu des Pages Web de la section Biologie recherche 

Actualisation et suivi des signets et des revues électroniques

Participation à l’évolution ergonomique du portail documentaire

Participation à la personnalisation de l’écran d’accueil des postes publics

Fonctions transversales……………………………………………………………3 h 00 (~10%)

Participation à l’élaboration des supports de cours et à l’organisation de la formation Master Biologie : présentation du portail documentaire

Participation au Service de Référence Virtuel : Rue des Facs

Compétences

Connaissances

Environnement institutionnel et documentaire : l’université, la typologie des bibliothèques de l’enseignement supérieur et des usagers (étudiants en master, en doctorat, enseignants-chercheurs)

Compréhension et application des projets documentaires et de formation définis dans le projet quadriennal 2009 – 2012:

Monde de l’édition, des publications scientifiques et des outils bibliométriques

Maîtrise de la suite Office & du Web 2.0 : navigation, flux RSS, agrégateurs

Des notions en feuilles de styles CSS et XML seraient souhaitables

Savoir-faire opérationnels 

Connaître les normes et formats de catalogage pour les monographies et ressources continues imprimées, les accès autorités et accès sujets.

Indexation Rameau et classification décimale Dewey

Maîtriser les outils informatiques liés au traitement documentaire (WinIBW, SIGB, portails bibliographiques)

Connaître les principales bases de données et interfaces liées à la recherche bibliographique en Information scientifique

Avoir le goût pour la gestion des publications en série

Savoir identifier, évaluer et valoriser des ressources pertinentes en support papier et numérique

Préparer et animer une séance de formation

Savoir travailler en équipe et organiser des chantiers de type refoulement, récolement

Savoir mettre à jour ses connaissances professionnelles et être attentif aux évolutions scientifiques et technologiques de la profession et de l’environnement documentaire

Savoir référer à son supérieur hiérarchique direct tout problème ou question concernant la section.

Constant transformation.
More forward with dignity.
Speak well of the past.

Grieving for the loss of D&D yesterday, we got to thinking of a way to play D&D without having to rely on webcams. It’s been mentioned before, but we’ve now come to the conclusion that the only way (That we have come up with, at any rate) we can reliably do D&D is to use a web-based game table, such as RPTools or Gametable. Now, I know that these options are hardly ideal, but I can’t think of any other reliable way to subvert the fish eye viewing problems that come into play when trying to run an intricate board-based encounter (As D&D is want to do) over a webcam.

So let’s have a conversation. Any other ideas? I’m sort of at a loss.