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Why Teams Don't Work
Diane Coutu
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Interviewed by Diane Coutu
The belief that teams make us more creative and productive—and are the best way to get things done—is deeply entrenched. But Hackman, a professor of organizational psychology at Harvard and a leading expert on teams, is having none of it. Research, he says, consistently shows that teams underperform despite all their extra resources.
In an interview with senior editor Diane Coutu, Hackman explains where teams go wrong. Shockingly, most of the time members don't agree on what the team is supposed to be doing or even on who is on the team. The belief that bigger is better also compounds problems; as a team grows, the effort needed to manage links between members increases almost exponentially. Leaders need to be ruthless about defining teams and keeping them small (fewer than 10 members), and some individuals (like team destroyers) should simply be forced off. The leader also must set a compelling direction for the team—but in so doing, may encounter intense resistance that puts him or her at great risk.
Hackman explores other fallacies about teams—for instance, that teams whose members have been together a long time become stale. In fact, research reveals that new teams make 50% more mistakes than established teams. To avoid complacency, though, every team needs a deviant—someone who is willing to make waves and open up the group to more ideas. Unfortunately, such individuals often get thrown off the team, robbing it of its chance to be magical.
Leaders can't make a team do well. However, by being disciplined about how a team is set up and managed, instituting the right support systems, and providing coaching in group processes, they can increase the likelihood that a team will be great.
Over the past couple of decades, a cult has grown up around teams. Even in a society as fiercely independent as America, teams are considered almost sacrosanct. The belief that working in teams makes us more creative and productive is so widespread that when faced with a challenging new task, leaders are quick to assume that teams are the best way to get the job done.
Not so fast, says J. Richard Hackman, the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams. Hackman has spent a career exploring—and questioning—the wisdom of teams. To learn from his insights, HBR senior editor Diane Coutu interviewed Hackman in his Harvard office. In the course of their discussion, he revealed just how bad people often are at teamwork. Most of the time, his research shows, team members don't even agree on what the team is supposed to be doing. Getting agreement is the leader's job, and she must be willing to take great personal and professional risks to set the team's direction. And if the leader isn't disciplined about managing who is on the team and how it is set up, the odds are slim that a team will do a good job.
What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
You begin your book Leading Teams with a pop quiz: When people work together to build a house, will the job probably (a) get done faster, (b) take longer to finish, or (c) not get done?
That multiple choice question actually appeared on a standardized fourth-grade test in Ohio, and the obvious "answer," of course, is supposed to be a—the work gets done faster. I love that anecdote because it illustrates how early we're told that teamwork is good. People tend to think that teams are the democratic—and the efficient—way to get things done. I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary, a collective creation of previously unimagined quality or beauty. But don't count on it. Research consistently shows that teams underperform, despite all the extra resources they have. That's because problems with coordination and motivation typically chip away at the benefits of collaboration. And even when you have a strong and cohesive team, it's often in competition with other teams, and that dynamic can also get in the way of real progress. So you have two strikes against you right from the start, which is one reason why having a team is often worse than having no team at all.
I have no question that a team can generate magic. But don't count on it.
You've said that for a team to be successful, it needs to be real. What does that mean?
At the very least, it means that teams have to be bounded. It may seem silly to say this, but if you're going to lead a team, you ought to first make sure that you know who's on it. In our recent book Senior Leadership Teams, Ruth Wageman, Debra Nunes, James Burruss, and I collected and analyzed data on more than 120 top teams around the world. Not surprisingly, we found that almost every senior team we studied thought that it had set unambiguous boundaries. Yet when we asked members to describe their team, fewer than 10% agreed about who was on it. And these were teams of senior executives!
Often the CEO is responsible for the fuzziness of team boundaries. Fearful of seeming exclusionary—or, on the other end of the spectrum, determined to put people on the team for purely political reasons—the chief executive frequently creates a dysfunctional team. In truth, putting together a team involves some ruthless decisions about membership; not everyone who wants to be on the team should be included, and some individuals should be forced off.
We worked with a large financial services firm where the CFO wasn't allowed on the executive committee because he was clearly a team destroyer. He was disinclined toward teamwork, he was unwilling to work at finding collective solutions, and every team he was on got into trouble. The CEO invited the CFO to stay in his role because he was a truly able executive, but he was not allowed on the senior executive team. Although there were some bruised feelings at first, in the end the CFO was much happier because he didn't have to be in "boring" team meetings, and the team functioned much better without him. The arrangement worked because the CEO communicated extensively with the CFO both before and after every executive committee meeting. And in the CFO's absence, the committee could become a real team.
You also say that a team needs a compelling direction. How does it get one?
There is no one right way to set a direction; the responsibility can fall to the team leader or to someone in the organization outside the team or even to the team itself in the case of partnerships or boards of directors. But however it's done, setting a direction is emotionally demanding because it always involves the exercise of authority, and that inevitably arouses angst and ambivalence—for both the person exercising it and the people on the receiving end. Leaders who are emotionally mature are willing and able to move toward anxiety-inspiring situations as they establish a clear, challenging team direction. But in doing so, a leader sometimes encounters resistance so intense that it can place his or her job at risk.
That point was dramatically brought home to me a few years ago by a participant in an executive seminar I was teaching. I'd been talking about how leaders who set direction successfully are unafraid to assume personal responsibility for the mission of the team. I mentioned John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and I got carried away and said that people who read the New Testament knew that Jesus did not convene little team meetings to decide the goals of the ministry. One of the executives in the class interrupted me and said, "Are you aware that you've just talked about two assassinations and a crucifixion?"
What are some common fallacies about teams?
People generally think that teams that work together harmoniously are better and more productive than teams that don't. But in a study we conducted on symphonies, we actually found that grumpy orchestras played together slightly better than orchestras in which all the musicians were really quite happy.
That's because the cause-and-effect is the reverse of what most people believe: When we're productive and we've done something good together (and are recognized for it), we feel satisfied, not the other way around. In other words, the mood of the orchestra members after a performance says more about how well they did than the mood beforehand.
Another fallacy is that bigger teams are better than small ones because they have more resources to draw upon. A colleague and I once did some research showing that as a team gets bigger, the number of links that need to be managed among members goes up at an accelerating, almost exponential rate. It's managing the links between members that gets teams into trouble. My rule of thumb is no double digits. In my courses, I never allow teams of more than six students. Big teams usually wind up just wasting everybody's time. That's why having a huge senior leadership team—say, one that includes all the CEO's direct reports—may be worse than having no team at all.
Perhaps the most common misperception about teams, though, is that at some point team members become so comfortable and familiar with one another that they start accepting one another's foibles, and as a result performance falls off. Except for one special type of team, I have not been able to find a shred of evidence to support that premise. There is a study that shows that R&D teams do need an influx of new talent to maintain creativity and freshness—but only at the rate of one person every three to four years. The problem almost always is not that a team gets stale but, rather, that it doesn't have the chance to settle in.
So newness is a liability?
Absolutely. The research confirming that is incontrovertible. Consider crews flying commercial airplanes. The National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its database occurred on a crew's first day of flying together, before people had the chance to learn through experience how best to operate as a team—and 44% of those took place on a crew's very first flight. Also, a NASA study found that fatigued crews who had a history of working together made about half as many errors as crews composed of rested pilots who had not flown together before.
So why don't airlines stick to the same crews?
Because it isn't efficient from a financial perspective. Financially, you get the most from your capital equipment and labor by treating each airplane and each pilot as an individual unit and then using an algorithm to maximize their utilization. That means that pilots often have to dash up and down the concourses just as passengers do, and sometimes you'll have a pilot who will fly two or three different aircraft with two or three different crews in the course of a single day—which is not so wise if you look at the research. I once asked an operations researcher of an airline to estimate how long it would take, if he and I were assigned to work together on a trip, before we could expect to work together again. He calculated that it would be 5.6 years. Clearly, this is not good from a passenger point of view.
The counterexample, by the way, is the Strategic Air Command, or SAC, which would have delivered nuclear bombs had that become necessary during the Cold War years. SAC teams performed better than any other flight crews that we studied. They trained together as a crew, and they became superb at working together because they had to. When you're working together in real time and there can be no mistakes, then you keep your teams together for years and years rather than constantly change their composition.
If teams need to stay together to achieve the best performance, how do you prevent them from becoming complacent?
This is where what I call a deviant comes in. Every team needs a deviant, someone who can help the team by challenging the tendency to want too much homogeneity, which can stifle creativity and learning. Deviants are the ones who stand back and say, "Well, wait a minute, why are we even doing this at all? What if we looked at the thing backwards or turned it inside out?" That's when people say, "Oh, no, no, no, that's ridiculous," and so the discussion about what's ridiculous comes up. Unlike the CFO I mentioned before, who derailed the team by shutting down discussions, the deviant opens up more ideas, and that gets you a lot more originality. In our research, we've looked carefully at both teams that produced something original and those that were merely average, where nothing really sparkled. It turned out that the teams with deviants outperformed teams without them. In many cases, deviant thinking is a source of great innovation.
Every team needs a deviant, someone who says, "Why are we even doing this at all?"
I would add, though, that often the deviant veers from the norm at great personal cost. Deviants are the individuals who are willing to say the thing that nobody else is willing to articulate. The deviant raises people's level of anxiety, which is a brave thing to do. When the boat is floating with the current, it really is extraordinarily courageous for somebody to stand up and say, "We've got to pause and probably change direction." Nobody on the team wants to hear that, which is precisely why many team leaders crack down on deviants and try to get them to stop asking difficult questions, maybe even knock them off the team. And yet it's when you lose the deviant that the team can become mediocre.
What makes a team effective, and how can a team's leader make it perform better?
A good team will satisfy its internal or external clients, become stronger as a unit as time passes, and foster the learning and growth of its individual members. But even the best leader on the planet can't make a team do well. All anyone can do is increase the likelihood that a team will be great by putting into place five conditions. (See the sidebar "How to Build a Team.") And the leader still will have no guarantees that she will create a magical team. Teams create their own realities and control their own destinies to a greater extent, and far sooner in their existence, than most team leaders realize.
How to Build a Team
In his book Leading Teams, J. Richard Hackman sets out five basic conditions that leaders of companies and other organizations must fulfill in order to create and maintain effective teams:
1: Teams must be real. People have to know who is on the team and who is not. It's the leader's job to make that clear.
2: Teams need a compelling direction. Members need to know, and agree on, what they're supposed to be doing together. Unless a leader articulates a clear direction, there is a real risk that different members will pursue different agendas.
3: Teams need enabling structures. Teams that have poorly designed tasks, the wrong number or mix of members, or fuzzy and unenforced norms of conduct invariably get into trouble.
4: Teams need a supportive organization. The organizational context—including the reward system, the human resource system, and the information system—must facilitate teamwork.
5: Teams need expert coaching. Most executive coaches focus on individual performance, which does not significantly improve teamwork. Teams need coaching as a group in team processes—especially at the beginning, midpoint, and end of a team project.
In 1990 I edited a collection of essays by colleagues who had studied teams performing diverse tasks in 27 organizations—everything from a children's theater company to a mental-health-treatment team to a beer-sales-and-delivery team. In those studies, we found that the things that happen the first time a group meets strongly affect how the group operates throughout its entire life. Indeed, the first few minutes of the start of any social system are the most important because they establish not only where the group is going but also what the relationship will be between the team leader and the group, and what basic norms of conduct will be expected and enforced.
Off and Running: Barack Obama Jump-Starts His Team
by Michael Beschloss
If the launch of a team is as critical as Professor J. Richard Hackman says, then Barack Obama has done pretty well. He appointed his administration's top officials much faster than most presidents do. Given the monumental crises that faced him the moment he was elected, he had to move quickly. The downside of speed was that some of his choices didn't work out—notably Bill Richardson and Tom Daschle. Obama has certainly brought onto his team people of strong temperaments and contrasting views, starting with Hillary Clinton at the State Department and Jim Jones at the National Security Council. This suggests that we have a president who is unusually sure of his own ability to absorb differing opinions. Appointing people like Clinton also shows his eagerness to harness the talent of his former opponents. Compare that with the record of George W. Bush; his people told many job seekers who had supported John McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries, "Sorry, you backed the wrong horse!"
Of course, Obama is taking a risk by hiring so many strong and contentious personalities. He will inevitably have to spend a lot of time and energy serving as referee. This is what happened with Franklin Roosevelt, who also brought strong-minded figures into his government. One difference with Obama, however, is that FDR temperamentally loved the infighting. He liked to pit people against one another, believing that competition evoked the best performance from everyone. At times FDR actually enjoyed making his underlings suffer. I don't think Obama does.
Most presidents prefer a happy ship, and in some cases their definition of loyalty includes not rocking the boat on major administration programs. Richard Nixon fired his interior secretary, Walter Hickel, for opposing his Vietnam War policies. There was a dissenter (what Hackman calls a deviant) on Lyndon Johnson's team—Undersecretary of State George Ball, who strongly opposed the Vietnam War. Johnson would cite Ball when people complained that he surrounded himself with yes-men, but in fact Ball had little influence when LBJ met with top officials on Vietnam. Everyone in the group knew that Johnson didn't take Ball's antiwar arguments very seriously. If you really want dissenting views, better to use the Roosevelt-Obama model, where they can come from almost any member of the team—and not just from one designated rabble-rouser.
The reappointment of Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, also reveals Obama's self-confidence. He's clearly willing to concede that there are things he doesn't know, so he appointed someone with more than three decades of national security experience. This decision has the historical echo of John Kennedy's near-reappointment in 1961 of Dwight Eisenhower's defense secretary, who coincidentally was named Thomas Gates. Like Obama, Kennedy was a young president with little national security background and thought it might reassure people to have the previous defense secretary stay on at the Pentagon. Like Obama, JFK also suspected that a number of things might go wrong with national security during his first year as president. He felt that Americans might be less likely to blame the Democratic president if a Republican secretary of defense was there at his side. In the end Kennedy did not have the stomach for the risk of keeping a Republican appointee at the Pentagon. Obama did.
Obama's first months in office prove the importance of having a president who can convey his view of the country and the world and why he thinks his plans will work. One of Hillary Clinton's biggest criticisms a year ago was that Obama gave great speeches but that it didn't have all that much to do with being a strong president. Obama argued that it did, and he was right. Like Roosevelt's addresses in 1933 and Reagan's in 1981, his public utterances—especially his speech to Congress in February—have done a lot to gain acceptance for his programs from skeptical Americans. However jaded they may be about government, Americans—even those who didn't vote for him—are still inclined to turn to their president to explain foreign and domestic crises. Imagine how much more anxious they might feel now if Obama did not do this so effectively. Unfortunately for us all, it's likely that he'll have to call more on that skill as the crisis mounts in the months ahead.
Michael Beschloss has written nine books about presidential leadership, most recentlyPresidential Courage (Simon & Schuster, 2007).
I once asked Christopher Hogwood, the distinguished conductor for many years of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, how important the first rehearsal was when he served as an orchestra's guest conductor. "What do you mean, the first rehearsal?" he asked. "All I have is the first few minutes." He went on to explain that there's nothing he pays greater attention to than the way he starts the first rehearsal. That's because he knows that the orchestra members will make a very quick assessment about whether or not they're going to make great music together, or whether he is just going to get in their way.
I do think there is one thing leaders such as Hogwood and others can do to improve the chances that a team will become something special, and that is to embrace their own quirkiness. You shouldn't try to lead like Jeff Bezos, because you are not Jeff Bezos. Each leader brings to the task his or her own strengths and weaknesses. Exploit the daylights out of the stuff you're great at, and get help in the areas where you're not so good. Don't try to ape any leadership model or team, because there's no one right style for leading a team. There are many different ways to create the conditions for effectiveness, sustain them, and help teams take full advantage of them. The best team leaders are like jazz players, improvising constantly as they go along.
How good are companies at providing a supportive context for teams?
Perversely, the organizations with the best human resource departments often do things that are completely at odds with good team behavior. That's because HR departments tend to put in place systems that are really good at guiding, directing, and correcting individual behavior. Take a personnel system that has been honed by industrial psychologists to identify the skills of a particular job and test individual employees on those skills. In such a system, the HR department will set up training to develop the "right" people in the "right" way. The problem is this is all about the individual. This single-minded focus on the individual employee is one of the main reasons that teams don't do as well as they might in organizations with strong HR departments. Just look at our research on senior executive teams. We found that coaching individual team members did not do all that much to help executive teams perform better.
For the team to reap the benefits of coaching, it must focus on group processes. And timing is everything. The team leader needs to know how to run a launch meeting, so that members become oriented to and engaged with their tasks; how to help the team review at the midpoint what's functioning well—and what isn't—which can correct the team's performance strategy; and how to take a few minutes when the work is finished to reflect on what went well or poorly, which can help members make better use of their knowledge and experience the next time around. Team coaching is about fostering better teamwork on the task, not about enhancing members' social interactions or interpersonal relationships.
There's a lot of talk about virtual teams these days. Can they work, or are they falling victim to what Jo Freeman once called the "tyranny of structurelessness"?
Virtual teams have really come into their own in the past decade, but I don't believe they differ fundamentally from traditional teams. There was a fantasy in the beginning that everyone would be swarming around on the internet, that the wisdom of crowds would automatically prevail, and that structureless groups would come up with new and profound things that face-to-face groups could never have generated. But nirvana never materialized; virtual teams need the basic conditions for effectiveness to be in place just as much as face-to-face teams, if not more so. That said, we are seeing that we can make do with much less face-to-face contact than we ever thought possible. Today's technology, for example, lets you have a chat window open during a web conference so you can type in the word "hand" to signal that you want to talk next. People don't need to see your face to know that you want to speak up. But even well-structured virtual teams need to have a launch meeting with everyone present, a midpoint check-in that's face-to-face, and a live debriefing. I don't think for a minute that we're going to have effective online teams if we don't know who's on the team or what the main work of the team really is, and so far that's still a problem with virtual teams.
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Given the difficulty of making teams work, should we be rethinking their importance in organizations?
Perhaps. Many people act as if being a team player is the ultimate measure of one's worth, which it clearly is not. There are many things individuals can do better on their own, and they should not be penalized for it. Go back for a moment to that fourth-grade question about working together to build a house. The answer probably is that teamwork really does take longer or that the house may not get built at all. There are many cases where collaboration, particularly in truly creative endeavors, is a hindrance rather than a help. The challenge for a leader, then, is to find a balance between individual autonomy and collective action. Either extreme is bad, though we are generally more aware of the downside of individualism in organizations, and we forget that teams can be just as destructive by being so strong and controlling that individual voices and contributions and learning are lost.
In one management team we studied, for example, being a team player was so strongly valued that individuals self-censored their contributions for fear of disrupting team harmony. The team, in a spirit of cooperation and goodwill, embarked on a course of action that was bound to fail—for reasons that some members sensed but did not mention as the plans were being laid. One wonders if the crisis in the financial world today would be quite so catastrophic if more people had spoken out in their team meetings about what they knew to be wrongful practices. But again that brings us back to the hazards of courage. You'd like to think that people who do the courageous right thing and speak out will get their reward on earth as well as in heaven. But you don't always get your reward here on earth. While it's true that not being on a team can put your career on hold, being a real and committed team player—whether as a team leader, a deviant, or just a regular member who speaks the truth—can be dangerous business indeed.
A version of this article appeared in the May 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Diane Coutu is the director of client communications at Banyan Family Business Advisors, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the author of the HBR article "How Resilience Works."
This article is about LEADING TEAMS


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Mark Flekken (ur. 13 czerwca 1993 w Kerkrade) – holenderski piłkarz występujący na pozycji bramkarza w niemieckim klubie SC Freiburg. Wychowanek Rody JC Kerkrade, w trakcie swojej kariery grał także w takich zespołach, jak Alemannia Aachen, SpVgg Greuther Fürth oraz MSV Duisburg.

Bibliografia

Reprezentanci Holandii w piłce nożnej
Piłkarze Alemannii Aachen
Piłkarze SpVgg Greuther Fürth
Piłkarze MSV Duisburg
Piłkarze SC Freiburg
Ludzie urodzeni w Kerkrade
Urodzeni w 1993

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Guided Math and Guided Reading…many teachers ask me how these two are alike. They both lead to comprehension!
Guided Math and Guided Reading are similar since they both improve comprehension. I have used Daily 5 strategies in my classroom when I taught third grade and now in fourth grade. I also use CAFE strategies from the two sisters. These strategies help students to identify parts of fiction and nonfiction texts for improved comprehension.
Why shouldn't we use inferring and predicting skills in math? I teach my students to use these skills when reading math story problems to help them to understand what action or operation is happening in math. This helps the students gain math comprehension skills. Once they understand an equation, I ask them to predict what will happen if I change one part of the equation.
Guided Reading groups from Fountas and Pinnell are set up with groups of students with similar reading needs. Guided Math does the same! Guided Math groups may be teaching the same skill but at different depths.
Do you have students try to visualize the action or setting in a story? Yes, many teachers do use verbalization and visualization techniques to help students to "see" what is happening in text. Why not use this with math equations? The students can verbalize what is happening on both sides of the equation. I have students visualize what is happening on both sides or even visualize and draw a picture so they understand what the math is asking them to do. This helps students to have a concrete strategy to use when given math equations or problems.
Add a comment here to help others to understand just how similar Guided Math and Guided Reading are!


It's been a year since we started following six Appalachians as they grappled with whether to stay in their home state or leave for better opportunities. On this week's episode, we'll revisit those we profiled in our Struggle to Stay series– and reflect on what we learned as we helped them tell their stories.
On this West Virginia Morning, new efforts from the federal government are aiming to greatly reduce the prescription opioid and heroin overdose rate in places like West Virginia. We also hear from Frank X. Walker, keynote speaker at the 2016 Appalachia Studies Association conference.
The 39th Annual Appalachian Studies Association Conference was held March 17-20 at Shepherd University. More than 800 people attended the four-day event, which explored the culture and the future of Appalachia. Conference-goers spoke about many topics, including diversity and social justice throughout Appalachia.
Nearly 800 people were on Marshall's campus this weekend for the Appalachian Studies Conference.
The three-day conference marked the 37th time the organization has got together to discuss the ins and outs of what makes Appalachia, Appalachia. Tyler Hughes made the trip from East Tennessee State University to attend.
Nearly 800 people were on Marshall's campus this weekend for the Appalachian Studies Conference to discuss scholarship and research on our region. In the wake of January's chemical spill into Elk River, a movement gains momentum to get a portion of the state designated as "The Birthplace of Rivers", and thus, a national monument. Our friends at Traveling 219 visit Moore's General Store in Hillsboro to take a look at the role of these nearly forgotten spots that became a hub not only for retail but also for community.
West Virginia University's P.I. Reed School of Journalism holds a panel discussing how local media covered the Elk River chemical spill and water crisis that affected 300,000 West Virginians. The Appalachian Studies Association prepares to kick off their annual conference at Marshall University. And owners of backyard ice rinks provide some context in studying climate change.


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Nella teoria delle stringhe, la brana () è la generalizzazione della nozione di particella puntiforme: laddove la particella puntiforme ha zero dimensioni, la brana è un'entità elementare che può avere qualsiasi numero di dimensioni. È un oggetto dinamico che si propaga nello spaziotempo, potenzialmente dotato di un'energia e di altre proprietà, come una carica elettrica. Il concetto di brana è centrale nella teoria delle stringhe, nella teoria M e nella teoria del mondo-brana.

Per indicare la dimensionalità della brana si scrive p-brana, dove p è il numero di dimensioni. In particolare:

 una 0-brana è priva di dimensione e corrisponde a una particella puntiforme;
 una 1-brana è monodimensionale e corrisponde a una stringa, che può essere aperta o chiusa;
 una 2-brana ha due dimensioni e corrisponde a una "membrana";
 e così di seguito. Ogni p-brana ha una linea di universo in (p +1)-dimensioni che si propaga attraverso lo spaziotempo.

La teoria M
In fisica teorica, la teoria M è una teoria del tutto che combina le cinque teorie delle superstringhe e la supergravità a 11 dimensioni, descrivendo in un'unica cornice teorica le quattro interazioni fondamentali.

A seconda del substrato geometrico, la M-teoria è associata a differenti teorie di superstringa (in differenti substrati geometrici) e questi limiti sono in correlazione tra loro in base al principio della dualità. Due teorie fisiche si definiscono duali se hanno effetti fisici identici dopo che sono state applicate determinate trasformazioni matematiche. Ecco le principali caratteristiche delle teorie di stringa conosciute:

Un'evoluzione dello spazio-tempo di stringa può essere descritta matematicamente dalle funzioni come  che rappresentano il modo in cui le coordinate  del piano bidimensionale della stringa variano nello spazio-tempo . Una delle interpretazioni di questo risultato è che l'undicesima dimensione è sempre presente, ma invisibile, sia perché il suo raggio è proporzionale alla costante di accoppiamento della stringa, sia perché la teoria tradizionale perturbativa di stringa presume che sia infinitesimale. Un'altra interpretazione è che la dimensione non sia un concetto fondamentale della M-teoria.

MT-teoria e brane
Proprio per via dell'aggiunta di un'ulteriore dimensione, la M-teoria comprende molto di più che le sole stringhe. Questa aggiunta permette l'esistenza di altri oggetti che vanno sotto il nome generico di p-brane, dove p sta ad indicare il numero di dimensioni proprie di ciascuna brana. Nella teoria delle superstringhe sono presenti oggetti di dimensioni ancora maggiori, sebbene il loro studio sia complicato a causa della loro natura non perturbativa. L'inclusione di queste nuove entità non rende, però, sbagliati i lavori precedentemente svolti, che di loro non tenevano conto: infatti, questi oggetti multidimensionali sono molto più massicci delle normali stringhe e possono, per questo motivo, essere ignorati, come hanno fatto inconsapevolmente i ricercatori, quando si ha solo a che fare con stringhe.

Le proprietà non perturbative fondamentali delle brane derivano da una loro classe speciale, chiamata brane di Dirichlet, in breve D-brane. Questa denominazione deriva dalle condizioni al contorno di Dirichlet, assegnate ai punti terminali delle stringhe aperte nelle superstringhe di tipo I. L'importanza di questi espedienti matematici si comprese poco dopo i lavori di Witten del 1995: fu Joseph Polchinski a scoprire che, in certe situazioni, particolari tipi di stringa non sarebbero stati in grado di muoversi in tutte le dimensioni a loro disposizione. Esse potevano essere immaginate come incapaci di staccarsi da certe regioni di spazio, sebbene perfettamente libere di muoversi in esse. Per stessa intuizione di Polchinski, queste parti di spazio potevano essere esattamente delle D-brane e i calcoli dimostrarono l'esattezza di quest'ipotesi. Un'ulteriore conferma giunge dal fatto che stringhe aperte di tipo I possono avere il punto terminale che soddisfa anche la condizione al contorno di Neumann. In tali condizioni il punto terminale delle stringhe è libero di muoversi, ma nessun "momento" può fluttuare dentro o fuori la parte terminale della stringa. La T-dualità presuppone l'esistenza di stringhe aperte con posizioni fissate nelle dimensioni, che non sono altro che trasformazioni di tipo T. Generalmente, nelle teorie di tipo II si possono immaginare stringhe aperte con specifiche posizioni del punto terminale in qualcuna delle varie dimensioni: da ciò si deduce che esse devono terminare su una superficie preferenziale. Apparentemente questo fatto sembrerebbe rompere l'invarianza relativistica della teoria, introducendo un paradosso. Anche la dissoluzione di questo paradosso è affidata al fatto che le stringhe terminano su un oggetto dinamico p-dimensionale cioè la Dp-brana.

Ma non tutte le stringhe sono confinate su brane: l'esistenza di stringhe chiuse, riesce incredibilmente a spiegare anche la debolezza della gravità rispetto all'elettromagnetismo. Il problema viene risolto ponendo che di fatto esso non esiste: la gravità non è più debole dell'elettromagnetismo, ma semplicemente appare essere tale. Il motivo risiede proprio nelle stringhe chiuse: la particella elementare responsabile della forza gravitazionale, il gravitone, essendo corrispondente ad una stringa a loop, non è in alcun modo legato alla brana ed è per questo motivo che riesce a sfuggirle, facendo così sembrare meno intensa la forza di cui è mediatrice.

L'importanza delle D-brane deriva dal fatto che esse permettono di studiarne le eccitazioni utilizzando la rinormalizzazione bidimensionale della teoria quantistica dei campi della stringa aperta all'interno della teoria del volume universale non-rinormalizzabile delle D-brane stesse. In questo modo diviene possibile calcolare i fenomeni non-perturbativi usando metodi che invece lo sono. Molte delle p-brane precedentemente identificate sono D-brane. Altre sono correlate alle D-brane dalle simmetrie duali, così che anch'esse possono essere ricondotte sotto il controllo matematico. Sono state trovate numerose utili applicazioni delle D-brane, la più notevole delle quali è lo studio dei buchi neri. Andrew Strominger e Cumrun Vafa hanno dimostrato che la tecnica delle D-brane può essere usata per conteggiare i microstati quantici associati alle classiche configurazioni dei buchi neri. Il primo più semplice caso esplorato sono stati i buchi neri carichi estremi statici in 5 dimensioni. Strominger e Vafa hanno documentato che per grandi valori delle cariche l'entropia , dove  equivale al numero degli stati quantici in cui si può trovare il sistema, in accordo con le previsioni di Bekenstein-Hawking (1/4 dell'area dell'orizzonte degli eventi).

Questo risultato è stato generalizzato ai buchi neri quadridimensionali così come a quelli vicini all'estremità (e correttamente irradiati) o rotanti, cosa che è un notevole successo. Non è ancora stato provato alcun fallimento della meccanica quantistica riguardo ai buchi neri.

Relazioni tra superstringhe e supergravità
Le cinque teorie di superstringa conosciute sono tutte consistenti; questa consistenza è il primo indizio che permette di pensare che esse siano anche in qualche modo legate l'una all'altra. Come i loro stessi nomi suggeriscono, alcune di loro sono chiaramente in relazione. Per esempio, il tipo IIA e il tipo IIB sono connessi da ciò che è conosciuto come T-dualità: questo significa che la descrizione matematica di un cerchio di raggio  nella teoria IIA corrisponde a quella di un cerchio di raggio  nella teoria IIB. Questo è sicuramente un risultato di grande peso sia perché è definito attraverso un approccio quantistico, sia perché si può costruire ogni tipo di spazio semplicemente accoppiando tra loro dei cerchi in vari modi, con il risultato che ciò che è descritto in una teoria è esattamente equivalente anche nell'altra. Quindi si può passare con molta facilità da una teoria all'altra.

Lo stesso tipo di ragionamento può essere applicato alle due teorie eterotiche, anch'esse relazionate dalla T-dualità: così, sempre partendo dall'esempio del cerchio, al raggio  della teoria SO(32) corrisponde come prima il raggio  della teoria E8×E8. A questo punto, applicate le trasformazioni, è come se ci fossero solo tre superstringhe: il tipo I, il tipo II e l'eterotica.

Ora entra in gioco la seconda dualità. È proprio la S-dualità che unisce la superstringa di tipo I con la teoria eterotica SO(32): infatti, particelle debolmente interagenti nel tipo I eguagliano particelle con interazioni di grande intensità nella teoria SO(32). In questo caso, il legame è più sottile, in quanto così si possono solo identificare i limiti delle rispettive teorie. Ci sono prove molto convincenti per poter sostenere che le due teorie siano di fatto le stesse, tuttavia queste non soddisfano totalmente i rigorosi criteri di coerenza matematici, che del resto sono indispensabili in una teoria come questa. Ma al di là di questo è comunque chiaro che le teorie siano legate in qualche modo. Perciò ora ci sono solo due superstringhe: quella che viene qui definita per brevità eterotica (ma che in realtà comprende anche il tipo I) e il tipo II.

L'unificazione di queste ultime è il passo più problematico: deve infatti essere compiuto un ragionamento molto particolare.

 La teoria rappresenta le stringhe come oggetti estremamente piccoli e difficili da "vedere".
 La teoria quantistica adatta a descrivere i limiti energetici inferiori considera, piuttosto che le stringhe, particelle che si muovono nello spazio-tempo: è ciò che è conosciuto come teoria quantistica dei campi.
 Poiché le stringhe comprendono anche l'interazione gravitazionale, è lecito aspettarsi che per basse energie esse corrispondano alle comuni particelle, che però si muovono in un campo gravitazionale.
 La teoria delle stringhe gode di supersimmetria, la quale perciò dovrebbe apparire nelle approssimazioni delle descrizioni teoriche di stati a bassa energia.
Questi indizi fanno pensare che il corrispettivo della teoria delle superstringhe nelle approssimazioni a bassa energia sia una teoria della supergravità. È su questo genere di teorie che si sposta il problema. A questo proposito, per quanto riguarda 10 dimensioni esistono solo due teorie di supergravità, denominate, non a caso, tipo IIA e tipo IIB. Infatti alla teoria di superstringa IIA corrisponde, come limite energetico inferiore, la supergravità IIA e similarmente la stringa IIB si sviluppa nella supergravità IIB. Il fatto poi che le due teorie eterotiche possano essere ridotte ai due tipi II, proprio nel limite energetico inferiore già più volte citato, sembra fornire l'evidenza della possibilità di connessione tra le teorie.

Ma è con l'ausilio della topologia che si è potuto rinforzare questo, in apparenza debole, legame. Edward Witten, nel 1995, ipotizzò che la supergravità di tipo IIA, corrispondente alle superstringhe eterotiche SO(32) e E8×E8 e alla superstringa tipo IIA, avrebbe potuto essere ottenuta attraverso riduzioni dimensionali da un'unica teoria della supergravità in undici dimensioni. Ovvero se si studia la supergravità in uno spazio-tempo 11-dimensionale, si ottiene la supergravità tipo IIA, la quale attraverso la T-dualità può essere trasformata nella IIB. Ad ogni modo la supergravità 11-dimensionale non è di per se stessa consistente: ad esempio fornisce risultati paradossali ad alte energie, perciò richiede qualche forma di completamento. Sembra accettabile, allora, l'esistenza di qualche teoria quantistica, che lo stesso Witten ha chiamato appunto M-teoria, in 11 dimensioni e che per basse energie dà gli stessi risultati della supergravità 11-dimensionale; essa deve essere relazionata attraverso riduzioni dimensionali ad una teoria di stringa in 10 dimensioni. Eseguendo queste operazioni su un cerchio si riproduce la superstringa tipo IIA, mentre applicandole ad un segmento si ricade nel caso della superstringa eterotica SO(32).

Big Bang

Sebbene non ancora completa e al contrario di molte altre ipotesi formulate sulla formazione dell'universo che sono ex nihilo, la M-teoria presuppone che l'universo osservabile sia formato da solo quattro, delle undici dimensioni esistenti, che si siano espanse a dispetto delle altre; si ipotizza, in particolare, che il Big Bang non sia altro che una collisione di brane che abbia sviluppato sufficiente energia per formare questo universo, che in questo modo si troverebbe su una 3-brana. Così come è possibile l'esistenza di universi situati su altre brane vicine a quella dell'universo osservabile, in cui potrebbero anche esistere leggi fisiche diverse da quelle abituali, come diverso potrebbe essere il loro numero di dimensioni. La loro presenza sarebbe evidenziata attraverso la loro attrazione gravitazionale.

Note

Bibliografia
 Michael Green, John Schwarz and Edward Witten, Superstring theory, Cambridge University Press (1987). Il libro di testo originale.
 Vol. 1: Introduction, ISBN 0-521-35752-7.
 Vol. 2: Loop amplitudes, anomalies and phenomenology, ISBN 0-521-35753-5.
 Johnson, Clifford, D-branes, Cambridge University Press (2003). ISBN 0-521-80912-6.
 Joseph Polchinski, String Theory, Cambridge University Press (1998). Un testo moderno.
 Vol. 1: An introduction to the bosonic string, ISBN 0-521-63303-6.
 Vol. 2: Superstring theory and beyond, ISBN 0-521-63304-4.
 Zwiebach, Barton.  A First Course in String Theory.  Cambridge University Press (2004).  ISBN 0-521-83143-1.  Sono disponibili correzioni  online.
 Duff, Michael J., The Theory Formerly Known as Strings, Scientific American, febbraio 1998, online presso il sito dell'Università del Michigan.
 Gribbin, John, The Search for Superstrings, Symmetry, and the Theory of Everything, ISBN 0-316-32975-4, Little, Brown & Company, 1ST BACK B Edition, agosto 2000, in particolare pagine 177-180.
 Greene, Brian, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory, ISBN 0-393-04688-5, W.W. Norton & Company, febbraio 1999; esiste anche un DVD uscito nel settembre 2005 che può essere reperito anche qui:  .
 Taubes, Gary, "String theorists find a Rosetta Stone." Science,  v. 285, luglio 23, 1999: 512-515, 517. Q1.S35.
 David Z. Albert, "Meccanica quantistica e senso comune", 2000, Adelphi, Milano
 Rivka Galchen, David Z. Albert, "Sfida quantistica alla relatività speciale" Le scienze (Scientific American), maggio 23, 2009 n.489

Voci correlate
 AdS/CFT
 D-brana
 Dimensione compattata
 Dualità (fisica teorica)
 Gravità quantistica
 Gravità quantistica a loop
 Gravitone
 Teoria M
 Teoria delle stringhe
 Teoria delle superstringhe
 Teoria del mondo-brana

Collegamenti esterni

Teoria delle stringhe


text:
Electric trucks deliver savings, silence in growing fleet sales
Robert Duffer / Tribune News Service
CHICAGO — Beneath the glam of this city's Mag Mile shopping district and its towering downtown buildings is an underground network of delivery streets and docks. In these darkened recesses where the wind doesn't blow, the skyscrapers belch hot air and delivery trucks spew exhaust — except for one truck, a step van delivering hot dog and hamburger buns.
It idles noiselessly enough for passers-by to mistake it for being off, even with LED lights bathing the cabin.
The driver, Sean Sullivan, a 34-year veteran with Alpha Baking Co. in Chicago, shuts the gate in back, stomps up the aisle and takes his seat. He shifts the lever on the instrument panel, and the truck begins moving. There's no sound other than the stacked crates jostling with the suspension on Chicago's unleavened roads; no engine heat radiates from the firewall; no sweetly metallic taste of diesel in the air.
"The difference in driving the electric truck is it helps with concentration, the ability to hear ambulances and fire trucks more," said Sullivan, 55. "Makes a big difference. If you're sitting right on top of the diesel engine, you get nothing but that diesel engine. And the exhaust."
Sullivan considers himself one of the lucky few who get to drive the five electric medium-grade trucks in Alpha's fleet of 52 other diesel trucks.
"We want to lessen our footprint as a company," said Paul Nosalik, logistics manager of Alpha. "It's the right thing to do. We're not as dependent on foreign oil, not polluting, and we feel comfortable delivering to schools and nursing homes in the early morning."
The only sound, aside from the squeak and clank of the suspension, is the backup alert. Most deliveries to residential areas shouldn't be made until after 7 a.m., Sullivan said, but the silent electric truck enables earlier deliveries. Sullivan gets in Alpha's delivery center at 2:30 a.m. and heads out at 4:30 a.m. to make 30 to 40 stops.
"I think it's amazing," said Joseph De Vito, an Alpha customer on Sullivan's route who owns Busy Burger in a residential part of the Little Italy neighborhood. "I don't see why every (delivery truck) isn't electric."
More step vans and medium-grade trucks are going mainstream, thanks to Ohio-based Workhorse, maker of electric step vans, pickup trucks and other electrified delivery vehicles, including an electric helicopter prototype.
"We focus on helping people deliver things," said Steve Burns, CEO of Workhorse.
The publicly traded company sold two step vans to UPS, which then ordered 18 more, then 125, then an additional 200 last year.
The step van is technically a plug-in hybrid vehicle with a 60 kWh battery pack giving it a 60-mile range that can be doubled with the backup 2-cylinder gas generator, same as the BMW i3 electric car.
When the delivery route is done, between 10 a.m. and noon, Sullivan plugs it into a Level 2 (240-volt) charger and the truck has full power after six to eight hours of charging. Total output for the vehicle capable of hauling 19,500 total pounds is 268 horsepower.
Tesla is in the early stages of developing an all-electric pickup truck and a full-fledged semi.
Ryder, one of the nation's largest medium-duty truck fleet management companies, agreed to an exclusive partnership with Chanje, maker of medium-grade all-electric trucks, the Los Angeles Times reported in August. Ryder customers can rent the electric trucks starting in California and expanding from there in 2018.
The use of electrified powertrains in delivery trucks is expected to grow globally to 332,000 by 2026 from 31,000 vehicles in 2016, according to a study by Navigant Research.
One big barrier of going electric is the steep initial cost.
The Workhorse plug-in step van costs about $30,000 more than a $60,000 diesel step van, Nosalik estimated. Alpha only considered it with a grant from the Chicago Area Clean Cities Coalition, a nonprofit consortium launched under the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities initiative to reduce petroleum in the transportation sector.
"Originally we didn't know much about electric trucks," Nosalik said, adding that Alpha was already using alternative fuels, from 27 propane trucks to tractors powered by compressed natural gas. "We will continue with (Workhorse) without the grant money."
And they have, recently announcing the purchase of five additional Workhorse step vans to replace five old diesels.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Looks Like The World Is Getting Star Wars Homes, And Kanye West Is Involved
Associated Press AP 7 days ago July 11, 2019 Off 8
Kanye West is always getting up to new and unique projects, whether that be collaborating with NASA, working on new fashion lines, or even bringing Fatburger to the masses. Not all of these projects have worked out (RIP midwestern Fatburger), but that doesn't stop the rapper from trying. And his next project will take him to a galaxy far, far away. Well, if you count San Francisco as "far, far" from Los Angeles.
New broke this week that Kanye West is hoping to build homes in the San Francisco area that will resemble the homes on Tatooine we've see in the Star Wars universe. The houses are being designed as low income housing units that look as if they could be the home Luke Skywalker lived in as a child.
In addition, if the project goes through, the houses are expected to be prefabricated and easy to put together. Currently the houses are in the design stage, but if they go forward, people's dreams of living in Tatooine-like structures could be a future reality.
The news comes from a Forbes profile highlighting some of the stuff Kanye West is up to these days, when he's not appearing on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, of course. The oblong structures are listed as something he's currently working on but are in the prototype phase, and are described as "looking like the skeletons of wooden spaceships."
Kanye West has been a longtime fan of Star Wars. The rapper references the popular franchise in a couple of his songs, even. "Gone" features the line "if they ever flip sides like Anakin" and "Guilt Trip" has a line referencing Chewbacca related to fur: "Star Wars fur, yeah I'm rockin' Chewbacca." It's safe to say he's at least casually excited about the franchise.
Then, there's that time his wife Kim Kardashian dressed in the Princess Leia slave costume for Alligator Boots, a legendary Comedy Central show that never made it to air. But if we had gotten it, we would have gotten to see Kanye play a Stormtrooper alongside Kardashian's Carrie Fisher homage. It was a meet-cute moment for the couple as well.
So, it's clear the family has ties to Star Wars or at least a love for the sci-fi franchise. What's unclear is whether or not these Tatooine houses will ever get off the ground beyond the prototypes that have already been built, but to me it seems like they would have a purpose somewhere on earth for fans if the low income housing idea doesn't work out.
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After unpacking and spending a week madly catching up on the gardening and preserving, I'm going through photos of our amazing holiday adventure.
We lived in this tent for most of three weeks. Mr. 16 had his own personal tent since he is too tall to fit in with the rest of us.
In total we drove 5650 km which included the journey from eastern Ontario to Manitoba and back as well as many short trips in Manitoba. We spent many happy hours connecting with our extended families at campgrounds, beaches, and homes.
We camped in some back yards. My parents' flower gardens are amazing.
We spent almost a week on the road, enjoying the shores of Lake Superior. At one campsite it was very cold (we could see our breath that evening), but four brave souls enjoyed the waves before the temperatures dipped too low.
For many years I've said, "Some day we'll camp at Kakabeka Falls." Well, this year we did. Like Niagara Falls, these falls also produce hydro and therefore the water flow is greatly reduced. Even so the children told me they preferred Kakabeka Falls to Niagara Falls. They are certainly much, much higher (the photo doesn't do them justice at all) and much less commercialized.
The very last evening we camped on the shores of Lake Superior again, at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park. These falls were very far away and we had no time to see them, but the children were enthralled by the huge slippery rocks lining the shore. And I found this scene.
We had a wonderful trip. Our hearts and minds are filled with happy memories of being together (sometimes in very close quarters), and of many wonderful relatives, places, and events. What a blessing this holiday was!
This post is part of The Christian Home blog carnival.
Posted in: God's Wonderful World, Holiday Highlights, Outings.
Wow! You're back. And it sounds like you've had a wonderful time. Gorgeous pictures, esp. the last one. Amazing!
Wow. Those pictures are great! I am stopping by from the Legacy of Home. The waterfall was amazing and the flowers were so beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
Hooray! So glad you are back. Love all the pictures. I'd really like to go in your footsteps one day. I am a Great Lake gal, myself.
Thanks, ladies. It's good to be back, even though it was great to be away.
Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Great photos.


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Efficient, reliable service. Delivered when they said they would - no hassle, great service. Happy to recommend.
2nd Bike I have bought from MM Motorcycles and they looked after me well. Fitted Tracker and a good bike for the money.
A great place to buy a used bike from.
Phoned and enquired about a BMW. Was told it was the right bike which I didn't understand. I suggested it was a bit pricey compared to others and told him quickly about the exact same bike in Oldham which was £2,000 less. I was met with a barrage of 'well I have been checking over the weekend and I think it needs to go up in price, and I will not be reducing it' and ' I have been in this business for many years and I know the prices'. This person was so rude just because I suggested the bike seemed a bit higher in price than others on the market. I said 'well I will not be buying it' but thanked him for his time. It maybe that I caught this person on a bad day it was Monday morning but nevertheless I'll never contact them again and will certainly not recommend them.
Thank you for your email Derek, lets get the bike in Question here first...being BMW F800GS, 63 REG, WITH JUST 9,000 MILES ! ! full bmw option packages included in perfect condition ! ! You phone me to ask if the bike is still available, yes it is I say how may I help you..you then start telling me the bike is to expensive and you've seen one £2,000 less and why is this one so expensive ? to be honest my first thought was why are you calling me ! ! however I still politely answer your question and explain I can't speak for any other bike part from mine and I'm more than confident you would be hard pushed to find another BMW with this low mileage and spec at this price, please look again and you'll be ringing me back to apologise for you rude behaviour, I have the upmost respect when talking to anybody, I also expect the same in return, the moment I said that my bike is not up for negotiation the person that was very rude was yourself Mr Derek ! ! learn how to conduct yourself.
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Dinner at Don's… wow, quite the spread!
BRMC has hosted the riding season kickoff each year for 49 years on Victoria Day weekend. This year, our 50th, again will be held at the US Forest Service Pine Flats Campground near Ardenvoir, Washington. This primitive campground is fully reserved for BRMC, where seclusion and privacy is a feature of this central base camp for day rides throughout the central Washington area.
We truck in a full kitchen to provide breakfast and dinner meals for the weekend. This event also allows 4 wheel vehicles (except RVs), so you can bring your non-riding partner or friends as well as that tent that is too large for your bike (but really, we are a motorcycle club, so at least try to rough it out).
We expect a good group that always has a great weekend. Early registration gets you a discount. All vehicles (except RVs) welcome, no pets. This year to help celebrate the club's 50th Anniversary we will have some new games and events. See the website for additional information.
Registration closes May 13th at 9:00 pm. Registration is $135 US Members, $101 Canadian Members, $150 US Guests and $112 Canadian Guests. Guests require a member to sponsor them for this event. If you don't have a sponsor and would like to attend please send an email to captain@borderriders.com for information.
The view from a high flying drone.
The March meeting was held at the Shoreline Home of Don W. and Jorge B. Some of the attendees rode their bikes to take advantage of the warm sunny day which was a pleasant change in the weather earlier in the month. Of the twenty-four attendees, eighteen were members and six were guests. People began arriving before five o'clock and enjoyed socializing as well as the huge array of snacks provided by the hosts. Before this meeting at Don's house, we all had experienced taking Don's polished rock souvenirs home that he often shared at various club runs. This time, at Don's house, we were awed by his collection of all kinds of interesting geologic relics. This of course, includes the writer of this piece.
Just before six o'clock, Jeff C. began rounding up the members for the monthly meeting. Discussions at the meeting focused on two main topics: The plans for the May Victoria Day Run and the club's Fiftieth Anniversary Rally and other activities to celebrate this important year for the club. Announcements were made regarding the Meet and Greets and day rides taking place in Portland and Seattle.
After the meeting we feasted on a dinner of roast prime rib that Don had spent the whole day preparing. The roast was accompanied with two choices of vegetables and tossed salad. Dinner was finished off with four different flavors of tiramisu. We couldn't resist having seconds!
After dinner we gathered outside in the street in front of Don's house for our usual monthly group picture. Don had put together a great selection of his photos from various BRMC runs and events as well as a few other motorcycle events he had attended. He had these displayed on several video screens scattered around the house. The evening's socializing continued with some leaving about a half hour for the ride home while other lingered into the later hours.
March Club Meeting @ Don's : Food prep!
First off I would like to extend a big thank you to Don W for hosting the April meeting. Don was assisted by his boyfriend Jorge and between the two provided a scrumptious meal. Don was very gracious and donated the meal fee back to the club for the benefit of the 50th Anniversary Fund.
Our 50th Victoria Day is just fast approaching and our Vice President, along with other board and club members are busy making plans for the weekend. If you haven't already done so, please reserve the dates and plan to join us. The official run dates are Friday, May 17 through Monday, May 20; however, many arrive a day early on Thursday and most depart on Sunday. Some stay over until Monday and enjoy another day of camping and camaraderie. Registration is now open and I encourage everyone to register early as this helps with the planning. The price for registration is the same as last year at $135 for members and $150 for guest (before the exchange rate adjustment). At the April meeting the duty roster will be circulated with everyone requested to volunteer for various duties and tasks. We worked hard last year to reduce the number of shifts required. One of the best ways to get to know your fellow members and guests is by working alongside them.
Thursday afternoon will involve moving all the camp gear out of storage in Entiat and to camp. If you are available to help please consider coming over on Thursday to assist. Grocery shopping and camp set up will be completed on Friday morning and afternoon. Again this is a big task that requires many hands to get the job done. Being able to have everything stored in Entiat and the shopping all done in Wenatchee has saved the club money and time in prepping for the weekend.
Once again we will have meal captains to oversee the preparation of each of the four meals. The menu will be basically the same as last year with a few tweaks being made to the breakfast menus to reduce the amount of work involved. As always we are prepping for some great food at camp.
Chris L has been busy coming up with some games and activities for this year's Victoria Day. Also, this year the club will be providing a run gift. It has been several years since a run gift has been included and to help celebrate our 50th Anniversary we will have a gift for all members and guests.
Lastly, if you haven't had your bike out yet this year, be sure to do a thorough safety check before hitting the road. Also be sure to have the bike serviced and clean up that riding gear.
As always if any of you have any questions or concerns about the club please feel free to contact me at president@borderriders.com. I hope to see you all at our meeting on April 20th.
We had four members and one guest present at the Seattle Meet and Greet in March. Chris, Jeff and Tim met for Thai food at Manao Thai Street Eats and just as we were sitting down, Cale and Dennis came along and joined us. After dinner we went over to the Cuff. The April Meet and Greet will be on April 17th at 7:00 pm at the Cuff Complex. Come out and join us.
A month ago we were still flirting with snow, now the days are longer and riding is a lot more appealing. The board has been working on preparations for Victoria Day and Dan and I have been working primarily on food. We're trying to simplify a few things and reduce the workload yet still maintain quality. After a couple of years of some dampness we're due for a nice dry weekend.
I'm still hoping for people to send me some of their favorites for planning trips for next year.
With the Meet and Greets back in place in Seattle it's time to get day rides going again. The 10-day forecast doesn't look real promising for the first Sunday in April, but it doesn't look like a washout either. Washington members watch for an email late in the week if it looks probable.
Sometimes it takes a whole tankful of fuel before you can think straight!
A big shout out to Don & Jorge for hosting the March Meeting. Your spread was both impressive and delicious. Also, three big cheers to Don and Jorge who donated 100% of the meals ticket price for this event to the 50th Anniversary Fund, WOW. Club members and actions like these continue to impress me and make me proud to be able to call you guys a brother. Thank you very much Don & Jorge.
Club finances are fine. Bank balances are where I expect them to be. I hope to have Financial Reports done before the May Meeting. I doubt I will be able to get current between 4/16 & 4/20. I plan on sleeping, doing laundry, and napping through re-runs of Cimarron during most of that time. I will get our Financial Reports current and posted to the members only area of the website ASAP. Thank you for your patience during tax season.
Portland had one Meet & Greet "M&G" in February and it was barely attended. Or is it bearly attended? I want to thank Blue for taking the helm for this meeting. I simply couldn't make it. Thank you Blue!
Do to the lack of interest, there was no day ride in the Portland area in March. I will not be able to go so if anyone would be willing to go please contact me and I will be happy to put something on our Face-Book page reminding people to go and who to look for. What a Segway, don't forget, Portland's next M&G will be on "Wednesday", April 3rd at the Eagle on Lombard at 7:00 pm. Jeff B will be leading this meeting so stop by and say hi?
Keep in mind that if you decide to go for a ride and would like someone to ride with, you can always post something on our FB page. Hopefully you'll get a response and have someone to ride with. If you are not familiar with our FB page and need help finding us, please contact me via e-mail, Treasurer@borderriders.com and let's get you hooked up.
In addition to the 50th Anniversary events, I would like to bring to your attention 3 motorcycle skills enhancement classes I have set up with Team Oregon. The first is their RSP class happening on Saturday, June 1st. The second is their ART class happening on Monday, June 17th. The third is their AMT class happening on September 14th.
Registration has opened for the RSP & ART classes and only BRMC members, guest, and friends will be able to register for these classes until May 1st. On May 1st these classes will be opened to the public. We need 12 people to register for the RSP Class and 18 to register for the ART Class to keep it closed for us only.
We don't require that you be gay or male in order to attend. All we ask is that you are gay or gay friendly. These events are about learning to ride and becoming a better/safer rider in a non-judgmental environment of people who will support you and want you to succeed without being hackled by non-gay friendly people. If you have a friend or a family member that would like to take one of these classes and would be a fun addition to the event, let's get them informed and have them register to go with us.
Again, to register for one of these classes, call Team Oregon at 541.737.2459 & tell them you would like to register for "The Border Riders Class on June/____/2019. They should be able to get you registered.
There will likely be a social event before and after these classes. For that reason, I am asking everyone who registers to contact me at the same time. This will allow me to make sure they get invited to the whole event and not just the class.
The RSP Class is already 1/2 full. Make your reservations now.
This class is only 1/3 full but why wait. Make your reservations now and secure your spot in what will be a wonderful weekend full of merry men and mayhem.
OK, as if that wasn't enough training for one year, Team Oregon and I have worked out a special deal for BRMC. Team Oregon will set up a private class on Saturday, September 14th just for us. I am still working out the time for this class, but this is going to be an abbreviated version of their Police Training Course. Can you believe this? It is called their AMT or Advanced Motors Training Class. I'm so freaking excited.
I think the version they are putting together for us is the one we all watch on You Tube and wish we could get a chance on that field of orange cones doing tight maneuvers, a clock ticking, music playing on a loud speaker and people cheering us onto a finish line. It turns out Team Oregon trains the police for this and they are offering a version of it to us to help us kick off our 50th Anniversary Rally happening in September. Yahoo!
I doubt we will have a loud speaker and we will need to be our own cheering crowd, but the course is real, and I know many of you have dreamt about this. I know because we've talked about it. As Collin would have said, bounce, bounce, bounce.
As if it could get any better, an anonymous donor has donated the entire class for anyone affiliated with BRMC, who would like to attend. Seriously, it's free to anyone of us who wants to spend a couple hours playing on this course while getting feedback from their instructors. The course is in Albany, OR and it's on the way to our 1st 50th Anniversary Rally check-in happening that Saturday night in Roseburg, OR. IT'S ON THE WAY. I believe it would be a horrible lost opportunity if we didn't take advantage of this. I hope you gents are as excited about this as I am. What a hoot! I can't wait!
I know it will be a stretch for some of you more northern riders to get there by noon or 1 so I am hoping the Seattle and Portland people will open their homes Friday night. This will make it possible for the northerner who want to play on this course but live too far north to get to the course by noon or 1.
FYI, my people at Team Oregon have said that they are going to set up 2 courses for us. The will start out the same and then one of them will become more and more challenging as our skills progress. The other course will stay the same for those who just want to practice and become more comfortable with the basic course. It other words, it's being catered to what you want to get out of this event. Oh boy and I getting excited just typing about this event. I CAN'T WAIT!
When you register for the 50th Anniversary Rally in September you will automatically be registered in this AMT Class. You don't need to register with Team Oregon for this one. If you are able to attend the Rally on this day yet would like to attend this class, contact me at Treasurer@BorderRiders.com and let me know. I will reserve a spot for you. Either way, there will be no charge for this class.
BTW, these events I put together with Team Oregon are not a BRMC sanctioned event. This is just me organizing these classes because I keep getting requests for it, I love them, and I learn something every time I go.
I hope you all are taking advantage of the occasional beautiful weather days we are experiencing and are able to get out and ride. Alan did make me take a 1/2 day off last weekend and we rode out to Silverton for Lunch. I hope you gents are able to get out as well.
I honestly hope to see you at one of our upcoming events and if you should have any questions or comments about anything I am dealing with, please feel encouraged to contact me & let us chat.
Registration for the Rally has opened. There is a sheet on our web-site "Summary Packet" that contains a list of all the hotels we will be staying at and their contact information so you can make your reservations. There is also a day by day description of each days ride and maps for each day. You can find the "Summary Packet" and "Maps with notes" at the bottom of the day by day description.
Stay tuned each month for more details and also check out the club website.
Attendees can arrive any time after 3pm for socializing, the meeting is at 5pm, and dinner at 6pm. The cost is $15USD for the dinner option (Canada payments will be adjusted). You can register at http://borderriders.com. Confirmation will be emailed to you upon registration. Registration closes at 9 pm on Wednesday April 17th so we can get a head count for food. No refunds after close. Guests need to indicate a sponsoring member when registering for the meeting.
We have 4 members with a birthday this month. Please take a moment to wish them a great day.


MINI Challenge will join the British GT Championship for the first time next year, cementing its place as one of Europe's fastest-growing single-make racing championship.
The news marks the biggest step yet for the popular championship and follows a recent agreement between MINI Challenge and MINI UK which will see the brand provide increased support through the 2017 race season.
Alongside technical and parts support, MINI UK will also provide promotional support through funding a MINI UK guest car and mainstream television coverage.
I am thrilled that MINI Challenge is supporting the well-established British GT Championship with exiting and close racing from 2017 onwards. British GT has grown in the last 20 years to become the world foremost domestic sports car series, whilst MINI Challenge has also become one of the best one-make series in the UK since 2001.
Supporting the MINI Challenge means we can also filter technology from racing down to our road car range, as evidenced by the new MINI John Cooper Works Challenge edition, which gives customers the purest possible experience on the road.
The MINI Challenge's JCW category, which runs of the latest version of MINI's powerful John Cooper Works Hatch, will hold a mixture of double and triple-header rounds during SRO-run race weekends, which are headlined by British GT and the BRDC Formula 3 Championship.
The championship will run over eight rounds, with six alongside British GT and two headlining MotorSport Vision Racing's MINI Festivals at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park. MSVR will continue to administer the championship.
Note: Press release courtesy Mini UK.


Nova Scotia. I've always loved the name Nova Scotia and really hope to visit the Eastern Canadian peninsula one day but, for now, I shall have to make do with some of the traditional local music from songstress Christina Martin. The soloist's new single, 'Take Me Back In A Dream', is as haunting and chilling as it is enthralling and enticing. Channelling the likes of Sia, Kate Bush and Ani Di Franco, Martin has a quietly assured elegance about her voice that I haven't witnessed since a young Annie Lennox took the pop world by storm. The stylish video which perfectly accompanies this track is a real work of art and a joy to watch as well but it is the voice and songwriting of Christina Martin that really impresses here. Anyone with half a soul will be left feeling raw and emotional after experiencing 'Take Me Back In A Dream' and if this just washes over you then you have possibly never loved and have almost certainly never lost which, in turn, means you have never really lived. Simply beautiful stuff.


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Elías Maho Sicacha – lekarz i polityk z Gwinei Równikowej.

Nie ma jasności co do jego daty urodzenia, niektóre źródła podają 1930, inne natomiast 1939. Pochodził z relatywnie zamożnej rodziny, uznawany jest za pierwszego rodzimego mieszkańca Gwinei Hiszpańskiej z ukończonymi studiami medycznymi.

Nawiązał bliskie relacje z prezydentem Macíasem Nguemą, był jego lekarzem rodzinnym, wykonywał również obowiązki lekarza medycyny sądowej. Jako ten ostatni był naocznym świadkiem licznych zbrodni reżimu. Po zamachu stanu z sierpnia 1979, który doprowadził do obalenia, osądzenia i skazania Macíasa Nguemy na śmierć Maho wystawił świadectwo zgonu polityka.

W 1990 został mianowany przez prezydenta Obianga Nguemę Mbasogo burmistrzem stołecznego Malabo. Kierował krajowym oddziałem Czerwonego Krzyża. Zaangażował się następnie w aktywność opozycyjną, przewodniczył gwinejskiemu oddziałowi Amnesty International.

W sierpniu 2004 spotkał się z przetrzymywanym w Prisión Playa Negra Weją Chicampo, liderem Movimiento para la Autodeterminación de la Isla de Bioko (MAIB). Przygotował również raport na temat sytuacji więźniów politycznych w Gwinei Równikowej, przesłany między innymi do Międzynarodowego Komitetu Czerwonego Krzyża. Został zamordowany 10 sierpnia 2004, najprawdopodobniej na zlecenie gwinejskich władz. Jego śmierć odbiła się szerokim echem, także w kręgach emigracji politycznej w Hiszpanii.

Przypisy

Politycy Gwinei Równikowej
Ludzie związani z Malabo
Lekarze z Gwinei Równikowej
Urodzeni w XX wieku
Zmarli w 2004


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text:
Saudis don't know where Khashoggi's body is: Minister
Mon,11 Feb 2019 11:27:03 AM
Washington, Feb 11 (IANS): Saudi Arabia does not know where murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's body is, the Kingdom's Foreign Affairs Minister Adel al-Jubeir has said, despite having in custody the Saudi team that killed him.
In an interview to US' CBS' "Face the Nation" show that was broadcast on Sunday, Al-Jubeir said: "The death of Jamal Khashoggi was a mass-massive tragedy. It was a mistake.... committed by officials of the Saudi government acting outside their scope of authority."
He said that 11 individuals have been charged with the crime and the trials have begun. "We have said we will investigate. We will hold those accountable- those responsible accountable and we will punish them."
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a supporter-turned-critic of Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman, was murdered inside the Kingdom's consulate in Turkey's Istanbul on October 2 and his body was reportedly dismembered with a bone saw. His remains are yet to be found.
Al-Jubeir told the US programme that "we don't know" where is Khashoggi's body and that the public prosecutor responsible for the case had sought evidence from Turkey but had received no response.
"We are still waiting to receive any evidence they (Turkey) may have."
On being asked why those in detention can't reveal where Khashoggi's body was, Al-Jubeir said: "We are still investigating. We have now a number of possibilities and we're asking them what they did with the body.
"... I think this investigation is ongoing, and I would expect that eventually we will find the truth."
The minister again denied the Crown Prince's involvement in the murder. "Nobody in Saudi Arabia knew about the murder except the people who did it."
He also dismissed the New York Times' report detailing how US intelligence intercepted communications of Bin Salman telling a top aide in 2017 that he would "use a bullet" on the journalist if he did not return to the Kingdom.
"This was not a government sanctioned operation. We have an investigation and we have a trial. And many things have been put out that turned out to be incorrect."
The US' Central Intelligence Agency has, however, concluded the Saudi operation was likely directed by the Crown Prince.
Title : Saudis don't know where Khashoggi's body is: Minister


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MyMusicCloud revamps and bumps up users to unlimited plan free for 1 year
Photo Credit: PR
In a space dominated by big names like Apple, Google and Amazon – MyMusicCloud is making a go of it
Avi SchneiderSep 22, 2013
The Cloud based music player space where users can upload their own music and play it n any device they like has been primarily dominated by the big players, Google Music, iTunes Match and Amazon Cloud Player.
Well, now you can add Israel based MyMusicCloud to the mix, offering a fully revamped interface. Some new features include a recommended albums and artists in addition to recommended tracks and playlists based on your current listening habits. The new feature is designed to get users to broaden their horizons and try out new styles or singers they might like but would otherwise never get a chance to experience. When dealing with the most popular cloud based systems touting +20 million strong track databases, a little help in exploring the sheer depth of the music available is not such a bad idea.
What's your taste in music plan
One of the main advantages of MyMusicCloud is their price point coupled with their third party, multi-platform compatibility factor. The platform will run on on iOS, Android, Nokia, Windows phone, Blackberry and smart TVs by Samsung and Toshiba. The basic plan offers 250 tracks for free and the unlimited costs $40 /year. Recently the service announced the free upgrade of all users to the new unlimited plan for a year long trial. Sounds great so long as you delist yourself after a year if the $40 a month is not the price of your particular cup of tea.
Still, compare that with Google Play Music's $9.99 per month for unlimited downloads and 20K songs worth of cloud storage, Amazon Cloud Player's 250K limit of MP3's for $25 per year (with no windows phone compatibility) or Apple iTunes Match 25K limit of personal songs coupled with unlimited for whatever you buy from iTunes at $25 per year.
In short, what you have is a very competitive service and your decision would really depend on your device ecosystem and your service preference. Given the above, it would be prudent of the consummate music lover to give the free version of MyMusicCloud a try to see how it works for them. It's certainly working for some people given that half a million people have already signed on to the service worldwide.
MyMusicCloud is the premier product of TriPlay, founded in 2004 by Tamir Koch and recently backed by Kenges Rakishev for $5M in a C round. The company is both Israel and US based.
Video: Introducing the new MyMusicCloud
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Published: Sept. 15, 2014 at 11:00 a.m.
Updated: Sept. 15, 2014 at 11:14 a.m.
Although the Cincinnati Bengals' victory over the Atlanta Falcons was a pyrrhic one, the early signs on A.J. Green's toe injury are positive.
If Green can't go against the Tennessee Titans this week, the Bengals' official website expects him to be ready after the Week 4 bye for the Oct. 5 game in New England.
Green's ligament strain knocked him out of Sunday's bout on the opening series, but did not require crutches after the game.
If Giovani Bernard and Mohamed Sanu can carry the offense for one more week, the Bengals will be sitting pretty in the AFC North with Green and perhaps even Marvin Jones (foot) returning to add playmaking ability outside the numbers and down the field.