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Lifetime Subscriptions – Waste Of Money?

Free Hobbits for everyone!

Free Hobbits for everyone!

As you’ll know it was announced yesterday that the Lord of the Rings Online is going completely free-to-play as of this Autumn. Two thoughts went through my brain as I read their marketing email – firstly I was rather surprised by the whole thing and secondly I was bloody relieved I never took out lifetime subscription for the game.

Of course to generalise and say that all lifetime subs were a waste of time for LotRO is both harsh and incorrect. No doubt some people have had great value for money out of it and feel completely satisfied but I can’t help but feel that I’ve had a close call. It was only a few weeks ago that Codemasters sent me an email offering me a discounted lifetime sub, the price of approximately 6 months worth of normal subscriptions, and I’m glad I didn’t go for it because the advantages of being able to play the game without worrying about a subscription have just been rendered totally obsolete. Strangely enough though, I still have until the end of June to take up the offer even though it’s really no longer relevant at all which makes me wonder if Codemasters (the European distributors) knew what was going to happen.

To make up for this obvious flaw in the lifetime subscription plan, Turbine are giving every VIP member 500 Turbine Points per month (it’s worth noting that this also applies to people who want to still use a normal subscription). I don’t know much about what you can do with the points but I’m guessing how much value for money the lifetime sub equates to will depend really on what worthwhile stuff players can buy.

Whatever happens with the Turbine Store, I’m still glad I never took out a lifetime subscription for LotRO and doubt I will ever take out one for any game. Aside from the fact that to recoup the cost of one you’re looking at around 12 months worth of playtime, it seems like we just don’t know what will happen to any game in the future. If a MMO goes for F2P or shuts down completely (unlikely but possible) then forking out for that lifetime sub has just been one big waste of money.

Although I’m talked mostly about LotRO, I’ve got my eye on Cryptic to see what happens with STO and Champions Online. They’ve already got shops in place and still operate lifetime subs and it wouldn’t be a far stretch of the imagination to see both of those games going free and lifers only getting mild compensation in return. Unfortunately those lifetime subscriptions just seem too risky now.

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Related Posts

  1. Lifetime Subscriptions
  2. Lifetime Subscriptions – Scam Or Opportunity?
  3. Should I Purchase The Half Price LotRO Lifetime Subscription?
  4. Alternative Monthly Subscriptions
  5. Why’s It All About Money Now?

  1. As you said, it takes 12 months and a lot can happen in that time. You might hate the game, the game might crash, you might have an unexpected surprise (like a kid or change of job/living area).

    I never have and never will. The value you save is not worth the risk.

  2. Longasc says:

    You are right, I was also thinking about the LOTRO lifetime offer. I think Codemasters tricked people into buying it. I know of many users who now regret to have bought it. One month before they drop the bomb and the game goes free to play… I would say Codemasters acted with intend to defraud.

    I am also with you on the Cryptic lifetime offers. They never provided more than one month of content so far and are quite slow to add more. Their lifetimes are just a cash grab, before they go on and release the next MMO with the Cryptic engine.

    In fact I would not recommend any lifetime offers nowadays. My ideal model is that of Guild Wars 1 – and I hope Guild Wars 2 does not stray too far away into the item shop model.

    LOTRO’s F2P will be a demo. Starter areas. 1 Gold limit. If people want to play, they can pay a sub as usual or pay for areas, to allow more gold in their pockets, unlock bags, unlock traits… do people think they made the game F2P to earn less? I guess I will pay around the same price as the usual 40-50 bucks for games like GW2 to get my F2P LOTRO account in a somewhat playable state.

    In that light the lifetime offer seems actually to be a good deal.

    But there seems to be no major new content coming in 2011. And I already did everything else. And I absolutely do not share the believe that future major expansions will be free for VIPs/Lifetimers, through the 500 Turbine points they earn every month.

    Regarding Cryptic, they seem to try the same 1month content + you pay us a lifetime model every time. But especially STO is a bit like DDO, instanced and all that. Easy to add and monetize new content this way. I doubt Lifers would like that. A monthly termination pay in Cryptic points would not be good enough, at least in my opinion.

    • Gordon says:

      I’m not sure if Codemasters did it intentionally or not but it definitely strange timing. Makes me wonder if they had any idea what Turbine was going to do or if it was a last ditch attempt to try and increase their subscriber base before conceding and moving to a F2P model.

  3. Bellus says:

    But if you read the FAQ completely, you’ll see that the Lifetime sub is actually the best deal available when we go F2P in the Fall. The people playing for Free are severely limited in what they can do, even if they buy something from the Store and become a Premium player. Meanwhile, nothing changes for Lifetime subscribers… We still play for free, and yet get all of the benefits of being a VIP player (which is exactly what we get now, plus free points accrued every month to spend in the Store).

    The Free players are really on a unlimited Trial account, and are in no way comparable to a Lifetime account. It is still a good deal, and when we go F2P, the Lifetime sub will be an even better deal than it is now.

    • Gordon says:

      Very true although even at the discounted rate, you’d still have to play for over 7 months to get your value for money. Plus it also assumes you actually need all of the extras that VIP status gives you.

  4. I agree with Bellus. Lifetime subscription is basically permanent VIP status. Free or Premium status is pretty craptacular from what I can see so far. Doesn’t look as nice as DDO’s “Premium” system is.

    I know I’m going to keep paying my sub if I want to play LotRO seriously in after the free-to-play conversion.

    • Gordon says:

      Yeah, the difference seems very subtle but rather important. I wonder what happens to people who have paid for an extra but then upgrade to VIP? Is that just costing them more than paying the subscription as normal?

  5. Akely says:

    I did get a lifetime about two weeks back. I do not know if I fell cheated or not. It kind of hinges on how what is in the Turbine Store. Will there be “buy this stuff to skip almost endless grinding”, potions, cosmetic stuff only. Or what? I do not know, and I can’t be bothered researching.

    Sure, my recent purchase might be a bad thing. But I can’t be arsed because it is only money and it is still about 6-7 months of the monthly sub price.

    As for Cryptic I would not be surprised if their next MMO will have a similar payment plan as LOTRO is now adopting.

  6. Stabs says:

    If you really like the game lifetime sub has always been and remains a good option.

    As others have said if it’s your main game then you really need to be VIP. VIP forever for the price of renting access for 6 months? Yes please.

  7. Dblade says:

    I think there is an issue, but all of the posters here miss it. It’s not whether or not the lifetime is good value: it’s being offered a lifetime sub to a pay to play game right before it suddenly changes to a free to play one.

    A lot of people dislike the whole free to play model, and if you are going to change a game to that, offering lifetime subs so close to the change is unethical. That locks you into possibly supporting a game that changes to a way you don’t like, beyond simple nerfs.

    Everyone is quick to say that a lifetime sub is still a lifetime, but the big issue with codemasters specifically is selling lifetimes before a controversial change.

  8. Like some people have already mentioned, I think it comes down to how much you’re into the game. Purchasing a LTS earlier this year would have been bad for me personally, because I’m such a casual LOTRO player. I have every intention of downgrading to a premium account after the F2P model goes into effect. If I had gotten an LTS, sure I would get more than enough points to pay for anything I’ve ever wanted, but they’re likely to be items I wouldn’t have otherwise bought anyway. I’d feel like I overpaid because I really don’t foresee myself needing all the perks that are accessible to the VIP members…as a premium member I’ll play for free and just buy the few items I’ll need/use.

    You guys did get a fantastic deal though, with the half off. I think I would have felt differently about the whole situation, ie. not felt like it was a waste, if I had gotten an LTS this year at that price…

    Anyway, one thing I’m happy to hear is that apparently, you won’t lose anything you’ve already paid for (with only a few exceptions like # of character slots). Because I’ve paid for SoA, MoM and SoM, I will have all those quest packs, the 2 classes, etc. even if I downgrade to premium. I also read that the gold and 3 bag limit will not apply to a person who had a VIP account from being an active subscriber…which I currently am and will continue to be until perhaps a month or two after F2P goes live so I can collect some points and see how it goes and what I can buy. I’ll have to read up on all of that some more though.

  9. I bought a lifetime sub to STO, and I currently have one character at level 20. To date, that hasn’t been a good investment. But I’m one of those types that, in past MMO experiences, felt I need to ‘get my moneys worth’ out of one month. The LTS takes that pressure away, and so long as the game continues to exist, I’ll have free and unhindered access to it. Because it’s like Bellus said – just because some people can play the game free doesn’t mean they’ve got access to all the same content as a lifetime subber.

    • Gordon says:

      A few years ago I was a lot more tempted by the LotRO lifetime sub but now I just don’t have as much freetime and also jump between MMOs more. I’m not sure I’d like the time in LotRO to make it worthwhile.

      • I’m not sure I’d like the time in LotRO to make it worthwhile.

        That was the biggest oversight with my plan. I was so concerned with avoiding feeling forced to play, that I never stopped to ask myself ‘will I play enough to make it worthwhile?’ I continue in my (increasingly misguided) assumptions that 1) at some point in the future, I’ll have enough time to play, and 2) that I’ll enjoy it.

  10. Bootae says:

    Lifetime subs may not always work out to be a waste of money, but they’re always a risk. I’d never consider it for any MMO, because you just never know what patch or change is round the corner. Even our safest most perfect MMO can be ruined out of the blue by a developer losing the plot. The moment that happens your investment suddenly might not work out so well.

    Thankfully from comments here and elsewhere it sounds like with LotRO the benefits for lifetime subscribers after going F2P will be reasonable. Still, this whole situation has just highlighted the risk of putting big money on one of these special deals.

  11. Wakela says:

    I like the lifetime subscriptions because it gives me the option to go in and out of games whenever I feel like it. I don’t have to worry about whether or not my subscription is in good standing to play it. I have lifetimes in STO, Champions, and LOTRO. So I now have the option to play those games whenever I feel like it until they close the servers down. It gives me versatility. Plus since I do tend to play a lot of different MMOs, it ends up being cheaper for me. Can you imagine how much I would be shelling out if I paid for subscriptions for all 3 of those, plus my Station All Access and WoW?

    As for offering the lifetime subscription before announcing the F2P, that is just wrong. How can they not know that it was going F2P? They had to have some clue. They could have put a little subtext in there stating that the game was going F2P and there would be special benefits to anyone who holds a lifetime subscription. That way, people would have the option of whether or not they want to get the lifetime and have those extra bonuses when F2P happens.

    As for good value, I would say that even though I refuse to play a game that has a F2P model like DDO and soon to be LOTRO, I would have to say that I got my money’s worth for the game. Not only did I get all the nice little bonuses in the beginning when I signed up for the lifetime subscription, but I know that I played more then 12 months worth total since the inception of the game.

    • Gordon says:

      If it’s a game that you love then it’s definitely worth it. The tricky thing can be trying to decide if you will like it or not because being given the chance to try. For instance, I thought Cryptics approach of only offering lifetime subs before CO even came out was not very appealing at all. Fortunately they reversed the decision after everyone complained.

  12. Charn says:

    Well . . . at least it’s better than Hellgate: London. They had a lifetime subscription option (though it STARTED as a F2P game with a subscription model as well) and that game is now gone. LoTRo, at least, is still going and you’re getting SOMEthing for the membership.

  13. Lomax says:

    I’ve always been extremely suspicious when a lifetime subscription is offered, to me it says the developer really isn’t too serious about supporting this MMO in 5+ years time.

    Its like the whole “free to play”, I don’t actually believe that any MMO goes free to play if they can make more money via subscriptions, so either LOTRO was actually in pretty bad terminal decline and its a last throw of the dice (the subs numbers do not tell that story), or they think they can squeeze more money out of people with this pricing model.

    Therefore I know that if I’m serious about any MMO then I’m going to be one of those players who will end up paying a bit more hence I avoid F2P games. Here I have to give Kudos for Blizzard and SOE for keeping their costs upfront and known, I’m expecting too that Bioware won’t be offering F2P or any lifetime subscriptions either.

    One piece of news that hasn’t helped them is the seeming cancellation (or freezing) of the hobbit due to MGM’s difficulties, that would have given them some great free publicity for their MMO.

    • Gordon says:

      If I was being cynical then I’d agree that it does somewhat put developers off from trying as they’ve already had their payout right at the start. If the company’s income is based purely on a monthly system then they need to keep performing and producing new content in order to maintain their cash flow.

  14. Valyndor says:

    This whole post is irrelavent because if you read up on a free to plays subscription restricts, buying a life time would have been worth it in a matter of months. reguardless of the game going free to play.. with a lifetime you get acess to everything that they have or will be relasing, as a free subscriber.. you dont

  15. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems
    as though you relied on the video to make your point. You
    definitely know what youre talking about, why throw away your
    intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you
    could be giving us something informative to read?

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Tag Archives: nature

Video: Kayaking and Canoeing the Wacissa with the Green Guides

Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV

IGOR chip- human appreciation 150IGOR chip- habitat 150

When the video above aired on dimensions, several individuals in our community took note of a statement made by George Weymouth.  He was explaining how hydrilla, an invasive plant species overtaking rivers in our state, had led to Limpkins entirely abandoning the Wakulla River (which has its source at Wakulla Springs).  He said that herbicides used to control the plant led to a die off of apple snails, the limpkin’s main food source.

The reaction to this statement started me on a quest, with the several aforementioned individuals guiding me closer, and at times seemingly further, from an answer to what happened to the limpkins at Wakulla Springs.

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Paint Every Feather

Wednesday, January 18 at 7:30 PM/ ET, watch WFSU’s latest EcoAdventure on dimensions, as Green Guides George Weymouth, Jim Dulock, and Cynthia Paulson guide us down the Wacissa River.  Birds, springs, and art- you can read more about that below, and enjoy this video looking at how George- a well known painter and sculptor in our area- creates his hyper-realistic works.

Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV
George Weymouth paints black-necked stilts

In the interest of being intensely accurate, George's painting area is surrounded by field guides and nature magazines.

IGOR chip- human appreciation 150

George Weymouth is telling me how he is going to paint the ripples caused by a black-necked stilt’s (Himantopus mexicanus) wading in a river, and how the the avian subjects of his painting reflect over the disturbed water.  When he’s done getting the shape of the bird’s body, and the general coloration, he’ll add various feathers- primaries, secondaries, and tercials; all located at the anatomically appropriate places on its body.  Something occurred to me as I edited this footage into the above video:  when I had accompanied George down the Wacissa River the week before, he was looking at whole different world than I was.  A man who can accurately paint every feather on a bird is likely to have a unique perspective.

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Green Guides and the Lost City of Magnolia

Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV

IGOR chip- human appreciation 150

When researching the Green Guide videos I was producing for EcoAdventures North Florida, I became intrigued by something I saw on the Palmetto Expeditions web site. Cynthia Paulson’s Green Guide brokering business offered tours based on history and archeology. I have an interest in local history and archeology, but I was surprised that it qualified as ecotourism. It turns out that historical excursions are a common form of ecotourism, as it focuses on local culture. And our local culture is often intertwined with the ecology of the area.

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Photo feature: Oyster Love

From the FSU Coastal & Marine Lab

IGOR chip- human appreciation 150What’s not to love about oysters? They clean the water, they’re delicious, and they have surprising economic value. Members of the Kimbro Lab found this unique oyster, which itself seems very loving, on one of their study sites. “Now I’ve seen a lot of weird-shaped oysters,” says lab tech Tanya Rogers,” but never one quite this perfect. I took it on a photoshoot this evening for some nice background and lighting.”

A long time in the making

Dr. Randall Hughes FSU Coastal & Marine Lab

IGOR chip- biodiversity 150

As I mentioned in my last update, we have been working to set up a new marsh experiment in St. Joe Bay. The goal of the experiment is to see whether the genetic diversity of marsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) affects how quickly or abundantly the plants grow, or influences the number of fiddler crabs, grasshoppers, snails, and other critters (like Ibis??) that call the plants home. But what is genetic diversity, exactly, and why do we think it may be important?

A flock of Ibis resting among our experimental marsh plots.

Spartina is a clonal plant, which means that a single “individual” or clone made up of many stems can dominate a large area (low diversity), or there can be lots of different individuals mixed together (high diversity). In our surveys of marshes in the northern Gulf of Mexico, we find that there can be as few as 1 and as many as 10 clones in an area of marsh about the size of a hula-hoop. You may notice that our experimental plots are about that same size, though we used irrigation tubing rather than actual hula-hoops (not as fun, but more practical and less expensive!). We’re testing whether the differences in genetic diversity (1 vs. 10 clones) that we see in natural marshes has any influence on the marsh community.

A single experimental plot of Spartina that is 1m in diameter.

But why genetic diversity? We know from experiments by other researchers that Spartina clones grown individually differ in height, how many stems they have, and other characteristics. These same plant traits affect the critters that live in and among the plants – for example, periwinkle snails preferentially climb on the tallest plants. Because different animals may be looking for different plant traits, then having greater diversity (genetic and trait) may lead to a greater number of animal species that live in that patch of marsh. Or, a single clone may be the “best”, leading to higher numbers of animals in lower diversity areas.

A view of the existing marsh behind our experiment.

As my title alludes, this experiment has taken a long time to come to fruition, in large part because it’s impossible to look at any 2 stems in a marsh and know for certain whether they’re the same individual or not. Unlike some clonal plants such as strawberries, where there are multiple berries connected by a single above-ground “runner”, Spartina has runners (aka, rhizomes) that connect stems of the same genetic individual under the ground, making it difficult to tell which stems are connected to which. We have 2 ways to get around this problem: (1) we use small snippets of DNA (analyzed in the lab) to tell clones apart, and (2) we start with single stems that we know are different clones and then grow them separately in the greenhouse until we have lots of stems of each different clone. It’s this latter part that has delayed this experiment – it has taken much tender loving care from Robyn over the last 2 years to get our Spartina clones to grow in the greenhouse to the point that we have enough of each clone (36 small flowerpots of each, to be exact) to plant in our experiment.

Emily and Robyn work to remove existing rhizome material from around the plot edges.

But plant we finally did! With lots of help from members of the Hughes and Kimbro labs, we got all the sand in the experimental plots sieved (to remove any existing root material) and all the plants in the ground the Thursday and Friday before Thanksgiving.

Team Hug-bro (Hughes and Kimbro) helping sieve sand!

Meagan and Randall get the easy job - planting the plants.

Now we get to wait and see (and take data) whether Spartina genetic diversity matters for the marsh plant or animal community. There won’t be any quick answers – the experiment will run for at least 2 years – but we’ll be sure to keep you up-to-date!

Randall’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Spat on a Platter

Tanya Rogers FSU Coastal & Marine Lab

IGOR chip_ predators_NCE 150“Spat tiles” are a tool our lab commonly uses to measure the growth and survivorship of juvenile oysters under different conditions, and we’ve used them with varying degrees of success in many of the experiments chronicled in this blog. What these are essentially (in their final form, after a good degree of troubleshooting), are little oysters glued to a tile, which is glued to a brick, which is glued to a mesh backing, which is zip tied vertically to a post. Rob and I have put together a couple interesting slideshows chronicling the growth of these spat over time from two of those experiments. Ever wonder how fast oysters grow? Observe…

This is a time series from our first spat tile experiment, which you can read about in this post. As you may recall, this experiment was largely a failure because the adhesive we used to adhere the spat was inadequate. However, we decided to keep the fully caged tiles out on the reefs to see how they fared over time in different locations. I photographed the tiles every 6 weeks or so, so that we now have a series showing their growth over time. The slideshow shows one of the tiles from Jacksonville. It starts in October of 2010. You’ll notice that not much growth occurs though the late fall and winter, but the spat start to grow noticeably from April-June 2011. From June-September the spat grow explosively and many new spat settle on the tile from the water column and grow equally rapidly. Just as plants (and algae) have a summer growing season, so too do the oysters that feed on them, when conditions are warm and there is abundant phytoplankton in the water to eat.

Next is a series of images from our caging experiment last summer, which you can read about here. Our large cages contained either:

no predators (bivalves only),

spat-consuming mud crabs and oyster drills (consumers),

or mud crabs and oyster drills plus blue crabs and toadfish (predators).

The spat tiles within the larger cages were placed either exposed to potential predators or protected from them in a smaller subcage. Here are typical examples of what tiles looked like at the end of the experiment (about 2 months after starting). You can see how all the spat on the unprotected tiles were wiped out in the consumer treatments, but a good number survived in the treatments with no predators, as we would predict. In the predator treatments, most of the spat on unprotected tiles were removed, but not as fully or quickly as in the consumer treatments, which we would predict if the predators are inhibiting consumption of spat by the mud crabs and drills through consumptive or non-consumptive effects. You’ll see one tiny spat holding on in the predator tile shown. On the protected tiles, most of the spat survived in all treatments, as expected. We plan to further analyze the photographs from the protected tiles though, to see whether spat growth rates differed between them. We may find that protected spat in the consumer treatments grew slower than in the other treatments because of non-consumptive predator effects.

Currently, we’ve recovered most of our arsenal of spat tiles from the field, and I say we have probably amassed enough bricks to pave an entire driveway! Good thing we can reuse them!

The Biogeographic Oyster Study is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Tricks or Treats? And more on the effects of predators in marshes.

Dr. David Kimbro FSU Coastal & Marine Lab

IGOR chip_ predators_NCE 150Unlike most of the experiments that I’ve conducted up to this point in my career, the oyster experiment from this past summer does not contain a lot of data that can be analyzed quickly.

For example, predator effects on the survivorship of oysters can be quickly determined by simply counting the number of living as well as dead oysters and then by analyzing how survivorship changes across our 3 experimental treatments (i.e., cages with oysters only; cages with mudcrabs and oysters; cages with predators, mudcrabs, and oysters).  But this simple type of data tells us an incomplete story, because we are also interested in whether predators affected oyster filtration behavior and whether these behavioral effects led to differences in oyster traits (e.g., muscle mass) and ultimately the oyster’s influence on sediment characteristics.  If you recall, oyster filter-feeding and waste excretion can sometimes create sediment conditions that promote the removal of excess nitrogen from the system (i.e., denitrification)

As we are currently learning, getting the latter type of data after the experiment involves multiple time-consuming and tedious steps such as measuring the length and weight of each oyster, shucking it, scooping out and weighing the muscle tissue, drying the muscle tissue for 48 hours, and re-weighing the muscle tissue (read more about this process here).

After repeating all of these steps for nearly 4,000 individual oysters, we can subtract the wet and dry tissue masses to assess whether oysters were generally:

(a) all shell…“Yikes! Lot’s of predators around so I’ll devote all of my energy into thickening my shell”

(b) all meat…“Smells relaxing here, so why bother thickening my shell”

(c) or a mix of the two.

For the next two months, I will resemble a kid with a full Halloween bag of candy who cannot wait to look inside his bag to see whether it’s full of tricks (nonsensical data) or some tasty treats (nice clean and interesting data patterns)!  I’ll happily share the answer with you as soon as we get all the data in order.

Because of this delay, let’s explore some new research of mine that examined how predators affect prey traits in local marshes and why it matters.

There are two main ingredients to this story:

(a) tides (high versus low) dictate how often and how long predators like blue crabs visit marshes to feast on tasty prey.

(b) prey are not hapless victims; like you and me, they will avoid risky situations.

attach.msc1In Spartina alterniflora systems, periwinkle snails (prey) munch on dead plant material (detritus) lying on the ground or fungus growing on the Spartina leaves that hover over the ground.  Actually, according to Dr. B. Silliman at the University of Florida, these snails farm fungus by slicing open the Spartina leaves, which are then colonized by a fungal infection.  If snails fungal farm too much, then the plant will eventually become stressed and die.

So, I wondered if the fear of predators might control the intensity of this fungal farming and plant damage.

For instance, when the tide floods the marsh, snails race (pretty darn fast for a snail!) up plants to avoid the influx of hungry predators such as the blue crab.

After thinking about this image for a while, I wondered whether water full of predator cues might enhance fungal farming by causing the snail to remain away from the risky ground even during low tide.  Eventually, the snail would get hungry and need to eat, right?  Hence, my hypothesis about enhanced fungal farming due to predator cues.   I also wondered how much of this dynamic might depend on the schedule of the tide.

Before delving into how I answered these questions, you are probably wondering whether this nuance really matters in such a complicated world.  Fair enough, and so did I.

Addressing this doubt, I looked all around our coastline for any confirmatory signs and found that Spartina was less productive and had a lot more snail-farming scars along shorelines subjected to a diurnal tidal schedule (12 hours flood and 12 hours ebb each day) when compared to shorelines subjected to a mixed semidiurnal schedule (2 low tides interspersed among 2 high tides that are each 6 hours).  Even cooler, this pattern occurred despite there being equal numbers of snails and predators along both shorelines; obviously density or consumption effects are not driving this pattern.

Ok, with this observation, I felt more confident in carrying out a pretty crazy laboratory experiment to see if my hypothesis might provide an explanation.

Enter Bobby Henderson.  This skilled wizard constructed a system that allowed me to manipulate tides within tanks and therefore mimic natural marsh systems; well, at least more so than does a system of buckets that ignore the tides.

Within each row of tide (blue or red), I randomly assigned each tank a particular predator treatment.  These treatments allowed me to dictate not only whether predators were present but whether they could consume & frighten snails versus just frightening them:

-Spartina only

-Spartina and snails

-Spartina, snails, and crown conch (predator)

-Spartina, snails, blue crab (predator)

-Spartina, snails, crown conch and blue crab (multiple predators)

-Spartina, snails, cue of crown conch (non-lethal predator)

-Spartina, snails, cue of blue crab (non-lethal predator)

-Spartina, snails, cues of crown conch and blue crab (non-lethal multiple predators)

attach.msc6After a few weeks, I found out the following:

(1) Predators caused snails to ascend Spartina regardless of tide and predator identity.  In other words, any predator cue and tide did the job in terms of scaring the dickens out of snails.

(2) Regardless of tide, blue crabs ate a lot more snails than did the slow moving crown conch and together they ate even more.  This ain’t rocket science!

(3) In this refuge from the predators, snails in the diurnal tide wacked away at the marsh while snails in the mixed tide had no effect on the marsh.

Whoa…the tidal schedule totally dictated whether predator cues indirectly benefitted or harmed Spartina through their direct effects on snail predator-avoidance and farming behavior.  And, this matches the observations in nature… pretty cool story about how the same assemblage of predator and prey can dance to a different tune when put in a slightly different environment.  This study will soon be published in the journal Ecology.  But until its publication, you can check out a more formal summary of this study here.

If this sort of thing happens just along a relatively small portion of our coastline, I can’t wait to see what comes of our data from the oyster experiment, which was conducted over 1,000 km.

Till next time,

David’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Audio: Rivertrek 2011 on Perspectives

Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV

IGOR chip- human appreciation 150Last Thursday, WFSU-FM’s Perspectives welcomed four guests to talk about Rivertrek 2011: Earl Morrogh, the event’s coordinator; Dan Tonsmeire of the Apalachicola Riverkeeper; Georgia Ackerman of the Wilderness Way; and Doug Alderson, who we remember as Florida’s coordinator for paddling trails.  If you don’t remember, here’s a link to the video for which we interviewed him on the Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail.  Rivertrek, much like that trail, is a five day paddling/ camping trip.  The ten paddlers setting out on Wednesday are not beginners.

Click here to listen to an audio archive of last Thursday’s Perspectives.

So, after spending over a year dealing with saltwater habitats, why are we talking about freshwater bodies of water?  It has to do with that connectedness we see over and over again.  Salt marshes and oyster reefs benefit each other.  Some fish and shrimp species spend their younger years in these coastal habitats before heading out to deeper waters.  And without the Apalachicola River’s constant flow of fresh water, Apalachicola Bay would be too salty to sustain healthy oyster reefs.  This would affect not only the oyster fishery, but the species that use the reefs as a habitat (many of which are in turn commercially and recreationally fished).  Oyster filtration as an ecosystem service would also be endangered, affecting local seagrass beds and the species they support.

Of course, the river itself supports a lot of biodiversity- 1,500 plant and animal species make their home on the river basin.  That includes over forty species of amphibians and 80 species of reptiles.  That’s why these paddlers are trying to raise awareness for this river, and fighting to prevent development long it.

For more information, visit the Rivertrek 2011 web site.

Scared hungry?

Dr. Randall Hughes FSU Coastal & Marine Lab

A hardhead catfish, one of a mud crab's primary predators on North Florida oyster reefs.

IGOR chip_ predators_NCE 150As David has mentioned previously, predators can affect their prey by eating them (a very large effect to the prey individual concerned!) or by changing their behavior. And exactly how the prey change their behavior can have large consequences for the things that they eat. For instance, if you’re out camping and hear a bear lumbering around, do you quickly pack up all your food and put it out of reach of the bear and yourself? Or do you quickly eat as much as you can?

This summer we worked with Kelly, an undergraduate from Bridgewater College, to document how mud crabs deal with this dilemma of getting enough to eat but not getting eaten themselves.

Kelly with the broken down truck on an ill-fated return trip from St. Augustine.

Specifically, we wanted to know how they respond to the presence or absence of catfish, and how this response affects the survival of juvenile oysters. Sounds straightforward, right? Well, yes, in concept, but as Kelly quickly discovered, putting that “on paper” concept into reality at the lab took a lot of time and effort!

First, she had to get the “mesocosms” (aka large tubs) ready to serve as adequate habitat for the crabs, with plenty of sand and dead oyster shell for them to hide in.

Next, Kelly took individual juvenile oysters, or “spat”, and used a marine adhesive to attach them to small tiles that we could distribute among all of the mesocosms.

Juvenile oysters attached with Zspar (a marine adhesive) to a tile so we could assess mud crab predation.

You may have noticed that I mentioned catfish, and that these mesocosms are not particularly large relative to the size of a catfish. Never fear – because we wanted to separate the effects of catfish cues from the effects of catfish actually eating mudcrabs, the catfish were kept in a much larger tank, and then water from this tank was pumped into the mesocosms receiving catfish cues. (Setting up the pump and tubing to 60+ tanks was a several-day effort in itself!)

The catfish tank, with tubing carrying catfish "cues" to individual mesocosms.

Once everything was in place, it was time to collect the mud crabs. We couldn’t collect the crabs gradually, because they like to eat each other when confined in small spaces in the lab, so we garnered as much help as we could and held our own little mud crab rodeo. (And got caught in quite a thunderstorm in Alligator Harbor, but that’s another story).

Finally, it was time to start the experiment! We measured the size of each of the mud crabs, added them to the mesocosms, and let them eat (or not). Each day, Kelly would count the number of live oysters remaining, and she would remove a few mud crabs from some of the mesocosms to simulate catfish predation. There were a lot of moving parts to this experiment, and Kelly did a great job managing it!

And what did we find? Turns out that individual mud crabs actually eat more juvenile oysters when they are exposed to catfish cues and the removal / disappearance of some of their neighboring mud crabs, compared to just the removal of neighboring mud crabs or the absence of catfish cues. But overall, the the removal of mud crabs have a positive effect on oyster survival. (Even though individual crabs may eat more, there are not as many crabs around, so it’s a net positive for oysters.)

Mud crabs ate more oysters per individual in buckets with exposure to catfish cues and high rates of manual removal of mud crabs (to simulate predation).

Kelly has returned to classes, so we’ve now recruited a new assistant, Meagan, to help us with an experiment to address the additional questions that inevitably arise as you learn more about a system – for example, do mud crabs behave differently if catfish are around all the time versus only some of the time? We’ll keep you posted…

Randall and David’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Summer Chaos and The Tower of Cards

Throughout this week, Dr. David Kimbro has been updating us about the premature dismantling of his lab’s summer experiment in preparation for Hurricane Irene.   Before this turn of events, David’s lab tech, Tanya Rogers, had written this account detailing how much work went into assembling the experiment and all of its (literally) moving parts.

Tanya Rogers FSU Coastal & Marine Lab

Beautiful, isn't it? But working on oyster reefs in Jacksonville hasn't been as nice as its sunrises.

IGOR chip- employment 150

For many labs, the summer field season is a period of intensity and madness: a time for tackling far too many projects and cramming as much research as possible into a preciously short window. It’s a demanding flurry of activity occasionally bordering on chaos. The greatest challenge for technicians like myself is to maintain order in this pandemonium of science, and to carry out as much field work as efficiently as possible without going crazy.

Continue reading

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Many poets have waxed philosophical about the values and virtues of wine, about its power and principles, its joy and attraction.

Travel isn't about the destination; it's about the journey. It is about the people and places you meet along the way.

As I crisscross the globe I often discover innovative wine products, new gadgets or the perfect gift for wine lovers; and so I have created a collection of Wine Portfolio merchandise.

Wine can sometimes seem complicated and intimidating but it doesn't have to be. Wine should bring joy not stress and you don't have to be an expert to learn to love wine.

Tuscany of the East

August 24, 2015 8:34 am - Posted by Jody in Drink

From New York to Sao Paulo, epicureans have been reveling in a new generation of exciting wines from one of the least expected places – Slovenia, a vintner’s paradise in full renaissance. In fact, the small country has a viticultural tradition stretching back 2,400 years to the Celtic era, long before the Romans introduced winemaking to… read more

Summer is the Time for California Wine Country

August 7, 2015 11:32 am - Posted by Jody in Travel

PETALUMA, Calif. – Summer is a splendid time to take in the waters, wine and delights of Napa and Sonoma counties in Northern California. Head across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, through the hills of Marin County, and then up Highway 101. The highway runs through California’s sensuous golden hills, past happily munching cows,… read more

Italy Beckons

August 3, 2015 11:21 am - Posted by Jody in Learn

THIS place doesn’t look real. From the top of a steep hillside covered in lemon trees and grapevines, the village of Manarola tumbles out below, like a handful of pink, orange and yellow blocks that have been shaken, then poured from a toy bag. Manarola is one of five hamlets strewn a few miles apart along… read more

A Small Inn in Sonoma Making a Big Impression

July 31, 2015 11:14 am - Posted by Jody in Travel

The Farmhouse Inn

How does a relatively small Sonoma County inn find itself ranked among the world’s best hotels?

The answer lies partly in the simple richness of the guest experience; from the farm-to-table organic food served in the Michelin-starred restaurant, to the relaxing and energizing spa featuring botanical massages and wraps, everything at Farmhouse Inn is designed to make each visit to the wine country memorable.

Now, satisfied guests have had their say, voting Farmhouse Inn onto the short list of Travel + Leisure’s best hotels. Farmhouse Inn not only earned a #2 ranking among Small Inns in the U.S., but also ranked 8th on the 100 World’s Best Hotels list. That’s truly rarefied air, and it speaks to the elite experience enjoyed by guests. Not only that, but 2015 marks the third year in which Farmhouse Inn has achieved a ranking.

The hotel was also recently selected as the Best Wine Country Hotel/Resort in Sunset Magazine’s 2015 Travel Awards this June. The award honors the West’s top destinations and those displaying excellence in the tourism industry.

Guests quickly fall in love with the inn after the first visit—which explains the high praise bestowed by Travel + Leisure readers. The mission of this unique inn is simple: to provide an authentic, “insider” experience of California Wine Country. Hidden treasures abound in this large and diverse region, just an hour’s drive north of San Francisco. Through connections with local vintners and an intimate knowledge of the community, guests can expect a one-of-a-kind experience every time.

The passion of sibling owners, Joe and Catherine Bartolomei, comes through in a myriad of little details, like the farm fresh eggs on the breakfast table. As fifth-generation Sonomans, the Bartolomeis have deep roots in the community.

“Our goal here at Farmhouse Inn has always been to create a unique and vital Sonoma wine country experience. This last year we added nine new luxurious rooms, a completely new spa building, and complete revamped all outdoor spaces while maintaining the luxury and attention to detail the staff is known for. Our guests can see and feel the love that has gone into our intimate boutique hotel; that’s how we’ve created such a sense of loyalty with many of our guests returning time and time again,” said owner Catherine Bartolomei. “The recent accolades from Travel + Leisure and Sunset Magazine are just more evidence that we’re doing something quite special. Please come celebrate with us.”

Travel + Leisure readers rated hotels and accommodations on five criteria: rooms/facilities, location, service, restaurants/food and value. See more

Sunset Magazine is the leading lifestyle brand in the West covering the West’s best flavors, destinations, design trends, and innovations. See more

July 27, 2015 11:08 am - Posted by Jody in Drink

CedarCreek Estate Winery has rattled the wine world once again. On July 1st, 2015 CedarCreek’s 2012 Platinum Block 2 Pinot Noir was awarded the Trophy for ‘Best Red Wine in Canada’ at the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards, in London, UK. That same day, the winery also announced the appointment of internationally acclaimed winemaker Alexis Moore, a preeminent wine figure from New Zealand.

“I’m excited to hear you got Alexis,” exclaims Lynn Penner-Ash of Penner-Ash Wine Cellars in Oregon. “What an incredible winemaker,” says Lynn, who herself was one of Oregon’s first female winemakers and today a leading winemaker and consultant on winery design.

“I never thought I’d leave New Zealand,” says Alexis Moore. “After ten years of successfully establishing roots in the wine world, New Zealand had definitely become my home,” she confirms . “My great love is Pinot Noir and aromatic whites,” continues Moore, whose very first vintage of Pinot Noir went on to claim 5 Gold Medals at reputable international wine competitions including Mondial des Pinots in Switzerland. “That moment when Darryl Brooker called me to convey the incredible opportunity to build the Okanagan Valley into one of the five great Pinot Noir regions in the world was something I just couldn’t say no to.”

Ironically Alexis Moore is Canadian and originally from Nova Scotia. Alexis’ winemaking experience transcends international borders having first honed her skills in the vineyards of Provence in France. This led to positions at such notable US producers as Flowers Winery in Sonoma and Oregon’s Penner-Ash Wine Cellars. With 16 harvests under her belt, Alexis’ return to Canada comes from her most recent role with Gladstone Vineyard in New Zealand, where she earned international acclaim for crafting exceptional Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.

Alexis completed her degree in Viticulture and Oenology at New Zealand’s prestigious Lincoln University which created the first cool climate wine production and education program. “I honestly believe that great winemaking starts in the vineyard, in fact, for the first three years of my winemaking career, I worked in vineyards.” proclaims Moore.”I couldn’t believe it, but one of the bonuses of working at CedarCreek is that all of our grapes are Estate grown. And nothing is more fulfilling for me as a winemaker than getting the chance to walk every row and learn about every inch of our Estate Vineyards, first-hand with Darryl Brooker, who knows every intimate detail of this land and whose Single Vineyard Block program is something I am in absolute admiration of.”

“A relentless perfectionist is how I perceive Alexis,” says Darryl Brooker, CedarCreek’s ex-winemaker, who was recently appointed as Chief Winemaker at Mission Hill Family Estate. “CedarCreek means so much to me. I have put my life in to building CedarCreek over the past five years and as I moved on within VMF Estates, I was not prepared to let go unless I found the right person who could take CedarCreek further. Alexis’ passion for cool climate viticulture, respect for sense of place in winemaking, and her outstanding wines that I tasted when I visited New Zealand were some of the things that convinced me she was the perfect fit for CedarCreek.”

“Alexis is passionate and intellectual,” states Proprietor Anthony von Mandl. “It was critical to find someone who embodied the purity of CedarCreek to ensure that we can carry on what Darryl has started here, all the way from the vineyard to the bottle. Alexis comes with an open mind, her sincerity is reflected in her wine and in her philosophy. And the fact that she is actually Canadian provides an extraordinary and very positive twist in the next chapter of CedarCreek’s proud history as one of the first eight pioneering wineries in British Columbia. Indeed what is New Zealand’s loss is most definitely British Columbia’s gain.”

This new appointment comes shortly after the announcement that Darryl Brooker will transition into the Chief Winemaker role at Mission Hill Family Estate.

Hollow wine is like growing grapes in valleys

July 24, 2015 11:04 am - Posted by Jody in Drink
Avoiding hollow wine

Avoiding hollow wine

We all occasionally experience something in a wine that lessens what should be a grand experience. One of my peeves is encountering a hollow wine. What that means basically is there can be great aromatics, and wonderful impressions on the sides of the palate, but nothing seems to be going on in the middle of your… read more

China To Unveil World’s First Smart Wine Bottle

July 20, 2015 11:00 am - Posted by Jody in Drink

China has a black market for wine, which is why Chinese-owned winery Ferngrove Wine Group is dabbling in the “smart wine bottle” domain. These bottles will help prevent counterfeit bottles from infiltrating the market and allow the winery to communicate with their consumers. The prototype of the smart wine bottle will be unveiled at Mobile World… read more

A Biker-Chic Dinner Defined

June 19, 2015 11:10 am - Posted by Jody in Eat

What happens when you fly a celebrity Chef from southwest California up to Toronto to work on a Biker-Chic Menu?

Well, you know dinner was good when you don’t even want to think about breakfast!

I woke up this morning with memories of superb Lobster Bisque, Crispy Eryngii Mushrooms (encrusted in parmesan, garlic and lemon!) and killer Kurabuto Confit Pork Belly on Togarashi Seared Fijian Yellowfin dancing in my head. I’m no culinary genius, but the folks at, so far, are doing it right!

Böehmer Restaurant at 93 Ossington, just north of Queen Street in Toronto is becoming iconic to foodies. The ambiance is a casual mix of natural and industrial materials, anchored by a comfortable long bar and stunning wood and a crystal chandelier. The room beckons you to just chill out! Owner and Chef Paul Boehmer has impressed groups, couples and the masses (I just learned he does weddings!) with dishes like his succulent grilled hammer steak, Butter Poached Shrimp and an almost infamous lobster mac & cheese, unusually presented with a small pellet pasta, (I believe called Acini di pepe(?)).

Take one Toronto Chef with great dishes in his own right, and introduce him to a celebrity Chef from San Diego and what do you get? A night of North-East meets South-West food genius, that’s what!

Chef Ivan Flowers and Chef Paul Boehmer concocted quite a feast for the senses on this Chef Concert Series evening brought to Böehmer’s by a food club with a twist; U-feast. Chef Flowers, a Le Cordon Bleu SCI Culinary Institute graduate, came by his love of food honestly, from his dad in New York. Brooklyn born, he worked his way across the USA in four diamond award winning restaurants, eventually landing in San Diego, California where he turned the “Top of the Market” restaurant into a celebrated food landmark for the city.

Ivan’s food virtuoso was fundamental to this delectable evening. The 6-course-meal (plus desert) started with a Lobster Bisque with Porcini Mushroom Infusion Starter-Shooter, the secret recipe held fast by Ivan, was given to HIM by a revered Chef and friend in Monaco. Fantastic! I found my tongue embarrassingly sneaking into the shooter glass. The small second platter was an appetizer of sorts, consisting of parma ham wrapped around a soft serving of Lobster Boursin Roulades, topped with a drop of Confit Tomato Lobster Rose and Jalapeno Syrup Tip. You’d almost think you could just whip these little babies up at home. You can’t. The platters of Chicken Fried Quail served on ripped up Bacon Corn Bread with Pickled Jalapenos and Red Eye Jus seemed very southern to me, and were finger lickin’ good. This was followed by Ivan’s innovative take on Kurabuto Confit Pork Belly on Togarashi Seared Fijian Yellowfin with an Ell Sauce Glaze, Black Garlic Tempura and Smokey Piquillo Droplets. Yes, I’m stealing the ingredients list off of the menu, a little hard to recite off of the top of your head – but wow, what a fantastic blending of flavors. The saltiness of the pork belly complimented the tuna perfectly, and this all went down nicely with a somewhat understated Henry of Pelham wine called “Sibling Rivalry”. Best selling wine author and sommelier Carolyn Evans-Hammond even complimented the inexpensive but well balanced red and white – which happened to be the wine of the evening. Before dessert Chef Boehmer entertained with a brilliant lamb dish that anyone who lives in Toronto will want to try.  I’ve almost cited the whole menu here, but must move on to the eclectic crowd in attendance.

Things started off with Comedian and Personality Mike Bullard pulling up on his white Harley Davidson (horse? LOL) and a crowd of well-wishers gathering at the front of the restaurant for pictures on the U-feast red carpet. Both Chefs came out front to greet our host for the evening, and all had trouble getting back inside due to the interest on the street.

The press turn out on such an intimate event (sold out at around 100) was great, with the Toronto Star, Newstalk 1010, The Best of Toronto, The SUN, CP24 and others milling about for early cocktails and food-chat. A cool little tasting bar was set up with Jack Daniels Gentleman Jack for the tasting, provided by Cocktails, The Fluid Experience – thematically this was a really perfect fit, and very warm and tasty! The theme of the evening was biker-chic, as both Chefs (over 6 foot tall, burly guys) are motorcycle enthusiasts, along with host Mike Bullard. Doc’s Leather’s was a key sponsor for the evening, filling the swag bags with bike-themed gifts and Doc himself showed up for the dinner. The other sponsor included Steam Whistle Beer. It all seemed to “fit” in a comfortable way, with the relaxed and very unpretentious (yet gourmet) evening.

U-feast is doing it again soon, bringing cheeky, punky and very talented Michelin-Starred Chef Cristina Bowerman in from Rome July 9th for a “Three-way at the Windsor Arms Hotel”. I don’t know what that means food-wise – but I am IN! Here’s the link for tickets.

To attend more events like this register and become a member of
PS: Want to learn some of Ivan Flowers’ great recipes? Check out this link.
Oh, and like him on Facebook .

Global celebration of baijiu planned for August

June 16, 2015 9:35 am - Posted by Jody in Drink

Assorted baijius. Photo provided to China Daily Beijing wine and nightlife blogger Jim Boyce announced this week that bars and restaurants in several countries will participate in World Baijiu Day, a series of events designed to make consumers outside of China familiar with the nation’s popular white spirit. The world’s most-consumed alcoholic beverage is little-known abroad,… read more

Taiwan Earns Its Chops

June 11, 2015 1:44 pm - Posted by Jody in Eat

The island’s seasonal produce is the highlight of slick, new restaurants Taipei – Pungent slices of fermented tofu, piping hot pork buns and crisp green guava slices are some of Taiwan’s classic street eats, with the best stalls attracting queues of locals and visitors. Now these no-frills favourites are being joined by a new wave of… read more

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Posts Categorized: SF Flagship

Wingtip Featured On MSNBC

MSNBC recently visited Wingtip to film a segment of Your Business. If you’ve never had a chance to visit us in person, this is a great look at the store and Club.

Everything old is new again

Since 1908, the land Wingtip currently occupies has been the home of banks: first, the Bank of Italy, then the Bank of San Francisco, and most recently First Bank. But prior to the 1906 earthquake, other businesses inhabited our plot at Clay & Montgomery. Coincidentally, the businesses on our block in 1886 –128 years ago– are eerily similar to what Wingtip sells today. Here is the roster of businesses at the corner of Clay & Montgomery in 1886:

Wingtip’s new & improved windows

Passing by our store in the Financial District, you may notice our new window signage. Normally, we wouldn’t post something about signage, but we are over the moon with the way they came out. You’ll have to click on each window to appreciate some of the subtleties; if you’ve never visited the Club, the last… Read more »

You don’t see hand embroidery every day

We know our customers already appreciate craftsmanship: suits made by hand rather than machines, benchmade shoes, hand-painted cufflinks, to name a few. Machines have taken over so much of the world’s production that sometimes it’s hard to remember that something was ever done by hand. Embroidery is a good example. Your golf shirt with your… Read more »

Krug Special Event This Friday [RSVP]

Experience four expressions of one of the greatest Champagnes in the world, paired with elegant hors d’oeuvres and unique Wingtip experiences, hosted by US Krug Ambassador, Garth Hodgdon. Featuring: Krug Grande Cuvée, Rosé, Vintage 2000 and Vintage 2003.

10-Year Anniversary Party

THIS THURSDAY: All Day At Wingtip. Celebrate the dawn of our 2nd decade with food, drinks, giveaways, and 20% off all full priced merchandise. (Discount applies in store only.)

Bi-Annual Risk / Reward Sale On Now

Our bi-annual Risk/Reward Sale is brimming with fresh spring and summer apparel at 38% Off. The sale event raises the discount by one percentage point each day, meaning that seasonal apparel will be 39% Off tomorrow, 40% the day after, and so forth. This sale tests a customer’s capacity for risk–do you buy the shirt… Read more »

Meet Wingtip’s New Boot Black (aka Shoe Shiner)

Kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of golden repair, which embraces the seams of broken pottery by fusing them in unmistakable gold. The underlying philosophy is that an artifact is more beautiful for having been broken and repaired, and this is the mindset that new Wingtip shoe-shiner Vasti Porter brings to her work.

1982 Bordeaux Dinner at Wingtip

It’s not everyday that we have an opportunity to experience a snapshot of history in a glass, with a particular focus on one of the most legendary vintages of our lifetime. Hailed as a vintage that changed everything, 1982 was stellar in Bordeaux, with praise coming from all angles, particularly from wine critic, Robert Parker. This vintage has perhaps done more to stir hype in the market, drastically affect prices, and influence a stylistic shift in winemaking that still resonates. Why do people still talk about this as one of the finest vintages of Bordeaux ever? Come find out as we taste through a well-curated lineup of stellar producers from the legendary vintage, including two 100 point wines and 3 of the 5 First Growths.


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Michael Sollami

Working with Permutations in Wolfram|Alpha

November 29, 2011 —

Permutations are among the most basic elements of discrete mathematics. They are used to represent discrete groups of transformations, and in particular play a key role in group theory, the mathematical study of symmetry. Permutations and groups are important in many aspects of life. We all live on a giant sphere (the Earth) whose rotations are described by the group SO(3) (the special orthogonal group in 3 dimensions). On the micro-scale, the Hungarian-American physicist Eugene Wigner (November 17, 1902–January 1, 1995), who received a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963, discovered the “electron permutation group”, one of many applications of permutation groups to quantum mechanics.

Permutations deserve a full treatment in Wolfram|Alpha. Since Mathematica 8 provides new functionality to work with permutations using both list and cyclic representations, we now have a powerful new way of working with permutations using natural language.

Let’s first define permutations, then discuss how to work with them in Wolfram|Alpha. A permutation of a set X is a bijective (one-to-one and onto) mapping of X to itself. There is a convenient way of specifying a permutation α of a finite set of n elements: write down the numbers 1, 2, …, n in a row and write down their images under α in a row beneath:

Example of a permutation

We call this two-line notation. For example, the permutation α of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} with α(1)=3, α(2)=1, α(3)=5, α(4)=2, and α(5)=4 is written:

Permutation written in two-line notation

Every permutation can be written as a cycle or as a product of disjoint cycles, for example in the above permutation {1 → 3, 3 → 5, 5 → 4, 4 → 2, 2 → 1}. One of the nicest things about a permutation is its cycle decomposition. Many times the most interesting information about a permutation are the lengths of its disjoint cycles. For instance, the following permutation decomposes into three cycles: one of length = 2 and two of length = 3.

Permutation written in disjoint cycle notation

Another common notation is a permutation list:

Permutation written in list notation

Wolfram|Alpha lists these different notations, typically in the first results pod.

permutation (1 2 4)(3 5)(6 8 7)

We will now compute with permutations on a small set. (Why small? Say there are 100 elements in your set. Then there are 100! permutations, which would take you almost 3 x 10150 years to write if you wrote out one permutation every second.) Let’s start by examining the properties of the permutation (1 2 5 3 7). As you can see, this permutation’s notation pod has a button that toggles the display of fixed points, that is, the numbers that do not move.

permutation (1 2 5 3 7)(4)(6)

A permutation is a bijection, which means that every permutation has an inverse function. Wolfram|Alpha computes a permutation’s inverse and writes it in cycle notation. Then it gives the order of the permutation (when written in disjoint cycle form, the order is simply the least common multiple of the length of the cycles). After that is the index of a permutation α, which is the sum of all subscripts j such that α(j) > α(j + 1), 1 ≤ j < n. If you forget what these terms mean, there is a convenient Definitions button in the lower right corner of the pod, which opens a popup box displaying the definitions of the terms in the pod. Pressing the More button opens up a host of additional properties:

permutation (1 2 5 3 7)(4)(6)

If you know which property you’re looking for, just ask Wolfram|Alpha to return that property. For instance, the signature of a permutation is +1 if the number of transpositions (two element cycles) is even and -1 if it is odd. Let’s find the signature or sign of the permutation list {4, 1, 5, 2, 3, 7, 8, 6}.

sign of {4, 1, 5, 2, 3, 7, 8, 6}

Now, function composition is a useful way to write permutations and is used specifically to study powers and products of permutations (note that the order in which you compose permutations matters), and for undergraduates learning about permutations for the first time, Wolfram|Alpha streamlines the learning process.

permutation (1 4 5 6 2 3)^2

With products of permutations, the composition is assumed to be left to right.

permutation (1 3 2)*(4 5 6 9 2)^3

Wolfram|Alpha provides a number of graphics to help us better understand permutations. One is the Permutation matrix, which Wolfram|Alpha displays both graphically and numerically:

permutation (1 7 3 5 2)

The Cycle structure of the permutation nicely exhibits its action:

permutation (1 7 3 5 2)

Wolfram|Alpha also knows about all kinds of special classes of permutations, such as involutions and derangements:

How many involutions are there on 5 elements?

Is (1 2 4 5) a derangement?

In combinatorics, it’s often useful to construct all permutations. Usually the best way of doing this is in lexicographic order. Wolfram|Alpha understands this ordering and can rank and un-rank permutations lexicographically and give a mixed radix numbering for permutations using the factorial number system (also called factoradic).

permutation (1 2 5 3 7)(4)(6)

lex rank of permutation (1 5 6 8)^2

Inversion is an important concept in the study of permutations. Inversions are pairs of elements that are out of order in the list form of a permutation. Inversions play a significant role in the analysis of sorting algorithms. One method of highlighting the inversions within a given permutation uses a so-called inversion graph (sometimes called a permutation graph). The inversion graph of a permutation α is a graph whose vertex set is {1, 2, 3, …, n} and whose edges {i, j} correspond exactly to (i, j) being an inversion in α. A clique in the graph corresponds to a decreasing sequence in the corresponding permutation.

permutation (1 2 5 3 7)(4)(6)

Wolfram|Alpha also returns random permutations of any length:

random permutation of 8 elements

Mathematica takes a unified approach to programming, so that new permutation functions seamlessly interact with all other Mathematica expressions. We illustrate this using Wolfram|Alpha:

permute {a,b,c,d} with (3,2,1,4)

find the permutation relating {a,b,c,d,e,f,g} with {a,b,g,e,f,c,d}

There are plenty more applications and use-cases of permutations now in Wolfram|Alpha. Try them out and have fun with them. Also, be on the lookout for a permutation group blog post in the coming weeks!

Excellent, this permutation feature will open many new possibilities.

Posted by P. Seeger November 29, 2011 at 5:13 pm Reply

Thanks Wolfram Alpha :)

I’m taking Abstract Algebra 1 and I’m not very computer savy, now I can finally compute powers, products, and inverses really easily!

Posted by Mac Heidt November 30, 2011 at 11:04 pm Reply

Great job you have done. I would recommend you to expand the permutation functionality of using Wolfram Alpha with permutohedron graphs, lehmer code, permutations ordered by the subset relation
between their inversion sets and link with permutation groups.

Posted by B. Radovanovic December 8, 2011 at 2:34 am Reply

Is it just me or does this no longer work? I have tried the exact same input as shown in these images and my results are complete nonsense. Every composition of permutations is the identity permutation according to wolframalpha…

Posted by mike September 19, 2012 at 7:19 pm Reply

nevermind apparently I forgot the spaces. BAH

Posted by mike September 19, 2012 at 7:20 pm Reply

Ok actual comment this time. You say that “With products of permutations, the composition is assumed to be left to right.” Why is that? Most books I’ve seen and classes I’ve taken have the composition going right to left just like function composition.

Posted by mike September 19, 2012 at 7:22 pm Reply

Can anyone solve this problem form me?
1) How many five-letter codes can be form using the letters in the word ’WINSDOM’ such that the vowels are place adjacent to each others
2) How many seven-letter codes can be form using the letters in the word ’SINGAPORE’ such that the vowels are place adjacent to each others
3) How many seven–letter codes can be form using the letters in the word ’SINGAPORE’ such that the vowels are place separately to each others.
4) How many five-letter codes can be form using the letters in the word ’COCONUT’ such that the vowels are place adjacent to each others?

Posted by Terance May 19, 2014 at 9:12 pm Reply

How do I display all combinations and permutations of, for instance, three numbers (1,2,3) but with a resulting length of four numbers? I.e. including repeating numbers, but all three must exist in all combinations.
I.e. (1,2,2,3) and (1,1,2,3) is correct but (1,1,3,3) is not because there is no 2 included.

Posted by Daniel November 13, 2014 at 6:40 pm Reply

    Thank you for your comment, unfortunately Wolfram|Alpha does not have that capability.

    Posted by The Wolfram Team November 17, 2014 at 11:58 am Reply
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text:
Confessions of a sponsorship skeptic

I confess that, until recently, the first thing that came to my mind when someone mentioned child sponsorship was Sally Struthers kneeling next to an emaciated African child, mascara running down her face, telling the TV that “if you can just save one life, won’t it be worth it?”

As passionate as I was about social justice and alleviating poverty, child sponsorship struck me as an old-fashioned model for giving, in which a few select children essentially walked through a breadline to receive meals, school supplies, and medical attention from faraway white “saviors” whose first-world guilt was eased by letters ensuring that their contributions made a difference. I worried that child sponsorship created dependency and that families were forced to attend church in order to receive assistance for their little ones. While I could certainly see the value in saving “just one life,” I longed to invest in efforts devoted to solving the underlying problems that perpetuate poverty in certain communities, rather than simply easing the effects of that poverty among a few.

These concerns didn’t stop me from sponsoring children (especially after visiting India a few years ago), but they kept me from advocating on behalf of the sponsorship model. I think that a lot of Christians in my generation are wary of the suggestion that our responsibility to the world is limited to caring for “just one child.” We long for justice to roll down like streams of living water, not for charity to drip out like a leaky faucet.

The most radical change I’ve experienced during this trip to Bolivia is that my view of child sponsorship has been turned on its head. A model that once inspired indifference has ignited a passion. While I can’t speak on behalf of all NGOs who participate in such programs, I can now state with confidence that World Vision’s child sponsorship program consistently exhibits the following:

1. A community-based model: As I wrote in Monday’s post, when you sponsor a child, you may very well be sponsoring a dam, too! World Vision takes a trickle-up approach to poverty that begins with identifying and addressing the needs of children, and then works to address the root causes of those needs in the community. Sponsorship donations are pooled so that one portion goes directly to the child and his or her specific needs, and another goes to the needs of the community. This week, I have seen how sponsorship money has funded everything from guinea pig farms to after-school programs to hearing aids to irrigation systems to marriage counseling to maternal health programs to alcoholism support groups. What starts as a mustard seed grows into a tree in which the birds of the air can nest.

Confessions of a sponsorship skeptic | World Vision blog

©2011 Lindsey Talerico-Hedren/World Vision

2. Sustainability and empowerment: When World Vision begins working in a community, the goal is to maintain presence in that community for 15 years and then slowly make a transition so that all the programs, systems, and opportunities it provided are handed over to the community to maintain. For example, we visited a bakery in which the women of sponsored children were employed. (Oh, it smelled heavenly!) These women are now providing rolls, cookies, and cereal, not only to World Vision-related projects, but to several public school systems in the area. They are turning a profit and making better wages than they would make at a similar job in the city. The goal is that the bakery will continue long after World Vision has made the transition away from this particular area development program (ADP). Similarly, the dam that we visited on the second day of the trip was built, managed, and maintained by men in the community. (World Vision partnered with the local government to provide initial funding.) One man proudly told me that when floods damaged part of the structure last year, the men themselves repaired it, without any help from World Vision.

Confessions of a sponsorship skeptic | World Vision blog

©2011 Matthew Paul Turner for World Vision

3. Local staff: Over 90 percent of World Vision’s staff consists of people who are local to the communities that they serve. Every single staff member we have met on this trip has been Bolivian. ADPs are staffed by folks who represent the best and the brightest of their countries. A single ADP may include doctors, engineers, agricultural specialists, food specialists, teachers, pastors, accountants, and administrators. By employing and empowering locals, World Vision ensures that no cultural barriers stand in the way of progress and empowerment.

Confessions of a sponsorship skeptic | World Vision Blog

©2011 Amy Conner for World Vision

4. Contextual spirituality: In Bolivia, where over 99 percent of the population identifies themselves as either “Christian” or “Catholic,” World Vision is free to partner with local churches (of various denominations) to help host Bible schools and faith-related activities. But aid is never withheld from families who do not participate in such activities, and World Vision staff members do not proselytize. For example, yesterday we met with four brave couples who shared deeply personal stories about how their lives had been radically changed by marriage counseling offered by a local pastor though a World Vision ADP. One man confessed that he had once been jealous and controlling of his wife; she had to get permission from him to even leave the house. But now he gently put his hand on her shoulder and said that he supports her autonomy completely. With a focus on being the hands and feet of Jesus, World Vision can even work in countries where Christianity is illegal, because the goal is not to win converts but to love as Jesus loved.

Confessions of a sponsorship skeptic | World Vision blog

©2011 Lindsey Talerico-Hedren/World Vision

*   *   *

Rachel Held Evans is a speaker, author, and blogger who traveled with our Bolivia bloggers team in August to Cochabamba, Bolivia, to see World Vision's work in the area firsthand. This post was one of many Rachel wrote as part of her trip experience. It originally appeared on

9 more posts about child sponsorship from the Bolivia bloggers team

*   *   *

Sponsor a child in Bolivia

So, are you a child sponsorship skeptic? What questions still linger in your mind about the child sponsorship program that you would like us to address?

    My question about child sponsorship, and I suppose about World Vision in general, is this: Do you work to tell all people about salvation that comes through faith in Jesus? I'm especially wondering about this quote from the article: "the goal is not to win converts but to love as Jesus loved."

    How can you love as Jesus loved and yet not try to win converts? Isn't every person's greatest need to know God and to be reconciled with Him? Didn't Jesus tell all people to follow Him, in addition to healing them and meeting their physical needs? So, how does making disciples of all nations fit into the mission of World Vision, and the mission of the child sponsorship program in particular?

    Rachel, Ben's comment is also really important to me. I've always loved World Vision, but I love it because I view it as an evangelical organization that realizes that the Pearl we have in Jesus is more valuable than clothes, food, or water. If someone needs food, you give them food. If someone needs clothes, you give them clothes. Everyone needs Jesus, so we have to give them Jesus. If we take care of their physical needs and ignore their spiritual needs we are prolonging their lives temporarily so that they can burn in hell for all eternity. (I realize Hell is taboo, but Jesus talked about it quite a bit. It makes me uncomfortable, but it is scriptural.)

    Anyway, Ben is a good friend of mine, and we both talked about this. I didn't realize he posted a comment. I really want to know your and world vision's answer. It matters a lot to me how World Vision views the role of evangelism and discipleship in their mission.

    (And I'm so sorry if we have misunderstood you. I applaud what you are doing, and we are not trying to be hypercritical.)

    Hey Ethan, I don't think your questions are hypercritical at all. In fact, I've asked them myself at one time or another. Just letting you know I've passed on your questions... expect an answer soon.

    This is a super blog post. I am going to use it as an ambassador to try and fan the flames of sponsorship. Thank you, thank you for this well written explanation and testimonial. Great material for those of us trying to toot the horn of child sponsorship.

    Hi Namara,
    Unfortunately, we are unable to assist you with your tuition request. Although World Vision receives many worthy requests for individuals in need, we do not have programs in place to provide tuition outside of our existing programs.
    We focus on enrolling in our child sponsorship program children (13 years of age and younger) who live in communities where World Vision has a presence. The funds from the sponsorship program are used to improve the overall community as well as the individual child's life.
    May God bless your search to acquire the funds that will enable you to attend school.

    Lindsey, WV Staff

    I am not commenting but am also requesting for a sponsor to help me with my studies if u can pliz call me on +256701155347 or +256702321133 or +256752321133. thanx

    Leave a Comment

    The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.


text:
Today on Blogcritics
Home » Culture and Society » Science and Technology » How is Responsible for the CNN/YouTube Republican Debate Screw-up

How is Responsible for the CNN/YouTube Republican Debate Screw-up

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By now it should be well-known that the recent CNN/YouTube Republican debate featured questions largely from Democratic partisan plants. Ostensibly, CNN claims they didn’t know that the questioners were staffers on various campaigns or left-wing organizations which only goes to show they simply aren’t informed about the subject of their journalism. Shouldn’t a newscaster know what are the likely issues a Republican wants to hear candidates speak on and not rely on what Democrats think the issues are?

If anything, this exercise was a good thing that should end discussion once and for all about the left-wing bias of CNN. Either they colluded with the Democrats or they simply are so steeped in bias they didn’t know the difference. Either way, they’ve become a house organ of the DNC, and whether it is by choice or by ignorance doesn’t matter. YouTube’s anti-conservative bias is well-known and need not be cataloged here. How are we really surprised that this happened?

As a result of the fiasco, and Human Events wants to do a “do-over”. One question, why?

These debates have largely become programmatic with no new real information being conveyed. Newt Gingrich was right in calling these events “auditions”. There can be no debate when answers are restricted to 40 second sound-bites. That’s called a “campaign commercial”.

More importantly, it is the height of hypocrisy that Erick Erickson and his friends are calling for a “do-over” when they are largely responsible for the train-wreck going forward in the first place. In July, after seeing the Democratic version of the debate that featured an inane talking snowman with a global warming sob story, it was obvious the YouTube debate was nothing but amateur hour.

Some Republicans started pushing back against doing it, when Erickson and his friends started having fits of hysteria. The Save the Debate coalition was born with the fist-pumping rage of a teenager yelling at his parents that he should be treated like a grown-up. Several bloggers got together to send petitions around such as Wizbang! and the aptly-named plagiarizing outfit Hot Air. “You can’t write off the internet!” was the slogan of choice.

So, the candidates, to their discredit, caved in and showed up to the debate and it was exactly as puerile as they’d expected it to be. Even without the problem of bias, the questions were generally as inane as they were in the democrat debate. It should be obvious to anyone that when amateurs write the questions, you get an amateur debate. It’s like expecting Wikipedia to be a professional encyclopedia; it simply defies all logic and reason.

Now that the process has been shown to be flawed not once, but twice, Erickson wants to try again. Sorry, you had your chance and quite frankly you don’t matter that much anyway. You corralled everyone into this event and you get to bear the brunt for its failure because it was obvious to any reasoned thinker that this debate was a joke four months ago.

It is a shame that the most viewed presidential debate up to this point was a deeply flawed “fad” debate that failed to really dig into the issues that matter most to this country in any real significant way. It has only further served to sever the people from the politicians making it almost impossible to corner one of these jokers and get them to really answer a question.

There is plenty of blame to go around. To the Democratic candidates who sent plants to the Republican debate – what is this, a student council race? To CNN for being a willing or ignorant dupe – have we tried journalism lately? To the Republicans for not having the intestinal fortitude to make a stand – how can you stand up to Al Qaeda if you can’t stand up to a few self-important has-been bloggers?

The deep irony that the same bloggers that sped this train towards its impending derailment who are now complaining and wanting a “do over” is astounding. And it shows how far blogging has failed to live up the hype and its promise and simply become an outlet (with few exceptions) for the immature to pretend to be important. You blew it guys, let the pros handle the debates now.

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About John Bambenek

John Bambenek is a political activist and computer security expert. He has his own company Bambenek Consulting in Champaign, IL that specializes in digital forensics and computer security investigations.
  • Harold C. Hutchison

    I think that Redstate and other entities need to explain themselves and why they thought this was a good idea.

    This does not fill me with confidence in their judgment.

  • Baritone

    Something I remember reading, although I don’t remember where, after the UTube Dem debate was that the questions chosen were not particularly representative of most that had been submitted. That, in fact, a number of good, relevant questions had been submitted, but were pushed aside in favor others that would “play better” on TV. While some really off the wall and totally stupid submissions were rightly not considered, it was apparent that quirkiness and eccentricity were given significant preference. I think the same holds true for the Rep/UTube debate.

    For the uninitiated, UTube and the like might as well come from Mars. The UTube debates had the effect of further distancing such people from the internet in the certainty that cyberspacers are, for the most part, out of touch nutjobs. If any further such “debates” should be scheduled for either side, a much more responsible approach to the selection process should be taken.

    The content of any televised presidential debate should not be predicated upon its entertainment value. That’s not to say that the odd question conducive to lighter moments during the process should not be given air. It can be instructive to see how the various candidates handle some off the wall questions, to see if they can be a little self-depracating, if they can be gracious in response to some light hearted poking and prodding, to see how they answer questions without resorting to their “stump speech” monologues. But such fare should not be the locus around which presidential debates are developed. Presidential debates should not be reduced to an opportunity for anyone who has a computer, internet access, a video camera and a snowman suit in the attic to get their fifteen minutes of fame.

  • RJ Elliott

    If FOXNews had sabotaged the Democrat candidates** in this manner, the MSM would never let us hear the end of it.

    **Of course, the Democrats would have to actually show up for a FOXNews-hosted debate before FOXNews would have the opportunity to sabotage them…

  • handyguy

    What Bambenek sees [or more likely, pretends to see] as definitive proof of CNN’s ‘left-wing bias,’ most of the rest of the world sees as a non-issue, a tempest in a teapot. If the candidates aren’t upset, why are you?

    For the record, I wish the Dems had participated in a debate on Fox News. And I would not have expected it to be ‘sabotaged,’ any more than I think CNN deliberately tried to set anyone up.

    Some of the questions were indeed inane, a separate issue. [I did rather enjoy the song at the beginning.]

    But it’s the inane answers we ought to be worried about, on both the Republican and Democratic side.

    But why should anyone be afraid of an awkward or difficult question? Should candidates only be thrown softballs, and only be questioned by committed voters from their own party? What a non-story this is.

  • Baritone

    I frankly don’t believe that CNN “set up” the debate either. My concern above is simply that the screeening process could have garnered “better” questions, not easier “soft ball” questions. The Dems probably should assent to a Fox debate if for no other reason than to dispel any notion that they “fear” doing so. If Fox ambushed the Dems in such a debate with plants or plainly unfair questions, they would also be brought to task for it.

  • Baronius

    OK, guys, what do you think would be a good debate format?

    I’ll admit I haven’t seen much of any of them. There’ve been a few single-issue debates. There could also be multi-day debates, with three or four candidates per event. My thinking is, you can’t get 10 people to give detailed answers about everything in two hours. So let’s admit that there are too many candidates to manage in a traditional debate format.

    Let’s spice it up a bit more. Let’s have Dodd, Obama, Huckabee, and Giuliani debate foreign policy. Or dare I say it, how about a debate without any low-polling candidates? When did it become illegal to invite only the big dogs?

    We could also try pre-submitted questions. Almost none of the president’s job requires spontaneity. Make it a take-home test. “In one week, you’ll have to speak for twenty minutes each on Social Security solvency, immigration reform, and health care. Good luck.”

    So since we’re all smart here, what changes in debate format would you like to see?

  • Baritone

    How about something like the old manner in which figure skating competitions were set up, first with compulsories, short program and long program?

    Start with a set # of compulsory questions they all must answer in, say 1 minute. Then choose 3 or 4 topics from a list of several with 2 to 3 minutes devoted to answering each. Maybe they could pick the questions out of a hat – pot luck as it were. Last, a longer answer, say around 5 to 7 minutes of a single topic of the candidate’s choosing.

    This wouldn’t be a debate per se, but it would give each candidate an opportunity to respond to a fairly broad spectrum of questions while emphasizing those issues most important to them and/or for which they are most prepared.

    It’s doubtful that this would work with all of the current candidates. That could take hours. Who would watch any political program for much more than 60 to 90 minutes? As you suggest, it could just be amongst the front runners – 3 or 4 of them at most. It would probably be necessary to vote all of the others off the island or make them successfully down lamprey guts and boil squeezin’s to qualify.

  • Baronius

    B, without getting too vulgar, can you imagine something the candidates wouldn’t eat in pursuit of the presidency?

  • Baritone

    There is always the question: Do we really want anyone to be our president who actually wants the job? I can’t imagine wanting it. All politics aside, anyone who seriously aspires to the presidency in this and most other countries must have a masochistic vein in their psyches. Of course in order for someone to want to lead some of the more unstable countries of the world, they must also have a death wish down in the bowels of their souls.

    The first question I posed harkens back to Groucho Marx saying that he wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would accept him as a member.

    Well, it’s a nutjob world we live in. It obviously takes all kinds to keep it mindlessly whirring along through space.

  • Dr Dreadful

    can you imagine something the candidates wouldn’t eat in pursuit of the presidency?

    Their words.

  • Baronius

    Doc – heh.