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ORLANDO, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - Maintenance crews at Orlando International Airport will be examining a Boeing Max 737 jet that had to make an emergency on Tuesday.
There was only a pilot and co-pilot on the plane, no passengers when they made the emergency landing.
Southwest airlines said minutes after taking off from OIA Tuesday afternoon, the Boeing 737 max airplane unexpectedly turned around. Engine problems forced the pilot to make an emergency landing.
The aircraft was on its way to California to be grounded.
Earlier this month, 157 people died when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed. Nearly 200 people were killed on another Max 8 jet in Indonesia back in October.
On Wednesday, Boeing is expected to announce a software fix for the automated system believed to be the problem.
Right now it is not clear if the emergency landing yesterday had anything to do with the suspected problems on the Max jets or how long that plane will be at Orlando International Airport. |
Great Energy Challenge
Granite Falls ShopGirls Break Barriers by Coasting
ByMarianne Lavelle
Sophomore Dansil Green, team driver, explains one of the ways that the Granite Falls High School team from Washington State seeks to set a mark in fuel economy at Shell Eco-marathon Americas: With a light-footed driving style. Like most of the teams, the ShopGirls coast around the track when they can, only drawing on their diesel engine when needed to keep up to the minimum speed required under the contest rules.
They should be aided in regulating their speed and matching it to track conditions by the new five-speed transmission they installed this year, says team coach, teacher Michael Werner. "However, it's more complex, so more can go wrong," he adds, smiling. "In true racing-car fashion, they ran it for about an hour" before they had to pack it up for the competition—in other words, not too time for testing it out. (See Photo Gallery: High School 'ShopGirls' Design for the Prize)
This is the fourth year in the competition for the ShopGirls, who were the first all-girls Eco-marathon team. (Read story: "All-Girls Team Seeks Record in High-Mileage Marathon") A fun moment this year was meeting and bonding with a second all-girls team that joined the contest this year, the Doves Under the Hood team from St. Scholastica Academy in Covington, Louisiana.
One of the Granite Falls ShopGirls graduates is now at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and another, at Stanford University, both studying engineering. Green, who is interested in MIT and aeronautical engineering, would like to follow suit.
Granite Falls fields a second co-ed team, called UrbanAutos, which is competing with a diesel-powered urban concept car.
With Dansil Green in the driver's seat, Shell Eco-marathon technical inspectors check the seat belt integrity in the ShopGirls' car, one of a required battery of tests for all competitors. Teammates Kylee Hayter (left), Teagan Fife, and Samantha Miner-Ball watch. Photo by Marianne Lavelle.
The Doves Under The Hood team from St. Scholastica Academy, Covington, Louisiana, has their battery electric car sized up at technical inspection at Shell Eco-marathon Americas. The Doves are the second all-girls' team in the competition. Photo courtesy of Shell Eco-marathon. |
Why Justin Bieber Wearing a Kurt Cobain Shirt Might Not be So Terrible - Riffyou.com
Why Justin Bieber Wearing a Kurt Cobain Shirt Might Not be So Terrible
Posted by RiffYou On March 15, 2016 0 Comment
Last week during a performance in Seattle, pop star Justin Bieber took the stage with a very obvious Kurt Cobain t-shirt, lots of flannel, ripped jeans and even a blonde hairdo that could be seen as a nod to the late Nirvana leader. Of course, this has pissed a lot of people off.
And rock fans should be pissed off? Right? Yeah, maybe, but I don't know. Sure, he's Justin Bieber, a calculated pop star whose music makes young girls squeal and people like you and I turn up our noses as if we just encountered a bag of burning dog poop on the front porch.
But beneath all of that, is it possible that Bieber can listen to Nevermind and feel just as disenfranchised as those who helped propel it to classic album status? Well, anything's possible. Fame recently drove Bieber off the rails. He, unlike Cobain, managed to live through that. Right there, however, you can see one of Bieber's biggest connections to Cobain: being a global music icon that's popularity has been attached to some very dark stuff. As a result, maybe Cobain's music/legacy equally serves as a touchstone and warning bell for the Biebs – only he knows.
Alright, back to the issue at hand: Bieber trying to look like Cobain during a show in Seattle. Close your eyes, take a breath and think about this for a second: Bieber has the power to convert annoying tween pop fans into those who scare their parents by screaming along to the chorus of "Lithium." I know how this sounds, but please, don't get mad. Just hear me out.
I don't like Bieber. What he does musically, stylisticly and verbally goes against anything I ever want to have take up any part of my life. He's the male Britney, right?
However, by Bieber wearing a Cobain shirt (he also wore a Nirvana shirt to the Grammys) he is pushing this conversation. He is pushing us rockers into bitching and moaning loudly about how sacrilege it is for him to simply look like he might have respect for Cobain and Nirvana's work. There's no need for us to be offended. We are already sold on Nirvana. But, younger generations discovering older music, like Nirvana's, is how the band will continually be heard in the coming decades.
Sure, it's okay to hate the messenger, but if Bieber's actions and the subsequent backlash leads to a random tween in Virginia, Florida, or Maine downloading In Utero to understand what all this Nirvana fuss is about, isn't that a victory for the music? Who cares if Bieber becomes the catalyst? The important thing is the opportunity he is giving his audiences to check out something that may be of interest to him. Fans like his will flock to whatever he promotes, whether its calculated (very likely!) or inadvertent (less likely!)
And in case you're asking what Cobain would think about this? Stop it. That's irrelevant. The important thing is that Bieber, as much as I want to always despise him, has won points from me (just a couple!) for potentially spinning some of his Beliebers into Nirvana-ers.
All that said, this perspective should never be used to defend any Kardashian that may one day attempt to co-op the Nirvana look. That family is pure evil.
Previous: Ottawa Music Shop Clashes with Record Store Day
Next: Millions of Dollars in Punk Memorabilia to be Burned in London |
Q: How can I share the output of an html code written in visual studio code with someone else? I don't think that we can share the link that we get from the live server extension to someone else for viewing our web page.
kindly advise me. I am new to front-end development.
A: By default LiveServer will listen for network connections on 127.0.0.1 and is available only to clients running on the same computer.
You can change that in the settings (under Live Server > Settings:Host) to specify any IP address allocated to the computer you are working on. You can also use 0.0.0.0 for every IP address allocated to that computer.
Anyone who can reach the IP address you select (which is typically anyone on the same LAN as you) can then visit http://192.0.0.10:5500/ to see the site. (Replace the IP address in that example with the one assigned to your computer that you selected above).
For someone to access the server from a different network, you will need to have an IP address on the public Internet. Typically you would get this by following the above instructions and then configuring your router to forward port 5500 from its Internet facing IP address to the IP address of your computer on the LAN.
You can also look at tunnelling a connection with by creating an SSH tunnel manually or using a service like ngrok which connects a URL on the public Internet to your local server (note that this removes the requirement to change the Live Server configuration away from 127.0.0.1).
|
package freemarker.template;
import static org.junit.Assert.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.Reader;
import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Test;
/**
* JavaCC suppresses exceptions thrown by the Reader, silently treating them as EOF. To be precise, JavaCC 3.2 only does
* that with {@link IOException}-s, while JavaCC 6 does that for all {@link Exception}-s. This tests FreeMarker's
* workaround for this problem.
*/
public class JavaCCExceptionAsEOFFixTest {
public static class FailingReader extends Reader {
private static final String CONTENT = "abc";
private final Throwable exceptionToThrow;
private int readSoFar;
protected FailingReader(Throwable exceptionToThrow) {
this.exceptionToThrow = exceptionToThrow;
}
@Override
public int read() throws IOException {
if (readSoFar == CONTENT.length()) {
if (exceptionToThrow != null) {
throwException();
} else {
return -1;
}
}
return CONTENT.charAt(readSoFar++);
}
private void throwException() throws IOException {
if (exceptionToThrow instanceof IOException) {
throw (IOException) exceptionToThrow;
}
if (exceptionToThrow instanceof RuntimeException) {
throw (RuntimeException) exceptionToThrow;
}
if (exceptionToThrow instanceof Error) {
throw (Error) exceptionToThrow;
}
Assert.fail();
}
@Override
public void close() throws IOException {
// nop
}
@Override
public int read(char[] cbuf, int off, int len) throws IOException {
for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
int c = read();
if (c == -1) return i == 0 ? -1 : i;
cbuf[off + i] = (char) c;
}
return len;
}
}
@Test
public void testIOException() throws IOException {
try {
new Template(null, new FailingReader(new IOException("test")), new Configuration());
fail();
} catch (IOException e) {
assertEquals("test", e.getMessage());
}
}
@Test
public void testRuntimeException() throws IOException {
try {
new Template(null, new FailingReader(new NullPointerException("test")), new Configuration());
fail();
} catch (NullPointerException e) {
assertEquals("test", e.getMessage());
}
}
@Test
public void testError() throws IOException {
try {
new Template(null, new FailingReader(new OutOfMemoryError("test")), new Configuration());
fail();
} catch (OutOfMemoryError e) {
assertEquals("test", e.getMessage());
}
}
@Test
public void testNoException() throws IOException {
Template t = new Template(null, new FailingReader(null), new Configuration());
assertEquals("abc", t.toString());
}
}
|
My friend is a big fan of Ruskin Bond. He isn't fond of writing, but he definitely loves nature and books. Tall pine trees, a waft of tea in mud cups, the noise of orangutans, fight of monkeys and white sheet of snow on mountains transports him to some other world.
Being photographer in a big ad agency, he loves to capture splendid photographs in his camera. Not to mention, whenever he is on his professional tour, he leaves no opportunity to arrest beautiful views in his newly purchased camera.
Sometime back when I visited his home, he showed me his personal collection. Trail of photographs clicked by him was no less than an exotic tale. Beautiful animals with majestic mountains in the backdrop; an effervescent smile of localities made these pictures real eye feast.
I didn't know when the blazing sun wore an orange hue. After refreshing mint tea, he told me about his next trip. This time it wasn't a professional tour rather his personal calling. He wanted to take off to soak in Ladakh's tranquility. And for that, he had decided to join self drive convoy based adventure road trip. This trip would be going to be really enchanting.
From 1st of July to 13th July, the trail of cars would pass through extremely diverse terrain. Places like Manali, Lespa, Sarchu and Nubra would be sufficient to energize his tiring soul. This best part is, not only breath taking views but scary adventures viz. White water rafting, Camping, Zorbing and Paragliding would be making it some inexplicable experience.
I wanted to know more about this tour but instead of revealing information he typed www.bookmyevent.com on the note pad. It was a great interaction. I am looking forward to some awesome photographs of Ladakh, and I am confident, he will not disappoint me. |
Food & Farming / News & Views / Articles from 1995 to 2012 / Most Climate Delegates Accepting Obama's 'Accord'
Most Climate Delegates Accepting Obama's 'Accord'
But small countries reject deal, fashioned with China, India, Brazil
December 21, 2009 | By Keith Schneider
J. Carl Ganter
Lumumba Di-Aping said that the climate deal announced by Barack Obama and other world leaders is unacceptable to small developing nations.
COPENHAGEN — On Saturday morning seven countries, led by the tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu, declined to accept the Copenhagen Accord that was reached late Friday night. But in a procedural move designed to put the agreement into effect anyway, the conference decided to "take note" of the accord instead of formally approving it.
NGO experts explained that the decision by the other nations who are parties to the conference to "take note" enables the accord to become what the United States and other supporting nations call "operational," even though it has not gained formal United Nations approval.
Negotiators said they would work across the weekend to clean up last details, but the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference was essentially concluded on Saturday.
The final stages of the Copenhagen climate conference produced a range of responses, though none were expressions of celebration. Ban ki-Moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, called the accord reached Friday night "hopeful" and urged the 193 nations that gathered here to transform its basic provisions into a legally binding treaty.
"It's just a beginning. It will take more than this to tackle climate change. It is a step in the right direction," he said.
The UN secretary general said he would press world leaders to complete a legally binding treaty next year.
Summed up, perhaps, the Copenhagen Accord is tantamount to a global pre-nup. The marriage agreement is still to come.
U.S., Big Developing Countries Step Up
President Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and the leaders of Brazil, India, and South Africa negotiated the Copenhagen Accord. It attracted support from the European Union and most other world leaders. The accord encompassed all of the significant measures that most nations said were needed to respond to climate change, but many climate scientists and diplomats said that the steps were, by themselves, insufficient to keep global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius, a level thought by many world leaders to make sure climate change remains manageable.
The Copenhagen Accord contains seven provisions that President Obama said would, taken together, make a significant start toward global action to deal with climate change:
A commitment by developed nations to invest $30 billion over the next three years to help developing nations adapt to climate change and pursue clean energy development.
A provisional commitment by developed nation to develop a long-term $100 billion global fund by 2020 to assist developing nations respond to climate change and become part of the clean energy economic transition.
Establishing a goal to pursue emissions reductions that are sufficient to keep the rise in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.
Pledges by nations to commit to concrete emissions reductions, though the specific levels were not set.
A general goal to subject participating countries to international review of their progress under the accord.
Providing diplomatic space for the United States and China to work together to solve climate change.
A commitment to assess the effectiveness of the accord in reducing emissions by the end of 2015.
Night of Controversy
The events leading up to making the accord "operational" followed a long night of controversy in which Tuvalu, Sudan, Venezuela, Cuba, and three other nations opposed its provisions, arguing that it did not go nearly far enough to solve the climate crisis.
The smaller nations also objected to the process that produced the accord, in which the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa negotiated with 20 other nations. President Obama, who arrived early on Friday morning, put the full measure of his influence and prestige behind the work to reach the accord.
Critics of the accord called it completely inadequate for responding to the dire threat posed by climate change. Cuban delegates accused the United States and its new president of "behaving like an emperor" and claimed that the draft was a "gross violation principle of sovereign equality."
At 10:30 p.m. Friday, Mr. Obama held a news conference and appeared visibly spent.
"Today we've made a meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough here in Copenhagen," he said. "For the first time in history all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change.
Referring to his administration's recent actions regarding climate change, the president added: "Because of the actions we're taking, we came here to Copenhagen with an ambitious target to reduce our emissions. We agreed to join an international effort to provide financing to help developing countries, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable, adapt to climate change. And we reaffirmed the necessity of listing our national actions and commitments in a transparent way.
"These three components—transparency, mitigation, and finance—form the basis of the common approach that the United States and our partners embraced here in Copenhagen," the president added. "Throughout the day we worked with many countries to establish a new consensus around these three points, a consensus that will serve as a foundation for global action to confront the threat of climate change for years to come."
Dramatic Turns
The 30 hours here in Copenhagen were marked by high drama.
For much of the afternoon Friday and well into the evening the cold and dark seemed to settle more deeply on this city of 1.2 million. Here in the Bella Center, as the day turned to night without an agreement to cool the planet, the meditation and prayer rooms were noticeably busier.
After months of work this year, and 12 days of negotiation at the UN Climate Change Conference, it looked for much of the day as if 120 heads of state might actually leave Denmark without any agreement at all.
Certainly there were fossil fuel industry boardrooms in Houston where such an outcome would have been celebrated.
But less than two hours before midnight word circulated through Bella that agreement had been struck.
Climate experts from the many citizen organizations and other non-government organizations (NGOs) that thronged the city for two weeks cautioned that the agreement has not been made final, and that many other countries have not signed off on its provisions.
The European Union, which scheduled a news conference before midnight, abruptly cancelled the event, and then held it later in the night. And just after midnight Lumumba Di-Aping, the Sudanese chair of the G77, the international alliance of developing nations, held a news conference and lashed out at the deal.
Fierce Criticism
Mr. Di-Aping said the agreement would hurt developing nations and "lock people of the developing world in poverty." He said the financial terms, $10 billion annually provided by developed nations to developing nations each year through 2012, "was nothing compared to the risks." And he accused the United States, with the assistance of Denmark, of essentially strong arming poor nations into accepting the measure.
Mr. Di-Aping indicated that "if one country doesn't agree to this agreement, then there is no deal."
According to American NGO experts and President Obama, the deal reached by the United States and the four other nations aims at limiting carbon emissions so that global temperatures do not exceed 2 degrees Celsius; committing nations to concrete emissions targets; and subjecting participating countries to international analysis of their commitments.
In its essence, then, the agreement's structure is consistent with what President Obama outlined to heads of state and delegates early this afternoon.
Perhaps most significantly, it is the first agreement to provide diplomatic space for the United States and China to work together to tackle global climate change.
The deal is not legally binding, though the president said it was a "first step" toward developing a much stronger binding agreement. He did not say when that might occur, and it is not clear whether negotiating a legally binding treaty is possible within a year.
"I am supportive of such efforts," President Obama said. "This is a classic example of how if we just waited for that, then we would not make any progress."
Representatives of international climate advocacy organizations were critical of the deal, asserting that it was not nearly strong enough. Ricken Patel, executive director of Avaaz.org, greeted the deal this way:
"The so-called Copenhagen Accord is an historic failure, representing the collapse of international efforts to sign a binding global treaty that can stop catastrophic climate change. Perhaps most telling, while leaders themselves recognize that this agreement is insufficient, they have set no deadline or even date to complete it."
American NGOs Supportive
But American environmental leaders were more supportive, asserting the agreement was a step that strengthened American and global action to limit carbon emissions and accelerate the vast economic transition built on a new foundation of clean energy development.
"The world's nations have come together and concluded a historic—if incomplete—agreement to begin tackling global warming," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "Tonight's announcement is but a first step and much work remains to be done in the days and months ahead in order to seal a final international climate deal that is fair, binding, and ambitious. It is imperative that negotiations resume as soon as possible."
"Today's agreement takes the first important steps toward true transparency and accountability in an international climate agreement," said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund. "The sooner the U.S. speaks through Senate legislation, the sooner we can set the terms of engagement for talks to come."
President Obama avoided being specific about a timetable for making the agreement more robust and binding.
"We strive for more binding agreements over time," Mr. Obama said.
"This is going to be hard," added the president, who indicated he would leave Copenhagen immediately. "It's going to be hard within countries and it's going to be hard between countries."
This article was first published by the U.S. Climate Action Network and is used by permission. Keith Schneider, who founded the Michigan Land Use Institute, is an environmental journalist, and the media and communications director at U.S. CAN. Reach him at [email protected]. |
LSP 4690
He Touched Me
BPRS
Never Been To Spain (February 16 MS)
BPA5
You Gave Me A Mountain (February 16 MS)
A Big Hunk O' Love (February 16 MS)
A Big Hunk O' Love (February 17 DS)
1144 ? (The Sound Of Your Cry)
It's Impossible (February 16 MS)
The Impossible Dream (February 16 MS)
An American Trilogy (February 16 MS)
It's Over (February 17 DS)
Separate Ways
It's A Matter Of Time
Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden
CAS 2567
Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies
SPS-33-571-1 (DJ Promo) Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden BPRS 6351 / 6352
That's All Right (June 10 AS)
6381 (M.S.G Afternoon Show)
Proud Mary (June 10 AS)
Never Been To Spain (June 10 AS)
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me (June 10 AS)
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (June 10 AS)
Polk Salad Annie (June 10 AS)
Love Me (June 10 AS)
All Shook Up (June 10 AS)
Heartbreak Hotel (June 10 AS)
Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel (June 10 AS)
Love Me Tender (June 10 AS)
Reconsider Baby (June 10 AS)
Hound Dog (June 10 AS)
Suspicious Minds (June 10 AS)
Introductions (June 10 AS)
For The Good Times (June 10 AS)
An American Trilogy (June 10 AS)
Funny How Time Slips Away (June 10 AS)
I Can't Stop Loving You (June 10 AS)
Can't Help Falling In Love (June 10 AS)
Burning Love & Hits From His Movies Volume 2
That's All Right (June 10 ES)
6774 (M.S.G Evening Show)
Proud Mary (June 10 ES)
Never Been To Spain (June 10 ES)
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me (June 10 ES)
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (June 10 ES)
Polk Salad Annie (June 10 ES)
Love Me (June 10 ES)
All Shook Up (June 10 ES)
Heartbreak Hotel (June 10 ES)
Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel (June 10 ES)
Love Me Tender (June 10 ES)
The Impossible Dream (June 10 ES)
Hound Dog (June 10 ES)
Suspicious Minds (June 10 ES)
For The Good Times (June 10 ES)
An American Trilogy (June 10 ES)
Funny How Time Slips Away (June 10 ES)
I Can't Stop Lovin' You (June 10 ES)
Can't Help Falling In Love (June 10 ES)
I'll Remember You (June 10 AS)
Introductions (June 10 ES)
Blue Suede Shoes (June 10 AS)
Until It's Time For You To Go (June 10 AS)
Also Sprach Zarathustra (June 10 ES)
Also Sprach Zarathustra (June 10 AS) |
Snapshot: CliftonStrengths Theme Frequencies in Higher Education
Dig into the collective Signature Themes of nearly 3 million StrengthsQuest participants
by Becky McCarville
The CliftonStrengths assessment is designed to facilitate personal development and growth. At its core, the assessment is a tool for self-awareness and a call to action to apply strengths in every facet of life. Discovering one's CliftonStrengths is a critical springboard for valuable discussions with managers, friends, colleagues and advisers -- to learn and grow and become more aware of others' strengths, too.
Because people are unique. They're motivated by a variety of factors. Proof: As of November 2016, over 15 million people have taken the CliftonStrengths assessment. The chance of someone in that database having the same Signature Themes in the same order as someone else is one in 33.4 million.
Watch two graduates discuss what they learned from discovering their CliftonStrengths while in school.
To better understand this uniqueness as it relates to students, and to dig into the overall theme frequency among CliftonStrengths users in higher education -- most of whom are college students -- I recently talked with Jim Asplund, chief scientist, strengths-based development and performance impact consulting at Gallup.
First, About the Frequencies
There are 120 ways to arrange a set of five themes and 278,256 different combinations of the five CliftonStrengths themes. Some themes and combinations are more common than others, making it more likely to have the same top five. As themes become less frequent, having the same themes becomes rarer. But, on average, the chance of having the same Signature Themes is one in 278,256.
Some themes occur more commonly with each other. For instance, Learner and Input are common together, but Individualization and Consistency tend not to show up together because they describe different ways of looking at people.
The overall CliftonStrengths theme profile in higher education is highly correlated to the profile of the CliftonStrengths database, but there are a few interesting differences.
Achiever is the No. 1 theme in both databases. Within the higher education population, Restorative and Adaptability take the No. 2 and 3 spots, followed by Responsibility and Relator. In the general population, Responsibility, Learner, Relator and Strategic round out the top five. Restorative and Adaptability are still within the top 10 but are at Nos. 9 and 10.
"We're looking at differences in a snapshot in time," Asplund says.
What The Differences Mean
When people retake CliftonStrengths five or six years later, Asplund says, their top themes remain fairly stable. They might change a little bit, and some of the cause for that among the student population could be developmental. There are other reasons for the differences, too. Since the overall and higher education-specific CliftonStrengths databases are presumed to be representative of the general population, the differences between the databases may simply be due to the differences in composition between the samples.
"As researchers we tend to be attracted to the differences we observe," Asplund explains. But the important thing to remember is that these databases are composed of millions of unique individuals, and the intended focus of CliftonStrengths is the development of each and every one of those individuals."
Adaptability and Futuristic are other themes that rank higher in the higher education population. At this stage in their lives, many students are likely to be oriented toward the future and may have spent most of their youth adapting to environments directed by others.
"You do see that Futuristic is one of the themes that drops with age because, literally, there's less of a future," Asplund says wryly. "It can be less useful to postulate and plan for things when you're 40 years down the road -- you're not as likely to turn around and go back and change."
The developmental nature of understanding oneself means that people's answers can change as life changes, but "if you look at the overall thrust of people's profiles, they're pretty consistent."
What Educators Can Learn From Theme Frequencies in the Clifton Strengths Population in Higher Education
"You have hundreds of thousands of people with very different combinations than each other," Asplund says. "Educators might want to have a more individualized lens on their students."
The biggest lessons for educators:
There is a lot of diversity among students as a group.
Every student is an individual and might not have any of the predominant top themes.
Students are going to learn in different ways, at different times and different levels of effort.
One of the most important aspects of well-being for students is forming a personal connection with a professor who they feel cares about them as a person, an insight revealed by the Gallup-Purdue Index. Knowing a student's talents and strengths might help foster that connection.
Why Coaching Is Important
Using your talents well and turning them into strengths takes practice. Completing the CliftonStrengths assessment and learning about your strengths is valuable, but the real benefits happen when you learn to apply them.
Educators and advisers can help students better understand why they do what they do because people's talents and motivations are often unconscious, or innate, Asplund says. If a student doesn't have a lot of self-confidence but has a lot of ideas, coaching can help the student come to terms with something they don't believe about themselves.
"There are different ways to appeal to people who have different personalities and strengths," Asplund says. "For those who come to you with a different perspective -- those are some of the most interesting students you've got."
For example, people might assume that physics students have Analytical as a top theme. But if Analytical isn't at the top, how could someone be successful in physics?
"It's not that people can't do the math -- they might be driven by something else," Asplund explains. "There is no 'right' set of themes. That's what makes this interesting. There are so many different ways to live a life."
See the CliftonStrengths Signature Theme Frequency report for Higher Education users
This content first appeared in the Strengths Insights Newsletter -- subscribe today! |
Get To Work With Resources You Have
Posted on March 6, 2017 by
DA: Doing Less with More
This ABQ Free Press Article, March 6, 2017 • ABQ FREE PRESS WEEKLY on the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office entitled " Raul Torrez Has it Backwards on Budget, Workload" by retired APD Police Sergeant Dan Klein substantiates what I said in my February 9, 2017 blog article "Try Doing Your Job First Before Complaining."
Based on my own experiences with the Bernalillo County District Attorney's office, Torrez can do the job with the resources he has.
The Bernalillo County District Attorney's office is the largest law firm in the State of New Mexico and its budget dwarfs all other DA offices in the State, as it should, because it has the highest caseloads.
The DA's office employs 287 people which include 108 attorneys, 35 Prosecution Specialists, 15 Victim advocates, 15 investigators 114 Support Staff.
When I was appointed Chief Deputy District Attorney by District Attorney Jeff Romero, we were faced with the identical dilemma of heavy caseloads, stacks and stacks and stacks of files in the hallways because of no storage, a poor case management system and poor working conditions in a deteriorating building, low salaries, bad morale.
Four years later and when we left, the District Attorney's office was in the best shape it had ever been with increased staffing, salary increases, an updated case management system, the construction of a brand new District Attorney's Office and significantly reduced cases loads complying with national standards.
Torrez can get the job done, but it will require him to make difficult decisions, decisions he was elected to make, especially when it comes to caseloads and deciding what cases have merit to pursue and what cases should be dismissed.
No doubt the biggest challenge Mr. Torrez now faces is how to deal with high profile cases, especially police officer involved shooting cases.
There are over 36 police officer involved shooting cases pending review and a decision on whether to bringing charges against police officers for unjustified shootings.
I have high hopes for Mr. Torrez and confident he has a strong desire to do a good job.
Only time will tell if he is up to the task of managing the largest law firm in the State of New Mexico. |
Art at Felicity House
Felicity House
Did you know that Felicity House has an art collection composed completely of female artists? We take great pride in making sure our space is warm and inviting. For this reason, we carefully selected artworks that will reflect a welcoming vibe and inspire creativity among our community. We worked with an assortment of artists to curate several pieces made by women with autism and also other female artists.
Here are some of our favorite pieces:
Susan Brown's "Her Mother"
Susan Brown was born in 1957 and was diagnosed with autism as a young child. She began drawing at the age of five. Her work has been shown in Pure Vision Arts' exhibitions at the Cooper Union Great Hall Gallery, Marlborough Gallery, Ricco Maresca Gallery, the Museum of American Folk Art and The New York Transit Museum, as well as at many other New York venues.
Elisa Huberman:
Elisa Huberman is an artist, filmmaker, illustrator, and author. Her art has been featured in JCC's Artistic Spectrum, at Pure Vision Arts and in her new children's book, The Upside Down Giraffe.
Rebeca Raney's "Hair Drawing 15"
Rebeca is a New York-based artist who creates drawings and sculptures in her studio in Brooklyn. Rebeca graduated with a MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Rebeca is also the resident guest artist at Felicity House, available during Open Hours to help support community members with their ongoing art projects.
Christina Watka's: "Murmuration IX"
About the artist: Christina is a large-scale installation artist who creates custom art that's site-specific. She received her BFA from The New England School of Art and Design. She uses porcelain to replicate dynamic patterns in nature like swarms, flocks, cells, constellations, and topographical maps.
Tagged As: Uncategorized
On December 11th, Felicity House hosted a public concert with a string quartet from The
"I remember walking around and growing quite emotional the more I saw and heard about |
Home News Trending stories Third fire razes Tsavo national parks in less than a month
Third fire razes Tsavo national parks in less than a month
Janet Murikira
A photo of the aftermath of the June 29th fire in the Tsavo East National park. A fire is currently razing down Tsavo and Chyulu national parks PHOTO COURTESY
A razing fire is currently destroying thousands of acres of grassland and bushland at the Tsavo west national park.
The fire that began on Wednesday evening spread from the neighboring Tsavo East National park according to a press release from the Kenya Wildlife Service.
"The third fire broke out in the Kikundu part of the Chyulu national park at 7.30 pm last evening and is also being fought by teams" The service said in a statement on Thursday.
READ ALSO:Dik-dik numbers in Taita hills pushed to near extinction
Videos posted online by motorists driving through the Voi-Taveta road showed the huge fire razing down acres of vegetation.
An alert posted by road safety tracking app Kenyan traffic urged motorists driving along the road which is a wildlife corridor to be wary of wildlife crossing the road when fleeing the fire.
The KWS said that the fire had started at the neighboring Taita hills ranchesAND even though the cause of the fire has not been established; this is the third fire to be reported in the parks in less than a month.
On 29th June, a raging fire razed down thousands of acres of grassland in the Tsavo east national park near Voi town.
READ ALSO:Rare giant sea mammal found dead in Pate Island
Three days later on 2nd July, yet another fire razed the neighboring Tsavo West national park before it was put off with assistance from KDF officers.
In March, yet another fire razed down acres of vegetation in the Tsavo East national park.
According to the service, the fire began after a fire lit by a boy to burn garbage in Lebanon village ran out of control and spread into the park.
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Christmas Concert Officially Reopens Church for Services
"A FREE Garden District Christmas Concert 2015" will be presented at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, 1307 Louisiana Avenue, on "Gaudete" Sunday, December 13th, at 4:00 pm. It will be the official reopening of the newly-restored historic church, in the presence of the Most Reverend Gregory M. Aymond, Archbishop of New Orleans.
The first mass since a forced closure at OLGC by former Archbishop Alfred Hughes will be celebrated with Archbishop Almond and Monsignor Christopher Nalty in the church on January 2, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
Featured at the December 13 Concert will be several of New Orleans' finest musicians, including sopranos Phyllis Treigle and Melissa Brocato; tenors Kevin Rouchell and Bart Folse; and organist Brian Morgan, Director of Music. The Good Shepherd Choir will also perform Gregorian Chant.
Composers included will be Adolphe Adam, Jehan Alain, St Alphonsus, Gregory Hamilton, Calvin Hampton, Nicola A. Montani, and Daniel Pinkham.
The beautiful Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel was dedicated in 1894, and is regarded as the "most precious jewel in the crown known as the Garden District." The church is now part of Good Shepherd Parish, which comprises, as well, St. Stephen Church and the Church of St Henry.
There will be no charge for admission, though a free-will donation will be accepted. For further information, please telephone (504)227-3793. |
Forums Marijuana News and Marijuana Legalization Marijuana News
Pot-Growers Busted in 17 Locations
Discussion in 'Marijuana News' started by Superjoint, Jun 24, 2001.
Police arrest 22 in operation
Source: Toronto Star
Seventeen indoor marijuana-growing operations in residential neighbourhoods were busted in early morning raids yesterday in Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and the Toronto area.
In the raids, police collected elaborate equipment involved in sophisticated indoor pot-growing operations such as floor fans, umbrella-shaped reflectors and high-wattage light bulbs. Ten of the raids took place in K-W, one in Guelph and the rest in Toronto.
Police are not saying how much marijuana was seized and will not estimate the value of the pot taken from the 17 homes.
However, Staff Sgt. Dan Anderson, media relations officer for the Waterloo regional police, said some of the "grows'' were bigger than expected.
"This will be a very substantial amount of product seized today,'' said Anderson, who said police began the raids at 7 a.m.
The 22 people arrested yesterday are part of the "upper level and in control of this particular organization,'' police said.
Five of them were women.
"It's an organized group of people who happen to be of Asian descent,'' Anderson said.
"You would not go to one of these houses and buy three joints,'' he said.
Since January, local police have raided 30 homes in Waterloo Region with similar pot operations. Of the 40 people charged, many are of Vietnamese origin.
Almost 6,000 marijuana plants, valued at nearly $5 million, have been seized, police said.
Also found was equipment, valued at $302,700, a car worth $5,000, $76,000 in jewelry and $79,433 in cash.
A news conference will be held Monday at police headquarters to detail what police describe as a six-month sting operation dubbed Project Greenhouse. Names and charges are expected to be released at that time.
More than 70 police officers from local police, the RCMP, the OPP, Hamilton, Guelph and Peel forces were involved in the undercover work.
Those arrested are expected to spend the weekend in jail and appear in court early next week.
Police spent most of the day yesterday going through the houses collecting drug-related equipment.
By mid-afternoon, police had collected a tractor-trailer full of equipment from a home on Dumfries Avenue in Kitchener.
The commotion had curious neighbours wondering what was going on.
On Lewis Crescent, in the Chicopee area of Kitchener, Phyllis Sampey was startled from her sleep at 7:10 a.m.
She looked out to see police armed with machine-guns raiding the house next door.
"It was unbelievable,'' said Sampey. "I heard glass breaking and I looked out the window to see the SWAT team with loaded guns on my front lawn. It was scary.''
Like other residents interviewed by The Record yesterday, Sampey said she had little contact with the neighbours, who had recently moved into the area.
They didn't speak English well and kept to themselves, she said.
There were families with children, in some of the houses, while others were empty with people visiting only occasionally, Anderson said.
In a few of the homes, there were only two or three rooms where people lived and the remainder was used to grow pot, he said.
Anderson said many of the homes looked like greenhouses.
The large amounts of electricity needed for the marijuana plants is often disguised by bypassing hydro meters.
"They use grow lights and do the cultivation in the house,'' he said.
Anderson said many of the growers locate in middle-class residential neighbourhoods and "try to make it so that the neighbours are unaware of what's going on.''
At 78 Lewis Cres., furniture was scarce, with only a kitchen table and two chairs and a couch in the living room.
The glass storm door was shattered and a wooden side door was broken.
Putting a Price on Pot:
What do values of seized drugs really mean?
Police use a combination of experience and educated guesswork to estimate the street value of seized marijuana.
Critics complain the inexact science allows police to exaggerate high-profile busts to make themselves look better and increase the chances of stiff penalties when cases get to court.
"You just look at (the dollar estimates) and laugh,'' said Sean Doiron, manager of Shakedown Street, a store that sells marijuana-related paraphernalia in downtown Kitchener. "They always blow them way out of proportion.''
But Staff Sgt. Dan Anderson of Waterloo regional police said investigators are sensitive to such criticism and intentionally use conservative estimates.
In the case of marijuana, he said, this is how they arrive at their figures:
* Plants seized from homegrown operations are broken into two categories: mature and immature.
* Officers can accurately determine the yield of smokable marijuana from mature plants.
* For immature plants, they estimate the potential yield at 2.5 ounces per plant.
* The actual yield from mature plants and the potential yield from immature plants are then added together to determine the total potential weight of smokable marijuana.
* That number is then multiplied by a street-level price of $10 per gram (enough to make three to seven joints or marijuana cigarettes) to arrive at a total dollar figure.
Anderson said police lowball their estimates every step of the way. Mature plants, for instance, can yield seven to eight ounces of smokable marijuana, so the 2.5-ounce estimate is quite low.
Similarly, $10 per gram is likely a bargain in most street circles.
"We don't want to be in a position to have to defend ourselves for inflating anything,'' said Anderson. "We don't want to be accused of making it look more serious than it is.''
Doiron agreed the going rate for marijuana in the Kitchener area is actually about $15 a gram.
But he said estimating the value of huge quantities of seized pot by breaking it into such tiny amounts is inherently misleading.
"It's correct to a point, but nobody would do it that way,'' said Doiron. "It's just to make it seem like a bigger bust.''
Like any wholesale product, he said, marijuana has to go through several middlemen who each take a cut of the profit before it ever gets sold in $10 quantities.
"They want to keep it prohibited, so they take a worst-case scenario,'' said Doiron. "It's a propaganda thing.''
Anderson, however, said police break large seizures into small amounts because that's how it would eventually get into the hands of most drug users.
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2001 The Toronto Star
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Related Articles & Web Site:
Canadian Links http://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htm
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bud stuffer |
: 14k gold, cushion-cut and round cabochons,65.89 ct Cacoxenite, 1.42 ct Ceylon Moonstone, size 28x29mm, 17x34mm, 8mm, natural color(unbleached) faceted freshwater Pearls,overall dimentions center length 79mm, clasp 14k gold forged hooks, overall length 19"
: Faceted Amethyst 10x12mm, weighing 3.99 carats set in textured 14k gold.
: Tourmaline cabochon pendant, 10x17mm, weighing 8.57ct, set in 14k gold textured setting. Chain not included. |
package util
import (
"net/url"
"regexp"
"testing"
s2iapi "github.com/openshift/source-to-image/pkg/api"
"k8s.io/api/core/v1"
kapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api"
buildapi "github.com/openshift/origin/pkg/build/apis/build"
)
func TestTrustedMergeEnvWithoutDuplicates(t *testing.T) {
input := []v1.EnvVar{
// stripped by whitelist
{Name: "foo", Value: "bar"},
// stripped by whitelist
{Name: "input", Value: "inputVal"},
{Name: "GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY", Value: "source"},
{Name: "BUILD_LOGLEVEL", Value: "source"},
}
output := []v1.EnvVar{
{Name: "foo", Value: "test"},
{Name: "GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY", Value: "target"},
}
// resolve conflicts w/ input value
MergeTrustedEnvWithoutDuplicates(input, &output, true)
if len(output) != 3 {
t.Errorf("Expected output to contain input items len==3 (%d), %#v", len(output), output)
}
if output[0].Name != "foo" {
t.Errorf("Expected output to have env 'foo', got %+v", output[0])
}
if output[0].Value != "test" {
t.Errorf("Expected output env 'foo' to have value 'test', got %+v", output[0])
}
if output[1].Name != "GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY" {
t.Errorf("Expected output to have env 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY', got %+v", output[1])
}
if output[1].Value != "source" {
t.Errorf("Expected output env 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' to have value 'loglevel', got %+v", output[1])
}
if output[2].Name != "BUILD_LOGLEVEL" {
t.Errorf("Expected output to have env 'BUILD_LOGLEVEL', got %+v", output[1])
}
if output[2].Value != "source" {
t.Errorf("Expected output env 'BUILD_LOGLEVEL' to have value 'loglevel', got %+v", output[1])
}
input = []v1.EnvVar{
// stripped by whitelist
{Name: "foo", Value: "bar"},
// stripped by whitelist
{Name: "input", Value: "inputVal"},
{Name: "GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY", Value: "source"},
{Name: "BUILD_LOGLEVEL", Value: "source"},
}
output = []v1.EnvVar{
{Name: "foo", Value: "test"},
{Name: "GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY", Value: "target"},
}
// resolve conflicts w/ output value
MergeTrustedEnvWithoutDuplicates(input, &output, false)
if len(output) != 3 {
t.Errorf("Expected output to contain input items len==3 (%d), %#v", len(output), output)
}
if output[0].Name != "foo" {
t.Errorf("Expected output to have env 'foo', got %+v", output[0])
}
if output[0].Value != "test" {
t.Errorf("Expected output env 'foo' to have value 'test', got %+v", output[0])
}
if output[1].Name != "GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY" {
t.Errorf("Expected output to have env 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY', got %+v", output[1])
}
if output[1].Value != "target" {
t.Errorf("Expected output env 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' to have value 'loglevel', got %+v", output[1])
}
if output[2].Name != "BUILD_LOGLEVEL" {
t.Errorf("Expected output to have env 'BUILD_LOGLEVEL', got %+v", output[1])
}
if output[2].Value != "source" {
t.Errorf("Expected output env 'BUILD_LOGLEVEL' to have value 'source', got %+v", output[1])
}
}
var credsRegex = regexp.MustCompile("user:password")
var redactedRegex = regexp.MustCompile("redacted")
func TestSafeForLoggingS2IConfig(t *testing.T) {
http, _ := url.Parse("http://user:[email protected]")
https, _ := url.Parse("https://user:[email protected]")
config := &s2iapi.Config{
ScriptsURL: "https://user:[email protected]",
Environment: []s2iapi.EnvironmentSpec{
{
Name: "HTTP_PROXY",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "HTTPS_PROXY",
Value: "https://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "other_value",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
},
ScriptDownloadProxyConfig: &s2iapi.ProxyConfig{
HTTPProxy: http,
HTTPSProxy: https,
},
}
checkEnvList(t, config.Environment, true)
stripped := SafeForLoggingS2IConfig(config)
if credsRegex.MatchString(stripped.ScriptsURL) {
t.Errorf("credentials left in scripts url: %v", stripped.ScriptsURL)
}
if !redactedRegex.MatchString(stripped.ScriptsURL) {
t.Errorf("redacted not present in scripts url: %v", stripped.ScriptsURL)
}
if credsRegex.MatchString(stripped.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPProxy.String()) {
t.Errorf("credentials left in scripts proxy: %v", stripped.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPProxy)
}
if !redactedRegex.MatchString(stripped.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPProxy.String()) {
t.Errorf("redacted not present in scripts proxy: %v", stripped.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPProxy)
}
if credsRegex.MatchString(stripped.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPSProxy.String()) {
t.Errorf("credentials left in scripts proxy: %v", stripped.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPSProxy)
}
if !redactedRegex.MatchString(stripped.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPSProxy.String()) {
t.Errorf("redacted not present in scripts proxy: %v", stripped.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPSProxy)
}
checkEnvList(t, stripped.Environment, false)
// make sure original object is untouched
if !credsRegex.MatchString(config.ScriptsURL) {
t.Errorf("credentials stripped from original scripts url: %v", config.ScriptsURL)
}
if redactedRegex.MatchString(config.ScriptsURL) {
t.Errorf("credentials stripped from original scripts url: %v", config.ScriptsURL)
}
if !credsRegex.MatchString(config.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPProxy.String()) {
t.Errorf("credentials stripped from original scripts proxy: %v", config.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPProxy)
}
if redactedRegex.MatchString(config.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPProxy.String()) {
t.Errorf("credentials stripped from original scripts proxy: %v", config.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPProxy)
}
if !credsRegex.MatchString(config.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPSProxy.String()) {
t.Errorf("credentials stripped from original scripts proxy: %v", config.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPSProxy)
}
if redactedRegex.MatchString(config.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPSProxy.String()) {
t.Errorf("credentials stripped from original scripts proxy: %v", config.ScriptDownloadProxyConfig.HTTPSProxy)
}
//checkEnvList(t, config.Environment, true)
}
func checkEnvList(t *testing.T, envs s2iapi.EnvironmentList, orig bool) {
for _, env := range envs {
if env.Name == "other_value" {
if !credsRegex.MatchString(env.Value) {
t.Errorf("credentials improperly stripped from env value %v", env)
}
if redactedRegex.MatchString(env.Value) {
t.Errorf("redacted should not appear in env value %v", env)
}
} else {
if orig {
if !credsRegex.MatchString(env.Value) {
t.Errorf("credentials improperly stripped from orig env value %v", env)
}
if redactedRegex.MatchString(env.Value) {
t.Errorf("redacted should appear in orig env value %v", env)
}
} else {
if credsRegex.MatchString(env.Value) {
t.Errorf("credentials not stripped from env value %v", env)
}
if !redactedRegex.MatchString(env.Value) {
t.Errorf("redacted should appear in env value %v", env)
}
}
}
}
}
func TestSafeForLoggingBuild(t *testing.T) {
httpProxy := "http://user:[email protected]"
httpsProxy := "https://user:[email protected]"
proxyBuild := &buildapi.Build{
Spec: buildapi.BuildSpec{
CommonSpec: buildapi.CommonSpec{
Source: buildapi.BuildSource{
Git: &buildapi.GitBuildSource{
ProxyConfig: buildapi.ProxyConfig{
HTTPProxy: &httpProxy,
HTTPSProxy: &httpsProxy,
},
},
},
Strategy: buildapi.BuildStrategy{
SourceStrategy: &buildapi.SourceBuildStrategy{
Env: []kapi.EnvVar{
{
Name: "HTTP_PROXY",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "HTTPS_PROXY",
Value: "https://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "other_value",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
},
},
DockerStrategy: &buildapi.DockerBuildStrategy{
Env: []kapi.EnvVar{
{
Name: "HTTP_PROXY",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "HTTPS_PROXY",
Value: "https://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "other_value",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
},
},
CustomStrategy: &buildapi.CustomBuildStrategy{
Env: []kapi.EnvVar{
{
Name: "HTTP_PROXY",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "HTTPS_PROXY",
Value: "https://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "other_value",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
},
},
JenkinsPipelineStrategy: &buildapi.JenkinsPipelineBuildStrategy{
Env: []kapi.EnvVar{
{
Name: "HTTP_PROXY",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "HTTPS_PROXY",
Value: "https://user:[email protected]",
},
{
Name: "other_value",
Value: "http://user:[email protected]",
},
},
},
},
},
},
}
stripped := SafeForLoggingBuild(proxyBuild)
if credsRegex.MatchString(*stripped.Spec.Source.Git.HTTPProxy) {
t.Errorf("credentials left in http proxy value: %v", stripped.Spec.Source.Git.HTTPProxy)
}
if credsRegex.MatchString(*stripped.Spec.Source.Git.HTTPSProxy) {
t.Errorf("credentials left in https proxy value: %v", stripped.Spec.Source.Git.HTTPSProxy)
}
checkEnv(t, stripped.Spec.Strategy.SourceStrategy.Env)
checkEnv(t, stripped.Spec.Strategy.DockerStrategy.Env)
checkEnv(t, stripped.Spec.Strategy.CustomStrategy.Env)
checkEnv(t, stripped.Spec.Strategy.JenkinsPipelineStrategy.Env)
}
func checkEnv(t *testing.T, envs []kapi.EnvVar) {
for _, env := range envs {
if env.Name == "other_value" {
if !credsRegex.MatchString(env.Value) {
t.Errorf("credentials improperly stripped from env value %v", env)
}
} else {
if credsRegex.MatchString(env.Value) {
t.Errorf("credentials not stripped from env value %v", env)
}
}
}
}
|
Captiva Triathlon: Lenehan wins third title in four years; new mom wins women's division
On the male side, it was another runaway victory for Cape Coral's Ross Lenehan, who finished with a time of 51:47.1.
Captiva Triathlon: Lenehan wins third title in four years; new mom wins women's division On the male side, it was another runaway victory for Cape Coral's Ross Lenehan, who finished with a time of 51:47.1. Check out this story on news-press.com: https://www.news-press.com/story/sports/2019/09/07/lenehan-wins-third-title-four-years-schmidt-beats-spencer-female-division/2197266001/
Alexander Martin, Fort Myers News-Press Published 1:34 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2019 | Updated 11:35 a.m. ET Sept. 8, 2019
Kayla Schmidt was in the hospital just over three weeks ago giving birth to her first baby girl, Olivia.
On Saturday, she was the female winner in the Galloway Captiva Triathlon, held at South Seas Island Resort on North Captiva.
Schmidt won in dominant fashion Saturday morning, posting a time of 55:45.5. The 31-year-old Estero resident was also making her debut in this triathlon, which is held annually.
More: Cape Coral middle-schooler tops among women in Captiva race
More: 'It felt pretty cool.' 12-year-old shines at FGCU Sprint Triathlon
"I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling," Schmidt said. "I felt good a week ago so I signed up, and figured I would do what I can."
Last year's female winner and Fort Myers freshman Clarice Spencer finished with a time of 59:42.0, just under four minutes behind Schmidt. Spencer has been competing in triathlons since age 8, and won the FGCU Sprint Triathlon in 2017 at the age of 12.
The running portion got to Spencer in the end, as she was trailing Schmidt by a few seconds during the second and final transition from biking to running.
Photos: Galloway Captiva Triathlon — Swim moments
Hundreds of athletes compete in the swim portion of the Galloway Captiva Triathlon on Saturday at South Seas Island Resort. Go to news-press.com to see photo galleries of the bike and run portions. Kinfay Moroti/The News-Press USA Today Network-Florida
Tasha Bielby Wallace competes in the swim portion of the Galloway Captiva Triathlon on Saturday at South Seas Island Resort. Go to news-press.com to see photo galleries of the bike and run portions. Kinfay Moroti/The News-Press USA Today Network-Florida
Andreas Boehm competes in the swim portion of the Galloway Captiva Triathlon on Saturday at South Seas Island Resort. Go to news-press.com to see photo galleries of the bike and run portions. Kinfay Moroti/The News-Press USA Today Network-Florida
Hundreds of athletes compete in the swim portion of the Galloway Captiva Triathlon on Sunday at South Seas Island Resort. Go to news-press.com to see photo galleries of the bike and run portions. Kinfay Moroti/The News-Press USA Today Network-Florida
Lori Robbins competes in the swim portion of the Galloway Captiva Triathlon on Saturday at South Seas Island Resort. Go to news-press.com to see photo galleries of the bike and run portions. Kinfay Moroti/The News-Press USA Today Network-Florida
offers.news-press.com/specialoffer The News-Press
Joanne Muller took home third place, posting a time of 1:03:00.0.
On the male side, it was another runaway victory for Cape Coral's Ross Lenehan, who finished with a time of 51:47.1, nearly five minutes before the next male finisher, Nicolas Guevara.
Lenehan is no stranger to the Captiva Triathlon. In fact, he has grown to be quite comfortable with the course, hence the three victories Lenehan has compiled the last four years.
The waves at the 7:40 am start were not favorable for swimmers. Lenehan got tested early and was able to overcome the choppy waters that impacted numerous competitors.
Photos: Galloway Captiva Triathlon — Bike moments
Hundreds of athletes compete in the bike portion of the Galloway Captiva Triathlon on Saturday at South Seas Island Resort. Go to news-press.com to see photo galleries of the swim and run portions. Kinfay Moroti/The News-Press USA Today Network-Florida
offers.news-press.com/specialoffer USA TODAY NETWORK
"I like a challenging swim," Lenehan said. "It's a part of a triathlon. It's fun to swim in some glass-flat water, and it's fun to swim in some chops, so I like that a lot."
Last year, the Captiva Triathlon had to cancel the swimming portion of the race due to red tide.
"It's always a fun race," Lenehan added. "You get to see everybody and all your friends that you train with all the time. It's a nice reunion and you get to see the hard work pay off in a race."
Guevara crossed the line with a time of 56:13.4, approximately 30 seconds prior to Schmidt crossing the stripe and taking home second place overall. Christian Horn, 18, wasn't far behind Guevara with a time of 56:32.5.
Photos: Galloway Captiva Triathlon — Run moments
Kayla Schmidt competes in the run portion of the Galloway Captiva Triathlon on Saturday at South Seas Island Resort. Go to news-press.com to see photo galleries of the swim and bike portions. Kinfay Moroti/The News-Press USA Today Network-Florida
Hundreds of athletes compete in the run portion of the Galloway Captiva Triathlon on Saturday at South Seas Island Resort. Go to news-press.com to see photo galleries of the swim and bike portions. Kinfay Moroti/The News-Press USA Today Network-Florida
GALLOWAY CAPTIVA TRIATHLON RESULTS
1. Ross Lenehan, Cape Coral, 51:47.1
2. Nicolas Guevara, Cape Coral, 56:13.4
3. Christian Horn, Naples, 56:32.5
4. William Valenti, Fort Myers, 57:23.1
5. Michael Hammersley, Fort Myers, 57:52.2
1. Kayla Schmidt, Estero, 55:45.5
2. Clarice Spencer, Cape Coral, 59:42.0
3. Joanne Muller, Fort Myers, 1:03:00.0
4. Jaime Wohl, Cape Coral, 1:03:11.5
5. Lori Robbins, Fort Myers, 1:03:49.9
Follow News-Press sports writer Alex Martin on Twitter: @NP_AlexMartin. For more on sports in the Southwest Florida area, follow @newspresssports on Instagram, and @nphssports on Twitter.
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Come On, Get Happy – Celebrating the Music of David Cassidy (R.I.P.)
For anyone who grew up in the 1970s, yesterdays announcement of the death of David Cassidy was sure to bring a reaction.
Whether you liked him or not, David Cassidy was such a huge recording and television star that even if you didn't like his work you knew who he was and knew his image.
Personally, some of the first music I ever bought and listened to was the music of The Partridge Family.
Say what you will but the music that David Cassidy recorded as a part of The Partridge Family still endures, still entertains, still brings a smile and still sounds great. It's lasting, it's well written and most importantly well sung by David Cassidy.
The first three Partridge Family albums especially – The Partridge Family Album, Up to Date and Sound Magazine – are loaded with one pop gem after another: "Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque". "Somebody Wants to Love You", "I Think I Love You", "Brand New Me","Only a Moment Ago", "I'll Meet You Halfway", "Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted", "Morning Rider on the Road", "I'll Leave Myself a Little Time", "You Are Always on My Mind", "There's No Doubt in My Mind". "One Night Stand", "I Woke Up in Love This Morning", "Echo Valley 2-6809", "You Don't Have to Tell Me", "Rainmaker" and "I'm On My Way Back Home".
David Cassidy's lead vocals highlight all of The Partridge Family recordings and his impassioned delivery is really what makes these songs shine. His voice was so right for pop music and oh so right for these songs.
Above and below I've shared photos of all The Partridge Family and David Cassidy CDs I own. I hope if you've never heard this music, you should make it a point to explore it sometime.
It took me a while to really explore Cassidy's solo music but there are also some gems on those albums as well. They feature a bit more rock and soul which was more to his personal tastes but again they are well written and produced and sung exceptionally well.
The Razor and Tie issues of The Partridge Family albums are best (the first five Partridge family albums) but thankfully all The Partridge Family albums were released on CD and can be found pretty easily.
There are also several greatest hits the best of which is "Come On Get Happy!: The Very Best of The Partridge Family" which is the only place you can find the songs "Together (Havin' a Ball)", "Let the Good times In" and "Stephanie" which were all featured on The Partridge Family TV show but not released until this collection.
Whether you seek this music out on disc or online take a moment to listen and yes come on get happy.
The best tribute to anyone is not to be forgotten. And as long as people listen to music David Cassidy will not be forgotten. At least not by me or the millions who grew up listening to him.
One of my favorite Partridge Family songs "Only A Moment Ago" says what I'm feeling so beautifully:
"Why has the music stopped?
Where did all the happy people go?
I know they were there, songs everywhere
Only a moment ago.
I only blinked my eye; and now the world that I used to know
Is changing' on me; why can't it be
Only a moment ago?"
R.I.P. David Cassidy
Previous: Previous post: Paul McCartney Archive Redo, Redux and "Capitol"ized
Next: Next post: Paul McCartney Archive Collection on Capitol Vinyl – I See Colors!
2 thoughts on "Come On, Get Happy – Celebrating the Music of David Cassidy (R.I.P.)"
Donna Bona says:
Jim, thank you for sharing your article and the pictures of the albums. I have several and didn't know the others. I have been a true fan of David since 9yrs old. I cherished him! Unfortunately, I never was able to meet him. It was a dream but sometimes dreams come true. David should be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His contributions to the music business were astounding.
Thank you James for this article, I totally agree with you all the Partridge Family Music and David Cassidy music is such great music! He had a voice like none other, and David should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!!!! |
#pragma once
#include <stdexcept>
#include <memory>
namespace synca {
enum EventStatus
{
ES_NORMAL,
ES_CANCELLED,
ES_TIMEDOUT,
};
struct EventException : std::runtime_error
{
EventException(EventStatus s);
EventStatus status();
private:
EventStatus st;
};
struct Goer
{
Goer();
EventStatus reset();
bool cancel();
bool timedout();
private:
struct State
{
State() : status(ES_NORMAL) {}
EventStatus status;
};
bool setStatus0(EventStatus s);
State& state0();
std::shared_ptr<State> state;
};
}
|
<?php
namespace CachetHQ\Cachet\Presenters;
use CachetHQ\Cachet\Facades\Setting;
use CachetHQ\Cachet\Presenters\Traits\TimestampsTrait;
use GrahamCampbell\Markdown\Facades\Markdown;
use Jenssegers\Date\Date;
class IncidentPresenter extends AbstractPresenter
{
use TimestampsTrait;
/**
* Renders the message from Markdown into HTML.
*
* @return string
*/
public function formattedMessage()
{
return Markdown::convertToHtml($this->wrappedObject->message);
}
/**
* Present diff for humans date time.
*
* @return string
*/
public function created_at_diff()
{
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->setTimezone($this->setting->get('app_timezone'))
->diffForHumans();
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/**
* Present formatted date time.
*
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public function created_at_formatted()
{
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->setTimezone($this->setting->get('app_timezone'))
->format($this->setting->get('incident_date_format', 'l jS F Y H:i:s')));
}
/**
* Formats the created_at time ready to be used by bootstrap-datetimepicker.
*
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{
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/**
* Present formatted date time.
*
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public function created_at_iso()
{
return $this->wrappedObject->created_at->setTimezone($this->setting->get('app_timezone'))->toISO8601String();
}
/**
* Present formatted date time.
*
* @return string
*/
public function scheduled_at()
{
return (new Date($this->wrappedObject->scheduled_at))
->setTimezone($this->setting->get('app_timezone'))->toDateTimeString();
}
/**
* Present diff for humans date time.
*
* @return string
*/
public function scheduled_at_diff()
{
return (new Date($this->wrappedObject->scheduled_at))
->setTimezone($this->setting->get('app_timezone'))
->diffForHumans();
}
/**
* Present formated date time.
*
* @return string
*/
public function scheduled_at_formatted()
{
return ucfirst((new Date($this->wrappedObject->scheduled_at))
->setTimezone($this->setting->get('app_timezone'))
->format($this->setting->get('incident_date_format', 'l jS F Y H:i:s')));
}
/**
* Present formatted date time.
*
* @return string
*/
public function scheduled_at_iso()
{
return $this->wrappedObject->scheduled_at->setTimezone($this->setting->get('app_timezone'))->toISO8601String();
}
/**
* Formats the scheduled_at time ready to be used by bootstrap-datetimepicker.
*
* @return string
*/
public function scheduled_at_datetimepicker()
{
return $this->wrappedObject->scheduled_at->setTimezone($this->setting->get('app_timezone'))->format('d/m/Y H:i');
}
/**
* Returns a formatted timestamp for use within the timeline.
*
* @return string
*/
public function timestamp_formatted()
{
if ($this->wrappedObject->is_scheduled) {
return $this->scheduled_at_formatted;
} else {
return $this->created_at_formatted;
}
}
/**
* Return the iso timestamp for use within the timeline.
*
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public function timestamp_iso()
{
if ($this->wrappedObject->is_scheduled) {
return $this->scheduled_at_iso;
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return $this->created_at_iso;
}
}
/**
* Present the status with an icon.
*
* @return string
*/
public function icon()
{
switch ($this->wrappedObject->status) {
case 0: // Scheduled
return 'icon ion-android-calendar';
case 1: // Investigating
return 'icon ion-flag';
case 2: // Identified
return 'icon ion-alert';
case 3: // Watching
return 'icon ion-eye';
case 4: // Fixed
return 'icon ion-checkmark';
default: // Something actually broke, this shouldn't happen.
return '';
}
}
/**
* Convert the presenter instance to an array.
*
* @return string[]
*/
public function toArray()
{
return array_merge($this->wrappedObject->toArray(), [
'scheduled_at' => $this->created_at(),
'created_at' => $this->created_at(),
'updated_at' => $this->updated_at(),
]);
}
}
|
Home :: Policy :: Planning Strategy Rural NI :: Regional Policies :: Industry & Commerce :: IC 15
Planning Strategy for Rural Northern Ireland
Regional Planning Policies: Policy IC 15 Roadside Service Facilities
Policy IC 15 Roadside Service Facilities
The provision of roadside service facilities on the trunk roads network in the open countryside may be considered acceptable where there is a clear indication of need.
It is important to secure the adequate provision of roadside services for long distance travellers using the trunk roads network. As part of the continual upgrading of the network, many settlements have been bypassed. It is not always appropriate for travellers to divert off major routes for services. On the other hand there has been pressure for new development, particularly petrol filling stations in the open countryside. This pressure if left unchecked could result in a proliferation of development resulting in a loss of environmental quality along major routes.
Proposals for roadside service facilities may be considered along the trunk roads network. New facilities will not be permitted unless:
there is a clear indication of need. In normal circumstances it is considered reasonable to expect a driver to travel at least 12 miles along the main traffic route network before reaching a petrol filling station or service centre (on either side of single carriageway roads). Proposals for new facilities within 12 miles of existing services will therefore not normally be acceptable;
the access arrangements are satisfactory. Proposals which would lead to traffic hazards will not be permitted. Stations should be designed for one-way working and should be accessible without dangerous right-turning movements across traffic flows. The pairing of stations/ services on either side of the road is always preferable - on both single and dual carriageways. In general, sites adjacent to the main routes but which have access to a minor route may be preferable to sites with direct access, provided the facility is clearly indicated to on-coming traffic. Where direct access is permitted the applicant will normally be required to provide any necessary improvements to the road layout, such as deceleration lanes; and
the proposal is satisfactory in terms of location, siting and design as set out in Policy DES 5. Adequate screening by landscaping will normally be required.
In normal circumstances, proposals for petrol filling stations, and roadside services are unlikely to be acceptable in Green Belts, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Countryside Policy Areas.
Along the trunk road network the Department considers there is a need not only for fuel provision but also for a wider range of services including toilet and catering services and picnic sites together with adequate parking. Favourable consideration will be given to applications for such service centres which meet the criteria outlined above. Where a route is already adequately served by existing petrol filling stations the creation of entirely new service centres will not normally be acceptable but proposals for the extension of facilities at existing filling stations may be considered. Such facilities will not be acceptable adjacent to every filling station - again a spacing of 12 miles between services is considered appropriate. Proposals for a grouping of services, by nature of their scale, can have a significantly greater impact on the rural environment. Proposals will therefore be carefully considered to ensure that they can be satisfactorily integrated into the local landscape. Design should be of a high standard and landscaping used to screen the development, particularly any large areas of car parking.
It is considered that on routes not forming part of the trunk roads network there will normally be no necessity to locate petrol filling stations or roadside services in the open countryside. Such facilities will normally be directed to existing settlements unless local circumstances indicate that such a policy would lead to undue hardship for the residents.
The upgrading of existing filling stations will normally be acceptable unless increased trade would create or exacerbate a road traffic hazard. Where a petrol filling station has been abandoned, the policy as set out above will be applied.
Most petrol filling stations now provide a wide range of retail goods in the associated shop. Many now function as the local shop or small supermarket serving the surrounding population. The important role of such retail provision is recognised. Such shops should however clearly remain secondary to the use as a petrol filling station. Proposals for larger units providing general retailing are not considered appropriate. Secondary uses such as vehicle sales or vehicle repairs will normally be unacceptable in countryside locations.
Where a new petrol filling station or roadside service centre is approved in a rural area conditions will normally be imposed to secure adequate parking and landscaping and to restrict the type of goods to be sold. The accumulation of signs will be resisted.
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Willow's Playlist: In-world and Out-World With Jed Luckless, Second Life Rocker and Grateful Dead Tribute Artist
Exclusive to NWN, Willow Caldera covers SL's burgeoning live music scene
For all its virtues, one thing the in-world music scene is hard pressed to recreate is the joy of watching a musician's face and body language while they perform. An avatar, sadly, can't quite cope with the nuance, nor show the interaction of an artist with their instrument of choice.
Jed Luckless has happened across a way to cater to those who miss this aspect of the experience - and without impacting the pleasure of those who don't. His performances, as with most other Second Life musicians, take place on the grid, through the medium of his avatar, and his fans chat and dance and enjoy the informal atmosphere and respond to his comments throughout. But for those who need their eyes to enjoy the music as well as their ears, he offers the option of watching his Grateful Dead, Phish and Led Zeppelin-influenced brand of gravel-voiced rock live on a video stream.
Here he is performing in the Second Life place you're most likely to find him: Darkstar, a whole sim devoted to the Grateful Dead community on the grid. [SLURL]
Video shot live during a performance for Darkstar, featuring original song "Old Man Miller"
"With a pretty diverse set of influences and a self-taught technique that doesn't really subscribe to any one convention, it's a bit difficult to categorize the music I write," says Jed. "But even when playing structured original or cover tunes, the concept at the heart of my music is improvisation and spontaneity. I love the idea of music that exists only in a moment. This was always the appeal to me of bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish, whose shows are never the same twice. I've tried to retain that feeling at my shows, by not using pre-planned set lists, by playing two long sets with a set break and by filling in transitions and solos with extended, improvisational jams. This has led fans to brand me with the nickname 'Jammin' Jed.'"
Much as Grateful Dead fans head to their concerts partly for the company of other fans, and the Parking Lot antics, so Jed places heavy focus on the community aspect of his shows.
"Often the pre- and post-parties we have in the lot are as much fun as the show itself. We've got a great community at Darkstar and a growing number of Jed Heads who look forward to show night so that they can party together... before, during and after," he says.
"I should mention what a great philanthropic group the Jed Heads are as well. In December we held a fundraiser to feed the hungry in America and we raised upwards of L$80,000. And in January I played as part of a Haiti relief benefit, where we raised over L$100,000. Whenever there is a cause I feel is worthy of supporting, the Jed Heads will be right there to support it with me."
It took a couple of years for Jed to realise the potential of Second Life as a musical medium - and for his computing power to catch up with his interest. He uses BUTT for streaming, with an Ibanez acoustic-electric guitar, a Zoom A-2 acoustic modeler to give the guitar a Martin sound, a Carl Martin AC-Tone pedal and a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal for solos and Boss RC-20 loop station for looping. This is run into a Yamaha PAS-300 PA system where it is sometimes mixed with other sources he uses during shows, such as the Roland TD-6 V-Drums.
"I had been playing with a Grateful Dead tribute band in RL and had been working hard on perfecting a large selection of Dead tunes. When my band's schedule got cut back, I logged back on to SL specifically to see if I could take a solo act into the metaverse. I really had no idea what to expect," Jed explains. "Since I was very specific with what I wanted to do initially (re-create the feeling of a full Grateful Dead show), it was pretty easy to identify the likely venues. First stop was the Merry Prankster, where I met Nancy Lei, who I really should credit for pushing me off the ledge. She could not have been nicer, and gave me all the info I needed to get set up technically. I continued to explore as I downloaded and installed BUTT."
"And that's when I found my home," he continues. "In fact, when I first stepped foot on Darkstar, the proprietor/creator of this amazing world, Starling Glitterbuck, actually said 'Welcome home.' It was a complete sim honoring the Grateful Dead, built down to every minute detail from their vast catalog of songs and mythology. I knew right away Darkstar was the place for me to do my thing. Within a week or two of that, I was amazed to be playing the August West Amphitheater, where Starling has actually recreated the famous Grateful Dead wall of sound! I subsequently moved into the Mars Hotel on Darkstar which is where I (and other Darkstar musicians) make an SL home."
"A couple months later I met Beachy Piers, who became my PR manager. Beachy is one of the most outgoing people you will ever meet, and between her passion, smarts and friendships in SL, she really helped take everything to the next level. She took my group from 5 to 150 in a couple months. Together we've organized several very successful charity events as well as other special events at Darkstar, such as the recent Phish Bowl. She also helped get my social networking presence off the ground, which has been another great way to connect with fans."
August West Amphitheater on Darkstar is Jed's home stadium, where he puts on a show every Wednesday night. You can also catch him twice a month at The Merry Prankster and often at the Hotel Chelsea, which holds a special meaning to him as a native New Yorker. But, no matter where he plays, it's the fan experience he believes sets him apart from his peers.
"My shows and music just do not work without a connection with the fans," he says. "The audience is the extra band member, and it's their energy that usually drives the energy of the show. It's a bit like a circuit… without the fans to complete the circuit and conduct the energy, the electricity doesn't flow. Part of this connection with fans comes off the stage. I've been to plenty of shows where the performer is gone within 5 minutes of the end of the show. I often will continue to party with the fans all night after the show – this helps create a tight bond between me and the fans. I sincerely feel close to most of them. And as I've said many times in-world and fully believe, 'Jed Heads are the BEST fans.' You cannot have a bad time with this group."
For Jed, choosing the content of his shows is about keeping it fresh and interesting by expanding and changing his repertoire to make every one a different experience.
"I think something that sets us apart is that we're trying to do more than just play music. We're trying to build something. A community. A family. And that goes way beyond music. At a personal level, as a Jed Head you are instantly part of a great group of people, compassionate to no end, and willing to help however they can in a time of need. On a professional level, our organization, Jedtainment Inc. has an ongoing goal of philanthropy and cultural development within SL. As such, we've organized numerous charity events and have peripheral programs such as the JNMP ("Jedtainment New Music Program") which aims to help new musicians get up and running on SL and give them a nurturing forum to perform in. There are so many possibilities in SL, it seems like every day there's some fun new idea on our drawing board! Stay tuned!"
More about Jed Luckless:
What live music groups should Willow Caldera cover for New World Notes? Suggest groups and performers by contacting her by IM or at [email protected]
Her taste in music is somewhat eclectic, ranging from Kings of Leon to Frou Frou and Deftones to Lady GaGa and Avenged Sevenfold.
Posted on Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 12:16 AM | Permalink
I love to see the progression of Live Music in SL. Please remember that Live Music's sole supporter since the beginning in SL are the venues. I do not feel the SL Music Scene is succeeding as long as the venues that support live music have to pay hundreds of dollars a month to provide an audience for the Live Musicians. There has to a plan put in place to cover the costs of Live Music in SL. Right now the costs are all on the venue owner and we have to strive to develop a working system that fixes this problem. Then we will see some real growth in the SL music scene.
Posted by: Lias Leandros | Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 11:12 PM |
Home Posts Super system needs 'sustained period' of stability
Super system needs 'sustained period' of stability
The SMSF Association has told the Productivity Commission that a lack of stability in the superannuation system is an impediment to an efficient superannuation system that can deliver the best retirement savings outcomes for fund members.
"The system needs a sustained period of stability free from significant changes, especially changes to taxation settings, to allow members to have confidence in the system and make long-term savings plans," SMSF Association CEO John Maroney says.
To achieve this critical outcome for the system, he says it's imperative for the Government to get industry consensus on the objective for superannuation and to remove superannuation from the annual budget policy cycle.
Quoting from the Association's submission to the Productivity Commission's Superannuation Issues Paper, Maroney says: "The objective for the superannuation system should be based around the provision of retirement income, as recommended by the Financial System Inquiry, and supported by a set of guiding principles that can be used to give context to the primary objective.
"It is essential that the objective not only has a focus on providing retirement income but also ensures that retirees are able to build adequate retirement savings through the superannuation system to manage the financial risks of aging and retirement."
He says the Association has long advocated removing superannuation policy from the annual budget policy cycle to promote stability, competition and efficiency for the system.
"Superannuation policy changes can then potentially be undertaken through a review of superannuation settings linked to the Intergenerational Report which is required under the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 to be completed every five years and released by the Treasurer at the time.
"Having the Intergenerational Report released once every five years will allow the Government, industry and consumers to take a 'health check' on the superannuation system to see whether it is attaining its goals and whether any adjustments/changes to policy settings are required."
In its submission, the Association says political instability and ongoing change to the superannuation laws have created a level of distrust and instability in the system.
"When superannuation changes occur at the whim of budget policy and when consistent tinkering occurs, these activities affect the public trust in superannuation that can lead to individuals becoming disengaged with the system.
"They may withhold from making contributions and managing their superannuation savings in the most appropriate way for them (either in an SMSF or APRA-regulated fund) to maximise their retirement benefits."
Maroney says that Association research papers over recent years have shown that legislative change and speculation has resulted in many Australians losing confidence in the superannuation system and reducing their contributions to superannuation.
"The 2015 'Intimate with Self-Managed Superannuation Report' showed that advisers most commonly cite regulatory/legislative change as the greatest challenges they face in advising SMSF clients. Similarly, a Vanguard/Rice Warner survey of SMSF trustees noted that 88% of respondents were concerned that they will be significantly impacted by changes to superannuation or taxation law.
"We think there is a clear message in these reports. Constant changes to the superannuation system undermine confidence and will hinder the system achieving its primary objective – to provide income in retirement to substitute or supplement the age pension, delivering a financially secure and dignified retirement for Australians." |
Why Isn't WINNER Comeback Song Performing Well On Korean Charts?
YG boy group WINNER performance on Korean charts is not living up to expectations!
On October 23 at 6 p.m. KST, WINNER made a comeback with their third mini-album "CROSS" and its title track "SOSO." Upon its release, #WINNER_SOSO was trending at No. 1 on Twitter worldwide, fans were showing their support for WINNER.
A couple of hours after its release, the album ranked No. 1 on iTunes' Top Albums chart in 23 regions including Hong Kong, Chile, India, Indonesia, Macao, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Argentina, Bolivia, Cambodia, and more.
However, the title song "CROSS" was barely able to top two of the six Korean charts and the song is slowly losing its spot to older songs that have been around on the charts a lot longer than "CROSS."
As of this writing, "CROSS" sits at number 1 on Bugs, it's been less than three days since the group comeback. Fans are disappointed to see the numbers, WINNER usually tops Korean charts shortly after each comeback, this is one of their worst-performing comebacks in recent memory. WINNER is known for being digital chart monsters.
But what went wrong?
On a post on a Korean website called theqoo, k-netizens discuss what could've led to these lackluster numbers. Some say it's because of the ongoing YG boycott, while others state that the song is simply not measuring up to expectations, there are also some who don't like WINNER's new style and attempt at a different musical direction.
Read some of their comments:
"AKMU got first place on Melon, so no.. its not that they're being boycotted.. Instead, WINNER's new song is not good."
"Its hard to rank well on Melon these days."
"this time I don't' like the song, this is not their musical style that I like."
"hul… I didn't even know they had a comeback."
"What's going on with idols these days?"
"I like WINNER's songs but this time I don't like it."
It's important to point out that Kpop groups, in general, have been struggling to rank high on Korean music charts in 2019, 2019 has been dominated by indie artists and OSTs, some of which still dominate the charts months after their initial release.
What do you think could be the reason? Do you like WINNER new song?
Tags: WINNER
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7 thoughts on "Why Isn't WINNER Comeback Song Performing Well On Korean Charts?"
Ess827
October 24, 2019 8:25 pm at 8:25 pm
I think the reason is, (just my opinion) No Nam, he was the voice and the visual kinda like the heart of the group I bet the company wish he was still there.
IClynn
October 25, 2019 12:53 pm at 12:53 pm
Nah, he had left long time agooo why now? WINNER with 4 members has been doing well for last couple of years after he left. They get new fans too. GP taste just into ballads in this autumn.
WINNERCROSS
It's not about ranking, they made the song to express themselves and for the fans. They wanted to explore other genres. And also, the albums they have released so far showed their growth as artists. The music they Produce are always unique. It's was their genre.
Also, the people who criticizes the album did never understand what the album is all about. They are not even fans.
its because winner was releasing "happy" songs and summer styles. soso is such a good song, the mv is a masterpiece, the people is just tasteless. im glad that winner didn't go on the easy way and reales songs that people will like because they are knowing as summer styles
October 26, 2019 2:45 am at 2:45 am
Winner is not a ballad group which is why people did not like it. Although they changed their drama still a lot of people liked it. If you chech in twitter some fans from different kpop fandom watched SOSO, they appreciate it. Plus I'm happy to see WINNER unbothered from these comments.
I love them!!! If someone cant appreciate how they experiment with their music, sorry to say but you dont know WINNER yet! |
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Photos: A STRANGE LOOP's Mars Rucker Records 'CAROLS FOR A CURE' - Get An Exclusive Look Inside the Session!
Mars Rucker of A Strange Loop lays down their vocal track of the song "Misty".
by Genevieve Rafter Keddy Nov. 05, 2022
Tickets from: $61.500
The holiday season is not complete without the perfect music to accompany it. After a two year Pandemic Pause "Broadway's Carols for a Cure 2022" is back with the 22nd recording that embodies the spirit of the season like nothing else can. A project born completely out of love, "Broadway's Carols for a Cure" pairs the casts from famous Broadway musicals with songs that are both classic and new. The result is pure gold that will make you reach for the "repeat" button over and over again.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is "Broadway's incredible, dedicated nonprofit organization that helps individual people with serious illnesses such as AIDS and women's health issues receive the health care and support they need. In addition, they provide financial support in the form of grants to AIDS and family service organizations throughout the country," according to "Broadway's Carols for a Cure" producer Lynn Pinto.
With a jaw-dropping list of all the most popular musicals, each Production Company is allowed the creative freedom to choose their contribution. Instead of the typical live singing the artists are used to, they're provided with intimate studios that allow for vocal and instrumental isolations. This makes the album unique from the majority of cast albums on the market, and showcases some of the best voices and instrumentalists in the world.
BroadwayWorld was in the recording studio with Mars Rucker of A Strange Loop as they laid down their vocal track of the song "Misty". Originally written by Erroll Garner and Johnny Burker it has been given an updated version for the holiday season with a new arrangement by Ben Cohn who also was the Music Director.
Check out exclusive photos from the sessions below!
You can purchase "Broadway's Carols for a Cure" at most all Broadway musicals during the BC/EFA Red Bucket Drive and will be available for online purchase at www.broadwaycares.org. Previous volumes are also available for purchase there and at www.itunes.com.
Mars Rucker
Mars Rucker and Ben Cohn
Andros Rodriguez (Engineer)
Ben Cohn, Mars Rucker, Lynn Pinto (Producer) and Andros Rodriguez
Jessica Wang (Cello)
Una Tone (Violin)
Lynn Pinto, Jason Mellow, Una Tone, Ben Cohn, Jessica Wang, Jacelin Pan and Andros Rodriguez
Allister joins with Lynn Pinto, Jason Mellow, Una Tone, Ben Cohn, Jessica Wang, Jacelin Pan and Andros Rodriguez
Steve Kenyon
Buy Tickets to A Strange Loop - from: $61.50
Jackson Steps in as Usher in A STRANGE LOOP Due to Cast Illnesses
Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of A STRANGE LOOP Michael R. Jackson played the role of Usher in yesterday's matinee and evening performances of the show at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway.
Video: Ryan Reynolds Joins 5 QUESTIONS WITH JAMES AND JAM
Watch Ryan Reynolds join A Strange Loop's James Jackson, Jr. and John-Andrew Morrison for the latest episode of the Broadway stars' podcast 5 Questions with James and JAM.
Listen: John Andrew Morrison Chats With BROADWAY'S BACKBONE
BroadwayWorld is excited to bring you new episodes of Broadway's Backbone- a podcast dedicated to the men and woman of the ensemble: the chorus of dancers, singers, and actors that are the foundation of every Broadway musical. These often-unsung gypsies are the hardest working people on the boards and are Broadway's backbone.
Video: DRAG RACE Stars Pay Tribute to A STRANGE LOOP With Medley
Watch A Strange Loop Medley, produced by Michael Korte and Bryson Camper, starring Bob The Drag Queen, Kornbread, Anania Williams, Kyle Freeman and Elyn.
From This Author - Genevieve Rafter Keddy
Photos: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Celebrates 35 Years on Broadway
The Phantom of the Opera celebrated 35 years on Broadway last night, January 26, at the Majestic Theatre. The production opened on January 26, 1988. BroadwayWorld was there to capture some special moments from the big night, including members of the creative team, the cast's curtain call, and more!
Photos: DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS Opens at The John W. Engeman Theater
The John W. Engeman Theater's production of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS opened on Saturday, January 21st and BroadwayWorld was there for the festivities. Performances run through Sunday, March 5, 2023.
Photos: Go Inside ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE with NY POPS and Ingrid Michaelson
On Friday, December 16, Judith Clurman's Essential Voices USA joined Ingrid Michaelson and the Pops for Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, a night of classic carols and modern favorites from the holiday season. Check out our photos here!
Photos: Mark William Returns to The Green Room 42 in TECHNICOLOR DREAMS
Mark William returned to The Green Room 42 on Saturday, December 10th at 7 pm with a new show titled TECHNICOLOR DREAMS. Check out our photos here!
Photos: THE AMERICAN THEATRE AS SEEN BY HIRSCHFELD Book and Exhibition Launch
On December 6, there was a celebration of The American Theatre As Seen By Hirschfeld, the title of both the new book and the inaugural exhibition at The Museum of Broadway. The Al Hirschfeld foundation hosted a cocktail reception celebrating the new book at The Algonquin before offering a private tour of the new exhibition at the museum. Check out photos here! |
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Japan's Seven-Stars Trains Are Like an Inland Luxury Cruise
Andrew Tarantola
Filed to: Monster MachinesFiled to: Monster Machines
Monster Machines
Beginning in October, travelers in Japan's Kyushu region will be able to tour the countryside in a state of opulence not seen since the days of the Orient Express aboard the new Seven Stars super-luxury rail car.
Designed by Eiji Mitooka and operated by JR Kyushu, the Seven Stars—named after both the island's seven prefectures and the train's seven component cars—is the first such expedition train to shuttle passengers among Kyushu's numerous tourist attractions.
The Seven Stars will be pulled along at a top speed of 70 mph by a modified JR Freight Class DF200 3,400 HP diesel-electric hybrid locomotive. The subsequent seven coaches—five sleeping cars, a lounge car replete with piano and bar, and a dining car—can host up to 28 passengers per trip. Additionally, the caboose will feature a pair of deluxe suites and a glass wall observation area.
In all, the Seven Stars has cost over 3 billion yen to design and build. It was totally worth it. As the Asahi Shimbun explains,
The locomotive is painted in a reddish "ancient lacquer" color, which is well polished and mirrors the surrounding scenery.
Walls and the floor of the guest rooms in the third train car, which were shown to reporters, are mainly wooden. Hinoki cypress wood is used in the shower room, giving an aromatic experience.
A washbowl was made by the eminent Arita pottery master Sakaida Kakiemon XIV of Saga Prefecture, shortly before his death in June 2013. Luxurious furniture includes pieces made by craftsmen based in Okawa, Fukuoka Prefecture.
For this level of pampering, yes, you are going to pay through the nose. Booking passage on the weekly 2 day/1 night or 4 day/3 night voyage will cost upwards of $5,500 per person. And that's assuming you can even get a ticket. The train has yet to transport a single passenger but the cruises have sold out through June of next year. Ticket sales will resume again in January, which should be just long enough for you to scratch together the exorbitant ticket fees. [JR Kyushu via Luxury Launches - Wikipedia ]
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With its superb beaches, picturesque mountains and friendly people, Corfu has long been a favourite of British travellers. Although the island is no stranger to mass tourism, it also has some exquisite unspoilt corners, where our properties are located.
We have a select programme of villas in Corfu, all in prized locations with private pools.
Some are in the north west of the island, within easy walking distance of local beaches and tavernas. We also have a selection of properties in the south west near Halikouna lake. |
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View: Let's restart our engines and accelerate Miami's tech-hub potential
Today's guest post is by an entrepreneur, investor and attorney with deep experience with startups and technology in Latin American, Silicon Valley and Miami. Here is his view on what it will take to develop a world-class tech hub in South Florida. What do you think?
By Juan Pablo Cappello
Few places on Earth invoke the kind of economic envy that Northern California's Silicon Valley does. So much so, that hopes of being the "next Silicon Valley" have spawned scores of wannabes worldwide such as Silicon Oasis (Dubai), Silicon Cape (Cape Town) and Silicon Sloboda (Moscow). In the U.S., "Silicon Beach" is coveted by five cities, among them Miami.
Obviously, all these places share the same ambition: to attain the lucrative concentration of fresh talent, disruptive ideas and venture capital that has driven Silicon Valley's technological innovation and financial success over the past 50 years. The problem is that there's only one, and will always will be only one, Silicon Valley.
Should places like South Florida, with the means to foster technological innovation locally, abandon their ambitions? In a word, no. Some, like Israel's Silicon Wadi, have gone beyond pretension: The Economist ranked it second in the world to Silicon Valley in the concentration of home-grown, high-tech companies, with U.S.-based global firms such as IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Cisco and others having research facilities there.
Did Silicon Wadi happen overnight? No, it took about 40 years, with roots established even earlier than that. Did the Israeli government help? Yes, with low-interest loans and substantial grants, many notably from Israel's military. Was academia involved? Indeed, Israel's Technion – Israel Institute of Technology – and its Weizmann Institute of Science are ranked among the world's top 20 academic institutions in computer science. Venture capital? Yes, that helped accelerate the region's success, too.
In the late '90s, Latin American entrepreneurs flocked to Miami, considered the Americas' crossroads. The Lincoln Road promenade teemed with Latin notables, such as StarMedia Network, Yupi.com, Patagon.com, DeRemate, Viajo.com, eritmo.com and El Sitio, while others, like Zona Financiera and Telefonica de Espana's Terra Networks were nearby. Although South Florida wasn't a tech hotbed then any more than now, IBM's Boca Raton campus was where the PC was born and still employed more than 10,000 people. Fort Lauderdale's Citrix Systems went public in 1995 and ended the decade with more than 1,000 employees. In 2001, the Terremark NAP (Network Access Point), which carries nearly all of Latin America's Internet traffic to and from 148 countries, opened in downtown Miami.
So what happened to Miami's Silicon Beach community when it seemed to be percolating so nicely as we entered the 21st century?
We became complacent. We took the sprouts of innovation for granted rather than cultivating them. Then came the great dot.com bust of 2000, which tightened the reins on venture capital for years. The Great Recession of 2008-2011, needless to say, was the near knock-out blow.
In my conversations with Latin-based startups over the past several years, I've found that, sadly, almost none have expressed interest in a regional headquarters in Miami. Today's successful Latin American technology companies look to Sao Paulo, Brazil, as the launching point for a regional expansion strategy. And they're much more likely to open an office in Palo Alto than in Miami as a next step.
Let's restart our engines.
We have to accept that getting Miami's technology community back on track will be a long-term project, but we can accelerate it. Five key requisites are needed that can help spur the realization of Silicon Beach's potential more quickly:
1. Leadership. Regional leaders need to agree on a vision of Miami as a thriving, world-class technology hub, and then establish specific goals, objectives and milestones to get us there.
Leaders must include: representatives of municipal governments across South Florida; members of local universities and colleges, especially those involved in The Launch Pad at the University of Miami and the Americas Venture Capital Conference at Florida International University; C-level executives from existing regional technology firms and other companies that would benefit from a technology metropolis; representatives from private sector technology accelerators, such as Incubate Miami and the Enterprise Development Corporation in Boca Raton; local foundations that have innovation as part of their mandate such as Endeavor and the Knight Foundation; and members of the South Florida financial community, including venture capitalists focused on funding Latin American innovations, such as members of the Latin American Venture Capital Association.
2. Coordination. Organizing these leaders and distilling their combined know-how, creativity and discipline requires a dynamic, well-qualified individual or group of individuals in the pilothouse. A management office must be established, and an actionable agenda executed with appropriate follow-up.
3. Funding. The effort needs a capital foundation from both the public and private sectors to provide seed capital for startups and operational funds for coordinating and executing the plan. With the cost of the new Marlins stadium exceeding $600 million, surely we can raise at least that much to support the creation of an economic development effort for the new millennium.
4. Positioning. Funding will also support development of the proper positioning of Miami and South Florida as a place where new ventures are welcome — to succeed and, occasionally, to fail. Miami's role as the Americas' crossroads should be re-emphasized.
5. Marketing. With 70 percent of its population Hispanic, Miami should encourage startups to redouble marketing efforts aimed at the 53 million Hispanics in the U.S., a demographic estimated to have $1 trillion in buying power in 2010.
Worrying about being the "next Silicon Valley" — much less yet another "Silicon Beach" — is pointless and will not help Miami realize its potential as a bastion of technological innovation. Rather, a larger regional economic development plan is needed, one that recognizes innovation and collaboration as core engines of growth and job creation. The benefits will be many, not least the diversification of our economy, with technology supplementing the often cyclical service and construction sectors to create a more balanced, dependable economy.
Juan Pablo Cappello, partner in Patagon.com, co-founder of Idea.me and Sauber Energy, and practicing attorney, was named a 2012 "Top 50 Entrepreneur" by Business Leader magazine.
(Photo above shows Juan Pablo Cappello with some of his investments.)
Posted by Nancy Dahlberg 08/04/2012 at 08:21 AM in Funding, Guest Posts, International, Marketing, Small Business, Start-Ups, Technology, Views | Permalink |
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," croons Janis Joplin in Me and Bobby McGee, the song that plays over The Leisure Seeker's closing credits. The line is such a neat summation of the film's spirit, it should really be painted on the back bumper of the Leisure Seeker itself – the vintage motorhome that dauntlessly chugs its way from suburban Massachusetts to the Florida Keys with old marrieds Ella (Helen Mirren) and John (Donald Sutherland) Spencer on board.
This first English-language film from the Italian director Paolo Virzì is an impeccably acted, teary-funny comedy about an ageing couple coming to terms with the fact that their days of living independently are numbered. John is slipping further into the fog of Alzheimer's with every passing week, while Ella is awaiting some kind of hospital treatment, the exact nature of which is suggested by her closely cropped and wispy silver hair, which she covers with a bobbed chestnut wig.
But rather than go along with their adult children's plans – Christian McKay and Janel Moloney play the half-helpful, half-meddlesome offspring – the Spencers treat themselves to one last driving holiday together: a pilgrimage to the house in Key West occupied by Ernest Hemingway during nine of his most creatively fruitful years. John, a former English teacher, recites Hemingway like Buddhist sutras – or perhaps as a kind of mental yoga designed to keep his memory as supple as his worsening condition allows.
A Canadian and an Englishwoman, Sutherland and Mirren both bring an outsiders' eye to a film that's fizzily curious about the state of America right now, and that goes double for Virzì, who shoots the film like a tourist on a cross-country trip. The first voice we hear in the film is Donald Trump's, thanks to audio from a 2016 campaign speech ("It is time to show the whole world that America is back!") that intermingles with Carole King's It's Too Late on a car radio, with unexpectedly bracing pathos.
The film doesn't labour its place in history, but a sense of that history ticks away throughout under the surface – such as the regular, unspoken acknowledgements that much of the United States's working-class bedrock is now predominantly non-white.
John, on the other hand, is in a class of his own. His grand white beard and tufty hair make him either distinguished or dishevelled depending on the angle you catch him at: he almost looks as if someone has been keeping him rolled up under the bed, like an antique rug. Sutherland's ability to radiate dignity even as his character is losing himself in the depths of dementia is instrumental in making us ache for the younger, sharper man the film doesn't show us, but whom we nevertheless sense we once knew.
Meanwhile, Mirren brilliantly shows us Ella wrestling with her heartbreaking transition from spouse to carer – we watch her move from amusement to exasperation and back again, often within the span of a sentence. Crucially, the film doesn't just have John forget things in funny ways. It's bluntly honest about the cruelty of his condition – the irritability, the delusions, the incontinence – and finds a rough-edged humour in that frankness.
There is a terrific scene at an open-air museum in which the Spencers bump into one of John's ex-pupils, now a mother of two herself. Ella starts to make excuses for her husband, but then he launches unexpectedly into a detailed remembrance of the younger woman's schooldays. The three-way dynamic is grippingly tricky: John revelling in a rare lucid memory, Ella wounded and prickling that she isn't a part of it, and the younger woman smiling yet sensing something's not right.
The canon of Alzheimer's films doesn't want for performances full of compassion and fine-grained observation, from Iris all the way to Still Alice. But as their faded Winnebago wends its way towards the coast, Ella and John show there's room for two more.
This entry was posted on July 9, 2018 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Life the Universe and Other Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. |
LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ky (WSAZ) -- UPDATE 12/27/18 @ 7:09 a.m.
A family is mourning the loss of three loved ones killed in a crash on Christmas Eve.
On Monday, investigators say Edwina "Lynn" Wilson, 49, Brenda Charles, 66, and Sarah Wilson, 12 were killed after their vehicle was struck by a tractor trailer U.S. 23 in Louisa.
The crash happened near the AEP plant.
Wayne Williamson says his family is devastated by the loss.
"To lose one family member is hard but to lose three at one time," Williamson said. "We woke up Monday morning not knowing that Monday night we was going to be so heartbroken."
Williamson says the three were on their way to a Christmas Eve dinner at a family member's house when the crash happened.
Williamson describes his 12-year-old cousin, Sarah, as a sweetheart.
"She just started life," Williamson said.
Sarah was in 6th grade at Louisa Middle School.
Williamson says his cousin, Lynn, was like a sister.
"She carried a smile on her face all the time," Williamson said.
He says his aunt, Brenda, was a second mother to him and helped raise him as a child.
"I'm a firm believer that God has a plan," Williamson said.
All services will be held at Louisa Church of God.
Visitation for the public will be held Friday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The funeral will be held Sunday at 11 a.m.
The victims names have been released in the deadly crash that took 3 people's lives on Christmas Eve.
On Monday, investigators say Edwina "Lynn" Wilson, 49, Brenda Charles, 66, and Sarah Wilson, 12 were killed after their vehicle was struck by a tractor trailer.
The crash happened on U.S. 23 near the AEP plant.
No charges are have been filed against the tractor trailer driver.
UPDATE 12/24/18 @ 6:05 p.m.
A crash involving a semi has left 3 people dead Monday.
2 adults and a child were killed in Louisa after their vehicle collided with a semi truck.
The crash happened around 3:00 p.m. in front of the AEP power plant.
State Police say the vehicle tried to make a left hand turn when a semi struck it.
Investigators say all 3 had seat belts on.
UPDATE 12/24/18 @ 5:10 p.m.
One lane in both directions on U.S. 23 are back open following a crash fatal crash.
The crash happened in Louisa.
Officials have not released the name of the deceased at this time.
Keep checking WSAZ.com and the WSAZ app for any updates.
A fatal accident has closed a portion of U.S. 23.
The accident happened in front of the AEP power plant in Louisa.
Both directions of the roadway are closed Monday afternoon.
The name of the deceased has not been released at this time.
Officials are advising drivers to use U.S. 52 until the accident has been cleared. |
Chris Brown has fished out of Point Judith, Rhode Island for 38 years. A tireless industry and resource advocate, he is president of the Rhode Island Commercial Fisherman's Association and The East Farm Commercial Fisheries Center. Chris advises the New England Fishery Management Council, serves on the executive board of the North East Seafood Coalition, and is the founder and executive director of the Rhode Island Fluke Conservation Cooperative. Chris and his wife Maryellen have 3 grown children: Maggie, Christopher Jr. and Samuel.
Jack Cox has been involved in commercial fishing, charter fishing and seafood sales for two decades, and is the owner of Crystal Coast Fisheries in Morehead City, North Carolina. Currently, he is a board member for the South Atlantic Fishermen's Association. Jack's leadership in fisheries management spans many years, and includes serving on the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission and the South Atlantic Council's Limited Access Privilege Program Workgroup.
Bob Dooley has been with the Harvesters since its inception, first as a founding member in his role as president of United Catcher Boats, then as an associate member following his retirement. A lifelong fisherman who began his career at age eleven aboard his uncle's salmon troller out of Half Moon Bay, CA, Bob was active for decades in the Alaska pollock fishery. A 2017 recipient of National Fisherman Magazine's Highliner of the Year Award, which recognizes men and women who give back to the fishing industry. Bob is also a member of the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Keith "Buddy" Guindon has worked in the fishing industry for over three decades. As the owner, of Katie's Seafood in Galveston, Texas, he has worked as both a fishermen and a fish house owner-operator. Buddy is a founding board member of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders' Alliance and has experience working on both the state and federal levels to assist in the implementation of IFQ's in the red snapper fishery. Buddy was the face of National Geographic's "I am the Ocean" Campaign. He educates the entire industry on how and why sustainable fishing practices can best secure the future of Gulf fisheries, and has testified before Congress on those fishing practices.
Brent Paine has been the executive director of United Catcher Boats since its inception in January 1994. United Catcher Boats (UCB) is a vessel owner trade association whose members participate in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, Gulf of Alaska and West Coast catcher vessel trawl fisheries. On behalf of UCB, Brent was actively involved in the development of the American Fisheries Act when Congress created it in the late 1990s. Prior to his work with UCB, Brent was on the staff of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for three years serving as the Bering Sea plan coordinator. Brent received his M.S. of Fisheries Management from Oregon State University and his undergraduate degree at St. Olaf College.
Edward Poulsen is a part-owner in two Bering Sea/Aleutian Island crab fishing vessels, the F/V Aleutian No.1 and the F/V Patricia Lee. He received his B.A. in Business and a Masters in Marine Affairs, both from the University of Washington. Edward grew up in the crab fishing industry, living in Dutch Harbor for a time, while his father pioneered the fishery. He has participated in numerous fisheries including salmon processing, salmon gillnetting, crayfish fishing, cod fishing, crab fishing, vessel ownership and vessel management. Edward helped to found the trade group, Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, representing 70% of the Bering Sea crab harvesters and was its first Executive Director and is currently its outgoing President.
Rebecca Skinner is executive director of the Alaska Whitefish Trawlers Association (AWTA), based in Kodiak, AK, where she was born and raised. She has a BA from Dartmouth College, JD and Master of Studies in Environmental Law degrees from Vermont Law School, and an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan Flagler Business School. In addition to her work with AWTA and the Harvesters, Rebecca is extremely active in her community as a member of the Sun'aq Tribe, of Kodiak, Vice Chair of the Kodiak Aleutians Regional Advisory Council to the Federal Subsistence Board, and a member of the Kodiak Borough Assembly.
Brett Veerhusen is a lifelong Alaskan commercial fisherman and serves as an alternate board member for North Pacific Fisheries Association in Homer, Alaska. Today, Brett helps his family fishing business in Dutch Harbor harvesting bait herring for fishermen across the state of Alaska. Formerly Brett owned and operated a vessel in Bristol Bay. He is the Principal for Ocean Strategies, Inc., a public affairs firm specializing in the maritime and seafood industries. In this capacity, he serves clients across the industry who intersect with policy. Clients include Businesses for Bristol Bay, United Fishermen of Alaska and Northline Seafoods. Brett was also the first Executive Director for Seafood Harvesters of America. He holds a Masters of Marine Affairs from the University of Washington and Bachelor degrees from University of Puget Sound. He splits his time between Seattle and Alaska.
William Ward has served the Gulf Fishermen's Association as both a board member and as its Director of Government Relations for over a decade. He is a Coast Guard-licensed Master Captain; President and CEO of Captain's Finest Seafood; and owner of both Ward Consulting Partners LLC, as well as the William Ward Law Group, PLLC.
Will has served on numerous state and federal natural resources advisory panels, as well as on advisory committees of the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council. His consulting clients include the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and the Florida Institute of Oceanography.
Named Florida Businessman of the Year in 2001 and 2004, Will holds a law degree from Barry University School of Law and a bachelor of science in accounting from the University of South Florida. |
Vintage marble rosary pieces from Ireland, shell beads, 2 sterling silver spoons and between beautiful metal and glass piece which resembles a door to me, vintage rhinestone, oxidized sterling silver hook and wire, vintage french medal. Length 20". As always OOAK. |
Study shows people in deprived areas benefit most from museum visits
By Adrian Murphy
A report published on the British Medical Journal's Open site has identified that the relationships between engagement in community cultural assets – such as visiting a museum or heritage site – and wellbeing were stronger in more deprived areas.
The evidence is based on a three-year study that questioned 14, 783 people from the UK's adult population. The three authors from the Department of Behavioural Science and Health and Department of Geography at University College London, say this is one of the first large, population-based studies to investigate whether the association between community cultural engagement (CCE) and mental wellbeing varies with local deprivation.
They acknowledged that the association between CCE and mental health and wellbeing has long been established but they had focused on neighbourhood depravation.
Growth in mental health
"We found that the rates of growth in mental health functioning that accompany CCE are stronger among people living in deprived areas and that the rates of decline in mental distress that accompany cultural events attendance are also more prominent among those living in deprived areas," they said.
"This suggests that individuals who live in highly deprived areas may benefit the most from CCE in terms of mental wellbeing improvements."
This gives decision-makers an important insight as it suggests individuals living in deprived areas, when offered the opportunities to engaging in CCE, could potentially experience greater improvements in mental wellbeing than those living in wealthy areas 'who have already been able to benefit from higher levels of engagement'.
"In addition, the differences in mental well-being between people living in varying levels of deprivation become somewhat smaller as CCE increases."
Clear implications
The authors say that these results have clear implications for the future design and roll-out of place-based programmes for CCE. Investing in areas of high deprivation and low cultural opportunity they say could improve wellbeing levels.
Schemes such as the Arts Council England-funded 'Creative People and Places' initiative is sighted as a good example of increasing well-being in deprived areas.
The report says that people living in deprived areas are less likely to engage in CCE not simply because of their personal background and characteristics (eg, lower educational attainment and occupational position), "but because of the areas they reside in offer less cultural opportunities (eg, unsafe, culturally deprived and undesirable)."
About the author – Adrian Murphy
Adrian is the Editor of MuseumNext and has 20 years' experience as a journalist, half of which has been writing for the cultural sector.
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March 20, 2017 by Narmadhaa
When the world first saw the tiny man running around in the valley and jumping over mushrooms, no one would've thought he'd be doing the same almost three decades later. And yet, he does. Super Mario has become one of the most popular games ever to be played. So it's only fair that we keep tabs of what's happening in the Mario world. Like we reported a while ago, Mario came to iPhones and iPads in December, earning Nintendo a whopping $50 million so far. And now, Super Mario Run is coming to Android as well.
Super Mario Run for Android
Reports have begun to come in that Super Mario Run for Android will launch on the 23rd of March 2017. And just like in the iOS version, you can start playing the game for free, but will have to pay as you delve deeper.
Filed Under: Android Tagged With: android, android games, free android games, mario, super mario, super mario run
Here's How You Can Get the Best of Pixel, Without Getting the Pixel |
Q: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'connected' (T_STRING) in C:\xampp\htdocs\koneksi\update.php on line 5 I got Error like this [Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'connected' (T_STRING) in C:\xampp\htdocs\koneksi\update.php on line 5]
<?php
if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHODE']=='POST){
include('connected.php');
$room=$_POST['NoRoom'];
$status=$_POST['RoomStatus'];
$Sql_Query="UPDATE cfg_init_room SET number='$room, status_code='$status';
if (mysqli_query($con,$SQl_Query));
{
echo 'Status Updated';
}else{
echo'Gagal Update Status';
}
}mysqli_close($con);
?>
A: On this line if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHODE']=='POST){ there is a missing ' after POST.
Make that line if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHODE']=='POST'){ and it should work.
On most IDEs you will see a shift in text color between strings and functions, just like here on SO.
That is a telling sign you forgot to close a string.
Edit: now that I look at your code more closely it seems you have another string problem.
At the end in the if else your strings are correct. They shouldn't.
So that means there is another problem with your strings, probably in $sql_query line.
|
art supplies, lots of books and creams from Boots The Chemist. – teamgloria, inc.
art supplies, lots of books and creams from Boots The Chemist.
Posted on August 20, 2011 by teamgloria in things.
less than three weeks to go now.
now we just need to stock up on our supply of liquid eyeliner and replenish the travel-sized atomizer of Chanel No. 5 and slip on our satin robe and we're ready, darlings.
Next Post dining with dandies. |
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During the last three dats, I began receiving Windows bit Driver Power State Failure Errors, which were accompanied by a system crash. I found the DMP files. The Driver Power State Failure error has been plaguing Windows 10, , 8 and 7 users for years now. It's time to offer you a solution that will fix it. 1 Oct Hello everyone, in this quick and easy tutorial i'll teach you how to fix the Blue Screen error 'Driver_Power_State_Failure'. No downloads or.
Driver Power State Failure on Windows - posted in Windows 8 and Windows Hi guys, my name is Filippo. I am experiencing a severe problem with my laptop, a. Dec 26, · Driver Power State Failure - Windows 8 Pro bit Hi I need your help. Driver Power State Failure on Windows -. 27 Oct The Driver Power State Failure error has been plaguing Windows 10, , Failure Windows 10 Toshiba, HP, Dell, Acer, Alienware, Samsung.
15 Apr Driver Power State Failure" is an error that is displayed in Blue Screen of Once Windows 8 computer is started in safe mode, the problematic.generally a driver power state failure is caused because a device driver was told If it still has problems start windows control panel go to device manager, find What I found on both Win and 10, like you, simply restarting.
24 Oct You may encounter driver power state failure error (also known as Windows , Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP.17 Oct Error: Driver Power State Failure on Windows Cause: Corrupted drivers 2 Methods: 1. Uninstall the drivers with a problem 2. Update the.
15 Sep Q: Drive Power State Failure Windows Bit. Hi guys This bug check indicates that the driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state. 22 Mar The Driver Power State Failure Blue Screen of Death occurs when your PC goes into I went from a Dell to a Samsung and lasted on the new laptop for about 6 . I have a Toshiba Satellite CA-1JQ running Windows The article contains several methods to fix the Driver Power State Failure BSoD issue on Windows 10 & Windows /8 OS. (Driver Power State Failure FIX).
How Do I Fix a Driver Power State Failure in Windows 8?"Driver Power State Failure" is an error that is displayed in Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). This error is mostly.Jul 04, · Windows 8 Power_Driver_State_Failure message. and resources about Windows 8 and Windows The DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE bug check has a value.
Fix Driver Power State Failure on Windows. Sometimes, we may meet such situations: "My computer always gets stuck after playing games for a while.Oct 01, · Video embedded · Hello everyone, in this quick and easy tutorial i'll teach you how to fix the Blue Screen error 'Driver_Power_State_Failure'. No downloads or.
Error: Driver Power State Failure on Windows Cause: Corrupted drivers 2 Methods: 1. Uninstall the drivers with a problem 2. Update the drivers. Fixes a problem that occurs when power management is disabled in Windows in DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE on Windows in DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE. |
import protoc
from pprint import pprint
rtn = protoc.compile()
pprint(rtn) |
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Global Wars and Change in the Twentieth Century
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Global Wars and Change in the Twentieth Century Assignment
There are two sections in this assignment. You are required to answer a question from each section. You can select either Question #1A or #1B from Section A and then proceed to follow the directions in Section B. You must give equal attention to both sections.You cannot use any sources such as wikipedia, about.com, sparknotes etc. You are required to use the course content and any other approved sources (see below).
A valid bibliography should be included at the end of your post. Please provide examples in every paragraph to support your answer. Avoid block quotes. Make sure that you edit your work for grammar.
Global Wars and Change in the Twentieth Century SECTION A
Based on your knowledge in this course so far, what lessons do you think the world should learn from:
the two global wars of the twentieth century OR
There is no right or wrong answer here, but your opinion must be supported by evidence. You should use dates, specific names of people and places, and discuss the relevant facts to back up your assessment.
Your answer must specify what these lessons are (or if lessons could not be learned at all) and which groups, persons, or nations these lessons should be applied to. Remember you must provide specific examples and analyses with evidence to support your answer.
Global Wars and Change in the Twentieth Century SECTION B
Select 3 appropriate countries from the list provided to answer either Question #1 or Question #2 below.
Countries (Select 3)
United States Russia China
Germany Italy Vietnam
Korea France Britain
Guatemala Cuba Japan
Spain Algeria South Africa
QUESTIONS (Answer all of number 1 OR all of number 2).
A. How did a country you selected above become communist?
Discuss the rise of Fascism in your second selected country.
Describe the Cold War in your third country option.
A. What role did foreign intervention play in the communist revolution which took place in a country you selected?
Explain the foreign influences which gave rise to the fascist government in a second country you selected.
How did the leader(s) of a third country you selected respond to the Cold War?
Unit 7: Global Wars and Change in the Twentieth Century
In June 2014, many countries around the world participated in ceremonies marking the centenary of World War I, (June 1914-1918). These events were covered by various news media in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. Here is how the New York Times opened one of its tributes:
The war destroyed kings, kaisers, czars and sultans; it demolished empires; it introduced chemical weapons, tanks and airborne bombing; it brought millions of women into the work force, hastening their legal right to vote. It gave independence to nations like Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries and created new nations in the Middle East with often arbitrary borders; it brought about major cultural changes, including a new understanding of the psychology of war, of "shell shock" and post-traumatic stress.
It also featured the initial step of the United States as a global power.[1]
In this unit, we shall examine many events in the twentieth century including why this war was considered the First World War, the search for an elusive peace that followed in its aftermath, the birth of Communism, Great Depression, Fascism and World War II. Finally this unit will explore how the war changed the relationship between imperial powers and their colonies, and the emergence of superpowers in what became known as the Cold War.
[1] Steven Erlanger, The Great War, NY Times, June 26, 2014.
The reputation and dominance enjoyed by countries in Western Europe as a result of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions continued unabated especially as these countries controlled most regions of Africa, Asia and parts of the Americas. But this sense of superiority which supported European hegemony was confronted with a sudden but brutal reality in a war which left more than 10 million people dead. The consequence of such carnage and devastation wrought irreparable damage to the image of a civilized Europe. After witnessing this, many colonies fought to break free from European domination. Even within Europe itself, the traditional hierarchies of power were changed.
Please examine John Green's Crash Course videos on World War I.
· Watch Crash Course World History Video # HOW World War I Started: Crash Course World History 209
https://youtu.be/Cd2ch4XV84s
Watch Crash Course World History Video #Who Started World War I: Crash Course World History 210
https://youtu.be/_pFCpKtwCkI
QUESTIONS TO GUIDE YOUR VIEWING:
Why did the world fight a war from 1914-1918?
In what ways did World War I change our understanding of war?
What were the consequences of the war?
Unit 7: Global Wars & Change in the 20th Century
Causes of World War I
The causes of World War I are very complex, and in this unit, in addition to those discussed by John Green in the videos, we shall attempt to cover some of them here. Vladimir Lenin (the leader of Communist Russia) argued in his book Imperialism: The Last Stage of Capitalism that imperialism was the final stage of capitalism after mercantile capitalism, industrial capitalism and finance capitalism. According to Lenin, war was inevitable, and World War I was a direct result of imperialism. He concluded that there were inherent defects to capitalism which is why he advocated for communism. Many historians generally do not subscribe to the inevitability view in history, but there are other weaknesses to this argument.
Napoleon Bonaparte's attempt to export the French Revolution resulted in his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, but this event also marked the beginning of a new European effort to maintain peace through a system of the balance of power. The approach was intended to prevent any one nation from becoming too powerful by forming alliances to protect each other's interests. This alliance systemis directly related to the emergence of Germany as a unified nation in the 1870s under Otto Von Bismarck. After achieving his greatest goal of a German-speaking nation, Bismarck needed to secure Germany from outside invasion especially from those he had defeated in the process of creating a unified Germany. These included France in 1871 and Austria-Hungary in 1866 (which ironically was also a German-speaking nation). Bismarck accomplished this by creating alliances and new friends. Unfortunately, Britain could not become a German ally at this time because Britain was enjoying a period of "splendid isolation," which implied that they did not want to be drawn into continental European politics or war. Germany, therefore, turned to Russia and Austria-Hungary in 1873, and created what was called the "Three Emperors League." By 1878, Russia backed out of this alliance leaving only Germany and Austria-Hungary. Bismarck then settled for a "Dual Alliance" where they both promised to come to each other's side if they were attacked by Russia. This pact remained in place until 1914 when Austria-Hungary invoked it to get German support in the outbreak of World War I. This system of alliances ultimately resulted in the two opposing camps known as the Triple Entente versus the Triple Alliance. France, Great Britain and Russia made up the Triple Entente (the U.S. joined them in 1917) while Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy were in the Triple Alliance. But Italy secretly negotiated a treaty with France which stipulated that Italy will remain neutral in the event of a German attack on France. When World War I eventually broke out in 1914 Italy claimed that Germany was the aggressor and thus invoked its secret treaty to stay neutral until 1915 when it joined the war as an ally of Russia, Britain and France.
Germany and Italy, which did not exist as unified countries before the 1860s, destabilized the European balance of power when they emerged on the scene. Germany in particular was seen as a major threat to the French and the British because of the sheer size of the new country and their appetite to acquire colonies in Africa and Asia by challenging the old countries of Europe. Britain had the largest economy and the most powerful navy in Europe until the creation of Germany. Not only was Germany comparatively bigger, but its economy threatened the traditional dominance of the British. Even in the sphere of colonies for example, Germany challenged the British and ultimately gained possession of Cameroon in West Central Africa, they also threatened the French over Morocco. These actions by Germany caused the British to break out from their "splendid isolation" into action. Britain signed a military alliance with Japan to prevent Germany from gaining any colonies in the east. Japan became a suitable choice for a military alliance in Asia because of their surprise defeat of the Russians in the Russo-Japanese Warin 1904-1905. Furthermore, by 1906 Britain commissioned and successfully built the world's fastest and most weaponized battleship known as HMS Dreadnought. This new battleship almost made the German navy obsolete. This provoked an arms race as the German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered the construction of an equivalent battleship. By the time war started in 1914, Britain could order into battle 49 battleships while Germany could muster 29. Some scholars have argued that the arms race brought Britain into the European alliance system and the world closer to war.
In Europe, the Ottoman Empire was undergoing a breakup which caused Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary to all position themselves to pick up land from the disintegrating empire. The Russian Empire had many reasons for supporting Serbia. Russia had been humiliated by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War and the country needed to divert attention from its domestic problems. There was also a need to gain access to the Mediterranean Sea as the Ottoman Empire splintered since Russia had in the previous centuries mostly expanded towards the Pacific. But the Serbs, who were mostly Slavs, were also Orthodox Christians. Russia, as a predominantly Orthodox Christian nation, saw itself as protecting a nation whose brand of Christianity differed from many in the west. For these reasons, Russia pledged total support for Serbian nationalism and independence from the Ottoman Empire.
But the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted absolute control of Serbia and the other Slavic peoples in that area (known as the Balkan region). Austria-Hungary had annexed some of the Balkan region in 1908 from the Ottoman Empire which angered Russia. This annexation also irritated the Serbs who were calling for the creation of a pan-Slavic nation. It should be noted that Bosnia-Herzegovina was made up of mainly 3 groups: Muslims, Croats – Roman Catholics and ethnic Serbs who were mostly Orthodox. Austria-Hungary, itself made up of many nationalities and ethnicities, was afraid that an independent Slavic nation would destabilize its own empire. Austria-Hungary and Russia were therefore on opposing camps towards Serbia and the region. In addition, since Germany had entered into an alliance with Austria-Hungary, this further complicated the scenario because Russia also had its alliance with France and Great Britain. The battle lines were drawn even before there was cause for war.
THE SPARK THAT IGNITED THE WAR
It was within this backdrop that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated on June 28, 1914. Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were visiting the tumultuous Balkan regional capital of Sarajevo on their wedding anniversary when they were slain by a Serbian nationalist and terrorist. This unfortunate incident could not have happened at a worse place as it ignited a war in an already tense region. Austria-Hungary gave Serbia an ultimatum which was followed by a declaration of war. Russia, as an ally of Serbia, declared war on Austria-Hungary. This situation automatically called into place the alliance system with Britain and France mobilizing their support behind Russia while Germany backed Austria-Hungary. The United States eventually entered the war in 1917 on the side of the British and French. A war which was started in Europe soon became globalized as European powers utilized both manpower and material supplies from their colonies in Africa, Asia and South America.
Though the alliance system was created to maintain a balance of power in Europe, it had instead precipitated an inevitable slide to war. Many countries in Europe did not expect the war to last for too long. Wives, girlfriends and parents sent their men off to war with the expectation that they would be back home for Christmas. The German emperor Wilhelm II is often quoted for promising his young soldiers in August 1914 that they would be back from the war "before the autumn leaves fall." However, many of the wartime generals in Europe did not share this view. They expected the war to last for more than a year, but no one expected nor were they prepared for what the world was about witness. Thus, World War I was dubbed as the "war to end all wars." The war dragged on until 1918 and stalemated on many fronts as these countries could not defeat each other in the battlefields. Romania and Greece joined Italy (which had switched) to the side of the Allied Powers with the hopes of gaining land from the Ottoman Empire. Even Japan declared war against Germany to honor its treaty obligation with Britain, but the Japanese used the war to gain control of German colonies in Asia. The Allies had support from their African and Asian colonies. About 800,000 Indian soldiers were sent to fight in Europe for the English while many Africans fought on the side of the French.
Planning and Fighting in World War I
World War I (1914-1918) matched the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire) in opposition to the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Italy and the United States). As a result of the advances of the industrial revolution, this war was fought unlike any other before it. Modern technology introduced during this war, such as poison gas, mechanized tanks that neutralized the trench warfare, and aircraft carriers, resulted in the death of more than 9 million soldiers. In this section we shall review the Western Front, Eastern Front, the campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, fighting at sea, negotiating an end to the war, and the impact of the war.
At the onset of the war, Germany was sandwiched between two enemies–Russia to the east and France to the west. But this was not unexpected because Germany had been at war with many countries before and had prepared plans for a possible war on two fronts. In the early 1900s Count Alfred von Schlieffen devised a strategy, which was later slightly modified, in which he envisioned the possibility of Germany facing a war on two fronts. Militarily and strategically this is not a tenable position, but it was based on the reality of the alliance system in which Russia and France were not part of the German network. The Schlieffen Plan was based on the fact that in 1904, Japan had crushed the Russian army. Therefore, in the event of a war on two fronts, the Germans believed the Russian army was weak and could need several weeks to be efficiently mobilized for fighting. For this reason the French army was considered a greater threat.
Schlieffen's plan took into account that the French were still bitter over their defeat by the Germans in 1870 when Bismarck was seizing territories to create a unified Germany. The French lost Alsace-Lorraine to Germany as a result of that defeat, and as such guarded their border with Germany closely. Schlieffen called for a small contingent of German soldiers to keep the French army busy at the German border while the main army crossed into France through Belgium – a neutral country. The French had not paid as much attention to this border with Belgium as they did with their German boundary. In addition, the French miscalculated by believing that Germany could never invade Belgium to get to France. The goal was to quickly defeat the French before turning to the war in the east with Russia where the Germans believed they would annihilate an unprepared and relatively weakened Russia.
This plan was almost a great success as the Germans invaded Belgium on August 4th, 1914 and succeeded in entering France. They were almost at the doorsteps of the French capital of Paris when an insurmountable counterattack by the Allied troops drove the Germans back into the outskirts of Paris. This retreat by the Germans implied that a critical part of the Schlieffen Plan had failed as France could not be defeated quickly enough. At this point both sides dug up trenchesput up a resistance which caused the Western Front to stalemate for more than three years. Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail?
The Russian army had rightfully anticipated that the German plan in the event of a war would be to attack France first before invading Russia. Based on this, the Russians in August of 1914 invaded German Poland and East Prussia. The Russians had some initial successes in the battlefields but the Germans put up a stiff resistance and even had to transfer some soldiers from the Western Front to fight in the east. The Russians mounted more offensives but with less success and more casualties. There was growing discontent in Russia over their strategy in the war and huge loss of Russian lives. These factors contributed in the collapse of the Russian monarchy, the Communist Revolution and Russian exit from the war in 1917. With the surrender of Russia, Germany could now concentrate and focus on the war in the Western Front.
Austria-Hungary was ill-prepared for war. Although they were gallantly successful over the Serbs, Russia made most of its victories in this war by defeating Austria-Hungary. This prompted the Germans to take over the Austrian army and to conduct the rest of the war in that region.
CAMPAIGNS AGAINST THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
When it became clear that movement in the war was difficult in both the Western and Eastern Fronts, the Allied soldiers led by Britain decided to invade the Ottoman Empire and the soft targets of the Central Powers to gain access of the sea route to Russia. The invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915 was an absolute blunder and disaster by the Allied Powers. More than 250,000 soldiers were killed, and by January 1916 they were forced to retreat. A combination of Australian and New Zealand armies with their British and French allies were not ready for the well prepared Turkish army who also had a better understanding of the geography of that region.
The Allied Powers also set their eyes on fighting against Austria in northern Italy as well as fighting the Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia. While they were successful in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Battle of Caporetto in 1917 proved to be tougher. Since the Germans had taken over the Austrian army, their reinforcements gave the Central Powers a much needed victory. It was only later in the war that with assistance from the Americans, the tide of the battle began to turn for the British and the French.
FIGHTING AT SEA
The United States initially attempted to stay neutral in this war, but public opinion was divided. Some Americans of British descent wanted the U.S. to enter the war on the part of the Allied Powers. The Irish and German Americans called for support of Germany. There were even more Americans who did not support either side and wanted to stay neutral believing that "it would be folly for the country to sacrifice itself to…the clash of ancient hatreds which is urging the Old World to destruction." Some African-Americans led by the labor leader A. Phillip Randolph did not believe that there was any benefit for African-Americans in the conflict among white nations.
Following its neutral stance, the U.S. wanted to continue trading with both sides of the war, but the British navy used its strength to effectively cut-off access to supplies and raw materials for the Central Powers by imposing a quarantine. Although they could no longer trade with the Central Powers, the administration of President Woodrow Wilson enjoyed an increase in trade with Allied Powers from $824 million to $3.2 billion in two years.
Under pressure from a declining access to trade and raw materials, the Germans resorted to their best technology–submarine warfare. On December 16, 1914 the German submarines outmaneuvered the British and successfully shelled some coastal towns in Britain. This success prompted the Germans to plan another subsequent attack but this time, the Germans were unaware that their radio traffic had been intercepted and decoded by the British. The German submarines were ambushed midway between Germany and Britain at sea in the infamous Battle of Dogger Bankin January 1915. After this defeat, Germany decided against confronting the British Royal Navy; instead they decided to use their U-boat strategy to sink commercial ships. This approach of torpedoing all vessels traveling to Britain is what ultimately turned the tide of public opinion in the U.S. in favor of intervention.
In April, 1915 German submarines sunk a British luxury ship known as the Lusitania. This resulted in the death of 1,198 people of which 128 were Americans. Despite the outcry the Germans continued to sink more vessels. President Wilson sought and Congress approved more than $1 billion to build up the American navy and army. Subsequently, German moves towards Mexico prompted the U.S. states to declare war against Germany in April 1917. With unrestrained German submarine attacks against U.S. trading interests, President Wilson broke off diplomatic relations in February 1917.
The immediate cause of the U.S. entry into World War I was the Zimmerman Telegram. German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman had sent a telegram to the ambassador in Mexico urging the Mexican government to join the war with the Central Powers. Furthermore, Zimmerman provided that should the U.S. get involved in the war, the Germans will provide assistance to the Mexicans to regain the lands they had lost (Texas, New Mexico and Arizona) in the war of 1846-1848. There were border tensions between the U.S. and Mexico at this time which saw attacks on the U.S. side by the Mexican insurgent leader Pancho Villa. The U.S. retaliated by sending General John Pershing to occupy parts of northern Mexico. This cross border tension between the two countries greatly influenced how the U.S. interpreted the Zimmerman Telegram. When President Wilson went before Congress to get war authorization against Germany, although the vote was not unanimous, many in the U.S at this time were in favor of war.
NEGOTIATING AN END TO WAR
With the exit of Russia from the war in 1917, the Allied Powers expected a massive German offensive on the Western Front. There was no doubt that such an offensive would change the tide of the war, but the Allied Powers were counting on American intervention with reinforcements and an invigorated army. Erich von Ludendorff launched a massive offensive on July 15, 1918, but with the assistance of the British Expeditionary Force, more than 85,000 American soldiers, and the French army under the effective leadership of Phillipe Petain, the German offensive was thwarted and the Allied Powers launched their own.
The situation started to unravel for the Central Powers. Despite the victory in Gallipoli, the Ottoman Empire was faced with an Arab revolt and an Allied invasion on many fronts. Faced with many regions breaking away, the Turks were forced to surrender in October 1918. On November 4th, 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire surrendered, as it was disintegrating with many of its peoples fighting for nationalism and self-rule. The Germans had no option with their allies all defeated, and on November 11, 1918, they signed an armisticemarking the end of World War I.
THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE
After the war ended, the representatives of the Allied Powers met in Paris in January 1919 to begin the process of settling scores, assigning blame and reaping reparations for their losses. They made all of the important decisions while the vanquished countries were not invited to the conference until May 1919. It was during this interlude that differing views of the European countries and their American ally emerged. President Wilson had argued that unless the negotiations were carried out as "peace among equals" there would not be any lasting peace. According to his vision, Wilson believed the old European system of alliances and balance of power had to be replaced with a new order in which a "League of Nations" would be responsible for resolving problems. Wilson outlined what became known as the "Fourteen Points"which constituted the working document for the negotiations after the war.
The Fourteen Points attempted to eliminate some of the problems that had led the world to war. For example, Wilson called for national self-determination in which people who spoke a common language and had a common culture should create their own nation and rule over themselves. He therefore favored the right of self-rule for the peoples of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and German empires. This ultimately saw the creation of the new states such as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland. It is important to note that all these new states were created in Europe. Wilson called for a reduction of armaments, adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of colonized and colonial governments, and freedom of the seas.
Georges Clemenceau, Vittorio Orlando andDavid Lloyd George the leaders of postwar France, Italy, and Great Britain together with Woodrow Wilson constituted the "Big Four." The European leaders were set on gaining what was lost during the war and punishing Germany. They disagreed with Wilson in some areas. For example, the colonies owned by the Central Powers were not granted independence as was the case with the Balkan region cited above. On the contrary, the colonies in Africa and Asia were divided up among the "Big Four" to be ruled under a new system called "Mandates," and to be managed by the League of Nations. German colonies in Africa, such as Kamerun and Togo, were divided between the British and the French. The same happened in the Middle East and in Asia.
Some of the colonized people who showed up at the Paris Conference like the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, women suffragists asking for the right to vote, labor unions seeking better working conditions, Africans from the continent of Africa, and African-Americans who sought equality and better treatment were completely snubbed at the conference. The Japanese delegation introduced a "racial equality proposal" to be included in the articles of the League of Nations. Based on the unequal treaties (covered in the previous units) and treatment Japan had endured at the hands of the Europeans, the Japanese were soliciting equality of nations as a basic right. The ramification of this Japanese proposal threatened the world order because it upended the basis for colonial or imperial rule. Despite the opposition of many, the proposal passed but was overruled by Woodrow Wilson, the chair of the conference who claimed that the issue was very sensitive and thus needed a unanimous vote. Perhaps Wilson (who was an unapologetic southerner) was concerned about the impact such ideas might have on the United States where de facto and de jure segregation reigned supreme.
In the Treaty of Versailleswhich ratified these negotiations, Woodrow Wilson had a mixed bag of success and failure. Germany, for example, was severely punished as it was ordered to relinquish all of its colonial possessions and 10 percent of its pre-war territory in Europe (including Alsace-Lorraine). France was given the right to extract raw materials from the German region of Saarland until 1935. The size of the German army and navy were also limited, and its leaders were to be tried as war criminals. Under Article 231, Germany accepted responsibility for the war and agreed to pay reparations in the amount of $32 billion. The Germans hated this treaty and in subsequent years, Adolf Hitler would come to power based in part by exploiting the deep seated animosity Germans had for their treatment in Versailles.
Back home in the United States, Woodrow Wilson faced a completely different problem. The League of Nations had been adopted in the Versailles Treaty but for the U.S. to play a crucial role, Congress needed to ratify the treaty. Although some areas of the public opinion in the U.S. supported the treaty, the Republican Party which controlled the Senate was opposed to it for various reasons. The Isolationists believed that the U.S. should not have gone to war in the first place and now had to steer clear of all European involvements. The Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge alongside other senators objected to Article 10 of the Treaty which called for collective security under the League of Nations. They contended that this clause ceded the power of the Congress to declare war to a foreign body. Henry Cabot Lodge like others who had reservations about the treaty asked for amendments before ratification. President Wilson refused to allow any amendments and the treaty was defeated. The U.S. had championed the creation of a new order but now could not be a party to it.
Finally, the decision by Russia to withdraw from the war in 1917 also had consequences in the Paris Conference. The Communist Revolution (covered in the next section) which had taken place in Russia was economically and philosophically different from the capitalist systems of the west. The Communist condemned the war and repudiated their debts. They also revealed private deals that the Allies had entered into concerning post-war negotiations. For these reasons, the Allied Powers did not invite Russia to the Peace Conference in Paris.
The Birth of Communism
The Russian Empire on the eve of the twentieth century was ill-prepared to face the challenges of the future. There were many problems which the Russian Empire was structurally incapable of fixing or could not adequately address. For example, the Russian leader (whose title was "Tsar," also spelled as "Czar"), Nicholas II, was a despotic monarch who believed that because he got his power directly from God, the people did not need any political party or a legislature. All laws came from Czar Nicholas II who was assisted in the administration by the noble aristocratic families. In this section we shall review weaknesses of the Russian society, the ideas of Karl Marx, the Russian Revolutions (in February and October) and Russian Civil War.
The Russian society was made up of primarily 3 classes. The peasants, who made up 80 percent of the population, were the poorest. They depended on the land to support their families, but these lands were owned by the aristocrats. As landlords, the aristocratic class were relatively fewer in number (approximately 1.5 percent of the total population), but the power they wielded exceeded their numbers. Every so often the landlord redistributed the land to the peasants while keeping the most arable areas. The peasants depended on the landlord and paid him rent for the use of the land.
As the industrial revolution took root in Russia, many new investors from Western Europe were looking for opportunities in the east. The process of industrialization in Russia was slower and different. The most significant areas were in the Trans-Siberian Railway, which attracted a lot of workers and development across different regions in Russia. Like elsewhere where the industrial revolution occurred, a new class made of workers emerged in Russia. Although their number was relatively smaller because Russia was fairly new to the process, the working class in Russia faced many problems. There were no legalized labor unions to bring the changes that workers wanted, and as a result, they worked long hours under terrible conditions for minimal pay. Russian workers were willing to agitate for changes, but they were prohibited from doing so. The peasants, like the workers, were in a similar bind. There were no political parties through which they could express their frustrations. Land was owned by a few and freedom to express themselves did not exist. There were no elections because Czar Nicholas II ruled by divine right.
It was within this atmosphere that many intellectuals in Russia (they were very few) decided to look elsewhere for ideas on what could be done to bring change. As intellectuals, there were few opportunities for them in a society where the aristocrats were favored to rule and run the country along with the czar. The Russian intellectuals were thus looking forward to creating a representative democracy with election of their leaders, a national legislature, and basic and protected freedoms under a constitution.
Karl Marx, who is often mentioned in relation to Russia, was a German-born Jew who settled in Britain. Karl Marx and Fredrick Engelsare considered the intellectual fathers of communism. In the two most influential books on the subject, Das Capital and subsequently Communist Manifesto, Marx impugned the capitalist market system of Adam Smith. Karl Marx argued that capitalism was a stage in human development which was fraught with problems as it created class differences. He claimed that private ownership of the factors of production (land, labor and capital) by the wealthy bourgeoisie gave rise to the exploitation of workers. Under capitalist systems, Marx argued that the quest for profit drove the creation of empire, colonialism and state control by the wealthy individuals. As a result he concluded that the state institutions like the army, police, and jails were all tools of coercion that the upper classes use to control the poor working class people.
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels
Karl Marx recommended communism as an alternative to capitalism. He stated that after the capitalist phase of human development, societies will progress to socialism (which is the last stage before communism). Under the socialist system (a lesser form of communism) private ownership of property and the factors of production will be completely eliminated and individuals will be motivated to work for the collective good of the society which meets all their needs and not only the needs of the wealthy. Since communities will have common ownership, the class system will disappear and so too will the need for police and the army. Finally Karl Marx posited that for a communist revolution to occur two conditions must be met: the country must be an advanced capitalist system with a significant working class (proletariat) population. The second condition was that the proletariat was the revolutionary class and their leaders must emerge from within this rank. Karl Marx and Engels concluded with the words, "workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains."
The question was whether Russia could meet the ideal standards for a communist revolution as set by Marx and Engels. The Social Democratic Labor was the main socialist political party in Russia at a time when political parties were illegal. After that party collapsed in 1903, the Bolshevik Partyemerged and championed the dream for a communist revolution according to the ideals of Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels. Although the Bolsheviks recognized the differences between Russia and the standard set in the Communist Manifesto, they nevertheless believed that Russian intellectuals could make up for what the workers lacked. When political parties became legal in 1905 the other political parties which developed in Russia did not share the same vision with the Bolsheviks. The Liberals and the Non-Marxist Socialists vehemently disagreed with the Bolsheviks in their vision for a new Russia, but what they all wanted was a replacement of the despotic monarchy of Czar Nicholas II.
Although the Russian economy was progressing as a result of the industrial revolution, an economic slump in 1900 and 1905 caused the workers to go on strike. They demanded legal equality, basic freedoms, an 8-hour workday, minimum wage, the right to unionize and to strike, the right to create political parties, and to elect their representatives. When the workers tried to present their petition to Czar Nicholas II more than 300 of them were killed. This massacre became known as "Bloody Sunday" because it happened on a Sunday, but the failure of the Czar to hold the officers accountable exacerbated the tension as more workers across the country rose up in protest.
This crisis coincided with the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905in which Russia was defeated by Japan. This marked the first time in recent memory in which an Asian country had defeated a European nation. The consequences of this victory for Japan were significant while the repercussions for Russia were far-reaching. Besieged by an external defeat and threatened by domestic revolution, Czar Nicholas II was forced to make some concessions. He granted workers the right to unionize, offered universal male suffrage, and allowed a new constitution which guaranteed freedom of religion, press and speech. However, there were problems with these concessions and the new constitution. The Czar could veto any legislation passed by the democratically elected house (called Duma in Russia). He could even dissolve the house if he wished. Finally, the electoral system was blatantly unequal with one aristocratic vote equal to 15 peasant and 45 worker votes. The goal to create a constitutional monarchy in Russia had instead unleashed the people's appetite for more freedoms.
It was at this point in their history when World War I broke out. Although Russia rarely gets the credit it deserves in this war, it is important to note that as part of the Allied Powers, Russia did score significant successes against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. By 1917 the effect of the war on the belligerent nations was visible. Russia, more than any other country in Europe, had sustained the highest casualties with close to 2 million dead. As a result of this and because of the ineptitude of the Czar Nicholas II in his conduct of the war, there were uprisings and labor unrests across Russia. The Czar was forced by the February Revolution to abdicate his throne. The provisional government led by Social Democrats, who gained control of Russia, made the ill-fated decision to continue with the war. This decision to continue with an unpopular war prompted the Bolshevik (Communist) Party to oppose the provisional government. The Bolsheviks under their leader, Vladimir Lenin, gained popularity and ultimately overthrew the provisional government in the October Revolution of 1917.
The success of the Communists in the Russian Revolution meant that they could now end the war as they saw fit. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsksigned between Germany and Russia in March 1918 ceded Russian control over much of the East to Germany in return for a peaceful withdrawal from the war. After Russia left the war, it was not until the armistice of November 1918 when the war formally ended. After being ceded to Germany in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the countries of Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia all became newly independent states with the defeat of Germany. The triumph of communism in Russia provoked a backlash from a mixed assortment of conservatives, landowners, pro-monarchists and liberals (known as the Whites) who came together in a civil war to topple communism in Russia. The war between the Whites (supported by the West) and the Reds (Bolshevik-Communists) lasted until 1921.
Essay Help on History Homework
U.S. Involvement, Wilson's 14 Points, and The League of Nations
The United States under President Woodrow Wilson had pledged at the outset of the Great War to remain neutral. While some Americans supported the Allies, others were in favor of the Central Powers, thus neutrality seemed like the most appropriate thing to do. But after winning reelection in 1916, President Wilson was confronted with an increasing German submarine attack on U.S. vessels, such as the Lusitania, which left more than 100 Americans dead. The immediate involvement by the U.S. into World War I was provoked by an obscure, but potentially treacherous message sent from Germany. The Zimmerman Telegram was sent by Germany to Mexico with assurances that should Mexico enter into an alliance with Germany in the Great War, Germany would help Mexico to regain Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California – all states that were lost to the U.S. in the Mexican War. The Zimmerman Telegram helped to sway an undecided public to enter the war. President Woodrow Wilson sought and Congress declared War on Germany on April 6th, 1917.
American troops were not ready for war despite the Congressional mandate. In 1918, the first American soldiers landed in Europe and this changed the tide of the war which had turned with the withdrawal of Russia in 1917. By the end of 1918 more than 2 million American soldiers had seen combat in Europe. But not all Americans were treated equally in the battlefields of Europe. The Harlem Hellfighters were a unit of African-Americans who because of Jim Crow were denied the right to fight under the American flag. Instead, they fought against the Germans under French command. Their bravery and sacrifices earned them respect and the name Harlem Hellfighters.
Click here to read more about the Harlem Hellfighters.
Faced with increasing pressure from the Allies especially because of the counteroffensives launched with the help of the Americans, Germany surrendered and signed an armistice on November 11, 1918.
President Woodrow Wilson drew up a plan that would later be known as the Fourteen Points to address the post-war period. Wilson called for the creation of a multinational organization to replace the erstwhile European alliances and balance of power. This new body was to have the authority to resolve global disputes and it became known as the League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations). Wilson's plan included the right to self-determination, equality of the people of the world and collective military action in the face of aggression. This last item was a major reason why Congress did not ratify the Peace Treaty and thus America missed an opportunity to serve as leader of the world as Wilson envisioned.
With more than 20 million dead in World War I, the British and the French were not very interested in Wilson's ideas. They held Germany responsible under the War Guilt Clause of the Treaty of Versailles. Germany was forced to pay reparations and lost its overseas colonies. France even wanted Germany to be divided up as it was before unification.
In Africa, Germany lost control of its colonies in Kamerun (Cameroon) which became a Mandate territory of the League of Nations. The League of Nations created three different types of mandates for the territories seized from Germany and its allies. Class A mandates were territories which were considered capable of self-rule and independence within a relatively short period. This category included territories which were all in the Middle East such as Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq. Class B mandates were all in Africa and the prospect for them to gain independence or self rule was distant. The German colony of Kamerun (now called Cameroon in English or Cameroun in French) fell under this category. Those regions classified under Class C mandates were considered eternally incapable of self rule or independence and included German South West Africa (today called Namibia) which was given to South Africa, Western Samoa given to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea to be administered by Australia.
The League divided Cameroon between the British, who controlled Nigeria, and the French, who were in charge of Central Africa. Thus, an African nation which played absolutely no role in causing the war was divided up as the spoils of war between the victors. French Cameroungained independence in 1960 from France. The English-speaking Cameroons were in a more complicated scenario because the British further divided their own portion of the Cameroons into two: British Northern Cameroons and British Southern Cameroons. In a 1961 plebiscite (conducted by the United Nations, which had replaced the League of Nations) to determine their future as independent states, the two Cameroons under British rule and administered as part of Nigeria voted differently. British Northern Cameroon voted to remain as part of Nigeria and is today part of the northern states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. On the other hand, British Southern Cameroon voted to gain independence by reunifying with French Cameroun in 1961. Today the two Cameroons (with English and French speaking sections) have an uneasy peace as the English speaking minority (shown in red in the maps below) are increasingly decrying their position in the union with some advocating for secession from the French speaking regions. But the crisis in Cameroon like others can be traced to World War I and the Versailles Treaty.
All defeated powers such as Germany and the Ottoman Empire lost their colonies, which were to be administered by the League of Nations as Mandates. This meant that the League of Nations was to prepare these territories for independence. The Arab states were governed by the French and English as mandates. The British rule over Palestine ultimately split that land among the Palestinian Arabs and the Jews with a resultant conflict that is present today. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire therefore saw the rise of new states such as Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.
Watch Crash Course World History Video #33
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCQfMWAikyU&feature=youtu.be
The twentieth century had many challenges for the world in general, but particularly so for the West. Western capitalism which was hailed over socialism and communism faced imminent collapse. The greatest economic slump in history known as the Great Depression was caused by many factors. World War I had poisoned the well of goodwill and garnered instead such mistrust that any political international action had little chance of success. So when the United States Stock Exchange Market crashed on what has become known as Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929), many investors saw the value of their shares fall precipitously. In a few hours investors lost what they had gained in an entire year – $14 billion which was the equivalent of $185 billion in 2011. What made this crash significant was the fact that it determined the direction of the market and the global economy for the next decade.
In the days following Black Tuesday the economy and the markets continued on a downward spiral. For example, in the next four days, stock market prices fell by 25 percent, which cost a total loss of more than what the U.S. had spent in World War I and was ten times more than the federal budget in 1929. On November 13, 1929 the Stock Market hit its lowest point with over $100 billion lost. When the major banks like Morgan and Chase intervened to stem the losses by buying back stocks, this was a signal to investors that all was not well and instead many flooded the market to sell causing further losses.
The stock market crash on Black Tuesday did not cause the Great Depression. But it definitely played a role as it destroyed confidence in the economy. Back then, many Americans believed that what was good for Wall Street was good for Main Street. Thus the stock market was seen as reflecting the state of the economy. As a result of the panic, people rushed to their banks to withdraw all their savings since there were no federally insured savings. If the bank closed while your money was saved, that was a loss which could not be salvaged. But as more people withdrew their money from the banks, more banks were forced to close because they lacked fluid capital to stay in business.
Since the United States was not attacked during the World War I, its farmers and economy continued to produce goods which were used in war ravaged Europe. Americans were enjoying a substantial boost as a result of the war. With time, however, many in Europe could not afford to pay for these goods. At the end of the war, Germany and Austria were required to make reparations they could not afford. For the British, French and other European countries, once the war ended, their farmers were able to start a gradual return to the fields. Their industries gradually started to pick up, but the British and the French expected German reparation payments to be used to grow their economies. If the payments stopped, these economies were affected. The initial growth in the economies of Western European countries implied a decline in the dependence on and demand for American goods. For the United States, the boom cycle of the economy which they had enjoyed since the war had come to an end.
The Dawes and Young Plan in the U.S. was intended to resolve this problem by providing loans to the Germans to help pay their debts to the Allies. Britain and France depended on this money to pay for their loans from the United States. It is evident that money from the United States to the Germans was used to pay reparations to the British and the French. These two countries used the reparation money to pay down the debts they had incurred during the war from the U.S. All of this was fine as long as the U.S. economy was booming. But this precarious situation came crashing down with the Stock Market collapse of 1929 marking the beginning of the Great Depression.
The Great Depression affected people differently. Many banks were forced to close because their investments and stocks lost value. Almost everyone lost their savings while workers lost their jobs. Unemployment reached 30 percent in Germany and several other countries. The absence of social security or services meant that many Americans depended on soup kitchens and breadlines which could no longer help them as the situation deteriorated.
Although the U.S. served as a major creditor and financier after World War I, there were some structural problems within its economy. Many of the people who invested in the stock market engaged in what was known as margin trading. That simply meant that many investors asked their brokers to buy stocks on credit while making only the minimal amount due. But when the market crashed the brokers demanded complete payments to be made which many could not afford. Banks also became insolvent as people rushed to collect their savings. Industries could not get loans as banks were now hard on cash forcing many to lay off workers. Productivity declined, industrial growth slowed and purchasing power in the economy ebbed.
In 1930, the U.S. passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act as means to protect the American farmer. During World War I, American farmers enjoyed the demand for their produce, but after the war, European, African and South American produce were flooding the global markets causing a decline in prices. Some American leaders believed that by raising tariffs on farm products they would protect American farmers by making farm imports expensive. Although the tariff did not cause the depression, it did not make it any better because as a result of the U.S. raising the tariff, foreign countries also invoked retaliatory measures provoking a fall in global trade by 66% from 1929 to 1934. American exports to Europe fell from $2.3 billion in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. European exports to the U.S. also fell to $390 million in 1932 from $1.3 billion in 1929. After World War II the U.S. would become the champion of free global trade, but at this time that was not the case.
The Great Depression did not affect only the U.S. and Europe. In West Africa for example, Ghana which supplied cocoa to the industrial markets of Europe faced a significant drop in commodity prices. South American economies that also depended on export were badly affected. A number of military takeovers or dictatorships occurred in countries like Mexico and Brazil. Many critics argued during this period that Russian communism perhaps deserved a closer re-examination. This was particularly so because the Communist government in Russia carried out massive industrialization and a program of rebuilding the economy which created full scale employment in the 1930s when the rest of the world economy was hit by the Great Depression. In the United States, the government of Franklin Roosevelt was willing to try anything new to save the economy. The New Deal which redefined the relationship between Americans and their government created a series of safety nets by following the ideas of Maynard Keynes who argued that governments should invest in infrastructure during period of recessions. The response of Germany, Italy and Japan to the Great Depression was different from all that has been discussed so far.
The Rise of Fascism
Fascism emerged as an alternative solution to the problems facing the world after World War I. It was a nationalistic movement which at its root was opposed to communism, parliamentary democracy, feminism, liberalism and freedom of press. Fascism appealed to a broad spectrum in society, but seemed to have had a great effect on Italy, Germany, Spain and Japan.
In Italy, Benito Mussolini was the fascist leader who gained a gradual majority in government through democractic elections, and then used his influence to pass laws creating a fascist state with power concentrated in the hands of a single leader. All labor unions were abolished and press freedoms were limited. To address the problems of the Great Depression, Italy under Mussolini took over all banks and nationalized the industrial sector. Subsequently, he turned his attention to Africa where in 1931 he successfully invaded and conquered the former Ottoman Empire territory of Libya. In 1935, Mussolini marched in Ethiopia to avenge the humiliating defeat his country had suffered at the hands of the African country in the Battle of Adowa in 1896.
Denunciations of his actions did not stop Mussolini from settling over 200,000 Italians in Ethiopia to release pressure from the homeland by pacifying the colony. The League of Nations could only decry the aggressions by Mussolini, but could not stop it. Mussolini moved closer towards Adolf Hitler who became his ally in the Rome-Berlin Axis of 1936.
Benito Mussolini & Adolf Hitler
In Germany, the end of World War I saw the abdication of the emperor and the creation of a new government under the Social Democratic Party known as the Weimar Republic. It was the Weimar Republic which signed the Versailles Treaty accepting German responsibility for the war. Faced with attacks from all angles, a crushing reparation debt, and mounting unemployment, the Weimar Republic was unable to defend its record. It was within this atmosphere that the National Socialist Party (Nazi) found expression and popularity of fascist concepts. Hitler gained tremendous support with his message of German nationalism, racial superiority, and hatred for the Jews, disabled, and blacks. In 1933, the Nazi party won 37 percent of the vote, and Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany.
Like Mussolini, Hitler, silenced the press and labor unions, and he solidified his control over the nation. Hitler built roads, bridges, rearmed the military and invested in public projects that employed many Germans. His policies were so successful that Germany emerged out of the Great Depression and Hitler became more popular. Hitler, targeted the Jews as the source of German problems. In 1935, Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws which forbade German citizenship to Jews.
While Japan never had any single ruler who enjoyed the same status of Hitler or Mussolini, the country gravitated towards authoritarianism. The Great Depression made the Japanese look favorably towards Radical Nationalism, an organization which, like Fascism, rejected democracy, favored an exalted emperor and territorial aggrandizement in foreign policy.
There were many reasons why Japan made the move towards imperialism and militarism. Japanese militarism probably goes as far back as the period of the Meiji Restoration when in 1873 the country passed a conscription law requiring all men to serve in active duty for three years with four years of additional reserve duties. Japan aspired for Western-style imperialism especially as western countries such as Britain, Netherlands, France and Spain had made intrusions into Asia using their military power. For Japan to be able to enjoy such privileges, the country needed to industrialize. After Japan defeated China in 1894-1895, Japan forced the Chinese to pay reparations while Japan also seized the island of Formosa. The tides were turned when European countries forced Japan to give back some other islands. At this point the Japanese knew that their economy, military and security defined how they were perceived and treated by others.
As the European countries continued to expand and create empires, Japan came to share a belief in "manifest destiny" by holding that they had the responsibility to free other Asian countries from foreign imperialism. Invoking the principle of Social Darwinism, the Japanese saw their expansion as a means of survival reserved only for the strongest countries. This belief was bolstered by the Japanese defeat of Russia in 1904.
Perhaps the most immediate factors that influenced Japan towards militarism was their treatment by European countries from the unequal treaties and coercive acts in the 1850s to the post-war conference in Paris. In signing the unequal treaties with France, Holland, U.S. and Russia, Japan was humiliated to concede immunity from Japanese courts to foreigners. In 1905, the state of California passed Anti-Japanese laws, which in San Francisco sent Japanese children to segregated schools. The Paris Conference rejected a Japanese proposal for racial equality in the League of Nations Covenants. At the Washington Naval Conference of 1921, U.S. and Britain assigned a low status to Japan by the 5:5:3 ratio which meant for every five military ships built by the U.S. and Britain, Japan was allowed only three. This treaty was renewed in the 1930s and Japan was pressured into signing it as it was extended to heavy cruisers. In 1924 America passed the Japanese Exclusion Act which prohibited immigration by Japanese into the U.S.
For Japan to assert itself and occupy its appropriate place under the sun, the country needed rapid industrialization and a robust military, But by the 1930s the Great Depression and the Smoot-Hawley Act had caused a decline in global trade. The Japanese needed new markets for their goods and raw materials for their industries. The Dutch East Indies, for example, had oil which Japan badly needed along with iron ore in China.
After making the necessary calculations, Japan launched an attack against China in Manchuria on September 18, 1931. At this point the Japanese believed that they had attained the imperial status of any western country and could now afford to gain control of Asia. By 1937 Japan was engaged in an all-out war with China which ultimately culminated in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Japanese troops entering Tsitsihar in Manchuria.
Watch Crash Course World History #38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q78COTwT7nE&feature=youtu.be
The origin of World War II can be placed squarely at the doorsteps of World War I. Dissatisfied with the status quo after the first war, some countries took matters in their own hands to redress the situation. In what ways do you think the First World War was responsible for the second? Let us begin our discussion about World War II with the Japanese in Asia.
Like we did in World War I, please watch the video below and note the differences John Green raises in his analysis of World War II.
World War II started in World War I? What do you think?
What were the consequences of this war?
What was the Hunger Plan as described in the video above?
Although Japan had limited participation in World War I, it wanted a place at the peace negotiations in Paris. Instead the Japanese felt humiliated as they were denied any equal treatment with the Western powers. After the war, the Washington Naval Treaties (1921-1922) codified a second class status for Japan by limiting the number of naval vessels Japan could build relative to other countries such as the U.S. or Great Britain.
Japan already controlled a portion of China as a result of the war with Russia in 1904, but in 1931 the Japanese army seized the Chinese province of Manchuria. The League of Nations, like a toothless bulldog, could only decry Japan's aggression as it lacked the ability and resources to stop it. Japan later withdrew from the League and joined Germany and Italy in the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. Japan continued its invasion of China by attacking mainland China in 1937.
America supplied most of the raw materials that Japan needed in its war effort such as scrap iron, oil, copper and machine tools, but the U.S. was displeased with Japanese aggression and sought to limit the export of critical commodities to Japan. The Japanese responded by invading territories in Asia that were under Western imperial control. Japan invaded Malaya, Burma, Indonesia, Indochina, and the Philippines by claiming "Asia for Asians." The Japanese argument was that they were liberating other Asians from European or American colonialism, but the other Asians soon realized that Japanese rule was not different from Western imperial rule. Ultimately, the Japanese made the decision to attack the U.S. by destroying its naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941. This was the immediate action which brought the U.S. into World War II and merged the theaters in Europe and Asia into a global war.
Global Wars and Change in the Twentieth Century QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
In your opinion, what are some of the reasons that caused Japan to invade the U.S.?
Did this attack on Pearl Harbor hurt or help the Japanese cause?
On the same day that Japan attacked the U.S., other Japanese divisions invaded the Philippines. From there Japan continued with its policy to capture and "liberate" the Pacific Islands from Western control. They moved into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. In May 1942, American forces stemmed the tide of Japanese advances in the Battle of the Coral Sea. General Douglas MacArthur led the American forces who started advancing on Japan after they prevented a possible Japanese attack on Australia. President Roosevelt died before the war ended and was succeeded by Harry Truman who made the ultimate decision on how Japan was defeated. The United Stated brought Japan to its knees with the dropping of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. In the areas that Japan had conquered, did the Japanese live up to the demand they made at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 on racial equality?
In Europe, Germany led the charge to war. Since Hitler had risen to power by promising to right the "wrongs" of the Versailles Treaty, he consistently violated every tenet of that treaty. After rebuilding the German army, Hitler entered the forbidden areas of the Rhineland which were demilitarized under the Versailles Treaty. In 1938, Hitler moved into Austria and Czechoslovakia and by 1939 he had launched an all-out war into Poland. With the treaty between Germany, Italy and Japan, the two European partners swept through much of Europe by 1941 while Japan gained control of Asia. The U.S. declared war against Japan in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but was unable to go to war until 1942. Despite being attacked by Japan, the U.S. first went to war against Germany in Europe.
Fighting in World War II
The Path to War
After fighting in the Western Front in World War I, Hitler decided to try his hands in politics by joining the German Workers' Party. Hitler renamed the party National Socialist German Workers Party (popularly known as the Nazi party). For this party to be successful, Hitler needed to express his vision and translate his ideas into policies that would benefit the average German. This was accomplished with his autobiographical publication known as Mein Kampf (My Struggle). Hitler expounded on his ideas of extreme German nationalism, a disdain for communism, anti-Semitism and his belief in Social Darwinism especially as it relates to the supremacy of the German people. Hitler advocated for a living space (Lebensraum) which implied the right of the superior German race to rule and control other lesser races.
The problems facing Germany after World War I together with the Great Depression made many Germans gravitate toward extremist right wing parties believing that they could solve all problems. Hitler's appeal cut across many different classes. The poor saw him as a man who would create employment for the masses. The industrialists, landowners, and military experts believed that Hitler would protect Germany from the threat of communism. Thus, the Nazi party easily became the largest party in Germany winning large numbers of seats in the legislature (the Reichstag). Hitler used his new authority to pass laws which granted him more powers, and by 1934, all power rested with him as he acquired the title of "Fuhrer," or leader of the German people.
Once Hitler was completely in charge, he set in place the process towards scrapping the Treaty of Versailles, which he blamed for most of Germany's problems. In his public speeches, Hitler claimed to be a man of peace who simply wanted to correct only those provisions of the treaty that had been unfair to his people. Although Germany was forbidden from having an air force along with only a limited army, on March 9, 1935 Hitler stated that Germany would have a new air force which was quickly followed with an expansion of the army. Although the British and French criticized him, they did not intervene. Hitler's move was to send his army into the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936. Once Hitler noticed that the British and French were unwilling to go to war to enforce the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, he continued to violate all of its terms.
In 1935, Italy also had territorial ambitions like Germany. Italy invaded Ethiopia but was angered by the condemnation of the League of Nations. Mussolini responded by forming an alliance with Hitler which in 1936 supported General Francisco Franco, the fascist leader in the Spanish Civil War. The war in Spain provided Hitler with an opportunity to test all the new weapons he was developing in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler later signed an anti-communist cooperation agreement with Japan. With his friendship in Europe now guaranteed, Hitler continued his plan towards expansion. The next stop was Austria. Hitler forced the Austrian chancellor to appoint Nazi supporters in position of power. Afterwards these supporters "begged" Hitler to enter Austria to maintain law and order. Austria, which was the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, became officially annexed in March 1938.
The insatiable Hitler believed that he could take over the newly created Czechoslovakia by claiming that he simply wanted the Sudetenland (the northwestern part of Czechoslovakia) which was heavily populated by ethnic Germans. When Hitler made the demands, the British leader Neville Chamberlain and his French ally met in Munich with a view to appease Hitler. Hitler had successfully gotten Chamberlain to believe that this was his last demand. German soldiers marched into the Sudetenland, but by March 1939 they occupied all of Czechoslovakia. Hitler had come to believe that the West was weak, and he saw himself as being the most powerful leader in the world. Within a few weeks, Hitler made new demands on the Polish port of Danzig. Hitler still believed that Britain and France would not go to war over Poland, but he feared the possibility of an alliance between the Soviet Union and Western powers which would push Germany into a war on two fronts. For this reason, Hitler entered into a non-aggression pact with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to preclude such a prospect. On September 1, 1939, Germany unleashed its newly tested (in Spain) air force with a strategy known as the Blitzkrieg or "lightning war."
With a combined air and ground assault, German troops had overpowered Poland forcing surrender on September 28, 1939. The Soviet Union had also invaded Poland in the east carving a section which was secretly agreed upon in the non-aggression pact with Hitler. To Hitler's dismay, the British and French declared war when he invaded Poland. But with a quick victory Hitler enjoyed a relatively short winter break until April 9, 1940 when he let loose the Blitzkrieg again on Europe but this time against Denmark and Norway. A month later he moved into the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Hitler invaded France through Luxembourg and by June 1940 the French army capitulated. Germany controlled almost all of Western Europe.
When Hitler made the decision to invade Britain, it was obvious that the Germans would have to exercise absolute control of the air and the seas to be successful. So in August 1940 the German Luftwaffe (air force) started an aerial attack on British war industries, ports, air, and naval bases. The British Royal Air Force fought back and with the assistance of their radar system they were able to pick up early warnings of an approaching German attack. A change in British tactics forced the German Luftwaffe to make adjustments on their British targets. Despite the heavy losses by the British, the Germans could not win, and Hitler faced his first major retreat in the war as he was forced to postpone any amphibious invasion of Britain.
After the British impasse, Hitler's attention turned to Russia. Although he had signed a non-aggression pact with Russia, Hitler hated what he considered to be the Jewish-Bolshevik leadership and was set to crush them. Hitler also believed that the British had refused to surrender because they expected Russian support, so if Russia could be defeated there would no hope for the British. He also contemplated the possibility of defeating the British in Egypt and closing their access to the Suez Canal thereby cutting off their supplies from the Mediterranean. Eventually Hitler left this plan in the hands of his ally, Benito Mussolini, but the Italian army was weak as they were swept aside by the British. Hitler's initial plan to invade Russia in the spring of 1941 was delayed because of the ineffective Italian army which in October 1940 invaded Greece. The German war machine had to come to the rescue of Mussolini when Hitler invaded Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941. It was only after he had completely secured these areas that Hitler turned his undivided attention to Russia.
Adolf Hitler reserved his largest attack on the Soviet Union. With more than 3200 war planes, the Luftwaffe rained bombs on Russia while 180 army divisions and 8,000 tanks blanketed Russia. Although Hitler believed that the Soviet Union could easily be defeated, he could not have been more incorrect. Joseph Stalin mobilized 160 infantry divisions with another 300 in the reserves. The Germans made quick advances with remarkable successes and by November they had come within 25 miles of the Russian capital of Moscow. But the winter weather in Russia has always been known to be unfriendly to foreign invaders. While his commanders on the ground wanted a retreat during the severe weather, Hitler rejected their demand. What happened next caught the Germans off guard. A severe winter and a major counter-offensive by the Russian army in December 1941 broke the invincibility of the German army. Across the Atlantic at this same time, the United States in December 1941 was brought into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Germany's declaration of war against the U.S.
Things started to turn against the Germans when the U.S. entered the war and formed the Grand Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union. These powers decided on the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) to avoid the mistakes of World War I. The Allies decided to ignore their political differences and focus first on the defeat of Germany. In the meantime, the Germans were still making headway as their invasion of North Africa broke British defenses by fall of 1942. That was the last major victory for the German Afrika Korpsdivision. A combined assault by British and American soldiers defeated the Germans and forced them to surrender in May 1943. Hitler still held on to his belief that he would defeat the Soviet Union. His soldiers captured Crimea and advanced on Stalingrad. But this situation did not last for too long as the Germans were cornered and ultimately retreated to the 1942 positions.
The Allies opened an invasion in 1943 from North Africa and then advanced on Italy. Despite support from the Germans, Rome fell on June 4, 1944. By this time, the Allies had been planning an attack on German positions in France from the English Channel. Stalin believed that such a plan would force Hitler to fight a war on two fronts and reduce the severity of German attacks on Russia. The British and the Americans initially disagreed as they supported the invasion of Italy from North Africa. This delay in opening the "second front" became an issue in the period after the war, as it complicated the relationship between the Russians on one hand and their British and American allies on the other. On June 6, 1944 the greatest naval invasion the world had seen was launched on the beaches of Normandy in France. From this position, the Allies advanced and liberated France and then started the move into Germany. The Soviets also mounted attacks on Hitler as they advanced westward. The days of the German Reich under Adolf Hitler were numbered. On May 7, 1945 the Germans surrendered. What would the world have looked like had the Germans won?
Post War Conferences
In the period after World War I, we discussed the problems of the Paris Peace Conference, the vision of Woodrow Wilson and the Anglo-French need to punish the Germans. Hitler subsequently used these problems to justify militarism. Therefore, the big question after World War II was would the same mistakes be made? World War II was the most devastating war in history with more 21 million soldiers killed and over 40 million civilian casualties. Of these the Soviet Union had more than 29 million of the dead. Unfortunately, despite the unconditional surrender by the Axis Powers, the post-World War II period was followed by another major confrontation known as the Cold War.
The leaders of the Grand Alliance: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union met at a conference in Tehran (capital of Iran) in November 1943 to plan their strategies against Hitler, Mussolini and Japan. It was at this meeting that they agreed that the defeat of Germany in Europe was of vital necessity in this global war. As a result they prepared plans for the Anglo-American invasion of Germany in France in the Second Front. This plan implied that the Soviet Union would liberate Eastern Europe while the Americans and the British took care of the west.
The next conference was held in the southern Russian city of Yalta in February 1945. Germany was on the verge of being defeated, but significant differences were emerging between the Allies. Stalin was suspicious of the west, and his plan for a post-war Europe was not the same as that of Roosevelt. Roosevelt wanted the liberated countries from Nazi occupation to hold free elections and decide their own futures. Roosevelt also made deals with Stalin as he needed Russian help in defeating Japan. Finally, Roosevelt shared some of Wilson's goals as he championed the creation of the United Nations to replace the ineffective League of Nations. His plan included giving the Big Three powers the opportunity to discuss important issues, but Stalin wanted to create a buffer zone between Germany and Russia to prevent a repeat of history. The Russian leader was not keen on the idea of "free and democratic elections" in Eastern Europe because he wanted to control the resource rich areas while maintaining Soviet-friendly governments along the border. They all agreed on the need for Germany to pay reparations which were set at $20 billion and for Germany to be divided into four occupation zones with each quarter going to Russia, Britain, France and the U.S.
Grand Alliance leaders at the Potsdam Conference: Clement Attlee, Harry Truman, & Joseph Stalin
The last of the postwar conferences took place in Potsdam, Germany in July 1945. The Russians and their western Allies had come together to defeat the common threat of fascism, but this wartime alliance was possible only because they had a common enemy. There were insurmountable ideological differences between them. It was obvious that the west detested communism while Communist Russia wanted to spread its philosophy to the world. Added to this complicated picture, President Roosevelt had died in April and by July Harry Truman, the new American president, attended the conference. The British wartime leader Winston Churchill was replaced by Clement Attlee in July 1945. The U.S. had also tested the atomic bomb, a secret they shared with the British but withheld from Russia. This further complicated the relationship between these men, although Russian spies had notified Stalin about the existence of the American weapon. Stalin was absolutely opposed to the idea of free elections in Eastern Europe. It was now clear that no sooner had World War II ended, new battle lines between communism and capitalism were being drawn in what became known as the Cold War.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HjvHZfCUI&feature=youtu.be
World War II has been considered to be the most destructive war in recorded human history with over 50 million deaths. As that war ended another type of conflict rose out of its ashes known as the Cold War. It seems the world could never operate without problems. From World War I, Communist Revolution, Great Depression, Fascism, World War II and now the Cold War, the twentieth century had its own share of global issues. In this unit, the focus will be to identify the milestones in the development of the Cold War.
Distrust between the Soviet Union as the leader of the Communist bloc and the United States could be traced as far back as the period of the Russian Civil War when the West supported the Whites. The Cold War was a series of conflicts fought between the Communists led by the Soviet Union and the Capitalists led by the United States. It was fought across continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, Americas) in the old and newly independent countries and even in space. Sometimes the Cold War broke out in military battles, but it also took the form of economic conflicts, propaganda, espionage, and diplomatic entanglements.
The most immediate causes of the Cold War could be identified in World War II with the Russian perception that although they were allies with the West, the West was reluctant to open a Second Front against Hitler which led to a significant increase in Russian casualties in the hands of the Germans. Stalin believed that had the Allies launched an attack against Hitler earlier in France, Hitler might have been forced to retreat from Russia sooner and thus some lives may have been spared. The Americans and British, on the other hand, believed that the best place to first attack Hitler was in his weakest underbelly in Italy.
By the end of the war after Russia had successfully pushed back the Germans, the Russian need for a buffer zone between Germany and Russia was understandable. While the West called for open and democratic elections for these countries to decide their future, the Russians who liberated these areas from Nazi Germany argued that Germany had invaded Russia twice through these same spaces in less than 30 years, therefore there was no possibility of giving up these territories.
The Iron Curtain, as this dividing line across Europe was known, separated the areas under Communist and Western rule. Ambassador George F. Kennan developed the U.S. policy towards Russia which was called Containment. The goal was to check or limit the spread of communism anywhere in the world. What was the Russian policy towards the U.S. during the Cold War and what evidence can you cite to support your ideas?
Confrontations in Europe
The Berlin Blockade of 1948-1949 was the first international crisis of the Cold War. Germany had been defeated by the Allies and partitioned among them into four zones. The German capital of Berlin, was located in the Russian zone, but Berlin itself was also divided into four zones among the Allies. In June of 1948, Russia blocked all land access to the Western zone of Berlin. In response to this aggression, the Western powers decided to airlift all their supplies to West Berlin.
The United States created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which like the alliance system in Europe before World War I, was basically a military umbrella for Western democracies in which members were guaranteed each other's support in the event of an invasion. Russia also created its own rival military bloc known as the Warsaw Pact which was made up of countries in the Eastern bloc. In Yugoslavia, Josip Tito, who took power in 1945 with Russian help, extended his support to Greek communists who were also trying to gain control of their country. President Truman stepped in and asked Congress for help. The U.S. responded to the crisis in Greece with a promise to support "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures." President Truman confirmed the Marshall Plan(named after Secretary Marshall) which was an aid package to help rebuild European economies after the war. Josef Stalin rejected an invitation to join, but created his own rival bloc in 1949 known as COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance).
After the colossal damage wrought by World War II, it is important to discuss here the rapid economic recovery of Europe in the period from 1945-1960. There were some major changes implemented by the new governments in Europe which favored and prioritized government intervention in the economy, increased global trade, scientific and technological advances, and finally foreign aid from the United States. After the war, many European governments rejected the economic policies of the fascists as they adopted free market and laissez-faire policies. As they opened their markets, they balanced this with government stimulation of the economy. Governments in these countries invested in welfare services, heavy industries, transportation, public utilities, and farming industries.
The disastrous effects of the protectionism which happened during the Great Depression made many European countries favor trade and a reduction of tariffs. Inter-European trade increased as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development together with the European Economic Community fought to reduce barriers to trade and lower tariffs. There was an upsurge in the demand for raw materials from Africa and Asia and, in return, an increase in the demand for finished goods from Europe.
Some scholars hold that American aid after World War II may have been the most significant factor in the economic recovery of the continent. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), founded in 1943 and dissolved in 1948, provided the most immediate aid to Europe. In 1944, at the Bretton-Woods Conference in New Hampshire, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund were set up with the specific mission to finance the reconstruction of Europe. After President's Truman's commitment to support Greece, the United States announced the Marshall Plan which was a massive $12 billion aid to sponsor the recovery and reconstruction of Europe. Europe had money for industrial and agricultural investment which stimulated their economies. As a result, barely two years after the program was launched, the productivity rate exceeded by 25 percent what it had been in 1939. This massive aid also engineered greater cooperation among European countries with the creation of other entities such as Organization for European Economic Cooperation, the European Coal and Steel Community, and ultimately European Economic Community.
The Cold War in China and Korea
The U.S. used all the tools at its disposal to contain the spread of communism. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was employed to overthrow any governments that were perceived to be sympathetic towards communism or socialism.
The Communist Revolution which took place in Russia had succeeded in a period of less than a year. Communism in China, on the other hand, was a longer struggle which started in 1921 and only triumphed in 1949. Communism was relatively unknown in China. The last of the Chinese dynasties collapsed in 1911, and after a period of chaos, China fell under the leadership of Chiang Kai Shek who promoted a series of reforms. The Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong championed the resistance against the Japanese intrusion into China and thus gained popularity among the countryside farmers. In Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution had its greatest popularity among the workers. Despite American support and aid to the Chinese Nationalists led by Chiang Kai Shek, the peasant army of Mao increasingly mounted effective guerrilla warfare against the Nationalists, appealed to women, and because Mao was considered transparent, he ultimately prevailed over the American-backed Nationalists. Mao also addressed the long history of imperialist exploitation of China, and many Chinese saw American intervention as a continuation of that humiliation. China fell to the Communists in 1949 as the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan. Mao then consolidated his rule over the mainland with a distinct brand of Communism.
Japan controlled Korea during the period of World War II, but as the tide turned against Japan, so too did its control over all its colonies. In Korea, the country was temporarily partitioned along the 38th parallel after the Japanese defeat in the hands of American and Soviet forces. The Soviet forces were in the north while American forces were in the south. After the fall of China as a capitalist nation in 1949 and with increasing support from Russia, the North Koreans believed they could unify the island under communist rule. They crossed the 38th parallel to launch an attack aimed at unifying the island under communist rule. Following its policy of containment, the U.S. got the U.N. (which replaced the League of Nations after World War II) to declare North Korea an aggressor and send in U.N. troops to liberate the South. General Douglas MacArthur commanded the UN forces in Korea. When he completely repelled the North Koreans, MacArthur threatened to invade the rest of China which provoked China into entering the war. After a complicated war, an armistice was signed in 1953 recognizing the 38thparallel line as the divider between the two Koreas. No peace treaty has been signed by either party and this remains a hot zone even today.
Khrushchev, Cuba, and Guatemala
Joseph Stalin died in 1953 of a stroke and was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev who brought in a wave of fresh air by criticizing Stalin. When Poland and Hungary mistook his words as hopes for reforms, the uprising in Budapest was crushed by Russian troops. Under Khrushchev the Soviet Union was the first to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and the world's first orbiting satellite named Sputnik into space. By 1961, Russia also sent Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut, into space and subsequently sent the first woman as well. These developments frightened the U.S. and under the Eisenhower administration, the U.S. by 1958 also launched its satellite, Explorer I and its own ICBM. The Cold War had entered into space with an arms race.
Starting during the Eisenhower administration, the U.S. attempted to counteract Khrushchev's appeal to national liberation movements in Africa, South America and Asia. Allen Dulles, as head of the CIA, ran a secret program which trained and supported anti-communists throughout the world. In 1959, the guerilla nationalists in Cuba had successfully overthrown a pro-U.S. government. The CIA trained Cuban dissidents in Guatemala with the goal to invade and overthrow Fidel Castro. President Kennedy inherited this program and supported it, but the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 turned out to be a fiasco.
A major confrontation during the Cold war happened in 1962 when US reconnaissance planes spotted over Cuba what looked like missile launching pads planted by the Russians. Russia had planted these medium range and intermediate range nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba in retaliation for American missles in Turkey. Kennedy promptly demanded that they be destroyed and Cuba to be quarantined to prevent any future shiploads. Khrushchev defied Kennedy and ordered Russian ships to transport some more missiles to Cuba. As the ships headed for Cuba, the world stood still at the real possibility of nuclear obliteration. In the last minute, Khrushchev blinked. He recalled the ships. Although America agreed to remove its own missiles from Turkey, the world had been on the precipice of a nuclear annihilation. The Cuban Missile Crisis boosted Kennedy's reputation, especially coming after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. It also helped the two superpowers to create a direct communication line to prevent the escalation of any future conflicts. A telephone line known as the "Hotline" was installed linking the White House to the Kremlin. Finally, because of the real threat of nuclear annihilation, there was a move to limit nuclear weapons. Kennedy and Khrushchev both signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963, limiting testing above ground of nuclear weapons.
In Guatemala, a democratically elected government led by JacoboArbenz Guzman was overthrown with help from the CIA. Guzman won primarily on promises to renegotiate Guatemalan land from the American-owned United Fruit Company, which monopolized many areas of life in the country. There was no evidence that Jacobo was a communist besides the support he may have received from some communists, but his support for populist policies led the CIA to believe that he was a communist. The CIA orchestrated a coup which removed Jacobo from power and replaced him with a repressive military regime in 1954. A similar process led by the CIA had also successfully removed a democratically elected leader Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran and replaced him with an American-backed autocratic monarch. It was not until 2013 (sixty years later) that the U.S. publicly acknowledged the role it played in this Iranian coup.
Vietnam was perhaps one of the most significant proxy battles for the Cold War. Initially colonized by the French, Indochina as it was called was seized by Japan during its expansionist period. After World War II ended, Indochina was fighting to gain independence, but the French wanted to continue their colonial rule. Led by the indefatigable Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese fought bravely against the French. By 1954, the French were exhausted especially because of the capture of their military base at Dien Bien Phu by the Vietnamese nationalist communist forces known as Viet Minh. So France agreed to a meeting in Geneva in which Vietnam was to be partitioned along the 17th Parallel with free elections to be held in two years to unify the country. The U.S. rejected this plan because they believed if elections were held the alleged "Communist" Ho Chi Minh would win. Therefore, the U.S. decided to prop up a new government in South Vietnam with substantial funding to prevent Vietnam from going Communist.
Concerned that a "domino effect" would ensue in Asia if any more countries were allowed to go communist, the U.S. defied all odds to defend South Vietnam. China and Russia supported North Vietnam.
In 1964 an incident (Gulf of Tonkin incident) in which a US destroyer clashed with a North Vietnamese craft, prompted Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution granting the president power to build troops on the Vietnamese peninsular. The U.S. escalated the war, and the North Vietnamese responded with the Tet Offensive which was expected to capture South Vietnam. Although the Tet Offensive did not achieve its stated goal, it won the war of public opinion as it convinced many in the U.S. that winning the war in Vietnam was not possible. South Vietnam was captured in 1975 and the war ended with a unified Vietnam under communist rule.
The Non-Aligned Movement
During the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, many African, South American, and Asian countries were fighting to gain independence from their colonial powers. The newly independent states did not want to be caught in the middle of the Cold War rivalry, so they created a non-aligned movement in which they did not formally align with or against any bloc. The organization was born in 1961 with Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Abdel Gamer Nasser of Egypt, and Josip Tito of Yugoslavia. They worked to grow their economies and develop their nations by avoiding being drawn as pawns into the Cold War.
The Non-Aligned Movement developed four main criteria for membership which became the official policy of the group. Members had to adopt the policy of coexistence between states with different political and social systems, demonstrate consistent support for independent movements, be a member of the multilateral military agreements without necessarily supporting the conflicts of the Great Powers, and could not accept military bases in support of one power over the other.
The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev saw the Non-Aligned Movement as an opportunity to support the decolonization of Africa and Asia and to spread communism. He worked with various countries in the movement including in South America to seek support or provide communist help. This approach by the Soviet Union was not welcome in the U.S. where Kennedy was already concerned that the Soviets were meddling in too many places including Central Africa, Cuba, and Indochina.
In September 1954, the U.S., Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization known as SEATO. Surprisingly, despite its name, there were only two Southeast Asian countries who served as members. The rest were mostly European countries who had an interest in the region. The stated purpose of this organization was to prevent the spread of communism into the region, but most of the countries in that region were less concerned about communism than they were on domestic or foreign instability.
It is evident that despite attempts by the Movement to steer clear of the Cold War, there were many tensions and sometimes conflicts which affected its members. The Movement (representing more than half of the global population) decided to refocus itself on fighting for the core needs of its members on issues of ending colonial rule, economic development, and finding a way forward after the end of the Cold War in 1992.
In this unit we have reviewed the challenges faced by the world in the twentieth century. From the many wars, economic depressions, rise of communism and fascism to the non-aligned movement, these problems marked the collapse of an old order and the birth of a new led by the two superpowers (USA and USSR). In what areas did the League of Nations fail and how did the United Nations overcome such weaknesses? Based on the information covered so far, how different was Russian Communism from the Chinese? Finally, how did the Cold War play out in Africa and the Middle East?
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Is The Government Shutdown Just a Smokescreen for Something Bigger?
It's hard not being paranoid these days. With our Government ordering mass quantities of ammunition, MREs, armored vehicles, and with the latest NSA spying scandal, why should I be concerned? For those of you who have been paying close attention, you'll probably recall having heard something about Senator Sheldon R. Songstads FEMA region 3 alert email which went viral across the internet. If this is the first you've heard of it, check out the video below by revmichellehopkins, who first broke the story, as well as a copy of the original email. When this story first broke back in August, I admit I was a little skeptical. However, the retired Senator has just come out publicly, according to the Senator in fear for his life, in an interview on Truenews. In the interview Songstad talks about "the preparations" our Government is making and he goes on to say "if you saw what I was still working on, it would scare the hell out of you." All I know is, when our Government decides that it's time to start stockpiling weapons, ammo, food, water and medical supplies, then it's probably a good time for us to start doing the same. Hear the entire interview below and decide for yourself.
http://prepforshtf.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/9_30_13_monday_trunews2.mp3
Trunews Exclusive: Ret. South Dakota State Senator, Sheldon R. Songstad, joins Rick to give an urgent warning concerning the convergence of events taking place on or around the first of October. The bizarre activities he notes range from unusual measures being taken by FEMA, DHS, and the CDC in preparation for an unspecified disaster to an unexplained uptick in military training of both foreign and domestic troops. Senator Songstad poses the question, 'Is all the hoopla surrounding a government shutdown just a smokescreen for something much bigger?
The copied email alert in full:
Emergency Fema Region 3 Alert!!!
FEMA Region III: DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, WV
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 6:43 AM
Subject: National update from Sheldon: Senator Sheldon R. Songstad, Ret. of South Dakota State
A few nights ago Donald Trump was with Greta on Fox News. He told her something BIG was going to happen, most likely starting the first week of October. He could say NOTHING ELSE at this time.
HERE IS WHAT WHAT THE SENATORS NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS RESEARCH TURNED UP…
FEMA purchase orders for over $14.2 million for MREs and heater meals to be delivered to Region III by October 1st.
FEMA purchase orders for 22 million pouches of emergency water to be delivered to region III by October 1st.
FEMA purchase orders for $13.6 million for MREs and heater meals to be delivered to Austin by October 1st.
Nine-week training course for UN Peacekeepers in CONUS to learn Urban Warfare, English, and US weapons systems beginning 4th week of July for 386,000 troops to be completed by October 1st.
$11 million in antibiotics to be delivered to FEMA region III by October 1st ordered by CDC.
World Health Organization held second emergency meeting in its history to discuss MERS Coronavirus. Determined a vaccine MUST be in place by October 1st.
2800 MRAPs must be delivered to DHS by October 1st.
No leave will be allowed for US military from September 28th thru November 5th. NORCOMM yearly training for civil unrest suspended until September 27th. To be performed in northeast coastal areas.
Date for release of QE3 report moved to October 16th.
All DHS agents MUST qualify with sidearm, shotgun and AR 15 by September 28th. No mention of yearly less lethal qualification.
Sporadic testing of GPS and Communications satellites is coordinated for the first time with a testing date of September 29th.
POTUS mandates to FEMA and DHS concerning support for metropolitan communities dealing with the extreme climate change MUST be complete by October 1st. These mandates were issued during the last three weeks.
Over 300 school systems in the US have determined they need three-day kits for each school AND three-day kits for each student to take with them. All deliveries are scheduled for the month of September.
All National Guard units will complete riot control and disaster assistance training during this years annual two week training. All units MUST have their training complete by September 30th.
Daily testing of the Emergency Broadcast System to begin on September 25th and run thru October 2nd.
Eastern-based Coast Guard units to perform massive group training, usually performed in the Gulf, in the Virginia and Delaware areas. This is a 10-day training mission to begin September 26th.
"GOD, PLEASE HELP AMERICA"
Sheldon R. Songstad
Senator Retired: South Dakota State |
The Baylor County Jail, located in the city of Seymour, in Baylor County, Texas is a medium to maximum-security facility.
Correctional officers in Baylor County Jail are armed with mace and trained to use physical force to protect themselves, visitors and inmates from violence.
All of the men and women being held in the Baylor County Jail are either awaiting trial or have been sentenced in the Baylor County Court System and been sentenced to one year or less.
The Baylor County Jail also houses inmates arrested by this county's municipal police departments.
This facility, known as "Baylor County Jail" is also known as Baylor County Sheriff, Seymour Police Department, Baylor County Jail & Sheriff , Baylor County Jail & Sheriff , Texas, Baylor. |
It is one thing to rely upon the superb mechanical efficiency taken for granted in today's high performance vehicles to get around a demanding course. It is quite another to take charge of, and depend upon, a team of lively Siberian Huskies weighing 900 pounds. The O1 Husky Challenge will take place around a course in Finland's far north, across frozen lakes, forested fells and snow-laden landscapes. O1 Challengers will experience perfect isolation within untouched terrain.
Competitors will drive a team of 6 Huskies around a 20km course. They will be responsible for harnessing their own teams in temperatures as low as -20°C, then setting off at timed intervals around the course.
Relying on little more than their innate air of authority, and the relationship that they can establish with their team and crucially with the team leader, competitors are set for an exhausting trial.
The O1 Husky Challenge has been selected to test competitors' physical prowess and levels of endurance in a way that a speed engineered event cannot. It is the one event where competitors will be tested to their limit on their reserves of self-belief and mental strength. The latter will be more important than any straight-line speed abilities.
© 2015 O1 Challenge. All rights reserved. |
Forum » ..:: General ::.. » Ulster news » Thank you unionists.. I don't think
Thank you unionists.. I don't think
Culzie Date: Monday, 2016-11-28, 3:53 PM | Message # 1
Thanks to the UUP and the rest of unionists who voted Remain in the Brexit referendum we are having a united Ireland raised again. The poll here puts the figure around 70% for a united Ireland.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news....76.html
Would the Eire government be able to hand out this sort of money in a united Ireland?
Today (23 November 2016) at Autumn Statement, the Chancellor set out announcements which will build an economy that works for everyone, in Northern Ireland, and the whole of the UK.The UK government's decision to focus on infrastructure spending means that the Northern Ireland Executive's budget will increase by more than £250 million through to 2020-2021, giving it greater spending power to boost productivity and promote growth in Northern Ireland.
How this increase in funding will be allocated will be decided by Northern Ireland Ministers, and will be set out by the Finance Minister when he presents his budget to the Northern Ireland Assembly next month.
The Autumn Statement also includes a range of measures that will directly benefit Northern Ireland.Fuel duty is frozen for the seventh successive year, which should save the average car driver in Northern Ireland £10 each time they fill their tank.
The National Living Wage is increasing from £7.20 to £7.50.Northern Ireland's prestigious universities should also benefit from the UK government's decision to increase funding for research and innovation by £2 billion a year by 2020-21, ensuring that the UK continues to be a world leader in science and technology.
The government is also making further investments in digital infrastructure such as fibre broadband and 5G – vital in ensuring that businesses in Northern Ireland are well placed to take advantage of the opportunities presented by new technologies, and reap the benefits of greater connectivity.
Additionally, the government will meet its manifesto commitment to increase the personal allowance to £12,500. Over the last Parliament, 700,000 individuals in Northern Ireland saw an average gain of £522, due to increase to the personal allowanceNorthern Ireland, like the rest of the UK, will benefit from the decisions set out in today's Autumn Statement, as the UK Government continues to build an economy that works for all.
https://www.gov.uk/governm....atement |
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Home » Lecture Notes: divorce over easy
Posted inArts & Culture
Lecture Notes: divorce over easy
by Deanna Isaacs October 1, 1998 August 20, 2021
Let's say you're finally through with the jerk. You've had enough of his oh-so-sincere lies, his hairsplitting excuses, his worthless, blubbering promises that it'll never happen again. Enough of putting on a smile and pretending not to notice while the whole world wonders why you're sticking with him. It's done. You've made a decision. You want a divorce.
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"If you're living around here, you'll need to find grounds," says Evanston attorney David Carlson, who's presenting a divorce workshop for women Tuesday at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore. When a marriage breaks up, the state of Illinois wants to blame someone. That means you might have to put it on record that the spouse to be shed is a cheater, abuser, habitual drunk, drug addict, or has forgotten to come home for a couple of years. The only near-faultless option in Illinois is something called "irreconcilable differences," which allows you to claim there's been a breakdown in the marriage without having to explain that it happened while your husband was having his pecker licked by an intern.
If the hubby decides to fight the divorce, you may have to wait out a two-year separation, Carlson says. This isn't as hard as it sounds, since separation can actually occur while you're living under the same roof–as long as you're not sharing dinners in front of the fireplace, making plans for your next joint trip to Club Med, or sleeping with him. If your contact is limited to job-related public appearances–like state dinners–and you really can't stand to be in the same room, you're separated in the eyes of the court. If you haven't killed each other after two years of this, you'll qualify for a split. On the other hand, if he agrees to the divorce, the two years of torture can be reduced to a mere six months.
If he's already gone on TV and confessed to an "inappropriate relationship," why not file on grounds of adultery? This, it seems, gets us into one of those gray areas of the law. Open and notorious adultery is actually illegal in Illinois, Carlson says. If, say, the slimeball went to a popular nightspot where he'd be sure to be recognized and posed for a picture with someone on his knee who is definitely not you (but looks a lot like the bouffant Barbie), that could be proof of adultery and also (yes!) a crime against the state. But the law has more tolerance for slimeballs who understand the virtue of sneaking around. In a case where everything seems to have been done in the privacy of his office, and he never even stopped taking phone calls, we'd have to take a careful look at what he's fessed up to. We could make a case for mental cruelty, for sure, and heterosexual genital intercourse would be a shoo-in. But beyond that, who's to say where a friendly gesture ends and carnal knowledge begins? Extramarital oral sex may or may not constitute adultery under Illinois law. "My opinion would be that it does," says Carlson (we didn't give him time to research it), "but I think it's an open issue that the courts would have to decide."
As for assets, don't assume you'll get more of them just because the spouse is a lying tomcat. In 1977 the Illinois legislature decided not to let that kind of bad behavior influence the stuff that really counts, like the division of money and property. (Unless he's kinky in front of the kids, the extramarital hanky-panky won't affect custody or visitation.) What counts in deciding who gets the goodies, Carlson says, is the contributions each spouse made in acquiring them, the dissipation of the assets by either spouse, the length of the marriage, the economic circumstances of each spouse after the divorce, prior obligations (as from previous marriages), and any prenuptial agreement that might have been signed. If the husband stands to earn more than the wife in the future, she can generally get either a 50-50 split of the assets plus maintenance (the current name for alimony), or more of the property with either no maintenance or reduced maintenance for a limited period of time.
Disgruntled husbands will have to find Carlson on their own, but wives who've had enough will get a chance to pick his brain when he and Skokie attorney Lynn Cohen appear at "Ask a Lawyer," a workshop sponsored by the Lilac Tree, a one-stop referral, counseling, and support organization for women going through divorce. The workshop will be held from 6:45 to 9 Tuesday at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore, Church and Ridge, Evanston. The Lilac Tree is supported in part by the attorneys on its roster, but there's no obligation to use its referral service. Admission for this workshop is $25. Call 847-328-0313 for more information or to register.
–Deanna Isaacs
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): David Carlson photo by J.B. Spector.
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You are here: Home / News / Vote for St. Louis soccer stadium tax credits put on hold after Greitens "welfare for millionaires," comment.
Vote for St. Louis soccer stadium tax credits put on hold after Greitens "welfare for millionaires," comment.
December 20, 2016 By Bill Pollock
An HOK Image of where a new MLS stadium would be built in downtown St. Louis
The state Development Finance Board postponed a vote during their scheduled meeting on Tuesday in Jefferson City, delaying a request from the city of St. Louis for $40 million in tax credits to go toward a $200 million downtown stadium plan to bring an MLS team to St. Louis.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, SC STL, the group trying to bring a professional soccer team to St. Louis, requested the postponement after Governor-elect Eric Greitens called the plan "nothing more than welfare for millionaires."
SC STL hopes to set up a meeting with Greitens before considering another request for vote. A St. Louis Board of Aldermen also introduced legislation last week that could ask city voters to approve up to $80 million for the stadium, which would be the next step in bringing a third professional franchise to St. Louis.
The Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles after Governor Jay Nixon's task force was unable to secure a stadium plan that met the approval of Rams' owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL.
Filed Under: News, Sports Tagged With: Soccer, Sports, St. Louis |
Russia Calling On South Korea To Promptly Approve Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine – Minister
Russia has informed South Korea about Sputnik V effectiveness and has asked to approve the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible to enable vaccinated travelers not to self-isolate upon arrival, Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East Alexei Chekunkov said in an interview with Sputnik
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 09th November, 2021) Russia has informed South Korea about Sputnik V effectiveness and has asked to approve the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible to enable vaccinated travelers not to self-isolate upon arrival, Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East Alexei Chekunkov said in an interview with Sputnik.
The minister paid a working visit to South Korea last week to participate in the third bilateral forum of cross-regional cooperation. Chekunkov held several dozen meetings with South Korean officials and business people.
"We informed the Korean side about the effectiveness of the Sputnik vaccine and called for a fast recognition of Sputnik in Korea. This would allow those vaccinated with Sputnik not to undergo quarantine," Chekunkov said.
This decision would be "extremely useful for the development of both humanitarian and economic ties" between the two countries, the minister noted.
At the moment, only those foreign citizens who were either fully vaccinated in South Korea or received the first vaccine shot there and the second one abroad are exempted from mandatory quarantine upon arrival.
Seoul recognizes only vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). South Koreans and foreign citizens who were fully vaccinated abroad are required to self-isolate for 10 days.
However, a traveler vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine abroad can receive a special quarantine exemption certificate at foreign diplomatic mission in South Korea. Such certificates are issued only for those traveling with important commercial, scientific or humanitarian purposes, and also for public officers paying official visits. In absence of this certificate, South Korean citizens vaccinated abroad will be registered as vaccinated at the end of their mandatory quarantine and will not have to self-isolate the next time they enter the country. Foreign citizens do not have such an opportunity.
کیٹاگری میں : لطیفے
Syrias Idlib De-escalation Zone Shelled Three Times In Past Day – Reconciliation Center
UPDATE – United States Strongly Condemns Attacks In Abu Dhabi – State Department
United States Strongly Condemns Attacks In Abu Dhabi – State Department
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2nd Power Unit Of Belarus NPP To Start Operating In Late February – Early…
Recent Unrest In Kazakhstan Did Not Affect Cooperation With Rosatom – CEO Likhachev |
The New Rules: America Need Not Fear Connectivity Revolutions
Thomas P.M. Barnett Feb 28, 2011 October 18, 2022
A lot of international relations theories are being stress-tested by events in the Arab world right now, with some emerging better than others. Two in particular that are worth mentioning are Ian Bremmer's 2006 book, "The J Curve," which predicts a dangerous dip into instability when closed, authoritarian states attempt to open up to the world; and Evgeny Morozov's new book, "The Net Delusion," which critiques the notion that Internet connectivity is inherently democratizing. (In the interests of transparency, I work as a consultant for Bremmer's political risk consultancy, Eurasia Group, and penned a pre-publication blurb for Morozov's book.) Both […]
Hollywood, the Oscars and Soft Power
Judah Grunstein Feb 28, 2011
For all the talk about America's declining global influence, it's worth mentioning that the Oscar awards were front-page news in just about every English-language foreign daily that I scan each morning, as well as in both French-language dailies I read. Compare that to the French equivalent, the Césars, which, in case you missed it — and unless you're a film buff, you probably did — took place earlier this week. As for the Césars, among the highlights were the honorary award given to Quentin Tarantino as well as the ceremony's host, Jodie Foster. To be clear, this isn't a value […]
Global Insider: Diplomatic Immunity
The Editors Feb 28, 2011 October 18, 2022
The U.S. and Pakistan are currently engaged in a diplomatic tussle over Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor held in Pakistan for allegedly killing two men in Lahore in January. The U.S. has called for Davis' release, citing his diplomatic immunity. In an e-mail interview, Linda Frey, professor of European History at the University of Montana and Marsha Frey, professor of European History at Kansas State University, co-authors of "The History of Diplomatic Immunity," discussed the history and operation of diplomatic immunity. WPR: What does diplomatic immunity cover and exclude, and who receives it? Linda Frey and Marsha Frey: As a […]
Q & AAfrica
Libya, Iraq and the Responsibility to Protect
Judah Grunstein Feb 25, 2011 October 17, 2022
If the debate about how the U.S. and the international community should respond to the carnage in Libya highlights one thing, it is that we still have not arrived at either a domestic or global consensus about when and why to intervene militarily in the affairs of a sovereign state. I include Iraq in the title of this post for three reasons. First, the pre-emptive nature of the Iraq invasion in many ways served to sidetrack the debate over humanitarian interventions. Second, the outcome of the Iraq War served to chasten the broad middle of the policy debate, if not […]
Sexual Violence and the Arab Uprisings
Patricia Leidl Feb 25, 2011 April 29, 2011
As more sickening details emerge of what actually happened to CBS reporter Lara Logan in Tahrir Square on Feb. 13, the partisan rhetoric shows no signs of abating. Some claim that it was "pro-Mubarak" thugs who sexually assaulted and almost killed the 39-year-old mother of two, while others point the finger at "pro-liberation" hooligans. Still others have used the incident to demonize Muslims in general. Such distinctions, however, have nothing to do with why Logan was attacked and, in fact, obscure the real issue. Like many millions of women, girls and young boys around the world, Logan was not a […]
VideoGlobal
World Oil Prices Soar Amid Libya Chaos
World oil prices have risen to their highest level for two years as Libya's Colonel Gaddafi defies a widespread uprising.
Over the Horizon: The Enduring Relevance of Thucydides
Robert Farley Feb 23, 2011 October 17, 2022
Last weekend I attended a conference in San Antonio on the relevance of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" to the practice of contemporary American foreign policy. Sponsored by the Liberty Fund, the conference's motivating concept and focus was the relationship between democracy and empire in Thucydides. The conference attendees included scholars of several stripes, including War College faculty, former policymakers from the Bush administration and prominent think tank fellows. This was no dry academic conference focused on textual minutiae. Rather, it was intended to give policymakers — and those who educate policymakers — space for thinking about what Thucydides […]
Global Insights: The Many Messages of National Strategy Documents
Richard Weitz Feb 22, 2011 October 18, 2022
Several additional national security strategies have been issued in recent weeks, including the publication earlier this month of both an updated National Military Strategy and the first-ever National Security Space Strategy. Though these texts shed additional light on the priorities and perspectives of the Obama administration's national security team at mid-term, they serve other purposes than just articulating strategy. The National Military Strategy (.pdf) starts by describing the security environment in which the Pentagon operates, the U.S. military's core objectives and the Defense Department's strategies for pursuing them. It then assesses the adequacy of U.S. military capabilities to achieve these […]
G-20 Summit Passes the Buck: Part II
Daniel McDowell Feb 22, 2011 October 18, 2022
Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on the G-20. Part I examined efforts to rebalance the global economy. Part II examines efforts to reform the global monetary system. Leading up to and throughout the G-20 finance ministers meeting last weekend, murmurs were heard about the role of the dollar and the need to reform the global monetary system. This is nothing new, of course, as a variety of major economies have expressed an interest in demoting the dollar since the global financial crisis broke out in 2008. The most recent examples came from Brazil and China, […]
ColumnAsia-Pacific
The New Rules: U.S. Should Pursue 'Open Door,' not Primacy
The decline of the American "empire" has been a persistent theme of the punditocracy these past several years, with the underlying logic being Washington's inability to extend, ad infinitum, the primacy seemingly conferred upon it at Cold War's end. The global financial crisis has now further revealed a suddenly — and stunningly — rebalanced global order, and as a result, Americans are supposed to dread the vast uncertainties of our allegedly "post-American world." Worse, Americans are also being presented with a patently false binary choice: Should the U.S. do what is necessary to regain its primacy or simply let it […]
G-20 Summit Passes the Buck: Part I
Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on the G-20. Part I examines efforts to rebalance the global economy. Part II will appear tomorrow and will examine efforts to reform the global monetary system. Over the weekend, G-20 finance ministers met in Paris to discuss steps on how to address persistent global current account imbalances that some fear could send the global economy back into recession. From the outset, the meetings reinforced what we already know about the group: Preferences among the members are incredibly diverse, making progress toward cooperation painfully slow. This is exacerbated by the […]
Somali Piracy Offers Opportunity for Korean Détente
Tad Farrell, Andrew Pascoe Feb 18, 2011 October 18, 2022
It was recently reported that Somali pirates have been holding the crew of the North Korean cargo ship Chilsanbong Cheonnyeonho since it was captured last March. Ten months on, the ship remains detained, with hefty ransom demands likely still outstanding. With no records for the vessel found at maritime insurance tracker Seasearcher, the possibility that its crew may now be facing abandonment is becoming ever more likely. However, given South Korea's dramatic rescue of one of its own vessels captured by pirates in January, the case of the Chilsanbong now offers the Koreas an opportunity for military cooperation at a […]
World Citizen: Globalization Fuels the Arab Uprising
Frida Ghitis Feb 10, 2011 October 18, 2022
Observers of the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and other countries in the Arab world have focused with great excitement on the role played by new media, suggesting the events demonstrate the power of social networks to build a revolution. The rebellion, they say, was a uniquely 21st-century product of Twitter, Facebook and even Wikileaks. The reality, however, is much more complex. Many factors came into play to unleash the chain reaction that came crashing into Cairo's Tahrir Square. Some of those factors are as new as the iPhone, others as old as the slingshot. But what made the long-simmering popular […]
Over the Horizon: Egypt's Army and Military Professionalism
Robert Farley Feb 9, 2011 October 18, 2022
One simple rule of revolution is that regimes fall when their security services refuse to fire on protesters, while uprisings often falter when security forces do go ahead and shoot. The situation in Egypt remains fluid, but thus far the Egyptian army has not violently put down the protest movement. Why? The answer is complicated. Mark Thompson argued at Time's Swampland blog that the exposure of Egyptian military officers to norms of professionalism and civilian control in the United States may have been determinative in the Egyptian army's decision not to crush the anti-Mubarak protests. Thompson's argument draws on several […]
The U.S. and Egypt: The Limits of Hegemony
Kenneth Weisbrode Feb 8, 2011 October 18, 2022
The Obama administration's reaction to the dramatic events in Egypt has inspired many analogies in recent days. Its initial caution and clumsiness, followed by its conviction to "be on the right side of history," reminded optimists of the Bush administration's reaction in 1989 to the uprisings in Eastern Europe, for example, and pessimists of the Carter administration's reaction a decade earlier to Iran's revolution. The Obama administration's air of ambivalence, however, evokes a perennial condition of international relations. Accustomed as most of us are to power hierarchies, we often overlook how difficult and complex actual relations can be between big […]
The Global Crisis of Protracted Displacement
Gil Loescher Feb 8, 2011 October 17, 2022
One of the most complex and difficult humanitarian problems confronting the international community today is that of protracted refugee situations. These are refugee situations that have moved beyond the emergency phase, but where solutions in the foreseeable future do not exist. Many of the refugees left behind in these situations have to live under terrible conditions, warehoused in camps or stuck in shanty towns, exposed to dangers, and with restrictions placed upon their rights and freedoms. I first became aware of the significance and dimensions of the contemporary problem of prolonged exile in 2001, after a brief visit to the […]
UNHCR and the Protection Mandate
Amy Slaughter Feb 8, 2011 March 14, 2019
One need not venture far into the world of refugee assistance to encounter a maxim whose air of axiomatic truth can be a conversation-stopper, and whose terms, like sacred postulates of the refugee-response system, are rarely unpacked: The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has the refugee-protection mandate. But several issues within that black box are worth illuminating. Namely, what does "refugee protection" mean? What is the nature of the "mandate"? And is it true that UNHCR is its unique possessor? While this might seem like a dry line of inquiry, like so much else these days, […]
Showing 1 - 17 of 191 2 NextLast |
Bloggg has the story, but I'm going to quote some of it here:
The main street was lined with people gathered to witness the event. Many supported the president. Many did not. Some came because they were simply curious. There were men, women, young and old. The mood was somewhat festive. Supporters of John Kerry sported signs, as did supporters of George Bush. Individuals, exercising their rights of free speech began chanting. On one side of the street, shouts of "four more years" echoed in the night air. On the other side of the street, chants of "three more weeks" responded. The chants were loud and apparently could be heard by President Bush. An order was issued that the anti-Bush rhetoric be quieted. The local SWAT team leapt to action.
It happened fast. Clad in full riot gear, at least 50 officers moved in. Shouting indecipherable commands from a bullhorn, they formed a chain and bore down upon the people, only working to clear the side of the street appearing to be occupied by Kerry supporters. People tried to get out of their way. It was very crowded. There was nowhere to move. People were being crushed. They started flowing into the streets. Pleas to the officers, asking, "where to go" fell upon deaf ears. Instead, riot police fired pellets of cayenne pepper spray into the crowd. An old man fell and couldn't get up. When a young man stopped to help, he was shot in the back with hard pepper spray balls. Children were hit with pepper spray. Deemed "Protesters" people were shoved and herded down the street by the menacing line of armed riot police, until out of the President's ear-shot.
The president abused his authority to silence a crowd of people, some of whom supported him, because he didn't want to hear it. What a scumbag. Why hasn't this one made the national news???
See also KATU 2 in Portland. Via BOPnews. |
Hon Paula Bennett, Minister of Social Housing, made an announcement recently that 51 new transitional homes will be provided for families in need of housing. While this is a welcome response to the ever increasing problem of homelessness for our most vulnerable citizens – namely the children of families living in poverty – it is largely underwhelming.
The true perspective for this response is to measure it against monitored and proven housing needs as assessed on the Government's own social housing register.
The Priority A list of this register (kept by the Ministry of Social Development) records those families classified as having "a severe and persistent housing need that must be addressed immediately".
The latest figures (30 June 2016) reveal a 13% increase in qualifying families in the March to June quarter. The increase was 294 families bringing the total up to 2482 families.
The provision of 51 new houses would meet approximately 20% (that is, one family in five) of the increase in need that the latest figures confirm. It does nothing to diminish the solid core of severe and persistent housing needs.
To even halve the number of families on the Priority A list – 2482 down to 1241 – in one year would require the Minister to repeat her recent announcement twice a month, every month, for the next 12. We should not hold our breath.
Priority A list is a specific, monitored statistic. The Government appears keen on achieving targeted reductions for some laudable schemes. Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) urges that the targeted reduction of Priority A list "numbers" be adopted as a totally worthy and specific goal.
Until then the harsh, but fair reality is that the Government's response is underwhelming in its modesty. No amount of fanfare will displace the daily reality of overcrowding, insecurity and diminished outcomes for our most vulnerable children. |
RANCHO DOMINGUEZ, CALIFORNIA – BI, a global full-service manufacturer of plant-based ingredients, announced successful completion of its ISO/IEC 17025:2017 certification. After evaluation of the company's quality management system and testing procedures, American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) recognized BI for demonstrating technical competence in the field of Biological Testing.
ISO 17025 is one of the highest standards that a testing laboratory can achieve. Internationally recognized, the certification indicates technical proficiency and the ability of a laboratory to generate accurate and consistent data.
ISO 17025 includes two main sections: management requirements, which relates primarily to operation of a laboratory's quality management system; and technical requirements, which determine the reliability of the laboratory's testing. A laboratory must have a thorough and documented quality management system to be considered for accreditation.
Quality testing has been a pivotal component of BI's success over the past 40 years. The company offers over 400 ingredients that have been determined as safe for use in dietary supplements and food and beverages. For more information, visit botanicals.com. |
\section{Introduction}\label{sec:introduction}}
\else
\section{Introduction}\label{sec:introduction}
\fi
\IEEEPARstart{I}{n} this work, we will be focused on the problem of Dense Non-rigid Structure from Motion (NRSfM). Generally, the goal of this problem is to solve dense 3D shape of a non-rigidly deforming object in the scene from its per pixel image correspondences across multiple frames. Application that benefits from dense NRSfM includes animation \cite{jain2010augmenting}, motion capture \cite{akhter2009nonrigid}, 3D facial expression capture \cite{garg2013dense}, human heart 3D model for bypass surgery \cite{garg2013dense} and many more. These examples demonstrate that NRSfM is central to a wide range of important real-world applications and therefore, a reliable solution to NRSfM can benefit several areas in science and engineering.
There are different ways to solve non-rigid structure-from-motion problem, among them, matrix factorization is one of the most popular and a well-known approach to find a solution to this problem \cite{bregler2000recovering} \cite{akhter2009nonrigid} \cite{dai2014simple} \cite{gotardo2011non}. Under the matrix factorization approach, a measurement matrix (a matrix with 2D trajectories as its column vectors) is decomposed into a motion matrix and a shape matrix \S \ref{ss:struct_motion}. Consequently, any solution to this problem using this approach depends on the proper modeling of \emph{structure}, and an efficient approach to estimate \emph{motion}. Mathematically, one can assume that the 3D shape belongs to some \emph{shape} manifold\footnote{Here, we assume a smooth, continuous surface for dense NRSfM problem} and the motion lies on a differentiable manifold \cite{fecko2006differential}. Keeping this perspective to solve dense NRSfM, it's quite natural to think of this problem in terms of manifolds, and how to model this problem efficiently using manifold representation.
Our survey reveals that the advancements in the non-rigid structure-from-motion for \emph{sparse} set of points has been steady over the years \cite{akhter2009nonrigid} \cite{gotardo2011non} \cite{gotardo2011kernel} \cite{paladini2012optimal} \cite{akhter2011trajectory} \cite{dai2014simple} \cite{lee2013procrustean} \cite{lee2016consensus} \cite{kumar2016multi} \cite{larsson2017compact} \cite{kumar2019non}, yet, the developments in dense NRSfM algorithm has been limited \cite{garg2013dense} \cite{ansari2017scalable} \cite{dai2017dense}. The reason for such a limited development in dense NRSfM is perhaps due to its dependence on per pixel reliable 2D image correspondences, across multiple frames, or the absence of resilient mathematical representation to model dense surface deformation. One can argue on the efficient motion estimation, however, from image correspondences, we can only estimate relative motion, and reliable algorithms with convincing theory exists to perform this task well \cite{dai2014simple} \cite{lee2013procrustean}. Additionally, with the recent developments in learning based approaches, per pixel correspondences can be achieved with a remarkable accuracy \cite{sun2018pwc} \cite{hur2017mirrorflow}, which leaves dense non-rigid shape representation and its modeling as a potential gray area for research in \textbf{dense} NRSfM.
A natural way to deal with dense NRSfM is to try classical sparse NRSfM algorithms, which in fact, works quite well for a few sets of points. Our experiments show that the existing sparse NRSfM algorithms do not cascade well to dense NRSfM settings. This is because the assumption and the formulation developed for the sparse NRSfM does not hold entirely for dense deforming surfaces. For example: The assumption that a non-rigid shape spans a global low-rank space \cite{dai2014simple} \cite{lee2013procrustean}. Now, such an assumption may hold for the global structure of the problem, however, it fails to cater the inherent local deformation of the shape over time and space. Therefore, dense NRSfM solution using sparse NRSfM formulations provides implausible results. This drawback with \cite{dai2014simple} \cite{lee2013procrustean} led to the development of union of subspace based methods in NRSfM \cite{zhu2014complex} \cite{kumar2016multi} \cite{kumar2017spatio}. Among these methods, Kumar et.al. work on the union of subspace demonstrated state-of-the-art results \cite{kumar2016multi} in the NRSfM challenge at CVPR 2017 \cite{jensen2018benchmark}. Nevertheless, these algorithms do not scale to dense feature points and their resilience to noise and outliers remains unsatisfactory.
In the past, researchers have developed dense NRSfM algorithm as well, but similar to sparse NRSfM they are mostly restricted to global shape constraint \cite{garg2013variational} \cite{garg2013dense} \cite{dai2017dense}. As a result, it fails to exploit the local deformation of the surface. Moreover, the optimization framework proposed by these approaches is critically expensive to process \S \ref{sref:relatedwork}. These deficiencies with past methods made us realize that a dense NRSfM algorithm needs a framework that should be able to exploit both local and global non-linearities, and at the same time must be computationally fast to process. Keeping these standards intact, we developed a new representation and modeling for dense NRSfM problem. Using our new representation, we can apply both local and global shape deformation constraints to model a dense NRSfM problem. We adhere to the assumption that the low-dimensional linear subspace spanned by a deforming shape is valid \textbf{locally} ---in both space and time, along with \textbf{global} low-rank space. Such an assumption about the surfaces has been well studied in topological manifold theory \cite{absil2004riemannian} \cite{dollar2007non}. \\
\noindent
\emph{Global low rank representation}: Matrix factorization approaches to NRSfM assumes that the deforming 3D structure intrinsically spans a low-rank space globally \cite{dai2014simple} \cite{garg2013dense}. This low-rank representation faithfully captures the global behavior of a non-rigidly deforming object over multiple frames. This representation can be obtained using Singular Value Decomposition, however, in the presence of noisy measurements such a solution can provide unsettling results. Due to \cite{elhamifar2009sparse} \cite{candes2011robust} \cite{liu2013robust} its possible to recover a low-rank solution under such circumstances. Dai et.al. research \cite{dai2014simple} ---which is a classical work in NRSfM, draws its inspiration using the following optimization to solve for low-rank non-rigid 3D structure
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
\underset{\m X, \m E}{\textrm{argmin}} ~\|\m X\|_* + \|\m E\|_{l} \\
\textrm{subject to:} ~\m Y = \m X + \m E
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
Here `$\m Y$', `$\m X$' are the data matrix and its clean low-rank matrix representation respectively, `$\m E$' is the error matrix and $l$ stands for matrix norm ($l$ = 1 or 2). Inspired by Dai et.al. \cite{dai2014simple} sparse NRSfM work, in this paper, we assume that a dense non-rigid structure is of intrinsically low rank globally. We use this assumption to capture the global deformation of the surface. \\
\noindent
\emph{Local linear subspace representation}: In contrast to the previous dense NRSfM methods \cite{garg2013dense} \cite{dai2017dense} \cite{ansari2017scalable}, we represent deforming surfaces as a union of locally linear subspace. We argue that most non-rigidly deforming object over time and space is composed of a union of linear subspaces. Therefore, the methods that uses only global nuclear norm to constrain the surface deformation gets a solution on the convex envelop over the underlying multiple subspaces \cite{garg2013dense} \cite{dai2017dense} \cite{ansari2017scalable}. More precisely, these methods look for a solution on the boundaries of a feasible region which is composed of summation of subspaces. As a result, their 3D reconstruction results are empirically inferior. In this work, we aim to jointly recover an implicit local subspace representation of the surface along with its 3D reconstruction for multiple frames. Consequently, we decompose the surface into a set of locally linear subspaces and represent each subspace as a point on a Grassmann Manifold \cite{absil2009optimization} (see Fig.\ref{fig:spatial_temporal_rep}). We will show, such a representation is well-suited for many dense deforming surfaces. Our approximation holds well to capture the local non-linearities in addition to the global deformation.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth] {Figures/Spatial_Temporal_Grassmann.pdf}
\caption{\small Illustration show the decomposition of deforming surface into a set of local linear subspace. (a) Local Linear subspace representation of the trajectory space in the spatial domain (b) Local Linear Subspace representation of the shape space in the temporal domain. Each local plane shown in the temporal space can also be represented as a point on the Grassmann manifold. The above result show the reconstruction results using our method which is composed of 73,765 point samples from Actor dataset \cite{beeler2011high}.
}
\label{fig:spatial_temporal_rep}
\end{figure}
Our representation to assign each local linear subspace as a point on a Grassmann manifold not only provides a richer representation to exploit each local linear subspace, but also helps to improve the scalability, robustness, and processing time of our dense NRSfM algorithm. To bootstrap the initial Grassmann points, we group the local trajectories and shapes via k-means++ \cite{arthur2007k}. We compute a large but finite set of linear subspaces and, cast dense NRSfM problem as a joint clustering of subspaces and 3D reconstruction tasks. Our representation easily blends into a joint clustering and reconstruction formulation which provides superior results than performing the two tasks separately \cite{zhu2014complex} \cite{kumar2016multi}. \\
\noindent
\textit{Contributions}: The main contributions of our work are as follows:
\begin{itemize}
\item A new representation for dense NRSfM problem that utilizes both local and global structure of the deforming shape to solve the problem.
\item An efficient framework for modeling non-rigidly deforming surface on Grassmann manifold, which jointly supply 3D reconstruction and compact subspace representation of the shape.
\item A scalable, robust and fast algorithm which does not need any template prior to solve dense NRSfM \cite{yu2015direct} \cite{li2009robust}.
\item A geometry aware extension that help exploit the Grassmannian representation of different dimensions which is extremely useful in handling noise and high-dimensional Grassmannians.
\item Iterative solution to the proposed optimization based on ADMM \cite{boyd2011distributed} that achieves leading performance on the standard benchmark dataset \cite{garg2013dense} \cite{varol2012constrained}.
\end{itemize}
In addition to the 3D reconstruction accuracy analysis, we performed other relevant experiments and demonstrate the advantage of our formulation using a range of qualitative and quantitative analysis. The present journal paper is based on two CVPR conference papers \cite{kumar2018scalable} \cite{kumar2019jumping}. In this work, we described the approach in greater detail including the representation, modeling of the problem and the implementation of the algorithm. Additionally, how the first proposed algorithm \cite{kumar2018scalable} led the foundation for the development of the next algorithm \cite{kumar2019jumping}. We also present a more detailed derivation of the proposed optimization with deeper statistical analysis, minor corrections and extensive experimental results. Lastly, we provide a concise discussion on the potential limitations of the algorithm, and how it can be improved further for real-world applications. We believe our journal version is much more complete, and provide the readers comprehensive details on the advantages/limitations of Grassmannian representation to solve dense NRSfM under joint 3D reconstruction and subspace clustering framework.
\section{Related Work} \label{sref:relatedwork}
Non-Rigid Structure from Motion (NRSfM) is more than a two-decade-old problem and is still an active area of research in the geometric computer vision. NRSfM using matrix factorization introduced in the Bregler et.al. seminal work \cite{bregler2000recovering} was one the first working algorithm for NRSfM, which in fact, was an extension to the rigid factorization method \cite{tomasi1992shape}. This problem is challenging due to the inherent unconstrained nature of the problem, as many 3D varying configurations can have similar image projections and as a result, the problem remains unsolved for any arbitrary deformations. However, many profound algorithms under some or the other prior assumptions ---about the object deformation or the camera projection, have been proposed to achieve a reliable solution to this problem \cite{dai2014simple} \cite{akhter2011trajectory} \cite{park20103d} \cite{lee2013procrustean} \cite{zhu2014complex} \cite{kumar2017spatio} \cite{kumar2016multi} \cite{garg2013dense} \cite{kumar2020non}. The literature on this topic is very extensive and therefore, for brevity, we review the works that are of close relevance to the \textbf{dense} NRSfM methods under classical NRSfM setting\footnote{By {classical NRSfM setting}, we mean the input to the algorithm is only image feature correspondences rather than depth or 3D template.}.
Earlier attempts to solve this problem used piecewise 3D reconstruction of the shape parts, which were further processed via a stitching step to get a global 3D shape \cite{collins2010locally} \cite{russell2012dense}. To our knowledge, Garg et.al. \cite{garg2013variational} variational approach was one of the first to propose and demonstrate a practical dense NRSfM algorithm that do not rely on a 3D template prior. This method introduced a discrete total variational constraint with trace norm constraint on the global shape, which leads to a biconvex optimization problem. Despite the algorithm's outstanding performance, it's computationally expensive and needs a \textbf{GPU} to provide the solution.
Recently, Dai et.al. \cite{dai2017dense} extended his simple prior free approach \cite{dai2014simple} to solve dense NRSfM problem. They proposed a spatial-temporal formulation to tackle the problem. The author revisits the temporal smoothness term from \cite{dai2014simple} and integrate it with a spatial smoothness term using the Laplacian of the non-rigid shape. The resultant optimization leads to a series of least squares to be minimized, thus making it \textbf{extremely slow} to process, hence, not scalable for practical settings.
The consecutive frame-based formulation in recent years has shown some promising results to solve dense 3D reconstruction of a general dynamic scene, including non-rigid object \cite{kumar2017monocular,ranftl2016dense}. Nevertheless, motion segmentation, triangulation, as rigid as possible assumption, scale consistency and inter-frame consistency quite often breaks down for the deforming object. Therefore, these methods are still not mature to solve dense NRSfM for multiple frames. Not long ago, Gallardo et.al. \cite{gallardo2017dense} combined shading, motion and generic physical deformation to model dense NRSfM. Nevertheless, such information is generally not available on many real-world devices.
Other variants of dense non-rigid structure from motion algorithm involve solving the problem in a sequential manner \textit{i.e.},
rather than using an entire batch of frames, solve for dense
3D reconstruction as the image arrives. However, the proposed method under such a setting uses an initial set of frames to initialize the algorithm using a rigid factorization algorithm \cite{tomasi1992shape, marquez2008optimal}. Such heuristics greatly limits the use of such a sequential method to real-world scenarios. Recently proposed method CMDR \cite{golyanik2019intrinsic} proposed a hybrid approach extracts prior shape knowledge from an input sequence and, uses it as a dynamic shape prior for sequential surface recovery.
\begin{figure}
\subfigure[\label{fig:nmanifold1}]{\includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{Figures/n-manifold.pdf}}
\subfigure[\label{fig:nmanifold2}]{\includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{Figures/1DGrassmann1.pdf}}
\caption{\small Grassmannian $\mathcal{G}$(1, 2). (a) Intuition of n-manifold. (b) 1-dimensional Euclidean subspace of $\mathbb{R}^2$ as a point on a Grassmann Manifold. Fig.(b) is inspired from \cite{hauberg2014grassmann} work.}
\label{fig:manifoldintuition}
\end{figure}
Recent state-of-the-art in sparse NRSfM uses joint subspace clustering and reconstruction formulation \cite{kumar2016multi} \cite{kumar2017spatio}. Yet, the nature of the formulations fails to cope up with a large number of features points, and its inherent representation is unable to exploit the local surface deformation (spatially). However, the construction of simultaneous clustering and 3D reconstruction framework does provide an inspiration to extend such an idea to dense NRSfM. In this work, we want to take a step further and would like to show that it is, in fact, possible to develop the elementary idea proposed in \cite{kumar2017spatio} for dense NRSfM using a new representation and formulation.
\section{Preliminaries}
In this paper, $\| .\|_{\m F}$, $\| .\|_{*}$ denotes the Frobenius norm and nuclear norm respectively. $\| .\|_{\mathcal{G}}$ represents the notion of a norm on the Grassmann manifold. Single angle bracket $<.,.>$ denotes the Euclidean inner product. For ease of understanding and completeness, in this section, we briefly review a few important definitions related to the Grassmann manifold. Firstly, a topological n-manifold ($\mathcal{M}$) is a \emph{topological space} which is \emph{locally homeomorphic} to a \emph{n}-ball, where $n$ is a positive integer which is well-defined, which is the dimension of the manifold. Additionally, space ($\mathcal{M}$) is assumed to be Hausdorff and second countable. Avoiding the mathematical rigor, intuitively, one can think of a continuous surface to be locally similar to the Euclidean space (see Fig. \ref{fig:nmanifold1}). Out of several manifolds, the Grassmann manifold is a topologically rich non-linear manifold, each point of which represents the set of all right invariant subspace of the Euclidean space \cite{dollar2007non,absil2009optimization,kumar2018scalable} (see Fig. \ref{fig:nmanifold2}).
\begin{definition}\label{def:1}
The Grassmann manifold, denoted by $\mathcal{G}(\m p, \m d)$, consists of all the linear $\m p$-dimensional subspace embedded in a `$\m d$' dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{\m d}$ such that $0\leq \m p \leq \m d$ \cite{absil2009optimization}.
\end{definition}
A point `$\m \Phi$' on the Grassmann manifold can be represented by $ \mathbb{R}^{\m d \times \m p}$ matrix whose columns are composed of orthonormal basis. The space of matrices with orthonormal columns is a Riemannian manifold such that $\m \Phi^{\m T} \m \Phi = \mathbf{I}_{\m p}$, where $\mathbf{I}_{\m p}$ is a $\m p \times \m p$ identity matrix.
\begin{definition}\label{def:2}
Grassmann manifold can be embedded into the space of symmetric matrices via mapping $\m \Pi$: $\mathcal{G}(\m p, \m d)$ $\mapsto$ $\textrm{Sym}$ $(\m d)$, $\m \Pi( \m \Phi) = \m \Phi \m \Phi^{\m T}$, where $\m \Phi$ is a Grassmann point \cite{hamm2008grassmann, harandi2013dictionary}.
Given two Grassmann points $\m \Phi_1$ and $\m \Phi_2$, the distance between them can be measured using a projection metric:
\end{definition}
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle d_g^2(\m \Phi_1, \m \Phi_2) = 0.5\|\m \Pi(\m \Phi_1) - \m \Pi(\m \Phi_2)\|_{\m F}^{2}.
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
These two properties of Grassmann manifold has been used in many computer vision applications \cite{hamm2008grassmann} \cite{cetingul2009intrinsic} \cite{kumar2018scalable} \cite{harandi2013dictionary}. Second definition is very important as it allows to measure the distance on the Grassmann manifold, hence, $(\mathcal{G}, d_g$) forms a metric space. We used these properties in the construction of our formulation. For comprehensive details on this topic readers may refer to \cite{hamm2008grassmann}.
\subsection{Why Grassmann Manifold?}
It is well-known that the complex non-rigid deformations are composed of multiple subspaces that quite often fit a higher-order parametric model \cite{pasko2002function} \cite{sheng2011facial} \cite{zhu2014complex}. To handle such complex models globally can be very challenging ---both numerically and computationally \cite{garg2013dense} \cite{garg2013variational}. Consequently, for an appropriate representation of such a model, we decompose the overall non-linearity of the shape by a set of locally linear models that span a low-rank subspace of a vector space. The space of all $\m d$-dimensional linear subspaces of $\mathbb{R}^{\m N}$ ($0 < \m d < \m N$) forms the Grassmann manifold \cite{absil2004riemannian} \cite{absil2009optimization}. Modeling the deformation on this manifold allows us to operate on the number of subspaces rather than on the number of vectorial data points (on the shape), which reduces the complexity of the problem significantly. Moreover, since each local surface is a low-rank subspace, it can be faithfully reconstructed using a few singular values and corresponding singular vectors, which makes such a representation scalable and robust to noise \cite{wang2015low}.
\section{Problem Formulation}
\subsection{Structure and Motion Representation} \label{ss:struct_motion}
Tomasi et.al. \cite{tomasi1992shape} matrix factorization method to represent the shape and motion under orthographic camera projection appropriately summarizes the behavior of the 3D points over frames. The relation between 3D shape, motion and its projection over frames was defined as
\begin{equation}\label{eq:classicalrep}
\small
\m W = \m R \m S
\end{equation}
where, $\m W \in \mathbb{R}^{2\m F \times \m P}$ is the measurement matrix with `$\m P$' as the total number of feature points tracked across `$\m F$' frames. $\m R = \textrm{{\fontfamily{cmtt}\selectfont blockdiagonal}}(\m R_1, \m R_2,..,\m R_{\m F}) \in \mathbb{R}^{2 \m F \times 3 \m F}$ denotes the orthographic camera rotation matrix with each $\m R_{\m i} \in \mathbb{R}^{2 \times 3}$ as per frame rotation. $\m S \in \mathbb{R}^{3 \m F \times \m P}$ represent the shape matrix with each row triplet as a 3D shape. This representation was originally formulated to solve \textbf{rigid} structure from motion under orthographic projection which was later extended by \cite{bregler2000recovering} to recover the 3D shape of a \textbf{non-rigidly} deforming object for multiple frames.
This classical representation entails that given the input measurement matrix, solve for rotation ($\m R$) and 3D shape ($\m S$). For our method, we solve for rotation matrix using the Intersection method \cite{dai2014simple} by assuming that per frame relative camera motion ($\m R$) can faithfully represent the global deformation of the subject in the scene. Accordingly, our goal reduces to develop a systematic approach that can reliably explain the non-rigid shape deformations and provides better 3D reconstruction. We used this relation to enforce our first constraint to solve for shape. This constraint is also known as a \textbf{re-projection error constraint} \textit{i.e,}
\begin{equation}
\small
\underset{\m S} {\text{minimize}} ~\frac{1}{2}\|\m W - \m R \m S\|_{\m F}^2
\end{equation}
\subsection{Non-Rigid Object Representation}
As alluded to above, given the matrix $\m R$, our goal is to solve for the 3D structure $\m S \in \mathbb{R}^{3\m F \times \m P}$. Eq:(\ref{eq:classicalrep}) show that we can get infinite family of solution to $\m S$ using such representation. Nonetheless, Bregler et.al. \cite{bregler2000recovering} $3\m K$ matrix factorization to obtain low-order linear model suggest that $\textrm{{\fontfamily{cmtt}\selectfont rank}}(\m S) \leq 3\m K$. Consequently, the non-rigid 3D shape must lie in a low-rank space. Later, Akther et.al. \cite{akhter2009nonrigid} and Dai et.al. \cite{dai2014simple} suggested the idea to provide stronger rank bound to the shape matrix by shuffling the arrangements of rows and columns of shape matrix \textit{i.e}, $\m S \in \mathbb{R}^{3\m F \times \m P} \mapsto \m S^\sharp \in \mathbb{R}^{3\m P \times \m F}$. Accordingly, we enforce the low-rank constraint on $\m S^\sharp$ which equivalently represent the low order constraint \cite{bregler2000recovering} \cite{akhter2009nonrigid} \cite{dai2014simple} with a tighter rank bound $\textrm{{\fontfamily{cmtt}\selectfont rank}}(\m S^{\sharp}) \leq \m K$. Combining re-projection error constraint with the low-rank constraint, we have
\begin{equation}\label{eq:daiform}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m S, \m S^{\sharp}} {\text{minimize}} ~\frac{1}{2}\|\m W - \m R \m S\|_{\m F}^2 + \gamma \|\m S^{\sharp}\|_*\\
& \displaystyle \text{subject to:} ~\m S^{\sharp} = f(\m S)
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
where $\|\m S^{\sharp}\|_*$ represent the nuclear norm of the shape matrix. Here, we define $f: \m S \in \mathbb{R}^{3 \m F \times \m P} \mapsto \m S^\sharp \in \mathbb{R}^{3\m P \times \m F}$. In general, the exact rank minimization problem is NP-hard, hence, we relax this with a nuclear norm minimization problem. Dai et.al. \cite{dai2014simple} proposed this formulation to solve non-rigid structure from motion problem. Although this formulation provides a decent result for sparse feature points, it fails to estimate dense non-rigid structure from motion with reasonable accuracy. One of the main reasons for its failure is that a non-rigid deforming surface is mostly composed of a union of several local linear subspaces. Consequently, a global low-rank shape constraint fails to cater the local shape deformation, therefore, it provides questionable 3D reconstruction results for a dense deforming object.
To overcome this limitation with \cite{dai2014simple} formulation, joint subspace clustering and reconstruction methods are proposed \cite{kumar2016multi} \cite{kumar2017spatio}. Although the method proposed by \cite{kumar2016multi} \cite{kumar2017spatio} provides state-of-the-art results for sparse features points \cite{jensen2018benchmark}, the algorithm cannot process a large set of feature points, hence, not scalable. To come up with an algorithm that is scalable and also utilize the idea of spatial-temporal clustering approach for dense non-rigid surfaces, we use grassmannian representation in our formulation \cite{absil2004riemannian} \cite{harandi2014manifold}.
\subsection{Grassmannian Representation in Trajectory Space}
Let `$\m \Phi_{\m s \m i}$' $\in \mathcal{G}(\m p, {\m d})$ be a Grassmann point representing the $\m i^{\textrm{th}}$ local linear subspace spanned by $\m i^{\textrm{th}}$ set of columns of `$\m S$'. Using this notion, we decompose the entire trajectories of the structure into a set of `$\m K_{\m s}$' Grassmannians $\xi_{\m s} = \{\m \Phi_{\m s \m 1}, \m \Phi_{\m s \m 2}, \m \Phi_{\m s \m 3}, ...., \m \Phi_{\m s \m K_{\m s} } \}$. To explain the complex non-rigid deformations, we reduce the overall non-linear space as a union of several local low-dimensional linear spaces which are sample points on the Grassmann manifold. But, the notion of self-expressiveness is valid only for Euclidean linear or affine subspace. To apply self-expressiveness on the Grassmann manifold one has to adopt linearity onto the manifold. Since, Grassmann manifold is isometrically equivalent to the symmetric idempotent matrices \cite{chikuse2012statistics}, we embed the Grassmann manifold into the symmetric matrix manifold, where the self-expressiveness can be defined in the embedding space. Let `$\rchi_{\m s}$' be a tensor which is constructed by mapping trajectory space Grassmann points. Concretely, $\rchi_{\m s} = \{ (\m \Phi_{\m s \m 1} \m \Phi_{\m s \m 1}^{\m T}), (\m \Phi_{\m s \m 2} \m \Phi_{\m s \m 2}^{\m T}), ..., (\m \Phi_{{\m K \m s}} \m \Phi_{{\m K \m s}}^{\m T}) \}$ is its embedding onto symmetric matrix manifold which is constructed by mapping trajectory space Grassmann points. Since the high-dimensional complex deformation is composed of several low-dimensional subspace, its low rank representation shall reveal the subspace information. This motivation leads to the following optimization in the trajectory space
\begin{equation}\label{eq:GRTS}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m E_{\m s}, \m C_{\m s}} {\text{minimize}} ~\|\m E_{\m s}\|_{\m F}^2 + \lambda_1\|\m C_{\m s}\|_* \\
& \displaystyle \text{subject to:} ~\rchi_{\m s} = \rchi_{\m s}\m C_{\m s} + \m E_{\m s}
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
We denote $\m C_{\m s} \in \mathbb{R}^{\m K_{\m s} \times \m K_{\m s}}$ as the coefficient matrix with `$\m K_{\m s}$' as the total number of spatial groups. Here, $\m E_{\m s}$ measures the trajectory subspace reconstruction error as per the manifold geometry. Also, we would like to emphasize that since the object undergoes deformations in the 3D space, we operate in 3D space rather than in the projected 2D space. $\|~\|_*$ is enforced on $\m C_{\m s}$ for a low-rank solution.
\subsection{Grassmannian Representation in Shape Space}
Similarly, let `$\m \Phi_{\m t \m i}$' $\in \mathcal{G}(\m p, {\m d})$ be a Grassmann point representing the $\m i^{\textrm{th}}$ local linear subspace spanned by $\m i^{\textrm{th}}$ set of columns of `$\m S^\sharp$'. We decompose the set of shapes into `$\m K_{\m t}$' Grassmannians $\xi_{\m t} = \{\m \Phi_{\m t \m 1}, \m \Phi_{\m t \m 2}, \m \Phi_{\m t \m 3}, ...., \m \Phi_{\m t \m K_{\m t} } \}$. To accomplish the notion of self-expressiveness in the temporal space as well, we define $\rchi_{\m t} = \{ (\m \Phi_{\m t \m 1} \m \Phi_{\m t \m 1}^{\m T}), (\m \Phi_{\m t \m 2} \m \Phi_{\m t \m 2}^{\m T}), ..., (\m \Phi_{{\m K \m t}} \m \Phi_{{\m K \m t}}^{\m T}) \}$. Previous literature and experiments revealed that deforming object attains different state over time which adheres to distinct temporal local linear subspaces \cite{kumar2017spatio}. Assuming that the temporal deformation is smooth over-time, we express deforming shapes in terms of local self-expressiveness on grassmann manifold across frames as:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:GRSS}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m E_{\m t}, \m C_{\m t}} {\text{minimize}} ~\|\m E_{\m t}\|_{\m F}^2 + \lambda_2\|\m C_{\m t}\|_* \\
& \displaystyle \text{subject to:} ~\rchi_{\m t} = \rchi_{\m t} \m C_{\m t} + \m E_{\m t}
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
where, $\rchi_{\m t}$ is the set of all symmetric matrices constructed using a set of Grassmannian samples $\xi_{\m t}$, where $\xi_{\m t}$ contains the samples which are obtained from $\m S_{\m t}^{\sharp} \in \mathbb{R}^{3 \m P \times \m F}$. Intuitively, $\m S_{\m t}^{\sharp}$ is a shape matrix with each column as a deforming shape. $\m E_{\m t}$, $\m C_{\m t} \in \mathbb{R}^{\m K_{\m t} \times \m K_{\m t}}$ represent the temporal group reconstruction error and coefficient matrix respectively, with $\m K_{\m t}$ as the number of temporal groups. $\|~\|_*$ is enforced on $\m C_{\m t}$ for a low-rank solution.
\subsection{Simplified Low Rank Subspace Representation on the Grassmann Manifold}
The grassmannian representation in Eq.(\ref{eq:GRTS}) and Eq.(\ref{eq:GRSS}) are not straight-forward to solve, we simplified it further to an equivalent optimization problem which is easy to optimize. Consider the following minimization problem
\begin{equation}\label{eq:srefeq}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m C} {\text{minimize}} ~\|\rchi - \rchi \m C\|_{\m F}^2 + \lambda\|\m C\|_*
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Here, we choose the notations that stands for both Eq.(\ref{eq:GRTS}) and Eq.(\ref{eq:GRSS}). To simplify the form of previous optimization problem, let's consider the error term that involves the tensor structure.
\begin{equation}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \|\m E\|_{\m F}^2 = \| \rchi - \rchi \m C \|_{\m F}^2
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Using our notation $\rchi = \{ (\m \Phi_{\m 1} \m \Phi_{\m 1}^{\m T}), (\m \Phi_{ \m 2} \m \Phi_{\m 2}^{\m T}), ..., (\m \Phi_{{\m N}} \m \Phi_{{\m N}}^{\m T}) \}$ and $\m C \in \mathbb{R}^{\m N \times \m N}$ are the set of grassmann samples in the embedding space and its coefficient matrix respectively. Let's re-write the previous equation
\begin{equation}\label{eq:errori}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \|\m E\|_{\m F}^2 = \sum_{\m i = 1}^{\m N} \|\m E_{\m i}\|_{\m F}^{2} = \sum_{\m i = 1}^{\m N} \textbf{Tr}(\m E_{\m i}^{\m T}\m E_{\m i})
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Using the per sample notion \textit{i.e,} any sample can be represented as a combination of other samples in the same space.
\begin{equation}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \m E_{\m i} = \m \Phi_{\m i} \m \Phi_{\m i}^{\m T} - \sum_{\m j = 1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i \m j} (\m \Phi_{\m j} \m \Phi_{\m j}^{\m T})
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Substituting the above expression in Eq.(\ref{eq:errori}) for the $\m i^\text{th}$ sample, we write
\begin{equation}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \| \m E_{\m i} \|_{\m F}^2 = \textbf{Tr}(\m E_{\m i}^{\m T}\m E_{\m i}) \\
& \displaystyle = \textbf{Tr}\Big[ \Big(\m \Phi_{\m i} \m \Phi_{\m i}^{\m T} - \sum_{\m j = 1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i \m j} (\m \Phi_{\m j} \m \Phi_{\m j}^{\m T}) \Big)^{\m T} \Big(\m \Phi_{\m i} \m \Phi_{\m i}^{\m T} - \sum_{\m j = 1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i \m j} (\m \Phi_{\m j} \m \Phi_{\m j}^{\m T}) \Big) \Big]
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Expanding the above form
\begin{equation}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \|\m E_{\m i}\|_{\m F}^2 =
\textbf{Tr}\big( (\m \Phi_{\m i}\m \Phi_{\m i}^{\m T})^{\m T} (\m \Phi_{\m i}\m \Phi_{\m i}^{\m T})\big) -2 \sum_{\m j=1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i\m j} \textbf{Tr} \big( (\m \Phi_{\m i}\m \Phi_{\m i}^{\m T})^{\m T} (\m \Phi_{\m j}\m \Phi_{\m j}^{\m T})\big) \\
& \displaystyle + \sum_{\m l=1}^{\m N} \sum_{\m m=1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i \m l} \m c_{\m i \m m} \textbf{Tr} \big( (\m \Phi_{\m l}\m \Phi_{\m l}^{\m T})^{\m T} (\m \Phi_{\m m}\m \Phi_{\m m}^{\m T})\big)
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Using the cyclic trace property and the orthonormality property of matrices (\textbf{Definition} \ref{def:1}).
\begin{equation}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \|\m E_{\m i}\|_{\m F}^2 = \textbf{Tr}(\mathbf{I}_{\m p}) - 2 \sum_{\m j=1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i\m j} \textbf{Tr} \big( (\m \Phi_{\m j}^{\m T} \m \Phi_{\m i}) (\m \Phi_{\m i}^{\m T} \m \Phi_{\m j})\big) \\
& \displaystyle + \sum_{\m l=1}^{\m N} \sum_{\m m=1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i \m l} \m c_{\m i \m m} \textbf{Tr} \big( (\m \Phi_{\m l} ^{\m T} \m \Phi_{\m m}) (\m \Phi_{\m m}^{\m T} \m \Phi_{\m m})\big)
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Here $\m p$ is the magnitude of the lower dimensional space representation (\textbf{Definition} \ref{def:1}). By letting $\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij} = \textbf{Tr} \big( (\m \Phi_{\m j}^{\m T} \m \Phi_{\m i}) (\m \Phi_{\m i}^{\m T} \m \Phi_{\m j})\big)$, we can rewrite the above form as
\begin{equation}\label{eq:trij}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \|\m E_{\m i}\|_{\m F}^2 = \textbf{Tr}(\mathbf{I}_{\m p}) - 2 \sum_{\m j=1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i\m j} \m \Gamma_\textrm{ij} + \sum_{\m l=1}^{\m N} \sum_{\m m=1}^{\m N} \m c_{\m i \m l} \m c_{\m i \m m} \m \Gamma_\textrm{lm}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent Notice that $\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}$ is $\mathbb{R}^{\m p \times \m p}$ matrix which is much easier to compute and process. Also, it's simple to verify that $\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}$ is symmetric. Let $\m \Gamma = (\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij})_{\textrm{ij}=1}^{\m N} \in \mathbb{R}^{\m N \times \m N}$. By summing over all the samples , we can rewrite Eq:(\ref{eq:errori}) as:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:finallform}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \|\m E\|_{\m F}^2 = \m N \m p - 2 \textbf{Tr}(\m C \m \Gamma) + \textbf{Tr}(\m C \m \Gamma \m C^{\m T}) \\
& \displaystyle ~~~~~~~~\equiv \m N \m p - 2 \textbf{Tr}(\m C \m L \m L^{\m T}) + \textbf{Tr}(\m C \m L \m L^{\m T} \m C^{\m T}) \\
& \displaystyle ~~~~~~~~\equiv \textrm{const} + \|\m L - \m C \m L\|_{\m F}^2
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
$\textrm{where}, \m L \m L^{\m T} = \textbf{Chol}(\m \Gamma)$, the Cholesky decomposition of the matrix. Note that adding and subtracting constant symbol w.r.t variable $\m C$ will not affect the solution to the targeted optimization problem. Using this form, we simplify the Eq:(\ref{eq:srefeq}) optimization problems as
\begin{equation}\label{eq:LRRGrass}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m C} {\text{minimize}} ~\|\m L - \m C \m L \|_{\m F}^2 + \lambda\|\m C\|_*
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
This simplified equivalent problem is much easier to solve and process. We will use this form in our overall cost function to solve non-rigid 3D shape reconstruction.
\section{Spatial Temporal Formulation}
Combining the above developed objectives and their constraints give us our spatial temporal formulation for dense NRSfM. Our representation blends the local subspaces structure along with the global composition of a non-rigid shape. Thus, the overall objective is:
\begin{equation} \label{eq:spatialtempoverallOptimization}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m S, \m S^{\sharp}, \m E_{\m s}, \m E_{\m t}, \m C_{\m s}, \m C_{\m t}} {\text{minimize}} ~\mathbf{E} = \frac{1}{2} ~\|\m W- \m R \m S\|_{\m F}^2 + \mu \| \m S^{\sharp} \|_* + \lambda_1\|\m E_{\m s} \|_{\m F}^2 + \lambda_2\|\m E_{\m t}\|_{\m F}^{2} \\
& \displaystyle + \lambda_3 \|\m C_{\m s}\|_* + \lambda_4 \|\m C_{\m t}\|_*\\
& \displaystyle \text{subject to :} \\
& \displaystyle ~\rchi_{\m s} = \rchi_{\m s} \m C_{\m s} + \m E_{\m s}; ~\rchi_{\m t} = \rchi_{\m t} \m C_{\m t} + \m E_{\m t};\\
& \displaystyle \xi_{\m s} = {f_g( \mathbf{P}_{\m s}, \m S, \m K_{\m s}, \m p_{\m s})}; ~\xi_{\m t} = {f_g(\mathbf{P}_{\m t}, \m S^{\sharp}, \m K_{\m t}, \m p_{\m t})}; \\
& \displaystyle \m S = f_{s}(\xi_{\m s}, \m \Sigma_{\m s}, \xi_{\m v \m s}, \m K_{\m s}, \m p_{\m s}); ~ \m S^{\sharp} = f_{s}(\xi_{\m t}, \m \Sigma_{\m t}, \xi_{\m v \m t}, \m K_{\m t}, \m p_{\m t}); \\
& \displaystyle \mathbf{P}_{\m s} = f_p(\xi_{\m s}, \m C_{\m s}, \mathbf{P}_{\m s\m o}); ~\mathbf{P}_{\m t} = f_p(\xi_{\m t}, \m C_{\m t}, \mathbf{P}_{\m t\m o}); \\
& \displaystyle \m S^{\sharp} = f(\m S); ~\m W = {f}_o(\m W, \mathbf{P}_{\m s});
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
We introduce few constraint functions that provides a way to group Grassmannians and recover 3D shape simultaneously. Let $\mathbf{P}_{\m s}$ $\in \mathbb{R}^{1 \times \m P}$, $\mathbf{P}_{\m t}$ $\in \mathbb{R}^{1 \times \m F}$ be an ordering vector that contains the index of columns of $\m S$ and $\m S^\sharp$ respectively. Our function definition is of the form $\{(\textrm{output}, \textrm{function(.)}): \textrm{definition} \}$. Using it, we define the function $f_g$, $f_{s}$, $f_p$, $f$, $f_o$ as follows:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:fg}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \Big\{ \big({\xi}, f_g(\mathbf{P}, \m X, \m K, \m p)\big): \textrm{order} ~\{\m X_{\m i}\}_{\m i=1}^{\m K} ~\text{columns of} ~\m X ~\text{using} ~{\mathbf{P} }, \\
& \displaystyle ~\xi := \big(\m \Phi_{\m i}\big|_{\m i=1}^{\m K} \big), ~\text{where}, [\m \Phi_{\m i}, \m \Sigma_{\m i}, \xi_\textrm{vi}^{\m T} ] = \textrm{svds}(\m X_{\m i}, \m p)\Big\}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}\label{eq:fs}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \Big\{\big(\m X, f_s({\xi}, \m \Sigma, {\xi}_{\m v}, \m K, \m p)\big): \m X_{\m i} = [{\xi}_{\m i}~{\m \Sigma_{\m i}}~{\xi}_{\m v\m i}^{\m T}], \text{where} ~{\m \Sigma_{\m i}} \in \mathbb{R}^{\m p \times \m p}, \\
& \displaystyle \m X = \big( \m X_{\m i}\big|_{\m i = 1}^{\m K} \big) \Big\}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}\label{eq:fp}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \Big\{(\mathbf{P}, f_{p}({\xi}, {\m C}, \mathbf{P}_{\m o}): \mathbf{P} = \text{spectral\_clustering}({\xi}, {\m C}, \mathbf{P}_{\m o})\Big\}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}\label{eq:f}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \Big\{(\m X^{\sharp}, f(\m X) : \m X \in \mathbb{R}^{3 \m F \times \m P} \mapsto \m X^{\sharp} \in \mathbb{R}^{3 \m P \times \m F}\Big\}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\small
\begin{aligned}\label{eq:fo}
& \displaystyle \Big\{(\m X, f_o(\m X, \mathbf{P})) : \m X = \text{arrange columns of $\m X$ using ordering vector $\mathbf{P}$} \Big\}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Note: $\big(\m X_{\m i} \big|_{\m i}^{\m K} \big)$ denoted the horizontal concatenation of the matrices. Intuitively, $f_g(.)$ provides the Grassmannian representation and $f_s(.)$ reconstructs back each local low-rank subspace. $f_p(.)$ provides the ordering vector based on the inference drawn from coefficient matrix and $f_o$ rearranges the columns of $\m W$ in accordance with the columns of the shape matrix. The proposed cost function is minimized by solving for one variable at a time while treating others as constant, keeping the constraints intact over iteration. Next, we provide a detailed derivation to each sub-problem.
\subsection{Solution}
The formulation in Eq.(\ref{eq:spatialtempoverallOptimization}) is a non-convex problem due to the bilinear optimization variables ($\rchi_{\m s} \m C_{\m s}$, $\rchi_{\m t} \m C_{\m t}$), hence a global optimal solution is hard to achieve. However, it can be efficiently solved using Augmented Lagrangian Methods (ALMs) \cite{boyd2011distributed}, which has proven its effectiveness for many non-convex problems. Using the result of Eq.(\ref{eq:LRRGrass}) with introduction of Lagrange multipliers $(\{\mathbf{L}_{\m i}\}_{\m i=1}^3)$ and auxiliary variables $(\m J_{\m s}, \m J_{\m t})$ to Eq. (\ref{eq:spatialtempoverallOptimization}) gives us the overall cost function as follows:
\begin{equation} \label{eq:spatialtempOptimizationLM}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m S, \m S^{\sharp}, \m J_{\m s}, \m J_{\m t}, \m C_{\m s}, \m C_{\m t}} {\text{minimize}} ~\mathbf{E} = \frac{1}{2} ~\|\m W- \m R \m S\|_{\m F}^2 + \frac{\beta}{2}\| \m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)\|_{F}^2 + <\mathbf{L}_1, \m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)> \\
& \displaystyle \gamma \| \m S^{\sharp} \|_* + \lambda_1\|\m L_{\m s} - \m C_{\m s} \m L_{\m s} \|_{\m F}^2 + \lambda_3\|\m J_{\m s}\|_* + \lambda_2\|\m L_{\m t} - \m C_{\m t} \m L_{\m t} \|_{\m F}^{2} + \lambda_4\|\m J_{\m t}\|_* + \\
& \displaystyle \frac{\beta}{2} \|\m C_{\m s}-\m J_{\m s}\|_{\m F}^2 + <\mathbf{L}_2, \m C_{\m s}-\m J_{\m s}> + \frac{\beta}{2} \|\m C_{\m t}-\m J_{\m t}\|_{\m F}^2 + <\mathbf{L}_3, \m C_{\m t}-\m J_{\m t}>\\
& \displaystyle \text{subject to :} \\
& \displaystyle \xi_{\m s} = {f_g( \mathbf{P}_{\m s}, \m S, \m K_{\m s}, \m p_{\m s})}; ~\xi_{\m t} = {f_g(\mathbf{P}_{\m t}, \m S^{\sharp}, \m K_{\m t}, \m p_{\m t})}; \\
& \displaystyle \m S = f_{s}(\xi_{\m s}, \m \Sigma_{\m s}, \xi_{\m v \m s}, \m p_{\m s}, \m K_{\m s}); ~ \m S^{\sharp} = f_{s}(\xi_{\m t}, \m \Sigma_{\m t}, \xi_{\m v \m t}, \m p_{\m t}, \m K_{\m t}); \\
& \displaystyle \mathbf{P}_{\m s} = f_p(\xi_{\m s}, \m C_{\m s}, \mathbf{P}_{\m s\m o}); ~\mathbf{P}_{\m t} = f_p(\xi_{\m t}, \m C_{\m t}, \mathbf{P}_{\m t\m o}); \\
& \displaystyle \m S^{\sharp} = f(\m S); ~\m W = {f}_o(\m W, \mathbf{P}_{\m s});
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
\textbf{Solution to $\m S$}
\begin{equation}\label{eq:ss}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m S} {\text{argmin}} \frac{1}{2} ~\|\m W-\m R\m S\|_{\m F}^2 + \frac{\beta}{2}\| \m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)\|_{\m F}^2 + <\mathbf{L}_1, \m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)> \\
& \displaystyle \underset{\m S} {\text{argmin}} \frac{1}{2} ~\|\m W-\m R \m S\|_{\m F}^2 + \frac{\beta}{2}\| f^{-1}(\m S^{\sharp}) - \m S\|_{\m F}^2 +
<f^{-1}(\mathbf{L}_1), f^{-1}(\m S^{\sharp})-\m S> \\
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m S} {\text{argmin}} \frac{1}{2} ~\|\m W-\m R\m S\|_{\m F}^2 + \frac{\beta}{2}\|\m S - \big(f^{-1}(\m S^{\sharp}) + \frac{f^{-1}(\mathbf{L}_1)}{\beta}\big)\|_{\m F}^2.
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
The solution to the variable `$\m S$' can be derived by differentiating the above term w.r.t $\m S$ and equating it to zero.
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
\m S \equiv \Big(\m R^{\m T}\m R + \beta \m I\Big)^{-1} \Big(\beta\big(f^{-1}(\m S^{\sharp}) + \frac{f^{-1}(\mathbf{L}_1)}{\beta}\big) + \m R^{\m T} \m W \Big)
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
\textbf{Solution to $\m S^\sharp$}
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m S^{\sharp}} {\text{argmin}} ~\gamma \| \m S^{\sharp} \|_* + \frac{\beta}{2}\| S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)\|_{\m F}^2 +
<\mathbf{L}_1, \m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)> \\
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m S^{\sharp}} {\text{argmin}} ~\gamma\| \m S^{\sharp} \|_* + \frac{\beta}{2}\|\m S^{\sharp} - \big( f(\m S) - \frac{\mathbf{L}_1}{\beta}\big)\|_F^2
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Let's define the soft-thresholding operation as $\mathcal{S}_{\tau}[x] = \mathrm{sign}(x)$ $\max(|x|-\tau, 0)$. The optimal solution to $\m S^{\sharp}$ is given by
\begin{equation} \label{eq:St}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \m S^{\sharp} \equiv \m U \mathcal{S}_{\frac{\gamma}{\beta}}(\m \Sigma) \m V^{\m T}
~\text{where, } [\m U, \m \Sigma, \m V^{\m T}] = \text{svd}(f(\m S) - \frac{\mathbf{L}_1}{\beta})
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
\textbf{Solution to $\m C_{\m s}$}
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m C_{\m s}} {\text{argmin}} ~\lambda_1\|\m L_{\m s}- \m C_{\m s}\m L_{\m s}\|_{\m F}^2 + \frac{\beta}{2}\|\m C_{\m s} - \m J_{\m s}\|_{\m F}^2 + <\mathbf{L}_2, \m C_{\m s} - \m J_{\m s}> \\
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m C_{\m s}} {\text{argmin}} ~\lambda_1\|\m L_{\m s}-\m C_{\m s}\m L_{\m s}\|_{\m F}^2 + \frac{\beta}{2} \|\m C_{\m s} - \big(\m J_{\m s}-\frac{\mathbf{L}_2}{\beta}\big)\|_{\m F}^2
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
The solution to $\m C_{\m s}$ can be derived by differentiating the above term w.r.t $\m C_{\m s}$ and equating it to zero.
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
\m C_{\m s} \equiv \Big(2\lambda_1 \m L_{\m s} \m L_{\m s}^{\m T} + \beta(\m J_{\m s} -\frac{\mathbf{L}_2}{\beta}) \Big) \Big(2 \lambda_1 \m L_{\m s} \m L_{\m s}^{\m T} + \beta \m I_{\m s} \Big)^{-1}
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
\textbf{Solution to $\m C_{\m t}$}
Similar to the $\m C_{\m s}$ derivation, it's solution can be derived as follows:
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m C_{\m t}} {\text{argmin}} ~\lambda_2\|\m L_{\m t}-\m C_{\m t} \m L_{\m t}\|_{\m F}^2 + \frac{\beta}{2}\|\m C_{\m t} - \m J_{\m t}\|_{\m F}^2 + <\mathbf{L}_3, \m C_{\m t} - \m J_{\m t}> \\
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m C_{\m t}} {\text{argmin}} ~\lambda_2\|\m L_{\m t}-\m C_{\m t} \m L_{\m t}\|_{\m F}^2 + \frac{\beta}{2} \|\m C_{\m t} - \big(\m J_{\m t}-\frac{\mathbf{L}_3}{\beta}\big)\|_F^2
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
\m C_{\m t} \equiv \Big(2\lambda_2 \m L_{\m t} \m L_{\m t}^{\m T} + \beta(\m J_{\m t} -\frac{\mathbf{L}_{3}}{\beta}) \Big) \Big(2 \lambda_2 \m L_{\m t} \m L_{\m t}^{\m T} + \beta \m I_{\m t} \Big)^{-1}
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\begin{algorithm*}[t!]
\caption{Dense Non-Rigid Structure from Motion using Grassmannians}\label{alg:Algorithm1}
\begin{algorithmic}[1]
\REQUIRE
$\m W$, $\m R$ using \cite{dai2014simple}, tuning parameters: $\lambda_1$, $\lambda_2$, $\lambda_3$, $\lambda_4$, $\gamma$, $\rho=1.1$, $\beta=1e^{-3}$, $\beta_m=1e^{6}$, $\epsilon = 1e^{-12}$, $\m K_{\m s}$, $\m K_{\m t}$.\\
\hspace{-0.3cm}{\bf Initialize:} $\m S$ = \textbf{pinv}($\m R$)$\m W$ and ${ \m S^{\sharp}} = f(\m S)$.\\
\hspace{-0.3cm}{\bf Initialize:} `$\m K_{\m t}$' temporal data points on the Grassmann manifold using $\mathbf{P}_{\m t \m o}$ = $\textrm{kmeans++}(\m S^\sharp, \m K_{\m t})$ index to `${\m S^{\sharp}}$' matrix,
$\xi_{\m t}$ = $\{\m \Phi_{\m t \m i}\}_{\m i=1}^{\m K_{\m t}}$\\
\hspace{-0.3cm}{\bf Initialize:} `$\m K_{\m s}$' spatial data points on the Grassmann manifold using $\mathbf{P}_{\m s \m o}$ = $\textrm{kmeans++}(\m S, \m K_{\m s})$ index to `${\m S}$' matrix, $\xi_{\m s}$ = $\{\m \Phi_{\m s \m i}\}_{\m i=1}^{\m K_{\m s}}$\\
\hspace{-0.3cm}{\bf Initialize:} The auxiliary variables $\m J_{\m s}$, $\m J_{\m t}$ and Lagrange multiplier $\{\mathbf{L}_{\m i}\}_{\m i=1}^{3}$ as zero matrices.\\
\hspace{-0.3cm}{\bf Initialize:} $\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}^{\m s} = \textbf{Tr}[({\m \Phi_{\m s\m j}^{\m T}} {\m \Phi_{\m s\m i}} ) ({\m \Phi_{\m s\m i}^{\m T}} {\m \Phi_{\m s\m j}})]$,
$\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}^{\m t} = \textbf{Tr}[({\m \Phi_{\m t\m j}^{\m T}} {\m \Phi_{\m t\m i}} ) ({\m \Phi_{\m t\m i}^{\m T}} {\m \Phi_{\m t\m j}})]$, ${\m \Gamma}_{\m s} = (\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}^{\m s})_{\m i, \m j = 1}^{\m K_{\m s}}, {\m \Gamma}_{\m t} = (\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}^{\m t})_{\m i, \m j = 1}^{\m K_{\m t}}$\\
\hspace{0.95cm} $\m L_{\m s} \m L_{\m s}^{\m T}$ = \textbf{Chol}(${\m \Gamma}_{\m s}$), $\m L_{\m t}\m L_{\m t}^{\m T}$ = \textbf{Chol}(${\m \Gamma}_{\m t}$)\\
\hspace{-0.3cm}{\bf Initialize:} $\mathbf{P}_{\m s} := \mathbf{P}_{\m s \m o}$, $\mathbf{P}_{\m t} := \mathbf{P}_{\m t \m o}$, $\textrm{iter} = 1$ \\
\hspace{-0.3cm}{\bf Define:} ~~~~$\mathcal{S}_{\tau}(\m x) := \textcolor{mygreen}{@}(\m x, \tau) \textrm{sign}(\m x).*\textrm{max}(\textrm{abs}(\m x)-\tau, 0);$ \hspace{1.5cm} \COMMENT {MATLAB function script}\\
\vspace{0.2cm}
\WHILE {not converged}
\STATE $\m S$ $\gets$ $\Big(\m R^{\m T}\m R + \beta \m I\Big)^{-1} \Big(\beta\big(f^{-1}(\m S^{\sharp}) + \frac{f^{-1}(\mathbf{L}_1)}{\beta}\big) + \m R^{\m T} \m W \Big)$ \\
\STATE $\m C_{\m s}$ $\gets$ $ \Big(2\lambda_1 \m L_{\m s} \m L_{\m s}^{\m T} + \beta(\m J_{\m s} -\frac{\mathbf{L}_2}{\beta}) \Big) \Big(2 \lambda_1 \m L_{\m s} \m L_{\m s}^{\m T} + \beta \m I_{\m s} \Big)^{-1}$\\
\STATE $\xi_{\m s}$ $\gets$ ${f_g( \mathbf{P}_{\m s}, \m S, \m K_{\m s}, \m p_{\m s})};$ \hspace{5.0cm} \COMMENT {Update spatial Grassmann points}
\STATE $\m S$ ~$\gets$ $f_{s}(\xi_{\m s}, \m \Sigma_{\m s}, \xi_{\m v \m s}, \m K_{\m s}, \m p_{\m s})$; \hspace{4.45cm} \COMMENT {Refine based on top $\m p_{\m s}$ singular values}
\STATE $\m J_{\m s} \gets \m U_{\m J_{\m s}} \mathcal{S}_{\frac{\lambda_3}{\beta}}(\m \Sigma_{\m J_{\m s}}) \m V_{\m J_{\m s}}^{\m T},\text{ where } [\m U_{\m J_{\m s}}, \m \Sigma_{\m J_{\m s}}, \m V_{\m J_{\m s}}^{\m T}] = \text{svd}(\m C_{\m s} + \frac{\mathbf{L}_2}{\beta})$
\STATE $\m S^{\sharp} \gets \m U \mathcal{S}_{\frac{\gamma}{\beta}}(\m \Sigma) \m V^{\m T}
\text{where,} ~[\m U, \m \Sigma, \m V^{\m T}] = \text{svd}(f(\m S) - \frac{\mathbf{L}_1}{\beta})$\\
\STATE $\m C_{\m t} \gets \Big(2\lambda_2 \m L_{\m t} \m L_{\m t}^{\m T} + \beta(\m J_{\m t} -\frac{\mathbf{L}_{3}}{\beta}) \Big) \Big(2 \lambda_2 \m L_{\m t} \m L_{\m t}^{\m T} + \beta \m I_{\m t} \Big)^{-1}$
\STATE $\xi_{\m t} \gets {f_g(\mathbf{P}_{\m t}, \m S^{\sharp}, \m K_{\m t}, \m p_{\m t})}$ \hspace{5.0cm} \COMMENT {Update temporal Grassmann points}
\STATE $\m S^{\sharp} \gets f_{s}(\xi_{\m t}, \m \Sigma_{\m t}, \xi_{\m v \m t}, \m K_{\m t}, \m p_{\m t})$;\hspace{4.45cm} \COMMENT {Refine based on top $\m p_{\m t}$ singular value} \\
\STATE $\m J_{\m t} \gets \m U_{\m J_{\m t}} \mathcal{S}_{\frac{\lambda_4}{\beta}}(\m \Sigma_{\m J_{\m t}}) \m V_{\m J_{\m t}}^{\m T}, \text{where} ~[\m U_{\m J_{\m t}}, \m \Sigma_{\m J_{\m t}}, \m V_{\m J_{\m t}}^{\m T}] = \text{svd}(\m C_{\m t} + \frac{\mathbf{L}_3}{\beta})$
\STATE $\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}^{\m s}$ $\gets$ $\textbf{Tr}[ ({\m \Phi_{\m s\m j}^{\m T}} {\m \Phi_{\m s\m i}} ) ({\m \Phi_{\m s\m i}^{\m T}} {\m \Phi_{\m s\m j}})]$,
$\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}^{\m t} \gets \textbf{Tr}[({\m \Phi_{\m t\m j}^{\m T}} {\m \Phi_{\m t\m i}} ) ({\m \Phi_{\m t\m i}^{\m T}} {\m \Phi_{\m t\m j}})]$;\\
\STATE ${\m \Gamma}_{\m s} \gets (\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}^{\m s})_{\m i, \m j = 1}^{\m K_{\m s}}, {\m \Gamma}_{\m t} \gets (\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}^{\m t})_{\m i, \m j = 1}^{\m K_{\m t}}$;\hspace{4.0cm} \COMMENT{${\m \Gamma}_{\m s} \succeq 0,{\m \Gamma}_{\m t} \succeq 0$, if ${\m \Gamma}_{\m s} || {\m \Gamma}_{\m t} = 0$ add $\delta \mathbf{I}$ to make it $\succ 0$ }\\
\STATE $\m L_{\m s}\m L_{\m s}^{\m T}$ = \textbf{Chol}(${\m \Gamma}_{\m s}$), $\m L_{\m t}\m L_{\m t}^{\m T}$ = \textbf{Chol}(${\m \Gamma}_{\m t}$); \\
\STATE $\mathbf{P}_{\m s} = f_p(\xi_{\m s}, \m C_{\m s}, \mathbf{P}_{\m s}); ~\mathbf{P}_{\m t} = f_p(\xi_{\m t}, \m C_{\m t}, \mathbf{P}_{\m t})$; \\
\STATE $\m W$ $\gets$ $f_o(\m W, \mathbf{P}_{\m s})$ \hspace{6.2cm}\COMMENT {Note: Column ordering of $\m W$ and $\m S$ must be same.}
\STATE $\mathbf{L}_1$ := $\mathbf{L}_1 + \beta(\m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S))$, $\mathbf{L}_2$ := $\mathbf{L}_2 + \beta(\m C_{\m s} - \m J_{\m s})$, $\mathbf{L}_3$ := $\mathbf{L}_3 + \beta(\m C_{\m t} - \m J_{\m t})$; \COMMENT {Update Lagrange multipliers}\\
\STATE $\beta\gets \textrm{min}(\rho\beta, \beta_m)$ \\
\STATE \textrm{maxgap} := \textrm{max}($[\| \m S^\sharp - f(\m S)\|_{\infty}, \|\m C_{\m s} - \m J_{\m s} \|_{\infty}, \|\m C_{\m t} - \m J_{\m t}\|_{\infty} ]$)
\IF{(maxgap $<$ $\epsilon$ $ \lor ~\beta > \beta_m$)}
\STATE break;
\ENDIF \hspace{7.2cm} \COMMENT {Check for the convergence}
\STATE $\textrm{iter} := \textrm{iter} + 1$\\
\ENDWHILE \hspace{3.0cm} \COMMENT {Note: $\delta$ is a very small positive number and $\mathbf{I}$ symbolizes identity matrix.}
\ENSURE $\m S$, $\m S^\sharp$, $\m C_{\m s}$, $\m C_{\m t}$.
\hspace{2.0cm} \COMMENT {Note: Kindly use economical version of `{\textrm{svd()}}' on a regular desktop.}
\end{algorithmic}
\end{algorithm*}
\noindent
\textbf{Solution to $\m J_{\m s}$ }
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m J_{\m s}} {\text{argmin}} ~\lambda_3 \|\m J_{\m s}\|_* + \frac{\beta}{2}\|\m C_{\m s} - \m J_{\m s}\|_{\m F}^2 + <\mathbf{L}_2, \m C_{\m s} - \m J_{\m s}> \\
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m J_{\m s}} {\text{argmin}} ~\lambda_3 \|\m J_{\m s}\|_* + \frac{\beta}{2} \|\m J_{\m s} - \big(\m C_{\m s} + \frac{\mathbf{L}_2}{\beta}\big)\|_{\m F}^2
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Similar to Eq.(\ref{eq:St}) derivation, we use the soft-thresholding operation. It's optimal solution can be obtained as
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
\m J_{\m s} \equiv \m U_{\m J_{\m s}} \mathcal{S}_{\frac{\lambda_3}{\beta}}(\m \Sigma_{\m J_{\m s}}) \m V_{\m J_{\m s}}^{\m T},\text{ where } [\m U_{\m J_{\m s}}, \m \Sigma_{\m J_{\m s}}, \m V_{\m J_{\m s}}^{\m T}] = \text{svd}(\m C_{\m s} + \frac{\mathbf{L}_2}{\beta})
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
\textbf{Solution to $\m J_{\m t}$}
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m J_{\m t}} {\text{argmin}} ~\lambda_4 \|\m J_{\m t}\|_* + \frac{\beta}{2}\|\m C_{\m t} - \m J_{\m t}\|_F^2 + <\mathbf{L}_3, \m C_{\m t} -\m J_{\m t}> \\
& \displaystyle \equiv \underset{\m J_{\m t}} {\text{argmin}} ~\lambda_4 \|\m J_{\m t}\|_* + \frac{\beta}{2} \|\m J_{\m t} - \big(\m C_{\m t} + \frac{\mathbf{L}_3}{\beta}\big)\|_{\m F}^2
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\begin{small}
\begin{aligned}
\m J_{\m t} \equiv \m U_{\m J_{\m t}} \mathcal{S}_{\frac{\lambda_4}{\beta}}(\m \Sigma_{\m J_{\m t}}) \m V_{\m J_{\m t}}^{\m T}, \text{ where} [\m U_{\m J_{\m t}}, \m \Sigma_{\m J_{\m t}}, \m V_{\m J_{\m t}}^{\m T}] = \text{svd}(\m C_{\m t} + \frac{\mathbf{L}_3}{\beta})
\end{aligned}
\end{small}
\end{equation}
\noindent
The pseudo-code with few MATLAB script of our implementation is provided in {\bf{Algorithm (\ref{alg:Algorithm1}}}). This divide and conquer approach works well for most of the available benchmark dataset, however, to make our method more robust to a real-world setting, we took our idea a step further. We know that high-dimensional data representation can be inferior in the presence of noise and outliers unless some filtering techniques are employed. Therefore, we must introduce the notion of low-dimensional representation on Grassmann manifold which preserves the important geometrical information and lets us get rid of noisy information in the data. Inquest of implementing this idea, we proposed a geometry aware extension to our previously proposed dense NRSfM algorithm.
\section{Geometry Aware Idea}
\subsection{Motivation}
The key insight in the last algorithm is; even though the overall complexity of the deforming shape is high, each local deformation may be less complex. Using this idea, we developed a union of local linear subspace approach to solve dense NRSfM problem. Despite its excellent performance, it has some practical concerns.
\emph{Firstly}, the intrinsic issues associated with the modeling of a non-rigidly deforming surface via a \textbf{high-dimensional} Grassmannian representation. Now, such a representation may help reconstruct complex 3D deformation but can lead to wrong clustering ---curse of dimensionality \cite{duda2012pattern}, and it's very important in a joint reconstruction and clustering framework to have suitable clusters of subspaces, else reconstruction may suffer. \emph{Secondly}, the approach to represent local non-linear deformation completely ignores the neighboring surfaces, which may result in an inefficient representation of the Grassmannians in the trajectory space. \emph{Thirdly}, the representation of Grassmannians in the shape space can result in \emph{irredeemable} discontinuity of the trajectories (see Fig.(\ref{fig:temporaldis})). Hence, temporal representation of the set of shapes using Grassmannians seems not an extremely beneficial choice for modeling dense NRSfM on Grassmannian manifold, \textbf{unless prior information is available which in general is not known}. \emph{Lastly}, although the dense NRSfM algorithm proposed in Algorithm (\ref{alg:Algorithm1}) works better and faster than the previous methods, it depends on several manual parameters which are inadmissible for practical applications.
Hence, we extend the idea of our previous approach that can overcome the aforementioned limitations with \textbf{Algorithm (\ref{alg:Algorithm1})}. The main point we are trying to make is that; reconstruction and grouping of subspace on the same high dimensional Grassmann manifold seem like an unreasonable choice. Even recent research in the Riemannian geometry has shown that the low dimensional representation of the corresponding high dimensional Grassmann manifold is more favorable for grouping Grassmannians \cite{huang2015projection} \cite{harandi2014manifold}. So, inspired from these past work, we formulate dense NRSfM in a way that it takes advantage of both high and low dimensional representation of Grassmannians \textit{i.e.}, perform reconstruction in the original high-dimension manifold and cluster subspace on its corresponding low-dimension manifold representation.
We devise an unsupervised approach to efficiently represent the high-dimensional Grassmannians to a lower-dimensional Grassmann manifold via a projection operation. These low-dimensional Grassmannians are represented in such a way, it preserves the local structure of the surface deformation in accordance with its neighboring surfaces. These low-dimensional Grassmannians serves as a potential representative for its high-dimensional Grassmannians for suitable grouping, which subsequently helps improve the reconstruction and representation of the Grassmannians on the high-dimensional Grassmann manifold. Further, we drop the temporal grouping of shapes using Grassmannians to discourage the discontinuity of trajectories (see Fig.(\ref{fig:temporaldis})).
In essence, our modification is inspired by the previously developed idea and is oriented towards settling its important limitations. Moreover, in contrast to \textbf{Algorithm (\ref{alg:Algorithm1})}, we capture the notion of dependent local subspace in a union of subspace algorithm via Grassmannian modeling \cite{larsson2017compact}. The algorithm we proposed is an attempt to supply a more efficient, reliable and practical solution to this problem. Our new formulation gives an efficient framework for modeling dense NRSfM on the Grassmann manifold. We observed empirically that this method is more useful and is as accurate and efficient than \textbf{Algorithm (\ref{alg:Algorithm1})}. The performance of this algorithm stands superior in handling noise. The main highlights of this algorithm are as follows:
\begin{enumerate}
\item An efficient framework for modeling non-rigidly deforming surface that exploits the advantage of Grassmann manifold representation of different dimensions based on its geometry.
\item A formulation that encapsulates the local non-linearity of the deforming surface w.r.t its neighbors to enable the proper inference and representation of local linear subspaces.
\item An iterative solution to the proposed cost function based on ADMM \cite{boyd2011distributed}, which is simple to implement and provide results as good as \textbf{Algorithm(\ref{alg:Algorithm1})} and in addition to that, it helps improve the 3D reconstruction substantially, in the case of noisy trajectories.
\end{enumerate}
\begin{figure}[t]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.9\linewidth]{Figures/CVPR19Figures/TemporalDiscontinuity1.pdf}
\caption{\small{Temporal representation using Grassmannians in the shape space introduces discontinuity in the overall trajectory of the feature point. Also, to define neighboring subspace dependency graph in the time domain seems very challenging keeping in mind that the activity/expression may repeat. Red circle shows the feature point with its trajectory over frames (Black). } \label{fig:temporaldis}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
\subsection{New Grassmannian Representation}\label{ss:gr_rep}
To properly represent Grassmannian which respects the neighboring non-linearity in low-dimension, we introduce a different strategy to model non-rigid surface in low-dimension. For now, let $\Delta \in \mathbb{R}^{{\m d} \times \tilde{\m d} }$ be a matrix that maps `$\m \Phi_{\m i}$' $\in \mathcal{G}(\m p, {\m d})$ to `$\m \phi_{\m i}$' $\in \mathcal{G}(\m p, \tilde{\m d})$ such that $ \tilde{\m d} < {\m d}$. Mathematically,
\begin{equation}
\m \phi_{\m i} = \m \Delta^{\m T} \m \Phi_{\m i}
\end{equation}
Its quite easy to examine that $\m \phi_i$ is not a orthogonal matrix and, therefore, may not qualify as a potential point on a Grassmann manifold. However, by performing a orthogonal-triangular (QR) decomposition of $\m \phi_i$, we estimate the new representative of $\m \phi_i$ on the Grassmann manifold of `$\tilde{\m d}$' dimension.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_2}
\m \Theta_{\m i} \m U_{\m i} = \mathbf{qr}(\phi_{\m i}) = \m \Delta^{\m T} \m \Phi_{\m i}
\end{equation}
Here, $\mathbf{qr(.)}$ is a function that returns the QR decomposition of the matrix. The $\m \Theta_{\m i} \in \mathbb{R}^{\tilde{\m d} \times \m p}$ is an orthogonal matrix and $\m U_{\m i} \in \mathbb{R}^{\m p \times \m p} $ is the upper triangular matrix\footnote{Note: The value of $\tilde{\m d} \geq \m p$, Use $[\m \Theta_{\m i}, \m U_{\m i}]=\textbf{qr}(\m \phi_{\m i}, 0)$ in MATLAB to get a square $\m U_{\m i}$ matrix ($\m U_{\m i} \in \mathbb{R}^{\m p \times \m p}$)}. Using Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_2}), we represent the equivalence of $\m \Phi_{\m i}$ in low dimension as
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_3}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \m \Theta_{\m i} = \m \Delta^{\m T}(\m \Phi_{\m i} \m U_{\m i}^{-1})\\
& \displaystyle \m \Theta_{\m i} = \m \Delta^{\m T} \m \Omega_{\m i}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
where, $\m \Omega_{\m i} = \m \Phi_{\m i} \m U_{\m i}^{-1} \in \mathbb{R}^{{\m d} \times \m p}$. The key-point to note is that both $\m \Theta_{\m i}$ and $\phi_{\m i}$ has the same column space. In principle such a representation is useful however, it does not serve the purpose of preserving the non-linearity w.r.t its neighbors. In order to encapsulate the local dependencies (see Fig.(\ref{fig:grassmannneigh}), Fig.(\ref{fig:grassmannneighconcept})), we further constrain our representation as:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_4}
\m E (\m \Delta) = \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} \sum_{(\m i, \m j)}^{\m K} \m w_{\m i\m j} \frac{1}{2}\|\m \Pi(\m \Theta_{\m i})-\m \Pi(\m \Theta_{\m j})\|_2^{\m F}
\end{equation}
The parameter `$\m w_{\m i \m j}$' accommodate the similarity knowledge between the two Grassmannians. Using the {\bf{Definition}}(\ref{def:2}) and Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_3}), we further simplify Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_4}) as
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_5}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \m E (\m \Delta) \equiv \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} \sum_{(\m i, \m j)}^{\m K} \m w_{\m i\m j}\frac{1}{2}\|\m \Delta^{\m T} \m \Omega_{\m i} \m \Omega_{\m i}^{\m T} \m \Delta - \m \Delta^{\m T} \m \Omega_{\m j} \m \Omega_{\m j}^{\m T} \m \Delta \|_{\m F}^{2} \\
& \displaystyle \m E (\m \Delta) \equiv \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} \sum_{(\m i, \m j)}^{\m K} \m w_{\m i\m j}\frac{1}{2} \|\m \Delta^{\m T}(\m \Omega_{\m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}^{\m T} -\m \Omega_{\m j}\m \Omega_{\m j}^{\m T}) \m \Delta \|_{\m F}^{2} \\
& \displaystyle \m E (\m \Delta) \equiv \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} \sum_{(\m i, \m j)}^{\m K} \m w_{\m i\m j}\frac{1}{2} \|\m \Delta^{\m T}(\m \Lambda_{\m i\m j})\m \Delta \|_{\m F}^{2} \\
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\begin{figure}[t]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{Figures/CVPR19Figures/GrassmannModel3.pdf}
\caption{\small{In contrast to Algorithm (1) representation, the modeling of surface using Grassmannians considers the similarity between the neighboring Grassmannians while representing it in the lower dimension. Based on the assumption that spatially neighboring surface tend to span similar subspace, defining neighboring subspace dependency graph is easy and, most of the real-world examples follows such an assumption. However, building such graph in shape space can be tricky.} \label{fig:grassmannneigh}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
where, $\m \Lambda_{\m i \m j} \in \textrm{Sym}({\m d})$. The parameter `$\m w_{\m i \m j}$' (\textbf{similarity graph}) is set as $\textrm{exp}(-d_{g}^{2}(\m \Phi_{\m i}, \m \Phi_{\m j}))$ with $d_{g}$ as the projection metric (see {\bf{Definition}} (\ref{def:2})). Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_5}) is an unconstrained optimization problem and its solution may provide a trivial solution. To estimate the useful solution, we further constrain the problem. Using $\m i^{\m t \m h}$ Grassmann point `$\m \Omega_{\m i}$' and its neighbors, expand Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_5}). By performing some simple algebraic manipulation, Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_5}) reduces to
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_6}
\mathbf{Tr}\Big(\m \Delta^{\m T}\big(\sum_{\m i = 1}^{\m K}\m \lambda_{\m i \m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}^{\m T}\big)\m \Delta\Big)
\end{equation}
where, $\m \lambda_{\m i\m i} = \sum_{\m j = 1}^{\m K} \m w_{\m i \m j}$. Constraining the value of Eq.($\ref{eq:CVPR19_6}$) to 1 provides the overall optimization for an efficient representation of the local non-rigid surface on the Grassmann manifold.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_7}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \m E(\m \Delta) \equiv \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} \sum_{(\m i, \m j)}^{\m K} \m w_{\m i\m j}\frac{1}{2} \|\m \Delta^{\m T}(\m \Lambda_{\m i\m j})\m \Delta \|_{\m F}^{2}\\
& \displaystyle \textrm{subject to:}\\
& \displaystyle \mathbf{Tr}\Big(\m \Delta^{\m T}\big(\sum_{\m i = 1}^{\m K}\m \lambda_{\m i \m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}^{\m T}\big)\m \Delta\Big) = 1
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
Its easy to verify that the matrix `$\m \Lambda$' and `$\big(\sum_{\m i = 1}^{\m K}\m \lambda_{\m i \m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}^{\m T}\big)$' are symmetric and positive semi-definite, and therefore, the above optimization can be solved as a generalized eigen value problem.
\subsection{Solution to $\m E (\Delta)$}
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_S15}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \m E(\m \Delta) \equiv \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} \sum_{(\m i, \m j)}^{\m K} \m w_{\m i\m j}\frac{1}{2} \|\m \Delta^{\m T}(\m \Lambda_{\m i\m j})\m \Delta \|_{\m F}^{2}\\
& \displaystyle \textrm{subject to:}\\
& \displaystyle \textbf{Tr}\Big(\m \Delta^{\m T}\big(\sum_{\m i = 1}^{\m K}\lambda_{\m i \m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}^{\m T}\big)\m \Delta\Big) = 1
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
The optimization equation proposed for $\m E (\m \Delta)$ is a well-studied optimization form and Riemann Conjugate gradient toolbox can be employed to achieve the solution. Nevertheless, we can also derive augmented lagrangian form to solve the same problem. By letting $\m X$ = $\big(\sum_{\m i = 1}^{\m K}\lambda_{\m i \m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}\m \Omega_{\m i}^{\m T}\big)$ and expanding the Frobenius norm term, we can re-write the equation as:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_S16}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \m E(\m \Delta) \equiv \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} \sum_{(\m i, \m j)}^{\m K} \frac{\m w_{\m i\m j}}{2} \textbf{Tr}\big(\m \Delta^{\m T}\m \Lambda_{\m i\m j}\m \Delta \m \Delta^{\m T} \m \Lambda_{\m i\m j} \m \Delta\big) \\
& \displaystyle \m E(\m \Delta) \equiv \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} ~\textbf{Tr}\Big({\m \Delta}^{\m T} \sum_{(\m i, \m j)}^{\m K} \frac{\m w_{\m i\m j}}{2} \m \Lambda_{\m i\m j}\m \Delta^{t-1} \m \Delta^{\m (t-1)\m T} \m \Lambda_{\m i\m j} \m \Delta\Big)\\
& \displaystyle \textrm{subject to:}\\
& \displaystyle \textbf{Tr}\Big(\m \Delta^{\m T}\m X \m \Delta\Big) = 1
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
Here, $t-1$ refers to its known value before the current iteration. Now, by assuming $\m Y = \frac{\m w_{\m i\m j}}{2} \m \Lambda_{\m i\m j} \m \Delta^{t-1} \m \Delta^{\m (t-1)\m T} \m \Lambda_{\m i\m j} $, the above equation simplifies to standard eigen value decomposition problem \textit{i.e,}
\begin{figure}[t]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{Figures/CVPR19Figures/PresentationMethodLPP.pdf}
\caption{\small{Conceptual illustration of our modeling (a) Modeling of 3D trajectories to Grassmann points (b) The two grassmann manifold and mapping of the points between them to infer better cluster index that leads to better reconstruction (c) The 3D reconstruction of the non-rigid deforming object.} \label{fig:grassmannneighconcept}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \m E(\Delta) \equiv \underset{\m \Delta} {\text{minimize}} ~\textbf{Tr}(\m \Delta^{\m T} \m Y \m \Delta) \\
& \displaystyle \textrm{subject to:}\\
& \displaystyle \textbf{Tr}\Big(\m \Delta^{\m T}\m X \m \Delta\Big) = 1
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
The equivalent Lagrangian function form is given by
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_S18}
\textrm{Tr}(\m \Delta^{\m T} \m Y \m \Delta) + \lambda\Big(1- \textbf{Tr}\big(\m \Delta^{\m T}\m X \m \Delta\big)\Big)
\end{equation}
Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_S18}) is in the generalized eigen value problem form. Any standard linear algebra package can be used to solve it.
\subsection{Geometry Aware Extension}
Similar to the previous algorithm, we introduce the local subspace constraint on the shape, we use the notion of self-expressiveness on the non-linear Grassmann manifold space.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_10}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m E, {\m C}, \m S^{\sharp}} {\text{minimize}} ~\| \m E \|_{\mathcal{G}}^2 + \beta_2\| \m S^{\sharp}\|_* + \beta_3 \| \m C\|_*\\
& \displaystyle \textrm{subject to:} ~\m S^{\sharp} = f(\m S), ~\m S = \m S \m C + \m E
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
As defined before $f: \m S \in \mathbb{R}^{3 \m F \times \m P} \mapsto \m S^{\sharp} \in \mathbb{R}^{3 \m P \times \m F}$ and $\m C \in \mathbb{R}^{\m P \times \m P}$ as the coefficient matrix. We know from our previous discussion that the Grassmann manifold is isometrically equivalent to the symmetric idempotent matrix \cite{chikuse2012statistics}. So, we embed the Grassmann manifold into symmetric matrix manifold to define the self-expressiveness. Let $\tilde{\xi_{\m s}} = \{ \m \Theta_1, \m \Theta_2, ..., \m \Theta_{\m K} \}$ be the set of Grassmannians on a low dimensional Grassmann manifold. The elements of $\tilde{\xi_{\m s}}$ are the projection of high dimensional Grassmannian representation of the columns of `$\m S$' matrix. Let $\rchi = \{ (\m \Theta_1\m \Theta_1^{\m T}), (\m \Theta_2\m \Theta_2^{\m T}), ..., (\m \Theta_{\m K}\m \Theta_{\m K}^{\m T}) \}$ be its embedding onto symmetric matrix manifold. Using such embedding techniques we re-write Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_10}) as
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_11}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m E, \tilde{\m C}, \m S^{\sharp}} {\text{minimize}} ~ \| \m E \|_{\m F}^2 + \beta_2\| \m S^{\sharp}\|_* + \beta_3 \| \tilde{\m C} \|_* \\
& \displaystyle \textrm{subject to:} \m S^{\sharp} = f(\m S), \rchi = \rchi \tilde{\m C} + \m E
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
where, $\tilde{\m C} \in \mathbb{R}^{\m K \times \m K}$ and $\rchi \in \mathbb{R}^{\tilde{\m d} \times \tilde{\m d} \times \m K}$ denotes the coefficient matrix of Grassmannians and structure tensor respectively, with $\m K$ as the total number of Grassmannians. Generally, $\m K<<\m P$, which makes such representation scalable.
Similar to previous notations, let $\mathbf{P}$ $\in \mathbb{R}^{1 \times \m P}$ be an ordering vector that contains the index of columns of $\m S$. Also, using the the function definition form $\{(\textrm{output}, \textrm{function(.)}): \textrm{definition} \}$, we define $f_h$ as
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_13}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \big\{ \big(\tilde{\xi_{\m s}}, f_h(\m \Delta, \xi_{\m s})\big): \tilde{\xi_{\m s}} = \{\m \Theta_{\m i}\}_{\m i=1}^{\m K}, \m \Theta_{\m i} = \m \Delta^{\m T}(\m \Phi_{\m i} \m U_{\m i}^{-1}), \\
& \displaystyle \textrm{where,} ~\m \Delta = \text{solution to the minimization of Eq.}(\ref{eq:CVPR19_7})\big\}
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
Intuitively, The function ($f_h$) projects the Grassmannians to a lower dimension in accordance with the neighbors using Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_7})
\noindent
{\bf{Objective Function:}}
Combining all the above terms and constraints provides our overall cost function.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_15}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m E, \tilde{\m C}, \m S, \m S^{\sharp}} {\text{minimize}} \frac{1}{2}\|\m W - \m R \m S\|_{\m F}^2 + \beta_1\| \m E \|_{\m F}^2 + \beta_2\| \m S^{\sharp}\|_* + \beta_3 \| \tilde{\m C} \|_* \\
& \displaystyle \textrm{subject to:}\\
& \displaystyle \m S^{\sharp} = f(\m S), \rchi = \rchi \tilde{\m C} + \m E, \\
& \displaystyle {\xi_{\m s}} = f_g(\mathbf{P}, \m S, \m K, \m p), \tilde{\xi_{\m s}} = f_h(\m \Delta, \xi_{\m s}), \\
& \displaystyle \m S = f_s({\xi_{\m s}}, \m \Sigma, {\xi}_{\m v}, \m K, \m p), \mathbf{P} = f_p(\tilde{\xi_{\m s}}, \tilde{\m C}, \mathbf{P}_{\m s \m o})
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
where $\mathbf{P}_{\m o}$ vector contains the initial ordering of the columns of `$\m W$' and `$\m S$'. The function $(f_p)$ provides the ordering index to rearrange the columns of `$\m S$' matrix to be consistent with `$\m W$' matrix. This is important because, grouping the set of columns of `$\m S$' over iteration, disturbs its initial arrangements. The definition of $f_g$, $f_s$ and $f_p$ is same as outlined in Eq(\ref{eq:fg}), Eq(\ref{eq:fs}) and Eq(\ref{eq:fp}) respectively.
\subsection{Solution}
The optimization proposed in Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_15}) is a coupled optimization problem. Several methods of Bi-level optimization can be used to solve such minimization problem \cite{bard2013practical, gould2016differentiating}. Nevertheless, we propose ADMM \cite{boyd2011distributed} based solution due to its application in many non-convex optimization problems. The key point to note is that one of our constraint is composed of separate optimization problem $(f_h)$ \textit{i.e.}, the solution to Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_7}), and therefore, we cannot directly embed the constraint to the main objective function. Instead, we only introduce two Lagrange multiplier $\mathbf{L_1, L_2}$ to concatenate a couple of constraints back to the original objective function. The remaining constraints are enforced over iteration. To decouple the variable $\tilde{\m C}$ from $\rchi$, we introduce auxiliary variable $\tilde{\m C} = \m Z$. We apply these operations to our optimization problem to get the following Augmented Lagrangian form:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_16}
\small
\begin{aligned}
& \displaystyle \underset{\m Z, \tilde{\m C}, \m S, \m S^{\sharp}} {\text{minimize}} \frac{1}{2}\|\m W - \m R \m S\|_{\m F}^2 + \beta_1\| \rchi - \rchi \tilde{\m C} \|_{\m F}^2 + \beta_2\| \m S^{\sharp}\|_* + \frac{\beta}{2}\| \m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)\|_{\m F}^2 +\\
&\displaystyle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <\mathbf{L_1}, \m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)> + \beta_3 \| \m Z \|_* + \frac{\beta}{2}\| \tilde{\m C} - \m Z\|_{\m F}^2 + <\mathbf{L_2}, \tilde{\m C} - \m Z>\\
& \displaystyle \textrm{subject to:} \\
& \displaystyle {\xi_{\m s}} = f_g(\mathbf{P}, \m S, \m K, \m p), ~\tilde{\xi_{\m s}} = f_h(\m \Delta, \xi_{\m s}) \\
& \displaystyle \m S = f_s({\xi_{\m s}}, \m \Sigma, {\xi}_{\m v}, \m K, \m p), ~\mathbf{P} = f_p(\tilde{\xi_{\m s}}, \tilde{\m C}, \mathbf{P}_{\m o})
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
\noindent
Note that $\tilde{\m C}$ provides the information about the subspace, not the vectorial points. However, we have the chart of the trajectories and its corresponding subspace. Once, we group the trajectories based on $\tilde{\m C}$, $f_g(.)$ provides new Grassmann sample corresponding to each group. The definition of $f_h(.)$ and $f_s(.)$ is provided in Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_7}) and Eq.(\ref{eq:fs}) respectively. More generally, the solution to the optimization in Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_7}) is obtained by solving it as a generalized eigenvalue problem. To keep the order of columns of `$\m S$' matrix consistent with `$\m W$' matrix $f_p(.)$ provides the ordering index. We provide the implementation details of our method with suitable MATLAB commands in the \textbf{Algorithm (\ref{algo:Algorithm2})}.
\begin{algorithm}[t!]
\caption{\small {Geometry Aware Dense NRSfM}}
\label{algo:Algorithm2}
\begin{algorithmic}
\REQUIRE
$\m W$, $\m R$, $\{\beta_{\m i}\}_{\m i=1}^3$, $\beta$=$e^{-2}$, $\beta_m$=$e^{8}$, $\epsilon$=$e^{-10}$, $c$ =$1.1$, $\m K$; \\
\hspace{-0.3cm}{\bf Initialize:} ${\m S}$=$\mathbf{pinv}(\m R) \m W$, ${\m S^{\sharp}}$=$f(\m S)$, $\m Z$=$\mathbf{0}$, $\{{\bf L}_{\m i}\}_{\m i=1}^2$=$\mathbf{0}$, $\tilde{\m d}$;\\
\hspace{0.5cm}$\Delta$ = $[\mathbf{I}_{\tilde{\m d} \times \tilde{\m d}};$ $\textrm{random values}],$ $\m p $ $\%$top singular values \\
\hspace{0.5cm}$\mathbf{P}_{\m s \m o}$ = $\textrm{kmeans++}(\m S, \m K)$, $\textrm{iter}$ = 1, $\mathbf{P}_\textrm{store}(\textrm{iter}, :)$ = $\mathbf{P}_{\m s \m o}$,\\
\hspace{0.5cm}$\mathbf{P}$ = $\mathbf{P}_{\m s \m o}$\\
{\bf Define:} ~$\mathcal{S}_{\tau}(\m x) := \textcolor{mygreen}{@}(\m x, \tau) \textrm{sign}(\m x).*\textrm{max}(\textrm{abs}(\m x)-\tau, 0);$
\WHILE {not converged}
{\small
\STATE 1. $\m S$ := mldivide\big($\m R^{\m T}\m R + \beta \m I$, $ \beta(f^{-1}(\m S^{\sharp}) + \frac{f^{-1}(\mathbf{L_1})}{\beta}) + \m R^{\m T}\m W$\big);
\STATE 2. $\xi_{\m s} := f_g(\mathbf{P}, \m S, \m K, \m p)$; see Eq.(\ref{eq:fg})
\STATE 3. $\m W := \text{arrange\_column}(\mathbf{P}, \m W)$
\STATE 4. Update the similarity matrix `$\m w_\textrm{ij}$' using $\xi_{\m s}$. \S \ref{ss:gr_rep}
\STATE 5. $\tilde{\xi_{\m s}} := f_{h}(\xi_{\m s}, \m \Delta); \text{s.t}, \Delta \equiv \underset{\m \Delta}{\textrm{minimize}}~~\m E(\m \Delta);$ see Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_13})
\STATE 6. $\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij}=\textbf{Tr}[(\m \Theta_{\m j}^{\m T}\m \Theta_{\m i})(\m \Theta_{\m i}^{\m T}\m \Theta_{\m j})]; \m \Gamma=(\m \Gamma_\textrm{ij})_{\m i\m j=1}^{\m K};\m L = \textbf{Chol}(\m \Gamma)$
\STATE 7. $ \tilde{\m C}$ := $\big(2\beta_1 \m L \m L^{\m T} + \beta(\m Z - \frac{\mathbf{L_2}}{\beta})\big)$ $\big(2\beta_1 \m L \m L^{\m T} + \beta \m I\big)^{-1}$;
\STATE 8. $\mathbf{P} := f_{p}(\tilde{\xi_{\m s}}, \tilde{\m C}, \mathbf{P})$;
\STATE 9. $\m S := f_s({\xi_{\m s}}, {\m \Sigma}, {\xi}_v, \m K, \m p);$ see Eq.(\ref{eq:fg}), Eq.(\ref{eq:fs})
\STATE 10. $\m S^{\sharp}:= \m U_{\m s}\mathcal{S}_{\frac{\beta_2}{\beta}}(\m \Sigma_{\m s})\m V_{\m s}; \text{s.t},[\m U_{\m s},\m \Sigma_{\m s},\m V_{\m s}] := \textrm{svd}(f(\m S) - \frac{\mathbf{L_1}}{\beta})$
\STATE 11. $\m Z := \m U_{\m z}\mathcal{S}_{\frac{\beta_3}{\beta}}(\m \Sigma_{\m z})\m V_{\m z}; \text{s.t}, [\m U_{\m z}, \m \Sigma_{\m z},\m V_{\m z}] := \textrm{svd}(\tilde{\m C} + \frac{\mathbf{L_2}}{\beta});$
\STATE 12. $\mathbf{L_1} := \mathbf{L_1} + \beta(\m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)); \mathbf{L_2} := \mathbf{L_2} + \beta(\tilde{\m C} - \m Z)$
\STATE 13. $\textrm{iter} := \textrm{iter} + 1;$ $\mathbf{P}_\textrm{store}(\textrm{iter}, :) := \mathbf{P};$
\STATE 14. $\beta := \textrm{min}(\beta_m, c\beta);$ \\
\STATE 15. $\textrm{gap} := ~~\textrm{max}\{\|\m S^{\sharp} - f(\m S)\|_\infty, \| \tilde{\m C} - \m Z\|_\infty\};$\\
$(\textrm{gap}<\epsilon) \lor (\beta > \beta_m)\rightarrow \textbf{break};\textrm{\%convergence check}$
} \\
\ENDWHILE
\RETURN $\m S$;\\
\hspace{-0.3cm}$e_{3 \m D}$ = \textbf{Estimate\_error} $(\m S_\textrm{est} = \m S, \m S_{\m G \m T}, \mathbf{P}_\textrm{store});$ \%use Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_17})
\end{algorithmic}
\end{algorithm}
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\textwidth] {Figures/Result_synthetic_Face.pdf}
\caption{\small{Reconstruction results obtained on synthetic dense face dataset (face sequence 4). {\bf{Top row}} : Ground-truth 3D points, {\bf{Bottom row}} : Recovered 3D shape using Algorithm 1. Visually, the 3D reconstruction results recovered using both the algorithms looks very similar. }}
\label{fig:syntheticSeq4res}
\end{figure*}
\section{Experimental Evaluation}
We performed extensive qualitative and quantitative evaluations on the available standard benchmark datasets \cite{garg2013dense} \cite{varol2012constrained} \cite{beeler2011high}. To keep our evaluations consistent with the previous methods, we compute the average 3D reconstruction quality of the estimated shape `$\m S_\textrm{est}$' using the following equation
\begin{equation}\label{eq:CVPR19_17}
\m e_{3 \m D} = \frac{1}{\m F} \sum_{\m i = 1}^{\m F}\frac{\|\m S_\textrm{ est}^{\m i} - \m S_{\m G\m T}^{\m i}\|_{\m F}}{\|\m S_{\m G\m T}^{\m i}\|_{\m F}}
\end{equation}
here, `$\m S_{\m G\m T}$' denotes the ground-truth 3D shape matrix. The qualitative results for both the algorithm looks very similar, yet, they are statistically different (see Table \ref{tab:statisticalresults}).\\
\noindent
\textbf{Initialization:} The initialization for both the algorithms are straight-forward and outlined in the respective algorithm table. In brief, we used Intersection method \cite{dai2014simple} to estimate the rotation matrix and initialize $\m S = \textbf{pinv}(\m R)\m W$. The initial grouping of the trajectories or columns of $\m S$ is done using k-means++ algorithm \cite{arthur2007k}. These initial grouping is used to initialize the ordering vector $\mathbf{P}_{\m o}$, $\mathbf{P}$ and, the Grassmann points $\{\Phi_{\m i} \}_{\m i=1}^{\m K} \in \xi$ via subset of singular vectors. To represent the Grassmannians in the lower-dimension, we solve Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_S15}) to initialize $\tilde{\xi}$ and store corresponding singular values. The similarity matrix or graph in Eq.(\ref{eq:CVPR19_S15}) is constructed using the distance measure between the Grassmannians in the embedding space \S \ref{ss:gr_rep}.\\
\noindent
{\bf{1. Results on synthetic Face dataset:}}
The synthetic face dataset is composed of four distinct sequence \cite{garg2013dense} with 28,880 feature points tracked over multiple frames. Each sequence captures the human facial expression with a different range of deformations and camera motion. Sequence 1 and Sequence 2 are 10 frame long video with rotation in the range $\pm 30^{\circ}$ and $\pm 90^{\circ}$ respectively. Sequence 3 and Sequence 4 are 99 frame long video that contains high frequencies and low frequencies rotation respectively. It's a challenging dataset mainly due to different rotation frequencies and deformations in each of the facial expression sequence. Table (\ref{tab:statisticalresults}) shows the statistical results obtained on these four sequences using both of our algorithms. Fig.(\ref{fig:syntheticSeq4res}) show the qualitative results on face sequence 4 of the dataset.
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\textwidth] {Figures/Result_Real_Images.pdf}
\caption{\small{Reconstruction results obtained on real dataset sequence. {\bf{Top row}}: Real image sequence, {\bf{Bottom row}}: Recovered 3D shape using our approach. \textbf{Left to Right}: Actor \cite{beeler2011high}, Back \cite{garg2013dense}, Face \cite{garg2013dense}, Heart \cite{garg2013dense}, kinect\_paper \cite{varol2012constrained}, kinect\_tshirt \cite{varol2012constrained} dataset.}}
\label{fig:real6res}
\end{figure*}
\begin{table*}[h]
\centering
\small
\begin{tabular}{|>{\columncolor[gray]{0.85}}c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
\rowcolor[gray]{0.65}
Dataset $\downarrow \slash$ Method $\rightarrow$& MP & PTA & CSF1 & CSF2 & DV & DS & SMSR & Algorithm 1 & Algorithm 2 \\ \hline
Face Sequence 1 & 0.0926 & 0.1559 & 0.5325 & 0.4677 & 0.0531 & 0.0636 & 0.1893 & 0.0443 & {\bf{0.0404}}\\ \hline
Face Sequence 2 & 0.0819 & 0.1503 & 0.9266 & 0.7909 & 0.0457 & 0.0569 & 0.2133 & {\bf{0.0381}} & 0.0392 \\ \hline
Face Sequence 3 & 0.1057 & 0.1252 & 0.5274 & 0.5474 & 0.0346 & 0.0374 & 0.1345 & 0.0294 & {\bf{0.0280}}\\ \hline
Face Sequence 4 & 0.0717 & 0.1348 & 0.5392 & 0.5292 & 0.0379 & 0.0428 & 0.0984 & {\bf{0.0309}} & 0.0327\\ \hline
Actor Sequence 1 & 0.5226 & 0.0418 & 0.3711 & 0.3708 & - & 0.0891 & 0.0352 & 0.0340 & {\bf{0.0274}} \\ \hline
Actor Sequence 2 & 0.2737 & 0.0532 & 0.2275 & 0.2279 & - & 0.0822 & 0.0334 & 0.0342 & {\bf{0.0289}} \\ \hline
Paper Sequence & 0.0827 & 0.0918 & 0.0842 & 0.0801 & - & 0.0612 & - & 0.0394 & {\bf{0.0338}} \\ \hline
T-shirt Sequence & 0.0741 & 0.0712 & 0.0644 & 0.0628 & - & 0.0636 & - & {\bf{0.0362}} & 0.0386 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{ \small{Statistical comparison of our method with other competing approaches. Quantitative evaluations for SMSR \cite{ansari2017scalable} and DV \cite{garg2013dense} are not performed by us due to the unavailability of their code, and therefore, we tabulated their reconstruction error from their published work.}} \label{tab:statisticalresults}
\end{table*}
\noindent
{\bf{2. Results on Paper and T-shirt dataset:}}
To evaluate our performance on smooth deforming surfaces, we used Varol et.al. \cite{varol2012constrained} `kinect\_paper' and `kinect\_tshirt' datasets. This dataset provides real condition to test the performance of NRSfM algorithm. It provides sparse SIFT \cite{lowe1999object} feature tracks and noisy depth information captured from Microsoft Kinect for all the frames. As a result, to get dense 2D feature correspondences of the non-rigid object for all the frames becomes difficult. To circumvent this issue, we used Garg et.al. algorithm \cite{garg2011robust} to estimate the measurement matrix. Numerically, we compute the correspondence of the deforming subject within $\m x_{\m w}$ = $(253, 253, 508, 508)$, $\m y_{\m w}$ = $(132, 363, 363, 132)$ rectangular window across 193 frames for kinect\_paper sequence. For kinect\_tshirt sequence, we considered rectangular window of $\m x_{\m w}$ = $(203, 203, 468, 468)$, $\m y_{\m w}$ = $ (112, 403, 403, 112)$ across 313 frames. Fig.(\ref{fig:real6res}) shows couple of 3D reconstruction results on these sequence with comparative results specified in Table (\ref{tab:statisticalresults}).
\noindent
{\bf{3. Results on Actor dataset:}}
Beeler et.al. \cite{beeler2011high} introduced Actor dataset for high-quality facial performance capture. This dataset is composed of 346 frames captured from seven cameras with 1,180,232 vertices. The dataset captures the fine details of facial expressions which is extremely useful in the testing of NRSfM algorithms. Nevertheless, for our experiment, we require dense 2D image feature correspondences across all images as input, which we synthesized using ground-truth 3D points and synthetically generated orthographic camera rotations. To maintain the consistency with the previous works in dense NRSfM for performance evaluations, we synthesized two different datasets namely Actor Sequence1 and Actor Sequence2 based on the head movement as described in Ansari et.al. work \cite{ansari2017scalable}. Fig.(\ref{fig:real6res}) show the dense detailed reconstruction that is achieved using our algorithms. Table (\ref{tab:statisticalresults}) clearly indicates the superior performance of our approach on this high-quality dense dataset.
\noindent
{\bf{4. Results on Face, Heart, Back dataset:}}
To evaluate the variational approach to dense NRSfM Garg et.al.\cite{garg2013dense} introduced this dataset. This dataset is composed of monocular video's captured in a natural environment with varying lighting condition and large displacements. It consists of three different videos with 120, 150 and 80 frames for face sequence, back sequence and heart sequence respectively. Furthermore, this dataset provides dense 2D feature tracks for these 3 categories. Specifically, face, back and heart sequence is composed of 28332, 20561, and 68295 features tracks respectively. Ground-truth 3D is not available with this dataset for evaluation. Fig.(\ref{fig:real6res}) show some qualitative 3D reconstruction results on face, back and heart sequence. The qualitative results ---shown in Fig.(\ref{fig:real6res}), demonstrate that our approach is able to estimate the 3D reconstruction of a deforming subject reliably and accurately.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\subfigure [\label{fig:timing_per}]
{\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.133\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/timings_grassmann.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:noise_per}] {\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/noise_response.pdf}}
\caption{ \small{ (a) Processing Time Comparison (b) Performance Comparison on Noisy Trajectories} }
\label{fig:evaluationNoiseandMD}
\end{figure}
\subsection{Algorithmic Analysis}
\noindent
We performed several other experiments to understand the behavior of our algorithm under different input parameters and evaluation setup. In practice these experiments help analyze the practical applicability of our algorithm.\\
\noindent
{\bf{1. Processing Time and Convergence:}} The execution time for both the algorithm (Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2) is more or less same. Nevertheless, in comparison to other previous methods our processing time is far better. We computed the processing time on commodity desktop machine with 16GB RAM suing MATLAB R2019b software. Fig.(\ref{fig:timing_per}) show the processing time of our method in comparison to other methods on different datasets. Ideally, our algorithm takes 120-150 iteration to provide an optimal solution to the problem.
\noindent
{\bf{2. Performance over noisy trajectories:}}
We utilized the standard experimental procedure to analyze the behavior of our algorithm under different noise levels. Similar to the work of Lee et.al.\cite{lee2013procrustean}, we added the Gaussian noise to the input trajectories. The standard deviation of the noise are adjusted as $\sigma_{g} = \lambda_g\textrm{max}\{|\m W|\}$ with $\lambda_g$ varying from 0.01 to 0.055. Fig.(\ref{fig:noise_per}) show the quantitative comparison of our approach with recent algorithm DS \cite{dai2017dense}. The graph show the average 3D reconstruction error of all the four synthetic face dataset \cite{garg2013dense}. The statistics indicate that our algorithms are more resilient to noise than other competing methods. Specifically, Algorithm 2 performs better with noisy data due to the low-dimensional projection of the Grassmannians to perform grouping, which inherently provides robust representation of subspace in presence of noisy trajectories.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\subfigure [\label{fig:algo1_sing_val}]
{\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/Algo1_singular_values.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:algo2_sing_val}] {\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/Algo2_singular_values.pdf}}
\caption{\small{ Change in the average 3D reconstruction accuracy with respect to number of singular vectors and singular values used. } }
\label{fig:evaluationtopsingular}
\end{figure}
\noindent
{\bf{3. Performance with change in the number of singular values:}}
The integral value of `$\m p$' in $\mathcal{G}(\m p, \m d)$ i.e., the number of top singular vectors to represent Grassmannians and, corresponding singular values to perform reconstruction can directly affect the performance of our algorithm. Yet, it has been observed over several experiments that we need relatively few singular values and singular vectors ---in comparison to the number of trajectories, to recover dense 3D reconstruction of the deforming object. Fig.(\ref{fig:algo1_sing_val}) and Fig. (\ref{fig:algo2_sing_val}) show the change in average 3D reconstruction with the different values of `$\m p$' for synthetic face dataset \cite{garg2013dense}. The graph shows that for both Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2, 10-15 singular values are good enough for Face Sequence 1-2 and, 25-30 singular values are sufficient for Face Sequence 3-4. Note that these sequence have 28,880 trajectories and therefore, to reconstruct each vectorial point can be severely expensive. In constrast, our linear subspace representation can handle it easily.
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\subfigure [\label{fig:repro_face1}]
{\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/ReprojectionError_FaceSeq1.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:repro_face2}] {\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/ReprojectionError_FaceSeq2.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:repro_face3}]
{\includegraphics[width=0.25\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/ReprojectionError_FaceSeq3.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:repro_face4}] {\includegraphics[width=0.25\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/ReprojectionError_FaceSeq4.pdf}}
\caption{ \small{ The measure of re-projection error constraint i.e $\| \m W- \m R \m S\|_{\m F}$ as a function of rank on synthetic face dataset \cite{garg2013dense}. } }
\label{fig:repro_eval}
\end{figure*}
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\subfigure [\label{fig:gterr_face1}]
{\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/GT_FaceSeq1.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:gterr_face2}] {\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/GT_FaceSeq2.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:gterr_face3}]
{\includegraphics[width=0.25\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/GT_FaceSeq3.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:gterr_face4}] {\includegraphics[width=0.25\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/GT_FaceSeq4.pdf}}
\caption{ \small{The measure of ground-truth shape fit i.e, the distance between the obtained shape and ground truth shape ($\|\m S_{\m G\m T} - \m S\|_{\m F}$) as a function of rank on synthetic face dataset \cite{garg2013dense}.}}
\label{fig:gterr_eval}
\end{figure*}
\noindent
\textbf{4. Analysis of Data-fit with Variation in the Rank:} Inspired by the recent work \cite{ornhag2020unified}, we performed this test to analyse the dependence of the algorithm on the output rank. Specifically, we measure the datafit and ground-truth fit which is defined as $\|\m W - \m R\m S\|_{\m F}$ and $\|\m S_{\m G\m T}-\m S\|_{\m F}$ respectively. This experiment revels the competence of the algorithm to fit the trajectory/shape based on the selection of the rank. The Fig.(\ref{fig:repro_eval}) and Fig.(\ref{fig:gterr_eval}) clearly indicates that sparse NRSfM algorithm \cite{dai2014simple} \cite{akhter2009nonrigid} fails to handle the dense deforming shapes. Neither, reprojection error nor ground-truth fit is maintained with increase in the 'K' value (rank).
Additionally, dense NRSfM approach with only global constraint \cite{paladini2012optimal} (MP) fails to capture the local deformation properly, hence, datafit to the ground-truth fails to correlate with the re-projection error with increase in the rank (K value). In contrast, our algorithm has expected trend to both reprojection error and ground-truth error with the variation in the rank. Both of our algorithms have high correlation between the two measures. Note that MP \cite{paladini2012optimal} \cite{paladini2009factorization} algorithm estimates both rotation and translation for NRSfM problem, however, for consistency we did not consider the translation component for plotting these graphs.
\noindent
{\textbf{5. Ablation Test:}} In this paper, we proposed two optimization algorithms that are composed of several constraints. To understand the importance of each constraint, we performed an ablation test. Algorithm 1 has both spatial and temporal subspace constraint, whereas, Algorithm 2 has spatial subspace constraint along with spatial neighbouring constraint. To perform this task for Algorithm 1, we observe the performance of our formulation under four different setups: (a) without any spatio-temporal constraint (b) with only spatial constraint (c) with only temporal constraint (TP), and (d) with both the spatial-temporal constraint. Fig.(\ref{fig:algo1_ablation}) show the variations in average 3D reconstruction errors under these setups on four synthetic face sequence. The statistics clearly illustrate the importance of both the constraints in our formulation. Similarly, for Algorithm 2, we analysed the performance before and after imposing the neighboring constraint. The result is shown in Fig.(\ref{fig:algo2_ablation}) that demonstrates the importance of the imposed constraint. Just to remind the readers that for Algorithm 2, we did not consider the temporal constraint. We argued that temporal information are generally not available in real-world cases.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\subfigure [\label{fig:algo1_ablation}]
{\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/Ablation_Study_Algo1.pdf}}
\subfigure [\label{fig:algo2_ablation}] {\includegraphics[width=0.24\textwidth, height=0.14\textheight]{Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/Ablation_Study_Algo2.pdf}}
\caption{ \small{ (a)-(b) Ablation test results for Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2 respectively.} }
\label{fig:abalationstudy}
\end{figure}
\noindent
\textbf{6. Dependence of the algorithm 2 on variable $\tilde{\m d}$:} Dimensionality reduction to group the grassmann points is one of the critical aspect of Algorithm 2. To determine the dimension to which we should project for better results is a key-concern. We used well-known procedure of cumulative energy of singular vectors to get the value of $\tilde{\m d}$. Mathematically, let $\Omega$ be the set that stack all the Grassmannians and $\sigma_{\m i}$ be the $\m i^\textrm{th}$ singular value of $\Omega\Omega^{\m T}$, then
\begin{equation}
\tilde{\m d} = \underset{\m d_\textrm{opt}} {\textrm{argmin}} \frac{\sum_{\m i=1}^{\m d_\textrm{opt}}\sigma_{\m i}}{\sum_{\m i=1}^{\m d}\sigma_{\m i}} \geq \tau
\end{equation}
where $\tau$ can vary from 0 to 1 and $\m d_\textrm{opt}$ (optimal dimension) is a positive integer. We put $\tau = 0.97$ for all our experiment. Fig.(\ref{fig:dimesion_dependence}) show the variations in the reconstruction error with the value of $\tau$ for synthetic face dataset \cite{garg2013dense}. It is observed that for different dataset the value of suitable $\tilde{\m d}$ is different. The point to note is that if the reduced dimension is less than the intrinsic dimension, the samples may lose important information for better grouping of Grassmannians. For our task, in general, $\tau = 0.97$ works well for all the dataset.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth] {Figures/AlgorithmicPlot/dimensions_dependence.png}
\caption{\small{Variation in the 3D reconstruction accuracy w.r.t $\tau$.}}
\label{fig:dimesion_dependence}
\end{figure}
\section{Practical Limitations}
Firstly, our method assumes fairly good dense 2D feature correspondence is provided as input. Nonetheless, estimating robust dense 2D feature correspondences for a deforming surface across frames in itself is a very challenging problem to solve. The main challenges come from the fact that the illumination of the deforming object keeps changing over time. Consequently, a passive approach to establish correspondences may lead to wrong results.
Secondly, our representation may fail to handle non-rigid deformation such as stretching and squashing of an object. For example: stretching a rubber sheet or deflating a balloon. Such deformations are hard to handle due to substantial change in the global structure of the shape ---area/volume or projected object size can differ considerably over frames. Lastly, object deformation recorded under a distinct camera trajectory can provide different results.
\section{Conclusion and Future Work}
In this work, we introduced a new representation to solve the problem of dense non-rigid structure from motion. Exploiting both local and global deformation constraints, our algorithm uses the new representation to make the idea of joint segmentation and reconstruction scalable and therefore, is able to obtain the 3D structure of dense deforming surfaces with higher accuracy. Employing a unified spatial-temporal idea to blend the information from both shape and trajectory space, our algorithm demonstrated leading performance on the benchmark datasets. Later, we extended our formulation to a more practical setting, where, temporal shape information is not known a prior and input can be noisy. We used the assumption that a group of neighboring trajectories may span a similar linear subspace. To make our formulation robust to noise, we project the manifold representation to lower dimension for better clustering, thereby implicitly improving the 3D reconstruction. In particular, our algorithm shows notable accuracy in the presence of noise and complex deformations, where other methods may fail.
It has been observed that when the same object deformation is recorded under different camera motion, the non-rigid structure from motion algorithms behaves differently. In the future, we plan to extend our algorithm to handle such a situation robustly. Additionally, how far can we apply the new finding on smooth motion assumption in our pipeline and, when the low-rank model may fail is left as an extension to this work \cite{kumar2020non}.
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VMIAC AGM will be held on November 25th from 4 – 6 pm (on-line)
The annual election for Committee members to replace retiring members will form part of that meeting and VMIAC is currently accepting nominations for the Committee.
VMIAC is central to reforms of the mental health system. There has never been a more exciting time to apply for the Committee of Management.
VMIAC is currently accepting nominations for the Committee. We are looking for consumers who have experience or an understanding of governance, the time and commitment necessary to serve a committee, and specific skills or experiences that will assist us.
VMIAC's Committee would benefit from the following skills:
Experience of quality monitoring and improvement
Strategic communications and social media
Finance and accounting experience
Consumer workforce experience
Chairing experience or understanding
Legal and human rights experience
In addition to this, we are looking for consumers who:
Identify as First Nations
Identify as LGBTIQA+
Are over 60
Assist the board to reflect gender diversity.
Please see a letter from our Secretary Tom Wood.
Fill out the attachment and return it to [email protected] by 15th November 2021.
If you wish to nominate yourself for the Committee, we encourage you to talk with the current Committee first by emailing [email protected].
About VMIAC and our members
The Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council (VMIAC) is the peak consumer body in Victoria. Established in 1981 and incorporated in 1986 VMIAC was the first mental health consumer owned and managed organisation in Victoria. With the original goal of advocating to be accepted by other disability organisations as a part of the disability field, in the 1990's the focus of VMIAC changed to include provision of individual advocacy at the clinical service level. Commonwealth funding under the National Disability Advocacy Program supported this work and philanthropic grant have supported the development of VMIACs systemic advocacy knowledge and skills.
VMIAC is recognised by the Victorian Government as the Peak Organisation for mental health consumers in Victoria and currently provides advocacy, education, consultation, support, and information for people who identify as having mental and emotional distress. Funding provided by the Department of Health focuses VMIACs services to those people who are subjected to the act and experiencing high levels of intervention by the public mental health system, while funding provided through the NDIS enable advocacy and support to people using NDIS services.
Developed in partnership with consumers VMIACs vision is a world where all mental health consumers stand proud, live a life with choices honoured, rights upheld, and these principles are embedded in all aspects of society.
VMIAC aims to achieve our vision by:
Honouring mental health consumer diversity
Providing advocacy for mental health consumers
Advancing mental health consumer workforce and leadership
Delivering information and training to the community
Enabling mental health consumer driven education and research
Developing strategic partnerships
VMIAC's work is premised on the following beliefs:
People's experiences are respected and valued
People are expert in their own lives
People have a right to self determination
People have capacity to make genuine choices,
People should be safe, respected, valued and informed free from coercion
People's diversity is embraced
In 2019 VMIAC asked consumers across the state what our future could look like if the mental health system was replaced with something wonderful. Launched in Nov 2019, with over 190 people contributing, the declaration identifies an overarching theme of choice. Consumers want more diverse choices when it comes to supports for their mental health and wellbeing. The declaration also identifies eight topics of focus that covers a broad range of experiences from social change to actions and supports that people want.
Download Nomination Letter
Download Nomination Form
October 21, 2021 October 21, 2021 News |
Rotana and Tala Farea both drowned and the cause of death was suicide, ny medical examiner Barbara Sampson said in a brief report on Tuesday evening.
Law enforcement sources in NY indicated past year that the sisters "would rather do harm to themselves" than return to their home country. In a November 2 press conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said that his detectives have developed sources who told them how much the girls didn't want to return to Saudi Arabia.
The sisters were found beside the Hudson River in late October with no visible signs of trauma, dressed all in black, and in coats with fur-trimmed collars.
The mysterious death of two Saudi Arabian sisters found bound together with duct tape on the banks of the Hudson River a year ago has been ruled a suicide, medical officials said on Tuesday. He said detectives were informed the sisters expressed a desire to "inflict harm on themselves, commit suicide" rather than return to Saudi Arabia after they had been in the United States about three years, according to the station.
The sisters moved to the US from Saudi Arabia with their mother and two brothers in 2015. They traveled to New York City and stayed in high-end hotels, eventually maxing out the older sister's credit card.
The harrowing deaths of the Saudi-born women - Rotana Farea, 22, and Tala Farea, 16 - stunned the world and drew attention to their home nation's misogynistic culture. They were tied together at the ankles and waist by duct tape. |
UMSL Eye Care campaign builds awareness to serve community
February 13, 2019 seoexpert UMSL 0
Through a collaboratively strategized campaign, the College of Optometry hopes to increase the visibility of its UMSL Eye Care patient care centers across the region. (Image courtesy of Janice White and University Marketing and Communications)
If you've been playing an UMSL-themed game as you drive the streets of St. Louis lately, you might find yourself saying, eye spy something…
Innovative.
For nearly 35 years, the University of Missouri–St. Louis College of Optometry has been serving the public through its three premier eye health clinics. Now, UMSL Eye Care hopes to increase the breadth of its patient community by raising the visibility of its patient care service locations with a marketing campaign.
"What it was intended to do was show the expertise and services provided by our excellent faculty as well as communicate to prospective patients what's available," College of Optometry Dean Larry Davis said. "I think the special services available in the eye center have often gone unknown."
The outreach includes a new website, a billboard campaign, window clings and radio spots read by KMOX's Carol Daniel – all designed to build awareness of the excellent care available to the St. Louis area community.
At UMSL Eye Care, both the general and university communities and students receive symbiotic benefits. For patients, optometrists provide superior care in a professional setting. Simultaneously, the student doctors obtain real-world training while under the supervision of licensed clinicians.
"It serves as a training venue," Davis said. "All of the care is supervised by our faculty. It's operated similar to a practice that you might go to elsewhere – it just happens to have students who are assisting."
In addition to exemplary and comprehensive adult and pediatric eye care, the centers provide a variety of specialty services such as low vision rehabilitation, treatment for binocular vision and nonsurgical vision options. Many of the center's clinical providers are known internationally in specialties including cornea and contact lenses and management of eye abnormalities impacting children. UMSL Eye Care accepts most medical and vision insurance plans and has an extensive contact lens and optical dispensary.
The campaign and website came from a collaboration between the College of Optometry and University Marketing and Communications. Assistant Director of Clinical Operations Angel Forsha and the marketing team started by rebranding the patient care umbrella organization, which they changed from the UMSL Center for Eye Care to UMSL Eye Care.
To drive home the point that the centers are open to the public, the team included the messaging, "Three convenient locations to serve you." Together, they strategically placed billboards in the neighborhoods adjacent to Lindell Eye Center in the Central West End and University Eye Center in Normandy. The latter is located in the Patient Care Center, which also is home to an SSM Medical Group office.
"We're trying to get the name recognition out there to build credibility," Forsha said. "If people know who we are, when they see us and they see their insurance company has listed us, they'll choose us because they've heard our name so much."
To differentiate the professional patient care services from the school, the web team built a site for UMSL Eye Care from the ground up. They also developed an easy-to-remember URL: eyecare.umsl.edu. Formerly, the patient care pages were folded into the college's academic site.
Forsha has already noticed an uptick in interactions as potential patients contact the front desk through the website. In the near future, she'll be adding an online portal, where patients will have access to their prescriptions and health history. She sees the patient portal as a potentially transformative time saver and hopes that, along with the campaign, it will allow the centers to provide more peerless service to the community.
"I think we give back to the community as they give to us," she said. "We're truly concerned with what's best for the patient. I think that's a luxury of being an academic intuition. It tends to be a really good thing for the patient."
Short URL: https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/?p=78287
Limited Submission Opportunity: V Foundation V Scholar Awards
Chopin Visiting Professorship Brings Profs. Neumann and Kraidy to Vienna |
From General Mechanics to General Motors: Lynn Gantt's EcoCAR Experience
by Walter Wang June 18, 2011 0 comment
Since childhood, Lynn Gantt has had a deep seeded passion for cars and the mechanics that drive them. The Virginia native spent his weekends rebuilding antique tractors with his dad to race at tractor pulls across the state, and now the Virginia Tech graduate student is the proud team co-leader of Virginia Tech's EcoCAR Challenge team—the winners of the three-year long competition, as announced this week at an awards ceremony in Washington, DC.
Lynn grew up around mechanics and engineering, which is why he says the Mechanical Engineering undergrad and graduate programs at Virginia Tech were a perfect fit for him. In addition to the family hobby of rebuilding antique tractors, Lynn's dad runs a small electrical contracting business (Swing Electrical Company) out of Newport News, VA, and his older brother is an auto mechanic at a car dealership. "Clearly this program was just a natural fit for me," he says.
Lynn has been a member of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team of Virginia Tech (HEVT) for all three years of the EcoCAR Challenge, which began his senior year in Fall 2008. As the only remaining original Virginia Tech participant, Lynn has spent the last three years working with teams of 25 student volunteers modifying the team's 2009 Saturn Vue—which the team aptly named the VT-REX (for Virginia Tech – Range Extended Crossover) . The car was donated to each of the 16 teams by General Motors, who partnered with Department of Energy to sponsor the competition and its predecessor, Challenge X.
Last week, his team got to put their finely tuned creation to the test at General Motors' Proving Grounds in Milford, Michigan, and the results were stunning. In addition to achieving an average of 81.9 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (70 percent higher than the stock Saturn Vue), the VT-REX demonstrated a braking distance of 132.74 feet, which handily beats the stock vehicle's 141.66 feet braking distance. Virginia Tech's vehicle impressed throughout the process, consistently setting the standard as it underwent many of the same technical and safety challenges conducted on many of GM's production vehicles—a performance that set them apart from the pack and ultimately led to them becoming the winners of the inaugural EcoCAR Challenge.
Lynn's connection to General Motors isn't ending with the competition though. Instead, he and a several other team members are taking their talents to Michigan this summer, where they will become some of General Motor's newest employees. More specifically, Lynn will be working in the company's Energy Center, where he says he will likely be focusing on improving fuel economy and electric consumption—both of which connect to his graduate thesis project, which focuses on predicting electric range in vehicles.
Other Virginia Tech students will work with Bosch, and Lynn says that several undergrads from the team have secured summer internships with General Electric.
As Lynn prepares to start the next chapter in his journey, he offered some words of wisdom to other young people who might be interested in joining the next generation of auto engineers: "Try and learn as much as you can about automobiles. The amount of technology in cars today is unbelievable, and it takes a lot to get cars like these up and running. Start early and learn as much as you can." As for the EcoCAR Competition, Lynn says that the experience is one that students should get involved in. "We spend a lot of time working with industry leading technology that's otherwise not available to college students."
The Department of Energy is proud to team up with industry leaders like GM to bring innovators like Lynn to the forefront of the clean energy jobs movement.
For more information about the EcoCAR Challenge finalists, visit the EcoCAR Challenge website.
clean energyEcoCar Challengeelectric rangeElectric VehiclesGMVirginia Tech
Walter Wang
Walter's contributions to CleanTechies over the past 4 years have been instrumental in growing the publications social media channels via his ongoing editorial and data driven strategies. He is the founder and managing director of Sunflower Tax, a renewable energy tax and finance consultancy based in San Diego, California. Active in the San Diego clean technology community, participating in events sponsored by CleanTech San Diego, EcoTopics, and Cleantech Open San Diego, Walter has also been a presenter at numerous California Center for Sustainability (CCSE) programs. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law where he teaches a course on energy taxation and policy.
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I travelled to New York for this special engagement shoot for Marina and Rob, an amazing couple that are getting married in Cabo in a few months. We spent a few hours walking by the SoHo streets, Grand Central Terminal and Central Park. I had a great time with this couple we ended up the day with a nice dinner and I have to say that I had the best lasagne ever. I am pretty excited to share a sneak peek of their magic session in this big citty. Stay tuned for the rest. Can´t wait for their wedding day!! |
Why embodiment is the answer to more connection - Mark Walsh
This week's show is with Mark Walsh, Mark is the founder of The Embodied Facilitator Course, Embodied Yoga Principles, The Embodiment Podcast and The Embodiment Conference, a ground-breaking event attended by over 15,000 people worldwide. With an honours degree in psychology, 20+ years of yoga experience and an aikido black belt, he has dedicated his life to embodied learning. These days, he teaches and mentors young embodiment teachers all over the world.
In this conversation, Mark and I explored the incredibly juicy topic of why embodiment is connection (and conversely why disembodiment is disconnection). Mark shared the 5 ways we can be connected and gave some beautifully clear practical ways you can increase your connection... or rather your embodiment.
Direct download: Mark_Walsh_mixdown.mp3
Wed, 20 November 2019
The magic of vulnerability and discovery in leadership - Adam Quiney
This week's show is with my good friend Adam Quiney, Adam is an executive leadership coach specializing in working with the Smartest People in the Room. A former software developer and attorney, Adam's learned the hard way about the costs that come from keeping your heart safe and chasing after external rewards to feel whole and complete.
From love, Adam is connection, passion, presence, wit and brilliance. From fear, he is awkward, robotic, apathetic, irrelevant and arrogant. He's learned to embrace all these parts of himself, and works with others to do the same in their own lives. He is a man on a mission to bring the world to a more inspired and fully-expressed place.
So in this episode, Adam and I dived deep into a conversation around standing and BEING coach and leader in
our relationships (friendships, romantic relationships, etc.), what that looks like, how it relates to being vulnerable, how flipping difficult it can be and why it's even a game worth playing. We also share some of our own recent screw-ups and successes (some of which are possibly the same thing)!
Direct download: Adam_Quiney_3_mixdown.mp3
How to navigate the thrills and spills of an aligned life
This week's show is Sabrina Lynn, founder of ReWilding For Women, she has had a profound impact on thousands of women across the globe. She is one of the most provocative, raw and passionate personal development trainers in the world.
Known internationally for her unique workshops on spiritual growth, reclamation of the divine feminine and the awakening path that is unique to women, Sabrina has designed and developed remarkably effective transformational practices that address awakening in mind, body, and heart.
Sabrina brings 12 years of teaching, speaking, facilitating, and coaching experience to her work, having taught at some of the largest organizations in Australia. She has studied, practiced and taught archetypal psychology, neuroscience, leadership, shamanism, energetic healing, meditation, astrology, tantra, physiology and mind-body connection.
Sabrina currently hosts the popular weekly ReWilding For Women podcast and leads international audiences through ReWilding For Women workshops, retreats and online programs. Her audiences connect with her down-to-earth approach and often experience remarkable transformation, healings and shifts.
In this show we spoke about the recent events in Sabrina's business (AKA her soul child!), how she's navigated the conflict from a place of creating altitude on it, understanding what's in alignment with her deeper truth, which ultimately could be summed up as how to live a soul-led life. For any of us who are deepening into this way of living, Sabrina's story is a wonderful one to learn from and be inspired by.
Direct download: Sabrina_Lynn_4_mixdown.mp3
Wed, 6 November 2019
How to harness beauty to create more vitality and pleasure - Michaela Boehm
This week's show is with Michaela Boehm. Michaela is among the most gifted and in-demand teachers, speakers, and counselors to be found globally today. Born and raised in Austria, Michaela received degrees in Psychology and further extensive training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Hypnosis, and NLP. Upon moving to the United States in 1994, Michaela established a 20+ year counseling practice logging over 40,000 client hours. She quickly became counselor to the stars in Hollywood, California, and her on-going clients include Oscar-winning actors, producers, writers, multiple Grammy-winning musicians, CEOs, and multi-billion dollar fund managers.
In this conversation, we spoke about the power of beauty in creating aliveness, inspiration, pleasure and embodiment, which is something that Michaela is seeing more deeply from the experiences of her house being burned down, her subsequent lack of real home, and then her current rebuilding of it. We touched upon cultural expectations of beauty and how this shows up in how we experience women's bodies that don't fit those standards, for example in ageing or post-children. Lastly, Michaela gives a beautifully simple way that anyone can choose into cultivating beauty in their lives.
Direct download: Michaela_Boehm_mixdown.mp3
Fri, 1 November 2019
All The Everything: How to kill your inner darlings for a deeper life - Lian
* Dived deep into the topic: How to kill your inner darlings for a deeper life
Direct download: ATE_Nov_2019_mixdown.mp3 |
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Running Lip
Home Movies 'The Call of the Wild' Will Lose a Lot of Money
'The Call of the Wild' Will Lose a Lot of Money
There was a lot of publicity surrounding the release of "The Call of the Wild" starring iconic actor Harrison Ford. The movie is yet another adaptation of the classic novel by Jack London. There have been several movie versions of this story over the years. The most notable version starred Clark Gable. Unfortunately, the latest version has not lived up to the expectations of audiences. It has not made nearly as much money as Disney had hoped. Actually, that is a bit of an understatement. It is now estimated that the film will lose roughly $50 million when all is said and done.
The film had a respectable opening weekend. The problem is that "The Call of the Wild" cost a fortune to make because of all the computer animation that was involved in creating the dog that is prominently featured, reports Cinema Blend. If the film had a more modest budget, it might be on its way to making a profit. However, this film was so expensive to produce and market that it needed to be a huge box office smash in order to make money. That is clearly not going to happen now.
There has been a lot of speculation about why the film has not been able to attract the audience that Disney was hoping for. After all, the story is beloved and Harrison Ford is one of the biggest actors in the history of show business. The general consensus is that people are sick and tired of so much computer animation being used to create animals and other things from real life. Many people have posted comments online that have said the movie should have been made using a real dog. There have also been complaints about the fact that the movie does not follow the original book as closely as it should.
Disney bought the Fox movie studio and they paid a lot of money for it. However, Disney has not had a lot of luck with the movies that were already in development by Fox when the purchase was made. Last year, the X-Men film "Dark Phoenix" was a box office disaster. It was originally a Fox film that Disney acquired. Once again, Disney has been left with a huge bomb by Fox in the form of this "The Call of the Wild" movie. However, Disney has been doing very well lately. They will be able to absorb this loss.
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Does Kygo have a girlfriend?
Andreas Hem is not going to be part of Team Overkill
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Q: Do I not understand the flex-grow property? I'm afraid I must not understand flex-grow. If you jump to the JSFiddle below - the way I understand it, .big should be three times the size of the other .flex-item. As you can see, not so. Why?
http://jsfiddle.net/nrur6mmo/
.flex-container {
display:flex;
padding:0 20%;
}
.flex-item {
flex-grow:1;
list-style-type:none;
border:1px solid black;
}
.big {
flex-grow:3;
}
<ul class="flex-container">
<li class="flex-item big">Why isn't this exactly three times the size of the other one?</li>
<li class="flex-item">Not really working like expected I don't think...</li>
</ul>
A: You have to specify a value for flex-basis as well (not specifying this property causes behaviour similar to using the initial value, auto).
Add flex-basis: 0; to both children or just set it with the shorthand:
.flex-item {
flex: 1; /* flex-basis is 0 if omitted */
}
.big {
flex-grow: 3;
}
http://codepen.io/anon/pen/JEcBa
A: Authors are encouraged to control flexibility using the flex shorthand rather than with flex-grow directly, as the shorthand correctly resets any unspecified components to accommodate common uses.
https://drafts.csswg.org/css-flexbox/#propdef-flex-grow
.flex-item {
flex: 1;
}
.big {
flex: 3;
}
This is a working example
http://codepen.io/anon/pen/VjZYPV
A: Flex-grow is commonly misunderstood in this way. Flex-grow only controls how the left over space is distributed between flex items, not how big they are in proportion to each other.
What you're looking for is really just this:
.flex-item {
width: 25%;
list-style-type:none;
border:1px solid black;
}
.big {
width: 75%;
}
See also
*
*Flex-grow not working as expected (flex items don't have the widths I expect)
*In what circumstances is flex-shrink applied to flex elements and how does it work?
|
Git alias:
```git
diff-stat = diff --stat --ignore-space-change -r
```
Example:
```shell
git diff-stat
```
|
Ефимовцы — деревня в Кирово-Чепецком районе Кировской области в составе Чепецкого сельского поселения.
География
Расположена на расстоянии менее 3 км на юг-юго-восток по прямой от юго-западной границы центра района города Кирово-Чепецк.
История
Известна с 1802 года как деревня Желдыбинская с 3 дворами. В 1873 году здесь (Желдыбинская, или Басиха малая) дворов 4 и жителей 26, в 1905 (Желдубинская или Ефимовцы) 4 и 29, в 1926 (уже Ефимовцы) 6 и 32, в 1950 8 и 25, в 1989 уже не учтено постоянных жителей. Ныне имеет дачный характер.
Население
Постоянное население составляло 2 человека (русские 100%) в 2002 году, 0 в 2010.
Примечания
Населённые пункты Кирово-Чепецкого района |
Sabzi Mandi Ferozepur City
Everything you need to know about Sabzi Mandi Ferozepur City: news, reviews, in-depth analysis, opinion and more
New integrated checkpost opened at Attari, to boost Indo-Pak trade
Attari (Punjab), April 13 (IANS) Trade between India and Pakistan through the land border route is expected to go up almost 10 times with the formal inauguration Friday of the newly-constructed integrated check post (ICP) at Attari, along the international border between the two neighbours.
Efforts on to minimise Metro snags, say officials
New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) A day after thousands of Metro commuters were stranded for over six hours due to a major signalling snag, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials said efforts will be made to minimise the effects of such technical problems in the future.
Metro rail? Start in Agra, say residents
Agra, March 28 (IANS) With Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav suggesting a metro or mono rail in some cities, residents say the Taj city should be the first beneficiary. |
Photo courtesy of AIPH
AIPH releases 2021 statistics manual
The latest version provides production data for over 40 countries, detailed country breakdowns, product comparisons, market data and prices and global import and export data.
Posted by Julianne Mobilian
The International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH), in association with Union Fleurs, has released the 69th edition of the International Statistics – Flowers and Plants 2021.
The International Statistics Flowers and Plants Yearbook has the most comprehensive collection of production and trade data for the ornamental plants and flower industry. It is now available to purchase and instantly download from the AIPH's Intelligence Centre.
This annual publication is invaluable to trade organizations, policymakers, marketers, producers, traders, libraries, and universities. In its 69th year, the contents are the result of extensive research and data compiled by the Centre for Business Management in Horticulture and Applied Research, Leibniz University Hanover, Germany.
The Statistics Yearbook provides production data for over 40 countries, detailed country breakdowns, product comparisons, market data and prices and global import and export data. This edition also features additional survey responses about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 Yearbook is published as a pdf document and features 226 pages of illustrations, tables, diagrams and maps of key production data.
New data contained in the 2021 Statistics Yearbook includes:
Online survey with results from 12 countries and the effects on production and trade of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New figures for per capita consumption for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, the UK, Japan and the U.S.
New figures on area and production and additional updated summary information for 38 countries
Overview trade tables for import and export of cut flowers, live plants etc., cuttings and slips, bulbs and tubers and cut foliage
Summary of sales and marketing of top-selling cut flowers and pot plants for wholesale markets.
New trade tables with figures for the following countries: Kenya, Ecuador, Colombia, Ethiopia, Israel, Uganda, Thailand, Zambia, South Africa, Turkey, Tanzania.
New external trade maps showing the most important producing countries of cut flowers and the most important exporters and importers of cut flowers.
Instant, secure purchasing
The 2021 Yearbook can be purchased online from AIPH (+ VAT if applicable).
For more information and to view sample pages, including the contents pages, visit www.aiph.org/giic/international-statistical-yearbook/.
AIPH
Palm trees along a Ft. Lauderdale causeway
Florida cities battle over palm trees
Arborists' proposal to replace palm trees with shade trees in Florida cities has met with vocal opposition.
Posted by Matt McClellan
Florida is known for its beaches, sunshine and palm trees. But in communities that are responding to climate change, palm lovers are being forced to face an inconvenient truth. Palms, which really aren't trees at all, don't do well in capturing carbon or in providing shade in overheated urban areas. But communities are finding that replacing palms with shade trees can be a touchy issue.
In Miami Beach, palms make up nearly 60% of the urban tree canopy. The city recently adopted a plan to reduce that percentage to 25% over the next 30 years.
"That's where I started raising the alarm so to speak, as to what could potentially be the phase out of palm trees," Commissioner Steven Meiner says.
Meiner voted for the plan and says he's all in favor of adding more shade trees. But he's working to protect the city's palms.
Read the full story at NPR.
Image courtesy of Nufarm
Nufarm announces partnership with Lier Chemical for the supply of T&O glufosinate
The partnership comes as demand for glufosinate solutions rises in the turf and ornamentals industry.
Posted by Chris Markham
Nufarm Americas Inc. today announced a cooperation arrangement with Lier Chemical Company, Ltd. to supply glufosinate serving the Turf & Ornamental (T&O) market.
Glufosinate solutions in the U.S. T&O segment, such as Nufarm's Cheetah Pro Herbicide, have experienced rapid growth as broadleaf and grass weed species gain resistance to multiple herbicide classes and applicators pursue alternative solutions.
Lier Chemical, a leading global glufosinate producer, plans to supply the needs of T&O's escalating demand through Nufarm. Nufarm offers one of the strongest herbicide manufacturing footprints serving North America, plus a proven path to channel distribution and the turf and ornamental professionals they serve.
"This is a logical supply alliance that's very committed to supplying the needs of customers and the green spaces they nurture and protect from harmful pests every day," said Brendan Deck, Nufarm North America regional general manager. "I look forward to helping Lier Chemical extend its glufosinate reach as we gain supply continuity and peace of mind for our Cheetah Pro customers."
"Lier and Nufarm have worked together since 2003 starting from Picloram to a wide series of products," said Yingsui Yin, Lier chairman of the board. "Both companies are committed to a long-term partnership, which will eventually benefit our long-term customers. Glufosinate was the first new project since I became the general manager of Lier in 2012 and Nufarm was the first customer of our glufosinate. I am very glad to see that Nufarm and Lier are extending the cooperation to the T&O market now."
Nufarm received the first glufosinate shipment under this new alliance in late 2021 and plans receipt of monthly shipments thereafter to supply the needs of the market.
MANTS via Sara Warfield Communications
Recap: making the most of MANTS 2022
More than 5,700 attendees and exhibitors braved snowy weather, flight cancellations and interstate closures to reconnect at the annual event.
The Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) returned to the Baltimore Convention Center Jan. 5-7 to jump-start the 2022 green industry trade show season bringing together horticulture industry leaders from around the country.
MANTS 2022 welcomed more than 5,700 on-site attendees (including exhibitors) for three days of in-person meetings, networking, and business. Attendees from 46 states had the opportunity to explore new products, technology, and equipment and reconnect with more than 825 exhibiting companies that had a presence on this year's show floor.
"While our foot traffic was lighter than in pre-pandemic times, I'm extremely proud that we were able to bring together green industry suppliers and buyers in Baltimore this year," said MANTS Executive Vice President Vanessa A. Finney. "Despite the snow, flight cancellations, interstate closures, COVID, and other factors out of our collective control, our exhibitors and buyers went to great lengths to be with us and return to the in-person connections that are a hallmark of MANTS."
MANTS 2022 continued to mean business, welcoming well-qualified buyers with high levels of purchasing power. More than 86% of MANTS attendees identified as either the final decision-makers or those who influence their companies' purchasing decisions. Additionally, more than 76% of attendees identified as owners, vice presidents, managers, buyers, or sales and marketing professionals. Furthermore, more than 400 exhibitors have already renewed their exhibit space for the 2023 show, indicating that MANTS is the official start to the green industry buying season and a must-attend trade show for the industry.
"We've been here for ten years, and MANTS has always been so rewarding, not only for strengthening relationships with our existing contractor and dealer customers but providing opportunities for new potential prospects to help grow our business," said Charles Gamarekian, chairman and CEO, Cambridge Pavers. "It's always an outpouring and a show we could not even think about not coming to even in these pandemic times. It takes one lead to make the show all worth it, and it has happened again here. The quality traffic has been here at the show, and that's very important."
"Money well spent!" said Julia Keyser, a first-year exhibitor from Old Glory Wholesale Nursery.
"MANTS has always been the best show of the year for our companies," said Kevin Cramer, marketing manager, Van Belle Nursery. "We meet the right customer base and prospects each year, and this year was no different. This was the perfect way to start off 2022. Thanks to the MANTS team for making the show happen and providing the platform for great business connections."
MANTS returns to the Baltimore Convention Center Jan. 11-13, 2023. For more information, please visit www.mants.com or call 410-296-6959.
MANTS
Photo: Adobe Stock
Canada to implement COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers
Beginning on Jan. 15, truck drivers crossing the U.S.-Canada border must provide proof of vaccination.
Posted by Chris Manning
Update (1/18): Canadian drivers will no longer need to provide proof of vaccination, but American drivers attempting to cross the border will.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pushing ahead with a vaccine mandate for international truckers despite increasing pressure from critics who say it will exacerbate driver shortages and drive up the price of goods imported from the United States.
Canada will require all truckers entering from the United States to show proof of vaccination starting on Saturday as part of its fight against COVID-19.
That could force some 16,000, or 10%, of cross-border drivers off the roads, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) estimates. The government estimates 5% of drivers will be impacted, according to a government source.
The mandate is the first policy measure taken since the pandemic began that could limit cross-border trucking traffic. Trucks crossed the border freely when the border was closed for 20 months because they were considered essential to keep supply chains flowing.
Read the full story at Reuters. |
I know this is primarily a travel blog, but every now and then I post something that's not travel-related. Today is a post dedicated for my wonderful mother-in-law, Sara. Hi Sara!!!!
After the passing of her precious basset hound, Max, she's been looking forward to the day when she would bring home a new addition to her home. Today was that day. And she shared it with our daughter. On the way they stopped by and picked up her brother, Uncle Tony. They had a blast talking about his most recent trip to South America, our daughter's impending trip to Austria next year and just had a great time with each other. I love that our daughter was able to spend some quality family time with her grandmother and great-uncle. Sometimes we get so caught up and busy with work and chores that we rarely have time to truly enjoy each other's company. And what better way than to pick up a precious puppy!!!
Introducing Ringo, the cutest basset hound around! You know how babies have that adorable baby smell? Well, let me tell you, puppies have a puppy smell too! And no, I'm not talking about No. 1 or 2. He's so tiny and precious, and best of all, he fell asleep on me!
He loved to chase our shoes and he especially loved to nibble on Sara's toes. Welcome to the family Ringo!
On the way to his new home!
And he fell asleep within minutes! |
On Monday evening, January 31, a group of us from All Nations CRC and friends from my inter-church small group (it's a wacky, mixed group) attended a vigil in downtown Halifax to honour the victims of the shooting at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec (CCIQ) in Sainte-Foy, a suburb of Quebec City.
Plus, Muslims are my neighbours. Not just because many Muslims immigrate to Halifax, but because I live beside a majid (what many of us non-Muslims often call a mosque).
It was a privilege. I have never done anything like this before. I'm not a political activist type of person; I was even a little nervous. But grieving with Muslim neighbours, as well as taking a stand for peace and justice, was important for me in living out my faith and in being a witness for Jesus.
You can see in the photo that I held up a sign. A number of Muslims said "thank you" to me, and talked with me.
Thank you, Jesus, that through your cross and resurrection you give us all hope when events around the world and in our neighbourhoods are frightening and depressing. Please come back. Maranatha.
Thanks, Dave. I don't know how many others participated in similar events, but in St. Catharines I know both Jubilee Fellowship and Covenant CRCs sent email invitations to all on their lists, inviting people to participate in a vigil downtown. We gathered in front of city hall, the imam led prayers for Muslims, who bowed on the ground facing east. The prayers were followed by brief, fitting speeches/comments by several political leaders. From city hall we moved, many carrying candles, with police traffic patrol to the mosque about one kilometre away. There the imam welcomed the marchers, led recited passages from the Quran in Arabic, then translated them to English. Those he recited shared Christian and Jewish moral and spiritual values and principles. As well, three Christian clergypersons made brief speeches, ending with a prayer or blessing. The mosque congregation had several large containers of Tim Hortons coffee and boxes and boxes of Timbits, but there were far too many people--and there was no multiplying of coffee and Timbits, though that would have been a really nice touch. The next day the St. Catharines Standard said about 500 people attended, though I think that was well under, because the column of walkers stretched three blocks, occupying one land of Church Street--with about 10 persons in each row. During and after the ceremony at the mosque, members of the congregation walked through the crowd thanking attendees for showing up. It was a blessed occasion caused by a great wickedeness and hatred. I was very pleased to see at least 15 folks from local CRCs and I might not have seen anywhere near all. |
Kevin Feige Explains Why Marvel Went to Three Movies a Year
Filed to: Marvel StudiosFiled to: Marvel Studios
Peter Parker, a very good child.
Image: Marvel Studios
The Marvel Studios release schedule is intense. Three Blockbuster films a year? That's a lot. But there's a reason.
According to Kevin Feige, in an interview with CinemaBlend, it's due to a desire to keep up the pace on both big, broad-storyline-driven films with smaller character introductions and sequels.
He said:
It's one of the reasons we've expanded to three films a year, is so that we could do the sequels to films that people have responded to — because we love to make continuing stories with characters people have responded to — but also keep doing the stuff that nobody's ever heard of, and people go, 'Why are you doing that?' That's fun. And that's what Phase One was built on, Phase Two was built on, Phase Three was built on, is having that... Whenever we announce the next year, two years, three years, five years, whatever we're going to announce, there will be plenty of those that, maybe people in the know like yourself will know what they are, but the world at large will go, 'What is it? Why are they doing that?' That's exciting, for sure
It makes sense: a higher volume of films allows Marvel to introduce more variation in its regular releases, dishing out movies like Black Panther and movies like Infinity War without major downtime between either type. It's smart; it's also a breakneck pace. We'll see how long Marvel Studios manages it.
[Cinema Blend]
Kevin Feige Teases Why Certain Characters Survived Avengers: Infinity War
Ten Years Later, Marvel Studios Still Feels Phase One Was Its Greatest Achievement
The Avengers 4 Trailers Are Going to Have a Weird Marketing Problem
Marvel Is Getting Closer to Hiring Its Black Widow Director
Kevin Feige Says the MCU 'Has Plans' for Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel
Marvel's Kevin Feige Thought Only Comic Book Nerds Would Stay for Post-Credits Scenes |
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Home Breaking A special KGB prison in Vilnius: who's contained
A special KGB prison in Vilnius: who's contained
Crime 05/02/20 a Special KGB prison in Vilnius: who's contained
After independence, the Baltic republics began to actively publicize information about the KGB activities in its territory. Currently, anyone can visit the former secret prison in Vilnius where in the Soviet era dissidents were kept.
the Prison is for "dissent"
Since joining the USSR in 1940 the Baltic States were one of the most politically unstable regions of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the security organs worked here tirelessly.
the Building is at the intersection of Aucu from Gediminas Avenue in Vilnius was built in 1899 as the Palace of justice Vilnius province of the Russian Empire. The NKVD was first placed here in 1940. In the years of German occupation was replaced by the security Service of the reichsfuehrer SS (SD) and the Gestapo, and in 1944 the building was again passed into the hands of the Soviet KGB. It questioned the "forest brothers", and "execution" of the premises resulted in the execution of death sentences to the fighters for independence of Lithuania.
Even after the defeat of the Lithuanian "green" by the middle of 1950-ies the need in the inner prison is not anymore. Here the KGB had taken political dissidents and those suspected of espionage activities in favor of foreign States.
Since 1959 the secret prison was officially called detention center. Here people detained for "political" articles, was awaiting trial and was subjected to bullying. Camera in the basement was a small room for 2 beds with cupboards and stools. Outwardly they did not differ from normal cameras in detention centres, and were heated by radiators. Over time, the number of cameras was reduced. If in 1950-ies there were more than 50, in 1964 left 23, and later – only 19. Since prisoners are often left behind indesi, the walls of the chambers are repeatedly repainted (according to researchers, no less than 18 times).
In 1991, in a secret prison was only 1 hole, but in the first years of activities of the NKVD, had several. Confinement in a cool and very narrow, the room itself causing suffering, especially in the winter. In solitary confinement could send for failure to comply with or attempt to communicate with other prisoners by pristukivanija.
it is Worth mentioning the so-called "soft box" whose walls were covered with soundproof foam — here, the prisoners simply went crazy in complete silence. For those who tried to tear the upholstery, put on a straitjacket.
Famous inmates
In 1956, in the prison of the Vilnius KGB building were interrogated and tortured leader of the anti-Soviet resistance in South Lithuania Adolphus of Ramanauskas. Partizan, also known by the nickname Vaginas ("Hawk"), the KGB was severely beaten, and then castrated him, gouged out his right eye and half deprived of hearing. The next year, Ramanauskas was executed as a "major terrorist".
Several times in the Vilnius KGB prison contained anti-Soviet activist Catholic priest Alfonsas Svarinskas. It was first tried in 1948 for the contacts with the "forest brothers" in 1956 for possession of books of the pre-war years of the publication, and finally the last time the priest was arrested in 1983.
Svarinskas was not only repressed by the Minister of the Church in Lithuania – problems with the STB had up to 20% of Catholic priests. In the early 1980s, for example, in the KGB jail was hit by a member of the Jesuit Sigitas Tamkevicius, at that time serving in the parish of the town of Kybartai. He was arrested as an active participant of the Catholic Committee for the defense of believers ' rights, and editor of the samizdat "Chronicle of the Catholic Church of Lithuania". For anti-Soviet agitation cleric was sentenced to 10-year term at the camp.
in Addition to the "forest brothers" and the priest in the KGB jail were literary figures, pravosuditnike and other dissidents, dissatisfied with the Soviet power in the Republic.
In 1992 in the former KGB was founded "Museum of occupation and fight for freedom". Inside the prison is completely left in the form in which it left the departed in August 1991 from Vilnius Soviet KGB agents.
Timur Sagdiyev
see also: editor's choice, "Russian Seven""Black storks": how to fight the most brutal "spooks" against the Soviet argiielles Rommel: what was the best commander Galeriaporno Nikolai Gogol: why is there a version of lethargic sleep pisatelyami Black devil in Khakassia the most mysterious place in Sibirtelekoma statesalaska… Share: Comments Comments on the article "Special KGB prison in Vilnius: who's contained" Please log in to leave a comment! br>
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PopMatters premieres People's Blue's of Richmond's new track "Outta My Mind"
People's Blues of Richmond have a special announcement! PopMatters just premiered our new single "Outta My Mind," recorded and produced by our good friend Mark Neill who's past work includes The Black Keys album "Brothers," J-Roddy Walston & The Business album "Essential Tremors" and many more.
From PopMatters
The bluesy retro rock of the People's Blues of Richmond, especially on their latest track "Outta My Mind", is owed in no small part to producer Mark Neill (the Black Keys'Brothers).
With their latest song "Outta My Mind", the Virginia rock 'n' roll band called People's Blues of Richmond bring to mind two recent rock LPs in particular, both by the same artist: the Black Keys. The first is 2014's Turn Blue; the psychedelic washes of "Outta My Mind" align quite closely with the '60s psych mood of that album. Most of all, however, it brings to mind the megahit record Brothers, with its retro-minded production and songwriting.
As it turns out, these parallels are not merely by coincidence. In recording "Outta My Mind", People's Blues of Richmond sought out producer Mark Neill, who co-produced Brothers alongside the Black Keys and Danger Mouse.
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Home » D.D. Poey
D.D. Poey
Follow the deadliest man alive as he confronts old enemies and makes a few new ones in this provoking tale of deception, vengeance, and greed. Who will be there to take the purse, and who will be left alive to enjoy it? Find out who has the quickest hand, who has the strongest will, and who will survive when faced with a deadly proposition. Old debts die hard.In a world where men are known not for their words but for their deeds, Wayra is trying to step beyond the long shadows of his past. Labeled a deserter and hunted like a dog, he has made his home in the most remote corners of the land. And now, after years on the run, the infamous swordsman has crept from the folds of obscurity for an opportunity that is too good to ignore. In the village of Tiger's Paw, where the only way for a man to rise up in this world was to work for the Smoks, Wayra has emerged with a plan, and an offer.Follow the deadliest man alive as he confronts old enemies and makes a few new ones in this provoking tale of deception, vengeance, and greed. Who will be there to take the purse, and who will be left alive to enjoy it? Find out who has the quickest hand, who has the strongest will, and who will survive when faced with a deadly proposition.Old debts die hard.
Fantasy / Actions & Adventure / History & Fiction |
Home Amazon Quiz Miguel Díaz-Canel is serving as the first secretary of the Communist Party in which country since 2021?
Miguel Díaz-Canel is serving as the first secretary of the Communist Party in which country since 2021?
BySab 04/06/2021 04/06/2021 Write a Comment on Miguel Díaz-Canel is serving as the first secretary of the Communist Party in which country since 2021?
Miguel Díaz-Canel is serving as the first secretary of the Communist Party in Cuba since 2021.
Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez (Spanish: [mi.ˈɣel di.as ka.ˈnel]; born 20 April 1960) is a Cuban politician serving as President of Cuba since 2019 and as First Secretary of the Communist Party. in (most senior positions in Cuba) from 2021.
He was previously the President of the Council of State of Cuba from 2018 to 2019 and the first Vice President from 2013 to 2018. He has been a member of the Communist Party's Politburo since 2003, and served as Minister of Higher Education since 2009. 2012; He was promoted to the post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Deputy Prime Minister) in 2012. A year later, on 24 February 2013, he was elected as the first Deputy Chairman of the State Council.
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HomeDressesWedding WearBridal CollectionSudan and One Tourist – Me.
Sudan and One Tourist – Me.
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In 1985 the Sudan was in considerable trouble. Sudan had been in trouble before but this time the country was almost on its knees. I had been invited to visit relatives of a dear friend of mine, a Sudanese girl I shared an apartment with, and I was hoping to be met by her cousin Zuba.
I arrived in Khartoum at the exact moment the Sudanese decided to sack their incumbent President, Gaafar Muhammad Nimeri. From the first moment of my arrival I could sense the tension; it was an almost tangible thing, raw and exciting. I arrived late at night, tiptoeing over the sleeping bundles of rags propped against scant furniture in the weirdly utility building rumored to be the arrivals hall. At least I was assured it was the arrivals hall.
There were piles of unclaimed baggage strewn in every direction, with locks hanging loosely; obviously having been tampered with by a series of looters. In my innocence and inexperience of life in Khartoum, I had worn a rather smart white dress and jacket for my journey, rather like selecting a wedding gown to explore a coal pit really, although I was unaware of my idiocy at the time.
I was sitting in what can only described as ultimate chaos. The aircraft I had just alighted from had disgorged over two hundred shell shocked passengers into a room only slightly larger and considerably dustier than a scout hut. Floating sand was everywhere, in the air, on the seats, settled into drifts along the counters and over the Perspex barriers which separated the passengers from barely visible immigration officials. Children were crying, some strange Arabian anthem was crackling across a loudspeaker, and outside the building cars and taxis were honking their horns.
As I sat, fine yellowish brown sand floated down onto the shoulders and lapels of my crisp, white dress and coat and onto the black leather of my dressing case and handbag which I carried, terrified to lose sight of my personal belongings in this bedlam.
A cluster of ragged bodies seemed to be pawing at a pile of baggage just in front of me. On closer inspection I managed to read the back of the tee shirt nearest me. 'Baggage Handling' it said. The wearer had on only a pair of worn out Speedo shorts, and flip flops. He was puffing away on an evil smelling clove cigarette and he and his friends had already opened a suitcase further along the line.
They had also opened a bird cage for some reason, and the occupant, an African parrot, had flown out in search of refuge. The parrot was now perched on one of the slowly turning blades of the most enormous ceiling fan I had ever seen, and was hurling selections from his considerable repertoire of phrases at everyone who went near him. Each sentence was couched in the most obscene terms and he had collected a group of admirers who were throwing him peanuts to coax him from his perch. I gathered from one of his young admirers that his name was Maxwell.
The collection of rags was now searching through one of my suitcases so I decided the time had come to assert ownership. Just as I arose from my seat, Zuba arrived. I should explain at this point that Zuba, as we affectionately called her, was 36 years old and, as yet, unmarried. In the Sudan, to be this great age and not yet betrothed or married was an unforgivable sin. She was not unattractive in a strange, Zuba sort of way. By that I mean she was of medium height, huge brown eyes with heavy fringes of lashes, smooth skin of a coffee complexion, and dainty hands and feet. Her voice, however, would cut through steel. Most of her remarks were quickly followed by raucous laughter, usually mistaken for male origin.
Zuba was ungainly in the extreme; she walked as a farmer might, when striding through a pig pen, with feet well apart, taking large strides and swinging her arms as she went. Zuba adored Bob Marley, Peter Sellers and going to parties. She had joined the army upon leaving school and had risen through the ranks, training as a medical officer and then as a Psychologist, until by 1985 she had reached the rank of Colonel.
Wherever Zuba went, so her entourage followed. There were two uniformed private soldiers she informed me were her bodyguards, both of whom were of considerably slighter build than she and terrified of her. A further four soldiers just seemed to trail behind the first two and try to look interested in everything Zuba said, or did. The seventh member of her little band was her driver, whom she pummeled with her handbag whenever he misbehaved.
She came toward me through the arrivals hall at Khartoum airport, dressed in her khaki uniform, pips and eagles adorning each shoulder, a gold lanyard swinging from her tunic, looking extremely official and parting the crowds of people by waving her service revolver at everybody who dared to get in her way. She threw her arms around me and lifted me off my feet, kissing me on both cheeks several times over. By the time she had finished planting kisses all over my face her emotions had overcome her and she began to actually cry. Her driver handed her a handkerchief and she blew her nose noisily before shouting to one of her troop to grab my suitcases.
Zuba led us through immigration in a flurry of handshakes and toothy smiles, introducing me to everyone and explaining that I was a VIP from diplomatic circles. I actually was a lowly administrator from Leeds so nothing could be further from the truth and it was very obvious none of them believed her, but they seemed not to care and we were soon outside the terminal doors.
Our transport was an open army jeep complete with flags and hooters. We raced through the hot, dusty trails, you could certainly not call them roads, and after what seemed like hours, we arrived at Zuba's family home on the outskirts of Omdurman. Tired, caked with dust and filth, I entered the ruined splendor of Zuba's home.
It was easy to see how in the old days her family had considerable wealth and influence. Now, the marble floors beneath my feet were gritty from sand, brown at the edges where the floors met the walls, bare light bulbs hanging from light fittings, threadbare rugs scattered everywhere. Zuba brought two young girls forward and introduced them as servants. 'It's okay Jan, you don't have to kiss them, they are very black!' she said! Shocked, I started to scold her about talking of the girls in that manner but she laughed loudly and began dragging me upstairs to unpack.
Zuba's bedroom had not been decorated since she was nine years old and still had pink painted furniture and posters of pop stars of the sixties adorning the walls. A very young Donny Osmond grinned down at me from above a bed I assumed to be Zubas; cotton throws in bright colors were draped over the chairs to hide the childish Disney transfers of Snow White pasted to the backs. Zuba explained that her bedroom had been left in this state by her mother as a punishment for not getting married at a respectable age. I murmured something sympathetic and she continued to show me around her private quarters.
There was a heavy metal door at one end of the room which turned out to be the door to the flat roof. I stepped through the door, looking forward to seeing a roof garden with perhaps a dining area. Instead I was greeted by a collection of discarded cardboard boxes, some of which still had the smelly remains of fruit adhering to the sides. Beyond the boxes was another door, this time to a bathroom, containing a tap high up on the wall which was the only means of showering, and a toilet, the smell from which was beginning to make me gag. Everything up here was coated in brown dust. The rest of the roof was just an open space with a low wall.
A drunken washing line was strung between the bathroom wall and a hook on the parapet, and obviously it would be impossible to peg washing from it except at its highest point. At the far end of the roof was a plastic chair and table with a suspicious looking object trailing a wire through the wall.'Here, Jan you can ring your family and tell them you are in Zuba's wonderful house,' she said, pointing to the object which I now recognized as a telephone without is plastic cover.
Zuba discreetly retired to the ground floor, leaving me to phone home. It was then I realized there was no dial on the object either, therefore there were no numbers to choose from. I sat on the plastic chair and laughed.
I stayed with Zuba and her family for six wonderful months. I was 31 and had been working as a secretary in the service branch of an engineering company for the past two years. I had been suffering from boredom for so long I was now beginning to accustom myself to the perpetual ennui of my set routine and I was terrified of waking up one morning on the wrong side of fifty and wondering where my life had gone. Sudan was exactly the kind of adventure I needed and I launched myself into the business of living on a knife edge with passionate abandon. I found a job as a temporary secretary with a local oil company and agreed to attend every single function I was invited to for the next three months.
Khartoum was overrun by American pilots who were there to train the local air force. They invited me to their parties and barbecues and treated me like royalty. I joined the Sudan Club, the last relic of British occupation and still inhabited by one or two live-in residents left over from the fifties when the Sudan still had roads and pavements.
At first I was content to stay with Zuba and learn about the way Sudanese families lived. After a few weeks though, I began to understand that I must be a drain on the family resources, in a city where food shortages were becoming more and more worrying each day.
Bread was queued for, sometimes for hours. The two servant girls were sent to wait for hours in the sun outside the bread shop, the grocery shop, and the worst of all, the gas depot, where gas bottles were rationed to those residents who had enough money to bribe the depot officials, thus enabling them to cook and to light their houses. The gas depot was a long walk away, no shelter from the sun when you got there, and no guarantee of coming home with gas.
One of Zuba's cousins, Ozzy, was a regular visitor to the house. He would arrive late morning and greet Zuba politely, then retire to the front patio with her brothers, to smoke and drink 'Sid' – a disgusting concoction of ninety proof alcohol which passed for cocktails in these difficult times. The entire family was devout Moslem I must point out and therefore strictly forbidden to consume alcohol. As in all things, the consumption of alcohol was overlooked and deemed a necessary evil to help overcome the daily tiresomeness of living in reduced circumstances.
One evening about a week after my arrival, Ozzy invited me to visit his mother. I was delighted to be invited as Ozzy's mother was reputed to be a great beauty of her generation and a highly sophisticated woman. We set out just before dinner and I was fascinated at how Ozzy could find his way around the sandy wasteland of Khartoum. There were no street signs, no signposts, and no stop signs. The sands of time had covered a once beautiful city. Ozzy informed me that long ago, when the British were in residence, the city had fire hydrants, post boxes, beautifully paved sidewalks, shops and taxi ranks and post offices. Now there were just tired, dusty houses facing other tired, dusty houses with a desert wasteland between. You had to use a compass to get around.
We stopped suddenly outside a house with a locked metal gate. There was a Mercedes parked outside the house and Ozzy got out of the car, opened the trunk and took out a plastic canister and a hose pipe. To my horror and disbelief, he began the process of siphoning petrol out of the parked Mercedes into our car! I objected strenuously to this blatant theft but Ozzy just smiled, ignored me and continued to his destination.
My visit to Ozzy's mother, Una, was the first of a series of visits, each one more enjoyable than the last, and we became close friends. She helped me to find an apartment in Khartoum and I managed to furnish it with donated furniture from a collection of concerned friends.
I felt more comfortable now that I was not draining Zuba's family's limited supplies and in fact I was now able to supply them with a few luxuries such as shampoo and toothpaste which I bought at the American commissary, a perk of working for an American oil company. Some days were good and some were unspeakably bad.
One morning I woke to find my apartment flooded. There had been no water for three days and I stupidly left the taps turned to the on position. The water supply had been restored in the middle of the night and overflowed everywhere. On arriving in the street I found my driver, Khamis, busy under the bonnet of the company car allocated to me. After recruiting the assistance of a series of passersby it was concluded there was no petrol in the car.
It was stifling hot in the back seat and I demanded to know why I could not open the windows. Khamis informed me solemnly that he had super glued the windows shut to deter thieves. The front windows were not glued, I pointed out. No, he said, that was because he found it too hot with them shut.
Arriving at my office it would be quite normal to find the telephones did not work, the electricity had been cut off, the water was off, or the caretakers had not shown up to open the building, resulting in a mass adjournment to the cafes for endless cups of coffee until lunchtime. The Sudan Club supplied food most days. It would not do to be too fussy, you had to eat whatever was on the menu for the day. My lunch on some days consisted of a curious collection of pickles and a slice of bread, at other times there would be a veritable feast due to the arrival of a consignment of food which was then distributed by the resourceful characters in charge of imported goods through the ports.
Zuba was a regular visitor to my apartment and she made herself at home, arranging herself on the sofa with her feet on the coffee table and viewing my collection of library videos which I borrowed weekly from the American commissary shop. She would tuck into a large bowl of cereal, her latest fad, glue herself to the television and refuse to talk until she had come to the end of her movie.
I was amazed one morning to spy Zuba alighting from her staff car outside my apartment, in full dress uniform complete with white gloves and sunglasses, looking like a female version of Idi Amin, accompanied by her feckless driver who failed to catch her when she stepped off the sill of her jeep and she stumbled into a hole in the road, slapping him over the head with her handbag and screaming abuse at him top volume. She had been to the hairdresser, and her shoulder length hair had been braided into hundreds of tiny plaits, and secured at the end with multi colored beads; very attractive for party wear, but hardly suitable to accessorize an army uniform. Over the top of her uniform cap she had jammed a set of headphones, and she proceeded to dance up the stairs of the building to the tune of Bob Marley.
Zuba casually asked me what I did at work, and when I told her I typed, processed papers, made coffee, etc, she froze in shock. What did I mean by 'make coffee?' I explained that in the modern world secretaries make coffee for their bosses, it was no big deal. The next day she showed up at my office complete with entourage and service revolver, which she waved at my boss and warned him darkly that he was not to ask her friend to make his coffee again if he wanted to survive his term of service in the Sudan. I assured him after she had gone that he did not have to worry, I was quite happy to make his coffee. Nonetheless he never asked me to again.
During my time in Khartoum I explored the seam where the blue and the white Niles meet, helped in a crocodile hunt, survived the onslaught of numerous haboobs (sand storms) and flew into the wilderness near El Obaid, courtesy of the World Bank to meet the field Geologists studying desert life in isolated camps with their families; two years in the desert without any contact with the outside world made them very pleased to see us.
I experienced the discomfort of tear gas during the coup and had to bath in bottled soda water when water supplies completely dried up, and I watched with delight when Nimeri was finally ousted from power, joining the dancing and celebrations in the streets which went on for days. I visited the camps where my friend Marguerita was in charge of vaccines, nursing the children with so many famine connected diseases, and eventually nursed Marguerita while she died of cholera in my little apartment. She was so brave and strong, it seemed unthinkable she should end her days in such horrible circumstances.
My stay in Sudan came to an end when I had the opportunity to visit Dubai over a year later. I found modern desert life fascinating and a new platform for adventure. The Sudan and Dubai were at opposite ends of the spectrum of civilization. Whereas Sudan was poor, underprivileged and shabby, Dubai was sleek, rich and super efficient. I needed the change and went into my new life in the modern Emirates with the same rush of enthusiasm I had felt when I first stepped off the plane in Khartoum. I will always remember them; the Sudan, Khartoum, Marguerita, and Zuba.
Source by Jan Gamm
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A stylish and long-lasting personalized pen. With replaceable ink. The pen is made from stainless steel and comes in a black gift box. The pen can not be sent with ordinary mail, because the size is too big for mailboxes. A good present for your colleague, father, husband or friend.
It is not possible to engrave photos or dedications onto the pen. An engraving of a name is suitable for this product. |
Collective bargaining is the process in which a group of workers comes together and negotiates the terms of their contracts with one voice. Making their demands, together.
The 2019 UAW Union-Built Vehicle Guide: Buy Union and Support Good Jobs!
The UAW Financial Officers' Conference will be held Sunday, March 24 through Friday, March 29, 2019, at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel in Orlando, Florida. This conference is for local union presidents, financial secretaries/treasurers, trustees and recording secretaries.
Last week was a bad week for autoworkers and the future of our domestic industry. On Nov. 26, General Motors (GM) announced its decision to halt production at the Lordstown, Ohio, and Hamtramck, Mich., assembly plants, idling thousands of workers.
AFL-CIO State of the Union's Podcast: What's Wrong With GM?
In a special episode, AFL-CIO's Julie and Tim discuss plant closures at General Motors with longtime autoworker Brad Markell.
Read more about AFL-CIO State of the Union's Podcast: What's Wrong With GM?
Monday, the UAW lodged a formal objection opposing GM's plan to close four American auto plants in 2019. The complaint objected to GM's unilateral decision on the future of those facilities, without the agreement of the UAW, required by the 2015 National Agreement.
Video Contest: Four $5000 cash prizes for videos about the future you want!
Care about jobs and the future of your community? Angry about sweatshops and the exploitation of children? Resolute that looking for the union label is as important today as it was 40 years ago? Think our country does best when we invest in ourselves?
Read more about Video Contest: Four $5000 cash prizes for videos about the future you want!
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: We are Not Staying Still!
The labor movement isn't content to merely survive in an era when anti-union lawmakers control both chambers of Congress – we're moving forward, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told delegates at the 2018 UAW Community Action Program (CAP) Conference in Washington, D.C.
"It's time to drop our shield, pick up our sword and go on offense for a while," Trumka said.
Read more about AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: We are Not Staying Still!
NAACP President Derrick Johnson tells delegates "Stay laser-focused so the right does not divide progressive allies"
First, NAACP President Derrick Johnson explained that there definitely is a connection between civil rights and labor. As a matter of fact, they are natural allies. And two, just as with other progressive coalitions and allies, we must stay sharply focused on the next five years to turn the tide on the attacks from the right.
Read more about NAACP President Derrick Johnson tells delegates "Stay laser-focused so the right does not divide progressive allies" |
A Leeds actor who racially abused his ex-girlfriend has been admitted to hospital under the Mental Health Act.
24 year old James Howson, of Haslewood Close in Burmantofts, was due to appear at Leeds Magistrates' Court for sentencing today after he pleaded guilty to the racially aggravated harassment of Shakira Ramdihal.
But the case was adjourned after the court heard that the Wuthering Heights star had been sectioned in a hospital in Newcastle.
Howson admitted racially aggravated harassment at a hearing in January.
The court heard that the 24-year-old shouted racist abuse and threats at his former girlfriend after their three-year relationship ended.
Howson was the first black actor to play Heathcliff in the 2011 movie, based on Emily Bronte's classic novel.
He won the role after he attended auditions advertised on a JobCentre wall.
He will be sentenced in Leeds on March 26. |
Goal: Learning about the tea plant and manual tea processing from fresh tea leaves.
Manual preparation of black tea is practiced in Gileboom's tea garden. After learning about the tea plant, the process of picking the tea leaves, sorting, washing and rubbing or rolling them are explained.
Guests do every step of tea processing in teamwork with help from the instructor. After fermenting and drying the rolled tea leaves, the prepared tea is brewed and served to the guests. |
The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was a polity on the Crimean Peninsula within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic that was formed during the collapse of the Soviet Union and a year later was renamed the Republic of Crimea.
History
On 12 February 1991, the status of the Crimean Oblast was changed to that of autonomous republic by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR as the result of a state-sanctioned referendum held on 20 January 1991. 4 months later, on June 19, appropriate changes were made to the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR.
Following approval of Ukrainian independence national referendum the region became part of the newly independent state of Ukraine. With effect from 6 May 1992, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. In September 1991 the Crimean parliament declared the territory to be a sovereign constituent part of Ukraine.
The status of Sevastopol, due to its strategic importance as the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, remained disputed between Ukraine and Russia until 1997 when it was agreed that it should be treated as a "city with special status" within Ukraine.
Since 2014, the Crimean Peninsula has been under Russian control following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.
Leadership
Chairman of the Supreme Council
22 March 1991 – 9 May 1994 Mykola Bahrov
Chairman of the Council of Ministers
22 March 1991 – 20 May 1993 Vitaliy Kurashik
See also
Crimea in the Soviet Union
References
Political history of Crimea
1991 establishments in Ukraine
1992 disestablishments in Ukraine
States and territories established in 1991
States and territories disestablished in 1991 |
Muuto are a Finnish design company who are striving to expand the Scandinavian design tradition with a new and original outlook. It is probably fitting then that their name is inspired by the Finnish word muutos, which roughly translated means 'new perspective'. For Muuto good design starts with the individual, they hand pick the brightest design talent in Scandinavia and then give them the freedom to express their own personal story through everyday objects. Some wish to alter the world, others find passion in colour and shape or draw deeply from their past. How do they see a chair or a vase or a lamp, what is their relationship with the most ordinary of objects? How can that relationship reinvent and reinvigorate? How can the familiar have new life and love breathed into it? The answer is muutos. Objects made sublime through fresh perspective, objects that resonate with different types of people right across the world, objects representing the very best of Scandinavian design. |
Centroptilum conturbatum är en dagsländeart som beskrevs av Mcdunnough 1929. Centroptilum conturbatum ingår i släktet Centroptilum och familjen ådagsländor. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.
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Situated on the Long Island's south shore, just across the bridge from Long Beach, Island Park, NY, is surrounded by water on three sides, making it an excellent choice for waterfront properties and fishing and boating enthusiasts. As advantageous as Island Park's convenient access to Island Park Harbor is, it isn't without risk. Flooding is the number one natural disaster in the US when it comes to property damage and lives lost. So, whether your home is on Island Parkway or off Nassau Lane, flood insurance is an important investment.
That's where Denis A. Miller Insurance Agency comes in. Locally owned and operated, we are proud to be the largest provider of flood insurance in New York State, with a particular focus on serving Island Park residents. Not only do we have the experience and resources to deliver exceptional flood insurance, but our local presence and unparalleled business standards, mean you can rely on us for service that's second to none. Since flood insurance premiums are set by the United States government, your rates will be the same with any insurer. That is why it is so important to select a company you can trust to provide superior flood insurance claims support and service. That company is Denis A. Miller Insurance Agency.
Only flood insurance protects your home and belongings from damage caused by mudflow and rising water. Unfortunately, many homeowners don't realize the importance and value of flood insurance until it's too late. Island Park and the surrounding Long Island communities are especially vulnerable to flooding. Even if a federal disaster is not declared, flood insurance promptly pays covered claims, allowing you to rebuild and replace what has been lost. So, you can be assured that your property is always protected.
From Radcliffe Road to Waterford Road — whether you own a house, condo, business or you rent an apartment, flood insurance is available to anyone in Island Park — even if you have had past flooding. Whether it is required by your mortgage lender or you just recognize the importance of securing your assets, Denis A. Miller Insurance Agency can help you in select the right flood insurance policy to protect your Island Park home or commercial property. Experience the difference, and see for yourself why we are Long Island and New York State's trusted choice for flood insurance. We look forward to assisting you!
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Poweshiek County is a county located in the southeastern U.S. State of Iowa along Interstate 80, between Des Moines and Iowa City. It is named for the Fox chief who signed the tresty ending the Black Hawk War. As of 2000, the population is 18,815. The town of Montezuma is the county seat. Poweshiek County is also home to Grinnell and Grinnell College, a little-known but prestigious liberal arts college.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,518 km² (586 mi²). 1,515 km² (585 mi²) of it is land and 3 km² (1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.19% water.
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 18,815 people, 7,398 households, and 4,882 families residing in the county. The population density is 12/km² (32/mi²). There are 8,556 housing units at an average density of 6/km² (15/mi²). The racial makeup of the county is 96.74% White, 0.55% Black or African American, 0.23% Native American, 1.07% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.49% from other races, and 0.87% from two or more races. 1.20% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 7,398 households out of which 29.00% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.80% are married couples living together, 7.40% have a female householder with no husband present, and 34.00% are non-families. 29.20% of all households are made up of individuals and 13.90% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.35 and the average family size is 2.88.
In the county the population is spread out with 22.70% under the age of 18, 12.80% from 18 to 24, 24.40% from 25 to 44, 22.50% from 45 to 64, and 17.60% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 38 years. For every 100 females there are 92.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 88.80 males.
The median income for a household in the county is $37,836, and the median income for a family is $46,599. Males have a median income of $31,781 versus $22,465 for females. The per capita income for the county is $18,629. 9.80% of the population and 6.20% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 12.00% are under the age of 18 and 5.90% are 65 or older. |
Waterfront Botanical Gardens designs on display in Washington, D.C.
By Kevin Gibson | June 17, 2019 11:30 am
Waterfront Botanical Gardens is among 21 gardens being featured in Washington, D.C. Shown is a rendering of the forthcoming Graeser Family Education Center, scheduled to open in October. | Courtesy of Waterfront Botanical Gardens
Waterfront Botanical Gardens doesn't even technically exist yet, but it is included in an exhibit in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Botanic Garden titled "Celebrating New American Gardens."
The exhibit, which runs through Oct. 15, is being featured at the American Public Gardens Association Conference, which is underway at the U.S. Garden's conservatory in Washington.
Waterfront Botanical Gardens, in Phase 1 of construction, is one of 21 new, forthcoming gardens and recently renovated municipal gardens from across the U.S. to be featured. The exhibit contains photos, landscape designs, project descriptions and the backstory of each one.
The Kentucky Business Council will hold a reception in honor of Waterfront Botanical Gardens June 19 at the UPS Townhouse in Washington, with council chairman and U.S. Congressman John Yarmuth, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, state Senator Julie Raque Adams, Waterfront Botanical Gardens President Kasey Maier and other guests.
Kasey Maier
"We thought it was important to get these Kentucky corporations and politicians to realize we're on display" as part of "Celebrating New American Gardens," Maier told Insider. "We feel we're an important project for Kentucky, and they understand that, too."
Gardens included in the exhibit range from New Orleans Botanical Garden in Louisiana to Green Bay Botanical Garden in Wisconsin. Others include the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the San Diego Zoo, to the botanic gardens in Chicago, Denver and Portland.
The U.S. Botanic Garden honors such gardens as "living creations" that shift based on seasonal ebb and flow.
"Gardens are always changing – with the seasons, with emerging gardening trends, and with their communities," Saharah Moon Chapotin, U.S. Botanic Garden executive director, said in a news release. "We are excited to feature these new gardens and showcase the diversity and beauty of modern garden projects."
Renderings of Waterfront Botanical Garden will remain on display through the end of the exhibit.
Maier said inclusion in the exhibit came through the botanical garden's membership in the American Public Garden Association.
"They knew we're an up-and-coming garden," Maier said. "They get our vision. They're not a tough sell."
The exhibit is free and open to the public, and workshops, lectures, tours and other programming related to the exhibit will be offered through the end of its run.
The Waterfront Botanical Gardens is being constructed on a 23-acre former landfill site at the intersection of Frankfort Avenue and River Road. A grand opening is scheduled for Oct. 4.
John Yarmuth, Kasey Maier, Waterfront Botanical Gardens
kgramone
Kevin Gibson tackles the 3Rs — retail, restaurants, real estate — plus, economic development. He loves bacon, loathes cucumbers and once interviewed Yoko Ono. Check out his books, "Louisville Beer: Derby City History on Draft" and "100 Things to do in Louisville Before You Die." He has won numerous awards for his work but doesn't know where most of them are now. In his spare time, he plays in a band called the Uncommon Houseflies.Email Kevin at [email protected]
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\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:intro}
Video forecasting consists in predicting the future content of a video conditioned on previous frames. This is of crucial importance in various contexts, such as weather forecasting \cite{xingjian2015convolutional}, autonomous driving \cite{kwon2019predicting}, reinforcement learning \cite{oh2015action}, robotics \cite{finn2016unsupervised}, or action recognition \cite{liu2017video}.
In this work, we focus on unsupervised video prediction, where the absence of semantic labels to drive predictions exacerbates the challenges of the task.
In this context, a key problem is to design video prediction methods able to represent the complex dynamics underlying raw data.
State-of-the-art methods for training such complex dynamical models currently rely on deep learning, with specific architectural choices based on 2D/3D convolutional~\cite{mathieu2015deep,vondrick2016generating} or recurrent neural networks~\cite{wang2017predrnn,wang2018predrnn++,wang2019memory}.
To improve predictions, recent methods use adversarial training \cite{mathieu2015deep,vondrick2016generating,kwon2019predicting}, stochastic models \cite{castrejon2019improved,minderer2019unsupervised}, constraint predictions by using geometric knowledge \cite{finn2016unsupervised,jia2016dynamic,xue2016visual} or by disentangling factors of variation \cite{villegas2017decomposing,tulyakov2018mocogan,denton2017unsupervised,hsieh2018learning}.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{fig1.png}
\caption{PhyDNet is a deep model mapping an input video into a latent space $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$, from which future frame prediction can be accurately performed. PhyDNet learns $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$ in an unsupervised manner, such that physical dynamics and unknown factors necessary for prediction, \textit{e.g.}~ appearance, details, texture, are disentangled. \vspace{-0.1cm}}
\label{fig:fig1}
\end{figure}
Another appealing way to model the video dynamics is to exploit prior physical knowledge, \textit{e.g.}~ formalized by partial differential equations (PDEs) \cite{de2017deep,seo2019differentiable}. Recently, interesting connections between residual networks and PDEs have been drawn \cite{weinan2017proposal,lu2018beyond,chen2018neural}, enabling to design physically-constrained machine learning frameworks~\cite{raissi2018deep,de2017deep,seo2019differentiable,rudy2017data}.
These approaches are very successful for modeling complex natural phenomena, \textit{e.g.}~ climate, when the underlying dynamics is well described by the physical equations in the input space~\cite{raissi2018deep,rudy2017data,long2018pde}. However, such assumption is rarely fulfilled in the pixel space for predicting generalist videos.
In this work, we introduce PhyDNet, a deep model dedicated to perform accurate future frame predictions from generalist videos. In such a context, physical laws do not apply in the input pixel space ; the goal of PhyDNet is to learn a semantic latent space $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$ in which they do, and are disentangled from other factors of variation required to perform future prediction.
Prediction results of PhyDNet
when trained on Moving MNIST~\cite{srivastava2015unsupervised} are shown in Figure \ref{fig:fig1}. The left branch represents the physical dynamics in $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$ ; when decoded in the image space, we can see that the corresponding features encode approximate segmentation masks predicting digit positions on subsequent frames.
On the other hand, the right branch extracts residual information required for prediction, here the precise appearance of the two digits. Combining both representations eventually makes accurate prediction successful.
Our contributions to the unsupervised video prediction problem with PhyDNet can be summarized as follows:
\begin{itemize}
\item We introduce a global sequence to sequence two-branch deep model (section~\ref{sec:3.1}) dedicated to jointly learn the latent space $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$ and to disentangle physical dynamics from residual information, the latter being modeled by a data-driven (ConvLSTM~\cite{xingjian2015convolutional}) method. \vspace{-0.05cm}
\item Physical dynamics is modeled by a new recurrent physical cell, PhyCell (section~\ref{section:phycell}), discretizing a broad class of PDEs in $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$.
PhyCell is based on a prediction-correction paradigm inspired from the data assimilation community \cite{asch2016data},~enabling robust training with missing data and for long-term forecasting. \vspace{-0.05cm}
\item Experiments (section~\ref{section4}) reveal that PhyDNet outperforms state-of-the-art methods on four generalist datasets: this is, as far as we know, the first physically-constrained model able to show such capabilities. We highlight the importance of both disentanglement and physical prediction for optimal performances.
\end{itemize}
\section{Related work}
\label{sec:sota}
We review here related multi-step video prediction approaches dedicated to long-term forecasting. We also focus on unsupervised training, \textit{i.e.}~ only using input video data and without manual supervision based on semantic labels. \vspace{-0.2cm}
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cc}
\includegraphics[width=6cm]{fig2a.png} & \includegraphics[width=11cm]{fig2b.png} \\
\textbf{(a) PhyDNet disentangling recurrent bloc} & \textbf{(b) Global seq2seq architecture} \vspace{0.2cm}
\end{tabular}{}
\caption{\textbf{Proposed PhyDNet deep model for video forecasting.} a) The core of PhyDNet is a recurrent block projecting input images $\mathbf{u_t}$ into a latent space $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$, where two recurrent neural networks disentangle physical dynamics (PhyCell, section \ref{section:phycell}) from residual information (ConvLSTM). Learned physical $\mathbf{h}^{\mathbf{p}}_{t+1}$ and residual $\mathbf{h}^{\mathbf{r}}_{t+1}$ representations are summed before decoding to predict the future image $\hat{\mathbf{u}}_{t+1}$. b) Unfolded in time, PhyDNet forms a sequence to sequence (seq2seq) architecture suited for multi-step video prediction. Dotted arrows mean that predictions are reinjected as next input only for the ConvLSTM branch, and not for PhyCell, as explained in section \ref{sec:training}.}
\label{fig:fig2}
\end{figure*}
\paragraph{Deep video prediction}
Deep neural networks have recently achieved state-of-the-art performances for data-driven video prediction. Seminal works include the application of sequence to sequence LSTM or Convolutional variants~\cite{srivastava2015unsupervised,xingjian2015convolutional}, adopted in many studies \cite{finn2016unsupervised,lu2017flexible,xu2018structure}. Further works explore different architectural designs based on Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) \cite{wang2017predrnn,wang2018predrnn++,oliu2018folded,wang2019memory,wang2018eidetic} and 2D/3D ConvNets \cite{mathieu2015deep,vondrick2016generating,reda2018sdc,byeon2018contextvp}. Dedicated loss functions \cite{cuturi2017soft,leguen19} and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have been investigated for sharper predictions \cite{mathieu2015deep,vondrick2016generating,kwon2019predicting}. However, the problem of conditioning GANs with prior information, such as physical models, remains an open question.
To constrain the challenging generation of high dimensional images, several methods rather predict geometric transformations between frames \cite{finn2016unsupervised,jia2016dynamic,xue2016visual} or use optical flow \cite{patraucean2015spatio,luo2017unsupervised,liu2017video,liang2017dual,li2018flow}. This is very effective for short-term prediction, but degrades quickly when the video content evolves, where more complex models and memory about dynamics are required.
A promising line of work consists in disentangling independent factors of variations in order to apply the prediction model on lower-dimensional representations. A few approaches explicitly model interactions between objects inferred from an observed scene \cite{eslami2016attend,kosiorek2018sequential,ye2019compositional}. Relational reasoning, often implemented with graphs \cite{battaglia2016interaction,kipf2018neural,sanchez2018graph,palm2018recurrent,van2018relational}, can account for basic physical laws, \textit{e.g.}~ drift, gravity, spring \cite{watters2017visual,wu2017learning,mrowca2018flexible}. However, these methods are object-centric, only evaluate on controlled settings and are not suited for general real-world video forecasting.
Other disentangling approaches factorize the video into independent components \cite{villegas2017decomposing,tulyakov2018mocogan,denton2017unsupervised,hsieh2018learning,gao2019disentangling}. Several disentanglement criteria are used, such as content/motion \cite{villegas2017decomposing} or deterministic/stochastic \cite{denton2017unsupervised}. In specific contexts, the prediction space can be structured using additional information, \textit{e.g.}~ with human pose \cite{villegas2017learning,walker2017pose} or key points \cite{minderer2019unsupervised}, which imposes a severe overhead on the annotation budget. \vspace{-0.2cm}
\paragraph{Physics and PDEs}
Exploiting prior physical knowledge is another appealing way to improve prediction models. Earlier attempts for data-driven PDE discovery include sparse regression of potential differential terms \cite{brunton2016discovering,rudy2017data,schaeffer2017learning} or neural networks approximating the solution and response function of PDEs \cite{raissi2017physics,raissi2018deep,seo2019differentiable}. Several approaches are dedicated to a specific PDE, \textit{e.g.}~ advection-diffusion in~\cite{de2017deep}
~Based on the connection between numerical schemes for solving PDEs (\textit{e.g.}~ Euler, Runge-Kutta) and residual neural networks \cite{weinan2017proposal,lu2018beyond,chen2018neural,zhu2018convolutional}, several specific architectures were designed for predicting and identifying dynamical systems \cite{fablet2018bilinear,long2018pde,qin2019data}.
PDE-Net \cite{long2018pde,long2019pde} discretizes a broad class of PDEs by approximating partial derivatives with convolutions.
Although these works leverage physical knowledge, they either suppose physics behind data to be explicitly known or are limited to a fully visible state, which is rarely the case for general video forecasting. \vspace{-0.2cm
\paragraph{Deep Kalman filters}
To handle unobserved phenomena, state space models, in particular the Kalman filter \cite{kalman1960new}, have been recently integrated with deep learning, by modeling dynamics in learned latent space \cite{Krishnan2015DeepKF,watter2015embed,haarnoja2016backprop,fraccaro2017disentangled,becker2019recurrent}. The Kalman variational autoencoder \cite{fraccaro2017disentangled} separates state estimation in videos from dynamics with a linear gaussian state space model. The Recurrent Kalman Network \cite{becker2019recurrent} uses a factorized high dimensional latent space in which the linear Kalman updates are simplified and don't require computationally-heavy covariance matrix inversions. These methods inspired by the data assimilation community \cite{asch2016data,bocquet2019data} have advantages in missing data or long-term forecasting contexts due to their mechanisms decoupling latent dynamics and input assimilation. However, they assume simple latent dynamics (linear) and don't include any physical prior.
\section{PhyDNet model for video forecasting}
\label{section3}
We introduce PhyDNet, a model dedicated to video prediction, which leverages physical knowledge on dynamics, and disentangles it from other unknown factors of variations necessary for accurate forecasting. To achieve this goal, we introduce a disentangling architecture (section~\ref{sec:3.1}), and a new physically-constrained recurrent cell (section~\ref{section:phycell}). \vspace{0.25cm} \\
\textbf{Problem statement} As discussed in introduction, physical laws do not apply
at the pixel level for general video prediction tasks. However, we assume that there exists a conceptual latent space $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$ in which physical dynamics and residual factors are linearly disentangled.
Formally, let us denote as $\mathbf{u}= \mathbf{u}(t,\mathbf{x})$ the frame of a video sequence at time $t$, for spatial coordinates $\mathbf{x}=(x,y)$. $\mathbf{h}(t,\mathbf{x}) \in \bm{\bm{\mathcal{H}}}$ is the latent representation of the video up to time $t$, which decomposes as $\mathbf{h}=\mathbf{h^p}+\mathbf{h^r}$, where $\mathbf{h^p}$ (resp. $\mathbf{h^r}$) represents the physical (resp. residual) component of the disentanglement. The video evolution in the latent space $\bm{\bm{\mathcal{H}}}$ is thus governed by the following partial differential equation (PDE)
\begin{equation}
\!\!\!\dfrac{\partial \mathbf{h}(t,\mathbf{x})}{\partial t} \! = \!\frac{\partial \mathbf{h^p}}{\partial t} \!+\! \frac{\partial \mathbf{\mathbf{h^r}}}{\partial t} \!:=\! \bm{\mathcal{M}}_{p}(\mathbf{h^p},\mathbf{u}) + \bm{\mathcal{M}}_{r}(\mathbf{\mathbf{h^r}},\mathbf{u}) \!\!\!
\label{eq:eq1}
\end{equation}
$\bm{\mathcal{M}}_p(\mathbf{h^p},\mathbf{u})$ and $\bm{\mathcal{M}}_r(\mathbf{h^r},\mathbf{u})$ represent physical and residual dynamics in the latent space $\bm{\bm{\mathcal{H}}}$
\subsection{PhyDNet disentangling architecture}
\label{sec:3.1}
The main goal of PhyDNet is to learn the mapping from input sequences to a latent space which approximates the disentangling properties formalized in Eq (\ref{eq:eq1}).
To reach this objective, we introduce a recurrent bloc which is shown in Figure \ref{fig:fig2}(a). A video frame $\mathbf{u}_t$ at time $t$ is mapped by a deep convolutional encoder $\mathbf{E}$ into a latent space representing the targeted space $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$. $\mathbf{E}(\mathbf{u}_t)$ is then used as input for two parallel recurrent neural networks, incorporating this spatial representation into a dynamical model.
The left branch in Figure \ref{fig:fig2}(a) models the latent representation $\mathbf{h^p}$ fulfilling the physical part of the PDE in Eq (\ref{eq:eq1}), \textit{i.e.}~ $\frac{\partial \mathbf{h^p}(t,\mathbf{x})}{\partial t} = \bm{\mathcal{M}}_{p}(\mathbf{h^p},\mathbf{u})$. This PDE is modeled
by our recurrent physical cell described in section \ref{section:phycell}, PhyCell, which
leads to the computation of $\mathbf{h}^{\mathbf{p}}_{t+1}$ from $\mathbf{E}(\mathbf{u}_t)$ and $\mathbf{h}_t^{\mathbf{p}}$. From the machine learning perspective, PhyCell leverages physical constraints to limit the number of model parameters, regularizes training and improves generalization.
The right branch in Figure \ref{fig:fig2}(a) models the latent representation $\mathbf{h^r}$ fulfilling the residual part of the PDE in Eq (\ref{eq:eq1}), \textit{i.e.}~ $\frac{\partial \mathbf{h^r}(t,\mathbf{x})}{\partial t} = \bm{\mathcal{M}}_{r}(\mathbf{h^r},\mathbf{u})$. Inspired by wavelet decomposition \cite{mallat1999wavelet} and recent semi-supervised works \cite{robert2018hybridnet}, this part of the PDE corresponds to unknown phenomena, which do not correspond to any prior model, and is therefore entirely learned from data. We use a generic recurrent neural network for this task, \textit{e.g.}~ ConvLSTM~\cite{xingjian2015convolutional} for videos, which computes $\mathbf{h}_{t+1}^{\mathbf{r}}$ from $\mathbf{E}(\mathbf{u}_t)$ and $\mathbf{h}_{t}^{\mathbf{r}}$.
$\mathbf{h}_{t+1}=\mathbf{h}_{t+1}^{\mathbf{p}} +\mathbf{h}_{t+1}^{\mathbf{r}}$ is the combined representation processed by a deep decoder $\mathbf{D}$ to forecast the image $\mathbf{\hat{u}}_{t+1}$.
Figure~\ref{fig:fig2}(b) shows the "unfolded" PhyDNet. An input video $\mathbf{u}_{1:T} = (\mathbf{u}_1,...,\mathbf{u}_T) \in \mathbb{R}^{T\times n \times m \times c}$ with spatial size $n \times m$ and $c$ channels is projected into $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$ by the
encoder $\mathbf{E}$ and processed by the recurrent block unfolded in time. This forms a Sequence To Sequence architecture~\cite{sutskever2014sequence} suited for multi-step prediction, outputting $\Delta$ future frame predictions $\mathbf{\hat{u}}_{T+1:T+\Delta}$. Encoder, decoder and recurrent block parameters are all trained end-to-end, meaning that PhyDNet learns itself without supervision the latent space $\bm{\mathcal{H}}$ in which physics and residual factors are disentangled.
\subsection{PhyCell: a deep recurrent physical model}
\label{section:phycell}
PhyCell is a new physical cell, whose dynamics is governed by the PDE response function $\bm{\mathcal{M}}_p(\mathbf{h^p},\mathbf{u})$\footnote{In the sequel, we drop the index $\mathbf{p}$ in $\mathbf{h^p}$ for the sake of simplicity}:
\begin{equation}
\bm{\mathcal{M}}_p(\mathbf{h},\mathbf{u}) := \Phi(\mathbf{h})+ \mathcal{C}(\mathbf{h},\mathbf{u})
\label{eq:Mp}
\end{equation}
where $\Phi(\mathbf{h})$ is a physical predictor modeling only the latent dynamics and $C(\mathbf{h},\mathbf{u})$ is a correction term modeling the interactions between latent state and input data. \vspace{0.25cm} \\
\textbf{Physical predictor:} $\Phi(\mathbf{h})$ in Eq~(\ref{eq:Mp}) is modeled as follows:
\begin{equation}
\Phi(\mathbf{h}(t,\mathbf{x})) = \sum_{i,j: i+j \leq q} c_{i,j} \dfrac{\partial^{i+j} \mathbf{h}}{\partial x^i \partial y^j}(t,\mathbf{x})
\label{eq:phi}
\end{equation}
$\Phi(\mathbf{h}(t,\mathbf{x}))$ in Eq~(\ref{eq:phi}) combines the spatial derivatives with coefficients $c_{i,j}$ up to a certain differential order $q$. This generic class of linear PDEs subsumes a wide range of classical physical models, \textit{e.g.}~ the heat equation, the wave equations, the advection-diffusion equations. \vspace{0.25cm} \\
\textbf{Correction:} $\mathcal{C}(\mathbf{h},\mathbf{u})$
in Eq (\ref{eq:Mp})
takes the following form:
\begin{equation}
\!\!\!\!\!\!\mathcal{C}(\mathbf{h},\mathbf{u}) \!:=\! \mathbf{K}(t,\mathbf{x})\odot \left[\mathbf{E} (\mathbf{u}(t,\mathbf{x})) \!-\! (\mathbf{h}(t,\mathbf{x}) \!+\! \Phi(\mathbf{h}(t,\mathbf{x} ))\right]
\label{eq:corrcont}
\end{equation}
Eq (\ref{eq:corrcont}) computes is the difference between the latent state after physical motion $\mathbf{h}(t,\mathbf{x}) + \Phi(\mathbf{h}(t,\mathbf{x}))$ and the embedded new observed input $\mathbf{E}(\mathbf{u}(t,\mathbf{x}))$.
$\mathbf{K}(t,\mathbf{x})$ is a gating factor, where $\odot$ is the Hadamard product
\subsubsection{Discrete PhyCell}
\label{sec:discretephicell}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{fig3_1.png}
\caption{PhyCell recurrent cell implements a two-steps scheme: physical prediction with convolutions for approximating and combining spatial derivatives (Eq (\ref{eq:prediction}) and Eq~(\ref{eq:phi})), and input assimilation as a correction of latent physical dynamics driven by observed data (Eq (\ref{eq:correction})). During training, the filter moment loss in red (Eq~(\ref{eq:lmoment})) enforces the convolutional filters to approximate the desired differential operators.}
\label{fig:phicell}
\end{figure}
We discretize the continuous time PDE in Eq (\ref{eq:Mp}) with the standard forward Euler numerical scheme \cite{lu2018beyond}, leading to the discrete time PhyCell (derivation in supplementary 1.1):
\begin{equation}
\mathbf{h}_{t+1} = (1-\mathbf{K}_t) \odot \left(\mathbf{h}_t + \Phi(\mathbf{h}_t) \right) + \mathbf{K}_t \odot \mathbf{E}(\mathbf{u}_t)
\label{eq:physical_cell}
\end{equation}
Depicted in Figure \ref{fig:phicell}, PhyCell is an atomic recurrent cell for building physically-constrained RNNs. In our experiments, we use one layer of PhyCell but one can also easily stack several PhyCell layers to build more complex models, as done for stacked RNNs \cite{wang2017predrnn,wang2018predrnn++,wang2019memory}. To gain insight into PhyCell in Eq~(\ref{eq:physical_cell}), we write the equivalent two-steps form:
\begin{empheq}[left=\empheqlbrace]{alignat=2}
& \tilde{\mathbf{h}}_{t+1} \!= \mathbf{h}_{t} + \Phi(\mathbf{h}_{t}) & \!\!\!\quad \text{\small{\textbf{Prediction}\!}} \label{eq:prediction}\\
& \mathbf{h}_{t+1} \!= \tilde{\mathbf{h}}_{t+1} + \mathbf{K}_t \odot \left( \mathbf{E}(\mathbf{u}_t) - \tilde{\mathbf{h}}_{t+1} \right) & \!\!\! \quad \text{\small{\textbf{Correction}\!}} \label{eq:correction}
\end{empheq}
The prediction step in Eq~(\ref{eq:prediction}) is a physically-constrained motion in the latent space, computing the intermediate representation $\tilde{\mathbf{h}}_{t+1}$. Eq~(\ref{eq:correction}) is a correction step incorporating input data. This prediction-correction formulation is reminiscent of the way to combine numerical models with observed data in the data assimilation community \cite{asch2016data,bocquet2019data}, \textit{e.g.}~ with the Kalman filter \cite{kalman1960new}
~We show in section \ref{sec:training} that this decoupling between prediction and correction can be leveraged to robustly train our model in long-term forecasting and missing data contexts. $\mathbf{K}_t$ can be interpreted as the Kalman gain controlling the trade-off between both steps.
\begin{table*}[b]
\begin{adjustbox}{max width=\textwidth}
\begin{tabular}{l|lll|lll|lll|lll}
\Xhline{2\arrayrulewidth}
\multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{3}{|c}{\textbf{Moving MNIST}} & \multicolumn{3}{|c}{\textbf{Traffic BJ}} & \multicolumn{3}{|c}{\textbf{Sea Surface Temperature}} & \multicolumn{3}{|c}{\textbf{Human 3.6}} \\
\hline
Method & MSE & MAE & SSIM & MSE $\times 100$ & MAE & SSIM & MSE $\times 10$ & MAE & SSIM & MSE / 10 & MAE $/ 100$ & SSIM \\
\hline \hline
ConvLSTM \cite{xingjian2015convolutional} & 103.3 & 182.9 & 0.707 & $48.5^*$ & $17.7^*$ & $0.978^*$ & $45.6^*$ & $63.1^*$ & $0.949^*$ & $50.4^*$ & $18.9^*$ & $0.776^*$ \\
PredRNN \cite{wang2017predrnn} & 56.8 & 126.1 & 0.867 & 46.4 & $17.1^*$ & $0.971^*$ & 41.9 & 62.1 & 0.955 & 48.4 & 18.9 & 0.781 \\
Causal LSTM \cite{wang2018predrnn++} & 46.5 & 106.8 & 0.898 & 44.8 & $16.9^*$ & $0.977^*$ & $39.1^*$ & $62.3^*$ & $0.929^*$ & 45.8 & 17.2 & 0.851 \\
MIM \cite{wang2019memory} & 44.2 & 101.1 & 0.910 & 42.9 & $16.6^*$ & $0.971^*$ & $42.1^*$ & $60.8^*$ & $0.955^*$ & 42.9 & 17.8 & 0.790 \\
E3D-LSTM \cite{wang2018eidetic} & 41.3 & 86.4 & 0.920 & $43.2^*$ & $16.9^*$ & $0.979^*$ & $34.7^*$ & $59.1^*$ & $0.969^*$ & 46.4 & 16.6 & 0.869 \\ \hline
Advection-diffusion \cite{de2017deep} & - & - & -& - & - &- & $34.1^*$ & $54.1^*$ & $0.966^*$ & - & - &- \\
DDPAE \cite{hsieh2018learning} & 38.9 & $90.7^*$ & $0.922^*$ & - &- &- &- &- &- &- &- &- \\ \hline
\textbf{PhyDNet} & \textbf{24.4} & \textbf{70.3} & \textbf{0.947} & \textbf{41.9} & \textbf{16.2} & \textbf{0.982} & \textbf{31.9} & \textbf{53.3} & \textbf{0.972} & \textbf{36.9} & \textbf{16.2} & \textbf{0.901} \\
\Xhline{2\arrayrulewidth}
\end{tabular}
\end{adjustbox}
\caption{Quantitative forecasting results of PhyDNet compared to baselines using various datasets. Numbers are copied from original or citing papers. * corresponds to results obtained by running online code from the authors. The first five baseline are general deep models applicable to all datasets, whereas DDPAE \cite{hsieh2018learning} (resp. advection-diffusion flow \cite{de2017deep}) are specific state-of-the-art models for Moving MNIST (resp. SST). Metrics are scaled to be in a similar range across datasets to ease comparison.}
\label{tab:res1}
\end{table*}
\subsubsection{PhyCell implementation}
We now specify how the physical predictor $\Phi$ in Eq~(\ref{eq:prediction}) and the correction Kalman gain $\mathbf{K}_t$ in Eq~(\ref{eq:correction}) are implemented.\vspace{0.25cm} \\
\textbf{Physical predictor:} we implement $\Phi$ using a convolutional neural network (left gray box in Figure \ref{fig:phicell}), based on the connection between convolutions and differentiations \cite{dong2017image,long2018pde}.
This offers the possibility to learn a class of filters approximating each partial derivative in Eq~(\ref{eq:phi}), which are constrained by a kernel moment loss, as detailed in section \ref{sec:training}. As noted by~\cite{long2018pde}, the flexibility added by this constrained learning strategy gives better results for solving PDEs than handcrafted derivative filters.
Finally, we use $1 \times 1$ convolutions to linearly combine these derivatives with $c_{i,j}$ coefficients in Eq~(\ref{eq:phi}). \vspace{0.25cm} \\% into the new tensor $\tilde{h}_{t+1}$.
\textbf{Kalman gain:}
We approximate $\mathbf{K}_t$ in Eq~(\ref{eq:correction}) by a gate with learned convolution kernels $\mathbf{W}_h$, $\mathbf{W}_u$ and bias $\mathbf{b}_k$:
\begin{equation}
\mathbf{K}_t = \tanh \left( \mathbf{W}_{h} * \tilde{\mathbf{h}}_{t+1} + \mathbf{W}_{u} * \mathbf{E}(\mathbf{u}_t) + \mathbf{b}_k \right)
\label{eq:kalman_gain}
\end{equation}
Note that if $\mathbf{K}_t = \mathbf{0}$, the input is not accounted for and the dynamics follows the physical predictor
; if $\mathbf{K}_t = 1 $, the latent dynamics is resetted and only driven by the input. This is similar to gating mechanisms in LSTMs or GRUs. \vspace{0.25cm} \\
\textbf{Discussion:} With specific $\Phi$ predictor,
$\mathbf{K}_t$ gain and encoder $\mathbf{E}$, PhyCell recovers recent models from the literature:
\vspace{-0.2cm}
\begin{table}[H]
\centering
\begin{adjustbox}{max width=\columnwidth}
\begin{tabular}{c|ccc}
model & $\Phi$ & $\mathbf{K}_t$ & $\mathbf{E}$ \\ \hline
PDE-Net \cite{long2019pde} & Eq (\ref{eq:prediction}) & $\mathbf{0}$ & $\mathbf{Id}$ \\ \hline
Advection-diffusion & advection-diffusion & $\mathbf{0}$ & $\mathbf{Id}$ \\
flow~\cite{de2017deep} & predictor & & \\ \hline
RKF \cite{becker2019recurrent} & locally linear, no & approx. & deep encoder \\
~ & phys. constraint & Kalman gain & \\ \hline
PhyDNet (ours) & Eq (\ref{eq:prediction}) & Eq (\ref{eq:kalman_gain}) & deep encoder
\end{tabular}
\vspace{-0.2cm}
\label{tab:my_label}
\end{adjustbox}
\end{table}
\vspace{-0.2cm}
PDE-Net~\cite{long2018pde} directly works on raw pixel data (identity encoder $\mathbf{E}$) and assumes Markovian dynamics (no correction, $\mathbf{K}_t\!\!\!=\!\!\!\mathbf{0}$): the model solves the autonomous PDE $\frac{\partial \mathbf{u}}{\partial t}=\Phi(\mathbf{u})$ given in Eq (\ref{eq:prediction}) but in pixel space
~This prevents from modeling time-varying PDEs such as those tackled in this work
~\textit{e.g.}~ varying advection terms.
~The
flow model in~\cite{de2017deep} uses the closed-form solution of the advection-diffusion equation as predictor ; it is however limited only to this PDE, whereas PhyDNet models a much broader class of PDEs. The Recurent Kalman Filter (RKF)~\cite{becker2019recurrent} also proposes a prediction-correction scheme in a deep latent space, but their approach does not include any prior physical information, and the prediction step is locally linear, whereas we use deep models. An approximated form of the covariance matrix is used for estimating $\mathbf{K}_t$ in~\cite{becker2019recurrent}, which we find experimentally inferior to our gating mechanism in Eq~(\ref{eq:kalman_gain}).
\subsection{Training}
\label{sec:training}
Given a training set of $N$ videos $\bm{\mathcal{D}} = \left \{ \mathbf{u}^{(i)} \right \} _{i=\{1:N \}}$ and PhyDNet parameters $\mathbf{w}= (\mathbf{w_p},\mathbf{w_r},\mathbf{w_s})$, where $\mathbf{w_p}$ (resp. $\mathbf{w_r}$) are parameters of the PhyCell (resp. residual) branch, and $\mathbf{w_s}$ are encoder and decoder shared parameters, we minimize the following objective function:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}(\bm{\mathcal{D}},\mathbf{w}) = \mathcal{L}_{\text{image}}(\bm{\mathcal{D}},\mathbf{w}) + \lambda \mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}}(\mathbf{w_p})
\end{equation}
We use the $L^2$ loss for the image reconstruction loss $\mathcal{L}_{\text{image}}$, as commonly done in the literature \cite{wang2017predrnn,wang2018predrnn++,oliu2018folded,wang2018eidetic,wang2019memory}.
$\mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}}(\mathbf{w_p})$ imposes physical constraints on the $k^2$ learned filters $ \left\{ \mathbf{w}^k_{p,i,j}\right\}_{i,j \leq k}$, such that each $\mathbf{w}^k_{p,i,j}$ of size $k \times k$ approximates $\frac{\partial^{i+j}}{\partial x^i y^j}$. This is achieved by using a loss based on the moment matrix $\mathbf{M}(\mathbf{w}^k_{p,i,j})$~\cite{long2019pde}, representing the order of the filter differentiation~\cite{dong2017image}. $\mathbf{M}(\mathbf{w}^k_{p,i,j})$ is compared to a target moment matrix $\mathbf{\Delta}^k_{i,j}$ (see $\mathbf{M}$ and $\mathbf{\Delta}$ computations in supplementary 1.2), leading to:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}} = \sum\limits_{i \leq k} \sum\limits_{j \leq k} ||\mathbf{M}(\mathbf{w}^k_{p,i,j}) - \mathbf{\Delta}^k_{i,j} ||_F
\label{eq:lmoment}
\end{equation}
\textbf{Prediction mode}
~An appealing feature of PhyCell is that we can use and train the model in a "prediction-only" mode by setting $\mathbf{K}_t = \mathbf{0}$ in Eq (\ref{eq:correction}), \textit{i.e.}~ by only relying on the physical predictor $\Phi$ in Eq (\ref{eq:prediction}). It is worth mentioning that the "prediction-only" mode is not applicable to standard Seq2Seq RNNs: although the decomposition in Eq~(\ref{eq:Mp}) still holds, \textit{i.e.}~ $\bm{\mathcal{M}}_r(\mathbf{h},\mathbf{u}) = \Phi(\mathbf{h})+ \mathcal{C}(\mathbf{h},\mathbf{u})$, the resulting predictor is naive and useless for multi-step prediction $\mathbf{\tilde{h}}_{t+1}=0$, see supplementary 1.3).
Therefore, standard RNNs are not equipped to deal with unreliable input data $\mathbf{u}_t$. We show in section~\ref{sec:expe_prediction} that the gain of PhyDNet over those models increases in two important contexts with unreliable inputs: multi-step prediction and dealing with missing data.
\section{Experiments}
\label{section4}
\begin{figure*}[ht]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{global_visus3.png}
\caption{Qualitative results of the predicted frames by PhyDNet for all datasets. First line is the input sequence, second line the target and third line PhyDNet prediction. For Moving MNIST, we add a fourth line with the comparison to DDPAE \cite{hsieh2018learning} and for Traffic BJ the difference $|\text{Prediction-Target}|$ for better visualization.}
\label{fig:visus}
\end{figure*}
\subsection{Experimental setup}
\paragraph{Datasets} We evaluate PhyDNet on four datasets from various origins. \textbf{Moving MNIST}~\cite{srivastava2015unsupervised} is a standard synthetic benchmark in video prediction with two random digits bouncing on the walls. \textbf{Traffic BJ} \cite{zhang2017deep} represents complex real-world traffic flows, which requires modeling transport phenomena and traffic diffusion for prediction. \textbf{SST} (Sea Surface Temperature) \cite{de2017deep} consists in meteorological data, whose evolution is governed by the physical laws of fluid dynamics. Finally, \textbf{Human 3.6} \cite{ionescu2013human3} represents general human actions with complex 3D articulated motions. We give details about all datasets in supplementary 2.1.
\paragraph{Network architectures and training}
PhyDNet shares a common backbone architecture for all datasets where the physical branch contains 49 PhyCells ($7 \times 7$ kernel filters) and the residual branch is composed of a 3-layers ConvLSTM with 128 filters in each layer. We set up the trade-off parameter between $\mathcal{L}_{\text{image}}$ and $\mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}}$ to $\lambda=1$. Detailed architectures and $\lambda$ impact are given in supplementary 2.2. Our code is available at \url{https://github.com/vincent-leguen/PhyDNet}. \vspace{-0.4cm}
\paragraph{Evaluation metrics} We follow evaluation metrics commonly used in state-of-the-art video prediction methods: the Mean Squared Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and the Structural Similarity (SSIM) \cite{wang2004image} that computes the perceived image quality with respect to a reference. Metrics are averaged for each frame of the output sequence. Lower MSE, MAE and higher SSIM indicate better performances.
\subsection{State of the art comparison}
We evaluate PhyDNet against strong recent baselines, including very competitive data-driven RNN architectures: ConvLSTM \cite{xingjian2015convolutional}, PredRNN \cite{wang2017predrnn}, Causal LSTM \cite{wang2018predrnn++}, Memory in Memory (MIM) \cite{wang2019memory}. We also compare to methods dedicated to specific datasets: DDPAE \cite{hsieh2018learning}, a disentangling method specialized and state-of-the-art on Moving MNIST ; and the physically-constrained advection-diffusion flow model \cite{de2017deep} that is state-of-the-art for the SST dataset.
\begin{table*}
\begin{adjustbox}{max width=\textwidth}
\begin{tabular}{l|lll|lll|lll|lll}
\Xhline{2\arrayrulewidth}
\multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{3}{|c|}{\textbf{Moving MNIST}} & \multicolumn{3}{|c|}{\textbf{Traffic BJ}} & \multicolumn{3}{|c|}{\textbf{Sea Surface Temperature}} & \multicolumn{3}{|c}{\textbf{Human 3.6}} \\
\hline
Method & MSE & MAE & SSIM & MSE $\times$ 100 & MAE & SSIM & MSE $\times$ 10 & MAE & SSIM & MSE $/$ 10 & MAE $/$ 100 & SSIM \\ \hline \hline
ConvLSTM & 103.3 & 182.9 & 0.707 & $48.5^*$ & $17.7^*$ & $0.978^*$ & $45.6^*$ & $63.1^*$ & $0.949^*$ & $50.4^*$ & $18.9^*$ & $0.776^*$ \\
PhyCell & 50.8 & 129.3 & 0.870 & 48.9 & 17.9 & 0.978 & 38.2 & 60.2 & 0.969 & 42.5 & 18.3 & 0.891 \\
PhyDNet & \textbf{24.4} & \textbf{70.3} & \textbf{0.947} & \textbf{41.9} & \textbf{16.2} & \textbf{0.982} & \textbf{31.9} & \textbf{53.3} & \textbf{0.972} & \textbf{36.9} & \textbf{16.2} & \textbf{0.901} \\
\Xhline{2\arrayrulewidth}
\end{tabular}
\end{adjustbox}
\caption{An ablation study shows the consistent performance gain on all datasets of our physically-constrained PhyCell vs the general purpose ConvLSTM, and the additional gain brought up by the disentangling architecture PhyDNet. * corresponds to results obtained by running online code from the authors.}
\label{tab:ablation}
\end{table*}
Overall results presented in Table \ref{tab:res1} reveal that PhyDNet outperforms significantly all baselines on all four datasets. The performance gain is large with respect to state-of-the-art general RNN models, with a gain of 17 MSE points for Moving MNIST, 6 MSE points for Human 3.6, 3 MSE points for SST and 1 MSE point for Traffic BJ. In addition, PhyDNet also outperforms specialized models: it gains 14 MSE points compared to the disentangling DDPAE model \cite{hsieh2018learning} specialized for Moving MNIST, and 2 MSE points compared to the advection-diffusion model \cite{de2017deep} dedicated to SST data. PhyDNet also presents large and consistent gains in SSIM, indicating that image quality is greatly improved by the physical regularization. Note that for Human 3.6, a few approaches use specific strategies dedicated to human motion with additional supervision, \textit{e.g.}~ human pose in \cite{villegas2017learning}. We perform similarly to \cite{villegas2017learning} using only unsupervised training, as shown in supplementary 2.3. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first time that physically-constrained deep models reach state-of-the-art performances on generalist video prediction datasets.
In Figure \ref{fig:visus}, we provide qualitative prediction results for all datasets, showing that PhyDNet properly forecasts future images for the considered horizons: digits are sharply and accurately predicted for Moving MNIST in (a), the absolute traffic flow error is low and approximately spatially independent in (b), the evolving physical SST phenomena are well anticipated in (c) and the future positions of the person is accurately predicted in (d). We add in Figure \ref{fig:visus}(a) a qualitative comparison to DDPAE \cite{hsieh2018learning}, which fails to predict the future frames properly. Since the two digits overlap in the input sequence, DPPAE is unable to disentangle them. In contrast, PhyDNet successfully learns the physical dynamics of the two digits in a disentangled latent space, leading a correct prediction. In supplementary 2.4, we detail this comparison to DPPAE, and provide additional visualizations for all datasets.
\subsection{Ablation Study}
We perform here an ablation study to analyse the respective contributions of physical modeling and disentanglement. Results are presented in Table \ref{tab:ablation} for all datasets. We see that a 1-layer PhyCell model (only the left branch of PhyDNet in Figure \ref{fig:fig2}(b)) outperforms a 3-layers ConvLSTM (50 MSE points gained for Moving MNIST, 8 MSE points for Human 3.6, 7 MSE points for SST and equivalent results for Traffic BJ), while PhyCell has much fewer parameters (270,000 \textit{vs.} 3 million parameters). This confirms that PhyCell is a very effective recurrent cell that successfully incorporates physical prior in deep models. When we further add our disentangling strategy with the two-branch architecture (PhyDNet), we have another performance gap on all datasets (25 MSE points for Moving MNIST, 7 points for Traffic and SST, and 5 points for Human 3.6), which proves that physical modeling is not sufficient by itself to perform general video prediction and that learning unknown factors is necessary.
We qualitatively analyze in Figure~\ref{fig:ablation} partial predictions of PhyDNet for the physical branch $\hat{\mathbf{u}}^{\mathbf{p}}_{t+1} = \mathbf{D}(\mathbf{h}^{\mathbf{p}}_{t+1})$ and residual branch $\hat{\mathbf{u}}^{\mathbf{r}}_{t+1} = \mathbf{D}(\mathbf{h}^{\mathbf{r}}_{t+1})$. As noted in Figure \ref{fig:fig1} for Moving MNIST, $\mathbf{h^p}$ captures coarse localisations of objects, while $\mathbf{h^r}$ captures fine-grained details that are not useful for the physical model. Additional visualizations for the other datasets and a discussion on the number of parameters are provided in supplementary 2.5.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=7.6cm]{fig5.png}
\caption{Qualitative ablation results on Moving MNIST: partial predictions show that PhyCell captures coarse localisation of digits, whereas the ConvLSTM branch models the fine shape details of digits. Every two frames are displayed.}
\label{fig:ablation}
\end{figure}
\paragraph{Influence of physical regularization}
We conduct in Table \ref{tab:ablation2} a finer ablation on Moving MNIST to study the impact of the physical regularization $\mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}}$ on the performance of PhyCell and PhyDNet. When we disable $\mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}}$ for training PhyCell, performances improve by 7 points in MSE. This underlines that physical laws alone are too restrictive for learning dynamics in a general context, and that complementary factors should be accounted for.
On the other side, when we disable $\mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}}$ for training our disentangled architecture PhyDNet, performances decrease by 5 MSE points ($29$ \textit{vs} $24.4$) compared to the physically-constrained version. This proves that physical constraints are relevant, but should be incorporated carefully in order to make both branches cooperate. This enables to leverage physical prior, while keeping remaining information necessary for pixel-level prediction. Same conclusions can be drawn for the other datasets, see supplementary 2.6.
\begin{table}[H]
\centering
\begin{adjustbox}{max width=\columnwidth}
\begin{tabular}{l|lll}
\Xhline{2\arrayrulewidth}
\hline
Method & MSE & MAE & SSIM \\ \hline \hline
PhyCell & 50.8 & 129.3 & 0.870 \\
PhyCell without $\mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}}$ & 43.4 & 112.8 & 0.895 \\
PhyDNet & \textbf{24.4} & \textbf{70.3} & \textbf{0.947} \\
PhyDNet without $\mathcal{L}_{\text{moment}}$ & 29.0 & 81.2 & 0.934 \\
\Xhline{2\arrayrulewidth}
\end{tabular}
\end{adjustbox}
\caption{Influence of physical regularization for Moving MNIST. }
\label{tab:ablation2}
\end{table}
\subsection{PhyCell analysis}
\label{sec:expe_prediction}
\subsubsection{Physical filter analysis}
With the same general backbone architecture, PhyDNet can express different PDE dynamics associated to the underlying phenomena by learning specific $c_{i,j}$ coefficients combining the partial derivatives in Eq (\ref{eq:phi}). In Figure \ref{fig:cij}, we display the mean amplitude of the learned coefficients $c_{i,j}$ with respect to the order of differentiation. For Moving MNIST, the $0^{th}$ and $1^{st}$ orders are largely dominant, meaning a purely advective behaviour coherent with the piecewise-constant translation dynamics of the dataset. For Traffic BJ and SST, there is also a global decrease in amplitude with respect to order, we nonetheless notice a few higher order terms appearing to be useful for prediction.
For Human 3.6, where the nature of the prior motion is less obvious, these coefficients are more spread across order derivatives.
\vspace{-0.2cm}
\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cc}
\hspace{-0.5cm} \includegraphics[height=3cm]{cij_mm2.png} & \hspace{-0.5cm}
\includegraphics[height=3cm]{cij_traffic2.png} \\
Moving MNIST & Traffic BJ \\ \hspace{-0.5cm}
\includegraphics[height=3cm]{cij_sst2.png} & \hspace{-0.5cm} \includegraphics[height=3cm]{cij_human2.png} \\
SST & Human 3.6
\end{tabular}{}
\caption{Mean amplitude of the combining coefficients $c_{i,j}$ with respect to the order of the differential operators approximated.}
\label{fig:cij}
\end{figure}
\vspace{-0.5cm}
\subsubsection{Dealing with unreliable inputs}
\label{sec:lt-forecasting}
We explore here the robustness of PhyDNet when dealing with unreliable inputs, that can arise in two contexts: long-term forecasting
and missing data.
As explained in section~\ref{sec:training}, PhyDNet can be used in a prediction mode in this context, limiting the use of unreliable inputs, whereas general RNNs cannot. To validate the relevance of the prediction mode, we compare PhyDNet to DDPAE \cite{hsieh2018learning}, based on a standard RNN (LSTM) as predictor module.
Figure \ref{fig:long-term} presents the results in MSE obtained by PhyDNet and DDPAE on Moving MNIST (see supplementary 2.7 for similar results in SSIM).
For long-term forecasting, we evaluate the performances of both methods far beyond the prediction range seen during training (up to 80 frames), as shown in Figure \ref{fig:long-term}(a). We can see that the performance drop (MSE increase rate) is approximately linear for PhyNet, whereas it is much more pronounced for DDPAE. For example, PhyDNet for 80-steps prediction reaches similar performances in MSE than DDPAE for 20-steps prediction. This confirms that PhyDNet can limit error accumulation during forecasting by using a powerful dynamical model
Finally, we evaluate the robustness of PhyDNet on DDPAE on missing data, by varying the ratio of missing data (from 10 to 50\%) in input sequences during training and testing.
A missing input image is replaced with a default value (0) image. In this case, PhyCell
relies only on its latent dynamics by setting $\mathbf{K}_t=0$, whereas DDPAE takes the null image as input. Figure \ref{fig:long-term}(b) shows that the performance gap between PhyDNet and DDPAE increases with the percentage of missing data.
\vspace{-0.2cm}
\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cc}
\hspace{-0.8cm} \includegraphics[width=4.5cm]{lt_mse.png} & \hspace{-0.5cm} \includegraphics[width=4.5cm]{missing_mse.png} \\
(a) Long-term forecasting & (b) Missing data
\end{tabular} \\
\caption{MSE comparison between PhyDNet and DDPAE \cite{hsieh2018learning} when dealing with unreliable inputs.}
\label{fig:long-term}
\end{figure}
\section{Conclusion}
We propose PhyDNet, a new model for disentangling prior dynamical knowledge from other factors of variation required for video prediction. PhyDNet enables to apply PDE-constrained prediction beyond fully observed physical phenomena in pixel space, and to outperform state-of-the-art performances on four generalist datasets. Our introduced recurrent physical cell for modeling PDE dynamics generalizes recent models and offers the appealing property to decouple prediction from correction. Future work include using more complex numerical schemes, \textit{e.g.}~ Runge-Kutta \cite{fablet2018bilinear}, and extension to probabilistic forecasts with uncertainty estimation \cite{gal2016dropout,corbiere19}, \textit{e.g.}~ with stochastic differential equations \cite{jia2019neural}.
{\small
\bibliographystyle{ieee}
|
This game is going to be the new hotness. Tested talked about it last week and my VR podcast has been discussing the beta for a few weeks. It's some kind of running race game but on floating skates? Same company that makes Raw Data.
Full game comes out tomorrow. No word on price. I may have to pick it up if it's under $25.
$30, but on sale for $24. Buying.
I hadn't actually looked at the trailer until now. Looks like it could be fun. Do you swing your arms to go faster or why are your arms so tired?
Yes, you are moving your arms the whole time. I'm a n00b so I thought faster swinging meant faster movement, but I think timing is more important.
Tip: do all of the tutorials before even trying a race. You learn a lot of those.
Now that I understand more of the mechanics it is a lot more fun.
I did my nightly 4 races. I'm either getting much better or new players are joining. I got 2nd and first tonight!
I wore a bandanna tonight to try and help with the moisture, it helped but also made it worse. I was going all out though because I got first 3 matches in a row! Fell down to 2nd and 3rd for the next races because I was too tired. I can't wait to play with Wags and start seeing friends on the leaderboards.
My lower back is sore today, I either slept bad last night or 40 minutes of intense SV did it.
Thanks for playing tonight wags. I got 2 and 3rd a few times, but no first place. People are back to being better than me. Watching Chris play is how I felt when I first started. Aka a whole hour of gameplay ago. Once you figure out the controls it's a lot easier obviously.
Chris's mom was going through his webcam. Someday we will all play VR and not have any technical problems.
Tyler wrote: Source of the post Chris's mom was going through his webcam.
I assume this is supposed to say "Chris's voice" rather than mom. Otherwise, weird.
And yeah, I need to redo the tutorials. I completely forgot how to do most things. Drifting will be the most useful since I kept dying by falling off edges around corners.
Drifting and physically turning is the best way to handle turns. It depends on the curve and my current speed for which method I use.
I'll probably play my usually 30 mins tonight when Jocelyn works out. I've been doing some of the challenge maps. I need to remember to keep my elbows straight and see if that helps with speed.
Getting up to speed is easy though, it's maintaining it while turning and flying.
Took about a month off from this game due to getting Brass Tactics and feeling under the weather (this is not a game you can play if you aren't feeling 100%). After losing Brass Tactics I fired this up and played 4 multiplayer games. First game was rough, but once I got back into the groove of things I was playing 2nd and 3rd, never did get first though. Every time I got second was because the person in first was way better at setting traps, I almost never fire my gun or do traps.
Jocelyn wanted to play a "workout game in VR" last night. I had her run through the tutorial on this. She finished basic tutorial and did a race but quit because she wasn't good (and because I quick ran to the store and it freaked her out being in VR while home alone). I think after you get a few races under your belt and understand drifting then the game becomes pretty simple to play. |
Chandra Levy trial: The prosecution rests
Washington Post staff writer Keith L. Alexander will be online Thursday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the Chandra Levy murder trial. The prosecution is done proving their case against Ingmar Guandique, who is charged with killing Levy in 2001, and has put on all of its witnesses and evidence that it is going to use. Now the defense will start its case.
Rocci Fisch
Keith will be starting shortly. Please stand by. Thank you.
Keith L. Alexander
The prosecution finished its case yesterday in the Chandra Levy trial. What do you think of the case so far. Let's chat.
Q: Television Coverage
Was there ever any talk about televising this trial?
A: Keith L. Alexander
Cameras aren't allowed in courtrooms so televising the trial would be very difficult. However, producers from 20/20 have been attending the trial and I believe they plan on doing an episode on the case in the near future.
— Nov 11, 2010 11:19 EST
Q: Will Guandique testify?
Do you think Guandique will take the stand? Without DNA evidence, the only evidence linking Guandique is from the inmate's testimony. Wouldn't it only do more potential harm to the defense to call Guandique to testify? Not that I wouldn't want to see him found guilty but I'm wondering whether there are any positives for the defense in calling him to testify.
At this stage, I would be surprised if he took the stand. But he has the right to testify if he chooses. But most attorneys have this conversation with their clients, so we'll see.
Q: Guandique trial transcript
I applaud the Washington Post's coverage of the trial. Will a complete trial transcript be available at some point?
Hmm. That's a good question. I'm not sure if the editors have considered publishing a complete transcript of the trial, but I will bring it to their attention.
Several readers have asked how is it that Gary Condit was allowed to avoid answering the question as to whether he had a sexual relationship with Levy.
Judge Fisher decided, despite the repeated questions from Guandique's attorney, that details of Condit's relationship with Levy was not relevant to the case against Guandique.
Q: Reporter assignment
Keith, you're doing a great job on this story but I'm also wondering why Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham haven't been involved again with the Chandra Levy story as it unfolds.
Thanks. Both Scott and Sari are working on other projects I believe.
Q: Fairfax, Va.
I read that Gary Condit will be writing a book about the Chandra Levy story. Is this true? Do you kinow anything about it?
Grere eetings Fairfax. Yes, Condit is writing a book about his life and in particular his last year in office. He is a fascinating man and had a strong career in politics.
I apologize for not being able to get to everyone's questions. But thank you for your participation. Next week should be very interesting. On Monday, we could hear from another of Guandique's former cell mates. And as early as Tuesday, we may hear closing arguments in the case. That means, the jury could begin deliberating as early as next Wednesday. Stay tuned.
Keith L. Alexander is a staff writer for The Washington Post. |
Hanzo's Dojo slot review
Added by Yggdrasil. Information last updated: 24/11/2020
Game supplier:Yggdrasil
Volatility:Medium
Max. win:bet x 470
Play Hanzo's Dojo
Paylines from both sides
Adventure & action
bet x 470
Yggdrasil score (compared to other slots of supplier)
Slot tester's review: Trystan Michielsen
Hanzo's Dojo is a dojo populated by different brave characters that compete and fight together, with us as their bystanders hoping to profit from it!
This slot was developed by Yggdrasil and released in 2018, adding another Japan-based slot to the growing roster of online slots. The game has a standard 5-reel, 3-row layout but an additional row of 3 reels above it that adds bonuses to reels 2, 3 and 4 with a total of 25 paylines. Everything about Hanzo's Dojo is set to resemble an ancient Japanese dojo, from the characters and symbols to the elaborate background.
I found the setting of the slot and the way it's portrayed to be particularly enchanting. Different trees frame the screen, blowing gently in the wind. The temple has different floors while statues and paper lanterns offer some extra personality. All the symbols are beautifully drawn by hand, while the characters each have their own subtle animations when part of a win.
It's clear the Yggdrasil artists put a lot of time in the design of this game and luckily the sound design isn't far behind. The familiar Japanese flute plays most of the time, with winning paylines triggering a short harp sound. The game doesn't go overboard and it fits the setting well.
The game can be compared to other slots set in Asia, from Sakura Dragon by Playson to Tiger and Dragon by Red Rake Gaming and Legend of the White Snake Lady by NetEnt. Apart from the last one, most slots with an oriental setting can't really compete with the attention to detail Hanzo's Dojo demonstrates here.
All of the symbols used in Hanzo's Dojo are original and designed exclusively for this game. They stand apart well enough, combining the use of special symbols and distinct colours to keep things apart. Getting a winning payline would slightly dim all other symbols and showing a gold border around the win, making it very obvious to see.
The symbols are from highest to lowest:
Free Spins: Get 3 or more Free Spin symbols on the screen to unlock the Free Spins mode.
Wild: Appears on both in the base game and the free spins mode. Substitutes all other symbols in the game except the Free Spins symbol.
Sumo Fighter: Max. win 235 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
Samurai: Max. win 200 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
Geisha: Max. win 180 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
Ninja: Max. win 160 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
Red Tree: Max. win 60 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
Blue Birds: Max. win 50 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
Purple Wind: Max. win 40 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
Green Water: Max. win 30 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
There is one additional symbol at the top reel, which is called the Rooftop Slot.
Hanzo Spins: When there are 3 Hanzo Spins in the Rooftop Slot, it randomly chooses one symbol and expands it to a 3x3 Colossal Symbol that sits on reels 2, 3 and 4.
Most of the game takes place in the base game, although there is a free spins mode. During my time playing this free spins mode didn't trigger very often but it did show up occasionally.
The main features are:
Wilds: Wilds substitute all regular symbols in the game.
Free Spins: With 3 or more Free Spins symbols on the screen, the free spins mode begins.
Colossal Symbols: During Free Spins mode or with 3 Hanzo Spins symbols, a 3x3 Colossal Symbol is added to the center of the reels.
Stacked Wilds: With a Wild symbol on one of the Rooftop Slots, the reel below is filled with Stacked Wilds.
Multipliers: During Free Spins mode, a multiplier can be activated for all wins during this mode.
The Rooftop Slot is a subtle but important addition to the game as it can influence the spins in several ways. The following symbols can show up in the Rooftop Slot:
Hanzo Spins
If you get a Free Spins symbol in a Rooftop Slot it will count when it comes to triggering Free Spins mode. That means if you get 2 Free Spins Symbols in the regular playing field and another 1 in the Rooftop Slot, it will begin the Free Spins mode. Every Free Spins symbol has a number on it to denote the number of free spins it adds.
A Wild showing up on a Rooftop Slot will fill the below reel with Stacked Wilds, while the Hanzo Slots I mentioned before will trigger a Colossal Symbol. There is also a fourth possibility: the boarded-up window. This one does not add any bonus.
When the Free Spins mode is triggered, this will start with the total number of free spins shown on each of the symbols. If there was a Rooftop Free Spin symbol, the mode starts with a special booster. This is randomly picked from the following options:
Extra Free Spins: The player receives an additional 2 free spins.
Win Both Ways: The game now counts wins from left to right and vice versa.
Symbol Nudge: The 3x3 symbol in the centre will be nudged to fill the reels.
Multiplier: A 2x multiplier will be applied to all wins.
Wild Reel: The 5th reel is turned into Stacked Wilds.
I found this to be a fun addition but since the free spins mode didn't trigger that often and it requires a free spins symbol in the Rooftop Slot, it was very rare to see any of the boosters appear. Also, there are definitely boosters that are better than others. I consider the Wild 5th Reel almost useless while the Win Both Ways was exponentially better.
All in all, it seems at first glance that there is an overwhelming amount of features but I found it to be spaced out well. The Rooftop Slot was an original addition to the game but was presented in a clear way that I quickly figured it out. The inclusion of different big animations really helped keep the game alive.
Hanzo's Slot is another beautiful slot made by Yggdrasil that takes a rather tired theme and turns it into a great game. The classical slot experience is largely maintained for people that enjoy the standard gameplay while it has plenty of features that keep it interesting for those players that want to see what modern games are capable of.
The graphics and sound are both amazing and I really enjoyed the style of this game. The gameplay is quick and fluid, drawing the eye to special features or winning paylines when appropriate. It never felt overwhelming or annoying. As always, I give extra credit for not using card suits as the low-paying symbols.
The game's listed Medium Volatility fit my experience, although the free spins mode was a point in the game where I got some big wins. I had the choice to pick a bet between £0.10 and £125 to manage my spending, although the max. win of 470x my bet wasn't super appealing.
If you're a fan of the Japanese setting, you like beautiful slots or you are looking for that Yggdrasil slot design of combining classic gameplay with modern features, I'm sure Hanzo's Slot will give you exactly what you're looking for.
Play Hanzo's Dojo for free
Browse casinos with Hanzo's Dojo and other slots from Yggdrasil. Create an account and try the game for free before making a deposit.
Colossal symbols: Colossal symbols are bigger than the 1-by-1 block of a standard symbol.
Paylines from both sides: The paylines in Hanzo's Dojo go from left to right and right to left.
Multiplier: In Hanzo's Dojo, the winnings can be multiplied by different multiplier mechanisms.
Freespins: You can get in-game free spins in Hanzo's Dojo.
Max. bet:£125
You can play Hanzo's Dojo in English, Finnish, Swedish, German and 18 other languages.
English, Finnish, Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Czech, Dutch, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai
Hanzo's Dojo supports GBP, EUR, USD, CAD
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Trystan Michielsen
Trystan Michielsen is a Dutch native who started his career as a content writer for various small businesses who were interested in creating an online presence.
When the opportunity arose to move to Malta and work in the iGaming sector, Trystan didn't hesitate to make the plunge. Here he worked as a Content and SEO specialist for different companies before moving back home.
Now acting as a freelancer he maintains his connection with the online slot community by playing and reviewing the wide variety of videoslots that are released.
Trystan enjoys playing the slots that offer a full experience, focusing on more than just the technical details but keeping an eye on its presentation. Graphics, music and style can create a game that's more than the sum of its parts.
A writer at heart, putting thoughts to paper is something he's done for as long as he remembers. In his free time, he enjoys writing fiction as well as watching and reviewing movies.
24K Dragon Reactoonz 2 Rage of the Seas Dark King: Forbidden Riches Celebration of Wealth
Hanzo's Dojo |
YouthBuild Austin is a holistic youth services program that combines academics with career training, leadership development, and community service at no cost to our students.
We offer young adults, ages 16 to 24, the opportunity to complete their education by earning a high school diploma or GED. Students also receive paid career training and certification in computer technology, healthcare, or green construction.
In addition, YouthBuild provides customized support services, including: counseling, basic needs assistance, graduate support, college readiness, and a re-entry track for young people exiting the criminal justice system.
YouthBuild Austin is looking for young adults, ages 16-24, who want to finish school, start a career, earn a paycheck (through AmeriCorps service), and plan for the future. Ready to get started? Click "Apply to be a YouthBuild Member" below.
YouthBuild Leaders are young adults from across the country, ages 18-28, who have already received their high school diploma, GED, or college degree. Positions are full-time AmeriCorps terms of service, ranging from 6 to 12 months.
Want to provide guidance and mentorship while helping YouthBuild students achieve their goals? Apply now! Click "Apply to be a YouthBuild Leader" below.
for more information about available opportunities.
YouthBuild Austin combines classroom instruction and real world projects that prepare students for the workplace. Our job skills training focuses on careers that are in-demand in the Austin area: Construction, Computer Technology & Digital Media, and Healthcare.
Students receive industry-recognized credentials while earning a paycheck and practicing the hands-on skills needed for success.
Casa Verde Builders learn construction and green building techniques while earning NCCER and OSHA certification. Students put their marketable skills to good use through community service projects, such as repairing houses for low-income families or building micro-homes for chronically homeless individuals. Our pre-apprenticeship program prepares young people for careers as electricians, plumbers, or welders.
For young adults who have completed high school, Casa Verde Builders offers full time construction training through our AmeriCorps program. Participants in this program learn and practice construction skills by repairing and weatherizing homes for low-income home owners and building new affordable housing.
Media Corps develops students' skills in Computer Technology and Graphic Design. The program combines classroom training with hands-on experience building and repairing computers for low-income Austinites, and designing and printing tee shirts for local non-profits. Students obtain certification in Adobe and Microsoft Software and CompTIA IT Fundamentals.
Health Corps combines classroom training with hands-on skills and certifications as Community Health Workers and Nursing Assistants. Students gain practical experience doing screenings at community health fairs, organizing blood donation events, or volunteering with local care providers. The program provides students with marketable skills to enter the booming healthcare industry and prepares them to succeed as they continue their training in the medical field.
Students may attain their high school diploma through our partnership with Premier High School, or complete their GED with the help of YouthBuild Austin teachers. Students study English, Math, Science, and Social Studies while pursuing a technology, construction, or a health track to develop career skills.
Participants may also earn college credits in Construction Management, Graphic Design, and Video Production through our partnership with Austin Community College.
At YouthBuild, we understand that having a strong support network is critical to academic success. That is why we match each student with their own case manager to provide complete wrap-around support services.
Case managers work with students to break down barriers to success, including child care, transportation, substance abuse, homelessness, and other issues. They also work with participants to build interpersonal communication and problem-solving skills, leading group discussions that help students overcome challenges.
Participants learn to advocate for issues that concern them and their communities. Students share in the governance of the program through an elected policy committee, and engage in enrichment activities, lectures, team-building exercises, and community events.
Giving back to the community is an essential part of the YouthBuild Austin experience. Our service projects provide in-depth, on-the-job training, such as building affordable housing, hosting volunteer blood drives, or providing refurbished computers to low-income families. While meeting real community needs, our students gain valuable skills and create lasting impact.
As students successfully complete the program, they will have access to a variety of resources as they advance in their careers, go to college, and build assets. Graduates become part of the "YouthBuild family," a strong network of alumni and leadership opportunities.
For information on connecting to employment, internships, apprenticeships or college, contact Jessica Garay at [email protected] or 512-902-9687.
Court-involved youth face tremendous challenges as they seek to put aside their past and begin to focus on the future. Studies demonstrate that a great many of those who have been previously involved in the criminal justice system experience a serious reduction in stable employment, housing, education, and reasonable wages throughout their lifetime. New Start Austin is a unique re-entry program that focuses on enabling court-involved youth to access the tools they need to succeed.
For more information, contact Re-Entry Specialist Vanessa Perez at [email protected] or 512-744-1923. |
Rosenbaum, Matthew D.; VandeWoude, Susan; Johnson, Thomas E.
Rosenbaum, Matthew D., and VandeWoude, Susan, and Johnson, Thomas E.. "Effects of Cage-Change Frequency and Bedding Volume on Mice and Their Microenvironment". Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. 48:6. (763-773), November 2009. April 21, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3083.
Rosenbaum, Matthew D. and VandeWoude, Susan and Johnson, Thomas E., "Effects of Cage-Change Frequency and Bedding Volume on Mice and Their Microenvironment," Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science 48, no. 6 (November 2009), http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3083 (accessed April 21, 2019).
Rosenbaum, Matthew D., VandeWoude, Susan, Johnson, Thomas E.. Effects of Cage-Change Frequency and Bedding Volume on Mice and Their Microenvironment. Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. November 2009; 48(6): 763-773. http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3083. Accessed April 21, 2019. |
17 March 2008 / SF News / Brock Keeling
Pilot of the Cosco Busan Charged In Federal Court
Although the National Transportation Safety Board has yet to release its report on the causes of last year's crash, today the pilot of the Cosco Busan, John Joseph Cota of Petaluma, was charged in federal court. The feds, it seems, found him in violation of two federal laws when he accidentally steered the container ship into the Bay Bridge on November 9 2007, which then released 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay.
According to the Gate, Cota is charged with "negligent discharge of a pollutant and with killing migratory birds including the brown pelican, marbled murrelet, and the western grebe."
Investigators from the State Board of Pilot Commissioners have also noted that Cota had made "a number of errors, including sailing in a dense fog, and that 'pilot error' was the cause of the crash."
According to court papers, CBS 5 reports, Cota was not taken into custody after being charged. The NTSB, however will hold a hearing on the oil spill in early April. They "anticipate establishing a 'probable cause'" by the end of this year.
SFIAAFF: <em>Death Note</em>
This worked for and against us: once there, we discovered that the movie was actually a two-parter, a la Kill Bill, and we would only be privy to the first half. We weren't
Photo du Jour 80
Why, it's a four-leaf clover. Lucky you. |
Tom Doorley (Glenageary (County Dublin), 1972) is een Ierse folkmuzikant.
Hij speelt fluit, tin-whistle en is achtergrondzanger bij de bekende Ierse folkband Danú, waar hij in 1996 begonnen is. Hij heeft les gehad van Vincent Broderick en zijn manier van spelen werd beïnvloed door de fluitspelers Séamus Mac Mathúna en Matt Molloy.
Discografie
Danú - 1997
Think before you think - 1999
All things considered - 2000
The road less traveled - 2003
Up in the air - 2003
When all is said and done - 2004
One night stand - 2004
Iers fluitist |
module.exports = function (grunt) {
// Project configuration.
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
requirejs: {
compile: {
options: {
// appDir: '.',
// dir: "./dist",
// modules: [
// {name: 'replay'}
// ],
name: 'replay',
out: 'dist/replay.min.js',
mainConfigFile: 'src/configs.js',
baseUrl: 'src',
removeCombined: true,
fileExclusionRegExp: /(node_modules|Gruntfile\.js|\.idea|package\.json)/
},
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-requirejs');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['requirejs']);
}; |
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Welcome to the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE)
The mission of IARSLCE is to promote the development and dissemination of research on service-learning and community engagement internationally and across all levels of the education system.
2020 IARSLCE Award Winners Announced
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Thu Feb 18, 2021Sharing Stories of Our Work: Engaging Ethical Practices to Lift up Diverse Stakeholder Narratives in Research and Program Inquiry
International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement
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First Among Sequels
"Literary sleuth Thursday Next is out to save literature in the fifth installment of Jasper Fforde's wildly popular series Beloved for his prodigious imagination, his satirical gifts, his literate humor, and sheer silliness, Jasper Fforde has delighted book lovers since Thursday Next first appeared in The Eyre Affair, a genre send-up hailed as an instant classic. Since the no-nonsense literary detective from Swindon made her debut, literature has never been quite the same. Neither have nursery rhymes, for that matter. With two successful books of the Nursery Crime series under his belt, Fforde takes up once again the brilliant adventures of his signature creation in the highly anticipated fifth installment of the Thursday Next series. And it's better than ever. It's been fourteen years since Thursday pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and Friday is now a difficult sixteen year old. However, Thursday's got bigger problems. Sherlock Holmes is killed at the Rheinback Falls and his series is stopped in its tracks. And before this can be corrected, Miss Marple dies suddenly in a car accident, bringing her series to a close as well. When Thursday receives a death threat clearly intended for her written self, she realizes what's going on "there is a serial killer on the loose in the Bookworld. And that's not all" The Goliath Corporation is trying to deregulate book travel. Naturally, Thursday must travel to the outer limits of acceptable narrative possibilities to triumph against increasing odds. Packed with word play, bizarre and entertaining subplots, and old-fashioned suspense, Thursday's return is sure to be celebrated by Jasper's fanatical fans and the critics who have loved him since the beginning."
Another Dynamic Story by Jasper Fforde
Thursday Next is back and Jasper Fforde created another entertaining, and dynamic story for the series. I have read all the books, but I believe First Among Sequels is the best. I'm a romantic at heart and just knowing that Thursday Next still carries a loving torch for her husband help to make this book a best read. Still, it's a wonderful story and it is full of suspense with a fast moving plot. There's the off-beat humor (in a nice way, i.e. witty and down right funny) that only Jasper can write down on paper. There are excellent reviews that detail the story, so I won't add more print, except to say if you haven't read the books by Jasper Fforde, I believe this novel would be an excellent place to start your journey into this author's unique and wonderful prose. There is no hesitation by me to recommend this great read to all my friends.
A bit too much
I enjoy the Thursday Next books, and I love the inventions Fforde has come up with in this novel. The most innovative parts of the book, and by far the most interesting to me, involved the two fictional Thursday Nexts and the interaction between her and her children, the number of which seemed to fluctuate from page to page. Having both an action heroine Thursday 1-4 and an earth mother Thursday 5 was wonderful and novel. The revelations about Friday, Tuesday and Jenny were all fun and interesting.
Unfortunately, Fforde seemed to treat this novel like one of those reunion shows on television, where you absolutely have to have all the characters show up, have to have them all go through their most famous routines and get their canned applause, and this is done at the expense of innovation and plot. But Fforde was writing a novel, not a reunion show of the Thursday Next novels, and the cameos by Felix8, Aornis, the Minotaur, etc. didn't bring much to the book, and made it more complex and difficult to get through than it needed to be.
He did a nice job with the parodies of reality television shows and the governmental crisis involving the stupidity deficit because the Commonsense Party (oddly, not ironically meant) were running things. The relation between that and falling reading rates, and the means by which they were all solved, were interesting and imaginative.
On the other hand, I think Fforde has made Thursday too important in Bookworld. Towards the end, it appeared that no one in Bookworld could do much except for Thursday with her Outlander perspective, and I found that tiresome and that it gave much of the plot a deus ex machina quality. The way to infuse some of the characters with more life is to write them that way, instead of relying on Thursday to do everything.
I look forward to a better constructed next novel in this series. ...more info
Tuesday Next is aging very well!
Another novel in the Tuesday Next series. It is 16 years since the last book, and Tuesday is now in her early 50s, pretending - but not succeeding - to lead a quiet life. Her son, born in book three, is now 16 and a creep... or so we think. Read the book to learn more!
I'm a Tuesday Next fan. Fforde has created an incredibly complex alternative world in which books are live, and people from our world can visit and interact with the characters and settings in the books. You CANNOT just pick up this fourth installment - you'll be lost. Start with The Eyre Affair, which sets up the entire series. Follow that with Lost In a Good Book, and then The Well of Lost Plots. If you've already read the first three books, then jump joyfully into the fourth (technically the fifth book, but you'll learn about what happened to the real #4 when you read the book!)...more info
What's next, Thursday?
It's a darned good thing that Thursday Next isn't showing any signs of wanting to slow down, because her life seems to get more and more complicated with each eagerly awaited installment of this brilliant series.
First of all, the Special Operations Network has been disbanded, but that minor detail hasn't stopped Thursday and her colleagues from doing what they do best. Under the cover of a flourishing carpeting company, business continues as usual, except now it's strictly hush-hush. Thursday is also secretly working at Jurisfiction, and a large portion of this book deals with her exploits in the BookWorld.
In the real world, Thursday hasn't yet told her husband that she does more than sell carpets. Her son Friday is a typical rebellious teenager, who flat out refuses to join the ChronoGuard, plays rock guitar and never, ever appears before lunchtime, his sister Tuesday is a math genius, and the other sibling Jenny promises to be the most normal of the lot.
Between training un-trainable apprentices, wheeling and dealing with the Cheese mafia, sorting out the Moral Dilemma, finding the missing comedy from the Thomas Hardy novels and vanquishing demons, time is running out for Thursday to figure out how to save the world, with or without the help of lazy Friday. Add the Minotaur, Aornis Hades, Goliath's latest project, and ghostly visitations from her Uncle Mycroft, and you get an idea of the roller coaster ride that is "First Among Sequels".
The unkindest cut of all however, is the plan to remake classic works into interactive novels, similar in principle to the dreaded Reality TV. It's all up to Thursday Next, and if she fails, you'll soon be glued to your television watching a Bennet sister getting voted out of Pride and Prejudice.
A final warning to fans of this series - after reading this you may suffer acute withdrawal symptoms while waiting for the next installment.
Rated: 4.5 stars
Amanda Richards, September 3, 2007
Highy recommended
Any Jasper Fforde fan will be delighted to see another chapter in the Thursday Next series. It is a creative, whirlwind of a book full of zany plots, book world antics, and the usual Goliath Corporation mischief. Any of Fforde's books are well worth reading.
While it was an amazing read, I do look forward to the next installment where perhaps the convoluted plotline of this series can find its way again....more info
Not worth the wait
I love the Thursday Next series but I was so bored by this new installment! The focus on technical descriptions of the book world are dull in the extreme and do not make a good replacement for plot . I also yawned my way through explanations of Goliath's text jumping bus, windy explanations of piano replacement, etc. I can tell J.F. gets off on this geeky stuff but a little of it goes a long way.
I still give it three stars, since it is more original than most anything out there, however I barely made it through the first half of the book, and would have given it up as a bad job if I hadnt read the others in the series.
Although the other books sometimes started slow, it was nothing like the funereal pace of this sequel. Thursday is getting older, why did we have to miss out on the years before 52? I am 51 myself, and although I can relate to her problems, and it's nice to see a middle aged woman protaganist, somehow it was just all a bit.....dull....more info
Eight Days a Week
Jasper Fforde clearly solidified his position in the literary world with "The Eyre Affair" the first novel in the Thursday Next series which was a wild and imaginative blend of pure literary love and comic genius. Each novel that followed was just as imaginative, if not even more far-fetched, but always as enjoyable as the first one. Sometimes authors can drag a series down when it continues on too far, but Fforde has done his series justice with each and every installment, especially "First Among Sequels".
The fifth book in the series, "First Among Sequels" takes place fourteen years after "Something Rotten", with our heroine settled into domestic life that includes an idle sixteen-year old son who won't assume his destiny with the Chronoguard, two daughters (one of which doesn't exist), and a job at Acme Carpets that is just a front for her old job as a literary detective still working with Jurisfiction (but of course, her husband doesn't know that). Tuesday finds herself drawn into another literary mystery while training two fictional and highly inadequate versions of herself to become Jurisfiction agents. When Britain's stupidity surplus reaches an all time high, a plan to make reality book shows promises to destroy all of classic literature as we know it, and Thursday is the only woman for the job.
Jasper Fforde is a sheer delight to read for anyone who truly loves literature. His novels are full of allusions and characters from great (and small) literary works, and represent a truly inspired take upon how stories come to life. "First Among Sequels" is a fast-paced romp through literature and back, with many twists and convoluted subplots that may or may not go anywhere thrown in between. Fforde knows how to leave his fans hungry for more, offering up tempting bait at the end of the novel that Thursday Next certainly isn't finished with the Book World, and neither is Jasper Fforde. ...more info
Fforde is so better than Rowling!
I don't understand all this fuss about Rowling and Potter. Jasper Fforde is so better at satire and humor and imaginative, genuinely creative science fiction/fantasy. He's way more talented. I've read all his books so far and have not been disappointed yet....more info
hilarious as usual
Basically, I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because I missed the Cheshire Cat. This book was as funny and convoluted as the others in the series, and its cliff-hanger ending promises more to come.
Now I have to go make tea for Jenny....more info
Thursday Next: First Among Sequels
Love those Thursday Next books ! Very witty and fun to read. Can't wait for the next sequel....more info
Thursday Next Continues
Compared to the other books in this series, this one starts out a bit heavy on the slapstick and appears to draw a bit more from personal realities of life in the current era. It is still a great read. While very few Fforde fans will be disappointed, they may not have to work quite so hard to keep all the various subplots straight in their minds. I look forward to many more stories from this author in both series (or new ones?)....more info
Not As Funny As The Previous Titles In The Series
If possible I would have given this book 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed it but it lost that 1/2 a sar because it wasn't quite as funny as the first four books in the Thursday Next series. This is the first book that has really had a cliff hanger so I know that he's going to write another one, which I am already really excited about.
I was a little disappointed that he got rid of the 'Friday's going to be a time travelling hero' storyline because I really liked that idea. It was a bit weird reading Thursday as a 50 year old - maybe that was why I didn't find it quite as funny as the previous books.
I did finally get one of the jokes from the previous books (Lost in a Good Book I think), I recently started reading George Eliot, but when I first read about Millon De Floss (Thursdays' stalker) I had never heard of her book The Mill On The Floss and so until the last couple of weeks I had never understood the stalker's name (just thought it was more of Fforde's weirdness), but now I get it and so that was a small personal triumph....more info
Stop Me if You Haven't Heard This One Before
How do you describe a Jasper Fforde book? Two 'f's and a useless 'e'. In truth Fforde's books are like a run-a-way Marx Brothers movie. Anything and everything can happen at any time and most likely will. This is the fifth 'Thursday Next' (and the last according to Fforde) and in this one he tackles the "space-time continuum paradox" of meeting yourself or another copy(ies) of some one you know. We meet at least three Fridays and three Thursdays, two Landons (but we never meet Jenny, 'cause she doesn't exist). Some are in books, some are from books, some are 'outlanders' in books, or book characters in the 'outland'. Got that!
There's no way to describe what goes on in this book because everything goes on an a lot of it simultaneously and even at the same time. (Keeping in mind that time is irrelevant, and an irrelevant if a big gray animal with a long nose that eats peanuts.) This is the book you should be reading when you are told that you will be 'shot at dawn' and you laugh and say 'since I never get up that early, start without me'.
It's a rousing good ending to this series and hopefully that last of the 'Nursery Crimes' will be this good and then it's on to the "Shades of Grey" series. SORRY BULLETIN BULLETIN tHERE wILL BE A 6TH book in the 'Thursday Next' series called "One of our Thursdays is missing". Please disregard everything that I've said and I'll do a review sometime before/after/present of the publication of said book. Cheers!
Zeb Kantrowitz...more info
Jasper Fforde is back with the wit and humor that are a trademark of this series. Thoroughly enjoyable romp through the Bookworld!...more info
Not quite as new & refreshing as the beginning of the series...
Seems to have bogged down a bit in technical stuff, ignoring characters & situations. This type of explanation used to be embedded in the story, not handled separately as an instruction manual! But I still enjoy his world, and Thursday's adventures....more info
Is Fforde running out of new ideas?
Enter Thursday Next in her 5th adventure. As before, Jasper Fforde introduced several hilarious ideas but in my opinion less than in previous books and he keeps on recycling many previously funny but now not so funny anymore plot devices.
Fourteen years after the last book ended Thursday officially now works for Acme carpets while raising her son Friday, daughter #1 Tuesday and daugher #3 Jenny together with her husband Landen. Secretly she still does Special Ops jobs and works for Jurisfiction in the book world.
I've read all of the Thursday Next books and this one is not my favorite. Usually I especially enjoy the chapter intros but in this book it seems to me that Fforde uses them as a review for readers who haven't read the previous books. While the idea of a stupidity surplus, falling outlander reading rates and a reality TV show for books are good they are only small lights in a rather mediocre story. Personally I've always had my issues with Landen's and Thursday's relationship (how can he condone her lying to him?) but in the other books that relationship played a much smaller role and therefore was easier for me to ignore.
I could go on but you may already be as bored reading my review as I was most of the time when reading this book. I don't have to buy the hardback of the next installment. I can wait till it's out in paperback. Maybe I can even wait until I can get it at my library....more info
Another Brilliant Concoction from Fforde's Imagination!
Product was delivered as promised; in better condition than described. Will surely trust this merchant in future.
The product is pure Jasper Fforde. Full of literary "in jokes" and references to many genres of literature, which will cause any rabid reader many uplifting laughs, not to mention the pure fantasy of the melding of the "real" world and the "literary" world. Reading Fforde, you'll wish that this was really our world, as every intersection is full of humor and/or drama; however you choose to view it. Refreshing in the current field of mystery stories. We all need an occasional light reading....more info
A fantastic continuance to the Thursday Next saga created by Jasper Fforde. Thursday is a wonderfully written character, as are the rest of the cast, and Mr. Fforde does a splendid job of keeping the reader engrossed in the story.
I highly recommend the entire series, starting with 'The Eyre Affair'. Don't skip any of the books, as you will miss quite a bit! I don't really want to write anythign that would give the great plots points away, trust me, I wouldn't lead you astray on a good book!
If you enjoy a fun read about out-of-this world (figuratively and literally) characters, you absolutely must read all of Jasper Fforde's work. Once you read the Thursday Next series, jump into Nursery Crimes....more info
Kindle version is flawed
several words that are used repeatedly are broken up, for example: ser vice, bud get, in hosp it able. These speedbumps killed the flow of this book for me...more info
The Ultimate in Literate Satire and Imaginative Story Telling
In the Thursday Next series, we've been taken into a Wonderland of imagination that creates a humorous, whimsical place where stories and characters are born, develop, thrive, and die. Each of the previous stories uncovered bits and pieces of Jasper Fforde's fertile imagination for describing how fiction gets to be that way. The current world was also knocked askew by meddling from current humans so that we don't quite recognize it, but it does seem familiar nevertheless.
Inevitably, Jasper Fforde was bound to deal with that greatest of all literary challenges, a sequel that builds on what has gone before but plows little new ground. Naturally, by having created such a complex world, Mr. Fforde has to devote a fair amount of space to reintroducing us to what's gone on before. About midpoint in the novel, you'll feel adrift. Yet, the story wonderfully ties together in ways you'll never imagine. It's a remarkable accomplishment.
Thursday Next is older . . . and perhaps not too much wiser. This book takes place 14 years after Something Rotten. Her son Friday seems hopelessly committed to remaining a slug-a-bed who avoids school and showers with equal enthusiasm. That would be all right, but a future version of Friday keeps telling Thursday that there's a horrible crisis coming if Friday doesn't change his ways. In the Bookworld, Thursday finds herself spending time with the two most ineffective and challenging apprentices imaginable. Her uncle Mycroft is haunting her about something he can't remember. The Goliath Corporation is sending probes into the Bookworld as a way to prepare a tourism business. With the Stupidity Index at uncomfortable levels, the government proposes an insane attack on literature. Book reading is plummeting: Some book stores barely have any books in them. The Welsh cheese smugglers have started bringing in cheeses with explosive potential. Even rug-laying isn't the mundane task it used to be.
Will Thursday Next save the world? Can she revive excitement in sequels?
Save this book for a time when you are filled with a limitless desire to wonder and laugh.
Bravo, Mr. Fforde! ...more info
Great St. Zvelyx, this book is great!!!
This may be the best Thursday Next book to date! Starting a good fifteen years after Something Rotten, Thursday, Landon and their children are facing a national stupidity surplus, an evil literary version of Thursday bent on escaping to the Real World, murdered book characters and the impending end of the world (as always) if the Next-Parke-Lane family can't get their slug of a teenage son to join the Chronoguard. Just a normal day in Swindon! (Added bonus...Goliath has bought the Isle of Wight...it wasn't like anyone else was using it anyway:))
This book was fabulous, I couldn't put it down!!! I was slightly disappointed by the cliffhanger ending, but perked up when I realized a cliffhanger meant there would be another book soon. Some parts of the book are unexplained or unresolved but I'm hoping they'll be dealt with in the next installment...get this book, you'll love it!...more info
A great start for a possible new direction
I was introduced to the Thursday Next novels witha brief synopsis of "The Eyre Affair" by my uncle. A few months later, I began my journey into Mr. Fforde's strange world with "Lost In A Good Book," not knowing at the time that the books had some form of coninuity. However, I am now reading "The Eyre Affair" after reading the other four books in the series, and I am grateful for waiting because of the events in "First Among Sequels" related to the first book in the series.
Now, with that out of the way, I have to say this is a nice change of pace from "Something Rotten." As I have read in other reviews, "Rotten" seems to move a bit slower then the other books. Maybe it was the feeling of having too many plotlines with not enough resolutions that made me feel as if the story would ever end. Whatever the reason, Fforde still left one of my favorite characters, The Minotaur, alive and well at the end of "Rotten," which helped propel me through the book, desperately wanting another confrontation between Thursday and the mythical beast.
Along the way, though, I lost the desire for that confrontation as I got more into the confrontation of Thursday and Thursday 1-4 and Thursday5. The descriptions of the devices of the BookWorld were excellent, and the interactions between Thursday and her family, friends, colleagues and enemies remains true to the main heroine's style. The fact that the book is written from Thursday's perspective adds further enjoyment, as it leaves many questions at the start of the book, but brings about the answers later when other characters are able to provide their insights.
In conclusion, this is a wonderful book for both those familiar with Thursday Next and those who have not yet stepped over the edge into the land of timestorms, the BookWorld, dodos, vampires, werewolves, Neaderthals and the occasional villain named after a mythological Underword feature.
*****SPOILER WARNING**************
P.S. - So glad for the resolution concerning the "egg recipe." That time thing was getting just a bit too crazy. ...more info |