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The MoCADA Shop offers a unique selection of products by contemporary designers, artisans and authors. With a diverse array of items, ranging from jewelry and home goods to art and design books, The MoCADA Shop provides a true cultural destination for its patrons. All proceeds generated in the shop support the museum.


(dpa) - Israel's cabinet voted Sunday to approve the release of some 200 Palestinians from its jails, in a move a government spokesman described as "a confidence-building measure to strengthen the peace process and dialogue."
The release, Mark Regev said, was intended "to demonstrate that the path of moderation, negotiation and reconciliation would bring tangible results."
He said the release would include prisoners with "blood on their hands" - Israeli terminology for prisoners who carried out attacks in which people were killed.
When they met on August 6, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to free more prisoners, as a "goodwill gesture and a confidence-building measure."
The fate of the approximately 8,500 Palestinians in Israeli jails is a highly emotional one for the Palestinians.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded their release, as a way of building his standing in the eyes of his electorate, and showing that he can get prisoners freed through negotiations, rather than through kidnapping Israelis to use as bargaining chips, the tactic favoured by such militants groups as Hamas and the Iranian- backed Lebanese Hezbollah.
Negotiations for the release of an Israeli soldier, kidnapped by Gaza-based militias on June 25, 2006, and still held in the Gaza Strip, have so far come to naught, with Israel refusing to release the 1,000 prisoners demands.
But on July 16, after weeks of negotiations, Israel freed five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kuntar, jailed in 1979 for leading an attack in which four Israelis were killed, in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers Hezbollah snatched in a cross- border raid on July 12, 2006.


text:
The Many Voices of Political Islam
A big divide has emerged between liberal-minded groups and religious-based activists after Islamist parties gained parliamentary majorities in the polls in Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco, a divide that risks undermining the transition from authoritarianism to pluralism. The concept of secularism has negative connotations among Arabs in generals, not just Islamists Wary of the Islamists' surge, liberals, leftists, and women's rights groups argue that while Islamist leaders sound moderate, they harbor a conservative religious agenda—an agenda that might roll back human rights and individual freedoms. Particularly alarming to critics is the Islamists' desire to impose their own rigid interpretation of morality in the public sphere.
Since gaining majorities in these countries' parliaments, mainstream Islamist groups have been forced to outline their stances on a wide range of issues, especially with regards to Islamic law, personal freedoms, women and minority rights, and tourism. Liberal-minded activists assert that the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Ennahda Party, Morocco's Justice and Development Party, and the Salafists exhibit illiberal tendencies and are intolerant of the rights of minorities, particularly women.
Toleration and Pluralism?
Political Islam's worldview and evolution differ from one group and one Arab country to another. Most mainstream Islamists of the Tunisian Ennahda party and the Egyptian MB variety accept the concept of citizenship and the will of the people, as opposed to the sovereignty of God, as the foundation of legitimate authority.
Most Islamists do not talk about establishing Islamic-based governments—as stipulated by their original manifestos—and instead they call for al-dawla al-madaniya, or a civil state. Even the old guard among the Brotherhood no longer advocate building an Islamic state. They substitute "civil" for "Islamic" in an effort to avoid using the term "secular."
The concept of secularism has negative connotations among Arabs in generals, not just Islamists, because of its historical association with colonialism and Westernization. Similarly, the theocratic model in Iran has failed to fulfill the aspirations of many Islamists, thus reinforcing the shift in discourse from "Islamic" to "civil", though they are yet to flesh out what they mean by a "civil" state. The pledge by a leading figure in the MB, Khairat Al-Shater, to introduce sharia law if elected as president of Egypt (before he had been disqualified from the presidential race) raises serious concerns about his commitment to civil institutions and individual liberties.
Nevertheless, after their impressive performance in Egypt's parliamentary elections, leaders of the Brotherhood's newly-formed Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) publicly stressed their commitment to pluralism and the protection of individual rights. They made it exceptionally clear that they are willing to accommodate different and diverse people into the process of drafting a constitution.
Two senior MB members, Mohammad Morsi and Essam El-Arian, pledged to form a national unity government with other parties. Addressing assertions often made by their secular opponents, FJP leaders insist they "would hand over power if we lose" because the public mood will no longer tolerate dictatorship. El-Arian pledged that the FJP will not change the Egyptian constitution to make all legislation comply with Shari'a law.
In contrast to the Brotherhood, Ennahda in Tunisia is more consistent and unequivocal about respect for individual freedoms and its willingness to relinquish power if defeated at the ballot box. The party announced that Shari'a should not be the source for all laws, and that the new constitution should simply acknowledge that Islam is the state religion, just as the old constitution did. Islamists have a vested interest in the institutionalization of the political process
After it gained a majority in the Tunisian parliament at the end of 2011, Ennahda established a broad-based unity coalition to oversee transition to pluralism. In contrast to the Brotherhood which has fielded its own candidate for president, Ennahda supported Moncef Marzouki—a liberal human rights activist—as president as part of the power-sharing deal.Said Ferjani, a rising figure within Ennahda, noted that history will judge his generation of Islamists not on its ability to gain power but rather on what it do with that power:
"In this golden opportunity, I am not interested in control. I am interested in delivering the best charismatic system, a charismatic, democratic system. This is my dream," concluded Ferjani.
Although there is heated bickering among Islamists and their liberal and leftist rivals over the formation of new constitutions, the constitutions will reflect a spirit of pluralism and toleration. Islamists have a vested interest in the institutionalization of the political process which will protect them against the whims of autocratic military rulers. As Ennahda's leader Rachid Ghannnouchi put it in an interview in 2011: "Rulers benefit from violence more than their opponents do."
Various Islamist leaders stress their commitment to building institutions and safeguarding individual freedoms and minorities, and the rule of law. Ennahda has made it clear that it will protect Tunisia's small Jewish minority, which faces considerable pressure from small conservative elements in society. Ennahda has rejected calls from extremists (and from Israel) that Tunisian Jews should leave the country.
In Egypt, the debate on minority rights is still unfolding and revealing a less progressive stance by the Brotherhood. The party announced that while it would not oppose Christians or women standing for president, it would support a Muslim male for the position. Far from deterred by such illiberal statements, female candidates have thrown their hats in the presidential ring, such as famous Egyptian news-anchor Bothaina Kamel.
Minorities and Morality in the Public Sphere
For many women, the main issue lies in the degree of equality they will enjoy in society in the post-authoritarian political system. On the whole, Islamists, particularly the Salafists and the MB, remain prisoners to regressive dogma concerning women. Conservative Islamists deploy scriptural interpretations selectively and haphazardly and claim that women and religious minorities cannot be fully equal before the law—and so cannot hold the office of president or even magistrate. This
anti-democratic position is contested among pragmatists and younger, progressive Islamists, and there are important variations and differences among Islamists across national borders.
In Tunisia, Ennahda officials have repeatedly pledged to promote equal opportunities in employment and education for women, as well as freedom to choose or reject traditional Islamic dress. Long before the Arab awakenings, Rachid Ghannouchi, Ennahda's leader, supported affirmative action to increase women's participation in parliament, breaking with the policies of the MB in Egypt.
However, Tunisia's female activists have accused Ennahda of misleading the public and making false promises. This tension became clear after a female member of Ennahda, Souad Abdul Rahim, challenged a law that protected women who have children outside marriage and called for its abrogation. While raising concerns that Ennahda may curtail women's rights, another member of Ennahda, Ali Al-Areed, noted that "The Party will not change laws related to inheritance and polygamy because these laws are tailored for the Tunisian society." These statements have not allayed the fears of women and liberals. Consequently, a number of female activists have formed the October 24 Front, to defend women's rights and freedoms through monitoring the performance of Ennahda and other parties and scrutinizing the drafting of the new constitution.
The debate on women's rights in Tunisia has recently become more audible after a dispute over whether women should be allowed to wear the niqab (full face-covering veil) in universities. After being suppressed and silenced during the Ben Ali regime, Salafists have emerged into public spaces, favoring long beards and veils and demanding the application of Shari'a law. Fearing the loss of individual liberties, secularists challenged Salafists on the streets and in universities. In late March and early April 2012, the war of words between the supporters of the two camps turned into violent clashes. Pressed in the middle of this fierce struggle, Ennahda has been
paralyzed, unable or unwilling to act decisively and resolve the crisis.
In Egypt, the Salafists, who won 20 percent of seats in the new parliament, oppose women playing leadership roles in the work place or in the political space. Moreover, they favor regulating women's dress and imposing Islamic standards of modesty in the public sphere.
While the so-called blue bra girl incident—in which a young protester was stripped and beaten by police—and the cases of enforced virginity tests by a military doctor suggest that certain taboos have atomized—and that women have become more outspoken since the revolution—female representation in the political arena has dwindled. The constitutional committee in Egypt (subsequently disbanded by the court) included no women. In the March 2012 parliamentary elections women won fewer than 10 of the 508 seats. As Iman Bibars, the head of the Association for Development and Enhancement of Women in Egypt, noted: "The revolution gave us a voice and we cannot hide that … But I think the product after the revolution is against women … I was shocked the fundamentalists took over and I did not foresee a male gender constitution."
The predicament of women is no different in other countries where Islamists have made similar gains. In Jordan, the appointment of a new prime minister and a committee to review election laws and make amendments to the constitution did not fulfill a promise to include the word "gender" in Article 6 of the constitution. That article would have guaranteed the equality of all Jordanians before the law. In Kuwait, the victory of the Islamist-based opposition in parliamentary elections led to an all-male chamber. The four women who won seats in 2009 lost them all in the 2012 elections.
In addition to women's rights, morality issues are heatedly debated in Arab countries that have experienced significant change during the Arab revolutions. In Egypt, in particular, where tourism plays an important role in the country's economy (generating more than 12 percent of hard foreign currency), alcohol consumption, the tolerance of bikinis and mixed bathing at beaches are being reassessed. As with women's rights, mainstream Islamists have sent mixed signals to the public about their views on morality issues.
In contrast, Mohammad Morsi, the leader of the FJP, told the public that ?his party did not plan to ban alcohol in hotels ?and at tourist resorts or prevent Egyptians from ?drinking liquor in their homes. However, other members of the Brotherhood have expressed opposing views.
What to make of the contradictory statements by Islamists on women's rights and enforcing a particular morality in the public sphere? On the one hand, the Salafists, along with conservatives among mainstream Islamists, seek to impose a regressive interpretation of morality on society at large. On the other hand, pragmatists among Islamists are caught in the middle of a fierce debate and are undergoing a huge learning process, as they attempt to reach consensus on controversial questions that touch on their very identity.
For example, Ennahda struggles to walk a fine line between the Salafists and the secularists and to avoid alienating and estranging either camp. In contrast, the MB and the Salafists in Egypt have voiced conflicting messages about their views on morality issues in the public sphere.
Nevertheless, a clear divide has emerged between mainstream Islamists and the Salafists, a divide that will deepen and widen as Islamists come to terms with the responsibilities of governance and are forced to clarify their positions. Of all religious-based groups, Ennahda has exhibited the most progressive stance on women's rights and the role of morality in the public sphere, even though it has refrained from publicly confronting the Salafists. Its leaders prefer to unite all Tunisians and set an example for neighboring Arab states. A woman— Siham Ben Sedrine—is leading the panel to define rights and liberties in the nation.
The Brotherhood has been slower than its Tunisian counterpart in fully embracing the equality of all citizens before the law regardless of sex, religion, and ethnicity. This nuance may be explained by the different historical experiences of Egyptian and Tunisian Islamists, as well as the influence that the old guard like Al-Badi and even Shater—who was previously seen as a reformist—still works within the 86-year old Brotherhood. Many young Muslim Brothers complain that the group's old guard does not practice democracy internally even as it promises to lead the country toward pluralism.
As can be seen, mainstream Islamists are finding their voice and their way awkwardly. They are learning by trial and error. In particular, the Brotherhood has already alienated most of the political groups from the left to the right. Lacking imagination, time and again, the old guard has proved to be its own worst enemy, forcing decisions on rank-and-file and demanding absolute loyalty. Conservatives are testing the limits of their newfound power, falling into the trap of blind political ambition. Overreach might cost the Brotherhood critical public support and deepen the divide within the organization, as well as between the Muslim Brothers and secular-minded groups.
Fawaz A. Gerges is a Fellow at ISPU and Professor of Middle East politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics where he directs the Middle East Centre. His most recent book is "The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda (Oxford University Press, 2011).
This article was published by The Majalla on April 25, 2012. Read it here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Rock Mechanic Analysis for Crown Pillar Extraction at Tara
Boliden Tara Mines is Europe's largest zinc mine, with an annual production of 2.6 million tones of ore, and has been in operation since 1977. This project was part of the required planning application to the authorities regarding crown pillar extraction in the norther portion of Boliden Tara Mines. It was conducted in two phases – first a continuum model was analyzed in FLAC3D, which was then followed by a discontinuum modelling in 3DEC with included faults.
Rock Mechanics Support for the Dannemora Mine
PFC 7 Generating A Bonded Assembly
FLAC3D Quick Start Tutorial
Generating Videos via Plots
Use of a Chemical Transport Code for the Prediction of Gold Heap Leach Production
Lauriane Bouzeran
Ms. Bouzeran is an engineer in the geotechnical and mechanical engineering fields. She has experience in the application of numerical models to assess the stability of underground excavations and surface structures under static and seismic loading in the framework of civil and mining engineering.
Comparing Itasca's Approach to Limit Equilibrium
Seismic Hazard and Risk Assessment
Dewatering and Depressurization
Ground-structure-interaction is the iterative effect that ground deformations have on any emplaced stabilizing structures (beams, sheet pile walls, piles, liners, anchors, etc.), and vice versa. This is particularly important for heavy structures resting on relatively soft soils (Wolf, 1985). While limit equilibrium (LE) doesn't capture ground-structure-interaction fully, Itasca's FV-SRM approach does. By incorporating the support structural elements, a project's behavior can be better analyzed, maintaining safety while preventing over-design and unnecessary costs.


Today Hannspree has announced that it is expanding it's selection of mobile devices by releasing its very first smartphone alongside new a new tablet PC.
The new smartphone will come with a 5-inch 720p display, a 1.7GHz Octa-core processor, 1GB or RAM, 16GB of internal storage, an 8-2MP dual camera, and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat). The tablet, on the other hand, comes with a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 display, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, a 2-5MP dual camera, 8GB of internal storage, and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat).
There's no word on pricing just yet, but since Hannspree has always focussed on making its products affordable it's unlikely that they'll break the bank. There's no definite release date yet, just that both devices will be released in Q4 2014.


text:
\section{Introduction}

Human speech can roughly be divided into voiced and unvoiced sounds. Unvoiced sounds are produced via a non-periodic/turbulent airflow along the vocal tract and the lips/ teeth. Voiced speech sounds are produced by the vibration of the vocal chords, where the airflow is interrupted periodically. The inverse of the duration between two interruption epochs is called the fundamental frequency or $F_0$~\cite{VaryMartin}.

An accurate tracking of $F_0$ over time is still considered a major technical challenge. In general, speech is not perfectly periodic and the correct detection of voiced speech sounds as well as the
accurate estimation of the pitch value is difficult, particularly when speech is recorded in a noisy environment.

When we estimate the pitch we usually do not only have a single voiced speech frame to work with but an entire spoken utterance.
The task, then, is to track the pitch value throughout all voiced segments of the utterance. This can be divided into three subtasks: (a) detection of voiced sounds, (b) pitch estimation and (c) pitch tracking.

(a) Different methods have been developed to
distinguish between voiced and unvoiced or silent speech segments~\cite{V-UV,Kondoz}.
The decision can be made before the pitch estimation algorithm is applied or it can be coupled with the result of the pitch estimation~\cite{study1,study2,study3}.

(b) Various parametric as well as non-parametric pitch estimation methods have been studied, using properties of both time and frequency
domain characteristics~\cite{study3}.
The algorithms differ in terms of their signal model and the application of statistical tools to detect repeating patterns within a signal.
The autocorrelation function is a wide- spread tool to detect pitch within a signal in the time domain. Autocorrelation functions are applied in
Praat~\cite{Praat} and Yin~\cite{YIN}. In the frequency domain, the cepstrum meth- od~\cite{RabinerSchafer}  and the harmonic periodic
spectrum~\cite{HPS} can be used to estimate maximum pitch values. Hybrid methods such as Pefac~\cite{Pefac} and BaNa~\cite{BaNa} use properties
in both domains. In~\cite{Theory} multi-pitch estimation algorithms embedded in a statistical framework are developed based on a harmonic
constraint. It is assumed that the signal is composed of complex sinusoids. In~\cite{harmonic} a maximum likelihood (ML) pitch estimator is
developed using a real-valued sinusoid-based signal model. Halcyon~\cite{Halcyon} presents an algorithm for instantaneous pitch estimation
that decomposes the signal into narrow-band components and calculates fine pitch values based on the estimated instantaneous parameters.

(c) There exist several methods to find the correct pitch track for a speech sentence.
BaNa uses the Viterbi algorithm to find the best path of the given pitch candidates for each frame with respect to a cost function.
In~\cite{harmonic} two approaches based on hidden Markov models and Kalman filters are proposed to track the ML pitch estimate.
A neural network based pitch tracking method is presented in~\cite{Deep}, where Pefac is used to generate feature vectors and again the
Viterbi algorithm is applied to detect the optimal pitch sequence.

Even neglecting voiced speech classification and/or the training phase, some of the existing algorithms need long computation times.  The goal of this paper is to combine the three subtasks from above to formulate a computationally efficient voiced speech classifier and pitch tracking algorithm. The algorithm works reliably on speech utterances that have been pre-recorded in a noisy environment. A very important aspect is that \underline{no} training phase is needed.
To that end, we have devised a method that autonomously detects voiced frames without a training phase. The problem is solved by combining different approaches from \cite{V-UV,Kondoz} to create a feature vector for unsupervised k-means clustering and subsequent linear discriminant analysis.

Using the resulting voiced speech segments, we can estimate the corresponding pitch values. Here, we use a hybrid method based on the spectro-temporal autocorrelation function (SpTe-ACF) as proposed in \cite{Kondoz}. All estimated pitch values are then input to the proposed forward-backward Kalman filter (FB-KF) to obtain a smoothed pitch track for the entire speech utterance.

\vspace{-0.05in}

\section{Classification of Voiced Speech}
\label{sec:classification}
Voiced and unvoiced speech segments have different characteristics regarding their periodicity, frequency content, spectral tilt, etc. which
can be used for their distinction.

\subsection{Feature Extraction}
Let $x_k(n)$ with $0 \leq n \leq N-1$ be the $k$-th frame of length $N$.
We combine several voiced speech classification methods to construct a feature vector $\boldsymbol{v}(k) = [v_1(k), \ldots ,v_D(k) ]^T$,
where each entry is the normalized result of one classification method.
Since some methods do not work if there is neither noise nor speech present in a frame, only speech frames with enough power are considered.
To detect silent frames, we compute $P_x(k) = \frac{1}{N}\sum_{n=0}^{N-1} x_k^2(n)$.
For $P_x(k) < \delta_{P_x}$, our entire feature vector is set to $\boldsymbol{v}(k) = [-1, \ldots, -1 ]^T$.
All computed classification methods are
normalized in such a way that they are restricted within the interval $[-1,1]$, where a value close to one is assigned as a voiced frame~\cite{Kondoz}.

In the following, we combine five different methods, namely the periodic similarity measure, zero-crossing rate, spectrum tilt,
pre-emphasized energy ratio and low-band to full-band ratio as described in~\cite{Kondoz}.

\subsection{Unsupervised Decision Making}
The next task is to find a linear weighting vector $\boldsymbol{w}^T \boldsymbol{v}(k) = \sum_{d=1}^{D} w_d v_d(k)$
such that we can assign $\boldsymbol{v}(k)$ to one class $C_i$ with $i = \left\{ 0,1\right\}$, where $C_0$ denotes the set of unvoiced frames and
$C_1$ is the set of voiced frames.
The class labels for all feature vectors can be obtained using k-means clustering. The
algorithm is initialized with means $\boldsymbol{\mu}_0 = [-1 \ldots -1]^T$ and $\boldsymbol{\mu}_1 = [1 \ldots 1 ]^T$
so that the class allocation is unique.
Having the class labels, we can apply a linear discriminant analysis to obtain the optimal weighting vector.
For two classes it is simplified to~\cite{Theodoridis}
\vspace{-0.015in}
\begin{align}
    \label{eq:LDA}
    \boldsymbol{w} \propto \boldsymbol{S}_w^{-1} \big[ \boldsymbol{m}_0 - \boldsymbol{m}_1 \big],
\end{align} \vspace{-0.15in}

\noindent where the local mean vectors $\boldsymbol{m}_i$ with $i = \left\{ 0,1\right\}$ result from the last
round of k-means clustering and $\boldsymbol{S}_w^{-1}$ denotes the inverse of the within-class scatter matrix.
As the $D$-dimensional scatter matrix is symmetric, there are at most $D (D+1) /2$ entries to compute.
In our simulations, utterances with a length of at least $1$ second are sufficient to be able to compute the inverse of the
within-class scatter matrix, provided that each class is sufficiently represented.
Now we can use the linear classifier of Eq.~(\ref{eq:LDA}) for the decision making,
\vspace{-0.2in}
\begin{align}
    \label{eq:decision}
    \boldsymbol{w}^T \boldsymbol{v}(k) \underset{\mathrm{unvoiced}}{\overset{\mathrm{voiced}}{\gtrless}} 0.
\end{align} \vspace{-0.1in}

\noindent Since class allocation is unique, the decision boundaries can be learned ad-hoc for each sentence separately, which provides two advantages:
First, no training phase is needed. Second, the instantaneous adjustment of the classifier considers the current speaker as well as
the noise type.

\begin{figure}[t]
    \psfrag{s01}[t][c][1.3]{time (s)}
    \psfrag{x01}[c][c][1.3]{$2.2$}
    \psfrag{x02}[c][c][1.3]{$2.5$}
    \psfrag{x03}[c][c][1.3]{$2.8$}
    \psfrag{x04}[c][c][1.3]{$3.1$}
    \psfrag{x05}[c][c][1.3]{$3.4$}
    \psfrag{x06}[c][c][1.3]{$3.7$}
    \psfrag{v01}[r][r][1.3]{-$1$}
    \psfrag{v02}[r][r][1.3]{$0~$}
    \psfrag{v03}[r][r][1.3]{$1~$}
 \begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \centering
    \centering{\scalebox{0.5}{\includegraphics{plots/vu_clean.eps}}}
    \centerline{(a) Noise-free speech sentence.}
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \centering
    \centering{\scalebox{0.5}{\includegraphics{plots/vu_car_1.eps}}}
    \centerline{(b) Voiced-speech classification.}
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \centering
    \centering{\scalebox{0.5}{\includegraphics{plots/vu_car_2.eps}}}
    \centerline{(c) Voiced-speech classification after SpTe-ACF.}
\end{minipage}
\caption{Speech signal with additive car noise at $0$ dB SNR and classified voiced frames.}
\label{fig:vu_classifier}
\end{figure}

Fig.~\ref{fig:vu_classifier} (a) presents an example for the voiced-speech classification and the corresponding original noise-free signal waveform.
Fig.~\ref{fig:vu_classifier} (b) shows the decision for the same signal waveform with additive car noise. Applying Eq.~(\ref{eq:decision}),
we can observe two different types of errors:

In some frames the speech is masked by the additive noise so that the speech frame is wrongly
marked as unvoiced. The second error type occurs if the noise also includes periodic elements. As a result, the speech frame may be
misclassified as voiced. We can recover some of the second type of error by post-processing, which will be explained below.
The final voiced speech decision including post-processing is illustrated in Fig.~\ref{fig:vu_classifier} (c).

\section{Pitch Tracking}
The SpTe-ACF combines the normalized time- and frequency-domain autocorrelations to obtain an
estimate for the current pitch value given a voiced speech frame. Subsequent to the SpTe-ACF, we apply the FB-KF to fit the entire pitch track.

\subsection{Spectro-Temporal Autocorrelation}
In post-processing, we first change the decision for those single unvoiced frames that lie between two voiced frames.

Then, as described in~\cite{Kondoz}, we compute the time-domain autocorrelation $R_t(k,l)$ and the
frequency-domain autocorrelation $R_s(k,l)$ for $N_{\mathrm{low}} \leq l \leq N_{\mathrm{high}}$.
The lower and upper limits for the pitch search are chosen to be
$ N_{\mathrm{low}} = \max \big\{ 1,\big\lfloor F_s / F_{\mathrm{max}} \big\rfloor \big\}$ and
$N_{\mathrm{high}} = \min \big\{ \big\lceil F_s / F_{\mathrm{min}}  \big\rceil ,N \big\}$,\\
where $\lfloor ~ \rfloor$ and $\lceil~ \rceil$ denote downward and upward rounding, respectively, $F_s$ is the sampling frequency and
$F_{\mathrm{min}}$, $F_{\mathrm{max}}$ define the minimum and maximum values of $F_0$.
Now, both methods are combined as follows
\begin{align}
    \label{STACF}
    R_{st}(k,l) =  \alpha_RR_t(k,l) + (1-\alpha_R) R_s(k,l),
\end{align}
to obtain the SpTe-ACF. The weighting factor in Eq.~(\ref{STACF}) is chosen as $\alpha_R = 0.5$. The observation for the Kalman filter is then given by
\vspace{-0.1in}
\begin{align}
    \label{eq:inputKF}
    \qquad\qquad N(k) = \arg\max_{l} \big\{ R_{st}(k,l) \big\}.
\end{align} \vspace{-0.15in}

\noindent After applying the pitch estimation algorithm to all voiced frames, we change the voicing decision of all frames
where the estimated pitch values lie on the boundary of the search interval, i.e. $N(k) \in\left\{ N_{\mathrm{low}},N_{\mathrm{high}} \right\}$,
to unvoiced. Finally, we change the decision for all single voiced frames that lie between two unvoiced frames to obtain contiguous
segments.

\subsection{Kalman Filter}
The Kalman filter is based on tracking $N_{0}(k) = \frac{F_s}{F_0(k)}$.
Finding the correct pitch track of a speech signal is equivalent to tracking an unknown
time-varying state variable using noisy observations. To describe the transition between consecutive states $N_0(k)$ and $N_0(k-1)$
we can assume a simple first-order Markov model~\cite{Haykin} to formulate the state equation $ N_0(k) = N_0(k-1) + \Delta N_0(k-1)$,
where $\Delta N_0(k) \sim \mathscr{N}( 0, \sigma^2_{\Delta_0})$ is the system noise.
The observation equation can be defined as $ N(k) = N_0(k) + \Delta N(k)$,
where $\Delta N(k) \sim \mathscr{N}( 0, \sigma^2_{\Delta}(k))$  is the observation noise. The prediction step of our scalar Kalman filter
is given by~\cite{Kay}
\begin{align*}
    \hat{N}_0(k|k-1) &= \hat{N}_0(k-1|k-1), \\
    \hat{P}_0(k|k-1) &= \hat{P}_0(k-1|k-1) + \sigma^2_{\Delta_0}
\end{align*}  \vspace{-0.18in}

\noindent and the correction step can be written as
\vspace{-0.05in}
 \begin{align*}
    g(k) &= \frac{\hat{P}_0(k|k-1)}{\hat{P}_0(k|k-1) + \sigma^2_{\Delta}(k)}, \\
    \hat{N}_0(k|k) &= \hat{N}_0(k|k-1) + g(k) \big[ N(k) - \hat{N}_0(k|k-1) \big], \\
    \hat{P}(k|k) &= \big[ 1- g(k) \big] \hat{P}_0(k|k-1).
\end{align*}
In this context, the variance of the system noise is fixed and chosen a-priori.
We need to estimate, however, the frame-dependent uncertainty of our observation $\sigma^2_{\Delta}(k)$ in each iteration step.
Similarly to~\cite{harmonic} the instantaneous variance is obtained by the ML estimate based on the last $L$ values of
Eq.~(\ref{eq:inputKF}),
\vspace{-0.15in}
\begin{align}
    \hat{\sigma}^2_{\Delta}(k) = \frac{1}{L} \sum_{i=k}^{k-L+1}{\big[  N(i) -  \hat{\mu}_N(i) \big]^2},
\end{align} \vspace*{-0.1in}

\noindent where $ \hat{\mu}_N(k)$ denotes the estimated mean value of our observation, which can be computed recursively by
\begin{align}
    \label{EqEN}
     \hat{\mu}_N(k) &= \alpha N(k) + (1-\alpha)  \hat{\mu}_N(k-1).
\end{align}
The Kalman filter is applied twice, forward and backward to obtain the respective estimated pitch values
$\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k)$ and $\hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k)$.

\subsection{Forward-Backward Pitch Tracking}
The fusion of $\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k)$ and $\hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k)$ follows by estimating the maximum of the log-likelihood, which is defined as
\begin{align}
    \label{eq:loglik}
    \log \mathscr{L}(N_0(k)) = \log \big\{ p(\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k),\hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k)|N_{0}(k)) \big\} .
\end{align} \vspace{-0.15in}

\noindent For the joint distribution we assume that $\hat{N}_{0,f}$ and $\hat{N}_{0,b}$ are conditionally independent given the true state $N_{0}$,
\begin{align}
    \label{eq:joint}
    p(\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k),\hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k)|N_{0}(k&))
	\nonumber \\
	= p(\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k)|N_{0}(k))& ~p(\hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k)|N_{0}(k)).
\end{align}
If we further assume that $\hat{N}_{0,f}$ and $\hat{N}_{0,b}$ in Eq.~(\ref{eq:joint}) are Gaussian distributed,
\begin{align*}
  p(\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k)|N_{0}(k)) &\sim \mathscr{N}( N_{0}(k), \sigma^2_{\Delta,f}(k)), \\
  p(\hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k)|N_{0}(k)) &\sim \mathscr{N}( N_{0}(k), \sigma^2_{\Delta,b}(k)),
\end{align*}
then the ML estimate of Eq.~(\ref{eq:loglik}) is given by
\begin{align}
    \label{eq:fusion}
    \hat{N}_0(k)  &= \arg \max_{N_{0}(k)} \big\{ \log \mathscr{L}(N_0(k)) \big\} \nonumber \\
		  &= \frac{ \hat{\sigma}^2_{\Delta,b}(k) \hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k)  + \hat{\sigma}^2_{\Delta,f}(k) \hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k)}
			{ \hat{\sigma}^2_{\Delta,f}(k) + \hat{\sigma}^2_{\Delta,b}(k) }.
\end{align}
Finally, the relation of the estimated fundamental frequency and Eq.~(\ref{eq:fusion}) is given by
\vspace*{-0.1in}
\begin{align}
    \label{eq:fusionF0}
    \hat{F}_0(k) = \frac{F_s}{\hat{N}_0(k)}.
\end{align}\vspace*{-0.1in}

\begin{figure}[t]
    \psfrag{s08}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{s09}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{s10}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{s11}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{x01}[c][c][1.3]{$0.3$}
    \psfrag{x02}[c][c][1.3]{$0.5$}
    \psfrag{x03}[c][c][1.3]{$0.7$}
    \psfrag{x04}[c][c][1.3]{$0.9$}
    \psfrag{x05}[c][c][1.3]{$1.1$}
  \begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \psfrag{s01}[t][c][1.3]{time (s)}
    \psfrag{v01}[r][r][1.3]{-$1$}
    \psfrag{v02}[r][r][1.3]{$0$}
    \psfrag{v03}[r][r][1.3]{$1$}\centering
    \centering{\scalebox{0.53}{\includegraphics{plots/kalman_signal_new.eps}}}
    \small
    \centerline{(a) Speech waveform of male speaker.}
\end{minipage}
    \psfrag{s01}[b][c][1.3]{}
    \psfrag{s02}[t][c][1.3]{time (s)}
    \psfrag{v01}[r][r][1.3]{}
    \psfrag{v02}[r][r][1.3]{$80$}
    \psfrag{v03}[r][r][1.3]{$100$}
    \psfrag{v04}[r][r][1.3]{$120$}
    \psfrag{v05}[r][r][1.3]{$140$}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \centering
    \psfrag{v06}[r][r][1.3]{$160$}
    \psfrag{s06}[l][l][1.3]{$\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k) + 10 ~\hat{\sigma}_{\Delta,f}(k)$}
    \psfrag{s07}[l][l][1.3]{$\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k) - 10 ~\hat{\sigma}_{\Delta,f}(k)$}
    \centering{\scalebox{0.53}{\includegraphics{plots/kalman_forward_new.eps}}}
    \small
    \centerline{(b) Forward Kalman filtering results with GT (black).}
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \centering
    \psfrag{s06}[l][l][1.3]{$\hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k) + 10 ~\hat{\sigma}_{\Delta,b}(k)$}
    \psfrag{s07}[l][l][1.3]{$\hat{N}_{0,b}(k|k) - 10 ~\hat{\sigma}_{\Delta,b}(k)$}
    \centering{\scalebox{0.53}{\includegraphics{plots/kalman_backward_new.eps}}}
    \small
    \centerline{(c) Backward Kalman filtering results with GT (black).}
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \centering
    \psfrag{s01}[b][c][1.3]{frequency (Hz)}
    \psfrag{v01}[r][r][1.3]{$100$}
    \psfrag{v02}[r][r][1.3]{$200$}
    \psfrag{v03}[r][r][1.3]{$300$}
    \psfrag{s06}[l][l][1.3]{$\hat{F}_{0,f}(k)$}
    \psfrag{s07}[l][l][1.3]{$\hat{F}_{0,b}(k)$}
    \psfrag{s08}[l][l][1.3]{$\hat{F}_{0}(k)$}
    \centering{\scalebox{0.53}{\includegraphics{plots/kalman_both_new.eps}}}
    \small
    \centerline{(d) FB-Kalman pitch estimates plotted on spectrum.}
\end{minipage}
\caption{Variance-based averaging of the results of forward and backward Kalman filters.}
\label{fig:vu_kalman}
\end{figure}

Plots (b)-(d) of Fig.~\ref{fig:vu_kalman} illustrate the advantage of the FB-KF for the
speech waveform in  Fig.~\ref{fig:vu_kalman} (a).
Starting with Fig.~\ref{fig:vu_kalman} (b), we see the curves of
$\hat{N}_{0,f}(k|k) \pm 10 ~\hat{\sigma}_{\Delta,f}(k)$ and the groundtruth (GT), which is computed as described in
Section~\ref{SR}.
We can observe that at the beginning or after speech pauses, the uncertainty of the observation increases.
The increase follows from the change of $F_0$ after speech pauses.
Similarly, we observe the same results in the backward variance in Fig.~\ref{fig:vu_kalman} (c).
Applying Eq.~(\ref{eq:fusion}) and~(\ref{eq:fusionF0}) leads to greater reliability at the beginning and end of speech segments which can be
seen in Fig.~\ref{fig:vu_kalman} (d). See, for example, the behavior around \unit[0.7]{s}.
\begin{figure}[ht]
    \psfrag{s08}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{s09}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{s10}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{s11}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{x01}[c][c][1.3]{}
    \psfrag{x02}[c][c][1.3]{$1.5$}
    \psfrag{x03}[c][c][1.3]{$1.6$}
    \psfrag{x04}[c][c][1.3]{$1.7$}
    \psfrag{x05}[c][c][1.3]{$1.8$}
    \psfrag{x06}[c][c][1.3]{$1.9$}
    \psfrag{x07}[c][c][1.3]{$2.0$}
 \begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \psfrag{s01}[t][c][1.3]{time (s)}
    \psfrag{v01}[r][r][1.3]{-$0.5$}
    \psfrag{v02}[r][r][1.3]{$0$}
    \psfrag{v03}[r][r][1.3]{$0.5$}\centering
    \centering{\scalebox{0.53}{\includegraphics{plots/acf_kalman_temp.eps}}}
    \small
    \centerline{(a) Noise-free speech waveform.}
\end{minipage}
\hfill
    \psfrag{s06}[l][l][1.3]{SpTe-ACF}
    \psfrag{s07}[l][l][1.3]{SpTe-ACF \& FB-Kalman}
    \psfrag{s09}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{s10}[c][c][1]{}
    \psfrag{s01}[b][b][1.3]{frequency (Hz)}
    \psfrag{s02}[t][c][1.3]{time (s)}
    \psfrag{v01}[r][r][1.3]{$100$}
    \psfrag{v02}[r][r][1.3]{$200$}
    \psfrag{v03}[r][r][1.3]{$300$}
    \psfrag{v04}[r][r][1.3]{$400$}
\begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \centering{\scalebox{0.53}{\includegraphics{plots/ACF_Kalman_Spec.eps}}}
    \small
    \centerline{(b) SpTe-ACF and FB-KF results plotted on noise-free spectrum.}
\end{minipage}
\caption{SpTe-ACF and FB-Kalman for $0$ dB factory noise plotted on the clean spectrum.}
\label{fig:acf_kalman}
\end{figure}

In addition, Fig.~\ref{fig:acf_kalman} shows the pitch tracking results, before and after applying the FB-KF to SpTe-ACF in a noisy environment.
The clear speech waveform of
Fig.~\ref{fig:acf_kalman} (a) is superimposed with factory noise at $0$ dB. As a result, some pitch estimates of the SpTe-ACF differ from the
plotted clear spectrum in the background. The FB-KF is able to correct the measurement errors here, as well.

\vspace{-0.1in}
\section{Simulation Results}
\label{SR}
In ~\cite{BaNa,study3,Halcyon} recorded speech signals from the Keele, LDC, CSTR and PTDB-TUG databases are used to compare
different state-of-the-art unsupervised pitch estimation algorithms.
Here, we test the FB-KF based SpTe-ACF with the TIMIT database to find optimal parameters in terms of Gross Pitch Error (GPE) and
(Mean Fine Pitch Error) MFPE. First we count all frames, where the relative distance between the estimated pitch value and the reference pitch value
is higher than \unit[10]{\%},
\vspace{-0.05in}
\begin{align*}
    \mathrm{error}(k) =
    \begin{cases}
	\label{eq:Ind_GPE}
	      1 & \text{if} ~\frac{ |F_0(k) - \hat{F}_0(k)| }{F_0(k)} > 0.1 \\
	      0 & \text{otherwise}.
    \end{cases}
\end{align*} \vspace{-0.1in}

\noindent Then, the GPE ratio is defined as $\mathrm{GPE} = \frac{1}{K} \sum_{k=1}^K \mathrm{error}(k)$.
In the following, we only estimate the pitch values for the frames classified as voiced and calculate the corresponding GPE.
For all voiced frames without GPE, the MFPE is defined as
\vspace{-0.1in}
\begin{align*}
    \mathrm{MFPE} = \frac{1}{N_e} \sum_{k=1}^{N_e}\frac{ |F_0(k) - \hat{F}_0(k)| }{F_0(k)},
\end{align*} \vspace{-0.1in}

\noindent where $N_e$ denotes the number of frames without GPE~\cite{Rapt}. We use Praat to determine the groundtruth $F_0(k)$.
The searching interval is defined as $F_{\mathrm{min}}=$ \unit[60]{Hz} and $F_{\mathrm{max}}=$ \unit[460]{Hz} and
the power threshold is determined as $ \delta_{P_x} = 0.3\cdot\mathrm{E} \left\{ P_x(k) \right\}$.
The goal is to find a set of parameters $\{ L, \alpha,\sigma^2_{\Delta_0}\}$ which solves the trade-off between minimizing the
GPE and minimizing the MFPE. The test signals show good results for both metrics if we choose $L=8$, $\alpha=0.95$, $\sigma^2_{\Delta_0}=0.06$.
If we vary the set of parameters, i.e. $L=6$, $\alpha=0.9$, $\sigma^2_{\Delta_0}=0.01$, GPE rate decreases, but this setting also
results in an increase of MFPE rate.

We use the ARCTIC~\cite{ARCTIC} database for evaluation, where the signals are sampled at $F_s$ = \unit[16]{kHz}.
We compare the proposed method with Yin, Pefac, BaNa and Halcyon which are applied with their default parameters.
First we need to calculate the GT as a reference for the GPE. A speech frame is marked to be voiced, when
the ratio of the distance between the maximum and minimum pitch estimates with respect to the minimum value of all algorithms is smaller
than \unit[10]{\%}. The GT value is then computed as the average of all
pitch estimates. Otherwise the frame is considered as unvoiced.
As a consequence, there are some ARCTIC signals where only single frames within the entire sentence remain.
Therefore, we apply the unsupervised voiced speech classification method
as described in Section~\ref{sec:classification} and consider only those signals, where at least \unit[60]{\%} of voiced frames are still available.

\begin{figure}[t]
\begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \psfrag{s01}[t][t][1.5]{SNR (dB)}
    \psfrag{s02}[b][t][1.5]{GPE (\%)}
    \psfrag{s06}[l][l][1.3]{Yin}
    \psfrag{s07}[l][l][1.3]{Pefac}
    \psfrag{s08}[l][l][1.3]{BaNa}
    \psfrag{s09}[l][l][1.3]{Halcyon}
    \psfrag{s10}[l][l][1.3]{SpTe-ACF \& FB-Kalman}
    \psfrag{s12}[l][l][1]{}
    \psfrag{s13}[l][l][1]{}
    \psfrag{x01}[c][c][1.3]{$0$}
    \psfrag{x02}[c][c][1.3]{$2$}
    \psfrag{x03}[c][c][1.3]{$4$}
    \psfrag{x04}[c][c][1.3]{$6$}
    \psfrag{x05}[c][c][1.3]{$8$}
    \psfrag{x06}[c][c][1.3]{$10$}
    \psfrag{v05}[r][r][1.3]{$20~~$}
    \psfrag{v04}[r][r][1.3]{$15~~$}
    \psfrag{v03}[r][r][1.3]{$10~~$}
    \psfrag{v02}[r][r][1.3]{$5~~$}
    \psfrag{v01}[r][r][1.3]{$0~$}
    \centering
    \centering{\scalebox{0.53}{\includegraphics{plots/plot_GPE.eps}}}
    \small
    \centerline{(a) GPE, average over all noise types.}
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[b]{1\linewidth}
    \psfrag{x01}[c][c][1.3]{$0$}
    \psfrag{x02}[c][c][1.3]{$2$}
    \psfrag{x03}[c][c][1.3]{$4$}
    \psfrag{x04}[c][c][1.3]{$6$}
    \psfrag{x05}[c][c][1.3]{$8$}
    \psfrag{x06}[c][c][1.3]{$10$}
    \psfrag{s01}[t][t][1.5]{SNR (dB)}
    \psfrag{s02}[b][t][1.5]{MFPE (\%)}
    \psfrag{s06}[l][l][1.3]{Yin}
    \psfrag{s07}[l][l][1.3]{Pefac}
    \psfrag{s08}[l][l][1.3]{BaNa}
    \psfrag{s09}[l][l][1.3]{Halcyon}
    \psfrag{s10}[l][l][1.3]{SpTe-ACF \& FB-Kalman}
    \psfrag{s12}[l][l][1]{}
    \psfrag{s13}[l][l][1]{}
    \psfrag{v07}[r][r][1.3]{$1.8~~$}
    \psfrag{v06}[r][r][1.3]{$1.6~~$}
    \psfrag{v05}[r][r][1.3]{$1.4~~$}
    \psfrag{v04}[r][r][1.3]{$1.2~~$}
    \psfrag{v03}[r][r][1.3]{$1~~$}
    \psfrag{v02}[r][r][1.3]{$0.8~~$}
    \psfrag{v01}[r][r][1.3]{$0.6~$}
    \centering
    \centering{\scalebox{0.53}{\includegraphics{plots/plot_FPE.eps}}}
    \small
    \centerline{(b) MFPE, average over all noise types.}
\end{minipage}
\label{fig:sim_res}
\vspace{-0.15in}
\caption{Simulation results for $4$ speakers, $50$ signals, $8$ noise types and $6$ different SNR values.}
\end{figure}

Fig.~\ref{fig:sim_res} presents the resulting GPE rates for different types of additive noise~\cite{NOISE} and for a range of SNR values.
Regarding the curves in Fig.~\ref{fig:sim_res} (a) for different algorithms, it can be seen, that the FB-KF based SpTe-ACF achieves
the highest overall average detection rate for SNR values up to \unit[0]{dB}.
In addition, Fig.~\ref{fig:sim_res} (b) highlights the MFPE rates for a range of SNR values. Again, the FB-KF based SpTe-ACF achieves
a good performance for SNR values up to \unit[0]{dB}.
In summary, we observe an acceptable trade-off between GPE and MFPE for the chosen set of parameters.

\begin{table}[ht]
  \centering
  \small
  \begin{tabular*}{0.995\columnwidth}{lccccc}
    \hline
    &\begin{scriptsize}Yin\end{scriptsize}
    & \begin{scriptsize}Pefac\end{scriptsize}
    & \begin{scriptsize}BaNa\end{scriptsize}
    & \begin{scriptsize}Halcyon\end{scriptsize}
    & \begin{scriptsize}SpTe-ACF \& FB-KF\end{scriptsize}
    \\
    \hline
     \begin{scriptsize}avg. time\end{scriptsize}
	  & \begin{scriptsize}\unit[0.03]{s}\end{scriptsize}
	  & \begin{scriptsize}\unit[0.64]{s}\end{scriptsize}
	  &\begin{scriptsize}\unit[4.16]{s}\end{scriptsize}
	  &\begin{scriptsize}\unit[3.64]{s}\end{scriptsize}
	  &\begin{scriptsize}\unit[0.26]{s}\end{scriptsize}
	\\
    \hline
  \end{tabular*}
  \caption{Average computation time in seconds for all algorithms implemented in Matlab. The average length of all
	  speech signals is $3.07$ s. }
  \label{tab:time}
\end{table}

\vspace{-0.2in}
\section{Conclusions}
We have presented a forward-backward Kalman filtering technique for pitch tracking in noisy environments. The procedure includes a sentence-based
method for unsupervised voiced-unvoiced classification. The combination of the results of the forward and backward KF can
capture and correct outliers in the pitch estimate. The success of the algorithm is highly dependent on a good performance of
the voiced-unvoiced classification stage. If the observation input for the Kalman filter contains too many outliers then the Kalman
filter is drifting. Simulation results based on the ARCTIC database, however, show that the SpTe-ACF based FB-KF achieves a good pitch
estimation accuracy in noisy environments for SNR values down to $0$ dB.  In addition, the computational effort for pitch estimation and tracking is
significantly lower than that for BaNa and Halcyon. Table~\ref{tab:time} provides a very coarse comparison of computational complexity for some of the considered
algorithms based on MATLAB execution times.

\clearpage
\small
\bibliographystyle{ieeetr}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


The island of Murter lies in the northwestern part of the Sibenik archipelago. It is separated from the mainland by the Murter Channel, which is spanned by a bridge at its narrowest part, at the settlement of Tisno. The highest point of the island is Raduc (125 m).The island has four settlements, Betina, Jezera, Murter and Tisno.
The oldest inhabitants were the lllyrians. In the Middle Ages, the island was called Srimac. There are numerous bays on the southwestern coast, including Kosirina which is a suitable anchorage for small boats, especially when the bora blows.
BETINA - A well-known fishing village at the northern entrance to the Murter Channel. The settlement was established in the 1st century by refugees from the Turkish invasions. The Church of sv. Frane (St. Francis) was built in 1601 and later expanded several times. The lllyrian and later Roman settlement of Colentum once stood on the Gradina knoll. The medieval church has been preserved. Berths are available at the knee-shaped breakwater with a depth of 1.5 m. Parallel to the breakwater lies a pier which protects the inner harbour for small local boats. The depth of the sea at the pier is up to 1.8 m. Due to the strong ebb tide, sailboats should not berth here. Betina Marina (022) 434497 - There are around 180 berths, 60 spaces for dry storage, a repair shop, a 20-ton lift and a 26-ton travel-lift. The depth of the sea is 6 m.
JEZERA - A settlement with a port on a bay of the same name on the southeastern part of the island. The name Jezera (Lakes) originates from numerous ponds which appear in the karstic hollows after heavy rains. The settlement is protected by a breakwater which also protects the entire port. Behind the breakwater lies a marina with six piers. The only alternatives to the marina are a harbour on the northern coast or a knee-shaped pier with a depth of up to 3 m. ACI Jezera Marina (022) 439-315 - It lies on the southern part of the bay and offers 220 berths, 55 spaces for dry storage, a repair shop, a 10-ton lift and a launch ramp. The depth of the sea is 5 m.
MURTER TOWN - A fishing town on the northwestern part of the island. The town has spread from the old core of Veliko Selo, which lies 500 rn from the coast, to the wide Hramina Bay. Its inhabitants are the owners of most of the land on the Kornati islands. The Kornati National Park Office is located in Murter. All information regarding the Kornati National Park is available at the following phone number: (022) 434-662. Murter was first mentioned by its present name in 1715. In the 13s century, it was called Veliko Selo. The medieval Church of sv. Mihovil (St. Michael) was reconstructed in 1770. The hilltop Church of sv. Rok (St. Roch) was built in 1760. The Hramina Bay is always full of tourist and fishing boats. Space is hard to find even during the winter, so boats can only berth in the marina or anchor in the western part of the bay. Hramina Marina (022) 434-411 - There are 500 berths at piers, 250 spaces for dry storage, a repair shop, a 15-ton lift, a 50-ton travel-lift and a launch ramp. The depth of the sea is 4 m. Vinici Marina (022) 435-299 - Part of a shipyard complex with repair shops.


Just an update since I wrote about my journey. I recently had my driver's license reinstated and even got myself a little car. On March 12 I ran my first 5K and even won the bronze medal in my category. After 2 1/2 years I am still improving.


text:
Beren Argetsinger
Home Beren Argetsinger
Email: bargetsinger@keyesfox.com
Burdett, NY 14818
• State Bar of New York
Beren Argetsinger joined Keyes & Fox in August 2015. His practice focuses on legal and policy issues related to the integration of distributed generation and other clean energy technologies on the electric grid. Prior to joining Keyes & Fox, Mr. Argetsinger worked for a non-profit organization in West Virginia on state and federal energy and climate policies. Mr. Argetsinger works out of the firm's New York office.
Representative Work
Supported firm efforts to prevent discriminatory rate charges against customers with rooftop solar facilities.
Supported leading renewable energy companies and advocacy organizations in state regulatory proceedings on net-metering, third-party ownership and sale of renewable energy, and rate design issues that impact customer-sited distributed energy resources.
Provided policy analysis on proposed Clean Power Plan and recommendations for compliance in West Virginia.
J.D., Pace University School of Law, 2013 magna cum laude
Pace Environmental Law Review, Development & Acquisitions Editor
M.E.M., Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 2013
B.S., College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 2001
Professional Honors and Activities
Member, Energy Bar Association
Member, New York State Bar Association
Alumni Member, Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy (ELEEP) Network
The Marcellus Shale: Bridge to a Clean Energy Future or Bridge to Nowhere? Environmental, Energy and Climate Policy Considerations for Shale Gas Development in New York State, 29 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 321 (2011)
The Clean Power Plan and West Virginia: Compliance Options and New Economic Opportunities, Center for Energy and Sustainable Development (June 2015) (co-author)
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2. Store up to 12 pouches in the fridge or freezer in our specially-designed case.
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Mercer Island has a variety of multi-use athletic fields throughout the Island. The Parks and Recreation Department strives to maximize the use of all athletic field venues, while preserving the park assets.
All City field usage is scheduled though the Mercer Island Parks and Recreation Department. Call the Facility Scheduling office at 206.275.7873 for more information or to reserve a field.
WE REACHED OUR GOAL. THANK YOU!!!!
The Island Crest Park Sportsfield Improvements project is underway and will be completed in November or December 2017. the cost of the entire project will be $2.3 million. Grants and community donations have totaled over $700,000. The City offers sincere thanks to the many community contributors for their significant donations to this project. Along with the grant dollars secured by Parks and Recreation staff, this successful public-private funding model made this project feasible.
The project will install synthetic turf in the outfield of the north field and replace the existing 30-year-old lights and wood poles with a much more efficient LED light system on new steel poles. The LED lighting greatly minimizes light 'spill' and has very low maintenance needs. Conduit will also be installed for the future completion of the lighting replacement on the south field. This field will have flexible markings to accommodate a range of sports. Safety and performance will be enhanced with shock pad underlay and cork infill.
Spring season begins March 1st and summer season begins June 15th. At this time there are 8 fields available for softball, 2 fields available for baseball, and 2 fields available for soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball.
The ballfield crew maintains the field condition hotline to let field users know when the fields have been closed due to weather. It is updated every day during the spring and summer seasons - weekdays by by 2:00 pm and weekends by 7:00 am.
All grass fields are soccer fields, there is limited availability of softball or baseball fields to reserve or utilize during this season.
Note: All grass fields are closed to play from the third week in November through March 1st.
The only fields open for use during this time are the synthetic turf field at the South Mercer Playfields, the north field at Island Crest Park and the Mercer Island High School Stadium field.
Grass field, (2 ballfields) primary use is adult softball (no fences), High School softball, and youth soccer (in the fall).
Two baseball fields (one grass/dirt infield, one synthetic turf) full sized turf soccer/football field, two modified grass soccer fields; primary use is youth baseball, youth football (in the fall), youth soccer (in the fall) and adult baseball.
Grass field, (two ballfields), primary use is youth softball/baseball and youth soccer (in the fall).
Four natural turf softball fields, primary use adult softball, youth softball/baseball in the spring and four mod soccer fields in the fall for youth soccer use. One artificial turf field lined for soccer, men's and women's lacrosse and footbal practice. New stadium lighting has been added around the turf field. To learn more about the upgraded system, click here.


text:
Tusalem Analyzes Impact of Diamonds in Africa
Dr. Rollin F. Tusalem, associate professor of political science, is lead author of an article recently published in the International Political Science Review. The article, co-authored with a professional colleague from Mississippi State, is titled, "The Impact of Diamonds on Economic Growth, Adverse Regime Change, and Democratic State-Building in Africa." More details about the paper are available in the online abstract.
Edgar Whitsitt Guided Training School into College
Edgar Whitsitt began his service to the State Agricultural Training School in 1917, then immediately began guiding the budding institution's transition to a two-year college program the next year, then First District Agricultural and Mechanical College (see Memorial Arch) in 1925, then Arkansas State College in 1933. During his 20-year tenure, Whitsitt was dean of agriculture and then academic dean. His granddaughter accepted his award.
Julia Lansford Taught 44 Years at A-State
Julia Lansford, M.M., who joined the faculty of what was then Arkansas State College in 1964, taught untold numbers of vocal music students over the years. She also was well known for her renditions of the National Anthem and the Alma Mater at commencement and other major events. By the time she retired as associate professor of music in 2008, her service totaled 44 years, the lengthiest among the new group of Distinguished Faculty.
Distinguished Faculty Recognition in Inside A-State
Starting with this edition, Inside A-State is highlighting the new Distinguished Faculty. The A-State Faculty Association announced the selections during a campus ceremony last Wednesday. A video of the ceremony is available here.
Students Talk about Their Favorite Teacher
During the past few weeks, we have asked our students to talk about their favorite professors, and why they hold these individuals in such high regard. To see what they say about your colleagues, or maybe about you, watch the online video.
Amos Rougeau Began 35-year Service in 1957
The second earliest term of service among the new group of Distinguished Faculty belongs to Amos B. Rougeau, Ed.D. Rougeau, who served 35 years and retired as professor of agricultural education, joined the faculty in 1957 and retired in 1992. He took particular pride in his efforts to secure scholarships for outstanding students. His son, Ben Rougeau, of the Chemistry Department, and other family members accepted the award.


Home Tags Posts tagged with "Seed Starting"
Seed Starting is a vital skill for any gardener to know. By starting your own seeds you can get bigger healthier plants, a wider selection of plants and a unique garden design.
Starting seeds indoors is a great way to get a jump on the gardening season, especially in colder climates. Indoor seeds usually have better germination than seed that are direct seeded in the garden and indoor seeds are older and usually bigger than seeds started outdoors.
Seed starting is cost-effective, a single packet of 10-20 seeds is roughly the same cost as one single nursery plant bought from the garden center. So, it makes sense to start your own seeds.
I've written a few articles on seed starting already but I'm sure there will be many more to come in the future. Until then the following articles are full of helpful advice, supply suggestions and tips and tricks to get you growing. Enjoy!
Want your garden to be the envy of the neighborhood this year, without blowing the bank? Try these Tips and Tricks for Starting Seeds Indoors and you will have an enviable garden in no time.


Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by radeonpower, Jul 11, 2012.
ioncube_loader_lin_5.4.so missing in IonCube Loader tarball at ./cpanel-install line 57.
Your Request id is: 2909390.
This does appear to be an internal case. We've opened up a bug report (60260) on the issue. IonCube Loader does definitely support PHP 5.4 as of the middle of May (which appears to be what you are using) and only PHP 5.4 has it missing in EasyApache and the phpextensionmgr installer. If you select PHP 5.3, you can install IonCube but not if you select PHP 5.4.
Well, I went ahead and tried to upgrade to PHP 5.4.7 and I'm still seing the these errors?
Suhosin support isn't yet added for PHP 5.4 and we have internal case 60272 on that issue. I've added this forum thread to that case.
Going forward, please open up a new thread for new issues. The current thread was about IonCube Loader.


A slow burning novel that gradually took hold of me. Through reports, letters and journal entries, we are led through an Army expedition along the Wolverine River in Alaska in 1885. At the same time the story follows the spirited wife of the expedition leader who is left behind in Vancouver. Vivid and persuasive description brings the wilderness to life. I really enjoyed the times when the animal and human world mixed, with dream like results. Interspersed throughout the narrative are present day letters, linking research and giving a neat device for further character development. Finally the ending is very clever, the author rounded everything off to perfection. All in all, well worth a read.
I have just finished reading To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey and have to say what an unexpected delightful read it has proved to be. Beautifully written and so precise that you can easily imagine the journey of Lieu Col Allen Forrester and the hardships he endured.
By having the book divided into parts with his accounts, his wife's accounts and a smattering of information and photos made the story so interesting and gave it depth. Also the correspondence between Mr Joshua Sloan, Exhibits Curator and Walter Forrester, a great nephew added another dimension to the story. These two men began writing as strangers and then began a great friendship.
There were two sentences I particularly liked - nothing is impossible. Take one step, and then another, and see where the path leads. Don't think of the obstacles, only the way round them.
The insight of the love Allen Forrester had for Sophie which is written about at the end of the book is beautiful and poignant.
I found it such a compelling read. An amazing book and a joy to read.
If you enjoy a book about adventure and danger you will enjoy this story of Alaska and its wilderness.
The story is told through the diaries of Lt.Col Forrester and his wife Sophie.
The diaries were written in the late nineteenth century but are now being read by Josh, a young curator of the Alpine Historical Museum in Alaska.The diaries were sent to Josh by Walt, a descendant of Sophie and Forrester,who had enjoyed reading them as a young boy.
Lt. Col. Forrester was sent by the army to Alaska to map the territory and to study the natives.His task was to explore the Wolverine River and its surrounds with his two companions; Pruitt and Tillman.
His pregnant wife is left behind to wait for his return. Sophie is determined not to be idle and develops her love of photography and birds. Her aim to capture the perfect light.
The story develops with Josh and Walt discussing the diaries and furthering the theme of mysticism, felt by Forrester whilst in the mountains and maybe the crux of the book; the argument of the effect of white explorers on the native Indians lifestyle.
The style of moving from one diary to another moves the book along at a fast pace. As a reader you want to know if Forrester and his men will survive and if Sophie will get her perfect photograph.
Set in 1885, this truly inspirational story is about a small band of courageous explorers on a US mission to navigate and map the Wolverine River key to opening up the newly acquired territory of Alaska. The pioneering team, led by Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester, must face many dangers. These include unruly native Indians, wild animals, treacherous landscapes and wildly unpredictable weather. Forrester's pregnant wife Sophie must also summon every ounce of fortitude during their enforced months of separation. It is a taxing time for them both.
Spiritual elements hang over the story in the character of an Indian Shaman, a lame old soul referred to as 'The Man who flies'. Can he really turn into a bird, and what are his motives?
Despite being fiction, the novel written as a journal of historic documents, diary entries and letters reads like a true account, giving the reader a sense of the immense difficulties faced by early prospectors and cartographers surveying and mapping the Alaskan wilderness.
Other than 'Meet Hector Thump' by Alexander H. Stevens, I have never read a novel so quickly. It is a 'must read'.


I turn my email notifications off so I don't see the emails coming in and actually have to go to my Outlook account to view them. It is hard to ignore them when you see them coming by so this has helped me tremendously. However, since it is important that I see the emails from my boss, I have set a ring tone for his emails and when I am working on a project and hear the ring, I know it is something I should check.
I have also asked my assistant to set a one-on-one meeting with me once a week and to write down any questions she has throughout the week. If it can wait for our meeting that is great and she can ask me at our meeting, if not, then she is free to interrupt me. I try to do the same with my boss as well.
Sometimes I just tell people I am very busy right now and can it wait. They typically go ahead and ask me anyway, so that hasn't always worked out very well. Some people will however respect my request. I usually ask them to send me an email instead.
Of course, I am always available for my boss and he interrupts me constantly, but he is my boss after all and I am there to support him, so keeping things in perspective really helps. If your boss has asked you for an urgent request, it is also OK to remind them of their other request and ask if they want to take you away from that.
Putting a barrier up can be helpful, but it can also come across as "I'm not available" if you leave it up all the time. I like your idea of putting an "Open for business" sign up as well even though you have your barrier up. You may just need the barrier because you are easily distracted and it helps you focus. Humour would work really well here too and you could get very creative in your sign such as "Enter at your own risk, I have a deadline to meet" with a funny cartoon on it. But don't overuse it or people will just see you as not available all the time.
I agree that expecting interruptions and planning for them is a good plan of action. In our role as assistants, we are there to assist so that is part of what we do and interruptions are part of that.
I am fortunate to have a door so close it when I am typing minutes or doing something I need to concentrate on. Unfortunately, they still interrupt, but they knock first and apparently that makes it OK 🙂 I believe the closed door probably cuts down on 50% of the interruptions and the other 50% I deal with on a one-by-one basis.
I give webinars from my office so on those days I put a big sign DO NOT DISTURB – WEBINAR IN PROGRESS. I have never had problems with that one and in some cases, you really have to be firm as in the case of a webinar. You don't have a choice.
I am studying a Diploma in Practice management and this has been really helpful. I am doing some research on time management. I consider re-work and mistakes a common interrupter, too as well as stress and fatigue. How would you deal with those? Thank you for your help.


text:
Arctic Sea Ice Charts from Danish Meteorological Institute, 1893 - 1956, Version 1
These charts, created by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), provide observed and inferred sea ice extent for each summer month from 1893 to 1956. From 1893 to 1956, the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) created charts of observed and inferred sea ice extent for each summer month. These charts are based on compiled observations of ice conditions reported by a variable network of national organizations, shore-based observers, scientific expeditions, and ships as detailed in each report; in cases where no observations were available, the lead mapmakers extrapolated further ice cover using their knowledge of ice movement. Except for where direct observations are indicated, caution is advised in using the charts' ice edge because there is no way to quantify the assumptions used in extrapolating ice edge or the error involved in this method. See the note on reliability for further discussion of potential error. The charts were scanned at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) and are being made available here as a service and in cooperation with DMI and other contributors. In all, there are 266 image files containing 291 images.
Ice Extent
N: 90.0 S: 55.0 E: 180.0 W: -180.0
Platform(s): GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS, SHIPS
Data Center(s): NSIDC Instrument(s): VISUAL OBSERVATIONS
DIRECT DOWNLOAD: https://nsidc.org/forms/G02203_or.html?major_version=1, Direct download, with optional registration page.
Title: Arctic Sea Ice Charts from Danish Meteorological Institute, 1893 - 1956, Version 1
Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center
GENERAL DOCUMENTATION: https://doi.org/10.7265/N56D5QXC, Includes a user's guide, supplemental documents like ATBDs and academic papers, How Tos, FAQs, etc.
10.7265/N56D5QXC
DATA SET LANDING PAGE: https://doi.org/10.7265/N56D5QXC, Provides access to data, documentation, tools, citation information, support, and other resources.
Vivian Underhill
Florence Fetterer
Danish Meteorological Institute
Lyngbyvej 100 DK-2100
Copenhagen E,


The Nike Rise 365 Tank is your go-to for soft, breathable comfort. Super lightweight, mesh fabric wicks sweat, while the gradient abstract print commands attention.
Tape on the shoulders pops with reflectivity.
Allover abstract print moves from darker to lighter tones top to bottom.


Back to FREE HEALING TENT!
Jennifer Gardner LMT, NMT, is an expert JFB Myofascial Release Therapist, a CranioSacral Therapist, a Reiki Master, an energy worker, a teacher, an empath, a public speaker, an introvert, an aromatherapist, and an intuitive facilitator of the healing process. She lives, works, and plays in Columbus, Ohio; and, for the past 8 years, Jennifer has been experimenting with ways to incorporate healthy practices into her lifestyle. She keeps what works for her while letting the rest go.
Jennifer is a believer in going her own way. She finds it unsettling to follow the crowd blindly or to take advice unquestioningly. It is highly unlikely that you'll ever see Jennifer using protocols in her practice or in her life. She spent much of her life trying to live by the rules of others, which, she has discovered, was the root cause of anxiety and depression in her life. Now that she is living by her own rules, she is continually discovering a new sense of health, happiness, calm, and peace.
Jennifer loves learning, and she oftentimes finds herself reading books on quantum physics, epigenetics, fascia, consciousness, animal guides, crystals and gemstones, relationships, fractals, and mythology, among various other topics. She is also a skeptic and finds herself curious enough to question everything, even her own beliefs. When she is not working, Jennifer likes to grab her camera and venture outside where she enjoys taking close-up pictures of small things. She now has a big girl camera (SLR), so feel free to offer advice on how to use all of the dials and buttons. She loves spending time outside to re-energize her system and can sit quietly for hours just observing the hustle and bustle of nature.
Jennifer is the owner and sole practitioner at Massagology, LLC, where she facilitates healing and transformations to healthier lifestyles.
Workshop: Secure Your Own Mask First! Techniques and tips for daily self-treatment of the bodymindspirit.


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text:
Q: change the area in a osm-request: from lon & lat to whole country I am new to PHP's SimpleXML. the script below makes a starting point for my project. Below I have added my own answer to the question, how to refine the code to ad more tags.
I want to filter the data to get the nodes with special category. Here is sample of the OSM data I want to get the whole schools within an certain area.
The first script below runs well - but now I want to refine the search and add more tags. I want to store all into MySQL.So we need to make some XML parsing with PHP:
The following is a little OSM Overpass API example with PHP SimpleXML
NOTE: i want to change the values in the boundary-box. So that we can gather the shools from a certain area - eg. the country Italy
Q: is this possible?
see the script:
<?php
/**
 * OSM Overpass API with PHP SimpleXML / XPath
 *
 * PHP Version: 5.4 - Can be back-ported to 5.3 by using 5.3 Array-Syntax (not PHP 5.4's square brackets)
 */

//
// 1.) Query an OSM Overpass API Endpoint
//

$query = 'node
  ["addr:postcode"~"RM12"]
  (51.5557914,0.2118915,51.5673083,0.2369398);
  node
  (around:100000)
  ["amenity"~"school"];
           out;';

$context = stream_context_create(['http' => [
    'method'  => 'POST',
    'header' => ['Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded'],
    'content' => 'data=' . urlencode($query),
]]);

# please do not stress this service, this example is for demonstration purposes only.
$endpoint = 'http://overpass-api.de/api/interpreter';
libxml_set_streams_context($context);
$start = microtime(true);

$result = simplexml_load_file($endpoint);
printf("Query returned %2\$d node(s) and took %1\$.5f seconds.\n\n", microtime(true) - $start, count($result->node));

//
// 2.) Work with the XML Result
//

# get all school nodes with xpath
$xpath = '//node[tag[@k = "amenity" and @v = "school"]]';
$schools = $result->xpath($xpath);
printf("%d School(s) found:\n", count($schools));
foreach ($schools as $index => $school)
{
    # Get the name of the school (if any), again with xpath
    list($name) = $school->xpath('tag[@k = "name"]/@v') + ['(unnamed)'];
    printf("#%02d: ID:%' -10s  [%s,%s]  %s\n", $index, $school['id'], $school['lat'], $school['lon'], $name);
}

?>

if we change this
$query = 'node
  ["addr:postcode"~"RM12"]
  (51.5557914,0.2118915,51.5673083,0.2369398);
  node
  (around:100000)
  ["amenity"~"school"];
           out;';

$context = stream_context_create(['http' => [
    'method'  => 'POST',
    'header' => ['Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded'],
    'content' => 'data=' . urlencode($query),
]]);

we get more than 2170 results:
#2171: ID:2837001831  [51.1783749,-0.7970866]  More House School
#2172: ID:2865091022  [50.9090614,-0.5565425]  Dorset House School
#2173: ID:2882477853  [51.6261198,-0.7349665]  Bowerdean Primary School
#2174: ID:2901434856  [51.6542477,-0.3098923]  The Haberdashers' Aske's Girls School
#2175: ID:2901434857  [51.6565707,-0.3129822]  The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys School

NOTE: i want to change the values in the boundary-box. So that we can gather the shools from a certain area - eg. the country Italy or something thelike
is this possible?
update: can i do some rework of the area-data like so:
[place] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [@attributes] => Array
                (
                    [place_id] => 331526
                    [osm_type] => node
                    [osm_id] => 96209423
                    [place_rank] => 15
                    [boundingbox] => 44.4361381530762,44.4361419677734,26.1027431488037,26.1027450561523
                    [lat] => 44.436139
                    [lon] => 26.1027436
                    [display_name] => BucureČti, Sector 2, Bucuresti, România, European Union
                    [class] => place
                    [type] => city
                    [importance] => 0.73231672860554
                    [icon] => http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/images/mapicons/poi_place_city.p.20.png
                )

        )

is this doable!`?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


After a public outcry, the Wisconsin Public Records Board voted unanimously on Monday to rescind actions it took on August 24 that were apparently used by the Walker administration to deny a pending public records request.
The actions of the formerly obscure board came to public attention when the Walker administration denied access to public records using a "transitory records" justification. In August, the board had made changes to the definition of transitory records, and the next day the Wisconsin State Journal was denied access to text messages related to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) scandal it had been tracking.
After open records advocates at the Freedom of Information Council (FOIC) filed a verified complaint with the Madison district attorney asking him to investigate the board's actions as possible violations of the open meeting law, the board reconsidered and called yesterday's public meeting, which was attended by a dozen reporters, five cameras, open records advocates, and concerned citizens.
In his opening remarks, Board Chair Matt Blessing of the Wisconsin Historical Society explained that he had been a librarian and archivist for 27 years, that the public records board has been nonpartisan since its creation in 1940, and that decisions about retention are always driven exclusively by information contained in documents, never by format or media.
The retention of records is governed by overlapping statutes. The primary job of the board, operating under Chapter 16 of the statutes, is to tell public officials how to retain records, regularly publishing records retention schedules.
In other words, the board's job is to protect records.
One of the first members of the public to testify, who identified himself as a retired professional archivist, supported the need to clarify the word "transitory."
"The changes made by the board as I read them are clarifying, not substantive; few people understand the definition of transitory record, and clarification is badly needed. Text messages are not transitory records, they are records scheduled for retention. But it is good to revisit the changes, there may be a clearer way to achieve the goals."
Steve Hirsch also testified. Hirsch used to be the head of the Public Records Board.
"There is a need for transitory definition, but training is needed for people on how to do this. Visitor logs for executive residence–whoever determined that was a transitory record is not correct," said Hirsch, who later explained that those records are already categorized in the retention schedules and—by definition—are not transitory.
But some in the audience suggested that the board had to recognize "that there have been numerous and systematic attempts to avoid the open records law in this state" and their actions take place in a broader context. In July of this year, the Governor and legislative leaders proposed changes to the open records law in the budget without public notice or hearings. Those changes were also beaten back after a bipartisan public outcry.
James Friedman, a lawyer for Godfrey and Kahn who represents the newsmedia, testified, "we do not question your intentions, but the consequences have been disastrous. Officials have taken this as a license to destroy records. It is not your role to sanction intentionally or even inadvertently the destruction of records."
Bill Lueders, the head of the FOIC who brought the legal complaint, cited the adage "give them an inch they will take a yard." "It is my sincere belief that the board did not intend to give new powers to destroy records. The board should draw a bright line so it does not happen again," Lueders said.
Lueders noted specifically that language about "training videos" needed to be clarified as there was a pending case against the Wisconsin Attorney General for training videos. At this time, the FOIC has no plans to drop its complaint against the board.
"The party in power has used this new translation of the law to deny public records requests that they couldn't before. Your committee could make a difference so we can maintain public trust; we desperately need that," noted another member of the public.
Some 1,900 written comments came into the board from across the state; from leaders of community groups, the editors of large and small newspapers, and citizens. The Center for Media and Democracy detailed Wisconsin news stories that had relied upon text messages, and Governor Walker also supported the retention of text messages in an interview with WKOW's Greg Neumann, while continuing to argue that the records requested by CMD in its lawsuit against the governor over his changes to the Wisconsin Idea should be kept secret.
The vote to rescind was unanimous and went a long way toward restoring public trust in a board that is made up primarily of professional public employees who were reluctant to speculate on the administration's actions.
But one member of the board, a Walker appointee, gave his thoughts on the matter.
Carl Buesing, an attorney and local government designee, stated that in his view the board's actions did not broaden or narrow the definition of transitory records. "What we tried to do was to reduce the amount of abuse that might occur of someone exercising discretion over the records. To suggest in any fashion that we are limiting access to text messages, or Facebook posts is completely incorrect."
"Now we have taken this step in response to hundreds if not thousands of emails and comments to do the right thing, but I think we need to discuss this in greater detail. I am upset with any assertion that there is a linkage between what the legislature did in July with what we did in August."
Speaker Vos's attempt to undermine the open records law is about as relevant to the board's activities as "North Korea dropping an atomic bomb," stated Buesing.
Whether the board's actions will result in a change in administration procedure with regard to open records has yet to be determined, but the hullabaloo will serve as a cautionary tale for Speaker Vos and other members of the legislature who appear intent on changing the open records law next session.
In digesting attorney Buesing's analogy regarding Vos and North Korea, I was struck by the realization; that a majority of Wisconsin residents similarly trust Walker and Vos as much as the government headed by Kim Jong Un.


text:
By Virginia Kantra
Part of Children of the Sea
Category: Paranormal Romance | Suspense Romance | Contemporary Fantasy
Mass Market Paperback $7.99
Jul 01, 2008 | ISBN 9780425221990
*This format is not eligible to earn points towards the Reader Rewards program
About Sea Witch
First in the new The Children of the Sea series— from the USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR.
Margred is a Selkie—a legendary being of the sea, able to shapeshift into seductive human form. And she has found a human she desires…
Burned out from the big city, Caleb Hunter becomes police chief on the peaceful Maine island of World's End. Then he meets a woman who's everything he's ever dreamed of…
Their passion is undeniable, irresistible—and it may change the fate of humankind.
Also in Children of the Sea
Also by Virginia Kantra
See all books by Virginia Kantra
About Virginia Kantra
Virginia Kantra is the New York Times bestselling author of the Children of the Sea series and the Dare Island novels. She has won numerous industry awards, including the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award and two National Readers' Choice Awards.
Mass Market Paperback | $7.99
Published by Berkley
Jul 01, 2008 | 304 Pages | 4-3/16 x 6-3/4 | ISBN 9780425221990
Jul 01, 2008 | 304 Pages | ISBN 9781440634901
People Who Read Sea Witch Also Read
Your newest series begins with the novel Sea Witch, in which your female protagonist is a Selkie. What made you decide to choose these mythical creatures as the children of sea?
Selkies are sex and magic. The children of the sea have to embody all the mystery and magic, power and passion of the ocean itself. ("Warm-blooded" is good, too.)
From the isles of Orkney to the coast of Cornwall, you can find stories and songs about mythical creatures who take the form of seals in the sea and strip off their pelts to come ashore as beautiful, naked men and women.
The legends endure not only because they appeal to our imagination, but because they have their seeds in our human experience: the lonely sailor, the woman who loses her love to the sea, the farmer searching for a wife beyond the local girls he knows, the village maiden who can't name her baby's father. I wanted my contemporary stories to straddle that same line between myth and the human heart.
Speaking of choices, your story is set on the fictional Maine island of World's End. Was there a particular inspiration for the location, something about Maine that really drew you to it as opposed to other coastal settings?
Long before the continents drifted apart, the mountains of Maine and the highlands of Scotland were one great ridge. You could say that in its bones, the land is the same. It was also heavily settled by the same people. So setting the Old World legend in this part of the New World made sense to me.
Besides, Maine is magic—rocky and wild. My husband and I were all over that coast last summer, and you can feel the dramatic tension between land and sea.
Your story mentions children of air, children of earth, and children of fire as well as the children of sea. In Sea Witch, we meet children of the sea and of fire. Do you plan on any other immortal beings appearing in future stories?
In two earlier novellas I wrote for Berkley (Man of My Dreams and Over the Moon), I wrote about the children of earth, the fair folk. But obviously in a series called The Children of the Sea, I'm going to concentrate on the sea folk.
The "elementals"—children of earth, air, sea, and fire—co-exist in an uneasy peace with humankind. In my stories, that balance is shifting, so in addition to the human drama, you can definitely expect more of the elementals' struggle for power and even survival.
In a similar vein, you created some especially fascinating secondary characters, including Dylan, the Selkie born of a human father and a Selkie mother; and Lucy, who seems to have a mystery around her. Will readers get to meet them in future novels?
I used the Orkney ballads about the selkie—which are haunting and beautiful, but nearly always tragic—as the basis for the books. But I used another sea shanty from the 1700s to connect the stories:
"My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light
And he married a mermaid one fine night.
Of that union there came three…"
Dylan, the loner, who must choose between the freedom of his mother's kind and the bonds of mortal love (Sea Fever, out next month), and
Lucy, the dreamer, whose heart and fate are tangled with the sea king's son (in the upcoming Sea Lord).
So the larger tension between land and sea, magical and mundane, plays out within their family and in the loves they find as well.


This semi firm mattress will have you glued to the bed.
This set is convenient if you are looking for a mattress that is not too hard, nor to soft.
The top panel of the mattress features a cotton quilted fabric.
It also is covered in an exotic swirl of lines in both the front and back.
On the sides of the mattress, it is a black checked patterned on both the top and bottom, and an elegant tan design in the middle to add finishing touches.
The box spring is covered in cotton fabric. It has great quality and finishes with a complete cover. The base golden and is accompanied with a navy blue and tan signature pattern.
The mattress and the box spring comes in multi-sizes and the prices are unbeatable!
The color and design on the mattress may vary. Please see the second picture.
I have owned this mattress for three days now, and have slept on it nightly. I absolutely love it. Is wonderful! I began to loosen u once body heat warms it up, it's not too firm. It supportive for my back and very cozy. I am a pleased customer!
Delivery was excellent. I was expecting to receive it on Friday but it came Tuesday. It is a basic/ standard mattress for a great price. It fits well on my platform bed, but does not give me any sleeping problems.
My sister recommended JMD Furniture because I needed a mattress immediately. I purchased this mattress and box spring. It arrived a few hours later!! I was very pleased with the assistance and how fast they could get my mattress to me. The mattress was semi-firm, but it works for me!
This is the second set of mattress and box spring I have purchased from jmd within the last six months. The mattresses are comfortable and the box springs are very sturdy. I brought it at a great price. I love how convenient it is to have it delivered to my door step vs. having to find someone to pick it up for me. Can't beat shopping at this place!!!
This is an absolutely great mattress, for the asked price. My husband and i LOVE IT! We selected the king size mattress, and it supply's more than enough space. It helps with our back pain as well. If you are looking for a comfortable, good night's sleep try this mattress.