text:
\section{Introduction}
We consider an online decision problem where an agent repeatedly interacts with an uncertain environment and observes outcomes.
The agent has a reward function that specifies its preferences over outcomes.
The objective of the agent is to sequentially select actions so as to maximize the long-term expected cumulative reward.
One classic example is the multi-armed bandit problem, where the agent observes only the reward of the action selected during each period.
Another example is episodic reinforcement learning, where the agent selects a policy at the beginning of each episode, and observes a trajectory of states and rewards realized over the episode.

The agent's uncertainty about the environment gives rise to a need to trade off between exploration and exploitation.
Exploring parts of the environment that are poorly understood could lead to better performance in the future, while exploiting current knowledge of the environment could lead to higher reward in the short term.
Thompson sampling \cite{thompson1933} and optimistic algorithms \cite{lai1985asymptotically, jaksch2010near} are two classes of algorithms that effectively balance the exploration-exploitation tradeoff and achieve near-optimal performance in many stylized online decision problems.
However, most analyses of such algorithms focus on establishing performance guarantees that only exploit the parametric structure of the model \cite{kaufmann2012thompson, agrawal2012analysis, agrawal2013linear, dani2008stochastic, kaufmann2012bayesian, KL-UCB2013, jaksch2010near, auer2002finite}.
There has not been much focus on how prior information as well as information gain during the learning process affect performance, with few exceptions \cite{srinivas2012information, russo2016info}.

In our work, we leverage concepts from information theory to quantify the information gain of the agent and address the exploration-exploitation tradeoff for Thompson sampling and optimistic algorithms.
By connecting information-theoretic quantities with confidence bounds, we are able to relate the agent's per-period performance with its information gain about the environment during the period.
The relation explicitly characterizes how an algorithm balances exploration and exploitation on a single-period basis.
The information gain is represented succinctly using mutual information, which abstracts away from the specific parametric form of the model.
The level of abstraction offered by information theory shows promise of these information-theoretic confidence bounds being generalizable to a broad class of problems.
Moreover, the resulting cumulative regret bound explicitly depends on the agent's uncertainty over the environment, which naturally exhibits the value of prior information.
We present applications of information-theoretic confidence bounds on three environments, linear bandits, tabular MDPs, and factored MDPs.

One paper that is closely related to our work is \cite{srinivas2012information}, which proposes an upper confidence bound (UCB) algorithm for bandit learning with a Gaussian process prior and derives a regret bound that depends on maximal information gain.
Some of their results parallel what we establish in the context of the linear bandit, though our analysis extends to Thompson sampling as well.
More importantly, our work generalizes the information-theoretic confidence bound approach to problems with significantly more complicated information structure, such as MDPs.

Another closely related paper is \cite{russo2016info}, which provides an information-theoretic analysis of Thompson sampling for bandit problems with partial feedback.
The paper introduces the notion of an information ratio, which relates the one-period regret of Thompson sampling with one-period information gain towards the optimal action.
Using this concept, the authors are able to derive a series of regret bounds that depend on the information entropy of the optimal action.
While this is an elegant result, it is unclear how to extend the approach to MDPs, as information gain about the optimal policy is hard to quantify.
In our paper, we consider information gain about the underlying environment rather than the optimal action or policy, which may be seen as a relaxation of their method.
The relaxation allows us to leverage confidence bounds and obtain information-theoretic regret bounds for MDPs.

\section{Problem formulation}
We consider an online decision problem where an agent repeatedly interacts with an uncertain environment and observes outcomes.
All random variables are defined on a probability space $(\Omega, \mathcal{F}, \mathbb{P})$.
The environment is described by an unknown model parameter $\theta$ which governs the outcome distribution.
The agent's uncertainty over the environment is represented as a prior distribution over $\theta$.
Thus, $\theta$ will be treated as a random variable in the agent's mind.
During each time period $\ell$, the agent selects an action $A_\ell \in \mathcal{A}$ and observes an outcome $Y_{\ell, A_\ell} \in \mathcal{Y}$.
We assume that the space of outcomes $\mathcal{Y}$ is a subset of a finite dimensional Euclidean space.
Conditioned on the model index $\theta$, outcomes $Y_{\ell}$ are i.i.d. for $\ell = 1, 2, \dots$.
The agent has a reward function $r: \mathcal{Y} \to \Re$ that encodes its preferences over outcomes.
We make a simplifying assumption that rewards are bounded.
\begin{assumption} \label{assumption:bdd-reward}
There exists $B \geq 0$ such that $\sup_{y\in\mathcal{Y}} r(y) - \inf_{y\in\mathcal{Y}} r(y) \leq B$.
\end{assumption}
The objective of the agent is to maximize its long-term expected cumulative reward.
Let $\mathcal{H}_\ell = (A_1, Y_{1, A_1}, \dots, A_{\ell-1}, Y_{\ell-1, A_{\ell-1}})$ denote the history up to time $\ell$.
An algorithm $\pi$ is a sequence of functions $\{\pi_\ell\}_{\ell \geq 1}$ that map histories to distributions over actions.
For any $a \in \mathcal{A}$, let $\overline{r}_\theta(a) = \mathbb{E}[r(Y_{1, a}) | \theta]$ denote the expected reward of selecting action $a$ under model $\theta$.
Let $A^* \in \arg\max_{a \in \mathcal{A}} \overline{r}_\theta(a)$ denote the optimal action under model $\theta$.
We define the Bayesian regret of an algorithm $\pi$ over $L$ periods
\[ \mathbb{E}[ \textrm{Regret}(L, \pi) ] = \sum_{\ell=1}^L \mathbb{E}[\overline{r}_\theta(A^*) - \overline{r}_\theta(A_\ell)], \]
where the expectation is taken over the randomness in outcomes, algorithm $\pi$, as well as the prior distribution over $\theta$.

Note that episodic reinforcement learning also falls in the above formulation by considering policies as actions and trajectories as observations.

\section{Preliminaries}

\subsection{Basic quantities in information theory}
For two probability measures $P$ and $Q$ such that $P$ is absolutely continuous with respect to $Q$, the {\it Kullback-Leibler divergence} between them is
\[ D(P || Q) = \int \log\left(\frac{dP}{dQ}\right) dP, \]
where $\frac{dP}{dQ}$ is the Radon-Nikodym derivative of $P$ with respect to $Q$.

Let $P(X) \equiv \mathbb{P}(X \in \cdot)$ denote the probability distribution of a random variable $X$, and let $P(X | Y) \equiv \mathbb{P}(X \in \cdot | Y)$ denote the conditional probability distribution of $X$ conditioned on $Y$.

The {\it mutual information} between two random variables $X$ and $Y$
\[ I(X; Y) = D ( P(X, Y) \,||\, P(X)\, P(Y) ) \]
is the Kullback-Leibler divergence between their joint distribution and product distribution \cite{cover2012elements}.
$I(X; Y)$ is always nonnegative, and $I(X; Y) = 0$ if and only if $X$ and $Y$ are independent.
In our analysis, we will use $I(\theta; A, Y_A)$ to measure the agent's information gain of $\theta$ from selecting an action and observing an outcome.

The conditional mutual information between two random variables $X$ and $Y$, conditioned on a third random variable $Z$, is
\[ I(X; Y | Z) = \mathbb{E}[ D(P(X, Y | Z) \,||\, P(X | Z) P(Y | Z)) ], \]
where the expectation is taken over $Z$.
An elegant property of mutual information is that the mutual information between a random variable $X$ and a collection of random variables $Y_1, \dots, Y_n$ can be decomposed into a sum of conditional mutual information using the chain rule.
\begin{lemma} (Chain rule of mutual information)
\[ I(X; Y_1, Y_2, \dots, Y_n) = \sum_{i=1}^n I(X; Y_i | Y_1, \dots, Y_{i-1}). \]
\end{lemma}

\subsection{Notation under posterior distributions}
We will use subscript $\ell$ on $\mathbb{P}$ and $\mathbb{E}$ to indicate quantities conditioned on $\mathcal{H}_\ell$, i.e.,
$ \mathbb{P}_\ell(\cdot) \equiv \mathbb{P}(\cdot | \mathcal{H}_\ell)
= \mathbb{P}(\cdot | A_1, Y_{1, A_1}, \dots, A_{\ell-1}, Y_{\ell-1, A_{\ell-1}}) $,
and similarly for $\mathbb{E}_\ell[\cdot]$.
Let $P_\ell(X) \equiv \mathbb{P}_\ell(X \in \cdot)$ denote the conditional distribution of a random variable $X$ conditioned on $\mathcal{H}_\ell$.
We define filtered mutual information
\[ I_\ell(X; Y) = D(P_\ell(X, Y) \,||\, P_\ell(X) P_\ell(Y)), \]
which is a random variable of $\mathcal{H}_\ell$. Note that by the definition of conditional mutual information,
\[ \mathbb{E}[I_\ell(X; Y)]
= I(X; Y | \mathcal{H}_\ell)
= I(X; Y | A_1, Y_{1, A_1}, \dots, A_{\ell-1}, Y_{\ell-1, A_{\ell-1}}). \]

\subsection{Algorithms}
Thompson sampling is a simple yet effective heuristic for trading off between exploration and exploitation. Conceptually, it samples each action according to the probability that it is optimal. The algorithm typically operates by starting with a prior distribution over $\theta$. During each time period, it samples from the posterior distribution over $\theta$, and selects an action that maximizes the expected reward under the sampled model. It then updates the posterior distribution with the observed outcome.

Another widely studied class of algorithms that effectively trade off between exploration and exploitation are upper confidence bound (UCB) algorithms, which apply the principle of optimism in the face of uncertainty. For each time period, they typically construct an upper confidence bound for the mean reward of each action based on past observations, and then select the action with the highest upper confidence bound.

\begin{figure}[H]
\begin{centering}
\begin{minipage}[t]{2.6in}
    \algsetup{indent=1em}
    \begin{algorithm}[H]
    \caption{Thompson Sampling} \label{alg:TS}
    \begin{algorithmic}[1]
    \STATE \textbf{Input}: prior $p$
    \FOR{$\ell = 1, 2, \dots, L$}
    \STATE \textbf{Sample}: $\hat{\theta}_\ell \sim p$
    \STATE \textbf{Act}: $A_\ell =  \underset{a \in \mathcal{A}}{\arg \max}\, \overline{r}_{\hat{\theta}_\ell}(a)$
    \STATE \textbf{Observe}: $Y_{\ell, A_\ell}$
    \STATE \textbf{Update}: $p \leftarrow \mathbb{P}(\theta \in \cdot | p, A_\ell, Y_{\ell, A_\ell})$
    \ENDFOR
    \end{algorithmic}
    \end{algorithm}
\end{minipage}
~~
\begin{minipage}[t]{2.7in}
    \algsetup{indent=1em}
    \begin{algorithm}[H]
    \caption{Upper Confidence Bound Algorithm} \label{alg:UCB}
    \begin{algorithmic}[1]
    \STATE \textbf{Input}: upper confidence functions $\{U_\ell\}_{\ell=1}^L$
    \FOR{$\ell = 1, 2, \dots, L$}
    \STATE \textbf{Act}: $A_\ell =  \underset{a \in \mathcal{A}}{\arg \max}\, U_\ell(\mathcal{H}_\ell, a)$
    \STATE \textbf{Observe}: $Y_{\ell, A_\ell}$
    \STATE \textbf{Update}: $\mathcal{H}_{\ell+1} \leftarrow \mathcal{H}_\ell \cup \{ A_\ell, Y_{\ell, A_\ell} \}$
    \ENDFOR
    \end{algorithmic}
    \end{algorithm}
\end{minipage}
\end{centering}
\end{figure}

\section{Information-theoretic confidence bounds} \label{sec:itcb}
Information-theoretic confidence bounds are defined with the intention of capturing the exploration-exploitation tradeoff for Thompson sampling and optimistic algorithms -- if the regret is large, the agent must have learned a lot about the environment.
Let $\Delta_\ell = \overline{r}_\theta(A^*) - \overline{r}_\theta(A_\ell)$ denote the regret over the $\ell$th period. We aim to obtain per-period regret bound of the form
\begin{equation} \label{eq:one-period-regret}
\mathbb{E}_\ell[\Delta_\ell] \leq \Gamma_\ell \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; A_\ell, Y_{\ell, A_\ell})} + \epsilon_\ell,
\end{equation}
where $I_\ell(\theta; A_\ell, Y_{\ell, A_\ell})$ is the filtered mutual information between $\theta$ and the action-outcome pair during the $\ell$th period,
$\Gamma_\ell$ is the rate at which regret scales with information gain, and we also allow for a small error term $\epsilon_\ell$.
If \eqref{eq:one-period-regret} is satisfied with reasonable values for $\Gamma_\ell$ and $\epsilon_\ell$, a large expected regret on the left-hand side would imply that the right-hand side must be large as well, meaning that the agent should gain a lot of information about the environment.

If $\Gamma_\ell$ can be uniformly bounded over $\ell = 1, \dots, L$, we obtain an information-theoretic regret bound for any algorithm that satisfies \eqref{eq:one-period-regret}.
\begin{restatable}{proposition}{propgeneralregret}
\label{prop:general-regret}
If \eqref{eq:one-period-regret} holds with $\Gamma_\ell \leq \Gamma$ for all $\ell = 1, \dots, L$, then
\[ \mathbb{E}[{\rm Regret}(L, \pi)] \leq \Gamma \sqrt{ L ~I(\theta; A_1, Y_{1, A_1}, \dots, A_{\ell}, Y_{\ell, A_{\ell}}) }
+ \mathbb{E} \sum_{\ell=1}^L \epsilon_\ell.
\]
\end{restatable}
The proof follows from Jensen's and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequalities, and the chain rule of mutual information. All complete proofs can be found in the appendix.

The mutual information term on the right-hand side shows how much the agent expects to learn about $\theta$ over $L$ periods.
If $\theta$ already concentrates around some value, there is not much to learn, and the result would suggest that the expected regret should be small.
In general, the mutual information term can be bounded by the maximal information gain under any algorithm over $L$ periods, though a more careful analysis specialized to the algorithm of interest might lead to a better bound.

One way to obtain a per-period regret bound of the form in Equation \eqref{eq:one-period-regret} is through construction of information-theoretic confidence sets for mean rewards. For each action $a$, the width of the confidence set is designed to depend on the information gain about $\theta$ from observing outcome $Y_{\ell, a}$.
\begin{restatable}{lemma}{lemmaconfidencesetreward}
\label{lemma:confidence-set-reward}
Under Assumption \ref{assumption:bdd-reward}, if
\[ \mathbb{P}_\ell \left( \left| \overline{r}_\theta(a) - \mathbb{E}_\ell \left[ \overline{r}_\theta(a) \right] \right|
\leq \frac{\Gamma_\ell}{2} \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; Y_{\ell, a})} ~~\forall a \in \mathcal{A} \right)
\geq 1 - \frac{\delta}{2}, \]
then the per-period regret of Thompson sampling and UCB with upper confidence function $U_\ell(a) = \mathbb{E}_\ell \left[ \overline{r}_\theta(a) \right] + \frac{\Gamma_\ell}{2}\sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; Y_{\ell, a})}$ satisfies
\[ \mathbb{E}_\ell \left[ \Delta_\ell \right]
\leq \Gamma_\ell \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; A_\ell, Y_{\ell, A_\ell})} + \delta B. \]
\end{restatable}
The proof follows from the probability matching property of Thompson sampling, optimism of UCB, and properties of mutual information.

When the reward function $r(y)$ is Lipschitz continuous, we may alternatively construct confidence sets on outcomes.
Further, if the observation noise is additive, we may construct confidence sets on the mean outcomes.
\begin{restatable}{lemma}{lemmaconfidencesetoutcome}
\label{lemma:confidence-set-outcome}
If $r(\cdot)$ is $K$-Lipschitz continuous with respect to some norm $\|\cdot\|$ on $\mathcal{Y}$, and if
\[ \mathbb{P}_\ell \left( \| Y_{\ell, a} - \mathbb{E}_\ell \left[ Y_{\ell, a} \right] \|
\leq \frac{\Gamma_\ell}{2} \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; Y_{\ell, a})} ~~\forall a \in \mathcal{A} \right)
\geq 1 - \frac{\delta}{2}, \]
then the per-period regret of Thompson sampling
\[ \mathbb{E}_\ell \left[ \Delta_\ell \right]
\leq K\, \Gamma_\ell \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; A_\ell, Y_{\ell, A_\ell})} + \delta B. \]
Moreover, if there exists a function $\overline{y}: \Theta \times \mathcal{A} \to \mathcal{Y}$ such that $Y_{\ell, a} - \overline{y}(\theta, a)$ is independent of $\theta$ for all $a \in \mathcal{A}$, then it is sufficient to have
\[ \mathbb{P}_\ell \left( \| \overline{y}(\theta, a) - \mathbb{E}_\ell \left[ \overline{y}(\theta, a) \right] \|
\leq \frac{\Gamma_\ell}{2} \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; Y_{\ell, a})} ~~\forall a \in \mathcal{A} \right)
\geq 1 - \frac{\delta}{2} \]
for the one-period regret bound to hold.
\end{restatable}
An analogous result would hold for a UCB algorithm if outcomes $Y_{\ell, a}$ are scalar valued and the reward function is nondecreasing. We will push further details to the appendix.

\section{Examples}
In this section, we show applications of information-theoretic confidence bounds on linear bandits, tabular MDPs, and factored MDPs.
The per-period regret bounds highlight the single-period exploration-exploitation tradeoff for Thompson sampling and the corresponding optimistic algorithms, while the cumulative regret bounds show how the prior distribution over $\theta$ affects regret.

\subsection{Linear bandits} \label{sec:linear-bandits}
Let $\mathcal{A} \subset \Re^d$ be a finite action set, and assume that $\sup_{a \in \mathcal{A}} \|a\|_2 \leq 1$.
We assume a $N(\mu_1, \Sigma_1)$ prior over the model parameter $\theta \in \Re^d$.
At time $\ell$, an action $A_\ell \in \mathcal{A}$ is selected, and $Y_{\ell, A_\ell} = \theta^\top A_\ell + w_\ell$ is observed, where $w_\ell $ are i.i.d. $N(0, \sigma_w^2)$.
Conditioned on $\mathcal{H}_\ell$, the posterior distribution of $\theta$ is again normal. Let $\mu_{\ell}$ and $\Sigma_{\ell}$ denote the posterior mean and covariance matrix conditioned on $\mathcal{H}_\ell$.
We assume that $r(\cdot)$ is bounded under Assumption \ref{assumption:bdd-reward}, and is nondecreasing and 1-Lipschitz.

By Lemma \ref{lemma:confidence-set-outcome}, since noise is additive, it is sufficient to construct confidence sets on $\overline{Y}_a = \theta^\top a$.
\begin{restatable}{lemma}{lemmalinearbanditcb}
\label{lemma:linear-bandit-cb}
Under the assumptions stated in Section \ref{sec:linear-bandits},
\[ \mathbb{P}_\ell \left( \left| \overline{Y}_a - \mathbb{E}_\ell \overline{Y}_a \right|
\leq \frac{\Gamma_\ell}{2} \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; Y_{\ell, a})} ~~\forall a \in \mathcal{A} \right)
\geq 1 - \frac{\delta}{2}, \]
for
\[ \Gamma_\ell = 4 \sqrt{ \frac{\sigma_{\ell, \max}^2}{\log\left(1 + \frac{\sigma_{\ell, \max}^2}{\sigma_w^2}\right)} \log\frac{4 |\mathcal{A}|}{\delta}},
\quad {\rm where} ~~
\sigma_{\ell, \max}^2 = \max_{a \in \mathcal{A}} a^\top \Sigma_{\ell} a. \]
\end{restatable}
Thus, it follows from Lemma \ref{lemma:confidence-set-outcome} that the one-period regret of Thompson sampling and UCB with $U_\ell(a) = \mathbb{E}_\ell \overline{Y}_a +\frac{\Gamma_\ell}{2} \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; Y_{\ell, a})}$ satisfies
\[ \mathbb{E}_\ell[\Delta_\ell] \leq \Gamma_\ell \sqrt{I_\ell(\theta; A_\ell, Y_{\ell, A_\ell})} + \delta B. \]

By Proposition \ref{prop:general-regret}, we have the following Bayesian regret bound for Thompson sampling and UCB by choosing $\delta = \frac{1}{L}$.
\begin{restatable}{proposition}{proplinearbanditregret}
\label{prop:linear-bandit-regret}
Under the assumptions stated in Section \ref{sec:linear-bandits}, the Bayesian regret of Thompson sampling and UCB over $L$ periods is
\[ \mathbb{E}[{\rm Regret}(L, \pi)] \leq \Gamma \sqrt{ L ~I(\theta; A_1, Y_{1, A_1}, \dots, A_{L}, Y_{L, A_{L}}) } +B \]
where
\[ \Gamma = 4 \sqrt{ \frac{\sigma_{1, \max}^2}{\log\left(1 + \frac{\sigma_{1, \max}^2}{\sigma_w^2}\right)} \log(4 |\mathcal{A}| L) }. \]
\end{restatable}

The following lemma bounds the maximal information gain over $L$ time periods.
\begin{restatable}{lemma}{lemmalinearbanditinformation}
\label{lemma:linear-bandit-information}
For any $\mathcal{H}_\ell$-adapted action sequence,
\[ I(\theta; A_1, Y_{1, A_1}, \dots, A_{L}, Y_{L, A_{L}}) \leq \frac{1}{2} d \log \left(1 + \frac{\lambda_{\max} L}{\sigma_w^2} \right), \]
where $\lambda_{\max}$ is the largest eigenvalue of $\Sigma_1$.
\end{restatable}

It follows from Lemma \ref{lemma:linear-bandit-information} that the Bayesian regret of Thompson sampling and UCB is bounded by $O(\sqrt{d L \log|\mathcal{A}|}\log L)$, which matches the result in \cite{srinivas2012information}.
For large action sets, it is possible to apply a discretization argument and obtain a regret bound of order $O(d\sqrt{L} \log L)$.

\subsection{Tabular MDPs}
We consider the problem of learning to optimize a random finite-horizon MDP $M = (\mathcal{S}, \mathcal{A}, R, P, \tau, \rho)$ in repeated episodes.
$\mathcal{S}$ is the state space, $\mathcal{A}$ is the action space, and we assume that both $\mathcal{S}$ and $\mathcal{A}$ are finite.
Assume that for each $s, a$, the reward distribution is Bernoulli with mean $R(s, a)$, where $R(s, a)$ follows an independent Beta prior with parameter $\alpha^R_{1, s, a} \in \Re^2$.
We further assume that for each $s, a$, the transition distribution $P(s, a, \cdot)$ follows an independent Dirichlet prior with parameter $\alpha^P_{1, s, a} \in \Re^{|\mathcal{S}|}$.
$\tau$ is a fixed time horizon, and $\rho$ is the initial state distribution.
We make the following simplifying assumption on the prior parameters.
\begin{assumption} \label{assumption:dirichlet-prior}
For all $s \in \mathcal{S}$ and $a \in \mathcal{A}$,
$\alpha^R_{1, s, a}(i) \geq 1$ for $i \in \{1, 2\}$, and $\alpha^P_{1, s, a}(j) \geq \frac{2}{|\mathcal{S}|}$ for all $j \in \{1, \dots, |\mathcal{S}|\}$.
\end{assumption}

A (deterministic) policy $\mu$ is a sequence of functions $(\mu^0, \dots, \mu^{\tau-1})$ that map states to actions.
During each episode $\ell$, the agent selects a policy $\mu_\ell$, and observes a trajectory
\[ Y_{\ell, \mu_\ell} = (s_{\ell,0}, a_{\ell,0}, r_{\ell,1}, s_{\ell,1}, \dots, s_{\ell,\tau-1}, a_{\ell,\tau-1}, r_{\ell,\tau}). \]
We define the value function of a policy $\mu$ under an MDP $\tilde{M}$
\[ V^{\tilde{M}}_{\mu, k}(s) := \mathbb{E} \left[ \sum_{t = k}^{\tau-1} R(s_t, a_t) \,\Big|\, M = \tilde{M}, \mu, s_k = s \right]. \]
Define the expected value of a policy $\mu$ under an MDP $\tilde{M}$
\[ \overline{V}^{\tilde{M}}_\mu = \mathbb{E} \left[ V^{\tilde{M}}_{\mu, 0}(s_0) \,\big|\, M = \tilde{M}, \mu \right]. \]
Let $\mu^*$ denote an optimal policy for the true environment $M$. The Bayesian regret of an algorithm $\pi$ over $L$ episodes is
\[ \mathbb{E}[ \textrm{Regret}(L, \pi) ] = \sum_{\ell=1}^L \mathbb{E} \left[ \overline{V}^M_{\mu^*} - \overline{V}^M_{\mu_\ell} \right], \]
where the expectation is taken over the randomness in observations, algorithm $\pi$, as well as the prior distribution over $M$.

We will construct confidence bounds on value functions in the spirit of Lemma \ref{lemma:confidence-set-reward}.
As we will see in the following two lemmas, the structure of MDPs allows us to break down the deviation of value functions and the information gain at the level of state-action pairs. Thus, it would be sufficient to construct confidence sets for the reward and transition functions for individual state-action pairs.

The following lemma decomposes the planning error to a sum of on-policy Bellman errors.
The proof can be found in Section 5.1 of \cite{osband2013more}.
\begin{lemma} \label{lemma:mdp-on-policy-errors}
For any MDP $\hat{M}$ and policy $\mu$,
\[
\overline{V}^{\hat{M}}_\mu - \overline{V}^M_\mu
= \sum_{t=0}^{\tau-1} \mathbb{E} \left[ \left( \hat{R}(s_t, a_t) - R(s_t, a_t) \right)
+ \left( \hat{P}(s_t, a_t) - P(s_t, a_t) \right)^\top V^{\hat{M}}_{\mu, t+1}
\bigg| \hat{M}, M, \mu \right],
\]
where $\hat{R}$, $\hat{P}$ are the reward and transition functions under $\hat{M}$.
\end{lemma}

Let $ \mathcal{H}_{\ell t} = (\mu_\ell, s_{\ell, 0}, a_{\ell, 0}, \dots, r_{\ell, t}, s_{\ell, t}) $ denote the history of episode $\ell$ up to time $t$ and the policy selected for episode $\ell$.
The chain rule of mutual information gives us the following lemma.
\begin{lemma} \label{lemma:mdp-info-decomp}
(information decomposition)
\[
I_\ell \left( M ;~ \mu_\ell, Y_{\ell, \mu_\ell}\right)
= \sum_{t=0}^{\tau-1} I_{\ell} \left( M ;~ (s_{\ell, t}, a_{\ell, t}, r_{\ell, t+1}, s_{\ell, t+1}) ~|~ \mathcal{H}_{\ell t} \right).
\]
\end{lemma}

By Lemmas \ref{lemma:mdp-on-policy-errors} and \ref{lemma:mdp-info-decomp}, we will construct information-theoretic confidence sets for reward and transition distributions individually for each state-action pair.
\begin{restatable}{lemma}{lemmamdpcb}
\label{lemma:mdp-cb}
Let $ r_{\ell, t, s, a} \sim {\rm Bernoulli}(R(s, a)) \,|\, \mathcal{H}_\ell, \mathcal{H}_{\ell t}$
~and~ $ s'_{\ell, t, s, a} \sim P(s, a, \cdot) \,|\, \mathcal{H}_\ell, \mathcal{H}_{\ell t} $.
Then,
\begin{equation} \label{eq:mdp-cb-reward}
\mathbb{P}_\ell \left( \left| R(s, a) - \mathbb{E}_\ell R(s, a) \right|
\leq \Gamma^R \sqrt{ \min_{\tilde{t}, h_{\tilde{t}}} I_{\ell}(R; s, a, r_{\ell, \tilde{t}, s, a} \,|\, \mathcal{H}_{\ell \tilde{t}} = h_{\tilde{t}}) } \right) \geq 1-\delta
\end{equation}
and
\begin{equation} \label{eq:mdp-cb-transition}
\mathbb{P}_\ell \left( \left| \big( P(s, a) - \mathbb{E}_\ell P(s, a) \big)^\top V^M_{\mu^*, t+1} \right|
\leq \Gamma^P \sqrt{ \min_{\tilde{t}, h_{\tilde{t}}}  I_{\ell}(P; s, a, s'_{\ell, \tilde{t}, s, a} \,|\, \mathcal{H}_{\ell \tilde{t}} = h_{\tilde{t}}) } \right) \geq 1-\delta
\end{equation}
for all $t$ and all $s, a$ such that $\mathbf{1}^\top \alpha^R_{\ell, s, a} \geq \tau - 1$ and $\mathbf{1}^\top \alpha^P_{\ell, s, a} \geq \tau - 1$, respectively, where
\[ \Gamma^R = \sqrt{24 \log\textstyle{\frac{2}{\delta}}}
\quad \text{and} \quad
\Gamma^P = \tau\sqrt{24 \log\textstyle{\frac{2}{\delta}}}. \]
\end{restatable}

The terms $\min_{\tilde{t}, h_{\tilde{t}}} I_{\ell}(R; s, a, r_{\ell, \tilde{t}, s, a} \,|\, \mathcal{H}_{\ell \tilde{t}} = h_{\tilde{t}})$ and $\min_{\tilde{t}, h_{\tilde{t}}}  I_{\ell}(P; s, a, s'_{\ell, \tilde{t}, s, a} \,|\, \mathcal{H}_{\ell \tilde{t}} = h_{\tilde{t}})$ measure the minimum per-step information gain that the agent can obtain about the reward and transition functions of a state-action pair during the $\ell$th episode, conditioned on $\mathcal{H}_\ell$, where the minimum is taken over all possible values of the time step $0 \leq \tilde{t} \leq \tau - 1$ and all possible realizations of the trajectory $\mathcal{H}_{\ell \tilde{t}}$.

Lemma \ref{lemma:mdp-cb} allows us to construct a high probability confidence set $\mathcal{M}_\ell$ over $M$, which is discussed more in details in the appendix. The corresponding UCB algorithm will select $\mu_\ell = \arg\max_{\mu} \max_{\hat{M} \in \mathcal{M}_\ell} \overline{V}^{\hat{M}}_\mu$.
Combining with Lemmas \ref{lemma:mdp-on-policy-errors} and \ref{lemma:mdp-info-decomp}, we are able to obtain a per-period regret bound for Thompson sampling and UCB in the form of \eqref{eq:one-period-regret}, with $\Gamma_\ell = \tilde{O}(\tau \sqrt{\tau})$. This leads to the following proposition.
\begin{restatable}{proposition}{propmdpregret}
\label{prop:mdp-regret}
The Bayesian regret of Thompson sampling and UCB over $L$ episodes is
\[ \mathbb{E}[{\rm Regret}(L, \pi)] = \tilde{O} \left( \tau \sqrt{\tau L ~I(M; \mu_1, Y_{1, \mu_1}, \dots, \mu_{L}, Y_{L, \mu_{L}}) } \right). \]
\end{restatable}

We show in the appendix that $I(M; \mu_1, Y_{1, \mu_1}, \dots, \mu_{L}, Y_{L, \mu_{L}}) = \tilde{O}(S^2 A)$. Though we conjecture that a bound of $\tilde{O}(SA)$ may be attainable under appropriate conditions. The conjecture is supported by our simulations, as discussed in the appendix.

\subsection{Factored MDPs}
Factored MDPs \cite{boutilier2000stochastic} are a class of structured MDPs where transitions are represented by a dynamic Bayesian network \cite{ghahramani1998learning}, and can typically be encoded in a compact parametric form. Our information-theoretic approach will lead to a regret bound for Thompson sampling and UCB that depends on the prior of the model parameter, which typically has dimension exponentially smaller than the state space and action space.

We start with some definitions common in the literature \cite{szita2009optimistic}.
\begin{definition} \label{def:fmdp-scope}
Let $\mathcal{X} = \mathcal{X}_1 \times \dots \times \mathcal{X}_d$ be a factored set.
For any subset of indices $Z \subseteq \{1, 2, \dots, d\}$, we define the scope set $\mathcal{X}[Z] := \otimes_{i \in Z} \mathcal{X}_i$.
Further, for any $x \in \mathcal{X}$, define the scope variable $x[Z] \in \mathcal{X}[Z]$ to be the value of the variables $x_i \in \mathcal{X}_i$ with indices $i \in Z$.
If $Z$ is a singleton, we will write $x[i]$ for $x[\{i\}]$.
\end{definition}

Let $\mathcal{P}(\mathcal{X}, \mathcal{Y})$ denote the set of functions that map $x \in \mathcal{X}$ to a probability distribution on $\mathcal{Y}$.
\begin{definition} \label{def:fmdp-freward}
The reward function class $\mathcal{R} \subset \mathcal{P}(\mathcal{X}, \Re)$ is factored over $\mathcal{S} \times \mathcal{A} = \mathcal{X} = \mathcal{X}_1 \times \dots \times \mathcal{X}_d$ with scopes $Z_1, \dots, Z_m$ if and only if, for all $R \in \mathcal{R}$, $x \in \mathcal{X}$, there exist functions $\{R_i \in \mathcal{P}(\mathcal{X}[Z_i], \Re) \}_{i = 1}^m$ such that
\[ \mathbb{E}[r] = \sum_{i=1}^m \mathbb{E}[r_i] \]
where $r \sim R(x)$ is equal to $\sum_{i=1}^m r_i$ with each $r_i \sim R_i(x[Z_i])$ individually observed.
\end{definition}

\begin{definition} \label{def:fmdp-ftransition}
The transition function class $\mathcal{P} \subset \mathcal{P}(\mathcal{X}, \mathcal{S})$ is factored over $\mathcal{S} \times \mathcal{A} = \mathcal{X} = \mathcal{X}_1 \times \dots \times \mathcal{X}_d$ and $\mathcal{S} = \mathcal{S}_1 \times \dots \times \mathcal{S}_n$ with scopes $Z_1, \dots, Z_n$ if and only if, for all $P \in \mathcal{P}$, $x \in \mathcal{X}$, $s \in \mathcal{S}$, there exist functions $\{P_j \in \mathcal{P}(\mathcal{X}[Z_j], \mathcal{S}_j)\}_{j=1}^n$ such that
\[ P(s | x) = \prod_{j=1}^n P_j ( s[j] ~|~ x[Z_j] ). \]
\end{definition}
A factored MDP is an MDP with factored rewards and transitions. Let $\mathcal{X} = \mathcal{S} \times \mathcal{A}$. A factored MDP is fully characterized by
\[
M = \left( \{\mathcal{X}_i\}_{i=1}^d; ~  \{Z_i^R\}_{i=1}^m; ~  \{R_i\}_{i=1}^m; ~
 \{\mathcal{S}_j\}_{j=1}^n; ~ \{Z_j^P\}_{j=1}^n; ~  \{P_j\}_{j=1}^n; ~
 \tau; ~\rho \right), \]
where $\{Z_i^R\}_{i=1}^m$ and $\{Z_j^P\}_{j=1}^n$ are the scopes for the reward and transition functions, which we assume are known to the agent, $\tau$ is a fixed time horizon, and $\rho$ is the initial state distribution.

We assume that $|Z^R_i|, |Z^P_j| \leq \zeta \ll d$ and $|\mathcal{X}_i| \leq K$, so the domain of any reward and transition function has size at most $K^\zeta$.
Let $D_R = \sum_{i=1}^m \left| \mathcal{X}[Z^R_i] \right|$ and $D_P = \sum_{j=1}^n \left| \mathcal{X}[Z^P_j] \right|$
be the sum of the cardinality of the domains, and let $D = D_R + D_P \ll |\mathcal{S}| |\mathcal{A}|$.
To simplify exposition, let us assume that $|\mathcal{S}_j| \leq K$ for all $j = 1, \dots, n$.

Let $x^R_i$ denote an element in $\mathcal{X}[Z^R_i]$, and $x^P_j$ denote an element in $\mathcal{X}[Z^P_j]$.
We assume that the factorized rewards are Bernoulli. With a slight abuse of notation, we let $R_i(x^R_i)$ denote the mean reward, and we assume that $\textstyle{R_i(x^R_i) \sim \text{Beta}(\alpha^R_{1, i, x^R_i})}$, where $\textstyle{\alpha^R_{1, i, x^R_i} \in \Re^2}$.
We further assume that $\textstyle{P_j(x^P_j, \cdot) \sim \text{Dirichlet}(\alpha^P_{1, j, x^P_j})}$, $\textstyle{\alpha^P_{1, j, x^P_j} \in \Re^{|\mathcal{S}_j|}}$.
Similar to the tabular case, we assume that each component of $\alpha^R_{1, i, x^R_i}$ is at least 1, and each component of $\alpha^P_{1, j, x^P_j}$ is at least $\frac{2}{|\mathcal{S}_j|}$ for all $i$ and $j$.

Lemmas \ref{lemma:mdp-on-policy-errors} and \ref{lemma:mdp-info-decomp} still hold.
Since the reward and transition functions can be factorized, we will construct information-theoretic confidence bounds on these factor functions.
\begin{restatable}{lemma}{lemmafmdpcb}
\label{lemma:fmdp-cb}
Let $ r_{\ell, t, i, x^R_i} \sim {\rm Bernoulli}(R(x^R_i)) \,|\, \mathcal{H}_\ell, \mathcal{H}_{\ell t}$
~and~ $ s'_{\ell, t, j, x^P_j} \sim P_j(x^P_j, \cdot) \,|\, \mathcal{H}_\ell, \mathcal{H}_{\ell t}$.
Then,
\begin{equation} \label{eq:fmdp-cb-reward}
\mathbb{P}_\ell \left( \left| R_i (x^R_i) - \mathbb{E}_\ell R_i(x^R_i) \right|
\leq \Gamma^R \sqrt{ \min_{\tilde{t}, h_{\tilde{t}}} I_\ell (R_i; x^R_i, r_{\ell, \tilde{t}, i, x^R_i} ~|~ \mathcal{H}_{\ell \tilde{t}} = h_{\tilde{t}} ) } \right) \geq 1-\delta
\end{equation}
and
\begin{equation} \label{eq:fmdp-cb-transition}
\mathbb{P}_\ell \left( \| P_j(x^P_j) - \mathbb{E}_\ell P_j(x^P_j) \|_1
\leq \Gamma^P_j \sqrt{ \min_{\tilde{t}, h_{\tilde{t}}} I_\ell (P_j; x^P_j, s'_{\ell, \tilde{t}, j, x^P_j} ~|~ \mathcal{H}_{\ell \tilde{t}} = h_{\tilde{t}} ) } \right) \geq 1-\delta
\end{equation}
for all $s, a$ such that $\mathbf{1}^\top \alpha^R_{\ell, i, x^R_i} \geq \tau - 1$ and $\mathbf{1}^\top \alpha^P_{\ell, j, x^P_j} \geq \tau - 1$, respectively, with
\[ \Gamma^R = 2 \sqrt{6 \log\textstyle{\frac{2}{\delta}}} \quad \text{and} \quad \Gamma^P_j =  4 \sqrt{6 |\mathcal{S}_j| \log\textstyle{\frac{2}{\delta}}}. \]
\end{restatable}

The lemma allows us to obtain a per-period regret bound in the form of \eqref{eq:one-period-regret} for Thompson sampling and a UCB algorithm that uses \eqref{eq:fmdp-cb-reward} and \eqref{eq:fmdp-cb-transition} to construct confidence sets. As shown in the appendix, the scaling factor $\Gamma_\ell = \tilde{O}(m\tau \sqrt{(m+n) K \tau})$, which leads to the following proposition.
\begin{restatable}{proposition}{propfmdpregret}
\label{prop:fmdp-regret}
The Bayesian regret of Thompson sampling and UCB over $L$ episodes is
\[ \mathbb{E}[{\rm Regret}(L, \pi)]
= \tilde{O} \left( m \tau \sqrt{(m+n) K \tau L \, I \left(M; \mu_1, Y_{1, \mu_1}, \dots, \mu_{L}, Y_{L, \mu_{L}} \right) } \right). \]
\end{restatable}

Similar to the tabular case, we show that
$ I \left(M; \mu_1, Y_{1, \mu_1}, \dots, \mu_{L}, Y_{L, \mu_{L}} \right)$ is $\tilde{O}(K D)$ for any algorithm,
while we conjecture that this may be $\tilde{O}(D)$ under appropriate conditions.
The resulting regret bound matches the one in \cite{osband2014near} if the conjecture proves to be true.
Again, our bound in Proposition \ref{prop:fmdp-regret} reveals an explicit dependence on the prior uncertainty, which is not captured by previous work.

\section{Conclusion}
We introduce information-theoretic confidence bounds for analyzing Thompson sampling and deriving optimistic algorithms.
We show that the information-theoretic approach allows us to formally quantify the agent's information gain of the unknown environment, and to explicitly characterize the exploration-exploitation tradeoff for linear bandits, tabular MDPs, and factored MDPs.
This work opens up multiple directions for future research.
It would be interesting to extend information-theoretic confidence bounds to a broader range of problems and see whether a general information-theoretic framework is plausible for addressing online decision problems.
It would also be interesting to think about whether an information-theoretic perspective could lead to tighter regret bounds for Thompson sampling and optimistic algorithms.
One may also consider the practical implications of these confidence bounds and how they can be used to design better reinforcement learning algorithms.

\subsubsection*{Acknowledgments}
This work was generously supported by the Charles and Katherine Lin Graduate Fellowship, the Dantzig-Lieberman Operations Research Fellowship, and a research grant from Boeing. We would also like to thank Ayfer \"Ozg\"ur and Daniel Russo for helpful discussions.

\bibliographystyle{plain}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Friendly atmosphere good service and the best food around.
Food prepared perfect! Great customer service. Fast service.
This is one of my 2 favorite Shark's. The service is always fairly quick but the best thing is that the chicken wings are always HOT and FRESH. I've never had a bad experience at this restaurant. And by the way, the other good Shark's is on 147th and Kedzie.


text:
UCL European Institute
UCL Europe Blog
UCL hosts roundtable of UK-Swiss research leaders
The second in a series of UCL European Institute convened roundtables on European research collaboration convened university leaders from the UK and Switzerland to reflect on bilateral cooperation and the evolving politics of Horizon Europe association.
On 26 November 2021, UCL Vice-Provost for Research, Innovation and Global Engagement Professor David Price and Professor Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, co-hosted a closed roundtable discussion 'The UK-Swiss-EU Research Relationship: Opportunities and Shared Priorities'.
The roundtable, chaired by UCL European Institute Executive Director and Pro-Vice-Provost for Europe, Dr Uta Staiger, and with opening remarks from the Swiss and UK Ambassadors, provided an opportunity to reflect on the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between the UK and Switzerland; approaches to managing uncertainty regarding association to Horizon Europe; and shared priorities for the future of European research.
Discussions which included representatives from leading UK and Swiss institutions, funding and representative bodies, underlined the potential for a UK-Swiss lead agency agreement and roadmap for long-term cooperation; reciprocal access to large-scale research infrastructures; and student and doctoral mobility.
In response to an account of the lasting damage inflicted on the Swiss research system following their exclusion from Horizon Europe (2014-2016, and from 2021 onwards) UK sector representatives reflected on the wisdom of the Swiss approach to managing uncertainty relating to association, by mirroring EU funding programmes to preserve 'strategic space' for association in the medium-term.
The session closed with a discussion on the EU's increasing emphasis on 'strategic autonomy', noting that the evolving approach to associated countries under Horizon Europe will determine the long-term sustainability of the programme's global ambitions.
Dr Uta Staiger said: 'UCL was delighted to convene such a timely and wide-ranging discussion between UK and Swiss research leaders, which underlined our mutual appetite for closer bilateral cooperation and provided useful insights into Swiss approaches to managing and mitigating uncertainty with respect to Horizon Europe'.
This event was part of a series of curated policy conversations, convened by the European Institute, and designed to strengthen UK ties with continental European research systems, post-Brexit. The series began in July 2021 with an event hosted by UCL President & Provost Dr Michael Spence and UCL European Institute Visiting Professor Carlos Moedas (now Mayor of Lisbon).
For an in-depth exploration of the differential impact of disruptive relations with the EU on the UK and Swiss higher education systems, please see the recent European Institute policy paper 'In and out of the European Research Area: System and Institutional Resilience in the UK and Switzerland' written by Professor Tatiana Fumasoli to inform this event.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This month has been hard. I feel as though my heart and mind have been physically wrung out. I recently entered into a season (hopefully a short season) of grief and pain. I have been surrounded by death and the hope for life. This month has been hard.
I felt anxiety try to wring out the peace and patience from my soul.
I felt sorrow try to wring out the joy from my heart.
I felt grief try to wring out the trust in God from my mind.
My body was physically and emotionally drained.
And yet, my God lingered still.
The Holy Spirit led me to force feed myself scriptures, even when I didn't want to believe the words I was reading. Last night, I was worshipping and praying and pouring my heart out to my God. Desiring to trust in Him more, desiring to understand His ways, desiring to be comforted by Him.
And of course He lovingly responds. He reminded me of His story. His big picture. He reminds me that He was faithful to Joseph, Joshua, Moses, Rahab, Esther, Job, Hannah, Daniel, Mary, Paul, Peter, and the woman at the well.
Not only WAS He faithful. He is faithful STILL. Even though I can't see it.
He restored the trust, peace, patience, and joy. He never let them leave me. He was faithful. He will be faithful to me.
He reminded me that I believe in a good God. I believe. I know. I am confident that He is a good, steadfast, faithful God.
And he is all I need.


text:
Q: Instagram oAuth login with Facebook account I'm trying to build a connection to the Instagram API using the instagram-oauth gem. However, when I open the oauth url, I'm not able to log into my Instagram account via Facebook. Only username/password is shown. Do I have to activate Facebook login support?

A: Instagram's API requires OAuth 2.0 and it does not support logging in to Instagram with Facebook. OAuth launches the Instagram login via a prebuilt, un-editable web browser, so this functionality is not possible at this point in time.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A warm welcome is extended to you and your child.
Our Children's Centre is one of thirty-eight Children's Centres being established across South Australia, including four Aboriginal Children and Family Centres.
Children's Centres bring together care, education, health, community development activities and family services for families and their children eight years and under.
Children's Centres recognise and respect cultural diversity and provide programs and services that are inclusive of all members of the community.
A range of programs and activities are available to support Aboriginal families in Children's Centres. In addition, the four Aboriginal Children and Family Centres focus on supporting Aboriginal families and their children five years and under.
Most health and parent support services and programs are provided at little or no cost.
We trust that your time at our Children's Centre will be enjoyable and invite you to become fully involved in our activities.


The 8-bed Intensive Observation Unit (IOU) at our Dixie Road site is one feature that sets us apart from many other CROs. The unit is fully equipped with 'state of the art' equipment and is designed for studies that require intensive observation and monitoring. Our procedure room is equipped for special procedures as listed below.
The unit is staffed by nurse-coordinators, who have many years experience in the critical care setting. The available medical staff includes Intensivists, Cardiologists and Respirologists.
We can also develop or adopt other special procedures that the protocol may require.


Rochelle Galindo is an American politician who was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in the 2018 Colorado House of Representatives election. She represents the 50th House District as a member of the Democratic Party.
She is out as a lesbian.
Following Gallindo's yes vote on Colorado Senate Bill 19-181, a bill that would limit oil and gas production in the state, a committee was organized to recall her. Her district lies in Weld County, one of the state's major petroleum and natural gas producing regions. To be successful, the committee must gather nearly 6,000 valid voter signatures by June 3, 2019, and the recall question would appear on the ballot later in the year.
^ "Rochelle Galindo wins House District 50 race with late landslide". Greeley Tribune, November 8, 2018.
^ "Colorado Makes Political Waves". OutFront, November 8, 2018.
^ Bloom, Matt (2019-04-06). "Rep. Galindo Says Recall Effort 'Has Everything To Do With Who I Am". KUNC. Retrieved 2019-04-17.


text:
Memoirs Of An Average Nigerian
Gender Equality in International Institutions: Progress and Challenges in Moving Toward Gender Parity
October 15, 2018 Featured Feminism Literature by NaijaMemoirsLeave a Comment on Gender Equality in International Institutions: Progress and Challenges in Moving Toward Gender Parity
The International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda, for the first time in international law, recognized sexual violence in conflict as crimes against humanity and grave breaches of international law. Subsequently, the International Criminal Court was created with a gender-mainstreamed focus on international issues, and UN Resolutions required states to make gender parity in representation and gender equality national goals. However, when faced with changes in formal rules, institutions often react to reinforce old traditional gender norms and significant challenges remain for international institutions to recognize, involve, and respect women as agents and policy makers in the international security arena.
The 1993 and 1994 statutes that created the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) broke new ground in international criminal law by recognizing for the first time rape as a crime against humanity in the context of a war tribunal. The Rome Statute, the treaty that created the International Criminal Court in 2002, was seen by many in international law as heralding a new era of international criminal justice and security in which, for the first time in its history, gender-based violence would be acknowledged and punished for its full effect on women in wartime, and would serve to further advance efforts at gender equality for women in the world. The Rome Statute, for the first time in international law, codified violence against women as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and in some instances, genocide.
Though rape and sexual violence in armed conflict had been codified as criminal since 1949 when Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention included rape, enforced prostitution, and indecent assaults as crimes, sexual violence was still not seen as a grave or serious breach of law, and was understood by its enactors as "an attack on honor" (Pruitt, 2012, citing KWO, 2004), implying the criminality of the act as related to men's property of her. To now classify rape as a victimization of women, not as a social or ego injury to men, was also seen as a huge advance in the early 2000s in furthering women's human rights.
Though many steps have been made toward women's equality internationally, what remains to be seen is the effect these steps can have in practice in terms of advancing women's overall human rights, when the international institutions in charge of creating, adopting, and enforcing human rights – the ICC, the United Nations and NATO, to name a few – have historically and universally been male-dominated. While the ICC has attempted to impart a gender-sensitive approach and "mainstream" gender in their recent handling of criminal cases, the way in which institutions formally and informally serve to reinforce the implicit gender norms of their actors can hinder the adoption and application of gender justice unless gender parity is truly achieved.
This paper discusses the ideas of gendered institutionalism, the formal and informal rules of institutions to adapt to new gender norms or reinforce existing ones. I explore how the lack of adaptation of new norms, in particular with regard to gender parity in representation and employment in these institutions, affects "gender mainstreaming" defined by NATO as "the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programs, in all areas and at all levels" (Isaksson, p 53). As a result, this lack of adaptation ultimately influences gender justice, particularly in the cases of sexual violence in conflict, peacekeeping, and in systems of transitional justice.
GENDERED NEW AND OLD INSTITUTIONS
According to feminist scholars, formal rules in institutions involve rules that are "created, communicated, and enforced through channels widely accepted as official" (Chappell 2014, Helmke and Levitsky 2004) and can involve mandates, company policies, mission statements, and codes of conduct. Informal rules, on the other hand, are the "unwritten" rules that govern the behavior and attitudes, and form the culture of, organizations, involving common practices and norms that can develop over time of how one acts or reacts in certain situations. For example, men may hold informal meetings in pubs and men's' clubs that either overtly exclude women from entry or are held and arranged during off-hours when a woman might be putting children to bed.
Another oft-cited euphemism for these informally operating rules would be "old boys' networks" – entrenched forms of patronage, fraternizing, and nepotism that privileges "favored sons" and excludes women. Feminist scholars assert that, particularly within the masculine-dominant political, legal and diplomatic arena, such norms are structured by gender-biased assumptions inherent to the institution. Chappell (2014) writes, "such gender biases can inhere in formal institutions, through overtly discriminatory rules that ban men and women from participating in certain activities for instance" (p. 184). Azari and Smith, however, contend that "informal institutions exist when shared expectations outside the official rules of the game structure political behavior" (Chappell, 2014, p. 184, citing Azari and Smith, 2012, p. 39).
Formal and informal rules are often coupled and can closely interact. However, in the absence of formal rules, informal rules and norms can fill in the holes as a "backup" policy. Chappelle writes that, in the context of norms, "gender norms may work with or against formal institutions to entrench gender inequalities" (p. 184). Thus, while an institution may have a formal written policy against discrimination, informal norms and understandings about the "way" things are done can counteract this policy to keep the status quo intact. In particular, Chappell and Waylen (2013) write that "gender norms have…proven to be very 'sticky'" and that "challengers of existing gender logics of appropriateness have often been treated as 'deviants' and punished through acts of censure, ridicule, and harassment" (Chappelle and Waylen, p. 603).
Examples can be seen in the discussion of the "glass ceiling" that women have faced in trying to advance their careers. Rudman, Moss-Racusin, Phelan, and Nauts (2012) have identified a backlash effect that agentic female leaders in organizations face when acting against their perceived gender role, in a series of studies that demonstrated the catch-22 that women face: "because their gender status is lower than men's, they must enact agency to be viewed as 'fit' for leadership – yet if they do so, they risk backlash" (p. 175). Such backlash can be viewed as a "dominance penalty," in such that agency by women is interpreted negatively by men rating their performance.
Rudman and Phelan (2008), citing a study of law firm partners, found that male partners "criticized the female partners for acting like men, rated them as having unpleasant personalities, and viewed their authority as illegitimate, despite high competence ratings" (p. 67, citing Ely, 1994). This penalty serves to reinforce a gender hierarchy that is not uncommon, especially in the world of international politics and security, and current examples are not difficult to find; as a Senator, Hillary Clinton was labeled as "too angry" for criticizing the Bush administration's foreign policy, but in other contexts, has been labeled as too weak to lead, causing feminists to remark, "if she doesn't speak out strongly against President Bush, she's timid and girlie. If she does, she's a witch and a shrew" (Rudman, et. al, 2008, p. 70, citing Dowd, 2006, p. A21).
Joni Lovenduski (2014) chronicled the well-documented history of sexist backlash in U.K. parliamentary politics, noting that currently women comprise only 22 percent of deputies in today's legislatures (p. 16). She writes that in the U.K., "female MPs in the House of Commons are often subject to insulting sexist abuse, frequently amplified by subsequent press comment" and notes that "women's experiences of sexism when they enter public life are pretty much a global phenomenon" (p. 16). Women also face the burden, like members of minority groups, of having to represent their gender as a whole, and "that any of their mistakes will be attributed to their entire group" (p. 19). In an episode in the most recent season of the HBO series Veep, President Sonia Meyer's chief of staff, Amy Brookheimer, referring to this burden of representation in excoriating her boss's incompetence, declared, "You have achieved nothing apart from one thing. The fact that you are a woman means we will have no more women presidents because we tried one and she[expletive] sucked!" (Iannucci & Laing, 2015).
The creation of the International Criminal Court was thus seen as a possible avenue to correct and redress the gender disparity in representation that has traditionally been apparent in "old" institutions. Though the ICTY and ICTR were established with a victim-centered and thus an intended gender-sensitive approach, only two out of eleven judges selected to be on the ICTY were women, and the second woman to be elected, Elizabeth Odio-Benito of Costa Rica, was only selected "late in the balloting and after heavy political negotiations" (Hoefgen, 1999, p. 160). As Benito noted, the inclusion of women on the ICTY would be significant and essential to the provision of gender justice. She wrote, "There will be no justice unless women are part of that justice" (cited in Hoefgen, p. 60). ICTY prosecutors at the beginning of the trial of Dragan Nikolic did not think they had sufficient evidence to charge him with gender crimes, causing Benito to "publicly exhort" prosecutors to include gender crimes in the indictment. (Grossman, p. 649). Judge Patricia Wald also notes that five major legal precedents regarding gender crimes were crafted "when at least one woman judge sat on the bench" (p. 649).
It should not be assumed that male judges would not be able to appreciate the severity and injury of the crimes of sexual violence, but that female judges add a unique voice and perspective on sexual assault to the proceedings, as sexual violence is known to affect women in armed conflict in much greater numbers than men, and thus "are privy to crimes of sexual violence unattainable by men" (Hoefgen, p. 160). Notably, the indictment and conviction of the Foca 8 – which charged eight Bosnian Serbs for sixty-two crimes of sexual assault in the Bosnian city of Foca – was the first indictment dealing exclusively with crimes of sexual assault and sexual degradation. It is also notable in that the United Nations, in establishing the ICTY, included a statute, Article 22, that evidenced a gender-sensitive policy of victim and witness protection from humiliation, and that in ruling that witness corroboration of victim testimony would not be required, confirmed a gender-sensitive understanding of the often-private nature of sexual assault. Furthermore, and importantly, Article 22 rejects consent as a defense (though this did not stop some of the defendants from trying to claim it), if coercion or threat was apparent, and does not allow prior sexual conduct of the victim to be presented either, nullifying certain rape myths that discount and discredit many rape victims.
Since the ICTR trials used the same prosecutor as the ICTY, Richard Goldstone, it was assumed that the gains made in terms of gender sensitivity and gender justice would carry over to the ICTR, but these gains were not easy to come by and involved more challenges. The ICTR failed, at the outset, to establish judicial parity, in that Judge Navanethem Pillay was the only female judge amongst the nine elected ICTR judges. This gender disparity would affect the gender-sensitive nature of the prosecution. According to Koomen's account of the ICTR, during the cross-examination of a witness in the trial of six defendants in what is known as the Butare case, one witness known as "TA" testified that she had been repeatedly gang-raped by militia members and infected with HIV. During her cross-examination, the defense attorney insinuated that she could not have been raped because she smelled badly; according to the media reporting the case, at this remark, the presiding judges "burst out laughing" (Koomen, p. 266), a further humiliation for the victim and clearly an inappropriate and insensitive reaction. Procedures were furthermore not in place to ensure the protection of victims. One witness said that when she returned to Rwanda after the trial, "everyone knew" she had testified about rape at the ICTR, causing her fiancé to leave her, and her house to be attacked.
The biggest victory at the ICTR in the prosecution of sexual violence, in fact, may not have happened were it not for the further efforts of the one female presiding judge, Judge Pillay. During the trial of Jean-Paul Akeyesu, charged with genocide but not rape, one witness on the stand testified to a rape, causing Judge Pillay to request a postponement of the case in order to further question the witness. This resulted in an amendment of the original indictment against Akeyesu to include rape, and assure the prosecution of sexual violence (Haddad, 2011). For the first time, rape was established as a crime of genocide in case law.
Culled from The Inquiries Journal
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It sounds like the break did you a lot of good. I'm so excited about the handwork and other projects you were able to start, and of course I'm super eager to hear more about the book and other projects I know you can't share just yet. Learning the art of balance and how to say not right now or no to an opportunity always seems like such a hard lesson, but from my perspective you seem to be managing things gracefully and I'll certainly be here for you (via IG and your newsletter and email and FB and OMG basically stalking you)!
My life is stretched way too thin at the moment as well so I hear what you are saying. I'm glad you have found time to look after yourself.
Absolutely nothing wrong with stepping back. You may feel more creative as deadlines aren't looming. From personal experience it's nice to create without a plan. Also just writing or doing what makes you happiest.
It's great to get away, reflect on what's important to you, and then simplify. Congratulations for taking courageous steps!
Good for you! Sometimes even just reading about all the things some of you ladies do makes me stress just wondering how you get it all done! I'm happy for you that you've found a way to simplify your life. I think you'll be a happier quilter!
Good on you for taking control, I hope it means that you get to enjoy what you're doing even more. I'm excited that you're thinking about online classes because that would give me a chance to take a class with you.
I'm reading so many blog posts at the moment about people taking a step back, resting, thinking and coming back with a sense of direction and the the willingness to let go of some things in order to go more deeply into others. Your time away has been very fruitful - enjoy putting your plans into action :-) And I don't think you'll loose any blog friends by taking a breather every now and again!


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The Titan Girls Cross-Country team completed a great season finising 12th @ the MHSAA State Finals held at MIS Speedway in Detroit on Saturday. Hannah Smith finished 23rd overall to grab All-State Honors! Congratulations to the all the athletes, parents and coaches.


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Deliberately Me: Not Now! Migraine Interference.
I don't know if it is a migraine thing, or just a me thing, but I have a unhelpful belief in 'Murphy's Law'.
I have started a new job ..... therefore it is obvious I need to get LOTS of migraines, preferably in my first week, so that my employers know right off the bat how I roll.
I am doing a four hour trip, alone, with the kids, so now is the perfect time for an aura, right?
Dinner party, my house? Sure, bring it on migraine genie.
Just had a great long bike ride, really pushed hard. Feel wonderful, I am going to start on marathons next.... what's that strange smell? Oh, that's right, exercise gives me migraines , I forgot. Lead me to the couch.
Can't wait to see my friend who has flown in for one day.... on my way out the door, aura. Maybe she wants to come to my house and talk to me in a dark room while I keep my eyes closed?
I am having my annual performance review, now is the perfect time for a migraine hit, just in case my boss had forgotten all my days off!
Mr Murphy, you are NOT my friend.
Okay, that's my weekly complain session over. Now its your turn, let me know the most inconvenient migraine you have had.
Hey, you get exercise migraines too? Very annoying!
Also reminded me of how much I hide my migraines at work. Mainly, because they just don't understand.
This past weekend I had a KILLER MIGRAINE and was on the verge of tears because of things that I could not do for my children. I wasn't able to go work on Monday which was a holiday for some, but not my office. On Tuesday I was asked (in a whisper), "did you really have a migraine or did you just take off for the holiday?" REALLY??? If I want a day off, I'll take a vacation day! The last thing I'm going to do is fake a migraine.


Carole Jeung is a painter, printmaker, educator and graphic designer in San Francisco. She holds an MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC), Oakland, CA, and a BA from Stanford University.
Her work can be seen at Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco.


The 7×20mm Nambu is a rimless, bottleneck handgun cartridge designed in Japan for use in the "Baby" model Nambu pistol. The cartridge is ballistically similar to the .32 ACP.
7 years have passed since I started to learn bread.


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text:
Cookie Monster wants to know ...
Why is a cookie called a cookie? Anyone know?
I'm talking about the web tracking techy doobry wotsit that my scans flag up as being security risks - not the American biscuit.
Although, come to that, just why is an American biscuit called a cookie? Wouldn't a bakie be a more appropriate name?
But then they have something called bakes in the Caribbean - and they're often fried ...
The Wikiwikiwhatnot says:
HTTP cookies, sometimes known as web cookies or just cookies, are parcels of text sent by a server to a web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. HTTP cookies are used for authenticating, tracking, and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences and the contents of their electronic shopping carts. Cookies have been of concern for Internet privacy, since they can be used for tracking browsing behavior. As a result, they have been subject to legislation in various countries such as the United States and in the European Union. Cookies have also been criticised because the identification of users they provide is not always accurate and because they could potentially be used for network attacks. Some alternatives to cookies exist, but each has its own drawbacks.
Cookies are also subject to a number of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion that they are computer programs. In fact, cookies are simple pieces of data unable to perform any operation by themselves. In particular, they are neither spyware nor viruses, despite the detection of cookies from certain sites by many anti-spyware products.
Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies, but rejection makes some websites unusable. For example, shopping baskets implemented using cookies do not work if cookies are rejected.
Minx says:
If I come and visit you I drop a little cookie in yer jar so as you know it's me.
Yeah - I KNEW that! But why are they called 'cookies'?
Doh - you screen deaf or something?
I don't know about cookies - but too much cleaning up can destroy yours and your computer's immune system , which I I think is what has happened to ours. We have lost everything and have had to reload Windows because of too much hoovering up of temporary files of biscuit crumbs.
Debi, I am no computer geek! But ...
I remember talking about this with a certified computer geek while reporting years ago. If I remember rightly the term goes back to the late 60s, early 70s, when computer networks were first being set up. A bunch of university types were setting up their early version of an operating system and they jokingly came up with lots of terms, their own language. The term they used was "magic cookies", which is still used on MACs. I think it was something to do with give the machine a cookie -computer, server, programme talking to each other - and they will smile, accept and do nice things for you. It's like bribing your way in with a cookie, then you're able to leave crumbs to find your way around later. Does that make sense?
Shameless is right--cookies are code left by visited websites on user's hard drives, containing the username and date and time at least, and possibly other information. The term cookies was meant to disarm the paranoia people feel about being watched as they surf.
The word comes from the Dutch koekje, diminutive of koek, cake, and has been in use in the US since the Dutch settled New Amsterdam to refer to the thin sweet cakes British people, inexplicably, call biscuits. Biscuits, as everyone knows, are the gluteal muscles of particularly well-formed humans.
"Bakies," while we're about it, are fudgy chocolate cakes containing enough cannabis to leave the eater both sugar satiated and thoroughly baked. v."brownies"
The name cookie derives from UNIX objects called magic cookies.
Nope, doesn't mean a thing to me either.
But then there's this:
I have heard a few different reasons why the little files servers and browsers are using are called cookies. Each is probably less creditable than the last but, for entertainment purposes, here are a few.
1. In UNIX, files of this type had a name something like k00k.z. Thus the strange pronunciation as "cookie" (uh-huh...).
2. The guy who got really really really rich by creating Netscape digs these particular chunky cookies--thus the name (hmmm...).
3. Because distributing cookies is like leaving crumbs all over (uh...).
4. Just because (probably the most truth in this one...).
But Wait! (Added 6/28/97)
Ben Buckner offers what sounds as if it could be a true story:
About the term's origin, it's a very old bit of programmer slang (usually) for a piece of data stored to communicate between two processes, typically separated in time, and often as some kind of tag. The fuller form is "magic cookie." I know I've heard it used as far back as the late '80s anyway. The real defining point of the magic cookie is that some part of the data is unique to the process(es) so that the receiver can ensure that it's getting the message from the expected source. In the HTTP cookie, the server domain name serves that purpose, though in this case the client actually performs the verification to prevent server-based hanky-panky. I've heard that the term "magic cookie" was originally coined in reference to one of those old adventure games (perhaps "Adventure" itself) in which you had to give some character a magic cookie to get something from it (analogous to cookie verification), but that's just a vague memory.
Blimey! Talk about be careful what you ask for!
So let me see if I've got this right ...
It's the equivalent of going into someone's home -
- you may know them or they may be complete strangers
- you may speak to them or you may not
- you may leave them a note or you may not
- but you do leave them a biscuit to let them know you've been!
When did you last do that in Real Life? Who are these people that come up with this crap???
Bedi says, this really takes the biscuit.
Debi says, what a load of fuckery.
PS John - please send emergency supplies - I'm urgently in need of baking!
Deaf? No! Probably half-baked!
As to the American edible cookies, the word probably originated from the Dutch koekje, diminutive of koek, cake. Little cake, in other words.
Urgent request - please send some of those little cakes.
I badly need to be fully baked.
Confucious Trevaskis said...
Oh FFS....cookies don't really exist!
They were dreamed up by govrnment propoganda experts to induce paranoia into the population.
Long term, they will be identified as the cause of terrorist activities by whoever it is that the state wants us to hate next.........
American biscuits are called cookies......because it's easier to spell.......
There now, isn't that easier to understand than all that techno jibbersish.............?
Oh crumbs!
Crumbs? Where? Let me at 'em!
Me ... me ... on me aims
Some bloggy stuff
Fair enough?
At last - a stand against the trafficking
Please drive carefully
Now hear this ...
Something's up ... or down ...
Have you heard the one about ...
Vote Bleeuugh!
Pic plea
Feeling the force ...
Animals on the Amazon
More techno ranting
It all depends on how you see it ...
No News is NOT Good News
Spreading the light
Born to Dye
New Blogs on the Block
Singing for a Change
Eh? Wossat?
Dad's ditties
Mystery Women in Oxford


text:
Shaun Glass/ The BLOODLINE/REPENTANCE
The brotherhood of a band should extend beyond its members. On their full-length debut album We Are One [Another Century], The Bloodline build a bond that's instantly relatable. Its cast in a grinding groove of metallic instrumentation and hard rock hooks, collectively conveying a sense of camaraderie. In fact, the Chicago quartet—Travis Neal [vocals], Shaun Glass [guitar], Chuck Wepfer [lead guitar], and Frankie Harchut—initially found that union within their songs.
"The Bloodline was birthed in the songwriting," Travis exclaims. "We could feel it within the music, and that fueled everything."
"I met Travis while he was singing for Divine Heresy," recalls Shaun. "Dirge Within parted ways with its singer, and I reached out. We did a week of shows in the Midwest. However, as soon as we started writing new material together, it hit us. This is a new entity. I'd never experienced chemistry that powerful."
Given the members' pedigree, that says a lot. Shaun Co founded Chicago's Soil while Chuck and Frankie played along him in Dirge Within and built a fervent fan base. Meanwhile, Travis fronted Divine Heresy from 2008-2010. However, this group instantly united. Their mentality resounds through the moniker The Bloodline.
"The name is all about family," says Shaun. "We are one with each other. We are one with our fans. We are one with our friends. We want everybody to feel like they're a part of this."
"When you break it down, we all bleed the same color," adds Travis. "We're all human. That's the whole concept. We wanted to build a strong Bloodline of our own that would last through centuries."
In 2014, the band cut We Are One with producer Joel Wanasek [Righteous Vendetta, Vinyl Theatre]. They crafted a sound that proved equally hard and hypnotic. "It's very groove heavy with huge melodies and epic hooks," Shaun describes. "The listener can nod their heads and really lock in."
You'll be banging your head instantly to "Divided". A brooding guitar gives way to an urgently catchy refrain that sears and soars. "Everything is personal," reveals Travis. "It's a song about being stuck in between two people that you care about and are a part of your life. I based on the struggle between my parents and my son's mother. I'm constantly in the middle and being pulled in both directions."
"Poisonous" rails against an evil significant either through a thrash-y break and undeniable chorus. At the same time, "Bedside Sorrow" shows another side of the band, balancing acoustic melodies with heart-wrenching lyrics.
"I sat beside my grandfather's bed and watched him pass away," sighs the vocalist. "He was one of the most important people in my life. For me, this is all about sharing a moment with someone else."
Ultimately, The Bloodline wants you to be a part of their family. "This has been a long growing process," Shaun leaves off. "Everything fell into place. Nothing was forced. I hope people get addicted to the album. I want them to crave it. They can be a part of this with us forever."
Join Our Family.....
Debut single "With Fire (Comes Absolution)" impacting rock radio now!


Kristyn Ivey is Chicago's FIRST Ever KonMari consultant. She graduated with the first KonMari cohort, and opened her own practice after that. She is also the co-host of the Spark Joy podcast.
Can anyone be tidy? How long does it take?
Your space impacts the way you think and many other aspects of your life.
What is the entrepreneur's first step to tidying?


text:
Harris Hill launches national glider contest Sunday
Bob Jamieson
rjamieson@stargazette.com | @SGBob
Turn your eyes to the sky starting Sunday as more than three dozen pricy sailplanes will swoop in low and fast over the Harris Hill glider field in Big Flats in the quest to become a national champion.
The Standard and 15 Meter National Glider Contest will run July 26 through Aug. 4 at the place dubbed the "Soaring Capital of America" and host of the first national soaring contest in 1930 and many national and regional contests since that time.
"This is the return of these contests to Harris Hill. It has been about seven or eight years since we have held a national contest," said Sean Murphy, vice president of operations for the Harris Hill Soaring Corp.
Competitors number 39 and include four from Canada and others from as far away as Los Angeles and Atlanta, Murphy said. Their sleek, motorless aircraft, together with trailer, average about $70,000 in price, he said.
Unlike some other contests, spectators can get a close-up view at the gliderport, which has an elevation of 1,709 feet and stands 750 feet above the Chemung River Valley. Each day weather conditions allow flying, aircraft will be set up for the contest from 10-11:30 a.m., then pulled aloft by a tow plane every minute or so from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Their wings span just over 49 feet. A minimum of four days flying is required, Murphy said.
Pilots in the two national classes, Standard and 15 Meter, will race over a 10-day period around "pylons in the sky." Distances and speeds are measured by onboard GPS units. Many years ago, pilots had to take pictures of photo targets on the ground as proof they navigated the course.
Murphy said finishes are the most exciting part as all the gliders that manage to navigate the course swoop through the finish gate as they burn off reserve altitude and convert it to speed and additional contest points. He said many gliders land in a relative short period of time, usually between 4-5:30 p.m.
The fastest pilot for the day receives 1,000 points. Slower finishers receive fewer points and pilots who land short of home receive fewer points than the slowest finisher. The competitor with the most points is crowned national champion and may qualify to represent the U.S. team in international competition. Murphy said there are trophies, but no cash prizes.
"The return is very exciting. They will fly by at 100 feet (altitude), then pull up," Murphy said.
Follow Bob Jamieson on Twitter @SGBob.


text:
Tracks of the month – The art of protest…
By Martin Smith | 3 April 2016
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The first two albums I have reviewed this month look at America from completely different musical and political perspectives.
The first is Brute by the musician Fatima Al Quadri. She was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, she witnessed both the optimism of the protestors and the brutality of the police. This is an album shaped by Occupy and the events around Ferguson. Her album Brute is series of electronic/grime songs capturing those dark days.
The second is by the jazz musician Charles Lloyd. He has recorded some great traditional tunes and also returned to some of his old songs. Many are against war and injustice. His vision is less dark, more optimistic and the music is memorising.
If you haven't already discovered these albums I hope you will. I have also reviewed three other albums/tracks that have had a big impact on me.
Fatima Al Qadiri Brute (2016 Hyper Dub) CD/LP/Download
Brute begins with a recording of a police unit talking over a radio. The only other sound is the slow beat of a taiko drum (taiko drums are used on demonstrations of the social movements in Japan). Over a loudspeaker the police call on a crowd to disperse. Suddenly a LRAD, a sound weapon that beams concentrated blasts of piercing noise, lets forth its sonic rage. What follows is the sound of tear gas being fired, protestors screaming and rampaging police.
The opening track is called Endzone it is like no other electronic track I've ever heard and it sets up the listener up for what is to come.
The composer and musician Fatima Al Qadiri was born in Dakar, Senegal, and lived in Kuwait for most of her childhood, now she is based in New York. Brute was written while Fatima was convalescing from an injury and watching the events of Ferguson unfold.
The album's cover is a picture from the artists Josh Kline's piece Freedom. It depicts a Teletubbie (I think its Po) in SWAT gear. Kline's Freedom installation depicts four towering 'Police Teletubbies' dressed in SWAT gear guarding a space modelled after Zuccotti Park, the privately owned public space in New York City and site of the Occupy Wall Street protest camp in 2011.
In one interview Fatima said the idea of Brute was to get across "atmospheres of rage and despair". And that is exactly what this concept album does. Only three tracks use speeches, the rest of the album is made up of haunting electronic melodies, samples of glass smashing, police sirens wailing and choral cascades create a landscape of police terror, state violence and protest.
This album is a cross between the Japanese musical theatre sound of J A Seazer and the film score to Blade Runner.
Tracks such as Oubliette (a French word for medieval dungeon and torture chamber) and Curfew convey a sense of claustrophobia and paranoia. Likewise 10-34 (the US police radio code for a riot) and Blows, openly side with those rebelling. On Blows the track begins with a reporter saying, "the troublemakers were carrying pepper spray and guns and were wearing badges". And on the album's closing track Power, Fatima inserts an interview with ex-LAPD sergeant Cheryl Dorsey on the abuse of police power into the middle of a sonic landscape.
Brute has not got good reviews; RA and the Guardian have accused it of being too dark and political. Pitchfork said it didn't' offer a solution to the problems she raised. Since when has music had to offer solutions to the problems of the world? If that were the case Marvin's What's Going On would be a turkey.
Electronic music is often and rightly accused of failing to talk about political issues. Well here is a musician who has produced an album that exposes police brutality and is clearly on the side of those who say "Black lives matter". The music is dark, bleak and brutal – just like the US.
Charles Lloyd & The Marvels I Long to See You (2016 Blue Note) CD/download
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i88Xzyewprk
Last night I had the strangest dream
I'd ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war
(Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream)
On the album I Long to See You, Lloyd has assembled a stellar band – Bill Frisell on guitar, Greg Leisz on pedal-steel guitar, Reuben Rogers on electric bass, Eric Harland on drums and guest vocal appearances by Norah Jones and Willie Nelson.
But this is no straight ahead jazz album, like Bob Dylan last year, Lloyd has returned to the great American songbook and recorded an album of achingly beautiful songs. The album opens with a Coltranesque version of Bob Dylan's powerful anti war song Masters of War. But from then onwards it takes a different musical path – utilising blues, folk, country and jazz. Lloyd and the band reinterpret a number of traditional songs and some of his own compositions. One of the standout tracks on the album is the famous folk song Shenandoah. The great musicologist Alan Lomax argued that Shenandoah was a sea-shanty sung by French seafarers who brought it to the US. The Library of Congress suggests that the song is of Native American origin and tells the story of daughter of the Indian Chief Shenandoah, who is courted for seven years by a white Missouri river trader. Whatever the origins Lloyd, like Charlie Haden before him, has turned this simple folk song into a grand musical statement.
Lloyd and the band return with another anti-war song Last Night I had the Strangest Dream. This classic folk song has been given the Country treatment by the singer Willie Nelson and Greg Leisz's steel guitar playing is just sublime. Who'd have thought it possible – jazz meets Country! Running in at just 1 minute 22 seconds is the hymn Abide With Me, it may be short but it will stay with you for a long time. In Britain it may be better known as a rugby song – but in the US Civil rights marchers sang this hymn in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Norah Jones also puts in a great vocal appearance on the soul classic You are so beautiful. But in my opinion the best track is saved for last, a Charles Lloyd composition titled Barche Lamsel. Lloyd has been creating great music since 1959, this winding haunting meditation is up there with his best work.
Peggy Gou A day without yesterday (2016 Phonica White) 12"
Peggy Gou is a Berlin based DJ/musician from Korea. This is part of the press release that came with the single:
Day Without Yesterday' begins with filtered down congas, a strong kick drum and some steady shakers to create the backbone of this Detroit-style House jam. Once the groove is established Peggy brings in a cool bass-line that's reminiscent of old school Rick Wade cuts and tops it all off with some sparse keys and crisp high hats.
'Six O Six' on the flip hears Peggy entering into more acidic territory filled with modular mutation and driving percussion. Peggy also shows off her vocal talents as she gives the listener a counting lesson in her native Korean tongue over the fine analogue house production.
That just about sums it up and I just love it…
Nina Kraviz Nina Kraviz (2016 reissue Rekids) LP/Download
Moscow born Nina Kraviz is fast becoming a DJ legend. Her Deep House sound often blends into ambient even pop tones. Each track blends stark, minimalist beats with haunting, sultry vocals and samples. This isn't music for the big arena; it's for dark rooms with a single strobe or for walking in the city at 6am. When this album first came out in 2012 it became an instant classic. Luckily for those who missed it has been reissued.
Lana Del Rey Honeymoon (2015 Polydor) CD/LP/Download
My curve ball this month, and it's is not really a curve ball is in fact Honeymoon by Lana Del Rey. I don't buy many "pop" records, but ever since I heard her album Born to Die I have become fascinated by her records. Her latest is the deepest one so far.
These aren't your average pop songs, she explores recurrent themes of destruction, the American dream, wealth, fame and the frailties of the human condition. Musically she is the queen of retro. Her sound is "big" something akin to the cinematic, film noir soundscapes of the late 1950s and early 1960s with a modern twist.
Lots of people laugh at me when I say I like Lana Del Rey – but they are usually people who have never listened to her music. If these songs were written and performed by Johnny Cash or Frank Sinatra people would say they were the work of a genius. If you have kids borrow their copies of the Lana's records or alternatively download them – it's all the rage nowadays.
Topics: jazz • music • protest movements • US
Roger Huddle said:
Another very interesting collection. The Charles Lloyd album is my favourite. Charles has very much followed his own road over the years. Always liked him.
3 April 2016 at 3:10pm
Martin Smith said:
Thanks for your comments. I agree Charles Lloyd has always produced great music, but his work on ECM and now Blue Note is of exceptional quality.


Welcome to the proceedings of the 2010 International Conferences on Security Te- nology (SecTech 2010), and Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (DRBC 2010) – two of the partnering events of the Second International Mega-Conference on Future Generation Information Technology (FGIT 2010). SecTech and DRBC bring together researchers from academia and industry as well as practitioners to share ideas, problems and solutions relating to the multifaceted aspects of security and disaster recovery methodologies, including their links to c- putational sciences, mathematics and information technology. In total, 1,630 papers were submitted to FGIT 2010 from 30 countries, which - cludes 250 papers submitted to SecTech/DRBC 2010. The submitted papers went through a rigorous reviewing process: 395 of the 1,630 papers were accepted for FGIT 2010, while 57 papers were accepted for SecTech/DRBC 2010. Of the 250 papers 10 were selected for the special FGIT 2010 volume published by Springer in the LNCS series. 34 papers are published in this volume, and 13 papers were wi- drawn due to technical reasons. We would like to acknowledge the great effort of the SecTech/DRBC 2010 Int- national Advisory Boards and members of the International Program Committees, as well as all the organizations and individuals who supported the idea of publishing this volume of proceedings, including SERSC and Springer. Also, the success of these two conferences would not have been possible without the huge support from our sponsors and the work of the Chairs and Organizing Committee.


Southwick Country Club is more than just your number one option for a fantastic round of Southwick golf. It's also the Southwick region's top choice for hosting the special days in your life, from a fairy tale wedding to an important corporate banquet. Here at Southwick we have everything you need to remove the hassles and start creating memories that will last.


2017 - Master of Arts, Film and Photographic Preservation and Collections Management. Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.
2013 - Bachelor of Arts (Hons.), Art History & Communication Studies. McMaster University, Hamilton, ON.
2018 - Development at Centre, Hamilton, ON.
2018 - Coordinator for Function Keys Conference of New Technology and Digital Culture, Centre, Hamilton, ON.
2017 - Sonic Art Series, Arts Program Coordinator, Hamilton, ON.
2017 -	Curatorial Intern in the Photography Department, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON.
2017 -	Photographic Cataloguing Assistant to artist, Michael Snow, Toronto, ON.
2016 -	Curatorial Fellow in the Photography Department, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.
2016 -	Graduate assistant, Art in the Modern World. Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.
2012-present	Curator, Resident Artist and Founding Member of the Hamilton Audio Visual Node (HAVN), Hamilton, ON.
2017-present	- Editor of Solecism Zine.
2017 -	150, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Image Arts Centre, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.
2016 -	Salon of Inclusiveness, Hamilton Supercrawl Edition, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2015 -	Scars: Alternative Photographic Processes by Raquel Moliterno, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2014 -	Welcome to Yesterday, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2018 - [untitled], City of Hamilton's Anne Foster Windows.
2017 - Golden Hour, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2017-2018 - Nodality, in collaboration with HAVN Collective. Hamilton, ON.
2016 - Dark Room 5.0, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education, Toronto, ON.
2015 - Living Arts Symposium, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON.
2015 - Salon of Inclusiveness II, The Black Cat, Toronto, ON.
2014 - The Cocoon, public installation for Supercrawl, Hamilton, ON.
2013 - Pathfinding, installation in collaboration with OCADU, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2013 - Steel Town Views, Workers Arts & Heritage Centre, Hamilton, ON.
2013 - Steel Town Views, Centre3, Hamilton, ON.
2013 - Boxes - Art Pile, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2013 - Woven, Still, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2012	- Get Nyce, Focus Gallery, Hamilton, ON.
2012 -	Somnambulist, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2012-	Manifest, HAVN, Hamilton, ON.
2011 -	History that Happened or was Dreamed, Temporary Projects, Hamilton, ON.
2016 -	Curatorial Fellowship in the Photography Department. Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.
2016 -	Graduate Fellowship. Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.
2015 -	Graduate Fellowship. Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.


yamingw explained here, howto get the aero basic theme loaded in WinPE 3.
Important is to alter the MiniNT unicode string, I guess it's for the Switch desktop / resoure limit issue we know from PE 1.x.
Can you give also compiled autoit script(also x64) and sample usage? I don't want to be admin, is it can give aero as system user?
here are compiled ux.exe for x86 and x64. simply run it without any command line, or add it to winpeshl.ini.
A compiled gui autoit script for select winlogon.exe and select patch can be very usefull. It can search replace hex and fix header. Don't focus only makepe3. He knows autoit and can integrate codes his own gui but i need something standalone.


Service level agreements, otherwise known as supplier agreements, are agreements between customers and suppliers that define the goods and / or services which the latter must provide together with the rights and obligations of the parties.
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However, the SGSA 1982 does not control the relationship between supplier and customer, which is why a carefully drafted Service Level Agreement is needed. This will not only include terms implied by the SGSA 1982 but also include express terms.
Breach of a Service Level Agreement can give rise to remedies for the injured party, usually compensation. By entering into a Service Level Agreement, both parties know from the outset their responsibilities and hopefully this will prevent future problems of non-performance. In the event that it does not prevent an issue from arising, the Service Level Agreement will at least provide a framework for resolving a dispute.
One of the Corporate & Commercial Team's specialist lawyers at Oliver & Co. can review your existing commercial relationships and advise whether a Service Level Agreement is needed.
Make sure that your Service Level Agreement is compliant with all relevant legislation and is capable of being enforced when the need arises.
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text:
Finnish court okays Muslim's rape of a 10-year-old girl as part of his "culture"
by JD Heyes, Natural News:
You've probably heard of the saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." The meaning of that phrase is clear: When you're in a foreign land, obey their rules and regulations, and respect their customs and laws.
At least, that used to be true. All over Europe today, however, that old axiom is dying a slow, agonizing death as one Left-wing, socialist country after another bends over backward to accommodate radical Islamists and extremist Muslim behavior.
In recent days, and to the outrage of many, a court in Finland ruled that it's just fine for a 23-year-old Muslim man to rape a 10-year-old girl because, hey, that's just part of what those Muslim men do…in their countries.
As reported by the Helsinki Times:
Finns have widely expressed their outrage and bafflement with a recent ruling in a case against a 23-year-old man who had intercourse with a ten-year-old girl.
The Turku Court of Appeal ruled last week that the defendant was guilty of aggravated child sexual abuse but not of aggravated rape and sentenced him to three years in prison, thus upholding a ruling issued in March by the District Court of Pirkanmaa.
The defendant in the case, Juusuf Muhamed Abbudin, has been acquitted of a charge of aggravated rape "on grounds that the prosecution was unable to substantiate its claim that the victim had been unable to defend herself and express her lack of consent because she was in a state of fear and helplessness at the time of the act," the paper added, quoting another Finnish source.
That, too, is a ridiculous claim: How many 10-year-old girls do you know, unless they're from Superman's planet, who can defend themselves against a grown 23-year-old man?
As noted further by Inquisitr, it's quite clear that Abbudin victimized the girl. Beginning in 2016 he started making contact with her at an abandoned apartment building in the city of Tampere. Later, in another abandoned building he had sexual intercourse with her, then, afterward, would send her sexually explicit messages.
Now, how can a 10-year-old girl consent to having intercourse? First of all, how would she even know what she was agreeing to? And finally, in what country — in the West, anyway — would the 'consent' of a 10-year-old to have sexual intercourse ever be acceptable, legally and morally?
Read More @ NaturalNews.com
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