text:
\section{Introduction}

Voice conversion (VC) is a technique to convert the speaker identity of an input speech to a different one while preserving the linguistic content. Even fairly recent VC models often necessitate a parallel dataset, a set of texts spoken twice, respectively by the source speaker and the target speaker \cite{Mohammadi01-AOV}. Such parallel corpora are hard to obtain, and the issue of aligning the tempo and the prosody between a pair of utterances further complicates the matter. Latest studies on VC therefore concern the more challenging task of learning from non-parallel utterances. Many strategies have been proposed to this end: sequence-to-sequence architectures that explicitly decompose linguistic content via automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) \cite{Tanaka01-A2V, Huang01-VTN}, variational autoencoder(VAE)-based methods \cite{Kameoka01-ACV, Tobing01-NPV}, the style-changing StarGAN \cite{Choi01-SUG} applied to the domain of voice \cite{Kameoka02-SNP, Kaneko02-SRC}, networks based on CycleGAN \cite{Zhu01-UIT} that cycle between two voice identities \cite{Kaneko03-PDF, Kaneko04-CNP, Kaneko05-CIC, Kaneko06-CEI}. Our proposed model is of the last category.

The most closely related work to our proposed model is Scyclone \cite{Tanaka02-SHQ}, from which it inherits a CycleGAN-based 1D-convolution-only architecture that manages a linear magnitude spectrogram directly. The authors of Scyclone claims to outperform the previous state-of-the-art CycleGAN-based voice conversion model, CycleGAN-VC2 \cite{Kaneko05-CIC}, in both similarity and naturalness. Its architecture, however, does not scale effectively with the increasing frequency resolution of spectrogram, leading to exploding gradients (confirmed in repeated primary experiments). Moreover, the model responds sensitively to a sample rate higher than 16kHz or non-parallel utterances that differ significantly in their phonetic composition; it quickly deteriorates in quality and fails to preserve speech content. Finally, the receptive field of the 1D convolutional neural network (CNN) residual block--that is commonly used across VC networks \cite{Kaneko03-PDF, Kaneko04-CNP, Kaneko05-CIC, Kaneko06-CEI}--is limited to maneuver low frequency signals with high fidelity.

Our proposed model overcomes the difficulties by introducing modifications to the architectural design of the residual block and the composition of loss functions. By carrying the spectral information without channel-wise inflation or deflation, the model evinces that even the high-resolution data can be effectively processed at once with neither the multi-level representation of audio feature in different time scales at the expense of computation and memory \cite{Kumar01-ANI, Kong01-HGA} nor the low-resolution representation at the cost of performance \cite{Tanaka02-SHQ}. This shape-preserving approach resembles that of distribution-modifying statistical models \cite{WaveGlow, WaveGrad}, opening up possible extensions to flow or diffusion, but such discussion is outside the scope of this paper. Our major contributions here are four-fold:
1) proposing an efficient axial residual block architecture with an extended receptive field in the temporal axis
2) utilizing a high frequency-resolution spectrogram as input without resorting to a downscaled spectrogram
3) enabling the direct spectrogram-to-spectrogram conversion that preserves the data shape end-to-end both time- and channel-wise
4) introducing various modifications to the CycleGAN loss that stabilize the training process and improve the fidelity of the resulting voice.

\section{Model Description}

\subsection{Axial Residual Block}

The conventional residual block architecture (employed in both CycleGAN-VC and Scyclone) is not effective in the challenging task of transforming one form of high frequency-resolution spectrogram to another without intermediate compressed representation, due to its limited receptive field. To overcome this difficulty, our proposed axial residual block is composed of the temporal axis convolution layer and the frequency axis convolution layer. Figure~\ref{fig:axial_residual_block} illustrates the details. The architectural design bears high similarity to the axial attention \cite{Ho01-AAM, huang2019ccnet} in that the receptive field is efficiently widened in two-step axial operation by capturing information along one of the two axes at a time. The major difference from such self-attention variants, however, is that the kernel is not dynamically computed every time frame, which allows to process an input of variable length unlike in a Transformer block where the input length should be fixed in advance. It also resembles spatially separable convolution where the expressivity of one convolution layer is approximated in two steps for computational efficiency \cite{Mamalet01-SCF}.

The authors of \cite{Dosovitskiy01-AII} observe that there is a qualitative difference between the receptive field widened over layers and the one that is wide from the beginning, emphasizing the advantage of the latter. In addition, Kong et al. underline that phonemic relations in speech often exceed over 100ms \cite{Kong01-HGA}. Hence, an ideal VC model should be able to process signal information that lie over the 100ms window from the very first layer, instead of reaching the scope in successive layers. For the temporal axis (i.e. x-axis) convolution layer, we therefore employ depth-wise convolution so that each kernel learns to process the changes in one frequency band independently of others. This computational efficiency allows an extremely large kernel size. Our choice is 17, which translates to 230ms (or 4.35Hz given the 22.05kHz sample rate). Every block thus can capture long-term correspondences (low-frequency signals) that occur across over a couple of thousand samples, and we view this capability to be critical for the improved performance.

\begin{figure}[ht]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[scale=0.4]{axial_2.png}
  \caption{The conventional 1D-convolution residual block (left) and the proposed axial residual block (right). The dotted lines indicate optional components, and k, s, g denote kernel, stride, and group respectively. The axial block in the figure is equipped with a depth-wise convolution to process x-axis information, which can be further streamlined at a minimal compromise in performance if replaced with lightweight convolution. The y-axis convolution, while illustrated to have the kernel size of 1, can be extended to a larger kernel for optimal performance.}
  \label{fig:axial_residual_block}
\end{figure}

A viable alternative to this depth-wise convolution for transformation in the time domain is the lightweight convolution \cite{Wu01-PLA}. While it is highly similar to the depth-wise 1D convolution where each kernel is learned channel-wise, the lightweight convolution further improves efficiency by sharing the same kernel over a specified number of channels. First proposed in the domain of natural language processing, it has been successfully adopted in processing audio information \cite{Elias01-PTN, Baevski01-W2V}; when applied to the domain of audio, the inductive bias of the 1D lightweight convolution is that information in nearby frequency bands can be effectively processed with a shared operation, which well approximates the workings of human auditory cognition.

The frequency-axis (i.e. y-axis) convolution layer is a standard 1x1 1D convolution; the only particularity is that the number of kernels is the same as the number of input channels. This is in fact equivalent to a position-wise feedforward layer, resulting in kernels that focus on processing the information at one specific time-point only. The inductive bias here is that changing one voice to another can be successfully realized by applying one nonlinear transformation communally across all the spectral frames. To increase the capacity and further widen the overall temporal receptive field, we enlarge the kernel size to 3 for our experiments. The vertical strap thus obtains more expressivity regarding temporal locality.

Residual connections can be made either once between the input and the output of the block, which we choose for our experiments, or twice between the input and the outputs of the two convolution layers. With the latter, the axial residual block attains closer connections to the original Transformer block \cite{Vaswani01-AIA}. The only difference lies in that it employs either the depth-wise or lightweight convolution layer instead of the self-attention layer. In fact, replacing the self-attention layer of the Transformer block with dynamic lightweight convolution has been proposed in \cite{Yun01-ATU}, showing improvements when applied to early layers. One can interpret our proposed model as its static variant where the kernel is static across the temporal dimension and the replacement is applied to the entire stack instead of only to early layers.

\subsection{Improved Objective}

While CycleGAN-based VC models often employ a global discriminator that outputs one prediction averaged over the entire utterance (presumably for stable training), it tends to lead to various artifacts in the synthesized output: notably, outbursts of phonemic fragments and momentary distortion of content. We hypothesize that this is because the generator brings in short non-sensible fragments from the source audio to take advantage of the discriminator, which can yield only global predictions. To reduce these artifacts, we employ a patchGAN style loss instead. The effectiveness of the patchGAN adversarial loss is consistent with the findings in speech-related GAN models \cite{Kumar01-ANI, Kong01-HGA, Kaneko05-CIC}, and we thus take the patchGAN form to the extreme with regard to the temporal dimension, outputting a discriminative prediction per spectrogram frame.

Adversarial loss, while being the key component in transforming the style, tends to induce serious instability during training. CycleGAN-based VC models thus tend to use a modified GAN loss such as least square loss \cite{Mao01-LSG} or hinge loss \cite{Lim01-GGA} to curb down the high volatility. In adjoinment with the PatchGAN design \cite{Isola01-IIT} extended to the maximal resolution in the time domain, however, our preliminary experiments indicate that using a plain binary cross entropy objective is more effective than the aforementioned variants. The adversarial loss in our proposed model is therefore defined as follows:
\begin{align}
L_{adv}(&G_{X \to Y}, D_{Y}) =\nonumber \\
&\mathbb{E}_{y \sim P_{Y}(y)}[\log D_{Y}(y)] \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{x \sim P_{X}(x)}[\log (1 - D_{Y}(G_{Y \to X})] \nonumber
\label{eq1}
\end{align}

The cycle-consistency loss penalizes the case where the result converted twice severely deviates from the original utterance (i.e. after the style has changed from the source to the target, and back to the source once more). The original consistency loss is defined as follows:
\begin{align}
L_{cyc}(&G_{X \to Y}, G_{Y \to X}) =\nonumber \\
&\mathbb{E}_{x \sim P_{X}(x)}[||G_{Y \to X}(G_{X \to Y}(x)) - x||_{1}]\\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{y \sim P_{Y}(y)}[||G_{X \to Y}(G_{Y \to X}(y)) - y||_{1}] \nonumber
\label{eq2}
\end{align}

However, the content reconstruction often breaks when the two training corpora differ much in terms of phonetic composition (inter-language in the extreme case) and style (inter-sex in the extreme case). We therefore augment the loss with auxiliary feature matching. In other words, we add a stronger constraint that all the pairs of the residual block outputs of the corresponding discriminator should be similar for the cycled output and the original utterance:
\begin{align}
L&_{cyc}(G_{X \to Y},G_{Y \to X}) =\nonumber \\
&\mathbb{E}_{x \sim P_{X}(x)}[||G_{Y \to X}(G_{X \to Y}(x)) - x||_{1}] \nonumber \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{y \sim P_{Y}(y)}[||G_{X \to Y}(G_{Y \to X}(y)) - y||_{1}] \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{x \sim P_{X}(x)}[||D_{X}^{f}(G_{Y \to X}(G_{X \to Y}(x))) - D_{X}^{f}(x)||_{1}] \nonumber \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{y \sim P_{Y}(y)}[||D_{Y}^{f}(G_{X \to Y}(G_{Y \to X}(y))) - D_{Y}^{f}(y)||_{1}] \nonumber
\label{eq3}
\end{align}

The identity loss, first proposed in \cite{Taigman01-TPM}, regularizes the generator to approximate an identity mapping when real samples of the target domain are fed. The expected effects are that the model conservatively responds to an unknown distribution and better preserves phonetic contents in general. The original identity loss is defined as follows:
\begin{align}
L_{id}(&G_{X \to Y},G_{Y \to X}) = \nonumber \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{y \sim P_{Y}(y)}[||G_{X \to Y}(y) - y||_{1}] \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{x \sim P_{X}(x)}[||G_{Y \to X}(x) - x||_{1}] \nonumber
\label{eq4}
\end{align}

We extend the identity loss by applying the identity-mapping not only for real samples, but also for the transformed utterances. In this manner, the generator is exposed to additional types of unknown distributions:
\begin{align}
L&_{id}(G_{X \to Y},G_{Y \to X}) = \nonumber \\
&\mathbb{E}_{y \sim P_{Y}(y)}[||G_{X \to Y}(y) - y||_{1}] \nonumber \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{x \sim P_{X}(x)}[||G_{Y \to X}(x) - x||_{1}] + \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{x \sim P_{X}(x)}[||G_{X \to Y}(G_{X \to Y}(x)) - G_{X \to Y}(x)||_{1}] \nonumber \\
&+ \mathbb{E}_{x \sim P_{X}(x)}[||G_{Y \to X}(G_{Y \to X}(y)) - G_{Y \to X}(y)||_{1}] \nonumber
\label{eq5}
\end{align}

The total loss therefore consists of the three aforementioned components: the adversarial loss, the cycle-consistency loss, and the identity loss. The three components are linearly scaled with their corresponding lambda values to control their relative contribution to the total loss:
\begin{equation}
L_{total} = \lambda_{adv} * L_{adv} + \lambda_{cyc} * L_{cyc} + \lambda_{id} * L_{id}
\label{eq6}
\end{equation}

\subsection{Generator and Discriminator}

The generator architecture is fully 1D-CNN. The prenet convolution layer, a 1x1 convolution, mixes the channel information in the same manner for every time point. The intermediate stack consists of 7 axial residual blocks. Within each block, in between the temporal convolution and the frequency convolution, non-linearity is introduced with leaky ReLU activation with the slope of 0.01. The postnet convolution once again mixes the channel information followed by the final relu activation, which facilitates the generator to synthesize a linear magnitude spectrogram that should take only positive values.

The architectural design of the discriminator is mostly equivalent to that of Scyclone \cite{Tanaka02-SHQ}. Gaussian noise with the standard deviation of 0.01 is added to the input to stabilize the training process \cite{Arjovsky01-TPM}. Additionally, spectral normalization is applied to the weights of all the convolution layers \cite{Miyato01-SNF}, to prevent the discriminator from learning too quickly by capping the magnitude of possible change:
\begin{equation}
W_{SN} = \frac{W}{\sigma(W)}, \sigma(W) = max_{h:h \neq 0} \frac{||Wh||_{2}}{||h||_{2}}
\label{eq7}
\end{equation}
The subsequent structure following the prenet layer consists of 5 original residual blocks. Each of them introduces non-linearity with leaky ReLU with the larger slope of 0.2. The logit values are then output from the postnet convolution. Figure~\ref{fig:generator&discriminator} shows the overall architecture.

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \includegraphics[scale=0.4]{gd_2.png}
  \setlength{\belowcaptionskip}{-15pt}
  \caption{Schematic architecture of generator (left) and discriminator (right). The number of blocks and the detailed configuration of each block can be further fine-tuned for optimal performance.}
  \label{fig:generator&discriminator}
\end{figure}

\section{Experiments}

\subsection{Experimental Setup}
We compare our proposed model to CycleGAN-VC2 \cite{Kaneko05-CIC} and Scyclone \cite{Tanaka02-SHQ} for English and Korean voice conversion. For the former, we use the multi-speaker VCTK dataset \cite{VCTK}. Mic1 recordings of two females (p299 and p301) and two males (p311 and p360) are selected and downsampled to 22.05kHz (for our proposed model) or to 16kHz (for CycleGAN-VC2 and Scyclone). The 24 parallel utterances shared by the four speakers are reserved for evaluation, and the rest are utilized for training. We normalize the audio, trim its beginning silence, and pad zeros at the end if needed to meet the following data shape. The 128-frame 513-channel linear magnitude spectrogram is computed using the window length of 1024 and the hop size of 256 samples with Hann window.

For the latter Korean voice conversion, we use Korean Single-Speaker dataset (KSS) \cite{KSS} and our proprietary Korean female dataset (JEY). After removing excessively short samples, we use 11,000 utterances per identity for training, reserving 584 and 372 samples for evaluation, which are sampled randomly since the two datasets share no parallel utterances. The remaining audio preprocessing procedures are identical to those of the former experiment.

The two experiments share the same training process. Two pairs of discriminator and generator are initiated. One generator converts voice from identity X to identity Y, and the other does the opposite. The discriminator paired with the former tells whether a voice sample of identity Y is real or converted from identity X, and the one paired with the latter does the same for the identity X. For both the generators and the discriminators, we use the Adam optimizer \cite{Kingma01-AAM} with $\alpha = 2.0 \times 10^{-4}$, $\beta_{1} = 0.5$, and $\beta_{2} = 0.999$. The learning rates are annealed by a factor of $.1$ every 50 epochs. Each model is trained for 200 epochs with the batch size of 16. The scaling factors of the total loss  $\lambda_{adv}$, $\lambda_{cyc}$, and $\lambda_{id}$ are set to $1.$, $10.$, and $1.$ respectively. For Scyclone and CycleGAN-VC2, we follow the same training setting as proposed in the original papers.

Finally, when converting a resulting spectrogram to a waveform, one can expect a substantial performance gain from using a neural vocoder (e.g. WaveGlow\cite{WaveGlow}, WaveGrad\cite{WaveGrad}). We, however, compute the final audio with the griffin-lim algorithm \cite{GriffinLim} with 32 iterations. This is to compare the models on an equal footing. CycleGAN-VC2, however, is inherently dependent on the use of the WORLD vocoder \cite{Morise01-WAV}, so we make an exception for the model.

\begin{figure*}[h]
  \begin{multicols}{3}

    \includegraphics[scale=0.365]{__MOS_299_301.png}
    \includegraphics[scale=0.365]{__MOS_299_311.png}
    \includegraphics[scale=0.365]{__MOS_311_360.png}
  \end{multicols}
  \setlength{\belowcaptionskip}{-15pt}
  \vspace*{-5mm}
  \caption{MOS test on three pairs of the four selected VCTK speakers.}
  \label{fig:eng_MOS}
\end{figure*}

\subsection{Results}
To compare the structural similarity of the converted outcome and the ground truth, we use mel spectral distortion (MSD) metrics. While a converted utterance does not perfectly align with its true correspondence, we apply dynamic time warping (DTW) to pair positions where the two sequences are most similar. For the computation of the metrics, we use 40-channel log-mel spectrogram based on a 46.44ms Hann window and a hop size of 11.61ms. The mel filters span from 0 to 8,000 Hz. In the case of the Korean voice conversion experiment where the DTW sequence paring is impossible due to the lack of parallel utterances, we compare the MSD of each of the converted utterances to the ground truth MSD averaged per identity.

Word error rate (WER) measures how well each model preserves the linguistic content during the conversion process, and it is computed based on the comparison of the ASR result of the converted utterance to the ground truth text. We select commercial ASR models based on the overall stability for each experiment, \cite{Azure} for VCTK and \cite{Clova} for Korean, respectively.

In addition to this objective evaluation, we conduct human listening tests for subjective evaluation of the converted speech. Each of the 10 subjects is asked to provide his or her mean opinion score (MOS)\footnote{Audio samples are at \url{https://moneybrain-research.github.io/axial-residual-networks-vc}.} (5: very similar to 1: very dissimilar), evaluating how similar the converted speech is to the real utterance of the target identity. A rater evaluates a pair of a true utterance and a converted speech, repeating for 24 utterances per voice identity for the VCTK experiment. In the Korean experiment, we use 10 randomly sampled instances per identity.

\begin{table}[th]
  \caption{Average MSD and WER results on VCTK voice conversion. The results are organized by the conversion from the former person ID to the latter person ID.}
  \label{tab:eng_MSD}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{cllll}
    \toprule
                        &     & Scyclone              & VC2                     & ours                    \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{1}{*}{299-301}  & MSD & 2.55 $\pm$ .18  & \textbf{2.18} $\pm$ .17 & 2.38 $\pm$ .22          \\
                              & WER & 0.94 $\pm$ .04  & \textbf{0.06} $\pm$ .03 & 0.07 $\pm$ .03          \\
    \multirow{1}{*}{301-299}  & MSD & 2.26 $\pm$ .18  & 2.22 $\pm$ .22          & \textbf{2.18} $\pm$ .22 \\
                              & WER & 0.95 $\pm$ .04  & \textbf{0.07} $\pm$ .04 & 0.10 $\pm$ .08          \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{1}{*}{311-360}  & MSD & 1.99 $\pm$ .13  & 1.83 $\pm$ .16          & \textbf{1.81} $\pm$ .16 \\
                              & WER & 0.97 $\pm$ .02  & \textbf{0.11} $\pm$ .05 & 0.15 $\pm$ .07          \\
    \multirow{1}{*}{360-311}  & MSD & 2.29 $\pm$ .18  & \textbf{2.04} $\pm$ .15 & 2.06 $\pm$ .15          \\
                              & WER & 0.99 $\pm$ .01  & 0.10 $\pm$ .04          & \textbf{0.08} $\pm$ .04 \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{1}{*}{299-311}  & MSD & 2.32 $\pm$ .16  & 2.08 $\pm$ .18          & \textbf{2.06} $\pm$ .15 \\
                              & WER & 0.98 $\pm$ .01  & \textbf{0.10} $\pm$ .05* & 0.33 $\pm$ .08         \\
    \multirow{1}{*}{311-299}  & MSD & 2.71 $\pm$ .19  & \textbf{2.32} $\pm$ .27 & 2.58 $\pm$ .18          \\
                              & WER & 0.98 $\pm$ .02  & \textbf{0.12} $\pm$ .06* & 0.30 $\pm$ .10         \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

In terms of changing the voice identity, Table~\ref{tab:eng_MSD} and Figure \ref{fig:eng_MOS} show that our proposed model outperforms Scyclone and achieves a comparable performance to that of CyclegGAN-VC2 in the VCTK experiment. An asterisk denotes a statistically significant top result. Table~\ref{tab:kor_MSD} and Figure~\ref{fig:kor_MOS} summarize the voice conversion experiment on Korean, in which our proposed model outperforms both Scyclone and CyclegGAN-VC2 in changing styles even without a neural vocoder. We hypothesize that, since our proposed model handles high-resolution data without compression, it is more data-greedy to train to a sufficient level. VCTK, where only less than 400 utterances are available per identity, is thus not prone to fully realizing the capability of our proposed architecture. While CycleGAN-VC2 consistently does well on WER, we suspect this is because the model tends to introduce changes to style conservatively.

\begin{table}[th]
  \caption{Average MSD and WER results on KSS-JEY voice conversion and vice versa.}
  \label{tab:kor_MSD}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{cllll}
    \toprule
                        &       & Scyclone                  & VC2                     & Ours                  \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{1}{*}{KSS-JEY}  & MSD   & 1.63 $\pm$ .50      & 1.61 $\pm$ .24          & \textbf{1.50} $\pm$ .45 \\
                              & WER   & 0.85 $\pm$ .25      & \textbf{0.04} $\pm$ .06* & 0.30 $\pm$ .12          \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{1}{*}{JEY-KSS}  & MSD   & 1.73 $\pm$ .42      & \textbf{1.32} $\pm$ .29 & 1.39 $\pm$ .41          \\
                              & WER   & 0.75 $\pm$ .33      & \textbf{0.21} $\pm$ .20 & 0.36 $\pm$ .19          \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\begin{figure}[t]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[scale=0.365]{__MOS_sim.png}
  \setlength{\belowcaptionskip}{-15pt}
  \caption{MOS test on KSS-JEY voice conversion and vice versa.}
  \label{fig:kor_MOS}
\end{figure}

\section{Conclusions}

We propose a fully 1D CNN network to process a high frequency-resolution spectrogram directly with its shape unchanged. In comparison to the conventional residual block employed across CycleGAN-based VC models, our proposed axial residual block extends the temporal receptive field while lowering memory and computation requirements. We address meaningful similarities and connections to various recent architectural solutions such as axial attention and Transformer block. The effectiveness of the proposed design is demonstrated through various experiments; our model outperforms Scyclone on all the evaluation metrics. It shows comparable or better performance to that of CycleGAN-VC2 even without a neural vocoder, especially in terms of speaker similarity with larger Korean datasets.

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


There is nothing prettier than a fresh snow fall.
there is nothing I want more than a white Christmas.
to host a dinner for my closest friends.
bought 6 kinds of cheese because go big or go home, right?
I made sure I had something for everyone.
and called it a night at 2:30 am.
it is so important to make time for the people you love.
Are you celebrating with family, friends or both?


text:
Have your say on how Worcester tackles climate emergency
Worcester City Council declared a climate emergency in July 2019 and committed itself to taking action to help the city become carbon neutral by 2030.The authority has written a draft strategy setting out options to achieve this – and now we'd like local people to have their say on it.
It sets out proposed policies in six areas:
Reducing carbon emissions in the city so that Worcester can become a carbon-neutral city by 2030
Making the work of Worcester City Council carbon neutral
Developing the city's low carbon economy and ensuring sustainability becomes embedded in the practices of businesses
Protecting Worcester's natural environment and enhancing its biodiversity
Ensuring the city is prepared for and able to cope with the effects and impacts of the changing climate
Reducing Worcester's consumption of resources.
The draft strategy has been drawn up with input from Conservative, Labour and Green members of the Council, along with local stakeholders. The actions and policies of similar local councils across the country have also been drawn on.
"We recognise the urgency of the situation and that action needs to be taken by both ourselves and everyone across Worcester," says Councillor Joy Squires, Chair of the Environment Committee.
"Our vision is for Worcester to be a carbon neutral city, with a transformation in how we use our resources. We want our city to be resilient to the impact of the changing climate and to have low levels of air pollution alongside high levels of biodiversity.
"Achieving this will be challenging and the City Council cannot do what's needed on its own. This draft strategy is just a starting point. We will be encouraging everyone from residents to businesses, the charitable sector and local groups to get involved and help us shape the developing strategy for Worcester becoming a carbon-neutral city."
Have your say online at www.worcester.gov.uk/voiceit
You can also join in with our webinar to ask us questions and give us your views on Wednesday 15 July at 7pm.
There is a separate webinar for businesses and organisations to join which will take place on Tuesday 14 July at 2pm.
Register for the webinars at www.worcester.gov.uk/voiceit.
Sustainability Environment
Worcester Tourist Information Centre re-opens
Help to pay your Council Tax bill
Historic cricket pavilion set to be dismantled and moved
Putting the planet first this Easter
Cattle 'let loose' as part of natural care plan on meadows
Worcester's wildflowers give boost to biodiversity
400 saplings planted as part of Worcester Charter 400
Going green to keep the city green

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
import React, { useState } from 'react';

import { Box, Grommet, RadioButtonGroup, ThemeContext } from 'grommet';
import { grommet } from 'grommet/themes';
import { deepMerge } from 'grommet/utils';
import { css } from 'styled-components';

const customTheme = deepMerge(grommet, {
  radioButtonGroup: {
    container: {
      gap: 'xlarge',
    },
  },
  radioButton: {
    border: {
      color: 'red',
      width: '10px',
    },
    container: {
      extend: css`
        color: red;
      `,
    },
    hover: {
      border: {
        color: 'blue',
      },
      background: {
        color: 'accent-4',
      },
    },
    size: '100px', // affects the size of the outer circle
    icon: {
      size: '20px', // affects the size of the inner circle
    },
    check: {
      radius: '20%',
    },
  },
});

export const CustomRadioButtonGroup = ({ value: initialValue, ...props }) => {
  const [value, setValue] = useState(initialValue);

  return (
    <Grommet theme={customTheme}>
      <ThemeContext.Consumer>
        {(theme) => console.log(JSON.stringify(theme.radioButton))}
      </ThemeContext.Consumer>
      <Box align="center" pad="large">
        <RadioButtonGroup
          name="radio"
          options={[
            { label: 'Choice 1', value: 'c1' },
            { label: 'Choice 2', value: 'c2' },
            { label: 'Choice 3', value: 'c3' },
          ]}
          value={value}
          onChange={(event) => setValue(event.target.value)}
          {...props}
        />
      </Box>
    </Grommet>
  );
};

CustomRadioButtonGroup.storyName = 'Custom theme';

export default {
  title: 'Input/RadioButtonGroup/Custom Themed/Custom theme',
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
News & Media Kalispell Council sets hearing on airport master plan
Kalispell Council sets hearing on airport master plan
Pilots urged to show support
May 2, 2012 By Dan Namowitz
Since 1929, the Kalispell (Mont.) City Airport has been a resource for pilots, a fixture in the community, and a regional economic asset. On May 7, pilots can show their support for the facility by participating in a city council public hearing on updating the airport master plan.
The city council is scheduled to vote on accepting the master plan update May 21, culminating a process initiated when the city accepted an FAA planning grant for the study in July 2010.
"The preparation of this master plan update is evidence that the City of Kalispell recognizes the importance of air transportation to the community and the associated challenges inherent in providing for its unique operating and improvement needs," says the master plan's introduction. "The cost of maintaining an airport is an investment which yields impressive benefits to the community and the region."
Kalispell's AOPA Airport Support Network volunteer Scott Richardson urged pilots to attend the hearing and show their support for the airport's continued development—a vision of which is outlined in the master plan's recommended development alternative.
"This airport is very important to our area both in terms of the resource it provides our local and transient pilot community, but it also has a significant economic impact to the south side of Kalispell," he said. "Kalispell airport is one of those quaint beautiful airports for which Montana is known so well, and it is one of the few that is within walking distance of many of our local eateries and hotels."
Richardson cautioned pilots not to take the future for granted. In 2010, when a community faction questioned the airport's role, AOPA sought and received assurances from city officials that their support for the facility—and its present location—remained strong.
"I believe it to be in our best interest to show the city council how important the airport is, how often you use it, and that your visits support our community," Richardson said, appealing for pilots' support. Pilots can send Richardson an email for more information.
The public hearing will take place at 7 p.m. on May 7 at Kalispell City Hall. Pilots may also email comments to the Kalispell City Council.
Discounts available for pilots attending hearing
Several local vendors have provided discount goods and services to reduce the impact on pilots' wallets of coming to Kalispell, Mont., to support the airport at a May 7 public hearing on updating the airport's master plan.
Red Eagle Aviation (406/755-2376) will offer discount fuel at $5.53 per gallon. Please pay inside during regular business hours. The Aero Inn (406/755-3798) will offer room rates about $41 per night; ask for the pilot discount. The Hilton Garden Inn (406/756-4500) offers room rates discounted from $149 to $93. Please ask for the Red Eagle discount. Los Caporales offers Mexican food at a 10-percent discount. Scotty's will offer hand-cut steaks starting at $12.95.
Topics: Advocacy, Economic Impact
Canada commences ADS-B trials


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From Brooklyn, to the Dirty South, Bagends is making a name for himself through his timely rhymes and natural flowing beats. "On Fire" serves as an introduction for this hot new artist, and be sure to be on the lookout for Mono Bagends' next move! For more information, please contact Andy Gesner and the HIP Video Promo staff at (732)-613-1779 or email us at info@HIPVideoPromo.com /a>. You can also visit www.Bagendsblog.blogspot.com.


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New networking technologies in Windows Vista will be less stable and secure than in XP, at least in the short term, Symantec researchers say.
Some of Microsoft's efforts to make Windows Vista its most stable and secure operating system ever could cause instability and new security flaws, according to a Symantec report.
Researchers at Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec examined the new networking technology in recent test releases of Vista, Microsoft's next major operating system release, according to the report. They found several security bugs and determined that Vista's networking technology will be less stable, at least in the short run, than Windows XP's, the report said.
"Microsoft has removed a large body of tried and tested code and replaced it with freshly written code, complete with new corner cases and defects," the researchers wrote in the report, scheduled for publication Tuesday. "This may provide for a more stable networking stack in the long term, but stability will suffer in the short term."
Vista, slated to be broadly available in January, will be the first major new version of Windows for PCs since XP, which was released in 2001. Microsoft has put a stronger emphasis on protecting PCs in the new operating system, as security has grown in importance over those five years. Symantec's report draws attention once again to Microsoft's goal of improved security and the hurdles it faces in getting there.
A Symantec representative said Symantec had provided the Redmond, Wash., company with a copy of the paper.
Microsoft, in a statement provided to CNET News.com, said Vista is being developed with the highest attention to security. Highlighting issues in early builds of Windows Vista does not accurately represent the quality and depth of the networking features, the software maker said.
"Given that Windows Vista is still in the beta stage of the development and not yet final, the claims made in this report are, at best, premature," Microsoft said. "And given the extensive work we are doing to make Windows Vista the most secure version of Windows yet, we believe the claims are also unsubstantiated."
Microsoft also noted that Vista will be the first client-based operating system to go through the company's complete Security Development Lifecycle, a process designed to prevent flaws and vet code before it ships.
Traditionally allies, Microsoft and Symantec are now going head-to-head in the security arena. In late May, Microsoft introduced Windows Live OneCare, a consumer security package, and the software giant is readying an enterprise product. Symantec has also sued Microsoft, alleging misuse of data storage technology it licensed to the company.
In their paper, titled "Windows Vista Network Attack Surface Analysis: A Broad Overview," Symantec researchers put the networking technology in Vista under a magnifying glass to determine its exposure to external attacks. The team said it found several flaws in build 5270 of Vista and even more in earlier test versions. However, these were all fixed by Microsoft in build 5384, the version of the operating system that was publicly released in May as Beta 2.
"While it is reassuring that Microsoft is finding and fixing these defects, we expect that vulnerabilities will continue to be discovered for some time," the researchers wrote. "A networking stack is a complex piece of software that takes many years to mature."
With each build, Microsoft seeks to make the code more stable. On Monday, it released to selected testers build 5472 of Vista, which likely has put right more bugs.
For maintenance purposes and to improve performance and stability, the company is building much of Vista's networking technology from the ground up. The clean-slate approach also lets it add features such as support for version 6 of the Internet Protocol (IPv6).
"We're not saying that Vista's network stack is going to be inherently insecure when it is released," Oliver Friedrichs, director of emerging technologies at Symantec Security Response, said in an interview Monday. "Vista is one of the most important technologies that will be released over the next year, and people should understand the ramifications of a virgin network stack."
Friedrichs noted that in the Linux networking stack, vulnerabilities and stability issues continue to surface well over five years after it was first released.
Aside from security flaws, features supported by Vista's new networking technology could expose a PC running the operating system, according to Symantec's report.
For example, Vista will be the first Windows version to support IPv6, the next update of the technology standard used to send information over computer networks, by default. To help transition to the new protocol and for peer-to-peer networking features, Microsoft has functionality called IPv6 tunneling in Vista. This functionality could expose PCs that otherwise would be invisible behind a firewall, Symantec said.
"IPv6 and its accompanying transition technologies allow an attacker access to hosts on private internal networks outside of the (purview) of the administrator," the researchers wrote. As Vista becomes available, businesses should update security systems, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, to prevent that, they wrote.
The technology that underlies Vista's peer-to-peer collaboration features, much ballyhooed by Microsoft, could also pose a security threat, Symantec said. To provide these features, Microsoft has added support for serverless name-resolution protocols, such as Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP), that allow a Vista PC to operate in a network of Vista machines without a central server.
"As these technologies see wider deployment, we expect IPv6 and the new peer-to-peer protocols to play an increasing role in the delivery of malicious payloads," the Symantec paper said. "These features are critical to the success of Microsoft's peer-to-peer initiative but are also the same features that attackers need to deliver malicious content."
Although the Symantec report is one of the first more extensive looks at the security of Vista, the researchers looked at only a small part of the new operating system. Also, since Vista is still in development, much can still change.
"We expect many of our results to be invalidated by changes made prior to its public release," the researchers wrote.
But Friedrichs did underline the importance of networking technology in overall operating system security.
"The network stack is the first line of defense for an operating system, it is the primary component that separates an attacker from the operating system," he said. "It is very critical that this component is as robust as it can possibly be."


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NEMANJA MATIC ONE OF THE TOUGH PLAYER I HAD PLAYED WITH IN THE OPPOSITE TEAM
Yaya Toure has singled out Manchester United's Nemanja Matic as one of the toughest player he had played against in the opposite team; Matic who had struggled for first-team action this season for Manchester United. Yaya Toure said that the midfielder is not fast but powerful and smart, the former Barcelona and Manchester City midfielder who plies his trade now with Qingdao Huanghai in China played for City and won an FA Cup title, twice he lifted the League cups and won the Premier League thrice with Manchester city.
MASON GREENWOOD HAD MENTIONED FOOTBALLERS THAT MOTIVATES HIM
The 18-year-old Mason Greenwood had mentioned former Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney and former Barcelona; Inter Milan and AC Milan goal poacher Ronaldo De Lima from Brazil as major players that motivate him. After his spectacular form throughout the training matches before this current season; he has been able to get his name on the score sheet in the Europa League triumph against Astana, and scored against Rochdale and Partizan Belgrade; assisted 3 goals for Manchester United.
DANIEL JAMES COMPARED WITH KYLIAN MBAPPE FOR HIS SPEED
Daniel James who joined Manchester United from Swansea of £15m had fit into the flow of the Premier League. The young player had been compared with PSG Kylian Mbappe for his speed by Coach of Hungary Marco Rossi. The player had scored 2 goals for Wales after playing 9 matches for the National team. Hungary who will be having a must-win match with Wales, their Coach had singled out Daniel James as a torn in the flesh for his team before the match for EURO 2020 qualifier this evening. The away team realized that a draw with Wales will qualify them if Slovakia couldn't win Azerbaijan.
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Laura a la ciutat dels sants is a 1931 novel written by the Catalan writer Miquel Llor. The work is rooted in realism and modernisme, but it also has features of the 1930s, more influenced by Freud and other modern authors. Set in Vic, it follows the initial journey of Laura and her development as a person. The negative image of rural and catholic caused a controversy that made Llor write the second part, El somriure dels sants (1947), which clarified this pessimistic portrait.

References

1931 in Catalonia
1931 novels
Spanish bildungsromans
Catalan-language novels

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Nice lot in convenient location just minutes to New Carrollton Metro, IRS, 495, 295, shopping centers, restaurants and more. Water and sewer tap is in. School fee is considerably less since the lot is inside the Beltway. Lot 15 next door is also for sale for the same price.


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As I Lay Dying is an American metalcore band from San Diego, California. Founded in 2000 by their vocalist Tim Lambesis and having completed their first Line-up in 2001, the band consists of vocalist Tim Lambesis, drummer Jordan Mancino, lead guitarist Nick Hipa, rhythm guitarist Phil Sgrosso, and bassist Josh Gilbert, all of whom are Christians. Signed to Metal Blade Records, As I Lay Dying has released five studio albums, one split album, and two compilation albums.
Articles with As I Lay Dying
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE – Mike D'Antonio Opens Up About New Album & more
Massachusetts based metalcore band Killswitch Engage has finally released their highly anticipated eighth studio album, Atonement which also marks their debut with new label Metal Blade Records. Jesse Leach (vocals), Adam Dutkiewicz (guitar), Joel Stroetzel (guitar), Mike D'Antonio (bass) and Justin Foley (drums) have had an adverse few years since their 2016 album Incarnate with Roadrunner… Read more »
Tim Lambesis World Exclusive Interview AS I LAY DYING Singer Breaks Silence; Sentenced to Six Years
Tim Lambesis speaks about his case for the first (and possibly last) time anywhere, in a series of interviews with AP's West Coast Editor Ryan J. Downey conducted in the final weeks and days leading up to today's sentencing of six years imprisonment. http://bit.ly/1sBqRhp
Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Miss May I and Affiance Announce US Tour
Cleveland's AFFIANCE will tour the US with Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, and Miss May I from May 30 to July 8! This will be the first time Affiance has hit most of these cities since their new album "The Campaign" was released. All dates below! The new Affiance album "The Campaign" has had a successful… Read more »
As I Lay Dying Premiere First Single "A Greater Foundation"
As the Grammy-nominated rock group AS I LAY DYING prepare to release AWAKENED September 25 on Metal Blade, the group has premiered their first single and video "A Greater Foundation" today (September 11) via RCRD LBL and PUREVOLUME. Meanwhile, AS I LAY DYING are set to headline a special album release show that's also in… Read more »
As I Lay Dying Reveal New In-The-Studio Clip
The Grammy-nominated rock group AS I LAY DYING will release their sixth album, AWAKENED, September 25 on Metal Blade. The group has premiered a third studio update via The Gauntlet. The clip below shows guitarist PHIL SGROSSO working on the title track, "Awakened," while recording the group's latest release in Blasting Room in Fort Collins,… Read more »
As I Lay Dying's new album 'Awakened' available for pre-orders today, August 20
The Grammy-nominated rock group AS I LAY DYING will release their sixth album, AWAKENED, September 25 on Metal Blade. Pre-orders are available today, August 20, via: Metal Blade. After wrapping a successful run as a main stage act on the Rockstar Mayhem Festival with Slipknot, Slayer and more, the group will headline a special album… Read more »
As I Lay Dying New Album 'Awakened' Set For Release September 25 On Metal Blade
AS I LAY DYING are currently holed up in the Blasting Room with renowned rock producer Bill Stevenson, who's also the drummer for Descendents (and has played with Black Flag); and mixer Colin Richardson. The group–NICK HIPA (guitar), TIM LAMBESIS (vocals), JORDAN MANCINO (drums), PHIL SGROSSO (guitar) and JOSH GILBERT (bass)–are putting the finishing touches… Read more »


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Zlatan Ibrahimovic Trolls On Cristiano Ronaldo's Overhead Kick
Published 10:49, 04 April 2018 BST
| Last updated 10:50, 04 April 2018 BST
There have been some great overhead kicks in football history - Rooney vs Man City, Trevor Sinclair vs Barnsley, and Georgios Samaras vs Aberdeen (just me?).
Cristiano Ronaldo definitely scored one of the best ever last night in the Champions League against Juventus.
But, despite the Real Madrid star's best efforts, Zlatan Ibrahimovic probably still holds the record for greatest overhead kick of all time - 40 metres from goal against England to win the match.
If you know anything about Zlatan, you'll already know that he thinks his was better, too.
In fact, when asked about Ronaldo's goal on US TV show Sportscenter, he replied: "It was a nice goal, but he should try it from 40 metres."
Fair enough, but surely Zlatan should try it away from home in the Champions League quarter-final against literally any goalkeeper that isn't Joe Hart? The jury is still out.
If you've not seen Ronaldo's performance last night against Juventus, go and check it out - you won't regret it.
He opened the scoring with a clinical finish after some great movement within three minutes, however, that was just a warm up for what he had planned in the second half.
The ball broke into the Juventus area, he crossed the ball from the by-line and then moved to the centre of the box for a return cross, when the ball came in he went for a bicycle kick.
Every angle of Cristiano Ronaldo's crazy goal against Juventus :ok_hand:
We could watch this over and over and over again... :heart_eyes: pic.twitter.com/XRSdqTNuMT
- Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 4, 2018
To say he caught hold of it is somewhat of an understatement. He smashed it into the top corner past one of the best goalkeepers of a generation, Gigi Buffon.
The goal was so perfect that the Juventus fans gave him a standing ovation - which very rarely happens.
Zlatan's bicycle kick was one of all four goals for Sweden against England, and it's still bloody impressive no matter when or who it came.
Whatever side of the argument you're on here, it's a treat to be able to watch both goals again and argue about it.
Whilst we're at it - Zlatan made his debut for LA Galaxy the other day and as well as scoring the winning goal he also produced a moment of magic with a 40-yard volley - classic Zlatan.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been named MLS player of the week.
Here's why. pic.twitter.com/qSf5spnPDo
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 4, 2018
It probably isn't worth arguing who is the best player out of Cristiano, Lionel Messi, and Zlatan.
Messi and Cristiano have the numbers (by a long way) but Zlatan surely remains the undisputed champion of scoring bizarre goals.
Before you get angry and take it out on the internet, just go and watch the evidence. I guarantee you'll feel better.
Featured Image Credit: PA
Topics: Cristiano, Football, cr7, LA, Ronaldo, Sports, Juventus, Champions League, Real Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo's Son Filmed Scoring Stunning Free-Kick
Cristiano Ronaldo Still Has The Physical State of A 20-Year-Old
Cristiano Ronaldo's Obsession With Being The GOAT Continues With New Goatee
How Sir Alex Ferguson Got Inside Cristiano Ronaldo's Head On His Return To Old Trafford
Man Who Betrayed Anne Frank Could Have Been Identified After 77 Years


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When States of Mind Collide: USPTO Rejects MARIJUANAVILLE as Confusingly Similar to MARGARITAVILLE
By Josh Cohen, April 3, 2017
Photo by shankar s., CC BY 2.0
Could you write a legal opinion about Jimmy Buffett, Margaritaville and Marijaunaville without displaying any trace of a sense of humor? The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) did. The USPTO wrote a 30-page opinion about the singer, who's backed by the Coral Reefer Band and has created "an island escapism lifestyle," without a single pun, witticism or joke that might elicit even a smirk, much less a smile.
Rachel Bevis, the applicant, sought to register the trademark MARIJUANAVILLE for a variety of types of clothing to be sold in locations that support the legalization of marijuana. Jimmy Buffett's company Margaritaville Enterprises, LLC filed an opposition, citing its use of the MARGARITAVILLE mark on a number of products, including clothing.
The USPTO applied the 12 DuPont factors, used for determining the likelihood of confusion between the applicant's mark [MARIJUANAVILLE] and the existing mark [MARGARITAVILLE].
The USPTO reviewed Buffett's epic career and his widespread "media and popular culture exposure" and concluded, in a gross understatement, that Margaritaville has established that its mark is "famous."
Margaritaville enlisted an expert lexicographer and linguistic consultant to state the obvious, that "due to the shared linguistic properties of the two terms Margaritaville and Marijuanaville …are similar and may result in consumer confusion." Apparently Margaritaville's money was not well spent as the USPTO refused to rely on such testimony noting that "opinion testimony on the questions of likelihood of confusion is admissible, it is entitled to little or no weight." With all the groove of a blown flip-flop, the USPTO conducted its own comparison and found:
[B]oth marks are similar insofar as they are comparing the two "single term 14 letter marks comprises of five syllables, each commencing with the same letter string "mar-" and ending with the suffix "-ville." As to their connotation and commercial impression, the record shows a public association between the two terms as representing a similar "state of mind" induced by either a cocktail or marijuana. According to the record, the suffix "-ville" is a slang term frequently combined with other words to denote a "state of being."
The USPTO made no mention of the fact that marijuana is a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance and that the USPTO will not register trademarks for actual marijuana use. In fact, the USPTO has registered numerous trademarks for clothing and other goods and services that relate to marijuana or cannabis, so long as the goods and services do not relate directly to the sale of marijuana.
The USPTO sustained Margaritaville's opposition and denied registration to MARIJUANAVILLE, concluding that "thus, the overall connotation and commercial impression of the marks is highly similar – a chemically induced mental paradise. The public is likely to perceive Applicant's mark [MARIJAUNAVILLE] as an extension of Opposer's lifestyle brand [MARGARITAVILLE]"
One can only hope that after this ordeal, Jimmy Buffett, the applicant, and maybe even the USPTO Judge, were able to chill on a beach somewhere, watchin' the sun bake and get to their own "states of being."
Categories: Trademarks
Tagged: Jimmy Buffett, Margaritaville, Marijuanaville, USPTO
Virgin America is Dead, Long Live Virgin America's Marks
The Battle of the Kylies Over the "Kylie" Trademark


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Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream Essays and Research Papers, pg.6
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Dangerous Womanhood
A feminist reading of William Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," using Margo Hendrick's article, "Obscured by Dreams: Race, Empire" as a reference.
An analysis of the literary work of William Shakespeare and the issue of patronage.
The Supernatural in Renaissance Drama
An analysis of the supernatural in the plays "Hamlet" and "Midsummer's Night Dream" by Shakespeare, and "Dr. Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe.
An examination of love as the theme of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
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EDWARDSVILLE — An unnamed Madison County Animal Control employee will not face any discipline over the death of a dog in early May, according to County Administrator Doug Hulme.
This comes as Animal Control issues dominated Monday's Public Safety Committee meeting. In addition for calls to discipline the worker, there were accusations that Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler and the administration has "done nothing" to promote change in the Animal Control Department.
The meeting started with comments from Jackie Spiker, of Hope Animal Rescues, wanting an Animal Control worker disciplined for the death of a dog in early May.
The animal was reportedly hit by a car May 4 and brought into Animal Control. The dog was reportedly left in a holding area over the weekend without being checked by a veterinarian, and was found dead May 7.
Spiker said that violated state law.
"That is what happened at Animal Control and nobody is being held accountable," she said.
The committee went into executive session to discuss the issue, but no action was taken.
On Tuesday morning, Hulme said that the investigation was completed and that there would be no discipline.
This is not the first time that Animal Control faced harsh criticism for the treatment of animals under its care.
Also during Monday's meeting there was a wide-ranging discussion about changes to ordinances dealing with Animal Control.
Board Member Lisa Ciampoli, R-Collinsville, has been working with various officials to craft the new ordinances, including the Madison County State's Attorney's Office. She said the changes were completed and signed off on by the State's Attorney's Office, but that Prenzler had not allowed consideration of the ordinance change by the board.
After the meeting, Prenzler denied that. Hulme said on Tuesday he thought the changes were still being looked at.
There were also questions regarding the investigation into the May 4 incident, including why it was handled by Human Resources Specialist Bruce Cooper.
Several committee members criticized Prenzler and the administration, saying that although the chairman had pushed for the county to adopt a "no-kill" shelter, he and the administration have done nothing to move that issue forward.
Most recently, Prenzler announced he was working with local animal welfare groups to place the referendum to "support a 90 percent save rate at Madison County's animal control shelter." He said they are seeking 10,000 signatures to put the referendum on the ballot.
The group met in Troy, but Ciampoli said she had not been informed of the meeting.
She also noted that much of the work needs to be done by the administration, not the Public Safety Committee.
"We are a governing board, we do no handle day-to-day," she said.
It was also announced that Katherine Conder has been hired as the manager of animal care and control. Conder, of Belleville, started on Monday.
A former teacher with a bachelor's degree in social work and a master's degree in special education, she has worked with several St. Louis-based animal rescue organizations.


text:
In Lush Manipur, Women Work for Peace as Militarization Marches On
September 15, 2017 September 5, 2017 by Binalakshmi Nepram
Manipuri female leaders from different ethnic groups coming together for a peace meeting. The region has been embroiled in conflict for decades with no letup in sight. BINALAKSHMI NEPRAM
Manipur, a state of exceptional beauty in a little-known corner of northeastern India, was an independent region until 1949 when, in a controversial move, it was merged into the Indian union. Situated in an emerald green valley surrounded by nine blue mist-covered mountain ranges, the state has been seriously affected since 1949 by many continuous armed conflicts.
The government of India has sent in more than 100,000 Indian security forces and paramilitary units to deal with 60 armed insurgent groups.
The state, which borders Burma, is home to 2.2 million people from 39 indigenous ethnic groups and communities whose main lingua franca is Manipuri, or Meitei-lon, part of the Tibeto-Burman group of languages.
In the many years of conflict, 20,000 people have died in Manipur and more than 1,500 extrajudicial killings have been recorded in the state, along with many cases of disappearances. An Indian martial law, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, has been enforced in our region since 1958. Under this act anyone can be arrested, imprisoned or killed on mere suspicion charges.
Manipur is one of the most militarized and weaponized regions of Asia. In these circumstances civilians, mostly women and children, have been caught between guns of the government and those of nonstate actors. The entrenched state of conflict has widowed more than 20,000 women, with many children recruited as soldiers.
What we endure is unknown by the wider world because for decades news from our region was not allowed to filter to New Delhi, and media and visitors were not allowed to enter our indigenous territories. We were repeatedly warned not to tell the story of Manipur to the outside world.
In 2007, the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network was launched to respond to the humanitarian crisis inflicted on the women and families who must contend with the violence in the state. We go from village to village when we hear that a killing or violence has occurred. We then support the women and their families, making sure there is food on table, children are sent to school, women are helped to earn an income and file litigation on the deaths of loved ones.
We have helped more than 5,000 women in 300 villages in Manipur as well as across Northeast India and have raised the income levels of women by 35 to 100 percent. For us, the women of Manipur who used to live below the poverty line and have lost loved ones in the fighting taught us that social transformation can happen if a collective intent for change and dedication exists.
A Manipuri in the Bishnupur District has learned to weave in her mud hut to create an income. The long simmering conflicts have left 20,000 women husbandless. BINALAKSHMI NEPRAM
Besides direct survivors' assistance, in 2007 we set up the country's first women-led disarmament organization, the Control Arms Foundation of India. The goal was to point out that conflict exists in our lives, families, communities and nation, and that the heavy influx of small arms and light weapons has led to a huge loss of innocent lives.
Our research found that 58 types of weapons from more than 13 countries have flooded Manipur in the past 40 years. The United States may have never heard of Manipur, but the American M-16 gun is a favorite of many armed local groups. India has imported over 200,000 AK-47s from Bulgaria for counterinsurgency operations. Two to four people are killed every day in Manipur, like a slow genocide. Young men between 19 to 40 years old are all suspects.
We live in times of great irony. India, the land that gave yoga to the world, is currently the world's largest importer of arms, while on a global gender index, we are 104th among 193 countries.
Despite repeated threats against our foundation's work, we continue to mitigate conflict and rampant gun violence and ensure the rule of law. If working for the rights of female survivors of conflict is called "antinational," so be it.
Because the government of India does not officially acknowledge the conflicts in Manipur, it said at a meeting in Geneva on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 does not apply to the region. Women of Manipur and around Northeast India, however, realize the importance of this historic resolution and its meaning for women in conflicts.
We have organized peace congregations, trained women in our villages, adopted several resolutions and drafted India's first national action plan on women, peace and security to submit to the government. We also submitted several cases of sexual violence in conflict under Security Council Resolution 1820, but the cases were never published in a UN special rapporteur's report.
There are currently 17 peace talks going on in different stages in Manipur and across Northeast India, but no female participants active in the negotiations. In 2010, the Northeast India Women's Initiative for Peace was formed to promote the role of women in peacemaking, and efforts are underway to found a women-led national action plan on women, peace and security issues.
Nation-building cannot be done at gunpoint and left to men. It must involve women and people of all genders and be done with love, care, dignity and respect. Military solutions, violence and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act have failed in the Northeast for more than 70 years.
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TB in India: Drug-Resistant Strains Are 'Out of Control,' New Report Says by Barbara Crossette October 27, 2017
Categories Asia, Disarmament, India Tags Cedaw, Control Arms Foundation of India, Manipur conflicts, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network, Northeast India conflicts, Northeast India Women's Initiative for Peace, Security Council Resolution 1820, UN Security Council Resolution 1325, women's peace movements in Manipur Post navigation
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by Binalakshmi Nepram, PassBlue

In Lush Manipur, Women Work for Peace as Militarization Marches On

by Binalakshmi Nepram, PassBlue
September 5, 2017

Manipur, a state of exceptional beauty in a little-known corner of northeastern India, was an independent region until 1949 when, in a controversial move, it was merged into the Indian union. Situated in an emerald green valley surrounded by nine blue mist-covered mountain ranges, the state has been seriously affected since 1949 by many continuous armed conflicts.

The government of India has sent in more than 100,000 Indian security forces and paramilitary units to deal with 60 armed insurgent groups.

The state, which borders Burma, is home to 2.2 million people from 39 indigenous ethnic groups and communities whose main lingua franca is Manipuri, or Meitei-lon, part of the Tibeto-Burman group of languages.

In the many years of conflict, 20,000 people have died in Manipur and more than 1,500 extrajudicial killings have been recorded in the state, along with many cases of disappearances. An Indian martial law, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, has been enforced in our region since 1958. Under this act anyone can be arrested, imprisoned or killed on mere suspicion charges.

Manipur is one of the most militarized and weaponized regions of Asia. In these circumstances civilians, mostly women and children, have been caught between guns of the government and those of nonstate actors. The entrenched state of conflict has widowed more than 20,000 women, with many children recruited as soldiers.

What we endure is unknown by the wider world because for decades news from our region was not allowed to filter to New Delhi, and media and visitors were not allowed to enter our indigenous territories. We were repeatedly warned not to tell the story of Manipur to the outside world.

In 2007, the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network was launched to respond to the humanitarian crisis inflicted on the women and families who must contend with the violence in the state. We go from village to village when we hear that a killing or violence has occurred. We then support the women and their families, making sure there is food on table, children are sent to school, women are helped to earn an income and file litigation on the deaths of loved ones.

We have helped more than 5,000 women in 300 villages in Manipur as well as across Northeast India and have raised the income levels of women by 35 to 100 percent. For us, the women of Manipur who used to live below the poverty line and have lost loved ones in the fighting taught us that social transformation can happen if a collective intent for change and dedication exists.

Besides direct survivors' assistance, in 2007 we set up the country's first women-led disarmament organization, the Control Arms Foundation of India. The goal was to point out that conflict exists in our lives, families, communities and nation, and that the heavy influx of small arms and light weapons has led to a huge loss of innocent lives.

Our research found that 58 types of weapons from more than 13 countries have flooded Manipur in the past 40 years. The United States may have never heard of Manipur, but the American M-16 gun is a favorite of many armed local groups. India has imported over 200,000 AK-47s from Bulgaria for counterinsurgency operations. Two to four people are killed every day in Manipur, like a slow genocide. Young men between 19 to 40 years old are all suspects.

We live in times of great irony. India, the land that gave yoga to the world, is currently the world's largest importer of arms, while on a global gender index, we are 104th among 193 countries.

Despite repeated threats against our foundation's work, we continue to mitigate conflict and rampant gun violence and ensure the rule of law. If working for the rights of female survivors of conflict is called "antinational," so be it.

Because the government of India does not officially acknowledge the conflicts in Manipur, it said at a meeting in Geneva on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) that United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 does not apply to the region. Women of Manipur and around Northeast India, however, realize the importance of this historic resolution and its meaning for women in conflicts.

We have organized peace congregations, trained women in our villages, adopted several resolutions and drafted India's first national action plan on women, peace and security to submit to the government. We also submitted several cases of sexual violence in conflict under Security Council Resolution 1820, but the cases were never published in a UN special rapporteur's report.

There are currently 17 peace talks going on in different stages in Manipur and across Northeast India, but no female participants active in the negotiations. In 2010, the Northeast India Women's Initiative for Peace was formed to promote the role of women in peacemaking, and efforts are underway to found a women-led national action plan on women, peace and security issues.

Nation-building cannot be done at gunpoint and left to men. It must involve women and people of all genders and be done with love, care, dignity and respect. Military solutions, violence and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act have failed in the Northeast for more than 70 years.

This article first appeared on PassBlue and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.


text:
Iran's Ancient City of Bam among the 34 new sites inscribed on World Heritage List
access_time 10 min read
The rich archaeological remains of the Iranian city of Bam, where 26,000 lost their lives in the earthquake of December 26, 2003, was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, alongside 12 other new cultural sites listed today by the World Heritage Committee holding its 28th session in Suzhou. This brings to 788 the number of cultural, natural and mixed sites now on the List.
Bam Cultural Landscape was inscribed on the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger. UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture, Mounir Bouchenaki, expressed the commitment of UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura to continue efforts to salvage the cultural heritage of this devastated city.
Experts from ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, who presented the Bam Cultural Landscape to the Committee, explained that the rich archaeological remains of Bam had been severely hit by the earthquake but not as badly damaged as the new city.
Situated in the desert on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau, Bam developed as a crossroads of trade in silk and cotton. Its origins can be traced to the Achaemenid period (6th-4th century BC) and it reached its heyday from the 7th to 11th centuries. Bam grew in an oasis created mainly thanks to an underground water management system (qanāts), which continues to function. The site's main ancient remains are within a fortified citadel area (Arg), which contains 38 watchtowers, Governmental Quarters, and the historic town with its 8th or 9th century mosque, one of the oldest in Iran. This is the most representative example of a fortified medieval town built in vernacular technique using mud layers. As a result of the destruction, archaeologists have discovered new evidence of the history of the place in the Arg itself and in the surrounding territory. This includes remains of ancient settlements and irrigation systems, dating at least to the Parthian-Hellenistic period, 2nd century B.C.
Bam Cultural Landscape represents an exceptional testimony to the development of a trading settlement where various influences met in a desert environment in Central Asia. It bears an exceptional testimony to the use of mud layer technique (Chineh) combined with mud bricks (Khesht). The qanāts further provide an outstanding representation of the interaction of man and nature in a desert environment.
A total of 34 new sites were inscribed by the 21-member World Heritage Committee during its current session (29 cultural sites and five natural sites). This brings to 788 the number of listed sites (611 cultural sites, 154 natural sites and 23 mixed sites). Iceland had a site inscribed on the List for the first time today. It joined Andorra, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, St. Lucia and Togo as a new entrant on the list.
In addition to Bam, the following new sites were inscribed today:
Germany - Dresden Elbe Valley. The 18th and 19th century cultural landscape of Dresden Elbe Valley extends some 18-km along the river from Übigau Palace and Ostragehege fields in the northwest to the Pillnitz Palace and the Elbe River Island in the southeast. It features low meadows, and is crowned by the Pillnitz Palace and the centre of Dresden with its numerous monuments and parks from the 16th to the 20th centuries. The landscape also features 19th and 20th century suburban villas and gardens and valuable natural features. Some terraced slopes along the river are still used for viticulture and some old villages have retained their historic structure and elements from the industrial revolution: notably the 147-m Blue Wonder steel bridge (1891-1893), the funicular (1894-1895), and the single-rail suspension cable railway (1898-1901). The passenger steamships (the oldest from 1879) and shipyard (ca 1900) are still in use.
Germany - The Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen. The Town Hall and Roland on the marketplace of Bremen in northwest Germany are outstanding representations of civic and trading rights as they developed in the Holy Roman Empire in Europe. The old town hall was built as in the Gothic style in the early 15th century, after Bremen joined the Hanseatic League. The building was renovated in the Weser Renaissance style in the early 17th century. A new town hall was built next to the old one in the early 20th century as part of an ensemble that survived the bombarding during the Second World War. The statue stands 5.5m tall and dates back to 1404.
Germany and Poland - Muskauer Park/Park Muzakowski. A landscaped park of 559.90-ha astride the Neisse River and the border between Poland and Germany, it was created by Prince Hermann von Puckler-Muskau from 1815 to 1844. Blending seamlessly with the surrounding farmed landscape, the park pioneered new approaches to landscape design and influenced the development of landscape architecture in Europe and North America. Designed as a 'painting with plants', it did not seek to evoke classical landscapes, paradise, or some lost perfection, instead it used local plants to enhance the inherent qualities of the existing landscape. This integrated landscape extends into the town of Muskau with green passages that formed urban parks framing areas for development. The town thus became a design component in a utopian landscape. The site also features a reconstructed castle, bridges and an arboretum.
Iceland - Þingvellir National Park. Þingvellir (Thingvellir) is the National Park where the Althing - an open-air assembly, which represented the whole of Iceland - was established in 930 and continued to meet until 1798. Over two weeks a year, the assembly set laws - seen as a covenant between free men - and settled disputes. The Althing has deep historical and symbolic associations for the people of Iceland. Located on an active volcanic site, the property includes the Þingvellir National Park and the remains of the Althing itself: fragments of around 50 booths built of turf and stone. Remains from the 10th century are thought to be buried underground. The site also includes remains of agricultural use from 18th and 19th centuries, the Thingvellir Church and adjacent farm, and the population of arctic char in Lake Thingvallavatn. The park shows evidence of the way the landscape was husbanded over 1,000 years.
Italy - Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia. These two large Etruscan cemeteries reflect different types of burial practices from the 9th to the 1st century BC, and bear witness to the achievements of Etruscan culture. They are the first remains of Etruscan culture, which over nine centuries developed the earliest urban civilization in the northern Mediterranean, to be inscribed on the World Heritage List. Some of the tombs are monumental, cut in rock and topped by impressive tumuli (burial mounds). Many feature carvings on their walls, others have wall paintings of outstanding quality. The necropolis near Cerveteri, known as Banditaccia, contains thousands of tombs organized in a city-like plan, with streets, small squares and neighbourhoods. The site contains very different types of tombs: trenches cut in rock; tumuli; and some, also carved in rock, in the shape of huts or houses with a wealth of structural details. These provide the only surviving evidence of Etruscan residential architecture. The necropolis of Tarquinia, also known as Monterozzi, contains 6,000 graves cut in the rock. It is famous for its 200 painted tombs, the earliest of which date from the 7th century B.C.
Italy - The Landscape of Val d'Orcia is part of the agricultural hinterland of Siena, re-drawn and developed when it was colonized by the city-state in the 14th and 15th centuries to reflect an idealized model of good governance and to create an aesthetically pleasing picture. The landscape's distinctive aesthetics, flat chalk plains out of which rise almost conical hills with fortified settlements on top, inspired many artists. Their images have come to exemplify the beauty of well-managed Renaissance agricultural landscapes. The inscription covers: a planned colonized agrarian and pastoral landscape reflecting innovative land management systems; towns and villages; farmhouses; and the Roman Via Francigena and its associated abbeys, inns, shrines, bridges etc.
Lithuania - Kernavė Archeological Site (Cultural Reserve of Kernavė). The Kernavė Archeological Site, in eastern Lithuania about 35 km northwest of Vilnius, represents an exceptional testimony to some 10 millennia of human settlements in this region. Situated in the valley of the River Neris, the site is a complex ensemble of archaeological properties, encompassing the town of Kernavé, forts, some unfortified settlements, burial sites and other archaeological monuments from the late Paleolithic period to the Middle Ages. The site has preserved the traces of ancient land use, as well as remains of five impressive hill forts, part of an exceptionally large defence system. Kernavė was an important feudal town in the Middle Ages. The town was destroyed by the Teutonic Order in the late 14th century, however the site remained in use till modern times.
Mexico - Luis Barragán House and Studio. Built in 1948, the House and Studio of architect Luis Barragán in the suburb of Mexico City represents an outstanding example of the architect's creative work in the post-Second World War period. The concrete building, totalling 1161-m2, consists of a ground floor and two upper stories, as well as a small private garden. Barragán's work integrated modern and traditional artistic and vernacular currents and elements into a new synthesis, which has been greatly influential, especially in the contemporary design of gardens, plazas, and landscapes.
Portugal - Landscape of the Pico Island Vineyard Culture. The 987-ha site on the volcanic island of Pico, the second largest in Azores archipelago, consists of a remarkable pattern of spaced-out, long linear walls running inland from, and parallel to, the rocky shore. The walls were built to protect the thousands of small, contiguous, rectangular, plots ('currais') from wind and salt sea water. Evidence of this viniculture, whose origins date back to the 15th century is manifest in the extraordinary assembly of the fields, in houses and early 19th century manor houses, in wine-cellars, churches and ports. The extraordinarily beautiful man-made landscape of the site is the best remaining area of a once much more widespread practice.
Serbia and Montenegro - Dečani Monastery. The Dečani Monastery - at the foot of the Prokletije mountains, in the western part of the province of Kosovo - was built in the mid 14th century for the Serbian King Stefan Dečanski. It is also his mausoleum. It represents the last important phase of Byzantine-Romanesque architecture in the region and is the largest of all medieval Balkan churches. It contains exceptional, well-preserved Byzantine paintings, which cover practically the entire interior of the church with over 1,000 individual depictions of saints. It also has numerous Romanesque sculptures. The original marble floor is preserved, as is the interior furniture, and the main 14th century iconostasis. The Dečani treasury is the richest in Serbia, with, notably, about 60 exceptional icons from the 14th to 17th centuries. The Monastery represents an exceptional synthesis of Byzantine and Western traditions.
Sweden - Varberg Radio Station. The Varberg Radio Station at Grimeton in southern Sweden (built in 1922-24) is an exceptionally well preserved monument to early wireless transatlantic communication. It consists of the transmitter equipment, including the aerial system of six 127-m high steel towers. Though no longer in regular use, the equipment has been maintained in operating condition. The 109.9-ha site comprises buildings housing the original Alexanderson transmitter, including the towers with their antennae, short-wave transmitters with their antennae, and a residential area with staff housing. The architect Carl Åkerblad designed the main buildings in the neoclassical style and the structural engineer Henrik Kreüger was responsible for the antenna towers, the tallest built structures in Sweden at that time. The site is an outstanding example of the development of telecommunications and is the only surviving example of a major transmitting station based on pre-electronic technology.
United Kingdom - Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City. Six areas in the historic centre and docklands of the maritime mercantile City of Liverpool bear witness to the development of one of the world's major trading centres in the 18th and 19th centuries. Liverpool played an important role in the growth of the British Empire and became the major port for the mass movement of people, e.g. slaves and emigrants from northern Europe to America. Liverpool was a pioneer in the development of modern dock technology, transport systems, and port management. The listed areas feature a great number of significant commercial, civic and public buildings, including St George's Plateau.
Cultural sites inscribed from June 28 through July 1: Andorra – Madriu-Claror-PerafitaValley; Australia - Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens; China - Capital Cities and Tombs of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom; Democratic People's Republic of Korea - Complex of Koguryo Tombs. India - Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park; India - Chhatrapati Shivaji Station (formerly Victoria Terminus); Islamic Republic of Iran – Pasargadae. Japan - Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range; Jordan - Um er-Rasas (Kastron Mefa'a); Kazakhstan - Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly. Mali - Tomb of Askia; Mongolia - Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape; Morocco - Portuguese City of Mazagan (El Jadida); Norway - Vegaøyan – the Vega Archipelago; Russian Federation - Ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent; Togo – Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba.
Natural sites inscribed during the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee : Denmark - Ilulissat Icefjord; Indonesia – Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra ; Russian Federation - Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve; Saint Lucia - Pitons Management Area; South Africa - Cape Floral Region Protected Areas. This brings to 154 the number of natural sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.
The Committee - chaired by Zhang Xinsheng, Vice Minister of Education of China and Chairperson of China's National Commission for UNESCO - will continue its work through July 7, notably reviewing the state of conservation of properties recognized as being of outstanding universal value. As part of this work, it will update the List of World Heritage in Danger.
WHC
Statutory Meetings (1)