text:
\section{\label{sec:Introduction}Introduction}
Monte-Carlo methods are the workhorses of statistical physics and lattice field theories providing insights in strongly correlated systems from first principles \cite{gattringerlang, newman1999monte}. In spite of their overall success, these approaches come with a number of downsides: Monte-Carlo methods potentially get trapped in local minima that prevent them from exploring the full configuration space \cite{Kirkpatrick1983:Optimization}. Furthermore, they can suffer from large autocorrelation times --- in particular close to criticality thus making them very costly in certain regions of the parameter space. In these regions, observables at physical parameter values can often only be extrapolated from simulations at unphysical parameter values. Last but not least, observables that explicitly depend on the partition function, such as free energy and entropy, can only be evaluated up to an overall constant by "chaining" the results of a considerable number of Monte-Carlo chains \cite{newman1999monte, bishop2006pattern,nakajima2019vblt}.

Generative neural samplers (GNSs) are machine learning models which allow sampling from probability distributions learned by using deep neural networks. We refer to \cite{goodfellow2016deep} for an accessible overview. GNSs have shown remarkable performance in generating realistic samples capturing complicated probability distributions of real-world data such as images, speech, and text documents. This has inspired the application of GNSs in the context of theoretical physics \cite{Torlai2016LearningTW,Morningstar2017DeepLT,liu2017simulating,huang2017accelerated, li2018neural,koch2018mutual,Urban:2018tqv,zhou2019regressive,mustafa2019cosmogan,nicoli2019comment,hu2019machine,yang2019deep,albergo2019flow,wu2019solving,sharir2019deep,noe2019boltzmann}.

In this work, we focus on a particularly promising subclass of GNSs. Namely, we will consider deep neural networks $q$ that allow to sample configurations $s \sim q$ from the model and also provide the exact probability $q(s)$ of the sample $s$. A notable example for this type of GNS are Variational Autoregressive Networks (VANs)\cite{wu2019solving}, which sample from a PixelCNN \cite{vanOord2016pixelrnn} to estimate observables. The main advantage of this class of GNSs is that they can be trained without resorting to Monte-Carlo configurations by minimizing the Kullback--Leibler divergence between the model $q$ and a target (Boltzmann) distribution $p$. As a result, they represent a truly complementary approach to existing Monte-Carlo methods.

Observables are often estimated by directly sampling from the GNS and then taking the sample mean. However, as we will discuss in detail, this approach suffers from a mismatch of the sampling distribution $q$ and the target distribution $p$. This mismatch is unavoidable since it cannot be expected that the GNS fully captures the underlying physics. This leads to uncontrolled estimates as both the magnitude and the direction of this bias is in general unknown and scales unfavorably with the system size \cite{nicoli2019comment}.

In this work, we propose a general framework to avoid this serious problem. Our method applies to any GNS with exact sampling probability. Specifically, we will show that it is possible to define asymptotically unbiased estimators for observables along with their corresponding variance estimators. Notably, our method also allows to directly estimate observables that explicitly depend on the partition function, e.g. entropy and free energy. Our proposal therefore greatly enhances the applicability of GNSs to real-world systems.

The paper is organized as follows: In Section~\ref{sec:Background}, we will discuss the proposed asymptotically unbiased estimators for observables along with corresponding variance estimators. We illustrate the practical applicability of our approach for the two-dimensional Ising model in Section~\ref{sec:Experiments}, discuss the applicabilty to other GNSs in Section~\ref{sec:applic} and conclude in Section~\ref{sec:conclusion}. Technical details are presented in several appendices.

\section{\label{sec:Background}Asymptotically Unbiased Estimators}

\begin{figure*}[ht]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{graphics/figure1}
  \caption{Estimates for various observables around $\beta_c$. NMCMC and NIS agree with the reference values provided by the exact analytical solutions as well as the Wolff algorithm. VAN deviates significantly. Observables are: internal energy $U=\mathbb{E}_p[H]$, absolute magnetization $|M|=\sum_i\mathbb{E}_p(|s_i|)$, the free energy $F=\tfrac{-1}{\beta} \ln(Z)$ and the entropy $S=-\mathbb{E}_p[\ln p]$.}\label{fig:observables}
\end{figure*}

\subsection{\label{sec:VAN}Generative Neural Samplers with Exact Probability (GNSEP)}
We will use a particular subclass of GNSs to model the variational distribution $q$ as they can provide the exact probability $q(s)$ of configurations $s$ and also allow sampling from this distribution $s \sim q$. We will henceforth refer to this subclass as generative neural samplers with exact probability (GNSEP).  Using these two properties, one can then minimize the inverse Kullback--Leibler divergence between the Boltzmann distribution $p(s)=1/Z \, \exp(-\beta H(s))$ and the variational distribution $q$ without relying on Monte-Carlo configurations for training,
\begin{align}
    \textrm{KL} (q | p) &= \sum_s q(s) \, \ln \left(\frac{q(s)}{p(s)}\right) \nonumber \\ &= \sum_s q(s) (\ln(q(s)) + \beta H(s)) + \ln  Z \,. \label{eq:loss}
\end{align}

This objective can straightforwardly be optimized using gradient decent since the last summand is an irrelevant constant shift. After the optimization is completed, observables (expectation values of an operator $\mathcal{O}$ with respect to the Boltzmann distribution $p$) are then conventionally estimated by the sample mean
\begin{align}
\langle \mathcal{O}(s) \rangle_{p} \approx \frac{1}{N}\sum_{i=1}^N \mathcal{O}(s_i) \label{eq:samplemean}
\end{align}
using the neural sampler $s_i \sim q $.

Various architectures for generative neural samplers are available. Here, we will briefly review the two most popular ones:

\paragraph{Normalizing Flows (NFs):} Samples from a prior distribution $q_0(z)$, such as a standard normal, are processed by an invertible neural network $f(z)$. The probability of a sample $s=f(z)$ is then given by
\begin{align*}
    q(s) = q_0 (f^{-1}(s)) \left|\det \left(\frac{\partial f}{\partial z}\right)\right|^{-1} \,.
\end{align*}
The architecture of $f$ is chosen such that the inverse and its Jacobian can easily be computed. Notable examples of normalizing flows include NICE\cite{dinh2014nice}, RealNVP\cite{dinh2016density} and GLOW\cite{kingma2018glow}. First physics applications of this framework have been presented in \cite{noe2019boltzmann} in the context of quantum chemistry and subsequently in \cite{albergo2019flow} for lattice field theory.

\paragraph{Autoregressive Models (AMs):} In this case, an ordering $s_1, \dots, s_N$ of the components of $s$ is chosen and the conditional distribution $q(s_i| s_{i-1} \dots s_1)$ is modeled by a neural network. The joint probability $q(s)$ is then obtained by multiplying the conditionals
\begin{align}
    q(s) = \prod_{i=1}^N q(s_i| s_{i-1} \dots s_1)
\end{align}
and one can draw samples from $q$ by autoregressive sampling from the conditionals. State-of-the-art architectures often use convolutional neural networks (with masked filters to ensure that the conditionals only depend on the previous elements in the ordering). Such convolutional architectures were first proposed in the context of image generation with PixelCNN \cite{vanOord2016pixelrnn,Salimans2017pixelcnn} as most prominent example. In \cite{wu2019solving} these methods were first used for statistical physics applications.

A major drawback of using generative neural samplers is that their estimates are A) (often substantially) biased and B) do not come with reliable error estimates, see Figure~\ref{fig:observables}. Both properties are obviously highly undesirable for physics applications.
The main reason for this is that the mean \eqref{eq:samplemean} is taken over samples drawn from the sampler $q$ to estimate expectation values with respect to the Boltzmann distribution $p$. However, it cannot be expected that the sampler $q$ perfectly reproduces the target distribution $p$. This discrepancy will therefore necessarily result in a systematic error which is often substantial. Furthermore, in all the cases that we are aware of, this error cannot be reliably estimated.

In order to avoid this serious problem, we propose to use either importance sampling or Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) rejection sampling to obtain asymptotically unbiased estimators. We also derive expressions for the variances of our estimators.

\subsection{Sampling Methods}\label{sec:methods}
Here we propose two novel estimators that are asymptotically unbiased and are shown to alleviate the serious issues A) and B) mentioned in the previous section.\\
\emph{Neural MCMC (NMCMC)} uses the sampler $q$ as the proposal distribution $p_0(s|s')$ for a Markov Chain. Samples $s\sim p_0(s|s')$ are then accepted with probability
\begin{align}
\text{min}\left(1, \tfrac{p_0(s| s') \, p(s')}{p_0(s'| s) \, p(s)}\right)
    = \text{min}\left(1, \tfrac{q(s) \, \exp(-\beta H(s'))}{q(s') \, \exp(-\beta H(s))}\right) \,.
\end{align}
We note that the proposal configurations do not depend on the previous elements in the chain. This has two important consequences: Firstly, they can efficiently be sampled in parallel. Secondly, the estimates will typically have very small autocorrelation.

\emph{Neural Importance Sampling (NIS)} provides an estimator by
\begin{align}
    \langle \mathcal{O}(s) \rangle_{p} \approx
    \textstyle \sum_{i} w_i \, \mathcal{O}(s_i) &&\text{with} &&  s_i \sim q  \,,
\end{align}
where $w_i = \tfrac{\hat{w}_i}{\sum_i \hat{w}_i}$ for $\hat{w}_i = \tfrac{e^{-\beta H(s_i)}}{q(s_i)}$ is the importance weight. It is important to stress that we can obtain the configurations $s_i$ by independent identically distributed (iid) sampling from $q$. This is in stark contrast to related reweighting techniques in the context of MCMC sampling \cite{gattringerlang}.

We assume that the output probabilities of the neural sampler $q$ are bounded within $[\epsilon, 1 - \epsilon]$ for small $\epsilon >0$. In practice, this can easily be ensured by rescaling and shifting the output probability of the model as explained in Appendix~\ref{app:proofs}.

It then follows from standard textbook arguments that these two sampling methods provide asymptotically unbiased estimators. For convenience, we briefly recall these arguments in Appendix~\ref{app:proofs}.

We note that our asymptotic unbiased sampling methods have the interesting positive side effect that they allow for \emph{transfer across parameter space}, a property they share with conventional MCMC approaches \cite{NewmanBarkemachap8:1999}. For example, we can use a neural sampler trained at inverse temperature $\beta'$ to estimate physical observable at a different target temperature $\beta\neq \beta'$, as shown later in Section~\ref{sec:Experiments}. In some cases, this can result in a significant reduction of runtime, as we will demonstrate in Section~\ref{sec:Experiments}.

\subsection{Asymptotically Unbiased Estimators}
\begin{figure}[ht]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{graphics/figure2}
  \caption{Zoom around critical $\beta_c\approx0.4407$ showing the internal energy per lattice site from Figure~\ref{fig:observables} (e.g. $16 \times 16$ lattice). We took internal energy as a reference example, same considerations hold for the other observables. The estimates from our proposed method match with the exact reference. VAN is not shown because it is out of range as one can see from Figure~\ref{fig:observables}.}\label{fig:zoom_energy}
\end{figure}
For operators $\mathcal{O}(s)$ which do not explicitly depend on the partition function, such as internal energy $\mathcal{O}_U(s) = H(s)$ or absolute magnetization $\mathcal{O}_{|M|}(s) = \sum_i |s_i|$, both NIS and NMCMC provide asymptotically unbiased estimators as explained in the last section.

However, generative neural samplers are often also used for operators $\mathcal{O}(s, Z)$ explicitly involving the partition function $Z$. Examples for such quantities include
\begin{align}
    &\mathcal{O}_F(s,Z) = -\frac{1}{\beta} \ln(Z)\,,\label{eq:obsF} \\ &\mathcal{O}_S(s,Z) = \beta \, H(s) + \ln Z \,, \label{eq:obsS}
\end{align}
which can be used to estimate the free energy $F=\tfrac{-1}{\beta} \ln(Z)=\mathbb{E}_p[ \mathcal{O}_F ]$ and the entropy $S=-\mathbb{E}_p[\ln p]=\mathbb{E}_p[ \mathcal{O}_S ]$ respectively. Since the Kullback-Leibler divergence is greater or equal to zero, it follows from the optimization objective \eqref{eq:loss} that
\begin{align}
  F_q = \frac{1}{\beta} \sum_s q(s) (\ln(q(s)) + \beta H(s)) \ge - \frac{1}{\beta} \ln(Z) = F \,.
\end{align}
Therefore, the variational free energy $F_q$ provides an upper bound on the free energy $F$ and is thus often used as its estimate. Similarly, one frequently estimates the entropy $S=-\mathbb{E}_p(\ln p)$ by simply using the variational distribution $q$ instead of $p$. Both estimators however typically come with substantial biases which are hard to quantify. This effect gets particularly pronounced close to the critical temperature.

Crucially, neural importance sampling also provides asymptotically unbiased estimators for $\mathbb{E}_p[\mathcal{O}(s,Z)]$ by
\begin{align}
    \hat{\mathcal{O}}_N = \frac{\tfrac{1}{N}\sum_{i=1}^N \mathcal{O}(s_i, \hat{Z}_N) \, \hat{w}(s_i)}{\hat{Z}_N} && \text{with} && s_i \sim q \,, \label{eq:estOp}
\end{align}
where the partition function $Z$ is estimated by
\begin{align}
   \hat{Z}_N = \frac{1}{N} \, \sum_{i=1}^N \hat{w}_i \,. \label{eq:estimatorZ}
\end{align}
In the next section, we will derive the variances of these estimators. Using these results, the errors of such observables can systematically be assessed.

\subsection{\label{sec:VarianceEstimators}Variance Estimators}
In the following, we focus on observables of the form
\begin{align}
    \mathcal{O}(s,Z) = g(s) + h(Z) \,,
    \label{eq:GeneeralObservable}
\end{align}
that include the estimators for internal energy, magnetization but most notably also for free energy \eqref{eq:obsF} and entropy \eqref{eq:obsS}.
As just mentioned, expectation values of these operators can be estimated using \eqref{eq:estOp}.

Let us assume that $h$ is differentiable at the true value of the partition function $Z$.
Then, as shown in Appendix~\ref{app:variance},
the variance of the estimator for large $N$ is given by
\begin{align}
    \sigma^2_{\hat{\mathcal{O}}_N}
=&
\frac{\boldsymbol{\psi}^T \mathbb{E}_q [\boldsymbol{\phi} \boldsymbol{\phi}^T] \boldsymbol{\psi}}{N}
+  o_P(N^{-1}) \,, \label{eq:fullvariance}
\end{align}
where
\begin{align}
\boldsymbol{\phi} &=
\begin{pmatrix}
g \hat{w} - \mathbb{E}_p[g] Z\\
\hat{w} - Z
\end{pmatrix},
&
\boldsymbol{\psi} &=
\begin{pmatrix}
1/Z\\
-  \mathbb{E}_p[g]/ Z + h'(Z)
\end{pmatrix}.
\end{align}
Note that
$\mathbb{E}_p[g]$ can be estimated by
\begin{align}
\frac{   \frac{1}{N} \sum_{i=1}^N g(s_i) \hat{w}(s_i) }{\hat{Z}_N}
\end{align}
and $Z$ can be estimated by \eqref{eq:estimatorZ}, respectively.

For operators with $h\equiv 0$, it is well-known \cite{isvariance} that Eq.~\eqref{eq:fullvariance} reduces to
\begin{align}
\sigma^2_{\hat{\mathcal{O}}_N}
&=
\frac{\text{Var}_p(g)}{N_{\textrm{eff}}} + o_P(N^{-1}) \,,
\end{align}
where we have defined the effective sampling size
\begin{align}
N_{\textrm{eff}} = \frac{N}{\mathbb{E}_q \left[w^2\right]} \,.
\end{align}
Note that the effective sampling size does not depend on the particular form of $g$. It is however important to stress that for observables with $h\neq 0$, the error cannot be estimated in terms of effective sampling size but one has to use \eqref{eq:fullvariance}. While this expression is more lengthy, it can be easily estimated. Therefore, neural importance sampling allows us to reliably estimate the variances of physical observables --- in particular observables with explicit dependence on the partition function. This is in stark contrast to the usual GNS approach.

It is also worth stressing that MCMC sampling does not allow to directly estimate those observables which explicitly involve the partition function. For completeness, we also note that a similar well-known effective sampling size can be defined for MCMC
\begin{align}
N_{\textrm{eff}} = \frac{N}{2 \, \tau_{int, \mathcal{O}}} \,, \label{eq:autocor}
\end{align}
where $\tau_{int, \mathcal{O}}$ is the integrated auto-correlation time of the operator $\mathcal{O}$, see \cite{wolff2004monte, gattringerlang} for more details.

\section{\label{sec:Experiments}Numerical Results}

We will now demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on the example of the two-dimensional Ising model with vanishing external magnetic field. This model has an exact solution and therefore provides us with a ground truth to compare to. The Hamiltonian of the Ising model is given by
\begin{equation}
    H(s) = -J \sum_{\langle i,j \rangle} s_i \, s_j \,,
\end{equation}
where $J$ is the coupling constant and the sum runs over all neighbouring pairs of lattice sites. The corresponding Boltzmann distribution is then given by
\begin{align}
    p(s) = \frac{1}{Z} \exp(-\beta H(s)) \,,
\end{align}
with partition function $Z=\sum_s \exp(-\beta H(s))$. For simplicity, we will absorb the coupling constant $J$ in $\beta$ in the following. Here, we will only consider the ferromagnetic case for which $J>0$ and the model undergoes a second-order phase transition at $\beta_c\approx0.4407$ in the infinite volume limit.

In addition to the exact solution by Onsager for the infinite volume case \cite{onsager}, there also exists an analytical solution for finite lattices \cite{ferdinand1969bounded}, which we review in Appendix~\ref{app:ZIsing} and use for reference values. An exact partition function for the case of vanishing magnetic field is not enough to derive expressions for some observables, such as magnetization. For these observables, we obtain reference values by using the Wolff MCMC clustering algorithm \cite{wolff1989comparison}.

\subsection{Unbiased Estimators for the Ising Model}
For discrete sampling spaces, autoregressive algorithms are the preferred choice as normalizing flows are designed for continuous ones \footnote{However, \cite{tran2019discrete, hoogeboom2019integer} present a recent attempt to apply normalizing flows to discrete sampling spaces.}.  It is nonetheless important to stress that our proposed method applies irrespective of the particular choice for the sampler.

We use the standard VAN architecture for the GNS. For training, we closely follow the procedure described in the original publication \cite{wu2019solving}. More detailed information about hyperparameter choices can be found in Appendix~\ref{appendix:hyperparams}. We use VANs, trained for a $16 \times 16$ lattice at various temperatures around the critical point, to estimate a number of observables. The errors for neural importance sampling are determined as explained in Section~\ref{sec:VarianceEstimators}. For Wolff and Neural MCMC, we estimate the autocorrelation time as described in \cite{wolff2004monte}.

Figure~\ref{fig:observables} summarizes the main results of our experiments in terms of estimates for internal energy, absolute magnetization, entropy and free energy around the critical regime. NMCMC and NIS agree with the reference values while VAN deviates significantly. We note that this effect is also present for observables with explicit dependence on the partition function, i.e. for entropy and free energy.

All estimates in Figure~\ref{fig:observables} deviate from the reference value in the same direction. Whereas this is expected for the free energy (for which the true value is a lower bound) also for the other observables the trained GNSs seem to favor a certain direction of approaching the true value. However, as we show in Appendix~\ref{app:directionofbias}, this trend holds only on average and is not a systematic effect.

\begin{figure}[ht]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{graphics/figure3}
    \caption{\label{fig:checkpoints} Estimation of observables during training for a single run on a $16\times16$ lattice. The modified sampling procedure leads to accurate predictions at significantly earlier stages of training since it correct for imperfect samplers. As before, we look at the internal energy $U=\mathbb{E}_p[H]$, the absolute magnetization $|M|=\sum_i\mathbb{E}_p(|s_i|)$, the free energy $F=\tfrac{-1}{\beta} \ln(Z)$ and the entropy $S=-\mathbb{E}_p[\ln p]$.}
\end{figure}

In Figure~\ref{fig:checkpoints}, we track the evolution of the estimates for the four observables under consideration during training.
This figure clearly demonstrates that our proposed method leads to accurate predictions even at earlier stages of the training process. This is particularly important because the overall runtime for GNS estimates is heavily dominated by the training.

Table~\ref{tab:scaling} summarizes results for $24 \times 24$ lattice. For this larger lattice, the systematic error of VAN is even more pronounced and the estimated values do not even qualitatively agree with the reference values. Our modified sampling techniques, on the other hand, lead to fully compatible results.

\begin{table*}[ht]
    \caption{Comparison of VAN, NMCMC and NIS on a $24\times24$ and a $16\times16$ lattices, both trained at $\beta_c$. Entropy and free energy cannot be directly estimated using Monte Carlo approaches. Bold numbers denote estimates which are compatible with ground truth within one standard deviation. Standard deviations are in parentheses.Observables are: internal energy $U=\mathbb{E}_p[H]$, absolute magnetization $|M|=\sum_i\mathbb{E}_p(|s_i|)$, the free energy $F=\tfrac{-1}{\beta} \ln(Z)$ and the entropy $S=-\mathbb{E}_p[\ln p]$. Details on the runtime performance are reported in Appendix \ref{appendix:hyperparams}.}
    \label{tab:scaling}
    \centering
    \begin{tabular}{c|l|cccc}
    Lattice & Sampler & $\nicefrac{U}{L^2}$ & $\nicefrac{|M|}{L^2}$ & $\nicefrac{S}{L^2}$ & $\nicefrac{F}{L^2}$ \\
    \colrule
    \multirow{ 3}{*}{(24x24)} & \textbf{VAN}  & -1.5058 (0.0001) & 0.7829 (0.0001) & 0.26505 (0.00004) & -2.107250 (0.000001) \\
    & \textbf{NIS}  & \textbf{-1.43} (0.02) & \textbf{0.67} (0.03) & \textbf{0.299}     (0.007) & \textbf{-2.1128} (0.0008) \\
    & \textbf{NMCMC}  & \textbf{-1.448} (0.007) & \textbf{0.68} (0.04) & - & -\\
    \colrule
    \colrule
    \textbf{Reference} & & -1.44025 & 0.6777 (0.0006) & 0.29611 & -2.11215 \\
    \colrule
    \multirow{ 3}{*}{(16x16)} & \textbf{VAN}  & -1.4764 (0.0002) & 0.7478 (0.0002) & 0.28081 (0.00007) & -2.11363 (0.00001) \\
    & \textbf{NIS}  & \textbf{-1.4533} (0.0003) & \textbf{0.71363} (0.00004) & \textbf{0.2917}  (0.0002) & \textbf{-2.11529} (0.00001) \\
    & \textbf{NMCMC}  & \textbf{-1.4532} (0.0007) & \textbf{0.714} (0.001) & - & -\\
    \colrule
    \colrule
    \textbf{Reference} & & -1.4532 & 0.7133 (0.0008) & 0.29181 & -2.11531
    \end{tabular}
\end{table*}

\begin{figure}[ht]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=1.\linewidth]{graphics/figure4}
    \caption{\label{fig:autocorr} Evolution of the acceptance rate (right) and the integrated autocorrelation time of the internal energy $\tau_{int, U}$ (left) during training. NMCMC runs were preformed on a 16$\times$16 lattice at $\beta_c$.}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[ht]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=1.\linewidth]{graphics/figure5}
    \caption{Histogram for the magnetization of the system at $\beta=0.55$. While the Metropolis algorithm is only able to capture one of the two modes of the distribution, NMCMC is able to cover both.}\label{fig:histogram}
\end{figure}

Lastly, our proposed methods allow for transfer across parameter space, as explained in Section~\ref{sec:methods}. In Figure~\ref{fig:transfer}, we summarize a few transfer runs.
We performed a full training procedure for each value of $\beta$ shown in Figure 6. The trained samplers were then used to estimate observables at $\beta_c$ (i.e. \textit{not} at the training temperature $\beta$).
All predicted values agree with the reference within error bars. As the difference between model's temperature $\beta$ and target $\beta_c$ increases, the variance grows as well --- as was to be expected. In practice, this limits the difference between model and target inverse temperature. Nevertheless, we can use models trained at a single $\beta$ value to predict other values in a non-trivial neighbourhood of the model $\beta$. This allows to more finely probe parameter space at only minimal additional computational costs.
\begin{figure}[ht]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=1.\linewidth]{graphics/figure6}
    \caption{\label{fig:transfer} Samplers $q$ are trained at increasingly lower $\beta$ values and used to predict the internal energy $U/L^2$ at the critical coupling $\beta_c$. All results agree with the reference values within error bars. The variance of the estimators increase as the difference between model and target temperature gets larger. Transfer runs for NMCMC and NIS allow to only train one model which leads to significant speed up since runtime is dominated by training, as illustrated in the inset.}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Neural MCMC}
NMCMC obtains a proposal configuration by independent and identically distributed sampling from the sampler $q$. This can result in a significantly reduced integrated autocorrelation time $\tau_{int, \mathcal{O}}$ for the observables $\langle \mathcal{O} \rangle$. For this reduction, it is not required to perfectly train the sampler. It is however required that the sampler is sufficiently well-trained such that the proposal configuration is accepted with relatively high probability, as illustrated in Figure~\ref{fig:autocorr}. Table~\ref{tab:autocorr} demonstrates a significant reduction in integrated autocorrelation $\tau_{int}$, as defined in \eqref{eq:autocor}, for two observables at $\beta_c$ on a $16 \times 16$ lattice.

\begin{table}[ht]
  \begin{center}
    \caption{Neural MCMC instead of Metropolis leads to a significant reduction of integrated autocorrelation times $\tau_{int}$ for a $16 \times 16$ lattice at  $\beta_c$. The neural sampler was trained over ten thousands steps and the acceptance rate was 69 percent. The observables $U=\mathbb{E}_p[H]$ and $|M|=\sum_i\mathbb{E}_p(|s_i|)$ are the internal energy and the absolute magnetization respectively.}
    \label{tab:autocorr}
    \begin{tabular}{l|cc}
    Observable & Metropolis & NMCMC \vspace{0.1cm}\\
    \colrule
    \textbf{$\tau_{int, U}$}  & 4.0415 & 0.8317 \\\vspace{0.05cm}
    \textbf{$\tau_{int, |M|}$}  & 7.8510 & 1.3331
    \end{tabular}
  \end{center}
\end{table}

In NMCMC, the proposal configuration $s \sim p_0(s|s') =q(s)$ is independent of the previous configuration $s'$ in the chain. This is in stark contrast to the Metropolis algorithm for which the proposal configuration is obtained by a local update of the previous configuration. As a result, NMCMC is less likely to stay confined in (the neighbourhood of) an energy minimum of the configuration space. This is demonstrated in Figure~\ref{fig:histogram} which shows the magnetization histograms for Metropolis and Neural MCMC. Since the Ising model has a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetry, we expect a two-moded distribution. In constrast to the Metropolis algorithm, NMCMC indeed shows such a behaviour.

\section{Applicability to Other Samplers}\label{sec:applic}
We note that our approach can in parts be applied to other generative models. Table~\ref{tab:taxonomy} summarizes the applicability of neural MCMC (NMCMC) sampling and neural importance sampling (NIS).
Namely, when the employed GNS provides an unnormalized sampling probability, i.e., the exact probability multiplied by a constant, then NMCMC and NIS can again correct the learned sampler $q$ leading to asymptotically unbiased estimators. However, the applicability is limited to the observables that do \emph{not} explicitly depend on the partition function, i.e., $h \equiv 0$ in Eq.~\eqref{eq:GeneeralObservable}.

If the employed GNS allows us to approximate the (normalized or unnormalized) sampling probability, one can apply our approach by using the approximate probability for $q$.
The bias can then be reduced if the gap between the target distribution and the sampling distribution is larger than the approximation error to the sampling probability.  However, then the estimator may not be asymptotically unbiased.

In summary, our method can be applied broadly to a variety of machine learning models and therefore does not depend on the particular choice of the sampler. Depending on the physical system, a particular architecture may be preferable. For example, whether an autoregressive model or a normalizing flow is the best machine learning tool to use, depends on how the sampling space looks like. The former requires a discrete sampling space, thus being a particularly good match for discrete systems, such as spin chains; the latter finds its applicability in the context of continuous systems, such as lattice field theories.
As shown in Table~\ref{tab:taxonomy}, applying our method to these models provides
asymptotically unbiased estimators.

\section{\label{sec:conclusion}Conclusion and Outlook}
In this work, we presented a novel approach for the unbiased estimation of observables with well-defined variance estimates from generative neural samplers that provides the exact sampling probability (GNSEP). Most notably, this includes also observables that explicitly depend on the partition function such as free energy or entropy. The practical applicability of the approach is demonstrated for the two-dimensional Ising model, stressing the importance of unbiased estimators compared to biased estimators from the literature.

In summary, the methods proposed in this paper not only lead to theoretical guarantees but are also of great practical relevance. They are applicable for a large class of generative samplers, easy to implement, and often lead to a significant reduction in runtime. We therefore firmly believe that they will play a crucial role in the promising application of generative models to challenging problems of theoretical physics.

\begin{table*}[ht]
\centering
    \caption{Applicability of NMCMC and NIS to various GNSs. $h$ refers to the term explicitly depending on the partition function $Z$ of the observable (see Eq.~\eqref{eq:GeneeralObservable}). General Adversarial Networks (GANs) do not provide sampling probabilites and therefore can not be used for our method. Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs) only provide approximate and unnormalized sampling probability and therefore do not lead to asymptotically unbiased estimators using our methods. Because of the lack of normalization, observables with explicit dependence on the partition function cannot be estimated. Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) provide approximate sampling probability. Our method can therefore be applied but does not lead to asymptotic guarantees. The cases of Normalizing Flows (NFs) and Autoregressive Models (AMs) were discussed at length before. The applicability is summarized in the table using the following notation: $\checkmark$: the estimator is asymptotically unbiased;  (\checkmark): applicable but the estimator is still biased;  \text{\sffamily X}: not applicable. Generative neural samplers in the last row are GNSEP as introduced in Sec.~\ref{sec:VAN}. The last column gives example references in which the corresponding type of GNS is applied to a physical system.}

    \label{tab:taxonomy}
    \begin{tabular}{c|c|c|c|c}
    Accessible sampling probability & NMCMC, NIS($h \equiv 0$) & NIS($h \ne 0$) & GNSs & Application in Physics \\
    \hline
    none & \text{\sffamily X} & \text{\sffamily X} & GAN & \cite{zhou2019regressive,Urban:2018tqv} \\

    approximate, unnormalized &(\checkmark) & \text{\sffamily X} & RBM & \cite{carleo2017solving,Morningstar2017DeepLT} \\

    approximate, normalized & (\checkmark) &  (\checkmark) & VAE & \cite{Cristoforetti2017TowardsMP}\\

     exact, unnormalized & \checkmark & \text{\sffamily X} &  -- & -- \\

     exact, normalized & \checkmark & \checkmark & AM, NF & \cite{wu2019solving, noe2019boltzmann,albergo2019flow} \\

	\end{tabular}
\end{table*}

\acknowledgements
This work was supported by the German Ministry for Education and Research as Berlin Big Data Center (01IS18025A) and Berlin Center for Machine Learning (01IS18037I). This work is also supported by the Information \& Communications Technology Planning \& Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (No. 2017-0-001779) and by the DFG (EXC 2046/1, Project-ID 390685689). Part of this research was performed while one of the authors was visiting the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. DMS-1440415). The authors would like to acknowledge valuable comments by Frank Noe and Alex Tkatchenko to an earlier version of the manuscript.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Boom collects tons of trash, but Mexico needs to step in and build recycling plants, environmentalists say
by: Salvador Rivera
Posted: Apr 20, 2022 / 06:15 PM CDT
Updated: Apr 20, 2022 / 07:12 PM CDT
SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — An environmental protection group says its trash boom in Tijuana has kept 73,000 pounds of trash and plastics from reaching the Tijuana River Valley north of the border.
Wildcoast, which is based in Imperial Beach, California, says a lot of this trash would have found its way to the Pacific Ocean.
"The idea is to put more trash booms and to try to prevent tons of plastics to come down," said Fay Crevoshay, director of communications and policy for Wildcoad, which installed the trash boom in 2021.
'It's working': Boom system set up in Tijuana stops piles of trash from flowing into California
Trash boom installed in Tijuana last year by Wildcoast an environmental protection group based in Imperial Beach, Calif. (Courtesy: Wildcoast)
EPA pledges $630 million to prevent Mexican raw sewage from flowing into California
Fay Crevoshay is Wildcoast's director of communication and policy. (Salvador Rivera/Border Report)
Wildcoast has one boom just north of the border in an area known as "Smugglers Gulch," but maintaining it has proven to be costly.
"It costs us $2 million to clean it up one time per year," she said. "The solution is really in Mexico, it's much cheaper and that's where the problem starts and that's where we have to stop it."
New International Boundary & Water Commission leader proud of border roots
Crevoshay says once they collect more trash and plastics, they have to figure out a way to recycle them, something that's proven to be difficult.
Northern Mexico lacks recycling plants and all materials collected in cities such as Tijuana, have to be sent 1,500 miles away to the city of Toluca, near Mexico City, creating more pollution in the form of emissions and gas consumption by the trucks hauling the recycled products, she said.
Everywhere along the Tijuana River Valley just north of the border between San Diego and Tijuana, you can find evidence of trash and plastic that originated in Tijuana. (Salvador Rivera/Border Report)
"We have to put recycling plants in Baja California," she said.
Visit BorderReport.com for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border
Crevoshay says their goal is to install at least two more booms in Tijuana by 2024 if they can secure the funding from companies such as Coca-Cola and other benefactors.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A training for Yoga Teachers, Yoga Enthusiasts and anyone interested in learning techniques of therapeutic self-massage.
Deepen your understanding of pain physiology and how to use the YTU Balls to erase pain.
Use this training to learn strategies for your own health and maintenance, or incorporate YTU Therapy Ball sequences into your teaching toolkit by introducing embodied anatomy concepts to your students.


Raise these personalized graduation wine glasses for a toast to your new grad. A sturdy and high quality favor, they will be used for many years to come. They come with your choice of graphics and a custom message.


In this post I am going to show you how you can create a cookie in Microsoft ASP.net and use that cookie. Cookies are actually data send by the website and saved in your web browser during browsing a website.When the user visits the same website again, the information stored in the cookie is sent back to the website by the browser to give the website of the user's earlier activities and other details.
In this post I am going to show you how you can create a cookie in Microsoft ASP.net and use that cookie.
First of all create new project and place a label, one text box and one button on the web page.Now, open the aspx.cs of your webpage to view its source code and write the following code in that page.
Label1.Text = "New user ...!!!
Finally run your project to see the result.


We are a passionate group of storytellers who dare to push the limits of creativity in our quest to tell compelling stories of individuals and businesses that are changing our communities, lives and even the world. Our talent in storytelling has led us to successful, engaging, campaigns for companies such as Google and YouTube.
Our mission at Xpedition Media is to tell honest, heartfelt stories, that stir both the soul and the imagination.
We have found that consumers resonate with human experiences, human stories that are honest and emotional. As the consumer becomes more empowered with making their own decisions, they must be told a story instead of being sold a product.
We provide the skills and experience to highlight those stories in an authentic and enthralling manner, to further your impact on your consumers and local community.


The Nebraska Department of Agriculture needed a way to offload some of the public records requests that were coming in regarding data that covered various agencies within the NDA. It seemed to us that we had come up with a valid use-case to finally get our hands dirty using Hyland's Public Access Viewer (PAV) in OnBase.
Each agency had different requirements that would affect their individual processes, but the end goal was the same; take these documents and make them available to the public. No fancy bells and whistles, no need for the user to create an account, no end-user agreement. Just give them information.
While the underlying process would be mirrored across the three separate PAVs we built, we needed to tailor-make each process to fit the needs and, more importantly, the legal requirements of the data in question.
In each process, we decided that we did not want to compromise the original documents. To handle this, as soon as a document enters the PAV routing life-cycle, we create a copy of it. We then use that copied document for public viewer routing/display, ensuring that the original maintains it's historical integrity.
With our first project, it was decided by the legal staff that nothing on the inspection forms we were displaying was inherently private, but they did want the option to redact sensitive information if necessary. It was also decided that, because this particular group of documents came into the system on a smaller scale (about 10-20 per month), the office staff wanted to have eyes on each document before it was sent to the public portal.
For our second project, the office staff did not want to have eyes on every document, as they are seeing upwards of 500+ documents coming into the system every month. The process we came up with for them was a much more automated, hands-off version of process 1.
We still wanted to give the office staff a chance to intercept any potentially sensitive or erroneous data, so we devised a timer system that will send the documents to the public portal on the 14th of every month, but it will only process documents that were entered into the system before the first day of the month that the timer is running. For example, if 20 documents enter the system and are dated in March of 2019, those documents will be processed on April 14th. Any documents that entered the system between April 1st, 2019 and April 14th, 2019 will not get processed until May 14th, 2019, and so on.
This gives the office staff some time to react if they get word from an inspector that an inspection form may contain sensitive data, or maybe there was an error on a form.
Our third project took the automated approach from process 2 and modified it to fit the agency's need. In this process, the agency wanted an automated, hands-off approach – with a twist. There was sensitive data that existed on every single form that was going to be processed and sent to the public portal. For reasons I won't get into here, we were unable to use OnBase's automatic redaction feature so we came up with our own.
Process 3 is identical to process 2, with the addition of Document Composition. We shifted our thinking from 'taking data off the page' to 'putting data on the page'. With doc comp, we were able to create a version of the form in question and only pull the non-sensitive data from it to display to the public. That doc comp document then becomes our public-facing document.
Since we are using copies of the original forms, it is very easy to remove documents from the public access portals if necessary; we simply run the same custom query that the PAV uses to display the documents in Unity Client and delete the unwanted forms. On the flip side, if we need to add a document to the PAV after the fact, we can simply find the document(s) in question and send them through the PAV routing life-cycle and the rest of the work is done for us.
Because the use of the Public Access Viewer module doesn't cost extra money, it doesn't have maintenance fees associated with it, and it works 'out of the box' – it was the perfect module for us to use to get this data to the public accurately and quickly. Setup can get tricky if you're using load-balanced/multiple servers, but it is doable. Experience with custom queries and user groups are a plus.
Learn more about Public Access Viewer and these three solutions Jared took us through today by listening to our podcast here!


This course is designed to enhance motorist awareness of motorcycles. The program combines personal stories and character development with a dramatic look at a crash scene that is all too common. The DVD contains three separate 13-minute versions to appeal to teens (via driver education classes), adults (via traffic schools), and commercial drivers (via employee orientation).
We would be happy to lead this course free of charge in your or our classroom. This kit can also be taught by members of your group.


Bradley Wiggins has become the first British Tour de France champion - and celebrated his success by leading Mark Cavendish to victory in Paris.
Not content with his personal success, Wiggins played an integral role as world champion Cavendish won the 120-kilometre 20th stage from Rambouillet, sealing victory on the Champs-Elysees for a fourth consecutive year.
It was the seventh British stage success of the 2012 Tour, with Cavendish finishing with three wins, Wiggins with two, Froome with one and David Millar (Garmin-Sharp) one.
All four Britons, together with Ian Stannard, are due to combine on Saturday in a bid to help Cavendish win Olympic gold in the 250km road race on the opening day of London 2012.
Cavendish has won on the French capital's most famous boulevard in each of the Tours he has completed - in 2009, 2010, 2011 and now in 2012.
The 27-year-old from the Isle of Man, who also won stages two and 18, now has 23 Tour stage wins, moving above Lance Armstrong and Andre Darrigade into fourth place in the all-time list.
It was a remarkable effort for the Manxman, who spent much of the Tour in the service of Wiggins. Wiggins repaid the favour, taking to the front with 1.1km remaining, with Edvald Boasson Hagen assuming the lead 600 metres out.
Cavendish came to the front in the rainbow jersey 400 metres from the line and powered to a supreme victory. Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) was second, with Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) third.


text:
food comsumption
Eat Less Meat to Reduce Greenhouse Gases
I only know a few people who do not appreciate a good hamburger. However, did you know that eating meat constantly worsens the health of the earth? Global warming is caused by a surplus of greenhouse emissions in the atmosphere. Each day with more and more greenhouses gases being released, the temperature of the earth continues to rise. Global warming is severely affecting the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect makes sure that the earth maintains a manageable temperature by blocking some UV rays. (See Image Below) There will be serious consequences if humans do not limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Due to global warming, the earth's temperature has started to rise rapidly. One source of the problem is meat production. [2] Since there are a lot of nonrenewable resources used to produce meat, greenhouse gases are increased. Essentially, humans' meat consumption heavily contributes to the global warming issue.
This image shows how the Greenhouse Effect works. When there is a surplus of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or methane, this causes the earth to get hotter.
. When growing crops to feed cows and other animals, most conventional farmers use fertilizers; these fertilizers release nitrous oxide and other pollutants in the atmosphere[4]. Not only do these fertilizers increase greenhouse gases, according to the UN Environmental Program, fertilizers also threaten human health.[5] Additionally, manure is another source of the problem. Mass producing animals means that there is lot of poop. Unfortunately, manure releases the greenhouse gas methane. With steadily increasing demands for meat, methane and nitrous oxide continue to fuel global warming.
In a study published in the Environmental Research Letters warns there will need to be drastic changes in food production in order to stop a disastrous global warming.[6] Developed countries are the main sources of the issue. In many first world countries, eating meat is expected at every meal; according to Eric Davidson, director of the Woods Hole Research Centre in Massachusetts says that eating meat,"… is part of our culture right now."[7] This new study suggests that countries like the US would have to cut consumption by 50% to avoid horrific environmental problems by 2050.[8] Also, according to Woods Hole Research Centre in Massachusetts, developed countries will have to reduce fertilizer use to 50% as well.[9]
In conclusion to help stop global warming, people have to stop eating so much meat. I have fully committed myself to the cause by becoming a vegetarian to help the earth keep its cool. Global warming could easily be solved if developed countries were not so in love with their hamburgers and steak dinners. What will you choose to eat next?
Clarke-Billings, Lucy. "'Stop Eating Meat and Save the Planet' Says United Nations." Express. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/378484/Stop-eating-meat-and-save-the-planet-says-United-Nations>.
Cows. America Aljazeera. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/watch/shows/techknow/blog/2013/10/6/waste-from-thousandsofcowscreatesenergyforanentiredairyfarm/_jcr_content/blog/mainpar/adaptiveimage/src.adapt.480.low.jpg>.
Goldenberg, Suzanne. "Eat Less Meat to Prevent Climate Disaster, Study Warns." The Guardian. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/apr/13/less-meat-prevent-climate-change>.
Greenhouse Effect. Zhibocc. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://www.zhibocc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/greenhouse-effect-definition.jpg>.
Hamburger. Wikimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/NCI_Visuals_Food_Hamburger.jpg>.
Tagged Earth, food comsumption, global warming, Greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, meat, pollution


text:
Home/Skepticism/The Wishing Machine
Amy Roth Follow on Twitter Send an email August 30, 2014
17 1,481 2 minutes read
If only I had known years ago that stroking my stick plate would make wishes come true.
Thankfully, Joshua P. Warren is here to tell us all about stroking stick plates and more with what might be the most unintentionally funny video I have seen in a long, long time.
The video is a thing of hilarious beauty. I can not encourage you enough to watch it all the way through. The wobbly camera work, the background music, Mr Warren, the Wishing Machine itself, are all so completely fantastic together that one might think it is a classic skit from an SNL show or what might be a new episode of the Twilight Zone. But no, this is real life and an actual thing that someone is trying to sell you.
Stick plates and dials are the main mechanisms in a radiological (Is that the right term? Who cares!) Wishing Machine.
Maybe. Well, probably not. We aren't really sure and neither is Mr Warren. But with quotes like these…
"We don't know why they work."
"It has nine knobs."
"It has no battery."
"This is a mind powered machine."
"It has an input and output."
"Again we don't know how it works."
Here is the fabulous Mr Warren to tell us sorta, maybe, kinda, how a wishing machine maybe, might work!
Wasn't it great! Didn't you feel like a 1960's horror movie was about to start? Did you laugh when he explained how to stroke the stick plate? Oh man, I love this video so much!
Anyway, what is the true story here, you ask, other than some accidentally clever filming with some very crafty and slightly Steam-Punk inspired wood and glue crafts?
It's called Radionics and it has about a hundred year history of nonsense interwoven with pseudoscience. Radionics is a completely unscientific practice that combines the idea of energy treatments and healing along with the Ideomotor Effect where people make unconscious physical movements. It's how dowsing claims to work, how a Ouija Board disc seems to move by itself across the board and how your finger will seem to stick on a plate. In a word, it's bullshit, but over the years a lot of creativity has gone into convincing people that dials connected to nothing and magical boxes full of "intent' can cure you, or somehow make your dreams a reality.
Big thanks to my friend Carrie Poppy for showing me this video. It really is a thing of beauty.
radionics wishing machine
wdonohue says:
Symbolic Hieronymus machines & John Campbell article in Make magazine: http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol09/?pg=58&pm=2&u1=friend
Make your own wishing machine & test it for yourself – still utter bollocks, but potentially a good project to encourage critical thinking skills in kids.
That looks fun!
Some random thoughts (randomness seems appropriate…):
1) Intent IS magic. Take that, Will! :-)
b) His knobs only go to ten. I have a much better machine with knobs that go to eleven.
IV) This just a transmogrifier with very slightly more sophisticated construction extra knobs. Watterson should sue for patent infringement.
Nice Spinal Tap reference. :)
4tune8chance says:
Fill it full of chocolates, ….it works!!!
Phillip Hallam-Baker says:
It sells for $195.
http://shadowboxent.brinkster.net/darknessradio.html
But check out the pictures of the Spectralizer!!! Awweeessommmeee!
Isn't it nice that we spend so much time in the skeptics community looking at utter excrementis bovis?
BTW I think the execution sux, looks really horrid to me. Check out my kickstarter for a nicer one.
But, but, but…
If we are taking the compliment of "Joe without money", wouldn't that be "Not Joe with money"? So someone who is not Joe gets the cash.
Also, if setting the first dial to 4 makes the stick plate stick, and you leave the dial at 4, wouldn't the stick plate stick no matter what you set the second dial at?
So much stupid.
No. Because: Magic.
Also, wouldn't that be the contrapositive? (Okay, I know there's no conditional in "Joe without money", except the implied conditional "If reality exists …", but if anyone makes that argument, my response is "You are erroneously applying logic to the universe in which this machine works.")
Oh, BTW, you were right. "Joe without money" can only mean "Joe and not(money)". The complement of that is not(Joe and not(money)), which by distribution is not(Joe) and not(not(money)), or by reduction, not Joe and money. Split not-Joe's cash 50/50, or would fairness require that we share it with all the commenters?
not(Joe and not(money))
expands to
not(Joe) OR not(not(money))
I had to right down a truth table… I come out with not(joe) OR money,
which is the same as your result. I almost resorted to Googling de Morgan, but that would have too much like work. Bah, who needs correctness (says the programmer.)
"I had to right down a truth table…"
I'm really glad write now I didn't make a snarky comment about compliment/complement in my first comment.
I'm glad someone is talking about this because I could really use your help. My output plate stays smooth while I stroke it until I get to 5, then gets sticky at 5 every time. So all of my knobs are set to five. Ten minus five is still five so my counter frequency is the same as my current frequency. Does this mean my wishes won't come true?!
Also, the video reminds me of this scene from the IT Crowd: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sarJtKM-Ku4
Ah hahaha. I lolled at all the fives!
That's because of Quantum. You have Schrodinger's money (or happiness or whatever you wished for.) It both exists and doesn't exist at the same time. He wants it back. Give to him or not. (There is no try…)
John the Drunkard says:
Albert Abrams (who had a real MD degree) was the 'father' of radionics and a stalwart quack of San Francisco in the teens and 20s. He's also quoted as an anti-homosexual 'expert' cited by the US army in the First World War (see Randy Shilts' book 'Conduct Unbecoming.')
There's a reasonable Wikipedia article on Abrams and Morris Fishbein, Martin Gardner, and others have given him plenty of ink for someone who died in 1924. An English quack named Delawar (sp) relaunched the radionics mania in the 30s-50s. Evelyn Waugh was a patient, I believe.


Informative, Persuasive, Impromptu & Extemp videos recorded at the 2014 PSCFA Seminar at Orange Coast College are now available on the videos page.
Here are the Fall 2014 PSCFA Coaches Conference Minutes (PDF). Please send any corrections to the PSCFA Exec Sec.
Information available on the Seminar Page or from this flyer. Seeya this Saturday!
Full information available on the Fall Champs page!
Arrangements for the 2013 Debate Tour of China are not affiliated with the International Debate Education Association or Irvine Valley College. All reservations must be made directly with the Chinese Tour Agency, HOLIDAY-PLEASANT.
A US travel agent will be trying to locate group airfare for a May 26, 2013 arrival. All schools must deal directly with the travel agent, or a travel agent of their own choosing. A US agent has not yet been identified. Prices below do not reflect international airfare.
All Xi'an tournament registrations must be made through IDEA and the host school, Xi'an International Studies University.
Cost = $1165 (single supplement $390) Please contact Gary Rybold with any questions.
Arrive in Shanghai. Upon arrival, meet and transfer to the four-star Lantian Hotel. Rest of the day is free at your leisure.
Visit the Yuyuan Garden, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the Bund and enjoy the Huangpu River cruise in the evening.
Drive from Shanghai to Suzhou. Visit the Tongli Water Town, the Master of Nets Garden, Silk Factory. Tonight you will stay in the four-star Holiday Inn Youlian Hotel.
Drive from Suzhou to Hangzhou. Visit the West Lake with boat ride, Six Harmonies Pagoda and Tea Plantation. Tonight you will stay in the four-star Sunny Hotel. After dinner, you will appreciate the famous Impression Show of West Lake.
Fly from Shanghai to Xian. Pick up at the airport and directly drive to Terra Cotta Warriors. visit Shaanxi Historical Museum. Enjoy mutton soup at Muslim restaurant. Tour the Muslim Street. Then transfer to the hotel.
Visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda Square, the Stone Tablets Museum, Ancient City Wall and Bell Tower. Enjoy the famous Dumpling Banquet for lunch. Afternoon flight to Beijing. Tonight you will stay over at four-star Holiday Inn Downtown Hotel.
Visit the Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Enjoy the exciting acrobatic show this evening.
You will visit the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. On the way back to the city area, you will take an overlook of the Olympic Stadiums. Enjoy the famous Peking Duck for dinner.
Morning tour will bring you to visit the Hutongs by rickshaw. Later, you will visit the Temple of Heaven and Silk Market (best shopping in Beijing).
Tentative tournament at Beijing Foreign Studies University (1-3 days). You will continue to stay in the Holiday Inn, but lunch and dinner are on your own.
Tournament in Beijing You will continue to stay in the Holiday Inn, but lunch and dinner are on your own.
Today you will transfer to the airport and take homeward flight. Service ends.
1. Hotel accommodations with daily breakfast in Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.
3. All the entrance fees to the attractions mentioned above.
4. Meals at local restaurants with one cup of soft drinks indicated in the schedule.
5. Special dinner arrangements and evening entertainment listed in the schedule.
6. English speaking guides along the trip.
7. Airport/hotel/airport transfers, ground transfers and transfers for all the sightseeing activities during the trip.
1. International airfares and taxes.
2. Hotel accommodations in Xian.
5. Tips and personal expenses.
6. Passport and Chinese visa.


Keep an eye out for something much, much, much tinier than whales.
Make for the Pacific and search for signs of bioluminescence on a cruise hosted by Dana Point's Ocean Institute.
BUT... our region's famous whale-watching cruises aren't the only on-the-water boat trips that head out, further into the deep, to look for the gifts of the mighty Pacific. There are cruises that look for something far, far, far, far smaller -- four "fars" should do it -- than a whale, an organism so eensy that it might appear at the opposite end of one of those posters that line up the smallness-to-bigness of every earthling. For if the whales are on one side of that poster, than euphasids -- "small 'bug-like' organisms" -- must be near the other end. They're tiny, but they pack a visual punch on the right night, as people who've joined an Ocean Institute Bioluminescence Night Cruise have discovered. The Dana Point on-the-water trips depend on factors like what phase the moon is in, so they happen every so often, but when they do, it can be glow-water magic.
WELL, NOT MAGIC... but the science of why euphasids show up, on board, when a net is drawn up the boat's side, carrying their own very tiny flashlights. (Not really, but figuratively.) It's beauty, it's ocean poetry, and it is rife with knowledge and marine-fascinating facts. Want to see that sometime, so it can fill your head and stir the science-y parts of your brain and heart? Keep a watch for the next moon phase, and trip, here. Tickets are $35 per adult, $22 for kids ages 3 to 12. Glowing ocean stuff! Can we get a "wow"?


Huddersfield Grammar School was found to fulfil every standard set by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) following a rigorous inspection in February 2018.
Its inspection report praised the quality of education provided and noted that pupils exceed expected examination results.
Pupils' welfare and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development met every requirement, as did the standard of the school's premises, which have undergone £4.25m worth of investment over the previous five years.
The school's leadership team, led by the Headmaster, was also praised for having good skills and knowledge and fulfilling all responsibilities, meeting standards consistently and actively promoting pupils' well-being.
The Headmaster commented: "I am delighted that our school community has received such a positive endorsement in its first ever ISI inspection. In meeting all eight ISI standards, Huddersfield Grammar School is now in the company of some of the finest independent schools in the United Kingdom. This is a measure of the quality of my colleagues, and of the exemplary conduct of our pupils.
"The school continues to be very popular with both current and prospective parents as a result of our unique approach to nurturing each individual within small class sizes, whatever their academic starting point. If children are given that little bit extra nurture, they will be happier and they will thrive, both within and beyond the classroom.
Teaching and assessment are good and a significant proportion of the teaching is of outstanding quality. The best teaching is characterised by strong subject knowledge and expertise and evident enthusiasm for imparting these to pupils.
The quality of the educational provision enables pupils to make at least good progress, and GCSE results at the end of Year 11 show that a high number of pupils exceed their predicted academic expectations.
Opportunities provided for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are excellent. The school is a harmonious community where pupils feel safe, but are also articulate, independent and communicative.
Excellent behaviour is founded on the school's expectations of the pupils, and relationships at all levels, including those between teachers and pupils, are of high quality.
The school has continued to develop and shows further significant improvements in its provision since the last inspection.
Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils.
Welfare, healthy and safety of pupils.
Premises of and accommodation at schools.
Manner in which complaints are handled.
Quality of leadership in and management of schools.


2018 Mercedes-Benz C-Class gets an updated design which features the A Class range's signature diamond-pattern grille.The C220d gets the two slat chrome grille and the car comes with a pair new LED headlamp, LED daytime running lamps, and a new front bumper etc.
The interiors hlods a new 10.25 inch media display screen and new generation telematics, NGT 5.5 smartphone integration etc. With the Saddle Brown and Black upholstery options the AMG Line interior in the C 300d exudes a sense of sportiness.
The 2-litre engine makes 241 bhp and 500 Nm of peak torque. 0-100 kmph will be achived in just 5.9 seconds. The 220d which is on offer, comes with a 2-litre engine which puts out 192 bhp and 400 Nm torque.


When I went to visit Pécs (pronounced Paych) the 5th city of Hungary I expected to find the grey uniformity associated with decades of communism. As if to prove me wrong the guide started her tour of Pecs by pointing out the brightly covered roof of the town hall, glinting in the sun, defying the long years when the colourful tiles had been covered over.
Today it has more in common with its Austro-Hungarian background, and is an unspoilt, effervescent place situated in the south west of the country. Just 20 miles from the Croatian border and a two and half-hour journey on the fast train from Budapest.
The Mecsek hills surrounding Pécs produce a warm and dry microclimate, perfect for the fresh fruit, vines and hops which is more reminiscent of the Mediterranean, than the "Gateway to the Balkans" as it is also known. The wide streets and squares are home to some unusual museums, although I later found out that a large part of its heritage lay underneath my feet.
Pécs was an important settlement in Roman times, (when it was called Sopiana), and there are chapels, mural paintings and graves being uncovered all the time. The 'numbering' of the burial chambers goes in the course of their discovery. The first one was found – and preserved in 1782 while the last one No. 24, in 2005. Now it is listed as an UNESCO Roman world heritage site and was nominated as European City of Culture in 2010.
The leafy street of museums includes one dedicated to the famous 1960's Pop Artist "Vasarly" known for his typical black and white optical artworks. (Names are a problem in Hungary as it is the only European country that uses the family name first and birth name second).
Pécs is also home to The Street, a 1970's sculpture by Erzsébet Schaárs in which a long avenue lined with windows shows individual white figures looking out. A spooky portrayal of individual isolation in the world. The Janus Pannonius Museum is dedicated to Kosztka Tivadar Csontvary, the famous Hungarian Painter whose work include, what seemed to me, some colourful but slightly disturbing pictures painted in 1904, of Jerusalem and gatherings around the Wailing Wall.
In 1367 Pécs housed Hungary's first university, and even today it remains a large student metropolis with the present Janus Pannonius seat of learning, playing a significant part of city life. Wine and beer are extremely cheap here as well as good restaurants, although the thick meat soups and dumplings that constitute a typical meal, does mean that vegetarians diets are not particularly well catered for!
In the coutryside outside Pécs I visited the Míves Tojáső Folk Museum in Zengovárkőny which specialises in reviving the ancient art of egg decorating using ritual and sacred symbols going back to prehistoric times. Originally only the dye from boiled red onion skins was used and painted onto the shell with a special nib. Then bees wax was then applied. After the demonstration I visited the museum itself which showed a stunning collection of decorated eggs from all over the world.
In another part of the scenic countryside, can be found the Villány -Siklósi wine route, named after the two main villages in the area. Here the tradition of viniculture and viticulture stretches back thousands of years. Red wines dominate, but there are many excellent examples of all vintage wines. Up to 592 overnight guests can be accommodated around and about and there is plenty of food to accompany the drink, and even pony and traps for those wanting to arrive in style.
I went wine tasting at Malatinszky Mansion Vineyards where the produce was of an outstandingly high standard. Then, feeling merry, went on to visit the Polgar winery where the long corridors lead to wine vaults containing literally hundreds of bottles, stored for celebrities and wine collectors from all over the world.


Since we've been using the water filtration system and softener, we've been drinking more water and have spent less money on soaps, shampoos and lotions. It takes less to form a thick lather and my skin stays hydrated without that hard film that requires a lot of lotion to combat the dry skin. I can finally use my dishwasher without having to rewash by hand because of the film that was left on my dishes from the hard water. I don't have to scrub the shower walls because there's no more hard water scum! We LOVE it!!


Nothing takes the joy out of a road trip like a flat tire. What a hassle. Do you know how to change it yourself? Neither did we, but we've been learning from Allan Stanley of AAA. Here's how to change a flat tire. You can download this video to your mobile phone to keep it handy, just in case.
Set up your reflective warning signal behind the vehicle.
Remove the spare tire from the vehicle.
Before you jack up the vehicle, you need to loosen the lug nuts. If your car has a hubcap, remove it to gain access to the lug nuts. Attach the lug wrench onto a lug nut and press down on the lug wrench so that it turns counterclockwise (to the left).
Position the jack on a sturdy part of the frame nearest to the flat tire. (Your owner's manual will likely point out the proper point to locate a jack.) You can raise up the jack by hand until it is in contact and is in good position on the frame. Insert the end of the jack handle into the jack and turn it clockwise (to the right). Carefully jack the car up, being certain to never place your hands or your legs under the vehicle, as it can fall and cause injury. Jacking takes a while, so be patient and cautious.
Remove the lug nuts by turning them counterclockwise (to the left). Make sure to keep the lug nuts close to you once you remove them so they don't roll away.
Remove the flat tire and place behind the vehicle.
Position the spare tire on the wheel, lining the holes up with the wheel studs.
Install the lug nuts, turning clockwise (to the right) to tighten. Tighten them by hand as far as they can go. Using the lug wrench, continue tightening the lug nuts until they are firm.
Insert the jack handle back into the jack and turn counterclockwise (to the left) to lower the vehicle.
Once the tire is on the ground, begin tightening the lug nuts. Using the following technique will allow you to achieve equal torque on the wheel studs: Mimicking the pattern of a star, first tighten the lug nut nearest the bottom, then tighten the lug nut nearest the top, then tighten the one second closest to the bottom, then the one on the left side and finish with the one on the right side.
Put all supplies back in your vehicle.
Make sure not to exceed the highway speed limit while traveling on the spare tire.
I'm Allan Stanley for howdini.com and in this segment we'll be talking about how to change a flat tire.
Certainly it's inconvenient but we're going to walk you through it step by step.
Lift up this cover to access the spare tire. We'll loosen it with the hold down then give it a couple of good raps to make sure it's full of air. The worst thing you would want to do is put on a flat spare.
Then you'll remove the tire. Be careful, this can be quite heavy.
Well we have our spare tire and our jack. We've set our reflective warning signals out. We've also chocked the wheel on the opposite side of the flat tire so we're ready to a start changing it.
The first thing we'll do is jack the vehicle up. You'll have to loosen the jack a little bit to get the handle off. This particular model has a lug wrench built right in.
Before we jack the car, we want to loosen the lug nuts because once it's jacked up it will be very difficult to bet those lug nuts off.
This particular model has a hubcap, which we'll jut loosen those up. It doesn't take much because they are made out of plastic.
Set the hubcap out of the way. Now you have access to the lug nuts. To loosen the lug nuts position yourself firmly. Pressing counter-clockwise, loosen the lug nuts. Not too loose - just enough to crack them.
If it's a little stubborn position yourself over, and using your knee or your foot you can gain leverage. Now we're ready to jack it up.
This is a common scissors jack. The screw moves in and out allowing the mechanism to move up and down to lift your car. So, as you turn it to the right it will go up. As you loosen it the jack will collapse, allowing the car to come down.
Now, we'll position the jack.
You want to be sure to get the jack on a good part of the frame. Your owner's manual is good place to find where to properly jack the vehicle. You can raise it up by hand until it contacts the frame and is good position.
We use the jack handle to raise the vehicle. Insert the end of the jack handle into the jack. Using it as leverage it will help make the car go up easier. Remember to turn it clockwise to go up and counter-clockwise to go down. Carefully jack the car up. Never stick your hands or your legs under the car as the car can fall and cause damage.
Jacking can take a while so be patient and cautious while you jack.
Okay, now that the car is jacked up, we'll take the lug nuts loose. Remember we already pre-loosened them while the car was on the ground making it easier. You'll notice that they'll come right off now. Trying to do that while the car was jacked up would be very difficult.
Remember to keep your lug nuts close at hand. You don't want them rolling away into the grass because they'll be hard to find and that's what holds your tire on. Again, we're turning them counter-clockwise, or to the left, to get them loose.
We'll remove the flat tire and set it over here out of the way. Now if there is a heavy traffic area you wouldn't want to leave it in the street. You might want to put it to the rear of the car.
Grab the spare tire and put it in position. You're going to center the spare tire on the wheel studs. That's where the lug nuts go. So, go ahead and do that. Lining it up, you'll see that it lines up pretty easy.
Then install your lug nuts. Again, clockwise is tight and counter-clockwise is loose. We'll tighten them up by hand as far as they'll go. Once the tire is centered and the lug nuts are hand tight take the lug wrench. Again, turning it clockwise, tighten the lug nuts until they're firm. Not too tight, because remember your car is up on a jack and we wouldn't want it falling off with too much leverage or force.
Insert the jack handle back into the jack, turning it counter-clockwise, we're going to lower the vehicle. This will take some time but going down is a lot easier than going up. If it seems to be going down easy you can just do it like this by doing it straight instead of having it angled. But, if it's too tough you can get the leverage that you'll need to lower the jack or to raise the jack. Once you turn the jack low enough you can do it by hand now that it doesn't have contact with the frame. Now that the car is on the ground, we'll go ahead and give them that final tightening.
We're going to start down here then move to the top one then back down, over, and back again. A little star pattern to make sure we have equal torque on the wheel studs.
Okay, we have our spare tire on, it's centered up and we're ready to go.
A couple of things to remember though is you want to put everything back in the trunk. You don't want to exceed highway speed on this temporary spare. Make sure you get the big tire fixed and it will get you back on the road as soon as possible.


Parkinson's patients have trouble walking, eating, sleeping and sitting because of dyskinesia and dystonia. Research has shown that various exercises such as yoga, tai chi, tango dancing and forced exercise using bike pedals could help greating in improving the motor skills of Pd patients. Having said that, some of the exercise equipment for parkinson's patients that we will be looking at include the arms cycle bikes.
Brain exercises that help you coordinate your hand, eye and leg movements.
We will look at how the arms cycle machine can help with all these exercises.
We have pointed out that PD patients require to do aerobic activities that will help them with good blood circulation.
Unlike other people, it would be too risky for PD patients to ride on ordinary bikes because they still have problems with body balance and they are therefore likely to fall off the bikes and end up hurting themselves badly. Therefore, they will require an indoor immobile mode of biking such as the therapy trainer to help with exercising the legs as well as the arms.
The therapy trainer bike helps as a form of forced exercise for PD patients which have been found to be great in improving the motor skills as well as the central nervous system of the PD patient as highlighted by this study. Forced Exercise (FE) means moving faster with assistance than you are normally able to do.
The therapy trainer helps you do this since it has an electric enabled motor and can move on its own without your pedaling it. However when you pedal it, it helps strengthen your arm and leg muscles.
The primary function of the therapy trainer is to strengthen both your leg and arm muscles.
The therapy trainer helps strengthen your leg and arm muscles. Lack of body balance in PD patients come because their legs are weak and they therefore find themselves staggering while walking.
The therapy trainer through forced exercises helps you involve your brain in your limb movements such that you find yourself thinking as you exercise the arms and the legs during the entire pedaling period.
When selecting the best exercise equipment for Parkinson's patient, you want something that will offer value by strengthening the PD patient's muscles, last for long, is affordable and is stable. You really do not want something that will squeak noisily with every turn of the pedal, do you? No, that is why in this article, we have reviewed some of the best stationary arms cycle machine that you should consider buying.
The one downside of the Sunny Health arm and pedal bike exerciser was that it would not bulky parkinson's patients since it only has a weight limit of upto 220 lbs.
It is lighweight and compact such that it is easily portable and can be used even in the office.


text:
The Unlikely Politician
by Scott Zimmer
A few weeks ago, shortly before the holidays were upon us, I was flipping through TV channels and came across the movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. It was at that part where Kevin is about to fool the hotel staff and check-in to the Plaza without his parents. And then it happened. The part I had all but forgotten about. Before Kevin McCallister reaches the lobby, he stops to ask someone for directions. And there he was. Donald Trump instructing Kevin to go down the hall and take a left.
This was late 1992. It was a simpler time when Donald Trump was just an eccentric businessman. He was the man synonymous with Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and the future host of The Apprentice.
But it got me thinking... Donald Trump is not the first person to go into politics after making a name for himself in the entertainment business. Each generation has seen at least one entertainment figure hit the political scene. So on the day we inaugurate our 45th president, let's take a look back on some of our country's other unlikely political figures. Those actors, singers, and reality TV stars who managed the unthinkable and earned themselves a seat in public office.
Baby boomers: Ronald Reagan
Movie buffs will remember this exchange:
Doc Brown: "Then tell me, future boy, who's President of the United States in 1985?"
Marty McFly: "Ronald Reagan."
Doc Brown: "Ronald Reagan? The actor? Who's vice president? Jerry Lewis?"
Maybe one of the most memorable examples of the bunch, Ronald Reagan started his acting career in the 1930s. Once the Baby Boomer birth years wrapped up, he became Governor of California in 1967, and in 1981 he became our 40th (and oldest elected) President of the United States. America officially had its first movie star president!
Reagan became so popular that he won the electoral vote in every state during his bid for reelection in 1984, except in Minnesota (coincidently the home of BridgeWorks headquarters and yours truly).
Gen Xers: Sonny Bono
Baby Boomers remember Sonny Bono rising to fame in the 1960s as half of the musical/comedy duo Sonny and Cher. After the duo's divorce, Sonny Bono's career seemed to stall while hers soared—until his unlikely turn as mayor of Palm Springs in 1988, that is. Younger Xers were in their formative years when they watched him take on this position, and he served as mayor until 1992. In 1995 he became a republican congressman representing California's 44th district until his tragic passing in 1998 in a skiing accident.
Millennials: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-born, former body builder and box office action star, announced his candidacy in the 2003 California recall election for Governor of California. Schwarzenegger ran as a republican, which was a bit perplexing given that his then wife, Maria Shriver, is a democrat and the niece of former President John F. Kennedy.
A-nold won the recall and was then re-elected on November 7, 2006 and completed his second term in 2011. But for so many of us, he will forever be da Ter-ma-na-tor.
Gen Edgers: Donald trump
Now, in 2017, America has elected yet another unlikely president. Donald Trump, born in 1946, is actually a Traditionalist-Boomer Cusper. If he'd been born six months sooner, today we'd be inaugurating a Traditionalist president. That being said, each generation has seen Donald Trump in a slightly different light. Baby Boomers remember Donald Trump first and foremost as the real estate mogul, taking over his father's company and renaming it The Trump Organization. Xers may remember his attempt to create competition for the NFL with his USFL, or might know him more as the owner of multiple beauty pageants. Millennials watched Trump fire contestants on The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice, and finally, Gen Edge has watched him become an unlikely political figure and now the 45th president of the great United States of America.
They say history repeats itself, and one thing's for sure: each generation has had an unexpected political figure step up to the plate to serve our country.


text:
Miquel Cirera i Lamarca (Manresa, Bages, 2 de gener de 1958) és un antic pilot de trial català que destacà en competicions estatals a finals de la dècada del 1970 i començament de la del 1980. Anys més tard, tornà a competir en campionats de "clàssiques" i en guanyà dues vegades el campionat estatal. El seu germà Ramon també competí en trial amb cert èxit i compartí equip amb ell a  durant algunes temporades a mitjan dècada del 1970

Miquel Cirera ha estat sempre vinculat a Montesa: a la seva època en fou un dels principals pilots oficials catalans, després treballà durant anys a les oficines del seu Departament d'Investigació i Desenvolupament (dirigit per Pere Pi) i, més tard, passà a ser-ne el principal responsable de l'equip oficial de trial al mundial. Al llarg dels anys, des d'aquest lloc va ajudar a aconseguir els seus nombrosos títols mundials a Marc Colomer, Takahisa Fujinami, Laia Sanz, Dougie Lampkin i Toni Bou. Cirera ocupà el càrrec fins a finals de desembre del 2021, en què deixà definitivament l'empresa. El seu lloc al capdavant de l'equip de trial passà a assumir-lo Takahisa Fujinami, un cop retirat de les competicions a finals d'aquella temporada.

Palmarès

Referències

Enllaços externs
 Entrevista a Miquel Cirera emesa per TV3 el 21/7/2019

Campions d'Espanya de trial
Pilots catalans del sud de trial
Pilots de Montesa
Pilots de motociclisme bagencs
Esportistes manresans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Here I am, sitting in bed with you snuggled in by my side– Doing these sweet little snores. I honestly, couldn't be happier to sit next to the little you and know that one day, the big you will be able to read this letter.
Three days ago, you turned three. Before you woke up on your birthday morning, I laid next to you and ran my fingers through your hair, soaking in your pretty eye lashes and your scrumptious lips. Wishing I could have you this little for. Ever.
I am so proud of the little girl you're growing into sweetheart. I don't think anyone would ever understand how special you really are. You have access to two languages. English and Sign Language, due to my deafness and you have more empathy than anyone else I know. You always make sure I never miss out on something whether it's someone at the door or its your favourite song on the radio. You have taught me so much and at only three years of age… That is truly something marvellous, Luella.
I love you just the way you are. The way you twirl like a ballerina with those random foot skills, the way you scrunch your nose when you smell things, the way you use your beautiful manners, the way you look into my eyes, the way you laugh and the way you live your life. I wouldn't change one bit about you.
I hope your day was just as special as you are Luella Eve.
I love you forever and a day.
Luella wears Hubble and Duke head to toe. (Tulle Collar Smock, Pinafore, Socks and T-Bar Mary Janes) and cupcakes from our lovely friends over at Michel's Patisserie.
Luella's absloutely stunning cake was made by gorgeous Yasmeen from Mio Cupcakes. Vanilla bean cake showered in pretty roses from the local florist and coconut macroons. Cake of the year!! You can contact Yasmeen on mymio@live.com.au.
Happy belated birthday gorgeoys girl ❤???
Happy belated birthday gorgeous girl ❤???


Feeling fiery, stressed, or agitated? Is your skin oily or have rashes? Balance your Pitta with our gentle body wash designed for sensitive skin – without soap and dyes and enriched with natural moisturizers. Manjishta acts on skin erasing minor blemishes and improving radiance. Extracts of Brahmi & Amrita tone & firm the muscles while boosting blood circulation. Bhringraj conditions and moisturizes skin. Amla is a rich source of Vitamin-C, a powerful antioxidant that helps to clean skin pores. Essential oil from Khus provides a gentle fragrance.


text:
OpinionSociety
Political correctness or measured language: for many anxious communities, words count
Tim Rushby-Smith
As a convert to paraplegia, I feel myself fortunate to have suffered a life-changing injury when the principle that disabled people should be included in all aspects of life was widely accepted
'It's easy to forget that disability rights and support were won in a hard fought battle that continues today.' Picture – Writer Tim Rushby-Smith (centre) teaching basic and practical wheelchair skills. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Thu 8 Dec 2016 23.13 EST
Last modified on Thu 8 Dec 2016 23.14 EST
As the implications of the success of Donald Trump's particularly toxic brand of divisive rhetoric reverberate around the world, it is a reminder that the language used by elected politicians has a big impact on the standard and fairness of political discourse throughout society at a time when many communities are anxious about what will constitute the new social norm.
In Australia, recent accusations in parliament of "political correctness" raise the question: do we want our political representatives using measured language when discussing matters of policy? The push to bring inflammatory language into the mainstream represents a shift in the balance of power that has the potential to impact on the prevailing "givens" that we have become used to.
My everyday life is not 'legendary', any more than yours is | Tim Rushby-Smith
Here is an example. As a convert to paraplegia, I feel myself fortunate to have suffered a life-changing injury when the principle that disabled people should be included in all aspects of life was widely accepted. This represents a shift in attitudes away from the old "medical model of disability", in which disability was seen as something "wrong" with the individual. By contrast, the "social model of disability" views a lack of inclusion as a problem with the way society is organised.
Things are far from perfect, as even the most cursory glance at statistics on poverty and unemployment among disabled people will reveal, but the launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a clear signal that there is a general acceptance of the principals of social inclusion and empowerment.
With a political lurch to the right however, it is not impossible to imagine a scenario where a costly scheme like NDIS gets dragged into a bruising political fight over the "nanny state", tough fiscal decisions, and individual responsibilities (I read a post on an NDIS discussion complaining that people's comments were too negative and that we should all be grateful that we don't live in India).
One of the important changes that the NDIS represents is a move away from a model of support for disabled people that is significantly dependent on the charity sector.
Don't misunderstand me; I have no problem with charity fundraising, supporting people in need or increasing awareness about different diseases and/or the hardships that people face every day.
But when people are dependent on provision by charity for basic resources and support, it can create a culture whereby organisations or individuals have to present themselves as needy or worthy of pity in order to raise enough money. This risks making progress towards increased independence and autonomy into things that can undermine funding streams in the future. NDIS offers the opportunity to move away from this potential pitfall. If you believe that such support is the responsibility of good, inclusive government, then gratitude shouldn't come into it.
Happy first anniversary, NDIS – here's to many more | Jenny Macklin
It's easy to forget that disability rights and support were won in a hard fought battle that continues today, in the same way as anti-discrimination laws designed to protect other minorities. Yes, playground banter is still punctuated with occasional cries of "spastic" and "retard", but for the most part this stems from an ignorance as to the origins and meanings of these words, and they would no longer be considered socially acceptable in the public arena.
Incidentally, if you see no problem with these expressions, ask yourself this: would you be happy to see a child with cerebral palsy or Down's syndrome vilified in this way? No? OK, so how do you go about explaining to children that they can use these terms so long as the target of their teasing doesn't have an obvious disability?
The same principles apply to racism, sexism and homophobia. Most people would agree that school is the right place to challenge children to think about the kind of language they use. It's a public arena where kids learn about mutual respect, a principal we hope they will take into the wider world. Teaching that lesson is made harder when the language of politics is indistinguishable from the cruelty of the playground. It's time our elected officials raised their game.


The Asexual Vol. 1, Issue 3 is the third issue of The Asexual, a quarterly journal and space for writers, artists, and creators who identify under the ace umbrella. The theme of the issue was "Body" and its intersections with asexuality. This issue features 17 pieces by 17 authors.


The North Carolina Postsecondary Education Alliance is a diverse group consisting of emerging leaders with developmental disabilities, representatives of state agencies and organizations, legislators, educators, and families as well as other advocates. Our mission is to expand the options for postsecondary education for individuals with developmental disabilities throughout North Carolina.
This website provides a list of resources pertaining to the PSE options across the state of North Carolina. In addition, you can find recent NCPSEA newsletters as well as information about upcoming alliance meetings.
The following resource contains information about PSE programs, including community colleges and universities, across North Carolina. You will find contact information and website addresses so you can learn more.
Click Here for a current list of our PSEA members. If you would like to be included on our mailing list, please contact Deb Zuver at deborah.zuver@cidd.unc.edu.