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Houston Solutions Lab announces support for Rice studies on flooding and police services
Amy McCaig
– November 7, 2017Posted in: News Releases
Office of Public Affairs / News & Media Relations
amym@rice.edu
HOUSTON — (Nov. 7, 2017) — Rice University faculty and postdoctoral research fellows will study flooding and police services in Houston, thanks to three new awards from the Houston Solutions Lab.
The Houston Solutions Lab is a partnership to draw Rice researchers and city of Houston departments together for mutually beneficial research. The program is part of the MetroLab Network, a national network of city-university research partnerships, all of which have the goal of leveraging academic expertise to help solve critical issues facing cities. Funding for the projects comes from three Rice entities: the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, the Office of Research and the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology.
"The Houston Solutions Lab is an opportunity to help bridge the gap between academics and city needs," said Kyle Shelton, director of strategic partnerships for the Kinder Institute. "Too often the schedules and priorities of these two groups don't match, which leads to missed chances to have academic researchers help solve pressing problems for the city. The goal of Houston Solutions Lab is to bring those entities together at the front end to identify questions where researchers can inform city choices with their work. These happen on shorter timelines than typical research so that we can respond to immediate city needs.
The program provides a set of concrete outcomes to the city but is also intended to act as seed funding to the selected projects. It aims to help faculty prove that the work or methods are scalable and to lead to additional outside funding for future work. The three proposals selected will receive more than $221,000 in total funding.
* A project led by engineer and flooding expert Phil Bedient will identify areas vulnerable to inundation following recent flooding in Houston and an analysis that showed 25 percent of flood insurance claims from 1999 to 2009 were located outside of 100-year floodplains.
Bedient and his team will use distributed hydrologic modeling to document street flooding in Houston and identify overland-flow problem areas. Their ultimate goal will be to assess whether particular mitigation techniques currently used throughout the city are successful.
"The relationship between site-level flooding interventions and neighborhood flood risk must be understood to ensure that flood-mitigation projects are not negated by certain development practices," Bedient said.
Other team members include Samuel Brody, a professor of marine sciences at Texas A&M University at Galveston; Andrew Juan, a postdoctoral research associate in civil and environmental engineering; Russell Blessing, a visiting academic in civil and environmental engineering; and Avantika Gori, a graduate student in environmental engineering. Bedient is the Herman and George R. Brown Professor of Civil Engineering and director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center.
* A project led by Jamie Padgett, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, will develop and implement a radar-based flood alert system as a flood-mitigation tool for the city of Houston and to inform infrastructure risk modeling. The proposed system would allow for real-time visualizations of critical locations and/or inundated areas during storm events. A radar-based flood alert system developed by Bedient has been in place for the Texas Medical Center since 1998.
Padgett said the project's mission is to alert the public in real time as a flooding event is unfolding and to be able to provide better information beforehand on roadways that might become inundated, which would help prepare emergency responders.
"Ultimately, we hope to leverage the flood alert system for the Texas Medical Center and to apply and extend this concept in the White Oak Bayou area," Padgett said. "The system in the TMC has been quite successful in notifying the area. This project will provide an alert system for other regions of the city as well as a better understanding of the risks to transportation infrastructure in the event of an impending flood."
Other team members include Bedient and Juan.
* A project led by Professors Andrew Schaefer and Illya Hicks will be conducted on behalf of the Houston Police Department to determine where new processing centers for arrested people should be established — either by repurposing available buildings or building new facilities.
The ultimate purpose of these new centers is save the department money by minimizing costs of trips to and from the current downtown holding areas. People who are arrested would be housed at these holding centers until they could be moved to a more permanent location.
The researchers will use a mathematical process to determine the optimal locations for the facilities. The process will take into account an area's frequency of arrests, crime rates and other crime and location statistics, including risk for flooding.
Other team members include Silviya Valeva, a postdoctoral research associate in computational and applied mathematics, and Logan Smith, a graduate student in computational and applied mathematics. Schaefer is the Noah Harding Chair and professor of computational and applied mathematics. Hicks is a professor in computational and applied mathematics.
"The Houston Solutions Lab leverages the resources of Rice University researchers to help solve the city's most pressing challenges," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said. "The projects selected focus on two of my top priorities: flood prevention and public safety. I look forward to seeing the results of these partnerships with our Resilience Office and the Houston Police Department."
The first request for proposals was issued in June to Rice faculty members who had been engaged in conversations with city leaders. Proposals for another round of funding, open to all Rice faculty, will be accepted beginning in March 2018; the funding cycle will begin in September 2018.
For more information, contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 713-348-6777 or amym@rice.edu.
This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/.
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
If you do not wish to receive news releases from Rice University, reply to this email and write "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Office of News and Media Relations – MS 300, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005
Tags: Kennedy Institute, Kinder Institute, Research
About Amy McCaig
Amy is a senior media relations specialist in Rice University's Office of Public Affairs.


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Their religion is politics
By Mustang Bobby.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) spoke up at at town meeting in Utah on the state of the GOP:
He said the Republicans need to organize and pull together just as unions, environmentalists, personal injury lawyers and gay rights activists do for Democrat candidates.
"Gays and lesbians don't pay tithing, their religion is politics," said Hatch.
Aside from the cultural stereotyping that gays and lesbians are not religious -- a statement not borne out by the facts -- he also assumes that all gays and lesbians are political; again, a statement not borne out by the facts. Not only that, Mr. Hatch is making this statement as a senator from the state of Utah, which is overwhelmingly dominated by a faith -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka the Mormons -- that is not only very powerful by its sheer numbers, it is deeply steeped in politics and the use thereof to get its way. The Mormons played a significant role in the passage of Prop 8 in California, rescinding the rights of same-sex couples to marry. So when Mr. Hatch speaks about tithing, he doesn't seem to have any objection to the money going to a political cause that he supports.
It's not just the Mormons. Religious leaders such as Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell have been the biggest mouths in leading the charge against gay rights and marriage equality, speaking out not on the basis of civil rights but on the imposition of their religious beliefs on the secular society. For these and a lot of members of the Religious Right, politics is their means of getting their religion into the laws and foundation of this country.
Mr. Hatch's sweeping generalization about gays, lesbians, and faith and practice is just as odious as the prejudices that percolate about the Mormon faith. His assumption that gay people can't be religious is on the same level that all Mormons practice polygamy, all Catholic priests are pedophiles, and all Muslims are terrorists. He's also equating an innate trait -- being gay -- with a conscious choice of belonging to a religious denomination. Perhaps he believes that being gay is just as much a choice as being Mormon or Catholic, but even if he does, it shows a stunning ignorance that he would make the sweeping assumption that all gays are atheists and are out to win over the country by forcing their Radical Homosexual Agenda onto the nation. And even if they were, they have as much of a right to do it as the Mormons or any other group that wishes to make their voices heard.
Perhaps Mr. Hatch is envious of the organizations that the Democrats have aligned with them that support them and he wishes that the GOP wasn't so self-destructive, i.e. the teabaggers that brought down Bob Bennett, his fellow Senator from Utah. Or perhaps he's just a sniveling bigot who can't pass up the chance to do a little gay-bashing.
(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)
Labels: gay rights, Orrin Hatch, religious right
posted by Mustang Bobby at 9:18 PM
Want some gay fries with that?
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Is Bloom's Taxonomy Appropriate for Computer Science?
Bloom's taxonomy attempts to provide a set of levels of cognitive engagement with material being learned. It is usually presented as a generic framework. In this paper we outline some studies which examine whether the taxonomy is appropriate for computing, and how its application in computing might differ from its application elsewhere. We place this in the context of ongoing debates concerning graduateness and attempts to benchmark the content of a computing degree.


Good crime books about gorgeous chefs catering a chess championship at a pastoral British inn that is robbed by thieves too stupid to duck when running to their getaway helicopter have hooks, looks, cooks, brooks, crooks, schnooks and Chinooks.
How's this for a hook: The dead scrabbled for an entrance to his grave. His wife was among them.
That's the beginning of Bentley Little's horror novel "The Rising." What a hook! After I read that opening in the sample I had downloaded, I immediately went back to amazon.com and bought the full book. It's the only time I've ever done that.
Terry Pratchett had a unique hook: His novels contain footnotes.
Some hooks are literal. The hook in Lee Child's Jack Reacher series is the left and right hooks Reacher throws, along with the uppercuts, head-butts, groin kicks and elbows to the face. No character fights hand-to-hand as much as Reacher, and no author can describe a fight as clearly and excitingly as Child.
I've never read any of the Harry Potter books, but I have a good guess what their hook is: The lemming population is ever on the increase.
Pinch, poke, you owe that dog a Coke.


1. Book early if you want the best prices. Get on the budget airlines newsletter distribution, at least Ryanair and Easyjet from UK – this will give you early warning of the new summer schedules, as well as special offers. Routes to Crete for the summer are out latest by Oct previous year. Register with them to save you time booking (by storing pax data) and give you a heads up on relevant travel info.
2. Check who flies to Crete from your country. These days there are many, some less well known budget airlines flying into Crete. Here is a pretty up to date list of airlines flying in from around Europe.
4. Think about staying overnight near the airport if its a long drive. Many hotels, particularly smaller private ones, offer a good value "stay and parking" offer for the duration of your holiday, which may work out cheaper than long stay at the airport.
5.If you are up for it, there are cheap flights to Crete not flying direct. But watch out for odd routings – last summer one guest family flew from UK via Prague. Norwegian are big on this sort of thing. Rome is a Ryanair alternative stopover for Crete.
6. Beware weird (typically Ryanair) airports – Hamburg-Lubeck is 1h from Hamburg by motorway; Frankfurt-Hahn nearly 90min; if you need to change in Rome, remember Ciampino (used by budget airlines) is 2 ½h from Fiumicino, the airport used by all the rest!
7. Coming to Crete, consider both Heraklion and Chania – the latter is a Ryanair hub, and served by many airlines, but the former has many more flights.Timing and cost may favour one in and the other out – bear in mind a one way car rental will only cost 30 euros extra. Chania is only 50 min from Panokosmos, and whilst Heraklion is a 2h drive on a good highway, its a lovely way to get a first sight of the countryside.
8. For cheap flights to Crete flight time of day affects costs – often early or late flights are cheaper if that's important to you. If you appreciate more civilized flight times check out return flight – often the early start aircraft will be routed onto the same return leg, leading to a late morning departure rather than an 0600 red eye!
9. Economy means no hold luggage, and no frills, but for a bit more comfort worth having allocated seats – a few euros, and speedy boarding at the gate gets you ahead of the crowd, gives you more time to store luggage on the plane, less jostled and an opportunity to get settled.
Bring your own sarnies if pushed for cash, and buy water airside will still be cheaper than on the plane. But they are pretty tough on drinking your own alcohol on board, so don't try it!
10. And if you've got this far, check out panokosmos for a place of peace and tranquility to recover from all the hassle you'll have been thru to get out to Crete.


The website "House of Handsome " is a custom designed and distinctively developed 360 degree virtual reality page, which highlights the beautiful interior design of the award winning exclusive barber shop in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai. Our team is responsible for its design and development stages of the project. House of Handsome is one of the best and remarkable salons in the Middle East. The website supports online booking for its clients, describes all types of services offered by the salon, it reflects masculinity, elegance and confidence. The website is categorized into several sub-pages, where the viewer can check out the brands that are used in the barbershop, the prices and packages that are available. The online video and the 360-degree approach give the viewer the ability to take a look into the atmosphere of the salon.


The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) is issuing this Investor Bulletin to inform investors about how OIEA handles investor complaints and other ways investors may be able to resolve a securities-related dispute.
Opening, transferring, or closing an account, or redeeming or transferring mutual funds.
You also may send OIEA copies of documents, letters, and other materials you believe would be helpful in understanding your complaint, but do not send originals. The copies may be emailed to help@sec.gov, faxed to (202) 772-9295, or mailed to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20549-0213.
OIEA will inform you when it receives your complaint and will note the file number assigned to your complaint. You should reference this file number when contacting OIEA.
To provide the SEC with information about fraud or wrongdoing involving potential violations of the federal securities laws, use the Tips, Complaints and Referrals Portal.
OIEA helps ensure that individuals and entities regulated by the SEC respond to investor complaints when appropriate. If an investor selects the option on the complaint form consenting to OIEA's sending the complaint to the firm ("Yes, send the form to the firm…."), OIEA typically forwards the complaint, requesting the firm to send a written report to the investor and to OIEA that addresses the issues raised. However, the SEC cannot act as an investor's attorney or personal representative.
OIEA may refer an investor complaint to other Offices or Divisions within the SEC, including the Division of Enforcement. The Division of Enforcement generally conducts investigations on a confidential basis. As a result, OIEA will not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation and will not update an investor on the status of a complaint.
OIEA's principal use of information from an investor complaint is to resolve the complaint, but OIEA may also share the information with other Offices and Divisions in the SEC or outside of the SEC where appropriate. Records and information may be used by the SEC or disclosed outside the SEC pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b) for multiple purposes, including to assist with SEC examinations or investigations to determine whether an entity or person is complying with, or has violated, the federal securities laws or certain rules, and civil or administrative proceedings. The SEC often makes its files, including complaint information, available to other government agencies.
Complaint information submitted to OIEA is subject to Privacy Act System of Records Notice SEC-65 (SORN SEC 65, Investor Response Information System), which is published and updated regularly. Read SEC Web Site Privacy and Security Policy to learn more about how OIEA may use information from investor complaints.
Federal and state securities laws provide investors with important legal rights and remedies that may apply to a dispute with an individual or entity regulated by the SEC. You can seek to resolve a complaint through the courts, arbitration, or mediation.
You may want to hire a lawyer who specializes in securities law. If you cannot afford a lawyer, a law school arbitration/mediation clinic may be able to help you resolve a securities-related dispute free of charge.
In some cases, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) can help you resolve a conflict with a financial services professional. To learn more, read Initiate an Arbitration or Mediation.
To ask a question or report a problem concerning your investments, your investment account or a financial professional, contact us online or call the SEC's toll-free investor assistance line at (800) 732-0330 (if outside of the U.S., call 1-202-551-6551).


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Many turn to music as a way to express emotions, as well as something to turn to in times of stress of hardships. For an artist, creating music that successfully resonates with the listeners can be challenging – they want a positive response to their music, as well as something that pushes them to publish more songs. Something else that helps an artist's popularity can be the uniqueness of them; someone who sounds the same to many other artists may not gain as much of an audience because they are lacking something that sets them apart.
A hip-hop artist who does an astounding job of this is Macklemore. He is a rapper from Seattle, but takes his rapping to a new level. He raps about subject matter that has never been touched on before in rapping; these include equality for homosexuals, personal drug stories, and controversial political material. The honesty and courage he exhibits through the lyrics in his songs is moving. He focuses on topics that many other current rappers either avoid or belittle. Listening to the way he raps makes him so respectable, and he has created a new turn for modern rapping in the fact that he raps about real life issues, problems that many listeners can relate to and appreciate, which has helped to make him as successful as he is.
Macklemore and his producer Ryan Lewis have been producing amazing music for years, and his popularity is continuously growing. What makes him so different is that he raps about real issues, real problems, and real experiences. He understands that what he puts in his songs can influence people, and has seen truly awful things happen because of the effect from what artists put in their songs, and he wants to change that and make a positive difference in the world. He genuinely appreciates each and every one of his fans, and it is very apparent that he puts his heart and soul into every song he writes.
http://macklemore.com/
This is Macklemore's personal blog, where he posts pictures of his daily life, interesting news, tour dates, and music links. It's a great page to use to follow him, and stay current on what he is working on. Through this page there is also access to the merchandise store, and other media and information about his crew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1TBgcctcco
This is an extremely powerful song, called "Same Love," is the most recent song Macklemore announced and published. It tells the story of some of his personal experiences and feelings regarding homosexual relationships and marriages. In the lyrics, he mentions how he is frustrated with many current rappers using derogatory terms to talk about homosexuals, and that it is important for it to be more widely accepted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFkc_Qzp-jA
"Otherside" is another inspiring song from Macklemore. This is the A Cappella version, which helps bring out the honestly and realness of this song. In it, he talks about how the media and singers/rappers can have such an impact on whoever listens or views what they publish. He talks about personal experiences with drugs, explaining how such a dependency on them can negatively impact the user's life. It's a moving song that stresses the importance of negative influences from both the media and drugs.
Four Tet "I think if you are producing music it is...
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This monograph presents one of the most unique voices in contemporary architecture whose collection of built work makes a compelling case, with some help from Hisao Suzuki's photography, for the power of radical simplicity.
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Ocular Disease-a newly introduced companion volume to the classic Adler's Physiology of the Eye-correlates basic science and clinical management to describe the how and why of eye disease processes and the related best management protocols. Editors Leonard A. Levin and Daniel M. Albert-two of the world's leading ophthalmic clinician-scientists-have recruited as contributors.
Topics include: "Physical Exam of the Eye","Ophthalmologic Procedures","The Painful Eye", "TheRed Eye","Acute Visual Loss", "Ocular Trauma", "Eye Exposures", "Ocular Infection and Inflammation", "Ophthalmologic Complications of Disease","Pediatric Ophthalmology", and "Conditions Requiring Emergency Ophthalmologic Consultation."
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Based on valuable customer feedback, Doctors Yanoff and Duker have streamlined their best-selling reference, Ophthalmology, to zero in on just the clinical answers you need in day-to-day practice. They've removed most of the basic science and anatomy information from the printed book and put it on the companion web site where it is easily accessible along with the entire contents of the book.
Get the quick answers you need on every aspect of clinical ophthalmology and apply them in your day-to-day practice. The latest edition of Ophthalmology by Drs. Yanoff and Duker presents practical, expert, concise guidance on nearly every ophthalmic condition and procedure, equipping you to efficiently overcome whatever clinical challenges you may face.
Gennemført uddannelse til professionsbachelor i optometri, B.(Optom), er grundlaget for at opnå Sundhedsstyrelsens autorisation til at kalde sig og virke som optometrist. Uddannelsen til optometrist er en meget omfattende, interessant og krævende sundhedsuddannelse, som giver adgang til et spændende fag med gode muligheder for beskæftigelse og med gode indtjeningsmuligheder - også under studiet.
Bogen indeholder desuden et appendix over øjenmedikamina, en ordliste og et omfattende register, der gør den velegnet som opslagsværk. Bogen er skrevet til sygplejestuderende og sygeplejersker, men kan også læses af andre faggrupper, som beskæftiger sig med øjenpatienter.
Bogens første to kapitler trækker linjer fra den prækliniske teoretiske undervisning i anatomi og fysiologi til forståelsen af øjensygdommenes klinik. I de følgende fjorten kapitler gennemgås de vigtige øjensygdomme systematisk, hvorefter de tre afsluttende kapitler gennemgår emner af mere tværgående karakter. Det er et særligt sigte med bogen at understrege den sammenhæng, som diagnostik og behandling af øjensygdomme har.


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I've Heard That: "C" Is for Cookie, That's Data Enough for Me
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In this episode of the I've Heard That podcast on the Hurrdat Media Network, host Max is joined by Business Development Director Abby Farrens and Account Manager Carlee Dlouhy to discuss Hurrdat's website and local SEO solution that's designed to help small and...
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In this episode of the I've Heard That podcast on the Hurrdat Media Network, host Max is joined by SEO Director Ross Allen and Content Director Bailey Hemphill to talk about blogging and how it became part of content marketing strategy. Where Did Blogging Start and...
I've Heard That: Let's Get Ready to Rumble
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Helping the Red Cross stop disasters from becoming catastrophes
(Photo: Red Cross/Uganda 2015)
Prevention is better than cure. We all know that, right? For example, it is better to quit smoking than to treat lung disease. We use seat belts, helmets and life jackets to prevent injury and death. The list goes on. We know that waiting to step in until after a problem has arisen can make the problem much more difficult and expensive to solve. Even worse than that, we might not be able to solve it at all. We could be just…too late.
So why do we often step in after a disaster has struck? Why wait to act until it's already too late to stop people's suffering?
As climate-related events, such as floods and droughts, are becoming more frequent and extreme, they are also becoming more predictable. That means that aid agencies can step in before some disasters happen, but they need funding to be able to do so.
With a grant of over €10 million from the IKEA Foundation, the Red Cross is implementing an early-warning, early-action system in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya.
Using local and global weather data to predict where and when climate-related disasters will occur, the Red Cross is helping communities be better prepared, so disasters aren't as catastrophic as they could otherwise be.
The Red Cross is working with local organisations and vulnerable communities to make sure the communities themselves are in control of how they will prepare for a coming disaster. This way communities can prioritise the right solutions and, using cash that the Red Cross provides can implement their plans. For example, they may decide to buy drought-resistant seeds or get a tractor so they can harvest their crops before the disaster strikes.
Not only is this way of supporting vulnerable communities up to seven times more cost-effective, but—most importantly—it saves lives and prevents unnecessary suffering.
Uganda Red Cross Secretary General Robert Kwesiga explains: "By using forecasts we are now intervening even earlier, before receiving reports of disasters. With such a timely disbursal, we hope to avoid a potential catastrophe before it even happens, supporting people to continue working and going to school."
And you too can be a part of the prevention!
Many of the rural communities in these countries are unmapped. No matter where you live in the world, you can download the MapSwipe app and receive instructions on how to map rural areas, helping the Red Cross respond even more quickly when they see a disaster coming.
People are suffering unnecessarily because of the way we currently respond to these catastrophes. But together we can dare to do things differently!
On World Humanitarian Day, we want to thank all our partners who put themselves first to help others in need. Today, we also are announcing a €3 million grant to the Start Network, a group of over 40 humanitarian organisations working together to transform the way the humanitarian sector helps people prepare for, respond to and recover from crises in their own communities.
Find out more about our emergency work
Read about how we help communities adapt to and overcome climate change


The spirit of Hariyana Vidya Mandir is that of enlightenment through a process of graded learning from a child to a responsible, knowledgeable and wise citizen. We aim at transforming a child into a complete human being through a continuous process of teaching and learning, not only in curricular education, but also through different facts of co-curricular activities. We believe that games, sports, debates, extempore, dance, music, social service are all a part and parcel of a holistic learning process.
At Hariyana Vidya Mandir, our endeavors and vision revolves around making education relevant and futuristic and making the students future ready citizens.
The foundation stone of the school building was laid by Honourable Ex- Chief Minister Shri Jyoti Basu and our journey started in 1992 when the building was a skeleton with the first batch of 9 teachers. 2 shifts were introduced in 1995 and the school became affiliated to CBSE in 1996.
Our results in CBSE X and XII have been very encouraging through the years with toppers at the National Level every year.
Participation in intraschool or interschool events in co-curricular activities be it in sports, dance, music, drama, debate, elocution, extempore, speech, quiz or celebration of an important day in the assembly is a way of life for us. We keep traditions alive by celebrating Saraswati Puja, Independence Day, Republic Day, Rabindra Jayanti or Teachers' Day.
Instilling values in our students through life skill projects and community service or preservation of environment, field trips and excursions add meaning to our daily lives.
The school was a dream come true for Respected Shri Hardwarimull Niganiaji and Respected Shri Kripa Ram Goelji and all progress has been possible with the guidance and support of our Jt. Chairman Shri Govind Ram Aggarwalji. The founder Principal Shri Basudev Bhattacharya guided the school through its nascent stages.
We treasure the laurels and awards that our school has received.
Divang shibir- Donation of necessary equipment to phyisically handicapped students.
Handicrafts Fair for Charity purpose.
Tree Plantation and save our environment projects by our students.
Computer classes for under priviledged children.
Dreams that can actually see the light of day include a complete shift to solar power with solar panels on the school roof.
Development of more specialized health checkup programmes for our students.
Introducing vocational courses at the Higher Secondary School.


I am told the wooden core of a scabbard, after glueing, is wrapped in a piece of strong linnen with hide glue. Some say a large single piece with ends meeting at the centre back is authentic, unlike winding thinn strips around it. Others tell me the other way round.
What precious few pictures I have collected so far of original scabbards, that allow seeing the construction, all seem to have the leather directly over the wood, no linnen inbetween.
One primary text source makes no mention of wrapping the wooden core in anything. A 1945 secondary source, without giving the original source, claims the scabbard is 'Served over' i.e. tightly wrapped, in fine linnen thread, then sizing (which I take to mean glue) is applied and when dry sanded/smoothed a bit.
I don't know how reliable that secondary source is, and smallsword scabbards are surprisingly rare survivors, museums descriptions of materials used are usually woefully incomplete and pictures showing anything that could reveal the construction are rarer than unicorns.
I have 1 (-one-) picture of a crumbling small sword scabbard, that shows that it has a wooden core, vellum cover and...nothing else?
It seems decent books, publications or just photos and descriptions of original scabbards of whatever century are extremely elusive!
I have been trying to gather information on period scabbards and suspensions as well and it is indeed as rare as a unicorn. I have read that 13th and 14th century scabbards were often covered in fabric as the final assembly and no leather covering. Have you come across that anywhere in you search?
I am really only at the very beginning of this whole thing, and mostly looking for very late stuff.
It's not that surprising. After all, scabbards were (and are) usually made of perishable materials, and we can rarely see much detail about their internal construction except if the scabbard has been damaged or destroyed (while scabbards in such damaged condition would have been very likely to be discarded rather than preserved).


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7 of the Best Songs
Donna & Andy Concerts
Donna & Andy Concerts for Young Students and Pre-School Children:
Donna & Andy delight fans with their original songs, and joyful creativity. They are professional musicians who love to share their talents with children and their families. Many performances take place in elementary schools where the entire student population (K-6) becomes involved in the magic of the music. Now children can experience a bit of the Donna & Andy magic at home.
Welcome to Donna & Andy Concert page where songs from the concert can be shared at home, giving students the opportunity to re-live the fun of the concert and to share the music with their families. Everyone is invited to sing along, dance, do some actions and create your own Donna & Andy concert and enjoy some of the best kids songs ever!
Watch, Listen, Dance and Sing along with
Donna & Andy Concert Songs!
Ed the Invisible Dragon
00:02:37Ed the Invisible DragonBy Donna & Andy
Join in the fun and sing along
Do the actions Andy taught you at the concert.
Newbies – snap your fingers, and wave your hands over your head, then look for Ed. You will be ready for the next Donna & Andy concert near you!
It's a Pirate's Life for Me
It's a Pirates Life for Me
00:02:38It's a Pirates Life for MeBy Donna & Andy
Everyone is invited to go "To the sea". Use your best pirate voice and remember to put that sword away at the end of the song!
I'd Rather be a Bear
I'd Rather be a Bear
00:03:50I'd Rather be a BearBy Donna & Andy
Use your singing voice or funny bear voices to imitate Andy.
Would you like to sleep all winter and wake up in time for beautiful May weather?
I'd rather be a bear!
Pondering Penguins
00:01:41Pondering PenguinsBy Donna & Andy
Pondering PenguinsLine Dance - Donna & Andy ConcertPondering PenguinsThis is the Penguin Line Dance Song in the Donna & Andy Concert. You can waddle along while you sing.
Can you waddle, jump into the ocean and juggle and egg on your feet? This song is for all the penguin fans out there. Invite everyone in your house to create a penguin party with you! This is the "Penguin Line Dance song" and lots of students join us on stage for this tune. You can do a line dance at home as well.
You can see some of the penguin line dance on this video starting at 3:15
(Donna & Andy band)
00:02:11That's It for TodayBy Donna Rhodenizer
That's It for TodayFiddle Tune - Kitchen PartyThat's It for TodayA jaunty ditty played for the Donna & Andy Kitchen Party at Donna & Andy Concerts. Join in with a Newfoundland Ugly stick, wash boards and spoons.
This is the Kitchen Party song with the Donna & Andy band. Students and young children who volunteer get to play the Newfoundland Ugly Stick (shown in this video) the washboards and many sets of spoons. Before you listen to this lively tune (written by Andy) go to the kitchen and get some spoons, a pot lid or two, and have a kitchen party along with Donna & Andy.
Donna-Andy
Donna - Andy Cha Cha Cha
00:01:32Donna - Andy Cha Cha ChaBy Donna & Andy
Donna - Andy Cha Cha ChaA fun Donna & Andy song witha Latin beat to which you can dance along.Donna - Andy Cha Cha ChaTime to dance with Donna & Andy with a cha cha cha and actions.
It's time for some real dancing! Just listen to the instructions and move your hands in all the directions you hear Donna & Andy sing. You are invited to cha cha high, low, fast and slow as you do the Donna-Andy Cha Cha Cha.
5-4-3-2-1 Cha cha cha!
Donna & Andy, That's Our Name
A Studio recording of this song will be available on our next CD to be released in the spring 2020. Join the newsleter to get the release announcement.
We start our performances with our signature Donna & Andy intro song "That's Our Name". By the end of the song - most folks will be familiar with which one of us is Donna and which is Andy. At the end of our elementary school Donna & Andy concerts, we sing a reprise where everyone can sing along and we do it really fast close to the end. So much fun!
4 More Fun Donna & Andy Songs
These songs are sometimes performed in
Donna & Andy concert - but not Every Time!
The Most Important Person
00:03:31The Most Important PersonBy Donna & Andy
The Most Important PersonKids song, children's song, Donna & Andy Concert page, mp3 playerThe Most Important PersonThere are many people who work on a ship and all of the jobs are important
On the ship there are lots of people doing different jobs. Each person thinks that their job is the most important. It is a real challenge when only one person has to do all the jobs at the same time. "Captain Luke" had his hands full trying to be everyone on the ship.
Gramma's Pajamas
00:03:08Gramma's PajamasBy Donna & Andy
Gramma's PajamasKids song, children's song, Donna & Andy Concert page, mp3 playerGramma's PajamasGramma's pink, frilly laced pajamas tickle her toes and tickle her neck and she can't sleep at night
Gramma's favorite pink, frilly-laced pajamas, tickle her neck and tickle her toes and she can't sleep at night. How would you solve this problem? She does love those pink pajamas!
Computer Cat
00:02:21Computer CatBy Donna & Andy
Computer CatComputer Cat - Kids Song - Children's Song - MP3 - single audio playerplayerComputer CatWhat would happen your cat ate the mouse for the computer
Image what it would be like if the cat ate the mouse for the computer. Do you think it would affect your video game scores?
I Got a Sister
(but I wanted a dog)
I Got a Sister (but I wanted a dog)
00:03:32I Got a Sister (but I wanted a dog)By Donna & Andy
I Got a Sister (but I wanted a dog)Kids song, Children's song Donna & Andy Concert page, mp3 playerI Got a Sister (but I wanted a dog)Every single child likes to have a puppy. But sometimes your parents misunderstand and you end up with a little brother or sister. Oops!
I was a lonely single child and I wanted someone to play with, so my parents gave me a sister, but I wanted a dog.
I Had a Little Chicken
The Chicken Song
Donna & Andy have been performing this song for over 20 years. With over 200 performances of the song, it is finally available on video. There isn't an audio recording of the song - because - well, that would be just a little bit silly. You can read the full story of how we learned to do the chicken - in the description below the video on YouTube. Enjoy!
Here is what some of our listeners have to say about
Donna & Andy
My favorite Donna & Andy song is the Packing for Vacation one. I really think the song is funny especially the end. We sang it in school when I was in grade one. We had actions for it. I'm in grade 5 now and I can still do the actions and remember all the words.
Lilly - grade 5 student
My students loved this concert. It was funny, participatory and well-paced.
Donna & Andy know how to entertain kids! They are also great musicians who inspire kids with music composition and their ability to play several instruments. Fabulous!
Jane Hawketts - Gr. 3 Teacher
What is your favorite Donna & Andy Song? Let us know in the comments below!


Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East MP, Stuart McDonald, has today welcomed the publication of a report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, on which Mr McDonald serves as a member, as a further step towards the outlawing of psychoactive substances – so-called "legal highs".
However Mr McDonald says the report also serves as a warning to the government that it shouldn't rush new legislation through Parliament without listening to concerns, as that could make things worse rather than better.
"In 2013 over 100 deaths in Scotland were connected with the use of psychoactive substances – they are dangerous, and often not legal, which is why we should stop calling them 'legal highs'. So I welcome the progress currently being made towards the outlawing of these substances.
"I spoke in the stage two debate on this proposed bill in parliament on Monday this week. Although action needs to be taken in this area to tackle availability and supply, as the committee report highlights, there are a number of problems with the proposed new law which we need to work through before it is passed to ensure that we limit any unintended consequences.
"Amongst a number of issues of concerns that the Home Affairs Select Committee raised are that the definition of these substances could make prosecutions difficult. We will seek to improve the legislation as it goes through parliament.


Steampunk is a physics-based stacking game, your goal is get the pentagonal characters onto solid ground, while knocking the bad pentagons off the screen. So you need to click to remove the blocks in the correct order.
Do not know how to play Steampunk game?
Steampunk is a fun block removal game, this is the video solution for all the 30 levels of the game, enjoy!


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FAA Home ▸ News ▸ Testimony
Testimony – Statement of Stephen M. Dickson
Statement of Stephen M. Dickson, Administrator
Before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate on Examining the Federal Aviation Administration's Oversight of Aircraft Certification
Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Cantwell, and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for inviting me here today to speak with you about the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) oversight of aircraft certification and to provide you with an update concerning the Boeing 737 MAX. At the outset, on behalf of the United States Department of Transportation and everyone at the FAA, I would like to acknowledge, as we have before, the families of the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air accidents and extend, once again, our continued deepest sympathies and condolences to them. These tragic accidents should not have happened, and thus underscore and reaffirm the seriousness with which we approach aviation safety every day. We want the families, and the world, to know that we continue to work tirelessly to see that the lessons learned from these accidents will result in a higher margin of safety for the aviation industry globally.
Before I continue to the focus of this hearing, I want to digress for a moment to address some of the challenges the aviation industry has faced during the ongoing public health emergency. Aviation employees have worked diligently these past months — despite the risks to themselves — to safely transport supplies and passengers at a time when our nation has needed them.
Secretary Chao and the Department of Transportation have been clear that passengers should wear face coverings while traveling by air, for their own protection and the protection of those around them. Face coverings are especially important in situations where social distancing is not feasible. This comes as a health guideline from the agency responsible for public health, the CDC.
Of course, across the transportation system every mode is different. But when it comes to air travel, the DOT and the FAA expect the traveling public to follow airline crew directions and policies, which are in place for passenger protection and the health of air crews, and to take very seriously the precautions recommended by the CDC and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). As we move through the phases of reopening, the FAA will continue to support airlines and their front-line employees as they implement these CDC guidelines. And we will continue to apply our aviation expertise to help lead efforts with other Federal agencies, with industry, and with our international partners to address public health risk in the air transportation system, both internationally and here in the United States.
I would also like to add that despite the public health challenges associated with COVID-19, our commitment to aviation safety has never wavered and our air transportation system remains safe, resilient, and flexible, thanks to the sustained focus and hard work of aviation professionals in the FAA and industry.
Status of the 737 MAX Return-to-Service
Safety is the core of the FAA's mission and is our first priority. We are working diligently so that accidents like the ones that occurred in Indonesia and Ethiopia—resulting in the tragic loss of 346 lives—do not occur again. The FAA continues to follow a thorough process for returning the 737 MAX to service. As we have stated many times in the past, this process is not guided by a calendar or schedule. Safety is the driving consideration. I unequivocally support the dedicated professionals of the FAA in continuing to adhere to a data-driven, methodical analysis, review, and validation of the modified flight control systems and pilot training required to safely return the 737 MAX to commercial service. I have directed FAA employees to take the time needed to do that work.
With respect to our international partners, the FAA clearly understands its responsibilities as the aviation safety regulator for the State of Design for the 737 MAX. Last fall, we met with more than 50 foreign civil aviation officials, all of whom have provided input to the FAA. We have continued to have regular dialogue with them during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Each respective nation will make its own decision for clearing the 737 MAX for flight, however, we are also conducting and planning additional outreach activities to engage with our international partners, including providing support on return-to-service issues; maintaining transparency through communication and information sharing; and scheduling meetings for technical discussions.
As I have stated before, the FAA's return-to-service decision on the 737 MAX will rest solely on the FAA's analysis of the data to determine whether Boeing's proposed software updates and pilot training address the known issues for grounding the aircraft. The FAA fully controls the approval process for the flight control systems and is not delegating anything to Boeing. The FAA will even retain authority to issue airworthiness certificates and export certificates of airworthiness for all new 737 MAX airplanes manufactured since the grounding. When the 737 MAX is returned to service, it will be because the safety issues have been addressed and pilots have received all of the training they need to safely operate the aircraft.
Actions that must still take place before the aircraft will return to service include a certification flight test and completion of work by the Joint Operations Evaluation Board (JOEB), which includes the FAA and our international partners from Canada, Europe, and Brazil. The JOEB will evaluate pilot training needs using line pilots of various experience levels from both U.S. carriers as well as international carriers. The FAA's Flight Standardization Board for the Boeing 737 will issue a report addressing the findings of the JOEB, and the report will be made available for public review and comment. Additionally, the FAA will review all final design documentation, which also will be reviewed by the multi-agency Technical Advisory Board (TAB), made up of FAA Chief Scientists and experts from the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.
The FAA will issue a Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community providing notice of pending significant safety actions and will publish an Airworthiness Directive advising operators of required corrective actions. I will not sign off on the aircraft until all FAA technical reviews are complete, I fly it myself using my experience as an Air Force and commercial pilot, and I am satisfied that I would put my own family on it without a second thought.
Oversight of Aircraft Certification
Safety is a journey, not a destination—a journey we undertake each and every day with humility. Today's unprecedented U.S. safety record was built on the willingness of aviation professionals to embrace hard lessons and to proactively seek continuous improvement. The FAA both welcomes and recognizes the importance of scrutiny of our processes and procedures. In addition to this Committee's work and other congressional reviews, several independent reviews have been initiated to look at different aspects of the 737 MAX certification and the FAA's certification and delegation processes generally.
The unprecedented Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR), commissioned by the FAA, was the first review to be completed and entailed the participation of nine other civil aviation authorities joining the FAA to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the certification of the automated flight control system on the 737 MAX. The JATR was chaired by former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Christopher Hart and was comprised of a team of experts from the FAA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the aviation authorities of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Never before have 10 authorities come together to conduct this type of review. The JATR provided its unvarnished and independent review and we appreciated their recommendations when they were released this past fall.
The FAA has also received recommendations from the NTSB and the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee's (KNKT) accident report on Lion Air Flight 610. Earlier this year, the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority released an interim accident report on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, with recommendations. Further, the Secretary of Transportation's Special Committee to Review the FAA's Aircraft Certification Process released its recommendations in January of this year. The Special Committee was established to advise and provide recommendations to the Department on policy-level topics related to aircraft certification.
The FAA recently shared with Congress its Action Plan in response to the recommendations of the Special Committee. The plan discusses in depth the FAA's actions, both planned and underway, to address the recommendations. Importantly, the FAA developed its plan not solely in response to the Special Committee recommendations, but also in the context of the other recommendations received from the JATR, NTSB, and KNKT, as well as FAA's own findings. The actions described in the FAA's Action Plan are responsive to all recommendations received and apply to the entirety of the FAA's approach to aircraft certification. The plan reflects the FAA's commitment to improving our certification process domestically, and to improving aviation safety globally. We believe that transparency, open and honest communication, and our willingness to improve our systems and processes are the keys to restoring public trust in the FAA and in the safety of the 737 MAX when it is returned to service.
Beyond the 737 MAX, the FAA is committed to addressing issues regarding aircraft certification processes and aviation safety generally, not only in the United States, but internationally as well. Over the years, the FAA has exercised a leadership role in the promotion and development of global aviation safety. We have helped raise the bar on safety standards and practices worldwide working with the ICAO and other civil aviation authorities. We have an opportunity to do even more. We are committed to expanding our efforts with other authorities around the world and to fostering safety standards and policies at ICAO to help meet the public's expectations of the highest possible levels of safety globally, even in areas the FAA does not regulate directly. Without safety as a foundation, we cannot have a vibrant aviation industry in any country, much less between countries. Our international air transportation network is a tightly woven fabric that is dependent on all of us making safety our core value. To that end, at the 40th Session of the ICAO Assembly the U.S. presented a working paper, Pilot Training Improvements to Address Automation Dependency, with several of our international partners. The paper was accepted and in May of this year we were able to get it included in an ICAO proposal on the establishment of a Personnel Training and Licensing Panel which will be considered in July.
In our continuing efforts to raise the bar for aviation safety across the globe, it will be important for the FAA and our international partners to foster improvements in standards and approaches not just for how aircraft are designed and produced, but also how they are maintained and operated. We at the FAA are prepared to take the lead in this new phase of system safety. As noted in our Action Plan responding to the recommendations of the Special Committee our actions will address specific areas of focus including, safety management systems, system safety, globalization, data, internal coordination between certification and flight standards teams, personnel, delegation, amended type certificates, innovation, and existing recommendations. Our strategy to implement these action items will coalesce around several major themes discussed briefly below.
In the context of aircraft certification, a holistic approach means that an aircraft system includes the aircraft itself with all of its subsystems, including the flight crew. The aircraft is not a collection of parts or systems, but should be viewed as a whole. A holistic approach to aircraft certification would not rely upon item-by-item reviews in isolation, but would take into account the interactions and interdependencies between all systems and the crew. Such an approach would link all safety requirements for type certification to other aspects of safe operation including, for example, pilot training and operational performance.
Human factors considerations are an important part of the machine design process, which will need to take into account safety and performance levels of human users. As aircraft systems become more complex and the level of automation increases, the integration of human factors into the design of aircraft will be increasingly important. Human factors considerations must include trained and qualified personnel who will be responsible for operating and maintaining these increasingly safe and complex aircraft.
Workforce of the Future
In order to meet the safety needs of a rapidly evolving aerospace system, the FAA will need to recruit, hire, maintain, and retain a workforce with the necessary technical expertise, capabilities, and adaptability. Our efforts must ensure that we are able to hire and retain the right people with the right skills and mindset, engaged at the right time, with systemic coordination between certification and operational suitability.
Information and Coordinated Data Flow
Ensuring a coordinated and flexible flow of information during any oversight process is critical. In the context of aviation safety, the concept of sharing information cuts across many initiatives that the FAA continues to examine for potential expansion. These include the following important categories, all of which are part of the broader information and data flow theme:
Safety Management Systems. Safety Management Systems (SMS) establish a commitment, in this case on the part of the manufacturer, to continually improving safety. SMS identifies and manages risk and provides safety assurance by continually evaluating risk controls and by creating a positive safety culture within a workforce. Integrating a safety management system into the processes for design and production, as well as operations, enables insight into the connections and interrelationship between systems.
Big Data. The FAA must continue leaning into our role as a data-driven, risk-based, decision-making oversight organization that prioritizes safety above all else. We do that by breaking down silos between organizations and implementing programs like SMS supported by compliance programs and informed by data. We look at the aviation ecosystem as a whole, including how all the parts interact: aircraft, weather, pilots, engineers, flight attendants, technicians, mechanics, dispatchers, air traffic controllers, safety inspectors, training programs, certification, passengers—everyone and everything in the operating environment. This includes building upon the successes we have had collaborating with industry and implementing voluntary safety information sharing programs. In the broader context of the overall importance of data to a safety regulator such as the FAA, we are examining the data we have, identifying data we may need, and looking for new methods to analyze and integrate data to increase safety.
Just Culture. In addition to the technical work required for truly integrated data, a key enabler of a data-driven safety organization is a healthy and robust reporting culture. A good safety culture produces the data needed to understand what's actually happening. If we know about safety concerns and we know where threats are coming from and how errors are occurring, we can mitigate the risks and fix the processes that led to those errors. A good safety culture demands that we infuse that safety data into all of our processes from top to bottom—in a continuous loop. To be successful, a safety organization relies on a Just Culture that places great value on front-line employees and empowers those involved in the operation to raise and report safety concerns in a timely, systematic way, without fearing retaliation. A Just Culture starts at the top. It's something leadership has to nurture, encourage, and support everywhere in the organization. Employees have to see the results, see what the data is showing, and see how the organization is using analytic tools to identify concerns and errors and put actions in place to mitigate them. Employees and organizations need to see results that come from leveraging safety data and technical expertise into a safer operation.
Initial Action
As we move ahead to implement these strategies, we have developed a budget request to address specific related needs. For example, the FY 2021 President's Budget requests funding to recruit additional specialized skilled employees, such as more human factors experts and software engineers. The request would also fund a new system that tracks employee training, qualifications, and certifications to ensure our aviation safety workforce has the skills and knowledge required to execute our oversight functions. This action addresses some of the findings of this committee's investigatory work that has assisted in pointing out inconsistencies with our tracking systems.
Consistent with Congressional direction, the budget request will support our new office to oversee Organization Designation Authorization (ODA). While the ODA program has been in place since 2005, the creation of a single office supports standardized outcomes and improvements across the ODA program. Further, the budget request will support improvements to voluntary information sharing programs such as Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) and the Aviation Safety Reporting Program. These programs are critical tools in the FAA's toolbox, facilitating the collection of safety data that allows the FAA to identify trends and improve upon aviation safety. Each of these requests provide a snapshot of our concerted effort to continually improve aviation safety.
Aviation's hard lessons and the hard work in response to those lessons—from both government and industry—have paved the way to creating a global aviation system with an enviable safety record. But as I mentioned earlier, safety is a journey, not a destination. We have achieved unprecedented levels of safety in the United States. Yet what we have done in the past and what we are doing now is not good enough for the future in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. We must build on the lessons learned, and we must never allow ourselves to become complacent.
The United States has been, and will continue to be, the global leader in aviation safety. We are confident that continuing to approach this task with a spirit of humility, openness, hard work, and transparency will bolster aviation safety worldwide.
This concludes my statement. I will be glad to answer your questions.
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Atlanta Fine Arts League
An Artists' Collective
@2019 Atlanta Fine Arts League
AtlantaFineArtsLeague@yahoo.com
Bayberry Shah
Bayberry Lanning Shah grew up in Murray, KY, a college town where her father was a professor. Bayberry excelled in art and music classes in high school, winning the Juror's award in a regional art competition for her original painting.
Despite her promise as an artist, she accepted a full scholarship in Music Performance at Miami University in Ohio. There she played in the symphony on bassoon but always found time to do art projects in her spare time.
While living in New York after obtaining her Master's Degree in International Marketing, Bayberry became active in local art groups. She produced original prints, silk scarves and jewelry for local boutiques and craft fairs.
Bayberry found a new avenue for her creative energies by using her photography to capture macro shots of flowers and then choosing the best for painting. This reignited her love of painting and she has been actively expanding her portfolio and participating in juried local and national art events. She has collected thousands of photographs of unique flowers while traveling to over 40 countries and has selected the most worthy to recreate in paint.
Bayberry lives between Atlanta, London, Amsterdam and Helsinki while she and her husband work as consultants.
www.BayberryFineArt.com
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Q: TF Keras ValueError: Shapes (None, 3, 3) and (None, 3) are incompatible When running my LSTM model, in which I want to take an input (x,y) and output a sequence [(x1,y1), (x2, y2)..., (x,y)] I get a ValueError.
I've read other problems like this, but I still am unable to grasp how I'd fix my model, although I know what the problem is.
My model:
def lstm_functional(X, Y):
    # Input, LSTM and output layers using the functional API
    inputs = keras.Input(shape = (2,1))
    # 2,1=X.shape[1],X.shape[2] (timesteps and features)
    lstm = layers.LSTM(64, activation=activation, return_sequences = True)(inputs)
    outputs = layers.LSTM(3, activation=activation)(lstm) # 3=X.shape[0], samples

    model = keras.Model(inputs=inputs, outputs=outputs, name="model_functional")
    model.compile(
        loss="categorical_crossentropy",
        optimizer=keras.optimizers.RMSprop(),
        metrics=["accuracy"]
    )
    model.fit(X, Y, batch_size=2, epochs=2)
    return model

if __name__ == "__main__":

    model = lstm_functional(X, Y)

To simplify the problem I created an input (X) and output (Y) which I use to test my model.
My input and output data:
X = np.array([(i, i*2) for i in range(1,4)])
Y = np.array([[(i, i*2, i*3)]*i for i in range(1,4)])
print(X)
# [(1, 2), (2, 4), (3, 6)]
print(Y)
# [[(1, 2, 3)], [(2, 4, 6), (2, 4, 6)], [(3, 6, 9), (3, 6, 9), (3, 6, 9)]]

Y = np.array(Y)
X = np.array(X)
X = X.reshape(X.shape + (1,))
print(X.shape)
# (3, 2, 1)

In the data my X values are always a tuple of length 2, but the length of my Y value varies: a list with a varying amount of tuples of length 3.
In the code above I also convert X and Y to a numpy arrays and reshape X, as an LSTM takes in three-dimensional input.
If I try to run my code at this point I'll get an error:
ValueError: Failed to convert a NumPy array to a Tensor (Unsupported object type list).

I assume the reason for this is that the output data (Y) is not of uniform length. Is there a way to use output data of varying length?
What I did was pad my Y sequence to make it uniform:
Y = pad_sequences(Y, maxlen = max(len(i) for i in Y), padding = "post", value = (0,0,0))
print(Y.shape)
# (3, 3, 3)

And now I run the model again, but I get the following error:
ValueError: Shapes (None, 3, 3) and (None, 3) are incompatible

The problem is the final output layer: the output from the output layer (None, 3) does not match with the given Y shape (None, 3,3). None stands for the batch size, which can be altered and is not static, therefore None. How can I reshape/modify/process the Y data so it fits the output of the model?
Just for clarification I'll add the summary of my model:
model.summary()
Model: "model_functional"
_________________________________________________________________
Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #
=================================================================
input_1 (InputLayer)         [(None, 2, 1)]            0
_________________________________________________________________
lstm (LSTM)                  (None, 2, 64)             16896
_________________________________________________________________
lstm_1 (LSTM)                (None, 3)                 816
=================================================================
Total params: 17,712
Trainable params: 17,712
Non-trainable params: 0
_________________________________________________________________
None

I could fix the problem by flattening the individual samples in Y as well as changing the model's output to 9:
Y = Y.reshape((Y.shape[0], Y.shape[1]*Y.shape[0])) # shape (3,9)

But in this case I lose the tuples in the list, which I want to keep, as every tuple corresponds to a step in the sequence.
Questions

*

*Is there a way to use output data (Y) that is not of uniform length?

*How can I fit the Y data to the model, so that the individual tuples in the Y sequence remain, meaning that when i use model.predict(X,Y) I will get a list of tuples where the tuples have a length of 3.

A: If I understand correctly, you want a model that maps a 2D vector to a (variable-length) sequence of 3D vectors. This is a one-to-many architecture. One way to implement it is to use the decoder part of the seq2seq model. There is a nice blog post on implementing the seq2seq model in Keras.
Since your input is a vector of a fixed size, you can use a dense layer for an encoder, which will produce the state for the LSTM decoder starting from the 2D input. The decoder will then generate a sequence of 3D vectors starting from that state. To indicate the end of the sequence, the decoder can output a special STOP token; I will use a null vector for it. The shape of the output must be the same for all examples, so, indeed, you need to pad it, leaving space for the STOP token. After the padding, Y in your example should look like
targets = [
    [[1, 2, 3], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]]
    [[2, 4, 6], [2, 4, 6], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]]
    [[3, 6, 9], [3, 6, 9], [3, 6, 9], [0, 0, 0]]
]

The decoder network also needs inputs. The input at the first time step will be a null vector. During prediction, the output of the decoder obtained at time step $t$ will be fed into it as the input at time step $t + 1$. However, in Keras this cannot be done in training. Instead, one can use the true target at time step $t$. Then the tensor of training inputs for the decoder is the same as the targets above, but shifted by one position along the time axis:
decoder_inputs = [
    [[0, 0, 0], [1, 2, 3], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]]
    [[0, 0, 0], [2, 4, 6], [2, 4, 6], [0, 0, 0]]
    [[0, 0, 0], [3, 6, 9], [3, 6, 9], [3, 6, 9]]
]

A simplistic model can be constructed as
encoder_inputs = keras.Input(shape=(2,), name='x')
state_h = layers.Dense(latent_dim, activation='relu', name='state_h')(encoder_inputs)
state_c = layers.Dense(latent_dim, activation='relu', name='state_c')(encoder_inputs)

decoder_inputs = keras.Input(shape=(max_len, 3), name='decoder_inputs')
lstm = layers.LSTM(latent_dim, return_sequences=True, name='lstm')
out = lstm(decoder_inputs, initial_state=[state_h, state_c])
out = layers.Dense(3, activation='relu', name='output')(out)

model = keras.Model([encoder_inputs, decoder_inputs], out)
model.compile(loss='mse', optimizer='rmsprop')

(I switched to the MSE loss as the cross-entropy doesn't make sense with this example.) Here, max_len is the length of the output sequence, including the padding and the STOP token, and latent_dim is the number of units in the LSTM decoder. The model's summary looks like this:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Layer (type)                    Output Shape         Param #     Connected to
==================================================================================================
x (InputLayer)                  [(None, 2)]          0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
decoder_inputs (InputLayer)     [(None, 4, 3)]       0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
state_h (Dense)                 (None, 8)            24          x[0][0]
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
state_c (Dense)                 (None, 8)            24          x[0][0]
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
lstm (LSTM)                     (None, 4, 8)         384         decoder_inputs[0][0]
                                                                 state_h[0][0]
                                                                 state_c[0][0]
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
output (Dense)                  (None, 4, 3)         27          lstm[0][0]
==================================================================================================
Total params: 459
Trainable params: 459
Non-trainable params: 0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

(with max_len = 4 and latent_dim = 8). Train it with
model.fit({'x': x, 'decoder_inputs': decoder_inputs}, targets)

where x is a array of the 2D vectors.
To construct the prediction on new data, you would compute the state of the decoder by applying the dense network. Feed a null vector to the decoder as the first input to get the first 3D output. Then feed this output as the new input, and so on. The generation of the sequence would stop when the decoder outputs a vector close enough to the STOP token.
Let me close with some remarks:

*

*Using the STOP token is probably not the best approach if you want to output $\mathbb R^3$ vectors. Alternatively, you can have another head that predicts the length of the sequence given the 2D input, and then you can sample that number of elements.

*This answer suggests feeding the decoder the same input at all time steps. I guess that's also an option.

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text:
Shipping container scams on the rise
Constore, a shipping container sales company based in New Zealand, had its website content duplicated twice by scammers and only became aware of the scam when contacted by customers. Fake websites in Australia were found to be using content from the NZ company.
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https://www.constore.co.nz