Dean Acheson, President Truman's Secretary of State, called his autobiography "Present at the Creation." The title referred to the task that confronted American leaders at the end of the Second World War and the start of the Cold War, which was "just a bit less formidable than that described in the first chapter of Genesis," Acheson wrote. "That was to create a world out of chaos; ours, to create half a world, a free half, out of the same material without blowing the whole to pieces in the process." A network of institutions and alliances—the United Nations, nato, the international monetary system, and others—became the foundation for "the rules-based international order" that the leaders in Charlevoix saluted. It imposed restraints on the power politics that had nearly destroyed the world. It was a liberal order, based on coöperation among countries and respect for individual rights, and it was created and upheld by the world's leading liberal democracy. America's goals weren't selfless, and we often failed to live up to our stated principles. Power politics didn't disappear from the planet, but the system endured, flawed and adaptable, for seventy years.
In four days, between Quebec and Singapore, Trump showed that the liberal order is hateful to him, and that he wants out. Its rules are too confining, its web of connections—from trade treaties to security alliances—unfair. And he seems to find his democratic counterparts distasteful, even pathetic. They speak in high-minded rhetoric rather than in Twitter insults, they're emasculated by parliaments and by the press, and maybe they're not very funny. Trump prefers the company of dictators who can flatter and be flattered. Part of his unhappiness in Quebec was due to the absence of President Vladimir Putin; before leaving for the summit, Trump had demanded that Russia be unconditionally restored to the G-7, from which it was suspended over the dismemberment of Ukraine. He finds nothing special about democratic values, and nothing objectionable about murderous rulers. "What, you think our country is so innocent?" he once asked.
Kim Jong Un is Trump's kind of world leader.
It's a short read, worth it.


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Happy Holidays and have a Gangnam Style Christmas!
Wishing all my readers a Merry Gangnam Christmas and a Happy New Year! Party hard and stay safe.Watch my Gangnam Style video above.
And to all Singapore Haunted fans and viewers, enjoy this video starring the stars of Singapore Haunted (via the Official Singapore Haunted Facebook Page). Thanks for watching and supporting the show. Love ya all!
Singapore Haunted on Malaysian newspaper theSun!!!
The hit web TV show that I'm directing, Singapore Haunted continues to get more and more press coverage. This time, we are on Malaysian newspaper theSun! You can read the article here (e-paper version). It's not everyday, my show is mentioned on the same page as the Hobbit! Heh. In it, I answered some questions posed by the paper.
Here are two of the questions.
theSun: In this day and age, why are people still so fascinated by the paranormal?
IZ: I think people are generally fascinated by the paranormal and that's why our show Singapore Haunted is popular. Also, it is because the show deals with a subject matter that we, as human beings, are so curious about. Everybody has a fascination with the unknown. It's a constant journey towards finding the truth.
theSun: How did you become interested and involved in this field?
IZ: I've always been fascinated by the unknown. And everyone grows up listening to ghost stories and I'm no different, but I was a bit sceptical. A few years ago, I had a chance to produce and direct a special to promote a paranormal show for Discovery Channel, and it involved a team of investigators doing paranormal investigation. I was totally blown away by the findings, and the viewership for that special was really amazing. So when we founded R3LOAD Network, I knew right away that we needed to produce a show that can help debunk or prove the many different haunting stories we have in Singapore. That's how Singapore Haunted was born.
You can also read the web version of the article here.
Previously: Singapore Haunted East Coast Park Yellow Tower Revisited Special episode makes the news!
Charles the Chair is made of concrete, now weather proof
The world's most favorite lounge chair and ottoman is finally weather-proof! Charles the Chair is made entirely out of concrete by Singapore furniture outfit Fred Lives Here. They sell iconic furniture and homeware for people who enjoy modern classics, bespoke items, or things that are just plain cool.
Large Star Wars collection for sale on Craigslist
Dude is selling his large Star Wars collection for $35,000 on Craigslist: "Life size statues including Han Solo in Carbonite, Anakin, Stormtrooper armor, all vintage figures (nearly 100 MOC), numerous limited edition pieces from Master Replicas and Gentle Giant, Data East pinball, many autographs of the actors on 8x10 glossy photos..."
How to make Charlie Brown Christmas ornaments
Jessica teaches us how to make these adorable Charlie Brown Christmas ornaments that look like cookies that look like ornaments. She writes: "Cut out the felt shapes. From the ornament shape, cut 6 peach, 5 white and one each red yellow and blue. Each ornament will have a front and back main piece."
Christmas Gifs celebrate Xmas the animated gif way
Christmas is coming so enjoy this collection of animated Christmas Gifs, a festive showcase of animated gifs created by an international group of illustrators, animators and directors. Lots of gems including this Santarina that transforms into a green skull.
(Thanks dann)
LED Space Helmet makes you look damn cool in space
Jenn Mann originally made this LED Space Helmet for a David Bowie themed Halloween party. It became a hit so she decided to make more and sell them. She writes: "LEDs are arranged around the inside back of the helmet so it glows from the inside. The back of the helmet is painted solid white."
The Michael Palmer & Laura Ong Affair: The Public Speaks
XinMSN news story about the Michael Palmer affair featuring top quotes from the likes of Mr Brown and me: "A local tabloid exposed 33-year-old Laura Ong Hui Hoon's lurid text messages to Palmer and identified Laura as Palmer's lover. Laura was the former constituency director of Pasir Ris West Constituency Office." You can follow me on Twitter here.
Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter build from beer cans
Dude who is an expert in recycled art builds this model of the X-Wing Starfighter using Kaiser beer cans! The X-wing is the primary interceptor and dogfighter of the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic in the Star Wars universe. It was famously piloted by Luke Skywalker.
Star Wars R2D2 Hip Flask
YourFlask is an Etsy shop that sells specialized flasks for your drinking pleasures like this R2D2 hip flask that has the image of the popular droid on both sides of the flask. The 6oz flask fits easily into your jeans or jacket pockets and is a must have when you travel the galaxy far far away.
Beeracuda is your over-the-shoulder beer holder
Beer lovers will love this! The Beeracuda is an over-the-shoulder beer holder. The liquid lunch box stores five cold cans of beer in the insulated sleeve, and a sixth can on the koozie-enhanced shoulder strap. Don't leave home without it.
(Thanks Jason Fa)
Dude replicates people's Facebook profile pics
Here's a really cool way to attract the attention of the person you wanna friend on Facebook. Casinoroy on his FB Profile Pic Replication project: "After finding people with the same name as me, I'd replicate their profile pic and seed them a friend request."
(Thanks Angelo)
X-Ray Ronald McDonald toy reveals bones and more
This made in Japan toy of a X-ray Ronald McDonald clown has a transparent body which shows off the inner body parts. Yes, you can see all the bones and not surprisingly, there are also hamburgers below the ribs. What else will Ronald McDonald eat right?
(Thanks Lycia)
iPhone case is a multi-tool with knife and scredrivers
Now you can fix your bike and cut your steak with your iPhone! Task One is the first Multi-tool for the iPhone. It houses 16 tools in an aircraft aluminum enclosure mounted to your phone via two polycarbonate bands. It has a 2.5" knife, saw, pliers wire cutters and more.
Play foosball on your iPad
Classic Match Foosball is an iPad accessory that lets you experience playing foosball on your iPad! Download the free app and you are ready to play the Classic Match Foosball game. The accessory is a working foosball gametable that pairs working 2 axis control bars with tactile elastomer handles while transforming your iPad into a foosball table.
Look at how much light pollution we create in Singapore
This image from NASA's EOSDIS shows the light pollution generated by Singapore. EOSDIS provides the capability to interactively browse full-resolution, global, near real-time satellite imagery allowing us to view at the entire Earth as it looks "right now" - or at least as it has looked within the past few hours.
And here's a beautiful view of Earth at night from space constructed using cloud-free night images from a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite. The video shows the glow of natural and human-built phenomena across the planet in greater detail than ever before.
Singapore Haunted East Coast Park Yellow Tower Revisited Special episode makes the news!
Look who's on the front page of AsiaOne on Saturday? Me! The new episode of Singapore Haunted is getting some good media coverage. In Singapore Haunted Yellow Tower Revisited Special, I sent the team back to the Yellow Tower at East Coast Park to gather more evidence of the ghost of the girl that was gang raped and murdered there many years ago.
Here's the AsiaOne report: "According to Singapore Haunted, a voice said 'Home' when investigators asked the entity why she didn't leave the place. The entity also replied 'Young' when asked how old she was when she died at the tower."
Yes, we're on the front page of Stomp too! Read the Stomp report here: "A team of local paranormal investigators claims to have captured the thermal image of a ghostly figure which is said to haunt the Yellow Tower at East Coast Park... The team from Singapore Haunted, a popular web TV series featuring a group of paranormal investigators exploring some of the most haunted locations in the country."
The episode is also featured on Vietnam's popular news portal 24h and The Kuala Lumpur Post.
You can like the show and view bonus clips, pictures and get all the updates on our official Facebook page.
Posted by I.Z. Reloaded at 10:48 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Play the classic real-time strategy game Dune 2 online
You can now play the classic Dune II game online for free! Dune II was the archetypical "real-time strategy" game. Striking a balance between complexity and innovation, the game laid the foundation for the coming Command & Conquer, Warcraft and StarCraft series, and many other RTS games.
(Thanks GeekGod)
Realisitc Baby Head chocolate cakes are downright creepy
When not making cakes, Annabel de Vetten of Conjurer's Kitchen is an amateur magician. When's she not doing magic, she creates unique cakes and other delicious goodies. One of her creations is these commissioned creepy looking baby heads made from solid white chocolate. I love white choc but who wants to eat it in this form?
Play Strip Poker with Eva Angelina and she'll start stripping
If you are a fan of poker and you want to play the game on your Android smartphone, then you should check out Strip Poker - Eva Angelina. This game has been deemed as one of the most underrated mobile poker games in the market but if you're looking for a typical poker game then this is something that's definitely for you.
Strip Poker - Eva Angelina have a simple rule - amass $201 or more and the gorgeous dealer will start stripping. For those of you who are expecting her to strip all the way to nudity, you will be disappointed. Yup, no nudes! But hey it says Strip Poker right? Well I guess you guys have to wait for a version where she strips all the way. If you are an android phone user you can download the game for free here.
Artists repaints dolls so that they look like the real person
Repaint artist Noel Cruz thinks celebrity dolls aren't lifelike so he repaints them! Here he describes the art: "Repaint is a new form of pop art, wherein the doll's face is treated like a three dimensional canvas, with the added challenge of painting within a very small area and an even greater challenge of recreating a real person's likeness."
Shark Tracker lets you track sharks all over the world
Thanks to OCEARCH's Global Shark Tracker, you can now observe the navigational pattern of sharks that have been tagged with satellite tracking technology all for the purpose of shark conservation. When a shark's fin tag breaks the surface and a satellite is over head, you'll get a ping. The system can detect the radius to within 250 meters.
Wall chart documents the 100 years history of film
Larry Gormley has spent 5 years to create The History of Film wall chart which chronicles the history of feature films from the origins in the 1910s until the present day. More than 2000 of the most important feature-length films are mapped into 20 genres spanning 100 years.
Photographer trades his skill, travels the world without money
The Pixel Trade is a photographic project by international freelance photographer Shantanu Starick. He travels around the world without using money by trading his services for a few days, photographing any subject, in return for food, shelter and transport.
(Thanks Zia)
The Worlds first power generating iPad Rocking Chair
Even the rocking chair needs an upgrade. The iRock is a rocking chair with a self sufficient iPad dock and sound station. Regular rocking will add +35% to the duration of the battery of your iPad. 2 x 25w speakers enables you to enjoy your favorite songs while rocking. The iRock is handcrafted out of Swedish pine wood and comes in 5 Different colors.
Singapore Haunted captures image of female ghost at the legendary Yellow Tower at East Coast Park
Singapore Haunted, a popular web TV series produced by R3LOAD Network featuring a team of paranormal investigators exploring some of the most haunted locations in the country, has revealed new amazing evidence of the paranormal at East Coast Park's legendary Amber Tower also know as the Yellow Tower.
In its latest investigation, the team from Singapore Haunted returns to East Coast Park's Yellow Tower for a special episode. Many years ago, a girl and her boyfriend went to the Yellow Tower late at night. A group of men then beat up the boyfriend and went on to rape the girl. The girl died during the incident. Apparently the ghost of the girl still haunts the tower till today.
Last year, the team left powder on the stairs of the tower and captured amazing footprints believed to be from the same female ghost. The evidence was aired in an episode which went on to make headlines in Singapore.
For their latest episode, Singapore Haunted Yellow Tower Revisited Special, the team decided to return to the Yellow Tower after receiving numerous emails from viewers who watched the episode of the investigation held there last year. Viewers claimed that the paranormal entity is still residing in the tower.
Singapore Haunted producer/director IZ Darson was surprised with the team's discovery this time. He says, "We've done this show for 2 seasons and we are about to do our third and we've encountered many different types of paranormal activity but the evidence we gathered at the Yellow Tower this time has to be the most compelling evidence that points to the existence of the paranormal."
Highlights of the investigation include this incredible thermal image of a paranormal entity. Thermal imaging detects radiation in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. This pic shows the thermal image of a ghostly figure on the second floor of the Yellow Tower. It was captured right after one of the investigators claimed to see a female ghost which appeared to him for a few seconds. (Video time code: 15:34)
The team used various scientific equipment like night vision and thermal cameras, digital infrared thermometer, audio recorders and the K-II meter which is a form of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) detector. Paranormal investigators believe that paranormal entities emit EMF and it's this EMF that can be detected by the K-II meter.
Other incredible evidence include 2 EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recordings of the voice of the female entity. The first voice was recorded when the investigators ask the entity why didn't she leave the tower. A voice answered: "Home" (Video time code: 11:41). The second voice was recorded after the investigators asked how old she was when she died at the tower. The reply was: "Young" (Video time code: 13:26). Both EVPs were followed by intense EMF activity recorded by the K-II meter.
Follow us on Facebook for updates, bonus clips and pics.
Thanks for all your birthday wishes and presents!
A belated post but I celebrated my birthday on November 21. Thanks for all your birthday wishes, presents, lunches, dinners, drinks, hugs and kisses. If you haven't got me a gift, it's not too late. My birthday celebrations end on December 1. And yes, do follow me on Twitter and Facebook and also subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thanks again!
How to make a Sushi Cake
I love sushi and this sushi cake looks so yummy! Here's the recipe to make one that serves 6 to 8 person: "Wet your hands, so the rice will not stick on them, and spread half of the rice, push down firmly. Cover with slices of cucumber and avocado. End up with salmon."
(Thanks Shy)
Bicycle Taxidermy provides loving and lasting solution for your mechanical bereavement
We all love our bicycles but what happens when our favourite bike can't be ridden anymore? Throw it away but keep the handlebar. Bicycle Taxidermy provides a service to mount your bike's handlebar on a scorched or bleached European oak plaque. The plaque denotes your bike's model, pet name, dates ridden and a commemorative verse.
Rare Russian Star Wars posters go on sale on eBay
Bloody Rare Books is selling 4 very rare original posters from the first release of the classic Star Wars film in Russia in 1990. This one pictured here is known as the Puma Head poster featuring Darth Vader with a Puma head mask and mini lightsabers on his head. Very strange but I like! Other posters available: Rock Head, Cantina and Cowboy.
Japanese eco-friendly shopping bag converts into helmet
Shopping in Japan can be dangerous especially when an earthquake hits so the Japanese have invented the Grappa, a reusable eco-friendly shopping bag which also doubles as a helmet to protect your head. The helmet part of the bag contains a foam material called EPS. It's the same material used to absorb impacts in ordinary hard hats.
The Hobbit filming locations on Google Maps
Dude has mapped all the known New Zealand filming locations for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Google Maps. The Hobbit is an upcoming series of three epic fantasy-adventure films directed, co-written and produced by Peter Jackson and based on J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Hobbit.
Artists transform bicycle parts into works of art for charity
The SRAM pART Project has invited 80 noted artists to transform bike parts into works of art. Each artist is given 100 SRAM high-performance bike components. The artworks will be featured in a juried gallery exhibition, then sold at a gala live auction event. The proceeds help people in need through World Bicycle Relief.
How to explain the Elmo sex scandal to your kids
Thanks to Gawker's illustrated guide starring Elmo, Spiderman and My Little Pony, now parents can explain the Elmo sex scandal to their kids: "Like Elmo's first friend, Cecil said that Elmo had misbehaved with him when he was just a little boy. Cecil said that he had met Elmo while calling numbers he wasn't supposed to call when he was 15."
Gourmet burger making machine will replace human cooks
Momentum Machines is building a machine that can replace all of the hamburger line cooks in a restaurant. Called the Alpha Machine, it can slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles before it places the slice onto your burger, it offers custom meat grinds for every single customer, uses gourmet cooking techniques and it can produce 360 hamburgers per hour.
Google Maps reveal Giant Dick at Sentosa next to RWS
Look what Google Maps find near Resorts World Sentosa (RWS)! A Giant Dick !!! It even calls it Hard Rock (what else would you call a giant dick right?) and if you look closely, there's an excretion of some sort of fluid next to it. Oh my. (Thanks J See)
Mysterious robots of all shapes and sizes invade parts of US
The invasion has begun! Robots of all shapes and sizes like this one in the picture above have been spotted in various parts of the US. No one knows where they come from or where they are heading to. Some videos below.
These group of smaller robots were spotted traveling on the subway in America. The video says: "Something big is happening at a secret location, and these robots are making their way there. These robots have shown signs of advanced artificial intelligence."
Another sighting reported is this one-armed robot hitting the streets.
And this video shot inside a diner shows a two-legged robot. What's going on? This Tumblr site called Brilliant Machines is updating all the various robot sightings. If you spot a robot in your streets do tweet using #brilliantmachines hashtag.
Donald Trump's crazy tweets used in Hitler parody video
Like many people all over the world, I was watching the US Presidential Election results live on TV and also following it on Twitter. When it was announced that Obama had won, Donald Trump went on a Twitter tirade, apparently very unhappy with the result. My first reaction was, why not use his crazy tweets on a Hitler parody video. So here's what I did. Enjoy.
In the video above, Hitler reacts to CNN announcing Barack Obama has won the US Presidential election beating Mitt Romney. Featuring tweets by Donald Trump! This video is a parody of Downfall, a 2004 drama film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, depicting the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's reign of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Exploding toys and stuff photographed with very fast flash
Alan Sailer loves shooting stuff in his garage with a pellet rifle and photographing the results with a home built flash. Check out his Explosions photoset on Flickr. Here is a pic of My Little Pony during the explosion in its head. Alan says: "I actually wish this had been taken a few microseconds later. But it's still pretty creepy. It fun messing with the iconic images of childhood this way."
Popinator shoots pop corns into your mouth
I'm not really sure if this thing is real but the Popinator is brilliant marketing by Popcorn Indiana, a company that sells popcorn. The Popinator is the world's first fully automated, voice activated popcorn shooter triggered by the word "pop". It pinpoints where in the room the spoken word originated from and shoots a popcorn at it. It can shoot up to 15 feet. I want one!
The Beatles Yellow Submarine Chair Set
Todd Fendos is selling his hand-crafted and painted chairs painted in acrylic with a high-gloss polyurethane finish and inspired by world-famous paintings and individuals. These chairs here is based on The Beatles Yellow Submarine. The pop art style chairs have been painted in bright, vibrant acrylic colors. The backsides of the chairs have also been painted in a Pepperland style.
Skittles Sorting Machine sorts Skittles so you don't have to
The Skittles Sorting Machine was built by Brian Egenriether. It's main purpose is to sort Skittles! He writes: " An IR LED and phototransistor are used to stop the turnstile in position. I fabricated may of the parts from epoxy including the body, the turnstile, the chute header, etc. The base is wood and the funnel is from a hummingbird feeder."
Images from Google Satellite View used in artistic prints
Jenny Odell used images that she got from Google Satellite View for her impressive artistic digital prints called Satellite Collections. She writes: " I collect things that I've cut out from Google Satellite View-- parking lots, silos, landfills, waste ponds. The view from a satellite is not a human one, nor is it one we were ever really meant to see." (Thanks Mike)
Collection of Airline Baggage Labels
Airline Timetable Images, a website devoted to the collecting of airline timetables, has a special section with images of airline baggage labels from all over the world. I like this one by Royal Nepal Airlines. It shows the elusive Yeti serving drinks.
(Thanks Y Tay)
A Slower Speed of Light lets you play in the speed of light
Go try out this free game by the folks at MIT Game Lab. A Slower Speed of Light is a first-person game prototype in which players navigate a 3D space while picking up orbs that reduce the speed of light in increments. It combines accessible gameplay and a fantasy setting with theoretical and computational physics research to deliver an engaging and pedagogically rich experience.
Obama sent to space, has photo to prove it
In honor of the US Presidential Elections, the Earth to Sky Calculus club, a goup of middle and high school science enthusiasts, launched Barack Obama and Mitt Romney into the stratosphere from Bishop Union High School. Here's Obama posing for the camera when he reached space.
Happy Holidays and have a Gangnam Style Christmas!...
Singapore Haunted on Malaysian newspaper theSun!!!...
Charles the Chair is made of concrete, now weather...
Christmas Gifs celebrate Xmas the animated gif way...
LED Space Helmet makes you look damn cool in space...
The Michael Palmer & Laura Ong Affair: The Public ...
iPhone case is a multi-tool with knife and scredri...
Look at how much light pollution we create in Sing...
Singapore Haunted East Coast Park Yellow Tower Rev...
Play the classic real-time strategy game Dune 2 on...
Realisitc Baby Head chocolate cakes are downright ...
Play Strip Poker with Eva Angelina and she'll star...
Artists repaints dolls so that they look like the ...
Shark Tracker lets you track sharks all over the w...
Wall chart documents the 100 years history of film...
Photographer trades his skill, travels the world w...
The Worlds first power generating iPad Rocking Cha...
Singapore Haunted captures image of female ghost a...
Bicycle Taxidermy provides loving and lasting solu...
Japanese eco-friendly shopping bag converts into h...
Artists transform bicycle parts into works of art ...
Gourmet burger making machine will replace human c...
Google Maps reveal Giant Dick at Sentosa next to R...
Mysterious robots of all shapes and sizes invade p...
Donald Trump's crazy tweets used in Hitler parody ...
Exploding toys and stuff photographed with very fa...
Skittles Sorting Machine sorts Skittles so you don...
Images from Google Satellite View used in artistic...
A Slower Speed of Light lets you play in the speed...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Dobbes Family Estate
Madrigal Family Winery
Maritime Wine Trading Collective
Panther Creek Cellars
Sbragia Family Vineyards
Andretti Winery
Cameron Hughes
Qupé
Crush Report: 4.23 Million Tons Crushed, Average Price Per Ton Drops 5 Percent for Reds
Source: WineBusiness.com
Preliminary results from the California Grape Crush Report, released by the California Agricultural Statistics service show another year of record winegrape harvests, indicating 4.23 million tons of winegrapes were crushed, up 5 percent from 2012's 4.01 million tons. Total grapes harvested (including table and raisin varieties) also reached record highs, at 4.685 million tons harvested.
Chardonnay was the most harvested grape, making up 16.1 percent of all grapes. Cabernet Sauvignon followed, at 11.1 percent, and Zinfandel at an even 10 percent. District 13, (Madera, Fresno, Alpine, Mono, Inyo Counties; and Kings and Tulare Counties north of Nevada Avenue (Avenue 192)), was responsible for the most tonnage, at 1,588,985 tons.
Price Per Ton Takes a Small Dive
The statewide average price per ton decreased from 2012—Across all varieties, the price dropped about 3.4 percent from $772.56 per ton to $746.49 per ton in 2013. The average price for red wine grapes was $842.09, down 5 percent from 2012. Cabernet Sauvignon saw a modest decrease in average price for the 552,010 tons crushed last year, down just 3.67 percent to $1,334.96 per ton. Zinfandel, the next most harvested grape at 467,337 tons in 2013, saw a 9 percent decline in price and rests at $648.94 per ton. Merlot saw an average price per ton of $750.88 for the 345,202 tons harvested, down 6.4 percent.
For white wine grapes, statewide average price per ton was $620.01, down less than 1 percent from 2012. The state's most widely planted variety, Chardonnay (755,494 tons) actually saw in increase in price, from $848.88 in 2012 to $863.41 in 2013, up 1.7 percent. Prices for French Colombard dropped 7.7 percent to an average $304.96 for the 319,816 tons harvested. An 8.3 percent increase brought the average price of 178,732 tons of Pinot Gris up to $588.09.
Harvest By District
New plantings in the largest district, District 13, accounted for 373,592 more tons than in 2012, an 8 percent increase.
Lake County saw the highest percentage increase in harvested tons—up 24.1 percent to 43,209 total winegrape tons. Most districts saw positive growth as well; District 6 (Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties) saw a 19.5 percent increase in tons at 36,842, District 8 (San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties) harvested 10.5 percent more winegrapes in 2013 (241,405), and District 1 (Mendocino County) brought in 77,708 tons, up 9.3 percent from the previous year.
Only four districts saw a decline in winegrape tonnage. District 15 (Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties) saw a 45 percent drop in tons, from 969 to 527; District 16 (Orange, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial counties) tonnage fell 9.4 percent to 4,487; District 10 (Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolomne and Mariposa counties) produced 3 percent fewer tons (22,603) in 2013 and District 16 (parts of Yolo County) saw 3.3 percent less tons than in 2012.
© 2023 Bacchus Capital Management


text:
Spikes take down Crosscutters in extras
by: Jack Wascher
Posted: Aug 20, 2018 / 11:54 PM EDT / Updated: Aug 20, 2018 / 11:54 PM EDT
The State College Spikes beat the Williamsport Crosscutters twice Monday after finishing a suspended game, then walking off in the nightcap.
by Peter Terpstra / Jul 15, 2019
The Altoona Curve dropped Monday's game to Trenton 4-3.
It marked the start of the team's three-game series against the Thunder.
The State College Spikes took a loss to Staten Island Monday afternoon to drop their latest series.
The Spikes fell to the Yankees 7-4 to drop two out of three games.
One Central PA standout will take his talents to the Southeastern Conference.
Bellwood-Antis baseball player Travis Luensmann announced Monday he is committing to play baseball at South Carolina.


The man was treated by Magpas medics.
The Magpas helicopter team was scrambled after a man fell from a tree in Great Gidding this morning (Thursday).
At 11.45am, helimedix Dr Sarah Hazleman and paramedic Dan Cody were flown to the scene.
The man, who was in his 50s, had suffered lower body injuries and was given enhanced pain relief.
He was taken to Peterborough City Hospital by the East of England Ambulance Service. His condition was said to have been stable.


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El río Dzhimalta  es un corto río del distrito de Lázarevskoye de la unidad municipal de la ciudad-balneario de Sochi del krai de Krasnodar de Rusia. Es un afluente del río Makopse

Tiene una longitud de 7 km. Nace las estribaciones más occidentales del Cáucaso, en las primeras cordilleras desde el mar y discurre durante su curso alto en dirección predominantemente sur. Recibe varios pequeños arroyos a lo largo de su recorrido, que bordea por el este el monte Dzhimalta, todos en la orilla izquierda y desemboca en una curva del río Makopse, tras virar al oeste, a medio camino aproximadamente entre Makopse y Nadzhigo.

En su valle hay algún dolmen.

Enlaces externos y referencias

 Este artículo contiene datos geográficos extraídos de Google Earth y el mapa de Rusia de Yandex.ru, accesible desde este enlace.
 Dolmen Nizhigutam en el valle del río en Panoramio.
 Imagen del curso del río en Panoramio

Ríos del krai de Krasnodar
Ríos de la cuenca del Makopse

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Preview: As the Wild begins a stretch of four games in six days, coach Bruce Boudreau stressed the importance of getting off to a good start at Buffalo. "We'd sure like to get ahead of the game by winning the first game of the week, then pushing forward,'' he said. If the Wild falters against the Sabres, Edmonton, New Jersey and the New York Islanders this week, the coach said it makes next week "doubly important'' to its playoff hopes, adding stress to an already stressful pursuit. Buffalo could be a good place for the Wild to end a two-game winless streak; it has won five games in a row at KeyBank Center, where it has a 9-2 record.
Players to watch: Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk is 3-1 with a 1.44 goals-against average and .942 save percentage in his past five games. Former Wild F Jason Pominville, who rejoined the Sabres in 2017 after four-plus seasons in Minnesota, has a goal and three assists against the Wild in three games since moving back to Buffalo. Sabres rookie F Casey Mittelstadt, a former Gopher from Eden Prairie, has seven goals and nine assists in 51 games.
Numbers: Dubnyk has two shutouts and a .930 save percentage in eight starts against Buffalo. … The Sabres are 3-7 in their past 10 games.
Injuries: Wild D Matt Dumba (torn pectoral muscle) and F Pontus Aberg (lower-body injury) are out. Sabres D Casey Nelson (upper-body injury) is out; F Johan Larsson (lower-body injury) is day-to-day.


You are here: Home / General / What time is the 3 o'clock parade?
What could I say to you so that you would give me a job?
It needs to be decent job, one that pays relatively well, provides good opportunities for growth and advancement, if that doesn't exist, could I, well I don't know.
A so goes the London Business School Milk Round. Apparently, Milk Round is a UK term and isn't used in the US. The concept is fairly simple – think cow (that's us) think farmer looking for new milk (employer). They come around twice a year to milk (no cows here, but we do have a bull) for new employees.
The experience is kind of fun. We get a little presentation and then retire to the marquee outside for food, drinks and a little chatting. Young eager MBA types horde around company representatives asking insightful questions like 'are there long hours' or 'what's your overall impression of this business.' I have to give the company representatives credit for patiently answering each question. Hell, sometimes the reps even put a little thought into them.
Our MBA recruiters answer the same questions with about the same level of involvement I used to have when fielding the old 3pm question.
My best and worst moment came last night during a presentation. It was dragging on and on so I started drawing pictures. A golf course, then signs, finally when the head of strategy wouldn't shut up, I drew the Energizer Bunny.
The idea that we could have been in a bad Superbowl commercial struck me as damn funny. So funny that I started giggling – thankfully no one heard me. Figuring laughing during a boring speech would be bad show, I quickly turned over the paper.
Enough writing in the Blog – time to draft some applications for summer Internships.
Oh yeah, before I forget: I don't know if he reads this or not but my little bro' Christian turned 14 last Friday. Happy Birthday kiddo!


text:
Kyushu University Home
Fundamentals and applications of soluble carbon nanotubes
Naotoshi Nakashima, Tsuyohiko Fujigaya
In this review article, we describe i) a strategy for individual solubilization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in water or organic solvents and ii) some fundamental properties and applications of the solubilized SWNTs.
Chemistry Letters
https://doi.org/10.1246/cl.2007.692
10.1246/cl.2007.692
Dive into the research topics of 'Fundamentals and applications of soluble carbon nanotubes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Solubilization Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 100%
Organic Solvents Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 100%
Nakashima, N., & Fujigaya, T. (2007). Fundamentals and applications of soluble carbon nanotubes. Chemistry Letters, 36(6), 692-697. https://doi.org/10.1246/cl.2007.692
Fundamentals and applications of soluble carbon nanotubes. / Nakashima, Naotoshi; Fujigaya, Tsuyohiko.
In: Chemistry Letters, Vol. 36, No. 6, 05.06.2007, p. 692-697.
Nakashima, N & Fujigaya, T 2007, 'Fundamentals and applications of soluble carbon nanotubes', Chemistry Letters, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 692-697. https://doi.org/10.1246/cl.2007.692
Nakashima N, Fujigaya T. Fundamentals and applications of soluble carbon nanotubes. Chemistry Letters. 2007 Jun 5;36(6):692-697. doi: 10.1246/cl.2007.692
Nakashima, Naotoshi ; Fujigaya, Tsuyohiko. / Fundamentals and applications of soluble carbon nanotubes. In: Chemistry Letters. 2007 ; Vol. 36, No. 6. pp. 692-697.
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abstract = "In this review article, we describe i) a strategy for individual solubilization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in water or organic solvents and ii) some fundamental properties and applications of the solubilized SWNTs.",
author = "Naotoshi Nakashima and Tsuyohiko Fujigaya",
doi = "10.1246/cl.2007.692",
journal = "Chemistry Letters",
publisher = "The Chemical Society of Japan",
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JO - Chemistry Letters
JF - Chemistry Letters


text:
Samajwadi Party releases its election manifesto 'Vision Document'
Kalyan Maddela 2 years, 9 months ago
Samajwadi Party (Samajwadi Party) released its manifesto 'Vision Document' on Friday for the Lok Sabha elections. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav while releasing the document, he has mentioned 'social justice, national security, internal security, women's safety and also the party's plans for the protection of the environment and the country's well-being has been introduced.
Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that GST has caused huge losses to traders. Demonetization has left the lives of people miserable and the government has no solution. The banks are in the deficit. The path of development is limited to some people. Samajwadi Party believes that nothing can be achieved without better primary education. He said that his party is in favour of forgiving the entire debt of the farmers.
SP is contesting Lok Sabha elections this time with BSP and RLD. It is believed that all these parties would release a minimum shared program. He said that we believe that the future of all sections of the country should be better.
Rashtriya Lok Dal


Well, here it is the middle of November and it's sunny and 65 degrees, if I didn't know better I would think I woke up in another more southerly state. Then I check the weekend forecast and nope, back to reality it is.
As sure as I am going to eat too much at Thanksgiving dinner, we will have winter and we will most likely pay for the awesome weather we have been blessed with so far this fall.
...how we will try our best to keep you moving as the white fluffy stuff falls from the sky ( notice I didn't say the S word).
First of all, in June of 2016 Governor Snyder signed into law PA 161, allowing state and local road agencies to equip roadway maintenance vehicles with Green flashing lights to go along with the amber we currently use.
Why green? While my wife disagrees with the professionals and thinks we should use pink because "it's pretty", we are told that due to the makeup of the eye and the wavelength of the color green it will appear to be much brighter than other colors in use. And by also only allowing state and local agencies to use it, we can be distinguished from the private sector therefore eliminating some confusion at times. We are in the process of the changeover that will most likely be accomplished by the first of the year.
On a positive note, we have seen a decline in salt prices for the second consecutive year; we are now in the $40.00 a ton range which is near the same prices as 2011. This is a significant drop from the high of $82.00 a ton in 2014. This will hopefully allow us to move some of our winter maintenance funds to summer projects which we all know there are many of our over 1400 miles of county road that could use more attention in some form or another.
Another positive note, fuel prices have remained pretty steady as well, and this is a tremendous help due to the fact that our fleet's fuel mileage falls a little short of a Prius. We are talking as low as 1-3 miles per gallon when pushing wet heavy snow with both the underbody blade and the wing.
We are currently stocked with 25,000 tons of winter sand between our White Cloud and Newaygo facilities and have reserves of almost 10,000 ton of salt. We have begun the process of changing or truck fleet over from summer mode to winter with the installation of the sanding and blading equipment and will continue that process as weather dictates. We do not do a fleet wide changeover as we need to have the ability to haul gravel if the weather allows us to do so.
Beginning the 21st of November will start our 24 hour a day, 7 day a week patrol schedule allowing us to provide a level of service to our customers necessary to keep them moving. Now a little disclaimer here, that does not mean we will be catching the snow/ice before it hits the road, and no, they will not be bare and dry all the time. But we will work very hard at making it possible to get you where you are going all the while keeping in mind that this is Michigan and the cost to keeping surfaces at "summer" like conditions is just not possible. This is a very brief view of what we do to get "winter" ready, just a few highlights.
Also, please follow us on Facebook as we are trying to step up our presence there to help keep you informed on changing road conditions, projects and upcoming events, we might even throw a funny cat or dog video in now and then. Things you can do to help us, please check your mailboxes for condition, plastic boxes (horrible idea in Michigan), boxes that are duct taped on a post and rotten posts are just a few things that will surely lead to mail in the snow. And yes, I know we can and have knocked down fairly sturdy ones too.
Believe me, we take that seriously as we know that mail is important and they do their best in trying to not hit them all the while trying to get close enough that you don't have to shovel them out. And they must do this at a speed that allows them to get over their area in a timely fashion so that roads are clear for travel. Please also keep in mind they go by several hundred of them a day and we will occasionally get one.
Plowing snow across the roadway is illegal but still has reached epidemic proportion the last few years. We are working on ways to help inform our customers on the negative impact this has on our drivers and equipment as well possible accidents it can cause, so please be careful when considering where to put the snow at the end of your drives.
We certainly know the trials and tribulations of winter for you all, we live it as well and we are here to serve the citizens of Newaygo County and those that travel through it to the best of our ability. Most of all please know we want/need your phone calls regarding road conditions, we simply cannot be everywhere all the time and any help we get in identifying possible problem areas is greatly appreciated.
Be safe and give us room to groom when possible.
Editor's Note: Have a question about your roads and the work of our Road Commission?
Send it our way and we'll pass it on to Mr. Smith to respond in our pages.


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Godzilla: Cataclysm #1
By: James Ferguson
In: Comics
"Godzilla: Cataclysm #1" Comic Review
Written by James Ferguson
Published by IDW Publishing
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Dave Wachter
2014, 32 Pages, $3.99
Comic released on August 13th, 2014
There's no question that Godzilla and the other kaiju are beings of mass destruction. When they do battle, civilizations crumble. That was the case when they rampaged across the planet before suddenly disappearing. Twenty years go by without a peep from the giant monsters. Then, just as whatever is left of humanity has begun to rebuild, they return. Godzilla: Cataclysm is about to kick the human race while its down.
What's unique about Godzilla: Cataclysm is that it begins in a world where the monsters exist only in memories. There's a whole generation of children that only know of them from stories told by their elders. To them, the world has always been like this. They've never known the fear of looking up and seeing a creature the size of a skyscraper stomping towards their home. The older folk remember it all too well though. They warn the children at every turn, but the real danger seems to have passed when the monsters disappeared.
The humans are not much more than bystanders to the battles held by the kaiju. Any attempts that they make to fight the beasts is seen as little more than an annoyance. They're bounced around like pinballs, trying to cobble together some semblance of a life amidst all the carnage. Cataclysm adds insult to injury by luring mankind into a false sense of security for two decades before bringing the monsters back for more. What's going to be interesting is seeing how this current generation deals with the creatures without the support of the military or any other form of major weaponry.
Artist Dave Wachter adds a level of terror to Godzilla: Cataclysm. The first half of the book looks normal, albeit in some harsh conditions. A small group of people have found refuge on the outskirts of a city in ruin. They're living in ramshackle sheds and getting by with what they can salvage from the wreckage. A routine hunting party goes into the city looking for supplies when they come across a mauled corpse of a bear. That's when things get scary.
At first, the monsters are heard but not seen. The characters react to the sounds in fear as they begin to get picked off one by one. Three pages go by before a horde of giant mutant bugs are revealed. It's like coming face to face with death. There's no hope in that panel. These people are staring up at their own demise. This feeling begins to creep in around them, especially when a pair of them takes shelter beneath some rubble. The sound effects almost take over the entire panel as the monsters tear through the wreckage looking for the humans. It's a nice effect that amplifies the tension of the scene.
Godzilla: Cataclysm brings back monsters in a big way. Humanity is still incredibly screwed when these beasts get moving, but you can't help but watch the destruction unfold. Now a new generation gets to witness the terror of a huge lizard creature rampaging through its city.
Author: James Ferguson
Lord of the Funny Books
James has a 2nd grade reading level and, as a result, only reads books with pictures. Horror is his 5th favorite genre right after romantic comedy and just before silent films. No one knows why he's here, but he won't leave.
Earth's Mightiest Heroes Fight Knull in Avengers #45
Berserk: Deluxe Edition – Volume 1
Check Out Yoshi Yoshitani's Variant for Witchblood #1
Future State: Swamp Thing #1
Once & Future #15 Preview


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Нововолынский литейный завод () — промышленное предприятие в городе Нововолынск Волынской области.

История
Строительство завода проходило в соответствии с 11-м пятилетним планом развития народного хозяйства СССР, 1 октября 1986 года предприятие было введено в эксплуатацию.

После провозглашения независимости Украины государственное предприятие было преобразовано в арендное предприятие, а 29 декабря 1995 года - реорганизовано в открытое акционерное общество.

В августе 1997 года завод был включён в перечень предприятий, имеющих стратегическое значение для экономики и безопасности Украины.

18 мая 2010 года завод был реорганизован в публичное акционерное общество.

В июле 2012 года численность работников завода составляла 591 человек.

Современное состояние
Предприятие осуществляет переработку лома цветных и чёрных металлов, изготавливает запасные части для железнодорожного подвижного состава, автомобильных кранов, сельскохозяйственной, дорожной и карьерной технике; детали к отопительным котлам и запорной арматуре; литьё художественно-архитектурного назначения (турникеты, декоративные ограды, фонарные столбы и др.), отливки из сталей, серого чугуна, бронзы, латуни, алюминиевых сплавов массой до 5 000 кг, а также церковные колокола массой до 8000 кг.

Примечания

Ссылки
 страница завода в перечне ведущих предприятий Украины на сайте Верховной Рады Украины

Предприятия Нововолынска
Металлургические предприятия СССР


text:
This webpage is intended as a catalogue and image library of Irish euro coins, i.e. from when we joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on 30th March, 1979 and after 2002 when we joined the Euro Zone.
The first Irish euro coins were introduced into circulation on 1st January 2002
In the 1970s, the European Monetary System was introduced
Ireland decided to join it in 1978, while the United Kingdom stayed out
The European Exchange Rate Mechanism finally broke the one-for-one link that existed between the Irish pound and the pound sterling; in 1979 an exchange rate was introduced
This period also saw the creation of the Currency Centre at Sandyford in 1978 so that banknotes and coinage could be manufactured within the state
Prior to this, all Irish banknotes were printed by specialist commercial printers in England
Our coins, up to this point, were also produced by the British Royal Mint
By way of illustrating what we buy and sell, please link to our Pinterest image pages and/or read the relevant blog posts on Irish numismatic topics.
All of the hyperlinks (in blue) link to a Pinterest image gallery, unless otherwise stated,
e.g. Blog Post, Coin Guide or Rare Coin Review
This website is updated on a frequent basis, so do please 're-visit' as often as you can.
Ireland & The Single European Currency
The ECB & the Euro System explained in 3 minutes (ECB Education Video)
Preparations for a Single Currency
O'Brien Coin Guide: Official Irish ECU and Euro Commemorative Coins / Proofs – coming soon !
O'Brien Coin Guide: Unofficial ECU Patterns – coming soon !
Images: Privately Produced Irish Patterns (ECU's and Euro)
Images: Irish Euro Starter Packs
Irish Euro Coinage
Coins for Circulation
O'Brien Rare Coin Review: Will the Irish 1c and 2c coins ever be scarce ?
O'Brien Coin Guide: Irish Euro 1c
O'Brien Coin Guide: Irish Euro 10c
O'Brien Coin Guide: Irish €1 coins
O'Brien Coin Guide: Irish Commemorative €2 coins
BU sets
O'Brien Coin Guide: Irish BU Euro Sets (Presentation Packs)
Irish Proof Euro Sets
O'Brien Coin Guide: Irish Euro Proof Sets
Irish Commemorative Euro Coins (Proofs)
O'Brien Coin Guide: Irish Euro Commemorative Coins
2015 €15 Silver Proof coin, 150th anniversary of the birth of William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet and Nobel Laureate
Other Euro Zone Coins
The reverse side design is common to all Euro Zone states
Each Euro zone state designs its own National Side with emblems that reflect its unique culture and heritage
In preparation for the launch, in January 2002, some countries began minting coins as far back as 1999, thus they date their coins from this year forward. Greece, on the other hand, joined very late and in order to produce sufficient coins, they sub-contracted production to other European mints.
Thus, if there is no mint mark, the coins were produced in Greece by the Greek Mint, and those with a mint mark were produced elsewhere: Finland (S), France (F) and Spain (E).
Five different mints produced coins for Germany: A: Berlin, D: Munich, F: Stuttgart, G: Karlsruhe and J: Hamburg
Euro Zone 'Foundation' States (ECB pages) Pre-Euro Coins Previous Coin Set(s)
Austria (2002 to date) Austria (pre-Euro coin set)
Belgium (1999 to date) Belgium (pre-Euro coin set)
Finland (1999 to date) Finland (pre-Euro coin set)
France (1999 to date) France (pre-Euro coin set)
Germany (2002 to date) Germany (pre-Euro coin set)
Greece (2002 to date) Greece (pre-Euro coin set)
Ireland (2002 to date) 1990-2000 (Pre-Euro set) 1969-85 (Decimal set) 1928-1969 (Pre-Decimal)
Italy (2002 to date) Italy (pre-Euro coin set)
Luxembourg (2002 to date) Luxembourg (pre-Euro coin set)
Netherlands (1999 to date) Netherlands (pre-Euro coin set)
Portugal (2002 to date) Portugal (pre-Euro coin set)
Spain (1999 to date) Spain (pre-Euro coin set)
The 2004 enlargement of the European Union was the largest single expansion of the European Union (EU), in terms of territory, number of states, and population; however, it was not the largest in terms of gross domestic product. It occurred on 1 May 2004. The simultaneous accessions concerned the following countries, sometimes referred to as the "A10" countries: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
Seven of these were part of the former Eastern Bloc(of which three were from the former Soviet Union
Four were members of the Visegrad Group), one of the former Yugoslavia (together sometimes referred to as the "A8" countries)
The remaining two were Mediterranean islands and former British colonies.
Part of the same wave of enlargement was the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, who were unable to join in 2004, but, according to the Commission, constitute part of the fifth enlargement.
On 1st January 2007, the first of these 'accession countries' joined the Euro Zone, i.e. Slovenia.
Euro Zone 'Accession' States Pre-Euro Coins Previous Coin Set(s)
Slovenia (2007 to date) Slovenia (pre-Euro coin set)
Cyprus (2008 to date) Cyprus (pre-Euro coin set) Cyprus (pre-Decimal coin set)
Malta (2008 to date) Malta (pre-Euro coin set) Malta (pre-Decimal coin set)
Slovakia (2009 to date) Slovakia (pre-Euro coin set)
Estonia (2011 to date) Estonia (pre-Euro coin set)
Latvia (2014 to date) Latvia (pre-Euro coin set)
Lithuania (2015 to date) Lithuania (pre-Euro coin set)
Non-EU States that use the Euro Currency
Four non-EU 'micro-states' use the euro as their currency, minting coins with their own 'obverse' designs
Andorra (obverse designs agreed but not minted yet, i.e. these coins are not yet in circulation)
Monaco (2001 to date)
San Marino (2002 to date)
Vatican City (2002 to date)
Two other European states, outside of the EU, use the Euro de jure but cannot issue their own Euro coins
O'Brien Obsolete Currency Guide: Kosovo
O'Brien Obsolete Currency Guide: Montenegro
Bosnia & Herzegovina, another state formally 'tied' to the German Mark, is now 'tied' to the Euro
O'Brien Currency Guide: Bosnia & Herzegovina Convertible Mark
Commemorative €2 Coins
ECB Special €2 Coin Designs & Rules for Issue
Image Gallery 2004 (6 coin images)
Image Gallery 2007 (7 coin images + the "50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome" coin by 13 states)
2008 (10 coin images)
2009 (9 coin images + the "10th anniversary of Economic & Monetary Union" coin by 16 states)
2012 (12 coin images + the "10 Years of the Euro" coin by 17 states)
Image Gallery 2014 (24 coin images)
O'Brien Coin Guide: Commemorative €2 coins of 2014
Image Gallery 2015 (19 of the 26 coins planned, including the 2 that have been cancelled)
O'Brien Coin Guide: Commemorative €2 coins of 2015 (work in progress)
There will be an additional issue by all 19 'Euro Zone' states later on this year
Five designs out of 62 entries were shortlisted and you can vote for your favourite design HERE
The 5 designs 'shortlisted' for 2015 – you can vote for your favourite (closing date – May 27)
Map of the Euro Zone (2015)
If you have any queries regarding Irish euro coins, proof sets or euro banknotes, please email us on
old.currency.exchange@gmail.com
If you found this website useful, please connect to me on LinkedIn and endorse some of my skills.
James O'Brien, The Old Currency Exchange
Alternatively, please connect or follow my coin and banknote image gallery on Pinterest.
The Old Currency Exchange
Or, follow me on Twitter (I post daily)
@Old_Currency_Ex


Love animals? Want to know more about them? The Raven Diaries just may be the most complete privately funded raven project on the planet. And they're just beginning! Learn the difference between crows and ravens (it's huge!), find where and how they live. See the many other animals they share territory with. On this page Raven Rick shares a number of short subject videos he's put together both on You Tube and some extras below, to let you see a little more of the life of the raven. Expect this section to be constantly expanding and changing. And if you enjoy maps, you'll find some at the bottom of this page.
First - Ok here's the biggy, Ravens and Crows are very different! See the physical differences on this video.
See and hear the difference between ravens and crows!
that have only been flying a couple of weeks put on quite a show over about a half mile.
Scene taken from The Raven Diaries Part 4's Crystal Cove Project.
Below you'll see ravens even play with things that would like them for lunch.
Rick claims the Raven is without a doubt the most playful animal on the planet. This dive you'll see is strictly raven and no other creature does such a dive for what seems to be fun, pure fun! Others have interpreted this move as "territorial" but Rick disagrees. He's recorded both sexes doing it, one right after another. The males tend to do it more often and the actual dive is longer and perhaps a bit more robust. But ravens of most all ages do it, or at least a shortened version of it and many birds, outside their own territory do this dive, sometimes repeatedly.
Teaching young ravens to collect sea glass!
they actually uncovered a number of pieces of sea glass!
A clip from our movie "Bob, Huey & Me" the story of a baby raven raised to be wild.
to "play" with a purple pool float. They don't like "snake" shaped objects!
See how fast baby ravens grow!
When pointing out the baby ravens Rick always get "that's a baby?"
See how fast baby ravens learn to fly!
first has been flying 24 days, the second only 11 days.
People ask, "Do you still see Huey?"!
A special visit on a special day.
as last year but some couples change both nesting site and territory.
Some of the animals Ravens share territory with!
Rick finds the Osprey as one of the most strikingly beautiful birds in the sky!
These were hard to identify at first, we have grays often but this was different!
Great Blue Heron & friends on the beach in February 2011.
Check out the "dive" at the end on the video!
a grey whale breaches twice at 1:46 and 2:11.
Special Feature - Ravens of the West!
2010 Tour - Zion & Bryce Utah!
Beautiful country, stories and close-ups of jabber box birds.
2010 Tour - Grand Canyon on North Rim!
into Cape Royal Point so they had this beautiful part of the park all to themselves for hours.
Normally, it's one of the more visited places on the North Rim.
2010 Tour - The Grand Canyon's South Rim!
Time with the elk, condor #33, and other animals, and of course more ravens.
2010 Tour - Sedona, Arizona!
Crayfish hunting and screaming baby ravens playing in big white puffy clouds in the Arizona Desert.
Listen to a new raven call Rick hadn't heard before! And you'll see why ravens like him so much!
The following videos are not on You Tube and you'll need a player that plays .mov files.
The Quicktime player from apple.
You can learn a lot by watching somebody when they are eating.
The same goes for ravens!
the raven is the only bird to do this.
Here's a log of more shorts showing Raven Rick's activity with the Crystal Cove families and their 2011 broods.
March - Moro chicks early this year!
April 14th - First Moro is out, dolphins go crazy!
April 14 th Part 2 - First Moro out and playing with sticks. Edgar gives chase.
April 21st -The Moro's are flying!
A quick log of shorts showing some of Raven Rick's activity of the Crystal Cove families and their 2010 broods.
My Bab's Learnin' To Fly!
MAPS - Meet my friends!
six years. Included is a short introduction to each family.
Map with each family's yearly brood count!
So far kid count has been from 1 to 6 to a brood!
Want the maps? Free PDF here!
Raven Rick the sea glass guy!
Our Books and DVD's are available online here!


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Items filtered by date: Friday, 19 October 2018
More underappreciated horror films for Halloween
Spooky, spooky, scary, scary!
It's that time of year again - where pumpkins are carved up, gutted and massacred. Where kids dress up and beg for candy - from strangers! And let's not forget - Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween without at least one news site running a, "Watch out for razor blades in those apples" story. (Hint: You're more likely to get mauled to death by a goat then you are to get a razor blade in your apple).
And that means there will be an inevitable flood of lists of movies to watch for Halloween! Hell, even I wrote one last year called Underappreciated Horror Films for Halloween. I took the idea that most such lists have all the usual suspects: take your pick of a franchise - Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Paranormal Activity, Scream, Friday the 13th, Saw, Halloween, Hellraiser, [Insert Random Name] of the Dead, etc., etc. Throw in the obligatory mention of The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Shining, add another Stephen King adaptation for good measure, class it up with some vintage black and white: Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein and toss in whatever is currently hip and popular with the cool kids these days, such as -- It Follows and Babadook.
Great! And done!
But, also, kind of boring.
And so I'm back with another list of underappreciated horror films for your Halloween viewing terror! Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of movies in the aforementioned list that I adore. But there are a lot of great horror movies that slip under the radar. If you are a true horror film aficionado there probably won't be much here you've not heard of. But for most movie folk this should be a nice list of underappreciated horror films you may dig.
The trailers were meticulously screened to avoid spoilers. No, seriously. I watched multiple trailers for all of these movies and selected ones that were cool but vague and non spoilerific!
Also, I just recognized that this year AND last year - most of my film selections were written by men, and all of them were directed by men. Hmm. I'll make sure future lists have more diversity. So, I'll work on that.
With that being said, some of my new favorite underappreciated films -- presented alphabetically:
Better Watch Out (2016): The movie's tagline says it all: On a quiet suburban street, a babysitter must defend a twelve-year-old boy from intruders, only to discover it's far from a normal home invasion. So, very true. =) Better Watch Out is a delightfully sinister Christmas horror film! The three young, unknown (to me) actors: Olivia DeJonge, Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould are all well cast and will probably go on to bigger and better things (a quick IMDB search tells me they have). The film was mildly loved by critics but largely ignored by audiences. I haven't found a trailer that didn't ruin some of the film's surprises so I would ignore them all if I were you.
The Blackcoat's Daughter (2016): Often described as a "slow burn of a film," a phrase I typically dislike, because most folks equate that wording with, "Boring, but kind of interesting." Instead I would describe The Blackcoat's Daughter as a dark atmospheric exploration of loneliness. With some devil worship. The ending appears to have been largely misunderstood by critics and reviewers alike and without spoiling anything, I will say that any other interpretation other than, "holy fucking evil tragedy," is wrong. All three of the female actors Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka and Lucy Boynton do fine work but I would say Kiernan Shipka pulls off an extraordinary take on the affected, especially since I always found her younger years as an actor on Mad Men, fairly inconsistent (she played young Sally Draper). Originally released as, "February" the film has been renamed for streaming and DVD. Official HD trailer for the Blackcoat's Daughter.
Bone Tomahawk (2015): Kurt Russell. Sweet mutton chops. Western. Bloody vengeance. You read that right! Bearing the same badass mutton chops he flaunted in Tarantino's (kind of overrated) Hateful Eight, Russell steals the show as hard as nails Sheriff Franklin Hunt. The over all plot will certainly be familiar to anyone who's seen a western before, but the tone of the film works well and carries the story to an effective, brutal ending. Nominated for and winner of - multiple indie / horror awards including the Independent Spirit Award, the Saturn Award and the Fangoria Chainsaw Award where Russell won for Best Actor. Official trailer #1 for Bone Tomahawk.
Compliance (2012): Based on the shocking true story, Compliance is a fairly accurate recreation of truly fucked up events that unfolded in the back of a Kentucky McDonald's. Much like 2011's Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene the film is a non supernatural psychological thriller but, in essence - is a real horror film. There doesn't have to be a supernatural presence, or a murder, in order for a movie to be down right chilling and horrific and Compliance is both. The premise of the film: A man, claiming to be a police officer, calls a fast-food restaurant and convinces the manager that one of her employees is a suspect and that the manager must strip search the employee. She complies. It gets worse from there. Compliance premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was … controversial to say the least. Audience members walked out because they found the movie too disturbing and then there was some kind of screaming match during the film's Q&A all about the nature of compliance. Ann Dowd, as the manager in question, was nominated for all sorts of acting awards - winning the National Board of Review. Official trailer for Compliance.
Creep / Creep 2 (2014 / 2017): Writer / actor Mark Duplass, arguably the king of all fucking independent films in the last fifteen years (though he did not invent mumblecore films with The Puffy Chair in 2005 as many have implied, that was Andrew Bujalski with Funny Ha Ha in 2002). Anyway, Duplass pulls off another charming mumblecore-esq role as - the creep? Or is he? Also, this is one of the rare gems where the sequel might be better than the original. Both are found footage films with all the pratfalls that entails but are relatively short at 80ish minutes each and can be watched in one creepy evening. Official Trailer for Creep. And hey now, don't go watching the Trailer for Creep 2 until you've finished Creep!
Hereditary (2018): Okay. I will go out on a limb and tell you that Hereditary is the greatest horror film of the last decade and might be my favorite horror film of all time. Criminally underappreciated actress Toni Collette turns in a powerhouse performance as artist Annie Graham. Her mother has just died and Annie inherits an enormous amount of emotional baggage the threatens her family and her very existential existence. Both Milly Shapiro and Alex Wolff, as her children, are equally mesmerizing. Ann Dowd, mentioned above in Compliance is as universally great as she always is. Hereditary drips with imagery & symbols and heavily explores themes of the title of the film - inheritance. A simple enough premise but executed with unbelievable skill in front of and behind the camera. I hesitate to use the word "masterpiece," because the word is so over used, especially in film criticism. But, use it I shall because Hereditary is a domestic nightmare, horror masterpiece. Official trailer for Hereditary.
Green Room (2015): Like many movies on this list Green Room was a critic's darling that underperformed at the box office. Staring the late, great Anton Yelchin and the crazy talented chameleon Imogen Poots. Seriously, I could not believe she was the same woman from the perfect Fright Night remake. The movie is about a punk rock band, the Aint Rights, who find themselves attacked by neo-Nazi skinheads after accidentally witnessing a murder at the skinhead's club. And who plays the leader of the skinheads? Patrick Stewart, naturally. No, seriously, I don't know what convinced him to play the role of a skinhead Nazi but the movie gods should be thanked that he recognized the greatness that was about the become the film Green Room! And it's really, really great. Official trailer for Green Room.
Thoroughbreds (2017): The movie that made me ask, "Um, who the hell is that actress? Because in the next ten years she's going to be recognized as one of the greatest actors of her generation." The woman in question - Olivia Cooke. You fine folks might be all like, "Oh, the girl from The Bates Motel - and Ready Player One, yeah, she's great!" Well, at the time I saw Thoroughbreds Ready Player One had not been released and I had not seen a single episode of Bates Motel - but you can be sure I binged it in the next few months. (And, it's okay. Cooke's character is very under written and she's underused which is okay since she's not the lead, and the two leads are great in Bates Motel - but that's another story). Anyway, Thoroughbreds is more of a super dark comedy than a traditional horror film, but they often go hand in hand. I mean, it is a film about murdering one of your parents but, like - in a hip, non trite way. #amiright? As much as I love Angela Bettis in May and Robin McLeavy in The Loved Ones, I think Olivia Cooke's sociopathic Amanda is the new big girl on the block. Official trailer for Thoroughbreds.
And there we have it. Another list. Hopefully, you'll see something here that interests you. If you like a lot of films on this list, perhaps check out my list from last year, linked above. More of the same - underappreciated gems.
This years tally of horror: An on screen body count of approx. twenty four but maybe as high as eighty (hard to keep track of as some of the serial killer movies are deceptive about victims). Three movies with decapitations. Two about demons. Two with bad parents. One about Christmas. One on tour. Three, perhaps four (number debatable) about serial killers. Four with female leads. Two found footage. One with Nazis. One based on a true story. And one starring Kurt Russell and those glorious mutton chops.
Better Watch Out (2016), an Australian Horror Comedy film directed by: Chris Peckover and written by Zach Kahn and Peckover.
The Blackcoat's Daughter (2016), an American Canadian supernatural psychological drama written and directed by: Oz Perkins, son of late Anthony Perkins.
Bone Tomahawk (2015), an American western horror film written and directed by S. Craig Zahler.
Compliance (2012), an american thriller drama written and directed by Craig Zobel.
Creep / Creep 2 (2014 / 2017), American independent found footage horror film directed by Patrick Brice and written by Mark Duplass and Brice.
Hereditary (2018), an American supernatural horror film (masterpiece!) written and directed by Ari Aster. His first feature film.
Green Room (2015), an American horror film written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier. Also - fuck Nazi's.
Thoroughbreads (2017), an American black comedy thriller written and directed by Cory Finley. Starring crazy, madman genius young actor Olivia Cooke.
Published in Entertainment


Reading exposes you to many kinds of people — more than you might ever expect to meet in this lifetime. And sometimes it exposes you to the kinds of people you have met, but won't ever understand.
What kind of person doesn't care for eggs? E.M. Forster, what a wild imagination you have. Just kidding. I actually have come across several individuals who are either repelled by or indifferent to eggs. I don't know which is worse — both are just plum awful.
As an egg afficionado, I'm not too picky about the way my eggs are cooked — but that doesn't mean I don't have favorites. One of my favorite ways to consume eggs is scrambled with tomatoes and scallions.
Spray a saucepan with cooking spray and throw in a chopped, juicy tomato. Cook until it's bubbling in the pan, and swirl in an egg or two along with a sliced scallion. Season with salt and pepper and scramble until just barely runny. Serve on a bed of sliced romaine lettuce, for an atypical "egg salad."


text:
Council open new multi-use games area at Matlock park
Ed Dingwall
Derbyshire Dales District Council has celebrated the opening of a new multi-use games area in one of Matlock's best loved parks.
Council representatives officially opened the new facility at Hall Leys Park on Saturday, July 22, as part of Love Your Parks Week.
The event saw more than 30 children taking part in activities including balance bikes, football, kwik cricket, basketball and netball alongide parents and grandparents.
Councillor Jo Wild, chairman of the community and environment committee, said: "We are confident this will encourage local people and visitors to participate in sport more regularly, and, in particular, encourage those who may not necessarily want to use a leisure centre or be part of an organised sports club.
"The facility will also allow people to have an informal kick-about in a safe place at no cost."
The multi-use games area (MUGA) was created by converting one of the existing tennis courts which was not in regular use.
The project involved replacing the perimeter fencing and marking out the pitches for a number of sports including basketball, football, netball and tennis.
The work was funded by a one-off contribution of £14,000 from Derbyshire County Council's Community Priorities Fund, £2,000 from the district council's Local Projects Fund and £2,000 from Derbyshire Dales Community Safety Partnership.
The MUGA and the tennis courts are both free to use for members of the public, though users must provide their own equipment.
The district council's sports development and community safety teams will use the new facility as a venue for evening activities to engage young people aged 11-25, and the council's Arc Leisure Matlock will use the MUGA as a venue for school holiday activities.
Coun Wild said: "In recent years we have upgraded tennis courts at our recreation grounds in Ashbourne and Bakewell and in both cases participation in sport has increased, improving the variety of activities available to residents and visitors.
The council also revealed last week that Hall Leys Park had been awarded the prestigious international Green Flag.
Fore more information, see www.derbyshiredales.gov.uk/hallleyspark.


text:
\section{Introduction}
Bilingual dictionary induction (BDI) refers to retrieving translations of individual words.
The task has been widely used for intrinsic evaluation of cross-lingual embedding algorithms, which aim to map two languages into the same embedding space, for transfer learning purposes \cite{C12-1089}. Recently, \citet{Glavas19} reported limited evidence in support of this practice---they found that cross-lingual embeddings optimized for a BDI evaluation metric were not necessarily better on downstream tasks.
Here, we study BDI evaluation in itself, as has been done for other evaluation methods in the past (cf. \citealp{faruqui2016problems}'s work on word similarity), with concerning findings about its reliability.

A massive dataset of 110 bilingual dictionaries, known as the \texttt{MUSE} dataset, was introduced in early 2018 along with a strong baseline \cite{Conneau2018}. Subsets of the \texttt{MUSE} dictionaries have been used for model comparison in the evaluation of numerous cross-lingual embedding systems developed since (cf. \citealp{grave2018unsupervised,jawanpuria2019, Hoshen2018AnIC, hoshen2018non, DBLP:journals/corr/abs-1809-02306,joulin2018rcsls}). Even though the field has been very active, progress has been incremental for most language pairs.
Moreover, there have been very few attempts at a linguistically-informed error analysis of BDI performance as measured on \texttt{MUSE} (cf. \citealp{kementchedjhieva2018generalizing}). This is problematic for two reasons: on one hand, most systems greatly vary in their approach and architecture, so it is difficult to identify the source of the reported performance gains; on the other hand, the \texttt{MUSE} dataset was compiled automatically, with no manual post-processing to clean up noise, so the real impact of the performance gains is unclear.

In this work, we study the composition and quality of the \texttt{MUSE} data for five diverse languages:  German, Danish, Bulgarian, Arabic and Hindi. A manual part-of-speech annotation of the test sets for these languages
reveals a strikingly high number of proper nouns. We refer to linguistic literature to argue that proper nouns,
having no lexical meaning but rather just a referential function, cannot reliably be used in the evaluation of word-level translation systems.
We find that excluding proper noun pairs from the test dictionaries for the aforementioned languages affects the ranking and degree of performance gaps between five of the most influential recent systems for BDI.

With a new, more reliable ranking at hand, we perform qualitative analysis on the performance gap between the best and second best systems for Bulgarian. This reveals another major issue with the data: limited coverage of morphological variants for the target words. Through manual verification of the models' predictions, we find that the gap in performance between the two systems is far smaller than previously perceived.

The uncovered issues of high noise levels (proper nouns) and limited coverage (missing gold standard targets) clearly have a crucial impact on BDI results obtained on the \texttt{MUSE} dataset, and need to be addressed. Filtering out proper nouns could be achieved automatically, by checking against gazetteers of named entities. We find that an automatic procedure for the filling of missing targets, however, yields only minor improvements. We thus urge researchers to be cautious when reporting quantitative results on \texttt{MUSE}, and to account for the problems presented here through manual verification and analysis of the results. As an alternative, we point them to morphologically complete BDI resources, built bottom-up \cite{czarnowska2019dont}. We share our part-of-speech annotations, such that future work can use this resource for analysis purposes. \footnote{Available at https://github.com/coastalcph/MUSE\_dicos}

\section{Bilingual Dictionary Induction}\label{sec:systems}

Improvements on BDI mostly stem from developments in the space of cross-lingual embeddings, which use BDI for intrinsic evaluation.

\paragraph{Systems} Five influential recent systems for cross-lingual embeddings are MUSE \cite{Conneau2018}, which can be supervised (\textbf{MUSE-S}) or unsupervised (\textbf{MUSE-U}); VecMap, which also can be supervised (\textbf{VM-S}) \cite{Artetxe2018} or unsupervised (\textbf{VM-U}) \cite{Artetxe2018b}; and RCSLS \cite{joulin2018rcsls}, a supervised system (\textbf{RCSLS}), which scores best on BDI out of the five. We refer the reader to the respective publications for a general description of the systems

\paragraph{Metrics} Performance on BDI in these works is evaluated by verifying the system-retrieved translations for a source word against a set of gold-standard targets. The metric used is Precision at $k$ (P@$k$), which measures how often the set of $k$ top predictions contains one of the gold-standard targets, i.e. what is the ratio of True Positives to the sum of True Positives and False Positives.

\paragraph{Data} All systems listed above report results on one or both of two test sets: the \texttt{MUSE} test sets \citet{Conneau2018} and/or the \texttt{Dinu} test sets \cite{Dinu2015, Artetxe2017}. Similarly to \texttt{MUSE}, the \texttt{Dinu} dataset was compiled automatically (from Europarl word-alignments), but it only covers four languages. Due to the bigger size of \texttt{MUSE} (110 language pairs), we deem its impact larger and focus our study entirely on it.

\addtolength{\textfloatsep}{-0.1in}

\section{Annotation-based observations}

In order to gain insights into the linguistic composition of the \texttt{MUSE} dictionaries, we employ annotators fluent in German, Danish, Bulgarian, Arabic and Hindi (hereafter, {\sc de, da, bg, ar, hi}) to annotate the entire dictionaries from English to one of these languages (hereafter, from-{\sc en}) and the entire dictionaries from these languages to English (hereafter, to-{\sc en}) with part-of-speech (POS) tags. Details on the annotation procedure can be found in Appendix A. Below, we discuss our findings on the POS composition of the data,
and we evaluate the performance of RCSLS per POS tag.\footnote{For all experiments, we use the pretrained embeddings of \citet{bojanowski2017enriching}, trained on Wikipedia.}

\subsection{Analysis of POS composition}

The average percentage of common nouns, proper nouns, verbs, and adjectives/adverbs in the dictionaries to-{\sc en} was respectively 49.6, 24.9, 12.5, and 12.9.\footnote{The numbers were similar across from-{\sc en} dictionaries.} Nouns constitute half of the dictionaries' volume, while verbs and adjectives/adverbs collectively make up only about a fourth of the average dictionary. A skewed ratio between these three categories is not surprising: in the EWT dependency treebank, for example, which contain gold-standard POS tags, the proportion of noun, verb and adjective/adverb types is 34, 17 and 14 percent, respectively. Notice, however, that in the case of the \texttt{MUSE} data, the ratio is even more skewed in favour of nouns over the other two categories.

The large number of proper nouns in the dictionaries seems even more problematic. Proper nouns are considered to have no lexical meaning, but rather just a referential function \cite{pierini}. Personal names usually refer to a specific referent in a given context, but they can, in general, be attributed to different referents across different contexts, and they are almost universally interchangeable in any given context.
Some personal names and most place and organization names may have a unique referent, e.g. \textit{Barack Obama, Wisconsin, Skype}, but these names still do not carry a \textit{sense}, their referent is resolved through access to encyclopedic knowledge \cite{pierini}. Considering that the pretrained embeddings which we use were trained on Wikipedia, we can expect that such encyclopedic information would indeed appear in the context of certain unique names, but importantly, the alignability of the embeddings for such entities would depend on the level of parallelism between the contents of Wikipedia articles in the different languages.

With these considerations in mind, one should wonder how stable the representation of names can be in an embedding space. This question has previously been raised by \citet{Artetxe2017}. We address it empirically below.

\subsection{Evaluation by POS}

\begin{figure}
    \resizebox{\linewidth}{!}{
    \centering
    \includegraphics{toEN_POS.pdf}
    }
    \caption{Precision of RCSLS by POS tag on to-{\sc en} data.}
    \label{fig:pos}
\end{figure}

Figure~\ref{fig:pos} shows the precision of the RCSLS embedding alignment method on different POS segments of the test data in mapping to-{\sc en} (results from-{\sc en} were similar and are shown in Appendix B). Verbs pose a greater challenge to BDI systems than nouns and adjectives do.
Generally, we can attribute this observation to the higher abstraction of concepts described by verbs. This is a known problem for word embedding methods in general \cite{Gerz2016}, which BDI systems naturally inherit.

With respect to proper nouns, we observe that they indeed introduce a level of instability in the evaluation of BDI systems. Notice that while the other parts of speech follow a similar pattern across languages, with higher precision obtained for nouns and adjectives/adverbs than for verbs, relative precision on proper nouns is highly variable. For {\sc de}, proper nouns are easier to translate than other parts of speech by a margin of 15\%, for {\sc hi} and {\sc ar} they are easier than nouns and adjectives/adverbs, but harder than verbs, and for {\sc da} and {\sc bg} they are hardest out of all four categories. We looked into the individual word pairs marked as proper nouns in the {\sc de} and {\sc da} data, as these languages are related and RCSLS performs comparably on them otherwise, and did not find any patterns that could explain the large differences. In fact, between the 384 proper noun pairs in the {\sc en-de } dictionary and the 330 proper noun pairs in the {\sc en-da} dictionary, there was an overlap of 279 pairs, retrieved with precision of 89.21\% in the {\sc en-de } setting and 51.30\% in the { \sc en-da } setting. We conjecture that this result relates to the level of parallel content between the Wikipedia dumps for the different language pairs, which is likely higher for {\sc en-de }, since the dumps for these languages are also closer in size: 5.8M articles in {\sc en}, 2.3M in {\sc de} (and only 0.2M in {\sc da}).\footnote{https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Wikipedias}

We evaluate this hypothesis through an experiment where we train an RCSLS alignment for {\sc de-en} using the {\sc de} embeddings of \citet{Artetxe2017}, trained on SdeWaC \cite{baroni2009wacky} and the {\sc en} embeddings of \citet{Dinu2015}, trained on ukWaC \cite{baroni2009wacky}, Wikipedia and the BNC \footnote{Available at http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk} corpora. The level of parallel content between the data used to train the two sets of embeddings is thus far more limited in this case, and the {\sc de} embeddings are not explicitly trained on Wikipedia data. Table~\ref{tab:wacky} summarizes the results: while with the new embeddings performance is somewhat reduced for nouns, verbs and adjectives/adverbs, precision at 1 for proper nouns, in particular, drops by over 50\%, indicating that this category of test word pairs is indeed highly sensitive to the nature of the training data.

\begin{table}
\resizebox{\linewidth}{!}{
\begin{tabular}{llllll}
\toprule
Corpora&{\sc noun}&{\sc verb}&{\sc ad}&{\sc pnoun}\\
\midrule
Wikipedia&69.0&57.9&66.4&83.0 \\
Mixed*&64.0&55.5&59.4&37.6 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
}
\caption{Comparison in performance by POS category with two different embedding sets. * The out-of-vocabulary rate for items in the dictionaries is negligible: 2, 0, and 1 for {\sc noun}, {\sc verb }, and {\sc ad} , respectively.}
\label{tab:wacky}
\end{table}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \resizebox{\linewidth}{!}{
    \includegraphics{Figure_1.pdf}%
    }
    \caption{Absolute difference in performance on from-{\sc en} BDI, relative to MUSE-S. Pattern-filled bars show results as estimated on the original data (\textit{old}), while colored bars show results as estimated on the cleaned data (\textit{new}).}
    \label{fig:my_label}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Re-ranking on clean data}

Based on the analysis presented above, we removed all pairs that were annotated as proper nouns and all pairs that were marked as invalid during the annotation process.\footnote{The latter constitute less than 1\% of the removed data.} This clean-up resulted in a drop in the size of the test dictionaries of about 25\% on average.
A detailed size comparison between the old test dictionaries and their new cleaned versions is presented in the top rows of Table~\ref{tab:my_label} in Appendix B. Figure~\ref{fig:my_label} visualizes a re-evaluation of the five systems for BDI listed in Section~\ref{sec:systems}, on the original test data and on the new clean versions of the test dictionaries from-{\sc en}.\footnote{The to-{\sc en} results were similar, see Appendix B.} The results are reported in terms of change in performance relative to MUSE-S (chosen as a baseline) as estimated on the original \texttt{MUSE} data (pattern-filled bars) and on the cleaned version of the data (colored bars). The absolute system performances before and after the clean-up can be found in Table~\ref{tab:my_label} in Appendix B.

We see that the ranking between the models changes most notably for {\sc ar}, where RCSLS appears inferior to VM-S on the original test data, but on the clean data it emerges as best. For {\sc bg}, the evaluation on the clean test data reveals that RCSLS outperforms the next best system, VM-S, by a larger factor than it appeared on the original test data. Lastly, for {\sc da}, evaluation on the original test data makes RCSLS seem far inferior to VM-S and VM-U, but on the clean test data we see that it outperforms VM-S and matches the performance of VM-U. These observations show that the noise coming from proper nouns has a large impact on the perceived ranking and difference in performance between systems.

\section{\textit{False} False Positives}\label{ffp}
With a more reliable estimate of the models' performance at hand, we next manually study the remaining performance gap between RCSLS, the best-performing model overall, and VM-S, the second best model overall, for {\sc en--\sc bg}.\footnote{We also analyzed {\sc en--\sc de}, with very similar results.} We present some examples in Table~\ref{tab:examples_small} and more can be found in Table~\ref{tab:examples}, Appendix C.

\begin{table*}
\centering
\begin{adjustbox}{width=\textwidth}
\begin{tabular}{c|lllll}
\toprule
Ex.&{\sc SRC}&{\sc TGT}&{\sc RCSLS}&{\sc VM-S}&Description\\
\midrule
A&joke& \foreignlanguage{russian}{шега}&\underline{\foreignlanguage{russian}{шега}}
[INDEF]&\foreignlanguage{russian}{шегата} [DEF] &definite form missing from targets\\
& & \foreignlanguage{russian}{лаф} \\
& & \foreignlanguage{russian}{виц} \\
B&remembered& \foreignlanguage{russian}{запомнен}&\underline{\foreignlanguage{russian}{запомнен}}[MASC]&\foreignlanguage{russian}{запомнена}[FEM]&feminine form missing from targets\\
C&hide& \foreignlanguage{russian}{скриване}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{скриване} [NOUN]&\foreignlanguage{russian}{скриват}[VERB]&\textit{hide} as a verb vs. \textit{hide} as a noun\\
D&bench& \foreignlanguage{russian}{пейка}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{пейка}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{скамейка}&synonym missing from targets\\
& & \foreignlanguage{russian}{пейката} \\
E&depot& \foreignlanguage{russian}{депо}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{депо}&\textcolor{gray}{\foreignlanguage{russian}{гара}}&VM-S predicted `train station'\\
F&crowned& \foreignlanguage{russian}{коронован}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{коронована}[FEM]&\underline{\foreignlanguage{russian}{коронован}}[MASC]&feminine form missing from targets\\
G&pond& \foreignlanguage{russian}{езерце}&\textcolor{gray}{\foreignlanguage{russian}{къщичка}}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{езерце}&RCSLS predicted `cottage'\\
H&grants& \foreignlanguage{russian}{субсидии}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{стипендии}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{стипендии}&synonym missing from targets\\
I&armies& \foreignlanguage{russian}{армии}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{армиите}&\foreignlanguage{russian}{армиите}&definite form missing from targets\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{adjustbox}
\caption{Example translations from {\sc en} to {\sc bg}. Underlined forms are more canonical. Grey forms are incorrect.}
\label{tab:examples_small}
\end{table*}

We find that there are 125 source words that RCSLS translated correctly and VM-S did not. Upon closer inspection, we find that for 54\% of these words, both RCSLS and VM-S predicted a valid translation, but RCSLS predicted a more \textit{canonical} translation, which was listed among the gold-standard targets, while VM-S predicted another word form that was missing from the list of gold-standard targets. By more canonical we mean, for example, indefinite instead of definite forms of nouns and adjectives (see Ex. A, Table~\ref{tab:examples_small}, masculine instead of feminine or neuter forms of adjectives (see Ex. B), singular instead of plural forms.
To the extent that a more canonical translation should be considered better, RCSLS is definitely showing superiority over VM-S. It is not clear, however, if that should be the case, since for some words, the test dictionary exhibits higher coverage than for others, i.e. the less canonical translations are not omitted by design, but appear to be accidental gaps.

Another 19\% of the instances where RCSLS outperformed VM-S, we find to be clear cases of a missing translation in the test dictionary, i.e. not a missing form of a listed target, but a missing synonym or a missing sense altogether (see Ex. C and D).

The two types of errors in precision at 1 discussed above can be considered cases of \textit{false} False Positives, because they really should have been True Positives.
The remaining 27\% of the gap between the two models' performance indeed illustrate that RCSLS provides better translations in some cases (see Ex. E).

Notice, however, that it is not the case that RCSLS outperformed VM-S in all cases--for 50 test words, VM-S predicted a correct translation and RCSLS did not. Among these, there are cases of missing translations from the dictionary as well (see Ex. F), but they can explain less of the lack in performance of RCSLS, i.e. 50\% of the translations of RCSLS are indeed erroneous (see Ex. G).

To summarize, originally the performance gap between the two models appeared to be $(125-50)/1125*100=6.67\%$, while after the manual verification, it is $(27\%*125-50\%*50)/1125*100=0.1\%$.\footnote{1125 is the total dictionary size.} Such a substantial narrowing in the gap between the two models clearly indicates that conclusions drawn on the original result, i.e. that RCSLS is far superior that VM-S for this language pair, is hardly supported by the updated result.

A surface analysis of the subset of words for which neither RCSLS nor VM-S retrieved correct translations revealed similar patterns of extensive false False Positives, due to gaps in the coverage of the dictionary (see Ex. H and I). Our takeaway from these observations is two-fold. Firstly, when RCSLS retrieves a correct target form, it also usually retrieves its most \textit{canonical} form. More importantly, the evaluation of BDI systems on even the cleaned test dictionaries still does not represent accurately the differences in quality between them, due to major gaps in the coverage of the test dictionaries.

\section{Concluding remarks}

Our study of the \texttt{MUSE} dataset revealed two striking problems: a high level of noise coming from proper nouns, and an issue of \textit{false} False Positives, due to gaps in the gold-standard targets. The former problem, we conjecture, can be solved by filtering names out with gazetteers. The quality of this solution would depend on the coverage of the gazetteers.
The more challenging problem, however, is filling in the gaps, especially in terms of inflectional forms. We carried out preliminary experiments aiming to enrich the {\sc en--bg} and {\sc en-de} dictionaries. We extracted additional word forms of verbal and nominal targets from the UniMorph inflectional tables \cite{kirov2018unimorph}, according to a manually designed morphosyntactic correspondence map.\footnote{Details can be found in Appendix D.} Unfortunately, due to limited coverage of the UniMorph data, and, in the case of {\sc bg}, limited vocabulary of the pretrained embeddings, the impact of this procedure was almost negligible. Alternative approaches for enrichment exists, of course, but we wonder how worthwhile further efforts would be. That is, especially in light of \citealt{Glavas19}'s findings that BDI performance is not necessarily indicative of cross-lingual embedding quality. We therefore hope that our work adds weight to the call of \citet{Glavas19} for more reliable evaluation methods in cross-lingual embedding research. When BDI performance is used for evaluation purposes, it should be accompanied by manual verification, of the type presented here.

\section{Acknowledgements}
We thank Marcel Bollmann, Matthew Lamm, Maria Barrett, Meriem Beloucif, Mostafa Abdou, Rahul Aralikatte and Victor Petrén Hansen for help with annotations. We would also like to thank Adam Lopez, Andreas Grivas and Sameer Bansal for useful feedback on drafts of the paper, and to the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Anders S{\o}gaard was supported by a Google Focused Research Award; Mareike Hartmann by the Carlsberg Foundation.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv