In July, I led a trekking group over the Kokoda Track. We travelled South to North and as usual, we had a great experience. July is typically the cooler, dry season and the first half of the trek was exactly that. The second half though, was the exact opposite with heavy rain every day. That's one of the great, adventurous aspects of Kokoda – expect the unexpected.
So, what are the differences in trekking the Kokoda Track in both wet and dry conditions?
Following lengthy, but rare, dry periods you may encounter dust on the Kokoda Track. Thankfully, it won't be enough to have any noticeable effect.
Less rain means low water levels in the rivers and creeks. You may need to only remove your boots when crossing the Goldie and Brown Rivers and Ofi Creek. The crossings of Vua Ale Creek may be achieved without removing boots provided you're surefooted enough to negotiate slippery rocks. Your personal porter can also assist you.
Trekkers tend to spend less time walking on a dry track because, underfoot, the going is easier. It's less slippery and there's less muddy patches and pooled water to walk around.
Keeping dry means you spend less time drying your stuff. A dry tent means that you and your stuff stays dry while you're in there. Dry boots and socks means dry feet and dry feet means you're less likely to get blisters and crumpet foot (also known as trench foot).
Much of the Kokoda Track is spent trekking in the shade of the jungle canopy but when you're out in the open on a cloudless day, the heat and glare of the sun can be fierce and debilitating.
During wet periods, the rain falls over the high ridges and runs down into river valleys. The already fast running creeks and rivers become swollen and massive torrents of water wash away bridges and flow well over rocks placed there to aid trekkers to cross. So, it's boots off, sandals on. If necessary, our trek crew will fix a rope across the creek to assist us.
When, with every step your foot sinks into mud, your foot also needs to be extracted. This takes longer and over the course of a day this may result in trekking an extra hour or more. Downhill sections become increasingly hazardous because the normally hard packed earth becomes a slick and greasy surface. Intense concentration and a slower pace is required to avoid slipping.
Sometimes heavy and thick, sometimes wet and oozing; trekking through the mud is an all too familiar aspect of the Kokoda Track. After and during rain, the Track presents a challenge when water hits the ground.
Sustained rain gets things wet; your pack, your clothes and your tent. Everything you touch is wet. Inside your tent, wet things touch dry things and wet always wins. Take 'dry-bags', plastic bags and zip-lock bags and minimise the hassle. Happily, water inside a tent won't hurt you but merely provide a natural Kokoda experience.
Most campsite surfaces are thick, spongy lawn. Great for comfort… and for retaining water. The camps aren't necessarily designed to allow water run-off and constant feet traffic can turn the nice lawn into sloppy mud. Spare a thought for the Diggers who had to spend long periods in an open fox hole, half filled with muddy water.
If it rains most days on Kokoda, it's very difficult to completely dry your boots. At night, remove the inner soles, loosen the laces and open the boot to allow air to circulate. Don't place your wet boots too close to a fire! Doing this may destroy the glue that adheres the sole to the boot. If this happens, having a wet boot is the least of your troubles. Take three pairs of socks to ensure you'll always have a dry pair. Wet clothes aren't as much a concern as wet boots. Synthetic materials dry quickly with body heat and unlike cotton garments, don't feel cold against the skin when wet. Chaffing can be a problem but this can be overcome with an anti-chaffing solution.
When it rains on the Kokoda Track, the temperature may still be warm enough to trek without rain protection; thanks to the tropical climate, you may be wet but stay warm. Only at the highest altitude, where the air is cooler, would you feel the need to cover up.
During the height of the Kokoda Campaign during the month of August 1942, the Diggers endured the wettest conditions on the Track in the 40 years since weather records had been compiled. Walking in muddy conditions gives trekkers a greater understanding and appreciation of conditions during the campaign.
Wet, dry, mud, dust… it's all part of the great Kokoda adventure. Sure, mud walking can be a chore but the fitter you are the more you'll enjoy whatever the Kokoda Track dishes up to you.
Ps: You can leave your umbrella a home; the jungle foliage along narrow sections of the Track with shred the fabric.
Are you ready to trek with us?
Ray Baker is an experienced trek leader who has for decades conquered and led treks on the Kokoka Track, in Nepal and India. He is a qualified fitness trainer and a Director at Back Track Adventures. Find out more about trekking Kokoda – here, or catch Ray's other two new high altitude adventures taking place in 2018 by clicking on the links – Sikkim and Manaslu.


Within hours of the bill's failure, Republican Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander mentioned he'll set hearings in the next few weeks on the way to stabilize the individual insurance coverage markets. Going into an examination for insurance may get prevent a lot of money, If you've got a very good well being do not mind being checked for medical conditions then go for It as It is a greet money saver. We, the individuals" can not afford to turn out to be a diabetic nation", and yet we are effectively along that path. Associated monetary bills are incredible as is the physical suffering.
Blue Fruits and Vegetables are identified for lowering the danger of blood clots, subsequently decreasing the danger of strokes. They additionally improve circulation. Some meals know to include this are Black Berries, Plums, Eggplant and darkish colored grapes. Bring the colors in your life. Refresh the walls, get new carpets or add decorations that can make your house more vibrant and fresh.
For hospitals, shelving the bill relieves the near-time period strain of large Medicaid reform, but the lengthy-term plan for federal spending for states' Medicaid growth is now murky. But their failure exposed the sharp divide within Republicans' personal ranks, with moderates concerned the healthcare bill's Medicaid cuts would take insurance away from millions of low-income Americans while conservatives backed the cuts and wanted much more dramatic modifications to Obamacare.


text:
How John D. Nugent treated the men who helped the Dublin Strikers in 1913
Posted by SIRHM on March 1, 2019
The handbill seen here, titled "How John D. Nugent Treated the men who helped the Dublin Strikers in 1913," was printed prior to the 1918 general election in Ireland and encourages voters in the St. Michan's district of Dublin to vote for Sinn Fein candidate Michael Staines. Staines had served as Quartermaster General in the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising and gained public notoriety as being one of James Connolly's stretcher bearers. He was arrested after the Rising and interned in Frongoch, where he served as Commandant of the prisoners and gained respect and notoriety among his fellow internees. After his release from prison, he began working for Sinn Fein and was elected Director of Supply on 27 October 1917.[1]
John D. Nugent, Staines' opponent in the 1918 general election, was an established member of the Irish Parliamentary Party and was a frequent collaborator with Joseph Devlin. Nugent had also been a member of Dublin Corporation since 1912 and the National Secretary of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians. He was known for his strong-arm tactics against socialists and for using his position within the Ancient Order of the Hibernians to try to influence other members of the Irish Parliamentary Party.[2] The handbill seen here corroborates this belief as it states that a division of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians in Manchester had been suspended and then dissolved because they had collected money to help Dublin workers affected by the 1913 lock-out. Nugent was clearly looking to cut off any aid to the strikers as he had sided against the workers in the lock-out.
In later years, Nugent did little to win over the votes of workers as he was also alleged to have fired several of his employees for traveling to county Longford to campaign for Joseph McGuiness in the 1917 general election.[3] This can be seen as a ploy by Nugent to aid the Irish Parliamentary Party candidate in the election by influencing the campaign. His efforts to intimidate workers into not campaigning for McGuiness may have been enough to sway the campaign slightly in favor of Sinn Fein – McGuiness won by a narrow margin of 37 votes.
Workers surely had not forgotten about Nugent's past transgressions when it came time to vote for the St. Michan's parliamentary seat in the 1918 general election. Staines won the seat by a wide margin of 7553 votes to Nugent's 3996 votes. Nugent blamed the loss on weak campaigning due to ill health, but there were likely many other factors at play like the low public opinion of Nugent's past actions and new voting rights – women over 30 and men between the ages of 21 and 29 were now able to vote for the first time. After his defeat, the crowd wished to boo over Nugent so that he could not give his conciliatory speech. Staines was forced to appeal to them to allow him to speak, which only further shows how much the public had grown to hate Nugent. Staines himself stated that he was proud to have been elected to represent the poor of St. Michans, and he would continue to serve as their representative throughout the War of Independence.[4]
Sinn Fein candidates were successful in winning parliamentary seats throughout Ireland during the 1918 election. This handbill is a valuable piece of history as it showcases the campaign prowess that Sinn Fein possessed when pushing appealing to voters. By appealing to those voters who felt like the Irish Parliamentary Party candidates were out of touch with their current issues, Sinn Fein candidates were able to gain a majority of the seats up for election in 1918 and move Ireland one step closer to having a fully independent government.
1. Padraig Yeates, A City in Wartime: Dublin 1914-1918 (Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, 2011), 290.
2.Padraig Yeates, A City in Wartime: Dublin 1914-1918 (Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, 2011), 52.
3.Padraig Yeates, A City in Wartime: Dublin 1914-1918 (Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, 2011), 195.
4.Padraig Yeates, A City in Wartime: Dublin 1914-1918 (Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, 2011), 290-294.
Previous Post Address To The Dublin Brigade
Next Post Letter from 1st Southern Division IRA to General Headquarters IRA

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
What happen to Jalen Rose mom?
Who is Jalen Rose's biological father?
What was Jalen Rose crying for?
Does Jalen Rose have kids?
Is Mariah rose the daughter of Jalen Rose?
1. It was a different Mother's Day for ESPN's Jalen Rose this year. Rose lost his mom, Jeanne, to cancer in February. Sunday's NBA Countdown paid tribute to the cohost's mother with a video package that detailed how she came up with the name Jalen and how it became a popular name thanks to her NBA star son.
Who Are Jalen Rose parents?
Jimmy WalkerJeanne Rose
Jalen Rose/Parents
Jimmy WalkerJalen Rose / FatherJames Walker was an American professional basketball player. A 6'3″ guard, he played nine seasons in the National Basketball Association as a member of the Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, and Kansas City-Omaha / Kansas City Kings. Walker was a two-time All-Star who scored 11,655 points in his career. Wikipedia
When did Jalen Rose lose his mother?
It was a touching moment, with co-host Maria Taylor comforting Rose as he discussed the impact his mother had on his life. Rose's mother died in February of lung cancer at the age of 79.
Jalen Rose cries on live TV as he's emotionally overcome with thoughts of his recently deceased mom: "This is my first Mother's Day without my mother or my grandmother" Jalen Rose was overcome by tears because of thoughts about his late mother, Jeanne Rose, during a live telecast of NBA Countdown.
Did Jalen Rose mother pass?
"It's really tough, I'm just happy that the name Jalen is going to carry our legacy, carry her legacy." Rose's mother Jeanne Rose passed away in February of lung cancer at the age of 79. The former NBA player detailed how his mother created the name.
Mariah RoseJalen Rose / Children
Who is Malika Andrews parents?
Early life and education. Andrews was born in Oakland, California, to Mike, a personal trainer, and Caren, an art teacher.
Mariah Rose (born 14 July 2000; Age: 21 years) is a famous Volleyball player, celebrity kid, and native of the United States. She is famously known for being the daughter of Jalen Rose, who is a former professional basketball player and an American sports analyst.
Can a girl be named Sammy?
How much do skid steer tires cost?


Banana Republic is having a fall sale, up to 40% off. I'm not a huge fan of the Banana (a bit too conservative), however they have amazing jewelry, and since the former head of accessories for Marc Jacobs took over for Gap Inc. (which owns Banana), their bags, belts, and hats have gotten supercute. Check out a Balenciaga-ish suede bucket tote, a cute suede sash belt, and chandelier earrings (my favorite).


Don't judge him immediately. He may want you to lose weight keeping in mind your particular health conditions, but his approach towards making his point may be faulty. So try to understand the source of his concerns about your appearance or weight. Ask him directly why he keeps on pointing at things such as your body weight? How and why is it precisely bothering him?
Your partner may have grown up with some preconceived notions about a woman's appearance. Maybe his family and friends have done precious little to change his perspective. So he might be unwittingly carrying forward stereotypes that have been deeply ingrained in his mind. Again, you need to make him open up and reveal what his actual mindset is. Make him read up on articles that speak against body-shaming, take him to awareness workshops or conferences and let him see things as they should be.
If you feel that the body-shaming gestures are deliberate, it's a veritable red flag. Speak up. Tell him to his face that this is not what you expect from a person you have given your heart and soul to. Tell him in so many words that you have zero tolerance for his shallow and biased behaviour. If he tries to tell you that it's just a bit of leg-pulling, tell him that you find no humour in body-shaming efforts. Period.
That's an obvious corollary to the previous point. You should demand an apology and refuse to put up with any such behaviour in future. Put up a peaceful resistance to all his insinuations regarding your appearance. Also tell him that he should immediately stop comparing you with others.
Assess how it's taking a toll on your emotional health. Consult relationship experts or counsellors. Talk to your family and friends too. If the body-shaming continues unabated, you might need to think of an exit route.


New Delhi: AIIMS informed the Delhi High Court Friday that reservation under the disability category for the post of the nurse was meant for persons with one leg, and sought dismissal of a plea by an acid attack survivor that she be considered for the job.
The hospital, in an affidavit filed in the court, sought dismissal of the woman's plea against a June 13 notification of AIIMS on the recruitment of staff nurses, saying it has acted in due conformity with the rules or notification of the government.
It said the central government had issued a notification on July 29, 2013, identifying the post of nursing officer/nurse and categorising it for persons with disability (PWD) with one leg only.
"No new guidelines for the identified post has been made by the government under the Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016," it said.
Advocate Govind Jee, appearing for the 30-year-old woman petitioner, argued that 'acid attack' has been added as a 'specified disability' with effect from April 19, 2017, the date when the Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 came into effect.
"Any decision and notification of the government before the commencement of the 2016 Act would have no bearing so far as facts of this case are concerned as an exercise to exclude such posts for persons suffering from acid attack in terms of provisions of the 2016 Act has never been done," he said.
Justice C Hari Shankar listed the plea for further hearing on September 25 after Govind Jee submitted that there was an urgency in the matter as the recruitment result is scheduled to be declared in September 26.
The court, which had earlier directed the Centre and All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to file response to the petition, today granted a week's time to the government to submit its affidavit.
The woman was earlier allowed by the court to apply for the post of nurse under the general category. The court had said her plea, to be placed under the physically handicapped category, would be decided in the final verdict.
The hospital claimed the woman has not challenged the notification of 2013 and no cause has been out in this petition.
The woman has challenged the June 13 notification issued by the AIIMS for recruitment of staff nurses in which acid attack victims were not given the quota under the category of persons with disability.
The petition has said acid attack is a specified disability under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and that she has 57 per cent permanent disability.
The plea claimed that the woman was unable to apply for the post of nursing officer as notified by the hospital as the option for persons with a bench-mark disability was one leg category.
She sought quashing of the decision of the authorities to exclude the acid attack victims from the disabled category and that they should not be discriminated within public appointments and reservation on such posts.
The woman received acid burns in 2004 when she was attacked by a group of men at Shamli in Uttar Pradesh. She was a minor at the time of the incident.
She later completed her senior secondary school examination and in 2014 she finished her diploma in general nursing and midwifery from the Jamia Hamdard University.
A registered member of the Delhi Nursing Council, she has worked as a staff nurse with various hospitals, the plea said.
In her petition, she also claimed that the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had last year bestowed upon her the national award in recognition of her outstanding performance as the most efficient employee in the category of multiple disabilities.


WASHINGTON – Images of Sen. John McCain have been hard to avoid for the past week – McCain the POW, the presidential candidate, the maverick politician. But until Monday, few had seen the photo of McCain now displayed at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The never-before-published image is deceptively simple at first – McCain appears.
WASHINGTON – Applause is not often heard around the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but that was the response Saturday from a few hundred people who came to see Cindy McCain place a wreath in honor of her husband, Sen. John McCain. The wreath-laying was one of the last events in a week of celebrations of the.
WASHINGTON – Arizona Sen. John McCain lay in state Friday in the U.S. Capitol, honored by the nation's top elected officials and then by thousands who waited in wilting heat for the chance to file past his flag-draped casket. The packed Rotunda was silent as Cindy McCain laid her head on her husband's casket and.


text:
Sun Drenched Concertina
Book Reviews and Personal Tunes
Sun-Drenched Soapery
Laredo Book Club
Book and a Movie
Graphic Novel Review
Personal Tunes
Donate $5 for book fees so I can keep the reviews coming!
Follow Sun Drenched Concertina on WordPress.com
Book and a Movie: The Basketball Diaries
Written by sundrenchedconcertina
Me in my room
The Basketball Diaries is a memoir written by author and musician Jim Carroll. Originally published in 1978, it follows Carroll's journey as an aspiring basketball star and his descent into drug use during the 1960s and 1970s. I came about this book because I started delving into the punk rock section of our record collection and found the record Catholic Boy by The Jim Carroll Band. It has a bit of an early Ramones feel to it with an upbeat, feel-good energy but my favorite bop is definitely People Who Died.
I remembered Steven saying Jim Carroll was the guy from The Basketball Diaries, but I hadn't seen that movie or read the book either. So why not read the book first and treat myself to the movie after? Thus begins my newest blog segment: Book and a Movie, welcome! This one just so happens to have music tied into it which makes The Basketball Diaries a triple threat.
This was one of those books that captures the time period it was written in. The lingo, the latch-key kids, the raunchy images of "scumbag New York," it's like looking back into another dimension through the eyes of a rough kid exploiting the big city that made him. These are words straight out of the diaries he kept as a teen where he scribbled down big events, minor thoughts, and just daily happenings that he went through. It starts out with their first Biddy League basketball game, a youth league for players 12-years-old and under. Jim's team is full of 13-year-old kids with fake birth certificates. They lie about their age and are always careful not to play too well or they'll get found out.
This is just the beginning of Jim's rebel ways and it's a perfect set-up for the debauchery that follows. His rendezvous into sex and drugs enters soon after that and it's a slow progression that happens over years, documented well in his diary that didn't feel forced or fake in any way. That's what appealed to me most about this book: that it felt real and raw while being written in young Jim's witty, humorous prose. It was easy to empathize with the character and laugh along when he goes off on his musings.
The read isn't all light-hearted laughs, though (if you've seen the movie then you know). It goes pretty deep into drug use starting with the guys sniffing glue and being scared of weed, and over into snorting cocaine and mainlining heroin. He recounts the usual sexual encounters through growing up, but he also recounts some that were pretty shocking. It's another factor of "scumbag New York" that you don't often hear about but understandably must have been rampant in that day and age. Throughout his writings he keeps a level head and is a fairly trustworthy narrator, so all in all this was a really enjoyable read. It had a lot of ups and downs, action, excitement, and even tugged at my heartstrings so in the end it was one I had to own for future rereads.
The 1995 movie starring Leonardo Dicaprio jumped right into Jim's high school years even though the book started a few years before that. I always love a young Leo (who doesn't?) and what really set this movie off was that Catholic Boy plays in one of the first scenes, when Jim and his friends decide to ditch school for greener pastures. (Mark Wahlberg is one of his besties.) Seeing Leo in this role was 1000% an accurate realization of all those memes that came out a few years ago about Leo not having an Oscar. After this performance, I was basically shook, like bro…he killed this role, how could you not give him an award?
A very notable moment happens after the boys attend a funeral. They're in a park talking about their dead friend when they get into a heated discussion about death. One boy grabs a basketball, it's raining cats and dogs out, and there's this juxtaposition that happens. It's already blatant in the Jim Carroll Band's song that starts to play, People Who Died, a fun up-beat song about death, but then we see it when the boys are throwing the ball around and they decide to start celebrating life in that moment. It's prefaced by a beautiful poem by Jim Carroll.
You're growing up.
And rain sort of remains on the branches of a tree that will someday rule the earth.
And that's good that there's rain. Clears the month of your sorry rainbow expressions.
And it clears the streets of the silent armies.
So we can dance.
Jim Carroll. The Basketball Diaries, Rain scene.
I thought that this scene was done so well because it captures a flurry of emotions in a single space that you can't get just by reading the book.
The movie itself was pretty right by the book. I enjoyed seeing some of the characters I'd come to know brought to life on the screen. One scene that stood out was when one of the boys gets a handful of unknown pills before their basketball game, all he knows is some uppers and some downers. Since they don't know which are which they take a gamble, doubling down on their decision by popping two of what they assume are uppers but they don't find out until they're out on the court. It was a really funny scene in the book because you're in Jim's head and he thought it was a hoot. On screen they set it to Riders on the Storm by The Doors so the whole scene plays out slow-motion like a trip. It feels funny, watching them stumble and fall over themselves because of their dumb decisions but I couldn't help feeling a little sad, like watching a plane you know is about to nosedive or something. But then again, when you're young like Jim was in the book it's those sort of moments you get caught up in and don't care about the consequences. In that respect the movie really hit a different chord emotionally than the book managed to. Reading it in Jim's voice felt silly, but watching it play out onscreen was a horse of a different color.
The one department that fell a little flat for me was the junky portrayal, but not by Leo's fault at all. There's one scene where he's doing cocaine and writing poetry and we watch him tweaking. I had to commend his acting portrayal because his mannerisms definitely look like he's using that drug and not in a cheap cop-out kind of way I've seen in some movies. Later on he's fighting with his mom using his scratchy heroin voice, and DGAF attitude, and he really hit it right on the money. All of his acting in these scenes are spot-on and you really feel for the character but at the same time can't help admiring the acting chops. However, once he's in total despair it felt a little overdone by the props and wardrobe department to me. The snot crusted on his face, his super caked lips, he looked more like a caricature crackhead than a heroin junky. It seemed to go on and on like they spent too much time on him being strung out and not enough on the youthful Jim in the beginning. But maybe that's just personal preference.
Nevertheless, I was applauding through my computer screen at his performance and it's one you shouldn't miss if you love a good role. The ending was done perfectly, tied up in a bow, and the translation from book to movie was a big hit for me. Yes I would rewatch. Yes I would reread. And for that reason The Basketball Diaries was a win.
🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿/5 Popcorns
January 7, 2021 January 7, 2021 · Posted in Book and a Movie, books, Music, Personal Tunes · Tagged Book and a Movie, The Basketball Diaries, The Jim Carroll Band ·
Book Review: Devil's Bane
Book Review: The Last Resort


What if you slept? And what if in your sleep you dreamed? And what if in your dream, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke you had the flower in your hand?
Marketing can be intimidating, unless, like Miss Coco, you are a bossy pants and live to tell others what to do or where to go.
Of course, if like most writers you are an introvert, marketing many not come naturally. However, whether you are a writer with a traditional publisher or self-published, increasingly promoting your book will be your second job.
If like me, you are a novice at book promotion, allow me to share a few helpful tips I've picked as I navigate my way through my first book tour and marketing campaign in support of my first novel, MRS. TUESDAY'S DEPARTURE.
It's been so long since I've done myDaily Walk Biblereading (three weeks!)...I've missed the end of Psalms, all of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and today's reading plopped me down in the middle of Isaiah.
As Orangeberry Book Tours reaches its 100th book tour, I will be organising a special mini book tour marathon, Orangeberry Summer Splash from1st August to 31st August.


Driven by Guilt: Are your Customers Afraid of Fun?
A million years ago I had a room mate who would drive for miles to find the cheapest gasoline. Gas was about 80 cents a gallon then. (Remember those days?!)It cost him about a dollar to save 20 cents. You probably know someone like this or this might be you!
Understanding which choices people are going to make is pretty important when you are in the business of influencing people.
KEYPOINT: My former room mate represents the majority of the population.
If they get to thinking about it, most people will indeed go clear across town to find the cheapest price vs. their second favorite option, which is going next door and getting the most convenient product.
What happens when people are faced between buying a "fun" product or buying a "functional" product?
Part of the answer depends on what person or group of people you are shopping with! The question is, who is with you that you will feel responsible to?
And, in a study that sheds new light on how consumers choose between pleasurable vs. practical products, a University of Washington researcher has found that people are more likely to buy fun products, but only if the situation allows them the flexibility to rationalize their purchases.
According to Erica Okada, an assistant professor of marketing at the UW Business School, goods can be broadly categorized into hedonic goods that offer enjoyment and utilitarian goods that offer practical functionality. For example, she said, in the wide product category of automobiles, sports cars are more hedonic and sport utility vehicles are generally more utilitarian. Between a sports car and an SUV, consumers may find the prospect of buying a sports car more appealing, but in a side by side comparison, consumers are much more likely to buy the SUV to avoid feeling guilty for buying something that is perceived more as a want than a need.
KEY: People don't want to experience the feeling of guilt and will override their desire for pleasure to avoid feeling guilt. It's that powerful.
Okada found that when a hedonic product and a utilitarian one of comparable value are each presented singly for evaluation, the hedonic alternative tends to elicit a higher rating. However, when the two are presented side by side, the utilitarian alternative is more likely to be chosen.
KEY: Even though people SAY they like the fun and pleasure item more, they are far more likely to choose the functional choice. It's not what people say but what they do that matters in influence and selling.
As part of her research, Okada tracked consumers' consumption and preference patterns for desserts at a restaurant. When given the choice between Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake, described as a "rich treat with Bailey's Irish Cream, Oreo cookies and chocolate chips all blended in," and the Cheesecake deLite, described as a "savory healthy alternative to cheesecake, made of low fat cream cheese and egg whites," diners chose the second option because, said Okada, they viewed it as more utilitarian and thus less likely to cause guilty feelings.
When each dessert was presented as the only option on successive nights, the two were equally preferred, but when presented jointly on the same menu, the utilitarian dessert was consistently preferred over the hedonic.
In addition, Okada found that the difference in the need for justification also affects the combination of time, or effort, and money that people choose to expend in order to acquire hedonic versus utilitarian items.
KEY: People have a relative preference to pay in time for hedonic goods, and in money for utilitarian goods.
Okada's paper appears in the February issue of Journal of Marketing Research.
Think as you would if you were going to be at Boot Camp this week. Take this information and apply it to you, your business, people's perception of you, your service and how you can optimize your offers. Powerful information like this is rare and makes all the difference in the world to your income!


Bariatric Girl » Blog Archive » Take off those regain glasses and turn it around!
Next Article« What WLSFA.org is all about….saving lives one grant at a time.
Take off those regain glasses and turn it around!
The moment regain becomes a problem we put on those regain glasses and NOTHING looks good.
A few years ago I distinctly remember reading a post from a woman that went something like this.
I hate my hair. I don't like my face and don't know how to use makeup. I hate what I'm eating every day and I'm sick of it. Oh and I gained 5 pounds.
One of my most often repeated quotes…."we are rarely upset for the reason we think". Of course I assume you can guess what she was really upset about. I wrote her and told her to get a cute haircut, go to a department store and get someone to show her how to do makeup (free) or check out thousands of makeup videos on You Tube. I also told her she could change what she eats every day. Of course none of that made her feel better because she didn't FEEL like doing any of that because she was wearing her regain glasses loud and proud. It is a vicious cycle because you can't fix the regain until you feel better and you won't feel better unless you fix the regain.
It seems that for most people everything looks pretty awful through those regain glasses. I want to help you take them off. You say "Yeah right…like I haven't tried… and mostly….. I don't FEEL like it. I don't feel like doing anything." I have often pointed out that when you were at this weight on the way down you were ecstatic! Do you see how your perspective totally messes with your head? Why do we obsess about the lowest weight we ever reached instead of constantly realizing what our highest weight was and being grateful we aren't there? And if you choose to obsess about your lowest weight, doesn't it make sense to move towards doing something about it instead of continuing to walk down regain road?
Unfortunately we have this big adjustment to make after weight loss surgery because the first year we are wearing the "honeymoon glasses" and EVERYTHING looks GREAT! Remember how wonderful everything was when you lost your first 30-40 pounds? Yet you were heavier than you are now. You could hardly mess up at all the first year. It was all good!
One day you wake up and you can't find your honeymoon glasses. You start to take for granted the little things like being able to tie your shoes, paint your toe nails, fit in an airplane seat….. and the next thing you know it isn't enough anymore. Some of us hang in there for a while or even a long while and eventually something shifts and you start to think about how much you miss those honeymoon glasses…. you start looking for that feeling in other things like our old friend Mr. Food. He's tappin' you on the shoulder every day…"Pssst….remember me? Remember how much fun we had? Oh come on… a little sum-um sum-um won't hurt you". All the while your old friend has some regain glasses stuck in his back pocket just waiting to slide them on your face.
One of the most extreme cases of the perspective meter being out of whack was a woman I met who had lost 485 pounds. Not a typo! She lost 485 pounds but she had gained 40 back. She was all out of sorts and literally more miserable than when she weighed her heaviest.
I told her not to give that 40 pounds the time of day and dust it off. We give that regain so much power and of course we can pile plenty of shame on top of that for good measure. Shame is toxic, shame keeps us down. Shame keeps those horrible regain glasses cemented to our face.
Everyone is different but here are a few suggestions. You can't build Rome in a day but you can always do the next best thing.
Look at your before picture in the morning and FEEL what you felt like. Sit it that for a while. I do that every morning without fail. Remember the things you wanted so badly. BE GRATEFUL you aren't there. If I could put you back in that body for a week you would be SO grateful to be you right now.
Quit thinking about the perceived mountain you have to move and pick up the shovel and start with one scoop at a time. Instead of Nike's "just do it", change it to "just start". It's too overwhelming to plan into the next century. I can hear the questions now….how long will this take? It DOES NOT matter. Just move toward your goal instead of away from it….. just for today. Today is all that counts.
Get the crap food out of your house. I know many people who find creative ways to do this with a family that feels they have to have the crap food. Put it in a place it can locked up but you'd do your family a favor by getting it out of their reach as well. Sugar and junk food is as addictive as any drug and they will guarantee that you will still be wearing those regain glasses. See my "M&M" story in this post.
Find a way to move your body that you can enjoy. I LOVE to dance. I hate to run….I wanted to love it but I don't. I wanted that runner's high and I just could not get it. I love yoga and if you think you can't do it, watch this! I describe yoga as slow dancing with yourself. Abby Lentz from Heartfelt Yoga is a dear friend. Look her up, she has DVD's.
You won't do anything for very long if you perceive it as suffering. When you eat healthier food envision how you are nourishing your body. Remember it will make you feel better and look better instead of putting on more weight which equates to depression, physical pain, more misery and a shorter life span. Again the most important part of this is to stop the bleeding that has begun with regain. Nothing in life is easy so here comes your choices……choose your hard.
Thank you SO MUCH for this. I am up about 15-20 from my "lowest weight". I was told by my surgeon that *some* regain will happen and I'm right where he said it would be, but I have been just like what you have said: down on my self. So I am working at it, and I'm going to get my arse up off the couch right now and get my workout in! 🙂 Thank you!
I didn't see another post-op for three years after I had surgery so I didn't know anyone had regain. (this was almost 13 years ago) When I started to regain I just fixed it because I "assumed" that was what I was supposed to do. I literally didn't know any better. I didn't listen to them when they told me later not to have unrealistic expectations. I did a blog post a few years ago here about unrealistic expectations. There's a difference in unrealistic expectations and believing you can work towards a goal that isn't easy but is certainly attainable.
I met people that had regained because they had been told they would regain. I was SO lucky I didn't know any better. By the time I met other post-ops I had my new habits in place for three years by then. Be what you want to be Debra…go for it!
I have gained quite a bit and can't seem to get back on track.
Holly read the post again. Remember to "just start". Most of all look for the things you can change and take it in one day chunks so you don't get overwhelmed. Ask for help, attend support group meetings, make a plan. I wish you the very best.
Yvonne this article couldn't have come at a better time. Just this evening I had coffee with a friend so I could open up my heart. I had lost a total of 199 pounds and regained 88. I am at wits end because I don't think I really dealt with food addiction. I am in the process of trying to find counsel with someone who works with addictions. There is a lot more than what I am sharing but wanted to say thank you for an article that is a keeper.
Wanda I want to share a blog post I did four years ago about a friend of mine who gained 70 pounds and never reached her goal weight until her ninth "surgiversary". She is still at goal. You can read it here. It is never too late to turn it around. I'm so pleased you are seeking out therapy….so pleased. I hope you'll touch base with me and let me know how you are doing. Don't blame yourself for not knowing about food addiction…I didn't either until I finally saw the writing on the wall. You are on your way to turning this around and I'm so happy for you.
You are right that regain is not something you need to worry about because many of us tend to worry well into the next century. Education however is something that will help you on your journey. Congrats on your surgery! I know it means so much to be healthy and that's exactly why I do this. I want you to stay healthy and sharing other people's experiences can help you avoid some of the speed bumps down the path. If you look through some of my other posts you'll see how often I encourage everyone to find your grateful voice and live with an attitude of gratitude. It's amazing how much easier it makes your every day life. I hope you'll keep me posted!
We recently built some custom post WLS lab tests for the bariatric community at info.wellnessfx.com/bariatric starting as low as $185. I would love to speak to you about being featured on your blog for a paid rate, or how we can get these lab tests communicated to your followers and network.


Chautauqua Medical Services-GLPP is a physician group that provides primary care and specialty care services in northern Chautauqua county. Our team of health care providers include physicians who specialize in internal medicine as well as advanced practice providers and physical therapists.
Our Chautauqua Medical Services–GLPP health care providers offer a personalized approach to your health care, while connecting you with specialists throughout our GLPP network of physicians.


text:
New Jersey Region
Virtual Preparedness Sessions
Community Event Request
Big Loss in Small NJ Town
Big Loss in a Small NJ Town: Remembering Sergeant AlTerek Patterson
By David Murphy, Red Cross volunteer
Brandi Patterson remembers watching her husband leave the house last April. AlTerek Patterson - a big man, full of life with an easy smile and a huge heart - had been struggling to breathe. "I woke up the kids and told them to tell daddy you'll see him later." After all, it had only been a few days since Terek, as he was known to friends and family, had called in sick to the Bedminister Police Department. He was a 14-year veteran of the department, first as a patrolman, then as a sergeant. "We found out on a Monday he wasn't feeling well," Police Chief Karl Rock remembers. "He got tested and it was confirmed that he had COVID on Wednesday. By that Friday, he was in the hospital. It was unbelievable how fast it happened."
On Easter Sunday, AlTerek Patterson died of COVID-19-related complications, one of nearly 190 law enforcement officers who have died from the virus over the past year. But his wife, his fellow officers, his community and the Red Cross want to ensure that his memory isn't forgotten. Blood drives that have been set up in his honor aren't just opportunities to help those in need, but opportunities to remember what Terek was all about. "Every time they have it," says Brandi, "they have so many people come out to help. It keeps Terek's name out there."
WATCH VIDEO featured on ABC7 NY
Bedminster has just over 8,000 residents so it's not hard to find people who knew Terek. "He was probably the most well-known officer in the police department," says Chief Rock. "Even before his passing, you would run into someone and they'd ask how he was doing. He was a dynamic officer, always happy, always went the extra mile to help the community whenever possible."
"I knew Terek was awesome," his wife says. "We were together for 17 years and he always made me feel special." Brandi remembers meeting Terek at Virginia State University in 2003 – naturally kind and unselfish, he was a hard worker but a man who always made time for his family. "He wanted the world for his family. He called his mother every single night. He wanted so much to take care of me and the kids and give us whatever he wanted." Brandi and Terek were married in 2016. "He was worth the wait," Brandi says. "So I waited." The couple had three children: a daughter Nylah, who is 9, and twins, Sanaa and Santana, who are 3 years old.
Brandi knew early on that her husband wanted to serve others. "When he was in college, he always had his mind made up that when he came out, he would go into law enforcement, so as soon as he graduated, he signed up for the Somerset County Police Academy." Chief Rock was Terek's training officer after he was hired by the Bedminster Police Department in 2006. "Right off the bat, we knew he was all about community – he loved going out and talking to people."
During his career, Terek received the Bedminster Lifesaving Medal three times. He also served on the Organized Crime and Narcotics Taskforce for the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office and received numerous letters of commendation and letters of appreciation from community residents. After Terek's death, residents started reaching out to Brandi and her children directly. "I received and read so many cards," she says. "I started crying at most of them because it was people that had an interaction with him and how they felt. It impacted my heart and I felt so much love from people I never met before. It's almost a year since he passed, and I still get cards in the mail – they are still thinking about him. It's unreal how his name is still out there."
When Terek got sick, it was still early in the pandemic. His fellow officers were stunned. "When Sergeant Patterson became ill, we realized COVID was for real," says Chief Rock. "It was a real eye-opening experience. COVID-19 basically hit our house." After being hospitalized, Terek received convalescent plasma from someone who had recovered from the illness. Although it didn't save his life, it showed his fellow officers a way to honor their fallen brother. Later that spring, they reached out to the Red Cross, then connected organization with township leaders. The partnership led to the first blood drive in honor of Sergeant Patterson, held last June. It was a huge success. "Every appointment was booked," says the chief. "The community came out because they wanted to pay it forward, just as he would've done for anyone else. Every blood drive since then has had the Patterson name attached to it." In fact, blood drives have been held regularly in Bedminster ever since, with another set for late January. Brandi, Chief Rock and several of Terek's fellow officers are among those who have donated.
Currently, the drives in Bedminster accommodate whole blood and power red donations, but the Red Cross also tests that blood for COVID-19 antibodies. Plasma from whole blood donations that test positive for COVID-19 antibodies may be used to help COVID-19 patients. As the number of COVID-19 cases has risen across the U.S., the need has grown, leading to a shortage of the life-saving plasma. Last month, the Red Cross distributed the greatest number of convalescent plasma products than any other month during the pandemic. With hospital distributions for this product increasing about 250% since October.
As someone who contracted the virus at the same time as her husband, Brandi was eligible to donate convalescent plasma and she jumped at the chance. "I had the antibodies. That's when I wanted to make it my mission to donate my plasma because Terek was blessed with that and I wanted to make sure that I help people struggling as much as I can. When I get an email that says your donation is helping two or three people, I get excited about that. Anything I can do to help."
Brandi knows that if her husband was still alive, he would still be helping people every day. That's what he did. She works hard to carry on Terek's mission of kindness, particularly for her children. The past year has been painful and difficult, but she recognizes that thousands and thousands of people have suffered similar losses during the pandemic. "People need to hold onto their family," she says. "Losing my husband at 38 is not something I ever thought would happen. He had so many dreams, and to know he's not here is devastating. But I'm glad I can still speak his name and it still carries so much positivity. It's such a blessing."
If you wish to donate blood, you can visit RedCrossBlood.org to find out the dates and times in Bedminster or at a blood drive or blood donor center near you. Patients and their families are counting on the generosity of those who have recovered from COVID-19 to share their health this winter. If you are eligible and feeling well, please make an appointment today by visiting RedCrossBlood.org, using the Red Cross Blood Donor app or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).
/content/redcross/en/local/new-jersey/about-us/news-and-events/news/big-loss-in-small-nj-town


text:
\section{Introduction}
Since the success of AlexNet \cite{alex}, convolutional neural networks (CNNs, or ConvNets) have become dominant in various vision tasks including image classification, object detection and semantic segmentation. Typical models including VGG, GoogLeNet and Resnet \cite{vgg,googlenet,resnet} achieved remarkable performance. However, the accuracy improvement usually involves scaling up network in the form of more layers or more channels per layer, further leading to an increasing amount of computational cost and parameters. In recent years, many real-time CNN-based applications are deployed on resource-constrained platforms such as sensors and smart phones, requiring CNN models to be computationally efficient and of rapid response. Therefore, how to design efficient models has become an important research topic.

Many efforts has been dedicated to improve the efficiency of ConvNets. Currently, there are two main representative and complementary schemes: model compression and compact model design. The former kind aims to reduce the redundancy of a larger model without significant degeneration in performance via network pruning, quantization, low-rank, etc. However, the upper limit of model performance tends to be determined by the pre-trained network. The latter kind is trying to build compact models trained from scratch following . Typical instances like MobileNetV1-V3 and ShuffleNetV1-V2 utilize efficient operators, building block or network architecture search algorithms, providing significant insights for compact model design.

In this paper, we revisit the design of building block in ShuffleNetV2 and design a more efficient and powerful CNN model named AugShuffleNet

\section{Related Work}

\subsection{Compact Model Design}
Composition of low-rank ($1\times3$, $3\times1$) filters \cite{low-rank} or sparse filters \cite{shufflenet} are proposed to approximate dense convolution filter. Those work indicates that less redundant filters can bring a great reduction of FLOPs and parameters while maintaining the performance of models. Group convolution has been viewed as a standard operator in modern compact models \cite{resnext,shufflenet}. Depth-wise convolution is an extreme form of group convolution, in which each channel presents a group. ShuffleNetV1 \cite{shufflenet} uses group convolution to replace $1\times1$ convolution and further introduces the operation of "Channel Shuffle" to improve cross-group information communication. MobilenetV1 \cite{mobilenetv1} utilizes depth-wise convolution and pointwise convolution to construct a lightweight model for mobile platforms. ResNet\cite{resnet} and MobileNetV2 \cite{mobilenetv2} adopt a bottleneck structure to alleviate the burden of heavy computation for channel expansion. MobileNetV3 and other work \cite{mobilenetv3,once,darts} introduce the neural architecture search algorithms into compact model design, significantly reducing the cost of manual design.

\subsection{Model Compression}

Comlementary to compact model design, model compression is another approach to further shrink pre-trained models. Network prunning \cite{channelprun} removes redundant and non-informative connections or channels. Model quantization \cite{quantized} aims to represent stored weights at a low cost for model compression and calculation acceleration. Knowledge distillation \cite{distilling} transfers refined knowledge from "teacher network" into "student network", simplifying the process of suppressing redundant information. In addition, efficient convolution algorithms like FFT \cite{fft} and winograd \cite{fast} are explored to speed up the implement of convolutional layer without any modification of network design.

\subsection{Short Connection}
ResNets and Highway Networks \cite{highway} introduce skip connections to allow training deeper neural networks. Stochastic depth \cite{stochastic} reduces training depth of ResNets by randomly skipping layers. SkipNet futher utilizes gating mechanism to learn how to skip layers for both training and inference procedures. Nowadays residual connection proposed by ResNet has been a popular technique to construct deep neural nerworks \cite{transformer,resnext} in vision and natural language processing domain. Research \cite{ensemble} regards ResNet as a collection of many paths of different length and discovers that deep ResNet updates weights mainly via short paths during the training procedure. DenseNet \cite{densenet} introduces densely connections by connecting each layer to every other layer in the networks to increase more short path. In general, under the framework of backpropagation neural network, short connections create more shorter paths to allow cross-layer gradient flow for smoother optimization while long paths in deep neural networks enable more complex information extraction and larger capacity to store temporary information during the dynamics process of training.

\section{Approach}

\begin{figure*}[ht]
\centering
\subfloat[Shuffle block in ShuffleNetV2]{\label{shuffle}\includegraphics[width=0.3\linewidth]{shuffleblock}}
\hspace{12mm}
\subfloat[Shuffle block of this paper]{\label{bank}\includegraphics[width=0.3\linewidth]{bank}}

\caption{Illustration of building blocks in the channel-wise perspective}
\label{blocks}

\end{figure*}

\subsection{Rethink Shuffle Block in ShuffleNetV2} \label{MPFC}
Essentially, residual connection is a element-wise operation with low computational consumption but high memory access cost. Distinct from common ConvNets, ShuffleNetV2 \cite{shufflenetv2} abandons residual connection to introduce short paths for neural network. Instead, to pursue higher efficiency, it combines "Channel Split" and "Channel Shuffle" to achieve cross-layer information communication, generating a proportion of short paths from the perspective of backpropagation.

Illustrated in Figure \ref{shuffle}, ShuffleNetV2 adopts split-transform-fuse strategy to design basic building block named shuffle block. The whole pipeline of shuffle block can be concluded as three stages:

\noindent\textbf{Split:}
Channels of feature maps are split into two parts. One part is conserved in memory, another is fed into the next stage for high-level information extraction. Note that the conserved part is named "Feature Bank" in this paper. The number of feature maps in "Feature Bank"  is determined by the parameter split ratio. It is seen that split ratio is a fixed parameter 0.5 in ShuffleNetV2.

\noindent\textbf{Transform:} Transformation stage consists of three layers: $1\times 1$ regular convolution, $3\times 3$ depth-wise convolution and regular $1\times 1$ convolution in order, serving as a learnable "Feature Extractor".

\noindent\textbf{Fuse:} In this stage, feature maps coming from "Feature Bank" and previous stage are merged by concatenating along channel-wise dimension. Then, those merged channels are rearranged in an interleaving way, which is called "Channel Shuffle". "Channel Shuffle" enables information communication between the two branches.

Essentially, "Feature Bank" can be regarded as a auxiliary memory component where feature maps are stored temporarily. The success of ShuffleNetV2 lies in its use of "Feature Bank" via which to control the information communication across different layers. Here, "Channel Split" and "Channel Shuffle" are two main interactive operations between "Feature Bank" and "Feature Extractor". "Channel Split" determines the proportion of input feature maps which should be stored. "Channel Shuffle" is used to fuse old and new feature maps for the next building block.
As a result, partial channels from shallow layers can be stored in "Feature Bank" and periodically fused into deeper layers of the network, introducing more short paths to replace residual connection \cite{resnet} and achieving a similar effect of feature reuse \cite{densenet}.

 Benefited from its unique design pattern, ShuffleNetV2 shows expressive balance between performance and efficiency. However, we notice that there still exists remaining room to improve for ShuffleNetV2:

\begin{itemize}
    \item [1.] It is seen taht information communication is only limited to the exit of the shuffle block via the operation of "Channel Shuffle". Intermediate information generated by the first and second layer of shuffle block can not be fully exploited by other building blocks.

    \item [2.] In the shuffle block of ShuffleNetV2, three convolutional layers are forced to keep the same number of input and output channels. As illustrated in Figure \ref{topo}, they follows fully connected topological pattern in the channel-wise dimension. When network width (the number of channels) increases drastically, shuffle block in ShuffleNetv2 will produce more channel-wise redundancy, which constrains the design space of ShuffleNetV2 for better efficiency.
\end{itemize}

\begin{figure}[ht]
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{topo.pdf}

\caption{}
\label{topo}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Augmented Shuffle Block}

We propose another more powerful and efficient shuffle block illustrated in Figure \ref{bank}. Compared to the original shuffle block shown in \ref{shuffle}, this paper makes following modifications:
\begin{itemize}
    \item [M1.] Split ratio $r$ is set as a variable, which can flexibly adjust the number of channels fed into "Feature Extractor" and further control the efficiency of the whole building block in terms of computational cost, parameter consumption and inference speed. For simplicity,  the first and second layers ($1\times 1$ regular convolution and $3\times 3$ depth-wise convolution) keep the same number of input and output channels.

    \item[M2.] We introduce another operation termed "Channel Crossover" to exchange information after the dewpth-wise convolutional layer. "Channel Crossover" deposit partial new feature maps into "Feature Bank" and withdraw more old feature maps to achieve channel-wise expansion without computational cost. By adding interaction mechanism between intermediate layers and "Feature Bank", information is fully utilized.

    \item[M3.] We remove ReLU funcntion after the first convolutional layer.

\end{itemize}

M1, M2 and M3 work together to improve efficiency and make model gain better representational ability. when $r < 0.5$, the first and second layers in shuffle block would be more efficient than original shuffle block

\subsection{Efficiency Analysis}
Suppose both of shuffle blocks take $M$ feature maps with a spatial size of $D_f \times D_f$ as input. The split ratio is set to $r$, the kernel size of depth-wise convolution is defined as $D_k$. Hence, the computational cost of augmented shuffle block can be formulated as
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
C = r^{2}M^{2}{D_f}^{2}+ rMD_{f}^{2}D_{k}^{2} + \frac{1}{4}M^{2}{D_f}^{2}
\end{aligned}
\label{calculate}
\end{equation}

The computational cost of original shuffle block in ShuffleNetV2 can be also obtained via Equation \ref{calculate}, we only need to set $r$ to 0.5. Therefore, the ratio of computational cost of two shuffle blocks in AugShuffleNet and ShuffleNetV2 respectively is

\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
\alpha = \frac{C_{r}}{C_{r=0.5}}=\frac{(4r^{2}+1)M+4rD_{k}^2}{2M+2D_{k}^2} \approx \frac{4r^{2}+1}{2}
\end{aligned}
\label{a1}
\end{equation}

As depth-wise convolution is a quite efficient operator, its overhead can be ignored. Here, we can obtain an approximate expression of $\alpha$. It is seen $\alpha$ is almost only determined by split ratio $r$. It means that split ration $r$ can be used as a global hyper-parameter to reduce the high-dimensional channel-wise redundancy from two $1\times 1$ convolutional layers and adjust the efficiency of AugShuffleNet.

Similarly, the  parameter consumption $P$ of augmented shuffle block in AugShuffleNet can be formulated as
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
P = r^{2}M^{2}+ rMD_{k}^{2} + \frac{1}{4}M^{2}
\end{aligned}
\label{calculate_P}
\end{equation}

the ratio of parameter consumption is also equal to $\alpha$:

\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
\beta = \frac{P_{r}}{P_{r=0.5}}=\frac{(4r^{2}+1)M+4rD_{k}^2}{2M+2D_{k}^2} \approx \frac{4r^{2}+1}{2}
\end{aligned}
\label{b}
\end{equation}

In general, as $r$ decreases, augmented shuffle block becomes more efficient compared to original shuffle block in ShuffleNetV2.

\section{Network Design}
The architecture of AugShuffleNet is shown in Table \ref{arch}. We offer three models with different network width ($0.5\times$, $1.0\times$ and $1.5\times$). To ensure fair comparison, we follow the architecture configuration of ShuffleNetV2. The only difference is that we set the number of channels for Stage2, Stage3 and Stage 4 in AugShuffleNet $1.0\times$ to 120, 240 and 480 while ShuffleNetV2 $1.0\times$'s are 116, 232 and 464. As we need proper channel partition to explore the effect of different split ratio. Every stage in Table \ref{arch} includes a down-sampling block ($Stride=2$) and repeated normal blocks ($Stride=1$). In this paper, we adopt original down-sampling block in ShuffleNetV2 and use augmented shuffle block illustrated in Figure \ref{bank} as normal block to build AugShuffleNet. The split ratio $r$ of all of augmented shuffle blocks are forced to keep the same for AugShuffleNet. The default value of $r$ is set to 0.375.

\begin{table}
\centering

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{\begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}\\Layer\end{tabular}} & \multirow{2}{*}{~Output size} & \multirow{2}{*}{KSize}           & \multirow{2}{*}{Stride} & \multirow{2}{*}{Repeat}     & \multicolumn{3}{c|}{~ Output channels}                              \\
\cline{6-8}
                                                                 &                               &                                  &                         &                             & $0.5\times$          & $1\times$            & $1.5\times$           \\
\hline
Image                                                            & $32\times 32$                 &                                  &                         &                             & 3                    & 3                    & 3                     \\
\hline
\multicolumn{1}{|l|}{~~~~ Conv~~}                                & $32\times 32$                 & \multicolumn{1}{l|}{$3\times 3$} & 1                       & \multicolumn{1}{l|}{~ ~ ~1} & 24                   & 24                   & 24                    \\
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{~ Stage2~~}                                      & $16\times 16$                 & \multirow{2}{*}{$3\times 3$}     & 2                       & 1                           & \multirow{2}{*}{48}  & \multirow{2}{*}{120} & \multirow{2}{*}{176}  \\
                                                                 & $16\times 16$                 &                                  & 1                       & 3                           &                      &                      &                       \\
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Stage3}                                          & $8\times 8$                   & \multirow{2}{*}{$3\times 3$}     & 2                       & 1                           & \multirow{2}{*}{96}  & \multirow{2}{*}{240} & \multirow{2}{*}{352}  \\
                                                                 & $8\times 8$                   &                                  & 1                       & 7                           &                      &                      &                       \\
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Stage4}                                          & $4\times 4$                   & \multirow{2}{*}{$3\times 3$}     & 2                       & 1                           & \multirow{2}{*}{192} & \multirow{2}{*}{480} & \multirow{2}{*}{704}  \\
                                                                 & $4\times 4$                   &                                  & 1                       & 3                           &                      &                      &                       \\
\hline
Conv                                                             & $4\times 4$                   & $1\times 1$                      & 1                       & 1                           & 1024                 & 1024                 & 1024                  \\
\hline
GlobalPool                                                       & $1\times 1$                   & $4\times 4$                      &                         &                             &                      &                      &                       \\
\hline
FC                                                               &                               &                                  &                         &                             & num\_classes         & num\_classes         & num\_classes          \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Architecture of AugShuffleNet}
\label{arch}
\end{table}

\section{Experiment and Result}

\textbf{Datasets} All models are evaluated on the datasets CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. The two CIFAR datasets consist of colored natural images with $32\times32$ pixels. CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 consist of images drawn from 10 classes and 100 classes respectively. The training and test sets contain 50,000 and 10,000 images respectively for both two datasets. Images in the training set are augmented by random horizontal flip and random crop (4 pixels are padded on each side, and a 32×32 crop is randomly sampled from the padded image).

 \textbf{Training Settings} All models are trained 300 epochs using cosine learning rate decay for both of CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. The initial learning rate is set as 0.1. we adopt Stochastic Gradient Descend (SGD) optimizer (momentum parameter is 0.9, nesterov is set to True) with the batch size of 128. The weight decay is set to 1e-4.

\begin{table}[ht]

\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|}
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Model} & \multirow{2}{*}{Params} & \multirow{2}{*}{FLOPs} & \multicolumn{6}{c|}{~ Acc (\%)}                              \\
\cline{4-9}
                       &                         &                        & \#run1 & \#run2 & \#run3 & \#run4 & \#run5 & \#Average  \\
\hline

ShuffleNetV2  $1.5\times$        &        2.49M                  &         94.27M               &      93.93  &  93.96      &   93.86     & 93.98       &   94.11     &    93.97        \\

AugShuffleNet  $1.5\times$        &      2.22M                   &         85.38M               &   \textbf{94.31}     &    \textbf{94.41}    &   \textbf{94.21}     &   \textbf{94.44}     &   \textbf{94.62}     &   \textbf{94.40}         \\

\cline{1-1}

ShuffleNetV2  $1.0\times$         &      1.26M                   &    45.01M                    &   93.12     &   93.21     &  93.17      &  93.30      &   93.42     &   93.24         \\

AugShuffleNet  $1.0\times$         &     1.21M                    &     43.56M                  &    93.63    &    93.78    &  93.95      &   93.96     &    93.87    &  \textbf{93.84}          \\

\cline{1-1}

ShuffleNetV2  $0.5\times$         &      0.35M                   &    10.91M                    &   90.62     &   90.95     &  90.67    &  90.79      &   91.12    &   90.83        \\

AugShuffleNet  $0.5\times$         &     0.33M                    &     10.20M                  &    90.85    &    90.87    &  91.21     &   91.39     &    90.92    &  \textbf{91.05}        \\

\cline{1-1}

\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Comparison of models on CIFAR-10}
\label{c10}

\end{table}

\begin{table}[ht]

\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|}
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Model} & \multirow{2}{*}{Params} & \multirow{2}{*}{FLOPs} & \multicolumn{6}{c|}{~ Acc (\%)}                              \\
\cline{4-9}
                       &                         &                        & \#run1 & \#run2 & \#run3 & \#run4 & \#run5 & \#Average  \\
\hline

ShuffleNetV2    $1.5\times$       &    2.58M                     &     94.36M                   &     74.53   &   74.66     &  74.83      &   74.76     &    74.70    &  74.70          \\

AugShuffleNet  $1.5\times$          &    2.32M                  &         85.47M  & \textbf{75.65}       & \textbf{75.75}       & \textbf{75.98}       &  \textbf{76.44}      & \textbf{75.75}       &    \textbf{75.91}        \\
\cline{1-1}

ShuffleNetV2  $1.0\times$         &     1.36M                    &    45.10M                    &      73.24        &   73.06     &   72.91     &   72.70     &   73.49   & 73.08     \\

AugShuffleNet  $1.0\times$          &     1.30M      &       43.65M                 & 74.07       &  74.10      &    74.31    &  74.45      &   73.88     &    \textbf{74.16}        \\
\cline{1-1}

ShuffleNetV2  $0.5\times$         &     0.44M                    &    11.00M                    &     68.97        &   68.46     &   68.97     &   68.39    &   68.67   & 68.69    \\

AugShuffleNet  $0.5\times$          &     0.42M      &       10.29M                 & 69.19       &  69.03      &    69.29    &  68.93   &  69.35     &    \textbf{69.15}       \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{Comparison of models on CIFAR-100}
\label{c100}

\end{table}

\subsection{Comparison to Other Models}
To verify our approach, we choose ShuffleNetV2 as baselines. Accuracy, computational cost and parameter count are selected as evaluation metrics. Note that, term FLOPs means multiply-adds (MAdd) in this paper. Extensive experiments are conducted on image classification datasets CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. The result for every model are obtained via $5$ runs to ensure the reliability of experiments. Result are reported in Table \ref{c10} and Table \ref{c100}. It is clear that our models consistently outperform ShuffleNetV2 model in accuracy aspect on both CIAR-10 and CIFAR-100 with better efficiency in terms of computational cost and parameter count. The results under different network width ($0.5\times$, $1.0\times$ and $1.5\times$) is sufficient to demonstrate the advantage of augmented shuffle block in AugShuffleNets.

\subsection{Ablation Study}
Split ratio $r$ is an important hyper-parameter for AugShuffleNet, which directly determines the efficiency of augmented shuffle block. To explore the impact of split ratio $r$, we compare the performance and efficiency between AugShuffleNets $1.5\times$ with different siplt ratio ($0.125$, $0.25$ and $0.375$)  and ShuffleNetV2 $1.5\times$.

As illustrated in Figure \ref{s_c10} and Figure \ref{s_c100}, all AugShuffleNet $1.5 \times$ variants obtain higher accuracy than ShuffleNetV2 $1.5\times$ with less computational cost and fewer parameters on both CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. It is noteworthy that AugShuffleNet $1.5 \times$ ($r=0.125$) is 0.29\%(0.91\%) more accurate than AugShuffleNet $1.5 \times$ with 79.6\% (79.6\%) computational cost and 76.7\% (77.9\%) parameter count on CIFAR-10 (CIFAR-100).

The above results indicate that the channel-wise redundancy in AugShuffleNet $1.5\times$ is quite considerable for small datasets CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. This kind of redundancy problem results from the design pattern of original shuffle block. Our augmented shuffle block is more flexible in adjusting the overhead of the whole building block, finally reducing the channel-wise redundancy due to large network width.

\begin{figure*}[ht]
\centering

\subfloat[Computational cost comparison]{\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{s_c10_flops_acc.pdf}}
\hspace{20mm}
\subfloat[Parameter count comparison]{\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{s_c10_params_acc.pdf}}

\caption{Comparison between AugShuffleNets $1.5\times$ with different split ratio ($0.125$, $0.25$ and $0.375$) and ShuffleNetV2 $1.5\times$ on CIFAR-10.}
\label{s_c10}
\end{figure*}

\begin{figure*}[ht]
\centering
\subfloat[Computational cost comparison]{\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{s_c100_flops_acc.pdf}}
\hspace{20mm}
\subfloat[Parameter count comparison]{\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{s_c100_params_acc.pdf}}
\caption{Comparison between AugShuffleNets $1.5\times$ with different split ratio ($0.125$, $0.25$ and $0.375$) and ShuffleNetV2 $1.5\times$ on CIFAR-100.}
\label{s_c100}
\end{figure*}

\section{Conclusion}
We propose a more flexible and efficient building block named augmented shuffle block based on ShuffleNetV2. By replacing original shuffle block in ShuffleNetV2, we can see obvious improvement in both performance and efficiency. Our experimental results show that augmented shuffle block is a potential building block to construct compact models for resource-constrained platforms.

\bibliographystyle{unsrt}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Kylo Ren Picks Up His Bubble Sword By Mistake.
Something I quickly did for fun during Christmas. Haven't seen The Force Awakens yet but I'm quite interested by this character, he looks like a cross between a knight and a samurai.
< Dia de los Muertos playing card.


text:
'It's Tech N9ne, But It's The Darker Side Of Tech N9ne' – Tech Talks 'Boiling Point', Next Album, & More [Video]
If you're a Strange Music fan, you know that Halloween is like Tech's Christmas! It's the preferred time of year around these parts, and this year Tech N9ne presented fans with a Halloween gift of his own in the form of his new EP, Boiling Point.
In support of the EP & his upcoming European Tour, Tech N9ne sat down with Sermon's Domain to discuss Boiling Point, his K.O.D. persona, and more!
In the new video interview, Tech explains that Boiling Point is another entry in the K.O.D. Collection, meaning that it's comprised of much darker and heavier subject matter than his previous release as E.B.A.H. He also goes on to explain the reason for so many EP's being put out by Strange Music at the moment:
It's a beautiful thing. It holds the fans over while they're waiting for an album. Our fans, they love us, so we have to give them a lot…..The EP's are a good way to get music to the fans while they're waitin'!
Other topics covered in the interview include Tech's upcoming full length, the future of Strange Music, and more!
Check out the full interview below:
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE BOILING POINT!
How do you feel about Tech's darker content?


text:
About Our Cancer Center
Cancer Clinical Trials & Research
cCARE Connects Foundation
Nurse Practitioners & Other Professionals
Survivorship Care
Drug Dictionary
cCARE In the News
cCARE Connection E-Newsletter
Coronavirus banner
ATTENTION: Coronavirus Update & Telehealth
With the recent spread of COVID-19, it is important to be mindful of not only yourself but others around you. In accordance with California state guidelines, we are requiring that all visitors to cCARE clinic locations wear a mask and practice social distancing. To help facilitate social distancing measures, we have opened up additional seating areas and visitor restrictions are currently in place at all locations.
Please contact our office prior to your appointment and notify us if you, or whoever will be accompanying you to your appointment, has any of the following symptoms: runny nose, dry cough, low-grade fever or shortness of breath. Also note that, whenever appropriate, we continue to schedule telemedicine appointments to limit the need for patients to leave home.
If you have any questions regarding your treatment plan, please reach out to your doctor's medical assistant for answers. Need contact info? Visit your doctor's page and reference the "Who Do I Call?" button.
For patients:
COVID-19 Vaccine FAQ
More info at CDPH.CA.GOV
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates for Cancer Patients
By cCARE
An overview of the coronavirus, COVID-19
We encourage our patients to protect themselves and stay as informed as possible during the pandemic. Coronavirus is a family of viruses, but a new strain discovered in 2019 has resulted in concern and actions worldwide. Its official name is coronavirus disease 2019, abbreviated as COVID-19. It is also called novel (new) coronavirus.
Shortness of breath or trouble breathing
These symptoms are often mild but may develop into more severe symptoms, such as pneumonia, in people at higher risk. Risk increases with age, with those age 60 more at risk than those age 50, and those 85 or older at greatest risk due to age. Others at risk are people with chronic medical conditions like lung disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease.
How are we protecting our patients from COVID-19?
As the virus spreads, cCARE is working hard to protect our patients. We are following all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rules to avoid infection and have implemented the following safety protocols:
Hand sanitizer stations.
High-traffic areas are sanitized three times a day with treatment rooms cleaned after every patient.
Social distancing protocols: Patients are to remain at least six feet apart at all times.
Limited visitors: No visitors are allowed in the treatment rooms, and only one visitor is allowed during a consultation.
Masking: Patients are asked to wear masks upon entering the clinic and during their appointment.
Temperature checks are administered at all locations.
We have not altered hours for specifically aged patients but are continuing to be cautious about how many patients are in a clinic at a time. We remain open and fully functional, as it is imperative that patients continue their cancer treatment during this time.
Although cancer and cancer treatments may weaken the immune system, treatment such as chemotherapy have not been shown to increase a patient's chance of contracting the virus. We also urge patients to get their flu shot to further strengthen and protect their immune system.
How can patients protect others from the coronavirus?
Follow the guidelines below to see if you should keep or postpone your current cCARE appointment.
Have you recently traveled to a high-risk area for the coronavirus or come in close contact with a coronavirus patient (who has tested positive) within the last 14 days?
If Yes:
Are you experiencing any of the symptoms noted above?
If yes, contact your primary care physician for further guidance.
If no, contact us to rebook your upcoming appointment. This will be no sooner than 14 days in the future.
If you haven't had a known exposure to the coronavirus, are you experiencing respiratory illness symptoms (affecting the lungs)?
Do you have a fever greater than 101° Fahrenheit, shortness of breath and coughing?
If yes, you will need to go to the ER for testing and evaluation.
If no, it's ok to come to cCARE for an appointment. Keep your regularly scheduled time or call us to book an appointment. Please be sure to bring a mask.
If you haven't had a known exposure to the coronavirus, through travel or close contact with someone who has the virus, and are not experiencing respiratory illness, it's ok to come to cCARE for an appointment.
If you have an appointment, please come at your scheduled time.
Or make an appointment: call us or request an appointment online.
Coronavirus prevention tips
Encourage everyone in your household, school or workplace to decrease the chances of spreading the coronavirus as well as other germs and viruses.
Wash hands with soap and water regularly for at least 20 seconds, including right after entering the home or other destination.
Avoid touching your face and remind others to avoid touching their face (it's a hard habit to break!).
Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue and then throw it away, or use the crook of your elbow if you don't have tissue.
Stop shaking hands and greet each other through noncontact methods.
Regularly disinfect surfaces such as doorknobs, cabinets, tables, etc.
Limit food sharing, and practice strict hygiene in the kitchen and while eating.
When gathering as a family, for a meeting or a class, meet in open, well-ventilated spaces – even outdoors if available. Consider postponing or adjusting larger meetings or gatherings.
Follow proper masking regulations.
Feeling sick?
Those who are feeling sick, or have a sick family member in their home should:
Stay home except to get medical care, contacting a primary care doctor or going to an ER. Avoid public transportation and public areas, and limit contact with others – including pets!
Stay in their own room with the door closed if possible.
Have only one specific person care for them.
Rest, drink plenty of liquids and take over-the-counter pain and fever-reducing medications.
Coronavirus outbreak overview & health facts
COVID-19 is a disease caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2, and is part of a larger family of coronaviruses, which are common viruses that affect people and animals.
The coronavirus was first detected in China, and has since spread throughout the world. This includes the United States, which declared a public health emergency (PHE) on Jan. 31, 2020, in order to support the country's healthcare providers in responding to COVID-19. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic.
The coronavirus is quite active in California (see a map of reported cases.)
According to the CDC, the coronavirus is thought to spread through person-to-person close contact (within 6 feet typically), especially from breathing in droplets from an infected person's cough or sneeze.
People with COVID-19 are likely most contagious at their sickest when they experience the most symptoms. Recent data suggests that a person can also get the virus from coming in close contact with an infected person who is not yet showing signs of the virus.
Another possible but less likely way of getting the coronavirus is from coming in contact with the virus on a surface or object and then touching the face, especially the mouth or nose.
Based on information about other types of coronaviruses, COVID-19 symptoms typically appear 2-14 days after exposure.
Although the CDC and many public health labs can test for the coronavirus, most health providers and hospitals do NOT offer testing. Testing is only recommended when a person has had a known exposure to the coronavirus (through person-to-person contact or recent travel to a high-risk area) and has the coronavirus symptoms.
Other coronavirus resources from cancer.org
To learn more about coronavirus and cancer, visit the following cancer.org resources:
Common Questions About the COVID-19 Outbreak
Coronavirus, COVID-19 and Cancer
Cancer Caregiving During the Coronavirus Outbreak
COVID-19 Vaccine and Cancer FAQ
Managing Cancer Pain for Better Quality of Life
Please enter your email address below to subscribe to our bi-monthly newsletter.
Google Search Console confirmation code
footer | 2020 update
Care Beyond Treatment | San Diego & Fresno, California
cCARE serves the greater San Diego and Fresno communities. Our mission is to provide quality and value in cancer treatment, hematology and other patient health services through a network of doctors and providers who are focused on outcomes, research and personalized care.
© 2020 cCARE
Pay Your Bill | News | Events | Newsletter
Non-Discrimination Policy | Privacy Policy | Terms
For Employees | For Referring Providers | Español
Medical website by Vanguard Communications


Commercial real estate is a lucrative sector, even more so when it comes to big cities and cities which are undergoing development. But if you are planning to build and develop commercial real estate, you need the right expertise and advise from someone who knows the status of the market (especially in the location you are in) as well as how to deal with all the aspects of the project, from actual building and construction to financial analysis and more. This is where the strategic specialisation of a building consultant comes in. Here are the top benefits of a building consultant for your commercial real estate project.
One of the greatest benefits of having a consultant is 100% support – the consultant can be there from the project's inception all the way through to the end, and they can offer you the proper advice and guidance to help you make the right decisions. The help of a building consultant extends from helping you with plans and the ordering of various supplies at the planning phase to helping make sure that the building and construction follow your plans to the detail. A building consultant can also facilitate certain changes whenever necessary, and they can take charge of other pertinent details such as warranties and the like. With a consultant, you can find peace of mind knowing that all aspects are in order and can be taken care of in a prompt manner.
When it comes to the real estate sector, experience counts for a lot. And since your building consultant has knowledge and expertise in the sector, they can help you make the best decisions regarding your project. They will know how to react to problems and come up with a viable and feasible solution that takes into account not only your goals and objectives but also the trends in the market which you can make use of according to your plans.
A building consultant can provide you with the proper know-how and advice on the structural and architectural planning of your building. They can assess the design of the building and provide you with advice regarding your best options, and not only this, a building consultant can also play a vital role when it comes to the electrical and mechanical planning of your property.
In order for you to build commercial property, you need to be aware of certain regulations and rules which all property developers have to follow. If you don't know what these rules are, it could lead to further problems down the line. But a building consultant will have express knowledge of these rules and regulations, especially when it comes to the various regulations set forth by local and regional councils and municipalities.
The real estate sector has its own set of challenges, particularly if you are constructing commercial property. If you want your building and construction project to move forward with ease and if you want to avoid issues or errors caused by a lack of knowledge, it's best to rely on building consultancy experts to pave the way.
Previous article LH-Crypto - what kind of competitions do crypto brokers have?


text:
Posted inBreaking, CORONAVIRUS, Government, Local news
Racine green lights face-covering ordinance
by Denise Lockwood July 22nd, 2020 July 22nd, 2020
Gavin DeGrave | Racine Fire Dept | Gavin wears a mask to keep his family, friends, and patients safe.
In an 8-7 vote, the Racine Common Council passed an ordinance Tuesday that requires people in the City of Racine to wear a face-covering when they are out in public.
City officials hope to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Of the 2,690 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported on July 20, 1,678 are from the City of Racine.
City of Racine Public Health Department Administrator Dottie-Kay Bowersox explained that Wisconsin reported the highest-daily increase at 1,171 in cases since tracking began 22 weeks ago. About 22 percent of the 44,135 Wisconsin cases are considered active. The case rate in the City of Racine stands as the second-highest in the state at 1389.5 per 100,000 in population.
To make her case, Bowersox pointed to a story by Politico where Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued a plea for people to wear a face covering and a story by the Mayo Clinic that outlined the benefits of wearing a face mask.
"We are limited in our ability to control community spread…" Bowersox said. "We are out of tools in the toolbox. The masks are it."
What's in the face-mask ordinance
Under the ordinance, the City requires people to wear a face-covering over their mouth and nose. It calls for people to wear those face coverings in any indoor public space, outdoor public space and six feet within another person who isn't a member of the person's family or household, or riding on public transportation.
A face covering includes bandanas, medical masks, cloth masks, scarves, and gaiters.
Businesses, organizations, and non-profit entities located within the City would also need to require employees, customers, or visitors to wear a face covering.
Several exemptions are in the ordinance. They include children 4-years-old and under, people with certain medical conditions, people seated at a restaurant or "other establishment that offers food or beverage service where they are eating or drinking," or people who would be at risk if they wore a face covering at work.
Businesses have the right to refuse entry or service to people who don't comply with the ordinance.
READ MORE: Face Coverings
People violating the ordinance would be fined $25 upon the first conviction, $50 for the second conviction, and $100 for the third conviction.
Businesses, organizations, and non-profit organizations can be fined $50 to $500 and could lose their business license for not following the ordinance.
Common Council divided on decision
Questions ensued around how the ordinance would be implemented and enforced, exemptions, and how businesses would be impacted.
The City would task the Racine Police Department with enforcing the ordinance. But the City of Racine Public Health Department and the Racine Police Department would educate the public before writing citations. City staff is also working on securing masks to give the police department and other city departments to hand out to the community.
Alderman Henry Perez asked if someone had an illness and didn't wear a mask, would the police be able to question that person about what kind of a disease they had that prevented them from wearing one. City Attorney Scott Letteney said the officer would be able to ask the person about that illness because the Health Information Privacy Protection Act (HIPPA) would not apply.
"It would be on that person — as with any ordinance that they are accused of — to present a defense that would be considered one of the exceptions," Letteney said.
Perez also questioned Letteney about whether the ordinance would stand up in court if challenged. He said he patterned the City's ordinance after laws in other cities and believed it would stand up in court.
"We've seen that people can decide to sue us, but we have lots of ordinances that regulate behavior. And that's what this is," Letteney said. "I think it's specific in its definitions and prescriptions."
Alderman John Tate II supported the ordinance, saying that it was a better alternative than the Safer at Home ordinance, which shut down many businesses. But it was overturned by Racine County Circuit Court Judge Jon Frederickson and then reinstated by an Appellate Court.
"The best mitigator we have at this time is masking," he said. "When people talk about responsibility… you know freedom and responsibility go hand in hand, right? And to maintain that freedom, we do have to demonstrate that responsibility, not only to ourselves but to our fellow man."
The face-covering ordinance goes into effect at 8 a.m. Monday, July 27.
2023 Racine County Valentine's Day Guide
1 hour ago January 26th, 2023
High-speed chase ensues following traffic stop; Minocqua man facing 31 years in prison
5 hours ago January 26th, 2023
Business Spotlight: Bad Movies Rule
What will it take to get GOP lawmakers, Democratic governor to work together?
22 hours ago January 25th, 2023
Evers proposes investments and emphasizes potential compromise during State of the State
Drunk driving leads to rollover crash with 8-year-old child in car
A rise in Cardiovascular-related deaths, highest among Asian, Black, and Hispanic populations
January 25th, 2023 January 25th, 2023
Patton Law Office: bridging a gap in our community; open house is Jan. 26
Tagged: City of Racine, COVID, Covid-19, Face mask, Racine, Wisconsin
Denise Lockwood
denise@racinecountyeye.com
Denise Lockwood has an extensive background in traditional and non-traditional media. She has written for Patch.com, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine and the Kenosha News. More by Denise Lockwood
2 replies on "Racine green lights face-covering ordinance"
Pingback: Racine face mask ordinance starts Monday, here's where you can get a totally free one|Local News I Racine County Eye – Racine, Wisconsin – Racine County Eye
Pingback: Racine County needs visitors to mask up|Local News I Racine County Eye – Racine, Wisconsin – Racine County Eye
Expand comments


International students who wish to transfer college credit earned from a non-U.S. accredited institution must request a foreign transcript evaluation through Educational Perspectives. Students may also have their transcripts evaluated by WES or ECE.
College level credit earned at foreign institutions may be accepted for transfer to the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC). However, foreign credits must be evaluated in order to apply proper credit for prior classwork.
College credits and educational credentials -- such as transcripts, diplomas, or certificates -- earned at the secondary or post-secondary levels outside of the United States must be evaluated by our international transcript evaluation vendor, Educational Perspectives.
Contact your International Student Advisor for more information.


The Pflueger name has been involved in the fishing industry since 1881 when Earnest F. Pflueger began the Enterprise Manufacturing Company making fish hooks. Eventually Earnest A. took over the business renaming it the E.A. Pflueger Company and he expanded the company to include all aspects of fishing gear and tackle.
The first Pflueger baitcast reel at Amazon or Ebay was put into production in Akron, Ohio, in 1916 and quickly become the standard of the sport fishing industry. Their quality was and continues to be top of the line with a middle of the line price tag making the Pflueger Baitcasting reel affordable for the normal fisherman and woman.
The Pflueger company prides itself in producing dependable and innovative fishing gear and their line of baitcast reel is no exception. Check out the reviews of these fine reel.
Find a better reel than the Pflueger Trion LP in a matching price range will be next to impossible. The Trion Baitcasting Fishing Reel is built with a solid one-piece aluminum frame foundation for strength and durability.
The Pflueger Summit baitcasting fishing reel at Amazon or Ebay is manufactured with quality components and exact workmanship for outstanding performance and smooth operation.


How many stars would you rate H.D. Carpentry & Constructions?
Harvey Developments NT is your local Alice Springs building business, providing quality workmanship at very competitive prices since establishment in 1999.
We work on all types of building projects, including commercial, government and residential housing projects. Our fully licensed Alice Springs builders work both within the city and out in remote/bush areas. We've worked on all types of building projects, such as a remote school development and sporting complexes.
If you require repairs and maintenance services around the home, talk to Harvey Developments NT. We specialise in both bathroom and kitchen renovations, and can assist you with all aspects of building for your peace of mind.
From civil contracts through to new home builds, our builders can handle all your Alice Springs building development needs. Call us today.


Christalah Lyons scored 21 points, Kylee Kopatich added 20 and No. 10 seed Kansas jumped out early and beat seventh-seeded Oklahoma State 76-66 in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. Lyons and Kopatich each made seven field goals and combined to make five of the Jayhawks' eight 3-pointers.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Christalah Lyons scored 21 points, Kylee Kopatich added 20 and No. 10 seed Kansas jumped out early and beat seventh-seeded Oklahoma State 76-66 on Friday night in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.
Lyons and Kopatich each made seven field goals and combined to make five of the Jayhawks' eight 3-pointers. Aniya Thomas added 12 points and Austin Richardson had 11 for Kansas (13-17), which will play No. 2 seed Iowa State in a Saturday quarterfinal.
Vivian Gray scored 16 of her 25 points in the second half to lead Oklahoma State (14-16). Braxtin Miller chipped in 16 points.
The Jayhawks built a 20-point lead midway through the second quarter before Oklahoma State cut the deficit to 35-28 at halftime. The Cowboys pulled within a point twice early in the fourth quarter but never had the lead.


Super comfy Christmas Gothic jumper from Alchemy Gothic! This awesome long sleeve black jumper features a large image of the grim reaper in a vibrant red santa hood. Measuring 28" from shoulder to hem, this crew neck relaxed fit jumper not only looks amazing but is also super soft and comfortable.