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FC Ay-Yildiz Gent was een Belgische voetbalclub uit Gent. De club sloot in 2011 aan bij de KBVB met stamnummer 9578.
In 2016 werd het stamnummer terug ingediend.
Geschiedenis
Ay-Yildiz, wat in het Turks staat voor ster en halve maan, was al actief in het futsal en maakte in 2011 de overstap naar het veldvoetbal bij de KBVB, waarbij men een stamnummer voor veldvoetbal kreeg. De club ontstond in de Turkse gemeenschap in Gent.
Het eerste seizoen eindigde de club onderin het klassement, maar gestaag ging het beter, een jaar later werd een plaats in de middenmoot behaald en in de lente van 2014 kon men promotie naar Derde Provinciale afdwingen.
Derde Provinciale bleek echter een maatje te groot en Ay-Yildiz eindigde allerlaatste.
Toen ook het seizoen daarop, opnieuw in Vierde Provinciale, geen sportief succes was, men eindigde onderin, besloot men de veldvoetbalclub op te doeken en terug te keren naar het futsal.
Externe link
https://nl-nl.facebook.com/pages/category/Sports-Team/FC-Ay-Yildiz-GENT-503920949632431/
Voetbalclub in Gent
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Opere
Things Unutterable: Paul's Ascent to Paradise in Its Graeco-Roman, Judaic and Early Christian Contexts, 1986, ISBN 0-8191-5643-4 & ISBN 0-8191-5644-2 (basato sulla tesi dottorale di Tabor alla University of Chicago. Selezionato dal Journal of Religion quale uno dei dieci migliori studi accademici su Paolo di Tarso degli anni Ottanta
A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among Christians and Jews in Antiquity (with Arthur J Droge), 1992, ISBN 0-06-062095-1
Why Waco?: Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America (with Eugene V. Gallagher), 1995, ISBN 0-520-20899-4
Invitation to the Old Testament (with Celia Brewer Sinclair), 2005, ISBN 0-687-49590-3
The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity, Simon & Schuster, 2006, ISBN 0-7432-8723-1 & ISBN 0-00-722058-8
The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity (with Simcha Jacobovici, Simon & Schuster, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4516-5040-2
Italiano
La tomba perduta di Gesù (con Simcha Jacobovici), Piemme, 2013
La dinastia di Gesù, Piemme, 2009
Voci correlate
7Q5
Celso (filosofo)
Gesù storico
Ipotesi O'Callaghan
Papiro 64
Tomba di Talpiot
Ossario di Giacomo
Tiberio Giulio Abdes Pantera
Collegamenti esterni
"The Jewish Roman World of Jesus"
"The Jesus Discovery research"
"The Jesus Discovery book"
The Jesus Dynasty, sito del noto libro di Tabor
"The Original Bible Project"
Article by Dr. Tabor at the Society of Biblical Literature on the Talpiot Tomb
Letter to the Editor of SBL by Dr. Tabor
Intervista su James Tabor
Cristologia
Esegesi biblica
Storici del cristianesimo
Filosofia della religione
Epistemologi
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home > Our Food > Food Facts
April 7th, 2015 | Food Facts, Our Food, antifreeze, atherosclerosis, B6, calcium, candida, collagen, fibromyalgia, green smoothie, heavy metals, inflammation, kidney, oxalate, spinach, stroke
by NewsGrab | 6 Comments »
I just want to recommend the Townsend Letter to anyone who is interested in cutting edge health information. This article published in Jan 2015 is very timely. I have a lot of friends who have succumbed to this health fad, so it is really good to have a clear picture laid out for us as to exactly how our bodies deal with the oxalate acid that green smoothies are full of.
The Green Smoothie Fad:
This Road to Health Hell is Paved with Toxic Oxalate Crystals
by William Shaw, PhD
Source: Townsend Letter Jan 2015
Internet news this past fall indicated the conviction of an oncologist who attempted to kill her boyfriend who was involved with another woman. The weapon of choice was ethylene glycol, popularly known as antifreeze, which had been placed in his coffee. Although emergency measures saved his life, extensive deposits of oxalate crystals, the main toxic metabolite of ethylene glycol, had caused extensive kidney and liver damage, reducing the man's lifespan by about half.
Similar results in sabotaging your own health can occur through the regular consumption of a popular concoction called a "green smoothie." A recent Google search for "green smoothie" yielded 609,000 hits. In addition, a recent "improving your diet" seminar that I attended promoted this same idea. Interestingly, on the same day, I reviewed test results of a urine organic acid test of a woman with oxalate values 3 times the upper limit of normal. A conversation with the patient indicated that she had recently turned to consuming daily "green smoothies" to "clean up her diet." The most common "green" components of the most popular green smoothies are spinach, kale, Swiss chard, and arugula. Each of these greens is loaded with oxalates. A typical Internet recipe advises that 2 cups of packed raw spinach leaves is a good starting point for a smoothie. In addition to the high oxalate greens added to the blender, green smoothie proponents frequently recommend adding a variety of berries or almonds, also containing high oxalate amounts. Similar high urine oxalate results were found in organic acid tests of a number of patients with kidney stones who had decided to eat large spinach salads daily as a "move to clean up my unhealthy diet." Unfortunately, kidney stones are not the only health problems that people who regularly consume green smoothies and large spinach salads will experience with their new "clean" diet.
Seventy-five years ago, a food scientist of the Campbell Soup Company reported:
Only a few foods, notably spinach, Swiss Chard, New Zealand spinach, beet tops, lamb's quarter, poke, purslane, and rhubarb have high oxalate content. In them, expressed as anhydrous oxalic acid, it is often considerably over 10% on a dry basis. In fifty-three samples, including practically all commercial and many experimental varieties grown in California and in Maryland as well as those shipped from Texas, Florida and Carolina, the average anhydrous oxalic acid content was 9.02% on the dry basis (maximum 12.6, minimum 4.5). Whereas spinach greatly increases the calcium content of the low calcium but well performing basal diet, it decidedly interferes with both growth and bone formation. If to a diet of meat, peas, carrots and sweet potatoes, relatively low in calcium but permitting good though not maximum growth and bone formation, spinach is added to the extent of about 8% to supply 60% of the calcium, a high percentage of deaths occurs among rats fed between the age of 21 and 90 days. Reproduction is impossible. The bones are extremely low in calcium, tooth structure is disorganized and dentine poorly calcified. Spinach not only supplies no available calcium but renders unavailable a considerable amount of the calcium in the other foods. Considerable amounts of the oxalate appear in the urine, much more in the feces.1
The author also discovered that in addition to leading to excessive death and defective reproduction in the rats, high oxalate foods also cause soft and pliable bones and defective teeth.
Oxalate and its acid form oxalic acid are organic acids that come from three sources: the diet, fungus infections such as Aspergillus and Penicillium and possibly Candida, and also human metabolism.2–11
Figure 1: Summary of Oxalate Sources. Candida albicans can produce an enzyme called collagenase that breaks down collagen, a major human body protein that makes up 30% of our proteins. In addition, ethylene glycol (antifreeze) is converted to oxalate by human enzymes. Many fungi, including those that infect humans, also produce oxalates directly, and oxalate stones may be found in tissues such as the lung and sinuses that are fungi infected. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), especially at doses of more than 2000 mg per day, can break down to form oxalates, and certain fungi can convert the Candida byproduct arabinose to oxalate. Collagenase breaks down collagen to form hydroxyproline, one of collagen's major amino acids. Hydroxyproline is also a major constituent of gelatin, a popular dessert. Hydroxyproline can then be converted to glycolate and glyoxylate by a series of reactions in the human body. Further metabolism of glyoxylate is at a critical junction. If adequate amounts of vitamin B6 are available, the enzyme AGT converts glyoxylate to the amino acid glycine. If vitamin B6 is deficient, glyoxylate is increasingly converted to oxalate by lactate dehydrogenase, although some of it is converted back to glycolate, which is again susceptible to forming additional oxalate.
Oxalic acid is the most acidic organic acid in body fluids and is used commercially to remove rust from car radiators. Antifreeze (ethylene glycol) is toxic primarily because it is converted to oxalate. Two different types of genetic diseases are known in which oxalates are high in the urine. The genetic types of hyperoxaluria (type I and type II) can be determined from the organic acid test done at the Great Plains Laboratory. Foods especially high in oxalates include spinach and similar leafy vegetables, beets, chocolate, soy, peanuts, wheat bran, tea, cashews, pecans, almonds, berries, and many others. Oxalates are not found in meat or fish at significant concentrations. Daily adult oxalate intake is usually 80 to 120 mg/d, but it can range from 44 to 1000 mg/d in individuals who eat a typical Western diet. I estimate that the person who consumes a green smoothie with 2 cups (about 150 grams) of spinach leaves is consuming about 15 grams (15,000 mg) of oxalates, or about 150 times the average daily oxalate intake. A complete list of high-oxalate foods is available here.
High oxalate in urine and plasma was first found in people who were susceptible to kidney stones. Most kidney stones are composed of calcium oxalate. Stones can range in size from the diameter of a grain of rice to the width of a golf ball. It is estimated that 10% of males may have kidney stones some time in their lives. Because many kidney stones contain calcium, some people with kidney stones think that they should avoid calcium supplements. However, the opposite is true. When calcium and magnesium are taken with foods high in oxalates, oxalic acid in the intestine combines with these minerals to form insoluble calcium and magnesium oxalate crystals that are eliminated in the stool. These forms of oxalate cannot be absorbed into the body. When calcium and/or magnesium are low in the diet, oxalic acid is soluble in the liquid portion of the contents of the intestine (called chyme) and is readily absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream. If oxalic acid is very high in the blood being filtered by the kidney, it may combine with calcium and other metals, including heavy metals such as lead and mercury, to form crystals that may block urine flow, damage the kidney, and cause severe pain.
These oxalate crystals can also form in the bones, skin, joints, eyes, thyroid gland, blood vessels, lungs, and even the brain.11–14 Oxalate crystals in the bone may crowd out the bone marrow cells, leading to anemia and immunosuppression.14 In addition to individuals with autism and kidney disease, individuals with fibromyalgia and women with vulvar pain (vulvodynia) may also suffer from the effects of excess oxalates.15–18
Recent evidence also points to the involvement of oxalates in stroke, atherosclerosis, and endothelial cell dysfunction.19–21 High amounts of oxalates were found concentrated in atherosclerotic lesions of the aortas and coronary arteries of a number of individuals at autopsy. These individuals did not have oxalate deposits in the kidney but did have oxalate deposits in other organs such as the thyroid gland and testes. Since the stains used by most pathologists examining atherosclerotic lesions cannot readily determine the presence of oxalates in diseased arteries, it seems possible that this cause of atherosclerosis may be much more common than previously realized. I suspect that oxalates are a much more common cause of atherosclerosis than high cholesterol. Furthermore, since ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is effective in the removal of oxalate crystals deposited in the tissues, the benefits of intravenous EDTA in the treatment of cardiovascular disease may be mediated largely by the removal of oxalate crystals and their associated heavy metals from the tissues in which they are deposited.22,23
Oxalate crystals may cause damage to various tissues due to their sharp physical structure and they may increase inflammation. Iron oxalate crystals may also cause significant oxidative damage and diminish iron stores needed for red blood cell formation.11 Oxalates may also function as chelating agents and may chelate many toxic metals such as mercury and lead. However, unlike common chelating agents such as EDTA and DMSA that cause metals to be excreted, a reaction of oxalate with heavy metals such as mercury and lead leads to the precipitation of the heavy metal oxalate complex in the tissues, increasing the toxicity of heavy metals by delaying their excretion.24
What steps can be taken to control excessive oxalates?
Use antifungal drugs to reduce yeast and fungi that may be causing high oxalates. Children with autism frequently require years of antifungal treatment. I have noticed that arabinose, a marker indicating yeast/fungal overgrowth on the organic acid test at the Great Plains Laboratory, is correlated with high amounts of oxalates (Figure 1). Candida albicans produces high amounts of the enzyme collagenase, which breaks down collagen in the gastrointestinal tract to form the amino acid hydroxyproline, which in a series of reactions is converted to oxalates, especially in people with low vitamin B6.25 Candida organisms have also been found surrounding oxalate stones in the kidney.10
Give supplements of calcium citrate and magnesium citrate to reduce oxalate absorption from the intestine. Citrate is the preferred calcium form to reduce oxalate because citrate also inhibits oxalate absorption from the intestinal tract. The best way to administer calcium citrate would be to give it with each meal. Children over age 2 need about 1000 mg of calcium per day. Of course, calcium supplementation may need to be increased if the child is on a milk-free diet. The most serious error in adopting the gluten-free, casein-free diet is the failure to adequately supplement with calcium.
Give chondroitin sulfate to prevent the formation of calcium oxalate crystals.26
Vitamin B6 is a cofactor for one of the enzymes that degrades oxalate in the body and has been shown to reduce oxalate production.27
Increase water intake to help eliminate oxalates.
Consume a low-oxalate diet, avoiding high-oxalate foods such as leafy greens, beans, berries, nuts, tea, chocolate, wheat germ, and soy. Dr. Clare Morrison, a general pratitioner from the UK who has fibromyalgia, found relief from symptoms after changing to a low-oxalate diet. In a 2012 article in the Daily Mail, she said, "I cut these out of my diet and overnight my symptoms disappeared – the disabling muscle pains, tingling legs, fatigue and inability to concentrate all went."28
Measuring Oxalate Toxicity
The organic acid test (Table 1) is one of the best measures for determination of both genetic and nutritional factors that lead to toxic oxalates. The organic acid test includes two additional markers, glycolic and glyceric acids, that are markedly elevated in genetic causes of excessive oxalate, the hyperoxalurias I and II. In addition, the organic acid test includes factors such as high fungal and Candida markers that make oxalate (fungus) or their precursors (Candida). Finally, although vitamin C poses little risk of excess oxalates at doses up to 2000 mg per day, I have measured marked increases in oxalates (more than 10 times the upper limit of normal) in a child with impaired kidney function after a 50,000 mg intravenous vitamin C megadose. The organic acid test also includes the main vitamin B6 metabolite pyridoxic acid, which diminishes the body's own production of oxalates.
Karrin says:
I the about comment I meant oxalates not orates
Could this high accumulation of orates and heavy metals cause a metallic taste in the mouth?
In the above comment I meant could the high accumulation of oxalates and heavy metals cause a severe metallic taste in the mouth? Do you know what would cause this problem?
Debra says:
Are there any greens we can use as replacements for high Oxalate foods?
Suzanne horsley says:
Does cooking the greens help?
hellaD says:
Yes if the greens are cooked that makes all the difference.
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Shelby Township Supervisor Ralph Maccarone is introducing a plan to expand the township's municipal campus to try to create a downtown-like atmosphere along the Van Dyke corridor.
The plan includes several new buildings and upgrades to older buildings on municipal grounds to better use the 50 acres of township-owned land, Maccarone said. He did not want to release the projected cost for the project before he presents the plan to the public on Feb. 3.
Maccarone said the presentation will allow residents, the township board of trustees and business owners to see the current state of the municipal buildings, assess whether needs can be addressed now and plan for proceeding.
"It's a starting point, and one that's been long delayed," he said.
Maccarone said the plan is consistent with the township's master plan, which identifies the Van Dyke corridor as a central point of the community.
David Birchler, president of Birchler Arroyo Associates Inc. in Lathrup Village, worked to develop the Shelby Center Design Plan nearly six years ago. Putting the township municipal buildings on one campus would help attract a variety of developments nearby, he said.
"The plan was designed over time to create a center of activity, so there is one identified center of the community where you have shopping, entertainment, recreation and the municipal buildings," Birchler said. "The civic center complex is envisioned to be a critical element of the Shelby Center Design Plan."
The concept of townships creating downtown-like areas is starting to catch on, as similar projects are being considered in Canton Township and Brownstown Township.
Maccarone's plan includes the addition of a recreation center, a new library and performing arts center and attached police department-courthouse building. The township currently has no recreation center, and the 12,000-square-foot library has to turn away books and programs because of space limitations, Maccarone said.
The police department and courthouse, meanwhile, also have outgrown their current locations, he said.
The plan also includes the establishment of a downtown development authority for the township. The DDA allows for a township to collect taxes on new projects in a certain district, generating more funds for enhancing other parts of the district with redevelopment.
The DDA would cover the commercial and industrial businesses along the Van Dyke corridor from just south of 21 Mile to 26 Mile and out to commercial zoning on the east and west sides, including the township grounds and Cherry Creek Golf Club, Maccarone said.
The township already has attracted two potential mixed-use developments on the northwest and northeast corners of Van Dyke and 24 Mile Road, just across from the municipal campus. If approved, both projects would be part of the DDA district.
A planned "lifestyle center" development with retail, restaurant and entertainment also would be part of the district. Simone Mauro, president of Modena Development Corp., is the developer of Stoney Creek Crossings, the planned $50 million development at 26 Mile and Van Dyke.
Mauro said the establishment of a DDA would help rejuvenate other businesses along the corridor by helping smaller retailers renovate or redevelop properties to remain competitive with larger businesses.
Maccarone said if the township wants to introduce a DDA, now would be the time to do it. The larger potential developments could generate tax revenue, which could assist the southern end of the corridor with redevelopment projects.
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Q: Modifying variable values inside a For loop in Windows shell script I need to perform operations on first 4 files in a folder. So, the counter variable has to increment during each operation of the For loop. The following piece of code:
@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET TESTDIR1=D:\Local Data\Shell Script\test folder 1
SET _transfer=XXXX
FOR /f "delims=" %%i IN ('dir "%TESTDIR1%\*" /b/a-d/o-d') DO (
SET _transfer=%_transfer:~1%
ECHO %_transfer%
)
prints "XXXX" for every iteration of the loop. Why might that be?
A: Try
FOR /f "TOKENS=1*delims=[]" %%i IN ('dir "%TESTDIR1%\*" /b/a-d/o-d^|find /n /v ""') DO (
if %%1 LEQ 4 echo %%j
)
Your approach doesn't work because batch replaces any %var% within a block (a parenthesised sequence of commands) with the value of var before the block is executed. See any number of SO questions related to delayed expansion for more info.
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It's hard to imagine Josh McDowell was once agnostic. Yet out of his honest examination into the claims of the Bible he became a Christian and soon wrote Evidence That Demands a Verdict, one of the most influential Christian books of the last century. Since that time he's authored and coauthored 150 books and given more than 27,000 talks to over 25 million people.
And now you can join Josh McDowell live on Faithlife.com/faithlife or Facebook for a one-hour webcast on June 12 at 12:00 p.m. PST, hosted by Faithlife.
Josh McDowell has devoted his Christian life to proclaiming the trustworthiness of the Bible and the evidence for the reliability of the Christian faith. Be challenged and gain biblical insight as he shares why spending time in the Bible is vital and how to get more out of your Bible studies as you go deeper in the Word.
A question and answer time at the end of the hour will cover a wide range of topics. Be sure to watch the live webinar with Josh McDowell at 12:00 p.m. on June 12. If you can't watch it live, you still have a chance to watch it afterward—but only for a limited time.
To stay up to date on this event, go to Faithlife.com/faithlife and click "Follow," or like and follow Logos on Facebook.
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Joan H. Fischer
William Slater ll Funeral Service
St. Philip Catholic Parish, Ascension Church
Age 93, of Pittsburgh, formerly of Elliott, Sheraden, and Pompano Beach, FL., on Wednesday, August 31, 2022. Beloved wife of the late Raymond J. Fischer Sr. Dear mother of Joanie Fischer (Joseph) Meyer, Ramona Fischer, Raymond J. (Denise) Fischer Jr., Darlene Zellers, and Roy (Janet Lee) Fischer Sr. Loving grandmother of 7 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Sister of the late Betty Fauth and Dorothy Wood. Also survived by many nieces and nephews.
After raising five children, she was employed by Allegheny County for over 20 years advancing through the ranks of the Property Assessment Office and retired as the Supervisor of Appeals. Also served as the Democratic Party Committee Chairperson for the 28th Ward of Pittsburgh and was a part-time Deputy Constable for the Allegheny County Sheriff's Office. She instilled in her children a passion for learning and demonstrated fierce determination, persistence, and resiliency in pursuit of her personal and professional goals. She was a role model to many as an independent woman who was ahead of her times. In her prime, she was an avid reader, traveler, bridge player and football fan (both Pittsburgh and Miami) and was known internationally for her incredible ability to accessorize.
Family and friends received Tuesday 2-8 p.m. WILLIAM SLATER II FUNERAL SERVICE, 1650 Greentree Rd., Scott Twp., 15220. Mass of Christian Burial Wednesday, 10 a.m. in Ascension Church, 114 Berry St., Pgh., 15205.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Joan H. Fischer, please visit our flower store.
114 Berry St, Pittsburgh, PA 15205
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The New Mexico State University Alumni Association has selected its 2016 Distinguished Alumni and James F. Cole Award for Service recipients, who will be honored at a special dinner during Homecoming 2016 festivities this fall.
Selected through a rigorous nomination and review process, this year's Distinguished Alumni include recipients from the colleges of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, Education, and Health and Social Services, along with the James F. Cole Award for Service.
Arthur "Butch" Blazer, a 1975 graduate of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, recently retired as the USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment. He also served 27 years in the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and was a co-founder and past national president of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society.
Steve Hanzely, a 1967 and '69 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, earned his Ph.D. in physics and spent nearly 40 years teaching physics and astronomy at Youngstown State University in Ohio. He's been the recipient of numerous teaching and service awards and has spent his retirement actively involved with Habitat for Humanity in Ohio.
Loren Cook, a 1986 and '91 graduate of the College of Business, went on to earn his law degree from Texas Southern University in Houston. Licensed as both an attorney and a certified public accountant in Texas, he built a successful full-service business consulting firm. Cook and his wife have contributed significantly to current-use scholarships and endowments in the College of Business to support students and faculty in the accounting program. He also provides internship opportunities, mentoring and advice to NMSU graduates in the Houston area.
Colin Cahoon, a 1983 graduate of the College of Engineering, served on active duty as an officer and helicopter pilot in the Army following his graduation, achieving the rank of captain and serving with distinction. After his service, he earned his law degree from Southern Methodist University and began his second career as a patent attorney. He helped found Carstens & Cahoon LLP, one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the Southwest, and is an inventor with four U.S. patents and one patent pending in his name.
Amy B. Heil earned NMSU degrees in psychology and criminal justice in 1996, along with a Specialist in Education degree in 2008 from the College of Education. Heil has worked with children who are victims of trauma, first in the district attorney's office in Dona Ana County and later as a school psychologist. She is currently a forensic interviewer at Phoenix Children's Hospital, where her compassion and advocacy help give a voice to traumatized children.
John Scarbrough earned a doctorate in nursing from NMSU's College of Health and Social Services in 2011. He's served as a nursing educator since 2006, both at NMSU and University of Texas Medical Branch. Currently the associate dean for the School of Nursing at Western New Mexico University, Scarbrough has received numerous awards for faculty excellence and serves as a mentor and role model, particularly for other males who have selected nursing as a profession.
The 2016 James F. Cole Award for Service recipient is Dino Camuñez, a 1980 graduate of the College of Business, who is founding president and CEO of First Western Trust and currently serves as chief lending officer and director of commercial banking for its Arizona operations. Camunez and his wife, Heidi, have established student scholarships and a faculty lounge space in the College of Business and are members of the 1888 Legacy Society at NMSU. Dino Camunez has also served on the NMSU Foundation Board, and the couple is actively involved in the Alumni Association. They also support causes that benefit children and families in the Phoenix area, where they live.
For more information, call the NMSU Alumni Association at 575-646-7551.
This entry was posted in News and tagged 1888 Legacy Society, Accounting, Accounting-Information Systems Department, Alumni Association, Arizona, Awards, CPA, Dino Camunez, Distinguished Alumni, First Western Trust, Heidi Camunez, Homecoming, Houston TX, Internships, James Cole Award, Leadership, Loren Cook, Mentoring, NMSU Foundation, Phoenix AZ, Scholarships, Texas Southern University. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
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Home / Sabah News
No polio cases in Sandakan: Poon
Published on: Wednesday, January 01, 2020
By: Winnie Kasmir
SANDAKAN: State Health and People's Wellbeing Minister, Datuk Frankie Poon said no polio case was reported in the district.
"I was aware on the recent rumour circulating on social media related to polio case. Thus, I've checked on the matter and was informed by the Duchess of Kent Hospital that they did not receive any polio case so far.
"If there is polio case here in this district, we will inform the public for their precaution and information," he said.
Frankie was commenting on the rumours that a child has been admitted to hospital for polio.
Early this month, a three-month-old from Tuaran was diagnosed with polio, the first case reported in the country in nearly three decades. The baby boy was tested positive for polio after being admitted to the hospital with fever and muscle weakness.
Malaysia was declared polio-free in 2000, after reporting its last known case of the disease in 1992. Its resurgence comes just months after the Philippines reported its first cases of polio since 1993 in September.
Meanwhile, Poon said the State Government through Health Department has taken measures to prevent the H1N1 influenza A from spreading.
"Do not worry as we have taken measures to prevent the H1N1 influenza A from spreading as we had dealt with similar issue not long ago.
"However, parents and guardians are encouraged to take precautions by seeing registered medical officers or clinics too," he said after officiating the "Free Hair Cuts" programme which was held in conjunction with the opening of school session 2020.
A total of 250 school children of Tanjung Papat constituency benefited from the programme held at the Futsal Court of Kampung Sim-Sim, Tuesday.
He hoped that such programme will ease the burden of parents in preparations for the new school session, thus making children look neat in school.
Sabah Top Stories
UPDATE: 5 fishermen confimed missing feared kidnapped, 3 others 'spared'
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namespace genetic {
class individual {
public:
individual();
// crossover
template <typename... Args>
static void crossover_method(void (*fcn)(individual *, individual *, Args...), Args... args) {
crossover_function = std::bind(fcn, std::placeholders::_1, std::placeholders::_2, std::forward<Args>(args)...);
}
// Mate two individuals using static method
static void mate(individual * ind1, individual * ind2);
// crossover variants for crossover_method
static void one_point_crossover(individual * ind1, individual * ind2);
static void two_point_crossover(individual * ind1, individual * ind2);
static void uniform_crossover(individual * ind1, individual * ind2, float indpb);
static void ordered_crossover(individual * ind1, individual * ind2);
static void blend_crossover(individual * ind1, individual * ind2, float alpha);
// Evaluate this individuals fitness
void evaluate();
float weighted_fitness() const;
static std::vector<float> eval_sum(individual const & ind);
float sum_attributes() const;
// Custom function for evaluation
static void evaluation_method(std::function<std::vector<float>(individual const &)> && fcn);
// Mutation
template <typename... Args>
static void mutation_method(void (individual::* fcn)(Args...), Args... args) {
mutation_function = std::bind(fcn, std::placeholders::_1, std::forward<Args>(args)...);
}
// Mutate this individual using mutation method
void mutate();
// Mutation variants for mutation_method
void uniform_int(float mutation_rate, int min, int max);
void flip_bit(float mutation_rate);
void shuffle_indexes(float mutation_rate);
void gaussian(float mutation_rate, float mu, float sigma);
void polynomial_bounded(float mutation_rate, float eta, float min, float max);
// Initialize the attributes by seeding them
void seed();
bool operator<(individual const & other) const;
bool operator>(individual const & other) const;
bool operator==(individual const & other) const;
std::vector<attribute>::const_iterator begin() const;
std::vector<attribute>::iterator begin();
std::vector<attribute>::const_iterator end() const;
std::vector<attribute>::iterator end();
attribute const & at(std::size_t pos) const;
std::size_t size() const;
friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream & stream, individual const & ind) {
stream << "individual @ (" << static_cast<const void *>(&ind) << ") f=" << ind.weighted_fitness();
stream << " attr=[";
for (auto const & attr : ind.attributes) {
stream << attr << attribute::display_delimiter;
}
stream << "]";
return stream;
}
public:
static std::size_t attribute_count;
private:
static std::function<std::vector<float>(individual const &)> evaluation_function;
static std::function<void(individual *, individual *)> crossover_function;
static std::function<void(individual &)> mutation_function;
void throw_if_fitness_invalid() const;
private:
fitness fit;
std::vector<attribute> attributes;
};
} // namespace genetic
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Why Internationally?
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Bibby Financial Services appoints Stephen Hand as UK Head of Sales
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Experienced leader joins international funder to drive national sales strategy
The UK's largest independent invoice financier, Bibby Financial Services (BFS), has announced the appointment of Stephen Hand as UK Head of Sales to boost its support for SMEs across the country.
Stephen joins BFS with 20 years' experience in financial services and 13 years working in Lloyds Banking Group within commercial finance for SMEs.
He has held a variety of sales leadership positions within Lloyds, most recently as Managing Director, National Head of Invoice & Asset Finance Sales.
Derek Ryan, UK Managing Director for BFS said: "I'm delighted to welcome Stephen to BFS at what is a hugely exciting time for the business.
"Along with the existing talent and experience in our Sales team, I am confident that we will be able to significantly grow our support for UK SMEs and business intermediaries with Stephen on board."
Stephen joins BFS on 3 October 2022.
Speaking of his appointment, Stephen said: "More than ever, it is vital that SMEs have the support they need to thrive and grow. BFS is a hugely innovative business with a fantastic reputation for providing future focused finance solutions for both SMEs and business advisors alike.
"I'm delighted to join at such a pivotal time for the business, and I look forward to meeting colleagues, clients and intermediary partners over the coming months."
BFS is the UK's largest independent invoice finance provider and supports almost 9,000 businesses worldwide.
Interested in more business news and insights?
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This year marks a special milestone for Bibby Financial Services (BFS) as we celebrate 40 years of helping SMEs to survive, thrive and grow.
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Copyright © Bibby Financial Services Ltd Registered address: 3rd Floor, Walker House, Exchange Flags, Liverpool, L2 3YL
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Henderson, NC – Maria Parham Medical Center (MPMC) has officially joined Duke LifePoint Healthcare, an innovative joint venture of Duke University Health System, Inc. and LifePoint Hospitals®. The agreement between the MPMC Board of Directors and Duke LifePoint to jointly own and operate MPMC was finalized today.
Since the formation of the joint venture in January, Duke LifePoint Healthcare has acquired MPMC, Person Memorial Hospital in Roxboro, NC, and the North Carolina cardiac catheterization operations of MedCath Partners, LLC, now known as DLP Cardiac Partners. Additionally, in October, Duke LifePoint signed a memorandum of understanding with its first Virginia hospital – a potential joint venture with Twin County Regional Healthcare (TCRH) to share ownership and operations of the hospital.
Under the terms of the agreement, Duke LifePoint and MPMC have formed a joint venture to own and operate the hospital. Duke LifePoint will own 80 percent of the joint venture and has committed to investing $45 million in capital improvements at the hospital over the next decade. The proceeds from the transaction - approximately $30 million - will be used to create a locally governed charitable foundation that will be used to fund programs and services to meet community needs. Other financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
As part of the agreement, Duke LifePoint and MPMC are creating a 10-member board with equal representation from both organizations. A separate hospital advisory board consisting of physicians, local community leaders, MPMC President and CEO Robert Singletary and a representative from Duke LifePoint also will be established.
Maria Parham Medical Center is a regional hospital serving the people of north central North Carolina and Southside Virginia. With a team of more than 150 physicians and 700 clinical and support staff, Maria Parham offers a wide range of services and the latest technology to meet the healthcare needs of the community. Maria Parham, located in Henderson, NC, is fully accredited by both The Joint Commission and CMS. For more information about Maria Parham Medical Center, please call (252) 436-1800 or visit the Maria Parham Medical Center website.
Duke LifePoint Healthcare, a joint venture of Duke University Health System, Inc. and LifePoint Hospitals® (NASDAQ: LPNT), was established to build a dynamic network of hospitals in North Carolina and the surrounding areas. The joint venture, which brings together LifePoint's experience in community-based hospital management and Duke's world-renowned leadership in clinical service, is strengthening and improving healthcare delivery by providing community hospitals the clinical, quality and operational resources they need to grow and prosper.
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If you have a trip to share or need to share a trip, this is the page for you!
We have many members who do not own a boat and are frequently looking to hook up with a Captain who has an empty seat. They are willing to pay their share for gasoline for the boat as well to learn your tactics. Of course, they would also like to share in the catch bounty.
If you are planning a trip and need a ride, send me a brief ad ([email protected]), including your name, phone number, best time to call and when you are available to go fishing. If you are a Captain with a frequent open seat looking for a fishing companion, please do the same. I will post your requests on this page to be shared by all. These ads do not expire and you will have to send me another note when you want them deleted.
This is being posted in the public area of our website so non-members can see the postings, too. Perhaps they might wish to offer a fishing trip to one of our members to see what we are all about. If it becomes abused, this will be moved into the members only portion of this website.
I am very interested and very flexible with my schedule. Of course willing to contribute towards gas costs. Share work. Learn. Meet a member and socialize.
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Liquid nitrogen dosing system named for its size and cost.
Discrete dosing for speeds up to 12000 containers/hour.
Liquid Nitrogen supply at low pressure (max 1.5 bars) by user.
Minimum dosing valve opening time of 25ms.
Fully vacuum jacketed, stainless steel dosing unit. Internal reservoir with mechanical fill level control. Electrical dosing valve. Safety relief valve.
Integrated self generating nozzle purge system. No dedicated nitrogen gas supply required.
Remote Siemens S7-1200 control panel with Siemens KTP400, 4" touch screen HMI (230V/50Hz or 115V/60Hz) in stainless steel NEMA 4x rated housing.
6 meter electrical cables. 15 meter cable sets are optionally available.
Infrared sensor for bottle detection (Dosing enabled only when container is present).
Stainless steel (height adjustable) support in AISI 304 material (also available in AISI 316 on request). This support can be either on a 2x2 pod or a bottom plate basis.
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Enlighten Radio Podcasts: Podcast: The Moose Turd Cafe -- Nov 2, 2017 -- Kim Jong Un has Weather Machine!
Podcast: The Moose Turd Cafe -- Nov 2, 2017 -- Kim Jong Un has Weather Machine!
This episode of the Moose Turd Cafe was broadcast on EnlightenRadio.org Nov. 3, 2017, from the Red Caboose Studio in Bolivar, West Virginia.
1. Dr. Lechter opens the show with a new source of bacon.
3. Kim Jong Un threatens disaster with his Weather Machine.
4. Lessons from Robert F Kennedy.
5. RFK's Eulogy for Martin Luther King.
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Very Summary Account of Judge Pauley's Opinion on the 215 Telephony Metadata Program
by Marty Lederman
I'll defer to others for substantive analysis of Judge Pauley's opinion. To facilitate discussion, however, here is a very abbreviated roadmap of his holdings, based on an admittedly quick preliminary read of the opinion. (I apologize in advance if I've neglected anything significant or misread the opinion in any way.):
Judge Pauley first rejects the government's argument that plaintiffs lack standing to bring their constitutional claim, since plaintiffs are complaining about, inter alia, the government's collection of their metadata, which is conceded. The fact that, according to the Government, no privacy interests are implicated by the collection as such (before the computer has searched the records) "speaks to the merits," not standing. (The judge returns to this argument in his discussion of the merits of the First Amendment claim–see point 8, below.)
Judge Pauley rules that plaitniffs' statutory (but not their constitutional) claims under the Administrative Procedure Act are implicitly precluded by the entire statutory scheme, including Congress's presumption that such parties would not even be aware of the existence of a FISC ruling. (For more on this question, see Steve's post here.) Judge Pauley nevertheless proceeds to address the merits of the plaintiffs' statutory arguments–significantly, something that Judge Leon did not do . . .
He first rejects the argument that the section 215 orders are statutorily barred by section 2702 of ECPA, adopting Judge Walton's reasoning that it wouldn't make sense for Congress to allow the USG to obtain these records through national security letters but not through the more privacy-protective means of a FISC-approved 215 order. (For what it's worth, I argued in the "ECPA Prohibition" section of this post that this reasoning assumes what is at issue–namely, that such bulk collection is authorized by the "relevance" standards of both section 215 and the NSL authority of section 2709–and that either the premise of the Walton (now Pauley) argument is wrong, because the government could not obtain such bulk records under section 2709, or the NSL authority raises a much more serious question than the 215 authority, because if Walton/Pauley are right, the government can obtain such records via an NSL, without FISC approval and the substantial conditions and limitations imposed by the FISC.)
The Judge next concludes that in 2010/2011, Congress ratified the FISC's earlier construction of section 215.
Finally, he concludes, in any event, that the FISC construction of the statute is correct. His analysis begins with the assumption that if records can be obtained by a grand jury or administrative subpoena, they can then be obtained under section 215 ("section 215 orders flow from the Government's grand jury and administrative subpoena powers" he writes). (Again, for whatever it's worth, I argued in my previous posts that satisfying the grand jury subpoena standard is necessary but not sufficient under Section 215.) He then reasons that these records could have been obtained by a grand jury or administrative subpoena, or at least that that would be the case if a grand jury were authorized to detect future terrorist attacks rather than to investigate past crimes.
Judge Pauley holds that Smith v. Maryland controls for Fourth Amendment purposes — and stresses that the records in question here belong to Verizon, not the plaintiffs.
He rejects the plaintiffs' First Amendment claim, as well, reasoning that there's no reasonable basis for a chill of the ACLU's phone communications because it is highly speculative whether any government officials (as opposed to an NSA computer) will ever query, review or further investigate such communications.
Before concluding, Judge Pauley stresses that he was able to consider arguments that were not available to the FISC because its proceedings are secret and nonadversarial and thus "not ideal for interpreting statutes." Although he ends up agreeing with the FISC on the merits, he suggests that the people's interests "should have a voice in the FISC."
ACLU v. Clapper,
Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He was Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Office of Legal Counsel from 2009-2010, and Attorney Advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel from 1994-2002. Member of the editorial board of Just Security. You can follow him on Twitter (@marty_lederman).
ODNI's 2019 Statistical Transparency Report: The FBI Violates FISA…Again
May 1, 2020 by Elizabeth Goitein
Improve FISA on Civil Liberties by Strengthening Amici
February 26, 2020 by Faiza Patel and Raya Koreh
The FISA Court's 702 Opinions, Part I: A History of Non-Compliance Repeats Itself
October 15, 2019 by Elizabeth Goitein
Iraq 'Dirty Tricks' Tale Gets Star Treatment, But Big Questions Remain
July 19, 2019 by Viola Gienger
Psy-Ops, Meet Cyber-Ops: U.S. Takes on Russian Trolls
October 29, 2018 by Ben Nimmo
On Big Brother Watch v. U.K.: The Future of Surveillance at Two Europe-Wide Courts
October 15, 2018 by Eleni Kyriakides
New U.K. Law Fails European Court Standards on Mass Interception Disclosed by Snowden
September 27, 2018 by Scarlet Kim
Locking in Transparency on the Vulnerabilities Equities Process
July 27, 2018 by Michelle Richardson
The Intel Community's Annual Transparency Report Raises More Questions Than It Answers
May 14, 2018 by Robyn Greene
Facts on FISA: Correcting the Record on the Section 702 House Floor Debate
January 17, 2018 by Jake Laperruque
Special Edition Podcast: Liza Goitein on Section 702's Reauthorization
January 11, 2018 by John Reed
Deep State Dissonance
January 11, 2018 by Julian Sanchez
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The most significant aspect of DTSA is to provide a federal cause of action for trade secret theft, which had previously been only a matter of state law. However, the new federal statute does not preempt state law claims, thus allowing trade secret owners to also enforce their rights under state common law or statutes which, in most states, follow the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The new Act also does not preclude other claims based on the same facts, such as claims asserting infringement or unfair competition in relation to other recognized forms of intellectual property or rights. This aspect differs from the Uniform Trade Secrets Act enacted in many states.
The new legislation amends the Economic Espionage Act, which had been limited to criminal enforcement of trade secret theft. This change allows private individuals and companies to sue in federal court for trade secret misappropriation. By opening civil filings in federal courts to trade secret owners, the DTSA is believed to provide a better avenue for enforcement, because federal courts are more accustomed to dealing with issues such as ex parte seizures, interstate and international discovery, and difficult issues over injunctive relief. It is also believed that the DTSA will lead to a single body of legal precedent that will minimize the impact of variations between states.
The DTSA is an expansion of intellectual property protection for trade secrets, intended to address differences between state laws and inexperience of state courts with trade secret enforcement, and to help prevent propagation of a misappropriated trade secret. A central feature of the DTSA allows for ex parte seizures during a time when immediate action is needed to halt proliferation or use of trade secrets. However, as the proposed statute evolved to its current form, changes were made to limit such relief to extraordinary circumstances. The Act further specifies that the court must take custody of the seized materials, a hearing must be held within seven days, and a party allegedly harmed by the seizure order may move to dissolve or modify the order.
Another significant aspect of the DTSA is to provide protections for persons who disclose trade secrets in whistle-blower cases, providing immunity from civil liability for those who disclose trade secrets when reporting on a suspected violation of law. Absent such immunity, potential whistleblowers would otherwise be liable under the Act for any acquisition, disclosure or use of trade secrets.
Notably, and as a corollary to the immunity provisions, the DTSA also imposes new documentation requirements on all employers who use confidentiality agreements or other restrictive covenants to safeguard corporate information. Specifically, the DTSA requires that in "any contract or agreement with an employee that governs the use of a trade secret or other confidential information" the employer must "provide notice of the immunity" defined in the DTSA for employees, as noted above. Importantly, the notification requirement applies very broadly to the entire workforce, because "employee" is defined to include contractors and consultants also. Employers who fail to provide the requisite notice in their agreements and policies are penalized, as the DTSA expressly eliminates those employers' rights to seek exemplary damages and/or recoup attorneys' fees when pursuing a trade secret claim involving an employee who did not receive the proper notice. The DTSA allows for the employer's notice to be cross-referenced from appropriate corporate policies, so long as those policies are incorporated properly into the employees' trade secret and confidentiality agreements. Employers must review their trade secret and confidentiality agreements – and related corporate policies – to ensure technical compliance with the DTSA notice mandates going forward, in order to realize the maximum benefits and protections that the DTSA now affords.
The DTSA is a significant development in providing protections for those doing business in the United States. As with other recent changes in the U.S. (including the 2013 amendment of the federal criminal law to enhance fines for trade secret theft and the 2012 Theft of Trade Secret Clarification Act, which addressed situations in which the trade secrets are used in a process), the DTSA solidifies protection of valuable business information for companies, including the ability to enforce against international threats. Japan and Europe recently enacted similar changes. Japan very recently amended its Unfair Competition Prevention Act to close loopholes in the enforcement of trade secret rights of a manufacturing process and to prevent attempted misappropriation of trade secrets. In Europe, the 2015 directive devised by agreement of European Parliament and Counsel provides similar uniformity in specifying what is considered misappropriation of a trade secret and injunctive relief available.
The DTSA passed in the Senate by unanimous vote, quickly passed in the House of Representatives with only two opposing votes, and has now been signed into law in short order. The U.S. is clearly in unison with that strategy, resulting in the long-awaited federal statute providing a civil cause of action and remedies for trade secret misappropriation.
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Wildlife smuggling or trafficking involves the illegal gathering, transportation, and distribution of animals and their derivatives. This can be done either internationally or domestically. "Wildlife smuggling is estimated at $7.8bn to $10bn a year, according to the U.S. State Department. The U.S. State Department also lists wildlife trafficking as the third most valuable illicit commerce in the world." The illegal nature of such activities makes determining the amount of money involved incredibly difficult. When considered with illegal timber and fisheries, wildlife trafficking is a major illegal trade along with narcotics, human trafficking, and counterfeit products.
Products demanded by the trade include exotic pets, food, traditional medicine, clothing, and jewelry made from animals' tusks, fins, skins, shells, horns, and internal organs. Smuggled wildlife is an increasing global demand; it is estimated that the US, China, and the European Union are the places with the highest demand.
Culture
At the core of the illegal wildlife trafficking is a strong and rapidly expanding demand for a variety of products around the world: bushmeat; ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine; exotic pets; jewelry, trinkets, and accessories such as chess sets; furs for uses ranging from coats to traditional costumes; and trophies. With the exception of bushmeat, which is used as a primary source of protein by some cultures, all of these uses of illegally obtained wildlife are trophies, driven by a desire to be seen as more affluent, adventurous, or successful than others.
In many parts of Africa, the main demand for illegal wildlife comes from the consumption of bushmeat. Wild animals are a preferred as a source of protein and primates are considered a delicacy. It is believed that up to 40,000 monkeys are killed and eventually consumed each year in Africa alone via smuggling. Many primates are killed by bushmeat hunters, who supply to markets all over Africa, Europe, and the United States.
Much of demand for rhinoceros horns, tiger bones, and other animal products arises out of the practice of traditional Chinese medicine, which uses these ingredients to treat fevers, gout, and other illnesses; maintain good health and longevity; and enhance sexual potency. Traditional Chinese medicines are taken by hundreds of millions of people. For example, some practitioners drink an expensive liquid made from tiger bones to improve their circulation, treat arthritis, and strengthen the body, in general. The sale of tiger bones and products made from them is an example of the confusion that can exist on the topic. The sale of bones was outlawed in China in 1993; however, a pilot program, established in 2005, allows the use of bones for captive-bred tigers. This can create a confusion in the minds of buyers as to whether the bones were legally obtained. Regardless, tiger wine cannot be sold legally in China, although advertisements for it ran on state television channel in 2011 and journalist attended an auction where tiger wine was offered for sale. Many of the traditional Chinese medicines fail to cure anything, although the demand for them continues to expand greatly and to the detriment of wildlife.
But the most trafficked animal in the world is the pangolin. Pangolins are the only scaly mammal on earth. In the last decade, more than one million pangolins were poached and killed for their scales. Although there are no proven medical values, their scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine and considered a privilege for the wealthy in China and Vietnam.
Exotic pets are animals desired by consumers due to their rarity or simply they are not easily available in the owner's region. Television shows and movies can make certain animals popular. While many of these animals can be obtained from legal sources, many animals are captured from their endemic environments, smuggled across national and International borders, and wind up in family homes, menageries, or roadside circuses. Reptiles, such as bearded dragons and geckos, and birds, such as scarlet macaws and certain falcons, make up the largest share of animals captured and sold. Exotic mammals including three-toed sloths, sugar gliders, prairie dogs, hedgehogs, monkeys and other animals are kept as pets. "Birds are the most common contraband; the State Department estimates that two million to five million wild birds, from hummingbirds to parrots to harpy eagles, are traded illegally worldwide every year." Tigers are a popular pet. An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 tigers (2013) are kept in the United States. The range of numbers is due, in part, to the lack of required reporting in some areas. For comparison, less than 400 of these big cats are in U.S. zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and 3,200 live in the wild. Tropical fish, nonhuman primates, and other animals are also part of the exotic pet trade. The U.S. has very strong natural animal and plant laws. Ivory is the most difficult object to bring in the US.. You cannot buy pearls out of state and bring them in. Most of the countries that have animal laws use the template of CITES. If any animal has outside animal parts coming in, the US will not import it.
Ineffective monitoring of international wildlife trade
The volume of international trade in wildlife commodities is immense and continue to rise. According to an analysis to the 2012 Harmonized System customs statistics, global import of wildlife products amounted to US$187 billion, of which fisheries commodities accounted for $113 billion; plants and forestries for $71 billion; non-fishery animal for $3 billion.
However, the global trade of wildlife commodities is ineffectively monitored and accounted for due to the constraint of the current HS Code System used by the customs worldwide. Majority of international imports of wildlife are only recorded in general categories such as plant or animal products with no further taxonomic detail (this is like importing metals without recording their element identity e.g. copper or iron). It is estimated that near 50% of the global import of plant and 70% of animals product are imported as general categories, with an exception for fisheries (ca. 5%) thanks to various multilateral fishery management agreements that requires taxon-specific fish catch reporting. Furthermore, some frequently traded taxonomic groups including amphibian and live coral are not accounted for at all due to the absence of HS code.
Many jurisdictions relies on the declared HS Code of the consignments for detection and prosecution of illegal wildlife import. The lack of specificity of HS code precludes effective monitoring and traceability of global wildlife trade. There is an increasing call for a reform of the Harmonized System to strengthen monitoring and enforcement of global wildlife trade.
Impact
Economic
Members of terrorist organizations and criminal organizations illicitly traffic in hundreds of millions of plants and animals to fund the purchase of weapons, finance civil conflicts, and launder money from illicit sources. These often transnational efforts require a funding and a network of poachers, processors, smugglers, sellers, and buyers. Well armed, highly organized poaching activities, such as the murderous 2012 attacks in Chad and the Republic of Congo, have captured headlines. The appeal, in part, is the low risk of detection and punishment compared to drug trafficking. In addition, trafficking can reap significant profits for those leading such efforts. For example, a single Ploughshare tortoise from Madagascar (there are only 400 estimated left in the wild) can fetch US$24,000.
Elephant ivory, a commonly trafficked contraband, can sell for little in the source country and can fetch high prices in destination countries. Prices depend greatly on the source country and the product. Ivory prices and demand have skyrocketed, making it a growing and very lucrative market. Globally, The illegal ivory trade activity in 2014 has more than doubled what it was in 2007. China is the largest importer of illegal ivory; the United States is second."According to reports from wildlife organization Save the Elephants, the price for raw ivory in China was $2,100 per kilogram." Between 2010 and 2012, up to 33,000 elephants were poached and killed on average each year. Wildlife smuggling presents an economic cost to the countries where it occurs, including lost tourism and development opportunities.
Health
The spread of animal-borne disease affects both human health as well as threatening indigenous wildlife and natural ecosystems. According to the United States Government Accountability Office, nearly 75% of emerging diseases that reach humans come from animals. The link between wildlife trafficking and disease outbreak is questioned, although outbreaks of certain diseases have suspected links to smuggled animals.
Diseases believe to have originated and spread by wildlife smuggling
SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is caused by a virus and infects both humans and wildlife. Experts suspect that the SARS virus originated in the China due to contact between a civets (wildcats common in Chinese trade) and humans.
Avian flu (H5N1) is caused by a highly pathogenic virus. It can infect humans through contact with infected crested hawks and other wild birds, but can be transmitted by contact with poultry as well.
Monkeypox is an infectious disease found in Africa's wildlife that can spread to humans.
Ebola Virus is a rare infectious disease that is transmitted from wild animals (chimpanzees, monkeys, gorillas, fruit bats, etc.) to human populations. The transmission of the virus usually occurs through consuming the infected animals, close quarters, or bodily liquid contact.
Diseases linked to animal species that are targets of wildlife smuggling
Herpes B virus is a virus found among macaque monkeys that can be transmitted by bites or scratches to humans in extremely rare cases. If not treated soon after exposure, severe brain damage or death can follow infection.
Salmonella infection can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. Infections have been linked to contact with turtles, bearded dragons and other reptiles.
Environmental
Wildlife smuggling directly affects the biodiversity of different ecosystems. Certain animals are in higher demand by smugglers, leading to a visible decline of these species in their native habitats. Wildlife smuggling may also cause the introduction of invasive and harmful species into an ecosystem, which can endanger indigenous wildlife by putting a strain on the environment's resources through interspecific competition between species. Throughout the last hundred years, around twenty animals are extinct due to poaching and illegal smuggling, such as the West African black Rhinoceros, Pyrenean Ibex, Passenger Pigeon... Unfortunately, poaching and illicit hunting may cause extinction for new 7 species like Ploughshare Tortoise, Red-Fronted Macaw...
International control measures
Increasingly interconnected globalization increases international trade in a wide variety of products, extending even to exotic animal products. Traders and consumers who still participate in the international exotic animal market ignore the detrimental effects of depleting our environment and ecosystem and instead give priority to individual consumer benefits, such as monetary gains or high fashion. Some people and groups have realized these choices cannot be sustained or tolerated.
Many species are not protected until they are endangered, this delay in protection results in significant losses of biodiversity in the ecosystem. Legislation, such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA), serves to regulate human environmental intervention on the international scale to protect and preserve "species of fish, wildlife, and plants (that) have been so depleted in numbers that they are in danger of or threatened with extinction" and their habitats and to hold those in violation of it accountable. As the international community increases efforts in monitoring and controlling environmental damage, the United Nations aims to create more protected habitats and ecosystems through initiative like the Sustainable Development Goal 15.
Wildlife trafficking is a rising international crisis that is not only taking away animal rights but also threatening the world on global environmental, social, and economic levels. It's contributing to an illegal economy and having detrimental effects on humans' well-being. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) works along with international treaties like Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), aiming to combat transnational crimes and make joint efforts for wildlife protection. The penalties as a result of breaking these laws are fines as small as $500 per violation and as large as $25,000 per violation or imprisonment up to 6 months. These laws are weakened by these limited penalties and extensive exceptions. These exceptions include "scientific purposes or to enhance the propagation or survival of the affected species…, undue economic hardships…, and Pre-Act endangered species parts exemption; application and certification; regulation; validity of sales contract; separability; renewal of exemption; expiration of renewal certification."
Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking
The Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT) was established in 2005 by the U.S. State Department as a voluntary coalition of governments and organizations that aims to end the illegal trade of wildlife and wildlife products. CAWT currently includes six governments and thirteen international NGOs. Their means of action include raising public awareness to curb demand, strengthening international cross-border law enforcement to limit supply, and endeavoring to mobilize political support from upper echelons.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wild Enforcement Network
The Freeland Foundation and TRAFFIC Southeast Asia worked with the Thai government and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to establish the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) in 2005. ASEAN-WEN oversees cross-border cooperation and aims to strengthen the collective law enforcement capacity of the ten ASEAN member countries. It is the largest regional wildlife law enforcement collaboration in the world and receives support from the United States Agency for International Development.
South Asian Enforcement Network
The South Asian Enforcement Network (SAWEN) was created with the help of CAWT and TRAFFIC. In 2008, South Asian environment ministers agreed to create SAWEN under the support of the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme. The SAWEN countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) directs its efforts at the supply side of wildlife smuggling. It aims to end wildlife smuggling and to ensure that international trade does not threaten endangered species. For example, Vicuna, the smallest member of the camelid family, was endangered because it was massively hunted for its wool. But after the Vicunas were under the protection of CITES, their numbers increased to reach 350,000 by 2008.
By country
Australia
International trade of Australia's wildlife is regulated under Part 13A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The same act implements provisions of CITES and the UN Biodiversity Convention in relation to imports of threatened biodiversity and wildlife.
Ecuador
Latin America is vulnerable to wildlife smuggling because of its biodiversity. Ecuador is known for its biodiversity. In northern Ecuador, the Yasuní National Park and the surrounding Waorani Ethnic Reserve, which cover about 1,770 square miles, are home to around 4,000 species of plants; numerous animals, including the giant river otter; more than 400 fish species; and more than 500 species of birds. As a comparison, the United States is home to 900 species of birds. Commonly smuggled birds include the scarlet macaw; this colorful bird, with bright red, brilliant blue, yellow, and white feathers, is in high demand as a pet. Animals stolen in Latin America often end up in Europe, the United States, or Japan. Though there are laws against wildlife smuggling, the lack of resources causes conservation to be low in priority.
Mexico
China has become involved in wildlife trafficking, another aspect of its illegal activities in Mexico that include involvement in drug trafficking and other organized crime.
See also
CITES – Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
Environmental crime
IUCN Red List – International Union for the Conservation of Nature, list of threatened species
Poaching
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife management
Wildlife farming
Wildlife smuggling hubs in Asia
Wildlife trade
Wildlife smuggling in southern Africa
Endangered species
Notes
References
External links
ASEAN-WEN official website
FREELAND Foundation official website
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) official website
USA branch of EIA
TRAFFIC official website
Pangolins
Wildlife law
Environmental crime
Organized crime activity
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I'm in the same boat. However, unless they can better support their products, I doubt will ever buy Rocketfish again.
Yeah, those went for $6.99; I got there too late, guy sold them out. Now somebody's got them on there for $24.75 Seriously ? Someon trying to make a few bucks !? Since Rocketfish is a Best Buy - owned company I say we just keep bugging them to make them available. I would be willing to pay $5 - $10 a pair for them, but no more than that.
However they do not ship to Canada and they recently closed all the Best Buy stores locally.
Do you have an alternate place to order them, or should I just check out ebay?
I've had these headphones for a few years now they are awesome.
Unfortunately, we only have the replacement available through our partstore.com site.I would recommend using an alternative website if they ship to Canada. So glad you like them!
I'm sorry I couldn't assist you further in this case.
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Just finished watching the PBS Frontline program Inside the Teenage Brain. This should be required viewing for parents, junior high, middle school, and high school teachers, principals, school board members. If you missed it you can watch it online here.
Cartoonist, Jim Borgman added commentary along with strips from his true-to-life comic strip, Zits.
Which A.A. Milne character are you?
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You have two ways that you can change this setting.
On the Internet Explorer menu bar, click on Tools and then Internet Options.
Click Ok, you may have to restart Internet Explorer for your settings to take affect.
Click on File and the Page Setup.
Put a Check in the Print Background Colors and Images checkbox.
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On the browser menu bar, click on File and then Page Setup.
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Residents within the North London Waste Authority Area (which includes Islington) can book a free collection from their property of large electrical items from Clearabee. Residents should not email Clearabee but telephone them on 0330 088 1085 for access to the free collection service. As a guide, large electricals are items bigger than a microwave that will not fit into the borough's electrical collection banks. The Clearabee telephone line is open Mon-Fri between 9am to 5pm.
For more information please visit Wise up to waste website.
These banks can recycle any electrical item that is small enough to fit in the chute such as hairdryers and two-slice toasters. (The size of most of the bank chute holes is 520mm x 510mm).
Find your nearest electrical recycling site below.
The electrical locations are red on the map.
Items should be small enough to fit through s chute hole 520mm by 510mm.
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Scary Little Girls Cabaret from Scary Little Girls on Vimeo.
Join hosts Maria (glamour puss, academic, thespian) and her assistant Brannie (dogsbody, ensemble cast, backstage crew) in their chaotic attempt to homage the Bronte family! Combining comedy, storytelling, music and games, this shows of wuthering delights was hailed by Three Weeks as 'the anarchic love child of French and Saunders and Hinge and Brackett'.
A delight for literature aficionados and theatre fans alike – and of course every devoted Brontephile!
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The 05 Most Admired Leaders in Management Consultancy, 2021
Lynne Peyton: Reforming Leadership with Innovative Ideas
Fostering Opportunities
Jahanara Miotto: Helping Pharma and Life Sciences Companies Transform to a Data-Driven Business
Karen Hollenbach: Enabling you to Leverage the Power of LinkedIn
Joan DaVanzo: Leading in Health Economics Consulting
Reasons to opt for management consulting
Leading the Way with New Management Ideas
To build a better business, it is vital to choose the right leader to lead the and the team to success. Management consultancy is a booming domain that throws light on the importance of good leadership. Leaders are born with a vocation to lead and inspire. Everyone looks up to a leader as a role model to emulate, which gives birth to new leaders and keeps the cycle going. Every business leader is inspired by something or someone that has led them to success. Be it their passion, hard work or determined spirit, every business leader has an exceptional story that makes their journey an inspiring one.
Beyond Exclamation recognizes the work of such inspiring personalities in management consultancy and has dedicated this issue titled, "The 05 Most Admired Leaders in Management Consultancy, 2021". Featuring as the cover story of this edition is the journey of Lynne Peyton, Change Management Specialist and Founder, Organisational Consultant and Personal Coach to Senior Managers; Lynne is also the founder of Lynne Peyton Consulting. Her story highlights the milestones of success that Lynne has achieved as a leader and an exceptional coach. She has led organisations to success with passion, innovative ideas and strategic planning. Specialising in developing top teams, Executive coaching, increasing communication, efficiency and effectiveness, Lynne has redefined the operations of management in a phenomenal way.
We have also put together a few more articles that capture the journey of noteworthy personalities and business leaders from the industry. Inclusive are a few inspiring insights shared by Karena Belin, CEO & Co-Founder of WHub; Jahanara Miotto, President of Metrendalytics Consultants; Karen Hollenbach, Founding Director of Think Bespoke and Joan DaVanzo, CEO of Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, LLC.
Every story brings out the unique thoughts of each leader as a source of inspiration and motivation for our patrons. Happy reading!
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Sue Alexander
About Sue
Sue grew up in West Yorkshire. Sue is an English graduate who went on to study law at Leeds Metropolitan University and take her Common Professional Examination and Law Society Finals. She then joined Berwin Morley Bloomer in Harrogate to do her training, qualifying as a solicitor in 1996.
After working in Peterlee and Darlington, Sue took a break to raise her family. At the same time her husband, who works in the chemicals industry, was relocated to Nottingham and so when Sue returned to work in 2004, she joined Nottingham firm Jackson Quinn. She and her husband returned to Teesside a couple of years later and Sue then joined Clark Willis where she spent 8 years working in both their residential property and wills and probate departments. Sue joined Close Thornton in August 2015 and became a Partner of the firm in May 2017.
Sue has been a member of Solicitors for the Elderly since 2011.
Email Sue Directly
Residential Conveyancing and Wills and Probate
In addition to enjoying time with her own 3 children, Sue has been a Brownie Guider for many years and greatly values all of the experiences and the friendships that this has brought her. As one might expect of an English graduate, she has an abiding love of theatre and literature and she is also a keen walker, cook and baker.
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<?php
namespace Config;
use CodeIgniter\Validation\CreditCardRules;
use CodeIgniter\Validation\FileRules;
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class Validation
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The experiment investigates the optimism bias with event-related potentials and involves the recording of electrical brain activity with EEG (electroencephalography). This is a safe, harmless and non-invasive technique that involves the fitting of a cap with electrodes on the scalp. During the experimental session, the participant will be shown a series of statements on the computer screen and will be asked to make judgements on them while the electrical brain activity will be recorded. The study will take place at the Department of Psychology of Kingston University (Penrhyn Road campus) under the supervision of Dr Giulia Galli. Overall, the experimental session will last about one hour and half, including preparation for the EEG recording.
We are looking for a particular demographic population to research (people who are 65 years old and above, and native English speaker).
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Israel, (a theocracy), in a confusing move, has dismantled a synagogue. Military analysts are theorising that Sharon was drunk and hit the wrong button when inputting what he wanted destroyed. Probably Tapuah West synagogue was right next to The West Bank.
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Do not walk through flowing water. Drowning is the number one cause of flood deaths, mostly during flash floods. Currents can be deceptive; 6 inches of moving water can knock you off your feet. If you walk in standing water, use a pole or stick to ensure that the ground is still there.
Do not drink or eat, even after boiling, anything that may have come in contact with floodwater. Floodwater is a breeding medium for bacteria and contains human, animal and industrial wastes. Remember that your tap water, whether it comes from a well or a public water source, is contaminated after a flood.
Look out for animals, especially snakes. Small animals that have been flooded out of their homes may seek shelter in yours. Use a pole or a stick to poke and turn things over and scare away small animals.
Look before you step. After a flood, the ground and floors are covered with debris including broken bottles and nails. Floors and stairs that have been covered with mud can be very slippery. Even roads may be weak.
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Steady and dynamic shear measurements are utilized to characterize the rheological behavior of Trichoderma reesi RUT-C30 fungal suspensions during batch growth on xylose (soluble substrate) or cellulose (particulate solid substrate) at three different fermentor impeller speeds (250, 400 and 550 rpm). Biomass concentrations versus time were unimodal on xylose and bimodal on cellulose. This behavior is consistent with relatively rapid, early growth on easily metabolized growth medium components (yeast extract), followed by a second, slower growth phase due to hydrolysis of recalcitrant cellulose by increasing cellulase concentrations. Critical dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration for T. ressei growth on cellulose was found to be 0.073 mmol/L. The DO was kept above this level by supplementing air feed with pure oxygen, implying that mass transfer limitations were not the cause of bimodal cell growth. Steady shear rheological data showed shear thinning behavior and a yield stress for all broth samples regardless of substrate. Casson and Herschel-Bulkley constitutive equations fit steady shear data well. Dynamic shear measurements on broth suspensions indicated a "gel-like" behavior at low strains, with micro structural breakdown at larger displacements. Time variations of the Casson model parameters (yield stress and Casson viscosity) and dynamic moduli (elastic and vscous modulus) strongly followed biomass profiles: a single maximum in all rheological variables resulted when cells were grown on xylose, or on cellulose at impeller speeds of 400 or 550 rpm, and dual maxima were observed for cellulose - grown cells at 250 rpm.
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I don't know where I'm headed, but I walk ahead sure I'm going somewhere.
Onward toward the sound of laughter and good spirits.
I leave all the negativity in my wake.
I cannot predict how my story ends, but when it does I hope my eulogy is delivered to the host of those I've touched.
Family, friends, acquaintances, coworkers, clientele; all in attendance remembering me fondly.
I hope they'll say I was positive, generous, fun, humorous, sharing, caring, and many other descriptives I aspire to be.
I hope that day is not sad.
I want it to be a celebration of life; the lives of those I encountered while still alive; of the friends long past and of the new life of the babies of all my people.
If I die today I promise I'll have been satisfied.
I am young, but I've loved, I've traveled, I've competed, and I've engaged.
There is no need for sadness at my passing.
I take these steps in my journey with a full belly, heart, and soul.
I live for, through, and with all of you; those I've known and loved.
Feel free to leave a comment if this piece speaks to you or if you have anything to add.
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The accident happened around 7:52 am on the westbound side of Interstate 10 near California Street. A white 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe collided with a 205 Harley Davidson motorcycle for an unknown reason.
At least one person was rushed to a hospital, and their condition is unknown at this time. The accident remains under investigation to determine cause and liability at this time.
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This beautiful block of Victorian shops will be remembered by many as the Redmayne & Todd Sports shop that occupied the main corner section for may years. Before the advent of large out of town sports outlets, this company was THE sports retailer in the city. I believe that they still survive and now trade from premises in the nearby Broad Marsh shopping centre.
It is to be hoped that this fine block of old shops will be retained in the planned redevelopment of this area.
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Q: Share Cookies between certain sub-domains I have looked around StackOverflow and already found (1, 2, 3, 4)some useful info but not the exact use case that I'm trying to solve.
I'm trying to share information through server cookies for three or four different apps that share a domain but the sub-domains are a bit unusual. Moreover, I'd like to separate the cookies for the development/staging environment from the live/production environments so that cookies created by the Live environment are not readable when visiting the staging ones.
So, this is how my domains look like:
application 1) staging: "stgApp1.MyCompany.com", Live: "app1.MyCompany.com"
application 2) staging: "stgCase.App1.MyCompany.com", Live: "case.App1.MyCompany.com"
//Please note that application 2 is a certain use-case of application 1
application 2) staging: "stgApp3.MyCompany.com", Live: "app3.MyCompany.com"
Can I add these domains to each cookie individually?
Let's say something like this:
mycookie.domain="stgApp1.MyCompany.com,stgCase.App1.MyCompany.com,stgApp3.MyCompany.com"
or should I create three individual cookies for the staging environment and three for the live environments?
P.S. If it helps I'm writing the code in C#.
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in: Season 1 Characters, Characters, Recurring Characters, Living Characters
Arnold Pinter
US Marshals (Informant), bookie
Arnold Pinter is a recurring character in the first season of the FX series Justified. Arnold Pinter is a freelance "fixer", bookie, and a confidential information to the US Marshals. Rachel explains that Pinter becomes the responsibility of whoever the rookie Marshal is in the office, a duty that was once held by Tim Gutterson, but gets passed onto Raylan Givens. Pinter appears in two episodes in the first season, the first being Fixer, in which he is held hostage by his girlfriend Samantha, client Travis Travers, as well as his "collector" Curtis Mims. He has a brief appearance in "Hatless", where he provides Raylan with information about Wynn Duffy. Pinter was portrayed by guest star David Eigenberg.
Pinter is a fast and smooth talking bookie and "fixer" from Brooklyn, New York. Pinter has a reputation as being a "snitch" and originally provided Tim with information for the US Marshals until becoming Raylan's responsibility. Pinter also gave Raylan the information needed to track down an escaped convict named Tiny Winfield, who had taken refuge at his wife's house. Pinter is also seen to be very friendly with women, often flirting and having casual conversations with the waitresses in the bar.
Raylan first visits Pinter in the episode "Fixer", after being assigned Pinter as an informant. Pinter sits in the back of a bar, served by Samantha, who is also his girlfriend. Pinter explains to Raylan exactly what it is that he does, before providing the information Raylan needs about "Tiny" Winfield. The next morning, a collector for Pinter named Curtis Mims visits him at the bar, and Pinter explains that a client of his named Travis Travers owes him $16,500 and Curtis agrees to go collect it for him. However, Travis admits to not having the money but rather that he can double it by robbing Pinter's house. The two (along with Pinter's girlfriend) tie Pinter up to a chair and put a bag over his head. Travis removes the bag as well as a cloth that was stuffed into Pinter's mouth to gag him, and Curtis brings Samantha into the room, threatening to "prune" her fingers. Pinter knows that she is in on the scheme due to the fact he is the one that told her about his escape fund. Travis soon gets greedy and decides he wants all the money for himself (as well as the reward the Marshals are giving Pinter for the information he gave), and kills Curtis in the backyard while they are practicing drawing in order to help Curtis beat Raylan. Samantha has a change of heart and unties Pinter and gives him the gun from Curtis. The two hide out in the hallway while the gunfight between Travis and Raylan goes on. As Raylan goes to walk through a door, Pinter mistakenly shoots him. Raylan is saved by his kevlar vest. Raylan hears Travis coming through the door behind him and shoots through the door, killing Travis. At the end of the episode Pinter lets Samantha go because she was just doing what he taught her and is given $20,000 reward money for telling the Marshals about Tiny. He plans to go to Tahiti when he has enough money.
In his next and last appearance, in "Hatless", Pinter is back from Tahiti ("It ain't like the postcard"), and with his eyes set on a new waitress, Gale. Raylan visits him in order to get information about Wynn Duffy. Pinter warns Givens that Duffy is a "mercurial" and in the hire of one Emmitt Arnett. He explains further that when the economy turned, Arnett realized that he could take people's money legitimately, and if they can't pay him back, he takes their money and more.
Tim Gutterson: U.S. Marshal
Raylan Givens: U.S. Marshal
Curtis Mims: Collector, deceased
Travis Travers: Client, deceased
Samantha: Girlfriend
Season one appearances
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January home sales figures show inventory shortage persists
Updated: Jan. 10, 2019, 9:03 a.m. | Published: Feb. 15, 2013, 2:57 p.m.
A pre-sold home under construction at Arbor Oaks in North Bethany.
By Elliot Njus | The Oregonian/OregonLive
January brought a surge in home listings, but brisk sales left the market looking just as picked-over as in December.
The home sales numbers from the
Regional Multiple Listing Service
suggest no relief to the inventory crunch that started in the early months of 2012 and persisted through the rest of the year. However, the month did show improvement in sales and prices compared with a year earlier.
The tight market has left some buyers frustrated with the lack of selection and the quick decision-making required to nail down a home.
About 1,300 homes were sold in January, 9.8 percent more than the same month a year earlier. Another 1,900 went under a contract during the month, and most of those deals will be finalized in coming months.
But with only 2,400 homes newly listed for sale -- 6.7 percent fewer than a year earlier -- the overall inventory of homes for sale rose by just a handful of houses in a month usually characterized by a rebound from the holiday lull.
"Everyone's got a buyer, but they just can't find a listing," said Jeff Bale, a managing broker at
Redfin for Portland-Vancouver
By the end of the month, only 6,366 houses were listed for sale. At January's rate of sales, those homes would be sold in 4.7 months. Six months is considered a balanced market, and anything below suggests demand exceeds supply.
"We continue to see lots and lots of multiple-offer type situations," said Bill Berger, a managing principal broker with
Hasson Co. Realtors in Lake Oswego
. "To me, that just says we've got really high demand right now."
Would-be homebuyers who put off their search while prices were falling are now showing up, lured also by interest rates that remain near record lows. On Thursday, Freddie Mac reported the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan was 3.53 percent, near the 3.31 percent record low reached in November.
The median price for homes sold in January was $248,000, up 19.5 percent from $207,500 a year ago and virtually unchanged from a month earlier. Pricing statistics from sales can be affected by the types of homes sold during the month, and the increase in part reflects a smaller share of deeply discounted foreclosures and short sales.
"The distressed property sales are way down," Berger said. "I was really kind of stunned at how few short sales and bank owned properties came into the market during the month of January."
Another contributing factor may be an influx of move-up buyers, who find themselves with greater buying power at lower interest rates, Bale said.
On average, homes spent 114 days on the market from listing to closing, about three weeks less than a year ago.
Elliot Njus
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Q: Why does casting the same two numbers to Object make them not equal? I have following code snippet but I am getting wrong output.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var i = 10000;
var j = 10000;
Console.WriteLine((object) i == (object) j);
}
}
I was expecting true but I am getting false
A: You are using == that by default invokes ReferenceEquals. You should use:
Console.WriteLine(((object)i).Equals((object)j));
A: You are boxing the numbers (via the object cast) which creates a new instance for each variable. The == operator for objects is based on object identity (also known as reference equality) and so you are seeing false (since the instances are not the same)
To correctly compare these objects you could use Object.Equals(i, j) or i.Equals(j). This will work because the actual runtime instance of the object will be Int32 whose Equals() method has the correct equality semantics for integers.
A: because you are comparing two differents objects, that the reason.
A: They are two different objects and will never be equal. Their values are equal.
A: Operators are overloaded, not overridden. This means that the actual method that will be invoked is determined at compile time instead of at runtime. To understand this difference, you should think of it like this:
Suppose you have the following code
public class MyBase
{
public virtual void DoSomething() { Console.WriteLine("Base"); }
}
public class A : MyBase
{
public override void DoSomething() { Console.WriteLine("A"); }
}
public class B : MyBase
{
public override void DoSomething() { Console.WriteLine("B"); }
}
Now you can create an instance of A and B:
MyBase a = new A();
MyBase b = new B();
a.DoSomething(); // prints "A"
b.DoSomething(); // prints "B"
What happens is that every instance of MyBase contains a hidden reference to a vtable that points to the actual implementation of DoSomething() that must be invoked. So when the runtime needs to invoke DoSomething() on a, it will look at the vtable of a and will find the version that prints "A". The important part is that this happens at runtime.
Now when you overload a method, you create a method with the same name, but with a different signature.
public class C
{
public void Print(string str) { Console.WriteLine("string: " + string); }
public void Print(int i) { Console.WriteLine("int: " + i); }
public void Print(object obj) { Console.WriteLine("object: " + obj.ToString()); }
}
var c = new C();
c.Print("1"); // string: 1
c.Print(1); // int: 1
c.Print((object)1); // object: 1
This time the compiler decides which method is invoked instead of the runtime. And the compiler isn't very smart. When it sees (object)1, it sees a reference to an object, and the compiler tries to find a version of Print() that can take an object as argument.
Sometimes the compiler finds two versions that could be used. For example, "1" is a string, but it is also an object, so both the first and the third version of Print() are capable of accepting a string. In this case the compiler chooses the version that has the most specific argument types. Sometimes the compiler can't choose, like in the following example:
public static void Print(string a, object b) { Console.WriteLine("V1"); }
public static void Print(object a, string b) { Console.WriteLine("V2"); }
Print("a", "b"); // does this print "V1" or "V2"?
In this case, none of the versions is more specific than the other, so the compiler produces a compiler error: The call is ambiguous between the following methods or properties: 'Test.Program.Print(string, object)' and 'Test.Program.Print(object, string)'
As I said in the beginning, the == operator is overloaded. This means the compiler chooses which version to use. The most generic version is the one where both operands are of type Object. This version compares references. This is why (object) i == (object) j returns false.
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Match Jong Ajax vs NEC Nijmegen results and Live score on footlive.com. Jong Ajax - NEC Nijmegen match for Netherlands: Eerste Divisie starts on 09/11/2018 at 19:00 UTC/GMT. With footlive.com you can follow Jong Ajax results and NEC Nijmegen results. Live results, Goal Scorers , Half Time result, Full-Time result, 2nd Half result, h2h, head to head, line ups, goals, red cards, yellow cards, statistics, betting, follow the game with foot live.
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There is a good reason that people are advised to visit a dentist at least twice a year. While the human teeth and the enamel that protects them are incredibly strong, they are also incredibly vulnerable to damage. Once even slight damage occurs, further damage is inevitable without immediate treatment. Although modern restorative dentistry offers many excellent solutions for repairing teeth that have suffered moderate to severe damage, it is far better to address potential oral health problems in their earliest possible stages - preferably even before they have a chance to begin.
One of the most common dental problems facing even those people who take relatively good care of their teeth is tooth erosion. Fortunately for patients of Southwind Dental Care in Memphis, tooth erosion treatments are available. In addition, we educate our patients about the many ways they can improve and extend the health of their teeth so that they can enjoy good oral health and thousands of beautiful, healthy smiles for a lifetime.
Natural tooth enamel is a remarkably strong and resilient substance; nevertheless, it is still susceptible to damage. In particular, it can be eaten away by the acids in the mouth, as well as the acids that are present in many foods and beverages. While frequent brushing, flossing, and trips to the dentist can minimize the effects of these acids, people who consume lots of acidic foods and liquids and do not have excellent oral hygiene regimens will eventually experience the erosion of the enamel.
Enamel can also be worn down by the acids within the body that can enter the mouth. People who have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or who vomit more than average introduce a variety of acids into the mouth, all of which can damage the teeth and gums. Likewise, the enamel can be damaged by such conditions as bruxism (chronic grinding of the teeth) and dry mouth.
The purpose of tooth enamel is to protect the more sensitive underlying layers of the teeth from exposure to bacteria and food particles. When the enamel becomes worn, the body does not produce more. Once it is gone, it is gone for good. At this point, the underlying layers of the teeth become far more vulnerable to decay, discoloration, breakage, and other damage.
Patients who visit their dentists regularly ensure that enamel erosion is caught in its earliest possible stages, when lifestyle changes may be sufficient to preventing serious damage. Such patients are often advised to limit the amount of acidic foods and liquids - citrus fruits, berries, juices, carbonated beverages, tomatoes, red and white wines, and vinegar, for example – they consume. They may also be advised to improve their oral hygiene regimens and, if necessary, to give up habits that are harmful to the teeth such as smoking and chewing on ice.
If patients are already experiencing advanced erosion of the teeth, a restorative dentistry treatment plan may be in order. Various treatments, including scaling and root planing and dental crowns, may be combined to ensure the best results possible.
To schedule your initial consultation with experienced dentist Timothy S. Messer, please contact Southwind Dental Care today.
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'Singing Jesus Loves Me': Waffle House Victim Died Singing Gospel Songs
Family and friends recalled how DeEbony Groves was always changing her hairstyle. Photos courtesy: Remembering DeEbony Groves page/Facebook.
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." -Romans 8:37
"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
-1Corinthians 15:54-55
A young woman who was killed in the attack by a gunman last week in a Tennessee Waffle House died singing gospel songs, according to CNN.
Walt Ehmer, the restaurant chain's CEO, spoke at the funeral of DeEbony Groves held at the First Baptist Church in Gallatin Saturday. He shared with the audience what a survivor of the April 22 attack at the Antioch restaurant told him. Groves, 21, and her friend were singing gospel songs.
"We went and visited with the survivors, and they talked about the people who were in that restaurant before what happened happened, and specifically remembered your daughter," Ehmer said to the woman's family.
"And (they) spoke of your daughter and her friend, and said they were singing gospel songs. And everybody was singing and enjoying each other and she said, 'The last thing I remember her saying was, singing 'Jesus Loves Me.'"
"All I can tell you is that our Waffle House family is hurting for you, and with you," Ehmer continued.
Groves, a senior Sociology major at Belmont University, was also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She was out on the town with several of her Delta Sigma Theta sorority sisters before going to Waffle House, according to WKRN-TV.
A Facebook page has been set up with photos of the young woman titled "Remembering DeEbony Groves."
The restaurant reopened on Wednesday and the management announced all sales earned by the business through May will be donated to the victims' families, according to the television station.
In addition, a GoFundMe page has been set up by James Shaw, Jr., the man who stopped Travis Reinking, the alleged shooter, and disarmed him. All of the proceeds from the page will also go to the families of the victims. More than $200,000 has been raised in less than a week.
Reinking faces multiple charges in connection with the shooting, including four counts of criminal homicide, four counts of attempted murder and one count of unlawful gun possession in the commission of a felony, according to CNN.
Labels: Christianity
Cashiers Are Becoming Useless And The Cashless Society Is Here As We See Massive Disruptive Technological Changes
Oregon passes bill allowing mentally ill patients to be starved to death
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▼ Sep 04 (15)
Mexico: Soldiers Kill 25 in Gun Battle Near Border
New Arizona Motorcycle Seat
Mexico drug war: the new killing fields
Environmental "Improvement" Board - Holding a Hearing
Kathryn Lopez - The Great Restoration
More Than A Healthy Stock Market?
As the Secretary of State Turns
Forced to be foolishly fuelish
The Income Dilemma
Richardson: Cannon in "good shape" for next BRAC
Dawgs Go To 2-0 Beat Cibola 21-14
Commentary: Mexico needs our help, not our troops
Dems have few options on economy
Holloman chimps heading for new lab tests in Texas
Martinez has high hopes for repeal of medical mari...
Posted by Michael Swickard on Saturday, September 4, 2010
Labels: Border 0 comments
From the Longview TX news-journal.com - by Mark Walsh, Associated Press - MONTERREY, Mexico — A shootout between soldiers and suspected drug cartel members in northeastern Mexico left 25 purported gunmen dead Thursday, the military said. A reconnaissance flight over Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state spotted several gunmen in front of a property, according to a statement from Mexico's Defense Department. When troops on the ground moved in, gunmen opened fire, starting a gunbattle that killed 25 suspected cartel members, according to the military. The statement said two soldiers were injured but none were killed. Earlier, a military spokesman had said the shootout happened when troops on patrol in the town of General Trevino, in neighboring Nuevo Leon state, came under fire from a ranch allegedly controlled by the Zetas drug gang. Read more
The UK Guardian Rory Carroll reports from the centre of drug cartel violence that claimed 28,000 lives - Picture on left - The bloody footprints following one of thousands of murders.
The events which have no name scythe through the valley like invisible reapers. They slice east to west, west to east, a homicidal pendulum. No one sees anything. The pair of human heads left in a coolbox on the corner of the plaza? A mystery. The 18 houses burnt in a single night? An enigma. The doctor and his family who disappeared? A rumour. This much residents do tell you: Juárez valley stretches along the Rio Bravo and used to grow cotton. It roasts by day, shivers by night. Lob a stone over the river and it lands in Texas. Beyond that, conversation tends to dry up. Of the slaughter, of the reason this has become one of the deadliest places on the planet, residents have little to say. At most they refer to "the situation", "the things happening" or, simply, "it". Read more
EIB Greenhouse Gas Proposal
Have you had enough of crazy radical environmental regulations that amount to nothing more than nonsensical intrusions into your life and many millions of dollar in mandatory waste? Unfortunately, what the New Mexico State Legislature won't pass into law because even it has more common sense than the EIB, can be done by aggressive over-reaching internal policy initiatives.
If you think the infusion of dumb ideas into public policy in our state have to end eventually........think again. On Tuesday, September 7, 2010 from 12:00 pm – 6:30 pm the Environmental Improvement Board will offer local citizens an opportunity to provide public comment in Las Cruces on the New Energy Economy and New Mexico Environment Department's Greenhouse Gas proposed rules. If you are wondering about the details of the latest insanity read here: The hearing officer will take comments on both proposals on the same day and will bring a court reporter so that the full board does not have to travel, but can read the transcripts. You can rest assured every whacked out clueless job killing anti-business activist in the area will be on hand to make silly comments that infer these new regulations won't move New Mexico one step closer to California-style bankruptcy. Clear thinking citizens with the time to fight the lunatic ideas might want to plan to attend and let your voice be heard before another nail is driven in our economic coffin.
Kathryn Lopez
We are not the ones we have been waiting for. That was the takeaway message of the recent Restoring Honor rally on the National Mall. Unless you where on a strict no-media diet in the run-up to Labor Day this year, you saw a lot of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin in the coverage of the rally. But the rally Beck organized and where Palin appeared, which honored wounded military heroes, actually had very little to do with the two media darlings. In many ways, I wondered if the title was off. "Restoring Humility" could have been more accurate. It's exactly the right message -- at any time, and especially now. The humility aspect is somewhat foreign to politics, which initially proved confusing to many people. Was this supposed to be a political rally, or a Protestant revival? No one showed up to campaign. No one even claimed God's mandate for his own agenda. Instead, people talked about grace and decency. And Beck talked about something every political pollster and campaign adviser probably advises against: sacrifice. And then it was over. So on the Monday night after the Mall rally, radio host Mark Levin did what needed to be done. He hit the airwaves and properly closed the affair: "Any society that is not rooted in God-given natural law is a society that will ultimately destroy itself. No question. It is a society that will become tyrannical. It is a society spiraling out of control -- like our society. The Founding Fathers knew this." Read more here:
NewsNM - Yesterday the Labor Department announced that the nation's unemployment rate jumped to 9.6%. In his national address this morning President Obama tried to deflect mounting criticism of his administration's economic polices. President Obama said,"So this Labor Day, we should recommit ourselves to our time-honored values and to this fundamental truth: to heal our economy, we need more than a healthy stock market; we need bustling Main Streets and a growing, thriving middle class."
We need MORE than a healthy stock market? This seems to infer that we actually have a healthy stock market. We don't. Is a healthy stock market important? It is critical. It was the healthy stock market that produced the ballooning capital gain tax revenues that flooded the Clinton Administration's treasury department. Those revenues allowed Clinton to take credit for balancing the federal budget. Of course when the stock market retreated dramatically the final year of the Clinton presidency, the resulting revenue trough and return to budget imbalance landed in the lap of his successor. Neither Clinton nor Bush ever reigned in the kind of spending increases that kill stock markets. But during his window of time in the spotlight, Clinton enjoyed a "healthy stock market." Is this simple truth forgotten. It would seem so.
If America wants more jobs and prosperity it will have to be accompanied by a healthy stock market. Unfortunately, with national economic confidence incinerated one has to wonder why would the president make the statement, "We need more than a healthy stock market." Was this chide an intentional slap against people with retirement accounts? These folks are praying for a return to decent returns on their holdings. Was it a scoff at retirees living on their investments? Was it a smack at public and private pension funds everywhere that fund monthly checks to beneficiaries out of their investments? Does Washington realize that with the Federal Reserve making sure its monetary policy allows the federal government to borrow trillions of dollars at bargain basement interest rates, that all citizens with savings including the "middle class" are getting hosed? We think not.
Who knows what the thought processes are inside the heads of those composing these canned dumbing down messages that come out of Washington. A few things seem increasingly clear. With no management experience, no business experience, and even precious little political experience in the White House, it looks like investors are going to have to wait a little longer for Washington to differentiate between the trailer and the engine.
Mary Herrera
The soap opera in the Secretary of State office in New Mexico continues. From NMPolitics.net -Two new media reports indicate trouble in Secretary of State Mary Herrera's office, with one quoting former employees about the issues in her office and the other citing e-mails that indicate that some office employees were being paid by taxpayers while they worked on Herrera's campaign. The Rio Grande Sun came out with the report about the e-mails. From the article: Read more here:
Shuckins! At my gas station this week was the dreaded note on the pump: "This gasoline now contains ethanol." I have changed stations several times this last year to keep from buying E10, gasoline laced with 10 percent ethanol. This move to ethanol laced gasoline is political in nature. I have three major objections to being forced to use E10. First, the BTU (energy) content of E10 is not as high as regular gasoline, so I surrender gas mileage. I already drive carefully and under the speed limit to boost gas mileage so this will not "break the bank" in my life. However, I do not want to spend money foolishly fuelish. Read more here:
"The Income Dilemma" - by Jim Spence - As of late August, a three-year U.S. treasury note was being offered to income investors at a yield to maturity of .72%. However, this rate is misleading. The yield to maturity rate is BEFORE federal income tax. Persons falling in the maximum tax bracket next year (barring congressional and presidential action) will net an investor .44% after tax on a three-year treasury note. The investment income/retirement math on this proposition is pretty simple. If you want to play it safe (a three year T-Note is relatively safe) and you can live on $36,000 a year in interest income, all you need is $5 million dollars worth of three year treasury notes and you will be right where you want to be.
What is an income investor to do? Interest rates on shorter-term instruments are even lower. Interest rates on long term bonds, though higher than on three-year notes, come with serious market value fluctuation risks should rates rise again anytime soon. What is an income investor to do?
Seeking higher income streams can be a dangerous proposition; reach for too much yield and the chance of getting burned grows exponentially. If there is one thing we have learned over the last 27-plus years of experience, it is that what appears to be a reliable credit risk can change rapidly. The bankruptcy of General Motors serves as a chilling reminder of what used to be solid. History is littered with the bankruptcy filings of formerly healthy companies.
What about stocks? Thirty five months ago the S & P 500 Index stood at 1,561. Today the widely followed benchmark hovers just north or south of 1,050. This translates into a 32% decline in three years. What is an income investor to do?
There is plenty of talk around these days about just how risk-averse investors are. This is certainly reflected in bond prices up and down the maturity spectrum. For many years we have been perfectly willing to buy bonds in intermediate and even longer term maturities. Up until now this strategy of going out on the maturity spectrum has been reasonably successful. Nothing ever stays the same forever. For almost our entire career, interest rates have come down from the secular peaks of the early 1980's. Unfortunately, for conservative income-seeking investors, the current interest rate environment is not conducive to respectable rates of return AND price fluctuation safety. Intermediate and long term bonds issued by entities we deem to be safe, are no longer available at what we feel are reasonable prices. Accordingly it will be our strategy to be patient in this environment where bonds are concerned and also actively seek alternative ideas where income streams are higher.
We have always made it our business to keep informed of the fundamental conditions affecting dividend paying common stocks. Though our emphasis has been more acutely sensitive to durable competitive advantage and growth characteristics (when it comes to common stocks), we believe the current interest rate environment has created pricing imbalances in the financial system that may require us to alter our strategies for income investors. While it is undoubtedly true that dividend paying stocks carry risks, we are moving closer to the conclusion that the opportunities in interest bearing instruments are so limited that dividend paying common stocks require our utmost attention. We simply cannot force ourselves to lock in pathetic rates of return on bonds and take the risk of severe price declines prior to maturity. Stay tuned.
Jim Spence has been in the investment business since 1983. He serves as portfolio manager for Spence Asset Management, Inc.in Las Cruces, New Mexico
Posted by Sports Staff
From the Clovis News Journal - Gov. Bill Richardson believes New Mexico always needs to be ready to defend itself for a Base Realignment and Closure round, but Cannon Air Force Base is in good shape. Regarding Cannon Air Force Base, he thought the transition to Air Force Special Operations Command will serve the base well when an inevitable BRAC round comes. "There will be another BRAC round," said Richardson, who took part in the state-wide effort to save Cannon from a 2005 closure recommendation. "I believe Cannon Air Force Base is really strong. It's increasing jobs in the area, it's going to have more functions, it's growing. I would say the Air Force and the military will recommend it not be shut down. We have four bases in New Mexico, so we have to remain vigilant." Read more
LCHS beat Albuquerque Cibola 21-14 at the Field of Dreams last night. The Dawgs got a big game from Xavier Hall who carried the ball 25 times for 167 yards including the winning 72 yeard touchdown run midway through the second quarter. Coupled with a stubborn LCHS defense that shut out the Cougars in the second half, the efforts were good enough for the Bulldawgs to rack up their second win of the season. It looked like a shootout from the start with Cruces taking a 21-14 lead to the half. The Cougars scored on a 90 yard kickoff return early in the second quarter and then another touchdown a few minutes later. But the Cibola offense was stymied by the Bulldawg defense time and time again in the second half. The Cougars were able to make only two first downs after intermission. Other than giving up a huge passing play early in the game, which did not lead to points the Bulldawgs played great defense all night. The good news for the Bulldawgs was they were able to establish Xavier Hall as a second big offensive threat in game two of the young season. This came after quarterback Jeremy Buurma had a big week last Friday night against El Paso Eldorado in the season opener. The win leaves LCHS as the only unbeaten team in the city. Onate fell for the second consecutive week Thursday night at the Field of Dreams and Mayfield lost a controversial heartbreaker in overtime against Montwood in El Paso on Thursday.
Labels: International News, U.S. Politics 0 comments
From McClatchy.com - By Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald - The escalation of drug-related violence in Mexico — including the mass execution of 72 migrants last week — is moving a small but growing number of U.S. foreign policy hawks to call for a radical solution: send in the U.S. Army. I'm not kidding. At first, I thought it was a joke, or the kind of overreaction that is most often confined to the blogosphere. But, increasingly, populist local U.S. officials are seriously talking about sending in U.S. troops to end the drug-related violence that has cost 28,000 lives in Mexico over the past four years, and that occasionally spills over to the U.S. side of the border. Read more
Labels: Commentary, Economics 0 comments
From the Politico - by Ben White - With another tepid jobs report in the books Friday, Democrats desperate for quick policy action to boost the economy face an excruciating dilemma, experts say. The few things that might pass Congress — such as a payroll tax holiday or extended research-and-development tax credits — won't work, or at least not before November's midterm elections, when Democrats face potentially devastating losses. What to do? If you're President Barack Obama, you go out and talk about the economy — in Milwaukee on Monday, Cleveland on Wednesday and at a White House news conference Friday. He's expected to propose some new business tax breaks next week, including possibly a payroll tax break and R&D credits, but the White House said no final decisions have been made. Read more
From the New Mexico Independent - After ten years of retirement at Holloman Air Force Base, more than 100 U.S. government-owned chimpanzees who were used for decades in NASA and federal medical studies, are now heading to a government lab in San Antonio, Texas, for new tests of experimental hepatitis C and hepatitis B vaccines, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Animal rights groups oppose the move and want Congress to enact an outright ban on federal chimpanzee research. Gov. Bill Richardson and U.S. Sen. Tom Udall oppose moving the chimps to Texas. Richardson met with NIH officials last month to lobby for the chimps' continued retirement in Alamogordo, according to the Los Angeles Times. Read more
Martinez has high hopes for repeal of medical marijuana
From the New Mexico Independent - by Trip Jennings - Republican Susana Martinez has said she would work to repeal New Mexico's medical marijuana program if she's elected governor. But undoing the state's three-year-old medical marijuana law would represent a major undertaking. There are only two routes — through the Legislature or voter referendum — and neither would be easy. If elected governor, Martinez could appoint a secretary of health hostile to the program, officials said. Because governors control executive branch agencies, the state's chief executive could direct an agency to make regulations so strict that they effectively stop a program's day-to-day operations. Martinez didn't answer our questions about whether she might choose such an option if elected governor. Read more
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Free gallery of gifs of E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialFictional character of the American film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial produced by Steven Spielberg. Enjoy the best animations of this alien.
All the gifs of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in this free gallery to use as you like E.T. is an alien protagonist of the film with the same name. He is lost on Earth and meet Elliot and his brothers. All try to help him to return to his planet (Felucia) with his family. This extraterrestrial is brown, has long arms, big hands and very short legs. It has magical powers, is able to heal wounds touching with his finger. It was one of the most famous aliens from the 80s. If you like this endearing character, here you can download the best animations.
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Rick Barnes saw a lack of consistency in Tennessee's execution against Kansas.
Rick Barnes' displeasure in how his Tennessee basketball team executed against No. 2 Kansas could lead to a lineup change for the No. 7 Vols.
Barnes suggested Tuesday that he will probably start sophomore forward Yves Pons on Wednesday.
"I'm thinking depending on how it goes today in practice," Barnes said.
The Vols (4-1) return to action against Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) at Thompson-Boling Arena.
UT suffered its first loss on Friday night, an 87-81 defeat against Kansas in the NIT Season Tip-Off in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Afterward, Barnes was frustrated by many things beyond the loss itself. He didn't like the volume of 3-point attempts and a lack of free throws. He was bothered by his guard play and he was irked by the lack of consistent execution.
A lineup change could be the result, breaking a starting group that has been steady for the past season-plus. Barnes explained Pons is doing a lot for the Vols through five games, but the potential switch also is a way of challenging his whole roster.
"He's a guy that defends, the way he goes to the basket, making things happen," Barnes said. "I don't want anybody to get comfortable. I want them to know we're willing to make changes up until we're done playing. He works.
The 6-foot-6 Pons, who is averaging 3.0 points and 3.4 rebounds, presumably would start instead of guard Jordan Bowden or forward Admiral Schofield.
Barnes praised the play of center Kyle Alexander and guard Jordan Bone against Kansas, calling Alexander "terrific" and Bone "stellar" in controlling the pace of the game.
After reviewing film of UT's two games in Brooklyn, Barnes' biggest takeaway was a lack of consistency. He saw a Kansas team that stayed within its game plan, while his team wavered.
He estimated UT was consistent in its game plan 85 percent of the game against the Jayhawks. Kansas took advantage of those moments, with Barnes saying UT gave Kansas some free plays and the Jayhawks took advantage.
UT will try to remedy those issues this week, hosting EKU on Wednesday and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Sunday. The Vols then face No. 1 Gonzaga in Phoenix on Dec. 9.
"It goes back to we have to be able to take care of the details for the entire game," Barnes said.
Twenty years ago, Barnes and Mack Brown were hired at the University of Texas within months of each other. They spent the following 15 years working together until Brown's tenure at Texas ended in 2013.
But the longtime college football coach is getting back in the game, returning to coach at North Carolina.
Brown coached at North Carolina from 1988-97 before taking the job at Texas. He won nine games in his first three seasons, then recorded double-digit wins in nine straight seasons. But his final four years in Austin failed to duplicate the same success and Brown resigned in December 2013. He has served as an ESPN analyst for the past five years.
"He will do what he always does," Barnes said. "He will build a program and he will do a great job with the student-athletes. I'm excited for him because I know how it ended for him at Texas. It wasn't the right way. This way, he gets to do it on terms.
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Fantastic 4 - The Thing
The Thing joined his Fantastic Four partner and frequent rival the Human Torch in #124 (1964) of Strange Tales, which then featured solo adventures of the Human Torch and backup Doctor Strange stories. The change was intended to liven the comic through the always humorous chemistry between the Torch and the Thing. They were replaced with the "modern-day" version of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., who was then already appearing in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos in #135 (1965).
Cover to Thing #1, July 1983. Art by John Byrne.
[edit]Marvel Two-in-One (1974–1983)
After a 1973 two issue try-out in issues 11 and 12 of Marvel Feature, the Thing appeared in the long-running series Marvel Two-in-One, which lasted 100 issues with seven annuals. In each issue Ben Grimm would be paired with another character from the Marvel Universe, frequently an obscure or colorful choice. The series was undoubtedly intended to introduce readers to new characters from Marvel's further reaches, by way of the more recognizable Thing's gruff, avuncular, and down-to-earth humor. In 1992, Marvel reprinted four Two-in-One stories (#50, 51, 77 and 80) as a miniseries under the title The Adventures of the Thing.
[edit]The Thing (1983–1986)
The cancellation of Marvel Two-in-One led to the Thing's first completely solo series, which ran for thirty-six issues. It was originally written by John Byrne and then later by Mike Carlin, and drawn first by Ron Wilson and later by Paul Neary. It was notable for elaborating on Ben Grimm's poor childhood on Yancy Street in its first issue, as well as chronicling the Thing's adventures as a professional wrestler.
It also crossed over heavily with Marvel's Secret Wars event, after which the Thing elects to remain on the Beyonder's Battleworld when he discovers that the planet enables him to return to human form at will. A full third of the series' stories (issues 10 through 22) take place on Battleworld.
[edit]The Thing: Freakshow (2002)
In 2002, Marvel released a four-issue miniseries starring the Thing, in which he takes time away from the Fantastic Four to ride the rails across America, inadvertently stumbling on a deformed gypsy boy he once ridiculed as a teenager—now the super-strong main attraction of a troupe of traveling circus freaks--and a town full of Kree and Skrull warriors fighting over a Watcher infant. The series was written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Scott Kolins.
[edit]The Thing: Night Falls on Yancy Street (2003)
In 2003, Marvel released another four-issue miniseries starring the Thing. The story was of a less action-oriented and more character-driven and analytical type than is usual for the Thing. Some reviewers considered the story a nostalgic homage to Silver Age comics, while others found its noir-ish atmosphere "depressing".[3][4] It was written by Evan Dorkin and illustrated by Dean Haspiel.
After the success of the Fantastic Four feature film and events in the Fantastic Four ongoing series which contrived to make Ben a millionaire, the Thing was once again given his own series, written by fan favorite Dan Slott and penciled by Andrea Di Vito and, later, Kieron Dwyer. Despite becoming a critically-acclaimed fan favorite, in the midst of large-scale, company-wide events from both Marvel and DC, The Thing met with low sales and was canceled with #8.
[edit]New Avengers
The Thing has been announced as member of the revamped New Avengers team debuting in 2010.[5]
[edit]Fictional character biography
[edit]Background
Born on Yancy Street in New York City's Lower East Side, to a Jewish[6] family, Benjamin Jacob Grimm had an early life that was one of poverty and hardship, shaping young Grimm into a tough, streetwise scrapper. His older brother Daniel, whom Ben idolizes, was killed in a street gang fight when Ben was eight years old. This portion of his own life is modeled on that of Jack Kirby, who grew up on tough Delancey Street, whose brother died when he was young, whose father was named Benjamin, and who was named Jacob at birth.[citation needed] Following the death of his parents, Ben was raised by his Uncle Jake (who at some point married a much younger wife, Petunia).[7] He comes to lead the Yancy Street gang at one point.[8]
Excelling in football as a high school student, Ben received a full scholarship to Empire State University, where he first meets his eventual life-long friend in a teenaged genius named Reed Richards, as well as future enemy Victor von Doom.[9] Despite them being from radically different backgrounds, science student Richards described his dream to Grimm to one day build a space rocket to explore the regions of space around Mars, and Grimm jokingly agrees to fly that rocket when the day comes.
After finishing college, Grimm joins the United States Marine Corps, where he is trained as a test pilot (his exploits as a military aviator are chronicled to a limited extent in issue #7 of the Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders comic, in a story entitled "Objective: Ben Grimm!"). While in the Air Force, Nick Fury orders him to serve as pilot during a top secret surveillance mission into Vladivostok in the Soviet Union, along with Logan (the future X-Man Wolverine) and Carol Danvers (the future Avenger Ms. Marvel).[10] Following this, he becomes an astronaut for NASA.[volume & issue needed]
The details of his life story have been modified over the years to keep the character current.[citation needed] In the earlier stories, up until the one published in the nineteen-seventies, Grimm had served in the air force during World War II and the space flight in which he was transformed into the Thing was an attempt to reach the Moon, occurring at a time before any manned space ship had escaped Earth's orbit.[11] The Captain Savage story mentioned above was set during the Second World War.
[edit]The Thing
The cover for Fantastic Four #51 (June 1966). Art by Jack Kirby.
Some years later, Reed Richards, now a successful scientist, once again makes contact with Grimm. Richards has built his spaceship, and reminds Grimm of his promise to fly the ship. After the government denies him permission to fly the spaceship himself, Richards plots a clandestine flight piloted by Grimm and accompanied by his future wife Susan Storm, who had helped provide funding for the rocket, and her brother Johnny Storm, who helped the group gain access to the launch system. Although reluctant to fly the rocket, Ben is persuaded to do so by Sue, for whom he has a soft spot. During this unauthorized ride into the upper atmosphere of Earth and the Van Allen Belts, they are pelted by a cosmic ray storm and exposed to radiation against which the ship's shields are no protection. Upon crashing down to Earth, each of the four learn that they have developed fantastic superhuman abilities. Grimm's skin is transformed into a thick, lumpy orange hide, which gradually evolves into his now-familiar craggy covering of large rocky plates. Richards proposes the quartet band together to use their new abilities for the betterment of humanity, and Grimm, in a moment of self-pity, adopts the super-heroic sobriquet, The Thing. The team clashes with the Mole Man in their first appearance.[12]
Trapped in his monstrous form, Grimm is an unhappy yet reliable member of the team. He trusts in his friend Reed Richards to one day develop a cure for his condition. However, when he encounters blind sculptress Alicia Masters,[13] Grimm develops an unconscious resistance to being transformed back to his human form. Subconsciously fearing that Masters prefers him to remain in the monstrous form of the Thing, Grimm's body rejects various attempts by Richards to restore his human form, lest he lose Masters' love. Grimm has remained a stalwart member of the Fantastic Four for years. The Thing first fought the Hulk early in his career,[14] with many such further clashes over the years. Not long after that, he is first reverted to his human form, but is then restored to his Thing form to battle Doctor Doom.[15]
Fantastic Four #310 (January, 198 cool . The Thing gets rockier.
After the events of the first Secret Wars, Grimm leaves the team when he opts to remain on an alien planet where he can control his transformation to and from his rocky super-powered form.[16] Upon returning to Earth, he learns that Alicia had become romantically involved with his teammate Johnny Storm during his absence [17] (it is eventually revealed that this Alicia was actually the Skrull impostor Lyja[volume & issue needed]). An angry Grimm wallows in self-pity for a time, later on joining the West Coast Avengers, and hanging out at the West Coast mansion.[volume & issue needed] Eventually, he returns to his surrogate family as leader of the Fantastic Four when Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman leave the team to raise their son Franklin.[18] Ben invites Crystal and Ms. Marvel II (Sharon Ventura) to fill their slots.[volume & issue needed] Soon after Sharon and Ben are irradiated with cosmic rays, Sharon becomes a lumpy Thing much like Ben was in his first few appearances while Ben mutates into a new rocky form.[19]
After being further mutated into the more monstrous rocky form, Ben was briefly changed back to his human form, and returned leadership of the Fantastic Four to Reed Richards.[20] Grimm once more returned to his traditional orange rocky form, out of love for Ms. Marvel.[21] He remains a steadfast member of the Fantastic Four.
Despite his unquestioned loyalty to the Fantastic Four, Grimm has been temporarily replaced on the team twice. First, after Grimm temporarily lost his powers and reverted to human form,[22] Reed Richards hired Luke Cage (then using the code name "Power Man") to take his place.[23] Years later, after Grimm chose to remain on Battleworld in the aftermath of the "Secret Wars", he asked the She-Hulk to fill in for him.[24]
[edit]In the 21st century
In a Fantastic Four comic published in 2005, Ben learns he is entitled to a large sum of money, his share of the Fantastic Four fortune, which Reed Richards had never touched, as he had the shares of the other teammates (who were family members) in order to pay off various debts of the group. The following year, spurred by the success of the Fantastic Four feature film (of which much of the press was centered on the portrayal of the Thing)[25] under writer Dan Slott, Ben began starring in his first solo title in more than 20 years. Slott's series, though a critical success, suffered from low sales, and was canceled after the eighth issue.
The Thing uses his newfound wealth to build a community center in his old neighborhood on Yancy Street, the "Grimm Youth Center." Thinking the center is named after the Thing himself, the Yancy Street Gang plans to graffiti the building exterior, but discovers the building was actually named after Daniel Grimm, the Thing's deceased older brother, who had been a former leader of the gang. The relationship between the Yancy Streeters and the Thing is then effectively reconciled, or at least changed to a more good-natured, playful rivalry (as exemplified by the comic ending, with Yancy Streeters spray-painting the sleeping Thing).
Some personality traits of the cantankerously lovable, occasionally cigar-smoking, Jewish native of the Lower East Side are popularly recognized as having been inspired by those of co-creator Jack Kirby, who in interviews has said he intended Grimm to be an alter ego of himself.[26] However, as was usual for comic-book characters of that era, no religion was publicly mentioned. Grimm has since been revealed to be Jewish, like Kirby, in Fantastic Four v3, #56, published in August 2002, in a story titled "Remembrance of Things Past". In the final issue of his solo series, Ben even agrees to finally have his very own Bar Mitzvah, it being 13 years since he began his "second life" as the Thing. To celebrate the ceremony, Ben organizes a poker tournament for every available superhero in the Marvel Universe.[27]
[edit]Civil War/The Initiative
Initially in the superhero Civil War Ben is a reluctant member at Iron Man's side, until he witnesses a battle on Yancy Street in which Captain America's forces try to rescue captured allies held by Iron Man's forces. Old Fantastic Four foes the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master try to escalate the battle, using a mind-controlled Yancy Streeter to deliver a bomb. The young man dies and the Thing verbally blasts both sides for not caring about the civilians caught in the conflict. He announces that while he thinks the registration is wrong, he is also not going to fight the government and is thus leaving the country for France. While in France he meets Les Héros de Paris (The Heroes of Paris).[28][29]
Ben returns to New York as both sides of the SHRA battle in the city. Oblivious to whichever side gets in his way, Ben makes it his job to protect civilians from harm.[30] His current status in the aftermath is unknown.
In a March 2007 issue, Ben celebrates the Fantastic Four's 11th anniversary along with the Human Torch, and late-comers Reed and Sue. The aftermath of the Civil War is still being felt in this issue, as Ben and Johnny (and even Franklin) consider the future of the team and Reed and Sue's marriage. When Reed and Sue arrive near issue's end, they announce they are taking a break from the team and have found two replacement members: Black Panther, and Storm of the X-Men. The title of the story in this issue is a quote from Ben, "Come on, Suzie, don't leave us hangin'." [31]
Ben has been identified as Number 53 of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book Avengers: The Initiative #1.[32]
[edit]World War Hulk
Ben once again tries to take on the Hulk within the events of World War Hulk in order to buy Reed Richards the time he needs to complete his plans for the Hulk. Ben gives his best shots, but the Hulk takes his punches without slowing down. The Hulk proceeds to knock out Ben by punching both sides of his head simultaneously and would have delivered a killing blow, if not for the timely arrival of the Sentry; which turned out to be a hologram created by Reed in a failed attempt to calm the Hulk.[33] He is later seen captive in Madison Square Garden, which the Hulk has turned into a gladiatorial arena with an obedience disk fitted on him.[34]
Released from his imprisonment, Ben, Spider-Man, and Luke Cage attack the Warbound, with Ben fighting Korg. Their battle is brought to an abrupt end when Hiroim repairs the damage to Manhattan Island, drawing the energy to do so from Ben and Korg.[35]
[edit]Secret Invasion
In the Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four miniseries, the Skrull Lyja, posing as Sue, sends the Baxter Building, with Ben, Johnny, Franklin, and Valeria inside, into the Negative Zone. Not long after their arrival, Ben has to protect Franklin and Valeria from an impending onslaught of giant insects.[36] With the aid of the Tinkerer, who Ben broke out of the Negative Zone Prison, they, with the exception of Lyja who stayed behind,[37] were able to return to the regular Marvel Universe just after the invasion was over.[38]
[edit]Relationships
Cover to Fantastic Four #112. Art by John Buscema.
Grimm's relationship with his teammates has been a close but occasionally edgy one given his temper. He and the Torch (aka Johnny Storm) are always arguing and have often clashed, causing no end of mayhem in the Fantastic Four headquarters. When Johnny started a relationship of his own with Alicia Masters and they became engaged, Grimm was upset. However, he had to concede that, unlike himself and his stone-covered body, Johnny could "be a man".[39] He even agreed to act as best man at their wedding.[40]
The relationship between Alicia and Johnny was vehemently disliked by many fans,[citation needed] and was later retconned and explained that the Alicia that Johnny fell in love with was actually Lyja, a member of the shape-changing Skrull race. The real Alicia, who was kept in suspended animation, was soon rescued by the Fantastic Four and reunited with the Thing.
Ben began dating a teacher named Debbie Green.[41] Their relationship went so well that, after only six weeks, Ben asked Debbie to marry him, which she accepted.[42] He later left her at the altar when he realizes the dangers of the wives of superheroes.[43]
Grimm calls Reed Richards "Stretch", as appropriate to the fact that he is naturally tall and can literally stretch his body. However, Grimm also holds Reed responsible for his condition since he had dismissed the potential danger of the cosmic rays that gave them their powers, although Grimm had taken them very seriously.[44] At times of real frustration towards Reed, Grimm refers to him simply as "Richards".[45][46]
Grimm is the godfather of Reed and Sue's son Franklin, who affectionately calls him "Uncle Ben".
The Thing has had a long-standing rivalry with the Incredible Hulk. There is a history of fights between the two. They refer to each other as "Grimm" and "Banner".
[edit]Powers and abilities
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2006)
As a result of a mutagenic effect due to exposure to cosmic radiation, the Thing possesses high levels of superhuman strength, stamina, and resistance to physical injury. His strength has continued to increase over the years due to a combination of further mutation and special exercise equipment designed for him by Reed Richards.
He is capable of surviving impacts of great strength and force without sustaining injury, as his body is covered with an orange, flexible, rock-like hide. He is also able to withstand gunfire from high caliber weapons as well as armor piercing rounds. It is possible to breach his exterior however, and he does bleed as a result. The Thing's highly advanced musculature generates fewer fatigue toxins during physical activity, granting him superhuman levels of stamina.
Aside from his physical attributes, the Thing's senses can withstand greater levels of sensory stimulation than an ordinary human, with the exception of his sense of touch. His lungs possess greater efficiency and volume than those of an ordinary human. As a result, the Thing is capable of holding his breath for much greater periods of time.
Despite his brutish, even monstrous form, the Thing suffers no change in his personality nor his level of intelligence. Despite his greatly increased size, the Thing's agility and reflexes remain at the same level they had been prior to his transformation.
The Thing is an exceptionally skilled pilot, due to his time spent as a test pilot in the United States Air Force and as a member of the Fantastic Four. He is also a formidable and relentless hand to hand combatant. His fighting style incorporates elements of boxing, wrestling, judo, jujutsu, and street-fighting techniques, as well as hand to hand combat training from the military.
After an encounter with the Grey Gargoyle, the Thing seemed to have gained the ability to shift between his human and rock forms at will.[volume & issue needed] That ability has since been lost after it was revealed that he spawned clones in an alternate reality every time he changed.[volume & issue needed]
On occasion, when Ben Grimm regained his human form and lost his Thing powers, he used a suit of powered battle armor designed by Reed Richards that simulated the strength and durability of his mutated body, albeit to a weaker degree. Wearing the suit, which was designed to physically resemble his rocky form, Ben continued to participate in the Fantastic Four's adventures. The first exo-skeletal Thing suit was destroyed after Galactus restored Ben's natural powers and form. A second suit was built (presumably by Richards) and used sporadically when Ben had been returned to his human form.[47]
[edit]Other versions
Main article: Alternate versions of the Thing
[edit]In other media
[edit]Television
[edit]1960s
The Thing is a regular character in the 1967 Fantastic Four cartoon, voiced by Paul Frees.
The Thing is a regular character in the 1978 Fantastic Four cartoon, voiced by Ted Cassidy.
Although The Thing has always been closely identified with the Fantastic Four, he did appear as a solo character in a bizarre and short-lived 1979 spin-off of the animated series The Flintstones, entitled Fred and Barney Meet the Thing.
The Thing is a regular character in the 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon, voiced by Chuck McCann.
Thing later appears in the '90s Spider-Man cartoon (voiced by Patrick Pinney) during the "Secret Wars" storyline, along with the rest of the Fantastic Four, and he plays a major role in the final conflict with Doctor Doom. Doom captures the Thing, reverts him back into his human form, uses the information he gives Ben to steal the Beyonder's power, and is only defeated when he turns his own weapon on him.
The Thing also makes a single episode appearance in the '90s Incredible Hulk cartoon, with Chuck McCann reprising Thing. The episode seems to place this show in the same continuity with the Fantastic Four cartoon of the same decade as this episode plays off the Hulk's appearance in the other show. She-Hulk flirted with him, but Ben chose to rekindle his relationship with Alicia Masters.
Thing appears in Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes with the Fantastic Four symbol spray painted onto his chest. He is voiced by Brian Dobson.
Dave Boat voices Thing on The Super Hero Squad Show series on Cartoon Network. He makes a cameo appearance with the other Fantastic Four members in the show's pilot episode, and has a much bigger role on the third episode where he helps save the Silver Surfer.[48]
[edit]Non-traditional appearances
In an episode of Saturday Night Live, Thing was a guest at a party hosted by Superman (Bill Murray) and Lois Lane (Margot Kidder).
[edit]Film
Michael Bailey Smith plays Ben Grimm (with Carl Ciarfalio portraying The Thing) in the 1994 Roger Corman produced The Fantastic Four. Created to secure copyright to the property, the producers never intended it for release although the director, actors, and other participants were not informed of this fact.
The Thing is featured in the 2005 film released by 20th Century Fox, in which he is portrayed by Golden Globe-winner Michael Chiklis. In this film, a small explanation is given for why his physical alterations are the most severe, as he is exposed to the cosmic cloud with the least amount of protection, being outside the space station carrying out surveys while the rest of the team were inside. Although he is briefly cured of his 'condition' when Victor von Doom perfects a chamber that can negate the cosmic radiation that transforms him, after he learns that Doom perfected the process so that he could drain the power of the Thing and use it to enhance his own, he subjects himself to the chamber again so that he can turn himself back into the Thing.
One difference in the film and the comic is Ben's military service. In the comic he was once an Air Force pilot, whereas in the film the Human Torch refers to him as a former SEAL. Another more notable difference is that he got his catch phrase ("It's clobberin' time!") from an action figure the Human Torch had made. Chiklis reprises his role as The Thing in the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. In the film, Grimm serves as the best man at the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm.
On 31 August 2009 Fox announced a reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise.[49][50]
[edit]Video games
The Thing's first video game appearance was in 1984 in the Scott Adams adventure game Questprobe featuring the Human Torch and the Thing which was released for the following 8-bit platforms: Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and a DOS version for the PC.[51]
The Thing's first console appearance was a cameo in the Spider-Man game based on the Spider-Man 1994 animated series for Sega Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. After reaching certain levels of the game, the player can call the Thing a limited number of times for assistance against enemies.
An evil doppelganger of the Thing appears as an enemy in Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems for the SNES.
The Thing is a playable character in the Fantastic Four game for the PlayStation.
The Thing is also playable in the game based on the 2005 film. The game was released on several consoles and the Thing was voiced by Michael Chiklis in the main game- including one level featuring him returned to his usual Ben Grimm identity and having to avoid Doom's robots to reactivate the chamber to restore him to the Thing- and by Fred Tatasciore in the bonus levels.
The Thing and the Human Torch are playable characters in the fighting game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.
The Thing is also a playable hero in the game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance voiced by Gregg Berger. He has special dialogue with Rhino, Human Torch, Karnak, Black Bolt, Lockjaw, Crystal, Uatu, and the Vision. The costumes available for him are his Classic costume, his Ultimate costume, his Original costume, and his Modern costume. A simulation disk has Thing protecting Mr. Fantastic from Rhino on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Omega Base.[52]
The Thing is a playable character in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer voiced by Joey Camen.
The Thing appears in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, in which Fred Tatasciore reprised the role. Like in the comics, Thing tries to stay netural regarding the Superhero Registration Act as re-unlockable character in Act 2.[citation needed]
The Thing appears in the Marvel Super Hero Squad video game, in which Dave Boat reprised his role as voice actor.
[edit]Action Figures
The Thing has been portrayed many times in different action figure lines.
The Thing is the fourth figurine in the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection.
[edit]Popular culture
In The Simpsons episode "I Am Furious Yellow", a senile/insane version of Stan Lee (Comic Book Guy says that Lee's brain is no longer in "near-mint" condition) tries to cram a Thing action figure into a Batmobile toy. Also in the "Treehouse of Horror XIV" story "Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off", there is a quick moment where the Simpson family members are turned into members of the Fantastic Four. Homer is the Thing. In the episode "Simple Simpson", Montgomery Burns spoofs the Thing's famous catchphrase "It's clobberin' time!" while blackmailing Homer (who had assumed the identity of "The Pie Man", a pie-throwing vigilante) into going after Burns's enemies, declaring "It's cobblering time!" In the related series Futurama, the phrase is mocked twice, first in the episode "Raging Bender" as "It's Bendering Time!" and later in "The Luck of the Fryrish" as "It's clovering time!" In "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes" the Thing is shown fighting the Hulk in the middle of an Irish riot (between Orangemen Loyalists and Green Irish Nationalists - the Hulk and Thing taking this conflict to its ultimate illogical conclusion). They are both later shown on the front page of the Springfield newspaper beating up on Homer.
In The Venture Bros., the character of "Ned" in the Impossible Family resembles the Thing. He is pale orange, lumpy, and described as "a giant callus." He is stronger than ordinary people, but not nearly as strong or impervious to harm as The Thing.
He is also mentioned in the movie Reservoir Dogs, where Mr. Orange in a conversation with Holdaway states that Joe Cabot "looks just like the Thing".
The Thing's genitalia, along with that of fellow Fantastic Four member Mister Fantastic, is discussed in the film Mallrats in a scene guest-starring Stan Lee.
In British sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf, one of the characters, Dave Lister, uses the Thing's catchphrase, "It's clobberin' time" after being robbed of the ability to fear.
Porky Pig mentions the Thing's catchphrase in the Looney Tunes episode "My Generation G-G-Gap" pronouncing it "It's clo-clo-clobberin' t-t-time".
Xzibit references The Thing in his song "X" with the line "Niggas be weak, I'm concrete like Benjamin Grimm".
In the Family Guy episode "Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey", Lois sets up a gag about the Thing being married to Lorena Bobbitt. It then cuts away to a forest, where the Thing is searching for his p***s. A man holds up an orange rock and asks "Is this what you're looking for?"
Michael Chiklis voices Thing in the Robot Chicken episode "Monstourage." He ends up being swapped with Vic Mackey and attacks the bad guys causing Vic's fellow officers to wonder if Vic looks different to them.
Professional wrestler CM Punk comes to the ring kneeling, signaling to his wrist as if it had a watch, asks "What time is it?", and answers "It's Clobberin' Time!"
[edit]Catchphrases
Picks x Joker Report | 05/06/2011 1:39 pm
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Joshua Sabin Harter Report | 03/12/2011 8:07 am
I remember this account T-T
hostclubyuki Report | 06/28/2010 6:02 am
Copy this and paste this to 10 people and then press F5 on your keyboard.You will win 10,000 gold each time you do it! It worked 4 me, and it will work 4 you
i freash swag 89 Report | 06/04/2010 7:18 pm
The 10th Doctor Allons-y Report | 06/02/2010 8:01 pm
hey thing i got ur team my friend
Adam Joseph Copeland Report | 05/23/2010 5:00 pm
*White kick*
hello ben how r u?
Fantastic Reed Richards Report | 05/23/2010 4:56 pm
OCC: ?
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2. Prática\Section A
Section A (current)
Additional Protocol I
Article 55 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I provides: "Care shall be taken in warfare to protect the natural environment against widespread, long-term and severe damage."
Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), Geneva, 8 June 1977, Article 55(1). Article 55 was adopted by consensus. CDDH, Official Records, Vol. VI, CDDH/SR.42, 27 May 1977, p. 209.
Principle 3 of the 1992 Convention on Biodiversity states:
States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, … the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 5 June 1992, Principle 3.
African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
Article XV of the 2003 African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources provides: "The Parties shall … take every practical measure, during periods of armed conflict, to protect the environment against harm."
African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (Revised Edition), adopted by the Second Ordinary Session of the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique, 11 July 2003, Article XV(1)(a).
Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment
Principle 21 of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment provides:
Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 5–6 June 1972, UN Doc. A/CONF.48/14/rev.1, 16 June 1972, Principle 21.
World Charter for Nature
Principle 5 of the 1982 World Charter for Nature provides: "Nature shall be secured against degradation caused by warfare or other hostile activities."
World Charter for Nature, adopted by the UN General Assembly, Res. 37/7, 28 October 1982, Principle 5.
Principle 20 of the 1982 World Charter for Nature provides: "Military activities damaging to nature shall be avoided."
World Charter for Nature, adopted by the UN General Assembly, Res. 37/7, 28 October 1982, Principle 20.
Principle 2 of the 1992 Rio Declaration provides:
States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 13 June 1992, UN Doc. A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. I), 12 August 1992, endorsed by the UN General Assembly, Res. 47/190, 22 December 1992; see also Res. 47/191, 22 December 1992 and Res. 49/113, 19 December 1994, Principle 2.
Principle 24 of the 1992 Rio Declaration provides:
Warfare is inherently destructive of sustainable development. States shall therefore respect international law providing protection for the environment in times of armed conflict and cooperate in its further development, as necessary.
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 13 June 1992, UN Doc. A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. I), 12 August 1992, endorsed by the UN General Assembly, Res. 47/190, 22 December 1992; see also Res. 47/191, 22 December 1992 and Res. 49/113, 19 December 1994, Principle 24.
Guidelines on the Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict
The 1994 Guidelines on the Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict provides:
(5) International environmental agreements and relevant rules of customary law may continue to be applicable in times of armed conflict to the extent that they are not inconsistent with the applicable law of armed conflict. Obligations concerning the protection of the environment that are binding on States not party to an armed conflict (e.g. neighbouring States) and that relate to areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction (e.g. the high seas) are not affected by the existence of the armed conflict to the extent that those obligations are not inconsistent with the applicable law of armed conflict.
(11) Care shall be taken in warfare to protect and preserve the natural environment.
Revised Guidelines for Military Manuals and Instructions on the Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict, prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross and presented to the UN Secretary-General, annexed to Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Decade of International Law, UN Doc. A/49/323, 19 August 1994, pp. 49–53, §§ 5 and 11.
San Remo Manual
The 1994 San Remo Manual provides:
35. … Due regard shall also be given to the protection and preservation of the marine environment [of the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf].
44. Methods and means of warfare should be employed with due regard for the natural environment taking into account the relevant rules of international law.
Louise Doswald-Beck (ed.), San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, 12 June 1994, Prepared by international lawyers and naval experts convened by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995, §§ 35 and 44.
Australia's Defence Force Manual (1994) states: "Those responsible for planning and conducting military operations have a duty to ensure that the natural environment is protected."
Australia, Manual on Law of Armed Conflict, Australian Defence Force Publication, Operations Series, ADFP 37 – Interim Edition, 1994, § 545.
Australia's LOAC Manual (2006) states: "Those responsible for planning and conducting military operations have a duty to ensure that the natural environment is protected."
Australia, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, Australian Defence Doctrine Publication 06.4, Australian Defence Headquarters, 11 May 2006, § 5.50.
The LOAC Manual (2006) replaces both the Defence Force Manual (1994) and the Commanders' Guide (1994).
Burundi's Regulations on International Humanitarian Law (2007) states: "During the operations of war, one must take care to protect the natural environment against widespread, persistent and significant damage."
Burundi, Règlement n° 98 sur le droit international humanitaire, Ministère de la Défense Nationale et des Anciens Combattants, Projet "Moralisation" (BDI/B-05), August 2007, Part I bis, p. 15.
Cameroon's Instructor's Manual (2006), under the heading "Protection of Civilian Objects" and in a section entitled "Special Protection", lists "the natural environment".
Cameroon, Droit des conflits armés et droit international humanitaire, Manuel de l'instructeur en vigueur dans les forces de défense, Ministère de la Défense, Présidence de la République, Etat-major des Armées, 2006, p. 230, § 543.
Côte d'Ivoire's Teaching Manual (2007) provides in Book III, Volume 1 (Instruction of first-year trainee officers):
IV.1. Natural environment
Military leaders, in their military planning, should always consider the effects their operations could have on the natural environment.
… The specific provisions of the law show that:
- in the conduct of military operations, care shall be taken to protect the natural environment.
Côte d'Ivoire, Droit de la guerre, Manuel d'instruction, Livre III, Tome 1: Instruction de l'élève officier d'active de 1ère année, Manuel de l'élève, Ministère de la Défense, Forces Armées Nationales, November 2007, p. 35; see also Droit de la guerre, Manuel d'instruction, Livre III, Tome 2: Instruction de l'élève officier d'active de 2ème année, Manuel de l'instructeur, Ministère de la Défense, Forces Armées Nationales, November 2007, p. 32.
The Military Manual (2005) of the Netherlands states:
In addition to the chosen method or means, the type of target attacked can also lead to environmental changes. An attack on a factory or laboratory where chemical, biological or nuclear products are developed or made may have major consequences for the natural environment.
Netherlands, Humanitair Oorlogsrecht: Handleiding, Voorschift No. 27-412, Koninklijke Landmacht, Militair Juridische Dienst, 2005, § 0465.
The Republic of Korea's Operational Law Manual (1996) prohibits the use of weapons damaging the natural environment.
Republic of Korea, Operational Law Manual, 1996, p. 129.
South Africa's LOAC Teaching Manual (2008) states:
[1977] Additional Protocol I Article 55 also provides for the protection of the natural environment. It determines that:
- Care must be taken in warfare to protect the natural environment against widespread, long-term and severe damage.
- This protection includes a prohibition on the use of methods or means of warfare, which are intended or may be expected to cause such damage to the natural environment and thereby to prejudice the health or survival of the population.
South Africa, Advanced Law of Armed Conflict Teaching Manual, School of Military Justice, 1 April 2008, as amended to 25 October 2013, Learning Unit 2, p. 120.
Switzerland's Regulation on Legal Bases for Conduct during an Engagement (2005) states: "Care shall be taken in warfare to protect the natural environment against widespread, long-term and severe damage".
Switzerland, Bases légales du comportement à l'engagement (BCE), Règlement 51.007/IVf, Swiss Army, issued based on Article 10 of the Ordinance on the Organization of the Federal Department for Defence, Civil Protection and Sports of 7 March 2003, entry into force on 1 July 2005, § 217.
Ukraine's IHL Manual (2004) states:
2.3.5.3. If combat is conducted in the mountains it is necessary to take into account the probability of rockslides, snow avalanches, and cloudburst floods that are likely to endanger persons and objects protected by the laws of war …
2.3.5.4. If combat is conducted in the forest, it is necessary to take into account the probability of forest fires that are likely to endanger persons and objects protected by international humanitarian law.
Ukraine, Manual on the Application of IHL Rules, Ministry of Defence, 11 September 2004, §§ 2.3.5.3–2.3.5.4.
In its chapters on air operations and on maritime warfare, the UK LOAC Manual (2004) states: "Methods and means of warfare should be employed with due regard for the natural environment, taking into account the relevant rules of international law."
United Kingdom, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, Ministry of Defence, 1 July 2004, §§ 12.24. (air operations) and 13.30. (maritime warfare).
In its chapter on internal armed conflict, the manual states: "Regard must be had to the natural environment in the conduct of all military operations."
United Kingdom, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, Ministry of Defence, 1 July 2004, § 15.20.
The US Naval Handbook (1995) provides: "Methods and means of warfare should be employed with due regard to the protection and preservation of the natural environment."
United States, The Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations, NWP 1-14M/MCWP 5-2.1/COMDTPUB P5800.7, issued by the Department of the Navy, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and Headquarters, US Marine Corps, and Department of Transportation, US Coast Guard, October 1995 (formerly NWP 9 (Rev. A)/FMFM 1-10, October 1989), § 8.1.3.
The US Naval Handbook (2007) states:
It is not unlawful to cause collateral damage to the natural environment during an attack upon a legitimate military objective. However, the commander has an affirmative obligation to avoid unnecessary damage to the environment to the extent that it is practicable to do so consistent with mission accomplishment. To that end, and as far as military requirements permit, methods or means of warfare should be employed with due regard to the protection and preservation of the natural environment.
United States, The Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations, NWP 1-14M/MCWP 5-12.1/COMDTPUB P5800.7, issued by the Department of the Navy, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and Headquarters, US Marine Corps, and Department of Homeland Security, US Coast Guard, July 2007, § 8.4.
In 1987, in the Petane case, the Cape Provincial Division of South Africa's Supreme Court dismissed the accused's claim that the 1977 Additional Protocol I reflected customary international law. The Court stated:
The accused has been indicted before this Court on three counts of terrorism, that is to say, contraventions of s 54(1) of the Internal Security Act 74 of 1982. He has also been indicted on three counts of attempted murder.
The accused's position is stated to be that this Court has no jurisdiction to try him.
… The point in its early formulation was this. By the terms of [the 1977 Additional] Protocol I to the [1949] Geneva Conventions the accused was entitled to be treated as a prisoner-of-war. A prisoner-of-war is entitled to have notice of an impending prosecution for an alleged offence given to the so-called "protecting power" appointed to watch over prisoners-of-war. Since, if such a notice were necessary, the trial could not proceed without it, Mr Donen suggested that the necessity or otherwise for giving such a notice should be determined before evidence was led. …
On 12 August 1949 there were concluded at Geneva in Switzerland four treaties known as the Geneva Conventions. …
South Africa was among the nations which concluded the treaties. … Except for the common art 3, which binds parties to observe a limited number of fundamental humanitarian principles in armed conflicts not of an international character, they apply to wars between States.
After the Second World War many conflicts arose which could not be characterised as international. It was therefore considered desirable by some States to extend and augment the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, so as to afford protection to victims of and combatants in conflicts which fell outside the ambit of these Conventions. The result of these endeavours was Protocol I and Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, both of which came into force on 7 December 1978.
Protocol II relates to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts. Since the State of affairs which exists in South Africa has by Protocol I been characterised as an international armed conflict, Protocol II does not concern me at all.
The extension of the scope of art 2 of the Geneva Conventions was, at the time of its adoption, controversial. …
The article has remained controversial. More debate has raged about its field of operation than about any other articles in Protocol I. …
South Africa is one of the countries which has not acceded to Protocol I. Nevertheless, I am asked to decide, as I indicated earlier, as a preliminary point, whether Protocol I has become part of customary international law. If so, it is argued that it would have been incorporated into South African law. If it has been so incorporated it would have to be proved by one or other of the parties that the turmoil which existed at the time when the accused is alleged to have committed his offences was such that it could properly be described as an "armed conflict" conducted by "peoples" against a "ra[c]ist regime" in the exercise of their "right of self-determination". Once all this has been shown it would have to be demonstrated to the Court that the accused conducted himself in such a manner as to become entitled to the benefits conferred by Protocol I on combatants, for example that, broadly speaking, he had, while he was launching an attack, distinguished himself from civilians and had not attacked civilian targets. …
… I am prepared to accept that where a rule of customary international law is recognised as such by international law it will be so recognised by our law.
To my way of thinking, the trouble with the first Protocol giving rise to State practice is that its terms have not been capable of being observed by all that many States. At the end of 1977 when the treaty first lay open for ratification there were few States which were involved in colonial domination or the occupation of other States and there were only two, South Africa and Israel, which were considered to fall within the third category of ra[c]ist regimes. Accordingly, the situation sought to be regulated by the first Protocol was one faced by few countries; too few countries in my view, to permit any general usage in dealing with armed conflicts of the kind envisaged by the Protocol to develop.
Mr Donen contended that the provisions of multilateral treaties can become customary international law under certain circumstances. I accept that this is so. There seems in principle to be no reason why treaty rules cannot acquire wider application than among the parties to the treaty.
Brownlie Principles of International Law 3rd ed at 13 agrees that non-parties to a treaty may by their conduct accept the provisions of a multilateral convention as representing general international law. …
I incline to the view that non-ratification of a treaty is strong evidence of non-acceptance.
It is interesting to note that the first Protocol makes extensive provision for the protection of civilians in armed conflict. …
In this sense, Protocol I may be described as an enlightened humanitarian document. If the strife in South Africa should deteriorate into an armed conflict we may all one day find it a cause for regret that the ideologically provocative tone of s 1(4) has made it impossible for the Government to accept its terms.
To my mind it can hardly be said that Protocol I has been greeted with acclaim by the States of the world. Their lack of enthusiasm must be due to the bizarre mixture of political and humanitarian objects sought to be realised by the Protocol. …
According to the International Review of the Red Cross (January/February 1987) No 256, as at December 1986, 66 States were parties to Protocol I and 60 to Protocol II, which, it will be remembered, deals with internal non-international armed conflicts. With the exception of France, which acceded only to Protocol II, not one of the world's major powers has acceded to or ratified either of the Protocols. This position should be compared to the 165 States which are parties to the Geneva Conventions.
This approach of the world community to Protocol I is, on principle, far too half-hearted to justify an inference that its principles have been so widely accepted as to qualify them as rules of customary international law. The reasons for this are, I imagine, not far to seek. For those States which are contending with "peoples[']" struggles for self-determination, adoption of the Protocol may prove awkward. For liberation movements who rely on strategies of urban terror for achieving their aims the terms of the Protocol, with its emphasis on the protection of civilians, may prove disastrously restrictive. I therefore do not find it altogether surprising that Mr Donen was unable to refer me to any statement in the published literature that Protocol I has attained the status o[f] customary international [law].
I have not been persuaded by the arguments which I have heard on behalf of the accused that the assessment of Professor Dugard, writing in the Annual Survey of South African Law (1983) at 66, that "it is argued with growing conviction that under contemporary international law members of SWAPO [South-West Africa People's Organisation] and the ANC [African National Congress] are members of liberation movements entitled to prisoner-of-war status, in terms of a new customary rule spawned by the 1977 Protocols", is correct. On what I have heard in argument I disagree with his assessment that there is growing support for the view that the Protocols reflect a new rule of customary international law. No writer has been cited who supports this proposition. Here and there someone says that it may one day come about. I am not sure that the provisions relating to the field of application of Protocol I are capable of ever becoming a rule of customary international law, but I need not decide that point today.
For the reasons which I have given I have concluded that the provisions of Protocol I have not been accepted in customary international law. They accordingly form no part of South African law.
This conclusion has made it unnecessary for me to give a decision on the question of whether rules of customary international law which conflict with the statutory or common law of this country will be enforced by its courts.
In the result, the preliminary point is dismissed. The trial must proceed.
South Africa, Supreme Court, Petane case, Judgment, 3 November 1987, pp. 2–8.
In 2010, in the Boeremag case, South Africa's North Gauteng High Court stated:
In Petane, … Conradie J found that the provisions of [the 1977 Additional] Protocol I are not part of customary international law, and therefore are also not part of South African law.
Referring to the fact that in December 1986 only 66 of the 165 States party to the Geneva Conventions had ratified Protocol I, the Court [in Petane] stated:
This approach of the world community to Protocol I is, on principle, far too half-hearted to justify an inference that its principles have been so widely accepted as to qualify them as rules of customary international law. The reasons for this are, I imagine, not far to seek. For those States which are contending with "peoples[']" struggles for self-determination, adoption of the Protocol may prove awkward. For liberation movements who rely on strategies of urban terror for achieving their aims the terms of the Protocol, with its emphasis on the protection of civilians, may prove disastrously restrictive. I therefore do not find it altogether surprising that Mr Donen was unable to refer me to any statement in the published literature that Protocol I has attained the status of customary international law.
Important changes with respect to certain aspects applicable at the time of Petane have taken place. The ANC [African National Congress] has become South Africa's ruling party and in 1995 ratified Protocol I. The total number of States that have ratified it, is now … 162.
This last aspect forms the basis on which the First Respondent [the State] and the applicants agree that Protocol I forms part of customary international law as well as of South African law. As requested, this position is accepted for the purposes of the decision, without deciding on the matter.
Despite these changes, it remains debatable whether the provisions of Protocol I have become a part of South African law in this way.
The consensus of both parties to the conflict is required. See Petane … and Article 96 of Protocol I. …
Parliament's failure to incorporate Protocol I into legislation in accordance with Article 231(4) of the Constitution in fact points to the contrary, and is indicative that the requirements of usus and/or opinio juris have not been met. See Petane.
South Africa, North Gauteng High Court, Boeremag case, Judgment, 26 August 2010, pp. 21–22.
[footnotes in original omitted]
The Court also held:
If the [1977 Additional Protocol I] applies in South Africa as customary international law, the two requirements that form the basis of customary law must be met. It is arguable that the requirement of usus has been met by the vast number of States that have acceded or ratified it. By ratifying Protocol I the Republic of South Africa has indicated its intention to apply the Protocol, thereby fulfilling the requirement of opinio juris.
South Africa, North Gauteng High Court, Boeremag case, Judgment, 26 August 2010, p. 66.
At the Meeting on Human Environment in 1972, China condemned the United States for causing "unprecedented damage to the human environment" in South Vietnam through the use of "chemical toxic and poisonous gas". It also accused the United States of destroying "large areas of rich farming land with craters", poisoning "rivers and other water resources", destroying forests and crops and threatening "some of the species with extinction".
China, Address to the Meeting of Human Environment on Our Government's Position on the Protection and Improvement of Human Environment, 10 June 1972, Selected Documents of the Chinese Delegation to the United Nations, The People's Press, Beijing, 1972, pp. 257–258.
In 1997, Colombia's Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsman's Office) denounced guerrilla attacks on oil pipelines as a violation of IHL insofar as oil spills inflicted damage on the environment, which affected both natural water sources and the productivity of the land.
Colombia, Defensoría del Pueblo, En defensa del pueblo acuso: Impactos de la violencia de oleoductos en Colombia, 1997, p. 33, §§ 2–4.
The Report on the Practice of Colombia states that it is Colombia's opinio juris that "the parties to the conflict must protect the environment, endeavouring to prevent the damage to the natural environment caused by war operations".
Report on the Practice of Colombia, 1998, Chapter 4.4.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons (WHO) case in 1995, Costa Rica stated:
Due to the length of the State practice and continued State expression of maintenance and protection of the environment, the Human Right to the Environment may be considered a part of customary international law. Whether it is recognized as a full legal right, it is clear that the Human Right to the Environment would be violate[d] by the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
Costa Rica, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons (WHO) case, July 1995, pp. 8–9.
In 2011, in a response to UN General Assembly Resolution 63/51 on the observance of environmental norms in the drafting and implementation of agreements on disarmament and arms control, the representative of Cuba stated:
In addition, in the war of occupation of Iraq by the United States, the harm caused inter alia to the environment … has been devastating. This situation has been repeated, in the last few months, during the bombings carried out by NATO against the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
Cuba, Response by the representative of Cuba to UN General Assembly Resolution 63/51 on the observance of environmental norms in the drafting and implementation of agreements on disarmament and arms control, 7 June 2011, p. 2.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, Egypt stated that it considered the principle whereby every State must ensure that activities within its jurisdiction or under its control do not cause damage to the environment to be a "general rule". Referring to the 1972 Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment and the 1992 Rio Declaration, in which this rule was stated, Egypt argued that they "must be seen as declaratory of evolving normative regulation for the protection of the environment".
Egypt, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, September 1995, § 70.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, France denied the existence in contemporary international law, either as lex lata or as lex ferenda, of a customary principle concerning the protection of the environment in time of armed conflict. It also indicated its view that in general none of the multilateral environmental agreements were applicable in times of armed conflict.
France, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 20 June 1995, § 27; see also Oral pleadings before the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 2 November 1995, Verbatim Record CR 95/24, § 45.
In December 1991, during a parliamentary debate on the consequences of the Gulf War, a member of the German Parliament stated:
The immediate improvement of international law providing protection from environment-destructive warfare is necessary. This implies … the ratification of the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions without reservations by all NATO partners, including the Federal Republic of Germany [and] a general priority to be given to the fight against ecological damage over military secrecy in the case of armed conflict … In addition, a review is required of the existing priority of military necessity for specific acts of warfare to be legitimate over ecological needs – a very central point; furthermore, the general prohibition of the use of environmental destruction as a weapon is necessary.
Germany, Lower House of Parliament, Statement by a Member of Parliament, Dr. Klaus Kübler, 5 December 1991, Plenarprotokoll 12/64, p. 5509.
This view was supported by another parliamentary group; the other parliamentary groups neither supported nor rejected it.
Germany, Lower House of Parliament, Proposal by the Alliance 90/The Greens, Nationale und internationale Konsequenzen der ökologischen Auswirkungen des Golf-krieges, BT-Drucksache 12/779, 17 June 1991, p. 5528.
During the same debate, a member of the parliamentary group which had supported the first speaker stated that, in the view of her group,
it is inevitable to take steps in order to give more effectiveness and respect to international law in force and to enable also the UN to prevent and punish warfare against the environment as well as violations of international conventions for the protection of the environment.
Germany, Lower House of Parliament, Statement by a Member of Parliament, Birgit Homburger, 5 December 1991, Plenarprotokoll 12/64, p. 5528.
In 1991, the President of Germany, commenting on the effect on the environment of Iraqi means and methods of warfare, stated: "We are witnesses to an unprecedented disregard for the natural environment."
Germany, Statement by the President, Richard von Weizsäcker, 29 January 1991, Bulletin, No. 7, Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung, Bonn, 30 January 1991, p. 57.
The German Chancellor considered this particular type of warfare as falling within possible "crimes against the environment".
Germany, Statement by the Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, 9 April 1991, Bulletin, No. 35, Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung, Bonn, 12 April 1991, p. 255.
In 1991, during a debate in the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly on protection of the environment in armed conflict, the Islamic Republic of Iran stated:
Turning to the law on the protection of the environment, … the general principles of customary international law clearly contained specific rules on the protection of the environment. One such rule was the obligation of States not to damage or endanger the environment beyond their jurisdiction, a rule which had been enshrined in numerous international and regional agreements.
With regard to the application of environmental law in time of war, … the relationship between a party to the conflict and a neutral State was essentially governed by the law in time of peace and, consequently, belligerent parties had an obligation to respect environmental law vis-à-vis non-belligerent States. There was no universally accepted rule concerning the application of international law on the protection of the environment to belligerent parties, and some argued that the relationship was governed by the law of armed conflict, which meant that with the outbreak of war, the application of rules on the protection of the environment was suspended. However, others argued that in such cases, under treaty law and customary law, international legal rules protecting the environment were neither suspended [n]or terminated, since the law of armed conflict itself tended to protect the environment in time of war.
Islamic Republic of Iran, Statement before the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly, UN Doc. A/C.6/ 46/SR.18, 22 October 1991, §§ 30–31.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, the Islamic Republic of Iran stated:
[The] prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons, due to their huge destructive and modifying effects, could also be understood from the rules of international law relating to the environment. First of all, reference can be made to Principle 21 of [the] 1972 Stockholm Declaration on Human Environment which, as a customary rule, stipulated that States are responsible for any acts in their territory having adverse effects on the environment of other States. The same idea is also reflected in Principle [2] of [the] Rio Declaration of 1992. It can be argued that, while States are prevented from such conducts in their own territory, they are duly bound to refrain from any such acts against other States.
The progressive development of international environmental law in recent years has resulted in the adoption of a series of treaties, such as:
– Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (1985)
– United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992)
– Convention on Biological Diversity (1992)
which is indicative of the awareness of [the] international community and the emergence of an opinio juris concerning the preservation of the environment. Therefore, the use of nuclear weapons, having the most destructive effects on the environment, is a great concern of [the] international society.
Islamic Republic of Iran, Written statement submitted to the ICJ Nuclear Weapons case, 19 June 1995, pp. 4–5, § c.
The Report on the Practice of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that the Iranian Government holds Iraq responsible for attacking oil tankers in the Gulf and polluting the sea during the Iran–Iraq War. The Islamic Republic of Iran also denounced Iraq for using chemical weapons, which resulted in the pollution of the air, water, soil and consequent effects on the ecosystem. The report adds that it is the Islamic Republic of Iran's opinio juris that "the environment must be protected against pollution during armed conflict".
Report on the Practice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1997, Chapter 4.4.
The Report on the Practice of Kuwait states that it is Kuwait's opinio juris that States shall not resort to military operations that entail consequences for the environment. When such consequences occur, the report considers that Chapter VII of the UN Charter should be applied.
Report on the Practice of Kuwait, 1997, Chapter 4.4.
A training document for the Lebanese army regards "offences against the environment" as "a 'conventional' war crime" and includes them in the list of acts considered to amount to war crimes.
Lebanon, Training document, L'Etat de droit et les opérations disciplinées, 1996, p. 8-4 and p. 12-11.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, Malaysia expressed the view that "the principle of environmental safety is now recognized as part of international humanitarian law".
Malaysia, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, undated, p. 10.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons (WHO) case in 1994, Mexico stated: "The threat or use of nuclear arms in an armed conflict would constitute a breach of principles of international environmental law generally accepted."
Mexico, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons (WHO) case, 9 June 1994, pp. 10–11, §§ 35–41.
In 1991, in a letter to the President of the Dutch Parliament concerning the environmental aspects of the Gulf War, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of Development Cooperation and of Defence of the Netherlands stated that they considered the intentional draining of oil and setting alight of hundreds of oil wells by Iraq in Kuwait to be "serious crimes against the environment".
Netherlands, Lower House of Parliament, Letter from the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of Development Cooperation and of Defence concerning the environmental aspects of the Gulf War, 1990–1991 Session, Doc. 21664, No. 68.
At the First Review Conference of States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in 1995, Peru stressed the need to establish rules determining the liability of States for damage caused to the environment by the use of certain conventional weapons that may be deemed to be excessively injurious or to have indiscriminate effects.
Peru, Statement at the First Review Conference of States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (First Session), Vienna, 25 September–13 October 1995, UN Doc. CCW/CONF.I/SR 5, 3 October 1995, §§ 67–69.
The Report on the Practice of the Philippines states: "There are no specific rules which categorically state that the environment should be spared and protected during armed conflicts." It refers to some information provided by non-governmental organizations, according to which, in most cases, the forest serves as a shield for civilians fleeing bombing, shelling and gun battles between combatants, resulting in damage to the area and the resources contained therein.
Report on the Practice of the Philippines, 1997, Chapter 4.4.
In its oral pleadings before the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, Qatar referred to the emergence within the international community "of an opinio juris concerning the preservation of the environment".
Qatar, Oral pleadings before the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 10 November 1995, Verbatim Record CR 95/29, §§ 28–29.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, Solomon Islands argued that "the use of nuclear weapons violates international law for the protection of human health, the environment and fundamental human rights".
Solomon Islands, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 19 June 1995, Section B.
In its oral pleadings, Solomon Islands reiterated the argument whereby multilateral environmental agreements applied also in times of war, unless expressly provided otherwise.
Solomon Islands, Oral pleadings before the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 14 November 1995, Verbatim Record CR 95/32, § 22.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons (WHO) case, Sri Lanka stated: "The protection of the environment in times of armed conflict has … emerged as an established principle of international law."
Sri Lanka, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons (WHO) case, undated, p. 3.
In 1991, in a report submitted to the UN Security Council on operations in the Gulf War, the United Kingdom condemned Iraq for inflicting environmental damage by causing oil spills and oil fires in Kuwait, and underlined the substantial contribution made by the UK Government to the international effort in response to this damage.
United Kingdom, Letter dated 13 February 1991 to the President of the UN Security Council, UN Doc. S/22218, 13 February 1991; see also Letter dated 23 April 1991 to the President of the UN Security Council, UN Doc. S/22522, 23 April 1991.
According to the Report on UK Practice, during the Rio Summit on Environment and Development in 1992, the UK Minister of State for the Armed Forces supported the principle that "States should respect international law providing protection for the environment in times of armed conflict".
Report on UK Practice, 1997, Chapter 4.4.
In its oral pleadings before the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, the United Kingdom stated that the argument "that the general provisions in environmental treaties have the effect of outlawing the use of nuclear weapons" cannot be sustained because:
These treaties … make no reference to nuclear weapons. Their principal purpose is the protection of the environment in times of peace. Warfare in general, and nuclear warfare in particular, are not mentioned in their texts and were scarcely alluded to in the negotiations which led to their adoption.
United Kingdom, Oral pleadings before the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 15 November 1995, Verbatim Record CR 95/34, p. 42.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, the United States refuted the possibility of inferring a principle of "environmental security" from existing international environmental treaties, which would form part of the law of war, being that none of these treaties refers to such a principle, nor was any of them negotiated "with any idea that it [the treaty] was to be applicable in armed conflict".
United States, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 20 June 1995, pp. 34–35; see also Written comments on the submissions of other States submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons (WHO) case, 20 June 1995, pp. 10–19 and Oral pleadings before the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 15 November 1995, Verbatim Record CR 95/34, pp. 64–66.
The United States went on to state: "Even if these treaties were meant to apply in armed conflict … the language of none of them prohibits or limits the actions of States in any manner that would reasonably apply to the use of weapons." With reference to the 1972 Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, the United States maintained that "nothing in the Declaration purports to ban the use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict".
United States, Written statement submitted to the ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, 20 June 1995, p. 39.
Lastly, the United States stated that, although Principles 1, 2 and 25 of the 1992 Rio Declaration had been relied upon to maintain that "the threat or use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict would constitute a breach of generally accepted principles of international environmental law, … none of these principles addresses armed conflict or the use of nuclear weapons".
In 1991, during a debate in the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly on the environmental impact of the Gulf War, Yemen, referring in particular to the 1977 Additional Protocol I and the 1976 ENMOD Convention, stated:
The damage caused to the environment as a result of the war had emphasized the importance of adherence to the legal norms on the prohibition on causing damage to the environment in times of armed conflict, norms which had been incorporated in a number of international conventions in the field of humanitarian law.
Yemen, Statement before the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly, UN Doc. A/C.6/46/SR.20, 22 October 1991, § 30.
The Report on the Practice of Zimbabwe recalls Zimbabwe's adoption of the 1992 Rio Principles as evidence that environmental protection during armed conflict forms an important component of Zimbabwe's view of IHL. It also refers to "various pieces of legislation" dealing with environmental protection and setting up standards to be observed at all times, "whether or not there is armed conflict", as evidence of Zimbabwe's view that the environment should be protected even in times of armed conflict.
Report on the Practice of Zimbabwe, 1998, Chapter 4.4.
In a resolution adopted in 1991, the UN Security Council reaffirmed Iraq's responsibility
under international law for any direct loss, damage including environmental damage and the depletion of natural resources or injury to foreign Governments, nationals and corporations as a result of its unlawful invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
UN Security Council, Res. 687, 3 April 1991, § 16, voting record: 12-1-2.
UN General Assembly
In a resolution adopted in 1992 on international cooperation to mitigate the environmental consequences on Kuwait and other countries in the region resulting from the situation between Iraq and Kuwait, the UN General Assembly:
Aware of the disastrous situation caused in Kuwait and neighbouring areas by the torching and destruction of hundreds of its oil wells and of the other environmental consequences on the atmosphere, land and marine life,
Bearing in mind all relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular section E of resolution 687 (1991) of 3 April 1991 [asserting Iraq's international responsibility for environmental damage caused during Kuwait's occupation],
Profoundly concerned at the deterioration in the environment as a consequence of the damage, especially the threat posed to the health and well-being of the people of Kuwait and the people of the region, and the adverse impact on the economic activities of Kuwait and other countries of the region, including the effects on livestock, agriculture and fishing, as well as on wildlife.
UN General Assembly, Res. 46/216, 20 December 1991, preamble; see also Res. 47/151, 18 December 1992, preamble, voting record: 135-0-1-30.
In a resolution adopted in 1994 on the United Nations Decade of International Law, the UN General Assembly referred to the 1994 Guidelines on the Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict and invited:
all States to disseminate widely the revised guidelines for military manuals and instructions on the protection of the environment in times of armed conflict received from the International Committee of the Red Cross and to give due consideration to the possibility of incorporating them into their military manuals and other instructions addressed to their military personnel.
UN General Assembly, Res. 49/50, 9 December 1994, § 11, adopted without a vote.
The programme of activities for the final term (1997–1999) of the UN Decade of International Law, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1996, states:
In connection with training of military personnel, States are encouraged to foster the teaching and dissemination of the principles governing the protection of the environment in times of armed conflict and should consider the possibility of making use of the guidelines for military manuals and instructions prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
UN General Assembly, Res. 51/157, 16 December 1996, Annex, § 19, adopted without a vote.
In a resolution adopted in 2001 on observance of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, the UN General Assembly:
Considering that damage to the environment in times of armed conflict impairs ecosystems and natural resources long beyond the period of conflict, and often extends beyond the limits of national territories and the present generation,
1. Declares 6 November each year as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict.
UN General Assembly, Res. 56/4, 5 November 2001, preamble and § 1, adopted without a vote.
In a resolution adopted in 2005 on permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, the UN General Assembly:
Also calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to cease the dumping of all kinds of waste materials in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, which gravely threaten their natural resources, namely the water and land resources, and pose an environmental hazard and health threat to the civilian populations.
UN General Assembly, Res. 60/183, 22 December 2005, § 7, voting record: 156-6-8-21.
In a resolution adopted in 2006 on the human rights situation arising from the Israeli military operations in Lebanon, the UN General Assembly deplored "the environmental degradation caused by Israeli air strikes against power plants in Lebanon and their adverse impact on the health and wellbeing of children and other civilians".
UN General Assembly, Res. 61/154, 19 December 2006, § 7, voting record: 112-7-64-9.
In a resolution adopted in 2006 on an oil slick on Lebanese shores, the UN General Assembly:
Noting with great concern the environmental disaster caused by the destruction by the Israeli Air Force on 15 July 2006 of the oil storage tanks in the direct vicinity of the El-Jiyeh electric power plant in Lebanon, causing an oil slick that covered the entirety of the Lebanese coastline and extended beyond,
1. Expresses its deep concern over the adverse implications of the destruction by the Israeli Air Force of the oil storage tanks in the direct vicinity of the Lebanese El-Jiyeh electric power plant for the achievement of sustainable development in Lebanon;
2. Considers that the oil slick has heavily polluted the shores of Lebanon and consequently has serious implications for human health, biodiversity, fisheries and tourism, all four of which in turn have serious implications for livelihoods and the economy of Lebanon;
3. Calls upon the Government of Israel to assume responsibility for prompt and adequate compensation to the Government of Lebanon for the costs of repairing the environmental damage caused by the destruction, including the restoration of the marine environment.
UN General Assembly, Res. 61/194, 20 December 2006, preamble and §§ 1–3, voting record: 170-6-0-16.
In a resolution adopted in 2006 on effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium, the UN General Assembly:
Guided by the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the rules of humanitarian international law,
Convinced that as humankind is more aware of the need to take immediate measures to protect the environment, any event that could jeopardize such efforts requires urgent attention to implement the required measures,
Taking into consideration the potential harmful effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium on human health and the environment,
1. Requests the Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States and relevant international organizations on the effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium, and to submit a report on this subject to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session.
UN General Assembly, Res. 62/30, 5 December 2007, preamble and § 1, voting record: 136-5-36-15.
In a resolution adopted in 2007 concerning an oil slick on Lebanese shores, the UN General Assembly:
Noting again with great concern the environmental disaster caused by the destruction by the Israeli Air Force on 15 July 2006 of the oil storage tanks in the direct vicinity of el Jiyeh electric power plant in Lebanon, resulting in an oil slick that covered the entirety of the Lebanese coastline and extended to the Syrian coastline,
2. Reiterates the expression of its deep concern about the adverse implications of the destruction by the Israeli Air Force of the oil storage tanks in the direct vicinity of the Lebanese el Jiyeh electric power plant for the achievement of sustainable development in Lebanon;
3. Considers that the oil slick has heavily polluted the shores of Lebanon and partially polluted Syrian shores and consequently has had serious implications for livelihoods and the economy of Lebanon, owing to the adverse implications for natural resources, biodiversity, fisheries and tourism, and for human health, in the country;
4. Requests the Government of Israel to assume responsibility for prompt and adequate compensation to the Government of Lebanon and other countries directly affected by the oil slick for the costs of repairing the environmental damage caused by the destruction, including the restoration of the marine environment.
UN Economic and Social Council
In a resolution adopted in 2006 on the economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan, ECOSOC:
Gravely concerned about the deterioration of the economic and living conditions of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population of the occupied Syrian Golan and the exploitation by Israel, the occupying Power, of their natural resources,
8. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to cease the dumping of all kinds of waste materials in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, which gravely threaten their natural resources, namely, water and land resources, and pose an environmental hazard and health threat to the civilian populations.
ECOSOC, Res. 2006/43, 27 July 2006, preamble and § 8, voting record: 45-3-3.
In a resolution adopted in 2006 on the situation of human rights in Lebanon caused by Israeli military operations, the UN Human Rights Council noted with concern "the environmental degradation caused by Israeli strikes against power plants and their adverse impact on health".
UN Human Rights Council, Res. S-2/1, 11 August 2006, preamble, voting record: 27-11-8.
UN Compensation Commission
In 1991, with regard to the environmental consequences of the Gulf War, the Governing Council of the UNCC expressed "its concern about the environmental damage that occurred during the armed conflict in the Gulf area, which resulted in the pollution of the waters of the area by oil, air pollution from burning oil wells and other environmental damage to the surrounding areas".
UNCC, Governing Council, Decision 16/11, 31 May 1991, § A.
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly
In 2001, in a report on the environmental impact of the war in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on south-east Europe, the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly noted that the military operations conducted by NATO against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1999 Kosovo crisis had caused serious damage to the country's natural environment and that the damage had extended to several other countries of south-east Europe. The report stated that "the military operations violated the rights of Yugoslav citizens and people in neighbouring countries, first and foremost the right to a healthy environment".
Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities, Report on the Environmental Impact of the War in Yugoslavia on South-East Europe, Doc. 8925, 10 January 2001, § 59.
In its advisory opinion in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1996, the ICJ made reference to the Nuclear Tests case (Request for an Examination of the Situation), in which it held that its order in that case was "without prejudice to the obligations of States to respect and protect the natural environment". The Court stated: "Although that statement was made in the context of nuclear testing, it naturally also applies to the actual use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict."
ICJ, Nuclear Weapons case, Advisory Opinion, 8 July 1996, § 32.
In its advisory opinion in the Nuclear Weapons case in 1996, the ICJ stated:
The Court recognizes that the environment is under daily threat and … also recognizes that the environment is not an abstraction but represents the living space, the quality of life and the very health of human beings, including generations unborn. The existence of the general obligation of States to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction and control respect the environment of other States or of areas beyond national control is now part of the corpus of international law relating to the environment.
In its judgment in the Gabcíkovo-Nagymaros Project case in 1997, the ICJ considered whether protection of the environment amounted to an "essential interest" of a State that could be invoked in order to justify, by way of "necessity", actions that were not in conformity with that State's international obligations. The Court, stressing that a state of necessity could only be invoked in exceptional circumstances, answered in the affirmative. It quoted the International Law Commission in this regard, which stated that a state of necessity could include "a grave danger to … the ecological preservation of all or some of [the] territory [of a State]" and that "it is primarily in the last two decades that safeguarding the ecological balance has come to be considered an 'essential interest' of all States". The Court then quoted paragraph 29 of its advisory opinion in the Nuclear Weapons case in order to show that it had recently stressed "the great significance that it attaches to respect for the environment, not only for States but also for the whole of mankind".
ICJ, Gabcíkovo-Nagymaros Project case, Judgment, 25 September 1997, §§ 50–53.
In 1992, in a report submitted to the UN Secretary-General on the protection of the environment in time of armed conflict, the ICRC stated:
In addition to the rules of law pertaining to warfare, general (peacetime) provisions on the protection of the environment may continue to be applicable. This holds true in particular for the relations between a belligerent State and third States.
The Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, adopted and promulgated by the American Law Institute in 1986, provides:
(1) A state is obligated to take such measures as may be necessary, to the extent practicable under the circumstances, to ensure that activities within its jurisdiction or control
(a) conform to generally accepted international rules and standards for the prevention, reduction, and control of injury to the environment of another state or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction; and
(b) are conducted so as not to cause significant injury to the environment of another state or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
(2) A state is responsible to all other states
(a) for any violation of its obligations under Subsection 1(a), and
(b) for any significant injury, resulting from such violation, to the environment of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
(3) A state is responsible for any significant injury, resulting from a violation of its obligations under Subsection (1), to the environment of another state or to its property, or to persons or property within that state's territory or under its jurisdiction or control.
The American Law Institute, Restatement Third. Restatement of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, American Law Institute Publishers, St. Paul, 1987, § 601.
Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)
In a resolution adopted in 1991, the Politico-Military High Command of the SPLM/A stated: "The SPLM/SPLA shall do everything to halt the destruction of our wildlife resources and to protect and develop them for us and for posterity."
SPLM/A, PMHC Resolution No. 17: Wild Life and the Environment, 11 September 1991, § 17.1, Report on SPLM/A Practice, 1998, Chapter 4.3.
International Union for the Conservation of Nature
In 1995, the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, in cooperation with the International Council of Environmental Law, issued the Draft International Covenant on Environment and Development, which was intended to stimulate consideration of a global instrument on environmental conservation and sustainable development. Article 32(1) provides:
Parties shall protect the environment during periods of armed conflict. In particular, Parties shall:
(a) observe, outside areas of armed conflict, all international environmental rules by which they are bound in times of peace;
(b) take care to protect the environment against avoidable harm in areas of armed conflict.
IUCN, Commission on Environmental Law, Draft International Covenant on Environment and Development, Bonn, March 1995, Article 32(1).
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🎧 'The Daily': Part 5 of 'Charm City': What's Behind the Black Box? | New York Times
Listened to 'The Daily': Part 5 of 'Charm City': What's Behind the Black Box? by Sabrina Tavernise from nytimes.com
The relatives of a Baltimore teenager think they know the name of the police officer who killed him. But when his mother finally sees the surveillance video of his death, a new story emerges.
Every day this week, we've brought you the story of Lavar Montray Douglas, known as Nook, who was fatally shot by a police officer in Baltimore in 2016. His family has been searching for answers ever since.
Part 5 is the conclusion of our series. We talk to Nook's mother, Toby Douglas, about how grief has changed her. She tried joining a support group for mothers, many of whom now fight to stop gun violence. But her son had a gun, and he was shooting it.
Toby and her mother, Davetta Parker, think they know the name of the police officer who killed Nook. They've heard it around the streets. We visit him at his home in the suburbs, and he's not at all who we expected.
Nook would have turned 20 in late May. We drive with Toby to tie balloons at his grave and to a stop sign at the corner of Windsor Avenue and North Warwick Avenue, where he was killed. She often goes there to feel close to Nook, sometimes sleeping in her car at the intersection.
One day, Toby gets a phone call. It's the police. They want to show her the complete surveillance video of Nook's final moments.
If you'd like to start from the beginning, here are Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
If possible, click to play, otherwise your browser may be unable to play this audio file.
Format AudioPosted on June 24, 2018 September 17, 2018
Author Chris AldrichCategories Listen, Social StreamTags Baltimore, crime, police brutality, racism, The Daily
Next Next post: 📺 "Goliath" Diablo Verde | Amazon
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The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) is a leading research and educational institution working to understand and manage the world's resources. From a network of laboratories spanning from the Allegheny Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, UMCES scientists provide sound advice to help state and national leaders manage the environment and prepare future scientists to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.
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Have you ever wondered what happens in that unusual building with the tent-like roof at the Inner Harbor? Science happens! The Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET), opens its doors for a free Open House on Saturday, May 4, 1-4 p.m.
Scientists have completed first comprehensive assessment of concentrations of 13 ultraviolet (UV)-light filtering chemicals in surface water, sediment, and coral tissue from multiple coral reefs around the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
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GOLD COAST (Australia) - Singapore's mixed badminton team have qualified for the Commonwealth Games semi-finals, after beating home nation Australia 3-0 in the last eight on Saturday (April 7) morning at the Carrara Sports Arena.
The Republic had a nervy start when world No. 24 mixed doubles pair Terry Hee and Tan Wei Han had to fight their way past unranked duo Matthew Chua and Setyana Mapasa 21-17, 18-21, 21-16 in the first match.
Both Singaporeans were faulted at least twice for moving before they received the shuttle, but steadied their nerves to beat their opponents in front of a partisan crowd, and give the Republic the lead in the best-of-five tie.
Hee, 22, said cheekily: "(The Australian) crowd was pretty amazing because they would be cheering their team on for every point. I would like them to support us if they can."
Loh Kean Yew doubled Singapore's lead when the world No. 225 men's singles player whitewashed Anthony Joe 21-8, 21-6, before the men's doubles tandem of Hee and Danny Bawa Chrisnanta beat Robin Middleton and Ross Smith 21-15, 21-14 to give Singapore the deciding point.
The Singaporeans will face India in the semi-finals on Sunday at the same venue.
Tan, 24, said: "Every single game against them will be tough because they have players with very good world ranking, but our team are ready and we will give our all."
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Stripers Blast Four Solo Homers in 6-4 Loss at Durham
Gosselin goes deep twice, Tucker and Nogowski also homer as Gwinnett comes up short
Phil Gosselin tallied the third multi-homer game of his pro career on Sunday in Durham. (Josh Conner)
By Dave Lezotte
DURHAM, NC – Phil Gosselin homered twice and both Preston Tucker and John Nogowski also went deep, but the Gwinnett Stripers (17-19) couldn't come back from a late four-run deficit in a 6-4 loss to the Durham Bulls (16-20) on Sunday evening at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Gwinnett lost four
DURHAM, NC – Phil Gosselin homered twice and both Preston Tucker and John Nogowski also went deep, but the Gwinnett Stripers (17-19) couldn't come back from a late four-run deficit in a 6-4 loss to the Durham Bulls (16-20) on Sunday evening at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Gwinnett lost four out of six games in the series.
Decisive Plays: Tucker's solo drive (2) into the Tobacco Road restaurant in left-center gave Gwinnett a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Durham responded with homers from Rene Pinto (3) and Tristan Gray (6) off Touki Toussaint (L, 1-1) for a 3-1 lead in the fourth. Josh Lowe tacked on two runs with a sacrifice fly in the sixth and RBI double in the eighth, and Isaac Paredes also lifted a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Key Contributors: Gosselin homered in the sixth and again in the eighth (2-3) to help Gwinnett keep it close, finishing 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Gray went 1-for-2 with the homer and two RBIs, and Lowe went 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs for Durham.
Noteworthy: The two-homer effort for Gosselin was just the third of his pro career and first since July 25, 2020 with Philadelphia vs. Miami. He is the third Stripers player with a multi-homer game this season, joining Greyson Jenista (April 12 vs. Nashville) and Chadwick Tromp (May 3 vs. Charlotte).
Next Game (Tuesday, May 17): Gwinnett vs. Memphis, 7:05 p.m. at Coolray Field. TBD for the Stripers vs. TBD for the Redbirds. Radio Broadcast: 6:50 p.m. on MyCountry993.com. It's Family Value Tuesday at Coolray Field, presented by Coolray Heating and Cooling ($2 hot dogs, $1 desserts).
Phil Gosselin
Preston Tucker
John Nogowski
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EPF/1216/17 - 15 Curtis Mill Lane, Stapleford Abbotts
Meeting of District Development Management Committee, Wednesday, 4th October, 2017 7.30 pm (Item 20.)
(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report for the retrospective application for the retention of the existing 3-bedroom bungalow dwelling.
The Principal Planning Officer (Development Management) presented a report for the retention of the existing three-bedroomed bungalow on the site, which had been built without prior planning permission being obtained. This application had been considered by Area Planning Sub-Committee East on 6 September 2017, where planning permission had been granted; however, four Members of that Sub-Committee then invoked the Minority Reference rules within the Constitution to refer the application to this Committee for a final decision.
The Principal Planning Officer stated that the site was one of 30 plots in this area, on which stood predominantly single-storey buildings used as dwellings. These lots were close to the eastern boundary of the District in an isolated and discreet rural location to the east of Stapleford Abbotts. These buildings were within the Metropolitan Green Belt, but they were not listed and nor did they lie within a conservation area. Originally, timber leisure chalets had been built on these plots for leisure and recreational uses during the summer months. However, over several decades, these chalets had come to be used as permanent dwellings and many were rebuilt for all year round occupation. Consequently, this section of Curtis Mill Lane was now characterised by bungalow dwellings occupied on a permanent basis.
The Principal Planning Officer reported that a timber chalet had existed on this particular site, but had been demolished to make way for the new bungalow. The new bungalow had been 80% built, but following enforcement action, works had ceased pending the outcome of this planning application. It was estimated that the new building was some 60-70% larger than the timber chalet that it had replaced. However, as it formed part of a built-up enclave, its impact on the openness of the Green Belt was reduced.
The Principal Planning Officer informed the Committee that Planning Officers had concluded this, and the other bungalows in the locality, provided a more affordable form of home than could generally be found elsewhere in the District. And while the erection of this replacement dwelling without planning permission could not be condoned, the proposal was considered acceptable. Therefore, it had been recommended that planning permission be granted, subject to conditions including the submission of details of the materials to be used on the external surfaces and details of a new front boundary enclosure, as well as the removal of permitted development rights.
The Committee noted the summary of representations received in respect of this application, including an objection from the Parish Council on the grounds that the new dwelling was not in character with the buildings in the vicinity, and a letter in support from the neighbour stating that the local rat problem had resolved itself since the old building was demolished. There were no speakers registered for this application so the Committee proceeded to debate the application.
Cllr Brady expressed her concerns about the timber chalet which was previously in situ being replaced by a large bungalow, and that construction was started without seeking planning permission first; this was a rural location surrounded by countryside. Cllr Brady conceded that the Council could not probably do much to prevent the construction, and the removal of the local rat problem once the previous building was demolished was a positive aspect, but the Councillor was worried that this could set a precedent whereby buildings were constructed in the District without first seeking planning permission. Cllr Philip also stated his distaste for retrospective applications, but highlighted that this could not be taken account of as part of the decision making process. The Councillor could not perceive any good planning reasons for refusal, and there were several other buildings of a similar size at the location, so the application would be, reluctantly, supported.
The Principal Planning Officer reminded the Committee that, if an application had been received prior to construction, Officers would have most likely still recommended approval despite the bungalow being 60% bigger than the previous chalet on site. Cllr Morgan also reminded the Committee that the vote to approve the application at Area Planning Sub-Committee East had been overwhelmingly in favour, and that this was a permanent residence for living in and not a holiday home. The Chairman stated that he also disliked retrospective applications, but there was not much to dislike about this application.
(1) That planning application EPF/1216/17 at 15 Curtis Mill Lane in Stapleford Abbotts be granted permission, subject to the following conditions:
1. Details of the following shall be submitted to the Local Planning Authority, in writing, within four months of the date of this decision and, once approved, these details shall be fully implemented on site within a six-month period:
(a) the types and colours of the external finishes to be used on the new bungalow; and
(b) a new front boundary enclosure.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 as amended (or any other Order revoking, further amending or re-enacting that Order) no development generally permitted by virtue of Classes A, B or E of Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Order shall be undertaken without the prior written permission of the Local Planning Authority.
3. The development hereby permitted will be completed strictly in accordance with the four approved drawings numbered 2087.1, 2087.2, 2087.3 and 2087.4.
EPF-1216-17 15 Curtis Mill Lane Rpt, item 20. PDF 121 KB
EPF-1216-17 15 Curtis Mill Lane Map, item 20. PDF 59 KB
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"MOMMY, DADDY WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" Peyton, our daughter, yells as she jumps up and down on our bed.
"I'm up baby girl. I'm up" Nate groans as he gives Peyton a quick peck on her head.
"YAY! I'm hungry" She says jumping on Nate's back.
"Nate go back to bed. Me and Peyton will make you breakfast." I inform Nate. Nate had got back from Digifest Chicago yesterday at like 2 o'clock in the morning so he's super tired. Also today is fathers day so why not make him breakfast. I pick up Peyton and put her on my hip as I walk out of me and Nate's room.
"What do you want to make daddy for breakfast bay girl?" I ask Peyton as i set her down on the kitchen counter.
"Sure" I agree as i walk into the pantry and grab pancake mix. As me and Peyton mix the pancake mix, Nate comes down.
"Good morning my two beautiful ladies" Nate smiles as he sits down at the kitchen counter.
"Good morning baby" I say as I give Nate a kiss on the cheek.
"Good morning daddy" Peyton giggles as she goes to sit in Nate's lap.
"What are my two beautiful girls makin' this morning?" Nate asks as he leans over the kitchen counter.
"Just some simple pancakes" I reply scooping some batter into my hand and hiding it behind my back. As Nate leans over, i swipe my finger across his face and he gasp.
"You did not just do that!" Nate gasp.
"Oh but i did babe" I reply smirking.
"Ooh mommy's in trouble" Peyton giggles.
"Oh yeah she is baby girl" Nate smirks. All of a sudden Nate runs around the kitchen counter attempting to grab me. I start to laugh but Nate swiftly grabs me and pins me on the ground as I gasp. All of a sudden, I feel pancake mix all over my face. I gasp and Peyton erupts into laughter.
"YOU SON OF A-" I'm interrupted by a lips smashing into mine.
"EWW MY EYES" I hear Peyton scream in the back ground. As Nate pulls away he smiles. I smile in return. As Nate pulls away i continue making the pancakes. Lucky for me they didn't burn. I serve everyone their pancakes we go to the living and watch cartoons.
"These pancakes are amazing. Thank you my two beautiful ladies" Nate says as he gives me a peck on the lips and Peyton a kiss on the forehead.
"I love you daddy" Peyton giggles.
"I love you more baby girl" Nate smiles.
"I love you Nate" I smile as I give him a quick peck on the lips.
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Enabling or disabling privacy protection for contact information for a domain - Amazon Route 53
AWSDocumentationAmazon Route 53Developer Guide
Enabling or disabling privacy protection for contact information for a domain
When you register a domain with Amazon Route 53 or transfer a domain to Route 53, we enable privacy protection by default for all the contacts for the domain. This typically hides most of your contact information from WHOIS ("Who is") queries and reduces the amount of spam that you receive. Your contact information is replaced either with contact information for the registrar or with the phrase "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY."
If you choose to disable privacy protection, you must disable it for all contacts for a domain. If you do disable privacy protection, anyone can send a WHOIS query for the domain and, for most top-level domains (TLDs), might be able to get all the contact information that you provided when you registered or transferred the domain, including name, address, phone number, and email address. The WHOIS command is widely available; it's included in many operating systems, and it's also available as a web application on many websites.
The information that you can hide from WHOIS queries depends on two main factors:
The registry for the top level domain
Most TLD registries hide all contact information automatically, some allow you to choose to hide all contact information, some allow you to hide only some information, and some do not allow you to hide any information.
To enable or disable privacy protection for some domains, you must open a support case and request privacy protection. For more information, see the applicable section in Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53:
.co.uk (United Kingdom)
.me.uk (United Kingdom)
.org.uk (United Kingdom)
When you register a domain with Route 53 or transfer a domain to Route 53, the registrar for the domain is either Amazon Registrar or our registrar associate, Gandi. Amazon Registrar and Gandi hide different information by default:
Amazon Registrar – By default, all of your contact information is hidden. However, regulations for the TLD registry take precedence.
Gandi – By default, all of your contact information is hidden except organization name, if any. However, regulations for the TLD registry take precedence.
For geographic TLDs that don't allow privacy protection, your personal information will be marked as "redacted" on the Whois Directory Search page on the Gandi website. However, your personal information might be available at the domain registry or on third-party WHOIS websites.
To find out what information is hidden for the TLD for your domain, see Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53.
When you want to enable or disable privacy protection for a domain that you registered using Route 53, perform the following procedure.
To enable or disable privacy protection for contact information for a domain
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/.
In the navigation pane, choose Registered Domains.
Choose the name of the domain that you want to enable or disable privacy protection for.
Choose Edit Contacts.
Choose whether to hide contact information. You must specify the same privacy setting for all three contacts: administrative, registrant, and technical.
Choose Save.
If you encounter issues while enabling or disabling privacy protection, you can contact AWS Support for free. For more information, see Contacting AWS Support about domain registration issues.
Updating contact information and ownership for a domain
Enabling or disabling automatic renewal for a domain
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"KidZui is a child-safe internet front end that calls upon an enormous whitelist of websites, pictures, videos, and games that have all been reviewed by a group of volunteers composed of parents and educators."
Read more about it and how to enjoy it here.
I was going to title this "Winter Activities" until I remembered that a number of those reading this live in Vegas or other warm-weather areas where winter is the time to go outside! I, however, live in the midwest, or the "heartland", but it might as well be the arctic as far as getting my kids outside to run around is concerned. So, I've tried to get creative with ways I can have fun with two active boys while staying indoors. I'll post my favorite from this week and look forward to your comments with more great ideas.
40 minutes of harmonious playtime in the bathtub Because this is made mostly of soap it washes off kids, the tub, and the ice cube trays perfectly. A great indoor pastime...and your kids get clean!
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class GURL;
namespace content {
class PushMessagingService;
class ServiceWorkerContextWrapper;
extern const char kPushSenderIdServiceWorkerKey[];
extern const char kPushRegistrationIdServiceWorkerKey[];
class PushMessagingMessageFilter : public BrowserMessageFilter {
public:
PushMessagingMessageFilter(
int render_process_id,
ServiceWorkerContextWrapper* service_worker_context);
private:
struct RegisterData;
class Core;
friend class BrowserThread;
friend class base::DeleteHelper<PushMessagingMessageFilter>;
~PushMessagingMessageFilter() override;
// BrowserMessageFilter implementation.
void OnDestruct() const override;
bool OnMessageReceived(const IPC::Message& message) override;
// Register methods on IO thread ---------------------------------------------
void OnRegisterFromDocument(int render_frame_id,
int request_id,
const std::string& sender_id,
bool user_visible,
int64_t service_worker_registration_id);
void OnRegisterFromWorker(int request_id,
int64_t service_worker_registration_id,
bool user_visible);
void DidPersistSenderId(const RegisterData& data,
const std::string& sender_id,
ServiceWorkerStatusCode service_worker_status);
// sender_id is ignored if data.FromDocument() is false.
void CheckForExistingRegistration(
const RegisterData& data,
const std::string& sender_id);
// sender_id is ignored if data.FromDocument() is false.
void DidCheckForExistingRegistration(
const RegisterData& data,
const std::string& sender_id,
const std::string& push_registration_id,
ServiceWorkerStatusCode service_worker_status);
void DidGetSenderIdFromStorage(const RegisterData& data,
const std::string& sender_id,
ServiceWorkerStatusCode service_worker_status);
// Called via PostTask from UI thread.
void PersistRegistrationOnIO(const RegisterData& data,
const std::string& push_registration_id);
void DidPersistRegistrationOnIO(
const RegisterData& data,
const std::string& push_registration_id,
ServiceWorkerStatusCode service_worker_status);
// Called both from IO thread, and via PostTask from UI thread.
void SendRegisterError(const RegisterData& data,
PushRegistrationStatus status);
// Called both from IO thread, and via PostTask from UI thread.
void SendRegisterSuccess(const RegisterData& data,
PushRegistrationStatus status,
const std::string& push_registration_id);
// Unregister methods on IO thread -------------------------------------------
void OnUnregister(int request_id, int64_t service_worker_registration_id);
void UnregisterHavingGottenPushRegistrationId(
int request_id,
int64_t service_worker_registration_id,
const GURL& requesting_origin,
const std::string& push_registration_id,
ServiceWorkerStatusCode service_worker_status);
void UnregisterHavingGottenSenderId(
int request_id,
int64_t service_worker_registration_id,
const GURL& requesting_origin,
const std::string& sender_id,
ServiceWorkerStatusCode service_worker_status);
// Called via PostTask from UI thread.
void ClearRegistrationData(int request_id,
int64_t service_worker_registration_id,
PushUnregistrationStatus unregistration_status);
void DidClearRegistrationData(int request_id,
PushUnregistrationStatus unregistration_status,
ServiceWorkerStatusCode service_worker_status);
// Called both from IO thread, and via PostTask from UI thread.
void DidUnregister(int request_id,
PushUnregistrationStatus unregistration_status);
// GetRegistration methods on IO thread --------------------------------------
void OnGetRegistration(int request_id,
int64_t service_worker_registration_id);
void DidGetRegistration(int request_id,
const std::string& push_registration_id,
ServiceWorkerStatusCode status);
// GetPermission methods on IO thread ----------------------------------------
void OnGetPermissionStatus(int request_id,
int64_t service_worker_registration_id,
bool user_visible);
// Helper methods on IO thread -----------------------------------------------
// Called via PostTask from UI thread.
void SendIPC(scoped_ptr<IPC::Message> message);
// Inner core of this message filter which lives on the UI thread.
scoped_ptr<Core, BrowserThread::DeleteOnUIThread> ui_core_;
scoped_refptr<ServiceWorkerContextWrapper> service_worker_context_;
// Empty if no PushMessagingService was available when constructed.
GURL push_endpoint_;
base::WeakPtrFactory<PushMessagingMessageFilter> weak_factory_io_to_io_;
DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN(PushMessagingMessageFilter);
};
} // namespace content
#endif // CONTENT_BROWSER_PUSH_MESSAGING_PUSH_MESSAGING_MESSAGE_FILTER_H_
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Children's Injuries
Reckless Driving/DUI
Korean Accident Attorneys
Home » Case Results » Auto Accidents » $97,000 Settlement For Family Struck by Drunk Driver
$97,000 Settlement For Family Struck by Drunk Driver
In January of 2017 a family of three was at a complete stop at a red light just outside of Fairfax Hospital when a drunk driver slammed into the back of their car. The defendant had to be removed from his seat by EMTs, who were the first ones to arrive on the scene. Incredibly, when the police arrived, the drunk driver told them that he was not driving – that he was the backseat passenger in an Uber and that his driver had jumped out and run away. Thankfully, the EMTs were still on scene and able to identify him as the driver of the car.
He failed all field sobriety tests and, when asked how much he had to drink that night told the police officer "not enough." A search warrant was obtained to draw his blood at the hospital to be tested for alcohol. The defendant's blood alcohol concentration was 0.16 or twice the legal limit.
Incredibly, when we filed suit against the driver, he and his lawyer filed an Answer stating that he was not too drunk to drive and was not the cause of the crash.
The case settled shortly after suit was filed in the Fairfax County Circuit Court and the family of three received just under $100,000 in compensation for their injuries.
Please call us (703) 385-1100 or fill out the below form and we will respond shortly..
FAIRFAX PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER | VIRGINIA AUTO ACCIDENT ATTORNEY | VIRGINIA CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY
At David Marks Law, we are devoted to achieving the best possible result for our clients in each and every case. Whether that means reaching an early settlement with the insurance company or taking your auto accident case all the way through a jury trial, we work with our clients to understand their wants and needs and to implement a plan to achieve those goals.
[email protected]
Practices Areas
DUI/Traffic
10513 Judicial Drive, Suite 204
© 2023 David Marks Law | All Rights Reserved | Powered by Threshold Media
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If SGF text is not readable, problem is probably in unrecognized character set. Character set defines what (kinds of) characters can be stored in file.
If text is show as squares, problem is likely to be lack of proper fonts. Installing suitable fonts for language should solve problem.
GOWrite 2 versions 2.0.03 and later can read SGF files with any character encoding supported by Java Runtime Environment.
SUN Java Runtime Environment exists in two different versions: English and International. International version is bigger, but contains character sets for many more languages, like Japanese (SJIS).
Your operating system needs to support displaying the characters in the SGF file in order to show them correctly. Adding this support varies from Operating system to Operating system, please consult your platform's documentation on this.
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If You Suspend Pro Tools Mix Groups To Tweak Level
Mix groups are an essential part of managing multiple tracks when mixing in Pro Tools, and the bigger your session gets, the more you find you need them.
The loss of the Artist controllers is a missed opp
In 2010 Avid acquired Euphonix along with its portfolio of products, including the EUCON protocol - a hardware/software interface for integrating deep control functionality into various hardware peripherals. Euphonix at the time had a unique blend of high-end professional solutions, as well as prosumer products like the Artist series. The Artist line of controllers were all priced around $1500 USD and were a variety of control surfaces aimed at desktop users who might not otherwise require the functionality of a full blown console. These products included the Artist Control and the Artist Color.
Spiderman Far From Home VFX Discussion
Julian Foddy began his visual effects career in 2006 at DNEG. He works on films like GREEN ZONE, PAUL, FURIOUS 6 and HERCULES. He joined the ILM teams in 2015 and took care of the effects of films such as TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS, TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT, READY PLAYER ONE and SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY.
Animate Text without Keyframes or Plugins in FCPX
Join longtime editor, VFX artist, plug-in developer, Creative COW leader Bret Williams of BretFX to learn how the FCPX Custom text tool allows you to animate text in Final Cut Pro X without using keyframes or plugins. With the often overlooked custom text tool you can easily create great text animation with just a couple of clicks. Change opacity, position, rotation, scale, duration, spread, blur and easing all without creating a single keyframe!
Han Yang on finding new 3D workflows for The Lande
When 3D artist Han Yang posted work in progress stills and then a trailer for his personal project, The Lander, he received much acclaim for the look of this Predator-inspired short. But, in addition, he captivated viewers by explaining his mix of V-Ray and Unreal Engine in lighting and rendering the film.
Spiderman Far from home VFX interview
Last year, Kevin Souls and Raphael A. Pimentel explained the work of Luma Pictures on ANT-MAN AND THE WASP. They then worked on THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS, MARY POPPINS RETURNS, CAPTAIN MARVEL and ONCE UPON AT TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Raphael A. Pimentel also worked on PEPPERMINT and AQUAMAN.
AE & Mocha Pro - Reverse Stabilization Workflow
Use Mocha Pro's planar tracking to reverse stabilize your shots for clean-ups and more. Mocha Pro 2019 now includes the CC Power Pin export format, making a simple workflow to achieve a "stabilized pre-comp" workflow for compositing tasks.
Re-visit the CG of 1994's Lion King
In the 1990s, traditional 2D animation was in a major state of transition. Digital technologies were allowing animation studios, including Walt Disney Feature Animation, to do things in very different ways. Partly, that came about via Disney's adoption of the Computer Animation and Production System (CAPS) that had been developed in conjunction with Pixar to aid in digital ink and paint, compositing, and production and library management. By the time The Lion King was released in 1994, CAPS had already been utilized on a number of films, including Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.
VFX veteran Jody Madden becomes new Foundry CEO
Foundry's chief product and customer officer Jody Madden (pictured above) has been appointed the new CEO of the leading visual effects and design software developer.
The 30 Degree Rule
We all know the 180-degree rule. It's a technique filmmakers use to make sure that the talent is always looking in the right direction on-screen by never letting your camera cross the centerline of the action.
Spiderman Far from Home VFX Supervisor
In 2017, Alexis Wajsbrot explained the work of Framestore on THOR: RAGNAROK. He then worked on MARY POPPINS RETURNS. He is back in the MCU with SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME.
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(5958) Barrande es un asteroide perteneciente al cinturón de asteroides, región del sistema solar que se encuentra entre las órbitas de Marte y Júpiter, descubierto el 29 de enero de 1989 por Antonín Mrkos desde el Observatorio Kleť, České Budějovice, República Checa.
Designación y nombre
Designado provisionalmente como 1989 BS1. Fue nombrado Barrande en homenaje al geólogo y paleontólogo francés Joachim Barrande, que realizó estudios sobre los estratos fósiles de Bohemia que revelaron la abundancia y la rica variedad de vida en la era paleozoica temprana.
Características orbitales
Barrande está situado a una distancia media del Sol de 2,349 ua, pudiendo alejarse hasta 2,652 ua y acercarse hasta 2,047 ua. Su excentricidad es 0,128 y la inclinación orbital 2,572 grados. Emplea 1315,75 días en completar una órbita alrededor del Sol.
Características físicas
La magnitud absoluta de Barrande es 13,8. Tiene 5,301 km de diámetro y su albedo se estima en 0,228.
Véase también
Lista de asteroides del (5901) al (6000)
Cuerpo menor del sistema solar
Referencias
Enlaces externos
Modelo en 3D de algunos asteroides
Circunstancias de Descubrimiento: Planetas Menores Numerados
Asteroides del cinturón principal
Objetos astronómicos descubiertos por Antonín Mrkos
Objetos astronómicos descubiertos desde el Observatorio Kleť
Objetos astronómicos descubiertos en 1989
Wikiproyecto:Asteroides/Artículos de asteroides
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We run some of our indoor bootcamps in a hall at the Garfield Primary School Wimbledon. The school is situated on Garfield Road, a 10 minute walk from Haydons Road station.
Come through the main entrance and into the hall.
Garfield Road runs parallel to Haydons Road, just south of Haydons Road station. Turn into Dryden Road and there is free parking on the roads outside and around the school (but do check the restrictions).
Haydons Road Station (overground) and Colliers Wood (Northern Line tube) are both a 10 minute walk to the school.
Bus route 200 (Raynes Park - Ridgway - Wimbledon - Colliers Wood - Phipps Bridge Estate - Mitcham) stops on the Haydons Road.
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Born 1942 in Southgate in northeast London; father a clergyman. Subsequent translations to other North London suburban contexts, interspersed with boarding school episodes in a more rustic setting . . .
In 'Dreaming Arrival' I've described how, under the influence of Eliot's 'Waste Land', I started, quite abruptly, to write poetry when I was fifteen and at boarding school: 'That first poem I wrote I still have, set out very neatly in the back of the Chemistry Notebook. I wrote it very quickly, something half-shameful and not fully believable . . . And later that day in the school dining hall I remember looking down the table and thinking, I have done this, and none of them knows I have done it. I became a library-haunter, reading in there through the long ache of afternoon sunlight. I read Webster's plays in the old Mermaid editions, this again because of the lines Eliot quoted: 'Keep the wolf far hence that's foe to men / Or with his nails he'll dig it up again'. . . . It was a question of how to fill those afternoons as the day's structure sagged and threatened to collapse. In the library I found books that sought to explicate this 'modern' poetry, Eliot and Auden in particular. This was the 1950s and it had been around for a while of course, but it was new to me. There was a sense of something important being brought forward to one's attention. The library had a liberal policy whereby you checked out your loans yourself, simply writing them in a book and taking them back pretty much when you felt like it.'
I became a haunter of second-hand bookshops as well. There was one, the White Horse Bookshop, in the town, and one of the two women who ran it was a poet, Joan Barton, but I did not find this out until many years later. Before long I was invited to join the school's Literary Society. Once a term there is the Literary Society's 'original contributions meeting', where we each read something we had written ourselves. These sessions had a sort of hushed, embarrassed intensity. There was no immediate criticism – we just each read in turn, poems or prose. The secretary, one of the boys, did compile minutes where he commented on what was read. There had been other poets at that school – Betjeman and Macneice, also Bernard Spencer.
In 1962, after a 'gap year' – though it wasn't called that in 1960 – attached to a school in Lahore, in Pakistan, and a breakdown which kept me out of circulation for a year, I went to Cambridge where, as far as poetry went, I was a sort of semi-participant, publishing a few poems in Granta and other student magazines. I think I overlapped by one year with Andrew Crozier but didn't encounter him till much later, when I published him with The Many Press and I was not at the time part of that upsurge of poetic energy focussed in significant part on the university.
Then a year at Southampton doing a PGCE, a teacher-training course, which for me was blissfully ordinary after Cambridge which I had experienced as an uncomfortable prolongation of public school. There didn't seem to be any poetry at Southampton (apart form my own of course). Moving back to London, living in a bedsitter and making a living doing odd bits of part-time teaching, I sought to make connections. Also living in that house was a Canadian poet Charles Hatcher who had previously been part of the expatriate scene in Paris, Trocchi, Beckett and so on. I've written elsewhere about him and the Canadian would-be novelist who lived in the house as well, two marginal people. I brought out my first publication, a pamphlet which I produced myself under Charles' guidance. Elsewhere I made contacts, going to Norman Hidden's Writers Workshop in Covent Garden, and Guerrilla Poets that met Jim Haynes' Arts Lab – Donald Gardner, resident for a long time now in Amsterdam, was our leader.
In 1969 I went to France – I'd contrived to get a languages degree, main subject French, without ever living in the country. You could do that if you went to Cambridge back then. I spent a year teaching in Lyon, then back to London and part-time teaching, French this time. An encounter, just after I got back from France in 1970, with Anthony Howell was a turning point. In 'Being There', an article published in issue 28 of Jacket magazine www.jacketmagazine.com , I wrote: 'Our Workshop met every week in Antony's flat in Hampstead. It started at the beginning of the year and ran through the summer. Afterwards we would go and have a curry and then I would walk home. I had a bedsitter in Kilburn and I would stride along in the Summer night, down the hill under the huge trees. Walking alone across a city late at night can give one a feeling of owning it. My room when I got home had a balcony from where I could look up towards Kilburn. Looking out over the city I could contain it all, contain it and body it forth. I was writing unrhymed sonnets – the arbitrariness of the form, however vestigial, as a container. For the several months that the workshop carried on – it met once a week and was intense – I existed in a shared verbal exaltation. It was like re-living the excitements of modernism, a feeling that anything was possible.' So in this roundabout way I became that much more aware than previously of other varieties of writing, and of that peculiar gulf that divides 'mainstream' from 'experimental', 'avant-garde' or whatever one likes to call it, in the poetry world.
In 1973 we moved to Hackney, where I've lived ever since. In 1975 I started working for the 'English Language Service' in Waltham Forest in East London, a specialist team of teacher formed to teach English to school students recently arrived in Britain, a job I was to do for the next twenty seven years. That same year our first child was born, and I started The Many Press. And in 1984 my first full-length collection of poems, 'Out Walking' was published by Anvil.
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Veronica Gutierrez, Devin Booker's Mother: Bio, Net Worth
If you're familiar with the NBA at all, then you know that Veronica Gutierrez Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns is one of the rising stars in the league and that he's also dating Nina Earl, who's a singer and dancer. Did you know that his mother, Veronica Gutierrez Son, also has her career? In this article about Devin Booker's mother, we'll introduce you to her accomplishments, discuss her family life, and discuss some of her most memorable moments.
Who is Veronica Gutierrez?
Gutierrez is a Mexican-American celebrity mother. Davon wade is famous as the mother of American professional basketball. Veronica Gutierrez is a Mexican-American esthetician and lauded relative credited as the mother of NBA star Devin Booker and an accomplice of former NBA player Melvin Booker. Veronica is frequently seen on the web, and the media claim that her child Devin says a lot about her. Likewise, she has become a significant figure based on her experiences with NBA player Melvin Booker. Gutierrez is the mommy of pro player Devin Booker who plays for the Golden State Warriors. Veronica and ex-NBA player Davon Wade are dating and have been going out for over two years. Veronica was born in Mexico City, Mexico but moved to Phoenix, Arizona, at an early age and studied at Skyline High School, where she played basketball.
She also graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Sociology. Veronica Gutierrez was born in Mexico and held Mexican citizenship. She is the daughter of Davon Wade and Veronica Gutierrez. Her mother is a businesswoman, and her father is a retired NBA player. She has two siblings, Devin Booker and Davon Jr., In high school. She played on the boys' basketball team. Veronica Gutiérrez graduated from the University of Southern California with a communications and business management degree. She started as an assistant to then-Vice President Al Gore at age 18 before working for Arizona governor Jane Dee Hull where she had become Deputy Chief of Staff by age 24.
Physical Stats:
Physical Stats veronica Gutierrez booker is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 56 pounds. Her shoe size is 6.5. Veronica has an athletic build. Veronica speaks Spanish and English fluently. She studied international relations at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala in Antigua Guatemala.
But if you are looking for her daughter veronica 'Devin' booker net worth, then she has a net worth of $1.6 million, and that is no doubt with the help of golden state warriors star Davon wade, which they have been dating, and this relationship is giving him some stability on the court as well. Veronica Gutierrez Devin booker was born on October 30, 1996, in Venezuela and moved to Los Angeles with her family when she was some years old.
She had graduated from California State University Northridge before getting married to Shawn, a person who later became Devin, son erson father – now separated from him but still friendly today! They have a daughter named Devin, a son erson some age years old, and four sisters. Veronica speaks fluent Spanish, English, and creole fluently. Veronica Gutierrez is also working on her graduate degree at George Washington University, majoring in public administration.
Childhood and Early Life:
Veronica Gutierrez is a famous mother. However, she has yet to share her date of birth in the media, there is currently no information on her exact age. Likewise, there is no information about her zodiac sign as her date of birth is not yet available. Again, Veronica was born in Mexico and held Mexican citizenship. Likewise, she belongs to the Hispanic ethnic group and is Christian, speaking of her ethnicity and religion.
Similarly, Veronica does not share much information about her childhood with the media and her family members. In short, Veronica is most known for being the mother of Devin Booker. Additionally, Veronica's son played for the Phoenix Suns and now plays for the Golden State Warriors. Veronica attended all his games when he played with Phoenix but missed several games while he played with Golden State due to work commitments in San Francisco.
Veronica Gutierrez is outspoken regarding her relationship status and has lived a single life. Although she had a son Devin Booker with basketball player Melvin Booker, they never married. Veronica first met at the Grand Hoops of the Continental Basketball Association. Likewise, at this point, Melvin was playing for the Grand Rapids Mackers during their season. Likewise, the couple grew closer and was fortunate to have their first child, Devin, on October 30, 1996. However, although they were together, they never married.
Before Melvin, she dated another person and had two children, Davon Wade and Mya Powell. In short, it is crucial to know who Devlin's mother is. Veronica Gutiérrez Son was born in Panama City. Hence, she study Industrial Design at Escuela de Diseño e Industrias Textiles (ESDI) in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros until she was accept into Parsons School of Design in New York City.
Rise to Fame:
Talking about her popularity, Veronica is known to many as the mother of the famous professional basketball player Devin Booker. Veronica is a beautician. Likewise, her son, Booker, is an American professional basketball player. Booker plays for the National Basketball Association team, the Phoenix Suns. Devin drew inspiration from his father, Melvin Booker, to start his basketball career. He finds that his father's lifestyle, Melvin, significantly influences him.
He travels to various countries to play games and communicate via email. Talking about his personal life and biography, Veronica Gutiérrez was born in Chicago. Likewise, she is a Latina. Likewise, she was born to Victor Gutiérrez and Veronica Noriega. Her mother works as a beautician, while her father works as a musician and truck driver.
Social Media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
Veronica Gutierrez is not active on her social media accounts like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. After breaking up with her boyfriend, she kept her personal life private from the media. However, Veronica was often present on a few occasions with her son. Her son already has a huge fan following on his social media account. He has gathered more than 4.6 million followers on his Instagram account. Veronica also shared a photo of herself cooking for her son on Christmas Day.
Veronica seems to be living an average life after the divorce from basketball player Steve Nash. The couple divorced amicably, and veronica Gutierrez does not have any complaints about their relationship as parents to their children. They both agreed that they should live close by to stay involved in their kids' lives. Veronica is now dating Duncan West, an executive at Pixar Animation Studios. It looks like she is happy with him, and things are going well for her family.
Veronica Gutierrez's husband:
Veronica's baby daddy and Devin's father are called Melvin Jermaine Booker. He is an American former professional basketball player. Although people consider Melvin to be Gutierrez's husband, the two only had a relationship in the 90s and never married. Melvin Booker played as a point guard for the University of Missouri. During the season, Booker played basketball in the NBA for Houston Rockets. The following season, he played for the Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors. Booker played 32 games in the NBA throughout his professional career. He retired from professional basketball. Then returned to Moss Point, Mississippi, where his son Devin Booker lived with his mother and brought him to start training as a basketball player. He even hired a coach to ensure his son became successful in his career.
Gutierrez has three children:
Devin booker mom has three children but with different fathers. Her widely known son is Devin Booker. He is a renowned American basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. Gutierrez welcomed Devin on October 30, 1996, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Devin's father is Melvin Booker. Before welcoming Devin Booker, Veronica Gutierrez already had a son called Davon Wade. Davon is older than Devin by four years. He works as a real estate agent and is a graduate of Western Michigan University after attaining a degree in Business Administration.
Veronica Gutierrez Booker met Melvin Booker when he played for the Grand Rapids Mackers during the CBA season. The two started dating afterward and became close. They welcomed their first child, Devin Booker. Veronica's third child Mya Renee Powell was born with a chromosomal genetic disorder called microdeletion syndrome. She graduated from high school. Devin always considers Mya as his inspiration.
Gutierrez raised Devin Booker as a single parent:
Devin booker parents met Melvin Booker when he played for the Grand Rapids Mackers during the CBA season. The two started dating afterward and became close. They welcomed their first child, Devin Booker. But because Melvin was a professional basketball player, he did not spend his playing career in the USA. Instead, he played his games in Europe and Asia. As a result, Veronica and Melvin never got married. It also meant that Veronica had to raise Devin as a single mother. She stayed in Michigan with her three children and raised them in Midland, a suburb of Grand Rapids. But Melvin was not absent entirely. He became a co-parent and would even take his son to his games during the summers. Devin was some years old when Melvin retire as a professional basketball player.
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Anne McLaren Biography, Career, Legacy, and Personal Life
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Bluegg gets a new website (finally!)
Well, it's taken a while, but following months of designs, redesigns and re-redesigns we've finally finished our brand spanking new website (almost!). Like a plumber with a dripping tap, design agencies own design requirements always seems to be at the bottom of the list, so it's taken around 6 months to get it all done, but now it's here so we hope you like it!
We built our last site in 2008 and while it's served us well, things have moved on. The old site was designed to work at a screen resolution of 800 x 600px which was still the standard back then. Thankfully that's changed and the norm is now much bigger (1024 x 768px). That's allowed us to show more content, with more space and most importantly for us - bigger pictures!
So what's new?
Well, pretty much everything really. Starting with the homepage we now have some featured projects which will change as we add new work and a live feed from our twitter account, so there's always something new to see. We have a new about us page which includes some snazzy new photos of the studio and new doodles of the team. We've simplified our services section and added some of the lovely things our clients have said about us.
The work section took us ages! We've added 9 new projects including our award winning design for Subzero Ice Cream and the recent rebrand for the Seren Group.
Back by popular demand is the doodles section! Although it's not quite finished yet. Follow us on Twitter or join our mailing list and we'll let you know when it's ready.
The biggest change to the site is the introduction of a blog. We'll be writing an article about this at some point, but the blog seems to have replaced the latest news section for most clients. It's going to be the part of our site that changes the most as we add posts about our work, design topics, studio happenings and things we like. Join our mailing list and we'll let you know when we add new stuff.
There's still a few things to finish off over the next couple of weeks, so check back soon. We hope you like the new site! Enjoy.
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Yes, it's almost Halloween. But mamas, we have to tell you… we are still deep in Summer weather here in LA. So it makes perfect sense that we'd still be sharing neon pool parties on Cakelet at the end of October. No matter how much we obsess about sweaters and tights, bikini season is still going strong! Melissa of Homethrown LA threw the most joyful, adorable pool party for her twins at her gorgeous LA home. And we get to share it with all of you. Good food, a gorgeous pool, neon crafts for little fingers, and twin birthday cakes. So good.
Nevermind the gold S-P-L-A-S-H balloons. Can we talk about that play house?!
Love Melissa's mix of rustic textures with bright neon details. Considering she is an expert when it comes to throwing intimate, thoughtful events it's no surprise that this party is so cute!
Also, get ready for some major kitchen envy. Her house!
Little snack packs for the kiddos is so smart. Makes it easy to be sure that the little bodies are nicely fed and read for cake.
This party seriously looks like the most perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon, ever.
Check check on the matching party activities. Neon Jenga!
Go Joey! It's your party, girl.
Such a good one, Melissa. Thank you for sharing your sweet pair's party with us!
You can see the Unicorn party that Erica (the other half of Homethrown LA) threw for her daughter earlier this year right here.
Thank you for sharing some very nice and inspirational photoes! May I ask about the kitchenlamps - where are they from?
can you please tell me where the bar stools are from?
Can you share where the bar stools are from? Love em!
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When you twist the head off a bolt, break a screw shank or mangle a screw head, you have a few options: In metal, you can completely drill out a bolt and restore the damaged threads with a tap.... I need to remove the pentalobe screws to replace the screen and get the phone up and running. Unfortunately the previous owner has completely stripped one of the pentalobe screws and I can not remove it with the correct tools.
The heads of machine screws are similar to all other types of screws. When choosing them, you need to consider the application of the screw and to make sure that this matches the type of screw head you get. For instance, if you want to put a tamper proof screw in place, you might need to get a machine screw that has a custom made head.... A screw thread, often shortened to thread, is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a straight thread and the latter called a tapered thread.
22/04/2014 · Removing a stripped screw or stripped bolt or other stripped or broken fastener can be done by either using a screw extractor (which is a dedicated tool) or by drilling the screw out by using the smallest diameter metal-drilling screw to drill out the stripped screw's shaft or somehow getting a grip on the head (unlikely with your... The heads of machine screws are similar to all other types of screws. When choosing them, you need to consider the application of the screw and to make sure that this matches the type of screw head you get. For instance, if you want to put a tamper proof screw in place, you might need to get a machine screw that has a custom made head.
When you twist the head off a bolt, break a screw shank or mangle a screw head, you have a few options: In metal, you can completely drill out a bolt and restore the damaged threads with a tap.
The heads of machine screws are similar to all other types of screws. When choosing them, you need to consider the application of the screw and to make sure that this matches the type of screw head you get. For instance, if you want to put a tamper proof screw in place, you might need to get a machine screw that has a custom made head.
Remove the easy-out if the screw shaft is being stubborn and still won't come out. You definitely don't want to break the easy-out off in the hole. You definitely don't want to break the easy-out off in the hole.
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News | iran economy |
New Tech Centers for Four Cities
EghtesadOnline: Two innovation centers will open in Karaj, the provincial center of Alborz, and Isfahan next week, the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, an affiliate of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, announced.
The centers, according to Alireza Qolinejad, the head of RICHT's Technology Office, are local historical houses that have been renovated and retrofitted for tech-based activities, Mehr News Agency reported.
"The centers will provide shared working space for startups interested in working on tourism," he said.
"RICHT currently supports 90 startups in its two Tehran-based tech houses. With the opening of the new innovation centers, more tourism-oriented tech teams will be able to join the institute and take advantage of its resources."
In recent years, the Iranian government's policies have focused on supporting the local technology ecosystem to reduce the country's reliance on foreign resources and transform the traditional economy into a knowledge-based system.
State institutions and academic centers pursuing this goal are increasingly offering financial aid packages and establishing shared offices across the country.
Tabriz in East Azarbaijan Province is another city where a new startup growth center is being established.
The center, supported by the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology as well as provincial authorities, aims to encourage local entrepreneurs, assist them in commercializing their innovative products and increase employment in the province.
The tech center, according to the news, specializes in the design and manufacture of industrial tool kits and machinery parts, as well as the development of smart solutions in reverse engineering, performance analysis and problem detection strategies.
In a similar move, the Qazvin Chamber of Commerce has joined forces with the vice presidential office and the Iran Technical and Vocational Training Organization to establish a technology center by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2022).
The center, according to provincial officials, will focus on robotics, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.
Academia Joins the Move
As the outstanding achievements of technology ecosystem attract different sectors to make investments in the field, universities nationwide have stepped in to extend support to tech teams.
In late September, Kerman's Islamic Azad University and Science and Technology Park established a growth center to provide technical support (from university graduates and tech park mentors) and financial support (from university resources and private investors) to eager startups.
The first phase of an innovation center was established by Salman Farsi University in Kazeroun, Fars Province, with 6 billion rials ($20,000) from the vice presidential office.
In February, Sorena Sattari, the vice president for technology, inaugurated three tech centers at the Tehran-based Amirkabir University of Technology.
Focused on energy and physics, space science and civil engineering, these tech centers will commercialize students' ideas by offering legal, technical and market consultancies.
With the addition of three new centers, the university is now hosting eight innovative teams.
Hossein Hosseini, the university's deputy for research and technology, said the tech centers are aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and technological innovation among students and faculty members.
Besides forming innovation centers and attracting tech teams, universities can utilize their scientific edge to help startups.
Such efforts are a synergetic move to advance the tech ecosystems of Tehran and other Iranian cities.
In late January, Sharif University of Technology in Tehran and Astan Quds Razavi, an economic conglomerate in Khorasan Razavi Province, launched an innovation factory adjacent to Ferdowsi University in Mashhad.
The center is specialized in the renovation of medical equipment and clinical devices, which will help save $420 million annually.
In addition, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences joined hands with the vice presidential office to invest 320 billion rials ($1 million) in an innovation center to develop unique ideas and commercialize tech-based plans in a wide range of health fields.
Golestan University of Medical Sciences also hosts an innovation center working on health technology, which offers virtual visits for clinical diagnosis and post-treatment support and consultancy.
The center is also providing technical, scientific and commercial assistance to innovative teams and aiding efforts to commercialize their ideas.
Countrywide Projects
Over the past few years, numerous tech parks and innovation factories have been established throughout the country to offer shared workspace and other facilities to tech units.
There are seven tech parks in Tehran Province, most of which are backed by major Iranian universities, including Tarbiat Modares University, University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University and Islamic Azad University.
These tech parks carry the name of universities backing them.
Innovation factories in Tehran, such as Azadi and Highway, have also attracted numerous tech teams and startups.
Azadi Innovation Factory was launched in August 2018 at an abandoned chemicals factory near Azadi Square, west of Tehran. The center is backed by the vice presidential office for science and technology and managed by Sharif University of Technology.
Highway, the capital's second innovation factory, is under construction. The factory is being established in an old building near Nobonyad Square on the northeastern flank of Tehran.
Tehran is not alone in its push for establishing innovation factories and tech parks. Numerous centers have also been launched across Iran.
The vice presidential office is developing innovation factories in Iranian metropolises like Zanjan, Isfahan, Tabriz, Karaj and Yazd to expand startup and knowledge-based ecosystems.
At the innovation factories, startups and knowledge-based companies receive legal, technical and financial assistance to develop their activities.
With the extension of infrastructural and financial support, people active in the tech ecosystem are propelling Iran's domestic production sector to end the economy's oil dependency and help overcome sanctions.
Tech tourism Alborz
Tech Support for Auto Localization
2 Firms Sign Deals to Inject New Tech in Petrochem Sector
Medical tourism is an expanding industry as people travelling abroad for getting treatment
Carmakers, Armed Forces Expand Tech Ties to Overcome Sanctions
Iran Launches Tech Hub in Kenya
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Clarification of "in near proximity" and OSHA's discretion in enforcing first aid requirements in particular cases.
This is in response to your July 5, 2006 letter to the Occupational Safety and Health's Administration's (OSHA) Correspondence Control Unit, in which you requested an interpretation of "in near proximity" for 29 CFR 1910.151(b).
Paragraph 1910.151(b) of OSHA's general industry standard on medical services and first aid states, "In the absence of an infirmary, clinic, or hospital in near proximity to the workplace which is used for the treatment of all injured employees, a person or persons shall be adequately trained to render first aid. Adequate first aid supplies shall be readily available." The OSHA construction standard at 29 CFR 1926.50(c) has a similar requirement.
OSHA stated in a letter of interpretation dated January 16, 2007 to Mr. Charles F. Brogan: "The primary requirement addressed by these first aid standards is that an employer must ensure prompt first aid treatment for injured employees, either by providing for the availability of a trained first aid provider at the worksite, or by ensuring that emergency treatment services are within reasonable proximity of the worksite." The employer must ensure that ". . . adequate first aid is available in the critical minutes between the occurrence of an injury and the availability of physician or hospital care for the injured employee."
The letter further explains: "While the first standards do not prescribe a number of minutes, OSHA has long interpreted the term 'near proximity' to mean that emergency care must be available within no more than 3-4 minutes from the workplace. Medical literature establishes that, for serious injuries such as those involving stopped breathing, cardiac arrest, or uncontrolled bleeding, first aid treatment must be provided within the first few minutes to avoid permanent medical impairment or death. Accordingly, in workplaces where serious accidents such as those involving falls, suffocation, electrocution, or amputation are possible, emergency medical services must be available within 3-4 minutes, if there is no employee on the site who is trained to render first aid."
OSHA does exercise discretion in enforcing the first aid requirements in particular cases. For example, OSHA recognizes that in workplaces, such as offices, where the possibility of such serious work-related injuries is less likely, a longer response time of up to 15 minutes may be reasonable.
The January 16, 2007 letter also notes: "Other standards that apply to certain specific hazards or industries make employee first aid training mandatory, and reliance on outside emergency responders is not an allowable alternative. For example, see 29 CFR 1910. 266(i)(7) (mandatory first aid training for logging employees), and 29 CFR 1910.269(b) (requiring persons trained in first aid at work locations in the electric power industry) . . . You may find these standards on OSHA's website, http://www.osha.gov, by following the link to 'standards' and searching for 'first aid'. . .'logging,' etc."
Thank you for your interest in occupational safety and health. I have enclosed the aforementioned letter to Mr. Brogan for your reference. We hope you find this information helpful. OSHA requirements are set by statute, standards, and regulations. Our interpretation letters explain these requirements and how they apply to particular circumstances, but they cannot create additional employer obligations. This letter constitutes OSHA's interpretation of the requirements discussed. Note that our enforcement guidance may be affected by changes to OSHA rules. Also, from time to time we update our guidance in response to new information. To keep apprised of such developments, you can continue to consult OSHA's website, as mentioned above, at http://www.osha.gov.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the Office of General Industry Enforcement at (202) 693-1850.
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Edward Snowden: Patriot and Hero
Edward Snowden has been on my mind recently. His name has been back in the news recently because Congress has been revisiting many of the abuses that we never would have known about had Snowden not disclosed them to journalists 2 years ago. I also finally had a chance to see the absolute must-watch documentary that tracked the first meetings between Snowden and Glen Greenwald and subsequent initial public disclosures of the NSA's massive domestic spying operation.
Hero? Coward? Patriot? Traitor?
Prior to watching the film, I had loosely followed the epilogue of the disclosures. While hearing Snowden discuss his actions in his own words at a time before he likely understood their full ramifications on the world or his own life, I realized I had been a victim of the propaganda that sought to discredit and attack Snowden. The debate about Snowden has essentially divided between those who insist he is a traitor who disregarded the potential harm to the United States that could occur from his disclosures (a narrative that often seeks to suggest Snowden's ego and narcissism played a large part in his motivations) versus those who believe the disclosures were a heroic act of patriotism. Before seeing the movie and hearing Snowden describe what motivated him to take such drastic action and risk so much personally, I had probably begun to adopt the version of this story that painted Snowden as a naive kid, incapable of understanding the enormous global consequences of what he was doing. After having seen the movie, however, I can say that I am firmly and unapologetically in the Snowden Is a Patriotic Hero camp.
It is worth pointing out that Snowden specifically did not want the story to be about him. He was very wary of his identity being disclosed too early or the journalists who he chose to leak the information to writing stories about him as an individual. This trepidation was not because he feared the repercussions, but because he wanted the information to be the story. He wanted Americans to focus on just how terrifying and dangerous the domestic spying that our government has been conducting on us is. More on that in a moment, but I say this primarily to counter the idea that Snowden was some egotistical glory seeker, which I do think is relevant to the question of whether his actions were heroic (though not so much to the question of whether his actions were patriotic, to which the answer is an unqualified yes). Selflessness is, in my mind, a big indicator of heroism, or more accurately, actions with selfish motives are far less likely to be heroic.
So, the idea that Snowden's actions were motivated by self-interest is just plain wrong and, frankly, absurd. This was a young man not even 30 years old, making 6 figures a year and living with his beautiful girlfriend in Hawaii who had been entrusted with one of the highest national security clearances possible. He was not disgruntled, he was not some disillusioned or delusional wing nut and he was most certainly not anti-American. He gave up a very comfortable life to warn Americans about what was happening.
That is patriotism. Sacrificing for your fellow citizens. Protecting the freedoms we claim to love even when doing so is not the comfortable or expedient choice. The only people who can argue otherwise are those who choose to accept their authoritarian shackles with pride and swallow every load of bullshit this government, which has time and time again demonstrated its willingness to lie to its people, chooses to shovel down their throats.
The real question I am left with and have not seen asked anywhere is this: given what was happening and the number of people who must have known about it and the length of time during which the spying occurred, how many people sat silent? How many people chose the comforts of their positions and were willing to sacrifice the privacy of their countrymen?
Those are the cowards. Those are the traitors.
Addendum: As I was working on this entry, more Snowden smearing happened. Glenn Greenwald's take down piece of the unethical journalism that led to major newspapers echo chambering unsubstantiated and false claims of the British government is a must read.
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You want more out of life. You want your work to make a difference. Despite your accomplishments, you feel there is something more—more joy, more love, more importance, more satisfaction—that eludes you. Yet you've been successful and invested time and energy in improving yourself and your relationships. So why do your life and your career have emptiness? And how can you rebuild that incredible sense of meaning in today's chaotic world?
The Joy of Work shows that the answer is already within you. By focusing less on external events and more on revealing the power of your inner core, you will know the joy of being more calm, confident, and connected at work and in all aspects of your life. Full of practical concepts, tools, and testimonials, The Joy of Work can help you start discovering the joy of creating a new equilibrium within yourself immediately.
Dr. Stephen G. Payne is chairman and founder of A New Equilibrium, a nonprofit community of men and women that exists to energize and encourage spiritually intentional leadership. An ex-CEO, he has inspired thousands of leaders throughout the world to achieve far greater results. His books and CDs include First Rule of Leadership, Driving Growth through Leadership, and Manage Your World on One Page.
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Gigajob - My FREE Job PortalPeople need jobs. Employers need employees.
Gigajob brings employers and employees together - simply, quickly, and for free! People seeking work, as well as employers seeking employees, will benefit from our wide range of services here at Gigajob.
User-oriented GigajobGigajob is a people-oriented company, providing a fully functional job portal. Our main aim is to provide for all your requirements. We encourage Gigajob members to let us know exactly what they need by making specific suggestions for improving our website. The Gigajob Team works hard to ensure that we meet all of your expectations and requirements.
Gigajob is FREE!Classified ads in newspapers or job portals are becoming more and more expensive and have uncertain success rates. Gigajob provides free services to job seekers, employers, and placement agencies. Job Vacancies and Resumes can be posted for free. It is absolutely free to register at Gigajob, search our extensive job database and contact individuals about the postings that interest you.
Gigajob is SIMPLE!The Gigajob procedure is very simple when compared to the endless forms, complicated processes, incomprehensible instructions, and the long waiting times you have with other job portals. At Gigajob, you can search the Gigajob database, contact relevant people, and even issue your own postings with just a few clicks. And here at Gigajob, we invite users to send in suggestions for improvement, allowing us to make Gigajob more user-friendly everyday.
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Hungarotrial » About us » Company history
Established in Hungary in 1999 by Dr. Lajos Sárosi, HungaroTrial rapidly expanded into the leading research countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Since our first multi-country clinical trial in 2002 we have steadily, and organically, grown throughout the CEE. New offices opened in Russia and Ukraine in 2009 and in Bulgaria in 2015. Client Relations and EMA Affairs Office opened in London in November 2016. The latest office has been established in the Czech Republic in 2017 and has been in high demand ever since.
Just as your clinical study can only Overachieve by carefully following an approved protocol, ICH Guidelines and local regulation, HungaroTrial has built its success by taking a carefully crafted organizational and operational formula into each country we serve. The result is a truly seamless, efficient operation able to serve your needs in countries and cultures that may seem to be diverse and difficult.
What's ahead? Our team continues to grow, empowered by our singular culture, our uncompromising drive to Overachieve, and our desire to improve the world through medical research.
At Industry Events
HungaroTrial is an active participant at international biotechnology and clinical research industry events, such as BIO, DIA and other smaller specialized conferences.
Our company is adding value to these conferences by exhibiting company materials and giving presentations about clinical research in Central and Eastern Europe.
Presentation at BIO International
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String theory: why not use $n$-dimensional blocks/objects/branes?
I have a basic question: if we use 1d string to replace 0d particle to gain insight of nature in string theory, and advanced to use 2d membranes, can we imagine that using $3$- or $n$-dimensional blocks/objects/branes as basic units in physics theory? Where is the end of this expansion?
string-theory spacetime-dimensions branes
ahalaahala
$\begingroup$ Look at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-brane $\endgroup$ – ungerade Jun 3 '13 at 15:36
$\begingroup$ Possible duplicate: physics.stackexchange.com/q/55431/2451. $\endgroup$ – Qmechanic♦ Jun 3 '13 at 15:59
$\begingroup$ it is important to point out that blanket "blocks/objects " will not work. Strings work because the are a multidimensional expansion of the basic harmonic oscillator. So are membranes ( think of drums) . imo any symmetric potential can have the first term a harmonic oscillator. To go to more complicated shapes of potentials, which maybe is a future possibility, still would preclude blocks. $\endgroup$ – anna v Jun 3 '13 at 16:07
$\begingroup$ Furthermore, the 2-D case is singled out by the Weyl invariance, a symmetry of the action that only appears if the fundamental object you deal with is 2-Dimensional. $\endgroup$ – Neuneck Jun 4 '13 at 8:43
There can not only, there have to be heavy higher dimensional objects (as for example D-branes) in string theory, as Joseph Polchinski discovered. So it is strictly speaking no longer appropriate to talk about "string theory", since M-theory is now known to relate all the different string theories known before by dualities and which contains these higher dimensional (from points D0, up to space filling D9 branes if spacetime is 10D) objects.
One way to see why these higher dimensional objects have to be there, is because T-duality transforms (among other things) the von Neuman boundary condition of a free floating open string, that are not stuck on anything, to the Dirichlet boundery condition which means that the endpoints are fixed. So there has to be something the strings can stick on, these objects are called D-branes which can be higher dimensional. That's the way Lenny Susskind introduced D-branes in this last lecture of his string course.
D-branes can for among other things be used to model the interactions of the standard model. For example QCD can be described by 3 D-branes, one for each color.
The mesons are strings which do not need to have both ends on the same "color" brane, quarks and anti-quarks are distinguished by the orientation of the string. Interactions take place when strings break and leave new end points on the brane and when two end points come together.
DilatonDilaton
There are, actually. Dilaton already covered the reason through T-duality, so I will discuss the requirement of $p$-branes imposed by Ramond-Ramond potentials.
The worldsheet of a string can couple to a Neveu-Schwarz B-field: $$q\int_{}^{} {{{h^{ab}}}\frac{{\partial {X^\mu }}}{{\partial {\xi ^a}}}\frac{{\partial {X^\nu }}}{{\partial {\xi ^b}}}B_{\mu \nu }\sqrt { - \det {h_{ab}}} {{\text{d}}^2}\xi } $$
($q$ is the electric charge) The worldsheet of a string can couple to graviton field (spacetime metric): $$m\int_{}^{} {{{h^{ab}}}\frac{{\partial {X^\mu }}}{{\partial {\xi ^a}}}\frac{{\partial {X^\nu }}}{{\partial {\xi ^b}}}g_{\mu \nu }\sqrt { - \det {h_{ab}}} {{\text{d}}^2}\xi } $$
You can change the "$m$" to any form you like, in terms of the tension/Regge Slope parameter/string length etc.
For a dilaton field, $${q }\ell _P^2\int_{}^{} {\Phi R\sqrt { - \det {h_{\alpha \beta }}} {\text{ }}{{\text{d}}^2}\xi } $$ Ignore conformal invariance for the time being.
But what about Ramond-Ramond potentials? All is fine with the Ramond-Ramond fields, but the Ramond-Ramond potentials $C_k$are associated with the Ramond-Ramond field $A_{k+1}$ and it is clear that they can't couple similarly to the worldsheet. But it can couple to a higher dimensional worlvolume -- $${q_{{\text{RR}}}}\int_{}^{} {C_{{\mu _1}...{\mu _p}}^{p + 1}\frac{{\partial {x^{{\mu _1}}}}}{{\partial {\xi ^{{a_1}}}}}...\frac{{\partial {x^{{\mu _p}}}}}{{\partial {\xi ^{{a_p}}}}}{h^{{a_0}...{a_p}}}\sqrt { - \det {h^{{a_0}...{a_p}}}} {{\text{d}}^{p + 1}}\xi } $$
Which requires membranes and other higher-dimensional objects. It's interesting to note that while 10-dimensional string theories permit all sorts of these branes, M-theory only permits 2 and 5 dimensional branes.
Abhimanyu Pallavi SudhirAbhimanyu Pallavi Sudhir
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged string-theory spacetime-dimensions branes or ask your own question.
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The Subtle Way Brett Kavanaugh Reassured Social Conservatives in His Acceptance Speech
Trump's Supreme Court court pick shouted out a prominent DC Catholic on Monday.
ReporterBio
Alex Edelman/CNP via ZUMA Wire
Brett Kavanaugh's acceptance speech Monday night contained all the trappings one would expect from a nominee to the US Supreme Court. He thanked President Trump, introduced his wife and daughters, and nodded to the influence of Anthony Kennedy, the retiring Supreme Court justice he once clerked for and hopes to eventually replace.
But, notably, Kavanaugh's speech diverged from his predecessors in one key aspect: extensive reference to his Catholic faith, including a special shout-out to one of Washington, DC's most beloved religious leaders, Monsignor John Enzler.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who attended the same Jesuit high school as Kavanaugh, vaguely thanked "my family, my friends and my faith" but failed to mention his Catholic upbringing when he accepted Trump's nomination last year. Neither did Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, or Justice Clarence Thomas in their first remarks as nominees. Not even the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a proudly devout Catholic who counted a priest among his sons, mentioned religion during his swearing-in ceremony.
Kavanaugh brought up Catholicism at several points in his 857-word speech, but reserved special attention for John Enzler, known as "Father John," a legend in DC Catholic circles. Kavanaugh said:
I am part of the vibrant Catholic community in the DC area. The members of that community disagree about many things, but we are united by a commitment to serve. Father John Enzler is here. Forty years ago, I was an altar boy for Father John. These days, I help him serve meals to the homeless at Catholic charities.
As CEO of the Archdiocese of Washington's branch of Catholic Charities, Enzler leads relief efforts for an organization that operates 58 programs in the DC area and supplies nearly 80 percent of the beds for the city's homeless. Catholic Charities has fans from across the political spectrum, but like many other religious institutions, it opposed the Affordable Care Act's mandate that contraception coverage be included in health care plans for employees. In 2012, Enzler's organization joined hundreds of other Catholic groups to sue the Department of Health and Human Services over the provision. After Trump took office, HHS settled and allowed an exception to the mandate.
Enzler, who has deep roots in the District and formerly served as pastor of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament church in the city's wealthy upper northwest corridor, attended the White House event on behalf of Catholic Charities.
https://twitter.com/MCITLFrAphorism/status/1016491013685350406
Critics made much ado of one of Trump's other finalists to the Court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a former law professor at Notre Dame whose appellate confirmation hearing included an exchange about "dogma" that rocketed her to fame in the right-wing Christian world. Kavanaugh had been widely seen as a less favorable selection for social conservatives, given his positions in cases involving abortion and health care that conservatives have argued were not strong enough.
https://twitter.com/Avik/status/1012049823065956354
Trump has said he did not ask Kavanaugh about the Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade that upheld a constitutional right to an abortion, a decision many conservatives hope will be overturned. And, as even the Vatican's own statements have suggested, a Catholic's allegiance to the faith is no sure sign of their allegiance to the Church's written doctrine.
But, as Kavanaugh now heads to the Senate, controlled by a threadbare majority of Republicans, he will need to assure social conservatives that he is not a candidate to be feared. His first remarks certainly did not work against that goal.
Trump Nominates Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court
While You Weren't Looking, Pope Francis Has Been Remaking the Church's Leadership
"This Is Outrageous": Elizabeth Warren Unloads on Trump's Pentagon Nominee
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Popović first came to international notice as the founder of the Belgrade student political activist organization Otpor! which means "Resistance!" in Serbian. In October 1998 Popović founded Otpor!, initially as a student protest group at Belgrade University dealing with student grievances. That was soon to change. He and other Otpor founders were trained in the methods of US regime-change specialist Gene Sharp, founder of the Albert Einstein Institute in Cambridge Massachusetts and by US State Department soft coup specialists such as Belgrade Ambassador Richard Miles and other trained US intelligence operatives, including election specialists and public relations image makers.
specialist in regime change, far more so than in classical diplomacy. He orchestrated the CIA coup in Azerbaijan that brought Aliyev to power in 1993 before arriving in Belgrade, and after that went on to orchestrate the CIA coup in Georgia that brought US asset Mikheil Saakashvili to power.
According to Michael Dobbs, who was foreign investigative reporter for the Washington Post during the Milosevic ouster, the IRI paid for Popović and some two-dozen other Otpor! leaders to attend a training seminar on nonviolent resistance at the Hilton Hotel in Budapest in October, 1999. There Popović and the other handpicked Serbian students received training in such matters as how to organize a strike and how to communicate with symbols, such as the clenched fist that became their logo. They learned how to overcome fear and how to undermine the authority of a dictatorial regime.
Popović and CANVAS claim that at least 50% of their obviously substantial funding for this philanthropic work comes from Popović's Otpor ally, Slobodan Đinović, co-chair of CANVAS and listed as CEO of something called Orion Telecom in Belgrade. A Standard & Poors Bloomberg business search reveals no information about Orion Telecom other than the fact it is wholly-owned by an Amsterdam-listed holding called Greenhouse Telecommunications Holdings B.V. where the only information given is that the same Slobodan Đinović is CEO in a holding described only as providing "alternative telecommunication services in the Balkans." It sounds someting like a corporate version of the famous Russian matryoshka doll nested companies to hide something.
Leaving aside the unconvincing statement by Popović 's CANVAS that half their funds come from Dinovic's selfless generosity from his fabulous success as telecom CEO in Serbia, that leaves the other roughly 50% of CANVAS funds unaccounted for, as Popović declines to reveal the sources beyond claiming they are all private and non-government. Of course, the Washington NGO is legally private though its funds mainly come from USAID. Of course the Soros Open Society Foundations are private. Could these be some of the private patrons of his CANVAS? We don't know as he refuses to disclose in any legally auditable way.
There is no charge for CANVAS workshops, and its revolutionary know-how can be downloaded for free on the Internet. This generosity, when combined with the countries in which CANVAS has trained regime-change opposition group "pro-democracy activists", suggests that the other 50%, if not more, of CANVAS funding comes from money channels that lead at least in part back to the US State Department and CIA. The Washington Freedom House is known to have financed at least a part of the activities of CANVAS. Freedom House, closely tied to the US neo-conservative war lobby, gets most of its funding from the US Government.
Popović's CANVAS claims to have trained "pro-democracy activists" from more than 50 countries, including Ukraine, Georgia, Zimbabwe, Burma (actually, the legal name since independence from the British is Myanmar but Washington insists on the colonial name), Eritrea, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. Popović's CANVAS was involved as well in unsuccessful attempts to start Color Revolution regime change against Venezuela's Hugo Chaves and the opposition in the failed 2009 Iran Green Revolution.
Even more interesting details recently came to light on the intimate links between the US "intelligence consultancy" Stratfor—known as the "Shadow CIA" for its corporate clients which include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and U.S. government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Now the very remarkable Mr Popović brings his dishonest career to Hungary where, not a dictator but a very popular true democrat who offers his voters choices, is the target for Popović' peculiar brand of US State Department fake democracy. This will not at all be as easy as toppling Milošević, even if he has the help of student activists being trained at Soros' Central European University in Budapest.
|
Yamaha Synthesizer Artist Ricky Gonzalez - first-call pianist, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist
Ricky Gonzalez maintains perfect balance between tradition and innovation. Whether it's R&B with J-Lo, Pop Salsa with Marc Anthony, Jazz with Dizzy Gillespie, Latin Jazz with Tito Puente or hard Salsa with Ray Barretto, Ricky has always moved seamlessly across genres with the greatest of ease. His work has garnered several GRAMMY® and LATIN GRAMMY® awards through the years and he shows no signs of slowing down.
Ricky has toured with a variety of artists including Celia Cruz, J-Lo, Latin Jazz icons Ray Barretto and Mongo Santamaria, Salsa legend Willie Colon and many, many others. He currently tours with Latin superstar Marc Anthony and, when not busy traveling the world, is a first-call studio session player, producer and arranger with thousands of albums and singles to his credit.
Noted for producing the mega-hit dance track, "I Like It Like That" for Tito Nieves, the chameleon-like producer makes the blending of musical genres seem effortless. More recently,he has turned some of his attention to music education, conducting Master Classes throughout several continents. Check out his online music academy.
Ricky Gonzalez is a proud Yamaha Artist. Catch him on tour.
In the meantime, enjoy his work in the videos below:
MONTAGE7
|
\subsection{DDB on Retinanet}
\section{Analysis on Semantic Consistency Module}
We visualize the dynamic consistency at different epoches to see how semantic consistency affects on the learning targets.
As shown in \Cref{figure: consistency-appendix-visualize},
the sampled points in each epoch with both high classification scores among categories and high IoU scores are highlighted,
named high consistency samples.
The low consistency samples are appear in dark colors.
Part of sample points at initial stage is not locate at the instance, as the model is not robust at the beginning.
With the semantic consistency module, the learned positive samples are progressively distributed at the semantic area of the instance.
As the training going on,
high consistency samples become robust and appear in lighter colors.
We also evaluate to see how inconsistency problem be solved by our method.
Some qualitative results are presented in \cref{figure: sc-visualize},
the typical inconsistency in which center-like annotations cannot handle presented in \Cref{figure:inconsistency-example} are improved to a large extent.
By utilizing the segmentation annotations,
we found that the proportion of samples locate on background reduced around 15\% (from 51.7\% at initial to 36.1\% when training finished) with the semantic consistency module.
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.85\linewidth]{consistency-appendix-visualize}
\caption{Visualized examples of semantic consistency module.
The left image of each row is the training data select from COCO $trainval35k$.
Rest images on the right are the heatmaps of sampled points with semantic consistency module at different training epoch.
Note that, entries of heatmaps represent the product results of IoU scores and classification scores.
Sampled points with high IoU scores and high classification scores are highlighted in the heatmaps.
Sampled points with low IoU scores or low classification scores are in dark colors.\textit{Better viewed in colors and zoom in.}
}
\label{figure: consistency-appendix-visualize}
\end{figure*}
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.85\linewidth]{sc_visualize}
\caption{Visualization on center inconsistency examples.
Sample points with high IoU scores and high classification scores are highlighted.
The corresponding areas preferred by the semantic consistency module are marked as red boxes on the images.
Images are select from COCO $trainval35k$ and evaluated with the trained model with ResNet-50 as the backbone.
}
\label{figure: sc-visualize}
\end{figure*}
\section{Precision-Recall curves}
The precision-recall(PR) curves of FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and DDBNet under different evaluation settings provided by \cite{SEGM-ECCV2014-COCO} on the \textit{minival} split are shown in \Cref{figure:pr-curve}.
PR curves were plotted for small-, medium- and large-scale objects in two models. The area in orange indicates the false negative(FN) portion of the evaluated dataset, which can be considered as the PR with all errors removed. The purple area presents the falsely detected objects.
We can see that the area of orange in DDBNet is much lower than the one in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}, which means DDBNet is much robust after all background and class confusions removed.
\begin{figure}[ht]
\centering
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/fcos/bbox-allclass-large.png}}}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/ours/bbox-allclass-large.png}}}
\vspace{-1cm}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/fcos/bbox-allclass-medium.png}}}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/ours/bbox-allclass-medium.png}}}
\vspace{-1cm}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/fcos/bbox-allclass-small.png}}}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/ours/bbox-allclass-small.png}}}
\caption{\textbf{Precision Recall Curves.}
Precision-recall(PR) curves of FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and DDBNet under different evaluation settings provided by \cite{SEGM-ECCV2014-COCO} on the \textit{minival} split with ResNet-50 as backbone. (a)(c)(e): Evaluation results in FCOS. (b)(d)(f): Evaluation results in DDBNet. DDBNet gets better performance under the strict evaluation settings. Especially, we find out that DDBNet works much robust after all background and class confusions removed.}
\label{figure:pr-curve}
\end{figure}
\section{Conclusion}
We propose an anchor-free detector DDBNet, which firstly proposes
the concept of breaking boxes into boundaries for detection.
The box decomposition and recombination optimizes the model training by uniting atomic pixels and updating in a bottom-up manner.
We also re-evaluate the semantic inconsistency during training,
and provide an adaptive perspective to solve this problem universally with no predefined assumption. Finally, DDBNet achieves a state-of-the-art performance with inappreciable computation overhead for object detection.
\section{Experiments}
\subsection{Experimental Setting}
\noindent\textbf{Dataset.} Our method is comprehensively evaluated on a challenging COCO detection benchmark\cite{lin2014microsoft}.
Following the common practice of previous works\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS,OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet,OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet}, the COCO \textit{trainval35k} split (115K images) and the \textit{minival} split (5K images) are used for training and validation respectively in our ablation studies.
The overall performance of our detector is reported on the \textit{test-dev} split and is evaluated by the server.
\noindent\textbf{Network Architecture.}
As shown in \Cref{figure: network-structure}, Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} is exploited as the fundamental detection network in our approach. The pyramid is constructed with the levels $P_{l}, l=3,4,...,7$ in this work. Note that each pyramid level has the same number of channels ($C$), where $C=256$. At the level $P_{l}$, the resolution of features is down-sampled by $2^{l}$ compared to the input size.
Please refer to \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} for more details.
Note that four heads are attached to each layer of FPN.
Apart from the regression and classification heads, a head for semantic consistency estimation is provided, consisting of a normal convolutional layer.
The regression targets of different layers are assigned in the same way as in \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
\noindent\textbf{Training Details.} Unless specified, all ablation studies take ResNet-50 as the backbone network.
To be specific, the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) optimizer is applied and our network is trained for 12 epochs over 4 GPUs with a minibatch of 16 images (4 images per GPU).
Weight decay and momentum are set as 0.0001 and 0.9 respectively.
The learning rate starts at 0.01 and reduces by the factor of 10 at the epoch of 8 and 11 respectively.
Note that the ImageNet pre-trained model is applied for the network initialization.
For newly added layers, we follow the same initialization method as in RetinaNet \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet}.
The input images are resized to the scale of $1333 \times 800$ as the common convention.
For comparison with state-of-the-art detectors, we follow the setting in \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} that the shorter side of images in the range from 640 to 800 are randomly scaled and the training epochs are doubled to 24 with the same reduction at epoch 16 and 22.
\noindent\textbf{Inference Details.}
At post-processing stage, the input size of images are the same as the one in training.
The predictions with classification scores $s>0.05$ are selected for evaluation.
With the same backbone settings, the inference speed of DDBNet is same as the detector in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
\subsection{Overall Performance}
\begin{table*}[tb]
\centering
\caption{\textbf{Comparison with state-of-the-art two stage and one stage Detectors}
(\textit{single-model and single-scale results}).
DDBNet outperforms the anchor-based detector \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet} by 2.9\% AP with the same backbone.
Compared with anchor-free models, DDBNet is in on-par with these state-of-the-art detectors.
$^\dag$ means the NMS threshold is 0.6 and others are 0.5.}
\label{tab: sota}
\resizebox{1.02\linewidth}{!}{
\begin{tabular}{l|l|lll|lll}
\toprule
Method & Backbone & $AP$ & $AP_{50}$ & $AP_{75}$ & $AP_{S}$ & $AP_{M}$ & $AP_{L}$ \\
\midrule
\textbf{Two-stage methods:} &&&&&&\\
Faster R-CNN w/ FPN \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} & ResNet-101-FPN & 36.2 & 59.1 & 39.0 & 18.2 & 39.0 & 48.2 \\
Faster R-CNN w/ TDM \cite{OD-arXiv2016-Shrivastava} & Inception-ResNet-v2-TDM \cite{szegedy2017inception} & 36.8 & 57.7 & 39.2 & 16.2 & 39.8 & 52.1 \\
Faster R-CNN by G-RMI \cite{OD-CVPR2017-Huang} & Inception-ResNet-v2 & 34.7 & 55.5 & 36.7 & 13.5 & 38.1 & 52.0 \\
RPDet \cite{OD-ICCV2019-RepPoints} & ResNet-101-DCN & 42.8 & 65.0 & 46.3 & 24.9 & 46.2 & 54.7 \\
Cascade R-CNN \cite{OD-CVPR2018-Cai} & ResNet-101 & 42.8 & 62.1 & 46.3 & 23.7 & 45.5 & 55.2 \\
\midrule \midrule
\textbf{One-stage methods:} &&&&&&\\
YOLOv2 \cite{OD-CVPR2017-YOLO9000} & DarkNet-19\cite{OD-CVPR2017-YOLO9000} & 21.6 & 44.0 & 19.2 & 5.0 & 22.4 & 35.5 \\
SSD \cite{OD-ECCV2016-Liu} & ResNet-101 & 31.2 & 50.4 & 33.3 & 10.2 & 34.5 & 49.8 \\
DSSD \cite{OD-arXiv2017-DSSD} & ResNet-101 & 33.2 & 53.3 & 35.2 & 13.0 & 35.4 & 51.1 \\
FSAF \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc} & ResNet-101 & 40.9 & 61.5 & 44.0 & 24.0 & 44.2 & 51.3 \\
RetinaNet \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet} & ResNet-101-FPN & 39.1 & 59.1 & 42.3 & 21.8 & 42.7 & 53.9 \\
CornerNet \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet} & Hourglass-104 & 40.5 & 56.5 & 43.1 & 19.4 & 42.7 & 53.9 \\
ExtremeNet \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhou} & Hourglass-104 & 40.1 & 55.3 & 43.2 & 20.3 & 43.2 & 53.1 \\
FCOS$^\dag$ \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} & ResNet-101-FPN & 41.5 & 60.7 & 45.0 & 24.4 & 44.8 & 51.6 \\
FCOS$^\dag$ \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} & ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN & 43.2 & 62.8 & 46.6 & 26.5 & 46.2 & 53.3 \\
FCOS$^\dag$ w/improvements\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} & ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN & 44.7 & 64.1 & 48.4 & 27.6 & 47.5 & 55.6 \\
\midrule
DDBNet (Ours) & ResNet-101-FPN & 42.0 & 61.0 & 45.1 & 24.2 & 45.0 & 53.3 \\
DDBNet (Ours) & ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN & 43.9 & 63.1 & 46.7 & 26.3 & 46.5 & 55.1 \\
DDBNet (Ours)$^\mathsection$ & ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN & \textbf{45.5} & \textbf{64.5} & \textbf{48.5} & \textbf{27.8} & \textbf{47.7} & \textbf{57.1} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
}
\scriptsize{
\begin{flushleft}
$^\mathsection$ GIoU\cite{Rezatofighi_2018_CVPR} and Normalization methods of `improvements' proposed in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} are applied, ctr.sampling in `improvements'\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} are not compatible with our setting and we do not use.
\end{flushleft}
}
\vspace{-.4in}
\end{table*}
We compare our model denoted as DDBNet with other state-of-the-art object detectors on the \textit{test-dev} split of COCO benchmark, as listed in \Cref{tab: sota}.
Compared to the anchor-based detectors, our DDBNet shows its competitive detection capabilities. Especially, it outperforms RetinaNet\cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet} by 2.9\% AP. When it comes to the anchor-free detectors, especially detectors such as FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and CornerNet\cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet} benefiting from the point-based representations, our DDBNet achieves performances gains of 0.5\% AP and 1.5\% AP respectively.
Based on the ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN backbone \cite{SPEED-CVPR2017-ResNeXt},
DDBNet works better than \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} with a 0.7\% AP gain.
Especially for large objects, our DDBNet gets 55.1\% AP, better than 53.3 \% reported in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
We also apply part of 'improvement' methods proposed in FCOS to DDBNet and gets 0.8\% better than the FCOS with all `improvements' applied.
To sum up, compared to detectors exploiting point-based representations, our DDBNet can similarly benefit from the mid-level boundary representations without heavy computation burdens. Furthermore, DDBNet is compared to several two stage models. It overpasses \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} by a large margin.
\vspace{-.1in}
\subsection{Ablation Study}
In this section, we explore the effectiveness of our
method, including two main modules of box D\&R module and semantic consistency module. Additionally, we conduct in-depth analysis of the performance metrics of our method.
\subsubsection{Comparison with Baseline Detector}\mbox{}
It should be noted that FCOS detector\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} without the centerness branch in both training and inference stages is taken as our baseline.
Here we conduct in-depth analysis of the performance metrics of our method.
\noindent\textbf{Box D\&R module.}
As shown in \Cref{tab:b&r-ablation}, by incorporating the D\&R module into the baseline detector, a 1.2\% $AP$ gain is obtained, which proves that our D\&R module can boost the overall performance of the detector. Especially for the $AP_{75}$, a 1.4\% improvement is achieved, which means that D\&R performs better on localization even in a strict IOU threshold. Furthermore, D\&R module achieves a better performance on large instances according to the large gain on $AP_L$.
With explicit boundary analysis, large instances are often surrounded by numbers of predicted boxes. As a result, it gets easier to find the well-aligned boundaries, then the boxes re-organization can be more effective.
Compared to the baseline results in metrics including $AP_{50}$, $AP_{S}$ and $AP_{M}$, D\&R obtains stable performance gains respectively, which shows the stability of our proposed module.
By breaking the atomic boxes into boundaries, D\&R module makes each boundary find the better optimization direction. The optimization of boundary is not limited by the box its in, instead of depending on a sorted of related boxes. Generally, by adjusting the boundary optimization, the detection network is learnt better.
\begin{table*}[t]
\centering
\caption{\textbf{Ablative experiments for DDBNet on the COCO \textit{minival} split.} We evaluate the improvements brought by the Box Decomposition and Recombination(D\&R) module and the semantic consistency module.}
\resizebox{.68\linewidth}{!}{
\begin{tabular}{ccc|l|ll|lll}
\toprule
\multicolumn{3}{c|}{ Modules } & $AP$ & $AP_{50}$ & $AP_{75}$ & $AP_{S}$ & $AP_{M}$ & $AP_{L}$ \\
Baseline & D\&R & Consistency & & & & & & \\
\midrule
\checkmark & & & 33.6 & 53.1 & 35.0 & 18.9 & 38.2 & 43.7 \\
\checkmark & \checkmark & & 34.8 & 54.0 & 36.4 & 19.7 & 39.0 & 44.9 \\
\checkmark & & \checkmark & 37.2 & 55.4 & 39.5 & 21.0 & 41.7 & 48.6 \\
\checkmark & \checkmark & \checkmark & \textbf{38.0} & \textbf{56.5} & \textbf{40.8} & \textbf{21.6} & \textbf{42.4} & \textbf{50.4} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
}
\label{tab:b&r-ablation}
\end{table*}
\noindent\textbf{Semantic Consistency module.}
The semantic consistent module described in \Cref{subsec:reg-cls-consist} presents an adaptive filtering method. It forces our detection network into autonomously focusing on positive pixels whose semantics are consistent with the target instance. As shown in \Cref{tab:b&r-ablation}, the semantic consistency module contributes to a significant performance gain of 3.6\% $AP$ compared to the baseline detector. This variant surpasses the baseline by large margins in all metrics.
Due to that the coarse bounding boxes would contain backgrounds and distractors inevitably, the network is learnt with less confusion about the targets when equips our adaptive filtering module. More ablation analysis on semantic consistency module is provided in \Cref{subsubsec:ana-sc}.
\noindent\textbf{Cooperation makes better.}
In our final model denoted as DDBNet, the semantic consistency module first filters out a labeling space of pixels inside each instance that is strongly relative to the geometric and semantic characteristics of the instance. The box predictions of the filtered positive pixels are further optimized by the D\&R module, leading to more accurate detection results. Consequently, DDBNet achieves 38\% AP, better than all the variants in \Cref{tab:b&r-ablation}. Our method boosts detection performance over the baseline by 2.7\%, 4.2\%, and 6.7\% respectively on $AP_S$, $AP_M$, $AP_L$.
\subsubsection{Analysis on D\&R Module.}\mbox{}
\noindent\textbf{Statistical comparison with conventional IoU Loss.}
As we mentioned in \Cref{subsec:box-decom-recom}, IoU loss with D\&R updates the gradient according to the optimal boundary scores.
To confirm the stability of D\&R module, we plot the average IoU scores and variances of boxes before and after D\&R respectively.
We can see that with D\&R module, the average values of IoU scores are higher than the means of origin IoU scores by a large margin around 10\% in the whole training schedule, as in \Cref{figure: mean-iou-compare}.
At the start of training, the mean of optimal boxes gets 0.47 which is better than 0.34 of origin boxes.
As training goes on, both average scores of origin and optimal boxes increase and remain at 0.77 and 0.86 at the end.
Variances of IoU scores with D\&R are much lower than the origin IoU scores, which indicates D\&R module improves the overall quality of boxes and provides better guidance for training.
\begin{filecontents}{origin-iou.mat}
iter iou-mean var
0 0.3465 0.047
1 0.6872 0.045
2 0.7098 0.033
3 0.7229 0.043
4 0.7315 0.046
5 0.7277 0.056
6 0.7340 0.032
7 0.7547 0.037
8 0.7652 0.031
9 0.7705 0.041
10 0.7830 0.038
11 0.7729 0.044
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{dr-iou.mat}
iter dr-mean var
0 0.4734 0.02
1 0.7961 0.024
2 0.8122 0.017
3 0.8219 0.013
4 0.8319 0.015
5 0.8280 0.022
6 0.8357 0.010
7 0.8486 0.009
8 0.8553 0.011
9 0.8596 0.015
10 0.8688 0.011
11 0.8621 0.012
\end{filecontents}
\iffalse
\begin{filecontents}{small-iou.mat}
iter small-iou-mean var
0 0.1826 0.008
1 0.4648 0.053
2 0.5062 0.051
3 0.4735 0.061
4 0.4919 0.057
5 0.4647 0.052
6 0.5147 0.058
7 0.5285 0.057
8 0.5514 0.054
9 0.5738 0.059
10 0.5591 0.058
11 0.5564 0.057
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{dr-small-iou.mat}
iter dr-small-mean var
0 0.3794 0.012
1 0.6609 0.045
2 0.6893 0.038
3 0.6852 0.047
4 0.7048 0.039
5 0.6817 0.044
6 0.7159 0.036
7 0.7235 0.040
8 0.7240 0.037
9 0.7641 0.031
10 0.7553 0.035
11 0.7648 0.029
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{middle-iou.mat}
iter middle-iou-mean var
0 0.3452 0.027
1 0.6590 0.042
2 0.6778 0.039
3 0.6916 0.043
4 0.6956 0.040
5 0.7022 0.039
6 0.7127 0.040
7 0.7112 0.042
8 0.7208 0.039
9 0.7477 0.036
10 0.7593 0.037
11 0.7550 0.035
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{dr-middle-iou.mat}
iter dr-middle-mean var
0 0.4792 0.047
1 0.7739 0.023
2 0.7899 0.021
3 0.8019 0.021
4 0.8032 0.020
5 0.8084 0.020
6 0.8153 0.019
7 0.8171 0.019
8 0.8256 0.017
9 0.8397 0.015
10 0.8487 0.014
11 0.8537 0.013
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{large-iou.mat}
iter large-iou-mean var
0 0.3737 0.031
1 0.7209 0.037
2 0.7444 0.036
3 0.7638 0.035
4 0.7656 0.035
5 0.7795 0.035
6 0.7778 0.037
7 0.7813 0.036
8 0.7916 0.034
9 0.8093 0.032
10 0.8108 0.035
11 0.8147 0.034
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{dr-large-iou.mat}
iter dr-large-mean var
0 0.5002 0.012
1 0.8239 0.016
2 0.8398 0.015
3 0.8557 0.013
4 0.8592 0.013
5 0.8694 0.012
6 0.8687 0.013
7 0.8702 0.013
8 0.8792 0.012
9 0.8916 0.009
10 0.8961 0.010
11 0.9039 0.008
\end{filecontents}
\fi
\begin{figure}[tb!]
\centering
\pgfplotsset{
width =0.58\linewidth,
height=0.36\linewidth
}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1]
\begin{axis}[minor tick num=0,
xmin=-0.5, xmax=12,
ymin=0.25, ymax=0.95,
mark size=1.0pt,
ytick={0.3,0.5,...,0.9},
xlabel={epoch},
ylabel={IoU}
xlabel near ticks,
ylabel near ticks,
legend style={
draw=none,
at={(1.0,.28)},
anchor=west,
legend columns=1},
]
\addplot [color=red, only marks, mark=o, line width=1.0pt]
plot [error bars/.cd, y dir = both, y explicit]
table [x={iter}, y={dr-mean}, y error={var}] {dr-iou.mat};
\addplot [color=blue, only marks, mark=o, line width=1.0pt]
plot [error bars/.cd, y dir = both, y explicit]
table [x={iter}, y={iou-mean}, y error={var}] {origin-iou.mat};
\legend{IoU w/~D\&R, IoU w/o~D\&R}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{\textbf{Average IoU scores for all predicted boxes during the training.}
The red points denote the IoU scores with D\&R module while the blue points are the IoU scores without optimization.
Vertical lines indicate the variance of IoU scores.}
\label{figure: mean-iou-compare}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure*}[t!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.88\linewidth]{figure/dr-appendix-visualize.pdf}
\caption{
\textbf{Illustration of improved box predictions provided by our DDBNet.}
We visualize the boxes before the decomposition (left images of the pairs) and the boxes after the recombination (right images of the pairs). \textbf{Red}: ground-truth boxes. \textbf{Green}: the predictions, where the lighter colors indicate higher IoU scores. \textbf{Black}: the boxes with low score, which will be masked according to the regression loss.
Boxes ranked by D\&R module are much better organized than the origin boxes and the localizations are much correlated to the instances.
All the results are from DDBNet with ResNet-50 as backbone on $trainval35k$ split.}
\label{figure: dr-appendix-visualize}
\end{figure*}
\noindent\textbf{Visualization on D\&R module.}
We provide some qualitative results of box predictions before and after incorporating the D\&R module into the baseline detector,
as shown in \Cref{figure: dr-appendix-visualize}.
For clear visualization, we plot origin boxes and boxes after recombination individually. Predictions are presented in green and the lighter colors indicate higher IoU scores.
With D\&R module, boundaries are recombined together to obtain a tighter box of each instance.
The distribution of boxes after D\&R module is fitter than the origin boxes which is robust than the conventional regression.
As we mentioned in \Cref{subsec:box-decom-recom}, there exists recombined low-rank boxes with boundary scores lower than the origin.
These boundaries are masked according to the \Cref{loss: our-iou}.
\label{subsubsec:ana-sc}
\subsubsection{Analysis on Semantic Consistency}\mbox{}
\begin{table}[tb!]
\centering
\caption{\textbf{Comparison among different positive assignment strategies.}
`None' means no sampling method is applied.
`PN' denotes as the definition in \cite{OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox},
which means center regions are positive and others are negative.
`PNI' is the sampling used in \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc,OD-CVPR2019-Wang},
ignore regions are added between positive and negative.
Note that the consistency term is not included in this table.}
\begin{tabular}{c|l|ll|lll}
\toprule
Settings & $AP$ & $AP_{50}$ & $AP_{75}$ & $AP_{S}$ & $AP_{M}$ & $AP_{L}$ \\
\midrule
None & 33.6 & 53.1 & 35.0 & 18.9 & 38.2 & 43.7 \\
PN & 34.2 & 53.2 & 36.3 & 20.8 & 38.9 & 44.2 \\
PNI & 33.7 & 53.0 & 35.5 & 17.9 & 38.3 & 44.1 \\
Ours & \textbf{35.3} & \textbf{55.4} & \textbf{37.1} & \textbf{20.9} & \textbf{39.6} & \textbf{45.9} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:consistency-ablation}
\end{table}
\noindent\textbf{Dynamic or predefined positive assignment.}
To further show the superiority of dynamic positive assignment in semantic consistency module, we investigate other variants using different predefined strategies mentioned in previous works. FoveaBox\cite{OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox} (denoted as `PN') applies center sampling in their experiments to improve the detection performance.
This center sampling method defines the central area of a target box based on a constant ratio as positive while the others as negative.
`PNI' is taken used in \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc, OD-CVPR2019-Wang} which exploits positive, ignore and negative regions for supervised network training.
According to the result in \Cref{tab:consistency-ablation},
`PN' (second line) gets slight improvement compared to the baseline where no sampling method is adopted.
So restricting the searching space to the central area makes sense in certain cases and indeed helps improve object detection.
But the 'PNI' gets a lower performance, especially on $AP_S$. Namely, adding an ignore region between the ring of negative areas and the central positive areas does not further improve the performance and gets a large drop on the detection of small objects.
The limited number of candidates of small objects and the lower ratio of positive candidates in `PNI' result in the poor detection capability.
Contrastively, our proposed filtering method does not need to pre-define the spatial constraint while show best performances in all metrics.
\begin{table}[tb!]
\centering
\caption{\textbf{Comparison among different ratio settings.}
where $c$ is the sampling ration for each instance.}
\begin{tabular}{c|l|ll|lll}
\toprule
ratios & $AP$ & $AP_{50}$ & $AP_{75}$ & $AP_{S}$ & $AP_{M}$ & $AP_{L}$ \\
\midrule
$c=0.4$ & 34.6 & 54.2 & 36.6 & 19.1 & 38.5 & 45.2 \\
$c=0.5$ & 34.1 & 53.5 & 35.9 & 19.2 & 38.4 & 44.2 \\
$c=0.6$ & 34.7 & 54.2 & 36.5 & 19.0 & 38.7 & 45.5 \\
$c=0.7$ & 35.1 & 54.6 & \textbf{37.1} & 19.3 & 39.1 & 45.7 \\
$mean$ & \textbf{35.3} & \textbf{55.4} & \textbf{37.1} & \textbf{20.9} & \textbf{39.6} & \textbf{45.9} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:consistency-ratio}
\end{table}
\noindent\textbf{Adaptive or constant ratio.}
As mentioned in \cref{subsec:reg-cls-consist}, we investigate the constant ratio to replace the adaptive selection by mean. Four variants are obtained where the constant ratio is set from 0.4 to 0.7.
For instance $I$ with $M$ candidates, top $\left \lfloor c \times M \right \rfloor$ candidates are considered as positive, and others are negative, where $c$ is the constant sampling ratio applied to all instances.
As shown in \Cref{tab:consistency-ratio}, these results indicate that the adaptive way in our method is better than the fixed way to select positives from candidates.
\section{Introduction}
Object detection is an important task in computer vision, which requires predicting a bounding box of an object with a category label for each instance in an image.
State-of-the-art techniques can be divided into either anchor-based methods \cite{OD-CVPR2014-RCNN,OD-ICCV2015-FastRCNN,OD-TPAMI2017-FasterRCNN,OD-arXiv2017-DSSD,OD-ECCV2016-Liu,OD-CVPR2018-Cai,he2017mask,OD-CVPR2017-YOLO9000,redmon2018yolov3}
and anchor-free methods \cite{OD-CVPR2016-YOLO, OD-ICCV2019-FCOS, OD-ICCV2019-CenterNet, OD-CVPR2019-Zhou, OD-ICCV2019-RepPoints, jie2016scale}.
Recently, the anchor-free methods have increasing popularity over the anchor-based methods in many applications and benchmarks\cite{lin2014microsoft, everingham2015pascal, deng2009imagenet, OD-CVPR2012-Geiger}.
Despite the success of anchor-free methods,
one should note that these methods still have limitations on their accuracy, which are bounded by the way that the bounding boxes are learned in an atomic fashion.
Here, we discuss two concerns of existing anchor-free methods which lead to the inaccurate detection.
\iffalse{
\noindent\textbf{Local wise regression is limited.}
In general, anchor-free methods estimate a bounding box at each position of the feature map that is obtained from the last layer of the backbone network.
For simplicity, we denote each position of a feature map as a pixel in this paper.
As shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-visualize},
the dotted box and corresponding pixel are presented in the same color.
Limited by the receptive fields of convolution kernels, boxes learned in an atomic way have potential defects on precision.
Four boundaries of a box may not be well aligned to the ground truth simultaneously
Thus, the accuracy of an anchor-free detector is bounded by the quality of the boxes defined at each pixel in the last layer feature map, where the last layer feature map is usually at a lower resolution than the original input image as demonstrated in many representative backbone networks.
\noindent\textbf{The predefined importance of each pixel is inconsistent with the semantics.}
Without any prior knowledge about an object,
pixels in an object bounding box usually show uniform-distributed or gaussian-distributed effects in the learning stage of the anchor-free detectors such as the FCOS \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and the CornerNet \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet} detectors.
However, it is inevitable to include pixels from background in the bounding box, and these background regions are not uniformly distributed, as illustrated in \Cref{figure:inconsistency-example}.
Thus, taking all predefined pixels as positive targets in the training stage would lead to a significant semantic inconsistency, which hampers the accuracy of the predicted boxes from the network.
}\fi
First, the definition of center key-points \cite{OD-ICCV2019-CenterNet} is inconsistent with their semantics.
As we all know that center key-point is essential for anchor-free detectors. It is a common strategy to embed positive center key-points inside an object bounding box into a Uniform or Gaussian distribution in the training stage of the anchor-free detectors such as FCOS \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and CornerNet \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet}.
However, it is inevitable to falsely consider noisy pixels from background as positives, as illustrated in \Cref{figure:inconsistency-example}.
Namely, exploiting a trivial strategy to define positive targets would lead to a significant semantic inconsistency, degrading the regression accuracy of detectors.
Second, local wise regression is limited. Concretely, a center key-point usually provides box predictions in a regional/local-wise manner, which potentially defects the detection accuracy. The local-wise prediction results from the limitation of the receptive fields of convolution kernels, and the design of treating each box prediction from each center key-point as an atomic operation.
As shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-visualize}, the dotted predicted box and corresponding center key-point are presented in the same color.
Although each predicted box is surrounding the object, it is imperfect because four boundaries are not well aligned to the ground truth simultaneously.
As a result, choosing a box of high score at inference stage as the final detection result is sometimes inferior.
\begin{figure}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{inconsistency-example}
\caption{\textbf{An illustration of the inconsistency between the semantics of center key-points inside a bounding box and their annotations.} Pixels of backgrounds in the red central area are considered as positive center key-points, which is incorrect.}
\label{figure:inconsistency-example}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.66\linewidth]{D_R-visualize}
\caption{\textbf{An illustration of the boundary drifts in box predictions of general anchor-free detectors.} Limited by regional receptive fields and the design of treating each box prediction as an atomic operation in general detectors, each predicted box with dotted line is imperfect where four boundaries are not well aligned to the ground truth simultaneously. After box decomposition and combination, the reorganized box with red color gets better localization.}
\label{figure:D_R-visualize}
\end{figure}
To tackle the inaccurate detection problem, we present a novel bounding box reorganization method, which dives deeper into box regressions of center key-points and takes care of semantic consistencies of center key-points.
This reorganization method contains two modules, denoted as box decomposition and recombination (D\&R) module and semantic consistency module.
Specifically, box predictions of center key-points inside an instance form an initial coarse distribution of the instance localization. This distribution is not well aligned to the ideal instance localization, and boundary drifts usually occur.
The D\&R module is proposed to firstly decompose these box predictions into four sets of boundaries to model an instance localization at a lower refined level, where the confidence of each boundary is evaluated according to the deviation with ground-truth.
Next, these boundaries are sorted and recombined to form a sort of more accurate box predictions for each instance, as described in \Cref{figure:D_R-visualize}.
Then, these refined box predictions contribute to the final evaluation of box regressions.
Meanwhile, the semantic consistency module is proposed to rule out noisy center key-points coming from the background, which allows our method to focus on key-points that are strongly related to the target instance semantically.
Thus, box predictions from these semantic consistent key-points can form a more tight and robust distribution of the instance localization, which further boosts the performance of the D\&R module.
Our semantic consistency module is an adaptive strategy without extra hyper-parameters for predefined spatial constraints, which is superior to existing predefined strategies in \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc, OD-CVPR2019-Wang, OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
The main contribution of this work lies in the following aspects.
\begin{itemize}
\item We propose a novel box reorganization method in a unified anchor free detection framework. Especially, a D\&R module is proposed to
take the boundary prediction as an atomic operation, and then reorganize well-aligned boundaries into boxes in a bottom-up fashion with negligible computation overhead.
To the best of our knowledge, the idea of breaking boxes into boundaries for training has never been investigated in this task.
\item We evaluate the semantic inconsistency between center key-points inside an instance and the annotated labels, which helps boost the convergence of a detection network.
\item The proposed method DDBNet obtains a state-of-the-art result of 45.5\% in AP. The stable experimental results in all metrics ensure that this method can be effectively extended to typical anchor free detectors.
\end{itemize}
\section{Our Approach}
In this work, we build DDBNet based on FCOS as a demonstration, which is an advanced anchor-free method. As shown in \Cref{figure: network-structure}, our innovations lie in the box decomposition and recombination (D\&R) module and the semantic consistency module.
To be specific, the D\&R module reorganizes the predicted boxes by breaking them into boundaries for training which is concatenated behind the regression branch. In the training stage, once bounding box predictions are regressed at each pixel, the D\&R module decomposes each bounding box into four directional boundaries. Then, boundaries of the same kind are ranked by their actual boundary deviations from the ground-truth. Consequently, by recombining ranked boundaries, more accurate box predictions are expected, which are then optimized by the IoU loss \cite{yu2016unitbox}.
As for the semantic consistency module, a new branch of estimating semantic consistency instead of centerness is incorporated into the framework, which is optimized under the supervision of the semantic consistency module. This module exploits an adaptive filtering strategy based on the outputs of the classification and the regression branches. More details about the two modules are provided in the following subsections.
\subsection{Box Decomposition and Recombination}
\label{subsec:box-decom-recom}
Given an instance $I$, every pixel $i$ inside of $I$ regresses a box $p_{i} = \{l_{i}, t_{i}, r_{i}, b_{i}\}$.
The set of predicted boxes is denoted as $B_{I} = \{ p_{0}, p_{1}, \dots, p_{n}\}$, where $l, t, r, b$ denote the left, the top, the right, and the bottom boundaries respectively.
\begin{figure*}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{D_R-flow}
\caption{\textbf{An illustration of the work flow of the D\&R module.}
For a clear visualization, only three predictions in color are provided for the same ground-truth shown in black.
(a) \textbf{Decomposition:} Break up boxes and assign IoU scores $S_{0}, S_{1}, S_{2}$ of boxes to boundaries as confidence.
(b) \textbf{Ranking:} The rule how we recombine boundaries to new boxes.
(c) \textbf{Recombination:} Regroup boundaries as new boxes and assign new IoU scores $S'_{0}, S'_{1}, S'_{2}$ to boundaries as confidence.
(d) \textbf{Assignment:} Choose the winner confidence as final result.
The recombined box is shown on the right.}
\label{figure:D_R-flow}
\end{figure*}
Normally, an IoU regression loss is expressed as
\begin{equation}
\label{loss: origin-iou}
L_{IoU} = -\frac{1}{N_{pos}}\sum_{I}\sum_{i}^{n} \log(IoU(p_{i}, p^{*}_{I})),
\end{equation}
where $N_{pos}$ is the number of positive pixels of all instances, $p^{*}_{I}$ is the regression target. Simply, the proposed box decomposition and recombination (D\&R) module is designed to reproduce more accurate $p_{i}$ with the optimization of IoU loss. As shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}, the D\&R module consists of four steps before regularizing the final box predictions based on the IoU regression. More details are described as follows.
\noindent\textbf{Decomposition:}
A predicted box $p_{i}$ is split into boundaries $l_{i},t_{i},r_{i},b_{i}$ and the IoU $s_{i}$ between $p_{i}$ and $p^{*}_{I}$ is assigned as the confidences of four boundaries, as shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}(a).
For instance $I$, the confidences of boundaries is denoted as a $N \times 4$ matrix $S_{I}$.
Then we group four kinds of boundaries into four sets, which are $left_{I} = \{ l_{0}, l_{1}, ..., l_{n}\}$, $right_{I} = \{ r_{0}, r_{1}, ..., r_{n}\}$, $bottom_{I} = \{ b_{0}, b_{1}, ..., b_{n}\}$, $top_{I} = \{ t_{0}, t_{1}, ..., t_{n}\}$.
\noindent\textbf{Ranking:}
Considering the constraint of the IoU loss \cite{yu2016unitbox}, where the larger intersection area of prediction boxes with smaller union area is favored, the optimal box prediction is expected to have the lowest IoU loss. Thus, traversing all the boundaries of the instance $I$ to obtain the optimal box rearrangement $B'_{I}$ is an intuitive choice. However, in this way, the computation complexity is quite expensive, which is $\mathcal{O}(n^4)$. To avoid the heavy computation brought by such brute force method, we apply a simple and efficient ranking strategy.
For each boundary set of instance $I$, the deviations $\delta_{I}^{_l}$, $\delta_{I}^{_r}$, $\delta_{I}^{_b}$, $\delta_{I}^{_t}$ to the targets boundary $p^{*}_{I} = \{ l_{I}, r_{I}, b_{I}, t_{I}\}$ are calculated. Then, boundaries in each set are sorted by the corresponding deviations, as shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}(b). The boundary closer to the ground-truth has the higher rank than the boundary farther. We find that this ranking strategy works well and the ranking noise does not affect the stability of the network training.
\noindent\textbf{Recombination:}
As shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}(c), boundaries of four sets with the same rank are recombined as a new box $B'_I = \{ p'_{0}, p'_{1}, \dots, p'_{n}\}$.
Then the IoU $s'_{i}$ between $p'_{i}$ and $p^{*}_{I}$ is assigned as the recombination confidence of four boundaries.
The confidences of recombination boundaries is expressed as matrix $S'_{I}$ with shape $N \times 4$.
\noindent\textbf{Assignment:}
Now we get two sets of boundaries scores $S_I$ and $S'_{I}$. As described as \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}(d), the final confidence of each boundary is assigned using the higher score within $S_I$ and $S'_{I}$ instead of totally using $S'_{I}$. This assignment strategy results from the following case, \textit{e.g}.~the recombined low-rank box contains boundaries far away from the ground-truth. Then, the confidences $s'_{i}$ of four boundaries after recombination are much lower than their original one $s_{i}$. The severely drifted confidence scores lead to unstable gradient back-propagation in the training stage.
Thus, for reliable network training, each boundary is optimized under the supervision of the IoU loss estimated based on the ground-truth and the optimal box with its corresponding better boundary score. Especially, our final regression loss consists of two parts:
\begin{align}
\label{loss: our-iou}
\begin{aligned}
L^{D\&R}_{IoU} = &\frac{1}{N_{pos}}\sum_{I}(\mathds{1}_{\{S'_{I}>S_{I}\}}L_{IoU}(B'_{I}, T_{I}) \\
&+ \mathds{1}_{\{S_{I} \geqslant S'_{I}\}}L_{IoU}(B_{I}, T_{I})),
\end{aligned}
\end{align}
where $\mathds{1}_{\{S_{I} \geqslant S'_{I}\}}$ is an indicator function,
being $1$ if the original score is greater than the recombined one,
vice versa for $\mathds{1}_{\{S'_{I}>S_{I}\}}$.
The gradient of each boundary is selected to update network according to the higher IoU score between the original box and the recombined box.
Compared to the original IoU loss \Cref{loss: origin-iou} where gradients are back-propagated in local receptive fields,
\Cref{loss: our-iou} updates the network in context without extra parameterized computations.
As box in $B'_{I}$ is composed by boundaries from different boxes,
features are updated in an instance-wise fashion.
Note that there are no further parameters added in D\&R module. In short, we only change the way how gradient be updated.
\iffalse
In addition, the D\&R module also contains a branch of estimating four boundary confidences which contributes to the final box recombination at the inference stage.
The branch of estimating boundary confidences is also learnt under the supervision of the boundary scores $\max(S'_I, S_I)$. This branch is concatenated behind the layer of regression tower as shown in \Cref{figure: network-structure}, consisting of a single deformable convolutional layer and a normal convolutional layer for the score prediction.
The loss function is written as
\begin{align}
\label{loss: bd-confidence-loss}
\begin{aligned}
L_{bc} = &\frac{1}{N_{pos}}\sum_{I}\mathds{1}_{\{\max(S'_I, S_I) \geq \theta\}} CE(S^p_I, \max(S_I,S'_I)),
\end{aligned}
\end{align}
where $CE$ denotes as cross entropy.
Only boundaries of the high quality whose confidence scores are greater than the threshold $\theta$ are selected for the network learning.
$S^p_I$ is the set of boundary confidence scores for an instance predicted by the branch. $S_I$ and $S^{'}_I$ denote sets of boundary scores for an instance estimated based on the ground-truth.
Note that no gradient is back-propagated from this branch to the main branch.
At the inference stage, the boundary confidences predicted in this new branch contribute to the box merging in the BM-NMS, which are further described in \Cref{subsec:bm-nms}.
\fi
\subsection{Semantic Consistency Module}
\label{subsec:reg-cls-consist}
Since the performance of our D\&R module to some extent depends on the box predictions of dense pixels inside an instance, an adaptive filtering method is required to help the network learning focus on positive pixels while rule out negative pixels. Namely, the labeling space of pixels inside an instance is expected to be consistent with their semantics.
Different from previous works \cite{OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox,OD-ICCV2019-FCOS,OD-CVPR2019-Wang} which pre-define pixels around the center of the bounding box of an instance as the positive, our network evolves to learn the accurate labeling space without extra spatial assumptions in the training stage.
The formula of semantic consistency is expressed as:
\begin{align}
\label{semanticeq}
\begin{aligned}
\left\{\begin{matrix}
\overline{C_I}_{\downarrow} \bigcap \overline{R_I}_{\downarrow} \gets \text{negative},
\\
\\
\overline{C_I}_{\uparrow} \bigcup \overline{R_I}_{\uparrow} \gets \text{positive}, \\
\end{matrix}\right.\\
c_{i} = \max_{j=0}^{g}(c_{j}) \in C_I,
\end{aligned}
\end{align}
where $R_I$ is the set of IoU scores between the ground-truth and the predicted boxes of pixels inside the instance $I$,
$\overline{R_I}$ is the mean IoU score of the set $R_I$, $\overline{R_I}_{\downarrow}$ denotes pixels which have lower IoU confidence than the mean IoU $\overline{R_I}$. Inversely, $\overline{R_I}_{\uparrow}$ denotes pixels which have higher IoU confidence than $\overline{R_I}$.
The element $c_{i} \in C_I$ is the maximal classification score among all categories of the i-th pixel, and $g$ denotes the number of categories.
Similarly, $\overline{C_I}_{\downarrow}$ denotes pixels which have lower classification scores than the mean score of $C_{I}$.
Labels of categories are agnostic in this approach so that the predictions of incorrect categories will not be rejected during training.
Finally, as shown in \Cref{figure: consistency-visualize}, the intersection pixels in $\overline{R_I}_{\downarrow}$ and $\overline{C_I}_{\downarrow}$ are assigned negative, while the union pixels in $\overline{R_I}_{\uparrow}$ and $\overline{C_I}_{\uparrow}$ are assigned positive. Meanwhile, if pixels are covered by multiple instances, they prefer to represent the smallest instance.
More to the point, the filtering method determined by \Cref{semanticeq} is able to adaptively control the ratio of positive and negative pixels of instances with different sizes during the training stage, which have a significantly effect on the detection capability of the network. In the experiments, we investigate the performance of different fixed ratio, and then find that the adaptive selection by mean threshold performs best.
\begin{figure}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.49\linewidth]{figure/consistency-visualize.pdf}
\caption{\textbf{Visualized example of semantic consistency module.}
The intersection regions of positive regression and positive classification sets are regarded as consistent targets.}
\label{figure: consistency-visualize}
\end{figure}
After the labels of pixels are determined autonomously according to the semantic consistency, the inner significance of each positive pixel is considered in the learning process of our network, similarly to the centerness score in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}. Thus, our network is able to emphasize on more important part of an instance and is learnt more effectively. Especially, the inner significance of each pixel is defined as the IoU between the predicted box and the ground-truth. Then,
an extra branch of estimating the semantic consistency of each pixel is added to the network supervised by the inner significance.
The loss for semantic consistency is expressed as in \Cref{loss:cls-loss-consistency},
where $r_{i}$ is the output of semantic consistency branch. $IoU(p_{i}, p^*_{I})$ denotes the inner significance of each pixel.
\begin{align}
\label{loss:cls-loss-consistency}
L_{con} = \frac{1}{N_{pos}}\sum_{I}\sum_{i \in \overline{C_I}_{\uparrow} \bigcup \overline{R_I}_{\uparrow}} CE(r_{i}, IoU(p_{i}, p^*_{I})).
\end{align}
Generally, the overall training loss is defined as:
\begin{align}
\label{loss: loss-all}
\begin{aligned}
L = L_{cls} + L^{D\&R}_{reg} + L_{con},
\end{aligned}
\end{align}
where $L_{cls}$ is the focal loss as in \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet}.
\iffalse
\subsection{Box Merging Non Maximum Suppression}
Benefiting from the branch of the boundary confidences prediction as mentioned in \Cref{subsec:box-decom-recom},
a modified approach called Box Merging NMS (BM-NMS) is proposed to execute box merging at the inference stage, as detailed in \Cref{alg:r-nms}.
\label{subsec:bm-nms}
\begin{algorithm}[tbh!]
\caption{Box Merging Non-maximum suppression}
\label{alg:r-nms}
\begin{algorithmic}
\State $\mathcal{B}$ and $S^p$ are $N \times 4$ matrices corresponding to initial detection boxes and boundary confidence scores respectively.
\State $\mathcal{S}$ presents the classification scores weighted by consistency predictions.
\State $N_{t}$ is the NMS threshold
\State $N_{s}$ is the threshold of the boundary confidence
\State
\State \textbf{Input:} $\mathcal{B}=\{b_{1}, ..., b_{N}\}, \mathcal{S}=\{s_{1}, ..., s_{N}\}, S^p=\{s^p_{1}, ..., s^p_{N}\}$.
\State $\mathcal{D} \gets \{\}$; $\mathcal{T} \gets \mathcal{B}$;
\While{$\mathcal{T} \neq \O$}
\State $m \gets arg \max S$; $\mathcal{T} \gets \mathcal{T}-b_{m}$;
\For{$b_{i}$ in $\mathcal{T}$}
\If{$IoU(b_{m}, b_{i}) \geqslant N_{t}$}
\textcolor{blue}{
\If{$IoU(b_{m}, b_{i}) \geqslant N_{s}$}
\State $b_{m} \gets \mathds{1}_{\{s^p_{m} \geqslant s^p_{i}\}} b_{m} + \mathds{1}_{\{s^p_{m} < s^p_{i}\}} b_{i}$;
\EndIf
\textcolor{black}{\Comment{\textrm{Box Merging NMS}} }
}
\State $\mathcal{T} \gets \mathcal{T}-b_{i}; \mathcal{S} \gets \mathcal{S}-s_{i}$;
\EndIf
\EndFor
\State $\mathcal{D} \gets \mathcal{D} \bigcup b_{m}$;
\EndWhile
\State \Return $\mathcal{D}, \mathcal{S}$;
\end{algorithmic}
\end{algorithm}
BM-NMS inserts codes of 3 lines to the loop of standard NMS.
Note that the detection score $s_i$ is the confidence of classification $c_{i}$ multiplied by the inner significance $r_{i}$.
The merging rule is based on the confidence scores of box $b_{i}$ and $b_{m}$.
The box $b_{i}$, whose IoU with $b_{m}$ is over threshold $N_{t}$, is suppressed directly in the standard NMS.
However, in our algorithm, if its IoU with $b_{m}$ is more than the $N_{s}$,
BM-NMS will check whether there are boundaries of $b_{i}$ better than the boundaries of $b_{m}$ and then recombine better boundaries to $b_{m}$. Simply the detection score of $b_{m}$ stays the same. The procedure of box merging makes NMS much robust with negligible overhead.
\fi
\section{Related Work}
\begin{figure*}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.95\linewidth]{network-structure}
\caption{\textbf{An illustration of our network architecture.} Two novel components: the D\&R module and the consistency module are incorporated into a general detection network. The D\&R module carries out box decomposition and recombination in the training stage regularized by the IoU loss and predicts boundary confidences supervised by the boundary deviation. The consistency module selects meaningful pixels whose semantics is consistent with the instance to improve network convergence in the training stage.
}
\label{figure: network-structure}
\end{figure*}
\noindent\textbf{Anchor based Object Detectors.}
In anchor-based detectors, the anchor boxes can be viewed as pre-defined sliding windows or proposals, which are classified as positive or negative samples, with an extra offsets regression to refine the prediction of bounding boxes.
The design of anchor boxes is popularized by two-stage approaches such as Faster R-CNN in its RPNs \cite{OD-TPAMI2017-FasterRCNN}, and single-stage approaches such as SSD \cite{OD-ECCV2016-Liu}, RetinaNet \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet}, and YOLO9000 \cite{OD-CVPR2017-YOLO9000}, which has become the convention in a modern detector.
Anchor boxes make the best use of the feature maps of CNNs and avoid repeated feature computation, speeding up the detection process dramatically.
However, anchor boxes result in excessively too many hyper-parameters that are used to describe anchor shapes or to label each anchor box as a positive, ignored or negative sample.
These hyper-parameters have shown a great impact on the final accuracy, and require heuristic tuning.
\noindent\textbf{Anchor Free Object Detectors.}
Anchor-free detectors directly learn the object existing possibility and the bounding box coordinates without anchor reference.
DenseBox \cite{OD-arXiv2015-DenseBox} is a pioneer work of anchor-free based detectors. While due to the difficulty of handling overlapping situations, it is not suitable for generic object detection.
One successful family of anchor free works \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS,OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc,OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox,OD-CVPR2019-Wang} adopts the Feature Pyramid network \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} (FPN) as the backbone network and applies direct regression and classification on multi-scale features. These methods treat the bounding box prediction as an atomic task without any further investigations, which bounds the detection accuracy due to the two concerns we discussed in the introduction.
To avoid the drawback of anchors and refine the box presentations, points based box representation becomes popular recently \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet,OD-CVPR2019-Zhou,OD-ICCV2019-RepPoints,OD-ICCV2019-CenterNet}. For example, CornerNet \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet} predicts the heatmap of corners and apply an embedding method to group a pair of corners that belong to the same object. \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhou} presents a bottom-up detection framework inspired by the keypoint estimations. Compared to these points based methods, our proposed method has following innovations: 1) Our method focuses on the mid-level boundary representations to achieve a balance between accuracy and robustness of feature modeling; 2) Our method does not need to learn an embedding explicitly while obtaining a reliable boundary grouping to produce the final bounding box predictions.
Furthermore, it is observed that anchor-free methods may produce a number of low-quality predicted bounding boxes at locations that are far from the center of a target object.
In order to suppress these low-quality detections, a novel ``centerness'' branch to predict the deviation of a pixel to the center of its corresponding bounding box is exploited in FCOS \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
This score is then used to down-weight low-quality detected bounding boxes and merge the detection results in NMS. FoveaBox \cite{OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox} focuses on the object's center motivated by the fovea of human eyes.
It is reasonable to degrade the importance of pixels close to boundaries, but the predefined center field may not cover all cases in the real world, as shown in \Cref{figure:inconsistency-example}.
Thus, we propose an adaptive consistency module to solve the inconsistency issue mentioned above between the semantics of pixels inside an instance and the predefined labels or scores.
\subsection{DDB on Retinanet}
\section{Analysis on Semantic Consistency Module}
We visualize the dynamic consistency at different epoches to see how semantic consistency affects on the learning targets.
As shown in \Cref{figure: consistency-appendix-visualize},
the sampled points in each epoch with both high classification scores among categories and high IoU scores are highlighted,
named high consistency samples.
The low consistency samples are appear in dark colors.
Part of sample points at initial stage is not locate at the instance, as the model is not robust at the beginning.
With the semantic consistency module, the learned positive samples are progressively distributed at the semantic area of the instance.
As the training going on,
high consistency samples become robust and appear in lighter colors.
We also evaluate to see how inconsistency problem be solved by our method.
Some qualitative results are presented in \cref{figure: sc-visualize},
the typical inconsistency in which center-like annotations cannot handle presented in \Cref{figure:inconsistency-example} are improved to a large extent.
By utilizing the segmentation annotations,
we found that the proportion of samples locate on background reduced around 15\% (from 51.7\% at initial to 36.1\% when training finished) with the semantic consistency module.
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.85\linewidth]{consistency-appendix-visualize}
\caption{Visualized examples of semantic consistency module.
The left image of each row is the training data select from COCO $trainval35k$.
Rest images on the right are the heatmaps of sampled points with semantic consistency module at different training epoch.
Note that, entries of heatmaps represent the product results of IoU scores and classification scores.
Sampled points with high IoU scores and high classification scores are highlighted in the heatmaps.
Sampled points with low IoU scores or low classification scores are in dark colors.\textit{Better viewed in colors and zoom in.}
}
\label{figure: consistency-appendix-visualize}
\end{figure*}
\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.85\linewidth]{sc_visualize}
\caption{Visualization on center inconsistency examples.
Sample points with high IoU scores and high classification scores are highlighted.
The corresponding areas preferred by the semantic consistency module are marked as red boxes on the images.
Images are select from COCO $trainval35k$ and evaluated with the trained model with ResNet-50 as the backbone.
}
\label{figure: sc-visualize}
\end{figure*}
\section{Precision-Recall curves}
The precision-recall(PR) curves of FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and DDBNet under different evaluation settings provided by \cite{SEGM-ECCV2014-COCO} on the \textit{minival} split are shown in \Cref{figure:pr-curve}.
PR curves were plotted for small-, medium- and large-scale objects in two models. The area in orange indicates the false negative(FN) portion of the evaluated dataset, which can be considered as the PR with all errors removed. The purple area presents the falsely detected objects.
We can see that the area of orange in DDBNet is much lower than the one in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}, which means DDBNet is much robust after all background and class confusions removed.
\begin{figure}[ht]
\centering
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/fcos/bbox-allclass-large.png}}}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/ours/bbox-allclass-large.png}}}
\vspace{-1cm}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/fcos/bbox-allclass-medium.png}}}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/ours/bbox-allclass-medium.png}}}
\vspace{-1cm}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/fcos/bbox-allclass-small.png}}}
\subfloat[]{\label{figure: test}{\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{roc/ours/bbox-allclass-small.png}}}
\caption{\textbf{Precision Recall Curves.}
Precision-recall(PR) curves of FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and DDBNet under different evaluation settings provided by \cite{SEGM-ECCV2014-COCO} on the \textit{minival} split with ResNet-50 as backbone. (a)(c)(e): Evaluation results in FCOS. (b)(d)(f): Evaluation results in DDBNet. DDBNet gets better performance under the strict evaluation settings. Especially, we find out that DDBNet works much robust after all background and class confusions removed.}
\label{figure:pr-curve}
\end{figure}
\section{Conclusion}
We propose an anchor-free detector DDBNet, which firstly proposes
the concept of breaking boxes into boundaries for detection.
The box decomposition and recombination optimizes the model training by uniting atomic pixels and updating in a bottom-up manner.
We also re-evaluate the semantic inconsistency during training,
and provide an adaptive perspective to solve this problem universally with no predefined assumption. Finally, DDBNet achieves a state-of-the-art performance with inappreciable computation overhead for object detection.
\section{Experiments}
\subsection{Experimental Setting}
\noindent\textbf{Dataset.} Our method is comprehensively evaluated on a challenging COCO detection benchmark\cite{lin2014microsoft}.
Following the common practice of previous works\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS,OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet,OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet}, the COCO \textit{trainval35k} split (115K images) and the \textit{minival} split (5K images) are used for training and validation respectively in our ablation studies.
The overall performance of our detector is reported on the \textit{test-dev} split and is evaluated by the server.
\noindent\textbf{Network Architecture.}
As shown in \Cref{figure: network-structure}, Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} is exploited as the fundamental detection network in our approach. The pyramid is constructed with the levels $P_{l}, l=3,4,...,7$ in this work. Note that each pyramid level has the same number of channels ($C$), where $C=256$. At the level $P_{l}$, the resolution of features is down-sampled by $2^{l}$ compared to the input size.
Please refer to \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} for more details.
Note that four heads are attached to each layer of FPN.
Apart from the regression and classification heads, a head for semantic consistency estimation is provided, consisting of a normal convolutional layer.
The regression targets of different layers are assigned in the same way as in \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
\noindent\textbf{Training Details.} Unless specified, all ablation studies take ResNet-50 as the backbone network.
To be specific, the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) optimizer is applied and our network is trained for 12 epochs over 4 GPUs with a minibatch of 16 images (4 images per GPU).
Weight decay and momentum are set as 0.0001 and 0.9 respectively.
The learning rate starts at 0.01 and reduces by the factor of 10 at the epoch of 8 and 11 respectively.
Note that the ImageNet pre-trained model is applied for the network initialization.
For newly added layers, we follow the same initialization method as in RetinaNet \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet}.
The input images are resized to the scale of $1333 \times 800$ as the common convention.
For comparison with state-of-the-art detectors, we follow the setting in \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} that the shorter side of images in the range from 640 to 800 are randomly scaled and the training epochs are doubled to 24 with the same reduction at epoch 16 and 22.
\noindent\textbf{Inference Details.}
At post-processing stage, the input size of images are the same as the one in training.
The predictions with classification scores $s>0.05$ are selected for evaluation.
With the same backbone settings, the inference speed of DDBNet is same as the detector in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
\subsection{Overall Performance}
\begin{table*}[tb]
\centering
\caption{\textbf{Comparison with state-of-the-art two stage and one stage Detectors}
(\textit{single-model and single-scale results}).
DDBNet outperforms the anchor-based detector \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet} by 2.9\% AP with the same backbone.
Compared with anchor-free models, DDBNet is in on-par with these state-of-the-art detectors.
$^\dag$ means the NMS threshold is 0.6 and others are 0.5.}
\label{tab: sota}
\resizebox{1.02\linewidth}{!}{
\begin{tabular}{l|l|lll|lll}
\toprule
Method & Backbone & $AP$ & $AP_{50}$ & $AP_{75}$ & $AP_{S}$ & $AP_{M}$ & $AP_{L}$ \\
\midrule
\textbf{Two-stage methods:} &&&&&&\\
Faster R-CNN w/ FPN \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} & ResNet-101-FPN & 36.2 & 59.1 & 39.0 & 18.2 & 39.0 & 48.2 \\
Faster R-CNN w/ TDM \cite{OD-arXiv2016-Shrivastava} & Inception-ResNet-v2-TDM \cite{szegedy2017inception} & 36.8 & 57.7 & 39.2 & 16.2 & 39.8 & 52.1 \\
Faster R-CNN by G-RMI \cite{OD-CVPR2017-Huang} & Inception-ResNet-v2 & 34.7 & 55.5 & 36.7 & 13.5 & 38.1 & 52.0 \\
RPDet \cite{OD-ICCV2019-RepPoints} & ResNet-101-DCN & 42.8 & 65.0 & 46.3 & 24.9 & 46.2 & 54.7 \\
Cascade R-CNN \cite{OD-CVPR2018-Cai} & ResNet-101 & 42.8 & 62.1 & 46.3 & 23.7 & 45.5 & 55.2 \\
\midrule \midrule
\textbf{One-stage methods:} &&&&&&\\
YOLOv2 \cite{OD-CVPR2017-YOLO9000} & DarkNet-19\cite{OD-CVPR2017-YOLO9000} & 21.6 & 44.0 & 19.2 & 5.0 & 22.4 & 35.5 \\
SSD \cite{OD-ECCV2016-Liu} & ResNet-101 & 31.2 & 50.4 & 33.3 & 10.2 & 34.5 & 49.8 \\
DSSD \cite{OD-arXiv2017-DSSD} & ResNet-101 & 33.2 & 53.3 & 35.2 & 13.0 & 35.4 & 51.1 \\
FSAF \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc} & ResNet-101 & 40.9 & 61.5 & 44.0 & 24.0 & 44.2 & 51.3 \\
RetinaNet \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet} & ResNet-101-FPN & 39.1 & 59.1 & 42.3 & 21.8 & 42.7 & 53.9 \\
CornerNet \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet} & Hourglass-104 & 40.5 & 56.5 & 43.1 & 19.4 & 42.7 & 53.9 \\
ExtremeNet \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhou} & Hourglass-104 & 40.1 & 55.3 & 43.2 & 20.3 & 43.2 & 53.1 \\
FCOS$^\dag$ \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} & ResNet-101-FPN & 41.5 & 60.7 & 45.0 & 24.4 & 44.8 & 51.6 \\
FCOS$^\dag$ \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} & ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN & 43.2 & 62.8 & 46.6 & 26.5 & 46.2 & 53.3 \\
FCOS$^\dag$ w/improvements\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} & ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN & 44.7 & 64.1 & 48.4 & 27.6 & 47.5 & 55.6 \\
\midrule
DDBNet (Ours) & ResNet-101-FPN & 42.0 & 61.0 & 45.1 & 24.2 & 45.0 & 53.3 \\
DDBNet (Ours) & ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN & 43.9 & 63.1 & 46.7 & 26.3 & 46.5 & 55.1 \\
DDBNet (Ours)$^\mathsection$ & ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN & \textbf{45.5} & \textbf{64.5} & \textbf{48.5} & \textbf{27.8} & \textbf{47.7} & \textbf{57.1} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
}
\scriptsize{
\begin{flushleft}
$^\mathsection$ GIoU\cite{Rezatofighi_2018_CVPR} and Normalization methods of `improvements' proposed in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} are applied, ctr.sampling in `improvements'\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} are not compatible with our setting and we do not use.
\end{flushleft}
}
\vspace{-.4in}
\end{table*}
We compare our model denoted as DDBNet with other state-of-the-art object detectors on the \textit{test-dev} split of COCO benchmark, as listed in \Cref{tab: sota}.
Compared to the anchor-based detectors, our DDBNet shows its competitive detection capabilities. Especially, it outperforms RetinaNet\cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet} by 2.9\% AP. When it comes to the anchor-free detectors, especially detectors such as FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and CornerNet\cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet} benefiting from the point-based representations, our DDBNet achieves performances gains of 0.5\% AP and 1.5\% AP respectively.
Based on the ResNeXt-64x4d-101-FPN backbone \cite{SPEED-CVPR2017-ResNeXt},
DDBNet works better than \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} with a 0.7\% AP gain.
Especially for large objects, our DDBNet gets 55.1\% AP, better than 53.3 \% reported in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
We also apply part of 'improvement' methods proposed in FCOS to DDBNet and gets 0.8\% better than the FCOS with all `improvements' applied.
To sum up, compared to detectors exploiting point-based representations, our DDBNet can similarly benefit from the mid-level boundary representations without heavy computation burdens. Furthermore, DDBNet is compared to several two stage models. It overpasses \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} by a large margin.
\vspace{-.1in}
\subsection{Ablation Study}
In this section, we explore the effectiveness of our
method, including two main modules of box D\&R module and semantic consistency module. Additionally, we conduct in-depth analysis of the performance metrics of our method.
\subsubsection{Comparison with Baseline Detector}\mbox{}
It should be noted that FCOS detector\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} without the centerness branch in both training and inference stages is taken as our baseline.
Here we conduct in-depth analysis of the performance metrics of our method.
\noindent\textbf{Box D\&R module.}
As shown in \Cref{tab:b&r-ablation}, by incorporating the D\&R module into the baseline detector, a 1.2\% $AP$ gain is obtained, which proves that our D\&R module can boost the overall performance of the detector. Especially for the $AP_{75}$, a 1.4\% improvement is achieved, which means that D\&R performs better on localization even in a strict IOU threshold. Furthermore, D\&R module achieves a better performance on large instances according to the large gain on $AP_L$.
With explicit boundary analysis, large instances are often surrounded by numbers of predicted boxes. As a result, it gets easier to find the well-aligned boundaries, then the boxes re-organization can be more effective.
Compared to the baseline results in metrics including $AP_{50}$, $AP_{S}$ and $AP_{M}$, D\&R obtains stable performance gains respectively, which shows the stability of our proposed module.
By breaking the atomic boxes into boundaries, D\&R module makes each boundary find the better optimization direction. The optimization of boundary is not limited by the box its in, instead of depending on a sorted of related boxes. Generally, by adjusting the boundary optimization, the detection network is learnt better.
\begin{table*}[t]
\centering
\caption{\textbf{Ablative experiments for DDBNet on the COCO \textit{minival} split.} We evaluate the improvements brought by the Box Decomposition and Recombination(D\&R) module and the semantic consistency module.}
\resizebox{.68\linewidth}{!}{
\begin{tabular}{ccc|l|ll|lll}
\toprule
\multicolumn{3}{c|}{ Modules } & $AP$ & $AP_{50}$ & $AP_{75}$ & $AP_{S}$ & $AP_{M}$ & $AP_{L}$ \\
Baseline & D\&R & Consistency & & & & & & \\
\midrule
\checkmark & & & 33.6 & 53.1 & 35.0 & 18.9 & 38.2 & 43.7 \\
\checkmark & \checkmark & & 34.8 & 54.0 & 36.4 & 19.7 & 39.0 & 44.9 \\
\checkmark & & \checkmark & 37.2 & 55.4 & 39.5 & 21.0 & 41.7 & 48.6 \\
\checkmark & \checkmark & \checkmark & \textbf{38.0} & \textbf{56.5} & \textbf{40.8} & \textbf{21.6} & \textbf{42.4} & \textbf{50.4} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
}
\label{tab:b&r-ablation}
\end{table*}
\noindent\textbf{Semantic Consistency module.}
The semantic consistent module described in \Cref{subsec:reg-cls-consist} presents an adaptive filtering method. It forces our detection network into autonomously focusing on positive pixels whose semantics are consistent with the target instance. As shown in \Cref{tab:b&r-ablation}, the semantic consistency module contributes to a significant performance gain of 3.6\% $AP$ compared to the baseline detector. This variant surpasses the baseline by large margins in all metrics.
Due to that the coarse bounding boxes would contain backgrounds and distractors inevitably, the network is learnt with less confusion about the targets when equips our adaptive filtering module. More ablation analysis on semantic consistency module is provided in \Cref{subsubsec:ana-sc}.
\noindent\textbf{Cooperation makes better.}
In our final model denoted as DDBNet, the semantic consistency module first filters out a labeling space of pixels inside each instance that is strongly relative to the geometric and semantic characteristics of the instance. The box predictions of the filtered positive pixels are further optimized by the D\&R module, leading to more accurate detection results. Consequently, DDBNet achieves 38\% AP, better than all the variants in \Cref{tab:b&r-ablation}. Our method boosts detection performance over the baseline by 2.7\%, 4.2\%, and 6.7\% respectively on $AP_S$, $AP_M$, $AP_L$.
\subsubsection{Analysis on D\&R Module.}\mbox{}
\noindent\textbf{Statistical comparison with conventional IoU Loss.}
As we mentioned in \Cref{subsec:box-decom-recom}, IoU loss with D\&R updates the gradient according to the optimal boundary scores.
To confirm the stability of D\&R module, we plot the average IoU scores and variances of boxes before and after D\&R respectively.
We can see that with D\&R module, the average values of IoU scores are higher than the means of origin IoU scores by a large margin around 10\% in the whole training schedule, as in \Cref{figure: mean-iou-compare}.
At the start of training, the mean of optimal boxes gets 0.47 which is better than 0.34 of origin boxes.
As training goes on, both average scores of origin and optimal boxes increase and remain at 0.77 and 0.86 at the end.
Variances of IoU scores with D\&R are much lower than the origin IoU scores, which indicates D\&R module improves the overall quality of boxes and provides better guidance for training.
\begin{filecontents}{origin-iou.mat}
iter iou-mean var
0 0.3465 0.047
1 0.6872 0.045
2 0.7098 0.033
3 0.7229 0.043
4 0.7315 0.046
5 0.7277 0.056
6 0.7340 0.032
7 0.7547 0.037
8 0.7652 0.031
9 0.7705 0.041
10 0.7830 0.038
11 0.7729 0.044
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{dr-iou.mat}
iter dr-mean var
0 0.4734 0.02
1 0.7961 0.024
2 0.8122 0.017
3 0.8219 0.013
4 0.8319 0.015
5 0.8280 0.022
6 0.8357 0.010
7 0.8486 0.009
8 0.8553 0.011
9 0.8596 0.015
10 0.8688 0.011
11 0.8621 0.012
\end{filecontents}
\iffalse
\begin{filecontents}{small-iou.mat}
iter small-iou-mean var
0 0.1826 0.008
1 0.4648 0.053
2 0.5062 0.051
3 0.4735 0.061
4 0.4919 0.057
5 0.4647 0.052
6 0.5147 0.058
7 0.5285 0.057
8 0.5514 0.054
9 0.5738 0.059
10 0.5591 0.058
11 0.5564 0.057
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{dr-small-iou.mat}
iter dr-small-mean var
0 0.3794 0.012
1 0.6609 0.045
2 0.6893 0.038
3 0.6852 0.047
4 0.7048 0.039
5 0.6817 0.044
6 0.7159 0.036
7 0.7235 0.040
8 0.7240 0.037
9 0.7641 0.031
10 0.7553 0.035
11 0.7648 0.029
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{middle-iou.mat}
iter middle-iou-mean var
0 0.3452 0.027
1 0.6590 0.042
2 0.6778 0.039
3 0.6916 0.043
4 0.6956 0.040
5 0.7022 0.039
6 0.7127 0.040
7 0.7112 0.042
8 0.7208 0.039
9 0.7477 0.036
10 0.7593 0.037
11 0.7550 0.035
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{dr-middle-iou.mat}
iter dr-middle-mean var
0 0.4792 0.047
1 0.7739 0.023
2 0.7899 0.021
3 0.8019 0.021
4 0.8032 0.020
5 0.8084 0.020
6 0.8153 0.019
7 0.8171 0.019
8 0.8256 0.017
9 0.8397 0.015
10 0.8487 0.014
11 0.8537 0.013
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{large-iou.mat}
iter large-iou-mean var
0 0.3737 0.031
1 0.7209 0.037
2 0.7444 0.036
3 0.7638 0.035
4 0.7656 0.035
5 0.7795 0.035
6 0.7778 0.037
7 0.7813 0.036
8 0.7916 0.034
9 0.8093 0.032
10 0.8108 0.035
11 0.8147 0.034
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{dr-large-iou.mat}
iter dr-large-mean var
0 0.5002 0.012
1 0.8239 0.016
2 0.8398 0.015
3 0.8557 0.013
4 0.8592 0.013
5 0.8694 0.012
6 0.8687 0.013
7 0.8702 0.013
8 0.8792 0.012
9 0.8916 0.009
10 0.8961 0.010
11 0.9039 0.008
\end{filecontents}
\fi
\begin{figure}[tb!]
\centering
\pgfplotsset{
width =0.58\linewidth,
height=0.36\linewidth
}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1]
\begin{axis}[minor tick num=0,
xmin=-0.5, xmax=12,
ymin=0.25, ymax=0.95,
mark size=1.0pt,
ytick={0.3,0.5,...,0.9},
xlabel={epoch},
ylabel={IoU}
xlabel near ticks,
ylabel near ticks,
legend style={
draw=none,
at={(1.0,.28)},
anchor=west,
legend columns=1},
]
\addplot [color=red, only marks, mark=o, line width=1.0pt]
plot [error bars/.cd, y dir = both, y explicit]
table [x={iter}, y={dr-mean}, y error={var}] {dr-iou.mat};
\addplot [color=blue, only marks, mark=o, line width=1.0pt]
plot [error bars/.cd, y dir = both, y explicit]
table [x={iter}, y={iou-mean}, y error={var}] {origin-iou.mat};
\legend{IoU w/~D\&R, IoU w/o~D\&R}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{\textbf{Average IoU scores for all predicted boxes during the training.}
The red points denote the IoU scores with D\&R module while the blue points are the IoU scores without optimization.
Vertical lines indicate the variance of IoU scores.}
\label{figure: mean-iou-compare}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure*}[t!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.88\linewidth]{figure/dr-appendix-visualize.pdf}
\caption{
\textbf{Illustration of improved box predictions provided by our DDBNet.}
We visualize the boxes before the decomposition (left images of the pairs) and the boxes after the recombination (right images of the pairs). \textbf{Red}: ground-truth boxes. \textbf{Green}: the predictions, where the lighter colors indicate higher IoU scores. \textbf{Black}: the boxes with low score, which will be masked according to the regression loss.
Boxes ranked by D\&R module are much better organized than the origin boxes and the localizations are much correlated to the instances.
All the results are from DDBNet with ResNet-50 as backbone on $trainval35k$ split.}
\label{figure: dr-appendix-visualize}
\end{figure*}
\noindent\textbf{Visualization on D\&R module.}
We provide some qualitative results of box predictions before and after incorporating the D\&R module into the baseline detector,
as shown in \Cref{figure: dr-appendix-visualize}.
For clear visualization, we plot origin boxes and boxes after recombination individually. Predictions are presented in green and the lighter colors indicate higher IoU scores.
With D\&R module, boundaries are recombined together to obtain a tighter box of each instance.
The distribution of boxes after D\&R module is fitter than the origin boxes which is robust than the conventional regression.
As we mentioned in \Cref{subsec:box-decom-recom}, there exists recombined low-rank boxes with boundary scores lower than the origin.
These boundaries are masked according to the \Cref{loss: our-iou}.
\label{subsubsec:ana-sc}
\subsubsection{Analysis on Semantic Consistency}\mbox{}
\begin{table}[tb!]
\centering
\caption{\textbf{Comparison among different positive assignment strategies.}
`None' means no sampling method is applied.
`PN' denotes as the definition in \cite{OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox},
which means center regions are positive and others are negative.
`PNI' is the sampling used in \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc,OD-CVPR2019-Wang},
ignore regions are added between positive and negative.
Note that the consistency term is not included in this table.}
\begin{tabular}{c|l|ll|lll}
\toprule
Settings & $AP$ & $AP_{50}$ & $AP_{75}$ & $AP_{S}$ & $AP_{M}$ & $AP_{L}$ \\
\midrule
None & 33.6 & 53.1 & 35.0 & 18.9 & 38.2 & 43.7 \\
PN & 34.2 & 53.2 & 36.3 & 20.8 & 38.9 & 44.2 \\
PNI & 33.7 & 53.0 & 35.5 & 17.9 & 38.3 & 44.1 \\
Ours & \textbf{35.3} & \textbf{55.4} & \textbf{37.1} & \textbf{20.9} & \textbf{39.6} & \textbf{45.9} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:consistency-ablation}
\end{table}
\noindent\textbf{Dynamic or predefined positive assignment.}
To further show the superiority of dynamic positive assignment in semantic consistency module, we investigate other variants using different predefined strategies mentioned in previous works. FoveaBox\cite{OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox} (denoted as `PN') applies center sampling in their experiments to improve the detection performance.
This center sampling method defines the central area of a target box based on a constant ratio as positive while the others as negative.
`PNI' is taken used in \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc, OD-CVPR2019-Wang} which exploits positive, ignore and negative regions for supervised network training.
According to the result in \Cref{tab:consistency-ablation},
`PN' (second line) gets slight improvement compared to the baseline where no sampling method is adopted.
So restricting the searching space to the central area makes sense in certain cases and indeed helps improve object detection.
But the 'PNI' gets a lower performance, especially on $AP_S$. Namely, adding an ignore region between the ring of negative areas and the central positive areas does not further improve the performance and gets a large drop on the detection of small objects.
The limited number of candidates of small objects and the lower ratio of positive candidates in `PNI' result in the poor detection capability.
Contrastively, our proposed filtering method does not need to pre-define the spatial constraint while show best performances in all metrics.
\begin{table}[tb!]
\centering
\caption{\textbf{Comparison among different ratio settings.}
where $c$ is the sampling ration for each instance.}
\begin{tabular}{c|l|ll|lll}
\toprule
ratios & $AP$ & $AP_{50}$ & $AP_{75}$ & $AP_{S}$ & $AP_{M}$ & $AP_{L}$ \\
\midrule
$c=0.4$ & 34.6 & 54.2 & 36.6 & 19.1 & 38.5 & 45.2 \\
$c=0.5$ & 34.1 & 53.5 & 35.9 & 19.2 & 38.4 & 44.2 \\
$c=0.6$ & 34.7 & 54.2 & 36.5 & 19.0 & 38.7 & 45.5 \\
$c=0.7$ & 35.1 & 54.6 & \textbf{37.1} & 19.3 & 39.1 & 45.7 \\
$mean$ & \textbf{35.3} & \textbf{55.4} & \textbf{37.1} & \textbf{20.9} & \textbf{39.6} & \textbf{45.9} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:consistency-ratio}
\end{table}
\noindent\textbf{Adaptive or constant ratio.}
As mentioned in \cref{subsec:reg-cls-consist}, we investigate the constant ratio to replace the adaptive selection by mean. Four variants are obtained where the constant ratio is set from 0.4 to 0.7.
For instance $I$ with $M$ candidates, top $\left \lfloor c \times M \right \rfloor$ candidates are considered as positive, and others are negative, where $c$ is the constant sampling ratio applied to all instances.
As shown in \Cref{tab:consistency-ratio}, these results indicate that the adaptive way in our method is better than the fixed way to select positives from candidates.
\section{Introduction}
Object detection is an important task in computer vision, which requires predicting a bounding box of an object with a category label for each instance in an image.
State-of-the-art techniques can be divided into either anchor-based methods \cite{OD-CVPR2014-RCNN,OD-ICCV2015-FastRCNN,OD-TPAMI2017-FasterRCNN,OD-arXiv2017-DSSD,OD-ECCV2016-Liu,OD-CVPR2018-Cai,he2017mask,OD-CVPR2017-YOLO9000,redmon2018yolov3}
and anchor-free methods \cite{OD-CVPR2016-YOLO, OD-ICCV2019-FCOS, OD-ICCV2019-CenterNet, OD-CVPR2019-Zhou, OD-ICCV2019-RepPoints, jie2016scale}.
Recently, the anchor-free methods have increasing popularity over the anchor-based methods in many applications and benchmarks\cite{lin2014microsoft, everingham2015pascal, deng2009imagenet, OD-CVPR2012-Geiger}.
Despite the success of anchor-free methods,
one should note that these methods still have limitations on their accuracy, which are bounded by the way that the bounding boxes are learned in an atomic fashion.
Here, we discuss two concerns of existing anchor-free methods which lead to the inaccurate detection.
\iffalse{
\noindent\textbf{Local wise regression is limited.}
In general, anchor-free methods estimate a bounding box at each position of the feature map that is obtained from the last layer of the backbone network.
For simplicity, we denote each position of a feature map as a pixel in this paper.
As shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-visualize},
the dotted box and corresponding pixel are presented in the same color.
Limited by the receptive fields of convolution kernels, boxes learned in an atomic way have potential defects on precision.
Four boundaries of a box may not be well aligned to the ground truth simultaneously
Thus, the accuracy of an anchor-free detector is bounded by the quality of the boxes defined at each pixel in the last layer feature map, where the last layer feature map is usually at a lower resolution than the original input image as demonstrated in many representative backbone networks.
\noindent\textbf{The predefined importance of each pixel is inconsistent with the semantics.}
Without any prior knowledge about an object,
pixels in an object bounding box usually show uniform-distributed or gaussian-distributed effects in the learning stage of the anchor-free detectors such as the FCOS \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and the CornerNet \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet} detectors.
However, it is inevitable to include pixels from background in the bounding box, and these background regions are not uniformly distributed, as illustrated in \Cref{figure:inconsistency-example}.
Thus, taking all predefined pixels as positive targets in the training stage would lead to a significant semantic inconsistency, which hampers the accuracy of the predicted boxes from the network.
}\fi
First, the definition of center key-points \cite{OD-ICCV2019-CenterNet} is inconsistent with their semantics.
As we all know that center key-point is essential for anchor-free detectors. It is a common strategy to embed positive center key-points inside an object bounding box into a Uniform or Gaussian distribution in the training stage of the anchor-free detectors such as FCOS \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS} and CornerNet \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet}.
However, it is inevitable to falsely consider noisy pixels from background as positives, as illustrated in \Cref{figure:inconsistency-example}.
Namely, exploiting a trivial strategy to define positive targets would lead to a significant semantic inconsistency, degrading the regression accuracy of detectors.
Second, local wise regression is limited. Concretely, a center key-point usually provides box predictions in a regional/local-wise manner, which potentially defects the detection accuracy. The local-wise prediction results from the limitation of the receptive fields of convolution kernels, and the design of treating each box prediction from each center key-point as an atomic operation.
As shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-visualize}, the dotted predicted box and corresponding center key-point are presented in the same color.
Although each predicted box is surrounding the object, it is imperfect because four boundaries are not well aligned to the ground truth simultaneously.
As a result, choosing a box of high score at inference stage as the final detection result is sometimes inferior.
\begin{figure}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{inconsistency-example}
\caption{\textbf{An illustration of the inconsistency between the semantics of center key-points inside a bounding box and their annotations.} Pixels of backgrounds in the red central area are considered as positive center key-points, which is incorrect.}
\label{figure:inconsistency-example}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.66\linewidth]{D_R-visualize}
\caption{\textbf{An illustration of the boundary drifts in box predictions of general anchor-free detectors.} Limited by regional receptive fields and the design of treating each box prediction as an atomic operation in general detectors, each predicted box with dotted line is imperfect where four boundaries are not well aligned to the ground truth simultaneously. After box decomposition and combination, the reorganized box with red color gets better localization.}
\label{figure:D_R-visualize}
\end{figure}
To tackle the inaccurate detection problem, we present a novel bounding box reorganization method, which dives deeper into box regressions of center key-points and takes care of semantic consistencies of center key-points.
This reorganization method contains two modules, denoted as box decomposition and recombination (D\&R) module and semantic consistency module.
Specifically, box predictions of center key-points inside an instance form an initial coarse distribution of the instance localization. This distribution is not well aligned to the ideal instance localization, and boundary drifts usually occur.
The D\&R module is proposed to firstly decompose these box predictions into four sets of boundaries to model an instance localization at a lower refined level, where the confidence of each boundary is evaluated according to the deviation with ground-truth.
Next, these boundaries are sorted and recombined to form a sort of more accurate box predictions for each instance, as described in \Cref{figure:D_R-visualize}.
Then, these refined box predictions contribute to the final evaluation of box regressions.
Meanwhile, the semantic consistency module is proposed to rule out noisy center key-points coming from the background, which allows our method to focus on key-points that are strongly related to the target instance semantically.
Thus, box predictions from these semantic consistent key-points can form a more tight and robust distribution of the instance localization, which further boosts the performance of the D\&R module.
Our semantic consistency module is an adaptive strategy without extra hyper-parameters for predefined spatial constraints, which is superior to existing predefined strategies in \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc, OD-CVPR2019-Wang, OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
The main contribution of this work lies in the following aspects.
\begin{itemize}
\item We propose a novel box reorganization method in a unified anchor free detection framework. Especially, a D\&R module is proposed to
take the boundary prediction as an atomic operation, and then reorganize well-aligned boundaries into boxes in a bottom-up fashion with negligible computation overhead.
To the best of our knowledge, the idea of breaking boxes into boundaries for training has never been investigated in this task.
\item We evaluate the semantic inconsistency between center key-points inside an instance and the annotated labels, which helps boost the convergence of a detection network.
\item The proposed method DDBNet obtains a state-of-the-art result of 45.5\% in AP. The stable experimental results in all metrics ensure that this method can be effectively extended to typical anchor free detectors.
\end{itemize}
\section{Our Approach}
In this work, we build DDBNet based on FCOS as a demonstration, which is an advanced anchor-free method. As shown in \Cref{figure: network-structure}, our innovations lie in the box decomposition and recombination (D\&R) module and the semantic consistency module.
To be specific, the D\&R module reorganizes the predicted boxes by breaking them into boundaries for training which is concatenated behind the regression branch. In the training stage, once bounding box predictions are regressed at each pixel, the D\&R module decomposes each bounding box into four directional boundaries. Then, boundaries of the same kind are ranked by their actual boundary deviations from the ground-truth. Consequently, by recombining ranked boundaries, more accurate box predictions are expected, which are then optimized by the IoU loss \cite{yu2016unitbox}.
As for the semantic consistency module, a new branch of estimating semantic consistency instead of centerness is incorporated into the framework, which is optimized under the supervision of the semantic consistency module. This module exploits an adaptive filtering strategy based on the outputs of the classification and the regression branches. More details about the two modules are provided in the following subsections.
\subsection{Box Decomposition and Recombination}
\label{subsec:box-decom-recom}
Given an instance $I$, every pixel $i$ inside of $I$ regresses a box $p_{i} = \{l_{i}, t_{i}, r_{i}, b_{i}\}$.
The set of predicted boxes is denoted as $B_{I} = \{ p_{0}, p_{1}, \dots, p_{n}\}$, where $l, t, r, b$ denote the left, the top, the right, and the bottom boundaries respectively.
\begin{figure*}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{D_R-flow}
\caption{\textbf{An illustration of the work flow of the D\&R module.}
For a clear visualization, only three predictions in color are provided for the same ground-truth shown in black.
(a) \textbf{Decomposition:} Break up boxes and assign IoU scores $S_{0}, S_{1}, S_{2}$ of boxes to boundaries as confidence.
(b) \textbf{Ranking:} The rule how we recombine boundaries to new boxes.
(c) \textbf{Recombination:} Regroup boundaries as new boxes and assign new IoU scores $S'_{0}, S'_{1}, S'_{2}$ to boundaries as confidence.
(d) \textbf{Assignment:} Choose the winner confidence as final result.
The recombined box is shown on the right.}
\label{figure:D_R-flow}
\end{figure*}
Normally, an IoU regression loss is expressed as
\begin{equation}
\label{loss: origin-iou}
L_{IoU} = -\frac{1}{N_{pos}}\sum_{I}\sum_{i}^{n} \log(IoU(p_{i}, p^{*}_{I})),
\end{equation}
where $N_{pos}$ is the number of positive pixels of all instances, $p^{*}_{I}$ is the regression target. Simply, the proposed box decomposition and recombination (D\&R) module is designed to reproduce more accurate $p_{i}$ with the optimization of IoU loss. As shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}, the D\&R module consists of four steps before regularizing the final box predictions based on the IoU regression. More details are described as follows.
\noindent\textbf{Decomposition:}
A predicted box $p_{i}$ is split into boundaries $l_{i},t_{i},r_{i},b_{i}$ and the IoU $s_{i}$ between $p_{i}$ and $p^{*}_{I}$ is assigned as the confidences of four boundaries, as shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}(a).
For instance $I$, the confidences of boundaries is denoted as a $N \times 4$ matrix $S_{I}$.
Then we group four kinds of boundaries into four sets, which are $left_{I} = \{ l_{0}, l_{1}, ..., l_{n}\}$, $right_{I} = \{ r_{0}, r_{1}, ..., r_{n}\}$, $bottom_{I} = \{ b_{0}, b_{1}, ..., b_{n}\}$, $top_{I} = \{ t_{0}, t_{1}, ..., t_{n}\}$.
\noindent\textbf{Ranking:}
Considering the constraint of the IoU loss \cite{yu2016unitbox}, where the larger intersection area of prediction boxes with smaller union area is favored, the optimal box prediction is expected to have the lowest IoU loss. Thus, traversing all the boundaries of the instance $I$ to obtain the optimal box rearrangement $B'_{I}$ is an intuitive choice. However, in this way, the computation complexity is quite expensive, which is $\mathcal{O}(n^4)$. To avoid the heavy computation brought by such brute force method, we apply a simple and efficient ranking strategy.
For each boundary set of instance $I$, the deviations $\delta_{I}^{_l}$, $\delta_{I}^{_r}$, $\delta_{I}^{_b}$, $\delta_{I}^{_t}$ to the targets boundary $p^{*}_{I} = \{ l_{I}, r_{I}, b_{I}, t_{I}\}$ are calculated. Then, boundaries in each set are sorted by the corresponding deviations, as shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}(b). The boundary closer to the ground-truth has the higher rank than the boundary farther. We find that this ranking strategy works well and the ranking noise does not affect the stability of the network training.
\noindent\textbf{Recombination:}
As shown in \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}(c), boundaries of four sets with the same rank are recombined as a new box $B'_I = \{ p'_{0}, p'_{1}, \dots, p'_{n}\}$.
Then the IoU $s'_{i}$ between $p'_{i}$ and $p^{*}_{I}$ is assigned as the recombination confidence of four boundaries.
The confidences of recombination boundaries is expressed as matrix $S'_{I}$ with shape $N \times 4$.
\noindent\textbf{Assignment:}
Now we get two sets of boundaries scores $S_I$ and $S'_{I}$. As described as \Cref{figure:D_R-flow}(d), the final confidence of each boundary is assigned using the higher score within $S_I$ and $S'_{I}$ instead of totally using $S'_{I}$. This assignment strategy results from the following case, \textit{e.g}.~the recombined low-rank box contains boundaries far away from the ground-truth. Then, the confidences $s'_{i}$ of four boundaries after recombination are much lower than their original one $s_{i}$. The severely drifted confidence scores lead to unstable gradient back-propagation in the training stage.
Thus, for reliable network training, each boundary is optimized under the supervision of the IoU loss estimated based on the ground-truth and the optimal box with its corresponding better boundary score. Especially, our final regression loss consists of two parts:
\begin{align}
\label{loss: our-iou}
\begin{aligned}
L^{D\&R}_{IoU} = &\frac{1}{N_{pos}}\sum_{I}(\mathds{1}_{\{S'_{I}>S_{I}\}}L_{IoU}(B'_{I}, T_{I}) \\
&+ \mathds{1}_{\{S_{I} \geqslant S'_{I}\}}L_{IoU}(B_{I}, T_{I})),
\end{aligned}
\end{align}
where $\mathds{1}_{\{S_{I} \geqslant S'_{I}\}}$ is an indicator function,
being $1$ if the original score is greater than the recombined one,
vice versa for $\mathds{1}_{\{S'_{I}>S_{I}\}}$.
The gradient of each boundary is selected to update network according to the higher IoU score between the original box and the recombined box.
Compared to the original IoU loss \Cref{loss: origin-iou} where gradients are back-propagated in local receptive fields,
\Cref{loss: our-iou} updates the network in context without extra parameterized computations.
As box in $B'_{I}$ is composed by boundaries from different boxes,
features are updated in an instance-wise fashion.
Note that there are no further parameters added in D\&R module. In short, we only change the way how gradient be updated.
\iffalse
In addition, the D\&R module also contains a branch of estimating four boundary confidences which contributes to the final box recombination at the inference stage.
The branch of estimating boundary confidences is also learnt under the supervision of the boundary scores $\max(S'_I, S_I)$. This branch is concatenated behind the layer of regression tower as shown in \Cref{figure: network-structure}, consisting of a single deformable convolutional layer and a normal convolutional layer for the score prediction.
The loss function is written as
\begin{align}
\label{loss: bd-confidence-loss}
\begin{aligned}
L_{bc} = &\frac{1}{N_{pos}}\sum_{I}\mathds{1}_{\{\max(S'_I, S_I) \geq \theta\}} CE(S^p_I, \max(S_I,S'_I)),
\end{aligned}
\end{align}
where $CE$ denotes as cross entropy.
Only boundaries of the high quality whose confidence scores are greater than the threshold $\theta$ are selected for the network learning.
$S^p_I$ is the set of boundary confidence scores for an instance predicted by the branch. $S_I$ and $S^{'}_I$ denote sets of boundary scores for an instance estimated based on the ground-truth.
Note that no gradient is back-propagated from this branch to the main branch.
At the inference stage, the boundary confidences predicted in this new branch contribute to the box merging in the BM-NMS, which are further described in \Cref{subsec:bm-nms}.
\fi
\subsection{Semantic Consistency Module}
\label{subsec:reg-cls-consist}
Since the performance of our D\&R module to some extent depends on the box predictions of dense pixels inside an instance, an adaptive filtering method is required to help the network learning focus on positive pixels while rule out negative pixels. Namely, the labeling space of pixels inside an instance is expected to be consistent with their semantics.
Different from previous works \cite{OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox,OD-ICCV2019-FCOS,OD-CVPR2019-Wang} which pre-define pixels around the center of the bounding box of an instance as the positive, our network evolves to learn the accurate labeling space without extra spatial assumptions in the training stage.
The formula of semantic consistency is expressed as:
\begin{align}
\label{semanticeq}
\begin{aligned}
\left\{\begin{matrix}
\overline{C_I}_{\downarrow} \bigcap \overline{R_I}_{\downarrow} \gets \text{negative},
\\
\\
\overline{C_I}_{\uparrow} \bigcup \overline{R_I}_{\uparrow} \gets \text{positive}, \\
\end{matrix}\right.\\
c_{i} = \max_{j=0}^{g}(c_{j}) \in C_I,
\end{aligned}
\end{align}
where $R_I$ is the set of IoU scores between the ground-truth and the predicted boxes of pixels inside the instance $I$,
$\overline{R_I}$ is the mean IoU score of the set $R_I$, $\overline{R_I}_{\downarrow}$ denotes pixels which have lower IoU confidence than the mean IoU $\overline{R_I}$. Inversely, $\overline{R_I}_{\uparrow}$ denotes pixels which have higher IoU confidence than $\overline{R_I}$.
The element $c_{i} \in C_I$ is the maximal classification score among all categories of the i-th pixel, and $g$ denotes the number of categories.
Similarly, $\overline{C_I}_{\downarrow}$ denotes pixels which have lower classification scores than the mean score of $C_{I}$.
Labels of categories are agnostic in this approach so that the predictions of incorrect categories will not be rejected during training.
Finally, as shown in \Cref{figure: consistency-visualize}, the intersection pixels in $\overline{R_I}_{\downarrow}$ and $\overline{C_I}_{\downarrow}$ are assigned negative, while the union pixels in $\overline{R_I}_{\uparrow}$ and $\overline{C_I}_{\uparrow}$ are assigned positive. Meanwhile, if pixels are covered by multiple instances, they prefer to represent the smallest instance.
More to the point, the filtering method determined by \Cref{semanticeq} is able to adaptively control the ratio of positive and negative pixels of instances with different sizes during the training stage, which have a significantly effect on the detection capability of the network. In the experiments, we investigate the performance of different fixed ratio, and then find that the adaptive selection by mean threshold performs best.
\begin{figure}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.49\linewidth]{figure/consistency-visualize.pdf}
\caption{\textbf{Visualized example of semantic consistency module.}
The intersection regions of positive regression and positive classification sets are regarded as consistent targets.}
\label{figure: consistency-visualize}
\end{figure}
After the labels of pixels are determined autonomously according to the semantic consistency, the inner significance of each positive pixel is considered in the learning process of our network, similarly to the centerness score in FCOS\cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}. Thus, our network is able to emphasize on more important part of an instance and is learnt more effectively. Especially, the inner significance of each pixel is defined as the IoU between the predicted box and the ground-truth. Then,
an extra branch of estimating the semantic consistency of each pixel is added to the network supervised by the inner significance.
The loss for semantic consistency is expressed as in \Cref{loss:cls-loss-consistency},
where $r_{i}$ is the output of semantic consistency branch. $IoU(p_{i}, p^*_{I})$ denotes the inner significance of each pixel.
\begin{align}
\label{loss:cls-loss-consistency}
L_{con} = \frac{1}{N_{pos}}\sum_{I}\sum_{i \in \overline{C_I}_{\uparrow} \bigcup \overline{R_I}_{\uparrow}} CE(r_{i}, IoU(p_{i}, p^*_{I})).
\end{align}
Generally, the overall training loss is defined as:
\begin{align}
\label{loss: loss-all}
\begin{aligned}
L = L_{cls} + L^{D\&R}_{reg} + L_{con},
\end{aligned}
\end{align}
where $L_{cls}$ is the focal loss as in \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet}.
\iffalse
\subsection{Box Merging Non Maximum Suppression}
Benefiting from the branch of the boundary confidences prediction as mentioned in \Cref{subsec:box-decom-recom},
a modified approach called Box Merging NMS (BM-NMS) is proposed to execute box merging at the inference stage, as detailed in \Cref{alg:r-nms}.
\label{subsec:bm-nms}
\begin{algorithm}[tbh!]
\caption{Box Merging Non-maximum suppression}
\label{alg:r-nms}
\begin{algorithmic}
\State $\mathcal{B}$ and $S^p$ are $N \times 4$ matrices corresponding to initial detection boxes and boundary confidence scores respectively.
\State $\mathcal{S}$ presents the classification scores weighted by consistency predictions.
\State $N_{t}$ is the NMS threshold
\State $N_{s}$ is the threshold of the boundary confidence
\State
\State \textbf{Input:} $\mathcal{B}=\{b_{1}, ..., b_{N}\}, \mathcal{S}=\{s_{1}, ..., s_{N}\}, S^p=\{s^p_{1}, ..., s^p_{N}\}$.
\State $\mathcal{D} \gets \{\}$; $\mathcal{T} \gets \mathcal{B}$;
\While{$\mathcal{T} \neq \O$}
\State $m \gets arg \max S$; $\mathcal{T} \gets \mathcal{T}-b_{m}$;
\For{$b_{i}$ in $\mathcal{T}$}
\If{$IoU(b_{m}, b_{i}) \geqslant N_{t}$}
\textcolor{blue}{
\If{$IoU(b_{m}, b_{i}) \geqslant N_{s}$}
\State $b_{m} \gets \mathds{1}_{\{s^p_{m} \geqslant s^p_{i}\}} b_{m} + \mathds{1}_{\{s^p_{m} < s^p_{i}\}} b_{i}$;
\EndIf
\textcolor{black}{\Comment{\textrm{Box Merging NMS}} }
}
\State $\mathcal{T} \gets \mathcal{T}-b_{i}; \mathcal{S} \gets \mathcal{S}-s_{i}$;
\EndIf
\EndFor
\State $\mathcal{D} \gets \mathcal{D} \bigcup b_{m}$;
\EndWhile
\State \Return $\mathcal{D}, \mathcal{S}$;
\end{algorithmic}
\end{algorithm}
BM-NMS inserts codes of 3 lines to the loop of standard NMS.
Note that the detection score $s_i$ is the confidence of classification $c_{i}$ multiplied by the inner significance $r_{i}$.
The merging rule is based on the confidence scores of box $b_{i}$ and $b_{m}$.
The box $b_{i}$, whose IoU with $b_{m}$ is over threshold $N_{t}$, is suppressed directly in the standard NMS.
However, in our algorithm, if its IoU with $b_{m}$ is more than the $N_{s}$,
BM-NMS will check whether there are boundaries of $b_{i}$ better than the boundaries of $b_{m}$ and then recombine better boundaries to $b_{m}$. Simply the detection score of $b_{m}$ stays the same. The procedure of box merging makes NMS much robust with negligible overhead.
\fi
\section{Related Work}
\begin{figure*}[tb!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.95\linewidth]{network-structure}
\caption{\textbf{An illustration of our network architecture.} Two novel components: the D\&R module and the consistency module are incorporated into a general detection network. The D\&R module carries out box decomposition and recombination in the training stage regularized by the IoU loss and predicts boundary confidences supervised by the boundary deviation. The consistency module selects meaningful pixels whose semantics is consistent with the instance to improve network convergence in the training stage.
}
\label{figure: network-structure}
\end{figure*}
\noindent\textbf{Anchor based Object Detectors.}
In anchor-based detectors, the anchor boxes can be viewed as pre-defined sliding windows or proposals, which are classified as positive or negative samples, with an extra offsets regression to refine the prediction of bounding boxes.
The design of anchor boxes is popularized by two-stage approaches such as Faster R-CNN in its RPNs \cite{OD-TPAMI2017-FasterRCNN}, and single-stage approaches such as SSD \cite{OD-ECCV2016-Liu}, RetinaNet \cite{OD-ICCV2017-RetinaNet}, and YOLO9000 \cite{OD-CVPR2017-YOLO9000}, which has become the convention in a modern detector.
Anchor boxes make the best use of the feature maps of CNNs and avoid repeated feature computation, speeding up the detection process dramatically.
However, anchor boxes result in excessively too many hyper-parameters that are used to describe anchor shapes or to label each anchor box as a positive, ignored or negative sample.
These hyper-parameters have shown a great impact on the final accuracy, and require heuristic tuning.
\noindent\textbf{Anchor Free Object Detectors.}
Anchor-free detectors directly learn the object existing possibility and the bounding box coordinates without anchor reference.
DenseBox \cite{OD-arXiv2015-DenseBox} is a pioneer work of anchor-free based detectors. While due to the difficulty of handling overlapping situations, it is not suitable for generic object detection.
One successful family of anchor free works \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS,OD-CVPR2019-Zhucc,OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox,OD-CVPR2019-Wang} adopts the Feature Pyramid network \cite{OD-CVPR2017-FPN} (FPN) as the backbone network and applies direct regression and classification on multi-scale features. These methods treat the bounding box prediction as an atomic task without any further investigations, which bounds the detection accuracy due to the two concerns we discussed in the introduction.
To avoid the drawback of anchors and refine the box presentations, points based box representation becomes popular recently \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet,OD-CVPR2019-Zhou,OD-ICCV2019-RepPoints,OD-ICCV2019-CenterNet}. For example, CornerNet \cite{OD-ECCV2018-CornerNet} predicts the heatmap of corners and apply an embedding method to group a pair of corners that belong to the same object. \cite{OD-CVPR2019-Zhou} presents a bottom-up detection framework inspired by the keypoint estimations. Compared to these points based methods, our proposed method has following innovations: 1) Our method focuses on the mid-level boundary representations to achieve a balance between accuracy and robustness of feature modeling; 2) Our method does not need to learn an embedding explicitly while obtaining a reliable boundary grouping to produce the final bounding box predictions.
Furthermore, it is observed that anchor-free methods may produce a number of low-quality predicted bounding boxes at locations that are far from the center of a target object.
In order to suppress these low-quality detections, a novel ``centerness'' branch to predict the deviation of a pixel to the center of its corresponding bounding box is exploited in FCOS \cite{OD-ICCV2019-FCOS}.
This score is then used to down-weight low-quality detected bounding boxes and merge the detection results in NMS. FoveaBox \cite{OD-arXiv2019-FoveaBox} focuses on the object's center motivated by the fovea of human eyes.
It is reasonable to degrade the importance of pixels close to boundaries, but the predefined center field may not cover all cases in the real world, as shown in \Cref{figure:inconsistency-example}.
Thus, we propose an adaptive consistency module to solve the inconsistency issue mentioned above between the semantics of pixels inside an instance and the predefined labels or scores.
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Saeed Salarzadeh (; born February 13, 1983) is an Iranian footballer who currently plays for Malavan in the Azadegan League.
Club career
Malavan
Salarzadeh had been with Malavan from 2005 to 2013.
Foolad
Salarzadeh joined Foolad for the 2013–14 season.
Club career statistics
Assist Goals
Honours
Foolad
Iran Pro League (1): 2013–14
References
External links
1983 births
Living people
People from Bandar-e Anzali
Iranian footballers
Malavan players
Foolad FC players
Naft Masjed Soleyman F.C. players
Esteghlal Ahvaz players
Saeid Salarzadeh
Persian Gulf Pro League players
Saeid Salarzadeh
Azadegan League players
Association football defenders
Iranian expatriate footballers
Iranian expatriate sportspeople in Thailand
Expatriate footballers in Thailand
Sportspeople from Gilan province
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Leucalburnus is een geslacht van straalvinnige vissen uit de familie van eigenlijke karpers (Cyprinidae).
Soort
Leucalburnus satunini (Berg, 1910)
Eigenlijke karpers
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On his [website](http://www.johnny-marr.com/guitarchestra-2/gibson-chet-atkins-ce), Johnny Marr says, "Gibson Chet Atkins CE Nylon string Classical Electric guitar I used on La Cassa by K-Klass."
Used in the early days with Ozzy, most notably on "Mama I'm Coming Home". Based on some of photos on Zakk's social pages, he still has the guitar, and takes very special care of it.
At 0:04 you can see Axl playing a black Chet Atkins CE guitar with a Fender strap. This is probably the only time Axl was seen using this guitar, he used it as a prop and it is likely that he never used it in studio.
"This nylon string classical-style guitar with a piezo pickup was a gift to Waylon from Chet Atkins, and is signed by Chet and dated '87 on the sound covers. White signed to RCA, Chet Atkins was Waylon's first primary producer. When Waylon won his creative freedom from RCA, Chet left the picture and became the face of stringent label control during country music's Outlaw era. But later in life Waylon and Chet remained friends. Serial number: 82956570. Estimated $15,000 $25,000."
Cohen can be seen playing a black Gibson Chet Atkins CE in this photo.
In this picture Lindsey Buckingham can be seen playing a Gibson Chet Atkins and at 8:18 in this interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-0TzlNQaNc his guitar tech talks about this guitar.
This guitar can be seen in "Wrapped Around Your Finger" music video. (0:43 minute mark).
I used this guitar in the past, when someone needed nylon string for their music. It's a nice guitar, but I am not really into the nylon string guitar sound. Maybe I'll change my mind and pull her out of retirement one day, but that day ain't today.
Gets used a lot on stage: not prone to feeding back. Easy to play, very thin and very light. Nice guitar.
No reviews or videos yet for Gibson Chet Atkins CE.
With an Equipboard account you can rate this item, add it to your collection, submit a review to discuss what you like and dislike about it, and associate Gibson Chet Atkins CE to artists that use it. Create an account!
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Q: How to retrieve an action out of a url in php I'm making a site where you can book a cabin. One of the requirements was to make a reaction system where an admin gets an e-mail with a link. If he clicks this link, the reaction will be posted on the site. I'm almost done with this, I only have one question:
http://student.waerdenborch.nl/~groep45/site/index.php?reactie=f0357a3f154bc2ffe2bff55055457068
In this link, how can i retrieve the part behind ?reactie=?
I could only find how to retrieve more of the url, but I only want the md5.
A: Just retrieve it by using $_GET
$_GET['reactie']
Also read this: http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.get.php
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Alicia was held captive as a nanny, forced to work 18-hour days after refusing sex. One day, she escaped.
Zara McDonald
"At 18 I had an affair with my boss. I truly believed I could have any man I wanted."
How this mum went from being $6800 in debt to buying a house. In a year.
Jessica Wang
"I'm a fake father to a girl who doesn't know."
Zoe Rochford
'I nearly broke down': Sally Obermeder's nightmarish day is one all mums can relate to.
Abby Ballard
LANA HIRSCHOWITZ: "The doctor asked me to get undressed in front of him. Is that normal?"
Lana Hirschowitz
"I was told my dad killed himself because he found out I was gay."
The world's "top male escort" has shared the five weirdest things he's ever been asked to do.
'My terrified daughter sat on the stairs as I was arrested for ice.'
Greg Fisher
A mother's heartbreaking letter to her sons about their father's impact on the world.
Dannii Raisher
How to have a good divorce, from someone who's been there.
Lillian Miles
Is this the worst paedophilia excuse of all time?
The honeymoon horror stories that will make you happy with staying at home.
Nine secrets to living a long, happy life according to the worlds oldest people.
The Glow Team
"Those words 'You have cancer' were given to me exactly one year ago to this very day. I was 27."
Riarna Springbett
Rich wife, poor wife: How it feels to lose every cent you have.
Jo Abi
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Home / Videos / #MsLIBRE Tip #5: GIVE BACK!
#MsLIBRE Tip #5: GIVE BACK!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Nq_d8lPM8
TIP #5: GIVE BACK!
American businesses and business owners have an amazing track record of giving. Whether it's the pizza restaurant owner who sponsors the Little Leagues' uniforms or the local manufacturing plant in my town of Wausau, Wisconsin who funded the local ice rink. Teach your little Miss LIBRE that we have a responsibility to give back to our community. Whether it's a donation in the Sunday church collection or buying big bags of kitty litter to donate to the local shelter, earning a profit feels even better when you can use some of your hard-earned cash to help others.
Takeaway:
As parents, we can't leave it to schools, media or culture to instill and nurture hard work and entrepreneurship in our children. But it's ultimately our job as the main influencers in our child's life. The good news is that it's not rocket science! These are simple, easy ideas any parent can implement.
Five Ways to Raise a Little #MsLIBRE
Real Empowerment: Teaching our Daughters the Value of Hard Work, Self-Reliance & Entrepreneurship
In an era of child entitlement and instant gratification, parents can bring back values that virtually guarantee your daughter access to The American Dream.
It's often overlooked that Hispanics start businesses at three times the national average. Nonetheless, children of all races and socio-economic backgrounds are losing touch with the American values of hard work and earned success. LIBRE advocates for policies that advance economic empowerment in U.S. Hispanic communities and protect the values that promote hard work and self-reliance as the path to true independence and prosperity.
LIBRE launched the social media campaign #MsLIBRE to celebrate Hispanic women as beautiful, entrepreneurial, self-reliant and powerful as a counter campaign to President Obama's "Life of Julia" campaign- which featured a woman dependent on the government from cradle to grave. #MsLIBRE will not stand for that- Through this social media campaign, we empower women- not trap them in dependency -and we must teach the next generation the same values!
#MsLIBRE understands the value of teaching these principles to our little ones, and with that in mind, our video segments "How to raise a little #MsLIBRE" provide parents with easy and practical advice for raising and empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs. While our campaign is aimed at Hispanic girls, our message of economic liberty, self-reliance and earned success is for all kids, regardless of age and gender because the American Dream is still alive for all who work hard and dream big!
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Landmarks & Buildings
History of New York City
A TLTC Blog
The 9/11 Attacks
Newspaper Strike of 1899
Thanksgiving Day Parade
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Victory Way
World's Fair of 1939
Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
Ed Sullivan Theater
Fort Wadsworth
Grand Central Depot
Keens Steakhouse
McSorley's Old Ale House
Museum of the American Gangster
Museum of Natural History
Neir's Tavern
Park Avenue Rail Tunnel
The Plaza Hotel
Saint Patrick's Cathedral
Stonewall Inn
Broadway / Theater District
The Brooklyn Bridge: Closing the Gaps
Randall's Island
Rikers Island
Roosevelt Island
Rucker Park
Dutch New Amsterdam
The AIDS Crisis in New York City
Castellammarese War
Civil War Draft Riots
Cold War New York
Depression-era New York
Jazz Age New York
New York in the Civil War
Prohibition-era New York
Rent (the musical)
Revolutionary War New York
El Barrio (East Harlem)
Minsky's Burlesque
The Subway System
The Subway System in the 1970s-80s
Alexander Hamilton's New York
Jacob Riis' New York
Lucchese Crime Family
Communists, Homo-Conservatives, and Secrecy: A Dive Into New York City's Mattachine Society.
Stock Market Crash of 1929
Hundreds of men gather outside the New York Stock Exchange, waiting to be let inside to trade in their shares of stocks that were plummeting in value
The cause of this era all falls back to the events within a period of a single week during the month of October, a week where the fate of the nation would be affected for an entire decade. The fateful week started with the events of Wednesday October 23rd, when waves of panicked investors sold shares that dropped the prices of several blue chip stocks. The next morning, the effects of the day before terrified everyone. Even more waves of people flooded the New York Stock Exchange building, selling shares left and right, tanking stock prices across the board. Burns explains, "In less than two hours, nearly $10 billion of paper value was simply wiped out".[1] Crowds waiting to sell their own shares waited in terror watching as the stock prices kept dropping. All hope was lost until the "city's four leading bankers strode up the steps of Wall Street and into the Morgan Bank", investing $240 million into the market, raising the price of stocks for U.S. Steel by ten full points.[2] With this single act, it seemed that the crash had been stopped in its tracks. On Friday, the bankers withdrew their investments because they believed the market was stabilized. However, the withdrawal of their money only pushed the public back into a terrified frenzy. On Tuesday October 29th, later dubbed as Black Tuesday, the market regained its downward momentum as crazed crowds flooded the stock exchange, seeing over 16 million shares trading hands, with the market loosing $14 billion in value that day alone.[3] Over the course of the week, the market lost $30 million in value, a value "nearly twice the amount the United States had spent during all of World War I".[4] The stock market had crashed and the lives of millions of Americans were set to change drastically for the next decade.
[1] Burns and Sanders, 373
[3] Burns and Sanders 376
by Brian Ferraro
Harlem Riots, March 19, 1935
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TennisForum.com > Misc. > Blast from the Past > 1987
Page 46 of 46 « First 36 42 43 44 45 46
post #676 of 686 (permalink) Old Sep 3rd, 2017, 01:07 AM Thread Starter
Ms. Anthropic
RICH HISTORY, RACY HEADLINES, GREAT TENNIS
RICH HOFMANN, Daily News Sports Writer
"If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same."
- Rudyard Kipling
Those are the last words a player reads on his or her way to Centre Court.
They hang over the doorway through which the players pass on the way to the world's most famous tennis court. They sum up, very neatly, everything for which the members of The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club stand. They harken back to a time when men were men, when war was glorious, when afternoon tea was a must, and when sport was merely an avocation (being rich was the only true vocation).
So the players wear predominantly white clothes here. And they are referred to formally, as Mr. J.S. Connors and Mrs. J.M. Lloyd (oops, it's back to Miss C.M. Evert). And they still play on grass, a surface that not only is anachronistic, but impossible to maintain properly during two weeks of championship play.
Wimbledon is all of those things, all of those values from days gone by, all of those wonderful notions that people love to muse about while nursing a pint of bitter on the Tea Lawn.
But there is reality here, too. Britannia no longer rules the waves, and that pint of bitter on the Tea Lawn will cost you plenty. Maybe the real success of this place is that the reality is so well-disguised, but the reality is here, make no mistake.
There is the advertising that adorns that predominantly white clothing worn by the players. There are the corporate tents that dot the adjoining landscape, entertaining the rich and paying fees to the tournament organizers.
And, finally, there are the players, the players whose on-court struggles - this year, there are some wonderful story lines - must compete in London's explicit tabloids with a daily recitation of the intimate details of their personal lives. One headline to chew on, from last week's Mirror: "Bonkin' Boris vs. Lusty Lendl."
(By the way, bonkin' means exactly what you think it means, if you think dirty.)
That, all of that, is Wimbledon.
Now, about those story lines. There are four big ones. Let's take them, player by player.
* Martina Navratilova: Hers is easily the most compelling story. She is a seven-time Wimbledon champion, including the last five years. One more victory would tie her for the all-time record, held by Helen Wills Moody. But Navratilova is 30 now and she is more than willing to talk about how her confidence has been shattered by a season of defeat, defeat, defeat - shattered mostly by the emergence of 18-year-old Steffi Graf, of West Germany.
In the last several months, Navratilova has changed rackets - to the same one Graf uses. She brought in one of her old tactical coaches - Dr. Renee Richards. But in the final of the French Open, Navratilova double-faulted away the point that gave the tournament to Graf.
Then last week - at the Eastbourne tournament, the major grass tuneup for women, a tournament that Navratilova had won six times - she was ahead of Czechoslovakia's Helena Sukova by 5-0 in the first set. Then, collapse. Navratilova ended up losing in straight sets, and trying to be brave.
"At this point, I think it's going to take an Act of Congress for me to win a tournament, but what the hell," Navratilova said, after Eastbourne. ''But I'm not done yet. I haven't won a tournament this year, but I'm not done yet."
The sight of Navratilova either crumbling or overcoming should be fascinating.
* Ivan Lendl: He is No. 1 in the men's tennis world, but No. 2 here, behind two-time champion Boris Becker. Lendl desperately wants to win here, desperately wants to win a major championship on grass. He has won $11 million in his career, but he has not won on the lawns here.
The man is driven. He has spent months on a weightlifting routine to become stronger. Why? Because he said Becker looked stronger than he did last year in the Wimbledon final. Lendl is making moves now specifically for Becker, like the Celtics and Sixers used to do for each other.
"The way I see Boris and myself at present," Lendl said, "is that I am favorite on clay and he is favorite on grass. Indoors or on hard courts, I have a small edge. Boris is rightly No. 1 seed for Wimbledon on his record here. But I still think I can win it even if it takes me 10 attempts . . .
"I would not like anything more than to win Wimbledon," Lendl said.
And to beat Becker.
* Steffi Graf: The computer that the tennis world uses to rank its players says that Graf is No. 2, behind Navratilova. But the facts say that Graf is No. 1 right now. A win this year at Wimbledon might signal that she will be No. 1 for a long time.
She is not the most outgoing player on the circuit (her hobby, believe it or not, is said to be collecting shorts). And she is not cover-girl pretty (not like, say, Argentina's Gabriela Sabatini). But Graf is simply the best right now. She has all the strokes. Her forehand is seen as about the best in the women's game. Her serve, according to Pam Shriver, is the most improved shot in the women's game. The backhand is the weakness, but it is not bad.
The only question is the surface. Navratilova has ruled the grass; Graf has avoided it. The last time Graf played at Wimbledon was in 1985, when she lost to Shriver. She didn't play a grass tuneup tournament this year, preferring to practice in isolation after her victory in the French.
"If Martina played Graf on grass and they played the same way as in Paris, Martina would take her apart," said Shriver, who is Navratilova's longtime doubles partner and a dark horse here. "Martina is the player to beat, for sure. She's at home (at Wimbledon). She's comfortable."
We'll see.
* Boris Becker: When you win your first Wimbledon at age 17, and your second Wimbledon at age 18, what do you do at age 19?
Hat trick?
His victory is almost being conceded by most people here. In fact, all anyone has written about in the tabloids has been the decision by Becker's manager, Ion Tiriac, to force Becker to save his energy by sending away his girlfriend, Benedicte Courtin.
That aside . . .
"Me nervous? Hell no," Becker said. "But I am excited. In fact, I am so excited while I wait to play that I find it hard to even stand still for a second. I want to play and please the crowd. It is the most enjoyable two weeks of the year for me. If there is pressure, I don't feel it."
If that is true, then the rest of the field is in trouble.
Along the way, though, there will be upsets. There will be controversies (even when you figure in that John McEnroe and his bad back won't be making an appearance this year).
And there will be excellent tennis in the most gracious setting that a decidedly ungracious world can create.
That's Wimbledon.
Ms. Anthropic is offline
Graf, Navratilova the picture of opposites as tourney begins
Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities
Jerry Zgoda; Staff Writer
Worry? Why should Steffi Graf worry about Wimbledon, even though she hasn't played on grass in two years?
"I haven't lost this year - why should there be pressure?" she said.
No reason at all. This year Graf is 39-for-39 in matches and 7-for-7 in tournaments, including her first Grand Slam victory at the French Open this month. She is seeded second to five-time defending champion Martina Navratilova, who is favored to win her eighth Wimbledon singles title, but you wouldn't know that from their statements in the days preceding today's opening matches.
Graf, 18, has been the confident one; Navratilova has begun to question herself, especially after losing to Helena Sukova in Saturday's final in Eastbourne, England. Navratilova has not won a title in six tournaments this year.
"Right now, I'm not feeling too confident," she said Saturday. "I blew it. I've found a lot of ways to lose matches this year. I just hope I've found them all. I'm getting very disappointed in myself; I'm falling apart. It's all emotional. There's nothing wrong technically. . . . I think I'm still the favorite."
Both Graf and Navratilova are not scheduled to play their first-round matches until Tuesday.
Defending men's champion Boris Becker will open play on Centre Court today against Karel Novacek.
Last year's tournament was delayed once by rain, on the first day, and most of the two weeks were played in sunshine and 90-degree temperatures. This year could be almost opposite. London has received a record rainfall for June and highs have been in the high 50s and low 60s. The courts were covered and not available for practice play yesterday after another downpour Saturday evening.
BE PREPARED FOR A BIZARRE WIMBLEDON
The Miami Herald
EDWIN POPE, Herald Sports Editor
It's business as usual in the mother country as the All-England Club sets out on its second century of tennis today.
Business as usual in England is chaos carried to the infinite.
Firemen in Birmingham accidentally set fire to their own station house. They left potatoes frying when they rushed out on a call. Nearby housewives spotted smoke pouring out of the station. Firemen from another village had to wet down the blaze. "All very embarrassing," said Fire Officer Bob Skellern.
Dull old land, eh?
Prince Charles pitched a fit when Princess Di sat herself on the hood of his precious Aston-Martin. He then pranged it up himself while hurrying up to a polo match.
Commoners match royalty gaffe for gaffe. One of the six finalists for England's Dad of the Year was revealed to be the father of a son by a woman definitely not his wife.
The normal is the abnormal among people of whom an ancient Turkish proverb says, "An Englishman will burn his bed to catch a flea." London particularly has gone so wacko it makes New York City look like Andy Griffith country.
Only four things really work here -- royalty, pubs, subways and Wimbledon. And the tournament starting today is lining up as bizarrely, at least on the women's side, as any yet.
Seven-time Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova has lost six straight tournaments. She's so desperate she has switched coaches, from Mike Estep back to Renee Richards, and is even trying a different brand racket from the one that brings her nearly $400,000 a year in endorsement loot. Yet Martina is still favored to win Wimbo over Steffi Graf, who steams in seven for seven in tournaments.
Chris Evert bombed out in the semis at Eastbourne last week, and the wife of Andy Mill, Chrissie's new escort, is packaging her indignation for a London tabloid.
Chrissie, 31, didn't have enough troubles before Eastbourne. Then, when she stood just two points from beating Helena Sukova, a brass band struck up down the street. The crowd began to snicker. Even Chris giggled when umpire Janet Jones intoned, "Quiet, please. I know I can't stop the band, but I'm talking about the spectators."
Didn't help. Now, Chrissie, still the darling of Brit fans, has to pick it up after winning just one of the past nine Wimbledons. "After 15 years on tour, I'm finding myself in and out of matches," Chrissie says, "and if that continues, the writing will be on the wall for me." In British slang, she is "brassed off."
So what else is new in a city of 6.7 million people who pour 2.7 billion pints of beer and ale down their necks every year?
Well, Prime Minister Margaret stamps around in a snit over Junior Health Minister Edwina Currie's remarks about Maggie's sex life.
Howard Kendall, England's most successful soccer coach, is off to Spain and a new $350,000-a-year job with Athletico Bilbao because fans here made his family's life so miserable when his Everton team fell on hard times.
The whole place is a zoo -- more so now for the ever larger hordes of tourists frightened off the continent by terrorism. London's hair-raising traffic is Havana's old Malecon of 20 years ago all over again. You take a chockablock train 45 minutes to Victoria Station from Gatwick Airport, then wait up to an hour for a cab at Victoria.
But the museums and monuments stand majestically unmoved. Workmen are even scrubbing nine centuries of grime off Westminster Abbey. London is as magnificent in all the old ways as it was more than 200 years ago when Dr. Samuel Johnson said, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford."
It just gets a little squiffier all the time.
Thieves stole the garden out of the suburban yard of John and Sheila Preston the other night. The botanical bandits silently dug up apple trees, shrubs, rose bushes, the works. "We've done a lot of spadework," said a police spokesman, "but we can't get to the roots of this one."
You develop a certain sense of humor when you've been through two huge fires, a plague and a bombing blitz.
All things considered, do you imagine Wimbledon will miss John McEnroe the tiniest bit?
Headline unavailable
SHELBY STROTHER, Gannett News Service
WIMBLEDON, England - I see why this forthcoming fortnight of tennis is so highly ranked that it falls just short of a religious experience.
This is vintage England, mint condition, unadulterated. Clogged with tradition, the perfect opportunity for pomp and circumstance, for strutting about, for acting stodgy and generally preserving the notion that at least on a fancy meadow for two weeks outside of London, there will always be an England.
It wasn't so long ago the English used to play matches here wearing long flannel pants. Imagine, flannel pants in the summertime. This tradition no doubt led to some outrageous instances of prickly heat, from which surely originated the quite British posture known as the stiff upper lip.
Wimbledon will not change.
We colonists have this annoying way of Americanizing anything we can get our hands on. We would love to turn Wimbledon into just another theme park. We would love to see some fans, maybe the Queen Mother herself, show up for the matches with a painted face fashioned into a Union Jack.
But it will never happen. The American Way can saturate England with Run DMC babble, commandeer England with reruns of Dallas and Gilligan's Island. But Wimbledon will, as they say, stay the bloody same.
It was more than a decade ago when the feisty little kid in the bandana - name was McEnroe - put the American Way into play. Cruder than Ilie Nastase, angrier than Pancho Gonzales, Johnny Mac tested decorum severely. When he decided to partake of the traditional strawberries and cream without use of the traditional spoon or fork, a legend was born. That the legend grew to rival those of Jack the Ripper and the bubonic plague was the result of hard and sustained work by the American phenomenon who came to be known simply as McBrat.
But tradition has prevailed. McEnroe, who missed last year's festivities because of paternity leave, has sent his regrets once more, claiming injury, apathy or some excuse that was instantaneously accepted throughout the Commonwealth.
Today, the Germans rule the world, at least that part of it pertaining to tennis. Boris Becker, should he win the men's singles title, would then have three such mementos, and he's not yet 20. Countrywoman Steffi Graf is simply the best woman player playing.
Yet methinks the old tournament can allow one final gesture of goodwill. Allow Ms. Evert one final curtsy of glory. One final Silver thingamabob to hoist over her sweaty head. One final smile.
As for the men, Chrissie's old flame, Jimmy Connors, is still haunting the grounds. He's once more the top-seeded American at Wimbledon, although that speaks more about the decline and fall of the U.S. Empire than any miracle resurrection by Jimbo. No - Becker's too good on grass. Read that as his serve is too hard to return. Besides, only one wish per fortnight.
When my first day in England was over the hump and the sunburst sky began losing its color and turning to a more recognizable gray, two natives let me know the difference between Wimbledon and the surrounding village of London.
First there was this voice in an alley. It sounded like Judy Carne, but wound up looking like Monty Python.
"Would you be wantin' a bit o' company tonight, Luv?"
The world's oldest profession was on the job. The offer threw me back nonetheless. Respectfully declining, I continued my walk around jolly old England.
I later was stopped by the gentle paw of an old man in distress.
"I need a drink," he said, rubbing a hand over his mouth to accentuate his obvious thirst. "What say you and I have a couple?"
Trying to avoid another street-side improvisation of the Ugly American, I said, "I don't drink with people I don't know."
"The name's Stan."
The old fella needed a lot more than a drink. A shave, a bath, a toothbrush, a long nap came immediately to mind. "I'm not a bum, you know. I'm a man of letters. A writer."
"Hey, me, too."
His eyes lit up, cleared, focused. I expected him to talk about Shakespeare. The Bard. He wanted to talk about the Fridge.
"He's a football player."
"I've heard of him. Listen, I have to go."
"In that case, could you spot me a few so I can get that drink anyway?"
I relented, reached into my pocket, pulled out two dollar bills and handed them to him.
He squinted and said, "Aincha got real money?"
I rescinded my offer and began to stomp away.
"In that case, I'll be going down the tubes soon."
Not knowing that was a British colloquialism for the subway train, I irreverently responded, "Ain't we all?"
DENIZENS OF FLEET STREET UNSHEATHE POISON PENS
By Melissa Isaacson of The Sentinel Staff
If the top tennis players in the world are smart this infamous fortnight, they will sequester themselves in private housing, tune in their favorite BBC channel on the telly, and maybe, just maybe, sneak out occasionally to practice -- wearing false noses and glasses, of course.
Participating in this spectacle that is Wimbledon is as much playing as it is surviving.
Today begins the third leg of tennis' Grand Slam, and the Fleet Streeters are at it again:
The women players seem to be favorite targets for the tabloids, which willingly put aside their Fergie and Di stories for two weeks of Chris, Carling and Gaby.
''Here Come the Sexiest Sports in Town -- Frilling Sets on Court'' was the headline of one hard-hitting story in Sunday Sport that featured color photos of Chris Evert, Carling Bassett and Gabriela Sabatini -- all action shots that coincidentally caught their tennis skirts in various states of disarray.
''Bring on the serving girls . . .'' wrote the gifted Martyn Bignold, ''and see how glamour-puss tennis stars will guarantee a sexy spectacle for the fellas at Wimbledon.''
Now that's journalism.
Of course, this is the paper that featured Jane Frisby on page five, wearing little more than a tennis racket and claiming that she'll dearly miss John McEnroe this year, who is out with a back injury.
''He's so cute and silly the way he flings his racket about and stamps his pretty little feet,'' cried Jane. ''Personally, I have a much better way to settle tennis tantrums. I just . . .''
Well, you get the idea.
Evert, once the princess of Fleet Street, has fallen out of favor with her separation and then divorce of hometown boy John Lloyd. Chris and her new boyfriend, Andy Mill, were stalked at a London restaurant. The story: The two were practically thrown out for their overly amorous behavior.
Come on, guys. Not even ''allegedly?''
Martina Navratilova had the gall, Saturday, to lose the Eastbourne Championships -- a Wimbledon tuneup tournament -- to Helena Sukova, thereby proving, obviously that her career must be through. Admitting that her problems are more emotional than physical, transformed her into ''the shaken former champ'' in The Mail, while the Sunday Mirror reported: ''Wimbledon wonder woman Martina Navratilova was shaken and stirred into a Martina on the rocks at Eastbourne yesterday.''
Many of the players say they don't read Britain's version of the Fourth Estate. Others, especially those who do not find their tennis skirts on page three, admit to taking a peek once in a while.
''I read the stuff sometimes,'' admitted Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, seeded ninth here, ''but I don't believe it. I can imagine normal people off the street probably do believe it though.''
With McEnroe, probably the favorite target, out of the tournament, the rest of the men have ably, if unwillingly, picked up the slack.
Ivan Lendl, who was humanized by the rest of civilization about a year ago but who remains ''Stone Face'' to the Brits, is also, according to the British press, about as likely to dethrone Boris Becker as Queen Elizabeth is to bestow knighthood on McEnroe.
''Lendl is as unsure and nervous on grass as a boy on his first date,'' according to The News.
For Jimmy Connors, Wimbledon is ''the last throw of the dice.''
Pat Cash, known for his success at Wimbledon (he reached the quarterfinals last year, a month after an appendectomy) was profiled by The People:
''Loony Pat can win it for the brats.''
And they wonder why McEnroe stayed home.
Tennis: Romanian undaunted by Lendl challenge
Christian Saceanu vowed yesterday to give Ivan Lendl, the world No. 1, a run for his money when they meet in the first round of the men's singles at Wimbledon.
The Romanian-born teenager, who came through the qualifying competition at Roehampton this week, features in the first match on the All England Club's No. 1 court today, knowning he has nothing to lose. 'Lendl is the No. 1 but I look at it that he is just another player who has to be beaten and I'm going to give it my best shot,' he said.
Saceanu, who holds a West German passport, has been coached by Gunter Bosch, the man who guided the Wimbledon champion Boris Becker's early development before their split during the Australian championships earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Patrick McEnroe's quest to maintain the family interest at Wimbledon - brother John withdrew this week - ended on Saturday when he and fellow American John Sadri were beaten in four sets by Russell Simpson from New Zealand and Larry Stefanki of the United States.
Officials have placed a ban on questions about tennis players' private lives being asked during post-match interviews. Instead journalists have been ordered to restrict their questions to tennis only. The ban follows stories in the British press yesterday about the off-court relationships of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
The attendance record at Wimbledon is again expected to be broken after last year's all-time high figure of 400,032 for the fortnight, including 39,813 for the first Thursday of the tournament, a record attendance for one day.
Tennis: The Championships Wimbledon - Tournament under a cloud of gloom - Weather 'the worst in memory'
JOHN GOODBODY
Boris Becker, of West Germany, the No. 1 seed and champion for the last two years, will play Karel Novacek, of Czechoslovakia, in today's traditional opening match in the men's singles on Centre Court, amid fears that, the weather will sharply disrupt the world's most celebrated tennis tournament.
Alan Mills, the Wimbledon referee, said yesterday that the first few days of the championships will be 'a test of character for players and officials,' because of the forecast of, at best, unsettled weather and, at worst, heavy rain. 'Players and offocials will be backwards and forwards between the courts and locker rooms.'
Today's weather forecast from the Meteorological Office is for 'some residual light rain or drizzle in the early morning. But as the temperatures climb towards 20 degrees centigrade, this will bring thick clouds and more general rain, bringing the day to a dismal end.'
Tomorrow will be cooler, with intermittent sunny periods and showers. Weather for the rest of the week is also likely to be changeable.
Because of the recent bad weather no grass-court facilities were available yesterday. The 14 practice courts at Aorangi Park are still unusable and Queen's Club's grass courts are closed.
'On Friday evening, 30,000 gallons of water were removed from Aorangi Park courts and they are still soaked. The last three weeks' weather is the worst I can remember in the built-up to Wimbledon,' said Mills.
But the courts themselves at Wimbledon are impeccable. Jim Thorn, the groundsman, has had all 18 courts covered at night, and whenever rain has threatened for the last 10 days.
The Centre and No. 1 courts are below enormous tarpaulin tents with fans blowing beneath them to ensure there is a flow of air to take off the moisture from the grass.
The other 16 courts are covered with reinforced plastic coverings (each costs Pounds 10,500), which have been individually tailored for size. Each one has air blown underneath it, creating a balloon effect.
When I walked on Centre Court beneath the tarpaulin yesterday, the grass was moist but the surface was perfect.
Thorn said: 'The grass is a little too green and the courts will be slow. The recent rain has just made our jobs a little more difficult.'
The first man through the gates aiming for the unreserved standing area on Jacobs, aged 40, an accountant from Feltham, who started the queue at 9:30am yesterday morning with a sleeping bag and polythene sheet.
He has spent part of his annual holiday watching Wimbledon for the last 11 years and has been first through the gates on seven occasions. He usually queues overnight on alternative nights, going home on the other evenings to wash, change his clothes and have a proper sleep.
'There is a tremous camaraderie about the people in the queue. Some of the same faces turn up every year, some from as far away as Canada and New Zealand. The one thing we really want is a decent day,' he said.
Umbrellas up for a soggy week at Wimbledon
A Staff Reporter
Tennis fans planning to attend the opening day of Wimbledon today would be well advised to use public transport and to take an umbrella.
Torrential rain over the past week has turned the car parks into mud baths so the number of spaces will probably have to be reduced considerably, according to Mr Christopher Gorringe, chief executive of the All-England Club. And there are more showers on the way today.
In this torrential month, one of the wettest place in Britain has been Manchester with five inches of rainfall, while even those among the driest, including Stornaway, Aldergrove and Tynemouth, have had about one-and-a-half inches.
The London Weather Centre has predicted a wet Monday likely to be followed by a wet week, so the best hope for the crowds at Wimbledon and for cricket fans hoping to see the test match at Lord's is for intermittent sessions of play.
The forecast shows cloudy, showery weather with occasional sunny spells for today and a similarly unsettled outlook for tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday.
A cautious hope of more settled weather is held out for Friday and the weekend, but until then there is likely to be rain every day almost everywhere.
But it is not quite as bad as it may seem, as this is not the wettest, dullest or coldest June on record - so far. In London, for instance, there have been three inches of rainfalls this month. That compares with 5 1/2 inches in June 1958, and seven inches in June 1903.
In Manchester, however, the five inches already recorded is only half an inch off the record June figure since records began there in 1942.
Temperatures and hours of sunshine are certainly below average, but not yet in the record-breaking league. In London, there has been an average of four hours sunshine per day so far, comparing badly with the normal June average of seven hours per day. But the current low average would have to drop still further if the June 1909 record of just 105 hours is to be beaten.
According to the London Weather Centre, the reason for the bad weather is the scarcity of spells of high pressure to counteract the steady steam of rain-bearing fronts coming in from the Atlantic.
Weathermen blame a rogue jetstream, at 25,000 feet above the Atlantic which has been too weak to push the bad weather far to the north. Instead, westerly winds have swept the rain over the British Isles and much of Europe and will bring more wet and unsettled weather.
Bookmakers William Hill, who have been offering odds of 33-1, face a Pounds 100,000 payout if rain interrupts or prevents play on the Centre Court at Wimbledon every day of the tournament.
Monday Page: They also serve who drive - Driving Wimbledon tennis stars
MARY WATSON
Wimbledon fortnight begins today, which means the start of a logistical marathon for Pat Edwards and the team of drivers charged with makeing sure that the star players get to the court on time. Mary Watson reports
At 8am today a series of famous people will be picked up outside a number of plush hotels by a string of anonymous women, some of whom will probably lose their hearts, if only temporarily, to at least one of the men over the next fortnight.
All of which is perfectly legitimate and above board, being one of the less well-known rituals associated with the Wimbledon tennis tournament. As with other types of ritual, prayers have been offered up in advance: that no car shall have a puncture twixt W1 and SW19; that no-one shall inherit the trait of the mercurial Ilie Nastase, who tended to oversleep; and that delays caused by motorists scraping alongside to gawk at the stars shall be at a minimum.
Patricia Edwards, who has organized the drivers for 15 years, is in charge of avoiding such dramas; she also hopes the famous player who left his rackets back at the hotel last year will remember them this, thus avoiding a hair-raising trip back through the traffic.
'I said I couldn't see why the player couldn't use someone else's rackets, but everyone was appalled at the idea,' she says.
Edwards will be at the nerve centre of the operation every day at 7:30am, with no hope of leaving again before midnight. Headquarters is a wooden-walled marquee near the centre court, lined with ruched white fabric and swags of emerald green, which emerald chairs and carpet - a far cry from humble beginnings in 1972, using 'a caravan and a cubbyhole. '
She will send her 116 drivers, all but 20 of them women, back and forth like workers bees to the official tournament hotels, practice courts and other places all over London. Including a high proportion of the 600 players, they will chauffeur 1,000 people a day over the next fortnight.
Wearing white jackets, white skirts or trousers and white t-shirts, they will work either of two eight-hour shifts up till midnight, will earn a minimum of Pounds 250 and have the fun of driving top stars - and even seeing some of the tennis.
Edwards takes it all calmly. With her ash-blonde hair, huge grey eyes and stylish clothes she could be mistaken for a glamorous tennis wife or celebrity. Crowds often puch forward when they spot her in an official car and then exclaim: 'Oh, it's no one.'
Her china doll appearance belies a toughness which commands respect among the young drivers 'We'll be instantly dismissed if we let her down badly,' one told me, and Edwards has indeed had to sack several drivers over the years. 'One kept trying to finish early and another reversed into a car which demolished a wall and then went forward into another car.
'Their cargo is very precious and their job a responsible one. It's PR job, too - they must sense when to chat and when to shut up, especially if a player has just lost a match.'
'Yes,' interjected one girl, 'when one player lost he sobbed that his life was ruined and that he wanted his mother. I gently tried to reassure him.'
This year the drivers include students, housewives, models, air hostesses and secretaries. Alison Dixon, who was secretary to Princess Michael for two years, is doing her first Wimbledon. Several good drivers are secretaries but often Edwards finds that those who are used to a sedentary 9-5 job are not as good as those used to odd hours.
The men include a sculptor, a doctor, a dentist on annual leave and an Australian salesman who was a chauffeur at last year's tournament; he enjoyed it so much that he has flown back specially.
'We're not after dolly birds,' Edwards says, 'but they have to look pleasant. Over 40, we look at them very closely indeed. Some are in their early fifties, but you'd never know.
'Applicants have a half hour interview and a three-quarters of an hour driving test, conducted by a school of motoring,' says Edwards. 'Many more failed the test this year; on one day all 14 applicants failed.'
Emergencies usually involve either the players or the cars rather than the drivers, but one year a girl was mugged as she was about to reverse. Two workers on a building site rescued her.
Players are said to be quiet before a match and subdued after it, if they lose. But the winners seldom brag. Drivers all say they are hoping they won't get a certain woman player who invariably says she is going to be sick. Top seeds Navratilova and Becker are unlikely to be passengers; the former, to the surprise of spectators, usually cycles in while Becker comes in his own car.
Everyone is hoping to drive Chris Evert or members of her family because they are always friendly, pleasant and giggly. 'We are sorry McEnroe is not coming,' says Edwards. 'He has not been abusive to us, though many are. Just before going on court he would eat a collosal meal of steak, hamburgers and chips.
'Connors and Nastaste used to enjoy egging on the teenyboppers but Connors has quietened down a lot.'
The girls are not allowed to accept dates with players. 'They all look alike with their suntans, highlighted hair and expensive casual clothes,' said one. 'But most of us have boyfriends and anyway the players are usually too exhausted. They get in the car and say, ''Where can I eat?'' '
Edwards is less than happy that this year, for the first time, the slogan 'Game for Anything' appears on the cars. It does not, she feels, convey the right impression.
'Wimbledon,' she says candidly, 'is something I dread, but it is enormously satisfying to see things running smoothly after five months of planning. And,' adds the woman who for the next couple of weeks will be running the biggest pick-up operation in town, 'it's where I met my husband...'
Tennis: A room with the view to greatness
IAN STAFFORD
Centre Court is now a familiar sight to all tennis enthusiasts, but out of view behind and below the Royal Box, is the unknown territory where the off-court dramas of delight and defeat are played out .. the changing rooms, the waiting room and the short walkway to that most nerve-wracking arena.
Imagine the arrival of Boris Becker, the defending champion, at Wimbledon today. His chauffeur-driven car will take him inside the grounds of the All England Club and drop him at the steps leading to the main building. From there he will walk towards the centre court complex and turn to the door on his left, the Gentlemen's Dressing Room. Passing a photograph of Rod Laver, he will then enter the main dressing room, which is attended full-time by five trainer-masseurs.
The room is not unlike the changing area in any good sports centres, except this one has a small bar equipped with soft drinks and beer. Lockers surround the walls with blank cards waiting to be filled with the name of a player. There is no favouritism in this department.
The only place in Wimbledon where players can get away from each other is in the bath tub, housed in private compartments behind the lockers; there they can float with victory or wallow in defeat. It is in the dressing room, decked by white wash-basins and benches below coat hooks, that the player will test his rackets and limber up.
In contrast, the Ladies' Dressing Room, directly above the men's, resembles a beautician's salon. The room is so secure that very few men have entered it; they include the Frenchman, Jean Borotra, and a blind masseur.
The women's dressing room has pink doors and pink carpets, patterned curtains and small, quaint backless settees. During Wimbledon fortnight, the vanity units and mirrors are bathed in flowers. While the men change next to each other in the middle of their room, the women have the privacy of their own cubicles.
The walk from the dressing rooms to the centre court itself is short. Always accompanied by an attendant, the players see to their right a wall covered by large wooden plaques commemorating all past winners. To their left is a cabinet housing all the trophies. Ahead is a pair of frosted-glass doors. Above the doors is a phrase from Kipling, carved in block capitals into the wood: IF YOU CAN MEET WITH TRIUMPH AND DISASTER AND TREAT THOSE TWO IMPOSTORS JUST THE SAME.
During the early rounds, the players will go onto the Centre Court directly from the dressing rooms, but the finalists will use the players' waiting room found by the exit. It is here that they will sweat and fret and exchange a few strained words. That is about as much as they can do in a room too small to swing a racket. With its brown carpet, bleak silver-framed picture and three pale blue wicker chairs surrounding a tiny wicker table, the room has a purposeful bareness about it. For five minutes, at most, they will be left to themselves here before the doors open.
Before them lies the Centre Court, with the world's television cameras, the Royal Box and 14,000 spectators huddled around a small piece of turf.
post #686 of 686 (permalink) Old Jun 29th, 2019, 09:41 PM
AdeyC
TT Board Member/BSG co:Creator w/sfar
The Volvo Classic - Wednesday 21st October 1987 - Order Of Play
Court One
Z Garrison USA v K Jordan USA
S Parkhomenko USSR v K Maleeva BUL
B Bunge GER v N Tauziat FR
Z Garrison & L McNeil v I Budarova & A Henricksson
B Bunge & E Burgin v S Parkhomenko & L Savchenko
Court Two
E Burgin USA v R Rajchrtova CZ
S Gomer GB v A Sanchez SP
P Paradis FR v H Sukova CZ
I Demengeot FR v G Sabatini ARG
J Durie & R Fairbank v K Jordan & H Sukova
followed by on the first available court
J Novotna & C Suire v I Demengeot & N Tauziat
Tennis Tipping
Singles (Rank : 18) (High : 1 - 11 weeks)
Titles (13) - 2012 - New Haven, SF - WIMBLEDON, 2013 - Beijing, GB Fed Cup, 2014 - Brisbane, Dubai, Stuttgart, Rome, YEC Singapore, 2015 - Stanford, GB Fed Cup, Antayla, 2016 - Bogota, Olympics, 2017 - Nurnberg, QF - FRENCH OPEN, Milovice, 2018 - Stuttgart
Doubles - (Rank : 2) (High : 1 - 32 weeks)
Titles - (25) - 2010 - Bogota, Bad Gastein, Karuizawa, Montpellier, 2011 - Bogota, Birmingham, Poitiers, Bratislava, 2012 - Opole, 2013 - Bad Gastein, Bertioga, 2014 - WIMBLEDON, Bad Gastein, 2015 - Nottingham, Ortisei, 2016 - Brisbane, Glasgow, St Petersburg, Toyota, 2017 - Contrexeville, Bastad, Stanford, Balatonboglar, Hammamet, 2018 - Eastbourne, Antayla, 2019 - AUSTRALIAN OPEN
AdeyC is online now
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As parents, we all know that feeling. The nervous anxiety we feel in those early days of saying goodbye to our child and leaving them in the care of someone else. It's hard – and often not made easier by the fact we have to leave our children at a time when they may also be having big feelings in response to our departure.
The age and stage of a child will play a part in how they respond to separation, however, it's important to know that separation anxiety is a completely normal part of childhood due to the attachment relationship that develops between a child and their key caregivers. Separation anxiety can manifest as clinginess, distress and withdrawal. Typically, it begins from about six months of age, appears again around 15 to 18 months of age, and sometimes when a child is three. In between these times, you may see separation anxiety when a child begins a new relationship with an, at first, unfamiliar adult, such as an in-home educator, or when they have experienced significant changes in their lives, like the loss of a loved one, moving house or a serious illness.
A gentle transition into new care arrangements will help a child to feel more comfortable. This could involve the parent remaining for periods of time over the first few weeks of care to support the child to build familiarity with their new environment and relationships with their new care provider.
Empathising with a child and supporting them with words to help them to understand their feelings will allow them to feel heard and understood.
Always let children know you get how they are feeling ("I can see how sad you are that mummy had to go to work") before you find something else for them to become interested in. Our brains can't be upset and curious at the same time, so helping a child to focus on something else does really help at times of distress or overwhelm.
When transitioning into a new care arrangement, a child will feel more comfort and build more familiarity when this is with one primary caregiver who genuinely likes them and has time and patience while their relationship develops. Having this one-on-one nurturing relationship will help feelings of security and trust to grow.
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Lenovo's announcement comes just before Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Is About To Be Launched In India.
NEW DELHI -- Lenovo Z2 Plus (3GB/32GB variant) is now available on e-tailer Flipkart for Rs 14,999 starting Monday, the company said in a statement.
Additionally, 4GB/64GB variant will also be available at retail stores soon.
Lenovo Z2 Plus, which is already available on Amazon.in, features a 5-inch display with 1920x1080 resolution and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. The device also comes with 'U health' app that keeps track of your step, distance and calories.
The 4G VoLTE-enabled smartphone sports 13MP rear camera and a 8MP front camera and supports 4K capture, 1080p time lapse and slow motion recording. This announcement comes just before the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 announcement.
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Offering fantastic accommodation this three/four bedroom semi detached house with converted loft room situated in a quiet elevated position. The property has been extended offering large scale reception rooms and generous kitchen. The bedrooms are all good sizes. Outside a tiered large garden, garage and driveway parking.
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SINGAPORE: About 2,000 more public housing flats and a new mixed-used development that's integrated with the bus interchange will be built in Pasir Ris in the next few years, announced the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on Saturday (29 Apr).
The new flats, which will be launched in three to five years, will be located next to Pasir Ris Park, and near elevated cycling and pedestrian paths that are being planned to provide direct connection from the town centre to the park, said HDB.
SINGAPORE: Resale prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats declined by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter.
The resale price index – which provides information on the general price movements in the resale public housing market – slid from 134.6 in the fourth quarter of last year to 133.9 in the first quarter of 2017, according to HDB statistics released on Friday (Apr 28).
SINGAPORE: Private home prices in Singapore fell for the 14th straight quarter in the first three months of this year, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (Apr 28).
Prices fell by 0.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter for the January to March period, compared with the 0.5 per cent decline in the previous quarter.
SINGAPORE: For Aster Lee, going to the Sembawang Hot Spring was relief of more than one kind.
Ms Lee made her first visit to the hot spring along Gambas Avenue in April together with a group of brisk walkers. It was a place that she had been keen to visit for quite a while, she said. The 62-year-old retiree said she had also been having knee aches since spraining it last December, but felt some of the pain ease after soaking her legs in the hot water.
SINGAPORE: Two new public housing projects will be built at Caldecott and Toa Payoh East in the next five to 10 years, announced the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on Saturday (Apr 22).
The two projects could yield a few thousand units, said HDB. The Caldecott housing estate, which will be about 10 hectares, will be located next to Caldecott MRT station – along the Circle Line and the future Thomson-East Coast Line – and close to the Toa Payoh West Market and Food Centre.
Everyone in Singapore should fully understand what really happens to our money once we have sold our HDB flat, private condominium or landed property in Singapore. This is so we can prudently use the money we have for financial planning purposes – investing, buying another property, even starting a business or promising to pay for your children's education.
SINGAPORE: New mega-housing projects, linkways for pedestrians and cyclists, and a larger recreational area at Marsiling – these are some of the plans residents of Woodlands can look forward to.
As part of the third batch of estates under the Housing and Development Board's (HDB) Remaking Our Heartlands (ROH) programme, the Woodlands estate will be spruced up over the next five to ten years.
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yeah dude, those lightsaber gamesave using fags are annoying.
True that tipped, but i've never came across one being that i wasn't around for the big RS Force Power + Lightsaber release aids made.
but before the forces, the ARC CASTER was rediculous and became a huge ordeal who had it and who didn't. But im getting a little off topic.
and thank god cuz i really hate those noobs too, i might even release on ohg, should i?
Hell no. The anti's should always stay CL exclusive.
All times are GMT -10. The time now is 01:46 AM.
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Who know where Lebron will go? Nobody! But the ESPN hype machine cannot stop producing "sources" and other things that indicate he is going here or there. My best source is Jared Dudley and Chad Ochocinco who say the Knicks.
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Reactor core: The part of the nuclear reactor where the nuclear fuel assembly is located.
Moderator: The material in the core which slows down the neutrons released during fission, so that they cause more fission. It is usually ordinary water (used in Light Water Reactors) or heavy water (used in Heavy Water Reactors).
Control rods: These are made with neutron-absorbing material such as cadmium, hafnium or boron, and are inserted or withdrawn from the core to control the rate of reaction, or halt it.
Coolant: A liquid or gas circulating through the core so as to transfer the heat from it. This primary coolant passes through a steam generator (except in Boiling Water Reactors or BWRs), where the heat is transferred to another loop of water (in the so-called secondary circuit) to convert it into steam. This steam drives the turbine. The advantage of this design is that the primary coolant, which has become radioactive, does not come into contact with the turbine.
Pressure vessel: Usually a robust steel vessel containing the reactor core and moderator/coolant.
Steam generator (not in BWRs): Here, the primary coolant bringing heat from the reactor transfers its heat to water in the secondary circuit to convert it into steam.
Containment: This is typically a metre-thick concrete and steel structure around the reactor core. After the zirconium fuel cladding and the reactor pressure vessel, this is the last barrier against a catastrophic release of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Apart from a primary containment, many reactors have a secondary containment too, which is normally a concrete dome enveloping the primary containment as well as the steam systems. This is very common in BWRs, as here most of the steam systems, including the turbine, contain radioactive materials.
At a basic level, reactors may be classified into two classes: Light Water Reactors (LWRs) and Heavy Water Reactors (HWRs). LWRs are largely of two types, Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs). LWRs, and of them, the PWRs, are the most widespread reactors in operation today. Heavy Water Reactors can also be of different types, one of the most well known being the CANDU reactors developed by Canada, which are a type of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). Most of India's indigenous reactors are CANDU reactors.
Below, we discuss the most well-known type of nuclear power reactor—the PWR, and also the reactor design of most of India's reactors—the PHWR or CANDU reactor.
A PWR uses ordinary water as both coolant and moderator. It has three water circuits. Water in the primary circuit which flows through the core of the reactor reaches about 325°C; hence it must be kept under about 150 times atmospheric pressure to prevent it from boiling. Water in the primary circuit is also the moderator, and if it starts turning into steam, the fission reaction would slow down. This negative feedback effect is one of the safety features of this type of reactors.
The hot water from the primary cooling circuit heats the water in the secondary circuit, which is under less pressure and therefore gets converted into steam. The steam drives the turbine to produce electricity. The steam is then condensed by water flowing in the tertiary circuit and returned to the steam generator.
A PHWR uses heavy water as the coolant and moderator, instead of ordinary water. Heavy water is a more efficient moderator than ordinary water as it absorbs 600 times fewer neutrons than the latter, implying that the PHWR is more efficient in fissioning U-235 nuclei. Hence, it can sustain a chain reaction with lesser number of U-235 nuclei in uranium as compared to PWRs. Therefore, PHWR uses unenriched uranium, that is, natural uranium (0.7% U-235) oxide, as nuclear fuel, thus saving on enrichment costs. On the other hand, the disadvantage with using heavy water is that it is very costly, costing hundreds of dollars per kilogram.
Conceptually, this reactor is similar to PWRs discussed above. Fission reactions in the reactor core heat the heavy water. This coolant is kept under high pressure to raise its boiling point and avoid significant steam formation in the primary circuit. The hot heavy water generated in this primary circuit is passed through a heat exchanger to heat the ordinary water flowing in the less-pressurised secondary circuit. This water turns to steam and powers the turbine to generate electricity.
The difference in design with PWRs is that the heavy water being used as moderator is kept in a large tank called Calandria and is under low pressure. The heavy water under high pressure that serves as the coolant is kept in small tubes, each 10 cms in diameter, which also contain the fuel bundles. These tubes are then immersed in the moderator tank, the Calandria.
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Telos Alliance Leads the Way with AoIP/AES67 and Virtual Content Education at NAB 2018
The Telos Alliance®—innovator in broadcast radio and TV technology and parent company to Telos®, Omnia®, Axia®, Linear Acoustic®, 25-Seven®, and Minnetonka™—is leading the way with AoIP/AES67 and virtual content education at NAB 2018, April 7–12 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There, Telos Alliance will be showing exciting new products and technology in two booths—one for Telos Alliance radio solutions (N6531) and one for the Telos Alliance TV Solutions Group (SU2321)—in addition to hosting several educational and dealer training sessions.
"Telos Alliance has always put a huge emphasis on training both users and dealers," says Marty Sacks, VP of Sales, Support, and Marketing at Telos Alliance. "There is so much to learn about the ever-evolving broadcast landscape. At NAB, our emphasis is on showing both users and dealers how they can create a truly integrated AoIP environment—whether radio or TV, virtual- or hardware-based. Our solutions-oriented products, all operating on an AoIP backbone, revolutionize workflows and allow broadcasters to operate way more efficiently, all while plugging them into to the largest AoIP ecosystem in broadcast—Livewire+ AES67."
Telos Alliance-led educational sessions happen over several days at NAB, and the company is also hosting special Telos Alliance Dealer Training sessions. The sessions and dealer trainings are as follows:
Telos Alliance Dealer Training
April 7–8, Various Times
Telos Alliance dealers are invited to get an in-depth view of what's new and exciting at the Telos Alliance NAB 2018 Dealer Training Sessions. In an effort to accommodate more people for this popular training, this year the Telos Alliance is offering all five sessions on two days. All training sessions are in room #N208LMR. Telos Alliance dealers can sign up at TelosAlliance.com/Telos-Alliance-Dealer-Training. Space is limited and reserved for Telos Alliance dealers only.
Where's My Console? New Tools Lead to New Workflows for On-Air Radio Talent
April 7, 1:30–2:50 p.m., Room N260 (Kirk Harnack, the Telos Alliance)
"Virtual Radio" is the buzz phrase among forward-thinking radio broadcasters. The term implies new tools, new methods, and new workflows for producing compelling audio content. Workflow virtualization is now taking several directions. A common theme within these manifestations is the abstraction of traditional hardware into graphical user interfaces. A hardware audio console with faders, buttons, knobs, switches, and meters is no longer a requirement for creating a radio show. With any paradigm shift in technology or workflows there will be multiple approaches to achieving similar ends. This presentation explores workflow improvements through equipment virtualization. It also examines several approaches in achieving similar outcomes aimed at producing more meaningful content with accuracy and convenience. More>
Latest Updates on Audio over IP & AES67
April 8, 10:40 a.m.–12 p.m., Room N260 (Ken Tankel, the Telos Alliance)
Audio over IP has been a revolutionary innovation, changing almost everything about how the job of professional audio gets done. The hallmark of a true revolution is that it keeps going, the change keeps evolving and growing. This paper will overview the current state of Audio over IP technology, and its impact on the industry as of 2018. Coverage will include the use of AES67 as part of the latest SMPTE standards, the growth of interoperation of both industry standard and proprietary AoIP systems, the penetration into automotive, entertainment, government, public address wired sound systems, and more. More>
The Post-Production Vending Machine: How the Cloud Dilutes the Competitive Advantage
April 11, 2:30–2:50 p.m., Room N256 (Markus Hintz, the Telos Alliance)
References to "The Cloud" in our industry are common, but wide-ranging and often specific in their application. One such example is taking advantage of off-premise computing power, where tasks such as file-based audio processing, loudness normalization, and transcoding—which often require significant dedicated computer resources and investment in a specific platform—can be accomplished on a scalable basis with someone else's hardware and utility software. This concept effectively levels the playing field and allows small companies to more easily compete with larger vendors by removing the high initial and ongoing costs associated with purchasing and maintaining dedicated servers and IT experts on site. More>
For more information, please contact: [email protected]
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About The Telos Alliance
For three decades, the brands of the Telos Alliance have revolutionized radio and television by pioneering disruptive, cutting-edge audio technology with the goal of helping global networks and local stations produce better programming, improve audience engagement, and bolster ratings. The Telos Alliance is made up of six brands—Telos Systems, Omnia Audio, AxiaAudio, Linear Acoustic, 25-SevenSystems, and Minnetonka Audio—that raise the bar for quality and innovation in the radio and television industries. The Telos Alliance invented Audio over IP for broadcast and contributed time and resources to the effort that led to the AES67 standard. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, with additional offices and dealers around the world, the Telos Alliance offers an industry-leading warranty and backs users' critical on-air needs with worldwide 24/7 round-the-clock support for all customers. A complete list of dealers can be found at TelosAlliance.com/Dealers.
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