text:
- Home
- About
- Advice
- Appearances
- Radio
- Store
- Members
- Work with Dr. Turndorf
- Contact
- Search
Jul 23, 2012
I have been dating a guy for over a year now and I thought we had an ok relationship until I saw my ex boyfriend again (who I dated for 3 years). I started rethinking my decisions about dating at that point. Then I began talking innocently to another guy that was there and I am completely in lust with him right now and I don't know what I should do. I haven't acted upon any of these urges but I don't know how long that will hold out. I don't know whether to give up this current relationship or...
Jun 10, 2012
I am female and 21. My mother has paranoid schizophrenia and my father is an addicted gambler which has brought a lot of grief and problems to the family. I am the eldest of my siblings, so it is only natural for me to take the leading role of the family as both my parents were unable to. Recently I parted with my 3.5 year long term relationship, 'Charley'. I never wanted to stay in the relationship and wanted out after the first few months but he was controllingExamples of controlling behavior...
May 15, 2012
Hi doctor!!! I got out of a relationship about 2 months ago and I was so shure he is mr Right but it was a long distance relationship and yeah he has a new girl now and he told me a week or so ago he still loves me and don't know if there will ever be a chance for us again...but see I'm in another relationship too at the moment and it has no heart of real feelings the more I try to make it work it doesn't work...I love my ex so much I can't let go please help I'm feeling lost and wanting him...
Apr 17, 2012
I've known my Ex for years. Our parents went to school together, and since the first day we met, we immediately connected. Also, he only lives a few houses down from me, which made it easier for both of us. I'm only 16 at the moment, and i know there are people out there that say you can't experience love and heartbreak at such a young age. But honestly, it kills me inside as i sit and think about things every night, and as i'm writing this! We are both more or less the same age, i'm exactly...
Apr 17, 2012
Ok Me and my girlfriend has been together for 2 years now but at the beginning of our relationship I always told her that the only way for us to make it last is to be 100% honest. And we told each other about our past sex partners and she told me she only had sex with 1 guy in her hometown. But today her family put her on blast about all of the times she used to skip school and do things with her friends. So I asked her about it and long story short she told me she had sex with 8 different guys...
Apr 10, 2012
hello i want you to help me .... i want to tell you all my story with my love.... it was before one year , i met my girlfriend on facebook ... we loved each other from the bottom of our heart . i am not going to lie there were alot of problems because she is an American and i am Arabic . two months ago she took me off from her friends list on facebook i was suprised why she did that . i dont know she changed a lot . we dont talk like before . during the year we spent together we...
Mar 5, 2012
Good morning- I am a guy who is on the verge or has lost his girlfriend. I am 36 years old, divorce with 2 kids. I have been in a relationship with this woman who is 34 years old, 2 kids and divorced for over a year. We grew up in the same town, but didn't know one another, until 18 months ago we connected. I had gotten out of a relationship so my baggage was in the way, in the beginning. I work with a counselor for my habits on failure and low self esteem of myself. Over the year...
Feb 29, 2012
Hi Dr. Love, how are you? My name is Isabela, I already wrote to you once, and you answered me, about a guy I was dating, named Fabricio. Well, we broke up! About 3 months ago. And Dr. Love I can't moving on! I'm gonna tell you the story about how it happened. We were dating for about 9 months and we were doing well! But one day, he started moving away. He stoped talking to me, calling me. Answering my calls, my emails. Everything. And I didn't know what to do! I called his friends...
Feb 22, 2012
I've been with my ex since high school. We were best friends and our relationship has been off and on. It's been mainly off and on because of him; he can't let go of the sexual abuseSexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called...(Click for full definition.) that happened in his past. He's forever thinking that he hurts me when I tell him that he...
Feb 21, 2012
My boyfriend and I are both in college and have been together for about 6 months now. Two years previous to this, we dated in high school for 8 months. Just recently, he found out that I cheated on him in that past relationship. He has since broken up with me and called me a compulsive liar for not telling him. I did lie about it, but I knew he would end things. I wasn't in love with him the first time we dated and I have grown and matured during the time we were apart but I am afraid...


text:
The plot thickens around the IRS missing emails today with the discovery of the Sonasoft contract and the date the IRS severed their contract with the company. This is an information archiving company that was used by the IRS to backup documents and emails from the IRS computers. The IRS was under contract with Sonasoft during the time Lois Lerner's emails were destroyed due to a server crash, which means the company would have backed them up, or does it?
When the Congressional Committee meets with the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on Monday morning many more questions need to be answered. The IRS reportedly hired the company in 2005 to archive all documents and emails from the IRS computers. The IRS canceled its contract with Sonasoft just weeks after Lois Lerner's computer crashed, according to the Daily Caller on June 22.
Sonasoft did provide the automatic data processing services for the IRS, which included backing up documents and emails during the time period of Lerner's now famous missing emails. This means the emails were backed up and since the IRS paid for those years between 2005 and 2011 for document backup, you would think they should be able to access them.
"Fox and Friends" on Monday morning June 23, reports that the timing of the IRS ending their relationship with Sonasoft has created an entire new line of questioning for the IRS. This would start with answering the question as to why they abruptly ended their six year relationship with Sonasoft. This could mean that the emails were destroyed by the company because they were confidential and their contract with the IRS ended. This seems very convenient to say the least.
If that is the case, what did the IRS put in place to backup the documents once Sonasoft was gone? How could they go from being conscientious enough to hire an outside agency to backup their documents and emails for six years and then do nothing? It will be hard for the IRS to point the finger at finances, as the website Powerline reports today that in 2011, the IRS budget was astronomical for information services.
This contract that was canceled with Sonasoft occurred in the context of a $1.8 billion annual budget for information services. They also had another $330 million annually for "business systems modernization. With this sizable budget, they would be hard pressed to say they couldn't find money to fund this archival contract.
The timing of this severed relationship is of vital importance, as it not only occurred right after Lerner's computer crashed, but also shortly after the IRS received a letter from Rep. Dave Camp specifically asking them if they targeted nonprofits for audits.
The contract abruptly ended at the close of the IRS's fiscal year in 2011. It sounds as if the computers at the IRS suddenly started a technology revolt, which inanimate objects just can't do, as the Daily Caller reports:
"Sonasoft's six-year business relationship with the IRS came to an abrupt end at the close of fiscal year 2011, as congressional investigators began looking into the IRS conservative targeting scandal and IRS employees' computers started crashing left and right."
The IRS contract with Sonasoft ended on August 31, 2011. In accordance with the federal government's guidelines for closing out government contracts, an audit was done. It was eight days later, on September 8, 2011 that the IRS officially severed its relationship with Sonasoft.
The government policy for ending contracts requires the agency to recoup any money coming to them from closing out a contract and this is why an audit is done. The "IRS de-allocated 36 cents" when that audit was complete on September 8. What was that about?
It is not known how much that audit cost the IRS for that 36 cents, but chances are the amount of money spent was far greater than pocket change.
Lerner's computer crashed just 10 days after the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp wrote a letter to the IRS asking if the agency was deliberately targeting nonprofit groups. Two months later when the Sonasoft contract ended the IRS did not renew the email-archiving service and severed its ties with the company.
Nicole Flax, who is an IRS official and a frequent visitor to the White House saw her own computer crash three months after the IRS and Sonasoft parted ways. It sounds as if the IRS lacked a good tech department with all these crashing computers and information being lost into the black holes of technology.
Donald Trump weighed in with "Fox and Friends" on Monday morning and he said that "emails never go away." During his career, which is an extensive business background, he has run across big companies that don't allow employees to email because they can never get rid of them. Emails can be retrieved from either the sender or receiver, said Trump.
According to the Washington Post on Monday morning, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa handed a "massive homework assignment" to the IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen.
In a letter on Saturday, Issa requested the answers to more than 50 technological questions that are related to the missing records. He would like those answers before Koskinen testifies about the matter when the hearing resumes on Monday evening. While Issa get his request? That remains to be seen.
The above video is a Sonasoft commercial explaining the ease of recovering your emails if your computer crashes and you have Sonasoft as your backup company. Does this smell bad to anyone else?

subset: commoncrawl


text: I keep hoping to see a new message on this website stating that sam and max freelance police is back in development because of the gaming market which lacks in humorous adventure gameplay. I'm ready to go postal on Lucasarts. This doesn't make any sense, why would they be so close to completing a video game and just decide to cancel it. The game was set to be on the shelves spring of 2004!! Maybe they are pulling our legs, maybe they know there are diehard fans out there and they wanted to see our reactions. Or maybe the game isn't canceled, maybe they just delayed the development for a later date so they could release all of their star wars laser beam I wish I could bang Princess Leia crap first!


text:
1. Search this forum using the box directly above the forum thread next to the NewTopic button (not the search box on this page above; it will only search this message). That will limit your search to only those threads in this forum making your search easier.
2. Review the Waze Bug Reports and Feature Requests document or the Waze Wishlist Wiki for an App Request which is substantially similar to your own.
If you don't see your idea after searching both of those items, then:
- Please be sure to share your idea.
- List one idea per post with as descriptive a title as possible to help future searches.
- If you think your idea is similar to one already listed, then just start by mentioning your idea is similar to one already covered, include the Ticket # for that idea, and then describe how you propose a change or addition to that idea.
- If the idea is in a recent thread, then just add your comments to that thread. If the thread is over 6 months old, you might consider just starting a new thread, but posting a link to the original idea.


text:
$theTitle=wp_title(" - ", false); if($theTitle != "") { ?>
While I would love to claim to be an authority on all things DC and Marvel I'm really just a huge admirer. I LOVE superpowers and adore the work they've done to promote the gay agenda of rights and equality for all those being "othered" in society. Don't worry, I'm not one of those that fawn over the latest Superman doll as if it's fisting porn (I have fisting porn for that)- instead, I love the action and fantasy of the escape. So, when I found out that DC was releasing it's 17th (Christ that's a lot and keep em' coming!) installment of their ongoing comic book to film adaptations I was excited. After having watched it: i'm FLOORED.
This, I have to say, is by far my favourite of the expansive series. Not only is the animation spot on (they vary artists and time and advances always make difference) but the storyline and script is absolute. Long story short, The Flash (Barry Allen) suffered the loss of his mother at a young age- in this movie he (wait for it) attempts to run fast enough that he can go back in time to save her. Instead, he is shot into an alternate timeline plagued with a looming war between Aquaman's Atlantis and Wonder Woman's Amazons. I know, it sounds like a lot but it's a 90 minute movie and worth every second of your time. The wit is dry, modern and combined with just the right amount of drama to have you laughing, gasping and caring about the characters all at once. Voiced by the sexy doctors of Grey's Anatomy: Kevin McKidd and Justin Chambers as The Flash himself, you just want to listen to these gruff studs as they battle it out on screen.
Hopefully the trailer alone has you interested- if not the fact that there's a million fights, explosions and competing super powers on this screen should do the trick for you. Personally, I'm never the BIGGEST fan of alternate timelines because it seems to me like anything that happens there just disappears when everyone gets back home to the "real world"… for some reason I like the thought of big changes (like a death etc) happening that STAY happened. The flip side of that though is that because it's a different line they CAN get super violent and hell if they don't here. Kids are slaughtered, nearly all the heroes and villains get maimed and ripped in half.. it's kind of awesome. The movie is so well done, you care about how The Flash is going to save the world and I find myself falling for a character that never really was my favourite to start with- I'm just being honest! He always seemed a bit cocky to me but I love how humbled he is and dedicated in this film and definitely think you should check it out! If only to hear a bad guy tell The Flash: "Once again, you're the bottom: I'm the top!!"
One of my top scenes happens early as Flash wakes up in the alternate timeline to find his mother still alive. As he attempts to "come out" to her as a superhero she assumes he's going to tell her he's gay. The line between the two experiences (being gay or having powers) has never been more blunt and clear and I love the writers for making the point for kids out there to realize who may not have caught the "subtletly" before. Second, the casual way The Flash's mom takes the news and even better the way he dismisses the notion as simply not right rather than atrocious or rude… LOVE. This scene makes me swoon as an out and proud gay man who think that coming out should be so easy and non-issue.


text:
When you want something that really stands out, only a PVC figure will do. PVC figures are typically large (from 10cm all the way to 80cm), are fully painted and assembled, and look great on any display.
Get a PVC figure of your favourite characters and show the world what you love.


text:
We're pleased to announce Planet Granite Portland's Grand Opening is just around the corner! Check out the 30,000 square feet of world-class climbing wall space, 2 top-notch yoga and fitness studios and custom training equipment for yourself at our launch in late October, early November. Wondering about rates? We're happy to announce that too! For Read more…
PG Portland Opening!
Blog, Membership, Portland Comments Off on PG Portland Opening!
Aug 072014


text:
Skydiving.com now has a network skydiving location serving Sunland Park and Dona Ana County in New Mexico. Call Skydiving.com at 1-800-617-7948 for details, free information and specials on skydiving in Sunland Park, NM today!
Popular Tags for Skydiving Sunland Park:
Skydiving Sunland Park, Skydiving in Sunland Park, Sky Diving Sunland Park, Skydive Sunland Park NM, Skydiving 88063, Sunland Park Skydiving, Skydiving Sunland Park New Mexico, Skydiving near Sunland Park, Skydiving in Sunland Park New Mexico, Sunland Park Sky Diving, Skydive 88063, Skydiving Sunland Park NM, Skydive Sunland Park, Skydiving Dona Ana County, Skydive in 88063, Skydiving NM, Sky Diving Sunland Park NM, Sunland Park, New Mexico
Sign up for our newsletter and receive updatesand specials on skydiving across America!


text:
Jan 14, 2012 9:43 AM
We have strayed away from bar soap entirely thanks to the invention of bottled bubbles. But this Archipelago Botanicals Pomegranate Soap ($13) has converted us back to yesteryear's hygiene routine. Super lathery and lightly scented, this triple milled masterpiece has earned its spot in the highly coveted
throne soap dish in our kingdom shower of clean.
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us and check out:


text:
I made a program with Visual Studio 2010. It required .NET Framework 4.0 to run, and the machine it needs to run on is not connected to the internet, so I found the redistributable online on my own machine and copied it over.
I installed the software on the machine (it's a very simple program, I just made up an installer to do the .NET installation as well as putting the .exe file of my program into Program Files) but any time I try to run it, I get a Windows Error Report message saying the program failed to run.
Are there any suggestions as to where I could look for the cause of this issue?
(If it matters, the machine I'm trying to run it on is running Windows XP while I am running Windows 7. I don't think this is a compatibility issue though...)
Another thought I had is...how can I check if I'm compiling for 64-bit or 32-bit Windows?


text:
Text Version
Pergamon Neural Networks Neural Networks 11 (1998) 315–322 Contributed article Encoded pattern classification using constructive learning algorithms based on learning vector quantization C. N. S. Ganesh Murthy1, Y. V. Venkatesh* Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore–560012, India Received 13 December 1996; accepted 4 August 1997 Abstract A novel encoding technique is proposed for the recognition of patterns using four different techniques for training artificial neural networks (ANNs) of the Kohonen type. Each template or model pattern is overlaid on a radial grid of appropriate size, and converted to a two-dimensional feature array which then acts as the training input to the ANN. The first technique employs Kohonen's self-organizing network, each neuron of which is assigned, after training, the label of the model pattern. It is found that a graphical plot of the labels of the neurons exhibits clusters (which means in effect that the feature array pertaining to distorted versions of the same pattern belongs to a specific cluster), thereby justifying the coding strategy used in this paper. When the new, unknown pattern is input to the network, it is classified to have the same label of the neuron whose corresponding model pattern is closest to the given pattern. In an attempt to reduce the computational time and the size of the network, and simultaneously improve accuracy in recognition, Kohonen's learning vector quantization (LVQ) algorithm is used to train the ANN. To further improve the network's performance and to realize a network of minimum size, two constructive learning algorithms, both based on LVQ, are proposed: (1) multi-step learning vector quantization (MLVQ), and (2) thermal multi-step learning vector quantization (TLVQ). When the proposed algorithms are applied to the classification of noiseless and noisy (and distorted) patterns, the results demonstrate that the pattern encoding strategy and the suggested training techniques for ANNs are efficient and robust. For lack of space, only the most essential results are presented here. For details, see Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996b). ᭧ 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Kohonen network; Learning; Learning vector quantization; Pattern classification; Pattern encoding; Self-organization 1. Introduction Many models of artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been proposed to solve the problem of automatic recognition of patterns. They seem to offer better performance and distinct computational advantages over other non-neural models in handling this problem. An ANN consists of interconnected elementary processors which interact at discrete time steps, and is specified by (1) its node characteristics (response function) and (2) its dynamics (or the updating of the neurons). A neuron in an ANN performs a weighted sum of its inputs, compares this with an internal threshold value, and turns on (or fires) if this level is exceeded; otherwise it is off. The state of each processor at any instant is determined * Requests for reprints should be sent to Professor Y. V. Venkatesh. Tel. 0091 80 309 2572, 334 1566; Fax: 0091 80 334 1683, 334 2085. 1 Present address: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada 0893–6080/98/$19.00 ᭧ 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved PII S 08 93 - 60 8 0( 9 7) 0 00 9 8- 1 by the states of other processors connected to it, and is weighted by the strengths of the appropriate links. The ANN is 'taught' the transformation (F) of a given input to the (desired) output by changing the weights of the links according to a well-defined strategy. The perceptron (Minsky and Pappert, 1969) was the earliest neural architecture, comprising a single layer of units, meant to classify input patterns into two or more classes. But it can 'learn' to recognize only linearly separable patterns. The multilayer perceptron (MLP) (Lippmann, 1987), which overcomes the limitations of the perceptron, contains neurons whose states are real, and the response function is sigmoidal. However, an MLP treats patterns as vectors, and such an architecture cannot satisfactorily recognize shifted/scaled/rotated patterns. For example, consider the pattern in Fig. 1(a) and its distorted versions in Fig. 1(b) and (c). The MLP has been found to be unsatisfactory in analysing such patterns, because it treats each variation of the same pattern as a distinct vector. 316 C.N.S. Ganesh Murthy, Y.V. Venkatesh/Neural Networks 11 (1998) 315–322 Fig. 1. A pattern and its distorted versions. In general, ANNs cannot be directly used for distortioninvariant recognition. The patterns first have to be preprocessed to extract invariant features before the ANNs are used to classify. The present paper deals with the encoding of patterns in such a way as to achieve their recognition by the ANN, in spite of changes (to a limited extent) in scale, shift and rotation of the input patterns. The paper is organized as follows. After a brief survey of recent literature on ANNs in section 2, we present our proposed technique for pattern recognition and illustrate its application. In section 3 we deal with (1) learning vector quantization (LVQ) and its multi-step version, and (2) training the ANN with the thermal perceptron rule. In section 4, we analyse the experimental results obtained by the proposed method. 2. ANNs and pattern recognition In an attempt to imitate human vision, pattern recognition research has shifted emphasis from (traditional) image analysis-based techniques to ANN's. Yoshida (1993) describes an ANN with a neocognitron type of architecture (see Fukushima, 1991), which is trained to recognize handwritten alphanumeric characters. The ANN of Fukushima (1991) consists of an input layer and four or five intermediate layers before the final output layer. The middle layers are trained using an unsupervised learning techique based on a combination of competitive and Hebbian learning schemes. See Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1991) and Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996a) for results of some experiments on the neocognitron. For a small-sized input array, Nakanishi and Fukui (1993) propose a multilayered ANN using hierarchical feature types and their locations for training and recognition. Kojima et al. (1993) describe a handwritten numeric character recognition system, the main classifier of which is a fuzzy vector quantizer, involving an improved version of the vector quantization algorithm. Features are extracted from the pre-processed input pattern, and used for training the network. Zufira (1993) presents some improvements on a neural network structure of the multilayered perceptron, with a pre-processing network to perform translation-, rotation- and scale-invariant pattern recognition. You and Ford (1994) propose a three-stage network architecture for invariant object recognition and rotation angle estimation. However, no specific features are extracted. Ghorpade and Ray (1993) deal with a new adaptive and connectionist architecture for English alphabetic patterns. In terms of feature extraction, the work which has some relation to our coding strategy is that of Jian and Chen (1992), who proposed a non-neural system for recognition of handwritten Chinese characters, containing short line segments. The input is a two-dimensional pattern which is pre-processed—mainly thinning and line approximation— to extract the following features: the centre point coordinate, the slope and the relations between the line segment and its neighbouring line segments. Classification of these characters is made in three stages. First, short line segments are extracted, for which a new efficient algorithm is proposed (based on accumulated chain codes) for line approximation. A coarse classification is made using the directions of the short line segments (based on the histogram of their quantized directions). In the second stage, feature extraction, features of each character are computed as indicated above. In the last stage, matching, dynamic programming is first used to calculate the similarity between a segment of each of the input and reference characters, using the feature vectors of the segments. The overall similarity between the two characters is then computed for the next operation of recognition. However, the effects of scaling and rotation are not discussed. For other published results, including those on invariant pattern recognition using neural networks, see Fukumi et al. (1992), Khotanzad and Lu (1990), Khotanzad and Hong (1990), Srinivasa and Jounch (1992) and Perantonis and Lisboz (1992). 3. A new technique for pattern encoding and recognition In contrast to the results in the literature, we present a technique to convert a pattern to a feature array in such a way that the encoded version of the pattern is invariant to pattern transformations such as shift, scaling and (moderate) rotation. A distinct departure from the traditional published methods is the use of this array of codes as the training vector to train the self-organizing network, the neurons of which are appropriately labelled. The plot of the labels is then checked for the formation of clusters of the labels of the neurons. With this procedure, we intend to confirm the relevance or otherwise of the feature array to pattern classification. The steps involved in encoding the given pattern are as follows: • • • Find the centroid (h,k) of the input pattern P (Fig. 2a). Find the furthest point (p,q) of the pattern P from the centroid (h,k) (Fig. 2a). Now place the pattern P on the radial grid with (h,k) as the centre and with d[(h,k),(p,q)], the Euclidean distance between the points (h,k) and (p,q), as the radius of the outermost circle (Fig. 2b). C.N.S. Ganesh Murthy, Y.V. Venkatesh/Neural Networks 11 (1998) 315–322 Fig. 2. (a) Pattern with the furthest point (p,q) and the centroid (h,k). (b) Pattern in (a) overlaid on the radial grid. • Count the number of points in each of the radial grids to obtain the feature array, inp[][]. Normalize inp[][] with respect to max(inp[][]). For details, including the pseudocode for obtaining the input array of codes inp[][] from the input pattern P, see Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1994, 1996b). Fig. 3(a) shows a subset of exemplar patterns, and Fig. 3(b) a subset of the typical random variations of the exemplars, from which the inp[][] are calculated and used for training. 3.1. Training of the self-organizing network As the first stage in evolving an efficient recognition strategy, the array inp[][] obtained in the manner described above is then fed to a Kohonen-type self-organizing network (Kohonen, 1990a). After training, each neuron is 317 given the label of the pattern to which it responds most, and then the plot of the labels is checked for the formation of clusters. If the plot exhibits clusters, the aptness of the feature extraction procedure is established. In our simulation studies, inp[][] of the given pattern has been calculated using a grid in which the angular measure has been quantized to 12 levels, and the radial distance to five. Hence the number of weights for each neuron is 12 ϫ 5. In the actual implementation, the input array inp[][] has been obtained for 1000 variations of 28 different exemplar patterns (i.e. a total of 28,000 patterns). In the creation of variations of the exemplars, each exemplar (of size 31 ϫ 31) is subjected to random independent magnifications (in the x and y directions) and rotation. The value of magnification ranges from 1.0 to 2.0, and the random rotation from ¹ 15Њ to þ 15Њ. In Fig. 4, typical examples of the variations of the patterns are shown. These 28,000 inp[][] arrays are randomly (and repeatedly) selected to train a self-organizing network with 25 ϫ 25 neurons. See Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996b) for details of the training procedure. At the end of maxiter ¼ 2,800,000 iterations, each of the 28,000 inp[][] arrays will have been selected ϳ100 times. The next step after training the selforganizing network is to label each neuron corresponding to the exemplar which it represents. 3.2. Labelling of the neurons The neurons are labelled to correspond to the patterns Fig. 3. (a) Subset of the 28 exemplars used in simulation. (b) Subset of the typical variations of the exemplars used for training and testing. (c) Examples of severely distorted patterns used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed techniques. 318 C.N.S. Ganesh Murthy, Y.V. Venkatesh/Neural Networks 11 (1998) 315–322 Fig. 4. The labels of the 25 ϫ 25 neurons (after training and labelling), indicating the clusters formed. which they represent. To this end, each exemplar is subjected to random variations, and the coded input array inp[][] of the distorted exemplar is fed to each neuron of the network in the following sequence. First, consider a specific neuron at location, say, (i,j). Feed it with a set having one distorted version per exemplar pattern. Note the label of the (distorted) exemplar that is closest to the weight vector of the neuron. Next, repeat this process several times with the next set of distorted exemplars. Keep track of the number of times each (distorted) exemplar is closest to the neuron under consideration. Identify the exemplar that gets the maximum count, and label the neuron at location (i,j) correspondingly. From Fig. 4, it is seen that the labels of the 25 ϫ 25 neuron array do exhibit the formation of clusters, thereby admirably justifying the coding method used. It is also evident from the same figure that the feature arrays of the distorted versions of the same pattern form clusters. 3.3. Discussion of the results To test the network, an inp[][] array for 1000 random variations of each exemplar is fed to it. This procedure is repeated three times. Typical results are summarized in Table 1. The network is also tested for its performance with noisy input patterns. Noise, which is introduced into the pattern by flipping the pixels with a specified probability, gives rise to breaks and isolated dots in the pattern. However, isolated dots can easily be removed by a threshold scheme, and the breaks can be filled in by using simple morphological techniques Serra (1982), such as dilation followed by thinning. For each exemplar, 1000 variations are used, and the entries denote the number of misclassifications for the cases NL (noiseless), 10NM (10% noisy patterns pre- processed using morphological operations) and 20NM (20% noisy patterns pre-processed using morphological operations). The first column for each test contains the results of the experiments when noiseless patterns are used. The second and third columns contain the results when 10% and 20% noisy patterns are first pre-processed by morphological techniques and then used. Table 1 indicates that the worst case for noiseless patterns is with respect to pattern P5 where ϳ150 variations are misclassified out of 1000. The worst case for 10% and 20% noisy patterns (after pre-processing) is found to be ϳ190/1000 and ϳ210/1000 respectively. To save space, results for only a subset of patterns (P1 to P14) are shown, whereas the total misclassifications and % misses (the last two rows in Table 1) have been computed on the basis of the results for the full set of 28 patterns. The percentage misclassification over all patterns for the noiseless case is found to be only ϳ3.0, which is believed to be very impressive. In contrast, for noisy patterns with 10% and 20% noise, the corresponding number is ϳ3.8. This clearly shows that the proposed self-organization scheme can classify the patterns quite successfully. Further results of our experiments, with the angular measure and the radial 319 C.N.S. Ganesh Murthy, Y.V. Venkatesh/Neural Networks 11 (1998) 315–322 Table 1 Results of the three tests on the self-organizing network after training Pattern Test 1 NL P1 0 P2 30 P3 8 P4 14 P5 143 P6 0 P7 9 P8 0 P9 42 P10 0 P11 6 P12 1 P13 29 P14 7 … … Total 823 % Misses 2.94 Test 2 Test 3 10NM 20NM NL 10NM 20NM NL 10NM 20NM 0 33 28 22 190 0 3 0 38 0 9 1 35 23 … 1035 3.70 0 20 30 20 204 0 11 0 57 1 10 3 31 29 … 1037 3.70 0 28 13 24 139 0 7 0 47 0 4 0 50 9 … 856 3.06 0 27 40 16 208 0 3 0 63 2 8 3 43 23 … 1022 3.65 1 38 33 21 216 0 10 0 65 1 4 5 39 26 … 1139 4.07 0 29 16 20 155 0 10 0 45 0 6 0 28 5 … 893 3.19 0 35 35 23 187 0 2 0 34 0 6 2 37 26 … 1024 3.66 0 31 34 22 208 2 9 2 49 2 11 5 42 30 … 1085 3.88 distance each quantized to different levels, are given in Ganesh Murthy (1996). 4. Other schemes of learning In an attempt to improve on the learning algorithm described above, but using the same encoding technique, we now summarize the results obtained from other schemes of learning, along with the corresponding ANNs; for details, see Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996b): • • • Kohonen's learning vector quantization (LVQ) First constructive algorithm based on LVQ, called the multi-step learning vector quantization (MLVQ). Second constructive algorithm based on LVQ, called the thermal multi-step learning vector quantization (TLVQ). 4.1. Training using the LVQ algorithm We apply Kohonen's learning vector quantization algorithm (LVQ) (Kohonen, 1990b) to learn recognition of patterns, using the feature arrays described in the previous section. To this end, we train an array of five neurons per pattern with the help of the LVQ algorithm, using 10, 50, 100 and 200 variations of the given patterns, and analyse the results for both noiseless and noisy patterns. For details of the technique, see Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996b). It has been found that the LVQ is faster than Kohonen's self-organization scheme, because in each iteration (of the LVQ) only one neuron needs to have its weight updated. Furthermore, the LVQ performs better with fewer neurons than Kohonen's. After 100,000 number of repetitions of step 3, the training is stopped. Typically, training takes ϳ40 s on an HP-9000/715 workstation to complete the required number of iterations. On the basis of the results obtained by testing the network with noisy patterns and pre-processed noisy patterns, it is found that the performance of the LVQ is superior to that of Kohonen's self-organizing network. In an attempt to improve the LVQ technique, we propose two new variants for a step-by-step constructive design of the network. The variants are superior to LVQ in terms of training speed and accuracy. 4.2. Multi-step learning vector quantization In the LVQ, our choice of five neurons per class is apparently ad hoc. We now present a technique to construct systematically a multilayered neuronal network with the required number of neurons to accomplish the classification of patterns. First, we start with a network having only one layer of neurons, with one neuron representing each class. We use this network to classify correctly as many trainingset patterns as possible. If there are still any wrongly classified training-set patterns, we add another layer of neurons to the network. The training of this layer is done using only the patterns that are not unambiguously classified in the previous layer. We repeat the process until all the training set patterns are correctly classified. This technique enables one to develop a network of the required size systematically, thereby avoiding ad hoc assumptions. As before, the network is trained with T ¼ 10, 50, 100, 200, and for each case the network is tested with 3000 random variations of the patterns. For a description of the testing scheme, see Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996b). Further improvement is achieved by a multi-step scheme using the 'thermal perceptron' (TP) learning rule which follows. 320 C.N.S. Ganesh Murthy, Y.V. Venkatesh/Neural Networks 11 (1998) 315–322 Table 2 Performance of LVQ, MLVQ and TLVQ when tested with 3000 variations of each pattern, i.e. a total of 3000 ϫ 28 patterns Class P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 P14 … Total % Misses Noiseless 10% Noise 10% Noise þ morphology LVQ MLVQ TLVQ LVQ MLVQ TLVQ LVQ MLVQ TLVQ 11 84 134 192 142 140 53 59 18 1 64 2 335 37 … 2191 2.6 43 59 62 138 184 19 85 98 36 16 18 35 50 50 … 1721 2.0 10 19 41 55 70 29 27 80 12 3 7 28 20 55 … 954 1.1 18 100 143 262 251 131 115 75 84 29 100 14 441 117 … 3203 3.8 75 84 303 199 286 44 199 115 116 67 69 44 121 141 … 3219 3.8 28 22 53 108 96 59 49 45 121 28 19 37 32 119 … 1720 2.0 8 108 175 240 239 153 32 61 48 7 78 16 364 59 … 2817 3.4 49 66 184 146 269 8 106 112 76 12 23 46 76 116 … 2572 3.1 43 18 97 91 115 38 27 43 30 10 23 56 11 59 … 1536 1.8 4.3. Multi-step scheme trained with the TP learning rule The second constructive technique uses the TP learning rule (Frean, 1992) to modify the weights instead of the LVQ algorithm. The result is a significant improvement in performance compared with the MLVQ. The TP, which is a simple extension of Rosenblatt's perceptron learning rule for training individual linear threshold units, finds stable weights for linearly separable as well as non-separable pattern sets. The learning rule stabilizes the weights (learns) over a fixed training period, and tries to classify correctly as many patterns as possible. The perceptron convergence theorem (Minsky and Pappert, 1969) states that if there exist sets of weights for which the classification is perfect, then the PLR converges to one such set after a finite number of pattern presentations. The set of patterns for which such a weight set exists is known to be linearly separable. Clearly, when the pattern set is not linearly separable (i.e. when there is no weight set for which the classification is perfect), the weights do not converge under PLR. In such a case, it would be worth while to come up with a learning rule by which the weights converge while as many patterns as possible are correctly classified. In the following, the ith element of an input pattern is denoted by y i, and the associated weight by W i. In response to a given pattern, a perceptron goes into one of the two output states given by: @ 1(ON) if f Ͼ 0 o¼ 0(OFF) otherwise N where f ¼ i ¼ 1 Wi yi and N is the dimension of the pattern vector. The difficulty with the PLR is that whenever f is too large, then the changes in the weights needed to correct this error often misclassify the other patterns that were correctly classified previously. One solution to overcome this problem is to make the change in weights dependent on f in such a way that the weight changes are biased towards correcting errors for which f is small. The thermal perceptron (TP) learning rule is used as follows: DWi ¼ a(tm ¹ om )ymi e ¹ lfl=⌰ The parameter ⌰ determines the strength of attenuation for large f: a high value of ⌰ means less attenuation, and a low value of ⌰ more attenuation. If ⌰ is very close to zero, the weights are frozen at their current values. In practice, ⌰ is started off with some high value, and gradually reduced to zero with iteration number, thus stabilizing the weights. When used for linearly non-separable patterns, the TP learning rule would give a stable set of weights, with the property that as many patterns as possible would be correctly classified. The TP learning rule is adapted to develop the thermal multi-step learning vector quantization (TLVQ). When it is applied to linearly non-separable patterns, it gives a stable set of weights, thereby classifying correctly as many patterns as possible. As a consequence, the above modification enables the network to improve its performance significantly. Furthermore, the size of the network is reduced, and in fact on most occasions only one layer of neurons is sufficient to classify the training set patterns completely. To highlight the nature of the results obtained, only one set of peformance results is presented in Table 2. For other results, see Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996b). The testing is carried out using noiseless, noisy and preprocessed noisy patterns, and the training with 200 variations of each pattern, i.e. 200 ϫ 28 patterns. The MLVQ 321 C.N.S. Ganesh Murthy, Y.V. Venkatesh/Neural Networks 11 (1998) 315–322 Table 3 Comparison of performance of various techniques for different training set sizes Method LVQ MLVQ TLVQ MLP Number of patterns in the training set 10 ϫ 28 Number of patterns in the training set 50 ϫ 28 Number of patterns in the training set 100 ϫ 28 Number of patterns in the training set 200 ϫ 28 NL 10N 10NM NL 10N 10NM NL 10N 10NM NL 10N 10NM 10.0 15.7 12.6 21.07 11.6 18.0 13.1 28.45 11.3 16.8 13.8 26.21 4.0 6.5 4.1 5.26 5.1 8.1 5.0 10.4 4.7 8.5 5.9 9.0 4.1 3.0 2.2 2.5 5.2 4.6 3.3 6.6 5.0 4.4 2.9 5.6 2.6 2.0 1.1 1.21 3.8 3.8 2.0 4.6 3.4 3.1 1.8 3.87 needs five layers to classify the training set completely, but the TLVQ needs only one layer for this. To save space, results for a subset of patterns (P1 to P14) are shown, whereas the total misclassifications and % misses (the last two rows in Table 2) have been computed on the basis of the results for the full set of 28 patterns. The entries indicate the number of misclassifications out of 3000 test inputs for each pattern. 4.4. Discussion of the results All the three techniques (LVQ, MLVQ and TLVQ) have been extensively tested for their performance with respect to a different number of patterns (typically, 10, 50, 100, 200 variations of each pattern as different cases) used for training. The test set consists of 3000 random variations of each pattern. Both noisy and pre-processed noisy patterns have been used for testing in addition to the noiseless patterns. Their performance has been tested for each of the different training cases, and a typical analysis of the results is presented later below. The training set consists of 100 variations of each pattern, and the percentage misclassification for the noiseless case for the three techniques is 4.1, 3.0 and 2.2 respectively. Considering the amount of distortion allowed in the patterns (non-uniform scaling with scale factor between 1.0 and 2.0 and rotation between ¹15Њ and þ15Њ), a training set of 100 variations for each pattern is quite reasonable. In this case the MLVQ needs three layers to classify the training set. In remarkable contrast, the TLVQ can do the same with only one layer. The percentage misclassifications for the noisy test set for the three methods is 5.2, 4.6 and 3.3 respectively, whereas for the pre-processed noisy patterns it is 5.0, 4.4 and 2.9. The time taken by MLVQ and TLVQ to complete the training depends on the number of layers they require to classify the training set completely. For MLVQ, there are 100,000 presentations of inp[][] for each layer, whereas for TLVQ the number is 300,000. The simulations were carried out on a HP-9000/715 workstation. Typically, for a training set of size 200 ϫ 28, the MLVQ needs five layers and the time taken for training is 30 s. In contrast, for the TLVQ the corresponding figures are one layer and 37 s. So far as published results on the application of NNs to OCR are concerned, the best reported (Ganesh Murthy & Venkatesh, 1995b) accuracy of 97.5% is achieved by a probabilistic neural network. The above discussion demonstrates the efficacy of MLVQ and TLVQ techniques in comparison with the conventional LVQ. Note that the networks generated by MLVQ and TLVQ have to preserve additional information (viz. the distance of the nearest misclassified pattern) with each neuron, but the number of neurons involved is much fewer than that needed by the LVQ. Apart from being constructive techniques for building a network to accomplish the task, the MLVQ and TLVQ yield networks with better performance than that of the LVQ. Finally, comparison of the performance of the MLP with that of LVQ, MLVQ and TLVQ shows that the training time for the former is considerably more than that for the latter. Similar results have been obtained for the characters from the NIST database. See Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996b) for details. Table 3 summarizes the final results of all the four techniques (LVQ, MLVQ, TLVQ and MLP) for training sets of different sizes (see also Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh 1995a). The entries in this table are percentage misclassifications on noiseless (NL), noisy (10N, i.e. 10% noise) and preprocessed noisy (10NM, i.e. 10%noise þ morphology) test patterns. 5. Conclusions A new efficient method for encoding patterns has been proposed, to provide a feature array as input to a selforganizing neural network (SONN) for classification of patterns. Encoding of patterns consists of overlaying them on a certain radial grid for conversion to a two-dimensional array to form the input to the SONN. After training, the neurons are labelled appropriately, and the plot of the labels of the array of neurons exhibits clusters, thereby justifying the method of encoding. When the SONN is tested with both noiseless and noisy variations of the exemplars, it is found in general that accuracy in the recognition of patterns is ϳ90%. In an attempt to increase the speed and improve the performance of the network, three techniques based on LVQ have been proposed. These three techniques are found to be highly accurate (ϳ95% recognition accuracy) and robust with respect to noise. More details and experimental results are found in Ganesh Murthy and Venkatesh (1996b) and Ganesh Murthy (1996). 322 C.N.S. Ganesh Murthy, Y.V. Venkatesh/Neural Networks 11 (1998) 315–322 Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the referees and the editor for their critical comments which have led to an improved, compressed version of the paper. References Frean, M. (1992). Thermal perceptron learning rule. Neural Computation, 4, 946–957. Fukumi, M., Omato, S., Taketo, F., & Kosaka, T. (1992). Rotation invariant pattern recognition. IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks, 3, 272–279. Fukushima, K. (1991). Hand written alphanumeric character recognition by the neocognitron. IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks, 2, 355–365. Ganesh Murthy, C. N. S. (1996). Pattern recognition techniques based on self-organization and learning vector quantization. Ph.D. Thesis, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Ganesh Murthy, C. N. S. & Venkatesh, Y. V. (1995a). A comparison of the performances of the backpropagation network and constructive learning algorithms based on LVQ for classification of encoded patterns. Technical Report, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Ganesh Murthy, C. N. S. & Venkatesh, Y. V. (1995b). Character recognition using encoded patterns as inputs to neural networks. In Proc. National Conference on Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems NCNNFS (pp. 220–225). Anna University, Madras, India. Ganesh Murthy, C. N. S., & Venkatesh, Y. V. (1996a). Modified neocognitron for improved 2-D pattern recognition. IEE Proceedings I, Vision, Image and Signal Processing, 143, 31–40. Ganesh Murthy, C. N. S. & Venkatesh, Y. V. (1996b). Classification of encoded patterns uisng constructive learning algorithms based on learning vector quantization (LVQ). Technical Report, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Ganesh Murthy, C. N. S., & Venkatesh, Y. V. (1994). Efficient classification by neural networks using encoded patterns. Electronics Letters, 31, 400–403. Ganesh Murthy, C. N. S. & Venkatesh, Y. V. (1991). Experimental investigations on the performance of neocognitron for 2-D pattern recognition. In International Conference on Information Processing (pp. 127–132). Singapore. Ghorpade, S. W., & Ray, A. K. (1993). Connectionist network for feature extraction and classification of English alphabetic characters. In ICNN'93 Munich: International Neural Network Conference, Vol. 4 (pp.1606-1611). Jian, H., & Chen, B. (1992). Recognition of handwritten Chinese characters via short line segments. Pattern Recognition, 25, 5543–5552. Khotanzad, A., & Hong, Y.H. (1990). Invariant image recognition by Zernike moments. IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 12, 489–497. Khotanzad, A., & Lu, J. (1990). Classification of invariant image representations using a neural network. IEEE Trans. ASSP, 38, 1028–1038. Kohonen, T. (1990a). Self Organization and Associative Memory. New York: Springer Verlag. Kohonen, T. (1990b). Learning Vector Quantization for Pattern Recongition. Technical Report TKK-F-A602, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. Kojima, Y., Yamamoto, H., Kohda, T., Sakaue, S., Maruno, S., Shimeki, Y., Kawakami, K., & Mizutani, M. (1993). Recognition of handwritten numeric characters using neural networks designed on approximate reasoning architecture. Proc. IJCNN, 3, 2161–2164. Lippmann, R.P. (1987). An introduction to computing with neural nets. IEEE ASSP Magazine, 4, 4–22. Minsky, M. & Pappert, S. (1969). Perceptrons. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA. Nakanishi, I., & Fukui, Y. (1993). Pattern recognition using hierarchical feature type and location. Proc. IJCNN, 3, 2165–2168. Perantonis, S.J., & Lisboz, P.J.G. (1992). Translation, rotation, and scale invariant pattern recognition by high-order neural networks and moment classifiers. IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks, 3, 241–251. Serra, J. (1982). Image Analysis and Mathematical Morphology. New York: Academic Press. Srinivasa, N., & Jounch, M. (1992). A neural network model for invariant pattern recognition. IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing, 4, 1595–1599. Yoshida, T. (1993). Construction of a feature set for character recognition. Proc. International Conference on Neural Networks, 3, 2153–2156. You, S.D., & Ford, G.E. (1994). Network model for invariant object recognition. Pattern Recognition Letters, 15, 761–768. Zufira, P. (1993). Extended BP for invariant pattern recognition neural network. Proc. IJCNN, 3, 2097–2100
File Information
Link or Click Back
portlet Settings
Here will be a configuration form
Site Map 1
Site Map 2
Site Map 3
Site Map 4
Site Map 5
Site Map 6
Site Map 7
Site Map 8
Site Map 9
Site Map 10
Site Map 11
Site Map 12
Site Map 13
Site Map 14
Site Map 15
Site Map 16
Site Map 17
Site Map 18
Site Map 19
Site Map 20
Site Map 21
Site Map 22
Site Map 23
Site Map 24
Site Map 25
Site Map 26
Site Map 27
Site Map 28
Site Map 29
Site Map 30
Site Map 31
Site Map 32
Site Map 33
Site Map 34
Site Map 35
Site Map 36
Site Map 37
Site Map 38
Site Map 39
Site Map 40
Site Map 41
Site Map 42
Site Map 43
Site Map 44
Site Map 45
Site Map 46
Site Map 47
Site Map 48
Site Map 49
Site Map 50
Site Map 51
Site Map 52
Site Map 53
Site Map 54
Site Map 55
Site Map 56
Site Map 57
Site Map 58
Site Map 59
Site Map 60
Site Map 61
Site Map 62
Site Map 63
Site Map 64
Site Map 65
Site Map 66
Site Map 67
Site Map 68
Site Map 69
Site Map 70
Site Map 71
Site Map 72
Site Map 73
Site Map 74
Site Map 75
Site Map 76
Site Map 77
Site Map 78
Site Map 79
Site Map 80
Site Map 81
Site Map 82
Site Map 83
Site Map 84
Site Map 85
Site Map 86
Site Map 87
Site Map 88
Site Map 89
Site Map 90
Site Map 91
Site Map 92
Site Map 93
Site Map 94
Site Map 95
Site Map 96
Site Map 97
Site Map 98
Site Map 99
Site Map 100
Site Map 101
Site Map 102
Site Map 103
Site Map 104
Site Map 105
Site Map 106
Site Map 107
Site Map 108
Site Map 109
Site Map 110
Site Map 111
Site Map 112
Site Map 113
Site Map 114
Site Map 115
Site Map 116
Site Map 117
Site Map 118
Site Map 119
Site Map 120
Site Map 121
Site Map 122
Site Map 123
Site Map 124
Site Map 125
Site Map 126
Site Map 127
Site Map 128
Site Map 129
Site Map 130
Site Map 131
Site Map 132
Site Map 133
Site Map 134
Site Map 135
Site Map 136
Site Map 137
Site Map 138
Site Map 139
Site Map 140
Site Map 141
Site Map 142
Site Map 143
Site Map 144
Site Map 145
Site Map 146
Site Map 147
Site Map 148
Site Map 149
Site Map 150
Site Map 151
Site Map 152
Site Map 153
Site Map 154
Site Map 155
Site Map 156
Site Map 157
Site Map 158
Site Map 159
Site Map 160
Site Map 161
Site Map 162
Site Map 163
Site Map 164
Site Map 165
Site Map 166
Site Map 167
Site Map 168
Site Map 169
Site Map 170
Site Map 171
Site Map 172
Site Map 173
Site Map 174
Site Map 175
Site Map 176
Site Map 177
Site Map 178
Site Map 179
Site Map 180
Site Map 181
Site Map 182
Site Map 183
Site Map 184
Site Map 185
Site Map 186
Site Map 187
Site Map 188
Site Map 189
Site Map 190
Site Map 191
Site Map 192
Site Map 193
Site Map 194
Site Map 195
Site Map 196
Site Map 197
Site Map 198
Site Map 199
Site Map 200
Site Map 201
Site Map 202
Site Map 203
Site Map 204
Site Map 205
Site Map 206
Site Map 207
Site Map 208
Site Map 209
Site Map 210
Site Map 211
Site Map 212
Site Map 213
Site Map 214
Site Map 215
Site Map 216
Site Map 217
Site Map 218
Site Map 219
Site Map 220
Site Map 221
Site Map 222
Site Map 223
Site Map 224
Site Map 225
Site Map 226
Site Map 227
Site Map 228
Site Map 229
Site Map 230
Site Map 231
Site Map 232
Site Map 233
Site Map 234
Site Map 235
Site Map 236
Site Map 237
Site Map 238
Site Map 239
Site Map 240
Site Map 241
Site Map 242
Site Map 243
Site Map 244
Site Map 245
Site Map 246
Site Map 247
Site Map 248
Site Map 249
Site Map 250
Site Map 251
Site Map 252
Site Map 253
Site Map 254
Site Map 255
Site Map 256
Site Map 257
Site Map 258
Site Map 259
Site Map 260
Site Map 261
Site Map 262
Site Map 263
Site Map 264
Site Map 265
Site Map 266
Site Map 267
Site Map 268
Site Map 269
Site Map 270
Site Map 271
Site Map 272
Site Map 273
Site Map 274
Site Map 275
Site Map 276
Site Map 277
Site Map 278
Site Map 279
Site Map 280
Site Map 281


text:
China is a nation possessing a long and fascinating history – from being home to the most advanced bronze working civilization of the ancient world, to the invention of gunpowder and fireworks, to the famous (and infamous) such as Confucius, Kublai Khan, and Marco Polo, to the formation of the People's Republic - the history of China is indeed impressive. However, the part of this impressive history that is most important to parents investigating international adoption is their One Child Policy.
First, a bit of background to understand how the One Child Policy came about: In the 1950s, Mao Tse-Tung urged his people to have lots of children to strengthen the country. The population growth from this edict led the government in the 1970s to be worried that China would be unable to feed her citizens. So, the Chinese government implemented the One Child Policy in 1979. The goal of this policy was to keep China's population below 1.3 billion by the year 2000. Today, China is home to over 1.2 billion people. Couples who violate the One Child Policy are subject to fines (equal to three years' salary!), community ostracism, and even jail time.
Baby boys are more valued in Chinese society than are baby girls because boys carry on the ancestral name, inheritance laws pass property on to sons, and sons are responsible for taking care of aged parents. Because of this many couples will abandon a baby girl. A heartbreakingly cruel choice, yes, and an event that happens all too often – hundreds of thousands of baby girls are abandoned every year in China.
The babies are abandoned in public places (such as busy streets, railway stations, and in front of public buildings) so they will be found quickly. The babies are abandoned as infants – usually when they are only a few days old. In addition to little girls, handicapped babies and sick babies (both boys and girls) are also abandoned because most parents in China don't have the money to provide for their special needs. Once found, the abandoned babies are given a medical exam and then taken to orphanages.
To see local China Adoption resources, please select a location (U.S. only):
Note: Our authors are dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent, and open conversation about adoption. The opinions expressed here may not reflect the views of Adoption.com.


text:
Reading mode: Light Dark
Luau BoB
Lives in Island, United States
Joined on Aug 13, 2011
Recent activity
Snapshot of threads updated recently in which you have recently participated.
Luau BoB has no activity in these forums.
Latest reviews
Finished challenges
|Louvre Museum pyramid by Didier Quan
from Pyramid
|Oka Frozen Leaf 2002 DP by MarioSS
from The Dead Leaves of Winter
Most popular cameras
Canon EOS Rebel T6 (EOS 1300D)2.6%Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 III2.4%Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV2.3%Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85 (Lumix DMC-GX80 / Lumix DMC-GX7 Mark II)2.1%Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1001.9%Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS100 (Lumix DMC-TZ100)1.7%Canon PowerShot G5 X1.6%Sony Alpha a60001.6%Sony Alpha a63001.5%Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 III1.4%
In-depth testingLatest Camera ReviewsBeyond the studio testsFeature Articles and VideosPIX VideosTalks, demos and panels681The Canon that canCanon EOS 80D Review361Touchscreen street shooterFujifilm X70 Review2127Upwardly mobileSony a6300 Review308Power ZoomPanasonic Lumix ZS100/TZ100 Review2473Retro through-and-throughFujifilm X-Pro2 ReviewKirkjufell mountainBehind the Shot: Shredded1511A lot to Leica? Hands-on with the Leica SL (Typ 601)Touch and goNikon D5500 Review544Ultra-compactSony Cyber-shot RX1R II review171Bag ReviewPeak Design Everyday Messenger712Bang for the BuckOlympus OM-D E-M10 II ReviewTwo in oneLG G5 camera review729In Fine DetailCanon EOS 5DS / 5DS R Review377You'll be impressedShootout: Tamron 15-30 F2.8 vs. Nikon 14-24 F2.8Field Test VideoNikon D72002158Playing the Ace?Sony Alpha 7R II Review1595OpinionThe myth of the upgrade path
Top threads
Follow us
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998 - 2016 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.


text:
Opening today, April 18, is the Brooklyn Museum's exhibition Ai Weiwei: According to What?—"the first North American survey of the work of the provocative Chinese conceptual artist, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, and activist." The exhibition has traveled across the United States and the Brooklyn Museum is the final site to host these works. According to What? will remain on view through August 10.
"I've always believed it is essential for contemporary artists to question established assumptions and challenge beliefs. This has never changed."
Ai Weiwei, who created the first group of avant-garde artists in China, is an individual well-known throughout the world for his creativity and his challenging of both art and politics. His artistic influences include pioneering painters and sculptors Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp and Jasper Johns. Ai's fame and his artistic commentary on modern Chinese government has led to his widely-covered 81-day imprisonment in Chinese prison in 2011, and the subsequent revocation of his passport, which means that the artist has been unable to see the touring exhibition for himself.
The works on view in the exhibition include both well-known photographs and sculptures and newer creations. One particular item, from 1995, is a series of three black-and-white photographs entitled "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn," which is one of his most famous works. The series is a direct commentary on the modernization of China and the country's indifference to its ancient and golden past. Accompanied by these photographs are an actual group of sixteen Han dynasty pots, transformed by the artist with bright-colored dripping paint. The Brooklyn Museum notes, "Chinese antiques are highly valued by the Chinese government, but Ai believes that the government considers contemporary art to be 'a product of degenerate Western ideology'" and therefore by transforming an antique into a modern-day creation, Ai is questioning the power and value of antiquity. Seemingly, every one of Ai's works are an attempt to challenge the modern world or art and governance, an attempt to have viewers see themselves and their world in a new light.
S.A.C.R.E.D. is the most recent work on view, shown for the first time in North America after its debut at the Venice Biennale last year. The work is a commentary on his imprisonment in 2011 and features on a monumental scale six iron boxes that within each "contains lifelike fiberglass dioramas of detailed scenes painstakingly reproduced from memory. The work documents and reveals the most painful and intimate moments of Ai's imprisonment, from periods of interrogation to such daily activities as eating, sleeping, showering, and using the toilet."
As an activist, Ai has created many of his works in response to the heartache he has seen others go through, and actively sculpts and paints in order to get those stories heard. Stay Home!, for example, is a documentary that is exhibited for the first time about "Liu Ximei, who contracted AIDS as a child after being given an HIV-contaminated blood transfusion at a Chinese hospital." Another piece, Straight, is another monumental work (weighing in at seventy tons) that features the beams of schoolhouses destroyed in an earthquake in Sichuan in 2008. Tens of thousands of souls were lost as a result of the earthquake, in part because of poor architecture, but this was not advertised by the Chinese media, and Ai was unhappy with the response the government took. Ai personally visited those whose lives were affected by the disaster and documented his research and the stories of the people he spoke with through his art, on film, and blog, which was subsequently shut down by the Chinese government. Straight is composed of beams that were once mangled from the quake, but were straightened out by Ai after a few years of work - a commentary that although a tragic disaster occurred, reconstruction and rebirth is possible.
According to What? is an exhibition of a revolutionary artist. The show is organized by the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and in Brooklyn by managing curator Sharon Matt Atkins, and has traveled to Washington, D.C., Indianapolis, Toronto, and Miami. If you're looking to be inspired, the Brooklyn Museum is the place to be.
"The work of Ai Weiwei examines the interrelations between art, society, and individual experience while exploring universal topics such as culture, history, politics, and tradition. His practice is interdisciplinary and transcends artistic genres, providing insights into the cultural, historical, and social contexts from which it emerged. Many of Ai's creations address issues of cultural identity, tradition, and craftsmanship, while others engage with more overtly political and social issues."
Entrance to the Brooklyn museum is suggested, but there is a special exhibition fee of $15 to see Ai Weiwei: According to What?, which also includes entrance to the rest of the museum. Tickets can be purchased in person or online. A number of special events accompany the exhibition, including curator tours, and a fully illustrated catalog is for sale in the gift shop.
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, examiner is giving away two free tickets to the exhibition! Leave us a comment in the space below, or on facebook or twitter, and let us know your thoughts on the activist artist, the artwork you would be most excited to see and why. A winner will be chosen in one week, on April 25, at 6pm EST. Good luck!


text:
Scores & Schedule
Latest Headlines
Bracket Challenge
Photo Galleries
Historical Records
Trophies & Awards
Events Calendar
NHL Ticket Exchange - Buy/Sell
Sign In
Return Home
NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks and NHL Mobile name and logo, NHL GameCenter and Unlimited NHL are trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams.
Trouba talks Four Nations triumph
Thursday, 11.17.2011 / 9:56 AM | Jacob Trouba - Special to NHL.com
Jacob Trouba is a defenseman for the U.S. Under-18 National Team Development Program of the United States Hockey League. The 6-foot-2, 194-pound native of Rochester, Mich., recently helped the U.S. Under-18 Team earn the Four Nations tournament title in Switzerland. He was also ranked the No. 1 skater within the United States Hockey League by NHL Central Scouting on its preliminary release of draft eligible players. Trouba, who participated in the 2011 NHL Research, Development and Orientation Camp fueled by G Series in August, has offered to maintain a monthly blog for NHL.com that will chronicle his season leading up to the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.
What's up hockey world? I'm only a month into the season and there have already been some ups and downs.
This young season has been eventful to say the least. We are 10-6-1 at this point and 2-5 against NCAA teams. In my mind, one of the greatest advantages of playing at the US NTDP is playing older competition. We are always up against a challenge. In my first year we played USHL teams as a group of 16 year olds. We were playing guys up to 20 years old. It was hard to go into a corner with a guy that has 4 years of maturity on you. Now in my second year we feel that we can play with every USHL team, so we put NCAA teams on our schedule. That is playing against a 25 year old grown man. We know we need to bring our best game against every D-1 team. If we don't we will get embarrassed every time. The problem our team has found out early this year is the D-3 teams are just as hungry to beat us. There is no room for a preparation let down or we will come out slow and be down 3 goals before we know it. We learned that early this year in a 6-4 loss to Adrian College.
Hands down the best part of playing for Team USA is competing in the international tournaments. It is one of the best feelings in the world. There's the great feeling every time you put on the jersey, but then there is a whole different feeling when you are in a foreign country and you are representing your country. We were just in Switzerland this past week for our Four Nations Cup. The trip started off terrible, I was stuck on a 8 hour plane ride in between a 5-10, 210-pound Frank Vatrano (@Vatcher13) and 6-4, 215-pound Gavin Stoick (@GavinStoick). There is nothing worse than getting your boarding pass and seeing that you have seat C. Besides that the trip was a blast. We ended up winning the Cup, in big part to Nic Kerdiles, who had 5 goals. We literally brought home the hardware, we got a bell and a bear head carved from a tree trunk for winning. We stayed in Leysin, but played our games in Monthey.
The country is beautiful; we were surrounded by mountains and had great weather. We played Switzerland twice, Finland, and Sweden also. On our off day a group of guys took a bus up the mountain and made a 10 minute hike to see Lake Geneva. That was my favorite part of the trip; I've never taken so many pictures in my life. The trip was only made better when I found out I was rooming with Matt Grzelcyk (@M_Grzelcyk7 ). Overall it was a great trip. Also, it was great to hear the U17 won their Four Nations in Russia.
One very cool moment this year was playing the University of Michigan at Yost. I was actually nervous before a hockey game for the first time in a long time. It was an awesome atmosphere and I can't wait to play there next year. More great news came this month when I heard Jared Rutledge (@JaredRutledge1 ) committed to Michigan. He's a great team mate and I can't wait to spend 4 more years in front of him keeping pucks out of the net.
It was great to hear the draft was going to be in Pittsburgh. It is some place I have never been, but Riley Barber (@rileybarber94 ) is always bragging about how sweet his hometown is. I know it is a great hockey city and should be a very fun place to visit. I hope it is a city I will always remember as a great memory in my career.
You can follow me on twitter at: @jacobtrouba, and stay up on the U18 NTDP and our road to the U18 World Championship. Thanks for reading and check back next month.
Back to top
More Blogs
Return Home
View Full Site
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Mobile Feedback
NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks and NHL Mobile name and logo, NHL GameCenter and Unlimited NHL are trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams.
© NHL 2016 All Rights Reserved


text:
There's been a lot of controversy over the Robertson family of late, though some may find the Westboro Baptist Church "Duck Dynasty" viewpoint a bit surprising. After all, wouldn't the controversial comments from Phil Robertson seem right in line with what the WBC typically says? The Inquisitr covered the latest on Jan. 13.
Fans of "Duck Dynasty" know that Phil Robertson shared some strong opinions on homosexuality and race in a recent GQ interview. The WBC is, of course, known for their outrageous hate of homosexuality, and they make a living off of stirring up trouble in any situation they can link to homosexuality, even if the link is a stretch at best. Some would think, then, that the Westboro Baptist Church would love "Duck Dynasty." Apparently not necessarily.
While the WBC seemingly supports what Robertson said in the interview, they also apparently think that "the Phil Robertson's [sic] of this wicked generation are the very reason that f*gs run this nation" and that the country is "hurtling toward her destruction." Never one to miss an opportunity for a protest, it seems the Westboro Baptist Church's "Duck Dynasty" distaste runs deeply enough that they plan to protest the A&E offices on Feb. 1.
Season 5 of "Duck Dynasty" premieres on A&E Wednesday, Jan. 15. The premiere is surely going to give A&E some huge ratings once again, even if the Westboro Baptist Church's "Duck Dynasty" position tries to turn viewers away. Will the recent Phil Robertson issues help or hurt the ratings? Fans remain excited to have the show back, and it all begins Wednesday evening.
Suggested Links
- 'Duck Dynasty' spoilers: Season 5 premiere features Rebecca, Uncle Si
- 'Duck Dynasty' season 5: Who is Rebecca Robertson?
- 'Duck Dynasty' spoilers for season 5: Preview teases new family members on cast
- 'Duck Dynasty' star Jase Robertson grateful for fan support during Mia's surgery
- 'Duck Dynasty' deal struck: Robertsons get increased salary, new agreement


text:
Good People Make Good Health Happen
Each day, Universal American employees are part of a healthy collaboration, in which our team members work together with doctors and pharmacists to help our customers save money and stay healthy.
Our people make good health happen for our members, every day.
Universal American is a family of specialty healthcare companies dedicated to working collaboratively with doctors, pharmacists and other caring professionals to improve the health and well-being of our members.
Our core business segments include:
Universal American takes pride in attracting team members who possess the skills, conviction and attitude to partner with us in making a positive and lasting impact in the communities we serve and in the healthcare industry. We offer careers in the following areas:


text:
Welcome to SwingTowns.com! Meet Moses Lake swingers today. Find swingers free at our Moses Lake swingers site.
supamodal | Athletic
I am a fun ... see full profile
greatlou1 | Average
hi am a guy that like nude beachs a... see full profile
tryme967986 | Curvy
im alittle shy to begin but if ... see full profile
wimom | Curvy
I am a moth... see full profile
No matter if you're seeking some hot steamy evenings with Moses Lake Single Swingers in town or friends with benefits, take it slow at first. If you appear too pushy in your initial contact, it can be a huge turnoff. The provocative part for swingers is the thrill of the anticipation of something new. Finding Moses Lake threesomes online is simple. Once strangers, those who make a small effort in email and ims on the computer really do meet in person, and enjoy swingers offline!


text:
Legislative Update for PeopleSoft HCM Global Payroll Argentina
By Paul Smit-Oracle on Aug 08, 2014
A new version of the application "System for Calculation of Social Security Obligations – SICOSS Release 37" has become effective. Among the new features are emphasized that the mentioned application adopts the different modalities of agricultural labor contracts; enable new modalities of recruitment; minimum and maximum amounts update of tax base for contribution determination subsystems. Further details can be found in the position statement, that is made available on My Oracle Support, Document ID 1913575.1


text:
ASU: Earned All-America honors as a freshman...ranks sixth in school history in the 200 IM (2:02.52) and 10th in the 400 IM (4:20.71).
2004-05: Was very versatile seeing action in seven different events...placed 21st in the 400 IM at the Pac-10 Championships with a 4:28.73...also placed 32nd in the 200 back (2:09.36) at the Pac-10's in the 200 back...had ASU's fourth fastest time in the 400 IM (4:26.23) and fifth fastest in the 200 IM (2:05.87).
2003-04: Redshirt season.
2002-03: Earned honorable mention All-American honors as a member of the 800 free relay...placed 15th at the Pac-10 Championships in the 200 free after recording a season best in the preliminary round of 1:51.47...placed 22nd in the 200 breast at the Pac-10s after a personal best 2:22.36 in the prelims...named honorable mention Pac-10 All-Academic.
2001-02: Placed 11th at the Pac-10 Championships in the 200 IM (2:02.52) in the fifth-fastest time in ASU history...placed 16th in the 400 IM at the Pac-10s...clocked a 4:20.71 in the 400 IM at the Texas Invitational which puts her ninth in the ASU record books...finished 22nd place in the 200 back (2:02.37) at the Pac-10s in what was the best Sun Devil time last season...earned honorable mention All-American honors in the 800 free relay...swam the 100 free (51.18), the 200 free (1:52.59), the 500 free (5:11.90) and the 100 back (59.03).
High School: A 2001 graduate of Del Oro High (Loomis, Calif.) ... earned four letters in swimming, team captain as a senior ... voted team MVP all but her freshman season ... All-American in the 200 IM in 2000 (2:04.29) and 2001 (2:03.99) ... Sacramento Bee Swimmer of the Year in 2000 and 2001 ... second-place finisher in the 400 IM at 2000 Junior Nationals ... also competed for California Capital Aquatics.
Personal: Majoring in communication...born July 8, 1983, in Sacramento, Calif....parents are Brad and Kris Wilcox...sister, Jeni (24)...hobbies include basketball and boating...full name is Kari Anne Wilcox.
100 Free: 51.18
200 Free: 1:50.99
200 Back: 2:02.37


text:
This is a dream dish, especially when the mussels are lightly cooked and still full of their own juices. The rich, golden saffron-cream sauce is warmed with a touch of curry powder, making it quite irresistible.
Feeds 4. Takes 40 mins.
1.5kg mussels
125ml dry white wine
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1tbsp butter
1tbsp flour
100ml milk
1 egg yolk
½tsp mild curry powder
½tsp ground saffron
¼tsp ground turmeric
100ml double cream
2tbsp chopped parsley
Scrub the mussels well, and pull out the little beards and discard. Bring the white wine, onion


text:
Whatchamacallit has a new friend! It was…oh, I forgot the name already. What was it called? That Thingamajig type candy bar?
Thingamajig is a new Limited Edition bar that Hershey's is producing, I am unsure for how long exactly, as a nice compliment to the Watchamacallit bar. It cleverly sports another placeholder name and is essentially the same sort of candy bar. A few things have been tweaked and switched, but the two are really candy bar siblings as so to speak.
Thingamajig comes in a sassy red wrapper, which is much more eye-catching than Watchamacallit's beige/yellow color scheme. The wrapper describes it as "Made with chocolate, cocoa crisps and peanut butter". I admit, I'm suspicious of this, as I know Watchamacallit is made with mockolate. So I can't help but scrutinize the semantics here. Does "made with" mean the same as "chocolatey"? From a glance at the ingredients, it does. *sigh*
I'll refrain from comparing the two bars for the sake of brevity, as that territory has been covered by many of the other candy blogs out there. The main difference is that the crispies in Thingamajig are cocoa flavored, and it has a stripe of peanut butter instead of caramel like Whatchamacallit. We all clear here now?
Out of the wrapper, the Thingamajig smells a little like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (RPBC): sweet, peanut buttery with a hint of chocolate.
The flavor is sweet and chocolatey at first, with notes of caramel and cream and that signature mockolate greay texture. Then the peanut butter taste comes in, similar to a Reese's PBC, but not as intense and fresh. I don't get any extra chocolate kick from the cocoa crispies, which doesn't surprise me, as flavored crisped rice is a mild beast to begin with. As I taste this, I am annoyed by the fact that the mockolate coating melts on my fingers as I hold the bar (yes, I don't like to use the wrapper for that, I like my bars to be free and break off pieces). The cripiss are very fresh and crispy, as I hear them crunch so loudly in my head when I chew them, it's like there's a war going on the there.
It was good, better than I expected, but still nothing stellar to knock me off my feet. Use real chocolate next time and it's very possible I'll change my mind.
Also check out these reviews at Candyblog.net, Candy Yum Yum!, Cocoa Heaven, A.V. Club, and Limited Edition Foods.
Rating: Might Eat Again
Links Hershey's Website
Thank you, it's very awesome article about this post it might be very kind for students.
Recently i needed
resume writers. To my adroitest surprise, resume was desirable the price I paid for it.Posted by WhitneyVelez25 on 10/09 at 11:26 AM
That is very bright decision to opt for the custom essay writing just about this topic to know more good stuff about order now.Posted by ClarkeShelley33 on 11/19 at 05:26 AM
There are lots different ways to know about this good post . And I suggest to buy an essay and essay writing or buy a research paper opting for the reliable essay writing services.Posted by MandySullivan on 12/04 at 03:02 AM
Businessmen, frequently, are pressed by time. However, they have to optimize their websites. So, they have to use link submission!Posted by LaurieWright27 on 12/06 at 06:43 AM
Your release just about this good post seems to be superb! Hence scholars not should write the thesis writing and thesis mba by their own, they could use your assistance.Posted by CLEVELANDCindy30 on 12/08 at 12:24 AM


text:
"Everglades City and its surrounding Local" Everglades City by leafmcgowan
Everglades City Travel Guide: 49 reviews and 89 photos
Centuries before the first Europeans saw the Everglades, Calusa Indians dwelled inside the islands and waterways of the 10,000 Islands and lived with their tidal rhythms. The Calusa developed a complex social system and build impressive canals and earthworks. They piled shells into mounds, creating dry grounds amidst their otherwise watery environment. Most of the nearby Chokoloskee and Sandfly islands were originally Calusa shell mounds. But by the mid-1830's no Calusa's remained. Their demise is somewhat of a mystery, but the arrival of foreigners was ultimately the cause, bringing deadly new diseases and forcing Calusa relocation (both voluntary and involuntary). Three hundred years after the first Europeans arrived from Spain, the culture of South Florida's original inhabitants were gone. Today, no aboriginal peoples remain in South Florida. Miccosukee and Seminole Indians arrived in the mid-1830's; many now reside along the Tamiami Trail." ~ Interpretive display at Everglades National Park.
- Pros:great escape, full of history, full of recreational activities, solitude, tranquility
- Cons:mosquitos, remote, lack of supplies
- In a nutshell:A great little escape into the swamps ....
Reviews (5)
"Everglades City with its 10,000 Islands, offers a gateway to explore the unique Mangrove habitat preserved by... more travel advice
"Everglades City with its 10,000 Islands, offers a gateway to explore the unique Mangrove habitat preserved by... more travel advice
Centuries before the first Europeans saw the Everglades, Calusa Indians dwelled inside the islands and waterways of the... more travel advice
Built and founded in 1906 on Chokoloskee Island by C.S. Ted Smallwood - A pioneer in Collier County. The building served... more travel advice
leafmcgowan's Related Pages
Everglades City Travel Guide
Member Travel Pages
- "everglades city florida"
- "by Miromi. Everglades City Page"
- "JILL's Everglades Page"
- "mcharlton's new The Big Cypress Page"
- "Everglades City by mafo"
- "10eke's new Everglades City Page"
- "Everglades City and its surrounding Local"
- See All...
- Things to Do in Everglades City
- Hotels in Everglades City
- Transportation in Everglades City
- Restaurants in Everglades City
- Warnings and Dangers in Everglades City
- See All...
"Where the wind blows me ...."
- Member Rank:
- 0 1 2 7 6
- 608 Reviews
- 1,078 Photos
- Add Friend
- Follow
- Send Message
Badges & Stats in Everglades City
- 5 Reviews
- 5 Photos
- 0 Forum posts
- 0 Comments
- 597PageViews
- See All Stats
- See All Badges (32)
Have you been to Everglades City?Share Your Travels
Latest Activity in Everglades City
- updated a Everglades City Travel Page "Everglades City and its surrounding Local"
- Wrote a Review Everglades National Park in Everglades City Things to Do
- Uploaded a Photo to "Everglades National Park"
- Posted in Travel Frankfurt am Main Forum "Goth/80's/Industrial Clubs or..."
Photos in Everglades CitySee All Photos (5)
Top 10 Pages
- Washington D.C. Intro, 37 reviews, 68 photos
- Top 5 Page for this destination Colorado Springs Intro, 56 reviews, 49 photos, 1 travelogue
- Denver Intro, 47 reviews, 49 photos
- Seattle Intro, 48 reviews, 40 photos
- Dublin Intro, 22 reviews, 58 photos
- Amsterdam Intro, 23 reviews, 47 photos
- Vancouver Intro, 30 reviews, 30 photos
- Penzance Intro, 12 reviews, 43 photos
- Los Angeles Intro, 11 reviews, 31 photos
- Hawaii (Big Island) Intro, 9 reviews, 32 photos


text:
Robert Sean Leonard
Born Feb 28, 1969 Age 47
Hometown Borough of Westwood Height 6' (183 cm)
Nationality American Alma Mater Columbia University
Other Names Leonard, Robert L... Build Average
Robert Sean Leonard is an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. James Wilson on the television series House, M.D. and Neil Perry in the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society. He regularly stars in Broadway and off-Broadway productions.
View newly released photos of Robert Sean Leonard.
News + Updates
Browse recent news and stories about Robert Sean Leonard.
Theater: Upbeat "Bandstand," "Gin Game" Goes Bust, Slimmer Somewhat Satisfying "Rothschilds"Huffington Post - Oct 19, 2015
Staples Chats With Principal Candidate Louis Moore- Mar 17, 2015
Falling Skies: Robert Sean Leonard Dishes On His Eccentric Dr. Roger KadarAccess Hollywood - Jun 21, 2013
Sex Tapes Violated Privacy Of Former Waffle House Ceo, Judge RulesFox News - Jun 18, 2013
Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Robert Sean Leonard.
1969 Birth Born on February 28, 1969.
1989 20 Years Old He is best known for playing Dr. James Wilson on the television series House, M.D. and Neil Perry in the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society. … Read More
1995 26 Years Old He had a prior association with Stoppard's work, creating the role of Valentine in the New York premiere of Arcadia at Lincoln Center in 1995. … Read More
1997 28 Years Old In 1997, Leonard received rave reviews for his role in the Christopher Reeve-directed television film, In the Gloaming. … Read More
2004 35 Years Old From 2004, he played Dr. James Wilson, head of the oncology department, on the FOX TV series House, M.D., until the series end in 2012.
2007 38 Years Old In 2007, Leonard appeared on Entertainment's Weeklys 100 list as "Dr. Underrated." … Read More
2011 42 Years Old On February 8, 2011, it was announced that Leonard would co-star as Paul Verrall in the 2011 Broadway revival of Born Yesterday beginning in March.
Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sean_Leonard.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


text:
Schools & Colleges
A-Z Index | Find a Health Care Provider
Contact Us | Maps and Parking
Dr. Stuart Linas, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Chief of Nephrology, Denver Health Medical Center
Program Director, University of Colorado Denver Nephrology Fellowship Program
Dr. Stuart Linas, UCHSC Nephrology Training Program Director, is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine and was a House Officer at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Strong Memorial Hospital. He completed his Renal Fellowship Program under the direction of Dr. Robert W. Schrier, Dr. Tomas Berl and Dr. Robert Anderson in 1978 and afterward he joined the faculty in the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Linas ran a basic science laboratory from 1978–2000. His research made significant contributions to the area of Angiotensin II Receptor Physiology, Cell and Molecular Biology, especially with regard to vascular smooth muscle and renal tubular epithelial cell function. Additionally, Dr. Linas was one of the first individuals to identify an important role for inflammatory factors in the initiation and maintenance phases of acute renal failure.
Since July 2000, Dr. Linas has devoted his effort to education, primarily to the Nephrology Fellowship Training at UCHSC. He was on the executive committee of the Training Program Directors' Committee of the America Society of Nephrology (ASN) for five years, and he chaired the committee for two years. Recently, Dr. Linas was appointed to the Hypertension Advisory Committee of the ASN and serves as its chair. This committee will serve a primary advisory role to the ASN with regard to new research and educational initiative in high blood pressure. Dr. Linas is on the executive committee of the American Society of Subspecialty Professors and serves as the President. Additionally, Dr. Linas is the Education Editor of the American Journal of Kidney Disease and he serves as a member of the Subspecialty Board of Nephrology of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), as the Chair of the Renal Subspecialty Board and as a member of the Board of Directors of the ABIM.
© The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate. All rights reserved.
Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. All trademarks are registered property of the University. Used by permission only.


text:
From Bournemouth Pier's amusements and excellent range of cafes along the coast to the new and exciting developments at Boscombe and the family friendly atmosphere of Southbourne and the Chines, there truly is something for everyone on and around Bournemouth's golden beaches. There are a wide range of hotels in Bournemouth to suit all tastes and budget.
Boscombe Beach
Boscombe beach is the section of the beach which surrounds Boscombe pier and stretches down from Bournemouth Beach towards Hengistbury Head.
It includes the Portman Ravine zigzag and extends to the lift at Southbourne Beach. For many years, Boscombe Beach had been the poor relation. Until recently it could could only boast a derelict pier and a set of run down beach huts, however this is no longer the case and with the arrival of the surfing phenomenon, Boscombe has blossomed. The area either side of the pier is particularly popular with the surfing fraternity and has become the place to go surfing in the Bournemouth Area.
A great deal of re-development has taken place on and around Boscombe Beach. The pier has been modified with the removal of the old Mermaid theatre. A new artificial surf reef has been built although this has unfortunately not as yet been the success the council hoped. The beach is also a good family beach and has a number of lifeguard stations during the peak season. There is a pub, a couple of cafes and a number of ice-cream sellers.
Beach Huts
If you have ever wanted to combine the views of the beach and sea with the convenience of a place to hide from the sun and enjoy a relaxing cup of tea without granules of sand finding their way into your sugar bowl, once of Bournemouth's high quality beach huts is exactly what you have been looking for.
Bournemouth has a varied range of beach huts available for hire including traditional beach huts, accessible beach huts, an Ikea furnished beach hut (great for parties) and a new concept of Beach pods, which provide a retro feel. These huts are available to hire on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and may even be available to purchase.
For refreshment by the beach, either bring a picnic or have lunch at one of the many excellent restaurants along the seafront. Light refreshments such as tea, coffee, cakes and ice-creams can all be obtained along the seafront so if you don't want to have to bring any equipment with you, you don't have to.
Bursting With Activities and Watersports
We have endeavoured to provide a list of many of the activities which are available along the Bournemouth coastline to help whet your appetite for some of the fun and adventures that are available to everyone visiting this wonderful town.
Power Boating - Luxury power boating provides some octane excitement and other activities including RIB (rigid inflatable boats) rides and jet ski rides ensure that there is no faster adrenaline hit available in the area!
Surfing - The new Boscombe surf reef has been attracting a huge amount of publicity and an ever growing number of visitors and watersports enthusiasts to the area.
Kitesurfing & Kiteboarding - This thrilling, wind powered sport uses wind to pull riders through the water on a small surfboard or kiteboard.
Wakeboarding - Wakeboarding is one of the fastest growing watersports in the UK and once you have started you will not want to stop!
Paddleboarding - Stand-up paddleboarding has become hugely popular in the UK and provides not only countless hours of fun but also acts as an excellent form of exercise.
Coasteering - Coasteering is a relatively new pastime and involves swimming, climbing and jumping off the rugged coastal terrain available in Bournemouth. Visiting rarely explored caves, tunnels and plunge pools provides an exhilarating thrill where you will be able to ride the rise and fall of the swell and test your nerves on a series of jumps. Led by an expert guide, you will experience a mixture of sea level traversing, swimming, exploring caves and jumping into plunge pools.
Fishing - For a more traditional past-time, the waters off the Bournemouth coast-line are literally teeming with fish - cod, whiting, mackerel, bream and flounder are all there for the taking.
Sailing - Bournemouth's coast-line acts as a magnet for sailers from all over the country. With sheltered waters, amazing scenery, easy access and excellent marinas, the surrounding areas of long been a leading sailing destination. There truly are few places which are as beautiful to set sail.
Windsurfing - With its safe and shallow waters, there is nowhere better to learn how to surf in a safe environment.
Cruises - Hop on board at Bournemouth Pier to take a trip along Dorset's stunning heritage coast to Swanage, past scenic Old Harry Rocks, Sandbanks and Brownsea Island.
Jet-Skiing - Take a jet-ski onto the open sea and under the guidance of an expert instructor enjoy and exhilarating trip along the Jurassic coast-line and Bournemouth coast.
Stunning Views
Bournemouth's seven miles of award-winning beaches are beautifully located beneath a magnificent cliff line, which helps the bay to enjoy its own micro-climate and because of this it provides some of the warmest sea temperatures in the entire UK along with some breathtaking views of the Isle of Wight and the Purbecks.
Each section of Bournemouth's beach offers a different experience for you when you visit the area. From watersports to the family attractions at Pier Approach, whether you are looking to relax in a deckchair, stroll along to the famous piers, enjoy some tasty food or just spend some time overlooking miles of superb coast line - Bournemouth beach is the ideal location throughout all periods of the year.
To help ensure that your trip to the beach as enjoyable as possible, there are several seafront offices which can be found located across the length of the beach, all of which have dedicated teams who will help you make the most of your day out, by providing information and LV=KidZone wristbands. Deck chairs, sunbeds, windbreaks and parasols can all be hired along the beach - all you need to do is help yourself and an attendant will collect the hire charge once you're settled.
For ease of access to the beach Cliff Lifts are situated at West Cliff, East Cliff and Fishermans Walk along side zigzag path ways. The Land Train also runs along the promenade - you can travel from Bournemouth Pier to Boscombe Pier, via Boscombe Precinct and Gardens or from Bournemouth Pier to Alum Chine.
Bournemouth beach is also one of the safest beaches in the UK with RNLI Lifeguards based all the way along our seven mile stretch of beach. We also have lifeguards based to the east of Boscombe Pier 365 days a year.
Dog friendly beaches can be found at Alum Chine, Middle Chine, Fisherman's Walk and Hengistbury Head between 1 May and 30 September. Enquire at a Seafront Office or pick up a beach leaflet when you're here. Don't forget your doggy bags!
Land Train
A wonderful way to explore the beach, take in the scenery and rest your weary legs is to travel by the Bournemouth's famous Land Train.
The Land Train will sweep you along the the Promenade from Bournemouth Pier to Boscombe Pier, via Boscombe Gardens or from Bournemouth Pier to Alum Chine and provides some wonderful views of the seafront scene.
Trains depart daily during the period from Easter and the end of October half term, during February half term and between Boxing Day to the 3rd January. At all other times of the year, this service is reduced to become a weekend service only. There is no Christmas Day service and the operation of the Land Train is subject to permissible weather conditions at all times. Under 5s and permanent wheelchair users plus one carer travel for free.
For for operating times, please check the train stop notice board or contact the Seafront Office on 01202 451781.
Southbourne Beach
If you find that the beaches become too busy for you on a hot summers day, there are other options available to you which can provide a quieter beach experience and are well worth exploring.
To the East of Bournemouth, just a short distance from Hengistbury Head is the fine Southbourne beach. Due to its distance from central Bournemouth, Southbourne beach is generally much less crowded and less hectic than the main beaches. Along with nearby Fishermans Walk, Southbourne beach also possesses the coveted Blue Flag award which guarantees the excellent condition of the beach and the sea. The recent beach replenishment at Fishermans walk has had an excellent effect on Southbourne beach as well with the beach now widening and also losing some of its previous stony composition.
The cliffs behind the beach get significantly lower along Southbourne beach and pedestrian access becomes significantly easier. Access is also available at a number of different points. The nearest access from Bournemouth is down the Gordon ZigZag, which is half way between Southbourne Beach and Fishermans Walk.