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Using PPI network autocorrelation in hierarchical multi-label classification trees for gene function prediction
Knowledge-based analysis
Ontologies and catalogs of gene functions, such as the Gene Ontology (GO) and MIPS-FUN, assume that functional classes are organized hierarchically, that is, general functions include more specific ones. This has recently motivated the development of several machine learning algorithms for gene function prediction that leverages on this hierarchical organization where instances may belong to multiple classes. In addition, it is possible to exploit relationships among examples, since it is plausible that related genes tend to share functional annotations. Although these relationships have been identified and extensively studied in the area of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, they have not received much attention in hierarchical and multi-class gene function prediction. Relations between genes introduce autocorrelation in functional annotations and violate the assumption that instances are independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.), which underlines most machine learning algorithms. Although the explicit consideration of these relations brings additional complexity to the learning process, we expect substantial benefits in predictive accuracy of learned classifiers.
This article demonstrates the benefits (in terms of predictive accuracy) of considering autocorrelation in multi-class gene function prediction. We develop a tree-based algorithm for considering network autocorrelation in the setting of Hierarchical Multi-label Classification (HMC). We empirically evaluate the proposed algorithm, called NHMC (Network Hierarchical Multi-label Classification), on 12 yeast datasets using each of the MIPS-FUN and GO annotation schemes and exploiting 2 different PPI networks. The results clearly show that taking autocorrelation into account improves the predictive performance of the learned models for predicting gene function.
Our newly developed method for HMC takes into account network information in the learning phase: When used for gene function prediction in the context of PPI networks, the explicit consideration of network autocorrelation increases the predictive performance of the learned models. Overall, we found that this holds for different gene features/ descriptions, functional annotation schemes, and PPI networks: Best results are achieved when the PPI network is dense and contains a large proportion of function-relevant interactions.
In the era of high-throughput computational biology, discovering the biological functions of the genes/proteins within an organism is a central goal. Many studies have applied machine learning to infer functional properties of proteins, or directly predict one or more functions for unknown proteins
A major step forward is the learning of models which take into account the possible structural relationships among functional classes
Figure 1
Example of a hierarchy
Example of a hierarchy. (a) A part of the FUN hierarchy
The topic of using protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks in the identification and prediction of protein functions has attracted increasing attention in recent years. The motivation for this stream of research is best summarized by the statement that "when two proteins are found to interact in a high throughput assay, we also tend to use this as evidence of functional linkage"
Motivation and contributions
The method developed in this work, named NHMC, addresses the task of hierarchical multi-label classification where, in addition to attributes describing the genes, such as microarray-derived expression values, phenotype and sequence data, the network autocorrelation of the class values (gene functions) is also considered. The main goal is gene function prediction in the context of gene interaction networks, where network autocorrelation exists among the functional annotations of genes. Each of the aspects of NHMC and network autocorrelation have been addressed individually in the framework of predictive clustering and in particular within the task of learning predictive clustering trees (PCT)
The consideration of network autocorrelation itself raises several challenges. The existence of autocorrelation violates the assumption that instances (in our case genes) are independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.), which underlines most machine learning algorithms. The violation of the i.i.d. assumption has been identified as one of the main reasons responsible for the poor performance of traditional methods in machine learning
The consideration of hierarchical multi-label classification introduces additional complications. Network autocorrelation in the context of different effects of autocorrelation can be expected for different class labels. Furthermore, the classes at the lower levels of the hierarchy will have a higher fragmentation: For those classes, the autocorrelation phenomenon will likely be local (or more local than for their ancestor classes). Thus, in HMC tasks, we will need to consider autocorrelation by modeling (and exploiting) its non-stationarity.
While the simultaneous consideration of the relationships among class labels (gene functions) and instances (genes) introduces additional complexity to the learning process, it also has the potential to bring substantial benefits. The method NHMC that we propose will be able to consider gene function hierarchies in the form of DAG structures, where a class may have multiple parents, and to consistently combine two sources of information (hierarchical collections of functional class definitions and PPI networks). In this way, we will be able to obtain gene function predictions consistent with the network structure and improve the predictive capability of the learned models. We will also be able to capture the non-stationary effect of autocorrelation at different levels of the hierarchy and in different parts of the networks.
In this article, we first define the concept of autocorrelation in the HMC setting and introduce an appropriate autocorrelation measure. We then introduce the NHMC algorithm for HMC, which takes this kind of autocorrelation into account. Like CLUS-HMC, NHMC exploits the hierarchical organization of class labels (gene functions), which can have the form of a tree or a direct acyclic graph (DAG). Like NCLUS, NHMC explicitly considers non-stationary autocorrelation when building PCT for HMC from real world (PPI) network data: The models it builds adapt to local properties of the data, providing, at the same time, predictions that are smoothed to capture local network regularities. Finally, we evaluate the performance of NHMC on many datasets along a number of dimensions: These include the gene descriptions, the functional annotation hierarchies and the PPI networks considered.
In this section, we introduce the method NHMC (Network CLUS-HMC; a preliminary version of NHMC has been presented in
For the HMC task, the input is a dataset
The method we propose (NHMC) builds a generalized form of decision trees and is set in the Predictive Clustering (PC) framework
The original PC framework is implemented in the CLUS system
The CLUS-HMC
Additional file 1
Algorithm 2: Pseudo-code of the CLUS-HMC algorithm for top-down induction of HMC trees.
Click here for file
Search heuristics
To select the best test in an internal node of the tree, the algorithm scores the possible tests according to the reduction in variance (defined below) induced on the set
In the HMC context, class labels at higher levels of the annotation hierarchy are more important than class labels at lower levels. This is reflected in the distance measure used in the above formula, which is a weighted Euclidean distance:
For instance, consider the small hierarchya in Figure
At each node of the tree, the test that maximizes the variance reduction is selected. This is expected to maximize cluster homogeneity with respect to the target variable and improve the predictive performance of the tree. If no test can be found that significantly reduces variance (as measured by a statistical F-test), then the algorithm creates a leaf and labels it with a prediction, which can consist of multiple hierarchically organized labels.
A classification tree typically associates a leaf with the "majority class", i.e., the label most appearing in the training examples at the leaf. This label is later used for prediction purposes when a test case reaches that leaf. However, in the case of HMC, where an example may have multiple classes, the notion of "majority class" cannot be straightforwardly applied. In fact, CLUS-HMC associates the leaf with the mean
For an example arriving at a leaf, binary predictions for each class label can be obtained by applying a user defined threshold
We first discuss the network setting that we consider in this paper. We then propose a new network autocorrelation measure for HMC tasks. Subsequently, we describe the CLUS-HMC algorithm for learning HMC trees and introduce its extension NHMC (i.e., Network CLUS-HMC), which takes into account the network autocorrelation (coming from PPI networks) when learning trees for HMC.
Network setting for HMC
Some uses of a PPI network in learning gene function prediction models include: treating the interactions between pairs of genes as descriptive attributes (e.g., binary attributes
In order to learn general models, which can be used to make predictions for any test set, we use protein interactions as a form of background knowledge and exploit them only in the learning phase. More specifically, in the training phase, both gene properties and network structure are considered. In the testing phase, only gene properties are considered and the network structure is disregarded. This key feature of the proposed solution is especially attractive when function prediction concerns new genes, for which interactions with other genes are not known or are still to be confirmed.
Following Steinhaeuser et al.
Each node of the network is associated with an example pair
Network autocorrelation for HMC
An illustration of the concept of network autocorrelation for HMC is a special case of network autocorrelation
In predictive modeling, network autocorrelation can be a problem, since the i.i.d. assumption is violated, but also an opportunity, if it is properly considered in the model. This is particularly true for the task of hierarchical multi-label classification considered in this work. Indeed, due to non-stationary autocorrelation, PPI network data can provide useful (and diverse) information for each single class at each level of the hierarchy. Intuitively, genes belonging to classes at higher levels of the hierarchy tend to participate in very general types of interactions, while genes belonging to classes at lower levels of the hierarchy tend to participate in very specific and localized interactions. In any case, the effect of autocorrelation changes from level to level (this aspect is also mentioned by Gillis and Pavlidis
In order to measure the autocorrelation of the response variable
Additional file 2
Click here for file
The network autocorrelation measure
The Algorithm
We can now proceed to describe the top-down induction algorithm for building Network HMC trees. The main differece with respect to CLUS-HMC is that the heuristic is different. The network is considered as background knowledge and exploited only in the learning phase. Below, we first give an outline of the algorithm, before giving details on the new search heuristics, which takes autocorrelation into account. We discuss how the new search heuristics can be computed efficiently.
Outline of the algorithm The top-down induction algorithm for building PCT for HMC from network data is given below (Algorithm 1). It takes as input the network
In practice, this means that for each gene
The algorithm recursively partitions
Search space As in CLUS-HMC, for each internal node of the tree, the best split is selected by considering all available attributes. Let
For continuous attributes, possible tests are of the form
Heuristics The major difference between NHMC and CLUS-HMC is in the heuristics they use for the evaluation of each possible split. The variance reduction heuristics employed in CLUS-HMC (Additional file
More formally, the NHMC heuristics is a linear combination of the average autocorrelation measure
We point out that the heuristics in NHMC combines information on both the network structure, which affects
However, the efficient computation of distances according to Equation 3 is not straightforward. The difficulty comes from the need of computing
Efficient computation of the heuristics In our implementation, in order reduce the computational complexity, Equation (6) is not computed from scratch for each test to be evaluated. Instead, the first test to be evaluated is that which splits
This allows us to significantly optimize the algorithm, as described in the following section.
Time complexity In NHMC, the time complexity of selecting a split test represents the main cost of the algorithm. In the case of a continuous split, a threshold
For each variable, the system has to compute the heuristic
However, according to the analysis reported before, it is not necessary to recompute autocorrelation values from scratch for each threshold. This optimization makes the complexity of the evaluation of the splits for each variable
In the case of a discrete split, the worst case complexity (for each variable and in the case of optimization) is
Additional remarks The relative influence of the two parts of the linear combination in Formula (6) is determined by a user-defined coefficient
Finally, note that the linear combination that we use in this article (Formula (6)) was selected as a result of our previous work on network autocorrelation for regression
Results and discussion
In this section, we present the evaluation of the system NHMC on several datasets related to predicting gene function in yeast. Before we proceed to presenting the empirical results, we provide a description of the datasets used and the experimental settings.
Data sources
We use 12 datasets for gene function prediction in yeast (
The seq dataset records sequence statistics that depend on the amino acid sequence of the protein for which the gene codes. These include amino acid frequency ratios, sequence length, molecular weight and hydrophobicity.
The pheno dataset contains phenotype data, which represent the growth or lack of growth of knock-out mutants that are missing the gene in question. The gene is removed or disabled and the resulting organism is grown with a variety of media to determine what the modified organism might be sensitive or resistant to.
The struc dataset stores features computed from the secondary structure of the yeast proteins. The secondary structure is not known for all yeast genes; however, it can be predicted from the protein sequence with reasonable accuracy, using Prof
The hom dataset includes, for each yeast gene, information from other, homologous genes. Homology is usually determined by sequence similarity; here, PSI-BLAST
The cellcycle, church, derisi, eisen, gasch1, gasch2, spo, exp datasets include microarray yeast data
We construct two versions of each dataset. The values of the descriptive attributes are identical in both versions, but the classes are taken from two different classification schemes. In the first version, they are from FUN (
In addition, we use two protein-protein interaction networks (PPIs) for yeast genes. In particular, the networks BioGRID
The basic properties of the datasets in terms of the number of examples, number of attributes (features) and number of (hierarchically organized) classes are given in Table
Experimental setup
In the experiments, we deal with several dimensions: different descriptions of the genes, different descriptions of gene functions, and different gene interaction networks. We have 12 different descriptions of the genes from the Clare and King' datasets
Additional file 3
The performance of the models for predicting FUN annotations.
Click here for file
Additional file 4
The performance of NHMC and other methods in predicting FUN annotations of yeast genes.
Click here for file
As suggested by Vens et al.
To prevent over-fitting, we used two pre-pruning methods: the minimal number of examples in a leaf (set to 5) and F-test pruning. The latter uses the F-test to check whether the variance reduction achieved after adding a test is statistically significant at a given level (0.001, 0.005, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.125). The algorithm takes as input a vector of significance levels/
Following Vens et al.
In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed NHMC algorithm, we compare it to CLUS-HMC (NHMC works just as CLUS-HMC when
Results for GO hierarchical multi-label classification
For each of the datasets, we report in Table
On the datasets with all genes, the best results are overall obtained by NHMC with
On average, NHMC outperforms CLUS-HMC. The difference in performance is especially notable for some datasets, i.e., cellcycle when using the DIP network and derisi, eisen and gasch1 when using the BioGRID network. This indicates that while some form of autocorrelation on the GO labels is present in both networks (DIP and BioGRID), they provide different information. Exceptions are the
The advantage of NHMC over CLUS-HMC comes from the simultaneous use of the hierarchy of classes and the PPI information in protein function prediction. It confirms the benefits coming from the consideration of autocorrelation during the learning phase. The tree structure of the learned models allows NHMC to consider different effects of autocorrelation at different levels of granularity. All these considerations are valid for both evaluation schemata we use, that is, the 2/3-1/3 training-testing split and the 3-fold cross-validation; schema.
The results obtained by using two functional linkage network (FLN) based algorithms, i.e., FunctionalFlow (FF)
As expected, when we use only highly connected genes for both training and testing, we obtain better performance. To investigate this effect in more detail, in Figure
Figure 2
After considering the accuracy on the subset of highly connected genes (see Table
As expected, with a threshold of 15 connections (training on genes with more than 15 connections and testing on the remaining genes) the predictive accuracy decreases for all methods/models, but the reduction is the smallest for NHMC (28% on average) and the largest for the FLN-based algorithms (91% for FF and 84% for H on average). NHMC does not use the network information in the testing phase and its predictions are not affected much by this scenario, whereas the FLN-based algorithms are highly dependent on the network information and their accuracy decreases drastically. Moreover, the results obtained by using NHMC are better than those of CLUS-HMC on the subset of weakly connected genes. This means that NHMC can build better models because it uses both the hierarchy of classes and the network information, as compared to the models built by only using the hierarchy of classes (by CLUS-HMC) or by only using the network information (FF, H). In the case of a threshold of 5 connections, we have better results both for CLUS-HMC and NHMC. However, in this case, the advantage provided by the network information does not allow NHMC to outperform CLUS-HMC in all the datasets and the accuracies obtained by the two systems are very similar. This is mainly due to the noise present in the PPI networks (especially present in weakly connected genes) which works against the beneficial effect of the network c .
A different perspective of the results is presented in Table
A final remark concerns the sensitivity of NHMC to the presence of highly redundant features and how NHMC works in combination with a feature selection algorithm. With this goal in mind, we have used a spectral feature selection algorithm
Results for FUN Hierarchical Multi-label Classification
In addition to the experiments with GO annotations, we also perform experiments with FUN annotations. The results are reported in Additional file
We also compare the results of NHMC using FUN annotations to the results of additional methods from other studies. In particular, we compare our results to the results of three recent bio-inspired strategies which work in the HMC setting, but do not consider network information. The three methods are Artificial Neural Networks (HMC-LMLP), Ant Colony Optimization (hmAnt-Miner), and a genetic algorithm for HMC (HMC-GA)
In Additional file
Using different PPI networks within NHMC
Although all PPI networks are frequently updated and maintained, many works have pointed out that the PPI networks are also very noisy (e.g.,
Having described some of the characteristics of the different PPI networks used in this study, we can now proceed with the comparison of the results obtained by using these networks within NHMC. Comparing the NHMC results obtained with DIP and BioGRID for GO annotations (Table
Finally, comparing the results in Tables
Related work
Many machine learning approaches that tackle the problem of protein function prediction have been proposed recently (starting from the seminal work by Pavlidis et al
HMC for predicting gene function
Our work builds on the foundations by Vens et al.
Using PPI networks in predicting gene function
Recent reviews of the latest techniques that use PPI data for protein function prediction
The second approach attempts to define the relationship between the PPI network topology and biological protein function. Milenkovic and Przulj
What distinguishes our work from related work As discussed above, many approaches exist for gene function prediction, some take into account PPI networks and some take into account the hierarchical organization of annotation schemes. Most approaches in the first category do not consider the hierarchical constraint directly, but rather in a post-processing phase. Most approaches in the second category do not explicitly consider the effect of network autocorrelation of gene function. Moreover, none of them, takes into account simultaneously the hierarchical constraint and network autocorrelation in predicting gene function.
In contrast to related works, in general and the related work described above in particular, our approach considers both the network autocorrelation that arise in the PPI networks and the hierarchical organization of the annotation schemes. In general, our approach NHMC performs better than the approaches that consider only the network or only the hierarchy of classes. This was clearly demonstrated above through the empirical comparison of NHMC with FunctionalFlow and Hopfield algorithms, on one hand, and with CLUS-HMC, HMC-GA, HMC-LMLP and hmAnt-Miner on the other hand.
Moreover, the network setting that we use in this work is different from that used in other studies where the network is not considered at all (although PPI networks give valuable information) or is considered in tight connection to the data so that predictions can be made only for genes for which interactions with other genes are known. In our approach, the network structure is considered only during the training phase (model creation) and is disregarded during the testing phase. This key feature of the proposed approach is especially attractive from a practical perspective when the function we want to predict of new genes for which interactions with other genes may exist, but are not known or still need to be confirmed.
In this work, we address the problem of learning to predict gene/protein function by exploiting their individual properties as well as their interactions (as captured in protein-protein interaction / PPI networks). In contrast to most existing approaches, which use only one of the two sources (properties or networks), we use both. Moreover, we only use the network information in the training phase and can thus make predictions for genes/proteins whose interactions are yet to be investigated.
We view the problem of gene/protein function predictions as a problem of hierarchical multi-label classification, where instances may belong to multiple classes and the relationships between the classes are hierarchical. We also consider relations among the instances, i.e., interactions of the proteins within a PPI network: These relations introduce autocorrelation and violate the assumption that instances are independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.), which underlines most machine learning algorithms. While the consideration of these relations introduces additional complexity into the learning process, it can also bring substantial benefits.
The major contributions of our paper are as follows. First, we formulate the problem of hierarchical multi-label classification in a network setting: To the best of our knowledge, the HMC task of structured-output prediction has not been considered in a network setting before. Second, we define the notion of autocorrelation for such a setting and introduce an appropriate measure of network autocorrelation for HMC. Third, we develop a machine learning method for solving the task of HMC in a network setting, which successfully exploits the network information (via autocorrelation) during the learning phase.
Finally, we perform an extensive empirical evaluation of the proposed machine learning method for HMC in a network setting on the task of predicting yeast gene/protein function in a PPI network context. We use a variety of datasets describing genes in different ways, two functional annotation schemes (GO and FUN) and two different PPI networks (DIP and BioGRID). In sum, the results of the evaluation show that our method, which uses both gene/protein properties and network information, yields better performance than the methods using each of these two sources separately: Overall, this holds across the different gene descriptions, annotation schemes, and different networks. The benefits of using the network information are diminished (more difficult to reap) when the genes/proteins are described with a very large number of features, i.e., under the curse of dimensionality.
More specifically, the properties of the PPI network used have a strong influence on the overall performance. Best results are achieved when the PPI network is reasonably dense and contains a large proportion of function-relevant interactions. The DIP and BioGRID networks rate best in this respect and lead to most notable improvements in performance when used within our method. It is worth noting here that networks (such as BioGRID) are nowadays often tuned for function-relevance with respect to the commonly used Gene Ontology (GO) annotation scheme.
Finally, note that the use of network information improves the accuracy of gene function prediction not only for highly connected genes, but also for genes with only a few connections (or none at all). Note also that we do not need information on the network around a gene when we want to predict the function for a new gene: This is important for genes that are not well known (especially in terms of interactions). In such a case, we can expect better predictions from the models learned by our approach, regardless of whether the gene is well connected or only weakly connected to other genes and regardless of the fact whether its connectivity is known or unknown.
We will explore several avenues for development and evaluation of our approach in further work. In terms of development, we plan to consider different ways for combining variance reduction and autocorrelation within the search heuristic used in our approach. In terms of evaluation, we plan to use additional datasets and networks. This will include new datasets for organisms other that yeast and networks based on sequence similarity (usually implying homology) among genes, as well as more recent function labels for the presently considered datasets. In the context of the latter, we will consider additional networks with non-binary weights that reflect the strength of the connections within the network.
Availability of supporting data
Project Name: NHMC
Project Home Page:
Available resources: NHMC software and user manual, and the datasets.
Note that the tree structure induced by CLUS-HMC does not directly reflect the hierarchy of classes. For this reason, in this paper, we will distinguish between the terms
b The function labels were downloaded in 2008. On one side, this facilitates comparison with previous work. On the other side, it is possible that results with new labels would be slightly different.
c Obviously, the considered case is an extreme situation where the evaluation suffers from the non-random distribution of the examples.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
SD conceived of the study, which was primarily carried out by DS and MC. DS designed and implemented NHMC, while DS and MC carried out the experimental evaluation of NHMC and other methods on the different tasks of gene function prediction. DS, MC, SD and DM contributed to the manuscript drafting and finalization. MC, SD and DM participated in the design of the study. SD and DM participated in the BioGRID: a general repository for interaction datasets 2006.coordination of the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
DS and SD were supported by the following institutions and grants: The Slovenian Research Agency (Grant P2-0103), the European Commission (Grants ICT-2010-266722, ICT-2011-287713, and ICT-2013-612944), and the Operation no. OP184.108.40.206.02.0005 financed by the European Regional Development Fund (85%) and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport of Slovenia (15%). SD, MC and DM were supported by the EU-funded project MAESTRA (Project No. 612944). The authors thank Hossein Rahmani who provided some datasets and Fran Supek who provided useful feedback.
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Home Owner in San Diego
We are wanting a LIVE OUT, FULL TIME, HOUSEKEEPER who has reliable transportation and excellent references. This person will occasionally help out with picking up kids (10 and 12 year old). * Must be flexible with hours 9 to 5 or 10 to 6 or 11 to 7 or sometimes 1 to 9. I am flexible and I need a flexible housekeeper. *Looking for Mexican Housekeeper who also speaks good English. I want my kids to learn Spanish but I must be able to communicate so MUST speak English too. *Must drive and have reliable transportation. *This person MUST be able to do and want to do : Clean all areas of the house including: Vacuuming, Dusting, Wiping, Mopping, Toilets, Showers *Doing Laundry for the entire house (4 People). Washing, drying, folding and IRONING when needed. *Organizing drawers , Cleaning out pantry, refrigerator and freezer . Organize anything that needs to be organized! *Helping to prepare meals when needed. You do not need to cook. I DO THE COOKING but need help getting things together. *MUST BE GREAT WITH KIDS as you will be helping to drive, pick up and watch on a limited basis. This would be after 3 only on certain days. *GREAT ATTITUDE because we are a great family! *Please ONLY contact if you fit ALL of these above * We are an awesome, loving, kind, hard working family looking for someone that can fit into our home and have a GREAT attitude!
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|Hourly Rate
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tag:liisten.com,2014:/feed Liisten 2017-03-12T15:08:35-07:00 Tyler Hayes http://liisten.com firstname.lastname@example.com Svbtle.com tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/the-bpm-game 2017-03-12T15:08:35-07:00 2017-03-12T15:08:35-07:00 The BPM Game
Here's a causal game inspired by playing in a band, listening to a click-track. The tempo and beats per minute are the heart of a song, in the sense that it breathes and pumps blood at a certain rate, in order to sustain it. (The obvious comparison is The Bee Gees live-saving song "Staying Alive".

While hopefully playable to some degree in its current state, this mostly serves as reference to an app or full feature implementation in the future.

BPM Game Objective:

The goal is to be able to correctly identify or articulate how many beats per minute a song plays at. The player (or team) with the most points at the end of the second round wins.

Song collection: 500 most listened to songs on Spotify during 2016.

Round one: Guess that BPM range

During the first round, a randomly selected song (out of the collection) will play and the player or team whose turn it is must guess the range at which the song falls–within a range of 10.

You have 16 seconds to make a guess. If the song's BPM is within the range guessed, the player is awarded 1 point. If the song's BPM is within the range guess the player can make a second guess to identify the exact BPM. If the exact guess is correct, the player is awarded 1 additional point. No points are deducted if the exact BPM guess is incorrect.

Example one: your guess must be within a range of 10 beats or fewer. That means an acceptable guess would be 70-80BPM, 105-115BPM, or 100-105BPM.

Example two: * U2's "With or without you" is playing * a player might guess 103-113 BPM. Since they are correct in the range they get 1 point and could guess again for the exact number. They guess 110 BPM and are correct so they get a second point.

Once a player has finished their turn, it's the next person or team's turn. During round one, each player or team takes two turns before moving to round two.

That means that each player has the opportunity to receive up to 4 points during round one.

Round two: Tell a song's BPM

Song collection: the 200 most popular songs of all time. (Determined by Wikipedia or definitive source.)

Similar to round one, the player whose turn it is must identify a song's BPM. Instead of listening to the song, however, the player will select a card from the deck of song cards and need to guess the BPM strictly from memory, only seeing the song name, without listening to it.

The player to the left of whose turn it is will select a song for them to guess. The player selecting the song reads them the artist and song name. The player guessing has 16 seconds to correctly guess the BPM within a range of 5.

If the player correctly guesses within 5 BPM, they are awarded 2 points.

There are no additional chances to guess the exact BPM if the player guesses within 5 correctly.

Each player or team takes two turns during round two.

Winning and other stipulations:

The player or team with the most points at the end of round two wins. If there is a tie, there are a few ways to break it.

The multiple winners may agree on engaging on one additional song selection from either round one or round two. This can continue until one person is the clear winner.

The multiple winners may agree on rock-paper-scissors game as the tie breaker. This must be best two out of three. This is meant to be the faster way to determine a winner if the game was taking place at night and people need to get home.

While not necessary for the game to be played, one of the side goals of the game should be to expose people to new music. If everyone has heard all the songs at the end of the game, that objective failed.

These rules are only binding in the sense that there be a baseline in order to introduce new players and have an agreeable set of standards. Which means that these rules and standards can be altered and built upon as long as all those players currently involved in the game agree ahead of time on the stated "house rules".

An example of future rounds and additional rules could include the bonus round of: Tap the BPM.

Tap the BPM might include each player or representative from a team taking turns selecting a card with a BPM written on it and then correctly tapping that BPM. The problem with this type of round shows a clear lack of needed tools in order to correctly lock in a BPM before the answer is shown. If you can solve this, please feel free to introduce this round into the game, or use as a tie breaker.

If additional rules can not be agreed on ahead of time, the default rules and regulations stated here are the ones which will determine the winner. If a situation or circumstance arises which is not part of these rules, the players are encouraged to come to a consensus–preferably one in the spirit of these existing rules.

That may include, but is not limited to, defaulting to the person with the most unique artists in their music library. Consulting the person currently paying for the most amount of legal music streaming services. Writing down the multiple preferred rules on a piece of paper and having a third party pick one out of a bowl.

Beyond anything, have fun.
 tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/2016-is-officially-the-yearofwireless 2016-09-18T20:22:13-07:00 2016-09-18T20:22:13-07:00 2016 Is Officially The #Yearofwireless
  On Wireless Earbuds

A few years ago I thought that tiny earbuds, wireless and independent of each other were science-fiction. They were impossibly small and unrealistic in all their depictions.

At a certain point they were a tiny bit bigger, slightly poking out of ears, but at least they were real. The Motorola Hint Bluetooth headset, a mono device made for calls and voice commands was the first time I remember thinking, Maybe this could happen. Then there was Earin in 2014. The stereo earbuds which wirelessly connected to each other and a device.

There was no wire to be found anywhere.

Those, along with The Dash from Bragi, sparked my interest so much I decided to ask why (and how) they were able to create them now. What was the catalyst to bring independently wireless earbuds into the real world at this time?

Turns out it was mostly software — the hardware being used was from 2011, so it wasn't some new miniaturization.

  Why are AirPods so exciting?

After using a bunch of these new wireless earbuds myself, I got frustrated that we were so close — the devices were here — but they were really hard to use.

Once you get really small earbuds, controls, pairing, and management become really hard. Just look at this list of touch gestures from The Dash. It makes sense that you'd want to have all these controls and yet, the experience is worse because it's hard to remember how to do the different tasks, and if you mess up, the no-look interface becomes hard to "go-back," so-to-speak.

This isn't even the full list, it wouldn't fit in one screen grab.

It's really easy to look at the AirPods and write them off as a pair of any wireless earbuds. I haven't tried them yet, but I can already tell that Apple engineers have tried current options on the market and have adjusted accordingly.

Pause when you take them out: it's a common item to wear earbuds around and then then to talk to someone. Without an in-line clicker button, the thought of how to pause before needing to talk to someone becomes too demanding of time.

Design: whether the design was focused on sound and function versus other situations is debatable, but having a way to hold the earbuds and get them in and out of your ear easily is key. The AirPods stems look to be a great way to do this.

Mono as a use-case: I often have my left earbud dangling because instead of taking one in and out when around people, I just leave one out, going back to listening to a podcast when I can.

Few tap gestures: this is a hard one to stick to, but absolutely the right move on initial release for Apple.

This is what using wireless headphones or earbuds with touch controls is currently like: Is pause/play on the left ear, is it on the right, can both do it? Is volume up and down, is it forward and back? What was three taps again?

Because you can't see the interface, the controls have to be few and they have to be easy. I'm not sure how it will be to double tap and ask Siri to raise or lower the volume, but I know this at least needed to be the path that they first went down. The other gesture-filled path is too bad to be the default option.

There should be no hesitation, just like using the in-line remote on wired headphones, when listening to something.

  Two headphones to cover all or most situations

The AirPods can't cover every situation. As cool as they will likely be, I see the times you'd want to use headphones split into two situations. First is the casual, time-limited instance, and second is one more dedicated and focused.

For walking around, listening to podcasts, phone calls, and casual listening, the type of earbuds (EarPods) that come with iPhones work well. I personally like the Bose SoundSport ones because their rubber inserts and ear hook create less fatigue on my ears and hold them in place well. But EarPods do fit my ears well also.

For airplanes, trains, open offices, and use for multiple hours at a time, a good pair of noise cancelling over-the-ear headphones is a good compliment to earbuds. There are a bunch of good options from Bose, Sennheiser, B&O, Sony, and others.

  In-home audio

The problems with Bluetooth extend beyond the wire connecting your phone to your head with earbuds. How do you listen to music in your house? I think Sonos is currently the best way and its one of the few companies articulating why an internet connected speaker is a better choice than anything else.

Bluetooth is fine, but not good and definitely not great and this video nails it.

I like Logitech's UE Boom series (Boom 2, Roll, Megaboom) when you need a portable Bluetooth speaker, especially because they are waterproof. However, these shouldn't really be the way you listen every day in your house.

  Why 2016?

The Earin wireless earbuds shipped in January 2016 after a lot of delays. The Dash from Bragi was shortly after that. There's also been similar wireless earbuds from Onkyo, Samsung, Jabra, and more vendors. All the stars aligned on timing, price, and need.

Rarely do you see a when a type of technology hit the market. Most people probably won't notice, but 2016 was the year these independently wireless earbuds became a thing. Now that Apple is here as well, it's official.
 tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/psa-the-microphone-is-on-the-earbuds-not-the-phone 2016-04-01T15:26:22-07:00 2016-04-01T15:26:22-07:00 PSA: The Microphone Is On The Earbuds, Not The Phone

It seems obvious, but there seems to be some confusion: if you have earbuds or headphones plugged into your phone that have a microphone built-in, then you don't need to hold the phone up to your face.

The other person can not hear you better if you do that. Think about it like this: when you have earbuds with a microphone plugged in, the microphone has been moved from the phone, next to your face.

Also, fyi, you probably don't need to hold the microphone close to your mouth either, but at least that makes more sense.

 tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/ranking-james-bond-theme-songs 2015-10-05T21:04:59-07:00 2015-10-05T21:04:59-07:00 Ranking James Bond Theme Songs
Just as memorable as a James Bond film, is usually the theme song which accompanies it. Here's a top 10 list of my favorites in order.

10 - Chris Cornell - "You Know My Name"

 9 - Ike and Tina Turner - "Goldeneye"

 8 - A-ha - "The Living Daylights"

 7 - Shirley Bassey - "Diamonds Are Forever"

 6 - Garbage - "The World Is Not Enough"

 5 - Jack White & Alicia Keys - "Another Way To Die"

 4 - Sheena Easton - "For Your Eyes Only"

 3 - Paul McCartney - "Live And Let Die"

 2 - Carly Simon - "Nobody Does It Better"

 1 - Adele - "Skyfall"

Other notable mentions: Madonna's "Die Another Day" is a decent song, but sticks out horribly as a James Bond movie theme.

Sam Smith's "Writing's On The Wall" is probably my least favorite James Bond theme ever.
 tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/the-best-streaming-music-service-in-2015 2015-09-03T14:46:26-07:00 2015-09-03T14:46:26-07:00 The Best Streaming Music Service in 2015?
The Sweet Setup is a site that aims to help the average person decide which apps and services are best suited for them.

I wrote a post for the site in 2014 which I picked Rdio as the music service people should be using. In 2015, that recommendation no longer holds true and I wrote a follow up post for The Sweet Setup which now recommends Spotify.

Spotify is the go-to choice right now because it has nearly every feature other services have, it has the most users (your friends,) plus it's gotten really good at what it does.

Apple Music is a very close second and is extremely promising, but lacks some features and has some software bugs out of the gate.

Once Apple Music gains an Android app, Sonos support, and more stability and consistency, it will be a force in the music industry.

Not only is Spotify the best option, but it's the service least likely to call it quits on music anytime soon. You may want to switch at some point, but it shouldn't be because you're forced to change music services.

Apple Music is also a good choice and I like it, but there will likely be too many caveats through the rest of 2015 for it to be universally recommended quite yet.
 tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/poncho-troubles-during-mlb-games 2015-08-02T21:15:28-07:00 2015-08-02T21:15:28-07:00 Poncho Troubles During MLB Games
I had no idea ponchos were creating so many problems for fans during baseball games, but after seeing these videos keep popping up in MLB's feed, I'm starting to see a trend. No matter how many times it happens, it's still hilarious.
  Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/the-early-morning-sonos-hack 2015-02-14T10:31:43-08:00 2015-02-14T10:31:43-08:00 The Early Morning Sonos Hack
Recently my four year old son has been waking up really early and getting out of bed around 5:30 am. My wife and I thought about getting a clock for his room and trying to explain when it was okay for him to get up. But the idea of explaining the numbers on a digital or analog clock seemed too daunting with a young kid waking up early in a still mostly dark room.

Then it hit me. There's already a Sonos speaker in his room which we use, among other things, to play lullabies when he's going to sleep and the speaker also has an alarm feature.

Instead of using the alarm in the traditional way to wake him up. I set it to 6:45am and told him that he couldn't get out of bed until he heard the music. Here's another benefit of the Sonos alarm: I can set it to any song using Rdio's on-demand service. So I let him pick the song he wants to hear in the morning that tells him he can get out of bed. By the way, he chose Cold War Kids' "All This Could Be Yours"–or what he calls the "call me up" song.

Whether or not this will actually work long term is still yet to be determined, but after one day it's proving to be a new Sonos kid hack.

Update: It works! At least it has so far over the last nine days straight.
 tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/music-to-write-to 2015-01-22T23:01:51-08:00 2015-01-22T23:01:51-08:00 Music To Write To
There's nothing magical about these albums, but they're ones that help create an atmosphere conducive to writing–for me at least. If I'm not careful with my musical choice when I need to get something written, I could end up down a rabbit hole searching for new music or focused on lyrics and get lost day dreaming.

The secret sauce these particular albums have is an ability to blend into the background and become a familiar texture over everything else around. They aren't painfully dull or bland, but they also aren't distracting. There's movement, like a lazy river, which is enough to carry you, but won't give you reason to pause.

If you looking for music to listen to while you write, study, sleep, or any other type of work, give these albums a spin. You may find something that works for you as well.

Hem - Departure and farewell (Folk)

Ben Webster - Soulville (Jazz)

Youth Lagoon - A Year In Hibernation (Lo-fi)

James Vincent McMarrow - Post Tropical (Indie/rock)

Sleeping At Last - Oceans (Singer/songwriter: piano)

Novo Amor - Woodgate, NY (Singer/songwriter)

I Am The Sky - The World Doesn't Need Another Record (Singer/songwriter)

I'll try and keep this list updated and time passes. Ironically I listened to Tokyo Police Club's album, Forcefield while writing this.
 tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/best-music-from-2014 2014-12-28T09:54:02-08:00 2014-12-28T09:54:02-08:00 Best Music From 2014
Instead of making a full top 10 list, I decided to highlight a few of my absolute favorite albums from 2014. I also added a single word which I feel describes the album as a whole–something that immediately comes to mind when I think of the songs.

  Copeland - Ixora

Word: Consistent

This is the one album on this list which doesn't immediately draw any word or image to mind. It's an album fairly predictable by Copeland standards. Meaning, there isn't any distinctively new direction the songs collectively take on. Most borrow parts of the past to make up something new. It's consistent in the best way possible.

Part of it too is still the shock and awe of a new Copeland album–after the band disbanded years ago. Ixora births a few surprises like "Like A Lie" which breaks into a sultry chorus, one with a thick groove. Or the acoustic and muzak-like "World Turn" which adds a saxophone and still isn't cheesy like it might sound.

What Ixora really does is just make me want Copeland to keep making music.

  James Vincent McMorrow - Post Tropical

Word: Melodic

Has there every been a more aptly titled album? Post Tropical is this subtly muted, but still equally bright collection of songs that vibrates interesting melodies from each line. See "Gold" as the best example.

I found myself listening to this record while writing and it provided the necessary movement without being distracting. When it's at the forefront of my attention, however, it's visually stimulating. McMorrow's falsetto nears glass breaking potential, yet it's still calming and soothing. This is a record that may take two full listens before it clicks with some people, but the time is well worth it.

  Colony House - When I Was Younger

Word: Emotional

Colony House is currently made up of three full-time members (and more touring ones) all of whom bared their souls on the band's debut record. Starting off with "Silhouettes," it may appear as if the album is predictable indie/rock, but it's not.

Simply stated, the lyrical content is powerful. It's based around a family dealing with loss and ultimately being made stronger, rather than falling to weight of grief. Starting with "Won't Give Up," tracks 10, 11, and 12 are the highlight of the album, but it's still an episodic journey that should be taken from start to finish.

  Leif Vollebekk - North Americana

Word: Relaxing

This is the album you put on after a long day at work. It's also the one you can put on while you have an intimate diner party. Even if the conversation breaks, Vollebekk's storytelling sense of style carries on.

Listening to North Americana it's as if you're walking the streets of New York. His voice is distinct and the lyrical details are ones only a few specific singer-songwriters can manage to pull of with grace.

  Madi Diaz - Phantom

Word: Moody

This record is both upbeat and slow, but the way it transitions from one spectrum to the other is a thing of beauty. There are a lot of different approaches to an album's flow and track listing–none of which I'd say are right or wrong–but Phantom's slow descent in BPM (beats per minute) works perfectly for its tone.

The whole album is tragically sad, mostly about a lost love. Which is why it comes off angsty and moody–with bite to backup its bark. Diaz isn't just a pretty voice singing pretty songs, rather she's telling (seemingly) honest stories that give the music staying power.

  Also worth an extra mention are a few brilliant albums from artists I didn't know about before 2014.

Pepa Knight's new EP, Hypnotized Vol. 1, is wonderful. Full of intricate sounds, it's never too obscure or predictable for its own good.

For those with a Bon Iver obsession, Novo Amor is gunning for you. Soft sounds mixed with a tender voice, his latest album will lull you to sleep or calm your nerves.

I love a good singer-songwriter and I Am The Sky is a top notch one. It's the whole package, but there's something distinct about his voice that sets him apart. Plus, he named his record, The World Doesn't Need Another Record, which is what got me to listen in the first place.

  There were a lot of other albums I enjoyed this year too. Here are some prominent ones in no particular order, all of which are worth your time.

Have Mercy - A Place Of Our Own

The Gaslight Anthem - Get Hurt

Wild Cub - Youth

The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream

The Colourist - Self Titled

Farewell Flight - I Was A Ghost

Switchfoot - Fading West

Tokyo Police Club - Forcefield

Sucre - Loner

Braid - No Coast

 tag:liisten.com,2014:Post/bandcamp-and-the-streaming-problem 2014-10-15T22:30:28-07:00 2014-10-15T22:30:28-07:00 Bandcamp And The Streaming Problem
Bandcamp is a website on a mission to provide musicians with the tools necessary to sell their recorded music–both digitally and physically. It's an easy way for artists to give their fans a solid commerce experience and make more money than selling through iTunes or Amazon.

Despite all the positive work the company is doing in the music space, it still appears to be focused on selling downloads. This seems like a problem as the social consciousness is wrapped around the idea of unlimited and on-demand music streaming being the solution to the music industry's woes.

Anyone paying $10 to Rdio, Spotify, Beats, or any of the other services has had the joy of searching for a song or album, hitting play, and being able to listen whenever they please. It's amazing for causal listeners and enthusiasts alike.

While on-demand streaming music may be its technical future, it doesn't appear to be the financial future artists were hoping for. To make the streaming model work, artists only make fractions of a cent each time someone hits play. It's frustrating for artists struggling to rise above the fray who are just trying to support their music habit. But it's equally as frustrating for fans who have to repeatedly watch as these bands they've emotionally invested in call it quits because recording music isn't sustainable.

What's the solution? For Bandcamp, it might be a feature called "subscribe." A fan can directly support a single band by subscribing to them directly for, as an example, $20/year. The fan gains access to all the music that band makes over the course of the year and the band receives a guaranteed fan for that time period.

It's awesome. Doing some quick math, it should really only take a small group of heavily invested listeners to lift an artist to a level of support they've probably never experienced in their musical careers.

No question, this was the answer to the new music industry a few years ago, I'm just not sure it's still the answer today in 2014. Digital music download numbers are continually dropping (as a whole), plus there's a visceral sense that people don't want to have to manage their music, moving it from device to device.

Music is becoming inherently mobile, if it isn't fully already, and so the thought of having to download something on-the-go is either inconvenient or, worse, not possible. When Thom Yorke released his new album through Bit Torrent, for example, mobile iOS users were forced to download the album via a desktop computer.

Bandcamp does have an app for iOS and Android, but you can't purchase music through the iOS version–the Android version passes the user off to the website to make a purchase.

The company is putting up impressive numbers regarding money being made and albums being downloaded, despite the industry's decline. The site is also continually making a great case for music discovery and fostering the type of community found in a record store. But there's still this nagging feeling that downloads are becoming so irrelevant that it will make directly supporting artists less relevant as well. If Bandcamp isn't part of the mainstream music conversation, can it still fulfill its mission?

Ethan Diamond, Bandcamp's founder, recently gave a talk with the main point being that the best way to support an artist is to give them money directly. The 20 minute talk is well worth the time if you don't believe people in the music industry are passionate about fighting for artists creating art–Diamond is very passionate about it.

I have no doubt that Bandcamp, as a group of individuals and as a company, is trying to do the right thing. It's trying to provide a direct connection from artists to fans in a pleasant manner, that's clear.

But it still seems like Bandcamp has a streaming problem, one that will have to be addressed at some point. I dearly want to support a growing number of artists, but it's becoming harder and harder as I discover more music. Most people just can't afford to pay for all the music they'd want to listen to.

Plus, streaming music is a dividing line. Once someone starts paying $10/month–over $100/year–for rented music, it's hard to mentally get over the idea that if they stop paying the money and music will both be gone.

If Apple does get into on-demand music subscriptions with Beats Music in 2015, like is expected, next year really could be the year the mainstream jumps on the streaming bandwagon and leaves the idea of downloads to die.


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"I would go to a little place on Lummi Island in America. It's really something special: you have to travel to Seattle and then fly for an hour or so and then you take a boat for another hour and then you finally find yourself on Lummi Island - home of Blaine Wetzel's The Willows Inn." René Redzepi, Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark
Last Supper with René Redzepi
"If you could take a plane ride anywhere in the world, just for one meal, where would you go?", FOUR asked René. Here's what he said...
August 18, 2014


text:
Inspire180® Medical Fitness Program
Inspire180® is an individualized, medical fitness program with team support from a licensed physical therapist, certified wellness coach and personal trainers.
We focus on solutions that are simple, effective, life changing and developed with our client's unique goals and needs in mind.
Training with a Physical Therapist and Certified Wellness Coaching may be covered by your insurance – find out how!
5 fundamental wellness building blocks:
- Formation of habits
- Improving movement and function- Creative exercise training sessions which emphasize full body movements and conditioning using "minimalist" exercise equipment – feel better and move easier.
- Life balance and stress management
- Understanding eating behavior and making practical changes- Keeping food and fat loss simple. We will cut through the myths and focus on the amount of food eaten, rather than what is eaten and empower you to make your own decisions.
- Inspire lifelong wellness- Developing strategies for increasing your daily activity and making healthy choices
"Before starting Inspire180 I had severe bilateral knee pain and was told I was bone on bone. I was probably no longer than a year out from having total knee surgeries. After Inspire180, I am able to function with only occasional discomfort, and anticipate that surgery is now several years out!" -Barb B.
How is the program implemented?
- Following a comprehensive evaluation including critical blood work values, a personalized program is developed with the client:
- Training sessions 2 x week "The staff is far more qualified to train people than any gym I know of." -Chuck H.
- Wellness coaching 1 x week
- Daily fitness, diet and habit accountability
- Following the first month, frequency and intensity of sessions will be tailored to your needs and personal goals.
"All great people involved from Generation Care. Always felt like I was the only one they were concerned for. The learning experience alone was worth the money. I have my youthful confidence back. It was ample time to get me into a routine… a lifestyle change… to allow me to do this on my own. I feel that I was more that adequately prepared to continue doing this program at home." -Chuck H.
- Client receives home equipment kit – portable suspension exercise training system, exercise sliders and training materials.
- 12 and 24 week program options to support lifelong change.
- Contact Mel or Lauren to inquire: 231.737.4374


text:
To make reservations by phone, call 1-800-228-2800 in the USA and Canada (or any of our worldwide reservation telephone numbers).
16150 N Merchant Way
Nampa, Idaho 83687
Boise Airport - BOI
Airport Phone: +1 208 3833110
Hotel direction: 21 miles E
This hotel does not provide shuttle service.
From Airport, take Airport Way to S Vista Avenue. Merge onto I-84 West. Continue 19 miles and take Midland Blvd. Exit #33B. Take first 3 Rights which are: 1:Turn slight right onto Midland Blvd. 2:Turn right onto W Karcher Rd. 3:Turn right again doubling back onto North Midland Blvd frontage road heading east. Hotel is on left.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
1731 Garrity Blvd
Nampa, Idaho 83687
Phone: +1-208-463-1222
3815 Rickenbacker St
Boise, Idaho 83705
Phone: +1-208-383-3100


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text: Posted May 15, 2013 at this point I'm pretty curious why he hasn't been restructured, or won't sometime in the near future.. quite the cap hit over the years for a guy who hasn't made it onto the field. He has examples all around him of guys helping the team out. If anyone, Beason should be next.. However, his may require an entire renegotiation at this point. williams required a complete restructuring as well. it could be that they have been working on both. it could be they just decided to work on williams first. i dunno. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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"Sic Semper Tyrannis"
Genre: Drama, Tragedy
Rating: PG
Characters: Ensemble Cast
Summary: The Ides came, and the Ides past – around the players within, the world keeps turning on.
Notes: These were written for the 50 Sentence Challenge (hosted on another site) – white includes writing four stories a month, each for a different fandom. The stories produced are much as the title would suggest – fifty prompts have fifty sentences written to them, and from those snippets a story is formed. Obviously, this challenge will slaughter grammar, and bring out the seldom seen from the muse - but is a fun and curious thing that has already been incredibly interesting. If you wish to, you can track my progress in my profile.
For this set, Julius Ceasar was the obvious choice, and I had a very interesting time trying to convey the majesty and political intrigue of Shakespeare's play in a very constrictive formate. In the end, it was certainly worth it just for the learning experience it turned out to be - that was for sure!
I hope you enjoy my humble offerings to a most cherished work, on these Ides of March.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, but for the words.
01. Ancient
The very thought of the ancient greatness that was the Republic of Rome being held in subjection by a king was an abhorrence that whispered in the minds of the people, even as he which they prided to call Dictator edged closer and closer to the title.
02. Dictator
"What true triumph is brought from Caesar holding in subjection other Romans?" Marellus scathed, Flavius at his side nodding in agreement as they observed the crowds cheer for the defeat of Pompey just as once they had cheered for the victories of him.
03. Perpetuity
In the years since the slaying of Pompey and the various battles won, Caesar had yet to return home – and the time away had done nothing but fix the image of the man as a God in the people's eyes – who had not the sight to see him as a mere mortal before them.
04. Bondage
Upon the recently erected statues of Caesar in the Rostra, there had been placed laurel crowns – bound by white ribbon, the color of Roman royalty – and upon seeing so, Marellus and Flavius felt a rage burn low in them as they saw a physical portent of Rome's immanent bondage.
05. Ambition
"My name is Caesar, not King," Caesar assured the crowd upon seeing the way the whole of those gathered frowned at the few men who offered him the title, his brow creased in a troubled way.
06. Pulpit
While the people cheered and rejoiced, several men of the senate looked down on the chaotic festivities that accompanied the triumph, their words hidden and their thoughts just barely daring to judge the one who returned as a conqueror in their midst.
07. Deity
"Already they call him Jupiter Julius," Cassius scathed, his words resounding low within Brutus, even as he tried to keep straight the lines between honour and duty within himself.
08. Column
"I would die for the idea of Rome rather than sit by and see her torn apart," Brutus whispered, the acknowledgment – while the truest of them - only served to ignite the whisper of an idea that had started to rot at Cassius' mind, refusing to let go.
09. Bellum
Cassius had sided with Pompey in the civil war – and Caesar's pardoning of him (for it was well known that the Dictator had an unwise habit of forgiving friends and enemies both; keeping them close like snakes amongst a quiver of arrows) only served to fuel Cassius' age old anger and abhorrence of dictators – an abhorrence that he could trace back to the time of Sulla himself.
10. Stigma
Garbed in goatskins and splattered with sacrificial blood, Antony sped towards the gates of the Field of Mars with the other runners, being sure to stray close to Calpurnia in order to grace her with his touch, and a superstitious lift of her barrenness.
11. Corona
"The people offer you this through me," implored Antony in a grand tone of voice, smirking as he offered Caesar the crown entwined with the laurel; bidding him thrice to accept the gift – and thrice was he refused.
12. Herald
The Carista holiday allowed Cassius to approach Brutus and reconcile the bad blood between the two of them (for one had been favored more than the other after the defeat of Pompey, even though they had been promised equal); and speak of his discontentment to one who would see the only foreseeable end as a noble deed.
13. Prodigious
"Beware the Ides of March," was the murmured prophesy, said from a reedy voice that was all the whisper of grave winds and the howling of a dread spirit's promise.
14. Military
"Leave me my battlefields and men killing men honourably – these politics make me weary," Caesar confided to Calpurnia as the festivities came to an end late in the night.
15. Campaign
"Four days past the Ides, Caesar departs for his three year campaign against the Getae – he is a conqueror, and a man must do what man is made by the Gods to do – before then, Brutus, you must decide where your loyalties lie."
16. Olive
Just as Brutus hated the rule of oppression he feared would overcome Rome should his dear friend become king, Cassius hated the ruler that would take Rome - and his hate defined his very being from the far off depths of his soul to the harsh burn of his eyes.
17. Soothsayer
Deep in the night before the Ides, the heavens split a warning to the earth below; unsheathing specters and unleashing violent tempests upon the dreams of those who knew and trembled before portents waiting to be fulfilled.
18. Ides
"Don't go," Calpurnia pleaded, her normally level and gentle voice alight with an unfamiliar passion to his ears, her eyes wild while lost to the vision of her dreams and the strength of her certainty that if he were to part from his side this morning, he would not live to return to her.
19. Conspiracy
With trembling hands, Portia helped her husband strap his dagger to his left arm, carefully covered by his robes of state, her fingers loitering in the folds of the cloth as she breathed in deep – reminding herself of all that her husband strove to accomplish, and all that she was to stand by and let him risk his life for.
20. Dissemble
"It seems that I shall not be the only beast without a heart if I let such portents keep me from the senate today," Caesar made light of the divination of the haruspex, however much the news of the distorted sacrifice may have truly troubled him.
22. Altar
Cassius lifted his eyes to the solemn statue of Pompey presiding over them all, his form bowing as he would bow before a carved God, a silent prayer for success dropping from his lips to fall to the still unsullied stone below.
21. Senate
"The senate wishes to grant you a crown today," Decius said in a simpering tone, his eyes shrewd, "and yet, if we must wait for Caesar to grace us with his presence until a time when Calpurnia has had better dreams . . ."
23. Conquest
Brutus shook his head when those gathered suggested that Antony be swept aside with Caesar – the murdering of his friend was righteous and just, anything more then that and they would be just another dishonorable bid for power, drenched in blood on their way to the pulpit of success.
24. Expansion
Steadily the number of those gathered at Pompey's Theater grew and grew, as if was known that this would be the last time Caesar would preside over them until he returned from battle against the Gatae.
25. Legion
With his heart hammering in his chest, Artemidorus pushed past the crowd, desperate to give Caesar the scroll in his hand – and warn his sovereign of the legion of men who plotted against him.
26. Orator
"There is only thing more treacherous than Antony's sword in defense of Caesar – and that is his words," Cassius muttered.
27. Lithe
"What violence is this?" Caesar twisted, and caught Casca's wrist in his hand as he felt blood flow from where the other man's dagger had nicked the side of his throat – cowardly approaching him from the back, rather than face him eye to eye.
28. Imperator
There were not, and never would be, words within Brutus to describe the look in the other man's dark eyes as he twisted the blade deep – clasped in Caesar's embrace as if he were a fond son, and returning the affection and mercy with a death's stroke of his own.
29. Redress
"I that loved Caesar struck him so in the name of a higher love – a love for Rome and all that she can and deserves to be," Brutus insisted to Antony, the other man's eyes hard as he took in the bloodied form of his hero, dead before the statue of Pompey.
30. Palter
For now, they would see him as a coward or a flatterer – but they would know the truth once he was granted the chance to speak, determined as Antony was that his words would stab them over with many wounds until the Tiber herself could not handle the amount of blood that poured from them – just as they had so faithlessly done so to Caesar.
31. Rived
"Out of twenty-three wounds, only one was fatal, my lady," the physician said to the grieving Calpurnia, who had yet to let go of her husband's hand, or move to wipe the angry tear tracks from her face.
32. Tributaries
"And for the better," Marellus chuckled upon hearing, spitting on the ground in memory of the Dictator, Flavius fond with agreement at his side.
33. Colossus
How did one explain how and why they had felled a God, Brutus wondered as he stood before the gathered citizens of Rome, breathing in deep as he carefully chose his words.
34. Din
Controlling a crowd was a time honed art where one read the rise and fall of voices as one would read the current of the waves at sea – and so Antony let them murmur and swell before he cut into the crest, aiming his words to turn the maelstrom of people (even more fickle than ocean winds) in his favor.
35. Smote
Brutus did not stay to hear Antony speak – he couldn't – instead fleeing home in order to properly mourn there, his stomach rebelling against him, and his hands shaking as if possessed – he had never been a soldier, and he had never killed before; this was one deed that he'd never be able to wash his hands of, and that fact above all other tore at his normally peaceful soul.
36. Pact
Octavius was already waiting for him at Caesar's residence when he arrived, the stone crafted youth just barely smiling as he smelled the blood in the water – and the prospect of open power left before him.
37. Tremulous
"You must flee – and fight your fight upon another field, one of your time and choosing," Portia insisted when first she saw him returned, "for the people thank you not, and they wish for blood."
38. Forum
Servilia couldn't seem to catch her breath as she listened to the proof of her son's treachery with the rest of the crowd – her disbelief complete as she said a silent prayer in mourning to the man she had adored throughout her life – and an apology for Caesar drawing Brutus close on the sole fact that he was of her body born.
39. Opulence
With a burning in her heart, Calpurnia watched as the foreign Queen stole her last goodbye with Caesar (she was not ignorant – she knew of her husband's affairs, and she knew that if it were permissible by law she would have been cast aside for the other long ago), and still, seeing the opulently beautiful woman grant herself a quiet mourning (that she would never be able to show before any other audience) touched a small part of Calpurnia, unadmitted and unexamined.
40. Laurel
With careful fingers, Antony placed down the laurel wreath, sorrow heavy in his heart, and expectations for victory high and heavier still as he vowed to live up to the teachings of the one who had come before him.
41. Impetus
"More Romans spilling the blood of Romans," Cicero scoffed, his old eyes harsh on the gathered remains of the senate – knowing, as cynical age would know – that by killing the tyrant, they had done nothing more than open up the way for a new one to rise.
42. Arena
Upon the plains of Philippi he would see the work that the Ides had started completed; no matter how the shadows awaiting them seem to cry with ghosts, or the harsh words of Antony and Octavious promise them nothing but a soldier's death – or the prospect of being dragged home in chains as yet another triumph marched across Rome's fair streets.
43. Triumph
How many times had he watched the triumphs of returning heroes – secretly disapproving of the fanfare that killing brought – and ignorantly thought their trials empty in comparison to the more subtle warfare of the senate . . . but that was before he had taken to the battlefield, his opinions made in ignorance.
44. Chariot
Troubled, Brutus looked on the financial difficulties of raising an army – refusing to sink to unscrupulous means, and refuted by Cassius, he finally let his temper get the better of him when dealing with his hard hearted brother-in-law.
45. Parthenon
"She's gone to Plouton – as all must eventually go," Brutus said to his men, his manner flippant and strong; where later he would take the time to properly mourn and shed tears for his dear wife – taken away from him by her own hand in the most gruesome of ways.
46. Avouch
"The black part of your reflection," the spirit answered plainly, without prompt or ceremony – just as the ghost's likeness had done when living; and Brutus paled when he saw the scarlet decorating the specter's form just as it had when last he had seen him.
47. Legacy
The Brutus of ancient times – the first consul of Rome who had removed from his throne Tarquinius, the last king of old – would have wept to see where his namesake had fallen forth, the nobleness of his deeds not lost until he drew his final breath.
48. Rise
"Caesar," Antony inclined his head slightly, his words a dry point between a mock and grudging respect as Octavius accepted the title as if it were owed to him.
49. Fall
With a bitter smile, Cassius looked down at the sword who stole his life away from him – the same that his hand had used to steal the blood of Caesar - and managed to give a rasping chuckle, "And Caesar – now you are avenged."
50. Empire
How strange, Brutus thought while he still could call his mind to order - just barely recognizing the ghost that watched his death with pitying and satisfied eyes – that Rome would not have a king after all, for the name of Caesar was now higher than that of king; the seemingly divine name now a title for those who would rope Rome in chains in the years to come – in mere moments, he'd know for certain if his old friend was laughing at this irony, for he too would join him in eternity.


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Written on: 07/11/2009
Top grill has never worked properly. 5 callouts and still not working. Worse cooker I have ever owned! Suggest Comet get their parts supplier to update system. Wrong part sent 3 times!!!!
As rated by our community of reviewers
" Leisure Gourmet 60 Gas " Read More
" Worst cooker " Read More
" Worst cooker ever " Read More
" Front faschia enamel " Read More
" Worst cooker I have ever had Dangerous with small pans " Read More


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Beard trimmer Remington MB4110 features a unique micro setting to create lots of different lengths in the range of 0.4 to 5.5 mm. Clipper blades are made of advanced titanium . This is a titanium-impregnated chromium, which makes the blade stronger and sharper. For a smooth result is included large shaving attachment. Power is supplied via the mains or built-in battery. Recharging can also solve virtually via any USB port.
Improved titanium blades
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Precision trimmer T-Blade
Washable head
Big shaving attachment for smooth outcome
Easily replaceable heads
Micro setting (from 0.4 to 5.5 mm)
Up to 40 minutes cordless
USB charging (USB cable included)
Charging indicator
Travel Case
Specifications can be changed without notice. Images are for illustrative purposes only. Retail Price (MSRP) means the manufacturer's/supplier's suggested retail price.
Link to Manufacturer's Website: Enter link to the external review


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Gold Rush Cupcakes is Albuquerque's premier cupcake destination. Whether you are searching for something classic, exotic or whimsical, you are sure to find it here. We use only the finest ingredients we can get our hands on and we bake fresh daily.
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Sen. Joe ManchinJoe ManchinGovernors-turned-senators meet to talk healthcare Manchin organizing bipartisan healthcare meeting Tuesday night Moderate Republicans, Dems huddle on healthcare MORE (D-W.V.) criticized the Obama administration on Tuesday for "royally" botching the healthcare rollout.
"The bottom line is that they messed up, they messed up royally," Manchin said on MSNBC. "There's no excuse for this, and I'm not here trying to make excuses."
Manchin is among a group of red state Democrats who have been critical of the administration's handling of the federal healthcare site.
Still, Manchin said the spirit of the law was sound and urged his colleagues to rally around a fix.
"I sure don't want to go back to what we had before," he said. "One serious or catastrophic illness away from bankruptcy, a child with a defect couldn't get on their parents' [insurance] – or someone with a preexisting condition couldn't get insured, or someone who was too sick said their only option was to die, I guess."


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A seemingly remorseless Richard Matthews received two life sentences plus 250 years in prison from a judge, forgiveness from some relatives of his victims and a severe tongue-lashing from others Friday after he admitted killing two Grady Crawford Construction Co. workers and wounding a third during a 2009 shooting rampage at the Greenwell Springs Road firm.
In all, Matthews, 58, of Slaughter, pleaded guilty before state District Judge Tony Marabella to two counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted first-degree murder — pleas that came just three months after the judge found Matthews to be intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty that prosecutors were seeking.
"Yeah, I did a crime," Matthews replied when Marabella asked if he was pleading guilty voluntarily.
Matthews, shackled and wearing an orange and white striped prison jumpsuit, sat next to his court-appointed attorneys as several relatives of Cheryl L. Dixon Boykin, 55, of Denham Springs, and Diana Lynn Tullier, 44, of Walker — the two women he gunned down Dec. 23, 2009 — gave emotional victim impact statements.
Matthews worked for five years as a laborer at Grady Crawford Construction before being fired several months before the deadly incident.
Boykin's brother, Gary Dixon, glared directly at Matthews and said his sister's killer has a "deep black hole in your soul" and asked why Matthews didn't just turn the .357-caliber revolver on himself — rather than take the lives of two innocent people — if he was so hellbent on killing someone.
Dixon also said the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola will "seem like paradise" compared to the hell that awaits Matthews after he dies.
Security was tight inside the courtroom, with no less than seven East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies stationed throughout the room.
Tullier's daughter, Kelley Tullier, turned to Matthews and said she forgives him for taking her best friend, someone she described as funny and a sweetheart.
"You didn't just kill two people; you destroyed two families," she said. "You disgust me."
"Thank you," Matthews fired back as he leaned forward in his chair.
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III, who spoke with reporters after the guilty plea and sentencing, said of the convicted killer: "Still not a whole lot of remorse from Mr. Matthews."
Moore said he will never forget the "violent, gruesome murders" or the sound of Christmas music playing in the background at the crime scene.
Asked after court how she is coping, Kelley Tullier said, "Just remembering the good times and trying to build new ones."
Diana Tullier's son, Jonathan Tullier, said in a statement read in the courtroom by Kristen Raby, an East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office victim assistance coordinator, that he passes Grady Crawford Construction twice a day and cries more than a grown man ever should.
"You are a coward in my eyes, and I have no pity for you," he wrote, adding that his mother's laughter is missed.
Mere moments before Marabella sentenced Matthews, Boykin's daughter-in-law, April Boykin, caused a hush to fall over the courtroom when she spoke to her mother-in-law's murderer.
"Look at me Richard Matthews. I want you to look at me Richard Matthews. I want to see your eyes. I forgive you," she said softly. "I thank you for finally allowing us the closure for our families."
Matthews was scheduled to stand trial July 20.
Prosecutor Darwin Miller told Marabella that Matthews first shot and wounded a female dispatcher in one building, then went "roaming" through a second building in search of Trey Crawford, a son of the company's owner. Matthews fatally shot Boykin and Tullier before several employees wrestled him to the ground. One of those workers put his finger between the trigger and the trigger guard to prevent Matthews from firing more bullets, Miller noted, calling that man and the others who subdued Matthews heroes.
The day he was terminated, Matthews told someone at Grady Crawford that they had not heard the last of him, but the remark was not reported to the Sheriff's Office until Dec. 23, 2009, after the shootings, Sheriff Sid Gautreaux has said.
Miller said Friday the company was never made aware of any imminent threat.
"The business didn't know," he stressed to the judge.
Matthews told a deputy after the killings that he did not mean to shoot anyone other than Trey Crawford, who had fired him because of poor work performance. Crawford was not at the site when an armed Matthews arrived.
One of the attempted murder counts to which Matthews pleaded guilty accused him of trying to kill Crawford.
While deputies were escorting Matthews from the Sheriff's Office the day of the shootings, he told reporters, "I was trying to get my unemployment, but they wouldn't give me my unemployment."
As Matthews was escorted from a courtroom in June 2010, he again volunteered, "I feel sorry for the family. I didn't want to do that. If I would have gotten my unemployment, wouldn't none of this have happened. I'm willing to give up my life for what I did."
Miller said Friday that the Louisiana Workforce Commission had denied Matthews some type of unemployment benefits, through no fault of Grady Crawford Construction.
"There was an ongoing appeal by Matthews that was still pending at the time of this catastrophic, unspeakable incident," the prosecutor added.


text: My Z1 will not work properly with my Garmin GPS. I need the GPS to manage calls when on a motorcycle. I really don't want to re-build my phone unless completely necessary (and especially not if there is an inherent compatibiliy issue!). So, I was wondering whether the hard reset using the "hidden" button was the same as powering off and on. If it's a deeper process, I'll give it a go and see whether my issues are resolved.


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