def read(*parts):
    """
    Build an absolute path from *parts* and and return the contents of the
    resulting file.  Assume UTF-8 encoding.
    """
    with codecs.open(os.path.join(HERE, *parts), "rb", "utf-8") as f:
        return f.read()
def __calculate_initial_covariances(self, initial_clusters):
        covariances = []
        for initial_cluster in initial_clusters:
            if len(initial_cluster) > 1:
                cluster_sample = [self.__sample[index_point] for index_point in initial_cluster]
                covariances.append(numpy.cov(cluster_sample, rowvar=False))
            else:
                dimension = len(self.__sample[0])
                covariances.append(numpy.zeros((dimension, dimension)) + random.random() / 10.0)