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Okay, I realize I'm a bit late to the party here but at least I got this out a few hours before kickoff.
Today, the United States of America (U.S.A. if you're into that whole acronym thing) will be squaring off against Spain in the confederations cup semi-finals. USA. is currently ranked 14th in the world with Spain ranked as the top team in the world.
In an effort to get this article out before kickoff I'll make this short, which will be a relief to 99% of the readers who have read up to this far and probably have no idea I'm discussing a soccer match.
Keys to victory
– Get the ball to Donovan/Dempsey in space. These are the only players on the US team that can even compare in skill level to the Spanish team.
– Do not force the ball to Altidore. The Spanish have an extremely talented team. They will cut Altidore out of the game if USA gets into its usual attacking style of kick the ball to him and running after it.
– Play the quick attack. This is by far the most important for USA if they are to have a chance. USA cannot sit back and try and play possession. They need to catch Spain off balance and not let them settle into defense. USA pulled it off vs. Egypt and they will need to do it again today.
– Play the ball through the midfield. Fabregas will be able to move at will with the ball in the midfield. This is an area of weakness for the US and an area of strength for Spain, leaving a great matchup to exploit. Fabregas is arguably one of the top midfielders in the game right now, with the ability to create something out of nothing at will.
– Possess the ball. The disparity in talent between the 2 sides is staggering. If Spain is able to sit back and play its classic possession style of attack, there will be no chance for the US to initiate it's quick strike attack style.
– David Villa is probably the 2nd best player in the world right now, and paired with Fernando Torres, makes this Spanish team able to score on any possession. Get the ball to them and do it often.
My bold prediction:
3-0 Spain with David Villa, Carles Puyol, and Fernando Torres each scoring 1.


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Best Animated Album Covers
If you thought there was no improving on your favorite classic rock album covers in this brave new digital age, well... think again. A growing group of creative computer-assisted artists are using animation to bring new life to these classic works of art.
Ultimate Classic Rock, along with Loudwire, are bringing you our favorite animated album covers, as done by those who've mastered the art of the GIF file. You can now literally see the Rolling Stones cover model get tattooed, or watch the Beatles literally cross Abbey Road (albeit, in a very silly manner.) So, without any further adieu, let's explore the Best Animated Album Covers on the Internet!

subset: commoncrawl


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Evernote released its latest update to their iOS apps last week, prompting existing users to (largely) rejoice and likely acquiring a slew of new users. Evernote is a solid service – you can do a whole lot with it – but the fact it can do so much is what makes it daunting for the first-time user.
So I've put together a small starter guide to get you going as you wade into Evernote for the first time.
Once you've signed up for Evernote and either installed it on your computer or decide to dive into the web interface, it's time to create your first note.
1. Creating Your First Note
In the main Evernote window, you'll see a large button labeled "New Note" at the top, so just click that button and you'll be on your way. The new note will appear and the cursor will be placed right within the body of the note so you can enter whatever text you want. You can then title the note to give it some context, as well as add other information by tagging the note.
2. Creating Notebooks
Creating a notebook is just as easy, and they allow you to put notes inside specific notebooks so that you can keep things better organized. I've created several notebooks in my Evernote database, starting with Personal and Professional.
I've gone even deeper and added notebooks within notebooks that represent different aspects of my personal and professional life. You don't need to go into that much detail, but I'd strongly suggest you keep notes organized within notebooks in the same way you keep file folders in a file cabinet. Otherwise you could end up with just a mess of notes with no real rhyme or reason to where they relate in your life.
3. Install Web Clipper
I'd go and grab the Evernote Web Clipper. Why? Because you can start using it right away to populate Evernote with any material you might want to read later, for example. I also use it to grab links for research for blog posts, and more.
When you use the web clipper, you can add tags to make things easier to find and assign what notebook in Evernote that you want it to go in. You can also add notes and choose whether or not you want to clip the entire page and/or save the page URL. You can also simply highlight portions of web content for clipping as well, which is great for quotes and gathering specific excerpts of blog posts.
4. Start Collecting!
You can also share notes using email, Twitter, or Facebook, meaning that you can share any content you've found (or created) right from within the Evernote web app or any of the platforms on which Evernote is available.
There is a lot more you can do with Evernote, including adding the Evernote-compatible products and services that would enhance your Evernote experience by accessing Evernote Trunk. I'd also go ahead and install Evernote on your mobile devices so you that you can stay connected with the service no matter where you are. Spend some time getting familiar with the basic of Evernote, keep it organized, and you'll find that Evernote can be a very useful tool.
Head over to Evernote.com to sign up for the service and grab Evernote for iOS here.
Photo credit: whatleydude (CC BY 2.0)


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Antibiotics are now failing to work because they have been overused for people and farmed animals. This is a danger to us because antibiotic-resistant bacteria can quickly spread between people. This can result in new strains of infectious disease that are more difficult (potentially impossible) to cure and more expensive to treat.
Antibiotic resistance occurs when an antibiotic can no longer control or stop bacterial growth. This leads to bacteria becoming resistant and multiplying despite the presence of therapeutic levels of an antibiotic. When bacteria become resistant to most antibiotics they are referred to as 'superbugs'.
Drug resistance is already here. Resistant infections are already on the rise with up to 50,000 lives lost each year to antibiotic-resistant infections in Europe and the United States alone. Worldwide that figure rises to 700,000 each year as people die of drug resistance (not just to antibiotics but to several types of drugs that have been over used) in illnesses such as bacterial infections, malaria, HIV/Aids or tuberculosis. If nothing is done, it is predicted that many millions will die each year – especially in poorer countries. The UK government warned in April 2016 that 10 million people a year could die from antibiotic resistance by 2050, saying: "Antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics will present a greater danger to humankind than cancer by the middle of the century unless world leaders agree international action to tackle the threat."
Leading scientists are now warning that we are in danger of entering a 'post antibiotic' age, which may make many routine surgical operations dangerous and could cut life expectancy. The Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Dame Sally Davies, stated in 2012: "Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness at a rate that is both alarming and irreversible - similar to global warming." And the Director of Health at the United Nations Development Programme, Mandeep Dhaliwal, warned of a return to the era before Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin. "We are on the road back to the days of people dying from common infections and injuries."
Sources of Quotes:


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Photography Classes in Bishop TX
Are you ready to take photography classes in Bishop TX? No matter if you are a professional, beginner, or hobbyist, the most effective way to improve your photography skills is through hands-on classes with professional instructors.
There are numerous accredited photography schools in Texas. Photography classes teach subjects such as portrait capture, exposure and composition, lighting, posing and unposing, and other photography fundamentals. Growing into a skilled photographer can lead to a prosperous professional career or lifelong hobby.
There are numerous Photography Classes in Bishop TX:
- Bishop Photography 101
- Bishop Digital Photography Classes
- Bishop Nature Photography Classes
- Bishop Editorial Photography Classes
- Bishop Studio Photography Classes
- Bishop Photojournalism Classes
Bishop TX Photography Classes
St Philip's College
1801 Martin Luther King Dr
San Antonio, Texas 78203-2098
Phone: (210) 486-2000
130.87 miles away
San Antonio College
1300 San Pedro Ave
San Antonio, Texas 78212-4299
Phone: (210) 486-0000
133.90 miles away
The Art Institute of San Antonio
10000 IH-10 W Ste 200
San Antonio, Texas 78230
Phone: (210) 338-7320
140.95 miles away
Texas State University-San Marcos
601 University Dr
San Marcos, Texas 78666
Phone: (512) 245-2111
156.87 miles away
Saint Edward's University
3001 S Congress Ave
Austin, Texas 78704-6489
Phone: (512) 448-8400
180.29 miles away
Austin Community College District
5930 Middle Fiskville Rd
Austin, Texas 78752
Phone: (512) 223-7000
186.51 miles away
The Art Institute of Austin
101 W. Louis Henna Blvd Suite 100
Austin, Texas 78728
Phone: (512) 691-1707
197.41 miles away


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Spanghew means to throw or jerk something violently into the air. "Especially a frog, etc, as a game," says my Concise Scots Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary concurs. Sadly, I have turned up no details to support this description of what sounds like an especially cruel and primitive sport.
The only sporting connection I can find refers to a horse, not a frog, and it's the horse that's doing the throwing: "Hercules had 'spang-hewed' so many triers, and the hideous contraction of his resolute back had deterred so many from mounting, that Buckram had began to fear he would have to place him in the only remaining school for incurables, the 'Bus" [that is, he would end his days between the shafts of a London omnibus]. This is from Robert Surtees' Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour of 1853.
The origin of second part is obscure — there's no evidence to link it to any of our usual senses of hew. The first part is the Scots and Northern English dialect spang, originally a verb meaning to spring, leap or bound. The Reverend M C F Morris wrote about it in his Yorkshire Folk Talk in 1892: "It is probably now obsolete, though its disappearance is regrettable, being very expressive in such a phrase as spang thi gaits, i.e. put your best leg foremost. It is, however, still in use in such a phrase as he spang'd him doon, i.e. he threw him violently to the ground".
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Kuala Lumpur is known for its tropical climate and a bustling modern, city that is embraced by lush greenery. The brilliant spectacle of the Petronas Twin Towers oversees this Asian city, that is the capital of the nation of Malaysia. It's cosmopolitan population, amidst a mix of modern and traditional cultures that makes Kuala Lumpur one truly unique city.
Amidst these diverse influences, Kuala Lumpur is also home to a thriving fashion landscape. The city is the birthplace of numerous designers who have impressed with their Asian/Western influence, a marriage of inspirations so to speak, that display a fusion of East-West styles.
Enter the fabulously stylish, free-wearing designs of Le Ann Maxima. Le Ann Maxima, clothier to timeless high-street designer pieces, is the perfect example of a homegrown fashion brand that marries catwalk couture pieces with chic, everyday wear, suitable for the urban woman on-the-go.
Wearable, light, easy couture … does that even exist ? Sounds like a city girl's dream come true. Not to mention that the line is reasonably priced, sparing one the cost of couture whilst outfitting local girls in the giddy experience of daily stylishness.
I visited the flagship store in Kuala Lumpur and met with Ivan Poon, Vice-President of the Le Ann Maxima brand. Ivan welcomed me warmly to the store and shared the mission of the local brand – to produce timeless high street fashion designer pieces at affordabie prices. He spoke of the target market of the brand that attracts young, successful locals as well as a celebrity clientele across Asia & the globe. He patiently displayed Le Ann Maxima's various styles and lines that cater to all occasions.
Very simply put, the Le Ann Maxima signature is a mixture of the rich, quirky heritage of Europe, interspersed with an Asian flavour. www.leannmaxima.com
The vibrant colours , pinks, coral, turquoise, blues, reds as well as the flattering lines of Le Ann Maxima's designs were what really stood out and pulled me. It was like the lines of casual, semi-formal and evening wear called out my name, imploring " Pick me, wear me ! I'll make your day fabulous !" I may be delving in some poetic license here in my attempt to relay the allure of this vibrant fashion line. They express the beauty of femininity while exhibiting both elegance and playfulness.
Le Ann Maxima has a diverse collection of casual wear, office wear and cocktail/semi-formal lines but it's array of gowns were what catch the eye. Their flowing dresses are gloriously womanly whilst being easy to wear. They range from the bright, summery long dresses that would be the ideal pick for a garden party or brunch with the girls. And then there are the more decadently bejeweled, crystal laden gowns dripping with glamour and sophistication. Slide your fingers through this line of gowns and beware of the temptations of each glorious ensemble.
Now, I wanted to uncover the designer of this exquisite collection? As Ivan Poon explains, dedicated in-house designers lovingly and meticulously craft the most exclusive of women's lines on a monthly basis. These trend-setting collections keep hitting their stores nationwide with fresh, updated designs on a regular basis, and keeps clients eagerly awaiting the next, new line exhibiting it's signature Euro/Malysian style.
I spoiled myself with a host of outfits from Le Ann Maxima, a brilliant, upbeat jacket and skirt suit that would be perfect for a day on Rodeo Drive. I found a wonderfully feminine peach satin gown that made me feel like a movie star from the silver screen, dripping with Hollywood glamour while stepping into the modern era.
Then there were the summery dresses, fuschia pinks and peacock greens that made every day feel like a splash of summer. Vivid colors splashed over light, linen fabrics that washed delicately over my skin.
I also picked out an edgy mock-suede leather jacket that hugged my figure with a unique fabric that offered the stylish appearance of leather with the comfort of a cooler fabric. Ideal for the tropical climate.
Along with a few more chic pieces, I was equipped with a tantalizing new wardrobe.
And so I painted the town red attending events, luncheons, even out of town trips dressed in Le Ann Maxima. Le Ann Maxima's long,feminine gowns were the ideal outfit for any variety of evening events from cocktail parties to more formal celebrations. I could even see a daring, unconventional bride walk out in her fuschia pink wedding dress!
This is a collection that travels and wears with comfort and flexibility. Truly this city girl was made to feel both comfortable and Fabulous ! With it's wonderful blend of cutting-edge style and comfort, Le Ann Maxima's trend setting collections are designed to compliment every woman's wardrobe, making the 'Maxima Woman' a head turner and the epitome of style and grace.


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Zander Greenshields
Bass Player/Singer
Style: Rocky
Influences: Steve Harris. Geezer Butler. John McVie and Glenn Hughes. Band wise it's old Fleetwood Mac, Bluesbreakers and Purple/Whitesnake.
Has played many times with different bands on The Ferry
K: Hi Zander, tell me a wee bit about your background
Z: I come from more of a Rock background and up until a couple of years ago was flying down South a lot to play with the official UK Iron Maiden tribute band.
K: Have you toured a lot?
Z: I've done Europe a fair bit, mainly Holland and Belgium and I've been on the road a lot with bands like The Blackwater Blues Band with the Nimmos and other bands. That was a while back but that was fun…we still talk about those days (laughs)
K: Memories for life?
Z: (Laughs) Aye…scars for life, really. Great times. Just ask Alan Nimmo about Chocolate Orange liqueur :-)…and he'll go green. I think there was bottle of Baileys in there as well.
I've spent a lot of years in transit vans and done a lot of miles with the Hideaways and the Blackwaters. Don't get me wrong it was never that far. We did Wales and we did Ireland. We never did the South of England but I've played down there a lot with the tribute bands. Stevie used to show us the diary and we were doing 230+ gigs a year at that time.
K: That's incredible!
Z: Yeah when you think back now, it feels like that but it was my job at the time. Yeah, on some Saturdays we would do 3 gigs in the one day. Afternoon, evening and then a Biker's festival at 2 and 3 in the morning. So, yeah, there were a lot of gigs.
K: How did you find that at the time. How did it affect you physically?
Z: Well (Laughs), it would probably kill me now but back then you never thought about it. We would sleep in the back of the van, on couches, on chairs. At that age you were bullet proof….and there was a fair bit of drinking as well 🙂 But Stevie never touched a drop and he would drive everywhere and he would look after us. It did take it's toll eventually.
K: Did you get de-sensitised to the music at times?
Z: Oh aye. I got de-sensitised to a lot of things, I became bullet-proof to criticism as well. But I always remained dedicated to the band.
K: You must've been really tight with that amount of playing. How did that work in the studio, did you ever do any recording?
Z: Yes and from memory I think we recorded the album in one take. There might have been a couple of tracks laid down for some of the tunes but not really because we needed to just because…we could. Which is quite incredible when you think about it. Everyone in the band were really good players though which helped.
K: What's it like playing with the Iron Maiden tribute band?
Z: Aye brilliant. A couple of times I've met the guys in the band. You know, the real Iron Maiden which was quite surreal. The main writer is Steve Harris and he plays Bass as well and I met him at the end of tour party when we did the Fan Club tour at the O2 in London. It was kind of weird and there a few celebrities there as well. It was great fun.
I've also done a couple of tours with the lead singer of Iron Maiden, Paul Di'Anno and that was great fun as well.
K: You must've learnt quite a bit from all these guys?
Z: Aye I guess…good and bad but I had some really great times with him even though I had suspicions that he was making things up every now and then but aye, it was really good anyway. But again on the subject of talking to these guys I've played with Paul Rose as well and I've played with Ted McKenna on some of the Gallagher stuff. It doesn't get any better than that for me! I think it was the Montrose Blues Festival and Paul had an acoustic set to play in the afternoon and it was an absolute stunner of a day and me and Ted went down the beach and just had a good old chin-wag and it was fantastic hearing all of the Michael Schenker Group stories, you know, the personal memories, stuff you would never read in books. Stories about some of the things that went on with Graham Bonnet and such like. Reading Festival stories. I think he played the Reading Festival twice with the Harvey Band and other times with Rory and another bands. I'm not sure who he actually played with at all of them but I'm sure he was in the headline band 5 times. He also told me stories about playing the Budokan and the Dodger Stadium, supporting The Who with the Alex Harvey Band. They supported The Who again in Parkhead as well!
K: I think most of the guys a grew up with were into the heavier stuff to begin with and I was a huge Deep Purple fan. Jon Lord was the guy that got me hooked on Hammond.
Z: Go and listen to the new King King album, the Hammond on that is very Deep Purple/Whitesnake/Free. On that point, me Alan and Stevie (Nimmo) did the Free (the band) convention twice and that was interesting. I've also played with Gallus Cooper, the Alice Cooper tribute band and The Forgotten Sons.
K: It's quite a diverse spectrum that you covered and different from the stuff you are doing with Snakeskin Boogie at the moment. How did you learn all of that range of material. Do you read music?
Z: No, I play by ear on all of the stuff. A lot of the stuff is just Blues played in a Rock style and they are all influenced by the Blues. There are a lot of similar scales.
K: So you have a couple of things on the go at the moment?
Z: Yes, there's "Snakeskin Boogie" and "Blues Power" and I'm pretty much sticking to the Glasgow scene with those at the moment. I'm happy doing what I'm doing just now and I've got the offer of work with Stevie and other bands when the opportunity arises. To be honest the pub circuit hasn't really moved on at all and there are too many people out there willing to play for nothing but that's just the way it is. I've also got some gigs with The Midnight Blues band with Gus Munro and Davie Boyle and that's great fun too. It's great playing with Gus, he does his own thing. I've known him since we were in our teens. I played with him in a band called Silvertrain years ago. It was me, him and Alan Nimmo.
K: So you're still very much on the scene?
Z: Yes, definitely but I'm just not travelling far and wide any more. It's not about the money any more. It's just great playing with these guys, Colin Robertston and Alan Wheeler are 2 of the finest guitar players in Glasgow and Davie Boyle is a stalwart of the Glasgow Blues scene. We do it for the crack.
K: Well talking of that, you've got a gig to go to with Snakeskin Boogie right now in Rockus. You're on in 40 minutes!
Z: Aye, I'd better go. I've got this brand new amp that I've never used before as well, I'd better get moving.
K: Good luck with the amp and the gig Zander. It was a pleasure meeting you at last
Z: Aye you too. I really enjoyed that. Catch you later.
Date: 18/07/2015
Camera info
Camera: Nikon D750
Lens: Nikon 24-120 f/4
Focal length: 44mm
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f/6.3
Time of day: 15:23
Lighting: Keylight at 45 degrees at about 2 feet elevation with 24″ softbox, rim light and tri-grip reflector
Zander is a great bass player and an all round amazing,fun guy.I would like to thank him personally for his recent support in offering me a stage to sing on after a period, where i thought illness had finished my blues warbling days.Our banter at Rockus is something i look forward to every time i'm there Thanks mate.Simply the best!


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Keith Branch started photography in 1979 working for a local newspaper and quickly expanding to portraits and weddings. His first studio in 1986 in his home town of Alamo, Tennessee. Branch Photography quickly rose to the top as the leader in photographic excellence. In the mid 90's, Keith began giving workshops and seminars to professional photographers across the nation. By 1998, he had earned his Masters, Photographic Craftsman and Certification degrees from the Professional Photographers of America. In addition, he has earned his Photographic Fellowship degree from the Professional Photographers of the Ozarks, Service degree from Senior Photographers Internationals and Certified & Service Degrees from Tennessee Professional Photographers Association. In 1998, Keith moved to NWA to better expand his photographic art.
Branch Photography is the leading photographer in NW Arkansas. Keith has been honored time and time again by local, state and national organizations. The studio has been honored to be voted #1 Photography Studio for 8 years in a row as well as Best of the Best and The Best Photographer from 2014 through 2018 from the readers of Celebrate Arkansas magazine. Having the largest privately owned studios in NWA, Branch can offer great variety with ease and comfort.
Whether your need is portraits or commercial images for your business, Branch Photography will create images that will help you better connect with your clients and provide the impression you desire. We encourage you to see what others have said on our Testimonial Page.
• Master Professional Photographer Degree
Professional Photographers of America
• Craftsman Photographer Degree
Professional Photographers of America
• Fellowship Degree
Professional Photographers of the Ozarks
• Service & Certified Degrees
Tennessee Professional Photographers
• Certified Professional Photographer
Professional Photographers of America
Kodak Gallery Award
PPA Loan Collection Image
Multiple Awards from
Tennessee Professional Photographers Association
Professional Photographers of the Ozarks
Clients of Branch Photography
Architecture, Food, Product, Headshots, Events, Location
Grand Village
Element Hotel
Polk, Stanley, Wilcox Architects
SLAM Architects
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
Celebrate Arkansas Magazine
Rogers Chamber of Commerce
AR Braces
Crabby's Seafood Bar & Grill
Anytime Fitness
Smokin' Joe's Ribhouse
Arkansas Children's Hospital
Crews & Associates
Bancorp South
Noodle's Italian Kitchen
Car Clinic
Dr Storm's Orthodontics
Bank of Arkansas
Elder Law
Raymond James
Bank of Ozarks
Taylor Law Firm
Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce
First Security Bank
Pinnacle Counseling
Autmns Ridge
Springwoods Behavioral Health
Boen Kemp Construction
The Richland Group
Pro Fab LLC
Roller Weight Loss
Cobb-Vantress, Inc
Legacy Bank
Centennial Bank
Walton Arts Center
Bora Architects
Beaver Water District
Vold Vision
Bentonville Eye Care
LaHeurta Restaurant
Big Ass Fans
Elite Title
Commercial Realty
Nabholz Construction
East Harding Construction
Grey Barn Landscaping
Marcus Black DDS
Eureka Pizza
Hope Cancer Resources
Mid America Pool Renovation
Springdale Chamber of Commerce
Neff Dental Group
Paschal Heat & Air
Premier Dermatology
Courtyard by Marriott
2NJoy Magazine
Arkansas Economics
River Grill
Spark Cafe'
Linden's Jewelry
Encore Realty
Hope Cancer Resources
Vantage Point Communications
Stribling Packaging Inc
DoubleTree Hotels


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NTM-Lasagne: A Library for Neural Turing Machines in Lasagne
The first part of this post is about the theory behind Neural Turing Machines. The second is about the library itself, and benchmarks on tasks from Google DeepMind's original paper.
Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) have become a major player in sequence modeling over the past few years. Due to their efficiency and flexibility, it is tempting to think that they will constitute the future of sequence learning. However, research in Deep Learning is moving at such a fast pace that no one knows what that future is going to be made of.
In fact, among the recent innovations in Deep Learning, the idea of adding some form of external memory to existing architectures has led to promising results, especially in Natural Language Processing (NLP). For the most part, these memory-augmented networks have been motivated by the need to reproduce the notion of working memory theorized by neurosciences, which is responsible for inductive reasoning and the creation of new concepts.
Here, we will focus on one of the earliest examples of memory-augmented neural networks: the Neural Turing Machines (Graves, Wayne & Danihelka, 2014). We will see in details how they work, as well as how they can be suitable for learning algorithmic tasks.
Along with this blog post, Snips is also open sourcing NTM-Lasagne on Github, our Neural Turing Machines library built with Theano, on top of the excellent Lasagne. It includes code, pre-trained models, as well as all the examples covered in this post.
Memory-augmented Neural Networks
A feature that all neural networks share, whether they are recurrent or feed-forward, is that they map data into an abstract representation. However, adding knowledge from the external environment, like a whole thesaurus in NLP, is very hard.
Rather than artificially increasing the size of the hidden state in the RNN, we would like to arbitrarily increase the amount of knowledge we add to the model while making minimal changes to the model itself. Basically, we can augment the model with an independent memory that acts as a knowledge base from which the network can read and write on demand. You can think of the neural network as the processing unit (CPU), and this new external memory as the RAM.
The choice of the structure for the memory is crucial to keep the read/write operations fast, no matter the size of the memory. Multiple designs have been proposed by the Deep Learning community. For example the Neural Turing Machines, as well as the Neural Random Access Machines (Kurach & Andrychowicz et al., 2015) and the Neural GPU (Kaiser et al., 2015), use a tape with read and write heads. In Grefenstette et al., 2015, the authors use continuous versions of structures like stacks or (double-ended) queues.
An interesting side-effect of these memory-augmented networks is the ability to keep track of intermediate computations. For instance, in the case of Question-Answering (QA) problems in NLP, it can be valuable to memorize a story as the model reads it to eventually answer a question. The Memory Networks (Sukhbaatar et al., 2015) and the Dynamic Memory Networks (Kumar et al., 2015), for example, take advantage of the memory to perform well on QA tasks.
The idea of adding extra memory to RNNs is not new. In fact, the Long Short Term Memory networks (LSTMs, Hochreiter & Schmidhuber, 1997) already have a basic memory cell on which information is stored at every time-step. For an introduction to LSTMs, I recommend reading this great post by Chris Olah that details step-by-step how they work, including the role of this memory cell. To make it short, the main function of this cell is to simplify the learning of RNNs, and maintain long term dependencies between elements in the input sequence.
So, what is the point of adding a memory with such low-level addressing mechanisms, compared to LSTMs? The answer is structure.
LSTMs typically have a distributed representation of information in memory, and perform global changes across the whole memory cell at each step. This is not an issue in itself, and experience has shown that they sure can memorize some structure out of the data.
Unlike LSTMs, memory-augmented networks encourage (but don't necessarily ensure) local changes in memory. This happens to help not only to find the structure in the training data, but also to generalize to sequences that are beyond the generalization power of LSTMs, such as longer sequences in algorithmic tasks (we will see some examples below).
You can picture the value of memory-augmented networks over LSTMs through the idea of the cocktail party effect: imagine that you are at a party, trying to figure out what is the name of the host while listening to all the guests at the same time. Some may know his first name, some may know his last name; it could even be to the point where guests know only parts of his first/last name. In the end, just like with a LSTM, you could retrieve this information by coupling the signals from all the different guests. But you can imagine that it would be a lot easier if a single guest knew the full name of the host to begin with.
Neural Turing Machines
In their respective domains, Computability Theory and Machine Learning have helped pushing forward the abilities of computers. The former defined what a computer is capable of computing, whereas the latter allowed computers to perform tasks that are easy for humans but were long thought to be impossible for computers, like computer vision for example.
Alan Turing himself studied the strong connections between computing and prospects of Artificial Intelligence in the 1940s. His Turing Machine is a classical computational model that operates on an infinite memory tape through a head that either reads or writes symbols. Although this abstract computer has a very low level interface, it is powerful enough to simulate any algorithm. The Neural Turing Machine (NTM) takes inspiration from these two fields to make the best of both worlds.
It is worth noting that there is an interesting connection between Turing Machines and RNNs. The latter are known to be Turing-complete (Siegelmann, 1995). It means that just like with Turing Machines, any algorithm can be encoded by a RNN with carefully hand-picked parameters (such parameters may not be learnable from data, though).
The NTM can be seen as a differentiable version of the Turing Machine. Similarly to a Turing Machine, it has two main components: a (bounded) memory tape, and a controller that is responsible for making the interface between the external world (ie. the input sequence and the output representation) and the memory through read and write heads. This architecture is said to be differentiable, in the sense that both the controller and the addressing mechanisms (the heads) are differentiable. The parameters of the model can then be learned using Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD). Let's describe these components in more details.
The controller is a neural network that provides the internal representation of the input that is used by the read and write heads to interact with the memory. Note that this inner representation is not identical to the one that is eventually stored in memory, though the latter is a function of this representation.
The type of the controller represents the most significant architectural choice for a Neural Turing Machine. This controller can be either a feed-forward, or recurrent neural network. A feed-forward controller has the advantage over a recurrent controller to be faster, and offers more transparency. This comes at the cost of a lower expressive power though, as it limits the type of computations the NTM can perform per time-step.
Read / Write mechanisms
The read and write heads make the Neural Turing Machines particularly interesting. They are the only components to ever interact directly with the memory. Internally, the behavior of each head is controlled by its own weight vector that gets updated at every time-step. Each weight in this vector corresponds to the degree of interaction with each location in memory (the weight vector sums to 1). A weight of 1 focuses all the attention of the NTM only on the corresponding memory location. A weight of 0 discards that memory location.
Moreover, we would like these weights to follow two requirements: they should support local changes (read or write) on the memory while keeping their updates differentiable, as we want to train the NTM end to end. To this end, the weight vector gets updated through a series of intermediate smooth operations.
There is a total of four operations per update: content addressing, interpolation, convolutional shift and sharpening. They all depend on parameters produced by the controller. More precisely, these parameters are functions of the hidden state emitted by the controller.
In the content-addressing operation, the NTM focuses its attention on the memory locations that are "close" to some key. This allows the model to retrieve specific informations in memory. Roughly speaking, a bit like pointers in C. This content-based weighting is then gated with the weight vector from the previous time-step in the interpolation operation. If the gate is zero, then the content-addressing is skipped. On the contrary, if the gate is one, then the previous weights are ignored.
The convolutional shift then smoothly shifts the weights left or right. This is very close to the head shifting in a classical Turing Machine. Finally, the shifted vector is sharpened to get a weight vector as focalized as possible. Keep in mind, though, that none of these operations actually ensures local changes on the memory, despite the strong emphasis to produce sparse weights. As a consequence, you could end up with a "blurry" weight vector to weakly queries the whole memory.
Once the head has updated its weight vector, it is ready to operate on the memory. If it is a read head, it outputs a weighted combination of the memory locations: the read vector. The latter is then fed back to the controller at the following time-step. If it is a write head, the content of the memory is modified softly (depending on its weights) with an erase and an add vector, both produced by the controller.
NTM-Lasagne benchmarks and examples
Inspired by the paper from Google DeepMind, we benchmarked our NTM library on algorithmic tasks. In each experiment, the goal is to learn an algorithm only by looking at a series of examples of inputs and outputs. More specifically, we only feed the Neural Turing Machine with random inputs, with the corresponding expected outputs from the algorithm we intend to learn. No prior knowledge on the nature of the algorithmic task is given to the NTM. In a way this is a convenient problem, as we can sample as much data as we want, contrary to working with limited and noisy real world data.
We are here especially interested in the capacity of the NTM to understand the concept of the algorithms, meaning that the NTM should be able to generalize to sequences of any length, including sequences longer than what it saw during training. This is what we will call the generalization performance.
The code for all the following experiments is made available with the library, along with pre-trained models, so that you can test them by yourself. All the hyper-parameters and architectural details are also available, and we will briefly remind them here. You can skip the following section if you want the avoid the technical details.
In all these examples, we use a single-layer Neural Turing Machine with a 100-units feed-forward controller. The memory has 128 locations controlled by 1 read head and 1 write head, just like in the original paper. One key thing we found particularly helpful is the use of rectify activations (ReLU). The latter showed better generalization performance over the typical tanh activation, and helped getting sparse representations of the sequences.
The Copy task is the most basic algorithmic task, in which we test the capacity of the NTM to store and access information from memory. The goal is to reproduce the input sequence as an output. Of course, this task only tests a small fraction of all the operations available in the addressing mechanism.
It is important to point out that we are not trying to learn an autoencoder, where the goal would be to reconstruct the whole input at once. Instead, the NTM reads the input sequence one item at a time, and writes its output one item at a time as well. Think about it as reading a book (word by word) and then having to copy it back, just from memory. This is already a lot more challenging.
What is even more challenging is that we are not only interested in the capacity of the NTM to copy sequences of length similar to what it was trained on, but to effectively learn the copy algorithm and generalize to longer sequences. To continue the parallel with books, let say that you are learning to copy pocket books but eventually you are asked to copy the Odyssey.
In this example, we trained a Neural Turing Machine on random sequences of length up to 5. It showed perfect generalization (ie. an error below 1 bit per sequence) on test sequences of length up to 120. In fact, this is not surprising since the NTM actually hits the limit of the memory, thus is not able to generalize any further.
Repeat Copy
To test increasingly complex algorithms, it is interesting to check if the NTM is able to learn simple algorithmic primitives, like a for loop. In the Repeat Copy task, the NTM receives an input sequence, along with a representation of the desired number of copies. The goal is to reproduce the data described in the input sequence a specific number of times.
Contrary to Google DeepMind, we used a unary representation of this number of copies (ie. a repeated binary flag) instead of a scalar in [0, 1]. The scalar representation, while suitable for training, strongly relies on normalization and does not leave much room for generalization. As a matter of fact, a similar effect was reported in their paper.
Note that the NTM reads the raw input sequence and does not get any hint on where the data and the number of copies are. The model has to figure out by itself where the relevant information is during training.
Associative Recall
The Associative Recall task is a more advanced example that learns a basic query/answer system. Taking advantage of the content addressing, this task allows us to test if the NTM is able to learn C-like pointers. In this simple case, the NTM is given items consisting of multiple binary vector, separated by delimiters, along with a query item at the end of the input sequence. The objective is to retrieve the item (answer) that immediately follows the query item in the input sequence.
Once again the NTM gets no hints about the nature of the data. In particular, it has to understand that the items are delimited by a special binary flag, and distinguish it both from the actual data and the query delimiters.
Dyck words
In addition to all the regression examples presented above, we are also interested in testing Neural Turing Machines on classification tasks. Taking inspiration from formal languages, we could test the recognizability of some language only from examples. A good compromise in complexity is to test the NTM on the language consisting of strings of balanced parentheses (also called Dyck words).
Dyck words have been extensively studied and are closely related to many objects in combinatorics. In the context of recurrent networks, they are also very interesting: well formatted parentheses typically involve long-term dependencies, known to be the Achilles heel of RNNs.
A very simple algorithm can be used to check whether a word of parentheses is a Dyck word though. This algorithm involves a stack and is described below.
Experience proves that NTMs are actually able to encode such a procedure! However, contrary to the previous examples, the NTM uses its heads not necessarily to store information in memory, but as a way to keep track of the status of the stack. This shows that the NTM is not only able to use its memory as a linear storage, but also to perform complex computations with long-term dependencies, regardless of its content.
As we explained in this post, Neural Turing Machines show promising properties in terms of generalization compared to LSTMs. The way information is stored and modified locally, in an external memory, makes it an interesting solution to handle problems that require reasoning.
We hope that the library we are releasing with this post will help the Deep Learning community to make progress in the exploration of this fascinating topic. Up to now, this is the first open-source library that is able to reproduce the Copy, Repeat Copy and Associative Recall tasks from Google DeepMind's original paper with this level of quality.
A lot of progress has been made towards artificial perception with Deep Learning, and Convolutional Neural Networks in particular. The NTMs open new possibilities to go a step further and understand how concepts are created. After all, algorithms are concepts for computers. This is a new take on Artificial Intelligence: trying to teach machines things they can do, the same way we would learn them. Let's see where this gets us!
You can download the NTM-Lasagne library on Github.
If you want to hear more about Neural Turing Machines, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence in general, follow us on Twitter at @tristandeleu and @snips.
By the way, if you are interested in AI, Snips is hiring!


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Tasting Note
The Arturo Fuente Don Carlos No. 2 came on the market in 1997 and quickly gained a reputation as one of the finest cigars made in the Dominican Republic. It was also one of the best examples of a non-Cuban cigar crafted in the classic Montecristo No. 2 shape. The 6-by-55, Cameroon-wrapped cigar is a notorious slow starter: the first half inch or so is typically uninspiring and hardly indicative of the complex, delicious flavor that's to follow. Fuente has impressive inventories of aged tobaccos, and it reserves its oldest leaves for use in the Don Carlos line, which is named after family patriarch Carlos Fuente Sr., who created the blend with his son Carlos Jr. and tobacco grower Rick Meerapfel. The cigars were impossible to find during the boom years of the 1990s, and while still not a common sight in cigar shop humidors, they are much easier to find than in years past.
Size: Figurado
Filler: Dom. Rep.
Binder: Dom. Rep.
Wrapper: Cameroon
Country: Dominican Republic
Price: $11.00
Issue: Cigar Aficionado – Jan 01, 2005
Designation: Top 25 of 2004 | Rank: 4


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OAKLAND (CBS SF) — The Alameda County civil grand jury issued a report Monday criticizing the way city of Oakland officials oversaw the development of a teen center in East Oakland, calling the process "a complete fiasco."
At issue are the Rainbow Recreation Center and the adjacent Digital Arts and Culinary Academy on International Boulevard, projects that have been championed by City Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who represents that area.
The grand jury said in its annual report that after interviewing numerous witnesses and sorting through hundreds of documents it found that "city contracting, purchasing and hiring rules were circumvented during the teen center project."
The report didn't mention Brooks by name, but it said, "One council member stepped out of their role on the council and inappropriately made administrative decisions throughout the process, often with full knowledge and complicity of city staff."
The panel said former city executives as well as current and former department heads "failed to stop this inappropriate conduct" and allowed the project to move forward "at a time when other parks and recreation programs were being cut and projects with higher priorities went unfounded."
The grand jury's report is similar to a report issued in March by City Auditor Courtney Ruby, who said Brooks interfered with city workers in her efforts to get the Rainbow Recreation Center built as well as another teen center in her district, the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center.
Brooks couldn't be reached for comment Monday.
The grand jury report said it made numerous attempts to get the council member mentioned in its report to appear before the panel but "the council member refused to cooperate with the investigation."
In its report, called "Misgoverning the City of Oakland," the grand jury said the council member "lacked the experience and expertise to ensure that city rules—and more importantly—state laws intended to protect the city were followed."
The panel said, "What ensued was a complete fiasco that diverted city administration's attention away from many other dire issues the city was facing."
The grand jury said that among the problems with the project are that construction work wasn't put up for competitive bidding and the center's employees hadn't gone through sufficient background checks before being allowed to work with children.
The report said, "The Oakland City Council's interference with, and intimidation of staff, diminish the overall effectiveness of city government" and failure by city staff and department heads to report or stop council interference "contributes to the unacceptable culture of intimidation and leads to continued misconduct."
The grand jury recommended that the City Council provide the city's Public Ethics Commission with sufficient power and funding to enforce the city's ethics-related ordinances and that city elected officials receive ethics training every two years, with proof of compliance made available to the public through the city's website.
The panel also said, "No member of the city council should conduct any city business outside of the realm of their council powers as designated in the city charter and in the municipal code."
City spokeswoman Karen Boyd said Mayor Jean Quan and City Administrator Deanna Santana agree with the grand jury that, "The public must be able to trust that the City of Oakland's day-to-day operations – such as contracting, hiring and management of City staff – are shielded from inappropriate political influence."
Boyd said Quan and Santana also agree that the Public Ethics Commission must have adequate staffing and additional authority and their proposed budget calls for increased staffing for the commission.
Boyd also said Santana has stressed good governance and ethics since she assumed her position in August 2010, at which point work on the teen center was already under way.
Boyd said the goal of Quan and Santana is to "continue to provide quality service to the community while maintaining appropriate interactions between city council members and staff."
She said Quan and Santana are encouraged by an "ethical climate survey" conducted by Ruby, which found that between 2010 and 2011 they had "moved the dial towards greater accountability and improved governance."
(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Kitchen remodeling helps you achieve a newer and more efficient kitchen. However, for the best results, here are 5 things you need to consider.
Category: Kitchen Remodeling
A kitchen is no doubt one of the most important spaces in any house. It is also the place that has the most amount of visual impact. If you look at it, a kitchen contains a lot of mundane, everyday equipment like cabinets and shelves. The onus of bringing these mundane things to life lies on you! And with the following list of tips and tricks, you can make your kitchen look expensive in a matter of hours! Read on to learn how to pick the best designs for your kitchen interior if you are on a tight budget!
People are often heard saying that food is life. But where does food come from? Obviously, it's from the kitchen (unless, of course, you ordered pizza).
Since food is one of the basic needs for humans to survive, it's only logical for homeowners to put more importance into their kitchen at home. Not only is it the place where great meals are prepared, but it's also where special bonds are created among family, friends and anyone close to the heart. After all, eating meals together brings everyone closer.
Do have some spare time this weekend and want to do something productive? Now is the ideal time to spice things up in your kitchen with these five quick, easy and budget-friendly DIY kitchen project ideas you can achieve in a weekend.
Though it might not be the first room of your home that you see when you walk in the front door, the kitchen is arguably the most important one to consider when selling your home. Think about it in terms of where you and your family spend the most time. While the living room might have been the most important room in a home just a decade or so ago, today's homeowners spend a great deal of time in the kitchen — and it isn't all prep time either.
When it comes to remodeling your kitchen, you will quickly find out there are a ton of things you can do, and of course, each "thing" can come at a cost. Whether it's something as simple as replacing the cabinet hardware or gutting it to start from scratch, I wanted to showcase five of the most popular kitchen remodeling jobs, along with the costs.
If you have grown weary of your kitchen's overall design for a long time then you might want to try something a bit different. Sometimes going back to the old vintage style can be actually refreshing to your senses. Many kitchen themes nowadays either have minimalistic or sleek themes that you can find in almost every household. For those of you who want to go old school with their kitchen interior then you're in for a treat! Here's a compilation of simple and practical ways to bring out a vintage vibe to your kitchen.
For those with mobility challenges, such as the elderly or those with disabilities, an ordinary kitchen can present a few unordinary challenges. Doing the dishes can become a huge challenge if a wheelchair can't reach the sink, and holding a pot under running water may be a struggle for someone who has limited finger control or strength.
Remodeling a kitchen can be a huge undertaking. Whether you are renovating a small kitchen or a deluxe one, there are bound to be hurdles, and a significant cost attached as well. Kitchen renovation is an expensive proposition; however it does have its benefits in the long run as well. Hence it is recommended that you plan well ahead when you are planning to renovate your kitchen.
We all have grand designs for our kitchen. It's the heart of the home, and the machine behind our cooking. The reality however is that often our kitchen space is at a premium. So we need to get inventive! Here are 12 design ideas to help you stop letting lack of space hinder your cooking.
Much urban life is planted with apartments these days, most of them lacking the ideal size of kitchen space you might have grown up with. That might make you wonder what you can do to present optimal aesthetics and space of the miniature version of your parent's kitchen at your own living space. With these complications in mind, here are three big ways to create that elegant apartment kitchen you've always wanted.
The Kitchen; the heart of your home. Some kitchen trends never die, whereas others wax and wane in popularity year by year. People have mixed opinions over whether or not bright colors should be used in the kitchen, whether a modern look is in right now, whether it is all about keeping it classical and so on and so forth. Your own choice of kitchen design may depend on the style of your property in its entirety, particularly if you have a historic or listed property.
Kitchen Design Trends For 2016
Kitchen is the most important part of every home. Cleanliness is what starts from a kitchen. It is the place where one puts his/her effort to make something that the whole family will eat and enjoy. It is the heart of every home and everyone especially the homemaker wants it to be the best and the most clean place in her home. Even if you cannot afford to redo the entire place, only a few updates can make the place and happening for some good reason.
What makes a dream kitchen? Is it simply a style of kitchen that you have personally dreamed of owning for years but have never found the funds for? Is it a functional kitchen that has everything you need at the touch of a button? Or is it a nice, homely place where people gather and share the happenings of their day? The idea of a dream kitchen means something to all of us and we either have a plan of how we are going to achieve that dream kitchen, or we, at least, have a plan of what to do if we were ever to build that dream kitchen.
When looking for a way to freshen up your kitchen design, it can be tempting to try to find modern, cutting-edge elements to make your kitchen seem super trendy. But looking toward the future isn't the only way to enliven your kitchen. Take a peek into the past and get design tips from your grandma's kitchen for a unique look.
Kitchen Design Predictions 2016
2016 is shaping up to be an exciting time for innovative kitchen designs, with unique color combinations, minimalist design features and golden appliances proving to be just a few of the most stylish trends so far.
There are so many types of kitchen cabinets it can be nightmare to finally decide on the style to suit your kitchen. From the color and style to the hardware there is so much to think about when picking out kitchen cabinets, so I've compiled my top tips for choosing the right ones for your kitchens, or to give you ideas if you want to go bespoke.
A kitchen is the center of the whole house. Majority of the events and decisions take place in the kitchen. However, with upcoming new year, the look of the kitchen is also transforming. Granite countertops and dark wood cabinets are already starting to appear a little tasteless. If you're thinking of modernizing or refurbishing your kitchen (or just enjoy looking!!!), here are 5 top trends for modern, contemporary kitchens of 2016. The best part is the fact that some of these trends don't require a lot of money. You can amalgamate them into your present kitchen without spending too much of money.
Kitchens with a country look and feel have a unique appeal. They are refreshing, colorful and warm, which makes spending time in the kitchen more pleasant for you and your family. If you love the country style, there are several simple ways in which you can incorporate it in your kitchen. This post suggests you some decoration ideas to help you adorn your kitchen in the country style.
Fun Kitchen Island Ideas
For most homeowners, the perfect kitchen includes an island that will serve as a center for kitchen prep work and casual dining. Integrating the perfect island into your own home is therefore one of the most exciting things to plan for.
Having taken delivery of your soon-to-be prized wooden worktop, you'll naturally want to keep it looking as perfect as possible. Wood is a versatile and stunning looking material and is easy to look after, once you know how to oil it and establish a pattern of maintenance.
When designing their kitchens, people often treat the colors as an afterthought. Namely, they concentrate on some other aspects of decorating the kitchen and they end up with boring kitchens that feature a single color or very limited color combinations that are in no way interesting. With creative color schemes, details and combinations, a kitchen can become something truly spectacular and that is what we will be talking about.
Tips On Designing A New Kitchen
The warmth of your kitchen invites a lot of activity making it a favorite place to spend quality time with family and friends. Designing a new kitchen is no doubt an exciting experience that requires a great deal of research and experience insights. With the following tips you can ensure you will love your new kitchen for years to come.
Kitchen Design Trends Of 2014
We're approaching the end of 2014 but that doesn't mean there aren't some inspiring, innovative design trends you can still make the most of when designing your current or newly installed kitchen space.
Selecting the perfect tiles for your home is hard enough however the question that always arises is the difference between porcelain and ceramic tiles. Often people question if they are different and which is going to be suitable for their space. These are common queries, so we're going to break it down for you.


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The kettlebell swing technique is covered in today's blog. This is a great movement to help develop your ability to create powerful movements generated from the hips. Some of our patients at ProSport Sport Physiotherapy when they come to see us with back pain, knee pain or even shoulder pain may often use inefficient and energy expensive movements to achieve the simplest of tasks both in the gym and in daily life. By retraining our brain's ability to utilise elastic energy is a great way to feel 'light' and 'springy' again and this movement can help retrain this greatly if done correctly.
Key Points:
Do not attempt to pull the kettle bell upwards with the hands, let the hands guide the bell not generate the force.
If you would like to gain confidence with this movement or even just gain confidence to perform exercises safely and effectively in the gym then feel free to contact us about a session to help you with our ProSport Physiotherapy Huddersfield Get Fit Program and exercise therapy sessions. You can book an appointment online below or contact us on 01484 443173 or 07850128386 or just email firstname.lastname@example.com
We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.


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Here is my full, unedited audio recording of Felicia Day's nearly 2-hour Q&A about Dragon Age: Redemption on October 26, 2011 7-9pm PT. Nistades, who composed the score for Dragon Age: Redemption, made a surprise visit later during the session and was gracious enough to answer a few questions as well.
Here is a timestamped index of all the questions, so that you can easily skip to the portion of the Q&A in which you're interested.
[00:00:40] Will there be more than one season of the Dragon Age: Redemption web series, similar to The Guild?
[00:02:18] Will [your character, Tallis] be coming back as a playable character in Dragon Age 3? And will you do your nug call?
[00:04:49] Was it easy to move a big film set throughout the mountains?
[00:06:29] [What was it like doing] such different things, like fighting and stuff, compared to other things you've done?
[00:08:10] Are there any benefits from the positive reaction over the Dragon Age: Redemption web series to The Guild? What does this mean for The Guild, in terms of sponsorship?
[00:11:04] Is there any pressure on you to change your appearance for different things? Do you have to turn down roles, or have you been asked to do specific roles due to the way you look?
[00:13:46] How does it feel to play a take-charge sort of character, in comparison to your usual roles?
[00:15:44] Would BioWare approach you and say, "Hey look, that went great. There's another IP we'd like you to do something with." Are there any particular franchises that you're a fan of?
[00:17:30] So your characters and shows are very game-centered. What games, especially mmos and rpgs, do you or have you played? Also, are you looking forward to Skyrim or what??
[00:19:47] A couple of years ago, you were planning to go to Supanova in Sydney[, Australia], and people were really upset that you had to pull out at the last moment - which was a bit sad, but I'm sure people understand. But, are there any plans in the future to come back to Australia, or at the very least, visit Australia? And, my mother wants to know if you'll play Pictionary with her...
[00:22:17] Brazil has a [comic con] in two weeks. Just saying.
[00:23:22] Do you have any plans for another music video in the future?
[00:24:08] What has been the hardest moment in your career?
[00:26:29] Are there any plans to reboot Dr. Horrible?
[00:27:44] To my knowledge, there's no precedent for a a video game [spawning] a web series. How did the idea get started?
[00:30:56] <Reminder to keep questions on the topic of Dragon Age. People who get picked to ask a question will be entered into a random giveaway for swag.>
[00:32:55] Obviously, Tallis is the kind of person who will stab you to make you answer the question... What are you favorite and least favorite Tallis character traits?
[00:35:56] What kind of role do you have in the visual designs for Dragon Age, The Guild, or whatever? Or do you mostly stick with the writing aspect and do your visualization through that?
[00:38:00] How much input did you have in Tallis' creation?
[00:40:19] Do you enjoy writing or playing Tallis more?
[00:42:22] What do you like to play in Dragon Age, and what is your [alignment] - are you friendly, or are you devious, or...?
[00:43:40] Could you elaborate on how you decided to go along with producing web content, as opposed to [pursuing] Hollywood?
[00:46:20] How tough was it for you to train to be Tallis, physically?
[00:48:10] How different was it doing all the motion capture for Mark of the Assassin, as opposed to just your normal kind of acting?
[00:50:24] <Introduction of another special guest: Nistades (Peace), who composed the score for Dragon Age: Redemption, part of which was also used in Mark of the Assassin>
[00:53:05] (To Peace:) How do you approach scoring something like [Dragon Age: Redemption]. The scope of it is so epic. Where do you begin?
[00:54:36] What's it like having a much bigger budget to work with versus what you had to start out with for The Guild, and basically doing everything completely free?
[00:57:22] (To Peace:) What level and how much classical training do composers who work in the commercial industry have?
[00:58:51] How hard was it to film the sword fight scenes in Dragon Age? Was it mostly choreographed?
[01:01:24] What was the hardest part about writing [an] original story within an already deeply established world?
[01:02:59] Was there anything unique about the ambience on the Dragon Age set?
[01:05:05] Are there any future casting plans - anything I can get into? Where would I find those things?
[01:08:13] Which came first, Dragon Age: Redemption or Mark of the Assassin? (the asker disconnected in mid speech)
[01:09:19] Sup? Have you ever wanted to become a dragon?
[01:10:13] Repeat of [01:08:13] Which came first, Dragon Age: Redemption or Mark of the Assassin?
[01:10:57] What cameras do you use on any of your sets? Is there anything specific?
[01:11:50] Can you tell us about the past between Tallis and Leliana suggested in the DLC?
[01:12:52] What is your personal opinion on the mage-templar conflict, and how did it affect your writing of the series?
[01:14:25] Do you have any plans to write comics for Tallis?
[01:15:30] <Nistades (Peace) says his farewells and departs.>
[01:17:10] Did you get to choose those daggers for your character? And did you play a rogue in your first playthrough [of Dragon Age]?
[01:18:53] Is there going to be a blooper reel for either Mark of the Assassin or Redemption?
[01:20:33] <Asker requests a Happy Birthday message.>
[01:20:58] Did you meet any of the [other] voice actors when recording for the DLC?
[01:21:45] When you write - be it for The Guild or Dragon Age or anything you're writing for - where do you get your inspiration? Also, are there any plans for you to ever come to Puerto Rico?
[01:24:27] Did you have any friends or actors in mind when you were writing Dragon Age: Redemption?
[01:25:41] <Announcement about a power outage at the TypeFrag office.>
[01:26:10] (Speaker: Andrew Kennedy) I had the pleasure of working on Dragon Age: Redemption this summer actually, on the VFX crew, Flash Filmworks, and my question kind of stems from that. From an actor's point of view, what's your take on the current state of visual effects in tv and film, and I guess, on web stuff as well?
[01:28:05] Now that you're a part of the Dragon Age universe, does it affect the way you play?
[01:29:20] How do you transition from being the writer to being the lead actor?
[01:30:13] Did you have any anxiety over trying to make a web series of a game like Dragon Age, where the player's decisions and style are so integral to the way the story is experienced?
[01:32:00] Someone really wants you to comment on dwarf culture in Dragon Age.
[01:33:43] In the three episodes [of Dragon Age: Redemption] that have been released so far, what is your favorite moment? And what's your favorite moment in the entire series?
[01:36:00] How do you come up with the names for your characters?
[01:37:55] Which game got you addicted to gaming and brought you to where you are today?
[01:39:23] Are you ever planning on coming to Kansas City, namely Planet Comic-Con?
[01:40:44] How much creative freedom did you have with Dragon Age: Redemption, and how did what EA and BioWare gave you affect plot, characters, actions, and things like that?
[01:42:42] <Wrap up, farewells>
A big thanks to Felicia for staying far longer than anyone intended to answer as many questions as possible! Unfortunately, neither my nor Danny's questions got picked to be asked during the entire 2 hours, but we weren't the only people who didn't get the opportunity to do so (although near the end, someone else actually asked the equivalent of my question anyway!). Also, thanks to Typefrag for arranging the session and making it happen!


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Fashion Edit. - Umi Roll Neck Jumper - Mustard
by Fashion Edit
Size: 12
Description, Sizing and Details
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ASUS VivoBook S15 15.6" Slim and Portable Laptop, Intel Core i5-8250U Processor (up to 3.4Ghz), 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, NanoEdge Bezel, Gun Metal with Light Grey Trim, S530UA-DB51
- Bold Gun Metal Grey chassis with light grey accent
- Intel Core i5-8250U processor 1.6Ghz (up to 3.4Ghz)
- 15.6" FHD WideView Display with NanoEdge Bezel
- Exclusive ErgoLift hinge automatically tilts the keyboard up to 3.5° for a more comfortable typing position
- Ergonomic backlit keyboard with built-in fingerprint sensor
From the manufacturer
The new ASUS VivoBook S15 adds a dash of personality to your mobile lifestyle.
A Dash of Color
The new ASUS VivoBook S15 comes in four exciting hues with bold accents that tell the world who you are: Firmament Green, Starry Grey, Silver Blue, and Gunmetal. Whatever your style and outlook, S15 has a color combination to match it.
Express Yourself
Lift Your Life
Featuring the newly-designed ErgoLift hinge that automatically raises the keyboard for a more comfortable experience.
A Unique Touch
With an air of mystery and charm, the Firmament Green chassis features a unique textured finish surrounding the keyboard.
Boundless Visuals
Featuring the slimmest NanoEdge bezel available on a VivoBook, the 86% screen-to-body ratio on the S15 provides stunning visuals no matter the content.
The backlit keyboard on the ASUS VivoBook S15 is perfect for working in dim environments and 1.4mm key travel provides a comfortable typing experience.
Your Office is Where you Choose to Be
The ASUS Vivobook S15 features fast-charging technology that lets you charge a low battery to 60% in just 49 minutes
Like every other VivoBook before it, the new S15 offers a combination of performance, style, and comfort to help you get the job done, wherever you are.
If there was ever a laptop that represents who you are, it's the youthful and vivacious ASUS VivoBook S.
Mobile Performance
Equipped with the latest 8th Generation Intel Core processors and ultra-fast SSD storage - productive multitasking, quick video editing, or streaming your favorite shows, the VivoBook S15 offers a combination of performance, style, and comfort to help you get the job done, wherever you are.
Portable and Stylish
ASUS VivoBook S15 is lightweight at 3.5 lbs and offers the unique color combinations, textured finishes, the innovative three-sided NanoEdge display and ErgoLift hinge design for better typing experience. Simply slip the VivoBook S15 into your messenger bag or backpack, and away you go in style!
Color:Gunmetal Grey with Light Grey Trim
The new VivoBook S15 adds a dash of personality to your mobile lifestyle, featuring a bold new lightweight design with unique color combinations, the innovative three-sided ASUS NanoEdge display, and ErgoLift hinge. Featuring the latest 8th Generation Intel Core processors and ultra-fast SSD storage, the VivoBook S15 offers a combination of performance, style, and comfort to help you get the job done, wherever you are.
Top Customer Reviews
After waiting a little longer than expected for the US release of the S530 model, the wait was worth it! It is a fine laptop- seems to be well made, lightweight, fast, back-lit keyboard, and not loaded with a bunch of bloat software. I had one hiccup on the order in that the wrong color was shipped instead of what I ordered, but Amazon quickly shipped the correct one (Firmament Green). After about a month of use we are very satisfied with it.
Light, portable, powerful, beautiful and reliable
It's about one week i'm using this laptop and i'm pretty satisfied with the overall quality of this product.
It's really light, it has very tiny bezel, it has great performance even for running multiple heavy programs, it has great battery performance, and above all it has a great color. I've bought the greenish one and it's absolutely gorgeous.
This laptop will make you satisfied.
I was able to get this awesome ASUS Vivobook S in the red trim, and I really like it. I have been super bored with how laptops look these days and generally speaking they all do the same thing. FINALLY I was able to get something with some personality. Not only does this look super cool, but it is by far the fastest computer I have ever owned, and there is plenty of space for pictures and videos (i freelance video on weekends). The screen is super nice too, really bright with good black levels. So far this is the best laptop I have ever used. Great.
Overall pretty fast and an interesting hinge design
For me I am not really all about the crazy colors, but I appreciate the options. I opted to get the gunmetal color, and yes you can call me boring. To be honest I got this for the price and the specs. A fast processor, and finally razor thin bezels, thank you! I also like the backlit keyboard and the super cool hinge. I am not sure if it makes my computer perform better, but I like the angle when its on my desk. I plan on using this for my acting classes to store short videos and the usual web browsing. This computer actually has everything I wanted at a good price. Thumbs up!


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News Ticker
Sydney's first electronic single-ticketing system will be trialled on ferries in less than a fortnight, but the Transport Minister is warning it might not be smooth sailing.
Ferry users travelling from Neutral Bay to Circular Quay will be the first to trial the Opal card.
Customers can preload the card with money and then use it to tap on at the start of their journey and tap off at the end.
Launching the card today, Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian says it will be rolled out progressively in order to iron out any problems.
"We know that there's been glitches almost everywhere it's come in; we know it won't be glitch-free," she said.
But she says it will create a simpler, more convenient transport system.
"We won't have to stress about getting paper-based tickets from one mode to the other," she said.
"The current system is clumsy, it's confusing, and unless you're a regular commuter doing the same thing everyday it's really hard to break outside that box.
"Eventually people will be able to avoid the Monday morning queues. They'll be able to avoid having to worry about buying tickets.
"You'll just have to get this once and then it will be with you forever and how you choose to top it up will be up to you."
The Opal card will be introduced on ferries and trains from next year, and rolled out on buses the following year.
Light rail will be integrated into the system by 2015.
Opposition spokeswoman Penny Sharpe says Sydney commuters are ready for the technology and had been promised more.
"Minister Berejiklian promised that this card would be available for all ferry passengers by the end of this year and today we find out there is just one route being used out of 11," she said.
"She's been unable to rule out that passengers won't be paying more. For people in western Sydney they'll be concerned that the longer distance they travel it means it's going to cost them more on public transport."


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26 photos
Kamping Puoy is a reservoir located around 30km from the town of Battambang accessible by a new road. The reservoir was built by the Khmer Rouge in one of their grander schemes and thousands of people died during its construction. It is popular with locals at the weekend who come out here with picnics.


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What a fun day with dad! We saw a lot around town and had a great time! Before my morning run I had a fueling snack: Pb and apple slice. After that delicious brunch dad and I hit the town, first swinging by the white house.
We then made our way over to the Hirschhorn museum to check out the art.
Neat wishing tree, dad and I both wrote wishes and hung them on Yoko Ono's tree.
Really cool light exhibit.
After soaking up all the art, and it was a lot of art for me, we headed home. On the way home Dad and I stopped at Trader Joe's for some snacks and juicing materials. Inspired by the juice at brunch, we tried to replicate the cucumber, cranberry, bubble concoction. We put a big cucumber in the juicer and mixed it with cranberry juice and tonic – it was pretty good! I also showed dad the wonders of the juicer and made my regular one – carrot, celery, apple, lemon, and cucumber. We paired our juices with garlic hummus, double roasted salsa, flax/soy chips, and pita chips. Yum! Refreshing and refueling after all that walking and art-ing.


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Friends of Wendy Noren remember her as a brilliant, dedicated woman
COLUMBIA - Friends and co-workers said Monday they remember former Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren as a brilliant, dedicated woman and loyal friend.
She grew up in Jefferson City and graduated from Jefferson City High School. Noren died Sunday after a lengthy battle with cancer. She was 63.
She is one of the county's longest serving officials. Noren retired as Boone County Clerk in June after serving for over three decades due to health reasons. She was elected in 1982 and won re-election eight times in a row. She started working in the county clerk's office in 1978 when the county clerk before her, Chris Kelly, hired her.
The current county clerk, Taylor Burks, posted a tweet in her honor, saying, "She will be sorely missed, but never forgotten."
Volunteers of the Boone County Democratic Central Committee dedicated a meeting room to Noren in her honor in 2017. The room is used for democrat candidates as a place where they can work, store supplies and hold meetings. The committee's secretary, Tom Pauley, said she was a hard worker and very dedicated to her job.
"Wendy was an inspiration to all of us for years. Her dedication to the party and her dedication to public service," Pauley said.
Boone County Assessor Tom Schauwecker said he worked with Noren for the last 28 years.
"I knew, in the summer of 2017, that she was terminally ill and that her days in county government were limited," Schauwecker said.
He said she was a brilliant woman.
"Absolutely brilliant," Schauwecker said. "Very direct. You always knew where you stood with Wendy Noren. There was never a shadow of a doubt."
Noren learned how to code and re-programmed the entire election system to make sure it was tamper proof and improved voter experience by making it faster.
"Wendy Noren wrote our personal property software, which is state of the art and still in use today, second to none, in the state of Missouri," Schauwecker said.
He added that she was a "political genius."
"We, the citizens of Boone County, lost an icon in the election industry," Schauwecker said.


text: When Effective Student Support Is Built Into an Online Degree Program CFA Staff | Posted In: Academics, Students, Workforce Insight Jan 16 2017 Student support services can help students get the most out of their college experience. Online students are no exception, but the online environment presents new challenges and opportunities for colleges seeking to provide best-in-class support. As a result, online degree programs are designing innovative new student support services designed especially for this growing student population. Yvonne Simon, chief learning architect at College for America, explains that the mostly non-traditional students they serve have unique needs. They're often professionals working full-time and attempting to balance work, school and family responsibilities. Many of them have been out of school for years and most have never operated in a higher education environment. Student success is essential not just for the students themselves, but also for their employers. To meet the needs of students and, by extension, employers, CfA created a system that includes advising, timely reviews, and a strong online community. Data Based, Student Guided Optimizing success for non-traditional students in online degree programs means not just researching the most proven student support services techniques but also asking for student input. "We didn't assume we knew what students needed but we asked them in advance and built a model around those responses," says Simon. "We're working with them as individuals and that approach is personalized." Students told CfA they needed guidance on how to plan ahead and how to integrate their school work into their existing responsibilities. Services needed to be accessible whenever the student happened to be online. As a result of this input, many of those services are built directly into the students' online portal rather than through a separate system. This portal is also the place through which students monitor their progress and submit projects. "You see how far you are in your program; you see how many 'kudos' you have for the week," says Simon, referring to CfA's participation points system. "You see how many elements you've mastered; you also see your advisor." Productive Persistence Through Continuous Advising Each student has access to both academic reviewers and a dedicated advisor. Reviewers are subject matter experts who evaluate a student's' work and help them move towards mastery. They review projects and deliver detailed feedback within 48 hours, and they coordinate with College for America's curriculum and assessment developers to provide students the best learning support possible. The curriculum team works with employers and academic experts to make sure that students are learning the skills that will serve them in their workplaces. In addition to reviewers, students benefit from a dedicated advisor — who often have a background in counseling and are trained in effective coaching. "We took the best of what's out there and blended it with advising and what we knew from a social component," Simon says. One of the major influencers in the creation of the student support program was the Carnegie Foundation's Productive Persistence model. This research-based instructional model, originally created to help students excel in math, focuses on helping students to understand the value of a given task so that they remain motivated to achieve it. "Building this into the program really helps inform what students need to become productive and persistent," says Simon. This approach is echoed in the role of College for America advisors. In addition to helping students understand their academic assessments, advisors help students draw the connection between the academic projects and their professional goals. A student will generally set up one virtual meeting a week with an advisor, at least at first. Gradually students become more independent. "We know students will persist in work that's relevant to them," Simon says. "In the end, if the student can't make the case for themselves, they won't persist." More on this subject: Students give College for America high marks in independent survey A community of supporters To help stay motivated, students have an online support network, but they are also encouraged to build their own social learning network. "For some students the best support comes from someone who might work next door to them," Simon says. "Even in their family, for example, who is the person who's going to help them persist? Who's there to be excited about their accomplishments?" Despite asynchronous work and an online learning environment, having a community can remind students that they're not in this alone. "Your advisor may not be working when you're online, but you can usually find someone in the community who is," says Simon. "Just having a peer who you can run something by, or vent with, or brag to, that's a really important part of the learning process." The true impact of student support Supporting students pays big dividends for both students and their employers. It empowers students with the confidence to participate in the business. They can see that what they're learning matters to their work teams and to their managers. "So much of this comes down to engagement and dialogue," Simon says. "We try to build trust that the process can move you from A to Z when you didn't before." Simon recalls one student who had worked at a call center for decades at remote site, and she felt disconnected from the rest of the company and that her work did not have much impact. Once she started her degree program and started working with her advisor, she realized that her call center was part of a greater whole and so was she. She began to think of herself as a contributing partner, invested in the success of the organization. She took personal ownership of the business and her role in it. Both the employee and the business benefit from this kind of engagement. The employee feels more fulfilled in her work and is more likely to seek opportunities for growth and development, which contributes to retention and innovation across the workplace. "When you have that lightbulb moment," Simon says, "you become a different employee." Emma Gallimore is a freelance writer with a degree in journalism from the University of Maine. She reports on trends affecting the education, business, health and technology sectors. Previous ArticleNext Article Share Related Articles A Beginners Guide to Training Needs Analysis: What L&D Leaders Need to Know A training needs analysis helps L&D leaders identify the skills most impact the company mission, the skills gaps in their company, the current programs that are working and the new programs that need … Read more From Average to Excellent: How to Evaluate Managers and Help Them Improve Mediocre managers are easy to overlook but their departments can drag down profitability. How do you evaluate managers to sort the so-so from the excellent? This article describes what to look for. Read more


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Whether you have been practicing Yoga for years or want to try it for the first time, we have highly skilled and dedicated teachers at Yogadhara to offer yoga classes. The classes are fully energized and participants learn to enjoy the workout in a lively and informative manner. Group classes are the combination of very powerful modern and ancient Yoga practices that includes different styles like Hatha yoga, Iyengar yoga and Vinyasa flow.
Monday to Friday
Morning : 7-8, 8-9, 9-10 am
Evening : 4:30 – 5:30 pm, 5:30 – 6:30 pm, 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Sunday's are closed
Fees for joining regular Group Yoga Class (60 min) – 2500 Rs per month.