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Saturday, September 20, 2014

Iran has (still) not signed the Convention on Nuclear Safety

This is your bi-monthly reminder that despite promising to join this vital nuclear safety treaty in January 2013, Iran has yet to do so. Yesterday it was announced that Iran is planning on building even more nuclear plants, which would be perfectly fine if we knew that they surpass international safety standards. Unfortunately this is not the case, and Iran continues to endanger the surrounding countries, in addition to its own citizens.

This is nothing new; I've written about why this is a dangerous situation in the past:
Earthquake danger at Bushehr
Iran and Nuclear Safety (or lack thereof)
Iran and the Convention on Nuclear Safety

I hope that whoever is running things in Iran regarding nuclear power, pulls their head out of the sand and signs this treaty before a serious accident happens. This is the last thing that we need.

Monday, September 8, 2014

The Ayatollah's Health

Today it was announced that Ayatollah Khamenei had successful prostate surgery. This level of transparency from Iran is unprecedented. While speculation about the health of the Supreme Leader is nothing new, an acknowledgment of the Ayatollah's medical situation by the Iranian government is a drastic shift.

Khamenei is paralyzed in one arm due to an assassination attempt in 1981, but this is not his only health problem. In October of last year, Khamenei was out of the public eye for weeks. Some believed that this was due to recurrence of a long term chronic illness. US State Department cables leaked by Wikileaks alleged that Khamenei has cancer, believed to be terminal. In 2007, Khamenei missed an important religious event, and for a while, there were rumors that he had died.

It is unclear if the prostate operation has anything to do with the Ayatollah's other rumored health problems or if this was the problem from the beginning and he will be in better health in the near future. If the Ayatollah is terminally ill, there may be some interesting times ahead as the administrative body tasked with selecting the replacement is currently a bit unstable.

Ayatollah Mahdavi-Kani the head of the governmental body (Assembly of Experts) responsible for electing (and theoretically replacing a Supreme Leader if necessary) is currently in a coma following a heart attack in June. The newest session of the Assembly of Experts was recently convened without Mahdavi-Kani, and a prominent reformist cleric and member of the assembly was also absent. Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former President, Speaker of the Majles (Parliament) of Iran, and chairman of the Assembly of Experts, whose family has been systematically persecuted, was pictured today kissing the forehead of Ayatollah Khamenei. Rafsanjani may be back in the good graces of the establishment, and able to influence the selection (possibly even getting himself nominated).


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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Smell's like sea salt water

Taste's like salty water from the beach

Feel's like i'm all alone

Sound's like a group of violin's

Looks like everything is gone from me

By Shyarn

Look's like everything is gone from me

Smells like melted chocolate with strawberries.

It looks like babies happily playing together.

It sounds like the sound of a dolphin when it jumps up and makes a swish sound.

It tastes like the sweetness of lollies in your mouth.

It feels like you are on the bumper cars at Rain Bows End.

By Tarjindher

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Smells like roses

Looks like a nice new haircut
Tastes like chocolate mixed with marshmallows
Feels like smooth snake skin
Sounds like a seal singing

Monday, November 10, 2008

Cold and Wet

Sitting at the window looking out at that cold weather.
Little rain drops hitting the ground really fast.

It feels really cold out there.
People running everywhere.

Little kids in cosy jackets waiting under shelter.
Puddles everywhere kids jumping up and down in
huge puddles.

By Robin

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Looks like your face is getting red
Smells like rotten food still in the fridge
Sounds like the pounding of my heart
Tastes like salty water from the beach
Feels like you got teased by someone.

By Folau

A Poem done By Jordan Called ANGRY

Smells like a train on fire
His rage is going to explode
Fists go flying and people go crazy
You could hear people going wild
It tastes like burnt cookies

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Pet Valu Coupons

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Sunday, July 2, 2017

New Carlyle Idea Exchange Planned for U. of Chicago

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubernstein sits on the board of the University of Chicago, which plans to name a new building after him.  The Rubenstein Forum will be "a place of intellectual, institutional and educational exchange."

The programs for the building will be designed by several focus groups and consultants along with more than 100 plus faculty and staff from the University of Chicago.
I imagine there will be some parameters for planned programs in the Rubenstein Center.  I'll be shocked if this former financial reporter is invited to speak, given what they had to say about private equity underwriters (PEU) in 2011:

I know from personal experience that the financial press is so eager to break news on "deals" that reporters (who are increasingly compensated on the number of "market moving stories" they write) can't afford to be critical of Carlyle, KKR and Blackstone, and risk losing access to people at those firms.

I have seen so many people -- particularly those in their 50s - 70s -- taken apart by what has happened in their industry as greed has hollowed out the economy. These are people took pride in their jobs and held themselves to this invisible standard that we all just took for granted, but is being wiped out.
The Carlyle Group scares me more than anything I've ever seen on Wall Street. It seems to exist to corrupt politicians and it's hard to know who they even represent.
I watched a video interview of (David) Rubenstein and his arrogance is really beyond tolerance. He was going on about the debt ceiling problem and how there would need to be cuts in services and higher taxes. When the reporter asked him about tax on carried interest he turned really disdainful and said that this "only" amounted to $22 billion over some number of years and this was not serious money. Boy, nothing like everybody doing their small part to save the country from oblivion!
I expect the Rubenstein Center to be a PEU safe space.


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Medical shop accounting software
Medical shop accounting software

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Every nook and corner of the world has Medical shop or pharmacy. There are millions of medicine in these stores and it would have always flashed in your mind that having a software could ease you job.

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

My contribution to "Citizen Journalism"

Singapore's Messiest Online News Source has this category called "Singapore Seen" , where registered users of the site are encouraged to submit photos/videos of interesting sightings. It's an interesting idea, this Citizen Journalism thing, and with our country's Telcos offering mobile phones with inbuilt camera/video function for cheap (if you sign a two-year contract with them la), it isn't that difficult to play our part.

Somehow, some people over at Singapore Seen seem to take cheap shots (pun intended, really) at unaware individuals. Hormonal teenagers cuddling la, dangerous Malaysian driver la, guy who never give up his seat on LRT la. Which goes to show our non-confrontational behavior in Singapore: most of us don't dare to voice out our unhappiness, but choose to scream-scream-shout-shout over the Internet instead.

But it's not nice la! I swear I wouldn't want to see some picture of me drooling while dropping asleep on the bus ride home or video of a drunk-me doing my version of a dance, what's with the high probability of both of that happening. Embarrasing la dey!

But here's my contribution to the world of bad Citizen Journalism anyway.

Below is the picture of the stupid fecker who jaywalked across Jalan Besar Road. Wah lao almost got knocked down you know.

Act cute somemore. I told him (yes it's a him, he has balls) "Next time be careful la!".

Well yes I talk to stray cats. I'm weird that way la.

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Saturday, April 24, 2010

It's just work, lah.

I was overwhelmed by So.Much.Work. The to-do-list I scribbled to help me along the next few hours was accompanied by death-threat-doodles to 93.3FM Radio DJs. Annoying radio station. Accompanied by the drilling and the ding-dong-chiang-chiang noise from handy men doing things to the Air-Con and the door, and the soft mechanical zzzzzzzzzzzzz sound from the colleagues USB-operated fan. Oh the noise, the noise.

I could relocate temporarily to the quieter, open-concept office 2 storeys down, but thought better not, as the people there were the very same ones who have overwhelmed me with work.

I wanted to cry, fling something, die. This familiar feeling of helplessness.

"Ni!" went the phone. Ah, text message. Audrey asked me out for dinner. Oh happy, happy. I requested to use her condo's Jacuzzi. She said "yes".

60 dollars spent on a swimsuit + a fast food dinner. By 10 pm I was soaking in her pool, the stress from the hours before, melting away.

Never mind that in 2 days time, it's back to stress.

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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

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About Phillips Metal Works

Phillips Metal Works is an ironworks shop specializing in hand forged ironwork. Our shop is staffed by meticulous craftsmen with many decades of design and iron working experience. Combining traditional blacksmithing techniques with contemporary methods allow us to create architectural and sculptural elements that preserve the personal and fluid nature of hand hammered iron while producing current designs.

The Shop

In our quest to produce our brand of ironwork, we have combed the hills for equipment old and new.

The Southwark Press was rescued from a foundry less than a mile from our shop. It was made sometime before 1900 and at some point the hydraulic pump was converted from the push arm pump driven by an overhead line shaft to a modern self-contained unit. We converted the leather packed seal to a contemporary seal and replaced ground shaft with a polished shaft.  At full power the press produces 100 tons of pressure. The 1500 pound cast iron table is perfect for holding tooling of all shapes and sizes. Our press was featured in Randy McDaniel’s book Hydraulic Forging Press for the Blacksmith.

The Nazel 3B power hammer was built in 1913.  It was removed from decades of service in a Midwest factory where it produced trowels for masons. It found its way to Wisconsin where renowned restoration expert Bob Bergman worked his magic on it. This hammer is the Cadillac in the blacksmith world.  At full power it hits the hot steel with a 300 pound blow, 180 times a minute. But its real magic lies in its precision valving and 10,000 pounds of mass that give it the finest control imaginable for those light touches.

The Little Giant Trip Hammer was delivered to a farmer in Kansas in April of 1912 from the Little Giant factory. It came from the factory with a set of combination dies made for sharpening plow shares and the tattered remains were still on the hammer when I found it in Florida. After an extensive renovation the Little Giant is a mechanical marvel and a blast as it clatters and slaps the hot iron into shape.

Our WWII era machining equipment is still used heavily every day.  The specialty lathe and large drill press under skilled hands of our old school machinist form parts from drapery hardware to large commissions.

Fast forwarding to modern day finds our welding and painting equipment. Aerospace quality TIG welders and large capacity MIG welders give us the capacity to produce the highest quality ironwork. German made HVLP paint guns and a new self-contained gun cleaner help us with a high quality paint job in an environmentally friendly manner. We employ CAD drawing for some project development and outsourcing laser and water jet cutting parts. We also have access to powder coat painting for outside projects like our mailboxes.

For outside installation of custom architectural and sculptural projects we designed and built a mobile shop, powered by a diesel welder that is strong and quiet. This allows us to show up onsite with everything ready to go.

The Craftsmen

The heart of our shop is the people.

Mark Vaughn got his start with steel in the shipyards of Newport News, Virginia. From there he ended up as the fabricator for the local board of education.  He joined the shop in 2000 working evenings until he retired and came on board full time.  Mark is a highly respected fabricator and his signature is on nearly every project that leaves our shop.

Jim Marrer’s machinist career took an early detour into the music business until 2004 when he returned to the lathe at Phillips Metal Works.  He is a meticulous machinist with a highly inventive side.  Jim also brings his technical skills from the recording studio into the lighting arena.

Jamie Blackburn’s arrival at the shop was a true trial by fire. He started in July of 2009, a remarkably cruel Alabama summer, a month that was only topped by the savage heat of August.   Thankfully he hung tough and his 20 years of industrial machine shop experience and a blacksmithing background have been a huge plus.  Jamie does the forging as well as overseeing the flow of many projects and managing shop activities.  His technical experience and steady hand are a big part of our success.

About John Phillips

My inspiration for architectural metalwork comes from my fascination with the historic European craftsmen who transformed raw bars of iron into breath taking architecture for royalty, protective suits for their knights and tools for the working people.  The fluidity, personal nature and mystical properties of this ironwork are the qualities that I attempt to capture in my works.
– John Phillips

  • Twice received the Individual Artist in Crafts Fellowship – Alabama State Council on the Arts (1999 and 2004)

Collections/Commissions (selected)

  • Florida Gulf Coast Arts Center – Permanent Collection
  • Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts – Gate
  • Montgomery Business Committee for the Arts – 5 Sculptures
  • Riverwalk Sculpture Competition – Riverwalk Archway

Bibliography (selected)

  • "The Contemporary Blacksmith" Dona Z. Meilach Shiffer Publishing
  • "Querschnitt" Graf-Zepplin-Haus Uferanlagen
  • “The Anvils Ring”  Quarterly international blacksmith Magazine.  Several articles over the years
  • “Alabama Craft – Tradition and Innovation”  Documentary by Alabama Public Television
  • “Ironwork Inside and Out” Volumes 1 and 2 by Dona Z. Meilach and Jeffry B. Snyder Shiffer Publishing
  • “Fireplace Accessories”  Dona Z. Meilach Shiffer Publishing

Committees (selected)

  • Alabama Crafts Council – presently Treasurer.  Stint as interim director.(2004 thru present)

Publications and Videos

Anvil's Ring - The Works of John Phillips

Summer, 2003

Alabama Crafts: Tradition and Innovation

This is the segment about Phillips Metal Works from the Innovation part of the documentary produced by Andy grace for Alabama Public Television:

A dog is an important fixture in any real blacksmith shop. They fill out a significant part of a shop's personality and in that respect Caleb excelled at his duties. Caleb could bring a smile to my face in the toughest of times, always greeted visitors with a smile and a slobbery toy and was as much a part of our shop as the anvils and hammers. He grew up in the shop from the sickly, puny little 6 week old puppy who was rescued from a terrible puppy mill to a giant personality that quickly became the face of the shop.

Caleb’s sweet personality and his stubborn will to survive carried him through a complete regiment of chemotherapy at the Auburn vet school in 2005 and the doctors were optimistic that with his drive he would exceed the norms and stay in remission for a couple of happy and healthy years. They are still talking about how he made it for more than 7. I think that although the McDonalds french fries may be killing us, our regular stops at the exit 52 McDonalds were key to his longevity and at least had a powerful tail wag factor to them.

Caleb started slowing down a few years ago and started spending more time in my chair at home than he did in the shop but he still had one more important challenge. When I hit a medical low earlier this year, Caleb became the cheerleader through my treatments and really shined. As I got better, he slowed down.

Caleb may be gone but his paw print has left a big impression on our little shop. He will be missed.


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Permalink for Comment #1376139027 by Gumbo72203

, comment by Gumbo72203
Gumbo72203 This is awesome. I wish they would go back to the original arrangement of Mike's Song for the 2nd jam, but.... we get what we get. It's interesting to note though that there is one version of Mike's Song they played early in a tour in the last year or two where it seems like Trey subconsciously went back to the original arrangement of playing the tramps closing chords twice, because you hear him start to play the ending descending riff while the other guys are still playing D > E > F# and he's like "oh shit" and hits the D major chord. Kinda funny and odd.

A bunch of songs have been totally redone for 3.0.... Mike's Song and Gotta Jibboo are the biggest with whole sections getting changed/removed, and then Brian and Robert, Roggae (removing the composed Type I section), etc. is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.

This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.

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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Natalie Elizabeth Miles (my little sister)

Hello Family and Friends,

In case you haven't heard, I became a big sister on Monday, January 25th. Natalie Elizabeth Miles is my protégé - I have two years and five months to get her to where I am now!

Also, my parents, sister and I are all moving to a new house in some town called Pacifica. It's close to the ocean, so dad is finally going to learn how to surf. I can't wait to have my own bedroom!!

That's everything going on in my life right now - it sounds pretty busy, doesn't it?
Well then, I better get back to work!!

Phoebe, Natalie, Emily, and Chris


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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Dragon scale necklace

One of my friends instantly saw dragon scales when he saw my necklace. So, I decided to give it that title. This necklace is crocheted with Mastex cord and pretty blue and green faceted glass beads. The hook and eye clasp is hand made from copper wire. It measures approximately 17 inches in length.


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As with most technologies, headphones and speakers have gotten more advanced, as well as comparatively cheaper, over time. Even entry-level models offer some great features and excellent audio fidelity, though if you want to spend a little more you’ll get even better performance. Here’s what to look for.

Sound Quality

To a certain extent, the specs on the box are a poor substitute for a hands-on trial run with the audio equipment you’re thinking about buying. Even so, it’s still a good place to start. When you’re shopping around, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the frequency response of the models you’re considering. The human ear is capable of hearing frequencies between 20hZ and 20,000Hz, so anything that fails to match that range should be avoided.

Another factor you’ll want to consider is the impedance, particularly in headphones. Most modern headphones have a lower impedance, which simply means they require less voltage. In other words, they’ll work better with portable battery-powered devices like smartphones.

Connectivity Options

For both headphones and speakers, the hassle presented by wires can be significant. If you want to splurge a little bit, you can avoid the headaches by opting for some wireless headphones, which use Bluetooth connectivity, or a wireless speaker set, which may use Bluetooth or radio frequencies. Bluetooth headphones are a great choice for people who listen to music while they’re active, such as runners. They provide great sound quality without the swaying wires that would otherwise get in your way.

If you’ve wanted to dive into the world of home theater systems, but you’ve been afraid of the cumbersome wires, wireless speakers might be the way to go.

Noise Cancellation

Here’s one additional factor to consider when you’re looking at headphones. If you tend to listen to music in noisy surroundings, you might benefit from a pair of headphones that cancels ambient noise. This can either be an active or passive feature; some headphones simply provide a seal in the ear canal to block outside noise, while others have active noise cancellation that requires extra power. Either way, it’s worth thinking about.

Speakers and headphones have come a long way over the last few years. If there’s one thing to remember, it’s that you get what you pay for. Those $15 headphones in the checkout line might seem like a bargain, but if you want the best audio experience, you’ll want to spend a little more. You’ll thank yourself later.


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Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs) are like the H atom of Deep Learning.

They are basically a solved problem, and while of academic interest, not really used in complex modeling problems.  They were, upto 10 years ago, used for pretraining deep supervised nets.  Today, we can train very deep, supervised nets directly.

RBMs are the foundation of unsupervised deep learning–

an unsolved problem.

 RBMs appear to outperform Variational Auto Encoders (VAEs) on simple data sets like the Omniglot set–a data set developed for one shot learning, and used in deep learning research.

Omniglot Dataset
Omniglot Dataset

RBM research continues in areas like semi-supervised learning with deep hybrid architectures, Temperature dependence,  infinitely deep RBMs, etc.

Many of basic concepts of Deep Learning are found in RBMs.

Sometimes clients ask, “how is related to Deep Learning ?”

In this post, I am going to discuss a recent advanced in RBM theory based on ideas from theoretical condensed matter physics and physical chemistry,

the Extended Mean Field Restricted Boltzmann Machine: EMF_RBM

(see: Training Restricted Boltzmann Machines via the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer Free Energy

[Along the way, we will encounter several Nobel Laureates, including the physicists David J Thouless (2016) and Philip W. Anderson (1977), and the physical chemist Lars Onsager (1968).]

RBMs are pretty simple, and easily implemented from scratch.  The original EMF_RBM is in Julia; I have ported EMF_RBM to python, in the style of the scikit-learn BernoulliRBM package.

Show me the code

We examined RBMs in the last post on Cheap Learning: Partition Functions and RBMs. I will build upon that here, within the context of statistical mechanics.

RBMs are defined by the Energy function

To train an RBM, we minimize the log likelihood ,

the sum of the clamped and (actual) Free Energies, where

The sums range over a space of  mathcal{O}({2^{N}});;,

which is intractable in most cases.

Training an RBM requires computing the log Free Energy; this is hard.

When training an RBM,  we

  1. take a few ‘steps toward equilibration’, to approximate F
  2. take a gradient step, dfrac{partial F}{partial w_{i,j}}, to get W, a, b
  3. regularize W (i.e. by weight decay)
  4. update W, a, b
  5. repeat until some stopping criteria is met

We don’t include label information, although a trained RBM can provide features for a down-stream classifier.

Extended Mean Field Theory:

The Extended Mean Field (EMF)  RBM is a straightforward application of known statistical mechanics theories.

There are, literally, thousands of papers on spin glasses.

The EMF RBM is a great example of how to operationalize spin glass theory.

Mean Field Theory

The Restricted Boltzmann Machine has a very simple Energy function, which makes it very easy to factorize the partition function Z , explained by Hugo Larochelle, to obtain the conditional probabilities

The conditional probabilities let us apply Gibbs Sampling, which is simply

  • hold mathbf{v} fixed, sample p(mathbf{h}|mathbf{v})
  • hold mathbf{h} fixed, sample p(mathbf{h}|mathbf{h})
  • repeat for 1 or more equlibiration steps

In statistical mechanics, this is called a mean field theory.  This means that the Free Energy (in mathbf{v}) can be written as a simple linear average over the hidden units

where mathbf{Wh} is the mean field of the hidden units.

At high Temp., for a spin glass, a mean field model seems very sensible because the spins (i.e. activations) become uncorrelated.

langle s_{i}cdots s_{j}rangleunderset{Trightarrowinfty}{rightarrow}langle s_{i}ranglecdotslangle s_{j}rangle

This is non-trivial to prove

Theoreticians use mean field models like the p-spin spherical spin glass to study deep learning because of their simplicity.  Computationally, we frequently need more.

How we can go beyond mean field theory ?

The Onsager Correction

Onsager was awarded 1968 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the of the Onsager Reciprocal Relations, sometimes called the ‘4th law of Thermodynamics’

The Onsager relations provides the theory to treat thermodynamic systems that are in a quasi-stationary, local equilibrium.

Onsager was the first to show how to relate the correlations in the fluctuations to the linear response.  And by tying a sequence of quasi-stationary systems together, we can describe an irreversible process…

..like learning.  And this is exactly what we need to train an RBM.

In an RBM, the fluctuations are variations in the hidden and visible nodes.

In a BernoulliRBM, the activations can be 0 or 1, so the fluctuation vectors are

(mathbf{h}-mathbf{0}), (mathbf{h}-mathbf{1}) ;; and;; (mathbf{v}-mathbf{0}),(mathbf{v}-mathbf{1})

The simplest correction to the mean field Free Energy, at each step in training, are the correlations in these fluctuations:

left[(mathbf{h}-mathbf{0})^{T}(mathbf{h}-mathbf{1})^{T}mathbf{W}^{2} (mathbf{v}-mathbf{0})(mathbf{v}-mathbf{1})right]

where W is the Energy weight matrix.

Unlike normal RBMs, here is we work in an Interaction Ensemble, so the hidden and visible units become hidden and visible magnetizations:

To simplify (or confuse?) the presentations here, I don’t write magnetizations (until the Appendix).

The corrections make sense under the stationarity constraints, that the Extended Mean Field RBM Free Energy (F^{EMF}) is at a critical point

That is, small changes in the activations (mathbf{v},mathbf{h}) do not change the Free Energy.

We will show that we can write

as a Taylor series in beta, the inverse Temperature, where S  is the Entropy

F^{MF} is the standard, mean field RBM Free energy

and F^{Onsager} is the Onsager correction

F^{Onsager}=left[(mathbf{h}-mathbf{h}^{2})^{T}mathbf{W}^{2} (mathbf{v}-mathbf{v}^{2})right].

Given the expressions for the Free Energy, we must now evaluate it.

Thouless-Anderson-Palmer TAP Theory

The Taylor series above is a result of the TAP theory — the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer approach developed for spin glasses.

 The TAP theory is outlined in the Appendix; here it is noted that

Thouless just shared the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics (for his work in topological phase transitions)

Temperature Dependence and Weight Decay

Being a series in inverse Temperature beta, the theory applies at low beta, or high Temperature.   For fixed beta, this also corresponds to small weights W.

Specifically, the expansion applies at Temperatures above the glass transition–a concept which I describe in a recent video blog.

Here, to implement the EMF_RBM, we set

and, instead, apply weight decay to keep the weights W from exploding

where Vertmathbf{W}Vert may be an L1 or L2 norm.

Weight Decay acts to keep the Temperature high.

RBMs with explicit Temperature

Early RBM computational models were formulated using statistical mechanics  (see the Appendix) language, and so included a Temperature parameter, and were solved using techniques like simulated annealing and the (mean field) TAP equations (described below).

Adding  Temperature allowed the system to ‘jump’ out of the spurious local minima.  So any usable model required a non-zero Temp, and/or some scheme to avoid local minima that generalized poorly.  (See:  Learning Deep Architectures for AI, by Bengio)

These older approaches did not work well –then — so Hinton proposed the Contrastive Divergence (CD) algorithm.  Note that researchers struggled for some years to ‘explain’ what optimization problem CD actually solves.

More that recent work on Temperature Bases RBMs also suggests that higher T solutions perform better, and that

 “temperature is an essential parameter controlling the selectivity of the firing neurons in the hidden layer.”

Training without Sampling:  Fixed Point equations

Standard RBM training approximates the (unconstrained) Free Energy, F=ln Z, in the mean field approximation, using (one or more steps of) Gibbs Sampling.  This is usually implemented as Contrastive Divergence (CD), or Persistent Contrastive Divergence (PCD).

Using techniques of statistical mechanics, however, it is possible to train an RBM directly, without sampling, by solving a set of deterministic fixed point equations.

Indeed, this approach clarifies how to view an RBM as solving a (determinisitic) fixed point equation of the form

Consider each step, at at fixed (mathbf{W}, mathbf{a}, mathbf{b}), as a Quasi-Stationary system, which is close to equilibrium, but we don’t need to evaluate ln Z(v,h) exactly.

We can use the stationary conditions to derive a pair of coupled, non-linear equations

They extend the standard formula of sigmoid linear activations sigma with additional, non-linear, inter-layer interactions.

They differs significantly from (simple) Deep Learning activation functions because the activation for each layer explicitly includes information from other layers.

This extension couples the mean (v_{i}-frac{1}{2}) and total fluctuations (v_{j}-(v_{j})^{2}) between layers.  Higher order correlations could also be included, even to infinite order, using techniques from field theory.

We can not satisfy both equations simultaneously, but we can satisfy each condition left[dfrac{dF^{EMF}}{dmathbf{v}},dfrac{dF^{EMF}}{dmathbf{h}}right]=0 individually, letting us write a set of recursion relations

These fixed point equations converge to the stationary solution, leading to a local equilibrium.  Like Gibbs Sampling, however,  we only need a few iterations (say t=3 to 5). Unlike Sampling, however, the EMF RBM is deterministic.

If there is enough interest, I can do a pull request on sklearn to include it.

The next blog post will demonstrate how the python code in action.

the Statistical Mechanics of Inference

Early work on Hopfield Associative Memories

Most older physicists will remember the Hopfield model.  They peaked in 1986, although interesting work continued into the late 90s (when I was a post doc).

Originally, Boltzmann machines were introduced as a way to avoid spurious local minima while including ‘hidden’ features into Hopfield Associative Memories (HAM).

Hopfield himself was a theoretical chemist, and his simple model HAMs were of  great interest to theoretical chemists and physicists.

Hinton explains Hopfield nets in his on-line lectures on Deep Learning.

The Hopfield Model is a kind of spin glass, which acts like a ‘memory’ that can recognize ‘stored patterns’.  It was originally developed as a quasi-stationary solution of more complex, dynamical models of neuronal firing patterns (see the Cowan-Wilson model).

Early theoretical work on HAMs studied analytic approximations to ln Z to compute their capacity (rho/N), and their phase diagram.  The capacity is simply the number of patterns  rho a network of size N can memorize without getting confused.

Phase diagram of a Hopfield Network

The Hopfield model was traditionally run at T=0.

Looking at the T=0 line, at extremely low capacity, the system has stable mixed states that correspond to ‘frozen’ memories.  But this is very low capacity, and generally unusable.  Also, when the capacity too large, dfrac{p}{N}ge 0.138, (which is really not that large),  the system abruptly breaks down completely.

There is a small window of capacity, dfrac{p}{N}le~0.05,with stable pattern equilibria, dominated by frozen out, spin glass states.   The problem is, for any realistic system, with correlated data, the system is dominated by spurious local minima which look like low energy spin glass states.

So the Hopfield model suggested that

glass states can be useful minima, but

we want to avoid low energy  (spurious) glassy states.

One can try to derive direct mapping between Hopfield Nets and RBMs (under reasonable assumptions). Then the RBM capacity is proportional to the number of  Hidden nodes.    After that, the analogies stop.

The intuition about RBMs is different since (effectively) they operate at a non-zero Temperature.  Additionally, it is unclear to this blogger if the proper description of deep learning is a mean field spin glass, with many useful local minima, or a strongly correlated system, which may behave very differently, and more like a funneled energy landscape.

Thouless-Anderson-Palmer Theory of Spin Glasses

The TAP theory is one of the classic analytic tools used to study spin glasses and even the Hopfield Model.

We will derive the EMF RBM method following the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer (TAP) approach to spin glasses.

On a note he TAP method introduces us to 2 more Nobel Laureates:

  • David J Thouless, 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Phillip W Anderson, 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics

The TAP theory, published in 1977, presented a formal approach to study the thermodynamics of mean field spin glasses.  In particular, the TAP theory provides an expression for the average spin

langle s_{i}rangle=tanh(C+beta;MeanField)-beta^{2};Onsager)

where tanh() is like an activation function, C is a constant, and the MeanField and Onsager terms are like our terms above.

In 1977, they argued that the TAP approach would hold for all Temperatures (and external fields), although it was only proven until 25 years later by Talagrand.  It is these relatively new, rigorous approaches that are cited by Deep Learning researchers like LeCun , Chaudhari, etc.    But many of the cited results have been suggested using the TAP approach.  In particular, the structure of the Energy Landscape, has been understood looking at the stationary points of the TAP free energy.

More importantly, the TAP approach can be operationalized, as a new RBM solver.

The TAP Equations

We start with the RBM Free Energy F.

Introduce an ‘external field’ mathbf{q}={q_{i}} which couples to the spins, adding a linear term to the Free Energy

beta F[mathbf{q}]=ln;sumlimits_{mathbf{s}}exp(-beta[ E(mathbf{s})-mathbf{q}^{T}mathbf{s}])

Physically, mathbf{q} would be an external magnetic field which drives the system out-of-equilibrium.

As is standard in statistical mechanics, we take the Legendre Transform,  in terms of a set of conjugate variables mathbf{m}={m_{ij}}.  These are the magnetizations of each spin under the applied field,  and describe how the spins behave outside of equilibrium

The transform which effectively defines a new interaction ensemble Gamma[mathbf{m}].  We now set mathbf{q}=0, and note

-beta F=beta;F[mathbf{q}=0]=beta;underset{mathbf{q}}{min}left[Gamma[mathbf{m}]right]=-beta;Gamma[mathbf{m}^{*}]

Define an interaction Free Energy to describe the interaction ensemble

which equals the original Free Energy when mathbf{q}.

Note that because we have visible and hidden spins (or nodes), we will identify magnetizations for each

Now, recall we want to avoid the glassy phase; this means we keep the Temperature high.   Or beta low.

We form a low Taylor series expansion beta  in the new ensemble

A(beta,mathbf{m})=A(0,mathbf{m})+betadfrac{partial A(beta,mathbf{m})}{partialbeta}Bigvert_{beta=0}+dfrac{beta}{2}dfrac{partial^{2} A(beta,mathbf{m})}{partialbeta^{2}}Bigvert_{beta=0}+cdots

which, at low order in beta, we expect to be reasonably accurate even away from equilibrium, at least at high Temp.

This leads to an order-by-order expansion for the Free Energy A(beta,mathbf{m}).  The first order (mathcal{O}(beta)) correction is the mean field term.  The second order term (mathcal{O}(beta^{2})) is the Onsager correction.

Second Order Free Energy

Upto mathcal{O}(beta^{2}), we have

Stationary Condition

Rather than assume equilibrium, we assume that, at each step during inference –at fixed (mathbf{W}, mathbf{a}, mathbf{b}–the system satisfies a quasi-stationary condition.  Each step reaches a a local saddle point in phase space, s.t.

Stationary Magnetizations

Applying the stationary conditions lets us write coupled equations for the individual magnetizations that effectively define the (second order), high Temp, quasi-equilibrium states

Notice that the m^{v}_{i},m^{h}_{i} resemble the RBM conditional probabilities; in fact, at first order in beta, they are the same.

Mean Field Theory

beta=1 gives a mean field theory, and

And in the late 90’s, mean field TAP theory was attempted, unsuccessfully,  to create an RBM solver.

Fixed Point Equations

At second order, the magnetizations m^{v}_{i},m^{h}_{i} are coupled through the Onsager corrections.  To solve them, we can write down the fixed point equations, shown above.

Higher Order Corrections

We can include higher order correction the Free Energy A by including more terms in the Taylor Series. This is called a Plefka expansion.  The terms can be represented using diagrams

Plefka Expansion for the Free Energy
Plefka (Diagrammatic) Expansion for the Free Energy

Plefka derived these terms in 1982, although it appears he only published up to the Onsager correction; a recent paper shows how to obtain all high order terms.

The Diagrammatic expansion appears not to have been fully worked out, and is only sketched above.

I can think of at least 3 ways to include these higher terms:

  • Include all terms at a higher order in beta .   The Sphinx Boltzmann.jl packages includes all terms up to mathcal{O}(beta^{3}) .  This changes both the Free Energy and the associated fixed point equations for the magnetizations.
Third Order Corrections
Third Order Corrections
Fourth Order Corrections
Fourth Order Corrections
  • Resum all diagrams of a certain kind. This is an old-school renormalization procedure, and it would include an infty number of terms.   This requires working out the analytic expressions for some class of diagrams, such as all circle (RPA-like) diagrams
    All RPA-like Diagrams, to infinite order
    all circle diagrams

    This is similar, in some sense, to the infinite RBM by Larochelle, which uses an resummation trick to include an infinite number of  Hidden nodes.

  • Use a low order Pade Approximant, to improve the Taylor Series.   The idea is to include higher order terms implicitly by expanding the Free Energy as a ratio of polynomial functions  P, Q

A^{P}(beta,mathbf{m})=dfrac{P(beta,mathbf{m})}{Q(beta,mathbf{m})}  , where

A(beta,mathbf{m}) -A^{P}(beta,mathbf{m})=0,

Obviously there are lots of interesting things to try.

Beyond Binary Spins; Real-Valued RBMs

The current python EMF_RBM only treats binary data, just like the scikit learn BernoulliRBM.  So for say MNIST, we have to use the binarized MNIST.

There is some advantage to using Binarized Neural Networks on GPUs.

Still, a non-binary RBM may be useful.  Tremel et. al. have suggested how to use real-valued data in the EMF_RBM, although in the context of Compressed Sensing Using Generalized Boltzmann Machines.

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Friday, October 3, 2008

Poy from Thailand

Poy, a thai, changing sex at the age of 17, enjoyed high reputation in Thailand since winning Miss Tiffany Competition (some sort of tranny beauty contest). During one of her interview, she tell her story after having sex changing operation. She won the crown of Miss Tiffany beauty contest at the age of 19.

During a talkshow, she said that when she was small, she used to think of becoming a girl, but in front of her parents, she has to pretend as a man.

She felt disgusted of her 'male organ', so at the age of 17, she went for the sex change surgery and since that, she felt as if she is a new born.

At the beginning, she is afraid of the operation, but after going through a lot of doctor's counseling and searching through info related to the operation, finally she decided to go ahead with the operation. During the operation, the process is extremely painful. But as soon as she thinks of becoming a female, worth every pain she suffered.

Recently, Poy is promoting some slimming products and has taken some sexy photoshots in Thailand . Her reputation keeps on growing as she has been a hot topics on the internet among those South East Asians.

Poy Personal Details:
Real Name : Treechada Marnyaporn
Nickname : Poy
Height : 171 cm
Weight : 48 kg
Measurement : 33 – 24 – 36
Occupation : Actress, Singer, Model
Awards received :
1) Miss Tiffany 2004
2) Miss International Queen 2004

p/s: Look at her hands, she has a pair of 'man size' hand! Other then that, she look perfect.

No comments:


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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Your Opinion

So which of these do you like better?

Come on back tomorrow. I am going to show off my summer fitness program for this year. It is kicking my butt too.

Nap Warden said...

I like the second one...coming back for you summer fitness program:)

Christy said...

I vote for the first one. Although I really like both but I think the added green color of the first one draws me to it more over the second one.

Belle (from Life of a...) said...

I like the second one the best.

Weezee said...

Both are lovely but I like the first.
My camera will come tomorrow. Woohoo! I can't wait. (I must say your photography is really improving.)

PG said...

the second for me. the bright/dark contrasting background overpowers the flowers in the first as I see it.

Anonymous said...

One of the best ways to strengthen new concepts in your mind is to share them with others10?CC) Creative Commons LicenseAbout The AuthorPriya Shah is a partner in the search engine marketing firm, SEO & More This approach is based on the premise that all individuals and families have definite strengths, coping skills and unique problem solving abilities to create positive change You just need to learn how to redirect the thoughts and energy you're using already I wonder if it's a bad thing to believe that football on TV is one of the first signs of fall approachingI have found the church to be filled with toxic Christians who shoot the wounded and condemn the victim7 You will walk to the river Some are stolen by people ? many of them co-workers, service staff or people taking advantage of a moment of opportunity ? who just want to have a laptop Such communities soon spread all over Europe with increasingly broad appeal among learned Jews - the rich and famous wannabee's, if you will Sometimes he gets so far into the picture that he can't figure out how to get home again ? but then, he just takes his purple crayon and draws the road backBrady threw a 24-yard TD pass to Rob Gronkowski to extend it to 38-13 in the fourth quarterIf you want to choose a NFL jerseys for yourself or for your friend as a gift, you must know the type of NFL jerseys first:Authentic NFL jersey This is the best choice, but not everyone can afford it, there are some people has at least five team as their favourite team, it will be a large cost if they want to collect all the jerseys, but if you R a super fans of just one team, I recommend you this kind of jerseys strongly
You will also finDon't miss the NFL Shop's Collectibles store, where you can find autographed memorabilia for each team and many of the game's greats He even went back to his old job for a whileA simple rule to remember (and one people have great difficulty keeping in mind) is that you are the leader, not your dog We need to laugh a little - no, a lot! Learn to laugh daily, even if you have to learn to laugh in bad situations

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Brillante Weblog Premio-2008

>> Friday, August 8, 2008

Sponsored Links

I got this award from: Berry thanx deary c:

rules of this award are :

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

and this award goes to:

Cielo of Brown Pinay

Kool Time

Just wanna tell u guys that ur my top favs and Berry too plus My freedom wall. You all deserve it hehe c:

Fernando C. Zamora August 8, 2008 at 7:47 PM

:-) for awhile, I was a in a state of shock LOL after you told me that i am included as nominee in the "brilliant weblog premio-2008 award." thanks a lot, my friend. i want to thank funny s. for my her and makeup...hey, i'm straight... ok for my best clothes tonight...or this morning...hmmm... joking know that this is a very humbling experience and i am humbled by this. happy blogging and hope to see you around blogging away!!! goodluck to your efforts too and always take care...

pchi August 8, 2008 at 8:15 PM

nag speech talaga si kuya fer

thank you po ate isah!

take care....

Cecile n' Matt August 8, 2008 at 8:21 PM

hello dear, salamat sa ward, it is a very humbling esp. to know that i am one of your fav. :-), so i accept the award from a sweet kaibigan at walang iba kundi ikaw, salamat talaga, ingat at keep up the good works!

isah marie August 8, 2008 at 10:13 PM

hey guys I'm so touched na u all appreciate my award for u guys u all deserve it i really like ur blogs really c:

ram August 8, 2008 at 11:47 PM

hi friend...
really shocked after seen the message in my cbox...i feel it's great to be your fav blog...thanks and thanks more words to me...

Cielo August 23, 2008 at 9:40 AM

Hi sis thanks for the award, I've done it but autodated it to August 28 (Thursday -my tag and meme day).

Again Thanks, I do appreciate it.

isah liit

  © Blogger template Shiny by 2008

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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Rite Aid Preview - Huggies $2.99 Next Week!!

OK...go ahead right now and get ready for the awesome Huggies deal at Rite Aid next week starting 5/30.

Before you do anything else, head over to my post HERE and sign up for the Rite Aid Wellness + Rewards Program.  You're going to need to be registered to get the "sale" price.  Since your card will not have arrived, just use your phone number when checking out.

Huggies Diapers - $8.99
Use $3/1 PRINT
Stack with $1/1 Video Values Coupon PRINT
Submit for $2 Single Check Rebate
(makes it $2.99)

Thank you, Time2Save.

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Post by Admin on 4/4/2008, 1:58 am

Thoughts of a Contemplative Artist
There are a lot of things that happen beyond questions of how big the eyes should be or how you should shade clothes to make them look realistic. Some of these things impinge on economic reality, our future choices and our identity as artists, as Filipinos and as human beings.

As people who don't play singular roles in our lives-- who are artists but at the same time students; at the same time, sons and daughters, perhaps fathers and mothers; at the same time, Filipinos or Chinese or Spanish; at the same time, Christians, Muslims, atheists or downright confused; what do the things that happen when we put our pencils down mean for us as artists?

  • "What does it mean to draw for money? How many Filipinos have actually gotten rich in this business?.. or have at least made ends meet? What cool things do they get to do? How'd they get to where they are?"
  • "What does it mean for Filipinos (or any other race/people) to draw using Japanese styles? Is it colonial mentality? Ethnic inferiority complex? Unoriginality? A tendency to copy everything?"
  • "A lot of people can call a lot of different styles 'Japanese', 'Manga' or 'Anime'. But at the extremes of cartoony-ness and realism, these different styles can have very little in common. So what the heck do these terms really mean? What can you say about the stereotype of 'big eyes, small mouth, blue hair'? What is it about the idea of 'manga' that seriously turns some people off?"

This section is the place to talk about questions like these.
So? What kinds of thoughts have come across your mind as you've continued to pursue this artform?

Number of posts : 30
Location/Province : Cebu
Registration date : 2008-04-01

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Sunday, January 4, 2015

Christmas 2014

 We enjoyed a lot of fun family time this Christmas....starting with Kraynaks in Hermitage, PA.  Then to Daffins Candies, and finishing our evening with a meal at the Original Quaker Steak and Lube.

 Our Christmas tree was fat, fat, fat this year....and had a little problem standing up straight!

 Ravioli making day was a hit....Ann-Marie became a pro at rolling the dough....too bad she can't eat it!

 Some of the goodies we made...yum!

 We always take a day to go into Pittsburgh at Christmas time....we started at the National History Museum in Pittsburgh to see the trees and the creche.

 Then we went to the Cathedral of Learning on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh to visit their decorated rooms....
 And a stop at Market Square for lunch/dinner and browsing the market shops.
 A Christmas hair-straightening for Ann-Marie and then.....
 It was Christmas!!!!!!

 And Christmas Dinner at Mark and JoAnne's house with Pap as Santa.....

 To top it off.....our annual stop at the light display in Zelienople, PA.
 Also, introducing "Broccoli".....our Christmas present to replace "Blueberry"
 Not to be outdone....Darrell took Paula into Pittsburgh on a date night and enjoyed the lights at Phipps Conservatory and ate at a wonderful Asian restaurant.

 New Year's Eve at a friend's house with our closest friends.....unfortunately, Darrell and Ann-Marie were under the weather, so only the boys and I were able to watch the ball drop!
We pray your Christmas was filled with wonderful memories and wish you all a very Happy New Year!!!!

Alec's 9th Birthday party

 Last child in the single year will be the BIG 10!  On his actual birthday, he enjoyed cinnamon rolls for breakfast, rotisserie chicken for lunch (from Costco - his favorite!), and pizza for dinner.  And his gifts were all about Legos!

 We held his birthday party the Saturday after was a Batman-themed party with eight 7-10 year old boys.....lots of action!

 We opened up our double garage for the activities.....unfreeze Batman with squirt guns - we used hot water as it was COLD in the garage!

 Four square is a huge hit with this age group!!!!

 Pin the Batarang on Joker....thank you again to Jessica for the wonderful drawing!!!

Great party, wonderful friends, activities to keep the boys busy, and plentiful food!!!!


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Pixel Art Details

Title: Tree
Pixel Artist: sjhwi1a  (Level 4 Mercenary :: 3495 points)
Posted: 9/24/2016 07:01
Statistics:  2 comments    3 faves    0 avatars

Weekly Challenge: Tree Monster SpriteWeekly Challenge: Tree Monster Sprite

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Gohan24 (Level 1 Gangster) @ 9/27/2016 09:36

The animation has so much character, I love it! And cool palette!

Caladium (Level 2 Corporal) @ 9/25/2016 21:17

creepy ^-^

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Sunday, July 31, 2011

We are @ Week 39 on Luna's 52 Weeks of Color Challange. This week the color is MELON and for me this is the fruit 4 Summertime. Next week Apricot is the challange and I am getting sentimental. Just a view weeks left OMG what are we going to do when the colors are done ?
Go visit Luna's Page on Flickr and see what people are doing this week  and the weeks before.

Skin  CandyDoll  Janett Tan Cup D
Hair  *mikan  @   RandoMuseum  Zoe Honey

Shoes Maitreya  Flip-Flops Sunset
Necklace + Moutpiece + Ring  {*I <3 FashiON*}  Fresh Watermelon # NEW
Glasses MIEL Genius Peepers
Poses  !bang  Knee High Fashion 5

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Had to do it, needed to get this child skin out here it is from   *JeSyLiLO* so cute and girly. TOSL weekend as well so I got so many stuff to choose from. Happy weekend have fun and enjoy.

Skin *JeSyLiLO* LorDy *RoseSkin*  # NEW
Shape *JeSyLiLO* Shape LorDy  # NEW
Hair [Me.] Jenna  # NEW
Head Band ~*INDIE ROSE*~ Headband # 57 TOSL EDITION

Top ~*INDIE ROSE*~ Boho Frilled Tubetop # 57 TOSL EDITION
Pants INDI Designs  Jeans White # 57 TOSL EDITION
Couch with poses Dreamscapes Art Gallery  *Country Charm* # 57 TOSL EDITION
Shoes  Mimikri  LeoLuxe Ballerina Clay

Friday, July 29, 2011

This girl is has some special donations to give away  and I ❤ ❤ ❤ it. *JeSyLiLO* got a new skin out and like always the skin of creator  LiLO Glom looks perfect.  And don't you the dress  from (Pixeldolls) nice design and lovely textures
Skin *JeSyLiLO*  ::::Arabin::: Tan Skin  # NEW
Hair ::Exile::  Voodoo
Dress  (PixelDolls)  Vigne/Tart  Olive  # NEW
Shoes  ::GABRIEL::  Leather Bootie Brown # GROUPGIFT 4 MAN
Stockings  MIEL  Refurbished Socks Green
Socks  Maitreya  Scrunched PrimSocks
Tattoo URCo.> Ho Sugar sugar Tattoo

Bag  .: Dandy :.  Funky Bag
Belt  Grim Bros  Poutchy Belt Brown
Bracelet  MIEL  Troupe Watch
Earrings [MANDALA]  Senjyu  Africa
Poses  GLITTERATI  Model Pack 24

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Almost weekend  the sun is shining and the world is a very  good place. I promissed yesterday a post about free shopping in Second Life and here it is. Some group gifts and a hunt gift  so you got to work for it a little to get your free bike ride.
With thanks to PaTTy90 Paule  designer of {* I < 3 FashiON* } for sending me the cute lovely accessories to compliment my outfits.

Bikini Top + Sarong Skirt + Hair with Hat [LeLutka] BREEZE ensemble # GROUP GIFT
Shoes ::GB:: Gladiator Sandals (Brown)  # GROUP GIFT
Bracelet Right [glow] Studio Lowicz Thick Wood Branclet
Bracelet Left   miel  FRIENDO Bracelet

Necklace and Mouth Piece {*I<3 FashiOn*}  Fresh Watermelon  # NEW
Glasses  HOC Industries Unisex Chrome Sunglasses # OLD HUNT GIFT
Bike with Poses {what next}  Summertime Bicycle  # HUNT GIFT ( Look 4 the Shark )
Location TABLEAU

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

OMG !!! More then 10000 totall  hits on my blog  ٩͡๏̯͡๏۶  Thank you all 4 visiting and taking an interest With extra BIG thanks and kisses to all the designers and creators in this pixel crazy world
Every post is made with     and I hope you come  to visit more often in the future. With ❥❥❥ and kisses ＩＮＫＩＥ
Now back to the pictures of today. The white dress made of feathers is part of a total outfit called Faceless Fox by [S]oleil   Part of the outfit is a Fox mask but I realy needed to show of the skin from .::BeautyCode::.  @  bargain price @  My Shopping Bag this week. Also the shoes are a super free gift from GABRIEL. I ❥❥ bargains and high quality free gifts.
If you do like that as well keep an eye on my blog post tomorrow with more free gifts to come.

Skin .::BeautyCode::.  @  My Shopping Bag *Pamela Light Pink
Make-Up GOTHIC  20-LionSkins
Hair  A&A  Brooke Hair Dark Rose  # NEW

Dress [S]oleil  Faceless Fox  # NEW Only @ Marketplace
Shoes ::GB::  Gladiator Sandals Black  # GROUPGIFT
Upperarm .:[S]:.  Blood Tranfer Bag
Nails M-Style  *Perfect Hand - Longest Nails

Collar .:[S]:.  Rustic Collar
Tattoo .:CoLL:.  Seize the night
Ears [Acide!]  Pique la  # NEW
Jail with Poses GLITTERATI  Lockdown

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A quick post about dental hygiene in Second Life ☻☻ I love this # NEW skin from Munspain with the freckles and girly blush.
And don't forget to check out My Shopping Bag this week ☻☻ All items L77 or L99

Skin *MS*  Arife MAkeup Glam  # NEW
Hair booN  @  RandoMuseum   Wrap Towl Brown
Top *Crazy*  Canet Top Boho
Skirt  (TokiD) Balloon Skirt (Faded)
Shoes *G Field*  Open Boots "Vilda" Brown

Bag  (TokiD)  Bunny Bag (Brown)
Necklace  *JD DESIGN* @  My Shopping Bag  Necklace All you need
Bangle Right CHOP ZUEY  Midnight Mocha Bracelet Ruby Cab
Bangel Left (*^-^*) HDMP  @  RandoMuseum  Bangle Color C
Necklace {*I <3 FashiOn*}  Fish in a Bowl  # NEW
Teeth Brush {*I <3 FashiOn*} My Dental Care  # NEW

Monday, July 25, 2011

Despite of my already imploding inventory I could not help myself when I stopped by @ *COCO* the new collection is amazing !!! Dresses to die for  with high quality textures and details.
Still looking on the web for all the information about getting shadows on my pics  but untill now crashing is my share so bare with me I will get there sooner or later.

Skin *REDGRAVE* Jenny Pale  # NEW
Hair  MIRAI STYLE  .+*Carr*+. Black & Silver
Dress & Stocking  *COCO*  SwingDress (ArtPrintRed) # NEW
Shoes  *GF*  Short Lace-Up Boots Red

Bangles Izzie's  Wood Bangles Magenta
Necklace  Izzie's  Pearl Necklace Red
Bag (TokiD)  Picnic Tote (light)
Location TABLEAU

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Sorry Luna I missed 2 weeks of your challange I did not have my own PC so I went cold turkey on SL and had serious  withdrawal symptoms By visiting your blog I kept my cool
TOSL theme this week is Summer Blockbusters  I  to watch  ಠ_ಠ  movies and 4 sure 1 of my favorites is Se7en with the yummy Brad Pitt. The 7 deadly sins are Wrath ,Greed,Envy,Pride,Gluttony,Sloth,Lust so thats why a choose this lusty outfit made by Macha Boa owner and designer of Je T'aime  Happy Sunday to you all have fun and enjoy

Hair [Me.] Emellie  # NEW
Top & Bra & Gloves Je t'aime Vulcano Latex Violett
Sockings *Sheer* Stockings 29a Very Thorn Black

Tattoo .:CoLL:. Se7en # TOSL EDITION
Collar ~Pepper~ Name Collar Black
Chair with Poses Clutter  Director's Chair # TOSL EDITION
Location Virtual Decay

Saturday, July 23, 2011

OMG I think I will never come out of my loaded inventory. So many things to do so little time to do it so lets go ಠ_ಠ
I wanted to take the dog home but they would not let me ಠ_ಠ so I took this picture as a souvenir
And I am trying hard to get  shadows on my pics but even for the  new PC with bigger video card and all I keep on crashing ಠ_ಠ. Anyone got any ideas about this ? I can use all the help and tips on the shadow department I can get ಠ_ಠ

Skin F I L T H Y __S K I N S  July # GROUPGIFT
Hair  [Me.]  Brenda  # NEW
Top & Legging (PixelDolls)  Vigine Black (Part of a dress)
Skirt (fd) Wilting Flower Skirt
Boots *COCO*  EngineerBoots (Brown)

Band in Hair (NO) Pixie Cut Bow Headband
Glasses ::Mr.Poet::  Eyeglass Cases
Necklace {*I<3FashiOn*} Ship in a BOttle #POUPEE  HUNT 2011

Friday, July 22, 2011

Thank God it is Friday !!! After being away  for some time I got an imploding / exploding inventory and I need the free time this weekend to get at least some of the stuff out here ☂. For now this is the last post with The Secret Store I can post about this shop for 3 weeks in a row so more to come in the next view weeks.

Skin *REDGRAVE*  Jenny Pale  #NEW
Make-Up *REDGRAVE* Lipstick Cherry comes with the bundle skin
Hair booN  Hairpeice  YUME69
Dress The Secret Store Froufrou Sailor's Delight
Shoes {mon tissu} Cottage Flats

Cardigan-on-Shoulder  *COCO* *Border Red
Cap [BUKKA] Marin Cap
Bangels :: PM :: Etnia Bangles Red
Poses with umbrella prop GLITTERATI Rainy Day
Location Truedeau

Thursday, July 21, 2011

I AM BACK !!!!!

Hello to you all fashion lovers and shopahollics I am so happy to be back ☻ !! Got my own new PC to work with so the options are getting better and better ☻ On this picture Isabelle Sciavo ❥❥
«´·.¸¸.♡" You're My Very Best Friend! "♡.¸¸.·`» Thanks Isa for baring with me to rez and crash and relog to get this pictures done. Isa is very secretive about the skin and hair she is wearing sorry ☻ I know the Jacket and the boots are from The Secret Store

Skin :Curio:  Acorn [Light] April Jonquil 1
Hair [LeLutka]  RYKIEL hairSummer Time
Top The Secret Store Boheme Pop Squares ( Part of dress)
Pants The Secret Store Flared Pants Cream
Shoes M-style  RIVEA Pumps

Hairband (NO)  Pixie Cut Headband Dark Lines
Bracelets *TuttiFrutti* Julian Bracelets Green
Belt [BUKKA] Double Ring Belt
Scarf ~Pepper~ Pathfinder Scarf
Glasses K_gs  Blazer
Sigaret in Hand Fourwenty Headshop Purple Haze


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  1. Welcome Guest! to interact with the community and gain access to all the site's features.

About Us

About Us

Plague Fest is a multigaming community, founded in June 2006 as the second Zombie Mod server in Counter-Strike: Source. The community thrives in-game, on the forums, and regulars meet up daily to chat on Discord. Since opening our doors we have expanded our arsenal of game servers and branched off into additional games. Fueled by donator and admin subscriptions, we've shaped this community into something for the players by the players.

Plague Fest initially began as something entirely different. It started as an idea on the FacePunch forums back when Garry's Mod wasn't on Steam (circa late 2005 / early 2006), but the idea wasn't a zombie oriented server or community. The idea was a simple 32 slot regular CS:S server that the members of FacePunch forums could play on with each other. The thread that started the idea quickly gained ground and by 30+ pages there was a clan formed and the name FacePunchGaming, or FPG, won the poll.

After playing regular CS:S with each other and trying to get a server foundation going (map rotation, configurations, et cetera), we decided to try and setup some scrims just for fun. We ended up setting a few up, only to be slaughtered. It was becoming rather evident that FPG as a competitive clan wasn't going to go over too well, and it was better off as a general fun community. The regular CS:S server would have players from FPG now and then, but it would never max out or go above ~15 players.

Around this time, Zombie Mod beta was introduced to CS:S and the only server running it was [CSSMC] by Spinner. Spinner was running the beta on a Windows box, with a 20 slot server, and sure enough it was full all the time. Back then, Zombie Mod was in the very early stages of development. The models had no animations, night vision was a constant effect, and many of the features we use today were not present. Players would constantly get stuck in props and not be able to get out (which lead to the introduction of !zstuck, which was later changed to a teleport command, !ztele).

Regardless of Zombie Mod's limitations, Brian became a fan of the mod and ended up creating a promotional video which grabbed Jason/c0ldfry3's attention (original author of Zombie Mod) after it was posted on the AlliedModders forums in the Zombie Mod discussion thread. Because of the promo, Jason and Brian got to talking about the mod in general over MSN messenger.

With the regular CS:S server for FPG not doing so well, Brian decided it might be a good idea to try out Zombie Mod. Problem was, Zombie Mod wasn't available for download, it was in closed beta on one server only. However, that server was running on Windows, and Jason had a build of Zombie Mod available for Linux, but no one was testing it. Brian took this opportunity to get Zombie Mod going under the once regular CS:S 32 slot server, as it was running on a Linux box. Jason agreed and helped with the initial setup and getting it running. Once we were stable, the server filled up in no time. This was a big moment for us - we had never been full before and the server was packed with players having fun on the now 2nd Zombie Mod server in CS:S.

Due to the success of the newly acquainted Zombie Mod server, the idea of FPG gradually diminished as the server became the official Zombie Mod server ("ZombieMod.com :: Plague Fest :: FastDL") to help promote the mod. On June 4th 2006, PlagueFest.com was purchased and forums were setup for the server and a community began to form.

Zombie Mod server MOTD circa 2006

As the server grew, CPU use became an issue with our game server host. Back then we weren't on our own dedicated servers. We relied on a game server rental company (DRGServers) who didn't like that our CS:S server was using 3+ times as much CPU as any other CS:S server they were hosting. Because of this the server ended up moving several times, to newer and better dedicated servers, but these moves weren't always for the better. They would often mean IP changes, and that caused us to lose the majority of our player base. Zombie Mod has always been a resource whore, and because of this issues were very common and Zombie Mod servers required far more resources and powerful hardware than regular CS:S servers. This made finding affordable server hardware that could support the servers to improve server and gameplay performance rather difficult, and attributes to why we were a single Zombie Mod server for about 4 years until 2010 when we began to expand once better hardware was available and we had the funds to support it. We didn't even consider expansion due to low funds and high costs, and Plague Fest wasn't bringing in enough money via donations and admin subscriptions to cover the bills, but once Plague Fest actually started paying for itself, we began to expand.

Because we were a 64 slot Zombie Mod server at this time, which was constantly full, we decided that the first server we should add to our arsenal is simple - another Zombie Mod server! This became Zombie Mod #2 (which has since been retired). From here we ventured off into Zombie Escape and even non-zombie oriented game modes, such as Mini Games and Gun Game. Soon after a 24/7 Lila Panic maps Zombie Mod server was suggested by the community and surprisingly picked up ground. Since the release of CS:GO in August 2012 we've added servers for Zombie Mod, Zombie Escape, Jailbreak, and Mini Games. We also explored Minecraft and Team Fortress 2 as possible games to expand into and we're continually searching for new avenues to branch into in hopes to better the overall experience at Plague Fest.

None of this would have been possible without the dedicated staff and loyal community throughout the years. Thank you to everyone who has been with us, either in the past, the present, or the future, through the good, the bad, the just plain ugly, or the absolutely wonderful - it certainly hasn't been easy, but you've all made it worthwhile.


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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Colonial Williamsburg Trip Report

Welcome to the Plane Shavings Woodworking Blog / Travel Blog. :-)

This past weekend, my wife Jen and I traveled to Colonial Williamsburg for a weekend at my favorite destination. No different than the many weekends I'd traveled here before except for one major difference; this time we would be staying right in the historic area in a room at the Brick House Tavern. The Brick House is one of two taverns renting individual rooms in Colonial Williamsburg, Market Square Tavern being the other. Both are located on Duke of Gloucester Street about a block and a half apart. The Brick House is right next to the armory complex.

We left our house Friday morning and got into town around noon. We caught a movie at Movie Tavern to kill a little time until our 4 o'clock check in. After the movie, we decided to ride over to the Williamsburg Inn where all check-ins for historic area lodging are handled. The Inn is a first class hotel in every way. The doors to the lobby are opened for you and when we stepped through we were greeted by the sound of a harpist playing in the large sitting area of the luxuriously furnished lobby. Although it was only 2:30, we were able to check in early. After getting some paperwork straight with the friendly woman at the front desk, we met with the concierge to get a few other things situated, mainly confirming our dinner reservations and program reservations. The concierge was also very pleasant and helpful. When it was time to be shown the way to the tavern we were instructed to follow a bell hop in a van who carried our luggage to our room for us after showing us where to park, which was very conveniently directly behind the tavern.

Upon entering our room, I can't say I was blown away by the size or luxury appointments in the room; it was small, no more than 140 sq. ft. not including the bathroom. We were on the second floor in a corner room facing Duke of Gloucester Street. Being it was a corner room, we also had a window on the side of the room which overlooked the armory complex. The bathroom was also not large, and being on the second floor, the front wall of the room followed the roof line of the tavern. The only place this was really a problem was in the shower, where you had about 2 feet of full height shower and then it tapered down with the roof line until it ended at about 3 1/2 feet of height. Not ideal, but manageable. The room was furnished in 18th century style furniture with a queen bed, dresser, two night stands and a small occasional table, and a desk with a windsor chair. There was also an upholstered wing chair in the corner. Where the room really proved it worth was it's location. For me at least, there is nothing like being able to walk out your door at any time and be right in the heart of the historic area. It was also pretty cool to hear the clip-clop of horses go by all day carrying tourist on carriage rides. We definitely took advantage of the location. After going out for another amazing dinner at Aberdeen Barn ( both Jen and I's favorite restaurant in the world ), it was back to our room and our 18th century world. Friday night I walked the historic area til almost midnight taking pictures that I wouldn't normally get and Saturday morning Jen got up and went for a brisk exercise paced walk while I chose a more casual pace armed with my camera again. So nice taking pictures early in the morning before the crowd gets there.

Saturday was our busy day there. I spent most of the day in 18th century dress, which made me pretty happy ( I know, what a weirdo ). I did get asked several times when buying things in the historic area if I had my CW employee card so they could give me my employee discount. :-) We booked a free 2 o'clock program a Great Hopes Plantation called Working the Soil, Healing the Soul. This was about being a slave in the 18th century and the hardships of slavery and the bonds slaves formed with each other to make it through each day. The program was very well presented. Extremely informative and enjoyable. After that hour long program was over, we walked back to our room ( such a nice option rather than having to drive to a hotel in town ) and relaxed a little until our dinner reservation at Kings Arms Tavern at 5:45. We were seated upstairs in a nice room with about 6 tables, authentically furnished for the period. My meal was better that I expected, prime rib with roasted red skinned potatoes and rice. Jen got a seafood macaroni dish and I don't believe she was very impressed with her meal. We both got the soup of the day before our meal, which was a chicken corn chowder with bacon. We both agreed that this was delicious. No room for dessert.

After dinner we walked our food off a little and then met at the Greenhow Lumberhouse for our 8:30 evening program, Ghost Amongst Us. This was fun. It was a candlelit tour that took us inside the governors palace, the Wythe house, and the Geddy house for stories told and acted out by actresses portraying 18th century characters from their stories. The stories were fun, but I enjoyed just being in the building after dark with just the light of a lantern; a much different feel than visiting during daylight hours.

Sunday we got up, did our walks around the nearly empty historic area again, and then toured the Capitol building and checked out the armory complex before having to check out and head home. It was an amazing weekend and being able to stay in the historic area really enhanced my enjoyment of it all. It's a weekend I'll always remember.

A Friday night picture taken from beside the Post Office

Prentis Store at night

Our Tavern

Beautifully quiet and peaceful in the early morning light

Lathe behind the Wheelwright's Shop

Early morning at the Hay Shop

A different angle of the Hay Shop

Jen and I's favorite tree. A beautiful, sprawling Compton Oak across
from the St. George Tucker house

Me waiting for the Great Hopes program to start. Imagining that I am
looking over my freshly planted tobacco fields at my Williamsburg

Jen staying cool in the shade waiting for the program to start

A picture in our room after changing into my dinner

At Kings Arms Tavern waiting for the meal
Getting a little goofy waiting for our meal. Must've been food deprivation.

My beautiful bride at Kings Arms Tavern

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures Jamie. Must have felt like Williamsburg was your own little heaven without the tourist in the early morning and late evenings. Hope that your Compton Oak will one day look as good as the one from St George Tucker house:)

Anonymous said...

Great pictures Jamie!!! Glad you had such a good time and I love you dressed in your colonial clothes!! Very handsome!!!

Charles said...

Great post Jamie. I am glade you dressed period, gives a total different perspective doe it not?
Now we have to work on Jen :)

Jamie Bacon said...

Thanks Mom and Debbie. It was truly a wonderful weekend. I had such a good time and it was a unique experience.

Jamie Bacon said...

Thanks Charles. I loved dressing in period appropriate clothing. That's definitely a great place to do it. It has me wanting to expand my wardrobe now. I'm surprisingly comfortable in them. As for Jen, good luck. Maybe we can sway her next week.

Furnituremaker said...

It is great to see your post there is definitely something about wearing period clothes with the poofy shirts. Especially when you go to walmart.:)

Bill Rainford said...

Great pictures. Whenever my mind wanders I often daydream of living in Williamsburg -- my wife and I love it down there. Also nice to see another Pats fan. (We're from Boston :-)

Take care,

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