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Packaging Design for Avanaa by Caserne"The typography layout…
April 30, 2017 Design Blog	Leave a comment
Packaging Design for Avanaa by Caserne
"The typography layout follows an intuitive logic which allows the consumer to take notice of the origin, the weight, and the concentration indication of the cocoa. We had teamed up with an illustrator Cécile Gariépy in order to pay hommage to the noble and meticulous work of the growers. The logo and the visual identity take their inspiration from the fragments of a broken chocolate bar. The colour and the composition of the packaging give the product an unique and pronounced energy. Gloire au cacao!"
CASERNE is a graphic design studio located in Montreal. They offer creative solutions and appropriate graphic communication in relation to strategic issues of their clients: branding, publishing, packaging, web and motion design. Their approach to work is global. It's functional, coherent and relevant.
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Primitive Technology: Water Powered Hammer (Monjolo)
April 29, 2017 twisted sifter	Leave a comment
YouTube channel Primitive Technology built this water powered hammer called a "Monjolo". It's used for pulverizing materials into powder and the one in the video was built as a proof of concept.
It's the first machine he's built using primitive technology that produces work without human effort.
Extrapolate
In this hand drawn animation a line is being extrapolated through a grid. When the line surpasses the boundaries of the grid, the process spreads to and reflects on its surroundings. Beyond each boundary the extrapolation of movement is causing deformation in a systematic but speculative way.
This work was created with support from "Animation Artist in Residence Tokyo 2016" part of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (Bunka-cho) "Project to invite overseas creators of media arts 2016" and the Mondriaan Fund.
More info: johanrijpma.nl/notes/notes-extrapolate/
Directors Notes: directorsnotes.com/2017/04/25/johan-rijpma-extrapolate/
There's a Venomous Snake in this Photo
Photograph by Jerry Davis
Did you see it? It's there, hiding in plain sight. A venomous copperhead snake (Agkistrodon contortrix). Take another look, see if you can spot the little guy.
If you found it, well done! Now watch your step. Copperheads tend to 'freeze' instead of slithering away, and as a result, many bites occur from people unknowingly stepping on or near them (source). If you're still having trouble spotting him, check out the outlined photo below.
Photograph by Jerry Davis | Outline by @SssnakeySci
Win a Jekyll and Hide Voucher
April 28, 2017 Menswear Style	Leave a comment
We've partnered with luxury accessories brand, Jekyll & Hide, to give one of our readers the chance to win a £200 voucher to spend on their website. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Jekyll & Hide now also boasts offices in London and Sydney and is stocked in stores across New York, South Africa and Europe. The Jekyll & Hide traveller is confident, sophisticated and adventurous with an attitude for craftsmanship and longevity. A plethora of products make up the Jekyll & Hide catalogue; including leather jackets, travel bags & accessories, belts and this year sees the launch of their first footwear collection.
A luxury lifestyle brand that caters to all your adventures, Jekyll & Hide accessories feature specific functions and compartments for ease of travel, creating lifelong lifestyle partners. Tech infusions run throughout with RFID blocking technology being a signature feature of their accessories, preventing fraud whilst travelling.
To be in with a chance of winning simply head over to our Competition Page and leave your name and email address. This will unlock extra entry methods which will ultimately increase your chances of winning. You have until May 28th 2017 and the lucky winner will be selected at random and announced within 24 hours – Good luck everyone!
Article by Menswear Style
Discover John Malkovich Menswear
Finally, actor John Malkovich owns his "dot com" after his name. It was through very sophisticated and witty TV ads, strategically placed during this last Super Bowl, that we learned Mr. Malkovich's troubles to take back his valuable "dot com" from a fishing website whose domain was johnmalkovich.com. It's hard to imagine that his previous two ventures, Uncle Kimono and Technobohemian, didn't have any on-line presence, but now we can purchase from the comfort of our home computers, the creations the actor designed for his new menswear collection under his own very name.
It's amazing how Mr. Malkovich can travel effortlessly from movie screens, to theatre stages, to the realm of menswear, and in each venture reveal the same strong unique personality that is "John Malkovich." Ease seems to be the key element in his new Spring/Summer collection of classic shirts with whimsical but never too intrusive prints, fun T-shirts with cartoon illustrations, and the most classic cotton sweaters in white, blue, and cherry red, paired with unexpected square necklines. Found in this collection as well are skinny trousers in cotton, linen, or light wool in classic nuances of blues and greys, and timeless blazers in linen and cotton. And, if you end up on the beach this summer, Mr. Malkovich is offering loose cotton Bermuda shorts for your comfort in the warm weather.
There are a few surprises, too, such as the "Mao Jacket" constructed with a flat notched collar and the relaxed "shirt jacket" composed of two patch pockets and buttoned cuffs. Accessories received particular attention in the form of sensual scarves with hand-drawn patterns, created by Mr. Malkovich himself, and printed on silk and cotton or linen blends. Knitted silk ties in heather blue or red and pearl complete the collection, adding a classic but laidback touch. And do not fear when summer weather brings showers, for the collection also offers mid-length, single-breasted raincoats in navy, red, or white in a mini-tartan pattern.
If John Malkovich's fashion venture has a very European flair, it's because he's partnered with French designers Liliana and Francesco Ferri and produced between Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italy. But Mr. Malkovich's own fashion sensibility wasn't a sudden whim, but had its roots back in school when he took some costuming classes as part of his degree in theatre. As a real Renaissance man, John Malkovich has blended his varied talents effortlessly throughout his long career, and the TV ads aired during the Super Bowl are a testimony of this cohesion. With the help of the creative team of Squarespace, who produced the TV ads, the highly sophisticated short clips embody all of Mr. Malkovich's persona. Set in his atelier, the actor demonstrates his legendary acting chops among his menswear creations with a witty elegance that personifies the unique John Malkovich style.
Introducing Montana by Jekyll and Hide
Born in the heart of Cape Town, South Africa, Jekyll & Hide is a global brand standing for quality, functionality and style – a delicate intertwining of the old world and new. The juxtaposition of historic and modernity is at the core of the brand, combining classic leather with modern technology. The Jekyll & Hide traveller is confident, sophisticated and adventurous with an attitude for craftsmanship and longevity. A plethora of products make up the Jekyll & Hide catalogue; including leather jackets, travel bags & accessories, belts and this year sees the launch of their first footwear collection.
Contributing to Jekyll & Hide's extensive range is the Soho collection; lending its hand to a more relaxed, casual look. This is a fresh take on the brands's ethos, preferred by business professionals and seasoned travellers. This range features cabin trolleys, holdalls, backpacks, briefcases and other smaller travel accessories.
Technology infusions are central to the Soho product line, as seen in the use of RFID blocking technology, added into bags and wallets to prevent contactless fraud. The Soho range is born to explore; with dedicated and carefully curated compartments for all your necessary travel and tech essentials. Secure padding is a core feature, added to cushion laptops, tablets and other devices, allowing easy access and protection for a hassle-free journey.
The Soho collection receives its name from Lower Manhattan's Soho, synonymous with trend-setting. A blend of comfort, flair and tradition with a distinctive, vintage finish defines the Soho range, encapsulating quiet sophistication, authenticity and an adventurous spirit. Soft, waxy, pull-up leather combines with antique brass buckles and fittings to result in a rich expression of relaxed, individual style: somewhat understated, yet instantly noticeable to the discerning eye.
Prices start at £115 and is available at jekyllandhide.co.uk/soho. The Jekyll & Hide story is a simple one – by creating products that are lifelong partners of travel and adventures of life, they follow the mantra 'Live Authentic'.
Introducing the new Rolls Royce Wraith Black Badge
MenswearStyle had the privilege to feel the power and presence of the fastest ever Rolls Royce motor car. Rolls Royce embodies luxury and craftsmanship and this new black line offers the discerning client a bold statement, one that can be tailored to their exact requirements.
The classic long bonnet, and yet a wider stance hints at its power, the power and grace of a luxury yacht for the road. It is a cocoon of serenity inside, with seats that massage you as you glide over the road surface. Yet the beast underfoot is ready to be unleashed. The 6.6 litre V12 deploys 624bhp and a monstrous 870Nm of torque allowing this exquisite coupe to launch into the night as the torque swells with a glorious surge of rampant energy.
The black badge goes beyond the classic wraith, with added feel and eagerness to the way it drives. A slightly stiffer suspension, steering setup and responsive gearshifts thanks to a new enhanced 8 speed gearbox which instills confidence and emboldens the drivers "darker" personality.
The all new, and specific to the black badge are the artistic and extraordinarily innovative 21" wheels made from an outer rim of carbon fibre bonded to aero-space alloy composite spokes – resulting in immense strength, light weight and visually striking.
Fine details don't end there, with attention to detail extending to the roof. An exact layout of the star constellation above Goodwood from the first day the factory opened illuminates the cabin, with hand stitched leather seats, and yet again can even be customised to a client's requirements. The customisation parameters are endless in a way that only Rolls Royce seems to provide.
The car is a tour de force in technology, with a satellite aided gearbox reading the road ahead and pre-selecting the relevant gear. LED based lighting offering night vision as you explore the boundaries of a grand tour at dusk.
This sportier masterpiece of craftsmanship offers never before seen levels of grace, style and glamour in a Rolls Royce that only the bravest can try and tame.
The North Face & nanamica Are Dropping These Pristine Pieces Tomorrow
April 28, 2017 High Snobiety	Leave a comment
Visit the original post to see all 8 images from this gallery.
Brand: nanamica x The North Face Purple Label
Season: SS17
Key Pieces: The mock neck grey T-shirt with the Purple Label logo (on the right in slide four) is a definite vibe.
Editor's Notes: The latest capsule collection between Japanese brand nanamica and iconic outerwear giant The North Face has arrived. It features modern updates to menswear classic, like the brand's oversized oxford shirt in a mainly white pinstripe and a sleek windbreaker in white, blue and black. It also includes more trend-focused pieces like the oversized anorak, in an almost translucent white, blue and black, and a mock neck midi-sleeve T-shirt.
The limited edition collection will be available this Saturday, April 29, at nanamica stores only.
In other fashion news, here are five versatile jackets you should check out this season.
Not So Fast, Sony Dropping Dr. Luke Isn't Quite a Victory for Kesha
In an ongoing war of attrition that has lasted far too long, Sony Entertainment appears to have finally made a step in the right direction a whopping three years after Kesha first publicly accused Dr. Luke of a myriad of abuse. While it is unclear whether or not Dr. Luke's career will actually take a major hit, as of this week, he is no longer the CEO of the record label he established with Sony called Kemosabe Records, and the company has removed a page dedicated to the producer from their website. While it seems like Sony may have taken a definitive stand against the producer, in reality, the contract between the company and Dr. Luke has merely expired.
"I know I cannot work with Dr. Luke. I physically cannot. I don't feel safe in any way." The fact that Kesha's words meant next to nothing to a major, multi-billion dollar entertainment company who had invested money and time into the talented pop star is sadly unsurprising, but still completely deplorable.
On an extremely basic level, Dr. Luke is infinitely more sus than Kesha, with an impressively slimey track record as her controlling creative collaborator. Their partnership first began over a decade ago, when Dr. Luke convinced the then-18 year old straight-A high school student to drop out and move to Los Angeles. Thanks to Dr. Luke, Kesha was officially uncredited on her first major feature – Flo Rida's "Right Round." The smash hit went 6x Platinum in the US and she didn't make a dime off the track on which her soaring vocals are essential.
Kesha's lawyers have stipulated that Dr. Luke would brag to her about his sexual conquests, getting women drunk and performing anal sex on them. In at least one instance, he allegedly forced Kesha to consume drugs and alcohol, then proceeded to slip her a GHB pill – also known as the "date rape" drug – and sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious.
Kesha went to rehab for her eating disorder in 2014, and there is plenty of evidence showing that Dr. Luke did nothing but encourage it with forms of aggressive body shaming. Regardless, it seems pretty clear that even without her eating disorder, Kesha was going through a lot due to this utterly abusive creative partnership with Dr. Luke.
Toss the mounting evidence that Dr. Luke is a less-than stellar human being aside – Sony could and should have done more to support and protect Ke$ha as soon as she revealed Dr. Luke had been abusing her for a decade. It's far too convenient that Sony is only attempting now – when the contract is expiring on its own – to wash their hands clean of the filth Dr. Luke has clearly expelled everywhere for at least the past decade.
Kesha has made Sony lots of money, and so has Dr. Luke, and it is more than unfortunate that with their relative silence on the matter, they chose to protect just one of their assets… Surprise! They picked the older, white male one. In response to an injunction filed by Kesha's lawyer Mark Geragos demanding Kesha's release from her contract, Sony and Kemosabe responded by saying it was a "transparent and misguided attempt to renegotiate her contracts."
In a perfect world, one that I assume most sane people would prefer to live in, Sony would have just supported Kesha in the first place. Like far too many women, Kesha has experienced sexual abuse only to be told that she's lying and exaggerating. Or even, as Dr. Luke has claimed, Kesha is "motivated by money" in going through the painstaking, rarely lucrative or satisfying process of formally pressing charges against him.
Kesha's latest lawsuit against Dr. Luke was rejected March 21, 2017, and it remains to be seen whether or not this expired contract will even come close to derailing Dr. Luke's career in the same way it has Kesha's. Sure he's no longer CEO of Kemosabe Records, but it didn't make Sony much money anyway.
At the very least, there are thousands of sane people out there that believe Kesha, stand with her, and are actively supporting her – Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Lorde are just a few fellow popstars who have said #FreeKesha. Taylor Swift even donated $250,000 to Kesha last February to support her after a judge ordered she was obligated to continue her contract with Dr. Luke, more specifically, that she would be forced to record six more albums with him.
There are people all over the world who love you @KeshaRose. And I can say truly I am in awe of your bravery.
— xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) February 19, 2016
standing with @KeshaRose through this traumatic, deeply unfair time. send good vibes her way everyone
— Lorde (@lorde) February 19, 2016
Frustratingly, Sony distancing themselves from Dr. Luke may seem like a victory for Kesha and her fans, but it might actually make the whole situation more difficult for her. Kesha had stated in the past to the trial judge that when Dr. Luke's contract with Sony expires, she would no longer have Sony as a go-between, making her situation worse. Additionally, Dr. Luke's deformation claims against her are still pending, and the fact that his deal with Sony has expired adds to his attorney's evidence that his career has suffered as a result of her allegations.
This whole ordeal – a rancid stew brimming with misogyny, Hollywood bullshit, and requisite late capitalist insanity – can be boiled down to the following hot, spicy take – BELIEVE SURVIVORS. Kesha should never have had to deal with any of this in the first place. Period. If we could all just believe people when they accuse others of abuse, survivors would not have to be unjustly forced to interact with their abusers.
making stuff and things w @wallpaper makes my little heart go pitter pat with excitement and gnarlyness❤☠❤☠❤☠❤☠❤☠❤☠❤
A post shared by Kesha (@iiswhoiis) on Apr 22, 2017 at 6:11pm PDT
In any case, it is heartening to see Kesha working on music in spite of all this, and we can't wait to hear what she's working on. We're rooting for you Kesha.
If you have been sexually assaulted, there are resources to help you.
Donate to Rape Crisis here (UK) or RAINN here (US).
The views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of Highsnobiety as a whole.
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OVO - Cirque du Soleil
at Royal Albert Hall
After the success of Amaluna, Cirque du Soleil returns to London in January 2018 with OVO. Having thrilled more than 4.5 million people worldwide since the show premiered in Montreal in 2009, OVO will make its European debut later this year followed by performances at the Royal Albert Hall for Cirque Du Soleil's annual residency in London.
OVO, meaning "egg" in Portuguese, is a headlong rush into a colourful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement. When a mysterious egg appears in their midst, the insects are awestruck and intensely curious about this iconic object that represents the enigma and cycles of their lives.
The cast of OVO is comprised of 50 performing artists from 12 countries specializing in many acrobatic acts. One highlight of OVO is the stunning Flying Act in which a group of scarabs soar high above the stage, from both edges to the middle landing on a platform.
Don't miss this spectacular show at the iconic Royal Albert Hall.
OVO - Cirque du Soleil Reviews
"A celebration of wonder and movement, insects stun in buzzing carnival show"
"Eye-popping"
"Insect extravaganza. Physical feats defy gravity and sometimes even belief"
"Packed with wall to wall, floor to ceiling highlights, with OVO they've cracked it again"
Kensington Gore
SW7 2AP
(15mins) Take Exhibition Road up to Prince Consort Road where you turn left; take the right leading you to Kensington Gore.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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How Prepared is your state?
Explore top WV risks:
Inland Flooding
Coastal Flooding
Climate change means more mosquito days, increasing Zika risk.
Nearly 60,000 people living in West Virginia are especially vulnerable to extreme heat.
West Virginia is facing one of the top 10 largest increases in heat wave days by 2050 among the lower 48 states.
Summers are getting muggier as the dewpoint temperature rises
The New Normal: Earth is Getting Hotter
The strong El Niño is not solely responsible for the warming planet. Global temperatures have been trending upward since 1950, regardless of whether or not the Pacific Ocean was in an El Niño, La Niña, or neutral phase.
In West Virginia, there are more than 150,000 people living in areas at an elevated risk of inland flooding.
Heaviest downpours have increased since 1950
Across most of the country, the heaviest downpours are happening more frequently, delivering a deluge in place of what would have been routine heavy rain.
According to the National Climate Assessment, the most extreme precipitation events (those in the 99th percentile of intensity) have increased in every region of the contiguous states since the 1950s.
There's been an upward trend in rainfall nationwide
It's not just April showers: more water can evaporate into a warmer atmosphere at all times of the year, and what goes up must eventually come down.
See your state's precipitation trends on WXshift >>
What's Happening in Your Region?
Rains Flood West Virginia While Fires Burn Out West
The massive floods that rapidly inundated towns displaced thousands and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and other structures. At least 23 people were killed, according to news reports... More
In Streak of Extreme Storms, What's the Role of Warming?
From South Carolina to Texas to West Virginia and Maryland, each instance of extreme rainfall and subsequent flooding raises questions about the potential role of climate change in making such events more likely... More
Maryland: Rain Causes 82 Percent of All Sewage Overflows
Increasing heavy downpours, fueled by climate change, cause millions of gallons of sewage overflows nationwide.... More
Sinking Atlantic Coastline Meets Rapidly Rising Seas
New research using GPS and prehistoric data has shown that nearly the entire coast is affected, from Massachusetts to Florida and parts of Maine... More
Sign up for email updates to stay informed about what your state is doing to mitigate weather risks.
States at Risk report card


An anniversary is a yearly event in which the two of you celebrate another year of experience, joy, and you guessed it, love! It is a time when even the most undomestic people want to present our honey a little bit of fine dining, but the planning can be hard! That is where we come in! We have put together a list of over 50 romantic anniversary dinner ideas that will assist you to whip up a menu that is perfectly magical.
To create your anniversary meal preparation even more exciting, we have divided the listing of anniversary dinner ideas to four fabulous categories. Simply select one item from each list and you have got yourself a four-course meal that's insanely remarkable.
Start your meal off on the right (and did we mention romantic?) foot with these tasty and easy to prep appetizers that are sure to impress! Maybe prep some appetizers in advance to share while prepping the main course together.
Deviled egg-lovers will be drooling over this hearty and man-approved twist!
Everyone's favorite Italian ingredient takes center stage in this perfect seafood appetizer for two!
Crispity, crunchy, and perfect for munching, these parmesan crisps pair perfectly with just about anything!
Meat and potato loving guys will be all over these mini morsels that still pack a wallop of flavor!
Tried and true, we guarantee the deliciousness of these veggie-topped treats.
You can never go wrong with bacon and these pepper-infused poppers add a whole new dimension of flavor!
Watch these disappear faster than dessert, and don't hesitate to share a few with us.
A classic bruschetta recipe with a healthy dose of something secret (spoiler: it's balsamic), this is one finger food that's finger-lickin' tasty!
Italian entrees make for the perfect match to this flavor-filled dipping oil and a side of bread!
The only thing more fun than making these bad boys is eating them!
Bacon and jalapeno meet together once again for this creamy, spreadable goodness that pairs perfectly with your favorite cracker!
Fans of feta cheese will be in heaven as they devour these adorable cucumber canapes topped with fresh ingredients like tomato and basil.
Give us all the brie and we'll be happy campers! Try this cranberry topped treat for the perfect blend of sweet and savory.
Seafood lovers will be over the moon about these crab stuffed peppers—we sure are!
Be still our hearts, we simply can't get over how divine this appetizer is. Artichokes win again!
This is currently our best selling product! It's a FREE + shipping Paleo Dessert cookbook by the popular nutritionist, Kelsey Ale. Included are 61 delicious nutritious Paleo-based dessert – you'd swear came from your local bakery! Each of these recipes is all tried, tested and family approved.
Show your main-squeeze a little extra lovin' with these main dishes that can't be beaten! Whether you want to keep it simple and elegant or go, gourmet, there are romantic dinner ideas to wow your spouse below. Make dinner together or surprise your sweetie with one of these gorgeous anniversary dinner ideas.
A quintessentially romantic meal, these pan seared rib eye steaks are about as mouthwatering as they come!
Infuse a little bit of Italy into your night with this creamy chicken dish that can stand on its own, or pairs perfectly with pasta.
Simple and delicious, you cannot go wrong with this classic dish!
Always wanted to visit the Islands of Greece? With this one-pot dish, you're practically there!
With a twenty minute prep time, and the serving versatility that typically comes with a shrimp dish, this is one entree you'll definitely want to give a go.
Layers of lasagna noodles, prosciutto, and béchamel create this mouthwatering concoction we're dying to try!
With flavors such as maple, balsamic, and dijon mustard, there is one pork chop recipe that will really take you for a ride!
It's hard to believe this mouthwatering dish is so healthy—making it the perfect anniversary choice for those wanting something a little lighter.
You don't need to be Swedish to enjoy this rich and creamy feast, although it certainly couldn't hurt!
Asian cuisine is presented at it's finest with this incredibly easy dish that rivals any Chinese takeout.
The venerable Ina Garten does it again with this upscale recipe that anyone can create!
Pull out all the stops with this spicy and sassy gumbo dish that contains everyone's favorite fillings.
A meal that's both casual and man-friendly, this quick and easy cheesesteak is always a good choice!
Bring a little Latin American flair to your meal with this marinated pork dinner.
Topped with avocado salsa and filled with everything good in the world, these grilled shrimp tacos will bring a bit of island living right to your table!
Anything dripping with butter is a total win in our book!
Just because it's anniversary time doesn't mean you should forget the veggies! Sneak them into this scrumptious dish and you'll be glad you did!
The pinnacle of romance and refinement, this tasty dish is simpler than you might think and tastes unbelievable!
Put a clever spin on an ordinary steak with these veggie-stuffed rolls that are garnished with balsamic.
Classic flavors like garlic and parmesan make this salmon dish one that you won't want to miss.
Creamy goat cheese takes center stage in this stuffed chicken dish that we guarantee you'll want to make again.
A creamy rice dish that's bursting with flavor, this parmesan risotto is where romance meets comfort food in the best way possible.
Lasagna lovers will love the ricotta infusion that this dish encompasses while healthier eaters will certainly appreciate it's spinach addition!
Give us a stuffed pasta dish and we are SO there!
Vegetarians, listen up! This meatless miracle dish is sure to please even the pickiest of palettes and in such style.
Swish cheese, ham, and chicken – three of nature's most amazing ingredients – come together in this heavenly dish that's totally worth giving a go!
Is there anything more perfect than parmesan? We don't think so and this creamy, garlicky chicken takes that charming cheese to new heights!
You haven't tried salmon like this before and you're missing out!
Cheese loaded pasta meets everything good in the world with this hearty meal!
Give ordinary pizza the boot in favor of this glammed up (and did we mention healthier?) version of a classic celebration treat!
Be sure to round out that entree of yours with a few selections from this savory list! Dinner isn't complete without a few scrumptious side dishes. You've never seen veggies dressed up as nice as these before.
When you're looking for something a little more glam than basic asparagus, this is where you'll want to come!
There's nothing 'corny' about this side dish! Just a big dose of flavor and a whole lot of fun.
Wanting to stay on the healthier side of things? This sauteed side is exactly what you need!
Cheese-topped and practically perfect, we recommend pairing this one with a meaty entree.
Looking for the perfect dish to complement your Latin American flair? You've found it!
With just a handful of ingredients, this mushroom-spruced orzo can be enjoyed with just about anything!
We think red potatoes are just the bees knees and you will too after you try this roasted dish.
French fries are a thing of the past. Give these delicious (and healthier!) versions a go instead!
Lemon keeps this dish tasting fabulously fresh while garlic adds a savory kick.
Surprise your sweetie with this glammed-up version of a salad that tastes so good, he'll be swooning.
Skillet meals are our fave, so skillet sides are an absolute must!
Possessing all of the flavors of cordon bleu, and a healthy dose of veggies, this rich and creamy dish has us drooling.
Creamy, cool, and the perfect chilled salad, this side works especially well with a summer anniversary meal.
You've never had mushrooms like this before and you're gonna love it!
A classic dish that's loved by all, this homemade caesar salad and accompanying croutons pair fantastically with beef.
Spiced with garlic and loaded with parmesan, these heavenly dinner rolls go with practically anything!
The name says it all! You can't go wrong with this speedy side.
Light and fresh, but heavy on taste, this balsamic-topped salad can be whipped up in no time flat!
The perfect side for a Mexican feast, this corn salad is packed with flavor!
We all love the movie but have you ever sampled this tasty French dish? You're gonna want to!
Give dinner rolls an ooey-gooey makeover with this easy recipe that pairs perfectly with an Italian meal!
Stuffed with parmesan and perfectly roasted, these tomatoes are as comforting as they are delish.
After all those delicious anniversary dinner ideas, we can't forget a mouth-watering dessert to end the night. Nothing says I love you better than a little something chocolatey, cream-filled, or just bursting with berries! We've got all these (and more!) to share with your sweet.
We think dessert is always better layered and after trying this concoction, you'll think so too!
Grab your favorite dippings and you've got yourself the epitome of romance in a dish.
This brownie-bottomed cookie dough cheesecake is about as close to heaven as desserts come!
Crème Brûlée in chocolate form?! We are SO there!
Chocolate-covered strawberries are so yesterday. Try these strawberries and cream cupcakes instead!
Packed with citrus and berry flavors, these tarts are the perfect end to any meal.
Creamy caramel, chocolate, and everyone's favorite grainy treat combine to form this warm and soothing dish that's best when shared.
French foodies especially will find these double-trouble souffles irresistible!
We're not lying when we say you and your sweetie will think this treat is 'berry' tasty!
Gluten sensitive peeps will be especially fond of these chocolatey cakes!
Let the romance (and the chocolate!) flow with these built-for-two lava cakes!
Adding a touch of everyone's favorite berry takes these lava cakes from ordinary to amazing!
This skillet dessert not only tastes amazing but also incorporates a mix making it super speedy!
Peanut butter and chocolate—the only pair sweeter than the two of you.
Fall celebrators will be cuckoo for this apple dish that's the perfect size for sharing.
Plain cheesecake is for every day, while THIS cheesecake is for that special anniversary occasion.
How deep is your love? Find out with this deep dish dessert! Just picture this with me, hot, chocolatey deep dish red velvet cookies for two with semi-sweet chocolate chips, fresh out of the oven, and topped with melty vanilla ice cream, and maybe drizzled with a little extra chocolate? Yes please!
We say blondies are better when you eat them together!
Berries and cream are presented in a new and mouthwatering way with these darling puffs!
Essentially a sorbet-filled cake topped with meringue, these baby versions of a classic dessert will end the meal in style.
This is currently our best selling product! It's a FREE + shipping Paleo Dessert cookbook by popular nutritionist, Kelsey Ale. Included are 61 delicious nutritious Paleo-based dessert – you'd swear came from your local bakery! Each of these recipes are all tried, tested and family approved.


text:
Disney World Could Have Gone Nuclear
James Conca Contributor
I write about nuclear, energy and the environment
Walt Disney World is building solar farms but could have built nuclear as Disney had a law... [+] specifically passed for them to do this in 1967. And visitors to Disney World, like Paul and Dominick, would never worry about power outages if the Park were powered by a small modular nuclear reactor.
In 1967, the State of Florida passed a law allowing Disney World to build a nuclear power plant.
As bizarre as that sounds, it is more of a testament to the political power of the Mouse than anything nuclear. This was 1967. The NRC, DOE and EPA were all dreams yet to come and their formation changed everything about the industry. So this law is just an interesting historical footnote.
But it is an example of how much of a visionary Walt Disney was. He was also impatient and understood how slow societies and governments move. And Walt wanted to move fast. He knew that his plan for the Park would need lots of power, lots of flexibility and lots of self-government.
As Richard Folgesong puts it, "Disney wanted protection from government regulation." Folgesong, author of Married to the Mouse, describes how Disney had unusual political leverage because the state and local community wanted the Park very much.
Epcot was central to Disney's particular vision for the future. Epcot, or Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, was originally built to become a city of 20,000 as a test for futuristic city planning. Designed in the shape of a circle, businesses and commercial areas would be at its center, with schools, recreational areas and community buildings around it. Residential neighborhoods would be on the perimeter.
Monorails, People Movers and small trains, would provide the main transportation on the surface within the city limits. Automobile traffic would be underground for pedestrian safety.
Pretty awesome plan.
However, Disney could not realize his vision unless he had permission from the Florida government to be autonomous. He really needed his own private municipality. So Florida created Disney's private government and gave it the power to build roads and drains, levy taxes, issue bonds and have emergency services, powers usually reserved for a county government.
To this day, Epcot city still has a city council with a planning committee with complete authority. The rights granted to Disney by the State of Florida provides them with immunity to laws from surrounding areas, like Orlando. Disney has eminent domain authority, explaining why the vast amount of forested land surrounding Disney World has mostly gone unused.
The Mickey Mouse-shaped solar array near Epcot is made of 48,000 solar panels and operated by Duke... [+] Energy.
The nuclear angle was key to the futuristic plan for Epcot. Disney wanted this city to be self-reliant, and nuclear is the best way to do that. It was during an era more supportive of nuclear, more in need of big power and big dreams, and it wasn't that long after Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative.
Disney even put out a book called "Our Friend the Atom" in 1956.
Thus, something like NuScale Power's small modular nuclear reactor would fit right in to a vision that also includes Tomorrow Land. That's because an SMR is the kind of thing Walt Disney himself envisioned for our future. Compact, can't melt down, doesn't even need to shut down to refuel, can operate for many decades, no emissions, can ramp up and down quickly to load-follow their solar and future wind farms, and is cheaper than anything except gas – there is nothing better that represents the future of power in America.
Of course, the present leadership of the Mouse's Kingdom has no plans to build nuclear. In place of the envisioned nuclear plant, sits a gas-fired power plant.
Disney World is trying to go green. The Cinderella Castle's holiday display of 170,000 lights has been painstakingly switched to LED lighting, reducing the amount of power needed down to that required to power four coffee pots.
They have been building a lot of solar as well as using lots of natural gas. Their new 270-acre, 50-megawatt solar farm near Epcot Center is in the shape of Mickey's head, is made of 48,000 solar panels and is operated by Duke Energy.
Something like NuScale Power's small modular reactor nuclear plant would fit just right in Disney... [+] World, and would best fit what Walt Disney himself envisioned for our future.
NuScale
The Park consists of 48 square miles containing hundreds of buildings that include world-class hotel and conference centers, theme parks and exotic ride adventures, and precisely controlled spaces for horticulture and animal care.
Disney World's total annual operating costs exceed $10 billion, and requires over a billion kWhs of electricity, costing about $100 million dollars a year. That's the output of only two NuScale modules which would be the most efficient and cost-effective source for the Park. It would also be the most resilient and reliable power source in a state prone to extreme weather events and threatened by rising sea level.
It's not like Disney World doesn't presently use nuclear power. Florida has four nuclear reactors at two nuclear power plants run by NextEra Energy - one in St. Lucie County and one at Turkey Point in Miami-Dade County. They generate about 12% of the state's power, some of which flows to the Magic Kingdom.
While the Kingdom is still powered mainly with fossil fuels, there is room to replace all fossil fuels at the center of Walt's future with nuclear and renewables. He would have liked that.
Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
James Conca
I have been a scientist in the field of the earth and environmental sciences for 33 years, specializing in geologic disposal of nuclear waste, energy-related research,


Virtual communities based on message boards, chat rooms, user groups and blogs have emerged as high activity domains on the Internet. Virtual communities are designed for a variety of purposes that could range from Communities of Interest, Communities of Relationship, Gaming Communities, and Communities of Transaction to Peer-to-Peer Communities or Mobile Communities. The significance of these communities is evident by the impact they have on information generation and transmission, and socialization. For example, today, blogs are quickly becoming a primary source of information in a variety of domains. The dynamic and interactive nature of these forums makes them very attractive for the users. An additional value offered by many of these communities is their ability to support socialization and offer an identity for the participants. While most virtual communities share these characteristics, it is also important to recognize that virtual communities are not homogeneous; they differ significantly based on the domain, purpose and benefits. For example, virtual investing-related communities are focused on offering an important forum for individual investors to discuss stock performance. Open source communities, on the other hand, are virtual communities that offer a platform for participants to collaborate and produce a product of value to the entire community. Within the field of information systems researchers are interested at studying interaction patterns, transaction processes, management aspects, business models, and design aspects of information systems and services for virtual communities. Community members interact via digital media and contribute value in the form of content, reviews, and recommendations. Related issues are trust, network effects, transaction costs and the design of services. Well-organized communities even expand their power across various channels and into the Offline world. Empirical and conceptual work will be welcome for this Mini-Track. Despite the increasing popularity of virtual communities, several questions relating to virtual communities remain largely unexplored.


text:
Nintendo Switch No. 1; Pokémon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl No. 1 in Japan
BUSINESS • NINTENDO SWITCH
Nintendo Co., Ltd.'s Nintendo Switch ranked as the No. 1 hardware in Japan in the latest retail data from the region.
Famitsu this week said the Nintendo Switch OLED model sold 15,976 units, the Nintendo Switch 67,011 sold units, and the Nintendo Switch Lite sold 39,586 units between Nov. 15 and Nov. 21. Nintendo Switch sales totaled 122,573 units to rank as the No. 1 hardware for the week.
The hardware sold 167,771 units to rank at No. 1 the week prior.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl sold 355,046 units to rank at No. 1 for the week.
For Q2 ending Sept. 30, Nintendo recorded a $1.93 billion operating profit, a decline of 24.5 percent amid a semiconductor shortage for the Nintendo Switch console.
Nintendo sold 3.83 million Nintendo Switch units in the quarter, down from 6.86 million one year ago. It has sold 92.87 million Nintendo Switch units to date.
It expects to sell 24 million units for the fiscal year ending Mar. 31, 2022.
Nintendo Switch software sales totaled 48 million units in Q2. It has sold 681 million Nintendo Switch software units to date.
Xbox Series X|S sells 633 units in Japan data
PS4 No. 5; Battlefield 2042 No. 11 in Japan


text:
Disavowing Margaret Sanger Doesn't Change Planned Parenthood's Culture of Eugenics, Racism, and Death
Laura Grossberndt
By removing founder Margaret Sanger's name from its New York City building, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York has taken a first step in acknowledging its racist and eugenic roots. However, removing Sanger's name from a building is little more than a superficial public relations move meant to mollify the racial justice movement.
This checked box does nothing to change the day-to-day operations of the organization. Planned Parenthood would like Americans to think that its troubled history with eugenics is long over. However, the history of "reproductive harm within communities of color" cited in Planned Parenthood of Greater New York's statement is not some blemish in Planned Parenthood's distant past—it continues in the present day. Planned Parenthood will need to do a lot more than disavow Sanger to atone for the harm it has wrought on minority communities and other discriminated groups.
Planned Parenthood paints a rosy picture of its beginnings, declaring on its website: "Planned Parenthood was founded on the revolutionary idea that women should have the information and care they need to live strong, healthy lives and fulfill their dreams — no ceilings, no limits." This hyper-positive interpretation deliberately neglects to mention that Planned Parenthood's founder Margaret Sanger believed birth control to be "nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit." Articles she wrote on the subject included: "Some Moral Aspects of Eugenics," "The Eugenic Conscience," "The Purpose of Eugenics," "Birth Control and Positive Eugenics," and "Birth Control: The True Eugenics." Whatever desire she felt for women to "live strong, healthy lives" was commingled with the belief that "unfit" people should not reproduce.
Planned Parenthood's troubled eugenic legacy does not begin and end with the personal views of its founder, however. For many years, it permeated the organization's leadership. In 1933, Planned Parenthood (then known as the American Birth Control League) and the American Eugenics Society (AES) attempted an unsuccessful merger. Dr. Alan Guttmacher, the namesake of a leading abortion research organization the Guttmacher Institute, was a eugenicist and served both as vice president of the AES and president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 1962-1974.
While Planned Parenthood's current leadership publicly disavows eugenics, the evidence indicates that the corporate practices of America's largest abortion supplier disproportionately impact the birthrates of minority communities. Seventy-nine percent of Planned Parenthood's surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of communities identified as black and Hispanic by the 2010 census. While blacks currently comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, black women are 3.5 times more likely to have an abortion than white women, according to a 2016 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In Louisiana, where the total number of abortions in 2018 was 8,097, over half (4,958) were abortions of black babies, despite blacks only comprising 32 percent of the state population. And in New York City, where the building formerly named for Margaret Sanger is located, more black pregnancies resulted in abortion than live birth in 2016. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the black population "grew at a slower rate than most other major race and ethnic groups in the country" between 2000 and 2010.
Not only are Planned Parenthood's facilities disproportionally represented in minority communities, and not only do they and other abortion suppliers abort black pregnancies at far greater rates than white pregnancies, but they also oppose legislation that seeks to prevent racial discrimination against the unborn. Planned Parenthood strongly opposes prenatal nondiscrimination legislation (PRENDA laws) that prohibit abortion on the basis of the unborn child's race, sex, or disability. Planned Parenthood does not deny that such cases of discrimination (in their words, "reproductive coercion") occur, but insists such nondiscrimination bills place "harmful restrictions" on women's health care. It is unclear what steps Planned Parenthood takes, if any, to prevent prenatal discrimination from occurring at Planned Parenthood facilities. As long as Planned Parenthood champions unrestricted access to abortion, prenatal discrimination will be a reality within their facilities. In May 2019, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a lengthy opinion in Box v. Planned Parenthood, in which he cited abortion's eugenic roots and its continued eugenic potential:
Whereas Sanger believed that birth control could prevent "unfit" people from reproducing, abortion can prevent them from being born in the first place. Many eugenicists therefore supported legalizing abortion, and abortion advocates—including future Planned Parenthood President Alan Guttmacher—endorsed the use of abortion for eugenic reasons. Technological advances have only heightened the eugenic potential for abortion, as abortion can now be used to eliminate children with unwanted characteristics, such as a particular sex or disability.
Family Research Council believes human life begins at conception. Therefore, we understand abortion to be the taking of human life. We believe the surest way for Planned Parenthood to end the reproductive harm it has wrought within minority communities is to cease performing abortions entirely. We know Planned Parenthood is unlikely to ever make this decision on its own, especially since former president Cecile Richards admitted under oath in 2015 that 86 percent of Planned Parenthood's non-federal revenue comes from abortions.
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York removed Margaret Sanger's name from its New York City building to signal care for minority communities and opposition to racial discrimination and eugenics. But if Planned Parenthood really cared about minority communities, it would stop setting up abortion mills in these communities. If it really cared about racial discrimination, it would stop opposing and start supporting PRENDA laws. If the organization truly cared to deal with its racist and eugenic roots, the entire Planned Parenthood Federation of America—not just the Greater New York branch—would disavow both Margaret Sanger and Alan Guttmacher.
Don't hold your breath.
For more information on Planned Parenthood, check out these FRC resources: Planned Parenthood Is Not Pro-Woman and The Real Planned Parenthood: Leading the Culture of Death.


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text:
\section{Introduction}
Because of the rapid development of deep learning, more and more text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis systems adopt end-to-end approaches to some degree \cite{sotelo2017char2wav,wang2017tacotron,shen2017natural}.
Although it has been reported that neutral-style synthetic speech from one system achieved a similar degree of quality and naturalness to natural recordings \cite{shen2017natural},
it is unknown how the end-to-end approach could perfectly avoid incorrect pronunciation \cite{shen2017natural} and make it possible to control prosody like the conventional structured architectures \cite{takashi2007style,watts2015sentence,luong2017adapting,henter2017principles}.
More importantly, since most of the existing commercial TTS systems still adopt the pipeline structure which contains a front-end and a back-end, rapid shifting to a end-to-end architecture may be unable to answer how each part of the conventional structure contributes and limits the performance of existing TTS systems. Therefore, we believe that investigation on the pipeline of conventional TTS systems is still necessary and meaningful. In this work we adopted the conventional speech synthesis architecture which consists of three separate components: a linguistic analyzer, a neural network-based acoustic model \cite{zen2013statistical,ling2015deep} and a vocoder to synthesize waveforms from acoustic features.

As the initial step, our previous work \cite{wang2018comparison} has showed that the conventional TTS pipeline can be improved by replacing a deterministic vocoder \cite{kawahara2006straight,morise2016world} and RNN-based acoustic models \cite{fan2014tts,wang2017rnn} in the back-end with more advanced statistical models such as the WaveNet-based vocoder \cite{van2016WaveNet,ping2017deep}.
However, our analysis revealed that the gap between synthetic speech and natural recordings still exists. One reason may be due to the fact that the statistical models in our previous work were trained by using linguistic feature automatically extracted from text. This motivated us to investigate the impact of the accuracy of the features on the back-end of the TTS system. There is a relevant investigation on the accuracy of phone sequences used for training of hidden Markov models \cite{7472660}. Our main focus in this paper is the accuracy of pitch accent information and a neural network.

In this study, we first built an oracle system where manually corrected linguistic features were used for both model training and testing. Then, we compared the performance of the system with a few other systems that used corrupted linguistic features at training or/and testing stages. More particularly, we corrupted Japanese pitch accent types by adding discrete noise. From large-scale crowdsourcing listening tests, we found that in our neural network-based speech synthesis system, using corrupted linguistic features has a regularization effect (like a denosing auto-encoder) when linguistic features in the test set are noisy. We believe that this is a new finding in the speech synthesis field.

In section \ref{sec:systems} and \ref{sec:linguistic}, we describe the statistical models and linguistic features used in our TTS systems. In section \ref{sec:experiments}, we explain the methodology used to train and test our systems by using linguistic features with a varied amount of noise. In section \ref{sec:evaluations}, we list the results of both objective and subjective evaluation. Finally, in section \ref{sec:conclusions}, we discuss the findings and draw a conclusion.

\section{Speech synthesis back-end}
\label{sec:systems}
The back-end of the TTS system we investigated consists of two parts. The first part contains acoustic models that convert linguistic features into acoustic features such as the mel-generalized cepstral coefficients (MGC) and quantized fundamental frequency (F0). The second part is a WaveNet vocoder that generates speech waveform based on the basic of acoustic features.
All of the models adopt the configurations used in our previous work \cite{wang2018comparison}.

\subsection{Acoustic models}

\begin{figure}
\centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.95\columnwidth]{dar-sar}
  \vspace{-5mm}
  \caption{Structures of acoustic models used in our experiment. Feedforward layers use \textit{tanh} activation function while linear layers use linear activation function. GMM denotes Gaussian mixture models. Bi-LSTM and uni-LSTM denote bi-directional and uni-directional recurrent layers using long-short-term-memory (LSTM) units, respectively.}
  \label{fig:acoustic}
  \vspace{-5mm}
\end{figure}

The acoustic models are trained to learn the mapping from a sequence of linguistic features $\mathbf{l}_{1:N}=\{\mathbf{l}_1,\mathbf{l}_2,...,\mathbf{l}_N\}$ into a sequence of acoustic features $\mathbf{a}_{1:N}=\{\mathbf{a}_1,\mathbf{a}_2,...,\mathbf{a}_N\}$, where $N$ denotes the total number of frame. While a vanilla neural network can be used as the acoustic model,
it assumes that $\{\mathbf{a}_1,\mathbf{a}_2,...,\mathbf{a}_N\}$ is a set of independent random variables given $\mathbf{l}_{1:N}$ even if convolution or recurrent layers are used.
To overcome such weakness, we used autoregressive models, the basic idea of which is to feed the target data of the previous step as the input of the current step.
On the basic of this idea, two separate autoregressive models plotted in Figure \ref{fig:acoustic} were trained to model MGC and quantized F0, respectively.

The model for MGC was referred to as shallow autoregressive recurrent network (SAR). SAR maps a sequence of linguistics features to the value of a parameter set of which the distribution (in this case, a Gaussian distribution) of MGC of each frame can be specified. Different from a normal mixture density network \cite{bishop1994mixture}, SAR uses a linear function to summarize the acoustic features in previous frames and then changes the distribution of the current frame.
A similar network was used for quantized F0, which is referred to as deep autoregressive recurrent network (DAR). DAR was trained to map linguistic features to a quantized F0 representation rather than interpolated continuous-valued F0 data. Another distinct feature of DAR in comparison with SAR is that the output of the network is fed back to a recurrent layer that is closer to the input side.

The structure of the acoustic modelling networks are illustrated in Figure \ref{fig:acoustic}. Bi-directional and uni-directional long-short term memory (LSTM) layers were used after feedforward layers. Details on these models are given in our previous papers \cite{wang2017autoregressive,wang2017rnn}.

\begin{table*}[t]
\caption{Definition and notations of TTS systems used in this experiment. Definition of linguistic feature sets is given in Section \ref{sec:data_feature}. \textbf{Oracle} + \textbf{Corrupted} means that 7999 randomly selected training utterances used corrupted labels, while rest used oracle linguistic features. Also shown are RMSE values and correlation of generated F0 and U/UV errors compared with natural speech. Mel-cepstral distortion (MCD) between generated and natural MGCs is also shown.}
\label{tab:objective}
\vspace{-2mm}
\centering
\scalebox{1.0}{
  \begin{tabular}{cccccccc}
  \hline
  \hline
    & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Linguistic features} & & \multicolumn{4}{c}{Objective measures} \\
    \cline{2-3}\cline{5-8}
   Notations & Train set & Test set &&  RMSE & CORR & V/U Error & MCD [dB] \\    \hline
   OJT & \textbf{OpenJTalk} & \textbf{OpenJTalk} & & 29.44 & 0.90 & 3.40\% & 4.72\\
   MOO & \textbf{Oracle} & \textbf{Oracle} & & 23.31 & 0.94 & 3.25\% & 4.63 \\
   MOC & \textbf{Oracle} & \textbf{Corrupted} & & 31.09 & 0.89 & 3.29\% & 4.66\\
   MMC & \textbf{Oracle} +  \textbf{Corrupted} & \textbf{Corrupted} & & 28.15 & 0.91 & 3.20\% & 4.64\\
   MMO & \textbf{Oracle} +  \textbf{Corrupted} & \textbf{Oracle} & & 24.44 & 0.94 & 3.15\% & 4.63\\    \hline

  \end{tabular}
}
    \vspace{-5mm}

\end{table*}

\subsection{WaveNet vocoder}
To improve the quality of synthetic speech, we used a speaker dependent WaveNet vocoder. The WaveNet vocoder is a CNN-based autoregressive network that models a conditional distribution of a waveform sequence $\mathbf{o}_{1:T}$ over an auxiliary feature sequence $\mathbf{a}_{1:N}$ as
\begin{equation}
\centering
p(\mathbf{o}_{1:T}|\mathbf{a}_{1:N})=\prod\limits_{t=1}^{T}p(\mathbf{o}_{t}|\mathbf{o}_{<t},\mathbf{a}_{1:N}).
\end{equation}
For each sample $\mathbf{o}_t$ at time $t$, its value is conditioned on all of the previous observations $\mathbf{o}_{<t}$. In practice, the prediction of $\mathbf{o}_t$ was limited to a finite number of previous samples, which together were referred to as receptive field. By sequentially sampling the waveform per time step, the WaveNet vocoder can produce very high-quality synthetic speech in terms of naturalness, as reported in several papers \cite{van2016WaveNet,shen2017natural,ping2017deep}.

\section{Linguistic features used for our Japanese TTS system}
\label{sec:linguistic}

The linguistic features used for conventional Japanese TTS systems mainly include segmental and supra-segmental linguistic information. Despite the numerous differences in the two sets of linguistic features used in the experiments, i.e., OpenJTalk and oracle that will be introduced in Section 4.1, both sets contain quinphone contexts, word part-of-speech tags, pitch accent types of the accent phrases, interrogative phrase marks, and other structural information such as the position of the mora in a word, accent phrases, and utterances. These linguistic features will be used as the input of the acoustic model.

The two types of linguistic features that we were interested in for this investigation include the pitch accent type (Acc\_Type) and the interrogative phrase mark (Question\_Flag). The value of the pitch accent type is equal to the location of the accented mora in a Japanese accent phrase. It can also be a special number such as 0, which indicates a no-accent phrase. The interrogative phrase mark is binary and indicates whether a phrase is interrogative or not. These two types of features are essential to the prosody of Japanese utterances yet difficult to accurately obtain by using automatic prosodic annotation or text-analysis.

\section{Experiments}
\label{sec:experiments}
\subsection{Data and features}
\label{sec:data_feature}
This study used the same speech corpus as our previous work \cite{wang2018comparison}. This corpus has high-quality speech recordings of a female voice talent and was released as part of the Ximera datasets \cite{kawai2004ximera}.
Compared with our previous work, we excluded hundreds of utterances in which the manually annotated labels were unusable due to
imperfect pronunciation. This new training set contained 27,999 utterances while both the validation and test set contained 480 utterances.
The duration of the training set was about 46.914 hours, among which the total silence at the two ends of the utterances was around 13.393 hours in total.
The duration of the validation and test sets was 0.815 and 0.824 hours.

Acoustic features were extracted by using WORLD \cite{morise2016world} spectral analysis modules and SPTK. We used speech waveforms at a sampling frequency of 48 kHz to obtain these features with a window length of 25 ms and frame shift of 5 ms. 60-dimensional Mel-generalized cepstral coefficients (MGCs) and 25-dimensional band-limited aperiodicity values (BAP) were extracted. F0s were quantized into 255 levels as described in \cite{wang2017rnn}.
To investigate the impact of the accuracy of linguistic features, we prepared three sets of linguistic features:

\textbf{OpenJTalk:} the first set of linguistic features was extracted automatically from text by using OpenJTalk \cite{hts2015openjtalk}. These features were converted into 389 dimensional vector. This set is included as a reference because it was used in our previous work.

\textbf{Oracle:} the second set of linguistic features is based on in-house annotations provided by KDDI Research, Inc. The definition of the linguistic features is very similar to that used in the above first set, but it contains more precise phone definitions. Part-of-speech tagging is not included in the annotations. The dimension of the linguistic feature vector was 265. All features were manually verified.

\textbf{Corrupted:} the third set is based on the second set. However, we randomly changed the values of certain linguistic features. More specifically, we randomly added discrete noise ranging between -2 and +2 to the original value of [Acc\_Type] for each accent phrase with a 50\% probability. The value of the binary feature [Question\_Flag] for each accent phase was also randomly converted to the opposite value with a 30\% probability. We expected that these two types of processing would reproduce the annotation errors of Japanese accent types and question types.

\subsection{Model configurations}
The structure of the acoustic models is plotted in Figure \ref{fig:acoustic}. The configuration of the layer size was 512 for feedforward, 256 for bi-directional LSTM-RNN, and 128 for uni-directional LSTM-RNN. The size of a linear layer depends on the size of the output. For SAR network, the output is a parameter set of Gaussian distributions for MGC, BAP, and voiced/unvoiced (V/UV) flags. BAP and V/UV were also included in the output even though they are not used to generate speech waveforms with the WaveNet vocoder. DAR used a similar configuration of layer size as SAR, but the output layer was a hierarchical softmax layer.

Although the acoustic features were extracted from speech waveforms at a sampling frequency of 48 kHz, the WaveNet vocoder was trained by using speech waveforms at a sampling frequency of 16 kHz. PCM waveform samples were quantized into 10 bits after they were compressed by $\mu$-law coding \cite{modulation1988voice}. The network contained 40 causal dilated convolution layers similar to \cite{tamamori2017speaker}. WaveNet blocks were conditioned on MGC and quantized F0 parameters locally. The WaveNet vocoder was trained on acoustic features extracted from natural speech, while, in the generation stage, MGC and quantized F0 features predicted from DAR and SAR models were used.

\subsection{Experimental conditions}
To investigate the impact of the noise in linguistic features, we trained a few systems by using different sets of linguistic features in the training and test stages as we described earlier. The definition and notations of each system can be found on the left part of Table \ref{tab:objective}. Note that the linguistic features for the validation set were not corrupted.
Also note that, instead of using the results of our previous study, we retrained the OpenJTalk-based model (OJT) by using the same data set configuration described in Section 4.1. Thus, the results of OJT can be compared with those of other experimental models.

\section{Evaluations}
\label{sec:evaluations}
\subsection{Objective evaluation}

Table \ref{tab:objective} shows the performance of each system in terms of RMSE, correlation, and V/UV errors of F0 trajectories converted from predicted F0 classes including an unvoiced class. As expected, the model trained and tested by using manually annotated labels, i.e., MOO, achieved the best results among the systems for all of the measurements. We can also see that when testing on the corrupted linguistic labels, the performance of MOC drastically dropped.

Interestingly, MMC and MMO, which were trained by using partially corrupted linguistic features, performed better than MOC. For MMO, the objective results are comparable to those of MOO, which suggests that 7999 (around 28.57\% of all training data) corrupted labels did not affect the overall quality significantly. Meanwhile, MMC performed better than MOC even though MMC used corrupted linguistic features for training. Our hypothesis is that mixing corrupted labels with the training data is similar to a regularization method, such as the denoising auto-encoder and doing so helps a model generalize better and eases the negative impacts of the wrong information provided from incorrect linguistic features in the testing stage.

\subsection{Subjective evaluation}
The objective evaluation hinted at the performance of the acoustic models. However, because we used WaveNet vocoder and its sampling rather than a traditional deterministic vocoder to synthesize speech waveforms, it was necessary to test the overall quality of the synthetic speech samples subjectively.

Therefore, we also conducted a large-scale subjective test.
Synthetic speech samples were generated by using the WaveNet vocoder. The natural speech was downsampled to 16 kHz and further converted to 8-bit $\mu$-law. Synthetic speech was converted to 8-bit and was normalized to have a similar volume to natural speech using the sv56 program \cite{p56}.

With the above five systems and the natural speech (NAT), each of which contained 480 utterances from the test set, we conducted two subjective tests. The first test was done to evaluate the mean-opinion-score (MOS) on a five point scale. The second was similar to a Turing test, where participants were asked to identify which of two samples presented is synthetic. During this test, an anchor question was included, where we presented the same natural speech twice. This question was expected to provide some insight into the nature of the testing environment. No default answers were given in any of these tests to make sure participants would have to make their own choices.

This large-scale listening test was conducted online through crowd-sourcing. Each participant was asked to navigate twelve pages for each set. Each page contained two questions, one for the MOS and another for the Turing test. The audio sample for the quality question contained a different sentence from that for the Turing question on the same page.
One hundred subjects participated. They were allowed to repeat the test up to ten times. We collected a total of 720 sets, which led to 3 data points per unique audio sample for all of the systems.

\begin{figure}
\centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.92\columnwidth]{mos-new}
  \vspace{-3mm}
  \caption{Subjective evaluation for quality of speech using MOS test. Bars indicate 95\% confidence intervals.}
  \label{fig:subjective}
    \vspace{-5mm}
\end{figure}

\textbf{Quality test:} Figure \ref{fig:subjective} shows subjective results for the quality test with a 95\% confidence interval with a student's t-distribution. Unsurprisingly natural speech still achieved the highest and most statistically significant score at 3.96 even when converted to the $\mu$-law encoding format. Audio samples generated by using manually annotated labels at the generation stage (MOO and MMO) achieved the second highest score, and the difference between MOO and MMO was not statistically significant (3.62 versus 3.63, p-value=0.720). We can also see that OJT and MOC performed the worst, and the difference between them was not statistically significant  (3.33 versus 3.26, p-value=0.05). Note that the p-value was calculated with Holm-Bonferroni correction.

What's interesting is that MMC, which used the corrupted linguistic features at both the training and testing stages, was better than OJT and MOC. These subjective results were consistent with the results of the objective evaluation on F0.

These results indicate a correlation between the accuracy of the linguistic features and the quality of the synthetic speech. A greater impact could be seen if the accuracy of annotated labels is high at the testing stage instead of the training stage.  Another finding is that, when linguistic features used in the test set contained noises, training the neural network models with a small amount of corrupted linguistic features seemed to improve the quality of the synthetic speech. We can also see that adding a small amount of corrupted linguistic features in the training set did not degrade the quality of the synthetic speech even if the test set did not contain any noise.

\textbf{Turing (Identification) test:} for the Turing test, participants were asked to identify which of two audio samples presented on left or right side of the web page was synthetic. The audio samples from one of the TTS systems and from natural speech were randomly switched between left and right to discourage subjects from developing any bias patterns. Figure \ref{fig:turing} shows the result. Surprisingly, for all comparisons between the synthetic and natural speech utterances, the correct-identification ratio was around 50\%, which suggested that our participants could not decide with certainty which of the two samples presented was synthetic. There was no significant difference between the five pairs of generated and (slightly degraded) natural speech. We think that this may not be surprising because the correlation of our F0 prediction model was as high as 0.9, we used a very large speaker-dependent corpus, that was larger than in a recent paper on Google's Tacotron 2 \cite{shen2017natural}, and natural speech was also slightly degraded by the $\mu$-law coding.

\begin{figure}
\centering
  \includegraphics[width=1.0\columnwidth]{combine}
  \vspace{-5mm}
  \caption{Results of utterance-level Turing (identification) test. Bars indicate 95\% confidence intervals. }
  \label{fig:turing}
    \vspace{-5mm}
\end{figure}

As we included an anchor test in our evaluation in which participants were asked to judge the differences between the same natural speech, it may be helpful to look into the result to gain some insight into our testing environment.
The results we got for this anchor test showed that the left options were favored 60\% of the time, which suggested that participants had a slight bias for left option when it was difficult to choose the correct one.
We can also analyze whether participants had a slight bias for left options for comparisons between the synthetic and natural speech utterances. Although the two options were randomly switched, from two sub figures at the bottom, we can see that the same tendency exists regardless of system types used.
This basically gives some insight into developing a more sophisticated Turing test in the future.

With the outcomes for the Turing test, we can conclude that, while the synthetic speech did not achieve the same quality as natural speech, it was difficult for a normal human being to correctly determine the synthetic speech with our current state-of-the-art setups, at least when a reference natural-speech utterance was not offered.

\vspace{-3mm}
\section{Conclusions}
\label{sec:conclusions}
In this paper, we investigated the impact of noisy linguistic features on the performance of a Japanese speech synthesis system based on neural network that uses WaveNet vocoder. In this investigation, an ideal system that used manually corrected linguistic features in the training and test sets was compared against a few other systems that used corrupted linguistic features. The corrupted linguistic features, which were created by adding noises artificially to the correct pitch accent information.

Both subjective and objective results demonstrate that corrupted linguistic features, especially those in the test set, affected our TTS system's performance significantly in a statistical sense due to mismatched conditions between the training and test sets. It was further indicated that adding noise to the linguistic features in the training set can partially reduce the effect of the mismatch, regularize the model, and help the system perform better when the linguistic features of the test set are noisy. As far as we know, this is a new finding in the speech synthesis field. Interestingly the utterance-level Turing test showed that our listeners had a difficult time differentiating synthetic speech from slightly degraded natural speech.

Our future work includes comparing of our TTS system using manually corrected labels with recent end-to-end TTS systems and evaluating without using $\mu$-law coding.

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Welcome to Creative Energy Journaling!
You can have a look at What is Creative Energy Journaling? and the Resources page for more background, but probably the best way to get a feel for it is to just jump in and try a few of the many activities that can be done as "stand-alones".
Or check out the Workshop Schedule to see upcoming workshops to help get you up and journaling fast, especially if you'd rather spend a fun day trying things out with others instead of doing a bunch of reading!


Remember Clark Kent from 'Superman' who's this regular, nice, and hard-working guy leading a 'normal' life? But only until one day when the love of his life, Lois, gets embroiled in a helicopter accident, making it impossible for just anyone to rescue her conventionally. Confronted by this challenge, Clark uses his extraordinary powers for the very first time and appears in his Superman avatar wearing his glorious red cape – the cape that became synonymous with superhero powers worldwide. The HR function is no different from Clark Kent. They're these focused and earnest guys working every single day to get their organization the best talent they can find. And like Clark once did, they're facing their times of trial too, as the recruitment landscape in the American market gets more aggressive than ever before. However, like Superman, once they realize their superpowers, they won't stop. They'll keep going forward, taking their organization to newer and greater heights.
"But where's the cape," you ask? Well, it's in HR competitive intelligence! Yes, competitive intelligence is the Superman cape HR heads have been waiting for.
Gone are the days when the role of HR was limited to recruitment, payroll, and compensation alone. Over the past few years, the American economy has undergone massive transformations and so has the HR function. HR has evolved into an enabler that advises top-level management. Its role has expanded to involve activities directly affecting the strategic vision of the company. HR is now an irreplaceable part of a company's board meetings, where they're expected to present strategies on how to improve workforce competitiveness, how to ensure compliance with complex and stringent regulations, or say how to enhance personnel security. The fact that HR needs to continually monitor the external and internal environment to spot or retain talent goes without saying.
While there has been a shift in role, the need to deal with people remains for HR. And people, as we know, are unpredictable. There's no set formula to understand their decision-making, which is subjective. Therefore, an air of mystery always prevails.
what's the recruitment performance of your organization.
Given such crucial information, you can forecast your competitor's move, align your recruitment goals with market trends, benchmark your performance against that of your competitors, and do just so much more.
Competitive intelligence is a technique that'll give you a bird's-eye view of not just your organization but also the entire American job market. All you need is a recruitment tool that leverages competitive intelligence in HR strategies and talent acquisition. Therefore, choosing the right tool can make all the difference.


Today's mood: sleepy! This little critter below is the reason for my groggy feelings and he's totally worth it (hairflip, L'Oreal).
Harry Potter the chockie lab came into our lives about a week ago and I'm currently doing the night-time crate training thing. It's basically just like having a newborn baby except I'm outside in my jammies ever 2-3 hours putting him out for "peepee, peepee, what a gooood booooy." The neighbors must think I'm crazy...if truth be told, they probably figured that fact out soon after we moved in. Whatever, just over here livin' my life!
The rest of our animal menagerie are slowly accepting his existence, mostly because they have no choice in the matter haha. Expect many, many doggie pics to come in the future because I can't help it.
Can I please get a round of applause for producing an actual craft this month?


It's the middle of winter, which would normally see me staying home with the heating turned up and not venturing out for anything. I'm a bit of a winter hibernator... My life had other ideas for this particular July, though, and the month has flown past in a blur.
There's been a spurt of quite ridiculous work activity, which has not helped my mental health one little bit - but the less said about that, the better.
Bike Boy scored free tickets to the premier performance of a stage show: Grievous Angel, which is on now at the Atheneum. It's based around the life and music of Gram Parsons, of whom I had never actually heard - although it turns out, I did know some of his songs.
The show was great - Jordy Lane is a talented performer, and I enjoyed it way more than I expected to.
I managed to score an invite to a lovely morning tea at Crown Towers, hosted by Twinings. It was on a weekday, but I did not let that get between me and a free high tea. No way, Jose.
I have to say, this was a very well-run product launch. No hard-sell, boring lecture about the product - just the very personable Mr Stephen Twining himself, sharing his passion for tea and offering some interesting facts about tea and tea-making. The food was fabulous (as was the tea, of course) and we got to take home a goodie bag stuffed with a range of Twining's teas.
Best of all, we got to mix up our very own personal blend of teas and take it home in a pretty glass jar. Of which I completely forgot to take a photo, and now it's sitting on my desk at work. Oh well.
Tonight I'm off to a ball, so I'm hoping for a fairy godmother to appear and do a Cinderella on me this afternoon. Of course it's more likely that that I'll just have to dash from nail salon to hairdresser to the shops for some last minute "thing" I've forgotten, then home to do my own makeup, throw on my frock and be in a complete tizz by the time our driver arrives to pick us up.
There. Blogging just about all caught up. You're welcome.
This month I've joined Liz and a few other bloggers in a bit of a challenge: No-junk July. I'm focusing mainly on food, but the no-junk approach can be applied to other areas of your life too. Frankly, I just don't have time for any major clean-ups right now, so I'm keeping my challenge simple.
So my aim is to cut out any "junk" in terms of chocolate, cake, alcohol and the like, plus avoid processed foods, which tend to contain their own kind of "junk" in the form of preservatives, colours, trans fats and other less than desirable ingredients.
School holidays started this week, which normally means a reduction in the stress of the morning rush because I don't have to nag a kid out of bed, or detour via the school and I can leave for work earlier. As it happens though, The Baby has been rostered on at his part time job for 7:00am starts. O_o So, I'm leaving home at 6:30am and arriving at work before the sun's even appeared over the horizon.
On the plus side, I'm rapidly knocking down my overdrawn flex time, I'm far more productive first thing before all the distracting people arrive/ring/email and the lighter traffic means I'm cutting half an hour off my trip.
But I couldn't have the cupcakes in no-junk July anyway, so it's probably just as well.
One of the major reasons we chose our little housing estate over the many others in the area was that it's surrounded on three sides by state-owned parkland. There are some pockets of undisturbed bush along the river, but most of the open space is reclaimed farmland. Parks Victoria have been working for years to turn the land into useable public space amongst quite large conservation areas.
This is actually a disused quarry pit, but doesn't strike me as commercial-sized. The original property owner would most likely have been quarrying either bluestone or clay for bricks. I'm guessing bluestone for farm buildings.
The low-lying areas are natural wetlands and an extensive tree-planting program plus the addition of nesting boxes have turned these swampy areas into ideal breeding grounds for the birds.
....but those clouds look threatening.
I beat the rain home, but only just. The bonus was spotting the park's pair of resident wedgetail eagles soaring overhead as I headed back.
Next time I'll take my camera - I noticed the battery was flat a few days earlier but stupidly forgot to charge it, so the phone had to suffice for these pics. Maybe I can even catch a shot of the eagles with my telezoom, who knows?


text:
Striking ancestors
Children's homes
Criminal ancestors
Holocaust ancestors
Disabled ancestors
English poor
Enslaved ancestors
Illegitimate ancestors
Lunatic asylums
Royal ancestors
Scottish poor
Member records
Union records
Strike news
Workhouse ancestors
This guide was last updated in 2010
Tracking down your forebears' involvement in trade union strikes can reveal fascinating insights into both their working and personal lives, as Mark Crail explains.
Nearly quarter of a century has now passed since a year-long miners' strike ended in defeat for the National Union of Mineworkers. But while images of this and other relatively recent disputes spring instantly to mind, we have to go back to the first quarter of the 20th century to see industrial unrest at its peak.
Actor Zoë Wanamaker had to cross the Atlantic to find out about her grandfather's role in a long and bitterly fought strike back in 1911, but many of us can hope to find similar tales closer to home.
The years 1911 and 1912 saw 'syndicalism' – the idea that workers could win economic and political change through union activities rather than at the ballot box – at its height both in the US and the UK. Here, more than 40 million working days were lost to strikes in 1911 alone.
Finding the evidence of our own ancestors' involvement in historic strikes – and the vastly greater number of small disputes now lost to the history books – is not always easy. But if you succeed, you can add some fascinating and colourful stories to your family history.
Your research may open up new avenues to find out about your ancestors' daily lives. In days gone by, trade unions provided a vital safety net, paying out funds in the event of unemployment, illness and death, and many records have survived.
Union members also played a vital part in the political arena – campaigning for working men and women to be given the vote, creating the Labour Party, and seeking changes to the law to give ordinary people greater protection at work.
Photo © Getty Images
Visiting former poorhouses


Scott Donaldson (born 19 March 1994) is a Scottish professional snooker player.
Donaldson turned professional in 2012 after winning the 2012 EBSA European Snooker Championships and gained a two year tour card for the 2012/13 and 2013/14 snooker seasons. He reached his first ranking event semi-final at the 2017 Welsh Open.
Donaldson did not participate on 2012 Wuxi Classic and 2012 Australian Goldfields Open, which both were held before the EBSA European Snooker Championships. His first match as a professional was a 4-2 win over Liam Highfield in the minor-ranking PTC Event 1. The tournament formed part of the Players Tour Championship events, with Donaldson playing in all ten tournaments, with his best result coming in European Tour Event 1, where he beat Ricky Norris and Chris Norbury, before losing 3–4 to Michael Wild in the last 32. He was placed 70th on the Order of Merit.
His best run of results for the ranking event came in Shanghai Masters Qualifying, where he defeated Chen Zhe and Yu Delu, but then lost 1–5 to Nigel Bond. Donaldson's season ended when he was beaten 6–10 by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the first round of World Championship Qualifying. He finished his first year on tour ranked world number 89.
In his opening match, Donaldson defeated Tom Ford 5–1 to qualify for the 2013 Wuxi Classic in China. In his first appearance in the first round of a ranking event he defeated Gareth Green 5–3 and then beat Jimmy Robertson 5–4, before losing 5–1 to Robert Milkins in the last 16. He was knocked out by Barry Hawkins in the quarter-finals of the minor-ranking Bulgarian Open and in the semi-finals of the Asian Tour event, the Yixing Open. He did not have to qualify for the UK Championship or the Welsh Open as all players on the tour began the events at the venue stage this season and Donaldson took advantage. In the UK he saw off Matthew Selt 6–4 and then secured what he called the best victory of his career to date by taking the last two frames against world number 13 Mark Davis in a 6–5 win. He lost a high quality encounter 6–3 to Joe Perry in the last 32. At the Welsh Donaldson saw off a trio of established players in Robert Milkins, David Gilbert and Andrew Higginson to reach the last 16 of a ranking event for the second time this season, where he was whitewashed 4–0 by Ding Junhui.
Donaldson's play in Asian Tour events this year helped him to finish eighth on the Order of Merit to qualify for the Finals for the first time. He met reigning world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan and was comfortably defeated 4–0. Donaldson's campaign ended with him at 65th in the world rankings, agonosingly short of reaching the top 64 who stay on tour. However, his standing of 38th on the European Order of Merit earned him the third of eight spots on offer to non-qualified players to earn a two-year main tour card for the2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons.
Donaldson began the season by qualifying for the 2014 Wuxi Classic, where he was beaten 5–3 by Chen Zifan in the wildcard round. He won four matches to qualify for theAustralian Goldfields Open, which concluded with a 5–2 success over Kurt Maflin, before being whitewashed 5–0 by Stuart Bingham in the first round. At the minor-ranking Yixing Open, Donaldson won four matches to reach the quarter-finals, but lost 4–1 against Robert Milkins. However, after a 6–4 loss to Marcus Campbell in the first round of the UK Championship, Donaldson lost a further eight matches in a row to end the season.
At the Paul Hunter Classic, Donaldson beat Ashley Hugill 4–1, 2014 world champion Mark Selby 4–2 and Martin Gould 4–2 to reach the last 16 where he lost 4–1 to Mark Williams. He came close to qualifying for the International Championship by winning two successive frames to force a decider against Mark Allen, but lost it. Donaldson finished 59th on the European Order of Merit which was high enough to earn him a new two-year card for the snooker tour.
Donaldson won four matches to meet Ding Junhui in the opening round of the Shanghai Masters and had leads of 3–1 and 4–3, before Ding forced a deciding frame. Donaldson had a chance to pull off the shock, but missed a simple black and Ding won through. Donaldson reached the last 16 of both the European Masters and Northern Ireland Open, losing 4–3 to Anthony McGill and 4–2 to Hossein Vafaei respectively. At the Welsh Open he beat Jack Lisowski 4–1, Mark King 4–2, Jimmy Robertson 4–0 and Mark Davis 4–3 to reach the quarter-finals. He faced Zhou Yuelong, who was also appearing at this stage of a ranking event for the first time and Donaldson thrashed him 5–0. Donaldson pulled back from 4–1 down against Judd Trump in the semi-finals to 4–3, but lost 6–3. He won £20,000 for reaching the final four.


text:
Q: Unity Resizing Dropdown Dynamically I have a dropdown list on a filter panel which needs to stretch dynamically to fit the content as shown:

I have tried several content size fitters but cannot find anything, If possible I would like to set a max width it can expand to then truncate everything longer than that, I would also like it to expand only to the right with a right pivot point. I have found a similar example here: https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/resize-standard-dropdown-to-fit-content-width.400502/
Thanks!

A: Well.  Lets start with the code from that Unity forum thread.
var widest = 0f;
foreach (var item in _inputMines.GetComponentsInChildren<Text>()) {
    widest = Mathf.Max(item.preferredWidth, widest);
}
_inputMines.GetComponent<LayoutElement>().preferredWidth = widest + 40;

We want to have a max-width allowed, so any content longer than this will be truncated. So let's add that variable:
var maxWidth = 250f;
//or whatever value; you may wish this to be a property so you can edit it in the inspector

var widest = 0f;
foreach (var item in _inputMines.GetComponentsInChildren<Text>()) {

Now we use the smaller of the two width values.  Then apply it to the content layout:
}
widest = Mathf.Min(maxWidth, widest);
_inputMines.GetComponent<LayoutElement>().preferredWidth = widest + 40;

The +40 should be retained because that deals with the scrollbar.  Your maxWidth value should be chosen to account for this.
Finally we want the longer items to get cut off nicely.
Give each dropdown item a Rect Mask 2D component (Component -> UI -> Rect Mask 2D). The template object exists in the scene hierarchy before the game is run, just disabled.  You can just add the component to the parent transform, the one with the image (so the text is clipped).
You'll need to make sure that the mask covers the same width as the image graphic and expands along with it, possibly slightly shorter on the X direction so the text gets cut off before the image border is drawn. This should happen automatically, but you will need to check and possibly make some alterations to the template object.  Alternatively you can use an Image Mask, but you'll have to play with that one yourself, but it will allow for non-rectangular clipping.
That's it!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange