We'd love your help. Let us know what's wrong with this preview of The 9th Hour by Claire Stibbe.
The Duke City Police Department in Albuquerque, New Mexico is no stranger to gruesome murders, but this new serial killer on their block keeps the body parts of his eight young victims as trophies and has a worrying obsession wi When the ninth young girl falls into the clutches of a serial killer, maverick detective, David Temeke, faces a race against time to save her life.
To ask other readers questions about The 9th Hour, please sign up.
This portion of text is not a spoiler, it was something that stayed with me after I finished the Ninth Hour: one of the more "normal" passages in this horrific tale that kept me transfixed, reading every page even though I was often sickened by the details and the psychopathic deviance of the mind of the serial killer.
Claire Stibbe created a masterpiece when she plotted this dark crime thriller. Her writing is richly descriptive, taking the reader into the mind of each of the characters, good and evil, portraying their inner struggles, their weaknesses and their strengths and the single minded determination that makes each one of them believable; Detective David Temeke, and his partner, Detective Malin Santiago, Darryl Williams the bereaved father of the youngest victim, Morgan Eriksen and Ole Eriksen (the "brothers" who shared a terrible secret), and teenager Tess Williams, the last of the nine girls chosen to face the Ninth hour, the one who fought to the end.
While I was truly disquieted by the horrors that the killer perpetrated upon his victims, by the end of the book I began to fathom how he had become so twisted. Few people would be born that way, but betrayal and staggering loss sometimes creates a monster.
This book is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a face paced, convoluted, dark crime thriller, but it is not a read for the faint of heart!
Whoa, this thriller had me on the edge.
" The man walked to the edge of the wood swinging a steel forged axe. Blood dripped from the blade and left a sticky trail in the dead brown leaves..."
A serial killer, who believes he has to behead nine young girls to fulfill a Norse legend. The killer is smart, cunning, ruthless and of course, sick in his head.
"... When he took life, it was only to resurrect that which Whoa, this thriller had me on the edge.
"... When he took life, it was only to resurrect that which was cruelly taken from him. It was a power he secretly loathed, as if someone had thrown a switch that could never be turned off. There were no witnesses, no first-hand accounts. That was the beauty of it..."
The only girl who gets away is Becky Morgan.
This book is not a read for the faint of heart. A few times I actually wanted to put it away but I had to know how the killer (Ole) gets caught.
On the hunt - Detective David Temeke and Malin Santiago, the squad's newest recruit.
Their heads end up in a commercial fridge.
The killer is so sick, so heartless, he makes Mafiosos look like "nice and just people." The crimes are disgusting. The readers cannot help but fevering for the detectives, hope that they will decipher the many clues correctly.
"... "He'll keep killing unless we find him," he said, trying to keep his mind on the matter. "One a month, just like he promised." "Got any leads?" "Not unless the doctor comes back with a match. Incidentally, I found a nice little gift on my doorstep this morning. A thigh bone. Human. It's on the backseat if you want to take a look at it."..."
About the only predictable part of "The 9th Hour" is that I guessed that Ole would be able to grab Malin Santiago.
No spoilers from this reviewer but a promise that this book will keep you on the edge.
This has to be the best thriller I've read in recent times. From the opening page and a bloodstained axe, the author delivers a succession of scenes that are so compelling, there was no way I could put the book down. Forget all those whodunits with formulaic plotting, this one will turn you inside out as you follow Detective Temeke and his new partner on a twisted and terrifying journey to capture a crazed Norwegian serial killer.
With its unsettling Nordic, noir undercurrent, and wild New Mexic This has to be the best thriller I've read in recent times. From the opening page and a bloodstained axe, the author delivers a succession of scenes that are so compelling, there was no way I could put the book down. Forget all those whodunits with formulaic plotting, this one will turn you inside out as you follow Detective Temeke and his new partner on a twisted and terrifying journey to capture a crazed Norwegian serial killer.
With its unsettling Nordic, noir undercurrent, and wild New Mexico setting we are plunged headlong into a worst nightmare situation as the disturbed killer seeks to gather nine decapitated heads to fulfil a Norse legend. The writing is superb, allowing us to alternately glimpse into the mind of the disturbed and damaged killer, while championing the pursuing detectives, and grieving with Daryl the heartbroken father of one of the victims. It's a heady concoction which adds to the suspense as the author winds it up one ratchet at a time to a climatic finale.
Fast paced and packed with tension, this is an intelligent, superbly crafted thriller which I wholly recommend.
Great psychological crime - I can't wait for Detective Temeke Book 2!
'The 9th Hour' oozes urban crime and corruption in a race against time to find the serial killer whose MOD is cutting off heads and who has an obsession with Norse Mythology.
C.M.T. Stibbe's new detective series brings Scandinavian psychological tension to New Mexico's seedy bars and savage forests. Detective David Temeke is as much an outsider as the criminals Great psychological crime - I can't wait for Detective Temeke Book 2!
C.M.T. Stibbe's new detective series brings Scandinavian psychological tension to New Mexico's seedy bars and savage forests. Detective David Temeke is as much an outsider as the criminals he chases and his partner Malin Santiago adds just the right amount of unsettling personal chemistry to the mix, as well as her own professional agenda.
An assured page-turner that leads inexorably to a satisfying conclusion. I can't wait for Detective Temeke Book 2!
Got through eight pages. I never knew what the author was trying to say. His attempt at snappy, believable dialogue were sentence fragments which didn't seem to relate to the previous sentence. I hated all eight pages. I refused to do it. I deleted the blasted thing.
I really and truly tried to get into this book. However, it was very boring and written in a very disjointed manner. I got halfway through and then finally gave up. It was written in such a way that it just couldn't hold my interest.
Just not my cup of tea. I like thrillers, but I never got into this. Tameka seems like a nice enough guy, we do get to know him a bit. The story is ok. But somehow I never took to any of it. Can't put my finger on why I didn't, because I really wanted to like the book. Somehow it's disjointed, lacks cohesion. Like the part about his wife, few mentions, could be good, brushed over.
And the last bit, the endless chase part, just went on way too long. However, that is personal opinion, as I don't e Just not my cup of tea. I like thrillers, but I never got into this. Tameka seems like a nice enough guy, we do get to know him a bit. The story is ok. But somehow I never took to any of it. Can't put my finger on why I didn't, because I really wanted to like the book. Somehow it's disjointed, lacks cohesion. Like the part about his wife, few mentions, could be good, brushed over.
An OK read. Not bad enough so I didn't finish reading it, but not good enough to make me want to read more of the series. It felt like the author was trying to shock the reader to draw them in, but didn't support it with strong writing. The main character was very cliché and overall characters didn't feel very developed. You know who the killer is pretty early on so it kind of took away some of the intrigue.
I found myself losing interest quite often. The writing didn't keep me wanting more. Couldn't get into the characters at all. I finished it but I can't say it was truly enjoyable. If I wasn't working on a book challenge, I would've just left it.
The idea is good, but everything from the murdered, plot, detectives, is bad. The characters are jumbled and their backgrounds have too much elements that don't fit. The story is only piling together as it goes along, with more and more details being added that seem like an afterthought to add more complexity and no sense to it.
I was disappointed and outraged from the middle of the book till the end with so many cliches.
I found this book very confusing from the beginning. I did not enjoy the writer's style of writing, it jumped about too much, sometimes even within the sentences so that I found it very difficult to follow. I don't think I shall be bothering to read any more books in this series.
I really didn't get the connection between New Mexico, a British detective of African origin and a Norwegian killer? Too much confusion. Story was so-so, can't say I'd recommend or read another by this author.
The storyline was good, but I really struggled with Claire's (author's) writing style, it didn't seem to flow and I couldn't fit all characters in easily, often having to re-read sections.
"The ninth hour" is like no book I've ever read. It could easily be characterized as a serial killer story or perhaps a story of ritual murder. But no matter hard I tried, I couldn't come up with an easy categorization.
My first impression was "film noir". Not that this book reminds me of Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity, but there is an abiding darkness to this book, a strong sense of the underbelly of life. There is no break in the tension and very little humor or down time from the disturb "The ninth hour" is like no book I've ever read. It could easily be characterized as a serial killer story or perhaps a story of ritual murder. But no matter hard I tried, I couldn't come up with an easy categorization.
My first impression was "film noir". Not that this book reminds me of Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity, but there is an abiding darkness to this book, a strong sense of the underbelly of life. There is no break in the tension and very little humor or down time from the disturbing tone that Claire Stibbe manages to skillfully maintain throughout the book.
David Temeke is a detective with the Albequerque police department. While this is interesting in that Albequerque is not a common location for detective novels, Stibbe takes this one step farther. Temeke is a British son of African immigrants to Britain. His reputation as a detective is impeccable and his is considered an amazing interrogator. In keeping with the dark tone of the story, Temeke is a tough police tsunami, but he is addicted to weed and his relationship with his wife is less than stellar. Throughout the story we are given small windows into Temeke's personal life and it enhances the sorrowful and hopeless feeling of the book.
In the world outside his personal life Temeke does what he does best; he is fully absorbed by every bit of pain, anguish, and psychopathy of police work. In "The Ninth Hour", he is chasing a serial killer whose MO is deeply rooted in the legends of his homeland, Norway. For this serial killer, a perversion of Norse mythology guides him in his murderous activities. For Ole, he needs to collect heads for Odin. Nine female heads.
Stibbe creates fascinating characters. Ole is a remorseless serial killer but he has elements of a lost child and at times craves love and acceptance. As he executes his reign of terror, Ole taunts whoever he can, establishing himself as an alpha male. From the father of one of his victims to detective Temeke himself, Ole sets up situations where he can threaten and bait everyone he considers his enemy, threatening their lives in the process. Risk is not an issue to him, only his ability to control situations and prove his superiority.
Part of the dark tapestry is Temeke's new partner. Malin Santiago is a woman with a past that she is not proud of. Now a policewoman, her past surfaces in a number of ways, much to her chagrin. Like all of the primary characters in "The Ninth Hour" there is sorrow and shame in Malin's life. What is interesting and gratifying is that Temeke takes her under his wing and helps shield her from ridicule. There is an excellently developed bond between the two, expressed in subtle almost emotion averse style that characterizes this story.
All in all Stibbe is expert at creating a dark hopeless landscape without taking it too far. The prose is poetic as she describes the beautiful landscape of New Mexico and the characters are fully developed and fascinating. For fans of dark "noiresque" detective fare, this book will provide an excellent read.
Detective stories have been among my favourites ever since I can remember. This book is the first in a series, so, although its lead detective Temeke is quite an acquired taste, burdened with plenty of faults and not many likeable habits, his pitbull-like persistence and dedication might just make you a fan and follower of his further cases. Although my personal favourite would be his assistant partner Malin, as I found her more relatable at times. It will be interesting to see them grow in furt Detective stories have been among my favourites ever since I can remember. This book is the first in a series, so, although its lead detective Temeke is quite an acquired taste, burdened with plenty of faults and not many likeable habits, his pitbull-like persistence and dedication might just make you a fan and follower of his further cases. Although my personal favourite would be his assistant partner Malin, as I found her more relatable at times. It will be interesting to see them grow in further books.
The crime in The 9th Hour is a series of particularly gruesome killings of teenage girls, with much to stomach - at one point it reminded me of The Silence of the Lambs. The author displays a veritable knack for telling parts of the story from the killer's point of view, and, as disturbing as they may be, they impressed me the most. The villain is vile and fascinating, powerful and disgusting. His victims are shockingly naive, yet perfectly plausible, and not all of them what he expected them to be (yay!).
It is a risk for an author to let us know who the killer is from the start and then let us wait it out to see how, when or if he will eventually be caught, but intriguing and engaging just the same. Like me, you might find yourself having all these brilliant ideas on what you would do and who you would call; you, that is, or any other famous detective you've already met/read.
But Stibbe makes the detectives painfully human and susceptible to mistakes, just like the rest of us. Temeke and Malin are given no superhero powers, extraordinary abilities or phenomenal gadgetry and financial support to solve the crime. At times, even their own police department is a questionable resource of support, be it due to resentment, envy, laziness or mere inability to fathom the extent of malice in the crime itself. What is memorable, especially in the final showdown, is their tenacity, persistence and a sheer need to catch this mentally brilliant and emotionally damaged killer, also a fallible human being but unpardonable.
I admit: I only read - or should I say fought my way through - half of it before finally giving up. This is the first book in a series, but I never lost the feeling that I was missing something vital which was explained in previous books, as if this one was part of a series where you needed the previous books to understand what on earth was going on.
The characters: no background information, nothing regarding what makes them tick and who they are. The plot: okay murdered girls, about 7 of them, I admit: I only read - or should I say fought my way through - half of it before finally giving up. This is the first book in a series, but I never lost the feeling that I was missing something vital which was explained in previous books, as if this one was part of a series where you needed the previous books to understand what on earth was going on.
The characters: no background information, nothing regarding what makes them tick and who they are. The plot: okay murdered girls, about 7 of them, but no explanation whatsoever on what happened before, there is a suspect all of a sudden, but nothing about how they got to him, why he was a suspect, or how the person giving the information about him was related to him, or to the case. The narration style: sorry, boring boring boring.
One can tell that the author is familiar with the area,and for those of us from Albuquerque, that makes it fun.
But it also causes us to find the mistakes.
Maples are only found in 4th of July Canyon, which is on the east side of the Monzano Mountains, not any where near Cimarron.
Stags are deer. Male elk are bulls.
Does are deer. Female elk are cows.
Shelby barn, not the Toby barn.
Loved this book. The characters were a little bit difficult to imagine as I don't think their descriptions were that clear. Also the interactions between the two main characters, Temeke and Malin, was a bit difficult to understand. Also, Temeke says repeatedly that he is married however that relationship is weird as well. The story line is interesting and comes together at the end rather nicely. A good suspense novel that was enjoyable.
This story keep me on the edge of my seat. I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. Ole was a horrible, sick human being, but he was also good looking and a smooth talker. It was easy for him to get the girl's attention and too easy for him to kidnap them. I really thought he and Morgan were twins.
The characters are credible and I enjoyed the changing POV, delving into their thoughts and emotions. The first 2 or 3 chapters drove me crazy, though, because everything is thrown at the reader all at once. I had to reread them to follow who was who. Another weird thing Stibbe does is run the time and location changes together without line-breaks. Really confusing.
This book surprised me as at first I felt like giving up on it as it seemed a bit disjointed, but I went back and started again. I was pleased I did as the more I read the more I wanted to read, just goes to show never give up on a book. It's not a book for the faint hearted as it's quite gory in places.Will be looking for more by this author.
I had a bit of trouble getting started with this book. I'm not terribly fond of the characters, who I assume will continue to show up in future novels, so not sure I will read another in this series. I finished it only because I don't like to leave things undone!
A serial kliler, nine young girls, a British detective in New Mexico.
Flow is choppy, Characters are indefinite and introduced piece meal. Had to force mystelf to continue reading by taking frequent breaks which added even more to the choppy flow of the story.
Winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award and two time finalist, Claire Stibbe writes crime thrillers set in the US.
She is also a reporter for Stand True 4 Blue dedicated to law enforcement, a member and graduate of the Citizen Police & BSCO Sheriff's Academy. A former journalist and magazine editor, she lives in Utah with her husband and son.
Find out more about Claire at www.clairestibbe.co Winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award and two time finalist, Claire Stibbe writes crime thrillers set in the US.


After years of slamming content providers for their behavior in negotiations, he's about to head right into the lions den: The National Association of Broadcasters' annual show in Las Vegas. Will this experience change his mind about broadcasters, about 4K television, and about life in general? Listen, then shop Solid Signal!


Please note that the images contained in this article may have outdated configuration data. Please check the data in the article "Parameters for the Solution" at the bottom of the page, as that information is up to date.
The configuration procedure has been performed and tested on Huawei Access Controller AC6005-8-PWR running firmware VRP (R) software, Version 5.130 (AC6005 V200R006C10) and Access Point AP5030DN running firmware FitAP5X30XN_V200R006C10SPC800.
Before integrating the Access Controller with Volare, it is necessary that it is connected to the Internet and reachable on the network and has open the UDP port 2000.
This guide will refer to the Access Controller AC6005 and the network architecture in the picture below.
For all other network topologies. please contact Huawei support or read through the Huawei documentation available their site: http://support.huawei.com/.
By default, the Access Controller has the following IP address: 169.254.1.1. You can manage and configure the AC by Telnet or by opening a web browser, visiting the following URL: http://169.254.1.1 and logging in as the admin user with a default password admin@huawei.com. This guide will drive the configuration based on CLI.
Configure a Service VLAN and the CapWap source IP address (in this example is the IP address configured in Vlan150) on the GigabitEthernet interface attached to your default gateway (GigabitEthernet0/0/1).
Configure a management VLAN. (Management of APs - Vlan30).
Configure the CapWap source to your public IP address of the AC 6005.
# Change the system name to the public IP address of the AC 6005. This is a mandatory step and the name of the controller needs to be its public IP address. If AC controller uses private IP address, then you need to provide public IP address after NATting.
The Portal version on the AC should be set to Ver 1. If the AC is running on different version then you can execute the following command.
Security consideration. To permit the connections between the Portal Server and the Access Controller, it's necessary the AC is reachable from the Internet and have open the UDP port 2000 (check your firewall configuration guide).
The following schema defines the functional priorities of the operations necessary to configure AP groups, radio profile, and vap-profile.
For example, we'll configure a QoS profile to limit the bandwidth in Uplink and Downlink to 1Mb/s for a specific user group (group-1M).
The User-group name will represent the Filter-Id (In this case group-1M) to configure on Volare platform. For further details, check the link: https://cloud4wi.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/208554056-Setting-QoS-parameters-on-Internet-plans.
For Huawei devices, the Volare platform requires only the MAC address. The Identifier field is not required.
The service VLAN with the same ID as the previously configured on the AC (Vlan200) with a DHCP server for the STAs (customer devices) will connect through the SSID. In this case, the address pool will be 192.168.50.1/24.
The Management VLAN for the APs with the same ID and pool as the previously configured on the AC (Vlan30) with a DHCP server for the APs. In this case, the pool will be 192.168.30.1/24.
We have 2 possibilities to configure the CapWap source IP address on APs.
Enter for each AP via telnet or ssh with the default credentials admin/admin@huawei.com.
Info: The configuration takes effect after the AP is restarted.
The system name of the AC has to set to a public IP address.
Configure a service VLAN in tagged mode (Vlan200).
Configure a management VLAN (to manage the APs) (Vlan30).
Capwap source IP address has to be set to AC IP address.
Configure ACL to permit navigation to *.cloud4wi.com domain and Cloud4Wi RADIUS IP address.
RADIUS server primary(Authentication) → 54.247.117.188 on port 1812 secret provided by Cloud4Wi.
RADIUS server primary(Accounting) → 54.247.117.188 on port 1813 secret provided by Cloud4Wi.
RADIUS server secondary(Authentication) → 79.125.111.180 on port 1812 secret provided by Cloud4Wi.
RADIUS server primary(Accounting) → 79.125.111.180 on port 1813 secret provided by Cloud4Wi.
Configure a VAP profile and associate it with WLAN and SSID profile.
Create one DHCP server for the STAs and one for the APs (eventually with the option 43 sub option 2) recommended for large networks.


SEARCH OUR ONLINE INVENTORY NOW!
YOUR NEW AND USED AUTO PARTS HEADQUARTERS!
We are located in Las Cruces New Mexico and have been a family owned and operated auto salvage yards (junkyard) since 1949. We have a huge inventory of both domestic and foreign parts for passenger cars, SUVs, pickups, and minivans.
ACTION AUTO PARTS offers recycled OEM parts at a substantial savings over the cost of buying from a manufacturer or dealership. All of our parts are backed by a 90 day warranty, good for your vehicle, good for your wallet and good for the environment!
We sell new and used auto parts for all makes and models. If we don't have it in stock, we can get it shipped in from our nationwide partners.
When you are looking for a part to get your car back in gear, you can turn to the team at Action Auto Parts to help you find what you need. Located in Las Cruces, we will find auto parts for all makes and models of cars and trucks, and ship them directly to you anywhere in the country. We have access to a nationwide parts locator service, allowing us to find the exact part you are looking for, even if we dont have it in our stock. Some of the parts we can provide include: Transmissions Brakes Mufflers Radiators Clutches Make sure everything is running properly under your hood by installing top quality parts from Action Auto Parts. We will go the extra mile to make sure you are completely satisfied with every aspect of our service. Call today to track down the part youve been looking for!
Copyright © 2018 ACTION AUTO PARTS - All Rights Reserved.


Pairing: Pinot from Carneros: 2009 Educated Guess.
Pairing: California Chardonnay: 2010 Bishop's Peak.
Pairing: Bright, full-bodied northern Italian white: 2010 Tiefenbrunner Feldmarschall Müller-Thurgau.
Pairing: Off-dry sparkling wine: NV Patrick Bottex La Cueille Bugey-Cerdon.
Pairing: Napa Cabernet: 2008 Robert Craig Howell Mountain.


text:
Popping the myth of the property bubble
Fears of the real-estate bubble bursting are exaggerated. But the slowdown presents an opportunity for the smart buyer
Source : The Hindu
Tag:NHB|Chennai Real Estate Bubble|Economic Slowdown in Real Estate|Real Estate Investment
CHENNAI: Most Indians believe that property is the ultimate investment. After all, haven't home prices been heading only one way — up? For instance, prices in Chennai have trebled since 2007.
Recently though, there are signs of a slowdown. Data from the National Housing Board (NHB) show that property prices fell in 22 out of the 26 residential markets in the last quarter. Buyers are staying away from booking homes in many recent project launches. The shift in mood seems triggered by high home loan interest rates and steep price escalation in recent years, which has made homes unaffordable in some markets. These were not a big concern in the past, thanks to a booming economy. But buyers are now more risk averse as the economic slump has impacted salary hikes and job prospects.
But do these justify talks of a bubble burst? The short answer is: No. Buyer interest in new homes remains quite healthy in most markets, even if transactions have slowed. Price correction will be limited to a handful of markets. In such an environment, here is what a buyer should do.
To start with, watch out for the most vulnerable segments of the property market and avoid them. Right now, these include localities with a high level of 'speculative' buying, Tier-3 markets and luxury homes in certain cities.
If property prices don't appreciate, those most likely to exit the market quickly are speculators or second/third-home buyers. After all, such buyers are looking to make a quick profit rather than hold on to assets. So, markets with rampant buyer speculation may see sharper corrections with investors selling their holdings. Experts believe that in localities such as Dwarka Expressway in the National Capital Region (NCR), speculative buying is sizeable, as much as 50 per cent of the total.
Tier-3 cities may find the going tough for quite awhile due to excess supply of new homes. For instance, Nagpur has around a 10 year supply of housing units. Coimbatore, with an annual demand for 500 units, churns out 7,000 units every year, according to Om Ahuja, CEO, Residential Services, Jones Lang LaSalle India. Lack of employment growth in these markets is also a stumbling block. These markets are likely to see a price correction as well as developers exiting.
Price corrections are likely to be steep in the luxury segment, where the lure of high profit margins for the builder has created an over-supply. For instance, in Pune, mid-income housing remains robust but demand for high-end property is sluggish. Specific projects that do not fit the needs of buyers in the market are also likely to see steeper correction. For instance, a few builders in Sriperumbudur and along the ECR, near Chennai, are left with a large inventory as many projects are not meeting buyer expectations, with respect to features and prices.
Some residential markets and segments may see milder price corrections or prices moving sideways.
Economic or political concerns in the region may keep prices depressed in cities such as Hyderabad and Kolkata. For instance, the depressed Hyderabad market is looking for a firm resolution of the Telengana issue before sales pick up. Slowdown in a particular sector can have an impact too. For instance, the lull in the automobile sector has affected Pune, and a lull in the manufacturing sector has hit Coimbatore.
These trends may offer an opportunity for home buyers to negotiate attractive prices. A builder in dire need of cash to complete a project may offer price cuts, as delays reduce profits in a market where prices are not increasing. Builders with high debt may be open to selling completed properties at lower rates. Such deals, although offered only by few builders, may result in lingering price pressures.
Buyer sentiment overall may be down, but far from out. Data from a property website suggests that following a decline, buyer interest in new apartments has increased by over 30 per cent in all major markets over the last six months. This is particularly true in markets such as Bangalore, where the fall in rupee has helped buoy the fortunes of IT companies and, as a result, the expectations of their employees. JLL says Sarjapur Road, Outer Ring Road and Whitefield in Bangalore, and other areas where IT companies are in close proximity, will see price appreciation.
Low supply may help price increase in certain markets. For example, the Central Business District (CBD) in Chennai has a dearth of supply and properties are being lapped up at a brisk pace, according to Sunil Rohokale, MD & CEO of ASK Group.
Price pull
Even while house prices increased overall, home affordability, measured as the ratio of property price to annual income, has been stable. Data from HDFC shows that affordability was around 4.7 as of March 2013, a level that has been stable since 2010. Mudassir Zaidi, National Director, Residential Agency, Knight Frank, says that, on an average, home mortgages are paid out in six to eight years. The growth in annual savings may continue to help home price appreciation.
Increasing construction and financing costs will have an impact as well. JS Homes, a Bangalore-based developer, says that the company's cost of construction is now around Rs 1,500 per sq ft. Poddar Developers, a Mumbai-based developer of affordable housing projects, says that land prices have gone up by 15 to 40 per cent.
All in all, if you are looking to buy property, be selective. Keep away from the bad and the ugly. There is plenty that is good and which is still available for sale.
VGN Developers calls for bids to set up hospital
CHENNAI: VGN Developers has called for bids from healthcare operators to set up and run a 100-bed hospital in a township project it is developing in Avadi, a Chennai suburb.
Chennai developers scout beachfront options
CHENNAI: Clearing the air over rules governing construction of buildings in coastal regulation zones (CRZ), Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has started issuing approvals for residential projects on the beachfront. The road abutting Elliot's Beach in Besant Nagar will soon house one such project, a three-storeyed residential building being promoted by a prominent city builder.
Looking at design differently
CHENNAI: Chennai has always been known for its conservative outlook, and this characteristic, naturally, was reflected in the city's architecture. Through the 1960s right up to the late 1980s, houses were built to a standard template, and this extended to office buildings too. The façade of independent houses was the same, whether the home was built in Gandhinagar or Royapettah or Rutland Gate. Toilets were almost always outside the house, at the back; it took a long time for the conservative Ch
Pent-up dreams can fly high
CHENNAI: When Nikhil moved to Chennai on work, he decided to consider purchasing a penthouse, not just the usual house.
North by north-east, vaastu-style
CHENNAI: Vaastu has come to stay in cities such as Chennai and Bangalore. "All apartments offered for sale in Chennai invariably mention vaastu-compliance" says Sumit Jain, CEO and co-founder of CommonFloor.com, a real estate portal.
Malabar group to diversify into construction, e-commerce
CHENNAI: Kerala-based Malabar Group, promoters of jewellery retailer Malabar Gold and Diamonds, has planned to diversify into development of townships, commercial hubs, e-commerce and organic farming among others.
North Chennai v/s South Chennai
CHENNAI: In the past year, Suresh of S Promoters has sold about 80 per cent of his properties in North Chennai. However, his South Chennai properties still remain unsold. "Today, there is an oversupply in the South Chennai market. But in the northern part of the city, the ratio of availability and demand is at par. Also, in North Chennai, people can buy flats at two-third of the rates of South Chennai," he says.
Perungudi: A good investment option for mid-segment home buyers
CHENNAI: If you are looking to buy property in the budget range of Rs 60-70 lakh, Perungudi can be the end of your search as the locality offers a number of housing options. With factors like well-built social infrastructure, proximity to IT companies and seamless connectivity, Perungudi comes across as an ideal destination for an end-user. Here's why:
Metro boost, new affordable localities keep Chennai real estate active
CHENNAI: As Chennai eagerly awaits the advent of the city's Metro rail services, the real estate industry too, watches with bated breath. As the rapid transit services roll out in phase after phase in city after city, both transport corridors and real estate have had a love-hate relationship with each other.
Rush for holiday homes pushes up realty prices
CHENNAI: The upper-middle class families' desire to own holiday homes where they can unwind on weekends is driving realty prices up in many hill stations and coastal locales within driving distance from metros. With 8% to 12% appreciation per annum, many holiday home locations in the country are comparable or better off than some of their urban counterparts that are constrained by space limitations, says realty consultant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Nicknamed the "Hub City," Lubbock, TX, serves as the leader of economy, education, and health care in the South Plains region of the state. Lubbock is one of the most populous cities in Texas and is the center of the Lubbock Metropolitan Area.
Lubbock has been consistently cited by numerous news outlets, economic studies, and political analysts as being one of the best cities for small businesses. This is because the city invests heavily in small-to-medium enterprises by offering incentive programs and low rent for commercial spaces . Because of this, Lubbock maintains a very healthy business community that propels its economic growth.
Commercial establishments in the city should do their part in the city's efforts by creating business spaces that are clean, orderly, and impressive. U.S. Lawns can help with that. With our commercial landscaping services in Lubbock, clients can enjoy landscapes that are attract customers and investors, alike, and add to the aesthetic value of the city.
The village of Buffalo Springs surrounds the Buffalo Springs Lake and is one of the most popular outdoor destinations in Lubbock County. Known for its crystal clear waters, watersports, and other outdoor activities, Buffalo Springs' natural beauty buoys its thriving tourist economy.
Commercial establishments in the village should focus on creating lawns that not only entice visitors, but also showcase the community's flora and fauna. To help with this, U.S. Lawns offers commercial lawn care in Buffalo Springs. Our team of in-house experts will not only help you plan and plant the right type of grass for your lawn, they'll also help you find the most environmentally-friendly way to create and maintain your business's frontage.
As a leading provider of high-quality and comprehensive commercial landscaping, lawn care, and other grounds care services, U.S. Lawns uses the latest grounds care tools and techniques in all of our service offerings. Our in-house team of grounds care experts will carefully assess your property to determine the most appropriate solution to your specific needs.
We service commercial establishments in Lubbock and Buffalo Springs. Get in touch with us today and we'll get your business started on one of our effective grounds care programs.


text:
Home Top Stories
Ghana Bans Travellers from Israel, South Korea, and Malta as Omicron Surges
Ghana has initiated a temporary travel restriction on all travelers arriving from Israel effective today, Monday, 20th December 2021.
Coup in Burkina Faso – Soldiers Overthrow of Military Government
This will last for 14 days, except in exceptional humanitarian cases or during official travels, government said.
"Permission would have to be obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in exceptional cases," a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration added.
The government of Ghana has placed a similar travel ban South Korea, and Malta.
This is part of efforts by GoG to control the importation of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 into the country.
A man, believed to be in his fifties, has died by suicide in the Aburi Botanical Gardens in the Eastern...
The family of a Ghanaian-American soldier is in mourning after he passed away at a military base in Alabama. The...
Armed soldiers in fatigues and masks appeared on television in Burkina Faso on Friday night to confirm the ouster of...
Hikaru Morikawa, 58-Year-Old Japanese Man behind $2.9M Global Romance Scam Arrested in Ghana
A Japanese man believed to be the ringleader of a notorious "romance scam" that swindled dozens of victims out of...
Two People Arrested in Connection with Death of X-Rated American IG Model, Tyger Booty
Ghanaian Woman Gives Birth to Baby Boy on United Airlines Flight from Ghana to U.S.


text:
\section{Introduction}

    When a group of people communicate with one another, there exist inherent structures in the conversation. One of the structures can be defined as the `reply\_to' relationship between a pair of utterances. The `reply\_to' relationship may be explicitly defined in some platforms including Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook. In other platforms such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Slack, and most other forums, there is no explicit `reply\_to' relationship in the conversation.
    The problem also exists in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) transcripts of recorded conversations where the output typically consists of a flat list of utterances with no structure assigned to them. Identification of the structure of such conversations typically entails significant human labeling effort \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}.

    The problem of discovering conversation structure is also referred to as conversation disentanglement in the literature \cite{elsner-charniak-2008-talking,kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}. Disentangling the conversation structure opens the door for many downstream applications. For example, the topics discussed in a conversation are often non-contiguous and intertwined with each other. Discovering the conversation structure allows us to segment the conversation by topics. It also permits easier analysis and summarization of the various threads and topics discussed in the conversation. In addition, conversation structure can also be used to improve discourse act classification, which is useful in dialogue modeling \cite{zhang2017characterizing}.
    \begin{figure}[htbp]
    	\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{fig/example_conversation.pdf}
    	\caption{An example sequence of utterances. Curved lines with arrows are the ground truth `reply\_to' relationship in the conversation. Without the context of the first utterance, it is hard to tell whether the fourth utterance is responding to the second utterance or the third utterance.}
    	\label{fig:example_conversation2}
    \end{figure}

    Previous work \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large} only takes a pair of utterances to decide whether one utterance is the parent of the other without considering the context. Consider an example conversation shown in Figure \ref{fig:example_conversation2}. User A poses a question in the first line; user B asks a clarification question in the second line responding to the first line; user C then interjects with an unrelated question in the third line; finally, user A makes a statement in the fourth line.  Judging in a pairwise fashion, without considering context, the last line is equally likely to be replying to the questions in the second and third lines. However, by considering the context of the first utterance, it is clear that user A is continuing a conversation with user B to address the internet connection question.

    The goal of this work is to automatically discover the structure of a conversation given all the utterances. The task is very challenging since (a) the `reply\_to' relationship can exhibit long-distance behavior, i.e., an utterance may response to an utterance that occurred several turns earlier in the conversation, and (b) various topics can be intertwined with one another in the conversation.

    In this work, we propose a new {\it Masked Hierarchical Transformer} model to learn conversation structures taking into account the prior context of each utterance. Concretely, a pre-trained transformer is used to produce a feature vector of each utterance. Then a second-stage transformer is applied to compare and aggregate utterances and produce the probability for each utterance being the parent of a target utterance. To utilize the previous conversation structure information, we introduce a novel masking mechanism for the second-stage transformer. We evaluate our model on three datasets using metrics for accurately identifying the `reply\_to' edges as well as metrics for reconstructing the whole conversation structure. We demonstrate that our method outperforms several strong baseline models including a BERT-based sentence-pair classification model, and achieves state-of-art results on all three conversation structure modeling datasets.

	\section{Related Work}
	\paragraph{Next Utterance Prediction} Next-utterance prediction is very related to our task of conversation structure modeling. There are two types of formulation of next-utterance prediction. The first one is to generate the next utterance in a conversation given the conversation history \cite{zhao2019effective,dziri2018augmenting,hu2019gsn} and the second type is to retrieve the next utterance in the conversation from a large list of response utterances \cite{lowe-etal-2015-ubuntu,whang2019domain}. These tasks are useful for building a chatbot, aiming to generate or retrieve a good response according to the context of the conversation, while this work aims to recover the structure of the entire conversation.

	\paragraph{Conversation Disentanglement} Conversation structure modeling task is also related to the conversation disentanglement task \cite{Shen2016detect,elsner-charniak-2008-talking,kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}. In particular, \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large} proposed a large corpus for conversation disentanglement and a feed-forward model using average word embedding of sentences and some additional features. Conversation disentanglement is one type of conversation structure modeling task, where several conversation threads are interleaved and need to be disentangled. The ground truth `reply\_to' labels need to be annotated manually. In this paper, we have included the conversation disentanglement task for Ubuntu IRC in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large} into our analysis as well and compare with their model.

	\paragraph{Discourse Parsing} Conversational discourse parsing is also related to this task \cite{Joty:2012:NDF:2390948.2391047,afantenos-etal-2015-discourse,AAAI1714800}. Discourse parsing usually considers different kinds of relationship such as `question-answer' and 'acknowledgment'. The focus of these papers is mostly on the classification of the type of relationship, which is not the focus of this work.

	\section{Model}

	Consider the list of utterances in a conversation denoted as $S_1,\, S_2\cdots,\,S_N$. We aim to find out which of the utterance(s) in $S_1,\, S_2\cdots,\,S_L$ is the parent utterance of the target utterance $S_L$ for $L \in \{2,\cdots N\}$. (In Ubuntu IRC dataset, the parent of an utterance can be itself.)	We may access the structure of the conversation history during training (or its predicted structure at test time) i.e., all the parent(s) of $S_i$ are assumed to be known when we are predicting whether $S_i$ is the parent of the target utterance $S_L$, where $i < L$ and $L \in \{2,\cdots N\}$.

	\subsection{Baseline Models}
	The conversation structure modeling task can be viewed as an utterance pair classification task for the `reply\_to' relationship. Therefore, several existing methods for sentence-pair classification can be applied to this problem. In this paper, we consider the following models: Decomposable Attention Model \cite{parikh-etal-2016-decomposable}, Enhanced Sequential Inference Model (ESIM) \cite{chen-etal-2018-neural-natural} as well as the state-of-the-art BERT model \cite{devlin-etal-2019-bert} for sentence pair classification.  The decomposable attention model uses an attention mechanism that compares and aggregates the token-level information in both sentences to produce a set of meaningful features for sentence pair classification. ESIM improves this model by adding two LSTMs before and after the attention for including more contextual information in the feature vectors. BERT uses a transformer model \cite{vaswani2017attention} to perform comparison and aggregation, and leverages the unsupervised pretraining on a large corpus. In this paper, we use Glove embedding \cite{pennington2014glove} in the decomposable attention model and ESIM. For Reddit-small dataset, we also consider ELMo \cite{peters-etal-2018-deep} as word embedding for comparison. Also, since there are usually more non-parent-relation sentence pairs compared with parent-relation pairs, this paper balances the dataset by downsampling the non-parent sentence pairs when training.

	\subsection{Masked Hierarchical Transformer Model}

    The baseline methods take into account only two utterances in the conversation, not the context of the conversation. Also, the structure of the conversation history may help in identifying the parent utterance(s) for a target utterance. Therefore, we consider a Masked Hierarchical Transformer model for the conversation modeling task, displayed in Figure \ref{fig:diagram}. The input of the model is a sequence of history utterances $S_1,\, S_2\cdots,\,S_L$, where the target utterance is placed at the end of the sequence as $S_L$. For each utterance, a shared utterance encoder (the yellow boxes in Figure \ref{fig:diagram}) is first used to produce a feature vector. In particular, we use a transformer model with the same configuration as \texttt{BERT-base, uncased} \cite{devlin-etal-2019-bert}, initialized with the pre-trained model. The output of the reserved [CLS] token in the BERT model is used as the feature vector of each utterance, denoted as $V_1,\, V_2\cdots,\,V_L$. Then we apply a second-stage masked transformer (the orange boxes in Figure \ref{fig:diagram}) to compare and aggregate information between the target utterance and each of the parent utterance candidates. We use a 4-layer transformer, each layer is with hidden size 300, intermediate states size 1024, and 4 attention heads. In order to use conversation structure, rather than the entire history, we design a masking mechanism to filter out redundant utterances, and only leverage ancestral utterances to predict the target utterance. The details of the masking will be discussed in the next subsection. Then, we denote the output of the second-stage transformer for each utterance as $\tilde{V}_1,\, \tilde{V}_2\cdots,\,\tilde{V}_L$. Finally, a fully-connected layer is used to produce the logits for the classification problem. For the Reddit datasets, since one comment has only one parent comment, we apply a softmax after the fully-connected layer and use a ranking loss. In particular,
	\begin{align*}
	t_i &= W_o \tilde{V}_i + b_o,\, i=1, \cdots, L-1, \\
	\hat{Y}_i &= \frac{\exp(t_i)}{\sum_{j=1}^{L-1} \exp(t_j)},\, i=1, \cdots, L-1,
	\end{align*}
	and the rank loss is
	\begin{equation}
	- \sum_{i=1}^{L-1} y_i \log(\hat{Y}_i), \label{eq:rank_loss}
	\end{equation}
	where $W_o \in \mathbb R^{1 \times 300}$ and $b_o \in \mathbb R$ are the parameters in the last fully-connected layer and $y_i$ is the binary indicator for if utterance $i$ is the parent utterance of the target utterance.

	For the Ubuntu IRC dataset, one utterance may have more than one parent. Also, the parent of an utterance can be itself. Therefore, we use a binary cross-entroy loss for each comment. In particular, the loss is defined as
	\begin{gather}
	- \sum_{i=1}^{L} y_i \log\left( \sigma\left(t_i \right) \right) + (1-y_i) \log\left(1- \sigma\left(t_i\right) \right), \label{eq:sigmoid} \\
	t_i = W_o \tilde{V}_i + b_o,\, i=1, \cdots, L, \notag
	\end{gather}
	where $W_o \in \mathbb R^{1 \times 300}$ and $b_o \in \mathbb R$ are again the parameters in the last fully-connected layer and $y_i$ is the binary indicator for if utterance $i$ is the parent utterance of the target utterance.

	\begin{figure}[htbp]
		\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{fig/MHTDiagram.pdf}
		\caption{Diagram of the masked hierarchical transformer for conversation structure modeling. The colored blocks on the right indicates one element in the mask matrix, which means the corresponding utterance is attendable. The white block, on the other hand, indicates a zero element.}
		\label{fig:diagram}
	\end{figure}

	\paragraph{Ancestor Masking}

    The mask $\mathbf{M}$ in the second-stage transformer (the orange boxes in Figure \ref{fig:diagram}) is an asymmetric binary matrix of size $L\times L$ that encodes whether or not utterance $i$ attends to utterance $j$ ($\mathbf{M}_{ij}=1$) or not ($\mathbf{M}_{ij}=0$). Instead of leveraging all history, we design the masking mechanism to aggregate information only from an utterance's ancestors. In particular, the following properties should hold true:
    \begin{enumerate}[1)]
    	\item All history utterances are able to attend to the target utterance, since all history utterances are parent candidates for the target utterance. And the transformer aim to produce features of the utterance being the parent of the target utterance.
    	\item Every utterance is able to attend to itself.
    	\item Every non-target utterance is able to attend to its ancestors in the conversation graph.
    	\item All remaining utterances should not be attended to.
    \end{enumerate}

    Consider a conversation example on the left side of Figure \ref{fig:mask}. The mask matrix is shown on the right, denoted as $\mathbf{M}$. The last column of the matrix is all one due to property (1) above. The diagonal elements of the matrix are one due to property (2). Finally, for property (3), consider the following example pairs. Utterance 1 is the ancestor for utterance 4. Therefore, utterance 1 can be attended to by utterance 4 and the corresponding element in the mask matrix $\mathbf{M}_{41} = 1$. On the other hand, utterance 3 is not the ancestor of utterance 4. Therefore, the information of utterance 3 is not accessible to utterance 4 and $\mathbf{M}_{43} = 0$.

	\begin{figure}[htbp]
		\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{fig/mask_diagram.pdf}
		\caption{Graphical representation of the mask matrix for the second-stage transformer.}
		\label{fig:mask}
	\end{figure}

    For each target utterance, we generate this asymmetric mask matrix that encodes the conversation structure until that point in time and run the top transformer on the entire sequence of utterances seen thus far. At training time, the mask is defined based on the ground-truth conversation structure, while at test time, we define the mask based on previous predictions.

    \paragraph{Two-Stage Training} The shared utterance encoder in the masked hierarchical transformer model is initialized with a pre-trained BERT model, while there is no pre-training for the second-stage transformer initially. This may cause issues during model training: if one uses a large learning rate of the optimizer during training, the parameters in the shared utterance encoder may be washed out, causing what is known as catastrophic forgetting. But if one applies a small learning rate, it may take a very long time for the top transformer to converge. To address this problem, this paper proposes a two-stage training approach. In the first stage, we freeze the parameters of the shared utterance encoder after initialization with the pre-trained model during the training. In this case, we are essentially training the second-stage transformer and a relatively large learning rate can be applied. After this stage, the parameters in the shared utterance encoder are unfrozen and all the parameters in the model are jointly trained with a relatively small learning rate.

	\section{Datasets}

	\paragraph{Reddit-Small}

    The comments in Reddit are organized by the `reply\_to' relationship, and the relationship graph is a tree whose root node is the title comment. The first dataset we consider is the selection of the Reddit conversations\footnote{We define a conversation as a submission in Reddit. Each comment in Reddit is equivalent to an utterance in a conversation.} from \cite{zhang2017characterizing}\footnote{They only provide the comment IDs and crawling scripts, the data generated in this paper is crawled on 05/24/2019. Also, the comments and conversation in Reddit change every day, i.e., an existing comment can be deleted. Therefore, there are many comments missing when we collected the data.}. We call this dataset {\it Reddit-small} in this paper. This dataset has 9,483 conversations. The following rule is used for filtering the data: if a comment is deleted, the comment itself and all its descendants are considered invalid. Then we split the conversations into train/dev/test sets using an 80/10/10 ratio. Also, we include only the first 16 comments in a Reddit conversation in the test set due to the capacity of the model. We find very few conversations have more than 16 comments in this selection. The statistics of three sets are shown in Table \ref{tab:stat_reddit}. The maximum path length of the conversation tree in those Reddit conversations is less than 5, which indicates the tree structures of the conversations are not very deep.

	\begin{table}[htbp]
		\centering
		\begin{tabular}{cccc}
			\toprule
			Split & \# comments & \# conversations & Average depth\\
			\midrule
			Train & 88,754 & 7,487 & 4.49\\
			Dev & 11,056 & 936 & 4.43\\
			Test & 11,524 & 936 & 4.61\\
			\bottomrule
		\end{tabular}
		\caption{Statistics of the Reddit-small dataset.}
		\label{tab:stat_reddit}
	\end{table}

	\paragraph{Reddit-Large}

  Since the conversation tree structure in Reddit-small dataset is relatively flat, In this paper, we create a relatively challenging dataset from Reddit dump\footnote{\url{https://files.pushshift.io/reddit/}}. We filter the {\it sub-reddits} to remove those that are  \texttt{Over\_18} or on the Not Safe For Work (NFWS) list\footnote{\url{https://www.reddit.com/r/NSFW411/wiki/index}}. The comments that have non-ASCII characters, deleted, or contain more than 128 characters are dropped. If one comment is dropped, so will be all of its decedents. Next, we remove the conversations that have a maximum tree depth less than 6. Finally, we randomly sample 10\% of the conversations that satisfy the above conditions. We call this dataset {\it Reddit-large} in this paper.\footnote{We release the dataset at \url{https://github.com/henghuiz/MaskedHierarchicalTransformer}} Since we observe the conversations in Reddit-large are longer compared with the Reddit-small, a same algorithm usually has a lower performance in this dataset. To make the evaluation result comparable to the previous Reddit dataset, we randomly remove the leaves in the conversation tree till the number of the comments in the conversation is 16, if there are more than 16 comments in the conversation. The statistics of train/dev/test set is shown in Table \ref{tab:stat_reddit_dump}. Compared with the Reddit-small dataset, the data is 30x larger and the conversation trees are deeper, which makes reconstruction of the conversation more challenging.
	\begin{table}[htbp]
		\centering
		\begin{tabular}{cccc}
			\toprule
			Split & \# comments & \# conversations & Average depth\\
			\midrule
			Train & 2,872,524 & 57,196 & 7.12\\
			Dev & 315,058 & 6,356 & 7.16\\
			Test & 202,226 & 12,638  & 6.82\\
			\bottomrule
		\end{tabular}
		\caption{Statistics of the Reddit-large dataset.}
		\label{tab:stat_reddit_dump}
	\end{table}

	\paragraph{Ubuntu IRC}

    Finally, we consider the Ubuntu IRC dataset \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}. It consists of messages manually annotated with `reply\_to' structures that disentangle conversations.

    This work only considers the training and development portion of the data\footnote{The test set annotation was not released when submitting this paper.}, where we use the official dev set in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large} as the test set in our experiments. We randomly select 140 conversations\footnote{ In Ubuntu IRC dataset, we define a conversation as a sample of continuous conversation history in the channel, usually consisting of 100-500 messages and 1000 additional context messages before those messages considered.} of the train set in their paper as our training set, and the remaining 13 conversations are used as our development set. The statistics of the dataset used in this paper are shown in Table \ref{tab:stat_irc}. Compared with the Reddit dataset, an utterance in IRC may have more than one parent from the conversation history, although 97.40\% of utterances have only one parent. Furthermore, for an utterance in Ubuntu IRC, the parent utterance may be itself. Finally, there are occurrences of system-generated messages in this corpus along with human-generated messages.

	\begin{table}[htbp]
		\centering
		\begin{tabular}{cccc}
			\toprule
			Split & \# conversation & \# ann. messages & Avg. \# parent
			\\
			\midrule
			Train & 140 & 61561 & 1.03\\
			Dev & 13 & 5902 & 1.03\\
			Test & 10 & 2500 & 1.04\\
			\bottomrule
		\end{tabular}
		\caption{Statistics of the Ubuntu IRC dataset. (The test set in this paper is the dev set in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large})}
		\label{tab:stat_irc}
	\end{table}

	\section{Experimental Results}

	\subsection{Model Performance on Reddit datasets}

	We first consider the Reddit-small dataset. In this dataset, each comment has a unique parent comment, which excludes itself. Therefore, we use a rank loss defined in Equation \eqref{eq:rank_loss} in the masked hierarchical model.

	Since the number of comments in a Reddit thread is relatively small but the length of comments is long, we limit the length of each comment to be 50 subwords after byte-pair-encoding (BPE) tokenization (51st word and on-wards are removed). Also, we limit the length of conversation history to be 16 during training by iteratively removing leaf nodes in the conversation graph so that the target comment and the title comment (root node) are in the conversation history. The input to our model is the comment history sorted by the timestamps of the utterances.

    We consider two metrics to evaluate the performance. The \emph{graph accuracy} is defined as the average agreement between the ground truth and predicted parent for each utterance. The \emph{conversation accuracy} is defined as the agreement between the entire conversation tree structure reconstructed by the model and the ground-truth structure.

    All baseline models are trained with Adam optimizer \cite{kingma2014adam}. For the decomposable attention model and the ESIM, we use a learning rate $10^{-4}$ with batch size 32 for 50 epochs. For the BERT model, we use a base learning rate $3 \times 10^{-5}$ for 10 epochs with the same learning schedule describe in \cite{devlin-etal-2019-bert}.    For training our model, we use a learning rate $10^{-4}$ for pre-training the second-stage transformer with batch size 32 for 10 epochs. Then we use a learning rate $10^{-5}$ and batch size 8 for training all the parameters of the model for 10 epochs again. The smaller batch size for the second stage of training is due to the larger model capacity during training. We apply early stopping for both baseline models and the two training stages of our approaches. When training, the ground truth conversation tree structure is used to generate the mask. During evaluation phase, we use the predicted conversation tree structure by the model to generate the mask.

    Table \ref{tab:performance_mit} shows the results of the baseline models and our model in the Reddit-small dataset. We also include a naive method called \texttt{Predict first} as a baseline, that simply returns the title comment in the Reddit conversation. Also, we include ELMo\footnote{This paper uses ELMo embedding from Tensorflow Hubs \url{https://tfhub.dev/google/elmo/2}.} as an alternative for the word embedding for the two embedding-based baselines, namely the decomposable attention model and the ESIM model. Finally, we also use the BERT model that makes pairwise decisions, as a state-of-the-art baseline. As shown in Table \ref{tab:performance_mit}, \texttt{Predict first} is a strong baseline due to the fact the conversation trees are relatively flat in Reddit-small dataset (see Table \ref{tab:stat_reddit}). Adding ELMo embedding improve the model accuracy. We run our masked hierarchical transformer model with 5 initial random seeds and report the average and the standard deviation of the score. As shown in the table, our novel approach outperforms the baseline models by a large margin in both graph accuracy and conversation accuracy.

	\begin{table}[htbp]
		\centering
		\begin{tabular}{ccc}
			\toprule
			Method & Graph Acc. & Conv. Acc. \\
			\midrule
			Predict first & 45.60\% & 15.28\%\\
			\midrule
			Decom. Atten. w/ Glove & 43.08\% & 12.22\%\\
			Decom. Atten. w/ ELMo & 45.82\% & 12.92\%\\
			ESIM w/ Glove & 42.92\% & 12.08\%\\
			ESIM w/ ELMo & 48.43\% & 14.31\%\\
			BERT & 55.86\% & 17.78\%\\
			\midrule
			\multirow{2}{*}{Our Approach} & \textbf{60.53\%} & \textbf{20.61\%} \\
			& (0.34\%) & (0.47\%)\\
			\bottomrule
		\end{tabular}
		\caption{Performance of the models in Reddit-small dataset. The numbers in the parentheses are the standard deviation of the score over 5 runs.}
		\label{tab:performance_mit}
	\end{table}

	Shown in Table \ref{tab:performance_dump} is the performance comparison of all the models on Reddit-large dataset. Again, we see that our approach outperforms the baselines by a large margin.

	\begin{table}[htbp]
		\centering
		\begin{tabular}{ccc}
			\toprule
			Method & Graph Acc. & Conv. Acc. \\
			\midrule
			Predict first & 33.60\% & 0.06\% \\
			\midrule
			Decom. Atten. w/ Glove & 24.86\% & 0.02\%\\
			ESIM w/ Glove & 18.79\% & 0.00\%\\
			BERT & 39.48\% & 0.04\%\\
			\midrule
			Our Approach & \textbf{42.87\%} & \textbf{0.13\%} \\
			\bottomrule
		\end{tabular}
		\caption{Performance of the models in Reddit-large dataset}
		\label{tab:performance_dump}
	\end{table}
	\subsection{Model Performance on Ubuntu IRC dataset}

	Compared with the Reddit datasets, an utterance in the Ubuntu IRC dataset may have more than one parent. Therefore, we consider the binary cross-entropy loss defined in Equation \eqref{eq:sigmoid} for the Ubuntu IRC disentanglement problem.

	For training the masked hierarchical transformer model, we include the most 40 recent messages including the target message to determine the parent message(s). Since the messages are usually short, we limit their length to 36 subwords after tokenization. In this dataset, there are no parent message annotations for the first 1000 messages of each part, known as the context messages. Therefore, we defined the messages itself as its parent for all the context messages.

	Similar to the Reddit datasets, we use Adam optimizer with a learning rate $10^{-5}$ for pre-training the top transformer with batch size 32 for 10 epochs. Then we use a learning $10^{-7}$ and batch size 4 for training all the parameters of the model for 10 epochs again. Compared with the training configuration used for the Reddit datasets, it uses a smaller learning rate and batch size due to larger model size during computation and fewer samples. Again, early stopping is used for these two training stages. Also, since most of the utterances in this dataset have only one parent, we consider the utterance in the conversation history that has the largest probability to be the parent of a target utterance during test time.

  As shown in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}, feature-based models work well on this dataset. The features consist of a few global-level features including year and frequency of the conversation, utterance level features including types of message, targeted or not, time difference between the last message, etc., and utterance pair features including how far apart in position and time between the messages, whether one message targets another, etc. Since these features have proved to be very useful in predicting the parent relationship in the Ubuntu IRC dataset, we also consider concatenating them with the utterance features vector before feeding to the second-stage transformer.

  Graph metrics for Ubunut IRC dataset are first considered including the precision, recall and F1 scores for the parent relationship prediction. We first consider the performance of the baseline models without any additional features. For the decomposable attention model and ESIM, we use the Glove embedding by \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}. Our approach, shown as the second group in Table \ref{tab:ubuntu-graph}, outperforms the baseline models significantly. Besides, we consider models that use those features in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}. Since our test set is the development set in their paper and no results have been reported, we train the \texttt{Linear} and \texttt{FeedForward} model in their paper under our train/dev split and evaluate them on our test set. Also, we include those features into both baseline models and our model in the results shown as the third group in Table \ref{tab:ubuntu-graph}. Again, the performance of our model is the best among all those models.

	\begin{table}[htbp]
		\centering
		\begin{tabular}{cccc}
			\toprule
			Method & P  & R  & F\\
			\midrule
			Previous & 30.8 & 29.5 & 30.2\\
			Linear * \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large} & 64.2 & 61.6 & 62.9\\
			FF * \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large} & 69.3 & 66.5 & 67.9 \\
			\midrule
			Decom. Atten. w/ Glove & 27.6 & 26.6 & 27.1\\
			ESIM w/ Glove & 28.7 & 27.8 & 28.2\\
			BERT & 34.8 & 33.7 & 34.2\\
			Our Approach  & 53.9 & 51.7 & 52.8\\
			\midrule
			Decom. Atten. w/ Glove + F * & 65.8 & 63.1 & 64.4\\
			ESIM w/ Glove + F * & 64.7 & 61.9 & 63.3\\
			BERT + F * & 67.6 & 64.9 & 66.2\\
			Our Approach + F * & \textbf{73.2} & \textbf{69.2} & \textbf{70.6}\\
			\bottomrule
		\end{tabular}
		\caption{Graph results on the Ubuntu IRC test set (Dev set in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}). The methods with suffix `*' are using the additional hand-crafted features in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}. The baseline models with `+F' suffix are with the additional features.}
		\label{tab:ubuntu-graph}
	\end{table}

	Table \ref{tab:ubuntu-conversation} shows the conversation results of the baseline methods and our proposed one using the same evaluation metrics as \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}. In particular, a cluster in a conversation is defined as a connected component in the conversation graph. Three types of metrics are considered as the modified Variation of Information (VI) in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}, One-to-One Overlap (1-1) of the cluster \cite{elsner-charniak-2008-talking}, and the precision, recall, and F1 score between the cluster prediction and ground truth. Our approach combined with the additional features achieves the best performance among all the metrics. This suggests our model is both good at finding the correct parent of an utterance and reconstructing the whole conversation.

	\begin{table}[htbp]
		\centering
		\begin{tabular}{cccccc}
			\toprule
			Method & VI & 1-1 & P  & R  & F\\
			\midrule
			Previous & 66.2 & 23.7 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0\\
			Linear *  & 87.5 & 66.8 & 17.8 & 26.0 & 21.1\\
			FF *  & 88.8 & 71.3 & 28.0 & \textbf{32.7} & 30.2\\
			\midrule
			Decom. Atten & 70.3 & 39.8 & 0.6 & 0.9 & 0.7\\
			ESIM & 72.1 & 44.0 & 1.4 & 2.2 & 1.8\\
			BERT & 74.7 & 45.4 & 2.2 & 3.6 & 2.7\\
			Our Approach  & 82.1 & 59.6 & 8.7 & 12.6 & 10.3\\
			\midrule
			Decom. Atten. + F * & 87.4 & 66.6 & 18.2 & 25.1 & 21.1\\
			ESIM + F * & 87.7 & 65.8 & 18.9 & 28.3 & 22.6\\
			BERT + F * & 89.5 & 71.7 & 21.4 & 30.0 & 25.0\\
			Our Approach + F * & \textbf{89.8} & \textbf{75.4} & \textbf{35.8} & \textbf{32.7} & \textbf{34.2}\\
			\bottomrule
		\end{tabular}
		\caption{Conversation results on the Ubuntu IRC test set (dev set in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}). The methods with suffix `*' are using the additional hand-crafted features in \cite{kummerfeld-etal-2019-large}. The baseline models with `+F' suffix are with the additional features.}
		\label{tab:ubuntu-conversation}
	\end{table}

	\section{Ablation Studies}

	\paragraph{Importance of the Mask}

    The ablation study is performed on Reddit-small dataset. We aim to show the importance of the mask used in our model. First, we consider training an alternative model of the hierarchical transformer model without masking. In this case, the utterance is able to attend to all the utterances. Intuitively, it is hard for this model to come up with a good prediction, since attention may be distracted by all the utterances. The results in Table \ref{tab:ablation_mask} show a huge drop of performance when the no mask is used, indicating that the ancestor history plays a very important role in recovering the structure of the conversation.

	\begin{table}[htbp]
		\centering
		\begin{tabular}{ccc}
			\toprule
			Method & Graph Acc. & Conv. Acc. \\
			\midrule
			Our Approach w/o mask & 46.43\% & 15.14\% \\
			Our Approach & 60.53\% & 20.61\% \\
			\bottomrule
		\end{tabular}
		\caption{Performance of the models in Reddit-small dataset for ablation study.}
		\label{tab:ablation_mask}
	\end{table}

	\paragraph{Importance of the Ancestor Depth}

    Alternatively, another way of creating the mask is to use only the parent-child relation between two utterances. In other words, an utterance can only attend to its immediate parent besides the target utterance. However, since the second-stage transformer is not very deep, it may take many steps for the information of one utterance to pass to its distant descendant. To validate this hypothesis, we perform another ablation study by defining the mask in the following way. We start from the mask described in the modeling section, then we reset some cell values in the mask to zero, if the distance between two utterances in the conversation graph is greater than $d$. We call $d$ the \emph{ancestor depth} of the mask in this ablation study. There are two special cases in this model. When $d=1$, the mask is defined by the immediate parent-child `reply\_to' relation. For Reddit-small dataset, the maximum depth of the conversation tree is 12. Therefore, setting $d=11$ coincides with the mask in our model, where one non-target utterance is able to attend to all of its ancestors. We vary $d$ and report the performance of the model under different $d$ in the left plot of Figure \ref{fig:ablation}. We see generally when $d$ increases, the performance for graph accuracy increases. This result suggests including more ancestor information helps in conversation structure modeling.

	\begin{figure}[htbp]
		\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{fig/all_ablation}
		\caption{Performance of the model with respect to different  ancestor depth ($d$) and temporal depth ($t$).}
		\label{fig:ablation}
	\end{figure}

	\paragraph{Temporal Mask}

	Finally, we consider another variant of mask design. The mask is designed by including temporal information only. Again, all utterances are able to attend to the target utterance. For a non-target utterance, it can attend to $t$ most recent comments before itself. We call $t$ the \emph{temporal depth} in this ablation study. The right plot in Figure \ref{fig:ablation} shows the model performances as a function of various values of $t$. There is a marginal increase when $t$ increases, but generally, the model performance is far lower than our proposed ancestor based masking approach. This suggests that the conversation structure information is more powerful than temporal information.

	\section{Conclusion}

	In this paper, we consider a conversation structure modeling task on Reddit and Ubuntu IRC datasets. We proposed several baseline methods as well as a novel Masked Hierarchical Transformer model, that explicitly utilizes the conversation structure. Experiments on three datasets verify that our proposed model outperforms the baseline models. The results show that taking into account the history and structure of the conversation helps in recovering the parent utterance.

    There are some possible directions for future work. One potential improvement for the model is to reduce the gap of the model during training and prediction since the gold conversation structure is used during training and the predicted structure is used during test time, known as `exposure bias'. Some techniques including schedule sampling \cite{bengio2015scheduled} can be applied to alleviate this problem. Also, a beam search can be applied to decode a better conversation structure instead of using a greedy way to reconstruct the conversation structure. Finally, for a better inference speed, it is possible to redesign the model so that the presentation vector of an utterance is built once. It can be done by excluding the target utterance in the mask transformer and replace the fully connected layer with a siamese network-like component, deciding if an utterance is the parent of the target utterance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


China LED Sourcing Co., Ltd - Sunday, November 18, 2018.
Novastar N9 Video Switcher Plus C1 Desktop Console Price is available now. Please check it out.
Novastar C1 and Novastar C1 are sold as a set, not separately.
The N9 is a high-performance LED display multi-screen video switcher independently developed by NovaStar. Using high-performance video processing technologies, it is capable of processing and outputting ultra-high quality images. The N9 also provides powerful video signal receiving capability. It can support 9 inputs and 4 DVI outputs at the same time. A single N9 can load up to an 8K screen, and multiple N9 units can be cascaded for output.
The N9 can work with NovaStar's desktop console C1 and make the operation of N9 on stage more convenient. It is also equipped with brand-new smart management software V-Can from NovaStar to provide richer image mosaic effects.


text:
The Fringe (2008)
My rating **
This series is no better and no worse than a dozen other American television series that are being churned out at present and the critical comments I am making here apply to a number of other series as well.
I first wrote this review after seeing about 3 episodes and I am now updating it after seeing a few more. It has definitely improved but is still not overly involving and one happily forgets it soon after viewing. From a review and comments posted on Jace's Televisionary blog, it would seem that I am by no means alone in my dissatisfaction with this series. It plays as a kind of updated X files but without the style, the conviction, or the character interest. Two of the three leads are a bland young male and female played by actors indistinguishable from any number of other actors who populate the other American series which blur into a seamless and tedious landscape across the channels on evening television. There is also an irritating older character who is set up as the father of the young male character. Fortunately he seems to be becoming a bit less irritating as the series progresses. A former Harvard professor who has had some kind of breakdown, he is apparently meant to provide 'comic relief' as an eccentric, possibly psychic, idiot savant. This kind of 'quirkiness' seems to have become a substitute for characters who might actually be of real interest in a lot of current mainstream American television. (See for example the truly ghastly Eli Stone and the unpleasant main character in Psych and of course the series that set the trend – Monk).
There are also attempts to make the female lead more three-dimensional by providing her with a traumatic past, but there is not enough conviction in the acting, the characterisation or the story, to allow the viewer to feel any real connection.
The stories are vaguely X files-esque with rogue doctors performing unethical experiments, possible ghosts, people who could possibly be aliens, bosses who could possibly have links with some unspecified organization. Unlike The X files, however, for all its unsatisfactorily resolved set ups, there is no sense that the writers actually have anything to say beyond ticking the boxes of what has been designated as 'cult' in certified and standardised writing courses.
The series also shares a feature in common with other innumerable American forensic, crime and medical ensemble dramas, namely an impression of clutter. People and equipment litter the screen in an indistinguishable and equivalent mass. The obligatory moral posturing that comes with the formula is ultimately empty as all the elements, both human and non human are equivalent – the degree zero of a certain kind of postmodernism if you like.
To try and end on a more positive note however, sometimes series improve as they get into their stride and this one seems to be improving. Also worthy of note is the excellent fan blog for the series run by a Kentucky based software engineer Dennis Acevedo who also runs a fan blog on Cloverfield.*
Categories: science fiction/fantasy, TV•Tags: postmodernism, The Fringe, The X Files•
2 thoughts on "The Fringe (2008)"
I think you did very well just to start watching a series like that.
Did you notice any of the the very common emphasis on heroic youth? It would be fair to say that most real people don't have their s**t together in their twenties. Where are the learned older characters who guide and support? Unless you watch Hallmark,possibly, American television does not honour wisdom and the serene spirit.
It's funny, I was thinking about precisely this issue this morning and the contrast between British and American series. Even in American series which do include older people, the formula always seems to require the inclusion of bright and beautiful young things. Last night I watched an episode of the British crime series Frost and noticed that no guilded youth were anywhere in evidence. The youth that were present were all pretty hopeless. David Jason plays an older experienced detective and the stories centre around him. The stories and characters feel real. The older person in The Fringe even if he is technically competent is incompetent on just about every other front.
← Academic blogging
Northern Lights →


text:
Posted on September 1, 2007 by jacob
Edited by John Cooper-Poole
Our reviews pages have often featured books distributed by African Books Collective [ABC]. This is an organisation of 114 independent and autonomous African publishers from 18 countries. It is non-profit making, commercially self-sufficient, and receives support from funding agencies for development of publishing capacity in Africa. ABC stocks largely English language titles in 56 subject disciplines. Some 150 new titles are added each year. There is an emphasis on scholarly and academic books, literature, and general culture titles. There are a small number of children's titles in Swahili, and some titles in French. If you would like to receive monthly new title email announcements from ABC please send an email to Justin Cox – email address available from editor
BANAGI HILL, A GAME WARDENS'S AFRICA. John Blower. Librario Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-904440-35-5. pp 303. Can be ordered at www.librario.com or from Brough House, Milton Brodie, Kinloss, Moray IV36 2UA. Tel. 01343 850617. £11.99.
This book is a good read. It is a saga of one man's life and work in the "old" Africa of the 1950's and 60's. As well as bringing back many nostalgic memories to those who were John's contemporaries, it will also appeal to others who prefer their adventures second-hand. I knew John and the Serengeti back in 1953-4 when I was District Officer Musoma in which district Banagi lay, and I remember many of the places and people he mentions. I find it interesting that though the book is entitled Banagi Hill, his experiences in this area occupy only seventy pages of the book and the author only spent four years there. But it was a wonderful area and I for one understand his evident love of the place. If he were to go back there today, he might be disappointed, for there is now a luxury tourist resort nearby at Seronera, and the area swarms with tourists.
Before Banagi Hill and the Serengeti the book describes the author's earlier experiences as a Conservator of Forests in the then Southern Province of Tanganyika, and his long safaris by boat, truck, and on foot there. After leaving Banagi, where he was Game Ranger, he transferred temporarily to Kenya and took part in anti-MauMau operations in the forests of the Aberdares. From there he moved to Uganda where he was Game Warden in the south west of that country based on Mbarara, and then in Karamoja in the north-east. Subsequently he became Chief Game Warden of Uganda. The descriptions in the book of the African wilderness and the teeming wildlife of those days is excellent and moving as are the pen portraits of the African people with whom he worked.
Later the author became a UN expert and spent several years in Ethiopia, South Asia, and the Sudan, advising on the establishment of Game Reserves and National Parks in those places, but there is little in the book about his experiences there.
The author's remarks in his epilogue may not be to everyone's taste, but it should be remembered that he and many others like him gave the better part of their lives to service in Africa, and their opinions are worthy of respect if not agreement.
John Cooke
The same publisher has recently re-issued THE SHAMBA RAIDERS by Bruce Kinloch. ISBN 1 904440 37 1. P/B 409 pages. £14.99.
First published in 1972, it has been updated with a new chapter "Afterwords" which assesses the state of game preservation since independence and its current outlook. Kinloch joined the Uganda Game and Fisheries Department in 1949 as Assistant to the Chief Game Warden whom he shortly succeeded. In 1960 he became Chief Game Warden of Tanganyika where he reorganized and enlarged the Department. A major achievement was the creation of the College of African Wildlife Management. This is another very readable account, and the two complement each other very well. The Shamba Raiders has the added advantage of a good index, which Banagi Hill lacks. Both books are well illustrated with photographs and attractive line drawings.
KILIMANJARO – Mountain, Memory, Modernity. Editors: François Bart, Milline Jethro Mbonile, François Devenne © Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd, Dar es Salaam, 2006. ISBN 9978 417 99 X. pp317 + ills. Distributed by African Books Collective. Originally published as: Kilimandjaro, montagne, mémoire, modernité Pessac, France, 2003
This is a wide ranging, multi author work of 18 chapters (14 translated from French), closely printed on 300 pages. It is a very detailed book – the result of 6 years of research, long walks through the region and with much analysis of the potential impact of glacier disappearance which some predict by 2020. Although mainly a geographical work there are many chapters on related domains. The manuscript is supported by clear graphics: 45 figures, 20 tables, 16 maps and 41 photos – 18 as high quality colour plates. However, the grammar is often complex and there is a lot of jargon: for example, what does the following actually mean in relation to plant cover? Observable continua can be modified to diverse degrees by ecological changes of various intensities known to affect rhythms.
The heart of the book is not just about the dominant, snowy peak, but covers the entire mountain range. It is described as effectively acting as a 'water tower' for a vast area of forest, plain, and densely populated farm land. The mountain was 'discovered' during a search for the source of the Nile, when banana groves were the backbone of agriculture. The history of development from the mid 19th century is described, starting with missionary activity that was soon followed by German, Greek and British colonisers. There is a description of coffee development in the 20th century, which had such an important economic impact on the region, but latterly has declined in profitability and is adversely affecting the mountain and causing yet further changes.
The geology, geography and soils are covered in detail to illustrate their impact on the natural plant cover, particularly in relation to water supply and thus to agricultural systems. Many of these systems have been in place for several centuries but are now suffering from water competition and over use of irrigation. The Kilimanjaro ecosystem has supported a significant human population for a long time but a dramatic increase in population has largely occurred only in the last 100 years. Competition for irrigation water is anticipated to increase if climate change predictions come true and the 'water tower' becomes less reliable. The mountain system may even dry out for parts of the year: meteorological records from Lyamungu indicate that average daily temperatures have increased by 3°C in 30 years.
This book is essentially technical and will be a very valuable resource for specialists in many disciplines. It is a credit to the authors and editors who have contributed much time, effort and expertise. The chapter on "The Mountain of Waters – the Furrows are Running Dry" provided a fascinating analysis of the traditional Chagga systems which have irrevocably changed (for the worse) in the past 40 years. After independence in 1961 there was a scramble for land, loss of forest cover and increased soil erosion, all of which combined to increase flash floods, reduce infiltration and cause some of the canal systems to dry out for long parts of the year. Therefore the future for many farmers in the region seems uncertain.
Dr. Jim Watson
TIP AND RUN, The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa. Edward Paice. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2007. 488 pages. ISBN 978-0-297-84709-0. £25.00.
It has to be said at the outset that this is a marvellous book, seemingly thoroughly researched by this Cambridge history scholar and produced with admirable taste and quality. Paice's previous work of substance was Lost Lion of Empire, the tale of Ewart "Cape-to-Cairo" Grogan, who has a walk-on part in this masterpiece.
Though the book covers operations and events throughout the continent, the fact remains that most of the action takes place in present-day Tanzania, and hence its value and relevance to the readers of this journal are clear. There is much in the book on affairs of the time in German South-West Africa (Namibia) and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), though understandably less on Togo due to its capture within a month of the start of the war. There is disappointingly little on Cameroon even though its capitulation came just after that of German South-West Africa.
Paice has divided his book into five Parts, one for each of the calendar years 1914 through 1918, and he has skillfully interwoven his story between and within each. There are also his excellent Introduction, Dramatis Personae (which alone runs to seven pages) and Epilogue which add depth and meaning to the mainstream history. We re-visit three particularly familiar portions of the whole: the destruction of HMS Pegasus; the Konigsberg pursuit and sinking; and the adventure, decided upon and implemented by the British, of bringing those famous twins, Mimi and Toutou, all the way from Europe, across southern Africa to Lake Tanganyika. We are introduced to a wonderful array of personalities, some British, some German, many from other nationalities, who all play their role in the story. A great strength of the book is its perspective, one instance being our knowledge of the German leader, Gen Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, his capabilities and achievements during the wartime years, how he was treated and regarded afterwards, and to what extent he became almost an international figure in later life. The role of the various troops from different countries, notably India and Nigeria, is well presented and the use of several illustrative maps, as well as many evocative photographs, superbly augments the text.
The sub-title of the book is critical, for Paice sets out to show the sheer extent of the tragedy in terms of human life as well as its "unknown" status. The so-called "butcher's bill" exceeded 100,000 fatalities on the British side alone, including African recruits – add to that the German casualties and their African recruits and the total may be close to half a million. The sheer scale of the tragedy comes across as does the fact that London hardly admitted what was taking place.
This is undoubtedly a scholarly book – indeed, in his Acknowledgements, Paice refers to it as a "project". There is much information in the book's eight appendices, and the text is supplemented by a large number of source notes and the like. The bibliography is outstanding. "Here for the first time", the publisher's blurb runs, "is the true story" of the Great War in Africa. Maybe so across the continent, though Miller's Battle for the Bundu from the mid 1970s, with its coverage of the East African theatre, should not be forgotten. In the text itself, this reviewer spotted just one spelling error (for the record, on page 236)! But the negatives are slight and do not detract at all from Edward Paice's monumental achievement. The detail he has provided is tremendous; academia has been brought into the public domain; and the book is highly recommended.
CHAMELEON AND OTHER STORIES Jane Bryce, Peepal Tree Press Ltd 2007. www.peepaltreepress.com ISBN 1 84523 041 8; ISBN13: 9 781 84523 041 8 pbk. 112 pages, £7.99
In this book, there are seven short stories about the author's childhood (approximately from age three to early teens) in Tanzania, and six others about West Africa and the West Indies. I am concerned only with the Tanzanian ones, which are written mostly in the first person, her name never disclosed, and very often use of the present tense. The stories are beautifully written, charming and sensitive. What holds them together is the child's imaginative search to understand what is going on in her world. So there is an atmosphere of something beyond the everyday, intangible or spiritual, but important.
She was a 'colonial child' living with her parents and, later, younger sisters, in northern Tanzania up-country. She seems to have been left on her own quite often with Ahmed, the garden boy, and Mariamu, her ayah. They feature in the first three stories: The Prayer Rug; Chameleon; Mariamu and the Demon. Her parents are there in the background and she has a loving relationship with her mother, her father being rather a disciplinarian.
At some point, the family moved to Moshi and Rombo Avenue. There is a story describing a picnic they have at Marangu near the fast-flowing river on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. The oldest girl (the author) describes it. She goes off on her own to explore. The prose becomes quite dramatic: 'the water is so white against the black rock, she thinks of colobus monkeys with their long black hair with its flash of white, leaping through the trees.'
Finally it is time for 'the girl' to be sent to boarding school. She has to learn to live in a community with a disciplined atmosphere she has not experienced before. However, her lively personality is not wholly repressed. I think it's not surprising she found her way to become a writer. Now among other literary subjects, she teaches 'Creative Writing' for short stories at the University of the West Indies in Barbados. (see TA edition 84 and 85 for Jane's story The Walking Dream )
TANZAN TALES. E Cory-King. Rabbit Books 2006. rabbitbooks.com ISBN 1 904500 50 1. 176pp, illus. £11.95
As part of African oral story telling tradition, centuries' old fables of myth, superstition and legend were handed down by word of mouth from one generation to the next. The 37 tales of varying length, which make up this illustrated collection, were recounted to the author by family servants when she was living as a child in Tanganyika in the 1930's. She heard the stories so many times that she remembered them by heart and was then able to repeat them to her mother who wrote them down in German.
Years later in order that a new generation of English children might enjoy them just as she, and countless African children over many years, had, the author decided to translate and publish them in English. (This may account for the sometimes anomalous style of the prose and occasional use of a Kiswahili word such as 'tundu' whose meaning is not always apparent).
Each of these tales comes with a moral message; with good inevitably prevailing over evil, and those deserving it getting their come-uppance. An array of assorted characters in both human (kings, princes, princesses); animal (hares, hippos, turtles) and mythical (ogres, demons) forms abound. African folktales serve many roles. They are a way to transfer history and culture as well as being used as a means of teaching the values and morals of African peoples.
Although the names, situations and details of these stories change; their morals are often similar. Greed, dishonesty and spitefulness are punished; while generosity, respect and cleverness are rewarded. These tales, as might be expected considering their origin, are most likely to be most appreciated by a young audience when read out loud. Unlike European children's bedtime stories they do not necessarily end happily ever after. Usually they aim to teach a lesson, with that lesson being learnt the hard way.
Pru Watts- Russell
This entry was posted in Issue 88, Reviews by jacob. Bookmark the permalink.


Get away from the city and check out the Dubai Desert Conversation Reserve, home to a pristine desert eco-system. Led by a professional safari guide, you'll search for local wildlife and take some incredible photos. Book your tour now and become one with nature without compromising on comfort.
On this day trip from Dubai, you'll ride in a luxury vehicle in search of fascinating creatures like desert monitors, gazelles, wildcats, and the famous Arabian Onyx. There's also plenty of colorful avian life to enjoy, too. The reserve, which is the area's first National Park, is dedicated to preserving the hundreds of species of flora and fauna found in this eco-system. By the end of the day, you'll get a good look at the abundant wildlife that calls the U.A.E. home.
Your tour includes a small snack and beverages at the popular Al Maha Desert Resort. High-quality binoculars will be provided for your convenience. There is no dune bashing on this excursion.
Comfortable lightweight summer clothing and walking shoes is suitable for most of the year, but sweaters or jackets may be needed for the winter months, especially in the evenings. Good quality sunglasses are advised, and photo-chromatic lenses for those who wear spectacles. Hats and some protection for the head are advisable when in direct sunlight. The United Arab Emirates has conservative dress traditions. Swimwear must be confined to the beach and hotel pools. Men and women should ensure shoulders and knees are covered when in public, especially in souks, shops/malls and villages.
Must be able to get in and out of a vehicle. This tour is not wheelchair accessible. Minimum age required to participate is 10 years old. This tour is not suitable for pregnant women.