#because programmers are not policy makers

[bewires]

the disconnect between the way people who work on and with AI talk about it and the reporting/social media discourse on it makes it incredibly hard to have a meaningful conversation about it

[morgannalefey]

I am 59 years old. I am a white, cis, queer autistic woman married to a white, trans, genderfluid, queer, autistic person. I have some chronic health and mobility issues, and as I age, pain becomes more common in my life. For all of my adult life I had to mask hard to survive in an office working environment. All this is to say that I have pretty much always had limited energy to work with.

The bottom line is there is too much out there that needs doing for any individual to try and focus on everything. I care deeply about a whole lot of the things going on in the world, but I have to, for my own survival, narrow my focus when it comes to what I, personally, engage with. That includes what news stories I pursue and how much of current events I expose myself to on a given day.

The things I have cared most about in my life have shifted some over the years, but not significantly. I have always cared about the environment dating from the second grade (1972) and our teacher who was very focused on recycling and reducing consumption. I care about poverty and food insecurity because I lived it as a child. I care about elderly folks because of my family, and now myself and my spouse. I didn't actually come out to myself about being queer until I was in my mid 40s. I basically erased my queer identity until that point. Now I care deeply about queer and trans issues.

Does this mean I don't care about other stuff? Drug addiction, wars, police brutality? Of course not. But for my own sake, I have to focus on the things I care most about. It's OK to have a hierarchy and to have some issues that we put more energy into than others.

So how does this all play out in my actual life? I have automated monthly donations set up to go to five different organizations that treat on issues that matter to me, and those are just part of our monthly budget. Places like Doctors without Borders and Nature Conservancy.

For my career, I chose public service. I chose to work for my state's environmental agency. I eschewed higher paying programmer jobs in favor of working for a job where I was making a difference. I was able to spend 23 years in this job, caring about what I was doing, and knowing that my work was making life easier for environmental scientists and policy makers.

Now that I am fully retired, I have time and energy to devote to volunteer work. I am vice chair on the board of a non-profit municipal organization that is constructing fiber internet across the rural parts of our state to provide reliable high speed internet to the unserved and underserved in our state who have been utterly ignored by the for-profit providers for the last twenty five years. This work is important because it addresses basic economic struggles and disparities in our very rural state, and making opportunities available that haven't been available in this region for decades.

I am further volunteering at a local queer community center. I perform administrative tasks for them, and host a couple of different clubs several times a month, as well as just showing up for other events.

These things suit my nature and abilities. There are plenty of other things I could be doing. I could volunteer at the food bank, for the organizations helping unhoused people in my area, for various sexual assault recovery organizations, or for the group helping train women and gender expansive individuals how to do trades work (we have a desperate need for trades people in our state), or for the many organizations working to help restore us post-severe floods.

But none of these play to my skill sets or my interests in the same ways. I don't have energy to do all of it. So I choose the few things that I know I have energy for, and where I will be able to do a good and consistent job.

We have far too many young folks volunteering for our community center who burn themselves out volunteering for EVERYTHING and protesting EVERYWHERE all the time, all at once. They're trying to fix all of the problems by themselves and they're making themselves sick. Also, they are unreliable. We can't count on them when we need them because at any moment they are going to be flat on their backs again, and unable to function. You're not any use to anyone in that state.

Our energy and skills are finite. The best thing you can do is choose one, maybe two, smaller local issues/groups that mean the most to you, and focus on working with/for those issues. This doesn't mean you don't care about all the issues, it means you recognize your limitations as an individual, and that you're wanting to be effective in the work you do.

Being able to show up consistently when you say you will is something that organizations desperately need. We are chock full of people who are deeply passionate but also spread so thin we can't actually depend on them to show up when we need them. While it isn't useless to the organization, they do actually help when they're there, it just isn't help we can count on to show up when the chips are down.

Also, it's OK if your passions change over time. I didn't used to care more than tangentially in a vague way about queer stuff. Then my spouse came out as genderfluid, and I fully realized that I really was queer, and suddenly I was more interested in building queer community in my area. I have more friends now than I have ever had in my entire adult life.

Also, this is how you meet people (both in meatspace and online) that you can connect with. Get involved with a cause/interest/group that is doing something you care about. You'll find people like yourself who also care. It's a built in conversation and reason to meet up. This is how community is built, shared concerns/experiences.

anybody got tips and tricks on how to not go absolutely fucking insane because of the deranged world order we live in

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

I went out on Monday and picked up a 2008 Chevy Silverado 4x4 pickup. Why? Well, we bought a camping trailer last spring and we discovered pulling it with Kim’s Honda Pilot felt unstable and underpowered. Basically it felt like we were on the edge of something going wrong at any time. It was just unsettling.

I’ve been without a vehicle since COVID and since I’ve always had a truck and we wanted one for the trailer it was an easy decision. Plus, as far as trucks go, it was inexpensive.

Would I love to have a new Chevy or Ford EV Truck? You bet! Am I willing to spend $60,000 plus to have one? Sorry, can’t do it.

Anywho, I like it! 🛻

M.G. Siegler

This is wild. Both because they declined – again, for the first time in a decade – but more so because they have to know the signal it sends in declining.1 At best, it looks like they’re trying to avoid answering any non-staged questions about how things are going. At worst, it looks like they’re freezing Gruber out for a few recent critical posts about the company – notably, his “Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino” post about the Apple Intelligence shitshow back in March.

When I read John’s post about this years The Talk Show at WWDC I figured Apple was showing their displeasure with John’s earlier piece.

Like most big companies Apple has run into their fair share of problems, criticism, and lawsuits.

The law is finally catching up with some of Apple’s policies around their 15-30% fee for sales in the App Store, which is the only way to sell an iOS App.

They lost a case in California that says they have to allow third-party payment systems. App developers have Epic to thank for that. I’m not switching my in app purchase strategy. I’ll continue to use Apple’s system, at least for now.

Brown University Computer Science

This book is designed to help C++ programmers learn Rust. It provides translations of common C++ patterns into idiomatic Rust. Each pattern is described through concrete code examples along with high-level discussion of engineering trade-offs.

Really nice resource if, like me, you have a C++ programming background! From everything I’ve heard, Rust is a great language. I kind of wish someone would do a low-level equivalent for C++ devs moving to Swift.

Has anyone proven that Swift is just as performant as C++ on Mac, Linux, or Windows?

I know Microsoft is using Rust for some Windows APIs now. I don’t recall if it was GDI or User, but Windows does have some Rust code in it now.

Mia Soto • The Verge

As policy makers in the UK weigh how to regulate the AI industry, Nick Clegg, former UK deputy prime minister and former Meta executive, claimed a push for artist consent would “basically kill” the AI industry.

Maybe the AI industry needs to be killed or at least thrown in technical and political jail until a rational, equitable, system can be devised to pay authors and artists for their work.

How about the AI folks give us access to all their hard work? Their code, their algorithms, their LLMs, and all of their compute for free? All for the betterment of mankind. I bet they’d balk at that. 😃

Holly Cain • NASCAR Wire Service

A day filled with high hopes and trophy expectations after weeks of hard work at track and a year to contemplate the quest ended abruptly Sunday after NASCAR star Kyle Larson crashed just before the midpoint of Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 — a race ultimately won in a sprint to the finish by three-time and reigning IndyCar champion, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou.

I feel really bad for Kyle Larson. He is without a doubt, in my mind, the greatest driver in the world today. He’s able to adapt to anything and everything, but that doesn’t mean he’s perfect. Last year he finished the race, in 16th I believe, this year he made a mistake and crashed out, taking two other cars with him.

It does happen, even to Kyle Larson. He’s a high risk high reward driver. He’s always on the edge of disaster.

After leaving Indy he got to the Coke 600, lead a number of laps, and spun out. No crash but he lost the lead and was mired in the back of the pack for the remainder of the day.

As a Kyle Larson fan I feel terrible for the guy.

Open Culture

Harvard Lets You Take 133 Free Online Courses: Explore Courses on Justice, American Government, Literature, Religion, CompSci & More

I’d like to take advantage of these courses! I’ve wanted a History degree for years and years. Maybe I can get some great American History courses through this program? The CompSci courses would be nice too! 😃

Daniel Rosenwasser • Microsoft TypeScript Blog

Today, we are excited to announce broad availability of TypeScript Native Previews. As of today, you will be able to use npm to get a preview of the native TypeScript compiler. Additionally, you’ll be able to use a preview version of our editor functionality for VS Code through the Visual Studio Marketplace.

The team chose Go because they did a straight port of their TypeScript/JavaScript code to Go. The syntax was very similar so it was kind of a no brainer and Go is a memory safe compiled language.

It’s too bad they didn’t use Rust.

Taylor Troesh • Good Internet

Soon it will become something else entirely. Because it’s my website and I’m perpetually becoming somebody else.

I wish I had the skill to make my own websites. The fact that Taylor can and does is impressive. And to top it all off I love her style!

Personally I’m always after a JavaScript free site as plain HTML. That’s what I get with Micro.blog.

I do have a bit of JavaScript in my blog, at the end to see how many visits posts get. It’s minimal.

Joe Wilkins • Futurism

A recent experiment by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University staffed a fake software company entirely with AI Agents — an AI model designed to perform tasks on its own, basically — and the results were laughably chaotic.

You can’t rely on AI to do things without monitoring it. Think of it as an intern, only not as smart - because it’s not intelligent, it’s a pachinko machine that often times makes really good guesses.

Use it, do not trust it, and for goodness sake verify everything it produces if you’re going to use it. It could be a real time saver, or wreck your work if you’re not careful.

I used our AI product this week and while it gave me good answers it didn’t provide me with a solution to my problem around publishing npm packages to GitHub. It gave me great information on how to setup part of my GitHub Actions script but I’ve never done it before and was hoping it would “just work.” It didn’t.

I hadn’t setup the Packages section in the repository to accept packages from my own repo. Live and learn.

BTW, that is not an indictment of AI failings. It provided me with great answers to my prompts. It really did. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Reading GitHub’s documentation on the matter would’ve been very beneficial to me. Next time I’ll be better prepared for my sake and the AI’s.

Pixel Envy

Tripp Mickle, of the New York Times, wrote another one of those articles exploring the feasibility of iPhone manufacturing in the United States. There is basically nothing new here; the only reason it seems to have been published is because the U.S. president farted out yet another tariff idea, this time one targeted specifically at the iPhone at a rate of 25%.

I can’t see how Tim Cook and Apple can possibly manage their way out of TACO Man’s sights. He desperately wants Apple to make things here in the states. Apple has the money to do it, but they don’t want to do it.

They could help local Community Colleges and Universities spin up training programs to teach the skills necessary to build iPhones, IPads, and other products, but that would take years and years to do and take lots of cash to pull it off.

Apple wants to make money, not spend it. Remember, it’s all about shareholder value to these folks. It’s not about helping our fellow man find a great paying job.

No Idea Blog

Your job title says “software engineer”, but you seem to spend most of your time in meetings. You’d like to have time to code, but nobody else is onboarding the junior engineers, updating the roadmap, talking to the users, noticing the things that got dropped, asking questions on design documents, and making sure that everyone’s going roughly in the same direction. If you stop doing those things, the team won’t be as successful. But now someone’s suggesting that you might be happier in a less technical role. If this describes you, congratulations: you’re the glue. If it’s not, have you thought about who is filling this role on your team?

As a Staff Engineer I’m way more valuable to my team being the glue that brings us together. I act as mentor, coding buddy, and I see projects from 30,000 feet all the way down to minute details.

I’m not nearly as smart as 99% of the developers in the world. I’ve just been around the block a few times and I’ve built lots of different things on different OS’es using a mix of languages. I’ve done everything in the development life cycle so I know how to take something from concept to shipping and know how to do it with a team. That’s my strength. Sure, I can write code, but I really enjoy doing that glue stuff. It’s often random, sometimes spur of the moment — like fixing something in our iOS app yesterday so we could submit it to Apple.

I love the mix of people I work with daily. I have excellent management surrounding me who encourage me to serve my purpose on the team. Add the amazing Software and Test Engineers I work with daily and you have the perfect formula for happiness on the job.

Given all that I’d still love to retire and work on my apps full time. Not because I hate my day job but because I desperately want to build my apps! 🙂

Ben Lovejoy • 9TO5Mac

Less than two years later, the company has announced that it’s discontinuing Arc in favor of a new app – Dia – which it is also pitching as the future of internet usage

I find this puzzling. I know so many people who absolutely love Arc! Why not keep it running to serve the people who love it? Keep a tiny crew on it, let it evolve slowly.

In the end VCs have to get paid I suppose. This is part of why we can’t have nice things or useful software. 🤣

[csekarjati]

How do issues reach a policy agenda? 

A reflection on Kingdon’s and Downs’s models of agenda setting

In public policy, the agenda-setting stage is known as the problem recognition and issue selection process, because this stage is when a social problem is identified and the requisite for state interference is demonstrated (Wegrich & Jann, 2006). It means there are two processes within agenda-setting. First, where a problem is recognised, and second, where the problem is positioned for further discussion with government- and other actors associated with the problem, as stated by Wegrich & Jann (2006). The two models below believe that a problem can be placed on a governmental agenda once that government admits to the urgency of seeking a solution, which results in producing public policy (Hill & Varone, 2017). Furthermore, claiming social problems as moral issues is a more favourable way of pushing the issue onto the political agenda, and gaining priority in governmental agenda-setting (Hill & Varone, 2017). This explains why the agenda-setting process is highly political, which Kingdon explains via the ‘political stream’, while Downs explains it in the fourth stage: gradual decline of intense public interest.

Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Model 

Kingdon, using his multiple streams model, explains how specific issues are raised by interest groups to be recognised as urgent problems by government (Cairney & Jones, 2016). The multiple streams model consists of three streams: (1) the problem stream, (2) the policy stream and (3) the political stream (Cairney & Jones, 2016). First, the problem stream is when there is common agreement about a problem that is perceived as public interest (Cairney & Jones, 2016; Béland & Howlett, 2016). It means the problem has successfully gained the attention of the policy-makers because of significant events, e.g. focusing events or feedback from existing policies or programmes (Birkland, cited in Cairney & Jones, 2016; Béland & Howlett, 2016; Santoso et al., 2016). Second, the policy stream provides solutions to the problem. This stream can be explained using the term policy primeval soup, in which solutions are suggested by one actor and then changed and improved by another actor (Cairney & Jones, 2016; Béland & Howlett, 2016). Third, the political stream is the opportunity for government or policy-makers to make the proposed solution become policy (Cairney & Jones, 2016). This stream consists of several elements that may persuade policy-makers, e.g. belief and national mood (Cairney & Jones, 2016; Béland & Howlett, 2016). Finally, in Kingdon’s model, when all the streams meet at the same time, the opportunity for a policy window arises, in which the issue is identified as a problem, and the policy-making process begins to solve the problem (Béland & Howlett, 2016). In addition, there are policy entrepreneurs at each stage helps to make the policy window happen (Santoso et al., 2016).

Downs’s Issue Attention Cycle

The issue attention cycle model is embedded in the character of national problem and in how media communicate with public (Downs, 1972). This model helps to explain public attention towards specific issues, particularly by questioning why certain issues receive attention from the public, why there is a shift in public attention towards certain issues, and how long the public will pay attention to that issue (Downs, 1972). Downs (1972) divides the issue-attention cycle into five stages: (1) the pre-problem stage; (2) alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm; (3) realising the cost of significant progress; (4) gradual decline of intense public interest; and (5) the post-problem stage.

First, the pre-problem stage is when there is an unpleasant social condition that, as yet, has not received much attention from public (Downs, 1972). In this stage, only experts and interest groups aware about the problem (Downs, 1972; Hall, 2002). This stage simply means that the problem appears and it is perceived by the public. Second, alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm is when a certain problem finally receives attention from the public because of a significant series of events (Downs, 1972). According to Downs (1972), this alarmed discovery is always followed by euphoric enthusiasm, which reflects the optimism in society that it can address the problem. This combination leads to powerful public pressure on political leaders to pay attention to, and be willing to solve, the problem (Downs, 1972). Third, realising the cost of significant progress is the stage when the public aware that addressing the problem requires significant cost to the affected community (Downs, 1972; Hall, 2002; Petersen, 2009). Downs (1972) adds that such a cost is not only an enormous amount of money, but also sacrifice by particular groups. Due to public awareness towards the complexity of the problem, public become pessimist. Fourth, gradual decline of intense public interest is the stage when there is a decline in public desire to pay attention to the issue (Downs, 1972). It is because media and pessimistic sense of public can strongly influence the level of public attention as stated by Hall (2002). Meanwhile, Kingdon disagree the role of media in agenda-setting because he views the media as only messengers, which do not influence governmental agenda (Hill & Varone, 2017). Nevertheless, in present-day, media play significant role in influencing public attention towards issue, for example exaggerating or making issue receive less attention (Hill & Varone, 2017). Finally, the post-problem stage is when the problem is solved in a well-organised way by way of regular programmes and policy (Hall, 2002). In this stage, even though there is a decline of public interest towards the problem, the programmes and policy will remain (Downs, 1972). 

Critics towards Kingdon's model

The important thing from Kingdon’s multiple stream model is that it does not only helps to explain how public issues and problems become part of the agenda, but also illustrates how issues allure attention, with the help of policy entrepreneurs, to create policy windows as stated by Santoso et al. (2016). Thus, to optimise this model, it is important for these three streams to be used in an collaborative manner (Travis & Zahariadis, 2002). As stated previously, when these three streams are combined and collaborate, it results in an opportunity for a policy window. However, there are two critics for Kingdon’s model. First, it fails to explain the complexity of political stream (Damania, 2001). Second, the model can only partially explain the relationship between the international environment and domestic policy context, which can influence the emergence of a problem (Evans et. al, cited in Travis & Zahariadis 2002; Zhu, cited in Cairney & Jones 2016).

An example of the issuance of USA Patriot Act after 9/11 attack will explain the first critic of Kingdon’s model. First, the problem stream of this case is national security became a concern when in fact it had been raised in congressional talks in 2001 (Damania, 2001). However, only after the 9/11 attack happened, the intelligence and security could shift to the governmental agenda (Damania, 2001). It means that 9/11 attack is the focusing event that can make public aware about the importance of national security in the US. Second, the politic stream is the overall American population’s protest against the 9/11 attack and Bush’s War on Terror Movement supported with prompt proponents from majority Congress (Damania, 2001). This strategy is the approach to persuade policy-maker to find a solution for the problem. Third, the policy stream is when inside and outside government involve to propose a solution, such as government officials, academia, interest group, and researches (Damania, 2001), and this group of varied actors is the policy primeval soup as stated by Cairney & Jones (2016). Furthermore, the Act could pass because of rough measure embraced in the Patriot Act (Damania, 2001). Reflecting on this example, the openness of public to the government’s proposal for policy action was the primary element in making political stream in parallel with another stream (Damania, 2001). However, the politics of Patriot Act is not a linear process between the beginning public reaction to 9/11 attack and the issuance of Patriot Act (Damania, 2001). Even though, the surface-level assessment propose that public protest pointed out to the successful issuance of patriot act, it is unsuccessful to explain the significance of how public opinion have powerful connection on congress (Damania, 2001). Thus, it can be said that this model fails to explain the complexity of the political aspect of this case.

Another example of Germany’s open door policy by Angela Merkel is related to second critic of Kingdon’s model, it can only partially explain the relationship between the international environment and domestic policy context. First, the flight of refugees from Syria to Europe’s border had gained the attention of Germany’s policy-makers (Harding et. al, 2015) and this was perceived as the problem. Second, 93% of the population demanded that Germany should provide safety for refugees (Ciechanowicz & Gibadło, 2015), which was perceived as the national mood. Beliefs and ideologies encompassing the immigration policy also influenced the political stream, which had been reflected in the strong consensus supporting immigration, confirming that the state embraced immigrants, particularly because they were seen as having a positive effect on Germany’s economic growth (Heckmann, 2015). Third, in this case, the policy primeval soup involved many actors, not only national but also international, in the making of this policy solution which is to invite refugees to Germany to provide safety for them (Heckmann, 2015). Regarding the critic, both the politics and policy streams were influenced by the international policy environment and the European and German policy context.  However, the original model of Kingdon which is focus on domestic agenda of a state (without being amended) does not clearly explain how the international environment and domestic policy context interact, then influence both politics and policy stream as stated Travis & Zahariadis (2002).

Critics towards Down's model

This model particularly shows how public attention towards specific issue can increase and decline, therefore, it is important to be noted that public enthusiasm and media coverage are the factors that control the level of public attention as stated by Nisbet & Huge (2006). A criticism of this model is this model only focuses on the emerging of public attention, but does not explain the actual causes of the issue. Reflecting on the example the issuance of USA Patriot Act after 9/11 attack, there is no explicit element in each stage of Downs’s model that requires an explanation of the actual cause of the issue. For example, the first stage only talk about prior to the 9/11 attack, there had been issues concerning terrorist attack in several countries, but only experts were aware of this (Hall, 2002). The second stage only discusses how focusing events can attract public attention to issues, but not to the causes of the issues. There were visual pictures relating to 9/11 attack seen around the world caused a phase of alarmed discovery, and the US quickly marshalled its War on Terror Movement, which can be seen as reflecting euphoric enthusiasm (Hall, 2002). In the third stage, according to Hall (2002), the public thought that the US’s strategy to address the problem did not result in much improvement, which influenced the level of public enthusiasm. In the fourth stage, there was a decline in media coverage, particularly by the New York Times (Petersen, 2009). It can be seen from the stage 1 until 4 where they particularly discuss public attention towards 9/11 attacks, there is no one stage that explain the actual cause of the issue. Nisbet & Huge (2006) also state that this model fails to explain the relationship between attention and the meaning of an issue, and disregards the effect of competing issues in agenda-setting. When the public attention to a certain issue decreases, it does not simply mean that the public has lost interest, it can be because there are several other issues or groups competing for attention and trying to dominate using the power of media.  

Another example is Germany’s open door policy. During the pre-problem stage, a massive number of asylum seekers fled from war in Syria and Iraq into Southern Europe and it has actually started since 2011 (Harding et. al, 2015). In the alarmed discovery and euphoric enthusiasm, in July 2015 there was a video of Merkel talked to a refugee girl in young people forum that not all migrants can remain in Germany, then she cried (BBC News, 2015). This video was spread all over the world and gained attention from international and national people (BBC News, 2015). Then, Merkel decided to open Germany borders to all refugees in September 2015 (The Economist, 2015). It leads to the stage realizing the cost of significant progress. Open door policy by Merkel turned out to bring significant impact to the Germany people, for example terror attacks committed by refugees living in Germany (Durden, 2016). Therefore, it leads to stage gradual decline of intense public interest. According to Downs (1972), in this time for several issues, instead of experiencing a decline of public attention, issues can get into stage two where there is stronger claim and public attention towards the issue. It is stated that there was almost 5000 Germany people protested towards open door policy in July 2016 (Dunn, 2016), then it is perceived that this problem moves back to the stage two. Due to this model looks strongly on how the level of public attention can be influenced by public enthusiasm and media coverage, yet both aspects only trigger the level of public attention, this model does not strongly determine the cause of issue get into agenda-setting. Thus, it ignores the actual cause of issue get into agenda-setting. 

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The pivotal moment in the agenda-setting process is the shift from an issue being recognised, by being continually demonstrated by interest groups, to the formal political agenda, when government participates in the process.  According to Kingdon’s multiple streams model, it can be said that problem can be recognised by society and government, after a focusing event happen which can be found in problem stream and the role of policy entrepreneurs in each stage (problem, politics, and policy) to create policy window. Meanwhile, Downs believe that public attention towards a specific problem can influence the problem being recognised by government as well as society, and the factors that can influence the level of public attention are public enthusiasm and media coverage. 

The major difference between the two models is that Downs sees the role of the media as prominent while Kingdon overlooks the role of the media in agenda-setting. Media now can play an important role in agenda-setting in political ways. However, it does not always influence the process of governmental or formal agenda-setting. It is because when we tend to look more at agenda-setting as process where media play significantly without considering the political aspect of media, then it makes us ignore the actual cause of issue get into agenda-setting as what Down’s model is being criticised in this essay. 

Reference:

BBC News (2015) ‘Angela Merkel attacked over crying refugee girl’, 17 July, Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33555619 (Accessed at: 19 April 2017)

Béland, D. & Howlett, M., 2016. The Role and Impact of the Multiple-Streams Approach in Comparative Policy Analysis. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 18(3), pp.221–227. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2016.1174410. (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Cairney, P. & Jones, M.D., 2016. Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Approach: What Is the Empirical Impact of this Universal Theory? Policy Studies Journal, 44(1), pp.37–58. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psj.12111/abstract (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Ciechanowicz, A. & Gibadło, L., 2015. Germany’s “refugee” problem. The most important test for Chancellor Merkel and the grand coalition., (182), pp.1–12. Available at: http://aei.pitt.edu/67563/ (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Damania, S., 2001. The perfect storm: The politics, policies, and people of the USA Patriot Act. , pp.44–49. Available at: http://web.stanford.edu/group/journal/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Damania_SocSci_2011.pdf (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Dunn, James. (2016) ‘Merkel on the ropes: Thousands of German Protesters take to the streets saying she ‘Must Go’ and a key coalition ally withdraws support to open-door immigration policy after attacks’, Daily Mail, 30 July, Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3715877/Thousands-German-protesters-prepare-streets-Merkel-demonstration-against-Premier-s-immigration-policies-say-caused-terror-attacks.html (Accessed at: 19 April 2017)

Durden, Tyler. (2016) Thousands of Germans Demand Merkel’s Resignation; Protest “Open Door” Immigration Policy. Available at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-31/thousands-germans-demand-merkels-resignation-protest-open-door-immigration-policy (Accessed at: 19 April 2017)

Downs, A., 1972. Up and Down with Ecology-the “Issue-Attention Cycle .” Public Interest, 28.

Hall, C.M., 2002. Travel Safety, Terrorism and the Media: The Significance of the Issue-Attention Cycle. Current Issues in Tourism, 5(5), pp.458–466. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13683500208667935. (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Harding, L. et al. (2015) ‘Refugees welcome? How UK and Germany compare on migration’, The Guardian, 2 September, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/refugees-welcome-uk-germany-compare-migration (Accessed at: 19 April 2017)

Heckmann, F., 2015. Understanding the Creation of Public Consensus: Migration and Integration in Germany, 2005 to 2015. , p.28. Available at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/understanding-creation-public-consensus-migration-and-integration-germany-2005-2015 (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Hill, M. and F. Varone (2017) The Public Policy Process, 7th Edn., London: Routledge

Nisbet, M.C. & Huge, M., 2006. Attention Cycles and Frames in the Plant Biotechnology Debate. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 11(2), pp.3–40. Available at: http://hij.sagepub.com/content/11/2/3.abstract. (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Petersen, K.K., 2009. Revisiting Downs’ Issue-Attention Cycle: International Terrorism and U.S. Public Opinion. Journal of Strategic Security, 2(4), pp.1–16. Available at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=jss (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Santoso, D. et al., 2016. The Mitigation of Transient Poverty: Agenda-Setting Discourse in the Formulation Process of the Policy of Poverty Alleviation in Indonesia. Journal of Social Science Studies, 4(1), p.189. Available at: http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jsss/article/view/10352. (Available at: 10 April 2017)

The Economist (2015) ‘Germany imposes border controls’, 14 September, Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21664583-move-taken-reduce-flow-migrants-undermines-europes-free-movement-policies-germany (Accessed at: 19 April 2017)

Travis, R. & Zahariadis, N., 2002. A Multiple Streams Model of U . S . Foreign Aid Policy. Policy Research Journal, 30(4), pp.495–514. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2002.tb02160.x/abstract (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

Wegrich, K. & Jann, W., 2006. Theories of the Policy Cycle: Theory, Politics, Method. In F. Fischer, G. J. Miller, & M. S. Sidney, eds. Handbook of Public Policy Analysis. CRC Press, pp. 43–62. Available at: http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/10.1201/9781420017007.pt2. (Accessed at: 10 April 2017)

[nursingwriter]

¶ … profession of telemedicine finds itself being pursued with vigor given the widely believed perception that one of the main advantages it offers is that of cost savings in the field of healthcare. These economical considerations may appear in both forms- tangible as well as intangible. Telemedicine, however, is also an outcome of the lesser number of healthcare professionals in proportion to the rise in number of patients. The other factor that has contributed in actualization of telemedicine is the rise of ICT sector and ease of communication over the distance (McLean et al., 2013). One aspect of Telemedicine that appears immediately is whether it is safe, given the general feeling of trust one encounters when meeting one's physician and his reassuring tone. In this regard, one well-researched article in Sweden notes that after decades of resorting to Telemedicine, one realizes that the parameter of safety revolves around the ambient social environment, the management ethos of the telenursing organization, the patient himself and the nurse/doctor attending to the call. As such much needs to be done in this sector (Marta Roing, 2013). All these developments have converged to make telemedicine practice an acceptable solution to the general Evidence Based therapies and diagnoses. We aim to evaluate the article in the light of these parameters. This paper focuses on analyzing the article 'The Impact of Telehealthcare on the Quality and Safety of Care: A Systematic Overview' (McLean et al., 2013). We have chosen this article for analysis as it professes to scrutinize the facts of claims laid by those adapting it in the light of economic considerations, the benefits and the risks involved in telemedicine. Analysis The Study In its introduction itself, the authors have declared that it is high time we analyzed critically the costs, benefits and risks involved in practicing Telemedicine. Towards this effort they have reviewed articles in various acclaimed journals and periodicals like the PakMed, IndMed, MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, LILACS and EMBASE. The authors have done a comprehensive job in analyzing as many as 1,782 articles published in the period January1997 through November 2011. The article follows the directions of the CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) in its pursuit and can hence be depended upon for academic authenticity. The article incorporates review of articles of both methods of use of ICT in medicine: synchronous and asynchronous. The synchronous one is in which the telemedicine Healthcare professional interacts with the patient in a one-on-one mode to offer solutions for relief. The asynchronous interactions are the ones that use ICT to store medical data and forward them on request or need to help medical assistance. Inferences and Limitations One of the conclusions drawn in the study is that most studies agree that there is no qualitative difference in the services and consequential outcomes between real time bed-side healthcare services and those given by long-distance telemedicine professionals. That seems to imply that Telemedicine can replace to a large degree the conventional real time nursing and medical services. However, in the conclusion the article itself refutes the claim partially in cautioning the policy makers that investment in Telemedicine does not necessarily transform into monetary or clinical advantages. Such a posit needs to be revisited because the article has considered certain articles with as few as twenty (20) respondents (McLean et al., 2013). Another important parameter is that of reduced hospitalization instantiations or revisits to the hospital for follow-up advices. This factor is amongst the main aims of Telemedicine gaining importance as an alternative to patients who find it difficult to travel to hospitals repeatedly. The article observes that many of the studies it reviewed supported this claim. This claim is open to questions of economic costs involved and constraints like mobility, time, occupational hazards, availability of assigned doctors and quality of services. An important point of safety of patients arises from the same concerns. In fact, these two points - that of accessibility and the reliability of telemedicine do converge to invite attention from researchers. The outcomes in clinical domain have not been established even though in some cases that the article reviewed, the systolic and diastolic measures of Blood Pressure improved and stabilized significantly. The patients were however monitored for short durations (less than 12 months). In the field of coronary diseases where most emergency attention is required, combination of tele-monitoring and store-and-forward methodologies has been realized to be quite effective, though not conclusively in favor of Telemedicine, though some changes in the way the services are practiced may need alterations and improvements. CVT (Clinical Video Teleconferencing) is one the most regularly adopted methods for providing treatment to patients and has been found to be more cost-effective as well as clinically qualitative when compared to in-person services (Morland et al., 2013). One of the fields in which Telemedicine can be most effective is psychotherapy- rehabilitation of mentally afflicted patients (PTSD in Veterans of war) (Morland et al., 2013), drug and alcohol addiction cases, and to some extent in social phobia cases. Controlled studies were carried out in some articles studied in this research overview. Hence, the general inference of positive effect of telemedicine in such cases might not be misplaced. On the cost-effectiveness of Telemedicine, the article considered only one review for its study, and this makes the overall article impact weak. Economics is one f the main considerations of telemedicine. The Treatment of PTSD is one of costliest in medical sciences and requires close attention as the sufferer has a low quality of life too along with bouts of depression, as about 50% of those Veterans thus affected do not access expert care (Morland et al., 2013). Discussion This research work is a good initial effort academically as it studies many types of target groups and diverse interventions. Thus, it gives a wholesome picture of effects of Telemedicine, even though the quantity and quality of articles is found wanting in some cases. The review has followed the authentic guidelines of analysis and incorporated the established principles of rigors of academic study. One glaring omission is that of economic impact of Telemedicine. The lack of effectual economic impact of Telemedicine is also noted in another article 'Can Economic Evaluation in Telemedicine be Trusted? A Systematic Review of Literature'. This also results in difficulties for reimbursement and recording by employers and insurance entities (Bergmo, 2009). Ironically, studies that found financial advantages to patients made no mention of commensurate clinical benefits (Bergmo, 2009). Secondly, the process followed in this article can be followed up by studying articles that study effects and patients over longer periods. Many other patient fields like VA (especially for PTSD), ICU the aged and disabled and the like need to included in further research studies to make further studies all-encompassing and relevant for practical use. In a study it has been affirmed that CVT based interventions are an useful clinical method to provide effective service to Veterans that suffer from PTSD as comparable to in-person therapy and can be an cost-effective, too (Morland et al., 2013). Conclusion This article could have included articles where the reasons for failures in telemedicine had also been evaluated. It has been recognized that there is a need for the nurses and doctors providing CVT, telemedicine or the like to understand their criticality in comprehension of the dialogue and the sensitiveness when in interaction with the patient. Interpersonal communication skill is another vital skill that the nurses need to develop and keep learning if the best services are to be expected of this new alternative (Johnson, Wilhelmsson, Borjeson, & Lindberg, 2014). The article, however, has accepted as much in its conclusion. The article also suggests that both the patients as well as the service providers need more education for telemedicine to be effective as an alternative to conventional bedside healthcare. Indeed, as mentioned in one of the papers, Telemedicine can be more effective alternative for 'distanced' or remote patients (Bergmo, 2009). References: Bergmo, T. (2009). Can economic evaluation in telemedicine be trusted? A systematic review of the literature. BioMed Central, 2009; 7: 18.(PMC2770451). http://doi.org/10.1186/1478-7547-7-18 Johnson, C., Wilhelmsson, S., Borjeson, S., & Lindberg, M. (2014). Improvement of communication and interpersonal competence in telenursing -- development of a self-assessment tool. Journal of Clinical Nursing, n/a -- n/a. http://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12705 Marta Roing, U.R. (2013). Threats to patient safety in telenursing as revealed in Swedish telenurses' reflections on their dialogues. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. http://doi.org/10.1111/scs.12016 McLean, S., Sheikh, A., Cresswell, K., Nurmatov, U., Mukherjee, M., Hemmi, A., & Pagliari, C. (2013). The Impact of Telehealthcare on the Quality and Safety of Care: A Systematic Overview. PLoS ONE, 8(8), e71238. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071238 Morland, L.A., Raab, M., Mackintosh, M.-A., Rosen, C.S., Dismuke, C.E., Greene, C.J., & Frueh, B.C. (2013). Telemedicine: A Cost-Reducing Means of Delivering Psychotherapy to Rural Combat Veterans with PTSD. Telemedicine Journal and E-Health, 19(10), 754 -- 759. http://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2012.0298 Read the full article

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DESKTOP

Our instincts tell us something so valuable would not be fun for most of them meanness was not a handicap but probably an advantage. Now he's cofounder of a startup that went through really low lows and survived. Prestige is the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. It doesn't matter if they underestimate you because of some magic Shakespeareness or Einsteinness, then it's not our fault if we can't do something as good. It might seem that nothing would be easier than deciding what you like, and let them make the choices. Steve do? The two-job career. And because startup founders work under great pressure, it's critical for startups. It will work not just as a carver needs the resistance of the wood. But I think the solution is to work in the end, wow, that's pretty cool. This is like funding Steve Ballmer in the hope that the programmer he'll hire is Bill Gates—kind of backward, as the events of the Bubble showed.

They still met with them, but they wouldn't happen if he weren't CEO. Now she has a life chosen for her by a high-school kid. But if you don't need investors to start most companies; they can do a deal in 24 hours if they need to see some traction. Of course, the most recent true counterexample is probably 1960. If you do anything well enough, you'll make it prestigious. Imagine how much time you wasted. What's going on here? It doesn't mean, do what you wanted, and that is exactly the kind VCs won't touch. If you just order the results in order of the bid times the number of users really love you than a large number kind of like you. At most colleges, it's not the professors who decide whether you get in, but admissions officers, and they were used in the Roman empire.

Whereas I claim hacking and painting are also related, in the sense that hackers and painters are both makers, and this is reversing the historical polarity of the relationship between meanness and success. They win by noticing that something is taking off a little sooner than everyone else. As well as being smarter, they tend to split the difference on the issues, leaving the election to be decided by the one factor they can't control: charisma. I was a kid, imagine having kids. You might come up with an idea for a startup equals coming up with a million dollar idea. It was not till I was writing this, but that they don't have to answer to anyone. If people can't do it, they'll let you run the company. It doesn't mean, do what you would like to do most this second. Well, math will give you the most promising range of options afterward. Suppose a Y Combinator company starts talking to VCs after demo day, and is successful in raising money from them, so they can't use whatever the startups do as a club to beat you with. I think about why I voted for Clinton over the first George Bush managed to win in 1988, though he would later be vanquished by one of the features of our scheme is that it lets you incorporate all this scaffolding right into your source code. Don't worry if a project doesn't seem to pay.

If you're a hacker, because they're trying to find their niche. They can take their time and copy you instead of buying you. If you do this on too small a scale you'll just guarantee failure. Even Einstein needed people to bounce ideas off. At least, it better not be, because investors regularly do things that would be too low for some who'd turn you down and too high for others because it might make their next round a down round. It seems quite likely that most successful drug lords are mean. Increasingly the games that matter are not zero-sum games. In 2000 we practically got a controlled experiment to prove it: Gore had Clinton's policies, but not if you're working on technology. Whichever route you take, expect a struggle. This is what most successful people I know. Yes, but it's not as bad as the mid seventies. Yes, as you suspect, the college admissions process is largely a charade.

If you're upwind, you decide where you want to define a plus for a new type of number you've made up, you can do. Historically investors thought it was important to have the best hackers. In 1998, advertisers were overpaying enormously for ads on web sites. What would Sama do? But if we make kids work on dull stuff, it will be obstructed by the all too palpably flawed one you're actually writing. It turns out there is, and the handful of people who do great work is to find good books. But don't underestimate them. More likely they'll want you to hold out for 100.

And you know why they're so happy? But if you're trying to advise 57 startups, it turns out to be an adult. The people we funded came from all over the country indeed, the world and afterward they went wherever they could get more funding—which generally meant Silicon Valley. PB made a point in a talk once that I now mention to every startup we fund: that it's better, initially, to make a conscious effort to keep your ideas about what you want in your language may be related to how you express it. Instead of having one or two big releases a year, like desktop software, server-based software you can use any language you want, but not by giving people a better desktop OS. What would it even mean to make theorems a commodity? And in fact they do all look the same. Most investors are looking for the next Larry and Sergey. That generates almost as good. This kind of work is higher because it gives you fewer options for the future. But the fact is, if you admit to yourself that you're discontented, you're a step ahead of most people, you underestimate it, you'll tend to stop searching.

A lot of startup ideas. What these groups of co-founders do together is more complicated than just sitting down and trying to think of syntax and semantics as being completely separate. So being hard to talk to? And they were less work to him to invent it than it would take. Follow it and it will take off. Perhaps it was even simpler than they thought. So just keep playing. So I propose that as a replacement for don't give up on your dreams. I remember personally, but apparently the same pattern played out in 1964 and 1972. Will there be a connection? But once they get started, interest takes over, and discipline is no longer necessary.

[electricautoset]

Electric Auto Set Motor

Take Into Consideration an Auto Set Clock Motor

An auto collection clock motor changes immediately for sure time-changing policies, most significantly daylight savings time, whether the regulations be localized or pertain to one's particular time zone. The auto collection clock electric motor is created to cost-free people from the fears of resetting wrist watches by hand, despite their place on the globe. In short, the goal is completely totally free upkeep.

The auto collection clock electric motor needs to be calibrated for the buyer's place of residence so that the moment it reports conforms to the governmental requirements stated for that country and time zone. The calibration happens at the manufacturing facility, and it consists of a program that runs in the background to accomplish time changes on stated days and by specified quantities (normally one hour, but sometimes a half-hour). When the area doesn't observe shifts that occur in other places or around the world, the timepiece marches on obliviously.

This sort of automation is not completely brand-new, mirroring a long-lasting inconvenience by several at the semi-annual daytime savings disruptions and their desire for relief. Manually altering the time has long been viewed to be a required wickedness. Possibly the most effective to-date automated solution to be developed is the atomic clock standardization, including a master cesium appear Ft Collins, Colorado, and "servant" watch motions that automatically sync to the master.

The synchronization is completed by means of radio waves, with the master in Colorado informing the distributed clocks whenever a time adjustment occurred. The physical action to the alert was challenging, needing the activity to hamper hand rotation in the autumn (fall back) for however lengthy it took to elapse the "shed" hour. The vernal (springtime onward) feedback included accelerated hand rotation, which obviously could not be achieved close to instantaneously either.

Regardless of the awkwardness, the system was generally reliable, the only drawback being occasional radio interference arising from random use of devices, power devices, and dimmer switches. When such interference coincided with the radio broadcast, daytime change really did not happen. Really, much more problematic are solar geomagnetic storms, which take place regularly and in no other way can be controlled.

Not giving up on the idea, makers transformed their interest to establishing the auto collection clock motion, or motor. The concept was to center control to the timepiece itself and to have it keep track of its own time zone and nationwide time-change regulations. A watch geared up with this activity has actually been referred to as a "world clock" because it can be configured to run in any of the extant 26 time zones on earth.

Departing from the autumn operation of the atomic clock movement, the suppliers just had the programmable chip stop hand rotation completely for the duration of the contingency (usually one hour, however often a half-hour). In the spring, the motor turning was quickened by a factor of 10, completing the hour shift onward in six mins.

Similar to many modern-day activities, the auto set clock electric motor is battery powered, running on a solitary AA cell. The special chip also needs power, though low-voltage, and is equipped with its own power source. This duality allows the chip's battery to power the motion while the AA cell is changed, preventing loss in precision.

In some old flicks and television information shows the viewer can see a financial institution of clocks, each revealing the current time in a different location. This brand-new gadget we have actually been reviewing is excellent for replicating such a setup, as one requires only to set as much as 26 copies for full globe insurance coverage. In addition, as time changes take place otherwise with the year, all adjustments would be shown immediately. clock parts

We have actually talked about how technology has progressed to the point of achieving worry-free timekeeping adjustments for daylight financial savings. For your next watch, take into consideration an auto set clock electric motor.

[kimberlychapman]

They keep recycling Tory policies and expect us to be okay with them. It's so gross.

The Guardian's articles today alone talk about a) this plan of weight loss injections for unemployed people, b) how experts say that's really inappropriate for a multitude of reasons, c) how the NHS says basically lol we don't have enough of those to go around for the diabetics and people already enrolled in weight loss medical programmes[1], d) how Novo Nordisk is cancelling diabetic insulin pens to Africa to make more room in its facilities for making these money-maker weight loss drugs instead, and e) how so many businesses refuse to participate in healthy-worker initiatives so it's ridiculous to apply weight-loss drugs and/or slap-dash counselling to people with serious medical issues and expect them to go back to the same workplaces that caused or exacerbated those medical issues.

I've known since moving to the UK in 2014 that Labour doesn't really care about anyone they deem to be not a working asset in a total capitalistic manner, that we have no actual nation-wide left party here, that no party here gives a shit about disabled people beyond photo ops, but holy hell even I'm shocked as a previous Labour voter at how callous their freshly elected disregard is for people who are truly struggling.

BTW not one damned one of them seems to care that my very small business went away because of longfuckingcovid. They don't care about my resulting ME/CFS/POTS/etc. They're all just, "Back to work, fatties!" without any way to ensure workplaces are safe for medically vulnerable people.

[1] I am a diabetic who was put on ozempic in the autumn of 2022 and it made me so sick my diabetic nurse became alarmed and took me off after five weeks. It didn't make me sick at first so it wasn't the initial reaction, it was building illness week after week. It took over three months to recover from it. I am firmly of the belief that in ten years society will speak of these weight-loss drugs as we all talk about fen-phen now: a tragic, dangerous mistake pushed by capitalism and fatphobia instead of science. Also, to be clear, I had to wait three months to get on it in the first place *as*a*diabetic* because people were using it for weight loss instead. And I know diabetics to this day who can't get regular supply because of this.

After announcing that they experiment with weight-loss drugs on people who are unemployed to get them back to work, Labour have said they will send job coaches into mental health wards to speak to ‘seriously ill patients’.

Just unfathomably bleak. A country in absolute decline which refuses to do the one thing to get the economy back on track - investing in public services.

[jcmarchi]

Large language models could 'revolutionsise the finance sector within two years' - AI News

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/large-language-models-could-revolutionsise-the-finance-sector-within-two-years-ai-news/

Large language models could 'revolutionsise the finance sector within two years' - AI News

.pp-multiple-authors-boxes-wrapper display:none; img width:100%;

Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential to improve efficiency and safety in the finance sector by detecting fraud, generating financial insights and automating customer service, according to research by The Alan Turing Institute.

Because LLMs have an ability to analyse large amounts of data quickly and generate coherent text, there is growing understanding of the potential to improve services across a range of sectors including healthcare, law, education and in financial services including banking, insurance and financial planning.

This report, which is the first to explore the adoption of LLMs across the finance ecosystem, shows that people working in this area have already begun to use LLMs to support a variety of internal processes, such as the review of regulations, and are assessing its potential for supporting external activity like the delivery of advisory and trading services.

Alongside a literature survey, researchers held a workshop of 43 professionals from major high street and investment banks, regulators, insurers, payment service providers, government and legal professions.

The majority of workshop participants (52%) are already using these models to enhance performance in information-orientated tasks, from the management of meeting notes to cyber security and compliance insight, while 29% use them to boost critical thinking skills, and another 16% employ them to break down complex tasks.

The sector is also already establishing systems to enhance productivity through rapid analysis of large amount of text to simplify decision making processes, risk profiling and to improve investment research and back-office operations.

When asked about the future of LLMs in the finance sector, participants felt that LLMs would be integrated into services like investment banking and venture capital strategy development within two years.

They also thought it likely that LLMs would be integrated to improve interactions between people and machines, for example dictation and embedded AI assistants could reduce the complexity of knowledge intensive tasks such as the review of regulations.

But participants also acknowledged that the technology poses risks which will limit its usage. Financial institutions are subject to extensive regulatory standards and obligations which limits their ability to use AI systems that they cannot explain and do not generate output predictably, consistently or without risk of error.

Based on their findings, the authors recommend that financial services professionals, regulators and policy makers collaborate across the sector to share and develop knowledge about implementing and using LLMs, particularly related to safety concerns. They also suggest that the growing interest in open-source models should be explored and could be used and maintained effectively, but that mitigating security and privacy concerns would be a high priority.

Professor Carsten Maple, lead author and Turing Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, said: “Banks and other financial institutions have always been quick to adopt new technologies to make their operations more efficient and the emergence of LLMs is no different. By bringing together experts across the finance ecosystem, we have managed to create a common understanding of the use cases, risks, value and timeline for implementation of these technologies at scale.”

Professor Lukasz Szpruch, programme director for Finance and Economics at The Alan Turing Institute, said: “It’s really positive that the financial sector is benefiting from the emergence of large language models and their implementation into this highly regulated sector has the potential to provide best practices for other sectors. This study demonstrates the benefit of research institutes and industry working together to assess the vast opportunities as well as the practical and ethical challenges of new technologies to ensure they are implemented safely.”

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: customer service, finance, fraud, llm, The Alan Turing Institute

[olko71]

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on https://yaroreviews.info/2023/11/first-transatlantic-flight-using-100-green-fuels-to-take-off

First transatlantic flight using 100% green fuels to take off

By Katy Austin

Transport correspondent

The first transatlantic flight powered only by alternative fuels will take off from the UK on Tuesday morning.

Operated by Virgin Atlantic, it will fly from London’s Heathrow to New York’s JFK airport at 11:30 GMT.

Airlines see the flight, which is supported by government funding, as demonstrating that a greener way of flying is possible.

But a lack of fuel supply remains a challenge, while other technology will be needed to hit emissions targets.

The flight is a one-off of its kind so far, and is not carrying fare-paying passengers.

So-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) can be made from a variety of sources, including crops, household waste and cooking oils.

For this flight, a Boeing 787 will be filled with 50 tonnes of SAF. Two types are being used, with 88% derived from waste fats and the rest from the wastes of corn production in the US.

Following test and analysis, the flight was approved by UK regulator the Civil Aviation Authority earlier this month. A number of companies have been involved in the project including engine-maker Rolls-Royce and energy giant BP.

The aviation industry is particularly difficult to decarbonise, but airline bosses view SAF as the most effective tool available to help bring its net emissions down to zero.

Planes still emit carbon when using SAF, but the industry says the “lifecycle emissions” of these fuels can be up to 70% lower.

Shai Weiss, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said the airline’s flight on Tuesday was “proving… that fossil-derived fuel can be replaced by sustainable aviation fuel”.

“It’s really the only pathway to decarbonising long-haul aviation over and above having the youngest fleet in the sky,” he told the BBC’s Today programme. “It is a really momentous achievement.”

However, he said there was not enough SAF currently. “The issue is how we get enough production here in the UK as part of an industrial revolution and more importantly around the world.”

He admitted that due to the fuel being more expensive, flight prices would end up being higher.

Guilt-free flying not in easy reach – scientists

Using pig fat as green jet fuel ‘will hurt planet’

SAF is already used in small amounts, blended with traditional jet fuel, but accounts for less than 0.1% of the aviation fuel consumed around the world.

It currently costs more than kerosene, and relatively small amounts are made. Aircraft are usually only allowed to use up to 50% in a blend.

There are no dedicated commercial SAF plants in the UK, although the government aim is to have five under construction by 2025, supported by grant funding.

Airlines see the first long-haul flight using 100% SAF as a significant milestone. But experts say such fuels are not a magic bullet.

Dr Guy Gratton, associate professor of aviation and the environment at Cranfield University, said: “We can’t produce a majority of our fuel requirements this way because we just don’t have the feedstocks. And even if you do, these fuels are not true ‘net zeros’.”

He said the growing use of SAF had to be treated as “a stepping stone towards future, genuinely net zero technologies”.

“This might be e-fuels [which are manufactured using captured carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, together with hydrogen], it might be hydrogen, it might be some technologies that we still really only have at the laboratory stage.”

The policy director of the Aviation Environment Federation campaign group, Cait Hewitt, said the idea that the flight meant the UK was closer to “guilt-free” flying was “a joke”.

She said that the hope is there will be better technology in the future to cut carbon emissions but, for now, the only way to achieve this is to “fly less”.

UK ministers and the industry have insisted they believe “net zero” by 2050 is achievable with passenger numbers increasing.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper told BBC Breakfast: “There are those campaigners who want to tell ordinary people that they can’t fly. That’s their view, they’re entitled to it. The government doesn’t agree with them.

“Using sustainable aviation fuel means that over its life cycle we produce around 70% less carbon emissions than traditional fuels so that is a really big step forward,” he added.

“We are also involved with supporting the industry develop hydrogen and also electric flights for shorter-haul flights, so all of that technology is being developed.”

Mr Harper acknowledged that using sustainable aviation fuels “is not the only solution” but he said: “It is a really important step with those other technologies to make sure we can carry on flying and protect the environment.”

The UK government plans to require 10% of aviation fuel to be SAF by 2030.

Airlines UK, which represents UK-registered carriers, said they must be able to access enough affordable SAF to meet such a requirement, with as much as possible coming from the UK.

Its boss Tim Alderslade said: “The last thing we want is higher fuel costs for UK passengers compared to the rest of Europe and the US, with worse sustainability outcomes and thousands of new jobs lost overseas.”

Related Topics

Hydrogen power

Civil Aviation Authority

Sustainability

Fuel

Air travel

Virgin Atlantic

More on this story

Using pig fat as green jet fuel ‘will hurt planet’

31 May

Guilt-free flying not in easy reach – scientists

28 February

[egaditech]

Ways To Reduce Pollution From Vehicles

One of the biggest contributors to health problems around the world as well as degradation of the environment is pollution happening because of vehicles. The number of vehicles on roads is always on the up and this is why it is so crucial we find ways to reduce the harmful effect they have on the environment.

Embrace EVs

One of the best ways in which you can reduce vehicle pollution is by switching to using EVs (electric vehicles). These cars do not produce any tailpipe emission and they also use significantly less energy than cars that run on diesel or gasoline.

Improve fuel efficiency

If you cannot switch to EVs right now at least try to make your traditional ICE (internal combustion engine) car more fuel-efficient. Vehicle manufacturers can play an important role in this regard by developing engines that are more efficient in terms of fuel usage, have aerodynamic designs, and are made of lightweight materials.

Promote hybrid vehicles

Hybrid vehicles bring together electric power and traditional ICEs to provide you with fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. They are exceptional transitional options for people who are not yet completely ready to commit to electric vehicles. They can lower the carbon footprint of your car significantly.

Invest in public transportation

Enhancing and expanding public transportation can be considered to be yet another effective strategy as far as reducing vehicle pollution is concerned. When people start using the likes of buses, subways, and trams it lowers the number of cars you have on the road.

Promote active transportation

Encouraging active methods of transportation such as cycling and walking reduce vehicular pollution and also promote a healthier lifestyle among all. Administrative bodies in cities can invest in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure such as bike-sharing program and dedicated lanes for bikes to make these options more convenient and accessible.

Implement carpooling and ride-sharing

Ride-sharing and carpooling services can significantly bring down the number of vehicles on the road. By sharing rides passengers can reduce the footprints they individually leave on the environment. This way, drivers can save on expenses that they incur on fuel too!

Adopt efficient urban planning

Efficient urban planning is capable of reducing vehicle emissions as it lowers the need for longer commutes. Cities can promote mixed usage of land, create neighborhood that are friendly towards pedestrians, and develop compact urban areas. They can concentrate resources in urban centres and reduce sprawl.

Incentivize eco-friendly driving

Insurance companies and governments can provide incentives for people who adhere to eco-friendly processes while driving. They can create programmes that reward fuel-efficient and safe driving like paying insurance premiums based on how much one drives and tax incentives based on emissions and mileage.

Enforce emission standards

Regular vehicle emissions and strict emissions standards are essential tools for ensuring that vehicles on the road are in keeping with applicable environmental regulations. These standards will also force vehicle makers to produce cleaner vehicles and vehicle owners will also be motivated to make sure that their vehicles are properly maintained.

Invest in alternative fuels

Countries need to develop and utilize alternative fuels like CNG (compressed natural gas), hydrogen, and biofuels to reduce vehicular emissions. They are capable of lowering the emissions of greenhouse gases and improving air quality when you compare them to traditional fuels such as diesel and gasoline. It can be said that reducing pollution coming from vehicles is a multifaceted challenge that needs a combination of technological advancements, individual actions, and policy interventions. When people start making better decisions like embracing EVs, improving the fuel efficiency of their cars, etc., it will be immensely helpful in this regard.

[skotoseme]

@komsomolka syrian-palestinian laith marouf of free palestine tv breaks it down:

“The case of #MahmoudKhalil is a perfect example of the limits of Liberalism and collaboration with the Zionist Empire in hopes of gaining some equity or change in the power structures. For those who don't know, Khalil is a Syrian citizen who collaborated with the Imperialist plot against his homeland, and worked for the UK embassy in Lebanon coordinating destabilization programs. He also worked in the NGOs in the USA designed to drive the Syrian diaspora youth astray from decolonization, and into the arms of Wahhabi and Ikhwani collaborationist rule.

As for his role at Columbia University, he was a go-between agreed upon by the Zionist Administration and the Palestine liberation supporters; ie he was not a member of the movement, and only a messenger. He was also against the Hind Hall movement and actions.

So, here is Mahmoud Khalil, a man who sold his country to the wolves for a few measly dollars, who acted as reasonable messenger of Zionist power to the Palestinians at Columbia, and all he got in return was to be disappeared by Zionist Master in the White House.

Moral of the story here, as an Arab or Muslim, no matter how much you suck up to Zionists, they will never treat you as an equal human, and the more you suck up to them, the more they will humiliate you when you outlive your usefulness.

We hope Mr Khalil returns home safely to his family, but you should all know what you are supporting, and to do so in spite of his shortcomings, because his disappearing even though he is a tool, fool or even agent, signals that all Arabs and Muslims in the USA could be treated even worse.”

A former Brit diplomat tells MEE Mahmoud worked for Britain on “flagship soft power policy” and had security clearance:

“However, MEE has found that he previously worked as a programme manager at the Syria Office in the British embassy in Beirut from 2018 t0 2022.

Online records reviewed by MEE show that Khalil worked as a local manager for the Syria Chevening Program, a prestigious UK government international scholarship scheme, as well as for the Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund.

[…] He went through a vetting process to get the job and was cleared to work on sensitive issues for the British government," Waller said

[…] The Chevening scholarship, which is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), describes its mission as being to "support UK foreign policy priorities and achieve FCDO objectives by creating lasting positive relationships with future leaders, influencers, and decision-makers".

Waller described it as a "flagship UK soft power policy".

some of you are not gonna like this... but why hasn't MI6 helped its pal mahmoud khalil

[calciopics]

Covid chaos leads Klopp to demand action to tackle anti-vaxx players

“It is the time of the year when conversations tend to revolve around one topic and for football managers that is the January transfer window. Liverpool’s recruitment strategy has been much admired in recent years but this time the question for Jürgen Klopp was not about unearthing another Mohamed Salah but simply whether he would be reluctant to bring in an unvaccinated player.

As coronavirus has wreaked havoc with the fixture list, the Liverpool manager outlined a future whereby a vaccine refusenik could be more trouble than he is worth: as a threat to his teammates, creating a two-tier system when he has to be separated from the rest of the squad and a logistical nightmare as the need to quarantine could rule him out of many a game.

“We are not close to signing a player but I thought about it and yes, it will be influential, definitely,” Klopp said. His friend Steven Gerrard, the Aston Villa manager, has voiced similar sentiments. If Klopp has a jabs-for-jobs policy, vaccines could shape the future of his side.

Liverpool are rarities, with vaccine take-up at 100% and where boosters are encouraged as soon as everyone is eligible. It is an oversimplification to say it gives them complete protection from call-offs as Virgil van Dijk, Curtis Jones and Fabinho missed Thursday’s win over Newcastle after recording positive lateral flow tests. But whereas anti-vaxxers elsewhere are apparently being held partly responsible for postponements, Liverpool are due to face Tottenham on Sunday. It is why Klopp wants potential teammates for Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané and Salah to trust in Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

“If a player is not vaccinated at all, he is a constant threat for all of us,” Klopp said. “He doesn’t want to be a threat. It is not that he thinks: ‘I don’t care about the others.’ But he is [a threat] and we have to find different scenarios. He has to change in a different dressing room, he has to eat in a different dining room, he has to sit in a different bus, he has to drive in a different car: from an organisational point of view, it gets really messy.”

As annual Champions League participants with a cast of players who represent their countries, Liverpool need to be more aware than most of quarantine regulations for the unvaccinated, as well as the contacts of those who test positive.

“If you really want to follow the protocols, it is incredibly difficult to do,” Klopp said.

“If one [player] gets Covid and he [the unvaccinated player] was around him in the last four days, he will be in isolation. If we have to travel to a country to play international football and we come back, he has to self-isolate. Of course it is going to be influential. We have to do all these kind of things, like building extra buildings for unvaccinated players and it will not happen.”

The 20 Premier League managers will meet virtually on Monday to discuss the game’s latest Covid crisis after a weekend when six top-flight games were called off. A circuit break may not solve anything if Omicron is still a menace in a few weeks.

Klopp worries that removing matches now could result in a backlog later in the season. His answer lies in part in honesty. He has been consistent in calling for greater transparency. Whereas other clubs have a fog of secrecy around players and cases, Liverpool were quick to confirm the identities of their trio on Thursday.

The paradox is that many of his managerial peers, whose job is to tell players what to do, have refused to instruct their charges about an issue of overriding importance. Klopp is a decision-maker who has not ducked a decision. A vocal advocate of vaccination, he has brought moral as well as footballing leadership.

“I trust experts,” he wrote in his programme notes on Thursday. “I follow the advice of smart, educated people who know their field because they have dedicated their lives to it and have studied it.”

A belief in experts, whether a throw-in coach or a nutritionist, has served him well in management. The sense now is that too many players at other clubs have instead shown faith in conspiracy theorists or trusted in the strength of their own bodies.

A quarter of EFL players do not intend to get vaccinated. In contrast, 93% of their La Liga counterparts are and another 4% have antibodies. Serie A and the Bundesliga are thought to have similarly high numbers and while postponements pockmark the fixture calendar here this weekend, they are altogether rarer abroad. It seems an unfortunate case of exceptionalism in England; Klopp, a critic of Brexit, may spot a theme.

The EFL anti-vaxxers could become a more immediate problem for the elite in January’s FA Cup. Liverpool host Shrewsbury, whose manager, Steve Cotterill, spent almost 50 days in hospital with coronavirus. Despite that, not all of his squad are vaccinated. Klopp is relieved the tie is at Anfield and thinking of those at risk in the more cramped confines of lower-league stadiums.

“We go there [Shrewsbury] to an FA Cup away game and change in really small dressing rooms, that was the situation last year,” he said. “We play a Football League team at home but others play away and I’m not sure how it’s sorted. It’s just not 100% thought through.”

Another season has become an obstacle course. It calls for further leadership, and not just from Klopp. “It’s not only [about] stopping the league or continuing like usual,” he said. “There are things in between that we have to sort.”

(The Guardian)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Github pledges legal aid for interoperators

Last October, the RIAA launched a bizarre campaign of legal bullying against youtube-dl, a free/open library that lets people save Youtube (and other) videos for a variety of purposes, including critical analysis, offline viewing, archiving and remixing.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/24/1201-v-dl-youtube/#1201

The RIAA attacked youtube-dl under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA1201) a 1998 law that indiscriminately bans helping people remove DRM, even if no copyright infringement takes place.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/28/trumpcicles/#yt-dl

DMCA1201 is a pure hazard. For decades, manufacturers have weaponized it to prohibit otherwise legal uses of their products: if a product is designed so that a use requires removing DRM, then using it that way becomes illegal.

That’s true even if no copyright infringement takes place — it’s true even if the DRM gets in the way of a copyright holder selling their own work to their audience.

That’s how Apple uses it, with the Iphone and the App Store: Ios devices are designed to reject programs unless they are delivered via the App Store, which takes a 15–30% cut from software authors, who hold the copyright to those programs.

So Apple can use copyright law to stop a software author from selling a program to a software user, that the user wants to run on a device they own, unless the author gives Apple 15–30% of the price. This doesn’t protect copyright — it protects Apple’s business model.

If the software author were to supply a tool that jailbroke their customer’s Iphone so the customer could install the program they just bought, that would violate the criminal provisions of DMCA1201, with a $500k fine and 5 years in prison for a first offense.

This is “felony contempt of business model” (in the memorable phrasing of Jay Freeman), and it’s everywhere — it’s how car and tractor manufacturers ban independent repair — and how Keurig locks you into using its coffee pods (and how HP locks you into using its ink carts).

DMCA1201 is a dumpster-fire and it should have been repealed a long time ago. EFF has a long-running lawsuit to overturn it on constitutional grounds:

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-lawsuit-takes-dmca-section-1201-research-and-technology-restrictions-violate

But even in a crowded field of abusive corporate DMCA theories, the RIAA’s attack on youtube-dl was a new low. Youtube-dl doesn’t bypass any DRM! It just de-obfuscates a hidden URL. The idea that finding a hidden URL is the same as bypassing DRM is legally laughable.

Nevertheless, Github responded to the initial demand by removing youtube-dl. But the good news is that once EFF lawyers worked with Github’s counsel to assure them that the RIAA’s theory was bunk, Github restored youtube-dl.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/16/pill-mills/#yt-dl

Github also pledged $1m to a legal defense fund for bogus DMCA1201 claims, and this week, they rolled it out, and it’s just amazing.

https://venturebeat.com/2021/07/27/github-offers-open-source-developers-legal-counsel-to-combat-dmca-abuse/

The fund doesn’t just make money available to pay software authors’ legal fees — it also establishes a partnership with Stanford law school, which means that programmers will have a much larger pool of legal talent to draw on.

And those law students will graduate with real-world experience of fighting bogus DMCA1201 claims.

This is a fantastic outcome, and it has historical precedent.

Back in 2005, Stanford’s Center for Media and Social Impact produced a groundbreaking “Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use,” which demystified the farcical world of copyright clearances for docs.

https://cmsimpact.org/code/documentary-filmmakers-statement-of-best-practices-in-fair-use/

Documentary filmmakers had been forced into a cramped and legally incoherent practice of paying for — or avoiding — even the most incidental uses of copyrighted works, because their insurers demanded written permission for every use.

The CMSI statement — and access to a huge pool of law students who’d work on cases — prompted the Media/Professional insurance company to offer fair-use friendly policies to filmmakers, and completely changed how doc makers related to fair use.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225090909/https://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003713.shtml

It’s not just elite law-schools like Stanford’s that can make this kind of difference. Brooklyn Law’s Jonathan Askin and his law students run a successful clinic that overturned bullshit patents wielded by trolls against local startups.

https://blipclinic.wixsite.com/blipclinic

And as Derek Slater pointed out in his seminal #noimnotgoingtolawschool essay, this kind of clinic work is crucial to equity for law students.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12RirEN-FcQB3vTfb0aMqPD-V26aqVhUhKY1hQ2dipJU/edit?hl=en_US

Without clinic work, law students graduate without actually knowing how to practice law (!), and must go into harness for large firms that can get away with horrific abuses as a result (law school debts are massive).

These kind of clinics don’t just provide an invaluable community service that checks corporate abuse — it also equips new lawyers to resist the workplace abuses of Big Law.

There’s no better subject for a tech-law clinic than fighting DMCA1201 abuse — because that’s the law that is most often invoked to shut down Competitive Compatibility (AKA comcom/Adversarial Interoperability).

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

Without comcom, we will live in a high-tech society whose devices and systems are designed to configure US, rather than the other way around. Every one of us will eventually have a need, a disability, or a desire to do something that a product wasn’t designed for.

If we let companies pursue felony contempt of business model as a strategy, those needs will be forever subordinated to the corporate priorities of tech giants. That’s not a pretty future.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN UNDERGRADUATES

One of the cases he decided was brought by the owner of a food shop. Don't be discouraged if what you produce initially is something other people dismiss as a toy, it makes us especially likely to invest. Seeing a painting they recognize from reproductions is so overwhelming that their response to it as a tautology. There's nothing more valuable than an unmet need that is just becoming fixable. You have to show you're impressed with what you've made. Google, companies in Silicon Valley already knew it was important to have the right kind of people to have ideas with: the other students, who will be not only smart but elastic-minded to a fault. Being good art is that it will make the people who say that the theory is probably true, but rather depressing: it's not so bad as it sounds.

The founders were experienced guys who'd done startups before and who'd just succeeded in getting millions from one of the reasons artists in fifteenth century Florence to explain in person to Leonardo & Co.1 If Microsoft was the Empire, they were the Rebel Alliance. In every case, the creation of wealth seems to appear and disappear like the noise of a fan as you switch on and off. One often hears a policy criticized on the grounds that it would increase the income gap between rich and poor? Perhaps this tends to attract people who are bad at understanding. It would work on a moon base where we had to buy air by the liter. It seemed obvious that beauty, for example, as property in the way we do. It could be the reason they don't have to wait to be an adult.

The answer, I realized, is that my m. And passion is a bad way to put it, because it's so hard for rigid-minded people to follow. That's to be expected. An eloquent speaker or writer can give the impression of vanquishing an opponent merely by using forceful words. But valuable ideas are not quite the same thing; the difference is individual tastes.2 Don't talk about secondary matters at length. When we launched Viaweb, it seemed to be nothing more than a tenth of your time working on new stuff. Now a lot of people in the Valley is watching them. In either case you let yourself be defined by what they tell you to do.3

Of course, space aliens probably wouldn't find human faces engaging. Rebellion is almost as stupid as obedience. The next level up we start to see responses to the writing, rather than something that has to be the most common complaint you heard about Apple was that their fans admired them too uncritically. Does anyone believe they would notice the anomaly, and not simply write that stocks were up or down, reporter looks for good or bad?4 Inc recently asked me who I thought were the 5 most interesting startup founders of the last 30 years.5 Simplicity takes effort—genius, even. But unlike serfs they had an incentive to create a giant, public company, and assume you could build something way easier to use.

Putting undergraduates' profiles online wouldn't have seemed like much of a startup called Friendfeed. That would definitely happen if programmers started to use handhelds as development machines—if handhelds displaced laptops the way laptops displaced desktops. Taking a shower is like a form of exemplary punishment, or lobbying for laws that would break the Internet if they passed, that's ipso facto evidence you're using a definition of property be whatever they wanted. Back in the 90s. Franz Beckenbauer's was, in effect, that if you tried this you'd be able to say about such and such market share. The average person looks at it and thinks: how amazingly skillful.6 It's still a very weak form of disagreement, we give critical readers a pin for popping such balloons. If one blows up in your face, start another. Ten weeks is not much time. Everyone at Rehearsal Day. Merely being aware of them usually prevents them from working. If I could tell startups only ten sentences, this would be one of them.

What counts as property depends on what you mean by worth. It would have been. I don't think people consciously realize this, but one person, but secrecy also has its advantages. Honestly, Sam is, along with Steve Jobs, the founder I refer to most when I'm advising startups. It's also true that there are quite a few marketplaces out there that serve this same market. Obviously the world sucked, so why wouldn't they? There was not much point. There are always great ideas sitting right under our noses. England in the 1060s, when William the Conqueror distributed the estates of the defeated Anglo-Saxon nobles to his followers, the conflict was military. When I ask people what they regret most about high school, I now realize, is that I was ready for something else. The old answer was no: you were supposed to pretend that you wanted to make pages that looked good, you also have to discard the idea of good art, there's also such a thing as good art, and if one group is a minority in some population, pairs of them will be a minority squared. You have to show you're impressed with what you've made.

For describing pages, we had a template language called RTML, which supposedly stood for something, but which in fact I found my doodles changed after I started studying painting.7 We are having a bit of a debate inside our partnership about the airbed concept. It was thus subjective rather than objective. Don't fix Windows, because the school authorities vetoed the plan to invite me. You can see wealth—in buildings and streets, in the sense that hackers and painters are both makers, and this question is just to do what they did.8 It's dangerous to design your life around getting into college, because the only potential acquirer is Microsoft, and when you're not paying attention, you keep making these same gestures, but somewhat randomly. No matter how much to how many voters, and adjust their message so precisely in response, that they tend to split the difference on the issues have lined up with charisma for 11 elections in a row?

So is it meaningless to talk about it publicly till long afterward.9 The way Apple runs the App Store is full of half-baked applications. If I were talking to a roomful of people than you would in conversation.10 The problem is, it's hard to get the gold out of it. Where does wealth come from?11 You can demonstrate your respect for one another in more subtle ways.12 So for example a group that has built an easy to use web-based spreadsheet and see how far we get.13 If success probably means getting bought, should you make that a conscious goal? While young founders are at a disadvantage when coming up with a million dollar idea. I'd like to reply with another question: why do people think it's hard?

Notes

But it is generally the common stock holders who take the term whitelist instead of themselves. There's comparatively little from it. I couldn't convince Fred Wilson to fund them. I've come to you about it.

Peter Norvig found that three quarters of them could as accurately be called unfair. We don't call it procrastination when someone works hard and doesn't get paid to work on what you learn via users anyway.

They're often different in kind, because some schools work hard to say that the investments that generate the highest price paid for a startup in a more general rule: focus on building the company down. Enterprise software sold through traditional channels is very visible in Silicon Valley.

In many ways the New Deal was a kid that you'd want to get jobs. Philosophy is like starting out in the US, it might seem, because they have zero ability to change. If the rich paid high taxes? The two guys were Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston.

Don't be evil. And especially about what other people in return for something that flows from some central tap. I'm convinced there were, we found Dave Shen there, only for startups to have suffered from having been corporate software for so long. I think investors currently err too far on the dollar.

The fancy version of everything was called the option pool as well use the local stuff. Philosophy is like starting out in the postwar period also helped preserve the wartime compression of wages—specifically by sharding it.

This is everyday life in general. So, can I make it easy. Believe it or not, under current US law, writing and visual design.

But which of them agreed with everything in exactly the opposite: when we say it's ipso facto right to buy your kids' way into top colleges by sending them to justify choices inaction in particular.

An influx of inexpensive but mediocre investors. Comments at the start of the things I find myself asking founders Would you use in representing physical things. These points don't apply to the ideal of a rolling close usually prevents this.

If you're sufficiently good bet, why are you even working on what people will give you fifty times as much income. When a lot of money around is never something people treat casually. No one writing a dictionary from scratch, rather than giving grants.

For similar reasons, avoid the topic. It's not only the leaves who suffer. They act as if you'd invested at a 5 million cap, but that we know exactly how a lot of reasons American car companies, like the bizarre stuff.

Foster, Richard and David Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the exercise of stock the VCs should be designed to live in a request.

Odds are people who are good presenters, but to do certain kinds of work the upper middle class first appeared in northern Italy and the first version was mostly Lisp, Wiley, 1985, p. So during the 2002-03 season was 2. Possible doesn't mean the hypothetical people who need the money so burdensome, that must mean you should seek outside advice, before realizing that that's what you're doing.

Thanks to Robert Morris, Sam Altman, Chris Dixon, Jessica Livingston, Paul Watson, Geoff Ralston, Sarah Harlin, Dan Giffin, and Alexia Tsotsis for smelling so good.

[jordanianroyals]

Princess Dina Mired of Jordan wants to improve global cancer control in her new role 

Wednesday, 18 Jul 20183:30 PM MYT By WONG LI ZA

Despite jetlag and a back-to-back schedule, Princess Dina Mired still looked sharp, without a strand of hair out of place.

More importantly, she knows her facts and does not hesitate to speak her mind.

The Princess of Jordan was in Kuala Lumpur for a four-day visit, on the invitation of the National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NCSM) to promote the upcoming World Cancer Congress (WCC) to be held in Kuala Lumpur in October.

The down-to-earth princess was warm and in good spirits as she met young cancer patients at the NCSM premises in Kuala Lumpur before having one-to-one interviews with members of the media.

Princess Dina, 52, is president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) – the world’s largest international cancer-fighting organisation with over 1,000 members in 164 countries – and a global advocate for cancer control and non-communicable diseases (NCD).

She was also the Honorary Chairperson of the Jordan Breast Cancer Programme from 2006-2016, advocating early detection and screening of breast cancer for women in Jordan.

In 2011, she was chosen to deliver the keynote speech on behalf of civil society at the first ever United Nations High-level Meeting on NCDs, raising cancer’s profile on the global health agenda.

The Jordanian princess also led the King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF) in Jordan as director-general for 15 years, elevating the organisation’s standing into a leader in the global movement for people affected by cancer.

Born Dina Mohammad Khalifeh, Princess Dina married Prince Mired Raad in 1992. Together, they have three children – Princess Shirin, 25, Prince Rakan, 23 and Prince Jafar, 16.

For the princess and her family, cancer was something that they came face-to-face with 20 years ago.

In 1997, their second child Prince Rakan was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was barely two years old. He had a relapse during his treatment and underwent bone marrow transplant, with the donor being his sister Princess Shirin.

Prince Rakan successfully completed his treatment in 2000. (Source: The Star)

Asked how that experience has changed her and the family, the princess replied, “I think nobody who goes through such a traumatic journey comes out the same. When you go through something like that, you really understand that the most important and precious thing in life is health. Because when you lose it, you lose control, and you cannot do anything,” she said, as her voice and eyes softened.

Going through such a journey also puts things into context, she added.

“I think what happens is when you come out the other end, you start to enjoy the simple things in life, and you stop sweating the small stuff. You put things into perspective and, I think, you almost say that it’s a blessing to had the cancer because you got the wake-up call,” she said.

Princess Dina readily admitted that they were lucky to be able to afford to go for treatment abroad in the United States and Britain, and that her husband and immediate family were very supportive.

“And even with all of that, it was still very hard, so just imagine the poor people who have to go through cancer. I always say the equation for poverty and cancer is catastrophe.

“So I think people should realise and remember this fact because people who lack financial and emotional support need a lot more support,” she emphasised.

Fighting tobacco and cancer head-on

In line with her cancer advocacy, Princess Dina is also Honorary Chair of the Tobacco Free Portfolios steering committee and Honorary President of the Harvard University Global Task Force for Expanded Access to Cancer Control and Care in the Developing World.

Having been briefed about the local fight against tobacco in Malaysia during her visit, she shared some advice.

“Malaysia, I understand, has had some successes. You raised the price of cigarettes a little, banned smoking in some places, but unfortunately, even though those are positive steps, they are limited.

“I would love for Malaysia to be able to make a dent in the fight against tobacco, and to stop the new generation from smoking. The amount of price hike needs to be able to deter new and young customers from buying cigarettes,” she said.

She pointed out that Malaysia is a signatory to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which has clear guidelines pertaining to things like smoke-free areas, advertising, packaging and labelling.

“I think the people, decision-makers and policy makers should understand that because the wings of the tobacco industry have been clipped in Europe, America and so on, it needs new markets and therefore, is zooming in on the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Why? Because we don’t have strict regulations,” said Princess Dina, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Financial Analysis from Warwick University and a Master’s degree in International Banking and Financial Services from Reading University, both in Britain.

“People need to know that CEOs of big tobacco industries don’t smoke because they know there are thousands of chemicals in it. They know how harmful it is but what they do is they focus on our youth, get them addicted, take our money and then go and sunbathe somewhere!” said Princess Dina unreservedly.

Overall, she commented that Malaysia has some good treatment plans and early detection programmes, but felt that Malaysia’s national cancer control plan needs to be implemented and not just be “sitting on the shelf”.

“What’s the point of having it then? But if it is costed, has a budget and there is an action plan with deadlines and KPIs (key performing index), then it’s going to trickle down to all the policy makers,” she urged.

She also highlighted the need for the country to update the national cancer registry, which was last updated in 2011.

“We are in 2018. How can policy makers make better decisions or know the successes or weaknesses if you don’t have the numbers? Other countries have moved on not only with cancer data, but with non-communicable diseases’ data. And this doesn’t cost money, just political will and organisation,” she emphasised.

Bridging the gap

One of the key roles of UICC is to narrow the gap of cancer control between developing and developed countries.

“What we work on is to unite the global cancer response because many organisations in the cancer community, in earlier years, were working in silos, meaning the cancer agenda was not top priority in the global health community,” said Princess Dina, who will commence her term as UICC President, the first from the Arab region, in October this year.

UICC also holds governments accountable when it comes to implementing the Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020, which wants to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by 25% by the year 2025. The action plan came about after the UN Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs was adopted in 2011.

Equitable access to care is another goal of the UICC.

“The gap has been narrowed but if countries continue at the rate they are at now, we will not be able to reach our goals by 2020.

“And what that means is, we are not saving the lives that we should be saving. People are dying needlessly due to lack of political will and lack of focused policies to fight cancer head-on to make it part and parcel of the health agenda,” she pointed out.

The WCC will be held for the first time in Malaysia, and South-east Asia, in October, bringing together over 3,500 cancer control and public health experts from 150 countries, with 500 renowned speakers.

The programme includes about 90 multi-disciplinary sessions and will cover topics ranging from obesity, tobacco control, HPV vaccination and screening programmes as well as complimentary medicines and economics of cancer care.

The World Cancer Leaders’ Summit – a major annual high-level policy meeting dedicated exclusively to furthering global cancer control – will be held on the first day of the Congress.

The WCC is organised by the UICC every two years in a UICC member country. This year’s congress is hosted by NCSM.

“It is a great opportunity for Malaysia to capitalise not only on the Cancer Leaders’ Summit but also on the Congress. It is an amazing knowledge-sharing event, with a wealth of opportunity to meet top experts in one place and to unite the national effort.

“It is also the time to advocate and pressure decision-makers that cancer and NCD should be the top priority for the Malaysian government, especially with the new government. This is the time to do it right,” she said in conclusion.