Pioneering medical drone project wins award for Excellence in Technology and Innovation – University of Strathclyde

Posted on by

A consortium involving Strathclyde researchers that will deliver what will be the UKs first medical distribution network using drones has triumphed in the Scottish Transport Awards.

The Project CAELUS (Care & Equity Healthcare Logistics UAS Scotland) consortium led by AGS Airports in partnership with NHS Scotland scooped the Excellence in Technology and Innovation accolade at industry awards in Glasgow on Thursday 29 September.

The project, which brings together 16 partners including Strathclyde, is working to deliver what will be the first national drone network that can transport essential medicines, bloods and other medical supplies throughout Scotland including to remote communities.

CAELUS was praised by Scottish Transport Award judges at the event where Minister for Transport Jenny Gilruth MSP and host Grant Stott welcomed 450 industry professionals to celebrate the people and organisations that make a real difference to transport across Scotland.

Principal Investigator Dr Marco Fossati, of the Aerospace Centre of Excellence at the University of Strathclyde, said:

This award recognises innovation and dedication of the Project CAELUS team and the potentially transformative impact we can have on Scotlands healthcare system.

The consortiums work aims to revolutionises the accessibility of the medical supply chain through investment and research in technology.

Fiona Smith, AGS Airports Group Head of Aerodrome Strategy and CAELUS Project Director, said: We were delighted when we heard we had been shortlisted in the Scottish Transport Awards earlier this year, so to win is a fantastic achievement.

The CAELUS project is set to revolutionise the way in which healthcare services are delivered in Scotland. A drone network can ensure critical medical supplies can be delivered more efficiently, it can reduce waiting times for test results and, more importantly, it can provide equity of care between urban and remote rural communities.

This award is testament to the hard work by all the partners involved in this consortium and I thank them all as we continue onto the next phase of work.

Since securing 1.5 million in January 2020, the consortium has designed drone landing stations for NHS sites across Scotland and developed a virtual model (digital twin) of the proposed delivery network which connects hospitals, pathology laboratories, distribution centres and GP surgeries across Scotland.

CAELUS secured 10.1 million funding from the Future Flight Challenge at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in July launch its next phase, which will involve live flight trials and removing remaining barriers to safely using drones at scale within Scotlands airspace.

See the article here:

Pioneering medical drone project wins award for Excellence in Technology and Innovation - University of Strathclyde

Deepfake Technology Will Allow Bruce Willis to Return to Cinema – PetaPixel

Posted on by

Hollywood star Bruce Willis has licensed his image to a technology company that has made a digital twin of him to be used in future movies.

Engineers at Deepcake have created an ultra-realistic version of the Die Hard actor who sold his rights to the Delaware-based company.

I liked the precision with which my character turned out. Its a mini-movie in my usual action-comedy genre. For me, it is a great opportunity to go back in time, Willis says in a statement on the companys website.

With the advent of modern technology, even when I was on another continent, I was able to communicate, work and participate in the filming. Its a very new and interesting experience, and I thank our entire team.

Willis twin has already debuted in the below advert for Russian telecoms giant Megafon where understudy Konstantin Solovyov was the reference for the stars face to be masked on.

The 67-year-old announced his retirement from acting in March this year after he was diagnosed with aphasia, which affects a persons speech and language. He appeared in over 70 films including Die Hard, Armageddon, and Pulp Fiction.

Deepcake has said that it is under discussion to strike similar deals with others actors, alive and dead. It hopes to be the biggest talent agency of its kind, bringing iconic players back to the silver screen.

We create digital twins of celebrities and the actual production process doesnt require the physical presence of a celebrity on stage, Deepcake CEO Maria Chmir says.

It means comics like Charlie Chaplin and Kevin Hart can interact in one frame now.

While Willis is the first Hollywood actor to announce his digital twin publicly, it is alleged that other celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carey, and Michelle Pfeiffer have virtual versions of themselves.

As the Telegraph notes, while deepfakes are a potential danger to society, for Hollywood actors it opens up the possibility to star in films even after they are dead.

At the 2012 Coachella Festival dead rapper Tupac Shakur performed alongside Dr. Dre, and similarly living and dead actors could theoretically appear in the same movie together.

See the original post here:

Deepfake Technology Will Allow Bruce Willis to Return to Cinema - PetaPixel

How the false rumor of a Chinese coup went viral – MIT Technology Review

Posted on by

India has the third-largest number of Twitter users in the world. Considering the long-standing geopolitical tensions between India and China, plus the relative lack of knowledge that average Indians likely have about Chinese politics and how to discern Falun Gongbacked media accounts, its not necessarily surprising that they fell for and spread the rumor.

Despite several recent reports on the rise of bot activity originating in India, theres not yet enough evidence to determine whether this was a coordinated effort to push the coup rumor. There are suspicious signs, like a lot of new accounts as well as the fact some of the key influencers now [are] suspended, Jones told me. This does not necessarily point to it being state-backedjust a lot of inauthentic activities.

Of course, since this is Twitter, many other accounts are capitalizing on the popularity of this discourse and in turn further amplifying the story. This includes people intentionally trolling unsuspecting users by pairing old videos with the new rumor, and some users in Africa are hijacking the hashtag to gain visibility for their own contentapparently a long-practiced trick among users in Nigeria and Kenya.

By Monday, the rumor had mostly died down. While Xi still hadnt shown up, recent documents reaffirmed his participation and influence in the coming party congress, demonstrating that hes very much still in power.

The fact that a completely unsubstantiated rumor, one that basically happens every other month in Chinese Twitter circles, could grow so big and have tricked so many people is both funny and depressing. The bottom line: Social media is still a mess full of misinformationbut you may not notice that mess if you are not familiar with the issue being discussed.

Read the original post:

How the false rumor of a Chinese coup went viral - MIT Technology Review

Messenger RNA Technology Fast-Tracked for Treating for Heart Conditions – The Epoch Times

Posted on by

An Australian government research fund has granted $1.7 million (US$1.1 million) to target three major cardiovascular diseases using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, accelerating the use of gene therapys treatment of diseases beyond COVID-19.

Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, one of Australias oldest medical research organisations focused on heart disease, welcomed the grant from Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

We are grateful to the MRFF for funding us to advance this important research, Baker Institutes head of molecular imaging and theranostics Xiaowei Wang said in a statement on Sep. 28.

Associate Prof. Wang said that the mRNA-based therapies will directly reduce inflammation and blockages for three major heart diseasesatherosclerosis, pulmonary hypertension, and abdominal aortic aneurysmwhich currently have limited cures and all start with inflammation.

For each of these cardiovascular diseases, we will design a unique delivery system using novel nanoparticles, target the disease, then trigger the release of the mRNA, Wang said.

She says that these therapies require smaller doses because they are targeted.

Current drug therapies require high doses because they are not delivered specifically to the disease area and have harmful systemic side effects, Wang said.

The mRNA-based targeted strategies that we are investigating can stop the progression of inflammation, providing the opportunities of preventing cardiovascular disease events like heart attack, stroke, and heart failure without the unwanted side effects.

The rapid development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 has made mRNA companies hopeful about developing therapies for other targets such as heart disease, cancer, liver disease, and multiple sclerosis.

However, an increased rate of diseases, including cancer, has been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following COVID-19 vaccinations, of which the majority have been mRNA vaccines.

In the VAERS database, 284 cases of breast cancer were reported after COVID-19 vaccination, while just 350 cases have been reported in the history of VAERS.

There have also been concerning reports of shingles. VAERS data shows that 7,559 cases of shingles have been reported following COVID-19 vaccination.

Over the entire history of VAERS, 28,180 cases of shingles have been reported following any vaccination, meaning that around a quarter of shingles cases occurred after COVID-19 vaccination.

A pre-study recently observed that nanoparticles used to transport mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines inhibited and altered the immune response, shedding light on the adverse events.

The nanoparticles, claimed to be non-toxic and safe, were also found in a 2021 University of Philadelphia study to be highly inflammatory.

In Australia, a fifth dose has been recommended for people who are severely immunocompromised or have an underlying medical condition or disability.

View post:

Messenger RNA Technology Fast-Tracked for Treating for Heart Conditions - The Epoch Times

A Daf Yomi Scout: Literary Critic Adam Kirsch Shares Insights from His Seven-Year Study of the Talmud with YU Students – Yu News

Posted on by

Literary critic, poet andWall Street Journaleditor Adam Kirsch visited Yeshiva University on September 21 for a conversation with students from theZahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thoughtand theJay and Jeannie Schottenstein Honors Program. Kirsch spoke with Straus Center Program Officer Tal Fortgang and a room full of Yeshiva College students about his book,Come and Hear: What I Saw in My Seven-and-a-Half-Year Journey Through the Talmud, and his series of columns forTableton hisDaf Yomi(daily Talmud study)excursion.

Kirsch began by explaining what motivated him to take on the project ofDaf Yomias a non-Orthodox Jew, literary critic and novice in the world of Talmud study. He was inspired by the 2012Siyum HaShas(celebration of the completion of theDaf Yomicycle)and figured he could gain insights into what animated todays Orthodox Jews, as well as how the ancient sages continue to exert an influence over Jewish cultureobservant or nottoday.

He immediately began receiving feedback on his discoveries, as chronicled in a regular column atTablet. Kirsch reports hearing from yeshiva students and non-observant Jews alike, and began to see his mission as acting as a scout for people with backgrounds similar to his ownthose who had not encountered the Talmuds unique mode of argument or its assumptions about the intermingling of the natural and supernatural worlds.

Kirsch emphasized to the students in attendance that an element of Talmud study that stands out to an outsider is that the argument is often an end in and of itself. He also pointed out that because the Talmud is more than just a code of lawit touches on so many different topics, involves many indeterminate arguments and records many episodes not legal in natureit allows Jews in every era to share reference points that can unify a people who may be geographically and philosophically disparate. For instance, the term tikkun olam meant one thing in the time of the Talmud, another thing in the Medieval era and another thing to many contemporary Jews. Whether or not Jews today are using the term in accordance with its original meaning, they still feel the need to ground their understanding in a term that resonates with other Jews.

Students eagerly peppered Kirsch with questions about the past, present and future of Talmud study. Kirsch noted in response that study of the Gemara is undergoing a renaissance today among observant Jews, academics and people simply interested in understanding the development of Jewish thought. He contrasted this renaissance with early American Jewish literature, which derided Talmud study as backward and barbaric, a symbol of the old world American Jews were leaving behind.

Today, he concluded, the Talmud is available in many languages, on many platforms, with many commentaries, at the push of a button. Whether the democratization of Talmud study will turn out to be good for the Jews or not is yet to be seen.

The event was the latest in a series sponsored or co-sponsored by the Straus Center and Schottenstein Honors Program. Recent events included a conversation with theJerusalem Posts Zvika Klein and a dinner discussion withTablets Liel Leibovitz and YUs own Rabbi Daniel Feldman.

You can learn more about the Straus Center by signing up for our newsletterhere. Be sure to also like us onFacebook, follow us onTwitterandInstagramand connect with us onLinkedIn.

Read the original here:

A Daf Yomi Scout: Literary Critic Adam Kirsch Shares Insights from His Seven-Year Study of the Talmud with YU Students - Yu News

The Eight Genders in the Talmud | My Jewish Learning

Posted on by

Thought nonbinary gender was a modern concept? Think again. The ancient Jewish understanding of gender was far more nuanced than many assume.

The Talmud, a huge and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, contains in fact no less than eight gender designations including:

In fact, not only did the rabbis recognize six genders that were neither male nor female, they had a tradition that the first human being was both. Versions of this midrash are found throughout rabbinic literature, including in the Talmud:

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar also said: Adam was first created with two faces (one male and the other female). As it is stated: You have formed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. (Psalms 139:5)

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar imagines that the first human was created both male and female with two faces. Later, this original human being was separated and became two distinct people, Adam and Eve. According to this midrash then, the first human being was, to use contemporary parlance, nonbinary. Genesis Rabbah 8:1 offers a slightly different version of Rabbi Yirmeyas teaching:

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created him as an androgynos (one having both male and female sexual characteristics), as it is said, male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Said Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created for him a double face, and sawed him and made him backs, a back here and a back there, as it is said, Behind and before, You formed me (Psalms 139:5).

In this version of the teaching, Rabbi Yirmeya is not focusing on the first humans face (or, rather, faces) but on their sex organs they have both. The midrash imagines this original human looked something like a man and woman conjoined at the back so that one side has a womens face and a womans sex organs and the other side has a mans face and sex organs. Then God split this original person in half, creating the first man and woman. Ancient history buffs will recognize this image as similar to the character Aristophanes description of the first humans as both male and female, eventually sundered to create lone males and females forever madly seeking one another for the purposes of reuniting to experience that primordial state. (Plato, Symposium, 189ff)

For the rabbis, the androgynos wasnt just a thing of the mythic past. The androgynos was in fact a recognized gender category in their present though not with two heads, only both kinds of sex organs. The term appears no less than 32 times in the Mishnah and 283 times in the Talmud. Most of these citations are not variations on this myth, but rather discussions that consider how Jewish law (halakhah) applies to one who has both male and female sexual characteristics.

That the androgynos is, from a halakhic perspective, neither male nor female, is confirmed by Mishnah Bikkurim 4:1, which states this explicitly:

The androgynos is in some ways like men, and in other ways like women. In other ways he is like men and women, and in others he is like neither men nor women.

Because Hebrew has no gender neutral pronoun, the Mishnah uses a male pronoun for the androgynos, though this is obviously insufficient given the rabbinic descriptions of this person. Reading on we find that the androgynos is, for the rabbis, in many ways like a man they dress like a man, they are obligated in all commandments like a man, they marry women and their white emissions lead to impurity. However, in other ways, the androgynos is like a woman they do not share in inheritance like sons, they do not eat of sacrifices that are reserved only for men and their red discharge leads to impurity.

The Mishnah goes on to list ways in which an androgynos is just like any other person. Like any human being, one who strikes him or curses him is liable. (Bikkurim 4:3) Similarly, one who murders an androgynos is, well, a murderer. But the androgynos is also unlike a man or a woman in other important legal respects for instance, such a person is not liable for entering the Temple in a state of impurity as both a man and woman would be.

As should now be clear, the rabbinic interest in these gender ambiguous categories is largely legal. Since halakhah was structured for a world in which most people were either male or female, applying the law to individuals who didnt fall neatly into one of those two categories was challenging. As Rabbi Yose remarks in this same chapter of the Mishnah: The androgynos is a unique creature, and the sages could not decide about him. (Bikkurim 4:5)

In many cases, the androgynos is lumped together with other kinds of nonbinary persons as well as other marginalized populations, including women, slaves, the disabled and minors. For example, concerning participation in the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot) during which the Jews of antiquity would travel to the Temple in Jerusalem, the mishnah of Chagigah opens:

All are obligated on the three pilgrimage festivals to appear in the Temple and sacrifice an offering, except for a deaf-mute, an imbecile, and a minor; and a tumtum, an androgynos, women, and slaves who are not emancipated; and the lame, the blind, the sick, and the old, and one who is unable to ascend to Jerusalem on his own legs.

As this mishnah indicates, it is only healthy, free adult men who are obligated to appear at the Temple to observe the pilgrimage festivals. People who are not adult men, and men who are enslaved or too old or unwell to make the journey, are exempt.

As we have already stated, the androgynos was not the only person of ambiguous gender identified by the rabbis. Similarly, the rabbis recognized one whose sexual characteristics are lacking or difficult to determine, called a tumtum. In the mishnah from Bikkurim we cited earlier, Rabbi Yose, who said the androgynos was legally challenging for the sages, said the tumtum was much easier to figure out.

The rabbis also recognized that some peoples sexual characteristics can change with puberty either naturally or through intervention. Less common than the androgynos and tumtum, but still found throughout rabbinic texts, are the aylonit, who is born with organs identified as female at birth but develops male characteristics at puberty or no sex characteristics at all, and the saris, who is born with male-identified organs and later develops features recognized as female (or no sex characteristics). These changes can happen naturally over time (saris hamah) or with human intervention (saris adam).

For the rabbis, what is most significant about the aylonit and the saris is that they are presumed infertile the latter is sometimes translated as eunuch. Their inability to have offspring creates legal complications the rabbis address, for example:

A woman who is 20 years old who did not grow two pubic hairs shall bring proof that she is twenty years old, and from that point forward she assumes the status of an aylonit. If she marries and her husband dies childless, she neither performs halitzah nor does she enter into levirate marriage.

A woman who reaches the age of 20 without visible signs of puberty, in particular pubic hair, is deemed an aylonit who is infertile. According to this mishnah, she may still marry, but it is not expected that she will bear children. Therefore, if her husband dies and the couple is in fact childless, his brother is not obligated to marry her, as would normally be required by the law of levirate marriage.

A nonbinary person who does not have the same halakhic status as a male or female, but is something else that is best described as ambiguous or in between, presented a halakhic challenge that was not particularly foreign for the rabbis, who discuss analogs in the animal and plant kingdoms. For example, the rabbinic texts describe a koi as an animal that is somewhere between wild and domesticated (Mishnah Bikkurim 2:8) and an etrog yes, that beautiful citron that is essential for Sukkot as between a fruit and a vegetable (Mishnah Bikkurim 2:6, see also Rosh Hashanah 14). Because they dont fit neatly into common categories, the koi and the etrog require special halakhic consideration. The rabbinic understanding of the world was that most categories be they animal, vegetable or mineral are imperfect descriptors of the world, either as it is or as it should be.

In recent decades, queer Jews and allies have sought to reinterpret these eight genders of the Talmud as a way of reclaiming a positive space for nonbinary Jews in the tradition. The starting point is that while it is true that the Talmud understands gender to largely operate on a binary axis, the rabbis clearly understood that not everyone fits these categories.

Empower your Jewish discovery, daily

Read the original here:

The Eight Genders in the Talmud | My Jewish Learning

Fall in St. Louis means it’s time to embrace the Jewishness of the pumpkin – – St. Louis Jewish Light

Posted on by

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished September 27, 2022

Dear Reader,

Fall has officially begun, and it appears the summer heat that has endured here in St. Louis is finally gone. Its time now to think about fall-like things, Rosh Hashanah, Yom, Kippur, long sleeve shirts and sweaters, colorful leaves, October baseball and of course pumpkins.

Pumpkins? Yes, pumpkins. Yes, for two reasons. First, this weekend is the opening of pick-your-own pumpkin season at Eckerts Farms, and because pumpkins have played a very important role in Jewish life long before they became associated with fall events like Halloween and holidays like Thanksgiving.

In the 16th century, one of the first crops brought back from the New World to Europe was the pumpkin. The gourd was easy to grow and stored well during cold winters. In her book The Book of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden writes that since it first appeared in Italy, pumpkin has been associated with the Jews.

Ravioli filled with pumpkin a familiar dish to anyone who frequents Italian restaurants at this time of year was originally a Sephardic creation. Italian Jews also developed recipes for pumpkin puree, pumpkin flan, and pumpkin fritters, a Hanukkah delicacy, wrote Roden.

Pumpkins are featured in many Sephardic recipes. It is tradition, among Sephardic Jews, to eat something containing pumpkin for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

According to MyJewishLearning.com,many Sephardic communities developed their own pumpkin specialties. A jam or sweet spread made with pumpkin was common throughout the Sephardic world, especially as a Rosh Hashanah delicacy. Pumpkin was also commonly used in soups and stews, just as it is today. In addition to these ubiquitous dishes, each Sephardic community adapted pumpkin which is nothing if not versatile to its own cuisine and paired it with the ingredients available to them.

Leah Koenig, the author of Modern Jewish Cooking, writes that early acceptance of the pumpkin by Jews was important for the future of New World foods.

Sometimes, Jewish communities inadvertently helped normalize unfamiliar ingredients and helped usher them into wider acceptance over time, writes Koenig. Not only was this true for pumpkin, but for many other New World vegetables as well, from artichokes to tomatoes.

Connect with your community every morning.

Though pumpkins are not mentioned in the Torah specifically, they do appear a handful of times in the Mishnah and the Talmud.

According to Jteach.org, in the Talmud, Tractate Sukkah 56b, Abaye said: A young pumpkin (in hand) is better than a full grown one (in the field).

Talmud, Tractate Berachot 48a Rabbah said to [Abaye and Rava], To whom do we bless [i.e. say Grace After Meals]? They replied, The All-merciful.

And where does the All-merciful dwell? Rava pointed upwards to the ceiling; Abaye went outside and pointed towards the heavens. Rabbah said to them, Both of you are Rabbis; for that is what the proverb says, Every pumpkin is known by its stem.

Mishnah Shabbat 17:6 (about actions which are permissible on Shabbat) If a stone sits in a pumpkin one may draw water with it [the pumpkin] if the stone does not fall out, but one may not draw water with it [if the stone] does [fall out]. [If] a vine-branch is tied to a pitcher, water may be drawn with it on Shabbat.

So, as we kick off the year 5783, dont forget to embrace this fun part of our heritage both as Americans and as Jews. In honor of how our Sephardic ancestors used pumpkins in a wide variety of dishes, I hope we can get creative this year with how we use and think about pumpkins. How about a new twist on pumpkin pie, or pumpkin bread? Please keep me posted if you do.

The pick-your-own season run throughout October. Guests can visit any of the Eckerts farms to pick their perfect Halloween pumpkins. Eckerts Millstadt location has additional attractions of private bonfire sites and haunted wagon rides.

Belleville, Millstadt & Grafton Farms |Select Days from Sept. 24-Oct. 30

For more information on Eckerts,visit the website.

Read the original here:

Fall in St. Louis means it's time to embrace the Jewishness of the pumpkin - - St. Louis Jewish Light

Why Bats Sleep Upside Down and The Secret of Yom Kippur – aish.com – Aish.com

Posted on by

Why Yom Kippur is one of the happiest days of the year.

A few years ago, I had the privilege of awarding someone a medallion at an AA meeting, a celebration of a significant milestone of sobriety. I am always inspired from being among people who have the courage to admit their addiction, name their enemy, and confront it on a regular basis.

The recovery program is made up of 12 steps, and the meeting I attended addressed Step 8, which is to make a list of all persons we had harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all and Step 9, to make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

People reflected on the experience of being willing to make amends with people, some whom they hurt and others they were hurt or injured by.Then one person got up and said something I found fascinating.When she arrived at this step in her recovery, she realized one of the people she most needed to make amends with was herself.The mistakes she had made, the excuses, missed opportunities, damaged relationships, sabotaged success she had caused herself, left her needing to be willing to forgive herself, to make amends with herself.

The next person who spoke disagreed and pointed out making it about ourselves is what got us into trouble to begin with. Amends is about others, it doesnt always have to be about the I, and that kind of thinking is misguided and can lead to bad outcomes.

I walked out of the meeting moved by both sides and thinking about this question. Who was right?

The Talmud reconciles two different statements of Reish Lakish. The first: Great is teshuva, repentance, as the penitents intentional sins are counted for him as unwitting transgressions. The second: Great is repentance, as ones intentional sins are counted for him as merits. The Talmud explains the seeming contradiction: When one repents out of love, a higher level of repentance, his sins become like merits, but when one repents out of fear, a lower level, his sins are counted as unwitting transgressions (Yoma 86b).

I understand how the power of teshuva can transform my mistakes, indiscretions, poor judgment, and intentional violations into accidental, careless ones.Picture a judge lightening a sentence because of good behavior and still putting criminal charges on the record, but lesser ones. But what does it mean that my intentional mistakes can become actual merits? How can those mistakes be turned into merits, virtues, assets, acting in ones favor?

Surprisingly, the answer can be derived from sleeping bats.

Many people know that bats sleep upside down but few know the reason. While bats can fly, they cant take off. Some birds can take off from a dead stop by simply flapping their wings, but bats cant. Birds wings are long and feathered and can generate enough thrust to achieve liftoff, but bats wings, as ScienceFriday explains, are basically large, webbed hands. Once airborne, a bat can use these webbed hands to sustain the flight over long distances and steer seamlessly, but they have a problem: they cant do the necessary flapping to take off.

Bats use the momentum from falling to take flight.

So what do bats do if they can fly but cant take off? The answer is they dont take off -- they fall down. During the night, they use their claws to climb up a tree. Once they get high enough off the ground, they drop, using gravity to gain momentum and they use the momentum from falling to take flight.

Perhaps this is the meaning of Talmud quoted above.Not all types of teshuva are equal. If you do teshuva because of fear of punishment, you dont want to suffer the consequence, then your fall can be considered accidental.

But if you do teshuva, not out of fear, but from love, enthusiasm and excitement then you are ready to fly and can use the momentum generated from your fall to give you lift, to take off, to discover things and achieve things you previously couldnt.

For many, Yom Kippur is a dreaded day, not only because of the physical pleasures we are denied but because they think it is a day to beat ourselves up, to rack ourselves with guilt, blame, fault, fear and dread.

Yom Kippur is not a day to beat ourselves up, to knock ourselves further down.

That couldnt be farther from the truth.The Mishna lists Yom Kippur as one of the two happiest days of the year.Yom Kippur is not a day to beat ourselves up, to knock ourselves further down.We are here to confront our mistakes, to think about failures and the times we have fallen, but to use them to give us the momentum, the energy, and the knowledge of how to fly.Your fall turns into your uplift, into flight.

In Steve Jobs Commencement Speech to Stanfords Graduating Class of 2005, he retold his story of getting fired from the company he created at the age of 30. It was the most devastating setback of his life. He fell and he fell fast. Though it could have destroyed him, Jobs explained to the graduates that getting publicly fired turned out to bethe best thing that could have happened to him.

Losing his position and success as the leader of Apple opened him up to express his creativity more freely. He started a company called NeXT, helped launch Pixar, reclaimed his role as CEO of Apple, and the rest is history. Failure opened Steve Jobs up to express himself more freely and forced him to create his way out of his rock bottom into the super-success he enjoyed at Apple. As he explained to the graduates: It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

J.K. Rowling has sold more than 500 million books and is one of the wealthiest women in the world, but in a commencement speech of her own she described that she needed to fall before she was able to fly. She described how at the time of her own graduation from college, her greatest fear was failurea fear that became reality seven years later as she struggled through single-parenthood, unemployment, and poverty all at the same time.

Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Failure, she said, revealed her true character:I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

We make amends with ourselves not by excusing our fall but by transforming it into momentum to give us lift. The world gives us our fill of fear, worry and anxiousness. Lets resolve to change from love and longing, from lift.

We have made mistakes, we have fallen down sometimes in anger or outrage, sometimes in judgment and sometimes in envy.Yom Kippur is not about beating ourselves up, staying down, feeling sad, somber or guilty.

Consider what went wrong, why it went wrong, and use that knowledge to learn from it, to gain lift, to take flight and to ensure it doesnt happen again. We dont need to sell that many books or build a revolutionary company to achieve success in our lives. All we need is to get up after we have fallen and take flight.

Excerpt from:

Why Bats Sleep Upside Down and The Secret of Yom Kippur - aish.com - Aish.com

5 things to know about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year – WDJT

Posted on by

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) -- Sunday is the start of Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Jewish New Year, which marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days.

The millennia-old holiday is an occasion for reflection and is often celebrated with prayer, symbolic foods, and the blowing of a traditional horn called a shofar. This year's Rosh Hashanah marks the start of year 5783 in the Hebrew calendar.

Here's what you need to know about the history and meaning of Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah has its roots in the Talmud, although it isn't entirely clear when the holiday was first celebrated. The Talmud says that the world was created on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. Jewish people celebrate Rosh Hashanah on the first and second days of Tishrei -- which usually line up with September or October in the Gregorian calendar.

Although it's not completely clear when Jewish people first celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Book of Leviticus includes a passage in which God tells Moses that the first day of the seventh month is a day for rest, marked with the blowing of a horn. But it doesn't include the name Rosh Hashanah.

According to National Geographic, the earliest mention of Rosh Hashanah by name is found in the Mishnah, a Jewish legal text dated to 200 C.E.

"Rosh Hashanah" means "head of the year" in Hebrew, and the two-day holiday is considered a time to reflect and repent in anticipation of the coming year.

It is also referred to as the "day of judgment." The holiday traditionally calls on people to consider how they might have failed or fallen short in the past year -- and how to improve and grow in the coming year.

This is symbolized by one of Rosh Hashanah's most iconic traditions, taschlich, in which participants symbolically cast off their sins by throwing morsels of bread into a body of running water.

There are 14.8 million Jewish people around the world, and practices associated with Rosh Hashanah vary even within individual communities. People usually celebrate Rosh Hashanah by attending synagogue and refraining from work -- including schoolwork -- and sometimes the use of electronics. Families might also light candles at home

Rosh Hashanah is often celebrated with special foods, like apples dipped in honey, which symbolize the hope of a sweet year to come.

Challah bread, baked in round loaves instead of braids and dipped in honey, is also popular. So are pomegranate seeds and the head of a ram or fish -- to symbolize the "head" of the new year.

One of the most distinctive elements of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the Shofar's horn, a ram's horn. The blowing of the horn is used as a call to repentance during the holiday.

The horn is typically blown in the morning of both days of Rosh Hashanah. The unique instrument dates back thousands of years to the time of Abraham and Isaac.

Rosh Hashanah kicks off the High Holy Days, also known as the Ten Days of Penitence. The High Holy Days end with Yom Kippur, which is considered the most sacred of Jewish religious holidays.

Yom Kippur is also known as the Day of Atonement. It represents an opportunity for people to atone for their sins and ask for forgiveness from God and other people.

While Rosh Hashanah tends to be a joyful celebration, Yom Kippur is a more somber holiday often marked by fasting.

The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The rest is here:

5 things to know about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - WDJT

Peter Tarlow column: Story of Joshua is of a by-the-book leader – Bryan-College Station Eagle

Posted on by

Last month we began the Jewish New Year of 5783 by addressing the life of Moses, our greatest philosopher and lawgiver.

Now as we say goodbye to 5782, we turn our attention from the theoretical and philosophical to the practical, that is to the deeds that make a society work or fail. We turn our attention to the stories that surround the life of Moses successor: Joshua.

Unlike Moses, Joshua was neither a philosopher nor a great writer. He gave us no great intellectual insights. Instead, Joshuas story is of the tale of a pragmatist. He is the man who turned Moses ideas into everyday realities. Joshua is a technocrat and soldier, more the doer than the thinker, more the pragmatist than the idealist. Joshua leaves no great insights nor quotable phrases. Instead, his is a narrative that echoes throughout both Jewish and world history and impacts our lives even until today.

People are also reading

The story of Joshuas life is one of a man who has to deal with daily lifes messy details. The Bible tells us that Joshua did not deal with the future but with the here and now, not with great ideas but rather with the myriad of details we call life. His stories are not that of the academic ivory tower but of the basic necessities of survival. A Talmud passage attempts to differentiate Joshua from Moses by stating: The face of Moses was like the sun; the face of Joshua was like the moon (Bava Batra 75a). In other words, the Talmud saw Joshuas shine as a reflection of the work that Moses already had done.

Others might disagree. When we read Joshuas story we come to realize that he was much more than a mere reflection of Moses. In reality, there are two Joshuas. The first Joshua was Moses loyal deputy, the second Joshua only appears after Moses death as he assumes the task of national leadership.

We learn about the first Joshua in Sefer BaMidbar (the Book of Numbers). In the desert, the text calls him Moses mesharet. The Hebrew term mesharet means a loyal subordinate. Joshua is the paradigm of a disciple plus intern; he is also the eternal optimist. When the 10 spies stated that Israel could not succeed, Joshua, along with Caleb, wrote the minority report insisting that Israel should press forward and enter the land of Canaan. The people of Israel rejected their report and for that mistake the Children of Israel would spend some 40 years wandering in the desert.

We first learn of Joshua as a fierce fighter. He fought Israels first battles and won. Not only was he a fierce warrior, but he was also a brilliant general. He taught us that leaders must never lead from behind but must always live by the dictum acharai/after me! From Joshuas perspective, leadership from behind is no leadership at all. Joshua was not only fierce in war but also generous and kind in peace. We know about his professional life yet we know little about his personal life.

After Moses death we meet the second Joshua. This is a Joshua who mixed faith with innovation, and creativity with a generosity of spirit. Our second Joshua is a person devoted to both the past and to the future. He is a leader willing to take calculated risks, to listen, and to act. Joshua taught us not to fight the next battle based on the last battle. He understood that a nation dare not base its military on the superficial but must understand its future challenges and prepare itself to meet them. Joshua taught that leaders who do not keep their focus on the here and now tend to fail themselves and their nations.

Joshuas life is one that raises many questions. He first enters the Biblical stage as a warrior. The Bible never reveals to us the reasons that Moses picked Joshua. What we do know is that long before Joshua became Israels second leader he demonstrated his leadership capabilities. During the years of aimless wandering in the desert, all who were a part of the post-Exodus generation would perish and a new generation would be born into freedom. It was this new generation that would be tasked with entering into the land of Israel. Of the 12 who scouted the land, only Joshua and Caleb would survive and cross the River Jordan. By the time they entered into the land of Israel, they were old men with young ideas.

Joshua was also lucky. Moses had to struggle to succeed and often failed; Joshua seems to have been above the fray. During his term of office, we read of no major criticism, and the people generally tended to do what he asked. Had Israel learned the lessons of the golden calf? Was Joshua the savvy politician, actor or both? Was he simply lucky? The text is silent.

Unlike Moses, Joshua was a leader who had crossed the River Jordan both physically and mentally. Joshua was Israels first leader of a now independent and less immature nation, one whose destiny would be in its own hands. By crossing the river, Joshua became a leader who by necessity would have to deal with lifes less exciting but practical issues. Joshua took us from national childhood to national adulthood.

In typical Biblical fashion we see Joshuas positive and negative qualities. Joshua was a strong and optimistic leader. Yet he never appointed a successor, and after his death the nation would have to deal with a political vacuum. Is the text teaching us that strong leaders prepare their replacements? Does Joshuas life remind us of how dangerous it is for a nation to be burdened with a weak line of succession?

Joshuas life teach us who live many millennia later much about leadership and war. Did Israel suffer because it quit its battles too early? Is the text telling us that a premature peace may hold dire consequences later and that leading from behind is a formula not for peace but for disaster?

These are open questions raised by Joshuas life and leadership. They are questions to be debated for all eternity. Perhaps this is the reason that the story of Joshua contains no lofty pronouncements or poetry. His tale is a story that teaches us that war is a dirty business, sometimes necessary but never glorious. Joshua taught us that at times nations must do what is necessary but never celebrate anothers suffering. These are essential lessons to consider as we enter the New Year of 5783.

Peter Tarlow is a police chaplain for the College Station Police Department and the Rabbi Emeritus of Texas A&M Hillel Foundation. Tarlow is a member of the Texas A&M Faculty of Humanities in Medicine, and the director of the Center for Latino-Jewish Relations.

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Excerpt from:

Peter Tarlow column: Story of Joshua is of a by-the-book leader - Bryan-College Station Eagle

Remarks by President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff at a Reception to Celebrate the Jewish New Year – The White…

Posted on by

East Room

12:06 P.M. EDT

THE FIRST LADY: Good morning.

AUDIENCE: Good morning!

THE FIRST LADY: As we gather in honor of the High Holy Days, I know that all of our hearts are with those affected by the hurricanes.

May many have had to flee their homes, as youve seen. Temples will be shuttered on Yom Kippur. And some will have to break their fast without beloved family beside them.

I hope that their faith and our prayers bring them comfort during this dark time.

In Judaism, the Days of Awe these 10 days of reflection and repentance call for introspection. But its not an endeavor taken alone.

The prayers on Yom Kippur begin with we. We have gone astray. We have not lived up to the best versions of ourselves as individuals and as a community.

Its a recognition of a powerful truth: that we fail together, we forgive together, and we heal together, too.

Thats why there is hope to be found in this sacred time as well.

Its a chance to release the burdens that have weighed us down and reach toward the light of the divine; to be with family, facing the best and worst of ourselves surrounded by love, knowing that we will emerge stronger than before.

Its a moment to remember that we the path we walk will one day end and hold close those who travel beside us.

The Days of Awe remind us that its never too late to begin again.

We, all of us, are a work in progress. So we continue that work: speaking truth, fighting for for justice, believing that we can heal our broken world.

Let us look toward the past with wisdom and turn toward the future with joy.

Let us remember that there is hope and healing ahead. In our highs and our lows, we are not alone, and there is beauty and sweetness in every step of the way.

Now, Im grateful to be here with my family, including so many people who have become family over the years. (Laughter.) And that it now includes Kamala and Doug.

You know, there are so many things (applause) yes. You know, there are so many things that you have both brought to our lives. But during the High Holidays, I am especially grateful for the chance to join you, Doug, in honoring traditions that I know that you hold close to your heart.

So, thank you for spending this special time with us.

Everyone, please welcome the Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff. (Applause.)

THE SECOND GENTLEMAN: Thank you, my good friend Dr. Biden. You have always been such a leader in bringing people together, and you do it with compassion, and you do it with purpose. And thats exactly what youre doing here today by welcoming our Jewish community to the White House. So, thank you so much.

And on a personal note back at you (laughter) you and the President have really made our family feel like your family. So, thank you so much.

And again, I also want to echo Dr. Bidens words of comfort to those who have been affected by these horrible storms. Our prayers are with you, and we will continue to do everything we can to support all of you and your families and your communities.

And my wife, the Vice President Kamala and I (applause) were honored to join you as well as we welcome in this new year. Shana Tova.

And its a particular honor for me as the first Jewish spouse of a President or a Vice President. (Applause.)

But do you know, for years, as a lot of you know, the Bidens invited our community for celebrations when they lived at the Vice Presidents Residence. And now, the Vice President Harris and I my wife (laughter) are we are very grateful that we get to continue in the tradition that they set forth.

The doorposts there are protected by mezuzot thats two mezuzahs. We hosted a Passover Seder. Weve lit a historic menorah for Hanukkah. But now, we gather in the White House during the Days of Awe, as Dr. Biden mentioned, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Now, in my family, Rosh Hashanah meant a trip to my grandmothers apartment in Brooklyn. (Laughter.) And I can still smell that brisket cooking and burning in the kitchen. (Laughter.) I can still taste the slightly warm challah, but slightly stale (laughter) on the table.

And, of course, as a lot of you remember, my grandmother begged all of us kids not to jump on the couch because I took the plastic coverings off! (Laughter.)

But this is also a season to reflect and atone and repent for both of our shortcomings and those that we see around us.

And lets be clear we all know this: Jews worldwide face horrendous discrimination and violence and antisemitism. And one of the reasons that our great President ran for president was to confront the kinds of hate and antisemitism that we all saw and were mortified by in Charlottesville. (Applause.)

And on this issue on this issue, we have a President and a Vice President who know that all Americans must be able to worship without fear or violence. (Applause.)

And we also know they are two leaders of deep faith who believe in tolerance and inclusion, not just for our Jewish community but for all communities. (Applause.)

And our President has said, and I quote, If Jewish history and tradition teaches us anything, its the resilient belief in the promise of tomorrow.

So as the Jewish community in the United States and Israel and around the world take stock and renew our hopes for the start to 5783, we are grateful to be sharing it in one of the Jewish communitys best friends.

Please join me in welcoming the President of the United States, Joe Biden. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Well, as youre about to find out, Doug and I married way above our station. (Laughter.) Youve already seen one example of that. Youll soon see another. Doug, thank you for the introduction.

And Doug is right. Youre the first, but Kamala often says you wont be the last. Kamala wont be the last woman to be Vice President or President. (Applause.)

So let me start by recognizing this reception comes at a very difficult time for so many Jewish families in Florida, possibly for some of you who have loved ones in Florida mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends. Our heart goes out to everyone there in the state experiencing what could be may be one the most devastating hurricanes in the history of that state.

And I say Ill Im going to say more about that this afternoon. Im making a major address on this.

So many families just celebrated New Years and are now in this solemn part of the High Holidays. Some of you are from the area or have family and friends there. And as I said, its got to be tough time for a lot of you.

And I want to Representatives Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are here, and a lot of other friends. (Applause.) Good to see you, Ted.

And were working closely with the governor and the entire Florida delegation Democrat and Republican making sure that we do everything we can, including now search and rescue, recovery, and rebuilding efforts, which is going to go on for a while. Going to go on for a long while.

And whatever it takes, were going to be there as one nation and one America. Were not going to walk away.

So let me just say, Ted, youre a dear friend. Youre retiring after 12 years. Dont go. Change your mind. Do something. (Laughter.) Were really going to miss you, pal. No, we really are. Were going to miss you in Congress. Weve worked together closely for a long time. And I look forward to your leadership on the American Jewish Committee. So, thank you. (Applause.)

When Jill and I were Vice President and First [Second] Lady, Jill and I honored were honored to host the first Rosh Hashanah reception at the Naval Observatory.

And today, as President and First Lady, were humbled to host the first High Holidays reception ever in the White House with so many of our friends. (Applause.)

Now, if I acknowledge everyone by name, well be here (laughter) for the Hanukkah reception in December. (Laughter.)

But this is Ted Ted and Debbie, I also want to acknowledge someone else who means a great deal to our family: Rabbi Michael Beals of the Congregation Beth Shalom in Wilmington, Delaware. (Applause.) There you are.

With his predecessors Rabbi Kraft and Rabbi Geffen thats where I received my education. I probably went to shul more than many of you did. (Laughter.) You all think Im kidding. He can tell you Im not. (Laughter.) Im not.

Beth Shalom is home for countless friends. And, for me, its been its been a home. And over the years, weve shared deep conversations about faith and and finding purpose. And theyve always, always, always been there for my family in the good times and not-so-good times.

And just like rabbis, synagogues, and Jewish community centers in your hometowns, youre always there; your congregations are there for you and for everyone in the neighborhood, whether theyre Jewish or not.

And thats the tradition I got raised I spent a lot of time Im a practicing Catholic, but I Id go to services on Saturday and on Sunday. (Laughter.) You all think Im kidding. Im not. (Laughter.)

So, look, thats the power of the Jewish community all across America.

And Doug mentioned the High Holidays are a sacred time for introspection and renewal and and repentance, and a time to ask for forgiveness, to mend our relationships with God and with our fellow men.

The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who passed away two years ago, once said that the most important lesson of the High Holidays is that nothing nothing is broken beyond repair. Nothing is broken beyond repair. Its never too late to change and to be better. Ive always believed that message, and I also think its universal.

And weve emerged from one of our most difficult moments in our history. I believe nothing is broken beyond repair, and theres a lot we can do to change things and bring people together.

We can and we are emerging stronger from this pandemic. Were building an economy that works for everyone. Were were responding to the cry of for action by the climate. Were were (applause) were actually rallying the world. Were rallying the world to keep support for Ukraine strong and consistent and (applause) and Ukraines right to exist as a people.

You know, and were were showing that we can do big things as a country when we work together, regardless of our political party, from taking on gun violence, to supporting our veterans, to rebuilding America itself, to ending cancer as we know it.

But there is a lot more we can do, but we have to do it together, to restore the soul of America. When I ran, I said one of the reasons I was running, literally, was to restore the soul of America, bring back some decency and honor in the way we talk about one another, the way we deal with one another standing up to antisemitism that was constantly lurking in the shadows. (Applause.)

You know, the Jewish people know better than any what my father, who was not Jewish but would constantly use the phrase, silence is complicity. Silence is complicity.

I was reminded of that yet again during my recent trip to Israel. I reaffirmed Americas unshakable commitment to Israeli security. As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister was telling me he said, I remember what you said Id forgotten what I said when I landed. (Laughter.) He looked at me, he said he said, You looked at me and you said, Its good to be home. (Laughter.)

But, you know, the first place I went back to was Yad Vashem. And there were two Holocaust survivors there who immigrated to America after the war but returned to that sacred ground to speak to young people so we never forget.

And I think that after all they experienced in the 40s, today theyre witnessing a record high antisemitism in 2022 they never thought would be the case again. Although, maybe they did, in their hearts, think it could happen. But they were there.

I decided to run for President and this is not hyperbole you know youve heard me say this for over almost three years now that, when I saw those people walking out of the fields literally walking out of the fields in Virginia, carrying torches, Nazi flags; and chanting the same exact antisemitic bile that was chanted on the streets of Berlin and Germany in the early 30s.

And when asked, when the young woman was killed, What do you think? And the comment made by a former leader was, There are good people on both sides.

Ive made it clear since I was elected, including two weeks ago at the first-of-its-kind summit against hate-fueled violence at the White House: Hate can have no safe harbor. Its never defeated; it only hides. It hides under rocks. And when we breathe a little oxygen under those rocks, it comes out it comes out.

And failure to call it out is complicity, and the silence is complicity. We cant (applause) no, I mean it.

We cant remain silent. The rest of the world looks to us.

Thats why I established the first Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Combat Antisemitism at the at the ambassadorial level. (Applause.)

I appointed Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust expert, to this critical position. She is here today. Where are you, Deborah? All the way in the back. (Laughter.) Thats usual with her humility. But, Deborah, thank you for being willing to do it. (Applause.)

And we worked with Congress to secure the largest increase in funding ever for physical security of nonprofits, including synagogues, religious organizations. (Applause.) Because nobody nobody should fear going to a religious service or a school or walking down a street wearing a symbol of their faith. Nobody. Nobody. Period. (Applause.)

We launched the first National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism and its first-of-its-kind White House Initiative on Hate-Motivated Violence, working hand in hand with the Jewish community. And many in here are working with us.

Im not going to remain silent. We cant remain silent. I mean this sincerely. If we let it go, democracy and everything else is at stake. We cant remain silent.

So, let me close with this. The Jewish tradition holds that from the time the Book of Life is opened on Rosh Hashanah until the gates close on Yom Kippur, our fate hangs in the balance. Its in our hands its in our hands to change, to do better to ourselves, for ourselves, and for others.

I believe we face a similar inflection point as a nation.

My hope and prayer for the year ahead is that, for one of the most difficult moments that weve gone through in a long time, we emerge stronger.

That resilient belief in the promise of tomorrow is embodied in thousands of years of Jewish history and in the story of America.

So lets do the work ahead lets do the work together, regardless of what your political persuasion. Lets recognize the work of our democracy.

You know, as the Talmud instructs, It is not required that you complete the work, neither may you refrain from it. It is not required you complete the work, but neither may you refrain from it.

To bridge the gap between the world we see and the future we seek, to keep the faith, to remember who we are. Were the United States of America, damn it. Theres nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.

So God bless you all. May this be a happy, healthy, and sweet new year. And may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life.

But before I leave today, I have a special part of this program I want to mention.

One that of things that Jill and I appreciate the most about opening the White House to celebrate people who mean so much to the country I cant think of anyone better who embodies the sacred spirit of this season than the special guest we have here today.

Born in Tel Aviv. Stricken by polio as a as a child thats made it difficult for him to walk ever since. Came to America to pursue his God-given talent that moves our souls. An Israeli-American icon of our time. One of the most celebrated violinists of our times. Please join me in the Foyer to hear a special performance from Itzhak Perlman. (Applause.)

Itzhak. He plays from the heart. As the rabbis tell us, What comes from the heart enters the heart. And youre about to experience it.

God love you all. God be willing that we have a good year. Thank you. (Applause.)

Q Mr. President, whats your message to Vladimir Putin today, following the annexation?

THE PRESIDENT: Ill be talking about that a little later today, okay? Lets celebrate now. (Applause.)

12:27 P.M. EDT

See the article here:

Remarks by President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff at a Reception to Celebrate the Jewish New Year - The White...

Cris Cyborg defeats Simone Silva by decision to win boxing debut – ESPN

Posted on by

Cris Cyborg won her first boxing match Sunday night.

The legendary women's MMA fighter crossed over into the ring and beat boxing journeywoman Simone Silva via decision at Fight Music Show in Cyborg's hometown of Curitiba, Brazil. The bout went all eight rounds.

It remains unclear whether it will count as a pro bout or an exhibition.

Cyborg likely won every round. Her best sequence happened in the eighth and final round. She hurt Silva with a big left hook then tried to finish with Silva against the ropes. Cyborg landed several hard shots, but the game, durable Silva weathered them and even fired back.

1 Related

"I'm very happy with my first boxing fight," Cyborg told ESPN. "It was eight rounds. It's different for somebody coming in for the first time. But I know I've got a lot to prove. And I'm very happy."

Last week, Cyborg told ESPN she was open to competing in boxing again before returning to MMA. Cyborg, one of the top women's MMA fighters of all time, is currently the Bellator women's featherweight champion, though she is a free agent. Cyborg has indicated she likely will re-sign with Bellator. But she also has been named as a potential future opponent for boxing undisputed women's lightweight champion Katie Taylor.

There was some controversy during the week about whether this would be a pro fight or an exhibition. Silva is currently under a medical suspension by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), stemming from a knockout loss in a boxing match last month. Even though it was a knockout via body shot, the TDLR told ESPN it would not waive the mandatory suspension.

"[Silva] cannot be cleared early from that suspension since it arose out of her loss by KO," TDLR public information officer Tela Goodwin Mange said.

"The safety of the fighters is our greatest concern, and the medical suspensions exist for a reason."

Due to the medical suspension, the Organizacao Brasileira de Boxe (OBBoxe) opted to not sanction Sunday's fight as a pro bout, according to a report by MMAFighting.com. However, Cyborg reps told ESPN that her team was never informed it would not be a pro bout, and she said earlier Sunday that it would be overseen by the Associacao Paranaense de Lutas, a Brazilian sanctioning body for combat sports.

A spokesperson for BoxRec, one of the official record-keepers of boxing worldwide, said the website was informed by Brazilian commission officials that the bout between Cyborg and Silva was not licensed and "certainly would not be recognized as professional boxing."

Cyborg, 37, is the only fighter to hold MMA titles in four separate major promotions: UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator and Invicta FC. In MMA, the Brazil native who lives and trains in Southern California has lost just once since her pro debut in 2005, to pound-for-pound queen Amanda Nunes.

Silva, 39, has a 17-22 pro boxing record, and coming into Sunday's fight, she had lost nine straight.

See more here:

Cris Cyborg defeats Simone Silva by decision to win boxing debut - ESPN

The cyborg of the future looks just like you – UNSW Newsroom

Posted on by

When we think of cyborgs, what comes to mind? Ultra-futuristic beings with laser eyes and claw arms with a resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the reality of cybernetic enhancement, or the integration of technology into our bodies to replace or enhance function, is very different.

We think of [cybernetic enhancement] as an ultra-futuristic technology, but the field goes really far back, said Dr Felix Aplin, from the Translational Neuroscience Facility at UNSW Medicine & Health. Already from the 1800s people had this idea that maybe you could use electricity to replicate some functions.

Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) and Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) were the first to prove that animals use electricity in their bodies, with early experiments using electricity to stimulate muscle contractions in frogs and other animals.

What really kickstarted this field in the mid-20th century was a proper understanding of neurons and neural networks, and that they effectively are using electricity to communicate, Dr Aplin said.

Dr Felix Aplin spoke about the future of cybernetic enhancement at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, after completing the UNSW Centre for Ideas UNSOMNIA program. Photo: Maria Boyadgis.

Increasing knowledge of neuroscience led to more and more people wondering, what if we connect the brain to technology? A cybernetic implant could replace lost function for someone with disability, for example the bionic ear, which already exists and has been made famous in Australia by the company Cochlear. Or it could even enhance existing function, like enabling someone to see in infrared, although this type of application is a little further off.

Enabling the brain and technology to communicate

Brains and computers both use electricity to communicate, but in fundamentally different ways. To translate between these two languages, we need neural interface engineering.

Neural, meaning, the brain. Interface: to connect or communicate with. Engineering: building stuff. So, my field builds stuff that communicates with the brain, Dr Aplin said.

In neural interface engineering, there are two main types of devices. Sensing devices read the signals from your brain and convert them into computer code that can drive, for example, a robotic arm of an amputee. Active devices take in information about the outside world, convert it into computer code, and then back into a format your brain can understand. An example of this is the bionic ear, which takes the input from a microphone and uses electrical pulses in a way that the brain can interpret as sound.

Cochlear implants are the most common example of cybernetic enhancement. Photo: iStock.

While progress is being made in both sensing and active devices, theres a long way to go.

While we understand more and more of how the brain functions, it remains one of the most complex systems in the universe. When we send electrical pulses to communicate with the brain, its like trying to surf the internet using morse code, Dr Aplin said. Finding more effective ways to talk to the brain beyond our current morse code approach has been my career focus. Theres a lot more work to be done.

People also assume that cybernetic implants will be machine-like and very clearly not human like Luke Skywalkers robotic hand in Star Wars, or Kanos laser eye in Mortal Kombat. But if that were the case, we would ultimately reject these devices, both physiologically and psychologically.

Our immune systems are terrified of anything foreign, for very good reason Bacteria are bad news, right? Dr Aplin said. We need to developbetter technologies that help us integrate artificially constructed components into our bodies without them being rejected.

In a way, you almost need to be developing mini circuits, which are made out of the same pieces, the same building blocks [as us]. Because its just too different to use chunks of metal with batteries.

Watch: Building better brains - and other ways to manage our bodies

Psychologically, we are also more likely to accept a device that looks like a normal part of our body. Humans have an innate fear of disrupting our sense of self and the idea of a cybernetic implant can be confronting.

If someone has a cyborg arm, they might be able to crush beer cans with their incredible cybernetically enhanced strength, but its going to look like an arm, Dr Aplin said. Because that's what we're comfortable with. We want these things to be integrated with ourselves.

Dr Felix Aplin spoke about the future of cybernetic enhancement at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, as part of a collaboration between UNSW Sydneys Centre for Ideas and The Ethics Centre.

The rest is here:

The cyborg of the future looks just like you - UNSW Newsroom

The secret is out UFC legend Cris Cyborg announces OnlyFans and promises followers will enjoy it… – The US Sun

Posted on by

UFC legend Cris Cyborg has announced she will soon have an OnlyFans page.

But rather than the usual X-rated content found on the platform Cyborg, 37, is planning to share exclusive content of her traveling, training and giving back to the community.

5

5

5

The Bellator superstar is one of MMA's all-time greats and is now looking to branch out in other ventures outside the octagon.

Cyborg announced on her official YouTube channel: "Hey guys I've been thinking a lot and it's a big decision, I know.

"But I've decided to make an OnlyFans account, for you. My channel is different.

"We're going to travel, training and giving back to communities. You're going to enjoy it, let's go!"

Cyborg hasn't competed since Bellator 279 in April when she defeated Arlene Blencowe via unanimous decision.

But she continues to dominate at Bellator as the reigning Bellator Women's Featherweight Champion.

The 37-year-old athlete holds a stunning record of 26 wins and only two losses in 29 matches across all promotions.

She hasn't lost a fight since 2018 when she was defeated by Amanda Nunes.

JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET A FREE 10 BONUS WITH 100s OF GAMES TO PLAY AND NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED (Ts&Cs apply)

The UFC great has also recently crossed over to boxing and enjoyed a successful debut.

The Brazilian-American defeated Simone Silva via unanimous decision on Sunday.

5

5

View post:

The secret is out UFC legend Cris Cyborg announces OnlyFans and promises followers will enjoy it... - The US Sun

GamesMaster: Before YouTube and Twitch, Sir Patrick Moore’s Floating Cyborg Head Was the Best in Gaming TV – Den of Geek

Posted on by

GamesMaster, then, came along at just the right time to mine these emergent, interlocking seams of youth culture, glitz, and entertainment, and it wrapped the resulting raw goods in a package that was ground-breaking, good-looking, youthful, edgy, enjoyable, informative, funny, and, frankly, cool.

The shows look and feel was a strong factor in its success. Each series took place in a new location (in chronological order: a church, an oil rig, a prison, hell, heaven, Atlantis and a desert island) and the sets were always immaculately dressed, lit and realised. But, arguably, it was one on-air element, above all others, that was instrumental in the shows popularity: Dominik Diamond.

We already know that young Harry Hewland was the catalyst for GamesMasters existence, if only by virtue of his own existence. But what many people dont know is that he was also responsible for the decision to hire Diamond as the shows host. In a manner of speaking.

Diamond had reached the final 12 candidates to be a presenter on Channel 4s new flagship late-night magazine show The Word, but didnt make the final cut. Fortuitously for him and for us GamesMasters production team reached out to their equivalents in The Word to ask if theyd auditioned anyone who might be suitable for their new show, and Diamonds name was put forward. The tape for his GamesMaster audition, in which he commentated on a gaming challenge, peppering his performance with double-entendres about waggling joysticks, made the production team and, crucially, Jane Hewlands son, Harry laugh so hard that the deal was sealed.

It was the irreverent sense of humour that gave GamesMaster credibility with its audience: adolescent boys, Hewland told The Guardian in 2021. For the kids to like us, we had to be badly thought of by authority figures. Also, we had to be slightly weird, like a secret world they could join in. Its hard to read that last sentence without picturing Dominiks eyes casting a mischievous glint through the round lenses of his trademark specs.

For the first two series of the show Dominik Diamond had the floppy-haired, red-jacketed feel of a Butlins Redcoat revelling in the act of smuggling smut and cynicism over the heads of would-be censors at half-past six in the evening, no less. Audiences loved him, but Diamond though he loved the show wasnt quite so enamoured with his look. Especially the jacket. When McDonalds became the shows official sponsor ahead of series three, a combination of ideological objection and dissatisfaction with his own lack of creative control prompted him to hang up the red jacket, seemingly for good. He even filmed a death scene for the end of series two.

The rest is here:

GamesMaster: Before YouTube and Twitch, Sir Patrick Moore's Floating Cyborg Head Was the Best in Gaming TV - Den of Geek

Inside FORMAT, the festival bringing cyborgs and sex therapy to the Ozarks – Document Journal

Posted on by

Held in the town that Walmart built, its inaugural edition offered attendees a choose-your-own-adventure-style journey designed to blend art, music, and technology

A hush falls over the crowd as people crane their heads, looking up at the hundreds of twinkling lights unfolding across the sky in a slowly-changing formation. The lights are autonomous drones from Studio DRIFT, and what were watching is an immersive aerial installation designed to simulate birds in flight. As they drift across the sky, a man turns toward his friend and exclaims with unironic enthusiasm: Now that was music, art, and technology.

If I had said that myself, Id have been doing a bitbut hes not wrong. Were at the inaugural edition of FORMAT, an experimental festival celebrating (you guessed it) music, art, and technology, held in (you may not have guessed it) Bentonville, Arkansas. Featuring everything from live music and immersive installations to drag performances and sex therapy sessions, FORMAT saw the niche and mainstream intermingle: There were shows from popular musical acts like Moses Sumney, Beach House, Shygirl, and Phoenix unfolding alongside an experimental concert from human cyborg Neil Harbisson, and performances from contemporary artists like Jacolby Satterwhite, Nick Cave, and Doug Aitken. There was hypnotism and an NFT auction, an immersive 360-degree artspace, and a speakeasy that required you to enter through a porta potty; it was, in short, a grab bag of experiences intended to facilitate a choose-your-own-adventure-style journey for attendees, and to bring greater awareness to the Ozarks and its cultural offerings, which have expanded in recent years as part of a push to incorporate art into the daily lives of citizens.

At the forefront of these offerings is the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, nestled in hundreds of acres of forest trails. Designed by Moshe Safdie, it is the brainchild of Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Waltona big player in the small town of Bentonville, whose influence is apparent there in forms obvious (Waltons original five-and-dime store, now the Walmart Museum) and unexpected (the hospitality groups, banks, and countless businesses owned or sponsored by the family). The more time I spend in Bentonville, the more I realize that Walmart (or at least the Walton family) rules everything around me: Even in my hotel room, I find testament to the Waltons in the form of a framed photo, oddly nestled above the toilet.

FORMAT is one of many cultural initiatives picked up by the Waltons. Its not the only offering that veers toward the experimental and contemporary: Not far from the festival grounds, the Momentarythe younger, edgier sister of Crystal Bridgesplays host to contemporary visual, performing, and culinary artists. Unlike Crystal Bridges, it does not have a permanent collection of its own, instead favoring an ephemeral approach: Exhibitions rotate in and out of the cavernous industrial building roughly every four months, not unlike roommates in the particular brand of Bushwick factory loft it resembles. (The building was once home to a cheese factory, and its signature architecture now serves as a driving force behind its site-specific exhibitions.)

Id be remiss not to mention that, with a net worth of roughly $212 billion, the Waltons are the richest family in the worldand while their monumental contributions are framed as generosity, they also support the familys efforts to preserve fortune across generations vis--vis tax loopholes, as the Dallas News reports. Operate globally, give back locally, was Sam Waltons mantra according to the company museum, and its an ethos shared by the familys younger generation, who are alleged to live modestly in the area while continuing to work on cultural development across sectors: from paving bike trails to promoting public art, to newer initiatives focusing on advanced mobility and healthcare. Its rumored that the younger family members are so unassuming that anyone we speak to, even a janitor, could be a Walton in disguise.

FORMAT kicked off at the Momentary on Thursday night with a performance from The War on Drugs. I have to admit, Ive never been to Arkansas, the frontman says before beginning his set, a phrase that would be repeated by countless musicians over the next couple of days. The first festival of its kind to be held in Bentonville, FORMAT is the latest in a series of initiatives designed to bring young people to the region. Its as much an art festival as it is a music festival, says Roya Sachs, who co-curated the festival with fellow creative director Mafalda Millies. The pair lead me on a tour of the grounds, pointing out its highlights as we trek around in 80 degree heat. (Its worth noting that the festival, which is held on Sugar Creek Airstrip, is about a half-mile walk from the nearest roada distance that you can traverse by foot, bus, or in the back of a golf cart. The guy driving ours tells us his skin care routine on request, and judging by the caliber of his products, he may be a secret Walton.)

During my two nights at FORMAT, I do my best to fade into the background, soaking up the energy of the space and the people in it. Over the course of each evening, the vibe shifts like the weather as one traverses the festivals many spaces; one minute, Fatboy Slim is dropping beats in a little red barn, and the next, youre witnessing Neil Harbisson, the worlds first human cyborg, tune into NASA Space Station for one of his cybernetic concerts. (I love you Neil! someone yells as he takes the stage and fixes his antenna toward the sky.)

During Harbissons keynote talk, where he explains the intention behind cyborg art and the invention of new organs, people keep turning to each other, asking variations of Is this real?; some people stand with mouths agape on the side of the stage, unable to believe the premise that this man hears color because of a bone-conducting implant embedded in his skull. Later, when Harbisson and I are speaking at one of the festivals many outdoor hang-out spaces, a man approaches us: Excuse me, he says, Im sorry to interrupt, but I have a question for you. Harbisson and I knowingly make eye contact, as we had just been talking about how hes frequently confronted by people in public in regards to his implant. But instead of addressing the antenna that visibly protrudes from Harbissons skull, he asks, Do either of you want to play hacky sack?

Such is the unique and constantly shifting atmosphere of FORMAT. There are people in flower crowns and glow-in-the-dark outfits intermingling alongside the work of todays preeminent artists, technologists, and sexologists. There are lines outside of the festivals merch booth, and also outside of the little tent in the Bizarre Bazaar, where Betony Vernon is conducting sex therapy. (Damn, people really are getting vulnerable in the club, a friend notes.) Elsewhere on the festival grounds, disco balls cast flashing lights over a pumped-up crowd. People squeal at the unexpectedly wet mist emanating from an art installation, or else run their hands over the fuzzy, tree-like columns erected by Icelandic artist Shoplifter. The vibe is unabashedly fun; in between breathtaking performances on Saturday night, Moses Sumney urges the cheering crowd to savor the present moment: This energy here tonight wont ever happen again, especially not in Arkansas, he says, then reconsiders: Or maybe it will!

Continued here:

Inside FORMAT, the festival bringing cyborgs and sex therapy to the Ozarks - Document Journal

Precision platformer Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja hitting Switch next week – Nintendo Everything

Posted on by

Publisher No Gravity Games and developer Aiya Games will soon be putting Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja on Switch. The game is scheduled to launch on October 6, 2022, the two sides announced today.

Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja, a precision platformer with fast-paced gameplay and accelerated dashing action, is set in a cyberpunk world. Read more about the title below.

Imagine combining challenging precision platforming, pick-up-and-play gameplay, fast-paced action, a neon cyberpunk setting, and a ninja robot all into one game. Its time to test your platforming skills!

After suffering defeat at the hands of his arch-nemesis, the Shgun, Cyjin is left to rust in a robot graveyard. Awakening beneath a mountain of scraps, Cyjin returns to the land of the living with a single goal: to seek revenge against his foes and make them pay. Its not just lasers obstructing a path or the deadly spikes theres even a deadly army of hostile ykai-inspired robots. Can you find a way out?

Key Features:

ACCELERATED DASHING ACTION: Crush your enemies with quick acceleration! SWIFT & PRECISE PLATFORMING: Aim to choose a path and keep jumping! Watch out for hazards and obstacles just stay alive! EXCITING BOSSES: Intense boss fights that will challenge your skills! 2D CYBERPUNK SETTING: A world that blends Eastern themes with a cyberpunk vibe from the deep wasteland of the Junkyard to the traditional futurism of the Urbanscape. CHALLENGING PUZZLES: Puzzles require quick thinking and inhuman reflexes. Better start stretching those fingers!

And heres a trailer for the game:

Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja will cost $9.99 on the Switch eShop.

Related

Read more:

Precision platformer Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja hitting Switch next week - Nintendo Everything

What ON Semiconductor Thinks About the IoT, AI, and the Future of Tech Development – Madison.com

Posted on by

On Aug. 7, semiconductor, sensor,and integrated circuits makerON Semiconductor (NASDAQ: ON) reported second-quarter 2017 results that exceeded management's guidance. Later in the day, I caught up with ON's David Somo -- the company's vice president of corporate strategy and marketing -- to talk about the industry, where things are headed, and what ON is doing to grow its piece of the pie.

David Somo, ON Semiconductor's senior vice president of corporate strategy and marketing. Image source: ON Semiconductor.

ON Semiconductor is often lumped in with what has been dubbed the Internet of Things (IoT) movement, an oft-used term that has become almost generic. What is it exactly?

At the highest level, Somo defines it as "a way to bridge the physical and digital worlds with intelligent technology." Digging a little deeper, this essentially refers to machines and systems that are aware of their environment and deliver data to help improve our lives.

For ON, the rubber meets the road with the devices themselves, like the companies IoT Development Kit -- a hardware package with supporting software designed to help engineers quickly develop a range of devices from smart-home to industrial applications. The "out-of-the-box ready-to-deploy" system recently won the IoT Evolution Product of the Year award from IoT Evolution magazine.

With so many devices coming online, the industry is all about making development and testing of connected systems a quick process. The easier the kit is to use and the more comprehensive its coverage of the connected industry overall, the more likely an engineer is to do business with ON. Speaking to the importance of this, Somo had this to say:

Asthe market environment and application needs changed, we've evolved our business model to go from components, to modules, to more platforms. We are into systems enablement with the components and modules we offer. As devices become intelligent and need to be connected ... semiconductor companies are stepping up in applications capabilities, and ON Semiconductor is certainly trying to lead in this area to offer an out-of-the-box type of solution for customers to jump-start their development.

ON has been aggressively moving into connected automobiles and other industrial applications in recent years, building out a portfolio of differentiated products to capture more share of client's end systems.

To that end, artificial intelligence (AI) has begun to enter the equation for ON. Another buzzword in the tech industry, Somo defines it simply as a device gathering environmental data, looking for patterns in that data, and continuously learning from those patterns.

Perhaps the most visible part of the AI movement is with digital assistants like the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Echo, but the technology is getting applied mostly outside of consumer markets. Data center management, industrial robotics, and autonomous vehicles are some notable examples, Somo said.

AI is typically the realm of tech companies like Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), which provide the processing horsepower, but ON has found that the massive amounts of data being sent to the brain of a system like an autonomous-driving car or an industrial robot affects efficiency.

For example, in an autonomous car, the processor has to continuously parse through and make decisions on information coming from a dozen different sensors, including radar (object detection using radio waves) and lidar (object detection using light imaging) sensors. All that data transfer bogs down not just the main processor, but also the connections in the car carrying the data.

To help speed things up, Somo said, ON is building a single processor unit into its sensors to do some front-end decision making before sending relevant data to the main brain. That helps free up processing power, but more importantly it reduces the amount of bandwidth being consumed in the internal system of the car itself. That helps reduce the lag time as information is sent back and forth from the peripheral device to the brain of the car, a critical process for safety of the vehicle and its passengers.

Image source: Getty Images.

Estimates for the number of connected devices in operation by the end of this decade are all over the board, with some saying as many as 50 billion devices compared to about 8 billion now. Somo said ON tends to think in the 25 billion-to 30 billion-connection range by 2020, but it's almost impossible to say for sure.

The one thing that is for certain is that the opportunity is huge and there is plenty of new business to go around. ON provides a lot of detail on what industries are paying the bills, and currently the automotive and industrial sectors make up just shy of 60% of revenues. I asked Somo if that number will be consistent in the years ahead, or if ON will expand its presence into other areas.

I think automotive and industrial both have long legs under them, thinking about the megatrends that are there. Take automotive, there are four key megatrends, two of which we play in strongly and one we have some play in. The first is autonomous vehicles where you're building higher levels of autonomy ... we have a couple decades of runway to get there in capabilities.

Electric vehicles, we're hearing a lot of noise from companies like Volvo or Subaru, or like Audi and BMW all talking about a healthy percentage of their vehicle fleets are going to be electric motors by 2025.

The third megatrend is connected vehicles. We participate inside the vehicles, so connecting everything inside the vehicle, whether it's wired or wireless like Bluetooth. But there's also outside the vehicle as well, vehicle-to-vehicle, or vehicle-to-grid, and that's going to be more 5G-technology enabled.

The final area is in mobility services around autonomous vehicles. We really aren't quite at that level from an ecosystem vantage point. There is significant competition taking place there ... between the traditional automotive manufacturers andthe ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft, that are competing for how that is going to work over time.

The answer in short isthe company is always looking for new growth opportunities, but likes its current breakdown. Somo sees much connected device growth happening in theindustrial economy for years to come, providing plenty of opportunity.

Even though connected devices are booming, Somo said in ON's view the industry is well-balanced from a supply and demand perspective. Often fraught with periods of boom and bust as supply and demand changes, the company sees things as being neither hot nor cold but just right.Persisting balance betweensupply and demand means steady growth without substantial risk of an industry crash. That's good for all IoT companies, and is a good situation for ON as it continues to expand on its role as a device and connected systems supplier.

10 stocks we like better than ON Semiconductor

When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and ON Semiconductor wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017

Nicholas Rossolillo owns shares of ON Semiconductor. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Read the original post:

What ON Semiconductor Thinks About the IoT, AI, and the Future of Tech Development - Madison.com

One quarter of CFO Council members say AI is ‘critical’ to their companies – CNBC

Posted on by

Earlier this year, IBM ended a decades-old flexible work policy for thousands of its employees, reportedly to improve collaboration and productivity. Critics said it would harm its ability to compete for talented workers against the likes of Google, Apple and others.

For CFOs it presents a conundrum. Two thirds of CFOs responding to our survey agree that flexible work options are essential for attracting and retaining talent, but at the same time, 82 percent say the best innovations happen when people work together in a shared physical space.

IBM's CFO is not a member of the CNBC Global CFO Council. However, Yahoo's CFO Ken Goldman is a member. Yahoo famously (or infamously) ended all remote work in 2013, soon after Marissa Mayer took over as CEO. Survey responses are anonymous, so it is unknown whether or not Goldman completed this quarter's survey.

Will other companies follow the lead of IBM or Yahoo? For now it seems CFOs and their CEO bosses will live with the paradox. Only 15.4 percent of respondents say their company is even considering a limit on telecommuting.

Original post:

One quarter of CFO Council members say AI is 'critical' to their companies - CNBC

The age of AI: supercharging Europe’s tech transformation – Euronews

Posted on by

Business Planet travels to Dublin to see how one innovative firm's AI tech is offering children immersive play and learning experiences through voice recognition technology.Machines that make learning child's play

Irish company SoapBox Labs says it has developed the worlds most accurate and safe voice recognition technology for children. Founded in 2013, the company uses artificial intelligence tailored to help kids play and learn more immersively using their own voices.

"While people are probably familiar with speech recognition for adults, in voice assistance or in smart speakers, our technology has been built specifically for children, and thats modelling their voices and speech behaviours using state of the art AI technology,explains SoapBox Labs CEO, Patricia Scanlon.

The company's technology has attracted the tech giants. The firm is already working with Microsoft to boost child literacy and tackle problems surrounding child data privacy.

Its technology was also recently chosen by Reach Every Reader, a US based literacy project backed by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, through their ChanZuckerberg Initiative.

Going forward the company aims to be the leading provider of voice tech and so-called kid-tech, in both smart toys and education.

We already have 27 global commercial licenses and weve scaled the platform into multiple languages, so our main markets now are education, and thats literacy and language learning globally, and now we are moving into off-line, voice enabling for smart toys and robotics."

Soapbox Labs received a grant of nearly 1.5 million euros from the European Innovation Council Accelerator. It seeks to give top class innovators and entrepreneurs the financial rocket fuel they need to take off, while also putting them on the right path to starting and running a successful business.

"We can provide up to 2.5 million euros in grant funding, up to 15 million euros in equity funding, obviously networking, coaching and then leveraging in other private investors, explains Professor Mark Ferguson, the Chair of the European Innovation Council Advisory Board. He adds: "Were looking for people with game changing ideas, that are going to create world-beating companies, great for Europeans, [with a] really dedicated team, fantastic technology, thats going to disrupt and create good markets.

Despite the benefits and opportunities connected with the rise of such game-changing technology, the advent of Artificial Intelligence has some people concerned. With that in mind, the European Commission presented its approach to AI and robotics in 2018 with its Communication on AI for Europe. This seeks to recognise the strategic importance of these technologies as key drivers of economic development and business, while also emphasising that AI needs to be developed in a responsible way in accordance with EU values.

In the next few weeks, the European Commission will present its latest proposals for further developing the EU's approach to artificial intelligence.

So the EIC accelerator is different from all of the other accelerators that are out there. Essentially, we are interested in companies with a high risk, a risk where perhaps the private investor may not yet go. And those companies need to be really disruptive. They need to be disrupting existing markets, or have a completely new product, and we are willing to invest there. We will want to crowd in subsequent investment. Well want to de-risk it, and well want to make sure there's a very secure business plan, and well want to make sure the technology and the science is good, but we are willing to take a higher risk than others - and that's the real difference.

Well, there are various things. First of all, there is a grant application, you can get up to 2.5 million euros, and equity up to 15 million euros. So that's the investment part of the portfolio. Then, of course, there is networking and consultancy, so you can get help from a whole range of consultants across Europe who will provide coaching in whatever area the company needs, and then there's networking with larger corporates So that's essentially what the EIC is doing. And its real objective is to invest in disruptive technologies that will be fantastic businesses for Europe, that will hopefully solve a lot of societal problems and that will grow in scale to be large companies. I mean, I often paraphrase it by saying, those companies are solving relevant problems in responsible ways.

I think you have to have a good business plan. You have to have the good technology. You have to have the right team, so that team can take the business and grow it. You need to know what you're asking for, your plans. So that's basically the kind of tips. There's no restriction. I mean, this is about building the businesses for Europe. We want Europeans to get the success out of these companies, both in their economy and in terms of what the companies are doing. And we want those companies to be world leading...so my strong recommendation, is read the form, answer the questions, feel free to network and talk with people. Make an application. You will get feedback, and that's what I would advise people to do.

Read this article:

The age of AI: supercharging Europe's tech transformation - Euronews