Turkish operation to bring peace in region, NATO PA told – Anadolu Agency

Posted on by

LONDON

Turkey on Saturday briefed about the countrys ongoing Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria at NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) in London.

"We told the parties that Turkey launched the operation as part of the Article 51 of the UN Convention to protect our rights at the border, to prevent the persecution of the terrorists in the region and to prevent the attacks," said Osman Askin Bak, the head of Turkish delegation of the NATO PA.

Speaking at the 65th annual session in the U.K.'s capital London, Bak stressed that Operation Peace Spring was launched to bring peace to the region as it was done before with Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch.

Bak also mentioned that the Turkish delegation expressed their views on the issues of terrorism and refugees at the committees of the NATO PA and Turkish side highlighted that, up to 2 million refugees can live in the safe zones that will be established by the Operation Peace Spring.

"Our European allies and friends do not support us [on refugee issue]. They follow two-faced policies. But we will decisively complete this operation," he added.

Relations with Russia, Iran's nuclear program and situation in Afghanistan will be issued on Monday at the session which NATOs General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg will also be attending.

Continue reading here:

Turkish operation to bring peace in region, NATO PA told - Anadolu Agency

Review: Joker? I barely know her! – University of Pittsburgh The Pitt News

Posted on by

In the beginning of Todd Phillips Joker, the titular character Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) gets beaten up by a teenage gang so deliberately characterless it couldve been pulled from a 90s morning cartoon. He twirls a furniture store sign on the sidewalk while dressed as a clown for money, dancing joyfully and sinuously, before said teens snatch it from him. They lure him into an alley, smash his face with the sign and kick him while he cries and his fake flower lapel leaks water onto the pavement. The camera pans out. Ominous music sounds. Then the title drops like a cinder block Joker.

I laughed out loud when I saw this. I dont think I was supposed to. But the scene was so self-pitying that it wasnt hard to imagine the director self-righteously nodding as he watched the first cut. You see, its not him thats crazy, Phillips mightve said. Its society.

Jokers origin story has an unlikely counterpart Netflixs recent release Tall Girl, about a 6-foot-1 high school student who finds friendship and love despite being tall. Hows the weather up there? a classmate snidely asks her in one scene. Face it, Jodi. Youre the Tall Girl, a friend self-righteously tells her. Her story is entirely defined by her height. Shes not a character so much as a vector for a single personality trait.

Tall Girls trailer sparked deserved scorn and delight on Twitter. Its a high school oppression tale that couldve been written by algorithm. Its stripped of nuance, complexity and features a main character whose identity consists of nothing more than the way people react to their defining trait. But the internet-fueled hype and fear surrounding Jokers release mask a similar problem its also a movie that couldve been written by an algorithm.

Hey freak! one stranger shouts at Fleck as he walks down the street in his clown outfit. Look at this joker, Robert De Niros Letterman-esque character says to mock Flecks stand-up comedy tape. Hes later nicer to Fleck in person, but even then his tone echoes that of the Netflix film. He might as well have said, Face it, Joker. Youre the Clown Guy.

Fleck becomes a singular vehicle for rage in the way that Tall Girl is a vehicle for being tall. What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash? he howls at De Niro in one of the films most cringe-worthy lines. Without spoiling too much, the punchline is less funny and more predictable than youd expect.

Phoenix gives a masterful performance despite the scripts limitations, though. His talent shines when Phillips gives him the least to say. In one scene, Fleck imitates a woman dancing on TV while holding his newly acquired gun. He raises his hands above his head like a belly dancer and twists his hips. He slips into reverie as his gun gives him the confidence to contemplate desiring and being desired in turn. Then he accidentally shoots his wall and jolts back to his repressed adulthood.

Later, he screams at the man who denies being his father in an opera house bathroom. Maybe just a little affection, Dad! Maybe you would have showed up! he simultaneously shouts and sneers. Phoenix delivers a twitching, pained portrayal of a man who craves love so deeply that its denial destroys his psyche.But that same sympathetic portrayal also robs Fleck of any villainous agency. Hes a man who bad things happen to and who the film presents as being forced to do bad things in turn. His motivation seems to be to revenge himself on a city thats unrealistically out to kill him. We learn that he has multiple mental illnesses (I take seven pills) but we never find out what they are. We learn that he was abused as a child but are only told the vaguest contours of what form that abuse took. Three drunk Wall Street guys who know Stephen Sondheim songs by heart beat him up on a subway. And were meant to understand that these inevitably lead to mass murdering psychopathy, despite evidence that many real-life extremists come from very normal homes.

Arthur doesnt even do anything particularly villainous throughout the film. Phillips presents everyone who he kills on screen as having karmically deserved it. The fate of the one innocent character who he mightve killed, which wouldve turned him into an unambiguously evil character, is left deliberately ambiguous. This is where the film most significantly fails. Showing a beaten-down man who willfully decides to kill a woman whos not interested in him mightve actually illuminated something about our time. But a movie about a self-perceived antihero who lashes out against a society that doesnt understand him? Id prefer if wed stopped at Atlas Shrugged.

See the rest here:

Review: Joker? I barely know her! - University of Pittsburgh The Pitt News

Right-wingers finally got their Ayn Rand hero as president and it’s this guy – Salon

Posted on by

When she was young, author Ayn Rand had a schoolgirl crush on a man who murdered, dismembered and disemboweled 12-year-old Marion Parker, before dumping her body on the street, after promising to return her alive to her parents. That 1927 murder was big news, especially in Los Angeles, where the crime had occurred, and it certainly got the attention of Rand, who had just moved to the city after emigrating from the Soviet Union. She immediately began work on a novel, which she called "Little Street,"with a hero based on the murderer, William Hickman.

While Rand's modern-day fans are quick to argue that Rand didn't endorse the murder,it's safe to say she thought highly of Hickman himself and sneered at the people who denounced him, writing that they exhibited "the mobs murderous desire to revenge its hurt vanity against a man who dared to be alone." This champion of individualism said that Hickman's "degeneracy" showed "how society can wreck an exceptional being." She got to work sketching a protagonist based on Hickman, one with a "wonderful, free, light consciousness" resulting from "the absolute lack of social instinct or herd feeling" and having "no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people."

Rand eventually scrapped the idea for "Little Street," but most historians argue that she reworked her idea of the individualistic, contemptuous hero into her later novels, "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." These two books, and Rand's writings on her selfishness-oriented philosophy she deemed "Objectivism," have become the backbone of modern conservatism, a pseudo-intellectual rationalization beloved by Republicans such as former House Speaker Paul Ryan or Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky for a reactionary movement that rose up to reject the feminist and antiracist movements of the 20th century.

In her purple prose, Rand romanticized the capitalist predator as a handsome, virile man whose towering intellect justifies his massive ego and disregard for the common masses. It's why conservatives, angry about the election of Barack Obama, started publicly identifying with John Galt, who is the great-man-among-parasites hero of "Atlas Shrugged."

The question that haunts that novel is, "Who is John Galt?" Now we finally have the answer: Donald Trump.

It turns out a philosophy of radical selfishness is not sexy or heroic, but comes in the form of a half-literate narcissist, cheered on by a bunch of sweatpants-clad fascists as he commits crimes in service of conspiracy theories he hopes will trick the ignorant masses into electing him again.

"In the abstract, Rand would have said that her ideal man upholds reason and capitalism. Based on how this plays out in her books, her ideal man is rich, sexually aggressive, sociopathically unconcerned with what others think of him," author Adam Lee, who spent years blogging his close reading of "Atlas Shrugged,"told Salon.

"The real message Rand's works convey is that her protagonists are exempt from the puny standards of law and morality that the common people try to tie them down with," Lee added, noting that the heroes of Rand's bookscommit rape, mock the people who will die in their shoddily built housing and threaten violence to punish wives who disapprove of their adultery.

Trump's time in politics has been a true test of Rand's theory, which has been embraced by modern Republicans, that this kind of sociopathic selfishness is what compels men to greatness of the sorts that we ordinary people, with our plebeian concerns about moral duty to others and the common good, cannot understand. After all, one thing that is certain about Trump is that, like a true Randian hero, he acts only for himself and to satisfy his own ego, and has no concern for others outside of how they serve his interests.

The results, it's safe to say, are underwhelming. Trump's Randian philosophy of pure self-interest is, of course, why he felt it wise to abandon the traditional point of international diplomacy, which is to advance national interests, in favor of viewing other nations merely as resources to be exploited for his own personal and political gain. That's how he ended up on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, extorting the man to pony up manufactured conspiracy theories about a Democratic presidential candidate in exchange for military aid.

The fallout has, needless to say, been a little less John Galt and a little more Richard Nixon ranting pathetically about his enemies. Trump's blatant lies and grasping excuses for his behavior don't cause the heart to soar so much as the eyes to avert in embarrassment. As the outlines of Trump's conspiracy, with the clownish Rudy Giuliani at its center, come into view, the picture is less that of triumphant individualists sticking it to the small-brained masses than of a bunch of idiots who have vastly overrated their own abilities to pull off pointless crimes.

Nor has Trump's Randian attitude towards his henchmen, in which he shows them no weak-minded loyalty or gratitude for their service, worked out quite as well for him as it's supposed to. Trump's firing national security adviser John Bolton, himself no paragon of social virtue, was the move of a classic Randian hero. Bolton, after all, had the temerity to question the great man's judgment regarding matters like the Ukraine extortion, and had to be dispatched with contempt. But now reports that paint Bolton favorably (in itself a remarkable accomplishment) and make Trump look like a blithering idiot are worming their way into the news, suggesting that Trump's unwillingness to keep the good opinion of his henchmen is coming back around to bite him.

Conservatives like Paul Ryan may wrinkle their noses at Trump's uncouth demeanor and petty behavior, but this is what they signed up for in exalting Ayn Rand as some great philosopher. Despite the high-minded rhetoric, the lived reality of selfishness as a philosophy is less like the fictional figures of Howard Roark and John Galt, and more like the incoherent, small-minded sociopathy of Donald Trump. The great man of the Objectivist imagination has always been a silly fantasy. But it's particularly rich and satisfying that now that the Ayn Rand fanboys finally have a leader who lives out their supposed ideals, the result is the comic, pathetic and catastrophic figure now disgracing the White House.

Read the original:

Right-wingers finally got their Ayn Rand hero as president and it's this guy - Salon

This Strange Rule Is What Makes the Human Brain So Powerful – Singularity Hub

Posted on by

Run a supercomputer every second of every day, and eventually its storage will fill up, its speed decrease, and its components burn out.

Yet our brains run with astonishing efficacy nearly every moment of our lives. For 40 years, scientists have wondered how delicate biological components, strung together in a seemingly chaotic heap, can maintain continuous information storage over decades. Even as individual neurons die, our neural networks readjust, fine-tuning their connections to sustain optimal data transmission. Unlike a game of telephone with messages that increasingly deteriorate, somehow our neurons self-assemble into a magical state, where they can renew almost every single component of their interior protein makeup, yet still hold onto the memories stored within.

This week, a team from Washington University in St. Louis combined neural recordings from rats with computer modeling to uncover one of the largest mysteries of the brain: why, despite noisy components, its so damn powerful. By analyzing firing patterns from hundreds of neurons over days, the team found evidence that supports a type of computational regime that may underlie every thought and behavior that naturally emerge from electrical sparks in the brainincluding consciousness.

The answer, as it happens, has roots in an abstruse and controversial idea in theoretical physics: criticality. For one of the first times, the team observed an abstract pull that lures neural networks back into an optimal functional state, so they never stray far from their dedicated set points determined by evolution. Even more mind-blowing? That attractive force somehow emerges from a hidden universe of physical laws buried inside the architecture of entire neural networks, without any single neuron dictating its course.

Its an elegant idea: that the brain can tune an emergent property to a point neatly predicted by the physicists, said lead author Dr. Keith Hengen.

Attractor point sounds like pickup artist lingo, but its a mathematical way to describe balance in natural forces (cue Star Wars music). An easy-to-imagine example is a coiled spring, like those inside mattresses: you can stretch or crush them over years, but they generally snap back to their initial state.

That initial state is an attractor. A similar principle, though far more abstract, guides neural activity, especially the main drivers of the brains communication: inhibitory and excitatory neurons. Think of them as the yin and yang of electrical activity in the brain. Both send spikes of electricity to their neighbors, with inhibitory neurons dampening the transmission and excitatory ones amplifying the message. The more signals come in, the more spikes they send outsomething called a firing rate, kind of like the beats-per-minute music of brain activity.

Yet even individual neurons have a capped level of activation. Normally, they can never fire so much it messes up their physical structures. In other words, neurons are self-limiting. On a wider scale, neural networks also have a global tuning nob that works on the majority of synapses, mushroom-shaped structures protruding from neural branches where neurons talk to each other.

If the network gets too excited, the nob dials down to quiet transmission signals before the brain over-activates to a state of chaosseeing things that arent there, such as in schizophrenia. But the dial also prevents neural networks from being too lackadaisical, as can happen in other neurological disorders including dementia.

When neurons combine, they actively seek out a critical regime, explained Hegen. Somehow groups of interlinked neurons achieve a state of activity right at the border of chaos and quiescence, ensuring they have an optimally high level of information storage and processingwithout tipping over into an avalanche of activity and subsequent burnout.

Understanding how the brain reaches criticality is enormous, not just for preserving the brains abilities with age and disease, but also for building better brain-mimicking machines. So far, the team said, work on criticality has been theoretical; we wanted to hunt down actual signals in the brain.

Hegens team took advantage of modern high-density electrodes, which can record from hundreds of neurons over a period of days. They set off with two questions: one, can the cortexthe outermost brain region involved in higher cognitive functionsmaintain brain activity at a critical point? Two, is it because of individual neurons, which tend to constrain their own activity levels?

Here comes the fun part: rats with pirate-eye patches. Blocking incoming light signals in one eye causes massive reorganization of neural activity over time, and the team monitored these changes over the course of a week. First, in rats running around their cages with implanted electrodes, the team recorded their neural activity while the animals had both eyes open. Using a mathematical method to parse the data into neuronal avalanchescascades of electrical spikes that remain relatively local in a networkthe team found that the visual cortex undulated on the brink of criticality, regardless of daytime or night. Question one, solved.

The team next occluded a single eye in their rats. After a little more than a day, neurons that carry information from the pirate patch-eye went quiet. Yet by day five, the neurons rebounded back in activity to their attractor baselineexactly what the team predicted.

But surprisingly, network criticality didnt follow a similar timeline. Almost immediately after blocking the eye, scientists saw a massive shift in their network state away from criticalitythat is, away from optimal computation.

It seems that as soon as theres a mismatch between what the animal expects and what its getting through that eye, the computational dynamic falls apart, said Hengen.

In two days, however, the network inched back to a near criticality state, long before individual neurons recovered their activity levels. In other words, maximal computation in the brain isnt because individual neuron components are also working at their maximum; rather, even with imperfect components, neural networks naturally converge towards criticality, or optimal solutions.

Its an emergent property at its finest: the result of individual neural computation is more than its sum. [Its] what we [can] learn from lots of electrodes, commented Dr. Erik Herzog, a neuroscientist at Washington University who was not involved in the study.

Emergent phenomena, such as complex thought and consciousness, are often brushed to philosophical discussionare our minds more than electrical firing? Is there some special, abstract property such as qualia that emerges from measurable, physical laws?

Rather than resorting to hand-waving theories, the team went the second route: they hunted down the biological bases of criticality. Using computational methods, they tried a handful of different models of the visual cortex, playing around with various parameters until they found a model that behaved the same way as their one-eyed rats.

We explored over 400 combinations of different parameters, the team said, and less than 0.5 percent of the models matched our observation. The successful models had one thing in common: they all pointed to inhibitory connections as the crux of achieving criticality.

In other words, optimal computation in the brain isnt because of magic fairy dust; the architecture of inhibitory connections is a foundational root upon which mind-bending abstract physical principles, such as criticality, can grow and guide brain function.

Thats enormously good news for deep learning and other AI models. Most currently employ few inhibitory connections, and the study immediately points at a way to move towards criticality in artificial neural networks. Larger storage and better data transmissionwho doesnt want that? Going even further, to some, criticality may even present a way towards nailing down consciousness in our brains and potentially in machines, though the idea is controversial.

More immediately, the team believes that criticality can be used to examine neural networks in neurological disorders. Impaired self-regulation can result in Alzheimers, epilepsy, autism, and schizophrenia, said Hengen. Scientists have long known many of our most troubling brain disorders are because of network imbalances, but pinpointing a measurable, exact cause is difficult. Thanks to criticality, we may finally have a way to peek inside the hidden world of physical laws in our brainsand tune them towards health.

It makes intuitive sense, that evolution selected for the bits and pieces that give rise to an optimal solution [in brain computation]. But time will tell. Theres a lot of work to be done, said Hengen.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Continue reading here:

This Strange Rule Is What Makes the Human Brain So Powerful - Singularity Hub

Investment in Quantum Computing Is BoomingBut Will a Quantum Winter Follow? – Singularity Hub

Posted on by

Quantum computing is red hot right now, not least after Googles recent announcement that it had achieved quantum supremacy. An analysis by Nature shows the quantum hype is translating into a massive investment boost in the technology, but it might be a double-edged sword.

Quantum supremacy refers to the point at which a quantum computer can perform calculations beyond the most powerful classical computer imaginable. After all the hype about this milestone one might have expected a great fanfare when it was achieved, but instead the paper describing it was accidentally leaked by Googles collaborators at NASA.

Nonetheless, its a significant marker. While the problem it solved was practically useless and chosen specifically to favor the quantum device, the man who coined the term, John Preskill, writes that it demonstrates the hardware works as we hoped it would.

Now starts the long journey to applying that quantum speedup to more useful problems, but despite the long timescales it will take for this to happen, money has been pouring into the field.

Google, IBM, and Intel have all been investing considerable sums into quantum computing for several years, but Nature found that in 2017 and 2018 quantum technology companies received at least $450 million in private fundingmore than four times the $104 million disclosed over the previous two years.

Much of that money is coming from VC funds, raising the prospect of the same kind of boom as was seen in AI at the turn of the decade. But given that most experts think its still a long road to doing anything practical with quantum computers, theres growing fear that all this excitement could lead to a quantum winter.

The term borrows from the AI industry, which prior to its recent boom has experienced two AI winters. Hype and unrealistic expectations led to a huge surge in interest followed by a dramatic retraction after disappointing progress saw investors pull out.

Theres growing fear in quantum computing circles that the breathless headlines around the race for quantum supremacy may have inflated expectations. Todays devices are error-prone and measured in tens of qubits, but we will need to build machines of thousands if not millions of qubits to achieve an error-free, general-purpose quantum computer able to solve a broad selection of useful problems.

Nature notes a particularly worrying sign: a significant amount of investment so far has gone into quantum software companies, which are designing algorithms and programs for devices that dont yet exist. Given that consensus still hasnt developed on what the underlying materials of a quantum computer should be, that seems premature.

A more pernicious problem is the danger of a brain drain as companies flush with investor cash lure the best minds out of academia in a mirror of what has happened in AI. Given that there are still fundamental questions that need to be answered about quantum computing, in a field as small as it is that could severely hamper progress.

Ultimately, its a question of horizons. Few in the field doubt we will be able to build a powerful general-purpose quantum computer, but the question is whether investors are willing to wait the decades it could take to get there.

A solution to that quandary would be to find uses for the smaller, imperfect machines we have today. Theres a growing body of research in this direction, but even in the best-case scenario these devices will likely only be able to solve some niche problems in things like chemistry or optimization.

One saving grace is that quantum technology is not only about computers. Quantum communications and quantum cryptography have been making major advances in recent years and are likely to reach widespread commercial adoption considerably sooner, which could help maintain the fields momentum.

Theres also considerable foresight about the potential for a quantum winter from within the industry. Michael Marthaler, co-founder of startup Heisenberg Quantum Simulations, told The Economist hes already expecting one and is just hoping his firm is established enough by then to hibernate. Matthew Kinsella, managing director at Maverick Ventures, told Business Insider hes preparing for a retraction despite having invested in a quantum technology company.

Given the nascent state of the field, theres plenty of potential for a sudden breakthrough, for instance if silicon-based quantum computers make it possible to build large devices much sooner than expected, or Microsofts pursuit of far more stable topological qubits sidesteps the error-correction problem.

So dont be surprised if the investors keep piling in.

Image Credit: Dmitriy Rybin/Shutterstock.com

The rest is here:

Investment in Quantum Computing Is BoomingBut Will a Quantum Winter Follow? - Singularity Hub

Fortnite season 11 event ends with a cosmic explosion and now the game is gone – The Advocate

Posted on by

Oscar Gonzalez, provided by

Fortnite season 11 event ends with a cosmic explosion and now the game is gone

This article, Fortnite season 11 event ends with a cosmic explosion and now the game is gone, originally appeared on CNET.com.

After a week's delay, Fortnite season 10 ended Sunday with The End event that would have introduced season 11. But it was literally the end as the game was no longer playable after the event started.

An explosive season-ending event caused the destruction of the island and apparently the game itself, as it's not playable at time of writing.

Fortnite has ended. For now.

Like in season 4, the event started off with a rocket launching into the sky and exploding to create rifts. Like in the earlier event, the rocket went out of one rift into another. This time, however, there were several more rockets. The spacecrafts then flew around into multiple rifts again and again until they all entered one final rift.

After a moment of calmness, the rockets appeared above the meteor over Dusty Depot. One by one they entered another rift below the meteor. Dozens of more rockets than previously seen appeared only to slam into this final rift, which caused the rift to grow. The meteor that was frozen over Dusty Depot throughout season 10 began to move, and then it, too, disappeared into the now large rift.

For a moment, the meteor and rockets were gone.

Then the music of the event began to swell and far above the island was one giant rift. Players were then sent into the air, floating uncontrollably. Finally, out of the rift, six rockets and the meteor reappeared. The rockets changed directions to fly off in different directions while the meteor crashed into the singularity located at Loot Lake. The dome surrounding the area attempted to shield the island, but it failed as the meteor finally smash into the island as it did at the end of season 4 but with much more of an impact.

An explosion occurred when then began sucking in everything. The island, the Battle Bus and even the players were soon gone in a blink.

All that was left was a black hole.

The official Fortnite Twitter account and website only show the black hole. The game's Instagram account shows the same.

Since then, developer Epic deleted all of the more than 12,000 tweets on the Fortnite Twitter account, aside from the link to the stream of the black hole.

The Fortnite YouTube channel has a livestream of the event that shows the explosions and is currently streaming just the singularity. More than 1 million people tuned in to watch the event unfold on Twitch.

During the stream, keen-eyed viewers saw a set of numbers appear around the black hole: 146, 11, 15, and 62.

Read the original post:

Fortnite season 11 event ends with a cosmic explosion and now the game is gone - The Advocate

My Hero Academia Explains the Growing Problem with Quirk Evolution – Comicbook.com

Posted on by

My Hero Academia's manga has been laying the groundwork for a huge conflict for the last few arcs, but one of the most mysterious teases has involved the true power of One For All. When Izuku Midoriya started tapping into its power, and opened up the door to more quirks at his disposal, there was an ominous tease about an approaching singularity. But the latest chapter of the series has given an explanation behind what this is referring to as All For One's doctor theorizes that it has to do with rapidly evolving quirks.

As he examines just how much stronger Shigaraki has gotten since his fight with Re-Destro, the doctor explains that rapidly evolving quirks are starting to reach outside of humanity's control and approaching what's he has coined as a "Quirk Singularity."

Chapter 246 of the series sees the doctor explain that each generation has provided stronger quirks that are starting to mix, and becoming more complex and ambiguous. As he theorizes, humanity's collective memory is evolving with each new generation as well, but there will eventually be a point where they won't be able to keep up with the growing quirks.

This would lead to the quirks eventually going out of control, and reaching a "Quirk Singularity." The Doctor reveals that All For One was the only one to take this theory seriously, and the human race will soon become unstable. It's a problem that began with the fourth generation of quirks, but Shigaraki can continue to evolve and overcome this singularity and potentially even take One For All for himself.

This ominous tease compounds on what Midoriya foresaw in his vision. When he looked into the past of One For All, and saw the first vestige, the vestige spoke to him and warned the singularity was approaching. With a clear time line toward an even bigger conflict, this could potentially be a compounded warning as the singularity could be approaching as well.

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he's eventually scouted by the world's best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015. My Hero Academia will also be launching its second big movie, Heroes Rising, in Japan this December.

More here:

My Hero Academia Explains the Growing Problem with Quirk Evolution - Comicbook.com

Evolus and Clarion Medical Technologies Announce First Shipment of Nuceiva (prabotulinumtoxinA) to Customers in Canada – GlobeNewswire

Posted on by

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. and CAMBRIDGE, Ontario, Oct. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evolus, Inc.(NASDAQ: EOLS) and Clarion Medical Technologies, a leading Canadian provider of medical and aesthetic equipment and consumables, today announced the first shipment of Nuceiva (prabotulinumtoxinA) in Canada. Nuceiva is a 900 kDa purified botulinum toxin type A formulation that is approved by Health Canada for the temporary improvement in the appearance of moderate to severe glabellar lines in adult patients < 65 years of age.

Clarion is well positioned to launch Nuceiva in Canada considering their robust product portfolio and relationships with providers across the country, said David Moatazedi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Evolus. Our exclusive partnership with Clarion will allow us to maximize the opportunity in Canada while maintaining our singularity of focus on the launch of Jeuveau in the United States.

We are pleased to be the only authorized provider of Nuceiva in Canada, said Samson Ling, President and Chief Executive Officer of Clarion Medical Technologies. We pride ourselves in offering a comprehensive aesthetic portfolio of equipment, dermal fillers and skincare products and look forward to the addition of Nuceiva.

The product was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in February 2019 and launched under the brand name, Jeuveau, in May 2019. Nuceiva was authorized for sale by Health Canada in August 2018.

Nuceiva is now available throughout Canada. Providers are encouraged to contact their Clarion Business Consultants or email nuceivainfo@clarionmedical.com for product and ordering information.

About Evolus, Inc.Evolusis a performance beauty company with a customer-centric approach focused on delivering breakthrough products. In 2019, theU.S. Food and Drug Administrationapproved Jeuveau (prabotulinumtoxinA-xvfs), the first and only neurotoxin dedicated exclusively to aesthetics and manufactured in a state-of-the-art facility using Hi-Pure technology. Jeuveau is powered byEvolus'unique technology platform and is designed to transform the aesthetic market by eliminating the friction points existing for customers today. Visit us at:www.evolus.com.

About Clarion Medical Technologies Inc. Clarion Medical Technologies is a leading Canadian provider of medical and aesthetic equipment and consumables to hospitals, aesthetic clinics and private medical practices. The company specializes in aesthetic, otolaryngology, gynecology, urology and vision applications. Clarion Medical's strength is on harnessing the power of innovative technologies, the talents of our people and the expertise of our partners to deliver innovative solutions that improve healthcare. Products and services offered include: laser technologies, diagnostic equipment, skincare, dermal fillers, intra-ocular lenses, laser fibers, clinical education, laser safety, technical support, and regulatory and marketing services.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to the status of regulatory processes, future plans, events, prospects or performance and statements containing the words plans, expects, believes, strategy, opportunity, anticipates, outlook, continue, or other forms of these words or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. The companys forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Companys position, prospects and opportunities in Canada with respect to Nuceiva and ability to maintain singular focus in the United States. Forward-looking statements are based on current estimates and assumptions made by management of the company and are believed to be reasonable, though they are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or experience to differ materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or experience to differ materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements include uncertainties associated with the success of the launch of Jeuveau, including customer and consumer adoption of the product, competition and market dynamics, our ongoing legal proceedings and our ability to maintain regulatory approval of Jeuveau and other risks described in the section entitled Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2019 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 20, 2019 and August 12, 2019, respectively, all of which are available online at http://www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, Evolus undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, changed circumstances or unanticipated events. If the company does update or revise one or more of these statements, investors and others should not conclude that the company will make additional updates or corrections.

Jeuveau is a registered trademark and NuceivaTM is a trademark ofEvolus, Inc. Hi-Pure is a trademark of Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd.

Evolus, Inc.Contacts:Investor Contact:Ashwin Agarwal,Evolus, Inc.Vice President, Finance, Investor Relations & TreasuryTel: +1-949-284-4559Email:IR@Evolus.com

Media Contact:Crystal Muilenburg,Evolus, Inc.Vice President,Corporate Communications & Public RelationsTel: +1-949-284-4506Email:media@evolus.com

Clarion Contact:Courtney TurnerTel: 1-800-668-5236 ext. 1273Email: courtneyt@clarionmedical.com

See the rest here:

Evolus and Clarion Medical Technologies Announce First Shipment of Nuceiva (prabotulinumtoxinA) to Customers in Canada - GlobeNewswire

The exponential value of connections – IT-Online

Posted on by

Kathy Gibson is at SingularityU Summit in Kyalami Before the singularity (the point where machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence) can happen, we need to all connect.

Ramez Naam, Singularity U chair for energy and environment, calls this the syncularity.

Humans have had to connect through history in order to survive, he points out.

This began with the democratisation of reading and writing, which led to a global explosion in the pace of innovation.

Every piece of technology you have today is because we found ways to supercharge the connection between scientists and innovators to bring ideas together and this gives birth to new ideas, Naam explains.

Moores Law is important, but there are two others that are also important

Neilsens Law deals with exponential data speed increase and we are seeing a 50-times increase in speed each decade.

Metcalfes Law explains that the number of connections in a network is the square of the number of nodes.

We live in an era of unicorns, Naam says. There are hundreds of startups worth more than $1-billion today and they are all networking companies rather than product companies.

This is what is driving extraordinary wealth creation in these startups. You have to ask if you are building a network?

But is not just about wealth creation, it is about value creation, Naam says.

Global Internet penetration is now at 51%, and this is helping to break down barriers to solve the fragmentation of the world, breaking down silos.

Language translation is a good example of how technology is breaking down barriers, Naam adds.

Imagine if you can be anywhere ni the world, and you can take any online course in your own language.

Imagine what this will do for our perceptions of others. What happens to our conception of other versus self when we can talk the same language?

Africa is the least connected continent, so there is massive opportunity for new connectivity.

Fewer than half of people in sub-Saharan Africa have mobile phones. However, there is massive growth, says Naam.

By 2025, half a billion people will be connected to the mobile Internet, and two-thirds of those will be on smartphones. The data available to the average person will quadruple in the next five years.

This is driving hundreds of billions of dollars of economic value on the continent, And most of this is in additional value people doing things they couldnt do before.

Opportunities exist in areas like healthcare, where technology can scale more easily than people, and is coming up with solutions that start to make a difference on the ground.

Agriculture is another area where connected technology is making huge strides to improve yield and marketability of crops.

Technology is already delivering huge benefits in education, and this will continue to be felt as connectivity increases and machine learning is refined.

What we are going to see is a virtuous cycle, a platform effect of gathering data that can make the artificial intelligence (AI) better.

What we see in successful ventures is this flywheel: as you deploy the app you get more data, your AI gets more effective, more people want ot use the product, and the product gets better.

Companies should think about what data they are not using today, and how they could use it.

Naam points out that there is a dark side of data there is fake data, hate speech and more.

But technology has always been misused in these ways, he says. In spite of this, the technologies have led to a better world, not a worse one.

Related

Original post:

The exponential value of connections - IT-Online

Team Liquid Will Face Off Against The Renegades Tonight in CS:GO In A Heavily Anticipated Match – Happy Gamer

Posted on by

The ESL Pro League Americas continues in their rambunctious rollercoaster of emotions tonight as Season 10 continues, in a hotly anticipated match of Team Liquid, versus the current underdogs Renegades. While Liquid is a clear forerunner for this match, the Renegades are coming off of a pristine 2-0 win against both ATK and American team Singularity, while boasting a favorable map pool for the current competitive climate of 67% win rate in three of the seven selectable maps. While those numbers may seem to favor Liquid at first glance, its important to note that the teams may opt to ban any map of their choosing within the currently available pool of seven, and choosing one, with the final map being the one that was not banned. Thus, strategy in the selection of beneficial terrain can wildly alter how a selected match may play out.

If fortune favors the Renegades tonight, and they can choose the first map pick, the odds will firmly shift in favor of the Renegades, as their map advantages are the weakest maps the Liquid have had showings on thus far in Season 10. Conversely, if Liquid receives first map pick, the Renegades have an even greater uphill battle to fight. A strong showing from the Renegades may very well turn their group fate around, and giving them a chance to punch their own ticket to Denmark for the Counter Strike: Global Offensive finals this December.

GGWP to Singularity, our late night series comes to an end.

We take the win 2-1, and take on Renegades tomorrow for a chance to qualify straight to finals in Odense. We hope to see you there #LetsGoLiquid pic.twitter.com/BS7BGI4lJO

Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) October 16, 2019

Core win-rate statistics across the current map pool for ESL Season 10 favor Liquid, with an average of 61.6% victory across all maps within the last three months, while Renegades holding a current 57.6% win rate of current map pool. The deciding factor will be individual plays, as this season has adopted a rather PUG style of individual performance versus team tactics and strategy, and in that aspect Team Liquid holds the cards yet again with their astonishing level of play against Singularity last night. Worth noting that Singularity was able to gain the first map against Team Liquid, while the Renegades orchestrated a clean sweep against them.

Stewie2k had an impressive three kill in a round last night, solidifying their lead against Singularity on Dust2, and further cementing his prestige in the Counter Strike: Global Offensive competitive scene as a man to be feared in the clutch.

STEWWWWWWWWWIIIIIIEEEEEE THIS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED@Stewie #ESLProLeague https://t.co/ZvDWXMCAnq pic.twitter.com/ZmV7MwjVab

ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 16, 2019

Yet the Renegades have been no slouch in individual performances either, with impressive clips of Gratisfaction and jks performing fantastically against ATK and Singularity.

In past meetings, Liquid has triumphed over the Renegades more often than not, with ten victories against the Renegades four, which is most likely one of the most beneficial factors in the odds presented for this match. Team Liquid factors an average of 1.35, versus the Renegades betting average of 3.18 for the match.

If Team Liquid holds fast tonight and manages to triumph against Renegades, they will punch their ticket to the finals in Denmark in December, giving them an opportunity to walk away with yet another championship prize pool. You can watch the match on Twitch.tv on the ESL TV channel, starting at 8:25 EST.

See the rest here:

Team Liquid Will Face Off Against The Renegades Tonight in CS:GO In A Heavily Anticipated Match - Happy Gamer

Quincy Crew will play the Minor with Singularity’s offlaner SabeRLight- – VPEsports

Posted on by

There is not much time between now and the first Dota Pro Circuit tournament, especially if you are a team one player short. Dota fast approaches!! signals Quincy Crew manager, Jack KBBQ Chen on his Twitter account when introducing a trial offlaner for DOTA Summit 11 Minor.

Jon SabeRLight- Volek of Team Singularity will join the North American squad in the coming days to begin the training for the Minor, a tournament which can turn into a true breakout for him.

SabeRLight- spent two years at the Czech team Hippomaniacs, a squad that has been pushing through lower tier events and open qualifiers for a while now. Dota 2 fans might remember them from the TI9 European regional qualifiers, where they took first place in the group stage and made it all the way to the playoffs lower bracket finals. They were finally defeated by Chaos Esports, the team which eventually took the one ticket to the pinnacle tournament of the year. SabeRLight- was the only player to leave the team in the post TI9 shuffle. He was signed by Singularity, where he teamed up with Steve Excalibur Ye and he placed second in the MDL Chengdu Major European qualifiers group stage. However, Singularity lost two series in a row in the playoffs and dropped to the Minor qualifiers. They werent the only team from the Major qualifiers to fight for a Minor slot, and once again they got bested by their European adversaries and missed the start of the DPC season entirely.

In the meantime, in the NA region, a newly formed squad was keeping the headlines, featuring the Hassan brothers, SumaiL and YawaR. The qualifiers rounds were the first official matches where the two brothers teamed up. But despite the hype created by the Quincy Crew line-up, the team didnt make it to the MDL Chengdu Major. Nonetheless, they did clinch a spot at the Minor preceding it. Although the DOTA Summit Minor is held on US soil and Quincy Crew have a real shot at winning it all and reach the first Major of the season, SumaiL was announced to have departed the team for a couple of reasons. There were fit issues, Jack Chen said last week. It is worth mentioning that SumaiL was playing for the first time in the carry role, while his brother was also at his first offlane experience. Besides that, the team manager mentioned later on in a Reddit thread that there was so much more besides what he Tweeted. There were some legal issues that added some additional complications, but cant really discuss that in public, he said, adding that its easy for people on the outside to wonder or even jump to conclusions.

With SumaiL unable to join Quincy Crew, the team will now have the young Czech offlaner, SabeRLight-, as a trial and will play with him at the upcoming Minor. The Dota Summit Minor will be the only DPC event held in the United States this season. It will unfold November 7-10, with eight teams fighting for the tournament title, which besides the $72,000, it also brings a ticket to the MDL Chengdu Major.

Related article:

Read the rest here:

Quincy Crew will play the Minor with Singularity's offlaner SabeRLight- - VPEsports

THE BRONX, USA, A Celebration of the Dynamic Diversity of the Bronx, Debuts Oct. 30, Exclusively on HBO – Broadway World

Posted on by

From the team behind HBO's "If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast," THE BRONX, USA, debuting WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30 (9:00-10:25 p.m. ET/PT), follows producer George Shapiro as he returns to his hometown of the Bronx. Revisiting the streets, stores and memories of his childhood, Shapiro reflects on the singularity of the borough he grew up in and the close friendships he made there that have stood the test of time.

The documentary will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and partners' streaming platforms.

A love letter to a special part of New York City and its distinctive residents, the documentary also introduces the next generation of Bronx-ites - the 2017 graduating class of DeWitt Clinton High School, who may come from different backgrounds from Shapiro's class of 1949, but whose passion, drive and emphasis on the power of friendship connects them with the seniors who came nearly seventy years before them.

Directed by Danny Gold, the film features notable Bronx-ites like Alan and Arlene Alda, Charles Fox, Robert Klein, Hal Linden, Melissa Manchester, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Chazz Palminteri, General Colin Powell, Carl Reiner and Rob Reiner, who share their experiences in the Bronx and discuss what the area means to them. Colin Powell credits his first boss, a Jewish toy shop owner, with encouraging him to get an education, while Alan Alda and Arlene Alda recall the borough serving as the backdrop for their courtship.

THE BRONX, USA includes an original song that opens and closes the film, "Da Bronx" with lyrics by Paul Williams, music by Charles FOX and performed by actor/comedian/singer Robert Klein and actor/singer Donald Webber, Jr.

The birthplace of doo-wop and salsa, the Bronx birthed hip hop in the 80s and with it, a whole new culture. Home to the world-famous Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Zoo, New York's northernmost borough has long been both culturally diverse and racially tolerant. Revisiting his old stomping grounds with longtime friend Carl Golub and Jay Schwartz, Shapiro remembers the fun they had as kids. Back then, families lived in the same building, leaving their doors unlocked and everyone knew each other's business. Mom-and-pop stores lined the streets and it was never hard to find a kid to play with. Years later, Shapiro and his childhood friends, who've dubbed themselves the "Bronx Boys," get together every five years to reminisce and celebrate their long-lasting bond.

While touring old neighborhood sites, including the building he grew up in, Shapiro can't shake the feeling that something has shifted in the modern-day Bronx. Returning to their former elementary school proves to be disheartening at first, when the students seem disinterested in their beloved game of stick-ball. The disheartenment soon turns into joy when they see the kids experience the excitement they recognize as soon they start playing.

Friendships also prove to be strong in the Bronx community today, just as Shapiro remembers. Joined by fellow "Bronx Boy" Jay, George and Carl finally pay a visit to DeWitt Clinton High School. Though the building's exterior, covered in scaffolding, isn't quite how they remember, they bond over their shared experiences with their guides, graduating seniors Danielle and Javid. Danielle, Student Body President of the 2017 graduating class, says that while many of her classmates come from low-income households, "having friends helps with getting over those hurdles."

While the students face modern day obstacles, they find comfort in Carl's advice, quoting Howard West, "Life is not fair, get over it". By revisiting his hometown, George is thrilled to see the vibrant culture, diversity and strong friendships that he sees to be the lifeline of the borough.

THE BRONX, USA is a funny, heartwarming and insightful celebration of what connects us across racial backgrounds, cultures and generations, ultimately emphasizing the hope that exists for the future of America.

THE BRONX, USA is directed by Danny Gold; produced by George Shapiro and Danny Gold; executive producer, Aimee Hyatt; written by Danny Gold and Michael Mayhew; directors of photography, Matthew Wachsman and Larry Herbst; edited by Michael Mayhew; music by Tom Scott, John Robinson and Nathan East. For HBO: supervising producer, Greg Rhem, executive producers, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller.

Watch a trailer here:

See the original post:

THE BRONX, USA, A Celebration of the Dynamic Diversity of the Bronx, Debuts Oct. 30, Exclusively on HBO - Broadway World

The twin forces of love and loss define Sally Mann retrospective. – Atlanta Journal Constitution

Posted on by

Some Southern women might own batter-stained Junior League cookbooks. But Sally Manns recipe book is The Wet Plate Process: A Working Guide. Showcased in a glass vitrine and turned to a page featuring a formula for silver gelatin solution, the pages are marked by crime scene splatters of chemicals.

In Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings that well-worn book is evidence of Manns own technical experimentation and desire to master some of photographys antiquated, mercurial and beautiful forms from tintypes to ambrotypes.

An exhibition devoted to one of photographys most enduring contemporary voices, A Thousand Crossings, which originated as a collaboration between the National Gallery of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum (former home of the shows co-curator and the Highs new curator of photography Sarah Kennel) offers a complicated and very human portrait of Sally Mann.

Over a more than 40-year career Mann has continually tackled the intertwined nature of love and death in images of her family. But Mann in A Thousand Crossings also examines the peculiar circumstance of her home in Lexington, Virginia, a place haunted by the ugliness of slavery and racism. Where Manns work once proudly reveled in the singularity, complexity and romance of the South, now she grapples with it fully in an effort to understand what the South represents for black Americans, often through the touchstone of her beloved African American nanny Virginia Gee Gee Carter who is referenced in word and image throughout the show.

Like so many well-intentioned white people grappling with racism, Mann can be both fiercely earnest and prone to awkwardness. But the beauty of Manns vision as an artist is that she continues to grow and tackle new challenges.

Unlike Ansel Adams heroic, majestic West, Sally Manns South is often a scary, fraught, uncanny place. It is at once the cradle that nurtured her children in an idyllic Eden of velvety rivers and fields, but also the pitiless soil worked for hundreds of years by captive people, and the haunted battlefields of Antietam where the blood of 23,000 dead soldiers seeped into the land.

Its hard to think of a photograph more loaded than Deep South, Untitled (Scarred Tree) (1998) of an ugly gash in a tree that reads like the scar tissue residue of the Souths brutal violence. Her inky, frightening tintypes of swamps are a nightmare vision of how the South looked to fugitive slaves, a night vision-evocative upside down world that recalls Dawoud Beys similarly haunted images.

There are fascinating revelations in this exhibition including the tightrope between masterminding special effects in her photography like her purposeful splatters of dust to evoke beauty amidst horror in Battlefields, Antietam (Starry Night) (2001) and serendipity. A romantic technician, Mann balances accident, or what she calls the angel of uncertainty, and careful stagecraft. She tiger mothers an image like Easter Dress (1986) of her daughter Jessie carefully orchestrated and posed. Then, on the flip side, she embraces spontaneity with a hand-held camera that immediately captures the macabre drama of Kool-Aid colored blood streaking her son Emmetts chest in Bloody Nose (1991). One imagines Mann grabbing her camera instead of a tissue to stem the blood flow. Its, frankly, exhilarating to see this hidden, layered vision of motherhood combining Manns single-mindedness and devotion to her art along with her fierce love of her children as commingled forces.

Manns images are beleaguered by death at every turn: Civil War battlefields, the fear of death in every parents heart, the soul death of slavery for an America that wont acknowledge it. There are countless talented female photographers in the history of the medium, but its hard to think of one with such unique gifts in documenting both the micro arc of her own experience and the macro tapestry of American life or the obsessions of photo history: beauty (here, just as often male beauty) and landscape. All are considered and shaped through a female point of view and art history is all the better for that vantage.

Support real journalism. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today. See offers.

Your subscription to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution funds in-depth reporting and investigations that keep you informed. Thank you for supporting real journalism.

Through February 2. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays and Saturdays; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. $14.50, ages 6 and above; free, children 5 and younger and members. High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St., N.E., Atlanta 404.733.4444, http://www.high.org

Bottom line: Sally Manns ongoing fascination with family, death and the Southern landscape deepens with a consideration of how race defines place in this captivating retrospective.

See the original post:

The twin forces of love and loss define Sally Mann retrospective. - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Dogs, crafts, vintage photographs: Four UT events to see if you’re staying on campus this fall break – UT Daily Beacon

Posted on by

Its almost Fall Break just in time for our shiny new cold weather. Lots of students are going home or taking weekend trips, but plenty are staying on campus. If thats you, dont worry A lot of campus shuts down over break, but there are still a few events in case youre bored.

See a new gallery: various dates and times

Most downtown art galleries unveil their new exhibits on First Fridays, but a new showcase is coming to the UT Downtown Art Gallery this week. Located on the corner of Summit Hill Drive and South Gay Street, its a 20-minute walk or free trolley ride from campus.

Its Yale-educated artist Sam Vernons False Calm art show a series of photo montages exploring anti-singularity. The exhibits bio reads: bodies of subjects dissolve into abstraction incorporated into collage elements which include drawing, Xerox and lithography.

The exhibit will run through Saturday this weekend and next weekend: Thursday, Oct. 17 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 18 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; and Saturday, Oct. 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Chill out: Oct. 19, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

In honor of World Mental Health Day, you can unwind with calming activities. Here on campus, where students are recovering from or still taking midterms, SGA will host a Relaxation Station in the Mary Greer Room of the Hodges Library. The event will include coloring and crafts. So if youre spending part of the break studying, this might be the ideal study break stop.

Celebrate Howl-O-Ween: Sunday, Oct. 20, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The Agriculture Campus is a bit of a walk from the dorms, but it might be worth it for this Halloween event: a parade of costumed pups.

Its free to attend, but theres a fee to include your dog in the parade. You could also bring dry dog or cat food for the pet food drive, which benefits Knox PAWS and Feed-A-Pet. They prefer smaller bags 5 to 8 pounds. Theyll also accept canned food, treats and other pet supplies.

As well as the judged pet parade, the event will include an expo of educational booths, pet businesses, rescue groups, food trucks and more.

See a photographic study: Various dates and times.

If you havent gotten a chance to see it yet, fall break might be a great time to see the temporary exhibit in McClung Museum. Its called Science in Motion: The Photographic Studies of Eadweard Muybridge, Berenice Abbott and Harold Edgerton Its an attempt to bridge the gap between art and science.

The vintage photographs show the scientific studies of three pioneer photography developers. The exhibits bio reads: Their works not only illustrate scientific phenomena clearly and elegantly but also reveal the artists individual artistic sensibilities.

Over the break, the exhibit will be open Thursday, Oct. 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Friday, October 18 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Saturday, October 19 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday, October 20 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Read the rest here:

Dogs, crafts, vintage photographs: Four UT events to see if you're staying on campus this fall break - UT Daily Beacon

Savvy To The Experience Economy, Marriott Bonvoy Auctions Once-In-A-Lifetime Moments – Forbes

Posted on by

A Bonvoy Moment includes dinner and a stay at Hotel Danieli in Venice.

This year, Marriotts loyalty program received a revamp, creating a sort of super-program called Marriott Bonvoy. The new travel program for Marriott International replaced Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards. Members can earn and use points to visit a large portfolio of global brands located in 132 countries and territories.

To encourage membership while rewarding loyal clientele, the company launched an experience arm called Marriott Bonvoy Moment(s). These moments are experiences that include exclusive travel, sports and culinary access like reservations at Per Se and The French Laundry, to kitchen tours and culinary masterclasses with chefs. In fact, theres an entire team devoted to dreaming up, devising, and executing these experiences which, frankly, sounds like a pretty cool job.

To provide perspective, Marriott Bonvoy has 133 million members. Thats a lot of competition when bidding on moments, these money-cant-buy-but-your-points-can roster of curated experiences. Indeed, the most over-the-top auctions have tallied redemptions of thousands, even millions of points.

Though now closed, peek at this culinary-focused experience with Chef David Bouley. The moment, called Explore a Private Estate in Grand Cayman + Boat Excursion + Cooking Masterclass with Chef David Bouley, generated the highest redemption of any auction at 2 million points.

The singularity of that auction is a great example of whats been done, and whats on the horizon, especially with Marriotts new luxury home rental division called Homes & Villas by Marriott International. The vacation rental portal features upscale, vetted properties meant to compete with sites like VRBO, AirBnB, and OneFineStay but with the benefit of allowing customers to pay with points or earn points on stays.

Seems like a good time to be a Marriott Bonvoy member. Now check your account and start bidding on these five upcoming moments.

Access the 2019 NFL Mexico Game with Premium Tickets + Pre-Game Sideline Passes+ Meet an NFL Legend + Hotel Stay:Get ready for a Monday Night showdown in Mexico City when some of the biggest teams in the league go head to head for the 2019NFL Mexico Game. Kick off this incredible day with access to the VIP Reception before the game where you will have the chance tomeet a NFL Legend at the famed Azteca Stadium. Then, head down to the sideline where you will experience the intensity of warmups with pre-game field passes before taking your premium seats for the game. Top of the experience with a hotel stay. Link to full experience detailsHERE.

Take a Private Surquillo Market Tour with Renowned Chef Jaime Pesaque, Dine at Mayta + Stay at AC Hotel Lima Miraflores: Go on a culinary journey through Lima, Peru, with a guest. Discover the city's Surquillo market on a private tour with Chef Jaime Pesaque, and dine at Chef Pesaque's prestigious Mayta Restaurant. As part of the experience, stay for two nights at the newly opened AC Lima Miraflores, a contemporary hotel boasting an unbeatable location, and receive VIP round-trip transportation from the AC Hotel Lima Miraflores to Mayta. Link to full experience detailsHERE.

Private concert by Mi Casa + Sushi Masterclass + two-night stay at Crystal Towers:Stay at the vibrant Cape Town Marriott Hotel Crystal Towers, and rock out with award-winning South African band, Mi Casa. Thenchannel your inner chef, and learn how to make your own sushi, in a one-on-one sushi-making class with our Head Sushi Chef. Thebest part: eating the actual sushi that you have personally made, complimented by a classic signature Crystal Mojito. End yourexperience with two full body massages at the award-winning Life Day Spa. Link to full experience detailsHERE.

Celebrate the Artist Canaletto with a Chef's Table Five-Course Dinner + Suite Stay atHotel Danieli:You and a guest are invited to celebrate one of the most influential landscape painters of his time, Giovanni Antonio Canal todayknown to the world as Canaletto, with a five-course tasting dinner inspired by his paintings and the tradition of 18th-Century Venice,at Restaurant Terrazza Danieli. Tour Venice's famed Rialto Market with the Executive Chef. Stay in aDandolo Suite at Hotel Danieli,A Luxury Collection Hotel, steps away from the Bridge of Sighs and Piazza San Marco.Link to full experience detailsHERE.

Experience the World-Famous Dner en Blanc in Sydney + Kick off the Party with ExclusiveSparkler Lighting:Join thousands of people in Sydney for the invite-only world-famous Dner en Blanc, where people dress in all white and experience a mass chicpicnic in a public space. Receive two seats at a VIP Marriott International catered table, savor gourmet culinary creations and curated wineselections, and signal the dancing of the night with the sparkler lighting signal. Over the course of the evening, celebrate this magical event withguests brought together from diverse backgrounds by good taste and a love of beauty.Le Dner en Blanc recalls the elegance and glamour of high French society, and guests engage one another, knowing that they are taking part in atruly spectacular event. Guests must dress in all white as part of the tradition of this prestigious, exclusive event.Link to full experience detailsHERE.

Read the rest here:

Savvy To The Experience Economy, Marriott Bonvoy Auctions Once-In-A-Lifetime Moments - Forbes

This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through October 12) – Singularity Hub

Posted on by

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

How to Stop Superhuman AI Before It Stops UsStuart Russell | The New York TimesOnce the focus shifts from building machines that are intelligent to ones that are beneficial, controlling them will become a far easier feat. Consider it the difference between nuclear power and nuclear explosions: a nuclear explosion is nuclear power in an uncontrolled form, and we greatly prefer the controlled form.

This Girls Dramatic Story Shows Hyper-Personalized Medicine Is Possibleand CostlyErika Check Hayden | MIT Technology Reviewin a dramatic demonstration of the power of personalized medicine, doctors in Boston created a treatment just for [six-year-old Mila Makovec]. In only eight months, they found the genetic cause of Milas disease, designed a drug to overcome the error, and began giving it to Mila via an injection in her spine, in whats believed to be the first individually tailored treatment of its kind.

Waymo Tells Customers That Completely Driverless Vehicles Are on the WayAndrew J. Hawkins | The VergeIts a sign that Waymo is growing confident enough in its technology to increase the frequency at which it allows passengers to ride in autonomous vehicles without a safety driver behind the wheel.

Virgin Orbit Says It Wants to Send Tiny Spacecraft to Mars in 2022Neel V. Patel | MIT Technology ReviewIf it succeeds, Virgin Orbit will be the first commercial company to travel to the Red Planet. It will also mark an unexpected entrance into deep spaceflight for a company whose plansfocus on air launches, which have always been considered unsuitable for traveling beyond low Earth orbit.

Jeff Bezoss Master PlanFranklin Foer | The AtlanticWhere in the pantheon of American commercial titans does Jeffrey Bezos belong? At 55, Bezos has never dominated a major market as thoroughly as any of these forebears, and while he is presently the richest man on the planet, he has less wealth than Gates did at his zenith. [But] the scope of the empire the founder and CEO of Amazon has built is wider. Indeed, it is without precedent in the long history of American capitalism.

Meet the Robot Racing Drone That Could Beat Human Pilots by 2023Stephen Shankland | CNETSince 2016, the human pilots of theDrone Racing Leaguehave competed to see who could whip a quadcopter around pylons and through hoops the fastest. On Tuesday, theyll get a new challenge: the fully autonomous RacerAI, adroneprogrammed to fly itself.

Image Credit:MEAX /Unsplash

Read the original here:

This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through October 12) - Singularity Hub

Recycling buildings in the circular economy – PlaceTech

Posted on by

Drees & Sommer's booth at Expo Real was inspired by the cradle-to-cradle concept

16 Oct 2019, 12:04 | Nicola Byrne

As I explored Expo Real and the miles of stands, one in particular stood out. European consulting, planning and project management enterprise Drees & Sommer had designed its booth using the cradle-to-cradle concept.

The concept, co-developed by German chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough, describes the principle of two continuous cycles, both referring to the circular economy, an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and encouraging the continual use of resources.

Click to expand

For the biological cycle, materials and building components are designed to feedback into and regenerate living systems. An example of this is green roofs catching rain water which is then used in a building for flushing toilets and irrigating, thereby the site becomes part of the local water cycle.

Technical cycles recover and restore products, components and materials through strategies such as reuse, repair, remanufacture or recycling. An example of this would be reusing flooring or bricks from another site.

Drees & Sommer had labels throughout its stand highlighting the sustainable materials it had used from its steel scaffolds to its chairs made from recyclable and non-hazardous materials.

One of Drees & Sommers labels attached to its stands steel scaffolding, an example of how materials can be reused

Circular economy isnt a new idea and it isnt just about recycling buildings. As construction margins get smaller, demand for sustainable materials and production is at all-time high, and in the words of Anna Surgenor, senior sustainability advisor at UK Green Building Council and the leader of its circular economy programme, its a surprise that not much is being done in the UK.

The Netherlands has set itself a target of having a 50% circular economy by 2030 and to be fully circular by 2050. This is reflected when you Google examples of circular economy, the majority of projects are Dutch, including a recent development by trendsetting developer Edge Technologies.

Edge Technologies delivered an office building for Triodos Bank in the Netherlands engineered to be sustainable inside and out

The firm produced a building which can be rebuilt at a different location without creating any waste flows, and used a BIM-based Material Passport, which provides a record of all the materials used within the building.

There are only a few examples of companies in the UK attempting to incorporate the concept of circular into developments. This is something the UK Green Building Council is trying to change.

UKGBC launched its circular economy programme in spring 2018. In the first year the council worked with members and stakeholders to produce a comprehensive practical guide for those wanting toincludecircular principles in their project briefs.

The council also created a web-based actor and resource mapof initiatives within the built environment around circular economy, to allow organisations to use existing knowledge and methodologies without repeating the work of others

UK Green Building Council created an interactive map environment around who is doing what in circular economy

Companies in the UK taking steps toward a circular economy

One of the UKs largest housing associations, is attempting to implement the circular economy strategy into its Merton Regeneration project, a 1bn investment to provide 2,800 new home in Wimbledon, along with 97,000 sq ft of retail, leisure, office, work and community space.

The project will see over 1,000 homes demolished and materials reused. Based on an initial assessment of the regeneration project, the scale of benefits that may be realised through comprehensive implementation of Clarions circular economy strategy are significant.

For the demolition and construction phase alone benefits could include:

Clarion Housings Merton regeneration scheme in London will look to apply a circular economy strategy to the creation of 2,800 homes

Industrial developer Segro relocated a warehouse building to a site one mile away. The firm dismantled 34,000 sq ft of office space and warehouse on Leigh Road in Slough and re-erected it in Cambridge Avenue.

The benefits Segro found included:

The London Waste & Recycling Board is a partnership between the Mayor of London and the London boroughs to improve waste and resource management with a focus on circular economy. The board decided to practice what it preached when it fitted-out its office in November 2018.

Completed in four weeks, the brief was to retain, refurbish and recycle, with a consideration of open source design or leasing where appropriate. This meant understanding what would happen to items at the end of their life.

The board reused existing meeting rooms and doors, kitchen cabinets in a new layout, existing carpet, air conditioning and lighting, and blinds. Refurbished furniture was procured, as well as reclaimed timber from another site and refurbished electronics.

London Waste & Recycling Board circular fit-out completed in four weeks

Read the original here:

Recycling buildings in the circular economy - PlaceTech

The digital revolution could unlock a green transformation of the global economy – The Conversation UK

Posted on by

Life has changed almost beyond recognition in the last few decades. Artificial intelligence (AI) has substituted entire job fields intelligent software can now review legal documents, a job which was previously only carried out by lawyers. Machine learning means technical systems can pull together entire libraries of information in a single handheld device. Virtual spaces now exist where people from all over the world can share, connect and chat instantly.

In 2019, its clear that digital innovations will continue to change society and the economy, but its uncertain whether these new technologies will benefit the global transformation to sustainability. Will digital technologies allow everyone to live in a world where their development isnt dependent on exhausting finite resources and increasing emissions?

There is certainly reason to be optimistic. Digital technologies can make energy and resource use more efficient. By analysing the optimal amount of water each crop needs and by using a smart irrigation system accordingly, farming can become infinitely more efficient. Digital systems can assess the optimal use of vehicles too. Instead of one person owning one car which is only used for an hour each day and then sits parked for the rest of the day, several people can share one electric car, reducing the number of vehicles needed overall.

For the first time, digital technologies can comprehensively trace, document, and analyse each resource and product as it flows across global supply chains. This could create circular economies, in which resources such as water and rare Earth metals arrive where theyre needed and waste such as plastic rubbish doesnt escape to pollute the environment.

Digital monitoring can help scientists to better understand how ecosystems around the world such as forests, reefs and glaciers are changing in real time. This can help conservationists understand how to protect and restore the environment, while ensuring that governments and private companies are held accountable for their public commitments to preserve natural habitats. The Global Forest Watch already does this its an open-source web system that uses satellite data to monitor forests and their destruction.

But so far, this potential hasnt been harnessed to make the global economy greener. Instead, theres been an explosion in high energy computing centres, which are needed to sustain the expanding internet, its social media platforms and big data analysis. By 2022, global data flows will have more than tripled since 2017. As long as fossil fuels dominate the global energy mix, expanding these computing centres will accelerate climate change.

Solutions to global problems like climate change and the instability of financial markets need the cooperation of all countries. But a knowledge divide between the global north which could secure access to sophisticated digital infrastructure with its wealth and the global south would hold worldwide solutions back.

The digital revolution is transforming societies just as the printing press and the steam engine triggered new eras of human civilisation. But without using these digital disruptions to make the global economy more sustainable, the powerful tools of the digital revolution will just multiply existing problems.

AI systems can substitute a major part of a well qualified work force, but without policies in place to support workers to retrain or enjoy the benefits of working less, unemployment and poverty could skyrocket. Meanwhile, authoritarian regimes already use digital monitoring to control their citizens and influence their behaviour.

World leaders need to ensure public administrations are up to speed to effectively and ethically govern these digital disruptions. Most governments around the world currently lack expertise on AI, machine learning, and virtual reality many bureaucracies are still paper-based. Governments are struggling to adapt to the new realities, which pose important questions about data privacy laws and the need and desire to increasingly benefit from digital systems.

Read more: Tech companies collect our data every day, but even the biggest datasets can't solve social issues

Governments need to ramp up investments in digital infrastructure, channelling it towards making everything about the modern world sustainable. They need to ensure that everyone can profit from the new opportunities of the digital age and that no one is left behind. This includes investing in broadband networks and expanding education for the next generation of digital engineers.

Combining AI, big data analysis, genome research and developments in cognitive sciences opens the door to a completely new world. In many ways, the pace of the digital revolution can redefine what it means to be human, enhancing our physical, psychological, and cognitive capabilities.

The digital era is the new reality whether people like it or not. The world stands at a crossroads its in all humankinds interest to take the pathway towards sustainability. Digital technology can take us there better and faster than ever before if we steer it in the right direction.

See the article here:

The digital revolution could unlock a green transformation of the global economy - The Conversation UK

Technology Prepares Us For Massive Gains In The On-Demand Economy – Forbes

Posted on by

During the Gilded Age and the second industrial revolution, the world saw rapid adoption of life-altering technologies electricity, rail transport, the automobile, telegraph communications and then the telephone. Thanks to these innovations, companies were able to create and sell products they could not before to people they had not previously been able to reach, in ways they never could have envisioned.

That young United States saw unprecedented growth, with total national wealth increasing from $16 billion in 1860 to $88 billion by 1900.

Todays evolution looks set to be just as transformative. Disruptive technologies like augmented reality, artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) are already having an impact. On offshore oil rigs, for instance, we see our customers using a type of reverse augmented reality that allows humans to view the status of equipment remotely through the eyes of a mobile inspection robot. This reduces the time that people spend on platforms in the open ocean away from their families.

Over the coming years, I believe we will see a nexus of forces that enable companies to do business in ways that we probably have a hard time comprehending today.

Business and technology

Historically, we used technology to make business processes more efficient in predictable ways (reduced manhours, inventory or order turn time, etc.). Now, technology itself is the enabler for new business processes and new business models.

A retail chain without an effective web presence will face gradual decline, while an intuitive and sticky web storefront with superior cross-selling opportunities and engaging content is a strategic tool for exponential growth. A food processing machinery company with the technology to sell not just a capital asset but the output in terms of units sold through outcomes-based contracts will be well-placed to disrupt its market and capitalize on new monetization models.

With technology as the business model enabler, efficiency gains will be determined by market forces and upside rather than savings in time, inventory or dollars.

People and experiences

Technology has changed our expectations. In the business-to-business setting, we need to catch up. Tools we use in our private lives are often more powerful and intuitive than the ones we use at work. In business-to-business transactions, the customer experience also lags. The results might be an inability to recruit millennials and to compete with customer experience.

As consumers, our expectations are changing, and we increasingly value access and outcomes over ownership, Vala Afshar writes in a recent ZDNet article. We want the freedom to access services and use them anytime, anywhere. We want the latest technology or product model available at our fingertips at all times. We demand choice in how we pay, flexibility to pause and resume services, and the ability to tailor them to meet our specific needs. And thanks to the subscription economy, all of this is now easily possible.

We need to bring this line of thinking into our business software as well. Were all accustomed to logging onto a website and doing what we need to with engaging and relevant content; it's easy, it offers intuitive navigation and there's instant confirmation. Business software should be the same.

Automation and efficiency

While technology is a key factor in how humans experience business, I believe humans will become less of a factor in business operations. Ever since enterprise resource planning (ERP) was invented, it's been about efficiency. Business process automation means that some of these human tasks will be eliminated. As a result, the scope of business efficiency will no longer be constrained by human capacities, costs can drop dramatically and productivity per employee can rise.

According to Gartner, there will be 20.4 billion connected devices by 2020. North American organizations are already well on their way to reaching that number by implementing disruptive technologies such as AI. In fact, 20% or more have already implemented robotic process automation, machine learning and conversational interfaces.

Once data enters the system through IoT, AI algorithms can optimize the tasks and processes based on unfolding events. Communication from AI is already becoming indistinguishable from a human in some settings. We are moving toward a world where out-of-the-box software will deliver an integrated IoT-AI process flow, resulting in autonomous enterprises.

An outcomes-based future?

Businesses used to be structured around sales transactions. Today, intelligent businesses can easily target revenue or margin over a customer life cycle. We see software today designed to manage subscription-based product models, where humans can specify the service level and, based on predictive analytics, compute the total cost to support a product. Uber's technology can do what no human taxi dispatcher ever could. Industrial companies must engage with similar disruptive technologies that might compute the actual cost of operating each of their products, for each customer, and then price subscriptions accordingly. We will likely see new types of contract vehicles, new business models and innovative product and service offerings.

While servitization of product businesses is happening, it wont happen all at once. Caterpillar, for example, with its Cat Connect Services is using servitization to drive revenue and customer intimacy. The company has even opened its connected equipment to dealers who can create value-added offerings like remote expert solutions. And NCR aggressively sells equipment as a service to its installed base.

For every Cat or NCR, there are other giants too hidebound to change. A growing company with a strong, digital-first business model can easily outflank them.

Seize the opportunity

Vast rewards await executive teams bold enough to take advantage. When the transcontinental railroad was built in the Gilded Age, financing construction was a challenge because to most Americans, the West was as remote as the moon, its terrain as alien and forbidding. Situations like this are challenging for risk-averse institutions unaccustomed to planning around ambiguity and non-tangibles.

The other side of this digital divide is hard to see, but we predict the result will be a net positive for numerous companies across several industries.

Originally posted here:

Technology Prepares Us For Massive Gains In The On-Demand Economy - Forbes

Pakistans economy beyond the IMF – Business Recorder

Posted on by

Pakistan's economy is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, historically poor domestic revenue generation by successive governments, excessive untargeted subsidies, poor governance and political imperatives in public sector units have led to unsustainable domestic fiscal deficit and its financing problems. On the other hand, misguided exchange rate policies, rampant corruption by importers and their collaborators in customs department, and lack of coherent strategic industrial policy have reduced the country into an industrial wasteland where even rudimentary everyday use items are largely imported. As a result, the current account deficit went out of whack which, as usual, led the new government to seek assistance from abroad to shore up foreign exchange reserves, including from the IMF.

The IMF, in turn, diagnosed the problem in the classic traditional manner and suggested the usual set remedies for demand suppression via hiking interest rates, massive depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, regulated price hikes to contain sectoral deficits, while exhorting the government to raise tax revenue. All this of course give a feeling of dj vu to any observer of the Pakistan economy. While there is always talk of structural reforms and conditionalities related to privatisations it does not address the heart of the matter, the root cause of economic deficiency. In the meantime, bulk of the population middle and lower income groups is bearing the brunt of the economic adjustment', in terms of lack of employment opportunities, high inflation and loss of purchasing power, and savers whose dollar value of savings fell by over 40% due to devaluation of the currency and continually rising regulated rates/prices. Business investment and expansion is almost at a standstill due both to higher tax scrutiny (which is good) and unbridled accountability by various law-enforcement divisions, such as NAB (which is bad).While the Government's recent policy decisions have led to some macro indicators showing improvement such as tax collection and current account deficit, the core issue remains largely un-tackled.

It is unfortunate that the multilateral finance institutions appear to be sticking to the old rule book of policies which have again and again been tried and found wanting in terms of desired outcomes of getting the economy back to a sustainable, balanced growth over the medium to longer term. One only has to take a look at the history of economic policymaking the world over to realise that pure market-driven policies seldom lead to successful economic outcomes for majority of the population. Even in the free market citadel of the United States, early economic development needed the helping hand of the government through Eisenhour's market intervention and Roosevelt's New Deal policies. After the excesses experienced by the Friedmanite free-for-all" market mantra in Thatcher and Reagan-led era, egged on by the central bankers of the Greenspan ilk, the pendulum is swinging back towards Keynesian view of greater role of the government in directing economic development in one way or another.

In the developing economies' context, every single success story of economic development particularly in East Asia is closely linked to an overarching medium to long-term strategic economic road map, where domestic industrialisation has been a key plank of the overall economic policy, regardless of the government in power. The focus here is not the political shape of government but rather the model of a centrally directed strategic macroeconomic plan which has sustained execution. Even in Pakistan, highest rates of sustained economic growth were achieved in the 1950s and the early 1960s under five-year plans with targeted sectors and priorities which were centrally directed.

Fast forward today. Economic nationalism, led by the US in particular, is gradually becoming the norm despite collective warnings by many opinion leaders who highlight the benefits of global free trade. In fact, in Western academia and in their policy think-tanks, the current thinking among the most ardent free-trade proponents is that the benefits of globalisation have been unevenly distributed. Western multinational corporations (and their executives and investors) and the emerging market countries that focused on outsourcing and exports, have benefited the most (with large proportion of their populations moving from poor to middle-income category) while the traditional western middle-class, primarily in the manufacturing sector as well as several service sectors, has found itself left behind in terms of income growth and wealth distribution. To be fair, this is only a part of the story. A significant chunk of industrial and white-collar unemployment in the Western world has to do with rapid technology-driven automation of work. Nevertheless, the anti-globalization narrative is used successfully by Western nationalist leaders to build strong domestic political platforms.

It is in this changing world that the new government in Pakistan finds itself. It is still coping with the crisis caused by aforementioned factors and could not focus the central issues properly such as maximum self-reliance, large-scale job creation, fully leveraging the infrastructure enhancement opportunity presented by CPEC, import-substitution wherever possible, induction of technology-driven productivity enhancement both in the private and public sectors and importantly, redesigning of the financial system landscape to foster medium-sized enterprises that can generate significant private sector employment while supporting larger scale import-substitution industrial enterprises. Further, the central bank's (SBP's) focus should go beyond macro-prudential regulatory aspects to micro-prudential level with specific sector financing emphasis.

This does not mean that the other structural reforms should not be undertaken. They can and should be fast-tracked, especially those related to loss-making state-owned enterprises which eat up massive financial resources of the government; the streamlining of the FBR and Customs department; bringing the civil-service quality back up to par; accountability of ministries, to mention a few. The present government has embarked on several of these initiatives and it should continue to push forward on these reforms.

At the same time, it is absolutely critical and a clearly thought out road map for longer term sustainable economic growth, driven by maximum practicable self-sufficiency, especially in the industrial and technology space, is developed and its implementation supervised from the federal government level. The long-term horizon of implementing such a road map also means that the population has to be equipped with the required skills and managerial capabilities to handle an industrial/technological economy. And that means appropriate large-scale education of our young generation education that is geared towards acquiring the knowledge and skills needed for such an economy.

The following chart provides a simplified sample of broad self-sufficiency canvass that can be used to start discussions regarding re-industrialisation of the economy based on Pakistan's existing resource base. One area deliberately left out in this discussion is information technology which is a whole subject to be tackled on its on an exclusive basis.

(The writer is former managing director of Pakistan Stock Exchange)

See more here:

Pakistans economy beyond the IMF - Business Recorder