Qt Introduces Qt for Automation to Help Organizations Reduce Operating Costs and Improve Business Process Efficiency – Markets Insider

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HELSINKI, August 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today The Qt Company introduced the Qt for Automation offering, a new set of libraries and development tools for the building, services and industrial automation sectors. Built on Qt for Device Creation and Qt for Application Development, Qt for Automation is designed to enhance the performance and capabilities of edge devices for the Internet of Things (IoT). With Qt for Automation's modular, scalable and secure libraries and interoperability capabilities, organizations in the automation industry can reduce operating costs and improve the efficiency of business processes. Qt's technology is currently in use by millions of developers across the world and eight of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies.

With Gartner, Inc. forecasting earlier this year that 8.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2017 and 5.5 million new devices being connected every day, the IoT is one of the most opportunity-rich areas across today's global technology landscape. Furthermore, McKinsey & Company found that the potential value that could be unlocked with IoT applications in factory settings which represent a significant portion of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) could be as much as $3.7 trillion in 2025, which is approximately one-third of all potential economic value of the IoT estimated by McKinsey. Consequently, organizations in the automation industry are increasingly looking for ways to pursue the market opportunities created by both the IoT and the IIoT.

The modern architecture and extensibility of the modular, scalable and secure tools and QtKNX libraries within Qt for Automation guarantees rapid innovation and future warranties, independent of any changes to the hardware or operating systems. By leveraging these features and the device interoperability capabilities of Qt for Automation, organizations in the industrial and home automation sectors are able to significantly reduce operating costs and streamline mission-critical business processes.

"With the rise of IoT, we realized thatthe amount ofsensors and I/O we collected in our control systems was increasing exponentially, and we needed to aggregate the data and present it in a better way to becomemore efficient," said Rune Volden, R&D Manager, Ulstein Power & Control. "Qt provides a very good tool for programming control systems as well as graphical user interfaces, which saved us a significant amount of development time."

Qt for Automation extends Qt's comprehensive portfolio of application development and device creation tools. The primary features of Qt for Automation include:

"Qt has been focused on the automation sector since our inception two decades ago, and our presence in the industry has expanded alongside the exponential growth of the global IoT market," said Lars Knoll, CTO, The Qt Company. "With the new Qt for Automation offering, we are bringing our automation capabilities together in an integrated and comprehensive set of software development tools and libraries that have been designed for edge devices in industrial and home automation. This enables our automation customers to quickly and easily gain tangible business benefits, including reduced costs and improved efficiencies across their entire organization, and further extends our leadership position in the automation industry."

Qt will share additional details about Qt for Automation during a webinar taking place at 4:00 p.m. CEST on Thursday, September 7th. You can register for the webinar here.

Additionally, to learn more about Qt for Automation, please read our blog post detailing the new offering.

Furthermore, you can learn more about The Qt Company and Qt for Automation at this year's Qt World Summit, the largest annual event dedicated to Qt developers, business leaders and product managers. The event will take place in Berlin, Germany from October 10-12 and will feature thought-provoking keynotes and demos, insightful breakouts, and industry highlights. For more information on the Qt World Summit 2017, please visit: http://www.qtworldsummit.com/

About The Qt Company

The Qt Company develops and delivers the Qt development framework under commercial and open source licenses. We enable a single software code across all operating systems, platforms and screen types, from desktops and embedded systems to wearables and mobile devices. Qt is used by approximately one million developers worldwide and is the leading independent technology behind millions of devices and applications. Qt is the platform of choice for in-vehicle systems, medical devices, industrial automation devices, and other business critical application manufacturers, and is used by leading global players in more than 70 industries. The Qt Company is owned by the Qt Group, which operates in China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia and USA with more than 200 employees worldwide. The Qt Group is headquartered in Espoo, Finland and is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange. The company's net sales in year 2016 totaled 32,4 MEUR. To learn more visit http://qt.io

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The Qt Company

Katja Kumpulainen

+358 40 7222829

rel="nofollow">katja.kumpulainen@qt.io

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Globalisation, the sledgehammer battering Africa Part Two – The Zimbabwean

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Today, we will look at more reasons why this is so. And you will see they are one of the major reasons who extreme poverty is still the norm in Africa when it could have been eradicated years ago.

This says that globalisation and free trade will allow you to sell globally the products you are best at producing. As a backward country, the products you are best at producing will be the cheap, labour-intensive ones because you can pay your workers at well below what is legally allowed in the developed world, and at near slavery levels.

The theory is that, as your business develops, you will then be able to pay your workers more and thus lift them out of poverty. In practice, this wont happen because the minute you try to pay your workers more, your customers will just go to another company or another country which is charging less than you. So you cant increase your workers wages, and what you are really doing is locking them into not just poverty, but abject poverty.

For example, the world is applauding Ethiopia for its initiative in developing a fast-developing textile, clothing & footwear manufacturing trade. This may be good news for the country and its manufacturing bosses, but what is happening to its workers?

To find that out, lets look at the history of textile, clothing & footwear manufacture. Originally, many European and African nations had their own thriving, home-grown industries. And their workers were well-paid by local standards.

Then China and Bangladesh (and other developing countries) came out with dramatically lower costs, just by paying their workers what can only be described as slave wages. Result: widespread destruction of the European and African textile, clothing & footwear manufacturing. Yes, the general public benefited greatly from being able to buy much cheaper clothes and shoes, but it was at the cost of huge unemployment in Europe and Africa in those particular trades.

Then China and Bangladesh start to pay their workers more. So now what happens? Ethiopia steps in and takes trade off them by paying its workers only US$1.32 a day (which, by the way, is well below the UN and World Banks threshold of $1.90 a day). Ethiopia and its industry bosses will do very well out of this (but the workers certainly do not), until a point when it wants to pay its workers more.

Then another country will step in and take Ethiopias trade by cutting workers pay. This will put Ethiopias workers out of work. The bosses will be OK because they will generally be the ones who move their manufacturing out of Ethiopia and to the new country.

So what the Law of Comparative Advantage actually does is create a cycle of never-ending abject poverty with manufacturing moving to ever-cheaper countries. This is called The Race To The Bottom.

The other side of the Law of Comparative Advantage is that if you are good at producing high-value technically advanced products, then that is what you will specialise in. In practice, the only countries able to do this are wealthy ones. So what actually happens is that, as a backward nation, you are swapping low profit products that keep your workers in abject poverty for high profit ones from the wealthy nations that can pay their workers well.

Japan understood this very well when it came under immense pressure from the USA to open its borders after World War II. The Japanese government told the USA it was not going to be consigned to exporting tins of tuna to the USA in exchange for Cadillacs. Instead, it put up barriers to importing American cars to give its automobile industry (at the time virtually non-existent) a chance to develop. The incredible rise of the Japanese car industry is history.

Agenda 2063 has learnt the vital lesson of protectionism to allow Africas domestic industries to develop, which is why it focuses on building up an African financed, owned and led business-base, and wants to heavily reduce its reliance on globalisation.

If African nations want the living standards of their citizens to rise, they, too must learn from the experience of Japan, China and South Korea. However, the big problem there is either incompetence (they dont know what to do, so they just accept the story of globalisation), or corruption: a large part of their illicit fortunes come from supporting foreign commercial and financial interests.

Even if this is true for weak nations that want to develop their GDP (although that is debatable), it is certainly not true for their workers as we have seen.

Where wealthy nations are concerned, it is true for them and their higher-end businesses. But it is definitely not true for companies specialising in lower-end products, or their workers.

That is because it is not a level playing field when the laws of developed nations prevent them from competing on labour costs against nations that have no minimum wage or have one but dont enforce it, as hardly any developing nations do. So labour-intensive companies and those dealing in lower-end products are forced to sack their workers and either take their manufacture abroad or go bankrupt. On balance, wealthy nations can and do benefit in GDP terms, but at a big cost to their workers.

We have already seen this is definitely not true where weaker trading nations are concerned. Yes, the owners of some manufacturing businesses can do well out of it. Yes, globalisation and free trade produce jobs and someone who earns nothing will grasp at the opportunity to earn US$1.90 or $1.32 a day. But that doesnt get them out of poverty in fact, nowhere near it.

And what it does not do is put them into a system where their standards of living will steadily rise and keep rising. And that is the system everyone should be concentrating on.

In the long run, it may not even be win-win for wealthy nations. It is true that all of them achieved their huge wealth via globalisation. But the cracks are already starting to appear for them. Once a developing nation like China or South Korea can get itself into a position of having the expertise to produce technical products, it can suddenly forge ahead for the simple reason that, as it pays its scientists, designers and engineers very much less than developed nations do, it can put a lot more manpower into product development.

The other problem that is already reaching an advanced stage in the UK and USA is a rapidly widening gap between rich and poor. The rich are getting richer at a rate that often far exceeds increases in GDP. In contrast, the wages of workers is not only stagnating, the incidence of poverty is increasing year by year, as witness what can only be described as a dramatic rise in food banks and increase in starvation among children. We saw earlier how the Race to the Bottom affects developing nations. This is how it affects developed ones.

And when workers pay reduces, this has a knock-on effect to middle class incomes as well, as is happening. The only people to benefit, and they benefit out of all proportion, are those at the top income level.

Up to now, the USA has been the architect and biggest promoter of globalisation. Now, however, it intends to embark on a programme of selective protectionism. Love or hate President Trump, he has recognised that, while the affluent nations, the big multinationals and the ruling elite all do very nicely out of globalisation, it can be very damaging to vast swathes of the working class, with serious consequences to the fabric of society.

For any supporter of globalisation and free trade, this is absolute proof that it is not what it is cracked up to be. In some situations and under some circumstances, it may be a good thing. But not in all.

The sooner all Africa realises that their only route out of poverty and into wealth in fact, their ONLY such route is via an African financed, owned and led business-base, just as Agenda 2063 is proposing, the sooner they will start to progress rapidly to a Western-quality lifestyle.

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Globalisation, the sledgehammer battering Africa Part Two - The Zimbabwean

From promises in 2014 to Majestic India of 2022 – The Indian Express

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Written by Ravish Tiwari | New Delhi | Published:August 16, 2017 2:58 am Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi greet each other as Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan looks on during At Home function on the occasion of Independence Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI/Shahbaz Khan)

In his four Independence Day speeches from the ramparts of Red Fort so far, Prime Minister Narendra Modis narrative has followed a pattern of progression from ideas through their implementation to new hopes that look beyond the end of his current tenure. From announcing schemes to justify the popular hope behind his election at the beginning of his tenure (2014), Modi moved on to projecting his governments success in resolving legacy issues from the previous government (2015). And after he highlighted the delivery of his initiatives in his third speech (2016), the Prime Minister used the penultimate speech of his current tenure to showcase the dream of a New India that goes well beyond the 2019 elections.

This gradual progression becomes strikingly obvious from one substantial difference between his first speech in 2014 and his latest Tuesday. As against seven initiatives Jan Dhan Yojana, Skill India, Make in India, Digital India, Swachh Bharat, Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana and abolition of the Planning Commission that paved the way for NITI Aayog that he had announced in 2014, there was the announcement of only one launch today: of a website to provide account of the valour of Gallantry Award winners.

In his fourth speech, Modi chose to set out goals for a majestic India by 2022, well beyond his current tenure that ends in 2019. I shall urge you to take up the New India Pledge and move ahead, Modi said. So for Team India, for the 125 crore countrymen, we have to take the pledge to achieve the goal by 2022. We will do it with dedication to see a great, majestic India by 2022.

Modis goals included pucca houses for the poor, farmers earning double of their current earnings by 2022, enough opportunities for the youth and women, and a country that is uncompromising with corruption and nepotism, and free of terrorism, communalism and casteism.

We are trying to put the whole country on a new track without decreasing the speed, Modi said. We have maintained the speed. So, if Modis first Independence Day speech was full of promises, he used his second address in 2015 to project his governments success in clearing the contentious legacy challenges from the previous UPA government.

That year, Modi announced acceptance of One Rank, One Pension for armed forces and dwelt at length on how he had managed to clear the mess in allocation of natural resources coal, minerals and spectrum by instituting auction mechanism. He pointed out how these issues hung fire during the UPA government. It has been 15 months (in power), there is not a single taint of corruption against your government, Modi said in 2015 after highlighting his success in tacking the legacy challenge of alleged corruption in allocation of natural resources.

Having been in power for 15 months, Modi used the 2015 speech to announce the launch of Start-Up India, Stand-Up India along with a promise to provide power to remaining 18,000 villages within the next 1,000 days. He also announced initiatives such as abolition of interviews to benefit job-seekers in Group C and D.

Modis third speech, in comparison, sought to project his governments record in delivery of his promises. I can present before you a very detailed account of work done and also multiple issues regarding the performance of the government, he had said last year. During the tenure of two years, the government has taken innumerable initiatives and multiple tasks have been done. If I start giving details, I am afraid I will have to talk about it for a week.

Modi highlighted achievements big or small, such as online appointment in AIIMS, 15,000 train ticket bookings per minute, online tax refund, swift issuance of passports to major improvements such as improved pace of road construction, acceleration in wind power generation, and laying of power transmission lines. He also gave account of progress in Jan Dhan accounts, MUDRA scheme, electrification of villages, toilet construction, reviving stalled irrigation and development projects and steps to settle sugarcane farmers dues, among others.

Modi has used his fourth Independence Day address to communicate a message of empathy in Jammu and Kashmir, even as he had used his 2016 speech to corner Pakistan by referring to Balochistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

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From promises in 2014 to Majestic India of 2022 - The Indian Express

Liz Sayce: ‘The UK thinks it is a leader in disability rights. But it has a long way to go’ – The Guardian

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The culture of pressurising people to take up ineffective, one-size-fits-all programmes has failed disabled people, says Liz Sayce. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

In the quarter century that Liz Sayce, 63, has been an advocate for disability rights, she has witnessed momentous changes. But the former chief executive of Disability Rights UK (DRUK), who stepped down from the role earlier this summer, believes that the movement has reached a critical moment.

Next week a delegation from DRUK and other organisations is travelling to Geneva and is expected to highlight concerns about the governments response to a UN committees investigation into the upholding of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Last year, the committee concluded that the government was guilty of grave and systematic violations of disabled peoples rights under the convention, and made 11 recommendations for improvements. All were rejected by ministers. Sayce says this unfortunate response is discouraging.

She believes it is crucial that protecting and securing rights is a priority, during a time when people with disabilities have borne the brunt of austerity policies and disabled peoples organisations have had to vociferously resist a vast array of cuts to benefits and social care. Initiatives such as the Work Programme, policies like the bedroom tax and benefits sanctions, moves to alter social care criteria so it is harder for people to access support, and the abolition of the Independent Living Fund for severely disabled people have made resistance essential, she adds.

A damning 2013 DRUK report called for the Work Programme to be scrapped for unemployed disabled people. The culture of pressurising people to take up ineffective, one-size-fits-all programmes has failed disabled people, she says. She asserts that the wider goal of the disability rights movement, pushing for equal participation in society, needs to underpin actions. Were not just saying [individual policies] are important. Were saying that belonging and participating in society are critical. They are human rights and they are crucial to human wellbeing. Sayce believes that being an organisation led largely by people with disability or long-term health conditions is central to DRUK achieving its objectives, including lobbying and influencing.

Earlier this year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) concluded that despite progress over the years, disabled people are still not treated as equal citizens. Its report outlined a litany of missed opportunities and failures across six key areas of life. These included gaps in educational attainment between disabled children and their non-disabled peers, and high rates of unemployment and poverty. This analysis came just months after the UN investigation.

All of this means extreme inequalities are exacerbated, says Sayce. It feeds into an unacceptable othering of disabled people, which in turn hinders further progress and contributes to a pattern of disability being couched in terms of vulnerability, rather than rights and equal citizenship.

Having worked early on in psychiatric hospitals, Sayce says she witnessed the way that institutionalisation and discrimination drastically curtailed peoples rights to participate and was always motivated to do something about it. Highlighting burning social justice issues affecting disabled people became the hallmark of her long career. Despite the low points seeing the clock turned back by successive governments (she singles out the erosion of independent living) she is also keen to acknowledge advances along the way.

As policy director at Mind, she was on the frontline of lobbying in the lead up to the landmark Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1995. Remember that before that point it was completely legal to refuse somebody [entry] into a cafe because they were disabled, or to refuse somebody a job overtly. No law against it whatsoever.

Sayce stresses that proactive moves in the 1990s and 2000s helped to shift and shape the rights agenda. She cites the introduction of public sector equality duties in 2005 as one example. Absolutely pivotal, she says, is the degree to which progressive policies were, and continue to be, conceived and shaped by disabled people. Referring to developments such as personal budgets for social care, Sayce says: It happened with independent living in the 90s and thats exactly how it should work.

Among the highlights of her career, she says, was being a director at the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) in the 2000s: A time when disabled people and allies set and secured a new agenda; new rights and new enforcement, for example the recent supreme court case on access to public transport.

Her career has not been without controversy. In 2011 she headed a highly charged government review into disability employment, and described Remploy sheltered factories as ghettos that reinforced stigmas and were obstacles to inclusion in mainstream workplaces. Despite the government accepting all of her recommendations, and extending the access to work initiative to apprenticeships, she says there has been real backsliding.

Government has continued to focus on influencing individuals to change their behaviour, rather than influencing the behaviour of employers to open up employment opportunities [to disabled people]. You cant just keep putting pressure on the individuals. You have to change the way employment works and the way [we] support individuals into work. What we want is policy across government whether it is transport, social care, education or employment policy that is all working to an agenda of full participation and independent living.

Sayce is not leaving the disability rights arena entirely (shes a member of the Healthwatch England Committee and the Social Security Advisory Committee and will continue to mentor) and eagerly awaits the outcome of the UN assessment later this year. She welcomes new disabled MPs including Marsha de Cordova and Jared OMara to parliament, and believes it will be critical for the government to demonstrate it can build trust with disabled people through an action plan (in response to the UN committee) with short- and long-term policies to achieve rights to full participation. The UK has often thought of itself as a world leader in disability rights, she says. Well, to earn that title it needs to be ahead of the game. Its got some way to go to demonstrate that.

Curriculum vitae

Age 63.

Lives Tooting, south London.

Family Civil partnership.

Education Oxford high school; University of Kent, English and French; University of London, MSc social work and social policy.

Career 2012-2017: chief executive, Disability Rights UK [following merger of Radar, National Centre for Independent Living and Disability Alliance]; 2007-12: chief executive, Radar; 2000-07: director, policy and communications, Disability Rights Commission; 1998-2000: director, Lambeth Southwark and Lewisham Health Action Zone; 1990-98: policy director, Mind; 1987-90: programme coordinator, research and development for Psychiatry (now Centre for Mental Health); 1985-87: good practices in mental health project worker, which included visiting Bexley hospital in south London and visiting people coming out of both Bexley and Cane Hill hospitals.

Public life Member, Healthwatch England Committee; member, Social Security Advisory Committee; OBE in 2008; honorary doctorate, University of Kent, 2014.

Interests Long evenings with friends, long-distance walking, social history of movements for change, and London.

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Liz Sayce: 'The UK thinks it is a leader in disability rights. But it has a long way to go' - The Guardian

PM: Youth entrepreneurial empowerment to be ‘major focus’ of … – Bahamas Tribune

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By Natario McKenzie

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said that youth entrepreneurial empowerment will be a major focus of his administration, while urging the private sector to be "bold and imaginative".

Dr Minnis, who was speaking at the recent launch of the Bahamas Striping Group's Investment Group funding arm, said: "Youth entrepreneurial empowerment will be a major focus of my administration as we see this as a means of tackling some of our long-entrenched problems in our urban areas such as unemployment, crime and social anomie."

Dr Minnis applauded the efforts of the striping group, while noting there are countless examples of young individuals who have ideas to start a business enterprise but who have nowhere to turn to find the necessary funding to advance their proposals. "They are unable to obtain funding through the established commercial banks and quite naturally they would not have the connections or the knowledge to obtain private financing. And so what happens, the dream is deferred, and the dream dies. Needless to say, this leads to personal frustration and social explosion."

Dr Minnis also stressed that the private sector must expand. "One of today's realities is that the private sector must expand. It must be that sector of our economy that must be bold and imaginative. We know that the public sector is already overburdened when it comes to creating new employment and so any opportunity that the private sector has to expand and create new employment should be welcomed," said Dr Minnis.

He added: "Our economy needs small and medium enterprises to grow and become successful. More often than not, these are the companies that employ those who are marginalised and who may not fit into the conventional mainstream of employable skills. But the market place must find room for such young men and women, and often the best way to do this is allowing such persons to do their own thing."

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PM: Youth entrepreneurial empowerment to be 'major focus' of ... - Bahamas Tribune

Can’t get technology off your mind? Amazon’s Alexa is no help as she sings about her place in the world – GeekWire

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If you were sitting at your desk just wishing you had a new ear worm you couldnt shake, you should try on this little ditty from Amazons Alexa especially if you work in technologyyyyyyyyyy.

I discovered the Woohoo Technology song when I heard it playing in my 10-year-old sons bedroom this week. Asking Alexa to sing to him is just one of the things he does with his Echo Dot.

But the song has been around for about a month, according to an Amazon spokesperson, who told GeekWire that it was released July 13 incelebration of Barbershop Music Appreciation Day. Whether or not you needed a day to appreciate that kind of music, the timing makes sense now that Ive heard the voice-enabled assistant harmonizing over and over and over this week.

Technology, technology, where would I be without tech-no-lo-gyyyyyyyyyy?

Without the Wi-Fi I couldnt say hi, as for music, I couldnt choose it. Shopping lists would cease to exist, and time would be on your wrist.

I thank my lucky stars that Im here today, I hope that youll agree. Give me one, two, three shouts of love, for tech-tech, tech-tech, technologyyyyyyyyy.

Wooooo-hoooooooo, technologyyyyyyyyyy.

Theres a clear nod in there to Amazons belief that life is better with Amazon. How did we ever listen to music, shop or even tell time before the tech giants artificial intelligence came along?

The music and lyrics were created by the Alexa personality team, the spokesperson said.Alexa can now sing five songs on command and her skills are allegedly improving over time. You can ask for a specific song by saying something like, Alexa, sing a love song or Alexa, sing a country song or just ask her to sing a song in general and she will pick one from her repertoire to play for you.

On an Echo Show here at the GeekWire offices, we simply said, Alexa, sing the technology song.

And now, as if we didnt have that problem already, we cant get technology out of our heads.

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Can't get technology off your mind? Amazon's Alexa is no help as she sings about her place in the world - GeekWire

How Technology Might Get Out of Control – Bloomberg

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Humanity has a method for trying to prevent new technologies from getting out of hand: explore the possible negative consequences, involving all parties affected, and come to some agreement on ways to mitigate them. New research, though, suggests that the accelerating pace of change could soon render this approach ineffective.

People use laws, social norms and international agreements to reap the benefits of technology while minimizing undesirable things like environmental damage. In aiming to find such rules of behavior, we often take inspiration from what game theorists call a Nash equilibrium, named after the mathematician and economist John Nash. In game theory, a Nash equilibrium is a set of strategies that, once discovered by a set of players, provides a stable fixed point at which no one has an incentive to depart from their current strategy.

To reach such an equilibrium, the players need to understand the consequences of their own and others' potential actions. During the Cold War, for example, peace among nuclear powers depended on the understanding the any attack would ensure everyone's destruction. Similarly, from local regulations to international law, negotiations can be seen as a gradual exploration of all possible moves to find a stable framework of rules acceptable to everyone, and giving no one an incentive to cheat because doing so would leave them worse off.

But what if technology becomes so complex and starts evolving so rapidly that humans cant imagine the consequences of some new action? This is the question that a pair of scientists -- Dimitri Kusnezov of the National Nuclear Security Administration and Wendell Jones, recently retired from Sandia National Labs -- explore in a recent paper. Their unsettling conclusion: The concept of strategic equilibrium as an organizing principle may be nearly obsolete.

Kusnezov and Jones derive insight from recent mathematical studies of games with many players and many possible choices of action. One basic finding is a sharp division into two types, stable and unstable. Below a certain level of complexity, the Nash equilibrium is useful in describing the likely outcomes. Beyond that lies a chaotic zone where players never manage to find stable and reliable strategies, but cope only by perpetually shifting their behaviors in a highly irregular way. What happens is essentially random and unpredictable.

The authors argue that emerging technologies -- especially computing, software and biotechnology such as gene editing -- are much more likely to fall into the unstable category. In these areas, disruptions are becoming bigger and more frequent as costs fall and sharing platforms enable open innovation. Hence, such technologies will evolve faster than regulatory frameworks -- at least as traditionally conceived -- can respond.

Clear thinking from leading voices in business, economics, politics, foreign affairs, culture, and more.

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What can we do? Kusnezov and Jones don't have an easy answer. One clear implication is that it's probably a mistake to copy techniques used for the more slowly evolving and less widely available technologies of the past. This is often the default approach, as illustrated by proposals to regulate gene editing techniques. Such efforts are probably doomed in a world where technologies develop thanks to the parallel efforts of a global population with diverse aims and interests. Perhaps future regulation will itself have to rely on emerging technologies, as some are already exploring for finance.

We may be approaching a profound moment in history, when the guiding idea of strategic equilibrium on which we've relied for 75 years will run up against its limits. If so, regulation will become an entirely different game.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Mark Buchanan at buchanan.mark@gmail.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Whitehouse at mwhitehouse1@bloomberg.net

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How Technology Might Get Out of Control - Bloomberg

New Facebook data center a boost to Ohio’s technology sector – ABC News

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Facebook will spend $750 million on a new data center in central Ohio, the company announced Tuesday marking another boost for the state's growing technology sector.

The world's biggest social media company joined Republican Gov. John Kasich and a host of other dignitaries to announce its 10th data center will be in New Albany, just northeast of Columbus.

The 22-acre (8.9-hectare) data center will be powered exclusively with renewable energy. It is expected to employ 100 people to start and to begin providing services in 2019.

Rachel Peterson, the company's director of data center strategy and development, said several factors attracted Facebook to the location, including fiber and power infrastructure, government support, livability and the availability of high-tech talent.

"We look at that community fit and how we're going to live and work in a community," she said. "We not only live there. We work there, too. We hire there locally. So we want to make sure there's a strong fit."

She said the availability of renewable energy sources, including wind, solar and hydro, was critical to the decision a factor underlined by Kasich, who has pushed back against legislative efforts to turn back the state's alternative energy requirements.

"It is critical that we continue developing the renewables, because, believe me, at the end of the day, if the Facebooks and the Googles and the PayPals and the Amazons think that we are not committed to renewable energy, they will not come here. Period, end of story," he said.

Menlo Park, California-based Facebook has been adding data centers in the U.S. and internationally to handle the growing number of photos, videos and additional digital content it must process from its 2 billion users. The Ohio project was code-named Sidecat as it moved through the successful application process for $37 million in state tax incentives.

U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, whose district will house the facility, said it's "incredibly important."

"It continues to show not just the Silicon Valley, but job creators all over the country, that, hey, you know what, something must be happening in Ohio," the Republican congressman said, noting the hope that a synergy is beginning to build.

Amazon opened three cloud-computing data center sites in central Ohio last year. The company invested about $1 billion in centers in New Albany and two other Columbus suburbs, Dublin and Hilliard.

Kasich said Tuesday's announcement shows Ohio is diversifying its economy beyond its heavy reliance on manufacturing. He hopes the growing number of tech jobs entice younger workers to move to or remain in Ohio, whose population growth has stagnated as average ages rise.

"Ohio has it all," Kasich said. "You've got the cool factor. You've got exciting companies. You've got the lower cost of living."

He noted other recent technology investments in the state, including by Explorys, IBM Analytics and Teradata. Cologix, a Denver-based date company, also plans a $130 million data center on its Columbus campus.

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New Facebook data center a boost to Ohio's technology sector - ABC News

The best hedge funds at picking tech stocks like these 10 names the most – CNBC

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The best hedge funds for technology stock picking are betting on China, social media and gaming.

Technology is by far the best-performing S&P 500 sector this year, up 23 percent and raising worries for some that the sector may have gotten ahead of itself. Some hedge funds, however, have outperformed those stellar gains and expect a few high-profile names to rise further.

Hedge funds such as S Squared and Contour scored high in technology stock picking using research firm Symmetric.io's proprietary indicator called StockAlpha. The measure compares the performance of equities found in more than a thousand hedge funds' quarterly filings with that of a sector exchange-traded fund, in this case the technology sector ETF.

Filings for second-quarter holdings released in the last week showed that the hedge funds' top picks included Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Facebook, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard and Liberty Broadband.

Here's the full list of the funds 10 favorite stocks:

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The best hedge funds at picking tech stocks like these 10 names the most - CNBC

Stratford: Progress being made on dog park – CT Post

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Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media

File photo of the boarded up ranger's cabin in Stratfords Roosevelt Forest, which is where the town's new dog park will be situated, officials say.

File photo of the boarded up ranger's cabin in Stratfords Roosevelt Forest, which is where the town's new dog park will be situated, officials say.

Click through to see where to take your dog in southwestern Connecticut....

Click through to see where to take your dog in southwestern Connecticut....

Tati of Seymour plays on Silver Sands Beach in Milford. Dogs are not allowed on public beaches during the summer, but there are plenty of other dog-friendly outdoor spaces.

Tati of Seymour plays on Silver Sands Beach in Milford. Dogs are not allowed on public beaches during the summer, but there are plenty of other dog-friendly outdoor spaces.

A dog goes swimming at Mianus River Park in Stamford, Conn. on Monday August 27, 2012.

A dog goes swimming at Mianus River Park in Stamford, Conn. on Monday August 27, 2012.

Lauren Schreiber, 18, walks her dog Roxy with friend Charlie Haviland, 17, of Fairfield, and his dog Rocky Thursday, Mar. 6, 2014, at Lake Mohegan's hiking trails in Fairfield, Conn. less

Lauren Schreiber, 18, walks her dog Roxy with friend Charlie Haviland, 17, of Fairfield, and his dog Rocky Thursday, Mar. 6, 2014, at Lake Mohegan's hiking trails in ... more

Coco takes a dip in the pool at the Stamford Dog Park on Saturday, May 10, 2014, the 5-year anniversary of the park.

Coco takes a dip in the pool at the Stamford Dog Park on Saturday, May 10, 2014, the 5-year anniversary of the park.

Jennings Dog Beach is the only off-leash beach in the area from October 1st to March 31st. Dogs are allowed on the sand, but not on the boardwalks, pavilions, or playgrounds.

Jennings Dog Beach is the only off-leash beach in the area from October 1st to March 31st. Dogs are allowed on the sand, but not on the boardwalks, pavilions, or playgrounds.

Patty Johnstone of Sussex, N.J., and her Irish Red and White Setter, Ruger, during the Greenwich Kennel Club Dog Show at Taylor Farm Park, Norwalk, Saturday, June 7, 2013.

Patty Johnstone of Sussex, N.J., and her Irish Red and White Setter, Ruger, during the Greenwich Kennel Club Dog Show at Taylor Farm Park, Norwalk, Saturday, June 7, 2013.

Newtown's first off-leash recreational dog park features two acres of fenced area for licensed and vaccinated, friendly dogs over four months.

Newtown's first off-leash recreational dog park features two acres of fenced area for licensed and vaccinated, friendly dogs over four months.

Dogs are welcomed off leash along this trail bordering Candlewood Lake.

Dogs are welcomed off leash along this trail bordering Candlewood Lake.

Eisenhower Park has nature trails, a pond, a dog run, as well as many other family friendly recreational activities.

Eisenhower Park has nature trails, a pond, a dog run, as well as many other family friendly recreational activities.

Andrea Bulcken, of Shelton, gives her dog Brody a pet while he plays at the Shelton dog park in Shelton, Conn. Friday, Aug. 23, 2013.

Andrea Bulcken, of Shelton, gives her dog Brody a pet while he plays at the Shelton dog park in Shelton, Conn. Friday, Aug. 23, 2013.

Teddy, a Welsh terrier, dunks his tootsies in the water fountain at the Waveny Dog Park in New Canaan.

Teddy, a Welsh terrier, dunks his tootsies in the water fountain at the Waveny Dog Park in New Canaan.

The Housatonic Valley Rail-Trail in Monroe is one of 1600 rail-trails supported by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that is working to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors.

The Housatonic Valley Rail-Trail in Monroe is one of 1600 rail-trails supported by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that is working to create a

Bring your pet to play off-leash at this fenced Greenwich dog park, which includes a separate area for small dogs.

Bring your pet to play off-leash at this fenced Greenwich dog park, which includes a separate area for small dogs.

Compo Beach off-leash dog area welcomes canines from October 1 through March 30. The area is not fenced, though.

Compo Beach off-leash dog area welcomes canines from October 1 through March 30. The area is not fenced, though.

Leashed dogs are allowed in this park with a playground, tennis courts, cafe, fields, trails, and picnic benches.

Leashed dogs are allowed in this park with a playground, tennis courts, cafe, fields, trails, and picnic benches.

The long-awaited dog park in New Milford opened in 2010.

The long-awaited dog park in New Milford opened in 2010.

Dogs are welcomed off-leash and play areas are available in this public park.

Dogs are welcomed off-leash and play areas are available in this public park.

Havoc of New Fairfield at Lovers Leap State park in New Milford.

Havoc of New Fairfield at Lovers Leap State park in New Milford.

This is an on-leash beach open to canines between after October 1st to March 31st, as long as you pick up after them.

This is an on-leash beach open to canines between after October 1st to March 31st, as long as you pick up after them.

Havoc of New Fairfield enjoys a walk at Tarrywile Park in Danbury.

Havoc of New Fairfield enjoys a walk at Tarrywile Park in Danbury.

Dogs are allowed into Greenwich Parks from December 1st through March 31st.

Dogs are allowed into Greenwich Parks from December 1st through March 31st.

Havoc of New Fairfield at Steep Rock Preserve in Washington.

Havoc of New Fairfield at Steep Rock Preserve in Washington.

Donna Myer, of Southbury, gives her dogs, Winslow, left and Gracie, right, a drink in the nearby river , at the Southbury Dog Park, in Southbury.

Donna Myer, of Southbury, gives her dogs, Winslow, left and Gracie, right, a drink in the nearby river , at the Southbury Dog Park, in Southbury.

The Ridgefield Operation for Aminal Rescue Paws for the Cause Dog Walk in Ballard Park Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012.

The Ridgefield Operation for Aminal Rescue Paws for the Cause Dog Walk in Ballard Park Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012.

This friendly, large, off-leash dog park provides plenty of space for your pet to play.

This friendly, large, off-leash dog park provides plenty of space for your pet to play.

Kristin Woxholdt of New Fairfield takes Havoc for a walk at Stone Church Hike in Dover, NY.

Kristin Woxholdt of New Fairfield takes Havoc for a walk at Stone Church Hike in Dover, NY.

Cranberry Mountain in Patterson, NY is another dog-friendly hiking spot.

Cranberry Mountain in Patterson, NY is another dog-friendly hiking spot.

Stratford: Progress being made on dog park

STRATFORD This town has been howling for a dog park for decades, and now some progress is being made on the pooch playground.

The Town Council on Monday, yielding to the hundreds of sad-eyed, floppy-eared faces in town, agreed to award a contract to a company that will demolish the old ranger station residence at the entrance to Roosevelt Forest, where canines will soon be able to cavort with one another.

The low bid came in at about $22,000, which includes carting away whatever other mess is strewn about the old ranger station in the North End.

Details are still being worked out, but officials say that the fenced-in facility will have a key card system to permit only Stratford dogs to enter. There will also be a small parking lot.

In March, the council finally wagged its tail the Roosevelt Forest venue for the facility. Dozens of other sites from one end of town to the other were getting the stiff test, but most of these faced growls of disapproval from nearby residents.

Most of the money will come from an appropriation from the 2016-17 fiscal year, which ended on July 1. Officials said that itll still face scrutiny from the Inland Wetlands Commission.

The building that will be torn down hasnt been used in about two decades.

jburgeson@ctpost.com

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Stratford: Progress being made on dog park - CT Post

Mitchell Trubisky’s progress headlines Bears’ strong rookie class – ESPN (blog)

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A full breakdown of the Chicago Bears' 2017 draft class and its progress after two weeks of training camp.

Mitchell Trubisky, QB, first round (No. 2 overall): Trubisky fired up the entire city of Chicago after he completed 18 of 25 pass attempts for 166 yards and one touchdown in his preseason debut. Trubisky is technically still third on Chicagos quarterback depth chart, but hes applying pressure on starter Mike Glennon. Its only a matter of time before Trubisky wins the job outright, but the Bears are taking it slow.

Adam Shaheen, TE, second round (No. 45): Out of Division II Ashland University, Shaheen excelled in Chicagos offseason program after it drafted him. That success carried over to training camp, where Shaheens expected to have a sizable role on offense alongside fellow tight ends Dion Sims and Zach Miller. Shaheens got really good hands for a big guy (6-foot-6). If Shaheen proves he can block, hell play a lot in the regular season.

Eddie Jackson, S, fourth round (No. 112): Jackson is pushing starting free safety Adrian Amos. Jackson had several interceptions early in camp that apparently caught the attention of the coaching staff, because lately, Jackson is getting more first-team reps. There is also hope the Alabama product may help on special teams, where he starred as a returner in college.

Tarik Cohen, RB, fourth round (No. 119): Cohen was the fan favorite in Bourbonnais. The Bears plan to use Cohen in a variety of ways as their Joker back. Look for the 5-6 speedster to get the ball in space when the regular season rolls around. The Bears ran Cohen between the tackles in the first preseason game, but that was probably by design. Chicago doesnt want to show their hand with Cohen, who has breakaway speed and moves in the open field.

Jordan Morgan, OL, fifth round (No. 147): There hasnt been much discussion about Morgan, even after reserve guard Eric Kush suffered a season-ending torn hamstring. Theres also concern about Kyle Longs ankle, making the interior of the offensive line a real question mark. Morgan, though, may be more of a project after playing college ball at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania.

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Mitchell Trubisky's progress headlines Bears' strong rookie class - ESPN (blog)

PUBG’s work-in-progress vaulting animations look good – PC Gamer

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As exclusively revealed during the PC Gaming Show at this year's E3, the ability to vault, climb, and dive through windows is coming to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Now, one of the game's programmers has shared some work-in-progress footage that shows how the new animations are coming along.

What might seem like a small addition to PUBG has scope to grossly alter strategy as it stands. Being able to throw yourself over and therefore behind walls while being pursued, for example, could mark the difference between life and death; while snipers stand to access better vantage points by reaching highers up nests.

As you can see there, players will be able to stall vaults mid-animation which will definitely come in handy when facing off against the aforementioned opportunist snipers.

Again, the above is marked as a 'work-in-progress'. And while we don't as yet know exactly which update vaulting, climbing and window-diving are coming to PUBG, there's still no sign of this ultra-cool maneuvering:

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PUBG's work-in-progress vaulting animations look good - PC Gamer

Westwood making cuts, but not making progress in majors – ABC News

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It's not quite a badge of honor, though it beats the alternative. Lee Westwood was among 13 players who made the cut in all four majors this year, and he has the longest active streak of cuts made among those who have played them all.

Westwood last missed the cut in 2014 at the British Open, making it 13 in a row that he has played the weekend.

That's the good news.

"I'm playing steady, but not well enough," Westwood said.

His best finish was a tie for 18th in the Masters. Westwood tied for 55th in the U.S. Open, tied for 27th in the British Open and tied for 67th at the PGA Championship. He has only one top 10 in the majors since he last missed the cut, a runner-up at the Masters to Danny Willett last year.

"You don't want to be missing cuts. You'd rather be making cuts," Westwood said. "But obviously, I want to contend. Nobody wants to be out early on Sunday."

Jordan Spieth joins Westwood as the only players to make the cut in all four majors over the last three years.

The others to make the cut in every major this year were Hideki Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka, Matt Kuchar, Rickie Fowler, Paul Casey, Kevin Kisner, Russell Henley, Steve Stricker, Charley Hoffman, Marc Leishman and J.B. Holmes.

Stricker now has made 26 straight cuts in the majors over the last eight years, though he has either not played (British Open) or not been eligible (Masters, U.S. Open) for six majors dating to his last missed cut at Hazeltine in the 2009 PGA Championship.

Russell Knox was on the wrong list this year. He was among five players who missed the cut in all four majors. The others were Jhonattan Vegas, Tyrrell Hatton, Yuta Ikeda and Jeunghun Wang.

PAYNE STEWART AWARD: Stewart Cink has won an award that is gaining massive momentum as one of the biggest honors on the PGA Tour. He will accept the Payne Stewart Award during the Tour Championship next month.

The award began as a tribute to Stewart, the three-time major champion who died in a plane crash on his way to the Tour Championship in 1999. It recognizes the values of character, charity and sportsmanship, and recent winners have said the ceremony was one of the best nights of their careers.

"To receive the Payne Stewart Award is one of the greatest honors of my career," Cink said. "Payne Stewart was a player and person whom I admired greatly, both on and off the course. His character, his infectious spirit and his dedication to growing the game were all traits that I have always aspired to emulate."

Cink has six victories in 21 years on the PGA Tour, including the British Open in 2009 in a playoff over Tom Watson at Turnberry. That was Cink at his best, not only his performance, but the graciousness in winning over such a popular and sentimental figure as the 59-year-old Watson.

"In every sense of the words, he showed character and sportsmanship," PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said.

Cink has two sons in college and for the last two years has been devoting himself to his wife, Lisa, during her battle with breast cancer.

The Payne Stewart Award ceremony will be Sept. 19 and televised live on Golf Channel.

LAST CALL: The Wyndham Championship is the final PGA Tour event to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, which in some cases, means keeping a full PGA Tour card.

Geoff Ogilvy, who used a one-time exemption from top 50 in career money, is on the biggest bubble at No. 125.

Rick Lamb is on the next bubble at No. 150. Players who finish between No. 126 and 150 at least have conditional status. That's where Chris Stroud started last season.

But the most critical might be further down the list.

Players who finish between No. 126 and 200 are eligible, if they need it, for the Web.com Tour Finals, which offers PGA Tour cards to the leading 25 players on a money list for four tournaments. Finish outside the 200 and it's a tougher road back to the big leagues.

Among those outside the top 200 going into the Wyndham Championship are Carl Pettersson (203), Jason Bohn (204) and Brad Fritsch (205). Pettersson and Bohn each have status as a past PGA Tour winner. They also could use a one-time exemption to play the Web.com Tour because they have been fully exempt the last five years.

Fritch, because he won on the Web.com Tour last year, would have Web.com status as a past champion, but he would be subject to the first reshuffle.

The answer for all of them is to play hard.

GRAND SLAM SECOND: Louis Oosthuizen went from a reputation of having the sweetest swing in golf to being the best at lip syncing.

All because of another runner-up finish.

Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion at St. Andrews, made a 50-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the PGA Championship and joined the list of players who have finished runner-up at all four majors. He lost in a playoff to Bubba Watson at the 2012 Masters, lost in a three-man playoff at the 2015 British Open and tied for second in the 2015 U.S. Open.

The others to accomplish that were Phil Mickelson, Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Craig Wood. Norman is the only player from that group to lose all four majors in a playoff (Wood lost in extra holes at the PGA Championship when it was match play).

The South African handled it with a performance on the jet home that rates among his best mouthing the words, with more expression than he ever allows on the course, to "I'll Rise Up" by Andra Day.

DIVOTS: Henrik Stenson is playing the Wyndham Championship this week to make sure he reaches the minimum 15 tournaments to keep his PGA Tour membership. It will be his 13th event. At No. 75 in the FedEx Cup, he is assured of playing at least two playoff events. ... NBC analyst Mark Rolfing and his wife, Debi, have been selected to receive the PGA Distinguished Service Award. Along with their promotion of golf in Hawaii, the Mark and Debi Rolfing Charitable Foundation helps high-risk, needy children. They will be honored in November at the PGA of America's annual meeting. ... The reason Justin Thomas has "radar" stamped on wedges since he was still in elementary school: He told Golfweek magazine he was hitting chips and bunker shots close to the hole when Phillip James of Titleist said, "You've got radar out here." He says James to this day won't send him a wedge unless it has "radar" stamped on the back. ... U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka goes into next year atop the U.S. Ryder Cup standings. Points only were awarded at majors and World Golf Championships. Koepka was followed by Thomas, British Open champion Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Twelve of the top 15 players in the women's world ranking are not at the Solheim Cup.

FINAL WORD: "Made all the cuts. That's a good step." Rickie Fowler on his year in the majors.

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Westwood making cuts, but not making progress in majors - ABC News

Anti-trafficking laws have made great progress – The Hill (blog)

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The headlines are enough to make a sane person crazy: Washington is broken, Congress is hopelessly deadlocked, and many legislators are more interested in retweets than governance. Thankfully, this isnt the case when it comes to domestic sex trafficking. Members of Congress have moved forward serious anti-trafficking legislation in an open, collaborative manner; and are writing smarter laws that address the problem at its roots.

Previous efforts to curb sex trafficking mainly provided funding for victim services, sharpened penalties for traffickers, and documented problems in other countries. While that work is important and must continue, an increasing number of Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate have had the ah-ha moment of realizing that traditional policy approaches largely ignore the source of the problem: men who callously buy sex from vulnerable women and youth.

While support for victims is necessary, it is not enough. We must work with law enforcement to avoid penalizing and traumatizing those being exploited, deter men from buying, reduce rates of re-offending, and reserve significant penalties for dangerous and repeat offenders.

Multiple bipartisan bills currently weaving through both chambers are advancing these criminal justice approaches to hold buyers accountable for the harm they cause. One example is The Empowering Law Enforcement to Fight Sex Trafficking Demand Act, which supports law enforcement through access to funding for buyer sting operations. Another is a marquee piece of anti-trafficking legislation, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which is poised for reauthorization this year with new provisions to help scale back the demand that causes victimization.

Nowadays its easy to claim that Congress is out-of-touch, but current activity on Capitol Hill shows that members increasingly see sex trafficking and forced prostitution for what it is: victimization and trauma caused by men who believe their money and status entitles them to sexual access.

Senators and Representatives with vastly different political ideals have recognized that the best solution is to hold buyers accountable, so the need for victim services will decrease over time, and sexual exploitation will no longer operate as a vibrant market.

Alex Trouteaud, Ph.D., is Director of Policy and Research for Demand Abolition, an organization that fights to combat theillegalcommercial sex industry in the U.S. and, by extension, the world.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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Anti-trafficking laws have made great progress - The Hill (blog)

Signs of bipartisan progress on climate change – Baltimore Sun

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The House Climate Solutions Caucus was created in 2016 by Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo and Democratic Rep.Ted Deutch. Both represent Florida. From the beginning, the Congressmen decided that membership in the caucus would come in pairs one Republican and one Democrat at a time. Their aim is to create a bipartisan group to engage in constructive dialogue to propose climate solutions (Leading on climate change, Aug. 14).

Recently, Rep. Ed Royce, a Republican from California, and Rep. Derek Kilmer, a Democrat from Washington, joined the caucus. The House Climate Solutions Caucus is now 52 members strong.The caucus recently introduced two legislative proposals: Technologies for Energy Security Act (H.R. 1090) and Climate Solutions Commission Act (H.R. 2326). The Technology Act extends tax credits to small scale wind and geothermal energy initiatives. The Commission Act would create a bipartisan panel to propose economically viable actions or policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The hope is that the caucus will propose bipartisan legislation that significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.For the past 10 years, Citizens Climate Lobby has with respect and appreciation for all members of Congress facilitated the development of the House Climate Solutions Caucus. An eloquent description of CCLs political method and proposal is given in Jan Marie Rushforths farewell message found at https://vimeo.com/226505118. Take the time to watch this video, support the House Climate Solutions Caucus and join Citizens Climate Lobby.

James O'Reilly, Glen Burnie

Send letters to the editor to talkback@baltimoresun.com. Please include your name and contact information.

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Signs of bipartisan progress on climate change - Baltimore Sun

The best thing about Kesha’s big comeback is where she’s headed next – SFGate

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Chris Richards, The Washington Post

When a pop star survives a humiliating scandal with mettle and grace, is it heartless to call her big comeback album anything less than a triumph? Try listening to Kesha's "Rainbow" with two fingers pressed to your jugular and you might feel something like this: She's back (that's good), but her lyrics read like a slush pile of rebound tropes (that's bad), but her voice still sounds stretchy like spandex (terrific), and she seems to be steering it into new places (even better). Where, exactly?

"I'm going back home to outer space," Kesha promises over the country thrum of "Spaceship," her cosmic vehicle hovering auspiciously over the Nashville skyline.

Music Row or the Pleiades - either destination beats the courtroom purgatory where Kesha Rose Sebert has spent the past few years of her career. In 2014, she filed a lawsuit against her producer and label boss, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, claiming that he had "sexually, physically, verbally and emotionally abused" her, and since then, legal defeats have prevented her from releasing music outside her deals with him. And with her career in a holding pattern after her 2012 album, "Warrior," starrier vocalists snapped up Kesha's contributions and ran - Lady Gaga with the freak-flag felicity, Katy Perry with the affirmative uplift, Miley Cyrus with the rap-curious hedonism.

All of that gives "Rainbow" an impossible amount of work to do, but Kesha dives right in, pushing her melodies in the direction of catharsis, even when lyrical cliches block the rush. And they do, over and over again. "Nothing's gonna stop me now." "I can breathe again." "Live and learn." "The best is yet to come." All meaningless phrases that undermine her attempts at unburdening her heart.

On top of that, all of the on-the-nose-ness starts to make many of Kesha's stylistic choices feel unimaginative, too. "Praying," a piano ballad that addresses her struggles most directly, still sounds like the stuff of Kelly Clarkson. The album's title track pantomimes the band Fun. And "Boogie Feet," a collaboration with Eagles of Death Metal, doesn't replicate the electro-punk of Kathleen Hanna's Le Tigre so much as map its genome.

Kesha is far more compelling when she borrows from country music - a genre in which imitation feels less egregious because everyone always appears to be tubing down the cool river of tradition. With "Hunt You Down," Kesha delivers a few tongue-in-cheek threats of bodily harm over a vintage click-clack beat, making a smart nod to Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart." And during the staccato refrain of "Learn to Let Go," it's obvious that Kesha has been listening to country's best new syncretist, Maren Morris.

But she sounds most like a country singer when she's singing a bona fide country song: "Old Flames (Can't Hold a Candle To You)," a Dolly Parton single from 1980 co-written by Kesha's mother, Pebe Sebert. Here, in 2017, Parton actually materializes during the second verse, and hearing her trembling voice alongside Kesha's yowl serves as a helpful reminder about how atypical voices can sometimes become legendary voices.

It's tough to imagine Kesha eventually hanging her star higher than Parton's, but it gets a little easier whenever she starts twisting up her vowels, sending a syllable in one direction and then yanking it back in another. This is an artist who has lost so much but whose voice still very much belongs to her. And in country music, nothing communicates human truth more effectively than one-of-a-kind vowel torquing.

Listen to how Kesha wraps up "Spaceship," the album's closing ballad, with a spoken, spaced-out soliloquy. "The wars, the triumphs, the beauty and the bloodshed, the ocean of human endeavor, it all grows quiet, insignificant," she chants in vocal fry, sounding mysteriously pouty and slightly aloof. She's apparently off to search for perspective in deep space, but let's hope it's a bluff. Why not park that rocket in Nashville and see what happens next?

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The best thing about Kesha's big comeback is where she's headed next - SFGate

Premiere: Cakes Da Killa Feat. Rye Rye Gon Blow (Video) – Vibe

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Its been two years since Cakes da Killas bizarre Hot 97 interview with Ebro and Peter Rosenberg. For those who are unfamiliar, Ebro praised the emcees skills but said thatbecause of the lyrical content, the music wasnt for him. The session got even more strange when Rosenberg implied that Cakes should hook up with his lesbian assistant, following it up with the mind-boggling Is it directly penis that interests you the most? To his credit, Cakes laughed off the query: Oh, this cannot be a serious question. Yes, its directly the penis that excites me.

Theres no bad blood, though in fact, Ebro invited him to be a guest on his Beats1 show. And its not just the Hot 97 personality whos taken notice; DJ heavyweight Diplo tweeted that he liked Cakes latest album, Hedonism.

But Cakes is more than the sum of his cosigns, and his latest visual, for the Rye Ryeassisted Gon Blow, is proof. Cakes talked to us about the mesmerizing clip, premiering on VIBE today, as well as hip-hops relationship with the queer community and his dream collaborators: I just need someone like Missy Elliott to put me in an incubator for, like, six months, and then its, like, done. Ill even go back in the closet at this point.

What is the inspiration behind the Gon Blow visual? The visual is a collaboration with myself, photographer Eric Johnson and animator Ben Marlowe. For me, the track is all about movement, so we included some B-roll from a party Eric and I threw. Bens animations helped add some dance sequences to the video, because dance culture influences my music a lot, and I feel there is a disconnect between that and rap culture lately.

When did you discover ballroom culture? I discovered ballroom culture in high school via YouTube clips. For me, ballroom culture is the new B-boy, in a sense, where a community releases a lot of tension and pain through movement and art. During the time I discovered these clips, I also discovered artists like Jay Pendarvis on MySpace, who made tracks people could vogue to. That sound had a huge influence on what would become my rap style in the future, as far as cadence and speed.

What music did you listen to growing up? Well, growing up, music wasnt really my thing. It wasnt until my cousin introduced me to different types of music. Going through her CD collections I found No Doubt, Alanis Morissette, more alternative music. Obviously Im black, so hip-hop is always around. Its very much like a second language around the neighborhood.

The artists that I gravitate towards say fuck the system. They kind of do what they want to do, like Peaches or Beth Ditto. Or in the hip-hop realm, people like Lil Kim and Busta Rhymes. People who kind of dont really ascribe to playing by this formula. They come in and change shit up.

There was a lot of homophobia in 90s rap music. Did that ever fazeyou? No. I feel like rap gets this very negative [reputation] for being very homophobic, but theres homophobia in all genres of music. It didnt really bother me because I realize that rap is made up of different people with different opinions.

A few recent events have shown a shift toward queer acceptance in the hip-hop world: Yung Thug wore a dress on his Jeffery album cover, and Young M.A had a top 20 hit on the Hot 100. Do you feel like any of those moments were groundbreaking? I think overall as far as visibility, I think that it is cool, but to be critical, masculine female rappers have been making rap music for years. Thats really not reinventing the wheel. The problem is more so if youre a feminine artist: If youre a gay male or transgender, thats the issue. I mean, congratulations to Young M.A to getting that, but thats not really groundbreaking.

For the Young Thug moment, thats fab that people are now taking fashion and being more gender-fluid. But gay people have been doing that forever: Its kind of still straight privilege. For Young M.A to put on a dress I mean Young Thug, but thats fucking funny for Young Thug to put a dress on is kind of like progressive. But for me to put on a dress, its not progressive. Theres a double standard.

Do you think there is a shift toward queer inclusiveness in hip-hop? Theres not this panel of people in hip-hop who are saying we are being more welcoming to gay people. You have to keep in mind that hip-hop kind of came about after disco. The early rappers were kind of in the same places as gay people. You could even look at the early rap stars. They look kind of flamboyant. You know what Im saying? Its not really like theres a question of hip-hop. Its more so when the 90s came about, and there was that whole wave of hypermasculine, gangster rap music, which is what were still in now. Thats the problem. Its not rap or hip-hop, its that whole toxic masculinity.

A lot of your lyrics are implicitly gay. A lot of gay musicians [Laughs] Well, I am implicitly gay.

Ha! A lot of openly gay musicians shy away from their queerness. Do you think its important to vocalize your queerness? When I started making music, I never really thought that anyone would hear my music. Why would I be taken seriously? For me to be out, it wasnt an issue.

There are some privileges for being mysterious or not using specific gender pronouns in love songs. There is a kind of marketability to that. Do I get some setback for talking about blow jobs? Yes. But does that also empower some kids in Ohio? Yes. I think its more so a gambling thing. What do you really want to do with the record.

My grandmother had a gay best friend, and when he would come over for the holidays he was fabulous. He had money, he wore a mink coat. We all loved him. That was a positive reassurance: that if you were gay, you would be loved. My first viewing of seeing gay people on television was the Stonewall riots documentary. For me, gay people were never painted as less than or weaker than. We were people that started revolutions and bought nice clothes.

Do you think the hip-hop world is ready to move out of gangster rap and embrace a queer superstar? I think hip-hop is definitely the most mainstream its ever been. Its always gonna have that gangster in itself, because everybody wants to be a damn gangster for some reason. Ive always pointed the mirror back at the community. Obviously a fraternity in Atlanta probably isnt going be into my record. I can make peace with that. The gay club in New York, though? You guys should be supporting me. The music isnt that bad, you know what Im saying? The gays sustain a lot of these older divas who are still performing at Pride festivals. I feel like we should support each other.

If you got to hop on any mainstream pop stars track, who would you want to work with? Definitely Nicki Minaj. Definitely.

That would be phenomenal. Why that hasnt happened yet? Well, Im not that big yet. I just need someone like Missy Elliott to put me in an incubator for, like, six months, and then its, like, done. Ill even go back in the closet at this point. Ive been out long enough. I can go back in and start over. I came out in the third grade, Ive proved enough already.

Wait, so you actually came out in the third grade? Why would I lie about that? I told you my first piece of gay cinema was a documentary on Stonewall. I literally was ready to tell my mom Im gay, and if she didnt like it I was just gonna run away and live on the pier.

Diplo tweeted that he liked your album. When is that collaboration happening? Sooner the fucking better, I hope! I dont know. Diplo is a very busy person and Im a very busy girl, but Im down. Im sure itll happen down the line sooner or later. Im just constantly working on my own shit now. I have to strike while its hot. Im not getting any younger.

Whats next for you? Im about to drop some new singles for the fall, prepping for a European tour and finalizing a new project with a whole new sound. Ive been working in the same vein artistically for a few years, and Im interested in using another side of my brain. Im trying to be on the freshman XXL cover before Im too old.

Cakes Da Killa Official Tour Dates Sat Aug 26 Brooklyn Afropunk Festival Sun Aug 27 Chicago Oakwood Beach Tue Aug 29 Tel Aviv Gagarin Club Thu Aug 31 Berlin YAMM Fri Sep 1 Sopot Soundrive Festival Sat Sep 2 Oslo Blaa Mon Sep 4 Copenhagen Ideal Bar Wed Sep 6 Malmo Inknst Fri Sep 8 London -Jazz Cafe Sun Sep 10 Dorset Bestival Wed Sep 13 Brno Fleda Thu Sep 14 Zurich Exil Fri Sep 15 Dudingen Bad Bonn Sat Sep 16 Paris Smile Festival Fri Sep 29 Lincoln Lincoln Calling Festival Fri Oct 6 Haverford Haverford College Sat Oct 21 Bristol Simple Things Festival @ SWX Stage Sat Oct 28 Tromso Insomnia Festival

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Premiere: Cakes Da Killa Feat. Rye Rye Gon Blow (Video) - Vibe

Leonardo DiCaprio Is Dating Another Model … But There’s a Twist – The Hollywood Gossip

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It's not unusual for wealthy, middle-aged men to trade in their sports cars for newer models every year, but Leonardo DiCaprio takes Crisis Hedonism to the next level by trading in his models for newer models every year.

In fairness, he's been doing this for his entire adult life, the whole thing is just a bit sleazier-feeling now that Leo is 42.

But hey, Keith Richards' blood is 43% heroin; Charlie Sheen will give you crabs if you accidentally make eye contact; and Leo is on a quest to bed every woman who has ever walked a runway.

Sometimes, their misbehavior is what we love most about our celebs.

So it won't surprise you to learn that Leo is banging yet another rail-thin, globe trotting model with close to 1 million Instagram followers.

(DiCaprio and Nina Agdal have apparently broken up after several months together.)

But this time, Leo is actually breaking away from his usual M.O. in an interesting way.

Check out this photo of 23-year-old Lorena Rae and see if you can guess what we mean:

Yes, Lorena is not blonde.

That may not seem like a big deal, DiCaprio and blondes go together like peanut butter and jelly ... if peanut butter really loved having no-strings-attached sex with jelly.

But just because she doesn't match Leo's police sketch of the perfect woman, that doesn't mean Lorena isn't getting the full DiCaprio girlfriend experience.

In the past three months, Lorena and Leo have been spotted getting their culture on at the MoMa, Citi Biking in Manhattan (Leo was vaping, of course), partying in Monaco, and yachting in St. Tropez.

Friends say Lorena is incredibly down-to-earth, and while she loves to have a good time, she also shares DiCaprio's concern with important issues like climate change.

But she's not blonde! Leo probably thinks to himself each night, as he crushes a tumbler of Scotch in his bare hand.

Of course, much has been made of Leo's taste for flaxen-haired beauties, but we're guessing blonde-ness isn't terribly high on his list of requirements.

As far as we can tell, that list goes something like this:

Hot, young, a vocabulary that's missing the words "what are we?", and a job that allows for weeks at a time spent on a yacht in the Mediterranean.

We'd say the relationship probably isn't long for this world, but who knows?

Maybe DiCaprio's days of banging 6 models in one night are over.

Seems unlikely, but dare to dream, Lorena!

13 Handsome Photos of Leonardo DiCaprio

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Leonardo DiCaprio Is Dating Another Model ... But There's a Twist - The Hollywood Gossip

Transforming Health: The divisive wash-up – InDaily

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Adelaide Tuesday August 15, 2017

SA Health has commissioned consultants to evaluate the biggest hospital system overhaul in the states history. But one conclusion is already inescapable: Transforming Health has fractured the vital relationship between SAs doctors and the bureaucrats who employ them.

Transforming Health came with more buzz than the release of a new Apple product, says South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) senior industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland.

More than 600 medical staff and interested parties packed the Adelaide Convention Centre in November 2014 to hear the about the massive change planned for South Australias hospital system, and to be heard.

But as major changes began to roll through the system, doctors enthusiasm soured into suspicion.

The trust of clinicians and community so necessary to implement such broad sweeping changes was quickly eroded as it became clear that the focus by Government and SA Health prioritised economic rationalism rather than clinical, patient and community (outcomes), says Mulholland.

Within a short period, clinicians questioned the motivation of the Transforming Health (program) and recognised the potential devastation of health services to their local community and adverse clinical outcomes.

What absolutely concerned me was the damage that was caused to the relationship between the administration and medical officers.

Data provided by SA Health didnt match what some doctors believed to be happening on the ground, and when concerns about the accuracy of data were raised, many felt they were not being listened to.

Clinicians felt under pressure from administrators who now referred to clinicians providing any opposition as naysayers and dismissed any feedback that did not support change.

The process undermined trust and created a divide between Government and clinicians which wont be forgotten for some years.

Trust in the administration now lost through this process will be difficult to earn back from many clinicians.

SA Health has held regular forums to discuss Transforming Health with unions including SASMOA, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) and the Ambulance Employees Association (AEA) throughout the process.

But, according to Mulholland, in all the time that (SA Health CEO) Vickie Kaminski has been in that job, weve met her twice.

Asked how SA Health had allowed the relationship to deteriorate so dramatically, Kaminski told InDaily that different unions had responded to the process differently, and that many doctors have been highly supportive of Transforming Health.

SASMOAs had a tougher time wrapping their head around it (than other unions) but I think thats because its individuals, its I understand it (doctors) livelihood, its their place of work and youre changing that.

Transforming Health clinical ambassador Dorothy Keefe tells InDaily: There are many members of SASMOA who are actually very supportive of whats happening.

And I think SASMOAs been struggling a bit because of the differing views within its own membership. Of course, unhappiness makes better media than happiness.

Mulholland tells InDaily she is disappointed the administration is still bashing SASMOA.

It isnt constructive. I find it unhelpful, she says.

It maintains the relationship that we dont want.

Its clear, however, that any large-scale hospitals overhaul was never going to be easy for SA Health to manage.

Late last year, the department accepted the recommendations of a scathing review into the operations of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, which oversees the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, among others.

That report found medical staff were largely resistant to change, instead retaining a culture which is rooted in a mid-20th century view of the profession, of their relationship with the organisation and of care delivery.

There was no stigma against clinicians assuming someone else will take up the mantle of change management.

And when effective medical leadership is absent, change is inevitably difficult, lacks traction and sustainability, and is often associated with overt displays of anger and sometimes unprofessional behaviour.

Many doctors interviewed for the review reported that theirs was a resistant culture, a culture which rewarded and encouraged stasis rather than genuine change and a culture which had failed to come to grips with the reality of a resource constrained system.

There were, however, some clear exceptions to the change-resistant culture the report describes, characterised by the effective leadership of doctors who as a result have been able to bring others to a shared view that change is both important and desirable.

The problem for South Australias ambulance service, meanwhile, has not been the pace of change, but the lack thereof.

With major specialist services to be consolidated within the states largest hospitals under Transforming Health, more patients would have to travel farther, often in ambulances, to receive Best Care. First Time. Every Time. (as the Transforming Health mantra goes).

The ambulance service was to be a major beneficiary of the program.

A $16 million package was promised, with new ambulance stations, new vehicles and more paramedics to help the ambulance service cope.

However, asked to describe the major successes of Transforming Health, Ambulance Employees Association General Secretary Phil Palmer tells InDaily, from an ambulance perspective, none at this stage.

We dont have any extra boots on the ground yet, due to (SA Health) / Treasury refusing to release funds until it was too late.

Recruiting should have started 18 months ago at least but did not start until early this year.

It requires a 12-month long internship to make a degree-qualified graduate road-ready, with authority to practice as a paramedic.

Palmer says paramedics workload continues to climb and it is already beyond SA Ambulance capacity to cope.

Blown-out response times are now the norm, and there have already been two deaths that had 23-minute plus responses to cases that should have been attended in eight minutes, he says.

(Transforming Health) has created more need for patient transfers, but no extra resources to meet increased demand.

Premier Jay Weatherills announcement in June that Transforming Health would come to an end with the opening of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (early next month) and the closure of the Repat (due before the end of the year) came as a surprise to the AEA.

We heard it in the news, says Palmer.

We do not at all accept that the process is complete.

There has been no improvement in patient flow through hospitals; the discharge system remains inefficient, emergency departments are more overcrowded than ever, and ramping is the worst we have ever seen in South Australia.

The policy formerly known as Transforming Health was rebranded well before its work was done.

The negative public reaction was a result of the failure of (SA Health) to bring their workforce, and the public, with them.

Evidence-based change was gazumped by opinion polling.

From the beginning, nurses were expected to be among the major losers out of Transforming Health.

South Australia has the highest number of nurses per head of population in the country a fact noted regularly in public statements by Health Minister Jack Snelling.

But Weatherill told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning that his government was proud of that fact and major clear-out of nurses simply hasnt come to pass in South Australia, or not yet.

ANMF SA Branch CEO Elizabeth Dabars said late last year that her union had secured a commitment from the State Government that there would be no forced redundancies of nurses as a result of Transforming Health.

Kaminski tells InDaily jobnumbers have been going in the opposite direction: Theres been displacement, where nurses have moved around the system, (but) I think overall were trending up.

Wed like to, at some point, get down to the national average, but what were trying to do right now is the location of service, and being able to make sure were able to have the right service, right place, right time.

Kaminski said the evaluation of Transforming Health would shed further light on the outcomes of the program.

We have engaged people to do that evaluation for us, to be objective and third-party, she said.

Were asking them to be frank.

This is the second in InDailys two-part series on Transforming Health.

You can read part one here.

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Transforming Health: The divisive wash-up - InDaily

Zaretsky: The best ‘ism’ to explain our time – Daily Commercial

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Surrealism is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire coined the term to describe his play Les Mamelles de Tiresias (The Teats of Tiresias), which opened in a small Parisian theater in 1917. Beginning with an actress removing her breasts and ending early with an unscripted riot featuring a pistol-flailing audience member the play launched a movement that long convulsed French art and politics.

The centenary arrives in a surreal news environment. Indeed, among the dozens of isms used to explain the Trump presidency from isolationism and pluto-populism to narcissism and authoritarianism none does a better job than surrealism in capturing the current mood.

Andre Breton, the Pope of Surrealism, defined it as a psychic automatism in its pure state exempt from any moral concern. In his First Manifesto of Surrealism, Breton railed against rationalism and the reign of logic. Clarity and coherence lost bigly to the tumult of unconscious desires, while civility and courtesy were for bourgeois losers. Upping the ante in his Second Manifesto, he claimed the simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd.

Unarmed Surrealists were content to brandish their ids. What was once the stuff of repression was now ripe for expression. Everything that welled up into the conscious mind flowed across paper and canvas. The true Surrealist turns his mind into a receptacle, refusing to favor one group of words over another. Instead, it is up to the miraculous equivalent to intervene.

Or not. As a sober reader finds, most Surrealist literature is unreadable. The precursor to Surrealism, the Romanian Tristan Tzara, famously composed poems by cutting words from a newspaper, tossing them into a bag, pulling them out and reciting them one by one. The result, Tzara declared, will resemble you. (Perhaps thats true if you happen to be crashed on your kitchen floor, sleeping off an all-night bender.) As for Breton, he favored automatic writing by becoming a recording machine for his unconscious. The final product, he beamed, shines by its extreme degree of immediate absurdity.

Trumpian word salads bear the surrealist seal of absurdity. In Exquisite Corpse a Surrealist exercise aimed at unleashing the unconscious you write a word on a piece of paper, pass it to your neighbor who jots a second word without looking at the first word, and so on. This led to sentences like The exquisite/corpse/shall drink/the new/wine. Trumps gift of free association His one problem is he didnt go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death allows him to play a solitaire variation of the game.

A French translator recently marveled that Trump seems to have thematic clouds in his head that he would pick from with no need of a logical thread to link them. This is true not just of his speech, but also of his governing strategy.

Igniting a reaction similar to those following Marcel Duchamp entering a urinal at an art show, Trump has exhibited his Surrealist aesthetic in bureaucratic Washington. But he subverts ready-made expectations instead of ready-made objects. With a Surrealist flair for showmanship worthy of Salvador Dali, he randomly pairs titles and individuals. Thus, his son-in-law, a New York real estate developer, plays Middle East envoy one day, opioid crisis czar the next. Trumps claim that if Jared Kushner cannot bring peace to the Middle East, no one can expresses the Surrealist conviction that where reason and strategy have failed, unreason and whim will prevail.

The same aesthetic lies behind or, rather, below the Wall. Its failure to make economic, strategic or diplomatic sense is not beside the point; it is the point. Its raison dtre is to shock the political establishment and to give shape to what, until now, had been the repressed desires of Trumps base. Think of it not as a real security measure, but as a virtual sculpture that will allow its audience to touch, and not just talk about their phobias. Like a Surrealist object, the Wall is a shape-shifter opaque or transparent, continuous or discontinuous, topped with barbed wire or solar panels and expresses the Surrealist values of excess and extravagance, aggression and transgression.

In the end, Trumpism, like Surrealism, seeks to force reality to conform to individual desires, no matter how illicit, illegal or simply outrageous. This might work aesthetically, even financially just ask Dali, whose name Breton turned into the anagram Avida Dollars and, it seems, politically. But, one can hope, only in the short term.

Eventually, Surrealisms revolt against the reality-based community ended with a whimper, with its art relegated to post-dinner games and dorm room posters. One day, perhaps, politicians will look back on Trumpism in the same dismissive way.

Robert Zaretsky teaches at the University of Houston and is finishing a book on Catherine the Great and the French Enlightenment. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.

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Zaretsky: The best 'ism' to explain our time - Daily Commercial