Fringe review: The "F" Word – NOW Magazine

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THE F WORD by the company (SaMel Tanz). At the Al Green Theatre. July 8 at 3:30 pm, July 9 at 8:30 pm, July 10 at 5 pm, July 11 at 2:45 pm, July 13 at 1:45 pm, July 15 at 6:15 pm. See listing. Rating: NNN

Hot on the heels of Lipstique comes another Fringe Festival exploration of dance and feminine power.

There are some striking similarities in the two works most noteworthy the use of Maya Angelous poem Still I Rise. Chalk it up to the zeitgeist and an idea whose time has clearly come again.

I wanted to love The F Word, but it needs a good edit. While the choreography is inventive and the dancers are skilled (especially in the high-octane urban dance sections), the message gets muddy when the movement stops.

Poorly delivered banal prose and kitschy forays into visual comedy just distract from the genuine power of this groups fine dancing.

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Fringe review: The "F" Word - NOW Magazine

California’s far north deplores ‘tyranny’ of the urban majority – The Independent

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The deer heads mounted on the walls of Eric Johnsons church office are testament to his passion for hunting, a lifestyle enjoyed by many in the northernmost reaches of California but one thatJohnson says surprises people he meets on his travels around America and abroad.

When people see youre from California, they instantly think of Baywatch,saysJohnson, the associate pastor of Bethel Redding, a megachurch in this small city a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of San Francisco. Its very different here from the rest of California.

Johnson lives in what might be described as Californias Great Red North, a bloc of 13 counties that voted for President Trump in November and that make up more than a fifth of the states land mass but only 3 per cent of its population.

From Hollywood to Silicon Valley, California projects an image as an economically thriving, politically liberal, sun-kissed El Dorado. It is a multiethnic experiment with a rising population, where the proportion of white people has fallen to 38 per cent.

Californias Great Red North is the opposite, a vast, rural, mountainous tract of pine forests with a political ethos that bears more resemblance to Texas than to Los Angeles. Two-thirds of the north is white, the population is shrinking and the region struggles economically, with median household incomes at $45,000, less than half that of San Francisco.

Jim Cook, former supervisor of Siskiyou County, which includes cattle ranches and the majestic slopes of Mount Shasta, calls it the forgotten part of California.

In the same state that is developing self-driving cars, theres the rugged landscape of Trinity County, where a large share of residents heat their homes with wood, plaques commemorate stagecoach routes and the county seat, Weaverville, is an old gold-mining town with a lone blinking stop-and-go traffic light.

The residents of this region argue that their political voice is drowned out in a system that has only one state senator for every million residents.

This sentiment resonates in other traditionally conservative parts of California, including large swaths of the Central Valley, which runs down the state, and it mirrors red and blue tensions felt in areas across the country. But perhaps nowhere else in California is the alienation felt more keenly than in the far north, an arresting panorama of fields filled with wildflowers and depopulated one-street towns that have never recovered from the gold rush.

People up here for a very long time have felt a sense that we dont matter, saysJames Gallagher, a state assemblyman for the Third District, which is a shorter drive from the forests of Mount Hood in Oregon than from the beaches of San Diego. We run this state like its one size fits all. You cant do that.

Many liberals in California describe themselves as the resistance to Trump. Residents of the north say they are the resistance to the resistance, politically invisible to the Democratic Governor and legislature. Californias strict regulations on the environment, gun control and hunting impinge on a rural lifestyle, they say, that urban politicians do not understand.

The states stringent air quality and climate change regulations may be appropriate for technology workers, Gallagher says, but they are onerous for people living in rural areas.

In the rural parts of the state we drive more miles, we drive older cars, our economy is an agriculture- and resource-based economy that relies on tractors and trucks, Gallagher says. You cant move an 80,000-pound load in an electric truck.

Northern California is predominantly white, conservative and rural

A recently passed gas tax, pushed through by the Democratic majority, will disproportionately hurt rural voters, he says.

Taxation and hunting are two issues northerners are quick to seize upon when criticising laws they feel are unfairly imposed by the state. But there are also more fundamental issues related to incomes and job opportunities that split California into a two-speed economy.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, unemployment rates hover around 3 per cent. In the far north, where many timber mills have shut down in recent years, unemployment is as high as 6 per cent in Shasta County and 16.2 per cent in Colusa County.

Despite a go-it-alone ethos, residents of the 13 counties in the northern bloc are much more likely to receive government medical assistance than those in the Bay Area. In the north, 31 per cent take part in Medi-Cal, the California Medicaid program, while the Bay Area rate is 19 per cent, and Californias overall figure 28 per cent.

United States Representative Doug LaMalfa, a Republican representing Northern Californias First District, blames regulations that have shut down industries for the economic disparities.

Theyve devastated ag jobs, timber jobs, mining jobs with their environmental regulations, so, yes, we have a harder time sustaining the economy, and therefore theres more people that are in a poorer situation.

Because incomes are significantly lower than the state average and the region is so thinly populated, tax revenue from the far north is a fraction of what urban areas contribute. In 2014, the 13 northern counties had a combined state income tax assessment of $1bn (776m), compared with $4bn from San Francisco County.

Resentment toward the rest of California has a long history here there have been numerous efforts to split the state since its founding in 1850. After the presidential election, a proposal to secede from the union, driven by liberals and known as Calexit, gained attention.

Residents here have long backed a different proposal for a separate state, one that would be carved out of Northern California and the southern reaches of Oregon. Flags of the so-called State of Jefferson, which was first proposed in the 19th century, fly on farms and ranches around the region.

Jefferson, named after the President who once envisioned establishing an independent nation in the western section of North America, is more a state of mind than a practicable proposal. Many see it as unrealistic for a region that has plenty of water and timber but perhaps not enough wealth to wean itself away from engines of the California economy.

However, two recent initiatives have channelled the deep feeling of underrepresentation.

In May, a loose coalition of northern activists and residents, including an Indian tribe and the small northern city of Fort Jones, joined forces to file a federal lawsuit arguing that Californias legislative system is unconstitutional because the Legislature has not expanded with the population.

The suit, filed against the California secretary of state, Alex Padilla, who oversees election laws in California, calls for an increase in the membership of the bicameral Legislature, which since 1862 has capped the number of lawmakers at 120.

The lawsuit argues that California now has the least representative system of any state in the nation. Each State Assembly member represents nearly 500,000 people and each state senator twice that.

This arbitrary cap has created an oligarchy, the lawsuit says.

By contrast, each member of the New York State Assembly represents on average 130,000 people; in New Hampshire, its 3,330 people for each representative.

Mark Baird, one of the plaintiffs, says residents of Californias far north feel as though they are being governed by an urbanised elite.

I wake up in the morning and think, What is California going to do to me today? says Baird, a former airline pilot who owns a ranch about an hours drive from the Oregon border. In a grass valley framed by low-lying hills, Bairds pastures are filled with his small herd of buffalo and a few pens of horses and donkeys.

Baird complains of restrictions on the types of guns he can own. Its tyranny by the majority, he says. The majority should never be able to deprive the minority of their inalienable rights.

Scott Wiener, a state senator representing San Francisco, says he has sympathy for the concerns of rural voters but rejects the proposal for a larger legislative body.

When you have a state as big and diverse as California, decisions are made that we dont all agree with, he says.

The second initiative is a proposed amendment to Californias Constitution that would change the method for dividing districts of the Legislatures upper house, the Senate. Instead of being based on population as they are now, Senate seats would be tied to regions, giving a larger voice to rural areas in the same way the federal Senate does.

I am asking the people with power to give up some of their power in order to allow all the voices in the state to have a little bit more strength than they do right now, says Gallagher, the assemblyman.

Northern Californians point out that the United States House of Representatives and Senate are based on the compromise between population and geography.

What I cant get over is that a court can rule that its not good for the state but it stands up at the federal level, says LaMalfa, the congressman. We wouldnt have a union if we hadnt come up with that compromise.

LaMalfa, who lives on a farm, says Californias urban denizens think of the rural areas as their park, and deplores what he describes as trophy legislation to protect animal species.

You have idealists from the cities who say, Wouldnt it be great to reintroduce wolves to rural California? LaMalfa says. He has a half-serious counterproposal: Lets introduce some wolves into Golden Gate Park and the Santa Monica Pier.

New York Times

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California's far north deplores 'tyranny' of the urban majority - The Independent

Free Netarts Bay events set for July | Community … – Tillamook Headlight-Herald

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The following is a press release from Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS:

The beautiful Netarts Bay is a unique ecosystem home to great marine life and birds. It also holds countless stories shared through its landscape and waters. Exploration of the area hints at how this bay formed to how it has been used by people throughout time. Discover these stories and more during any of a number of FREE events offered by the Friends of Netarts Bay - Watershed, Estuary, Beach and Sea (WEBS) this month!

A number of these events are also part of the Explore Nature series of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures. Explore Nature events are hosted by a consortium of volunteer community and non-profit organizations, and are meaningful nature-based experiences highlight the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy. Learn more at http://www.explorenaturetillamookcoast.com./

WEBS is a local non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining the Netarts Bay area through education and stewardship. Learn more at http://www.netartsbaytoday.org.

Hike Netarts July 19

Netarts Bay is housed between two capes, a part of the natural landscape that shapes the area. Join WEBS to explore Cape Meares. Octopus trees, giant Sitka spruce trees, and dramatic ocean views will not disappoint on this easy to moderate hike along the cape.

When: July 19 from 1 4:30 p.m.

Where: Netarts Bay area. Sign up for specific location.

Registration: Registration is required. Please register online at EventBrite.Com. More information and registration details are also available at http://www.explorenaturetillamookcounty.com.

The Art of Growing Oysters July 22

Do you enjoy Pacific Northwest oysters? Have you ever wondered about where the oysters come from? The oyster industry is an important part of Tillamook County and includes a number of farms, like JAndy Oyster Company and Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on Netarts Bay. The tour is a rare opportunity to learn about the industry, the state of the art scientific research going on at the hatchery, and the issues faced by the shellfish along the Pacific Northwest.

When: July 22, 10 a.m. 2 p.m.

Where: Netarts Bay area. Sign up for specific location.

Details: Please be prepared to walk on uneven, wet, and/or muddy surfaces.

Registration: Registration is required. Please register online at EventBrite.Com. More information and registration details are also available on the Friends of Netarts Bay Facebook page.

Geology of Netarts Bay July 23

Join the Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS on an amazing and free Geologic tour around Netarts Bay. You will see landslide areas, fossil deposits on Cape Meares, Happy Camp, bay overlooks and tsunami layers from the Big One in 1700. The walk will be led by Tom Horning, a Seaside native, and Registered Geologist. Horning has been a featured speaker at the Listening to the Land series hosted by the North Coast Land Conservancy and a central figure in the new book The Next Tsunami: Living On A Restless Coast by Bonnie Henderson.

When: July 23, 8:30 a.m. noon

Where: Netarts Bay area. Sign up for specific location.

Details: Weather on the Oregon Coast is unpredictable and change quickly. Please dress accordingly. Please be prepared to walk on uneven, wet, and/or muddy surfaces. Transportation around the bay will be provided.

Registration: Registration is required. Please register online at EventBrite.Com. More information and registration details are also available on the Friends of Netarts Bay Facebook page.

Tidepool Discovery Day July 25

What amazing creatures are lurking at the waters edge? Come out to Oceanside and see! Friends of Netarts Bay Watershed Estuary Beach and Sea (WEBS) staff and volunteers will be onsite in the tide pools helping visitors understand what is living along the coastal edge. Learn about anemone clone wars, how a sea star eats, or how hermit crabs steal shell homes from other crabs! From seaweeds to sculpin fish, there is a new world to discover. Come out and enjoy! Look for our WEBS t-shirts and let us guide you through the tide pools.

WEBS is a local non-profit organization working to sustain the Netarts Bay area through education and stewardship. Learn more at http://www.netartsbaytoday.org.

When: July 25, 8:30 a.m. 12:30 p.m.

Where: Oceanside Recreation Area

Details: Where boots or bring a change of shoes. Flip flops are never ideal for exploring tide pools. Be prepared for Oregon coast weather.

Registration: Let us know you are coming by registering! For a link, please visit Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS Eventbrite site or Facebook page. We expect people to come and go, we have no limit on size at this time. We will help as many people as possible and lend resources for you to make your own discoveries.

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Free Netarts Bay events set for July | Community ... - Tillamook Headlight-Herald

Organic farming best option for rural economies – The Register-Guard

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There are a variety of approaches we could take to boost the economy of Oregons rural counties. We can look back, and try to recapture a fragment of Oregons old economy based on resource extraction, or we can look forward to more stable and sustainable opportunities.

Organic agriculture and commerce is one such opportunity; however, the clean air, water, and soil needed for this industry to flourish are threatened by Oregons weakest in the West environmental rules. New research shows why Oregon should embrace organics and ensure that organic farming can be a big part of our states future.

Unfortunately, the rear-view mirror vision often presented by Oregons industry and policy leaders overlooks diverse, vibrant and modern economic drivers, such as organic farming and the organic trade. Instead, the focus is often on a return to industrial forestry and mass clear-cutting practices whose harm outstrips the potential economic benefits.

A recent Environmental Protection Agency report shows that one-half of Oregons 10 biggest polluters are in the wood products industry. According to the director of Oregons Office of Economic Analysis, even if we went back to peak harvest of the 70s, wed only have one-third of the workers in the mill as we did in previous years, due to technology alone.

The organic industry provides a stunning contrast. Nationwide, organic food sales in 2015 jumped by 11 percent to almost $40 billion, far outpacing the 3 percent growth rate for the overall food market. Oregon companies such as Mountain Rose Herbs, Organically Grown Co., and Hummingbird Wholesale are just a few clear examples of how organic businesses can benefit local economies, while supporting high-quality jobs in organic agriculture.

Research published by the Organic Trade Association in May 2016, from Penn State agricultural economist Dr. Edward Jaenicke, shows that supporting the growth of organic businesses can be a major boon to rural economies. Jaenickes research links economic health at the county level to organic agriculture, and shows that organic food and crop production and the business activities accompanying organic agriculture creates real and long-lasting regional economic opportunities.

Most importantly: Counties within organic hot spots have lower poverty rates and higher median annual household incomes. On average, poverty rates drop by 1.3 percentage points and median income rises by more than $2,000 in these counties. The same benefits are not found in general agricultural hot spots.

Clearly, organics can and do benefit Oregons economy, but the organic trade relies on organic agriculture, and organic agriculture depends on clean water and air.

Industrial clear-cutting practices, such as aerial herbicide spraying, threaten both the economic potential of organics and the health of our state. Herbicides that drift onto neighboring properties during routine timberland aerial spraying are a direct threat to small organic farms and businesses.

Many would-be organic farmers simply cannot afford to risk their farm becoming contaminated with Atrazine or Glyphosate by neighboring corporate landowners, which may necessitate the loss of their crop and the associated investments and income.

Protecting the environment has benefits far beyond nurturing a successful organic industry. People want to live, work and grow in places with drinkable water, breathable air and a sustainable future. Lawmakers in Oregon should take meaningful steps to protect people, farms, and drinking water. Gov. Kate Brown deserves recognition for committing to working hard for rural Oregons economies; lets also talk more about empowering communities with innovative organic ideas supported by data and science, in line with modern values.

After all, what could be better for Oregon than growing more good clean food, and protecting clean, pure water for us all?

Stacy Kraker chairs the Oregon Organic Coalition and is director of communications and marketing for Organically Grown Company in Eugene.

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Basic Income Guarantee program moving forward for 2000 Lindsay residents – Kawartha Media Group

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Kawartha Media Group
Basic Income Guarantee program moving forward for 2000 Lindsay residents
Kawartha Media Group
LINDSAY Eligible Lindsay residents who need a hand up are a step closer to a better quality of life as the Province's Basic Income Guarantee program continues to move closer to becoming a reality. Last January, a public consultation (one of many ...

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Basic Income Guarantee program moving forward for 2000 Lindsay residents - Kawartha Media Group

Find out which local jobs are threatened by automation – Press-Enterprise

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Nearly two-thirds of Inland jobs are at risk in the next 20 years due to automation, according to researchers at the University of Redlands.

Warehouse workers lead a list from the Institute of Spatial Economic Analysis, a division of the universitys school of business.

The Inland Empire had 55,660 warehouse jobs in 2016, with 47,310 of them automatable, according to ISEA. The average annual wage was $29,010.

In second and third place were retail salespeople and cashiers, with 82,400 of 87,280 jobs endangered between them.

Food services leads ISEAs list of job categories that could be transformed, with 87.3 percent of jobs capable of being automated.

Farming and sales and retail came in second and third, with 86.6 and 8.25 percent of jobs automatable.

Overall, research ranked 62.7 percent of jobs in the Riverside/San Bernardino metropolitan area as expected to be automated. The region had1,362,440 jobs earning $63.8 billion in 2016, according to ISEA.

To be very clear, that just means the share of jobs that are technically automatable, said JohannesMoenius, director of the institute. That doesnt mean the number of jobs that are going to be lost.

The institute reached its conclusions by combining research from a 2013 Oxford University study on the future of employment with data from the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Oxford study numerically ranked 700 jobs for probability of computerization. On the low end were such occupations as recreational therapists, dentists and choreographers. On the high end were such occupations as restaurant hosts, tax preparers and telemarketers.

ISEA is rolling out its results in phases and plans to eventually have maps online showing automatable jobs by ZIP code.

The first phase looks at demographics, with black, Hispanic and young workers most at risk.

Differences in educational attainment likely explain the differences between demographic groups, wrote lead researcher Jess Chen. Young people, workers of Hispanic ethnicity and African-Americans all tend to have lower educational attainment and therefore tend to work in jobs at a higher risk of automation.

Women also fall in the higher-risk group.

Experts have long said the Inland Empire is held back by having too few workers with educations beyond high school.

ISEAs research came out at the same time as a report by the Public Policy Institute of California called Meeting Californias Need for College Graduates.

It says that college graduation needs to increase here, in Los Angeles County and in the San Joaquin Valley to avoid a shortfall of 1 million educated workers by 2025.

The Inland Empire and the San Joaquin Valley together only award about 12 percent of the states bachelors degrees, even though they produce 27 percent of Californias high school diplomas, the report states.

ISEAs report shows vulnerabilities but doesnt attempt to predict what will happen in job sectors. Chen and Moenius point out that technology has historically been a job creator.

For every local job that has come in that has been a high creativity job, you had four or five new jobs created that were not requiring a high level of education, said Moenius. But with automation, we just dont know whether this ratio will still hold. That is the big question. But there will be new jobs coming in.

Its starting to happen at Norco College, according to Kevin Fleming, dean ofinstruction, career and technical education.

Fleming, in a phone interview, said Norcos digital electronics program is partnering with Loma Linda University to work on wiring for robotic prosthetic limbs.

Its not as if the skills are so advanced everybody needs a PhD, he said of technologys advances.

Its important that our high schools, K-12, as well as junior colleges and universities continue to evolve the curriculum As a region we want to make sure our students are aware of whats coming. I think thats the challenge of our educational community, to make sure were cutting-edge.

Fleming does not foresee an end to the service-based economy.

Definitely our cars are more computerized. Theres technology and automation involved in car maintenance, but I dont think we could ever drive into a car dealership and not see a human being.

Moenius said technology creates jobs in three ways:

Launching entirely new professions, such as mobile app developers.

Replacing occupations, such as turning assembly line workers into engineers who program robots.

Lowering costs of goods, which makes them more in demand and increases the need for workers.

Look at the U.S. right now, he observed. We are close to full employment, so all the technological progress we have seen in the last decades has not led to mass unemployment. So in the long run, I think this is where we will end up again.

What I am worried about is that in the medium run (5 to 10 years) the speed of deployment of robots and AI in the service sector will be fast enough to lead to substantial labor savings, meaning unemployment, and that the economy will not be able to create new jobs at a speedy enough pace to keep up with this.

What it is: One of the spatial studies programs at the University of Redlands that helps business and government understand their communities.

What it does: Publishes reports retail, employment, housing, logistics and other topics.

Information:www.iseapublish.com

Source: ISEA

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Find out which local jobs are threatened by automation - Press-Enterprise

Josh.ai raises $11 million for a premium home automation system … – TechCrunch

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One of the promises of voice-based computing is the ability to make home automation simpler something that major tech companies, including Amazon, Apple and Google, are now tackling with their own voice assistants and smart speakers. But their solutions are still somewhat clunky, both in terms of the software interface for configuring your smart home and the voice commands you use to take actions. Thats where the startup Josh.ai comes in.

The company has now raised $11 million to design a better voice-controlled system for smart homes, and will later this year release its own hardware dedicated to this purpose.

Headquartered in Denver with offices in L.A., Josh.ai is the product of serial entrepreneursAlex Capecelatro, CEO, and Tim Gill, CTO. The two previously worked together on a social recommendations app Yeti, which had begun its life as At The Pool, andwas sold back in 2015. Gill, who had previously founded and sold Quark (Quark XPress), had joined Yeti as a technical advisor, and wrote a number of the algorithms used in the app.

Following the sale of Yeti, the two teamed up again to work on a project in the smart home space something they were both interested in for personal reasons.

Gill, for example, had spent years developing his own home automation system his version of Mark Zuckerbergs Jarvis to run inside the large residential property he was building in Denver.

He was well underway in building the house and understanding what the competition looked likewhat the product offerings looked like, explainsCapecelatro. And he was pretty dissatisfied with what was out there.

Meanwhile,Capecelatro was also building a home for himself in L.A., and running into the same problems.

I was just amazed that all of the big automation systems Crestron, Control4, and Savant they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the [user interface] looks like its from the 90s, he says. It was weird that for a ton of money in my home where you want to have a delightful experience, the best offerings on the table just werent that good.

The founders saw a need in the market for something that sits above mass market solutions, like Apples Home app, or Alexas smart home control, which focus more on tying together after-market devices, like security cameras, smart doorbells, or smart lights like Philips Hue.

They founded the startup Josh.ai in March 2015, and shipped the first product the following year.

The solution, as it exists today, includes a kit with a Mac mini and iPad, and software that runs the home. After plugging in the Mac, Josh.ai auto-discovers devices on the network. It can identify those from over 50 manufacturers. For example, it can control lighting and shades like those from Lutron, music systems like Sonos, dozens of brands of security cameras, Nest thermostats, Samsung smart TVs, and even more niche products like Global Cachs box for controlling IR devices (such as your not-so-smart TVs).

The automatic speech recognition (AKA speech-to-text) portion of Josh.ais system is handled in the cloud, while Mac mini handles the natural language processing to know what your commands mean.

What makes Josh.ai unique is not just its software interface, but how users interact with the system. You speak to the voice assistant Josh to tell the home what to do. (You can also change its name if thats an issue, or even pick from a variety of male and female voices and accents.)

Josh, or the wake word youve chosen, precedes your command, which can be spoken using more natural language. The system is better than many when it comes to interpreting what you mean, by nature of its single-purpose focus on home automation.

For instance, you can tell Josh to turn it off, and it will know what it means because it remembers what it had turned on before. Or you can say, its hot in here, and Josh will know how to adjust your thermostat.

It can also deep-link to streaming video content, so you can ask to watch Planet Earth, and Josh will turn on the TV, switch to the right input, launch Netflix, then start playing the show.

Josh.ai supports scenes, as well, allowing you to configure a number of devices to work together like lights, shades, music, fans, thermostats, and other switches. That way, you can say things like turn everything off, and Josh knows to shut down all the connected devices in the home.

Where the system gets really smart is in its ability to handle complex, compound commands meaning controlling multiple devices in one sentence.

You can say to Josh, play Simon and Garfunkel and turn on the lights, for example. Or, play Explosions in the sky in the kitchen, and play Simon and Garfunkel in the living room. Other systems could get tripped up by the and and the in the in the artists names, but Josh.ai understands when those words are a break between two commands, and when theyre part of something else.

The current system which was largely designed for high-end homes is sold by professional integrators at around $10,000 and up, depending on the components involved. To date, the team has sold more than 50 and fewer than 100 installations.

Josh.ai can work over your Echo or Google Home, if you prefer, and includes interfaces for iOS, Android and the web. But the company is now preparing to launch its own, farfield mic solution in a new hardware device thats built specifically for use in the home.

While the new hardware will perform some basic virtual assistant type tasks telling you the weather, perhaps (the company isnt confirming specific features at this time) the main focus will be on home automation.

Above: a tease of the new device

The hardware wont be a cylindrical shape like Echo or Google Home, but will be designed with an aesthetic appeal in mind.

It also wont be super cheap.

It will still be a premium product, but it will be a lot less than where the current product is. And the idea is this will enable our mass market rollout in probably a year to eighteen months, notesCapecelatro, speaking of his plan to keep bringing Josh.ais technology to ever larger audiences.

Josh.ai, a team of 15 soon to be 25, recently closed on $8 million in new funding, largely from the founders personal networks. The investors names arent being disclosed because theyre not institutional firms. To date, Josh.ai has raised $11 million, but has not yet added anyone to its board.

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Josh.ai raises $11 million for a premium home automation system ... - TechCrunch

Why Automation Will Liberate You – Accountingweb.com

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Most perceive automation in accountingas automated software, but in reality, automation-driven accounting software actually helps accountants automate all of their processes.

Accounting is a combination of work you do as a human being and the work the software does (storage, defined algorithms validating data and performing defined computations, and so on).

Let us say at your practice the current human-to-machine ratio is 3:1 (the time taken by humans to perform a process from start to end to the time taken by the software to perform its part in that process). Moreover, 75 percentof your particular process involves manual work and the software does 25 percentof it.

What automation does is that it keeps moving this ratio more and more from humans to the software. Let us say it becomes 2:1, so 66 percentby humans and 33 percentby the software. Automation, in effect, identifies the work only humans can do, and that, in essence, is the work you should be doing in any case.

Humans Should Do the Work That Only Humans Can Do

The real impact of automation is life-liberating. As a child, when you were asked, What will you be when you grow up? I am sure that you did not reply, I will take data from A and put it into B. Unfortunately, accounting software made you do exactly that, until now that is. Butautomation is making things different now.

Let us take an example: Write-up work is one of the services provided by a majority of accounting firms. It used to be (and still is for many firms) one of the most manual processes at any accounting firm. Automation started changing that. It is interesting to take a quick snapshot of the progress of automation in the write-up work.

Automation Today

Now, automation technologies are more advanced. They bring in not only the bank transactions, but also the check images and bank statement PDFs. Gone are the manual efforts to follow up with clients to obtain this information. The only manual effort is to code the transactions to correct accounts and to seek clarification if the payee is an individual (as most businesses info can be Googled to identify type of expense).

Even bank feed automation is getting smarter. It remembers which vendor/payee transaction was classified to which account, and the next time accounting software imports the bank transactions, transactions get automatically coded to the correct account.

What remains manual is to classify NEW vendor and payee transactions,and to quickly review if you need to re-classify any transactions. The automated software does most of the work; very less manual work.

Thats not the end. Technologies are getting smarter. Artificial intelligence and machine learning, combined with the ability cloud gives, can (and will) generate accurate, crowd-sourced intelligence to code the transactions to the correct account.

For example, if several other businesses and accountants have a coded transaction for a particular vendor to a particular account, the software will suggest the account to use and it will be based on the type of business. And with secure digital checks, the accounting software can email out several digital checks in just one click, with no need to print or mail checks at all.

All that you need is vendors/payees email addresses; very less manual work.

Use this formula: In the points mentioned above, wherever you see the words manual work,think of it as time and cost and loss of profit. Manual Work = Time, Cost, Loss of Profit

Several research studies prove that humans are more driven by loss aversion than by gains.

Soinstead of having a growth target,reframe it as a loss reduction target. Instead of saying, We will grow our revenue by 20 percentthis year,say, We are losing 20 percentof revenue to our manual process inefficiencies (which, in fact, is a fact if you are not embracing and leveraging automation).

The real impact: Life-liberating. The sheer productivity growth will mean that your firm can service far more number of clients without adding any more overhead and staff.

More and more of your staff will use their knowledge and experience, rather than just using their hands and fingers. It will give them more job satisfaction because they will get an increasing sense of meaningful contribution to your firms success, as well as that of your clients.

And yes, the profitability will increase to levels you never thought was possible. With automation, you can make much more, if you choose to automate your processes.

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The risks and rewards of automation – The National

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Amazon's Alexa AI. Robots have the potential to both enrich human society and polarise wealth distribution. Rick Wilking : Reuters

As robots and automated services increase in number globally, scholars have been quick to point to the potential threat such developments pose to a harmonious society.

Are these concerns reasonable and do Arabian Gulf economies' unique features generate distinct dynamics?

Before discussing the threats, one must first acknowledge that labour-saving and productivity-enhancing technological innovations are fundamentally beneficial. If you are concerned about discoveries that diminish the need for human handsthen recall that once upon a time, in the days of hunter-gatherer societies, including the Gulf Bedouin civilisation, unemployment was zero, because everyone spent all day eking out a living. Labour-saving technology is a key reason why you can consume so much today, starting with farming, which allows society to feed itself while only dedicating a small percentage of the population to the task. The labour hours saved by replacing hunting and gathering with farming have ended up being used to produce more advanced commodities, such as clothes, carsand mobile telephones.

Therefore, when a fast-food restaurant introduces automated order-delivery stations, your first impulse should be: Great! Society can now produce more in total, as the people previously taking customer orders can now perform other jobs. A good illustration is ATMs. Prior to their invention, most bank employees were cashiers, leading to big restrictions on the speed and availability of cash withdrawal services. Today, most bank employees are able to deliver advanced services at a low cost, such as investment advice or help with managing a small business, precisely because technology has freed them up to perform such tasks.

However, technological progress is not unambiguously desirableand it carries two risks.

The first is unfavourable changes in the distribution of wealth and income. While innovation increases the total size of the economic pie, it may also modify the sizes of the slices that people earnand, in particular, certain groups may lose even if society as a whole gains, or inequality might become very acute. For example, when Japan developed cultured pearls in the early 20th century, the world instantly became able to produce more pearlsbut pearl divers in Bahrain lost their livelihoods. The younger ones may have been mentally nimble enough to pursue alternative professionsbut the older ones were essentially doomed to a lower standard of living.

Why not just compensate those losing out, possibly by taxing those benefiting from the improvement? Many people think that is the best way to deal with technological progress, including the rise of robots, but practical implementation can be challenging. In particular, correctly identifying winners and losers in a dynamic economy is nearly impossibleand so any rule will inevitably encourage fictitious claims of being a loser rather than a beneficiary, in an attempt to secure handouts and avoid taxes. This is why some favour restrictions on a the roll out of a technology, most famously the Luddites of the British Industrial Revolution, who destroyed the textile weaving machines that threatened their livelihoods.

The second risk associated with technological progress is that it might change our culture and norms in an undesirable way, independently of concerns relating to inequity. For example, many Gulf citizens today complain that smartphones have stunted peoples ability to engage in sustained, meaningful conversations, be they at the dinner table or in the majlises that constitute the backbone of social relations. In the case of robots, there is a fear that society's more modestly skilled workers will suffer a crisis of self-esteem if technology leaves them unable to hold down a regular job, even if they are compensated financially. Most would agree it would be unhealthy to have 20 per centof a labour force catatonically staringat the TV out of sheer boredom.

In the case of the GCC, I recently asked my University of Bahrain students (MA public policy) to predict any GCC-specific threats or opportunities relating to robots and automation. A popular response reflected the uneasy relationship that Gulf nationals sometimes have with migrant workers. While the economic benefits accruing to citizens and migrants from the abundance of foreign workers are evident to most observers, Gulf citizens tend to fixate on the fact that they have become minorities in their own countriesand feel that their cultural norms are threatened. For example, in The Dubai Mall, the operator ofthe establishment has arranged for signs reminding patrons to refrain from wearing revealing clothing or physical displays of affectionbecause nationals are too small in number to set an effective example.

Since migrant workers in the Gulf are concentrated in low-skilled jobs, some Gulf citizens welcome the opportunity to displace these workers with robots, perceiving it as an opportunity to reaffirm traditional Islamic and Gulf values.

Whatever ones inclination, it is worth bearing in mind two maxims regarding technological progress. First, as the Luddite example indicates, people have been fearing innovation for centuries. Yet, the world is a better placeand so we should ease our concerns. Second, since the middle of the 18th century, nobody has had much success stopping progress.

We welcome economics questions from our readers through email on omar@omar.ecor on twitter via@omareconomics

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Optiv’s Schawacker says automation must be future of continuous monitoring – FederalNewsRadio.com

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When it comes to continuous monitoring for cybersecurity and its companion strategy of continuous diagnostics and mitigation federal agency practitioners need to be realistic about how they apply the words monitoring and continuous.

Thats according to Peter Schawacker, Director of Security Intelligence Solutions at Optiv, a cybersecurity products reseller.

Too often, he says, management presumes there will be eyes on glass and people watching stuff. In reality, that mode is really only operative during the hunting phase, after the network instrumentation signals something is wrong and its time to use human intervention.

That model is too slow for todays threat perpetrators, Schawacker says. He says agencies must move more aggressively into automation of the kill-chain monitoring, detection, evaluation and action, and free up more time for people to do predictive analysis.

Host

Tom Temin, Federal News Radio

Tom Temin has been the host of the Federal Drive since 2006. Tom has been reporting on and providing insight to technology markets for more than 30 years. Prior to joining Federal News Radio, Tom was a long-serving editor-in-chief of Government Computer News and Washington Technology magazines. Tom also contributes a regular column on government information technology.

Guest

Peter Schawacker, Director of Security Intelligence Solutions, Optiv

Peter Schawacker (pronounced like shaw-walker) serves as the Director of Security Intelligence Solutions for Optivs Services Center of Excellence. He is an intrapreneneur who mines Optiv for opportunities to solve client problems and grow the company. A veteran of the Information Security industry, as part of the early days of EarthLink in the mid-1990s. Later, he ran Citigroups SOC, before taking on technical, sales and marketing roles with ISS, NFR, McAfee and Tenable. Prior to his current role at Optiv, he built SIEM consulting services for Alchemy Security and Accuvant. Mr. Schawacker resides in Mexico City.

Peter Schawacker, Director of Security Intelligence Solutions, Optiv Peter Schawacker (pronounced like shaw-walker) serves as the Director of Security Intelligence Solutions for Optivs Services Center of Excellence. He is an intrapreneneur who mines Optiv for opportunities to solve client problems and grow the company. A veteran of the Information Security industry, as part of the early days of EarthLink in the mid-1990s. Later, he ran Citigroups SOC, before taking on technical, sales and marketing roles with ISS, NFR, McAfee and Tenable. Prior to his current role at Optiv, he built SIEM consulting services for Alchemy Security and Accuvant. Mr. Schawacker resides in Mexico City.

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The DSCSA Delay: What it Means to Manufacturers – Automation World

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The FDAs latest draft guidance on the Drug Supply Chain Security Acts (DSCSA) product identifier requirements gives pharmaceutical manufacturers a little breathing room, as enforcement of the original November 2017 deadline gets pushed back a year.

But this news should not inject indolence into the industry, because the reality is, nothing has changed except that companies wont be facing enforcement of the requirementsuntil November of 2018.

To be clear: the law remains intact and this should not be seen as a sign that the FDA is easing off the industryat all. In fact, I asked a few industry experts what this change means, and it seems to be a friendly gesture by the FDA to give the companies that are way behind in compliance some more time. But there are no free rides here. In fact, it just means stricter enforcements in the future.

It is more than likely that this suspension of enforcement for 12 months will entail a complete zero-tolerance approach in 2018 as anyone not in compliance would technically have been in violation of the law for a full year, said Dave Harty, vice president of professional services at Adents, a maker of unit identification serialization and traceability software.

In short, pharmaceutical companies and CMOs producing prescription medicines will not be penalized if they do not meet the upcoming serialization deadline of November 2017, Harty explained. But, and this is very important, the original deadline remains unchanged. You still are legally required to serialize prescription medicines intended for distribution to the American market before the end of the year.

Peter Sturtevant, senior director of industry engagement for GS1 US, agrees. Even though it may seem like manufacturers have the luxury of an additional year, the FDAs enforcement delay has no direct impact on the Act itself.It would require an act of Congress to change DSCSA, he said. The question for manufacturers now becomes, when November 27th approaches, do we want to be compliant with the law or not? The FDA announcement means it will not enforce any penalties on manufacturers for non-compliance of the serialization requirement, but it still makes good business sense for manufacturers to continue to prepare their production lines for serialization.

Indeed, the law is not expected to change, even though theres been industry speculation that the Trump administration is angling to eliminate regulations that burden businesses unnecessarily. But this law is not about creating problems for pharma companies. Rather, it is meant to protect the consumer by keeping counterfeit products out of the supply chain.

The next obvious observation, however, is, how this will impact the downstream deadlines for repackagers (November 2018), distributors (November 2019) and dispensers (November 2020), which must comply with the same serialization mandates.

There is a strong possibility downstream trading partners will experience cascading discretionary delays as a result of this announcement, as we saw this happen the last time there were discretionary enforcement delays on two different occasions for phase one of DSCSA for the lot-based requirement, Sturtevant said.

Similarly, Dirk Rodgers, a regulatory strategist with Systech International and the founder of RxTrace, noted in an article that, by not enforcing the manufacturers requirement to apply the new DSCSA product identifier on all drug packages by this November, the FDA is forced to soften some of the deadlines for other segments of the supply chain. But, he added, that the new draft guidance makes it clear that the repackager, distributor and dispenser deadlines will still be enforced for product that the manufacturer introduced into commerce with the new DSCSA product identifier before November 27, 2017.

In addition, Rodgers noted that other than the product identifier enforcement delays, manufacturers should be aware that there are a number of requirements that will still go into effect on November 27, 2017. In his article, Rodgers stated: Manufacturers must begin to provide the transaction information, transaction history and transaction statement in electronic format only, except when selling directly to a licensed healthcare practitioner who is authorized to prescribe medication under State law, or to other licensed individuals who are under the supervision or direction of such a practitioner who dispenses product in the usual course of professional practice.

The bottom line here is that nothing has changed, because, as noted, Congress set the deadlines and only Congress can change the deadlines. And, Rodgers points out that because the FDA is the agency that enforces the law, they can choose to enforce it selectivelyparticularly to minimize possible disruptions in the distribution of prescription drugs in the United States.

For now, the FDAand hopefully the industryis still on track to meet the 2023 deadline for full serialization interoperability with track and trace for all supply chain trading partners.

So, pharma manufacturers, take a breath, but keeping moving forward on thisquickly.

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Four reasons why welfare reform is a delusion – EUROPP – European Politics and Policy (blog)

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Reforming the welfare system has been a key aim of British government since 2010.Richard Machinwrites that the concept makes no economic sense, it does not produce the outcomes the government is seeking, all while the UK is actually spending less on welfare than countries with comparable economies.

Back in 2010, the coalition governmentstatedthat welfare reform is essential to make the benefit system more affordable and to reduce poverty, worklessness, and fraud. The2017 manifestos of the main partiesoffered a genuine choice of whether to pursue or abandon this policy. For working-age benefit claimants, Labour and the Liberal Democrats proposed a series of sweeping reforms including the abolition of the bedroom tax and the sanctions regime. A lack of detail in the Conservative manifesto could be read as an intention to continue with the roll-out of the many changes that we have seen over the last seven years, although planned changes to benefits for pensioners have been abandoned under the confidence and supply agreement with the DUP.

In the aftermath of the election where does this leave us? For working-age claimants presumably we will see the minority government pursuing the welfare reform programme. Political opposition to austerity both in Westminster and with voters has gained some traction as a consequence of the election result, and there are strong arguments that welfare reform has failed to meet its intended aims and negatively impacted on claimants.

Welfare reform does not make economic sense

Research by Sheffield Hallam Universityfound thatthe post-2010 welfare reform policies will take 27 billion a year out of the economy, or 690 a year for every adult of working-age. The Institute for Fiscal Studiesestimatethat the cash freeze to most benefits, and cuts to child tax credit and universal credit, to be pursued in this parliament, will affect 3 million working households. The Cambridge University economist Ha Joon-Changarguesthat the mainstream political narrative that welfare spending is a drain and should be reduced is illogical. He asserts that a lot of welfare spending is investment and believes that appropriate funding in areas such as unemployment benefits can improve productivity and workforce capability.

When thinking about what an appropriate welfare state looks like in this parliament we would also do well to consider the findings of Professor John Hillsslatest book, which emphasises that we all rely on welfare at some point in our lives. A sensible debate about the affordability of welfare benefits should be framed with reference to accurate statistics about the recipients of welfare spending. The Institute for Fiscal Studiesreportthat 46.43% of total social security spending goes on benefits for older people, with only 12.82% on benefits for people on low incomes (for example housing benefit) and just 1.11% on benefits for unemployed people. The governments aim of producing a fairer and more affordable system is hamstrung by ignoring fiscal facts on one hand while perpetuating inaccuracies about the profile of benefit claimants on the other.

Professionals working in the advice sector have long advocated the principles of the multiplier effect. This argues that there are economic advantages to high levels of benefit take-up as claimants spend money on goods and services in the local community. Ambrose and Stone (2003) found that a multiplier effect of 1.7 exists, meaning each pound raised in benefit entitlements for claimants should be multiplied by 1.7 to give a much greater overall financial benefit to the economy.

My own experience of working in advice services demonstrated that where household incomes are protected through adequate levels of social security there are direct savings to the public purse: rent/council tax arrears are avoided, contact with overstretched public services is reduced and improved health outcomes reduce burdens on the NHS.

Welfare reform is regressive

There is clear evidence that welfare reform has a disproportionately negative impact on some groups in society and some areas of the UK. TheSheffield Hallam researchfound that those particularly hit by welfare reform are working-age tenants in the social rented sector, families with dependent children (particularly lone-parent families and families with large numbers of children) and areas with a high percentage of minority ethnic households. Geographically, the impact of welfare reform is stark with the greatest financial losses being imposed on the most deprived local authorities. As a general rule, older industrial areas and some London Boroughs are hardest hit, with southern local authorities the least affected.

The mainstream media often fails to report the true impact of welfare reform that this research highlights. A more accurate account of the human costs can be found inFor whose benefit? The everyday realities of welfare reformin which Ruth Patrick documents her research on the impact of sustained benefit reductions. Dominant themes include the stigma felt by benefit claimants, the negative impacts of a punitive sanctions regime, and living with persistent poverty.

Welfare reform does not produce the behaviour changes sought by the government

Although welfare reform is a values-laden policy underpinned by a strong, but flawed, ideology (only those who fail to do the right thing are affected) there is little evidence that the retrenchment of the welfare state has been accompanied by the change in claimant behaviour that politicians desire. The bedroom tax was supposed to provide an economic incentive to move to smaller accommodation. Theevaluationindicates that more than 7 in 10 claimants affected had never considered moving, with an estimate that no more than 8% of those affected having downsized within the social sector.

The Benefit Capplaces a limit on the total amount of certain working age benefits available to claimants. One of the governments main intentions was for this to improve work incentives. There is no common consensus on the extent to which this aim has been achieved: the Institute for Fiscal Studieshave suggestedthat the majority of those affected will not respond by moving into work, however, government ministers rarely waste an opportunity to tell us that low levels of unemployment are partly due to the benefit changes introduced.

The research of David Webster into sanctionsarguesthat Sanctions are not an evidence-based system designed to promote the employment, wellbeing and development of the labour force and that this regressive system results in lower productivity, pointless job applications, and poverty-related problems.

In the last days of the previous administration we saw the introduction of the2-child limitfor child tax credit and universal credit. Child Poverty Action Groupemphasisethe contradiction in a policy which supposedly provides parity between those in work and those out of work, when 70% of those claiming tax credits are already working.

Comparable countries spend more on their welfare systems than the UK

Given the huge variations in social security systems across countries, a true comparative exercise is somewhat problematic. However, we can again rely on the analysis ofHa-Joon Changwho debunks the myth that the UK has a large welfare state. Taking public social spending as a percentage of GDP, the UK is only slightly higher (21.5% of GDP) than the OECD average (21%):

Moving forward a key challenge for all political parties is to start a serious conversation about benefits for older people and how to create a sustainable system with an ageing population. At the other end of the age spectrum, much has been said about the increased engagement of younger people in the political process; ironically many commentators argue that it is this age group that will be hardest hit by a continuing programme of welfare reform.

Please read our comments policy before commenting.

Note: This article gives the views of theauthor, and not the position of EUROPP European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics.

_________________________________

About the author

Richard MachinStaffordshire University Richard Machinis Lecturer in Social Welfare Law, Policy and Advice Practice at Staffordshire University.

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Faith groups welcome adoption of Nuclear Ban Treaty – Religion News Service

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NEW YORK, USA: On July 7, the group Faith Communities Concerned about the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons issued a joint statement in support of the historic adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at UN Headquarters on the same day.

The treaty, a long-awaited step on the road to a world free from nuclear weapons, lays out detailed provisions calling for a comprehensive ban on the development, production, possession, stockpiling, testing, use or threat of use of nuclear arms.

Supported so far by more than 40 groups and individuals of Christian, Quaker, Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish affiliation, the statement reads, As people of faith we accept as our special responsibility the work of raising awareness of the risks and consequences of nuclear weapons for current and future generations, awakening public conscience to build a global popular constituency in support of the Treaty in order to achieve and sustain a world free from nuclear weapons.

The full text of the statement and list of endorsers can be found at: http://www.sgi.org/resources/ngo-resources/peace-disarmament/ptnw-joint-statement-july-2017.html

Kimiaki Kawai, SGI Director of Peace and Human Rights, comments, Like-minded groups and individuals of many faiths have come together to condemn nuclear weapons as incompatible with our shared human values. The continued existence of nuclear weapons hampers peoples ability to envisage a hopeful future and thus threatens human dignity.

This interfaith statement builds on previous statements issued by the same group during initial negotiations related to the ban treaty and efforts ongoing since 2014 to highlight the catastrophic humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.

Another statement has been put out by the SGI in the name of Hirotsugu Terasaki, Director General of Peace and Global Issues. It states, The existence of nuclear weapons is the greatest threat to the right to life of both the individual and humankind as a whole. For this reason, their total elimination is a desire shared by all people. See: http://www.sgi.org/resources/ngo-resources/peace-disarmament/ptnw-statement-july-2017.html

During the recent negotiations on the text of the treaty, SGI representatives put forward proposals for including reference to international human rights law, in particular, the right to life, strengthening the reference to disarmament education and highlighting the role of women in promoting peace and security.

The Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a community-based Buddhist association with 12 million members promoting peace, culture and education around the world.

2017 marks the 60th anniversary of the Declaration for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons made by second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda on September 8, 1957, and the start of the organizations efforts to raise awareness and call for a world free from nuclear weapons.

Photo caption: Interfaith vigil outside the UN in New York outside the ban treaty talks, July 5, 2017. Faith communities gathered every morning during the talks at 8:00 am at the Isaiah Wall, Ralph Bunch Park, First Avenue and 43rd Street.(Image by Clare Conboy for ICAN)

The organizations and/or individuals who submit materials for distribution by Religion News Service are solely responsible for the facts in and accuracy of their materials. Religion News Service will correct any errors brought to its attention.

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Youth disillusioned as empowerment fund is looted – NewsDay

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You are here: Home News Youth disillusioned as empowerment fund is looted

A BIRDS eye view over Harare reveals a blanket of minute stalls stacked with second-hand clothes for resale.

BY MICHELLE CHIFAMBA

Desperate, unemployed youths have created informal jobs in the streets as life gradually becomes unbearable for the working population.

The 2012 Population Census recorded that youths aged between 15 and 34 years constitute 84% of the unemployed population.

According to Zimstats, due to high formal unemployment, many of them were now deriving a living from the informal sector.

The Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment in 2006 unveiled the Youth Empowerment Fund established as part of the Old Mutual, Stanbic, Industrial Development Bank of Zimbabwe and CBZ Banks contribution to the countrys indigenisation and empowerment programme.

The facility was meant to support youth empowerment and development as a revolving loan facility for income generating projects, according to Old Mutual chief executive officer, Jonas Mushosho.

He noted that the youth fund was flexible and youth friendly in that there was no form of collateral required to access the funds.

CABS head of fund, Brian Mpofu, is on record stating that the fund was aimed at curtailing financial crisis and high rate of unemployment that had crippled the Zimbabwean youth.

Yet almost a decade later, there are a few success stories recorded as the youth fund failed to effectively empower the youth, with an estimated $40 million having disappeared as a result of loosely-knit policies, lack of accountability and corruption.

Corruption is a global problem that affects most developing countries. A United Nations (UN) 2016 study on corruption noted that at least $148 billion is lost to corruption every year in Africa alone.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth Development Indigenisation Economic Empowerment in May this year conducted a fact-finding mission on the youth fund. The mission also confirmed the abuse of $40 million under the empowerment facility. According to the Committee, at least 95% of the projects visited were either non-existent or had collapsed because they had never been genuine.

Analysts maintain that the funds were too flexible, having no complex terms and conditions attached to the loans. The loans had a non-monitoring and evaluation process making it vulnerable to corruption and misappropriation.

Analysts maintain that the fund, like the land reform programme, was used to win the young peoples support for Zanu PF.

Leakages were created in the vetting process being done by partisan departments. Youth proposals at district level were vetted by youth officers who were former youth militia. At provincial level those who would have made it were vetted by personal assistants who are party of the state machinery, by the time the bank is given the final list a lot of corrupt activities would have preceded the final choice and the bank has no say, independent political analyst Sydney Chisi noted.

The fund is not an empowering tool but a perpetual dependency model where the funds given to the youth are so small all they can do is to spend it. Youth are given a maximum of $5 000 which cannot run any effective project. But some politically linked youth were being given more than $20 000 which was never paid back.

Zimbabwe National Students Association (Zinasu) national spokesperson, Zivai Mhetu, said misappropriation, abuse of funds and loosely knit policies could all be attributed to corruption.

As a result of the abuse of funds by both the beneficiaries and the government officials the empowerment program failed to transform the lives of many youth in Zimbabwe, he said in a statement.

He said through the youth empowerment fund, the government deliberately failed to transform the lives of young people in the country as many youth did not understand business and financial management hence their businesses collapsed in infancy.

The government should be held accountable through the minister of youth. The way in which the funds were disbursed had no clear protocol or procedure which was supposed to be followed in order to avoid the abuse of funds. In this abuse I would blame the minister of youth for his negligence, he said.

Chisi noted that looting of the youth fund was part of Zimbabwes corrupt governance culture and from the look of things will continue for as long as the funding is associated with elections.

The refusal by the former ministers of youth Saviour Kasukuwere and Francis Nhema to arrest all the fund defaulters clearly shows that this fund is partisan and creates a culture of patronage making the system ungovernable.

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Crispr Patent-Holders Move Toward Easing Access to Gene-Editing Technology – Wall Street Journal (subscription)

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Wall Street Journal (subscription)
Crispr Patent-Holders Move Toward Easing Access to Gene-Editing Technology
Wall Street Journal (subscription)
A holder of key patents to the Crispr gene-editing technology is willing to join a world-wide joint patent poola development that medical and legal experts think could hasten the development of new human therapies. The Broad Institute of MIT and ...

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More progress on carbon nanotube processors: a 2.8GHz ring oscillator – Ars Technica

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Back in 2012, I had the pleasure of visiting the IBM Watson research center. Among the people I talked with was George Tulevski, who was working on developing carbon nanotubes as a possible replacement for silicon in some critical parts of transistors. IBM likes to think about developing technology with about a 10-year time window, which puts us about halfway to when the company might expect to be making nanotube-based hardware.

So, how's it going? This week, there was a bit of a progress report published in Nature Nanotechnology (which included Tulevski as one of its authors). In it, IBM researchers describe how they're now able to put together test hardware that pushes a carbon nanotube-based processor up to 2.8GHz. It's not an especially useful processor, but the methods used for assembling it show that some (but not all) of the technology needed to commercialize nanotube-based hardware is nearly ready.

The story of putting together a carbon nanotube processor is largely one of overcoming hurdles. You wouldn't necessarily expect that; given that the nanotubes can be naturally semiconducting, they'd seem like a natural fit for existing processor technology. But it's a real challenge to get the right nanotubes in the right place and play nicely with the rest of the processor. In fact, it's a series of challenges.

Note that above I said that nanotubes can be semiconducting. Unfortunately, they can also be metallic. (Well, not entirely unfortunatelythat's quite useful for other applications.) Even more unfortunately, when we make a batch of nanotubes, we can't control whether they're going to be metallic or semiconducting. Instead, you just end up with a random mixture of the two.

There have been two approaches to dealing with this. The first is to just put more carbon nanotubes than you need into place, then identify the metallic ones and destroy them. Needless to say, this isn't especially efficient. The alternative is to take a batch of carbon nanotubes and then separate out the semiconducting ones. There are various ways of doing this, but most of them haven't been 100-percent efficient. Which of course means that, at some level, you're going to be putting a piece of metal where you wanted a semiconductor, shorting part of your processor out.

For the new work, IBM relied on a development pioneered at the National Renewable Energy Lab (a facility targeted for massive cuts by the current administration). Some bright people at NREL realized that semiconducting carbon nanotubes would preferentially interact with complicated organic solvents that have nitrogen-containing rings in their structure.

Researchers at IBM decided this would be very useful indeed, so they tested the technique out. A single extraction with the same technique and, 10,000 individual nanotubes later, they can report that over 99.9 percent of the purified tubes were semiconducting. We can consider NREL's work replicated. And, if 99.9 percent's not good enough, there's no reason that the process couldn't be repeated in order to furtherincreasethe purity.

Of course, those semiconducting nanotubes don't do a processor much good if they're still sitting in solution. Ideally, you want a method of placing them in specific locations on your chip. Here, IBM rolled its own solution. The company developed a system in which polymers would only form on specific material on its chips. These polymers would help guide carbon nanotubes out of solution and in to specific locations.

So, we've now got a basic construction kit for carbon nanotube processors. But it's still not enough to do something useful. Modern processors have a complicated mix of p- and n-type semiconductors (which tend to build up positive or negative charges). Carbon nanotubes are naturally p-type, but they can be converted to n-type if they're placed in proximity to certain metals. Unfortunately, those metals tend to oxidize under normal conditions.

So the people at IBM put a cap over this metal layer to try to protect it. Unfortunately, the metal they used (scandium) turned out to like oxygen so much that itstripped it out of another part of the hardware, a hafnium oxide layer. So, that layer had to be replaced.

With all of the hurdles cleared, the team decided to make some individual transistors. These worked extremely well, with every one of the 192 transistors the researchers tested being operational. So, the team went on to try to build actual circuitry. Not useful circuitry, but instead a typical test case for new processor technology: a ring oscillator. This is a series of gates set up so to flip bits; if the gates get a 1, they convert it to 0 and vice versa. By putting an odd number in a ring-shaped configuration, each individual gate will oscillate between 1 and 0 with a timing that depends on the amount of delay involved in each individual gate changing its state.

The good news is that they produced 55 functional ring oscillators, with a performance of up to 2.8 GHz. This is an important demonstration that the process works. Unfortunately, IBM had to build 160 ring oscillators to get the 55 functional ones. So the process isn't mature. In fact, since ring oscillators only really involve five functional gates, it's a long way off from producing anything that might be considered a product.

But, to return to the point this discussion started with, IBMand the rest of the material science communitystill have a bit of space left in their timeline to get this commercialized. And, five years ago, they were still working on getting pure semiconducting nanotubes. Given the progress since, I wouldn't rule things out.

Nature Nanotechnology, 2017. DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2017.115 (About DOIs).

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Tear gas used on protesters after 40 KKK members rally at Justice Park – The Daily Progress

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More than 1,000 people were in attendance when about 50 members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan protested in Justice Park on Saturday, according to a spokeswoman for the city of Charlottesville.

As of 6:15 p.m., 23 people had been arrested. Three people were taken to a hospital, two for heat-related issues and one for an alcohol-related issue.

The spokeswoman said Charlottesville police and Virginia State Police resources "were deployed to secure access to the park and ensure the safety of all involved."

After police allowed the KKK members to leave a parking garage, they began to walk toward Justice Park, she said, and a large group followed. After "a number of incidents," police used pepper spray and state police three three canisters of tear gas to disperse the crowd, the spokeswoman said.

Police and protesters have dispersed from High Street and Justice Park.

Police have used three cans of tear gas on protesters standing in High Street in Charlottesville following the KKK's departure from a protest in Justice Park.

Among those affected were several Daily Progress reporters and a legal observer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Charlottesville Police Department has requested assistance from the Albemarle County Police Department, University of Virginia Police Department, Charlottesville Sheriffs Office, Charlottesville Fire Department, Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad and Virginia State Police.

Surveillance cameras were installed near Emancipation and Justice parks within the last couple of weeks, according to Capt. Wendy Lewis, and they are recording on a loop. Footage will only be viewed for evidentiary or investigative purposes, she said.

Having policed similarly large events, such as the Occupy Charlottesville protest in 2011, Lewis said Charlottesville police are confident they can handle the situation.

I think were very experienced at it, Lewis said earlier this week. We find it a privilege to be able to protect peoples right to assemble and free speech in a transparent way.

About 40 members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rallied for less than an hour at Justice Park.

Protesters had tried to stop police from forming a barrier that allowed the KKK to enter their rally area. Several of them were arrested as police created a path.

At about 4:30 p.m., KKK members left the rally to head toward their vehicles in a garage at Fourth Street Northeast and High Street. Protesters gathered to confront them, but police told they would be arrested for unlawful assembly. At about 4:45 p.m., the vehicles left.

Civic leaders have planned events to bring the community elsewhere Saturday, but leftist activists have set up to directly protest the Klan rally at Justice Park, formerly named for the statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson that stands there.. In the weeks leading up to Saturdays events, the city has been on edge, worrying about the possibility of violence between the Klan members and protesters.

On Aug. 12, a rally that will be attended by far-right and extremist groups that promote racist, white nationalist and anti-Semitic sentiments is expected to draw about 400 participants.

Some are looking at Saturdays event as a dress rehearsal for the Unite the Right rally next month in Emancipation Park, formerly named for its statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The two rallies are being organized as a protest against the citys efforts to remove the Lee statue. Organizers for the two events see the possible removal of the Lee statue as an affront to White-European and Southern culture.

In a statement on Saturday, the Virginia Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, which has opposed the removal of the Lee statue in a legal battle, said it "neither embraces nor espouses acts or ideologies of racial or religious bigotry and further strongly condemns the misuse of our sacred flags, symbols, or monuments in the conduct of the same."

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Tear gas used on protesters after 40 KKK members rally at Justice Park - The Daily Progress

UK’s Johnson says progress can be made to ease Qatar tensions – Reuters

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KUWAIT British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Saturday progress could be made to heal a rift between Qatar and other Arab states, although a solution was unlikely to be found immediately.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain have cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar over accusations it was financing terrorism, claims which Doha says are "baseless".

"My impression is progress can be made and there is a way forward," Johnson said in a televised interview released to media after meeting senior government figures in Kuwait which is attempting to mediate between the two sides.

"But I'm not going to pretend to you now that it is necessarily overnight or this is going to be done in the next couple of days," he said.

Johnson, who held meetings on Friday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is due to travel to Qatar later on Saturday for meetings with its emir and prime minister.

"We think the blockade was unwelcome and we hope there will be a de-escalation," Johnson said.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

HAMBURG President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he thought his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump had been satisfied with his assertions that Russia had not meddled in the U.S. presidential election.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday said that the U.S.-Mexico relationship cannot be defined by "murmurs," the day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Mexico would "absolutely" pay for his proposed southern border wall.

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UK's Johnson says progress can be made to ease Qatar tensions - Reuters

Macron tells Putin tangible progress made in Russo-French relations – Reuters

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PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron said he told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin the two countries had made a "tangible" progress in bilateral relations, which could move to a new phase.

The two presidents met for the first time on May 29.

"On the subject of bilateral and regional issues, I welcome the quality and the intensity of the work that has been established since then," Macron, who kept Putin waiting for about 20 minutes, said ahead of their meeting behind closed doors.

"So I think now we can move on to a new phase because we both saw that we were doing what we were saying," Macron added.

(Reporting by Marine Pennetier in Hamburg; Writing by Maya Nikolaeva; editing by John Stonestreet)

HAMBURG President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he thought his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump had been satisfied with his assertions that Russia had not meddled in the U.S. presidential election.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday said that the U.S.-Mexico relationship cannot be defined by "murmurs," the day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Mexico would "absolutely" pay for his proposed southern border wall.

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Macron tells Putin tangible progress made in Russo-French relations - Reuters

Merkel cites ‘very, very slow’ progress on Ukraine peace deal – Reuters

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HAMBURG German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday there was no glossing over the fact that there had been "very, very slow" progress in implementing the Minsk peace accords aimed at ending years of violence in eastern Ukraine.

Merkel said she would hold four-way telephone talks on next steps soon with the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and France following a more procedural conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Hamburg.

"We agreed to continue the process. But we also observed that progress had been very, very slow - with stagnation in some cases, relapses in others. We didn't gloss over the situation," she said. "We will stay in touch, we'll stick with the format. We don't have any other basis."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Noah Barkin)

HAMBURG President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he thought his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump had been satisfied with his assertions that Russia had not meddled in the U.S. presidential election.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday said that the U.S.-Mexico relationship cannot be defined by "murmurs," the day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Mexico would "absolutely" pay for his proposed southern border wall.

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Merkel cites 'very, very slow' progress on Ukraine peace deal - Reuters