Guardian launches new virtual reality experience Limbo focused on experiences of asylum seekers – The Guardian

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The Guardian is pleased to announce the launch of Limbo, the publishers latest virtual reality (VR) experience.

Available on Daydream View and as a 360 YouTube video, Limbo enables viewers to experience what life is like for many asylum seekers in the UK who are waiting to hear whether they will be permitted to stay in the country and build a new life. The project is the Guardians fourth virtual reality experience and is constructed from interviews with asylum seekers from 12 countries as well as immigration lawyers and barristers working in the UK.

Placing viewers in the shoes of a newly arrived asylum seeker, Limbo uses the voices of real asylum seekers to guide the viewer through the experience - from arriving in an unfamiliar city, fear for loved ones left behind, worry about not being allowed to work, to the Home Office interview which will decide their fate.

Limbo allows viewers to better understand the potential psychological impact of asylum seekers experiences so far, which can be compounded by the subsequent isolation and asylum process. They are caught between two lives, that of the place they left - the piece features flashbacks to a war torn city reduced to rubble, and their family trying to escape - and the new life they hope to build for themselves. For many, claiming asylum in the UK is also the first step towards bringing their dependents to safety.

The project has been created by the publications in-house VR team alongside ScanLAB Projects, a creative practice that specialises in digital replicas of environments for broadcast, exhibition and animation. Innovative 3D scanning technology has been used to capture urban streets, interiors and live action to create Limbos 360 world. The resulting monochrome sketch-like aesthetic has the quality of a dream or nightmare where worlds are transparent and fragmented.

Francesca Panetta, executive editor, virtual reality, Guardian News & Media, said:

The Guardian has covered the issue of asylum extensively for many years. We know that it can be a very disorientating, isolating and confusing process and have aimed to capture a sense of this through the fragmented quality of Limbos design. Through harnessing the visual capabilities of VR we have been able to bring this to the fore for viewers and hope this enables them to better understand the asylum experience.

Will Trossell, co-founder of ScanLAB Projects, said:

Like dreaming with your eyes open, 360 video and VR can be incredibly transformative experiences. In Limbo we have created a digital world which is both familiar and strange, where the line between dreams and reality are blurred and where walls are diaphanous yet impenetrable. Our ambition for this project is to use this digital world to put the viewer at the centre of the story, enabling them to better understand the obstacles that asylum seekers can encounter.

Limbo is available on Daydream View and 360 video. It will also be available soon on Samsung VR.

Step inside the story - view Limbo and read more about Guardian VR.

-Ends-

For more information please contact:

media.enquiries@theguardian.com or 020 3353 3696

Note to Editors

The Guardian and virtual reality

Further information can be found on the Guardians Virtual Reality hub. The Guardian has won multiple awards for its virtual reality projects including a European Digital Media Award for best use of online video, International Digital Innovation of the Year at the newsawards 2017 and Digital Innovation at the British Journalism Awards 2016 for 6x9: a virtual experience of solitary confinement.

About Guardian News & Media

Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes theguardian.com, one of the worlds leading English-language newspaper websites. Traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardians total digital audience. In the UK, GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821, and the worlds oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.

The Guardian is renowned for its agenda-setting journalism including, most recently, the Panama Papers investigation as well as the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-winning NSA revelations.

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Guardian launches new virtual reality experience Limbo focused on experiences of asylum seekers - The Guardian

Billionaires dream of immortality. The rest of us worry about healthcare – The Guardian

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We arent worthy of immortality. Indeed, weve already passed our sell by date. Photograph: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

Last week, as the Senate was still trying to deny healthcare to 22 million fellow Americans, a friend asked me whether I would choose to live forever if I could. We were discussing Silicon Valley billionaires and their investments in new biotechnologies that they hope will enable them to do what no human has ever done: cheat death. The technology includes some dubious treatments, such as being pumped with the blood of much younger people.

Both of us agreed we do not wish for immortality, though we are both extremely happy with our lives and healthy. Wanting to live forever is fundamentally selfish. Its obvious why immortality appeals to billionaires such as Peter Thiel. It obviously wouldnt to the millions in the US who wont have health insurance if the Republicans pull out the vote on their bill.

Peter Thiel, the PayPal founder who is a friend of Trump, is one of the Immortalists. Lucky that he will never run out of money, especially since the Senates version of repeal-and-replace Obamacare is such a generous giveaway to the billionaire class.

The only reason its getting any Republican votes is that, as the New York Times reported a few days ago: The bills largest benefits go to the wealthiest Americans, who have the most comfortable health care arrangements, and its biggest losses fall to poorer Americans who rely on government support.

It should be called the John Galt Bill after the hero of Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged, the doorstopper of a novel that is akin to the Bible for certain conservative politicians, including House speaker Paul Ryan, who hands out copies of the book to newly elected Members (the House version of the healthcare bill is even more Galtian than the Senates). Its the only book Im aware of that Donald Trump claims to have read.

Keep in mind that at her funeral in New York in 1982, Ayn Rands body lay next to the symbol she had adopted as her own a six-foot dollar sign, according to Susan Chira who covered the service for the Times. A few years ago, The Atlas Society, which keeps the Rand flame alive, urged Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to unleash our inner John Galt. They must be celebrating because even they could not have come up with a more hard-hearted piece of legislation.

If the White House actually fights for the bill, it will be because it repeals the higher taxes on estates and the Medicare surcharge that helped fund Barack Obamas expansion of healthcare to cover the poor. Although he has said the House version of the bill is too mean, hes happy to see his billionaire friends evade the governments hand in their pockets. (Hey, wed certainly like to see your taxes so we can figure out how you would make out, Mr President.)

In an effort to reduce the meanness of the bill somewhat, McConnell is reported to be considering something wealthy Republicans hate, preserving the Obama laws 3.8% tax on investment income in order to provide more money for combatting opioid addiction and other services to the poor. Its unclear whether that would unlock enough votes to pass a bill.

The Presidents 71st birthday a few weeks ago made him one of the oldest surviving boomers, those of us born between 1946 and 1964 a generation that is notoriously selfish and also physically fit (though the presidents recent photos on the golf course raise questions about the latter). In the presidents case, the typical baby boom self-centeredness has blossomed into a raging form of megalomania.

In 2020, the president may be running for re-election and I will be one of the many boomers who have officially become senior citizens. More importantly, it will also be the year that the number of those over 65 will be larger than those under 5. Thats unhealthy for many reasons, not least of which is the pressure it will put on Medicare and Social Security.

The billionaire class does not need to worry, however, because their tax savings from the repeal of Obamacare, if it ever passes, will easily pay for a lifetime of concierge medicine (well, maybe not, if Thiels plan to live forever works out).

Since modern American politics is always a revenge cycle, one way to look at the Republican health repeal measures is as payback to Chief Justice John Roberts, who infuriated Republicans in 2012 when he sided with the supreme courts four liberals to uphold the Affordable Care Act. He finessed his decision by defining the individual mandate as a tax, citing congressional power to levy taxes. Now McConnell & Co are using that same power to repeal them and make the billionaires richer.

Healthcare is not the only area in which supreme selfishness guides the Trump administration. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius had a strong piece on Wednesday showing many examples of other countries adopting Trumps America First mantra and adapting it to themselves.

In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates bully Qatar into bending to their will, as the Kurds forge on with their independence drive, both selfish moves that dont even consider how they may destabilize the rest of the region. Pulling out of multi-lateral treaties, like the Paris and Trans-Pacific accords, because Trump says they dont put US interests first is also supremely selfish, as Ignatius rightly points out.

Its no wonder theres something called Boomer Death Watch. We arent worthy of immortality. Indeed, weve already passed our sell-by date.

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Billionaires dream of immortality. The rest of us worry about healthcare - The Guardian

British and Irish Lions 2017: Warren Gatland tells Lions to seize immortality after naming unchanged side for third … – City A.M.

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British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland has urged his side to seize immortality after naming an unchanged matchday squad for Saturdays decisive final Test against New Zealand in Auckland.

A first series win over the All Blacks since 1971 beckons after the Lions restored parity in the three-match showdown with a 24-21 victory over the world champions in Wellington on Saturday.

Gatland cited the need to hand the players who had dragged the Lions level the opportunity to administer the knockout blow at Eden Park, where New Zealand have not lost a Test match since 1994.

This is a huge chance for this group of players to show their abilities and reap the benefits of the work everyone has put in, said Gatland. It is their chance to make Lions history.

We are all aware of how big this game is and we are expecting a backlash from the All Blacks. But the pleasing thing about the second Test is just how strong we were in the last 10 or 15 minutes, in terms of energy and enthusiasm so we still feel there is another level in us.

Just as he did at the Westpac Stadium at the weekend, flanker Sam Warburton will lead the Lions, who have named an unchanged starting XV for consecutive Tests for the first time since 1993.

We felt we should reward the players for the result and the courage that they showed in coming from behind, from 18-9 down, digging themselves out of a hole and then finishing strongly in that last 10 to 15 minutes, added Gatland.

There are some players who are pretty disappointed not to be selected and I understand that. It is what you would expect from competitive top athletes, they back themselves.

New Zealand, meanwhile, have made three changes to their XV for the series clincher. Jordie Barrett and Ngani Laumape are set to make their first starts for the All Blacks at full-back and inside centre respectively, while Julian Savea returns on the left wing.

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British and Irish Lions 2017: Warren Gatland tells Lions to seize immortality after naming unchanged side for third ... - City A.M.

West Bengal’s top doctors turn out fakes, arrests blow lid off thriving scam – Hindustan Times

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They were the whos who of West Bengals flourishing medical fraternity. Naren Pandey was a top allergy and asthma specialist practicing at one of the citys premier hospitals. Shubhendu Bhattacharya was a general medicine expert felicitated by none other than President Pranab Mukherjee in May this year. Aradeep Chatterjee, an MD in integrative oncology was equally sought after and known as much for his flashy lifestyle and his swanky BMW.

Today, the three are among three dozen others behind bars for having fake medical degrees.

Pandey had even failed his Class 12 examination and began his career as a distributor of unani medicines before donning the role of a doctor. Bhattacharya never studied in any recognised medical college while Chatterjee twice dropped out of a homeopathy college.

Police have sealed the office of Ramesh Baidya, principal of Barasat Bio-Chemical Medical College. From this office in Barasat (North 24 Parganas district) Baidya has sold hundreds of fake degrees, CID sleuths alleged. (Samir Jana)

But lack of qualification never deterred them from making it big, courtesy a racket run by a slew of dubious medical colleges that thrived as much as the professional careers of fake doctors they helped to produce.

The lid on the racket was first blown off during the first week of May when two doctors, Kushiram Haldar and Kaizar Alam, were arrested from Alipurduar and North Dinajpur districts. They had degrees from a fictitious college and were employed at government-run primary health centres. Alam had even worked at Kolkatas Ruby General Hospital one of the citys most sought-after medical care facilities.

Police investigations picked up speed after the first arrests and more doctors had their skeletons tumbling out of their cupboards. Among them was Gopal Biswas, a dentist in Falakata of Cooch Behar district in north Bengal.

Police estimate the number of fake doctors in the state between 500 and 550. At the heart of the fake medical eco-system are the fake universities and colleges.

The locked house of Suresh Agawal, founder president of Indian Board of Alternative Medicine in Bhawanipore, Kolkata. Agarwal allegedly sold fake degrees from an office barely a km away. (Samir Jana)

People with fake degrees from such institutions are practising not only in top private hospitals in Kolkata, and private health facilities in different parts of Bengal, but also in Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, a senior police officer said.

The institutes named in the FIR are Alternative Medical Council Calcutta (AMCC) at Barasat, Indian Board of Alternative Medicine (IBAM) at Bhawanipore, Council of Alternative Systems of Medicines (CASM) at Behala and Indian Council of Alternative Medicine (ICAM) at Bowbazar.

Police claimed, these institutions had no affiliations whatsoever and awarded tens of thousands of fake degrees to aspirants from all over India and even the United States, Italy, Russia, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

No classes were held in these colleges and all degrees were awarded by them after correspondence courses. Under Medical Council of India( MCI) rules, only three regulatory bodies are entitled to issue approval to institutes for teaching medicine: MCI for modern medicine; the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) and the Central Council of Homeopathy (CCH) for alternative medicine.

But the four blacklisted institutions and a host of other colleges gave out medical degrees undeterred. Rama Shankar Tiwari, a practicing doctor in Howrah district had obtained his degree from the Howrah Central Calcutta Medical College operating out of a nondescript house in Jagaccha. The college has awarded some 20,000 degrees so far, CID officials suspect.

But how the fake institutes flourished for so long is yet to be determined. The state medical council has woken up now and pledged to rid the state of the menace.

I am the whistleblower and I am coordinating with the CID. We will rid the system of fake practitioners, said Nirmal Majhi, the chairman of the council and a close aide of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

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West Bengal's top doctors turn out fakes, arrests blow lid off thriving scam - Hindustan Times

PureCircle Aims to Put First Commercially Viable Stevia Antioxidant on the Market in 2018, Firm Says at IFT 2017 – Nutritional Outlook

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The stevia leaf (Stevia rebaudiana) has yielded exciting, zero-calorie natural sweeteners for food and beverage formulators over the past decade. Now, the leaf is offering formulators another exciting, healthy ingredient: antioxidants. Stevia supplier PureCircle (Chicago) announced that it is ready to roll out what it says is the first commercially viable antioxidant ingredient from the stevia leaf. The firm made the announcement at last weeks Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting and Food Expo in Las Vegas.

The company says that while researchers have known that stevia leaves contain antioxidant properties, PureCircle claims it is the first company to be able to extract these antioxidants on a global scale from the stevia leaf thanks to a unique extraction and purification process.

The primary antioxidant compounds in the stevia leaf are chlorogenic acids, said Carolyn Clark, director, global marketing and innovation, PureCircle, at the IFT show. Chlorogenic acid, she said, is also a well-known antioxidant in green coffee bean extract. In fact, she said, the chlorogenic acid in Stevia rebaudiana exists at about 1.5% dry weight in the leaf. By comparison, Reb A, the most commonly known steviol glycoside, is about six times that. So while the quantity is much smaller than Reb A, theres enough where it still makes sense for us to go ahead and extract it, Clark said. This also means PureCircle is able to utilize more of the stevia leaf which otherwise may have been discarded as waste.

In terms of power as an antioxidant, Clark said, the chlorogenic acids from stevia have an ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) level of about 9000 mol TE/100ghigher than the ORAC values of, for instance, coffee bean extract (2500 mol TE/100g), blueberries (9621 mol TE/100g), cranberries (9090 mol TE/100g), and green tea (1253 mol TE/100g). (Values are per the USDAs database Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods, Release 2 (2010), which has since been discontinued.)

Clark said that PureCircle hopes to get GRAS approval in 2018 to clear the path for the antioxidants use in food and beverages. She said that it can already be used in dietary supplements without requiring a new dietary ingredient (NDI) notification because it falls under the stevia leaf extract use thats already out there today in the supplements space in the U.S.

Meanwhile, she said, the company will also be working to build up its commercial-scale production of the ingredient. PureCircle would sell the antioxidant as a standalone ingredient alongside its other stevia sweetener offerings. She said the stevia antioxidants taste is mild and clean because of its plant base. Some kinds of plant-based antioxidants that are trying to do similar things often have an off-note, so were excited to work with formulators with this ingredient, she said. Already, the company is sampling the ingredient with some customers.

Also at IFT, PureCircle highlighted its newly announced proprietary StarLeaf Stevia rebaudiana leaf that the company developed through its PureCircle Stevia Agronomy Program. According to PureCircle, the company cross-bred the StarLeaf leaf to contain more than 20 times more sugar-like steviol glycoside content compared to standard stevia leaf varieties, particularly the glycosides Reb M and Reb D. Clark said that this is the first brand-name leaf to come out of the PureCircle Stevia Agronomy Program. Through StarLeaf, Clark said, PureCircle will be able to create more of those sugarlike stevia extracts.

Also read:

Stevia: The Next Generation

Does Reb A Still Have a Place in Advanced Stevia Formulations? This and More Stevia Talk at IFT 2016.

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PureCircle Aims to Put First Commercially Viable Stevia Antioxidant on the Market in 2018, Firm Says at IFT 2017 - Nutritional Outlook

Charlie Gard’s Parents Assert Their Parental Rights but More Than That – National Review

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Bambino Ges has offered to care for Charlie Gard. A childrens hospital renowned across Europe, Bambino Ges (Baby Jesus) is operated by the Holy See and located about half a mile south of the main entrance to Saint Peters Square.

That is the Catholic Church the world had come to expect.

Last week the Pontifical Academy for Life surprised and angered many people when it implied that Charlies parents should let go and let him die. Then on Sunday, to the joy of those who take a different view of the matter, the director of the Holy See press office issued this contrary statement:

The Holy Father follows with affection and emotion the situation of Charlie Gard, and expresses his own closeness to his parents. He prays for them, wishing that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end will be respected.

The outreach by Bambino Ges on Monday, via Twitter, reinforced the popes message. The hospital added its own warm words to his but, more important, also extended a professional helping hand.

Now the president of Bambino Ges reports that Charlies doctors in the U.K. wont let his parents move him from his intensive-care unit in London. If they prevail, his parents will be left to watch their infant son die as his doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children withdraw his life support.

Charlie Gards cause combines two large political causes, parental rights and the right to life. They comport in this instance, but they dont comport always or necessarily.

Parents can and sometimes do choose for their severely diseased newborn children outcomes that pro-life advocates think are wrong. Pro-choice advocates routinely insinuate and sometimes explicitly invoke the parental rights of women seeking abortion. Over the years, parental rights have been integral to arguments for abortion rights.

Pro-lifers are correct to call out double standards, as in this case. If parental rights are said to be sacrosanct when parents want to end the life of their child but not when they fight to preserve it, the principle is not really parental rights, is it?

Chris Gard and Connie Yates have privately raised funds to cover the cost of experimental treatment for Charlie in America, and it is reported that a U.S. hospital has offered to treat him for free, so containment of cost to the British taxpayer is not in any direct sense the rationale for the intransigence of the British doctors in this matter. Wesley Smith is right, however, that their attempt to frustrate these two parents in their quest to save the life of their child aligns with a broader, general campaign to discourage medical care when it is calculated, in cold terms, that the resulting extension or quality of life will probably be too short or too low to justify the expense.

Life is expensive, as we are reminded every time we join the debate about the latest national health-care proposal. To be pro-life is to take the strongest possible stand for life against even the most compelling economic arguments on the other side. It is cheaper certainly in the near term to abort a child who for the next decade or two would be a net drain on his parents resources of time and money. And always is it cheaper to hasten the death of the frail and elderly who will never again be net contributors to the material well-being of either their family or society.

It would have been easier for Chris Gard and Connie Yates not to buck the system. The course they have taken damn the hassle, damn the cost implies an extraordinary value that they put on life itself. The Catholic Church is the global institution most famous for honoring life itself against strong social and political pressures to abandon that principle, and so the gestures by Pope Francis and Bambino Ges have been reassuring.

It was a Catholic hospital and so of course they wouldnt let him die, a friend once said to me in the course of narrating the end-of-life agonies of a longtime colleague. She meant to be snide but unwittingly paid the Church what in its books counts as a compliment.

What unites the two main strands opposition to abortion and opposition to euthanasia of the pro-life movement is not a question of rights, as I explain in this blog post at The Human Life Review. Pro-lifers can invoke the right to life when defending unborn children, but rights talk is hardly the ticket for answering the movement for physician-assisted suicide and a right to die.

Ultimately the pro-life cause rests on a sentiment. If it can be reduced to a linear argument, I havent seen it. Charlie Gards parents are heroic not for insisting on reasonable (whatever that would be in this case) medical treatment for their child. They are extraordinary because against such enormous odds they have set out to preserve the flame of life still flickering in his fragile, tiny frame. We rightly cheer them for asserting their parental rights against the overreach of the medical establishment and the state. They do not, however, assert those rights as an end in itself. In their view, apparently, as in mine (and yours?), the end in itself is life itself.

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Charlie Gard's Parents Assert Their Parental Rights but More Than That - National Review

Modest Growth Predicted for Hemophilia Treatment Space – Drug Discovery & Development

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The market for hemophilia treatments could see anemic growth over the next few years, according to a new analysis from research and consulting firm GlobalData.

Their report predicts the market value for treatments targeting each form of the blood disorder will go from $6.7 billion in 2016 to an approximate $8 billion by 2026 representing an uptick of about 1.8 percent.

Factors that will contribute to this small increase revolves around higher rates of routine prophlyaxis in children and adult patients diagnosed with hemophilia A and B as well as the introduction and uptake of novel drugs like long-acting factors and alternative coagulation promoters (ACPs).

Chiara Marchetti, Ph.D., the author of the report and a healthcare analyst for GlobalData, writes that the hemophilia A market, has historically been crowded with several comparable short-acting recombinant factor VIII (rFVIII) treatment options. Developers had hoped that the launches of long-acting rFVIII products since 2014 would stimulate this stagnant segment, but the transition to these drugs has been slower than expected.

Furthermore, Marchetti notes this stagnation is due to the limited half-life extensions of FVIII not being translated into meaningful reductions in dosing frequency in the prophylactic setting for hemophilia A patients.

Essentially, this aspect will help ACPs potentially gain a foothold in this space upon their anticipated launch in 2019 and take away their share of sales.

Marchetti elaborates that elements of these drugs, like the molecular structure and subcutaneous injections, will lead to better bleeding protection with a less-frequent dosing schedule dramatically improving convenience in a prophylactic setting.

Roche and Genzyme were highlighted as two firms with promising ACPs in their arsenal.

Roches emicuzumab is currently progressing through clinical development with interim results from a Phase III trial evaluating the drugs potential in children less than 12 years of age with hemophilia A and inhibitors to factor VIII.

Results indicated the treatment produced a clinically meaningful reduction in bleeds over time.

Genzyme is working with Alnylam on developing fitusiran, which is intended to treat hemophilia and other rare bleeding disorders. Findings from a phase II open label extension study showed that once-monthly subcutaneous administrations of fitusiran produced consistent lowering of AT and increases in thrombin generation in patients with either hemophilia A or B without inhibitors, according to an announcement.

Marchetti recommends these companies follow a unique pricing strategy in order to help these drugs become successful.

Because the costs associated with hemophilia care are constantly escalating, pricing strategy will be the key to the success of these new agents. Despite the advantages provided by the drug, GlobalData expects Roche to seek a limited premium over long-acting rFVIII. Given the high level of unmet need in the inhibitor segment and the good uptake expected among hemophilia A patients, emicizumab will be able to exploit cross-segment efficacy to become a blockbuster in the hemophilia space, with peak-year sales of $2.6 billion in 2026, wrote the analyst.

Hemophilia is a genetic bleeding disorder that prevents the body from producing normal blood clots. An estimated 20,000 people living in the U.S. are diagnosed with this disorder based on statistics gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Modest Growth Predicted for Hemophilia Treatment Space - Drug Discovery & Development

Oakland overflowing with beer gardens – San Francisco Chronicle

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On a recent weekday in Oakland, only a few hours before the Temescal neighborhoods post-work crowd found its way to Arthur Macs Tap & Snack, Walter Pizarro, 36, and his wife, Regina Chagolla, 31, sat down at a picnic table in the shops beer garden.

It isnt the kind of place we look for, but its convenient, said Chagolla, who admitted that she and her husband prefer the cozy confines of dive bars. You kind of see these places popping up everywhere.

Fueled by a confluence of economical and cultural factors, beer gardens are multiplying across Oakland at a dizzying rate, outpacing most other Bay Area cities. Its a trend mirrored in Oaklands rise of craft brewers; of the 15 active small beer manufacturer licenses in the city, all but two have been issued since 2014. Over a dozen beer gardens now call the city home, all of which have opened since 2010; however, that number has doubled in the last 18 months alone and there are more on the way.

In particular, Temescal has become a hub. Temescal Brewing, around the corner from Arthur Macs, opened in 2016, and Roses Taproom, just opened last weekend, is a few blocks north. More beer gardens are coming, including a controversial proposal from Golden Road, which is owned by Anheuser Busch InBev, the worlds largest beer corporation. It, too, is in Temescal.

American beer gardens can be traced back to Germanys biergartens, which themselves were born of necessity. In the 16th century, when breweries were banned from making beer during the summer, brewers built cellars in cool areas, often close to riverbanks, to store their wares for consumption between May and September. To cool the spaces even more, breweries planted trees and covered the cellars with gravel. Tables and chairs soon followed, as did the crowds.

Just like those early German pioneers, the Bay Areas modern beer gardens seem to have tapped into a thirsty audience.

Its a trend that isnt new to the Bay Area. Back in 2011, Biergarten in San Franciscos Hayes Valley was considered a pioneer in aesthetics for its use of shipping containers. Zeitgeist has long been a San Francisco destination, and like Biergarten, still draws crowds on sunny days.

In the Bay Area, where dinner and drinks for two at a mid-level restaurant regularly exceed $100, beer gardens have become a cheaper, family-friendly alternative. Arthur Macs menu, for example, is built around $4 pizza slices and $7 beers.

The appeal goes beyond value for consumers, according to Joel DiGiorgio, the owner of Arthur Macs who also had a hand in the opening of Drakes Dealership in Oakland and Westbrae Biergarten in Berkeley. He pointed out that many young people are struggling to find real estate thats relatively affordable and spacious enough, especially for a growing family.

On any given afternoon, the crowd at many Oakland beer gardens has a smattering of young children with their parents, baby strollers parked next to pints. For consumers, beer gardens have become a replacement for dining rooms and backyards, DiGiorgio said. They no longer have that space they may have had generations ago.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

A pedestrian passes by on MacArthur Boulevard as people sit in the sun at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden.

A pedestrian passes by on MacArthur Boulevard as people sit in the sun at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden.

A napkin box sits on a picnic table at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland.

A napkin box sits on a picnic table at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland.

People sit in the sun at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland on June 24, 2017.

People sit in the sun at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland on June 24, 2017.

A dog sits in the sun between tables at Arthur Macs. The Temescal area has become home to several of Oaklands growing number of beer gardens, raising questions over gentrification.

A dog sits in the sun between tables at Arthur Macs. The Temescal area has become home to several of Oaklands growing number of beer gardens, raising questions over gentrification.

Taps Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland.

Taps Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland.

A beer sits in the counter above a daily pizza on display at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack.

A beer sits in the counter above a daily pizza on display at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack.

Children play in a sandbox as parents socialize at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack in Oakland.

Children play in a sandbox as parents socialize at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack in Oakland.

Jing Yu, right, chats with her friend Sarah Kleinman over drinks at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland.

Jing Yu, right, chats with her friend Sarah Kleinman over drinks at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland.

Grace and Rob McGuinness of Oakland sip their beers at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden.

Grace and Rob McGuinness of Oakland sip their beers at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden.

Sever Henna Papineau delivers slices of pizza to Suz Sillett, left, and Tamara Ooms at Arthur Mac's in Oakland.

Sever Henna Papineau delivers slices of pizza to Suz Sillett, left, and Tamara Ooms at Arthur Mac's in Oakland.

Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland.

Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack beer garden in Oakland.

People sit in the sun at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack.

People sit in the sun at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack.

Oakland overflowing with beer gardens

For business owners, Oaklands beer garden market is not yet viewed as saturated, a fact that continues to spur the rapid transformation of the citys bar scene. Craft beer is popular right now, and beer gardens have become a logical, cost-efficient move for many entrepreneurs hopping on the trend.

Our initial thinking was pretty basic, and I imagine not too uncommon: rent and construction costs are crazy high, and were going to spend all our cash on installing a production brewery, said Sam Gilbert, founder of Temescal Brewing, which opened last year. So why not turn the parking lot into pleasant place to hang out, and let good weather and good beer do the rest?

On the corner lot next to Gilberts brewery is a Churchs Chicken. On the opposite side toward 41st Street is Harmony Missionary Baptist Church. The beer garden property is surrounded by fencing and stocked with tables, umbrellas, cinder blocks and plants or as Gilbert describes it, DIY-able stuff. Temescal Brewings construction was driven by local labor, a Kickstarter campaign and the contributions of a few artists.

That never would have been possible working on an interior space of the same size, Gilbert said.

Up the road, Roses Taproom also reaped the benefits of a crowdfunding campaign. Its a relatively small operation a small, seven-barrel brewhouse capable of producing about 215 gallons per batch twice a week but the outdoor drinking space follows a similar design scheme of other setups with wooden benches and plants.

The most common refrain among bar owners is a simple one: With lower costs, beer gardens are better suited for a tumultuous industry, despite being subject to the whims of weather.

Server Mana Shimamura and general manager Nathan Guarrasi joke around as they pour beers for customers at Arthur Mac's Tap and Snack.

Server Mana Shimamura and general manager Nathan Guarrasi joke...

Oakland is cheaper. Licenses are cheaper, rent is cheaper and labor is cheaper, said Thad Vogler, owner of Bar Agricole and Trou Normand, two cocktail bars in San Francisco, where a Type 47 liquor license, which allows for the sale of hard liquor, can cost upward of $300,000. Meanwhile, a Type 41 beer and wine license in Oakland can cost $3,000 to $5,000.

Its difficult separating the idea of gentrification from the beer garden movement. The craft beer industry itself is overwhelmingly white, especially in the Bay Area. And neighborhoods like Temescal are still home to Eritrean, Latin American and Korean restaurants, not to mention the minority-run doughnut-wielding corner stores.

We all have to be aware of it, and we have to make sure we do what we can to keep people from being displaced, said DiGiorgio, an Oakland native whose father lives a mile or so from Arthur Macs. Gentrification became a nasty word when displacement became a component of it. At its core its just taking an area of lower income and bringing it and everyone there up to where its middle income. Thats a good thing.

From 5 p.m. until around 10 p.m., bike racks outside of Arthur Macs and Temescal Brewing slowly fill to capacity, suggesting a significant customer base from the local community. The workforce at many beer gardens is overwhelmingly composed of Oaklanders; three-quarters of the staff at Arthur Macs, for example, live in the neighborhood. Most walk to work.

Its much easier to staff in Oakland as more and more restaurant workers are settling there, Vogler said.

Trends rarely come with a clear indicator of their shelf life, but when it comes to beer gardens, several proprietors admitted they can see the boom lasting a few more years, especially in the East Bay.

On a recent Saturday at Temescal Brewing, a group of 20- and 30-year-olds, clad in T-shirts, sunglasses and skinny jeans, sipped craft beers while posting pictures on Instagram with captions waxing poetic about the weekends paradisaical weather. Its a familiar scene scattered across neighborhoods from Broadway in Uptown to the warehouses of West Oakland, with no signs of slowing down at least for now.

Theres certainly some novelty to the idea, Gilbert said, before adding a final thought: Chances are pretty high that the 101st Bay Area beer garden will jump the shark and folks will get bored.

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips

Prominent Oakland Beer Gardens

Beer Revolution: 464 Third St. (Opened 2010)

Telegraph: 2318 Telegraph Ave (2012)

Brotzeit Lokal:1000 Embarcadero (2013)

Lost & Found: 2040 Telegraph Ave. (2014)

Classic Cars West: 411 26th St. (2015)

Drake's Dealership: 2325 Broadway (2015)

Temescal Brewing: 4115 Telegraph Ave. (2016)

Stay Gold: 2635 San Pablo Ave. (2016)

7th Street Cafe: 1612 Seventh St. (2016)

Degrees Plato: 4251 MacArthur Blvd. (2017)

Arthur Macs: 4006 M.L.K. Jr Way (2017)

Old Kan Beer Co.: 95 Linden St. (2017)

Roses Taproom: 4930 Telegraph Ave. (2017)

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Oakland overflowing with beer gardens - San Francisco Chronicle

Russia’s future looks bleak without economic and political reform – The Guardian

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Petrorubles If the world continues to move toward a low-carbon future, Russia will confront an inevitable choice, with or without western sanctions. Photograph: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

When the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, meets his US counterpart, Donald Trump, at this weeks G20 summit in Hamburg, he will not be doing so from a position of economic strength. To be sure, despite the steep drop in oil prices that began three years ago, Russia has managed to escape a deep financial crisis. But while the economy is enjoying a modest rebound after two years of deep recession, the future no longer seems as promising as its leadership thought just five years ago. Barring serious economic and political reform, that bodes ill for Putins ability to realise his strategic ambitions for Russia.

Back in 2012, when Putin appeared onstage with the Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman at a Moscow bank conference, Russias 1998 economic crisis seemed a distant memory. With oil prices well over $100 a barrel, the governments coffers were bursting. So Putin could proudly contrast Russias government budget surplus with the large recession-driven deficits across the west. He surely delighted in having Russian audiences hear Krugmans view that western democracies had come up badly short in handling the global financial crisis.

In a different session, Russian academic economist Sergei Guriev (who later had to flee the country) argued there was no hope for diversification of Russias resource-based economy as long as institutions such as courts were so weak. Too many key decisions rested with one man. Speaking in the same session, I emphasised that without fundamental reforms, a sharp drop in global energy prices would create profound problems.

Inevitably, that drop came, with prices plummeting from $119 in February 2012 (for Brent crude oil in Europe) to $27 in 2016. Even the current level (under $50 in early July 2017), is less than half the 2011-2012 peak. For a country that depends on oil and natural gas for the lions share of export revenue, the price collapse has been a massive blow rippling through the economy.

The fact Russia has avoided a financial crisis is remarkable and largely due to the efforts of the Central Bank of Russia. Indeed, Elvira Nabiullina, the CBRs governor, has twice won international central banker of the year awards.

But the burden of adjustment has largely fallen on consumers, owing to a roughly 50% drop in the rubles value relative to the dollar; real wages and consumption both fell sharply. As one Russian put it to me, he used to take 1,000 rubles to the supermarket and come home with two bags; now he comes home with one.

The shock to the real economy has been severe, with Russia suffering a decline in output in 2015 and 2016 comparable to what the United States experienced during its 2008-2009 financial crisis, with the contraction in GDP totalling about 4%. Many firms went bankrupt, and in 2016 the International Monetary Fund estimated that almost 10% of all bank loans were non-performing (a figure that surely understates the severity of the situation).

In many cases, banks chose to re-lend funds rather than take losses on to their books or force politically connected firms into bankruptcy. At the same time, though, the CBR moved aggressively to force smaller banks to raise capital and write down bad loans (something European policymakers have taken forever to do). And, in the face of intense lobbying by powerful oligarchs, the CBR kept interest rates up to tame inflation, which had reached more than 15% but has since fallen to close to 4%.

Of course, western sanctions particularly restrictions on banks have exacerbated the situation. But the media tend to over-emphasise this aspect of Russias economic woes. All countries that rely heavily on energy exports have suffered, especially those, like Russia, that have failed to diversify their economies.

In a western democracy, an economic collapse on the scale experienced by Russia would have been extremely difficult to digest politically, as the global surge in populism demonstrates. Yet Putin has been able to remain firmly in control and, in all likelihood, will easily be able to engineer another landslide victory in the presidential election due in March 2018.

Russias state-owned media juggernaut has been able to turn western sanctions into a scapegoat for the governments own failures, and to whip up support for foreign adventurism including the seizure of the Crimea, military intervention in Syria, and meddling in US elections. Most Russians, constantly manipulated by their countrys schools and media, are convinced that conditions are much worse in the west (a hyperbolic claim even in the era of fake news).

Unfortunately, such disinformation is hardly a recipe for generating reform. And, without reform, there is little reason to be optimistic about Russias long-run growth trend, given its poor demographic profile, weak institutions and abject failure to diversify its economy, despite having an enormously talented and creative population.

Where will future growth come from? If the world continues to move toward a low-carbon future, Russia will confront an inevitable choice: launch economic and political reforms or face continuing marginalisation, with or without western sanctions. No meeting between the US and Russian presidents can change that reality.

Kenneth Rogoff is professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University and recipient of the 2011 Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics.

Project Syndicate

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Russia's future looks bleak without economic and political reform - The Guardian

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

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REDDING, Calif.

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 that Johnson says surprises people he meets on his travels around America and abroad.

When people see youre from California, they instantly think of Baywatch,' said Johnson, the associate pastor of Bethel Redding, a megachurch in this small city a 3 1/2-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 Donald Trump in November and that make up more than a fifth of the states land mass but only 3 percent 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 percentage of whites has fallen to 38 percent.

Californias Great Red North is the opposite, a rural, mountainous vast tract of pine forests with a political ethos that bears more of a 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 that 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, said James Gallagher, a state assemblyman for the 3rd 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 said, 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 said. You cant move an 80,000-pound load in an electric truck.

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

Taxation and hunting are two issues northerners are quick to seize upon when criticizing 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 percent. In the far north, where many timber mills have shut down in recent years, unemployment is as high as 6 percent in Shasta County and 16.2 percent 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 percent take part in Medi-Cal, the California Medicaid program, while the Bay Area rate is 19 percent, and Californias overall figure 28 percent.

U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican representing Northern Californias 1st 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 revenues from the far north are a fraction of what urban areas contribute. In 2014, the 13 northern counties had a combined state income tax assessment of $1 billion, compared with $4 billion 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 former 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 channeled 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, with each state Assembly member representing 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 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 if they are being governed by an urbanized elite.

I wake up in the morning and think, What is California going to do to me today?'' said 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 said. 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 said.

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, said Gallagher, the assemblyman.

Northern Californians point out that the U.S. 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, said 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 said. He has a half-serious counterproposal: Lets introduce some wolves into Golden Gate Park and the Santa Monica Pier.

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

Opinion: Why Putin can’t make Russia great again – MarketWatch

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Vladimir Putin will meet with Donald Trump on Friday.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Project Syndicate) When Russian President Vladimir Putin meets his American counterpart, Donald Trump, at this weeks G-20 summit in Hamburg, he will not be doing so from a position of economic strength.

To be sure, despite the steep drop in oil prices CLQ7, +1.13% that began three years ago, Russia has managed to escape a deep financial crisis. But while the economy is enjoying a modest rebound after two years of deep recession, the future no longer seems as promising as its leadership thought just five years ago.

Barring serious economic and political reform, that bodes ill for Putins ability to realize his strategic ambitions for Russia.

Back in 2012, when Putin appeared onstage with the Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman at a Moscow bank conference, Russias 1998 economic crisis seemed a distant memory. With oil prices well over $100 a barrel, the governments coffers were bursting. So Putin could proudly contrast Russias government budget surplus with the large recession-driven deficits across the West. He surely delighted in having Russian audiences hear Krugmans view that Western democracies had come up badly short in handling the global financial crisis.

In a different session, Russian academic economist Sergei Guriev (who later had to flee the country) argued that there was no hope for diversification of Russias resource-based economy as long as institutions such as courts were so weak. Too many key decisions rested with one man. Speaking in the same session, I emphasized that without fundamental reforms, a sharp drop in global energy prices would create profound problems.

Inevitably, that drop came, with prices plummeting from $119 in February 2012 (for Brent crude oil in Europe) to $27 in 2016. Even the current level LCOU7, -2.56% (under $50 in early July 2017), is less than half the 2011-2012 peak. For a country that depends on oil and natural gas for the lions share of export revenue, the price collapse has been a massive blow, rippling through the economy.

The fact that Russia has avoided a financial crisis is remarkable and largely due to the efforts of the Central Bank of Russia. Indeed, Elvira Nabiullina, the CBRs governor, has twice won international central banker of the year awards.

But the burden of adjustment has largely fallen on consumers, owing to a roughly 50% drop in the rubles value relative to the dollar USDRUB, -0.0002% ; real wages and consumption both fell sharply. As one Russian put it to me, he used to take 1,000 rubles to the supermarket and come home with two bags; now he comes home with one.

The shock to the real economy has been severe, with Russia suffering a decline in output in 2015 and 2016 comparable to what the United States experienced during its 2008-2009 financial crisis, with the contraction in gross domestic product totaling about 4%. Many firms went bankrupt, and in 2016 the International Monetary Fund estimated that almost 10% of all bank loans were non-performing (a figure that surely understates the severity of the situation).

In many cases, banks chose to relend funds rather than take losses onto their books or force politically connected firms into bankruptcy. At the same time, though, the CBR moved aggressively to force smaller banks to raise capital and write down bad loans (something European policy makers have taken forever to do). And, in the face of intense lobbying by powerful oligarchs, the CBR kept interest rates up to tame inflation, which had reached more than 15% but has since fallen to close to 4%.

Of course, Western sanctions, particularly restrictions on banks, have exacerbated the situation. But the media tend to overemphasize this aspect of Russias economic woes. All countries that rely heavily on energy exports have suffered, especially those, like Russia, that have failed to diversify their economies.

In a Western democracy, an economic collapse on the scale experienced by Russia would have been extremely difficult to digest politically, as the global surge in populism demonstrates. Yet Putin has been able to remain firmly in control and, in all likelihood, will easily be able to engineer another landslide victory in the presidential election due in March 2018.

Russias state-owned media juggernaut has been able to turn Western sanctions into a scapegoat for the governments own failures, and to whip up support for foreign adventurism including the seizure of the Crimea, military intervention in Syria, and meddling in U.S. elections. Most Russians, constantly manipulated by their countrys schools and media, are convinced that conditions are much worse in the West (a hyperbolic claim even in the era of fake news).

Unfortunately, such disinformation is hardly a recipe for generating reform. And, without reform, there is little reason to be optimistic about Russias long-run growth trend, given its poor demographic profile, weak institutions, and abject failure to diversify its economy, despite having an enormously talented and creative population.

Where will future growth come from? If the world continues to move toward a low-carbon future, Russia will confront an inevitable choice: launch economic and political reforms, or face continuing marginalization, with or without Western sanctions. No meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents can change that reality.

This article has been published with the permission of Project Syndicate Shaking Russias Weak Economic Hand.

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Opinion: Why Putin can't make Russia great again - MarketWatch

Trod the salt of the earth in Netarts Bay – Oregon Coast Today

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Walk along the salt marsh of Netarts Bay while learning about how plants survive in a salty world noon- 4 pm Sunday, July 16.

Join Friends of Netarts Bay Watershed, Estuary, Beach, and Sea (WEBS) for a free guided tour along the salt marsh at the southern end of Netarts Bay. Learn about the plants and animals that live in this unique habitat and the importance of this environment from the forest to the waters edge. Learn about how plants survive in a salty world and explore the succession of vegetation from the bay to the dunes.

The tour includes an easy to moderate walk through muddy areas and trails covered by brush. It is best suited for participates 12 years and older comfortable with walking in these environments. Participants should wear long pants and closed-toe shoes for this adventure.

This event is 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 nonprofit 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.

If you go:

When: July 16, 2017 from 12pm to 4pm

Where: Netarts Bay area. Register for details.

Cost: There is no cost to attend this program. Tax-exempt donations

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Trod the salt of the earth in Netarts Bay - Oregon Coast Today

Why the future of this world is reserved for the UAE – The National

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Abdullah Ali Ameri, 14, programs a robot at the Higher Colleges of Technology Men's College in Abu Dhabi designed to encourage more youngsters into a career in the sciences. Silvia Razgova / The National

The UAE will never accept being just an observer to development, especially in the fields of science and technology. The country meticulously plans and maps its way.

The UAE is fully aware that to ensure a leading position in the world, it should be more creative, innovative and productive. Such achievements do not come out of the blue, but instead are a result of planning, determination, ambition and willpower, in addition to having highly qualified human capital equipped with skills and capabilities to compete in the field of progress.

When Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, launched the National Innovation Strategy in October 2014 and declared 2015 to be the Year of Innovation, he reflected on the correlation between innovation and the future and existence itself, which characterises the insightful vision of our wise leadership.

Within this context, the National Innovation Strategy has been launched in order to ensure that the UAE ranks among the most innovative countries of the world in the coming years. Hence, a comprehensive strategy in an institutional framework has been adopted to ensure the implementation and the achievement of the countrys goals. Such endeavours are an integral part of UAE Vision 2021.

Innovation and creativity can never be achieved without providing an excellent and modern education system, establishing adequate infrastructure and institutions, encouraging all social sectors to contribute to innovative efforts and promoting creative people and fostering their ideas and skills.

This also requires the transformation of the prevailing national culture. Accordingly, the UAE has taken major steps to improve education, promote scientific research and prioritise innovation at all national institutions.

It is believed that the promotion of education will make it possible to celebrate the moment that the last barrel of oil is exported in 50 years time, as stated by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, in a speech he delivered in 2015.

Innovation is the main source of wealth and income in the age of a knowledge-based, rather than a resource-based, economy. A country that possesses creative ideas and is capable of transforming them into reality will retain wealth, strength and influence over its surrounding area and the worldregardless of its size, demography or geography.

Secondly, innovation has no limits. It is actually an endless line stretching towards the horizon. Some countries have made great steps ahead of us along this pathway, yet there is always enough space for those who possess the will to excel and adopt the means to reach the predefined goalbecause progress is not an exclusive preserve of a certain state or a group of states, but is available to whoever conscientiously and knowledgeably works and plans for it.

Thirdly, innovation is not a luxury, but rather it is the backbone of life, and those who are not engaged in the innovation process in the coming years will condemn themselves to obsolescence in the margins of history.

In February 2014, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said that countries are faced with a simple choice: either to innovate, or become irrelevant, adding that 65 per cent of children in primary school will grow up to work in jobs that do not exist today and 47 per cent of job categories are at high risk of ceasing to exist because they can be automated.

The world has already gone through three industrial revolutions. The first was based on the invention of the steam engine in the 18thcentury. The second, which began in the late 19thcentury and continued until the First World War, was related to the development of electricity and manufacturingand the third, which began in the late 20thcentury, was triggered by information technology and computerisation. Nowadays, the world is heading towards the fourth industrial revolution, revolving around artificial intelligence and all the related advancements in the field of robotics, 3D printing and the likes.

The UAE seeks, through its ambitious innovation strategies, to lead the region in the preparation phase to enter this fourth industrial revolution, which is likely to witness major shifts. In this context, during proceedings at Global Future Councilsin November 2016 in Dubai, the UAE declared that the country was about to establish the worlds first council for the fourth industrial revolution. This reflects the leading role the country plays in this regard, as well as the countrys readiness to embrace the new global technological and scientific developments, relying on tangible actions, plans and self-esteemrather than empty slogans.

Many in the Arab world talk about the importance of knowledge and Arab underdevelopment in the field of technology, discussing the reasons behind such a situation and even suggesting solutions for emancipation from the shackles of this abject condition. Few, however, translate words into actions.

In this regard, the region can extract lessons from the UAE, which is strongly committed to fully engaging in the field of innovation and creativity as a source of inspiration for Arab countries.

Many underdeveloped countries have moved up the progress ladder thanks to the special attention accorded to science and knowledge, while Arabs lagged behind because of their neglectof knowledge and scientific research. Now, it is high time Arabs realised that the future path, status and even the existence of their nations essentially depends on science, innovation and creativity, rather than relapsing into the past and identifying with delusional plans propagated by forces of political Islam. The future of the world is exclusively reserved for creative nations.

Dr Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi is the director general of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research

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Why the future of this world is reserved for the UAE - The National

Minister backs proposal to list MTN in NSE – Tribune – NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (press release) (blog)

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THE Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has said that the proposal to list the telecommunication giant, MTN in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) will foster good business for MTN Nigeria and boost the nations economy.

Ogbonnaya said this, when the delegation from MTN Nigeria communications limited paid a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja.

He said that MTN Nigeria, with 62 million subscribers had played a dominant role in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria and had contributed to her economy.

He said that most developed countries came to source for raw materials in Africa, pointing out that, as at today, 80 per cent of developed countries relied on African raw materials and it would be important for Africa to develop the appropriate technology and utilise it for her common good.

Dr Onu reiterated that the ministry was committed in working to redirect the Nigerian economy from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.

He added that Nigeria should be the leading market because of the population it has and that MTN should tap into the huge human capital that Nigeria was endowed with.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation, who is the Deputy Head Mergers Acquisition, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, Mr Kholekile Ndamese, informed the minister that MTN was listing the company in the Nigerian capital market, which is one of the largest markets in the continent.

He said the listing would showcase Nigeria in the global spotlight, and MTN group had structured the listing as a give-back project for its teeming customers in Nigeria, which was broad-based and inclusive in nature.

Confront and defeat corruption, dont balkanise Nigeria

Fashola/Senate rancour: Experts say tension may lead to project failure

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Minister backs proposal to list MTN in NSE - Tribune - NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (press release) (blog)

Where to start with automation tools in HR – HR Dive

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When it comes to internal service management, the key to a fast and seamless process lies with automation tools. By tradition, IT departments have tended to be the pioneers, using new technology to create tickets and filter employee service requests through automated systems that lead to quickly resolved issues. As IT teams have evolved from primarily handling break-fix tickets to implementing service catalogs that facilitate a wide range of services, the push for internal automation is amplifying throughout the entire organization.

The modern customer support experience within consumer-facing markets has also become increasingly immediate and comprehensive across a number of communication platforms. These shifts have put increased pressure on organizations to treat employees like customers. And what department has the most employee interaction? Thats right, HR.

Be it managing requests for medical plans or approved time off, its not uncommon for HR departments to require several days before responding. With expectations for on-demand everything, its important for HR departments to keep up with employees service requests. Using automation tools, HR processes can be simplified to ease the burden on HR practitioners and improve turnaround times on approvals and services, ensuring employee needs are met quickly and efficiently.

Many departments track service requests manually through spreadsheets and emails, or using a basic ticket management system. HR departments should consider implementing a service catalog that enables automation of processes, for seamless onboarding and request management throughout the company. Aside from IT teams, human resource departments bear the brunt of service requests that filter through organizations. This makes automation even more vital to providing efficiency in service management.

Service requests are constantly evolving, and their nature shifts with every little change in an organization. Whether it's a request to IT for a device or software for a new hire, a list of documents that need to be signed as a part of onboarding or a 401k enrollment request, HR leaders face a growing list of demands that require timely attention.

Automation is great for workflows that require a high number of approvals and steps. For example, onboarding a new employee, no matter the company, involves several steps from a wide range of departments. These steps include setting up the new hire with payroll by accounting, getting the right devices and software installments to the new employee from IT and everything in between.

HR leaders facilitate the onboarding process, and it can be grueling to manage each aspect of these services, especially given that HR should be modeling business processes and tracking all activities in a way that ensures accuracy and compliance. By automating onboarding procedures, human resources teams can ensure each step of the process is completed and approved.

There are a range of cloud-based service platforms out there that significantly simplify different business operations be it by outsourcing tasks or subscribing to tailored services. As companies increasingly adopt cloud solutions, automation tools are very valuable in enabling speed and scalability. Its up to the HR department to decide if it wants to start small or go big. For example, perhaps moving training to a cloud service makes more sense to start off with, rather than beginning with the entire salary system. Automation is an incremental process and the cloud can be a critical part of that equation.

Rather than deploying HR-specific automation tools, universal solutions can help streamline processes between employees and management, but also between departments. Through a single service portal dashboard, employees can request flights and travel, order a new ID card, submit time-off requests and more. With the proper tools in place, employees can create their own direct service requests, cutting down the workflow time and eliminating the middlemen. Top solutions can streamline service management, keeping requests for IT, HR and other departments in a central location.

Automating HR service delivery via a service catalog can help to ensure that HR activities are modeling business processes. A service catalog describes not only each service and its attributes, but its objectives. This intelligence can help to ensure that the services offered are closely aligned with critical business strategies, and can contribute to the achievement of key corporate goals. Once the service catalog has been set up to ensure business processes are being modeled and compliance needs are met, automation can be introduced to make service delivery easier.

Collaboration cant begin until there is a strong understanding of processes and operations across departments. From there, organizations can create a tailored solution that seamlessly integrates from department to department, as well as employee to employee.

Through a better understanding of how requests and services are managed throughout a business, leaders can set up tools that are tailored to fit the companys unique needs. For human resources, automation is the next step, following the standards set by todays IT departments. Offering employees a consistent and easy method for submitting service requests, and then fulfilling those requests efficiently, will put businesses ahead of competition by maintaining a workplace where employees are happier and are provided the resources they need to do their best work.

Editor's Note: This is a guest contribution from Steve Stover, VP of Product at Samanage

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Where to start with automation tools in HR - HR Dive

Opinion: Two-thirds of jobs in this city could be automated by 2035 – MarketWatch

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We are walking down the strip in Las Vegas in the year 2035.

The lights are glaringly flashing, music is pounding your ears, the usual nine Elvis look-alikes try to pose with you for a few dollars. A few robots are crisscrossing between the legs of passersby, offering ticket services, information and to be their guide. Self-driving vehicles bring gamblers from casino to casino. A robot group performs a break dance, and you can compete against Robo-MJ in basketball.

Vegas is still Vegas, so nothing has really changed. Or has it?

Maybe it wont be visible to the eye, but robots may have taken the place where people currently toil to keep the Vegas machine humming. About 65% of all jobs in Vegas are susceptible to automation by 2035 a bigger share than in any other part of the country. Across the U.S., 55% (or more) of jobs in almost all metropolitan areas face this same scenario.

Who will be at risk? How many jobs will be lost by then? And what will life look like?

Scientists are heatedly debating whether robots and artificial intelligence (AI) will appear as colossally in our lives as some studies predict. Will we really see mass adoption of robots and AI gadgets?

The reality is both technologies already have seen mass adoption and it is foolish not to expect it to accelerate. Every smartphone already is essentially an AI device, and 1.5 billion of those were shipped in 2016. Some 1.6 million industrial robots operated worldwide in 2015, a total thats expected to increase to 2.6 million by 2019.

Research shows that if all these 1 million additional robots worldwide are merely as productive as those that already exist, each robot would on average replace the work done by 5.7 U.S. workers, or 5.7 million workers in all.

More worrisome is that if robot adoption continued to grow at the same pace beyond 2019, about 18 million industrial robots would be installed worldwide in 2035 and would perform the work equivalent to about 100 million U.S. workers. Put another way, this robotic workforce would be capable of producing the equivalent of the current manufacturing output on the entire planet.

Then there is the robotic invasion of the service sector, where most Americans work. Machines have already displaced service workers over the last few decades (think ATMs and self-checkout stations in grocery stores), but added intelligence allows machines now to take on tasks from room cleaning to radiology.

How quickly this transition can happen can most easily be seen in household services, where robots can substitute for hired services. In 2015, 3.7 million household robots were sold worldwide and that is expected to jump to almost 31 million annually by 2019. At growth rates after 2019 similar to those we currently see in industrial robots, we can expect annual sales of about 220 million units in 2035.

Right now, these robots mow lawns and clean carpets. They serve food and mix drinks in bars; by 2019 they will perform X-ray analysis with higher accuracy than the average radiologist can provide.

What could they be doing by 2035? Almost everything routine, including highly paid tasks such as routine surgery, regional economic analysis, and flying commercial airplanes.

So the key to understanding what may happen to Vegas and the rest of the U.S. service sector is that the recent advances in robotics and AI make those technologies continuously more affordable. Additionally, hardware in many AI applications is less costly than entire robots. Self-driving cars and trucks dont need much more than added intelligence, and similarly for vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers.

More than 90% of U.S. workers are in a service job, ranging from cashiers to surgeons. Given the expected high speed of this transformation, it will be a gigantic challenge for the economy to create additional or entirely new jobs at the same pace as robots can replace existing jobs.

What will Vegas look like when you drive down the Strip in 2035? Most of the automatable jobs wont be in the streets, but in restaurants, offices and retail stores. Some 54% of all automatable jobs in Vegas belong to food preparation and serving, office and sales occupations. Where the robots will really make a difference is mostly in jobs at the lower end of the pay scale. But thats not going to last.

However, not all jobs that can be automated will be automated. It is hard to imagine a high-end jewelry store or designer boutique without sales clerks or a gourmet restaurant without waiters. However, not only will their back offices be staffed more thinly but their sales strategies will likely also change. Foot and even full-body scanners are already available to find the perfect size for shoes and clothes, which can speed up the sales process. And why not have them made to order right on the spot from a machine? Point of sales and point-of-use production are just around the corner.

Whether we all will be able to benefit from this brave new world will depend on our ability to bring education and lifelong learning specifically to those at the highest risk of automation. Those with less than a high-school diploma face a six times higher risk losing their job to a robot than those with a doctorate, such as a Ph.D. or MD.

Given the uneven distribution of education and jobs across racial and ethnic groups, hispanics are 25% and African-Americans 13% more at risk to lose their job to automation than whites. Twice as many women than men work in occupations that are at an especially high risk of automation, such as tellers and cashiers.

Our political leaders are remarkably silent about this issue, despite its explosive potential for the labor market and beyond. By comparison, the historical effects of trade policies are mere ripples on the water. It is hard to imagine a scenario in which the U.S. can scale education and job creation as quickly as international competition for the robotics market can scale the production of robots and AI devices.

And this prospect sends cold shivers down our spines.

Jess Chen is a research fellow at the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis at the University of Redlands and leads the Institutes research efforts on the effect of automation in the workplace. Johannes Moenius is a professor of global business and the director of the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis at the University of Redlands. He holds the William R. and S. Sue Johnson Chair of Spatial Economic Analysis and Regional Planning.

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Opinion: Two-thirds of jobs in this city could be automated by 2035 - MarketWatch

Finding the Fit for Automation – Automation World

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Guitar manufacturing is an industry known for its intricate, hand-made production processes. But even in such industries, automation is increasingly playing a role for a number of reasonsfrom alleviating workers ergonomic issues to improving quality and aiding materials inspection.

I was recently invited by Tyler Robertson, robotics engineer at Taylor Guitars in El Cajon, Calif., to see how automation is increasingly being used within the companys handwork-intensive production operations. He explained that, at the El Cajon facility, Taylor Guitars currently produces around 100 guitars a day. At the companys Tecate, Mexico, facility, some 600 guitars are produced each day[TR1].

Robertson came to Taylor Guitars a little over two years ago based on his experience as an application engineer experienced in robotics programming and robot software integration at In-House Solutions in Canada. Before working at Taylor Guitars, Robertson developed custom robot programs for complex processes in the plastics, aerospace and fabrication industries. He developed expertise in these industries working with robot end users, integrators and OEMs for job shop welding, laser and water jet cutting, and robotic machining, finishing and drilling applications.

Robertson was keen to discuss how Taylor Guitars has been using automation technologies for well over a decade now and how he is being challenged to expand the use of automation at the company to further improve the production processes and quality of Taylor Guitars already world-renowned products.

The Wood My tour of Taylor Guitars production operations started as you might expectin the wood receiving area. Common wood types used by Taylor Guitars include ebony, mahogany, rosewood, cedar and spruce. All inspections of the wood before processing are performed by hand because of fluctuations in materials.

To automate this inspection process would be a nightmare, Robertson said, not only because of differences in the woods, but also the differences between and within in each batch of wood. Getting the lighting correct for robotic vision inspection of wood, due these differences, is very difficult and inefficient. Ive looked into x-ray, ultrasound and CT scanning methods, but these are either not well-developed for wood scanning or are very expensive and geared more toward the lumber industry.

Despite the difficulties in automating wood inspection, there are other steps in initial wood processing that could be more automated, Robertson said, as he pointed out multiple pallets of wood stacked nearly to the ceiling. We get 2,000 blocks of wood in each day for the manufacture of guitar necks and heads. These blocks of wood are stacked and inventoried by hand, he said.

When it comes to tasks like this, Robertson said workers at Taylor Guitar are very open to the idea of automation. In fact, while Robertson guided me through this portion of the tour, a manager in the department approached him with suggestions for automation.

As often as such automation discussions occur with workers around the company, Robertson noted that automation is still in its infancy here and he is the only full-time staff person focused on automation in addition to his work providing tech support for production. Theres lots of opportunity for automation here, he said. The challenge is prioritization and focus on the projects that can deliver the clearest benefits first.

Like most manufacturers today, Taylor Guitars faces what Robertson referred to as the ticking clock issue of increasing numbers of pending retirements. Taylor Guitar is known for having little turnover among its staff; and having been in operation since 1974, a wave of pending retirements loom for the company. This is troubling for Robertson in an environment where it is not simple to automate many of the tasks due to the high degree of material variances.

Beyond retirement issues, another example of the need for Robertsons investigation into automating the critical wood inspection and classification processes at Taylor Guitars is highlighted by the personal circumstances of a key Taylor employee in this department. Though this employee is not retiring any time soon, she is leaving the company because she is getting married and moving away.

Finding people who want to work at Taylor Guitars is not difficult, Robertson said, but finding experienced people is not easy and getting them up to speed on our processes takes time.

Describing one of the projects he is starting that involves automating the inspection of neck blanks and ebony fingerboards, Robertson pointed out that its not just the workforce timing issue he faces, but also the typical return on investment issues. While such challenges are common, Robertson noted that he has the benefit of what he called the Bob factor, as in Bob Taylor, the owner of Taylor Guitars. Bob may give the green light for a project based on his experience and ability to recognize the production benefits it would bring regardless of any projected return, Robertson said.

Tracking Guitars One aspect of automation that is a critical part of the production process at Taylor Guitars is the tracking of each guitar as it moves through production by means of an RFID chip placed on each guitar topwhich is among the first guitar components made in Taylor Guitars production process.

No information is stored on the RFID chip, Robertson said, but it creates a digital thread for us that allows each guitar to be tracked throughout production. If problems arise at any point, we can follow this digital thread to determine the source of the problem.

Highlighting an example of the effectiveness of the digital thread, Robertson described a time when the company was experiencing issues with guitar finishes. Using the digital thread created by tracking the RFID chip through production, they were able to trace the problem back to the sanding process.

Robertson added that having this digital thread in place also helps the company comply with environmental and regulatory requirements.

The Necks We then moved into the guitar neck milling area of the plant where several 20+-year-old Fadal CNC machines carve the necks out of wood blocks. Were starting to feel the pain with these older CNC machines as they age, Robertson said, noting that its not just maintenance issues, but data collection. I want to have a SCADA system hooked into these machines to help track and monitor resource management, he said.

Looking across racks of recently glued head stocks and necks in this area of the plant, Robertson explained there are a lots of process considerations when it comes to automating and/or speeding up guitar production. By this he meant that what may make sense to automate and move through quickly from a process point of view may not make sense for the materials. For example, we have to let the wood rest after gluing before moving it on to the next assembly step to make sure it reacts correctly.

Clarifying the importance of wood-working knowledge in Taylor Guitars business over automation technology knowledge, Robertson noted: I have a degree in systems engineering, but my boss is a cabinet maker.

This reality is underscored in the guitar body production department where Robertson pointed out that nothing in this department is a focus for automation. The only possible exception to this rule would be in bringing in a robot for some sanding applications to address worker ergonomics.

To alleviate ergonomic issues in this intensive hand-working area, Robertson said that workers here move around constantly to perform different duties. This part of the process could be done in an assembly line fashion, he said, but by moving workers around it avoids repetitive stress injuries and keeps workers interest high.

One area where automation technologies do play a part in this segment of the guitar production process is bending wood to form guitar sides. Robertson said that all of the companys side benders are made in house and use Automation Direct DirectLogic DL06 and DL105 PLCs and Groschopp dc gear motors.

The use of automation is key here because each type of wood has a different bending recipe, Robertson said. He explained that these recipes direct the application of different pressures and temperatures.

Robertson also pointed out the Epilog laser cutting system in this department that is used to cut wood used for the guitars internal bracinga key component of a guitars signature sound. Robertson created a touch screen for this machine to ease the brace-cutting process for workers. Previously, the workers had to look up and enter precise codes into the machine to cut bracing to correct specifications for the various types of guitars. The touch screen he created simplifies the selection process by allowing workers to tap an area of the screen identified by the guitar model for which they are creating the bracing. Once this selection has been made, the proper codes are automatically loaded and the worker only needs to place wood blanks into machine for laser cutting to specifications.

Pickups The three most automated parts of Taylor Guitars production processes are assembly of the piezo pickups, spraying of the polyurethane finishes on the guitars and buffing of the guitars finish.

Assembly of the companys ES2 piezo pickups begins with a vibratory feeder that feeds the pickups crystals onto a conveyor where a Cognex 7010 camera determines the polarity of crystals. These two-sided crystals have a silver (positive polarity) side and a bronze (negative polarity) side. Crystals fed onto the conveyor bronze side up are re-routed through the feeder so that they are all silver side up before being picked by an Epson G3 robot.

In total, three Cognex cameras are used in the pickup assembly process, Robertson saidone to determine polarity of each crystals exposed side via a color sensor camera, another to verify quality of the assembly process, i.e., correct placement of the three crystals into the pickups foil, and assessing final assembly of the pickup.

As the crystals are being selected for correct polarity, a worker puts foil down in the pickup molds. The paper backing on the pickup foil is peeled off and discarded by custom Taylor tooling, after which the Epson robot places insulation on the foil and then installs the printed circuit board (PCB). The first robot which picked the crystals off the conveyor then places the crystals into the slots on the pickup assembly. Once the crystals and PCB are in place, the assembly is folded and a second Epson G3 robot brings the assembly to a foil wrapping station.

Another important aspect of the pickup assembly process is the use of Keyence LR-T sensors to detect presence or absence of parts in pickup assembly.

Finishing The use of a robot to apply a urethane finish to the guitars electrostatically began in the early 2000s, Robertson said. The system for this spray robot application was designed in a joint project between Taylor Guitars and Pinnacle Technologies (a robotics system integrator firm). The system includes an ABB IRB 2400 robot and Rockwell Automation MicroLogix PLCs.

A consistent spray pattern is repeatedly achieved on the various guitars produced here by having the robot move the guitar parts under a stationary sprayer. Having a fixed sprayer and moving the guitars under it achieves a better finish, Robertson said, than by fixing the sprayer to a robot arm and having it move around the guitar part.

My rule of thumb, said Robertson, is if the tool is heavier than the part, its better to move the part than the tool.

Buffing Early this year, the company upgraded its robotic buffing system. Robertson noted that this was one of the first areas ever automated at Taylor Guitars because of the intense ergonomic issues involved in having workers position guitars against high-speed rotating buffers.

The previous buffing system handled 80-85 percent of the buffing process, with the new system handling 95-98 percent of the process. Final finishing, Robertson stressed, is still done by hand.

Like the robotic spraying system for guitar finish application, the robotic buffing system is another joint Taylor Guitars/Pinnacle project which uses an ABB IRB 4600 robot and Rockwell Automation CompactLogix PLCs and Kinetix drives. The Allen-Bradley motors, inverters and PLCs handle compensation of the buffing wheels, said Robertson, which is key to maintaining the correct pressure of the buffing wheels against the guitars.

The ABB robot programs in the buffing system were initially programmed via a root teach pendant. Robertson said he then refined these programs in MasterCam to fine-tune robot movements based on each guitars CAD models. It takes about a week to prove out the process for each guitar type, he said.

Balluff RFID readers in the buffing area are used for digital thread tracking. Though these RFID readers are only used for tracking now, Robertson said he plans to use them to trigger programs in the Allen-Bradley controls to initiate the proper buffing program for the associated guitar.

The robotic buffing system previously used by Taylor Guitar before this years upgrade has been re-purposed by ABB for use in the companys Tecate factory where buffing is still done by hand. This will be their introduction to using robots in the Tecate factory, Robertson said.

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Finding the Fit for Automation - Automation World

BankThink Message to branch staff: Don’t fear automation – American Banker

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I recently taught a graduate school banking class where, at its conclusion, a student said, I just want to thank you for not being an alarmist. But that comment puzzled me since most of my subject matter was about the rapid change in the industry.

In fact, in scores of speeches in recent years, I have worried that I might be putting off some folks with my preaching about the need to re-evaluate strategies and practices. My mantra to banker groups has been, Evolution does not mean elimination. Failing to evolve, however, guarantees elimination.

I inquired with the student why he thought I was not alarmist. He said he has felt immersed in doom-and-gloom talk about the banking industry. It seems like some people believe that the key to success in banking is to get rid of just about all of our branches and most of our bankers.

He added that he appreciated hearing a message about bankers continuing to be at the center of the industry that banking will still be about relationships and working with communities regardless of the technology banks are using.

His statement crystallized a thought in my mind. Much of the fear our teams experience amid the predictions of bankings future derives from not understanding how (or for that matter, if) they will be a part of that future.

There have been fervent predictions for years that branches and branch jobs would not be long for this world. Most have been wrong, but there have been modest reductions in both in recent years.

One thing to bear in mind is that a nontrivial portion of branch closures (by larger banks) are attributed not to banks trying to do more with less, but realizing that they need personnel and real estate to make a branch strategy work. These banks exited markets where they had a relatively small branch presence and therefore less ability to operate an effective network. It can be argued that many closures were actually acknowledgment of the need for robust branch networks.

Meanwhile, stories of increasing automation in other industries also contribute to the tensions felt by some of our branch managers and front-line bankers.

An example was McDonalds stock hitting an all-time high recently after announcing an aggressive rollout of automated ordering kiosks to replace many cashiers.

Shortly after that news, I was asked if the McDonalds story was more evidence that technology will replace front-line employees in most businesses, including banks. I suggested that it is definitely likely there will be fewer folks with the title of cashier. It is probable that McDonalds will need fewer total employees per restaurant to produce the output they provide now.

But I added this caveat: McDonalds kiosks will not be preparing the food, serving the food, keeping the restaurant clean or managing the teams. Kiosks will also not be resolving ordering mistakes or stepping out to assist a customer needing help. Kiosks will not be assisting with childrens birthday parties at McDonalds or chatting with the regular morning coffee crowds. Kiosks will not smile and thank customers.

What kiosks will do is turn over a few of the most basic tasks in a fast-food restaurant to customers. For easily understood and frequently repeated tasks, self-service technology may actually produce improved customer satisfaction.

Nevertheless, we will not be looking at employee-less operations in these restaurants. The business will still rely on competent teams of multitasking individuals in each store.

No, I do not believe that fast-food restaurants and bank branches are an apples-to-apples comparison. However, whether it is bank branches, restaurants, airport ticketing areas, Amazon-influenced grocery stores, or any number of businesses, talented and engaged employees will remain integral to their success.

I frequently suggest to managers of all levels that if they intend to lead their banks in the future, they need to lead their bankers into it. Our better employees are not as concerned about future staffing models needing fewer personnel as they are in knowing that there will be critical new or modified roles for them to fill.

Your best employees know and accept that evolution is inevitable. When you help them see that the future success of their bank will still rely on core groups of good people, they will be far more likely to remain engaged in building and fulfilling whatever new and improved business models you implement.

Dave Martin is a consultant specializing in retail banking strategies, including in-store branches. He is the founder of the retail bank performance company bankmechanics.

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BankThink Message to branch staff: Don't fear automation - American Banker

ISG to Host Inaugural ISG Automation Summit – PR Newswire – PR Newswire (press release)

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Drawing senior business and IT leaders, the ISG Automation Summit will take place July 10-11 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, the first of two ISG Automation Summit events scheduled this year. The second will take place in London, September 19-20.

The New York event will feature keynote speakers from BNY Mellon, TNG (formerly The News Group) and McKesson who will share their automation success stories. Other enterprise speakers include representatives from John Hancock, Bell Canada, AECOM, U.S. Bank and Ascension Ministry Services.

Automation experts from ISG will share lessons learned from advising a broad range of clients on robotic process automation (RPA) initiatives, revealing how to deliver on the promise of automation and avoid the pitfalls, including the importance of managing organizational change. ISG also will share valuable industry research and discuss the next wave in automation: cognitive computing.

Among automation software providers, IPsoft will be a featured speaker, and representatives with Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism and HCL also will speak at the event.

"Talk of automation and AI is everywhere today," said Mark Davison, ISG partner, Robotic Process Automation. "At this event, we will separate hype from reality and share practical, real-world experiences on how to successfully begin and continue your automation journey everything from deciding which processes to automate, to selecting the right business partners, to preparing your organization for change while looking ahead to the future of artificial intelligence and cognitive computing. This is a must-attend event for anyone interested in leveraging the power of automation to become more efficient and achieve their overarching business goals."

More details about the ISG Automation Summit in New York can be found at the event website.

About ISG ISG (Information Services Group) (NASDAQ: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including 75 of the top 100 enterprises in the world, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; technology strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 professionals operating in more than 20 countriesa global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry's most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit http://www.isg-one.com.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/isg-to-host-inaugural-isg-automation-summit-300483205.html

SOURCE Information Services Group, Inc.

http://www.isg-one.com

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ISG to Host Inaugural ISG Automation Summit - PR Newswire - PR Newswire (press release)

Flaggers, bridges, automation and jobs – Assembly Magazine

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During a recent road trip, I encountered two bridges under repair. Both bridges had only one lane open, necessitating a way to alternate the flow of traffic. At the first bridge, that task was handled by two flagmen, one on each end. At the second, traffic was controlled by a pair of portable, automatic gates.

I couldnt help but wonder which approach was better.

The first bridge would need at least six flagmen per day, assuming they work 8-hour shifts. What do you pay them? Its not a skilled job, but it is difficult. When I crossed the bridge, conditions were miserable. It was hot and humid. The men were wearing hard hats and jumpsuits. Their faces were covered by bandanas. The workers were exposed to dust, exhaust, UV rays, and noise from traffic, tractors and construction tools. Its a boring job, yet they must pay attention to what theyre doing. And, theres an element of risk. They could certainly be hit by an inattentive driver or a wayward steel beam. Still, you cant pay a flagman more than, say, a crane operator or welder.

Using automated traffic control gates would require an upfront capital investment. (The devices cost $15,000 to $30,000 per pair.) Presumably, that cost could be amortized over multiple construction projects, but even so, the initial outlay would be less than the annual salary of one flagman, much less six.

So which approach is better? Should we despair for the six people displaced by the automated gates? I think not. Who wakes up in the morning with a burning desire to breathe diesel fumes for eight hours and bake in the hot sun? Is the construction company inundated with flagman applicants? Whats to prevent those six displaced workers from becoming crane operators or welders?

Theres been a lot of talk lately about automation and manufacturing jobs. Much of it lacks nuance, if not understanding. The truth is, there are many ways to justify automationbetter quality, higher precision, greater throughput and improved safety, to name a few. Its not simply about lowering labor costs or eliminating jobs.

I once visited an assembly line that makes small, brushed DC motors. For optimum performance, the rotors are balanced, just like the wheels of a car. In the past, this was done manually. An instrument spun the rotors and indicated where they were out of balance. But, the process of adding or removing small amounts of weight from each rotor was done manually. The factory employed a dozen workers just for that task.

Then, the company automated the process. The fully automated line produces rotors faster, more repeatably, and at a higher level of quality than the manual operation. One person now tends the line, and the remaining 11 work elsewhere in the factory. Automating enabled the company to keep motor productionand, indeed, the entire factoryin the United States. Thats a good thing. Dont fear automation; use it strategically to improve your operation.

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Flaggers, bridges, automation and jobs - Assembly Magazine