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Robotics and Artificial Intelligence … – Conference Series

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

Sessions/Tracks ConferenceSeries Ltdinvites all the members of ecological family, from all over the world to join and share research at the4th world Congress on Robotics and Artificial Intelligenceduring 23th& 24thOctober, 2017 at Osaka, Japan, which includes prompt keynote presentations, plenary talks, oral talks, poster presentations and exhibitions.

Theme: smart living machines for sustainable future

Smart Robotic CongressArtificial Intelligence 2017aims in proclaim knowledge and share new ideas amongst the professionals, industrialists and students from research area of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence to share their research experiences and indulge in interactive discussions at the event. This scientific gathering guarantees that offering the thoughts and ideas will enable and secure you the theme Smart living machines for sustainable future. Artificial Intelligence is the latest trending technology in many fields especially in industries like manufacturing, control systems, Data mining, etc. The current era fully rolled out with many new Artificial Intelligence technologies. In such case more Software companies and industries were newly introduced within market which obviously shows the market growth of Artificial Intelligence. While analyzing the revenue growth of Artificial Intelligence, it highly developed from $150 billion USD to $250 billion USD since from 2010-2015. And the annual growth percentage increases from 20-55 percentages, which clearly shows that Software technology contains huge scope in coming years.

Hear, Explore and learn the latest research. Present before distinguished global audience. Collaborate, build partnerships and experience Japan. Join the global academic community.

ConferenceSeries Ltd invites all the participants across the globe to attend the 4th world congress on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence during October 23-24, 2017 atOsaka, Japan.Robotics and Artificial Intelligence 2017 includes prompt keynote presentations, Oral talks, Poster presentations and Exhibitions.

Smart Robotic Congress 2017aims in proclaim knowledge and share new ideas amongst the professionals, industrialists and students from research area of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence to share their research experiences and indulge in interactive discussions at the event. This scientific gathering guarantees that offering the thoughts and ideas will enable and secure you the theme Smart Living Machines for Sustainable Future. Artificial Intelligence is the latest trending technology in many fields especially in industries like manufacturing, control systems, mining, etc. The current era fully rolled out with many new automation technologies. In such case more automation companies and industries were newly introduced within market which obviously shows the market growth of Automation. While analysing the revenue growth of artificial intelligence functions, it highly developed from $150 billion USD to $250 billion USD since from 2010-2015. And the annual growth percentage increases from 20-55 percentages, which clearly shows that artificial intelligence technology contains huge scope in coming years.

Importance and Scope:

Due to incredibletechnology development, the industries are trying to reduce man power where they trying to increase Artificial intelligence and function in various sectors. Now robotics is used in each and every company where machines are involved and some or other process is involved. Many fields like robotics, mechatronics, control systems, electronics, wireless, laser technology, automotive motors are depended only on this Artificial Intelligence and Automation functions. The conference organizers aim is to gather the researchers academicians and scientists from the field of Industrial Robotics community and to create an approach towards global exchange of information on technological advances, new scientific innovations, and the effectiveness of various regulatory programs towards industrial robotics.

Why to attend?

With members from around the world focused on learning about robotics and artificial intelligence technologies, this is your single best opportunity to reach the largest assemblage of participants from the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence community. Conduct demonstrations, distribute information, acquire knowledge about current and trending robotic and artificial intelligence technologies, make a splash with a new research, and receive name recognition at this 3-day event. World-renowned speakers, the most recent techniques, tactics, and the newest updates in Industrial Robotics fields are hallmarks of this conference.

Target Audience:

Automation and Robotics Lab Directors/Associates

Head of the Departments from the field of Artificial intelligence, Robotics, Mechatronics, Control systems

Artificial intelligence researchers and academicians

Robotics doctorates

Control systems and Mechatronics expertise

Professors and Students from Academia in the study of Industrial robotics and artificial intelligence field.

Artificial Intelligence Lab Directors/Associates

Control systems and Mechatronics expertise

Conference Highlights

Robotics

Robotics and Screw Theory

Human-Robot Interaction

Industrial Applications of Robots

Bioengineering and Biomechanics

Robotics and Mechatronics

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Micro Robots

Robot Manipulators

Artificial Intelligence

Medical Robotics

Multi-Robot System

Remote and Telerobotics

Robot Localization and Map Building

Mobile Robot

Humanoid Robots

Neural Networks

Marine Robotics

Aerial robotics and UAV

Bio-Robotics

Special Issues:

All accepted abstracts will be published in respective OMICS International Journals.

Abstracts will be provided with Digital Object Identifier by Cross Ref.

ConferenceSeries Ltdwelcomes attendees, presenters, and exhibitors from all over the world to Osaka, Japan. We are delighted to invite you all to attend and register for the4thworld Congress on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence which is going to be held during October 23-24, 2017 in Osaka, Japan.

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence 2017 brings together Scientific Researchers and technologists from the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, control systems on artificial intelligence, Network-based systems, test automation, robotic vision tracking, etc. and give knowledge on advance research and emerging technologies in industrial robotics and their applications. The organizing committee is gearing up for an exciting and informative conference program including plenary lectures, symposia, workshops on a variety of topics, poster presentations and various programs for participants from all over the world. We invite you to join us at theRobotics and Artificial Intelligence 2017,where you will be sure to have a meaningful experience with scholars from around the world. All members of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence 2017 organizing committee look forward to meeting you in Osaka, Japan.

Importance and Scope:

Why Osaka?

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. It is the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Japan and among the largest in the world with over 19 million inhabitants. Situated at the starting of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, Osaka is the second largest city in Japan, serving as a major economic hub for the country.

Osaka has a large number of wholesalers and retail shops, the stores along the arcade include commodities, clothing, and catering outlets. Osaka is known for its food, in Japan and abroad. Osaka is known for its fine sake, which is made with fresh water from the prefecture's mountains. Osaka's culinary prevalence is the result of a location that has provided access to high quality ingredients, a high population of merchants, and proximity to the ocean and waterway trade.

In recent years, Osaka has started to garner more attention from foreigners with the increased popularity of cooking and dining in popular culture. The National Museum of Art is a subterranean Japanese and international art museum, housing mainly collections from the post-war era and regularly welcoming temporary exhibitions. It is the backdrop for modern movies and pop music that enjoy worldwide recognition.

Conference Highlights

Robotics

Robotics and Screw Theory

Human-Robot Interaction

Industrial Applications of Robots

Bioengineering and Biomechanics

Robotics and Mechatronics

Robotics | MIT News

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

New book by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson surveys techs challenges for business.

CSAIL teams system of quadcopters that fly and drive suggest another approach to developing flying cars.

New design could provide communication support in disaster zones.

GelSight technology lets robots gauge objects hardness and manipulate small tools.

Muscle grafts could help amputees sense and control artificial limbs.

New algorithm quickly makes sense of incoming visual data.

System directs camera-equipped drones to maintain framing of an aerial shot.

Professor David Mindell, who researches the interaction between automation and human behavior, discusses the interdependence of people, robots, and infrastructure.

MechE class ends semester with ingeniously designed robots battling on a Star Wars-themed playing field.

CSAIL approach allows robots to learn a wider range of tasks using some basic knowledge and a single demo.

Startups cloud-based system allows for project queuing by multiple users and automated part removal.

Technology developed at MIT could enable faster, cheaper, more adaptable building construction.

A simple statistical trick could help make a ubiquitous model of decision processes more accurate.

Microfluidic device generates passive hydraulic power, may be used to make small robots move.

A bio-inspired gel material developed at MIT could help engineers control movements of soft robots.

New technique could protect robot teams communication networks from malicious hackers.

CSAIL system enables people to correct robot mistakes using brain signals.

Made from hydrogel, robots may one day assist in surgical operations, evade underwater detection.

Adib is directing a new research group at the Media Lab, aiming to uncover, analyze, and engineer natural and human-made networks.

MIT Professor Daniela Rus combines automation and mobility to create a smarter world.

Go here to read the rest:

Robotics | MIT News

ISU Robotics program builds functioning R2-D2 robots – Idaho State Journal

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

POCATELLO What started as a senior project for a student enrolled in Idaho State Universitys College of Technology Robotics program has evolved into something that many Star Wars fans have dreamed of for decades designing and building a fully-functional R2-D2 robot.

The Robotics program has one fully constructed R2-D2 robot and another thats under construction that program director Shane Slack said is hopeful will be done in time for Septembers Snake River Comic Con in Pocatello.

Originally, one of the students came up and said they wanted to build an R2-D2 robot for a final project, you know, and its movies and characters like this that get most kids excited to join this type of program, Slack said. We didnt really have 3-D printing at the time so trying to find the materials to make it and coming up with the mechanical aspects of it was difficult. Honestly, at the end of the two-month period it didnt look anything like R2-D2.

It took eight weeks to construct the first R2-D2 robots basic framework, which included two aluminum plates manufactured by the machine shop that serve as R2-D2s shoulders. The original model featured a plexiglass outer shell.

Over the next two semesters, students continued to shape the exterior skin, hardware and programming aspects until they had a functioning R2-D2 robot.

The red R2-D2 was started in 2010 and now we actually have some of the upperclassmen recruit some of the first- and second-semester students to serve as team members on these projects, Slack said. So the final semester students will have younger students come in and work on code, circuitry and other components to help them create these massive machines.

A few years later the implementation of advanced CAD, or computer-aided design software, laser cutting and 3-D printers allowed R2-D2 to get a makeover.

We had six or seven teams of students improving software, sensors and drive systems over the next few years, Slack said. The initial drive system only allowed him to travel about 2 mph and now hell go 28 mph.

R2-D2 robot is a fun pop-culture project students can relate to. But its also a teaching tool that lets students use what theyve learned through the construction process on other robotic systems, Slack said.

Inside the red R2-D2 several electronic and mechanical systems make the robot tick.

Inside we have a main board that communicates with the operator, so that main board receives commands from our remote and basically anything our operator does with the remote the robot interoperates those commands and executes a series of other commands, Slack said. We can open the doors, move the arms, it can run a vocal processor to communicate and the main board is capable of running 128 other circuit boards.

The process of designing and developing all the internal circuitry is completed by robotics students.

This process involves designing the board with CAD software. Students determine how each electronic component physically connects to another. The board itself is then machined out of copper and fiberglass.

The secondary board that mounts to the main board is a Wi-Fi radio, which is another student-built board that allows us to communicate directly with R2-D2, Slack said. With this student-built board weve tested the range out and it works just fine 3 miles out, and the board is about the size of an SD card.

After the first R2-D2 robot, Slack said the team really understood what worked well with the original model and what improvements could be made.

Theyre now in the process of building R2-D2 version 2.0. Slack said their goal is to document each step of the process into video and text files so that any person can download the materials and make their own R2-D2.

The students have to make the website, the manuals and technical documentation and the assembly videos just like they were working in industry, Slack said.

For the past several year, the Robotics program has showcased the R2-D2 robot at the Salt Lake Comic Con, all thanks to a bet made, and lost, by one of the events producers.

We were attending a Robotics competition in Salt Lake and on the last day one of the producers of the Salt Lake Comic Con came in and were doing an R2-D2 demonstration, Slack said. As he was walking around he saw our R2-D2 robot. When he noticed that it was 3-D printed he was actually floored that we were able to do it because he had stated a few weeks ago that he made a bet with a friend that nobody could 3-D print a R2-D2. But we did.

ISU Robotics program builds functioning R2-D2 robots - Idaho State Journal

No quarters needed: Virtual reality arcade opens in Denver area – 9NEWS.com

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

It held its grand opening in conjunction with the beginning of Comic Con.

Joshua Aldredge , KUSA 9:48 PM. MDT July 01, 2017

Head Games VR has the honor of being the first virtual reality arcade in the Denver area. It held its grand opening Saturday night with a party in conjunction with Denver Comic Con.

The arcade has opened on Colfax Avenue near Kipling in Lakewood. Right now the arcade features three VR setups, but the owners have plans to expand on that in the future.

As for the idea? it came during a road trip.

"I was driving out to Las Vegas with my brother, Adam, and he and I were playing with the idea of escape rooms and then he mentioned they had VR in Sweden, where he's from," says Victoria Merchant, one of the owners of Head Games VR. "So we kinda turned to each other and said, 'let's do that. Let's do VR.'"

She says while they were driving theyneeded to come up with a name - and they made all sorts of lists for funny names.

"Head Games seemed perfect," Merchant says. "You're playing a video game on your head."

Nathan Hostetler, also of Head Games, says VR is fun for all ages.

"This is somewhere anyone of any age or background could come and try out VR and any kind of experience they want to - have a different experience every time," he says. "And they can see the potential that this entertainment has goinginto the future."

Merchant hopes to work with Colorado game developers to offer their new VR games to the public. She also wants to expand the business to include more headsets - and eventually more locations.

An hour of VR gaming will cost you $29 but up to five people can join you. You can reserve time online at this link.

2017 KUSA-TV

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No quarters needed: Virtual reality arcade opens in Denver area - 9NEWS.com

Tourism bureau promotes Anaheim with a virtual reality tour – OCRegister

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

Anaheim has entered the virtual world.

The tourism and marketing arm of the city, Visit Anaheim, has introduced a virtual reality video giving people a first-person view of some of the citys landmarks and popular venues.

Were always looking for new ways to showcase our destination, said Jay Burress, chief executive and president of Visit Anaheim, which also promotesvisitors to Orange County. We thinkvirtual realityis a great way to do that.

The high-tech offering is just the latest the tourism bureau is doing to bring in more visitors and conventions to highlight the city. The tourism bureau, along with its partners from the Orange County Visitors Association, recentlyannouncedthe opening of a third office in Guangzhou, China. In 2013, offices opened in Shanghai and Beijing.

Last year, more than 100,000 visitors came to Orange County from China, Burress said.

And, more than 23 million people visited Anaheim last year, the group said. Since 2011, visitor numbers have increased 35 percent.

The city relies heavily on visitors staying in local hotels and shopping in the area to help pay for day-to-day operations such as providing police officers and firefighters, parks and road maintenance through its general fund. In the next 12 months, the citys general fund is expected to increase by 4 percent to $312 million.

The two-minute virtual reality video made by Costa Mesa-basedmarketing agency Idea Hall is available on YouTube. Filming began late last year and wrapped up after the NAMM convention. Visit Anaheim declined to disclose the cost.

When Visit Anaheim officials attend sales conventions, they bring two Samsung Oculus systems. Visitors don the virtual reality goggles which visually take them around the Anaheim Regional Transportation Center, the Anaheim Convention Center, the Packing House, Unsung Brewery and the Ranch restaurant. Visit Anaheim also gives away cardboard VR goggles.

This is just the first iteration of our use of virtual reality, Burress said. Disneyland is not the only thing in Anaheim. We want to highlight other parts of the city and this gives us a sophisticated and fun vehicle to do that.

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Tourism bureau promotes Anaheim with a virtual reality tour - OCRegister

OU graduates seizing opportunities as virtual reality industry grows – The Oklahoma Daily

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

Imagine jumping off buildings without being hurt, creating 3D artwork electronically and catching criminals without leaving the safety of your home. This is what three OU graduates have done with their two virtual reality companies.

They own Upward VR and Springboard VR, the largest arcade platform outside of Asia, according to the owners, and the companies are growing rapidly.

Will Stackable, a 2010 graduate, started buying virtual reality headsets shortly after finishing college, looking for a business opportunity.

I got into VR kind of early on and felt strongly that it was going to be a really revolutionary technology,a new medium for stories and entertainment, Stackable said.

Brad Scroggin, a 2009 graduate,worked foran international nonprofit before joining Stackable.

After leaving the non-profit world, (Scroggin)moved to California and was in the process of raising money for a new startup when I called him,Stackable said. He was in town for some investor meetings, and I told him he had to come over to my house to try out this VR thing.He said he wasnt really a gamer, and I said, I know, but seriously, this is going to blow your mind.

Stackableand Scroggincame up with the idea for a virtual reality arcade inside Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City.

They were told the space where Apple once resided was open, and the duo was hooked.

We told them we would take it,and she asked us for our business name and information -- which we didnt have -- and had to come up with a name that night, Stackable said.We finally ended up with Upward VR and went from there.

Stackable and Scroggin had everything they needed to start the companyexceptsoftware to run the arcade.

They turnedto Jordan Williams, a 2013 graduate with a degree in management information systems.

He was working on the business plans for a new startupwhen Brad and I called him and asked him if he would be interested in starting an arcade, Stackable said.He jumped on board, and the next weekwas working his normal 40-hour day job while also working 30-40 hours in the evenings working on the arcade with us.

The arcade opened in December and has been successful due to the ability for multiple people to participate at one time.

It was a game changer. We were able to run eight stations with half the employees, and the customers loved the interface, Stackable said.

Theyve seen first-time participants scream in terror as zombies chase them, paint in 3D and get dizzy while standing on the virtual buildings. Guests can choose from various games and activities in an easy to use format.

Imagine putting on the headset and all around you is this 360-degree, Netflix-like menu with floating tiles with game thumbnails on them, Stackable said. You can hover over each game and it previews a few seconds of the game. Then you can launch any game and when you get bored, come back to the menu and choose again. It also allows customers to hit a button in-game that calls the front desk for help.

Stackable said he understands their software seems simple, but its the most important part of the experience, and other arcades are signing up to use it.

We talked to other arcades that wanted to use it, and we quickly realized that every other VR arcade in the world was going to want this, so we launched a new company called Springboard VR, Stackable said. Thats when everything really took off for us.

Springboard VR owns approximately 30 percent of the virtual reality arcade software market. More than 100 arcades in more than 20 countries are signed up to use their software, and 300 arcades outside of China already use it.

Virtual reality is a booming industry hiding in the shadows waiting to make its grand appearance. The VR market is worth approximately $13.9 billion and is expected to increase to $143.3 billion by 2020.

"Getting to be at the forefront of an emerging industry that will impact every facet of our lives in the near future is an opportunity that I may never have again," Williams said. "There are needs in the VR market all over the place right now, and the fact that that we built a highly needed service for this niche is amazing."

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OU graduates seizing opportunities as virtual reality industry grows - The Oklahoma Daily

Living to 125 and beyond: Scientists dispute there’s a limit to – KMOV.com – KMOV.com

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

(CNN) -- Don't mess with our collective dreams of immortality. A flurry of new research vigorously opposes a study from last year that dared to suggest there might be a ceiling to the human lifespan.

In onenew paper, Dutch scientists predict that, by 2070, our lifespan may increase to 125 years while beyond that, the sky may be the limit. Their analysis was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The debate over hisoriginal paper, published last October in Nature andwidely reported by CNNand other media outlets, took Jan Vijg, senior author, by surprise.

For a biologist, a natural limit to the lifespan "makes a lot of sense, so that's why I never imagined the paper would stir up so much comment," said Vijg, a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

To prove a 125-year lifespan is possible, researchers from the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute team began their study by refuting the relationship between age and immortality posed byBenjamin Gompertz.

This 19th-century mathematician pored over mortality data and noticed that young people have a very low chance of dying. Yet, in middle age, the chance of dying increases and then rises again dramatically in old age.

This exponential increase in the rate of human mortality has long been accepted wisdom, yet the Dutch researchers decided to challenge it. Instead of basing their work on data derived from the general population, they used data from a group of people noted for their long lives -- Japanese women.

Using mathematical models, they claim mortality goes down in old age and projected an astounding new human lifespan -- 125 years -- will be achieved by 2070.

Along with this theory, an additional four separate papers poke holes in Vijg's work. ACanadian teamof scientists claims Vijg's original paper is based on statistically "noisy" (or meaningless) data. Meanwhile, a research team from theUniversity of Copenhagenargues that any inferences about lifespan potential are premature; a team from theMax Planck Instituteclaims there's simply no evidence of a "looming limit;" and a team from theUniversity of Groningenoffers four cohesive arguments contesting the conclusions drawn by Vijg's team.

What inspired this heated debate?

In their paper, Vijg and his graduate students, Xiao Dong and Brandon Milholland, analyzed aging trends in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan.

Vijg explained that their analysis was based not on some mathematical model that projected future data, but on "actual data" of real human lives. They examined not one but two different data sets, and what they observed was that, despite life expectancy being dramatically higher than it was 100 years ago, the probability of anyone living for more than 125 years was unlikely.

"Initially, you see this increase every year and you see this oldest record holder until the 1990s, and then it stops," said Vijg. "Think about it, how strange it is."

The number of healthy centenarians increased dramatically every year. That being the case, Vijg theorized "the supply is certainly there" to create more record-breakers, every year, yet there were none.

Vijg wondered, "How is that possible?" A decades-long plateau following years of new old-age records must mean humans have reached the lifespan limit, he and his colleagues concluded.

It is a rather logical conclusion for biologists, who have long seen that individual animal species each have a particular span of time in which they are born, develop into maturity, and then die, Vijg explained.

"WhenJeanne Calmentdied, I really thought that this was the beginning of something very dramatic," said Vijg. Jeanne Calment died in 1997 at age 122, which remains "the greatest fully authenticated age to which any human has ever lived," according toGuinness World Records.

Hearing about Calment's long life, Vijg rebelled against the accepted wisdom that lifespan "must be fixed, it must be like a ceiling."

Yet, testing the theory, Vijg and his co-authors found no fresh old-age record breakers. Sure, the Canadian scientists who created a mathematical model found random plateaus, some seven years long -- but still their research fails to explain a plateau of decades, said Vijg.

The Canadian scientists may believe their research disproves his, but instead, it "is a beautiful confirmation of what we found," he said.

"They want us to be wrong," said Vijg, who with his colleagues published arebuttalto all the criticism. "I can see that it's very depressing when you find out that we can never get older than 115 years on average."

Vijg, though, is not a depressed man.

He says he's seen the tremendous strides made in all scientific fields as well as technology and hopes that someday the aging process might be halted.

"We may be able to do that at some point, as I say, by the way, at the end of my paper," said Vijg. "But if we are not able to do that because aging turns out to be still very mysterious, or a process that we cannot really intervene with, then we are stuck with a real maximum lifespan that fluctuates around 115."

"Accept it," he says.

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Living to 125 and beyond: Scientists dispute there's a limit to - KMOV.com - KMOV.com

Alamosa News | Eye on Extension: More on supplements – Valley Courier

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

VALLEY Dietary supplements include vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, enzymes, and other substances that may be supplemented, or added to diet, in order to complete dietary needs or to make up for a nutrition deficiency they are NOT intended to replace a healthy diet. Supplements come in many forms, including pills, capsules, powders, drinks, or energy bars. It is important to remember that supplements are not required to go through the same stringent testing as over the counter (OTC) and prescription medicine, and are not regulated as closely by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Choose Food First, Supplements Second Vitamin and mineral supplements are the most common dietary supplement used by approximately 40 percent of adults in the United States. Despite the popularity of supplements, most people are capable of obtaining all of the required vitamins and minerals through a healthy diet alone. In fact, those who take supplements daily may be at risk for excessive intake, or toxicity of certain nutrients.

Also, supplements can be very expensive as evidenced by the $30 billion that Americans spend annually on all forms, a number that continues to grow every year. In some circumstances a daily supplement may not be necessary, and for many, taking multivitamin or mineral once every two to three days may be a cost-effective choice. Since the body has limited storage for many of these nutrients, most of the time they are simply excreted. The most cost-effective way to promote good health is eat a wide selection of foods and exercise regularly.

The majority of Americans consume all of the nutrients needed through a balanced and varied diet that includes healthy food choices. Remember being told to eat a variety of foods? Thats what a balanced diet is, a daily variety of food from the food groups; breads, cereals, and grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk, and protein/meat. By eating this balanced diet you should be getting all the needed nutrients per day.

Certain individuals may have dietary restrictions (such as those with celiac disease or lactose intolerance), or belong to a particular life stage (pregnant, breastfeeding, or older adult) and may benefit from taking specific supplements. Talk to your doctor before deciding to take a dietary supplement.

Again, remember, supplements are not regulated by the government and may make false health claims that are not supported by research. Before consuming any type of supplement, talk to your doctor and research the supplement thoroughly. The following website resource can help you make an educated decision and identify inaccurate information when choosing a dietary supplement: National Library of Medicine (NLM) Dietary Supplements Labels Database.

For more information contact Mary Ellen Fleming at 852-7381, or visit the CSU Extension Office for the San Luis Valley Area at 1899 E. Hwy 160 in Monte Vista. Please feel free to visit our website at: http://sanluisvalley.colostate.edu for information about services provided.

Extension programs are available to all without discrimination, Colorado State University Extension, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Colorado Counties cooperating.

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Alamosa News | Eye on Extension: More on supplements - Valley Courier

Robocalpyse now? Central bankers argue whether automation will kill jobs – The Seattle Times

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

The bankers are not yet ready to buy into dystopian visions in which robots render humans superfluous. But they are seriously discussing the risk that artificial intelligence could eliminate jobs on a scale that would dwarf previous waves of technological change.

SINTRA, Portugal The rise of robots has long been a topic for sci-fi best-sellers and video games and, as of last week, a threat officially taken seriously by central bankers.

The bankers are not yet ready to buy into dystopian visions in which robots render humans superfluous. But, at an exclusive gathering at a golf resort near Lisbon, the big minds of monetary policy were seriously discussing the risk that artificial intelligence could eliminate jobs on a scale that would dwarf previous waves of technological change.

There is no question we are in an era of people asking, Is the Robocalpyse upon us? David Autor, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told an audience Tuesday that included Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and dozens of other top central bankers and economists.

The discussion occurred as economists were more optimistic than they had been for a decade about growth. Draghi used the occasion to signal that the European Central Bank is edging closer to the day when it will begin paring measures intended to keep interest rates very low and bolster the economy.

All the signs now point to a strengthening and broadening recovery in the euro area, Draghi said. His comments pushed the euro to almost its highest level in a year, though it later gave up some of the gains.

But along with the optimism is a fear that the economic expansion might bypass large swaths of the population, in part because a growing number of jobs could be replaced by computers capable of learning artificial intelligence.

Policymakers and economists conceded that they have not paid enough attention to how much technology has hurt the earning power of some segments of society, or planned to address the concerns of those who have lost out. That has, in part, nourished the political populism that contributed to Britains vote a year ago to leave the European Union, and the election of President Donald Trump.

Generally speaking, economic growth is a good thing, Ben Bernanke, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said at the forum. But, as recent political developments have brought home, growth is not always enough.

In the past, technical advances caused temporary disruptions but ultimately improved living standards, creating new categories of employment along the way. Farm machinery displaced farmworkers but eventually they found better paying jobs, and today their great-grandchildren may design video games.

But artificial intelligence threatens broad categories of jobs previously seen as safe from automation, such as legal assistants, corporate auditors and investment managers. Large groups of people could become obsolete, suffering the same fate as plow horses after the invention of the tractor.

More and more, we are seeing economists saying, This time could be different, said Autor, who presented a paper on the subject that he wrote with Anna Salomons, an associate professor at the Utrecht University School of Economics in the Netherlands.

Central bankers have begun examining the effect of technology on employment because it might help solve several economic quandaries.

Why is workers share of total earnings declining, even though unemployment is at record lows and corporate profits at record highs? Why is productivity the amount that a given worker produces stuck in neutral?

The mere fact that we are organizing this conference here in Sintra testifies to our interest in that discussion, Benot Coeur, a member of the European Central Banks executive board, said in an interview, referring to the Robocalpyse debate.

Of particular interest to the European Central Bank is why faster economic growth has not caused wages and prices to rise. The central bank has pulled out all the stops to stimulate the eurozone economy, cutting interest rates to zero and even below, while printing money. Four years of growth have led to the creation of 6.4 million jobs. Yet inflation remains well below the banks official target of below, but close to, 2 percent.

One explanation is that more work is being done by advanced computers, with the rewards flowing to the narrow elite that owns them.

Still, among the economists in Sintra there was plenty of skepticism about whether the Robocalpyse is nigh.

Since the beginning of the industrial age, almost every major technological innovation has led to dire predictions that humans were being permanently replaced by machines.

While some kinds of jobs were lost forever, greater efficiency led to more affordable goods and other industries soaked up the excess workers. Few people alive today would want to return to the late 1800s, when 40 percent of Americans worked on farms.

Robocalpyse advocates underestimate the power of scientific advances to beget more scientific advances, said Joel Mokyr, a professor at Northwestern University who studies the history of economics.

Think about what computers are doing to our ability to discover science, Mokyr said during a panel discussion, citing computers that can solve equations that have baffled mathematicians for decades. There may be breakthroughs that we cant even begin to imagine.

There are other explanations for stagnant wages besides technology.

Companies in Japan, the United States and Europe are sitting on hoards of cash, doling out the money to shareholders rather than investing in new buildings, equipment or innovative products. Just why is another topic of debate.

Hal Varian, the chief economist at Google whose self-driving technology may someday make taxi drivers unnecessary said that the plunging cost of information technology has virtually eliminated the fixed cost of entering a business. Companies can rent software and computing power over the internet.

And flat wages reflect the large number of women who have entered the workforce in recent decades as well as the post-World War II baby boom, Varian said, adding that those trends have run their course. We are going to see a higher share going to labor, he said.

Yet already, disruptions caused by technology help account for rampant pessimism among working-class and middle-class people across the developed world.

Bernanke referred to polls showing that about twice as many Americans say the United States is on the wrong track than say the country is moving in the right direction.

As a result, last November Americans elected as president a candidate with a dystopian view of the economy, Bernanke said.

Autor concluded that it was too early to say that robots are coming for peoples jobs. But it could still happen in the future.

I say not Robocalpyse now, Autor said, perhaps Robocalpyse later.

Algorithmic trading ushers in new era of market automation – Raconteur

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

We are still in the tail of the third industrial or digital revolution where investment in digitalisation could drive significant productivity gains, noted analysts from investment bank Morgan Stanley in a September 2016 report entitled Disruptions and productivity growth in the next decade of the digital revolution.

The digital revolution represents the move towards data-driven business. The computerisation of business is continually generating vast quantities of data. That information is fuelling the use of automated decision-making systems withinfinance.

I am very optimistic about where we are going, says John Lowrey, global head of electronic markets in equities at Citi, the banking giant. Training artificial intelligence systems requires large datasets. Those who have the most data are the most able to adapt to the new environment and of course the banks and investment banks have reams of data. By 2020 we will really see radical change in the environment.

That change is very apparent in capital markets. While many people still think of traders as brightly jacketed men shouting in a trading pit, and a few think of men and women staring at screens while shouting into telephones, very few people picture a computer server clicking away, making millions of decisions.

This move towards automated trading, which began in the late-1990s and early-2000s, across the banking and asset management environment was driven by two factors. Firstly, traders cost a lot of money and are fallible, and so reducing their number reduced costs. Secondly, many of their simpler tasks were time consuming and ate into their ability to tackle complicated problems.

However, the first stages of automation were rule-based decision-making systems, algorithms that took an input and triggered an automated response. Any change in market circumstances required a platform to have its parameters altered.

Now smarter systems are being developed, capable of learning, which can be trained across datasets and then adapt to changes in circumstance. These can be applied to a considerable range of processes by innovative financial servicesfirms.

Joseph Pinto, global chief operating officer at AXA Investment Managers, says: We are looking at automation on three levels. Firstly, how can we use big data and eventually artificial intelligence to provide new signals for our portfolio managers? Secondly, we are using machine-learning processes or automation to process a lot of data on customers, for example movement of inflows, outflows and trying to anticipate customer behaviour. The third layer is more traditional, sitting down with our providers and ensuring they can automate their process to lowerfees.

These automated trading systems are not only getting smarter, but as wider datasets become available, machine-learning systems can be used to understand a wide variety of inputs. The inclusion of internet-enabled sensors within devices ranging from cars to shipping containers to toasters is creating the internet of things, a vision of the physical world represented indata.

At the same time, the increased surveillance of every aspect of life, and the capacity of machines to search images and text as well as tables of figures, just as search engines do across the internet, creates the potential for running searches just as powerful across financially sensitive information.

Bartt Charles Kellerman, chief executive of hedge fund consulting firm Global Capital Acquisition, says: In the past there was a guy with a counting device standing outside a concrete manufacturer, or outside a housing project, counting the number of trucks going in and out. Thats grown by leaps and bounds, so everything that moves is going to be monitored and fed into some centralised cloud, which is then going to be examined and cross-examined as a reflection of whether or not that data is going to impact a potential marketmove.

These technologies are already much in evidence outside of the financial services environment. From search engines to shopping assistants they are becoming increasingly prevalent. However, applying these to the management of money requires a considerable level of trust. Even smart automation requires oversight and risk management. Nor can there be a lack of transparency as regulators and investors both require insight into the decision-making process.

These are complex ideas when you use automation just for the investment process, or deep-learning or machine-learning, says Mr Pinto. And you need a simple way to explain it to your customers; you cannot sell it as a black box for sure. Thats the big challenge. So we are investing time and effort in creating transparency for users and clients, including creating tools like data visualisation. We find it really makes a big difference. The past is littered with opaque technologies that, when difficult to diagnose, were quickly abandoned byclients.

Nex Group, formerly ICAP, has been looking at automation to further the post-trade and back-office services it provides to clients via NEX Optimisation division.

A lot of automation we are providing is to make things more efficient for our clients, says Chuck Ocheret, chief innovation officer at NEX Optimisation. Thats been our mainpurpose.

Ironically, the most interesting automation can sometimes involve the more day-to-day tasks. The development of computer code, particularly the testing process, can be automated. When the firm takes on data from its customers, NEX Optimisation can automate the mapping out of defined fields, to assess where they belong in its own dataset. Although lots of data formats are standardised, firms still manage to create unique interpretations of these standards.

Mr Ocheret says: If you can automate those processes, learn from training sets how data is sent in and some of the weird variations that occur, then you can automate a lot of that stuff with relatively straightforward machine-learning.

Where clients are sending data for a single specific service, automation can allow that data to be reused for multiple purposes. A client may provide all their trade data to generate reports to the relevant regulators. Through the use of smart automation this could be used to run an evaluation or a reconciliation. The broader the datasets, the more insight you can offer to the clients, Mr Ocheretsays.

This is reducing the need to throw people at a task, but is also creating situations in which people would not be able to perform due to the sheer volume ofdata.

David Thompson, chief operating officer at NEX Optimisation, says: A fear around this kind of automation is that its going to get rid of jobs or positions, but actually there is a huge amount of additional opportunity, which is going to be provided by ensuring resources are focused where they add the mostvalue.

Apple Patent filing in Australia Delves into all Aspects of Siri in Relation to Home Automation – Patently Apple

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

In December 2015 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Invents Siri for Home Automation." Today Patently Apple has discovered an Apple patent in Europe that was filed in Australia June 22, 2017 titled "Intelligent automated assistant in a home environment." While the two patents cover the same title, they in fact cover different graphics and more. The Australian patent filing is noted to incorporate five Apple patents relating to home automation in context with an intelligent automated assistant that were filed between 2014 and 2016.

Apple describes how complex creating a home automation system is without a Siri-like assistant. Apple notes, "for example, a typical home can include 40-50 light bulbs placed throughout the various rooms of the home. Using conventional software applications, each light bulb is given a unique identifier, and a user attempting to control one of these devices must select the appropriate identifier from a list of available devices within a graphical user interface.

Remembering the correct identifier for a particular light bulb and finding that identifier from a list of 40-50 identifiers can be a difficult and time-consuming process. For example, the user can confuse the identifier of one device with that of another and thus be unable to control the desired device. To add to the difficulty of managing and controlling a large number of remotely controlled devices, different manufactures typically provide different software applications that must be used to control their respective devices. As a result, a user must locate and open one software application to turn on/off their light bulbs, and must then locate and open another software application to set the temperature of their thermostat.

Apple's invention covers systems and processes for operating an intelligent automated assistant in relation to home automation.

The filing is long and detailed and at times interesting to see the complexities behind creating a home automation system from Siri having to understanding a number of commands in relation to the home. For instance, telling Siri to open a door when you're in front of it or sitting in the living room, Siri has to figure out what door the user is referring to. That might be dealt with by using GPS or other means.

In another example, Apple notes that "A digital assistant can also process user commands for performing a future action in response to a specified condition. The action or the condition is with respect to one or more devices in an established location. For example, the user provides the natural language command "Close the blinds when it reaches 80 degrees."

In this example, the digital assistant determines that the user wishes to perform the action of closing the blinds in response to the condition of detecting a temperature equal to or greater than 80 degrees. In particular, the digital assistant would need to determine which "blinds" the user wishes to close and which thermometer the user wishes to monitor with respect to the "80 degrees" criterion. Below in patent FIG. 9, we see the layout of an example home.

In Apple's patent FIG. 9 above we're able to see is a hierarchical chart illustrating exemplary data structure #900 that represents a set of devices of an established location. As shown, the data structure includes a plurality of nodes 902-950 organized in a hierarchical structure across levels #960-968. The organization of nodes #902-950 defines how the various devices (e.g., garage door, back door, central thermostat, space heater, and son's lamp) of the established location relate to the various regions (e.g., floor 1, floor 2, garage, living room, mater bedroom, and son's bedroom) of the established location.

Specifically, the nodes of levels #960-964 define how the various regions of the established location are organized. The root node of level #960 represents the established location (e.g., John's house) and the nodes of level #962 represent the major regions (e.g., floor 1 and floor 2) of the established location. The nodes of level #964 represent the sub-regions within each of the major regions. In the present example, the sub-regions include the separate rooms or living areas (garage, living room, master bedroom, and son's bedroom) in John's house.

Controlling a thermostat or space heater is described in-part in Apple's patent FIG. 10A wherein the user tells Siri to "Set the thermostat to sixty percent." In this example, the term "set" is determined to correspond to a first set of possible device characteristics #1004 that includes "temperature," "humidity," "brightness," "volume," and "speed." The term "thermostat" is determined to correspond to a second set of possible device characteristics #1006 that include "temperature" and "humidity." The term "sixty" is determined to correspond to a third set of possible device characteristics #1008 that include "temperature," "humidity," and "brightness." The term "percent" is determined to correspond to a fourth set of possible device characteristics #1010 that include "brightness" and "humidity."

In another example dealing with lighting in the home, Apple notes that "In some examples, the criterion is associated with the device characteristic of "brightness" for a brightness sensor (e.g., light sensor, photodiode) of the established location.

In particular, the discourse input is "Turn on the living room lights once it gets dark," "Close the blinds if there's direct sunlight," or "Bring down the shades half way when it gets too bright." In these examples, corresponding quantitative values for the ambiguous criteria "dark," "direct sunlight," or "too bright" are determined. For example, "dark" is determined to correspond to the criterion of detecting a brightness of less than a predetermined value (e.g., 0.2 lux) at a brightness sensor of the established location. Similarly, "direct sunlight" or "too bright" corresponds to the criterion of detecting a brightness of greater than a second predetermined value (e.g., 25000 lux).

Apple's patent covers many examples covering air quality, authentication, how to control the times your children can watch TV, when to turn lights on or off, how to control your Christmas lights, sprinklers and much more.

The majority of the patents rolled into this current filing were filed in 2016, two years after Apple introduced HomeKit at WWDC 2014.

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Patently Apple presents a detailed summary of patent applications with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application should be read in its entirety for full and accurate details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.

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Apple Patent filing in Australia Delves into all Aspects of Siri in Relation to Home Automation - Patently Apple

The Next Page: The change Homestead wrought – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Next Page: The change Homestead wrought
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
They feared wage slavery enforced by low pay and debt as a more subtle form of chattel slavery. Like freed slaves in the postwar South, who were subjugated by voter suppression and Jim Crow segregation, free labor in the North was being ...

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The Next Page: The change Homestead wrought - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Scotland needed government. It got nationalism instead – Spectator.co.uk (blog)

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

As you approach the Scottish Parliament from the Royal Mile, a modest curve juts out from the obnoxious angles. This camber, the Canongate Wall, is studded with 26 slates of Scottish stone each bearing a quotation from the Bible and scriveners of more questionable repute. Among them is the instruction to work as if you live in the early days of a better nation, etched on Iona marble and attributed to the novelist Alasdair Gray. The words are totemic for Scottish nationalists, a rallying cry heard often during the 2014 referendum. And why not? They bear the promise of national rebirth, of hope in even the darkest days.

Inside, where the SNP can not only work but legislate for a better nation, inertia reigns. MSPs have only just returned to law-making after a year without passing any bills except the budget; Ministers were otherwise engaged, seeking to parlay Englands Leave vote into support for Scottish independence. That didnt go entirely to plan and after a punishing reversal in the General Election, Nicola Sturgeon has graciously allowed that she might wait a while longer before pushing a second referendum. On Tuesday, after ten years of SNP government, the First Minister declared: We look forward to getting on with the job in the best interests of all the people of Scotland. On Thursday, Holyrood went into recess for the summer.

It is just as well. The Presiding Officers gavel fell on a parliament at its lowest ebb since reconvening in 1999. Scottish education is in crisis, embarked on yet another bout of tinkering masquerading as reform as surveys show literacy and numeracy rates across all levels, genders, and incomes stalling or tumbling. The Scottish Government is now abolishing the surveys, the third such metric they have withdrawn from because its findings were unpalatable. Schools are now light 4000 teachers, colleges 150,000 places and youngsters from deprived backgrounds are four times less likely to reach university. Since 2010, spending on education has been cut by more than 1bn.

Cancer referral waiting times are being met by only two of 15 health boards and accident & emergency departments continue to miss the four-hour wait target. Little wonder, since the Scottish Government has U-turned on a promise to cut junior doctors hours and left 3,000 nursing posts unfilled. A usually sober think tank warns Scotland could tip into recession any day now; a troubled IT scheme has delayed CAP payments to farmers for the second year in a row; and for reasons which even SNP MSPs struggle to understand, the government reintroduced the banned practice of tail-docking puppy dogs.

This is what politics looks like when everything must revolve around the constitution or go spin. And even that they can no longer do properly, forced to publish their second referendum consultation quietly on the last day of parliament, so unhinged were the public responses. A clanjamfrie of prejudice and paranoia, demands ranged from stripping English-born voters of the franchise to safeguarding against MI5 rigging the vote again.

Scottish politics has been poisoned by nationalism but, worse, it has been enervated by it. In the early days of our better nation, cynicism abounded about devolution. Holyrood was a diddy parliament with diddy powers and diddy politicians.Eventually MSPs decided that the country would only take them seriously if they took themselves seriously, and they embarked on a restless legislative agenda of land reform, repeal of Clause 28, free personal care, a new teacher pay agreement, abolition of tuition fees, and a ban on smoking in public places. There was still cynicism and resistance, scandals and rows but Scotlands parliament had finally grown up.

What changed, and there is no way to dress this up or wish it away, was the election of an SNP government in 2007. For the first four years, their lack of a majority and Alex Salmonds political nous, saw Holyrood rumble along much as usual, if in a less radical direction, with extra police, a council tax freeze, and cuts to business rates. But the SNPs surprise majority in 2011 made independence a live issue and, as soon became clear, the only issue. Other legislation did not stop, even if it slowed, but all became secondary to preparing for, holding, and campaigning in the independence referendum. At the same time, the single-mindedness that unites the SNP made for a parliament that was boorish and Politburish. Opponents were branded anti-Scottish and routinely accused of talking down Scotland; comically unrebellious backbenchers and Nationalist-dominated committees nodded along to most of the executives wishes.

The wages of Scotlands ten-year romance with the politics of identity are all around. Holyrood is now a proper parliament with proper powers and even the odd proper politician but it has a diddy government. For a nationalist party, the SNP is remarkably unambitious for the country it professes to love. Alasdair Grays injunction actually a paraphrase of Canadian poet Dennis Lee does not require the better nation to be near or even plausible; it merely tells us to strive in pursuit of improvement. The Nationalists seem to strive only in pursuit of independence and where independence looks impossible they seem not to strive at all.

Devolution has stopped working and will not restart until the SNP settles for a better nation on the way to an ideal one.

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Scotland needed government. It got nationalism instead - Spectator.co.uk (blog)

Self-Driving Car Technology Foiled By Kangaroos – HuffPost

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

As the inevitable robot takeover looms, its nice to know we have one surprising weapon in our arsenal: kangaroos.

Volvo has confessed that the springy marsupials are throwing off the Large Animal Detection systems being developed for self-driving cars, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports.Those systems are meant to make sure the cars avoid animals along the road, such as deer or cattle.

binbeter via Getty Images

But the hopping of the kangaroos is messing with the detection, which uses the ground as a reference point, Volvo Australias technical manager David Pickett told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Weve noticed with the kangaroo being in mid-flight ... when its in the air it actually looks like its further away, then it lands and it looks closer, he said.

Originally, Volvo tested out the detection software on moose in Sweden. Researchers have been working on the kangaroo problem for more than a year.

However, Kevin McCann, managing director of Volvo Australia,told The Guardian that researchers would be able to solve the problem before the driverless cars are commercially available in 2020. He noted that any driverless car maker working in Australia would likely run into similar issues.

Any company that would be working on the autonomous car concept would be having to do the same developmental work, McCann said.

The BBC points out that the problem would hardly be a trivial one for self-driving cars in Australia, since kangaroo collusions are a significant problem for regular cars. About 80% of vehicle collisions with animals in Australia involve kangaroos, adding up to more than 16,000 kangaroo-related collisions every year.

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Self-Driving Car Technology Foiled By Kangaroos - HuffPost

Technology boost to reinforce Hong Kong’s status as finance and trade centre in bay area plan – South China Morning Post

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

Innovation and technological developments in Hong Kong will be boosted under an agreement on the Greater Bay Area project signed by local and mainland officials on Saturday and witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The city will also continue to strengthen its role as the regions financial and shipping hub, according to the framework agreement. It also provided clarity and assurance to counter uncertainties in recent months on what role Hong Kong will play under the plan and how it will be executed.

The move came shortly after Xi announced at the new administrations inauguration that Beijing authorities would actively consider adopting concrete measures to make it more convenient for the people of Hong Kong to study, work and live on the mainland, and provide more opportunities for them.

The project, which covers Hong Kong, Macau and nine Pearl River Delta cities, was proposed by Guangdong officials several years ago, and grew into a strategic project with the endorsement of Premier Li Keqiang in March.

Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects troubled HK$117 billion mega bridge on final day of Hong Kong trip

Saturdays agreement was signed by Hong Kongs new chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai-on, Guangdong governor Ma Xingrui and the chairman of National Development and Reform Commission, He Lifeng.

According to a statement released by the Hong Kong government, the agreement stipulated that the goals of cooperation would include consolidating and enhancing Hong Kongs status as a global financial, shipping and trade centre, as well as promoting Hong Kongs innovation and technology industries.

The agreement also set out how Hong Kong, Macau and mainland authorities should work together, such as convening regular meetings to resolve major problems arising from the integration scheme, and drawing up annual work plans.

The signing of the agreement was seen by commentators as another boost for the citys economic prospects after it was announced on Friday that a scheme called the Bond Connect will use Hong Kong as the staging point to access Chinas interbank bond market, one of several economic gifts that Beijing has bestowed on the city to mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kongs return to Chinese rule.

Dont miss the boat: Xi warns of lost chances with Cantonese phrase

Local and mainland officials also agreed to cooperate on a series of goals, such as promoting infrastructure connectivity, enhancing the level of market integration and building a global technology and innovation hub.

After Xi left Hong Kong on Saturday afternoon, Lam, her predecessor Leung Chun-ying, and Chui attended a forum to further discuss the Greater Bay Area plan, along with business leaders and mainland officials.

My government will put in more resources for research and development in our universities

Chief Executive Carrie Lam

Lam said Hong Kongs strength will enable the city to play a key role in four main areas, including finance, logistics, trading, and innovation.

My government will put in more resources for research and development in our universities ... Hong Kong has a lot of technology experts. This important talent pool will help to power the Greater Bay Area continuously, Lam said.

Guangdong party secretary Hu Chunhua said the bay area concept will elevate cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau to a higher level.

We welcome companies ... and young people to go to the provinces to innovate and start their new businesses, Hu said.

Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, chair of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, said the concept will benefit technology companies.

Part of Hong Kongs strength is its international connection we can attract global talents to come to our city, Law said. But Hong Kongs market is small and we have a shortage of land, so if we can expand to the mainland, it will be very good.

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Technology boost to reinforce Hong Kong's status as finance and trade centre in bay area plan - South China Morning Post

WH refutes reports that Science and Technology office unstaffed – The Hill

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

An official from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) told The Hill the department's science division is staffed, despite a report saying the last three employees of the division left last week.

However, an OSTP official told The Hill there are currently 35 employees in OSTP, and 12 employees in the department's science division, adding that the division is organized and divided differently under the Trump administration compared to the Obama administration.

"Science division out. Mic drop, former OSTP assistant director for biomedical and forensic sciences Eleanor Celeste said on Friday in a tweet.

science division out. mic drop. pic.twitter.com/RoYTJqLoXa

"By COB today, number of staffers in White House OSTP's Science Division = 0, Obama era OSTP staffer Kumar Garg tweeted on Friday.

By COB today, number of staffers in White House OSTP's Science Division = 0. https://t.co/o4dsn4y3hO

There were more than 100 employees in OSTP during the Obama administration.

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WH refutes reports that Science and Technology office unstaffed - The Hill

How roots and technology are transforming New York orchards – Albany Times Union

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

An apple tree planted in 1978 shows its root stock, bottom, below the tree's trunk at Indian Ladder Farms Wednesday June 28, 2017 in Altamont, NY. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Young apple trees grown on Geneva root stock at Indian Ladder Farms Wednesday June 28, 2017 in Altamont, NY. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Peter Ten Eyck points out a young apple tree trunk, top, and its Geneva root stock, bottom, at his Indian Ladder Farms Wednesday June 28, 2017 in Altamont, NY. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Peter Ten Eyck walks between rows of SnapDragon apple trees grown on Geneva root stock at his Indian Ladder Farms Wednesday June 28, 2017 in Altamont, NY. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

How roots and technology are transforming New York orchards

Altamont

It's 4 p.m. and Peter Ten Eyck is sipping a half-cup of coffee and talking about elephant and mouse hair.

I came to his Altamont orchard to inquire about a unique apple rootstock known as Geneva 935, and he's happy to oblige.

But first: Elephant and mouse hair. Consider the difference, he asks, in spacing between the two. How does that affect the animal skin below? What about how it gets sunlight? The height of the hairs? The width?

This, he says, is the modern apple farmer's dilemma: the constant trial, error and frustration in pursuit of that perfect mix of space, width, height, shade and sunshine.

An hour later he describes today's orchards as in the middle of a rapid conversion "between art and science."

"It used to be an art," he says. "But now there's a little bit of both."

He considers himself more of a scientist a fact made increasingly evident by his casual use of phrases like "light inception per acre" and "service area ratios vs. volume." Indeed, if there are three things Peter inherited from his grandfather, it's the middle name "Gansevoort," this plot of land at Indian Ladder Farms and an absolute love for all things apples.

After a few more minutes of technical chatter that's clearly above my head, he decides it's best to just show me what he means. We jump in his red Subaru Outback and take a quick route up an old dirt hill toward the back of the farm.

From afar it looks like any old orchard. That quickly changes.

If the elder Peter Gansevoort were alive today, he'd not likely recognize many parts of the land on which he once toiled. The glacier-sculpted sediment cliffs of the Helderberg Escarpment still tower beautifully over the plot. But 100 years after the orchard's founding, its aesthetics are changing, and fast.

Peter notes that when he points to the oldest trees, many of which are clinging to life in their twilight years. He remembers planting them as a high schooler in the 1950s. They are thick and short, scattered so as not to grow onto one another, with twisting, bulbous bodies and saw scars that show their age. Sixty years after planting they have all the unkempt and picturesque bushiness of an orchard that draws thousands of amateur pickers to frolic between their trees each fall.

"That's what an apple tree looks like if you don't modify it," he says.

The area is patchy and spacious like the hair on an elephant. I get it now.

A natural apple tree palnted in the 1950's at Indian Ladder Farms...

He points out the window to another section of trees. They are carved into the hill with scalpel-like precision. From head-on they are tight and tidy, with an intentional uniformity like that of a polished military battalion. Football fields-worth of drip line undergird their bases, and at their midway points hang hundreds of bamboo splints that keep the new trees growing up, not outward.

They are about 3 feet apart, tangling atop each other mouse hair; Geneva trees.

Named for the location of the Cornell University lab in which they were perfected or rather, made as close to perfect as possible the Geneva rootstocks are the brainchild of years of scientific tinkering. It's been decades since they were first inoculated with disease and fungi, and the final product is a root that is more resistant to deadly pathogens like fire blight, and can be customized for new apple varieties.

They allow apple growers to fuse together different tree tops with rootstocks that can stave off disease and are far less reliant on pesticides.

"If you look at an apple tree today, you're really looking at two apple trees," Peter says.

Young apple trees grown on Geneva root stock at Indian Ladder Farms...

Years ago, tree nurseries would simply grow seedlings from random apple seeds, and use those as rootstock. It was an arduous process that, because of the variants in genetic makeup, required each tree to be treated with individualized care that drained precious hours and energy. Nor were those rootstocks made for specific soils and climates.

"It was like going to a grocery store you'd just pick whatever was available," said Gennaro Fazio, an apple breeder and geneticist at Cornell's plant science school in Geneva.

But that all started changing in the 1970s. The Malling rootstocks, named for the research center from which they originated in East Malling, England, quickly became the dominant stock for the global apple industry. But they too were vulnerable.

Enter Cornell breeders James Cummins and Herbery Aldwinckle: The two started tinkering in their Geneva lab around the same time the Malling rootstocks were being popularized. Years later they had created a modern rootstock that is the basis for today's Geneva rootstock.

"Some of these apple varieties require a little bit more vigor in their roots," says Fazio, who picked up the two's torch after their retirements. "Some require a little bit of a different nutritional balance. So what we're trying to do is match the root systems with new varieties ... That allows the grower to come up with the best possible scenario" for their orchard.

These new trees are "like insurance," he said. "I've seen entire orchards wiped out" by fire blight and other diseases. "But this tree will survive an infection. ... You don't lose an orchard. You don't lose a tree."

The Geneva rootstocks can be tailored to fit with other trees, and so are more customizable. In an apple industry that's increasingly about niche products, that matters.

"The biggest investments are in new varieties and higher-producing, more efficient systems," says Jeff Crist, owner of Crist Brothers Orchards, in Orange County. "Those are the only ways we stay relevant, and the root system is really the base of that process."

Peter, for example, has a few acres of Snapdragon apples, a new variety created by Cornell breeder Susan Brown. They're sweet and juicy, with a vibrant bright red skin and a notable crunch, and since being introduced in 2013, they've been in high demand a trend on which Peter is hoping to capitalize this fall.

"We're going to find out how many the public wants," he says. "And then we're going to grow exactly one less than (that) so we can set a good price."

There are, of course, some downsides to the new tech. The Geneva roots are more expensive, and Peter says some of the thousands of Indian Ladder's annual visitors who have been going there for years have remarked on the changing scenery.

But the efficiency and cost savings are worth it, especially for larger orchards less reliant on picking season.

Crist says, "If it keeps the trees alive, well, that's a lot better of a look than it they're dead, right?"

RDownen@timesunion.com 518-454-5018 @RobertDownenTU

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How roots and technology are transforming New York orchards - Albany Times Union

Buff Ross mixes technology with love of museums – Charleston Post Courier

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

Buff Ross is a man about town, an artist, art advocate, designer and philosopher. He's in love with great urban environments, museums and technology with the capacity to transform.

Ross, active in Charleston's visual art scene, has degrees in anthropology and museum studies and runs Alloneword Design. His work is informed by a desire to use code in ways that inspire and inform.

And what would he do if computers suddenly became out of reach? Travel. Find ways to get close to great art, old and new. "I would work in a museum in some deeper capacity," he said. "I still get to interface and collaborate with museums but wish that was more frequent, deeper and consistent."

Q: You have lots of museum experience as a curator and designer. Were you an artsy kid? How/why/when did you get interested in the arts?

A: My mother was potter and always fostered and induced artistic interests. But as much as I was artsy, I also swerved crafty. We had contests in lamp building (any material), bicycle mods and even made our own backpacking equipment from early REI kits. This duality is why I love both design and coding. Currently I find myself coding less and less, but when I can and when you get to hit push and the math and language result in something visual, it always reminds me that it is a craft.

Growing up, I drew a ton and began painting in high school and college but largely abandoned that. Lately, I have been illustrating as much as possible through work as a way to reconnect with visual art.

Q: You and your wife Leila recently started Show and Tell Art and Design, a web-based commercial gallery featuring works by artists you care about. Why did you decide to get into the art-selling business?

A: Because the art buying business is far less lucrative. Just kidding. Most of the impetus of that decision should be credited to Leila. She had a desire to create a gallery business that offered artists a chance to tell the story why they create what they do. The natural impulse then was to find a physical venue for that expression.

Galleries, like restaurants, have a generally low success rate. After researching spaces in the crowded and expensive Charleston real estate market, we decided to hedge our bets and leverage our skills to create an online market that eliminates some of those risks. Additionally, we have been able to create pop-up spaces that bridge the digital disadvantages.

Q: You run Alloneword Design, and create interactive, dynamic websites. At what point did you embrace technology as an artistic medium? And what role do you see technology playing within the arts going forward?

A: As a graduate student in Museum Studies in the late '90s during the first internet boom, I was intrigued by the opportunities this new medium presented to museums and, by extension, artists. Living in San Francisco during those days I was on the sidelines watching folks predict what could and couldnt be virtually commodified. Being involved with museums though, I quickly identified that we were on the cusp of a revolution in the access to information.

Museums typically have incredible repositories of cultural and artistic assets that typically never see the exhibit floor. Eighty percent of objects in museum collections never make it to public display. This disconnect always seemed like a collective cultural deficit that the internet might offer a mitigatory solution. So, that was my initial impetus and continues to motivate me today.

Q: You are active on the boards of the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art and Redux Contemporary Art Center. What is your assessment of Charlestons relationship with contemporary art? How can art improve the quality of life in town?

A: That is the million-dollar question placed in front of any organization trying to fund-raise on the Skinny Peninsula today. Is the impact of art as easily quantified as other social needs issues? Never. Does that make it a less important thread to the fabric of this community? I would offer that it is an integral facet of a well-rounded community just as it is a facet of a well-rounded human.

Charleston sits on the precipice of the new economy where talent chooses to move to locations that revere quality of life over all other deciding factors. One crucial element of that should be, and is, the arts.

If we want to keep accelerating as a nationally relevant city economically, we must also preserve the arts, history and natural environment that are attracting intelligent and creative new residents to our city.

Q: You are a community-focused person. What are you currently working on that might have a positive impact on public life? Any Halsey or Redux projects in the works?

A: I am fortunate enough to be working on some great projects with both organizations and two other groups in Charleston. They are exciting but not fully gestated enough to discuss right now. The fun of seeing a collaborative idea come to final fruition is only eclipsed slightly by the intellectual consumption of multiple ideas as they struggle to become a narrative. So stay tuned

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Buff Ross mixes technology with love of museums - Charleston Post Courier

Giants ace Bumgarner pleased with progress, but when will he return? – Sacramento Bee

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

Sacramento Bee

Giants ace Bumgarner pleased with progress, but when will he return?
Sacramento Bee
Madison Bumgarner left the mound to a standing ovation at Raley Field on Friday night. As a one-game member of the River Cats, he acknowledged the sellout crowd of 14,014 with a wave. The Giants ace had mixed results against the Fresno Grizzlies in his ...

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Giants ace Bumgarner pleased with progress, but when will he return? - Sacramento Bee

T&D Region lawmakers: Progress made on big issues – The Times and Democrat

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Danzig

They didnt get everything they wanted, but local lawmakers believe the General Assembly accomplished a lot this year.

This was a good session for the state, said Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman.

Lawmakers approved a plan to fund roads, found additional money for poor school districts and addressed state pension problems.

I think that there were some very big issues that we had to tackle this year that certainly made the session very challenging, said Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg.

Even though some of those issues we did not totally solve, I thought that we at least made some progress in trying to solve them, he said.

Lawmakers say one of their biggest accomplishments was the passage of the road-funding bill.

That was certainly an achievement well look back on in years to come, said Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg.

The bill increases the state gas tax of 16.75 cents per gallon by 12 cents over a six-year period. The first two cents were added yesterday.

The state Department of Transportation reported that more than half of roadway pavement in South Carolina is considered in poor condition. Repairs would cost nearly $500 million annually to bring roadways into good condition.

That has been an issue that has continuously hung a cloud over the state, said Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews.

Road conditions present safety issues and negatively affect businesses and their transportation of goods, he said.

Ott said the increase will create a more sustainable and recurring funding source, which the state needs.

Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, agreed, saying, There is simply not enough money to go around to fulfill all the needs the state has.

We need new revenue streams, he said.

Govan said the gas tax is a fair way to raise the needed revenue, as the burden will not fall completely on South Carolinians. Travelers who use the roads will share the cost.

Its only fair that those persons driving through also share the burdens of the cost, he said. We have taken a positive step forward in terms of roads funding.

Area lawmakers were also glad to see pension reform advance.

Retirees, theyve worked for the state and served, and they ought not to be worried, said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.

Currently, the pension plan is underfunded by roughly $24 billion because of low returns in past years.

The plan covers an estimated 550,000 government workers in the state and has collected around $2 billion annually from workers and employers but has paid out $3 billion in benefits.

This issue really got out of hand a number of years ago, Govan said. Im glad to say that we added money to the system and made some other adjustments that hopefully will begin to put us on the right track.

The proposed solution would increase most employees' contributions from 8.66 percent to 9 percent of their annual pay and cap those payments at that percentage.

Employer contributions would increase by 1 percent annually through 2022.

This also means an increase in the amount of money that school districts, local governments and state universities have to contribute.

Nobodys really happy with what had to be done, Ott said. Its never popular, but the worst thing you can do is stick your head in the sand.

In the area of education, the budget provides $55.8 million for capital improvements at high-poverty schools.

Cobb-Hunter said $100 million was originally proposed only for schools involved in the Abbeville lawsuit, which include Orangeburg County schools.

Govan said wishes there was more money for school improvements, especially since it will now be spread throughout the state.

Although the Legislature was not able to pass a bond bill to fund higher education building needs, local lawmakers hope one can be passed next year.

Higher education needs it to pass, Cobb-Hunter said.

Ott said it is needed to address the issues of deferred maintenance at college buildings.

Once you see a leak, you have to go ahead and replace it, he said. It makes sense to borrow the money.

Bamberg said he wants one to pass as well but, A bond bill wont solve the problem itself.

He encourages the Legislature to put politics aside and consider new, innovative ways of creating revenue streams.

Were at a point in South Carolina where we need to be more proactive, Bamberg said. He said the state could get left behind as other states continue to advance.

He was glad to see the governor sign into law the industrial hemp program.

The program will allow 20 farmers to grow and harvest industrial hemp, which can be made into oil, rope, clothing, paper, canvas, soap and even some food and drinks.

Farmers said the ability to diversify the crops they grow will not only benefit them, but the state as a whole.

That was a huge, Ott said. I think thats going to be a program were going to continue to see grow.

Bamberg added, We need to work on passing medical marijuana legislation.

He said it will be a benefit to patients with illnesses or conditions that are treated with medical marijuana.

Bamberg said legalizing gambling should also be considered.

If done correctly, we can strike the balance between those people who are against it and those people who recognize that when we talk about new revenue for education and new revenue for roads, a legalized gaming system is something that can bring in millions and millions of dollars, he said.

The increased revenue could also help the state lower taxes, he said.

It is a very difficult task to consistently lower taxes on industries and small business while at the same time the state fails to create new revenue streams to combat that, Bamberg said.

Lawmakers are looking forward to addressing several issues next year.

Hutto wants to come up with a plan to replace school buses.

Gov. Henry McMaster vetoed $20 million for school buses this year. He said he wants to come up with a plan to replace buses, but doesnt want to use lottery money that should go to scholarships.

Lawmakers arent expected to address the governors vetoes until they return in January.

Education Superintendent Molly Spearman says the state needs $73 million to replace all of the buses which go back to 1995.

Matthews will be pushing for his port enhancement zone proposal, which is still in the House.

The bill would give businesses tax credits for locating within a 35-mile radius of the intersection of interstates 95 and 26.

He says the location makes it an ideal distribution hub for cargo shipped to and from the port and the incentives would help lure jobs into the area.

Bamberg wants to address the Local Government Fund, which provides counties and towns with a share of the states revenue.

I am disappointed in our inability to fully fund the local government fund, he said. It puts them in a bind when we have unfunded state mandates.

He said the local governments deserve to be properly funded.

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T&D Region lawmakers: Progress made on big issues - The Times and Democrat

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