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Factory workers need to worry about automation more than techies – Economic Times

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

NEW DELHI: Automation is emerging as a big threat to jobs. The information technology (IT) sector seems to be the worst-hit by automation. But a survey by TeamLease reveals automation is affecting the manufacturing and engineering sector the most.

Jobs in factories are the most vulnerable to automation than those in the IT companies because it's easiest to automate manufacturing.

The trend of robots replacing workers is no more restricted to countries like Japan. It is accelerating across the globe in the field of manufacturing and production, taking away the livelihood of factory workers.

"Robots are taking over at large number of places. Robots don't want appraisal. They don't want work-life balance. They work 24 hours. In Delhi, metro is going to be automated. Automobile industry which employees 1 in 6 people in the world is going to be automated," said Mohandas Pai, IT industry veteran and Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services.

What is already happening in the US should be a grim reminder for India. The US lost about 5.6 million manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010. According to a study done at Ball State University, 85 per cent of these losses are attributable to technological change, mainly automation.

In India too, those who work in factories should worry about automation more than software engineers.

Early signs of jobs distress in factories are becoming visible. Textile major Raymond is planning to cut about 10,000 jobs in its manufacturing centres in the next three years, replacing them with robots and technology. The company employs nearly 30,000 staff in its 16 manufacturing plants in the country, which means it would offload a third of its workers in just three years.

According to Raymond CEO Sanjay Behl, the future could be even harsher. "One robot could replace around 100 workers. While it is happening in China at present, it will also happen in India," Raymond CEO Sanjay Behl told ET last year in September.

After manufacturing & engineering, other sectors affected the most by automation are e-commorce and tech start-ups, media, information technology, banking & financial services, education and BPO & ITeS.

Infrastructure is the least affected by automation. In developing countries, machines and robots are replacing humans in the cosntruction sector but in India the sector has yet to see automation at a level where it threatens to take away a siginificant number of jobs. Yet, it could only be a matter of time.

Fast-moving consumer goods and durables and travel & hospitality-which tend to have fewer process-based jobs which can be handled by machines-are other sectors shielded from the impact of automation.

Most affected by automation 1. Manufacturing & engineering 2. E-commerce & tech startups 3. Media 4. IT 5. BFSI, education 6. BPO & ITeS

Least affected by automation 1. FMCD & G 2. Travel & hospitality 3. Infrastructure

Economictimes.Com partnered with TeamLease to prepare a set of reports on the employment situation in the country. This story is part of the series based on data from the Employment Outlook Report of TeamLease. Part of ET Jobs Disruption Report, these stories scan various aspects of the employment situation at different levels of city, sector, profile, etc.

Factory workers need to worry about automation more than techies - Economic Times

Automation will drive efficient, smooth and safe world trade by 2060: Kalmar – Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

By 2060, all goods will be shipped safely to their destination in smart containers within minutes of an order being placed, according to Kalmars renewed Port 2060 vision for the future of cargo handling.

An industry frontrunner in terminal automation and energy-efficient container handling, Kalmar forecasts that world trade in 2060 will be driven by automation and smart containers that know their contents and destination.

Being fully automated, the working environments in port terminals will be significantly improved in terms of efficiency and safety goods will move around faster, with almost no incidents.

Mr Peter McLean, Kalmars Head of Asia Pacific, said that port terminals will be complete logistic ecosystems, acting as global interchange points for an on-demand society.

In 40 years, consumers will be able to order goods directly from local producers and have the goods shipped to them within minutes. Since everything will be connected, consumers will be able to track exactly when the goods will arrive.

With automation, every move made by the smart containers will be consistently managed, which means that there will be almost no damage to the containers and port equipment. This helps to create a safer working environment for port workers, he said.

Kalmars renewed Port 2060 vision emphasises that artificial intelligence, combined with human experience and knowledge, will help solve highly complex problems. Predictive maintenance will be continually performed on all smart equipment at port terminals to avoid downtime and ensure that every process throughout the trade journey runs smoothly.

This means that in the event of downtime, equipment parts can be 3D printed on-site and installed automatically, ensuring that goods can continue to move efficiently throughout the supply chain, according to Mr McLean.

He further noted that industry automation is well underway and has escalated in the past decade, especially in Asia-Pacific. Automation is becoming increasingly important in the Asia-Pacific region, especially with the establishment of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. We are already seeing investments being made in automation in countries like Singapore, China and Australia. Many of these countries have been upgrading their technological capabilities while also investing in developing the human expertise needed to operate new technologies.

Over the next 40 years, new generations will have more time and space to innovate, thereby further improving communication and interactions over the entire supply chain network. We believe that by 2060, the pace of automation in Asia-Pacific will be comparable to the level of automation in Europe and other parts of the world, said Mr McLean.

Kalmars aim is to anticipate the challenges and solutions that will be relevant to the industry in the upcoming years, and work with the different port authorities to close the gaps in automation, thereby boosting the reliability and efficiency of cargo handling services in the region.

Mr McLean said, In our Port2060 vision, goods are transported faster, more efficiently and most importantly, safely. Ports are likely to be fully automated across Asia-Pacific, and the working environment in port terminals will be very different from what it is now.

We want to make this vision a reality by leading the discussion on the future of cargo handling, and helping our customers and partners adopt new technologies and innovations that prepare them for the future. Source: Kalmar

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Automation will drive efficient, smooth and safe world trade by 2060: Kalmar - Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

Pearl automation, founded by Apple veterans, shuts down – SFGate

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Employees at Pearl Automation enjoy a November lunch at the companys headquarters in Scotts Valley. It closed last week.

Pearl automation, founded by Apple veterans, shuts down

Pearl Automation, a Santa Cruz County startup founded by former Apple employees who tried to combine Apples dedication to quality with a more open corporate culture, has gone out of business.

The 3-year-old Scotts Valley company, which closed last week, made $500 automotive backup cameras that transmitted data wirelessly to the drivers smartphone. The devices were simple to install and were aimed at the tens of millions of older vehicles without preinstalled backup cameras. But they proved too expensive in a market with less elegant but cheaper alternatives.

We ran out of money, CEO Bryson Gardner said. We were probably two years ahead of our time.

Gardner and his colleagues had hoped to build a company that adopted Apples keen passion for design without its secrecy and top-down management style. Pearls failure shows that a positive corporate culture is not enough to escape the laws of economics.

The company had raised about $50 million from investors, including Venrock, Accel and Shasta Ventures, but it needed several hundred million dollars more to develop the market for its rear-facing camera, as well as a forward-facing camera that was in development. With about 75 employees, about 50 of whom had worked at Apple, the company was burning through cash at a rate that venture investors were unwilling to continue funding without a clear path to a hit product.

It was an ambitious and risky proposition from the beginning, with some great vision to try to revolutionize the automotive aftermarket, said David Pakman, a partner at Venrock who oversaw the Pearl investment. They are extraordinary product people, but none of us understood the market correctly.

Pearls failure was first reported by Axios.

Gardner said Pearl held talks with several potential acquirers in the automotive industry but could not reach an agreement. It did find a company, American Road Products, to take over its RearVision backup camera so current customers will not be left in the lurch.

While the company has failed, its employees are already fielding job offers. Brian Latimer, a program manager at Pearl who had previously worked at Apple, said the employees liked working as a team and some of them were trying to sell themselves as a package to a new employer.

Were trying to keep the band together, he said. Were incredibly effective.

Vindu Goel is a New York Times writer.

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Pearl automation, founded by Apple veterans, shuts down - SFGate

Laid to rest in the Kremlin: Why was US hack John Reed buried in Moscow? – Russia Beyond the Headlines

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

How did the son of a wealthy American entrepreneur and Harvard graduate become an ardent supporter of the proletarian revolution in Russia?

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"Here is a book which I should like to see published in millions of copies and translated into all languages" - V. Lenin about John Reed's book. Source: Getty Images

The life of American journalist John Reed (1887 - 1920) was so extraordinary that he inspired film directors on both sides of the Atlantic during the Cold War.

Warren Beatty's 1981 movie about Reed - Reds - won three Oscars. In the USSR, director Sergey Bondarchuk made a two part epic, Red Bells (1982), that was also based on Reeds life.

So why has the late hacks life fueled so much interest?

Reed was raised in an upper-class environment in the Pacific Northwest during the turn of the 20th century. He graduated from Harvard and showed interest in social issues, attending socialist club meetings. Three years after completing his studies he landed a job with the New York-based leftist magazine The Masses, which published articles by prominent radicals of the time.

As a determined champion of social justice, Reed covered strikes by silk mill workers in New Jersey and coal miners in Colorado. He was then sent to report on the Mexican revolution (1910 - 1920). He was appalled by the exploitation of laborers and Washingtons policy towards Mexico. "The United States Government is really headed toward the policy of civilizing 'em with a Krag [a rifle used by American troops] - a process which consists in forcing upon alien races with alien temperaments our own Grand Democratic Institutions: I refer to Trust Government, Unemployment, and Wage Slavery," Reed wrote.

His series on Mexico, later published as a book titled Insurgent Mexico, enforced Reed's reputation as a war correspondent. When World War I broke out in Europe Reed traveled to the Continent on two occasions, resulting in his second book - The War in Eastern Europe.

One of the organizers of the Communist Party of the United States (1919), participant in the Great October Socialist Revolution, author of the book Ten Days That Shook the World American writer and journalist John Reed (1887 - 1920) at a meeting in Nakhichevan. Source: RIA Novosti

However, his most famous work -Ten Days That Shook The World- was not about war, but rebellion. It was published in 1919 and described the events of the Russian revolution. Reed visited Russia in August 1917 and witnessed how the Bolsheviks seized power. He welcomed the uprising and was an enthusiastic supporter of the new socialist regime. "So, with the crash of artillery, in the dark, with hatred, and fear, and reckless daring, new Russia was being born," he wrote.

He met the two main leaders of the Bolshevik uprising in person, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, and was a big fan of the Bolshevik party. "Instead of being a destructive force, it seems to me that the Bolsheviki were the only party in Russia with a constructive program and the power to impose it on the country," Reed wrote in Ten Days That Shook The World.

"Reed died in 1920 in Moscow after contracting spotted typhus at the tender age of 32. He was given a state funeral and buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis." Source: L.Pakhomov/TASS

Its little wonder the book was well received by Lenin. "Here is a book which I should like to see published in millions of copies and translated into all languages. It gives a truthful and most vivid exposition of the events so significant tothe comprehension of what really is theProletarian Revolutionand theDictatorship of the Proletariat," the Bolshevik leader wrote in the introduction of the 1922 edition.

The book was also widely praised by the public - even American diplomat George F. Kennan, who had no sympathy towards the Soviets - gave it a positive review: "Reeds account of the events of that time rises above every other contemporary record for its literary power, its penetration, its command of detail."

Reed died in 1920 in Moscow after contracting spotted typhus at the tender age of 32. He was given a state funeral and buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Remembered for both his brilliant writing and political activism, Reed was also instrumental in establishing the Communist Labor Party of America and took part in the Comintern congress in Moscow shortly before his death, an event advocating world communism. Its no wonder hes inspired film directors and writers - and hell forever be praised as a bastion of social justice and journalistic integrity. He truly was a man of the people.

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Laid to rest in the Kremlin: Why was US hack John Reed buried in Moscow? - Russia Beyond the Headlines

Taiwan Activist Urges Crackdown Against Floating Sweatshops – Voice of America

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

STATE DEPARTMENT

Three videos from a mobile phone that described the beatings of an Indonesian crewman aboard a Taiwan-flagged vessel led Allison Lee to find her role as an advocate for those afflicted: migrant fishermen.

Lee, the co-founder of the Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union, was recognized by the United States for safeguarding the rights of foreign fishermen working in Taiwan.

In accepting her award in Washington on Tuesday, she made one appeal: to end slavery on the open sea.

To know the path from ocean to consumers' dinner plates is to know the story of floating sweatshops, Lee told VOA on Tuesday.

Migrant fishermen are vulnerable to exploitation, she said.

State Department award

Flanked by President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, Lee was one of the eight men and women to receive Hero Acting to End Modern Slavery Award at the State Department, where the 2017 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report was released.

Lee is the first Taiwan citizen to receive the honor.

Migrant workers aboard Taiwan-flagged fishing vessels that operate in international waters are not covered by the so-called Labor Standards Act, the laws governing employer and employee rights. Therefore, they do not benefit from Taiwan's minimum-wage regulations regarding overtime pay, Lee said.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen reaffirmed her government's pledge to battle against human trafficking.

Taiwan is committed to working with all stakeholders to fight human trafficking, Tsai tweeted.

For eight consecutive years, Taiwan has been ranked in the Tier 1 category, the best ranking in the human-trafficking report.

While acknowledging Taiwan's serious and sustained efforts, Washington urged Taipei to increase efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers under the anti-trafficking law.

'Vigorously investigate' infractions

The State Department also urged Taiwan to vigorously investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute the owners of Taiwan-owned or -flagged fishing vessels that allegedly commit abuse and labor trafficking on board long-haul fishing vessels.

The TIP Report is a symbol of the U.S. moral and legal obligation to combat tragic human rights abuses and as well as to advance human dignity around the world, said Susan Coppedge, the U.S. Ambassador-at-large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Tier 1 countries meet the minimum standards to combat trafficking, but that's just the minimum. They don't rest on their laurels, so to speak, Coppedge told VOA on Tuesday.

They need to continue their efforts to combat trafficking, and one of the areas where Taiwan can make additional progress is in labor trafficking, she added.

On January 15, 2017, the Act for Distant Water Fisheries took effect in Taiwan amid growing pressure on Taiwan's seafood industry to crack down on modern-day slavery and abuses for migrants working on the island's fishing vessels.

Lee told reporters that being a Christian gave her strength to withstand the pressure from government officials and the industry.

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Taiwan Activist Urges Crackdown Against Floating Sweatshops - Voice of America

Trump’s transaction cost presidency – Policy Forum

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Just as the Trump Administration winds back regulation on union-busting by employers, the UN releases a special report criticising US labour law through a human rights lens, writes Sally Tyler.

The nascent Trump Administrations ongoing relationship with Congress continues to play out like instalments of the Keystone Cops serial, with Republican leaders frantically trying to wrangle members to vote for a health care bill they have never seen, as the barometer of public support for legislation to nullify Obamacare declines by the day. While much attention has been paid to the rancorous legislative struggle and Trumps abject failure to fulfil any campaign promises during the critical first-100-days kick-start to his administration, it has gone almost unnoticed that his executive agencies (now that he finally amassed a full Cabinet in May the slowest start on record) have begun to quietly dismantle Obama era policy.

Such was the case earlier this month when the Department of Labour announced it had initiated reversal of the persuader rule, an Obama-era regulation meant to check employers union-busting activities, by requiring greater transparency around consultants hired to advise them on how to keep unions out of their workplaces.

The anti-union consulting business has become a multi-million industry in the US, and operates largely in the shadows, because prior to the persuader rule, employers only had to publicly disclose the use of such consultants if they were being engaged to speak directly to employees.

Most consultants are engaged to write anti-union scripts for employers, who then use the scripts at captive audience staff meetings, which employees cannot avoid, and to which unions cannot gain access. Such meetings are prevalent in the private sector, where unionisation has reached a post-World War II low of 6.4 per cent.

Proponents of the rule argued it was only fair to allow workers to understand the entities behind the anti-union messages being delivered to them in the workplace, and that outcomes of elections for union representation might be different if workers knew that the heart-felt manifesto against unions delivered by their boss was merely a boilerplate template concocted by a corporate flack they had never met.

The rule also brought about a balance in reporting, as unions were already required to report staff salaries and political contributions, giving workers a snapshot of their operations. Now that Trump has taken steps to rescind the rule, the burden of disclosure will be entirely on the part of unions, with employers anti-union efforts remaining nearly invisible.

During the recent UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, a new report was issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of assembly and association in the US. One focus of the report, not likely to garner headlines in the country, is the anaemic status of American labour law as a reflection of weakened human rights policy. The rapporteur notes that the belief in the absolute solvency of free market economic principles, coupled with intolerance toward competing ideas, undermines human rights: Nowhere is this free market fundamentalist approach more evident than in the US approach to labour rights, which overwhelmingly favours the wellbeing of employers over workers.

The report goes on to detail lax enforcement for employer violations such as wage theft, debt slavery, and sexual harassment. The rapporteur finds the paltry resources dedicated to enforcement of crimes against workers to be particularly ironic when contrasted with the robust funding for law enforcement of other crimes. He also finds it noteworthy that some states pro-actively advertise their anti-union status to attract foreign manufacturers. He says this lays the foundation for many European firms to aggressively pursue anti-union activities in the US that they would never contemplate in Europe.

Similarly, Australias Fair Work Act has been criticised for restricting freedom of association, particularly as the right to strike (industrial action) is only protected during the process of bargaining a contract. That narrow period leaves ample room for employer misconduct, with little by the way of substantive recourse for workers.

Because of its restriction on the right to strike, Australian Council of Trade Unions leader Sally McManus has characterised the act as an unjust law.

A report such as the UNs would have likely had a more resonant impact with a different American president. Imagine how Hillary Clinton, who famously declared Womens rights are human rights, at the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, would have responded to criticism that the US is not living up to its own ideals.

Having invited the report, under Obama, the US government is technically obligated to reply. But with Trump, one imagines that the response will probably consist of either a verbal shrug of the so what? variety, or a bellicose across-the-board denial which fails to address specifics. Like his man-crush Putin, the US president has widely declared that the domestic affairs of other nations are their own business, so one can imagine that this report may not make his morning briefings.

Yet, perhaps the report will eventually find readers in the US, which will help stoke calls for more unionisation, even as Trump policies create obstacles to the process, and global union rates continue to fall.

The overwhelming majority of people on the planet must work for their survival, and give up some degree of liberty in being told by an employer how they must spend their time on the job. But workers do not give up all their rights when they cross the workplace threshold. Framing labour rights as human rights, both interdependent and indivisible, as the UNs Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights notes, may help build understanding of their intrinsic value, and the importance of protecting them.

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Trump's transaction cost presidency - Policy Forum

The Racist History Of Minimum Wage Laws – The Liberty Conservative

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

The Liberty Conservative

The Racist History Of Minimum Wage Laws
The Liberty Conservative
In it, he argued that the minimum-wage law is the most anti-Negro law on our statute books. He was, of course, referring to the then-present era, after the far more explicitly racist laws from the eras of slavery and segregation had already been removed.

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The Racist History Of Minimum Wage Laws - The Liberty Conservative

Mark Brandi discovers Eddie McGuire, the literary benefactor – Daily Review

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

It takes time and therefore money to write a book. Mark Brandi, the author of Wimmera (Hachette Australia), decided to find cash by taking a journey that involved risk, humiliationand getting up closeand personal with Eddie McGuire. He tells his story below.

No one needed to know. Not my work, or my friends. Definitely not my family.

After all, it might be a disaster I could walk away with nothing. Or worse, be humiliated on national television.

Despite hopes of becoming a writer, Id found myself trapped in the drudgery of a policy job in a government department. But with a mortgage and bills to pay, staying put made sense in my head, if not my heart.

Still I wondered could I escape this life of wage-slavery and pursue my dreams? Maybe. But I needed some kind of circuit breaker, something to kick-start a new career. And if I was to write, more than anything, I needed cash.

So I find myself, on a steamy February afternoon, waiting nervously in the green room for Millionaire Hot Seat.

While my fellow contestants scope out each others quiz show expertise, I vividly imagine my impending humiliation. What if I bomb out first question, or just completely freeze? My nerves are jangling. What the hell was I thinking?

I seriously consider doing a runner. But then, I remember something.

In the darkest recesses of my backpack battered and almost two years out-of-date an old packet of Xanax. The stuff never agreed with me, but desperate times

Before I know it, were on set and each waiting our turn in the Hot Seat. The studio lights are blinding and the audience are going nuts; and theres Eddie sharp-suit and make-up like a rat with a gold tooth.

The pills (four within an hour) start hitting me hard.I feel myself drifting outside my body, away from the set, as though watching the whole thing unfold from somewhere in the audience.

Paul, a former AFL footballer, is up and nails the first question before passing. Jim, a video store employee, answers a few before bombing out.

Then comes Kathy.

Kathys the battler with a back-story. She works at Bunnings and keeps greyhounds. And shes from Frankston. Eddies eyes light up.

Despite not knowing the answers, she guesses three and seems destined for the remaining $100,000. Eddie is delighted, the crowd is loving it, and I feel like I might throw up.

But then, it happens.

Kathy falls short, just one question shy of the cash. She trudges off stage and Eddie hides his disappointment ever the pro, the thousand-watt grin shines right through.

Well be right back and Mark Brandi will have one question for the cash on Millionaire Hot Seat!

My turn. One question. $50,000.

I am thrust, with one almighty thump, back to reality. My breathing is rapid and my heart beats up inside my throat.

Its time.

The source of comic-book superhero Green Lanterns special abilities is his power what?

A: Belt

B: Ring

C: Key

D: Watch.

I talk through the answers out loud, my voice distant to my own ears. The Green Lantern? I can almost picture him

Ten seconds, Eddie says.

I read comics as a kid, but more UK than USA. More dystopia than Marvel.

Five seconds

Then, in my minds eye, it appears. I dont know if its a false memory or the benzos or what. But I see my hand reaching inside a cheap carnival show-bag from my childhood, right down in the corner a small, green, plastic ring.

Ill go with B, I say.

Final answer?

Lock it in.

Eddies eyes sparkle somewhere between charisma and malevolence Im sure Ive blown it.

But then, he says it.

Mark. Youve just won fifty thousand dollars!

The audience erupts. Fellow contestants shake my hand. Even some of the crew manage a smile.

As the lights fade and we walk from the set, Eddie pulls me aside.

Well done mate. Fifty grand! Tax-free! You know how long it would take to save that?

We pose for a photo at either end of a novelty cheque.

You won it though, he says. Its yours.

Then, quietly, some sage advice from the boy from Broady.

Dont let anyone get their claws into it, right?

He neednt have worried I had firm plans for the cash. Soon, I changed to part-time hours and tested the waters: the writing life felt good more than that, it felt right. The money gave me time and space to complete early drafts of my novel, Wimmera, while still keeping the wolf from the door.

Publishing is a tough industry for a first-time novelist to break through, all the stars need to align. In my case, one of those stars was a celebrity of debatable talent, but undoubted tenacity a quality also vital to any aspiring author.

So I will always feel a peculiar debt to Eddie McGuire perhaps the worlds most unknowing (and unlikely) literary benefactor.

Wimmera, acrime novel aboutsmall town with a big secret,wasthe winner of the 2016 UK Crime WritersAssociation Debut Dagger for an unpublished manuscript and is now published by Hachette Australia. Brandiwas born in Italy but grew up in rural Victoria and is a former policy advisor for the VictorianDepartment of Justice.

Affront to Florida’s Agency for State Technology Officially Dies by Governor’s Veto – Government Technology

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

In early 2017, Floridas House Government Operations and Technology Appropriations subcommittee launched a legislative assault on the autonomy of the states centralized IT shop, the Agency for State Technology (AST). That affront, better known as House Bill 5301, did not survive Gov. Rick Scotts veto June 26.

When the bill was originally introduced in March, the chief sponsor of the bill, Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, R-District 35, raised issue with the 3-year-old agencys authority over the states data center oversight, and targeted what he perceived as unnecessary costs and ballooning IT expenses.

He called for agencies to conduct their own cost-benefit analyses around data center use, which would have allowed them to unilaterally move to individual cloud services at will. Experts worried the plan would have driven up costs for agencies remaining under the data centers cost recovery model.

Officials within the agency and experts in the states tech community voiced concern about the plan to essentially decentralize the agency, but the bill proceeded, eventually being tied to the states budgeting and appropriations process. In May, word filtered down that through budget conference negotiations, the agency had secured its at-risk funding and would remain intact.

As a result of the budget conference, AST was able to increase some measure of authority in the form of a new chief data officer position and the creation of the geographic information office, though 20 positions would be cut eight of which were staffed as of May 4.

The negotiations also netted some additional reporting requirements for AST, but those leading the agency said they were happy to oblige.

Though officials within the agency are pleased their charge will remain, they are not dwelling on the events of the past several months. Rather, Erin Choy, spokesperson for the agency, told Government Technology that they are focused on the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January, and the many initiatives they would like to see come to fruition.

Because of the way, in even-numbered years, the legislative session begins the second week in January, AST folks are working on proposed legislative budget requests and policy proposals, she said. So, yes, we were waiting for the governors action on the bill, but we are very focused on improving the current environment.

As Government Technology has reported, Florida's IT agencies have faced considerable challenges at the hands of the states Legislature to this point. In 2005, the Florida State Technology Office was shuttered after losing its funding. And in 2012, the Agency for Enterprise Information Technology was pulled by Scott rather than allowing it to stand in title and function without funding.

Democrats have hired Raffi Krikorian, a former Uber exec, as their chief technology officer – Recode

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

As Democrats begin to rebuild in the wake of their 2016 presidential election defeat, the partys official political organ is tapping Raffi Krikorian, a former top engineer at Ubers self-driving-car program, to be its next chief technology officer.

The hire, confirmed by multiple sources on Wednesday, comes as the Democratic National Committee looks to improve its tech tools in a bid to reach more voters while preventing another major cyber breach, the likes of which by Russian-backed hackers in 2016 helped sink Hillary Clintons campaign.

Krikorian departed Uber in February; he had served as the senior director of engineering at Ubers Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. He then briefly joined New America, a nonpartisan policy think tank, as the director of engineering focused on public-interest technology. He did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, nor did the DNC. And he previously spent five years as vice president of platform engineering at Twitter.

When he assumes his new role, though, Krikorian will face no shortage of endemic tech troubles to tackle beginning with shoring up the DNCs cyber defenses after Russian hackers targeted Democrats in 2016, stole their private emails and shared them with WikiLeaks.

The DNCs new leader, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, has specifically said that the party needs its own in-house cyber security officer not just to help the DNC, he told Politico in January, but to support local political officials as they also try to fight off future breaches.

Beyond that campaign-changing, narrative-shaping cyber incident, many believe the DNC has fallen behind in supporting and deploying tech tools to target voters, raise money and send those supporters to the polls on Election Day.

Even Hillary Clinton has criticized the DNC for disorganization, stressing at the Code Conference in June that it was bankrupt and on the verge of insolvency when she won the partys presidential nomination.

Its data was mediocre to poor, Clinton said.

Clintons comments quickly drew sharp rebukes from DNC veterans. Many also charged that the partys next challenge is corralling and harnessing the myriad tech-focused groups that have sprung out of Silicon Valley to oppose Trump.

Update, 1:14 p.m. ET: Hours later, Kirkorian confirmed the hire.

i'm so excited for this new role as the CTO for @TheDemocrats. let's do this.

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Democrats have hired Raffi Krikorian, a former Uber exec, as their chief technology officer - Recode

Putting Cadillac’s self-driving Super Cruise technology to the test – CNBC

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

"This is definitely a shot across the bow of Tesla, which already has Autopilot," said Michelle Krebs, analyst for AutoTrader.com. "Cadillac is really trying to take Tesla on in that category of technology."

There are some key differences between Cadillac's Super Cruise and Tesla's Autopilot.

The Super Cruise system includes a small camera on the steering column that watches the eyes of the driver. If you are not watching the road for more than a few seconds and you are texting, surfing the web on your phone or falling asleep, the camera on the steering wheel will prompt the Super Cruise to alert you to take control.

The first warning is the steering wheel flashing. After that, the CT6 sends an audio warning and the steering wheel starts flashing red, both telling you to take control.

If you continue to ignore the warnings and do not re-engage the car, Super Cruise will turn on the CT6's hazard lights and slow down the car, eventually bringing it to a stop. At that point, an OnStar operator will reach out to the driver.

"How long it takes before the system notices a driver is not paying attention depends on your speed," said Bolio. "If you are going 75 miles per hour, it's three or four seconds, depending on the traffic around you. If you are in bumper-to-bumper traffic going 10 miles per hour, it's a little longer."

That's the other major difference between Cadillac's Super Cruise and Tesla's Autopilot. Super Cruise can only be engaged on the highway and does not automatically do lane changes. Tesla's Autopilot allows drivers to signal a lane change and if the sensors on the car show the lane is free, it automatically moves the car over with the driver not having to touch the steering wheel.

In addition, Autopilot can be engaged in city driving, not just on the highway.

So after testing out Super Cruise, the question is whether I felt it changed my driving experience? I admit having the car watch me added a level security and reassurance. In addition, the system was intuitive and easy to use.

That said, I would love to see it expand beyond highway driving. There are plenty of major roads I use on the way to work where Super Cruise would make the drive far less frustrating as I constantly ride the brake in rush hour traffic.

Super Cruise will be offered on Cadillac CT6 models starting this fall.

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Putting Cadillac's self-driving Super Cruise technology to the test - CNBC

UK entry fee could be used to improve border technology – Belfast Telegraph

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

UK entry fee could be used to improve border technology

BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Visitors should be charged 10 to enter Britain to pay for new technology to avoid the need for a hard Irish border and increase the ease of doing business after Brexit, a think-tank has said.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/uk-entry-fee-could-be-used-to-improve-border-technology-35876833.html

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article35876832.ece/f8f0e/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-a10f3ad4-f20b-45e0-af8d-1683fa5818fd_I1.jpg

Visitors should be charged 10 to enter Britain to pay for new technology to avoid the need for a hard Irish border and increase the ease of doing business after Brexit, a think-tank has said.

The Reform think-tank said the fee would be in line with United States charges for international visitors and could raise up to 450 million a year, equivalent to 80% of the Border Force budget.

The money could go towards harnessing technology to cut queues at passport control to just 15 seconds while ensuring customs checks on goods entering the country take 12 minutes rather than six hours.

It comes after Brexit Secretary David Davis said the UK will leave the tariff-free EU customs union by March 2019, when Brexit is due to be complete.

The Government's intention to leave the customs union in order to strike free trade deals around the world has sparked fears that border checks could come into force between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and warnings that such checks could damage businesses.

Ministers have said they would like to maintain "frictionless" customs arrangements and Reform said technology can deliver this objective.

For travellers, the focus should be on making human interactions redundant, with cameras confirming a visitor's exit from their departure country, a smartphone app sharing their travel status once they board a plane, and their entry to the UK through an e-gate following pre-clearance for arrival.

Similar technology in the Netherlands enables people to pass through border control in 15 seconds, while the UK Border Force currently aims to process new arrivals within 45 minutes, the think-tank said.

Pressure on UK customs can be eased by shipping firms sharing information on cargo before arrival while in-built sensors can track the movement of containers and the condition of livestock and food, the think-tank added.

Such an approach could also boost tax take by accurately identifying foods entering the country, making more money available to the Government, the report said.

Britain could also adopt technology used at the port of Rotterdam, where artificial intelligence reads x-rays of suspect cargo, taking 3.5 seconds as opposed to 10 minutes for humans.

Alexander Hitchcock, report co-author, says: "Technology can remove any fear of a return to a hard border between the UK and Ireland, while increasing ease of doing business.

"This will go a long way to fulfil the Government's aim of a 'truly Global' Britain following Brexit."

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UK entry fee could be used to improve border technology - Belfast Telegraph

Progress buys mobile backend start-up Kinvey for $49 million – CNBC

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Progress Software on Wednesday announced that it has acquired Kinvey, a start-up that offers a service that developers can use to build and host mobile apps that integrate with existing enterprise software systems. The deal cost Progress $49 million.

Progress, which makes software for companies to build cross-platform applications and claims 80,000 enterprise customers, made the announcement alongside its earnings report for the quarter ended May 31. The company earned $0.21 per share on $93.2 million in revenue during the quarter. Progress stock was up 4 percent in after-hours trading.

Earlier this year Progress unveiled a new strategic plan that emphasizes cognitive application development. The word "cognitive," a nod to computing in a way that's similar to what the human brain can do, has been popularized by IBM in recent years. The push comes during a phase of industry-wide investment in artificial intelligence (AI).

"In the future, the market is trending to the point where app development platforms have to exhibit certain new characteristics to enable intelligent and useful apps that come to you, instead of you going to an app," Kinvey cofounder and CEO Sravish Sridhar told CNBC in an email.

Kinvey was founded in 2010 and based in Boston. Over the years Kinvey became known as a key provider of mobile backend as a service, which provides the underlying necessary computing and storage infrastructure for apps, with customers such as Schneider Electric and VMware. The company had raised nearly $18 million in venture capital from investors such as Verizon Ventures and NTT Docomo.

One of Kinvey's competitors, Parse, was acquired by Facebook in 2013 and subsequently shut down.

Kinvey will remain available as a standalone product but will be integrated with existing Progress tools such as NativeScript and DataDirect, wrote Sridhar, who will report to Progress CEO Yogesh Gupta.

Progress acquired predictive maintenance start-up DataRPM for $30 million in March.

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Progress buys mobile backend start-up Kinvey for $49 million - CNBC

Little progress evident as GOP hunts health bill votes – ABC News

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell explored options for salvaging the battered Republican health care bill Wednesday but confronted an expanding chorus of GOP detractors, deepening the uncertainty over whether the party can resuscitate its bedrock promise to repeal President Barack Obama's overhaul.

A day after McConnell, short of votes, unexpectedly abandoned plans to whisk the measure through his chamber this week, fresh GOP critics popped forward. Some senators emerged from a party lunch saying potential amendments were beyond cosmetic, with changes to Medicaid and Obama's consumer-friendly insurance coverage requirements among the items in play.

"There's a whole raft of things that people are talking about, and some of it's trimming around the edges and some of it's more fundamental," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. "Right now, they're still kind of, 'Can we do it?' and I can't answer that."

Yet while this week's retreat on a measure McConnell wrote behind closed doors dented his reputation as a consummate legislative seer, no one was counting him out.

"Once in Glacier National Park I saw two porcupines making love," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. "I'm assuming they produced smaller porcupines. They produced something. It has to be done carefully. That's what we're doing now."

Having seen the House approve its health care package in May six weeks after an earlier version collapsed, Democrats were far from a victory dance.

"I expect to see buyouts and bailouts, backroom deals and kickbacks to individual senators to try and buy their vote," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "What I don't expect to see, yet, is a dramatic rethink of the core" of the bill.

A day after McConnell prodded Republicans by saying a GOP failure would force him to negotiate with Schumer, the New Yorker set a price for such talks no Medicaid cuts or tax reductions for the wealthy. No negotiations seem imminent.

Facing a daunting equation the bill loses if three of the 52 GOP senators oppose it the list of Republicans who've publicly complained about the legislation reached double digits, though many were expected to eventually relent. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said "of course" his support was uncertain because he wants to ease some of the measure's Medicaid cuts, and Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., told The Omaha World-Herald that the bill was not a full repeal, adding, "Nebraskans are dissatisfied with it and so am I."

McConnell, R-Ky., wants agreement by Friday on revisions so the Senate can approve it shortly after returning in mid-July from an Independence Day recess. Several senators scoffed at that timetable, with McCain saying, "Pigs could fly."

At the White House, Trump continued his peculiar pattern of interspersing encouragement to GOP senators trying to tear down Obama's 2010 statute with more elusive remarks.

Trump told reporters that Republicans have "a great health care package" but said there would be "a great, great surprise," a comment that went without explanation. On Tuesday, he said it would be "great if we get it done" but "OK" if they don't, and two weeks ago he slammed as "mean" the House version of the bill that he'd previously lionized with a Rose Garden ceremony.

The GOP's health care slog has highlighted discord between moderates who say the bill cuts Medicaid and federal health care subsidies too deeply, and conservatives eager to reduce government spending and shrink premiums by letting insurers sell policies with scantier coverage than Obama's law allows.

GOP support for the measure sagged this week after a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would produce 22 million fewer insured people by 2026 while making coverage less affordable for many, especially older and poorer Americans. It wasn't helped when an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll said that 17 percent of people approved of the Senate bill.

McConnell showed no signs of abandoning his push for the legislation.

"We'll continue working so we can bring legislation to the floor for debate and ultimately a vote," he said as the Senate convened Wednesday.

To succeed, McConnell must balance demands from his party's two wings. It's a challenge that's intricate but not impossible, with some saying an eventual compromise could include elements both want.

Centrists from states that expanded Medicaid health insurance for the poor under Obama's law are battling to ease the bill's cutoff of that expansion, and to make the measure's federal subsidies more generous for people losing Medicaid coverage. These senators, including Ohio's Rob Portman and West Virginia's Shelley Moore Capito, also want expanded funds to ease the death toll from the illegal use of drugs like opioids.

Conservatives including Ted Cruz of Texas, Utah's Mike Lee and Kentucky's Rand Paul want to let insurers sell policies with fewer benefits. Some would further trim Medicaid spending and the health care tax credits, with Paul seeking to erase the package's billions to help insurers contain costs for lower-earning customers and protect the companies against potential losses.

Each group has been trying to grow its numbers to boost clout with McConnell.

AP reporters Stephen Ohlemacher, Kenneth Thomas and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

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Little progress evident as GOP hunts health bill votes - ABC News

Britain’s progress on climate change is stalling, government advisers say – Reuters

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

LONDON Britain's progress in tackling climate change is stalling and new strategies and policies are needed to ensure ambitious greenhouse gas emissions cuts continue, the government's climate advisers said in a report on Thursday.

Britain's greenhouse gas emissions are around 42 percent lower than in 1990, which is around half way towards the government's legally binding target to slash them by 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels, the Committee on Climate Change report said.

The progress so far has been achieved even though gross domestic product has risen by more than 65 percent since 1990.

However, most of the emissions reductions have occurred in the power and waste sectors. Emissions in the transport and building sectors are rising and infrastructure remains vulnerable to severe weather.

"The good news is we have got half way. But the way we have achieved this is almost entirely focused on the power sector," Matthew Bell, chief executive of the committee, told Reuters.

"We cannot extrapolate that to 2050. Power sector emissions have been lowered so much ... We won't get the remaining distance we need if other sectors don't start contributing," he said.

Earlier this week, Britain's new climate change minister, Claire Perry, said the government would publish its Clean Growth Plan - a framework for how Britain will reduce emissions in the 2020s and 2030s - after the parliamentary summer recess.

Parliament closes on July 20 and reconvenes on Sept. 5.

The plan's release was originally scheduled for late 2016. The delay has been criticized by investors who are looking for policy certainty.

Under current policies, Britain is on track to miss its legally-binding emission reduction targets for the mid-2020s onwards, prompting calls for more action in the heat, buildings, industry, transport and agriculture sectors.

The government also needs to present Parliament with detailed measures to address climate risks, such as risks to households and businesses from flooding, so its national adaptation program can be published early next year, the report said.

Britain has experienced significant political upheaval over the past year after a referendum resulted in the move to leave the European Union.

"There is concern Brexit negotiations divert a lot of attention and resources but we also need to think about climate change issues," Bell added.

(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

MANILA A ban on open-pit mining in the Philippines enforced by a former environment minister has "no legal basis" and is under review, a senior official at the government's mines bureau said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON U.S. lawmakers on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee asked the Pentagon on Wednesday to produce a report on climate change and its effects on the military.

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Britain's progress on climate change is stalling, government advisers say - Reuters

Mike Clevinger continues to make progress for Cleveland Indians – WKYC-TV

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Matthew Florjancic, WKYC 4:16 PM. EDT June 28, 2017

Starting pitcherMikeClevingercontinues to make progress in the Cleveland Indians' rotation. (Photo: David Richard, Custom)

CLEVELAND -- Pitcher Mike Clevinger is making the most out of his latest opportunity in the Cleveland Indians starting rotation.

Despite the Indians (40-36) suffering a 2-1 loss to the Texas Rangers (39-38) at Progressive Field Tuesday night, Clevinger allowed just two hits, two walks and one earned run over six innings of work against the Rangers.

Just staying locked in on every pitch, thats what Im kind of working on getting into this because it felt like the last start, I was a little sporadic, Clevinger said. My mind was going different places, and that was the main focus here.

Its always trying to take the positives and negatives and see where you go with each start. Im trying to do the same here.

The Rangers drew even with the Indians in the top of the fifth inning.

After former Indians slugger, and current Rangers designated hitter, Mike Napoli and second baseman Rougned Odor struck out and grounded out, respectively, catcher Robinson Chirinos belted a 2-1 slider from Clevinger into the seats in left field for the game-tying run.

I was trying to throw the same slider I was throwing all game, and that one just kind of backed up on me, Clevinger said. Not a good time for it.

Although Clevinger surrendered his seventh home run in 10 appearances, including nine starts this season, he was more than settled in for his six innings of work.

Clevinger struck out nine Rangers hitters and found the strike zone with 61 of his 102 pitches.

Pitching 0-1 is a hell of a lot easier than 1-0, Clevinger said. Im just trying to get the advantage and play the percentages more in my favor. It was almost like they found the barrel last start, and I started nit-picking the corners and getting a little bit away from my gameplan.

It was a lot more controlled, and I used my intensity to my advantage when need be this game, as opposed to last game, when it was hit or miss.

Over his last three starts, including Tuesdays against the Rangers, Clevinger has posted a 1-0 record with a 2.40 earned run average. Over 15 innings pitched, Clevinger has registered 17 strikeouts against seven walks and held opponents to a .196 batting average.

The first couple innings, he threw a lot of pitches, and then, he started feeling more confident with his stuff and started really throwing it, all of his pitches, Indians bench coach Brad Mills said. Attacking the zone is probably the word I could use there and really did a good job.

His pitch count kind of leveled off and came down, and he really did a good job. Anytime he goes through with a pretty good-hitting ball club and do what he does, Im sure hed like to have one 1-2 breaking ball back, but at the same time, he threw the ball extremely well, and its something he can really hang his hat on. Im really proud of the way he threw the ball.

2017 WKYC-TV

WKYC

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Mike Clevinger continues to make progress for Cleveland Indians - WKYC-TV

SWIMMING: Stingrays show progress in loss to Paddlers – The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

First-year Sunset Hills coach OKeefe is encouraged by his teams steady improvement

By SCOTT MARION, smarion@edwpub.net

Caroline Byron of Sunset Hills competes in the mixed 15-16 200-yard medley relay during Wednesdays dual meet against Paddlers of Granite City.

Riley Steinkuhler of Sunset Hills competes in the 9-10 boys division during the diving portion of the meet.

SWIMMING: Stingrays show progress in loss to Paddlers

Victories are still hard to come by for the Sunset Hills swim team, but it continues to show signs of progress.

On Wednesday, the host Stingrays dropped to 0-2 in SWISA with a 423-265 loss to Paddlers of Granite City, but first-year Sunset Hills coach Dan OKeefe felt his team accomplished most of its goals.

I dont care so much about times, but I thought we raced very well. We finished and we raced hard to the wall, OKeefe said. It was a close meet for much of the way, but there some races where they had three or four kids and we didnt have any, which means we didnt get any points in those races. When we did get compete against them, I was pretty happy about how we did.

The girls team standings were fairly close, with Paddlers beating Sunset Hills 191-152. The Paddlers boys won by a considerable margin, outscoring the Stingrays 232-113.

Paddlers, which lost by two points to Splash City of Collinsville in its opening meet, improved to 1-1.

Despite the loss, OKeefe is encouraged by the potential of the Stingrays younger age groups, especially the 8-and-under girls.

We were talking tonight about moving one of those girls up in one of our next relays because were not very deep in terms of bodies for relays, OKeefe said. Were missing a few kids in the other age groups, including one of our top 9-10 boys. Thats kind of the nature of summer swimming, but we hope to build up an atmosphere and a competitive spirit of team unity. We want that to carry over and get them excited to do stuff more long-term.

Four Stingrays swimmers Gabby Cook (7-8 girls) Rachel Johnson (9-10 girls), Caroline Byron (13-14 girls) and Josie ODay (13-14 girls) each won three individual events.

The coaches are really great and they help us a lot and cheer us on, Byron said. Dan gives us lots of help at practice and one-on-one time to work on our strokes.

We definitely can improve a lot and weve already gotten the highest places weve had. I know we havent won in a while, but weve been doing a lot better this year.

Two-time winners for Sunset Hills included Emma Nativi (6-and-under girls), Savannah Turley (9-10 girls), Owen Gruben (11-12 boys), Madelyn Milburn (11-12 girls), Thomas Hyten (13-14 boys), Henry Gruben (15-18 boys) and Lydia Hemings (15-18 girls).

Other individual winners for the Stingrays were Mac Dacus (6-and-under boys) Grace Cook (7-8 girls), Riley Steinkuhler (9-10 boys), Andrew Byron (11-12 boys), Andrew Billhartz (15-18 boys).

Mitchell Steinhkuhler (13-14 boys) didnt win a first-place medal for Sunset Hills, but hes also excited about the Stingrays potential.

Every day we come to practice and work hard and weve really been improving on specific strokes, breaststroke in particular, Steinkuhler said. We only have four guys (in 13-14 boys), so we barely make a relay, but weve been dropping seconds off our time in every race.

As far as goals for myself, instead of second and third every time, Id like to win a few races. Team-wise, wed also like to get a couple wins in our relays.

As a new coach, OKeefe is still learning about his swimmers and their capabilities.

I lean on (assistant coaches) Drew May and Kate May a lot for their knowledge of what these kids can do, OKeefe said. Im encouraged every day by what I see them do in practice.

Relay winners on the girls side for Sunset Hills included the 7-8 100-yard medley relay, the 13-14 200-yard medley relay, the 7-8 100-yard freestyle relay and the 15-18 200-yard freestyle relay.

On the boys side, relay winners for the Stingrays were the 7-8 100-yard medley relay, the 13-14 200-yard medley relay, the 7-8 100-yard freestyle relay and the 15-18 200-yard freestyle relay.

Sunset Hills also won the 7-8 mixed 100-yard medley relay, the 7-8 mixed 100-yard freestyle relay and the 15-18 mixed 200-yard freestyle relay.

The Sunset Hills divers also lost to Paddlers on Wednesday, but Stingrays coach Gayle Lindsay felt her team performed well considering it was outnumbered.

We dont have as many divers as last year, but the ones who did come out have worked really hard and I see a big improvement from the beginning of the year, Lindsay said. Theyre starting to do more degree of difficulty dives, which Im happy with.

Sunset Hills doesnt swim again until it hosts Splash City on July 6. The meet will start at 6 p.m.

Weve got a few things that we want to work on in particular and the break will be nice, OKeefe said. Weve had three meets in six days (including the SWISA Relay Meet on Monday), so well get a little bit of rest and work on a few finer points.

Continued here:

SWIMMING: Stingrays show progress in loss to Paddlers - The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Wolf sees budget ‘progress;’ evidence wanting – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Wolf sees budget 'progress;' evidence wanting
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
HARRISBURG Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday that state budget talks are going well. The evidence, however, has yet to be seen. Pennsylvania's new fiscal year starts Saturday, and legislators have yet to say how they will fill a gaping shortfall in the ...

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Wolf sees budget 'progress;' evidence wanting - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Little Atoms at Wilderness – Little Atoms

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Little Atoms

Little Atoms at Wilderness
Little Atoms
Join Neil Denny at the Wilderness Festival as he talks to writer Mark O'Connell about his book To Be A Machine and the Transhumanism movement. Mark O'Connell is a writer based in Dublin. He is Slate's books columnist, a staff writer at The Millions ...

Little Atoms at Wilderness - Little Atoms

What it Means to Finish Pikes Peak + Results – Hot Rod Network – Hot Rod Network

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

With no small amount of effort, RJ Gottlieb and his infamous Big Red Camaro came back from the ashes to finish in Open Class with an 11:08.857 (placing Fourth), while PPIHC Time Attack veteran Kash Singh brought his street-driven (3,590-mile round-trip), twin-turbo 2017 Ford Mustang GT, supported by AMSOIL and Tire Rack, with a personal best of13:22.636 after dodging a few goats and fog. Full results here.

If you aint first, yer last! is probably the most well-meaning quotes in racing, but to the guys and gals who truly understand what sweat equity is while under a race car, thats not what its all about. Some races are about pure survivalism, our Gear Vendors HOT ROD Drag Week, powered by Dodge, is one of them. More than climbing to the top of the podium, seeing the peak of the mountain is worth more weight in respect and satisfaction than just about anything else winning is just the bonus.

Its a logistical nightmare for everyone. Think of a nine-hour work day that begins at 2am and ends sometime after 11am thats how long were on the mountain just running cars during the four-day practice. Ateam has to figure out how to get their car up the hill (meaning, a smaller truck and trailer, or sometimes both; others drive their cars up), unloaded, prepped, practiced for about three runs, repacked, and off the main roadway by 9am (so that the Pikes Peak Highway can open to the public for the day).

Assuming your morning goes well (it usually doesnt), youve still got to inspect and maintain the race car, butthen its a third-shift work schedule at minimum. And if the day doesnt go well? Stack that 9-to-5 work-day block on whatever madness youve got to fix for tomorrows practice (again, starting the day at 2am), because for many drivers theres no choice in dropping practice days for fear of disqualification (be it meeting a minimum number of practice days for rookies or making sure you can run your day of qualifying). Theres more stories of 48-labor-hour days than there are of smooth ones, but its the blurred nights of masochistic work that mean you make it to race day.

This, of course, after youve gone anywhere from 3,000 to 8,000 feet higher in elevation from where you woke up in the thin atmosphere, the oxygen deprivation not only slows your body, but also your mind. Simple things, like whered the torque wrench go? become SAT tests, and anything more complex turns into a brain train-wreck.Add up the weeks of stress coming into an event, and you have a recipe for some wrench-tossing shouting matches. Butgood race is dependant on a good team with good communication, and Pikes will test every bit of that and you might not even be cognizant of why youre mad at the little things and it might ruin friendships. Its these bands of misfits, however cohesive, that must maintain a self-destructive machine over the course of the week in order to finish.

Then theres the mountain itself: In just the 12.4-mile course, theres 156 corners with varying elevation change, camber, and radius changes. Guys who see the newly-paved mountain as a home for their road-paint-scraping Time Attack or Prototype-class cars are rudely awaken when their belly panscrash into the rough pavement or lift tires through the corners due to the crazy articulation needed in highly-banked hair-pins (some racers use rally-inspired suspension combinations to get the travel they need).Theres no run-off, only rocks, guardrail, or sky and theres a whole lot more sky than there is of the other two.

If you have an off, its going to ruin your day or worse and if you need parts, youre sourcing them in a mountain town that can barely find internet service, much less an oil pan to your Audi or a one-off intercooler that you just crushed after spinning at Boulder Park.

On any given day, youre facing rain, hail, goats, marmots, deer, and fog, just to throw a wild car (or three) at you every day. Every green flag in practice, no matter how bad you need that seat time on the mountain, is throwing the how-can-this-all-go-wrong dice. The risks are the same as race day, by and large, but the reward is stillwaiting for you at 14,115 feet on Sunday.

Remember how youre already starving for oxygen and sense when you unload the car? The engine and its cooling systems are struggling worse. Not only does air density affect horsepower, but it also affects how much heat can be shed from the car. With less air density, theres less matter to absort heat with. This not only raises cooling temps to some hilarious levels, and often ones impossible to reach at sea-level, but also raises under-hood air- and braking-temps well-beyond what youll typically see. The catch-22 of Pikes is that the longer into the run you are, as the car builds heat in every system, the thinner the air gets with your increasing elevation. This can be an annoyance during practice or a back-stabbing surprise during race day as we learned in 2017.

Right if you havent crashed, overheated, or threaten to divorce someone youre not even married to, then youve made it to race day. More than likely, by this point, youve inadvertently relied on some new friends to get here (call it the Pikes Family), and the weight of the weeks (months years) stress is certainly felt in the 5-point harness belts as they pull you into your seat. The past five days have felt like an endurance race in their own, youve maybe got 18 hours of sleep since last Sunday, and youre inching closer and closer to that timing clock.

When the flag drops, it all stops.

The rest of the game is on the driver, from then on out. The foundation has been laid, but its time to see how far they can build their run up the mountain. Where stress has peaked, sleep has bottomed-out. The car, scarred from a week of practice and hustle, is right there with you. The best of course memorization and notes falls way to subconscious actions and mistakes, but as the scenery changes from dense forest to moon-like rockscapes, you know progress is being made. While the car grasps every oxygen molecule it can, your lungs are doing the same as you fight the wheel and wield the rest.

Nothing is exactly like it was in practice, and you dont know if thats from the everything-deprivation or the incoming weather, but fog begats a lot of hell from mother nature, and the imperative mission is to get to the top. Sometimes theres a friends car pulled off safely, with them waving you on; but other times, you may not know why theyre upside down in a ditch, and you have to maintain concentration in the drive and trust in Pikes Peaks safety crews (them being one of the most dedicated groups out there is no small relief).

Once at the Peak, you feel about as light as a cloud theres a group of racers whove all been through the same hell you have, and theres cramped cozy little donut shop to huddle in as the days weather continues to roll in.Who won? Who knows better yet, who cares? Youve all just survived a hell week like no other. If youve made it to the top, youve proven more than a few things about yourself as a driver and more importantly how strong you and your team is. Not every week or run is perfect, and thats Pikes for ya! is how more than a few folk write the year off, but the race is more than just the time spent between green and checkered flags: eating those fourteen-thousand-foot donuts with your fellow racers means everything else from here on out is just a little bit easier, even if you cant always have that Pikes family around you.

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What it Means to Finish Pikes Peak + Results - Hot Rod Network - Hot Rod Network

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