‘Massive’ sewage spill closes Bainbridge, North Kitsap beaches – Kitsap Sun

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A sewage spill in Seattle prompted no-contact advisories on Bainbridge's east shore and Suquamish area.

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BAINBRIDGE ISLAND A massive sewage spill in Seattle on Thursday morning has prompted a no-contact advisory along the entire east shore of Bainbridge Island and a portion of North Kitsap.

The Kitsap Public Health District is advising people to avoid contact with water from Jefferson Point near Indianola to Restoration Point on Bainbridges south end. The closure area includes Port Madison Bay and Miller Bay.

Untreated sewage began flowing from a wastewater plants outfall near Seattles Discovery Park at about 2 a.m., according to a King County news release.

Equipment failure was cited as the cause of the spill. King County is operating the plant on emergency bypass mode, which allows sewage to discharge into Puget Sound to avoid flooding the plant.

The volume of sewage is not yet known, but Kitsap public health officials are calling it massive.

Sewage was continuing to flow out of the outfall at noon on Thursday. The outfall is nearly a mile offshore from Seattle.

Kitsap health officials dont know when the no-contact advisory will be lifted.

Warning signs are being posted at Fay Bainbridge Park, Blakely Harbor Park and other public water access points.

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'Massive' sewage spill closes Bainbridge, North Kitsap beaches - Kitsap Sun

Dennis Bayside Beaches: Flat Out Fabulous! – CapeCod.com News

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Who knows what tomorrow may bringfor February this was aFlat Out Fabulousbarefeet on the sandsearching for seashellskind of day! I started out fromSea Street Beach on the Bayside of Dennis and walk the endless tidal flats towards Crowes Pasture where Oyster Farmers were tending their oyster beds. This unseasonably warm day was enjoyed by many beach-walkers.. it was a live for today moment. Enjoy!

As a child, spending summers in North Truro, I thought Cape Cod began at the Wellfleet Drive-In and ended at Provincetown. As a photographer, I now know that all the Cape towns leading to the canal have their own unique beauty and charm.

Roughly 30 years ago, I had the good fortune to work with the legendary photographer Dick Kelsey and as owner of Kelsey-Kennard have specialized in aerial photography as well as landscape/scenic, portraits, weddings, and photographing events on the Cape, the Islands, and beyond.

Photographs from our Gallery in Chatham are displayed in homes and businesses locally and world-wide.

Besides photography I also enjoy boating/ fishing (fish are usually very safe when Im out there,) gardening and tennis. Cape Cod is a very special place and I look forward to sharing my images with you as I travel about.

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Dennis Bayside Beaches: Flat Out Fabulous! - CapeCod.com News

A leisurely way to visit the stars – Nature.com

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Plans to explore the nearest star system rely on light sails reflective panels that are propelled by light. These craft travel so fast that they will have little time to explore their destination, but altering the way the sails are used could help.

An Earth-sized planet orbits Proxima Centauri, the Sun's nearest neighbour, which is 1.3 parsecs (4.2 light years) from Earth. Astronomers hope to send a fleet of miniature probes to explore it and the neighbouring twinned stars of Alpha Centauri. Under current proposals, these laser-propelled craft would take 20 years to reach the stars and zip past them in just a few hours (see Nature 542, 2022; 2017). But Ren Heller of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gttingen, Germany, and Michael Hippke of Neukirchen-Vluyn, Germany, say starlight could be used to slow down a sail-carrying probe, allowing more data about the planet to be collected.

In their proposal, the sail would shift direction as it passed Alpha Centauri so that starlight and the stars' gravitational pull could slow it down. The probe would then swing into orbit around Proxima Centauri, allowing multiple fly-bys of Proxima's planet. Using this set-up, a probe would take roughly a century to get from Earth to Alpha Centauri, and another half-century to reach Proxima.

Astrophys. J. 835, L32 (2017)

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A leisurely way to visit the stars - Nature.com

Artificial Intelligence Is Coming To Police Bodycams, Raising Privacy Concerns – Forbes

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Artificial Intelligence Is Coming To Police Bodycams, Raising Privacy Concerns
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Business is booming in the bodycam industry. Police forces across the United States are equipping more of their officers with cameras to gather more information out in the field. But with all that footage comes a tsunami of data that's becoming ...
Taser to bring artificial intelligence to police on-body camerasThe Stack
The largest maker of police body cameras has figured out a way to finally analyze its petabytes of footageQuartz

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Artificial Intelligence Is Coming To Police Bodycams, Raising Privacy Concerns - Forbes

Could Artificial Intelligence Ever Become A Threat To Humanity? – Forbes

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Could Artificial Intelligence Ever Become A Threat To Humanity?
Forbes
Also, there is a complete fallacy due to the fact that our only exposure to intelligence is through other humans. There are absolutely no reason that intelligent machines will even want to dominate the world and/or threaten humanity. The will to ...

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Could Artificial Intelligence Ever Become A Threat To Humanity? - Forbes

SAP aims to step up its artificial intelligence, machine learning game as S/4HANA hits public cloud – ZDNet

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SAP S/4HANA is going multi-tenant public cloud. Can SAP bring AI to its customer base?

SAP is planning to step up its machine learning and artificial intelligence efforts in hopes that its applications will have a broader reach when it comes to automating processes such as employee approvals, payment processing, and sales discounting.

At the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, SAP is outlining its public cloud versions of its S4/HANA enterprise resource planning suite. The ERP cloud suites come in three versions focused on project management, finance, and enterprise management and are hosted in SAP data centers.

Darren Roos, president of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, said in an interview that SAP does plan to support other public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and other key players.

But the S/4 HANA public cloud coming out party is a bit of a diversion from what SAP plans to do with artificial intelligence and machine learning in its roadmap. SAP is just starting to talk about machine learning and AI at a time when rivals and the broader enterprise technology ecosystem have dominated the conversation.

Consider:

How to Implement AI and Machine Learning

The next wave of IT innovation will be powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. We look at the ways companies can take advantage of it and how to get started.

Add it up and SAP's S/4HANA launch and analyst meeting in New York is about the machine learning and AI roadmap as much as it is ERP. SAP CEO Bill McDermott previewed the focus on AI on the software company's fourth quarter earnings call. McDermott told analysts:

Roos acknowledges that SAP hasn't been beating the drum for machine learning just yet. Why? SAP wanted to highlight a bevy of use cases. "The use cases are really just beginning whether it's matching invoices to payments with machine learning to eliminate human error or advising users on how to match hiring plants with markets and budgets," said Roos. "We've invested in specific machine learning use cases. The reality is that machine learning doesn't have any real value until you get it to the user and the application."

SAP's approach to AI will revolve around bringing functionality to customers via its public cloud offerings. SAP will develop its own tools, but it also isn't going to be shy about partnering. "I don't think where the machine learning or AI capabilities come from is relevant. SAP will partner to leverage AI and machine learning to enhance our applications," said Roos. "We don't think about where the engine comes from as much as how it impacts the customer."

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Artificial Intelligence Impact on Public Safety, Security and Privacy – Personal AI Will Act as a Form of AI … – Business Wire (press release)

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Artificial Intelligence Impact on Public Safety, Security and Privacy" report to their offering.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is undergoing a transformation from silo implementations to a utility function across many industry verticals as a form of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) capability. This capability is becoming embedded and/or associated with many applications, services, products, and solutions. We see AI innovation in a variety of areas including personalized AI to both support and protect end-users.

This transformation will have a profound effect upon public safety, security, and private for consumers, enterprise, and governments. This research evaluates the growth of AI, its application across diverse sectors, and the associated impact upon Public Safety, Security, and Privacy.

Topics Addressed in the Report Include:

Target Audience:

Companies Mentioned:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Executive Summary

3 Overview

4 The Global Artificial Intelligence Marketplace

5 AI Industry Analysis

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/sh73x4/artificial

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Artificial Intelligence Impact on Public Safety, Security and Privacy - Personal AI Will Act as a Form of AI ... - Business Wire (press release)

Facebook turns to artificial intelligence to prevent advertisers from discriminating – ThinkProgress

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CREDIT: AP Photo/Thibault Camus

Facebook unveiled a new plan for preventing advertisers from discriminating Wednesday that emphasizes education and artificial intelligence.

The company announced a three-fold plan Wednesday in response to a ProPublica report in October that found advertisers could limit which Facebook users saw their ads based on race or ethnicity. Facebook immediately turned off the feature after receiving public criticism.

In a blog post announcing its latest changes, Facebook said it has strengthened language in its anti-discrimination policy, created a new section for advertisers to learn about federal anti-discrimination laws, and implemented an AI-powered enforcement tool that picks out problematic ads.

When an advertiser attempts to show an ad that we identify as offering a housing, employment or credit opportunity and either includes or excludes our multicultural advertising segmentswhich consist of people interested in seeing content related to the African American, Asian American and US Hispanic communitieswe will disapprove the ad, Facebook wrote.

Additionally, Facebook will require advertisers posting ads for housing, employment, or credit to certify they are complying with the companys anti-discrimination policies.

The new plan targets key points of criticism, namely that Facebook advertisers may have been running afoul of the federal Fair Housing and Civil Rights Acts, and overly relied on harmful stereotypes by excluding ad recipients based on demographics.

Facebook said it collaborated with advocacy groups, members of governmentincluding the Congressional Black Caucusand New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to shape the new policies.

We believe in the power of our advertising products to create opportunities for people from all backgrounds, so we are committed to working with these groups toward that goal, the company wrote.

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‘Conspiracy’ in peace talks collapse seen – Inquirer.net

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Youth protesters from the National Union of Students of the Philippines, League of Filipino Students and the Anakbayan will again stage protests, this time against the sudden cancellation of the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Communist Party of the Philippines, New Peoples Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, at a time when socio-economic reforms are being discussed. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO BY REM ZAMORA

MANILA Militant youth leaders have urged President Rodrigo Duterte to resume negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, questioning the timing of the peace process failure now that the socioeconomic roots of armed conflict are being tackled.

When Duterte scrapped the peace talks out of frustration with the communists demands, negotiators were discussing the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms, a vital document aimed at resolving economic grievances and societal inequalities in the country.

To express their dismay with the cancellation of the peace talks, from Anakbayan, the League of Filipino Students, the National Union of Students of the Philippines, and the College Editors Guild of the Philippines have announced that student groups will launch protest actions and walkouts on Feb. 10 and 23.

Anakbayan National Secretary-General Einstein Recedes said in a briefing that Duterte seemed to have succumbed to his emotions, all the while being egged on by the United States, the military, and the elite oligarchy.

All-out war will not address landlessness, unemployment, and contractualization, Recedes said, adding that human rights violations will only increase without resolving the roots of conflict.

Whose interest are you pursuing? The interest of the public or the interest of the few in the ruling class? he asked.

Recedes appealed to Duterte not to listen to the saboteurs, saying the President had been too irritable and sensitive.

There is no fundamental change yet. You cant just make the NPA (New Peoples Army) surrender, he said.

LFS national spokesperson JP Rosos said his group is condemning the decision and pronouncements of the Duterte regime.

Elaborating on the purported US connection, Rosos noted that Dutertes move to scrap the peace talks came the day after the State Department said it still considered the Communist Party of the Philippines and armed wing New Peoples Army to be a foreign terrorist organization.

Rosos called this an attempt to prevent the resolution of the ongoing revolution by America and the ruling class in order to continue plundering the riches of the Philippines and profit off the Filipino people.

At the same time, the youth leaders also denounced the plan to make the Reserved Officers Training Corps course mandatory for senior high school pupils.

They want our country to be a garrison state and we are heading towards that, Recedes said, adding that students and parents should be worried about the Armed Forces of the Philippines vast record of human rights violations.

He said that the program would be aimed at indoctrination and the promotion of fascism, and not discipline and nationalism as claimed by proponents. He added that students would be subject to violence and brainwashing.

NUSP national spokesperson Mark Lim said requiring ROTC, currently an optional course for college students, would instill blind obedience and militaristic thinking in students.

He also pointed to several incidents of violence against ROTC cadets, such as the 2001 murder of Mark Chua, a cadet from the University of Santo Tomas who exposed irregularities in the program. Chuas death prompted the removal of the ROTC programs mandatory status. SFM

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Why ‘financial inclusion’ may be the wrong terminology – NewsDay

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You are here: Home Business Why financial inclusion may be the wrong terminology

Over the past few years, financial authorities and development organisations in Africa have become fond of financial inclusion as a process of involving many people in banking services.

CHARLES DHEWA

Banking was also alien to most local communities who relied on their own forms of recognising and storing value

Unfortunately, such a notion reduces everything to money when focus should be on understanding socio-economic dynamics.

Progress is less about money, but more about grasping socio-economic ecosystems. By elevating finance, the notion of financial inclusion assumes money is all that is needed for development or progress.

In African agriculture, financial institutions certainly need new selling points, if they are to forge relationships with new actors like small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs), farmers and traders.

At the moment, financial inclusion is presented as if it is a favour to these economic actors.

Banks continue to develop financial packages in offices, with the assumption that these actors are desperate for money.

Most traders and SMEs have been in business for more than 10 years without formal financial support.

They probably need support in exploring export markets and improving the quality of their products, not how to start and run a business.

They could be more interested in work space and serious recognition from policymakers, not just paper recognition.

Who should include who?

When financial institutions start working with SMEs and informal markets, that is not financial inclusion.

It should be a completely new socio-economic relationship, carefully defined and understood in terms of its requirements, partnership models and sustainability frameworks.

In Zimbabwe, cash that used to move from farmers and commercial markets to banks has migrated to SMEs and informal markets, where business has also found its way.

The key question is how can banks be included in this pool of money and business activities? How can the government also be included in this new phenomenon and practice?

It is not how SMEs and markets can be included in the little market seating in banks or stock markets.

SMEs and informal markets are also suspiciously wondering why they should include banks in their business, when they have been operating on their own for years.

There is still resentment against banks, who have traditionally been interested in payslips.

Many SMEs and informal traders have not forgotten how they were compelled to look for someone with a payslip to guarantee them for a loan, even if that person knew nothing about the business for which the loan was being sought.

Now that the payslip economy is no longer viable, why are banks finding people they had previously shunned attractive?

If the above questions are not adequately answered, traders and SMEs will continue keeping their knowledge to themselves.

You cannot forcibly extract that knowledge by excessive regulation or other negative means.

Value chains are now monopolised by smallholder farmers, SMEs and informal markets. They are the ones with practical models.

Logistical issues are also handled by individual transporters, based on trust and relationships.

Most small transporters have embedded themselves into this new ecosystem by providing packaging services in addition to transport services.

The level of integration and relationship building is such that traders would rather store commodities in houses close to the market, when there are ideal warehouse facilities near-by.

Learning from the past

Traditionally, African communities had their own diverse ways of valuing their socio-economic activities without over-rating the financial component ahead of other sources or expressions of value.

Banking was also alien to most local communities, who relied on their own forms of recognising and storing value, mostly livestock.

Modern-day financial mechanisms were introduced as part of the colonial experience. After independence, there were very few financial institutions offering financial services.

As part of modernising African communities through agriculture, initial financial models were in the form of loans extended in kind (fertiliser, seeds, farming implements, heifers and others).

In Zimbabwe, for instance, the evolution of most farmer organisations was tied to this process, which could only succeed through mobilising farmers to access and demand commercial inputs.

There were different types of collateral mainly tied to the farming business. Contractual arrangements, where formal markets were used to guarantee supply and stimulate demand for agricultural commodities, became fundamental.

Upon harvest, input providers were paid first, while farmers kept surplus commodities for households and communities.

There was limited cash in circulation, with commodities supporting each other maize working together with groundnuts; maize with livestock, etc.

The role of marketing boards was well-defined, for instance, ensuring payment through stop order mechanisms.

Slowly, the banking sector started coming into play a facilitation role. Saving became automatic when farmers realised that after selling their commodities, there was no immediate use of excess cash.

A few banks, such as the Post Office Savings Bank, started cultivating niches around farming areas, where farmers started saving money.

More importantly, saving was very attractive because it had high returns in the form of interest.

A farmer could earn up to 30% from their annual savings in a bank. To a large extent, saving became an important form of asset creation for farmers.

What then happened?

The collapse of formal markets, contracts and farmers unions led to the demise of financial models that had been built pre- and post-independence.

Without a reliable market for agricultural commodities and lack of farmer organisation, there was depletion of savings for the few banks.

Everything moved back to subsistence production and some bit of semi-commercial agriculture.

Before this withdrawal phase, every commodity had a reliable market.

Groundnuts, sunflower and small grains were part of important cash crops that enabled farmers to send their children to school.

With the depletion of savings from agriculture, the financial sector decided to support a few cash crops around which formal contractual arrangements could be designed and sustained.

Examples of such crops were cotton, tobacco and sugar cane, with the rest no longer considered viable cash crops.

Unfortunately, that movement spawned a serious monoculture in crops that were not consumed locally.

Pressure began to mount on the few cash crops to meet food requirements, as well as other important needs like school fees, inputs and tax.

After meeting all these demands, farmers producing the few cash crops were left with little savings that could be banked.

In addition, inflation and an increase in the cost of inputs also ate into the little savings.

Birth of a new paradigm

The paradigm shift explained above pushed out smallholder farmers from the original pool of clients that had existed for banks. The collapse of formal markets meant farmers had to look for options.

For years, banks had also excluded informal markets from their clientele base, preferring to deal with contract companies.

While the new paradigm has fuelled the growth of the informal agriculture market and SMEs, the financial sector has not moved with this shift.

They have not been able to adjust their models to suit the prevailing environment characterised by informal markets, traders and new farmers.

For instance, all banks are failing to develop suitable financing models for livestock farmers.

As a result, farmers end up selling livestock to buy inputs, when a bank should simply extend loans to farmers using livestock or agricultural activities as collateral.

When a farmer uses livestock to finance agricultural activities, the first thing they do after selling commodities is to replace the cattle they sold for inputs.

The farmer does not see any need to save money in a bank, when the bank did not see it fit to provide agricultural finance using livestock as collateral.

Moreover, the returns from livestock within six months to two years are much more than could be achieved from the bank.

Not to mention other benefits from livestock like milk, manure and draught power, which cannot be earned by saving money in a bank.

Surfacing dormant models

Before talking about financial inclusion, let us understand business models that are driving SMEs and informal markets.

Banks should seek to be included in these models not the other way round.

It is important to consult deeply why informal markets and SMEs are not participating in the formal money economy, making it difficult to record and make sense of what is happening.

Financial institutions should be fully aware of the performance of particular agricultural commodities.

Unfortunately, no financial institution is following trends in agricultural markets in order to minimise failed models.

Banks should be part of understanding trends in agricultural markets just as they are interested in the stock exchange.

In most cases, the market is blamed when it was not consulted during production.

It does not help to continue developing financial models from production, while ignoring the market.

Production is not the final destination for loans. When you have converted money into an agricultural commodity, it is important to track it all the way to the market. This will avoid cases where banks blame farmers, as if farmers are the commodity or the market, when the problem is business modelling.

Informal markets and SMEs are neutral in sharing information and knowledge. Documenting such knowledge will create a competitive edge for the financial sector.

This is unlike bringing banks together to share knowledge when they are cut-throat competitors. When banks meet, 90% of best practices wont be shared. Where a model failed, banks would rather hide those experiences, so that a competing bank can also lose money.

Charles@knowledgetransafrica.com/charles@emkambo.co.zw/info@knowledgetransafrica.com

Website: http://www.emkambo.co.zw/www.knowledgetransafrica.com

eMkambo Call Centre: 0771 859000-5/ 0716 331140-5 / 0739 866 343-6

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Hoosier attorneys travel to Rwanda on legal mission trip – Indiana Lawyer

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In the span of only three short months, nearly 1 million Rwandans were killed in the infamous genocide of 1994, leaving behind only two-thirds of the countrys population to deal with the lingering resentment and trauma.

Widespread government corruption began seeping throughout the African nation in the aftermath of the killings, making the jobs of attorneys who attempted to work on behalf of the poor, widowed and orphaned all the more difficult. But a group of Indianapolis attorneys, determined to provide support to their African counterparts, traveled to Rwanda in late January to get a firsthand look at what it means to be an attorney in a country filled with blatant corruption and intentional oppression.

Joe Miller and Jacqueline Pimentel-Gannon of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, Kelsey Raves with the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, Carrie Lynn with Indiana Legal Services Inc., and Jason Reese of Carmels Wagner Reese LLP took a 28-hour plane ride across the globe just after the new year to help lead seminars and workshops designed to equip attorneys in Rwanda and neighboring countries with the skills and knowledge they need to fight on behalf of the poor in their countries.

The group traveled to Rwanda to work with an organization known as the African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries, or ALARM, which was founded in October 1994 in the immediate aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Celestin Musekura, ALARMs founder, believed that if he could rebuild the church in Rwanda, Christian leaders could then begin the process of facilitating tribal reconciliation throughout the war-torn country. Thus, the goal of ALARM is to train Christians in Rwanda and throughout Africa to be leaders and use their unique skills to meet the specific needs of their poorest neighbors.

While many Christian organizations focus their work on rebuilding homes after disasters, bringing food and water to poor areas and sharing their religious beliefs, the group of Indianapolis attorneys said they were drawn to ALARM because it offered a unique opportunity to use their legal knowledge and skills to train their counterparts in third-world areas.

Ive always loved mission work, and this was a great opportunity to combine my faith and my legal career, Lynn said after returning home. It was just a good intersection of those two things.

Reese, who had only left North America once before his trip to Rwanda, said he felt a strong calling to visit the African nation after watching the film Hotel Rwanda, which chronicles the genocide. In the past, Reese has volunteered his time on various boards and in leadership positions, but said when he learned of ALARMs legal mission trip, he knew it was time to put to use his education and skill set to directly impact the lives of others.

While in Rwanda, the group of American attorneys led workshops on setting up free legal aid clinics, creating private practices and raising funds to support the African attorneys efforts. But while the intent of their trip was to better equip the African lawyers, the Indianapolis legal professionals said they came away from their experience having learned far more than they taught.

That was our prayer and our hope in going in to have that posture of listening and having a very genuine discussion, Miller said. That really did seem to happen. We were learners.

From a legal perspective, Lynn said she was struck by the courage and tenacity shown by the African attorneys.

In Rwanda, little about the practice of law is easy, she said. Government officials often seek to undermine the legal claims of the poor, and there is little money to help attorneys provide stronger support to their clients.

Yet even in the face of adversity and often, the threat of government retaliation African attorneys never abandon their clients or their cases, no matter how dire the situation might get, Lynn said. That resolve was an inspiration to her to be more persistent in her own work on behalf of Indianapolis poorer communities.

Sometimes justice isnt always fast, but you have to wait, she said.

The attorneys also brought personal lessons home to the United States from their time in the rural African nation. Miller, for example, who has previously done other mission work in Rwanda, said his African counterparts taught him that in order to be successful, you have to be teachable.

Rather than letting the differences between the American and Rwandan justice systems deter them from learning from the Americans, Miller said the African attorneys came into the workshops with open minds and gratitude to the American legal professionals who were sharing their knowledge.

These are very well-educated, experienced professionals who, frankly, could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow and saying Who are these folks presuming to tell us about the law? Miller said. But they demonstrated a huge willingness to open themselves up to what collaboration might produce.

But the most important lesson the Americans can take away from the Africans, Musekura said, is the knowledge of how to survive and thrive in the face of injustice, corruption and high-stakes situations.

Although his work can often leave him feeling stressed, Reese realized after returning to the States that having a job that requires him to wear a suit each day and spend his time in an office is not nearly as stressful as having to advocate for clients whom the government intentionally wants to oppress.

Theres stress, and then theres real stress, Reese said.

Further, Reese said his time in Rwanda gave him a greater appreciation for the strength and clarity of the law in the United States.

Now that they have returned home, the Indianapolis missionaries said they are making intentional efforts to ensure the lessons they learned from their African counterparts stay with them in their day-to-day practices and lives, and theyre already looking ahead to a time when they can return to their new Rwandan friends.

I would go back tomorrow, Lynn said.

And although the work they did had its roots in Christianity, Reese believes all people, regardless of their religion, can use their unique skills to the benefit of the poorest people around the world.

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Hoosier attorneys travel to Rwanda on legal mission trip - Indiana Lawyer

Seares: Branding the war on drugs | SunStar – Sun.Star

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Seares: Branding the war on drugs | SunStar
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THE nation and the world are presented two clashing versions of the anti-illegal drugs campaign that President Duterte has waged. Duterte has called it a war on drugs, with drug traffickers and drug protectors as the enemy.Blood would flow on streets ...

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Philippines: Duterte must end his "war on drugs" – Amnesty International

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Gener Rondina never stood a chance. When the Philippine police arrived at his home in the middle of the night, he tried to push an air conditioner out of the wall and flee through the opening. The police were waiting on the other side and shone a flashlight on his face.

Terrified, he retreated inside, began pleading for his life, and offered himself up for arrest. Family members saidhe had been trying to quit his use and small-scale sale of drugs. I will surrender, I will surrender, sir, a witness said Rondina shouted. The police told Rondina to get on his knees and hold his hands over his head. They told his family to leave the room. Moments later, gunshots rang out.

Rondina is one of more than7,000 people whohavebeen killed in the Philippines war on drugsover the past seven months.Since President Rodrigo Duterte swept to power, on a platform of uplifting the poor and ridding the streets of crime, he has incited people with his murderous rhetoric to take the law into their own hands and kill anyone they suspect of using or selling drugs.

The Philippine police claimed, as they did in the vast majority of casesAmnesty International documented, that Rondina resisted arrest. The witnesses we spoke to told a different story, that of an unarmed man stricken with fear in what he knew were the final moments of his life. When he was killed, a witness said the police dragged him outside like a pig and left his corpse by a sewer before loading it into a truck.

Every day, families arrive at morgues in the Philippines to search for the dumped bodies of their loved ones. The victims are overwhelmingly from the poorest sections of society. They are not powerful drug traffickers or leaders of drug syndicates, but people whose names were added to hit lists by local political bosses on suspicion that they used or sold drugs, no matter how little or how long ago.

The killings have become so common that there is almost a casual air of business at the morgues and funeral homes. The police and other officials look on indifferently as they process paperwork, unmoved by the relentless loss of human life. The only value they attach to them is as commodities in an economy of murder. Dignity for the victims is even denied in deathone officer speaking to us said some police officers have entered into a racket with local funeral homes, taking a cut for each body sent their way.

As a Metro Manila anti-drugs police officer revealed to us, the police are paid per hit by their bosses. These under-the-table payments can be as much as $300 for each alleged drug offender they kill. As a result, there is no incentive to arrest people like Rondina and submit them to due process. When there is a shootout during a drugs raid, the police officer said, an alleged drug offender is always killed.

Safe in the knowledge that they will not be held accountable for the killings, the police prey on victims in other ways. During a raid, several people told us, they often plant evidence even as they snatch possessions.Rondinasfather, who himself served on the police force for 24 years before retiring, said the police took a laptop, a watch, a cell phone and cash after they killed his son. (On Monday, police chief RonalddelaRosaconceded that there is corruption in the forceand said they will cleanse the ranks.)

There are times when the police prefer to operate in secret. Trading in their uniforms for disguises, they roam the streets on motorcycles in pairs. Riding in tandem, as it is known locally, they approach their target, kill them, and speed away. This way, they haveno questions to confront, and no paperwork to fill inor reports to falsify.

At other times, the policerecruit paid killersto do their dirty work for them. As two paid killers we spoke to said, theyre managed by an active police officer. Their gang includes a number of former police officers. For a user, one of the paid killers told us, its 5,000 pesos (US$100). For a pusher, she added, it can be twice or three times as much.

Following the police killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-jooon the grounds of the national police headquarters, Duterte said he was disbanding the polices anti-drug unit. But he has vowed to press ahead with his violent campaign, until the end of his term in 2022. The problem is not just a few police officers, but the policy as a whole, which will continue to claim lives.

On Tuesday night, a day after the police said they had abandoned their anti-narcotics operations, the body of 24-year-old Aldrin de Guzman was found near his home. The killers left him out on the street, in what has become a hauntingly familiar sight for Filipinos. Each morning, people walk along the streets, past the bodies, touched by the fear the killers left for them.

Its a fear that now pervades every impoverishedneighbourhoodin the archipelago, where residents worry that they or a loved one may be next. The same police thataresupposed to protect them are hunting them down, acting on the instructions of the president who was supposed to be their greatest champion. If you are poor, as one victims relative told us, you are killed.

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Philippines: Duterte must end his "war on drugs" - Amnesty International

YouTubers fined for running illegal FIFA 17 gambling site – Ars Technica

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Two men who admitted to running an unlicensed betting website have been fined after pleading guilty to gambling offences.

During a hearing at Birmingham magistrates court, Craig Douglas, 33, of Ilford, Essexa YouTube gamer who's alias is "NepentheZ"and Dylan Rigby, 34, of Colchester, Essexwho founded FUT Galaxyadmitted to operating an unauthorised site that allowed video gamers to place bets using virtual currency.

TheFutGalaxy.com site, which is not affiliated with EA Sports or the FIFA series, allowed users to buy virtual currency, called FUT coins, for use in the FIFA series of video games, specifically in the FIFA Ultimate Team mode, said the Gambling Commissionwhich brought the prosecution.

Customers could then use those FUT coins to gamble by placing bets on matches that took place in the game. The winnings could then be converted into FIFA coins, another virtual currency used in the FIFA series, which in turn could be sold for real money on an unauthorised secondary market in which Rigby also had an interest. This also violated EA's Terms of Service agreement.

"FutGalaxy.com offered gambling products including sports betting, a jackpot lottery style game, and a higher or lower style game," the UK's gambling watchdog said. "The full extent of the gambling operation facilitated and advertised by the defendants was revealed after the commission executed search warrants at the defendants' homes and seized a number of electronic devices and company documents."

Rigby has been ordered to pay 174,000 in fines and costs, while Douglas has been saddled with a 91,000 fine, after both men pleaded guilty to offences under the UK's Gambling Act.

"This was one of the most serious cases that has been investigated and prosecuted by the commission," the watchdog's chief Sarah Harrison said.

"Its gravity is reflected in the significant financial penalties imposed by the judge. The defendants knew that the site was used by children and that their conduct was illegal but they turned a blind eye in order to achieve substantial profits. The effect on children of online gambling was rightly described by the court as 'horrific' and 'serious.'"

The commission has been eyeballing the rise of online video game gambling.

In a series of tweets following the fine, Douglas said: "I owe a huge apology to my family and close friends for putting them through this process, and appreciate all those that stood by me... I also owe a huge apology and debt of gratitude to my loyal supporters. Even if this is the end of our journey together, I'm grateful."

This post originated on Ars Technica UK

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YouTubers fined for running illegal FIFA 17 gambling site - Ars Technica

Super Bowl Betting Tally Helps Make the Case for Legalized Sports Gambling – TheStreet.com

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Gamblers placed wagers totaling a record $132 million on Super Bowl LI Sunday at Nevada sports books. However that amount represents a drop in bucket compared to the $4.5 billion of bets placed illegally on the game.

Nevada is currently the only state where gambling on sports is legal, but the black sports betting market is estimated to account for 97% of all wagers placed, according to theAmerican Gaming Association.

These bettors rely on offshore sports books, online means and illegal bookies to satisfy their tax-free gambling needs thanks to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act signed in 1992 that made Nevada the only state to legally place bets on sports.

"Vegas currently has a monopoly on sports betting," Erik Balsbaugh of the American Gaming Association toldTheStreet. "The internet has changed a lot of things in the industry though, and it's time for the U.S. to catch up."

The sportsbook from companies like MGM Resorts (MGM) andLas Vegas Sands (LVS) on the Las Vegas Strip comprises between 1.5% and 2% of total gaming revenue annually, according to Union Gaming analyst John DeCree.

Betting on the Super Bowl, both legal and illegal, was up year over year in spite of the fact that viewership for the big game was down from a year ago.

Legal sports gambling is good for the game, Balsbaugh argued, because people with something riding on the game tend to be more attentive to the games and are more likely to even watch the commercials during a broadcast.

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Super Bowl Betting Tally Helps Make the Case for Legalized Sports Gambling - TheStreet.com

MLB commissioner admits the league is rethinking its stance on gambling – FOXSports.com

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Major League Baseball has always taken a hard stance against gambling of any kind. But MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated that the league might be open to softening its stance on the issue.

There is this buzz out there in terms of people feeling that there may be an opportunity here for additional legalized sports betting, Manfred told Yahoo! Finance on Wednesday. We are reexamining our stance on gambling. Its a conversation thats ongoing with the owners.

For a league that seems desperate to attract younger fans to the game, finding a way to allow legalized betting on baseball sounds like a no-brainer.

When fans bet on games, Manfred continued, it can be a form of fan engagement, it can fuel the popularity of a sport. We all understand that.

Fans are betting on sports regardless of whether its legal or not, which is why Manfred is open to a discussion about revising MLBs policies on gambling.

Sports betting happens, Manfred said. Whether its legalized here or not, its happening out there. So I think the question for sports is really, Are we better off in a world where we have a nice, strong, uniform, federal regulation of gambling that protects the integrity of sports, provides sports with the tools to ensure that there is integrity in the competition Or are we better off closing our eyes to that and letting it go on as illegal gambling? And thats a debatable point.

Times have certainly changed since Major League Baseball first adopted an official set of rules about gambling in the sport back in 1927. Legalized gambling in many forms has become commonplace in todays society.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been a vocal proponent of legalizing regulated sports betting and recently said he believes gambling is good for business. Manfred seems to agree with his peer in basketball, saying that Silver has framed it the best.

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Why I love fake gambling and in-game casinos according to a psychologist – PC Gamer

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In Why I Love, PC Gamer writers pick an aspect of PC gaming that they love and write about why it's brilliant. This week Joe asks a psychologist about his passion for no-risk in-game gambling.

Here's the thing: I don't gamble in real life. Glasgow, where I live, is full of bookmakers and casinos, and while I don't take issue with anyone who does throw money at roulette or horses or sportso long as it's lawfulit's just something that's never interested me. I've worked in pubs where Racing UK was as much a regular as old Jimmy who drank a pint of Guinness and a half measure of whisky, and I've had a season ticket at my favourite football/soccer team for almost 20 years; yet parting with my cash against someone else's odds has never struck my fancy. In videogames, though, it's a different story.

Perhaps it's the notion of spending someone else's moneyalbeit a videogame avatar controlled by methat I find so alluring, or the fact that I know there's no real risk in bankrupting my virtual earnings besides the chore of regenerating my money pot in whichever way the game in question allows.

My first in-game casino visit occurred in 1992's Mercenary 3: The Dion Crisis for the Atari ST. A game well ahead of its time, Novagen's Software's open-world exploration adventure offered multiple endings as the eponymous mercenary set about bringing down the game's corrupt antagonist PC BIL. One such way of toppling the unscrupulous politician's regime involved bankrupting his debt-laden empirea feat which could be achieved by winning large sums of cash at Uncle's Casino and Bosher's Bar.

A well-positioned magnet could swing the odds in your favour, however hitting the jackpot by virtue of one-armed bandits and Wheel of Fortune machines was an absolute joyparticularly when it meant usurping BIL.

Years later, I fell in love with Fallout 2's mining town Redding, as it offered a wealth of gambling opportunities in arcade machines, roulette, and the rather unsavoury Molerat Mambo. Bioshock's infamous Fort Frolic zone housed Pharaoh's Fortune, wherein slot machines cost an asynchronous ten dollars a pop; and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas' Las Venturas mirrored real life Vegas as a desert city brimming with casinos such as The Camel's Toe and Caligula's Palace.

Away from these games' central narratives, I thrived in bankrolling frivolous expeditions to in-game casinos and bars where I'd spend hours on end frittering away my in-game budget or delighting in the occasions where I won big. But why? Why did I care whether or not I won or lost or broke evenespecially when I didn't give a toss about gambling in real life. Why do I find betting fake money in virtual casinos so darn enjoyable?

Psychology professor Graham Scott of the University of the West of Scotland suggests anonymity and a lack of empathy could be what drives my weird misplaced passion.

"When you consider theft," says Scott, "there's a higher number of people who commit fraud and identity theft online than offline. One of the reasons behind this pertains to the fact the online world offers a degree of isolation. In turn, the consequences of your actions are less obvious and don't seem as important.

"In videogames you're far less likely to care about how your actions directly affect otherswhich can in this case relate to gambling with money that isn't real. Whereas in the real world gambling has consequencesit can often land you in debt, which in turn can affect the individual and his or her family and friendsdoing so within a virtual environment is the equivalent of having a digitised 'get out of jail free' card, I suppose.

"I often refer to Grand Theft Auto which is a good example of a game that lets you do things you could do in real life, but, because most of us are well-natured law-abiding people, choose not to. Stealing cars, fighting your neighbours, and, as you say, gambling are all possible in Grand Theft Auto but are often acts which help players to complete missions. In essence, you control a character with a personality who is following a pre-set script.

"It's worth noting that while most adults can distinguish between reality and fantasy that repeated exposure to these behaviours could desensitise and normalise them. That's always worth watching out for."

Now, I'm fairly certain I won't allow my in-game habits to spill into my real life, however it's nevertheless nice to know there's some scientific grounding in my gamified behaviour. Which is of course totally justifies my in-game ludomania.

If you need me, I'll be at Mercenary 3's Boshers Bar which, incidentally, isn't nearly as glamorous as it may sound:

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Why I love fake gambling and in-game casinos according to a psychologist - PC Gamer

A Creepy Dude Is Your Inner Gambling Addict in These Horrifying PSAs From Tom Tagholm – Fishbowl NY (blog)

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In this weeks installment of creepy-as-shit PSAs from the U.K., we have a campaign from agency 18 Feet and Rising about the apparently quite talkative inner demons that people with a gambling problem struggle with.

Two spots below are part of a new Voices campaign aimed at young people 15-24, recently identified as a risk group in data from the Gambling Commission. The campaign is also notable for being directed by Tom Tagholm of Park Pictures, well known for making the original and stunning Meet the Superhumans Paralympics ad for Channel 4 back in 2012.

The new campaignfor BeGambleAware, the leading charity in the U.K. committed to minimizing gambling-related harmpersonifies addicts troubled inner voice in the form of a creepy bystander who has clearly watched Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast more than one.

The unsettling spots certainly leave an impression. Will addicts see themselves in these scenarios? Perhaps, though the sad truth is that any addiction is not something that can easily be scared out of you.

CREDITS Client: BeGambleAware Agency: 18 Feet and Rising Executive Creative Director: Anna Carpen Creative Director: Will Thacker Creative: Will Thacker, Louis Jopling Agency Producer: Russell Taylor Assistant Producer: Lewis OBrien Business Director: Adrienne Little, Andrew Barnard Senior Account Manager: Emma French Strategist: Jack Carrington, Frances Docx Production Company: Park Pictures Director: Tom Tagholm Executive Producer: Stephen Brierley Producer: Nick Goldsmith, Sophie Hubble Co Producer: Freya Silk DOP: Mauro Chiarello Editor: Leo King at Stitch Prod Designer: Simon Davis Post Production: MPC Colourist: George Kyriacou VFX artist: Kamen Markov Post Production Producer: Amy Richardson Sound: Anthony Moore at Factory Media: Goodstuff Communications (Rob Donnellan)

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A Creepy Dude Is Your Inner Gambling Addict in These Horrifying PSAs From Tom Tagholm - Fishbowl NY (blog)

Raising a question about gambling prohibition – Dothan Eagle

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We obviously have a problem with basic civics knowledge in this country, and it leads to a lot of unnecessary conflict. A Jan. 29 Eagle editorial led the column with a quote from our constitution regarding lotteries and gift enterprises then went on to discuss gambling.

Our constitution was specific in this matter prohibiting two forms of risk games. It does not use the generic term gambling, so the legislature has no authority to make laws about the other forms like casinos and race tracks. As written in our constitution, lotteries are quite clear.

Gift Enterprise is also common in legal terms and is a form of lottery like raffles and bingo this is particularly clear since our constitution describes the selling of tickets to participate.

I am indifferent on the subject of all these forms of gambling, and quite comfortable if it were in the hands of the people. However, I am against constitutional ignorance, allowing anyone to claim or inflate powers and disturb our system of government where the people are the source of power.

The government is not the sovereign in this country and we should never encourage them to take action outside of power granted. It is irresponsible to propagate general ignorance in the populace. To be clear, the people of Alabama granted power to our legislature to make law prohibiting gift enterprises and lotteries this does not include poker or dog tracks. Only the people should be re-defining this via constitutional amendment. Our government is wrong in that it has banned all forms of gambling without authority.

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Raising a question about gambling prohibition - Dothan Eagle

Wheeling-based Evanger’s recalls dog food found to contain euthanasia drug – Chicago Tribune

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A Wheeling-based pet food-maker is voluntarily recalling some of its dog food after it was found to contain a sedative used to euthanize animals. Several dogs in Washington state became sick on New Year's Eve after eating the food, and one died, Evanger's Pet Food said.

The pug, named Talula, died after consuming Hunk of Beef dog food, according to Evanger's website. A subsequent toxicology report found the drug pentobarbital, a sedative, was found in the dog's stomach. The owner's three other pugs were sick after consuming the food, but survived.

Evanger's, a family-owned business, has severed its relationship with a beef supplier and promised to guarantee the safety of its products in the future. Evanger's has posted several updates for customers on its website.

"We are sorry we let you down, but we will make a better pet industry because of it," Evanger's owners wrote on their website. "First and foremost we are pet parents," they wrote.

"Although nearly all product involved in this recall have already been consumed by pets without incident, we have decided to initiate the recall as a proactive measure against the remote possibility of any illness. Although only one household in the country reported illness, out of the five lots that are being recalled, we feel it is the right thing to do," the statement read.

Earlier this week, Brett and Chelsea Sher, who work at the pet food company with owners Joel and Holly Sher, followed up with a nearly five-minute video apologizing to their customers and explaining why they decided to recall five lots of Hunk of Beef. They also promised "transparency" as they continued to investigate what happened.

Last month, the company launched an investigation after learning about Talula's death on social media.

Results from an independent lab found no contaminants in their Hunk of Beef product, Evanger's said.

The Shers said they paid veterinary bills for the four pugs in Washington state and made a donation to a local animal shelter.

In the video, the Evanger's owners said that after further research, they learned that pentobarbital can be found in other dry pet foods if they are made with euthanized cow meat. Further, they said, once an animal has been euthanized, there are no regulations requiring veterinarians to tag the meat as such, allowing the meat to find its way into the food chain.

"We were unaware of the problem of pentobarbital in the pet food industry because it is most pervasive in dry foods that source most of their ingredients from rendering plants, unlike Evanger's, which mainly manufactures canned foods that would not have any rendered materials in its supply chain," Evanger's owners wrote on their website. "All of our raw materials are sourced from USDA-inspected facilities, and many of them are suppliers with whom we have had long-standing relationships."

Evanger's beef, they added, is approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The recall, the Shers wrote on their website, "is a simple task, and goes a very long way to ensure safety in many areas."

crshropshire@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @corilyns

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Wheeling-based Evanger's recalls dog food found to contain euthanasia drug - Chicago Tribune