Indian Govt’s Abolition of FIPB Will Help Spur Up Foreign Investments – Entrepreneur

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Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley today announced the abolition of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board as he presented the Union Budget for 2017-18.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board(FIPB)offers a single window clearance for applications on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India that are under the approval route. The sectors under automatic route do not require any prior approval from FIPB and are subject to only sectoral laws. This e-filing facility is an important initiative of the FIPB Secretariat to further enhance its efficiency and transparency of decision making.

Industry experts and investors gave thumbs up to this initiative and said that this will simplify the inflow of foreign funds into the country.

Abolition of FIPB would mean no need to seek approval for foreign investment in country. This would help in speeding the foreign investment as direct investment. However I believe that there would be some negative list for which approval will be needed. Overall abolition of FIPB would help in reducing lot of paper work and approvals for seeking foreign investments and will also reduce time, Anil Joshi of Unicorn India Ventures.

Good for startups

Arun Jaitley further added that they are trying to liberalize the norms under Foreign Direct Investment.

Startups, which had seen a dent in funding from investors last year, this move comes as a ray of hope as foreign investors will now find it easier to make investments in India.

I believe the abolition of FIPB and making foreign investments approvals less subjective will send the right signal to the multitude of investors looking at India as the next big growth story after China. This will certainly give impetus to investments in Indian fast growth startups, Anil Chhikara, Principal, Jaarvis Accelerator said.

Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO, Zerodha said thatscrapping of 'Foreign Investment Promotion Board' further proves that the Central Government is pro business and investments.

The FIPB was reconstituted in 1996 with transfer of the FIPB to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). It was again transferred to the Department of Economic Affairs, under the Ministry of Finance, in 2003.

I write on India's well- established entrepreneurs, VCs, business houses, covering a whole range of sectors, for the company's website and monthly magazine. I am an engineer turned journalist. Prior to this, I was working with Reute...

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Indian Govt's Abolition of FIPB Will Help Spur Up Foreign Investments - Entrepreneur

High time for states to invest in alternatives to migrant detention – ReliefWeb

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The use of migrant detention across Europe, whether for the purpose of stopping asylum seekers and other migrants entering a country or for removing them, has long been a serious human rights concern. I have repeatedly spoken out against the pan-European trend of criminalisation of asylum seekers and migrants, of which detention is a key part. Detention is a far-reaching interference with migrants right to liberty. Experts have confirmed its very harmful effects on the mental health of migrants, especially children, who often experience detention as shocking, and even traumatising.

For this reason, it is imperative that states work towards the abolition of migrant detention. This does not mean giving up on managing ones borders, including decisions over who enters a country and who can stay. It means investing in alternative measures to manage migration effectively, which are not as far-reaching and harmful as detention. Thanks to the important work of civil society organisations, national human rights structures, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the UN and the Council of Europe, the past few years have seen an upsurge in discussions about alternatives to immigration detention.

However, states reactions to the increased arrival of migrants in Europe are threatening past progress. One of the first actions taken under the 2016 EU-Turkey statement was to close off several reception facilities (hotspots) on the Greek islands with fences, effectively making them detention centres a practice which has been partially reversed since then. This month, the Hungarian government said it would make preparations to urgently reinstate mandatory migration detention. In Italy, plans to open sixteen new detention centres were reported. While European states increasingly feel the need to control and to be seen to control their borders, this cannot mean falling back on detention as a knee-jerk reaction.

The legal and policy imperatives for alternatives to detention

The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly stated that states applying immigration detention should not only have a proper basis for this in domestic law, but that it must also be necessary in the particular circumstances of the case. Recently in Khlaifia and others v. Italy the Court stressed that detention is such a serious measure that it is only justified where other, less severe measures have been considered and found to be insufficient. In 2010, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution calling on states to ensure that the detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants shall be exceptional and only used after first reviewing all other alternatives and finding that there is no effective alternative.

Importantly, governments have themselves acknowledged the need for alternatives. The Committee of Ministers Twenty Guidelines on Forced Return only allow detention if non-custodial measures such as supervision systems, the requirement to report regularly to the authorities, bail or other guarantee systems are found to be ineffective. The 2016 New York Declaration for Migrants and Refugees, adopted by heads of state and government, also commits states to pursuing alternatives. During my own visits to many states, such as Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, I have urged governments to include clear alternatives to detention in their legal and policy frameworks.

While there is a need to expand and improve alternatives for all persons involved in immigration proceedings, this is particularly the case for vulnerable persons, including children. For migrant children, detention is not only subject to the requirements mentioned above, but also to an assessment of the best interest of the child, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It has been my position, however, that there are no circumstances in which the detention of a child for immigration purposes, whether unaccompanied or with family, could be in the childs best interest. For this reason, the complete abolition of the detention of migrant children should be a priority for all states.

Alternatives are not only an essential tool in safeguarding the human rights of migrants. They are also helpful for states. If properly implemented, they can help build trust, communication and engagement between the migrant and the state in return procedures, which can actually increase their effectiveness. Also, detention is very costly. Alternatives can provide significant savings, especially now that some states are faced with increasing numbers of new arrivals. Money saved on expanding detention could be more usefully directed towards improving protection systems, reception conditions and, importantly, the long-term integration of those who are allowed to stay.

Making alternatives a reality

Even when states have set up alternatives, these are often ad hoc or open only under very stringent circumstances. It is important that states strive to make alternatives open to as broad a group of migrants as possible. Furthermore, having only one type of alternative, such as bail, is not sufficient. Each person has their own particular circumstances and needs, which have to be accommodated to some extent to ensure that detention is not necessary. A number of extensive reports on the various alternatives that are applied in member states, their effectiveness and their potential drawbacks have been published over the last couple of years, including by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, academics and civil society networks. This gives states plenty of information to develop a well-stocked toolbox of alternatives, varying also in degrees of restrictiveness, if any restrictions are necessary.

Coaching and case management should always be part of this toolbox. Sometimes, this can be sufficient to keep track of migrants and render detention unnecessary. But they should also be integral components of non-detention measures that impose restrictions, such as regular reporting requirements, financial guarantees or limitations on freedom of movement. In addition, states should ensure that applying an alternative does not simply mean letting migrants fend for themselves. States should ensure they can meet their basic needs. This ensures the protection of their human dignity and also encourages positive engagement with the authorities.

Care must also be taken so that states do not simply make a trade-off between detention conditions and alternatives to detention. Although there is a crucial need to improve the conditions in detention facilities in many European states, governments should not simply deflect calls for avoiding detention by referring to improvements made in detention conditions. This is particularly important when it comes to children. Both the Belgian and the Dutch governments, for example, have committed to setting up better, more child-friendly detention facilities. While this will possibly reduce some of the hardship faced by children in detention, this cannot be seen as a substitute for categorically prohibiting the detention of children.

Finally, states should ensure that alternatives are applied to all forms of detention. In France, for example, I found that adults deprived of their liberty in airport zones cannot access alternatives. Furthermore, across Europe, there is an increasing blurring of lines between reception and detention facilities. I already mentioned the hotspots in Greece. In the above-mentioned Khlaifia case against Italy, the Court made very clear that what is determinative of detention is whether people are deprived of their liberty, irrespective of the name of the facility where this happens.

The way forward

European states urgently need to step up their work on reducing migrant detention and developing effective alternatives.

A first and crucial step now is that all states ensure that the obligation to provide sufficient alternatives is set out clearly and effectively in domestic law and policy, and that the use of alternatives is always assessed prior to any decision to detain.

Secondly, this should be complemented by setting up comprehensive programmes of viable and accessible alternatives, catering to a range of different needs and circumstances; the well-stocked toolbox I mentioned. Individual case management and coaching should be an integral part of each of these alternatives, as well as assurances that basic needs can be met.

Thirdly, there is a need for a clear path to the abolition of child detention. So far few governments have been willing to follow this path. It is therefore of the utmost importance that all involved, in particular parliamentarians, national human rights structures and domestic civil society organisations, call upon their governments to present roadmaps, including a firm deadline, for the abolition of child detention.

Fourthly, European states should exchange good practices among themselves and with other actors much more systematically. There is no doubt that states often look for each others guidance in amending their migration policies. Member states should make full use of the opportunities that international fora, such as the Council of Europe, offer to bring together knowledge, to learn from each other as well as from civil society organizations, and to improve the protection of asylum seekers and migrants.

Last but not least, there is a distinct lack of data that needs to be addressed. A 2015 expert report illustrates the lack of consistent data gathering on detention practices. If we are to have honest discussions of what works, for migrants and states, sufficient data need to be available about people deprived of their liberty, the situations in which they are offered alternatives, and the outcomes of these processes. This would improve policy making and enhance necessary human rights monitoring.

Nils Muinieks

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High time for states to invest in alternatives to migrant detention - ReliefWeb

Industry calls for better cooperation from TWU on safety for truckies – ABC Online

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By Annabelle Regan and Sophie McInnerny

Posted February 07, 2017 15:31:09

Transport groups have expressed frustration at being left out of a safety summit organised by the Transport Workers Union.

The national summit of truckies, academics and politicians looked at a safety report by Macquarie University which was critical of the abolition of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal.

It was abolished last year amid intense criticism from owner-operator businesses concerned it would send them broke by increasing pay rates.

The president of South Australian Road Transport Association, Steve Shearer, was annoyed that his and other transport organisations were not invited or not told about last week's summit.

They included the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, Australian Trucking Association and the National Road Transport Association.

Mr Shearer claimed they had been left out.

"The union only wants to work with people who agree precisely with what the union wants," he said.

"It looks very much like the unions had a summit with its friends and nobody else, now that's not a credible summit.

"It wouldn't deal properly with the issues."

The TWU said other transport groups were invited but could not attend the summit.

It had arranged later meetings to inform them of the summit's outcomes while acknowledging their importance toward a safer heavy transport industry.

The Macquarie University report said a tribunal was needed to eliminate tight scheduling, unpaid work and inadequate pay rates.

The report included a survey of truck drivers which found 80 per cent worked more than 50 hours per week with some working more than 80 hours.

It also found some owner-drivers were reluctant to refuse an unsafe load.

Current regulations meant a driver could log up to 72 driving-hours in a week while extra accreditation provided for a driver to log up to 84 hours in a seven-day period.

Mr Shearer said the weekly limits were created with help from fatigue researchers and had seen serious injury and fatality rates fall dramatically since their introduction.

Topics: unions, occupational-health-and-safety, road-transport, sa, australia

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Trump’s Big Lie About 3 Million "Alien Voters" Cuts Far Deeper Than You Think – Truth-Out

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BOB FITRAKIS AND HARVEY WASSERMAN FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

(Photo: Rama)Donald Trump's relentless insistence that three million "aliens" voted for Hillary Clinton and cost him a popular majority in November's presidential election cuts far beyond what the corporate media is willing to report.When it comes to undermining democracy in the US, Trump is once again proving that the best defense is a total attack, even if it relies on "alternative facts."

Trump's Big Lie on voter fraud has been as widely scorned as his fantasies about the size of the turnout at his inauguration.Even the normally restrained New York Times has editorialized that "what once seemed like another harebrained claim by a president with little regard for the truth must now be recognized as a real threat to American democracy."

It seems to be dawning on The Times and others that by claiming so many non-citizens voted more than once, Trump re-loads America's Jim Crow lynch laws against Black people voting.Based on these assertions, we can expect more and more aggressive attacks by the administration against the rights of non-whites and non-millionaires to a fair and honest ballot.

Indeed, the corporate media has not yet faced the devastation of mass disenfranchisement in 2016.As reported by Greg Palast (www.gregpalast.com) and others, some thirty GOP Secretaries of State across the US used a computer program called Crosscheck to strip thousands of mostly black, Hispanic, Asian-American and Muslim voters from the registration rolls.These mass disenfranchisements could well have made the difference in key swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida that allowed Trump to win in the Electoral College while so thoroughly losing the popular vote.

Trump's carping about voter fraud has first and foremost has helped divert the public's attention from this defining reality.

But unfortunately, there is far more.

Let's start with the Electoral College.For the sixth time in US history, the candidate who lost among eligible voters has entered the White House.Last was 2000, when Al Gore beat George W. Bush nationwide by more than a half-million votes.Neither Gore nor the Democratic Party followed this stunning election theft (which had such dire consequences) by launching any kind of movement to abolish the Electoral College.Instead, many Democrats have spent 16 years screaming at Ralph Nader for daring to run for president. Had they instead recruited him to help organize the abolition of the Electoral College, Trump might not now be in the White House.

In 2016, the attack on Nader has morphed into a fixation on Russian hacking and anger at the FBI.So barring a miracle (or a Constitutional Amendment) in 2020 and the foreseeable future beyond, the curse of the Electoral College will still be there to serve the popular minority.

Trump has also fought hard against any meaningful recounts,And for good reason.As many as 28 states this election showed statistically significant variations between exit polls and official vote counts. In 25 of those states, the "Red Shift" went in Trump's direction. Among statisticians this is known as a "virtual statistical impossibility."

In Michigan, which officially went to Trump by about 10,000 votes, some 75,000 ballots came in without a presidential preference, mostly in heavily Democratic urban areas.The idea that 75,000 citizens would take the trouble to vote but not to make a preference among at least four presidential candidates has yet to be explained by the media or the Democrats.

Major problems with electronic voting machines, precinct access, ballot chain of custody and vote count issues also surfaced throughout the swing states.But when the Green Party's Jill Stein dared to attempt a recount, Trump launched an all-out attack.High-priced attorneys in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere did all they could to prevent any realistic examination of what actually happened in the states that gave him the presidency.

Meanwhile, rather than doing the work themselves, the corporate media heaped scorn on Stein for daring to examine exactly how Trump became president.The Democrats and the Clinton campaign offered no help beyond sending a few attorneys to "observe" the assault on greens uppity enough to challenge the system that had flipped the presidency, the Congress, the Supreme Court and innumerable state and local governments.

The bottom line here is that our entire electoral process is broken. Donald Trump became president because massive disenfranchisements kept thousands of citizen from voting, because electronic "black box" voting machines cannot be monitored or accounted for by the general public, and because the Electoral College remains in place, ready to swing the next loser into the White House.

Trump's screaming assertion of entirely the opposite is a brilliant strategy that can only work in a country where the media refuse to face the realities of a thoroughly broken system, and an "opposition" Democratic Party that won't fight for elections it actually wins.

Our survival demands an actual democracy.That means universal automatic voter registration, with voter rolls transparent and readily accessible for verification.It means a four-day national holiday for voting, universal hand-counted paper ballots, and automatic recounts at no cost to the candidates.It also demands an end to gerrymandering, a ban on corporate money in our campaigns and, of course, the abolition of the Electoral College.

Trump's rantings about voter fraud are a brilliant diversion away from all that.So is the media and Democrats' obsession with the Russians.

Our stripped and flipped elections are home-grown poison.Donald Trump is the ultimate outcome. Until we reject the current electoral system, we will all be living in a world of hurt.

---

Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman have co-authored six books on election protection, including The Strip & Flip Selection of 2016, atwww.freepress.org, where Bob's Fitrakis Files also reside.Harvey's Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth is atwww.solartopia.org.

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Trump's Big Lie About 3 Million "Alien Voters" Cuts Far Deeper Than You Think - Truth-Out

Making Sure Americans’ Longer Lives Are Healthy – Next Avenue – Next Avenue

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(Next Avenue invited all our2016 Influencers in Agingto write essays about the one thing they would like to change about aging. This is one of the essays.)

When I was born, a person could reasonably assume a life expectancy of somewhere around 65, just two years more than the current average age of retirement. Speed forward to 2017, and life expectancy is 78.8 years, nearly a decade and a half longer.

Our longer lives a testament to the spectacular advances in public health, nutrition and medicine over the last century are something we should be able to cherish and celebrate. Yet, too often, our longer lives are blighted by financial and nutritional insecurity, ill-health and loss of independence. Indeed, it was witnessing this frustrating reality, as a social worker and a hospital and home health administrator, that prompted my creation of Partners in Care Foundation in 1997.

Another frustrating reality, one that Next Avenues 2016 Influencer of the Year Ashton Applewhite so ably discusses in her book, is a tendency in the U.S. to see aging as something that, with enough potions, lotions or medical intervention, can be fixed.

So much progress has been made in developing programs that afford older adults the opportunity to age well, increasing their independence and dignity.

Of course, it cant. Alongside death and taxes, aging is, perhaps, the only other guarantee in life.

There are currently 46 million people aged 65+, projected to rise to over 98 million by 2060. Seventy percent of people turning 65 will likely need some form of long-term care during their lives. This bonus of time must be maximized by striving to optimize health over the years.

Let the enormity of those numbers sink in for a moment. There are now more Americans 65 and older than at any other time in U.S. history. At this new epoch, what must we do as a society, and as individuals, to ensure that our longer lives are a boon to our existence, not a burden?

Many governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, including Partners in Care, are actively seeking answers to this question. And Im happy to say they are coming up with some pretty compelling answers.

Here are just three of the innovations emerging from the imperative presented by the Triple Aim (patient satisfaction, better health of populations and lower per capita cost of health care), a model by the nonprofitInstitute for Healthcare Improvement.Thesehave made demonstrable improvements to the way we think about the process of aging and care for our older adult population:

We at Partners in Care hope that in its rush to repeal The Affordable Care Act, the new administration is not tempted to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water.

So much progress has been made in developing programs that afford older adults the opportunity to age well, thus increasing their independence and dignity. We have unprecedented opportunities to redefine the aging experience through prevention, through more coordinated, person-centered care that respects the uniqueness of aging and through personal empowerment to take greater responsibility for our own health.

Now is the time to respect, support and celebrate our extended lifespans. If care delivery systems, community organizations and individuals work together, we can reshape the journey of aging so it better serves us all.

Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.

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‘Pink’ actress joins campaign for women empowerment – The New Indian Express

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Andrea Tariang, who featured in a key role in 'Pink'. (Facebook)

NEW DELHI:Actress Andrea Tariang, who featured in a key role in "Pink" -- a movie about women's rights -- has continued her crusade for women empowerment off-screen by joining a campaign 'Ab Samjhauta Nahin'.

The campaign, by ITC's brand for personal care Vivel, is aimed at inspiring women to break free from the shackles of age-old societal mindsets, as "freedom does not come with compromises".

At the recently concluded Kolkata Literary Meet, Andrea, along with some noted women authors, journalists, and singer Vidya Shah, got together for a special recitation of a tweaker version of Rabindranath Tagore's poem "Where The Mind Is Without Fear".

Others who are part of the initiative are authors Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Volga, Vaidehi, Paramita Sathpathy, and Priyanka Mukherjee, activist Ruchira Gupta and journalists Rana Ayyub and Sagarika Ghose.

They recited the poem, asking daughters to awaken to a world where they need to put a stop to compromising and to "uncondition" themselves and their inner spirit, read a statement.

For the campaign, the last line of the poem has been tweaked: "Into that heaven of freedom, Daughter, (daughter instead of my Father), let my country awake".

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'Pink' actress joins campaign for women empowerment - The New Indian Express

Help yourself, Feb. 8 – Casper Star-Tribune Online

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Learn Cortana

The Natrona County Library will offer a Windows 10: Cortana class from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Feb. 8. Learn how to use Cortana, the digital voice assistant on Windows 10. Basic Cortana voice and typed commands will be covered including search queries such as checking the weather, a work schedule, or the status of a flight; turning notification on or off; creating location-based and person-based reminders; getting directions; tracking packages; requesting technical support; language translation, and sending text messages. Take your Windows 10 device with you to follow along. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Daytime Women in the Word will begin a new Bible study at 9:15 a.m., on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, in the chapel at Highland Park Community Church, 5725 Highland Drive. The subject is Old Testament minor prophets beginning with the Book of Hosea. Resources and books are available.

The study is non-denominational and open to women of all ages. Childcare is provided for children 0-5 years of age.

Orientation for new women is held every Wednesday at 9:15 a.m. at Highland Park Community church. Register online @ http://www.casperwomenintheword.com or call Angela (267-8061) or Joyce (234-2922) for more information.

The Natrona County Library will offer an Introduction to 3D Modeling class from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Feb. 11. Participants will come away from this workshop being able to design three-dimensional objects using a free, web-based Computer Aided Design program called Tinkercad. Tinkercad is an easy, browser-based 3D design and modeling tool. Its also your perfect 3D printing companion, allowing you to imagine anything, and then design it in minutes. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Casper College will be holding a FAFSA Filing Frenzy on Thursday, Feb. 16 from 3 to 6 p.m. in Room 225 of the Walter H. Nolte Gateway Center. The event is held to help students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Experts from financial aid, admissions, and student success will be available to help students fill out their FAFSA, answer questions about getting into college, and succeeding in college. Qualifying CC students who complete their FAFSA at the event will be entered in a chance for a $250 CC scholarship.

The FAFSA Filing Frenzy is free and open to all students. For more information call the Casper College Enrollment Services Office at 268-2323. The Nolte Gateway Center is located on Casper College campus.

St. Marks Episcopal Church, 7th and Wolcott, will have classes on money management, using the Financial Peace plan, starting in February. The classes will run from Feb. 18 to April 25, 2017 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., on Tuesdays at the church. To register, please contact Dorothy Brown at 377-3509 or via e-mail Wyo_nana@yahoo.com.

Family Life Ministry at Highland Park Community Church is offering premarital, marriage enrichment, and parenting workshops, seminars, retreats and conferences, empowering families to thrive through Gods love. Please visit the website for more information or to register, http://hpcc.church/FLM.

The Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and The Hill Music Company are joining forces to help young Wyoming musicians further their musical ability with the opportunity to win a new string or wind instrument.

Wyoming music students in grades 9 through 12, who may have outgrown or outplayed a wind or string instrument, are invited to apply for a new instrument.

To apply, download an application form and instruction packet from the WSO website, http://www.wyomingsymphony.org/outreach. Applicants will need to write a short essay about the importance of music and their particular instrument to their lives, and include references from music teachers, family, and friends.

The deadline to apply is Feb. 24, 2017. A certificate will be awarded to the winner at the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra concert on March 18, 2017. The Hill Music Company will provide the winning instrument, and assist the winner in selecting the instrument of his or her choice.

Looking for a one-day workshop that will teach a new, old-time skill? Check out the Pinhole Cameras Workshop on Saturday, Feb. 11 from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Casper Rec Center. A pinhole camera is the earliest form of capturing images that is called a photograph today. It is a dark chamber with a pinhole and no lens. During the clinic, participants will build their own pinhole camera.

For registration fees and more information, stop by the Casper Recreation Center at 1801 E. 4th St., visit the website http://www.activecasper.com or call 235-8383.

ART321/Casper Artists Guild holds Saturday Morning Watercolor Sessions under the direction of Ellen Black. Sessions are Saturday mornings, 10 a.m. to noon. $10 per session.

Feb. 11: Tree Studies; Feb. 18: Practice Session; Feb. 25: Mountain Landscapes. Instructed by Jennifer Morss. Please contact Ellen Black at 265-6783 for any questions. Hope to see you all again this season.

Art321/Casper Artists Guild is offering a workshop in February to help creative journeys.

A Beginning Colored Pencil Workshop will be instructed by Lynn Jones from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Saturday, Feb. 18. Open to all levels. Fee is $30 for members. Take colored pencils and learn all the basic techniques of shading, blending colors and burnishing. The great thing about colored pencil is that it is easily portable, allowing artists to work from anywhere.

Register in person at the gallery or call the desk at 265-2655.

Consider becoming a member of Art321 and get discounted fees on all workshops. Annual dues are $65.

Life After Loss is a support group for people who have lost a loved one to suicide. This is a nine-week program designed to help navigate the troubled waters of this time. The class starts at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, at the Highland Park Community Church, 5725 Highland Dr., room 1327. There is a $12 fee for the book and materials, scholarships are available. Please contact Ardith at 267-3532 or The Healing Place at 265-3977.

Registration is underway for Wyomings premiere business conference, GRO-Biz Conference & Idea Expo, Feb. 22 and 23 at the Ramkota Hotel.

Register before Feb. 8, 2017 for the discounted cost of $165 per registrant; beginning February 8, 2017 registration fee is $185. To see agenda and to register, visit http://www.regonline.com/2017grobizidea.

The GRO-Biz Conference & Idea Expo is two events rolled into one. The event provides opportunities to learn from experts presenting innovative workshops that inspire attendees to think about their business in new and exciting ways. In addition, the conference provides Wyomings small businesses the opportunity to better understand state and federal government procurement processes and meet with professionals who can provide valuable information on the bidding process.

Conscious Co-Creation, Part Two: Field Play, Feb. 18, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., offered in person at the Agricultural Learning Resources building on Fairgrounds Rd. and also via live webinar. In the follow-up to Conscious Co-Creation Part One, explore in depth some of the ideas and skills gained in Conscious Co-Creation. Prerequisite: Conscious Co-Creation/Self-Transformation & Healing. For a full class description and registration information, visit: http://www.cathyhazeladams.com/pp/classes-webinars-event/.

Living from the Heart: The Key to Peace, Freedom & Creative Empowerment, Feb. 26, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., offered in person at the Agricultural Learning Resources building on Fairgrounds Rd. and also via live webinar.In the new four-hour class/playshop, learn what the field of the heart really is, practice easy, practical ways to go into heart field, and learn how to live every day from this place of peace, love, well-being and personal empowerment. No prerequisite. For a full class description and registration information, visit: http://www.cathyhazeladams.com/pp/classes-webinars-event/.

The Natrona County VITA Program, a United Way of Natrona County initiative, is open through April 12, for free tax return assistance. This is a first come, first serve program, no appointments will be scheduled. Individuals must bring their Social Security card, photo identification and the appropriate paperwork with them. For a complete listing of required paperwork, please visit the website http://www.wyomingfreetaxservice.org

Hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Aspen Creek Building, 800 Werner Ct., Ste. 206. Closed Sunday and Monday.

For more information, call (307) 333-5588 during hours of operation or look on Facebook. The initiative is supported by funding from the Wyoming Free Tax Service and local United Way.

Join the five-week program and learn how to reduce processed and packaged foods from your diet. Learn how to plan meals, shop, and cook using whole, natural ingredients. Also learn how to read labels and decipher ingredient lists. Real Food will meet from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., starting Feb. 9 and finishing March 9. Classes will be held at the UW Extension office at 2011 Fairgrounds Road. Half of the class time will include hands-on healthy cooking in the foods lab. The cost is $35, which covers all materials, including food. For more information and to register, contact Karla Case, RD at 235-9400 or kcase@natronacounty-wy.gov.

Mercer Family Resource Center offers a class in March designed to help parents become more effective.

Make Parenting a Pleasure is for parents and caregivers with children ages 0 to 8. Class meets March 1, 8, 15, and 22 and April 5, 12, and 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. Onsite childcare available, meets once a week for seven weeks. Cost is $35 individuals and $50 a couple.

For more information or to enroll, call Lisa Brown at 233-4276.

The deadline for the ARTCORE New Music Competition is March 15. Entrants must be Wyoming residents.

The purpose of the competition is to find serious composers in the state; to provide an ongoing program for encouraging new music by these same composers; to give exposure to musical works of merit and to stimulate an interest in contemporary music in Wyoming audiences.

Performance time shall be limited to 20 minutes. Compositions shall not have been performed previously. Compositions shall be limited to no more than eight performers. Compositions may be for any combination of voice and/or instrument. Three copies of the manuscript must be submitted. Manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Submit manuscripts to ARTCORE, P.O. Box 874, Casper, WY 82602. Entry fee is $15. Manuscripts must be postmarked no later than March 15, 2017.

Teen Challenge Wyoming offers classes at local churches, True Care and the Link (Youth for Christ). For more information on these groups or on other Teen Challenge programs, please call 258-5397.

Peacemaking: Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. In this world of division and conflict, it is important for Christians to stay grounded in what the Bible teaches about resolving our differences with orders in a God-honoring way. For more information, call Pat at 258-5397.

Save One: A group for post-abortion healing. For more information, call Judy at 251-5644.

Single & Parenting: Sundays at 6:30 p.m. Covers major challenges single parents face in raising their children, and offers tools to help them meet these challenges. Enter anytime, each lesson stands alone. Call Cathie at 258-6119.

Professionals in Recovery: An ongoing Christian recovery group. For more information, call Gary at 267-7777.

Insight: Discovering the path to Christian character, especially in the midst of stress. Time to be announced. For more information, call Teen Challenge Wyoming at 258-5397.

Possible offering: Committed Couples and/or the Smart Stepfamily (groups designed to strengthen marriages for both married couples and those anticipating marriage) may be offered later this year. For more information on these possibilities, please call Teen Challenge Wyoming at 258-5397.

Premium quality seedling trees, shrubs and perennials are available for windbreaks and wildlife habitat enhancement from the UW/Natrona County Extension. Order forms are available at the Ag Resource and Learning Center, 2011 Fairgrounds Rd. There are 41 species available. Order now for best selection with May 2017 delivery. For more information, call Rose Jones at 235-9400.

Wyoming Dementia Care offers five Alzheimers Caregiver Support groups each month. Caregivers of those with dementia-related illnesses and the loved ones they care for are welcome at any of the group sessions. Professional staff from Intermountain Home Companions will be on hand to offer separate activities and snacks for those who need care. There is no charge for Wyoming Dementia Cares support groups or for the respite care provided during the approximately one hour long sessions.

The morning support group sessions meet on the first and third Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. at Central Wyoming Senior Services, 1831 E. 4th St. The afternoon support groups meet at 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at Life Care Center of Casper, 4041 S. Poplar. The evening groups meet on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Meadow Wind Assisted Living, 3955 E. 12th St.

Good Grief, Support will continue at 5:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at the 12-24 Club, 500 S. Wolcott, by request of attendees. Anyone who is grieving a suicide, death, or considering suicide is encouraged to attend. Attendance at the meeting, as well as the content, will be strictly confidential. The Fresh Start Cafe will be open, and you can eat during the meetings. This meeting place was offered by Dan Cantine of the 12-24 Club. You need not be a member to attend. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

J.R.s Hunt for Life is offering See it Clearly, a free peer support group for persons suffering from depression and other mental conditions that lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. The group is led by like-minded peers wishing to offer support in these struggles. Anonymity and confidentiality is offered to all attending. Meetings are at 6:45 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at 500 South Wolcott in the conference room on the second floor, (12-24 Club). Those who have considered or attempted taking their life or are struggling are welcome. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

The family of J.R. Hunter, who committed suicide, now has two additional support groups, these faith-based, in addition to the groups they run on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at the 12-24 Club. Those continue. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

J.R.s Hunt; for life presents two faith-based grief and depression peer to peer support groups at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. at Restoration Church, 411 S. Walsh. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

Grief Support Group, Good Grief: A faith-based grief support group that the family hosts on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 5:30 p.m. at Restoration Church. The familys loss has moved them to offer this to anyone grieving. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

Depression Support Group, See It Clearly: A faith-based free peer to peer support group for persons suffering from depression and other mental conditions that may lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. The group is led by like-minded peers wishing to offer support in these struggles. Anonymity and confidentiality is offered to all attending. Meetings are at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at Restoration Church. Those who have considered or attempted taking their life or are struggling are welcome. For more information, email jlh35@hotmailcom.

Rocky Mountain Therapy is offering a Parkinsons exercise program. Join us from noon to 1 p.m. Thursdays at Rocky Mountain Therapy, 2546 E. Second St., Building 500. These classes are open to anyone with Parkinsons or caring for someone with Parkinsons.

Thursdays class is tailored for the individual with more advanced Parkinsons and focuses on improving endurance, safety and managing symptoms. We are open to all ages and can tailor the class to meet varying exercise needs. The cost of the class is $5. To RSVP, call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon.

Celebrate Recovery meets at 5:30 p.m. every Friday at Highland Park Community Church, just south of Elkhorn Valley Rehabilitation Hospital on East Second Street. We start with a family meal, followed by praise and worship. At 7 p.m., theres either a lesson from Celebrate Recoverys planned curriculum or a testimony by a person who has found recovery through Christ. Then, people go to gender-specific small groups until 8:30 p.m., when dessert and fellowship conclude the evening. Child care is available at no cost. For more information, contact Chris at 265-4073.

Classes are every third Tuesday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. There is no charge. Here and Now is a program made possible through a collaboration between Wyoming Dementia Care and the Nicolaysen Art Museum. It is designed to provide a supportive environment for people with dementia and Alzheimers and their loved ones.

Latin Study Club language enthusiasts welcome anyone who wishes they had taken Latin in school or paid better attention when they did. The group meets at 7 p.m., on Tuesday nights at Mount Hope Lutheran School, 2300 Hickory. There is no charge. The textbook used is Wheelocks Latin, 7th edition. Noli timere!

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Help yourself, Feb. 8 - Casper Star-Tribune Online

‘This is a phase of empowerment’ – The Hindu

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Kangana Ranaut is in a pleasantly reflective frame of mind as she looks back at Julia, her character in Vishal Bhardwajs upcoming Rangoon , set during the Second World War. The fictional character isnt the legendary Mary Ann Evans a.k.a. Fearless Nadia alone. But, as Ranaut puts it, shes an amalgamation, a celebration of several women action stars of the Indian film industry of the 40s. The outspoken, free-spirited actor, known for her own unconventional choices personal as well as professional is forthright about how the liberated, enlightened ways of the early female leads, and, in turn, the industry back then, left her surprised. It was a revelation to learn that a lot of the stunt women were central to our filmmaking; [they] were the reigning superstars, she says.

What also stoked her interest and posed a challenge as a performer was the fact that Julia is actually supposed to be a bad actor. Ranaut had to work hard to be good at being bad. Complicated? There are these actors in every era, those who can dance very well and can do action but cant act, she simplifies. They have to live with that image and the prejudices that come with it. I had to draw humour from that, work on my dialogue delivery. So, her Julia is a bad actor, yet one who has star appeal. She is insecure about her craft, seeks the mentorship of a sugar daddy, carries baggage of her own, but, at the same time, is successful at what she does, which isnt acting but dancing and stunts.

Ranaut spent considerable time abroad and learnt dance, from ballet to Kathakali, and even Kalaripayattu. It is obvious that she has given quite a lot of time, space and thought to the film. This is not just a personal take on the character, but also on the period the story is set in. India was a very confused place. There was a British influence on the upper class. It was about confused cultures, races and nationalities, and art also reflected that.

It was exciting for her to revisit those muddled-up times, and even more so to go back to the early days of filmmaking, to be able to see our cinema evolve over the years. She hasnt gotten over how there were no monitors on the sets, how the director used to sit atop the crane with the director of photography (DoP) to monitor a shot. In its own way, the film also helped her revisit the nations freedom struggle days more closely. These are things that dont go beyond the history chapters for you, she says.

The man to bring it all alive for Ranaut has been director Vishal Bhardwaj. It has been her first time making a film with him, and she has lots to say. He is aspirational, inspirational, struggles hard to bring the best out of you, and has a great process in place. He is a multi-faceted artiste, very likeable as a person and also very sensitive; he can get upset as well.

It has been Ranauts first time shooting in Arunachal Pradesh as well. (In the film) we are meant to be stranded near the border, lost in a virgin place with no sign of civilisation around, she says. It is meant to be an untouched place. So, they shot in Kabang. There were no hotels. We had to drive into the jungle. It was beautiful, but you also have to pay a price for the beauty, she says, with a touch of innate philosophy and wisdom. Life there can be pretty arduous.

Vishal Bhardwaj is aspirational, inspirational, struggles hard to bring the best out of you, and has a great process in place

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'This is a phase of empowerment' - The Hindu

Learning From Last Year: Technology Funding Outlooks For 2017 – Forbes

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Learning From Last Year: Technology Funding Outlooks For 2017
Forbes
Do these signs point to another burst, another shock wave through technology similar to what happened in 2000? I don't think so. And what will the funding climate look like in 2017? I think it will be calmer and less risky. My thoughts are based on ...

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Learning From Last Year: Technology Funding Outlooks For 2017 - Forbes

In This Year’s Super Bowl Of Technology, Intel Led The Way With A Sky Full Of Drones – Forbes

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In This Year's Super Bowl Of Technology, Intel Led The Way With A Sky Full Of Drones
Forbes
While creatively, this year's crop of Super Bowl ads was lackluster, Super Bowl advertisers pushed the edge of the envelope technologically, trying out the newest technologieseither using or showcasing things like virtual reality and artificial ...
Yes, those were drones in Lady Gaga's Super Bowl halftime showCBC.ca

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In This Year's Super Bowl Of Technology, Intel Led The Way With A Sky Full Of Drones - Forbes

Interview with Matt Nix about his new Fox show APB. – Slate – Slate Magazine

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Justin Kirk as Gideon Reeves in APB.

Fox

APB, which premieres Monday on Fox, tells the story of Gideon Reeves (Justin Kirk), a tech billionaire who takes over the 13th Precinct of the Chicago Police Department after seeing firsthand how ill-equipped the force is to fight crime. As part of his administration, Reeves gives the cops cool toys and technology, like protective body suits; stun guns with lethal and nonlethal settings; souped-up, bulletproof cars; and lots and lots of drones. In the real world, serious conversations are taking place about how law enforcement uses cutting-edge technology like Stingrays and predictive policing based on algorithms.

June Thomas is a Slate culture critic and editor of Outward, Slates LGBTQ section.

I spoke with co-showrunner Matt Nix, who also created the USA thriller Burn Notice, about the equipment Reeves hands to the cops, and the policy implications of privatizing policing.

June Thomas: In APB, an arrogant billionaire takes a job hes really not qualified for. I dont know if you expected the show to be quite so topical.

Mat Nix: Whatever do you mean!

It is based on reality, though, right?

Yeah, its inspired by a true story of a wealthy man in New Orleans who had been the victim of some burglaries. After battling with the city over police protection, he decided to fund a small police force within the police force that would patrol the center of town, and he made an app so you could report crimes. Its certainly not the same, but it did demonstrate that this was something that could really happen, and did really happenwhere someone decided to fund an upgrade to the police force.

Which of the technologies on the show are really possible?

In the pilot, there are drones that are weaponized with Tasers. That has never been done by a police force, but its done in the military. Those things exist right now. Although they look futuristic, there are no technical obstacles to making a drone that has a loudspeaker on it and a mic and can fire a Taser. We have weapons that have lethal and nonlethal settingsthats one place where we took a certain amount of license, in the sense that theres not currently a Taser bullet that carries enough charge to do that.

In guiding the technology in the show, the kinds of liberties we took were the practical liberties of how long something might take. For example, in the third episode, Gideon uses a chair from the aerospace division of his company that reads biofeedback from pilots to monitor their stress levels. He repurposes the monitors into an interrogation chair, which allows them to passively monitor the stress levels of the suspect. Are there seats in rockets and aircraft that monitor the stress level of the pilots? Absolutely, thats something that exists. Can you rip all that out of a chair and install it in an interrogation chair in the space of a few hours? That might be difficult. But everything is basically possible based on contemporary technology, and the license we take is that we allow ourselves to do it a little bit more quickly. Then again, one of the conceits of the show is that hes not limited by money.

The truth is: The major obstacle to the use of police drones in the real city of Chicago is the Federal Aviation Administration. They wont let you fly drones in certain areas, so thats another thing where were allowing that, off screen, somehow, Gideon has made his way through that bureaucracy and made it possibleor hes just paying fines all the time!

Lets talk about those policy restrictions. In the pilot, I dont remember much discussion of warrants. When the drones are out chasing the bad guys, theyre also doing some very intrusive surveillance.

Its definitely something we address more deeply as the series goes on. Whatever you think of Donald Trump, one thing thats clear is that hes a guy who is really frustrated with the nature of government, red tape, and bureaucratic obstacles. He was partially elected on a platform of cutting through those things. In the real world, well see if hes successful, but in the world of the show, one of the things that we explore is the idea of this guy who has been running his own business and has been able to do pretty much whatever he wanted suddenly being forced to realize that just because something is technically possible, that doesnt make it right

Lets talk about the equipment the 13th Precinct hasbody armor, special guns, powerful cars. Ive heard police departments complain that they cant compete with the materiel that criminals have. Isnt it just as much of a nightmare that the bad guys will get their hands on the kind of technology that Reeves makes available?

With regard to weaponry, it was a priority for us to not portray this as a militarized police force. This is a civilian police force with enhanced equipment. Its not that they are getting more powerful guns. They are getting more capable guns. Theyre getting guns that can fire Taser rounds when necessary and lethal rounds when necessary. Frankly, we might want criminals to get their hands on those kinds of guns.

Im not terribly worried about criminals getting their hands on algorithms.

A lot of what were exploring is the capabilities of big data and networking. We do it in a TV-friendly, graphics-on-a-screen kind of way, but a lot of it is data analysis. In the second episode, one of the big innovations is that the police are going to set up a perimeter, and Adathe computer scientistsays, Why dont we figure out the optimal path for people to drive through this area so that we always have units at the mathematically closest point to possible targets rather than just setting up a big circle? Thats math.

There are certain areas, like drones, where the question of an arms race between the police and the criminals is real. The cops have bulletproof cars with powerful engines, they have this body armor, and they have these gunsbut most of the show is just about being smarter. Im not terribly worried about criminals getting their hands on algorithms.

One other thing that we explore really in every episode is the limitations of the technology. We realized very early on is that the recipe for a very boring show is: Theres a problem, Gideon gets a toy, and the toy fixes the problem.Technology by itself doesnt solve anything. Its how its deployed.

When CSI was big, there were anecdotal reports that juries came to expect CSI-like forensic evidence, and if they werent provided it, they werent willing to bring a conviction. Are you worried that APB might lead cities or individual citizens to demand the kind of equipment and algorithms that the cops at the 13th Precinct have?

Im not too worried that people will say, Why dont we have a billionaire?

This is coming no matter what. The question isnt Is this going to be portrayed in television? or Are people going to get used to the idea of police using drones? The answer to that, whether APB is on the air or not, is absolutely yes, The question is not whether its going to be portrayed on TV but how its going to be portrayed, and are we doing that responsibly. Are we presenting these things as easy answers? Are we presenting civil rightsquestions of due processas bureaucratic red tape to be brushed aside by people who know better? Or are we presenting those as real issues to be grappled with and balanced and dealt with? In the confines of a show that has a lot of action, where people crack wisewere not a documentarythat is something we try to be very conscious of and make sure that whenever we show these things that are coming, we acknowledge that theres another side to it. We always remind the audience that technology is only as good as the people behind it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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Interview with Matt Nix about his new Fox show APB. - Slate - Slate Magazine

Bill Nye forecasts next 50 years, says we’re at a technological crossroad – Digital Trends

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Why it matters to you

According to Bill Nye, the social and technological future depends on you.

What will technology be like in 50 years? According to Bill Nye the Science Guy, were at a crossroads for energy technology and the direction will depend on how people want to shape the world, Futurism reports.

In Nyes weekly video series for Big Think, themechanical engineer, science educator, and television presenter responded to queries about science and technology. Recent questions have asked for Nyes opinion on the possibility of cold fusion and whether scientists today could create Frankensteins monster. The latest inquiry was about the future.

More:How much wind could a wind farm farm? Web tool estimates renewable potential

A young industrial engineering student at the University of Miami asked Nye if he could describe how he thinks the world will look like technologically and socially in the future. Sure that people 50 years ago wouldnt have imagined some of todays technology, the student asked, So can you give us an idea of what you think the world is going to be like in 50 years?

Nye started by stating that were at a turning point, a fork in the road. I very much hope in the next 50 years virtually all of our electricity, lets just start with 80 percent of our electricity, is made renewably from wind and solar, some geothermal, some tidal energy and we run the whole place renewably.

He also stated that its not hard to predict autonomous cars. There will be very few human-driven cars. Most automobiles in 50 years will be automatic, will be driverless. In the same way you get on a train at the airport and you go from one terminal to another, you trust that train to do that, it stays on the track.

Nye said, however, that he believes the future technological direction depends on millennials and Gen Xers. Either in the next decade or 15 years, the U.S. becomes the world leader in renewable technologies or the U.S. just continues to divide the rich and the poor and global climate change gets stronger and stronger the ocean gets bigger and bigger as it gets warmer and the quality of life for a lot of people goes down, Nye continued. Well see.

Concluding with an exhortation, Nye said, But man, youve given me a lot to think about. I want you to change the world. Go get em [] Lets go.

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Bill Nye forecasts next 50 years, says we're at a technological crossroad - Digital Trends

Globalization failed too many people. Here’s the technology that could help it work for everyone – Quartz

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Last month, global leaders in business, government, media, and technology made their annual pilgrimage to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forums annual event. The tranquil mountains surrounding the city stood in sharp contrast to the swirling populist storm that is now transforming geopolitics. Indeed, the events long-held objectiveto improve the state of the world by promoting open borders, global cooperation, and free tradefelt strikingly at odds with the nativism and isolationism expressed in Brexit and the election of US president Donald Trump.

The new right-wing populists have many bogeymenimmigrants, refugees, and what they perceive to be corrupt and ineffective international institutions, to name a few. But look past these scapegoats, and a troubling reality emerges. It is not trade or immigration, but rapid technological progressturbocharged by globalizationthat has left many people behind. The truth is, the track record for the Internet is complicated at best. It has democratized access to information and transformed the way we communicate, but it has also led to the erosion of privacy. It has spurred the creation of Silicon Valley juggernauts, but failed to create broad-based prosperity.

The challenge that lies ahead is how to make globalization (and, ipso facto, technology) work for everyone, not just privileged few. The blockchain, a decentralized ledger that verifies and permanently records transactions, may help us achieve this goal. In fact, the democratizing potential of this technology could be key to ushering in a new era of globalism.

The blockchain was developed as the enabling technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It is capable of carrying not just information but also anything of value. Money, titles, deeds, votes, and intellectual property can be moved, stored, and managed securely and privately, as trust is not established by powerful intermediaries like banks and governments, but by consensus, cryptography, collaboration and clever code.

The decentralized blockchain empower individuals and local communities, creates opportunities and enables connection across borders without requiring users to sacrifice individual autonomy or privacy. Individuals can own their own identities and personal data, do transactions, and create and exchange value peer-to-peer.

If the blockchain becomes more widely used, billions of marginalized people will have a better chance of entering the global economy through financial inclusion and the strengthening of property rights. Wealth for the worlds poorest will no longer be tied down by the limits of cash in the grey economy, as more people will have the means to make payments, store value and access credit globally. Rather than trying to solve the problem of growing social inequality through redistribution alone, we can change the way wealthand opportunityis pre-distributed in the first place. Farmers can connect to global supply chains. Musicians can get fairly compensated for the content they create. We can build a true sharing economy where the creators of value actually share in the wealth these new platforms create. The list goes on.

In this regard, the promise of blockchain technology is heartening. It includes significantly lowered transaction costs, and broader financial access for individuals and companies; strengthened financial and social stability through greater economic participation; stronger economic activity; and the enhancement of appropriate transparency, security, and privacy. Among other things, these transformations could usher in a halcyon age of entrepreneurship, as small companies anywhere in the world can have all the capabilities of big companies without the corresponding liabilities, such as deadening bureaucracy or legacy culture.

At the same time, the blockchain is not a panacea for the worlds problems. And of course we see the irony in positing that this new technology could help us address our social and economic issues, when previous technologies have fallen short of the mark. Ultimately, technology alone does not create prosperitypeople do. Leadership and stewardship will be required to ensure that blockchain technology meets its positive promise. Our firm belief is that this calls for continued commitment to global cooperation, not disengagement.

Now, more than ever, we need global institutions and organizations like the World Economic Forum to work together to ensure this better future. Collectively, our organization is made up of volunteers from disparate backgrounds, united by the common goal of helping to steward this important global resource in the right direction. We believe that in order for blockchain technology to impact the world in a constructive way, all the communities we represent must take positive action, and we must do so with a sense of urgency. Too often in the past, policymakers and the business community have treated goals like financial inclusion, or enabling individuals to have greater agency over personal data, as good to have rather than a must.

This is folly. Without concerted and focused effort, there is a danger this powerful new technology will fail to deliver on its promise. Leaders of the old paradigm might try to stop it. Governments may try to crush it. Perhaps the greatest risk is that the technology will never make it to prime-time, as competing fiefdoms inside the nascent blockchain community advance their own narrow self-interest at the expense of the ecosystem as a whole. None of this is meant to dissuade us from pursuing the technology, but rather to highlight the challenges that we will need to plan for and overcomevia inclusive, meritocratic and bottom-up multi-stakeholder governance.

The members of our group intend to bring this focus to our work together, and to reach out to others in our respective communities to join us. The world is in the throws of great change, and we intend to do our part to ensure that our contribution to that change is positive. The time is now and we need your help. Please join us.

The signatories below are members of the World Economic Forums Global Futures Council on Blockchain, which was formally announced at Forums signal event held at Davos, Switzerland in January, 2017. We are a diverse group of stakeholders that includes regulators, businesspeople, investors, academics, entrepreneurs, and representatives of open-source communities.

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Globalization failed too many people. Here's the technology that could help it work for everyone - Quartz

What the Tech: Neuro-Bio Monitor Technology – KFDX

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If you're too lazy to pick up a remote control someday your problem will be solved.

Dozens of companies are working on technology that will allow humans to control computers, prosthetic limbs and televisions using only their brain.

One such company is Freer Logic and Changhong Electric Company. I stumbled across their exhibit at CES this year and it kind of blew my mind.

"This is a neuro-bio monitor technology," developer Peter Freer told me. He had a man sitting on a couch in front of a television as I walked by. On screen was a driving simulator that the man was controlling. He didn't have a remote control in his hand, Freer said he was using his brain to move the car down the road.

"It's the first time in history we've been able to monitor brain activity from a distance without touching it," he said.

Brain and mind control technology is relatively new but almost all of that technology requires a person to strap on a headband. Freer Logic's sensors were built in a headrest and if you're head is close enough to it, around 1 foot or less, the sensors can tell whether you're paying attention to something or not.

"We can monitor his brain state without every touching him," Freer said.

As I watched the man use the simulator he merely focused on the screen to make the video play with the car driving down a road. When Peter and I talked, the man became distracted from the simulator. As he did the video stopped.

Freer said the company is developing the technology further and is working with automobile manufacturers and their OEMs to implement it in vehicles for safety.

"We can develop a drowsiness algorithm so we can detect when truck drivers or people driving their cars get drowsy before their eyes start to droop," Free said.

Seeing this technology in action is, well, mind-blowing but it's almost here for consumers.

Last week it was reported that Netflix has been talking with developers about brain controlled technology that would allow its customers to search for a movie by just thinking of it.

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What the Tech: Neuro-Bio Monitor Technology - KFDX

Think Progress Editor Mocks Audi for Equal Pay Super Bowl Ad – Breitbart News

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Audi, new champion of womens equity at work, has no women on their board, editor Judd Legum wrote on Twitter:

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No women sit on Audis Management Board, but its 14-person team of American executives includes two women.

Legum was not alone in his criticism of the ad; 25 percent of the comments on the ad across social media were negative, Business Insider reports.

The ad begins with a father watching his daughter in a race, asking himself, What do I tell my daughter?

Do I tell her that her grandpa is worth more than her grandma? That her dad is worth more than her mom? the narrator asks.

The father wonders how he can tell his daughter that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence, she still runs the risk of being valued less than every man she ever meets.

At the end, his daughter wins the race, and she and her father walk to an Audi right before the slogan progress is for everyone flashes across the screen.

The company decided to make a statement about gender pay equality on Twitter by saying, At Audi, we are committed to equal pay for equal work.

Despite what Audi claims in the ad, the gender pay gap is not wide.

According to the Daily Beast, the 23-cent gender pay gap is merely the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working fulltime.

The statistic does not take into account factors such asdifferences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure, or hours worked per week.

Once those factors are included, the wage gap is only a five-cent difference, and no one knows whether the cause is discrimination or some other hard-to-measure difference between the genders.

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Think Progress Editor Mocks Audi for Equal Pay Super Bowl Ad - Breitbart News

IMF: Greece’s debts are still unsustainable despite progress – The Seattle Times

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WASHINGTON (AP) Greece, which has been struggling for years with high debts and painful rates of unemployment, is making progress toward reducing its massive budget problems and restoring economic growth, the International Monetary Fund said Monday.

But the IMF said the countrys debts remain unsustainable over the long term.

The IMF predicts Greeces economy will reach long-run growth of just under 1 percent a year, unimpressive but an improvement on years when the economy was shrinking. And Greece will meet the IMFs target by reporting primary annual budget surpluses which do not include interest payments equal to 1.5 percent of economic output.

Since the financial crisis left it buried in debt and unable to issue bonds in financial markets, Greece has relied on international bailouts. Its Eurozone creditors have forced it to make painful budget cuts that caused a deep recession. Unemployment is 23 percent. Most IMF directors said Greece doesnt need any more austerity. But they said the country should reduce pension payments and make more people pay taxes to raise money to help the poor and cut overall tax rates.

The countrys debt is unsustainable at around 180 percent of gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, the IMF said. Most IMF directors say the country will probably need debt relief to pay its bills over the long term.

Greece is under pressure to conclude its latest bailout negotiations in time for a scheduled Feb. 20 meeting of eurozone finance ministers. That would allow the country to join the European Central Banks bond-buying program, which would boost market confidence and make it easier for Greece to return to the bond market later this year.

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IMF: Greece's debts are still unsustainable despite progress - The Seattle Times

Deutsche Bundesbank Cites Progress With Blockchain-Based Settlement – CryptoCoinsNews

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Deutsche Bundesbank has made progress developing a blockchain-based settlement infrastructure, but the system is not yet market ready.

Carl-Ludwig Thiele, a member of the Deutsche Bundesbank executive board, offered an update on the banks progress speaking at the G20 conference in Wiesbaden. His comments, Digitizing finance, financial inclusion and financial literacy, are available on the banks website.

Thiele noted the bank develops and operates large financial market infrastructures in line with technological advances. The bank needs to be aware of the potential benefits and risks of this technology early on.

Working with Deutsche Brse, the bank has developed a preliminary prototype for a blockchain-based settlement that has the following capabilities:

The projects goal is to learn the following: How the technology works, How reliable and secure blockchain-based transactions are, What factors impact the costs of blockchain-based transactions, How effective and efficient blockchain-based processes are, How current processes can be improved with blockchain technology.

Improving process efficiency is an overriding goal. A shared data pool across all entities concerned should enable standardizing and simplifying some of the more complex transaction monitoring processes.

A shared data pool combined with flexible access rights would, for example, provide the conditions whereby relevant regulatory reporting and internal audit requirements are addressed with less effort and are more securely designed.

Deutsche Bundesbank chose a concept based on a Hyperledger blockchain. The top considerations were: A closed or permissioned blockchain network, in which only authorized users can transact on the network. Responsibility and confidentiality. Future financial transactions will be governed by current standards in these two key areas. Hence, every transaction is encrypted, in addition to the transacting parties identities.

Also read: Industry report: blockchain technology will save banks billions

The study indicates blockchain technology can be adapted meet current financial system needs and requirements. And while the prototype works, further development for mass use presents challenges.

The test application allows for simulating large-volume delivery-versus-payment securities transactions.

The joint project has developed an elementary, though functional, blockchain-based application catering to the financial sectors basic requirements.

The bank is presently unable to know if the application can allow for mass use or whether this it is a viable option in terms of costs.

With this as our starting point, we aim to develop a technically more sophisticated prototype, capable of providing information on technical performance and thus allowing comparison with our present settlement infrastructure, Thiele said.

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Nioh Review-in-Progress: FromSoftware’s Formula Evolved – Shacknews

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Team Ninja's SoulsGaiden-like marries the best of Dark Souls and Ninja Gaiden with a little Bloodborne stirred in.

In case you missed the memo, FromSoftware is done making Dark Souls games. Unless studio president Hidetaka Miyazaki changes his mind, next month's Ringed City DLC is not only Dark Souls 3's final expansion, it's the last piece of Dark Souls content ever.

Rather than leave that bloodstain to dry, Nioh pays homage to FromSoftware's modern classic while driving the genre forward at breakneck speed.

Developed by Team Ninja, Nioh evokes Ninja Gaiden and Dark Souls with a little Bloodborne thrown in for good measure. The basics will be familiar to anyone who's at least dabbled in a Souls game. You'll creep through dozens of areas painted in shades of grim and bleak, fighting enemies using a bevy of weapons, resting at shrines that both heal you and reset enemies and traps, spending amrita instead of souls to upgrade attributes.

Instead of playing it safe and conforming to a winning pedigree, Nioh builds on FromSoftware's ideas by injecting them with the raw speed of its 3D Ninja Gaiden series. Every weapon has a light and heavy attack, but your character can switch between low, mid, and high styles on the fly, effectively giving you six basic strikes.

Besides amrita, you earn skill points that you can spend on skills unique to each weapon class. Specializing in kusarigama (a wicked sickle-and-chain combo) afforded me access to skills like a kick that drains enemy stamina, a flurry of strikes that chews through life meters, and a throat slice that deals massive damage to winded enemies who neglected their stamina.

Minding your stamina, known as ki, is paramount in Nioh, but Team Ninja put a twist on the mechanic. Every time you finish an attack, you'll notice a blue glow surrounding your character. Tap R1 at the right time and you'll recoup all the ki you expended in a flash. Performing a ki pulse is reminiscent of getting hit in Bloodborne and being able to reclaim lost hit points by counterattacking quickly, but you always regain at least a smidgeon of ki even if your timing is off, so you won't feel punished if you prefer defense over aggression.

Ki regeneration has the added benefit of dispelling portals of dark energy that spring up around certain enemies and bosses. You can fight in those pools, but you'll regenerate ki at a snail's pace while inside them, and the rate of regeneration usually means the difference between success and respawning at the nearest shrine.

All of this boils down to layered and rewarding combat. You're never hurting for ways to dispatch enemies, and the staggering amount of options at your fingertips encourages you to switch styles and strategies depending on who or what you're fighting.

You almost have to. Dark Souls let you get away with picking off enemies one at a time while their buddies stood gaping at the growing pile of corpses lying at their feet. Nioh's mobs know when their friends are dying. Sniping with your bow or rifle gives you enough time to kill one, maybe two before the rest of the pack is on their feet and stampeding toward you.

Nioh's two biggest departures from Dark Souls lie in how you explore its world and digest its story. Instead of reporting back to a hub after killing bosses or exploring vast and interconnected environments, Team Ninja went with more traditional levels. The notion of selecting missions at a map screen may seem jarring to players accustomed to world design that communicates story, but every individual level of Nioh I've played has been deftly interwoven and dense with nooks, crannies, and side routes.

I was surprised by how much I appreciated having a minimap as I played. The map itself is bare bones; it exists only to point you toward your main objective. You can ignore the marker and explore at your leisure; when you're ready to move forward, you'll know which way to go.

Instead of creating your own character and customizing every pixel down to the shape of your eyebrows, you play as a characterWilliam, who's based on a real samurai of the same name, minus all the supernatural elements. And get this: William talks. Cutscenes are sparsely used to move things along, but I was able to skip them without missing any gameplay beats, yet engaging enough that players interested in a more traditional narrative will enjoy them.

To call Nioh a copycat would be doing it a disservice. Combat is tight and layered with options, levels are gorgeously rendered and ooze atmosphere, and the story is entertaining enough to keep me interested yet can still be set aside when I'm more interested in perfecting my ki pulses.

If, like me, you've sunk thousands of hours into Souls games and were concerned that the genre would dry up after Dark Souls 3's conclusion, you owe it to yourself to immerse yourself in Nioh's samurai-fantasy world.

This review-in-progress is based on a PlayStation 4 disc provided by the publisher. Nioh will be available exclusively for PlayStation 4 for $59.99 on February 7. Refer to the Shacknews Nioh guide hub for tips on solving levels and honing your skills in combat.

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Progress being made on possible grocery store co-op in Winston-Salem – myfox8.com

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- The SHARE Food Cooperative of Winston-Salem is making progress with plans to bring a co-op grocery store to one of the citys food deserts.

A now-vacant 8,000+-square-foot building has the attention of project leaders.

The building in the West Salem Shopping Center was a grocery store at one time, making it an ideal space for what SHARE hopes to do.

The vision is to establish some food markets in some food desserts, project coordinator Rev. Gary R. Williams said.Fresh food to people at a reasonable cost.

Eventually, SHARE would like to have multiple locations to address the numerous food deserts in the city, but for now its focusing on the Peters Creek Parkway location.

We said, Why dont we find an area where we wont have to do so much work on the area itself, but be able to set up the co-op and [allow people] to access it right away and then we would use it as a model to take to these other areas, said Rev. Willard Bass, co-founding project developer.

They should build one right here, or put one here, resident Aundra Thweatt said.

The goal is to create a model similar to the Renaissance Co-op in Greensboro, but the group will need city funding to move forward with the vision.

To meet the operational, administrative and consulting needs of the project, SHARE would need an estimated total investment of $100,000 from the city.

However, in the short term, SHARE will ask the city at an upcoming council meeting to consider providing $21,000 for a feasibility study.

The study will allow SHARE to determine if this location is best suited to address all of the co-ops needs.

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Bomb-shelter builder busy as customers prep for ‘Trumpocalypse’ – Atlanta Journal Constitution

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MURCHISON, Texas

Inside his football field-size warehouse an hour's drive southeast of Dallas, Gary Lynch is busy trying to keep up with orders for his solid-steel bomb shelters.

He offers visitors a tour of a 600-square-foot model under construction for a Saudi customer.

Right now, it's just a steel shell, he said, but when the work is done it will be a luxurious underground bunker with a master bedroom, four bunk beds, a composting toilet, a living room with satellite television capability, filtered air and water, and a storage closet with room for months of food.

Lynch explains that orders for his most expensive shelters, which can cost as much as several million dollars, have increased since the November election.

"It definitely has picked up a little as Donald Trump emerged as president," said Lynch, general manager of Rising S Co. on the outskirts of the rural city of Murchison. Lynch said some customers even half-jokingly say they're trying to protect themselves from a "Trumpocalypse" or "Trumpnado."

"There's some people who maybe even voted for Donald Trump and may be worried some of the riots are going to get out of hand and there's going to be social or civil unrest," he said.

"Then you've got people who didn't vote for him and are thinking that now that he's president maybe he's going to start a war. There's definitely been some renewed interest from people since the election."

Doomsday prepping the act of stockpiling food and other essentials in a reinforced, often-underground shelter used to be mostly associated with Libertarian-leaning Americans who feared their own government would turn on them.

But now that Trump has taken office, some centrists and left-leaning folks also are building bomb shelters under their homes and businesses, apparently fearing either civil strife or war with an external enemy.

Sales of Rising S's most luxurious shelters have jumped 700 percent in recent months, he said. Lynch didn't provide specific data on how many units he typically sells, but he said Rising S Co. recorded about $14 million in sales during the past year.

Although Lynch credits Trump's surprising rise to power for the latest sales spike, he said a similar jump in sales occurred eight years ago when President Obama took office.

He has been building shelters for 13 years.

"When a Republican is president, the left wants to buy a bunker," he said. "It's the opposite when a Democrat is president."

The phrase "#Trumpocalypse" has taken on a life of its own on social media such as Twitter.

And a quick search online shows many other examples of people taking advantage of Trump's knack for controversy to sell their fare.

For example, in Pearsall, south of San Antonio, a Craigslist seller named Dan was offering used buses for $3,000 to $5,000, and explaining on his advertisement that "They make good Trump Bunkers and Bomb Shelters."

"You Know Who's Finger will be on the Button," the ad continues. "Make America Great Again. Buy a Bus. All are welcome. Pro Donald. Pro Hilary. (sic) Can we all be friends again?"

America has a long history of building bomb shelters, going back to the days of the Cold War with the Soviet Union shortly after World War II.

In the 1950s and 1960s, thousands of home owners built underground escape rooms something that was encouraged by President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who presided over the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that nearly brought the U.S. and Russia to nuclear blows.

America's bunker mentality is the stuff of movies and historical lore. The desire for blast-proof walls, filtrated air and water, and composting toilets is deeply embedded in the national psyche.

And, although it's an issue that typically only comes up during a leadership change, domestic strife or a global crisis, the desire to be safe from harm to have a place where loved ones can hunker down indefinitely seems to always burn in the nation's collective belly.

It's a different story with storm shelters, similar structures that can be built either underground or as a "safe room" within a home. Storm shelters tend to grow in popularity after a major disaster such as the tornado in 1997 that killed 27 people in the Central Texas city of Jarrell, or the one two years later that killed 36 people in the Oklahoma City area.

According to the Lubbock, Texas-based National Storm Shelter Association, which applies its official seal to shelters that meet high construction and design standards, "sales are half what they were three years ago," executive director Ernst Kiesling said.

After a major incident such as a tornado or hurricane, Federal Emergency Management Agency money can sometimes be made available to offset some of the cost of shelter construction, depending upon how states and cities use the federal funds.

But the demand for shelters usually only lasts about as long as the cleanup, Kiesling said.

"After an incident, there will be an upsurge among the public, but it will subside rather quickly," he said.

Storm shelters can be underground, or they can be built at ground level in a home. They can be made of steel, fiberglass or other materials.

Although they typically don't have the long-term accommodations for people to live in indefinitely, like a bomb shelter, storm shelters can also provide residents with a "safe room" to escape dangers such as gunfire or a home intruder.

But usually it's concern about enemies of the state whether foreign or domestic that motivates someone to install a bunker in their home or business.

Peter Westwick teaches a class on the atomic age at the University of Southern California and he sometimes shows his students a photo that he took just a few years ago of a commercial building in Los Angeles called Atlas Survival Shelters. The otherwise-nondescript metal building features an outside display of a bright yellow bomb shelter the size of fuel truck.

The photo illustrates how little has changed about Americans' concern for the long-term security of their republic since the 1950s, he said.

"I sometimes use a picture I took of a shelter manufacturer here in LA, just off the 5 freeway, to show these fears haven't gone away," Westwick said in an email. "But they have changed, to a broader doomsday/survivalism instead of just nuclear fear."

Of the current interest in shelters, Westwick said, "I think you could indeed say that the losing side in an election often takes a catastrophic view of the outcome. You might consider the migration to the Idaho, Montana, Wyoming region by conservative or Libertarian adherents following Obama's election.

"There's an issue here with whether the survivalists fear an external enemy (e.g. the Soviet Union, albeit aided by Communists in American society) or an internal one (e.g. the Idaho survivalists apparently fearing their own government and fellow citizens).

"The current fears seem to be more of Trump provoking an external enemy, whether another state or stateless terrorists," he said.

Often, customers who buy bomb shelters are wealthy.

Steve Huffman, founder of the Reddit social news aggregate site, acknowledged in a recent New Yorker story that he is obsessed with surviving a catastrophe.

In that same article, many other wealthy elite from New York, San Francisco and other tony places say they're stocking up on gas masks, motorcycles (more nimble and fuel-efficient than cars during a crisis) and other essentials to escape from the expected confusion and panic that likely would envelope and overtake those who had failed to prepare.

But bomb shelters don't have to break the bank.

Some manufacturers offer closet-size underground bunkers for as little as $5,000.

At Rising S Co., Lynch said he and his roughly 40 employees can't sell anything that cheap. They use the finest, Alabama-made steel and an air purification system with a patent pending on its design and materials like that come at a cost.

Rising S Co.'s shelters also feature a water purification system that can be designed to pull water from an underground well, a municipal water system or a storage tank.

But Lynch said he can set up customers with an entry-level shelter approximately 4 feet by 6 feet for roughly $10,000.

In fact, he has one of those basic models under construction right now in his warehouse off Texas 31 in Murchison, right alongside the underground virtual palace his crew is building for that wealthy Saudi customer.

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Bomb-shelter builder busy as customers prep for 'Trumpocalypse' - Atlanta Journal Constitution