Daily Archives: May 23, 2017

Smith & Williamson to launch artificial intelligence fund – Citywire.co.uk

Posted: May 23, 2017 at 10:50 pm

Independent financial services group Smith & Williamson is launching an investment fund looking to tap into the rise of robots and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Smith & Williamson Artificial Intelligence fund will be co-run by Chris Ford and Tim Day, who joined the groups asset management arm in 2015 from Pictet, where they headed its global equity team.

The pair will run the global fund as a high conviction portfolio of 30-35 stocks, with no reference to a stock market benchmark. The company says the fund will be diversified both geographically and by sector, although around half of its holdings will be in the US.

Besides targeting companies that derive a significant proportion of their revenues from AI, the managers will also have the freedom to invest in related subsectors, such as robotics.

The fund is set for a June launch, subject to regulatory approval.

Ford said: AI is powering the fastest growing areas in the global economy and companies are increasingly seeking to capitalise on the opportunities this brings. The influence of AI will continue to grow and it will not be limited to one sector of the economy or to one global region.

The Smith & Williamson Artificial Intelligence fund will seek to fully capture this opportunity by gaining exposure to the companies around the world which derive significant competitive advantages from their superior ability to harness AI.

Head of funds Ed Rosengarten added: The opportunity in artificial intelligence is compelling and in Chris and Tim we have a team with the expertise and track record to manage a thematic fund targeting the worlds leading AI-driven companies.

As one of the leading global AI hubs, London is the ideal place from which to manage the fund and we look forward to offering investors access to one of the most exciting structural growth opportunities in world equity markets today.

The launch comes hot on the heels of Allianz Global Investors bringing a Global Artificial Intelligence Equity fund to market last month,which it claimed was the first dedicated AI fund to be launched in Europe.

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3 types of artificial intelligence, but only 2 are valid – VentureBeat

Posted: at 10:50 pm

For all of the visions of robots taking over the world, stealing jobs, and outpacing humans in every facet of existence, we havent seen many cases of AI drastically changing industries, or even our day-to-day lives, just yet. For this reason, media and AI deniers alike question whether true broad-scale AI even exists. Some go as far as to conclude that it doesnt.

The answer is a bit more nuanced than that.

Current AI applications can be broken down into three loose categories: Transformative AI, DIY (Do It Yourself) AI, and Faux AI. The latter two are the most common and therefore tend to be the measure by which all AI is judged.

The everyday AI applications weve seen most of so far are geared toward accessing and processing data for you, making suggestions based on that data, and sometimes even executing very narrow tasks. Alexa turning on yourmusic, telling you whats happening in your day, and reporting on the weather outside are good examples. Another is your iPhone predicting a phone number for a contact you dont already have saved.

While these applications might not live up to the image of AI we have in our heads, it doesnt mean theyre not AI. It just means theyre not all thatlife-changing.

The kind of AI that will take over the world or at least have the most dramatic effect on how people live and work is what I think of as Transformative AI. Transformative AI turns data into insights and insights into instructions. Then, instead of simply delivering those instructions to the user so he or she can make more informed decisions, it gets to work, autonomously carrying out an entire complex process on its own based on what it has learned and continues to learn along the way.

This type of AI isnt yet ubiquitous. The most universally known manifestation of this is likely the self-driving car. Self-driving cars are an accessible example of what it looks like for a machine to take in constantly changing information, process it, and act on it, thereby eliminating the need for human participation at any stage.

Driving is not a fixed process that is easily automated. (If it were, AI wouldnt be necessary.) While there is indeed a finite set of actions involved in driving, the data set the AI must process shifts every single time the passenger gets into the car based on road conditions, destination, route, oncoming and surrounding traffic, street lanes, street closures, proximity to neighboring vehicles,a pedestrian stepping out in front of the car, and so on. The AI must be able to take all of this in, make a decision about it, and act on it right then and there, just like a human driver would.

This is Transformative AI, and we know its real because its already happening.

Now imagine the implications of this technology applied elsewhere. Most people will likely experience Transformative AI through their jobs or industries before it directly affects the way they live. In business, the massive amount of big data that companies are collecting will be the fuel that AI uses to single-handedly power processes currently handled by entire teams, and it will do so with far greater precision and efficiency.

Were seeing this in the marketing space, as brands like Cosabella and Dole Asia have replaced their digital account teams and agencies built onartificial intelligence platforms.

But these are still early days, and it will be a while before these types of stories are commonplace. In the meantime, well mostly see different manifestations of DIY AI and Faux AI.

DIY AI is any artificial intelligence platform whose end goal is to make you, the user, more informed so that you can then do the remaining workyourself. This type of AI can take in and process large amounts of data to produce insights, but thats the end of the line for it. Put another way, its practical and prescriptive but not curative.

Nevertheless, it can be extremely valuable to companies and organizations that have been relying on data scientists to make sense of their data manually. Even the most talented data scientists need far more time to process, analyze, and make recommendations from data than a machine does. A few of the many reasons for this is that humans require things like sleep, food, and weekends off. A more significant reason is that humans simply dont have the same processing power that machines do.

An example of DIY AI is Salesforces Einstein. In an ad placed in the New York Times in early May, Salesforce described how Einstein qualifies leads, predicts when customers are ready to buy, and helps close more deals. In other words, the AI is reading companies CRM data, making sense of it, and setting up salespeople for more success than theyd have if they had to wade through the same data on their own. But the execution elements of the sales process are ultimately still DIY for the user.

Its worth noting that DIY AI isoften bolt-on, meaning that the AI is essentially bolted onto an existing technology. It then acts as the brain that makes a once dumb (or static) system smart (or insightful). For the sake of comparison, Transformative AI must be built from the ground up, meaning there are no parts of the technology that arent AI-driven.

The final category of AI were seeing is the one that spoils it for everyone: Faux AI. While DIY AI might seem lackluster or boring, Faux AI is pretending to be something that its not. As with any new technology that creates hype and intrigue, AI has inspired companies to prey on the publics lack of understanding. Many of the companies doing this are re-positioning their predictive and automation technologies as AI, when really they are just offering rules-based applicationsthat arent governed by machine learning.

Not to single out any chatbots, but there are a few culprits in that space. They look and act like AI agents, but they are not really using machine learning. They are pretenders.

Programmatic ad buying is a good example of an insight-driven, predictive technology that many people confuse with AI and which often passes itself off as the same. Because programmatic technology has been around for over a decade, learning that it is AI (which its not) can leave people feeling like artificial intelligence isnt so special.

The way AI will evolve and begin infiltrating our lives is two-fold.

Some of the more robust DIY AI out there isactually Transformative AI in training. The data being collected and processed will train algorithms over time so that theyre ultimately equipped with all the information they need to begin acting on that data (assuming theyve been programmed to do so). And technologists whoare just getting started on their platforms will build them with AI from the ground up, rather than bolting training wheels on after the fact. The result will be active sources of Transformative AI that ultimately shape up into what we imagine AI can be ideally, in the most positive way possible.

Or Shani is the CEO of Albert, an AI marketing platform.

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Why head transplants won’t disprove the existence of God | Angelus – The Tidings

Posted: at 10:49 pm

Denver, Colo., May 23, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With plans for the first human head transplant surgery looming in the next year, a lead doctor on the formidable project has high hopes for the procedure. Along with the aim of finding a new body for a yet-to-be-selected patient, the physician says that the surgery as a first step toward immortality will effectively disprove religion. But Catholic critics have called into question not only the ethics of such a risky procedure, but the dubious claim that such a development would render belief in God irrelevant.

The actual trying of the surgery at this point I think would be unethical because of the tremendous risk involved, and it is an unproven surgery, Dr. Paul Scherz, assistant professor of moral theology and ethics at The Catholic University of America, told CNA.

Sherz made his remarks following the news that Italian doctor Sergio Canavero is aiming to carry out the first human head transplant surgery within the next 10 months. It's a process Canavero hopes will pave the way for the process of transplanting cryogenically frozen brains and ultimately, in his view, to the eradication of death.

Canavero serves as director of Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group and has teamed up with Harbin Medical Centre and Doctor Xiaoping Ren, an orthopedic surgeon who was involved with the first successful hand transplant in the U.S. The first surgical attempt for the head transplant is expected to take place in China, where the group says they're more likely to find a donor body.

Cryonics involves the freezing of the brain or even the whole body of patients, with expectations that future science will have the means to restore the frozen tissue and extend life. Because conscious minds will have experienced life outside of death, Canavero said the surgery would then remove the fear of death and the people's need for religion. He said if the process succeeds, religions will be swept away forever.

However, Sherz responded that even if the surgery was a success, it would not disprove the Catholic faith. There is nothing in the Catholic tradition of how we understand the soul that would think that if you moved a head or moved the brain that that wouldnt allow the person to come back to life, he said.

Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group has already claimed that a successful head transplant has been carried out on a monkey, but not all scientists agree that the operation can be recorded as a success. Before the monkey's head was stitched back together, it was removed, cooled, and the blood of the transplant body was cross circulated with an outside source. Canavero and his group claimed the supply of blood was then connected to prove the surgery succeeded without brain damage, but the spinal cord was left unattached.

How the connected blood supply proves the surgery is possible without brain damage was not described, and many bioethicists are skeptical of the publication of the surgery's success without proper peer review and of the issues around the severed spine. Because the technology has not yet been developed, the bioethicists worry that the severed spine may never be reconstructed, leaving the patient worse off than before.

Despite the pervasive belief in the surgery's failure, Canavero claims there's a 90 percent chance that the human head transplant will succeed. And not only that, its success would allow humans to no longer need to be afraid of death.

Father Tad Pacholczyk, who serves as a bioethicist for the National Catholic Bioethics Center, disagreed with Canavero's definition of being brought back to life. He said to assume death as a necessary product of either the head surgery or brain surgery is gullible and mistaken, as there is potential for the patient to be merely unconscious.

The patient undergoing the head transplant is not dead, only unconscious, he told CNA. There is not any 'bringing back to life'There is merely a restoration of consciousness, briefly lost during the movement of the head from one human body to the other.

Scherz also said that the Church accepts an intimate and mysterious relationship between soul and body, and that the procedure's success wouldn't necessary disprove the soul or religion. Our neurological tissue has important part to play in our soulThe soul is always intimately related to the body. We are not just souls that are disembodied, right? We are embodied spirits or spirited bodies.

Most physicians agree that the proposed surgery's success rate is infinitesimal, and they've questioned the morality of a procedure that's doomed to fail and the unrealistic hope life extension projects could give to people. I am concerned that the rights of vulnerable patients undergoing cryonics cannot be protected indefinitely, Dr. Channa Jayasena, a lecturer in Reproductive Endocrinology at Imperial College in London, told the Telegraph. Cryonics, she said, has risks for the patient, poses ethical issues for society, is highly expensive, but has no proven benefit.

And the hope for immortal life, Scherz weighed in, isn't a realistic desire in a fallen world. Living forever in bodily form is not going to satisfy anyone, he said. If the goal is not to help someone to get back bodily movement or things like that, but to try to live forever on this earth, then I think if you really want to get over the fear of death then you will have to come to terms with the fact that we are mortal. That what's going to help you to live a better life because you are going to be willing to give your life to things like service.

In fact, he said that people in transhumanist movements have admitted they would most likely avoid risky behavior in order to preserve their lives. If life extension projects come into being there is so much more to lose and you committed yourself to trying to live on this earth for as long as possible, which stands in contrast to the Catholic tradition and a lot of the philosophical traditions, Scherz noted.

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Supplements cause spike in recalls – Stericycle – FoodQualityNews.com

Posted: at 10:48 pm

A spike in recalled units by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was driven by nutritional supplements, according to the Stericycle ExpertSOLUTIONS Q1 2017 index.

FDA food-related recalls dropped 19% in Q1 to 200, but the number of actual units increased 507% to about 92 million products.

The spike was mainly driven by nutritional supplements, which accounted for more than 80% of food units recalled, mostly due to one large recall.

Kingsway Trading Inc. recalled Xanthium & Siler Combo (Bi Yan Pian) Dietary Supplement because it contained banned Ephedra Alkaloids in February and A&H Focal Inc. took action on 21 products which could contain undeclared erectile dysfunction ingredients in the quarter.

FDA product categories based on recalls were prepared foods (16%), baked goods (14.5%) and dairy (10.5%).

Supplements (28.2%) and baked goods (27.9%) combined to make up 56.1% of FDA recalled units in Q4 2016.

Recalls down, units up

Michael Good, VP of marketing and sales operations, said Q1 was a mixed bag for the food and beverage industry.

On the one hand, recalls dropped 19%, and its the first time weve observed a decline in that measurement since Q1 2016, he told FoodQualityNews.

On the other hand, the number of units recalled increased. And even when you isolate the large supplement issue, recalled units still would have gone up compared to Q4 2016.

The 507% increase wasnt entirely related to supplements but was a substantial portion of it, said Good.

While this category doesnt often lead, in 2016 supplements were the fifth highest category in recalls and fourth highest in terms of recalled units. If companies can improve their supply chain track and trace methods, that can help them isolate the issue and reduce the impact of the recall.

In Q1 2017 there were five recalls with more than one million units each. In Q1 2016 there were none. In fact, four of those five recalls each accounted for more units than all the recalls in Q1 2016 combined.

Reasons behind the recalls

Top FDA food recall causes based on units were quality issue (80.1%), bacterial contamination (11.6%), undeclared allergen (7.2%) and other (1.1%).

As well as the supplement recall, there were other quality issues in Q1, including premature spoilage, uneviscerated fish, packaging defects, undercooked chicken, and an off odour and taste.

The two main causes of bacterial contamination recalls were Listeria and Salmonella. Salmonella affected more recalls (64.9% vs. 32.5%) but Listeria was behind more recalled units (81.9% vs. 18%).

Bacterial contamination made up a lower percentage of recalled units because the supplement issue dominated, said Good.

In fact, if you remove that recall, bacterial contamination would have accounted for nearly 54% of recalled units.

Looking at the number of recalls, bacterial contamination was the leading cause with 38.5% of FDA food recalls. By contrast, quality issues accounted for just 12% of FDA recalls.

The number of international FDA food recalls shifted from 23 (9%) in the last quarter to 21 (11%).

USDA recalls consistent

Poultry was the top USDA recall category for the second quarter in a row and foreign materials and misbranding accounted for more than 82% of recalled pounds.

USDA recalls stayed at 32, while recalled pounds declined 10% to 2.5 million.

USDA recall activity stayed fairly consistent from Q4 2016 to Q1 2017, with recalls staying the same and recalled pounds dropping just 10%, said Good.

For the second quarter in a row, the main category was poultry, which accounted for 80.8% of the recalled pounds. The top causes based on recalled pounds were foreign materials at 41.8% and misbranding at 40.5%.

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Global Natural Health Supplements Market to Grow at 8.0% CAGR – New Food

Posted: at 10:48 pm

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With the growing prevalence of lifestyle related disease, people are preferring to adopt a healthy lifestyle and preventive healthcare.

In addition, growing awareness regarding the various healthcare diseases and preference for a healthy lifestyle, has led consumers to prefer health related supplements that enhance bodily functions and promotes health. The global natural health supplements market is expected to witness a growth of 8.0% CAGR over the forecast period, 2016-2024.

A surge in the adoption of modern lifestyle patterns in parallel to growing urbanisation has led to increasing prevalence of various diseases such as high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. In addition, growing awareness regarding lifestyle diseases will propel growth of the global natural health supplements market in the coming years. Moreover, people are increasingly shifting towards products that offer healthy options and relatively less negative impacts. Additionally, increasing government funding for the research and development regarding nutritional supplements will further impact growth of the natural health supplements market globally in the coming years.

Growing adoption of self and direct medical practices is propelling growth of the global natural health supplements market in the coming years. Furthermore, upsurge in demand for natural health supplements among old population suffering from disorders related to joints and bones is likely to fuel growth of the global natural health supplements market over the coming years.

Apart from various factors fueling growth of the natural health supplements market, growing trends of digitalization and e-commerce platforms will significantly boost growth of the global natural health supplements market in the coming years. Furthermore, manufacturers of health supplements will further remain inclined towards formulation of natural health supplements with increasing demand for natural health supplements in the global market in the coming years.

Marine among various sources will hold relatively high market share of nearly 43% in the natural health supplements market globally over the coming years. Marine will witness a growth of 8.6% CAGR by the end of 2024. Plant sources among others have been an ancient source of extracting natural ingredients, whereas marine source will witness a significant growth over the coming years. Women consumers among various demographics of consumers will mainly remain the key targets for manufacturers. Product offerings and development of manufacturers of natural health supplements market will remain mainly focused on women and senior citizens over the coming years.

Asia Pacific among other regions is likely to project relatively high contribution of APAC in terms of revenues in the span of next seven years. In addition, the natural health supplements market in APAC will further register relatively fast revenue growth, and will further grow at 8.5% CAGR over the coming years. North America among other regions will represent a lucrative region for the natural health supplement market globally in the coming years. Canada and U.S. among other countries of North America will account for US$22Bn in the span of next seven years.

Leading manufacturers operating in the global natural supplements market include Omega Protein Corporation, Herbalife International Inc., Evonik Industries AG, Archer Daniels Midland Company, The Natures Bounty Co., Amway Corporation, Blackmores Limited, Naturex SA, Nutraceutical International Corporation and United Naturals Food, Inc.

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Daily Phytosterol Consumption Could Reduce LDL Cholesterol and Save the EU Billions Per Year – Nutritional Outlook

Posted: at 10:48 pm

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Daily consumption of phytosterols by millions of adults with severe hypercholesterolemia could save the EU 5.3 billion per year in healthcare costs, according to new Frost & Sullivan analysis, Healthcare Cost Savings of Phytosterol Food Supplements in the European Union. The study was conducted on behalf of nonprofit trade group Food Supplements Europe (Brussels, Belgium) to determine what kinds of healthcare costs savings could be realized in the EU through phytosterol supplementation.

Hypercholesterolemia is the presence of high levels of LDL cholesterol in the blood and has been linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Phytostesterols, which are plant sterols and stanols whose molecules are very like cholesterol molecules found in humans, have been proven to reduce levels of LDL cholesterol. Frost & Sullivan researchers estimate that the costs of CVD-related hospital events to the EU healthcare system will be a whopping 1.328 trillion between 2016 and 2020, or 266 billion per year. In their analysis, Frost & Sullivan researchers estimated what the reduced cost burden would be if adults with hypercholesterolemia over the age of 55 supplemented with 1.7 g of phytosterols daily. They found that26.5 billion over five years, or 5.3 billion per year, could be saved.

The World Health Organizations (WHO) Global Health Observatory (GHO) calculates that hypercholesterolemia is more prevalent in Europe than anywhere else in the world, with 54% of the population over the age of the 25 diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia, and 20% with severe hypercholesterolemia. The results of this study are significant because, by the researchers conservative estimates, 31.1 million adults over the age of 55 across the EU are living with severe hypercholesterolemia. As a result, they are significantly more likely to experience a CVD-related hospital event.

This latest phytosterols report is the third in a series of Frost & Sullivan analyses commissioned by Food Supplements Europe, which is a trade group representing the food-supplements industry. The other two, which were also conducted with the aim of finding ways to cut healthcare costs in the EU through supplementation, were published in 2016 and February 2017. The first study found that daily consumption of 1,000 mg of omega-3 EPA plus DHA food supplementation in the EU could save 13 billion a year in healthcare costs, and the second explored the cost saving benefits of calcium plus vitamin D supplementation to avoid bone fractures in people with osteoporosis. The results of that study indicated potential healthcare cost savings of 3.96 billion per year.

Food Supplements Europe chair Ingrid Atteryd said in a press release: A very clear picture is emerging of the significant economic and wellbeing benefits that could be achieved by encouraging more widespread food supplementation among those sections of the EU population at greatest risk of experiencing a CVD-attributed hospital event.

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Biodesix’s VeriStrat Test Is Cost Saving, Can Help Optimize End-of-Life Care – Technology Networks

Posted: at 10:47 pm

Today, Biodesix, Inc. will present the results of a new study demonstrating that VeriStrat testing and other tools can help physicians improve quality care and cancer care planning for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer enabling them to achieve and improve their quality metrics.

The data will be presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, in Boston, MA, USA. Poster Title: Precise prognosis, key to cancer care planning and reaching Medicare quality measures; how the VeriStrat test can help; Argento C.; Arnaud A. Poster Presentation: 3:45PM-7:45PM, May 22 Location: Board K18, Hynes Convention Center, Hall C.

Increased focus on quality of care and pay-for-performance programs have driven new attention to prognosis and cancer care planning. While prognosis is central to quality cancer care planning, prognosis based on observable patient characteristics such as age, performance status and cancer stage is imprecise. VeriStrat can help physicians make more informed survival estimates and improve cancer care planning to reach high quality care, as defined by the various Medicare pay-for-performance quality metrics.

Prognosis is central to advanced care planning, and prognostic test results can help physicians reach Medicare pay-for-performance metrics, while improving quality of life for patients, said David Brunel, CEO of Biodesix.

The study is based on a systematic literature review of publications in NCBI of clinical trials, survey-based studies, guidelines and reports on four oncology topics: the impact of knowing prognosis on treatment decisions; the components of advanced care planning (prognosis, goals of treatment and expected response to treatment); the impact of care planning on quality of life and costs; and current tools and prognostication methods. 308 publications relevant to the topics were reviewed.

Among the studys findings:

Patients with poor prognosis are more likely to favor quality of life over life extension when planning for care. Patients who thought they had at least a 10% chance they would not live 6 months were less likely to favor life-extending therapy over comfort care compared to patients who thought were going to live for at least 6 months.

Despite it being a difficult conversation, patients want to know their prognosis. Studies consistently report that over 95% of patients want to know their prognosis even if it is poor. Precise prognosis is difficult to estimate using normal patient characteristics and the VeriStrat tests prognostic value can help predict prognosis in patients with cancer. The VeriStrat test is a predictive and prognostic blood-based proteomic test that helps guide treatment decisions for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. The test is used to assess disease aggressiveness by characterizing host response to the tumor, classifying patients as either VeriStrat-Good or VeriStrat-Poor.

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Colorado Master Gardeners: Junior Master Gardeners in Routt County – Steamboat Pilot & Today

Posted: at 10:47 pm

Summer 2017 will mark the third season of the Junior Master Gardner program. In collaboration with Routt County Master Gardeners and the Yampa River Botanic Park, four Junior Master Gardening workshops will be offered for third- through fifth-graders.

CSU Master Gardeners are available to answer questions each from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays at the Extension Office. Stop by 136 Sixth Street, call 970-870-5241 or email csumgprogram@co.r...

The Junior Master Gardener program was developed by Texas A&M Agri Life Extension Service. It is modeled after the successful Master Gardener program and offers horticultural and environmental science education through fun and creative activities. The program is committed to helping young people become good gardeners and good citizens so they can make a positive contribution to their community, school and family.

Participation in all Junior Master Gardener sessions eight, total with a community service component qualifies a student to become a certified Junior Master Gardener. The Routt County program offers four workshops each summer.

In 2016, 10 junior gardeners enjoyed learning about gardening in Routt County. Four workshops were held Sunday mornings during the summer at the Trillium House at the Yampa River Botanic Park, and students could attend any or all of the sessions. Earlier in the spring, the YRBP had constructed a raised bed specifically for this program. This small garden is located in the Childrens Garden section at the north end of the park.

At the first workshop, participants planted the raised bed, toured the gardens and learned how to keep a garden journal. In the second workshop, the kids experienced the ongoing tasks of maintaining a garden: fertilizing, weeding, and managing pests. The third workshop focused on insects in the garden, with a great presentation from the Routt County Beekeeping Association. During the last workshop, the students harvested the garden and learned how to save seeds, dry and arrange flowers and preserve garden produce.

Six Routt County Master Gardeners, along with Gayle Lehman, YRBP manager, provided instruction and insights into gardening in the valley. Students enjoyed the workshops, and several attended all four sessions. Ruth Peterson, of Hayden, was awarded the Junior Master Gardener certification at the end of the summer, as she, through the course of two summers, had attended all eight workshops.

New sessions for Junior Master Gardening will be offered during summer 2017. Participants will once again design, plant, tend and harvest the Junior Master Gardener plot at the park. In addition to the garden, students will learn how to identify plants, what organisms are found in a garden ecosystem and how to maintain and harvest a garden.

All workshops include short, informational components, with accompanying hands-on activities. Participants at each workshop take home a project to extend their learning. Sessions will be held June 10, July 1 and 22, and Aug. 5, and each runs from 9 a.m. to noon.

The Junior Master Gardener program, open to all Routt County residents, is a great way to get kids interested in gardening. Registration is at the CSU Routt County Extension Office, 136 Sixth St., and sessions require a $12 materials fee.

A snack and water are provided, and sessions are limited to 12 participants .

Jo Smith is a member of the 2013 class of Routt County Master Gardeners. She is a retired biology teacher and enjoys the kid and gardening connections in the Junior Master Gardening program.

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Vinterberg presents a ’70s commune, in theory and practice – SFGate

Posted: at 10:47 pm

A scene from Danish film "The Commune," directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Individual actors not ID'd.

A scene from Danish film "The Commune," directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Individual actors not ID'd.

Vinterberg presents a 70s commune, in theory and practice

Young and not-so-young adults considering a communal lifestyle will find little encouragement in Thomas Vinterbergs new film. The Commune doesnt pull its punches: Were shown that nontraditional households can be very taxing on individuals and are anything but good medicine for stale marriages.

This is an ensemble drama, a type in which this highly capable Danish filmmaker has excelled in the past (The Celebration, 1999). Viewers may recall that Vinterberg was a co-founder, with Lars von Trier, of the Dogme 95 movement, which advocated a highly stripped-down version of moviemaking. Both filmmakers have since moved in a less austere direction.

The setting is Copenhagen in the late 1970s. Erik (Ulrich Thomsen like many members of the cast, a Vinterberg regular) is a professor of architecture with anger issues who has just inherited a large house. Its too much for his family newscaster wife Anna (an excellent Trine Dyrholm) and teenage daughter Freja (Martha Sofie Wallstrom Hansen).

Instead of selling the residence, as Erik plans, Anna proposes that they fill up the empty space with bodies. Friends, acquaintances, strangers anyone who passes the groups scrutiny and is willing to abide by the rules will receive a share of ownership. When the initial members OK the plan, everyone celebrates by going skinny-dipping.

What could go wrong?

A couple of shadows fall on the euphoric early days of the venture. Among them: Weve heard Anna inform Erik that she has suggested collective living because she is, well, bored, and wants to hear some fresh voices when she gets home. There are also disturbing notes sounded in how the group deals with one potential housemate, a weak individual with a spotty source of income.

The housemates share not only their meals, but their feelings, and at length. Secrets are considered dangerous (which, of course, doesnt mean they dont exist). All are supposed to be equal, but a leader, whos a bit of a bully, emerges. Things really start to get hairy when Erik begins an affair with a female graduate student, and informs Anna (not entirely willingly).

Instead of giving him the bums rush, she succumbs to the zeitgeist and suggests that he bring the young woman home to join the commune. He does so, and I can say without spoiling anything that there certainly are repercussions, most notably for Anna and Freja.

Vinterberg, who also co-wrote the script (with Tobias Lindholm), grew up in a commune, and you get the feeling he knows what hes talking about. Hes a sharp observer of the members of this household, and has an acerbic side that doesnt cut them a lot of slack. But theres quiet compassion as well, and not only for Eriks wife and daughter.

The films melodramatic streak is rescued by the exceptional performance from Dyrholm (who also appeared in Celebration). You get the sense that her Anna is rather shocked when communal living fails to create the utopia it promises, and the actress is remarkable at registering the ptofound emotional price it extracts in reality.

Walter Addiego is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: waddiego@sfchronicle.com.

The Commune

Drama. With Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Martha Sofie Wallstrom Hansen. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg. In Danish with English subtitles. Not rated. 111 minutes.

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Vinterberg presents a '70s commune, in theory and practice - SFGate

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What Bill Nye and the science movement can learn from religion – Houston Chronicle

Posted: at 10:47 pm

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Bill Nye stars in "Bill Nye Saves the World," which is available on Netflix.

Bill Nye stars in "Bill Nye Saves the World," which is available on Netflix.

dc TALK, a Christian Rap group

dc TALK, a Christian Rap group

What Bill Nye and the science movement can learn from religion

There is no end to the truly regrettable moments in "Bill Nye Saves the World," Netflix's attempt to rebottle the '90s-era lightning of a nebbishy but dapper science guy for a new generation.

But one stands out.

Rachel Bloom, decked out in avante garde '80s pop gear, sings a cringeworthy song about the spectrum of sexuality called "My Sex Junk." You can watch it if you like, but I can't say I recommend it.

I'm a huge fan of Bloom. "My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," the CW rom-com musical series she created and stars in, is spectacularly funny, largely thanks to her note-perfect performance. I'm also a fan of Nye, or, at least, I was a fan as a 10-year-old, which makes me the target market for his new Netflix series. But this is television, and in television, two positives can sometimes make a negative.

From Nye's new show to April's March for Science, science is enjoying a much-needed moment in the cultural zeitgeist, but it's in danger of the same pratfalls that have hamstrung another subculture with which it has more in common than its stewards might care to admit: the religious one.

Religious entertainment could teach science a thing or two about the danger of pandering to pop culture.

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Both science and faith try to use pop culture to get you to buy into a certain set of beliefs without boring you out of your skull. Both can safely assume a fair number of skeptics in their audiences, and both are trying to convince you that - contrary to what you may have heard - the subject in question is both cool and relevant.

Take American evangelicalism's numerous failures in trying to be cool and relevant. In the '90s, a cottage industry offered Bible-ified takes on pop culture. Like Nirvana? Try DC Talk. Into 'N Sync? Well, have you ever heard of Plus One? And why wear an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt when you could wear Breadcrumb and Fish?

That industry isn't dead by any stretch, but it has faded as it became increasingly clear that wherever else faith's natural habitat may be, it's not in the entertainment industry. The whiz-bang pyrotechnics and giddy razzle-dazzle of mainstream pop culture simply don't lend themselves to faith, which thrives best in contemplation and reflection.

Science, in the meantime, thrives in study. It is, as Carl Sagan put it, "a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." But you wouldn't know that from the hugely popular I F-ing Love Science site, whose Facebook page boasts 25 million likes. It may love science, but that love manifests itself as neither a body of knowledge nor a way of thinking so much as a collection of clicky memes and headlines of questionable scientific relevance ("Deer Caught Gnawing on Human Remains").

Likewise, Nye's fellow celebrity science whiz Neil deGrasse Tyson is far too often reduced to generating headlines. His reliably sour fact checks of science in movies (he recently weighed in on "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2," a movie that features, among other things, a raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper) has earned him a reputation as a buzzkill.

That, too, is reminiscent of some of the evangelical subculture at its most patronizing, butting in to tut-tut movies and music that step out of line with its worldview. Faith and culture will always necessarily be in conversation, but does anyone out there really need Focus on the Family's analysis of the spiritual elements in "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter"?

This is doubly unfortunate, because Tyson is a man of obvious intelligence and charm, and his "Cosmos" reboot was as good as Nye's series is bad. There is no reason that such a naturally gifted communicator should waste his considerable talents on being the fun police for a superhero space romp. Doing so degrades his scientific brilliance to the same realm as the worst elements of the Christian subculture: turning a fascinating, mind-expanding tool for understanding reality into nothing more than a wet blanket.

Science, like religion, provides a profoundly beautiful prism through which to help interpret the world. It is organized knowledge that, in its truest essence, uses what we know about the universe to help us grasp at those things that we don't. And science, like religion, has seen better days in America. Dangerous, anti-intellectual bile about the "myth" of climate change and the "danger" of vaccines is being thrown around at the highest levels of government. Some solid science would go a long way toward fixing these and other disquieting trends coursing through the country.

In dark times, it's easy to take any tiny win as progress, even something as dubious as a few extra retweets. The temptation to cater to the social media masses is understandably huge. Gotta keep the lights on, and all that.

But you need only look so far as religion to see just where such tricks will take you. The infantilization of religious discourse has elevated its worst elements, making heroes of people not fit to clean the boots of the likes of Augustine, Flannery O'Connor and Martin Luther King Jr. Science's current moment isn't immune to such a fate. It may already be succumbing to it.

But all isn't lost. For all its mainstream embarrassments, rigorous, insightful conversations around religion are happening, albeit in smaller pockets, away from the spotlight. Science, obviously, continues to thrive in institutions of higher learning, where the discoveries being made have as much to do with the I F-ing Love Science crowd as a model rocket does with NASA.

If the people who truly love science want to make sure the current surge gains real momentum, they'll want to highlight that discourse over the shallow alternatives. After all, as scientists and their fans know better than anyone, success often lies in replication.

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What Bill Nye and the science movement can learn from religion - Houston Chronicle

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